Sugar addiction is basically a relentless sugar craving that is triggered in the brain due to mental hunger or an inherent sweet tooth. Yet, excessive sugar is not a good thing in the long run. It can lead to diabetes and various other issues like high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity. Also, people whose grandparents have suffered from diabetes need to be especially careful of such sweet cravings as it may trigger the same problem in them too. So how can you cut sugar out of your life? Here's a list of tips.

- Detox or Gradual Scaling Down: While many people are in favour of gradually scaling down your sugar intake and slowly cutting it out of your life in a matter of weeks and months, there are experts who believe in stopping intake of it. A clean break from sugar is said to have a beneficial detox like effect on the brain and body. Many experts recommend cutting sugar out of your life in one clean swipe.
- Replacements: Using other substances like honey or even extracts from the Stevia plant are known to be a good replacement plan for cutting down your sugar addiction. You can start by introducing your system to these replacements in your daily beverages like tea, coffee or lemonade, before moving on to the use of organic honey for desserts and baking, as well as other sugar-free desserts and puddings.
- Fruits: The best way to get your sugar indulgence fixed is to have a good dose of fruit. This can help in giving you a good amount of dietary sugars which are natural and do not harm the body in the long run. Also, fruits are a healthy way of ingesting sugar even as you get valuable nutrients, vitamins and mineral - one arrow, many targets!
- Clean Up: Take a walk around your home and find all those secret candy stashes. Also, look for your dessert and pudding trays in the fridge. Now take all this out and give them away or trash them. Once you remove the option of snacking on sugary treats, you will be in a better place to avoid it altogether.
- Magnesium: Your chocolate craving might actually be a call for magnesium that your body is missing out on. Similarly, a mental hunger pang may actually be a need for water or some solid food. Avoid the sugary rush and take the healthy route instead, with the help of nuts and dairy.

Controlling your sugar addiction can save you from various ailments even as it gives you a healthier lifestyle.

How to Deal with Sugar Addiction

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is the name given to the symptoms seen in you if you consume heavy doses of alcohol frequently and then suddenly quit or reduce your alcohol intake considerably. These symptoms may surface anytime between six hours to a few days after you last drank.

Common symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome:

Hallucinations
Fever
Nausea
Tremors
Anxiety
Vomiting
Immense sweating
Insomnia
High blood pressure
Sweating

All these symptoms may worsen over a few days and may even last till a few weeks.

What is the root cause?

Alcohol arouses your nervous system. In case you are a heavy drinker, your body gradually gets dependent on alcohol, and cannot adapt too easily to the lack of alcohol after you have abruptly quit. This is the root cause of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS).

Who is at risk?

You are at the maximum risk of AWS if you are an alcohol addict, or you cannot gradually cut down on its intake.

How do doctors diagnose AWS?

Usually, doctors will search for a few symptoms in you, like irregular heart rate, dehydration, fever, and tremors or minor fits. A toxicology screen also helps your doctor finding out the levels of alcohol in your body.

How is AWS treated?

Treatment depends on the severity of the symptoms. Usually are:

1. Home Care-

Mild symptoms of AWS can be treated at your home. You need to go for your regular routine checkups and tests. You may also have to go to rehabilitation programs for recovering alcoholics.

2. Hospitalization-

If your symptoms are more severe, you may have to be treated in a hospital, where you will be monitored and kept on a fluid diet to help prevent dehydration.

3. Medications

You can also be treated with sedatives.

Do you recover fully?

Usually, chances are that you will fully recover from AWS. If you quit drinking, take your medicines on time, and lead a healthy life thereafter. However, sleep disturbances and fatigue may persist. But, if you have severe symptoms of AWS, you should seek medical care as soon as possible to prevent any further fatal complications.

All you need to know about Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS)

Acute viral fever is a type of fever that includes various viral infections, primarily characterized by an increase in the body temperature. This disorder is very common among children and the elderly as they tend to have a weak immune system. Some common characteristics of this condition are skin rashes, body ache and headache.

Causes
The virus that causes this disorder is transmitted from one person to the other. The usual modes of transmission include direct contact, sneezing, coughing and even talking; anything that makes you exposed to physical contact with the body fluids of the infected person. Once the virus enters your body, it can take around 20-48 hours to get activated.

Symptoms
The symptoms of this disorder include a rise in body temperature, vomiting, weakness, loss of taste, swelling of the face. You may feel very lethargic, weak and nauseated. Apart from these symptoms, it may also cause pain in the joints and the stomach. In severe cases, this disease can lead to complications such as arthritis, pneumonia and diarrhea.

Treatment
Antibiotics, analgesics and antipyretics are prescribed when you have viral fever. Apart from the medications, you need to increase fluid intake and take complete bed rest. The body needs to heal; hence being extremely active will be counterproductive to the healing process. Heavy antiviral treatments are prescribed only in severe cases. Apart from medications, there are certain dietary changes that you may have to make to boost the healing process. Avoid spicy and fat laden foods as the digestive system is weak and consumption of such foods may lead to stomach disorders such as diarrhea and acidity. Try keeping your diet restricted to warm soups and fruit juices. Another factor you should be aware of is dehydration, as the body tends to lose fluids during this period. Drink a lot of water and fruit juices to keep your fluid intake at optimal levels.

You can also follow some preventive measure to avoid this disorder:
1. Wash your hands with antibiotic soaps
2. Stay away from crowded places
3. Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands

Acute Viral Fever - Know its Causes and Symptoms

Acne can be such an annoyance, you might have an important day tomorrow and that is when your skin decides to go rogue. What is acne? Overactive oil glands in your skin cause acne. It is a kind of skin disease where the skin produces excess oil, which traps bacteria and dead skin cells. This growth and proliferation of bacteria causes inflammations, leading to acne. Thankfully there are numerous acne care treatment. One of the most common methods is laser treatment.

Laser Treatment for acne
Laser treatment is a kind of dermatological treatment which uses concentrated light to treat acne.

What laser light does?
The concentrated light targets the bacteria, which combines with the excess oil on your face to cause breakouts. The light destroys the acne-causing bacteria, thus eliminating acne and also prevents future breakouts.
Laser treatment also shrinks the size of the oil glands and simultaneously targets pigmentation.

Laser light and scars?
The most common side effect of acne is acne scarring. And if acne scarring is your main concern, then laser treatment for acne will be integrated with laser skin resurfacing to treat your problem. Laser skin resurfacing directs short, pulsating light beams to remove your skin layer by layer with sharp precision. This smooths down scars, and fine lines while stimulating collagen growth.
It is recommended to use the two treatments alternatively. This way you can avoid side effects like redness and swelling. However, these treatments are safe and can give you clear, acne-free skin.

Is it recommended often?
The treatment is recommended based on the severity and frequency of your acne condition. Usually, 6 treatments are suggested, with monthly touch-ups. The touch-ups will maintain your glowing complexion, collagen production and prevent your acne from returning.

Differences you will see
The obvious differences you will see after laser therapy are clearer skin and reduced breakouts. It will also diminish sun damage, and you will have healthy and glowing skin.

Benefit
When topical creams fail, laser treatment for acne is the best option available. Laser treatment is non-invasive; and it will correct you skin problems and maintain clear skin. The best benefits of this treatment are-
i. It is long-term
ii. It will make you less dependable on creams.

Get Rid of Acne with Laser Treatment!

Autism is a kind of developmental disability, which usually crops up before a child attains the age of 3. It is just part of a group of neurological disorders, which involve impaired communication along with impairment in social interaction and cognitive skills. It is better known as Autism spectrum disorder, it might well be linked with a wide variety of traits.

The traits include:

Activities done on a repetitive basis.

Extreme level of resistance to changes brought about in daily routines.

Very unusual reactions to things like touch.

Problem having interactions with the environment.

Children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder can have some of the major problems with regard to both speech and carry out communications in a non-verbal manner. Social interactions might also become very difficult propostions for them.

This is where, speech therapy comes to the rescue of these patients. It is the central part of treatment for autistic children. The speech therapy can help take care of a wide variety of communication problems occurring among people with autism.

Common Speech and Communication Problems Associated With Autism

Social communication, development of language and speech can get adversely affected by autism in more than one way.

A person with autism can have the speech problems, wherein they may:

Not communicate at all.

Tend to utter cries, grunts, shrieks, harsh or throaty sounds.

Talk or just hum in a musical manner.

Utter words, might can sound to be alien or robotic.

Often look to repeat whatever another person says.

Around 30% of people, suffering from autism has problem in producing speech sounds to ensure effective communication with others. The language, even if it is present, can be too difficult to be understood by others.

Communication problems can occur in various ways, for people who suffer from autism. The challenges faced by them while communicating are as follows:

Communication requires a person to make eye contact with another person or even make certain gestures. People with autism will have serious trouble in meeting up with the conversational skills.

They would have difficulty in understanding the meaning of words, which are out of context from what they have actually learned.

They would have very little understanding of the meaning of words and symbols.

Treatment through Speech Therapy

Speech therapy can help children get rid of the problems in speaking, as well as those related to communicating and interacting with others. This involves non-verbal skills such as making direct eye contact, taking initiative in conversations and understanding of different kinds of gestures.

This therapy can also teach children the art of expressing themselves by using picture symbols, computers or through sign language.

Five Principles of Speech Therapy

There are basically five principles used as a framework, to work upon in speech therapy with children, suffering from autism. They include:

Establishing Functional Communication In A Spontaneous Manner  

Providing Social Instruction in Different Settings throughout the Day

Target Peer Interactions

Even Provide Training and Support to Other Adults

Look to Fine Tune Communication Skills as Other Areas Improve.

How Speech Therapy Can Help Autistic Children?

Everyone knows that drinking a cup of coffee before bed can leave you tossing and turning for hours. Eating the right food not only gives the body the right kind of nutrition, it also affects the quality of your sleep. While some foods are sleep deprivers, others are sleep enhancers. Here are a few such types of food that you can include in your diet to improve your sleep.

Cherries: Cherries are rich sources of melatonin. This is the chemical responsible for controlling the body s internal clock. A serving of tart cherries in their raw, whole form or a glass of cherry juice(without added sugars) can improve sleep quality and help treat chronic insomnia. It can also be used to fight jet lag.
Walnuts: These nuts are rich sources of an amino acid known as trytophan. Trytophan boosts serotonin and melatonin production thus regulating the body s sleep-wake cycle. This can help you fall asleep faster and avoid tossing and turning.
Milk: A glass of warm milk is a well known home remedy for insomnia. Milk or any form of dairy is rich in tryptophan. As mentioned above, this helps people fall asleep faster by regularizing their circadian rhythm. Additionally, calcium also helps regulate muscle movements and calms the body by fighting stress and stabilizing nerve fibers. If you don t like the thought of plain milk, you could try other forms of dairy like cheese and yogurt.
Rice: Jasmine rice and other forms of white rice have a high glycemic index. This means that the body digests rice slowly and hence releases glucose produced during digestion very gradually into the body. This helps cut down the time it takes to fall asleep. A gradual absorption of glucose in the body also prevents a  sugar high  and its accompanying crash. This helps prevent waking up in the middle of the night and ensures that you sleep through the night comfortably.
Bananas: Bananas are great not only for your overall health but also for your sleep cycle. Bananas are rich sources of magnesium and potassium. These are natural muscle relaxants that promote sleep. They also help fight sleep disorders such as restless leg syndrome and muscle cramps to give you a more restful sleep. Bananas are also rich in carbohydrates that are slow to digest and hence make people fall asleep faster. Combining bananas and milk is a sure shot way of falling asleep faster.

5 Foods For a Good Night Sleep

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