healthy living Archives | Better Innovations

Interview With Thumper Massager General Manager Paul Sajgalik

August 27, 2013 By Steven Kirchhof

I had the pleasure of spending some time with Paul Sajgalik, the General Manager and co-owner of Thumper Massager. In this interview we discuss the popularity of Thumper Massagers, how they are designed, and their manufacturing facility outside of Toronto, Canada. Paul also touches on their activity in social media.

Customers of Better Health Innovations have been fans of Thumper Massagers for years. All their massage products produce a real percussive massage that is extremely effective on virtually all parts of the body.

Healthcare Tips For 50-Year Olds

August 8, 2013 By Lauren Hill

I have been practicing medicine my entire life. One of the biggest concerns I hear about everyday is aging. Too often, people come in at the age of 50 worrying that they have a disease because they are getting old. I wish the world would understand that aging does not mean that you are suddenly sick. The majorities of 50 year-olds alive today are in good health and have a decent life expectancy. However, there are certain tips they can implement for healthy living.

Find A Good Doctor

First, the most obvious thing every 50-year old should have is a good doctor. When a patient visits me for the first time with a terminal illness, I feel a horrible. I wish there was something I could do for them or that the problem could have been caught sooner. Sadly, without a routine checkup at the doctor each year, it is hard to identify these life-threatening illnesses. Therefore, the best thing anyone can do to safeguard his or her health is to make preventative medicine a priority. They should check in with their doctor regularly to rule out any health problems that need attention. This way these problems can be remedied before they get worse.

Donâ€™t Neglect Diet And Exercise

Next, it is important to make diet and exercise a priority in your life as well. I meet with many individuals who tell me that they want to finally start living. They say the first 50 years of their lives were filled with stress and worry. They donâ€™t want the rest of their life to be like that. Instead, they would rather enjoy it and eat what they please. I understand this mentality, and I do not want my patients to feel stressed. However, I also want them to try to be moderate in their diet choices. In the event that they overeat, I suggest exercise to help counteract the calories. Although it is not a cure, it is better than doing nothing.

Drink Water

Furthermore, when it comes to your diet, make sure you are getting the daily hydration your body needs. As you age, you are more prone to dehydration. I think it is important for older adults to drink water throughout the day even if they do not feel thirsty. This will help them avoid dehydration and provide them with more energy.

Supplement With Vitamins

Depending on your body, you might need to supplement with vitamins to get the nutrition your body needs for optimal health. This is perfectly normal. However, I recommended working with a doctor to determine what vitamins will be most beneficial to your body.

Be Happy

Finally, it is especially important to be happy at your age. 50 is no longer the death sentence that it once was. For many, it is simply the beginning. Parents are seeing their kids grow up and will soon become empty nesters. Retirement is still years away. There is much to live for and enjoy. Cherish the years ahead and be happy. This will help you to be healthy.

I know that getting old is not always easy. However, remember that with age brings wisdom. Enjoy it and be healthy along the way.

IQAir HealthPro Plus: Detailed Look at the Filters

May 13, 2013 By Steven Kirchhof

In depth look at the filters of the IQAir HealthPro Plus. I also demonstrate how to remove the filters for replacement. This unit has four stages of filtration: PreMax Filter, Carbon, Chemisorption, and “HyperHEPA”. These are each described along with the overall operation of the unit.

Hey, everybody. Weâ€™re back again with the IQAir HealthPro Plus air purifier. We did a part one, a video review and a demonstration at to how the unit works. Ran the unit for a little while on three different settings to give everybody an idea of how loud it is. I would like to take this apart and show you what the filters look like, so letâ€™s jump into it. Filter â€¦ this is the remote â€¦ filter removal is pretty simple with the IQAir unit. You just pull away these two retaining features. Then, thereâ€™s a lid. Iâ€™m doing this as gracefully as I can on video. Weâ€™re going to show the reverse of the airflow, because you take it apart from the top down.

The air comes in from the bottom and goes up through the various filters through the four stage filtration. The last filter that it goes through is a HEPA filter. It actually is â€¦ I mentioned in the first video, IQAir calls this hyper HEPA. As you can see, this is a pretty substantial filter. It takes out .003 micron and larger particles, so itâ€™s actually far beyond the HEPA standard. As you can see, itâ€™s several inches thick, has a pleated material. If you calculated out the square footage of all the pleated media in here, youâ€™re really going to have quite a bit of square feet of filtration media. Thatâ€™s the hyper HEPA.

The next one down is the activated carbon and chem absorption layer. This is the layer that gets out the â€¦ a lot of the odors. Actually, thatâ€™s the purpose of this layer. This is a HealthPro Plus that we have here. If you have a HealthPro, or if youâ€™re looking at the HealthPro, it does not come with this layer. There it is, about five pounds of activated charcoal. Iâ€™ll take that out. Youâ€™ll probably hear the pelletized carbon rattling around in there. I very much like the set-up of the IQAir and how it gets the air through these, basically, five cells of carbon.

Lastly, is the pre-filter. IQAir calls it the pre-max filter. To get that out, without [inaudible 0:02:54] the motor up. This is the motor assembly. The pre-filter, obviously, goes before the motor, keeps all the junk out of the motor thatâ€™s going to potentially jam it up. Takes out the larger pollen; takes out hair, human hair, dog hair, big pet dander, that sort of thing. Letâ€™s have a look at that real quick. Just slides out. There are some retaining features here to keep this in, four retaining clips. Looks a lot like the HEPA filter, but itâ€™s not. Itâ€™s more coarser than the HEPA filter.

Again, the purpose of this is to keep the big material out so that it can go through the other filtration. Thatâ€™s it. There are your filters and how they come out of an IQAir HealthPro Plus. If you have any questions, certainly give us a call. I really encourage you to take a look at BetterHealthInnovations.com. There we have the entire IQAir line, including this unit, of course. We also have their multi-gas series, which weâ€™ll probably do a video on that sometime in the future. Until then, everybody have a great day.

To Learn more about the IQAir Healthpro air purifiers: www.betterhealthinnovations.com/IQAir_Air_Purifiers_s/242.htm

IQAir HealthPro Plus Demonstration & Review

May 9, 2013 By Steven Kirchhof

We review the popular IQAir HealthPro Plus air purifier. Along with the overall description of the unit, I run it on three different settings so you can get an idea of how quiet the unit is. Before you invest in any air purifier/filter, I strongly recommend that you watch this video so you can get an idea how the IQAir unit functions and how it can solve your air quality issues.

More information about the HealthPro Plus can be found at Amazon: CLICK HERE

Hey, everybody. As you know, air quality is a big concern of a lot of people. Probably for you, if youâ€™re watching this video. Lately, weâ€™ve had a lot of customers come in looking for a high quality air purification unit. They may suffer from allergies, or they might just want to live a healthier life and breathe cleaner air. Thereâ€™s an awful lot of obviously pollen, awful lot of various kinds of particulate matter floating around in the air. All the way down to very, very small and fine particles, and there was recently a study that talked about how dangerous these very fine particles are.

What I want to talk about, both for people who have allergies and those who just want to get rid of odors in their home or office or for those who just want to live a lot healthier life. I wanted to walk through the IQAir HealthPro Plus. IQAir, made in Switzerland. Certainly, one of the top units on the market today, maybe the top for a portable type unit that you can just place into your home. The HealthPro Plus features four stages of filtration. Unlike a lot of their competitors, they bring in the air from the bottom of the unit. You think about all those particles floating around in the air. Theyâ€™re all going to ground eventually.

A lot of them are obviously going down towards the floor and towards the lowest surface that they can go. The IQAir unit is actually sucking those in. Sucking in, what I would say, a more denser air mixture of particles. That air is brought up through the unit, goes through four stages of filtration, and then itâ€™s exhausted. The clean air comes out through the top of the unit, all the way around. Almost 360 degrees blowing out that clean air into your environment. The filtration stages, thereâ€™s a pre-filter that gets out big particles like pollen, pet dander, hair, that sort of thing.

The second level of filtration in the HealthPro Plus unit is activated carbon. Carbon has been used for lots and lots of years. This unit here has five pounds of carbon. That takes out a lot of the odors out of the air. Carbon has been a really traditional means of cleaning your air. When you have a big cell of carbon going through, not just a mesh coated with carbon, it really eliminates all those odors in your air or most the odors [inaudible 0:02:43]. There is a chem absorption layer of filtration. That takes out chemical smells. It can take out formaldehyde. It can take out other chemical type of things.

Then, what IQAir terms as a hyper HEPA filter. Iâ€™m sure youâ€™ve heard the word HEPA. There are different levels of HEPA, but generally HEPA filtration is units that can get out particles that are .3 microns or larger. IQAir really takes that to the next level. Theyâ€™re taking out particles that are .003 microns or larger. With that kind of HEPA, youâ€™re getting the fine particles out that are floating around in the air that can really cause some serious health problems. I wanted to do a little demonstration here. A lot of folk are worried about how loud these are. With the new addition IQAir, itâ€™s an extremely quiet unit. There are six different fan speeds. Iâ€™m not going to go through all six of these, but I will go through three. Iâ€™ll go through the lowest, the mid-range, and then the highest.

It is a little bit difficult to capture sound like this on video. Thatâ€™s why Iâ€™m not wearing a mike like I usually do. Instead, I have a microphone set up in front of us. Hopefully, weâ€™ll capture this pretty well. Letâ€™s go for the lowest setting. I donâ€™t know if you could really hear that. I really didnâ€™t hear much. The lowest setting, obviously, isnâ€™t moving as many cubic feet of air as the higher settings. Letâ€™s try the mid-range setting. You will be able to hear this, if you didnâ€™t hear the first one. Lastly, of course, Iâ€™ll put on the highest level. After I do that, then Iâ€™ll tell you how you actually use these levels on a normal basis.

On that highest level, you could hear it. You probably wouldnâ€™t want that running all the time, unless you want some white noise or something in the background when youâ€™re trying to sleep. It is loud. Itâ€™s not really disturbing loud. Itâ€™s not like thereâ€™s bells going off. Itâ€™s just kind of a white noise in the background sort of thing. Typically, you wonâ€™t need to run the unit at that high of a level. What I usually do, and actually what we did here in this video studio overnight, is you run it at the highest level for 12 hours, 24 hours. You get out most of the particulates in the room, and then just run it on a maintenance setting. Just run it on either the lowest or second to lowest just to keep the clean air â€¦ or to keep the air in the room clean.

Youâ€™ve already gotten rid of the bulk of the stuff in there. Certainly, it varies from environment to environment to environment. As you could hear as I ran the lowest and even the middle setting, itâ€™s really not disruptive if youâ€™re watching TV or reading a book or sleeping. Itâ€™s certainly not a disruptive. Itâ€™s certainly not a loud sound. I really appreciate the quietness of this unit, but I also appreciate that thereâ€™s an option where you can crank this thing up and really change over the air in a room very quickly. Thereâ€™s also a comprehensive set of controls on the HealthPro Plus. With this unit, you are able to set up a timer to go off certain days of the week, certain times to run the air.

You can run it on higher levels when youâ€™re not home, for example, so youâ€™re not listening to it. It also has the filter life, which is based on hours of operation. There is, the IQAir HealthPro Plus. Weâ€™re going to be doing a lot more air purifier videos. We already have a couple on the channel now. If you like, Iâ€™d sure appreciate it if you would subscribe to the channel. Itâ€™s the IQAir HealthPro Plus. I really say you canâ€™t go wrong with this. Iâ€™ve used these in the office, used these in the home. Visit us Amazon’s IQAir Category for more information about the entire line of IQAir. Everybody, have a great day.

Making Better Choices For Your Cardiovascular Health

February 27, 2013 By Lauren Hill

Like many people entering middle age, I found myself carrying around some extra weight. It sneaked up on me; I didnâ€™t know how Iâ€™d put it on, or even realize just how much weight Iâ€™d gained over the past few years until I was trying on a cute pair of stretchy capri leggings and looked in the dressing room mirror to see a couple of belly rolls peeking back out at me. That was the first of a couple of wake-up calls I had about my weight and health. The second was the result of a routine blood test during a check-up, that informed me I had high cholesterol.

With a family history of type II diabetes, heart problems, and some types of cancer, I knew I had to get my weight and eating habits under control if I wanted to be healthy and a good example to my kids. I tried a lot of diet and exercise programs over the next few months, with little effect, until I just decided to get as basic as possible. I made a few simple lifestyle changes that helped me get my health back on track. These same kinds of changes also worked for several of my friends and family members.

Cutting Out The Bad Stuff

I needed to face the facts: I had a junk food addiction, and it was the most important lifestyle change I needed to make if I wanted to see a difference in my health. Fast food, junk food, sweets, sodas â€“ all of that is bad for the heart, clogs up your veins, and can cause many other types of health problems. I made a rule that I wouldnâ€™t eat any food that â€œcould come out of a windowâ€ â€“ fast food, to be specific. I limited the amount of boxed and prepared foods I bought at the store and made meals from scratch whenever possible. I cut out all sodas and even juice (juice has lots of sugar), and drank either skim milk or water flavored with fresh lemon and mint. Just by cutting all the junk from my diet, I lost ten pounds in a month!

Did that mean I couldnâ€™t ever indulge again with a burger or piece of chocolate cake? I still allow myself a treat once or twice a month â€“ even once weekly if Iâ€™m careful the rest of the week. Everyone needs to indulge now and then.

Portion Control

To me, the real key to weight loss and regaining my health was knowing exactly how much I was eating. I went for weeks thinking I was eating great, but was still not losing weight, until I started keeping track of my calories. I joined an online site that gives members the option to add in every type of food under the sun, and keeps track of the calories, fat, carbs, and protein consumed. I was shocked at how quickly the calories add up â€“ but once Iâ€™d balanced my protein with the necessary carbs and calories for energy, I found that I could eat far less and still feel full.

Counting calories isnâ€™t for everyone. Some people do better with a plan based on a points system, or pre-portioned meals. Whatâ€™s important is setting up a portion control program that you can work with, and sticking to it.

Exercise

I didnâ€™t start out exercising at first, but worked my way into it as I started to see results just from eating better. Exercising can be hard to fit into your busy day, but it helps to boost your energy, mood, and metabolism. For a while, I worked out at the gym at least five days a week, for up to two hours at a time. That soon became impractical, and these days I donâ€™t get anywhere near as much exercise. Now, I mainly walk a few times a week, but Iâ€™m starting up a program that will gradually ease me into running. The most important part of getting your exercise is finding something you enjoy doing. It should be fun! Dance workouts, biking, skating, swimming, and even running are all activities that can be fun and donâ€™t seem like the type of brutal or dull gym workout that many people dread.

Donâ€™t Give Up

Itâ€™s been a few years since I decided to do something about my health. Because I fell off the wagon too many times, I still havenâ€™t reached my goal weight. But a recent assessment of my goals and lifestyle have inspired me again to get myself into optimum health. And newer blood test results have shown that the simple changes I made a few years ago have made a positive difference in my cardiovascular health.

Lauren Hill writes for Cardiac Vascular & Thoracic Surgery Associates (CVTSA), a Virginia surgical group specializing in open heart, transplant and robotic surgeries.