Tag Archives: health

Do You Really Need An Annual Physical?

11/21/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Have you ever heard of someone getting an annual physical and thought to yourself, “that seems like overkill?” The truth is that more people skip the annual physical or don’t even think about it at all. But this could pose more of a risk to your health than you might think. Here are a few good reasons to make sure you get yourself checked out every year, as well as what the physical typically involves.

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It’s the only way to protect your long-term health

The vast majority of health issues that really affect our quality of life are not sudden injuries or infections that come out of nowhere. Rather, they are the slow and steadily moving conditions that lie under the surface until they’re ready to leap out and really attack us. This is the case with the most common chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. There are signs that you might be developing these conditions, such as your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. However, you won’t know these signs if you don’t have them checked out by your doctor at least once a year.

A closer look at your senses

If you have never had your eyes or ears tested, now is the perfect time. When it comes to your ears especially, it’s important to have a baseline test so that, if it changes at all in the future, it’s easier to pick up. However, it’s also important since changes to your hearing and sight can be so gradual that you don’t notice them at first, even if they are adversely affecting your lifestyle, such as your ability to communicate. There are plenty of solutions you can quickly put in place, such as glasses and rechargeable hearing aids. As such, even if you get bad news from your eye test or hearing test, it doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom. What’s important is that you start working to fix things before those issues get worse.

Watching your risk factors

Aside from chronic health conditions, there are also life-threatening diseases we should always be aware of when it comes to our risks. Cancer is the big one, naturally. People have different risk levels when it comes to different kinds of cancer depending on genetics, on lifestyle factors, on factors like sex, age, and a lot more. Men should always be aware of the risk of prostate and testicular cancer, for instance, while smokers should always know that they have a higher risk of lung or throat cancer. A physical with your doctor will often involve looking at these risk factors and performing the necessary checks to give you the all-clear.

As you age, the tests that you get during your annual physical will continue to change as different risk factors play a role in what is likely to be affecting your health. However, while the components of this yearly check-up may change, its importance to your overall health doesn’t so don’t skip it.

Going Healthy, Health, Lifestyle

Embarrassed About Your Body? Here’s What You Can Do

11/21/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

It’s not just women who get embarrassed about their bodies. Men can too and if you have some unsightly issues, then you might be wondering if you can get rid of them. Here are some of the issues that you could be experiencing right now and the steps that you should consider taking to guarantee that you love your body once more.

Dodgy Tattoos
You may have one or two dodgy tattoos. Tattoos are becoming more common these days but they are not always something that we think about a lot before we commit to semi-permanently changing our bodies. We say semi-permanently because luckily, it is possible to pay for tattoo removal. This means that you can say goodbye to a particularly embarrassing tattoo for good. We know what you’re thinking: isn’t removing a tattoo expensive? It can be and if you are worried about the cost getting it covered is often far more budget-friendly. It just depends whether you are ready for another tattoo.

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Middle Age Spread

As you get older, you could encounter the issue of middle-age spread. This can be a problem as you get older and it can hit you rather suddenly. One minute you’ll be happy with your body and the next it will seem rather out of shape. The good news is that it’s easy to correct this issue too. You can do this by ensuring that you cut out a lot of the sugars in your diet. You should also think about avoiding some of the processed meats too. You don’t have to completely revolutionize your diet, but making a few healthy changes will help a lot here.

Skin Issues

Next, you should consider your skin. Your skin is often the part of your body that is ultimately going to give away your age. If you are tired of people looking at you and thinking that you are ten or even twenty years older than your actual age, then you need to do something about your skin. There are a few possibilities here. However, our recommendation is that you begin by moisturising more. In doing so, you can give your skin the level of rejuvenation that it needs.

Aside from this, you might also want to think about protecting your skin daily. For instance, you could invest in some softer pillowcases. Silk pillowcases are perfect because they provide a gentle place to rest your head. You might also want to think about protecting your skin from sun damage. You might assume that issues with the sun only become relevant on hot days. According to experts, sun rays can damage your skin even when it’s overcast.

We hope this helps you understand some of the best ways to ensure that your body does look as great as it can. This could help improve your levels of confidence, in the bedroom, in the office and just in your personal life. You might even feel like a brand new you.

Going Healthy, Health, Life

How Do You Know If You Have The Flu?

11/20/2020 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

In recent weeks and months, the knowledge of knowing the symptoms of flu have become a top priority. Since the pandemic occurred, we have come to know why this is so important. The novel Coronavirus is part of the flu virus family and the symptoms can sometimes seem like they are the same. So you can see the danger in not knowing what the real flu is like and what a cold might be, or allergies or heaven forbid, the virus itself. There can be a number of confusions occurring because you can feel fine for 14 days and then suddenly, your ‘flu’ symptoms get worse when they should be getting better. So let’s look at the clear and distinct signs of flu.

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Where does the flu start?

The flu is primarily a respiratory virus, so you’re breathing should immediately be affected right? Well, not all the time. The flu virus can affect other parts of your body first, such as aching muscles. Your body can feel hot and fatigued, yet you might not be sneezing yet, not have a running nose or watery eyes. The reason for this is, your extremities might be kept warm. So if you’re wearing layers such as gloves, a hat or a scarf, it can feel like you just have a fever. However, give it time and you will begin to breathe slower and shallower, as the virus begins to attack your lungs.

The external signs

The clear and present signs of flu are as follows.

Running nose, which develops into very thick yet still watery mucus that drips from your nose.
Watering eyes, it can feel like your eyes are sore, sensitive and cannot stop blurring your vision.
You might also start to cough up throat mucus. If you have the flu, it will be green, while normally, it is beige.

A runny nose is not the same as a dripping nose. A running nose is purely a liquid that runs down your nose, onto your top lip. A dripping nose is, so full of mucus and the virus, that it uncontrollably drops from your nose onto your clothes or the floor.

Allergies can confuse

Another thing that confuses people, is colds vs allergies. As we have talked about, the cold is not as severe as the flu but it can seem like allergies. However, the key difference is a change in body temperature when you have a cold as opposed to allergies. If you have a runny nose, watery nose and a cough, this could be allergies. If you have all of these and a fever, then it’s the cold, which is the onset of the flu.

Still unsure?

If you’re still unsure, do a little more research. Go online and read more on the subject, but one easy way to know is, when you next go to a pharmacy or supermarket, pick up a flu medicine and it will have all the symptoms on the box along with the chemicals used to fight the virus. Better yet, consider getting a flu shot before flu season kicks in. Search for phrases like “flu shot near me” to find a convenient location or connect with a doctor to get your shot.

The flu is a horrible virus and not as light as a cold. You should be able to tell when you have it now, the symptoms will be more severe, you will have less control over your fluids and it will take about 4-5 days to get over it.