The history Of Alternative Herbal Medicine use and the administration of herbal medicine goes back thousands of years. Medical technology did not exist then hence making our ancestors use natures gifts. Even today, current medical discoveries are mostly based on the findings and usage of natural herbal components by earlier civilizations, improving them to become useful in today’s health-related concerns.

Where It All Began
The use of alternative herbal medicine started out as trial and error. Application was largely in the practice rather than actual research.
The basic application of herbal medicines involved disinfecting wounds or used as a poultice. Later discovery on the method involved pounding leaves and roots to a paste for directly administering it to the patient. It eventually evolved to a more potent combination with the addition of other man made medicines to improve its effects. It was later introduced to meals for normal human diet to promote better health and improve physical, emotional, and mental recovery.

Variation Of Use
The use of herbal medicine varies according to the customs, traditions, and beliefs of the different races. Medical practitioners of the Orient tend to use herbal components in all aspect of their daily lifestyle, integrating them into a person’s daily diet to promote healing and longevity, as well as improving their normal rejuvenation capabilities.
Oriental medical practitioners are also known to use herbal products alongside energy therapy, like Qi Gong and Reiki. These energies provided by an experienced practitioner of the arts stimulate the healing process from the outside, while nutrients and extracts from herbal components work its function on the inside to achieve total body rejuvenation.
The Western world use of herbal medicine varies, aside from its basic use to treat wounds and cure minor ailments, these natural components are also utilized today in tribal ceremonies and customs to drive away evil spirits, blessing during weddings, important celebrations and so on. In primitive societies around the world, some of these healing traditions involving herbal components are still carried on today.

Uses Of Herbal Medicine
Alternative herbal medicine has many uses today. Aside from being utilized for physical ailments like sore throat, fever, flu and diarrhoea, herbal concoctions are now being used to address emotional and mental problems.
Certain plants have the capability to help a person relax to cope with their emotional and mental problems. Peppermint, for example, is known to have a minty quality that can cool a person’s temper or help a person relax during stressful times.
Also, herbal products today are also utilized to improve the body’s overall performance, boosting a person’s stamina, improving the body’s defence against infection, and so on.

Safety In Usage
It’s true that alternative herbal medicine is safe to use as compared to its synthetic counterpart, but it is essential to take some necessary precaution to ensure that there will be no side-effects or allergic reactions to its ingredients to promote body wellness.
Consultation of a medical expert is necessary to determine whether it is safe for you to use herbal products or not. Even if the medicine worked on others, there is a possibility that it will have a reverse effect depending on your body’s chemistry. Therefore, it is essential to have an expert medical practitioner look at your present medical condition to determine if you are compatible with the alternative herbal medicine or not.

Hypertension is one of the most widely diagnosed health issues in the Western world. For those suffering from this condition, it is important to know how to take hypertension readings. A byproduct of the human body’s fight-or-flight reflex, it is designed to push more blood out to the muscles in an emergency.

Hypertension is a problem that is created when the body treats the general stresses of day to day living as a constant, low-level emergency that never quite ends. Elevated bp and hormones that trigger hypertension readings can wear out the cell walls of the arteries, and eventually lead to arterial problems in the heart, kidney failure and strokes.

However, there’s more to hypertension readings than just high hypertension readings. Measuring your hypertension readings is a key way of regulating this, and there is the issue of low blood pressure and diastolic hypertension readings.

Measuring your hypertension readings requires a hypertension readings cuff. What used to be a piece of equipment only found in the doctor’s office is now something you can buy for a reasonably inexpensively price at the local drug store. Modern hypertension readings cuffs are digital – you wrap them around your upper arm, and squeeze the bulb to inflate them; you want to inflate them to just the point where they give you reading.

Hypertension readings measures two numbers, diastolic and systolic pressure. Diastolic pressure is the pressure (in milligrammes of mercury) that your arteries experience when relaxed, systolic is the higher pressure that happens when your heart contracts and the arteries squeeze down to force the blood through your body.

The gold standard of hypertension readings is 115/75, and 120/80 is considered normal. People with lower bp than 100/60 tend to have dizziness and fainting spells, and people with the bp more than 140 for systolic pressure or 90 for diastolic pressure for extended periods of time have hypertension. At systolic pressures more than 200, the patient is in grave danger of damage to arterial walls, which most often expresses itself in the form of a stroke. Systolic bp is the technical term for when your systolic pressure exceeds your diastolic pressure by more than 100 milligrams of mercury and is typically a symptom of a patient going into shock; it is also one of the physiological side effects of a migraine; equalising bp is one of the treatments for migraines.

There are some factors that can cause bp to spike – the most common is stress. Indeed, the most common causes of abnormal responses when measuring bp is that the patient hasn’t calmed down by the time the hypertension readings cuff is inflated. Other factors include liquorice (even in candies) and sodium.

For patients with low hypertension readings, the condition isn’t life-threatening, but it is frustrating. The best way to describe a low bp effect is you go from being just fine to dizzy in a heartbeat, and then need to sit down. Most teenagers going through a spurt growth experience a bout of low bp as their body adapts. This condition is more common in boys rather than girls. They eventually grow out of it as the body learns to self-regulate the growing volume of blood vessels needed.

Now that you know how to take bp, you should consider checking your hypertension readings regularly and take corrective steps where necessary.

If you feel all stressed out and not sure why this is happening, you will be pleased to know that there are many things that can be done about this. Everyday stresses can include family responsibilities, work issues, relationship issues, or lack of control in your life. No matter how stressful your life is, here are some simple tips to help you reduce stress.

If you are feeling powerless against stress or anxiety, facing emotions and dealing with problems will come at a price. Stress management is about changing a stressful situation whenever possible and changing your reaction. The first step is to relax and spend some time resting.

It is better to start by identifying the source of your anxiety following a major life event such as changing home, moving jobs, or losing a loved one. It is all too easy to forget your own thoughts and feelings. But if you are constantly worrying about schedules or deadlines, it is better to take a step back and calm down.

To identify your main sources of anxiety, take a close look at your attitude and habits. Ask yourself when was the last time you took a breather, learn to meditate, take up yoga or swimming. Release the negative energy and stop blaming others. Physical activity can play an important role in preventing the effects of stress.

There is no need to spend hours doing strenuous exercises or go to the gym every day. Any form of physical activity is enough to release the feel-good hormones and burn away the tension. Exercise is a good distraction to daily worries as long as it is done on a regular basis.

The maximum benefits from a physical activity come from half an hour sessions or more. Start by doing stretches and gradually build your fitness level up. As long as your heart rate is increasing and you break out into a sweat, you will feel energized and positive. Even the smallest activities can add up over a course of a day.

The first step is to get up and move. Put your favorite music and dance around the room. Taking the dog for a walk is another great way to release energy. Rather than taking the elevator, go by the stairs. All these are effective ways to reduce tension and get some exercise at the same time. Once you get into the habit of being physically active, your daily schedules will consist of light workouts. Swimming, cycling, or even aerobic classes are some great choices.

Select your favorite activity and try to focus on your thoughts while exercising. Soon, your attitude towards life will change and will feel more energized. Adding this element to your daily workouts will help break out the cycle of pessimism. In fact, the more active you are, the less stressed you will feel. By getting just ten minutes of sunlight a day and coordinating your breathing with exercises, you will feel refreshed and be able to focus better on your work or relationship.

It is advisable not to try to control the things that are uncontrollable. This is particularly true about the behavior of other people. Rather than stressing over a situation that is beyond your control, concentrate on the things that make you happy. Always look on the bright side by facing challenges head on. Your personal growth depends on how you deal with everyday situations. By making poor choices, a stressful situation is created. Learn from your mistakes and reflect on them. Learn to forgive and accept the fact that this world is full of imperfect people. Anger and resentment will only encourage negative energy. Learn to move on by forgiving. These are perhaps some of the simplest tips to help relieve tension and anxiety from everyday life.

With everyone trying to be healthy it is not hard just to reach out for a supplement pill that offers to boost your vitamin C. The question is do you really need it or are you following the hype?

More than half of all Americans take one or more dietary supplements daily or on occasion. Supplements are available without a prescription and usually come in pill, powder or liquid form. Common supplements include vitamins, minerals and herbal products, also known as botanicals.

People take these supplements to make sure they get enough essential nutrients and to maintain or improve their health. But not everyone needs to take supplements.

“It’s possible to get all of the nutrients you need by eating a variety of healthy foods, so you don’t have to take one,” says Carol Haggans, a registered dietitian and consultant to NIH. “But supplements can be useful for filling in gaps in your diet.”

Sourced from:https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/aug2013/feature1

Like all drugs supplements also have side effects and risks. The main problem is that there is a lot of wrong information availed to the public. It is not required by law that sellers conduct research in people to prove how safe the supplements are. It is as easy as just getting some over the counter.

There’s a lot of wrong information out there. Even for those who are usually well informed, it can be hard to find reliable information about the safe use and potential risks of dietary supplements.

Exposures to supplements (such as vitamins, herbs, protein powders, and botanicals) accounted for more than 100,000 calls to US poison control centers in 2013. Of these calls, more than 8,000 people were reportedly treated in health care facilities. More than 1000 cases were reported to poison control centers as having moderate to severe outcomes. This did not include electrolyte and mineral supplements, which accounted for another 2,500 people treated in health facilities, with 350 moderate to severe reactions and 2 deaths reported to poison control centers.

Most people who suffer unexpected side effects, illnesses, or drug interactions from dietary supplements don’t call a poison control center or the supplement manufacturer. This means that the numbers we have are likely very low estimates of actual events.

Sourced from:http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/dietarysupplements/dietary-supplements-risks-and-side-effects

Most people love taking vitamin supplements. It is advised that this is not necessary if there is no serious deficiency of vitamins in the body. Too much of something is dangerous thus the need to know the vitamins that you do not need.

Vitamin C. Perhaps the most popular single vitamin supplement, vitamin C occurs in plentiful amounts in many fresh fruits and vegetables. In the early days of global exploration, sailors often died from scurvy, caused by the lack of vitamin C. Way back in the 1700′s, Scottish doctor James Lind famously conducted an experiment that proved that citrus fruit cured scurvy, although vitamin C itself wasn’t discovered until the 1930s.

Vitamin C gained its current popularity through the woefully misguided efforts of Linus Pauling, who published a book in 1970 recommending mega-doses of C to prevent the common cold. Although Pauling was a brilliant chemist (and Nobel laureate), he was completely wrong about vitamin C, as Paul Offit explains in detail in his new book, “Do You Believe in Magic?”

Vitamin E. Long touted as an anti-cancer agent, vitamin E is a very popular supplement. A large study last year, of 35,533 men, looked at vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer. The authors found that the risk of cancer increased for men taking vitamin E. In an even larger review done at Johns Hopkins University, Edgar Miller and Lawrence Appel found that the overall risk of death was higher in people who took vitamin E. The Mayo Clinic summarizes the evidence this way:

“Evidence suggests that regular use of high-dose vitamin E may increase the risk of death from all causes by a small amount.”

Sourced from:http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2013/10/07/the-top-five-vitamins-you-should-not-take/#2715e4857a0b1047db621708