Preventing Bad Breath

Preventing and Fixing Bad Breath (Halitosis)

Many people have bad breath without even realizing it. This can cripple your likelihood of enjoying a healthy social life, finding a significant other, and even advancement in your career. Halitosis or bad breath is mostly a result of poor hygiene and is completely treatable. It is quite easy to prevent and fix bad breath with the following guidelines.

Brush your teeth and scrape your tongue first thing every morning, and also after each time you take a nap. Foul-smelling bacteria have had a chance to take over your mouth while you slept, and are most likely causing yucky "morning breath."

After you brush your teeth and scrape your tongue, rinse your mouth thoroughly and gargle with fresh, cool water. This is a very important step, one that many people overlook.

Drink plenty of water - Insuring that you drink plenty of water throughout the day can help to control bad breath (halitosis). This can be an especially important consideration for those people who suffer from xerostomia (chronically dry mouths).

Rinse your mouth with water often - Rinsing with water can mitigate bad breath problems for brief periods of time. Rinsing will both dilute and partially remove the bacterial waste products that are the cause of breath odors.
Stimulate your mouth's flow of saliva - You can help to minimize bad breath odors by stimulating your body's flow of saliva. This is because saliva has a cleansing and diluting effect on the bacteria and bacterial waste products that cause bad breath.

One way to stimulate salivary flow is to chew on something. Doing so will trick your body in to thinking that it is getting a meal. And in preparation for digesting this meal your body will increase its production of saliva.

Chewing gum, cloves, breath mints, or lozenges can also be used to stimulate salivary flow. If you elect to use one of these products make sure it is sugar-free since sweets will promote the growth of bacteria that cause tooth decay.
After you eat or drink anything (besides water), thoroughly rinse your mouth and gargle with water. Use this practice without fail, day and night, and you will keep abreast of nasty bacteria buildup in your mouth, which cause bad breath. Run your tongue along the surfaces of your teeth throughout the day, and if you ever notice any plaque buildup, brush your teeth again and rinse thoroughly with water, making sure that you feel your teeth, not plaque buildup, which is a contributing factor in bad breath.


Fixing Bad Breath on the Spot -

Drink water and ask for lemon to be included. Surreptitiously squeeze as much of the lemon into the water as possible, as it will help cover up the odor.
Chew a piece of gum or eat some mint candy.
Gargle with salt to neutralise some of the odour.
Sneak a spoon into the bathroom. Check to make sure you're alone. Look into the mirror, stick out your tongue and check for a pasty white goo on it. Turn the spoon upside down and use it to scrape your tongue, using a back to front motion. If you can't manage to sneak off with a spoon, head to the restroom, wash your hands, use your fingernails to scrape your tongue.

12 ways to stay top of Stress

12 Ways to Stay on Top of Stress

It takes a million years for one gene to change in our bodies. One million years! I'm bringing this up because, physiologically, we're the same humans we were 300 years ago. But look at how things have changed in that short time. Some things make life easier now: washers and dryers, transportation, abundance of food, electricity, etc. But some things make life today more insane: cell phones, traffic, increased population, fake food, TV, busy schedules. I heard a statistic from a doctor-friend that we make more decisions in one day than people used to make in a year. No wonder we're stressed out and reaching for doughnuts or alcohol to cope.

All this craziness and high-speed living isn't going away. Since we can't change our genes, we have to create a map to navigate this crazy life. What can you do to try and stay on top of the stress so it doesn't affect your health, happiness, or waistline?

1. Exercise. Amen for endorphins. Believe me, they've helped me many days with my perspective. If you have to work out, then go take a brisk walk and get that blood flowing. It isn't about working out to lose weight -- it's about being healthy and staying sane.

2. Eat the real stuff. Crappy food (fast, processed, and loaded with sugar) doesn't help your chemical brain and body handle stress. Living food, real food, helps support your mind and body while it's trying to deal with the million things coming its way. Every time I reach for the chocolate, I'm looking to feel something from it. Don't get me wrong -- if it's just a little here and there because I enjoy the taste of it, great. But if I'm using it the minute I feel overwhelmed, then that's when that food is no longer OK to eat. It doesn't make the problem go away, and then I just feel bad about eating the food to pacify myself. Grab green food instead. Put things in your mouth that are going to support your immune function and keep you levelheaded.

3. Notice. Try not to let the stress overtake you. Recognize the situations that cause the stress and notice them coming your way. You have a better shot at fending off the full effects of the stress when you can anticipate it.

4. Get it off your chest. Talk to a friend or partner about the stress. Sometimes just getting it off your chest can help unload some of the burden.

5. Keep your sense of humor. If you do have the chance to talk about it, try to see the irony and humor in the wacky bits. I think someone is dead in the water once they lose their sense of humor.

6. Stay grateful. Make a habit of saying thank you. You will notice the sunny spots a lot more often, and not just the gray skies and storms.

7. Ask, "What's the hurry?" Have some fun. We're always so busy going somewhere, we miss just enjoying the moment. If an opportunity comes your way to do something fun, take it.

8. Take a deep breath. When you feel the stress getting to you, take a moment. Get away, even if it's just for an hour, to be with yourself and your thoughts. Some people like to take a walk, meditate, lock themselves away in a beautiful bath, or go to church. Find the peace and the silence.

9. Keep it simple. Simplify where you can. Does Junior really need to be in 78 activities at the age of 5? Do you have to go to every little party or gathering you're invited to?

10. Turn off the TV. A lot of it is bad news anyway, and it robs us of hours that we could use to be getting other things done. Since everyone complains that they have no time, get some by unplugging from the tube.

11. Sleep. If you're rested, you have a better shot at handling things. Not to mention, you may not stress out as easily if you have a chance to recover at night.

12. Drink water. Hydrate with water. Help you entire system function better just by drinking enough water. Oh, and by the way, if you don't think that weight loss and proper hydration have a relationship, think again. Shift the paradigm on its side -- don't think about exercise and nutritional eating just as something you have to suffer through to get into those jeans. Instead, think of them as armor that will protect you in this crazy world, with all of the bazillion details you deal with every day.

Tips for Good Night's sleep

10 tips for good night's sleep

Stick to a schedule. Erratic bedtimes do not allow for your body to align to the proper circadian rhythms. Mum was right when she set a time we always had to go to sleep as kids. Also, make sure you try to keep the same schedule on weekends too, otherwise the next morning, you’d wake later and feel overly tired.

Sleep only at night. Avoid daytime sleep if possible. Daytime naps steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to 20-minute, power naps.

Exercise. It’s actually known to help you sleep better. Your body uses the sleep period to recover its muscles and joints that have been exercised. Twenty to thirty minutes of exercise every day can help you sleep, but be sure to exercise in the morning or afternoon. Exercise stimulates the body and aerobic activity before bedtime may make falling asleep more difficult.
Taking a hot shower or bath before bed helps bring on sleep because they can relax tense muscles.

Avoid eating just before bed. Avoid eat large meals or spicy foods before bedtime. Give yourself at least 2 hours from when you eat to when you sleep. This allows for digestion to happen (or at least start) well before you go to sleep so your body can rest well during the night, rather than churning away your food.

Avoid caffeine. It keeps you awake and that’s now what you want for a good nights sleep. We all know that.

Read a fiction book. It takes you to a whole new world if you really get into it. And then take some time to ponder over the book as you fall asleep. I find as I read more and more, regardless of the book, I get more tired at night and so find it easier to fall asleep. Different for others?

Have the room slightly cooler. I prefer this to a hot room. I prefer to turn off the heat and allow the coolness to circulate in and out of the windows. If I get cold, I wear warmer clothes. It also saves on the bills as you’re not going to require the heat all night long.

Sleep in silence. I find sleeping with no music or TV on more easy and restful. I guess others are different, but sleep with no distractions is best for a clearer mind.

Avoid alcohol before bedtime. It’s a depressant; although it may make it easier to fall asleep, it causes you to wake up during the night. As alcohol is digested your body goes into withdrawal from the alcohol, causing nighttime awakenings and often nightmares for some people

Super Food for Shedding weight

10 superfoods for shedding weight

It's time for a new slim-down funda: Eat more to weigh less. Eating the right foods help you shed weight by increasing your calorie 10 superfoods for shedding weight burn and 10 superfoods for shedding weight cutting down food cravings.

1. Steak : Contrary to popular perception, eating a beef stake may help you drop weight. In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women on a diet that included red meat lost more weight than those eating equal calories but little beef. The protein in steak helps you retain muscle mass during weight loss.

2. Eggs : Dig in to eggs, yolks and all: Eggs do not harm your heart, they can help you trim inches. Women on a low-calorie diet who ate an egg with toast and jelly each morning lost twice as much weight as those who had a bagel breakfast with the same number of calories but no eggs, a study from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge reports. Egg protein is filling, so you eat less later in the day.

3. Oats : "Oatmeal has the highest satiety ranking of any food," Grotto says. Unlike many other carbohydrates, oats—even the instant kind—digest slowly, so they have little impact on your blood sugar."

4. Lentils : Lentils are a great tummy flattener. "They're high in protein and soluble fibre, two nutrients that stabilise blood sugar levels," says Tanya Zuckerbrot, R.D., author of The F-Factor Diet (Putnam Adult). Eating them helps prevent insulin spikes that cause your body to create excess fat, especially in the abdominal area."

5. Apples : An apple a day can keep weight gain at bay, finds a study from Penn State University at University Park. People who chomped an apple before a pasta meal ate fewer calories overall than those who had a different snack. Apples are high in fibre—4 to 5 grams each—which makes them filling. Plus, the antioxidants in apples may help prevent metabolic syndrome, a condition marked by excess belly fat or an "apple shape."

6. Chiles : A great reason to spice up your meals: You'll increase your metabolism. A compound in chiles called capsaicin has a thermogenic effect, meaning it causes the body to burn extra calories for 20 minutes after you eat the chiles. Plus, "you can't gulp down spicy food. Eating slowly gives your brain time to register that your stomach is full, so you won't overeat.

7. Yogurt : Dietitians often refer to plain yogurt as the perfect food. With its trifecta of carbs, protein and fat, it can stave off hunger by keeping blood sugar levels steady. In a study , people on a low-calorie diet that included yogurt lost 61 per cent more fat overall and 81 per cent more belly fat than those on a similar plan but without yogurt.

8. Parmesan : Women who had one serving of whole milk or cheese daily were less likely to gain weight over time, -dairy fans didn't experience the same benefit. Whole dairy may have more conjugated linoleic acid, which might help your body burn fat.

9. Avocado : Don't let the fat content of an avocado (29 grams) scare you—that's what makes it a top weight loss food. The heart-healthy monounsaturated fat it contains increases satiety.

10. Olive oil : Like avocados, olive oil has healthy fat that increases satiety, taming your appetite. But that's hardly its only slimming feature. Research shows it has anti-inflammatory properties.

Going VEG is good for health

Why going 'veg' is good

Veggie delight

Why going veg is a good idea ?


Detoxifies: A veggie diet contains dietary fibre (bottle gourd, pumpkins, spinach, cabbages), which flushes toxins out of the body. A diet containing only eggs, fish and mutton is a poor source of fibre.

Stronger bones: Gorging on meat can lead to protein overload. This can tax our kidneys, interfere with the absorption of calcium and prompt the body to extract existing calcium from the bones. Such calcium excretion is rare amongst vegetarians.

Carb deficiencies: A non-vegetarian diet is a poor source of carbohydrates. Carb-deficiency can lead to ketosis – a condition where the body starts breaking down fat (instead of carbs) as a source of energy.

Easy digestion: Complex carbohydrates in vegetarian foods are digested gradually providing a steady source of glucose. Conversely, meats rich in fat and proteins are difficult to digest.

Healthy skin: Eating beetroot, tomato, pumpkin and bitter gourd can clear off blemishes. And guava, apples, pears and peaches, eaten along with their peel, promise a glowing complexion.

Weight management: Avoiding meat is the simplest way to reduce fat intake. Instead, eating whole grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and fruits, lowers cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and obesity.

Easy on the teeth: Our molars are more suitable for grinding grains and vegetables than tearing flesh. Digestion begins with the saliva, which can only digest complex carbohydrates present in plant foods.

Phyto nutrients: Diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, stroke and bone loss are partially preventable with a good intake of phytonurtients. As these are present only in vegetarian diet, the non-vegetarians are at a loss.

The Dream Diet

Presenting - the dream diet

You hit the gym four times a week; you watch what you eat without cheating. Yet, your weight won’t budge. All those late nights might be the culprit. The experts advise you to sleep off those extra kilos. Does it get any easier than that? If you think this is too good to be true, read on as we back up the claims with solid scientific facts.

The link between sleep and weight

Sleep deprivation plays havoc with the hormones. The hormone Ghrelin is responsible for hunger pangs while another hormone, Leptin, tells your brain when it’s time to stop. When you don’t get enough shut-eye, your Ghrelin levels increase and Leptin levels decrease. The result – an increased craving for food and a feeling of not being satiated despite eating more than you normally do! Secondly, the growth hormone is secreted, for the most part, during the first round of sleep or the slow-wave sleep. This hormone plays a very important role in body weight as it controls the body’s proportion of muscle and fat. When you don’t get proper sleep, you secrete less of this hormone. In fact, just one week of sleep deprivation reduces the production of the growth hormone significantly. And low levels of growth hormone equal more fat. Also, as we age, the time we spend in deep sleep reduces, which translates to reduced growth hormone production. Add to that reduced hours of sleep and you significantly increase your chances of weight gain. Also, a good restful sleep has the ability to de-stress the mind and body. Lack of sleep tends to cause physical stress. This leads to excessive production of the stress hormone Cortisol, which in turn stimulates the production of glucose in excess. And this little extra is then converted into fat. Sleep deprivation puts your body in starvation mode Sleep deprived people tend to opt for high calorie sweets, salty and starchy foods to snack on. That’s because sleep deprivation stimulates the cells to shout out for more food. Want to beat those hunger pangs? Go to bed!

Sleep deprivation and sluggishness go hand in hand

When you sleep less, you are low on energy and as a result you are less likely to be physically active. In fact, even small non-exercise related activities like standing instead of sitting or simply fidgeting are significantly reduced. As a result you burn fewer calories. Also when the body senses low energy levels, it reacts by hoarding calories as fat, thereby making weight loss difficult.

How many hours of sleep do I need?

If you are unsure how many hours you need, experiment, when you have the luxury to, by sleeping as much as you want for four nights in a row. Record how many hours you sleep on the fourth night. The hours of sleep you received that night will be the approximate number of hours you should try to get every night. That’s because by the fourth night your body is refreshed and your body clock will reach its natural rhythm.

What if I sleep less to exercise more?

The American Thoracic Society International Conference recently held in San Diego, California reported the following in a study – Women who don’t get much sleep, up to five hours each night, are much more likely to have put on 33 lbs (15 kilos) over a 16 year period. This is 30 per cent more likely when compared to the women who managed to get seven hours sleep each night. 1. What surprised the researchers was that sleeping patterns had a much greater influence on women’s long-term weight than eating habits or physical activity. 2. At the start of the study, the women who slept up to five hours a night weighed 5.4 pounds more than those who got seven hours or more. They also put on 1.6 pounds more each year than the good sleepers. 3. The 1.6 pounds extra per year may not sound like much, but multiply this number by ten and you have a sizeable weight gap. Imagine what the difference would be over 20 or 30 years! 4. However, having the best sleep every night and a terrible diet will not make you lose weight. Make sure that your daily food intake includes 25-30 per cent protein, 45-55 per cent complex carbohydrates, 15-20 per cent essential fatty acids. Secondly, make sure you are on an effective exercise program, 4-5 times a week.

For a good night’s sleep

Don’t go to bed hungry : While this does not mean that you should have a heavy snack at bedtime, it does suggest that a light snack, rich in sleep-inducing amino acid tryptophan, can help.

Take a warm bath an hour before bedtime : Your body temperature will slowly drop after you get out of the tub making you feel tired.

Keep your days active : Resist the temptation of nap so that your body will be ready for a restful sleep at night.

Reasons why to start drinking Green Tea

25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Now. Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits. It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health. And if you're not drinking 3 to 4 cups of green tea today, you're definitely NOT doing your health a big favor. Here Are The 25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Right Now: 1. Green Tea and Cancer Green tea helps reduce the risk of cancer. The antioxidant in green tea is 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E. This helps your body at protecting cells from damage believed to be linked to cancer. 2. Green Tea and Heart Disease Green tea helps prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering the level of cholesterol. Even after a heart attack, it prevents cell deaths and speeds up the recovery of heart cells. 3. Green Tea and Anti-Aging Green tea contains antioxidant known as polyphenols which fight against free radicals. What this means it helps you fight against aging and promotes longevity. 4. Green Tea and Weight Loss Green tea helps with your body weight loss. Green tea burns fat and boosts your metabolism rate naturally. It can help you burn up to 70 calories in just one day. That translates to 7 pounds in one year. 5. Green Tea and Skin Antioxidant in green tea protects the skin from the harmful effects of free radicals, which cause wrinkling and skin aging. Green tea also helps fight against skin cancer. 6. Green Tea and Arthritis Green tea can help prevent and reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Green tea has benefit for your health as it protects the cartilage by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage. 7. Green Tea and Bones The very key to this is high fluoride content found in green tea. It helps keep your bones strong. If you drink green tea every day, this will help you preserve your bone density. 8. Green Tea and Cholesterol Green tea can help lower cholesterol level. It also improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, by reducing bad cholesterol level. 9. Green Tea and Obesity Green tea prevents obesity by stopping the movement of glucose in fat cells. If you are on a healthy diet, exercise regularly and drink green tea, it is unlikely you'll be obese. 10. Green Tea and Diabetes Green tea improves lipid and glucose metabolisms, prevents sharp increases in blood sugar level, and balances your metabolism rate. 11. Green Tea and Alzheimer's Green tea helps boost your memory. And although there's no cure for Alzheimer's, it helps slow the process of reduced acetylcholine in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer's. 12. Green Tea and Parkinson's Antioxidants in green tea helps prevent against cell damage in the brain, which could cause Parkinson's. People drinking green tea also are less likely to progress with Parkinson's. 13. Green Tea and Liver Disease Green tea helps prevent transplant failure in people with liver failure. Researches showed that green tea destroys harmful free radicals in fatty livers. 14. Green Tea and High Blood Pressure Green tea helps prevent high blood pressure. Drinking green tea helps keep your blood pressure down by repressing angiotensin, which leads to high blood pressure. 15. Green Tea and Food Poisoning Catechin found in green tea can kill bacteria which causes food poisoning and kills the toxins produced by those bacteria. 16. Green Tea and Blood Sugar Blood sugar tends to increase with age, but polyphenols and polysaccharides in green tea help lower your blood sugar level. 17. Green Tea and Immunity Polyphenols and flavenoids found in green tea help boost your immune system, making your health stronger in fighting against infections. 18. Green Tea and Cold and Flu Green tea prevents you from getting a cold or flu. Vitamin C in green tea helps you treat the flu and the common cold. 19. Green Tea and Asthma Theophylline in green tea relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing the severity of asthma. 20. Green Tea and Ear Infection Green tea helps with ear infection problem. For natural ear cleaning, soak a cotton ball in green tea and clean the infected ear. 21. Green Tea and Herpes Green tea increases the effectiveness of topical interferon treatment of herpes. First green tea compress is applied, and then let the skin dry before the interferon treatment. 22. Green Tea and Tooth Decay Green tea destroys bacteria and viruses that cause many dental diseases. It also slows the growth of bacteria which leads to bad breath. 23. Green Tea and Stress L-theanine, which is a kind of amino acids in green tea, can help relieve stress and anxiety. 24. Green Tea and Allergies EGCG found in green tea relieves allergies. So, if you have allergies, you should really consider drinking green tea. 25. Green Tea and HIV Scientists in Japan have found that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells. What this means is that green tea can help stop the HIV virus from spreading.