This one if for my fellow women – sorry guys! Part 1
Around half of all women will get cystitis or some other unirary tract infection (UTI) at somepoint in their life. The female anatomy makes women more susceptible. Having had cystitis many years ago I can vouch for the pain. As some women are prone to suffer multiple episodes, I wanted to share some natural options to help them stop coming back.
Cranberry Juice
300-500ml of unsweetened cranberry juice or 400mg of concentrated cranberry extract twice a day appears to be sucessful is preventing or reducing the number of urinary tract infections (UTI). However, there is limited evidence that cranberry can stop a UTI once you have it.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture was put to the test against sham acupuncture (the needles go into the wrong place or inserted in the wrong way) or no treatment for UTI prevention. After six months 85% of those who had genuine acupuncture sufferend no UTIs compared with 58% of those of the sham group and 36% of the untreated group. In another study UTI-prone women receiving acupuncture twice a week had half the rate of infections compared to those receiving no treatment.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27251185
Related Posts
Can exercise help reduce blood pressure?
High blood pressure is known as the silent killer becuase of its the link to heart attacks and strokes. The causes of high blood pressure are: Mental stress: Stress can have a severe impact on blood pressure, especially when it is chronic. It can occur as a result of both socioeconomic and psychosocial factors. Some aspects of sex: In general, high blood pressure is more common among adult men than adult women. However, after the age of 55 years, a woman's relative risk of hypertension increases. A recent study compared the impact of medication and exercise for reducing high systolic blood pressure. The researchers reviewed 197 exercise randomised control trials and 194 randomised control trials looking at medication. While anti-hypertensive medications achived hight reductions in blood pressure that exercise. Researches concluded that modest but consistent reductions in systolic blood pressure can be achieved with exercise. Reference
What can improve your mental health?
I am sure it hasn't escaped your attention that there has been a huge increase in the focus on mental health over the last couple of years. So I wanted to share with you the results and conclusions of the largest study carried out here in the uk to help people with mental health issues. The Get Set To Go program started in 2015 was funded by the national lottery and supported by Sport England. The study had 3,585 participants, of these 1,000 particpants progess was actively tracked. This makes it the largest study of its kind to assit people with mental health issues to get physically active. A report by the Mind Charity, two years into the project concluded that:
- Physical activity plays an important role in building resilience.
- Physical activity plays an important role in mental healty recovery.
- People who are physically active on a regular basis are more likely to experience better wellbeing.
- Reducing the risk of depression by up to 30%.
- Lifting mood.
- Improving self-esteem
Department of Health (2011), Start Active, Stay Active. Available here:Calling all vegans and vegetarians…
Choline is an essential nutrient that humans must get through their diet, the most common food sources are meat, poultry, fish, dairy product and eggs. Non-meat sources include wheatgerm and brussels sprouts. It is needed to produce acetylcholine an important neurotransmitter for among other things:
- Memory
- Mood
- Muscle control
