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Asthma is a disease that affects quite a few in our population. If you are a mother with an asthmatic child, you will remember the heart wrenching agony you felt when the diagnosis was first given to you. You imagined a lifetime of wheezing and crises. However, this may not be so. Hygiene around the house plays a large role in ensuring that allergens which are substances that provoke allergies and could start up an asthmatic attack are on the low side and therefore your child healthy.

Dust mites are small organisms that are not usually visible to the naked eyes found in fabric, feathers and wool. Thus they are usually resident in pillows, throws etc and feed on dead skin that human beings shed normally everyday. They love moisture and heat and thus can be found on beds as a result of the sweat from people. Though they do not fly, as beds are being made and they can fly across the room and cause allergic reactions on people who are prone or trigger an asthmatic attack in people with these conditions.

How to hold this small but mighty organism at bay? Here are our top five tips

• Remove dust. Try dusting with a damp napkin or an oiled duster. This ensures that the dust doesn’t get airborne to settle somewhere else. Worse still to settle inside the airways of an asthmatic. This is sure to provoke an attack. Try vacuuming instead of using a broom or brush.
• Use allergen proof mattress covers. These covers are tightly woven; they trap and prevent the dust mites from escaping from the mattress to provoke the airways into spasm.
• Wash beddings every week. This should also be done for stuffed toys. Ensure that this is done with hot water to kill the dust mites and remove allergens. And stuffed toys should be kept off beddings.
• Limit the use of carpeting and other dust collecting items of furniture around the house like curtains and upholstered chairs. These are major reservoirs of dust mites. Scrub, polish and keep your floors clean; change curtains to horizontal blinds and reduce the population of these mites significantly.
• Keep the moisture and humidity low and reduce clutter. These would reduce the breeding places of the mites.

With simple hygiene tips, even diseases like asthma can be controlled. So join us as we do this.

Are you a new mum still amazed at the fact that you have been blessed with such an awesome bundle of joy bit also wondering how you can keep it all together and not make mistakes? Are you also wondering what rules of hygiene to observe and how to let other people politely understand your hygiene rules for your baby? Well, we all have those questions. Let’s give you our top hygiene tips to get you and baby on the right road to health.

• As much as practicable, wash your hands before picking up your baby. This ensures that you’re not transferring germs from the outdoors or anywhere else you’re coming from the baby.
• Wash your hands after a diaper change. This should be done routinely after every diaper change be it that your baby urinated or pooed. This ensures that you are not transferring germs from your baby’s diapers to food or even other people when you pat, hug or dress them after a diaper change.
• Encourage visitors to wash their hands before picking up the baby. You can keep a bottle of sanitizer by the side to encourage this hygienic practice if hand wshing is not practicable at that time.
• Keep a flannel on your shoulder when you carry your baby on your shoulder. You know how children love to suck every surface that comes in contact with their lips. Well don’t let that surface be your shoulder. Imagine all the germs and bacteria that have been deposited there all day. You don’t want them ending up in your baby’s tummy.
• Pack and disinfect baby’s rattles and toys at least once a day to ensure that when they play with them, they are clean.

Spend time bonding with the baby. This is not just for mummies…daddies also need to bond with the babies and get the baby on to a great emotionally sound start in life.

Do you find yourself wanting to do well but ending up doing the exactly the opposite? Starting out with noble intentions…wanting to eat vegetables but ending up dousing them in lots of oil and totally destroying any chance of the survival of any nutrient with the excessive cooking? Well these tips are for you. Listen up. Here are our top five tips for handling and cooking our vegetables in a healthy way.

• When you buy vegetables in the market, buy them whole. Do not have them cut in the market. When you do this, you are exposing the very fragile water soluble vitamins in the vegetables to the air and denaturing them. And then you still have to wash them before use…this leads to bleeding out of the essential nutrients through the cut ends of the vegetables
• Then do not fry or over cook the vegetables. Just lightly steam them in a pot with some spices as desired. Heat can actually break down and destroy 15-20% of some of the vitamins in vegetables
• Research has shown that for vegetables like carrots, boiling is the best way of preserving the nutrients in carrots and sweet potatoes. Be sure to leave their skins on until after cooking. The anti-oxidant effect of tomatoes are also more pronounced after cooking
• Stir-frying. As the name suggests, this involves lightly greasing a pan with oil and continually stirring your thinly cut vegetables or cubed chicken breasts. Emphasis on the words lightly greasing. For best for best results and shorter cooking time, use a really hot pan or wok
• You can poach your vegetables in hot fluid…could be hot water, hot vegetable or meat stock. This preserves the nutrients and gives awesome flavour especially when poached in stock

So, there you go! All the best 😀

I have been asked and actually told at various fora that research has shown that some degree of alcohol is good for the heart. In fact some people tell me that research has also shown that the French live a lot longer and healthier because they take at least one glass of wine with every meal. Well, are they right? Here are 5 things you should know about alcohol and your heart

·       If you must, drink in moderation

Many health issues associated with alcohol are related to excessive consumption. So if you drink, stay within the 1 – 2 glasses limit per day

·       High Triglycerides

Alcohol consumption has been shown to raise the triglyceride level in the bloodstream. The extra calories consumed while drinking alcohol turn into triglycerides or fats in the bloodstream, and elevated triglyceride levels in the bloodstream can harden the artery walls, which can eventually lead to heart disease and heart failure.

·       High Blood Pressure

Alcohol has a lot of empty calories and these add unneeded fat and weight to the body, which can increase the blood pressure to unhealthy levels. Drinking three or more alcoholic beverages per day can lead to a long-term increase in blood pressure.

·       Irregular Heartbeat

Having more than one or two drinks per day might increase the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat. If not controlled, an irregular heartbeat can weaken the heart and eventually lead to heart failure.

Please do not start drinking if you do not already drink alcohol. Many of the benefits of alcohol on the heart touted by many can be achieved through diet and exercise without exposing yourself to the inherent risks of alcohol over-consumption . Talk to your doctor about the benefits and risks of drinking alcohol. Recent research has shown that no amount of alcohol is risk-free! So, make the right choice 🙂

All the best 😀