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Is Natural Toothpaste Better Than Regular Toothpaste?

Is Natural Toothpaste Better Than Regular Toothpaste?

You may have been reading about the virtues of natural toothpaste and wonder, “Is it really any better than what I’m using?” Well, the answer is a resounding, “Yes”. There are several reasons that natural toothpaste makes a better choice than regular toothpaste.

First of all natural toothpaste contains more mint oils, which are what count most in a toothpaste. Mint is a natural ingredient which has a very powerful effect on bacteria that live in the mouth. Toothpaste’s biggest job is to kill this bacteria so that plaque can’t grow on your teeth and so that your mouth feels and smells fresh. Because regular toothpastes have so many other ingredients, they actually have less mint, which is what you really need.

Secondly, regular toothpastes are filled with harmful ingredients. We’ve all been told that we need fluoride to prevent cavities. But, did you know that fluoride can be toxic in high quantities? Fluoride can help prevent cavities in children, but adults have no need for it. And, since most of us have no choice but to drink fluoridated water, even our children are likely getting all they need without having it added to toothpaste.

Regular toothpaste also contains Sodium Laurel Sulfate, which is detergent. It’s what causes your toothpaste to foam, but has little effect otherwise. However, sodium laurel sulfate is a known skin irritant and also increases the frequency of canker sores in people who are prone to them. We simply don’t need it and have nothing to gain from having it in there.

Finally, regular toothpaste often contains saccharin to sweeten it. Saccharin has long been linked to cancer in laboratory mice, so it’s definitely a suspect ingredient. Few foods use it for sweetening anymore.

So, natural toothpastes kill mouth bacteria better and have fewer harmful ingredients than regular toothpastes. It seems pretty clear that natural toothpaste is a better choice for all of us, doesn’t it?…

Fighting Halitosis With the Help of a Good Toothpaste

Fighting Halitosis With the Help of a Good Toothpaste

To the person who wants to maintain a good social life, few conditions are as dreadful as halitosis.

Halitosis is a condition characterized by bad breath, where a person ends up giving out a very bad smell from their mouth whenever they speak (or in the worse cases, whenever they just exhale).

Halitosis happens to be one of those insidious conditions which you, as the sufferer, will never know that you suffer from, unless someone decides to be very blunt with you and tells you so. This is because we are usually not capable of sensing our own smells (including that coming from the mouth). Others can, however, perceive them, and if the odor emanating from your mouth is foul, then you can be sure it won’t be a good reflection on you in any human setting. In fact, this is one of the conditions which are universally frowned upon – so that the diversity of human cultures notwithstanding, you can be sure that there is no place where you will find halitosis being a well tolerated condition.

People may not doing it consciously (most people are too kind), but at a subconscious level, they will tend to find themselves inclined to withdraw from you, if you suffer from halitosis.

Halitosis can have its roots in the mouth (as a result of decayed teeth, decayed food remains and so on), or it can have its roots deeper in the digestive tract – typical causes in the latter case being things like constipation and blood toxicity. In either case, though, a good toothpaste can help you fight halitosis, as well as the social and psychological ramifications it comes with.

Let’s look at the case where the cause of halitosis is local (in the mouth). Now a good toothpaste is likely to serve as an oral cleaning aid; making for thorough cleaning of the teeth. This would rid the teeth of food remains, whose accumulation would almost certainly lead to bad breath. Without the help of toothpastes, it is almost a certainty that most of us would never be able to clean our teeth correctly, and would therefore always struggle with halitosis and its effects. If nothing else, the typically sweet taste of the toothpaste serves as a subconscious motivator for one to brush tooth. Toothpaste also contains ingredients aimed at combating plaque, whose accumulation in the mouth often leads to dental caries (tooth decay), a common cause for halitosis in many people. Furthermore, it has become common practice for toothpaste makers to include some anti-bacterial ingredients, whose presence takes the fight against halitosis a step further.

Even where halitosis is coming from further down the digestive tract, toothpaste still offers some promise to, at the very least, mask the problem. You just need to ensure that you are using the right type of toothpaste (one containing a ‘breath freshening’ formulation), and with its help, you can have the bad breath which will be emanating from further deep the digestive tract neutralized, before being let out.…

Toothpaste Ingredients and How They Affect You

Toothpaste Ingredients and How They Affect You

Whilst we are all aware of the importance of brushing our teeth regularly, ensuring that we floss and refrain from drinking too much sugary, carbonated drinks, the overwhelming majority of us are quite content to simply leave it there and do not bother taking it any further. We simply accept at face value that we should brush our teeth and so we do not even give a second thought to toothpaste ingredients or the ways in which they affect our teeth. This is an extremely foolish as well as risky proposition indeed, and could mean that we are unduly placing the safety of our teeth at a great degree of risk indeed.

For example, many people who happen to suffer from the fairly embarrassing complaint of having discoloration and staining of their teeth will turn to whitening agents in an attempt to return the sparkle and glow to their teeth. What these people fail to appreciate however is that these types of toothpastes actually contain high concentrations of silica which is an extremely abrasive material indeed. This is and should be of concern for the consumer who uses such products because the abrasive nature of silica will slowly but surely weaken and chip away at the surface of our teeth or to use the medical term, the enamel. This will make our teeth more brittle and therefore more liable to crack and break, as well as being extremely sensitive to heat and cold as well.

Even fluoride, which is an active ingredient in all toothpastes and is advocated by the dentistry profession and understood by the layman, can be potentially problematic as well. Too much exposure to fluoride can actually cause permanent discoloration of the teeth, with a milky white residue appearing on the front teeth.

As can be plainly seen then, being ware of the risks and presence of toothpaste ingredients is an important thing indeed. If you are looking for a safe, reliable and cost effective way of ensuring that your teeth are kept pristine and healthy but do not want to run the risk of incurring some variety of health complaint as a result of using commercial toothpaste then it is strongly recommended that you use baking soda.…

Artificial Sweeteners Fool You And Your Body

Why Artificial Sweeteners Are Not Good For You
5 good reasons to avoid them if you want to improve your health
1 They are very far from what nature intended you to eat and drink
Artificial sweeteners are never added to healthy, nutrient dense foods. Artificial sweeteners are added to foods that manufacturers produce, with extended shelf-life in mind. They have been denuded of any nutrients, because good food goes off, and they will not only contain artificial sweeteners, they will also contain other additives, such as flavourings, colorants and preservatives.
If the aim of producing them is to ensure they will not cause any loss of money for the manufacturer, should they be left on a shelf for an extended period of time, as well as being able to be stored at any temperature, then they will not have any nutrient value. They will be as far from nature as its possible for a food to be, and will therefore not be providing any nutrients to you.
2 You are replacing the good things you should be eating and drinking with artificial ‘foods’
This simply means that over time, you will be consuming less of the foods that nature has provided to keep you healthy, and more of the foods that lead to nutrient deficiencies. There is less and less ‘space’ in your diet for good, nutrient dense foods when you consume foods that have been artificially sweetened and processed.
3 You are not re-training your sweet tooth to expect a different level of sweetness.
You are simply swapping one form of sweetness for another. You aren’t teaching yourself to value and consume foods that are nutrient dense, and contain natural, good sweeteners. You are fooling yourself, and ensuring that you will eventually suffer from a number of nutrient deficiencies, leading to ill health and disease. Furthermore, when children use these products, they are also fooled into sustaining their sweet tooth!
4 You actually end up eating more than you would normally
Research has indicated that when people eat foods and liquids with artificial sweeteners in them, they eat more, because they feel they are ‘being good’ by not eating ‘real’ sugar. This of course leads to a situation where people don’t lose weight, and continue eating nutrient deficient processed products.
5 Artificial sweeteners may be very damaging to your brain
There may very well be serious side effects to using artificial sweeteners, which may leave you with more to concern yourself with, than simply a sweet tooth. In fact, there is research to indicate that they may be very damaging to your brain.
So what should you do?
When you swap good, natural food and water for processed, chemically laden products, you cannot sustain good health or weight loss. Unfortunately many people have been deceived into believing that these products will help them to lose weight, but they are in fact simply avoiding reality. How many slim people do you see using artificial foods and drinks? Very few, if any! They don’t work long term and may eventually lead to disease.…

Diabetes Diet, Nutrition and Herbal Treatment That Works

Diabetes or diabetes mellitus is a disease tormenting many these days. The advent of modern technology and craze for high profile life style is the root of several serious ailments including diabetes. The patient suffering from diabetes has an increased glucose level in blood. Our food intake supplies us with carbohydrates which get converted in to glucose. The hormone insulin secreted by pancreas breaks down the glucose and aids the metabolic process by making the glucose enter in to body cells and energizing the body as a whole.
When the cells of the pancreas become incapable of producing sufficient insulin or when body cells become resistant to insulin, glucose collects in blood and soon the level shoots up resulting in diabetes. There are three major types of diabetes: Type1, Type2 and Gestational diabetes. Type1 diabetes occurs when the amount of insulin produced by pancreas falls short of the body’s requirement of insulin. Type2 diabetes occurs when body cells become non-responsive to insulin or do not take in insulin in the amount they should have taken in.
Gestational diabetes is the result of pregnancy. Glucose levels in blood rise during pregnancy in some women. Heredity, obesity, stress, over-intake of carbohydrates, nutritional deficiencies, and any other disease causing damage to pancreas are diabetes-triggering factors. Diabetes needs timely diagnosis and treatment, or else it may cause serious damage to heart, kidney, eyes, liver and nervous system.
Symptoms
1. Frequent urination2. Increased hunger3. Increased thirst4. Fatigue5. Loss of weight6. Blurry vision7. Palpitation8. Constipation9. Yellowish urine with a sweet acidic odor10. Itching around genitals
Herbal treatment for diabetes
Nature gives us a wide range of herbs that may be used to treat diabetes the natural ways. Some of the herbs may be listed as follows.
1. Onion and garlic have excellent sugar-reducing properties.
2. Bitter melon or balsam pear juice supplies the body with insulin like polypeptide-p and thereby lowers blood sugar.
3. Fenugreek seeds, rich in nicotinic acids and alkaloid trigoneline, prove very effective in treating diabetes.
4. The holy basil is a highly beneficial herb in treating diabetes.
5. Ivy gourd leaf extracts are quite effective in treating retinal disorders due to diabetes.
6. Fully grown curry leaves are an effective cure for congenital diabetes and obesity.
7. Indian gooseberry juice is a pancreas stimulating drink. It stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin.
8. Butea leaf extracts are useful in lowering sugar levels in blood.
9. Cinnamon is an effective herb for managing diabetes.
10. Powdered, dry mango leaves may be taken in empty stomach for controlling diabetes.
11. Indian plum seeds regulate the metabolic process and also stimulate pancreas.…

How To Create a Healthy Kitchen

Changing the organisation of your kitchen can help you achieve the body you want.
Throw out lollies, biscuits and chips. If it isn’t in the house you can’t eat it. If you really are craving it, you’ll have to go to the will make you re-evaluate how much you really want it.
If you do find yourself at the shop, buy a single serve. Just buy one ice cream, one chocolate bar or one small packet of chips. Buy as you need. Don’t stock up.
Move your fruit and vegetables to the middle of the fridge. Don’t hide them in the crisper. When you open the fridge and in the most prominent position are your fruit and vegetables you are more likely to choose these to snack on.
Leftovers should be stored in containers and towards the back of the fridge. Why increase temptation by putting last night’s pizza, or leftovers at the front of the open the fridge many times a day, re organise so that you only see the good stuff. Better still, get the in habit of freezing left overs to avoid you constantly going back for more. Even better, give it away to someone else or throw it out. It may be wasting food, but if it’s last night’s take out, better in the trash than around your waist.
Buy lots of small containers or zip lock bags. When you do your supermarket shop, get in the habit of dividing up large packets into single serves. You can do this with nuts, dried fruits and even cereal.
Use small plates and small spoons. A� cup of cereal looks like a lot in a small bowl, but in a larger bowl, you’ll feel unsatisfied. Using a small spoon will slow your eating down. We often eat too quickly and shovel down too much food. Our brains don’t get a chance to tell you that you’re full. Slow down and enjoy what you are eating, let the body send the signals to the brain to tell you that you’ve had enough.
Out of sight, out of mind.…

Dental Care – Deep Cleaning For Healthy and Shiny Teeth

Following a proper dental cleaning regime is very important to have healthy and shiny teeth. Your dentist may suggest you go for routine dental cleaning twice in a year. This needs to be done to prevent all kinds of dental problems which may face otherwise. Even though we brush our teeth once or twice in a day, doing a regular dental cleaning is very essential for everyone as it cleans the teeth effectively and thoroughly.
If there is any instance of bacteria, plaque or other any dental issue, your dentist will surely advise you to go for a routine dental cleaning. When deep cleaning is done by a dentist, he first aims at removing the plaque which are found on the upper and lower parts of the gums and next the next treatment is root planing. It involves smoothing rough areas on the root of the tooth in such a way to ensure that the teeth are firmly placed on the gums.
However, the type of dental cleaning only depends upon the suggestion of the dentist after he has properly diagnosed your dental problem. If the dentist feels that a patient requires deep cleaning, he will discuss the same with the patient. Normally, deep cleaning is suggested to those people who have periodontal disease also known as gum disease in which there is infection in the gums and the surrounding bones, teeth and tissues.
The dentist usually performs deep cleaning by injecting an anesthesia in the gum line in order to numb the surrounding area and to eliminate the pain and then the deep cleaning is performed. The patient will be called a second time in a weeks time to perform further treatment if needed.
The expense of dental cleaning can run into a few hundred dollars. If you are running low on budget, you can make use of your dental insurance to take care of the expenses. There are some dental cares that offer low cost or free service. Such dental care also high quality service by means of their highly qualified dentists.…