Healthacker.com

Your kids won’t come near the lima beans?  Well then, just rename them!  Licklable Limas!

A new study has shown that if you rename your veggies, your kids are more likely to eat them. 

In the study, 186 four-year-olds were given carrots one day and ten X-Ray Vision Carrots the next.  As you can imagine, the children ate twice as many carrots as the regular named carrots.

Time to get those creative juices flowing!

Tags: kid's health, research, studies, vegetables

If you are a sufferer of seasonal allergies, you might want to take a closer look at what fruit and vegetables you are eating.

One in five Americans live with seasonal allergies that exhibit signs such as stuffy or runny noses, watery eyes and sleep difficulties.  One thing that you might not realize, however, is that the same chemicals that can cause allergies, such as hay fever, to flare up are also on certain of your raw foods.

Foods like cantelope have a chemical that is similar to pollen and may cause a similar reaction such as swelled lips or itching.

Tags: Diet, hay fever, seaonal allergies

So you tried a new sushi restaurant and you’re not feeling as good as you did when you entered the place.  How do you tell if it’s food poisoning?

First off, if you have had a case of diarrhea that has lasted more than a day, it’s a 1 in 3 chance that you’re suffering from food poisoning.

Other symptoms to look out for are a temperature of 101.5 degrees or more, blood in your stools, prolonged vomiting, dizziness as well as signs of dehydration like decreased urination.

Close to a quarter of Americans suffer from food poisoning each year, while only a fraction of those actually have outbreaks such as what we have seen in this year’s peanut butter salmonella scare.

If you think you might have food poisoning, seek medical attention.

Tags: food poisoning, Health Tips

Patented by a New York dentist, PearlyDreams Toothpaste offers consumers the ability to not only brush their teeth with a great toothpaste, but something extra that will make them sleepy and ready for snoozing.

By working PearlyDreams into your routine, the toothpaste claims to absorb through “thousands of tiny blood vessels in your mouth,” hence making the additive ingredients of the paste bring you to the Sandman.

PearlyDreams Toothpaste uses the natural supplements supplements melatonin, valerian, balm mint and passionflower, which are all known to help you relax.

Tags: PearlyDreams Toothpaste, sleep, sleepyness

A study of over half a million individuals has found that older men and women who consume large amounts of dairy and calcium had a reduced risk of digestive and colorectal cancers.  The research has also reignited hope that calcium helps fight colon cancer.

Women in general who had a high intake of calcium were at a overall reduced risk of various cancers.

The author of the comprehensive study, Dr. Yikyung Park, stated, “Our key finding is that higher total calcium intake is associated with a decreased risk of digestive system cancers.”

“Our study is just one study,” she added. “We need to look to other studies to confirm the finding.”

Does this news make you want to raise your daily calcium intake?

Tags: calcium, colon cancer, diets, Dr. Yikyung Park

If you were wondering before, know you should know, women, you need to eat your avocados.

These green health bombs, in essence, can help keep a woman’s body strong and pain free, while also lowering your cholesterol.

Peter J. Horvath, Ph.D, a professor at the University of Buffalo, has found that women who eat around 31% fat are more likely to rebound from injuries and be more pain-free and resilient. 

So, it’s time to get to the grocery and get as many avocados as you can stomach!

Tags: avocados, diets, health, Peter J. Horvath, Ph.D, University of Buffalo, womens

A new report has shown that health spending in the U.S. this year will be $2.5 trillion, taking up a whopping 17.6% of the American economy.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are forecasting the amount of money for health spending and care to jump a full percentage point from last year’s spending.  Although that sounds small enough in itself, this would be the largest one-year increase since the government started tracking this data back in 1960.

What are you and your family spending on healthcare each month?

Tags: american economy, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, healthcare

Push ups are an exercise drag, ask anyone.  But add a new fitness gadget and they may not be such a torture.

These ergonomic Digital Push Up Bars not only keep up with your number of push ups, but also lets you know when you are not performing the movement correctly as well as offering you an average workout power monitoring.

Anything that helps make push ups not so horrible, is a worthwhile purchase in my book.

Tags: digital push up bars, exercise gadgets, Fitness, workout

Since we’ve been discussing smoking so much this week, we decided to further the topic to teenagers.

A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that U.S. teens are more apt to smoke Malboro cigarettes than any other brand.

Also the favorite cigarrette brand for American adults, Malboro wins hands-down by teens as 52% of surveyed teens preferred the brand.

Newport received 21% while Camel came in at 13%.

Tags: brands, camel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarrettes, marlboro cigarrettes, newport, Smoking, teenage smokers

According to a recent study, when your toddler starts pointing and gesturing, words are soon to follow.

When you gesture to your child while speaking, such as waving bye-bye, it encourages them to boost their vocabulary and to better understand the meaning of the words. 

Research suggests that the key to your child’s early vocabulary is you speaking them from infanthood and on.  Also using gestures or sign language will increase their understand and young vocabulary.

Tags: Add new tag, american sign language, asl, gesturing, pointing, research studies, toddler, vocabulary