While yeast infections usually can be treated easily with medication, there are steps you can take to prevent them altogether.The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these suggestions to reduce your risk of a yeast infection:

• Avoid tight-fitting pants and underwear in favor of loose-fitting clothes. Always choose natural materials, instead of synthetic.
• Use cotton underwear. And avoid wearing pantyhose or leotards every single day.
• After you shower, make sure the genitals are completely dry. Consider using a hair dryer on a low, cool setting.
• After using the toilet, always wipe from front to back.
• If you’re wearing wet clothing, change as soon as possible.
• Avoid douching, feminine hygiene sprays, fragranced and colored toilet paper, or deodorant tampons and pads.

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Thorne Research Sacro-B: Beneficial yeast for GI tract.

Between helping with homework, making dinner, and the nightly bedtime routine, it’s difficult to find the time to pack a healthy lunch each day for your child.The Nemours Foundation says it’s worth the effort. It offers these benefits of packing your child’s lunch:

• Improved control over your child’s eating habits.
• Better food variety for your child.
• Cost savings from making the meals yourself, instead of paying someone else.
• Preparing your child’s meals gives you both satisfaction, and is a small way to show your love.

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FoodScience of Vermont Kids Superior Tropical Punch: Tropical-punch flavored chewable tablet for kids.

Gaia Herbs Echinacea Goldenseal Supreme for Children: Supports a healthy immune system response in children.

Everyone has an occasional restless night, but persistent insomnia can make you both sick and tired.The National Sleep Foundation says a number of medications can lead to insomnia. Here’s a list of the most common examples:

• Cold and allergy medications.
• High blood pressure medications.
• Medications to treat heart disease.
• Medications to treat thyroid problems.
• Birth control.
• Asthma medications.
• Medications to manage pain.
• Medications for depression, particularly SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

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Anabolic Laboratories Ultima 2000 Cervical Pillow: Scientifically engineered to provide correct anatomical support whether sleeping on the back or the side.

If you find yourself only able to eat a few bites of food before you feel “full,” don’t brush it off as a new weight-loss strategy, the U.S. National Library of Medicine advises.The NLM lists these common causes of “early satiety,” which is feeling full too quickly:

• Your stomach is emptying too slowly.
• Irritable bowel syndrome.
• A tumor in your stomach or abdomen.
• Heartburn.
• An obstruction in the opening of the stomach to the intestine.

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Ragweed, the bane of many allergy sufferers, will soon be in bloom.That means several months of itchy, watering eyes, runny nose, sore throat, congestion and problems sleeping for the estimated 36 million Americans with seasonal allergies, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).

Aug. 15 was the unofficial start of ragweed season, which affects some 10 to 20 percent of Americans.

About 17 species of ragweed grow in the United States, mostly in the East and Midwest. As the plant matures, ragweed flowers release the pollen, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Though each plant lives only one season, the weed produces one billion pollen grains that can travel up to 400 miles in the wind.

Allergy sufferers typically don’t get relief until first frost.

Hay fever-type symptoms are the most typical ragweed reaction, though some with ragweed allergies react to eating some fresh fruits and vegetables, including bananas, cucumbers, zucchinis and melons. They develop itchiness and mild swelling around the mouth, called oral allergy syndrome.

To reduce your exposure to ragweed and deal with the symptoms, the AAAAI and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommend these steps:

• Keep the windows closed. Use air conditioning, which cleans, cools and dries the air, preferably with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter. This helps remove pollen from indoor air.
• Consider staying indoors when pollen or mold counts (mold is another common allergen) are high. Pollen counts tend to peak between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Rain and cool morning temperatures (below 50 degrees) slow release of pollen.
• Have someone else mow your the lawn or rake leaves, which stirs up pollen and molds. Also, dry sheets and clothes in the dryer instead of outside, where they can collect pollen.
• If you must be outside on high pollen-count days, wear a pollen mask.
• Take a shower before bed to wash pollen from your hair and body and prevent pollen from settling on your pillow.
• Some ragweed allergy sufferers get allergy shots, which alleviate symptoms in up to 90 percent of patients, according to the AAAAI. If you think you may need these, or to better determine what exactly you’re allergic to, see an allergist/immunologist.

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Arthritis can’t always be prevented, but you can take steps to keep joints healthier and moving freely.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these suggestions:

• Exercise regularly. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise at least three days each week.
• Maintain a healthy body weight, as being overweight can increase your risk of developing arthritis.
• If you have any signs or symptoms of arthritis, see your doctor promptly to begin early treatment.
• Do your best to protect joints from injury. Be careful when playing sports, and avoid repetitive bending of the joints.

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Integrative Therapeutics Joint Gel: Fast-acting relief from arthritis, backache, joint and muscle pain.

We recently placed a poll on our website, asking you which brand you would like us to add to our warehouse next. The winner was Source Naturals, so we’ve brought in a small sample of their products for you to enjoy. We plan on adding more as we continue to grow and as we hear back from you on what other products you want us to add.

Source Naturals was created in 1982 by Ira Goldberg, who wanted to support each individual’s potential to enjoy optimal health. Source pioneered the Wellness Formula, which is now the industry’s No. 1 immune support product.

Source later introduced several other award-winning formulas. These include Life Force Multiple, the Skin Eternal line, Essential Enzymes, and more.

Source Naturals Strategy for Wellness is to provide education that empowers individuals to take responsibility for their health, rather than relying solely on outside medical authority. So take responsibility for your health, and order from us today.

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Women with extra fat around their waists are more likely to develop asthma, even if they aren’t overweight, a new study finds.The California Teachers Study of more than 88,000 women found the same association between obesity and increased incidence of asthma that has been seen in other research, according to the Aug. 25 online report in the journal Thorax.

But it also found a 37 percent increased incidence of asthma among women with a waist circumference of 88 centimeters — about 35 inches — even if they were of normal weight.

That finding was an offshoot of a study originally intended to look at factors related to breast cancer in women, said study author Julie Von Behren, a research associate at the Northern California Cancer Center. But the researchers also got a lot of other information about the participants, including waistline measurements and asthma risk factors, such as smoking exposure.

“We had a lot of detailed information, also on body weight at age 18 and later,” Von Behren said.

Using the standard designations of “overweight” for a woman with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher and “extreme obesity” for a body-mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher, the study found a doubled incidence of asthma among the obese women and a more than tripled incidence among the extremely obese.

While the study was not designed to determine why the location of body fat could play a role in development of asthma, “waist size can be an indicator of the type of body fat,” Von Behren explained. “Abdominal fat is visceral fat, which is more biologically active. It has been linked to diabetes and heart disease.”

Fat around the waist “could be acting in some inflammatory way,” she said.

That is a plausible, though unproven, explanation, said Dr. Alejandro Arroliga, a pulmonologist and chairman of medicine at the Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic in Temple, Texas.

“We know that obesity can cause an inflammatory state,” Arroliga said. “Markers of inflammation are increased in obesity.”

Other studies have documented the overall association between obesity and asthma, he said. “This is one of the biggest, with more than 88,000 women. It’s huge,” Arroliga said.

While one conventional explanation is that body fat puts a squeeze on airways, some previous studies have pointed toward the composition of body fat as a possible element in asthma risk, he said.

“But it is still unclear why there is this association,” Arroliga said. “The biological explanation lags behind the epidemiological evidence.”

Whatever the reason, the association with asthma provides just another reason not to put on extra weight, Von Behren said.

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Your lifestyle choices really can make a difference in whether you’re healthy or frequently sick, the American Academy of Family Physicians says.The academy offers these suggestions to help prevent chronic health problems:

• Avoid smoking and any other use of tobacco.
• Limit your alcohol intake. For women, that’s no more than one drink per day, or no more than two drinks per day for men.
• Stick to a healthy diet, maintain a healthy body weight and get regular exercise.
• Protect your skin from the sun. Wear sunscreen, and avoid sunbathing and using tanning beds.
• Be safe when it comes to choosing sexual partners and having sex. Always use condoms and spermicide.
• Keep blood pressure and cholesterol under control.
• Make regular appointments for vaccinations and screenings, such as mammograms, Pap smears, cancer screenings and physical exams.

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Enzymatic Therapy Metabolic Advantage Thyroid Formula: Supports the thyroid, healthy metabolism, and weight loss naturally.

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Loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities is a common sign of depression — and it’s a neurological response that researchers can actually see in the brain.When listening to their favorite music, depressed people showed less activity in regions of the brain that are involved with experiencing pleasure and processing rewards compared with healthy people, Canadian researchers found.

In the study, the researchers asked 15 non-depressed people and 16 people recently diagnosed with depression for a list of their favorite music and music that they felt neutral about (neither liked nor disliked). Participants then listened to their musical selections for three minutes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the brain showed that the non-depressed participants had more neural activity in several areas of the brain associated with reward processing and pleasure than depressed participants did, according to the report published in the Aug. 26 issue of the journal NeuroReport.

The researchers said the findings show a neurological underpinning for a common depressive symptom and suggest that depression can interfere with enjoyment of something as basic as music.

“Our results revealed significant responses within the areas of the brain that are associated with reward processing in healthy individuals. They also showed significant deficits in these neurophysiological responses in recently depressed subjects compared to the healthy subjects,” Dr. Elizabeth Osuch, a researcher at the Lawson Health Research Institute in Ontario, said in a news release from the journal’s publisher.

The findings may suggest new treatments for depression, the study authors said.

“If we can target these areas of the brain through treatment, we have the potential to treat depression earlier, right at the source,” Osuch added.

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