Daily Health Tips: Trusted Medical Information, Health Tips and Advices

My daughter's kindergarten class went on a field trip to a dentist's office recently. We go to the dentist regularly, so I admit that at first I thought the trip was a waste of time. However, the trip did end up impressing on me that many children today have little or no regular dental care, and that a refresher on basic dental care is always a good thing. Things You Can Do to Keep Your Child's Teeth Healthy In the first year of life, start brushing baby's teeth as soon as the first ones appear (usually at around 6 to 7 months of age). Make it fun by letting your baby hold the toothbrush, but also establish the pattern early where you always have a turn brushing the teeth too. The idea here to gradually get across is that tooth brushing is a must, not a choice. Don't put your baby to bed with a bottle. If you do, make sure it only has plain water in it, because milk contains sugar that will sit on the teeth overnight and can cause cavities. Limit juices and

Despite a health-care system that outspends those in the rest of the world, infants and mothers fare worse in the U.S. than in many other industrialized nations. The infant mortality rate in Canada is 25 percent lower than it is in the U.S.; the Japanese rate, more than 60 percent lower. According to the World Health Organization, America ranks behind 41 other countries in preventing mothers from dying during childbirth. In fact, the rate of maternal deaths in the U.S. has risen over the past decade, and the number of premature and low-birth-weight babies is higher now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Why are we doing so badly? Partly because mothers tend to be less healthy than in the past, “which contributes to a higher-risk pregnancy,” says Diane Ashton, M.D., deputy medical director of the March of Dimes. But another key reason appears to be a health-care system that has developed into a highly profitable labor-and-delivery machine, operating according to its own timetable rath

Many of us are skin conscious. We often want our skin to look young and healthy and we really do something just to protect our skin from whatever possible harms there may be in our environment. Well, our skin is our largest organ performing several functions. It primarily protects us against the invasion of foreign substances and it serves as the transfer point for the release of toxins from our bodies, thus our skin is just worthy of protection and care. Now, if you found yourself coveting the gorgeous skin of fashion models and celebrities in most of today’s magazines, here are some tips that will help you on for a beautiful skin. Tip #1: Drink Water It is often said that the simplest way to clear and supple skin that is no longer dry is to drink plenty of water. Water has long been considered as the most effective natural treatment or an almost free treatment for any skin condition because of its being alkaline, with pH 7.3. It prevents dehydration which is capable of producing

Lung, Skin, Kidney Tumors Shrink in Early-Stage Trials Two experimental drugs that recharge the body's immune system to seek out and attack tumors are showing promise for the treatment of certain advanced lung, skin, and kidney cancers. The drugs disable a molecular shield that tumors put up to block attacks from the immune system. In early-stage studies, the drugs shrank tumors in some people with certain types of lung, skin, and kidney cancers who had not been helped by other treatments. Researcher Julie Brahmer, MD, associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, tells WebMD that she is optimistic because "in some patients, tumors did not grow back even after treatment was stopped." "These patients had been through several types of therapy and were very ill," she says. It's too soon to say whether the drugs will extend lives and whether they are safe in the long run. A larger, longer study is planned to test that. But the early

Ethnicity, Income Are Significant Factors in Getting Proper Dental Care, CDC Says There are fewer cavities in the United States today than there were two decades ago, the CDC reports, but not every population group has shown the same amount of improvement. According to new estimates released today, at least 1 in 5 Americans has one or more untreated cavities, and the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be one of the untreated 20%, at least among adults. Non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans accounted for a large number of those not receiving care for their cavities, also known as dental caries. More than 60% of African-Americans had lost at least one tooth, compared to just under 50% of whites and Mexican-Americans. "Dental caries both untreated and treated and tooth loss are key indicators of oral health and are used to monitor oral health status in the United States and internationally," the authors write. The National Center for Health Statistics, a divis

Nobody likes the idea that they snore like a truck driver. But a lot of us do just that. In fact, it's been estimated that up to 50 percent of the US population snores at one time or another. And snoring is more than just a nuisance--it's been shown to disrupt the sleep of 90 million American adults and their partners. The good news is that lifestyle changes and medical advances can minimize the log sawing. Here's how. Skip the Nightcap Alcohol can make snoring worse by relaxing the muscles in your airway, which makes breathing harder--and the effort to breathe louder. Lose Weight The heavier you get, the more suction is needed to inhale. The extra suction causes swelling and vibration in the back of the throat, uvula, and palate, says Barbara Phillips, MD, professor of pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Losing even just a few pounds can help reduce snoring or even resolve sleep apnea. Try a N

If you hung out in a commercial gym, and watched people exercise, you’d come to an interesting conclusion: The people there aren’t doing much actual exercise. A few years ago, one trainer did just that. His finding: For every hour spent in the gym, the average person actually works out for just 11 minutes. They spend the rest of the time chatting, preening, flirting, and “recovering” between sets. And while the idea of, say, a 15-minute workout is probably laughable to many of these folks, a smart 15-minute routine might actually give them better results. Truth is, when it comes to working out, intensity and efficiency matter much more than length, says  Men’s Health  fitness advisor BJ Gaddour, who recently created a dozen 5-minute workouts for the first-ever Men’s Health and Women’s Health Beach Boot Camp event, to be held in New York this summer. What can 5 minutes do for you? Plenty. Go hard enough and you’ll blast out more than 100 repetitions and work every muscle in your

A stroke is an interruption of the blood supply to any part of the brain. A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack." To help prevent a stroke: Avoid fatty foods. Follow a healthy, low-fat diet. Do not drink more than 1 to 2 alcoholic drinks a day. Exercise regularly: 30 minutes a day if you are not overweight; 60 - 90 minutes a day if you are overweight. Get your blood pressure checked every 1 - 2 years, especially if high blood pressure  runs in your family. Have your cholesterol checked. If you are at high risk for stroke, your LDL "bad" cholesterol should be lower than 100 mg/dL. Your doctor may recommend that you try to reduce your LDL cholesterol  to 70 mg/dL. Follow your doctor's treatment recommendations if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease. Quit smoking. Aspirin therapy (81mg a day or 100mg every other day) is recommended for stroke prevention in women under 65 as long as the benefits outweigh th

Masturbation is a natural sexual practice. In fact, May is known as National Masturbation Month. Still, many are raised believing certain myths about masturbation said About.com. Here’s a look at the truth. Myth #1: Masturbation is for the young. Masturbation is a lifelong sexual activity. About.com reported surveys regularly show 70 to 95 percent of adult men and women masturbate. Myth #2: Masturbation causes blindness, acne, hair loss, chronic fatigue, hairy palms or cancer.  Not true. In fact, doctors say masturbation has medical benefits, wrote Seventeen.com. It can relieve stress, insomnia, headaches, PMS and menstrual cramps. Myth #3: Masturbation isn't real sex. When people masturbate, they can get really aroused, which can result in very real orgasms, said About.com. From a health perspective, masturbation is as “real” a sexual activity as intercourse, oral sex or kissing. Myth #4: People in relationships don’t masturbate.  WebMD reported people in relationships actuall