Health & Fitness

Getting a cold seems to be the least happily anticipated yearly tradition known to man. For many it seems like no matter what we try, we still end up getting one or more colds each year. Avoiding a cold is to some degree a matter of luck. Washing your hands regularly is a big help, but in the end even this precaution can be thwarted.

Once youve resigned yourself to the fact that you do indeed have a cold, there are luckily some things you can do about it. Apart from taking daily doses of moms chicken noodle soup, you can employ a number of techniques to greatly reduce the cold viruss lifespan. The secret is zinc supplements.

Zinc has proven itself to be a worthy combatant against the sturdy cold virus. Zinc lozenges in particular are effective at reducing the length of a cold. It has been shown that taking zinc lozenges regularly during the course of a bout with a cold can reduce the number of cold days from seven down to four. Thats a fairly dramatic difference and certainly worth the effort of taking a few cough drops.

Zinc Might Even Be a Preventative
Not only is zinc a good way to help yourself once youve caught a cold, but some studies have shown that zinc can actually help prevent the common cold. There have been reports that taking zinc lozenges daily can reduce your chances of catching a cold by 62 percent. Of course taking vitamin C and other immune system boosters can also greatly help your body stave off colds.

Dealing with an outbreak of lice is something that nobody wants to have to do. Unfortunately, head lice are here to stay, and there is a good chance that your child will have to be treated at one time or another. There are a number of different products on the market designed for treating a lice outbreak at home.

Some of the lice killing products are unfortunately a case of the cure being worse than the sickness. You should definitely avoid any product that contains the chemical lindane. Lindane has been banned by 18 different countries and is considered to be a powerful poison both internally and externally. The use of lindane has been connected with ADHD, seizures, cancer and even death.

A potentially safer but less effective alternative is pyrethrin based shampoos. Pyrethrin, though harmful to humans in large doses, is becoming increasingly less harmful to lice. Lice are becoming resistant to pyrethrin and upping the application doses isnt a viable solution because of the health risks involved.

There Are Natural Based Anti-Lice Products
Fortunately there are some great natural based anti-lice shampoos on the market today that have proven effective at killing both lice and their eggs. These products are alcohol based and are completely non-toxic. So far they have far outstripped their chemical laden competitors in terms of both safety and effectiveness.

As long as humans have been going outdoors, weve been plagued by bugs. Biting, buzzing bugs are perhaps the number one reason why many people dont enjoy going outdoors, and consequently a number of ways of dealing with bugs have cropped up. Insect repellents are one of the most effective ways of dealing with bugs, particularly the lowly and highly annoying mosquito.

Mosquitoes are one of the most widespread and resistant survivors on our planet. All they need is a little bit of standing water to lay their eggs and a few hosts to feed on and they can breed by the thousands. The most common repellents for mosquitoes contain the chemical known as DEET.

DEET is a bit of a conundrum for outdoors enthusiasts. It is highly effective at repelling insects, but it has also proven to be harmful to humans. It can cause anything from numbness in the lips, to an itchy rash all the way to death. It enters your bloodstream through your skin, and you absolutely should not use DEET based products on young children and infants.

Natural Repellents Might Be a Better Option
There are some companies that are producing natural based repellents that are highly effective at keeping mosquitoes away. Some of these repellents use a mixture of various botanical oils that mosquitoes dont like. The advantage of natural repellents is that they wont harm you or the environment, the disadvantage is that you have to apply them more frequently.

If mosquitoes werent so annoying, most people would probably find them fairly interesting. They are one of the most widespread living organisms on the planet. They can survive in virtually any climate, and there are over 1,700 species of mosquitoes in North America alone.

Of course mosquitoes have their very obvious downsides as well. Not only do they give us itchy swollen bites, but they carry a host of diseases as well. Mosquitoes are known to carry everything from malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and now West Nile virus. These are deadly diseases and potential outbreaks are of grave concern.

Killing mosquitoes is the best way to avoid both their bites and the potential diseases they might carry. One sure way to kill mosquitoes is to destroy their breeding grounds. Eradicating standing water from your home and environs will greatly reduce the number of mosquitoes near your home. Mosquitoes generally dont travel further than around 300 feet from their breeding grounds, so you can use that as a guideline when searching for standing water.

Look for Mosquito Killing Machines
There have been some great advances in mosquito killing machines in the last few years, and one of the best of these is a machine that runs on propane. Mosquitoes are attracted to heat and light, and a propane flame draws them to their ultimate doom. For smaller scale protection, citronella candles have proven fairly effective, but their effectiveness can vary greatly depending on the manufacturer.

Anyone who suffers from them knows that migraines are definitely not like a standard headache. These sometimes debilitating bouts of head pain are almost indescribably in their brutality, and unrelenting in their intensity. The migraine is a mysterious affliction that, despite the fact that its been around for thousands of years, still baffles modern science.

It is estimated that up to 18 percent of women suffer from migraines. Studies have shown that only 6 percent of men get migraines, and scientists have no idea why there is this discrepancy between the sexes. One thing that scientists have been able to determine is that migraines are a hereditary condition. Inexplicably, the percentage of migraine suffers has been steadily increasing. Some estimates report that migraine sufferers have increased by over 60 percent since 1981.

Furthermore, no one seems to know what exactly causes migraines. People have guessed that contributing factors might include everything from food to the weather to light intensity, but no one has been able to accurately determine the exact cause of a migraine attack. As migraine sufferers well know, if you dont know the cause, prevention can be next to impossible.

The Physiology of a Migraine Attack
Some scientists theorize that what actually happens during a migraine attack is that the blood arteries surrounding the brain actually contract. This causes the blood flow in the area surrounding our visual center to greatly reduce. This could account for the hallucinations that are often associated with severe migraine attacks.