10 ways you can prevent dental cavities

Your tooth is one of the hardest parts of your body. But that doesn’t make it resistant to bacterial attack. Cavity causing species of bacteria convert the sugar from the food we eat into acids which demineralise and destruct the enamel of the tooth to create cavities in them. Luckily, preventing tooth cavities is equally easy. Here are ten ways to prevent them:

Brush and floss daily
Preventive measures to any oral health problem begin with good oral hygiene. Brush your teeth at least twice a day. Use toothpaste that contains fluoride. Floss once or twice a day preferably after dinner. Flossing removes plaque from areas that the toothbrush can’t reach i.e. between your teeth and under the gum line.

Drink water or rinse mouth with water after eating
You can’t brush every time you eat. But you sure can drink water or at least rinse your mouth with water every time you do so. Water neutralises the effects of acidic and sugary foods. Rinsing removes food particles left behind on/ between the teeth.

Eat a healthy balanced diet
A healthy balanced diet is a solution to most of our health problems. A diet high in refined carbohydrates like breads, biscuits, etc. puts you at a risk of tooth decay. Avoid sticky foods such as candies, etc. which get stuck in the pits and grooves of your teeth. Sweets and chocolates are not the only ones with sugar. Beware of ‘hidden sugars’ in food which also could cause tooth decay. Increase your daily intake of fruits and vegetables.  They remove plaque and food particles from between your teeth and gums.

Avoid frequent snacking
What exposes your teeth to abuse is not how much you eat, but how often you eat. Every time you eat, bacteria convert the carbohydrates in the food into acids that can dissolve your tooth enamel. By snacking throughout the day, you make your teeth susceptible to constant bacterial attack. Hence avoid eating high sugar, high acid foods between meals. Diet soda may have no sugar but the acid in it can be dangerous to your tooth enamel. If you have a sweet tooth, it’s best to have sweets at meal times!

Regular dental visits
Visit your dentist once in six months for regular check-ups. He/she will be able to check for conditions in the mouth that may put you at risk of developing tooth decay. The initial signs of cavity can be reversed if detected early. If advised, get a professional cleaning or scaling done.

Get sealants placed on your teeth
Wouldn’t sealing off the grooves and fissures of teeth from acid and plaque protect them from getting cavities? Yes, it would. And dental sealants do just that. Your dentist may apply protective coating called dental sealants to the biting surfaces of the back teeth.

Fluoride treatment

Drinking fluoridated water reduces the incidence of tooth decay. However, in most parts of India, non-fluoridated water is consumed. Hence it is recommended to use fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride gel may be applied by your dentist if you are very susceptible to cavities.

Use a mouth rinse
Brushing and flossing takes care of all the food debris and plaque in your mouth. But what about the harmful bacteria hiding in inaccessible places? That’s where the mouthwashes play a role. Use antibacterial mouth rinses after brushing to kill the harmful bacteria associated with cavities and reduce plaque in your mouth. If you are more prone to cavities, use a mouth rinse with fluoride.

Chew sugar-free gum
Chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes after eating or drinking stimulates saliva which washes away food particles and helps to prevent cavities.

Get your dry mouth treated
Dry mouth (Xerostomia) may be caused due to dehydration, anxiety, mouth breathing, smoking, certain medications, etc. It may also be caused by autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s syndrome which damage the salivary glands. Tooth decay is very common in dry mouth. Identifying the underlying reason of your dry mouth can help in treating it thereby preventing further damage to your teeth from cavities.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
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10 Questions Every Nutritionist Hears

As awareness to health issues rises, so does misinformation and confusion about health and nutrition, so much so, that it’s hard to keep track of what’s good and what’s bad for you and what the best way to lose weight is. To help set the record straight, here are some of the most common questions people have about nutrition and what expert nutritionists have to say about them:

 

1. Are Carbs and Sugars the Devil Incarnate?

Since 1972, when Robert Atkins formulated his “revolutionary” diet, the market has been inundated with high-fat, low-carb diets, claiming that sugars and other complex carbohydrates are the number one reason for weight gain. Low-carb fad diets like keto and Atkins say that most of our body weight is stored in sugars, not fats, and that by cutting down sugars we will not only burn the sugars in our body, but also use fats as our main energy source. Sure, people employing such strict diets will see rather swift results as the body burns sugars, but for the fat burned to be on par with the fat consumed, a person needs to be intensely engaged in physical activity, especially since burning fat is substantially harder on the body compared to using up carbs for energy.

In the end, all extreme and restrictive diets are hard to maintain over time and may cause long-term damage to the body as weight, fats and sugars fluctuate wildly over periods of mere months.

A preferred nutrition balances carbohydrates, fats and proteins, shunning none, as all are important for our bodily functions. As for sweets, sugars that are naturally-present in food such as fruit and vegetables are just fine. What one should be wary of are mainly refined and added sugars.

2. What Diet Is the Best for Weight Loss?

None. The diet mentality focuses on highly-prohibitive eating regimens with short-term weight-loss in mind, causing even more extreme weigh-gain afterwards, not to speak of mental turmoil as you see all of the work you put into your diet crumble to dust.

Rather than thinking in terms of diets, we should be thinking about nutrition, and a type of menu and routine we can actually stick to long-term. Yes, the results won’t be immediate or impressive as those of the more extreme diets, but they will be sustainable.

Before eliminating stuff you love from the dining table, consider whether or not you’d like to reintroduce it back further down the line. If that’s the case, you’d be much better served building your diet around still eating or drinking that one thing you really love (in moderation, of course).

3. Can I Lose Weight Simply by Exercising?

To put simply- no. The notion that you can simply compensate for bad eating habits by running does not hold water, as eating the weight you lost exercising is surprisingly easy and people tend to overestimate how exerting their exercise actually was. Moreover, poor results might encourage a person to overindulge in exercise, as if working even harder will yield better results, risking actual harm to the body.

There is no magic trick to weight-loss. The best way to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to have sustainable healthy eating habits alongside regular physical activity.

4. What’s the Worst Thing People Consume?

Surprisingly, the main weight-offender isn’t a food at all, but a drink. Sugar-sweetened sodas are among the unhealthiest things people regularly consume, with a 20 oz bottle of coke containing 16 teaspoons of sugar. For comparison’s sake, imagine dropping 16 teaspoons of sugar into your coffee tumbler. Rather extreme, no? 

This amount of added sugars is impossible to effectively burn, causes dramatic rises and drops in blood sugar levels and can affect insulin sensitivity in the body, ultimately causing type 2 diabetes.

All of this is on top of literally zero health benefits.

5. What’s the Best Exercise to Lose Belly Fat?

This question belies a serious misconception that where body fats are stored has to do with which parts of our body are underdeveloped or weak. This is born out of a rather strange idea that fat magically turns to muscle when people work out, or vice versa. That is not actually how weight-loss or muscle definition work.

For all of the people focusing on sit-ups, planking and belly crunches out of some hope that this will make their stomach flat, it is quite possible and common for a person to have strong abdominal muscles AND a protruding gut.

The way the body stores fat boils down mostly to genetics and gender and has nothing to do with strength. Conversely, any activity that burns fat will burn it no matter where it is stored. 

6. What Should Be My Caloric Intake if I Want to Lose Weight?

There is no universal formula that works for everyone with regards to how many calories you should be consuming in a day. Reducing caloric intake too dramatically will doubtlessly yield results, but it will also have a poor effect on your psychology, constant craving and an eventual relapse.

By accounting for age, gender, current weight and height, you can come up with a general idea of a recommended daily calorie intake, but different bodies function differently, and you can never come up with a magic number by using formulas.

As a general rule, eating less than you’re currently eating is a good idea. By how much is exactly what you should be figuring out, and it is a process of self-learning. Monitor your weekly diet, try eating 5-10% less than that and take note of how you’re feeling and the effects on your weight. Take it slow and don’t be afraid to take steps backwards if you find yourself tired and starving.

7. Why Is Healthy Food so Expensive?

In short- it isn’t. A study held in Australia found that unhealthy diets were actually more expensive to maintain than healthy ones. While it may be true that whole grain breads are more expensive than refined grain white bread, bread isn’t the only component of an unhealthy diet. That same study found that as much as 64% of people’s food budget was being spent on take-out food, soda drinks and alcoholic beverages.

Another way of considering how “cost-effective” a healthy diet is are the medical bills one is saving by committing to a healthy lifestyle. Sadly, this sort of long-term thinking and investing is often hard to conceptualize and fully appreciate in a world that seems built upon immediate gratification.

8. What’s the Verdict on Gluten?

As a general rule, if someone is telling that this or that natural food or beverage is bad for you, using the plural form of “you”, he’s probably being incredibly irresponsible, as different things are bad for different people.

Gluten is a mixture of proteins that are present in some of the most popular grains, including wheat, barley, rye and oats.
In and of itself, gluten is of rather low nutritional value, but gluten cannot be isolated. The grains that contain gluten also contain valuable nutrients like iron, and B vitamins. Conversely, many gluten-free alternatives aren’t nearly as nutritious as whole grain flour, and can be richer in both fats and carbs.

If you aren’t suffering from a gastrointestinal condition that prohibits gluten (such as coeliac), there’s absolutely no reason for you to drop gluten.

9. What Are the Healthiest Foods?

Vegetables. Shocker, I know. More specifically, non-starchy vegetables should be your go-to. This includes most greens, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and even the unfairly-maligned mushrooms. Vegetables are the best source for many nutrients, they have a sating effect on our stomach and they are rich in fibers, all in a package that yields very little calories.

Vegetables are the closest thing we have to a common thread between effective weight-loss measures.

10. Can I Snack?

Many diets tout eating many small meals throughout the day, and for good reason- eating between meals can stop you from overeating during lunchtime. Snacking could be a good idea, depending on what you’re snacking on and how much of it you’re eating. Nuts, fruit, raisins and veggies are all healthy snack options.

A good rule of thumb is to eat if you’re hungry, and to abstain from snacking if you’re prone to overindulge.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

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Everyday Habits That Promote Tooth Decay

Our teeth are one of the most fragile parts of our body: most damage done to them cannot be reversed and has to be mended by a dentist. Teeth are sensitive to changes in temperature, certain foods, and even the slightest pressure during brushing can lead to enamel damage.

Apart from their role in digestion, straight, white and healthy teeth are, in many ways, about beauty, as we instinctively associate beautiful teeth with health. Still, maintaining our pearly whites can be difficult, and sometimes, we can’t put a finger on what’s causing a dental problem, be it discoloration, cavities or gum problems. To make things easier for our readers, we made a list of 11 everyday habits that could be the ones ruining your smile. I know I’m definitely guilty of a few of these myself, particularly drinking coffee and not choosing the right kind of mouthwash.

1. Taking Vitamins In Gummy Form Promotes Tooth Decay

If something tastes like candy, it’s probably bad for your teeth, even if it’s marketed to be good for you. Yes, we’re talking about the multitude of vitamins and supplements sold for both kids and adults in gummy form.

Though these vitamins are fun, colorful, and beneficial to your nutritional needs, many dentists point out that they’re one of the worst things you could do to your oral health, as parts of the sweet gummy can get stuck between your teeth and provide excellent nutrition to different bacteria, including those that cause cavities and gum disease.

Luckily, you can easily fix this problem by simply brushing your teeth after chewing on the gummy vitamin. Another alternative is, of course, to switch to traditional vitamins packaged in capsule or pill form.

2. Biting Nails Affects Your Enamel, Teeth & Jaw

It is definitely true that biting your nails can cause split nails, but did you know that it can affect your teeth as well?

In mild cases, biting your nails will make the enamel, the outermost protective coating of your teeth, crack and splinter, which provides an entry way for bacteria and can promote cavities. Furthermore, the teeth of patients that constantly bite their nails can sometimes shift over time, which creates an unsightly gap between the teeth.

In severe cases, nail biting was even associated with jaw pain and headaches caused by jaw tension, so biting your nails is definitely more serious than it may seem at first glance.

3. Snacking too Often Increases the Risk of Cavities

Eating small meals often is beneficial for weight loss and general digestive health, but dentists caution that doing it too often may make you more likely to develop cavities.

This is because eating increases the pH level in your mouth and creates a more acidic environment in the mouth, which remains for another 20-30 minutes after you eat until your saliva neutralizes it. An acidic environment is bad for your teeth, as it was linked to tooth decay.

4. Drinking Sparkling Water can Make your Teeth Sensitive

All carbonated beverages, be it soda, sparkling water or sparkling wine can affect your tooth health. Though unsweetened drinks may be less damaging than soda, they are still worse for your teeth than regular water because it creates an acidic environment that leads to demineralization, a process during which your tooth enamel breaks down.

An absence or lack of teeth enamel, in turn, can lead to discoloration, staining and cavities.

5. Smoking Can Stain Your Teeth & Promote Cavities

We’re all aware of the adverse effects of smoking on respiratory and heart health, but smoking can also be a threat to your oral health, affecting your teeth, mouth, and gums. Dentists point out that both the soft tissues and teeth can be affected by smoking, with smokers being more likely to have yellow, stained teeth, gum problems and recurrent infections.

6. Brushing Your Teeth Immediately After a Meal May Fracture Your Enamel

As we discussed above, your teeth are more vulnerable to damage right after you eat because of the acidic environment in the oral cavity. If you brush your teeth right after eating, you’re more likely to cause micro fractures in the enamel, especially if you already brush your teeth too harshly.

Instead, wait for at least 30 minutes after a meal before brushing your teeth.

7. Drinking Wine & Coffee Can Stain Your Teeth

Anything capable of staining your clothes can also stain your teeth: coffee, wine, soda, tea, balsamic vinegar, fruit juices and even tomato sauce can all alter the color of your teeth. Dark-colored drinks are the first ones to blame, of course.

For example, red wine contains a lot of tannins that, despite being excellent antioxidants, can stain your teeth. Sadly, the more pigmented beverages are not the only ones to blame, as even white wine or rose, as well as herbal teas contain fruit acids capable of discoloring the teeth.

A special mention goes to lemon water or other citrus-infused drinks. Though an occasional splash of lemon juice won’t affect your teeth, drinking highly-acidic drinks like lemon water, vinegar detox drinks and even tomato juice can deteriorate your tooth enamel.

Luckily, minimizing the damage is easy: it’s enough to rinse your mouth with water after you had one of these drinks. This will restore the pH and should get rid of the pigmented ingredients.

8. Using a Mouthwash Containing Alcohol can Increase the Likelihood of an Infection

Many mouthwash varieties contain alcohol, which can dry out your mouth and gums, wipe out the healthy bacteria that live in your mouth and, therefore, promotes infection. And though the sensation of dryness can feel satisfying at first, ultimately, it wreaks havoc in the mouth.

This doesn’t mean, however, that all mouthwashes are bad, as a good mouthwash can help saturate your teeth with fluoride (that helps fight cavities), plus it keeps your breath fresher throughout the day.

To choose the right kind of mouthwash, opt for the alcohol-free varieties and those that contain xylitol, an ingredient capable of stimulating the oh-so-necessary saliva production.

9. Whitening Products Can Wear Away Your Enamel

As it is the case with acidic drinks, harsh, over-the-counter toothpastes, whitening strips or pastes can damage your enamel, which may make your teeth look whiter at first, but will also make them look worse in the long run.

This is because by wearing off the enamel, it exposes the next layer of the tooth, the dentin, which, even when healthy, has a yellow tint to it. Remineralizing the enamel is a very long and difficult process, and your enamel may never fully restore.

All of this doesn’t mean that all whitening products are bad, but rather that you should be very careful with teeth-whitening products, especially when you decide to use them without professional oversight.

10. Storing Toothbrushes In a Cabinet or Drawer Exposes You to Infection

Do you store your toothbrushes stashed deep in a container, a drawer or a bathroom cabinet to protect them from all the nasty germs flying around in the bathroom? If germ protection is your major concern, you might want to reconsider your decision, as it turns out that storing your toothbrush in a closed container may lead to more bacteria on your toothbrush.
According to the recommendations by the American Dental Association, you should store your toothbrush in an upright container so that it is exposed to the open air. This will let it dry freely and minimize bacterial growth, because a dry and clean toothbrush is equal to a healthy mouth and teeth.

11. Using Your Teeth As a Tool Can Damage Them Without You Knowing It

This last habit is very popular and just as equally dangerous. Just imagine, it’s a hot summer day, you’re thirsty, and decide to buy yourself a bottle of water. No matter how much you try, it just won’t open, so you have no choice but to resort to “helping” yourself out a bit with your teeth, because why not?

Well, needless to say, this is not a recipe of success, at least when your teeth are concerned. Even if you think that nothing had happened to your teeth and you don’t see or feel any fractures, you could have caused a micro fracture that made your teeth so much more susceptible to cavities and breakage in the future.

Fractures like these can even hurt your jawbone or cause receding gums. Save yourself a trip to the dentist and use a more suitable tool, or simply ask for help.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

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Effects Of Loss Sleep On The Body

You wake up early trying to skip traffic, working an average of 9 hours a day. You get home tired, but you can’t afford to rest because there’s chores to do at home. Okay, you’re finished with everything you absolutely needed to do. You’re beat, but you still want to catch your favorite show, check what’s going on online or maybe hit the town and meet some friends. By the time you’re finally in bed and asleep, you’re looking at about 5 hours’ worth of sleep and then you’re back to the same daily routine. It’s fine, though, you’ll catch up on all of those missing hours of sleep over the weekend, no?
 

No, it’s not fine, because sleep doesn’t work like that. The hours of sleep you lose over the week cannot be compensated for by sleeping at a later date. For the past four decades, 40 % of Americans have been getting less sleep on a daily basis than the recommended 7-9 hours for an adult of up to 64 years. 

 

A new study looked at the consequence of this sparse sleep cycle and the effectiveness of “catching up” on sleep over the weekend. For the purpose of the test, a group of young adults were assigned to three groups: a control group that got 9 hours of sleep, a group that got 5 hours of sleep all week long, and a third group that got 5 hours of sleep with sleep compensation over the weekend.

In both sleep-deprived groups, the researchers found an increased tendency to snack, especially on empty-carb foods which give a short-term energy surge, both groups subsequently demonstrated weight-gain and a decreased insulin sensitivity, which may trigger diabetes if left untreated. The group that slept over the weekend saw minor improvements during the weekend (and only on those days), but were still far behind those who slept the recommended amount of hours on a daily basis.

So why do we do this to ourselves?

In his autobiography (published posthumously in 1791), Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote these words about sleep: “there will be sleeping enough in the grave.”
Franklin was a firm believer in industriousness, and thought that any hour spent not being busy with something useful was an hour gone to waste. His work ethic has become a legend, a staple of American exceptionalism, but his disdain for a good night’s sleep has gone largely uncriticized.

When Robert Owen, Welsh labor rights activist said: “eight hours work, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest” that was certainly an improvement over the working schedule of industry workers in the early 19th century, who regularly worked 12-hour shifts with no vacations.

But even if we were to assume that 40 hours of work on a weekly basis is the right amount of work in terms of balancing productivity, rest and recreation (consider the fact that many of our supposedly recreational hours are spent on what amounts to unpaid work doing chores), according to a 2014 poll, the average American works 47 hours a week, with as many as 39% reporting working 50-60 hours per week! This is often not a matter of choice, as many employers seem to expect workers to punch in more hours than required.

On top of a tendency to overwork comes a more modern malady: fear of missing out (or FOMO), a social anxiety characterized by a constant desire to be connected and in the know about what others are doing, as well as a concern that you’re missing out on an opportunity (not necessarily financial, as an opportunity for a social interaction also qualifies).

It was first identified by a marketing strategist in the mid-90’s, and it has only gotten more widespread as social media has become more commonplace and readily accessible via mobile phones. In the past few years, it has only gotten worse, as people feel a constant social itch that can only be alleviated by grabbing their smartphone and browsing through Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

The end-result is that a huge chunk of Americans work well over 8 hours a day while trying to extend recreational time as much as possible at the expense of valuable sleeping hours, leading to a plethora of health issues, a cycle which will not be broken unless we rethink our weekly schedule in a major way.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                         FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/           

                   FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                  https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com