Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Health & Wellness

During allergy season, sufferers know the drill: runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing up a storm. For the unlucky with asthma, symptoms might also include coughing and wheezing. However, asthma is not always caused by allergens like pollen and dust - nonallergenic asthma is brought on by a number of possible environmental or genetic triggers. Then there’s the common cold, which also presents with similar symptoms. So what’s causing your runny nose?

Self-improvement is a lifelong quest. We all have things we’d like to change about ourselves, which is why many people make New Year’s resolutions. Yet, research shows that only about 8 percent of resolution makers achieve their goals. Changing personal habits is both hugely difficult and hugely rewarding. Here, Scientific American offers this guide on breaking bad habits and the ultimate satisfaction of making difficult life changes.

The onset of cold weather brings out the boots, coats, gloves - and the stoplight-red “Flu Shots Available Here” signs in drugstore windows. For many scientists and public health specialists alike, flu season has become a little like Russian Roulette. The likelihood of a deadly pandemic outbreak of influenza is not far from reality considering the nature of some of the different viral strains. In this book, we delve into the science of the flu, starting with past pandemics and what we can learn from them.

While many of us strive to live healthy lives, the task can be daunting and the information overwhelming. Should we be more concerned with our diet or with keeping our weight down? How important is exercise? What kinds of diseases should we really be worried about getting - or preventing? In Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy, we’ve assembled a number of stories on what we think sums up a healthy lifestyle, as well as some of the common obstacles faced in trying to achieve it.

The reason we need sleep has long mystified scientists, but it’s crystal clear that we do need it. In fact, the more we learn about what happens while we snooze, the more we discover new benefits for multiple processes including hormone balance, immune function, emotional health, learning, and memory. Studies show that even one night of disturbed rest leads to measurable impairments, and for this mini-collection, we’ve gathered the most recent research on the mechanisms of sleep.

Letters from a Better Me is a transformational guide igniting the powerful woman inside us that we’ve suppressed for too long. Discover how holding onto anger, fear, hate, and separation traps us in an ongoing cycle of destruction. Now is our time to become the best versions of ourselves and have a lasting effect on the world. The journey starts with taking a trip into our own darkness. We take off our blinders and see how these attacks on our womanhood affect us on deep levels. Once we are aware, we accept what is and heal from the past.

It’s always somebody else’s kid - until it’s yours. When Katherine James and her husband found out their son was using heroin, their responses ran the gamut: disbelief, anger, helplessness, guilt. As they struggled to come to grips with their son’s addiction and decide how best to help him, their home became a refuge for an unlikely assortment of their son’s friends, each with their own story, drawn by the simple love and acceptance they found there - “the Lost Boys”, James calls them.

The dangerous decline in vaccinations in many developed countries is at the heart of a lively debate that confirms how important the subject is today. Vaccinations are among mankind’s most important scientific discoveries, yet they continue to be viewed with suspicion by part of the public - the victims of disinformation campaigns, instrumentalization, and unfounded fears. There is, however, also an evolutionary explanation for these irrational beliefs, and countering the growing social opposition will be extremely difficult without grasping it.

Nationally recognized nutrition expert Brooke Alpert has seen diets fail far too often. She knows that in order to lose the weight and keep it off, you must develop habits that will help you stop dieting and start eating well for the rest of your life - not just the rest of the month. In The Diet Detox, Brooke shares the diet advice she would give to her friends. Engaging and encouraging, this friendly, easy-to-use guide lays out a set of 10 simple rules meant to teach people how to eat for lifelong health.