Westchester Health Tips

Fifty million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease, yet most Americans cannot name a single autoimmune-​related condition. Many medical professionals also fail to con­sider autoimmune diseases.

Epilep­sy af­fects more than 3 mil­lion peo­ple in the Unit­ed States and 50 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide; yet, many peo­ple do not rec­og­nize the signs of a seizure.

Try eat­ing black­ber­ries ev­ery day to give your im­mune sys­tem a boost. There’s no nu­tri­tion­al dif­fer­ence be­tween fresh and frozen black­ber­ries, so feel free to use ei­ther in recipes. Not sure how to work black­ber­ries in­to your reg­u­lar di­et? The Ore­gon Rasp­ber­ry & Black­ber­ry Com­mis­sion of­fers these sug­ges­tions…

People under severe physical stress, such as people receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer, frequently struggle with eating, which makes getting adequate nutrition difficult.

Many restaurants are taking steps to accommodate America’s 12 million diners who have food allergies. Consumers can make informed decisions, whether they’re sensitive to shellfish or have celiac disease, a condition in which the body cannot process gluten.

Hawthorn berry is a great herb for heart health. You can make an herbal honey with hawthorn.

One study, consisting of 1,011 patients taking one tablet (standardized to 84.3 mg procyanidin) twice daily for 24 weeks, found “improvements in clinical symptoms (such as fatigue, palpitations, and exercise dyspnea), performance and exercise tolerance test, and ejection fraction”

Many of us know that a poor diet can wreck havoc on our bodies, but did you know that diet plays an even bigger role in cancer treatment? According to the National Cancer Institute, malnutrition is seen in as many as 40 percent of cancer-related deaths.

Your family is having a difficulty visiting nursing homes. How can your family make the visits better for all of you?

Visits should not be about quantity, but based on quality. Shorts visit with a purpose are a good thing. Family members can come visit during lunch, bringing with them the patient’s favorite dessert. Taking a walk later in the day would also be nice.

When is time to consider placing an Alzheimer’s patient in a nursing home?

This is one of the difficult questions that family members need to face. As Alzheimer’s progresses in its later stage, a patient will require full time care. No one can do this alone, so if programs, services and resources are accessible near your community you may prefer to care for the patient right at your home. If not, then a long-term-care facility has to be an option.

When someone eats a food to which they are allergic, their immune system reacts in a variety of ways. The greatest danger is anaphylactic shock, which can be life-threatening, but other reactions include rashes, itching and swelling, hives, wheezing or difficulty breathing. The most common food allergens include peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, eggs, wheat, soy products and milk, which can be especially difficult for parents of school-aged children. The list of foods that allergic kids must avoid can be lengthy.

Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it is safe to say that the research concerning resveratrol and cancer prevention, if not treatment, is promising. Researchers say that it interferes with all stages of the disease, from initiation to progression. Other research has focused on the benefit to the heart. The supplement has been shown to prolong the life of heart cells.