A person can suffer from heavy bleeding during this procedure, even if it is something as simple as chin liposuction. That risk is increased if a person already has a bleeding disorder. Any surgery that involves general anesthesia also carries risk. Even a healthy individual can have an allergic reaction to anesthesia, which can potentially be fatal. That is a rare occurrence, but it is still something that a person should take into consideration before electing to have this surgery.

There is also the risk of infection; this often stems from improper sterilization of the equipment. Infection can also occur during liposuction recovery; it can also be life threatening. Again, infection is very rare, but it is something that should make one think twice about getting this procedure.

While going under the knife to lose weight may seem like an easy, quick fix option, there are risks associated. Although those risks are rare, it should still cause one to make liposuction a last resort for losing weight. Instead of trying to get surgery to lose weight, one should use the methods that have been recommended for years by health and wellness professionals, diet and exercise. Eating a healthy diet has virtually no health risks and will help one lose weight. It can also help one live a long and healthy life. Exercise also has fewer risks associated with it than a chin liposuction, and is very effective at helping individuals lose weight.

While diet and exercise does not offer the immediate results that lipo does, they are both a much healthier and less painful way to shed those extra pounds.

The primary emphasis is still on issues such as a neurochemical aberration, stress, and the like. But from own perspec­tive, doctor believe that nutrition is a factor in about 25 percent of depressed individuals.

Moreover, nutritional deficiencies are common in depressed people, adds doctor, though which comes first—deficiency or depression—isn’t entirely clear. “If people haven’t been eating right their whole lives, it can start to catch up with them in their forties or fifties. And if they have a ten­dency toward depression, it often shows up around the same time,” he says.

While poor nutrition probably doesn’t cause depression, correcting a defi­ciency can be beneficial if you’re battling it, says doctor. But nutri­tional supplements are no substitute for professional evaluation. “If you think you’re depressed,” he advises, “it’s crucial that you see a physician or psychia­trist for help.”

Male Prostate

purpose. Located just below the bladder, the prostate encircles the urethra, the tube that passes urine from the bladder to outside the body. The prostate produces semen and secretes it into the urethra, providing the liquid medium that sperm cells need for nourishment as well as to exit the body.

Prostate enlargement problems occur when the cells in the inner core of the gland, surrounding the urethra, grow to form fibrous nodules, eventually squeezing in on the urethra and blocking the flow of urine. The cells appar­ently grow in response to hormones, especially testosterone, and the growth seen in older men may be related to alterations in hormone balance associ­ated with aging, experts say.

Nutritional intervention for BPH includes a healthy low-fat, high-fiber diet, weight loss if necessary, vitaminmineral supplements, and, in some cases, essential fatty acids such as flax seed oil. Some doctors also consider the herb saw palmetto an essential part of treatment.

Male Pelvis

urine. Your urine stream may be weak or intermittent. You find yourself getting up at night to urinate, or you feel like your bladder is still partly full after you’ve gone. These are all signs of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate gland.

Statistics suggest that BPH is hard to avoid. More than half of all men over age 50 have significant prostate enlargement, and the rest have at least some. Simply getting older seems to be the main risk factor.

Male Reproductive Tract

The vast majority of men have some degree of prostate involvement as they age; it’s a consequence of aging that’s almost unique to the human species. Enlargement does not inevitably lead to drugs or surgery, however.

The best way to attack the problem early is by getting routine prostate exams every year after age 55. And some doctors contend that it’s possible to slow enlargement enough to avoid surgery and drugs, especially if you take the right steps at the first signs of problems. The steps they recom­mend include dietary changes, herbs, and nutritional therapy.

Hair Skin

overall masculinity associated with a full head of flowing hair is understandably something that many men would do anything to hold on to . . . and the inse­curity associated with losing your hair is the reason so many hair loss prod­ucts have been so successful.

But in reality, we’re all losing our hair—all the time. On average, you lose 50 to 150 hairs a day. The difference between Fabio and your bald Uncle Frank is that people with full heads of hair are constantly regrowing new ones to fill in the empty spaces. With hereditary baldness, known medically as androgenetic alopecia, though, about one-third of men will someday notice that new hair is not growing back, sometimes as early as their teens. And they have nobody to blame but their family—specifically their mother’s side of the family.

When it comes down to it, baldness is just something most men have to learn to live with. A couple of drugs, Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (fin­asteride), can help some men regrow hair or prevent the loss of what they have. But the results are mixed, and the effects of the drugs stop as soon as people stop taking them.

And unfortunately for men, the fountain of youth cannot be found through nutrition. (Sorry, guys. Except in cases of extreme malnutrition, no amount of vitamins or minerals will regrow hair.) But for some women who have experienced hair loss related to physical trauma, crash dieting, or heavy menstrual flow, certain nutrients can help.

Depression isn’t the same as being sad or discouraged.  Those feelings are just part of being alive. Depression is an illness, one that can be controlled with proper treatment or that can ruin your life if you don’t get the help you need.

Are You In Depression?

Depression may look and sound likes the blues, but it lasts longer and has a more profound impact on a person’s life. If you’re clinically depressed, you live in a state of sadness and hopelessness so severe that it makes normal activi­ties seem impossible. You may lose interest in friends or hobbies, have suicidal thoughts, or feel overwhelming guilt because you can’t “snap out of it.” Depression can kill your appetite or make you want to eat all the time. Sleep­ing more or less than usual and having problems concentrating can also be warning signs.

Depression can happen to anyone. Sometimes it’s triggered by an emo­tional blow such as a divorce or the death of a loved one, but it can also appear out of nowhere.

A family history of depression can also put you at risk. We see depres­sion running in families just as diabetes and high blood pressure run in fam­ilies. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other causes, but a family history of depression makes a person more prone to it.

Depression often surfaces during times of transition, such as the teenage years, midlife, and retirement. The elderly are particularly vulnerable: doctor estimates that people over age 60 are four times as likely to be depressed as younger people.

Hormones can also play a role. Some women who take birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy may experience depression as an effect of their pills and should see their doctors for guidance. Premenstrual and post­partum depressions are also common.

Not much has changed in our understanding of depression over the last decade except for this: Its incidence is rising. The National Institute of Men­tal Health estimates that depression is the leading cause of disability among Americans ages 15 to 44. In any given year, about 15 million Americans—or nearly 7 percent of the population—suffer from depression. But what’s most frightening is that children are the fastest-growing group that suffers from clinical depression—already, 23 percent of American children are considered depressed.

In one study, researchers studied the diet of more than 3,000 women over 10 years and found that those who consumed 1,200 milligrams of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D a day through food had up to a 40 percent less chance of experiencing PMS. And it appears that choosing the low-fat versions of high-calcium foods made a difference. Women who drank 2 per­cent milk or lower had fewer symptoms than women who drank whole milk.

This study didn’t find a benefit from calcium supplements, but another study by researchers at Columbia University in New York City did. They found that women who supplemented 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day reported a 48 percent decline in PMS symptoms.

It isn’t clear exactly why calcium relieves PMS, but researchers suspect that it eases the muscular contractions that lead to cramping.

And those aren’t the only studies to find a connection between cal­cium and PMS. A small study at the USDA Grand Forks Human Nutri­tion Research Center in North Dakota found an intriguing connection between a diet low in both calcium and the trace mineral manganese and PMS. Women who experienced PMS on a low-calcium, low-manganese diet had fewer symptoms when their diet was supplemented with the two minerals.

What’s interesting is that the diet that produced the worst premenstrual symptoms is actually closest to the way most American women eat. Studies show that most women get about 587 milligrams of calcium a day, nowhere near the 1,000 milligrams they’re supposed to get to build healthy bones and prevent osteoporosis.

deficient in this nutrient.

You can get your Daily Value of zinc (15 milligrams) by filling your plate with shellfish and other seafood as well as with whole grains and lean meats. In fact, just one steamed oyster contains a whopping 12.7 milligrams of zinc.

Zinc Food Source

Note: Frequent inexplicable bruising, although rare, may be a sign of a clotting disorder or an immune problem, or a side effect of some medication. If you find yourself bruising easily and frequently, see your doctor.

Vitamin C Food Source

connective tissues that give shape and elasticity to skin and blood vessels. As the body ages and those connective tissues lose strength, skin becomes thinner and blood ves­sels are more fragile. Sun exposure accelerates the breakdown of connective tissues, making older people who’ve spent years in the sun more susceptible to bleeding and bruising. The sun’s rays also deplete stores of vitamin C, the very vitamin that the body needs to protect cells and tissue from free radical damage.

Eating lots of fruits and veggies high in vitamin C, like citrus fruits, tomatoes, and broccoli, will provide a sufficient amount of vitamin C, but everyone (and their skin) will benefit by taking 60 milligrams of vitamin C every day.

Research has shown that topical products with vitamin C can prevent the damage caused by years of sun exposure and heal bruising in older skin. And when vitamin C is combined with vitamin E, the effects are even more powerful. Vitamin E and vitamin C work synergistically to repair tissues, so that same vitamin cocktail should help prevent bruising.

In a Duke University Medical Center study, two different formulas were applied to the back skin of nine volunteers who were then exposed to simulated sunlight. Those who received an antioxidant serum containing vitamins C and E had a 96 percent reduc­tion of sunburn cells and up to eight times the antioxidant protection of those who received the control formula.

One such formula, C E Ferulic, helps boost the antioxidant reservoirs the body dips into to help heal itself from bruises. However, since sunscreens and antioxidant formulas work in different parts of the skin and through different mechanisms, the formula must be applied to the skin first to neutralize oxida­tive stress. Once it’s absorbed, then the sunscreen can be applied.

Vitamin K Food Source

cases of aspirin poisoning or blood-thinner overdose. It’s also a favorite among plastic sur­geons, who use large doses on their patients to prevent post surgery bruising.

Now these benefits are accessible to the general public as well. Research shows that applying vitamin K topically can prevent and heal bruising from laser surgery and fade away bruises, even those occurring from purpura senilis.

In a study of 12 people with significant bruising, a longtime vitamin K investigator, applied vitamin K cream to one arm of each patient and an identical cream without vitamin K to the other. After 1 month, the arms treated with vitamin K had significantly fewer bruises than those treated with plain ointment.

Vitamin K

Even nutritionist also had use vitamin K cream on one side of a bruise but not on the other and found that the side treated with vitamin K healed in 5 to 7 days, while the untreated side took 11 to 13 days to heal.

Even though getting plenty of vitamin K—the Daily Value is 80 micro­grams—may be helpful, when you have a bruise or an area prone to bruising, you want large doses of vitamin K right where you need them, and the best way to get them there is topically.

Bedsore Skin

ulcers, because it ensures that they get the appropriate nutrient intake every day.

A multivitamin/mineral supplement is especially important for older people who are confined to bed or to wheelchairs. They are frequently defi­cient in a wide array of vitamins.

Vitamin C Plays a Major Role

One of the most common single vitamin deficiencies among the elderly is vitamin C. Too little of this vitamin opens the door to

Vitamin C

thinning skin, capil­lary fragility, and, consequently, bedsores.

Some studies even indicate that vitamin C deficiency may be the key nutritional factor in bedsore development. Brazilian researchers found that hospital patients with bedsores had lower levels of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, than those patients without bedsores. Fortunately, studies have also shown that supplements of vitamin C can significantly aid in the healing of bedsores. Doctors discovered that patients with bed­sores who took a regimen of vitamin C, along with zinc and arginine, healed faster than those who took supplements without these nutrients.

Vitamin C deficiency can double your healing time, doctor routinely put their patients who are being treated for or who are at risk for pressure ulcers on 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day. Vitamin C won’t help if there is no deficiency, but the extra vitamin won’t hurt, either.

Zinc Speeds Healing

Like vitamin C, zinc has been linked in studies to preventing bedsores and helping them heal.

Zinc Food Source

If there is a zinc deficiency, healing time is retarded by 50 percent. Like vitamin C, supplemental zinc won’t do any good if there is no deficiency. But zinc deficiency is so common that I routinely supplement it as well.

The Daily Value for zinc is 15 milligrams, an amount that you can get from either foods or supplements. To add some superior food sources of zinc to your diet, try eating more seafood and shellfish, wheat germ, and whole- grain breads and cereals.

Clearly, the quality of mattresses has improved since the rule of King Tut. Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, have less to do with beds and lots to do with nutrition, say the experts. And that, sadly, is something that can still be pretty poor even in this day and age, especially among the elderly.

The bottom line is that a malnourished person is predisposed to developing a pressure ulcer. Researchers has researched and written extensively on the nutrition-pressure ulcer connection. In fact, the more malnourished a person is, the more severe the ulcer. They believe that malnutrition may be the most significant component in the development of the type of pressure ulcer commonly seen in Americans today.

“So far, however, all we have are primarily case-control studies,” said doctor. Those studies that looked at actual supplementation with micronu­trients or vitamins did not show significant improvement of lung function, with the exception of one study, according to professional nutritionist. In that study, people with asthma who took 100 micrograms of sele­nium daily for 14 weeks had improved lung function and were less sensitive to airway-constricting inhalants than when they were taking placebos (inac­tive pills).

Lung Infection

Selenium is needed in the body to produce glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme that helps protect cells by breaking down biochemicals associated with inflammation.

It’s too soon to say for sure whether supplementing a regular diet with selenium will help people with asthma. People who want to try it can safely take 100 micrograms, the amount found beneficial in the Swedish study. (The Daily Value is 70 micrograms.)

Studies have shown that people generally get about 100 micrograms of selenium a day from the average healthy diet. Don’t overdo it with selenium, say nutrition experts. A daily intake of 400 micrograms from foods and sup­plements is considered the upper limit of the safe range.

Antioxidant Compounds

People who want to take other antioxidant nutrients can safely supple­ment with up to 400 IU of vitamin E and 6 milligrams of beta-carotene a day. It’s a good idea to talk to your doctor before taking more than 400 IU of vitamin E daily. However, a diet of fish, whole grains, fruits, and fresh vegetables may be the best approach to prevention of asthma.

Some studies suggest that in addition to the nutrients mentioned above, calcium, zinc, copper, and vitamin D may all play supporting roles in easing the symptoms of asthma.

The presence of higher magnesium levels seems to correlate with fewer asthma symptoms. In a 2001 cross-sectional study of over 2,500 adults, conducted at the University of Nottingham in England, people who got at least 100 milligrams a day of dietary magnesium had a reduction in airway hyperactivity and reported less wheezing than those who took in less than 100 milligrams a day.

This essential mineral is important for every organ in the body. It’s inti­mately involved in the production of energy and helps regulate levels of vital nutrients. It also has a potential special relevance to asthma sufferers. Large doses of magnesium relax the muscles around blood vessels and airways. Intravenous magnesium is helpful for a person having a life-threatening asthma attack called status asthmatics, which does not respond to the usual drugs.

A more comfortable way to administer the appropriate dose of magne­sium may be on the horizon. Researchers administered magnesium lozenges to patients in need of asthma rescue. The throat lozenges, which were formulated with a strong solution of 100 milligrams of a magnesium chloride that releases concentrated ions, pre­vented and even ended asthma attacks almost immediately and produced a more rapid and stronger response than inhaled or injected magnesium.

The researchers suggest that the promising results of this study warrant further investigations. However,

Magnesium Food Source

recent clinical trials have yet to show that taking a magnesium supplement produces significant results, says doctor. Until more studies confirm that magnesium can help control asthma, researchers agree that it’s a good idea to get the Daily Value of magnesium, which is 400 milligrams. Studies show that most people fall short.

Your best choices of magnesium-rich foods are nuts, beans, and whole grains. If you are considering trying magnesium supplements, be sure to check with your doctor first if you have heart or kidney problems.

Asthma

chasing after something fast—say, a frisky toddler. You’ll soon be gasping for air the way someone with asthma does during an attack. It’s a frightening experience.

The usual setup for an attack combines an allergic (or supersensitive) immune system, an inherited trait, with exposure to environmental allergic triggers such as animal dander, mold spores, and pollen or to environmental irritant triggers such as air pollution, cold air, and cigarette smoke. Other activators can include respiratory infections, colds, laughter, crying, anger, exercise, and stress.

There are two major components of asthma. One is noisy—the wheez­ing, coughing, choking, can’t-catch-your-breath feeling. That’s the part most people call an asthma attack, or bronchospasm and congestion.

The second part of asthma is quiet. It is called inflammation—the part of asthma that is always present but not always noticed. Just as sunburn may not be evident until long after you’ve come in from the sun, airway inflam­mation is not noticeable until the damage has become so extensive that an asthma attack begins.

During an asthma attack, the muscles surrounding the lungs‘ bronchial tubes contract, narrowing airways and making it hard to breathe. People with chronic asthma also have inflammation in their lungs. The membranes lin­ing the inner walls of the air passages become swollen and leaky. And the glands within these walls produce excess mucus. That makes it harder for the lungs to do their job of gas exchange, picking up oxygen from the air and dumping carbon dioxide out of the body.

Asthma is usually treated with drugs that open airways and reduce inflammation as well as by avoiding substances that trigger attacks. For some people, that means finding a new home for a family pet, exchanging the wall- to-wall carpeting for linoleum, or steering clear of cigarette smoke, car and truck exhaust, and chemical fumes.

Dietary counseling for asthma, especially in young children, may include testing for possible problem foods. But it doesn’t often include recommenda­tions for vitamin or mineral supplements, experts say. Nevertheless, some research suggests that certain nutrients may play roles in asthma by reducing airway sensitivity and dampening inflammation.

Note: If you’re feeling well enough to reduce your dosage of asthma medication, do so only under medical supervision, experts warn. Stopping asthma drugs abruptly could lead to problems.

Iron Mineral

.

The problem is that many women don’t consume enough iron each day to make up for the 2.5 milligrams or so they lose each month during men­struation. Pregnant women need even more iron. Teens and women nearing menopause also often come up short.

Studies show that women ages 18 to 24 get about 10.7 milligrams a day, which is nowhere near the Daily Value of 18 milligrams.

An iron shortage leads to a reduction in hemoglobin, the iron-based pro­tein in red blood cells that lets these cells pick up

Iron Food Source

oxygen in the lungs and release it in tissues where oxygen is low. It’s simple enough; these cells simply can’t transport the oxygen you need. The cells even look pale under a microscope.

If you do have iron-deficiency anemia, your doctor will initially prescribe large amounts of iron—often 200 to 240 milligrams a day, usually in a form called ferrous sulfate. (Experts caution against taking this much iron with­out medical supervision.) Avoid using over-the-counter preparations such as enteritis-coated iron tablets or capsules containing slow-release granules, experts say. Both can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb the iron.

And make sure your doctor continues your treatment for a sufficient amount of time. Although your anemia will be corrected in 3 to 4 months, it takes an additional 6 to 12 months of therapy for your body’s iron stores to be replenished.

The large amount of iron used to correct anemia is not available through food, we still encourage women to eat more iron-containing foods. Even beef, a food often avoided since cholesterol became a bad word, is recommended to anemic women. It’s an unbeatable source of easily digested iron.

Anemia Symptoms

oxygen to all parts of the body. No matter what kind of anemia you have—and there are several vari­eties—the symptoms tend to be the same.

Along with being pale and fatigued, you can feel weak and short of breath, your heart rate may climb, and you may find it hard to concentrate.

These symptoms occur because without sufficient hemoglobin in the red blood cells, all parts of the body, including the brain, are starved for oxygen. Thus, the heart tries to compensate by pumping more blood more often, explains by professional nutritionist.

Anemia Food Source

Doctors can usually diagnose anemia by examining red blood cells under a microscope to determine their shape, size, and number and by doing tests that measure levels of different blood components.

“Even after we’ve determined the type of anemia, it’s important to figure out what’s causing it,” Doctor says. Everything from excessive bongo playing (the constant impact on the hands damages blood cells) to arctic temperatures and toxic drugs can cause the disease.

“Nutritional deficiencies are a fairly common cause of anemia, too,” Nutritionist says. In addition to iron deficiency, a shortage of folate (the natu­rally occurring form of folic acid) or vitamin B12 can be a culprit. Rarely, the problem turns out to be an inadequate supply of copper, riboflavin, or vita­mins A, B6, C, or E.

Allergy symptoms occur when your body’s immune system overreacts to substances in your environment. Most people can live with a little cat dander, dust, or pollen, for example. But people with allergies have immune systems that can react to just about anything that comes along.

It fights these foreign substances just as it would bacteria or viruses, the main causes of run-of-the-mill are histamine and leukotrienes, biochemicals that your allergy symptoms immune system releases. Your immune system is an incredibly complex system of several different kinds of cells working in tandem. The overly sensitive cells involved in allergies are mainly mast cells and basophils.

Mast cells are found in tissues such as your skin, lungs, throat, stomach, and intestines, while basophils hang out in your blood vessels. As you can see, these cells monitor nearly every part of the body.