Curiously Awesome

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Vitamin D was once an obscure vitamin thought to only fortify skeletal structure through the minerals calcium and phosphorous. Now, however, there is new emerging research showing this vitamin carries many more benefits than just strengthening bones.

Vitamin D and Pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia is a devastating systemic disorder that is characterized by protein in the urine, high blood pressure, and edema. This disorder can cause serious health problems for a mother and fetus. Pre-eclampsia can cause premature delivery and is also the leading cause of maternal and infant illness and death around the world. The cause remains unknown, but a study carried out by the University of Pittsburgh found that vitamin D deficiency early in gestation is associated with a five-fold increase risk of developing pre-eclampsia.

Next time - Vitamin D and Diabetes

Surgical procedures have improved immensely over recent years. One of the best improvements has been the move to more and more laparoscopic procedures instead of more invasive surgeries.

So, why has laparoscopic surgery gained so much popularity? Well, obviously the smaller incisions mean that the patient will have a much faster recovery, less chance of infection, and a smaller scar after the whole thing is said and done.

Dr. Miklos and Dr. Moore are international leaders in laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgical procedures.

Some of their fields of medical expertise include:

• urogynecology

• Enterocele Repair

• Sacrospinous Ligament

• Adhesiolysis

• Vault Suspension

This is only a small representation of the surgical procedures these physicians are considered experts in. Their site also contains extensive testimonials both from patients and fellow physicians.

Research has found that high cholesterol levels in your 40’s or younger increases the risk of dementia - and this includes Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia is a syndrome in which the memory, thinking and behavior becomes illogical and disorganized. Dementia can be caused by a number of serious diseases that destroy brain cells. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common of these diseases.

Another way to look at it is that Dementia is really a brain failure. It gets worse over time and progresses from mild to a moderate and finally to a severe stage. It progresses at different rates.

The mental capacities that decline include:

* Recent memory

* Immediate and distant memory

* Capacity to use and understand words

* Sense of where the body is in space, or where body parts are in relationship to objects and other people.

* Ability to monitor the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ of behavior

* Ability to initiate or cease speech or activity

* Comprehension of what is going on in the world around you

Other problems include being agitated and restless, walking aimlessly, wanting to escape, and wandering. People who have dementia have trouble starting and stopping routine tasks. They may also misunderstand words as well as use them in the wrong way.

Due to the fact that dementia occurs in older people, it is often not considered to be necessary to take steps to prevent it. However, just like preventing heart disease and diabetes, we can take steps to prevent dementia.

New research is showing that there are prevention strategies that can be adopted. It seems to be necessary to do so early on in life.

It has also been shown that obesity increases the risk of dementia by 80%. Other risk factors include heavy drinking and smoking, as well as high blood pressure in your 40’s.

One theory about why the brain may be affected is the brain needs blood and oxygen delivered via arteries. When arteries are affected by cholesterol, adequate blood and oxygen cannot be delivered. Another theory is that free radicals damage brain cells. This theory is supported by by the fact that people with diets high in antioxidants and lots of fruits and vegetables appear to have less dementia.

There is another theory that excess fat around the waist contributes to brain ageing due to inflammatory chemicals that speed up the ageing process.

Dementia can be hereditary if it occurs before age 65. There is no hereditary link when it occurs later in life.

So, the message today is that if you want to prevent dementia, you need to maintain healthy levels of cholesterol and blood pressure, keep to low levels of alcohol, and be sure to exercise.

New York in the summer! Most of the city residents head for the hills if they can when the heat starts because with all that concrete it can get pretty intense. I like New York in the summer, though. There is just so much to see and do.

One thing that is a must-do is the Metropolitan museum of art. You absolutely do not want to miss this if you are visiting New York this summer. This is a great idea for something to do if the heat gets oppressive and you need a cool activity, too. I highly recommend spending as much time as you can here.

The whole New York experience is one that you just should not miss if at all possible. The flavor and atmosphere in this city is one of a kind that just isn’t duplicated anywhere on earth. This city is amazing!

Have I convinced you yet? If so, you should really think about using Trusted Tours & Attractions to get this vacation moving for yourself. They have an great selection of online travel guides for many different locations.

Here’s another reason to visit their website…Sign up for their newsletter and enter to win a $150 iTunes gift card. Hurry though…this offer ends July 31st, 2008.

A recent study, which appears in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examined the relationship between television viewing and weight in young adults between the ages of 26 and 36. In this study individuals were assessed for waist size, TV viewing time, the amount of food and drink consumed while watching TV, and physical activity levels during leisure time.

It was found that watching more television was associated with greater waist circumference. Women who watched 3 or more hours of TV a day had an 89 per cent increased risk of severe abdominal obesity compared to those watching 1 hour of TV a day or less. Men watching 3 or more hours of TV a day were more than twice as likely to have moderate abdominal obesity compared to those watching 1 hour of TV a day or less.

There appears to be a link between TV viewing, food intake, and waist circumference. It’s not clear why this is the case, however. It does seem that TV viewing time is a marker for the weight and the overall wellbeing of a person. The reasons are speculative.

Here are some possible reasons why this link might exist:

It is possible that people who choose to watch less Television have a tendency to want, due to education, motivation, or other factors.

People who watch a lot of TV may have the tendency to overeat and engage in unconscious, mindless eating.

People who watch a lot of TV may be more likely to eat a lot of junk food. The TV turns the mind off, which turns off the mind/body connection and the internal desire to eat healthy food.

A person who watches a lot of television is more likely to be influenced by advertisements that encourage eating unhealthy food.

It’s likely that there are a variety of reasons why people who watch TV tend to gain weight. Watching less TV and spending time in other, more engaging, mindful activities is always a good idea that will not only prevent disease and show on our waists, but will show in our life in general.

Here is a free professional medical locating services that would be a valuable tool to utilize for anyone faced with the task of needing to find a doctor.

This is a free service that is building a network of the top medical doctors in the country. This service will benefit both physicians and patients by bringing them together in a way that is mutually advantageous for both groups.

For instance, if you find yourself looking for plastic surgery San Bernardino, Doc Finders would be a great free service to use to find the information you need to get your procedure done affordably and according to your busy schedule.

A non-profit organization has announced its intention to sue Sara Lee for alleged “misleading” claims about the whole grain nature of some of its products.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) sent a letter to Sara Lee announcing their intention to file a lawsuit over marketing claims such as “made with whole grain,” “good source of whole grain” and “now with 25 percent more whole grain.” According to CSPI, these statements are “intended to deceive the consumer into thinking the bread is a whole-grain bread, when in fact it is not.”

Sara Lee claims that it sells not only white and 100 percent whole grain breads, but also some intermediate products that it calls “nutritionally transitional.” These products are made with a mix of refined and whole wheat flour and are designed to help consumers eat more whole grains without being subjected to a radical change from the taste and texture of the refined grains they are used to.

In marketing claims, Sara Lee says that the Soft & Smooth products combine “the taste and texture of white bread with the goodness of whole grain.”

CSPI is seeking an injunction that would bar Sara Lee from saying that its products contain “the goodness or whole grain” or even that they are “made with whole grain” unless they explicitly state on the label what percentage of the product is whole grain.

We are very close to having another teen driver in the house. As soon as our oldest son saves up a bit more money, he is going to have his license and after that his next acquisition will likely be a car. This boy is a very fastidious young man, so I can already see him polishing and waxing and detailing this future car. This may even replace his current computer obsession…who knows? Maybe I can get him to include my car in this deal.

I will definitely send him to Lane’s Professional Car Products for the products and accessories he is going to need to keep his car in perfect condition. This company has a full selection of both exterior and interior car care products, including automotive leather care, headlight lens care, car covers, seat covers, floor mats, and all sorts of detailing products.

Lane’s is a professional auto detailing company that is considered expert in the field. They have been offering their exclusive line of auto-detailing products online since 2001. Rest assured…Lane’s Professional Car Products has completely safe, easy and secure online ordering and they also 100% guarantee every product!

Definitely worth a look for your auto detailing needs.

So, what happens when you eat a piece of chocolate cake?

First, your teeth come into contact with sugary foods. Tooth decay affects almost every person in the U.S. Sugar in the diet influences the sort of organisms that can colonize and grow on tooth surfaces. Everyone has some of these organisms, but people who consume a high-sugar diet have much more dental plaque.

When your chocolate cake reaches the small intestine, the sugar content of the cake passes quickly through the intestinal walls. This causes a fast and dramatic rise in the body’s blood glucose levels… your blood sugar level. Glucose is blood sugar and is the energy source for each cell in our bodies. Every move of our muscles burns glucose and the brain needs glucose for all of its activities.

When this is working properly, we have a constant and even amount of glucose circulating in the bloodstream. Want to hear something amazing? This amount is only approximately 2 teaspoons! Your chocolate cake contains 10 teaspoons. Far too much for your bloodstream to absorb and use. Insulin, which controls the amount of glucose in your blood, is secreted from the pancreas. As it attempts to regulate this excessive amount of sugar, more insulin is issued. The insulin does its job, but frequently does it too well. Your blood glucose level will drop back to normal and will actually continue to drop until too much glucose has been removed from the blood stream. This means that now our muscles, tissues, brain, and other vital organs will not have enough glucose available to perform the necessary functions that they need to accomplish.

Your piece of chocolate cake disrupts the normal blood glucose levels and actually leaves you hungrier in the long run.

Over consumption of sugar has been directly linked to the following conditions:

Anemia, kidney lesions, fat deposits in the kidney, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, duodenal ulcers, asthma, common cold, obesity, gout, gall stones, inflamed gall bladder, allergies, tooth decay, pyorrhea, infectious diseases, indigestion, hypoglycemia, dermatitis, heart disease, and diabetes.

Scientists theorize that humans are born with a preference for sweet foods. This preference likely remains with us for our entire lives. However, there are healthy alternatives that do not wreak the havoc that sucrose does on the human body. The two most readily available and healthy alternatives to processed sugar are raw honey and pure maple syrup. Give your body a chance to wean itself off the drug of processed sugar and give either honey or maple syrup a chance in your diet. You will be thankful both in the short and long term!

I have a recommendation for you if you are in need of information about Canadian immigration law. If you are faced with the need to relocate, there are many complexities that make having a Toronto Immigration Lawyer a wise thing to do. Let Matthew Jeffrey help you sort through your options and make the right decisions.

This website is a wealth of information about Canadian Immigration Law and is sure to be helpful.