Archive for November, 2009

Diets don’t work

November 27th, 2009 Health News
Dieting woman

Dieting woman

One of the most ineffective and curious of all human experiences is the process of dieting. When else do people deprive and discipline themselves for days, weeks, and even months to achieve a certain goal, only to see that goal sabotaged the minute it is achieved? And as if this experience isn’t frustrating enough, many dieters put themselves through this process regularly, enthusiastically losing a few pounds for a short time, only to gain them back. These dieters are draining themselves mentally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, always searching, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, always searching, yet never quite finding the permanent result they seek. And this frequent, unsuccessful quest creates the undue stress and emotional havoc that dieters know too well.

What exactly is a diet, anyway? People indulge themselves and indulge themselves until they can’t look at themselves in the mirror or until their clothes no longer fit. Then they grudgingly force themselves to “diet” to make up for these past indulgences. It’s like running out and locking your garage after someone has driven off in your car. It’s too late; the damage is done. The “remedy” for these indulgences is usually deprivation, and almost every one of the “diet cures” on the market today requires the dieter to take off pounds at any cost. Diet schemes are an extremely expensive way to lose weight. Many times their real cost is a person’s well-being.

Why don’t diets work? The answer actually is quite simple. What do you think about when you’re on a diet? Just as I did, you are usually thinking about what you’re going to eat when the ordeal is finally over. How can you possibly succeed on your diet when all you are thinking about is food? Depriving yourself is not the answer to healthy, permanent weight loss. It usually causes you to binge later on, which complicates the problem. Deprivation and binging become a vicious cycle, and that’s just one of the many problems with dieting.

Another is that diets are temporary; therefore, the results have to be temporary! Do you want to be permanently slim or temporarily slim? Temporary measures bring about temporary results. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I’ve been on every diet that’s ever come on the market, and nothing seems to work”? Why have they been on every diet? They’ve been on every diet without success because dieting is the wrong approach! Diets fail because of the regimentation involved. Very few of us can be regimented successfully for long when it comes to food. Yet many people, not having an alternative, continue to do what they have always done – diet – because they’ve never been presented with any viable alternative. They continue their search for that one panacea that will end – once and for all – their battle of the bulge.

When we go on a diet, our systems are thrown into turmoil while they try to adapt to a new regimen. They then must readapt to old patterns when the regimen ends. It’s like taking a metal rod and bending it over and over again. Eventually it will become weak and break. If you jerk your body back and forth over and over again by dieting, it will become weak and break down.

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How to keep fit at your desk

November 26th, 2009 Health News

Computer professionals face many threats to their health. Their eyes, fingers and back being most vulnerable as most of their time they are at their desk which, many a times, leads to the increase in their weight. This article is meant for people who have very long sitting at their desks and don’t time to exercise at home or a gym. The true advice for them is that they should take 5-7 (not 10) seconds to keep their bodies fit (to some extent). All of the following exercises can be done while sitting at your desk and you are not at all required to move from your desk but the main point is that you should exercise your body parts frequently to keep yourself fit and in shape.

Eyes
Computer professionals keep looking into the monitors of their PCs for longer hours sitting at the desk and this results in weakening their eyes as they keep staring at the same screen and from the same distance for long hours. This may also result in dryness of their eyes. To keep yourself from such a situation give an exercise to your eyes while sitting at your desk. Atleast, 5 times in a day keep staring anything for at least 10 seconds that is 50 meters (or more) distant from you. The more the distance, the better it is for your eyes. What this whole exercise does is that when you are looking into the computer monitor, the eye lenses become smaller as the object you are looking at is closer but when suddenly you look at something that is far from you, the eye lens opens wide which is an exercise for the lenses.

Also, what you can do is 5-6 times in a day, just close your eyes, put your index fingers on your eyelids & rotate eyelids 5 times clockwise and anti-clockwise as well. And you have to do all this while sitting at your desk, no need to get up to get the eyes fit.

Shoulders
The shoulders of computer professionals are another body parts that get affected for a long time desk sitting job. Raise your hands or rotate shoulders & hands clockwise and anti-clockwise to charge them. You can also put something like dumbbell (say a paperweight on your desk) to give the same effect. Just remember that when you raise both of your hands, you keep them upwards for atleast 10 seconds.

Other tips:

  • Eat plenty of water. Its best for your well being.
  • 2-3 times breath heavily like you are running.
  • Never eat at your desk ‘cos if you start eatiing at your desk, you won’t get up to eat.
  • Eat food that is nutrient and not has much fat.
  • Take a long walk (morning or night) on weekends or go to gym.
Posted in Exercises Tags: , , 12 Comments »

Broccoli and cheese Omelet

November 26th, 2009 Health News

This is a delicious twist on the basic cheese omelet. The broccoli and shallots add a subtle sweetness to the nutty taste of swiss.

Ingredients: 1 cup broccoli florets (chopped), 1/4 cup shallots (minced), 1 tablespoon water, butter-flavored cooking spray, 1 cup egg substitute, 4 ources low-fat Swiss, diced salt and pepper to taste.

  1. Mix broccoli, shallots, and water in a small microwaveable bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on HIGH for 3.5 minutes, until broccoli is soft.
  2. In a medium saucepan, heat cooking spray until hot but not smoking. Pour in egg substitute and swirl to coat bottom of pan.
  3. Place 1/4 diced cheese on one half of omelet and cover cheese with 2 tablespoons of broccoli mixture. Fold untilled half of omelet over filling, lower heat, cover pan, and cook for 1-2 minutes, until cheese melts.
  4. Slide omelet onto plate and keep warm. Re-spray skillet and repeat for all omelets. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 4 omelets.

Cooking Tip: For individual omelets, beat 1/4 cup egg substitute with 1 teaspoon water until frothy.

Serving guidelines

For Lap-Band: Weeks 1-4: Puree 1/2 – 1 omelet until smooth. Weeks 5+: Serve 1/2 – 1 omelet as is.

For Bypass: Weeks 1 -4: Puree 1/2 – 1 omelet until smooth. Weeks 5+: Serve 1/2 omelet as is.

For BPD-DS: Weeks 1-3: Puree 1/2 – 1 omelet until smooth. Weeks 4+: Serve 1 omelet as is.

For others: Serve 1 omelet as is.

Nutrition meter:

Calories: 122,21; Protein: 15.36g; Fat: 4.07g; Carbohydrates: 4.64g; Cholestrol: 15mg; Fiber: 0.05g; Sodium: 168.99mg

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Two cool low (saturated) fat recipes

November 25th, 2009 Health News

The crucial role of fat
It all comes down to fat. Fat supplies food with flavor, as well as helps to distribute the flavors of foods throughout your mouth. For instance, if you’ve ever tried to cut calories by serving vegetables plain rather tha drenched in butter, you’ve experienced fat’s facilitator role. Once you start to reduce the amount of fat in your favorite recipes, you need to up the taste in other ways.

Marvelous marinades
Clever health-conscious cooks have a repertoire of easy tips and techniques for losing the fat, but not the flavor. Consider marinades: If you’re a steak-lover, you know that lean cuts of meat like London broil are practically inedible if they are’nt marinated. Marinades work their magic thanks to the enzymes in their acidic ingredients – vinegar, citrus juice, wine, even yogurt – that help tenderzie lean cuts.

Chicken and fish reap the benefits of marinating as well. Because these foods are more tender than most meats, you’ll want to use a less acidic marinade or marinate them just briefly. Heed this advice; otherwise, they’ll be partially cooked before you get them near the heat. (Think of seviche, the Latin American seafood dish in which raw fish actually “cooks” in its lime juice marinade!)

Super stocks
In classic French cuisine, stocks are so important that they are known as the fond du cuisine – the foundation of cooking. If you’ver ever made a pot of soup with the bones from a roast and vegetables, you know how much more flavor a homemade stock provides. Although stocks from cans or cubes are certainly convenient, don’t be intimidated by making stock from scratch – not only is it easy, but it’s economical and environmental as well. Just stockpile vegetable peelings and trimmings, along with chicken or beef bones, in sealable plastic bags and freeze until you have the time to make your stock.

Delicious dressings
If you are drowning your greens in bottled salad dressing, it’s time to change your ways. Homemade dressings have flavors that their store-bought counterparts just can’t match. Many are simple to make; use these recipes as a starting point.

Once you’ve gotten the basics down, do a little experimentation: Try a fruit or herb vinegar, or use lemon or orange juice. Replace the oil with broth and a bit of honey (this helps to mimic the texture fat provides). Use different herbs or replace the mustard with horseradish.

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Before you start with a fitness regime

November 15th, 2009 Health News
Cardio Workouts for better health!

Cardio Workouts for better health!

Eveyone wants to be fit, for it has been rightly said, and accepted too, that Health is Wealth. Being fit, or being in good health, brings to you a lot of opportunities in your workplace and in personal life as well. You work more and enjoy more. Before you start with your fitness regime, in order to best determine how to reach your fitness goals, you first need to figure out where you are, physically. And the best way to do this is go sign up for a fitness evaluation, including a full health/fitness history and other important measures, such as the following:

  • Resting heart rate: Also known as pulse, this test measures the number of times per minute your heart beats while you’re sitting down or in some other way relaxing. As you exercise more and more, your resting heart rate will likely drop.
  • Heart rate after physical activity: Generally, you exercise for about 15 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bicycle and test your pulse. Cardio exercises can gradually lower this number.
  • Blood pressure: This test measures how hard your heart has to work to pump blood through your blood vessels. Cardio activities can help alleviate high blood pressure (hypertension), which can lead to health problems.
  • Percentage of body fat: Instead of measuring how much you weigh, which doesn’t necessarily indicate how fit you are, measuring your body fat tells you how much of you is fat and how much is muscle, bones, blood, organs, and other tissues. Up to a point, the lower the number, the better, reducing your body fat is often a matter of eating better and burning calories through cardio workouts and lifting weights.
  • Strength: This test measures the strength of your upper body, abdominal muscles, and lower body by doing sit-ups, push-up, leg extensions (on a weight machine), and so on. Weight lifting helps improve your strength.
  • Flexibility: Because flexibility is the downfall of even the super-fit, make sure your evaluation measures the range of motion of your joints and muscles. Stretching is one of the best ways to improve your flexibility.

Each of these tests can be done by a physician, a personal trainer, or a fitness professional, working at a gym. But don’t spend any time studying for them: You can’t fail these tests. Thing of them more as baseline measurements that help you decide where to put your emphasis: improving the health of your heart, losing weight and reducing body fat, building strength, improving your flexibility, and so on.

Choosing Your Weapon

With so many workout options available these days, you have plenty of fitness weapons from which to choose. Your workout options tend to fall into three categories, however: cardio, strength, and combination workouts. The three following sections give you a brief overview of each:

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Bewildered by your back pain

November 4th, 2009 Health News
Bewildered by your back pain

Bewildered by your back pain

You’re probably reading this blog post because your back hurts. Maybe you’ve had back pain for a matter of weeks; maybe you’re a longtime sufferer; or maybe you’re wondering about surgery. Another possibility is that you previously had a bout of back pain and made a full recovery. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, you wake in the morning, prepared to spring into your day, and you’re in agony. If you recognize yourself in any of these scenarios, go reading further.

Whether you’re having recurring bouts of back pain or you’ve one of those unfortunate people who have endured persistent back pain for more than six months, chances are you’ve already made the rounds of doctors and may even have heard several different opinions about how to treat your back problem. In addition, well meaning family members and friends may have proffered all sorts of helpful suggestions. Unfortunately, these suggestions may have been confusingly contradictory. One person may have told you to stay in bed, while another advised against staying in bed. Someone may have told you to exercise your way back to a pain-free life, the “no pain, no gain” approach to your situation. Somebody else, on the other hand, might have recommended doing absolutely nothing physical until you feel better and thereafter doing next to nothing – to guard against a relapse. You may also have heard a wide range of advice about surgery, with advocates advising surgery as soon as possible and naysayers warning you that surgery should be your last resort when everything else has failed. Not surprisingly, you come away from these conversations with not only a painful back but also a spinning head!

A bewildering condition

If you’re feeling bewildered about how to manage your back pain, you’re in good company. Many of the patients are similarly confused and this story shares with you a fairly common patient story that illustrates just how frustrating getting a diagnosis and a recommended treatment plan can be. Theresa is a woman in her forties who developed back pain without provocation. With three very active young children to take care of, back pain was not good news. By the time she walked into my office, Theresa was feeling decidedly frazzled. One doctor had told her she had a disk problem; another told her that her disks were fine and the problem was the ligaments in her back. Yet another doctor said there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her back at all – despite the fact that Theresa was in pain. To make matters worse, she’d received a range of different treatment recommendations, from steroid injections to medications to exercises. Needless to say, she was confused and frustrated, with no idea whom she should listen to or what advice she should follow. Theresa was helped to make decisions that were right for her and that she is now engaged in many of the family and community activities she enjoys.

If Theresa’s experience of going from doctor to doctor and coming away no wiser matches yours, you might think back-pain doctors are not up to snuff. But that’s not true. It’s important to appreciate that your doctor may well be feeling as frustrated as you. A major stumbling block for doctors and patients alike is that in the US there have been no recent national guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of back pain. Although the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research published low-back-pain guidelines in 1992, these have not been updated. And 14 years is a long time to the history of a medical condition. There has been a lot of new research in that period. Another consideration relates to doctors who specialize in back pain. While specialists can be invaluable, seeing a medical specialist at the start of your back-pain episode is sometmes not as helpful as you might wish. This sounds contrary, but it’s a matter of focus. A specialist tends to look for anomalies that explain the problem in terms of his or her specialty. So a doctor who specializes in orthopedics may see an orthopedic abnomality, for example, a slight problem in alignment of the vertebrae, and be convinced the problem is orthopedic in nature. Similarly, a neurologist who specializes in problem of the nervous system see a nerve problem. This explains some of the diagnostic discrepancies and mixed-message treatment recommendations back-pain sufferers receive.

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Common misconceptions about Yoga & Yoga therapy

November 4th, 2009 Health News

Yoga isn’t… Only for the flexible and fit
Some people avoid yoga because they think it’s only for people who can bend like Gumby. They think it’s for the young, strong, and athletic – and if you look at pictures in magazines or sample some vigorous yoga classes you could easily get that impression.  Spa Breaks

Interestingly enough, if you feel that you couldn’t possibly do yoga, then yoga might be especially helpful for you. It’s a well-known among yoga therapists that people with no experience in yoga often make quicker progress with health problems than students with years of experience. Indeed, it is those who find yoga the most challenging, think they are terrible at it, and can’t seem to quiet their minds who have the most to gain.

Yoga isn’t…. Only for those in good health
While I was researching yoga therapy in India, I visited centers that treated people with all kinds of physical, mental, and emotional problems: old people, stiff people, people with years of chronic disease, people in pain, people who were too depressed to get out of bed. Yoga has been used successfully on schizophrenics and on children witn Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism. Those who are bound to bed or wheelchairs can do yoga modified for their needs and abilities. There are people in their eighties, nineties, and beyond doing yoga, and I’m convinced that if you embrace the practice, you’ll increase your odds of making it that far and feeling good when you get there.

Yoga has helped cancer patients and people with heart disease so advanced that emergency surgery was recommended. In almost all instances, yoga therapists encourage their students to continue their conventional medical care. But many yoga students notice after a while they need less of it: meditation may be reduced and some drugs become entirely unnecessary, surgery may be delayed and then canceled. In India, I spoke with patients in whom all signs of rheumatoid arthritis or type 2 diabetes disappeared with regular practice. This is not everyone’s experience, of course, but it shows what may be possible.

Yoga isn’t… A religion
Yoga is not a religion. Although yoga came out of ancient India it is not a form of Hinduism. In fact, yoga is happily practiced by Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agostics alike. There is certainly a spiritual side to yoga, but you don’t have to subscribe to any particular beliefs to benefit from it. It’s probably more appropriate to view yoga as somewhat akin to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Like AA, yoga has a spiritual dimension that you can focus on or totally ignore, depending on what’s most useful to you. Like AA, yoga is compatible with any religion, or none, if that’s your preference.

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Glossary of terms regarding backaches

November 3rd, 2009 Health News

Ankylosing Spondylitis
An inflammatory disease of the spine that often leads to painful alterations of the vertebral articulations as well as to stiffness of the spine.

Annulus Fibrosus
The tough multilayered, fibrous outer portion of each intervertebral disk.

Articular Processes
The two superior and two inferior bony processes on the back part of each vertebra that form the facet joints.

Atlas
Another name for the C-1 vertebra of the neck, which lies at the base of the skull.

Axis
Another name for the C-2 vertebra of the neck, which lies just beneath C-1.

Bone Scan
A diagnostic procedure in which radioactive material is injected into the patient’s bloodstream to produce images of the bony skeleton. Used to evaluate if and where there is rapid bone formation due to, for example, a tumor or an infection.

Cauda Equina
The bundle of nerve roots that starts where the true spinal cord ends in the upper lumbar spine, traverses down the spinal canal in the lumbar and sacral regions, and terminates in the lower sacrum.

Cervical Radiculopathy
Compression of the spinal nerve roots in the neck, causing neurological dysfunction such as weakness and reduced sensation, as well as symptoms such as tingling and numbness in the areas served by the nerves.

Fibromyalgia Syndrome
Collection of symptoms including painful tender points, especially in the muscles of the upper neck, shoulders, hips, and lower back.

Free Fragment
A displaced portion of an intervertebral disk that has become detached from the central portion of the disk.

Herniate Disk
Displacement of some portion of the disk out of its normal location; sometimes indicates a ruptured or slipped disk.

Iliopsoas Muscles
Two muscles, each of which is located on and attached to each side of the lumbar vertebrae as well as being attached to the inside of the pelvis and to the thighbone.

Intervertebral Disk
One of the small, energy-absorbing cushions located between the vertebrae of the spine.

Intervertebral Foramen
The opening between vertebrae through which a spinal nerve (nerve root) exits the spinal column (plural – foramina).

Intradiscal Electrothermal Annuloplasty (IDET)
A procedure to relieve the pain of certain disk problems, in which a heated catheter – inserted via a needle placed in the affected disk – sears or cauterizes the nerve fibres along the disk wall.

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Some piece of advice on backaches

November 3rd, 2009 Health News

Back smart lifting
Whenever you need to lift even a moderately heavy object:

  1. Face the object and position yourself close to it.
  2. Bend at your knees, not your waist, and squat down as far as you comfortably can.
  3. Tighten your stomach and keep your buttocks tucked in.
  4. Lift with your legs, not your back muscles.
  5. Don’t try to lift the object too high, Don’t raise a heavy load any higher than your waist; keep a light load below shoulder level.
  6. Keep the object close to you as you lift it.
  7. If you need to turn to set something down, don’t twist your upper body. Instead, turn your entire body, moving your shoulder, hips, and feet at the same time.
  8. Ask for help with lifting anything that’s too heavy.

Back belts: Not a panacea
Back belts have gained in popularity among workers who must often lift goods – from grocery store clerks to nurses’ aids to airline baggage handlers. With back problems accounting for nearly 20 percent of all workplace injuries in the United States and costing anywhere from $20-$50 billion a year (costs are high in other countries, too), it’s no surprise that some companies require their workers to use these belts.

But most studies cast doubt on whether back belts can protect workers’ backs or reduce sick time and workers’ compensation claims. And although a few studies have found them to be protective, the consensus is that back belts do not reduce back injuries. The US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has expressed concern that these belts may even do harm by giving workers a false sense of security. According to NIOSH, there is evidence that workers think they can lift heavier items when wearing the belts. NIOSH also points out that there is no scientific evidence to back up claims that these belts decrease the force exerted on the spine, that they remind wearers to lift properly, or that they reduce workplace injuries. As a result, the agency doesn’t recommend that employers insist that their workers use back belts to prevent back injuries.

Worker wearing a backbelt

Worker wearing a backbelt

Seen above is a worker wearing a ergonomic backbelt by Back-A-Line that costs around US$ 60 and gives your relief from backaches.

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Exercise your body, and your health

November 3rd, 2009 Health News

Exercise your body, and your health

Exercise your body, and your health

Remember – Movement brings improvement

Exercise, even modest exercise, puts stress on nearly every part of your body. That sounds frightening, but it shouldn’t scare you away from exercise. In fact, if the stress of exercise if applied properly, nearly every part of your body will respond by growing stronger and healthier. The result is true fitness. It’s not measured by how fast you can run, how much you can lift, or how big your biceps are. Instead, real fitness is measured by how well your body can withstand stress of all sorts: the stress of exercise, the stress of disease, the psychosocial stresses of twenty-first-century life, and even the stress of the aging process.  Free Fitness Advice

Exercise can make you fit and healthy. The trick is to know how to exercise properly and then to make it part of your daily life. And the way to start is by understanding how exercise affects your body.

Exercise and your body
Even the most committed couch potato has sprinted to catch a bus or an elevator, and all of us can remember how it feels to exercise. Physical exertion makes your heart beat faster and harder. Your breathing also gets faster and deeper. If you’re at it long enough, your skin will get flushed, warm and damp with perspiration. Your muscles will be taut from effort, and they may ache and stiffen up for some time afterward. If you are really pushing yourself, you may notice some nausea, abdominal discomfort, or light-headedness, and you might enjoy high spirits right after you come to a stop, only to feel tired, sleepy, or a bit grumpy later in the day.

You don’t have to be an exercise physiologist to know that exercise makes your heart, lungs, and muscles work harder or that your metabolism speeds up, producing extra heat. But even though an occasional burst of exercise may enable you to catch a bus or enjoy a sporting afternoon with the kids, it won’t do much for your health.

For fitness and health, sporadic exercise won’t do – but regular exercise will do very nicely indeed. The body responds to the stress of habitual exercise with a remarkable series of adaptations that are collectively known as the training effect. Hippocrates didn’t have the benefit of modern exercise physiology, but the Father of Medicine seems to have predicted the training effect some twenty-four hundred years ago when he wrote “that which is used, develops; that which is not used, wastes away.”

Regualar exercise will produce long-term changes in many of your body’s organs and functions. But at the heart of your improvement is your heart itself.

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