Healthpratical Tips:10 Healthy Habits for a Longer Life

December 22, 2008

Here are some practical habits we can acquire to be healthy. Try this list and share it with a friend.

1.) Eat six small meals a day. Most nutritionists recommend that we eat six small meals a day. For example, you can have a light breakfast at 7 a.m., light snack (a banana or an apple) at 10 a.m., lunch at 12 noon, snack at 4 p.m., dinner at 7p.m., and bedtime snack (tea and cookies) at 9 p.m. This schedule will help reduce sudden surges in your blood sugar. It will also prevent you from overeating because of hunger. It’s easier for the digestion, too, and can prevent stomach ulcers from missed meals. Eat several times a day, but just a little. A banana or an apple can be considered a snack already.

2.) Drink 10 glasses of water. Doctors have to tell patients again and again the importance of drinking enough water a day. But it seems many patients, especially women, don’t listen. Drinking water can prevent kidney infections, kidney stones, migraine headaches, and constipation. My wife, who only drinks three to four glasses of water a day, learned a painful lesson. She developed severe back pains from kidney stones. Now, she drinks a whole lot more. And did you know that water can prevent wrinkles and make your skin soft and glowing? Drink water for beauty, health, and long life. It’s the best advice, so take it.

3.) Rest at least eight hours a day. Sleeping and resting is the best way to boost your energies. If you feel tired, take a 15-minute rest to replenish your strength. At night, try to go for eight hours of sleep. If you can’t sleep, just lying in bed and thinking happy thoughts can relax your mind and body, too. It’s not as good as sleep, but it’s the next best thing.

4.) Climb one to two flights of stairs. Exercise for your health. Moderate exercise has been proven to prevent diabetes and obesity, and reduce arthritis. If your office is just on the second or third floor, use the stairs. It’s good for your heart and your joints. It also helps you get some exercise in between your work. As you grow older, try to avoid high-impact exercises like basketball and badminton. Swimming, taichi, walking, and climbing stairs are gentler for the body.

5.) Live a clean life. By “clean” living, we mean not just physically clean. We should also try to avoid unhealthy behavior like smoking, drinking alcohol, using illicit drugs, engaging in risky sex, and gorging on fatty foods. Smoking kills. Alcohol destroys brain cells. You may have tried them, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. So why continue the habit? Avoid risky habits and prolong your life.

6.) Be a veggie and fruit lover. You are what you eat. And the healthiest foods out there are vegetables and fruits. Green leafy vegetables, such as cabbage, pechay, kangkong, camote tops (talbos), and spinach, contain so many vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant chemicals. Vegetables can prevent heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, bowel problems, irritable bowel syndrome, various bowel cancers, and kidney stones. Eat veggies every day.

For the healthiest fruits, we have bananas, apples, carrots, tomatoes, and citrus fruits. Bananas are rich in potassium, vitamin B6. and folic acid. Likewise, tomatoes have high amounts of antioxidants, including lycopene. Citrus fruits like suha (pomelo) and dalandan are teeming with healthy vitamin C.

7.) Laugh 15 minutes a day. Laughter is, indeed, the best medicine. A study from the University of California Irvine College of Medicine reports that after watching a funny video, the viewers’ mood improved dramatically. Depression and anger dropped by 98 percent, fatigue fell by 87 percent, and tension was reduced by 61 percent.

What happens inside our body when we laugh? The level of stress hormones, called cortisol, decreases, and the good hormones, called endorphins, increase. Endorphins are natural substances in the body that make you happy and boost your immune system.

8.) Be enthusiastic about your work. Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Try to find ways to enjoy your line of work. A nurse’s job can be messy and tiring, but at least you are caring for someone. A secretary’s job may be just about setting appointments, but without her diligence, the boss would never be as successful. Be creative. Think long-term. What does your job really mean to you? An enthusiastic attitude can make a difference.

9.) Have a lifetime partner. Statistics show that married persons live longer than single persons. If you have someone to share your burdens with, it will lessen your stress. Single persons living alone may have no one to attend to them in case of an emergency. To compensate for the lack of social support, single persons can acquire a circle of close relatives and friends.

10.) Share your blessings. In President Bill Clinton’s book Giving, he explains the whys and the hows of giving. Give big or give small, and the benefits will come back to you. Similarly, Prof. Peggy Thoits’ study at the Vanderbilt University showed that people who volunteered and helped others had higher levels of happiness, self-esteem, and better physical health. If you want to receive P2,000 worth of health and happiness, try donating P2,000 to your favorite charity. Helping the poor and the sick will surely give you a different high. It may not make you live longer, but it can surely make life worth living.

Source: http://philstar.com

Why Does Our Body Needs Exercise?

December 20, 2008

The importance of exercise is nothing new. Thomas Jefferson once wrote that to be successful in academic studies, a person should “give about two of them [that's hours, people!], every day, to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong.”

It turns out Jefferson was on to something. A multi-year study by researchers at Tufts University found that students who said they exercised at least 3 days a week were more likely to report a better state of physical health and greater happiness than those who didn’t exercise. This (and other evidence) suggests that the real benefits of exercise may not come right after a workout but from a longer commitment to regular activity.

Most experts today do not demand 2 hours of daily exercise. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that people get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity most days of the week.

Brisk walking, jogging, and swimming are easy ways to boost your heart rate and promote cardiovascular health. Exercise can also help lower blood pressure and counter stress. For women, exercise that makes the body and bones bear weight - like walking or running - may reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life.

You’ll likely discover a subtler benefit of exercise as well: greater self-confidence. This may make it easier for you to participate in class and help you perform well in academic and social situations.

How Can I Get Moving?

Colleges offer lots of exercise options. Why not take advantage of the facilities and try something new? You may even be able to take physical education classes for credit - check with your advisor. Here are some suggestions to get you going:

• Work out at the gym. The gym can be a great place to work off stress from the pressures of school. And if time on the stationary bike or treadmill makes you feel like a hamster, you’ll probably find lots of other options at your college gym, such a pool or yoga classes. Exercise should be fun, because the more you enjoy it the more likely you are to do it regularly. So find activities you like and make them a part of your routine.

• Hit the road. All you really need for a workout are comfortable athletic shoes. Then head to the track or check out local trails for jogging - or biking and in-line skating. If your school has jogging or fitness trails around campus, you can probably pick up a map in the student activities office or the gym. (Avoid running alone in isolated areas or at night, even in places that feel safe, so take a friend on your road trip.)

• Head to the court - or the green. Most schools have tennis, racquetball, or squash facilities, and some colleges have golf courses. Many offer classes and lessons. And one of the great things about college is that if your friends don’t share your interests, you can usually meet other players easily.

• Join the club. Even if you’re not at the level of NCAA competition, there are opportunities to play team sports. Check out intramural and club sports like soccer, basketball, lacrosse, ultimate Frisbee, and tons of others.

• Take a hike. Many schools have an outdoor recreation club that loans or rents equipment - everything from tents and backpacks to kayaks and snowshoes - to students for solo or group outings. They may also offer organized trips and lessons. If you’re experienced in the outdoors, consider volunteering to lead groups of other students on hikes or other outdoor trips.

Victor Preedy:Beer in Health and Disease Prevention

December 6, 2008

Presenting both the concerns and problems of beer consumption as well as the emerging evidence of benefit, Handbook of Beer Health and Disease Prevention offers a balanced view of today’s findings and the potential of tomorrow’s research.From a beverage of warriors to a cheap and affordable commodity, beer has been a part of our consumption for nearly 8000 years. Like most alcoholic drinks it has been prone to abuse and in some counties the per capita consumption of beer has led to considerable health risks.

However, just as wine in moderation has been proposed to promote health, research is showing that beer — and the ingredients in beer — can have similar impact on improving health, and in some instances preventing disease. For example, some cancers like bladder cancers and the incidence of cardiovascular disease are reported to be lower in moderate beer drinkers. Furthermore there is a considerable body of emerging evidence to show that the anti-oxidant capacity of beers is high. It has been argued by some that the total antioxidants ingested in some beer drinkers equates that consumed by red wine drinkers. The key to this, of course, is understanding and this volume presents a collection of the most current writings on the subject of beer and it’s potential in health.

Delores C.S. James:Nutrition and Well-Being A-Z

A no-nonsense, comprehensive encyclopedia that will be of use to students researching health and food-science topics. The set examines a variety of subjects such as “Antioxidants,” “Appetite,” “Fats,” “Malnutrition,” “Soy,” and “Organic Foods.” The food pyramid is clearly explained and food labels are deciphered line by line. Related topics include diseases that are associated with nutrition, such as osteoporosis and rickets, and health organizations. A global perspective is maintained throughout the work, with articles provided on the diets of geographic and ethnic groups spamide. The authoritative entries are concise, if a little dry. Nutrition terminology is defined in the margins and included in the glossary.

Average-quality, black-and-white photographs lend only slight visual appeal, but generally add information. Frequent graphs, tables, and sidebars supplement the text with more specific or esoteric material. The index has occasional lapses. The more appealing Encyclopedia of Foods (Academic, 2001) takes a less-clinical approach to its topic; it has color photos and contains practical advice on meal planning and preparation. Nutrition’s straightforward coverage offers more information on disease and government oversight.

Thing to Know About Lack of Sleep

With an ever-increasing number of studies finding a direct connection between sleep deprivation and weight gain, it’s difficult to deny the cause-and-effect relationship. People who get at least seven hours of sleep per night tend to have less body fat than people who don’t. There are, of course, other factors involved in determining who becomes overweight and who doesn’t, like food intake, exercise and genes. But sleep is a more integral of the process than most people realize. In a study involving 9,000 people between 1982 and 1984 (NHANES I), researchers found that people who averaged six hours of sleep per night were 27 percent more likely to be overweight than their seven-to-nine hour counterparts; and those averaging five hours of sleep per night were 73 percent more likely to be overweight.

Many people who are sleep deprived don’t even know it. Lots of us think there’s quite a bit of give in how much sleep a person needs to be healthy and well functioning, but most researchers disagree, putting seven hours as the minimum for all except the very young and the very old. Besides straight numbers, there are a couple of ways to tell if you’re sleep deprived, including:

• Are you typically drowsy during a good portion of the day, especially the morning?
• Are you falling asleep at night in a couple of minutes?

Most non-sleep-deprived people take about 15 minutes to fall asleep at night. Chronic sleepiness and a nearly-instant state of sleep when you get into bed are good indicators that you’re not getting enough

If you are sleep deprived, there are some obvious tie-ins to obesity, like chronic sleepiness making physical activity unlikely. But there are also a number of things going on in your body that could contribute to weight gain. In scientific studies, the most commonly cited effects of sleep deprivation are hormonal disturbances, specifically involving the hormones leptin and ghrelin.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body has too little leptin and too much ghrelin.

Tips to Stay Healthy For the Holidays

‘Tips for the season to beat sickness (not to mention tiredness, stress, or other holiday downers). Fortunately, you can stay well and have a good time even if everyone else is falling apart.

Follow these 5 tips to boost your body’s defenses:

1. Fend off germs. Family gatherings, airports and travel stops, shopping malls, even the library during finals week — they’re all places germs like to mingle. So protect yourself: Get a flu vaccine and wash your hands a lot. The holidays are all about sharing, but some things you’ll want to keep to yourself: forks, spoons, and drinking utensils. People can be contagious before they know they’re sick, so even just a sip from someone’s drink puts his or her germs in your body.

1. Eat healthy and be merry. Holiday foods can be high in calories and low on the nutrition you need to battle germs and boost energy. Make it a priority to eat five or more fruits and vegetables a day (choose the whole fruit instead of juice so you feel full longer and avoid added sugar). Carry an apple or a bag of baby carrots so you always have a healthy snack available. And don’t give your exercise routine a holiday. Exercise gives you energy in addition to burning calories.

1. Chill. “Can I afford it?” “Will it be perfect?” Even things we look forward to, like parties or gifts, can come with worries attached. If you feel stressed out, stop what you’re doing for just a moment. Take five deep breaths — all-the-way-down-to-your-belly deep. Concentrate on each breath as you inhale and exhale. Walk over to a window and look out at the sky. Then go back to what you were doing, realizing that holiday drama will happen. Just hope it leaves you with some great stories to tell.

1. Beat the blues. Holiday depression doesn’t just happen in songs. For some people, it’s seasonal, brought on by shorter days, longer nights, and colder weather. Other people are going through difficult life events like a breakup or a move. If you feel down, go outside, even if it’s cold where you live. Sunlight and exercise are great mood lifters. Try a seasonal activity to put you in the holiday spirit, like ice skating or neighborhood carol singing. And don’t hesitate to talk to someone you trust, like a parent or teacher, about how you’re feeling.

1. Get some Z’s. Getting 8½ to 9 hours of sleep a night during the holidays can help strengthen your immune system, give you more energy, and make you less vulnerable to stress.

One of the top things to do for your health is to get out and have fun. Forget about the tough stuff for a while (except for your safety, of course — be sure someone knows where you are and watch out for drunk drivers).

Laugh and enjoy yourself — the holidays only come once a year.

Want to Know About Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)? Read This…

November 21, 2008

STDs are more than just an embarrassment. They’re a serious health problem. If untreated, some STDs can cause permanent damage, such as infertility (the inability to have a baby) and even death (in the case of HIV/AIDS).

How STDs Spread

One reason STDs spread is because people think they need to have sexual intercourse to become infected. That’s wrong. A person can get some STDs, like herpes or genital warts, through skin-to-skin contact with an infected area or sore. Another myth about STDs is that you can’t get them if you have oral or anal sex. That’s also wrong because the viruses or bacteria that cause STDs can enter the body through tiny cuts or tears in the mouth and anus, as well as the genitals.

STDs also spread easily because you can’t tell whether someone has an infection. In fact, some people with STDs don’t even know that they have them. These people are in danger of passing an infection on to their sex partners without even realizing it.

Some of the things that increase a person’s chances of getting an STD are:

• Sexual activity at a young age. The younger a person starts having sex, the greater his or her chances of becoming infected with an STD.
• Lots of sex partners. People who have sexual contact — not just intercourse, but any form of intimate activity — with many different partners are more at risk than those who stay with the same partner.
• Unprotected sex. Latex condoms are the only form of birth control that reduce your risk of getting an STD. Spermicides, diaphragms, and other birth control methods may help prevent pregnancy, but they don’t protect a person against STDs.

Preventing and Treating STDs

As with many other diseases, prevention is key. It’s much easier to prevent STDs than to treat them. The only way to completely prevent STDs is to abstain from all types of sexual contact. If someone is going to have sex, the best way to reduce the chance of getting an STD is by using a condom.

People who are considering having sex should get regular gynecological or male genital examinations. There are two reasons for this. First, these exams give doctors a chance to teach people about STDs and protecting themselves. And second, regular exams give doctors more opportunities to check for STDs while they’re still in their earliest, most treatable stage.

In order for these exams and visits to the doctor to be helpful, people need to tell their doctors if they are thinking about having sex or if they have already started having sex. This is true for all types of sex — oral, vaginal, and anal.

Don’t let embarrassment at the thought of having an STD keep you from seeking medical attention. Waiting to see a doctor may allow a disease to progress and cause more damage. If you think you may have an STD, or if you have had a partner who may have an STD, you should see a doctor right away.

If you don’t have a doctor or prefer not to see your family doctor, you may be able to find a local clinic in your area where you can get an exam confidentially. Some national and local organizations operate STD hotlines staffed by trained specialists who can answer your questions and provide referrals. Calls to these hotlines are confidential. One hotline you can call for information is the National STD Hotline at 1-800-227-8922.

Not all infections in the genitals are caused by STDs. Sometimes people can get symptoms that seem very like those of STDs, even though they’ve never had sex. For girls, a yeast infection can easily be confused with an STD. Guys may worry about bumps on the penis that turn out to be pimples or irritated hair follicles. That’s why it’s important to see a doctor if you ever have questions about your sexual health.

Omega-3 fish oil: Highly Recommend by Heart experts

September 17, 2008

Patients with heart diseases always face the threat of sudden death or a potentially life-threatening irregularity of the heartbeat called arrhythmia.

There is now a growing body of evidence that supplementation with omega-3 fish oil can reduce the risk of sudden death in many high-risk heart patients.

The following are all oily fish:

• Herrings
• Mackerel
• Pilchards
• Salmon
• Sardines
• Trout

These fish contains high amounts of the beneficial omega-3 oil.

A study published in the journal Circulation by Dr. Alexander Leaf and his colleagues at the Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts showed that the regular ingestion of fish oil fatty acids for 12 months may have benefited the patients due to a longer time to first potentially fatal arrhythmic event or death from any cause among patients randomized to fish oil compared with those randomized to olive-oil placebo.

It would suggest that omega-3 can help suppress the potentially fatal arrhythmia called ventricular fibrillation or VF.

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HEALTHPRACTICAL:The bittersweet facts about diabetes

September 11, 2008

One can never too young – or too paranoid – to take preventive measures against diabetes mellitus. With our fast-paced lifestyle anchored on modern technology, the temptation to eat a less-than-healthy diet and lead a sedentary lifestyle is simply too great. Factor in stress, smoking and drinking, and the worst-case scenario becomes a real possibility. Keep in mind that the risk to develop diabetes increases significantly if the disease runs in your family.

More than 150 million people in the world suffer from diabetes mellitus; by 2025, experts predicts this number to double to 300 million, with the greatest increase expected to come from developing countries such as the Philippines. About 4 million Filipinos are estimated to have diabetes mellitus, a figure that is almost certainly an underestimate because many cases remain undetected. Untreated or uncontrolled, diabetes can lead to a heart attack, stroke, blindness, amputations, kidney problems, and even death.

Leading a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight or obese, eating an unhealthy diet, a family history of the disease – if any of these apply to you, you may be at risk. If your pee trips to the toilet are becoming more frequent, if you are constantly hungry or thirsty or feel like your hands and feet are being pricked by needles, you may already have the first confirm the diagnosis through a fasting blood sugar (FBS) determination and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT).

So far, we’ve been talking about only one of several types of diabetes mellitus. There is also type 1 diabetes mellitus which usually develops in childhood and often requires lifetime insulin therapy, and gestational diabetes which develops during pregnancy and disappears after delivery. But type 2 diabetes mellitus is by far the most common.

Although there is no cure yet for diabetes, the disease is highly preventable. Simple but positive lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, are scientifically proven to prevent diabetes. In fact, for individuals with mildly elevated blood sugar levels- what doctors call pre-diabetics such simple lifestyle changes can prevent pre-diabetes from progressing to full-blown diabetes.

The range of treatment options for diabetes is now much broader than what was available two or three decades ago, thanks to robust research. There are a variety of oral anti-diabetes medications that target different organ systems, all of which work lower blood sugar levels. These include vildagliptin, which belongs to a new class of blood sugar-lowering medicines called DPP-4 inhibitors. Insulin therapy has gone beyond conventional disposable insulin injections, with the development of the insulin pen that holds multiple replaceable insulin cartridges and the insulin pump, a delivery device about the size of a deck of cards that can be worn on a narrow, flexible plastic tubing that ends with a needle inserted just under the skin, it can be set to administer a steady trickle of insulin pump can be programmed to release higher doses of insulin at meals and at times when blood glucose is expected to spike.

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HeathPractical’s Tip About Migraine, Begone

Having a migraine headache can be the worst feeling in the world.The cause of migraine is unknown. The condition may result from a series of reactions in the central nervous system caused by changes in the body or in the environment. There is often a family history of the disorder, suggesting that migraine sufferers may inherit sensitivity to triggers that produce inflammation in the blood vessels and nerves around the brain, causing pain.

Migraine pain is often described as throbbing or pulsating pain that is intensified by routine physical activity, coughing, straining, or lowering the head. The headache is often so severe that it interferes with daily activity and may awaken the person. The attack is debilitating, and migraine sufferers are often left feeling tired and weak once the headache has passed. Sensitivity to light; noise, even movement can cause a migraine headache to increase in pain. If you have ever had a migraine, you know it can leave you irritated and, at times, debilitated for as long as it lasts.

Everytime we feel the pain in our head, we usually take a painkiller, wait for the hurt to go away and that’s it. That is the routine for most migraine sufferers But the pills most commonly used can lead to “rebound” headaches. A new study suggests that an antiseizure drug can reduce the frequency of – and in some cases, prevent migraines without that nasty rebound.

In a trial that took place at numerous medical centers across the United States and Canada, a total of 468 patients took the drug, called topiramate, or a placebo for six and a half months. Those getting 100 mg of topiramate a day experienced roughly half as many monthly migraines per month.

Migraines are caused by hyperactive brain signals overwhelming nerve endings, topiramate seems to calm the signals. Researchers believe topiramate can stabilize brain activity so migraines don’t return, meaning patients might not have to take the medicine indefinitely, says Jan Brandes, a neurologist at the Nashville Neuroscience Group. The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the use of the drug before year’s end.