Rainbow Trout. This colorful fish is an excellent source for vitamin D. The NIH notes that just three ounces contain 81% of the Daily Value. This colorful fish is also high in protein, low in calories, and can be grilled, baked, steamed, or fried.

Salmon. A six-ounce portion can provide up to 90% of the recommended Daily Value for vitamin D. Make sure to read the packaging before purchase since some scientific data suggests that wild salmon may be higher in vitamin D than the farmed variety.

Cod Liver Oil. When delicious foods come to mind, cod liver oil probably isn’t on your list, but there’s no doubt that just a tiny amount will do wonders for upping your vitamin D level. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that just one tablespoon provides 1,360 units of vitamin D, a whopping 170% of the Daily Value.

Mushrooms. These fabulous fungi are one of the best plant sources for vitamin D. Unlike other types of produce, mushrooms can produce vitamin D after being exposed to sunlight. According to the Mushroom Council, Portabella and crimini mushrooms contain higher amounts of calciferol, which is converted from the plant sterol ergosterol.

Fortified Cereals. If you’re looking for a vitamin D boost, try eating a bowl of cereal that’s had vitamin D manually added.  In the United States, ready-to-eat cereals that list a grain as their first ingredient must be fortified with vitamin D, along with several other nutrients.

Fortified Orange Juice. If you enjoy a glass of OJ for breakfast, try finding a brand that’s been fortified with vitamin D and calcium. A 2010 study discovered that orange juice with added vitamin D was as beneficial as taking oral supplements. Several popular brands provide up to 25% of the daily value in just one serving.

Fortified Non-Dairy Milks. If you’re looking for a healthy beverage to up your vitamin D but can’t drink cow’s milk, pour yourself a glass of fortified soy, coconut, almond, or oat milk. Many non-dairy products offer up to a whopping 45% of the Daily Value.

Fortified Orange Juice. If you enjoy a glass of OJ for breakfast, try finding a brand that’s been fortified with vitamin D and calcium. A 2010 study discovered that orange juice with added vitamin D was as beneficial as taking oral supplements. Several popular brands provide up to 25% of the daily value in just one serving.

Keep in mind that vitamin D levels may fall short even if you live in a sunny city and eat well. Ask your physician to check your vitamin D levels just in case supplementation is necessary.

We all know that blood thinners can help decrease the risk of strokes and heart attacks but, unfortunately, many people are skeptical about using this medicine. Those looking for treatment can look towards their kitchen where certain foods can aid in keeping your blood flowing smoothly.

Cayenne Peppers

Cayenne peppers aren’t something people casually munch on when they’re hanging out at home. This pepper is one of the hottest around. Aside from being a solid blood thinner, cayenne peppers can also boost your metabolism. These peppers are also great are reducing physical pain.

Dong Quai

Originating in China, dong quai has been used in the region as medicine for thousands of years. The herb has the ability to slow down the process of blood clots. Dong quai can be used as part of tea, and it also can be eaten. It’s also great at reducing constipation and allergic attacks.

Garlic

Garlic is in nearly everyone’s kitchen today. This plant can give food a stronger taste, but it can also help your blood flow. While eating garlic raw seems odd, it’s completely safe. In fact, eating garlic raw can help improve your immunity and keep blood sugar levels normal.

Ginger

Stemming from plants, ginger spice has been used in food and medicine. Ginger features the natural acid salicylate, which is often found in aspirin. Aside from blood thinning, ginger can aid chronic indigestion and help prevent osteoarthritis. Ginger is also able to prevent various forms of cancer via gingerol.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is found in food such as mango, kiwis, and tomatoes. While Vitamin E is a powerful blood thinner, it’s important to use this in small doses. Too much Vitamin E can lead to severe bleeding. If you’re looking for Vitamin E on the go, supplements are available at supermarkets.

Yearly, three million people in the United States suffer from cataracts, which cloud the eyes. This condition, if not treated, can permanently harm one’s vision. Now, experts are saying this condition can also impact one’s heart. It can even lead to death for some.

A Long Study

Dr. Mingguang He from the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne conducted a study between the two conditions. Their team searched through data from the U.S.’ National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. They looked through 15,000 patients aged 40 and older, who took the survey from 1998 to 2008. Out of the vast number of participants, nearly nine percent of them (2,000+ participants) had cataract surgery. The study followed these people for a decade following the original survey. In the end, nearly 4,000 participants died.

Heart Disease And More

Researchers determined people who had cataracts had a bigger chance of gaining heart attacks. Those individuals also had a stronger chance of having depression, which is a strong factor in heart attacks. The researchers collectively said, “This study found significant associations of self-reported cataract surgery with all-cause and vascular mortalities. More studies are needed to confirm these associations and to further investigate the mechanisms behind these associations.”

Make Sure To Check Up

If you’re worried about getting cataracts, also make sure to give your eyes more attention than usual. “Patients should use the results of this study as a reminder of the importance of having regular eye exams with your eye doctor, especially as you get older or if you have certain medical conditions,” Dr. Matthew Gorski said. Aside from going to the eye doctor, there’s plenty of simple things you can do at home. Avoiding smoking, wearing protective eyewear, and getting exercise can prevent cataracts from taking place. While cataracts normally appear in older individuals, it’s always important to take care of your eyes daily.

When we get older, certain things can unexpectedly creep up on us. One thing is the possibility of hearing loss, which affects 200,000 people in the United States per year. Unfortunately, this condition is connected to dementia in older people.

A Huge Connection

In 2001, Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist Frank Lin conducted a study to see the connection between the conditions. Lin tracked the normal abilities of nearly 2,000 individuals ages 77 and over during a six-year period. In 2013, Lin showcased the results of the study, and they were very alarming. Individuals with hearing loss had a 24 percent higher chance of dementia.

A Big Gamechanger?

Fortunately, there is hope for individuals with hearing loss. In 2006, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris’ researcher Isabelle Mosnier wanted to see the true impact of cochlear implants. They researched 94 elderly patients who had a strong case of hearing loss. Following the insertion of cochlear implants, the elderly patients saw a major increase in their overall performance. Aside from halting hearing loss, the patients saw a decrease in depression.

Not So Fast

Despite this newfound discovery, some people are skeptical about cochlear implants. “Every doctor knows that hearing loss can result in cognitive problems, but they still don’t focus on it as a priority when they evaluate someone with suspected dementia — which is a big missed opportunity,” The Alzheimer’s Action Plan co-author P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D. said. “The benefits of correcting hearing loss on cognition are twice as large as the benefits from any cognitive-enhancing drugs now on the market. It should be the first thing we focus on. We need long-term controlled trials looking at whether cochlear implants can delay the onset of dementia in at-risk subjects, which will clinch the case.”

While the connection between hearing loss and dementia is strong, at least there’s a chance for normalcy.

According to research, the two things that cause the most dispensing errors by pharmacists are distractions and multitasking. It is recommended that steps be taken to put barriers up around the pharmacist’s workspace so that they can concentrate, as well as training staff–and having enough staff–to handle all of the customer’s needs.

Also, the workspace should be organized to enhance the flow of the tasks required to fill each prescription to enhance convenience and efficiency. Other considerations are a comfortable, well-lit, climate-controlled environment to work in, with adequate counter space. It is advisable that pharmacists only work with one drug at a time in order to prevent mistakes. In addition to these tips, the following are seven commonly made errors and how to avoid them.

1. Stored a Medication Improperly

This one is extraordinarily important, considering that most medications are shipped in large quantities. You don’t want to be the one responsible for ruining, for instance, an entire batch of COVID-19 vaccines. Always refer to the literature that comes with the medication, and any drug information references and package inserts. All medications are not created equally, and in fact most are very different, and so require a specific temperature range for stability maintenance.

Another consideration is that your temperature and humidity monitoring systems need to be maintained and in good working order at all times, even when the pharmacy is closed. It is important to assign an employee to check and track any changes in these temperatures in warmers, freezers, and refrigerators multiple times every day.

2. Dispensed a similar but incorrect drug

A lot of medications sound the same, but are very different, such as buspirone and bupropion. If your pharmacy uses barcode technology, you can lower the risk of dispensing the wrong drug to your patient. Barcode technology should be used at every touchpoint in the dispensation process.

Another way to reduce the risk of dispensing an incorrect medication is to physically separate them on the shelves where they are stored. This goes for meds that sound alike, and ones that look alike as well.

Further, using the method called Tall Man Lettering (TML) can helps well. This is where meds that are similar in name are differentiated by putting some letters in the drug name in uppercase on stock bottles. An example would be the drugs hydroxyzine and hydralazine. In TML, hydralazine would be written hydrALAzine, and hydroxyzine would remain the same.

3. Forgetting to fully inform a patient about drug interactions and/or serious side effects

It is always best, from the first prescription fill, to build a personal rapport with your patients. This encourages a dialogue and fosters question asking by the client. It is one thing to offer counseling, and another thing to actually do it on a regular basis voluntarily. You should also have computer systems in place to prevent this mistake from happening.

4. Typos related to abbreviations and zeros

Another error to look out for is mistakes with decimal points, misplaced zeros, and faulty units. It is important to pay careful attention to the package inserts and the writing on the bottles themselves to avoid misinterpretations. One decimal point error could lead to a patient receiving 10 times the amount of medication that they were actually prescribed. Use computer alerts, or, alternatively, you can stock only one strength of a medication. The best way to avoid errors is always to carefully pay attention to zeros, decimal points, and the medication itself.

5. Communication problems

It is always important to have a pharmacy where all levels of employees feel comfortable questioning one another. This error can be avoided by having policies in place that ensure solid and frequent communication between all employees.

6. Dispensing the wrong dosage or quantity of medication

Here is another area where using barcode technology is important. Keeping different dosages and strengths of medication on separate shelving is another good way to avoid mistake. A good rule of thumb is to read the label three times before doing anything with the medication.

7. Data entered incorrectly

It’s a well-known fact that sometimes doctors have terrible handwriting. Be sure that you know that exactly what you are putting from the prescription pad into the computer is the same thing. There are a lot of acronyms, nonstandard abbreviations, illegible writing, and decimals that go into writing some prescriptions, and you’ll never want to get it wrong.

Hypertension, more commonly known as high blood pressure, affects about 85 million people in the US.  It can lead to a heart attack or stroke, arrhythmias, kidney damage or failure, and so many more serious health issues.  The most common causes of Hypertension are smoking, obesity, heavy drinking, and stress.  A new study has found that there may be another symptom or factor of hypertension.

Recently scientist has been studying more on the microbiome (microorganisms in a particular environment), specifically bacteria located in the gut.  Currently, the studies have been strictly observational, but the results have shown some correlation between hypertension and gut dysbiosis (bacterial colonies imbalanced).

A study conducted on 196 people; 41 of them with ideal blood pressure, 99 with hypertension, and 56 with prehypertension (refers to people who have high blood pressure but not high enough to be diagnosed as high blood pressure) found that those with hypertension and prehypertension had a reduction in the diversity of gut bacteria.

A similar study, conducted in 2016, analyzed pregnant women who were obese and overweight, and at a higher risk of hypertension.  The women were all at 16 weeks in their pregnancy, and the findings determent that there were significantly lower levels of Odoribactor, a type of bacteria.  The women who had the highest blood pressure showed the lowest levels of the bacteria.

How gut bacteria and hypertension are related is still being studied.  At this time it is unsure if hypertension is causing the decreased diversity of gut bacteria, or if gut bacteria is the cause of hypertension. It is a very complex field that will take time to research and come to a final result. Food ingested, medicine taken, and other health conditions do influence gut bacteria and can impact the results. Only continued research and analysis will find the answers.

Nobody likes to feel bloated. It can make the simplest physical activities very difficult to perform. However, there are some breakfast foods out there that can exacerbate the issue of a bloated belly and can make this nasty issue last an entire day. Steer clear of this problem and avoid these breakfast foods that cause bloating.

Wheat

Whether it’s your whole wheat breakfast toast or your frosted wheat, don’t eat wheat in your breakfast. Wheat has a tendency to make people bloat due to its high gluten count,  so it’s best to steer clear from this bloat-inducing breakfast food.

Cruciferous Vegetables

Maybe you like throwing a few veggies into your omelet. Maybe some broccoli for a bit of fiber. Well, cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage contain FODMAPs, chemicals which cause the bloating.

Rye

Rye toast with a slab of butter and an egg may sound like a good breakfast but it causes bloating. This is because rye falls into the cereal grain category, meaning that it is related to wheat, and as mentioned above wheat causes bloating. Rye is not nearly as intense a bloating experience as wheat, but it does still cause bloating due to high fiber and gluten content.

Dairy

Dairy is perhaps the quintessential breakfast food. Cottage cheese, yogurt parfaits, cheese on omelets, the butter used in so many breakfast dishes, and of course the milk that you drown your cereal in. However, this tasty breakfast food category is fraught with bloat-inducing flaws. Why? Milk has lactose and lactose causes bloating because the human body has difficulty breaking it down. Given that milk is the central ingredient in all of the world’s dairy products, it is more than likely these delectable dairy foods will inevitably cause some amount of bloating.

Aside from taking medications that have an entire laundry list of side effects, there hasn’t been much help for women with a low libido. But fear not because certain foods can boost a woman’s sex drive—no pills required!

1. Green Tea

Rich in catechins, green tea is a lust promotor because these compounds actually boost blood flow to your love nest while also increasing the size of the blood vessels by making them release nitric oxide. Catechins also make the liver turn fat into energy faster, which is great news if you’re looking to slim down around your middle.

2. Spinach

Spinach already contains compounds that suppress your appetite, but it also is packed chock full of magnesium. This mineral is great for decreasing inflammation in the blood vessels, which helps everything flow better. If you’re wondering why increased blood flow in the nether regions is good news, look to sex expert and psychotherapist Tammy Nelson, Ph.D., who says that, “Women will find it is easier to have an orgasm, and men will find that erections come more naturally.”

3. Burgers and Steaks

It may sound strange, but red meat is packed with iron, and if you are iron deficient, it can make you feel exhausted and irritated–both of which are not very sexy. Iron deficiencies are more common than you might think, so if you’re feeling weak and wondering where your energy went, you may want to have your blood levels checked. Other foods that are rich in iron are liver, other kinds of grass-fed red meats, and spinach. Combining these foods with yogurt that is filled with probiotics, an L-glutamine supplement, and/or fatty fish can help you absorb iron more efficiently.

4. Pesto

Zinc is a great way to boost your libido, and pesto—made with zinc-filled pine nuts—is a great way to start your fire. Zinc is also found in oysters, which have been proven to increase sex drive in women.

5. Dark Chocolate

Flavonoids are where it’s at when it comes to relaxing the blood vessels and reducing stress, and dark chocolate is a delicious way to increase your intake of flavonoids. Another great trait of flavonoids is that they help to reduce body fat, which is a nice confidence-booster in the bedroom.

6. Red Wine

Don’t be afraid to have a glass or two of red wine to juice up for the big event. Red wine will relax you and also give your libido a boost, studies published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine show. The reason is that, like some of the other foods mentioned on this list, the antioxidants in red wine trigger the production of nitric acid in the bloodstream, which will promote the flow to your nether regions. Just be sure not to overdo it. You don’t want to strike out before the game even starts!

7. Coffee

Recently released studies show that, in animals, females who drank coffee were more likely to engage in sex, and also more likely to repeat sex after a brief rest than animals who didn’t consume the bean-based brew. As with the red wine—just be sure not to overdo it, or you might be too jittery to engage in romantic relations.