General Article

Breastfeeding – What is the Best Way to Feed Your Baby?

As a mother, you want to give the best nourishment to your children. As for newly-born infants, the best nourishment comes from the breast milk of their mothers. Therefore, it is important to know the ins and outs of proper breastfeeding.

A mother can do breastfeeding as long as she wants; and as long as she deemed it needed for her baby.

The advantages of breastfeeding include the following:

o It helps to fight certain infections.

o It helps to prevent allergies.

o It is the best way to stop baby’s tantrums.

o It is the best means to help a child who is hurt.

As women, we should know how breastfeeding affects us and our newborn baby. We have to be abreast of the scientific information needed in order to utilize its advantages further. There must be an initial stimulation of breastfeeding because it is a fact that breasts stop producing milk after giving birth. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast milk as the prime source of nutrients and feeding for your tots.

These are other advantages of breastfeeding:

o It aids you, the mother, to lose weight.

o It is considered as the cheapest; and, at the same time most effective means to feed your child.

From breastfeeding, the baby could receive amino acids in proteins, vitamins and enzymes. All these contribute to the complete nutrition that the baby needs at this stage.

Breastfeeding can be done 3 minutes right after giving birth. The first little sucks and bites and the first milk produced by mothers, called colostrum is the best source of nutrition for the newborn baby. When the nipples are stimulated, it also aids to stop uterine bleeding by enabling the uterus to contract.

The time comes when the baby can open one’s eyes, and place its fist into the mouth, this is the signal that the mother can now offer her breasts for feeding. Unless prescribed by doctor, never give newborn baby water filled with sugar.

The last and most important thing to know and understand is the proper manner to breastfeed a child. Here is how it should be done:

o Press gently a few drops from your nipples until it is already moistened.

o Now, encourage the baby to open his/her mouth through massaging the lips as gently as possible.

o Finally, after breastfeeding is over; do not pull your nipples away from the baby’s mouth immediately. Do it gradually and tenderly; you could start by inserting your finger into the corner of the baby’s mouth.…

Why Should Your VLDL Cholesterol Levels Concern You?

VLDL is a type of cholesterol that hasn’t gotten as much publicity lately as LDL (“bad cholesterol”) or HDL (“good cholesterol”). To understand why knowing – and controlling – your VLDL levels is important for heart health, it helps to have a basic understanding of cholesterol and the role it plays in your circulatory system.

There are different types of cholesterol and fats circulating in your bloodstream. Fats are called “lipids” by medical professionals. Cholesterol is called “lipoprotein.” Low density lipoprotein or LDL has become known as “bad” cholesterol. High density lipoprotein or HDL is often called “good” cholesterol.

Triglycerides are the kind of fat that comes from food we eat. If you have a high level of triglycerides in your bloodstream, you have a higher risk for a heart attack or stroke than someone who has lower levels.

The initials VLDL stand for “very-low-density lipoprotein,” and it’s the kind that contains the highest amount of triglycerides. VLDL particles have a diameter of 30-80 nm, which is relatively large, meaning it can carry a lot of triglycerides. VLDL is created in your liver after you eat a high-carbohydrate meal. Your liver changes these carbohydrates into triglycerides. The triglycerides are then changed to LDL or bad cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Fats carried by VLDL and LDL can attach to the walls of blood vessels. When this occurs, the passageways through the blood vessels have less room to transport blood, or may even become obstructed. Therefore, VLDL raises the risk of heart attack or stroke.

You should have cholesterol tests regularly to measure all these important components: LDL, HDL, triglycerides and VLDL. A VLDL cholesterol level between 5 and 40 milligrams per deciliter is considered to be normal.

Certain individuals fall into the high risk category for VLDL. These especially include obese persons and anyone with diabetes or high blood pressure. Some studies have shown that women in menopause tend to have high VLDL. Certain medical problems cause high VLDL levels too, notably kidney transplants and pancreas disorders. Finally, anyone who has a family history of high cholesterol or heart disease should pay special attention to VLDL test results.

But everyone – even those who are not in these high risk groups – should do their best to keep their VLDL numbers in a normal range. You can do so by exercising at least three times a week for 20-30 minutes. It’s also important to maintain a healthy diet that includes a lot of low-fat, low cholesterol foods. Finally, cut back on smoking and alcohol consumption. Better yet, stop smoking and drinking all together.

When patients get their cholesterol results from their doctor, they often look at total cholesterol and their LDL and HDL numbers. There’s no doubt these are important. But VLDL often gets overlooked. It shouldn’t. Knowing your VLDL numbers and working to keep VLDL levels low are an important part of a cholesterol-healthy lifestyle.…

Foods Not to Eat If You Have High Cholesterol

There are foods not to eat if you have high cholesterol. High cholesterol increases one’s chance of suffering from a heart attack or stroke. Those are things no one should want to experience; it is best to prevent these things from happening. This is the reason why one must be aware of what foods to eat.

Our bodies produce its own cholesterol; this is the amount the body needs. The extra cholesterol in our bodies come mainly from the food we eat. That is going to be the first target of avoiding foods; the ones that has a lot of cholesterol. Although there are foods which are not high in cholesterol, they may contribute to it. There are foods which trigger the liver to produce more than the body really needs. This is another thing one must keep an eye for.

As for foods with high cholesterol, avoid eggs, meat, and dairy. These are the foods which mainly give us the cholesterol we do not need. Reducing or eliminating these will do a lot for you. There are other high cholesterol content foods out there. One thing to remember is that cholesterol in food can only be found from an animal or a product of an animal. If a food does not come from an animal, it is pretty much safe to say there is no cholesterol in it.

Another type of food that should be avoided are those loaded with saturated fats. Even though the food may not have much cholesterol, the saturated fats will make up for this. Saturated fats raise the bad cholesterol levels. People suffer from increase in cholesterol levels because of saturated fats. Avoid fast food especially anything deep-fried. Food that is deep-fried adds on a huge load of saturated fats. Avoid processed foods; these tend to have more cholesterol and bad fats added to them.

If you have higher cholesterol levels these are the foods you should avoid completely; at least until your cholesterol levels go down to a maintainable state. As you can see, one should avoid food with saturated fat. It is saturated fat which makes your cholesterol levels jump up. Eat foods with unsaturated fat. This type helps lower the bad cholesterol level. Take into account all the food you normally ate, and see where you can make adjustments to your diet. It takes hard work to do this. To learn more about foods not to eat if you have high cholesterol, you may check other websites for information.…

Looking For Heart Healthy Ways to Raise HDL Cholesterol Naturally

HDL stands for high density lipoprotein and is known in the realm of heart and artery health as good cholesterol. You may recognize LDL from one of those crime shows. He is the bad guy that gives most people he befriends a heart attack or stroke. We can’t afford to have too many friends like LDL.

All humor aside, one of the most important components of any cholesterol management program is to raise the level of HDL while lowering the LDL levels. You can think of HDL’s as scavenger molecules that remove cholesterol from the arteries. Having a lot of HDLs reduces your risk of heart attack regardless of your total cholesterol levels. In fact, research has confirmed that people who raise their good cholesterol through a combination of exercise, eliminating exposure to first and secondhand smoke, and diet modification not only reduce the cholesterol in the arteries but also remove the dangerous plaque accumulations, thus opening arteries and reducing heart attack and stroke risks. Let me repeat that last though. Making heart healthy choices that raise HDL cholesterol actually reverse artery disease caused by arterial cholesterol deposits.

Exercise and avoiding cigarette smoke pretty much speak for themselves, on the other hand foods that raise HDL require a more detailed explanation.

Apples and Pomegranates: Apples and pomegranates contain what are called soluble pectins that form a gel in your stomach and collect cholesterol like a magnet in a neighborhood of paperclips. This gets rid of the bad cholesterol through stool. Soluble pectins also raise HDL cholesterol levels as well.

Fish, Fish Oil, and Flax Seed Oil: If you are cholesterol you might not want to date any one of these three high omega 3 bruisers. Omega 3 fatty acid is plentiful in these three. This healthful substance has been shown to lower overall fat in the blood, reduce the amount of arterial plaque by raising HDL, and improve the overall health of the arterial lining.

There are many other heart healthy foods including oat bran, olive oil, and walnuts that are helpful in the battle against cholesterol but they haven’t been shown to consistently raise HDL levels.

What Next? Lowering cholesterol, in most cases, is about changing old habits, adopting new healthier habits, and enlisting the help of natural cholesterol reducing remedies if needed. Put simply, this basically means finding ways to increase raise HDL cholesterol and decrease LDL through making smart choices.…

Is your store, office, or warehouse going out of style or becoming functionally outdated? If it is, you should consider high-quality commercial remodeling.

It is one of the best methods to increase your company’s value. Commercial renovation can create a lasting first impression for your business, provide the functional space your company needs, and help it expand innovatively and effectively. To learn more about how remodeling can help the vitality and attractiveness of your business, here are some of its benefits:

1. Inspires Employees

An excellent commercial renovation project can make all the difference in how employees feel about coming to work. This is especially true if the office space is drab or uninviting, making workers feel less creative and less likely to stick around.

Your staff’s morale and productivity may significantly increase with an upgraded workspace. Remodeling a workplace can provide the right environment that can inspire your staff, attract new team members and keep them happy while working. A little makeover on your interiors, like added natural light and some new paint, can greatly impact your employees’ overall performance.

2. Communicates Your Dedication to Your Clients

One of the best ways to improve your business’s image to your clients is to have excellent remodeling done on your commercial spaces. Renovating your office isn’t just about personal taste and comfort but is also about creating a welcoming and professional space that clearly conveys your dedication to customer service.

Creative changes for your workplace can communicate to clients that you care about the details and their experience with your brand. Furthermore, these encourage them to be loyal customers and increase the likelihood that the clients recommend your services to others. Even if your workplace is small, with a proper renovation, it can make a big impact on your business.

3. Expresses Workplace Culture and Values

When you hire a renovation company, they will help you express your company’s philosophy and ethos in a tangible way. Commercial remodeling aims to create universal spaces that respond to the character of the company and its culture. Whether bold, colorful, tidy, or even serene, they can help you display these characteristics by designing spaces that reflect those values.

Commercial remodeling helps create a space for people to work in that’s comfortable and inspiring, where staffs feel valued and supported. It focuses on how you want your employees to feel when working every day.

4. Increases Efficiency

Do your employees have to work in confined spaces? Do you feel your office requires additional storage? If you’ve noticed that your staff has been struggling to work in cramped quarters, it may be time to consider remodeling.

Renovating your workplace can increase workers’ efficiency and productivity by constructing a better office layout. When you hire an experienced remodeling company, they will consider adjusting your floorplan layout and updating office equipment to better suit your company’s needs. As a result, it creates a more functional and enjoyable working environment for your workers.

5. Conserves Energy

If you are running a business, energy is …

Surprising Cholesterol Myths

High cholesterol and heart disease often go hand-in-hand in our minds. Cholesterol is the villain that should be lowered at all cost if we want to reduce our risk of heart disease, but the cholesterol story and its relationship to heart disease is not so simplistic. Below are 5 myths that shed some light on this fact.

Counting cholesterol grams in food is an effective way to manage your own levels: This is not true. Your cholesterol goes down only one point every time you cut 50 grams of cholesterol from your diet. In addition, it is not clear if eating food high in cholesterol is linked to heart disease. For instance, studies find that eating an egg a day has little effect on the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The lower your total cholesterol the better: No one knows how low it is safe to go, and there is some evidence that your levels can go too low. Research suggests that people with lower cholesterol are more likely to be depressed, anxious, and score more poorly on cognitive tests.

High cholesterol causes heart disease: In my opinion, there is not a clear-cut link here. There are people with high cholesterol who do not succumb to heart disease and there are people who do. In addition, over 50% of people with heart disease do not have high cholesterol. This suggests to me that there are other contributing factors.

Saturated fat raises cholesterol: There are different kinds of saturated fat and not all saturated fat affects cholesterol levels in the same way. As an example, stearic acid is a saturated fat found in dark chocolate and cocoa butter, and it is close to being cholesterol neutral. Dairy fats on the other hand seem to raise levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol the most.

Cholesterol is harmful: In fact, just the opposite is true. It is used by the body to produce essential hormones and facilitate communication among our nerve pathways, among other important functions.

In summary, cholesterol in food doesn’t affect your test results as much as you may have thought, having cholesterol levels that are too low may be an issue because you may be putting yourself at greater risk of depression and other unwanted conditions, high cholesterol alone does not cause heart disease in all people, and there are all kinds of saturated fat and not all saturate fat affects cholesterol in the same way.

So what do you need to know about cholesterol? Instead of relying simply on the total numbers be sure you get the breakdown between LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. Next, calculate the following ratios:

Total Cholesterol/HDL: Anything less than 3.5 is ideal

Triglycerides/HDL: Anything less than 2.0 is ideal

LDL/HDL: Anything less than 3.5 is ideal

If these ratios aren’t where they should be, start making diet and lifestyle changes to bring the ratios back in line. See if your doctor will give you a little bit of time to try …

Lowering Cholesterol With Diet – The Best Therapy For High Cholesterol

If you are like me, the last thing you want to do is put chemicals into your body that have been shown to have severe side effects in order to improve your health. This is especially true when it comes to cholesterol medication. Because of this, lowering cholesterol with diet really is the best way to reduce cholesterol readings.

It has actually been shown that a diet for lowering cholesterol can actually be more effective than statin medication when it comes to improving cholesterol health. A cholesterol lowering diet will be one that emphasizes the most effective cholesterol lowering foods and minimizes the consumption of those foods that are highest in saturated fats such as beef and pork.

For many individuals it is difficult to let go of some of these foods that have been a major part of their diet for decades. I encourage you to look for low-fat substitutes whenever possible. I have found ground turkey to be an excellent substitute for ground beef when it is properly seasoned.

During the time that you are working to bring down those high cholesterol levels try to limit your meat consumption to turkey, chicken and fish. After you’ve reached your goals, then you can reintroduce these foods into your diet in moderation.

Removing high fat foods from your diet is only half of the equation. In fact, the most effective thing you can do to reduce cholesterol levels is to begin increasing the amounts of those foods that are high in fiber and plant sterols.

Sterols have been shown to block the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream. On the other hand, fiber works to eliminate cholesterol from the intestines before it has a chance to be absorbed into the body.

The four primary types of foods that you should be looking for include 1.) Vegetables, 2.) Fruit, 3.) Whole grains, and 4.) Nuts.

All four of these categories of foods contain high levels of both fiber and sterols. Surprising as it may seem, nuts are at the top of the list for sterol and fiber content. Because of this, they make a great cholesterol lowering snack and should be included in the recipes you prepare as often as possible.

Learning to lower cholesterol with diet is not complicated, but it does require consistency and discipline. I invite you to visit my website where you will find many helpful tips about lowering cholesterol with diet and other natural ways to reduce cholesterol levels.…

Lower Cholesterol With Diet, Exercise, and Natural Supplements

One way to achieve better health is to lower cholesterol with diet, exercise, and natural supplements.

There are several ways to accomplish healthy cholesterol levels; for instance through prescription medications; yet still, probably the best way remains to be choosing natural methods like diet and exercise. You just have to change your habits to lower your cholesterol. Really, you don’t have to take dramatic steps. All it takes is some knowledge, patience, and discipline.

To start small changes in your diet, first try to avoid eating the foods that increase cholesterol, and then prefer foods that lower cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats like walnuts and almonds, fatty fish like salmon, trout, mackerel, etc, healthy oils like olive oil, canola, sunflower, corn oil etc, as well as oatmeal – are considered to be “good cholesterols,” hence should be incorporated to your lower cholesterol diet plan. The simplest way to probably eat healthier is to eat oatmeal for your breakfast and snack. Oatmeal is rich in soluble fibers, which can absorb the excess cholesterol in the body and then eliminate them through bowel movement.

To remove unhealthy fats from your diet, stay away from foods that have saturated fats and trans fats. These are usually found in red meat and full cream dairy, as well as in most processed foods like deli meat, dressings, ready-made cakes, cookies, and even sweets. What you can do is to look at the labels of your grocery items to make sure that the ingredients do not include (partially) hydrogenated vegetable oils or shortening.

You can eat healthier food substitutes like white meat (skinless chicken breast), soy milk, etc, and favor nutritious freshly made goods and homemade meals instead. If you take your time to cook your food at home, then you are also giving yourself the chance to control the ingredients that goes into it. This way your food becomes healthier and just as delicious as the unhealthy foods you would buy in the supermarket.

If you want to be more successful with your goal of lowering you cholesterol and living a healthier lifestyle, then you can try strategies like limiting your banned food intake but not completely shunning them. For instance you can still eat red meat, but limit to eating it only two times a week. This will prevent you from feeling deprived and you will have more motivation to continue following a realistic diet plan and succeed with it.

Lastly, include all-natural cholesterol lowering supplements to your diet, and integrate regular exercise besides your chosen ways to lower cholesterol with diet.…

Learning How to Lower Cholesterol

So you need to find out just how to lower cholesterol in your diet? It is something that will make you be healthier and live a longer life. There are many things that can be added into your diet to get the right type of cholesterol flowing in you.

One of the best options and most taught is that of adding in oatmeal to your diet. Though you may not like the flavor you need to add this in, because of the fiber that is in it. This soluble fiber will help to knock out that bad cholesterol that is going up each time you eat the wrong things.

There are other foods that are a great source of this type of fiber so add those too. They would be pears, kidney beans, prunes, apples, barley, and psyllium. Find different ways of cooking with these items to add that fiber into your diet each day.

Adding in just a basic ten grams of this soluble fiber each day will help to soak up the bad cholesterol from your body. As an example if you eat a serving of one and a half cups of oatmeal it will be six grams of that fiber you need.

There are many nuts that you should also eat that will help with lowering your cholesterol. Some examples are walnuts and almonds, think of adding them to other foods, or eating them on their own.

You only need to add a bit of these nuts into your diet to see a nice reduction in that chance of heart disease. Equal to about a handful of nuts of any of these types to see improvement. Peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachio, and pine nuts. Remember not to overdo these nuts though because the calories may add up.

Finally fish that has a lot of omega 3 fatty acids in it is another way to get rid of that cholesterol. If you don’t like to eat fish though you should buy a pill that will add in this fish oil to your diet.…