Besides steering clear of germs, what can you do to minimize the impact of infection on psoriasis. Scientists in Poland have found that infection has the greatest impact when selenium is deficient (particularly in men). You don’t need megadoses of selenium. As little as 100 micrograms a day is all you need. Take supplemental copper, zinc, and vitamin E for a balanced antioxidant effect.

Naturopathic physicians also suggest that on of the best ways to prevent severe outbreaks of psoriasis is to a void constipation. When stool stays in the colon, any Streptococcus bacteria in the mix have opportunity to release endotoxins. These metabolic byproducts of the germ stimulate the production of a chemical (cyclic GMP) in skin cells that causes them to multiply wildly. Good colon health, interestingly enough, leads to good skin health.

It’s easy to speed up the wrinkling of your skin. All you have to do is to smoke cigarettes or live with people who do, take 4 or more alcoholic drinks every day, and get lots of sun, although wrinkles are mostly due to exposure to the sun. The ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight penetrates the skin and makes free radicals.

The free radicals that sunlight makes in the skin are mostly free radicals of oxygen. The ray of sunlight forces the molecule of O2 to spin until it produces two “O’s.” These singlets oxygen cause proteins to link together. The linked proteins make skin “leathery” and the prevent the production of collagen skin needs to be smooth and supple. The outward symptoms of this process are wrinkles, age spots, and even cancer.

Natural nutrients reverse this process. Which natural nutrients? Beta-carotene, lycopene, vitamin C, and vitamin E are useful alongside NAC (N-acetylcysteine). Let’s look at these nutrients one by one.

Beta-carotene and lycopene are carotenoids, a group of pigments found in colorful foods such as tomatoes, carrots, and pumpkin. In the skin, they blend to form a “tanned” color, and they also soak up the free radicals released by UV rays. Beta-carotene is more important for skin color, but lycopene is more useful in fighting the sun’s skin-damaging effects. And if you take vitamin E in supplements or skin creams, vitamin E will ensure that they work longer and more effectively.

Beta-carotene, lycopene, and the other carotenoids, all forms of vitamin A, are especially helpful in preventing damage from sunburn. In persons over 80 years of age, skin creams are especially effective way to deliver these analogs of vitamin A to sun-damaged skin.

If you use sun block, you’re protected from the part of the sun’s spectrum known as UVB. But if you live in the United States, it’s almost impossible to get sunscreens that protect from the even broader part of the solar spectrum, UVA. For protection from UVA, take vitamins C and E together. You can take up to 1,000 IU of vitamin E with up to 2,000 vitamin C every day for added protection during a summer vacation or any other time you’ll be exposed to extra sun. And the combination of C and E is especially helpful in rejuvenating skin damaged by the chemicals in tobacco smoke.

If you’re over 60 and on a budget, the one antioxidant you need for your skin is vitamin E. Taking about 1,200 IU a day for a month protects mature skin against sunburn and stops (although it won’t reverse) the wrinkling process. Is a “one-a-day” enough? The answer is no, unless the multivitamin preparation also contains zinc. As little as 15 mg of zinc a day is enough, but the antioxidant benefits of vitamins C and E and the carotenoids are greatest with an adequate supply of zinc.It also helps to make sure your supplement offers complete vitamin B and essential fatty acids.

There is something else you can do to protect your skin, and it’s very simple. Drink more water. If you use moisturizing creams, making sure you drink enough water increases the ability of skin cells to respond to alpha-lipoic acid and vitamin C and increases the benefits of vitamin E in the skin. Avoiding sun, avoiding excessive use of alcohol, staying away from cigarettes and making sure you get your antioxidants in and on your skin will help turn leathery and wrinkled skin back to the vibrant skin of youth.

Go here to find an all natural skin care product that will nourish your skin and feed it what it needs.

The chances of your getting too much propylene glycol aren’t high, but the risk is serious. Just like antifreeze can kill your pets, getting too much propylene glycol can cause seizures and fatal arrhythmias of the heart. It’s more a problem when there’s kidney disease, but poisonings with propylene glycol are known to have occurred in healthy people?

A tiny amount of propylene glycol stabilizes a product and helps make it sweeter, but too much is toxic.

Why would propylene glycol be an issue? Can’t toothpaste makers simply measure out a harmless amount?

You would think the answer to this question would be yes, but it happens that measurements for liquid vitamins are typically given in milliliters while propylene glycol is sold in a measurement called millilitcrs. Without getting too technical, the bottom line is, the chemists at the toothpaste plant often simply don’t know how much propylene glycol should be in a formula. They typically use too much.

When manufacturers wisely choose not to use use propylene glycol in their sweetening formula, they typically substitute sorbitol. The problem with sorbitol is, it can cause diarrhea. If you want to make a “liquid toothpaste,” it’s tempting to substitute glyceirne. Glycerine is sweet, but it is very thick, and taking products with glycerine also can cause diarrhea and they raise blood sugars sharply.

So now you have three more things to look out for: propylene glycol, sorbitol, and glycerine. Don’t accept any of them in your oral health products. Get an all natural toothpaste, mouthwash and breath mint that mother nature herself would use.

Melatonin is produced by an organ at the base of the brain called the pineal gland. The production of melatonin declines with age, and supplemental melatonin is most helpful in mature persons with decreased melatonin levels.

If you have to have a cup of coffee to jump start your morning, you probably don’t have enough melatonin. The brain’s natural supply of melatonin is reduced by caffeine, benzodiazepines (tranquillizers such as Librium and Valium), and beta-blockers for controlling high blood pressure.

If you have been taking melatonin for insomnia and you haven’t been getting the expected results, the problem may be a shortage of magnesium. Especially if you also experience delayed sleep, cluster headaches, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, or asthma, a minimal dosage of magnesium (with calcium, copper, and zinc) may be what is required to help melatonin reset your body clock for restful sleep.

A series of scientific investigations has discovered that the cause of “dry mouth” in many women over 45 is a lack of estrogen. When estrogen levels are low or erratic, the saliva becomes more acidic, so acidic that it leaches away calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Gum disease and tooth decay follow.

The obvious solution to the problem is estrogen replacement therapy, but it’s not the only solution. Scientists at a school of dentistry in Ankara, Turkey have found that calcium supplements also help. There is good reason to believe anything you do to maintain healthy bones, maintaining hormonal balance, eating dairy products, taking calcium, getting enough sun to your vitamin D, or eating green, leafy vegetables with vitamin K, will also help your dental health.

Taking daily vitamin and mineral supplements is helpful in preventing gum disease. Smoking counteracts them. For your best oral health after menopause, take care of your bones as well as your teeth.

Almost no one in Bartlett has cavities. And many people have a rocky, brownish stain that looks like they chew chewing tobacco-even if they brush and rinse three times a day.

The unusual state of dental health in this Central Texas outpost is due to an unusually high concentration of naturally occurring fluoride in the community’s water wells.

Fluoride prevents cavities by combining with calcium in the enamel of teeth. Fluoride and calcium combine to form a crystal called fluoroapetite.

This crystal is very resistant to the acids released from bacteria in the mouth. And fluoride also kills bacteria directly by interfering with their enzymes.

But does fluoride actually prevent cavities? And if it interferes with bacterial enzymes, does it also interfere with human enzymes?

There actually is some evidence that a fluoride rinse might prevent cavities from forming during the time a teenager wears braces. Rinses of this sort are intended strictly for short-term use.

Fluoridated drinking water may also have a slight benefit in preventing cavities in children. In the most recently published study of public fluoridation, 80% of children who drank fluoridated drinking water got cavities compared with 87% who didn’t. This is not a dramatic benefit, and it may not be worth the cost:

• Approximately 3% of children who drink fluoridated water develop brown mottling of the teeth.
• In one survey, children exposed to fluoridated drinking water had IQ scores 6 to 12 points lower than children who drank non-fluoridated drinking water.
• And fluoride has been implicated as a contributing factor in at least 113 disease conditions.

The first sign of fluoride poisoning is mottling of the teeth-but why wait for the worst. Just say no to the fluoride follies. Use dental care products that are fluoride-free.

Deficiency in vitamin B1 may be the missing link to successful treatment of fibromyalgia. The symptoms of vitamin B1 deficiency and fibromyalgia are strikingly similar: mood swings, frequent headaches, unusual fatigue, muscle tenderness upon pressure palpitation, muscular weakness, irritable bowel syndrome, and sleep disturbances.

Some aspects of emergency planning are obvious. If you run a risk of having to leave your home suddenly, carry an emergency bag. It should contain:

· Any medications you need for at least a week, but preferably a month.

· Identification and medical information. You need your name, address, phone, and emergency contact numbers, but also basic medical information, including a list of your prescriptions.

· Cash! ATM’s don’t work when the power is out.

· At least one bottle of water, preferably several. You don’t want to wind up taking care of your thirst with canned sodas sweetened with NutraSweet.

· Snacks to last you at least 24 hours. This is especially important if you need to avoid certain “trigger foods.” Try to avoid salty foods, since they are especially likely to interfere with your body’s metabolism of stress hormones.

· Any clothing or blankets appropriate to the season. If you are able to use your own car, try to carry any “eggshell” mattress linings or pillows you use to sleep more comfortably at night. Don’t be hesitant to use them.

· A small, battery-operated, crank, or solar radio, and

· Your cell phone. Remember, your best reception may be in open places at the edges of towns or cities.

Of course, you’ll need to start your preparations as early as possible.

If you have fibromyalgia, you need to stick to your regular routines as much as you can. It’s fine to keep informed and to let family and friends know where you are. But don’t follow any disaster 24/7.

It’s also important to be wise in your conversations. Be selective of who you talk to. Some people enjoy dwelling on horrors and treat disasters like some kind of reality show. Don’t let people around you indulge in gratuitous tales of blood, tears, and suffering, even if they are true.

When the disaster has passed:

· See your doctor if you experience any new or worsened symptoms, and

· Expect post-traumatic stress reactions, especially increased difficulty with sleep.

Stress during a natural disaster typically does not increase fibromyalgia pain. Difficulties show up in other parts of the nervous system, particularly the organs regulated by the vagus nerve. Those are the heart and digestive tract. General symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea, constipation, gas, or alternating problems with all three) and tachycardia (racing heart) are more likely to be the problem than increase fibromyalgia pain.

Unless your water supply is questionable, chances are any gastric disturbances you experience are related to fibromyalgia. Fever, however, is a sure sign the new symptoms are food- or water-related.

Stress after a natural disaster, on the other hand, typically does worsen fibromyalgia symptoms. There may not be a great deal more pain, but pain may be bad enough to reduce sleep even more than usual.

Remember, one of the best therapies for fibromyalgia is regular, gentle, low-impact exercise. Don’t be embarrassed to do your yoga or Pilates in public places. You might be an inspiration to someone else to use these proven and effective means of relieving both traumatic stress and the painful symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Fibrosis occurs when proteins in muscle fibers become linked and lock together. Fibrosis is often culprit in shoulder pain.

In some parts of the world, notably in Taiwan, up to 10 percent of the population suffers a particular kind of shoulder pain called deltoid fibrosis. As the name suggests, deltoid fibrosis is a condition of tissue destruction in the deltoid muscle, the triangle of muscle that acts as a hinge to let the shoulders move forwards and backwards.

Doctors usually treat deltoid fibrosis with surgery, but there is another approach. As little as 100 IU of vitamin E every day and surgery may not be necessary.

Supplemental vitamin E won’t necessarily have the same effect on fibromyalgia-but isn’t 5 cents a day a reasonable price to pay for relief from shoulder pain? If shoulder pain is among your symptoms, consider supplements that provide you a daily dose of vitamin E.