Unexpected reasons why your immunity is at an all-time low

Unexpected reasons why your immunity is at an all-time low

You wash your hands often, stay away from sick people, never forget to take your vitamins and still catch the flu. Wondering why? Sometimes some not so obvious reasons are responsible for your weakened immunity. Here is a list of five weird reasons behind you often falling sick.

You live in a polluted place

The air around you is not only harming your lungs but your immunity too. Studies have found that polluted air suppresses the T cells, which are important for your immune system to be healthy.

What you can do?
As you cannot control the air quality outside, you can invest in an air purifier and face mask. This will help you breathe easily indoors as well as outdoors. 

You are consuming too much protein

Consuming excess animal protein can make your body produce more of 1GF1 hormone. The hormone is known to speed up ageing and hamper your immune system.

What you can do?
Make sure that no more than 10 per cent of your daily calorie intake should come from animal sources like meat and dairy. If this doesn’t help, you can cut down the animal protein intake to 5 per cent. 

You spend most of your day alone

People who are lonely are usually less resilient in the time of stress and thus their immune system suffers.

What you can do?
Spend some quality time with your friends, loved ones and neighbours. People with happy relationships have a greater resistance to infections as compared to lonely people, says study. 

You are sitting all day

If you have a nine to five job, your butt is planted on the chair most of the time. This slows down your metabolism, which can cause your body to absorb immunity-boosting nutrients much slower than normal.

What you can do?
Make sure to take a five-minute break in every half an hour. These little moves will boost your metabolism and activate your muscles.

Tip
Keeping a mug instead of a bottle will increase your number of rounds to the pantry and thus your overall movement.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     
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4 Unexpected Habits That Affect Your Blood Pressure

The American Heart Association recently published a an article listing some surprising lifestyle choices that can raise one’s blood pressure (BP). Selected foods, the supplements you take and how calm you are around your doctor can all potentially affect your blood pressure, and this isn’t even a full list. For more information on the topic, continue reading.

Why Is an Accurate Blood Pressure Reading So Important?

Hypertension is a known as “the silent killer” among medical professionals. It got the infamous nickname because high blood pressure is a primary or contributing cause of numerous serious medical emergencies, as well as over 7.5 million deaths worldwide every year (this is about 12.8% of the total of all disease-related deaths).

As a contributing factor, hypertension significantly increases the risk of stroke, chronic heart failure and heart attack. The risk of all of these serious heart conditions can be significantly lowered with early and continuous BP management.

Over the past few years, the guidelines for hypertension have been modified, and any BP reading over 130/80 is considered to be hypertension.

This is how hypertension is classified:

• If your systolic blood pressure (the higher number) is between 130-139 and the diastolic one (the lower number) is from 80 to 89, then you have Stage 1 hypertension.
• Stage 2 hypertension is diagnosed when the systolic measurement is above 140, and the diastolic one is over 90.
• Any measurement over 180/120 is considered a medical emergency if it is accompanied by dizziness, shortness of breath and chest pain. In these cases it is mandatory to go to the nearest emergency room and seek medical attention, as the risk of stroke and heart attack is extremely high.

The most important thing to remember is that managing blood pressure is, luckily, an achievable task, and most patients suffering from hypertension can prevent the adverse effects of the disease, if caught early.

Apart from taking medication, a few lifestyle choices can also help manage your blood pressure. Here are some of the major habits that can affect the accuracy of a BP reading and increase your blood pressure. We also wrote previously about some methods for lowering blood pressure.

Foods and Supplements

What we ingest into our bodies influences our health, and some foods, herbs and supplements have been known for increasing blood pressure. Here are the most common ones.

• Ingredients found in herb and nutritional supplements, including, but not limited to licorice and valerian root, can raise one’s blood pressure. Bring a bottle of your supplement of choice to your doctor and let him scan the ingredients list for substances that can potentially raise blood pressure.
• Some foods can interact with specific medications and hike up your blood pressure, too. A group of antidepressants called monoamine-oxidase inhibitors in combination with tyramine-rich foods, for example, have that specific effect. These foods include aged cheeses, smoked and cured meats and fermented foods (such as soy sauce, kimchi, olives, etc.).

Drinks

The major culprits are coffee and alcohol, but other drinks containing high levels of caffeine, such as green tea extract and matcha can also be dangerous, as all of the above-mentioned drinks give you an adrenaline boost.

Adrenaline, in turn, raises the systolic blood pressure and heart rate, but decreases the diastolic blood pressure. That's why some people can feel their heart pounding after drinking a lot of caffeinated drinks. Needless to say, this can be dangerous to people whose blood pressure is already too high and especially those at risk of a heart attack.

That being said, in most cases, the effect is very dose dependent, and most people won't even notice an adverse effect after drinking a cup of coffee or a drink. For most people with hypertension, it is still acceptable to drink coffee and even some alcohol. Doctors suggest to limit your intake of coffee and alcohol in the following manner:

• Limit caffeine to less than 300 milligrams (mg) a day (2-3 cups of coffee), in a day
• Drink no more than 1 drink if you’re a woman, and no more than 2 if you’re a man.

Unreliable Blood Pressure Readings

Some people may end up with unnecessary or inadequate doses of blood pressure medications because of a phenomenon called “white coat hypertension”.

These are the patients who get nervous when they’re at the doctor’s office, which, once again, makes their bodies secret adrenaline and raises their blood pressure. This results in an inaccurate reading and possible a misdiagnosis.

To avoid this, doctors often suggest measuring your blood pressure at home, possibly even several times, in different positions and at different times of the day. Record the measurements and bring them to your doctor.

How to measure blood pressure at home:

1. Make sure you’re using a reliable device.

2. Prepare for a measurement by emptying your bladder and not smoking or drinking coffee 30 minutes before the reading.

3. For the most accurate reading, take your blood pressure twice: once after sitting down a few minutes before the reading, and another time after standing up for a few minutes. BP measurements while standing are especially beneficial for those who experience dizziness, as a standing position can raise the blood pressure in some cases.

Over-the-counter (OCT) Medications and Birth Control

Few people know that certain OTC medications can spike up your blood pressure.

Some of these include anti-inflammatory medications, such as naproxen (Aleve) and ibuprofen (Advil). Several decongestant medications used for a stuffy nose can also raise blood pressure. A safer option for pain relief would be drugs containing acetaminophen (Tylenol), which don’t usually affect blood pressure.

Prescription medications are also known to increase blood pressure. Such drugs include:

• birth control pills
• immunosuppressants
• steroids
• drugs used to treat cancer and mental illness.

Never stop taking prescription medications without consulting a doctor because it can be life-threatening. Rather, share your concerns with your doctor and they will likely replace your prescription medications with a safer alternative.
In fact, this is exactly why we provide all of this information: for you to get the best treatment and to communicate with your healthcare provider in a comprehensive and intelligent manner.

Disclaimer! All the content in this article is provided for information purposes only, don’t discontinue or start taking any medications without a proper diagnosis by a professional.

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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Scientists discover new compound that could help treat ovarian cancer

A new research now finds scientists  discover a compound that could be more effective in treating a few types of cancers than standard chemotherapy.

While chemotherapy is still the first line of defense for most cancer tumours and is often highly effective, many cancers are naturally resistant, or develop resistance, to commonly used first-line chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin.

Researchers identified new drug-candidates that would work against these types of treatment resistant cancers.

In the study, scientists screened new compounds made in the lab against a “panel” of cancers that were sensitive and resistant to standard cancer therapy. They further tested the compounds with non-malignant cells to see how toxic they were to normal cells.

They found two lead compounds that had low toxicity to non-malignant cells but were highly active against cancer cells sensitive or resistant to standard treatment.

Speaking about it, a Prof. said, “Many cancer cells – about 20 per cent – become resistant to common treatments by learning to ignore the internal signals that tell them to undergo programmed cell death, known as apoptosis.

He further added, “We have identified a compound that kills cancer cells that avoids the need for apoptosis, and so the usual resistance mechanism doesn’t work against our compound.”

According to the Prof., the compound is as potent as common current chemotherapeutics, but crucially retains its potency against treatment-resistant cancers.

By looking at the cellular response from the cancers the researchers found the new drug lead works by two different mechanisms simultaneously, making it much more difficult for cancers to develop resistance toward them during treatment.

“We think this compound could be particularly effective against ovarian cancer,” he added.
The team used a technique called “proteomics” to determine how thousands of proteins in the cells responded to exposure to the drug lead.

Professor said, “Proteomics is a remarkably powerful approach we have  to identify how living things respond to new drug candidates. The multiple mechanisms of action of the new molecules was an unexpected and exciting result.”

Researchers now want to carry out further studies to find out if the compound can be used in combination with current treatments to improve their performance.

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