Inflammation is your body’s response to injuries, damage, and certain health conditions. If something is wrong with a certain part of your body, you will likely experience some inflammation.
Usually, inflammation is a positive sign that you are healing and recovering. However, excessive inflammation can cause long-term health problems. Starting an anti-inflammatory diet is key to fighting off problematic health conditions.
Why Inflammation Matters
Without inflammation, your body would not be able to repair itself when it needs to. But with too much inflammation, you are at risk for chronic health problems. Your tissues and cells can become damaged from too much inflammation over time.
Your diet can add to or alleviate the inflammation you experience in your body. If you suffer from an inflammatory disorder, it is even more important to follow an anti-inflammatory diet to control your symptoms.
Some common inflammatory disorders include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), autoimmune diseases, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). If you have been diagnosed with one of these conditions, consider an anti-inflammatory diet to feel better and improve your overall well-being.
Foods That Fight Inflammation
Certain foods have chemical compounds that naturally modulate your body’s inflammatory responses. To fight against excessive inflammation, try adding some anti-inflammatory foods to your weekly menu. Incorporating even a few of these foods could make a difference in your overall health.
Try adding these foods and spices to your diet:
Turmeric
Peppers
Fish
Olive oil
Dark chocolate
Nuts
Leafy greens (spinach, kale, etc.)
Eggs
Chicken
Turkey
Anti-inflammatory foods will help you maintain your health and prevent inflammation from damaging your healthy cells and tissues. With less inflammation in your body, you will likely feel a lot better.
Foods to Avoid
There are plenty of delicious, healthy foods that combat inflammation. Unfortunately, there are a few ingredients to avoid as well. Inflammatory ingredients and foods can give you more problems and worsen your symptoms.
Avoid the following ingredients to control inflammation:
Refined sugars
Artificial sweeteners
Simple carbohydrates
Processed meats
Sodas
Sweets, pastries, and breads
Fried food
Highly processed cheeses
These foods can be harmful to your health. Avoid them, when possible, to prevent and treat inflammation.
Discover comprehensive testing to see where you are insufficient and deficient to optimize your health. For more health awareness blogs, please visit www.stemedix.com/blog.
The symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often worsen over time. As a result, patients with the condition will experience increased wheezing, mucus production, shortness of breath, and discomfort.
Regularly practicing breathing exercises can help slow disease progression and manage symptoms. In addition, breathing exercises can reduce tangential symptoms, such as anxiety from shortness of breath.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
The diaphragm is the most significant muscle of respiration. As with any other muscle in the body, exercise strengthens the diaphragm and helps it work more efficiently.
Diaphragmatic breathing exercises help you use your diaphragm correctly so breathing requires less energy and effort.
To practice diaphragmatic breathing:
Lie on your back
Place one hand on your chest and one on your diaphragm, below the ribcage
Breathe in slowly through your nose, feeling the diaphragm expand
Tighten your stomach muscles as you exhale
When practicing diaphragmatic breathing, the hand on your chest should remain mostly still. In contrast, the hand on your diaphragm should move up and down with your inhale and exhale.
Pursed Lip Breathing
Pursed lip breathing works to control shortness of breath, slowing the pace of breathing and releasing trapped air from the lungs.
Once you master pursed lip breathing, it can effectively calm your breath during activity.
To practice pursed lip breathing:
Relax the shoulder and neck muscles
Inhale through your nose, keeping your mouth closed
Pucker your lips as if to whistle
Gently exhale through your pursed lips
In pursed lip breathing, exhalation is more critical than inhalation. While the technique does not require taking a deep breath, your exhale should take twice as long as your inhale.
Huff Cough
The body coughs to remove excess mucus from the lungs naturally. The huff cough allows you to cough effectively without overly straining your muscles.
To practice the huff cough:
Sit comfortably in a chair
Inhale a little more deeply than usual
Using your stomach muscles, blow the air out in three breaths
While releasing the breaths, make a “ha, ha, ha” sound
While huff coughs lack the force of a regular cough, they are often more effective at removing excess mucus.
Improve Your COPD Through Breathing Exercises
Practicing these exercises daily can strengthen your diaphragm, improve shortness of breath, and release excess mucus without straining. Breathing exercises have been shown to improve the quality of life for COPD patients.
The terms “sell by,” “best by,” and “use by” are notoriously confusing. While many shoppers err on the side of caution, increasing grocery costs mean that understanding these dates can lead to savings.
What Your Food Labels Mean
Since there’s no federal standard for food labels, laws around product dates vary by state. Here’s what you can interpret from your food labels.
Best If Used By and Best If Used Before
The terms “best if used by” and “best if used before” do not refer to your food’s expiration date. Instead, these phrases refer to flavor and quality. Once the date after your “best by” label passes, the taste of the food may become compromised.
The “best by” labels can apply to any food category, including canned, boxed, frozen, or refrigerated.
Use By
“Use by” is a little clearer. The “use by” date refers to the last date when the food is at its highest quality. “Use by” generally only applies to perishable items, such as dairy and meat products or prepared foods.
Sell By
“Sell by” dates are more about inventory control than expiration. You can consume foods after the “sell by” date, but they should no longer carry them in stores. Typically, dairy products are suitable for a week after their “sell by” date, and eggs are safe to consume for three to five weeks after their “sell by” date.
Expiration Date
Food may be assigned an expiration date due to loss of function after that date – like yeast that won’t rise – or changes in the safety or texture of the food.
Foods assigned an expiration date include:
Baby formula
Baby food
Vitamins
Over-the-counter medications
Cake mixes
Baking powders
While dates are helpful to track how long you’ve kept a food, unless the dates clearly state that the food expires, the best way to determine whether a food is spoiled is by examining it for changes in smell, color, texture, or consistency.
Additionally, the best way to keep your meats, soups, and casseroles longer is to freeze them. Bacteria can’t grow at frozen temperatures, so frozen meals maintain their safety for years.
Magnesium is crucial to your body’s functioning, as it supports the operation of the muscles and nerves and produces energy. However, most people who are deficient in magnesium have few, if any, obvious symptoms.
Chronically low magnesium can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and heart disease. However, getting enough magnesium is often as easy as adding a few magnesium-rich foods to your daily diet.
Identifying the signs of a magnesium deficiency can ensure chronically low levels don’t cause long-term concerns for your health.
Persistent Muscle Twitches and Cramps
As magnesium supports the function of the muscles and nerves in the body, those with a deficiency are more likely to experience involuntary muscle twitches, cramps, tremors, or, in severe cases, seizures.
Muscle Weakness and Fatigue
A magnesium deficiency can lead to a loss of potassium in the muscles, causing weakness and fatigue. While fatigue is a common symptom many people experience occasionally, a physician should evaluate persistent fatigue.
Heart Arrhythmia
Heart arrhythmia, an irregular heart rate, is one of the most concerning symptoms of magnesium deficiency. Patients may experience heart palpitations, lightheadedness, fatigue, or shortness of breath with heart arrhythmia and should see a doctor immediately to identify the cause.
Mental Health Concerns
Magnesium deficiency can cause nerve dysfunction, leading to several mental health concerns, including:
Apathy
Depression
Anxiety
Delirium
Those experiencing fluctuations in their mental health should seek the guidance of a healthcare professional to identify the exact cause and treatment.
How to Increase Your Magnesium
Dietary changes are the best way to ensure your body has enough magnesium to function properly. Foods that are high in magnesium include:
Nuts
Seeds
Whole grains
Dry beans
Green, leafy vegetables
Milk
Yogurt
Fortified foods
Fortunately, only a few servings of high-quality foods can significantly affect your magnesium levels. For example, one ounce of almonds provides 20% of an adult’s daily magnesium requirements. You can also up your magnesium intake through increased water consumption.
Supplements can also fulfill the dietary needs of those who struggle with magnesium consumption. It’s best to talk with your healthcare provider if you’re experiencing any symptoms of magnesium deficiency and ask if there are supplements that can best meet your needs.
Balance and gait training are forms of exercise that help patients who have neuromuscular conditions or injuries to their lower extremities. Balance and gait training is included in physical therapy and primarily focuses on improving the patient’s ability to walk.
What Does Gait Mean?
Gait simply means how you walk. A gait cycle describes the walking process. It involves picking your foot up off the ground, taking a step, landing on your foot, and lifting the opposite foot to begin the cycle again.
How Gait Training Works
Gait training may involve a variety of different exercises. Usually, in physical therapy, gait training involves walking on a treadmill under the supervision of your physical therapist.
Gait and balance training are always customized according to the specific needs of the patient, but the foundations focus on improving mobility and balance.
Increasing Mobility
Improving mobility involves working on the range of motion of your joints. This can include a variety of stretches and strength training exercises.
Improving Balance
When you walk, you spend a period of time on one leg while the other swings ahead to take the next step. Practicing balance exercises can help make walking safer and more efficient.
Benefits of Balance and Gait Training
Walking may seem a simple task, but for those with injuries and other conditions, it’s very hard work.
Some of the benefits of balance and gait training include:
Improved muscle tone and flexibility
Better range of motion
Increased strength
Better overall balance and coordination
Balance and gait training helps improve the overall positioning of the muscles while strengthening surrounding muscles. It can also help reduce tightness or spasticity in the muscles, which can decrease pain.
Balance and gait training not only helps address active issues but can work preventatively as well. Patients who go through balance and gait training can see an improved range of motion in the ankle joints, which can help them avoid compensatory balance and gait issues in the future.
This website and its contents are not intended to treat, cure, diagnose, or prevent any disease. Stemedix, Inc. shall not be held liable for the medical claims made by patient testimonials or videos. They are not to be viewed as a guarantee for each individual. The efficacy for some products presented have not been confirmed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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