Remove Air Pollution in Our Homes and Live a Healthier Life

One of the factors that is important for health is fresh, clean air. Our airways and lungs have a number of features that enable them to capture and eliminate many particles that enter the airways. The respiratory system produces mucus which traps foreign particles. The foreign matter is then swept to the upper airway, by specialized cells (celia), where it can be removed. The airways themselves are surrounded by lymphatic system nodes and vessels which are also ready to capture and deal with any foreign matter which it encounters. In addition, inside the lungs are macrophages which actively sweep' the lungs to get rid of any matter that gets past' the upper airway protectors. However, these protective mechanisms can become overloaded and this allows atmospheric pollutants and irritants to enter and inflame the lungs.

One area for concern is the amount of air pollution that is in our home. Many people are aware of outdoor pollution, but not many people are aware that the level of indoor pollution is on average two to three times higher than that of outdoor pollution. This toxic indoor living environment is causing or contributing to chronic health problems such as:

• Asthma
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Cancers of various types including lung cancer
• Chemical sensitivities and allergic reactions
• Vascular diseases

Poor indoor air quality is an issue of concern - particularly for susceptible groups within the community such as pregnant women, babies and young children the sick and the elderly.

The US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has identified over 800 pollutants in indoor air - many of these are Volatile Organic Chlorides (VOCs). These chemicals are easily evaporated into the air at room temperature and they evaporated even more quickly when heated. Other common pollutants found included:

• formaldehyde from carpets and particle board
• solvents such as toluene and xylene used in glues and paints
• pesticides and fungicides used in paints and timber treatments

Making the problems worse are:

• tightly sealed building and air conditioning systems not being maintained or cleaned
• additional pollutants such as :cigarette smoke, ozone from photocopiers, toxic chemicals in cleaning products and dry cleaning solvents
• inside walls and floors coated with plastic and petroleum derived finishes
• carpets and soft furnishings contributing to the chemical mixture by acting as a sink for other pollutants while still releasing their own.

We spend a great deal of time in these polluted environments - it is estimated that we spend around 75 to 90 percent of our time indoors. Links have been made between our unhealthy indoor environment and what has been called the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). SBS has a range of vague symptoms including:

• dry throat
• itchy or dry eyes
• stuffy or congested nasal passages
• headaches
• flu like symptoms
• lethargy

Many of the indoor pollutants are able to escape our respiratory systems detection systems' and they enter our blood stream. They circulate to all areas of the body. In the process of moving around our body they cause problems. Toxins cause problems for the body on their way in, when they move around the body, when they are stored and when they are on their way out of the body. They irritate tissues, cause cells to breakdown and mutagenic changes to occur.

It is sometimes difficult to make changes immediately - but if you are building new or renovating or purchasing new furnishing make every effort to create a less toxic and therefore safer environment in you home. You can also use air purifiers to clean the toxins from the air - so that you have a chance of removing the toxins before they enter your body. In the longer term you may also need to make choices about where you live and where you work - for the sake of your health!

In addition to making changes to reduce the toxins in our environment we need to support our support our body as it deals with toxic elimination. This means that we need to reduce the toxins that we ingest as well as helping our body eliminate any toxins as effectively and quickly as possible. You need to provide your body with nutritional support so that it can cope with our environmental toxins. You can take a good vitamin and mineral supplement. Keeping our colons clean and using appropriate herbs can also aid our body's elimination routes.

Dr Jenny Tylee is an experienced health professional who is passionate about health and wellbeing. She believes that health is not just absence of disease and seeks to actively promote vitality and wellness through empowering others. She encourages people to improve their health by quit smoking, cleansing their body, taking essential vitamin and mineral supplement and many other methods, including herbal remedies.

How Asthma, Allergies and Toxins are Related

How Asthma, Allergies, and Toxins are related

Asthma

A chronic respiratory disease which has 5 main signs: coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and mucus production. The lungs and airway swell and produce the mucus to protect itself and rid what is irritating it.

There are many causes for an asthma attack but the majorities are caused by an irritant or substance entering the lungs and irritating the airways. These irritants or commonly known as triggers can be:

opollen
oexercise
odust mites
ocigarette smoke
ofumes
oallergens
This disease is not to be taken lightly. A few shocking statistics:
oThere are 5 million children and 20 million people in the US affected by asthma.
oAsthma is the third leading cause of childhood hospitalization and caused a total of 5,000 deaths in the US last year.
oMost children are not taking their medications to help prevent the disease.
Make sure you have been to the doctor and started your plan. Work with the doctor and understand the medications and how to take them. Ask questions and learn what can be triggers. Then eliminate the triggers and keep them away.

Allergies

An allergy is when the body's immune response reacts in a way which is abnormal. The body acts out as a result of coming in contact with irritating particles. The substance is called the allergen. There are many know allergens. Examples include pollen, dust, mold spores, animal dander, and chemicals.

The allergen triggers the immune system to produce antibodies and thereby cause an allergic reaction. Sometime the reaction can also be called "hypersensitivity reaction". Allergies can be triggered by eating, touching, or breathing in an allergen. Allergies are often associated with asthma, especially in children. A very common symptom of allergies is eczema or a skin disorder causing it to be red, itchy and scaly.

50 million Americans have allergies. Since the 1980s allergy occurrences have been on the rise and now affect 1 out of 3 children.

Talk to your doctor and keep a journal of activities and food intake. If possible for a better quality of life, eliminate the allergens.

Not all children who have allergies develop asthma. Chances for asthma in children are greater when a parent has asthma because it is a genetic disease. However just because one is prone to develop asthma does not mean they will have it. Yet, more recent studies are showing that there is a rise of new causes and symptoms for asthma and it is all pointing to environmental causes. The TOP 3 childhood health concerns for our government in 2007 are asthma, neurological disorders, and childhood cancers.

Toxins- how do they relate?

According to the EPA- Children may be more vulnerable to environmental exposures than adults because: Their bodily systems are still developing
They eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size
Their behavior can expose them more to chemicals and organisms
Environment is not just outdoors; it is indoors as well. We spend more time indoors than outdoors and it is proven that our indoor air contains 2-5 times (sometimes 17 times) more pollution than outside. Reason being, our homes are sealed and we use many products which release into the air and then are recycled throughout the home; not released

So, whats a toxin? Defined- it is any poisonous substance that can cause illness, injury, or death. A history of common household toxins:
Chlorine gas was rediscovered during WWII and in liquid form was found to be a great whitener! Formaldehyde, an embalming agent was used in the early 1900s was found to be a great preserver and can be found today in many of our personal products and cleaners.
Women began working and did not have time to spend all day washing clothes or scrubbing toilets. So industries needed to come up with products which could do the job in a faster manner.
It takes 10 years for a chemical to be studied and the affects known. The FDA lacks the power to make manufacturers to test and prove that they provide safe products for our homes. They simply have to put a warning label on the back saying do not drink, inhale or touch. A recent testimony to how the FDA does not have the ability to adequately test industries: the recall to the drugs VIOXX and Celebrex.

Recent studies and research are showing that all these chemicals and toxins are affecting our health, children, and planet. The studies are pointing to one big culprit: Industry

So, what does a toxin do exactly?
Most household toxins cause irritation to skin, lungs and eyes. Our skin is like a sponge, it absorbs what is put on it and our lungs breathe in what we use.
Some toxins can cause endocrine disruption. In other words the chemicals and hormones in the body can be interrupted by these toxins in the body. The chemicals can be pesticides, fertilizers and detergents. Once again -It is unknown how many endocrine disruptors are currently in use because most industrial chemicals have not been tested for their ability to interfere with the endocrine system.
Chemicals can be allergens. They can be an asthma or allergy trigger. The fumes or substance releases particles into the air; fumes. This is how you smell something. A child or person with limited lung capacity breaths it in and it can cause them difficulty.
Even more studies are revealing that some chemicals such as formaldehyde are proven to be cancer causing.

What can be done?
Be an informed consumer. An average person puts 9 personal products with 126 unique chemicals on their skin daily.
Buy products which are responsible and safe. There are companies which support these findings and give consumers a better choice.
Become an active citizen and help support organizations which are trying to get the FDA, EPA, and other government agencies to hold these companies responsible.

Product safety is any companys choice and any consumers guess. -EWG

References:
http://www.childenvironment.org/index.htm
http://www.pollutioninpeople.org/
http://www.gasdetection.com/TECH/hcho.html

Success Demands Order

When we first go into business for ourselves many of us fail to follow in most cases a natural order of the universe. I didnt invent it, you didnt invent it, but it has certainly undeniably always been here it just IS. Life has a natural order look at our biology, our ecology, our education our spiritual development, athletics and so forth there is order.

Success comes as a result of three things all dependent on one another. This natural order is that success comes as a result of an orderly succession of events. More often than not, people will set out in a business of their own without giving much thought to the order a successful business demands and on top if it, they will often do it without the help of someone experienced in such matters. Well hire a coach to help us with our golf swing, a specialist to program our computer, an instructor to show us how to dance, a roofer to roof our house, a doctor to cure our ills and a plumber to fix a faucet but well start a business endeavor at the drop of a hat with just an idea and a little inspiration. Of all those things I mentioned, plumbers, doctors, golf pros etc., everyone one of them has an order of doing things to reach a goal -- everyone of them. A doctor walks thru several protocols and by process of elimination determines whats going on with his patient. A plumber methodically figures how to cut each pipe, where to install each valve and so forth. Airplane Pilots use instruments, maps and geography to determine the best way to get somewhere, public education uses a path to take you from flash cards to geometry, and letter blocks to English composition.

Failure to order and plan, failure to see things clearly and follow the necessary steps to completion creates a disconnect. Rarely is this disconnect identified. What then happens in most cases is the entrepreneur then begins a downward spin because they lack direction. Some entrepreneurs may be lucky enough to tread water without the spin down but most take the inevitable plunge to the murky depths of business failure or worse yet, they create a job for themselves often working twice as hard for the same money they once made at a regular 9-5 bread and butter job. And I say worse yet because at least when we fail completely at something, we stand a greater chance at learning what it was we did wrong.

Im here to tell you, you can not only stay above water but you can jump out of this wake of mediocrity. This feeling of discontent with where youre at in your career or business is what I call disconnect. Its a feeling you get when you just cant figure it out, something is missing and you just can't pinpoint it. Ill pinpoint it for you in an article to follow called the 3 Imperatives to Success. For now, know that success demands order and without it, you will be walking around with that feeling of disconnect.

This article was written by Business Launch Expert, Coach and Entrepreneur Dan Nichols. If you'd like more information on starting and growing your small business he offers grass roots ideas via his newsletter sent out once to twice monthly free of charge. If you sign up before the end of this month, we'll send you a free software program that if used will improve your business within 48 hours - guaranteed. For more on the succeeding in and on starting a small business visit http://www.businesslaunchexpert.com

Is Premature Ejaculation a Symptom of Prostatitis?

Premature ejaculation (PE) is a very common complaint. Many surveys have concluded that between 30-60% of male population have intermittent concerns related to ejaculating too rapidly. American Family Physician reported that in US, up to 40% of males have problems with premature ejaculation or lack of ejaculatory control at some time in their lives.

The causes of premature ejaculation have many time considered to be only psychological and close related to emotion and stress of first sexual experience. Following to this approach several behavioral techniques, such as the stop-start technique or other, were considered the key solution of the problem. In our days, more and more studies investigate the possibility that hormonal, urologic or neurologic factors may contribute to this condition.

Considering that the prostate gland has an important mission in the mechanism of ejaculation, a recent study evaluated the incidence of premature ejaculation in the subjects with chronic prostatitis. The final conclusions suggest a role for chronic prostate inflammation in the pathogenesis of some cases of premature ejaculation and, by consequence, a possibility for premature ejaculation to be a symptom of prostatitis.

Based on the observation that chronic prostatitis has been found to have a high incidence in men with premature ejaculation, this study stresses the importance of a complete examination of the prostate before the prescription of any psychosexual or pharmacologic therapy for this condition.

Valerian D is a freelance writer interested in health issues such as causes of premature ejaculation.