Archives for December 2011

Health Insurance Tips – Monsoon Health Care

Monsoon has arrived and it is a right time to watch your food intake during this season. This season brings the excitement that makes you feel tempted to taste spicy, road-side snacks but it also brings the germs and bacteria that may cause you health problems.

Cough cold, flu and water-born diseases such as cholera, gastroenteritis are frequently observed health problems during rainy days. Handle them effectively with your regular kitchen ingredients. A little care can keep the monsoon troubles at bay. A comprehensive health insurance will also aid you, in case you have chronic health problems. Read more to know the basics of Monsoon healthcare.

Maintain personal hygiene

  • Wash your hands properly with a medicated soap before and after consuming food. Regular hand wash with a mild sanitizer also serves the purpose. Follow it with almond oil or baby cream. Applying Eucalyptus or thyme oil will also sanitize the skin.
  • Wear clean and dry clothes. Go for cotton and synthetic fabrics during monsoon. Keep a pair of garments with you while traveling.

Drink boiled water and avoid consuming uncovered Food
This is a common yet extremely effective advice. Boiled water is pure and consumption of the same also helps you to digest food in a right way. Avoid eating the street-side foods like deeply fried fritters, fruits slices and other such snacks. Have light and freshly cooked meals.

Consume hot foods
Have lots of hot, home-cooked foods like soups, curries, freshly cooked vegetables. Keep sipping lukewarm water between meals. Make use of the following ingredients while cooking to get rid of some common Monsoon ailments:

  • Ginger is an excellent digestive herb. Start your day with a ginger tea or basil tea, which has medicinal value and works as a preventive measure for gastric problems, cold and cough. Also, few sips of honey and carrot juice help curing throat infection, which is a common problem in this wet weather.
  • Garlic consists of anti-viral and anti-fungal activities that cure the cold, stomach infections and increases your overall stamina. Consumption of hot garlic soup or garlic juice mixed with onion juice in hot water works as a magic for cold and flu.
  • A hot curry made by tamarind, butter and pepper also helps to clear the nasal passage and gives relief from cold. For those, who prefer non-veg, hot Chicken Soup is considered as one of the most beneficial of all of the hot liquids that cure cold and cough. Also, hot foods like spicy curries, mustard sauce help to clear the nasal blockage.
  • Seasonal fruits and leafy vegetables such as apples, plums, lichies, apricots, spinach, carrots, cauliflowers, radish, fenugreek, lettuce should be included in daily meals. Eating an apple everyday provides basic nutrition and protection to your body. You should practice eating it more than reading it as an old proverb.
  • A natural antibiotic like Goldenseal is beneficial when there is greater nasal infection during the rainy season. Peppermint candy and herbal teas are also very good at helping to fight with the monsoon ailments.

The regular spices, herbs and other kitchen paraphernalia can be so useful to handle the common monsoon ailments. These simple home remedies give you a natural relief and save you and your family from spending money on unnecessary bills and medication.

Warm Up
Don’t skip your exercising schedule. Try to work-out more indoors. Many of us tend to get gloomy during monsoon. Exercise is the best way to manage your emotional health care. Learn new things like Yoga, dance or Martial Arts. Start your day with a group exercise or hit a local gym or a health club with a buddy.

Insurance
In case of extreme emergencies, a health insurance policy will cover you and your family against sudden medical contingency or bodily injury. Many insurance companies offer extensive medical insurance that includes a list of benefits such as free health check-up coupon, tax benefits, cashless claim and EMI facility.

 

Menopausal Medications: What Every Woman Should Know

Menopausal medication has recently been shocked by the WHI (Women’s Health Initiative) study which changed the entire way of considering prescribing menopausal medications drugs to alleviate menopause symptoms. Hence, this worldwide, major study was surprisingly stopped in the middle of its course after preliminary results showed that what was once freely prescribed menopause medication were holding a considerable threat to women using them for a long term.

Menopausal medications which consisted of an association of estrogen and progesterone were found in this study, when used over a prolonged period of time to maybe have an association with an increase in cardio-vascular complications and even some breast cancers.

The conclusion of this wide study was that further studies were needed but that caution in prescribing menopausal medications is warranted. Hence, what used to be almost an automatic reflex for doctors to prescribe HRT (hormone replacement therapy) to all women going through menopause is now highly questioned. Hence, if at all considering using menopausal medications in the form of HRT, a physician always needs to weight the benefits and the now known risks of such medication.

Caution has been emphasized in women using menopause medication for a longer period, their risks of developing serious complications increasing as the duration of HRT increases.
In order to limit the needs for menopausal medications, a woman going through peri menopause should take proper action and consider adopting a healthy lifestyle. Exercising regularly and eating properly have shown in numerous studies to have beneficial effects and are a good alternative to menopausal medications.

After the shocking results of the WHI study and the serious questioning of how society view menopause more as a disease that a natural passage, the use of menopausal medications has been highly reconsidered and a more natural approach privileged. It is a common reflex in our society who is often in search of a “quick fix” to small disturbances to favor the medicalization or even overuse of drugs in answer to common and often benign problems. Such overuse of menopausal medications has been now condemned by a very serious worldwide study and more natural solutions to menopause symptoms are now searched.
Routine menopausal medications prescription is now a thing of the past and the medical community has been alarmed that what was considered the safe and standard of treatment for menopause carried serious health risks.

Such a warning should definitely apply to all drugs that have been liberally prescribed for common problems such as ADD, male hair loss, common mood disorders, etc in the past. Who knows maybe very soon such a shocking study as the one about menopausal medications will unreveal serious health threats for people who have used these drugs for a prolonged period. That is the second valuable lesson to be learned form the WHI study on menopausal medications.

For more information now go to: http://www.happymenopause.com/Early-Menopause-Symptom.html

http://www.myalpha-power.com or

http://www.aperfectharmony.com