diet

Alicia just found out that she is pregnant with her first child. She is glad that she stopped smoking a few years back. She knows that studies have shown that smoking during pregnancy may influence whether or not a woman’s child will be a smoker. (Source: Science Daily 2006) She is also glad that she was never much of a drinker. She is worried about her diet and the fact that she is already overweight. She knows what all of the studies say about obesity and pregnancy, including:

Asthma affects about 16 million people in the United States, with 70% more women than men affected. The disparity in the rate of asthma in men and women may be related to the hormonal fluctuations of the menstrual cycle which may inflame the airways. One of the ways to handle this for women with asthma may be choosing to use an oral contraceptive, however if it is not reasonable or safe to do so for health reasons, the doctor might have other suggestion. (Source: Fitness Magazine, 2009) This latest recommendation is contradictory to older studies that suggested that birth control pills may make the symptoms of asthma worse in most cases.

Protein supplementation is important for cancer patients for several reasons, though the most important is connected with appetite. People with any form of malignant condition tend to eat less. This means that what they do eat should have the highest possible nutritional content. The four most important forms of nutrition are:

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, just after heart disease. But, experts believe that as many as half of the cancer cases diagnosed each year could have been prevented with a few simple dietary changes. There are easy changes that everyone can make not only in what they eat, but how they prepare it and what they do before and after they eat it. It important that lifestyle changes and food changes are made as part of an overall attempt at good health. The benefits are huge, not only in terms of preventing cancer, but in the care of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and other diseases as well. Preventing cancer is not only the prevention of a disease, but the restoration of a better life.

A look at Susan’s bookshelf is like looking at the diet and fitness section at the local bookstore or library. She has every diet book, guide, and report that you could imagine, and yet, she is not happy with her weight or her fitness level. Her doctor is not thrilled with her health status either, including her blood pressure and her cholesterol levels.

Over 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease with many millions more at serious risk of developing it. Early detection is vital to keep the disease from progressing from kidney disease to complete kidney failure. The major cause of death for people who have CKD is heart disease usually related to chronic and uncontrolled hypertension. Chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure are linked with one another: hypertension causes CKD and CKD causes hypertension. Excessive amounts of protein in the urine, medically known as proteinuria suggests the presence of CKD (Source: The National Kidney and Urologic Disease Information Clearinghouse)

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, and men are at automatic greater risk for developing it simply because of their gender. Men also start showing signs of heart disease at an earlier age than women and have more of the known, controllable heart disease risk factors than women. Heredity and family history are examples of uncontrollable risk factors.