General Family Health: Side Effects, Nutrition & Wellness Tips

Medication side effects, nutritional benefits, and common wellness questions. Information on identifying stomach ulcers, vitamin deficiencies, and food safety.

Vitamin B tablets

The Best Time to Take Vitamin B-12

Vitamin B-12 is naturally found in fish, poultry, clams, eggs and dairy products. It’s also frequently added to breakfast cereals and bread products. So while it’s quite easy to get enough vitamin B-12 from your daily diet, some people have a difficult time absorbing the vitamin.

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Beetrot on wooden background

What Are the Side Effects of Eating Beets?

Beets have been grown for food since ancient times. Both the leaves and the root are edible. Beets' most distinguishing characteristic is their bright red pigment, sometimes used as a dye. They are a good source of folate and a moderate source of iron, potassium, vitamin C and fiber.

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Waist Measurement 2

National Body Fat Percentage Average

You've probably heard that overweight or obesity creates an increased risk of serious illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. However, there's more than one way to gauge whether or not you're overweight.

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Porridge oats

Organic Rolled Oats Vs. Regular

Organic farming methods are markedly different from conventional growing methods, and according to a research review published in 2014 in the "British Journal of Nutrition," organic crops may also contain higher antioxidant concentrations (see Ref 1).

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Young woman in pain

Diet for Slow Digestion

Digestion is one of your body’s most important functions, and one that should occur without conscious awareness of its routine functioning. When digestion is not working properly, however, there is cause for concern.

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Close-up of a male pharmacist looking for prescription in a medical store

Long-Term Side Effects of Vancomycin

Drugs sometimes have side effects that linger for days or weeks after discontinuation. Vancomycin, a potent antibiotic, has long-term side effects that persist and may require medical or drug intervention for resolution; some effects may be irreversible.

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Senior woman lifting free weights

Ideal Weight for a 65-Year-Old Woman

The ideal weight for a woman of any age depends primarily on her body’s Body Mass Index, suggests the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BMI is a screening tool used to calculate the amount of fat an individual has in her body.

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Woman jogging and listening music

Pros and Cons of Exercising

Do you believe exercise is only helpful if you need to lose weight? If so, you're in for a big surprise. Exercise has many more interesting benefits, but it can come with some drawbacks. Explore the pros and cons of exercise to see if starting an exercise program is right for you.

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mexican food

How Many Calories in a Bean & Cheese Burrito?

Comfort food, indeed; burritos -- from mild to hot-and-spicy with Tex-Mex seasoning, fiber-rich beans and serotonin-producing melted cheese -- are a fast, easy way to a snack on the go. While a homemade bean-and-cheese burrito can be fresh, tasty and creative, it’s hard to measure the calorie count.

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Side Effects of Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism is a medical condition that occurs if your thyroid--a small gland within your neck that is part of your endocrine system--produces abnormally low levels of thyroid hormones. These thyroid hormones are responsible for regulating your metabolism, or how your body uses energy.

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asian woman holding pills and medicine in hand

Ibuprofen Side Effects on Kidneys

While adverse side effects to the kidneys from ibuprofen use are rare, risks do exist. When taken at the recommended dose of no more than 1,200 mg per day for a short duration, the risk of kidney harm from ibuprofen is minimal for most people.

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Couple running on beach

Composition of a Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle should be like a healthy diet -- well-balanced. Practicing only one or two aspects of healthy living is, of course, better than practicing none at all, but neglecting other areas can eventually lead to health problems.

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close-up of a woman eating a segmented slice of a mango

Foods Containing Sucrose

Carbohydrates are the main source of calories for most Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which recommends that adults consume 45 to 65 percent of their nutrition from carbohydrate sources. But some carbohydrates -- such as sucrose -- aren't the best choices for a healthy diet.

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Pouring Sugar

Stevia Side Effects: Nervous System & Psychological

Stevia is a type of natural sweetener derived from the leaves of a variety of plants that primarily grow throughout North and South America. Stevia is used as a sweetener and a sugar substitute because it has about 300 times the sweetness of sugar without the calories.

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sports  injury

Signs and Symptoms of a Calcium Deficiency

Calcium makes up 1 percent to 2 percent of adult body weight. While over 99 percent of calcium is found in teeth and bones, the rest is present in blood, muscles and other tissues. Calcium deficiency is commonly caused by vitamin D deficiency or by dysfunction or surgical removal of the parathyroid glands.

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A List of Leucine-Rich Foods

Your body uses amino acids from food to manufacture hundreds of proteins and to fuel many biochemical reactions in your cells. Essential amino acids are those you can't make and need to obtain from your diet.

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Side Effects of Too Much Armour Thyroid

Armour Thyroid is the brand name of a natural thyroid hormone replacement. Drugs.com reports that Armour Thyroid is most commonly prescribed by a doctor for conditions in which the thyroid gland is no longer able to produce enough thyroid hormone on its own.

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Mid adult woman in a doctor's office

What Are the Side Effects of Not Eating?

The body relies on proper nutrition to function. Sometimes loss of appetite, disease, medication, dieting or an eating disorder has a negative effect on your food intake.

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Palm healing

Reiki Side Effects

In the field of alternative medicine, reiki is a form of therapeutic healing intended to help bolster the patient's own healing abilities to cure all manner of maladies.

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