Soybeans Your Source for True Health

Soybean has great health benefits. Packed with protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats, this legume provides your body with an ample energy source. Discover the soybean’s protective properties for cardiovascular health, cancer, osteoporosis and menopause.

Legume Leader in Protein

Your body needs protein, which is a complex organic compound made up of amino acids, for basic cell function. Complete proteins contain the nine essential amino acids. Soybeans are higher in protein than all other legumes and are the only plant source of complete protein.

Promotes Cardiovascular Health

Substituting saturated fat sources with unsaturated fats may help lower your cholesterol levels. Elevated serum cholesterol levels lead to atherosclerosis and the increased risk for heart disease. Soybean oil is a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, including the two essential fatty acids called linoleic acid and linolenic acid. These two essential fatty acids are precursors to hormones that regulate smooth muscle contractions and blood pressure. Because your heart is a muscle, there is significance in this health benefit. Soybeans are a source of soluble fiber, which can help lower cholesterol levels and potentially reduce the risk for heart disease.

Estrogen Levels

Since there are estrogen-mimicking compounds in soybeans, men can occasionally develop a hormonal imbalance if they consume high amounts of soybeans or soy milk. Always use caution with over-indulgence.

Soybeans have a wealth of health benefits, to many to include in this writing which is great news for people seeking improve response to metabolism, heart protection, improve digestive health, decrease risk of diabetes and cancer, reduced effects of menopause, and a great protector of bone health.

Pampering4life Health Tips: Heart Attack

A heart attack occurs if the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a section of heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked. If blood flow isn't restored quickly, the section of heart muscle begins to die.
Heart attacks are a leading killer of both men and women in the United States. The good news is that excellent treatments are available for heart attacks. These treatments can save lives and prevent disabilities.
Heart attack treatment works best when it's given right after symptoms occur. If you think you or someone else is having a heart attack, call 9–1–1 right away.

Overview

Heart attacks most often occur as a result of coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease. CHD is a condition in which a waxy substance called plaque (plak) builds up inside the coronary arteries. These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart.
When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis (ath-er-o-skler-O-sis). The buildup of plaque occurs over many years.
Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture (break open) inside of an artery. This causes a blood clot to form on the plaque's surface. If the clot becomes large enough, it can mostly or completely block blood flow through a coronary artery.
If the blockage isn't treated quickly, the portion of heart muscle fed by the artery begins to die. Healthy heart tissue is replaced with scar tissue. This heart damage may not be obvious, or it may cause severe or long-lasting problems.

Heart With Muscle Damage and a Blocked Artery

Figure A shows a heart with dead heart muscle caused by a heart attack. Figure B is a cross-section of a coronary artery with plaque buildup and a blood clot.

A less common cause of heart attack is a severe spasm (tightening) of a coronary artery. The spasm cuts off blood flow through the artery. Spasms can occur in coronary arteries that aren't affected by atherosclerosis.
Heart attacks can be associated with or lead to severe health problems, such as heart failure and life-threatening arrhythmias (ah-RITH-me-ahs).
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. Arrhythmias are irregular heartbeats. Ventricular fibrillation is a life-threatening arrhythmia that can cause death if not treated right away.

Get Help Quickly

Acting fast at the first sign of heart attack symptoms can save your life and limit damage to your heart. Treatment works best when it's given right after symptoms occur.
Heart attack symptoms include:

• Chest pain or discomfort. This involves uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain in the center or left side of the chest that can be mild or strong. This discomfort or pain often lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
• Upper body discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or upper part of the stomach.
• Shortness of breath, which may occur with or before chest discomfort.
• Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach), vomiting, light-headedness or sudden dizziness, or breaking out in a cold sweat.

Symptoms also may include sleep problems, fatigue (tiredness), and lack of energy.
If you think you or someone else may be having a heart attack, call 9–1–1 right away. Quick treatment can save your life.
Do not drive to the hospital or let someone else drive you. Call an ambulance so that medical personnel can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the emergency room. Take a nitroglycerin pill if your doctor has prescribed this type of treatment.

Outlook

Each year, about 1.2 million people in the United States have heart attacks, and many of them die. CHD, which often results in heart attacks, is the leading killer of both men and women in the United States.
Many more people could survive or recover better from heart attacks if they got help faster. Of the people who die from heart attacks, about half die within an hour of the first symptoms and before they reach the hospital.

National Women's Health Week May 13-19 Stop Smoking

Most women smokers say they want to quit. So how do you move from wanting to quit to actually quitting? A first step is to find reasons to quit that are important to you. Consider the many good reasons to quit smoking.

Your health

Your health begins to improve the minute you stop smoking, and you begin to lower your long-term risk of many smoking-related diseases. Smoking causes or can contribute to many serious health problems, including:

• Cancers of the lung, throat, mouth, voice box, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, uterus, stomach, and blood
• Lung diseases
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Atherosclerosis, or hardening and narrowing of the arteries
• Gum disease
• Eye diseases that can lead to blindness
• Osteoporosis and the risk of hip fracture

Smoking also:

• Makes illnesses last longer
• Causes more wound infections after surgery
• Makes it harder to get pregnant

Smoking during pregnancy can hurt the mother and baby. It increases the risk of:

• Placenta previa — when the placenta covers part of or the entire cervix inside of the uterus. This can lead to bed rest, early labor, and cesarean section.
• Placental abruption — the placenta separates too early from the wall of the uterus. This can lead to early labor or infant death.
• Early rupture of membranes, or water breaking, before labor starts, so the baby is born too early
• A baby with a low birth weight
• Damage to an infant's lungs
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
• Miscarriage
• Stillbirth

Your quality of life

When you quit, you will never again have to leave your workplace, your home, or other places to smoke. You won't need to worry about whether your smoke is bothering others. The money you would have spent on cigarettes can be saved or used to buy other things. Plus, you will be surprised by how good you feel overall. Over time, some of the ways you will look and feel better are:

• You will breathe more easily.
• You will have more energy.
• Your lungs will be stronger, making it easier to be active.
• You will be able to smell and taste things better.
• You hair, breath, and clothes will smell better.
• The stain marks on your fingers will fade.
• Your skin will look healthier.
• Your teeth and gums will be healthier.
• You will feel good about being able to quit!

Other people's health

When you quit, you no longer create secondhand smoke, which is harmful to the people around you, and especially children. When you quit, you become a role-model to children and other smokers who want to quit. When you quit, your own children are less likely to grow up to become smokers themselves.