When it comes to fitness and well-being, the digestive system is what actually reflects your body’s health status, and the food you eat determines the future of the system. So to maintain this integral function of your body properly, healthy eating habits must be formed. This thing is as important as health maintenance of other body organs like heart, kidneys, bones, lungs and skin. You do not need complex rules and regulations to maintain your bowel. Instead, the remedy comprises of few simple preventive measures to kick in your intestines. Check out the 10 easy steps to keep your bowel rosy-cheeked.
10 Things You Must Do Daily To Maintain Your Bowel Health
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Fruits And Veggies
Nature has provided us with various fruits and veggies that comfort our taste buds, as well as our intestines. The mineral and vitamin components of these items are crucial for the overall health of a person. Fruits and vegetables contain “FIBER”, which is called ‘cleansing agent,’ since it collects and eliminates toxins and roughage from the digestive tract. The more fiber you eat, the cleaner are your insides. Eating fresh fruits, dry fruits and veggies keep us protected from many chronic ailments like cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer.
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High Fiber Diet
Eating a diet rich in fiber helps the food to keep moving in your bowel. Its beneficial effects include reduction of cholesterol levels, improvement of the digestive system, and prevention of constipation, which is called the ‘mother of all ailments.’ Fiber also keeps your stomach full for long hours, without adding to the calorie count. Eating 14 gm of fiber per day is recommended by experts. There are 2 types of fiber, one of them is soluble which mixes with water to absorb nutrients, whereas the other kind is non-soluble, which adds to the stool bulk.
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Less In-Take of High-Fat Food
Consumption of greater amounts of fatty food slows down digestion and ignites constipation. A diet rich in fats is one big reason behind adult-onset diabetes, obesity and heart diseases. Experts recommend not to consume too much of diet rich in fats. However, fat in the form of poly and mono saturated is healthy and must constitute the necessary fatty portion of your meal.
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Diet Rich in Protein
There are two sources of protein:
- From Animals: that contains proteins along with minerals and saturated fats
- From Plants: that contains mono and polyunsaturated fats but no cholesterol
Consume as much protein as you can, as it keeps the bowel in a healthy state.
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Don’t Hold It in For Too Long
Make a habit of regularly discharging fecal matter, as it is extremely necessary to clean your insides from the toxic waste substances on a daily basis, or else they build up inside the tract and gain entry into the blood. As soon as you feel heavy and ready to expel, do not wait for the pressure to subside. Building up fecal matter for long releases toxins that have the potential to cause Intestinal Bowel Syndrome and diverticulosis (a condition in which diverticula are formed anywhere along the tract).
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Hydration And Water Intake
Water in your digestive system helps fats and other substances to dissolve and aids the food in moving easily. Have plenty of water in a day and make it a necessary part of your meal. Water intake can also be in the form of fresh juices. Constipation is a sign that indicates that your bowel is less hydrated than required. Every individual must have at least 6 to 8 glasses of water per day, and the requirement increases in direct relation to a number of physical activities.
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Proper Eating Time
Even though you are eating healthy, but if your timings are off-base, it won’t give you benefits anyway. Make a proper schedule for your meals. An important measure regarding eating schedule that you should always bear in mind is that, do not eat at least 2 hours before bedtime. Moreover, avoid the curse of “mid-night snacking” as much as possible. Once you feel you are done, stop eating. Forcing your stomach to stuff up extra food can cause heartburn. Keep fruits and healthy snacks for tea time or during hunger bangs instead of chips, carbonated water and junk food items.
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Exercise
In the pursuit of keeping up your colonic healthy, exercise forms a huge part of the equation. Exercise can increase blood circulation to the whole of your digestive system.
Yoga, stretching exercises, and cardio workout on a daily basis for 15-30 minutes a day is more than enough and sufficient to boost the health of your digestive system. Opt for stairs instead of an elevator, and perform a power walk during lunch and coffee break, since these measures also add much to the health of your bowel.
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Learn To Manage Stress
Too much stress or anxiety can cause your digestive system to go into an overdrive state. Stress has a direct effect on digestive health. Build time for relaxation into your daily routine.
Stress casts several negative impacts on the health of the digestive system. It disturbs the speed of food passage, which is exhibited by symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea. Nervousness leads to diarrhea. Stress can increase the acidity of the stomach and is one of the leading causes of peptic ulcer, as it stimulates overproduction of gastric acid, which can worsen the condition in those having a positive history of stomach ulcers.
Chronic cases of tension and mental stress either produce a reduced appetite (causing unnecessary weight loss and weakness) or overeating (causing weight gain and obesity).
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Understand The Need of Your Body
Try to figure out the needs of your body. You should well determine your hunger times, and the kind of food your body is demanding at a particular moment. For example, after an exercise, your body goes into starvation, and that is the time you need to feed yourselves carbs to overcome the calorie loss in a healthy manner.
Last but not the least, think about wellness, and not the disease.
6 Warning Signs of a Probable Heart Attack
Heart attacks are quite common nowadays. It is the result of inadequate blood flow to the heart muscles, which results in ischemia of the particular part of the organ. An interruption in the blood flow mostly occurs as a result of ‘Atherosclerosis‘, a condition in which cholesterol plaques form an obstructive body in the vessel, preventing the blood from reaching the heart.
Fortunately, the management regimen for a patient with a heart attack has improved so much so that mortality has been reduced by half. Moreover, preventive procedures such as an arterial bypass, so as to avoid further such incidences in future have controlled this morbidity to some extent.
However, one must be completely aware of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, especially if they are at risk of it. Old age, a sedentary lifestyle, high cholesterol levels, and a positive family history are some factors that make a person prone to the possibility of having a heart attack at some point in their lives.
In the following article are mentioned a few important symptoms which indicate the probability of the presence of a heart attack. In case you find anyone with these symptoms, may it be even yourself, do not delay in calling 9-1-1 immediately.
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Chest pain
Chest pain of any kind must NEVER be ignored. Chest pain associated with a heart attack is mostly dull and achy in nature and spreads toward the inside of the left arm and the lower jaw. People with heart attacks complain of chest pain that is shearing in nature, so much so that it becomes unbearable.
If you are someone who is above 40 years of age, has an unstable system of fats and cholesterol, and has a positive family history of heart attacks, you must then never take even a slight jest of chest pain lightly.
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Shortness of breath
This is yet another common symptom associated with heart attack, although breathlessness indicates several other pathologies as well, especially those related to the lungs. When taking a flight of stairs is usually not a problem, but suddenly, walking a few steps up is making one breathe heavily, this could be a signal towards a heart attack, especially if they are at risk of it. Since the heart is responsible for supplying the body with oxygenated blood, a small amount of physical exertion during the condition can provoke shortness of breath.
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Profuse sweating
Perspiration due to no apparent reason can be alarming, especially in the case of a person with a compromised heart and blood flow system. During an attack, the sympathetic activity of the body rises substantially, which makes the person perspire profusely.
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Dizziness and nausea
Dizziness and nausea are so familiar that many times they occur without the presence of any pathology. In many cases, they are psychogenic as well. When a portion of heart muscles remains devoid of blood flow, nausea may occur as a ramification of many other events which follow the primary one. Nausea associated with chest pain is a highly alarming sign of a heart attack. Sometimes, patients may even become so much dizzy that they feel they may pass out at any moment. Allowing these events to persist even for a minute can initiate anxiety in the patient, which shall worsen the condition further. Hence, medical help should be obtained immediately.
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Too much fatigue
Few days before the occurrence of a heart attack, some people may feel drained even after carrying out normal activities. Lifting up light objects would make them gasp heavily, and walking a few steps would make them give up and sit right there at that moment. If a person who is at risk of having a heart attack experiences such symptoms, you must not delay in getting them help, since extreme fatigue often occurs before an attack.
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A pounding heartbeat
Every single person has experienced a racing heartbeat, as well as a pounding one, which is fairly normal. But in the case of a person at the risk, a pounding or an irregular heartbeat is rather a sign to pay attention to their condition. In this case, an immediate ECG must be carried out so that the probability of an attack can be dealt with quite early.
What to do next?
You are the victim yourself, or you are standing next to the victim, in any case, call 9-1-1 immediately. Assure the person that everything shall be handled quickly and that they are going to be fine. Assurance prior to the arrival of medical aid is quite IMPORTANT since the person going through an attack is on the verge of developing anxiety. Anxiety can be illicit ventricular arrhythmia which deteriorates the condition further.
Moreover, the person can even go into a state of shock due to extreme fear, since they are already in a state of shock. Hence, it is quite necessary that someone should be by the side of the patient to console them until medical aid arrives.