Don't Take Your Viagra Pill With This...

by Tony LeMaire

You're trying to eat properly and live a healthier lifestyle. So what could be better than a nice glass of fruit juice to wash down your little blue Viagra pill, right?

But if the juice happens to be grapefruit, taking it with Viagra could lead to some very unhealthy consequences.

Certain compounds in grapefruit juice (Seville oranges and tangelos have also been implicated) can increase the amount of the drug Viagra in your system. The juice could potentially raise Viagra levels enough to cause harm. Here's how researchers believe this happens:

* ? Enzymes in the small intestine normally prevent many drugs, like Viagra, from fully entering the blood stream. * ? When you drink grapefruit juice, certain compounds in the juice block those intestinal enzymes. * ? This prevents the active ingredient in your Viagra pill from metabolizing or breaking down properly, which can lead to too much Viagra getting into your system. * ? An overdose of Viagra can cause toxic side effects like chest pain, nausea, irregular heartbeat or feeling faint or light headed. You should see a doctor if any of these Viagra side effects occur.

Viagra Pill + Grapefruit Juice = Increased Risk For 24 Hours

The effect of grapefruit juice can last up to 24 hours after you drink it. Therefore, even if you take a Viagra pill long before or after drinking the juice, there could still be a bad interaction from dangerously high levels of the drug Viagra coursing through your bloodstream.

If you get too much Viagra in your system, it can damage your organs or impair their normal functioning. (Learn more about the side effects, precautions, and other important information about the drug Viagra here.)

To prevent such an interaction from happening, doctors recommend not taking a Viagra pill within 24 hours or more of drinking grapefruit juice. If you take Viagra every day, do not drink grapefruit juice at all until the medication is discontinued. Instead, use orange juice.

And Viagra is not the only erectile dysfunction drug to exhibit this interaction. Both Cialis and Levitra are also affected by grapefruit juice.

How It Was Discovered

Hard to believe that this interaction between certain drugs and grapefruit juice was discovered accidentally. About ten years ago, researchers were testing a drug and used grapefruit juice to mask the bad taste.

They noticed the drug showed up in their patients' blood samples several times stronger than in past studies. And this, naturally, caused a large increase in side effects. That's when scientists began watching for the effects of grapefruit juice on certain medications.

Since then, Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and other drugs have exhibited the same negative interaction. Some antihistamines, cholesterol drugs, blood pressure drugs, psychiatric medications like antidepressants, pain drugs, immunosuppressants, and others should also not be taken with grapefruit juice.

You can find a list of the more common drugs affected by grapefruit on Wikipedia.

About the Author
Search Engine Optimization expert, boasting over 7 years of algorithmic search and paid search advertising.

Acupuncture Therapy Is Natural And Safe

by Oze Parrot

The art of acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years and is a time tested, effective, natural science. Originating, possibly in Eurasia or China, acupuncture is described as a Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is now practiced throughout the world and has become popular as an effective alternative medical procedure. In Australia, fourteen percent of doctors are practicing acupuncture and using it in conjunction with conventional medicine to treat a variety of ailments.

Even though the popularity of acupuncture is ever increasing, and it has gained a strong foothold in conventional medical circles, most people are skeptical. Some people shudder at the thought of attending an acupuncture therapy that requires half a dozen or more simultaneous needle pricks. Acupuncturists are trained professionals that are credited by a government department and must be fully licensed, before they commence practicing. Acupuncture needles come hygienically packaged, are disposable and designed to be used only once. The chance of getting an infection is quite remote.

Millions of people in America and other countries throughout the world are turning to acupuncture for fast, effective pain relief and for a drug free alternative to cure many other ailments. Acupuncture therapy is effective in the treatment of back pain, arthritis, migraine and sporting injuries. Obesity, alcoholism, smoking and fertility problems can also be controlled with acupuncture, along with most common complaints.

Modern acupuncture practitioners generally use disposable, filiform metal needles that range from 0.12 of a millimeter in thickness. They are so fine that when they are inserted into the body's various acupuncture points, the only feeling is a slight sensation, there is no pain, as such. There are a few other needles, which vary in length and weight that acupuncturists may use for more specific procedures, however the occurrences of a needle being inserted too deeply or in the wrong place are negligible.

In the United States, licensed practitioners are the only persons to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, to use acupuncture needles. Your safety is of national concern so if you choose to undergo acupuncture therapy, rest assured that the procedure is safe and accepted by your government.

About the Author
Oze Parrot is an author, publisher and Internet marketing consultant. Formerly a tourist operator and real estate business marketing consultant Location: Queensland, Australia. You may republish this article as long as you include the name of the author and provide an active link to: http://la-healthhunter.com/

Quit drinking and don't get cancer. Alcoholics are at great risk

by Christian Shire

We all know of the risks of heavy drinking, and it seems as though with every passing week researchers are finding yet more evidence of the damage done by heavy drinking.

Alcoholics are at risk for cirrhosis, for cognitive declines, for early dementia malnutrition, hepatitis of the liver, heart disease and of course for a host of cancers. Adding to the list of known alcohol related cancers, Canadian researchers last week added cancers of the larynx, esophagus and oral cavity to an already long list of alcohol influenced cancers.

If you drink heavily you are not likely to live as long, and you are very much more likely to get cancer.

But it's not all doom and gloom, and as a real positive note the same researchers who announced the new alcohol related cancers also revealed that for those people that can quit drinking, their risk for cancer slowly declines, and after 2 or 3 decades, the cancer risk is no more elevated than for those people who never drank to excess.

Very much like smoking, if you can quit drinking at a young enough age, you can spare yourself from a host of health problems.

When researchers examined the cancer rates of people who had quit drinking, they noted that after a few years, the cancer risks started a long steady decline, but for the first year or so, people who quit drinking actually had a greatly increased rate of cancer. Which seems confusing at first, until researchers explain that far too many people never do quit until already feeling the early and painful symptoms of cancer; and this fact is reflected in elevated early year cancer rates for newly abstinent patients.

The message is of course clear; don't wait until drinking causes you physical pain before seeking help.

Women are at particular risk to the chronic effects of heavy alcohol consumption, and in addition to suffering greater rates of cirrhosis, heart disease and mental declines, they also show an almost 50% increased risk of breast cancer.

Just like smoking, if you drink heavily, you should stop, and if you can't you should get professional help. Life is far too short to squander your available years on this earth suffering through the pains of addiction, and ultimately reducing your life span with painful and fatal diseases. There are great treatments available to all who commit to change and to sobriety.

Don't wait until it's too late, get help today and start enjoying better health and a happy future of sobriety. Millions quit drinking every year, there's no reason why you can't too.


About the Author
If you need help making a decision about treatment visit ChooseHelp Alcoholism

Read the daily addiction blog TroubleBlog Drinking for stories of recovery and the latest news on treatment options.

Metabolism: Processing the Fuel for the Body

by Alex Ellorde

It is a common belief that slim people generally have higher metabolism rate that those of overweight and obese people. That isn’t necessarily true. Weight is not directly connected to metabolism. One’s weight is dependent on the balance of the total calorie consumption as opposed to the total number of calories expended. Once a person eats more calories that his body needs, expect a weight gain to follow. Just the same, taking in less that what the body requires and a weight loss will follow.

Your body requires a minimum amount of calories per day to be able to maintain its essential functions like breathing, maintaining your heartbeat, and keeping the brain properly functional. This is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). There is a great likelihood that the body burns more calories that your basal metabolic rate, unless you spend the entire day in bed doing nothing.

Your basal metabolic rate accounts for sixty to seventy percent of your daily caloric needs. Several factors affect a person’s basal metabolism, it includes: · Age. A person’s BMR lowers as he ages. · Height. Studies have also shown that taller people have higher BMR. · Gender. BMR is generally higher in men than in women. · Body composition. People who have more muscle that fat have higher BMRs. · Environmental temperature. BMR has also been noted to be generally higher in extreme temperatures of heat or cold. · Diet. People who live on low calorie diets have low BMRs. · Stress. BMR appears to increase during periods of stress and anxiety.

Factors like age, gender, and height are difficult to change as we cannot stop ourselves from ageing, or change our height or our gender. However, we have control of other affecting factors to change our basal metabolic rates. · People who live in areas of extreme temperatures of hot or cold may need to increase their calorie intake to keep their body temperatures normal and support all vital body functions. · Stress may help burn extra calories, however it is not advisable to subject yourself to mental or emotional stress just for this reason. Physical stress on the body, like pregnancy or growth, may also increase a person’s metabolic rate. · Quick weight-loss diets affect the body by slowing it down, causing the body to initiate energy conservation and decrease its metabolic rate. Not skipping the important meals of the day may increase a person’s energy expenditure by 10% as eating requires calories for digesting, absorbing, transporting and metabolising food. · Exercising helps your metabolism in two ways. First, it helps burn calories while performing the exercise, and it burns even more calories after you stop exercising. It takes as long as twelve hours for a person’s metabolic rate to return to its normal rate after exercising. Second, it helps form more muscle, therefore adding to muscle mass that also helps speed up your metabolism. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone.

Keeping yourself healthy not only entails that we avoid vices and harmful substances. It also includes eating right and maintaining an active lifestyle. Healthy eating, coupled with the right amount of exercise and the right company leads to a better, happier, healthier life.

About the Author
Choose Variety of High Quality Medicines at http://www.americapharmacyworld.com Online Medicines Enjoyed Reading this article? More here: Pharmacy Articles

Sugars Can Be Good For You

by Jerry Ryan, PhD

I know, I know. All your life everybody has told you how bad sugar is for you. It makes you fat, it rots your teeth, and it pushes you toward diabetes. Now here I am telling you that sugars can be good for you. What is going on?

The basic assumption is that when somebody says 'sugars', most people think of table sugar, or what is chemically known as sucrose. Table sugar is actually a combination of glucose and fructose, two different sugars. The sugars that I'm talking about are simple sugars called monosaccharides. They are critical to almost all basic metabolic processes in the body. These essential little nutrients are found in many different fruits, grains, and vegetables when eaten in their naturally grown, vine-ripened state.

But when is the last time you ate anything that wasn't processed, packaged, or adulterated in some form? Wheat and rice have all the bran and other nutrients stripped off in the processing. It's so bad that the U.S. Government had to make companies add the chemical form of the nutrients back into breads, cereals, and the like. 'Fortified' simply means replacing many of the natural nutrients that were removed with chemical substitutes. But much more is taken out than replaced. Over a dozen vital nutrients are processed out of breads and cereals while only four to six are replenished chemically.

Fruits and vegetables are sprayed with God-only-knows-what pesticides and fertilizers. Then, the produce is picked while it's still green. The nutrients from the ground never have an opportunity to enter the vegetable or fruit. Studies at Harvard have shown that the nutrient levels of phytochemicals like lycopene in store-bought tomatoes are almost a flat line graph when compared to the high-spike levels shown in vine-ripened tomatoes. It's easy to see how our country's rate of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases have skyrocketed since the advent of TV dinners and packaged foods in the 50's.

According to Harper's Biochemistry, the simple sugars that we need are glucose, galactose, mannose, xylose, fucose, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, and neuraminic acid. The ones that we get now in our daily diet are primarily glucose and galactose. Luckily, our bodies are able to change these two sugars into the remaining six others. But that process requires many things to occur with perfect precision in our bodies. With all the stress, medications, environmental toxins, and other compromising factors that our bodies have to deal with, it is clear that the system will malfunction from time to time.

The injury done to our bodies happens down at the cellular level and can even result in DNA damage. The field of glycobiology is now developing in the medical community. 'Glyco' means sugar. In fact, there was a recent meeting in London, Ontario of a group of glycobiologists from all over the world. They spoke of a new diagnostic study called 'sugar-printing' in which they are discovering that certain sugar malfunctions result in specific diseases. For example, rheumatoid arthritis shows a deficiency in galactose due to a missing enzyme that helps move it through the body. By supplying additional galactose in the form of a supplement, the symptoms disappeared.

The information coming out in medical studies regarding the impact of glyconutrients is astonishing. The Soviets were using this carbohydrate technology back in the 70's and 80's with their Olympic athletes. The result was tons of gold medals and no failure in drug tests because the glyconutrients are food-based, not a synthetic chemical or drug. The Soviets also used this preventative measure to boost the overall health of their troops located in Siberian outposts. Their testing showed less overall illness and an increase in immune system function. In addition, Chinese studies show improvements in diseases ranging from cancer to arthritis when the patients were given glyconutrient supplements. This new technology is so important and far-reaching in terms of our overall health that it was the topic of my Ph.D. research. You can read a copy of my dissertation at my website.

If you would like more information on any topic discussed in this article or to suggest ideas for a future article, you can contact me through my website email.

About the Author
Jerry Ryan, Ph.D. is a Natural Health Coach who teaches individuals and group classes on the scientifically documented benefits of natural health techniques. He is also an internationally published author and has been a guest speaker at such places as NIKE World Headquarters. For more information, his website is http://www.JerryRyanPhD.com

Traditional And Natural Cancer Treatment Options, Part 2

by Gabriel Adams

Alternative Cancer Treatment Options

Traditional cancer treatment options form only art of the story. An increasing number of health professionals are now exploring alternative cancer treatment options that encompass the whole individual.

Nutrition Therapy

Maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet that includes foods rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene, is the best way to provide your body with the nourishment it needs to fight cancer. Proper nutrition helps minimize nausea and fatigue that are the main side-effects of traditional cancer treatments and are a critical component of the healing process.

Buah Merah or Red fruit, found primarily in the Indonesian island of Papua, has very high levels of anti-oxidants, beta-carotene and tocopherol and offers hope to all cancer patients. Beta-carotene and tocopherol have strong anti-carcinogenic properties and help by boosting the immune system and retarding the growth of cancer-causing cells. Buah Merah also contains Omega 3 and Omega 9 as well as linolenat, oleat, dekanoat and linoleat acids; all of which act as active medicinal compounds and also help in the prevention of diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a system of treatment that focuses exclusively on using the healing powers of nature such as sunlight, water and air. It is supplemented with therapies such as massage as well as a wholesome diet. Naturopathy is by and large a holistic kind of treatment and includes homoeopathy, ayurveda, therapeutic nutrition, hydrotherapy or botanical medicine. It is based on the belief that the body is self-healing and will recover and repair by itself spontaneously if it is given a healthy, conducive environment.

Pain Control

Though, to a certain extent medication can be used to manage pain, Acupuncture is gaining popularity as a means to control the pain experienced by cancer sufferers. The pain could be brought on by the cancer itself or as a side-effect to the cancer treatment. Prevalence and severity of pain depend on the extent, location and type of cancer as well as pain threshold of the person afflicted by cancer.

About the Author
Learn about Alternative Cancer Treatment options at http://www.redfruitoil.com/

Traditional And Natural Cancer Treatment Options, Part 1

by Gabriel Adams

While there's a whole gamut of cancer treatment options available; which is the best one to use depends upon the type of cancer as well the stage that the cancer has reached. Though the prevailing trend is to resort to more traditional cancer treatment options, cancer patients are not restricted to them. There are a variety of alternative and natural options (some new, some old) for treating cancer.

Traditional Cancer Treatment Options

Traditional cancer treatment options are often referred to as cut, poison and burn (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation).

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, which involves the use of chemical agents or drugs to destroy cancerous cells, forms the core treatment of malignancies. These drugs work by targeting fast-growing cells and the type and combination of drugs depends upon the type of cancer. Though chemotherapy has been proven to be effective, it can give rise to a host of side-effects including hair loss, fatigue, diarrhea, loss of appetite, anemia or low red blood cell count, neutropenia or low white blood cell count, mouth sores and shortness of breath.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy involves the use of high-energy ionizing radiation from varied sources including x-rays, gamma rays, protons and neutrons to shrink tumors and kill cancerous cells. It is used almost half of all cancer patients; either by itself or in combination with other cancer treatments. External-beam radiation therapy, which involves using radiation that is emitted from a machine outside the body is more common than internal radiation therapy, in which a radioactive material is implanted in the body near the tumor or cancer cells.

Surgery

Surgery often entails a biopsy, which is done for diagnostic purposes. Surgery that is done to remove the cancerous tissues is often followed by chemotherapy or radiotherapy, which reduces the risk of the cancer recurring and also to destroy any cancer cells that may be left behind in the affected part of the body.

The kind of surgery depends on which part of the body has been affected by cancer as well as the extent of the cancer. In breast cancer patients the options could include lumpectomy, in which only the lump is removed; segmentectomy, in which part of the breast is removed or mastectomy, in which the entire breast is removed.

About the Author
Learn about Alternative Cancer Treatment options at http://www.redfruitoil.com/