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  • How Our Lifestyle Choices Are Causing Us to Sink Into Chronic Illness

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    Current science continues to demonstrate that the reason we move away from health and develop chronic illness is due to our environment rather than our genes. Less than 1% of chronic illness is truly genetic in nature. Essentially, this means that chronic illness is preventable.

    Yet over half of the American population has been diagnosed with a chronic illness and nearly 80% of all health care spending (doctors’ visits, prescriptions, hospitalizations, etc.) is a result of these conditions of lifestyle.

    This number is expected to rise astronomically over the next few years. In fact, many say this single problem will bankrupt our nation. Interesting. It’s particularly interesting since science tells us this is completely preventable!

    What are chronic illnesses? The list includes conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, infertility, autoimmune issues and disorders, Alzheimer’s, dementia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, acid reflux, constipation, insomnia, decreased sex drive, and so on.

    With a list this expansive, it’s hard to imagine how we could possibly prevent these conditions from developing in the first place. They seem so unrelated. In order to understand our role in preventing chronic illness, first we must have a simple understanding of how chronic illness develops as a result of our environment.

    To explain how our lifestyle and environment relates to chronic illness, I’d like to share with you a visual that Dr. James Chestnut, B.Ed., M.Sc.,D.C.,C.C.W.P. of The Wellness Practice in Victoria, B.C. teaches. Imagine that when your life begins you are born into a pool of water. You have two items on you: inflatable water wings and an empty backpack.

    Your water wings have been inflated for you, but they have a very slow leak. The air in them is expected to last 120 years (the “healthy” human lifespan). As the air leaks out of them, you have less time left. It’s called getting older! If there’s no interference to these water wings, they’ll last you all 120 years.

    Each time you make a lifestyle choice that is incongruent with your innate genetic requirements for health, you add a “rock” to your backpack. Our blueprint for health and optimal function requires purity and sufficiency in the way we eat, move and think. This means, giving our bodies exactly what’s required for optimal health (purity) and providing enough of it (sufficiency).

    No where in our blueprint for optimal function do we find toxic and deficient choices of lifestyle. Toxicity and deficiency are incongruent with homeostatic cell function. Therefore, it’s these toxic and deficient choices that become the rocks in your backpack.

    These rocks (stressors) can come from any area of lifestyle: poor nutritional choices, sedentary living, being overweight, being chronically stressed out, having unhealthy relationships, taking toxic drugs, not feeling loved or appreciated, excessive negative stimuli, having poor posture, smoking or exposure to smoke, not enough time outside, and so on.

    So many of our toxic and deficient lifestyle choices are the direct result of an industrialized, “advanced” society. It’s hard to argue that we’re “advanced” in the area of health and wellness when we’re experiencing drastic increases in chronic illness in all age groups, despite our “advanced” efforts to treat these conditions.

    The rocks slowly sink us. They have a cumulative effect on our health over the years. At first, we may not notice. Eventually, we may realize that our day to day life has become more stressful and more of a struggle. Often, we’re not even sure how or when this happened.

    There isn’t a drug on the planet that can remove the rocks for you! That’s why treating the symptoms, or the effects of these rocks, is unsuccessful in terms of fixing the real problem. The drugs, in fact, can become yet another toxic rock. (Just listen to the side effects on any drug commercial!) Removing body parts doesn’t fare much better in solving the problem. We’re not sinking because of a lack of drugs or too many body parts! The body isn’t ‘stupid’. It’s displaying a perfectly normal physiological adaptation to an environmental stressor.

    The rocks have another effect on your overall health picture. As more rocks are added to your backpack and you sink increasingly lower, the pressure on your water wings is increased, forcing the air to escape at a faster rate. You lose your years of life faster than originally intended… you age faster.

    It’s these incongruent lifestyle choices, or stressors, that are the catalyst for chronic illness. These toxic and deficient choices result in what’s known as our allostatic load. A chronic allostatic load, as a result of months and years of incongruent lifestyle choices, changes our genetic expression, our cellular function, our physiology, our biology, our entire internal environment, and ultimately our expression of health. This is how chronic illness develops.

    It becomes self-evident that the way to restore health is to remove rocks from your backpack, thus reducing pressure on your water wings!

    Ultimately, this means reducing our toxic and deficient choices while increasing pure and sufficient choices. This changes our environment and changes the expression of our genetics. This is the science of Epigenetics – how our environment determines the expression of our genetic code.

    Thankfully, science has shown us the blueprint. We do know what choices move us toward health. We can fix the problem. Adopting a lifestyle similar to our earlier (and healthier) ancestors is the most successful way to meet our innate genetic requirements for health and wellness while preventing chronic illness.

    Note: Once again, the concepts in this article are attributed to Dr. James Chestnut, B.Ed, M.Sc, D.C., C.C.W.P.

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    Source by Colleen Trombley-VanHoogstraat

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  • Best Tips On How To Cure Psoriasis From The Inside

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    Psoriasis is a disease that is difficult to treat because it is still not very well understood. Despite this, there are many treatment therapies that have been developed despite there currently being no “cure” yet. There are also various natural psoriasis treatments that have proven to be very effective for many psoriasis sufferers to keep flare-ups at bay. One of those is to use diet which many believe is one of the best ways on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out.

    How to Cure Psoriasis from the Inside

    Using food is an essential part of not only promoting general health and wellbeing but is also important to prevent various diseases and conditions. This is because various foods contain essential vitamins and minerals that boost the immune system and in addition for psoriasis, have various skin healing properties.

    Using the right foods is important. Especially those that are organic and free of chemicals and antibiotics as well as saturated and trans fats.

    Though many doctors may not believe that a healthy diet alone will cure psoriasis, they do believe that if making certain dietary changes provides some benefits, there is no harm is following a diet for psoriasis. Especially in the current absence of a psoriasis cure which makes it crucial to try various remedies to see whether they will work for you that are both conventional and unconventional.

    Following the theme of using natural remedies that may work to heal your skin from the scourge of psoriasis, here are some of the best tips on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out;

    1. Turmeric

    One of the top recommended remedies on how to cure psoriasis from the inside AND outside is turmeric. This is a spice that is native to India where it has long been used in the ancient traditional healing practice of Ayurveda in addition to its common use in various culinary dishes as it gives curry its yellow color.

    There are many seemingly unbelievable stories from various people that have used turmeric for various diseases and conditions including psoriasis touting this spice’s benefits for healing. So if you are struggling with psoriasis, you may want to give turmeric a try.

    The active ingredient that is believed to be responsible for turmeric’s healing properties is curcumin.

    Curcumin is a very rich source of antioxidants which help to prevent the activity of free radicals in the body. Free radicals represent oxygen molecules that cause harm in the body by damaging healthy cells as a way for them to live and thrive in the body. The damage may increase the risk of developing various diseases and conditions including various cancers, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as psoriasis.

    Turmeric helps to reduce inflammation in the body which is why it is believed to be one of the most effective remedies for psoriasis whose development is considered among various other reasons also related to the level of inflammation in the body.

    As mentioned earlier, turmeric can be taken internally as well as applied externally to the psoriasis lesions. Either method or both is said to be effective. For internal benefits, turmeric can be added to any food or drink e.g. to stews, cereals, oatmeal, salads, stir-fries, to smoothies, green juices, etc.

    To apply turmeric topically, make a paste with the turmeric and apply to the lesions and cover with a plastic wrap or adhesive and leave for a few hours or overnight and wash off. When used topically, depending on your skin tone, you may notice a yellow caste especially if you are very pale which will dissipate eventually.

    2. Cold-water fish

    Another of the top tips on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out is related to a discovery by researchers that certain deep sea cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel and herring when consumed by people with psoriasis, reported a reduction in their various symptoms of psoriasis.

    While it is not very well understood why these oily fish are healing for the body and skin, it is believed that the omega-3 fatty acids that they contain are responsible.

    Omega-3s seem to be able to reduce the amount of certain compounds in the body – leukotrients and prostaglandins – that cause skin inflammation. Salmon has an especially high amount of omega-3s but the other oily fish previously mentioned are also beneficial. It is recommended that you eat 3 to 4 ounces of these oily fish per week.

    If you prefer omega-3 supplements, the recommended daily amount is about 3 grams. Be sure that the omega-3 supplements you use contain EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which are long chain fatty acids that are especially beneficial for various skin conditions including psoriasis.

    Do not overdo the consumption of these oily fish or omega-3 supplements because high doses of fish oils can affect the body’s blood clotting mechanism so check with your doctor to make sure that the regimen you follow is within safe limits.

    3. Beta carotene

    While it is highly recommended to cure psoriasis from the inside by consuming more fruits and vegetables, certain vegetables rank a little higher. These are vegetables and fruits that contain beta-carotene such as tomatoes, carrots, spinach, cantaloupe, beet greens, winter squash, sweet potatoes, etc. Any colorful fruit or vegetable usually obtains its color from beta-carotene.

    Research has shown that those who ate at least seven servings of tomatoes were able to reduce their risk of developing psoriasis by a whopping 60 percent! For carrots, the reduction in risk was still high at 40 percent and the same for fruit consumption at 50 percent.

    Beta-carotene as well as vitamins C and E that these vegetables and fruits contain provide antioxidant activity in the body in addition to helping boost the immune system so that it is better equipped to fight off disease as well as to improve skin. Beta-carotene in particular is converted into vitamin A which along with vitamin E are known as the skin vitamins as they help to maintain the tissues that make up the skin.

    4. Low-calorie diets

    These are beneficial especially if you are overweight. Obesity is a factor in how you will respond to psoriasis treatment and the severity of symptoms of psoriasis that you will develop. It has been noted that people with psoriasis who are obese take longer to respond to treatment and psoriasis lesions return more quickly after treatment is stopped.

    Following a low calorie diet does not mean starving yourself. It means making better choices with food and avoiding high calorie foods such as fast food, various processed foods, fried foods, etc.

    5. Mediterranean diet

    There are many diets that are followed around the world that seem to present no health problems for the people who follow them around the world. The only diet that has been shown to increase the risk of developing various diseases and conditions is the Western diet, so any move away from this diet can be beneficial for your health.

    One of the most recommended diets which is one of the best ways on how to cure psoriasis from the inside out is the Mediterranean diet. This is one of the most complete diets that will provide you with most if not all of the nutrients you need every day. The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet arise because of its focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fish, chicken and olive oil all of which are foods that are beneficial for the body and can help heal skin.

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    Source by Terry Robbins

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  • Senior Residential Living: A New Age Abode for Elders

    Senior Residential Living: A New Age Abode for Elders

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    Over the years, senior citizen living has changed tremendously and that’s a piece of good news. Earlier, senior citizens did not have many options. However, in the current scenario, there are abundant assisted living options for senior citizens. The trick is to choose the right one. For today’s people of high age-band, retirement means freedom.

    Here are some of the specific things which modern-day elderly look forward to:

    • Social Interaction – Elderly love those senior living communities which keep them in close contact with other people of their age-groups. They also want to attend those events and activities which encourage social interaction. Thanks to modern technology, now seniors can stay in touch with their families through text messages, video chat sessions and other technology-driven platforms.

    • True Freedom – Today’s senior living communities revolve around the idea of choices. It means elders want to make a pick between various levels of care, residential amenities, dining options and much more. Today’s seniors want to have full control over their lives and so senior living communities are constantly adding more options to their list.

    Now let’s have a look at some of the amenities of senior active living communities:

    1. Activities – Today’s senior living communities in India are doing everything to keep their residents both entertained and engaged. These homes organise different events, games, trips, hobby classes, and much more, to entertain their guests.

    2. Social Dining – Whether it is a tea with the other residents in the morning or a happy hour in the afternoon, these senior communities offer plenty of social dining options to their residents. As a result, their residents always stay connected with society and never feel alone. Also, most of the modern-day seniors want to go beyond the typical buffet system. Senior citizen residential communities are quick to understand their needs and thus, offer top-notch quality dining options to their residents with gourmet chefs.

    3. Outings – It is now typical for lifestyle communities for seniors to offer outings to interesting destinations like theatres, sports, museums, etc. Such outings not only help elderly to break the monotony but also keep them energetic.

    4. Laundry and other maintenance services– Since seniors value independence, most senior housing communities offer laundry, house cleaning and other home maintenance services. After all, after working hard throughout their lives, no one wants to worry about all this stuff now.

    5. Fitness – Staying healthy is a priority of modern-day senior citizens. They look for senior housing communities that take care of their health by offering different fitness facilities. As a result, senior communities are embedded with facilities like swimming pool, treadmills, walking paths, etc.

  • Fortunately, modern-day seniors have lots of options when it comes to choosing the right senior living community. Moreover, today’s senior active living communities also offer customised options to their residents to make their golden years the most beautiful part of their lives.

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    Source by Sudhir Kumar Singh

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  • Customer Satisfaction Management

    Customer Satisfaction Management

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    General understanding of consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is the result of differences between consumer expectations and performance perceived by consumers. From the various definitions of consumer satisfaction that have been researched and defined by marketing experts, it can be concluded that customer satisfaction is a behavior response consumer in the form of after-purchase evaluation of an item or service that they feel (product performance) compared to consumer expectations.Consumer satisfaction is very dependent on the perceptions and expectations of consumers themselves. Factors that influence consumers’ perceptions and expectations when making purchases of goods or services are needs and desires felt by consumers when making purchases of goods or services, past experiences when consuming these goods or services and experiences of friends who have consume these goods or services and advertising.In a competitive environment, an indicator that can show customer satisfaction is whether the consumer will buy back and use the product in the future.

    Customer needs are fulfilled is one of the factors forming Customer Satisfaction (Customer Satisfaction), in addition to other factors related to Customer Service. And this customer satisfaction is what we need to ensure the continuity of our business. Aspects that can affect customer satisfaction effectively [13], namely:

    1. Warranty costs. Several companies deal with the warranty costs of their products / services through a percentage of sales. The company’s failure to give satisfaction to customers is usually because the company does not provide guarantees for the products they sell to customers.

    2. Handling of complaints from customers. Statistically this is important to note, but it is often too late for companies to realize it. If complaints / claims from customers are not immediately resolved, customer defections cannot be prevented.

    3. Market Share. It is a matter that must be measured and related to company performance. If the market share is measured, then the quantity is measured, not the quality of the company’s service.

    4. Costs of poor quality. This can be of satisfactory value if costs for customer defect can be estimated.

    5. Industry reports. There are many types and industry reports, as stated by J.D Power in Bhote, which is the report that is the fairest, most accurate, and most eagerly made by the company.Guiltinan [14] argues that one of the benefits of customer satisfaction is that it can increase customer loyalty, as shown in the figure below

    Customer satisfaction is an emotional response to the evaluation of the consumption experience of a product or service. Kotler defines customer satisfaction as the level of one’s feelings after comparing the performance (or results) that he feels compared to his expectations (Kotler, Philip, and Garry Armstrong, 2005). Basically, customer satisfaction includes the difference between expectations and performance or the results obtained.

    According to Kotler [1], satisfaction is feeling happy or disappointed someone who appears after comparing between perceptions or impressions of the performance or results of a product and expectations. So, satisfaction is a function of perception or impression of performance and hope. If the performance is below expectations, the customer is not satisfied. If the performance meets expectations, the customer will be satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations, the customer will be very satisfied or happy. The key to generating customer loyalty is to provide high customer value.The relationship between customer satisfaction and loyal customers is disproportionate [2], for example, customer satisfaction is ranked on a 1-5 scale, namely:

    1. Customer satisfaction at a very low level (level 1), most likely customers will move away from the company and speak ill of it.

    2. Customer satisfaction at level 2 to level 4, customers feel somewhat satisfied, but it is still possible to move when a better offer appears.

    3. Customer satisfaction at level 5, customers are very likely to buy back and even disseminate good news about the company.

    High satisfaction or satisfaction creates an emotional bond with the brand or company and is not only fixated on reasonable choices.While satisfaction according to Kotler and Armstrong (2001: 9): Consumer satisfaction is the extent to which the assumption of product performance meets the expectations of buyers. If the product’s performance is lower than the customer’s expectations, the buyer is satisfied or very happy. According to Zeithaml and Bitner (2000: 75) the definition of satisfaction is: Consumer response or response regarding fulfillment of needs. Satisfaction is an assessment of the features or features of a product or service, or the product itself, which provides the level of consumer pleasure related to meeting consumer consumption needs. Consumer satisfaction can be created through quality, service and value.

    Customer expectations are believed to have a large role in evaluating product quality (goods and services) and customer satisfaction. Customer expectations basically have a close relationship between determining quality and customer satisfaction. Customer expectation always exists because of four things (Kertajaya, 2004):

    1. Individual Need or individual needs

    If your customer already has high demands, then his expectations are definitely high too.

    1. Word of Mouth

    Customers can have certain expectations because of other people’s stories. Other people’s stories are often seen as references.

    1. Past experience or past experience

    People who already have good experience in the past will be able to receive services at least the same as they used to be. If not, he will be disappointed.

    1. External communication or external communication

    It is an attempt by the company to promise something to customers in order to attract customers.

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    Source by Yufi Priyo

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  • Understanding Love's True Nature

    Understanding Love's True Nature

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    Since the dawn of homo sapiens, we have been investigating, experiencing, and trying to crack the secret code of love. Many of us seem to have forgotten that in the earlier days, free love was a scarcity. From aristocrats to slaves, marriages and relationships were often given as commands and choices of individuals in higher power and authority for political, religious, material and personal gains. Thus, there are the great love tragedies of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Abelard and Heloise", as well as countless others who were heedlessly persecuted for their innocent expression of love. These tragic love stories left many of us wondering, why is it so hard to love and what is like to experience that depth of love?

    Free will love has made much progress in the 21st century through the evolution of humans' love experiences, technological advancement, and cultural changes. In today's more liberal societies, people are given the freedom to choose and express their admirations and desires to the subjects of their affection with little or no consequences. However, in societies where we can freely choose whom we want to love, we have witnessed an increase in divorce rate, a decline in marriage rate, and more people delaying marriage for different reasons.

    Duality of Love

    But regardless whether we follow the "Abelard and Heloise" love model of 'following one to the end of the Hell' to 'you are just one of the 100 people that I am seeing and what is your name again?', We experience the universal conditions of pleasures and pains, the coming together, and the ultimate disintegration of love and relationships, no matter how little or how much we love. No matter how much wealth and power one possesses, one is still subject to others' emotional and physical transgressions.

    So, if we know the ultimate end to any love and relationship, why are we still relentlessly pursuing love, whether it is in the form of a committed monogamous relationship or sleeping with as many people as we can? What is it that we pursue in our teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and up to the moment of our death? And if we are to look back at our lives, would we regret the times we did not try harder, the people we have hurt, and most painful of all, we easily let go of that person who awakens our soul, only to learn so too late.

    Pleasures and pains are the twin brothers of love. We cannot expect one and not the other. We think we deserve God-like love and it is someone else's responsibility to make us happy. If we want God-like love, then we should put in God-like work. If we are not willing to open our hearts to experience judgements, disappointments, and pains in experiencing love, how can we ask for a love that brings us happiness? If we are not willing to overcome our egos and karmic conditionings, how we can manifest a love that brings us meaning? If we are not willing to heal our souls' deepest wounds, how can we expect to live without pain?

    Love's True Nature

    Perhaps we can think ourselves as individuals who have came together to help each other learn and master the experiences of love and separation in different forms: commitment, marriage, infidelity, rejection, betrayal, and abandonment. So, in facing repetitive failures, disappointments, and hurts, we don't easily give up, and we continue to seek, learn, and understand love's true nature. In doing so, we can look beyond the rise and fall of constant changes in our everyday interactions and relationships.

    We learn to not waste energy on trivial questions like why he / she never responded to my text or never called me back. We don't doubt our values ​​because the person we love chooses someone else and we respect his / her choice and will. We don't live the rest of our lives in disappointment and hurt over people's betrayal. We don't take the easy route of love at the expense of others.

    When we transcend our experiences and learnings, love is no longer an idea of ​​you, me, he, she, or us. To love is to release us from our pains, fears, regrets, shame, guilt, and delusions, so we can transcend beyond our limited perceptions of ourselves and what love is.

    We can overcome our conditioned desires that dictate our thinking, beliefs, and behaviors in relationships. We develop the wisdom and courage to stay true to our hearts and not give in to our fears and pains for short term pleasures and gains.

    In experiencing the beginning and end of all human love relationships and their associated pleasures and pains, we learn unconditional acceptance, forgiveness, and love.

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    Source by Wendy Lin

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  • How To Prevent Alcohol And Drug Addiction

    How To Prevent Alcohol And Drug Addiction

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    Drug addiction is a serious disorder. If not treated, it can lead to crises like loss of employment, living quarters and important relationships. And as if this weren’t enough, this kind of addiction can cause illness and even death. Drug addiction is multi-layered and has a variety of causes as well as contributing factors. With the knowledge we have today, Simplistic anti-drug campaigns, such as the “Just Say No” program back in the 1980’s, and even more complex programs like “War on Drugs” is not very effective. The reason for this is that these campaigns do not address the root causes of drug addiction but battles the symptoms not the causes of drug addiction.

    When most people consider a drug addiction problem, their minds go automatically to old movies or TV-series. A junkie trembling on a street corner, selling her own body for her next fix, or a tragic, pale old man lying in a gutter with a needle in his arm, or even a college girl snorting a line of crystal meth in a frat house bathroom during a wild party. These images are powerful indeed, but drug addiction generally creeps up in a slow but determined pace. Months or years are passing, during which time the addicted person is still able to function in a job, maintain a place to live as well as keeping relationships going. A drug or alcohol addiction problem generally passes slowly through several phases. Just because someone you know has not lost everything he or she owns to drugs does not have to mean that he or she does not have a drug addiction problem.

    One of the most insidious drug addiction is prescription drug addiction, followed closely by alcohol addiction. Let’s face it; we are a nation of pill poppers and alcohol beverage drinkers. Since we were children we learned that if something hurts, we should take a pill to make the pain disappear. We also see that children are being prescribed drugs such as Ritalin in increasing amounts, as parents and doctors smudge the line between active, healthy kids and kids with a true Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). All the time we are bombarded with advertising for pain relievers, sleep medication and a lot of other remedies; prescribed and over the counter. Seen from this point of view, prescription drug addiction is not hard to understand. We hardly question the doctor thoroughly about the risk of dependency on any medication, since using medicine for almost any problem is so widely accepted. It’s so easy to take the drug without question and before we know it, we may have developed a prescription drug addiction.

    Alcohol addiction is almost as easy to develop for much the same reason. We live in a culture of drinking. We often go out for cocktails after work or drinking beer with friends during a sports event slowly gives way to having one, two, three, even six or eight beers every night. It feels normal to continually re-visit the bar during a night at a pub. Next thing we identify is a full-blown alcohol drug addiction.

    How harsh (or maybe great) it may sound, you are the only person that can prevent alcohol or drug addiction, due to the choices or decisions you make. Although addiction is classified as a disease, it may well be one of the few diseases that people choose to get. Each drug or alcohol addicted person started their life as an addict by making a choice. You are free to make the same choice or you can choose to not allow drug addiction to be your disease. It’s your choice and whether you like it or not, it is the price you have to pay for being a human with a free will.addiction a seat in your life. It’s up to you.

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    Source by David Richards

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  • Climate Change: Its Ill-Effects on Health

    Climate Change: Its Ill-Effects on Health

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    The temperature increase in the atmosphere is more specifically referred to as global warming. But the climate change is the term currently favored by scientists, as it explicitly includes not only Earth’s increasing global average temperature, but also the climate effects caused by this increase.

    Any gas, which has the property of absorbing infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiating it back to Earth’s surface, is called greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor are the most important greenhouse gases. Other greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, surface-level ozone, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydro fluorocarbons, per fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons.

    Though a naturally occurring phenomenon, the greenhouse effect results in a warming of Earth’s surface and troposphere – the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Of the greenhouse gases, water vapor has the largest effect.

    Some important causes of greenhouse effect include burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, deforestation, increase in population, farming, and industrial wastes and landfills.

    Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. With higher than normal concentrations, they lead to unnatural warming. The main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the greenhouse effect, a warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.

    Even a small global temperature increase could lead to troubling consequences like rising sea levels, population displacement, disruption to the food supply, flooding, and ill-effects on health. As a matter of fact, human health bears the greatest brunt of the consequences of the climate change.

    Ill-effects of climate change on health –

    Climate change can affect human health mainly in two ways: first, by changing the severity or frequency of health problems that are already affected by climate factors and second, by creating health problems in places where they have not previously occurred.

    Effects of temperature increase –

    Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases lead to an increase of both average and extreme temperatures. This can compromise the body’s ability to regulate its temperature. Loss of internal temperature regulation can result in a cascade of illnesses, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and hyperthermia in the presence of extreme heat, and hypothermia and frostbite in the presence of extreme cold. Temperature extremes can also worsen chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cerebro-vascular disease, and diabetes-related conditions.

    People working outdoors, socially isolated, economically disadvantaged and those with chronic illnesses are more vulnerable to the impact of temperature increase.

    Effects of air quality –

    Climate change has modified weather patterns, which in turn have influenced the levels and location of outdoor air pollutants such as ground-level ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter. Increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels also promote the growth of plants that release airborne allergens. Higher pollen concentrations and longer pollen seasons can increase allergic sensitization and asthma episodes, thereby limiting productivity at work and school. Poor air quality, whether outdoors or indoors, can negatively affect the human respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

    Effects of extreme events –

    Climate change causes an increase in the occurrence and severity of some extreme events, which can have health impacts such as death or injury during an event, for example, drowning during floods. Health impacts can also occur before and after an extreme event, as individuals involved in activities such as disaster preparation and post-event cleanup put their health at risk. The severity and extent of health effects associated with extreme events depend on the physical impacts of the extreme events themselves.

    Vector borne diseases –

    Vector-borne diseases are transmitted by vectors, which include mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. These vectors can carry infective pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, which can be transferred from one host (carrier) to another. The seasonality, distribution, and prevalence of vector-borne diseases are influenced significantly by climate. Climate change is likely to have both short- and long-term effects on vector-borne disease transmission and infection patterns, affecting both seasonal risk and disease occurrence over decades.

    Water related diseases –

    Climate change is expected to affect fresh and marine water resources in ways that will increase people’s exposure to water-related contaminants which cause illness. Water-related illnesses include waterborne diseases caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Water-related illnesses are also caused by toxins produced by certain harmful algae and by chemicals introduced into water sources by human activities. Exposure occurs through ingestion, direct contact with contaminated drinking or recreational water and through consumption of contaminated fish and sea food.

    Effects on mental health –

    Mental health consequences of climate change range from minimal stress and distress symptoms to clinical disorders such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal tendencies. The children, elderly, women (especially pregnant and post-partum women), people with preexisting mental illness, economically disadvantaged, and homeless are more exposed to its mental health consequences.

    Effects on food safety and quality –

    Climate change is very likely to affect global, regional, and local food safety by disrupting food availability, decreasing access to food and making utilization more difficult. Higher concentrations of CO2 can lower the levels of protein and essential minerals in a number of widely consumed crops, including wheat, rice, and potatoes, with potentially negative implications for human nutrition. Poor nutritional quality of food is more likely to affect adversely the vulnerable sections of the population.

    The bottom line –

    Over the last 50 years, human activities have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the global climate. According to WHO (World Health Organization):

    • Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.
    • Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.

    So, in view of the serious repercussions of climate change on human health, we all have to make concerted efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy use choices so as to improve our health particularly through reduced air pollution.

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    Source by Dr. Pran Rangan

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