Health Tip: Exercising During Pregnancy (HealthDay)

HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Exercise is good for you during any stage oflife. But among pregnant women, it can offset some common problems.

One of the biggest sellers on the supplement shelves are probiotics. You have probably heard about some of their benefits. Many people are aware that they can pure l-proline supplement useful after taking antibiotics. But their value for our health goes far beyond that.

By definition, probiotics are 'live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host' (WHO). Certain probiotics have been shown to prevent, relieve and speed up recovery from various types of diarrhea, be it antibiotic-induced or traveller's diarrhoea. Probiotics produce vitamins K, biotin, B1, B2, B6 and B12. They also aid digestion and relieve malabsorption and constipation. They help to treat colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, food allergies and lactose intolerance. Not limited to effects on the digestive tract, they can improve immune function and prevent infections, help people with dermatitis or eczema, reduce the risk of kidney stones and certain cancers, lower cholesterol and blood pressure and have been found to be of great benefit to premature or acutely ill babies. There also seems to be a relationship between gut flora composition and body weight. Seem like a wonder drug to you?

Well, there are also some common misconceptions. Before we look at them, let's start with the basics. Each person has about 1.5 kilograms (!) of bacteria, yeasts and other microbes in their gut. To put it another way: you have around ten trillion cells in your body (that is a one with 13 zeros) - and about ten times as many microorganisms in your gut. Some of them are good, and these are the ones that you can take in a capsule or powder as a 'probiotic'. Some are bad, stealing your nutrients, potentially affecting your health or directly causing disease. And some are mostly neither here nor there but can go cranky on you under certain conditions. It is all a matter of the right balance, of who is getting to critical numbers. The most common thing to disrupt this balance is ...?

No, NOT antibiotic use, as a common myth suggests, but stress. Long term stress changes the environment in our guts in a way that doesn't much bother the bad and rather useless characters in our gut flora, but is not well tolerated by the good guys. Stressed, anyone? Ever seen your health go down during or after a stressful period? Got an infection as soon as you got a rest? Or a bout of thrush maybe? While there is a range of reasons why long-term stress isn't great for our health, your symptoms may have been a greeting from a couple of trillion 'friends' in your tummy.

Common myth number two: Antibiotics 'wipe out' your gut flora. Think about it: 1.5kg of microbes living there happily under normal circumstances. Have you ever lost that much weight from taking antibiotics? I'm sure some quack would have started to sell them as weight-loss drugs by now. Yes, antibiotics do affect gut flora. But it is again more a shift in the balance than a 'wipe out'. Humans could actually survive without any gut flora and all of us have sterile guts until birth. But once we pick up our first gut friends from our mother and the environment outside her belly, there is no way back. So for most people, a (hopefully well indicated) course of antibiotics will only make a short term dent in your bowel flora without noticeable health problems.

Yet to prevent any potential issues or if you already have digestive or immune problems - or stress -, it might still be a good idea to take probiotics during antibiotic treatment (as far apart as possible, i.e. if you take your anitibiotic in the morning, take your probiotic at night) and for about six to eight weeks after. Certainly, if you are getting diarrhoea from your antibiotics, probiotics are the way to go. In that case, you might want to see a naturopath to make sure you take the right stuff and that there isn't something else going on. A naturopath may also be able to help you pick a probiotic strain that is resistant to the specific antibiotic you take. It is important that you discuss any problems with your doctor but don't expect them to know as much about probiotics as a well trained naturopath.

http://www.Tonikahealth.com.au & http://www.HealthyComparisons.com.au

Russian antihistamine drug does well in Alzheimer's test (AFP)

AFP - A nearly forgotten Russian-made drug, formulated to combat hay fever, helps improve cognitive abilities in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to the results of a year-long trial published on Thursday.

Most home gardeners are aware green tea powder bulk the garden plants require a supply of mineral nutrient for their growth and development. As elements like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the names that usually appear on fertilizer packages, it is sometimes assumed that they are the "important" nutrients. On the other hand, the so-called trace elements, with the possible exception of iron, are often considered to be of negligable importance.

Nothing could be further than the truth. Trace elements like Manganese, Iron, Zinc, and Copper, are every bit as vital to plant metabolism, as they play essential functions in such processes as respiration and photosynthesis, and so a deficiency in even one element will adversely affect the healthy growth of the plant.

Trace elements are called as such because they are required by the plants in minuscule quantities, while the macro elements such as nitrogen are needed and consumed by plants in large quantities. For this reason the latter are sometimes lacking in sufficient amounts, and so have to be supplied artificially by means of chemical or organic fertilizer. Recognising then that the trace elements have to be available to the plants, how can the home gardener ensure that they be so? To answer that, let's understand a few basic points about trace elements particularly as they apply to dry and Mediterranean climates.

*In the chalky, alkaline soils common to most arid regions, trace elements are normally present in sufficient quantities.

*When present in excessive concentrations however, some are actually poisonous for plants, no more so than the essential element, boron. In fact one of the problems associated with the increasing salinity of dry climate soils, is the rising concentration of trace elements to the point where they are liable to poison garden plants.

*Deficiencies in one or more trace element are most likely to be caused by soil conditions that render the element unavailable to the plants. For instance, in alkaline soils, iron tends to crystallize into a solid state. Due to the fact that plants take up the elements as mineral salts dissolved in the soil water, it follows that in solid form an element cannot be absorbed by the plants' roots. Poor aeration, typical of many heavy, clay soils is another factor preventing the uptake of essential elements.

*An excess of one trace element in the soil water, (where it is available to be taken up by plant roots) can cause another one to become absorbed by the mineral clay of the soil particles and thus be removed from the soil water. Such is the case with iron, which in high concentrations, "pushes out" manganese and zinc. It follows therefore that iron fertilizers should be used with great caution, as their misuse, is liable to create a deficiency in other minerals.

*In most cases, sound management of the soil should suffice in preventing trace element deficiencies. This entails ensuring adequate drainage and high percentages of organic matter, by way of compost, in the earth. As a result, oxygen levels in the soil rise, and it also becomes less alkaline, thereby increasing the solubility of many mineral salts. In principle, fertilizers which contain trace elements are best reserved for the artificial potting media in use for container culture.

*The most common symptom of iron deficiency is the yellowing of the plants' foliage - a condition known as chlorosis. Yet these symptoms could alternatively indicate nitrogen deficiency, which can occur under anaerobic soil conditions, even when copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer are regularly applied. It's better therefore to try and improve poor conditions such as compacted soil in lawns, before rushing in with iron fertilizer. A soil test may be suitable as well.

*Applying iron fertilizer though is sometimes the answer for plants growing by walls, where building material residues raise the pH (acid-alkaline scale) to a level of alkalinity that prevents iron from dissolving in the soil water. Iron fertilizers normally come in chelate form, which bypass the soil pH. The chelate's properties of protecting the iron molecules from crystallizing are lost though when exposed to sun light. So the fertilizer has to be dug into the soil as quickly as possible.

My name is Jonathan Ya'akobi.

I've been gardening in a professional capacity since 1984. I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden, but now concentrate on building gardens for private home owners. I also teach horticulture to students on training courses. I'd love to help you get the very best from your garden, so you're welcome to visit me on http://www.dryclimategardening.com