Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. (...) Typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.

Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

January 24, 2012

Health

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Tips on Proper Fibromyalgia Diets PhotoIn order to treat or completely eliminate fibromyalgia, many doctors advocate adjusting your diet for levels of energy and immune system enhancement. Though you likely suffer from a number of fibromyalgia symptoms, if proper diet eliminates or eases even one o f those symptoms then isn’t it worth your time to give it a try? To help you adjust your diet and feel better, here are 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets.

The first of the 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets is to increase the variety of foods you eat and vary the amounts and combinations. What this does is help your body to get a wider range of the vitamins and minerals you need along with fatty acids that will improve overall health. To that end, you should also try to incorporate more organic foods into your diet. The chemicals used in other vegetables can reduce their nutritional value and thus cause you to lose the vitamins and minerals that are so important to your fibromyalgia diet.

Second of the 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets is to change your eating patterns. Instead of eating the standard three meals a day, consider eating less more often. Try to eat a small meal as often as every three hours. This keeps your metabolism high and your energy levels with it, and you will feel more energy.

Third in the 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets is to be aware of what you should avoid. Stay away from fast food and junk food. In addition to that, keep caffeine, sugar, and any unnecessary drugs (like alcohol) out of your system. Many of these foods and additives will cause you to have sharp rises and falls in energy and metabolic levels. What you want when you have fibromyalgia, or even just for overall health, is to have a constant feeling of well being that comes from balanced diet.

Keep your diet balanced. Of the top 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets, keeping your diet balanced is probably the most important. If you try to control the balance of complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, lean animal protein, vegetable protein, and healthy plant fats, then you will feel better and your body will get stronger. Additionally, by doing that you are simply making the other tips easier to follow.

Finally, you want to make sure you are paying attention to food intolerances and allergic reactions. Remember that if your diet is making you feel worse, it is only going to make the fibromyalgia worse right along with it. The idea of the diet is to feel better overall, so it is important to make sure you know how certain foods make your body react.

These 5 tips on proper fibromyalgia diets will hopefully help you to deal with your condition. By understanding each of these tips, you can go a long way in feeling better just through what you eat. So sit down and come up with your fibromyalgia diet so that you can feel better and live a more normal life.

January 20, 2012

Health

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Preventing Alzheimers Disease (AD) and Other Forms of Dementia  PhotoIf you want to stay sharp and in control of your life well into your golden years, there are proactive methods to achieving the mental alertness you need. More and more research is pointing to the fact that physical activity and lifestyle choices have more to do with preventing Alzheimer s disease (AD) and other forms of dementia – once thought to be a normal part of aging – than pure genetics. So if you had a parent, grandparent or sibling with AD it doesn’t mean you have to follow the same path.

Statistics gathered from extensive research do point toward a higher risk of developing AD if you had a close relative with AD – as much as 50%, but that has less to do with genes and more to do with following their lifestyle patterns. If for example, your parents were smokers who rarely exercised, you may have developed some of the same destructive habits.

What can you do to break the cycle and prevent AD? Take action and take control today. Even if you are in your 60s or 70s you can reverse some of the damage done to your brain through poor diet, inactivity, or damaging lifestyle choices. Scientists have discovered very recently that the brain has the ability to repair cells and neurotransmitters and improve cognitive function and memory.

It’s Not Too Late to Make A Difference: Start the 5 Steps Today

1. Eat Right. It seems so simple, yet too many people just don’t get enough of the mind preserving antioxidants found in fresh fruits and vegetables. A well-balanced diet, free of diary products and using low fat sources of protein will protect both heart and mind.

2. Supplement where necessary. Many diets lack the nutrients proven to promote brain health. These include sources of essential fatty acids found in fish and specific herbs and minerals that can enhance cognitive function.

3. Exercise. Originally it was thought that exercise increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain cells. This is still true, but a report prepared for the National Institutes of Health states that exercise can also stimulate the production growth factors, which are molecules produced by the body to repair and maintain nerves.

4. Lower Your Cholesterol. Many people with early dementia or AD symptoms may have actually experienced small strokes that damaged the brain’s neurotransmitters. By keeping cholesterol levels in check, the arteries are free and clear of plaque that can cause stroke.

5. Do your Mental Exercises. Keeping up with current events, working puzzles each day, learning and memorizing new information all work to keeping a mind strong and alert. It is normal for people to sometimes forget a name or date, but the more practice recalling such information the greater the brain’s ability to do this throughout old age. In the case of mental challenges, the more you do the more you can push back the clock on cognitive decline.

Five easy steps, when you think about it, can do much to make aging an event to celebrate instead of dread. With age there comes experience and wisdom, and we should all do whatever is within our power to be able to pass that on to the next generation.