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Symptoms of HSV in Men and Women

Herpes is an unfortunately common infection which plagues a lot of people. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that approximately 2 in every 3 people under 50 years of age are currently infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Herpes simplex 1 generally displays no symptoms, and additionally, causes no serious health complications. Most people don't even realize they have the herpes virus inside them.

There is one other type of herpes, herpes simplex virus type 2. HSV-2 plagues nearly 500 million people between the ages of 15 and 49, according to WHO. Combine those statistics, and you see that more than 4.5 billion people between the ages of 15 and 50 have some type of herpes. Herpes simplex 2, like its less serious but equally frustrating and socially inhibiting simplex 1, is usually the cause for genital herpes, while HSV-1 most often appears around the mouth, creating oral herpes.

It should be noted that either of the two herpes strains can cause genital or oral herpes, depending on how the virus was contracted. As far as symptoms go, there are plenty of similarities and differences between men and women, depending upon the type of herpes infection.

Herpes Symptoms for Men

The most common symptom of oral herpes in men is blisters or sores. One or more blisters, often appearing in a cluster, will appear on or around the lips or mouth. They can create different levels of pain, and if the virus is not treated, oral herpes can cause swollen and tender lymph glands in the neck and under the arms. If the immunity of the infected male is very weak for whatever reason, difficulties can lead to flu symptoms, headaches, muscle aches and fever, and in extreme cases, the virus can move up into the eyes and the nervous system.

Genital herpes symptoms for men include the same types of blisters and sores, as well as the other signs of herpes just mentioned. Additionally, pain during urination or sex, pain in the upper thigh area, itching and burning around the infection site and fatigue are sometimes experienced. Less common symptoms include complications which lead to encephalitis, eye infections, meningitis and eczema.

Herpes Symptoms for Women

The symptoms of oral herpes in women mimic those just discussed for men. Painful blisters will appear on the lips or around the mouth, and they can lead to the complications just discussed for males who are infected with oral herpes. Women experiencing herpes in the genitals, anus or buttocks area may experience pain in the upper legs or genitals, a dramatic change in vaginal discharge, headaches and swollen glands, and a feeling of itching and tingling in and around the infection site.

After a few days of a genital herpes outbreak, a woman may experience ulcers and blisters near the infected area, but also in the urinary tract and on other parts of the body where the virus has migrated. Complications of genital herpes for women include transmittal to a newborn during pregnancy or delivery, bladder infections, encephalitis and meningitis, rectal inflammation, and an improved risk of contracting other sexually transmitted diseases at the infection site.

If there is any good news regarding herpes, it is this ... in 2 out of every 3 cases, there are no symptoms, physical or otherwise. Most people with the herpes virus never suffer any negative effects because of it. However, it is important to understand that even if you don't show symptoms, whether you are a woman or a man, you can pass the virus to others. If you have never been tested for herpes and other STDs, considering getting a test soon. Simple lab tests will reveal whether or not you are infected with the herpes virus.

A Look at Different Types of Herpes Virus

Herpes is a rather common infection that plagues men and women, young and old alike. If you are in your mid to late teens or twenties, you are more prone to become infected by the herpes virus. This happens for a number of reasons. Regardless the factor that puts you more at risk for herpes between the ages of 15 and 29, it makes sense if you are in this age group to get tested for herpes and other STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) as soon as possible.

Just because younger people are more inclined to contract herpes does not mean older adults should ignore the possibility that they may have the herpes virus within them. Whether you are 15 or 50, male or female, you have approximately a 2 in 3 chance of being infected by one of the two different strains of the herpes virus.

Herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2) are the two different kinds of herpes. HSV-1 is usually encountered on the lips and the mouth area. HSV-2 usually appears around the genitals, or the buttocks, anus and upper thigh areas. In some cases, HSV-1 can cause genital herpes, and HSV-2 can cause oral herpes. The reason why the two different strains of herpes appear where they do has everything to do with how the virus is transmitted.

Oral-to-Oral, Oral-to-Genital or Genital-to-Genital

Genital herpes is given its name because it is usually transmitted when someone's genitals come into contact with the genitals of another person. Genital to genital contact is the most common form of genital herpes, when someone has the herpes virus in or around their genital area, and they pass it to the genitals of another person.

In the case of oral sex, oral herpes can lead to genital herpes, or genital herpes can be passed to the oral region of a sex partner, causing oral herpes. Regardless of which herpes simplex is involved, initial symptoms are generally similar.

The first outbreak of oral or genital herpes will often be precluded by a tingling, burning, itching sensation. This can happen around the mouth, the genitals, the buttocks or the upper thighs. Soon afterward, one or more blisters will appear, often in a cluster. These blisters can be painful and can pop or break, releasing a thick pus-like liquid.

It is at this stage that herpes is the most contagious. Soon afterward, from a few days to a couple of weeks, symptoms will dissipate and eventually disappear. Sometimes, when the host has a healthy immune system, the herpes virus will become dormant and never awaken again. In many cases though, someone that experiences an outbreak of herpes will have one or more flareups in the future, sometimes several times a year.

Concerning oral and genital herpes, early detection leads to the most effective management of this infection. Regardless of your sexual practices, it makes sense to get tested for herpes and other STDs regularly, at least once every couple of years. Since complications can be extremely serious, and herpes can lead to low levels of self-esteem and social withdrawal, it pays to find out whether or not you are infected with this extremely common virus, so you can treat it properly before it spreads, and causes more emotional and physical damage.

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Biggest Loser Diet

The Biggest Loser Diet consists of three parts to losing weight: lower your calorie intake, exercise and maintain the weight loss. The diet is built on the Pyramid weight loss system, which counts down from 4 to 1.

You eat the most from the food group that helps you feel full for longer. So the first group would be fruits and vegetables and you’d eat four servings. Next would be lean protein for the three, the two would be whole grains and the one would an additional category for foods that were low in calories.

The diet works because it teaches people to eat the right kinds of foods, in the right portion and to get moving. Health benefits that this diet are good for besides weight loss include minimizing the possibility of developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and heart events such as heart disease or a heart attack and some types of cancer.

There have been some studies showing that following this diet can also help you lower your risk of getting things that impair cognitive function such as Alzheimer’s. The diet isn’t difficult to put into practice.

You’ll want to make sure that you eat filling foods like fruits and vegetables. If you’ve ever looked this diet up, you’ll know that there are a lot of resources out there on how to accomplish your goals.

The foundation of the diet is found in these resources and you’ll have to know those in order to follow the principles. The diet works by jump starting your nutrition. This is helpful for someone who wants a quick start for losing weight.

There’s also a short term six week resource you can get and one that addresses your overall body and life. In these guides, you’ll find stories from people who followed the Biggest Loser diet and found success.

You’ll also learn how to create your meal plan and important exercise tips. The diet breaks foods down by 45-30-25. The majority of your eating, or the 45 percent, will focus on carbs. The thirty is for your protein and the remaining twenty-five percent is for fats.

There are several things that you can do to help yourself succeed on this diet. Keep a food journal to help keep yourself honest about what you’re eating. On top of that, write down all your successes throughout the day - such as you chose an apple instead of a candy bar.

Or write down the fact that you exercised even when you didn’t feel like doing it. Find a support partner to help keep you accountable and to give you support and encouragement.

Start a habit of moving after you eat. If you eat, you go for a walk or clean a room. Do something besides sitting down. Since exercise is a big part of the success of this diet, you might want to get a fitness tracker and some great workout clothes and shoes. You’ll also want to buy whatever version of the Biggest Loser guidebook that addresses the goals you’ve set for yourself.

Read more here https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/biggest-loser-diet

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DASH Diet

There are some diets that target a specific health issue and the DASH diet is one of those diets. The acronym means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. When the diet is followed according to the guidelines, if you have high blood pressure, then being on the diet will bring those numbers down.

If you’re someone who’s at risk of developing hypertension, then using this eating plan can help keep you from getting it. The other benefit to this diet is that it will help you shed any unwanted pounds.

One of the reasons for the success of the diet is because it’s customizable. You can set the diet up according to your preferences. The diet isn’t an overall, everyone just eat the same way kind of plan.

Instead, it works by breaking up dieters according to whether or not they’re male or female and their age groups. The diet also uses how active someone is as a guideline to determine their eating plan.

Those who are more active will eat differently. It’s this personalized attention that’s made this diet so successful. To get started, the person wanting to do the diet would match his or her criteria to how many serving sizes and how many calories he’s supposed to consume each day.

Those who are more active will have more calories, but this calorie determination is different between the genders. What makes the diet so popular is that the list of food items that you’ll eat are normal, healthy foods that you can easily find at the grocery store.

All the foods that you’re eat are those like fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, low-fat dairy, healthy fats, and lean meats as well as things like chicken and fish. The diet focuses on making sure the foods that you eat give you protein - which helps keep your energy levels up as well as keeps you feeling full so you’re less likely to reach for junk food.

The DASH diet recommends that users eat 4-5 servings of vegetables every day - the same for fruits. The guidelines for grains are between 7 and 8 servings while your meat calories should be two servings for the average dieter.

Your dairy and fats should be limited to between 2-3 servings a day, while things like nuts or beans can be eaten between 4 to 5 times throughout a week. Success with the diet is determined by the tools or preparation you use with it.

You should get a meal plan or book that can give you guidance about what to eat so that you have meal suggestions. It’s easy to start a diet when you have a plan to follow and it’s easier to stick with it that way as well.

Another key to success is to make diet changes in small increments.  It’s easier physically and mentally to ease into it rather than make sweeping changes. You’ll want to make sure you do prep work for the food ahead of time.

So it would be helpful to have single serving food storage containers as well as things like food processors to cut the food ahead of time. You may also want to look at appliances like roasters than can help you prepare your meals in a healthier way.

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Engine 2 Diet

The Engine 2 Diet is a diet that’s the brainchild of a former firefighter. This diet is one that focuses on being what’s called “plant strong” - which means that you eliminate meat and certain other foods from your eating plan.

The goal of the diet is to live a healthy lifestyle that keeps health problems and diseases from occurring while at the same time contributes to you losing weight. The diet is good for reversing things like diabetes and can prevent cardiovascular disease and heart events, Alzheimer’s and some cancers.

It’s also good for lowering cholesterol numbers and you will lose weight by sticking to the plan. How the diet works is based on the teachings that eating a plant based diet is better for the body and for the health than eating foods from animals.

Some believe that this is a type of vegan diet but it’s not because it doesn’t allow some foods that a vegan diet does allow. You’ll mostly be eating foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

The diet has two choices for you to make once you decide that you’re going to do it. You have to choose whether you’re going to call yourself a firefighter or a fire cadet because there are two different plans for each of the labels.

If you make the firefighter choice, your eating style immediately changes. You’ll stop eating anything that’s animal based and you’ll also stop eating foods that are processed. You’ll cut out vegetable oils as well.

Under the fire cadet form of the diet, you’ll start the healthier eating plan at a slower pace and add the changes gradually. Both of the diets feature the twenty-eight day challenge method.

During the first week of the diet, you eliminate dairy and junk type foods as well as processed ones. Then in week two, you start eliminating dairy, meat, poultry and fish. During week three, you’ll stop eating oils and foods that have oils in them.

By the time the fourth week arrives, you’ll up your plant based food intake. Your meals will consist of vegetables, whole grains, seeds, fruits, legumes and nuts. This is how you’d start out if you chose the firefighter plan rather than the fire cadet one.

To find success with this diet, you will need to watch the videos on the diet’s website to learn how to begin. The website will lead you through the preparation and show you what foods you need to get rid of if you have them in your house.

You’ll need to prep both your refrigerator and your pantry. While certain areas of the online resources are free, you will have to pay monthly for anything extra. One of the must-have tools for the diet is the book that teaches in depth how it works. It shows users how to plan and create meals.

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Flat Belly Diet Program

The Flat Belly Diet Program is one where you can lose as much as fifteen pounds in about a month along with abdominal fat. The diet bases its success on learning about monounsaturated fatty acids and their role in shedding belly fat.

The diet was created by a dietician and a past editor at Prevention magazine. It can be used to lose weight or as a preventative for health problems. This plan is good for heart health because it helps lessen visceral fat.

This kind of fat is what has been linked to diabetes as well as cardiovascular health problems and other health conditions. People who followed this eating program did end up losing inches and belly fat according to studies done on the diet.

The way that the Flat Belly Diet Program works focuses on eating in such a way that you use the diet to eliminate belly fat. The monounsaturated fatty acids help you feel fuller while at the same time helps you curb the desire to want to eat more than you should.

You’ll find these fats that eliminate belly fat in a range of foods and some of them are surprising - such as chocolate. It’s also found in items like olive oil, nuts, avocados and seeds to name a few.

But the diet doesn’t just work because you eat those foods. You have to eat a specific amount of these foods at all of your meals as well as when you snack. These types of fats don’t lead to heart attacks or heart disease because they don’t cause trouble for your arteries.

Another good thing about the diet is that it focuses on eating healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, fish and more. It’s this healthy eating that not only helps you shed weight, but works to maintain weight over time.

The calorie restrictions on this diet are at a suggested 1,600 per day. However, dieters have the option to customize that amount according to their lifestyle, gender and age. The program begins by kicking off with a jumpstart to help get rid of bloating to get you going - and then guides you on a month long program.

You’ll be able to follow - not only specific meals - but recipes and shopping lists as well. To succeed with this diet, you’ll want to get the program that’s geared toward your gender - since the guidelines are somewhat different.

Though the diet is easy to follow, there is some prep work you’ll need to do ahead of time when you’re planning your meals. Those who follow the diet using online tools or who buy the books for the diet generally do better on the program than those who try to wing it on their own.