INSAF

Come Spring, Pollens abound and Allergy season starts. Allergies can cause great misery. Luckily, there are options to help manage symptoms and continue doing the things you enjoy. The goal is to find the treatment that best suits your allergies, your lifestyle, and your wallet. Here are three of the most common ways to find relief from allergy symptoms. Antihistamines These medications are the mainstay for treating the sneezing, runny nose, and itchy eyes that come with allergies. Antihistamines also relieve hives and other symptoms of some food allergies. Many people who suffer from hay fever (seasonal allergic rhinitis) are familiar with the older antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton). While these drugs work well, they leave many people feeling groggy, sleepy, or just "out of it." Thankfully, the newer generation of antihistamines, including cetirizine (Zyrtec), desloratadine (Clarinex), fexofenadine (Allegra), and ...

Probiotics are live bacteria and eating or drinking them can have a profound beneficial effect on your health. Before you say "ewww," let's look at the science and why the right bacteria is essential for our well-being. The human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is filled with millions of microbes known as microbiota. Your microbiota is specific only to you and was started at birth when you acquired the bacteria from your mother. Over the years it continued to evolve depending upon your gender, geography, health and diet. If you took antibiotics, it probably knocked out your good intestinal microbial environment for at least a month. Some strong antibiotics affect the gut for up to four years. Probiotics are bacteria found in foods and a number of digestive illnesses are helped by taking them. They prevent the growth of bad bacteria, they lower intestinal pH (thereby preventing bad bacterial growth), and they increase the production of mucin, which acts as a blockade and...

New studies are suggesting that music can be more powerful than medication. I figured that music would help calm me and distract me from the pain. You might use music to distract yourself from painful or stressful situations, too. Or perhaps you’ve listened to music while studying or working out, hoping to up your performance. Though you may sense that music helps you feel better somehow, only recently has science begun to figure out why that is. Neuroscientists have discovered that listening to music heightens positive emotion through the reward centers of our brain, stimulating hits of dopamine that can make us feel good, or even elated. Listening to music also lights up other areas of the brain—in fact, almost no brain center is left untouched—suggesting more widespread effects and potential uses for music. Music’s neurological reach, and its historic role in healing and cultural rituals, has led researchers to consider ways music may improve our health and wellbeing. In partic...

Americans are obsessed with losing weight, and with good cause. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association , 68.8 percent of the U.S. population is overweight or obese. This condition can cause a wide range of health problems, from type 2 diabetes and gallstones to coronary disease and strokes. But despite all the headlines about one “magic diet” or another, there’s really only one way to achieve and maintain your healthy weight, says   Erica Framsted, M.S., R.D. CSO,   a dietitian at the   Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Turn healthy eating into a lifelong habit you enjoy. Healthy eating, she says, is not a diet. It’s more like a hobby that you can get better at over the years. Here are her tips to help you get started. 1. Find Your Local Farmer’s Market “Farmers’ markets bring quality produce closer to the center of where you live,” Framsted says. “And the nutritional value is better than something that was picked two weeks ago and shipped to...

Whether we wear prescription lenses or simply get eye strain after a day on the computer, most of us would like to improve and protect our eyesight, but what really works to protect your vision naturally? Virginia Ko, O.D.,   an optometrist with the   Palo Alto Medical Foundation,   shares these top ways to protect and improve your eyesight, no matter your age. Shade Your Eyes “Protecting your eyes from UV rays is the most important thing you can do to protect vision,” Dr. Ko says. Problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and color blindness are linked to your genetics. Eye conditions such as cataracts and macular degeneration have a genetic component, but they are also caused by damage from UV rays. “You can’t choose your parents,” Dr. Ko tells her patients. “But you can protect your eyes from sunlight.” Look for sunglasses that meet ANSI Z80.3 standards (American National Standards Institute) or have UV400 protection. They block at least 99...