Warung Bebas

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Nutrition and ADHD - Changing This One Thing Can Make All the Difference For ADHD Children

Nutrition and ADHD - Changing This One Thing Can Make All the Difference For ADHD ChildrenNutrition and ADHD is a much talked about subject. For years, doctors and therapists have considered the potential connection between diet and ADHD symptoms and some of their findings have been quite intriguing, especially for parents who are anxious to find alternative treatments. As the correlation between diet and ADHD becomes clearer, it offers more hope for avoiding the use of standard stimulant based medications.


The lack of concentration, hyperactivity, distractibility and impulsiveness that characterize ADHD have all been linked to deficiencies or over abundances of certain substances in children's diets. The most obvious link between ADHD and nutrition is in the area of natural stimulants. Since hyperactivity and physical twitching are a common feature of ADHD, anything which over stimulates brain activity will necessarily have a detrimental effect.

Many parents have found that limiting the amount of natural stimulants in their child's diet can help them to be calmer and more focused. Sugar and caffeine are the two biggest culprits and just eliminating as much of these two substances as possible has had a visible effect. The artificial colorings and flavorings that are found in most processed foods can also have a stimulant effect, so limiting their intake is another important connection between nutrition and ADHD management.

Aside from natural stimulants, there are other food products which can cause allergic reactions in children which can also trigger hyperactivity. One of the more interesting connections between ADHD and nutrition is the effect of wheat and other refined carbohydrates, which can sometimes have a stimulant effect. Replacing wheat with oats, brown rice and rye bread can be an easy solution for controlling your child's disruptive behavior.

The other important connection between nutrition and ADHD is the link between severity of symptoms and lack of fatty acids. Fatty acids are necessary for proper brain development as they help to produce brain and nerve tissue. Since the body can not produce the two main types of fatty acid, Omega-3 and Omega-6, on its own it is crucial that they are received through the diet.

A lack of fatty acids can result in impaired brain development, leading to a host of neurological disorders including ADHD. While there is still some debate on the subject, the link between ADHD and nutrition particularly in the area of fatty acids is one which merits attention.

Because changes in diet are so simple to achieve and do not carry the threat of dangerous side effects, this is an avenue that every parent should be open to trying. Along with eating right, the use of homeopathic remedies can also allow you to manage your child's symptoms without using standard prescription medications. The ability of easing symptoms without exposing children to harmful side effects is one of the most exciting parts of the discussion about nutrition and ADHD.

A diagnosis of ADHD can seem like the end of the world, but it really doesn't have to be. With developments in research, it is now easier than ever to manage ADHD symptoms with simple dietary adjustments. Having ADHD does not mean that you have to subject your child to the harsh effects of stimulant based medications. Exercise all your options, including dietary management, and you can find the approach which works best for you and your child.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Bridging The Great Divide - Touching Our Most Basic Humanity



Bridging The Great Divide - Touching Our Most Basic Humanity"The impersonality of life in the Western world has become such that we have
produced a race of untouchables. We have become strangers to each other,
not only avoiding, but even warding off all forms of 'unnecessary' physical contact,
faceless figures in a crowded landscape, lonely and afraid of intimacy"

--Ashley Montagu

From Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin

The Presidential elections of November 2004 poignantly illustrated "the great divide" that has grown between people in our country. I read countless statistics in both the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe analyzing voter composition. I saw charts that separated those who favored a candidate with high intelligence from those who favored a candidate who advocated a sense of morality. I saw other charts differentiating those who favored a candidate who would protect us against terrorism from those who favored a candidate who cared about the environment. After reading chart after chart, it would be easy to believe that all these issues are indeed separate and unrelated, just as are the factions of people who either supported or disagreed with each position.

Discussions of Bush and Kerry's candidacies became emotionally charged, polarized and fervent. As I listened to people I knew talk fervently about who they supported or hated, I could see how fine the line between passion and violence could become. So easily, friends could become enemies. How easily we become "other" to each other--distant, isolated and unrelated selves.

A RACE OF UNTOUCHABLES

Anthropologist Ashley Montagu was profoundly aware of the relationship between touch and our sense of connectedness, health and well-being. In his book Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, Montagu writes, "The communications we transmit through touch constitute the most powerful means of establishing human relationships, the foundation of experience....it would greatly help our rehumanization if we would pay closer attention to the need we all have for tactual experience."

Touch is a biological and developmental need. In her book Touch (MIT Press, 2003) researcher Tiffany Field notes, "Touch, more than any other sense, is universal across cultures and species. Most animals know touch is critical to life. Rat pups do not survive without their mother rat's tongue-licking touch. Monkeys huddle in a corner when they are touch-deprived."

People need touch to survive as well. Children who are touch-deprived don't growth emotionally, physically and cognitively. Field cites a television show on Romanian orphans who are stick thin and unable to walk until aided by massage therapy and proper nutrition. Field comments, "A child's first emotional bonds are built from physical contact, laying the foundation for further emotional and intellectual development."

Yet, Americans are among the world's least tactile people. In a culture that has, in the opinion of Montagu, "confounded love, sex, affection and touch," people are so afraid of sexual abuse, that any touch becomes taboo. "No touch" policies abound. Children and older people may suffer the most. Field writes, "Teachers are no longer allowed to hug grade schoolers if they do well in class or pick up preschoolers when they fall on the playground." Yet, despite all these mandates, Field acknowledges that the incidence of sexual abuse has not decreased and child abuse by daycare workers is on the rise.

So, children experience less loving, nurturing and comforting touch and learn to become overly "self-reliant" too young. This translates into disconnected, numb and isolated. Older people become isolated as they leave the workforce, survive the death of a partner, watch grown children move away, and turn to professional providers for care. Who is there to hug them, comfort them or hold their hand? Imagine what it is like to be an older person confined to bed rest in a nursing home, especially a man who suffers from society's special taboos about men and touch. If touch is critical for learning, communication, comfort, reassurance and self-esteem, how can he get what he needs?

When people are touch-deprived, they become numb to the fundamental need to touch and be touched. They become touch-phobic, holding a hypervigilant tension in their bodies, keeping others at an emotional distance, operating from the head for protection while disconnected from the body and heart.

INSTITUTIONALIZING "OTHERNESS"

In his essay, "What Moves In a Movement," Peter Gabel speaks of how we unconsciously collude in maintaining the great divide. Touch-deprived people, through their numbing and desensitization, perpetuate thoughts and behaviors that keep them isolated, disconnected, lonely and unfulfilled.

"Every morning, every one of us wakes up with the desire to overcome our isolation and connect with others in a meaningful, life-giving passionate way. We long for the sense of confirmation and validation that can come only from participation in real community. As we peer out at the day in front of us, however, we feel compelled to suppress this desire, to actually forget about it as best we can, because we have become resigned to the fact that no one else seems to want what each of us wants."

...We each internalize the sense that in order to feel part of what little community there is in the world we must deny our deepest needs and adjust to things as they are... And so we don our various social masks and become 'one of the others,' in part by keeping others at the same distance we believe they are keeping us. In this way, social reality takes the form of a circle of 'collective denial' through which each of us becomes both agent and victim of an infinitely rotating system of social alienation."

As I look at the lives of clients and friends who work in the corporate world, I can see all the energy it takes to keep the social masks on and the deeper self suppressed. Sadly, though, while many of these people yearn for a different experience, they often feel powerless to change things, and therefore accept life as they know it as "the way things are."

HOW WE GOT WHERE WE ARE

People today are very much like the feral cats whose numbers have grown in many cities. Born on the streets or abandoned to the streets, the feral has often lacked food, shelter and protection. Upon meeting a human, the cat is likely to simultaneously experience starvation and terror. While desperately needing the food the human is offering, the animal may also be terrified of the harm that might come by relating with the human in any way. The terror often wins out over the starvation.

This kind of simultaneous starvation and terror occurs in people who are touch deprived. Deep down, the person desperately needs contact--emotional and physical. Yet, the strength of that deep need accompanied by hurts, passions and yearnings that live inside, may be so terrifying the person cannot be receptive to what they need. Just as one might ask why the feral population has exploded, we can also ask why human beings have become so feral.

Tiffany Field feels that sexual taboos and the development of drugs and medical technologies both contributed to our culture of untouchables. Fear of sexuality is sadly prevalent in our culture and we lack education about what it means to develop a healthy, mature and grounded sexual identity.

The technologization of health care has contributed to the "no touch" culture from a number of dimensions. The many technical tools that have been a common part of medical practice lead us to be put in machines and have monitors strapped on to us rather than be touched and evaluated by human hands. Writer Norman Cousins commented, "The physician celebrates computerized tomography. The patient celebrates the outstretched hand."

Secondly, drugs, which have become more abundant over the past few decades, can either heighten sensitivity to touch or deaden the sense of touch. Field says, "Stimulants including amphetamines, cocaine and coffee....slow downblood circulation leaving a person feeling cold and jumpy to the touch. Depressants, including barbiturates, narcotics and tranquilizers, dull the sense of touch. Muscle relaxants, tranquilizers and sleep-inducers such as Quaalude's break down inhibitions, but also tend to make people less sensitive to touch, as does alcohol, which can depress the system and touch sensitivity."

Whether through the side effects of touch deprivation or chemical intervention many of us are walking around without being fully present in our bodies, lacking a sense of emotional attunement, energy awareness and groundedness. Compound that with a touch-phobic, low-touch norm of human relating, and it is easy to lose touch with our need for physical and emotional connection. So, people function by society's standards while living with a primal sense of pain and disconnection, and a sophisticated array of tools to distance from these deeper feelings.

Touch is our most social sense. Unlike seeing, hearing or smelling," Field acknowledges, touch "typically implies an interaction with another person."

THE HEALTH IMPACT OF TOUCH DEPRIVATION

Because human beings are wired to touch and be touched, the absence of touch causes disturbances in both mind and body. Touch helps create psychological and physical wellness, and touch deprivation contributes to illness at many levels.

1. Stress and Relaxation: Touch deprivation increases stress and body tension levels behaviorally and biochemically. We feel more pain, and have a harder time focusing on what needs our attention in the moment, and become less resilient to toxins that can instigate disease. Field explains that touch, affects "both tactile and pressure receptors," and " stimulates the central nervous system into a state of relaxation." Touch can reduce anxiety and stress levels and bring forth a relaxed, more attentive state. Field cites specific effects, such as reduced pain for people with arthritis, "increased peak air flow" for people with asthma, and "increased natural killer cell activity" for HIV patients.

2. Physical violence: Research by Dr. J. H. Prescott has suggested that touch deprivation in childhood leads to physical violence. In a study conducted in forty-nine non-industrial countries, frmo the Ainu in Japan to the Zuni in New Mexico, Prescott found that most juvenile delinquents and criminals come from neglectful or abusive parents. In an article published in 1971, Prescott theorizes that "the deprivation of body touch, contact and movement are the basic causes of a number of emotional disturbances including depressive and autistic behaviors, hyperactivity, sexual aberration, drug use, violence and aggression."1 His theory is that the lack of sensory stimulation in childhood leads to an addiction to sensory stimulation in adulthood resulting in deliquency, drug use and crime.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead also found a correlation between touch of children and aggression. She found that cultures where children experience constant physical contact, like the Arapesh, have non-aggressive, gentle adults. Arapesh infants are always carried in a small net bag by their mothers. This allows the child to experience constant physical contact and on-demand breastfeeding. Warfare is not practiced in the Arapesh society. In contrast, within the same country, the Mundugamoor people are relatively aggressive warring people. Mundugamoor infants are carried in a basket suspended from the mother's forehead, out of contact with the mother's body.

3. Sleep Difficulties: When my son was an infant, I learned quickly that the easiest and most natural way to help him fall asleep when tired was to hold him and nurse him. I could feel him relax, replenish himself and gently drift away into a deep and peaceful sleep. Tiffany Field's research found a strong relationship to touch deprivation and sleep disturbance. "In all our studies where young children were separated from their mothers, whether it was because their mothers were hospitalized for the birth of another child or because their mothers were away at out-of-town conferences, the children's sleep was always affected." Field also cites a study of adolescents hospitalized in psychiatric units who received massage therapy as part of their treatment. After being massaged for one-half hour a day for a week, these adolescents developed better organized sleep patterns.

4. Immune Response: Touch deprivation can suppress the response of the immune system. Psychoimmunologist Steve Suomi conducted a series of immune studies with monkeys. He studied the relationship between physical contact and the body's ability to respond to an immunological challenge, like a tetanus shot. He found a direct relationship between a one year old monkey's ability to produce antibodies in response to an immune system challenge and the amount of contact and grooming the monkey received in the first six or seven months of life. In studies where young monkeys were separated from their mothers, Suomi found suppressed immune response, including less natural killer cell activity.2 Field notes that "natural killer cells are the front line of the immune system and are noted for warding off viral and cancer cells."

5. Delayed Growth: Through animal studies, Dr. Seth Schanberg of Duke University Medical School has found that touch deprivation delays growth. Because rats have similar responses to deprivation and stimulation as people, Schanberg has done most of his research with mother rats and their pups. Field reports on Schanberg's research in which he found that rat pups deprived of contact with their mothers experienced a significant decline in growth hormone and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), part of the protein synthesis chain and important for proper functioning of the immune system. When the pups were returned to their mothers, their growth hormone and ODC levels increased.3

Field cites many other studies linking touch deprivation and growth deprivation. "Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, children raised in orphanages had a less than fifty-firty chance of reaching puberty."

6. Cardiovascular Disease: Cardiovascular disease is often exacerbated by a lack of contact with other people. I have always viewed that hands as an extension of the heart, helping us reach out and connect heart-to-heart, giving and receiving. There are many studies that illustrate that those who have more contact with others are protected from heart disease. The Framingham Heart Study showed that married couples live longer lives and single and widowed people lived shortened lives.4 Dr. Jules Older claims that for every major cause of death, including heart disease, divorced men stand a two to six times greater chance of dying than married men.5

GETTING BACK IN TOUCH

Reconnecting with our bodies, our sensuality and our need to touch and be touched takes conscious effort. While there are many ways we get to know our touch preferences through experimentation on our own, Tiffany Field acknowledges that touch is our most social sense, and "unlike seeing, hearing or smelling...touch typically implies an interaction with another person."

Here are some things you can do to "get back in touch."

1. Get to know your own body. Touch yourself. Try different qualities of touch--light, deep, still, moving. Learn how you like to be touched.

2. Talk with a friend or partner about your touching history. How have you learned about touch? How much touch did you receive as a child? Do you receive as an adult today? Have you been hurt through touch or lack of touch? What are your touch needs?

3. Recognize that non-sexual nurturing touch is a basic human need, distinct from sexual touch. In our culture, it is too easy to think of touch as only sexual. We have forgotten that emotionally nurturing, warm, non-sexual touch is also a human need. A hand on the shoulder can symbolize friendship or support. A hug offers comfort when we are sad or friendship when we greet or take leave of a friend. Holding a hand says, "I'm here with you."

4. Let ourselves be touched. Watch a movie that includes love and affection and notice the feelings it brings up for you. Do you feel sad, scared, angry or uncomfortable? Do you smile? Listen to a song that touches your heart. If you are with a friend or family member you care about, share a hug. Make an appointment to get a professional massage.

5. Look for opportunities to substitute touching for talking. In The Power of Touch (Hay House, 1999), Phyllis Davis writes, "Touch is a language that can communicate more love in five seconds than words can in five minutes." Yet, in our distance-oriented culture, we've learned to replace touch with talk.

6. Make time for face to face relating. Don't let yourself be quite so busy. Pick up the phone and invite a friend or loved one to dinner instead of spending the night on e-mail.

7. Go dancing. Partner dances, like Swing, Cha Cha, Salsa, Waltz, etc., integrate touch at the very heart of the dance.

8. Lend a helping hand. Be proactive. Reach out. Ask permission and be respectful, yet willing to be of support.

9. Pet a dog or cat. Stroking a four-legged animal provides two-way love and affection.

Sunday 8 January 2012

Coping With Cystic Fibrosis Using Nutrition and Exercise

Coping With Cystic Fibrosis Using Nutrition and ExerciseCystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease caused by a defect in one particular gene known as CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane-conductance regulator). About 1 person in 25 of European descent has this gene. However your chance of having CF is more like 1 in 3,000, as you only get it if both your parents have the gene. That should roughly be a 1 in 625 (25*25) chance, but because of genetic shuffling that is reduced to about 1 in 3,000 for people of European descent. People with other racial backgrounds have the CF gene less often, and so CF is less common in other racial groups.

There are different types of Cystic Fibrosis, as the gene defects differ. This means that the best medication for different people with CF varies. Diet and exercise advice is more uniform however, and depends more on the persons dietary preferences and fitness.

What are the symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis?

Cystic Fibrosis changes the ability of the epithelial cells lining your lungs, liver, pancreas, digestive tract, reproductive tract and skin to transport chloride ions. In practice this means that chloride ion concentration inside and outside the cell differs from the normal situation. Many of these epithelial cells produce mucus and the abnormal chloride concentration leads to mucus outside cells becoming less watery and more sticky. This leads to problems in the lungs and pancreas. Within the skin, the sweat glands produce more chloride than normal, and this is the basis for one test that can detect CF.

Lung problems:

Typically this sticky mucus can cause a blockage to small airways in the lungs leading to difficulty breathing. Also microbes which are caught on it are not able to be removed as efficiently. The mucus which normally gets shunted up the airways like a travelator is slowed down as it is more viscous. This means that microbes are more likely to establish themselves in the lungs and are more difficult to remove. A chronic inflammatory response is established, which over time leads to scar tissue formation (fibrosis) and the appearance of cysts. Hence the name of the condition "cystic fibrosis". The lung problems are normally treated by inhalation of substances which cause the bronchioles to dilate, such as steroids. Substances that reduce inflammation, such as ibuprofen, can also be used.

Because people with CF can have microbes in their lungs that are harmful to other people with CF, it is generally not recommended that they spend too much time with other people with the condition. In the past inhalers were shared between people with CF and this was particularly damaging to their life chances.

Digestive problems:

The pancreas is an organ that produces pancreatic juice that helps digest your food making absorption of the nutrients possible. With CF the pancreatic juice containing the enzymes that break down fats, carbohydrates and proteins can get blocked in by sticky mucus. This is mostly a problem for fat digestion as carbohydrates (e.g. bread, pasta and cakes) can be broken down in the mouth, and proteins (e.g. chicken, tuna and soya) in the stomach. A small amount of fat can be broken down in the mouth and stomach by the enzymes lingual lipase and gastric lipase respectively. However these enzymes are not normally sufficient to break down fats well enough for efficient absorption. As a result people with CF can become short on essential fatty acids and the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Nowadays most people with CF get given digestive enzymes, which makes it possible to get sufficient amounts of these nutrients if they eat a good diet.

How genes work:

To understand why a genetic disease like Cystic Fibrosis occurs you need to understand a bit about genetics.

When you are born you are given 23 chromosomes from your mother and 23 from your father. They are duplicate, in that each of the 23 chromosomes pairs up with the equivalent chromosome from your other parent. At a given point down the chromosome is a gene. Normally it takes more than one gene to create a trait such as hair colour or how much oxygen your blood can carry. However there are cases where only one gene creates a trait.

The widows peak hairline is a single gene trait. If even one parent carries it you'll end up with a hairline receding on either side, because the widow's peak trait is a dominant gene. You'll only end up with a straight across hairline if both parents carry the recessive (non-dominant) gene.

Cystic Fibrosis is another single gene trait. If both mum and dad have the gene then there is a good chance you'll get it. If one parent has the gene then you won't get it because you'll use the other parents non-CF gene. It is slightly more complex than this, as when your dad's sperm meets your mum's egg they mix their DNA in a way that can change a CF gene into a non-CF gene, and so your chance of getting CF is reduced.

The CFTR gene, like most genes, makes proteins that your body can use. The normal CFTR gene makes a protein that transports chloride ions into and out of epithelial cells. the transport of some other ions can also be affected. Different errors (or mutations as they are called in genetics) can affect the CFTR gene. The most common (called ðF508) causes it to create a protein that does not fold correctly. It is hard to get this misfolded protein into the cell membrane so that it can allow chloride ions to escape.

Is exercise good for people with Cystic Fibrosis?

Definitely yes. Exercise, both cardiovascular and strength exercises, help to improve many of the symptoms manifested with CF.
It clears the airways in the lungs. This brings in more oxygen which can slow down the growth of some of the bacteria that can set up camp in the lungs of people with CF.
It increases lung capacity, making it easier to breathe.
It increases strength and endurance. CF does not reduce exercise capacity directly, but lung infection and nutritional deficiency can affect strength and endtrance. Cardiovascular exercise and weight bearing exercises that involve using your bodyweight or shifting weights all help. Exercise normally increases appetite which should help prevent nutritional deficiencies.
It increases bone density. This is important as deficiency in vitamins D and K can lead people with CF to develop weaker bones.

A person with CF should be aware that they may sweat out more salt during exercise and for this reason may need to use a sports drink containing plenty of salt. Not all sports drinks contain salt. A list of those that do, in decreasing order of saltiness is: (PowerbarEndurance*; High5 Isotonic*; Isostar; Taut*; High5EnergySource; LucozadeSport; InfinitRide*; Powerade). So, of those that aren't powders, Isostar may be the best. Remember that Colas contain very little salt.

Bear in mind that those with '*' by them are in powder form. For purposes of comparison they are assumed to be watered down to an isotonic strength. Roughly 60grams of powder for every litre of water. Those in bold can be normally be found in shops in liquid form.If you want to avoid artificial sweeteners (Lucozade) and excess calcium (Isostar), then the Powerbar and High5 powders are good choices. Alternatively, add 1/2 a gram of table salt to a typical 500ml drinking bottle containing fruit juice.

What is the best diet for someone with Cystic Fibrosis?

It is best to eat a diet that includes plenty of the nutrients that are deficient in CF. These are vitamins A, D, E and K as well as the essential fatty acids and salt. Calcium is also often mentioned as being needed, but the evidence is not strong for this. Whether there are grounds for supplementation for the fat soluble vitamins is open to debate. If pancreatic enzyme supplements are being used, then the fat soluble vitamins in the diet should be adequately absorbed. In other words the best approach for most people with CF is to eat a diet containing plenty of the foods mentioned below.

Major Nutrients: For most people with CF it is important to eat more than other people, as absorption from the gut is not as efficient due to the lack of pancreatic digestive enzymes. There is an increased need for essential fats called omega 6 and omega 3, and so a diet containing good sources of these fats is important. Omega 6 fats are very common in modern diets, whereas omega 3 fats are pretty rare. To keep a good level of omega 3 fats in the diet, include plenty of oliy fish such as trout, salmon, sardines, pilchards and kippers. A supplement containing omega 3, such as cod liver oil could also help. The other major nutrient to eat in good amounts is protein, which is not absorbed so well in most people with CF. It is needed in childhood for growth, and later on for maintenance and repair of the body. Eating plenty of meat, fish and some diary is the most effective way to ensure good protein nutrition. Carbohydrate is used for energy. However it is best not to have too much of it on its own, as it can cause blood sugar spikes which can lead to glucose intolerance and eventually diabetes. My advice is to eat a diet that emphasizes the healthy forms of protein and fat with plenty of vegetables. Eat a moderate amount of starches such as bread, pasta, rice and potato. Fruits and sweet treats are also best eaten in moderation. Do make sure that enough is being eaten in total though.

Vitamin A: This vitamin is needed for good vision, immunity, red blood cell production and growth. It is found at high levels in liver. Dairy foods such as cheese, milk and yoghurt as well as eggs contain good amounts of vitamin A. Dark green and yellow vegetables are also good sources of beta carotene, which the body can turn into vitamin A.

Vitamin D: This important vitamin is needed for good bone health as well as many other important roles in the body such as immunity, growth and cardiovascular health. It is found at high levels in liver. However sunshine is the best way to get vitamin D, so outdoor exercise provides the person with CF a double benefit of airway clearance and a supply of vitamin D also.

Vitamin E: This is found in good amounts in nuts, seeds and their oils, including margarine. Egg yolks and avocados also contain a fair amount as do green leafy vegetables. Most nut and seed oils and margarine contain trans-fats which are not good for health. However nut butters such as peanut butter are probably healthier sources as they normally contain palm oil, which contains less trans fats than sunflower, safflower and vegetable oils. Check the label to be sure. My advice is to stick to nuts, seeds, eggs, avocados and green leafy vegetables with some peanut butter thrown in to keep you vitamin E levels up.

Vitamin K: This vitamin allows blood to clot properly, preventing uncontrolled bleeding. It also helps the formation of strong bones. It is found in green leafy vegetables. Kale, chard, broccoli and parsley are all excellent sources.

Salt: Since people with CF sweat a particularly salty sweat they are prone to lose a lot of salt. Unlike the general population eating plenty of salty snacks is a good habit to develop, especially after sweating a lot as during hot weather or during and after exercise. Some of the healthiest ways of taking on more salt are by eating more olives or oily fish. Commercial bread also contains a lot of salt. Care should be taken with infants, especially below the age of one as there is a possibility of salt poisoning at this age.
 

Healthly and Best Lifestyle Copyright © 2012 Fast Loading -- Powered by Blogger