Treating Croupy Cough - Home Remedies Or Doctor?

Croupy cough is not a typical raspy kind of cough that you usually hear. The distinctive sign that your toddler has croupy cough is if he or she sounds somewhat like a seal pup barking. It is a very-pitched sound that can be quite alarming. Children who have a more serious infection sometimes develop a raspy, vibrating, harsh wheeze when they inhale.

from Health and Fitness Articles from EzineArticles.com http://ift.tt/2dqkGfa

9 Ways to Blast Belly Fat in a Single Day

Besides being pretty unsexy, belly fat is also dangerous, raising the risk of hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. Here’s how to start losing belly fat fast.

from Diet & Weight Loss – Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2dzGgBh

New Study: This Is When Americans Will Weigh the Most All Year…

Filled with homemade cookies, bubbly-filled parties, and creamy comfort food favorites, the holiday season can turn into a diet disaster after just the tiniest lapse of self-control. But when food is the centerpiece of a season of celebrating, is it worth stressing over the weight gain? You might not pack on as much as you fear.

In early fall, Americans lose more weight than the rest of the year.

But in November, that weight starts creeping back up. During Thanksgiving, the national average weight goes up about 0.2 percent, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. Then from the ten days before Christmas to the ten after, that weight increases by another 0.4 percent, peaking around New Year’s Day. By the end of the winter holiday season, Americans are about 1.3 pounds heavier than their thinnest point in the year. Here are more surprising causes of weight gain.

Unlike past studies that rely on self-reported data, this study used weigh-ins from participants’ wireless scales to keep track of day-to-day weight changes in 2,924 volunteers from the United States, Germany, and Japan. Volunteers who are invested in their expensive scales “may be wealthier, better educated, and more motivated toward weight loss than average,” the authors wrote. That means the typical American might actually gain more weight than this study suggests, study author Brian Wansink of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab told the Los Angeles Times.

About half the holiday weight gain goes away by summer, but the rest sticks around through swimsuit season. “Of course, the less one gains, the less one then has to worry about trying to lose it,” the study authors wrote.

Holiday weight gain isn’t unique to the United States though. The national weights go up even more in Germany and Japan—0.6 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively—than in the United States, the study found.

Internationally, other holidays pose threat to waistlines too. Thanksgiving is a day to feast in the United States, but Germans gain 0.2 percent around Easter, while Japan sees its national weight goes up by 0.3 percent during Golden Week. “Different countries celebrate different holidays, but many such celebration periods have one thing in common: an increased intake of favorite foods,” the study authors wrote.

MORE: Classic Thanksgiving Foods, Ranked From Best to Worst for Your Weight

from Diet & Weight Loss – Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2eOgpHV

How Ayurvedic Medicines Help In Providing Better Health Standards

The healing based on Ayurveda has been in use for centuries. This is the science which involves the usage of naturally occurring substances like plants, leaves, minerals, vitamins, flowers, fruits, etc to combat diseases. The logic behind this is that nature is full of mesmerizing gifts. Nature harbors the wide array of plants which are full of different types of substances. These substances help in the purification of the blood, thus improving the overall health standards of an individual. Let me discuss some of the herbs which are widely used in the manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines.

from Health and Fitness Articles from EzineArticles.com http://ift.tt/2epkhKV

10 Things Experts Wish You Knew About Water Weight

Water weight may make you feel puffy, but it’s not the same as excess pounds. Before you rush to detox, get the facts on water weight and its healthy role in your body.

from Diet & Weight Loss – Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2eqtaoS

21 Worst Habits for Belly Fat

Belly fat is the most dangerous kind of fat since it settles around your organs and affects your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and other serious health issues. These bad habits can increase your chances of developing belly fat or prevent you from losing it.

from Diet & Weight Loss – Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2e6IYfU

Is the Freshman 15 Overrated? What the Science Actually Says

With all-you-can-eat dining halls, late nights, stressful classes, and the noticeable lack of adult supervision, college seems the perfect setting for extra pounds to build up on freshmen experiencing their newfound freedom.

But is the major “freshman 15” weight gain really as common as claimed?

The term “freshman 15” is relatively new. Originally, first-year college students were famous for putting on ten pounds when they started classes. Even Jodie Foster couldn’t be spared from the fear of weight gain—a 1981 New York Times article teased that in her freshman year at Yale, “she appeared to have what is known here as the ‘freshman 10.’”

Eight years later, an August issue of Seventeen magazine took it even further with a cover line touting tips for “fighting the freshman 15.” The punchy new slogan stuck, and 15 became the number referenced in news stories for years to come. Despite how inevitable some articles might make out weight gain to be, though, the research doesn’t back it up.

While freshmen do tend to put on weight when they start college, women gain just more than 3 pounds on average, while men pack on only about 3.5 pounds, according to a 2011 study in Social Science Quarterly. Suffice to say, that’s way fewer added pounds a lot of first-year students are told to fear. In reality, less than 10 percent of college students in the study gained 15 pounds or more in their first year, the study found.

A number of causes could be behind the slight weight gain, says Jane Jakubczak, MPH, RDN, CSSD, LDN, coordinator of nutrition services at University of Maryland. For one thing, most high school athletes don’t go on to play sports in college, so they could lose hours of exercise that they used to get every day at practice. Plus, as schoolwork starts piling up, students start putting their grades above exercise and sleep, but pig out during late-night study sessions. (Related: These sneaky things could affect your weight—and have nothing to do with diet or exercise.)

But failing to meal-plan is the number-one mistake Jakubczak says she sees. Without designated breaks for lunch, and an adult encouraging breakfast and dinner, students tend to skip meals and binge later.

“They go all day going to classes and study groups and things like that, and 4 or 5 o’clock hits and they eat everything that’s not nailed down,” she says. “Then they wake up the next day and are not particularly hungry because they were eating all night, or feel guilty about the night before and start the restriction cycle again.” By planning out food breaks or packing healthy snacks to eat between classes, students can take the edge off hunger and make healthier choices all day, says Jakubczak. (Related: Here’s why late-night eating can cause weight gain.)

But not everyone gains weight when they enter university. In fact, more than a quarter of the students surveyed actually lost weight freshman year.

The trouble is, the pressure to keep their weight down could lead students to go overboard and develop an eating disorder, says Jakubczak. “What I see happen a lot is students come to college, and they’re so afraid of gaining the freshman 15 that they severely restrict their eating and tend to over-exercise,” she says. “Dieting can be very dangerous because it can spiral out of control.”

To maintain a healthy weight, students should be aware of the extra calories they eat while studying or after a night of drinking, Jakubczak says. Plus, she encourages them to carve out time getting active. “Try and still reserve three hours a week to go to the gym or go for a walk with friends,” she says. “Studies and projects always feel like they’re more important, so it won’t happen if it’s not planned.”

MORE: This 15-Second Read About a College Freshman Saying Goodbye to Her Mom Will Make Your Heart Melt

from Diet & Weight Loss – Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2dNSe9C