Cellulite, that unsightly cottage cheese looking fat on the back of  your thighs. Did you know that anyone can get cellulite no matter how big or small you are? Cellulite is mostly hereditary and usually appears after puberty in girls because of the female hormones. Cellulite is not a build up of fat, rather it is the way  the fat is distributed. 

Some over-the-counter products can “iron-out” cellulite. You can also see a plastic surgeon that uses a similar technique. But massage can also help reduce the appearance of cellulite. When the affected area is being massaged, it stimulates blood flow to the area and heats it up. As the therapist continues the massage, they smooth out the warmed up cellulite. It works just like the “ironing-out” techniques. As with any treatment, it takes time to completely reduce the appearance of cellulite. And nothing is ever a permanent fix. But it is a way to leave your muscles feeling relaxed and your cellulite smooth.

A study paid for by the National Institute of Mental Health found that the perscription medicine, Zoloft, along with three months of therapy dramatically helped children with anxiety disorders. Anxiety is the most common psychiatric illness in children. The study also found that therapy alone helped a lot as well. 

Since therapy alone works pretty well, I would not suggest even putting kids on Zoloft. Here’s why…the study indicated that only a “handful” of the more than 200 kids using Zoloft had suicide-related thoughts. Zoloft is mostly used to treat adult depression and anxiety, but sometimes what helps an adult can have the opposite affect on children. I was a child when I was put on Zoloft for anxiety disorder. For the three months I took it, I became very depressed. I didn’t even want to leave my house. I have never felt more depressed in my entire life than when I was on that medicine. My mother told my doctor how I was feeling and took me off the medication. A child doesn’t have to have suicide-related thoughts to be depressed. Unfortunately, this study does not mention how many children felt depressed after taking the medication. 

I believe in the long run, children can manage their anxiety much more affectively with therapy. For adults 25 and older, Zoloft may work. The only time I would ever give a child Zoloft or other anxiety medication would be in extreme cases where the child cannot function daily because their anxiety is so extreme. Most children do not fall into this category.

Ever wonder why your poop may not be brown all the time or why it may float instead of sink? I’m sure most people don’t give their poop much thought, but your bowels can say a lot about your health. For example, if you are eating a balanced diet, you should be having at least one bowel movement everyday. If not, you may be constipated. Constipation can be caused by numerous different illnesses and diseases, but the most common is not getting enough fiber in your diet.

What about floating poop? Why does it float? It floats because the stool contains a lot of fat and oils, specifically saturated fats. It’s o.k. to have floaters once in a while, but your poop should sink most of the time. Try eating foods with less fat and cut back in oil use if your stools float too much. This is especially important if you have elevated or high levels of cholesterol or have a heart condition. Saturated fat is never good for anyone. Saturated fat is mostly found in animal products.

Your poop’s color can be important, especially if it is black or while. Black stools can be caused by internal bleeding. You should see your doctor immediately if you have black stools. If you have white stools regularly, you should also see your doctor. White stools may indicate a problem with your liver or biliary tract. White is a sign that you are not producing bile, a digestive juice secreted by the liver. Green stools happen most frequently with most being caused by certain medicines, vitamins, or certain types of food. Bile mixes with your stools to help absorb fats. During its transition to the intestines, the stools will usually change from green to yellow to brown. Green stools occur when the food passes through the intestines faster than normal and does not get a chance to change color. If you have green stools frequently and have stomach discomfort or pain near the intestines, you may have a digestive condition your doctor will need to treat.

Kanye West’s mother died of plastic surgery complications because she had an existing condition that another plastic surgeon was afraid would lead to a heart attack. Mrs. West should never have gone through her surgery. Her death could have been prevented if she had been completely honest with her doctor. 

Many people, nearly half of all women, lie to their doctors. The most common things they lie about are drinking, smoking, drugs, drinking water, exercising, and sex partners. We may assume that these things don’t matter when it comes to our health, but sometimes it can mean the difference between life and death, especially if you are going into surgery. The show, The Dr.s, lists five things that people lie to their doctors about that can have serious affects to our health.

5. Not flossing everyday.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the bacteria between your teeth can not only give you cavities but can also travel to your heart as plaque build-up and lead to a heart attack. Also, a dentist can always tell if you floss or not. Ever wonder how to get rid of bad breath…use a tongue scrapper to get rid of bacteria on your tongue. Brushing and mouth wash will not get rid of bacteria completely.

4. Not being honest about medications you are taking.

Many people may do this as a mistake because you forget all the medications you are taking. You should tell your doctor all the over-the-counter (OTC) medications you are taking along with any supplements or vitamins. Even specialists need to know what medications you are taking, such as genealogists and surgeons. OTC medications can have deadly affects when combined with certain prescription medications. Before you see the doctor, make a list of all medications you have taken in the last 30 days or any meds you taking regularly.

3. Wearing sunscreen.

Lying to your doctor about not wearing sunscreen may seem trivial, but if they prescribe specific medication that makes your skin more sensitive to light, it could cause a severe sunburn. Many times the prescription bottle will say that it can make your skin more sensitive to the sun or light, and at that point make sure you do use sunscreen anytime you go outside.

2. Smoking.

Doctors need to know if you have been smoking because surgical procedures and some medications can have a negative or deadly affect when you combine cigarette usage. Birth control, for example, can cause stroke or heart attack if you use it, smoke and are 35 years or older. In fact, you should not be taking birth control pills if you are 35 or older and smoke. Doctors can tell if you have been smoking because they can smell it on your clothes and body. They can also tell by listening to your lungs. 

1. Drinking alcohol.

Most people lie about how much alcohol they drink and how often they drink to their doctors. In fact, when you write down how much alcohol you use, doctors will many times double or triple that amount. Doctors are not there to judge and need to know how much alcohol you consume because medication or even street drugs can kill you if you use the wrong combination. It is not a doctor’s job to judge or turn you over to the police if you are doing street drugs or anything else illegal. Their primary concern is your health. Even if you have done drugs in the past, doctors need to know. Your life is not worth risking just because you want to appear good and wholesome to your doctor. Doctors see all kinds of things daily, and I’m sure nothing will surprise them.

Some mothers have said they walk into their child’s doctor’s office, their child gets a vaccine such as the MMR or Chicken Pox vaccine, and they walk out with a silent child. Their child no longer speaks to them and is diagnosed with Autism. Obviously this is extremely rare, but these mothers want to blame the vaccine for their child’s illness. No study has ever proved that vaccines have caused Autism or any other mental illness. In fact, there has been a recent study that has disproved the correlation. But explain that to these mothers. Here’s an explaination. Some doctors believe that in these rare cases that vaccines simply escalate Autism or other mental illness the child already had. Another words, vaccines do not cause these illnesses but may simply bring about the simptoms sooner. There’s a lot of speculation on why this is, but with this information in mind, parents should not fear childhood vaccines.

Arizona and California has seen an outbreak of Measles lately because many parents elect to not vaccinate their children. Measles themselves are not dangerous but the complications can be deadly. And the children getting measles are not just the ones who are not vaccinated. The non-vaccinated children are infecting the vaccinated children, especially babies under the age of five, the one group largly at risk of dying from the disease. If my child, who is vaccinated from MMR, gets Measles from a child who was never vaccinted, do I have a right to sue the parents of that infected child? Parents who do not get their children vaccinated should be held responsible for their negligence. And if their negligence kills their child or someone else’s child, that is negligant homicide. With all the information we know, we should not fear vaccines but rather fear what will happen without them.

Instead of questioning these vaccines, we should be looking into what our children are eating. What is being put into our food? Children with ADHD who have healthy diets are less likely to need medication than children who don’t. Artificial flavorings and colors in our food is not healthy for us, yet no one questions the food companies. Parents use the excuse that manufacturers of these vaccines care only about their bottomline and not about the children, yet we don’t say the same thing about the food manufacturers. We have toys manufactured in China with lead based paint, yet once again we only blame the vaccine manufacturers for our children’s mental health illnesses. Vaccines have been around for decades and have only gotten better and safer with time. We need to look at other things in our environment that should not be there. Stop blaming the vaccines.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has issued an order that mandates schoolgirls to be vaccinated from HPV, a virus known to cause cervical cancer. Even though 70% of cervical cancer is caused from the HPV virus, Perry believes that the vaccine will be effective if helping to prevent cervical cancer.

Before this vaccine was introduced, doctors were able to detect the HPV virus during a woman’s annual pap smear, which means that if a woman had an annual pap smear, the virus would be detected before it could even become cancerous and could be treated. Not all cervical cancer is caused by HPV, and the American Cancer Society warns that the vaccine doesn’t protect against all cancer-causing types of HPV. So what does this all mean?

Regardless of any political or religious issue you may have, think very carefully about whether or not to get the vaccine or have your daughter vaccinated. Get all the facts first. First of all, there are several different types of HPV and this vaccine only prevents four. Second, not all HPV is cancerous. Third, an annual pap smear can prevent HPV from becoming cancerous. And lastly, the vaccine is new and has not been tested long-term. Would I give my daughter this vaccine…absolutely not!

CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A blood test that looks for the body’s own immune response to tumors may provide an easy way to find lung cancer in patients long before an X-ray or CT scan could, U.S. researchers have reported.

We hear about people dying from lung cancer all the time. In fact, lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer globally. 10 million people will discover they have it each year. Lung cancer kills more than 160,000 people each year in the United States alone.

Non-small-cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer, and has an average five-year survival rate of only 40 percent. By the time people have symptoms of lung cancer, it is usually too late to save them. That’s why you find that most people diagnosed with lung cancer will die within 6 months.

This study may help save thousands of people’s lives if this blood test can accurately detect lung cancer before it reaches an advanced stage. This can really be a revolutionary discovery for the medical field. But people need to realize that the best way to prevent cancer is to avoid what causes it. Even though you can develop lung cancer from numerous factors, 90% of lung cancer cases are caused from cigarette smoke.

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 40 that increase the risk of cancer. One in four smokers will die of lung cancer. And it’s not just the smokers that will die of lung cancer. People who are exposed to second-hand smoke, many of which are children, will die from lung cancer or suffer from respiratory infections or asthma.

CNN

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Sexually experienced middle- and high-school teenagers with higher levels of depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, a new study shows.

The study indicated that the more depressed boys where, the more likely they were to report a year later that they had not used condoms or any other type of birth control the last time they had sex. Girls who were more depressed were less likely to have used birth control or condoms the last time they had sex, and were more likely to have had three or more sexual partners over the previous year.

During the adolescent years, teens struggle to fit in and be accepted. Becoming sexually active is one way teens feel like they are accepted. Depression, which can occur in anyone and anytime but especially in young girls, can lead to risky sexual behavior because teens many feel better about themselves (at least for the moment). Teens may also become involved in risky behavior because depressed persons tend to “give up” their life and don’t care about their health and safety.

Parents need to watch their teen for any unusual behavior that could signal depression. Here�s what to look for:

Sleeping more, or always tired

Participates less in activities they used to enjoy

Gaining or losing weight in a short period of time

Doing worse in school, or fighting at school

Losing their temper more than usual

Physical aches and pains that have no physical cause

Stop hanging out with friends or family

Angry or sad more than usual

If your teen is already sexually active, they are more at risk than non-sexually active teens. But even non-sexually active teens may become sexually active when they are depressed. Parents should educate their children about sex as soon as they are questioning what it is all about. If you try to rely on sex education in schools, your teen may not be learning what they should know. Teens learn more from their peers, and what they learn from other teens is not safe sex.

MSNBC

NEW YORK - Obesity is known to increase a person’s risk of death and now, new findings from a study of more than 90,000 women indicate that the risk continues to increase as the severity of obesity worsens.

The investigators defined three categories of obesity: obesity 1 (BMI of 30 to 34.9), obesity 2 (BMI 35 to 39.9) and extreme obesity (BMI 40 and higher). Dr. Kathleen McTigue of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health, “The risk of dying was increased 12 percent in all women in obesity category 1, while risk was increased 86 percent over seven years in women in obesity category 3.”

Obesity can increase your risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke, gallbladder disease, arthritis, sleep disturbances and problems breathing, and certain types of cancers. Obese individuals also may suffer from social stigmatization, discrimination, and lowered self-esteem, which can lead to other physical and mental health diseases.

Obesity is a disease in itself that can take off years of your life. But you have to remember that obesity is not just a size or social stigma. It’s a build-up of excess fat that surrounds your organs and can literally squeeze your organs to death. You don’t have to be skinny, but your Body Mass Index (BMI) should be between 18.5 to 24.9.

CNN

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Workers who are under constant stress may start to show it in their blood pressure readings, researchers reported Thursday.

The study showed that people with high job demands with a little support system at work tended to have higher blood pressure than other workers. The study also found that men were more at risk than woman. That could be because woman are more likely to have a social support system at work and men tend to have the higher stress jobs.

Other factors may contribute to the results, but the researchers accounted for factors such as smoking, exercise habits and weight. This study shows how mental stress and attitude can affect your body processes dramatically. Stress can cause many aliments and illnesses. Click on the link to learn more:
Stress on the body

High blood pressure can cause stroke, heart attack, and can lead to heart disease, especially if any of these aliments run in your family. It is important to reduce your stress through meditation, massage, exercise, or any other activity that helps you release the stress of everyday life. Try developing relationships with your boss or co-workers for added support. It is very important to be able to vent your frustrations to someone.