7 HEALTHY FOODS FOR HEALTHY SKIN

Have you ever thought of eating healthy? All the time we talk about healthy food, healthy lifestyle, but do we actually follow it? No, and that is the reason why today we are in the grip of so many diseases. Many young people are found of fast food and ignore home cooked fresh and healthy food. This is the bad habit that affects our immune system. Good food habits not only make us healthy but also tone our skin and make it beautiful. Therefore, it is the high time for you to check on the food for healthy skin and to live a healthy life.

Dark green vegetables, fruits, and calcium and other minerals rich food items are the must food item for your healthy body. You should always remember one thing that whatever you eat, it will easily reflect on your skin, hair and health. Bad food gives you heart attack, high level of cholesterol, high blood pressure while healthy food items on your plate make you fresh and energetic. After all, “A healthy skin is a happy you”. So, don’t take any chance with your food habits that affect your skin.
Here’s the list of interesting food that will make you look gorgeous and stunning:

1. Replace your bottle of mustard oil with a bottle of olive oil. The oil is light weight in nature and a few drops of oil on the pan lead you to live a healthy life. Polyphenols & antioxidants damage the free radicals and help in making your skin glow.
2. Dark chocolate is good for your skin and especially for women. If you consume cocoa powder in an appropriate proportion, then the roughness of the skin will definitely vanish.
3. Instead of jelly, try oatmeal in your breakfast because it is healthy skin diet for you. You can also add some fresh fruits to make it more healthy and nutritious. You will feel energetic and your morning gets a kick start for a great day.
4. It is not hidden that green tea has miraculous effect. People who take morning green tea are less in percentage to fall sick. It increases the blood flow, improves the skin elasticity, and prevents damage to the skin due to sun exposure. It also helps in boosting your immune system.
5. Walnut is another fruit for healthy skin because it contains omega-3 fatty acids. For vegetarian, it is a good replacement of fish and you must include it in your diet chart to have a glowing skin.
6. People suffering from Melanoma should include Rosemary in the diet chart. It is a unique plant that controls this problem. This herb is rich in antioxidants and gives your skin a perfect glow and makes it smooth.
7. There is no other substitute of water. It is the perfect solution for glowing skin. You must drink 2 to 3 liters of water daily to keep your body healthy and glowing. Water removes all the toxins from the body and makes you feel refreshed and energetic for the whole day.

Who said that healthy food for healthy skin is not good at taste? Today’s chefs create magic with the healthy ingredients and bring out some special dishes for you. Several online videos that are available will teach you some interesting recipes to give your family a healthy food. Even, healthcare professional recommend you to lead healthy life. If you are not sure of getting the appropriate ingredients in right proportions to make a healthy food for your overall health and skin, then get the advice of a dietician.

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LET FOOD BE THE MEDICINE & MEDICINE BE THE FOOD

How to Achieve a Balanced Nutrition ?

A balanced diet is low in unnecessary fats and sugars, but high in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. The following food groups are essential parts of a balanced diet.

Fruits &Vegetables

Most of the key sources of essential vitamins are fruits & vegetables. Especially the dark, leafy greens generally contain the most nutrition and can be eaten at every meal. A variety of vegetables will help you obtain the bountiful nutrients that all vegetables provide.

Whole Grains

Try switching from white bread or pasta to whole-grain products.

Proteins

Meat and beans serve as the main protein essential for proper muscle and brain development. Lean, low-fat meats such as chicken, fish, and certain cuts of pork and beef are the best options.

Other good sources of protein, with health benefits, are fiber and other nutrients, include nuts and beans, such as:

• Lentils
• Beans
• Peas
• Almonds
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts

Dairy

Dairy product contains the main source of calcium, vitamin D, and other requisite nutrients.

Bad Eating habits & Poor Nutrition

Bad eating habits and poor nutrition can become a serious health threat. A poor diet can cause lower core strength, slower problem-solving ability, muscle response time, and less alertness. A diet, deprived of nutrition can cause health problems.

Hypertension

Hypertension is one of the possible outcomes of poor nutrition. Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is known for the silent killer because it frequently remains undetected and thus untreated until damage to the body has been done. Eating too much junk food, fried food, salt, sugar, dairy products, caffeine and refined food can cause hypertension.

High Cholesterol and Heart Disease

High cholesterol can cause due to poor nutrition and is a primary contributor to heart disease. High-fat diet intake is one of the many reasons. Foods high in cholesterol contains a large amount of saturated fat. Examples include ice cream, eggs, cheese, butter, and beef. Instead of high-fat foods, choose lean proteins such as chicken, turkey, fish and seafood and processed foods.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that can be linked to poor nutrition. Diabetes can result from consuming a sugar- and fat-laden diet, leading to weight gain.

Stroke

A stroke is another condition that can trigger at any point of time, caused by plaque that builds up in a blood vessel, and then breaks free, as these clot travels to your brain and creates a blockage which results in a stroke. Stroke can be associated with poor nutrition. In the majority of cases, strokes damage the brain and impair functioning sometimes leading to death. Foods high in salt, fat, and cholesterol increase your risk of stroke.

Cancer

Most of the cancers including bladder, colon and breast cancers, can be caused by poor dietary habits. One must limit the intake of foods that contains refined sugars, nitrates and hydrogenated oils, including processed meats, burgers, french fries etc.

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Are celery juice health benefits real?

Juicing celery raises calorie count

It sounds simple enough: juice a bunch of celery, drink it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, and wait for the health benefits to roll in.

A search for #CeleryJuice on Instagramreturns over 35,000 posts, not including all the variations on the hashtag. Some social media users say that drinking celery juice has cured them of mental health problems and infertility. Others credit it with healing eczema that nothing else could cure. One websiteeven claims that it can prevent cancer. Stories touting its "potent healing properties" have appeared on Gwyneth Paltrow's controversial lifestyle site, Goop.

But are these health benefits real?

"It's not a surprise to me that anything a celebrity or an influencer with lots of followers would mention would get a lot of attention," Lisa Drayer, a registered dietitian who writes about nutrition for CNN, said of the celery juice trend.

Celery certainly has health benefits, according to Drayer. "There are some beneficial flavonoids that have been discovered in celery that have been shown to perhaps play a role in reducing inflammation in the brain or reducing age-related memory decline," she said.

Celery also provides a healthy dose of fiber, as well as vitamins C and K and potassium, and it is a very low-calorie snack.

"A 5-inch stalk has only three calories, so that's very low-calorie. A cup of chopped celery has only 20 calories," she said. But turning it into juice can change this.

"Any time you concentrate a vegetable or a fruit, it's going to be higher in sugars and carbohydrates and calories," Drayer said. A cup of juiced celery jumps to 42 calories.

"I'm much more likely to recommend celery as a snack. It's crunchy, it's low-calorie, and it will fill you up," Drayer said. In fact, she often advises it this for people who are trying to lose weight.

Research around the benefits of celery and celery juice is limited, she noted, and we "really can't say there's anything magical about celery that's going to help cure cancer or help you to quickly shed pounds."

Juicing celery has other drawbacks beyond raising the calorie count.

"Juicing celery (and any other vegetable) strips away the beneficial fiber that helps you feel fuller longer, improves intestinal health and feeds the health bacteria in your gut," Malina Malkani, registered dietitian nutritionist and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, wrote in an email.

Although she agrees that there are several health benefits to eating celery, she also agrees that there is little evidence to back up the claims made by some supporters of the juice trend.

"There isn't much scientific evidence to support the majority of health claims about drinking celery juice," she said. "In general, if a food fad, diet or service sounds too good to be true, you can assume that it is."

There's something else about celery juice that could explain its popularity on social media: "The beautiful green color of celery juice also lends itself to gorgeous photos in an Instagram feed," said Malkani, who is also creator of the Wholitarian Lifestyle, which promotes foods that "are nutrient-dense, minimally processed, plant-based and as close as possible to their original state when first harvested." However, she pointed out that this doesn't mean there is evidence behind the health claims.

Neither Drayer nor Malkani thinks that drinking celery juice is problematic, but they stress that it is probably not a miracle cure.

"If you enjoy the flavor of celery juice, have at it!" Malkani said. "But don't jump on the Instagram bandwagon, hoping that celery juice will be the cure-all you've been searching for all your life."

Both suggest that celery should be eaten as part of a balanced and inclusive diet and that everyone should be wary of celebrity-endorsed food trends.

"In general, just because a celebrity is touting a food or a beverage for particular reasons doesn't mean it's backed by sound science, even beyond celery juice," Drayer said. "What I always tell people is that there's no one magical food or beverage that will be able to totally make over your health or cure an illness."

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Anxiety

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety, or extreme apprehension and worry, is a normal reaction to stressful situations. In some cases, however, worry becomes excessive or chronic and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations.

The condition of steady, pervasive anxiety is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Other anxiety-related disorders include panic attacks—severe episodes of anxiety that occur in response to specific triggers—and obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is marked by persistent intrusive thoughts or compulsions to carry out specific behaviors (such as hand-washing). Anxiety so frequently co-occurs with depression that the two are thought to be twin faces of one disorder. Like depression, it strikes twice as many adult females as males.

Generally, anxiety arises first, often during childhood. Evidence suggests that both biology and environment can contribute to the disorder. Some people may have a genetic predisposition to anxiety; however, even so, development of the condition is not inevitable. Early traumatic experiences can also reset the body’s normal fear-processing system so that it is hyper-reactive.

Anxiety is typified by exaggerated worries and expectations of negative outcomes in unknown situations, and such concerns are often accompanied by physical symptoms. These include muscle tension, headaches, stomach cramps, and frequent urination. Behavioral therapies, with or without medication to control symptoms, have proved highly effective against anxiety, especially in children.

Symptoms of Anxiety

Typically, those who suffer from prolonged anxiety experience a range of symptoms, including:

• excessive worry about health, money, family, work, or school performance—even when there are no signs of trouble
•  irrational expectations of the worst outcome in many situations
•  inability to relax
•  irritability
•  insomnia
•  tiredness
•  headaches
•  muscle tension
•  difficulty swallowing
•  trembling or twitching
•  frequent urination

Inside the Thinking Maze of Anxious Minds

The anxious mind conducts many dangerous miscalculations about the future.

By Marwa Azab Ph.D.

A New Approach to Understanding Social Anxiety

There’s more to social anxiety disorder than its symptoms.

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.

Managing Anxiety in Stressful Times

Cognitive therapeutic tools to help ease modern day stressors.

By Robert London MD

10 Crucial Differences Between Worry and Anxiety

Why you need to know the difference.

By Guy Winch Ph.D.

Causes of Anxiety

In people with anxiety disorders, the brain circuitry that controls the threat response goes awry. At the heart of the circuit is the amygdala, a structure that flags incoming signals as worrisome and communicates with other parts of the brain to put the body on alert for danger. Early life events, especially traumatic ones, can program the circuitry so that it is oversensitive and sends out alarms too frequently and with only minor provocations. Survival mandates a system for perceiving threats and taking quick, automatic action, but those with anxiety see threats where there are none, perhaps because emotional memories color their perceptions.

7 Common Misconceptions About Anxiety

What you don’t know about anxiety can hurt you.

By Noam Shpancer Ph.D.

Teenagers, Helplessness, and Anxiety

How far do you push teenagers to face their fears?

By Bruce Poulsen Ph.D.

Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases

Depression and anxiety are signs that one is not getting key needs met.

By Gregg Henriques Ph.D.

Treatment of Anxiety

Research demonstrates that the most effective treatments for anxiety are behavioral. Such treatments often involve gradually exposing sufferers to the situations they fear. Anxiety therapy may also focus on changing distorted thought patterns that underlie the condition. Drugs may help patients control their anxiety, but they are typically effective only during treatment and do. not usually cure the condition. Increasingly, researchers are finding that mindfulness meditation can be a successful technique that helps lessen anxiety.

Why 75 Percent of Anxiety Sufferers Fail to Get Proper Care

New research looks at obstacles to treatment of social and generalized anxiety.

By Neighborhood Psychiatry

Treating Children and Adolescents for Depression and Anxiety

What should be the initial treatment for young people?

By Eugene Rubin M.D., Ph.D.

What to Do When Your Anxiety Won’t Go Away

How to work your psychological game on a daily basis.

By Linda Esposito LCSW

Shortcut to Calm

An avant-garde treatment for anxiety disorders.

By Lauren F. Friedman

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that may develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which severe physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or unnatural disasters, accidents, or military combat. Many people with PTSD tend to re-experience the ordeal that set the condition in motion, especially when they are exposed to events or objects reminiscent of the causal trauma. People who have suffered childhood abuse or other previous traumatic experiences carry a vulnerability that renders them more likely to develop the disorder. And people who experience emotional distancing may be more prone to PTSD.

A New Mindfullness Therapy for PTSD

Mantram repetition therapy (a type of mindfulness therapy) may help PTSD.

By Eugene Rubin M.D., Ph.D.

Why Women Have Higher Rates of PTSD Than Men

Sexual trauma is particularly toxic to mental health.

By Melanie Greenberg Ph.D.

The Anatomy of PTSD

What parts of the brain are involved in post-traumatic stress disorder?

By Phil Newton

Is PTSD Temporary?

About 8% of adults will experience PTSD during their lifetime.

By John A Call Ph.D., J.D., A.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a potentially disabling anxiety disorder. People afflicted with OCD become trapped in a pattern of repetitive, senseless thoughts and behaviors that are very difficult to overcome. Left untreated, a severe case of OCD can destroy a person's capacity to function at work or school—or to lead a comfortable existence at home. Although OCD symptoms typically begin during the teen years or early adulthood, research shows that some children may even develop the illness during preschool.

What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Do we control our thoughts, or do our thoughts control us?

By Joel Frohlich

Anorexia Nervosa Is a Modern Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Focus on food and control in anorexia nervosa is basically obsessive-compulsive.

By Albert Rothenberg, M.D.

Brain Abnormalities In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

New research on white matter alterations in adults with OCD.

By Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D.

Hope For OCD

Curiosity, adaptability, and communication are anathema to mental illness.

By Fletcher Wortmann

Panic Disorder

A person with panic disorder experiences sudden and repeated episodes of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms such as chest pain, heart palpitations, breathlessness, vertigo, or abdominal distress. Those who suffer from panic disorder often develop phobias about places where previous episodes have occurred—such as shopping malls. They also develop fears about experiences that have set off previous attacks, such as taking a flight.

Approximately 2.4 million Americans—or 1.7 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 54—suffer from panic disorder each year. Women are twice as likely as men to develop the disorder.

Panic disorder is treated with medications and cognitive-behavioral therapy, a type of psychotherapythat teaches patients to view their attacks in a different way and demonstrates how to reduce anxiety.

Discovering Panic's Tricks

Panic attacks have common features and symptoms. Here's how to manage them.

By Arash Emamzadeh

The Mystery of Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is and may be disabling, but treatment is quite effective.

By Eugene Beresin M.D., M.A.

Is It Panic Disorder or Something Else?

Experiencing panic attacks doesn't mean you have panic disorder.

By Barbara Markway Ph.D.

Do You Have Panic Disorder?

One of the most frightening anxiety disorders is panic disorder.

By Robert L. Leahy Ph.D.

How to Cope

Anxiety disorders can often be addressed successfully with a combination of therapy and medication. For therapy, patients may undergo psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, in which they learn to change how they respond to situations that induce anxiety. For medications, clinicians may, for limited periods of time, prescribe antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or tricyclics, tranquilizers such as benzodiazepines; they may also prescribe beta blockers for specific events. Different strategies can also help people who experience feelings of anxiety but the severity of which falls below the clinical threshold for diagnosis. Habits such as exercising, sleeping well, and limiting the amount of caffeine and alcohol consumed can prove helpful. Strategies such as taking deep breaths, acknowledging limits to fully controlling situations, push back against anxious or irrational thoughts, and observing the circumstances that tend to produce anxiety are proven to reduce anxiety by helping people feel better prepared in the future.

Four Strategies to Help Conquer Social Anxiety

Whether chronic or fleeting, social anxiety can be life limiting.

By Sophia Dembling

Problem Solving Buffers the Brain Against Anxiety

A new study shows why working through a few problems may be an anxiety elixir.

By David DiSalvo

Work Separation Anxiety

Do you stress out about work even when you're off the clock?

By Suzanne Degges-White Ph.D.

Controlling Anxiety In the Air and On the Ground

When we control what happens, we control anxiety about what happens.

By Tom Bunn L.C.S.W.

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ADHD

What Is ADHD?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (previously known as attention deficit disorder, or ADD) is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by core symptoms of inattentiveness, distractibility, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

ADHD is thought to be the most common childhood mental health disorder, with estimates of its prevalence in children ranging from 5 to 11 percent. Some of these children find it difficult to concentrate on schoolwork or other tasks, and may frequently succumb to daydreaming. Others become disruptive, defiant and have trouble getting along with parents, peers, or teachers. Children who struggle with hyperactivity and impulsivity, in particular, frequently have behavioral challenges that can be difficult for adults to manage. It’s also possible for both sets of symptoms to exist together, in what is typically called combined type ADHD. Executive functioning (planning, emotional regulation, and decision-making) is invariably affected as well. 

Though it’s been listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) for decades, ADHD remains controversial. Is it a true disorder, or simply a collection of naturally occurring behaviors that aren't tolerated in today’s high-demand, results-driven world? Even among those who agree the disorder exists, there are competing theories about what, if anything, triggers its symptoms.

Until recently, ADHD was considered a childhood disorder that individuals eventually grew out of. And while evidence still suggests that up to 50 percent of children with ADHD do appear to outgrow the condition, many others don’t—about 4 percent of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with ADHD, and more are thought to be undiagnosed. Even among children who “outgrow” the condition, early developmental delays and academic setbacks may create enduring learning problems.

Experts disagree over whether treatment for ADHD should be behavioral (therapy, training of attention, increased play, greater structure) or pharmacological—typically, the prescription of stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall, though non-stimulant options have become more common in recent years. Several large studies have concluded that a combination of both may work best.

Managing work, school, and household tasks can be a challenge for people with ADHD. Fortunately, they can learn coping skills to work around shortcomings and harness their talents—as many successful individuals with ADHD have already done.

Symptoms of ADHD

Given the fuzzy character of the disorder, the symptoms of ADHD are not always clear-cut. Since everyone experiences inattention or impulsivity from time to time, an individual’s symptoms must be persistent to be considered diagnostically relevant. For children, they must also be unusual for the corresponding developmental stage, as some symptoms may simply represent typical behavior for his or her age group.

To qualify as indicative of ADHD, symptoms must also create significant impairment of functioning in school, at work, or at home. For an adult to be diagnosed with ADHD, he or she must have had some of these symptoms before age 12.

The symptoms of ADHD fall into two distinct categories—inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Those whose symptoms are restricted to inattention don't tend to find them as disruptive, and are thus more likely to go undiagnosed.

Symptoms of Inattention

• difficulty sustaining attention, organizing tasks, or setting up tools needed for a task.
• easily distracted by irrelevant sights and sounds.
• does not pay attention to detail or follow instructions carefully.
• makes careless mistakes in work, schoolwork, or other activities.
• fails to finish schoolwork, projects, or household chores.
• loses things and is forgetful.
• does not seem to listen when spoken to directly; lethargic, appears to be daydreaming.

Symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity

• fidgeting with hands or feet or squirming while seated.
• unable to stay seated or play quietly.
• may run, jump, or climb about constantly [for small children].
• may often complain of feeling “restless" [for adults].
• talks excessively at inappropriate times.
• blurts out answers before questions are completed.
• has trouble taking turns or waiting on line.
• interrupts or intrudes on others; grabs things from people.

Causes of ADHD

The causes of ADHD are not clear. As with other mental health and behavioral disorders, genes likely play a role, but more recent research also implicates exposure to environmental toxins such as pesticides or lead, as well as prenatal cigarette smoking or alcohol intake. The popular belief that eating too much sugar causes the condition has not held up in research.

“Poor parenting” is not to blame for ADHD, but parenting styles and strategies can have an effect on children's self-regulating abilities. Children who are exposed to inconsistent discipline, or who suffer from neglect, may find it more challenging to rein in their impulses or direct their attention later on.

Treatment of ADHD

Medication and behavioral treatments are both widely used for treating ADHD. Patients who receive behavioral treatments—typically therapy, parent training, or neurofeedbacK—often ultimately need less medication, but several influential studies have concluded that the two treatment approaches may work best in tandem.

The most commonly used ADHD medications are stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall. Non-stimulants, like Strattera or certain classes of antidepressants, can be used for those who don’t respond to stimulants, or cannot tolerate them. Whatever medication is used, it's important to receive the correct dosage, since ADHD medications, and stimulants in particular, can worsen other conditions that may co-occur with ADHD, including bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety.

Children, Teens and ADHD

Boys, who tend to show more hyperactive or impulsive symptoms, have historically been more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls. But increased awareness of inattentive symptoms has led to an increase in diagnoses among girls in recent years. Overall, five to eleven percent of children and adolescents have been diagnosed with ADHD. Children and teens with ADHD may benefit from accommodations at school to help adapt curricula, classroom environments, and testing procedures to their learning styles and to compensate for developmental delays.

Technology and Everyday Distractions

There is an ongoing debate over whether multitasking, an increasing societal dependence on technology, or the competing demands of the modern world create ADD symptoms in otherwise attentive people. Most psychologists believe that attentional challenges long predate even the most rudimentary technology, and yet it’s also true that increasing diagnosis rates have coincided with a growing influence of technology on many people’s daily lives. Aside from the merits of the clinical debate, however, a plugged-in world of noisy, visually cluttered phones, screens, and other devices can be frustrating to many, and is likely to be especially challenging for individuals with ADHD.

ADD and Relationships

Maintaining fulfilling relationships can be a challenge for people with attentional problems. Because they are easily distracted, they may not appear to be listening closely to loved ones, and time-management challenges may lead them to be frequently late—or to forget social plans and important errands altogether. Because close relationships are so crucial to happiness and well-being, it's critical for those with ADHD to be aware of the effects of their condition on others, and to develop skills for building stronger social ties. On the other hand, it’s equally important for loved ones to be cognizant of ADHD-related challenges, and to understand that in many cases, the person with ADHD is aware of—and struggling to manage—their frustrating behaviors.

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