A Little Alcohol Good for Healthy Living

Researchers have found that drinking small amounts of alcohol, mainly wine, during middle age years you can have a major reduction in heart attack and stroke risk. It is recommended to drink one glass of wine per day. Alcohol raises HDL cholesterol levels, which is the cholesterol that is good for you, and stimulates the release of nitric oxide and histamines that relax blood vessels and improves their function.

Small to moderate amounts of alcohol could also help prevent Alzheimer's disease, peripheral artery disease, the common cold, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, bone fractures and osteoporosis, kidney stones, digestive ailments, stress, depression, poor cognition and memory, Parkinson's disease, hepatitis A, pancreatic cancer, macular degeneration, angina pectoris, duodenal ulcer, erectile dysfunction, hearing loss, gallstones, liver disease and poor physical condition in elderly.

Too much alcohol is bad for you. Too much can cause high blood pressure, increased triglyceride levels, cause abnormal heart rhythms, and raise the risk of breast cancer in women.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

People who have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) believe that at least one part of their appearance is very unattractive, even after cosmetic surgery. Researchers have found that people with BDD process visual information differently that most other people do and rely more on the analytical left side of the brain. Their brain also focuses on details without putting them into the context of the whole face, which can lead to a distorted self image. BDD can be biological and genetic so that it is not just caused because of society’s obsession on appearance.

Smoking Can Cause Acne

Researchers from the San Gallicano Dermatological Institute in Rome found that cigarettes can cause acne as well as cause dull and wrinkled skin. They found that noninflammatory acne affected eight times more smokers than nonsmokers. Most of the nonsmokers that had acne lived or worked in environments with heavy smoke. Cigarette smoke can cause skin cells, called keratinocytes, to proliferate and clog pores.

Study Says Unpopular Girls Tend to Gain More Weight

It is found that unpopular girls and girls that are low on the social ladder are more likely to gain weight during their adolescent years. Harvard University researchers did a study on 4,500 junior high and high school girls and found that the girls who felt like they weren’t well liked gained more weight than the more popular girls. The unpopular girls were 70 percent more likely to gain more than 11 excess pounds over a two year period.