Archive for February, 2011

Well before prescriptions are in as today, there were home remedies which have been used by our parents or grandparents and so on. While some belong to the tales of old wives and sphere of folklore, scientists are noticing that some of these time-tested cures from the kitchen in fact do work. Sure, it is always safe to verify with your doctor or other health professional to ensure a treatment is right for you. You can try treating:

1. Sore throat with salt water: A salt water gargle is often recommended to ease a sore throat. Try gargling warm salt water (1/2 teaspoon of salt to one cup of water) several times a day. Honey and lemon can also be useful throat soothers.

2. Itchy skin with oatmeal: Oatmeal bath products have been recommended by many medical professionals to soothe dry, itchy skin. The anti-itch and anti-inflammatory properties of oatmeal may help to relieve some symptoms of skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis or shingles.

3. Colds with chicken soup: Since at least the 12th century, chicken soup has been a popular home remedy for colds. While it will not cure a cold, the steam may help clear congested nasal passages, and taking in the extra fluid can be useful in helping your body fight off infection. Researchers think that some of its healing properties may be linked to an amino acid called cystine found in chicken soup.

4. Nausea with ginger: Ginger has been commonly used in Japanese, Indian and Chinese medicine since the 1500s and some studies have shown that it may lessen the length of time and severity of a person experiencing nausea after a chemotherapy treatment. Preliminary studies show that it may also be effective and safe for nausea during pregnancy when used for short periods of time and in limited doses.

5. Bladder infections with cranberry juice: Cranberry juice has antibacterial properties that can help in the prevention of urinary tract infections, as discovered by many studies. Though it will not help treat the infection once it has set into the body, a glass of cranberry juice a day most likely can keep bladder infections away.

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Yes, it is sure very tempting to pop those pimples out, but if you do a lousy job and the pimple ruptures inside, spreading under your skin, you are going to have the largest zit in the world in about a day.

Popping zits is not usually a good idea unless you are really good at it and know what you are doing. Just wait long enough and you will see it come out on its own. And definitely do not do it when it is a red lump.

Blackheads, which are plugged pores, react well to gentle cleansing. Exfoliating agents with alphahydroxy acids or retinols are able to help release blackheads. With time they will open up and disappear. You can try using blackhead strips, especially for the nose. However do not use them for more than a week because overusing the blackhead strips can cause a rash.

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Shaking your baby causes Shaken Baby Syndrome

Each year in the world many babies have died from Shaken Baby Syndrome, due to brain damage which is caused from being shaken aggressively. This is normally out of frustration when a baby does not stop crying.

The head of a baby is large and his neck is very weak, thus if he is shaken, his head flips back and the brain is bashed against the inside of the skull which then causes bleeding. Babies frequently get shaken out of disappointment when they do not stop crying. You can be sleep deprived, and it all falls out of perspective for you. You feel responsible and you expect to be able to solve baby’s problems. Sometimes a baby needs to cry.

If your baby is crying, you should check to see if he is hungry, sick or needs a diaper change. If it is not, and if you as the caregiver are coming nuts from it, the key message is to ‘take a break’. Put the baby in a crib where he is in safe hands and take a moment to regroup.

Around the sixth weeks, babies just cry a whole lot more. This is an intense period. You should check the obvious things, then put the baby down and step out of the room. The key to avoiding frustration is to ensure a support system in managing tough times. Build a network of other moms and attend events with other parents. Here you can share your experiences and learn from other experienced moms and dads.

Research has revealed that those who most frequently shake babies aggressively are young males, such as a young father or the mom’s boyfriend, second the caregivers, and then mothers. If you have lost control, and then shaken a baby, he needs to be checked at a hospital.

Just don’t shake your babies.

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When people with chronic migraines use too many over-the counter medications, this will usually result in rebound headaches. So how do they happen? Typically as many as 50% of migraine sufferers just do not even realize that they are actually having migraines.

They think it is nothing more than a bad headache and take over-the-counter medicines such as Advil or Tylenol to ease the pain. If the persons frequently get migraines and the over-the-counter painkillers they take respond to it, and they continue taking the painkillers to treat their symptoms, the body will eventually familiarizes itself to the medicines over time. This is much like when an individual needs a daily fix of caffeine. Withdrawal symptoms will start to kick in to the individual, in the form of headaches if they do not get their regular dose. The only way that the body knows how to get the medicines is by giving you a headache.

These incidences of “rebound” or withdrawal headaches will become more and more often, and reacting to that, the person carries on to take the medicine in more and more doses to treat the headaches.

In the end, overuse can cause kidney or liver damage and other health problems, so the person needs to be weaned off the medication.

This can be accomplished by first treating headache triggers such as stress, lack of sleep, too much coffee, and so on. Prophylactic medications, taken daily for six months to a year, can be helpful for migraine sufferers as they increase the pain threshold. Drugs called triptans can be used for more acute migraine treatment. Triptans are different from traditional pain medicines. It is a class of drugs that use specifically to treat headache pain.

Migraine sufferers should be aware that the headaches will get worse before they get better.

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