Welcome To Health And Fitness Blog

Gestational diabetes is the term used for diabetes during pregnancy. It is a dangerous condition because it may cause a lot of complications to the baby. The best treatment is still the insulin injection. However, this brings problem to some pregnant mother who has phobia to the needle. That’s why researchers are finding alternative treatment for gestational diabetes.

A recent study conducted to test the usage of metformin in pregnant mothers with diabetes. 751 pregnant mothers with gestational diabetes at 20 to 33 weeks of pregnancy is received open treatment with metformin (with supplemented insulin if required) or insulin.

They found that metformin, alone or in conjuction with supplemented insulin, was not associated with an increase in neonatal complications compared with insulin.

Rates of neonatal hypoglycaemia were similiar in each group, but severe hypoglycaemia (<1.6 mmol of glucoseper litre) occured significantly less in infants of women taking metformin.

However, frequency of preterm birth was found to be higher in metformin group. The different could be due to chance or to an unrecognised effect of metformin on the labour process, the researchers suggest.

As a conclusion, the researchers comment “Clinicians may remain circumspect about using metformin until follow-up data for offspring are available.”

Resources: The New England Journal Of Medicine 2008; 358:2003

Share This

Those who have high cholesterol may have taken statins as their lipid lowering drugs. Statins are the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering medications.

A study done in Southern California found that statins can also affect hypertension. In this study, 1,000 individuals were examined for the statins. These subjects did not have any chronic conditions, but had high LDL cholesterol (ranging between 113 to 190mg/dl). They either took Zocor 20mg, Pravachol 40mg, or a placebo, and were followed for eight months.

The researchers found that both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings were modestly lowered in these individuals taking either statin. Both statins were able to slightly lower systolic blood pressures by 2.2mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 2.4 mmHg. It also appeared that Zocor lowered blood pressure slightly more than Pravachol. Once the statins were stopped blood pressure readings returned to what they were before the study.

However, bear in mind that the researchers still do not know how statins work in individuals with higher blood pressures. Statins are known for lowering cholesterol, reducing plaque formation, lessening inflammation and stabilizing plaques that have already accumulated in vessel. Therefore, right now, only use your statins for your cholesterol and do  not forget to use your antihypertensive to lower your blood pressure.

Share This

Graves Disease is a hormonal disease where your thyroid gland produce more thyroid hormones that the body needs. The malfunction of thyroid gland thus causing hyperthyroidism.

The common symptoms for Graves Disease including mood swings, insomnia (cannot sleep), loss of weight without any reasons, increase sweating, muscular weakness, rapid heart beat, hand tremors.

The complication of Graves Disease is known as thyroid storm. If untreated, it may lead to heart, kidney or liver failure. The common symptoms are extreme irritability, rapid heart rate, high fever, vomiting, delirium and high blood pressure.

If you have suffered from the symptoms, the best advise I can give is to consult the doctors immediately. The doctor will monitor your thyroid hormone level in your body and start the treament accordingly.

Share This

It is a concern for women when you are reaching years of menopause. You may suffer from symptoms that make you uneasy. Here are some quick tips to help you handling the symptoms:

1. Hot Flashes

Hot flashes are common symptom in menopause women. You might wake up in the middle of the night and feel like in the fire. Here is what you can do:

a) You may breathe slowly and deeply. While breathing, visualise that you dip yourself in a bath tub with cold water.

b) If you like sauna or sunbathe, this is a bad news for you. Avoid hot places whenever possible.

c) Drinks plenty of water as water helps regulate your internal temperature.

2. Insomnia

Insomnia (not able to sleep) is very common during menopause. It may due to night sweats or hot flashes. Here are some suggestion to try:

a) Keep your nighttime bedroom temperature as low as possible so you can sleep comfortabily.

b) Take a bath before sleep can help you stay calm and fall asleep comfortabily.

3. Stress

You will feel stress when you have all the negative effect brought to you by the symptoms. Try to be as relax as you can. Remember, the more you stress, the more you will feel uncomfortable.

4. Mood Swings

Mood swings is no stranger to women. It is not only happen in menopause, but is a common premenstrual symptom. Mood swings happened due to the hormonal change in the body. The best ways to improve this symptom is to:

a) Do exercise regularly. The best way is to invite your spouse or buddy to join you with regular exercise. This will not only reduce the mood swings, but increase the bond and relationship with your spouse and buddy.

b) Find a calm and quite place to meditate. The power of meditate cannot be ignore as it can helps in regulate the body and calm down the emotional feelings.

Share This

Studies shown that people now tend to grow faster and becoming older very soon. I am not talking about the aging old, I am talking about looking older than supposed to be. Have you ever travel by plane and the staff lets you to the cabin first because you looked older than others? Have you taken the bus where someone give you his seat just because they think you look older and deserve the seat?

Why this happened? This is the oxidation process that happened in our body that damaged our cells and lack of time for our cells to rejuvenate. These maybe caused by pollution in our environment,the improper diet, lack of exercise to regenerate the cell and stress of the life.

Now you got the point. The easiers ways to look and feel younger is to control you emotion. Everyday focus on good things that happened in your life instead of the bad one.

Besides, having diets on nutritous foods. The fresh vegetables and fruits may help in providing the simplest vitamin and nutrients to the cells.

Do aerobic exercise routinely. I know you might be lazy after a long day work or feel like do not want to do anything during weekend. At least find some times to exercise and make it as a habit.

Share This

There are a lot of people who are crazy about yoga. The reason why most people do yoga is that it makes them feel better and in shape. The different poses and postures make their body healthy. Yoga for most is the best way to relax and unwind. If you want to keep your body in shape, this might be the best exercise for you.

Did you know that yoga is good to fight certain illness that may come? There had been researches which proved that yoga helps you to control anxiety, reduces asthma, arthritis, blood pressure, back pain, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, epilepsy, diabetes, headaches, stress and many more.

Yoga has a lot of benefits and advantages. All in a day’s work, it can reduce tension and stress. Of course after a heavy day, you will feel that your muscles have been stuck up and you will feel wasted.

If you do yoga, your self esteem will be higher. It is important to gain more confidence inside and out so that you can face people with no worries.

Yoga is good for the body in increasing your muscle tone, strength, stamina and flexibility.
If you are too fat and conscious about your body figure, yoga can help you lower your fat and keep your body in shape. Yoga exercises can burn excess fat and give you the desired figure that you want.

If you need time to relax and forget your responsibilities, yoga will be good to improve your concentration and enhance your creativity. Yoga helps you to think more positively away from all anxieties. If you have a fresh mind, you can think of good things and apply it easily.

Your body needs to relax once in a while. Sometimes, work can leave us wasted and exhausted. During the heavy days, we may not find time to unwind because work is still on our tail. Yoga can help you create a sense of calmness and well being.

Yoga exercise helps you improve a good circulation. Your organs and veins need to be exercised for it to function properly.
Yoga can help stimulate your immune system and keep you away from diseases. If you have a good immune system, you can be sure that you are free from sickness.

Some people do yoga to be enlightened. They believe that yoga will help them bring up their spirit and keep them relieved. Yoga works differently for people be it spiritual, emotional, psychological, mental and physical.

People think that yoga is only for spiritual people. But that belief is wrong. Even if you are not that religious, you can do yoga. You will see and feel the difference at the same time find out how it works for you. 

Due to the pressure and demands of life, we become stressed out and we forget the essence of life. We tend to lose touch with the ones we used to spend time with, even ourselves.

We find ourselves rushing most of the time with the deadlines and hassles we need to keep up with. This leaves us a small time to wander and have that physical awareness.

These are the few things that yoga can provide. Once in a while, find time to dedicate a part of it to yourself to relax and unwind which only yoga can give.

As I always emphasize, consistency is very important. If you want to get and feel all the benefits of Yoga mentioned aboved, you should set a goal and practise yoga consistenly.

Get a copy of Beginner’s Guide To Yoga here !
 

Share This