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How to Prevent Cataracts

HealthMojo Health

Cataract surgery can fix compromised vision induced by cataracts that make reading, driving a car (especially at night) increasingly challenging. Luckily, cataract surgery is usually a safe and successful operation.

For those who don’t know, cataracts arise due to the lens of the eye becoming clouded. Responsible for allowing light to travel into the retina, the lens is a transparent substance composed mainly of water and protein fibres. As the fibres clump together, the lens becomes less affective, leading to blurred sight and, if left unchecked, total blindness.

Often cataracts grow slowly and don’t always affect the eyesight immediately. Over time, though, cataracts will gradually impact your vision. Some of the numbers relating to cataracts are shocking. Cataracts are responsible for 51% of the world’s blindness that occurs, and it is estimated that no fewer than 65 million people globally are affected by cataracts to some degree.

There are many ways which you can help reduce the chances of you contracting cataracts, some of which you can begin immediately.

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The Lowdown on Migraines and Botox 

HealthMojo Health

Everyone knows that Botox is a cosmetic injectable that you can use for smoothing out wrinkles. But did you know it’s also being reported as a potential treatment option for migraines?

Surprisingly, one in ten school-aged children and teens suffer from migraines. But at the moment, there is only one type of migraine medicine that is suitable for young people to use. What are kids supposed to do when their migraines become unbearable?

Botox as an Alternative Options

According to the chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the University of California, Shalini Shah, M.D., migraines affect children’s lives and their ability to function. When they trialled Botox as a treatment method for children and teens with migraines, they noticed improvements in function.

One student was hospitalised every month for migraine pain before using Botox and was heading towards being held back in school. However, after Botox treatment, she only had one or two migraines every year and started to excel in her schooling.

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What is Incidental Activity? 

FitnessMojo Health

Working on your fitness and doing regular exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s essential for your health and wellbeing, but many people see it as a chore rather than a passion. While there’s no getting around your need for exercise, there is a way to incorporate it into your day without even trying. Intrigued? Read on to how you can improve your fitness without hitting the gym.

What is Incidental Activity?

Incidental activity is a way to burn calories without partaking in an active form of exercise. If you’re not a gym-goer by any stretch of the imagination, then knowing this type of activity exists is bound to put a smile on your face.

It’s important to note that regular, traditional exercise is a way to keep you fit and healthy. You should never entirely swap regular exercise for incidental activity. In saying that, it’s helpful to know you can burn calories in other ways.

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Our Top 3 Health Tips for 2019

HealthMojo Health

Mojo’s Health & Wholefoods love this time of year! Why? Because now is the time to make those small sustainable changes that will make such a difference to your overall health in 2019. Here are the best three changes to begin your year:

1. Drink water!

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to keep your body hydrated. Consumption of water is associated with a number of health benefits, including flushing out toxins, increased energy, improved cognitive function as well as helping the body to break down food thereby boosting your metabolism. Take your reusable bottle wherever you go and take regular sips to achieve your 2 litres a day.

2. Eat real food!

Easier said than done we know! But drop the Uber Eats at least from Monday to Friday and stick to home cooked meals with lots of vegetables and wholegrains. Try doing a meal planner on Sunday evening and stick to it. And if you must eat out, choose the smarter options on the menu such as steak and vegetables, or pastas with tomato based sauces.

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Beauty Without Bunnies

BeautyMojo Health

As the market for natural skincare skyrockets with hundreds of new products now available, how do you know you are choosing the most ethical brands? Many reputable companies are forthcoming about ingredients and certification but many aren’t so honest when it comes to cruelty free products.

Even in 2018, many well-known and house hold name brands still perform testing on animals – Johnson & Johnson, Revlon, Pantene, Maybelline, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Jo Malone, Bobby Brown, MAC Cosmetics – the list is endless. These companies have poor ethics when it comes to animal testing with some making no effort to change their policies, preferring to overlook animal welfare in exchange for bigger profits.

Unfortunately, it is also big business providing animals to companies to test their products. Many breeds of animals are reared and/or genetically modified for the specific aim of shipping off to laboratories to conduct safety experiments. This raises the question as to what ingredients are these brands putting into their skincare products that need such ‘safety’ testing? If the ingredients are not safe, why are they being added and why would we want to put them on our skin?

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Your Easter Survival Guide

DietsMojo Health

It’s the countdown to Easter and to lots of yummy chocolate but have you ever wondered why a rabbit delivers eggs made of chocolate for us to eat??

The Easter Bunny, as we know him, originated from German settlers who migrated to America in the 1800’s. The “Oschter Haws” or Easter Hare was a European Spring time Santa, judging whether children had been good or bad. The Easter Hare would carry a basket of coloured eggs, sweets or toys to give as gifts the night before Easter. The gifts would sometimes be left in the house or garden for children to find, hence the origin of the Easter Egg Hunt.

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The Wholefoods Diet

Diets, HealthMojo Health

Wholefoods are plant foods which have not been processed or refined (or as little as possible) prior to eating – think fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds. The term wholefoods tends to refer to a more plant-based diet with animal products, oils and salt being excluded.

Wholefoods are grown from seed without chemicals, sprays or insecticides and are as close to their natural form as possible, providing us with a natural alternative to the many ‘convenience’ food products now being offered in supermarkets.

Recent research shows that getting optimal nutrition from our food (and thereby optimal health) we should be eating wholefoods as our ancestors did about 100 years ago as these retain fibre, phytochemicals and nutrients that are often lost with highly processed and packaged foods.

Examples of phytochemicals include anthocyanins which give blueberries their deep colour or red coloured lycopene found in tomatoes. Wholefoods are as nature intended them to be – no added fats, sugars or salt and with all the fibre our body needs. Fibre aids our digestion and helps us to feel full faster. Eating wholefoods also help to fight heart disease and diabetes.

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How Green Is Your Beauty?

Beauty, SustainabilityMojo Health

The Zero Waste movement has gained much momentum with many people switching to sustainable and eco friendly practices. So what IS Zero Waste?

It’s where we reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be recycled and compost what we cannot with the aim to send nothing to landfill. Going Zero Waste will help reduce the environmental threat to our planet plus save us money in the long term. But have you ever thought about the impact your beauty products are having on the earth?

If you love to pamper your skin why not pamper the planet at the same time by taking a little bit of time to choose beauty products that will help your skin and save our planet! Here’s how:

1. Look for organic certification from the world’s leading organic certification bodies who have a global organic and natural cosmetics standard otherwise known as COSMO – a product may claim its organic or natural so look for products certified by BDHI (Germany), Cosmebio (France), Ecocert (France, ICEA (Italy), Soil Association (UK) and ACO (Australia) to be certain. (Check out Zk’in Skin Care range which is COSMO Certified)

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Do You Need to do FODMAPs?

Diets, HealthMojo Health

What is the low FODMAPs diet and should you be on it? Firstly it’s important to know what FODMAPs is and what it means – Fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. So you can see why it’s commonly referred to as FODMAPs!

The FODMAP concept was first hypothesised in the Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics Journal in 2005 with the low FODMAP diet being developed at Monash University in Melbourne.

Put simply the Low FODMAP diet targets natural carbohydrates (sugars) in foods that don’t break down easily, causing fermentation in the gastrointestinal system. Fermentation is the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms. This fermentation in the gut creates unpleasant symptoms such as smelly gas, bloating, and abdominal pain. So where are the FODMAPs hiding in our food?

Oligosaccharides are found in certain plants such as artichokes, burdock, chicory, leeks, onions, and asparagus.

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