During the winter months, your immune system works hard to protect you from the elements. But when life gets hectic and your body's normal reserves are depleted, colds and other weather-related illnesses can get the upper hand. Fortunately, there are things you can do to support your immune system in the face of life's challenges and stay healthy this winter. The Best Defense Is A Good Offense The strength of your immune system is influenced by many factors, chief of which is your lifestyle. Lack of restful sleep, a poor diet, and prolonged stress make your body more vulnerable to illness. With the holiday season fast approaching, it's important for you to build up your immune system now. He
Are you continually reaching for an over-the-counter pain reliever to manage your chronic aches and pains? If so, you may be feeding the fire of chronic inflammation. The short-term relief you get could actually be costing you more than your realize. Fortunately, there are other ways to manage and even heal the inflammation behind your chronic aches and pains. Special Pro-resolving Mediators (SPMs) are your body's answer to the problem of chronic inflammation. Keeping Inflammation In Check Your body's normal response to an injury is geared toward repairing damaged tissue and fighting infection. The pain, swelling, redness, and heat produced in the process are all part of the acute inflammat
Are you plagued by mood swings, tension, irritability, headaches, bloating, food cravings or other bothersome symptoms before you get your period? If so, you're not alone. It's estimated that 85% of women suffer from one or more PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) symptoms during their reproductive years.1 The good news is you don't have to just grin and bear it every month. Managing your PMS symptoms can be as simple as changing your diet or increasing the amount of exercise you get. PMS: How It Affects Your Body and Mind The average menstruation cycle is about 28 days long and involves hormonal changes which can bring about a myriad of unwanted symptoms: Physical Symptoms: Headaches Breast tendern
As the days get shorter and the weather grows colder, your daily dose of vitamin D - also known as the sunshine vitamin - is decreasing. If you don't usually spend much time outside and don't get enough of vitamin D in your diet, your body may already be deficient. In the past, a vitamin D deficiency was generally thought of with regard to rickets, a condition mainly affecting children which produces soft, weakened bones, resulting in skeletal deformities. Thanks to continuing research in this area, it is now known that vitamin D is essential not only for good bone health, but also for the health of your immune system. Even if you get enough vitamin D from your diet or take supplements, yo
Osteoporosis, a condition where your bones become brittle, and low bone mass affect over half of all Americans over the age of 50. In fact, 50% of women and 25% of men aged 50 or over will fracture a bone due to osteoporosis.1,2 If you're under 50 and think this doesn't apply to you, think again. Your bone mass peaks at thirty. The lifestyle choices you make from that time on - coupled with your genes - play a significant role in your risk of developing osteoporosis later in life.3 More Than Just An Age-Related Problem Although your bones stop growing in size by the time you reach your twenties, the process of rebuilding them internally continues throughout the course of your life. That mean
