Lifestyles Ideas Management - Prevention of Goitre

Goitre is defined as the enlargement of the thyroid gland which is located in the lower part of the neck. The gland as a left and right lobe connected by a bridge called the isthmus. The condition may appear in the form of a diffuse enlargement where the whole gland, including both lobes, is enlarged. Occasionally, however, only a single nodule is affected. Diffuse enlargement may be due to many reason, one being puberty. For some patients, it can be due to certain factors stimulating the whole gland to be more active and enlarged. The result is an over-production of the thyroid hormone, causing symptoms such as palpitations, anxiety, loss of weight and increased appetite.
A lack of iodine in the patient’s diet may be a factor too but this extremely uncommon nowadays because of the amount of iodine required daily by each person is very small and can be obtained from the salt used by cooking.
If the goiter is due to a single nodule, there may be a small possibility of caner.
The chances of cancer are higher if the nodule is large and increasing in size or is associated with symptoms such as a change in one’s voice or difficulty in swallowing.
You should visit a specialist to ascertain if you have goiter so that treatment can be given accordingly.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Positive side of things

A farmer’s donkey fell into a well.
The animal cried while the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided that the animal was too old and the well needed to be covered up anyway. He asked his neighbors to help him shovel dirt into the well.
Upon realizing what was happening, the donkey wailed horribly. Then, to everyone’s surprise, it quietened down.
A few shovel loads later, the farmer looked into the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit its back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up. This continued as more and more dirt was shoveled into the well.
Finally, to everyone’s amazement, the donkey stepped over the edge of the well and trotted off happily.
Life is going to shovel all kinds of dirt on you and me.
Each of our troubles represents a stepping stone. The trick to getting out of a deep hole is to look on the positive side of things: never give up, shake off the dirt, and take a step up.
Happy climbing!

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Hand Hygiene

Lifestyles Ideas Management – Hand hygiene

Can you get sick by visiting a hospital patient?
It is not any more risky than visiting friends to school, going to the gym or just going about one’s daily business, said Dr Brian S Koll , chief of infection control at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.
In most cases, what you should do inside the hospital for protection against infection is the same as what you should do on the outside.
Hand hygiene means washing hands before and after the visit with soap and water or with an alcohol-based gel. Common sense should prevail, Dr Koll added.
Do not touch a dressing on the leg or arm. Do not touch any discharges or anything else that you would not normally touch.
We think of hospitals as dirty places, but we do not live in a clean world.
Buses are dirty; the subway is dirty. Hospital visitors need to be reminded that it is okay to hug you loved one. He said.
The patient also need protection; he warned “Don’t visit when you are sick, when you have a cold, a cough, an open skin lesion or a rash.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Grains

Whole grains are credited with protecting against stroke, heart disease and colon cancer, assisting in obesity control and lowering blood pressure among other thing.
Whole grains include the unrefined grains of barley, buckwheat, corn millet, brown rice, oats, sorghum, wheat, wild rice and even popcorn.
The Mayo clinic promotes it as a healthy food choice and suggests the following ways to make it part of your diet:

Look for the word “whole” on the packaging and ingredient list on off the shelf food products making sure that whole grains are the first few items listed.
Start the day off with breakfast that includes whole grains – bran, shredded wheat or oatmeal cereals.
Substitute whole grain flour for all purpose flour when baking
Make sandwiches using wholegrain breads and use brown rice and whole wheat pasta for cooking.
Add wild rice or barley to soups, stews or salads
Include whole grains such as cooked brown rice or wholegrain bread crumbs to complement minced meat and give it to extra body.
Substitute dry bread crumbs with rolled oats or bran flakes in recipes.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Cinnamon

Some very commonly dried herbs and spices may help block the inflammation believed to drive diabetes and other chronic diseases conducted by researchers from the University of Georgia. The extracted from 24 common herbs and spices and found that many contained many high levels of inflammation –inhibiting antioxidant compounds known as polyphenols, WebMD reported.
Researches James L Hargrove commented on the better off if we used less salt and pepper and focused more on herbs and spices.
Liberal use of cinnamon in breakfast oatmeal or herbs and spices in spaghetti sauce could be a huge health boosters. Ground cloves had the most inflammation-calming polyphenols of any of the spice and herb extracts. Cinnamon came in second, but because it is used more in cooking and in larger amount than ground cloves.
The benefits of cinnamon is lowering blood sugar is already known and has prompted many diabetics to take cinnamon supplements but scientist have mixed reactions about this information.
Herbs and spices are powerful sources of antioxidants and anti-flammatory agents,
the testing showed that oregano, marjoram and sage followed by thyme, Italian seasonings, tarragon, mint and rosemary had the highest polyphenol levels.
Black pepper had the lowest polyphenol content of any of the tested herbs and spices.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Are you a happy shopper?

The way you shop and buy the things could be an indicator of whether you are a happy person. The happiest shoppers aren’t those who bag the best bargains or the big spenders who bag the best items or even the penny-pinchers who have a hard time opening their wallets. A survey was carried out with 329 college students in New York and the results showed four shopping personalities:

Big spenders
Buy everything full price and buy only the best

Value seekers
Seek bargaining on nice things

Non-spenders
Don’t spend much and don’t want to

Experiencers
Spend freely on experiences such as good food or travel, but are not materialistic.

Conclusion:
Experiencers are the happiest while big spenders are the least happy with most credit card debt.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Good or bad?

When it comes to soya beans, tons and tons of studies being published on the effects of soya beans on human health in the last few years, it has been both celebrated and vilified.

Reduced breast cancer risk
A recent study found that eating a serving of soya bean curd or drinking a glass of milk every day reduces the risk of breast cancer in Chinese women.

Male fertility unaffected
Recent reports claiming that eating half a serving of soya-based foods a day could lower a man’s sperm count. Soya food intake was unrelated to sperm quality and male fertility
review from the Soy food Association of North America. Instead, obesity may be a cause for the low sperm concentration found in the men with high soya intakes.

Increased risk of gout and kidney stones
Soya contains oxalates which cannot be absorbed by the body and are excreted only through urine. Oxalates bind to calcium to form kidney stones which can block the urinary system. Gout is caused by the build up of uric acid in the blood stream, which occurs when the body breaks down substances called purines, found in foods like liver, soya beans, tofu and meat. Doctors recommended that those with kidney problems to take less of these soya products, as oxalates may increase the risk of developing kidney stones.
Soya is not the culprit; it is the total intake of purines including those from protein foods like meats, milk, seafood and organ meats.

Good for the heart
Soya can lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease. Soya protein helps to reduce the LDL (or bad) cholesterol. The presence of soluble fiber in soya also helps to reduce cholesterol in the blood.

Higher risk of memory loss
From the recent study released suggested that eating high levels of some soya products – including tofu may raise the risk of memory loss. Tofu is made from coagulants including salts and acids which could be contributory factors to memory loss. However, further studies are needed.

Post-menopausal women reap benefits
Soya intake helps to prevent bone loss in post-menopausal women but doe not improve hot flashes or other menopausal symptoms.
People of all ages, races and both genders benefit from eating soya. However, most studies that indicate the benefits of soya were skewed towards post-menopausal women in terms of lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and breast cancer risk.

Lifestyles Ideas Management - Steaming for a healthier diet

Do you know that steaming your food helps to seal in nutrients that are usually lost through regular cooking methods like frying?

Steaming is a traditional cooking method that is ideal for today’s trend toward healthy eating as very little or no oil is used. It has great advantages over other cooking method as a far higher level of nutrients, vitamins and minerals is retained.
Compared to boiling, steaming results in more nutritious food particular vegetables, as
fewer nutrients are destroyed and leached away in the water.
For broccoli, 2 times of the nutrients are retained as compared to conventional method of cooking. What’s more steaming is simple and enhances the food’s natural flavor.

All sorts of food can be steamed, including all kinds of seafood, vegetables and even chicken. The fresher the ingredient, the better they are for steaming. Most people have the mindset that steamed foods are bland compared to stir-fry and deep-friend alternatives.
I am a vegetable lover and when the greens turn out, crunchy, nutritious and so irresistible.