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The answer might surprise you... Can vitamin C supplements help you avoid colds and flu this season? In a word, no. Clinical trials of approximately 10,000 participants, have failed to find that vitamin C supplements decreases the risk of catching cold or flu in ordinary people. However, they did determine it might at least shorten the length of a cold.
Vitamin C is essential in your diet so your body can form collagen in bones, cartilage, muscle, and blood vessels. Vitamin C helps maintain healthy teeth and gums, and helps wounds heal. The best way to increase your vitamin C intake is to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, such as green or red peppers, kiwi, oranges, melon, and broccoli. Zinc is another nutrient that has not lived up to its promise of preventing colds. Experts disagree about whether zinc lozenges might shorten the duration of a cold, If you decide to try using zinc to make your cold end sooner, you should know that gels or sprays that apply zinc to the inside of the nose should NOT be used. They have been taken off the market after many consumers reported losing their sense of smell. To boost your intake of zinc naturally, choose rich food sources such as beef, poultry, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. The most promising single nutrient in the quest to prevent colds and flu is vitamin D. Several studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency is linked with more colds and flu. It is too soon to know if taking vitamin D supplements can help prevent these upper respiratory infections. Still, people living in Maine may want to consider taking a vitamin D supplement. Unlike other nutrients, which can be consumed in food, your body must manufacture its own vitamin D; this only happens after you bare skin is exposed to strong sunlight. Since that is unlikely to happen during the fall, winter and spring at our latitude, a vitamin D supplement may be in order. Although the outdated Institute of Medicine guidelines still call for 400 IUs of Vitamin D per day for adults, most experts now agree that 1000 IU per day is probably closer to meeting the needs of most people. If you have a documented vitamin D deficiency, you may need even more vitamin D, but higher doses should only be consumed under the supervision of your health care provider.
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Women's Health, Yoga, Expecting and New Moms, Physical Therapy
The recent article by NPR, Flattening The 'Mummy Tummy' With 1 Exercise, 10 Minutes A Day, starts off with a sensational, grabbing title. A click bait title that we wouldn't expect from a trusted news source like NPR. But it certainly got your attention, especially if you recently had a baby and now are feeling a little weak around the core. And since this is NPR this should be safer than something random you pull off the internet, right? Well, yes and no.
Acupuncture, Yoga
With addiction, deep fractures are drawn between our mind and our body, our needs and our habits, our emotions and our actions, and in the relationships that we have to ourselves and to others. Yoga, on the other hand, is connection.
Acupuncture, Physical Therapy, Yoga, Women's Health, Expecting and New Moms
It's a great time to pay attention to how stress is affecting you. Common stressors include work, family, money, children, illness and more. Stress can impact both your body and your mind causing symptoms such as muscular pain, irritability, fatigue, and headaches. Here's how we can help...
Expecting and New Moms, Physical Therapy, Prenatal, Women's Health
According to CDC data, 32% of women delivering a baby did so via C-section in 2015. Some of these are elective (planned) & others unplanned or emergent. If you are one of the 32%, what can you expect following a C-section?
Do you feel like your insurance coverage gets more confusing each year? That’s probably because it does! It seems like each year there is another rule or exception to your plan but the cost keeps going up. Here at Jade, we are often asked, “how much will this cost?” The answer isn’t as easy at it seems.
