Only 13% of American women feel they are personally at risk for heart disease, although it continues to claim more lives than the next six causes of death combined.* Each year, millions of women die from causes that are at least partially preventable. Read on to learn about the biggest threats to your health, and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.

1. Heart Disease

Heart disease is often thought of as primarily affecting men, although in the United States more women die of heart disease each year than men – nearly 500,000.*

Help protect yourself from heart disease by:

Not smoking, and limiting your exposure to secondhand smoke.

Getting tested regularly for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and keeping these conditions under control.

Eating a healthful diet (one that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables and limits saturated fats) and maintaining a healthy weight.

Getting adequate exercise – at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week.

Drinking alcohol in moderation, if at all.

Discussing your risk factors and your family’s medical history with your physician.

Knowing the often-subtle symptoms of a heart attack.

2. Cancer

The most common cause of cancer death for U.S. women is lung – not breast – cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2005, about 73,000 women died of lung cancer, roughly 40,000 women died of breast cancer and approximately 28,000 American women died of colorectal cancer. An equal number of women and men die of colorectal cancer each year, yet it is another disease mistakenly believed to primarily afflict men.

To reduce your risk of cancer, follow the same tips for preventing heart disease. In addition, refrain from chewing tobacco, avoid excessive sun exposure and get regular preventive health screenings.

3. Stroke

Of the nearly 163,000 Americans who die of stroke each year, roughly 60% are women.** Stroke is more than just the third-leading cause of death of American women; it’s also one of the leading causes of disability.**

Some risk factors for the disease (such as family history; age; sex; race; and a history of migraines, autoimmune diseases and clotting disorders) can’t be controlled, but two major risk factors – smoking and high blood pressure – can be minimized by following the same steps that help prevent heart disease. Use of birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy may also increase the risk of stroke.** To minimize the damage caused by a stroke, know the warning signs so that you can get help immediately, if necessary.

4. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

The fourth most-common cause of death, COPD includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, but not asthma or other obstructive diseases. The leading cause of COPD is smoking, so prevent the disease by not smoking and by limiting your exposure to secondhand smoke and air pollutants.

5. Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative brain disease that afflicts an estimated 4.5 million Americans and ultimately leads to death.*** Researchers have yet to unlock the mysteries of preventing Alzheimer’s. Some experts theorize, however, that preventing serious head injury and maintaining good cardiovascular health might reduce the risk of the disease.

For More Information

To learn more about preventing these and other common causes of death – such as diabetes, accidents, pneumonia and influenza – consult your health care provider.

* Source: American Heart Association, www.americanheart.org.

** Source: American Stroke Association, www.strokeassociation.org.

*** Source: Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org.

[Sidebar]

A Checklist for Your Next Checkup

Without regular health care and screening tests, it’s possible to overlook the symptoms of a condition until the disease is advanced. Ask your physician if the following screenings and immunizations may be appropriate for you.

Blood pressure test

Cholesterol and triglyceride tests

Thyroid stimulating hormone test (TSH)

Blood sugar test

Mammogram

Pap test and pelvic exam

Body mass index (BMI) calculation

Sexually transmitted disease screening

Fecal occult blood test

Colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy

Digital rectal exam

Mole exam

Bone mineral density test

Influenza, pneumococcal and/or diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis booster vaccinations

[Sidebar (if room)]

Know the Signs of Stroke

If you experience any of the following symptoms, even temporarily, get help immediately:

Numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body

Trouble seeing out of one or both eyes; blurred or double vision

Confusion; trouble speaking or understanding

Loss of balance or coordination, trouble walking or dizziness

A severe headache of unknown cause

Diabetes Info
http://www.articlesbase.com/women’s-issues-articles/top-5-health-risks-for-women-111457.html

If you have made the decision to lose weight, you probably would like to see results as quickly and effectively as possible. Most experts will agree that the safest way to weight loss is through a combination of a healthy, low-calorie diet combined with a daily program of physical activity. But what if you have already implemented these two elements into your daily lifestyle? Is there another way to increase your edge and set you on a more direct path to achieve your weight loss goals? There has been much written recently about the link between omega-3 fatty acids and weight loss results. The evidence has been compelling, and suggests that omega-3 promotes weight loss, whether in the form of supplements, or increasing the intake of food that contains this essential fatty acid.

What is Omega-3?

Omega-3 is considered an essential fatty acid that the body does not produce, but must receive from an outside source. The best way to get omega-3 fatty acids into your body is through eating a diet that is rich in canola oil, walnuts, and a variety of fish, including salmon, sardines, tuna and herring. The other way to increase your intake of the omega-3 fatty acid is to take fish oil supplements, which can be found in most pharmacies and health food stores.

While it has been known for some time that this essential fatty acid was beneficial in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, questions began to arise over a connection between omega-3 and weight loss. It made sense that if omega-3 fatty acids lowered cholesterol and helped to control blood sugar levels, that it would be beneficial for dieters as well.

Studies on Omega-3 And Its Effects With Fat Loss

The next step was for researchers to study the link between them in controlled, clinical studies. Most of the results of these studies have shown that people who take fish oil supplements or eat a diet that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids had a significant increase in weight loss amounts than those who did not.

Most of the researchers that have studied this link between omega-3 and weight loss will stress the importance of combining the intake of omega-3 fatty acids with a low-calorie, healthy diet and a regular exercise program. However, if you are having trouble losing weight due to genetic factors, a slow metabolism or other factors, taking an omega-3 supplement can increase the effectiveness of your diet and exercise efforts.

The research has shown that omega-3 assists in weight loss by keeping insulin levels in the body low. This is why this supplement is also very helpful for those who have been diagnosed with diabetes. When insulin levels in the body are high, it inhibits the body from burning fat for fuel, allowing the fat to remain in the storehouses of the body and keeping weight up as well. Lower insulin levels will make the body burn the excess fat within for fuel, speeding the rate of weight loss. If you are about to begin a weight loss program of any kind, taking a fish oil supplement or increasing the amount of omega-3 foods in your diet will give you an advantage in achieving your goals.

How much Omega-3 for Fat Loss?

Many health care professionals will recommend a daily intake of 3000 to 4000 mg. of standardized fish oil. This translates into two or three servings of cold-water fish each week or fish oil capsules that will equal this dosage amount. There are side effects that some folks experience when taking the fish oil supplements, such as flatulence and diarrhea. These issues can be greatly reduced by taking a time-release version of the capsules.

The fish oil supplements can also interact with some types of medications, so it is important to talk to your doctor before beginning any type of supplement regimen. However, if you are looking for a way to see results with your diet and exercise program, omega-3 and weight loss may be a link that you want to consider.

Chung Leong Yu
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/omega3-and-weight-loss-119794.html

The best option when choosing a diet plan is to choose one that allows you to lose weight fast and naturally. Weight loss can be like a roller coaster ride for most people with it’s up’s and down’s and uncertainties about which diet is the right one for you. A large number of Diet plans either starve you, are too monotonous, or are just plain unhealthy for your body.

Some of the leading diet pills on the market are too unsafe to take. Pills like ephedra and Phentermine are some of the most popular, Unsafe, pills sought after. Although diet pills do have the propensity to actually help you lose weight, especially if you’ve struggled in the past, the side affects and the long term health risks far out weigh the risk of using them. Ephedra have been linked to heart attacks and some deaths among many other side effects. Some of the serious side effects of phentermine are hallucinations, high blood pressure, and a rapid heart rate, among others. More common side effects are Hyperactivity, insomnia, dry mouth, dizziness restlessness, euphoria, diarrhea, constipation, some loss of sexual problems and more. Both can be habit forming. Neither is for long term weight loss.

A Long term weight loss plan should have the means to put in place long term goals like changing eating habits and eating healthier foods at the right times as opposed to taking a pill that stimulates your heart among many other side effects and you’re not working towards long term goals by eating foods that will work for you and not against you or starving your body for nutrients that your body normally needs to function properly, found in diets like low carb diets.

To "lose weight fast and naturally" not only means eating foods that promote fat burning, but your body is not starving because the daily requirement of minerals and vitamins are being administered. You shouldn’t go hungry, maybe a little while your body gets used to the change, because these type plans generally allow you to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals throughout the day which keeps the fat burning process constant or at least that is the basic process. There are other intricacies like calorie shifting which is a method used in fat burning that shocks your metabolism to help in manipulation for a more consistant burn. You see, your metabolism always burns calories based on your eating habits in the past days–So because it assumes that you’ll continue to eat in the same general way in the future it burns calories accordingly.

Learning new eating habits, times of the day that you consume food, and types of foods that you consume can go a long way towards losing fat. Fat burning foods differ in calories and they burn faster than the kinds of foods that make us fat. Although we should get a certain amount of exercise everyday, and most of us do that, it’s actually not the lack of exercise that makes us fat but the food that we consume. In all actuality the food that you consume will either make you gain or it will make you lose. Another advantage with a sensible diet plan that encourages long term weight loss by using fat burning foods is that the weight you lose is pure fat not just water weight. So when you seek a fat loss plan go for a plan that won’t hurt you, has no side effects or drugs that are harmful or habit forming. 

Over half of the U.S. population is overweight, that’s 65% of the U.S. That is about 200,000,000 people. 15% of the people that are overweight in the U.S. are children  between the ages of 12 and 19 years of age. there are 4,500,000 children in the U.S. that fall into this category. Diabetes, Heart Disease, Some forms of Cancer, and Stroke are all diseases associated with being overweight or obese. In the last 22 years a very fast epidemic of being overweight and obesity has struck our country and struck it hard. There are over 325,000 deaths in this country alone annually as a result of complications from diseases associated with being    overweight and obesity. The best, most efficient, safest diet plan to "Lose Weight Fast And Naturally" is one that can give you a chance at changing poor eating habits.

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Donald Whitehead
http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/how-to-lose-weight-fast-and-naturally-permanently-685328.html

Diabetic is a growing concern around the world and currently developing as one of the major threats for human health with an explosive increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes worldwide. Approximately 29 million Americans age 20 or older have diabetes. But almost one-third even don’t know that they have the disease and are at risk for vision loss, kidney failure, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes complication doesn’t just appear from one moment to the next. It is a process that accumulates itself after years of body decay. If a person maintains a stabilized sugar level, there is no reason whatsoever to suffer from diabetes complication. In order to combat this future state, the best way to do it is proper diet, exercises, concern medicines and regular blood sugar check ups.

Diabetes can damage many of the body systems leading to such serious medical complications as heart disease (heart attack, stroke) blindness (due to retinopathy) kidney damage, impotence in men, amputations from gangrene and/or from damage to nerves (neuropathy).

Another major complication of diabetes is foot gangrene. It is typically caused by a combination of limb ischemia (tissue death) as the result of arterial occlusive disease, most commonly atherosclerosis, injury and poor healing, usually combined with a superimposed infection.

Ways to Prevent Diabetes Complications

To prevent diabetes complication, you need to take care of your diet first. If you have been recently diagnosed with diabetes, very likely your health, obesity level, and normal diet are not very good. Most adults diagnosed with diabetes have a very common history of eating too many harmful foods and having a very poor diet practices.

You need to take proper care of every bit of food that you put in your mouth. You need to ask yourself if that food is going to provide your body the nourishment it needs or deplete your body of its needs. You will need to follow a diet for diabetics. A good diabetic diet is a diet that is good for anyone who wants to nourish the body and have plenty of energy whether or not they have diabetes.

Regular exercises and yoga are also important part of avoiding diabetes complications. Exercise is just as important as a good diabetes diet in preventing or reversing complications of diabetes. It is also important to consider your food intake, along with your activity and its effect on your insulin.

Researches have shows that people that are having trouble keeping diabetes control often are lacking in daily exercise. On the other hand, diabetics who exercise regularly have little trouble when it comes to balancing their insulin intake and their food.
Disclaimer: The reader of this article should exercise all precautionary measures while following instructions on the home remedies from this article. Avoid using any of these products if you are allergic to it. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Get herbal Diabetes supplement to control blood sugar level. Also find Diabetes food list to know what to eat and what to avoid. Know useful Home remedies for diabetes to lower blood sugar naturally.

Nick Mutt
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/diabetes-complications-know-before-it-grabs-you-680529.html

A recent study from the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere discovered that if protein or monounsaturated fat are replaced in your diet for some carbohydrates, it could reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels substantially. This reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol would result in a significant reduction in overall risk of heart disease.

Imagine, just by changing about 10 percent of carbohydrate calories in the diet to either protein-rich food, mostly from plant sources, or to monounsaturated fats, contained in olive and canola oil, provided a major benefit to the heart according to the Johns Hopkins team.

According to internist Lawrence Appel, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and lead author of the study, “Our study provides strong evidence that replacing some carbohydrate with either protein or monounsaturated fat has important health benefits. There is already agreement that reducing saturated fat lowers risk for heart disease, but the question of which macronutrient to emphasize has been controversial.”

However, Dr. Appel made it clear that his study did not support diets such as the Atkins diet, which is extremely high-saturate-fat, low-carbohydrate and not a healthy diet plan.

Three healthy diets were evaluated that differed mainly in the amount of macronutrients—protein, fat and carbohydrate—that provide calories used for energy in the body. All of the diets were low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, and rich in fruits, vegetables, fiber, potassium and other minerals.

One diet was a traditional healthy diet rich in carbohydrate, while the other two diets had approximately 10 percent of their carbohydrates replaced with either monounsaturated fat or protein. It should be noted that about half of the protein came from plants.

“All three diets reduced overall heart disease risk, lowering blood pressure and improving cholesterol levels,” says Appel. “But the protein and monounsaturated fat diets had an edge over the carbohydrate-rich diet.”

These findings by the Hopkins study, called the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial to Prevent Heart Disease (OmniHeart), presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2005 and published simultaneously in the Journal of the American Medical Association, underscore the significant benefits from making dietary changes, the researchers say.

From the study, it was determined that overall, the protein-rich diet, derived from plant and animal sources, decreased cardiovascular disease risk by 21 percent. “Many people equate protein with meat, but it is not the only source of protein,” said study co-author Phyllis McCarron, M.S., R.D., a dietitian at Hopkins.

“Excellent plant sources of protein are beans, nuts, seeds and certain grains.”

In addition, the monounsaturated fat diet, enriched with olive and canola oils, as well as various nuts and seeds, decreased risk by almost 20 percent.

The carbohydrate-rich diet used was similar to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH diet, which Appel helped develop in 1997 and decreased risk by roughly 16 percent.

The OmniHeart study lasted about three years, and researchers enlisted 164 generally healthy adults, both men and women ages 30 and over.

“Because of the huge risk of stroke and heart attack in African Americans, the results are particularly applicable to this group, who made up roughly 55 percent of study participants,” said study co-author Jeanne Charleston, R.N., a research associate at Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Charleston adds that all participants either had high blood pressure (almost 20 percent) or were on the verge of having high blood pressure.

Participants ate all of their food – including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks—from one of the three diets in six-week intervals. After a two-to-four-week break, participants started the six-week feeding period over again, this time with a different diet. The process was repeated until all participants ate all three.

During this process, the researchers monitored each participant’s levels of blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides on each diet.

These measurements were then factored into a standard mathematical model, called the Framingham risk equation, for estimating heart disease risk.

The OmniHeart study results, according to Appel, reconfirm the powerful effects of a diet-based approach to improving someone’s cardiovascular risk profile, for blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and lowering their overall risk of heart disease.

So, if you really want to improve your overall health, and more specifically, your cardiovascular health, you need to pay more attention to your diet.

Valerie Slaugther
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/what-is-the-beef-about-protein-62947.html

Thinking of using natural food to lower cholesterol? Then, it is a great idea!

As many people know, cholesterol is a waxy lipid (a fat) that naturally circulates in the blood. It is an important substance for many bodily functions including digestion, the manufacturing of vitamin D and the making of sex hormones.

It is found in every cell of the body as part of the cell’s wall. However, like anything else, cholesterol levels that are too high are a danger signal. How high is too high? Total cholesterol levels should be less than 200, with total cholesterol being a combination of LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol.

As in many things, having an excess is normally bad. Too much cholesterol is bad for heart health. The extra cholesterol will build up on the walls of the arteries, clogging them. This will often result in a stroke or a heart attack.

So, how do you watch out for signs of high cholesterol?

Some common factors include chest pain, obesity, smoking, a family history of high cholesterol, a sedentary lifestyle, and a diet high in saturated fats. If any of these risk factors are present, especially in combination, a visit to the doctor to determine cholesterol levels is recommended.

One good way to lower high cholesterol is adopting a diet to lower cholesterol. Certain diet plans (e.g. Atkins, Weight Watchers diets…) can be adapted to function as a diet to lower high cholesterol.

The key lies in ensuring that the diet includes the following things: low-fat foods, high-fiber foods, fresh fruits and vegetables, reduced salt and sugar, legumes and nuts.

Enjoy processed meats, whole milk products, eggs, fatty meats, bakery goods and fried foods in moderation. Or better yet, avoid them. Eating food like baked fish, whole-grain products, oatmeal, oat bran, artichokes, and unsaturated oils will benefit both heart health and cholesterol levels.

Switching to a diet to lower high cholesterol does not mean that you cannot enjoy your meals any more. Simple substitutes for less desirable foods are readily available in any supermarket.

Try low-fat cheese, fat-free milk, and butter substitutes instead of whole milk products. Lean cuts of meat, baked fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, soy products, beans and peas, green and seeds all fortify the diet to lower cholesterol, giving the heart one of the best types of protection.

Simple changes in cooking techniques can also make a huge difference. Drain grease when cooking, regulate portion sizes, bake or broil foods instead of frying them. Use vegetable oil when cooking, trim off fats and avoid adding extra salt or sugar.

To enhance the effectiveness of using natural food to lower cholesterol, include other ways to help lower cholesterol. Follow a balanced aerobic exercise routine. It has important benefits like weight loss and better circulation. Walking, running and swimming are all good forms of exercise. In addition, they burn excess fats or calories at the same time.

If you smoke, quit! It will improve the health of blood vessels and decrease the risk of stroke. Medications, such as Lipitor, to lower high cholesterol are used as a last resort.

Usually, a natural ndiet to lower high cholesterol combined with exercise will do the trick. So, take the first step to heart health now and go have a cholesterol level check done. It just may be the best thing you’ve done for your body in a long time. And who knows, there may still be time to work on prevention, starting with a natural diet to lower cholesterol levels.

George Peters
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/best-natural-food-to-lower-cholesterol-125030.html

high blood pressure
blocked arteries
weak blood vesels in the brain…

www.webmd.com

a high potassium diet. How much is too much?

You can get potassium in Oranges, Orange Juice, Baked Potato’s, Dried Apricots, Gatorade drinks have potassium.

Apples

After your visit in the Emergency room, you should do a follow up visit with your primary care physician. They can tell you more about what your body needs.

Hope my list of foods will give you some potassium ideas.

Can’t imagine life without weight loss diet pills? Yes, it’s really horrible to imagine life without weight loss diet pills. People those who hardly get time for themselves are tried of doing any exercise or else join gym to be in good shape.

Gyms are always good to join but always it is not possible for everyone in society and especially for working or busy people. Many times we skip our food because of our busy schedule and eat when we get free time from our work its effect our routine eating habit and the body will theoretically shut down its hunger and automatically eat less. As a result, the person will drop excess body fat and experience a steady decline in all the obesity-related risk factors: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and so on.

Recent survey shows that the consumption of weight loss diet pills in increasing day by day as everybody wants to loss weight with out altering their present lifestyle. Many companies offer you shortcuts to loss weight through cosmetic surgery, nutrition supplements, diet pills and various diets without changing their eating habit or engaging them in regular physical exercise and change their current lifestyle.

People don’t want to change their pattern of eating fast food, they don’t want to give up their soft drinks, and they don’t want to stop themselves by eating oily and spice fast food and they don’t even have that time to go out for exercise on regular basis. So the best and shortcut way is to spend on weight loss diet pills, fat burning nutritional supplement and low-carb foods.

People are willing to keep spending on these items. And the markets for such items are tremendous. You can find many branded companies products and these products are really good to keep your body in good shape without chaining your daily routine life.

Anna Josephs
http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/life-can-not-be-imagine-without-weight-loss-diet-pill-75714.html