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The normal body temperature has long been thought to be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but there are several factors that affect body temperature. Normal body temperature varies by person and can also increase or decrease as a person ages, changes environment, changes diet or alters medication. Temperature readings can also vary slightly based on the method of temperature reading and the time of day that the person’s temperature is taken.

Body Temperature Measurements
1. The average human body temperature was determined to be 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit by a study conducted in Germany. Body temperature can be measured using different devices placed against the mouth, nose, ear, armpit or rectum. The United States unit of measurement for temperature is degrees Fahrenheit, but almost every other country uses degrees Celsius.

What Body Temperature Indicates
2. Body temperature measures a person’s ability to generate and eliminate heat. A healthy body eliminates excess heat through sweat and generates heat by making you shiver and constricting your blood vessels so that they stop giving off heat.

Fevers
3. A fever is when a person’s temperature rises over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Fevers usually indicate that a person is taking medication or that they have an infection, a thyroid problem or another illness such as arthritis or cancer. These things raise a person’s temperature because the body is trying to eliminate foreign subjects (such as a medication or infection) by releasing them through heat energy.

Low Temperature
4. Temperatures drop for several different reasons, including shock, drug use, vitamin or mineral deficiency or severe infection. Temperatures occasionally drop as a result of extremely low external temperatures. Read the rest of this entry »

Body temperature is an indicator of general health. Despite popular belief, normal body temperature is not 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, but may vary by several degrees. Generally, body temperatures taken by ear and measuring 101 degrees Fahrenheit or higher are considered above average, and are diagnosed as a fever. Many factors can affect body temperature.

Illness, Disease and Trauma
Fever can be caused by infection or illness; this is the body’s way of fighting the infection. Certain diseases, such as arthritis, hyperthyroidism and leukemia may also cause elevated body temperature.

Alternatively, diabetes and hypothyroidism result in lowered body temperatures. Shock and sepsis may also cause low body temperatures.

Exposure
Exposure to extreme heat or cold can change body temperature. Hot weather, especially with high humidity, can result in heat exhaustion and even heat stroke, which elevates temperature to dangerously high levels. Sunburn can also cause fever. Exposure to cold temperatures can result in hypothermia, or a body temperature that is dangerously low.

Hormones
Female hormone levels also affect body temperature. When a woman is ovulating or menstruating, her body temperature will fluctuate. Women trying to conceive use these changes in body temperature to determine when they are most fertile.

Alcohol, Drugs and Medications
Alcohol and recreational drugs can also change body temperature. In addition, certain prescribed medications will alter normal temperatures. Antibiotics elevate body temperature, while others, such as Tylenol, reduce fever and help to regulate body temperature.

Time of Day
Body temperature is at its lowest point early in the day. As the day progresses, body temperature rises.

You are lucky if all your medicines are covered by your insurance provider. However, if you are one of the thousands of people who do not have enough money to buy expensive drugs over the counter, you would surely appreciate the natural remedies that are not just cheaper but more effective at the same time. But instead of listening to the hearsays it would be better to consult the medical dictionary instead.

More often than not, doctors usually do not give their patients prescription to natural cures. They believe that the medicines at the drugstores are better compared to what your grandmother will give you when you have fever or flu. This is when the medical dictionary comes in handy. After checking if you are indeed experiencing the signs and symptoms of a particular health condition, you can immediately see the natural alternatives to alleviate yourself from allergies, skin itchiness, cough, runny nose, and so many others.

But it is not just the mild ailments that are covered by the medical dictionary. Many of these references also give links to the natural remedies for severe health conditions as well. You will learn that there are a couple of homemade cures for sickness such as cancer, hypertension, and the like.

You can rest assure that a medical dictionary can be very reliable if you are after the natural cures.

Protein is necessary for the body to function effectively. It makes up 45 percent of the body and 20 percent of muscle. It is important to get a proper amount of protein in your diet. It is best not to assume that you are eating enough foods with protein. Instead, learn how to accurately assess your protein consumption.

1. Become aware of the foods that contain protein. Proteins are found in meats, fish and dairy. They are also found in some grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and nuts. Consume more of these food items if you are not currently eating enough protein.

2. Figure out the amount of protein you need to consume. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of protein is about 10 to 15 percent of total calorie intake.

3. Learn how to find out the amount of protein in your foods. Look at a food nutrition label. This will list protein amount per serving in grams. To figure out how many calories of protein in that food, multiply the amount of grams of protein by four. You can then figure out what percentage of the total calorie count is the protein.

4. Keep a reference list of the amount of protein in foods when you do not have access to a label. For instance, it is helpful to know that one ounce of meat, fish, or poultry has seven grams of protein, or that bread usually has three grams of protein. A good basic list that you put on an index card in your wallet can be helpful. You can find the information online and continually update this list as you obtain new information.

Medical studies have determined that the total mortality rate is two times higher in middle-aged male smokers than nonsmokers, and even higher in those who smoke more cigarettes smoked per day or longer.

Among the cancers caused by snuff, leads the lung, so that the rate of this disease is seven times higher in smokers than in nonsmokers. In addition, smokers are five times higher risk of developing cancer of the larynx, esophagus and oral cavity. Also attributed to smoking one third of all cancers of bladder, kidney and pancreas.

Smoking also quintupled the risk of death from chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and duplicates in deaths from coronary heart disease. A 1988 report based on a 4255 survey of residents of a neighborhood in Boston (USA) indicated that smoking increases the risk of stroke by 50%, 40% in men and 60% in women. Read the rest of this entry »

The primary function of the protein is to produce tissue and synthesize enzymes, some hormones such as insulin, that regulate communication between organs and cells, and other complex substances that govern body processes. The animal and plant proteins are not used in the same way they are ingested, but digestive enzymes (proteases) are breaking them down into amino acids that contain nitrogen.

Protease break peptide bonds linking amino acids ingested so that they can be absorbed by the intestine to the blood and transformed in the particular tissue is needed.

Readily available animal protein and vegetable. Of the 20 amino acids that make proteins, eight are considered essential is: as the body can not synthesize them, ready to be taken through food. If these essential amino acids are not present at the same time and in specific proportions, the other amino acids, all or in part, can not be used to build the human proteins.

Therefore, to maintain the health and growth is very important to a diet containing essential amino acids. When there is a lack of any of these other amino acids are converted into energy-producing compounds and their nitrogen is excreted. When you eat too much protein, which is common in countries with diets rich in meat, extra protein is broken down into energy producing compounds. Read the rest of this entry »