Balance Your Hormones Naturally

By : Darrell Miller

Many people ask what estrogen dominance is and if there are natural therapies available to help bring hormones back into balance. Estrogen dominance is quite common in perimenopause and can start as early as your late 30s and last for as long as ten years. As we age, we ovulate regularly and, following ovulation, progesterone is secreted from the ovaries so women tend to have more steady estrogen production from the ovaries during periomenopausal years, which creates an imbalance of hormones. Typical symptoms of this phase include heavier menstrual bleeding, tender breasts before menstruation, increased irritability, constipation, fatigue, and easy weight gain. Those women who are younger tend to experience testosterone dominance.

In order to balance hormones you can begin with some basics. Supplementing with 500 mg of magnesium at bedtime and 250 mg of B6 in the morning for 10 days before your period is a good start. It is also a good idea to decrease or eliminate excess salt and red meat. If you do eat red meat, make sure that it is organic and grass fed. For those women in perimenopause who want to bind excess estrogen, you can use two tablespoons of ground flaxseed daily or during the first half of your cycle at least. Additionally, black cohosh, red clover, and soy isoflavones can help quite a bit. Red clover can increase breast tenderness and soy may not be ideal if it upsets your digestion, so be cautious with them.

If these suggestions are not sufficient for you, progesterone can be increased by supplementing with the chaste tree berry herb. However, it is important to first consult with a physician for timing and doing. Evening primrose oil can also help to promote progesterone production. For excess testosterone, saw palmetto is very effective as it promotes testosterone excretion. Progesterone creams are also available to run on the arms and legs which can help ease perimenopause symptoms.

Another common concern is nutrient deficiencies that are caused by birth control pills. This is especially important for those women who have been taking the pill for over seven years. Studies have shown that B vitamins are the most commonly depleted nutrients with birth control use, which are crucial to nerve health. Any women taking any form of birth control should simultaneously take a high-potency B-complex vitamin. Folic acid is important for nerves and brain, and also is necessary for cell repair and development. Another commonly depleted nutrient is magnesium, with symptoms including muscle cramps, weakness, insomnia, kidney stones, bone loss, depression, nervousness, anxiety, and high blood pressure. Zinc is another essential mineral, important for wound healing.

For those women who experience asthma, asthma can be directly related to a hormone imbalance and natural anti-inflammatories are the key to reducing symptoms. However, they will not provide immediate short-term relief. The best anti-inflammatory is turmeric. Other deeply pigmented foods also contain natural anti-inflammatories, such as anthocyanadins and epicatechins. Be sure to eat foods with natural anti-inflammatories regularly. Whenever possible, you should breathe through your nose, as your nose hairs are designed to filter and warm the air before it reaches your longs. Also, when you feel asthmatic try breathing less and more shallowly, as it signals your brain to cause oxygen to be more aggressively taken into the blood. Hormone imbalances cause a great deal of stress, but with the supplementation of the above mentioned herbs one can experience relieve over time.

Article Source: http://www.articlenode.com -- Article Directory | Free Articles

More information on progesterone and other balancing herbs is available at VitaNet ®, LLC Health Food Store. http://vitanetonline.com/

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Contact Lenses in Silicone Hydrogel – the Vision of the Future?

Contact lenses manufactured from silicone hydrogel represent the most important advance in soft contact lens technology in recent years. Wearers would obviouly prefer lenses they can sleep in with total safety, so it was only a matter of time before the industry developed a safe product for continuous wear. After years of ongoing development and testing, such lenses are now readily available for everone to wear at an affordable price. This article looks at what’s so special about silicone hydrogel lenses and why they might be just the right choice for you.

YEARS IN DEVELOPMENT

The concept of lenses made from silicone hydrogel was first proposed over 20 years ago. The potential benefits were clear but the technological challenge was as difficult as needing to combine oil and water to produce an optically clear product. Researcher organizations have to date invested considerable academic and financial resources to achieve the high performance soft lenses of today. They have done this quite simply because they see this material as the way forward and the ultimate standard of the future.

At the time of writing, silicone hydrogel lenses are available in the USA from four manufacturers: "Night & Day" and "O2OPTIX" from CIBA Vision, "Pure Vision" from Bausch & Lomb, and "Acuvue OASYS" and "Advance" from J&J Vision Care.

OXYGEN TRANSPORT

So what’s so special about silicone hydrogel as a lens material? Essentially, the great benefit of this material is it’s ability to transport oxygen to the eye and thus maintain proper eye health. Modern contact lens technology is all to do with oxygen permability, which is measured using the "Dk" index. And for optimal oxygen transmission, this must be as high as possible.

The Dk of traditional, non-silicone based hydrogel lenses is directly related to the amount of water that the material can hold, since oxygen dissolves into the water-component of the material and thus diffuses through the lens. The Dk in fact increases logarithmically with increasing water content. Water itself has a Dk of only 80, thus placing a ceiling on the Dk of convential materials, and the original soft contact lens material, polyHEMA, possesses a Dk of only around 10 (with a water content of about 38%).

However, in silicone hydrogels, the relationship between Dk and water content is the opposite. Here higher water content implies lower Dk. With these lenses Dk increases significantly as the silicone content - not water content - of the lens increases. The Dk values of silicone hydrogel contact lenses are much higher than those of older soft lens materials.

SLEEPING IN CONTACT LENSES

According to market data from CIBA Vision, 84% of soft contact lens wearers occasionally sleep with their lenses in, and one-third admit to doing this regularly. 25% of wearers of one to two-week disposable lenses with low oxygen transmissibility occasionally or routinely sleep in their lenses overnight. And 72% of soft contact lens wearers said they would prefer to be allowed to wear their lenses overnight provided it was safe.

Thus the demand for lenses with the capablities of silicone hydrogels is evidently very high with almost three-quarters of soft lens wearers wanting to be able to sleep in their lenses.

LENS HANDLING

Silicone hydrogel lenses are significantly more rigid than their conventional counterparts, due to the presence of silicone. This increased rigidity does possess some advantages, making the lenses markedly easier to handle and thus the ideal choice for wearers with a less delicate touch. There is a downside to this however in that the rigidity makes the lenses less prone to adopting the shape of the eye so readily, resulting in the possibility for some of reduced comfort.

REDUCED DEPOSITIONS

Historically, the deposition of proteins and lipids has been a problem with contact lenses. The amount of depositions is essentially linked to the duration of wear, the lens material and the tear composition of each individual wearer. With traditional lenses, a frequent replacement schedule greatly reduces the buildup of harmful deposits.

Silicone hydrogel contact lenses have been proven to offer major benefits in the reduction of protein and lysozyme deposition. Indeed, combined with the correct replacement schedule and appropriate care system, problems associated with protein deposition have become almost a thing of the past.

DRY EYES

A problem frequently encountered by wearers of traditional soft contact lenses is one of a feeling of discomfort and "grittiness" in the eyes towards the end of the day. It has been reported that after one week wearing silicone hydrogel lenses, the quantity of regular soft lens wearers in a particular study group who previously suffered significantly from end-of-day dryness, was reduced dramatically to only 13% of the sample.

LIFESTYLE BENEFITS

Silicone hydrogel contact lenses also provide some benefits that conventional lenses don't. Continuous wear contact lenses can be particularly beneficial for use by members of certain professions, such as medical workers, police, the armed forces and firefighters who frequently work unpredictable and long hours.

Furthermore, an increasing numbers of contact lens wearers can now enjoy active outdoor lifestyles, enjoying pursuits such as camping and hiking where it is often difficult to handle and disinfect the lenses with the appropriate level of hygiene.

THE FUTURE FOR CONTACT LENSES

There is much evidence to suggest that, owing to their significant benefits over conventional soft lenses, silicone hydrogel lenses will ultimately, and sooner rather than later, displace other types of contact lens as the prefferred choice for both daily and overnight wear for the majority of contact lens wearers. Silicone hydrogel lenses provide a much improved physical performance, excellent handling properties and greater comfort. They might be considered as the ideal lens for general purpose use that exists today and are likely to become the new everyday standard.

About the Author: Dr. Bianca Tavares

Dr. Tavares is a medical consultant with wide-ranging experience and interests in both traditional and complementary medicine and health care. She has a particular passion for disseminating quality medical information to the people who matter – the patients – and acts in an advisory capacity to numerous journals and health related web sites. Her writing about eye health and contact lenses can be found regularly at Contact Lens Advisor. This article is copyright by Dr Bianca Tavares. It can be reprinted freely online as long as the entire article and this resource box are included.

Article Source: http://www.articleshouse.com

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Do You Have Fear and Anxiety?

If you have fear and anxiety, then you need to look at your entire health. Both fear and anxiety have their roots in emotional issue that you need to resolve. These emotional issues not only create stress on you mentally but also physically. Learn how you can become healthier and emotionally stable.

If you want to change the level of your health, here's what you have to understand.

Most illness comes from emotional or stressful conditions that we activate from within ourselves. This includes, of course, fear and anxiety. The job we have and the people we know or live with only serve to trigger specific feeling that you are sensitive to and this activates your fear, anxiety or stress. Anxiety and stress are a force that works on your body, organs or cells causing malfunction and deterioration. Stress creates acid that resides in your cells and in your lymph liquid that surrounds your cells.

An acid body breeds sickness such as cancer. Cancer thrives in an acid body Pathogens live and multiply in an acid body. Acid breaks down cell structures and tissue.

The food you eat can contribute to an acid body or an alkaline body. Processed food creates acid in your body. Raw food reduces acid in your body and brings the state of your body to an alkaline condition.

So here is a start for you if you are interested in changing the level of your health.

Learn how to relieve stress and relax more frequently. You can do this by exercising, by working with a psychotherapist, and by using various brain relaxation tapes. You can do it by bring in more love into your life.

Learn what type of food you need to eat that will not create a lot of acid in your body. It is ok to eat acid foods but they have to be balance with alkaline foods.

Use natural remedies to relieve various conditions that you have so that you can get back to into balance. Then work on relaxation and eating naturally.

If you are on drugs start investigating how you can back off from these drugs and what alternative remedy there is that can partly take the place of your drug. Drugs create an acid body and destroy tissue.

Fear and anxiety come from suppressed traumatic memories or cellular memories, which are the cause of most diseases. What are suppressed traumatic memories and what do they do.

Well let first let me explain a little about how the body works. Under natural conditions, a cell moves in nutrients and releases toxic waste. In the cell it burns these nutrients to provide with you with energy, for repairing itself, splitting and creating new cells and performing all other functions that keep it and you healthy.

How a cell function is determined by the autonomic system. In this system, we have the para-sympathetic system and the sympathetic system. When your body is under the para-sympathetic mode, your cells and body are functioning normal and has a strong immune system to heal itself.

Under the sympathetic mode, your body is acting as if it is under attack and blood is pull from your organs and other areas that don't need much blood and is moved to the muscles so that you can deal with the attack. This attack is typical a dangerous or life threatening situation.

Body cells under the sympathetic mode are not functioning normal. Less blood is flowing in this area means less nutrients going into the cell and less toxic matter coming out of the cell. This is the condition that produces disease.

Now here is important information that brings all this together. Many people feel that they are under a condition of constant attack - feeling fear and anxiety - even though they really are not. In this feeling of attack they express it as fear, stress, anxiety, anger, jealousy, and all types of negative behaviors.

People are typically under the sympathetic mode in which they are in automatic fight or flight mode. They are not even conscious of this because this is normal for them. Well, this is the condition where disease is created. When disease sets in, the cells cannot heal this disease since its immune system is weak and its cellular strengthen is gone from lack of nutrients and a build up of toxic wastes in the cells.

Stress and anxiety creates disease and all though history, people have been told to have some sort of stress management program such as exercise, yoga, psychotherapy, drugs, laughing, or any movement program.

Most people don't bother having a so called stress management program because they have no way of monitoring it to see if their stress is decreasing and doing these programs takes time.

So work on your health and eat more alkaline foods and start on a stress reduction program.

About the Author: Rudy Silva

Rudy Silva is a nutritionist that has moved through many therapies such as Primal Therapy and EMDR. To gain more tips on health and to reduce fear and anxiety go to: http://www.anxiety-disorder-center.com and to get more information on his newsletter go to: http://www.natural-remedies-thatwork.com

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