Health | NC Health Action

Why Obesity Rates are High in Children?

The obesity rates are rapidly rising for American children and health professionals, parents as well as media is talking about the adverse consequences almost every day.

President Obama and his wife Michelle have decided that government should regulate people’s diet and lives so that obesity rates among the population and especially children can be controlled. There is a campaign by government to regulate and dictate school cafeterias to serve more meals with fruits and vegetables, and less sugary soda or oily burgers.

However, this strategy largely focuses on diet and that too only during school hours. Almost no mention is made of unhealthy amount of time spent in front of television, computers which often leads to mental anxiety, stress and pre-occupation with undesirable material online.

Moreover, the time spent in front of television and computers means time missed to finish homework, get good grades and do physical exercise. Lack of commitment at school means higher anxiety and stress which can also contribute to obesity.

Therefore, it is difficult to attribute obesity to just sugary soda and fatty foods and society must look at the whole lifestyle including time spent during the day and activities performed which contribute to obesity and dullness.

Instead of watching sports, soap operas and dramas, children should be encouraged to go outside and play sports, and aspire to become part of the school hockey, baseball, football, or swimming team.

Playing a sport with other kids will lead to greater levels of physical activity, improvement in mood and mental balance, and reduce obesity.

At the same time less time will be spent in watching harmful television programs and internet gaming sites.

Filed Under: Health Center Tagged With: Health, Obesity, United States

The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Health

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In some cultures, it is customary to take naps in the middle of the day. Entire towns and villages shut down for the afternoon while people take the time to sleep. In Western cultures, this is less customary. The pressure to work and meet various life demands pushes people to go to bed late and wake up very early. What many people don’t realize is that, over time, sleep deprivation takes its toll on a person’s health and well-being.

Sleep Deprivation and Weight Gain

It may seem logical that if you’re sleeping less, you’re burning more calories because you’re awake and active. The truth, as scientists are discovering, is that when your body is sleep deprived, its hormonal make-up changes. You experience an increase in hormones that strengthen your appetite. So when you do not sleep enough, you tend to eat more.

Additionally, sleep deprivation causes a drop in the hormones that allow you to feel satiated. You can eat and eat and still not feel full. The collective hormonal change in the body causes you to gain weight and feel deprived of energy.

Little Sleep and Mental Health

Not sleeping enough can also lead to fatigue and depression. When you’re tired all the time, everything in life becomes a chore. Even activities that you would normally enjoy become less interesting when you’re not awake enough to enjoy them.

Sleeping for Greater Health

To enjoy optimal health, sleep for seven to eight hours each night. Set and maintain a regular bedtime. When you’re rested, you’ll feel physically and mentally invigorated, allowing greater enjoyment of health and life.

Filed Under: Health Center Tagged With: Health, Mental Health, Sleep deprivation

How to Become a Dietitian

Have you always been interested in food? Does the way food interacts with our bodies intrigue you? When you are going back to school, you need to think about the things that you are interested in, and if food and health have always been an interest, then it may be a logical step to consider becoming a nutritionist or dietitian.

Many people who go into this field start young. They start with an interest in biology and chemistry in high school, as well as health and food sciences. Many times, an interest may develop from there to making meal plans for the family, to making sure that everyone is eating healthy. Once you have decided that you want to become a dietitian, it is a matter of finding the right school. There are many schools out there, and at American Intercontinental University, you can get your degree online.

Either during your schooling or after it, you will want to take the certification testing to become a certified dietitian in your state. This means that you will be legally able to work with hospitals, nursing homes, and more. Many dietitians work with these facilities to help them make meal plans to accommodate everyone that they feed, as well as educate those that are in their care.

Whether you want to study how our bodies interact with food, help those with diseases discover the right meal plan, or educate people on proper nutrition, you can easily do all of this with the right training. This training comes with getting your degree as a dietitian or nutritionist.

Filed Under: Health, Nutrition Tagged With: Dietitian, Health, Nutrition

Preventing Malnutrition in Children

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With the rise on severe obesity cases among young children, parents are growing increasing concerned about their children’s weight issues. Children are far too exposed to junk food consumption that is not only poor in healthy nutrients but is also generally fat rich and has high carbohydrate content. As children love these foods, they tend to eat more and end up gaining excess weight. Although such children look overly healthy, they may actually be suffering from some extent of malnutrition.

Parents always seek advice on child health. If they are not careful enough, they might just be fed with the wrong information. People generally think that feeding a child lesser quantities of food will keep their weight in control. This kind of thinking is flawed. Parents need to follow a healthy child nutrition chart to make sure their child is getting plenty of nourishment. Instead of restricting their food intake, try increasing the nutritional value of the meals. For example, try to include more fruits and vegetables in their daily diet.

Try to make food healthier yet fun. Instead of serving plain ice cream as desert, reduce the quantity of ice cream and top it up with fresh fruits and dried nuts. Not only will this make the desert look fancier but will add nutritional value too! Reduce the quantities of fats and carbohydrates in the diet. Replace mashed potatoes with stir fried vegetables when you make steaks. Instead of giving your kids juices, give them raw fruits instead as they contain higher amounts of nutrition as well as dietary fiber. BY selecting your child’s meals wisely, you can control their nutrition intake.

Filed Under: Child Health, Health Nutritions Tagged With: Eating, Health, Nutrition

Getting Information about Serious Heath Issues and Treatment

If you are looking for information about health and services and the treatments for specific health problems there are many places you can get help. One of the first things you can do is to consult your doctor. It’s always important that you talk to your doctor when thinking about any treatments or procedures; he may have insight about these procedures, and can assist you in helping you or getting the help you need. Your doctor is a certified medical professional and will know your medical history so he may also have additional considerations for you, alternatives or perhaps just more information about what you may have in mind.

You should always tell your physician the truth, never lie or try to obscure things that you think he may not need to know about you physically. They may give him additional information about your condition or diagnosis and if you aren’t seeing him for service, but only for information it still may also alter the information he can provide for you. Another thing that you can do is to search for the information you are looking for on the internet. There are a variety of sites that may give you specific detailed information about specific issues as well as ones that may assist in helping you better describe or diagnose your concerns.

The internet may provide more than just the information you seek. You can also use it to check out local resources that might be able to help you. Look for phone numbers for things like government resources that might be able to help you or your family. In addition aside from the government resources, there may be other organizations that can help you support groups, churches and other private organizations may have just what you are looking for.

Filed Under: Health Care, Treatment Tagged With: Health, Support group

Finding Great Residential Care

When you have a loved one who is beyond your ability to take care of them, you will oftenfind that taking them to a residential care facility is their best chance of being able to stay healthy and be properly cared for. Naturally, there are some potential issues that you will inevitably run into when you go out searching for residential care facilities. Among the issues you need to resolve are making sure that the treatments your loved one receives are going to be paid for, and making sure that the facility you choose is of a high quality standard. You should never compromise on matters such as this, as your loved one’s life may actually depend on you making the best possible choice.

For starters, you need to make sure that the facility you take your loved one to will be paid for. The bad news is that they can be very expensive. The good news is that insurance can actually pay for the bulk of being in an assisted living facility. And you can shop for online insurance quotes in advance, so you know that when you find the right facility for your loved one to stay in, the matter of having it be paid for will not be an issue. It really should be the smallest issue of them all, in a situation like this.

But of course, you do not just want to put your loved one into any old nursing home. The quality of facilities varies wildly, all the way from being very similar to a hotel with a nursing staff on site, down to being little more than the stereotype of “God’s waiting room.” A good facility, for instance, has equal staffing during the weekend as it does during the week. And with rare exceptions, a good facility never has the dreaded “nursing home odor” that plagues poorly staffed, badly taken care of facilities. Search for the best.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: Assisted living, Care of residents, Care Quality Commission, Facilities, God, Health, Nursing home, Senior Health

Don’t Suffer from an allergy to dairy products

Many people suffer from food allergies without the awareness of what is causing their discomfort or health problems. Do you feel tired or bloated after eating a meal with cheese in it? Do you feel like you have a stuffy or runny nose after drinking a glass of milk? Do you get constipation or get nausea after eating? If so, you may suffer from an allergy to dairy products.

Dairy products are any food item that is produced from the milk of any animal. This includes a glass of milk or adding Parmesan cheese to your pasta. Even cream or half and half added to your coffee can affect you if you have an allergy to dairy products. It is an easy allergy to overlook because dairy products can also be found in a number of processed and packaged foods in the form of a minor ingredient.

In order to test yourself to see if you have an allergy to dairy products it is best to contact a health professional. If you are interested in checking yourself at home first before seeing a doctor you could try eliminating dairy products from you diet all together. It can be difficult to feel a difference from one meal to the next, so eliminating dairy products from your diet for 30 days will help you get a sense of how dairy products are effecting you. It is important that if you are having problems with your digestion you should immediately see a physician. The above suggestion is just to help you inform the doctor of your symptoms.

There are many digestive supplements that can help you with digestion of dairy products if a doctor suggests you could benefit from such products. Of course the best course for someone with an allergy to dairy products is probably to remove them from your diet.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Dairy product, Food, Health, Milk

Gain Control of Your Addiction at MichaelsHouse.com

Drug addiction and alcohol addiction are unfortunately the results of many different stressors, actions and behaviors. Some people fall into addiction because they self medicate to deal with stress or other problems. Other people fall into an addiction due to peer pressure from friends. Some people try drugs once, never intending to become addicted, but before they know it, a hold is on them that they cannot escape all on their own. If you are struggling with an addiction, then one of the things that you need to consider is that detoxification and rehabilitation can get you on the right path toward a sober life.

Rehabilitation facilities like MichaelsHouse.com provide two aspects of recovery. The first part of the recovery is the detoxification. The purpose here is to get the drugs out of your system so that you can overcome the withdrawal symptoms. The second part of the process is the rehabilitation, which is the counseling and therapy aspect that will help you develop new and healthy habits and a healthy sober lifestyle so that you can move on with your life. Combined, these two aspects of your recovery are going to provide you with a completely new lease on life.

With the help of a detoxification and rehabilitation program, you will be able to get your life back. This type of treatment is going to help you prolong your life and guarantee better health and happiness for the rest of your years. If you want to learn about having a healthy lifestyle, you need to find a detoxification and rehabilitation program and facility that is going to meet your needs and deliver on your goals to overcome your addiction, develop a sober lifestyle and move on with your life once and for all. You do have the power to recover from your addiction with the right help.

Filed Under: General, Reproductive Health Tagged With: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug rehabilitation, Health, Substance abuse, Substance dependence, United States, Withdrawal

Using Electronic Cigarette Starter Kits for Long-Term Health

: Image by waɪ.tiː via Flickr

The road to good health starts with a thought and a commitment to pursue a better way of living. Maybe it involves throwing some things away, getting rid of damaging and dangerous substances, or making a real commitment to stop doing things the same way that you’ve been doing them.

In order for your life to be healthy and for you to experience the long-term effects of good health, you may need to kick some bad habits and find new ones to replace them. If you’re a smoker and have been for years, you may want to try to stop smoking but don’t know how. One of the best and most popular ways that people have found to do this is to use electronic cigarette starter kits that allow them to reduce their addiction at a slower, more controlled pace than just going cold turkey.

These electronic cigarettes gives you the feel and pleasure of enjoying a good smoke, minus the damaging effects of nicotine for you and the secondhand smoke that can affect others. You’ll definitely feel better, and over time you may even notice your desire to smoke will start to wane and perhaps go away altogether.

As you master one area of your life, you will find that it’s much easier to apply that same thinking to other areas where you want to be healthier. You may find the spark to begin an exercise routine or to eat better each day. Perhaps you’ll even discover the motivation to stop wasting time each evening watching television and turn in early for a good night’s sleep. The rest will do your body good and make you feel better. It will also help you by giving you the energy that you need to pursue those other areas that will make you a healthier person.

Filed Under: Health Care, Public Health Tagged With: Cigarette, Electronic cigarette, Health, Passive smoking

Body Image In Girls

Fat Image Average Kids

1. A ten year old asks to go on a diet. She thinks she’s is too fat. Kids are teasing her in school her mother is scared for her daughter. This is a common scenario in many homes. Girls deciding years before they hit puberty even that, there is something deficient about their bodies. Something that makes food bad.

Thoughts of Skinniness

2. This is a prominent thought for those living with eating disorders like Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia. More common in white youth than youth of color the disorders are starting to gain popularity across racial lines. This is due in large part to media celebrating thin bodies. The desire for skinny over thick bodies is often a cultural choice. In southern climates dishes are hearty with gravies and stocks meant to add meat on skinny bones. In other climates vegetables and meatless products are the in thing. It varies with perception and individual choice. Teaching your daughter by example is a good way to get her to accept her body and love herself as is.

3. Kids Listen

Kids listen when adults talk. They hear us complain about pinching fat and overeating. Then they watch us eat to get through emotionally tough times. As adults we send mixed messages. We may unconsciously praise thinner children over thicker ones and admonish them for asking for more food or always seeming to be in the kitchen when you go in for the last piece of say anything. Good praise goes further distance than bad. Helping your daughter make healthy eating choices and sharing in meal preparation are healthy ways to improve your communication and your diets.

4. Kids, Diet, and Rock Stars

Kids go for what everyone else likes. If you want your daughter to eat get into her lunch box. Make it interesting wraps vs. traditional sandwiches. Colorful fruits and veggies and healthy oatmeal

Filed Under: Health, Health Care, Women's Healthcare Tagged With: Anorexia Nervosa, Body image, Eating disorder, Health