Category Archives: Healthy Living

What you need to know about vaping

The truth about vaping is still very much up in the air, as the studies haven’t been able to run for long enough to be conclusive. This said, there are many things which have demonstrated that vaping is far from benign. It might be healthier than smoking. But it might also be far, far worse. We just don’t know.

If you’d like help quitting, then we’d recommend trying Allen Carr’s programme. It’s worked for millions of people around the world.

This is what we know about vaping:

Vaping’s full consequences are still unknown

A recent study found that smoking cigarettes decreases the gene expression of 53 genes that play a part in fighting viruses and bacteria. Vaping affects an astonishing 358 of them. What’s scary is that we have no idea what this actually means yet.

Vaping will affect your breath

Vape contains propylene glycol and nicotine, both of which remove moisture and stop saliva from being able to wash away bacteria associated with halitosis. The nicotine also restricts blood flow throughout your body, your gums included. This increases the risk of developing gingivitis and periodontitis.

Vaping has been linked to hair loss

Nicotine increases blood pressure and restricts blood vessels in your scalp. Hair follicles are deprived of the necessary nourishment needed to grow healthy hair. Vaping has been found to directly affect the epithelial cells which play a key role in healthy hair growth.

Vaping has sadly reversed the decline in nicotine usage amongst the youth

Nicotine use amongst teenagers were on the decline in recent years. Sadly, due to e-cigarettes, it’s now increasing once again.

Vaping poses a serious risk to teenagers

The teen brain is extremely receptive to the effects of nicotine. Those who start early have deeper addictions and more difficulty quitting. Vaping’s flavours, e-cigarette design and ‘clouding’ culture are all brilliantly designed to appeal to teenagers.

Vaping is linked to erectile disfunction

The nicotine in vape juices is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it constricts blood vessels, reducing blood flow to your extremities, including the penis. The higher the intensity of nicotine intake, the greater the degree of erectile dysfunction. Prolonged, heavy use can cause permanent blood-vessel damage.

Second-hand vape is dangerous to everyone

The exhaled aerosol clouds contain cancer-causing chemicals like aldehydes, which puts everyone around you at risk. Vapers also leave residual nicotine on indoor surfaces. These can lead to third-hand exposure through the skin, inhalation and ingestion, long after the aerosol has cleared the room.

Vaping poses a serious risk of poisoning in households with young children

Vape juices are highly concentrated mixtures of chemicals and dangerous amounts of nicotine, which also largely have flavours which appeal to kids’ palettes. This makes them a substantial poisoning risk in your household.

Vaping will cause skin dryness and saggy skin

Vape juice contains propylene glycol which attracts and traps water away from your skin. Most vape juices contain nicotine, which restricts the veins, causing less blood flow to the skin. This starves the skin of nutrients it needs to stay healthy, drying it out and causing it to wrinkle and get saggy.

Vaping will damage your oral health

Vaping can cause irreversible damage to your mouth and gums due to the chemicals in the vape juice. Oral inflammation can occur as a result of oxidative stress, as well as increase the potential for oral diseases.

Vaping is likely to give you cancer

Vape juices are filled with a variety of solvents like propylene glycol and glycerine. As well as metallic particles like chromium, cadmium and lead. When heat is applied to them, they form new unknown compounds, which are likely to be aldehydes.

Aldehydes are known to cause cancer.

Vape clouds are aerosols, not water vapour

Vape juices are filled with a variety of chemicals, which compound when exposed to heat and turn into an aerosol, not water vapour, which many people think they’re exhaling. So, that big cloud you’re exhaling is a combination of unknown chemical compounds, as every vape juice contains different, and largely unregulated elements.

Source: http://www.heartfoundation.co.za/stop-vaping/

As most of us are well aware, overweight and obesity are affecting the majority of South Africans, especially adult women and preschool children. This is putting South Africans at risk for chronic diseases, such as heart disease and strokes, diabetes and some cancers.

Some of the main reasons why people become overweight or obese are because they are:

• Eating large amounts of food (food portions);
• Eating high-energy foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt;
• Not eating a variety of food from the different food groups.
• Not engaging in regular physical activity

The time to change and act is now! Our mission at the Heart and Stroke Foundation is to halt the rise of premature deaths through cardiovascular disease (CVD) in South Africa and to promote the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Here are some key messages about making the right food choices and making them part of an overall healthy lifestyle:

• Eat a variety of food at each meal, in other words include foods from two or preferably more food groups at each meal:
• Serve the correct portions of food onto individual plates, instead of putting serving dishes on the table.  This will avoid being tempted by second or more helpings.
• Be aware that your body may only experience feeling “full” sometime after eating your meal.  Therefore, eat slowly, chew properly and pay attention to your body’s internal cues to avoid overeating.  Do not eat in front of the TV as this may lead to being distracted and not paying attention to signals of becoming “full”, thereby leading to overeating.
• Stick to regular meal and evenly-spaced snack times and do not skip meals. Vegetable sticks or fruit and low-fat or fat-free yoghurt or milk are good examples of healthy snacks.  Don’t eat too late at night or just before you go to bed.
• Encourage children to take a lunch box and healthy snacks such as fruit and yoghurt to school and to avoid buying meals and snacks that are high in sugar, fat and salt.
• Many restaurants serve more food than is appropriate for one person. Control the amount of food that ends up on your plate by sharing a meal with a friend or asking the waiter to put half the meal in a “doggie bag” or “take away container”.  Alternatively order a small or regular portion size instead of a large portion or have a salad and a starter as your main meal.
• Limit the intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (like fizzy drinks and sweetened juices) and replace with unflavoured water, maas or low-fat or fat-free milk.
• Buy fresh, plain frozen, or canned “no salt added” vegetables, meat, fish or chicken. Rinse canned foods like beans to remove some of the salt (sodium).
• Use fresh and dried herbs, spices, and salt/sodium-free seasoning blends in cooking and at the table instead of salt, canned soups, salad dressings, stock powders/cubes, and remove the salt shaker from the table.
• Choose food products with the Heart Mark as these are lower in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt), added sugar and are higher in fibre (where applicable).

Source: http://www.heartfoundation.co.za/topical_articles/healthy-eating-making-small-changes-for-big-results/