Read Ingredient Labels

by | Oct 24, 2013 | Food Choices, General Health | 0 comments

Label This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and the Cancer Schmancer Movement. CSM, founded by Fran Drescher, is embarking on a major prevention program through healthy lifestyle.

My name is Tichina Arnold and on March 16, 2004, God blessed me with the most beautiful baby girl (Alijah Kai). She was perfect and as I sat gazing at her in the hospital, I wondered what had I gotten myself into.

An innocent little human being was solely dependent on me! I took all the CPR and breastfeeding classes and learned quite a bit.

I breast fed Alijah for the first four months as she thrived and grew into a healthy child … so I thought. However, I was a single mom and it was time to get back to work so I decided it was time to wean her to the bottle.

I tried my best to research baby formula and after much reading I knew that I did not want to feed her any form of animal’s milk.

I then began consulting with other moms as to alternatives. A very good friend suggested almond milk because it worked well for her two daughters because it had sufficient nutrients for healthy development. Thus, I started my baby on almond milk.

To my dismay and surprise, I was feeding her the almond milk not knowing that she washighly allergic to nuts of any kind!

Her face, arms, neck and back broke out with a horrible rash, and as tiny as she was, she was scratching fervidly. She literally looked like a monster! I took pictures to document it. Aside from the the shock that I had almost killed my baby, I quickly switched to rice milk and purified water also added the help of a topical cream. Her itching was alleviated and her skin began to slowly heal. I learned through trial and error all of the many things that my baby was allergic to… and she was only four months old.

I still had a nightmare ahead of me that I could not foresee: When she was 8 months old I was feeding her from my plate that happen to have shrimp on it. Just like mother birds feeding their young, I would chew pieces of different foods and feed them to Alijah as her taste buds grew. All of a sudden, I look down at Alijah only to see her eyes watering and her scratching at her neck while she grasped for air. I quickly picked her up and forced her to regurgitate the remains of the food. Truly, I did not know what was happening this was my first! You can only imagine my fear and panic at that moment.

After much testing, I was informed that my baby had “severe allergies” and was suffering with eczema and asthma in its severest form. Our lives immediately changed forever. I have done so much research trying my best to find a more holistic, organic and healthy way of dealing with her constant outbreaks due to eczema and asthma.

I hate the fact of Alijah having to put topical steroids in addition to ingesting them, but I am caught between the opposite worlds of holistic and western medicines.

Well here I am, nine years later still dealing with my daughter’s “severe allergies.” Even as I write this blog she is experiencing a major flare up!

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The Huge, Hidden Benefits Of An Extra Hour Of Sleep

by | Oct 18, 2013 | General Health | 0 comments

Sleep It’s weird that we sometimes think we can go without sleep–since we’d be so much more productive with just a bit more.

The BBC’s Michael Mosley reports that increasing the quanitity of time spent slumbering by a mere hour can upgrade the quality of your sleep. This, in turn, upgrades the quality of your day–in at least three ways.

YOU’LL GET MORE MEMORIES.

One of the first phases of sleep is deep sleep, which, as Mosley reports, is a super active time:

Deep sleep sounds restful, but that’s when our brains are actually working hard. One of the main things the brain is doing is moving memories from short-term storage into long-term storage, allowing us more short-term memory space for the next day. If you don’t get adequate deep sleep then these memories will be lost.

Which is scary because memories are important. And what we must note here is that there is such a thing as banking sleep–where you get a ton of sleep for a few nights if you know you won’t get any sleep on another night–you can’t bank you memories. They need to be committed within 24 hours of forming.

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It’s Simple, Easy And Free — And It Will Improve Your Health

by | Oct 10, 2013 | Exercise, General Health | 0 comments

Walk The human body is made to move, but in today’s world, we don’t do nearly enough of it: As many as 50 million Americans, according to one count, are living sedentary lives.

But the simple act of walking is great for your health; research has linked it to a host of benefits, from a healthier weight to reduced fatigue to relief from stress and mild depression symptoms.

At the same time, the link between inactivity and chronic health problems has been firmly established. A sedentary lifestyle has been associated with lower life expectancy, slower metabolism, and increased risk of heart attack.

Walking is simple, easy — and free. And there are a few simple, er, steps that can supercharge your typical stroll. We combed the research and talked to Sue Parks, CEO of WalkStyles, Inc., and co-author of iCount: 10 Simple Steps To A Healthy Life, for some tips.

Here are seven ways to optimize your walks for maximum physical and mental health benefits. Click here

7 Ways Your Body Gets Stronger As You Get Older

by | Oct 8, 2013 | General Health | 0 comments

Old Couple There are few things worse than reading article after article about how the aging process wreaks havoc on our bodies.

If it’s not bad enough that our hair is thinning and becoming sprinkled with gray, we’re also shrinking. Indeed, starting at about age 40, people typically lose about half an inch each decade, according to Harvard Medical School.

But there’s some good news, too. Although it undoubtedly becomes harder to firm up certain parts of our bodies as we age — think squishy arms — it’s not impossible. And in certain cases, our bodies actually get stronger and better with age.

For example, many people exhibit greater stamina as they grow older. Although some research shows that one’s body reaches peak fitness at around age 35, other studies show no significant age-related decline in performance for decades to come. In fact, some 25 percent of the 65- to 69-year-old runners tested in one study were faster than 50 percent of the 20- to 54-year-old runners. Experts say that older athletes often perform better because their bodies have been tested more, so they know what reserves they’re able to tap into.

Beyond greater stamina, here are six other ways bodies get better and stronger with age