Breast milk offers numerous benefits to your baby, from an enhanced immune system to a higher IQ level. It provides nutrients essential for brain function that enhance cognitive development. Breast milk is easier to digest than formula, which contains cow’s milk proteins that your baby must adjust to.

Your digestive and respiratory systems, at first glance, seem very separate in their activities. In reality, however, the systems work together intimately in several ways. The results of respiratory activity allow the digestive tract to function, and vice versa.

What you eat and drink, your activity level, how you cope with stress and other individual lifestyle factors help determine the health of your heart. Heart disease is a progressive condition that can start early in life but can also be prevented or controlled by making smart lifestyle choices.

Your body produces cortisol in response to a perceived threat, promoting the burst of energy that allows you to run or fight.

If you are suffering from a cold, you are likely wondering what you can do to relieve your symptoms and feel more likely yourself again. There is an array of cold remedy medications available at your local drugstore, but there are lesser known treatments that may work just as well, or perhaps even better.

Burned tissue or skin gets easily infected because the skin has lost its ability to protect the underlying tissues from microorganisms and debris. Fluids from blood vessels also leak onto the wound and cause the tissue to swell.

Peppermint oil (Mentha piperita) is one of the strongest of the essential oils. The oil is extracted by steam distillation from the flowering herb and has many therapeutic uses.

Understand the potential epidural side effects and risks, including spinal headache, nerve damage, infection, and decreased bone density. Learn how to prevent complications and what to expect from this common pain relief treatment.

The pH scale determines the level of acidity or alkalinity within the body, as well as in food products. Ranging from between 0 and 14, 0 being the most acidic, 7 being neutral and 14 being the most alkaline, the body strives to maintain a certain pH level.

Stiffness felt throughout your back muscles comes from increased tension in your muscle tissue. The stiffness and back pain may occur in your upper back -- the thoracic and cervical regions -- or your lower back -- the lumbar region. Causes of increased muscle tension include trauma, overuse and poor posture.

Plan B is one of the brand names of emergency contraception pills, or ECPs, available in the U.S. market as of 2011. Although it originally required several doses, the manufacturer is phasing that option out to focus on "Plan B One Step," a single-dose regimen.

Healthy diet, regular sleep, daily activity, and a moderate approach to life’s stressful moments will all lead you in the right direction to a healthy lifestyle. Avoiding unhealthy habits that promote excess, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, will leave more room in your days for self-fulfilling practices.