Health & Medical Advice and Information - UK Medical Health

 Bad Back?
If you have back pain, it could simply be that you’re wearing a badly fitting bra. Get measured by a trained specialist.

Watch Your Waist
A study by EPIC scientists has shown that women with a waist measurement of 34 inches (86 cms) or more almost double their risk of developing womb cancer. Another reason to stay fit and active.

Boost Your Immune System
Research has shown that water plays a vital role in our immune systems ability to fight infection, making those who drink sufficient less likely to suffer from flu and colds.

Breast Cancer Risks
Ontario Cancer Institute analyzed 45 studies of 500,000+ women. Women who ate the highest amounts of saturated fat (found mostly in meat) were on average 20 percent more likely to get breast cancer than those who ate the lowest.

Having Chemo?
The Duke University Medical Center (USA) says that acupuncture can alleviate the nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy.

Morning Sickness?
The Duke University Medical Center (USA) says that acupuncture can alleviate the nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy.

Type 2 Diabetes?
A 2007 Finnish study suggests that zinc deficiency appears to increase the risk of heart attack and death from heart disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Walk Faster
Don’t like taking exercise? Commit yourself to walking faster when you do walk.

Chocolate And Wine
Yes, I know chocolate and wine contain antioxidants which are good for you, but there are a lot of other healthier sources.

Menopausal Hot Flushes
The herb black cohosh helps many women with menopausal hot flushes/flashes.

Coenzyme Q10
Some migraine sufferers find that the supplement Coenzyme Q10 reduces the frequency of attacks.

Iron
Most post-menopausal women do not need iron supplements. Excessive iron intake has been linked to heart disease.

Female Infertility
Autogenic training has been found to help some women conceive.

Avoid Alcohol If You’re Pregnant
If you are pregnant, avoid alcohol for the sake of your baby. Research shows that alcohol (even 3-6 units a week) affects the functioning of the brain of the foetus. (Alcohol Education and Research Council)

Sunscreen Protection
No sunscreen can offer total protection against the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays. Don’t think that wearing sunscreen means you can stay in the sun for hours.

Period Pains?
A  daily supplement of the mineral magnesium has been shown to help period pains and PMS.

Trying For A Baby?
Research suggests that stress may be one of the main causes of female infertility. Take the Five Flower Remedy or get help from a therapist if need be.

Check Your Toiletries
DEA, MEA and TEA are all chemicals commonly used in cosmetics that have been found to cause allergic reactions.

Thinning Hair
Stress, lack of iron and thyroid problems can cause hair loss. Check these out rather than just putting up with it.

Shopping
Shopping locally isn’t necessarily more expensive than shopping in a supermarket, if you add in the cost of getting there, and all the additional stuff they tempt you to buy that you don’t really need.

Weight & Shape
Don’t order a large portion in a restaurant and think it’s OK because you’ve ordered a ‘lite’ drink or used a no-calorie sweetener.

Walk A Marathon!
Always wanted to do a marathon, but not fit enough? Ask the organisers if they accept people who will walk the marathon.

Weight Training
Whatever your weight and shape, doing some weight training can help you look and feel better. You won’t look muscley or like a man.

Cotton Clothes
Nearly a quarter of pesticides used globally are used on cotton. Look out for organic cotton clothing - there’s some stylish and fun clothing now in organic cotton.

Stress Incontinence
If you suffer from stress incontinence, learn how to do pelvic floor exercises.

A Quick Exercise
Stand on one leg while you clean your teeth in the morning. Stand on the other leg in the evening. This will strengthen your hamstring muscles and is good for balance.

Feeling Better
In a study funded by Mind, the UK mental health charity, 80% of the participants said they felt better (emotionally and mentally) if they cut down on sugar.

Alcohol And Breast Cancer
Alcohol accounts for around 4% of all breast cancer cases in the developed world. Yet another reason to moderate your alcohol intake.

Anaemia
Drinking tea with meals increases your chances of suffering from anaemia as tea decreases the absorption of iron.

Depressed?
If you’re depressed, it could be because you’re deficient in some B vitamins  particularly thiamin, niacin and folic acid.

Safeguard Your Bones
Help to safeguard your bones by eating foods rich in  vitamin K (green leafy vegetables). This vitamin helps to form the bone-hardening protein osteocalcin.

Walk While You Talk
The UK Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists says: walk around while you are on the phone. You can add about 100 steps in a five-minute conversation.

Enjoy These Tips?
You can get health and happiness tips delivered to your personalized Google home page.

Recently reporter Clover Stroud did a rather remarkable test, she is naturally a 36A, but she wanted to know if larger breasts really ‘made a difference’, so she had a pair of prosthetic 36D breasts made specifically to fit her, and wore them for a week.

Clover wrote a detailed account of her story, which was a pleasure to read. She talks about how instantly there was rather a large lifestyle change, men opened doors for her, offered to help with her shopping, served her more quickly at bars, and we just generally more attentive (but less so intellectually). Women on the other hand, treated her more as a threat, and were far less friendly by comparison.

What clover also mentions quite strongly in her article is that having these larger breasts made her feel far more feminine, more sexy, and more confident about her body.

My only question to clover is - why after experiencing this for a week did you not want to keep them?

Obviously not the prosthetic ones, but have a breast augmentation and get the real things. From my point of view there are two opinions when it comes to women and implants;

1. I want them to boost my confidence, to make me feel better about myself, and because I would like larger breasts

2. I don’t want them because women who have them are trashy, because they look fake, and because its slutty

What strikes me instantly about these two schools of thought, is that while the first contains actual reasons, the second contains nothing more than excuses and preconceptions about how society views breast implants. People used to think that the only people who had tattoos were criminals, so tattoos were trashy, but you certainly couldn’t say that these days, and its finally relatively accepted that people can not be stereotyped by the tattoos that they have. The same is more and more becoming true with regards to breast augmentation, and yes sometimes they do look fake, and in my opinion its the ones that look particularly fake that are the ones that look trashy.

Why?

Porn-stars have breasts that look fake, because they have been enlarged by too much in proportion to their bodies, this is where the association comes from. Having a breast augmentation to get yourself from a B cup to a D cup however, is hardly going to stretch you to un-natural proportions, and after all, thats what surgical consultations are for.

Its time for breast implants to stop being taboo, and to start just being accepted for what they are, people changing their bodies to how they want to look.

Some people get tattoos, some lift weights, some get piercings, some go on rigorous diets, some dye their hair, and some have excess fat removed, no one bats an eyelid when any of those things are done, breasts simply have more of a ’shock-factor’ because they are associated with sex.

If you want a breast augmentation, then go out and get one and stop worrying about being such a total conformist.

At one time fibre was thought to serve no useful purpose in the body, as it does not contain any nutrients, but gradually nutritionists began to recognise that what the naturopaths had been saying for a long time had some truth in it – fibre was really important in the diet.

Fibre has many benefits:

§ Fibre bulks up stools and so reduces the chances of you suffering from constipation.
§ Fibre keeps the intestinal wall clean and reduces the likelihood of developing diverticulitis.
§ Bacteria in the colon can break down fibre, creating an acidic environment that decreases the risk of developing colorectal cancer.
§ Foods high in fibre can take longer to eat, increasing the feeling of fullness after a meal, and so help you weight control.
§ Food high in fibre is digested more slowly and so glucose may be released more slowly into the blood stream. This helps stabilise blood sugar and reduce mood swings.
§ Fibre binds with cholesterol and removes it from the body.

Fibre is only found in plants. Fibre rich foods include wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, vegetables - especially beans, peas and lentils - nuts and dried fruit.

So are there any disadvantages of eating fibre? Fibre can bind with some minerals such as iron and reduce their absorption. So, if you are taking an iron supplement, take it away from a fibre-rich meal.

Although fibre can help protect your colon from inflammatory diseases such as diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease, if you already have one of these conditions fibre will often aggravate the condition as it physically scrubs the inflamed tissues. Instead of increasing your fibre intake, take herbs to soothe your gut and reduce inflammation.