There’s no doubt about it. Obesity is an epidemic. The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one-third of U.S. adults are obese; another one-third are overweight.
One more company is jumping on the bandwagon to try and profit from our society’s obsession with weight. Inherent Health, a division of Interleukin Genetics Inc., says that genes play a major role in weight loss and that knowing your genetic profile can help you win “the battle of the bulge.”
The test is easy; buy it online for $149 and they’ll mail you a kit which allows you to collect DNA with a swab from the inside of your cheek. The return postage is even free. The laboratory looks for specific Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in four different genes (FABP2, PPARG, ADRB2, and ADRB3). The result of this test is a weight management profile to “guide your diet and exercise program based upon genetic differences in metabolism and fat absorption.” Consumers receive information on whether they are most likely to benefit from a diet that is low-fat or low-carb. Alternatively, some may receive test results which indicate that their genetic profile is most likely to respond to a balanced diet.
Stanford researchers tested the validity of this science and the results were promising. Among a sample of approximately 140 overweight or obese women, those who were compliant with the diet suggested by their genetic profile lost more weight than women who were not (5.3 percent loss of body weight as compared to 2.3 percent). However, I would argue that winning the “battle of the bulge” is much more complicated than understanding a couple of random variations in our genes.
The SNPs which are being tested for in this panel have been around for hundreds of years and present throughout multiple generations; so, why is it that we are only seeing the scales tip so unfavorably in recent decades? It’s because these genetic variations only have a minor impact on our weight. Environmental factors, such as our lifestyle and health behaviors, have a major impact. Our society promotes a tendency toward being overweight due to the overconsumption of food, increased availability of unhealthy foods, and decreased amounts of physical activity.
So, if you’re looking to lose weight, should you take this test first? I’d suggest you should keep the money in your pocket — you’ll be more successful if you use it to pay for a gym membership or fresh produce.
We ‘ve heard of the government trying to regulate health and other aspects of our lives and the decisions we make with it, but now this one I think is going way overboard. Apparently there are some in New York who think that New Yorkers need to be forced to cut back on their salt intake. Yes, salt intake here in the US is disgustingly high, and it probably has been the cause of certain health issues, however, so have fats and calories.
I am one who thinks that cutting out certain types of foods or trying to legislate them in public places where people dine is only going to go so far as to hurt business, and I am against anything that hurts businesses right now. I mean, if you want to really control salt intake, you would have to have a presence not only in the restaurants that citizens frequent, but also in their homes, and even in the grocery stores.
Think about it, you can only regulate the public places, not a person in their own home, so what is the point of hurting business when you know you can’t regulate it all the time?
Of course, chefs in New York are in a tizzy (I would be too). While there may be such a thing as social responsibility, being forced to not add any salt or salt spices to your dishes is downright “absurd” and is the government going overboard. I would have to agree.
I know that I need to cut my salt intake down, but if I were forced to eat a saltless, less flavorful dish at a restaurant every time I dined out and wanted to enjoy myself, well I’d be a little bit salty (ok I think I just committed one of the worst puns ever).
The bill has been introduced by a Democrat in New York, and it proposes to fine restaurants in violation of using salt or salt derivatives in it’s cooking $1,000 per violation. I can’t believe we’re focusing on something so ridiculous. How many lives do they really think they’re going to save by doing this? Let’s hope this bill gets squashed pronto.
There is no quick fix to exercise, if you want a firm, healthy body, you will need to work for it, but there are some exercises that are more effective than others. Spot conditioning is a wonderful idea, but in practice, they don’t work.
You need to exercise your whole body in order to firm up portions. Cardiac exercise is a way to build your respiratory system, your pulmonary system and your muscles. Be careful to work at this slowly at first and build up as your health gets better. Starting fast and wearing your body out can not only be unhealthy, it can be downright fatal. If you work a day job, you can start out with ‘spurt’ type exercises. Go for fast walks at lunch time while practicing controlling your breathing, keeping it deep and as slow as you can.
Ride an exercise bike while watching TV, reading or listening to music. Again, work on controlling your breathing. Deep controlled breathing is a way to build your lung capacity, and also get your muscles to release the waste product they tend to hold onto. Go for a swim before bedtime, swimming is a very good all over conditioning exercise. The best part of it is that there is no impact injury possible as it is during jogging or flat out running.
Use your imagination, there are many ways you can exercise, any of the things already listed will help along with all sorts of things you can come up with by yourself. Exercise can be fun and enjoyable if you don’t overdo yourself. One real good and not so well known way of low impact exercising is horseback riding. In this activity, you will use muscles you wouldn’t normally use. It is very low impact with the only concern being having bad knees. This activity will also teach you how to relax your muscles and move allow the movement of the horse to dictate the movement of your body.
If you exercise within an hour of going to sleep, your metabolism will stay up for a couple of hours even while you sleep. If you have access to a gym, you can do all sorts of toning exercises like leg presses, etc. But again, the cardiac is a large portion of what you should be doing as the cardiac will boost the toning. You don’t need to spend hours doing this to be effective, in fact that can work against you. Spend a half an hour to an hour each day and you will begin to see results in a short period of time.
Have you ever heard the expression “bingo wings”? This is slang used to describe the fatty tissue or excess skin under the arm (triceps) that flaps back and forth, if you will, when a member of a Tuesday night bingo club wins and shakes the winning bingo card over-head. I understand that it is not a flattering term, but it does do an outstanding job explaining the situation or problem.
The problem area is known as the triceps brachii muscle. The triceps (used in both singular and plural) is a three-headed muscle that each of which come from different origins, but join together at the elbow. Extending the forearm and adducting the shoulder are the two main functions of the triceps brachii.
Below are several ways to help firm up those so called “bingo wings.”
9 Ways to Firm up Those Bingo Wings
1. Add an early morning walk/jog to your daily routine
2. Diet: Low fat and low carbohydrate
3. Add a mid-day walk/jog to your daily routine
4. Control your portion sizes
5. Add an evening walk/jog to your daily routine
6. Cut out the fast food
7. Get a pedometer and set a goal for 10,000 steps a day
8. Eat a balanced diet (www.mypyramid.gov)
9. Find fun and exciting ways to spend more time outside
Our bodies naturally produce cholesterol. The amount is dependent on genetics. It’s not inherently bad. You need cholesterol for various bodily functions. However, too much cholesterol can be unhealthy. The American Heart Association established a range for your daily intake:
* Less than 200 mg/dL is considered healthy.
* 200 to 239 mg/dL is borderline high cholesterol.
* 240 mg/dL and above is an unhealthy cholesterol level.
Many of our favorite foods contribute to high cholesterol. But there are some foods that can lower your cholesterol levels. Here are the top five as recommended by the Mayo Clinic:
1. Oatmeal and Oat Bran
Fiber is a key component in the fight against high cholesterol. Oatmeal contains soluble fiber, which lowers your LDL cholesterol, also known as the “bad” cholesterol.
2. Walnuts and Almonds
Walnuts and almonds are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which help lower cholesterol levels.
3. Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and albacore tuna have omega-3 fatty acids that help your heart in many ways, including lowering cholesterol.
4. Olive Oil
This Mediterranean dietary favorite contains antioxidants that lower LDL cholesterol. The Food and Drug Administration recommends about two tablespoons of olive oil a day.
5. Foods Fortified with Plant Sterols or Stanols
Sterols or stanols are substances that are in plants that help block the absorption of cholesterol. Now, foods are fortified with sterols or stanols, including margarines, orange juice and yogurt drinks. You find the substances naturally in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
These are just some of foods that can counteract the cholesterol produced by your body or eaten on a daily basis. Incorporate them into a balanced diet and you can enjoy foods like eggs and beef in moderation without guilt or worry of damaging your health.
The Atkins Diet is legendary. It is one of the few diets that caused a kind of mass hysteria. Food manufacturers lined up to bring new lines of low-carb food, and everyone was talking about Atkins.
Dr Robert Atkins passed away in 2003, and since then the super-fad of Atkins has slowly ebbed away. This hasn’t stopped numerous versions of the Atkins diet appearing on the shelves.
Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution was published in 2002. The All-New Atkins Advantage appeared in late 2007. In between these dates a myriad of variations on the low-carb theme have appeared.
Finally, we have The New Atkins for A New You by Dr Eric Westman.
While it seems odd to keep calling the same diet “new” — it demonstrates that nutrition is a field that is constantly changing as new research comes to hand. The latest Atkins revision includes information from over 50 references that make up the body of research undertaken in the field of low-carbohydrate diets.
Low carb diets will always have their place, and there is ample evidence to show that a restricted carbohydrate approach leads to weight loss. However, it seems that (like many restrictive diets) the fall-off rate is high. It’s hard to stick to, and long-term results are varied.
I’m 21 years old and I know weigh 210 pounds and am 5’6. Pretty much my whole life I thought I was fat. My mom had an eating disorder for many years and she’s obsessed with working out and eating the bare minimum now. My dad has struggled a little with weight but he’s a very busy business man and can’t find the time to always go to the gym. Nobody in my family is obese, weight has never been a huge issue.
My parents always told me I needed to workout, so therefore I always thought I was big. I didn’t choose the best foods to eat when I was young, but I never over ate. I was active in basketball and baseball, then P.E. in jr.high. Then during and after high school I started to party, and stopped doing sports, etc. I still was not fat. Looking back at pictures during that time, makes me so sad. I went to hawaii about 3 years ago with my family and I was so miserable there bcuz I felt like I had never been this fat and I didnt want to walk around in a bathing suit. I look at those pictures now and I kick myself big time for not flaunting what I had bcuz I had a good body, no one ever told me.
So throughout the years, I kept gradually gaining weight. I’ve developed a habit of craving food at night time. I’ve turned into a closet eater. I will go buy snacks and then hide them in my room until everyone goes to bed, then I bring them out and eat them. I don’t eat in excess in front of my family. I feel too embarrassed. I was in a bad emotionally abuse relationship from summer 2007 until pretty recently and that, according to my mom, is when I really started putting on weight. He made me feel like he could have any girl he wants, that he didn’t need me. He had a way of yelling and making me feel so ugly and worthless. But I never left. He was an alcoholic and I felt the want and need to be there to try and help him. I know it wasn’t my position and you can’t help someone that doesn’t want to help themselves. I wanted to be the first girl in his life to actually make a difference.
As the months passed, the fights progressed. He eventually started breaking things in the house (we lived together), he called me every bad name in the book, and then he started calling me fat. That was the killer for me. ANYTHING but that. I started feeling so ashamed of myself, embarassed to ever eat infront of him. I feel like I started putting on the pounds when I was with him because he beat my self esteem down so bad that I had a whole in my heart and my head. I think I turned to food because I’m not interested in drinking (my mom is also has an alcohol problem, so it turns me off), I want nothing to do with drugs, and what else is there? I didn’t know what to do for comfort or for an escape. I suppose food did that for me.
Now days, I struggle to go to the gym. I’m a member at the women only gym, Curves. Its an absolutely great program and you really have no excuse to not go. This is my 3rd time signing up, I’ve quit every other time. I usually have a good 2 weeks of eating smaller portions and better foods, drinking 4 bottles of water a day, then something always happens or a switch goes off in my brain and I stop all of it. And that is what I do NOT understand what so ever. I know that I need to lose weight, I know what I need to do, WHY can’t I do it?
I wanted to tell my whole story on here just so everyone could get a better perspective about my life and issues. I’ve never told anyone my weight or my life, so I thought maybe this could turn into a positive thing. I would love to get advice on how to help myself, motivate myself, anything at all.
Thank you very much for reading 
Good skin means good skin care. No matter what your complexion is like at the moment you too can have good skin if you follow a regular skin care routine that is compatible with the type of skin that you have. But, what constitutes a good skin care routine?
Good skin care involves the use of five skin care products, the first of these being a water-soluble cleanser. This should be used every day to deep clean your pores, freeing them of grime and sweat.
Secondly, you’ll need an exfoliating product. This gently removes dead skin cells from any type of skin, whether dry or oily, revealing smoother more supple skin cells beneath. Exfoliating products which consist of Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) and Beta Hydroxy Acid (BHA) are best.
For people with spots or blemishes the third product should be a disinfectant toner, such as a toner containing the active ingredient hydrogen peroxide or benzoyl peroxide. Those without blemishes should just use an irritant-free toner. Skin toners protect the pores that you have just cleansed and help to prevent them from becoming infected.
The last two elements needed for good skin care are often combined into one product. A moisturiser or foundation containing a sunscreen of SPF 15 restores your skin’s suppleness and provides protection from the sun’s harmful UV rays, the affects of which are known to accelerate the ageing process.
February 16th, 2010 in
Skin Care | tags:
Good Skin |
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Protein is a wonderful thing for your body, it helps you build lean muscle and helps build muscle strength, but protein isn’t a one man show, it needs help, by itself it won’t do your body much good. In order for your body to fully utilize the protein, you need to take in a balanced number of carbohydrates. Only with the carbohydrates can your body use the protein to it’s full extent.
There are many protein drinks, protein bars, protein cereals and a score of other protein things on the market and you will buy them and continue to buy them with no effect until you get frustrated and quit, unless you also take in your fair share of carbohydrates. Without the help of the carbohydrates, you can eat all the protein you want and you will still feel weak and listless because that wonderful and expensive protein is going right through your body without doing you any good at all.
The key to good nutrition is to eat in moderation. Eat your protein, but make sure you eat an equal amount of carbohydrates so you can effectively use the protein you ate. Carbohydrates will also give you the energy you would otherwise lack. If you do utilize the protein drinks and bars on the market, realize that they are likely to be filled with all sorts of things such as artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners can trick your body into thinking it has taken in sugar and it will act accordingly, use these in a pinch, but don’t substitute good, real nutrition for manufactured food substitute. Your best bet will always be to eat natural proteins such as is found in lean meat, nuts, beans, and other natural foods. Again, measure your protein intake by your carbohydrate intake; don’t have more of one than the other.
Body building is much more about good nutrition rather limiting yourself to an excess of one type of food. Supplements that artificially purge your body or build your body will eventually also be your undoing. There are plenty of unnatural ways available to build your body and for a while you will look healthy and strong, but time will tell the difference. You can build a house of cards that looks substantial from the outside, but if it has no inner support, it will be only a matter of time before it falls.
Your eating habits also very important. Eating small amounts at two to three hour intervals are much better than eating large meals four or more hours apart. Eat often and exercise just as often eat smart and eat healthy, that is how you build a lean, muscled, healthy body.
If you’re losing your hair, there may be many reasons other than the ‘natural’ ones. Stress in a multitude of forms can cause hair loss. Stress hits everyone at some time or another through finances, pregnancies, child birth, the death of someone close, disease, job problems, divorce, argumentative situations, etc. The good thing is that stress related hair loss often reverses itself when the stress has been gone for a time. Surgery is a type of stress also and in being such it can be responsible for hair loss, it too will restore after a period of time. A way to speed up the restoration process is upping your amount of exercise, this will help relieve symptoms of stress and help you recover quicker. Massage will often help in that area in addition to relaxing muscles and increasing blood flow to all organs including your hair follicles.
Drugs can also have an effect on your possibility of hair loss, many acne drugs are very good at promoting hair loss while performing their other activities. Viagra may make you happy in other areas but your hair on top of your head may not be as appreciative. Drugs that actively affect such things as moods and emotions are apt to cause hair loss as are acid reducers, cholesterol reducers, heart pills, anti-inflammatory drugs and a whole host of others.
Many of these drugs and situations you cannot help or stop so the best way to reduce their effect is to get plenty of exercise, but also relax, or get a massage. Look for hair treatments that contain Saw Palmetto (which isn’t hard to find) or stinging nettle. Stinging nettle is packed full of vitamins and it shares the ability to block production of DHT with Saw Palmetto.
February 16th, 2010 in
Hair Care | tags:
Hair Loss |
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