Starbucks Red Cups are Back!

The holidays are more evident in Starbucks stores. The annual red cups are back and this year you get the chance to enjoy these season’s signature favorites:
Toffee Nut
Peppermint Mocha
Dark Cherry Mocha

My personal favorite is the hot Peppermint Mocha, though I get to choose between the other two in days I want to try something different.

What’s your favorite red cup?

Dental Care: Time for Braces

My son is turning twelve in the a couple of weeks and I think it’s the perfect time for him to get fitted with braces. He is severely overbite and has some overlapping teeth (big teeth, small jaw) so going to a trip with a Cosmetic Dentist Miami is a must for him.

No guts, no glory.

This is what I said to him when we briefed him when he starts wearing braces, frequent trips to the Cosmetic Dentist Miami and some pain and discomfort will be a regular occurrence, hopefully only lasting for a year, two years at most.

I am excited how he will look like though – I am sure he will look even more handsome!

Neuromuscular Dentistry for resolution of temporomandibular joint disorder

Dental services provide the client the means to maintain good oral health through maintenance and preventive care, provide accurate diagnosis of conditions as manifested by current signs and symptoms, and implement dental procedures for the resolutions of problems related to the gums and teeth.

What is Neuromuscular dentistry?

A sub specialty called Neuromuscular dentistry deals with the practice of maintaining good condition of the jaw, gums, teeth and all the soft and hard tissues that are found in the orofacial area. This includes the muscles, nerves, the jaw bone and its articulations (joints). One of the most common conditions encountered by neuromuscular dentists is misalignment of the jaw at its joints with the skull, called temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD or TMJ). This condition may lead to pain in the neck and jaw, severe headache, ear ringing and tinnitus and even insomnia.

Temporomandibular joint disorder

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) manifests often as chronic jaw pain. When jaw pain persists despite medications and other interventions designed to eliminate pain, the problem may originate from the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) already. Pain relief would not be able to alleviate the symptoms, since TMD is primarily mechanical in nature. A neuromuscular dental practitioner with adequate experience in TMD will be able to assess, diagnose, and treat the symptoms more effectively.

Only a proper re-alignment of the jaw position, combined with adequate conditioning of the muscles of mastication (chewing) that are attached to the jaw and facial and skull bones, assure complete resolution of TMJ disorders. A TMJ practitioner routinely provides relief to clients and makes the simple activities of daily life such as speech and eating, more manageable and less painful. With the jaw positioned optimally, every jaw movement is once gain again painless.

State of the Art Equipment  for Neuromuscular Conditions

Treatment of neuromuscular conditions that affect the jaw and mouth often requires appliances. For example, in the treatment of temporomandibular joint disorders, a TENS machine is prescribed by the specialist. TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, which is designed to relieve pain and muscle spasm. A TENS unit releases pulses of low frequency energy that relaxes muscles with its massaging effect, stimulates endorphins in the nervous system to relieve pain, and facilitates increased  blood flow, which clears the body of metabolites and other waste products.

Mouth guards that are used to stabilize the bite, as well as jaw splints that are used to solve the problem of jaw clenching and grinding, are also available. All these innovative products paired with the able hands of specialists, is making the neuromuscular dentistry specialty one of the most technologically advanced of all.

Supportive Activities to Promote Neuromuscular Dental Health

Certain activities must be done as part of the daily routine of the patient.  Some of these are:

  • Maintain good standing and sitting posture all throughout the day, focusing on the alignment of the neck with respect to the body.
  • Avoid eating foods that are difficult to chew.
  • Avoid using the telephone with the crook of the neck.
  • Support the jaw when yawning; limit jaw movement whenever possible.

These activities fully complement the professional intervention provided by .

Green Smoothies can Reverse Grey Hair

If this is true, then I should juice more!

They are great for weight loss, colon health and as an easy way to get more minerals and fresh foods into the diet. But an added bonus is that they’ve been known to reverse gray hair, naturally!

The Green Smoothie was actually “invented” in the 1970′s by Ann Wigmore, who went on to write many books on natural health and healing, including The Hippocrates Diet. She called the Green Smoothie her “energy soup.” Wigmore claimed that grey hair is linked to mineral deficiencies, and when the body is able to boost its mineral reserves, the natural color returns.

Here are some general tips to making your own Green Smoothies:

Blend 60% fruit to 40% greens in a blender.
Keep in mind that cucumber, tomato and bell peppers are fruits.
You can start to mix more fruits and greens as you become confident in your flavor combinations.
Add water and/or high-water content fruits first.
Then add greens, blend again.
Blend different fruits and greens every day.
Try different combinations and find what tastes best to you

Are you ready to try a Green Smoothie? Here’s a recipe to get you started:

Ingredients

2 bunches bok choy
1 handful arugula
2 oranges
1 mandarin
A few shavings fresh ginger (about a quarter inch)
Half tsp. blue green algae powder
Half tsp. chlorella powder
1 capsule probiotic powder
Half lime, squeezed
1 cup water

Directions

Carefully wash all greens and peel the oranges and mandarin.

In a blender, add the water, fruits, powders and fresh ginger and blend until smooth.

Add the greens and blend again.

Finally, open the probiotic capsule and add the powder to the smoothie, blending one last time until smooth.

Smoothie will keep for up to two days in the fridge, but is best if consumed immediately.

Searching for Walkers for the Safety of Your Elders

The past few weeks have let me realize that my parents are not getting any younger. I need to make sure that certain allowances and care are given to them especially since I am the eldest girl. They are still sharp and ambulatory, fortunately, so they can still be left at home by themselves. However, I need to make sure that features at home are not accident prone.

There are elderly people who would need assistance with walking. This is why walkers and rollators with seats are one of the most sold out medical equipment when it comes to geriatric care.

Medical walkers are ambulatory aids that were designed to help seniors become independent despite those conditions that make them have difficulties in staying balanced while walking or standing up.

There are roughly two types of walkers, those with wheels and those without wheels. There are also walkers with seats and those without.

One needs to choose the best medical walkers that fit the one that is using it.

1.  When it comes to the handles, choosing the right grip is a must to ensure that your hands and the bones in them don’t get deformed.

2. Be sure that the handles are of the appropriate height as you hold on to them. This will prevent undue stress and pressure on your arms, shoulders, and the back. See to it that your elbows bend at a comfortable angle and that when you place your hands at your sides, the handle reaches the crease lines of your wrists.

3. Test the product first. To test your walker, put your weight against it while keeping your back straight then take a step into the device, be sure that the walker doesn’t move as you take a step.

New forms of Exercise for Weight Loss

Losing weight has been part of every person’s list of things to conquer these days. Whether the reason of losing weight would be to look good or to live a healthier lifestyle, the ways of losing weight are mainly the same. One of the most efficient ways of losing weight is to do exercises. By exercising, you will shed pounds quickly leaving you relaxed, stress-free and even happier. Studies shows that physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease thus exercise has been the major thing that most people do these days.

During the old days, there are different types of exercises that are quite popular like high impact aerobics, weight training exercises, interval training and more. For several years now, these ways of exercising have been pretty effective to most people. But of course with the emergence of the creativity of people, there are now new forms of exercises to lose weight. Here are a couple of alternative ways of exercise that you might want to try…

  1. Bikram Yoga. Bikram Yoga has been created in the 70’s but has become popular because it is set in a room heated to 105°F with a 40% humidity. Bikram’s classes run exactly 90 minutes depending on how your body can take the heat.
  2. Belly Dancing. Belly dancing is the oldest form of dance but has recently become popular because people now consider it as a form of exercise. Belly dancing is natural to a woman’s bone and muscle structure with movements emanating from the torso rather than in the legs and feet. It is not just a way to reduce tummy fat but provides for complete workout too as not only it targets the muscles in your abdomen but also the muscles along the shoulders and legs and the core muscles. An hour of belly dancing can burn up to 300 calories.
  3. Pilates. A form of exercise which emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness in order to support efficient, graceful movement. It uses different apparatus like trapeze table, ladder barrel, springs, exercise balls, bands and more for resistance training.
  4. Pole Dancing. Instead of using weights, a step or any other piece of gym equipment, pole dancing is by using pins, climbs and pole-tricks on a vertical bar. This can also be done using a pole-dancing pole. This is actually a skill because by doing this, you incorporate several skills such as gymnastics, acrobatics, dancing, flexibility and strength. It can be a powerful whole body workout as pole-dancing movements includes climbing, spinning, static poses, and more.
  5. Zumba. Zumba is another form of dance workout and it combines moves from different types of dance like salsa, samba, belly dancing and even the modern hip-hop. Zumba helps promotes flexibility and grace and can be a good form of cardio exercise. A 60-minutes Zumba session can help burn up to 500 calories. You can read more on the benefits of Zumba and dancing from this article http://www.dailychump.org/just-dance-benefits-of-shaking-your-groove-thing.
  6. Plana Forma. This is a very intense form of exercise as it combines yoga, Pilates and dance in one workout session. It is divided into three sessions: warm-up, barre exercise and floor exercise and is done in succession without taking any break in between sessions targeting one part of the body at a time for each workout. A one-hour Plana Forma workout can help burn up to 600 calories.

With these new forms of exercises, people now find exercising fun and enjoyable. You can no longer say that exercising is boring because of these options. By starting slowly and using the right technique, you may find that one of these new forms of exercise is really an effective way of building strength.