Health24.com | 8 surprising things that happen to your body when you stop drinking booze

Posted on 24/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Maybe your nightly glass of wine has turned into two or three. Or you’re overdoing it on the beer and have the gut to prove it.

Giving up alcohol can be tough – but the benefits make it worth the effort, says Damon Raskin, MD, a Los Angeles-based physician who is board certified in addiction medicine.

“Taking a break from drinking alcohol – even if it’s just for a couple of weeks – is a good idea, especially if you’re regularly consuming more than the recommended daily limit,” Dr Raskin says. That’s generally two drinks a day for men.

Also, if your drinking seems to be affecting your work or personal relationships – regardless of how much booze you’re knocking back – it’s time to consider taking it easy, he adds.

Here’s what you can expect to happen, both short- and long-term, if you give up alcohol:

1. You’ll sleep more soundly

One recent study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research found drinking before bed increases alpha wave patterns in the brain – a kind of cerebral activity that usually occurs when you’re awake but resting.

The result? Disrupted sleep.

Another review of 27 studies found that while alcohol may help people fall asleep more quickly and deeply at first, it seriously screws with sleep quality after that initial restful period.

You might toss and turn at first, but give up alcohol and the sleep you get will likely leave you feeling more refreshed and sharp the next day.

The byproducts of better sleep: improved mood, concentration and mental performance, Dr Raskin says.

2. You’ll eat less at dinner

According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, alcohol is one of the biggest drivers of overeating.

That may be because alcohol heightens our senses, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity.

Researchers found that when people received an alcohol “infusion” equal to about two drinks, they ate 30% more food than those who received a saline solution.

Even mild intoxication can increase your brain activity in the hypothalamus, making you more sensitive to the smell of food and prompting you to eat more.

3. You might crave sugar

Sugar boosts levels of the “reward” chemical dopamine, which fuels feelings of pleasure, Dr Raskin says.

Alcohol does the same thing, so it’s very possible that when you give up one substance that causes happy-making chemicals to float around your brain, you’ll be more likely to reach for the other.

“Don’t be surprised if you try to get that same enjoyment or rush you used to get after a drink from something sweet,” he says.

4. You’ll start losing weight

Alcohol has a sneaky way of increasing your daily calorie intake without you realising it.

Just one margarita may contain 300 calories or more – mostly from sugar.

Men consume an additional 433 calories on those days they drink a “moderate” amount of alcohol, according to one study.

Cut those from your diet – and don’t replace them with desserts – and you’ll start to lose weight without much effort.

5. Your skin will clear up

Within a few days of cutting out booze, you’ll notice your skin looking and feeling more hydrated.

That’s because alcohol is a diuretic, causing you to urinate more, Dr Raskin says.

Alcohol also decreases the body’s production of an antidiuretic hormone, which helps the body reabsorb water. (Less water in the body equals dry-looking skin.)

Ruddiness in your cheeks and around your nose may also start to fade, and other skin conditions – such as dandruff, eczema or rosacea – may also improve, Dr Raskin says.

6. You’ll have more money

Drinking – especially a fine wine or scotch habit – is an expensive undertaking.

Take a moment to crunch the numbers, adding up what you spend for drinks both at home and out on the town (factoring in tax and tip).

It can be an eye-opening – and motivating – exercise.

7. Your mood might take a hit

It’s important to understand that there will be times when you feel like you’re missing out – and it can make you pretty testy, Dr Raskin says.

“People often use alcohol as a lubricant for emotions, and when they stop drinking they may feel agitated and restless,” he adds.

8. Your cancer risk falls but your heart disease risk might rise

According to the National Cancer Institute, alcohol use has been linked to an increased risk for cancers of the mouth, liver, colon and rectum.

The risk increases the more you drink.

On the other hand, multiple studies have shown moderate alcohol consumption may lower your odds of heart trouble.

More research suggests your risk for stroke, diabetes and mortality may all rise slightly when you give up booze – assuming you were a light drinker before you quit.

This article was originally published on www.mh.co.za

Image credit: iStock

Daydreaming brain network used in autopilot

Posted on 24/10/2017 by Boris Clair

The brain network associated with daydreaming plays key role in allowing us to perform tasks on autopilot, researchers find.

Health24.com | How much are teens really sleeping?

Posted on 24/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Teens sleep less than they used to, sacrificing shuteye to spend more time on their phones and tablets.

Experts say teens need at least nine hours of sleep a night to be engaged and productive during the day. Anything less can cause daytime sleepiness and interfere with school or daily activities.

A suspicious pattern

Faced with an array of tempting distractions, how much sleep are today’s teens actually getting? To find out, researchers analysed a pair of long-term, national surveys of more than 360 000 eighth- through 12th-graders.

One survey asked eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders how often they got at least seven hours of shuteye. The other asked high school students how long they slept on a typical school night.

In 2015, four out of 10 teens slept less than seven hours a night. That’s up 58% since 1991 and 17% more than in 2009 when smartphone use became more mainstream, the researchers said.

“Teens’ sleep began to shorten just as the majority started using smartphones. It’s a very suspicious pattern,” said study leader Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University.

The more time students reported spending online, the less sleep they got, according to the study published in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Falling asleep at school

Those who were online five hours a day were 50% more likely to be sleep-deprived than classmates who limited their daily time online to an hour.

Studies have shown that light from smartphones and tablets can disrupt the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

“Our body is going to try to meet its sleep needs, which means sleep is going to interfere or shove its nose in other spheres of our lives,” said study co-author Zlatan Krizan, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University. “Teens may catch up with naps on the weekend or they may start falling asleep at school.”

According to a previous Health24 article, missing out on needed sleep leads to higher levels of stress hormones and the hormones that regulate hunger. That can lead to the possibility of overeating and gaining weight.

Though smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices are often an essential part of life, the researchers said moderation is key. Everyone – young and old alike – should limit use to two hours each day, they advised in a San Diego State University news release.

“Given the importance of sleep for both physical and mental health, both teens and adults should consider whether their smartphone use is interfering with their sleep,” Twenge said. “It’s particularly important not to use screen devices right before bed, as they might interfere with falling asleep.”

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Health24.com | SEE: How this woman’s foot fungus got out of control

Posted on 23/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Your feet are an important but often neglected part of your anatomy. Consider the seemingly insignificant foot problems people suffer from: ingrown toenails, nail fungus, athlete’s foot (tinea pedis), warts etc.

The danger is, however, that if you leave these conditions untreated, they can end up becoming a serious problem.

When something less serious goes wrong

Next time you see the onset of nail fungus but don’t feel like bothering about it, think twice.

Elizabeth, a 19-year old from England, was so grossed out by her ingrown toenails that she couldn’t even look at them. She even showered with socks on to hide them!

When she finally consulted a doctor, ingrown toenails ended up being the least of her problems – she had developed a severe fungus in both toenails, which resulted in their removal.

The results are nasty – watch the video at your own peril!

What’s the deal with foot fungus?

There are thousands of species of fungi, but only a few can cause disease or uncomfortable symptoms. Early symptoms of nail fungus may involve the nail lifting off the skin, turning white or yellow, and thickening. If a fungus is left untreated, it can get to the point where the nail becomes so thick, it needs to be removed.

It’s not only fungal infections that can take their toll on our feet. Ingrown toenails occur when one or both sides of the toenail grow into the skin. Left untreated, the areas can become badly infected.

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Take care of those feet

While conditions such as toenail fungus, athlete’s foot and ingrown toenails are not uncommon, it’s important to treat the problem before it becomes serious. Here are some tips on how to take better care of your feet and avoid these unfortunate conditions:

Keep the skin on your feet and between the toes clean and dry, especially after using public showers and swimming pools.
Put on clean socks every day and give your shoes time to air instead of wearing the same pair day after day.
If you exercise, get your workout shoes fitted properly to avoid ingrown toenails and bunions.
Don’t try and lodge out an ingrown toenail by yourself.
Consult a doctor or pharmacist to treat a case of toenail fungus.

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Marelize Wilke

Minimum alcohol price law unveiled in Wales

Posted on 23/10/2017 by Boris Clair

It is claimed one life a week could be saved in Wales if cheap alcohol sales are banned.

Health24.com | Do we need a break from our smartphones?

Posted on 23/10/2017 by Boris Clair

It’s no secret that we love our smartphones and other electronic devices for staying connected.

Perhaps we love them too much.

According to one study on cellphone use by a mobile security company, 63% of women and 73% of men between the ages of 18 and 34 can’t go even one hour without checking their phones.

Missing out

And research published in the internet-based journal First Monday found that when college students took a break from social media, some were unable to find substitutes for the place it filled in their lives. Many had the feeling they were missing out on something when they weren’t connected.

A previous Health24 article asked the question if young children should even own cellphones.

But all this connectivity comes at a price. For starters, time spent on our devices may be time taken away from exercise. Like other sedentary behaviours, this can reduce your fitness level.

Research done at Harvard suggests that being available 24/7 for texts and emails may actually make you less productive at work and less satisfied with your personal life. Indeed, results from the latest American Psychological Association “Stress in America” survey found that 44% of people who check email, texts and social media either “often” or “constantly” said they feel disconnected from family, even when they’re together.

The need to unplug

And regularly using electronic devices (think cellphones, tablets, laptops) late at night has been linked to sleep disorders, stress and even depression symptoms. And your risk grows if you’re also a heavy cellphone user.

What’s the answer?

Unplugging – taking regular breaks away from your devices and putting limits on how available you are. The need to unplug is so strong there’s even a National Day of Unplugging, from sundown to sundown starting on the first Friday in March.

But you don’t have to wait until then. Try turning off your electronics an hour earlier at night and designate a few unplugged hours every weekend. It might be hard at first, but like any other habit, you’ll grow into it over time.

According to the American Psychological Association, these nuggets of quiet will help you relax, reflect and even be more creative.

^{Image credit: iStock}

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Health24.com | Can you cough up a lung?

Posted on 23/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Have you ever wondered whether it’s possible to cough up a lung? Well, the short answer is no.

The slightly longer, more practical answer is that your lungs are too large to fit through your trachea, so even though it may feel as though you’re coughing up a lung, you won’t.

What is possible, however, is to cough so violently that your lung pops through the spaces between your ribs.

Case study

According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, this happened to a 40-year-old woman suffering from asthma. She coughed so hard her lung popped through her ribs – after coughing for two weeks.

When doctors examined her, they heard some cracking sounds coming from the right side of her body. They sent her for X-rays and discovered that she’d herniated her lung. Her lung tissue had pushed through two of her ribs.

She had surgery to repair the lung and diaphragmatic tear. Fortunately there was no evidence of recurrent hernia at her three-month checkup.

“While she didn’t technically cough up her lung, she coughed out her lung, through her ribs,” Dr Rachel Vreeman told NBC News. “It’s so unusual to have this happen that it would merit this case report – unusual, but possible, apparently.”

Other coughing injuries

In extreme cases, coughing can cause you an injury. Dr Vreeman says there have been other reports of injuries sustained during coughing fits.

“There are reports – it’s incredibly rare – of people who have had their spleens ruptured because of coughing.

“There also are occasional reports of people who – and this is a gross one as well – some people are more prone to having their eyeballs coming out of their sockets [also called intermittent exophthalmos] – there are a few reports of people having problems with that from bad vomiting or coughing.”

Image credit: iStock

Compiled by Mandy Freeman

Health tourism charges come into force in England

Posted on 22/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Providers of NHS treatment are now required to charge patients who aren’t eligible for free care.

Patients need rest, not antibiotics, say health officials

Posted on 22/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Health officials say many illnesses get better on their own and patients don’t need prescriptions.

Health24.com | 4 reasons your muscles are cramping up

Posted on 22/10/2017 by Boris Clair

Young, old, active and sedentary alike are all susceptible to cramps – and they can come when you least expect it – creeping up on you during an easy ride or disrupting a good night’s sleep.

“Muscle cramping is basically an over-activation or contraction of a muscle,” says pain management expert Dr Houman Danesh.

“And although it can happen anywhere, it usually occurs in the calf since that muscle uses the most energy in the body.”

But while it’s easy to know when you’re having a muscle cramp, it can be harder to figure out why you’re experiencing one.

We talked to Dr Danesh about the surprising reasons why you might be cramping.

Dehydration

“The way muscles are activated involves a balance of electric signals and ions,” Dr Danesh explains. “Dehydration changes the pool of signals. So changing that signal, the body doesn’t know if the signal is coming from the brain or just because there’s an electrical imbalance around the cell.”

With all this confusion, your muscles have difficulty processing the right signals. And that over activity results in pain. Luckily getting rid of this cramp doesn’t have to cramp your style.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Holding a position for a long time

There’s nothing more annoying than having a crooked piece of art hanging in your apartment. Well, maybe except for that arm or back cramp you got while trying to hang it just right for an hour.

According to Dr Danesh, it’s common to get a muscle strain after holding a position for a prolonged period of time. “Doing something your body isn’t trained to do constantly activates a muscle and breaks it down a little bit,” he says. “That breakdown usually causes a buildup of lactic acid which can trigger to muscle to go into spasms.”

Luckily, this kind of cramp typically goes away with time. Give it a few hours, but if it’s interfering to the extent that it won’t let you sleep through the night, you should probably talk to a doctor.

Nerve compression

Some also refer to this unpleasant phenomenon as a “pinched nerve”.

There’s a series of nerves going all the way from your brain down your spinal cord, and according to Dr Danesh, “anything can cause a nerve to be pinched from a herniated disk to arthritis to putting yourself in a weird position, which will irritate the nerve.” (Don’t push those yoga poses if your body says no!)

“Thankfully the body is a miraculous healing system,” he says. Usually a regular dose of anti-inflammatory meds will relieve the pain. But again, if that first line of defense doesn’t get the job done in a few days, to the doctor you go.

Inadequate blood supply

Another possible reason for muscle cramps is an inadequate blood supply – which literally means you aren’t getting enough blood flow to your legs or arms.

“That’s usually due to a buildup of cholesterol in your blood, but it could also be due to a pinched artery by an ovarian mass or tumor,” Dr Danesh says, although he continues that this more serious cramping would probably be noticeable (a.k.a. not just your average cramp).

You should be on the lookout if you have high cholesterol and chat with a doctor.

Dr Danesh also says that if you keep getting a muscle cramp consistently at the same distance marker during training, that could also be a sign of compartment syndrome – which impedes blood flow – and you should see a doctor ASAP.

This article was originally published on www.bicycling.co.za

Image credit: iStock

Laura Stampler

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Category Archives: Health Tips

Health24.com | 8 surprising things that happen to your body when you stop drinking booze

Daydreaming brain network used in autopilot

Health24.com | How much are teens really sleeping?

Health24.com | SEE: How this woman’s foot fungus got out of control

Minimum alcohol price law unveiled in Wales

Health24.com | Do we need a break from our smartphones?

Health24.com | Can you cough up a lung?

Health tourism charges come into force in England

Patients need rest, not antibiotics, say health officials

Health24.com | 4 reasons your muscles are cramping up