Saturday, April 30, 2011

Causes of Hemorrhoids

There are various reasons why hemorrhoids occur.  The blood veins in the rectal region will respond to tension in that area.  Yet, the tension may come from different origins and may lead to hemorrhoids to be troublesome and cause pain.  So being well-informed about the different reasons behind hemorrhoids can help you to avoid hemorrhoids from inflicting intolerable pain.


Constipation is the most common cause of hemorrhoids.  Tension in the anal area is caused by bowel movements if constipated.  This will consequently put strain on the blood veins, leading them to become inflamed and irritated.  Bleeding in this area is seen if you are constipated, which is caused by the blood veins responding to the tension from the bowel movements.  In sequence, you may be required to be adept on how to avoid constipation by various means.


After constipation, pregnancy is the most typical reason for hemorrhoids.  There may be different reasons for this.  For instance, the continual tension that is occurring in the blood veins in the rectal area can cause irritation, which in turn the blood veins will work harder as a result of a drastic increase of hormone levels.  This will then put tension on them, resulting from inflammation and irritation.  If a patient is pregnant or is expecting, it is very important that you know that this is a normal part of pregnancy.  However, it is only for a limited period of time and will usually disappear after you have given birth.

Portal Hypertension

Another reason for hemorrhoids is portal hypertension.  This is caused by too much pressure from the blood veins that protrude from the intestines to the liver.  Consequently, this will lead to a smoother bowel movement and pressure from the blood veins and will cause hemorrhoids as a result.  The various kinds of hemorrhoids that happen can lead to irritation and strain, as well as bleeding in the rectal and anal area.

Chronic Venous Insufficiency

This condition happens when the blood veins in the rectal region are delicate, and can easily be damaged.  This put tension on the vessels as they will have to put extra effort.  Basically, the tension is also worsened with prolonged sitting or standing.  If you are overweight, do not exercise habitually, or you are smoking, it can also result to irritated blood veins.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBS)

Inflammatory bowel disease may also cause hemorrhoids.  This happens when you are constipated or have diarrhea, as well as stomach pain from problems with your digestive system.  It may lead to hemorrhoids to react since there is extra tension that is placed on the blood veins.  This is very common if the condition is based on constipation.

If you have hemorrhoids, it is best to seek out the origin of the hemorrhoids and why it is happening.  After that, you can change specific parts of your lifestyle, such as your food intake as well as your physical activity to help avoid the hemorrhoids from being an incessant trouble.  You can learn more about causes of hemorrhoids and ways to cure and prevent them here.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Alternative Energy for the Home

The trend toward homes powered by alternative energy sources, ranging from wind turbines and solar collection cells to hydrogen fuel cells and biomass gases, is one that needs to continue well into the 21st century and beyond.  We have greater need of becoming more energy independent instead of relying on the supply of fossil fuels from unstable nations that are often hostile to us and our interests.  But even beyond this factor, we as individuals need to get “off the grid” and also stop being so reliant on government-lobbying giant oil corporations who, while they are not really involved in any covert conspiracy, nevertheless have a stranglehold on people when it comes to heating their homes (and if not through oil, then heat usually supplied by grid-driven electricity, another stranglehold).

As Remi Wilkinson, Senior Analyst with Carbon Free, puts it, “inevitably, the growth of distributed energy will lead to restructuring the retail electricity market and the generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.  The energy providers may have to diversify their business to make up for revenues lost through household energy microgeneration.”  Ms. Wilkinson is referring to conclusions by a group of UK Analysts, herself included, who call themselves Carbon Free.  Carbon Free has been studying the ever-growing trend toward alternative energy-consuming homes in England and across the Atlantic.  This trend is being driven by ever-more government recommendation and sometimes backing of alternative energy research and development, the rising cost of oil and other fossil fuels, concern about environmental degradation, and the desire to be energy independent.  Carbon Free concludes that, assuming traditional energy prices remain at their current level or rise, microgeneration (meeting all of one's home's energy needs by installing alternative energy technology such as solar panels or wind turbines) will become to home energy supply what the Internet became to home communications and data gathering, and eventually this will have deep effects on the businesses of the existing energy supply companies.


Thursday, April 14, 2011

Chocolate: A Heart Medicine?

An every day ratio of dark bitter chocolate could help prevent heart diseases, according to a study by a team of Swiss Researchers.  Swiss Researchers say that the anti-oxidants from chocolate could help blood veins become smaller and less wide, allowing smoother blood flow.

This research team came to the conclusion after testing a group of 20 volunteers who were smokers without serious health problems.  These subjects were asked not to eat any types of aliments rich in anti-oxidants such as apples, onions, or cabbage, and after that they were given 40 grams of different types of chocolate.

Two hours after consuming the chocolate, the echo-graph showed that dark chocolate, with a cocoa percent of at least 74%, significantly improved blood flow.  Additionally, ulterior tests showed that the risk of encountering blood accidents and blockages has been decreased to half of the initial risk.  However, white chocolate did not achieve similar effects.  The researches that performed the study say that dark chocolate contains the biggest quantity of anti-oxidants for one gram than any other products like red vine, green tea, or forests fruits.

Chocolate is indeed an aliment that has many anti-oxidant elements in it, but it also contains fats and glucoses in huge quantities.  Therefore, it can cause weight problems if excessively consumed, so it is best to consume only a moderate amount.

The best thing to do is to adjust your chocolate portion to your actual weight and to the amount of physical effort you make everyday.  Persons involved in a great deal of physical activity can consume chocolate without fear of potential weight problems, but the ones that don’t, like people working in offices, sitting all day in a chair and those not doing any kind of sports are confronted with a big problem if they eat too much chocolate.  So if the organism doesn’t call for sweets, like it does when we are cold, tired or worn out, then chocolate use should be reduced to a minimal portion a day.

Search for Chocolate Heart Medicine

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

How Yoga Helps Control Stuttering

Everybody knows the various health benefits of yoga.  This healing system, which originated in India, is well known for its principle of ensuring the harmony of the mind and the body.  This leads to yoga being an effective cure for a wide variety of ailments and health problems. However, not many people know that yoga is also beneficial for what seems minor but not so bodily conditions such as stuttering and other speech disorders.

At some points in their lives, children and adults experience speech difficulties such as getting stuck on their words. While it seems it is just normal to stutter, this could pose a problem in a person’s day-to-day interaction with other people. If you stumble every time you speak, it could be very hard for you to get your message across; worse, it can affect your self-esteem and performance in various social situations.

According to Yoga principles, stress has a lot to do with most speech problems. People start to stutter when they become overly stressed. I know I do. Anxiety is another factor that causes people to stutter. That often happens to me. When you are very nervous before you start speaking, your vocal cords become tensed, and when you begin to talk, you will naturally stutter. This often happens when you have to give a speech to a crowd of people, whether for work or school among other activities.

Yoga experts believe that the only way to stop people from stuttering is through relaxation. This is where yoga and meditation come into play. Yoga trains people to relax so that they can speak with much ease. Simple yoga postures and Pranayama, in particular, aid in managing stress and the stammering. When paired with speech therapy (under the supervision of a trained speech therapist), yoga and meditation can effectively reduce the frequency of stammering in people and improve their speech abilities.

People tend to stutter if they breathe incorrectly before and while speaking. The proper way is to breathe in deeply before you start to say something and then breathe out while you are talking. Yoga can help you address breathing problems through Pranayama, which is a system that corrects breathing patterns. Pranayama uses the optimum capacity of your lungs so that you can cope with breathing and speech difficulties.

Are you interested in practicing yoga to control your tendency to stutter? The first things you must focus on are recognizing and accepting your speech problem. Then think about all your talents and positive attributes. In doing so, you will have a better perception of yourself; you will be less self-conscious as a result. This positive thinking will greatly help you deal with stress that causes your stammering.

The next step is to practice the following Yoga postures and breathing techniques to make you feel more relaxed:

• Surya Namaskar (sun salutation)

• Progressive relaxation techniques and meditation

• Suksham Vyayama (a relaxing breathing exercise)

• Concentrating on breathing to make it easier for you to deal with stressful thoughts

• Positive attitude for better self-esteem and self-image

• Bhastrika and Nadi Shodhana that help solve breathing problems

• Simhasana (lion pose)

Without a doubt, yoga is an effective way to heal stuttering. It is advised that you practice yoga with the help of a trained yoga therapist to train you about proper relaxation and breathing techniques.
