You’ve gone to all the appointments, and you have the perfect plan for your plastic surgery operation. There’s one thing left to be done. You have to prepare your body to go under the knife.

Taking good care of your vessel before surgery is a good way to up the odds of everything going just fine. Take a moment now to consider these tips and prepare yourself for surgery as soon as possible.

Give your body essential vitamins and nutrients

Giving your body the right vitamins and nutrients before going under the knife will help to assure that it has all it needs to withstand the invasion of a surgeon and foreign materials.

Make sure your body has enough of these essential vitamins in your body before you’re scheduled to go under the knife.

• Vitamin A – Vital for healing, it helps the body produce collagen.
• Vitamin C – This is a well-known immune booster, but it also promotes collagen production.
• Zinc – Zinc helps the skin to maintain its durability. It can also boost the immune system to help fight off infection after surgery.

Eat plenty of protein before surgery

In general, it’s good to make sure your diet is on track for a while before surgery. Dietary recommendations should be among the top questions you ask your surgeon, but there are some simple guidelines to get you started.

Protein is an essential component of building new tissue and blood vessels in the body. You will need that ability after the surgeon rearranges a few things. Eat foods that are rich in protein like beans, fish, lean meats, and chicken.

Avoid drinking alcohol before surgery

Alcohol isn’t a good additive to surgery of any type. Drinking alcohol before surgery can cause your blood pressure to rise. Alcohol thins your blood, making it harder for your body to clot naturally during surgery.

Drinking alcohol can also impede your body’s natural healing abilities. You’ll want to start drying yourself out at least a month before surgery to give your body the best shot at a flawless recovery.

Stop smoking before having plastic surgery

Smoking cigarettes negatively affects nearly every area of the body. It’s well known that smoking compromises the immune system and the body’s ability to heal. After the shock plastic surgery can cause to your body, you’ll need all the help you can get to boost your body’s natural ability to fight off intruders.

Smoking cigarettes restricts blood vessels, causing your body’s tissues to get only a fraction of the life-giving oxygen they need to thrive. It’s always a good time to quit smoking cigarettes, even if you aren’t planning a surgery anytime in the near future.

The term “collagen” has generated a lot of recent buzz in the world of health and wellness. Within the last decade or two, medical researchers have uncovered more about collagen, despite being discovered almost a century back. With breakthroughs in medical research, scientists have recently been able to test and substantiate many of the claims surrounding the use of collagen supplements.

What Exactly is Collagen?

Collagen is an abundant protein in the human body that gives structure to several connective tissues, including skin, bones, muscles, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. For this reason, some refer to collagen as the “glue” that holds the body together. There are almost 30 types of collagen, beginning with Type 1. Each category offers unique collagen benefits.

While the human body naturally produces its own collagen, collagen production slows once you reach your mid-twenties. At this point, many people choose to increase collagen levels with supplements to maintain peak health.

How Does Collagen Work in Your Body?

The most prominent collagen type in the entire human body is Type 1 collagen. It accounts for more than ninety percent of the body’s collagen count and provides structure to skin, bones, tendons, fibrous cartilage, connective tissue, and teeth. Type 1 collagens are made up of densely-packed muscle fibers. Type 2 collagen forms the elastic cartilage that cushions joints from repetition stress and Type 3 collagen provides structural support to your muscles and bones.

When you take collagen supplements, the powder form being the most popular, the ingested supplements travel to different parts of the body. The body then absorbs the collagen as amino acids.

What Does Collagen do to Help Your Bone and Joint Health?

To put it simply—a lot! As previously mentioned, collagen provides structure to the bones and joints, and research shows that taking supplemental collagen may have significant positive effects. Collagen promotes cartilage growth by keeping the skeletal structure smooth and functional as you grow older. It also replenishes bone density, preventing bone loss, which happens naturally as the body ages. And last but not least, it helps prevents joint paint after large bouts of physical stress.

How Can You Add Collagen into Your Daily Routine?

Now that you know all about collagen and how it functions let’s dive into how you can add collagen to your daily routine. You can increase your body’s collagen levels by using serums and powders or by increasing your intake of collagen-rich foods. Keep in mind that depending on how you ingest it, collagen interacts with the body differently.

For a collagen-rich diet, you can eat foods like bone broth, fish, eggwhites, leafy greens, and citrus fruits. Any food that contains a lot of Vitamin C, proline, glycine, and copper are great sources of collagen. You can also increase your collagen intake with powdered collagen supplements. These supplements can be quickly absorbed and spread across the body.

The Wind-Up

With so many potential benefits for bone and joint health, increasing collagen intake is a popular wellness practice for those showing the signs of aging. A major contributor to the popularity of these supplements is that they make getting enough collagen quick and easy. If you plan to collagen supplements to your daily routine, be sure to check in with your doctor before getting started.

 

Just when you are finally leaving childhood behind and entering the less-forgiving world of adults, that’s when you your formerly baby-smooth skin starts erupting in embarrassing blemishes. For most of us, this is a humiliating period of our lives that we are more than happy to leave behind with our puberty, never to be thought of again, unless we look back at our unfortunate high school yearbook photos.

However, for some people, the scars from embarrassing acne episodes are not just emotional ones. Many people go on to carry scars from past acne breakouts on their faces for years—or without treatment, possibly for the rest of their lives. Acne scarring appears as bumps, dents, and discoloration that mars the surface of the skin, resulting in skin that isn’t smooth or clear.

Why is it that some acne clears up without a problem, but other pimples leave scars? And is there something we can use to treat acne scars to minimize their appearance?

What Causes Acne Scarring?

While it’s possible for small pimples on the surface of the skin to leave scars—especially if you pop them, allow them to become infected, or pick at the scabs—most surface acne clears up and eventually vanishes without a trace, leaving smooth skin behind. With surface acne, the red or brown marks that linger behind—known as post-acne hyperpigmentation—will eventually fade away. However, deeper, cystic acne is much more likely to leave scars behind.

Cystic acne mostly concerns the face, though it’s also possible to develop cystic acne on the back, shoulders, and upper arms. Cystic acne is less common than surface acne, and it’s the most serious form of acne. With cystic acne, cysts or nodules of infection may form deep below the surface of the skin. Bumps from cystic acne are large and may be sore or painful. They may start out with a firm, sore spot deep below the surface of the skin which later becomes a large, white, pus-filled bump with surrounding redness.

Cystic acne is more common in those with oily skin. Scarring occurs when inflammation in the cyst destroys the surrounding tissue, triggering the skin to develop scar tissue.

Treating Cystic Acne to Prevent Scars

Cystic acne can be treated effectively with any of the best acne treatments available today. Early treatment and management of cystic acne is the best way to reduce the likelihood of scarring.

You can also help to prevent or minimize breakouts by washing your face with a gentle cleanser for acne-prone skin. Wash no more than twice per day and avoid heavy scrubbing.

Over-stripping the oils from your skin can cause oil glands to go into overdrive to produce more protective sebum, which can exacerbate the problem.

Treat your skin to lightweight, oil-free moisturizer after washing. While it may seem counterproductive to add moisture to oily, acne-prone skin, one reason your skin may overproduce oils is in an attempt to seal hydration into dehydrated skin. Drinking plenty of water and moisturizing your skin will help to seal hydration into your skin cells your skin won’t need to produce as much protective oil.

Exfoliating your skin with a gentle exfoliating scrub once per week will not only give your skin a healthy glow, it can also reduce breakouts. Dead skin cells can contribute to acne by clogging pores and causing pimples. Gentle exfoliation removes the dead skin cells that clog pores and give your face a dull, grayish appearance.

Avoid squeezing or popping pimples. As tempting as it can be to try to pop a pimple, squeezing them greatly increases the chance of scarring. Squeezing can cause the pimple to become inflamed deep below the skin’s surface, making it more likely to scar. Squeezing a pimple can cause surface acne to become cystic acne. Popping pimples actually interferes with the body’s healing process and can make it take longer.

If you absolutely can’t resist popping a pimple, at least wait until the pimple has a white head. If it doesn’t pop easily, stop! Wait a few more days before trying again—or better yet, resist completely. The pressure produced by popping a pimple can also cause a larger hole to appear in the head of the pimple, which makes it more likely to scar. Popping your pimple can also spread the bacteria into surrounding pores and cause more pimples to appear, which is the opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

Treating Acne Scars

While the best treatment is prevention, it isn’t always possible to prevent breakouts and scarring. If you do have acne scars, it doesn’t mean that you have to live with them. There are many treatment options available. Some of the best acne scar treatments contain ingredients like retinol, which encourages the sloughing-off of dead skin cells and the growth of newer, healthier cells. This can help to fade discoloration and smooth out roughened skin texture.

Salicylic acid is another common ingredient found in the best acne scar treatments. It’s the same ingredient commonly used to treat active acne breakouts, but salicylic acid can also help to smooth and fade acne scars.

Other Treatments for Serious Acne Scars

If you find that your acne scars are having a negative impact on your self-esteem and over the counter products are not enough, there are treatment options available that can be performed as outpatient procedures in your dermatologist or plastic surgeon’s office. Treatment for scars should not be attempted until after your skin has stopped breaking out, or when your breakouts are being managed and minimized.

Dermabrasion is one of the most highly recommended treatment options for more serious acne scarring. In the dermabrasion process, the doctor uses a wire brush or rotating wheel with a diamond exfoliator to deeply exfoliate the surface of the skin. This improves discoloration and smooths the skin’s surface.

Laser resurfacing can also be performed in your doctor’s office. In laser resurfacing treatments, a laser removes the top layer of skin and tightens the middle layer to form a new, smoother surface.

For deep “rolling” scars that make the skin’s surface appear uneven, a doctor can inject collagen or fillers under the skin to lift the depressed areas for a more even, smooth appearance.

There are many effective treatments available today for both acne prevention and acne scarring correction. Don’t be afraid to speak to your dermatologist about your skin and seek a solution to stop the scarring before it starts!

Skin cancer is a leading cause of illness and ultimately death of white Australians. It is caused by over-exposure to the sun and tanning. This article will tell you about this disease so that you can take preventive action.

According to many reports, people having light skin, hair and eyes are more likely to contract this disease. This doesn’t mean that dark-toned people don’t get skin cancer; even they can get it due to overexposure to the sun. Tanning beds may also cause skin cancer.

The other high-risk people of skin cancer are;

• People living in high altitudes
• People living in sunny areas
• People who have had a family history of this disease
• People who had skin cancer earlier
• Those people who have been exposed to the sun since their young age.
• Lastly, people who have weak immune systems might also get this disease.

Males are more likely to get skin cancer than females. There are three kinds of skin cancer- basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma. The first two make up more than 90 percent of all cases of skin cancer. These cancers are easy to diagnose and treat. Melanoma is difficult to detect and treat.

Skin cancer can manifest on head, neck, face, lips, inside the mouth, abdomen, thighs, palms, arms, soles, and even on testicles. Some skin cancers occur inside the rectal opening as well. The main symptoms of skin cancer are.

• There are changes in the color and size of warts
• Affected skin becomes dry, peach or pink colored
• There might be festering wounds on the skin
• Wounds and injuries are painful to heal

Skin cancer can be treated in several ways. These are.

1. Skin cancer cells are spliced off the body and later examined under a microscope. The process is continued further until there are no more cancerous cells on the skin.
2. A high beam of energy is directed toward the affected body part. This beam of light kills cancerous cells and stops the spread of this disease to other parts of the body. This treatment is effective and inexpensive.
3. In some instances, the topmost cancerous tissue is removed, and the underlying cells are treated with an electric needle. These cells are later frozen by liquid nitrogen. This way, the spread of cancer is halted.
4. Cancer cells can also be frozen by liquid nitrogen to halt the disease.
5. Some drugs are given to the patients; these drugs work along with the light. This treatment is also called photodynamic therapy.
6. In a few cases, this disease is treated by boosting the body’s immune systems. This is done by administering vaccines like interferon.
7. Certain skin cancers are treated with chemotherapy. Lotions and creams are applied to the patient’s affected body part if skin cancer is superficial. If the disease is widespread, then the nature and scope of this treatment changes.

Please note that each of these treatments depends upon the nature and scope of the disease. Skin cancer can be treated entirely if the disease is diagnosed well in advance. If you suspect you or anyone else has this disease, contact cancer specialists like Sundoctors immediately. You can prevent this disease by doing these things;

1. Avoid working long hours in the sun.
2. Cover up while working or walking in the sun.
3. Apply sunscreen while walking, working, etc. in the sun.
4. Don’t use tanning beds; these may cause skin cancer.

Above all, please monitor your skin frequently. Watch your warts, moles, etc. If they are changing their appearance, visit a doctor.

Motherhood is a journey towards making another human. At the end of it, one would have created life, and one would have also transformed into a more nurturing human yourself. An emotional rollercoaster, pregnancy comes with its trials and tribulations.

However, if an expecting mother is well informed on what changes follow, she would be less over-whelmed and stress, which is a must for the safety of the child just as crucial as it is for the mental and physical wellbeing of the mother too. Thus, to help you ease into the groove, we have compiled a list of things that you, our mommy-dearest-to-be, need to take care of. So, are you ready for an all comprehensive digest? Let’s begin:

1. Monitor your body:

Your body may undergo severe and sudden changes during these nine months. Changes such as fat accumulation face and other parts that used to be relatively slim to changes in your behavioral pattern, everything is pretty reasonable! However, if something bothers you, it is best to bring it to a qualified professional’s notice. It is always recommended getting in touch with an expert such as Dr Rahul Sen to minimize this stress.

 

2. Take care of your hygiene:

With a gain in body mass and shape changes, you may not feel energetic. However, this lethargy should not hamper your glow. You should make the most of your pregnancy skin with regular baths. Not only would the showers help you feel refreshed but will also avoid the chances of developing infections.

3. What are you eatin’?

This is crucial since your diet now provides the nutrients to you as well as your bay, both of whom need the right extensive care. Include a healthy balanced diet in your plat, and occasionally, pamper your baby’s taste buds with your cravings. Intake of juices should be increased, and items such as alcohol, oily greasy sugar food, etc. should be dismissed.

4. What you thinkin’?

The best way to not complicate your pregnancy is to be cautious but also carefree. This is not a good time to be stressed. Downgrading mental state could further ruin your child’s development. Thus, pretty future mommies, you must always be happy!

• Work out:
  
  Yes, we mean it! You can still exercise during your pregnancy. However, heavy weight lifting and extensively tough workout are out of the picture. Before you choose on the workout, you should consult an expert on what would be the right exercises for you. After all, pregnancies are all unique and different from each other, treat yours with utmost caution.
  d
• Wait:
  
  Ah, this is probably the toughest of them all! When you are overwhelmed with all the changes happening inside of you, always remember that it is going to be more comfortable with time, and whatever is happening is relatively manageable. At the end of your nine months, you may be desperate for the labor to happen. However, desperation would only make things worse. You should relax. Go for a relaxing massage often, and let mother nature take care of you as well as your babe’s biology.
• Regular consultations:
  
  By consultations, we condone taking every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s wife’s advice on how to go about your pregnancy. We request you only to trust an expert since we already mentioned, every pregnancy is unique, and you need to make the most preparations for yours. Please be regularly visiting a clinic to ensure that your delivery happens complication-free.

Wishing you a happy pregnancy, and healthy life to you as much as to your little munchkin!

Wearing eyeglasses or contacts can be cumbersome for a lot of people. Given a chance, they would discard their glasses and contacts altogether. Of late, there have been many advances in eye-surgery. Some of the new procedures correct the cornea while others treat the lens of the eye. If you are looking to get the best eye surgery, have a look at this article.

1. Laser-in-situ-keratomileusis

This surgical procedure is also known as LASIK. In this treatment, surgeons remove the tissue underlying the cornea so that light can be focused on the retina. Toward that end, they create a flap on the outer cover of the cornea to access the targeted tissue.

Currently, LASIK surgeons use computer-generated images to get an accurate idea of the patient’s cornea. LASIK is safe and is used by millions of people all over the world to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. If you are planning to go in for LASIK surgery, you may contact specialists such as PersonalEyes Laser Surgeons.

2. Photorefractive Keratectomy

This procedure is also called PRK in the medical fraternity. PRK is used to reshape the cornea of the eye. Unlike LASIK, it is not used to remove the underlying cornea tissue. If you or someone you know has mild to moderate nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism, then PRK would be okay for him.

3. Laser Epithelial Keratomileusis

The short form of this procedure is LASEK. It is a modification of PRK, and here, the surgeon loosens the epithelial cells by applying alcohol. Then, the cornea is set by fixing a contact lens on it. LASEK is also used to treat cases of astigmatism, farsightedness, and nearsightedness.

4. Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty or ALK

LASIK and ALK do the same job- remove the underlying cornea tissue. In the former, however, the surgeon makes a small incision or cut in the sub- cornea tissue. In LASIK, a laser is used. The objectives are the same; to rectify the cornea so that light can be focused upon the retina. ALK is used to treat severe cases of nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Surgeons, these days, rely more on LASIK for sight correction.

5. Refractive Lens Exchange

This surgical treatment is used to treat farsightedness, nearsightedness, etc. In this procedure, surgeons replace the lens on the cornea with a silicone or plastic-made lens. RLE is also recognized as Clear Lens Extraction or Refractive Lens Exchange and is also used to treat cataracts, dry eyes, thin corneas, and eye-irritation problems.

6. EpiLasik

This surgical procedure is quite like PRK. Here, the doctor cuts a small layer of the cornea and reshapes it. Depending on its condition, this layer may even be replaced with another. Later, he applies a soft contact lens to heal the wound.

7. Presbyopic Lens Exchange

Do you have trouble focusing upon very close objects? In that case, probably your eye lens has lost its flexibility. In medical terms, this condition is called Presbyopia. To treat this condition, doctors insert a multifocal lens in your eye to correct your vision.

8. Astigmatic Keratotomy

Corneas of people having astigmatism are shaped like a football. Astigmatic keratotomy cuts the steep portions of the cornea and makes the latter more rounded. Surgeons using this procedure take the help of other doctors while treating astigmatism.

9. Phakic Intraocular Implants

Some patients suffering from extreme nearsightedness need this procedure. Here, the doctor makes a small incision at the edge of the cornea and attaches an implant to the iris behind the pupil. In this procedure, the natural lens is left untouched.

We hope this article would help you shortlist the right treatments you may want to inquire about.

 

Our knees are made of several parts like bones, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. Due to repeated use, our knees may get damaged in the long run. This damage is more pronounced in the elderly. Physiotherapy can be of some help in these cases. This article will help you understand the key benefits of physiotherapy when it comes to knee pain.

Please note that physiotherapy can help you only in specific cases of knee pain. In extreme cases of arthritis and muscle tears, this option may not be beneficial. Various studies have proved that physiotherapy helps in improving your quality of life in cases of meniscal tears and mild osteoarthritis. This therapy can avoid non-surgical interventions so you can continue with your healthy lifestyle.

However, if you and your doctor still decide that surgery is necessary, you may even go in for a ‘pre-hab’. In this regimen, you build your knee strength and make your knee joint ready for any surgery.

This way, your road to post-surgery is shorter, and you get better results. It has been accepted that the stronger and more educated you are before surgery, the better will be the results once you come out of the hospital post-surgery. After any arthroscopic procedure, you may be referred to a physiotherapist for a variety of reasons. These may include:

• Regain balance
• Increased mobility
• Healing of the knee joint
• Learning to walk without any assistive device
• Spend quality time with friends and family
• Getting back to work quickly

Physiotherapy works well even after a partial or total knee replacement. You may want to book a physio for your post-operative care, so click here. Physiotherapy can help patients in the following situations:

• Whiplash
• Arthritis
• Backaches
• Pre and Post-surgical treatment and rehabilitation
• Pain in knees, hips, and ankles
• Disc injuries
• Pain in the shoulder, wrist, and elbow
• Injuries sustained in the gym
• Cross-fit injuries
• Sports injuries
• Fractures of the neck and the cervical area
• Injuries sustained due to overuse of equipment

When you visit a physiotherapist, he examines your injured area as well as all those regions which contribute to your pain. A good physiotherapist comes up with some or all of the following techniques:

• Active Release Technique Massage
• Joint Mobilization
• Trigger Point Therapy
• Dry Needling
• Muscle Energy Techniques
• Soft Tissue Massage
• PNF Stretching
• Exercise Based Massage

When you visit your physio, he will consider your weight, age, lifestyle, injury history, bone density and a few other factors. Depending upon these factors, he will start with an exercise and rehab regimen for you. You may opt for group sessions or a one-to-one session with your physio directly. If you have medical insurance, your physio will reduce his treatment charges. Before going to a physio, please be aware of the various kinds of knee pain. They are:

1. Acute knee pain- This kind of knee pain happens 1-7 days after any injury. This pain is intense and very hard to bear. Rest your knee for a few days to let the pain subside.
2. Sub-acute pain- It happens 2-6 weeks after an injury and is moderate.
3. Chronic knee pain- This occurs 8-12 weeks after any injury. Please consult your doctor or physio if you are experiencing this kind of knee pain.

If you experience acute knee pain, use the following technique- Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevate. However, we’d strongly advise you to consult a doctor in this case.

 

The yerba mate market keeps growing and there is a good reason why. The CBD, an ingredient found inside the yerba mate, acts as an excellent nervous system stimulant that can have multiple uses. But that’s just one of the many health benefits this drink brings.

Yerba mate: growing in popularity worldwide

Yerba mate tea refers to a plant species that belongs to the holly genus. Its botanical name is IIex paraguariensis. This drink is already incredibly popular in lots of regions of South America, especially Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay as well as southern and central-western Brazil.

Yerba mate-based beverages are growing in popularity in the rest of the world as well, as an alternative to other plant-based beverages such as tea and coffee. A yerba mate market analysis considering the sales of yerba mate in APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America in 2018 shows that the offline segment had a significant market share, and that this trend is expected to continue.

Why is the demand for yerba mate growing?

There are various factors that sees a growing acceptance of yerba mate-based beverages today. First, it is a healthy alternative to coffee-based and tea-based drinks, which are drank all over the world. The awareness of the public of this knowledge will play a significant role in the offline segment to maintain its market position.

The global yerba mate report also shows that other factors are at play, such as a growing consumer awareness about the health benefits of yerba mate, numerous products launch as well as the rising popularity of yerba mate outside South America.

The health benefits of yerba mate

There is a growing consumer awareness about the several health benefits of yerba mate around the world, which explains in large part its rise in demand globally over the last few years. It is proven that yerba mate is a rich source of polyphenols, xanthines, and saponins but that it is also rich in minerals such as zinc, potassium, copper, aluminium, and manganese. Add to this that it contains vitamins 61, 62, and C and you can fully understand the health benefits.

But it just might be the CBD inside the yerba mate, which is its medical component, that will see to its exponential growth. The CBD acts as an excellent nervous system stimulant and is beneficial in treating headaches, fatigue, and depression in patients with ailments, such as Parkinson’s disease and cancer.

Thanks to the rising awareness about the health benefits of yerba mate among consumers, the compound annual growth rate of the yerba mate market should be of almost 4% in the couple of years to come.

There are already countless great reasons to get a dog, but here is yet another one: Dogs can make you healthier!

It’s true. Study after study has linked dogs to health benefits as diverse as improved mood and reduced risk of heart disease. How can a dog be so healthy? Well, it’s all about how you get along with them and what you two do together. Here’s how to make the most of your health by making the most of your time with your furry friend.

Gear Up For A Walk (Or A Run)

Dogs are healthy even if you discount the effects of the exercise they give their owners, but let’s be clear. Frequent walks are a huge part of the reason that dog owners are known to live longer than their dog-less counterparts. Regularly getting out of the house and walking around with your pal is healthy, and having a dog will keep you on track and exercising regularly. You can even go for a jog with your dog, provided you have a big enough breed to keep up.

Your walks should be as healthy for your dog as they are for you, so keep your pet’s comfort and safety in mind. Dog collars and harnesses can hurt your pet if they aren’t well designed, well made, and properly put on. Do your research, suggest the experts who designed the popular (and veterinarian-approved) Joyride Harness. A good harness will be comfortable for your pet while still allowing you to control them with a reliable leash. Bad harnesses and collars can put too much pressure on your pet’s neck or cause uncomfortable pulling on their limbs and fur. Choose wisely.

Let’s Play!

Walks can be leisurely and fun, but there’s still some “business” to attend to out there. You shouldn’t just be getting exercise with your dog when he or she needs to go to “the little dog’s room.” When it’s not bathroom time, it could still be playtime.

Throwing a ball or simply running around with your dog is a great way to get exercise for both you and your pet. It will make your pet healthier and may help it live longer, and it will do the same for you.

Your Mind On Pets

Did you know that pets reduce stress levels? Did you know that petting a dog can calm you down? How about the fact that dogs make their owners less susceptible to depression?

It’s all true. To reap these benefits, all you have to do is spend time with your pet. Pet your dog, hang around in the same room as your dog, or play with your dog—all of these things will improve your mental health if you make them a habit.

Social Animal

Another reason that dogs are so healthy is that they encourage us to socialize in healthy ways. Dog owners can get together at dog parts or run into neighbors while walking their pets. And dogs can have play dates just like kids can—you may even want to bring along a few alcoholic beverages or a nice snack to share. Meanwhile, the less healthy parts of your social life—like partying late into the night—are made more difficult thanks to the responsibilities of dog ownership. That means that owning a dog will get you out of the house and socializing in healthy ways more often while cutting down on the negative habits that we too often equate with “socializing.”

The Many Benefits Of Having A Dog

Having a dog can do so much for your health, and you can maximize these benefits by making smart choices about how you care for and spend time with your dog. Enjoy your dog and your longer, healthier life!

Believe it or not, it’s perfectly normal and very common for men to lose their sexual drive from time to time. We may not like to talk about it, but this taboo is part of everyday life for some people. Sometimes we just don’t feel like it, our minds are on other things or our sexual desires aren’t currently matching our partners.

However, when your loss of sex drive and libido is seemingly missing in action for a longer period, it might be an indication that something isn’t quite right. Read on for 5 common reasons why you may have lost your libido.

Low testosterone levels

Testosterone is an all-important hormone that is vital in the production of sperm, building muscle and, of course, regulating your sex drive. So, when your testosterone levels are low, it can directly affect your libido. There are several treatments that can help boost your testosterone levels, for more information on testosterone therapy click the link. It’s natural for your testosterone levels to decrease once you hit 30, however, if they drop dramatically and as a result, your sex drive is suffering, then you should speak with your doctor.

Stress

The impact of stress on your sex drive is probably very obvious. When we’re stressed our body releases the hormone cortisol, which is essentially your body’s fight or flight system kicking into action. When cortisol is released, testosterone levels are lowered, which of course goes hand in hand with a lack of libido. We all know that in the modern world, stress is hard to ignore or get away from which is why it’s important to partake in stress-relieving activities, consider meditation and try to cut these stressors from your life.

Alcohol

We all like a drink now and then, especially at the end of a very long week, or difficult day. But too much alcohol is directly linked to a lower sex drive and a decrease in your testosterone levels. Consider reducing your alcohol intake or speak with your doctor if you’re concerned you’re drinking too much.

Not getting enough exercise

Getting up and moving our bodies isn’t always easy, especially when you’re at work all day and simply want to relax in front of the TV at night. When you exercise regularly, you’re lowering your chances of suffering from obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and, of course, stress. All of which are renowned for reducing your sex drive. If you’re going to exercise, opt for resistance-based exercises such as lifting weights to help increase your production of testosterone.

A lack of confidence

If you struggle with low self-esteem, then your lack of confidence in the bedroom may be negatively influencing your libido. If you suffer from a poor body image or struggle with a negative sexual experience you once had then your desire to have sex is likely to be dampened. If this is the case, then you should seek counseling, stop comparing yourself to others and practice self-acceptance. If your lack of self-esteem is affecting your mental health, then reach out to your doctor as soon as possible.