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Home and Garden
Four natural ways to prevent home fleas
Read MoreFlea bites are rare with humans. They mainly affect your pets. The flea bites cause itchiness, redness, and swelling. It is essential that you take care and precautions to prevent the breeding and spreading of fleas. There are some good home flea treatments, which you can use for treating fleas.
Baking soda
Sprinkle baking soda on the carpets and the furniture, the places you will find the most infestation of fleas. Once you have sprinkled baking soda, brush it into the strains of the carpet thoroughly. The baking soda should reach inside the hair of the carpet. Once satisfied, vacuum the carpet well. This will boost the vacuuming process of getting rid of fleas from carpets and furniture.Dish soap
This is quite an effective home flea treatment and easy too. Take some dish soap and mix it in warm water. Now pour the liquid into a dish and keep it in the room where you receive the most amount of flea activity. Do this in the nighttime as fleas are nocturnal creatures. The viscosity of the liquid traps the fleas and prevents them from spreading around. Change the liquid each day for better results.Lemon spray
Boil a thin slice of lemon with a pint of water. Let the solution sit overnight and then pour it in a spray bottle. This solution is one of the easiest techniques of home flea treatment. Ensure you spray the liquid all over the house or the furniture and carpet and curtains, which witness the most flea activities.Rosemary
Rosemary is an amazing natural flea repellant. Mix rosemary with some rue, wormwood, fennel, and peppermint into a pestle and mortar and grind into a powder. Now sprinkle this powder on carpets, furniture, window sills and doors to prevent any fleas to enter your house.It is always advised that you should stay away from chemicals and pesticides as they are more harmful than fleas. So take these natural DIY steps for home flea treatment.
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Health and Fitness
5 tips to live a healthy life when you have an autoimmune disease
Read MoreAutoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissues and leaves you with symptoms that linger for long periods. Autoimmune diseases are not caused by any organ, but due to an overactive immune system that fails to recognize the difference between healthy and unhealthy cells. An autoimmune disease can change how organs work and can also cause abnormal growth of any organ. It is estimated that nearly 50 million Americans are affected by autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases usually swing between remission and flare-up periods. Since there has been no definitive cure for most of the autoimmune diseases, many treatments and therapies work towards alleviating symptoms and avoiding further health complications. Autoimmune diseases make the body weak. Treatments can also take a toll on the body. Despite the immune system going rogue, it is possible to live a healthy life by adopting specific healthy habits. Here are a few tips that can help to live a fulfilled life, despite having an autoimmune disease.
- Eat an anti-inflammatory diet with whole foods: An anti-inflammatory diet helps to keep the immune system strong. Your diet should include foods rich in antioxidants, omega-3, minerals, and essential fatty acids; green leafy vegetables, salmon, beets, flaxseeds, turmeric, ginger and so on are some of the elements of an anti-inflammatory diet.
- Get tests done for food allergies: With autoimmune diseases, it is necessary to be aware of food allergies to avoid the further weakening of the immune system. People with autoimmune diseases are allergic to soy or dairy products, wheat, corn, shellfish, nuts, and certain types of fruits. With tests such as IgG food testing, a doctor can determine whether you have any food allergies.
- Keep the gut healthy: The immune system is heavily dependent on the gut. A good gut health ensures that the immune system does not go haywire. One of the first steps towards fighting autoimmune diseases is to fix the gut. This can be done by including foods with high probiotic content. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that keep the gut clean and heals it.
- Have a regular exercise routine: A regular exercise routine has an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. It is not necessary to do an intense workout. Yoga, tai chi, jogging, brisk walking or just walking can work as well. The goal is to keep the body active. A regular exercise routine will not only help to keep you physically fit, but also help to have better mood, weight control, and sleep routine.
- Sleep for adequate hours: Adequate rest is essential to rejuvenate not only the mind but also the body. Poor sleep can have a deteriorating effect on the immune system and aggravate the symptoms of the autoimmune disease. It is essential to sleep at least for eight hours to ensure that you are well rested.
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Finance
The methodology of payment processing services
Read MoreImagine what would happen if you swipe your card and the payment doesn’t go through? Many of us do not take the time to think about the behind the scene operations that are necessary for us to be able to pay using a credit or a debit card. The Card Association’s Network offers timely payments and the assurance of secure transactions to all merchants, cardholders and financial institutions.
Keep reading to get a general overview of the process that takes place during the lifecycle of the payment card processing transactions.
- Key Players: Multiple parties are involved in each payment transaction.
- Card holder: An authorized payment card user
- Merchant: An authorized acceptor of the payment in exchange for goods and products.
ISO/MSP: This includes services like IpPay and Wells Fargo merchant services that solicit merchants on behalf of a bank and enables card payments from customers. - Terminal/Payment Gateway: This is the physical or virtual device used by the merchant to communicate to the acquirer’s front-end network.
- Front-End Network: The credit card gateway communicates with this platform when approving a transaction.
- Back-End Network: This platform is responsible for taking the information from the front-end network and then settles them through the interchange system.
- Acquiring Bank: The merchant’s payment processing contract is held by the acquiring bank.
- Association: These are the members who issue the payment cards and they also sign merchants to accept payment cards.
- Issuer: This is the financial institution that issues out the payment cards and then maintains contact with the cardholders for repayment.
Two part process: Processing a payment card has two parts:
- Authorisation: This is the process where an electronic request is sent out to various parties to either approve or decline the card payment.
- Merchant settlement and funding: Then the process of clearing and settlement happens where all parties are paid and the account is settled.
This is the process every time you buy something in a store and swipe your card.