Oral Hygiene Facts

Change the toothbrush for every 3 months: The American Dental Association (ADA) has recommended people to change the toothbrush at least every 3 months.

Use a fluoride toothpaste: Toothpaste that contains fluoride is very good for the teeth, as it helps to fight against the bacteria causing various diseases. It also gives a refreshing breath.

Use proper brushing technique: Overactive brushing can harm your teeth. One can consult your dentist to know the proper technique of brushing to clean the teeth.
Flossing: Flossing also helps to eliminate bacteria. So it very good to floss after every meals.

Healthy diet: One should have a healthy food which includes nuts, carrots and celery sticks. These are know as “Palace of Cleaning”, as they clean the tooth root. A sprig of parsley will also helps to prevent bad breath.

Other facts :

---The decline in tooth decay was greatest among kids but holds across every age group.
---Only 40% of young people age 6 to 19 had ever in their lives had cavities. That’s down from 50% a decade ago.
---Over the last ten years the proportion of people age 60 who’d lost all their teeth had decreased from 33% to 25%.
---Use of dental sealants, which block tooth decay on the chewing surfaces of kids’ vulnerable molars, was up 64%. 30% of kids had had at least one sealed tooth.
---Adults with post-high-school degrees had an average of three more teeth than those without a high school diploma.
---Smokers remain three times more likely than non-smokers to lose all their teeth. This figure has not changed from a decade ago.
---Socio-economic status plays a definite role in one’s general and dental health....33% of low-income adults have untreated decay. This compared with 16% of middle- and higher-income adults. 19% of kids living in poverty have untreated decay compared with 8% of wealthier kids. CDC & ADA 1/06

Recent clinical studies shows corelation between poor oral hygiene and serious systemic diseases:


Cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke)
Bacterial pneumonia
Low birth weight/extreme high birth weight
Diabetes complications
Osteoporosis

How to Stay Healthy While Travelling

One of the challenges we face in trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, is what to do when traveling. How do we eat healthy when we’re limited to airport food and business dinners? How do we keep up our exercise routine when we’re on a plane most of the day or in meetings?

Get any recommended vaccines or preventative medication before traveling abroad. Contact your physician, or visit a travel health website, to learn if there are any recommendations for your travel destination. Common vaccines that keep travelers healthy include hepatitis and tetanus. Find out if you should take anti-malaria pills on your trip, it's advisable for travel to certain countries abroad.

Nutritionist Kelly Aronica stresses the importance of “eating healthy before you leave as an easy way to feel great at the start of your trip. You won’t want to ruin that by overeating abroad.” She suggests five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables per day, as well as healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocados, and fatty fish, will set you straight before an adventure of any size.

Heading home, you should try to get yourself back on track as soon as possible, according to Aronica. Staying hydrated and settling back into your healthy eating habits are paramount. Eating three healthy meals per day can help you readjust to your time zone as will getting back into your regular workout routine.

Soccer Player Diet

Our bodies are like a finely tuned engine that needs to be fueled with the right mix of nutrients for optimal performance. This is especially important for soccer, where you are relying on your body for those sprints up the field and fast-paced tackles.

Soccer players require more calories than sedentary individuals. To maintain body weight and muscle mass, it's important to eat enough calories from healthy foods. The ideal way to know if you're eating enough calories is to keep an eye on your weight. If it's increasing, you're probably eating too many calories. If your weight is dropping, it may be time to increase your caloric intake. The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition recommends that athletes get about 60 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, less than 30 percent from fat and the remainder from protein.

One of the biggest mistakes that starting soccer players make is that they believe that simply through training, they can get their bodies at maximum potential. Although training is vital in this sense, a carefully balanced diet will be the catalyst for a healthy body that can perform well under the stressful conditions that a soccer player must go through in practice or matches.

A balanced diet will handle any weight problems, since not all people can get their fat limit to 0 through sheer training – the clearest example is Ronaldo of AC Milan, who although is one of the greatest soccer players in existence, has always been criticized for being a bit chubby. Your diet will also be responsible for keeping you strong and agile, so what you eat truly becomes an issue when you're a soccer player.