Severe Hypoglycemia: What to Do

Many of the medications used to treat diabetes may lower your blood sugar too much, resulting in hypoglycemia.

This is typically defined as a blood sugar of <70 mg/dl (3.9 mmol/L).

Once your sugar drops below this value, your body releases hormones, such as epinephrine and glucagon, in an attempt to return your sugar to the normal range.

For every 10 mg/dl (0.6 mmol/l) your sugar drops, the concentration of these hormones doubles.

With their release, the typical symptoms of hypoglycemia ensue: sweating, heart racing, shakes, hunger, head aches and anxiety.

The risk of hypoglycemia is greatest with the sulfonylureas ( examples include Glipizide, Glyburide, and Glimiperide), the meglitinides (Prandin and Starlix), and insulin.

Hypoglycemic risk is significantly reduced with Metformin, the DPP-4 inhibitors (Januvia, Onglyza and Tradjenta), the GLP-1 agonists (Byetta, Victoza, Bydureon), and the thiazolidinediones (Actos).

The hypoglycemic risk of these drugs approaches that of placebo, especially when used alone.

Since the brain requires sugar to function, but is unable to make sugar, low sugar in the blood may result in brain -related symptoms.

These symptoms include personality changes, inappropriate anger, confusion, slurred speech, seizures, and loss of consciousness.

Brain-related changes are most often observed when the blood sugar (BG) is <50 mg/dl (2.8 mmol/L).

It is very unusual for sugars to drop low enough to cause brain-related symptoms, unless food access is limited, since most people eat something as soon as hypoglycemic symptoms occur.

Relief for Eczema

Eczema, is a chronic condition that can make your itchy skin dry and crack in places. The good news, however, is that you can use simple home remedies to help relieve the pain and soothe the itchy discomfort without having to spend a lot of money!

The skin can break out in rash-like patches that come and go. The rash can become red and inflamed with blisters that may leak fluid. If scratched open it will spread to other areas.

Yuk! So, please don’t scratch.

With home remedies you will be feeling better and you be cleared up no time!

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition describes eczema “as a non-contagious inflammation of the skin characterized by redness, itching, and lesions that break open with a clear discharge which becomes encrusted and scaly.”

Now, let’s look at some things that can cause a breakout:

soaps with fragrant or perfumes, alcohol or perfumed lotions

hot, sweaty skin

dry indoor air or wintry air with little moisture

itchy clothing such as wool, dust mites in bed sheets

pollen, mold, mildew, or animal dander

latex (my worst enemy) or rubber gloves

certain jewelry (another culprit of mine)

tobacco smoke

some foods with a tomato base, the acid or certain dairy foods

nutrient deficiencies especially vitamins A and B-6, Zinc, magnesium, iron and essential fatty acids

emotional stress

There are several types that will have different symtoms and causes such as:

Atopic Eczema which is the most common type. Atopy means a family history or predisposition to allergy conditions such as hay fever, asthma and eczema. Runny noses and sneezing, from the allergies, can trigger flare ups.

Relaxation Techniques to Revitalize Body and Mind

We all get to a stage where we’ve just had it. We need a break. Well if a holiday is out of the question, try these relaxation techniques to revitalize your body and mind.

Meditation

Join a local meditation group or buy one of the many instructional CD’s on the market. Be sure to meditate in an environment which is comfortable and with minimal noise and distractions. You may find yourself falling asleep the first few times you try this but it is a great way of relaxing and also provides you with greater concentration skills.

A simple way of relaxing the mind with minimal expense or training is with a method called Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Start by lying on the floor, on your back with your hands by your side, and your eyes closed. Imagine you are at the most relaxing place you could imagine, it may include a tropical island, waterfalls, whatever you find relaxing. Whilst you are thinking about the sight, smell, and sounds of your surrounding take 20 long, deep breathes. Once you’ve reached 20 you will be ready to begin the muscle relaxation. Start at the toes by tightening (contracting) the muscles in the toes for 5 seconds then relax them. As you relax them feel the tension sink from those muscles and escape the body into the ground. Work your way slowly through the body going to the feet, calves, upper thigh, abdominals, hands, arms, chest, shoulders, neck, and then the face. Each time feeling the body sink deeper into the floor as the tension is released from your muscles. Finish with 10 more deep breathes.

Master Cleanse Salt Water Flush Detoxifies the Body

The Master Cleanse diet is not just a way to lose weight. When it was originally created by the late Stanley Burroughs about 50 years ago it was designed as a way to rid the body of toxins stored in it as a result of consuming alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and certain foods.

The detoxification is largely achieved through bowel movements being induced through drinking a salt water flush. This entails mixing one to two tablespoons of sea salt with 25 to 35 ounces of pure water which is at room temperature.

How the drink is introduced into the body varies. Some chug it all down at once to get it over with it, while others have said sipping it through a straw helps them. Suggestions also include adding a bit of lemon juice to the drink to improve the taste. For the best results, it is highly suggested to take the salt water flush on an empty stomach.

The salt water mixture loosens the impacted fecal matter that has built up over the years. Proponents of the system say flushing the system this way is better than via an enema because it cleans the intestinal tracts in their entirety.

Drinking the entire mixture can be a challenge since the stomach likely will shrink from being on the Master Cleanse lemonade diet and having no solid foods for several days. It is important to finish the entire salt water mixture and keep it down.

The solution can not actually be digested by the body so it will be expelled shortly through a movement. These usually occur within a half hour or an hour from when the salt water mixture is consumed. In the first two days of the Master Cleanse saltwater flush, these movements will also expel the remaining solid matter from the digestive tract. It must be realized that since solid food has been removed from the diet the eliminations of waste will mostly be liquid.

Lowering Blood Pressure Without Medication – Physical Activities and Breathing Exercise

In this modern era, more and more people seem to adopt unhealthy lifestyle. The fast paced world nowadays has benefited us but unfortunately it also has brought negative effects when the chaotic work life can lead to depression, and modern appliances tend to make us “lazy” and do less physical activities.

This is why people these days are more prone to diseases such as hypertension or high blood pressure (HBP) that may eventually lead to more serious health conditions such as stroke and heart failure. High blood pressure or hypertension is in fact a “silent killer” because people may not realize that they have it.

If you have hypertension one of the many ways you can do to lower or even normalize it without medication is by being more active physically. Of course you can have a lifestyle change such as changing your diet, stopping smoking as well as alcohol, and reducing salty foodstuff. But another thing that is also important is to do regular physical exercises that will be significant in reducing high blood pressure.

If you do physical exercises, you will have healthier supply of blood to your heart’s muscle tissue so it will get more oxygen and nutrients. As an addition, it will increase HDL (good cholesterol level) and reduce LDL (bad cholesterol level).

The kind of exercises you can do to control high blood pressure is aerobic, which is a rhythmic exercise that will improve your breathing and heart rates. In this case, you don’t need to do complicated and boring exercises. In fact, simple physical activities like mowing the lawn and fun activity like dancing are considered aerobics. The other examples of aerobic activities are walking, swimming, bicycling, stair climbing, etc.

Lowering Blood Pressure Normally

Quite a few people across the world face a problem with hypertension which can lead to a number of other ailments. Most people look to visit a physician and spend a lot of money in trying to keep their blood pressure under control. People do not realize that there are methods which can help in lowering hypertension naturally as well. People will be in a position to enhance their knowledge about this subject if they were to conduct a little research on their own initiative.

There are a number of reasons why people end up with hypertension. It is commonly believed that people who are obese are the only ones susceptible to this problem. However, this is not the case as high blood pressure can even affect a person with an average build. Poor dietary habits, lack of exercise, smoking and an unhealthy lifestyle can also lead to the development of this problem. People may very well think that they will only be in a position to get the blood pressure back under control by choosing to take prescription medications. However, there are methods available which can be adopted and can prove to be equally effective as well.

People facing this problem can definitely be concerned about how they can achieve their objective of lowering hypertension in a natural manner. Things may seem difficult to start with, but once people make a decision about this matter, they will have no difficulties in lowering hypertension without the help of prescription medications.

People will be required to make drastic changes in their lifestyle, apart from following a regimen of exercise regularly in order to keep their blood pressure under control. People that are in the habit of using alcohol or tobacco will be required to stay away from such products in their effort to bring down the level of their blood pressure.

Lower Your Cholesterol and Increase Your Chance of Stroke

Recently, The New York Times published an article entitled – “U.S. calls for major cholesterol reductions” and which was also printed in numerous local papers.

Sounds like a great way to fight heart disease, right?

Let’s take a look at what the article does not tell you about lowering your cholesterol. Because you must understand the effects of artificially lowering your cholesterol levels without implementing other strategies which are crucial to your health.

Because the fact of the matter is the Framingham Heart study – which has followed people for over 5 decades – proved without a doubt that LDL cholesterol is just one of many misleading factors of heart disease.

In fact, LDL cholesterol levels are only a very minor factor of heart disease and only under certain conditions.

Here is a quote from Christie Ballantyne, M.D., a cardiologist from the Baylor College of Medicine – “The majority of people who end up having heart attacks or stroke don’t have high cholesterol.”

Here is another quote from an article in the Red Flags Daily By Malcolm Kendrick, M.D. who talks about the Framingham Study results as published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“There is a direct association between falling cholesterol levels over the first 14 years and mortality over the following 18 years.”

You guessed it, the mortality rate goes UP.

Scientific research has also proved without a doubt that as people lower their LDL cholesterol level, their chances for stroke go up.

Using cholesterol lowering drugs may artificially lower cholesterol levels, however, they will also increase the death rate from stroke. And because of toxicity to the body, you will also face liver and kidney failure.