Natural Remedies And Treatments For Allergies

When allergies strike, most allergy sufferers head to the drugstore where they purchase an antihistamine. They take it, and soon their symptoms begin to subside. They’re all set until the next outburst.

Over-the-counter antihistamines are effective but unfortunately, taking them often causes unpleasant side effects such as drowsiness and a feeling of lethargy. If you’re tired of feeling tired when allergies strike, maybe it’s time you reach for natural allergy remedies instead.

Natural allergy remedies come in all forms and are made from many different types of ingredients including herbs, plants, ground up honey bees, and other vitamins and nutrients. Most natural allergy remedies have been designed to either stop histamine outbursts from occurring in the first place, or they act to combat the individual symptoms that occur with the release of histamines. They accomplish these tasks naturally, which is why unpleasant side effects are non-existent.

Besides treating allergy symptoms with all-natural ingredients, the term “natural allergy remedies” has come to mean something more. In addition to being a natural and effective way to treat allergy symptoms after they develop, the term can be used to describe taking control of your surroundings so that you limit exposure to the allergens that cause you trouble. For example, if pet dander is a problem, don’t keep pets. Or if you must, you’ve got to be vigilant about keeping pet dander under control. Likewise with dust mites. You need to protect your furnishings with casings that keep this type of problem under wraps.

Watching what you eat is important if you’ve got food allergies, so taking steps to control your diet can also be considered a natural allergy remedy. In addition to closely monitoring what you eat, there also are foods you can consume that are known to contain naturally-occurring histamine combatants. For example, Quercitin, a flavinoid found in onions and apples, is capable of blocking the release of histamines which cause the familiar allergy symptoms like runny nose, congestion, and itchy, watery eyes. Besides being effective against allergies, there are countless other health benefits of eating these and other types of fruits and vegetables, like lowering your risk of developing heart disease and keeping your blood sugar levels stable.

If you’re like a lot of people and find that monitoring what you eat is too much work, then consider taking a daily multi-vitamin. Many of the vitamins and minerals benefit the immune system which in turn helps keeps the symptoms of allergies under control.

With so many natural allergy remedies being offered, understanding the ingredients as well as the actual benefits of each can be mind-boggling. Even though these types of products are available without a prescription, if you’re confused, it might be advisable to speak with an allergist or someone who specializes in natural remedies. These specialists can help explain how each of the individual ingredients work and why they’re thought to be effective.

How to Prevent or Alleviate Allergy

By allergy the immune system react against a substance that it is not supposed to react against, and the reaction is often exaggerated. Objects containing substances that commonly cause allergy are domestic dust, animal hair, household chemicals, chlorine, microorganisms, pollen, nuts, citrus fruits and seafood. Also bacteria and parasites can cause inappropriately strong immune reactions.

THE MECHANISMS OF ALLERGY

The total set of reactions occurring by allergy is very complicated. Many of these are the same as by normal immune reaction, even though they occur when they should not take place, Here are listed some of these reactions:

By exposure to a new substance, cells in the immune system learn to recognize that substance (allergen), and it learns to produce anti-bodies towards the substance, and a certain amount of antibodies is produced. The type of anti-bodies called IgE is the most important by allergic reactions.

IgE will glue itself to some cells in the blood called mast-cells, and stick out from the surface of these cells. By following exposures to antigens, these will attach themselves to the IgE-ends sticking out from the mast-cells. This will trigger the mast-cells to produce histamine and other signal substances. These signal substances will then spread through the surrounding tissues.

The signal substances will then trigger the walls of small blood vessels to leak fluid into the tissues and accumulate in the tissues. This will cause tissue swelling. They also will cause blood vessels to widen and thus increase the blood stream in the tissues. The consequence of this will be swelling and redness in the affected body parts. The signal substances will also make glands in the tissue produce more mucus, making symptoms like running nose and tight throat.

The new exposures to the antigens will also provoke even more anti-body production. The antibodies will also glue allergens together to bigger complexes. These complexes can clog small blood vessels and in other ways disturb the function of the affected organ.

The allergen-antibody-complexes are then recognized by the cells and other mechanisms that the body uses to collect and eliminate garbage. Eater-cells gather and engulf the complexes.

The immune system also will make enzymes that attack the antigens to break them down. Also this production is stimulated when antigens attach themselves to anti-bodies at cell surfaces. But these enzymes are not entirely specific, and can also to some extend break down components of the body’s own tissue, causing harm and disease symptoms.

WHAT CAUSES THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO REACT WITH ALLERGY TO A SUBSTANCE

In the beginning of the life of a person, the immune system has the potency to react against most substances in the body itself and the surroundings. However, there are mechanisms that learn the immune system to recognize normal substances found in the daily life in the early infanthood, and suppress the reactions against these. If this learning mechanism is disturbed, allergy can develop.

Allergy can also develop if a small child is never exposed to substances that later will be a normal ingredient of his daily life. In this case the immune system will not get the chance to suppress the reaction against this substance. Letting a small child grow up in an exaggerated clean and sterile environment can therefore cause allergies.

On the other hand, certain elements not being a port of a normal environment can cause allergies by repeated and massive exposure. Examples of such substances are chlorine.

TYPES OF ALLERGIES

Allergy varies according to the compound that causes the immunological reaction. An allergic condition also often implies reaction against a combination of several substances. Common substances causing allergy are: Pollen, domestic dust, mites in domestic dust, moulds and mould spores, chlorine, chemicals in soaps and cosmetics, animal hair, seafood, strawberry, fish, parasites, medicines like anaesthetics and antibiotics

An allergic condition may periodically get better or worse according to the concentration of the allergen in the environment. A typical example is pollen allergy with peaks in the pollination season of grass or treas.

An allergic person will often get symptoms from several tissues in the body, but the symptoms are often most prominent at one body part and give very specific symptoms at that site. Examples of specific conditions often caused by allergy are eczema in the skin and asthma in the lungs and lower airpipe.

THE SYMPTOMS OF ALLERGY

Any organ can exhibit allergic reactions, but often the symptoms are confined mainly to one organ or organ system.

By allergic reactions in the respiratory system there will be symptoms like: Itching and soreness in the throat and nose cavities, swelling of the airway tissues, increased amount of secrets in the airway cavities and coughing. There may also be asthmatic symptoms or fully developed asthma. The main symptom of asthma is cramping that constricts the airways all the way down into the lungs (constriction of the trachea and tracholes).

By allergic reactions in the skin, there will be symptoms like: Redness, swelling, red spots, itching and soars.

HOW TO PREVENT ALLERGY

To prevent allergies in an individual the best way, one must begin in early childhood.

A child must be allowed to get in contact with natural elements like earth, dirt, animals, plants, physical contact with other humans, and the like. This exposure to natural elements must occur before an allergy has developed. In this way the immune system will learn to recognize common and harmless elements, and not overreact against this later in life.

Research projects have found out that children having much and early contact with pet animals like cats and dogs have a less chance of getting allergic problems later than children not having contact with pets. This is contrary to what many people believe.

On the other hands, every person should be protected from early childhood from certain elements normally not found in a natural environment, for example chlorine, soaps and cosmetics with artificial substances, and food containing unnatural additives.

METHODS TO TREAT ALLERGY

The first approach in the treatment of manifest allergy is avoiding exposure to substances causing the allergic reactions. Even though exposure to natural substances can prevent allergy, exposure to an allergen should be avoided when an allergy already has developed. Ways of doing this is:

- Avoiding food one reacts against
- Avoiding contact with animals one have an allergic reaction towards
- Keeping rooms, clothes beds and furniture well cleaned
- Avoiding use of cleaners, soaps and cosmetics with unnatural additives
- Avoiding foods, drinks and snacks with unnatural additives
- Avoiding daily exposure to chlorine and other chemicals
- In cooperation with your doctor change medicines you use that may cause allergy with others
- Avoiding growth of moulds in the environment. This is done by well cleaning and keeping the environment dry.

Children are often exposed to allergens at school, and adults are often exposed at work. Parents with allergic children must inspect the school environment and require from the school administration and teachers that practically possible environmental measures are provided to keep the school free from allergens. An employee should require the same from his employer.

If you do not know exactly everything you react against, you can try to stop exposure to one factor after another, until you feel that the allergy alleviates, and then keep this factor out of your daily life for the future.

Sometimes avoiding allergens is difficult to accomplish, or make the lifestyle to restricted to be acceptable. Then one must apply medical treatment that alleviates the allergy.

A common way of treating allergy is applying medication that block the effect of the substance histamine, and thereby alleviate or prevent the symptoms occurring when the antigen get into the body.

Another way is desensitisation treatment. By this treatment one let the body get a controlled and gradually increasing exposure to the allergens over a time period, and when this period is over, one let the body get recurrent exposure to a controlled dose at regular time intervals. By this treatment the response from the immune system from the allergens gradually decrease, partly because the immune system thereby learns to recognize the allergens as harmless, and partly because the antibodies against the allergens are used up.

There are also natural products on the marked that contain ingredients that help the immune system to react more appropriately. Important effects of these products are reduced histamine secretion and increased histamine metabolism. Examples of ingredients in such medicines are: Methylsulfonyl methane, vitamin C, vitamin E, Echinacea purpurea, Quercetin, grape Seed, Stinging nettle, Coleus Forskolin

Buying the Perfect Allergy-free Gifts for Your Loved Ones

Allergies is a condition which affect thousands of people in the world. One of them could be your friend or loved one. Imagine how sad it is when you took time to carefully choose the perfect gift for your loved ones, only to learn soon after that your gift just trigger a bad case of allergy for him/ her. The last thing you want is to spoil someone’s joy just because you did not take his/her allergy into consideration when buying gifts. Here are some tips and ideas for buying gift for someone who are prone to allergies. Your loved ones will appreciate the extra thought that goes into buying a gift for them.

(1)Toys for children

Stuffed toys are the favorites among children but they can be dangerous to the allergy prone. When buying toys for children with allergies, you have to be extra careful. These are some of the things you should bear in mind:

Avoid stuffed animals with real fur as fur is more prone to dust and mold. A safer choice is to choose stuffed animals with polyester filling that is easy to wash and dry. Avoid latex toys. Latex allergy is becoming more common recently and may even fatal in more severe cases.
Wooden and metal toys are a safer choice. Wooden toys are recommended for children with allergies as they do not collect dust or mold, thus are not a suitable breeding ground for dust mite . Some toys are certified as asthma friendly. Get these toys instead.

(2) Products for cleaner indoor air

A good quality vacuum cleaner that contains a true HEPA filter. A true HEPA filter captures over 99.9% of dust mites, pollens and ragweed. Controlling the humidity level in the home is important to anyone with respiratory sensitivities as well as skin disorder such as eczema. A good way to know what the current level is is through a hygrometer. Even those with allergies can enjoy the soft romantic glow of candles with Solar powered rechargeable candles that are soot free.

For someone with a green thumb, a plant ‘watering’ meter would come in handy to help reduce the chance of over watering plants that often leads to mould growth. A carbon monoxide detector placed near fireplaces, space heaters and garages, is a great gift and could save lives.

(3) If you are buying jewelry for someone with allergies, you have to be aware if the jewelry will trigger a reaction. Nickel is known to cause a reaction for those with eczema and psoriasis. Look for nickel free jewelry to be on the safe side.

(4) Conventional skin care products often contains chemicals which are too harsh for sensitive skin and might cause an allergy reactions. A totally natural skin care set made from only the purest organic ingredients is a great gift for someone who is prone to skin allergies.

(5)For those who have dairy allergies, a soy, rice or almond milk maker is a great gift. Soy, rice or almond milk have the same goodness as dairy and with the milk maker, one can enjoy the fresh non dairy milk as well as use it for baking and cooking. Soyquick soy milk maker is recommended as it can be used to make, not only soy milk, but rice, almond, and oat milk.

(6) Juicing is a great way to detoxify the body, and many believe large intake of fresh organic juice helps to relieve allergy symptoms. What can you get fresher juice than juice you make yourself? A powerful, easy to clean and handy juicer might be just what your loved one needs.

(7) Allergy free linens, covers or bedding

Down feather bedding is recommended for people with allergies as it is actually less allergenic than synthetic ones. Choose those which offers anti-microbial shield to protect against bacteria, mold, dust mites, pollen and mildew. The range of comforters and bedding from Allergy Shield is Allergist Recommended & Medically Evaluated, thus can be safely used. It can prevent symptoms of asthma, nasal allergy, sinusitis and eczema.

Dust mite protective covers for pillows, mattresses and box springs are also an excellent gift for those who are allergic to dust mites. Many individuals with asthma also have other conditions such as eczema, a skin condition that is made worse when in contact with some fabrics, such as wool. Cotton clothing and bedding is always a good choice for people with eczema.

(8)Books

Allergies and AsthmaBooks are great for books lovers. There are many great books on coping life with allergies. One of which should be in every home is Jeffrey C. May’s My House Is Killing Me!: The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma.

Allergies are very common nowadays. Eventhough a person is allergy prone, it does not mean he or she deserves the right to celebrate any occasion like any normal person. It only take a little extra thought and considerations to avoid potential problems. I hope these allergy free gift buying tips have given you some valuable ideas of buying the perfect gift for your loved ones.

Living With Metal Allergies

Living With Metal Allergies

Metal allergy, which is a form of contact dermatitis, is a rather common skin condition. Quite a few people may have this condition and not even realize it. There are plenty of people who believe they can’t wear anything but gold, or platinum or even silver. Often this it not true and many people do not realize that in most situations they can find a less expensive alternative. It all depends on the metal content. For instance the most common metal that causes a reaction is nickel. Nickel is used in a wide variety of jewelry including gold, although not too often.

Signs and Symptoms of Metal Allergy

The symptoms of a metal allergy is reddening of the skin where there has been contact with the metal, note the kind of allergy it is classified as ‘contact dermatitis’. Which there are many types of allergens that cause contact dermatitis, such as poison oak or even for some people wool. An itching and or burning sensation usually accompanies the reddening of the skin in the area that has been in contact with the metal. In some severe cases a blistering rash can occur and may resemble pimples. The skin may reveal scaly, raw and thickened, sometimes oozing, crusting or draining may occur. As well as swelling, tenderness or warmth of the skin exposed to the metal.

Complications and Treatment

Infections may occur so it is important that if you have broken out to keep the area clean and dry, but do not touch it too often as this can irritate it more. The best thing is to clean the area once or twice a day and keep it covered. If the itching or burning is too much to bear you can always use a cortisone cream, for swelling you can use cold compresses on the skin.

Severity

The severity of the reaction often depends on several factors such as the duration of the contact, whether or not the skin has been broken, how sensitive you are to the metal causing the reaction, and the concentration of the metal you are sensitive to. For example if you are allergic to nickel, and a piece of sterling silver that contains a small percentage may not break you out but white gold with a high percentage of nickel might. Not that all sterling silver or white gold contains nickel but some pieces might. There is no specific formula for alloying silver or gold and all manufacturers have their own recipe.

Prevention

Obviously the best method of preventing the uncomfortable results of a metal allergy is to avoid the metal causing the sometimes-painful reaction. This as we all know is not always possible. For instance what are we suppose to do when a belt buckle or zipper on some of our favorite pieces of clothing starts irritating our skin? Are we just supposed to throw them out?

Protecting Your Skin

The best thing is to see you physician and have a patch test done to identify the specific allergen, this can usually be accomplished with three office visits, or sometimes less if you have self tested by purposely exposing yourself to the alleged culprit. But sometimes it may be a favorite pair of earrings and the easiest fix is to apply a coating of clear fingernail polish to the metal that contacts the skin. Although this will eventually wear, on an item you use regularly it can last for 2-3 weeks before you need to apply another coat. Or if it is bra hooks you could just get a small strip of comfortable fabric and place is as a barrier. Some cases you can just take an antihistamine.

Cedar Fever Symptoms? You Don't Have To Suffer Anymore!

Once again it is cedar fever season - the time in South Texas when the mountain cedar trees erupt in pollen. If you have allergies and you've been experiencing a lot more congestion, coughing, sneezing, and red, irritated eyes, you can probably blame it on the cedar. Some people may also run a low grade fever because cedar allergies can be severe enough to cause a lot of inflammation which can show up as a slight fever.

In the Austin, San Antonio, and Texas Hill Country regions, mountain cedar pollen is produced in huge quantities from December through February. For those who suffer from cedar allergies, even the allergy remedies that work most of the time are simply no match for the massive amounts of pollen produced by the numerous mountain cedar trees in the area.

This time of year, a common segment on the local news will show someone shaking a cedar branch and producing a cloud of the dusty pollen. The fine grains of pollen are blown from the trees and carried all over the region by the strong, gusty winds that are normal for this time of year. Cedar pollen counts can go so high that they actually go beyond the pollen charts and the pollen begins to register as an air pollutant. It's no surprise that this is a tough time of year for people with allergies.

You can't avoid the cedar pollen, but fortunately there's a new way to eliminate cedar fever. This method is painless, fast, amazingly effective, and the effects can last for years from a single office visit. It may seem a bit strange, but the results speak for themselves for those who experience it.

Basically, it is possible to stimulate the body's acupuncture meridians in a very specific way - without needles, I might add - to desensitize the body to cedar fever. There are a few variations of this approach, but they all use some type of acupuncture/acupressure stimulation to re-set the body to not react to cedar pollen (or other allergens depending on what the individual is being desensitized to). In my office, I use what is called "cold" laser to stimulate the acupuncture points, and it allows for fast treatment that is completely painless. In fact, other than the laser wand touching the points, there is no sensation at all, which makes it a very patient-friendly, even to young children.

Desensitization of allergens with this method typically works within about a day and the effects last for several months to several years. Just one desensitization procedure will usually last for not only the entire mountain cedar pollen season, but for many seasons to come. These effects are achieved without the need for any follow-up treatment, without the use of allergy medication, and without even taking any kind of supplements or other remedies!

Most who undergo this type of allergy desensitization find that their cedar allergies become a thing of the past.

Using Nicotine Gum to Quit Smoking

Addiction to nicotine is very real. Many studies have shown that it is one of the most addictive substances known, and most people will gain a dependency to it soon after they start smoking regularly. When you smoke a cigarette, you body receives an instant rush of nicotine - there is a spike in your nicotine levels which slowly dissipates, and when your nicotine levels drop below a certain point you will crave another spike, in the form of another cigarette.

As a smoker, part of your body's physical addition to nicotine has to do with relieving it in these "hits," and it is for this reason that an attempt to quit smoking can be so difficult. The most important thing in any attempt to quit smoking is willpower, and the chances that you will succeed in staying smoke free without the use of willpower are extremely slim. In same cases, however, you can benefit from using a medical aid in addition to your willpower. The most common and well known aids to quitting smoking are those that supply and regulate nicotine in the bloodstream.

A popular choice is nicotine gum. This is gum that resembles ordinary chewing gum, but of course it contains nicotine. The reason nicotine gum can be effective is because is can replicate nicotine spikes in your bloodstream without the need for cigarettes. The problem that some people run into with the nicotine patch - the other popular nicotine supplier - is that a nicotine patch supplies a steady amount of nicotine into your bloodstream. There is no spike, or "hit", with a patch, and for this reason some people still find themselves craving cigarettes when they use the patch: even though the body is receiving nicotine, it desires the hit that the cigarette provides.

With nicotine gum, you can attempt to replicate this hit without a cigarette. The gum is not chewed like normal gum -- rather you hold in your mouth without chewing it for long periods of time, and then give it a few chews when you want a release of nicotine, much as you would take a drag on a cigarette for a quick nicotine hit. A typical guideline for nicotine gum would be to chew it 3-4 times, until you feel a tingling sensation, at which point you should flatten it and place it between your cheek and gum. Repeat the brief chewing process at occasional intervals as necessary. Under no circumstances should nicotine gum be chewed like ordinary gum, as too much nicotine will be released into your bloodstream.

Nicotine Gum comes in 2mg and 4mg strengths. It is recommended that you use the gum every 1-2 hours throughout the day, for a period of up to 3 months. The only drawback of nicotine gum is that you cannot drink anything except water for 15 minutes before and during chewing. For this reason nicotine gum isn't helpful at a bar, which is where many ex-smokers need the most help. Despite this, nicotine gum can be an effective tool to quit smoking.

The Nicotine Patch

Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions. It is for this reason, of course, that is can be so difficult to quit smoking. One top of this physical addiction - that is, the body's craving of nicotine - there is a psychological component: because smoking is both legal and socially acceptable in many situations, it can be difficult to avoid it completely. Any attempt to quit smoking, therefore, should involve a comprehensive plan that deals with both the physical and psychological side of the addiction. One way to address the physical addition to nicotine, to leave yourself free to concentrate on the psychological aspects of your addiction, is to use a nicotine patch.

The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine - instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.

The way the patch works is to break your body's desire for nicotine "spikes." When you smoke a cigarette, your body receives an immidiete spike in its nicotine levels. As the level of nicotine slowly dissipates after the spike, it will eventually drop to a point where you desire to have it "topped up" again - the need for another cigarette. If you picture a graph of your body's nicotine levels when you smoke, you would see a steady series of peaks and valleys - the peaks corresponding to the spike in nicotine levels when you smoke a cigarette. A graph of your nicotine levels when wearing the patch, on the other hand, would show a steady line: the line wouldn't be as high as your peaks, but it wouldn't be as low as your valleys either. The idea is that the patch goes for the middle ground, and your body slowly adjusts to not having spikes in its nicotine levels.

As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you're on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.

The patch is a very effective stop smoking aid. It does, however, have some disadvantages: it is fairly expensive, and at the early stages of quitting it can often cost more than cigarettes did. The patch can also cause problems with sleeping if you wear it to bed - and at the same time if you don't you will wake up with no nicotine in your system, and feel pretty bad until you put on a morning patch and it starts working. Despite these drawbacks, the patch remains the medical aid of choice for people dealing with serious nicotine addictions.

Why is it Hard to Quit Smoking?

Tobacco is responsible for the death of 1 in 10 adults all over the world, which translates to around 5 million deaths every year. The disease mainly strikes the cardiovascular system, resulting to heart attack, respiratory tract diseases, and even cancer.

Regardless of the risks of smoking cigarettes, to quit smoking is not an easy task, yet it is possible.

Why is it hard to quit smoking?

Foremost, this is because most smokers become addicted to the nicotine contained in tobacco products. Nicotine has a deadly addictive power. When a person smokes a cigarette, nicotine particles find their way to the lungs through inhalation. From there, nicotine is absorbed into the bloodstream just like the oxygen people breathe. It travels with the blood to the brain where it locks onto certain receptor areas. Dopamine is then released into the brain. This is the chemical that makes the smoker feel a euphoric sensation. Smokers find it difficult to quit smoking because they come to be dependent on this good feeling. And, this leads to dependence – addiction.

A person who attempts to quit smoking may experience withdrawal symptoms. Topping the bill of withdrawal symptoms is depression. With the absence of the chemical that produces the relaxing feeling, the brain becomes distressed without it. Other withdrawal symptoms from smoking include:

Headaches dizziness, and nausea

Shakes, chills

Cough, dry throat nasal drip

Hunger, fatigue

Constipation, gas or stomach pain

Insomnia

Not knowing what to do with their hands is another common complaint among people trying to quit smoking. Once people get hooked, smoking becomes a big part of their lives. They seem to actually enjoy holding onto a cigarette. And, after a long period of lighting up, it becomes a routine. As a fact, humans are creatures of habit. By some force of habit, smokers find themselves reaching for a cigarette and lighting it up automatically without thinking about it.

Certain “triggers” in the environment may also make it difficult to quit smoking. Little things may turn on a smoker’s need for a cigarette. These may be feelings, places, and moods. Even the things done routinely may trigger this craving for a smoke.

For those who have been smoking for quite a while already, they may not realize it but they form some emotional attachment to cigarettes. They find the cigarette calming and comforting during those stressful times. Cigarette smoking somehow becomes an extension of their social life, particularly when they are emotionally at the highest or lowest. Giving the smoker a feeling that to quit smoking would seem like giving up a trusted friend.

These are only some of the major reasons why it is hard to quit smoking. But there are also several strategies and quitting techniques that may aid smokers to finally give up on the habit. Quitting smoking all begins with one’s intention to stop. They must have the will power to overcome the craving for nicotine. There are also a lot of quit smoking products in the market. These may also be worth trying. Support groups have proved to be very helpful, too.

Those who smoke cigarettes must understand that to quit smoking may take more than one attempt. They must also try several methods before they can finally succeed. Smoking is a stubborn habit because it is closely tied to the acts in the course of people’s everyday lives. Even so, with determination, will power, and a strategy, anyone can quit smoking.

Smoking Addiction - its Components and Causes

The addiction to smoking, which implies addiction to the substance nicotine, has several components. The better one is aware of these components and understands them; the better is the chance for succeeding in stopping the smoking habit. Here is a survey of the components that addiction to smoke consist of.

THE SOCIAL COMPONENT

To some extend the habit of smoking is a product of socialization. Socialization is simply the tendency to repeat patterns of behaviour one sees other persons in the society exhibit. Socialisation is one major way children and young people learn social skills. Children and teenagers learn skills necessary to live and work in the society by a socialisation process. Unfortunately also bad habits and bad ways of thinking are learned the same way.

If one lives or works together with other smoking individuals, one will more or less automatic adopt these individuals’ smoking habits. If one then tries to break out of the social structure, one will feel anxiety for not being accepted any more by the social group one is a part of.

If the other individuals also make moves to threaten or freeze out an individual trying to break this bad social standard, the difficulty of breaking out of the habit will be even greater. The threatening actions may not even be very serious to frighten a person from braking out of such a socially standardized habit, and may not even be meant as a threat.

THE NEED FOR SUCKING AND CHEWING

Every person has a need for sucking and chewing. This need is necessary in early infanthood, but it also persists into adult life to some degree. Some persons use cigarettes or other smoking devices and the smoke as a means to satisfy this need. There is a hypothesis that this need is greater by some adults then by others because this need, or some other similar basic need, has not been fully satisfied in early infanthood.

If you want to stop smoking, you can try to satisfy this need by other means, for example by always keeping something in your pocket that you can put in your mouth to chew at when the need for smoke appears.


AUTOMATIC REPEATING

When a person have done something many times and frequently enough, there will be created a pattern of automatic repetition of that particular behaviour. This is especially true if the particular action is done in a distinct recognizable situation.

The pattern of automatic repetition also has the effect of making a person feel safer in the daily life and routines.

Such a pattern of automatic repetition is always a component in the smoking habit. It you want to quit smoking, you should make an investigation to find out in which situations and which environments you usually take a cigarette.

Then try to avoid these situations or environments where you use to smoke, or to deliberately alter these situations.

NICOTINE USED AS A SELF MEDICATION

Nicotine has a tranquilizing effect upon nervous feelings. At the same time it has some anti-depressive effect, at least in the short run, and it makes a person feel more awake. A person suffering from nervousness or from depressive symptoms may feel that the smoking helps him against his mental symptoms.

However, gradually there will be a need for steadily higher doses of nicotine to give these good effects, and if there is a lack of nicotine in the body, the nervous or depressive feelings will be greater than before.

This gratification, but with the need for steadily higher doses to get the good effects is a major incentive for the smoking habit. You should consider if this anti-depressive or tranquilizing effect is a reason for your smoking. Then you should try to find other ways to achieve the same effect. Engaging in some sport or outdoor life will often make you feel less depressed. If the depressive feelings are more serious, some appropriate treatment can be necessary.

THE PLEASURE COMPONENT

There is to some degree a plain and direct pleasure connected with smoking. This pleasure is in itself a good effect. This good effect is probably in most cases too small compared to the painful effects of smoking, but will gives a temptation for an individual to continue the habit. However, also this pleasure effect will gradually be difficult to obtain without increasing the doses.

If the plain pleasure of smoking is a main reason for your habit, then you should try to find other sources of pleasure instead, for example some good food, some good music or some erotic action.

THE GENETIC COMPONENT

Not all people get equally easy dependent of nicotine. There are factors yet not fully understood that make some people more easily addicted than others. Perhaps some persons have receptors on their nerve cells that more easily get trigged by nicotine than others, or perhaps some people have more receptors with the ability to get trigged by nicotine, and this is inherited in the genetic code.

THE NERVOUS MECHANISMS WORKING BY ADDICTION

The normal brain has signal substances with a tranquilizing effect, and substances with a stimulating effect upon nerve cells. Like most narcotic substances, nicotine act like a signal substance by fitting into receptors on some brain cells.

Nicotine attaches itself to some receptors and thus gives the nerve cell having these receptors a signal. The cells getting such a signal from nicotine will react by secreting another signal substance, dopamine that influences still other cells. Dopamine will tranquilize some brain cells and stimulate others, and the total effect of this is the pleasurable effects of smoking.

However, when nicotine steadily induces dopamine release, the brain will gradually decrease the production of dopamine when nicotine is not present, and the brain will feel a steadily greater need for nicotine to work normally and feel well.

Quit Smoking by Hypnosis

Many people, when they are questioned, “what is hypnosis?” will quickly reply that it is a type of magic. Some people will say that, hypnosis is making people go to sleep and make them to do as they were told. However, as we will discuss in this article, all these assumptions were wrong. People are not made to sleep. They are in fact pushed to state of hyper-attentiveness. The hypnotized person would not do what he was told; instead he would do whatever he thinks right at that time. In other words, he will be he will be at the height of reason.

A scientific explanation of hypnosis might lean towards describing as a trance like state. This state of being will be completely relaxed and the hypnotized person will have improved imagination and maximum suggestibility. This trance state is not at all sleep because the individual is very alert subconsciously.

Hypnosis works wonders in everybody’s life if used properly. Hypnosis has helped people to stay slim, quit smoking, pain relief or to improve the mental health and physical health and what not.

The first step
In a large part, the reason for the failing to quit smoking is the lack of ability to train and channel our minds. Hypnosis can do this. Hypnosis can harness the unutilized power of the mind and relieve you from all kinds of miseries. It helps you to create a clear picture of exactly what you want; i.e. to quit smoking. This picture will be more and more clear with every hypnotic session. In hypnosis, the subconscious mind is stimulated to find out the need and want of the person without any confusion.

The second step
After creating a clearer picture of what you want, hypnosis in the next stage sets up a structure and the person is made to believe that it is real. Then the person’s emotions about the structure will be asked. The person will reply unequivocally what he doesn’t like about the structure created. This important shift in focus brings about dramatic results.

Other interesting hypnosis facts
Hypnosis uses a technology that creates sound. This sounds easily and quickly produces or induces waves in the brain. These waves will carry the learning of the mind and store them in the root of the brain so that the learning is stay put. These techniques even have their roots in ancient cultures. Just like in ancient culture, the students were asked to recite prayers very early in the day after waking up and very late at night just before sleeping. During these periods the brainwaves occur naturally which take the learning to the root of the brain, so that they never forget what they have learned.

Hypnosis also uses a technique called sublingual messaging by which it talks directly to the subconscious mind. This way hypnosis can bring about behavioral changes and improve the brainpower with ease, as the want of the person will be understood crystal clear. The effectiveness of the hypnosis differs greatly depending on the expertise of the psychiatrists and willingness of the patient.

Are You Sick of Your Smoking Habit?

If you have reached the point that you are desperately looking for help to quit smoking, the simplest advice would be to just quit. However, things are not as simple as that. It is easier said than done. And, this advice can come only from non-smokers or who have never successfully quit themselves.

Here is some advice from a smoker of twenty years and a non-smoker of ten.

Though for you to come to this point of wanting to quit smoking may be a major breakthrough in your life, you need to know that the desire to quit alone is not strong enough for you because it is not enough for most people - 97% to be precise. So, unless you belong to that minuscule minority, don’t do it, even if you are desperate and want to quit right at this very moment.

Before you attempt to quit, you must first remove as much emotion from the process as humanly possible for although you are depressed or emotionally charged at the moment, it is not possible to maintain that level of anger or desperation long enough to see you through the quitting process.

You may want to quit because you have smoker's cough; a serious health scare; desire a better environment for your children; or just want to quit for yourself because you know it is the right thing to do. Look at your reasons and write down all the emotions and reasons you want to quit. These reasons will help you on your journey to becoming a non-smoker.

Based on your reasons for quitting, search the internet for as much useful information as you can find. Fortify your reasons with relevant information because information is power. The more you know about the task at hand, the less hold the nicotine monster will have over you.

Note your reasons for quitting and then strengthen them with information. Search the internet for as much useful information as you can find. The more you know about the task at hand, the less hold the nicotine monster will have over you. Information will prepare you for all the hurdles on the way so that you are strong enough to face them and overcome them.

Also, look for a stop smoking program that addresses your concerns about quitting and then purchase it. Make sure, it is not the one that makes tall claims; they are not true. Buy the one that appeals to your wants and needs and gives you the determination to beat this nasty habit.

Most importantly, use the program. Start today because the sooner you start the quicker you will be free of your smoking habit. Beware of procrastination. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today!

Get the information you need, order a program and start using it at once. You'll feel gratified as quitting smoking is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life.

Nicotine replacement therapy, will it work for me?

The whole idea behind nicotine replacement therapy is that it gives your body a small amount of nicotine to help curb the cravings. This small amount helps to keep the withdrawals to a minimum. Keep in mind though that nicotine replacement therapy will cause you to go through withdrawals twice. First when you quit smoking then when you stop the therapy. You do not need to see a doctor to get this form of therapy.

Many people have a hard time dealing with the withdrawals the second time around. Especially as that familiar edgy feeling comes back and you go through a milder form of withdrawals for the next three days. It's hard for people to prepare themselves for that second wave and often find themselves unable to let go of the nicotine replacement therapy. Those that can let go are one step closer to becoming smoke free and altering their lifestyle.

There are several types of nicotine replacement therapy; the most common option used is the patch. Normally you start with a higher dose and gradually work your way down over a 6 to 12 week timeframe. One of the things that should be noted, is the amount of nicotine delivered over the 24 hours is often too much for the body to handle and side effects are very common.

One side effect associated with using the patch is the feeling of nausea and breaking out in a cold sweat. Usually this is a sign that the dose of the patch is too high for your body to tolerate. You can either try a lower dose or consider trying a different form of nicotine replacement therapy. The patch has been used by many people successfully, but everybody's body chemistry is different and yours may not be able to adapt to this form of therapy.

Nicotine replacement therapy comes in various forms, things have come a long way from just being a patch. Another form is nicotine gum, which has improved in taste over the years, you no longer have the pepper taste that would linger in your mouth. Now nicotine gum comes in fruit flavors that you can chew without feeling sick. You can control the dosage according to your own withdrawal symptoms.

Another therapy option is the nicotine lozenge, which you can find in a number of flavors. It delivers a low dose of nicotine to your system as it slowly dissolves in your mouth. You are in control of the dosage which you can adjust according to your withdrawals. Normally you can allow 2 to 4 hours in between tablets. You will experience some type of secondary withdrawal symptoms when you wean yourself off of them, but it's worth it when you know that in the end you can be smoke free.

The nicotine inhaler is also a good method for those that need to have something in their hand, which is a common problem among smokers. Again you receive low doses of nicotine, which you inhale through this device that assists you in overcoming you're cravings. And although I have personally not tried this I've spoken to several people who have found this to be really helpful.

The majority of nicotine replacement therapy options is available without prescription nowadays and can easily be picked up at your corner drugstore or supermarket. The advantage would be, not having to have the added expense of going to the doctor, but you still have to expect to pay quite a bit even over the counter. And many of the products have an online support system available along with several forums, in which you can receive support from other people who are also using the product and trying to quit.

Please remember that there are some side effects that come with nicotine replacement therapy. They can vary from insomnia, to a slight headache, to more severe symptoms like nausea, diarrhea or constipation. If the symptoms are not temporary you might want to think about changing the dosage or looking into other therapy options. There are also options out there that are non-nicotine based.

Dipping Tobacco - How To Break The Addiction

If you think smokeless tobacco is "up to snuff" and safe, think again. Whatever you like to call it - spitting, chewing or dipping - it is every bit as harmful as smoking. Many medical researchers believe more so because users are not as aware of the threats. Cancers of the mouth, lips, tongue and throat can rapidly develop in people who use smokeless tobacco and leave grotesque and debilitating - even deadly - results.

Regardless of the painful and dangerous consequences of smokeless tobacco, quitting with conventional means is extremely challenging. Many people believe the reason lies in nicotine, a natural, super toxic chemical found in tobacco that is the plant's defense against being eaten by insects. Analyzing equal quantities, nicotine is more deadly than strychnine or snake venom, and three times more lethal than arsenic.

When dipping, the nicotine makes its way to the brain in less than 10 seconds, where it produces a flood of dopamine, which brings about a soothing sensation. Nicotine also accelerates adrenaline production, so it both energizes and calms. However, the emotional component of smokeless tobacco addiction is much stronger and produces many more challenges to quitting smokeless tobacco than nicotine.

Many users had their first chew as early as nine years old. In just a few months, using smokeless tobacco becomes a fixed habit that produces reliable stress relief. In addition to the psychological conditioning, a social conditioning takes place, as images of many athletes dipping also attract young users.

Knowing that there are individual physical and emotional factors that contribute to a chewing habit makes it easier to develop a plan to prevail smokeless tobacco addiction. Let's look at each element individually and look at effective methods to curb them.

Dipping for Relaxation and Pleasure: Just like using a pacifier to appease a restless baby, over the course of time, people who use tobacco products start to associate putting an object in their mouths with satisfaction and relaxation. Curbing the effects of tobacco usage involves addressing all aspects of the addiction.

Tobacco Dipping is a Conditioned Response: The classic illustration of a conditioned response relates to Pavlov and his dogs, which were trained to anticipate food - and thus began salivating - after a bell was rung. In accordance, if, for example, you always use chewing tobacco after each meal, you will consequently acquire a craving to chew when you get finished eating.

In your mind, the images of pushing the plate away and laying down your napkin may be linked to using snuff, even though you are not conscious of it. Developing awareness of the trigger images or situations can help you overcome cravings.

The Physical Addiction to Nicotine, But … : In spite of the intense addiction, medical professionals maintain that the physical component of nicotine addiction is quelled after people quit using tobacco for a week. It's my firm belief that nicotine addiction comprises a scant 10 percent of smokeless tobacco dependency. Therefore, 90 percent of the battle to quit dipping is overcoming the emotional and mental components. So what does this mean for people like you who wish to quit?

Quitting becomes much easier if you are able to:

A. Address and remove the anxiety and tension that compels you to use smokeless tobacco
B. Cancel the conditioned responses to chew in particular settings

But how does a person conquer those issues?

Self-hypnosis offers a way to address the emotional and psychological factors of the addiction while eliminating struggles, which will eliminate the withdrawal symptoms. When we realize how self-hypnosis works, it makes the decision to quit dipping much easier to take on.

When people dip for relaxation and pleasure, it is to calm anxious feelings. People often play the same images over in their heads, like a bad film, which leaves them feeling very stressed. Using self-hypnosis and various Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) techniques, you retrain your brain to immediately and naturally stop stress-inducing images and trade them with soothing pictures and mental movies. This creates satisfaction and relaxation while eradicating cravings and oral compulsions. You lose the urge to put the chew in your mouth, and you will not get any urge to substitute food in its place. This suppresses weight gain.

In order to resist the conditioned response of chewing smokeless tobacco, the NLP Flash technique erases the associations of dipping during certain activities or situations. This means your subconscious will no longer trigger the compulsion. Further, the Flash can even be used to create a compulsion to reject smokeless tobacco.

Employing specific and strategic NLP methods makes the decision to quit dipping smokeless tobacco very easy and painless by avoiding cravings, withdrawal and weight gain. The method depends on training the unconscious mind to follow the same thought patterns that produce your mental addiction to smokeless tobacco in the first place, to eliminate the compulsion.

Your brain is a powerful tool—far more powerful than an addiction. With commitment and the help of self-hypnosis and NLP, you can quit smokeless tobacco forever.

Easy Ways To Break A Smokeless Habit With NLP

The addiction to smokeless tobacco is easily as dangerous and debilitating as the addiction to smoking cigarettes. In fact, many experts think that it is even more insidious. It has been glamorized by highly paid sports heroes who chew, and many have started their addiction as early as the age of 9. And by the time that many of these children turn 18, they are devastated by mouth and throat cancer, and may be dying.

While a person with lung cancer can look normal, the face of a victim of mouth cancer can be an awful sight. Imagine how a face looks after having a jawbone cut out, or the lips or tongue surgically removed. Usually the surgical butchering of the victim's face is all for nothing, because many die within a year or so anyway.

Doctors tell us that the physical part of the Nicotine addiction is broken after abstaining for seven days. But the psychological part of the addiction is far stronger and may take a much longer time and a lot more effort to overcome, which makes it very difficult to give up smokeless tobacco.

There are three individual elements contained in a chewing habit. Two of the components are emotional/mental, and only one part is physical.

Part A: YOU DIP FOR RELAXATION AND PLEASURE.

When you were a baby and you got restless, your mother would put a nipple into your mouth to distract you from that upset. You would get distracted, become calm, and often fall asleep. That sequence of events was repeated thousands of times so that your unconscious mind was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get relaxation and pleasure from it.

Now that you are an adult, if you feel upset, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - chewing tobacco!

Part B: DIPPING IS A CONDITIONED RESPONSE.

Remember Pavlov? He rang a bell every time that he fed his dogs. After a few repetitions, all he had to do was to ring the bell, and that would make the dogs salivate.

When you connect together chewing with any other behavior, the other behavior will trigger cravings for smokeless tobacco and a compulsion to chew. This is called a conditioned response.

For example: If you chew when you see someone else chewing smokeless tobacco, you will automatically get an urge to chew each time you see someone else chewing smokeless tobacco.

Here is exactly how this conditioned response gets programmed into your unconscious: If a person dips smokeless tobacco and simultaneously drives a car, the mind takes a snapshot of the smokeless tobacco in the hand, and connects it to the image of the steering wheel, dashboard, or view out the windshield, etc.. Thereafter, every time the person drives the car, her unconscious mind fills in the missing part of the picture. It flashes an image of the smokeless in the hand coming towards the mouth, and the dipper gets a craving for smokeless tobacco.

You may be unaware of the mental movie of the smokeless tobacco, because it may only be at the unconscious level of mind. Just as you are unaware of what you are seeing through your peripheral vision until something draws your attention to it. But the image is there, creating a craving for smokeless.

Part C: THERE IS A PHYSICAL ADDICTION TO NICOTINE, BUT . . .

I've worked face-to-face with several thousand people who are addicted to tobacco and I give you my guarantee that the physical addiction to smokeless tobacco is the weakest part of the addiction to smokeless. In fact, I believe that it is only ten percent of the addiction to tobacco. 90% of the addiction are the mental and emotional parts! (Parts A and B).

HERE IS WHAT THIS MEANS TO A PERSON WHO CHEWS AND WHO WANTS TO QUIT.

What this means is that after you have eliminated the feeling of tension that makes you put dip into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure (Part A) . . . and if you can extinguish the conditioned response of feeling urges for chew when watching TV, driving, or finishing a meal, etc. (Part B) . . . then you can give up smokeless without requiring willpower, and without experiencing withdrawal symptoms or weight-gain.

Hypnosis will make it easy to stop chewing because it takes care of Parts A & B! Here is how:

Part A is where people chew smokeless tobacco for relaxation and pleasure. It's your thoughts that create feelings of anxiety. Moreover, people constantly play mental movies in their mind's eye. If the movie is negative, it brings on a feeling of stress.

We can use different NLP and Hypnosis methods to program the subconscious to instantly and automatically take those stress producing mental images, and quickly exchange them for relaxation producing mental pictures and movies. This produces relaxation and pleasure, and eliminates the stress that creates the oral cravings and compulsions for chewing.

Because of the elimination of tension, the person who is quitting does not experience the compulsion or need to substitute food in place of the chewing tobacco. So quitting without weight gain is possible.

Breaking the addiction to smokeless tobacco is very similar to overcoming the addiction to food, cigarettes, and nail biting. I have many additional original articles on these topics in my article repository.

Part B is where you dip tobacco because dipping smokeless becomes a conditioned response to many different activities and locations. Remember in the earlier example how smoking became unconsciously associated with other activities and environments so that each time people get into that activity or environment, the mind flashes an image of smokeless tobacco in your hand, and the image of the smokeless tobacco in your hand creates an urge to chew smokeless tobacco?

There are efficient and powerful NLP and hypnosis technologies that can effortlessly extinguish those conditioned responses so that your subconscious will lose the cravings for dip, and the compulsion to chew smokeless tobacco. As a matter of fact, you can even get a compulsion to reject dipping smokeless tobacco.

IN SUMMARY

In summation, by utilizing certain hypnotic techniques, it can be very easy to quit dipping smokeless tobacco without withdrawal or weight gain. And many of these methodologies do not even require post-hypnotic suggestions. They depend on programming the unconscious mind to use the same thought processes that the unconscious is using to create the addiction to dipping smokeless tobacco, to eliminate the mental addiction.

Vaporization: An Alternative Approach to Quitting Cigarettes

It seems that new approaches to quitting cigarettes surface every day. From hypnosis to acupuncture, people are willing to try anything that will help rid them of the health issues associated with smoking. While most studies show that quitting cold turkey is the most effective technique, it is also the most difficult. Many potential quitters just need a little outside help.

The two smoking cessation aids that have received the most press and have reputations for being effective are nicotine patches and nicotine gum. At the heart of both these methods is the idea of changing how the nicotine is delivered. By not having to smoke tobacco to receive its ingredient (nicotine), the negative health effects of smoking are averted.

While these two approaches have worked for many quitters, for some there is a propensity to slip up and smoke in conjunction with the use of the patch or gum. One of the reasons most commonly cited for this tendency is that while the person is receiving the nicotine they want, they miss the process and social aspects of smoking.

For some smokers, taking a break to go have a cigarette is what gets them through the workday and popping a piece of gum is just not the same. Similarly, some failed quitters have noted that they miss the social component of smoking while out with friends, especially if they are around smokers. For these people, a relatively new approach - tobacco vaporization - may be the ticket to finally quitting cigarettes.

Tobacco vaporization is a new smoking alternative that is quickly gaining popularity. Vaporizing or vaporization is the process of passing hot air (generated by a vaporizer) through plant material and inhaling the resulting vapor. By precisely controlling the air temperature, vaporizers are able to generate vapor containing nicotine. However, this vapor does not contain the harmful carcinogens and tars that are found in smoke. This is due to the fact that vaporizing releases the active ingredients at a much lower temperature than the point of combustion so no carbon is burned.

To vaporize you simply need tobacco and a vaporizer. There is a wide range of vaporizers available today, but all of them have some sort of filling chamber or disk where the tobacco is placed. Users can either fill this chamber with their favorite pure tobacco or buy pre-filled disks from the manufacturer of the vaporizer. When the hot air generated from the vaporizer passes through the chamber or disk filled with the tobacco the nicotine is released for consumption.

There are about 25 vaporizer models on the market today ranging from 50 bucks to almost $700. Many models feature digital temperature control and rechargeable batteries, giving users complete control over when, where and how they vaporize their tobacco. Some units have balloon systems where vapor bags can be shared between friends, while other units are “direct inhale” and more suited for personal use. The best part for many quitters is that the process of vaporizing is more satisfying then using a patch or gum; there is both a ritualistic and social component that is clearly lacking in other smoking cessation aids.

Vaporization is similar to other non-carcinogenic tobacco delivery systems in that the user receives the desired components of the plant without the harmful byproducts of inhaling smoke. What may ultimately make vaporizing more effective is its ability to fill the non-chemical voids that quitting can leave as well.

When Quitting Smoking Leads To Nicotine Gum Addiction

People who are trying to quit smoking cigarettes use nicotine chewing gum. It is a substitute for oral activity and provides a source of nicotine that reduces the withdrawal symptoms experienced when smoking is stopped. However, some people who have successfully stopped their smoking habit are turning out to be addicted to the nicotine gum itself.
We don't have to fully understand all the hazards that smoking cigarette brings just for us to realize that indeed we need to quit the habit. And those in the know say that cigarette smoke has over 4000 chemicals in it, 40 of which are known carcinogens. On top of that, at least 200 of those chemicals are flat out poisonous. Inhaling second hand smoke kills, that is why smokers are in greater risk of its hazardous effects because they breathe in both mainstream and sidestream smoke. And while cigarette smoke is worse than nicotine in itself, it does not discount the fact that nicotine is a harmful drug.
Long term use of nicotine may lead to cancer. It also affects how our bodies function by putting stress on the heart and increases blood pressure. According to the reports of The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, nicotine harms the linings of our arteries which leads to the build-up of plaque, thus, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Moreover, nicotine suppresses insulin output creating a hypoglycemic condition.
Nicotine chewing gum is a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) product. It can be a perfect quit aid for some people as it already helped many thousands of people stop smoking successfully. It isn't easy to quit from smoking and having a wide variety of quit aid options to get clear of this addiction ultimately means more lives saved.
However, some quitters are getting addicted to the nicotine chewing gums and lozenges that they find it hard to quit from the new habit.
NRTs are not intended for long-term use. It is not only expensive to maintain but the gum can also potentially stick to and damage dental work. Pregnant and nursing women, as well as people taking certain medications may also be advised against using nicotine products due to the side effects such as headaches, hiccups, sore jaw and hives.
Though chewing a couple of pieces of nicotine gum everyday is a much better choice over smoking a stick of cigarette, treat it the way you would a prescription drug. Use it as per instruction by your doctor and follow the product directions. Proper use can ease the discomforts of recovery from nicotine addiction. Everything in life has some level of risk. NRT’s are not excluded.
Be sure to wean yourself off of the product in the time period suggested. Remaining dependent on nicotine, regardless of the form it comes in, may lead to an increased risk of a smoking relapse. Moreover, as in the case with habit-forming drugs, tolerance will increase over time and so will the intake.
According to Lynn T. Kozlowski, Interim Dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo, “The problem is not that people use it too much. The greater problem is that they use it too little. People use it for a week, and then they are back to smoking cigarettes.”
Smoking cessation experts said that although nicotine therapy doubles a smoker’s chance of successfully kicking the habit, use of the products remains relatively low. Most people often find nicotine gums and lozenges having unpleasant taste. And the thought that nicotine is what makes cigarettes harmful also keep them from trying the gum.
The goals of most therapists is to get more people to try NRTs as an aid to help them kick the smoking habit. Although a few people may get hooked on the nicotine products, managing to stop smoking is a good sign that you can eliminate your dependence on the NRTs as well.
Susan Zafarlotfi, Clinical Director of the Breath and Lung Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey said that once someone has stopped smoking, she tries to encourage patients hooked on nicotine gum to start substituting real gum from time to time. “You may get a placebo effect,” she noted.
Suffice it to say that nicotine is a poison, and that the human body is much better off without it, nevertheless, the shot of nicotine you get from the gum is definitely small in comparison to smoking.

Smoking: Taking You A Step Closer To Oropharyngeal Cancer

Smoking, they say, is the leading cause of lung cancer world-wide. A recent study shows that, in the United States alone, 157,200 people have died of smoking-related lung cancer. Some of which are caused directly by smoking, and some due to second hand smoke. However the effect of smoking does not only stop at lung cancer.

Smoking and cancer

Statistics show that smoking attributes to 54% of mouth cancers, 50% of esophageal cancers, and 70% of cancer of the larynx. And also, in relation to men and women’s sexual health, smoking increases risks of cervical cancer by 19 to 80% depending on the frequency of consumption, and it also increases risks of penile cancer by 50%.

These numbers certainly prove that smokers are at a bigger likelihood to develop a lot of different kinds of cancers as compared to non-smokers. Male smokers have a 20% increased chances of developing lung cancer while women have a 13% increased risk.

Tobacco smoke is composed of four thousand different harmful substances, chemicals, and toxins. Sixty out of those four thousand chemicals are known to cause cancer. These cancer causing toxins are mainly found in tar that smokers inhale from a cigarette. About 70% of that tar stays inside the lungs. Studies have shown that benzpyrene, one of the carcinogens found in tar, damages and slowly destroys genes responsible for fighting cancer causing cells and subsequently prevent development of cancerous tumors. In almost 60% of smoking-induced cancers, these genes were seen to be damaged.

Oral or throat cancer

Oropharyngeal cancer may involve the lips, mouth, tongue, gums, salivary glands, esophagus, larynx, thyroid glands, and/or the cells lining the throat. Its earliest symptom may be a pale lump inside the mouth that will not seem to heal. An estimated 7,000 Americans die of oropharyngeal cancer yearly. Smoking may cause cancer development in the mouth alone, on the throat alone, or a combination of both. Symptoms of oropharyngeal cancer may include the following:

o A sore in your mouth that doesn't heal or increases in size.
o Persistent pain in your mouth.
o Lumps or white, red or dark patches inside your mouth.
o Thickening of your cheek.
o Difficulty chewing or swallowing or moving your tongue.
o Difficulty moving your jaw, or swelling or pain in your jaw.
o Soreness in your throat or feeling that something is caught in your throat.
o Pain around your teeth, or loosening of your teeth.
o Numbness of your tongue or elsewhere in your mouth.
o Bad breath.
o A swelling or lump in the throat.
o A persistent cough.
o Blood-flecked phlegm.
o The sensation of something permanently stuck in the throat.
o Voice changes, such as persistent hoarseness or huskiness.
o Throat pain.
o Referred pain into the ears.
o Swallowing difficulties.
o Breathing difficulties.
o Swollen lymph glands.
o Gastrointestinal disorders, such as excessive reflux, diarrhea or constipation.

Treatment

Treatment of oropharyngeal cancer will depend on the size, type, and location of the cancer and whether it has already spread. It may include one or a combination of the following:

o Surgery. This includes surgical removal of the tumor and its affected organs. The amount of tissue to be removed may depend on the size of the tumor and the mass it has already affected.
o Radiation therapy. This includes exposing the cancer causing cells to small, precise doses of radiation.
o Chemotherapy. It involves the use of cancer cell-killing medications that is used in conjunction to radiation therapy.
o Long term monitoring. This may include regular examinations and x-rays to check that the cancer has not come back.
o Rehabilitation therapy. This includes assistance from health professionals such as dietitians, speech therapists, and physiotherapists to regain motor functions of the affected areas.

The best way to avoid getting yourself into this situation is to avoid smoking. It is understandable that this will be difficult to do if you’re a chain smoker. Cutting back on cigarette consumption may help to gradually get you into the path to being smoke free. All it takes in enough will power and discipline to keep yourself healthy and cancer-free.

Why Stop Smoking: The Real Reasons to Give up Smoking

If you're a smoker, you're possibly ill to death of the anti-cigarette lobby spiraling out identical old words just about how you're harming your body plus physical condition. You're not an idiot, you know all these facts. Heck, you'd be hard-pressed not to familiar with the information providing you have a huge serious warning call smashed in your face on every occasion you look into a packet of cigarettes. You know that smoking can induce infertility, lung cancer, and emphysema plus heart complication.

So why do the anti-smoking lobby persist to toss out a similar warnings? I suppose their theory is that if you pay attention to the information sufficient times, then ultimately it will profoundly slap home. On the other hand if you're likewise smoking, subsequently needless to say their tactics are failing. As a previous cigarette enthusiast myself, I can absolutely empathies with the smoker's exasperation. How can these persons, who in all prospects have never undergone the addiction of tobacco, imagine fit to lecture them? "Why discontinue smoking" is a query which is almost all the time suddenly met with the health reply, except for reasons I will later on expand on, this is entirely the incorrect query to offer the smoker with.

Every smoker knows that the tobacco practice is damaging for their fitness. That's a given, however of course they endure to smoke. This is where anti-smokers run out of ideas along with develop into dumbfounded, since they cannot imagine earlier period the fitness matter. Nonetheless, all smokers in addition to past smokers understand that the humble cigarette presents a hundred daily uses. We believe that smoking alleviates uneasiness, tastes good after meals, acts as a time-passer during talks along with nights out, a generate for creativity or meditation. There genuinely is a large quantity of reasons why smokers persist whatsoever they do.

These are the "reasons" that compel the smoker to go on the behavior, as well as this physical condition campaigners disappoint to figure out. The secret is this: smokers do not taste reasons to stop; they need fewer reasons to go on.

If the smoker can debunk the reasons they use to stick to cigarettes, afterward they will have increasingly less desire to essentially smoke. "Why discontinue smoking" is not the query the smoker should be posing themselves, on the other hand relatively "Why endure smoking?" The smoker needs to make a list of the reasons why they think smoking is an essential part of their each day lives, and at that time thoroughly review - and debunk - each ground separately.

It is totally eminent to figure out this important dissimilarity. The smoker will never be pushed into backing down, along with nor ought they to be. Smokers are human, likewise are addressed plus made to perceive like second-class citizens. The fitness dispute easily isn't a cumbersome enough weight to tip the scales opposed to all the other reasons the smoker has to continue the behavior. If the smoker needs to give up, they must make effort backwards, posing themselves how they have altered since they originally set out to the practice as well as questioning whatsoever smoking has genuinely done for them. If the smoker can do this, their coincidences of at last thumping the practice are conceivable to augment tenfold.

Let's evaluate many of the reasons why we prefer to go on to smoke, as well as whatever a cessation can do for us. At the beginning, there is the topic of procrastination. Several smokers rely on that cigarettes grant bursts of creativity, or even act as a modest sedative in the course of times of discomfort. The whole story is that smoking clogs up the cardiovascular structure plus, so, smokers find themselves repeatedly short of breath plus sapped of all strength. This lack of energy in turn is closely whatsoever can sway procrastination.

Secondly, there is the belief we need cigarettes as a social prop. This squabble is one among the most toughened to debunk, but there are a few good reasons we can look into. For starters, we all have our male role models; along with its really unlikely they smoke. Achieves their lack of smoking status make them any less cool, delightful or inspirational? Scarcely, if anything, it strengthens their status as a role model. Subsequently we can effortlessly look just about us plus imagine the immense majority of persons enjoying their socializing without the need to smoke; if they can do it, afterward undoubtedly the smoker can too.

In the end, we can look at the twist of change blowing through our population - communal smoking bans are being administered everywhere the west, plus it's competently an issue of time sooner than smoking officially becomes an anti-smoking habit. Whereas smoking may have looked cool many decades ago, it will certainly look like the resort of the weak-willed in a number of months whilst smokers are huddled outside bars as well as pubs in all weather having a smoke.

Those are just two "smoking reasons" which have been un-winded with a few minutes of believed. If the smoker can spend many hours assessing their evident need to smoke, then they will possibly get a hold of dozens several legitimate questions as to why they should stop smoking. Dropping out smoking is such an incredible present for the individual - one can re-claim fitness, healthiness, taste, money in addition to pride in an entirely short period of time. No definite resolutions have to be compelled to be intended, but smokers should admit themselves to inspect what living would be like on the other side.

How To Keep Your Teenagers Smoke-Free

A recent study made on teenage smoking came up with a figure of approximately 4.5 million adolescent smokers in the United States alone. And that everyday, roughly six thousand children below eighteen years of age begin to smoke. Out of that six thousand children, two thousand will grow up to become regular smokers. One survey says that approximately ninety percent of smokers began smoking before they reached the age of twenty-one.

To some teenagers, smoking may begin as an innocent experiment, to some it is their own way of expressing rebellion, but it may develop into a lifelong habit that can be difficult to quit. It has been proven that adolescents who regularly smoke have just hard time dropping the habit. And they say that the best way to get kids to stop smoking is to not get them started on the habit in the first place.

Here are some tips that can help keep your adolescent children away from the smoking habit:
l Seek out the reason. Teenagers have different reason to get into smoking. Some do it just to test what it feels like to smoke, some do it because of peer pressure, some in an attempt to feel cool or independent, some because they want to fit in to a certain group, and some do it because they are rebelling. It may be surprising but some teens smoke in an attempt to lose weight or feel better about themselves. It would be easier to know how to deal with the problem if you know and understand the reason behind it.
l Just say “no”. Telling your kids that smoking is not allowed may be more helpful than you think. A recent study showed that teenagers who thought that their parents would not like to hear of them smoking were less than half as likely to smoke as compared to adolescents who thought their parents didn't mind.
l Be a good role model. To make your children believe that smoking is bad, set yourself as a good example. Teen smoking is more common among adolescents who are used to seeing their parents smoke. If you smoke, avoid smoking in front of your children, or don't leave your cigarettes where your children can find them.
l Tap into your teen's vain side. Although movies may depict smoking as something glamorous and macho, the truth is, it isn't. Remind your teenagers that smoking is a smelly and dirty habit--- it leaves yellow stain on your teeth, stench on your hair and clothes, and bad breath.
l Do the math. Smoking is an expensive vice. Show your teens how much smoking costs on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Compare smoking costs to electronic gadgets, clothes, and other teen essentials to make them understand that they can use that money on other important things instead of buying cigarettes.
l Explain cigarette addiction clearly. A lot of teenage smokers believe that they can quit anytime they want, but that isn't always true. Teens can become just as addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes as adults do. A recent study shows that of adolescents who've smoked at least a hundred cigarettes, most of them would like to quit but are finding it difficult to do so.
l Tell your kids what's in store. Inform your children o the long-term consequences of smoking – lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Not to mention the chronic coughing and other pulmonary tract concerns.

The best way to make your kids understand that they should stop smoking is not by giving threats or ultimatums, instead show them that you're concerned about their well-being. Be supportive, encourage them that even if they may find quitting difficult, in the long run, with perseverance and will power, they will be able to quit the habit and live a smoke-free and healthy life.

Protecting Your Children From Secondhand Smoke

In the United States alone, smoking has been named the single most preventable cause of early deaths. Around four hundred thousand Americans die because of cigarette smoking yearly. And approximately three thousand non-smokers acquire lung cancer and die because of second hand smoke.

Second hand smoke
Second hand smoke is a combination of the smoke emitted by a burning cigarette, pipe or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from smoker's lungs. This smoke lingers in the air hours after the cigarette has been put out. Continued exposure to second hand smoke can cause a variety of ill effects to your health. It has been proven as a cause of lung cancer, other respiratory tract infections, and ear infection for children.

Second hand smoke and its effects
Children of different ages are the most common victims of second hand smoking. In most cases, they are exposed to it at home, sometimes even before they’re born. It is during pregnancy and childhood that a baby’s organs start developing. Exposure to second hand smoke during this period of growth may seriously deter proper development of the lungs and brain, among other vital organs.

A growing fetus inside a smoking woman’s womb may have an increased risk of having birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, and low birth weight. Certain instances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) have also been noted to have been attributed to maternal smoking. Studies have shown that infants who have died of SIDS have higher nicontine concentration in their lungs as compared to infants that have died of other causes. It has also been reported that breast milk production decreases for smoking mothers.

A recent study has linked second hand smoking to middle ear infection or otitis media. This is more common in children who’ve had continuous exposed to second hand smoke during the first three years of life. The inhaled second hand smoke may cause an irritation to the Eustachian tube which connects the back of the nose to the middle ear. This irritation may cause swelling and obstruction of the Eustachian tube, which then causes an imbalance of pressure equalization in the middle ear. This may cause fluid retention and infection in the middle ear which can be very painful to a child. If diagnosed and treated early it is totally curable, but if treatment is delayed, it could even lead to a permanent hearing ability reduction.

Little kids often acquire childhood asthma because they are exposed early to second hand smoke, and it worsens with continued exposure. Aside from asthma, children may also develop sinusitis, cystic fibrosis, and chronic respiratory diseases with continued inhalation of second hand smoke. Kids affected by second hand smoke may also have difficulty coping with bronchitis and pneumonia.

Prevention
The best way to avoid giving your child all these complications is to quit smoking. It will not only benefit your body by getting rid of the nicotine in your system, it will also help your children and future children live a healthier life as well. If you really have difficulty quitting smoking, avoid doing it in an enclosed area, or any place where there is a large concentration of people, and never do it near your children. Always take into consideration that you're not only responsible for you own life, but for other people’s well being as well, especially those you love most.

Can Alzheimers be Prevented?

Alzheimer’s disease is a condition affecting up to 4.5 million Americans. While there is no known cure, studies have been conducted that indicate there may be ways of preventing the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

The disease is characterized by symptoms such as forgetfulness, memory loss, and reduced ability to concentrate, and in later stages the sufferer may display anxiety and delusions, loss of speech and inability to sit up or walk. It is a slow disease with symptoms manifesting and worsening over the period of many years.

The now famous, groundbreaking “nun study” went a long way toward identifying characteristics that would indicate the likelihood of Alzheimer’s onset later in life. 100 nuns have been studied over a period of fifteen years, beginning in 1991. Over the course of those years, their genes have been tested and analyzed, physical balance and strength charted, and cognitive tests run to determine how many words the women could remember several minutes after reading them, how many animals they could name in a minute, and if they could correctly count coins. The research shows that people who scored lower on cognitive ability tests when young were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s later in life. Early cognitive ability was measured based on writings done by the nuns while in their early 20’s. Those showing more “idea density” – the number of ideas expressed in the fewest number of words – and better linguistic and grammar skills had a much lower incidence of Alzheimer’s later in life. Scientists are of the opinion that good cognitive skills early on creates a sort of “neurocognitive reserve” which will be drawn on later, effectively preventing Alzheimer’s. Exercising and improving cognitive skills via writing, reading and learning – anything that stimulates the brain – may go a long way toward active, clearheaded and graceful aging.

There are a number of other things, as well, that you can do to help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. Many of these prevention techniques involve limbering the mind and working on memory skills long before Alzheimer’s onset is a danger. Just having a mentally stimulating job that involves creative thinking or manipulation of data is shown to have a connection to lower incidence of Alzheimer’s later in life. Doing crossword puzzles and playing card games were found to have a significant positive impact on later mental dexterity. Employ memorization techniques used by actors. Actors don’t merely memorize a series of words. They also combine appropriate movements, and evaluate the intent behind the words to be delivered. This “active-experiencing” method of memorization was shown to also improve the memory and cognitive skills in older people who were taught the technique. Limbering your mind now may promote a limber mind in your latter years.

Proper diet and exercise promote good health in general and may ward off countless problems including Alzheimer’s onset. The addition of fish oils, Vitamin E, and Vitamin C to the diet have all shown to contribute to a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s. Keeping cholesterol at a healthy level prevents build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain – a characteristic in Alzheimer’s. Finally, physical activity has been shown to prevent deposits in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Exercise your mind and body, and make good lifestyle choices, as the only “cure” for Alzheimer’s as yet, is prevention. While there is believed to be a genetic component which would predispose someone to the risk of Alzheimer’s, awareness, early planning and mental exercise, and smart dietary choices may aid to reduce your likelihood of developing this mysterious and debilitating disease. A healthy mind and a healthy body now will make for a healthy mind and body later.

Medicare, Social Security and Retirement

Everything keeps changing, how do I keep up? Why is there so many choices? This is common question and concerns of most seniors today. The cost of health and prescriptions is higher today for seniors, averaging over $500.00 a month.

With fixed incomes, and comfortable retirements slipping away. Retirement is re defining itself. The days of a lifetime pension and 401ks are being wiped out. You must think and live different than our Mothers and Fathers did before us. The nest egg is under attack with high health rates, limited 401k's and lack of pension plans from former employment. Some day Social Security may not be available. What are we to do?

Washington State - 12/29/2005 - Medicare, Social Security and Retirement Today a person coming to retirement must study and understand their future goals. A plan must be in place. Some may have to work part time to assist their retirement funds, and some maybe able to live from rare pension plans and investments. Education is the key. Classes, Seminars and home study is available and necessary.

Here are a few items to cover:
- How do the changes for 2006 affect me?
- What do you need to understand about the new Medicare plans.
- How do I plan for retirement.
- Can you plan on your pension?

Business Subjects That affect Retirement:
- How do I manage my portfolio.
- What investment should you consider?
- What do you need to know about Social Security and Medicare.

There is a few sites provided for you to understand Social Security, Medicare and Retirement better, at http://www.medicare-search-online.com , http://www.socailsecuritydata.com and http://www.retirementonlinefind.com . You can also email ssn@nwcustomwebs.com with any of your questions.

Healthy Aging Suggestions

Youth is transient and aging is a natural process. However, it is also true that we all wish to remain youthful and healthy forever. All of us dislike the sufferings and miseries of illnesses of aging. Yet we all will age in the course of time. So, the amicable solution to the reality of aging and the cherished desire to stay fit always is to age gracefully while remaining fit, fine and healthy. Practicable steps for promoting the health and well-being should be adopted while the process of aging continues.

Criteria for healthy aging

Healthy aging involves promoting of all round care for ensuring the well-being of the individual. This comprises of physical fitness, social well being, financial security and mental fitness. This ascertains that you, the individual concerned, is never feeling bad or let down with the progress of years leading to your aging.

Promoting health and physical fitness

Regular exercising, maintaining a healthy diet with adequate balance of all nutrients- vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats, and leading a stress free life are the essentials for maintaining good health through all ages. Morning walks, consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, vitamin and mineral supplements, participation in recreational activities, games etc. and adequate rest and sleep are suggested. An occasional visit to a qualified physician for checkup needs to be made and suggested tests are to be carried out. In case any major illness is suspected, proper and thorough diagnosis needs to be done and treatments undertaken accordingly.

Fostering social well being

Old age and a retired life is the ripe time for socializing and participating in various activities of social interest. You can join clubs, associations and even political parties as per your aptitude. You can pursue traveling if it interests you and wander about in the world extensively to meet various people and expand your knowledge and mind. You may even take up some freelance work if you wish. Involving yourself in various community welfare programs will also keep you occupied while promoting well being of society.

Ensuring financial security

Retired life or old age cannot be enjoyable if financial security is not there. This serves as a support for everything you do. However, this often needs to be planned and carried out beforehand, in advance. Some measures can, however, even be taken after retirement and senior citizens may conveniently avail of several plans and programs which may be especially provided by various authorities for them. These plans and/or programs need to be thoughtfully and judiciously carried out or opted for.

Maintaining mental fitness

Staying mentally healthy and youthfully is very important. The very thought of aging makes you feel old. You must never let depression take the better of your sensibilities. Indulging in hobbies, recreation, intellectual pursuits, social services etc. keep the mind fresh and young. Exercising both body and mind regularly and eating healthily will go a long way to keep you free from serious mental diseases like Alzheimer's disease. Thinking positively and actively seeking variety and challenge in day-to-day life will definitely maintain a young mind in an aging yet healthy body.

How to keep yourself young and healthy

The aging process is for the greater part no mystery anymore. It consists for a great part of daily damages done on the macroscopic, tissue, cellular and genetic levels. These add up as the years are passing. These damages have specific causes like oxidating agents, sun beams, mechanical wear and tear, psychological stress, lack of some nutritional components and too much of others, like fat.

Another component of aging is the reduction of the telomere chains at the chromosome ends, as each cell division occurs. When these are shortened enough, cells stop dividing. However, the body has means to repair these ends again, with an enzyme called telomerase. The rapidity of the aging process depends on lack of efficiency in this repair process. The above mention aging causes also slow down this repair process.

The factors causing aging, also causes other diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease. Both aging and these diseases can in great extend be prevented with the knowledge possessed today, and the damages can in great extend be reversed. The components to achieve this are:

-Adequate daily food containing whole cereals, peas, beans, vegetables, fruit, fish, mushrooms, fouls and seafood, and with just a moderate amount of red meat.

-Just a moderate amount of fat.

-Ideally most fat one eats, should be of the type mono-unsaturated. One also needs some poly-unsaturated fat of the types omega-3, and omega 6, but not too much of omega-6. The consumption of saturated fat should be very little.

- In order to achieve right fat balance, most of the fat supply should come from sources like olive, peanuts, canola, fish, nuts, sun- flower, etc. Then you will get a good balance between mono- unsaturated fat (olive, canola, peanuts), poly-unsaturated fat of the omaga-3-type (fish) and poly-unsaturated fat of the omega-6-type (sunflower).

-Just a very moderate amount of butter, soy oil, margarine, corn oil and palm oil. A high consumption of these fat sources gives you too much saturated fat and poly-unsaturated omega-6-fat.

-Just a very moderate amount of sugar, refined flour or refined cereals.

-Do not add more salt to the food than you need. Most people consume too much salt. However, some salt is needed. If the weather is warm and you are in high activity, you need more salt than by cold weather and low activity. Prefer sea-salt, because of its content of valuable minerals.

-Just a moderate consumption of tranquilizers/stimulants as alcohol and caffeine, but in moderate amounts these contribute to slow down the aging process.

-No smoking or tobacco usage.

-Supplements of specific nutritional components like vitamins, minerals, lecithin and some essential fatty acids.

-Adequate training that both gives a muscular load, work up your condition and stretches out your body. To stretch out, yoga-exercises are ideal.

-Adequate rest and stress-reduction. Daily meditation is a method of achieving this. Natural relaxing agents or specific tools for meditation or relaxation may also be useful.

-Supplements of specific anti-aging agents like anti-oxidants or human growth hormone.

-Use of specific anti-aging agents to apply upon the skin surface.

-To protect the skin against excessive sun exposure.

The amount one needs of nutritional supplements, like vitamins and minerals, differs very much according to a person’s health condition, work load and exposure to environmental stress. A person having a poor digestion, doing high performance sport or being exposed to a high amount of environmental stressors, may need more than a person in an average situation.

Overview regarding the male menopause

Opinions are still mixed when it comes to male menopause, some saying it exists some saying it doesn’t. The majority of scientists and doctors think that the thing responsible for all the nasty symptoms that men feel is actually the gradual decrease of the male hormone testosterone. This happens over time with the aging of the patient. Studies and test done on a number of people show that the rate at witch the level of testosterone decrease in the body are at about 1% every year. Some symptoms related with the loss and low level of testosterone would be depression in many cases often leading to irritability, followed by fatigue and even sexual dysfunction in some cases.

As in the cases of menopause in women, on of the best treatments for this disorder in men would be testosterone replacement therapy. Re calibrating the levels so that a normal life can be lived is very important.

The menopause in men, as described and defined by doctors and scientists, is the actual decrease in the level of testosterone in the male body after middle age. This decrease can lead to depressions, anxiety and even low libido. The term of menopause has also been used in men that are experiencing somewhat of a mid life crisis. The average age when this is most frequent is the late 30 s or the early 40 s. The biggest fact that tends to dismiss the male menopause is the fact that, different from women, the action happens gradually over time , not in a more sudden way as women experience it. Also the loss of a function of the body is again not present like in case women losing their ability to have babies.

The certain fact is that testosterone is produced in lower quantities than in normal cases. Studies have shown that along side the decrease of testosterone, the plasma suffers the same thing. This again may lead to some sexual dysfunction. Because it is in our nature to be different one from another, the level that triggers the appearance of the problem may also vary with men.

The fact that the level of testosterone tends to decrease at an average of 1% a year, does not have a medical significance. Still it has been proven that between the ages of 25 and 75 the men is going to certainly lose more than half of his testosterone level.