There are many aspects to health and so much to write about it often gets tough to know in which direction to go next! My last post Gout Remedies, looked at gout treatments etc mainly because it is something I suffer with from time to time, so I know plenty about it. A subject that I also happen to know a fair deal about is acne, as I suffered pretty badly with it as a teenager, but it managed to stick with me throughout my twenties as well, which was not much fun.
So as you can imagine, I sought out just about every known acne treatment I could lay my hands on. Most of them were useless, some were downright dangerous, whilst others actually helped in various degrees. Here's a shortlist lowdown on what worked and what didn't for me. You have to remember that everyone is different and that what will work for one person may not work for another...
First off were all the cosmetic face washes and creams. Most of them did a good job of drying my skin, which of course cut down on the greasiness and went some way to preventing spots, although I was never convinced they really did much good as acne is primarily caused by a hormone imbalance or by bad diet rather than oily skin. So in the end all I was left with was incredibly dry, flaky skin which ended up being just as embarrassing as the acne it was meant to cure.
So that meant looking at diet, but when you're a teenager, do you give a rat's arse about what you eat? Not bloody likely! Hamburgers, pizzas, chips, oh yeah, brink it all on baby! Sweets, fizzy drinks like lemonade, cola etc, chocolate, cakes, biscuits. Yep, everything that is absolutely terrible for your health just happens to be most teenager's staple diet. trying to cut out any of that was incredibly difficult, although I did notice a difference after a while. My weight, while not excessive went down some as well, so it was a double win-win.
Lastly, the hormone imbalance was something that I never got to the bottom of and eventually age did its thing and the acne went all on its own. I'm guessing that as my age increased, my diet overall improved and so my hormones settled down to where they should be.
So my own personal experience is that most acne treatment methods that you go and buy didn't work for me at all. Natural acne treatment methods like good diet, exercise and drinking lots of plain water rather than fizzy drinks is the key to reducing the problem as far as possible as it all ties in and allows your body's hormone levels to balance out better.
So there you have it in a walnut shell.
Terry Didcott
My Health Today
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Gout Remedies
Gout remedies are few and far between, but its worth mentioning what we do know so that you have at least something to work with. My last post on gout Battling with Gout, covered a little of my last battle with gout, an attack I suffered during the summer this year that lasted almost 3 months and was probably the worst I'd ever suffered.
It then makes sense to continue this information on with some of the gout remedies that are known to have at least some effect in reducing the symptoms, but more importantly in preventing another attack. Prevention is better than cure so avoiding gout in the first place has to be the main aim.
We know for a fact that gout is caused by excess uric acid in the bloodstream and that levels of over 7 ppm are considered enough to trigger an attack of gout. Uric acid levels rise in the blood for a variety of reasons and will be different from person to person, so there are no set rules to follow, just guidelines that may or may not work for you. I can only speak from personal experience here, so that has to be the best I can do and if things are different for you then you'll have to work them out yourself. But some things are common with all gout sufferers, so I'll go through them.
Stress, I believe is the number one cause or trigger for a gout attack in me personally. When combined with eating the wrong foods, I believe this is a pretty powerful combination that raises uric acid levels above 7 ppm and then BAM! I get hit with an attack.
Cutting out the bad foods is a way of reducing the chances of getting to that stage, so I avoid anything that is considered high in purines, other wise known as gout foods. These are foods such as shellfish, anchovies, asparagus, offal, bacon and a few others that seem to trigger it in me such as mushrooms, prawns, cauliflower, tomatoes, salmon, red meat, turkey, red kidney beans. I've also cut down drastically on alcohol and all dairy produce, meat in general and stay away from the spicy foods that I love. I also drink around 2 litres of plain water a day (filtered).
But even doing all this is not enough sometimes and I still get hit with gout. So stress is the only deciding factor that I can see that prevents me avoid gout.
Probably the best known gout treatment is allopurinol, but this one is not for me, as I refuse to take drugs and there are side effects to this one that are at variance with my own way of being. I have also run afoul of taking aspirin as it impairs kidney function. The kidneys need to be working at peak efficiency as this is essential for the body to remove excess uric acid from the bloodstream.
Same goes for alcohol.
While it doesn't cause uric acid levels to rise in itself, alcohol does compete in the kidneys for elimination which also impairs their ability to remove uric acid.
I've written a comprehensive article on another recent discovery of mine in my own personal battle with gout that could possibly be one of the gout remedies that seems to work for me. You can read it at A Natural Cure for Gout? and it may surprise you with what it unearths.
You can avoid gout if you keep an eye on what you're eating, make sure you drink plenty of water every day, keep alcohol levels within safe levels or simply cut right down to as little as possible and avoid stress. Ok, that last one is not so easy in this day and age, but try you must for I believe it is probably the biggest trigger to producing gout symptoms that there is.
Well, that's all for now. I'll be back again soon with more health info on such subjects that crop up in my own little world, so be sure to check back to see what's new here.
Terry Didcott
My Health Today
It then makes sense to continue this information on with some of the gout remedies that are known to have at least some effect in reducing the symptoms, but more importantly in preventing another attack. Prevention is better than cure so avoiding gout in the first place has to be the main aim.
We know for a fact that gout is caused by excess uric acid in the bloodstream and that levels of over 7 ppm are considered enough to trigger an attack of gout. Uric acid levels rise in the blood for a variety of reasons and will be different from person to person, so there are no set rules to follow, just guidelines that may or may not work for you. I can only speak from personal experience here, so that has to be the best I can do and if things are different for you then you'll have to work them out yourself. But some things are common with all gout sufferers, so I'll go through them.
Stress, I believe is the number one cause or trigger for a gout attack in me personally. When combined with eating the wrong foods, I believe this is a pretty powerful combination that raises uric acid levels above 7 ppm and then BAM! I get hit with an attack.
Cutting out the bad foods is a way of reducing the chances of getting to that stage, so I avoid anything that is considered high in purines, other wise known as gout foods. These are foods such as shellfish, anchovies, asparagus, offal, bacon and a few others that seem to trigger it in me such as mushrooms, prawns, cauliflower, tomatoes, salmon, red meat, turkey, red kidney beans. I've also cut down drastically on alcohol and all dairy produce, meat in general and stay away from the spicy foods that I love. I also drink around 2 litres of plain water a day (filtered).
But even doing all this is not enough sometimes and I still get hit with gout. So stress is the only deciding factor that I can see that prevents me avoid gout.
Probably the best known gout treatment is allopurinol, but this one is not for me, as I refuse to take drugs and there are side effects to this one that are at variance with my own way of being. I have also run afoul of taking aspirin as it impairs kidney function. The kidneys need to be working at peak efficiency as this is essential for the body to remove excess uric acid from the bloodstream.
Same goes for alcohol.
While it doesn't cause uric acid levels to rise in itself, alcohol does compete in the kidneys for elimination which also impairs their ability to remove uric acid.
I've written a comprehensive article on another recent discovery of mine in my own personal battle with gout that could possibly be one of the gout remedies that seems to work for me. You can read it at A Natural Cure for Gout? and it may surprise you with what it unearths.
You can avoid gout if you keep an eye on what you're eating, make sure you drink plenty of water every day, keep alcohol levels within safe levels or simply cut right down to as little as possible and avoid stress. Ok, that last one is not so easy in this day and age, but try you must for I believe it is probably the biggest trigger to producing gout symptoms that there is.
Well, that's all for now. I'll be back again soon with more health info on such subjects that crop up in my own little world, so be sure to check back to see what's new here.
Terry Didcott
My Health Today
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