Senior Care Partners

Archive for April, 2011

We are near the end of our 2010 winter season here in New Zealand. My husband is a dentist and we both do not believe in flu vaccines. This winter I began taking extra Vitamin D3 – 1000iu daily. My husband just took his normal dose that is contained in the nutritional supplements we both take. My husband got the flu – possibly the H1N1 because I have never seen him so unwell. He is a man who normally shrugs off colds and flus, but not this one. He had to take time off work, pulled a muscle from his violent coughing and even stayed in bed. Meanwhile, as soon as he came down with the flu, I increased my D3 dose to 2000iu daily and I have stayed well.

Anyone keeping up-to-date with health news over the last few years will be aware that more and more research is uncovering the significance of Vitamin D and its effect on our health. The “cover-up and slap on the sunblock” campaign has helped to reduce skin cancer risk but in doing so, Vitamin D deficiency has affected the health of millions of people worldwide. Vitamin D affects over 200 genes in our bodies and about 6% of the human genome.

It is healthy to have bright sun exposure to our bodies for 15-20 minutes per day. People who live in temperate zones (latitude 37 degrees north and south of the equator) will not get the sun exposure required for our bodies to make the 15,000 to 20,000iu of Vitamin D it needs each day. However, overexposure to sunlight does cause skin cancer and wrinkles.

Can we overdose on Vitamin D from the sun? It’s not possible to overdose from the sun source because the body can inactivate excess Vitamin D. The body can also store excess Vitamin D in our tissues and use it as required.

So what about food? The Vitamin D that is available in food is insignificant compared to what the synthesis of the sun can provide. The principal source of Vitamin D is through sun exposure on our skin.

For instance, the following is a list of foods that we would have to consume on a daily basis to get the equivalent of 15,000 to 20,000iu Vitamin D from the sun:

Sardines – 30 cans per day or

Milk – 100-200 glasses per day or

Fortified cereal – 100-200 bowls per day or

Egg yolks – 500-1000 per day or

Wild salmon – 2 kilos or 4.5 lbs

I would not recommend any of the above to be consumed in such quantities on a daily basis.

Vitamin D research has been shown to prevent the following diseases:

Heart Disease

Cancer – Breast, Ovarian, Colon, Prostate, Bladder, Uterus, Esophagus, Rectum, Stomach

Diabetes

Obesity

Dementia

Influenza – upper respiratory infections have shown to be reduced by 90% by supplementing with 2000iu of Vitamin D. By boosting our Vitamin D to 5000iu in the flu season, we do not need to have the flu vaccine.

Bacterial Infection

Depression

Insomnia

Muscle Weakness

Fibromyalgia

Osteomalacia -soft and weak bones, makes you more prone to fractures.

Osteoarthritus

Rheumatoid Arthritus

Osteoporosis

Psoriasis

Multiple Sclerosis – if we do not have enough exposure to sunlight in the first 10 years of our life, we are more pre-disposed to getting MS. So if you grow up in a temperate zone you have a 100% increase in the risk of getting MS.

Hypertension

The best health advice is, if you live in temperate zones it is advisable to take a Vitamin D3 supplement every day and boost it to 5000iu in the flu season. Expose yourself to bright sun 15 to 30 minutes day as much as possible, before applying sunblock to your body. I recommend that you do not expose your face and neck though. Avoid over-exposure to sunlight. If possible, get your Vitamin D levels checked by your doctor on an annual basis to avoid deficiency.

Other than the fact this country is somehow related to Old Zealand, not many people know much about New Zealand except that it’s somewhere over there, perhaps not that far from Australia. Not that talking about Australia is much help with the geography. Anyway, it’s actually an island country and its major claim to fame is that it has significantly more sheep than people. It used to be a British colony but they forgot where it is and so made it independent. The other claim to fame is its legal system which was also left behind by the British. Supposedly that’s based on tort, just like our system. But there the similarity ends.

When you look at all the headlines for a day, you can’t help seeing endless news about legal cases. It seems we live in dangerous times. Cars run out of control when they should stop. Food and drugs should be safe, but they make us ill. Financial companies lend us money on predatory terms or gouge us on fees. Firms like Walmart may be run on the basis of sex discrimination. There are cases about every last possible thing that might cause us harm – including the elections when the Supreme Court had to vote on who had won. It’s hardly surprising the legal profession should have become a political issue. Some argue attorneys are out of control, harassing legitimate businesses with worthless cases. Others see them as the only thing preventing consumers from being even more thoroughly victimized. No matter who’s right, one of the biggest areas of litigation involves drugs and the suggestion that, sometimes, they cause more harm than good.

When any manufacturer launches a new drug, the clinical trials have confirmed it will do more good than bad. But that does not eliminate the possibility some people may suffer adverse side effects. In the case of the most famous treatment for acne, the risks are well known. This did start off life as chemotherapy to treat cancer. It’s hardly surprising it should have a bad effect on some people. Yet people continue to take the drug as if there’s no risk, often deciding to increase the dosage or to take it for longer than is safe. Such is the pressure on people to rid themselves of acne.

There’s new research out of New Zealand. A team of researchers managed to recruit 1,700 participants who all took Accutane at a very low dosage for long periods of time, the team following everyone’s health for six years. All reported a significant improvement in their skin and only 13 stopped because of unpleasant side effects. In other words, there’s no litigation in New Zealand alleging this drug is dangerous or unsafe. Here in the US, there are several high-profile cases alleging Accutane has caused all manner of different adverse effects. Whether this is true hardly matters. The reality is that we may be taking this drug at too high a dosage which increases the risk of harm. There’s no reason to suppose the New Zealand research is defective so the moral is clear. If you want to get clear skin with minimal risk, use this drug at no more than 0.25mg/kg of your body weight.

Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that generates a wide variety of symptoms. The symptoms produced by lupus may range from mild to severe and generally occur in flares, unpredictably aggravating or ameliorating over time. Some of the common symptoms of lupus are: pronounced fatigue, pain and swelling of the joints, skin rashes and fever. At skin level, lupus often causes the occurrence of the “butterfly rash”, which appears across the nose and cheeks. Although the butterfly rash is the most common rash characteristic to lupus, the disease can cause many other different types of rashes located in various regions of the body: face and ears, scalp, neck, arms, shoulders, hands, chest and back.

The autoimmune disease can also produce symptoms such as chest pain, increased sensitivity to sunlight, alopecia (hair loss), anemia or leucopenia (decrease in the number of red blood cells, respectively white blood cells), and paleness or cyanosis of the fingers and toes (due to poor oxygenation of the body extremities). Patients with lupus often suffer from headaches, vertigo (dizziness), decreased vision, poor concentration, psychological conditions (depression) and sometimes even seizures and faints. The progression of the disease is unpredictable and symptoms may come and go unexpectedly. Over time, patients with lupus may experience different sets of symptoms, occurring in flares and varying in intensity and duration.

When lupus affects the lymphatic system of the body, the most common symptoms of lupus are swelling and pain of the lymph nodes throughout the body. Most cases of lupus either affect the lymphatic system, the musculoskeletal system or the skin. When lupus affects the musculoskeletal system, the most common symptoms are muscular pain, fatigue, swelling and stiffness of the joints. When confined to the skin, lupus commonly generates rashes, inflammation and irritation of the skin.

Lupus often causes kidney affections such as nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), interfering in the process of excretion and determining the accumulation of toxins inside the body. Lupus patients who also suffer from kidney impairments usually require strong medication treatments in order to prevent the occurrence of serious complications.

In many cases, lupus affects the circulatory system of the body, causing inflammation of the blood vessels (vasculitis), anemia or leucopenia (decrease in red and white blood cells). Lupus may also lead to the occurrence of thrombocytopenia, a decrease in the number of platelets in the blood, condition that interferes in the process of blood coagulation, increasing the risk of bleeding.

When lupus affects the central nervous system, the most common symptoms are dizziness, headaches, temporary memory loss (amnesia), decreased vision, or neuropsychological problems (depression, unpredictable behavioral changes). Some of these previously mentioned symptoms aren’t solely caused by lupus; often they occur as a result of emotional stress and prolonged lupus medication. The majority of these symptoms can be reversed by interrupting the treatment or reducing the dose of medication.

At pulmonary level, patients with lupus may suffer from pleuritis (inflammation of the interior lining of the chest), condition that causes pronounced discomfort and pain, especially when taking deep breaths. Patients with lupus are also very susceptible of developing pneumonia. At coronary level, patients with lupus may suffer from coronary vasculitis (inflammation of the arteries that deliver blood to the heart), myocarditis and endocarditis (inflammation of the heart itself) and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart protective membrane). If discovered in time, the implications of lupus at coronary level can be efficiently reversed with medical treatment.

In our life there are times we would call as crisis time. These times are the times when we need a solution fast but we can’t find it fast. That is why we call it crisis. It is also because we cannot ignore this matter because if we ignore it then the trouble will goes bigger and of course the problems will go worse and that is the last thing we could have ever wanted in our life. That is why we must overcome crisis time as soon as possible. An example of crisis time is when you have an accident and you are in hospital.

You need to find a solution that allows you to have money fast so that you can get treatment right away. However, the only way to obtain money we know is working and in this situation; it is impossible for you to go to work. That is why the only way to overcome this crisis is by having loan services like Tucson cash advance loan service. They will allow us to have money fast and of course the money we earn from them is not ours so we need to be careful when we decide to use this as solution.

As a human we are always have fear in our heart. It is because there are so many things which are uncertain in our life. We can plan on everything but there is no single thing that works according to our pan. There is no such thing as flawless plan and that is why we always have fear in our heart. It is true that it is normal and have no fear is not normal but when the fear has consume our heart and we cannot live normal anymore because of the fear then we should act quick and erase our fear.

If we don’t erase our fear then we will be having a terrible life. That is not something we could have wanted and that is why we must have something that will erase our fear. We can erase our fear easily if we have something that help us out when we are in trouble and if we may suggest then the only thing that may does that is life insurance. It is not hard to find cheap life insurance these days. We can easily find online life insurance on the internet and with it we can erase our fear.

We understand that in our life we cannot live without money. It is true because in our life we are going to need a lot of things and these things can only be acquired if we have a lot of money. That is why we should have a lot of money if we want to survive this world. There are many ways to obtain money and the easiest way to obtain money is by working. Working for other people will allow us to have money fast but of course they only give us the money when the payday comes.

Sometimes we cannot wait until the payday to come. It is maybe because of some important things that we cannot wait. In this kind of situation we can find another way to obtain money and this time we need a faster way. The greatest way that will allow us to obtain money fast is by having quick payday loans. This is called the greatest way because it will allow us to have cash fast and then it needs no paperwork. We can have the money as soon as we fulfilled the general requirement and it is not hard to fulfill the general requirement if you have a job.