STROKE AND ITS PREVENTION

In about 90% of strokes, blood flow to part of the brain gets cut off, depriving it of oxygen and killing off the part fed by the clogged artery. This type of stroke is called an ischemic stroke.

A small minority of strokes are hemorrhagic strokes, which are caused by bleeding into the brain when a blood vessel bursts. People who experience brief strokes might only need to contend with arm or leg weakness, while those who suffer a major stroke can develop into paralysis, lose the ability to speak or may even die. 

Sometimes, the blood clot last only a moment- not long enough to notice but still long enough to kill a tiny part of your brain. These so-called silent strokes can multiply and slowly reduce cognitive function until full-blown dementia develops. 
Our goal is to reduce the risk of both the massive strokes that can kill you instantly or the other mini strokes that kill you over a course of years. 
A healthy diet might do the trick!

FIBER! LOADS OF FIBER!

In addition to its well-known effects on bowel health, high fiber intake appears to reduce the risk of cancers of the colon and breast, diabetes, heart disease and premature death in general.
A number of studies also show that high fiber intake may also help ward off stroke!
It apparently doesn’t take much fiber intake to cut stroke risk. Increasing fiber intake just by seven grams a day may lead to 7% risk reduction!!

HOW DOES FIBER PROTECT THE BRAIN?

Scientists are not sure about it. But they do know that fiber helps control your cholesterol and blood sugar levels which intern reduces the amount of artery clogging plaque in your brain. High fiber levels may also lower your blood pressure, which reduces the risk of brain bleeds.

CITRUS

Here’s a good news for those who love citrus fruits!! Citrus fruits intake has been associated with reduced stroke risk- even more than fiber !
Thanks to the citrus phyconutrient called hesperidin, which increases the blood flow throughout the body, including the brain. 

There are many advantages of citrus fruits which i will be posting in my upcoming posts!

WHY NOT EAT BANANA?

Yes, you read it right! Eating banana, means taking in potassium and that’s what you need to reduce the risk of a stroke!What does potassium have to do with stroke? Through reviews of all best studies on the relationship between potassium and our top two killers, heart disease and stroke, determined that a 1,640 mg increase per day in potassium intake was associated with a 21% reduction in stroke risk. 

It’s never too early to start eating healthier!! So people, share it with your loved ones and have healthy food!!! Processed food is NOT good for health!!! Have a nice day!

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND ITS PREVENTION

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most physically and emotionally burden-some diseases, for both sufferers and caregivers. Unlike stroke, which can kill instantly and without any warning, Alzheimer’s involves a slower, more subtle decline over months or years. Instead of cholesterol-filled plaques in your arteries, plaques made of a substance called amyloid develop in the brain tissue itself, associated with the loss of memory and, eventually, loss of life. I won’t be going in detail of what exactly happens in Alzheimer’s disease. The main question is how do we prevent it? If it’s in a person’s genes, is it necessary that he will surely be affected by Alzheimer’s?
The dietary concept may be surprising, because most of the popular day treats Alzheimer’s as a genetic disease. They say that it’s your genes rather than your lifestyle choices, that determine whether or not you’ll succumb. However, when you examine the distribution of Alzheimer’s disease around the world, that argument begins to crumble.

PREVENTING ALZHEIMER’S WITH PLANT FOODS

Alzheimer’s manifests as a disease of the elderly, but like heart disease and most cancers, it’s a disease that may take decades to develop. Dietary decisions you make now may directly influence your health much later in life, including the health of your brain.Based on thousands of autopsies, pathologists seemed to detect the first silent stages of Alzheimer’s disease- what appear like tangles in the brain- in half of people at the age of fifty and even 10 percent of those in their twenties. The good news is that Alzheimer’s like heart disease and stroke- can be prevented. It was found that higher saturated fat intake, eg- processed foods, was associated with a significantly worse trajectory of cognition and memory. Also, whole plant foods contain thousands of compounds with antioxidant properties, some of which can traverse the blood-brain barrier and may provide neuro protective effects by defending against free radicals that is protecting the rusting of your brain.

BERRIES

It is found that women who consumed at least one serving of blueberries and two servings of strawberries each week had slower rates of cognitive decline- by as much as two and a half years - compared with those who didn’t eat berries. Why not eat berries everyday when they are so useful to us?!

VEGETABLE AND FRUIT JUICES

Even just drinking fruit and vegetable juices may be beneficial. Those people who drink fresh vegetable and fruit juices have a low chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

TREATING ALZHEIMER’S WITH SAFFRON

Some remarkable benefits have been reported in anecdotal case studies with the spice turmeric, the best data we have on spice based interventions for Alzheimer’s is for saffron. A spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, saffron was found in a double-blind trial to help diminish the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. In a study, Alzheimer’s patients with mild to moderate dementia who took saffron capsules displayed significantly better cognitive function on average than a group of patients who took a placebo.
There is no proven way to halt Alzheimer’s but if you do know someone suffering with this disease, then regularly cooking him or her saffron-spiced paella may help!

CAN COGNITIVE DECLINE HALT WITH EXERCISE?

There’s a good news for people on the verge of losing their mental faculties. In 2010 study published in the ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY, researchers took people with mild cognitive impairment- those who are starting to forget things, for example, repeating themselves- and had them engage in aerobic exercise for 45 minutes a day, four days a week, for six months. The control group was instructed to only stretch for same period of time. Memory tests were performed before and after the study. Researchers found that in the control (stretching) group, cognitive function continued to decline, while the exercising group not only didn’t get worse, they got better.
AEROBIC EXERCISE CAN HELP IMPROVE CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW, IMPROVE MEMORY PERFORMANCE, AND HELP PRESERVE BRAIN TISSUE.

Thanks readers for reading such a long post! I hope you’ll start applying this soon in your life if you have not applied it yet! My next post will be about another MAJOR BRAIN DISEASE I.E. STROKE AND ITS PREVENTION!

BRAIN DISEASES

Today, I am going to discuss something about Brain Diseases. The two most serious diseases are stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Most strokes can be thought of as “brain attacks”- like heart attacks, but the rupturing plaques in your arteries cut off blood flow to parts of the brain rather than to parts of the heart. Alzheimer’s is more like a mind attack. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most physically and emotionally burden-some diseases, for both sufferers and caregivers. In my point of view, I am more scared of Alzheimer’s disease than I am of cancer. Yes. It isn’t just because of psychological toll to come for the patient but because of the emotional toll that would be placed on loved ones.While the pathology of Stroke and Alzheimer’s disease are different, one key factor that unites them: Mounting evidence suggests that a healthy diet may help prevent them both.

USUALLY NEGLECTED SYMPTOMS OF BRAIN DISEASES

We often neglect something like headache, pain in shoulder, fatigue etc. But have we ever thought that these may be symptoms of big diseases? Today's post is about symptoms of brain disease and how preventable diseases can become fatal on lack of recognition!One of the earliest signs of neuro or brain degeneration is fatigue, most specifically brain-based fatigue.
When you start to get symptoms of tremors, changes in ability to walk, difficulty in speaking, very poor balance then you have a more progressed level of brain impairment.
By understanding that brain changes can be detected way before of clinical development such as Dementia an Alzheimer's, these conditions can be prevented. After all, they all are PREVENTABLE DISEASES.

Symptoms of brain-based fatigue are things like getting tired when you drive, or getting tired when you read. Basically, getting tired when using the brain to do some sort of activity.Overtime, you may start to lose your memory, lose your balance, lose your ability to perform well in sports or you can't concentrate or even see the changes in your handwriting. These are symptoms of early degeneration.

THE KEY POINT TO PREVENTION IS EARLY RECOGNITION. Once the brain damage has gone too far, then even curable disease become fatal.

In my next post I am going to discuss what exactly ALZHEIMER'S Disease and Stroke are and how such fatal diseases can be prevented.

ARE FRUIT-AND-NUT BARS FATTENING?

I have often asked myself ARE FRUIT-AND-NUT-BARS FATTENING?

I got the answer after searching more and more websites!

There are number of energy bars on the market containing only light ingredients, such as dried fruits, seeds, and nuts. People love them because they are easy to carry and serves them as a convenient snack too!

Dried fruit, seeds, and nuts are all nutrient-dense foods, but they're also calorie dense. So again the question arises, does this contribute to weight gain?
To find this out, Yale University researchers split 100 overweight men and women into two groups. Everyone ate their normal diet, but half of them were told to add two fruit-and-nut bars daily. After two months, despite the extra 340 calories a day, the fruit-and-nut bar group did not gain any weight! Actually, the reason behind it is that dried fruits and nuts appear so satiating that people feel full and unintentionally offset the calories elsewhere throughout the day.

So, people we can eat energy bars as a snack! Ofcourse, we must check their labels as many brands have added sugars.

Thank you readers, for reading! Hope to post some more healthy facts soon! Have a nice day!

MUSHROOMS

IMPORTANCE OF MUSHROOMS

Do you suffer from seasonal allergies? Itchy nose, sneezing, runny nose? I bet most of you do. 
While your allergies may make you feel lousy and tired because your immune system is busy attacking things left and right, that same heightened state of alertness may have benefits for your overall health. Individuals suffering from allergies appear to have a decreased risk for certain cancers. Yes, your immune system might be in overdrive striking out at harmless things like pollen or dust, but that same over vigilance may also take down budding tumours in your body! Mushrooms will boost up your immunity!

Try observing the nutrition label on a carton of mushrooms. You won't see much beyond some B vitamins and minerals. Is that all mushrooms have? Not at all. What you don't see is the array of unique micro nutrients that may boost your immune function! This has been proved through a research done in Australia. They split people in two groups. One group ate its regular diet while the other ate its regular diet plus a cup of cooked white     button mushrooms everyday. After just a week, the mushroom eaters showed a 50% boost in the IgA levels in their saliva. These antibody levels remain elevated for about a week before dropping. 
SO, FOR SUSTAINED BENEFITS, TRY TO MAKE MUSHROOMS A STEADY PART OF YOUR DIET!!!

Thank you readers! I hope it will help you all! Do share it with your family and friends! Why not make the the world healthy without medicines?