Over the years, many people have been hearing the words gastric bypass – on television, in the radio, from doctors, celebrities, from family and friends. However, only very few of us really know what it means – and what it does to people.

Gastric bypass is a surgical procedure that is used to treat obesity. The procedure involves the creation of a tiny (as in thumb sized) pouch in the stomach. Through the technique of stapling, the stomach is divided then the outlet of the tiny pouch is connected to the intestine. This process “bypasses” the lower stomach and as a result, food intake is greatly reduced. And since the feeling of being “full” is felt early on, the hungry feeling disappears quite easily, too. Gastric bypass also results to lesser consumption of calories due to the fact that the feeling of hunger is significantly curbed.

The increasing popularity of this type of surgery is brought about by the fact that the number of overweight people in the United States, and in the world, has steadily grown over the years. Obesity, or being overweight, is not something that you can just laugh about. It is something that can destroy lives, especially since it can lead to serious health problems like heart-related diseases, diabetes, and sleep apnea. Once a person undergoes gastric bypass surgery, his obesity-related health problems can also be cured. Aside from diabetes, sleep apnea and heart-related problems, the surgery can also help reduce the incidence of hypertension, liver disease, chronic headaches, arthritis, and problems with bladder control.

Gastric bypass is probably the most effective solution to obesity and all problems related to being overweight. It combines two aspects that are most important for weight loss: weight control and very little nutritional risks. Patients who have taken the procedure significantly reduced their weight problems from 80 to 100%. They have not had problems with regard to long term maintenance since there really isn’t a great deal of behavioral adjustments or changes required. However, those who suffer from morbid obesity should consult with their doctors first regarding the type of treatment and the results that they want to achieve.

Before deciding to go through gastric bypass surgery, one has to first make sure that you are a candidate for this type of surgery:

* If your BMI (or Body Mass Index) is higher than 40, you need to undergo the surgery. People with a BMI of 35 combined with comorbidity will likewise need the surgery. Ask your doctor to teach you how to get your BMI.

* If you have tried different ways of losing weight, like dieting, but have been unsuccessful, you will need to undergo surgery.

* Comorbidities caused by extreme obesity can affect t your health and result to serious illnesses and diseases that can be life threatening. You will need to undergo gastric bypass surgery real soon.

Everything depends on you. If you want to take control of your life and make everything better, talk to your doctor now and ask him about gastric bypass surgery. Remember, if you are determined to make things work out, nothing is impossible.

Gastric bypass is probably the most effective solution to obesity and all problems related to being overweight. To know more about it, check out http://www.gastricbypassinfoblog.com/

Here are 4 great recipes to enjoy on Thanksgiving and through the holidays.

Side Dish: African Squash and Yams (Futari)
INGREDIENTS

* 1 small onion; chopped, pared and cut into 1-inch pieces
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1 cup coconut milk
* 1 pound hubbard squash; pared and cut into 1-inch pieces
* .5 teaspoon salt
* .5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 medium-sized yams or sweet potatoes
* .25 teaspoon ground cloves

Cook and stir onion in oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat until tender. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling.

Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about five minutes longer.

Bread: African Coriander Bread
INGREDIENTS

* 2 Packages active dry yeast
* 1.5 cups lukewarm milk
* 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
* .5 cup margarine – melted and cooled
* 1 tablespoon ground coriander
* 1 tablespoon orange peel grated
* 1 tsp. salt
* .5 tsp. ground ginger
* .5 tsp. ground cinnamon
* 1 medium egg
* 4 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in milk in a large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the all-purpose flour. Add enough all purpose flour to make the dough easy to handle. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Turn greased side up and cover. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size. Grease 2 loaf pans. Punch down dough and divide in half. Shape into two eight-inch loaves and place in pans. Let rise 40-45 minutes in loaf pans. Heat oven to 375. Cut lengthwise slash in each loaf. Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown, and makes a sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pan and let cool on a rack. Store in a plastic bag at room temperature.

Main Dish: North African Turkey
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 red bell pepper, chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped
* 8 small Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
* 1/4 cup dry red wine
* 1/4 cup fat free chicken broth
* 1 bay leaf
* 1/2 teaspoon thyme
* 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 3 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced
* 12-ounces Turkey Breast Roast, cooked and diced

1. Heat olive oil in a saute pan and cook onion, bell peppers, and olives over low heat until the onion becomes transparent.
2. Add wine, chicken broth, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes and cooked turkey and simmer for 5 more minutes.
4. Serve over a bed of couscous or rice.

Dessert: Fruits of Africa Pie
INGREDIENTS
* 1 9 inch pastry pie crust
* 1.5 cups papaya, guava, or apricot nectar
* 4 tbsp. cornstarch
* 4 tbsp. lemon juice
* 4 tbsp. sugar
* .5 tsp. salt
* 2 cups diced fresh fruit (papaya, pineapple, melon, oranges, guavas)
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 4 tbsp. sugar
* .5 cup moist shredded coconut
* .5 cups chopped peanuts
Bake the pie crust. In a 2-quart saucepan bring 1.5 cups papaya, guava, or apricot nectar to the boiling point. Dissolve 4 tbsp. corn starch in 4 tbsp. lemon juice. Add 4 tbsp. sugar and .5 tsp. salt. Add to the nectar and cook until thick and clear. Cool slightly.

Add 2 cups diced fresh fruit, singly or in combination. Cool to room temperature. Pour into pie shell. Chill.

Spread with 1 cup heavy cream whipped with 4 tbsp. sugar. Sprinkle with .5 cup shredded coconut mixed with .5 cup chopped peanuts over the top.

Wayne Kiltz is the founder and owner of Africa Imports. You can find over 100 other articles on African art, culture, and fashion at http://www.africaimports.com.

See more recipes at http://www.africaimports.com/africanrecipes.asp

Are you becoming concerned that your case of seasonal sadness is lasting longer, or is more severe than you have previously experienced? How do you know whether this is only a short-term problem, or whether you may have a serious condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD? Do you need to seek counseling? Find out about the signs of SAD, how this problem can affect you, and those treatments that are available.

SAD is not just getting the blues when the weather is bad. SAD begins in autumn, when the season moves toward winter and the days become shorter. Symptoms usually start sometime during late summer or early fall. Moreover, because of the severity and consequences of SAD and other types of depression, physicians need extensive evidence of the condition before they are willing to make a definite diagnosis. Even though signs may be very severe, physicians do not usually diagnose patients with SAD before he or she demonstrates strong evidence of the disorder for at least three winters in a row.

Individuals who experience SAD begin to have emotions of sadness, reduced motivation, and tend to sleep for excessive periods. They also report a dependence on sugar or sweets. In addition, most people diagnosed with SAD also have poor immune system functioning. Often, they find themselves becoming ill much more easily than people who do not suffer from SAD.

SAD can negatively decrease a person’s ability to function professionally or at school. This lack of motivation can make it difficult for a person even to get out of bed and tend to normal activities. People with SAD have trouble participating in social situations, or even at home. These persons frequently have times of extreme anxiety and irritability. Sometimes, symptoms become severe and distressing enough that victims even think about suicide and require hospitalization for therapy.

Interestingly, women seem to experience SAD more frequently than men do. Furthermore, this disorder seems to get better yearly at springtime. In fact, by March or April, symptoms usually decrease or disappear completely – until autumn returns again. This remains true even in states that tend to be dismal all year long. In fact, as many as twenty percent of those who are treated for seasonal depression will at some point develop signs of bipolar disorder.

These people primarily tend to be depressed during wintertime, but have normal moods during the remainder of the year. At times, however, individuals describe instances of uncontrollable mood elevation, also known as mania. Like any other type of depression, SAD may become quite severe or even result in disability if not treated properly. Moreover, many people experience very mild levels of SAD; they may experience sleepiness, lack of motivation, and loss of appetite. Such people, however, do not usually endure instances of depressive moods or anxiety.

This type of depression is relatively rare in sunny areas such as Tennessee, southern California, and even Colorado. In contrast, people who live in places with a large number of cloudy days, such as Indiana, Illinois, or Washington are much more likely to develop this disorder. Citizens of countries such as Finland, Sweden, and England also struggle with SAD.

Scientists have tried a number of different strategies to help affected individuals overcome this debilitating condition. They have tried exposing people to artificial light in an attempt to assist them to manufacture more serotonin and relieve depression symptoms. Researchers have also tried medicines such as antidepressants, and supplements, such as melatonin, in an attempt to relieve these symptoms of depression. Often, individuals who experience this condition also seek out counselors when they are suffering most greatly.

Each of these approaches result in with different degrees of effectiveness. All, however, are definitely more expensive and time-intensive than two recently introduced, innovative methods. Hypnotherapy practitioners have refined the art of coaching clients to learn both NLP and self-hypnosis techniques for depression.

Using the latter method, clients learn to talk themselves out of a depressive period and resolve their symptoms. These innovative treatments, hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, have proven to have an astonishing amount of success in assisting individuals to heal from, and prevent future occurrences of SAD.

Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in stress and depression related symptoms as an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He’s helped thousands since 1978. He offers treatment for depression therapy CDs. Visit his self-help depression site for hypnosis articles and hypnosis videos.

http://www.neuro-vision.us/

The underlying causes of the majority physical habits may be quite varied, and rooted at different psychological levels. Although hypnotherapy has a wide range of applications, the behaviors that are most directly related to physical habits are typically the ones that can be treated with hypnotherapy most immediately and directly.

Hypnosis for smoking cessation is the most well known of these, and is one of the most successful and least invasive techniques for reaching its goal. Another popular area for hypnotherapy treatment is for weight reduction. Similarly, hypnotherapy is also the best technique for conquering the nail biting habit.

Nail biting shares many similarities to smoking. It is a physical, ritualistic habit. Either can be caused by the mechanics of a physical routine, or might perhaps be indicative of deeper psychological issues. And in either case the habit itself can be quite effectively stopped with hypnotherapy.

Discovering and treating underlying psychological problems, which are exhibited in nail biting or smoking can be a process that requires multiple sessions with a knowledgeable hypnotherapist. However, not all hypnotherapists and hypnotists are capable of performing at the deep psychological level. Thankfully, for the purposes of eliminating a nail biting or a smoking habit, they do not need to work below the most direct physical level.

The immediate goal of curing nail biting is far more straightforward. Many of our deeper emotional and psychological states are influenced by our physical state, so in solving the physical symptoms directly, we are also able to have an indirect impact on deeper issues. Furthermore, not all negative physical habits have an underlying cause; sometimes it is merely just a physical habit; and it just “feels” good for the person to take part in them.

In my experience, the focused and relaxed state of hypnosis can have extraordinary results when used in causing simple changes to one’s physical state. Whenever I relieve severe burn pain, remove nausea, and relieve other physical problems for a client in just a few seconds, it still amazes me, even though I’m supposedly the one with the “power” (although as we know, the true power exists within the client’s unconscious mind). The capabilities exist in each of our minds to block severe nausea and pain; so the ability to prevent one from nail biting is a relatively modest goal in comparison.

I have found three of the powerful aspects of hypnotherapy to be anchoring, substitution and association. With association, one can link the undesirable behavior to something aversive; with substitution, one may replace the bad habit with an innocuous one; with anchoring, one may link physical movement triggers with alternative feelings and behaviors.

With association, just like the simple hypnotic parlor trick can make a piece of white bread taste like the most delectable New York Cheesecake to a subject, one can make the feeling and taste of nail biting to be extremely distasteful. If your subject is consistently and repeatedly conditioned to believe that the taste and feel of nail biting is extremely unpleasant, it will help to cause the habit to cease.

There are chemical products that achieve this goal via unpleasant tasting nail polish. However, with a mental association they can stop nail biting without depending upon using a chemical product. This “aversion” type of therapy is not generally extremely helpful. But it is only reliable when used as an adjunct to eliminating stress that causes one to bite their nails, as well as extinguishing conditioned responses (unconscious associations), which triggers one to bite their nails.

Using substitution, it can be effective to replace the nail-biting pattern with a more benign affliction. For instance, it is quite effective to place the suggestion that whenever one feels the impulses that lead them towards nail biting, they will take a deep breath instead, and exhale slowly, experiencing all the same feelings and resolution that nail biting used to bring. I have found the deep breathing substitute to be effective for a wide range of issues.

Anchoring similarly can be used to subvert one action into another, and works well with the association and substitution techniques. It is useful in creating the suggestion that each and every time subjects see their fingers approach their mouth, they strongly recall the bad taste association, and they instead take that deep breath to relieve the tension.

In summary, hypnotherapy has long been established as one of the best methods for negative behavior modification. Just as with smoking cessation, the techniques and concepts outlined here prove to be extremely effective as a long-term nail-biting cure.

Alan B. Densky, CH is a leader in the field of hypnosis. Visit his website for free hypnosis advice. He’s developed a comprehensive seven-session stop biting fingernails hypnosis program based on NLP and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy.

http://www.neuro-vision.us/Products/AudioNailBitingHypnosisTapes.htm

There are various methods through which you can get the colon cleaned out. But we are going to be examining homemade colon cleansing methods. They are:

1. Enemas
Enemas are highly popular homemade colon cleansers that have been in existence for at least five centuries now. In the ancient times, people discovered that to incite bowel movements, they could pour water through the anus into the colon. Hence, they started applying that to themselves when they had digestion problems or when they found it hard to pass their wastes.

Enemas are not hard to get or create. They are made from a combination of water and oils which are squirted through the anus into the colon until the colon is full and then initiates the bowel movement required. The thing with this method is that it is invasive, embarrassing and unenjoyable. Moreover, it is not something you can do while on the move. You must be close to a toilet otherwise, you will suffer the embarrassment of doing it on yourself.

People who use the homemade colon cleanse enema tend to apply more water quantity than the commercially available ones; for instance, a homemade colon cleanse enema contains 3/4 of water, and peppermint, frankincense or fennel. Sometimes they combine one or more of these together or even all at the same time. It is important to note the role these oils play in getting an individual to have bowel movements. They stimulate the colon muscles which in turn contract to expel the stool. Please note that in case you settle for this option, you need to add nothing more than 1-3 drops of the oils to the water you’ll be using as enema. While you may be satisfied with this option, it is better that you know that applying it is also pretty difficult. It entails having to lie down with bag containing the enema hanging at least 2 feet above the body and you have to be close to the toilet. The temperature of the water has to be between ninety eight and one hundred and three (98-103) degree Fahrenheit. It is a whole complex stuff and besides, it doesn’t do a thorough job of properly eliminating impacted fecal matter clinging to your colon walls.

2. Fasting
This method is very cheap because it doesn’t involve you buying stuff to cleanse the colon. All you need is your determination to carry it through. It takes time, which some people say twenty one days, to see the results. You would actually feel your breath come out as fresh as that of a baby; okay that’s going too far but you can get the idea. The idea behind using fasting as a way to have a very effective colon cleansing is that when you do not eat, your body is forced to digest whatever it finds in the colon in the bid for survival. It is also of importance that your colon be well rested during this period. It is for this reason that people who fast regularly find it hard to go back to eating because of the total sense of well being that emanates from the single act of fasting.

But you need to realize that while this works for some people, it definitely cannot work for those who have got stomach ulcers, people who are not disciplined. Also, who likes the idea that his or her body has to digest impure, toxic substances just for survival? Be sure to know that your body may be forced to do it, but what is the long term effect? If the body really feels it did not need this waste materials previously, why force it to digest what it feels is toxic and should be passed out as waste? So you can see now that except you are comfortable with the idea, it is not a very good option to take.

3. Consume more fiber
The third method you can use and has been tested and tried to get your colon cleansed is by eating lots of fibers to enable regular bowel movements and passing out of the feces frequently. This will enhance the movement of the bowel. One of such fiber rich foods is prune juice. It is advised that if you want to increase the frequency of the bowel movements, then it is a good option. It helps loosen up the stool and promotes easier passage of the stool hence preventing lots of straining and disallowing the impaction of feces on the colon walls. However, if the feces was there long before you started taking the prune juice, you will not be able to get rid of all the feces that are already stuck to the walls of the colon. So you can see that unless you really enjoy eating prune- as you’d have to eat a lot to notice any effect-, it really takes time to work. You have to be patient.

For fast and effective natural colon cleansing supplements, you can visit this website: http://www.healthymax.org

Any person that is considering any type of surgery should think about the procedure, this is no different and is important for laser eye surgery. Laser treatment is a relatively new option that alters the shape of the cornea and improves eyesight permanently removing the need for either contact lenses or glasses.
Here in this article we shall look at eye surgery, the results and benefits and what individuals need to consider before undergoing the surgery.

First of all it is highly recommended that anyone that is considering laser surgery to correct their vision does a lot of research into the procedure and the clinic you wish to have a consultation. This way you can be confident that the surgery and the aftercare that you will receive will be the very best and will lower any risks of complications. Treatment usually takes around a quick fifteen minutes which is followed by two to seven days recovery. The effect of the surgery is permanent, but is unable to prevent any further deterioration of eye sight. Patients that are over the age of forty five may find that they still require reading glasses.

The shape of the cornea determines how well the eye can focus; making the centre of the cornea flatter will improve short-sightedness, whilst making the centre curved by trimming the edge helps those diagnosed with long-sightedness. In this particular treatment the laser removes tissue from the cornea to alter its shape and correct vision.

Currently there are two types of eye laser surgery, Lasik surgery involves a thin layer of the cornea being cut and lifted with the laser. Recovery is very quick and pain free but because the surgery is more complicated than the other procedure there are more risks. This is due to the cutting of the cornea and there have been more reported side effects at the higher risk. Lasek surgery does not involve the cutting of the cornea and is therefore safer however there is a longer recovery time and discomfort can be felt unlike the Lasik.

Laser eye surgery can improve eyesight to around 20/20 vision so that patients no longer need to wear their contacts or glasses. It is able to treat short sightedness, long sightedness and astigmatisms. However it is unsuitable for people with high degrees of short sight and long sight, or for people with large pupils and eye diseases. Surgery is not usually recommended for people under twenty one and over sixty, for any queries about eye surgery it is advised you speak to your GP first.

Dom Donaldson is a published writer.
Find out more about Laser Eye Surgery at http://www.centreforsight.com/