Antihistamine Use Linked to Weight-Gain

Go ask anyone who starts to snort and sniffle when pollen is high and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts through the air, and they'll tell you, antihistamines are a godsend.

Antihistamine medication is used to stop allergic reactions. Histamines in the body cause fluid to escape from capillaries resulting in swelling, itching, and sneezing.

But those beloved antihistamines, most of which you can get over-the-counter without a doctor's note, might come with a heavy price to pay -- weight-gain.

Writing in the journal Obesity, experts found an association between antihistamine use and weight-gain. Individuals taking prescription antihistamines were more likely to be obese or overweight, than individuals not taking the drugs.

In the study, among the 268 antihistamine users, 45% of study participants were overweight, compared to all 599 of the people involved in the study, where only 30% were overweight. Antihistamine users had a higher body mass index (BMI) than non users, weighing in at 31 and 28 respectively.

A BMI 25 to 29 is considered overweight, anything higher is obese. Obesity starts with a BMI of 30 and up.

But, the researchers involved with this study urge that the results do not say antihistamines cause weight-gain, only that there is an association between weight-gain and taking antihistamines.

Other medications can cause weight-gain, and I know this firsthand with anti-depressants. Some experts say medications like Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, and Zoloft can cause weight-gain of 10 pounds or more.

Image credit: Rakka

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Link Time! Gluten-Free, Eating Cake, Nasal Sanitizer, and more

I'm not sure how any of us survived so long eating all that gluten and dairy, but by the thousands people are switching to a gluten-free and a dairy-free lifestyle for many reasons.

Fortunately, award winning french chef, Alain Braux, just released a new book, Living Gluten and Dairy-Free with French Gourmet Food. If you want or need to be gluten and dairy-free but want to do it gourmet and deliciously, this book is a must have.

While you're baking all Chef Braux's delicious gluten free french cakes, you can look no further than to The Have Your Cake and Eat it Diet. Developed by Personal Trainer, Charli Cohen, this plan attacks the Fad Diet mentality and teaches dieters to change their lifestyle, which includes still enjoying the foods they love. Her plan seems very effective and sensible. Who doesn't love Cake!?!

The Flu Season has begun and if you remember, just over 12 years ago hand sanitizer gel made its surge into the marketplace encouraging people to apply the alcohol based gel often to kill germs when washing hands isn't convenient. Well, 2010 brings us NOZIN, the nasal sanitizer.

It's the same basic concept, but this alcohol based product is swabbed up the nose to kill those nasty bugs before they can replicate out of control. NOZIN is available in most major pharmacies and would be great for use during air travel or in other crowded conditions as sneeze particles can travel more than 30 feet (10 meters).

While we're on the health subject, did you know that 12 million Americans alone suffer from incontinence which can be an extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing situation. New research from The University of Alabama shows that women who drink a lot of caffeine are 70% more likely to develop a leaky bladder. Some women may want to cut back on the coffee.

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