Heartburn or GERD can Kill

Heartburn is a common annoyance. The busy lifestyle, quick meals, fatty or spicy foods all contribute to the occasional need of a chewable pain reliever. The acceptance of heartburn as an inconvenient, but natural, part of the daily grind can blind you to the warning that a severe heartburn symptom can bring.

Heartburn as a Disorder

Heartburn can be a symptom as well as a disorder. Simple heartburn or GERD can be controlled and dealt with. However, heartburn can signal the presence of a much more serious problem. If it’s heartburn, you will have a burning sensation in the chest usually after eating. There may be a spread of the burning to the throat, sometimes accompanied by a bad taste, difficulty in swallowing, belching, coughing, hoarseness and/or wheezing.

It can become worse by lying down or bending over or by eating. Relief can come from an antacid. While the more severe heartburn symptoms may be mistaken for a heart attack, simple heartburn is usually not made worse by exercise. If there is any concern that the pain may signal a heart attack, get help quickly.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Juicer Shopping - Finding Quality

By Mike Suno

There is a huge selection in juicers that vary greatly in quality and price. Many people will naturally make the mistake of distinguishing a juicer by its price relative to what else is on the shelf. But when it comes to juicers, you really do get what you pay for and a cheap juicer cannot match the performance and quality you get with a power juicer.

The problem is that most people who have never tested different juicer don't know that what they are regularly drinking is not as high in quality as it could be because of the poor quality juicer they are using. The better juicers operate at slower speeds to maintain the quality of your ingredients. High speed juicers and blender will do about 1,000 to 24,000 RPM.

The heat generated by fast blades will essentially cook your fruits and vegetable juice which alters the chemical structure of the nutrients. The purpose of juicing is to consume as much of the nutritional value the ingredients have to offer, and it is best when in its most natural state. A high quality juicer will operate under 100 RPM to minimize the heating of the elements in your juice.

Impact from high speed blades also will affect the nutrients in your juice by damaging the minerals with physical force. And while there is oxidation of the ingredients by juicing, slower blades make a huge difference in reducing the amount of oxidation. There will be less foaming in your juice as a result of slower blade action.

Noise is another factor in comparing the quality of juicers. While not always true, cheaper juicers of lesser quality well tend to make more noise than the rest of them. Better machines operate more quietly and the best juicers muffle the noise sufficiently.

When you pay a little extra for a better model, you are also getting the ingenuity of design. In general, juicers can be tough to clean but a well designed model takes the cleaning process into consideration and could make a big difference when you are deciding whether or not to juice today. Pulp collecting compartments that are easily removable makes cleaning breeze. Some brands are so well designed in this area it can be rinsed and cleaned in five minutes.

There are juicers that are not built for harder ingredients, especially leafy greens and wheat grass. This is an important consideration since vegetable juice is something you want to include in your juicing regime. So instead of buying a centrifugal juicer which can only do citrus and soft fruits, and then spending more money and counter space on a specific wheat grass juice, just look for a juicer that has multiple functions and can do all vegetables and fruits.

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