Prevent Acne with Whole Grains

A study found that eating whole grains can help to prevent acne. An American Journal of Clinical Nutrition paper reported that when people cut refined carbs from their diet and increased high-fiber grains, they had half as many pimples after 12 weeks. The fiber in whole grains helps the body absorb and burn carbs more slowly, which keeps blood sugar and insulin levels steady.

Less healthy carbohydrates, such as white bread and pastries, encourages the pancreas to send out a surge of insulin, which triggers hormone-levels to change, oil production to increase, and cells to multiply. This chain of events clogs pores and causes acne.

Ignite the Body's Weight Loss Hormone

There is a hormone called leptin in the body that can suppress hunger. It is produced in the fat cells of the body and it travels to the brain after a meal to tell the body that you are full and don't need to eat anymore. When the meal is digested, leptin levels decrease and you gain an appetite again. There are things that you can do to help leptin levels and reduce hunger.

It is a good idea to eat foods that are low in triglycerides. Triglycerides are negative in the fact that it prevents leptin from reaching the brain. Studies have found that foods higher in carbohydrates and lower in fat can raise leptin levels.

It is also a good idea to sleep 8 hours each day and exercise regularly. Sleeping less than 8 hours lowers leptin levels in the blood and brain. Regular exercise lowers triglyceride levels and helps the brain to absorb more leptin.

Fight Insomnia with Cherries

It is found that cherries can be used to help you sleep better. They contain a high amount of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin naturally makes you feel tired. It is also produced by the body during sleep and during night hours to regulate sleeping patterns by the pineal gland. Melatonin does not have any negative side effects and is safe and natural. It is found in the skin of cherries and eating just a few cherries works just as well as taking pills to fight insomnia. It is best to eat a handful of cherries right before bedtime to get a good rest.

Safe Tips to Sleep Better

There are several things that you can do to help you to sleep better at night. You can avoid alcohol before bedtime, avoid caffeine, turn down the thermostat, increase carbohydrate intake, and develop a sleep schedule.

It is not good to drink alcohol before trying to go to sleep. Alcohol can have a negative effect on the quality of sleep. Even small or moderate amounts of alcohol can suppress melatonin, which is a hormone that helps to regulate sleep. It also interferes with the monoamine transmitters that controls the body's ability to sleep well. Alcohol can also interfere with restorative N-REM cycles and prevent a person from dreaming by disrupting the second half of the sleep cycle.

Eliminating caffeinated drinks from your diet can help you to sleep better. Caffeine can have a negative effect on sleep by boosting a person's alertness, activate stress hormones, and increase heart rate and blood pressure. It is good to to drink a caffeinated drink at least 8 hours before your bedtime.

Keeping your bedroom or the area where you sleep cool and dark can help you to sleep better. The recommended temperature is between 54 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. A cool room makes it easier for the body's core temperature to drop, which is needed to be able to fall asleep. The body reaches its lowest temperature about 4 hours after a person falls asleep. Researchers have found that when the hands and feet are warm it causes blood vessels to dilate and heat to escape and body temperature to decrease, which could help a person to fall asleep faster.

Increasing the amount of starchy carbohydrates in your diet, such as cereal, pasta, and potatoes, can increase the ability of sleep causing amino tryptophan in the blood, which increases serotonin. Serotonin is a brain neurotransmitter that promotes sleep. Foods high in complex carbohydrates, such as bread, bagels, and crackers, can have a mild effect on sleep.

It can help to develop a regular sleep and wake schedule. That would mean going to bed and waking up at the same time everyday so that your body would regulate itself to fall asleep asleep at a certain time and wake up at a certain time.

Anger is Connected to Healing

It is found that anger problems and the inability to control anger can slow down the recovery period of an injury. This is caused because of increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can suppress the immune system, when a person is angry. It is best to try to have a good control over these feelings if a person is going through a healing period.

Common Causes of Strokes

Most strokes happen when clot blocks blood flow to the brain. Strokes can also happen when a blood vessel bursts in the brain. High blood pressure encourages strokes because it can cause a buildup of arterial plaque, which can cause blood clots.

Birth control pills and hormone therapy increases the risk of having a stroke. Hormone therapy for menopause symptoms has less estrogen than birth control pills but still increases the risk of stroke a little bit.

Sleep apnea is a condition that interrupts the breathing process while a person is asleep. It raises blood pressure and the risk of having a stroke.

Other things that increase the risk of stroke include blood clotting disorders and having migraines with auras. Auras are visual changes that happen before having a migraine.

The risk of having a stroke can be cut in half just by lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol. If a female has high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, or diabetes, then she should be very cautions when taking birth control pills so that she can lower the risk of having a stroke.

Alcohol Bad for Hormone Therapy

A recent Danish study has found that drinking alcohol can have a negative effect on people that are on hormone therapy. The recent study showed that hormone therapy users that had one or two alcoholic drinks each day greatly increased their risk of breast cancer. Alcohol could prevent the estrogen in the therapy from being fully metabolized and that would cause a higher blood level of estrogen, which could influence the risk of breast cancer.

Music Increases Energy Levels When Exercising

It is found that upbeat music can increase the flow of the hormone adrenaline and increase energy levels to help a person workout longer. Exercising to the beat of a song can decrease the amount of oxygen the body needs and a person would be able to workout longer before feeling tired. To benefit the most, the song’s tempo should be four to five beats higher than a person’s heart rate.

Amount of Sleep Connected to Childhood Obesity

A Harvard study has found that babies and toddlers that sleep less than 12 hours each day are more at risk for being overweight in preschool. The link between sleep and obesity affects young children too, as well as teenagers and adults. Children that slept the least and watched the most amount of television had the greatest chance of obesity.

Previous studies have found that people that don’t get enough sleep produce more ghrelin, which is a hormone that promotes hunger. They also produce less leptin, which is a hormone that signals to the body that they are full and have had enough to eat. Watching television promotes obesity because it can take time away from doing activities that burn calories. The more active a child is the better they will sleep at night.

It is good advice to create a regular schedule for sleep for children and babies. Infants can be taught to sleep on their own by putting them to bed when they are drowsy but not completely asleep.

Health Risks of Premature Babies

It is found that premature babies have higher death rates in their childhood years and are more likely not to have children in their adult years. This is based on a study that followed 1.2 million Norwegian births over many years.

Most premature babies grow up to have good health and be able to reproduce normally but the risk of health and reproduction problems are significantly higher than babies born at full term. Premature babies also have the risks of lung problems, disabilities, mental retardation, and being mentally behind other children their age in school. The study found that the preemies were more likely to die in their first year of life than full term babies and the higher risk continues throughout their life.

Things that could help prevent premature births include hormone treatments for women with a history of giving premature birth, not inducing labor unless it is needed and medically necessary, and reducing the number of embryos implanted at one time during fertility treatments. Women that are born premature have a higher risk of having premature babies when they give birth.

Stress Weakens Teeth

In Brazil, 14 tests were done that showed that stressed-out people have a higher risk of periodontal disease. Also, increased levels of the stress hormone, called cortisol, might have a negative effect on the immune system and allow bacteria to invade the gums. You can lower stress levels by exercising and sleeping more.

Study Shows that Alcohol Increases Risk of Cancer

A recent study has show that alcohol can increase the chances of getting breast cancer in women. Studies have shown a link between drinking alcohol and breast cancer but they have yet to determine if certain types of alcohol is more dangerous than others.

The study analyzed the drinking habits of 70,033 women and asked them various questions during health exams between the years 1978 and 1985. By the year 2004, 2,829 of those women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The study found that women who had one or two drinks a day increased their risk by 10 percent and women who had more than three drinks a day increased their risk by 30 percent.

Experts think that alcohol raises hormone levels in the blood to levels that could cause cancer. Doctors say that other factors, such as genetics, obesity, and age are more important factors that can raise the risk of breast cancer.