Family Health Zone

How Both Children and Parents Can Benefit From Playing Together

In our busy, often hectic lives, it can be so difficult to work in quality play time with our children. The problem is, that to properly grow and learn, children need to engage actively in play. And in order to assure that our children are developing their necessary physical and emotional skills, we need to make some time to share in their activities.

Let's look at some of the benefits of playing together, for our children:

Physical Activity. While you want to let your child take the lead in choose what they do during play  time, you can help encourage them to choose healthy physical activities. If they want to play a game, suggest hide and seek, tag, or anything else that will get them up and moving. Physical play helps to support physical development. If a child sits in front of a T.V. all day, they’ll never develop the best balance, or other physical attributes as well as they should.

Parental Bonding. There is nothing more important in building a child’s self esteem and feeling of safety, than bonding with a parent. If a child learns to develop a trusting attitude with their parents, they’ll grow up to feel safer and more secure in the world around them. To you it might seem obvious, but for them, this time is about feeling loved, secure, and protected.

Self Expression. If allowed to direct their own play, a child will often reenact situations that he or she finds important in their lives. They may also use play time to vent emotional frustrations that may not be capable of verbalizing at this point in their development. By paying attention to your child’s behavior during play, you can determine what their concerns and frustrations are. And, once you know the problem, it’s a lot easier to deal with and maybe find some alternative solutions that your child needs.

While playing with your child is obviously beneficial to them, it can also help you out as well. Here are just a few of the benefits of playing with your son or daughter.

Getting Better Acquainted With Your Children. Many parents of teenagers say that they know little or nothing about their child. A good way to know them later on in life, is to begin the process of learning who they are while they’re still young, and then work to continually understand who they are as they grow older. Playing regularly with your children now, may actually help you worry less about them when they’re older.

Helps You to Relax. When children play, they create imaginary worlds and situations. If you are actively involved in your child’s imaginary worlds, it can help you forget the stress of the real world.

Promotes Your Own Physical Activity. We all know how hard it is to stay active when there are deadlines to meet, bills to pay, and everything else to do. If we strive to keep our children active through play, we will end up being active with them.

Playing with your child is as simple as setting aside a block of time everyday. It may be difficult to rearrange your schedule, but it will be well worth it for both you and your child, in the end.

Product Review: Neoprene Fitness Dumbbells

For all you exercisers out there, did you know that there is a new type of dumbbell available that is made with neoprene. Sounds odd I know, but actually, these hexagon shaped dumbbells are easy to handle and have a non-slip grip. How about we take a look at some benefits of owning these particular type of weights.

To begin with, they:

• maximize your workout with extra resistance
• are excellent for aerobic exercises
• definitely comfortable
• have a dense foam casing which provides a cushioned, non-slip grip, and
• adds strength to your walking or aerobic routine.

Priced from $3.50 to $12.00, depending on the weight, these brightly colored dumbbells bring new life to traditional black and grey metal weights. 

Each weight is dipped in high visibility neoprene, and the neoprene coating adds a great look and a great feel! Additionally, they are available from 1 lb. to 10 lbs. They are good quality dumbbells and great for weight training at home. The neoprene dumbbells are less damaging on flooring, and because of their unique shape, they don't roll away. They are also easier to grip and more gentle on your hands.

Now you might be asking, “Well how can I incorporate these dumbbells into my exercise routine?” Here are some tips:

• If you work all day sitting at a computer, you may want to take out these weights and just take a five minute break; raise and lower your arms at the elbow, using the 5 lb. weights.
• You can also hold a weight in each hand with arms outstretched, then slowly raise and lower your arms about ten repetitions. These exercises will tone your arms.
• Another common exercise is to bend at the waist and with the weight in one hand, lift parallel to your waist.

If you’ve ever seen Richard Simmons DVD, or still have his original VHS tapes; using weights and bands are part of his exercise program. There are so many advantages to using weights these days; it is a good idea to check the many different exercises you can perform.

Check online or at your local gym to determine specific exercises that are best for you and your specific needs, and the types of weight needed.

Dessert Recipes: Baked Brown Sugar Apples

This is the perfect light dessert, especially for those long, winter days. It's delicious as is, or served with a scoop of low-fat frozen yogurt.

Ingredients:

• 4 Granny Smith apples
• ¼ cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup raisins
• Cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325F.

In a bowl, combine the raisins, pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon.

Wash and core each apple and place in a baking dish.

Divide the brown sugar/raising mixture into four parts and fill each apple with the mixture.

Bake approximately 40 minutes or until the apples are tender.

How To Reduce Your Blood Pressure with Cucumber Juice

When it comes to using cucumbers, most of us just throw a few on our salad at lunch or dinner. And then there are some of us who have learned to use them to reduce puffiness around the eyes. But if you want the real benefit of cucumbers, then take them off your eyes and pop them into the juicer ... just not the same ones!

Cucumber juice can indeed help with your skin, but it’s actually more beneficial in reducing your high blood pressure. So, before you start taking some of those new blood pressure medications, or find that your current medication aren't controlling your blood pressure as well as they should, suggest to your physician that you want to try drinking a nice, tall glass of refreshing cucumber juice, a few days a week. Just remember, if you are under a doctor's care and treatment for high blood pressure, always talk to your doctor before making any changes in your diet. High blood pressure is nothing to fool around with!

There was a study done recently that showed foods high in potassium, magnesium and fiber can reduce blood pressure. In combination with a healthy diet these foods reduced the systolic blood pressure of the participants of the study, by 5 points and their diastolic blood pressure by 3.5 points.

So what’s this have to do with cucumber? Well, cucumbers are not only high in these three nutrients; they’re also a significant source of Vitamins A and K, folate, caffeic acid, and silica. They also contain a significant amount of Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that may also help to lower blood pressure.

Since cucumber juice isn’t exactly a high demand product, your best bet for drinking a quality juice, is to make your own. Making your own juice is great with any fruit or vegetable because you know what’s going into the juice and you know it’s fresh and full of live, active enzymes.

Cucumber is great for juicing because the water content is very high within the pulp. However, this means that most of the nutrients are actually contained within the skin. So try and buy un-waxed cucumber if possible because waxed cucumbers generally require pealing, removing valuable nutrient content. Buy your cucumbers from the refrigerated section of the grocery store and make sure to put them in your fridge as soon as you get home. They don’t stay fresh very long, so don’t wait longer than a day or two to juice them. Try to choose cucumbers that are firm, rounded, and that have a bright to dark green color. These are the best quality and will give you the best results.

If you want the benefits of cucumber juice, but just don’t think you will enjoy the taste, try mixing it with other juices. Carrot and Celery juices can both taste great when mixed with cucumber, plus they have great benefits of their own. If neither or those juices spark your fancy, use your imagination and start mixing. You probably don’t want to go too crazy, but if you can find a combination you like the taste of, you’re more likely to actually bother drinking the juice everyday.

A good tasting combination, if you enjoy the flavor of tomato juice is:

• 20 tbsp (300 ml) cucumber juice,
• 7 tbsp (100 ml) tomato juice and
• 1 tbsp chopped up parsley

In addition to lowering your blood pressure, cucumbers can improve your skin, help grow hair, nails,  and teeth, and even clean out your kidney. So, if you want to reduce your blood pressure while also promoting other factors of good health, why don’t you try throwing a few cucumbers in your juicer?

How Friendship Contributes to Good Health

We all know stress and anxiety are bad for us. If left unchecked, these emotional problems can have serious physical effects. We spend millions of dollars every year on yoga classes and videos, relaxation tapes, massages, spa visits, and herbal remedies, all in a bid to reduce our stress levels and live healthier lives. The truth is, there a great and easy remedy for stress relief that costs little no money: go talk to a friend.

For years, scientists have been aware of the fight or flight response. When we are confronted with a stressful situation, our bodies produce chemicals. These chemicals induce us to either stand up and fight the situation, or run away. This is how science has always viewed the situation, till now. The problem with this theory is that it was based on research experiments using solely male subjects.

Scientists believed that men and women responded the same way to stress; however, recent studies have shown that isn’t true. When women are confronted with stress, we produce oxytocin, the hormone associated with bonding. This response probably developed so a woman would protect her family instead of risking her life or abandoning them in a dangerous situation. Nowadays it means that when women are stressed, we seek out friendship.

The fact that we seek out friendships when we face stressful situations still doesn’t explain why these friendships help women relieve stress. There are several aspects of friendship that help us lower our stress level.

• Help in time of need. We feel more stressed in a situation if we view it as hopeless with no way of escape. Having a friend there who will do anything for you can make a situation seem less hopeless because we know they’ll always be there to bail us out.
• Support. We can feel less stress in our lives if we learn to look at situations positively and cope with them accordingly. Having a friend there for support and encouragement can help force us to look on the bright side. A friend can also help us strategize and come up with solutions about how to deal with the situation.
• Laughter. A good hard laugh has been shown to lighten our mood, release stress, and give us a more positive outlook on life. Being around friends can help us smile and laugh, no matter how high our stress level is.
• An ear to listen. Sometimes we need to simply vent our frustrations out loud in order to feel  better. We don’t need feedback; we just need someone with an open mind to listen while we rant. A good friend can provide this kind of support.

So if you want to live a long, healthy, happy life, get on the phone and call up a good friend. If you can’t call a friend, go out and make a new one. You’ll definitely be better off for it.

Acne – Myths and Common Misconceptions

Acne afflicts many people all over the world. There are also many rumors floating around about the  causes, treatments, and anything else related to acne.

Here are some myths and truths that can help clear up some of the rumors about acne:

• The more you clean your skin, the better your acne will get. Acne is caused by oil in your skin, not by the dirt on your face. While it’s important to cleanse your skin twice a day, cleaning more than that can overly dry your skin. Many people believe cleansing all the time will actually worsen the condition.
• Eating fatty foods will make your acne worse. Specific food groups, such as fast food and chocolate, should not trigger breakouts; however, some people have breakouts due to reactions from certain foods. If you notice that you break out after eating a certain food, avoid it in the future. Your overall diet also contributes to skin health.
• Stress causes breakouts. Research has shown that breakouts are not triggered by stressful situations. If you experience acne problems before a big or stressful event, watch what you do with your hands. Leaning on your hands on your face can cause a breakout, something you may do in times of stress.
• Acne will clear up on its own. Most people are under the false impression that acne only afflicts teenagers; however everyone from babies to women in their 40’s can experience acne. Instead of waiting for it to go away, you should get it treated.
• Covering pimples with make-up will make them worse. As long as you use the right make-up, it should not cause breakouts. Buy make-up specifically designed for people with acne. If it still triggers breakouts, try a different brand. Just like food, different ingredients in make up can cause a reaction and result in a breakout.
• Pimples go away when you pop them. Never ever pop a zit. Contrary to popular belief, popping zits can make them worse rather than better. Popping a zit can cause infection, increase the likelihood of scarring, and slow healing. If you must try to speed up healing, spread the base of the zit apart instead of squeezing it. This opens up the pore allowing it to heal.
• If one medicine doesn’t work, you have to live with acne. There’s a reason that there’s not one acne medication on the market. It’s because not one product works for everyone. If one doesn’t work, keep trying. Also, it sometimes takes a while for medications to work. Don’t worry if a treatment doesn’t work after a week.
• A tan helps clear up acne. While a tan may make acne less visible, it will do nothing to clear up a breakout. Regular tanning can make your skin look old much faster and promotes skin cancers. The permanent damage you cause is not worth slightly decreasing the appearance of pimples. 

Once you know the facts about acne, you can learn to prevent breakouts and find the right medicine to help you get beautifully clear skin.