Suicide Prevention

As a teen, it's normal to feel sad, down in the dumps, or even depressed once in a while. Most of the time you'll be able to cope with your problems with the help of your parents/guardians, friends, or a counselor. However, sometimes problems come up that make you feel so depressed or hopeless that you think there's no way out. Some people who feel this way begin to think about hurting themselves or committing suicide. This guide will help you understand the warning signs of suicidal thinking and what to do if you or someone you know needs help.

Safety on the Streets

You may have a new kind of freedom during your teen years. Your parent(s) or guardian(s) may give you more responsibilities and the chance to spend more time with your friends. This extra time with your friends may put you in new or different social situations in new neighborhoods. You now have the important job of making more decisions for yourself and keeping yourself safe while you are having fun. If you forget about your safety, your fun can quickly turn into danger. Keep reading to learn how to stay safe.

Safety in Relationships

During your teen years, you will have many kinds of relationships, both friendships and those that are dating relationships. Most of the time, these are fun, exciting, and healthy, and they make you feel good. Sometimes, however, these relationships can be unhealthy and can be harmful either to you or other people involved. Unhealthy relationships can be risky because someone can get hurt emotionally or physically.

Internet Safety: Information Quality - Searching, Evaluating, Sharing, and Creating Information Online

Most people agree that the internet has changed their lives for the better. However, being able to find information and communicate with others online can be challenging sometimes. It's often hard to know whether the information that you find online is true. 

Internet Safety: Bullying/Cyberbullying

The terms "bullying" and "cyberbullying" are often used to describe mean behavior. However, they're both specific types of mean, aggressive behavior, which are part of a wider range of aggression and harassment behaviors.

What Is a Butterfly Rash

By: Theodoros Manfredi

A butterfly rash is a rash that takes the shape of a butterfly. Known more formally as a ‘malar rash’, a butterfly rash is most commonly associated with the autoimmune disease lupus, though it can also be present in other conditions and particularly other autoimmune conditions.

What Causes Freckles?

By: Theodoros Manfredi

Love them or hate them, we all have freckles and we are all familiar with the little brown spots that collect around our cheeks and other areas. In fact, freckles are so common and so 'mundane' that many of us will never have stopped to ask why we might have these spots or where they come from. Here we will look at what freckles actually are and how they are caused.

Cold Urticaria

By: Theodoros Manfredi

Cold urticaria, also known as 'cold hives' is an allergy triggered by exposure to the cold which causes red welts to appear on the skin. These are often itchy and can be accompanied by redness and swelling in the hands and feet. The hives themselves can vary in size from around 7mm to 27mm in diameter. Cold urticaria can be congenital or acquired, and is most likely to occur between the ages of 18-25 in the latter case.

Vitiligo Treatment Options

By: Theodoros Manfredi

Vitiligo is a condition which results in depigmentation of patches of the skin. This occurs when the melanocytes – responsible for the production of melanin in the skin – are unable to function. The cause for that malfunction is not fully known, but it is suggested by research that it could be the result of autoimmune damage, oxidative stress or viral infection. It is a rare condition affecting only 1% of the population worldwide. It generally appears in symmetrical patches and can cover large sections.

Natural Home Cures for Chilblains

By: Theodoros Manfredi

Chilblains are also called ‘pernio’ or ‘perniosis’ and describe a condition often mistaken for frostbite. These are acral ulcers – ulcers affecting the fingers and toes – which cause redness and swelling when those extremities are exposed to the cold. This is due to damage to the capillary beds inside the skin which cause the symptoms.

Depression: How to Cope

Strategies that may help with depression:

Once you have been diagnosed with depression and you are beginning (or considering) some kind of treatment, it is important to have a variety of strategies to help you cope with everyday life.

Depression: Treatment Options

How is depression treated?

There are many different kinds of treatment for depression. Deciding on the right treatment for you depends upon how much trouble you are having, what treatment options are available to you, and your personal feelings about how you want to deal with the depression.

Depression: How to Get Help

What should I do if I am depressed?

If you think you are depressed, it may help you to tell a friend, but it is also important to talk with a parent or an adult with whom you feel comfortable. Friends are great to talk to and often very helpful, but for objective advice about serious issues, it is important to also talk with an adult. If you don't feel comfortable telling an adult that you are depressed on your own, you might ask a friend to be with you when you talk with someone, or help you find someone trustworthy.

Depression

Having bad days once in a while is normal, but what if you feel down in the dumps for a few weeks, or even a few months? If you have been having feelings of sadness or irritability that won't go away, you might be experiencing depression. Depression is very common and can affect any person at any age, including teens. This guide is designed to help you understand depression better, so that you will be able to recognize the signs of depression in yourself or people who are close to you, so you will know how to help.

Dandruff

Dandruff isn't a serious condition, and it's not contagious, but it can be embarrassing if you have it. Most of the time dandruff can be treated with over-the-counter anti-dandruff products, but it may take time to get better.

How To Live In Chronic Pain

By: Robert Gould

Living in chronic pain is one of the most difficult things that I can think of. Everyday millions of Americans struggle with this issue. People of all ages young and old alike are finding themselves in this position. The sad thing about someone who lives in chronic pain is that their pain will most likely not be treated properly, therefore leaving the person to suffer. Its a sad fact that chronic pain goes grossly underrated. 

Natural Remedies for Pain Relief

By: Jonathan Pitts

Pain is a very uncomfortable feeling that can affect the way you live. It can prevent you from normally doing your activities at work and at home. Pain is a very personal thing that it differs from one person to another, and how to cope with it depends on the person’s attitude and personal goal to get relief from it. People rely on medicines and drugs for their pain relief.

Methadone Pain Management

By: Mack LeMouse

Methadone (also know as *deep breath in* symoron, dolphine, amidone, methadose, heptadon, phy, maethadose and others) is a synthetic – meaning processed – opioid. This is used as an analgesic, antiussive or as an ‘anti-addictive’ (the only one with an understandable name) for patients struggling to give up addictions to other opioids such as morphine and heroin which work on the same receptors.

Mindfulness Treatment for Chronic Pain

By: Juliette Siegfried

The term "chronic pain" is one that many people who have never experienced it don't fully understand. They think, "Oh, that means a headache or a backache that doesn't go away in a day or two." Not so. Chronic pain is pain that just doesn't go away, period. For months, or years.

To Be Less Sensitive to Pain, Sleep Longer

By: Juliette Siegfried

The number of people suffering from chronic pain is staggering. In a recent Gallup poll, 47% of American adults reported that they experience chronic neck, back, leg, knee or some other form of chronic pain on a regular basis. The amount of money spent on pain relievers and therapies to manage this pain every year is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, an average of $2,000 for every adult American. People try acupuncture to relieve their pain, or meditation, or any number of other conventional or alternative forms of treatment. So will they be pleased or distressed to learn that one of the best things you can do to reduce your sensitivity to pain is to simply get more sleep?

Home Remedies for Tension Headaches

By: Rick Missimer

Tension headaches are very common and everyone becomes a victim of these headaches at one time or another in their lifetime. Though the pain is very severe, it is very easy to overcome with the help of simple home remedies. Following are simple home remedies that help to relieve tension headaches.

Headache Symptoms – How to Tell Your Type of Headache

By: Rick Missimer

How often do you shift your priorities towards something that you dislike doing? Experts reckon that painkillers take priority over all important work, when headache paves way into our life. We all have experienced it! The head busting feeling associated with severe headache can be downright annoying to handle. Somehow it hampers our coordination and drives us mad enough to take a pill or a quick nap leaving behind heaps of pending work.

Sinus and Headache

By: Gary Wickman

One seemingly unshakable myth is that severe sinus disease is among the common causes of headache. Many millions of dollars are allocated each year in the U.S. on sinus treatments, and many headache patients are convinced that those treatments will cure or at least relieve their pain. As commercials for sinus pills are often found in the media and due to the fact that sinus symptoms may be comparable to headache symptoms, it isn't surprising that people with undiagnosed migraine will turn to sinus drugs.

Headaches in Back of Head

By: Gary Wickman 

The odd thing about headaches is that although everyone probably has several of them throughout the course of a year, they are one of the least understood ailments on earth. In fact, headaches can be symptomatic of so many underlying diseases or conditions that it is often difficult to pinpoint the actual cause. There are even times when a doctor will shake his or her head in dismay and say "Take an aspirin and call me in the morning if you aren’t feeling better."

Headaches and Blood Sugar

By: Adam Sinicki

All living things on the planet run off of a single substance for fuel called 'ATP' or 'Adenosine Triphosphate', which comes from sugar/glucose. Likewise every part of every living organism runs off of this substance and this includes the brain. It stands to reason then that if we are low in sugar that the brain should then struggle to run as well.

Watching TV in a Dark Room

By: Elizabeth Danish

Watching TV in a dark room is one of the best ways to recreate the cinema experience – to draw all your attention to the screen and to eradicate distractions. If you're watching a horror film then it will be that much scarier when you're in a dark room and you don't know what could be lurking under the sofa, and if you're watching a romance with a loved one then it will be that much more romantic curling up under a blanket in the dark.

The Link Between Diet and Eye Disease

By: Theodoros Manfredi

Our health is very closely linked to our diet in many ways, and maintaining a healthy intake of the right foods is crucial to help keep us strong and healthy and to stave off disease. No part of the body is safe in fact from the role of diet, including something as seemingly far removed as our eyes.

How to Quit Smoking

If you're reading this, then you have already taken the first step. You're thinking about how you can stop smoking - congratulations! The decision to stop smoking can seem overwhelming, but with help from this guide and support from your family and friends, you can do it! Half of all the people who have ever smoked have quit, and so can you. If you've tried to quit smoking before and it didn't work, you can use what you learned before so you can be successful this time. It can be very hard to quit, but once you do, you'll look better, smell better, feel better, and be healthier.

Cigarette Smoking

Most teens are aware that people who have smoked for awhile can get lung cancer and emphysema and eventually die, but many don't know about all of the bad things that smoking can do to them right now. If you smoke, you owe it to yourself to find out about the effects of smoking on your life now.

Safe Foods for Your Teen

What foods are safe to eat on the gluten–free diet?

Many foods are naturally gluten–free, including milk, butter, cheese, fruits and vegetables, fresh meats, fish, poultry, eggs, beans, nuts, seeds, corn and rice. While most breads, pastas, cereals and baked goods contain gluten, there are several grains and flours that are also naturally gluten–free which can be used to make breads, cereals, pastas, snacks and baked goods. Think of these grains and their products as “green–light foods” which are safe to eat on the gluten–free diet.

Baldness Cure: The Natural Way!

By: Christopher Jacoby

Today, baldness is not seen as a rare issue amongst men. Truckloads of people out there are seen suffering from baldness due to some ailment, faulty lifestyle and other reasons. Although there is no health complications involved with baldness, it’s considered as an extremely sensitive thing. After all, it affects a person’s outward appearance to a great extent. There is no denying to the fact that each one of us wants to look and feel good on all occasions.

Understanding and Treating Alopecia Hair Loss

By: Elizabeth Danish

Alopecia hair loss isn't the same thing as make pattern balding or many of the other types of thinning we are accustomed to associating with hair loss. Alopecia can impact men, women, or children or can lead to complete baldness at an early age. An accurate diagnosis usually has to come from a qualified physician and treatment options can range in their level of success.

Hair Loss After Pregnancy

By: Johanna Carlson

Approximately 40 to 50% of all women are affected by an excessive amount of hair loss anywhere between a month and five months after their pregnancy. This is called telogen effluvium and while it is not uncommon it does not typically cause any long term problems. Just as other hormonal changes that occur during and just after pregnancies usually iron themselves out, so does this one in most cases. However, there are some women that seem to have a worse time with hair loss after pregnancy.

Ways to Reverse Hair Loss

By: Christopher Jacoby 

Male pattern baldness is very common, with an estimated 40 million men in the United States being affected by it in some degree. A quarter of men begin balding by the age of 20, and two out of three men being balding by age 60. Both parents contribute to their offspring’s likelihood of baldness. Studies put the odds of getting a genetic predisposition to baldness at 4 out of 7.

Female Hair Loss

By: George Cranston

Whoever you are, hair loss is no laughing matter and is a quick way to look older and to feel less attractive. Unfortunately for men hair loss and eventually baldness is often a reality and something that many have to face, however for women this is thought to be much more unusual meaning that most will be spare from its effects, but meaning that those who do suffer with it will feel even more victimised and will be more likely to stand out.

Fish Oils for Treating Cardiovascular Diseases – Where Is the Evidence?

By: Dr Deepak S Hiwale

All of us have heard the wondrous things that fish oils can do for optimizing your health. Found in large quantities in fish – as the name suggests – fish oils are increasingly being recommended and used for prevention (as well as management) of cardiovascular disease.

Non-Stick Cookware Chemical Linked to Cardiovascular Disease

By: Juliette Siegfried

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a manmade chemical commonly used in the manufacture of non-stick cookware, polishes and lubricants, paper and textile coatings, food packaging materials and many household products. Surveys have shown that PFOA is so pervasive that its presence is detectable in the blood of 98% of Americans, so it was already something to be concerned about.

Your Heart Health May Depend on How Stressed You Think You Are

By: Juliette Siegfried 

           

Most cardiologists agree that there is a strong relationship between how stressed a person is and the state of their cardiac health; the more stress a person has in their life, the more likelihood there is that person will experience coronary heart disease (CHD).

Mediterranean Diet Proven to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease

By: Laurel Avery

Many dietitians and scores of books have touted the health benefits of following a Mediterranean diet for some years now, but it was only recently that scientific data has been published to back up their claims. The results of a large-scale 5-year study that was published by the New England Journal of Medicine has found that those who follow the Mediterranean diet have a 30 percent lower risk of death from the effects of cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke. 

Vegetable Oils Can Increase Risk of Death From Heart Disease

By: Laurel Avery

It is almost impossible to find a doctor who will not recommend that if we want to reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease and death from heart attack, we should try to eliminate as many saturated fats from our diet as possible and instead substitute them with polyunsaturated fats such as those found in most vegetable oils. However, a recent study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has found that this advice may be highly flawed.

Fruit Juice Vs. Vegetable Juice

By: Adam Brookover

There appears to be a difference of opinion concerning the merit of fruits versus vegetables. There is a small but zealous group of people called fruitarians who maintain that fruit is the only proper food for mankind. Then there are some like myself who favor vegetables for good health and proper nutrition. In fact, I feel that fruit, even in the broadest possible range and variety, can never provide sound health and long life.

Benefits of Drinking Water Daily

By: Adam Brookover

Water may or may not be classed as a food .... depending on one's definition of food. However, no one can deny that water plays an important role in our diet and is just as essential to life as food or oxygen.

How to Make Juice: Selection and Preparation

By: Adam Brookover

How to Make Juice

It is your duty to procure the best produce available for your juice. Whether you grow your own fruits and vegetables or buy them from a supplier, be sure they are of the best quality possible. They should be fresh, firm and crisp .... preferably organically grown.

Eggs – Benefits of Eggs

By: Mack LeMouse

Eggs are one of the main staples in many bodybuilders’ diets. Not only are possibly the best source of natural protein with a high biological value (88% of the protein being absorbed and utilised by the body). They are also a lean source with little fat – though the yolk does contain some meaning that you may prefer to do away with the delicious yolk. This is actually a mistake however as only when combined together do they contain all 22 amino acids essential for building muscle. The truly extreme bodybuilders sometimes go one step further and eat the actual egg shells too. Hey, it’s your throat…

Surviving a Hot Curry

By: Mack LeMouse  

                       

For men, eating curry has some kind of social importance and credibility attached to it; only real men eat curry and the more manly you are the hotter the curry you can eat. Additionally, the more you know about curry, the more manly you’re perceived to be – and that’s probably why you’re here reading this. This article then will serve two purposes – to make you look clever and knowledgeable while in the curry house, and to help you survive some of the more brutal dishes.

Alcoholic Drink Calorie Content

By: Jonathan Pitts

Most of us are very health conscious these days. We keep track of what we wear, how much we exercise, how much we eat, and we stay away from those carbonated drinks and colas as a precautionary measure. God forbid if one fine day you consume one glass of cola which runs up to 200 calories per glass. That’s about 20 minutes on the treadmill. Instead, you indulged in another vice, not knowing that it too is just as loaded with calories as the so called fatty foods, the alcohol.

Some Low Calorie Mixed Drinks

By: Jonathan Pitts

So you like to devour light drinks or drinks that are not considered hard core alcohol. But you don’t like having to put on the calories in the process of indulging. The solution to your problem is enjoying low calorie mixed drinks. Yes, it is definitely possible to enjoy a night out with the girls and not have to increase the chances of getting wrinkles, because of the number of times you start frowning after realizing how many calories you are consuming.

Fish Oil Side Effects: The Good and the Bad

By: Mack LeMouse

Fish oil, found in salmon and tuna or available as a supplement, is one of those supplements that’s recently taken off massively in terms of its popularity as a cure all for almost any ailment and as a natural health booster. Unlike many of these fads however, fish oil has many very real benefits that have been backed up with research. The side effects of fish oil are clearly noticeable and will indeed make you healthier and cure many health complaints. But what effects are those? And are there any fish oil side effects that you need to be wary of?

Breast Cancer Risks

Who is at risk for breast cancer?

Women with certain medical conditions, lifestyle habits, genes (information passed from one generation to the next), or traits (referred to as “risk factors”) may be more likely than other women to get cancer. However, having risk factors does not mean you will get breast cancer. Most women who develop breast cancer have no risk factors at all.  

Self Breast Exam

How do I take care of my breasts?

It's important to know how your breasts normally look and feel, so you'll be able to tell if there are changes later. You may start doing breast self-examinations once a month in your late teen years (18 to 20 years old). This will help you get to know how your breasts feel normally. You will then be able to notice if any new or different lumps develop. Remember, some lumps are normal, but if you are concerned, talk to your health care provider.