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

1 . Eat Right: What we eat matters a lot. The nutrition derived from food is the foundation to every good thing that takes place in our body, including an increase in height. A balanced diet is a sure way to pep up the growth-inducing hormones in your body and to replenish all your lost cells. These are some of the vitamins and minerals found in food that are sure shot height-boosters: Calcium Vitamin D Vitamin B1 Zinc Phosphorus  2. Be Sure To Break The Fast:   Many are victims of the belief that skipping out on breakfast helps you get slimmer. You will be hard put to find that there’s nothing farther from the truth. Making sure that you have a healthy breakfast every morning, goes a long way in increasing your body’s metabolism that in turn increases your height.   3. Exercise: Simple exercises that stretch your muscles are vital for an increase in height. This is another appropriate way that helps to grow taller naturally after puber...

Organizations like the American Heart Association suggest that all adults get at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week, or about 30 minutes a day, most days of the week. One of the primary ways that many people achieve this goal is through running, which provides a high-calorie burn that can contribute to fat loss. When running you have two different choices, indoor and outdoor. However, the amount of fat you can burn with each running option is based more on intensity level rather than location. Calorie Deficit In order to burn fat, you need to create a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit occurs when you burn more calories than you consume. When this happens, your body is forced to turn to other sources for energy, typically starting with the fat stored in your adipose tissue. In relation to running, how much fat you burn depends on the intensity of your exercise, with more intense exercise be...

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 ev...

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 r...

  Turn down the dial on inflammation with these anti-inflammatory foods and lifestyle changes. Chronic inflammation plays a significant role (as either a cause or effect) in many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, and the three top killers in the United States: heart disease, cancer and stroke. Emerging research is focusing on the link between inflammation and brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The good news is that diet, exercise and lifestyle changes can be powerful tools against inflammation. Here are 10 ways you can help stave off—or tamp down—inflammation. Balance Your Omega Fats Americans are gorging on too many inflammation-promoting omega-6 fats (found in vegetable oils, such as sunflower and corn, and processed and fast food made with them) and not consuming nearly enough inflammation-soothing omega-3 fats (found in salmon, tuna, flaxseeds, walnuts, canola and olive oils). In shor...

Start your day with breakfast. Breakfast fills your "empty tank" to get you going after a long night without food. And it can help you do better in school. Easy to prepare breakfasts include cold cereal with fruit and low-fat milk, whole-wheat toast with peanut butter, yogurt with fruit, whole-grain waffles or even last night's pizza! Get Moving! It's easy to fit physical activities into your daily routine. Walk, bike or jog to see friends. Take a 10-minute activity break every hour while you read, do homework or watch TV. Climb stairs instead of taking an escalator or elevator. Try to do these things for a total of 30 minutes every day. Snack smart. Snacks are a great way to refuel. Choose snacks from different food groups - a glass of low-fat milk and a few graham crackers, an apple or celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, or some dry cereal. If you eat smart at other meals, cookies, chips and candy are OK for occasional snacking. Work up a s...

Self-Help for Headaches Next time you get a nagging headache, try a little fingertip therapy. You might feel better more quickly. Your temporalis muscle:  With your index and middle fingers, apply pressure to your temporalis muscle. It's that tender spot where you feel a muscle move when you clench your teeth. Behind your ears:  Using your thumbs, massage in a circular motion the spots just underneath the large bones behind your ears. Between your eyes:  With your middle finger and thumb, gently pinch the skin just above your nose and press upward so you feel the pressure around your eyebrows. The web of your hand:  Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the fleshy pad of skin between the thumb and index finger on your opposite hand. Here are three more quick ways to destress your head. Stress isn't  all  bad. Short-term, it can help you meet a deadline, turn a double play, or keep your bumper from getting crumpled. But when stress lingers like wee...

Combine 1 month of holiday feasting with 1 football season of noshing on high-calorie snacks, and what have you got? Double the size in belly, hips, and thighs. But cheer up! We've got diet snack solutions to help. That's right. Game day food makeovers that look and taste like the originals. Your guests won't even know they're low in fat (and you'll stay in your skinny jeans till baseball season). Lite Wings: Cut the saturated fat and sodium with these cornmeal-crusted boneless buffalo wings. Serve them with a light blue-cheese dip. Pizza-to-go: For maximum calorie control, make it yourself. If convenience is a priority, order a thin-crust veggie pizza from Domino's, Pizza Hut, or Papa John's. All three can deliver a pizza that weighs in at less than 250 calories a slice. Chips and dip: Serve baked chips with a Greek-yogurt-based fat-free dip. At about 15 calories a tablespoon, you can have more than a handful.   Chocolate fix: Make y...

You know how you're always told to fill your plate with colorful fruits and vegetables? Count white as a color. It could cut your risk of stroke in half . When you think "white," think under the skin (e.g., apples and pears). Bananas, too. Also: cauliflower, onions, garlic, and cucumbers. In an impressive new stroke study, apples and pears were all-stars because they accounted for more than half of the white produce people ate, and the white stuff is what slashed stroke risk.    While eating lots of fruit and vegetables has long been linked to fewer strokes, this is the first effort to pinpoint which produce gets the credit. (Cut out this stroke-prevention list and stick it on your fridge.) An Apple a Day Keeps the Doc Away Keep that old rhyme in your head! The people in this big, long study (10 years, 20,000 men and women) cut their stroke risk 9% for every 25 grams of white produce they ate. Here's how apples size up (approximately) to some other...

Grab a banana and say bye-bye to Parkinson's disease? Researchers say it could be so. Bananas are rich in vitamin B6 -- and very early research suggests that high levels of B6 may protect against Parkinson's. Still, the news is not something to go bananas over just yet. The benefit applied only to smokers in the most recent study. But bananas and B6 do your body good in many other ways. Vitamin B6 -- along with folate and B12 -- helps reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid. That's good for your ticker, because too much homocysteine in the blood appears to up heart disease risk. Homocysteine also appears to be toxic to nerve cells, and elevated levels have been linked to Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder that causes muscles to become rigid and shake uncontrollably. Could B vitamins be the answer? Among nearly 5,000 people studied recently, smokers whose B6 intake was highest were 50 percent less likely to develop the brain...

Need to get your LDL cholesterol down (maybe way down) but your low-fat diet just isn't doing it? Try upping your intake of nuts, including soy nuts. Add a bowl of oatmeal (these are the best fast food choices) or barley soup, some soy milk, and a little cholesterol-fighting bread spread. Done. In a new study, people who ate a diet rich in these foods lowered their LDL cholesterol by at least 13% in just 6 months. The shocker: A comparison group that ate a diet low in saturated fat got only a 3% LDL reduction. Talk about surprises. (Another surprise: Oatmeal and walnuts make you feel happy, too.) A One-Two Punch Lesson learned: Cutting back on saturated fat, while a healthy idea in general, isn't enough to get your LDL where you want it. It's stubborn stuff. To smack it down, you need drugs (here's a 101 on which) or foods rich in three specific ingredients: plant sterols (phytosterols), soy protein, and sticky (viscous) fiber. These ingredients may n...

A handful of walnuts, a cup of oatmeal, a few sips of tea . . . what do all of these things have in common? They may help turn you into Susie Sunshine. To feel better through food, you need to seek out nutrients known for boosting the production of feel-good brain chemicals and fighting off the effects of stress in the body. And walnuts, oatmeal, and tea fit the bill, according to Roberta Lee, MD, author of The SuperStress Solution . Good-Mood Comfort Food Here's why Lee feels these three options are so outrageously good for your disposition: Oatmeal: This happy grain is rich in tryptophan, a building block for the feel-good chemical serotonin. And you won't feel hungry and grouchy an hour later, thanks to the filling fiber.    Tea: A spot of tea may give you just the mood and performance boost you crave, thanks to the caffeine. Plus, research links tea drinking to lower rates of depression. And studies show that the very act of preparing tea may soothe n...

Not that you need another reason to indulge in chocolate (you probably already know it's good for your blood pressure), but isn't it delightful, delicious, and delectable that there is one? Eating chocolate shaves your risk of "cardiometabolic disorders," a cluster of conditions that nobody wants, including heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. (Taking this vitamin also helps protect you from this nasty threesome.) Here's the big surprise: We're talking all kinds of chocolate, not just the dark types. Even milk chocolate and cups of hot cocoa have benefits. We're also not talking slight improvements. Research reveals that consuming a healthy amount of chocolate reduces your risk of heart disease by 37% and stroke by 29% versus eating little or none. (Not coincidentally, it also lowers your bad LDL cholesterol.) In addition, it shrinks your risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 31%. These impressive numbers emerged from an analysis of ...

It wasn't too long ago that chocolate was considered about as healthy as a stick of butter. Not anymore. Chocolate has acquired quite a reputation as a not-so-sinful sweet indulgence. And though it may seem too good to be true, research does show that one type of chocolate is rich not only in flavor but also in the same protective antioxidants found in apples, grapes, green tea, and red wine. So is chocolate the new superfood? Not quite. But a growing body of evidence suggests chocolate may have more to offer than guilty pleasure. A Treat from Trees Most of us don't think of chocolate as a plant-based food, but it is. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree. These seeds, also known as cocoa beans, are exceptionally rich in flavonoids, which are natural antioxidants thought to help protect against cardiovascular disease. Once harvested, cocoa beans are left to ferment before being dried, roasted, and processed into the chocolate products we k...

Your heart disease risk could probably be lower with a little more of this nutrient on board: vitamin D. Older adults who had the highest blood levels of vitamin D enjoyed a 33 percent lower risk of developing heart disease in a recent study. And supplements are a fine source. You can also look to sunshine and fortified dairy products to get your fill of D. Beyond Bone Health Vitamin D has long been touted for its benefits to bone health. But more and more research is showing a bigger role in health. In a study, adults who had the highest levels of D had the lowest level of "cardiometabolic disorders" -- the family of conditions that includes heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Delight Your Heart Exactly how high levels of vitamin D protect against cardiometabolic problems isn't entirely understood. Vitamin D may protect the heart and blood vessels by acting on genes or vitamin D receptors or by regulating calcium levels in the body. Vitam...

Prunes, or dried plums, are full of healthy surprises. Once mainly known as a laxative in a box, the wrinkly fruit recently rose to diet stardom thanks to evidence that it boosts fat loss and heart health. Now it turns out that, in the world of fruits and vegetables, prunes are all-stars at building bone density. This became evident when a team of state university researchers from Florida and Oklahoma gave one group of postmenopausal women 10 dried plums every day for a year, while a second group ate 3.5 ounces of dried apples. All the women in both groups took daily doses of calcium (500 mg) and vitamin D (400 IU). The prune eaters wound up with significantly denser bones in their forearms and spines than the apple eaters. Why? The prunes slowed the rate of bone breakdown, which starts outpacing the rate of new bone growth as you age. A related lab study on animals found that eating dried plums could restore bone mass after the loss had already occurred . Yes, as ...

Feel like you've been looking for love in all the wrong places? Head for a yoga class, because another benefit of this ancient exercise has just come to light: Yoga can improve your love life. Ladies, start smiling. You'll see results fast. After just 12 weeks of practicing yoga, you'll enjoy more sexual desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and satisfaction. Over 45? You'll feel the boost even more than the "kids" in your class (who cares if they're better at Downward Facing Dog?). Good for Guys, Too Men, yoga will deliver in spades for you, too. Twelve weeks is all it should take for you to see marked improvements in desire, satisfaction, performance, confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and orgasm. Whew! That's not all. Yoga can be even more effective than a top drug (fluoxetine) in treating premature ejaculation. What Makes Yoga Such an Aphrodisiac? The combo of stretching, toning, and deep breath...

We know weight loss isn't as simple as "eat less and exercise more." (If it were, you wouldn't be reading this, and we wouldn't have written YOU: On a Diet , which is about dieting smart, not dieting hard.) You need ways to get over the humps, around the cravings, and through the temptation to binge. Coming up! How to Give Temptation the Slip Practice mindful meditation. Spend just 7 minutes a day focusing on recognizing, accepting, and experiencing your cravings rather than trying to ignore or suppress them. Dieters who do have far fewer food cravings, and resist them better. Here's the trick to eating mindfully so you'll eat less.   Get on your feet. Especially if you're craving chocolate. A quick walk will curb even major chocoholic cravings in just 15 minutes. It works by stimulating feel-good brain chemicals and feeding your spirit.   Hit the mute button and do sit-ups -- or this -- when commercials come on. You'll switch ...

So you grabbed a bag of chips, and a short while later, you were down to the crumbs. How'd that happen? While you're figuring that out, here's how you can stop it from happening again: Practice mindful eating . There's a growing army of slim people singing this savor-the-moment practice. Your Mantra: Relax, Focus To teach yourself how to eat mindfully, start with a raisin. Take a deep, relaxing breath as you pick it up. Look at it for a few seconds. Smell it. Place it in your mouth and roll it around on your tongue. Feel the wrinkles. Now bite. Note the chewy, gritty texture -- the sweet, fruity, astringent taste. Extract all the flavor before you swallow. That's kind of the idea with mindful eating -- to savor the look, smell, texture, and taste of every bite. And it works! It had a huge impact on curbing chronic binge eating in a recent study. A Few More Ways to Eat Less While you focus on every bite, give these other appetite-control tips a try...

Need weight-loss help? This will make a big belly difference: Start your day with a high-protein breakfast (think eggs, maybe in a frittata). This shifts your appetite into neutral, where it will idle happily till lunch. Add some fiber to the meal, such as whole-wheat toast, and you'll curb afternoon cravings. Imagine getting halfway through a day of healthy weight loss without needinged any willpower! That’s because having plenty of protein and fiber early keeps you fueled and full for hours. ( Discover why breakfast makes you happier as well as slimmer. ) Not an egg lover? Have oatmeal topped with walnuts (make it overnight in the slow cooker), or smear peanut butter on your whole-wheat toast. Ready to just grab the toast solo as you zoom out the door? Think again. You'll be elbow-deep in the candy bowl before lunch. Block Snack Attacks with Protein News flash: If you don't get a certain amount of protein each day, but especially in the morning, your ap...