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Broke Your Right Arm? Exercise Your Left. It May Help, Really.
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By stevenlindgrn
I am very fat and would like to lose my weight. I was thinking of using a few different diets such as Alka Tone Keto or Atkins.
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By Kathy Meyer
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Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. Important Things You Should Know About a Migraine
Are there recurring pains that come to your head which is first moderate then becomes severe in the long run? Do the pain in your head is throbbing or pulsing? Does the pain often occur on one side of your head occur? Are you feeling weak or nausea? Are you experiencing sensitivity to sound or light? If all of your answer or most of the questions, the answer is yes. Probably, you might have a migraine.
There are many factors that a migraine develops. It may be the result of abnormal activity that your brain works. It can affect your nerves communication and the chemicals and the blood vessels in your mind. Sometimes, because genetic reasons, it can trigger someone’s migraine. There are chances that a person’s headache activates when they encounter. If a person is not able to know how a migraine becomes active, there is a high risk of being attacked to this Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. .
A Migraine Triggers Most During:
1. Diet practices. Some beverages contribute most in migraine attack – alcohol and caffeine. Other specific foods also that includes chocolate, peanut, cheese, citrus fruits, and foods that contain additive tyramine. If the person has irregular meal time and particular circumstances of getting dehydrated migraine triggers.
2. Emotional triggers. Since emotions are connected to psychological being of a person, once he may feel stress, depressed, anxious, excited, and even shock, it can activate his migraine.
3. Environment. Since one of the symptoms of having migraine its sensitivity to light, you expect that once there are flickering screens, strong smells, second-hand smoke, or even loud noises in the environment, it can cause your migraine to attack. Aside from that, if temperature changes, you are closed to a stuffy room, or having bright lights in the surroundings that annoy your eyes, can also make a migraine start.
4. Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. . Most cases this happens to girls during their menstruation. It is because whenever girls have their monthly periods, their hormone level changes.
5. Medication. Due to other conditions which you have felt before, you might have specific drugs that include sleeping pills, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, or combined contraceptive pill. All of these may trigger a migraine.
6. Physical causes. Your body’s low blood sugar or jet lag can be a cause. If you are tired and does not have enough sleep, your shoulder or neck tensions, you have poor posture, or physical overexertion can trigger a migraine.
Despite these possible causes to trigger your migraine, you can fight whenever it attacks if you have prepared yourself for treatments. If you have consulted your doctor, it is much better so that he can help you manage it. However, if you were not able to talk to your doctor, some treatments can help you make your migraine less painful.
Migraine Treatments
The treatment plan should depend on certain factors your age, type of your migraine, number of attacks, other health conditions, any severe symptoms of attacks. The treatment focuses on giving relief to the signs and preventing severe additional migraine attacks. The procedure may be a combination of the following:
1. Self-care remedies for a migraine
2. Adjustments in lifestyle like stress management and avoiding activities that trigger a migraine
3. Engaging in exercises, relaxation techniques, and biofeedback
4. Prescription migraine medication that you take as soon as headache starts which may include Axert drug.
5. Hormone therapy could help women who mostly experience the attack of severe headache during the menstruation cycle.
6. Counseling
7. Alternative care
8. You can lie down in a quiet and dark room. Make sure to rest your eyes.
9. Massage scalp or temples
10. You can place a cold cloth over the forehead or behind the neck.
11. You need to drink plenty of water.
Takeaway
It is worth knowing the important things that cause your migraine. At the same time, with an underlying treatment, it could have. Most of the time, when a headache occurs, and it becomes severe, people rely most on medicine that could help them ease the pain.
So to lessen the burden of rattling whenever migraine attacks, it is suggested that you need to bring with you always medicine that will help you the most. Thus, it is timely and relevant to grab one of the offered discounts by Pharma Quotes for cases like you. To avail the promo, grab and secure an Hello guest! Please register or sign in (it's free) to view the hidden content. as soon as possible. With this, you will always be ready with or without migraine attack.
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By Guest Nicole
Want medical care without quickly draining your fortune? Try Singapore or Hong Kong as your healthy havens.
The U.S. will cost you the most for treatment, both in absolute terms and relative to average incomes, while life expectancy of Americans -- about 79 years -- was exceeded by more than 25 countries and territories, according to an annual Bloomberg analysis in almost 200 economies.
A health-efficiency index was then created to rank those with average lifespans of at least 70 years, GDP per-capita exceeding $5,000 and a minimum population of 5 million.
Americans arenÂ’t getting their medical moneyÂ’s worth, according to each of the categories.
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By Guest Nicole
Many studies have shown that carbohydrates, sugar and fat are the causes of weight gain. However, a new report reveals that fat is the only culprit.
Researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently conducted a study, published in the Cell Metabolism journal, to explore the impacts of macronutrients on body weight.
To do so, they fed mice 30 different diets that varied in fat, carbs and protein contents for a three-month period, the equivalent of nine years for humans.
Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/world/eating-fat-the-only-cause-weight-gain-study-says/7ze4Vx5kPVuqQ7EJLO75QI/
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By Guest Nicole
Being widowed, divorced or never married increases the risk of heart disease.
Being married may reduce the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular death, a review of studies has found.
Researchers pooled data on more than two million participants in 34 studies carried out in the United States, Britain, Japan, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Greece and eight other countries.
They found that compared with married people, those who were unmarried — whether never married, widowed or divorced — were 42 percent more likely to have some form of cardiovascular disease and 16 percent more likely to have coronary heart disease. The unmarried also had a 43 percent increased likelihood of coronary heart disease death and a 55 percent increased risk for death from stroke. Stroke risk was increased for the unmarried and divorced, but not for the widowed.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/well/marriage-heart-married-divorced-single.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/well
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By Guest Nicole
Exercise changes the brains and sperm of male animals in ways that later affect the brains and thinking skills of their offspring, according to a fascinating new study involving mice.
The findings indicate that some of the brain benefits of physical activity may be passed along to children, even if a father does not begin to exercise until adulthood.
We already have plenty of scientific evidence showing that exercise is good for our brains, whether we are mice or people. Among other effects, physical activity can strengthen the connections between neurons in the hippocampus, a crucial part of the brain involved in memory and learning. Stronger neuronal connections there generally mean sharper thinking.
Studies also indicate that exercise, like other aspects of lifestyle, can alter how genes work — whether and when they get turned on or off, for instance — and those changes can get passed on to children. This process is known as epigenetics.
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By Guest Nicole
Date:
April 19, 2018
Source:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Summary:
Older adults who take an antioxidant that specifically targets mitochondria see age-related changes in blood vessels reverse by the equivalent of 15 to 20 years within six weeks, a new study shows.
Older adults who take a novel antioxidant that specifically targets cellular powerhouses, or mitochondria, see age-related vascular changes reverse by the equivalent of 15 to 20 years within six weeks, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research.
The study, published this week in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplements, or nutraceuticals, could play an important role in preventing heart disease-the nation's No. 1 killer. It also resurrects the notion that oral antioxidants, which have been broadly dismissed as ineffective in recent years, could reap measurable health benefits if properly targeted, the authors say.
"This is the first clinical trial to assess the impact of a mitochondrial-specific antioxidant on vascular function in humans," said lead author Matthew Rossman, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of integrative physiology. "It suggests that therapies like this may hold real promise for reducing the risk of age-related cardiovascular disease."
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By Guest Nicole
For decades, Americans have been inundated with a confusing barrage of messages about how best to counteract the health risks of sedentary lifestyles: walk 10,000 steps a day; do a seven-minute workout from a phone app; flip heavy tires in an arduous boot camp class.
It turns out that any and all of those tactics -- even when done in short bursts throughout the day -- could work to reduce Americans' risk of disease and death, according to research appearing in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
"For about 30 years, guidelines have suggested that moderate-to-vigorous activity could provide health benefits, but only if you sustained the activity for 10 minutes or more," said study author and distinguished professor William E. Kraus, M.D., of the Duke University School of Medicine. "That flies in the face of public health recommendations, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking farther from your destination. Those don't take 10 minutes, so why were they recommended?"
Kraus's study found that even brief trips up and down stairs would count toward accumulated exercise minutes and reducing health risks so long as the intensity reaches a moderate or vigorous level. Moderate exertion was defined as brisk walking at a pace that makes it hard to carry a conversation. Boosting that pace to a jog would be vigorous exercise for most people, he said.
The study findings are good news for most Americans, Kraus said, because they typically get their moderate or vigorous exercise in short bouts, and accumulating 30 minutes per day may be more convenient than setting a half-hour block.
Current guidelines, issued in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week, ideally spread out over several days, Kraus said. Updated guidelines are expected to be released later this year.
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By Guest Nicole
A new study adds evidence to the argument that exercise can help preserve brain health, particularly in the aging brain.
What makes this study different than most is a wrinkle in its methodology. Unlike many studies that look for a connection between exercise and brain health, this one used a specific way of measuring physical fitness, by testing the participants’ maximum oxygen consumption during aerobic exercise (known as the V02 max test, it’s a method recognized by the American Heart Association as an objective way of analyzing cardiovascular fitness--more reliable than people just self-reporting on how fit they think they are).
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By Guest Nicole
Are standing desks really doing us any good?
That question has divided workplaces since sitting started going out of fashion about five years ago. Our sedentary lifestyles were killing us, so standing, the thinking went, was the logical antidote. Sitting too long has been associated with diabetes, hypertension, some forms of cancer, anxiety and a generally greater probability of early death. However, a few years and hundreds of studies later, the naysayers began arguing that the benefits of standing had been exaggerated.Â
“What is the real answer?” asked Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic. “How many calories would someone burn in standing or sitting up?” A new study may provide the most definitive answer to date, at least as far as losing weight is concerned. Standing does, in fact, burn calories, researchers found, just not that many: about 54 calories for a six-hour day of standing.
Read more:Â
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By Guest Nicole
The potentially harmful effects of loneliness and social isolation on health and longevity, especially among older adults, are well established. For example, in 2013 I reported on research finding that loneliness can impair health by raising levels of stress hormones and inflammation, which in turn can increase the risk of heart disease, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes, dementia and even suicide attempts.
Among older people who reported they felt left out, isolated or lacked companionship, the ability to perform daily activities like bathing, grooming and preparing meals declined and deaths increased over a six-year study period relative to people who reported none of these feelings. Writing for The New York Times’s department The Upshot last December, Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a physician and researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, cited evidence for disrupted sleep, abnormal immune responses and accelerated cognitive decline among socially isolated individuals, which he called “a growing epidemic.”
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By Guest Nicole
Date:
August 2, 2017
Source:
Florida Atlantic University
Summary:
Restricting how much you eat without starving has been shown to robustly extend lifespan in more than 20 species of animals including primates. How this works is still unclear. A new study shows that it's not just what or how much you eat that matters. Smelling food in addition to consuming calories could influence the aging process. And, what's 'eating' you or more specifically your cells may provide clues to healthy aging.
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By Guest Nicole
Date:
July 17, 2017
Source:
Wiley
Summary:
A new review indicates that subjective well-being -- factors such as life satisfaction and enjoyment of life -- can influence physical health.
A new review indicates that subjective well-being -- factors such as life satisfaction and enjoyment of life -- can influence physical health. The review's investigators also examine why this is so and conditions where it is most likely to occur.
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By Guest Nicole
BACKGROUND
Although the rising pandemic of obesity has received major attention in many countries, the effects of this attention on trends and the disease burden of obesity remain uncertain.
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By Guest Nicole
Obesity and weight problems are on the rise across the world, according to a new study. In fact, more than 2 billion adults and children (or more than 30 percent of the world’s population) suffered from health problems stemming from being overweight or obese in 2015, and more people than ever are dying because of weight-related problems, the study found.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study analyzed data from 195 countries between 1980 and 2015, collected as part of the Global Burden of Disease study (which looked at the health loss of more than 300 diseases and injuries). Scientists from the University of Washington found that more than 107 million children and 603 million adults worldwide were obese as of 2015, and even more are technically overweight. And in the U.S. alone, 79 million adults were technically obese in 2015, as compared to 57 million adults in China (which has four times as many people as the U.S.), the Associated Press notes. The U.S. also has the highest number of overweight or obese young adults or children.
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By Guest Nicole
If you’re tired of feeling bloated and puffy, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Over half of our total body weight is water and the amount we retain on a given day is directly correlated to what we eat. The key to flushing the water-weight quickly is to take a break from foods that are high in sodium like canned goods, chips, pizza, pasta, and even sugary foods as well. Author and personal trainer Jen Widerstrom has come up with a few easy ways to wave goodbye to the bloat in just three days. Here is what you need to know to get started.
Start With a Potassium Water Flush and Caffeine Chaser
As strange as it sounds, the key to getting the water weight down is to actually drink more water. To spice up your water, add lemons, cucumbers, and kiwis to hydrate your body and give it to a dose of potassium. Potassium counterbalances the effect of sodium in the body so it’s an important part of your diet when you’re trying to shed the weight. Pair this drink with a caffeine chaser such as tea or an espresso shot, which acts as a natural diuretic. Make sure to avoid sugar and dairy since these ingredients can actually make you bloat.
Pair White Bean Hummus With Water Veggies at Lunch
Studies show that white kidney beans have a compound that acts as a starch blocker. For every gram of carbs you eat, you retain three grams of water, but white beans inhibit digestion of these carbs so you don’t have to accumulate any water weight. Aside from that benefit, this vegetable is also full of fiber which can help clean you out. The most powerful way to enjoy this snack is with cucumbers and celery which have the highest water content of any vegetable and are extremely low in calories.
Make a Water-Shedding Veggie Bowl
Leafy greens are a crucial part of water weight loss because they draw water out of your body. So start with a base of spinach and add asparagus (a natural diuretic) and broccoli (which is high in potassium) on top. Top with dried apricots which can add a nice texture and all-natural sweetness to the dish. Feel free to swap out the greens, choosing from kale or Swiss chard or any other dark leafy vegetable you enjoy.
Make Banana Tea for Dessert
To make banana tea, put a whole banana – peel included – in a pot of water and bring it to a boil for around 10 minutes. The peel actually has more potassium than the banana itself and is full of magnesium which can help you sleep better. A good night’s rest is also important for losing weight because your body goes into fat-burning mode while you snooze. You can also add a pinch of cinnamon to give the drink more flavor, just avoid adding any sweeteners to avoid an insulin spike.
Add Exercise to Your Daily Routine
Aside from your diet, light exercise is very helpful in shedding the water weight. Either before breakfast or after dinner, make time to go for a 20 minute walk at the park or just around your neighborhood. You don’t have to do an intense workout to enjoy the benefits, the key is to get your blood flowing, improve your circulation, and help you digest your food.
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By Guest Nicole
At some point or another, you’ve probably seen someone reference research which suggests that having a good sense of humor is linked to better health outcomes. Sometimes, this is referenced as more or less a fact — we know this to be true. And sometimes, the point is stretched yet further: therefore, actively working to have a sense of humor can help you stay healthy.
But when you look at some of this research, things are actually not quite so simple. In a post published today on BPS Research Digest, Christian Jarrett nicely explains the limitations of some of the health-humor studies and deftly unpacks why they don’t say what they seem to.
The research in question this time around is an article consisting of a series of studies published in Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin.
Let’s let Jarrett explain two of the studies’ setups:
Heidi Fritz at Clarkson University and her colleagues began by conducting a diary study with 21 women and 1 man diagnosed with the chronic pain condition Fibromyalgia Syndrome. The participants first completed baseline questionnaires about their physical health, psychological state, their tendency to see the funny side of things (for example, they were asked whether they would typically experience mirth in situations such as a waiter spilling a drink over them), how much socialising and support they’d had with friends and relatives recently, and how much they tended to reappraise challenges, such as looking for the positives in a difficult situation. Then the participants spent the next four days completing diary entries several times each day about their physical and emotional state.
A second study involved just over 100 undergrad students answering questions about their psychological and emotional state, their tendency to find things funny and make jokes, and they also recalled a previous distressing event and how much it continued to affect them.
As Jarrett explains, the results suggested that, overall, those with better senses of humor were more likely to handle certain types of stressors, as well as the lingering effects of trauma. But: “[T]he obvious problem with these first two studies is that it might simply be that the less distressed participants were better able to experience humour, rather than their inclination for humour reducing their stress levels or, in the case of the first study, their physical symptoms.” This is a potential problem with basically all correlational research, of course, and it’s why it’s frustrating to see so many people extract “X causes Y!” takeaways from studies that are a bit more complicated.
What’s interesting about this particular article is that, as Jarrett explains, a third study was designed to test the causality question — that is, whether a sense of humor causes better health and more resilience — but “it failed, statistically, to establish that a stronger inclination for humour at baseline was directly associated with less distress at follow-up.”
So what we’re left with are some ambiguous correlations — interesting in their own right and worth probing forward. Which is fine! That’s science. But science is complicated, and the stories we tell should about it should reflect that.
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By Guest Nicole
Running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy, according to a new review and analysis of past research about exercise and premature death. The new study found that, compared to nonrunners, runners tended to live about three additional years, even if they run slowly or sporadically and smoke, drink or are overweight. No other form of exercise that researchers looked at showed comparable impacts on life span.
The findings come as a follow-up to a study done three years ago, in which a group of distinguished exercise scientists scrutinized data from a large trove of medical and fitness tests conducted at the Cooper Institute in Dallas. That analysis found that as little as five minutes of daily running was associated with prolonged life spans.
After that study was released, the researchers were inundated with queries from fellow scientists and the general public, says Duck-chul Lee, a professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University and a co-author of the study. Some people asked if other activities, such as walking, were likely to be as beneficial as running for reducing mortality risks.
High-mileage runners wondered if they could be doing too much, and if at some undefined number of miles or hours, running might become counterproductive and even contribute to premature mortality,
And a few people questioned whether running really added materially to people’s life spans. Could it be, they asked rather peevishly, that if in order to reduce your risk of dying by a year, you had to spend the equivalent of a year’s worth of time on the trails or track, producing no discernible net gain?
So for the new study, which was published last month in Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, Dr. Lee and his colleagues set out to address those and related issues by reanalyzing data from the Cooper Institute and also examining results from a number of other large-scale recent studies looking into the associations between exercise and mortality.
Over all, this new review reinforced the findings of the earlier research, the scientists determined. Cumulatively, the data indicated that running, whatever someone’s pace or mileage, dropped a person’s risk of premature death by almost 40 percent, a benefit that held true even when the researchers controlled for smoking, drinking and a history of health problems such as hypertension or obesity.
Using those numbers, the scientists then determined that if every nonrunner who had been part of the reviewed studies took up the sport, there would have been 16 percent fewer deaths over all, and 25 percent fewer fatal heart attacks. (One caveat: the participants in those studies were mostly white and middle class.)
Perhaps most interesting, the researchers calculated that, hour for hour, running statistically returns more time to people’s lives than it consumes. Figuring two hours per week of training, since that was the average reported by runners in the Cooper Institute study, the researchers estimated that a typical runner would spend less than six months actually running over the course of almost 40 years, but could expect an increase in life expectancy of 3.2 years, for a net gain of about 2.8 years.
In concrete terms, an hour of running statistically lengthens life expectancy by seven hours, the researchers report.
Of course, these additions “are not infinite,” Dr. Lee says. Running does not make people immortal. The gains in life expectancy are capped at around three extra years, he says, however much people run.
The good news is that prolonged running does not seem to become counterproductive for longevity, he continues, according to the data he and his colleagues reviewed. Improvements in life expectancy generally plateaued at about four hours of running per week, Dr. Lee says. But they did not decline.
Meanwhile, other kinds of exercise also reliably benefited life expectancy, the researchers found, but not to the same degree as running. Walking, cycling and other activities, even if they required the same exertion as running, typically dropped the risk of premature death by about 12 percent. (To make my own biases clear, I run but I also love cycling and I walk my dogs every day.)
Why running should be so uniquely potent against early mortality remains uncertain, Dr. Lee says. But it is likely, he says, that it combats many of the common risk factors for early death, including high blood pressure and extra body fat, especially around the middle.
It also raises aerobic fitness, he says, and high aerobic fitness is one of the best-known indicators of an individual’s long-term health.
Of course, the findings in this new review are associational, meaning that they prove that people who run tend also to be people who live longer, but not that running directly causes the increases in longevity. Runners typically also lead healthy lives, Dr. Lee says, and their lifestyles may be playing an outsize role in mortality.
But even taking that possibility into consideration, he says, the data suggest that running could add years to our lives.
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By Guest Nicole
“Look on the sunny side of life.”
“Turn your face toward the sun, and the shadows will fall behind you.”
“Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”
“See the glass as half-full, not half-empty.”
Researchers are finding that thoughts like these, the hallmarks of people sometimes called “cockeyed optimists,” can do far more than raise one’s spirits. They may actually improve health and extend life.
There is no longer any doubt that what happens in the brain influences what happens in the body. When facing a health crisis, actively cultivating positive emotions can boost the immune system and counter depression. Studies have shown an indisputable link between having a positive outlook and health benefits like lower blood pressure, less heart disease, better weight control and healthier blood sugar levels.
Continue reading the main story
Even when faced with an incurable illness, positive feelings and thoughts can greatly improve one’s quality of life. Dr. Wendy Schlessel Harpham, a Dallas-based author of several books for people facing cancer, including “Happiness in a Storm,” was a practicing internist when she learned she had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, 27 years ago. During the next 15 years of treatments for eight relapses of her cancer, she set the stage for happiness and hope, she says, by such measures as surrounding herself with people who lift her spirits, keeping a daily gratitude journal, doing something good for someone else, and watching funny, uplifting movies. Her cancer has been in remission now for 12 years.
“Fostering positive emotions helped make my life the best it could be,” Dr. Harpham said. “They made the tough times easier, even though they didn’t make any difference in my cancer cells.”
While Dr. Harpham may have a natural disposition to see the hopeful side of life even when the outlook is bleak, new research is demonstrating that people can learn skills that help them experience more positive emotions when faced with the severe stress of a life-threatening illness.
Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, developed a set of eight skills to help foster positive emotions. In earlier research at the University of California, San Francisco, she and colleagues found that people with new diagnoses of H.I.V. infection who practiced these skills carried a lower load of the virus, were more likely to take their medication correctly, and were less likely to need antidepressants to help them cope with their illness.
The researchers studied 159 people who had recently learned they had H.I.V. and randomly assigned them to either a five-session positive emotions training course or five sessions of general support. Fifteen months past their H.I.V. diagnosis, those trained in the eight skills maintained higher levels of positive feelings and fewer negative thoughts related to their infection.
An important goal of the training is to help people feel happy, calm and satisfied in the midst of a health crisis. Improvements in their health and longevity are a bonus. Each participant is encouraged to learn at least three of the eight skills and practice one or more each day. The eight skills are:
■ Recognize a positive event each day.
■ Savor that event and log it in a journal or tell someone about it.
■ Start a daily gratitude journal.
■ List a personal strength and note how you used it.
■ Set an attainable goal and note your progress.
■ Report a relatively minor stress and list ways to reappraise the event positively.
■ Recognize and practice small acts of kindness daily.
■ Practice mindfulness, focusing on the here and now rather than the past or future.
Dr. Moskowitz said she was inspired by observations that people with AIDS, Type 2 diabetes and other chronic illnesses lived longer if they demonstrated positive emotions. She explained, “The next step was to see if teaching people skills that foster positive emotions can have an impact on how well they cope with stress and their physical health down the line.”
She listed as the goals improving patients’ quality of life, enhancing adherence to medication, fostering healthy behaviors, and building personal resources that result in increased social support and broader attention to the good things in life.
Gregg De Meza, a 56-year-old architect in San Francisco who learned he was infected with H.I.V. four years ago, told me that learning “positivity” skills turned his life around. He said he felt “stupid and careless” about becoming infected and had initially kept his diagnosis a secret.
“When I entered the study, I felt like my entire world was completely unraveling,” he said. “The training reminded me to rely on my social network, and I decided to be honest with my friends. I realized that to show your real strength is to show your weakness. No pun intended, it made me more positive, more compassionate, and I’m now healthier than I’ve ever been.”
In another study among 49 patients with Type 2 diabetes, an online version of the positive emotions skills training course was effective in enhancing positivity and reducing negative emotions and feelings of stress. Prior studies showed that, for people with diabetes, positive feelings were associated with better control of blood sugar, an increase in physical activity and healthy eating, less use of tobacco and a lower risk of dying.
In a pilot study of 39 women with advanced breast cancer, Dr. Moskowitz said an online version of the skills training decreased depression among them. The same was true with caregivers of dementia patients.
“None of this is rocket science,” Dr. Moskowitz said. “I’m just putting these skills together and testing them in a scientific fashion.”
In a related study of more than 4,000 people 50 and older published last year in the Journal of Gerontology, Becca Levy and Avni Bavishi at the Yale School of Public Health demonstrated that having a positive view of aging can have a beneficial influence on health outcomes and longevity. Dr. Levy said two possible mechanisms account for the findings. Psychologically, a positive view can enhance belief in one’s abilities, decrease perceived stress and foster healthful behaviors. Physiologically, people with positive views of aging had lower levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of stress-related inflammation associated with heart disease and other illnesses, even after accounting for possible influences like age, health status, sex, race and education than those with a negative outlook. They also lived significantly longer.
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By Guest Nicole
1. Bad stress
What, you ask, is bad stress? Stress that causes an ongoing and damaging adrenaline response in the body, accompanied by high cortisol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and immune, tissue, and blood vessel damage. In other words, bad things that make you sick.
Not all stress is bad. Good stress, for example, includes situations that are invigorating, challenging, and leave you stronger. An example would be a new job that is pushing you to the limits of your abilities and creativity and has your heart pumping, accompanied by a prevailing sense that you are going to get this done. Or the stress of training for a triathlon or learning a new sport, with your efforts rewarded by your gradual improvement.
How can you tell the difference? Bad stress is stress that leaves you more terrified than stimulated, feeling hopeless and a victim of your circumstances, such as a verbally or physically abusive relationship with a partner or a boss. Good stress leaves you feeling challenged. Bad stress leaves you fearing for your life or your livelihood. Notice which you might be feeling in your life and in the situations you find yourself in.
Can you sometimes turn bad stress into good stress? Sure. For example, when you are afraid you may fail at a task set for you at work, take a moment and breathe. Find the calm within you. Get the help or inspiration you may need from colleagues or friends. And turn that task into a challenge. What does not kill you only makes you stronger (thank you Nietzsche and Kanye).
2. Unconscious eating
Unconscious eating includes the automatic hand dip into the candy bowl or popcorn bowl. It also includes all categories of eating that are not due to actual hunger. If you find yourself looking into the freezer in search of ice cream because it's finals week and you're pulling an all-nighter, or because your girlfriend just dumped you, or because you're under the influence, this is unconscious eating. You're not actually hungry; you're upset or anxious or under the influence.
In general, you want to be aware of what you're putting into your body. Almost all processed food is harmful to our bodies. As is all fast food. And packaged food. And we can pretty much blame packaged, processed and "fast food" for being the primary cause of all chronic diseases in the United States. Seriously. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, and autoimmune disease are just a few of the issues made worse by processed and packaged foods.
Be a conscious eater. If you're paying any attention to whether you're actually hungry, and to what your body truly wants to eat, you are far less likely to reach for the Cheetos.
3. Skipping sleep
Lack of sleep causes weight gain, which can then cause diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and exacerbate arthritis. This weight gain is related to the fact that lack of sleep reduces our natural appetite suppressant (leptin) and increases our appetite driver (ghrelin). Lack of sleep also exacerbates anxiety, depression, fatigue, irritability, and reduces concentration and productivity. Want to be healthy and successful? Sleep until you're feeling well-rested.
4. Not brushing and flossing
Periodontal disease from not flossing, brushing, and seeing the dentist regularly almost doubles the risk of heart disease because unhealthy gums allow bacteria and plaque to enter the bloodstream and increase inflammation. Isn't that crazy? Periodontal disease may also increase the risk of dementia. And the loss of teeth from poor dental care contributes to a less healthy diet—exacerbating all chronic health issues.
5. Sitting
Turns out that increased hours of sitting are associated with higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity, independent of any other risk factors. Scary stuff. Almost enough to get you off the couch. Sitting also increases your risk of dying from any cause.
So no matter what kind of work you do, get off your ass and find a new position to do it in. Stand at your desk, stroll during meetings, limit your time in the car. And when you're home? Try to find something else to do besides sit. Exercise bike and Netflix anyone?
If you can avoid most of these triggers most of the time, you will be well on your way to a healthier, happier, and longer life!
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By Guest Nicole
Being mistreated at work can make people take out their frustrations on loved ones at home. But a new study suggests that getting more exercise and sleep may help people better cope with those negative emotions by leaving them at work, where they belong.
People who burned more calories on a daily basis—by doing the equivalent of a long walk or swim—were less likely to take out their anger about work issues on people they lived with, the researchers found in the new study, which was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
The researchers used activity trackers to record sleep patterns and physical activity of 118 graduate students with full-time jobs. Each participant, and one person he or she lived with, also completed surveys about sleep, exercise and feelings of mistreatment at home or work.
Previous research shows that employees who are belittled or insulted by colleagues are likely to vent their frustrations and behave angrily toward people outside of work, says study co-author Shannon Taylor, a management professor at the University of Central Florida's College of Business.
The new study backs up this idea, but offers a bit of good news, as well: Employees who averaged more than 10,500 steps a day or burned at least 2,100 calories were less likely to mistreat their cohabitants than those who averaged fewer steps or burned fewer calories.
The researchers even calculated the exact energy expenditure needed to protect against work-to-home emotional spillover. Burning an additional 587 calories, the equivalent of a 90-minute brisk walk or an hour-long swim for a 195-pound male, can “substantially reduce the harmful effects of workplace undermining,” they wrote.
The findings also revealed that when employees felt they had a bad night’s sleep because of work issues, they were more likely to be grouchy at home. “When you’re tired, you’re either less able or less motivated to regulate yourself,” says co-author Larissa Barber, professor of psychology at Northern Illinois University.
Physical activity seems to counterbalance poor sleep, Barber says, because it promotes healthy brain functions needed to properly regulate emotions and behavior. “This study suggests that high amounts of exercise can be at least one way to compensate for sleep troubles that lead to negative behaviors at home,” she says.
Barber acknowledges that finding time to work out and get a full night’s sleep can be difficult when work pressures are mounting—and that often, job stress can directly relate to sleep quality. (Her previous research suggests that not only can a bad day at the office keep us up at night, but that poor sleep can also affect how we interpret events at work.)
But, she says, making the effort to burn some extra calories—and blow off some steam—can be worth it. It’s not only good for you, says Taylor, but it can benefit the people you live with as well.
“I would advise people to think of sleep and exercise from an investment perspective rather than another task on the to-do list,” Barber says. “It may seem like more work upfront, but the boost in motivation and energy can help you avoid sinking deeper into workplace stress and productivity problems.”
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By Guest Nicole
Why would a sports medicine physician teach fitness classes? It's a common question I hear all the time.
My belief is that being a doctor is as much about preventing illness and injury as it is about treating these problems after they happen. Across the spectrum of the human body, no drug is as effective as the medicine of exercise. For that reason, I have focused my attention on preventive health using the medicine of fitness.
In addition to my busy sports medicine practice, I have developed the world's biggest, free-standing, physician-led exercise clinic. My goal is to prescribe the medicine of exercise to my IronStrength community, thousands of people who show up and work out with me every year, and to teach doctors around the world how they can do the same.
Over the years, it's become abundantly clear to me that intensity matters—so does consistency! That's why it's essential for all of us not to let bumps in the road—like holiday travel, too many holiday commitments, or too much time with family—get in the way of our motivation or our routine!
HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, is all about efficiency and intensity. It's about how hard you work and how much work you do in any given time period. It's the perfect workout for someone who has no time. These workouts are designed to hit as many muscles as possible in the simplest way possible. Many of the exercises involve multiple muscle groups and are based on functional movement—they'll train you for natural movements you do every day.
I define fitness as a combination of cardiopulmonary fitness and strength. The beauty of these HIIT workouts is that they address both components of fitness at the same time and can be done anytime, anywhere.
A 10-minute-or-less workout isn't ideal, but if you HIIT it hard (pun intended!), it can make a huge difference. Even if it's been the busiest day ever and you have no time and you have no motivation, just start exercising. Maybe you'll have to cut it short. But maybe after a couple of minutes you'll start to feel better. Maybe you'll get into it more and more as you go. Maybe your mood will brighten. And maybe, just maybe, you'll squeeze in more time than you thought, or work harder and fit more into the time you have.
Here's another tip: Choose the workout wisely! Workouts do more than just make you sweat; they can help eliminate the excuses, too. Here's a short workout that doesn't need any equipment or even very much space! It's perfect for your bedroom, a hotel room, or anywhere you have just a bit of floor space. So simple! All you have to do is tie your shoes and get it done. Heck, you don't even need shoes. Try it barefoot.
For a full-body HIIT workout in just 10 minutes, start with a three-minute warm-up of jumping jacks, pogo hops, and forward jacks. Rest for one minute. Perform these three exercises for one minute, cycling through the set two times.
Then, give these exercises a try:
Jump squats
Stand with your hands on the back of your head and your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then jump as high as you can. When you land, immediately squat and jump again.
Reverse lunge with toe touch
Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Step back with your right leg and lower your body until your knee almost touches the floor. Stand up, swing your right leg as high as you can, and touch your toes with your left hand. Alternate sides for the allotted time.
Burpee with push-up
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat as deeply as you can and place your hands on the floor. Kick back into a push-up position. Do one push-up. Bring your legs back to a squat and jump up, throwing your hands above your head. Land and repeat.
If you find yourself getting really into things, add on another 10 minutes by resting for one minute and then performing the next three exercises for one minute each, cycling through the set three times.
Mountain climbers
Assume a push-up position. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles. Without allowing your lower-back posture to change, lift your left foot off the floor and move your left knee toward your chest. Return to the starting position and repeat with your right leg. Alternate legs, moving quickly.
Single-leg toe touches.
Stand on your right leg with your left leg out in front of you, raised off the floor. Place your arms straight out to your sides at shoulder height. Bend your right leg at the knee and squat down to touch your left hand to the toe of your right foot, then come back up. Repeat with your left leg and continue, alternating for the allotted time.
Bicycle crunch
Lie faceup with your hips and knees bent 90 degrees so that your lower legs are parallel to the floor. Place your fingers on the sides of your forehead. Lift your shoulders off the floor and hold them there. Twist your upper body to the right as you pull your right knee in as fast as you can until it touches your left elbow. Simultaneously straighten your left leg. Return to the starting position and repeat to the other side.
By Dr. Jordan Metz/MBG
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By Guest Nicole
It all starts at home. A great day begins with an amazing morning. With constant distractions and the daily pressure of responsibilities, it’s important to start your morning right to get your mind and body prepared for your daily routine. These 11 tips will bring out the best of your morning, day, week, and life.
1. Wake Up Earlier. We often wake up as late as possible, but losing precious time in the morning puts pressure on our bodies and minds. Throughout the day, our time feels tight when it doesn’t have to feel that way. By waking up early, you can give your body and mind time to unwind and set your routine at an even pace.
2. Drink a Glass of Water as Soon as You Wake Up. Your body essentially shuts down while you’re sleeping. Drinking water will help you get ready to start running. This will also help to rehydrate you and allow for an easier digestive flow throughout the day.
3. Avoid Technology for The First Hour. It’s tempting to wake up and check your email and social media timeline, but all of those things will still be there an hour from when you wake. You won’t miss out on much, and you’ll start your day on your own terms. How often do you wake up in a great mood, and then check your email or messages only to receive a message that disrupts your mood first thing in the morning. Hold off and take control of your emotions at the start of the day.
4. Think of Something You’re Grateful For. The choice is yours. Wake up and find something you’re appreciative of. Your bed, family or even a cup of coffee. The more things you find, the more positive energy you bring to your day.
5. Sunlight, Fresh Air, and A Deep Breath. Even if it’s cloudy, open your blinds and let natural light in. This will awaken your senses and add positive sensory to start your day. Next, open a window, or if you have direct access to a door that leads outside, open your front door and fill your lungs with fresh air. Oxygen provides energy to heal and grow the brain.
6. Move Your Body/Exercise. No matter what you’re doing for the rest of the day, your body will be active if you begin your day with movement. There are various morning workouts you can do that are convenient and quick. If you don’t want to work out, you can also do stretchesto help loosen your muscles and joints.
7. Eat a Healthy Breakfast. A healthy breakfast is your initial fuel for the day. Avoid quick fixes such as cereal, fruit juices, or donuts. Take the time to invest in a healthy breakfast that will have your body feeling energized until lunch time.
8. Say Positive Affirmations. Self-appreciation is important. Find different things you enjoy about yourself and say them out loud to yourself while looking in the mirror. Face yourself and speak positive truths.
9. Plan. Work day or off day, planning ahead allows you to be productive, and to fit in as much as you want throughout the day. Spread out your day so that you know what to expect and avoid feeling rushed. Commit to your plan as much as you can, but allow room for the random disruptions that life can occasionally bring.
10. Leave Yesterday Behind. A new day is a fresh start to life. Yesterday’s arguments, frustrations, and negative thoughts don’t belong in your new day.
11. Read. Start your day with some positive thoughts. Whether it’s the news, quotes, or a novel you love, literature helps stimulate your brain and your imagination.
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By Guest Nicole
Diet sodas may undermine weight loss efforts, a new study suggests.
Researchers put 81 overweight women with Type 2 diabetes on the same weight-control diet, except that half drank diet beverages five times a week after their main meal at lunch, while the other half substituted plain water. The study is in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
After 24 weeks, the water group had lost an average of 14 pounds, while the diet soda group lost 11.5 pounds. Average body mass index declined by 2.49 in the water group compared with 2.06 in the diet-drink group. Compared with the diet soda group, the water group also had greater improvements in fasting insulin, postprandial glucose level and other measures of diabetes severity.
Waist circumference declined in those who drank water or diet beverages, with no significant difference between the two groups.
According to the senior author, Dr. Hamid R. Farshchi, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Nottingham, the mechanism remains unclear.
But, he said, “The best drink for your health not only for weight loss but also for carbohydrate metabolism is water. Still, obese people are used to a sweet taste, and it’s very difficult for them to just say goodbye to sugary food.”
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By JAMMY
The Biggest Cancer Causing Food Ever (Your Kids Unfortunately Love It)
Photo credit: bigstock.com
"...you know that there are certain foods strongly linked to cancer; foods containing aspartame, refined sugar, trans-fats, and GMO’s. However, did you know that there is one particular food that has been so strongly linked to cancer, that the American Institute for Cancer Research has recommended that people cut their consumption to zero?"
Full article:
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By Guest Nicole
WASHINGTON — Having a happy spouse may be related to better health, at least among middle-aged and older adults, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
In a nationally representative study of 1,981 middle-aged heterosexual couples, researchers found that people with happy spouses were much more likely to report better health over time. This occurred above and beyond the person’s own happiness, according to the study, published in the APA journal Health Psychology®.
“This finding significantly broadens assumptions about the relationship between happiness and health, suggesting a unique social link,” said William Chopik, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at Michigan State University and principal investigator of the study. “Simply having a happy partner may enhance health as much as striving to be happy oneself.”
Previous research suggests happy people are generally healthy people, but Chopik wanted to take it one step further by exploring the health effects of interpersonal relationships. He said there are at least three potential reasons why having a happy partner might enhance a person’s health, irrespective of one’s own happiness:
Happy partners likely provide stronger social support, such as caretaking, as compared to unhappy partners who are more likely to be focused on their own stressors. Happy partners may get unhappy people involved with activities and environments that promote good health, such as maintaining regular sleep cycles, eating nutritious food and exercising. Being with a happy partner should make a person’s life easier even if not explicitly happier. “Simply knowing that one’s partner is satisfied with his or her individual circumstances may temper a person’s need to seek self-destructive outlets, such as drinking or drugs, and may more generally offer contentment in ways that afford health benefits down the road,” Chopik said.
The study examined the survey information of couples age 50 to 94, including happiness, self-rated health and physical activity over a six-year period. The results showed no difference between husbands and wives in the study. Eighty-four percent were white, 8 percent were African-American, and 6 percent were Hispanic. Participants answered questions about their health, including level of physical impairment, chronic illnesses and level of physical activity, as well as any concerns they had regarding their spouse’s health. Participants rated their own happiness and life satisfaction.
Article: “Happy You, Healthy Me? Having a Happy Partner is Independently Associated with Better Health in Oneself,” by William J. Chopik, PhD, Michigan State University, and Ed O’Brien, PhD, University of Chicago. Health Psychology, published online Sept. 19, 2016.
William Chopik may be reached at (517) 355-6645 or via email.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes more than 117,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.
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By JAMMY
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By JW Insider · Posted
Ah yes! My favorite! Besides Tetris, it's the only video game that I actually bought and loaded on my early PCs. I've gone several years without playing any video games or simulations, but I'll be very happy to try this one again. (I have to admit that I have also used the flight simulator function on Google Earth, and even tried out a few free flight sims for the iPhone.) I don't think people want to admit how often in the early MS Flight Simulator, that so many of us took off from the def -
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