Category: Health
Here's Why You Get Those Little Floaty Things in Your Vision
Eyes aren’t just the window to your soul – they offer a glimpse into your health and can signify more serious conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol. Most of these signs you can see for yourself, so long as you know what to look for. Here’s what your eyes can reveal about your health, according to Natasha Herz, M.D., clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
These Easter Desserts Are Almost Too Adorable to Eat
The Warning Signs Your Body Gives You Before a Heart Attack
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in both men and women worldwide. Contrast to what you may see in a movie, the signs of a heart attack can be hard to miss. “Two-thirds of women will have less-typical, non-Hollywood heart attack symptoms,” says C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.
Though symptoms like chest tightness and upper body pain are more obvious, heart attacks present a host of symptoms that can be easily mistaken for another ailment (think nausea, heartburn, and fatigue). Identifying the signs of a heart attack and seeking early intervention can be the difference between life or death. Here are the most common symptoms to look out for.
How Coconut Oil Can Help with Weight Loss
From Woman’s Day
It sounds counterintuitive, but the fat found in coconut oil can actually help your body burn fat, according to certified nutritionist and naturopathic physician Bruce Fife, author of The Coconut Oil Miracle and president of the Coconut Research Center. Saturated fat found in coconut oil and palm kernel oil is made of different fatty acids than what’s found in other oils, like canola or avocado, Dr. Fife says.
These medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) take another route through the digestive system and compete with glucose to become the body’s preferred energy source. The result? A metabolism boost and weight loss in key areas of the body, including dangerous belly fat, which is linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
Here’s how incorporating coconut oil into your diet can help you lose weight.
It keeps you full.
Coconut oil satiates your hunger for longer periods of time compared to other fats. A study published in Evidence-Based Complementary Medicine found that consuming virgin coconut oil every day can increase your high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) “good” cholesterol to enhance satiety. Just adding it to your breakfast, by stirring a spoonful into your coffee, for instance, will keep you satisfied for longer, Dr. Fife says: “You’ll have less of a tendency to want to snack between meals – and when the next meal comes around you won’t be so starving you overeat.”
It revs up your metabolism.
MCT oils like coconut oil can help you burn more calories in a day. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders found that the long-term consumption of MCT oil may help you burn more calories than a diet that’s heavier in long chain fatty acids, like olive oil, soybean oil, or avocado oil. When your cells use MCTs instead of glucose for fuel, the body’s metabolism is boosted for up to 24 hours, says Dr. Fife.
It blasts dangerous belly fat.
According to Harvard Medicine, having a high metabolism means you’ll can eat more calories without losing weight, compared to someone with a slow metabolism who burns fewer calories during exercise or periods of rest. Therefore, revving up your metabolism with coconut oil can burn fat, particularly belly fat, which is dangerous for your heart. A study published in Lipids found gave women either 40 g of coconut oil (MCT) or soybean oil (long chain fatty acid) for 28 days and found that, not only did both groups lose weight, but only the coconut oil group had lost belly fat.
5 Tips for Incorporating Coconut Oil into Your Diet
Want to use coconut oil for weight loss, but aren’t exactly where to start? Use these tips that make losing weight with coconut oil easy and delicious!
1. Choose the right type of coconut oil.
Dr. Fife recommends using organic, unrefined, virgin coconut oil, which has the least amount of processing. However, if you can’t stand the strong coconut taste or smell of unrefined coconut oil, opt for a refined version – buying organic will ensure it was refined using steam, not chemicals.
2. Make it your go-to cooking staple.
Introduce coconut oil into your diet by using it as a substitute for margarine, vegetable oil, and/or olive oil when you’re cooking up delicious food.
3. Add it to salads.
Liquid coconut oil can be added to salad recipes or homemade mayonnaise to help digestion and maximize nutrient uptake, says Fife.
4. Try it with rice.
Adding a teaspoon of coconut oil to the boiling water for every half-cup of rice may reduce the number of calories your body takes in by 50 to 60 percent, according to research presented at the 2015 National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society. Let the coconut-oil water and rice simmer for 20 to 40 minutes, and then refrigerate it for 12 hours.
5. Put it in your coffee.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the bulletproof coffee trend, which recommends adding butter, coconut oil (MCT), and butter into a cup of joe. According to Medical News Today, this combo can help you lose weight while improving your concentration and energy. However, you have to be cautious of the amount of saturated fat you’re consuming each day. The American Heart Association recommends consuming about 13 g of saturated fat a day, even though the MCTs in this drink are more healthful fats than long-chain ones. If you’re concerned about saturated fat, try just adding the coconut oil without the butter into your coffee.
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How to Find the Best Speech Therapist in Los Angeles
Have you noticed your child struggling with their language development? You may be surprised at how many children have speech problems all over the world, particularly in large cities. When such problems emerge, it’s important to act quickly. Even a quick evaluation by a certified speech-language pathologist can contribute to your child’s long-term welfare.
Prep your child for success. Here we will discuss the benefits of a good speech therapist, and how you can find the best speech therapy Los Angeles has to offer.
Understanding Speech Disorders
Speech problems are much more than just the inability to speak coherently. They also include other problems, like language disorders, feeding disorders, psychological disorders that affect speech and more. Speech disorder symptoms include:
Articulation disorder – This is the inability to produce multi-syllabic sounds or words correctly.
Fluency disorder – This includes problems like stuttering, partial word repetitions, prolonging sounds/syllables and even the inability to create sentences.
Voice or resonance disorder – This is a speech disorder that affects the pitch, volume and voice quality of the speaker, preventing them from being understood by listeners.
Types of Speech Disorders
Speech disorders are usually classified into two categories: receptive and expressive. Receptive disorders are those which affect a person’s ability to understand spoken language, while expressive disorders are those which either limit or completely eliminate the person’s ability to communicate. There are also cognitive-communication disorders, which affect communication skills that overlap with memory, perception, attention, regulation and problem-solving. Sometimes, speech disorders may also lead to oral feeding disorders, which prevents children from eating or drinking properly. This disorder may manifest itself in the form of chewing, coughing, swallowing or gagging.
How Can Speech Therapy Help Your Child?
Speech therapists, or speech-language pathologists, are professionals who specialize in human communication. They are also required to have a master’s degree, state certification, and license, as well as a certificate of clinical competency from the ASHA (American Speech Language Hearing Association) and other related organizations. Speech therapists are trained to assess the speech and cognitive-communication abilities of their patients. They are also trained to treat and improve children’s oral, feeding, and swallowing skills, as well as identify communication problems that may arise throughout the course of their development. Speech therapists also offer therapy sessions designed to improve your child’s articulation, fluency, receptiveness, voice control, and communication skills. In these sessions, therapists will either work with your child one on one or in a classroom environment designed to utilize group activities.
Speech Therapy Strategies
Speech therapists employ a wide variety of strategies to help their patients. These strategies include:
Language Intervention Therapy – This activity involves playing and talking with young patients using pictures, books, and colorful objects to help stimulate their language development.
Articulation Therapy – Articulation therapy involves exercising a child’s ability to articulate words and produce sounds. It also involves exercises designed to correct errors in sounds and syllables as well as activities designed to teach children how to produce certain sounds and tongue movements.
Oral Motor/Feeding and Swallowing Therapy – This type of therapy focuses on several oral exercises intended to strengthen the muscles on a patient’s tongue, face, and jaw. The exercises are also intended to improve children’s ability to swallow, drink and eat different types of food. Later, the speech therapist may introduce certain foods with different textures and temperatures to improve their patients’ oral awareness during eating and drinking.
Finding A Great Therapist
Now that we’ve talked about what speech therapists do, let’s talk about how to find the best ones. How do you find the best speech therapy Los Angeles has to offer? Well, firstly, you will need to make sure that your child’s therapist is certified by the ASHA (American Speech Language Hearing Association.) Not only does this certification prove that the therapist is sufficiently trained, but it also indicates that he or she has a master’s degree and has successfully passed the supervised clinical fellowship. Next, you will need to make sure that your speech therapist is licensed to work in California, and has the requisite experience to work with kids and children with speech disorders. Remember that not all speech therapists are trained to help children, so it’s good to learn about a therapist’s professional history. If you can’t find the right speech therapist by yourself, then you can always ask your family doctor or teacher for a referral. Educators and medical professionals may be able to refer you to the specialist who is most suited to help your child.