Relieve Your Heartburn Naturally!

If you’ve ever experienced the burning pain of heartburn then I certainly don’t need to tell you that when this digestive dragon rears its ugly head your number one priority is quick and effective relief.

But what if you don’t want to take costly side-effect ridden prescription medications or load up on mainstream drugstore remedies that often do more harm than good?

The good news is that there are alternatives!

In fact there are a number of proven all-natural home remedies that will have you dousing the flames of your heartburn in no time. Here are five of my favorites:

1. Ginger is proven to be one of the most powerful natural remedies for heartburn. Drinking warn ginger tea should help alleviate heartburn in two different ways. First ginger has the capacity to absorb acid from the stomach and second it has nerve-calming effects. Furthermore, ginger is a harmless natural herb with a broad dosage range. In other words it’s safe to consume it regularly to prevent your heartburn from recurring.

2. Aloe vera juice is widely used in Europe as a natural home remedy to ease heartburn. This green juice is highly alkaline, thus it can neutralize excess of stomach acid. The natural juice, with no additives, can been used to calm an irritated esophagus. However, moderation is key here. High doses of aloe vera juice can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and electrolyte imbalance.

3. Cabbage juice is an oldie but a goodie when it comes to preventing recurring heartburn pain. The juice is a natural anti-inflammatory and is a source of lactic acid making it a natural for all kinds of digestive troubles. You can easily make the juice in your blender or juicer in your own kitchen just check a search engine like Google for a number of easy to follow recipes. To get the best results drink the juice in the morning on empty stomach.

4. Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is a natural antacid. In fact it’s among the oldest and most well known home remedies for heartburn. It can act rapidly to neutralize excess acid in the stomach giving almost instant relief from heartburn pain. Try about a half a tablespoon dissolved in a glass of water. If you find this dosage doesn’t work as effectively as you would like increase the amount of baking soda you use next time.

5. It may at first seem counter intuitive but many heartburn sufferers swear by apple cider vinegar as a highly effective method of heartburn relief. The reason it works is that for a number of sufferers the problem is not excess stomach acid but too little stomach acid. To give this one a try simply stir about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar into 1/2 cup of water. However be prepared to stop taking it if you turn out to be someone who does suffer from excess acid and you don’t find relief or even feel more pain.

Remember, everyone is unique therefore individuals will respond differently to each remedy. An approach that works wonders for a friend might not work as well for you. Therefore, be prepared to experiment a bit to find out what the best solutions are for you.

By: Jenny Thompson

Need Help Lowering High Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure is a dangerous condition that can damage your heart. It affects one in three people in the US and 1 billion people worldwide. If left uncontrolled, it raises your risk of heart disease and stroke.

But there’s good news. There are a number of things you can do to lower your blood pressure naturally, even without medication.

Here are 5 natural ways to combat high blood pressure:

1. Exercise is one of the best things you can do to lower high blood pressure. Regular exercise helps make your heart stronger and more efficient at pumping blood, which lowers the pressure in your arteries. In fact, 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, such as running, per week can help lower blood pressure and improve your heart health.

Bottom Line: Walking just 30 minutes a day can help lower your blood pressure. More exercise helps reduce it even further.

2. Salt intake is high around the world. In large part, this is due to processed and prepared foods. For this reason, many public health efforts are aimed at lowering salt in the food industry. In many studies, salt has been linked to high blood pressure and heart events, like stroke.

Bottom Line: Most guidelines for lowering blood pressure recommend lowering sodium intake. However, that recommendation might make the most sense for people who are salt-sensitive.

3. Drinking alcohol can raise blood pressure. In fact, alcohol is linked to 16% of high blood pressure cases around the world. While some research has suggested that low-to-moderate amounts of alcohol may protect the heart, those benefits may be offset by negative effects. In the US, moderate alcohol consumption is defined as no more than one drink a day for women and two for men. If you drink more than that, cut back.

Bottom Line: Drinking alcohol in any quantity may raise your blood pressure. Limit your drinking to no more than one drink a day for women, two for men.

4. Potassium is an important mineral. It helps your body get rid of sodium and ease pressure on your blood vessels. Modern diets have increased most people’s sodium intake while decreasing potassium intake. To get a better balance of potassium to sodium in your diet, focus on eating fewer processed foods and more fresh, whole foods.

Bottom Line: Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, which are rich in potassium, can help lower blood pressure.

5. If you’ve ever downed a cup of coffee before you’ve had your blood pressure taken, you’ll know that caffeine causes an instant boost. However, there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that drinking caffeine regularly can cause a lasting increase. In fact, people who drink caffeinated coffee and tea tend to have a lower risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure, than those who don’t. Caffeine may have a stronger effect on people who don’t consume it regularly. If you suspect you’re caffeine-sensitive, cut back to see if it lowers your blood pressure.

Bottom Line: Caffeine can cause a short-term spike in blood pressure, although for many people it does not cause a lasting increase.

Take Home Message:

High blood pressure affects a large proportion of the world’s population. While drugs are one way to treat the condition, there are many other natural techniques that can help. Controlling your blood pressure through the methods in this article may, ultimately, help you lower your risk of heart disease.

Article By Kerri-Ann Jennings, MS, RD

Food Tips For Diabetics

A diagnosis of diabetes often comes with recommendation from your doctor to improve your diet. While eating a healthy diet is important for everyone, it is especially important for diabetics. Here are a few suggestions to help with your food choices:

1. Use brown rice and whole wheat pasta. Look for 100% whole wheat flour and breads, and other whole grains like oats and barley. Make the switch simple. For instance, if you’re short on time, pop a packet of pre-cooked frozen brown rice into the microwave.

2. Fill Up! Aim for at least 8 grams of fiber per meal, especially when you eat carbohydrate-rich foods. It will help manage your blood sugar, keep you feeling full, and be good for your heart health. That’s extra important because diabetes makes heart disease more likely.

3. Replace Some Carbs With Good Fat: Monounsaturated fats — nuts, avocados, olive oil, and canola oil — can help lower your blood sugar. Just avoid huge portions so you don’t take in too many calories. Add nuts and avocado to salads and entrees. Look for salad dressings, marinades, and sauces made with canola or olive oil. You can also cook with these two oils.

4. Foods That Won’t Spike Blood Sugar – Good choices that aren’t likely to cause a big rise in your levels include lean meat, poultry, fish, avocados, salad vegetables, eggs, and cheese. Add these items to your plate to help balance the foods you eat that have carbs.

5. Go Lean! Choose recipes with less saturated fat. Maybe skip that cream sauce and look for lean cuts of meat, skim or low-fat dairy, and vegetable sources of protein like beans, lentils, or nuts.

Bottom line is, it’s okay to be picky. Choose the right foods to keep your diabetes in check. Also, try to cook at home instead of going out. It’s easier to keep track of what you eat when you make your own meals. Use these ideas as motivation when you’re whipping something up in the kitchen.

These helpful tips bought to by www.webmd.com

Easy Tips To Quit Smoking

If you’re reading this chances are you are or loved one has decided it’s time to stop smoking. That’s great! The first step is realizing you want to quit, then taking action. There are many ways to quit smoking but we are taking a slightly different approach using food. Here are a few snack suggestions that may help you in your new journey to a smoke free life:

1) The late Nobel laureate and chemist Linus Paulding, PhD, suggested eating an orange whenever you have the urge to smoke. A research group in Britain conducted experiments with smokers and oranges. The results were impressive.

2) If you want to stop or at least cut down on your tobacco habit, after your next cigarette or cigar, replace the nicotine taste in your mouth by sucking on a small clove. After an hour two, replace the clove with another one. Without that lingering nicotine taste in your mouth, your desire for another smoke should be greatly reduced.

3) For many smokers, the thought of smoking a cigarette after they’ve had a citrus drink is unpleasant. If you feel that way, good! Carry a small bottle of citrus juice with you and, whenever you feel like lighting up, take a swig of the juice. And since each cigarette robs your body of between 25 and 100 mg of vitamin C, the juice will help replenish it as well as keep you from smoking. Citrus flavored Vitamin C drops have also been used to help curb the urge to smoke.

4) Switch to a cup of tea whenever you usually have a cigarette. The act of brewing the tea and slowing sipping it as it cools will provide the same stress relief as a hit of nicotine. Or carry cinnamon-flavored toothpicks and suck on one whenever a cig craving hits.

5) You may start to crave sweets after you quit — and indulging in those cravings is a good thing because it can prevent you from reaching for a cigarette. Instead of grabbing processed desserts, try eating frozen grapes. Their sweetness will help curb sugar cravings, and because they’re frozen, they’ll take longer to eat than fresh fruit.

While these are all good tips to help you along in your process it is also good to have support from loved ones. Support is one of the keys to successfully quitting. Also remember to reward yourself throughout your quit. You should be proud every time you hit a quit smoking milestone. Treat yourself with a nice dinner, day at the movies, or any other smoke-free activity. We hope this helps on your journey towards smoking cessation! Good Luck!

Why Do We Need Compounding Pharmacies?

First let’s look at the definition of drug compounding, it is the process of combining, mixing, or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient.

Here are a few reasons you might need a compounding pharmacy:

Discontinued medications

Sometimes pharmaceutical manufacturers discontinue certain products due to lack of demand but it’s likely there are still a few patients taking the medication when it is taken off the market. A compounding pharmacy can recreate it through compounding. They can do the same for medications in short supply.

Removing allergens

In certain cases, people may be allergic to, sensitive to or intolerant of some of the non-active ingredients in commercially available medicine. Many people need to avoid lactose, certain dyes, gluten, casein and sugar, but those ingredients are found in many drugs–prescription and over the counter. A compounding pharmacist can create a formulation that omits the allergen but is just as effective as the original.

Making medicine more palatable

For children and pets, medication can be hard to take if they don’t like the taste. A compounding pharmacist can add flavors to make the medicine taste more enticing without affecting efficacy. In addition, the compounding pharmacist can also provide a different form such as creams and liquids. For instance, some people have trouble swallowing pills, and crushing the pill is often not an option. Depending on the type of medication, the pharmacist can put it into a liquid form. Also, if an oral medication has a harsh side effect, the pharmacist may be able to put it into a topical cream that bypasses the digestive system altogether.

Quality compounding

Here at Red Carpet Pharmacy, we love to serve the community with quality compounding. No matter what the reason, we are readily able to help you feel better. Please call us with any questions or concerns at (770)-529-9277.

A healthy diet has been scientifically proven to provide numerous benefits, such as reducing your risk of several chronic diseases, keeping your body healthy and effectively reaching your weight loss goal. However, making major changes to your diet can sometimes seem very overwhelming. Instead of making big changes to your diet plan, it may be better to start with a few smaller ones. This article discusses a few small changes that can make a regular diet a little bit healthier.

Try at Least One New Healthy Recipe Per Week
Deciding what to have for dinner can be a constant cause of frustration, which is why many people tend to use the same recipes again and again.

Aim to try making a new healthy recipe at least once per week. This can change up your food and nutrient intakes and hopefully add new and healthy recipes to your routine.

Alternatively, try to make a healthier version of a favorite recipe.

Eat Your Greens First
A good way to ensure that you eat your greens is to eat them as a starter.

By doing so, you will most likely finish all of your greens while you are the hungriest and be apt to eat less of other, perhaps less healthy, components of the meal.

Furthermore, eating vegetables before a carb-rich meal has been shown to have beneficial effects on blood sugar levels. Greens also have more nutrition than other foods.

It slows down the speed at which carbs are absorbed into the bloodstream and may benefit both short- and long-term blood sugar control in people with diabetes.

Cook at Home More Often
Try to make a habit of cooking at home most nights, rather than eating out.

By cooking your food yourself, you’ll know exactly what is in it. You won’t have to wonder about any hidden unhealthy or high-calorie ingredients.

Cooking at home has been shown to reduce the risk of excessive weight gain, especially among children.

Drink Enough Water
Drinking enough water is important for your health.

Many studies have shown that drinking water may benefit weight loss, weight maintenance and even slightly increase the number of calories you burn daily.

Studies also show that drinking water before meals can reduce appetite and calorie intake during the subsequent meal in middle-aged and older adults.

That said, the most important thing is to drink water instead of other beverages. This may drastically reduce your sugar and calorie intake.

People who drink mostly water have been shown to consume 200 fewer calories per day, on average, than those who drink other beverages.

Slow Down
The pace at which you eat influences how much you eat, as well as how likely you are to gain weight.

Your appetite, how much you eat and how full you get is all controlled by hormones. These hormones signal your brain whether you’re hungry or full.

However, it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to receive these messages, so eating more slowly would give your brain the time it needs to perceive that you are full.

Studies have confirmed this, showing that eating slowly may reduce the number of calories you consume at meals and help you lose weight.

Therefore, simply by eating slower and chewing more often, you can reduce your risk of eating too much and gaining excess weight.

In conclusion, completely overhauling your diet all at once can be a recipe for disaster. Instead, try to incorporate some of the small changes in this article to make your diet healthier. Some of these tips will help you keep your portion sizes reasonable, while others will help you add nutrients or adapt to something new. Together, they’ll have a big impact on making your overall diet healthier and more sustainable, without a huge change in your habits.
This information bought to you by Adda Bjarnadottir, MS