Oxygen is essential for human life. However, some humans simply don’t get enough. When low oxygen occurs it’s known as hypoxemia (or hypoxia), a detrimental condition that deprives the bodily tissues, including the brain and other vital organs of what they need to function properly. Hypoxemia most typically occurs due to a sudden injury or an underlying health condition (i.e., COPD, cystic fibrosis, etc.), which unleashes an array of negative side effects. The best treatment for low oxygen is short or long term oxygen therapy, which can deliver oxygen rich gas via an oxygen concentrator volume unit as directed by a doctor. The tell tale symptoms of low oxygen include the following: 1. Skin color changes While hypoxemia can present quite differently from patient to patient, the lack of blood oxygen will often cause a change in skin color (known as cyanosis). For instance, some patients notice a subtle bluish tint to the lips, earlobes, or nail beds while others see a visible cherry red color to the skin’s surface. 2. Rapid heart rate Rapid breathing and an even faster heart beat is also common to those experiencing low oxygen levels. This anxious, racing feeling accompanied often by heart palpitations is usually a sign that your body is working extra hard to get the oxygen it’s lacking.

Before you consider taking up cigarette or pipe smoking as a habit, have you ever wondered how smoking affects health and society on a global basis? Tobacco usage has currently reached global epidemic proportions, and individuals of all ages continue to light up in the face of all the negative press tobacco smoking gets. While many new smokers believe they can enjoy smoking in their youth and quit later, consider that smoking is a tough addiction to kick with numerous life-threatening health repercussions. Hey, if you’re still not convinced, listing the benefits of quitting smoking habit won’t do much good. Instead, we’ve decided to let these cold, hard, and frightening smoking facts speak for themselves: 1. Cigarettes purchased, per day On a global basis, approximately 10 million cigarettes are bought on a per minute basis—that equals roughly 15 billion cigarettes sold each day and five trillion cigarettes smoked annually. 2. Nicotine kills Research conducted by the Archives of Toxicology claim that if consumed, 5 cigarettes contain sufficient nicotine to kill a healthy adult. Consider that a single cigarette contains 8 to 9 milligrams of nicotine. While a single cigar contains 100 to 400 milligrams of nicotine. 3. Aside from nicotine… Even though nicotine is the chemical focus, more than 250 toxic chemicals exist in tobacco, 50 are considered “cancer-causing” (i.e., benzene, which causes acute myeloid leukemia) while 11 are carcinogenic (i.e., hydrogen cyanide) or radioactive (i.e., lead).

Cancer occurs when normal bodily cells begin to grow abnormally and in an uncontrolled manner within the body. Cancer can occur throughout the body, which is why cancer is the leading cause of death on a global level—or 8.2 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There are well over 200 different types of cancer, accounting for almost 1,689,000 cancer cases reported yearly in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. The most prevalent cancers that cause the most cancer-related deaths yearly are lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, and bladder cancer. While cancer presents differently according to the type and the patient (i.e., current health, age, existing conditions, etc.), these common causes of cancer, or cancer-related causative agents, are almost always the root cause, including: Heredity (family history or genetics) Smoking Exposure to ionizing radiation Long-term chemical or toxin exposure Cancer signs and symptoms and signs can differ largely depending on the type of cancer, the cancer stage (or how far the cancer has progressed), and the patient’s current health (i.e., do they have an existing condition that may exacerbate symptoms. However, several common cancer indicators do tend to overlap. Let’s take a look at some of the most prevalent types of cancer and the associated symptoms:

If you’ve adopted a vegan diet, meaning you consume a diet free of all animal products, how do you know you’re getting enough nutrients? For instance, many vegans and vegetarians choose to supplement vitamins and minerals they’re missing in a traditional vegan or vegetarian diet, like calcium (found in many animal dairy products). However, one largely overlooked element in vegan diets is antioxidants, which are found in a variety of foods, and luckily in many fruits and veggies (i.e., broccoli, walnuts, kidney beans, tomatoes, berries, and artichokes, etc.). Antioxidants are naturally-occurring compounds that eradicate free radical damage in our bodies. They exist under many names in our diets, most commonly: Lycopene in tomatoes Beta-carotene in carrots Resveratrol in red and purple grapes and berries Flavanols in dark chocolate Here are a few reasons why antioxidants are so important in a healthy vegan diet: 1. Heart healthy antioxidants Foods abundant in antioxidants are not just good for energy, they’re also good for your heart! In fact, research from the Cleveland Clinic, notes that if antioxidants are lacking in your diet, free radicals can cause the type of cellular damage that results in various cardiovascular threats—excess low-density lipoproteins (LDL or “bad” cholesterol), development of atherosclerosis (or the buildup of fatty plaque on artery walls), arterial blockages, and reduced cardiovascular blood flow, ischemic conditions, heart attack, and stroke.

Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is defined as an inflammatory, chronic skin conditon, characterized by symptoms of thick, raised, cracked, and extremely itchy patches of skin, typically on the inner elbows, knees, wrists, neck, hands, feet, and face. Believed to be a immune-related condition, many eczema patients are treated by doctors who prescribe specific creams and medications (i.e., immunomodulating drugs and corticosteroids), and over the counter antihistamines. However, many eczema sufferers also find that making changes to their diets can help naturally reduce their eczema symptoms. There have been numerous studies that link diets rich in antioxidants to soothing eczema symptoms, particularly when diets feature the specific antioxidant, vitamin E. Of course, you should always consult with your health care team before changing your diet, but here’s how vitamin E is shown to help benefit eczema patients: 1. Consuming vitamin E rich foods Thankfully, it’s quite easy to increase the vitamin E in your diet by incorporating foods that contain tocopherol (i.e., leafy green veggies, natural peanut butter, seeds, and walnuts), as well as plant-based oils (i.e., corn oil, wheat germ oil, and sunflower oil). For instance, a mere tablespoon of wheat germ oil will provide 10% of the recommended daily value of beneficial vitamin E.