All About Health

Responsibility for Health

2009-05-17T10:39:00.000+01:00

Responsibility:

What you may ask, does responsibility have in common with
fitness, weight loss, and nutrition?

Everything, it all starts with personal responsibility.

We have somehow become a society that is not responsible for
ourselves. Numerous examples from the past few years abound:

Ø Someone drives away with a cup of coffee, spills it; it’s the restaurant’s fault.
Ø Over 60% of us are overweight; it’s the fast food industry’s fault.
Ø Prescription drugs have moved up to the number 4 killer in the United States, it’s the drug industries fault. (although we take them)
Ø Most recently a doctor tells an obese person to lose weight or die He’s insensitive.

The list goes on and on. What we seem to have lost sight of is,
it really doesn’t matter who is at fault, if we are overweight,
unhealthy, and die prematurely, we lose no matter who caused it.

We have simply got to become more aware of our environment, what
is causing the obesity issues today, and take personal
responsibility to resolve those issues on a personal level.

The diet and drug industries are counting on you doing just the
opposite. They are selling over $35 Billion per year in diet
supplements, diet drugs, diet foods, and numerous other
products. They obviously aren’t working because obesity in
America has increased 20% in the last decade.

The stuff doesn’t work but it is profitable.

There really is no secret pill. You need to understand the
body’s caloric requirement at your current fitness level to
maintain your current weight. You then eat less and exercise
more to burn calories to reduce weight. Any calories we take in
that are not burned are stored as fat.

It doesn’t matter what pill you take, what you inject into your
body, or how much expensive prepared food you eat, sooner or
later it comes down to logic and numbers.

The body was not designed to run on a single kind of fuel, be it
fat, carbs whatever. We need a varied diet to regenerate our
bodies and remain healthy.

We simply refuse to accept that fact. In my books “Living to be
Younger” and “Living Better”, I cover these subjects in detail.
There are no false claims and wild promises. You learn exactly
why losing 30 pounds in 30 days is not only nonsense it’s
unhealthy.

Stop wasting time and money chasing a magic bullet solution.
If there was one, we’d all be the ideal weight.

Take responsibility for your health and wellness and become an
Educated consumer. Learn what your body needs, how to provide it properly and naturally and take charge of your life.

When our bodies first came into the world from the original designer do you
Think they were meant to need diet pills, shots, or expensive processed foods?

Of course not they need a varied diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, and we need to
Move them around some.

by: Martin Harshberger,

What Is Pilates

2009-05-16T10:27:00.000+01:00

Pilates is a system of over 500 controlled exercises that engage the mind and condition the total body by using a popular exercise regimen that uses special stretches and machines. Named after Joseph Pilates, Pilates exercise system has proven itself invaluable not only to the fitness user, but to the professional trainers as well. Pilates, a technique of exercise and physical movement intended to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body.

With regular practice of specific exercises joined with focused breathing patterns. Pilates works several muscle groups simultaneously through smooth, continuous motion, with a particular concentration on strengthening and stabilising the core.
Pilates focuses on the quality of movement rather than quantity, which makes one feel refreshed rather than tired after a session. Pilates takes a balanced approach so that no muscle group is overworked and the body works efficiently.
With the aging of our people and the increasing trend toward mindful, moderate health practices, Pilates is more likely to find itself with a wait list at the YMCA, and in your local public schools, shaping the fitness ideals of our next generation.

Practiced loyally, Pilates yields many benefits such as:

Â· Increased lung capacity and circulation through deep breathing.
Â· Strength and flexibility, particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, coordination-both muscular and mental, are key components in an effective Pilate's program.
Â· Posture, balance, and core strength are all heartily increased.
Â· Bone density and joint health improvements as you become more aware of your body. Pilates teaches balance and control of the body.

Pilate's equipment today is not much different than that of earlier days. Because of the nature of the equipment the inimitably designed pieces truly act as a complement to the challenging mat exercises.

Pilate Moves

The Hundred - This movement strengthens the torso by requiring the back muscles to work in synergy with the abdominal muscles.

Roll Up -This movement strengthens the abdominal muscles.

One-Leg Circle -This movement opens up the hip, increasing flexibility.

One-Leg Stretch -This movement strengthens the abdominal muscles with the opposition effect of keeping the back flat on the floor while changing legs.

Single Straight-Leg Stretch -This movement strengthens the abdominal muscles by the opposition of keeping the back flat on the floor while changing legs.

Key to remember is that you should consult a physician before starting any exercise programme. Always keep water close to you and drink before you get too thirsty

by: David Chandler

Exercise for a Healthy Heart

2009-05-15T10:08:00.000+01:00

Do you exercise every day? If you want to live a long, healthy life, maybe you should.

A recent study by Timothy Wessel, a physician at the University of Florida, indicates one of the strongest risk factors for developing heart disease is inactivity – even more so than being overweight. During the four-year study of 906 women, Dr. Wessel documented those who were moderately active were less likely to develop heart disease than sedentary women, no matter how much they weighed. The study concluded: “These results suggest that fitness may be more important than overweight or obesity for cardiovascular risk in women.”

In January, the updated U.S. Dietary Guidelines strongly urged that everyone should take part in “at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity” on most days, above whatever activities they do at home or work. To loose weight or to avoid gaining weight as we age, 60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous exercise is recommended. And those who have already lost weight and are attempting to keep weight off need 60 to 90 minutes of daily exercise.

A study of 9,611 adults by the University of Michigan Health System, found that people in their 50s and 60s who participated in daily exercise were 35 percent less likely to die within the next eight years than their inactive couch potato counter parts.

Convinced that it’s time to add exercise to your day?

The Basics - Making Exercise a Life Priority:
- If you’re not use to exercising, check with your doctor before beginning any strenuous fitness routine.

- Start slow. If 30 minutes of exercise is too much, start with 15 minutes and add a few minutes each day.

- If you don’t have time for 60 minutes of exercise, break it up into two 30-minute sessions throughout the day.

- Schedule a specific time to exercise everyday – then keep to your schedule!

- Take part in more intense activities that can improve your heart health, such as: running, dancing, swimming, cycling, and climbing stairs.

- Find exercise that you enjoy. You will be more likely to continue and improve your daily performance if you look forward to a favorite activity.

- Wear proper clothing and footwear. This has two functions. Clothing and shoes that are suited to your activity will enhance performance and offer the right kind of support for your body and feet. They will also place you in a better frame of mind for exercise. When you wear your favorite running outfit and slide into your special running shoes, your mind says “it’s time to get out the door and put my feet in motion!”

- Add everyday activities to increase your overall fitness level, such as gardening, housework, walking to the store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and raking leaves.

- Always drink lots of water.

- If you feel discomfort or pain after an activity, use ice therapy immediately to reduce swelling and numb pain. Always have a cold pack in your freezer, ready and waiting. Most aches and pains attributed to exercise respond well to icing and will melt away within 24 hours after applying ice for several 20-minute sessions. Using cold therapy reduces down time, getting you back on schedule fast. (If the pain does not lessen within 48 hours after using ice therapy, is intense or becomes worse, see your doctor.)

Exercise every day…take care of your heart…live long!

Disclaimer: This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical treatment or consultation. Always consult with your physician in the event of a serious injury.

by: Louise Roach,

400,000 Reasons to Stop Smoking

2009-05-14T10:06:00.000+01:00

Most of us know that smoking is indeed a habit that can have many serious implications on our health, but there's a tendency to view the problem lightly. It's important though, that every smoker be aware of the facts concerning smoking. So here are some eye openers for you...

The World Health Organization has been studying smoking trends and statistical patterns across the globe and has come up with the following statistics:

A good deal of variation exists from one part of the world to another. Many more women smoke in Eastern Europe than in East Asia and the Pacific Region. Eastern Europe itself has a particularly high rate of smoking, with up to 59 percent of adult males smoking.

As with other substances of abuse, such as alcohol and cocaine, the global frequency of tobacco use varies by social class, historical era, and culture. Historically, smoking had been a pastime of the rich. This trend has changed dramatically in recent decades. It appears that economically advantaged men in wealthier countries have been smoking less. The more years of education you've had, the less likely you are to be a smoker.

Most smokers begin early in life, before they are 25 years old. According to World Health Organization studies, the majority of smokers in affluent countries begin in their teens. A decline in the age of starting smoking has been observed worldwide.

As a wannabe quitter, you're in excellent company. People all over the world are trying to quit and stay away from cigarettes. There appears to be a correlation between a country's standard of living, level of education, and income and the number of people who have quit smoking. The more and better-informed people are, the more likely they are to quit smoking.

Current estimates are that over 1 billion people in the world smoke. (In other words, approximately one in three adults on the planet smokes.) The majority of these smokers reside in countries on the low end to the middle of the socioeconomic spectrum. Of this majority, about 80% live in low and middle income countries. The total number of smokers worldwide is expected to keep increasing.

But are things in the USA any better? Not really, as you can see for yourself in the figures of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics

In the United States, an estimated 25.6 million men (25.2%) and 22.6 million women (20.7%) are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older show:

- Among whites, 25.1 percent of men and 21.7 percent of women smoke

- Among black or African Americans, 27.6 percent of men and 18.0 percent of women smoke

- Among Hispanics/Latinos, 23.2 percent of men and 12.5 percent of women smoke

- Among Asians (only), 21.3 percent of men and 6.9 percent of women smoke

- Among American Indians/Alaska Natives (only), 32.0 percent of men and 36.9 percent of women smoke

Studies show that smoking prevalence is higher among those with 9-11 years of education (35.4 percent) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6 percent). It's highest among persons living below the poverty level (33.3 percent).

And These Figures Spell Death...

· One out of every five deaths is caused by tobacco

· An average of 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco

· Tobacco is blamed for many serious pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases

· Tobacco and nicotine are some of the most potent carcinogens and are to blame for a majority of all cancers of the lung, trachea, bronchus, larynx, and esophagus

· Tobacco use also produces cancers in the pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix

· Impotency is sometimes to blame from addiction to nicotine because of its ability to reduce blood flow

· Smoking is an important risk factor for respiratory illnesses, causing 85,000 deaths per year from pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia

· Children and adolescents who are active smokers will have increasingly severe respiratory illness, as they grow older

· Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation

· Cigarettes are responsible for about 25% of deaths from residential fires, causing nearly 1,000 fire-related deaths and 3,300 injuries each year

So, are you ready to try and quit smoking now?

by: Kathy Burns-Millyard, http:// www.health-and-fitness-information .com

How to stay fit at home

2009-05-13T09:37:00.000+01:00

Sound health and excellent fitness is recently gaining primary concern for people from every walk of life. As fitness becomes a major issue for everyone it is not possible for all to manage time daily to visit local gyms. With urbanization being prevalent in entire communities’ access to big jogging grounds in near locality might only be a dream. Yet a desire to exercise and find ways to attain, in shape fit bodies is existent widely.

Home fitness equipments offer best alternative to costly gyms sessions and rare public parks. Among the numerous benefits offered by home fitness machines is the availability of equipment at any time of day that suits you. One does not need to follow difficult timings of the instructor in the fitness center. An in house facility enables one to practice fitness sessions without hampering their job responsibilities. Public fitness studios regularly charge expensive memberships even if a person is not attending the sports club he is supposed to pay his membership fees in due time. Personal fitness equipments are only a one time expense they do not require any recurring expenditure they are free to use at anytime of the day and also till any time span desired by its owner. Occasional lengthy workout sessions would be costly due to extra time involved but machines at home are forever available. Equipments at home are also a pride for its owner and the owner can boost in front of guests by occasionally allowing them to utilize exercising machines.

Treadmills are the most popular among home exercise devices as it appeals equally to both young and elderly. One can practice regular walking or jogging routines on a treadmill even if the weather is bad outside. The equipment comes with various motorized setting that would be suitable for everyone. Latest machines have a body fat monitor enabling people to actually monitor their progress. A strap to measure heart rate comes free and handy with the device that is a convenient source to professional evaluate ones present heart rate. Surveys conducted reveal that treadmills sales are the fastest growing commodity among fitness equipments in U.S.

Elliptical trainers are popular home based exercise equipments. It gives a perfect gym feel and comes with sophisticated computers that provide different programs heart rate control and fitness tests. It provides a perfect alternative to health clubs when managing time to reach there is difficult and results in irregular fitness sessions. Getting on an elliptical trainer within ones house is easier than driving all way towards health centers. Pedals on the machine are adjustable so that different users in house ranging from children to elders all are equally comfortable on it.

Exercise bikes are a favorite among adults and children alike. It gives a unique experience like exercising outdoor. Computers installed in the machine accurately inform about the present rate of exercising. Also the comfortable seat along with dual action handles of the cycle ensures maximum comfort to person using it.

Rowing machines are unique in a sense that they provide exercise option for both lower and upper part of the body. Its adjustable settings make it convenient to exercise as hard or as easy according to ones will. Even this allows monitoring progress of the person while exercising.

by: Mansi gupta, http://www.ultim8fitness.co.uk

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2009-05-12T12:02:00.001+01:00

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Fit for What?

2009-05-12T09:35:00.001+01:00

Unless we’re talking about our bodies, and the amount of exercise they can do, we usually talk about being fit in relation to something. An object is ‘fit for use’, clothing is ‘fit to be worn at work’, and food is ‘fit to be eaten’. My parents used to have a running joke that they were fit – fit to drop! Everything else is fit 'for something'. So why do we insist on describing ourselves as ‘fit’ or ‘unfit’ without relating the concepts to anything else?

GENERAL PRINCIPLES
It’s a basic truth that the human body wasn’t made to sit still for any length of time. We spent tens of thousands of years evolving in an environment that required us to move – to find shelter, to catch food, and to keep ourselves safe from predators. We’ve only been living lifestyles that allow us to be sedentary for the lesser part of a hundred years – not nearly enough time for evolution to adapt our bodies to this new environment. We see this constantly reflected in modern rates of heart disease, atherosclerosis, chronic aches and pains, and muscular and bone deterioration in people who have become inactive as they age.

On top of this, activity has a very real effect on both stress and energy levels. Our bodies have a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ way with energy – if we don't constantly use and then replace energy (with activity, followed by rest and good nutrition), we start noticing our energy levels gradually draining away. We feel tired, lethargic, and as though any amount of effort is just too much to be worth it. And if we’re also under stress – for example, at work, or in a difficult relationship – we feel the energy loss and the stress even more intensely.

These are general principles that seem to be true whoever we are. But different lifestyles require different amounts of energy, and exact different prices in terms of stress. We enjoy doing, and our bodies are suited for, different kinds of activity. It makes sense then, that the amount and type of activity that will help us reach our optimum fitness, will be different.

DIFFERENT STROKES
If that’s the case, then getting ‘fit’ without a frame of reference seems like a meaningless concept. Unless we know what we want to be ‘fit for’ – what fitness means to us – there’s no reason for us to get or stay that way. If my life is basically calm, quiet and easy-flowing, and I’m quite happy to keep it that way, my ‘optimum fitness’ is going to be very different to someone who’s discovered a deep fulfillment in setting themselves a goal and achieving it. Someone who’d just like to go for a walk with friends without getting puffed is going to have a different optimum fitness level to someone who wants to discover how it feels to finish a marathon.

On top of this, what people want often changes over time. Perhaps at one point in your life, you enjoyed spending a couple of hours a day exercising, but now you’re finding there are things you’d like to do far more with that time. Alternatively, when you first started creating your optimum life for yourself, it might have been enough for you to just keep your body healthy. As you tried new activities though, you might have discovered you were actually enjoying some of them for their own sake, and wanting to get fitter so you could do more of them. So at different times in your life, you’d have a different optimum fitness level.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE “FIT FOR”?
Which brings us back to our original question – can we talk about being fit, without knowing what exactly we’re ‘fit for’? The way we see it, your optimum fitness level depends completely on what you want to be able to do in your daily life, how you want to be feeling, how much energy you’d like to have and how exercise fits in with the rest of your life. So your first step in moving closer to optimum fitness needs to be to make that all-important decision “What do I want to be fit for?”

by: Tanja Gardner, http://optimumlife.co.nz

Are You Fit?

2009-05-11T09:32:00.001+01:00

Fitness refers to ability of the body to function with vigor and alertness. Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do. Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes. But do we know if we are really fit? How do we tell?

First, you might want to look at your exercise habits, if there are any. If there aren’t any exercise routines to examine, no fitness. Everyone, no matter what their age, benefits from exercise. It keeps our bodies conditioned, our mental sharpness working at top speed, and thanks to the physical aspect, we get a boost to our cardio health, extra calorie burn, and more oxygen to those cells!

Do you take in more calories than your body needs? Are you supplementing your vitamins and minerals to make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowances? If you’re not making the most basic of efforts to take care of your nutritional needs, you aren’t a fit individual. You may not look sick, you may not have any noticeable symptoms of ill-health, but you’re not the fit and toned individual you could be.

What about the stress levels in your life? Do work in an environment with high levels of stress? Is your personal life a source of comfort or does it add to your stress levels? Do you engage in some form of stress-relieving activity? Stress is the number on contributor to heart attacks and strokes, since they manage to speed up the affect of the real culprits. Stress is basically an out of control situation for most adults today. We manage to schedule every moment of our free time, and leave ourselves with no time for quiet reflection, or time to deal with life’s unexpected emergencies.

Fitness requires us to examine more than just our exercise routine. The mere definition of fitness refers to the body’s ability to meet physical stresses. That includes coping with our day to day life, getting from the beginning of the day to the end, without being worn completely out. In order to be truly fit, we find ways to rid ourselves of built up stress, the kind that begins to affect our muscles, muscle tone, and composition. Massages are the best cure for ridding our bodies of the stress buildup that can occur, even with exercise regimens and detract from our overall fitness.

Exercises that demand total body involvement are the best for maintaining and improving your level of fitness most effectively. Running, swimming, jogging, dancing, cycling, and very brisk walking are some of the more popular total body involvement exercises.

There are so many occasions to stop and question our efforts at maintaining optimal health, that we usually don’t even take the time to begin the examination. But it is beneficial to our overall health, the quality and quantity of our life, to make every effort to be fit, healthy, individuals.

by: Andrew Mills
About the author:
webmaster of http://www.anabolic.caand http://www.takingsteroids.comhttp://www.dietpost.infohttp://www.fitnesspost.infoand many other websites for over 5 years.

Basic Weight Management

2008-11-14T11:18:00.000Z

The perfect diet should be combined with a healthy weight management or activity program. Weight management may conjure up that dreaded "exercise" word. And exercise to some means pushing the body beyond limits, experiencing painful in joints, muscles, bones - everywhere. No pain no gain, right? Wrong. Instead, replace the word "exercise" with "activity" and incorporate this in your daily routine. And a general rule of thumb for guidelines about "activity" would be to strive for a minimum of 30 minutes for adults or 60 minutes for children of moderate physical activity daily.

Individual activity goals depend upon each person's health and weight goals and issues. Begin by checking with your medical advisor or healthcare physician to get a green light on which activities would be suitable for you, what your target weight range should be and a strategic plan to improve your health.

In a nutshell, during activities, calories are burned, pounds are shed in the long run. And the number of calories burned depends upon the duration and intensity or the activity. Slow and steady is the rule of thumb. And note daily progress. For those who have never been very active at all, it may be advisable to begin slow like with walking 10 minutes each day, gradually building up time and distance with increased "brisk" pacing. Even if you can't get out to walk, bike or swim, take stairs instead of elevators and escalators. Clean your house. Clean your car. Wash windows. Wash your dog. Check out exercise videos, cassettes and workout books from the public library and put some of their ideas into action (Visit www.idealbodyfitness.com for more info). Check out your local fitness centers, YMCA, community center, too, for ideas. Partner up with a neighbor to walk or join a community volleyball team. There are unlimited ways to be active and enjoy life at the same time without using painful weight loss strategies.

by: Richard Rigor
About the author:
Richard Rigor is the author of "The Ideal Body Fat Loss Guide." He is also the owner/editor of a free membership site focused on diet and exercise.

The Fitness Principles

2008-11-13T09:03:00.000Z

Almost everywhere you go today, you are approached in
some manner about health and physical fitness. The fact
that a large percentage of Americans are considered obese
has helped increase the marketing of diet, physical fitness,
and health products. You’ll be reminded of health and
fitness on TV, in magazines, on the radio, the news, at
work, almost everywhere you go you’ll see something
about physical fitness.

With all this commotion about fitness, have you joined
the team and started your path to total fitness? If not here
is a brief description of the standards of physical fitness and
what you may do about your current fitness level.

Most experts agree there are five basic components of
fitness. They are:
1)Aerobic Endurance- Your level of aerobic endurance
measures your ability to do moderately strenuous activity
over a period of time. It’s a measurement of how
efficiently your heart and lungs work together to supply
oxygen to your body during exertion and exercise. This
fitness component is also called aerobic fitness.
2) Muscular Endurance- Muscular Endurance measures
your fitness level by your ability to hold a particular position
for a sustained period of time or repeat a movement many
times. One example might be to lift a five-pound weight
20 consecutive times.
3)Muscular Strength- The ability to exert maximum force.
It is possible to have greater muscular strength in one area,
than another. For example, you may have great strength in
your arms, while lacking strength in your legs. One example
might be lifting the heaviest weight you can possibly lift.
4)Flexibility- Flexibility fitness measures the ability to move a
joint through its full range of motion or the elasticity of the
muscle. This is how limber you are.
5)Body Composition- This fitness area measures the
proportion of fat in your body as compared to your bone and
muscle. It does not refer to your weight in pounds or your shape.

If you are weak in any area or need to begin a general overall
fitness plan, there are basically three areas of exercise you should
concentrate upon to make improvements. They are stretching,
aerobic activity, and strength training. Each of these areas is very
important to your overall fitness level. Eating a healthy diet will
also contribute greatly to your overall fitness level.

Remember, it is never too late to improve your fitness level.
Regardless of your physical fitness level, your age, or the length
of time it has been since you last exercised regularly, it’s never
too late to start and maintain a good fitness routine. Your body
is designed to move. If you don’t use it, you lose it. It is just
that simple.

by: donita riplez
About the author:
donita riplez is the owner of
fitness DC
which is a premier resource for fitness information.
for more information, go to

TREATING HYPERTENSION

2008-11-12T05:22:00.000Z

In most cases, high blood pressure is usually present long before its complications developed and shows some of its symptoms. In order to treat high blood pressure it is important to detect it in its earliest stage before it can do severe damages to the critical organs in the body. In addition, the increases in public awareness as well as the promotion of some screening programs that are aimed towards the detection of hypertension in its earliest stage are some of the keys that lead to successful treatment of hypertension. The essence of treating high blood pressure in its earliest stage can decrease significantly the risk of stroke, heart attack and even kidney failure. Moreover, life style changes in patients which are pre-hypertensive are advised since it is not yet well proven that treatment by means of medication are beneficial for patients with pre-hypertension.

In treating high blood pressure, it is important to note the blood pressure reading. For blood pressure that is consistently higher than 140/90 mm Hg, the treatments consist of lifestyle modifications coupled with an appropriate medication. However, for cases wherein the diastolic pressure remains at a borderline level which is usually under 90 mm HG and steadily remains above 85 mm Hg, a more aggressive treatment may be advised. Furthermore, there are instances wherein the borderline diastolic pressures are associated with end-organ damage, this kind of problem is usually associated with systolic hypertension as well as some factors that may have increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases especially on patients that are 65 years and over who are smoking and has hyperlipemia and diabetes. Regardless of the stage of hypertension, any patient can start with any one of the several classes of medication except of course the alpha-blocker medications. The reason for this is that alpha-blockers are usually used only in combination with another anti-hypertensive medication and only in specific medical situations.

There are some particular situations wherein certain classes of anti-hypertensive drugs are preferable compared to others as the first choice of drugs. An example of which is the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) which are inhibitors or the angiotensin receptor blocking (ARB) drugs which are some of the first prescribed medicines especially for patients with heart failure, chronic kidney failure, for diabetics as well as for patients with weak heart muscles.

Moreover, some patients with hypertension sometimes have coexisting medical conditions in which case a particular class of anti-hypertensive medication or a combination of which may be chosen as the initial approach in treating hypertension. The rationale behind this is to control the hypertension at the same time curing the coexisting medical condition.

by: Jinky C. Mesias
About the author:
Author’s Bio: Jinky C. Mesias is a lover of simple things and of nature. She spend most of her time reading and writing poetry.

You Are What You Eat: Triglycerides and Diet

2008-11-11T10:36:00.001Z

I must confess that I am a Steve Martin fan. Like me he studied philosophy in his earlier days. He plays a banjo like I wish I could. And he is funny. In 1987 he was in a movie entitled “Roxanne”. He played a small town fire chief with an enormous nose who fell in love with a beautiful astronomer played by Daryl Hannah. The only problem was she had an eye for a younger fireman with a relatively normal nose. C.D. Bales (Steve Martin), having a poetic command of the English language, agreed to coach the younger and much more awkward man in his pursuit of the educated astronomer. It is a hilarious twist on an old story. In one of the more sober scenes C.D.’s friend Trixie encourages him to pursue the young maiden for himself since he was obviously in love with her. She makes her point by saying the truth “is as plain as the nose on your face.” Well said.

Many people today are concerned about their triglyceride levels. And rightly so. High triglycerides have been marked as an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). But in all the scramble to reduce our triglycerides many doctors have been trying to tell us that the truth is as plain as the nose on our collective face.

Triglycerides are a form of fat. In fact they are the most prevalent form of fat in our bodies. Our bodies make triglycerides and we consume them in our diets. Even though we live in culture where ‘thin is in’, fat is a good thing. Triglycerides in particular are good because they are the form of fat our bodies use for energy. But like many things more is not necessarily better. Triglycerides truly represent an example of the maxim, ‘too much of a good thing’. In this case too much can contribute to serious health side effects especially in relation to heart health. So if your triglycerides are too high get them down.

But how? How do we get them down? To answer this question it is first helpful to understand what causes our triglycerides to rise. There are several causes which we will only mention in passing because they do not compose the main subject of this essay. There are certain medical conditions that elevate triglyceride levels such as hypothyroidism, kidney disease, liver disease, familial hypertriglyceridemia and pregnancy. And of course medical conditions are often accompanied by medications that negatively impact triglycerides. Among these are oral contraceptives, estrogen replacement therapy, certain steroids, diuretics, beta-blockers, newer classes of antipsychotic medications, cyclosporine, glucocorticoids, progesterone, retinoids and tamoxifen to mention a handful.

The above mentioned factors can contribute to a rise in serum triglycerides. But they are by no means the most common. For most of us our problems lie elsewhere. Diabetes is a common cause of high triglycerides. Unfortunately diabetes is a two-pronged fork. Not only does it affect triglyceride levels but diabetics are more susceptible to the damage that results from factors such as high triglycerides.

Obesity, whatever the reason, causes higher levels of triglycerides to hang around in the blood. As our nation gets progressively heavier higher cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as the heart damage that accompanies them, will become more common.

Now for the rest of us. For most of us our triglycerides are high for one reason. The truth is as plain as the nose on C.D.’s face. We are what we eat. Doctors, though themselves seldom the epitome of health, have been telling us for years to watch what we eat. With all the medical advances over the past several decades diet and exercise are still the primary and most effective methods for promoting heart health, especially in relation to cholesterol and triglycerides and the damage they can cause.

I have only this to say about exercise. Get some! But concerning diet we need a bit more detail. Let’s begin where it hurts the most. Alcohol, though good for your heart in many ways, is easily converted to triglycerides. If yours are too high stay away from alcohol.

Next in line, and this hurts me even more, is sugar. Simple, and especially highly processed carbohydrates, cause triglycerides to rise perhaps even more than alcohol. The American diet is no stranger to sugar and highly processed foods. Such foods are doing more than making us fat. They are causing the incidence of heart disease to escalate with amazing speed. When it comes to high triglycerides, sugar is your worst enemy.

Fruits are questionable. Eliminating fruits is not the place to start. Whole fruits, and the sugars they contain, do not convert to triglycerides as readily as their processed cousins. However, if you have done all you can in other areas of your diet you might consider reducing fruit intake. But before you do this make sure you have eliminated the juices that are more sugar and juice than they are fruit. And avoid canned fruits that are packed in syrup.

Since triglycerides are fat it makes sense to avoid fatty foods. I have in mind especially saturated animal fats. Foods such as bacon, sausage, fatty fowl like duck or goose and fatty beef should be restricted in your diet. Hotdogs and hamburgers? I realize they are the core of the American diet. But do I really need to comment on these?

Now for the surprise. Some fatty foods actually cause triglycerides to fall. Can you believe it? There is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. Cold water fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna, not the canned varieties, are high in omega-3 fatty acids which are well documented to reduce triglycerides. When is the last time you heard about an Eskimo having bypass surgery? Perhaps that is because Eskimos know that the American Heart Association has recommended two to four grams of omega-3 fatty acids from marine sources for people with high triglycerides. That is a lot of omega-3 but such quantities are well proven to lower triglycerides as well as offer a whole list of heart health benefits. Though it is difficult to eat that much fish and there is the risk of mercury poisoning, there is a safe way to get enough omega-3 to effectively lower triglycerides. You can take fish oils supplements. Please purchase them from a trusted source.

So, as you can see, the epidemic of rising triglycerides is an unnecessary danger. For most of us the solution rests in the things we eat and the exercise we need to get. It sounds all too simple. But I am a simple guy. I think it is nice to know that the solution to rising triglycerides is as plain as the nose on C.D.’s face.

by: Greg Post
About the author:
Greg has degrees in science, divinity and philosophy and is currently an I.T. developer.

For more information on causes of high triglycerides and triglyceride lower diets please use the links below.

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/causesofhightriglycerides.html

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/foodtolowertriglyceride.html

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/triglycerides.html

Diabetes

2008-11-10T05:24:00.000Z

is a disease affecting the manner in which the body handles digested carbohydrates. If neglected, diabetes can cause extremely severe health complications, ranging from blindness to kidney failure.

Around eight percent of the population in the United States has diabetes. This means that around sixteen million people have been diagnosed with the disease, based only on national statistics. The American Diabetes Association estimates that diabetes accounts for 178,000 deaths, as well as 54,000 amputees, and 12,000-24,000 cases of blindness annually. Blindness is twenty-five times even more common among diabetic patients in comparison with nondiabetics. If current trends continue, by the year 2010 complications of diabetes will exceed both heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death in America.

Diabetics have a high level of blood glucose. Blood sugar level is regulated by insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas, which releases it in response to carbohydrate consumption. Insulin causes the cells of the body to absorb glucose from the blood. The glucose then serves as fuel for cellular functions.

Traditional diagnostic standards for diabetes have been fasting plasma glucose levels greater than 140 mg/dL on 2 occasions and plasma glucose greater than 200 mg/dL following a 75-gram glucose load. However, even more recently, the American Diabetes Association lowered the criteria for a diabetes diagnosis to fasting plasma glucose levels equal to or higher than 126 mg/dL. Fasting plasma levels outside the normal limit demand further testing, usually by repeating the fasting plasma glucose check and (if indicated) initiating an oral glucose tolerance test.

The many symptoms of diabetes include excessive urination, excessive thirst and hunger, sudden weight loss, blurred vision, delay in healing of wounds, dry and itchy skin, repeated infections, fatigue and headache. While suggestive of diabetes, these symptoms can also be caused by other factors, and therefore anyone with symptoms suspicious of the disease should be tested.

There are 2 different varieties of diabetes.
Type I Diabetes (juvenile diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes): The cause of type I diabetes starts with pancreatic inability to make insulin. This causes 5-10% of cases of diabetes. The pancreatic Islet of Langerhans cells, which secrete the hormone, are destroyed by the patient's own immune system, probably because it mistakes them for a virus. Viral infections are believed to be the trigger that sets off this auto-immune disease. Type I diabetes is most prevelant in the caucasian population and has a hereditary component.

If untreated, Type I or juvenile diabetes can lead to death within two to three months of the onset, as the cells of the body starve because they no longer receive the hormonal prompt to absorb glucose. While a great majority of Type I diabetics are young (hence the term Juvenile Diabetes), the condition can develop at any age. Autoimmune diabetes is diagnosed by an immunological assay which shows the presence of anti-insulin/anti-islet-cell antibodies.

Type II Diabetes (non insulin dependent diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes): This diabetes is a consequence of body tissues becoming resistant to the effects of insulin. It accounts for 90-95% of cases. In many cases the pancreas is producing a plentiful amount of insulin, however the cells of the body have become unresponsive to its effect due to the chronically high level of the hormone. Finally the pancreas will exhaust its over-active secretion of the hormone, and insulin levels fall to beneath normal.

A tendency towards Type II diabetes is hereditary, although it is unlikely to develop in normal-weight individuals eating a low- or even moderate-carbohydrate diet. Obese, sedentary individuals who eat poor-quality diets built around refined starch, which constantly activates pancreatic insulin secretion, are prone to develop insulin resistance. Native peoples like North American Aboriginals, whose traditional diets never included refined starch and sugar until these items were introduced by Europeans, have very high rates of diabetes, five times the rate of caucasians. Blacks and hispanics are also at higher risk of the disease. Though Type II diabetes isn't as immediately disastrous as Type I, it can lead to health complications after many years and cause serious disability and shortened lifespan. As with Type I diabetes, the condition develops primarily in a certain age group, in this case patients over forty (which is why it's typically termed Adult Onset Diabetes); however, with the rise in childhood and teenage obesity, this condition is being seen for the first time in school children as well.

If treatment is neglected, both Type I and Type II diabetes can lead to life-threatening complications like kidney damage (nephropathy), heart disease, nerve damage (neuropathy), retinal damage and blindness(retinopathy), and hypoglycemia (drastic reduction in glucose levels). Diabetes damages blood vessels, especially smaller end-arteries, leading to very severe and premature atherosclerosis. Diabetics are prone to foot problems because neuropathy, which afflicts about ten percent of patients, causes their feet to lose sensation. Foot injuries, common in day-to-day living, go unnoticed, and these injuries cannot heal because of atherosclerotic blockage of the microscopic arteries in the foot. Gangrene and subsequent amputation of toes, feet or even legs is the result for many elderly patients with poorly-controlled diabetes. Usually these sequelae are seen sooner in Type I than Type II diabetes, because Type II patients have a small amount of their own insulin production left to buffer changes in blood sugar levels.

Type I diabetes is a severe disease and there is no known permanent cure for it. Nonetheless, the symptoms can be controlled by strict dietary monitering and insulin injections. Implanted pumps which release insulin immediately in response to changes in blood glucose are in the testing stages.

In theory, since it induced by diet, Type II diabetes should be preventable and manageable by dietary changes alone. However, as so often happens, clinical theory is defeated by human nature in this case, as many diabetics (and many obese people without diabetes) find it personally impossible to lose weight or even stick to a diet free of starchy, sugary junk food. So Type II diabetes is frequently treated with drugs which restore the body's response to its own insulin, and in a few cases injections of insulin.

Please note that this article isn't a subsitute for medical advice. If you suspect you have diabetes or even are in a high risk demographic group, please see your doctor.

by: Frank Hague
About the author:
Frank Hague takes great interest in medical matters.

How Effective are Your Nutritional Supplements?

2008-11-09T09:30:00.001Z

(ARA) – Excessive weight gain is a big problem in America. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly two thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Most people want to do something about it, but don’t always make good decisions.

This year alone, fifty million people will go on some of form of weight-loss program, spending some $33 billion on weight loss products and services that are fad diets, unsafe or ineffective nutritional supplements. Countless others who have tried to lose weight and failed will give up altogether.

“What people need to realize is that there is no magic bullet when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off,” says Jeff Zwiefel, vice president of the Nutritional Products Division of Life Time Fitness, a national health, fitness, and nutrition company. “For many people, losing weight can feel like a daunting task. It takes a balanced approach that includes education, exercise and good nutrition, coupled with effective weight-loss supplementation.”

A good beginning point is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms of weight gain. Do you ever wonder why some people can eat all the time and never gain weight while others seem to put on pounds at every sitting? “It’s all about metabolism,” says Zwiefel.

Simply stated, your metabolism is the way your body burns up all of the calories from the food that you eat and regulates energy. The speed at which your body burns up calories is called your metabolic rate. The faster your metabolism, the more calories you'll burn, and the less likely that you'll be overweight. “A small percentage of people naturally have a better metabolism than others, but for the most part, an individual’s metabolism is determined by their lifestyle”, says Zwiefel. So what can you do to place yourself in a better position to manage your weight?

Diet represents one of the primary ways to shed those unwanted pounds and keep them off. Although it might sound easy on paper to simply put less food in your mouth, the reality is that reducing calorie intake is a significant problem for most of us. It is more complex than just calories in and calories out. Factors such as stress and diet will dramatically impact how our bodies process the calories we consume. That’s why Life Time Fitness recommends you not only change what you eat, but your eating and lifestyle habits.

Instead of eating three meals a day --- breakfast, lunch and dinner --- eat five nutritionally balanced meals and two snacks per day. Spreading your food intake over the day is the best way keep your energy levels up and to burn calories for energy versus storing them.

You should also reduce the consumption of simple and refined carbohydrates that offer little nutritional value. Concentrate on eating foods that are high in fiber to reduce appetite and help reduce the risk of cancer. Look for good sources of protein throughout the day such as lean meats, fish, eggs, low fat dairy products, beans and nuts. Complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat bread, wild rice, whole-wheat pasta, multigrain cereal and potatoes are great ways to boost your energy level throughout the day. Eat 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables; take a multivitamin with antioxidants each day to ensure you are getting the nutrients your body requires throughout the day.

Because our busy lifestyles can interfere with upholding the ideal dietary plan, proper supplementation can help fill in the gaps. However, there are dozens of supplements on the market today offering big promises. How do you know which brand is best for you? “

If a product promises, ‘effortless,’ weight loss, it doesn’t have your long-term health and wellness in mind,” says Dr. Bill Wheeler, Ph.D. and R.D., a former staff nutritionist to the President of the United States and independent consultant for Life Time Fitness. “Supplements need to be worked into your overall plan.”

Life Time Fitness’ LeanSource weight loss supplement is a patent-pending blend of four active ingredients shown in recent studies to help naturally speed up metabolism, burn body fat, and curb sugar cravings without the use of harmful stimulants. Unlike many other supplements on the market today that hype unbelievable before and after testimonials, LeanSource is based on real science and a proven safe and effective formulation. All Life Time Fitness nutritional products are regularly tested in independent lab settings to assure consumers they really contain what’s on the label.

Now available at Target, RiteAid, Kroeger, Kmart and Meijer stores, as well as Life Time Fitness locations nationwide and via www.lifetimefitness.com, LeanSource products are conveniently available in a gel cap form, bars, and ready-to-drink shakes in multiple flavors.

Good diet and the use of beneficial supplements are just part of the equation. Regular and balanced exercise is also a critical part of the process. “Just going to the gym once in a while isn’t going to cut it. You need to make a commitment, and stick with it,” says Zweifel.

Life Time Fitness recommends that people who are serious about shedding the pounds and keeping them off participate in aerobic training exercise regimens a minimum of three times per week for at least 30 minutes at a time. Aerobic exercises include brisk walking, biking, jogging, swimming, aerobic classes and dancing. Dieters are also urged to take part in resistance training exercises, such as weight lifting, at least twice a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per session.

by; ARA

For more information about weight loss and exercise programs offered through Life Time Fitness, visit www.lifetimefitness.com.

5 Quick and Easy Fun Ways to Get in Shape

2008-11-09T09:26:00.001Z

Getting and staying in shape doesn’t have to be dull and boring! Try some of these fun fitness activities to make your workout time more enjoyable.

MUSICAL EXERCIES – Put on your favorite music and do some yoga! No need for slow, elevator music. Move to your favorite beat. Or pop on the headphones or earphones and grab your MP3 or cassette player or handheld PC and bike to a nearby park. Too cold or rainy? Then head to a mall or other enclosed area where you can walk. Caution: make sure you are alert while listening to music with headphones or earphones.

FUN IN THE SUN – Check out the latest tanning solutions and try fun, scented versions with funky, multi-colored sunglasses. Grab your cassette player or MP3 player and favorite tunes. And pack some flavored water, new flavored health bar that you’ve been dying to try and some frozen berries in your carryall for breaks and have a “sense”-ational time.

FITNESS CLASSES – Try out a new fitness class for fun. Enjoy a full water aerobics workout with less stress on your joints. Grab some colorful water gear and swim to the beat. Or try a dance or Jazzercise routine. No need to commit long-term, just ask about popping in for a class or two to check it out and enjoy. Meet new friends and get fit all at once.

VCR / DVD – Head to the library or local rental store and grab a fun fitness video or DVD. Crank up the sound when your favorite tunes come on and join the taped workout participants in the privacy of your own home.

GYM / FITNESS CENTER – Dig out those coupons you’ve been receiving in envelop mailers and those money saving coupon magazines. Again, no need to commit long-term. Just head on over and use the free or low-cost trial / invitational period and enjoy!

JOURNALING – Spice up your logging routine with an inexpensive new journal from a discount or dollar store nearby. Crate snazzy charts with colored markers. Add bright colored stickers for each workout. Paste or tape clipped pictures of your goals throughout the covers and inside sections. For example, paste pictures of that vacation spot you want to travel to with your new, healthy YOU wearing a new swimsuit.

So add some fun in with your fitness activities. Wake up your senses with new taste, smells, sights, touches and sounds. Forget that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” stuff. Workouts plus play make Jack a fun, fit boy! The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.

About the author:Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on many medical, health and lifestyle topics.

Do you want to be thinner, healthy and fit?

2008-11-01T14:10:00.000Z

While we offer an effective and natural fat loss product - the Jen Fe Next Fat Loss Patch and the Power Patch, we also know that without a commitment from you to bring about some lifestyle changes, you won't reach optimal fat loss. There is no product in the world that can produce fat loss while we are eating and drinking excessively, and moving only slowly from couch to car to office chair. We need a program of sensible diet and exercise that will support the products we utilize to help our weight loss.

Here's what to eat:

1. Lots of vegetables and fruits

2. Increase healthy protein intake. This is how you build lean muscle tissue, which in turn speeds up your metabolism. Examples are fish, lean meats, low-fat dairy products, beans, and soy products.

3. Fiber-Rich foods. They will fill up and they make they are satisfying. In this category are: peas, beans, bran cereals, potato skins, nuts and seeds, oatmeal, bulger wheat, 100% whole wheat baked goods, fruits and vegetables.

4. Minerals. Calcium and other minerals are you "secret weapons" against body fat. They are found in low-fat dairy products, small or canned fish, soy tofu, green vegetables, nuts, seeds, bran cereals, and calcium fortified orange juice, and avoid processed, salt-loaded foods.

5. Eat fish and beneficial fats. Omega-3 unsaturated fatty acid in some fish, oils and nuts is a good fat. Eat moderate amounts of salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines and other oily fish. Soybeans, nuts, pumpkin seed are also excellent sources for Omega-3.

6. Reduce harmful fats - saturated and trans fats. These are not only high in calories; they are also loaded with harmful fatty acids that cause disease.

7. Always eat an adequate breakfast for several reasons: it will speed up your metabolism earlier in the day and when you skip breakfast, it makes it harder to control your appetite later in the day.

8. Cut back or eliminate alcohol. It is high in non-filling calories. Ideal consumption is one glass of beer or wine a day.

9. Stay away from junk carbohydrates - sugar and white flour are diet killers in all but the smallest amounts.

10. Gradually reduce your calorie intake because extreme and sudden dieting causes your body to conserve, not burn calories, and it slows fat loss.

11. Snack instead of eating large meals - larger, higher calorie meals tend to be stored as fat, instead of burned for energy. Ideally, you should eat five or six smaller, nutritious snacks each day instead of large meals.

12. Move! You must exercise to build lean tissue that burns fat. As little as two to three hours per week of brisk walking at minimum, and you will notice a major impact on your weight loss.

13. Reduce stress. It produces adverse fat-producing chemistry in your body. Try warm baths, meditation, deep breathing, stretching, massage, prayer and rest.

14. Get outside into the sunshine at lest 20 minutes per day - the vitamin D you get from sunshine works with calcium for health and body fat control.

by: Lucy E. Riddell

www.FatBeGoneWithLucy.com

How to Keep Your Body Fit

2008-10-20T12:33:00.001+01:00

by: Alex Fir

Fitness is just as imperative as health. As a matter of fact, fitness is linked directly with your health. If you are not taking care of your body, you will get sick. Here are some great suggestions that will help you to keep your body fit:

1. Bicycling

It is a sad thing that many people do not take advantage of this excellent option for exercise. Bike riding exercise your body and build a stronger cardiovascular system. Also, it allows you to get out and enjoy nature and fresh air.

2. Jogging or Walking

Both jogging and walking are wonderful ways to get fit. They tone the muscles, relieve stress, create a healthier heart, and improve lung capability.

3. Swimming

Swimming is an exceptional way to get into and stay in shape. Swimming will help you tighten your body, lose weight, and get a good overall workout.

4. Tennis

Tennis is a great way to exercise. Just running after the ball alone will help get you into shape. This is a great way to strengthen your cardiovascular system and lose weight.

5. Dancing

Dancing is so much fun and as long as you are moving, it really does not matter what type of dance or music. The whole idea is to move your body. Dancing has long been recommended as an avenue to fitness.

6. VCR

If you have a VCR or DVD, try sticking in some good workout tapes. Even taking 15 minutes every day to workout will get you started. Try that for two weeks and you will be surprised at the results.

7. Abdominal Crunches

Crunches have long been a favorite for many athletes for the very reason that they work. Lying on your back with knees bent, keeping feet flat on the floor, cross your hands across your chest and then curl your torso, rolling from your sternum toward your hips. Do this slowly and start out with a set of ten crunches in three reps. As you get accustomed to these, you can increase both the number of sets and reps.

8. Squats

Squats are excellent for glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. With your feet standing firm and spread apart about two feet, bend your knees slightly. Then, very smoothly, you will squat toward the floor without going all the way down.

9. Tricep Press

For an Overhead Tricep Press, standing on the floor with your feet about two feet apart, knees slightly bent, you will extend your arms over your head. Keep your elbows locked and then very slowly lower your hands behind your head. You want to do this with some type of weight, but small weights like one to five pounds.

About the author:
Visit Home Fitness Equipment Center for the latest news and information about home fitness exercise equipment.

http://fitnessguide.site90.com/how-to-keep-your-body-fit.html

10 Essential Health Tips

2008-09-19T12:31:00.000+01:00

1. Move More
Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog; chase your kids; toss balls with friends, mow the lawn. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool, it's a stress buster. Think 'move' in small increments of time. It doesn't have to be an hour in the gym or a 45-minute aerobic dance class or tai chi or kickboxing. But that's great when you're up to it. Meanwhile, move more. Thought for the day: Cha, Cha, Cha…. Then do it!

2. Cut Fat
Avoid the obvious such as fried foods, burgers and other fatty meats (i.e. pork, bacon, ham, salami, ribs and sausage). Dairy products such as cheese, cottage cheese, milk and cream should be eaten in low fat versions. Nuts and sandwich meats, mayonnaise, margarine, butter and sauces should be eaten in limited amounts. Most are available in lower fat versions such as substitute butter, fat free cheeses and mayonnaise. Thought for the day: Lean, mean, fat-burning machine…. Then be one!

3. Quit Smoking
The jury is definitely in on this verdict. Ever since 1960 when the Surgeon General announced that smoking was harmful to your health, Americans have been reducing their use of tobacco products that kill. Just recently, we've seen a surge in smoking in adolescents and teens. Could it be the Hollywood influence? It seems the stars in every movie of late smoke cigarettes. Beware. Warn your children of the false romance or 'tough guy' stance of Hollywood smokers. Thought for the day: Give up just one cigarette…. the next one.

4. Reduce Stress
Easier said than done, stress busters come in many forms. Some techniques recommended by experts are to think positive thoughts. Spend 30 minutes a day doing something you like. (i.e.,Soak in a hot tub; walk on the beach or in a park; read a good book; visit a friend; play with your dog; listen to soothing music; watch a funny movie. Get a massage, a facial or a haircut. Meditate. Count to ten before losing your temper or getting aggravated. Avoid difficult people when possible. Thought for the day: When seeing red, think pink clouds….then float on them.

5. Protect Yourself from Pollution
If you can't live in a smog-free environment, at least avoid smoke-filled rooms, high traffic areas, breathing in highway fumes and exercising near busy thoroughfares. Exercise outside when the smog rating is low. Exercise indoors in air conditioning when air quality is good. Plant lots of shrubbery in your yard. It's a good pollution and dirt from the street deterrent. Thought for the day: 'Smoke gets in your eyes'…and your mouth, and your nose and your lungs as do pollutants….hum the tune daily.

6. Wear Your Seat Belt
Statistics show that seat belts add to longevity and help alleviate potential injuries in car crashes. Thought for the day: Buckle down and buckle up.

7. Floss Your Teeth
Recent studies make a direct connection between longevity and teeth flossing. Nobody knows exactly why. Perhaps it's because people who floss tend to be more health conscious than people who don't? Thought for the day: Floss and be your body's boss.

8. Avoid Excessive Drinking
While recent studies show a glass of wine or one drink a day (two for men) can help protect against heart disease, more than that can cause other health problems such as liver and kidney disease and cancer. Thought for the day: A jug of wine should last a long time.

9. Keep a Positive Mental Outlook
There's a definitive connection between living well and healthfully and having a cheerful outlook on life. Thought for the day: You can't be unhappy when you're smiling or singing.

10. Choose Your Parents Well
The link between genetics and health is a powerful one. But just because one or both of your parents died young in ill health doesn't mean you cannot counteract the genetic pool handed you. Thought for the day: Follow these basic tips for healthy living and you can better control your own destiny.

source :
http://www.health-fitness-tips.com/

Workout Success: Consistency

2008-07-02T12:52:00.001+01:00

While you always want to be on a good diet and workout program, the specific program you're on isn't going to decide whether or not your goals are realized -- it's your consistency in following it that will get you the results you're after.

The greatest factor regarding your success is how well you are able to maintain consistency in the program. After all, even the best-thought-out program in the world isn’t going to get you any results unless you actually follow it with consistency.

Here are some tips on how to improve your consistency so you can maximize all the rewards your program and diet have to offer.

Set the right goals

The type of goal you choose can have a significant impact on your motivation, and is important in maintaining consistency.

In general, intrinsic goals tend to work better than extrinsic ones because they are set for yourself. Intrinsic goals include improving your cholesterol profile, maintaining a body weight that decreases your disease risk, feeling the euphoria that many people experience after intense exercise, and providing a good way to relieve stress during your day. Extrinsic goals, on the other hand, include losing 10 pounds before your beach vacation, getting that six-pack to show, and increasing your bench press to 200 pounds.

After a while, extrinsic goals become less important or fade away, and your workout consistency is ruined. Once that beach vacation is over, you won’t be motivated to hit the gym every morning after work. That’s not to say you should never have extrinsic goals, however; they are fantastic motivators for the short-term, but you should also try to set some intrinsic reasons for improving your health and fitness.

Follow the right dietary plan

Increase your consistency by setting a health and fitness plan. Consider what will actually be possible for you to do. For example, if you’ve tried very low carbohydrate diets in the past and felt terrible on them, don’t try another one. This will only lower your motivation and further decrease your chances of succeeding in the future. A moderate carbohydrate approach can work just as well, provided you are still tracking the total calories consumed.

The best dietary plan is one that supplies you with enough protein and an appropriate number of calories.

Give yourself a break

While you want to maintain consistency when it comes to your diet and workout plan, don’t berate yourself if you cheat on your diet one time or miss one workout. Those who tend to do this have a very black-and-white mindset and let one slipup throw them off track.

Getting out of this all-or-none thinking will help you get right back on the horse rather than struggle for a few days or abandon the program altogether.

Identify problems early

To maintain consistency with your program, always monitor your results and identify any potential issues early on. For example, if you are already starting to feel a buildup of fatigue after only two weeks on the program, imagine how you will feel in another few weeks. The sooner you can modify the program or get a personal trainer to look it over and make some adjustments, the better.

If you let fatigue go on too long, your body will start crying, and once physiological factors combine with psychological factors, it will be really hard to maintain consistency.

By adjusting things early on, you keep any issues to a minimum and make the whole process of achieving your goals that much easier.

Modify your workout

If your workout is effective, you should be improving your fitness level; this means that, after a while, what was once challenging no longer should be. Sure, you can add more weight to the bar to increase intensity, but it’s far more beneficial to completely revamp your program every so often to ensure maximum results and maintain consistency in your workout.

Keep in mind that your primary goal will change as times goes on. Maybe you’ll start winding down in the summer months, or maybe the doctor has told you to get into better cardiovascular shape. Whatever the scenario, be sure you keep your workout current.

Incorporate variety

Finally, incorporate as much variety into your workout as possible. It’s hard to stay consistent with a program when it never offers any new excitement. Whether you change your exercises entirely or simply perform your workout in a different order, making changes will help to keep you interested and maintain workout consistency.

Take advantage of the changing seasons; why spend the summer months inside on cardio equipment when you could be enjoying a run outside or playing sports?

keep it consistent

The next time you find yourself analyzing different program options and dietary approaches, making sure every single calorie is balanced and your rest periods are worked out to the second, stop to consider whether you are maintaining consistency.
If you spend a little less time program-planning and a little more time getting motivated, you’ll be ahead of the game.

By Jeff Bayer
Resources:
www.efit-today.com

Brainwave Entrainment” Can Help You Dramatically Improve Your Mental Abilities!

2008-07-01T12:51:00.001+01:00

I am a great fan of Stephen Pierce and recently I came across his website in which he talked about Brainwave Entertainment. I think it will be worth while to disseminate such a crucial piece of information with people who are interested in good health.

I have just taken the few facts from this website in this article for everybody,s benefit:

Recently, professionals in the areas of psychology, neurology, medical health and self-help have begun utilizing the power of brainwave entrainment in their work with patients.

What is brainwave entrainment? It is a relatively young but rapidly growing field that involves the study of how altering brainwaves naturally can allow people to easily enter states of increased intelligence, creativity, relaxation, pure energy and more!

Here’s the science behind this incredible breakthrough: The brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which communicate with each other using electrical signals.

All of these neurons sending signals at once produce a large amount of electrical activity commonly called a Brainwave pattern, because of its “wave” or cyclic-like nature.
Researchers and scientists have found that different bands of brainwaves are associated with different mental states. For instance, the brainwaves of a sleeping person are much different than the brainwaves of an individual who is wide awake.

Years of research has shown that brainwaves not only provide insight into an individual’s mind and body, but they can be stimulated to actually change that person’s current state.

By causing the brain to produce or decrease specific types of brainwave frequencies, it is possible to bring about a large variety of mental states and emotional reactions.

How does this work? “Entrainment” is a principle in physics, where two cycles synchronize naturally with each other in order to work more efficiently. Entrainment is applied to chemistry, astronomy, electrical systems and much more – but can also be applied to the brain.

When the brain is provided with a stimulus, through the ears, eyes or other senses, it emits an electrical charge in response. This is called a Cortical Evoked Response. These electrical responses travel throughout the brain to become what an individual sees and hears.

When the brain is given a consistent, repeating stimulus, such as drum beats or flashes of light, the brain responds by synchronizing, or entraining, its electric cycles to the external rhythm. This is commonly called the Frequency Following Response (or FFR), and it can be used to effectively alter the brainwave pattern of the audience.

This I personally realised after listening to the scientifically proven Beta Brainwave Entertainment to understand that we have an all access pass to the high performance peak state that our world’s greatest achievers know intimately.

The EEG visual shown at the beginning of this article was taken while observing the effects of Beta Brainwave Entertainment on an independent listener. This visual reading not only proves that Beta Brainwave Entertainment works, but powerfully demonstrates how quickly your mind can be optimized and your cerebral functioning accelerated.

The Baseline (left-side) illustrates the listener’s brainwave activity prior to listening to Brainwaves. The Beta Increase (right-side) shows the considerable increase in beta activity after just 20 minutes of listening to Beta waves.

Brainwave research on cognitive performance has pointed to the mid Beta brainwave frequencies as the zone to create a super focus mental state, intellectual endurance, and optimize your brain to handle intensive task with high levels of mental stamina.

As you listen to your brainwaves will be entrained into the Beta brainwave zone and have you mentally fine tuned for success.

If you have ever dreamed of realizing your full potential and receiving all the benefits that will help you to quickly and easily unleash your mental powers and achieve your dreams. Listen to this audio and you will:

Sharpen your mental focus, attention, and concentration
Enhance your thinking speed and clarity
Improve your ability to remember and recall information
Increase your mental energy and alertness
And much, much more

you can be experiencing acute concentration, accelerated cognition and amazing mental states that the most focused and zoned achievers on the planet know.

Think of the tremendous impact this could have on your life! and improving your mental efficiency could:
Help you excel in your career
Improve the quality of your life
Improve your marriage
Make you more content
Make you more confident
And much, much more!

by: Sonika Gandotra
source; www.articlecity.com

Sun up

2008-06-30T12:45:00.000+01:00

Men with low concentrations of vitamin D have higher risk of heart attack

The good news just keeps on coming for vitamin D. A new study of men finds that getting plenty of vitamin D seems to lessen the risk of having a heart attack.

Researchers tracked the effect of vitamin D levels in blood by testing blood samples collected from 1993 to 1995 from more than 18,000 men who were part of a long-term study of physicians. Researchers then monitored these men for 10 years. By analyzing the initial blood vitamin D readings with the men’s subsequent health history, researchers were able to assess whether vitamin D status affected heart attack risk.

The researchers found that 454 men had heart attacks during the 10-year period that followed. Men with the least vitamin D were twice as likely to have a heart attack as men with the most, says Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He and his colleagues report the data in the June 9 Archives of Internal Medicine.

The finding stood up even after the researchers accounted for differences between the groups in age, race, family history of heart attacks, weight, alcohol consumption, physical activity, history of diabetes, high blood pressure, ethnicity, fish consumption, cholesterol, triglyceride levels and the region in which they lived.

Although many factors contribute to heart attack risk, some people still have the big one without fitting the profile. Others who do have such factors don’t have heart attacks.

Some earlier studies hinted that people living at high latitudes, typically in the far north, have an added risk that is further elevated during winter months. It’s no coincidence that these are the months of low sunshine and hence low vitamin D production by the body, says Giovannucci, a physician and epidemiologist.

The finding underscores that too little vitamin D “is a straightforward risk factor” for heart attack, says study coauthor Bruce Hollis, a molecular biologist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. “It’s right up there with high blood pressure and smoking,” he says.

Hollis and Giovannucci also suspect that vitamin D fends off infections, which may indirectly account for some of this heart attack protection, since research has tied infections and the low-grade inflammation they spawn to heart disease. Giovannucci says the winter flu season and the onset of many other respiratory infections in winter might be in part attributable to a lack of vitamin D.

Giovannucci also cites animal studies and some work in people that shows that a lack of vitamin D seems to disrupt proper calcium regulation in the body, leaving less needed calcium in bone and adding more to arteries, where it contributes to hardening and a risk of heart attack.

These and other findings suggest that dermatologists’ campaign to keep people out of the sun to reduce the risk of skin cancer has left many at risk of heart attack, as well as osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, infections and other conditions that vitamin D seems to fend off, Hollis says.

By Nathan Seppa

source; www.sciencenews.org

BAD BREATH

2008-06-29T15:56:00.002+01:00

The words coming out of your mouth are sweet, so why does everyone cringe and back away when you speak to them? Your mother would say it was your imagination, but there might be a reason why you’re repelling your friends and colleagues: you could have a nasty case of halitosis or bad breath.

Simply put, bad breath is the result of odor-causing bacteria gorging and producing waste -- or volatile sulfur compounds -- in your mouth. Odor-causing bacteria are anaerobic, which means they don’t need oxygen to survive. Instead, they prefer a dry, airless environment. This is when a good dental regimen becomes important -- an accumulation of plaque (the white film that appears on teeth, gums and tongues) can distort the mouth’s oxygen ratio, helping the bad guys flourish and making your breath rancid.

The bacterium that causes bad breath feeds on protein, and whether it finds its sustenance in a steak sandwich or the naturally occurring protein in your saliva, you can never fully remove its food source. There are foods other than meat, however, that can either provide a meal for odor-causing bacteria or a friendly environment for them to grow in. We’ve listed some of the most common offenders below.

causes of bad breath

Dairy

Cheese and other dairy products are typically high in protein, giving bacteria that cause bad breath a smorgasbord of material to turn into smelly waste.

Alcohol

Because alcohol is a drying agent, or desiccant, it slows down your mouth’s saliva production, helping to make a perfect environment for odor-causing bacteria to flourish.

Sugar

In a rancid-breath double whammy, sugar can both provide a food source for bacteria and give you a good start toward tooth decay.

Garlic

Garlic, with its high sulfur content, is one of the most notorious bad breath offenders around, and for good reason. When you eat it you will most certainly get bad breath, and it will perhaps even give a particularly nasty tinge to the smell of your sweat.

Smoking

Taking a hit from a cigarette dries out your mouth something fierce, which will make your mouth a great place for bacteria to thrive. Not only that, but the combination of more than 4,000 toxic chemicals in your mouth will cause a potent enough smell to drive away a skunk.

combating bad breath

Breath-friendly foods aside, the No. 1 thing you can do to ensure that your breath is as sweet as your personality is to keep up a diligent oral regimen. This should include brushing (teeth, gums and tongue) and flossing. Let’s paint a picture for you of what bad breath might smell like on a larger scale: You know the smell old meat and vegetables get when you haven’t emptied your garbage in a few days? Imagine smaller pieces of leftover food particles getting just as rancid in your mouth.

If you already have bad breath, there are actions you can take that help you smell fresh and clean again. We’ve listed some cures for bad breath below.

Water

If you have halitosis, drinking a glass or two of water may go a long way toward freshening that pungent reek. Water can flush out food particles that remain in the mouth after meals, along with stimulating saliva production and generally making your mouth a cleaner, less attractive place for bacteria to grow.

Chlorophyll

When taken in liquid or capsule forms, chlorophyll -- which is the pigment that makes plants green -- is touted to be an effective internal deodorizer and breath freshener. Lacking a bottle of the stuff? Try munching on a few sprigs of fresh parsley.

Sugarless gum

The distinct lack of sugar in sugar-free gum will prevent the bad-breath bacteria in your mouth from gorging on sweets and making your breath worse.

Spices

Certain spices have long been known for their freshening qualities. Fennel, a spice whose taste bears a striking resemblance to licorice, is a centuries-old bad breath remedy. Cloves, anise, cardamom, peppermint, and coriander have also been known for their stench-fighting properties. There are many different ways to ingest these spices in an attempt to eradicate bad breath -- from tea to gargles -- but the easiest method is just popping a few pieces into your mouth and chewing them.

bad breath bandits
Although it’s something that everyone will deal with, bad breath can be hugely embarrassing. Bad breath can also be a roadside marker to more serious conditions like diabetes or a mouth infection, and a raunchy smell emanating from the nasal cavity can be symptomatic of sinusitis.

If you think skipping a meal equates skipping over bad breath, you’re wrong. Fasting often goes hand-in-hand with saliva reduction, and for that reason, it’s a major halitosis encourager.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on mouthwash. The strong taste will mask bad breath for a while, but mouthwashes containing alcohol may dry your mouth and decrease your saliva production, potentially making your bad breath worse. If you must use mouthwash, try an antibacterial kind or one that contains chlorine dioxide.

Are you wondering if your own mouth could use some freshness? Don’t bother doing the old “blow into your hands and smell” trick. This doesn’t work because we grow accustomed to our own body’s odors, so you won’t be able to tell if your exhalations are particularly pungent. As much as you may not like to hear this, it’s best to swallow your pride and ask someone to sniff your breath for you.

By Jen Janzen
Article Suggested By: Doug A., Houston, TX
source ; www.badbreath.com.au

Yoga Breathing - Breath Control Pranayama

2008-01-29T08:30:00.000Z

"Pranayama is control of Breath". "Prana" is Breath or vital energy in the body. On subtle levels prana represents the pranic energy responsible for life or life force, and "ayama" means control. So Pranayama is "Control of Breath". One can control the rhythms of pranic energy with pranayama and achieve healthy body and mind.

The importance of Prana is emphasized throughout yoga. Many yoga masters illustrate this by demonstrating the importance of breath for sustaining life. A very effective illustration comes by comparing the time people can survive without food (a few weeks), water (a few days) with the amount of time one could survive without air (only a few minutes). Efficient and effective breathing is essential to take in the required amounts of oxygen in order to sustain daily activities.

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRANAYAMA
1. Place for pranayama should be clean, peaceful and airy.
2. Pranayama should not be performed under a fan on full speed.
3. Pranayama should be done in morning hours preferably before the dawn.
4. Body must be cleansed before sitting for Pranayama.
5. Duration of Pranayama should be increased gradually and gradually.
6. One should not sit for Pranayama after meals. At least a gap of 3-4 hours is essential.
7. Pranayama should be practiced after Asans and before Meditation.
8. One should not strain the body.

Pranayama (According to the Gita)Apane juhvati pranam pranepanam tathapare; Pranapanagatee ruddhva pranayamaparayanah (Gita, Ch. IV-29.). Others offer Prana (outgoing breath) in Apana (incoming breath) and Apana in Prana, restraining the passage of Prana and Apana, absorbed in Pranayama.

Pranayama is a precious Yajna (sacrifice). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Puraka (filling in). Some practise the kind of Pranayama called Rechaka (emptying). Some are engaged in the practice of Pranayama called Kumbhaka, by impeding the outward passage of air, through the nostrils and the mouth, and by impeding the inward passage of the air, in the opposite direction.What are the benefitsAt the anatomical level Pranayama aims to improve the strength of the diaphragm and the capacity of the lungs to improve the efficiency of the respiratory system, helping to increase fitness and increase the amount of oxygen entering the blood stream per breath. This oxygen helps to provide essential energy for muscle and brain function.On a more detailed level pranayama is though to:* Open the Nadis and remove blockages to energy flow in the body* Increase relaxation and calmness by releasing tension.* improves focus and concentration* Strengthen and gain control of the diaphragm - improving abdominal tone, singing capacity, and health.

Here are some tips to help along the way:During the practice of yoga postures, shift your awareness frequently to the flow of breath. When you can hold a posture comfortably, let the breath become your primary focus and explore the effect of the posture on respiratory muscles and on breath flow.Spend generous amounts of time in the crocodile pose, learning to fully relax tension in the abdomen and lower back.

by. Franchis
source. http://www.freearticlesarchive.com

A Sweeter Hops

2008-01-28T16:07:00.000Z

Federal scientists have bred a new, antimicrobial-rich hops variety for tea

Brewers prize hops for the characteristic bitter flavors they impart to ales, lagers, and other beers. But aficionados of another class of brews—certain herbal teas—would prefer their hops bitterfree. And federal scientists may have come up with just what the doctor ordered.

"People have used hops medicinally for a long time. It's a fairly ancient remedy," notes plant physiologist Barbara M. Reed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in Corvallis, Ore.
The bitter tonic made from hops has putative sedative, hypnotic, and antianxiety properties. Hops tea has been offered as a folk remedy for conditions ranging from fever and insomnia to bruises and cancer, according to a report by botanist James A. Duke, who has authored several books on medicinal plants. A quick browse on the Internet will turn up numerous sources of hop tea.

The new cultivar, named Teamaker, may produce an especially palatable brew owing to a unique ratio of certain acid components. Moreover, the components that predominate in Teamaker have long-established antimicrobial properties. Indeed, their germ-fighting function appears to have won the appreciation of brewers more than a millennium ago, notes John A. Henning, who leads hop genetics and breeding at a USDA research center, also in Corvallis. Beer producers realized that when their recipe included hops, brews not only proved tasty, but had a longer shelf life.
Hops breeder Alfred Haunold and his colleagues at the Corvallis center will formally register their debittered cultivar this month.

What brewers of all stripes refer to as hops are actually the cone-shaped dried female flowers of the Humulus lupulus L. plant. Inside are glands that contain flavorful oils and some fairly bitter water-soluble components.

To extract the flavorings for use in beer, or merely to make a cup of tea, brewers boil the cones to release their characteristic flavorings. However, the altered chemistry of USDA's new hop has dramatically boosted the production of flavorings possessing natural, antibiotic properties.
In fact, the elevated antibiotic attributes of the new hop might open new markets for this crop, observes Henning. For instance, sugar producers might turn to it as a preservative to prevent microbial degradation of their product during processing. Alternatively, he notes, manufacturers and others may substitute it for the formaldehyde used to control pests and fungal growth in everything from animal feed and plywood to tissues that are being stored for use in research.

Alpha vs. beta

The key flavor compounds in hops trace to two families of chemicals: water-soluble alpha acids, and beta acids that develop in the plants' essential oils. Breweries prize the alpha acids for their hearty, if bitter, taste: These serve as a natural foil to the sweet compounds that develop in many beers. Indeed, some brewers just buy isolated hop-derived alpha acids and dispense with the beta acids entirely.

The new Teamaker hop derives from experiments several decades ago when Haunold wanted to see the extent to which he could preferentially maximize a plant's production of alpha or beta acids. One successful beta-rich cultivar proved virtually devoid of alpha acids. A technician who tasted it jokingly said the bitterfree product would be great for tea—eventually giving rise to its name.

In the January Journal of Plant Registrations, Henning, Haunold, and their coauthors describe Teamaker's pedigree—at least as much as is known. Most of its initial ancestors appear to have come from old English lines, such as cultivars known as Fuggle and Late Grape. However, Henning points out, because these lines are rich in alpha acids, there must have also been beta-rich ancestors. He now suspects that these were probably wild U.S. hops that pollinated their English cousins growing openly in Oregon fields, early in the last century.

Currently, U.S. farmers produce some 55 million pounds of hops annually. Since the big market for hops has always been beer, the alpha acids-shy Teamaker languished in a few test plots for decades. A beer company or two checked the variety out, but ultimately exhibited no commercial interest.

Recently, however, interest in beta acids—and their antimicrobial prowess—has been growing, independent of hops' use in beer. For instance, European sugar refiners have begun buying beta-acid extracts—essentially leftovers from alpha-acid production for breweries—as a bitterfree, all-natural preservative for use during manufacturing. At the same time, some feed suppliers have begun substituting beta acids for low-dose antibiotics as a livestock growth-promoting dietary additive. Feed producers couldn't use conventional hops directly, Henning notes, because the alpha acids' bitter taste would have soured the animals' interest in their chow.
However, with Teamaker, the hop is essentially alpha acids-free: It certainly has the lowest quantity of alpha acids of any commercially available hop.

Teamaker is available to breeders through the National Clonal Germplasm Repository—essentially a federal library with holdings that include more than 510 different hops. Some are wild natives collected throughout the United States. Others are cultivated varieties collected from throughout the world.

But if the idea of bitterfree hops appeals, Henning says, stay tuned. In a year or two his group expects to announce a new and improved variety. Think of it, he says, as bitter-Terminator 2.

by. Janet Raloff

How Women Can Protect Themselves From Breast Cancer

2007-02-07T05:56:00.000Z

Chances are you know someone - a family member, colleague, or friend who has been affected by cancer. You'll want to learn more about prevention especially if you have a history of cancer in your family. There are over two hundred different types of cancer and the most common one for women is breast cancer. The lifetime probability of a woman developing breast cancer is 1 in 9. The good news is that it is possible for women to protect themselves from breast cancer. When breast cancer is discovered and treated early, the chances for recovery are better.
Every woman should know their own breasts so that any changes are noticed soon and can be reported to a physician. Knowing your breasts includes having a mammogram every two years if you are between the ages of 50 and 69 and getting a clinical breast exam by a doctor or trained health professional at least every two years from the age of 40. Regardless of age, all women should do their own monthly breast self-examination a few days after her period. When doing breast self-examination, things to look for include: puckering of the skin, the appearance of what is sometimes called 'orange peel skin', any place in your breasts that feels lumpy or harder than the rest and bleeding from the nipples or crusting.
It is important to note that most breast problems are not breast cancer and most lumps are not cancerous. When a lump is not cancerous it is referred to as 'benign'. A cancerous lump is called 'malignant'.
While there are no cures yet, researchers have discovered that a healthy lifestyle is the best way to prevent cancer. Since cancer is a disease that starts in our cells, everything we eat and are exposed to can affect them. Choose to be a non-smoker and avoid second-hand smoke. In regards to diet, choose a variety of lower fat, high fiber foods. Studies have shown that intake of total fat, saturated fat and meat are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Maintain a healthy body weight and limit alcohol consumption. Protect yourself from the sun. At home and at work, follow health and safety instructions when using hazardous materials. The link between an active lifestyle and breast cancer prevention is as yet unclear but general health is improved when regular exercise is an integral part of a person's lifestyle.
Taking care of ourselves is an ongoing commitment that requires self-discipline and knowledge. It is well worth the effort and you'll feel much better for it.

Tips for Using Medicines Wisely

2007-01-26T07:30:00.000Z

Medicines can be lifesavers. They can cure or control diseases. But if you use them the wrong way, they can be dangerous. Working together with your doctor can help you avoid problems. Follow the suggestions below for safe medicine use.

At Your Doctor's Office

Bring your medicine bottles to your doctor's office. You can also carry a list of the medicines you are taking. Make sure to include herbal products and over-the-counter medicines that you can buy in a grocery store or drugstore without a prescription. Know your drug allergies. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

You should ask your doctor these questions:

• What is the name of this medicine?

• Why do I need to take this medicine?

• When and how do I take it? With or without food? With other medicines?

• How long do I have to take it?

• Are there any side effects?

You should also think about the cost of the medicine. Let your doctor know if the cost of the medicine is an issue. Make sure your doctor knows how you will pay for your medicines. Ask for the generic or less expensive choices. Tell your doctor if you want to treat your health condition without medicines, and ask if other treatments like weight loss or exercise are options.

At the Pharmacy

Read the label. Make sure it is the right medicine and make sure you understand the instructions on the medicine before you leave the pharmacy. You should be able to read the label clearly. Ask about how to store the medicine (for example, does it need to be kept in the refrigerator?). Do not leave medicines in your car because they can get too hot or freeze. Ask the pharmacist if the medicine should be okay to take with your other medicines. If you want a different language on the label, ask the pharmacist.

At Home

It is important to take your medicines the way your doctor tells you. If you don't, you could have side effects or your health could get worse. Here are some good tips:

• Use a pillbox.

• Use a calendar.

• Plan ahead if you are going to travel. Have enough medicine for your whole trip.

• Ask your pharmacist if you can get early refills so you do not run out of your medicine.

• Ask friends and family members for help if you need it.

from. www.aafp.org

Can You Afford Cancer ?

2007-01-16T07:39:00.000Z

The good news for cancer patients is that novel therapies are extending lives and even allowing cancer to be treated as a chronic disease. The bad news is they may not be accessible to everyone.
By the time Kara Herynk was diagnosed with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix in February 2005, the cancer had spread to her brain and liver.
Doctors prescribed eight rounds of very high doses of cisplatin and Vepesid® (etoposide) chemotherapy, a craniotomy to remove a large brain tumor and a hysterectomy. She also underwent three rounds of stereotactic radiosurgery to treat six more brain tumors. And more radiosurgery treated cancer in her lymph nodes, adrenal gland and lung.
Earlier this year, samples of Herynk’s tumor tissue were analyzed using microarray, a test that identifies tumor protein patterns. The test found that Herynk’s tumor is HER2 positive, so doctors prescribed Herceptin® (trastuzumab), a monoclonal antibody the Food and Drug Administration approved to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. But because the drug isn’t approved to treat Herynk’s primary cancer type, her health insurance company refused to pay for the treatment, calling its use “experimental.”
“It was shocking at first, because the insurance company had never denied anything,” says Herynk, 32. “I was excited about Herceptin because my bone marrow was so suppressed from all the chemotherapy, it was the only drug I could take because it wasn’t as toxic.” In April, convinced that the drug could be beneficial and despite its high monthly price tag of more than $3,000, the Herynks began paying for the drug themselves, a decision that put her family in a precarious financial situation.
Herynk’s husband, Matthew Herynk, PhD, a breast cancer researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, says coworkers and family members donated money to help pay for the drug and the couple went through their savings when finally, after several appeals, their health insurance carrier agreed to pay for Herceptin. Still, Matthew says he’s willing to go bankrupt to pay for any drug that might make a difference in the outcome of his wife’s disease.
“There’s no doubt that Herceptin has been a lifesaving drug for me,” says Kara. “Since I’ve been on the drug I haven’t had any new tumors. My cancer is so aggressive, I can’t imagine where the cancer would have gone if I hadn’t had Herceptin.” Matthew agrees. “I know enough about cancer biology to believe that this drug is making a difference, so I’m willing to put everything I have into whatever drugs I think will make a difference.”
The Herynks aren’t alone. Many cancer patients today are facing the same dilemma of how to pay for cancer drugs. According to the 2006 Express Scripts Specialty Drug Trend Report, the cost of oral cancer drugs rose nearly 16 percent in 2005—an average of $1,600 per prescription. With costs soaring to never-before-seen heights, especially for the new targeted therapies, which directly affect cancer cells and don’t have the same toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies, the yearly bill can reach upwards of $100,000, and carry insurance copayments of $10,000 or more a year.
As a result, cancer patients, doctors and health insurance companies have to consider the cost-versus-health benefit ratio when deciding on treatment, especially if the drug is only expected to have a marginal effect on survival. Compounding the problem is that often the newer targeted drugs have to be combined with conventional chemotherapies to be most effective, driving up both the cost and the severity of side effects.
Leonard Saltz, MD, attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and professor of medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, says he’s disappointed by what most targeted therapies have been able to accomplish as single agents. “No one set out to combine these drugs with chemotherapy. They were supposed to replace chemotherapy and all of its nasty side effects, but it hasn’t worked out that way.”
Of the targeted therapies, only Gleevec® (imatinib), which has had remarkable results in the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors and chronic myeloid leukemia, has shown long-term survival rates. For example, a clinical trial of Gleevec found that 90 percent of CML patients who took the drug were still alive five years after diagnosis. However, the drug has to be taken indefinitely, at a cost of up to $3,800 a month. “As an individual, the cost is worth it, but from a societal point of view, economists argue that it’s a serious problem,” says Dr. Saltz.
Other medical experts argue drugs that offer any incremental rate in survival constitute a significant advancement in cancer treatment. “It’s important to note that these new drugs are quite good,” says David Johnson, MD, deputy director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville and past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “When people make comments like they only affect a two-month improvement in median survival, that demonstrates a lack of understanding of what that means. They’re talking about an average benefit.”
Dr. Johnson, who is himself a lymphoma survivor, says all the benefit doesn’t accrue equally to every patient. It might be that one patient survives four months longer and one patient doesn’t survive any longer.
Plus, says Dr. Johnson, agents like colon and lung cancer drug Avastin® (bevacizumab) are tested in clinical trials of patients with late-stage disease when the chances of survival are small. The same is true of Herceptin, which affected only a modest benefit in terms of overall survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, but when Herceptin was tested in the more favorable setting of treatment after surgery (adjuvant), it resulted in a 50 percent improvement in disease-free survival. “We anticipate that will translate into a substantial benefit in terms of overall survival, so who knows what Avastin is going to do when we start using it in earlier stages of disease as opposed to the worst-case scenarios,” says Dr. Johnson.
Financial Aid
Walter Moore, vice president of government affairs for Genentech, maker of both Avastin and Herceptin, which just received FDA approval for use as adjuvant treatment for breast cancer in November, says the company plans to test Avastin as adjuvant treatment for breast and colon cancer. But the question remains, how will patients—and society—pay for new drugs? The question applies not only to cancer, but also to other illnesses like heart disease, which, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is the most expensive health condition overall in the United States (though the per-person cost puts cancer on top, followed by heart disease).
A voluntary solution puts caps on the price of drugs. It has been reported that a number of pharmaceutical companies are considering caps on high-priced cancer drugs, but so far only Amgen and Genentech have put price caps in place.
Amgen, maker of Vectibix® (panitumumab), a newly approved colon cancer drug priced at $4,000 per two-week infusion, announced a cap on out-of-pocket copayments after approval of the drug in late September. Patients on Vectibix are now able to get the drug for free once copayment costs exceed 5 percent of their adjusted gross income, regardless of insurance status or income.
Genentech followed suit in October after the additional approval of Avastin for non-small cell lung cancer (FDA approval is still pending on its use for breast cancer). The Avastin program caps the cost of the drug at $55,000 a year for eligible patients. The price cap, says Moore, was determined by the escalating price of Avastin based on treatment dosage. The current treatment for lung cancer ($8,880 per month) is at double the dose than for colon cancer ($4,400 a month), although clinical trials are still ongoing to determine whether lower doses of Avastin would be just as effective. “I’m not sure what will turn out to be the proper clinical dose, but our objective is for oncologists to choose the regimen that produces the best clinical outcome without concern for the additional expense,” says Moore. The Avastin expenditure cap is the first of its kind, putting a cap on spending by all payers, not just out-of-pocket costs from the patient. The program will cover all approved uses for Avastin.
Diane Blum heads CancerCare, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance and free services to cancer patients, although it doesn’t directly pay for drugs. As more cancer drugs have been approved over the years, she says momentum has developed concerning the cost issue. “It’s become a critical mass of drugs that are costing a whole lot of money,” she says. “The companies get a lot of negative press about it and understandably—the drugs are very expensive. I think the caps are an attempt to do the right thing so people aren’t shut out of getting the drug but at the same time maintain pricing abilities without interference.” Blum thinks other drug companies will replicate the proactive move of Amgen and Genentech. “There will be pressure for any company that has a newly approved drug to take similar action.”
Apart from price caps, most pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs that offer drugs for free to patients who qualify. Nonprofit organizations and government agencies also help low-income patients with little or no insurance get access to needed drugs. Though most middle-income patients who are covered under private insurance or Medicare are ineligible for many patient assistance programs and take the hardest financial hit, some assistance programs offer discounted rates or financial help for patients who are underinsured or who have extreme financial burden because of their treatments (see sidebar).
A study in a recent issue of the journal Cancer shows that one in five cancer patients delay or miss needed care because of cost (see sidebar, page 50). And, according to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau figures, the number of Americans without health insurance rose by 1.3 million to an all-time high of 46.6 million, putting additional financial strains on an already fragile healthcare system. Blum says she has seen an increase in the number of calls to CancerCare from people looking for financial help. “At the end of our fiscal year in June, we spent about $4.5 million in direct financial assistance, but it goes primarily to help people pay for things like transportation to and from treatment appointments. If people can’t get to treatment, they simply don’t go,” says Blum.
And, as Kara Herynk found, more and more health insurers are refusing to pay for treatments prescribed off-label. “What we find are extremely concrete and restrictive interpretations of the FDA approval guidelines as limiting factors for the drug’s availability,” says Dr. Saltz. “So rather than figuring out a way to deal with [the drug cost], insurers are trying to find ways not to pay for it and, therefore, certain people can’t get it.” For example, the FDA approved Avastin for colon cancer, which affects the large intestine, so Dr. Saltz says he can’t prescribe it for his small intestine cancer patients, because insurance companies won’t pay for the treatment.
That practice isn’t about to end anytime soon, says Susan Pisano, vice president of communications for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that represents health insurance companies. “We’re moving toward a healthcare system that is based on what the medical evidence shows. The insurance companies want the nation to move to a system where we’re using the evidence that shows the new treatments are better than the existing treatment.”
Physicians admit insurance restrictions and drug costs are impacting the way they treat patients. “Ten years ago I gave very little thought to the drugs that I recommended to the patient, because cost wasn’t really an issue,” says Dr. Johnson. “Now, sadly, physicians are doing a financial sizing of each patient. Do I want to discuss with a patient a therapy I know the patient won’t be able to receive because of cost, or do I want to put on patients the added burden of worrying about mortgaging their home?”
The pharmaceutical companies argue that cancer drugs are expensive because of the amount of time and money it takes to bring them to market. “We discovered Avastin in 1989 and it was approved [for colon cancer] in 2004,” says Genentech’s Moore. “So you have 15 years and $800 million to get a drug approved. By any stretch, it’s a wildly expensive way to get a new therapy into the hands of doctors and into the bodies of patients.” Very few compounds make it from laboratory testing to clinical trials in humans. From there, only one out of every 10 drugs will be approved.
A drug company attempts to recoup its investment before the drug’s patent expires 20 years after the application date, because at that point a generic version of the drug is developed and marketed. At a cost of 30 to 80 percent less than brand-name drugs, generics have the same active ingredients and therefore the same effects, causing an immediate drop in price and market share for brand-name drugs.
The cost of drug research and development will continue to rise. In 1991, the cost of developing a drug averaged $168 million, more than doubled to $365 million in 1997 and jumped to more than $800 million in 2003. Since it takes an average of 12 to 15 years to bring a drug to market, by 2015, the cost of developing a drug would cost an estimated $1.9 billion, according to research published in the Journal of Health Economics. In 2005, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies invested $51.3 billion in research and development, according to an analysis commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s trade group.
The FDA had a hand in founding the Critical Path Institute, or C-Path, which began operations in mid-2005 to, among other things, simplify the clinical testing process and thus lower the cost of drug development. C-Path reached an agreement in 2006 with eight major pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Novartis and Pfizer, to share early-stage drug testing methods.
Drug companies also say a drug’s therapeutic value can lead to a higher price. Thalomid® (thalidomide), a drug that’s been around for years to treat leprosy, was recently approved to treat multiple myeloma and costs $3,500 or higher per month. When 65-year-old Dick Wells was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, his health insurance company covered the cost of the drug and he paid a modest $25-per-month copayment.
After he turned 65 and went on Medicare, Wells purchased supplemental health insurance to ensure he would be covered for the cost of thalidomide. But when he went to the pharmacy to pick up his prescription, he was shocked to learn that his copayment had shot up to nearly $1,900.
“I told the druggist that I couldn’t pay for the prescription and gave him back the pills, but then I started thinking that I have to have these pills. I really didn’t have a choice,” says Wells. Although he missed several days of medication while he researched other supplemental plans, he finally found one that covered the cost of thalidomide.
Celgene Corporation, thalidomide’s manufacturer, justifies the cost because “the therapeutic value of thalidomide is in line with other cancer breakthrough therapies and it’s half the cost of existing breakthrough therapies in the multiple myeloma area,” says Brian Gill, director of public relations for Celgene. Indeed, the multiple myeloma drug Velcade® (bortezomib) costs about $6,600 per month, and Celgene’s own recently approved Revlimid® (lenalidomide) costs up to $8,850 a month.
Because cancer is such a frightening disease and patients will do anything to gain access to drugs they believe will help them live, healthcare shouldn’t be part of a free-market system in which price is determined by what the market will bear, says Dr. Johnson. “Who’s the competition and who’s in a position to bargain? There’s just something not right about this system.”
Is Universal Healthcare the Answer?
John Hornberger, MD, adjunct clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a practicing physician who studies drug costs, says drug prices, no matter the illness, are based on a three-legged stool argument.
“You’ve got to have demand for the drug, and that’s clearly the case in oncology. You’ve got to have innovation to satisfy the demand, and the third leg of the stool is who’s going to look at the cost? If there’s no one looking at cost, people will charge whatever they want and that’s effectively where our healthcare system has been, but it’s not sustainable,” he says. Dr. Hornberger cites a growing older population and the increased cost strains it places on Medicare as some of the reasons why. “There are no cost brakes on the Medicare system. Congress won’t let Medicare use cost to decide how care will be provided and people are just using more drugs,” says Dr. Hornberger.
But with healthcare spending projected to soar to $4 trillion by 2015, outpacing the growth in the gross domestic product by 20 percent—up from 16 percent today—healthcare industry experts and government agencies are starting to look for ways to control drug costs. In October, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship brought together representatives from health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, physicians and patient advocacy groups to study the problem. The report is pending.
“The drug cost issue has finally come up and hit us square in the face,” says Ellen Stovall, president and CEO of the NCCS and a 35-year cancer survivor. “It used to be manageable because either insurance companies paid for the drugs or the out-of-pocket costs were manageable, but that’s no longer the case.”
Dr. Johnson predicts that rising medical costs will eventually lead to a federal government plan that will provide basic healthcare to everyone. (The United States is the only developed country in the world without universal healthcare, and many developed countries regulate drug prices.) “I think this is going to end up being some sort of crisis, but I suspect that what will ultimately happen is that the country will grow a social conscience and it will decide that we have to do something. It’s unconscionable to me that the wealthiest country in the world has 46 million people without health insurance.”

By Jo Cavallo

9 Secrets to a Healthier Heart

2007-01-11T04:35:00.000Z

Heart problems? Me? If that’s your reaction when you hear all of the healthy-heart messages during American Heart Month in February, here’s a wake-up call: Fact is, heart disease kills far more women each year than cancer does. It’s also true that preventing heart problems is getting easier. Health gathered the latest tricks—all backed by solid research—to take care of your heart.
1. Get milkA new study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that, among people who didn’t eat a lot of saturated fat, those who consumed more than three daily servings of milk, yogurt, or cheese had systolic blood pressure (the top number) almost four points lower than those who ate only half a serving daily. High blood pressure can damage your arteries, increasing your risk for heart attacks and stroke. Researchers say low-fat dairy is the smart choice, because it’s lower in saturated fat.
2. Try new movesThirty minutes of Tai Chi—a gentle Chinese martial art that includes sequences of slow, relaxing movements—may also lower your blood pressure. In one study, after 12 weeks of Tai Chi, participants showed a decrease in systolic pressure of almost 16 points. To find a class in your area, visit Taoist.org.
3. Go fishingHow fast your heart beats when you’re at rest can be an indicator of heart attack risk. In fact, higher resting heart rates have been linked to an increased risk of sudden death. The good news is that eating fish can lower your heart rate. In a new Harvard Medical School study, people who ate five or more servings per month of fish such as tuna or salmon (baked or broiled) averaged 3.2 fewer beats per minute than those who ate less than one serving per month. Researchers credit the omega-3 fatty acids in fish, though it’s not clear how they help. (Our Kitchen Assistant search tool can help you find dozens of healthy and delicious fish recipes.)
4. Hit the juicePomegranate juice seems to stave off hardening of the arteries—and may even reverse it. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that pomegranate juice reduced the rate of cholesterol plaque buildup in mice by 30 percent. And heart cells treated with the juice showed a 50 percent increase in the production of nitric oxide, a substance that helps fight plaque. There are plenty of tasty ways to take your medicine: More than 130 pomegranate products were introduced in 2006.
5. Sprinkle on the soyA daily dash of dark soy sauce (not light) in marinades, dipping sauces, salad dressing, or soups and stews can help fight heart-damaging substances linked to smoking, obesity, or diabetes, according to research from the National University of Singapore. The sauce has 10 times the antioxidants in wine, which is also heart-healthy (in moderation). But watch out: Soy sauces often have a ton of salt, which can raise blood pressure. Check labels for lower-salt versions.
6. Laugh it upSomething for your funny bone: People who watched comedy films like There’s Something About Mary had better blood flow, compared with those who watched dramas like Saving Private Ryan, according to a study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Principal researcher Michael Miller, MD, director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology, recommends 15 minutes of daily laughter.
Don’t have enough time for movies or sitcoms? Get your giggles anytime from YouTube’s comedy section (youtube.com/categories).
7. Don’t skimp on sleepWomen who sleep less than 5 hours each night have a 30 percent higher risk of heart disease than those getting 8 hours, according to a study from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Too little sleep may play havoc with your hormones, blood sugar, and blood pressure. So after getting your 15 minutes of laughs, turn off that PC and turn in.
8. Breathe deeperYou can lower your blood pressure by taking 10 breaths per minute (instead of the usual 16 to 19) for 15 minutes a day over 2 months, studies show. Researcher David Anderson, PhD, a hypertension expert at the National Institute on Aging, says shallow breathing (more beats per minute) may delay your body’s excretion of salt, a high-blood-pressure trigger.
9. Feel the beat A group of University of Oxford researchers found that slow, meditative musical rhythms can lead to a healthy drop in heart rate, while faster rhythms speed up breathing and circulation. Got Sheryl Crow on your iPod? Try mixing in some smooth jazz, too.

by Scott Westcott

About Cancer and kids

2007-01-08T08:45:00.000Z

Cancer is a scary word. Almost everyone knows someone who got very sick or died from cancer. Most of the time, cancer affects older people. Not many kids get cancer, but when they do, very often it can be treated and cured.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is actually a group of many related diseases that all have to do with cells. Cells are the very small units that make up all living things, including the human body. There are billions of cells in each person's body.

Cancer happens when cells that are not normal grow and spread very fast. Normal body cells grow and divide and know to stop growing. Over time, they also die. Unlike these normal cells, cancer cells just continue to grow and divide out of control and don't die.

Cancer cells usually group or clump together to form tumors (say: too-mers). A growing tumor becomes a lump of cancer cells that can destroy the normal cells around the tumor and damage the body's healthy tissues. This can make someone very sick.

Sometimes cancer cells break away from the original tumor and travel to other areas of the body, where they keep growing and can go on to form new tumors. This is how cancer spreads. The spread of a tumor to a new place in the body is called metastasis (say: meh-tas-tuh-sis).

Causes of Cancer

You probably know a kid who had chickenpox - maybe even you. But you probably don't know any kids who've had cancer. If you packed a large football stadium with kids, probably only one child in that stadium would have cancer.

Doctors aren't sure why some people get cancer and others don't. They do know that cancer is not contagious. You can't catch cancer from someone else who has it. Cancer isn't caused by germs, like colds or the flu are. So don't be afraid of other kids - or anyone else - with cancer. You can talk to, play with, and hug someone with cancer.

Kids can't get cancer from anything they do either. Some kids think that a bump on the head causes brain cancer or that bad people get cancer. This isn't true! Kids don't do anything wrong to get cancer. But some unhealthy habits, especially cigarette smoking or drinking too much alcohol every day, can make you a lot more likely to get cancer when you become an adult.

Finding Out About Cancer

It can take a while for a doctor to figure out a kid has cancer. That's because the symptoms cancer can cause - weight loss, fevers, swollen glands, or feeling overly tired or sick for a while - are usually not caused by cancer. When a kid has these problems, it's often cased by something less serious, like an infection. With medical testing, the doctor can figure out what's causing the trouble.

If the doctor suspects cancer, he or she can do tests to figure out if that's the problem. A doctor might order X-rays and blood tests and recommend the person go to see an oncologist (say: on-kah-luh-jist). An oncologist is a doctor who takes care of and treats cancer patients. The oncologist will likely run other tests to find out if someone really has cancer. If so, tests can determine what kind of cancer it is and if it has spread to other parts of the body. Based on the results, the doctor will decide the best way to treat it.

One test that an oncologist (or a surgeon) may perform is a biopsy (say: by-op-see). During a biopsy, a piece of tissue is removed from a tumor or a place in the body where cancer is suspected, like the bone marrow. Don't worry - someone getting this test will get special medicine to keep him or her comfortable during the biopsy. After the sample is collected, it will be examined under a microscope for cancer cells. The sooner cancer is found and treatment begins, the better someone's chances are for a full recovery and cure.

Treating Cancer Carefully

Cancer is treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation - or sometimes a combination of these treatments. The choice of treatment depends on:

the type of cancer someone has (the kind of abnormal cells causing the cancer)
the stage of the tumor (meaning how much the cancer has spread within the body, if at all)

Surgery is the oldest form of treatment for cancer. Three out of every five people with cancer will have an operation to remove the cancer. During surgery, the doctor tries to take out as many cancer cells as possible. Some healthy cells or tissue may also be removed to make sure that all the cancer is gone.

Chemotherapy (say: kee-mo-ther-uh-pee) is the use of anti-cancer medicines (drugs) to treat cancer. These medicines are sometimes taken as a pill, but are usually given through a special intravenous (say: in-truh-vee-nus) line, also called an IV. An IV is a tiny catheter (straw-like tube) that is put into a vein through someone's skin, usually on the arm. The catheter is attached to a bag that holds the medicine. The medicine flows from the bag into a vein, which puts the medicine into the blood, where it can travel throughout the body and attack cancer cells.

Chemotherapy is usually given over a number of weeks to months. Often, a permanent catheter is placed under the skin into a larger blood vessel of the upper chest. This way, a person can easily get several courses of chemotherapy and other medicines through this catheter without having a new IV needle put in. The catheter remains under the skin until all the cancer treatment is completed.

Radiation (say: ray-dee-ay-shun) therapy uses high-energy waves, such as X-rays (invisible waves that can pass through most parts of the body), to damage and destroy cancer cells. It can cause tumors to shrink and even go away completely. Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Many people with cancer find it goes away after receiving radiation treatments.

With both chemotherapy and radiation, kids may experience side effects. A side effect is an extra problem that's caused by the treatment. Radiation and anti-cancer drugs are very good at destroying cancer cells, but unfortunately they also destroy healthy cells. This can cause problems such as loss of appetite, tiredness, vomiting, or hair loss. With radiation, a person might have red or irritated skin in the area that's being treated. But all these problems go away and hair grows back after the treatment is over. During the treatment, there are medicines that can help a kid feel better.

While treatment is still going on, a kid might not be able to attend school or be around crowds of people - the kid needs to rest and can't risk getting infections, such as the flu, when he or she already isn't feeling well.

Getting Better

Remission (say: ree-mih-shun) is a great word for anyone who has cancer. It means all signs of cancer are gone from the body. After surgery or treatment with radiation or chemotherapy, a doctor will then do tests to see if the cancer is still there. If there are no signs of cancer, then the kid is in remission.

Remission is the goal when any kid with cancer goes to the hospital for treatment. Sometimes, this means additional chemotherapy might be needed for a while to keep cancer cells from coming back. And luckily, for many kids, continued remission is the very happy end of their cancer experience.

Begin Healing With a Single Step

2007-01-05T04:09:00.000Z

After cancer treatment, people are often elated that the worst is over and then quickly sobered by the fact they don’t feel well. Cancer is a disease that takes a tremendous physical and emotional toll. Reclaiming our lives has to do with working to heal our bodies and our minds. They go hand in hand and are so intimately linked that as one mends, so does the other.

Most people know that if you exercise, your mood will likely improve. Working your body helps your mind and vice versa. Of course after a cancer diagnosis, there is a lot of work to be done to heal and that can seem overwhelming and terribly discouraging at times. But it is helpful to remember something Confucius said: “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.” In this article, I will offer advice about how to literally take the first step toward healing.

When it comes to physical healing after cancer treatment, your body will do a remarkable job on its own. However, those of us who specialize in rehabilitation medicine—the health specialty concerned with physical recovery after serious illness or injury—know there are some specific things people can do to help themselves heal faster and better. One of the ways to promote the healing process is to start moving your body. That’s right, exercise. But not just any exercise—therapeutic exercise, or what rehabilitation specialists call “ther ex.”

Therapeutic exercise is designed to specifically combat the effects of serious illness or injury that leave people weak and tired. For anyone who has been through cancer treatment, a major part of healing involves recovering from the “deconditioning” that occurs because of immobility and sometimes bed rest. One of the most striking effects of bed rest happens at the muscular level. Research has shown that people on bed rest lose up to 1.5 percent of their strength each day for the first two weeks. Marked losses in muscular strength occur even in those who are not on bed rest but who become sedentary because of a medical condition such as cancer. Ironically, losing strength in muscles occurs with no effort and happens extremely quickly, while gaining strength back takes considerable effort and occurs much more slowly.

Strengthening your body and working to build up your stamina will help reduce pain and fatigue and will almost certainly improve your mood. Although I always recommend that people check with their doctors before beginning to exercise, almost anyone (notable exceptions include those with serious heart or lung problems) can safely begin this first step before they consult their doctor. However, as you progress, be sure to check in with your physician.

The first “step” is to literally count your steps. I recommend buying a pedometer (these are inexpensive and can be found at most sporting goods stores and there are many online dealers). Obtain one that specifically counts the number of steps you take daily, and record your steps for a week. Your six-week goal should be 5,000 steps per day. That means wherever you start, increase gradually by a few hundred steps per day in order to reach the 5,000 mark. Once you reach 5,000 steps per day, your next goal is 10,000 steps per day. You can usually accomplish this over a period of six to 12 weeks. Between 5,000 to 10,000 steps per day is a good range for most people.

Using a pedometer is one way to increase your activity level and improve your overall conditioning and endurance. You’ll start feeling much better as you are able to increase the number of daily steps you take. However, there is more you can do to help yourself heal. Ideally, you should do a little strength training, too.

People who do some strength training, whether they use weights, resistance in the water (pool), medicine balls or bands, work their muscles in a different manner than what can be accomplished by other means, such as walking. Strength training is easy to do but if you are new to it, you should get some professional advice. Talk to your doctor about getting a referral to see a physical therapist or a knowledgeable personal trainer who can suggest specific strengthening exercises and explain how to advance them once they become too easy.

If you are reading this article and my advice seems like something that might help you, then consider ordering a pedometer before you leave your computer. That way, you can get started on your healing journey right away.

By Julie K. Silver, MD

When Illnesses Compete

2007-01-05T03:58:00.000Z

"If I was a horse, I would have been shot a long time ago," jokes breast cancer survivor Robin McIlvain. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, McIlvain was already grappling with a long list of medical conditions, including high cholesterol, Graves’ disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and biliary duct disease.

McIlvain, then 50, received a lumpectomy, radiation therapy and a five-year prescription for tamoxifen—a preventive breast cancer drug that blocks the estrogen that breast cancer cells require to survive and grow. Though side effects forced her to stop taking the drug, McIlvain has now been in remission for seven years.

McIlvain’s experience illustrates an increasingly recognized fact that cancer doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Recent studies suggest that at least half of people diagnosed with cancer already suffer from at least one other illness, or comorbidity, such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension or arthritis—some of which can be life-threatening in their own right.

"Cancer therapy is habitually approached with a single-minded zeal," says Jane Geraci, MD, an internist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “There is often an attitude that if we can’t beat the cancer, nothing else matters,” she says. But this approach is misguided, as a comorbid illness affects all aspects of cancer care, from early diagnosis (see sidebar) to treatment options and prognosis. In fact, with cancer patients living longer than ever, comorbid illnesses have an even greater impact on long-term health.

A recent study of more than 17,000 cancer patients showed that those with preexisting illnesses were less likely to survive their cancer and were also at greater risk for recurrence. This was true for all types of cancer, but particularly for breast and prostate cancer for whom an overall survival rate of 50 percent in otherwise healthy individuals dwindles to 3 to 5 percent in those with severe comorbid illnesses.

A similar trend was recently reported by Jeffrey Meyerhardt, MD, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In his study, the average post-surgery survival time for patients with stage 2 and 3 colon cancer was about 11 years. Add diabetes and these patients survived only half as long. In other words, says Dr. Geraci, “it really does matter how you deal with your diabetes or other illness while you treat cancer.”

An Onus of the Elderly

The burden of cancer and comorbid illness falls most heavily on the elderly—a rising population in the United States. Currently 63 percent of all cancer patients in the United States are at least 65 years old, and that percentage is expected to rise as baby boomers turn 65 beginning in 2011. To put the numbers in perspective, while the 65-and-up group currently numbers 36 million, that figure will jump to 72 million by 2030 and 86.7 million by 2050.

“Comorbidity issues in elderly patients may not be reflected in younger patients with cancer,” says Lodovico Balducci, MD, chief of the Senior Adult Oncology Program at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, who is spearheading multiple clinical trials focused on optimizing the treatment of elderly patients with cancer. Dr. Balducci says comparing cancer treatment in young and old patients is like comparing apples and oranges, but that is exactly what is happening since many decisions about cancer treatment in the elderly are based on clinical trial data from younger populations.

To help fill this information void, Dr. Balducci is conducting trials aimed at establishing prognostic measures that can help oncologists determine the best treatment for elderly patients. “We’re trying to identify a way to predict which patients will do better by receiving aggressive care and which will not.” Dr. Balducci’s studies focus not only on clinical measures of health, but also on quality of life and functional capacity. “In some cases we can shoot for a cure,” says Dr. Balducci, citing non-metastatic leukemia and breast cancer as examples. “In others, we can only try to improve the patient’s quality of life.”

The Patient as a Whole

Multiple illnesses affect not only the prognosis of the cancer patient but also the treatment. Thus, for patients to get the most appropriate and effective treatment, they must be evaluated as a whole—each with their entire laundry list of health problems. This can be a daunting prospect both for patients, who may not be aware of all their heath problems, and for physicians, who are usually trained in a single medical specialty.

The whole-patient approach is important in part because cancer drugs often have side effects that exacerbate preexisting medical conditions (see Illustration). Velcade® (bortezomib), for example, is a highly effective drug used to treat multiple myeloma, but it can also cause pain and numbness in the hands and feet—a condition known as neuropathy that is made worse in patients with diabetes, who are already prone to nerve damage.

Diabetes can also flare up when patients are treated with steroids as part of their standard chemotherapy regimen. Just ask 52-year-old chemistry teacher Wilbern Laughlin, whose blood sugar spiked while on the steroid prednisone after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2005. “It blew my diabetes out of the water,” Laughlin recalls. Dr. Geraci notes that corticosteroids also tend to increase blood sugar because of their interference with insulin production.

Another class of breast cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors may cause problems in patients with osteoporosis. These drugs blunt the production of estrogen, but since estrogen helps maintain healthy bones, blocking it can aggravate osteoporosis. Other cancer drugs are bad news for patients with heart disease or hypertension, conditions prevalent among the elderly. Anthracyclines, such as Adriamycin® (doxorubicin) and Ellence® (epirubicin), help shrink solid tumors but also trigger the production of free radicals that damage heart cells. Another commonly used drug with heart-damaging effects is the breast cancer drug Herceptin® (trastuzumab).

Evaluating Risk

Side effects do not mean that certain anticancer drugs cannot be given to patients with comorbid illnesses since doctors may adjust the dosage of medication—both for the cancer and comorbidity—to allow patients the option of receiving the most effective cancer therapy. In addition, elderly patients shouldn’t automatically receive less aggressive cancer therapy than younger patients, says Dr. Meyerhardt, noting that older people with stage 3 colon cancer tend to receive less chemotherapy after surgery, despite studies demonstrating its benefit. “Age alone or comorbidity alone doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from aggressive therapies,” he says.

The reason elderly cancer patients are often treated with kid gloves is the prevalence of comorbid illness as well as the perception that older people are less likely to benefit from and cope with the stress of potent treatment. But reality doesn’t always support this perception. Recent studies have shown that elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer respond to chemotherapy as well as younger patients. Despite suffering from more comorbid illnesses, the older patients in the studies fared equally well in terms of overall survival and quality of life.

Richard Donnelly has first-hand experience with the tendency to treat older patients more conservatively. When Donnelly, a 76-year-old retired lawyer, was diagnosed with prostate cancer last May, his primary care physician and urologist recommended two options: radiation therapy or “watchful waiting”—doing nothing and waiting to see if the cancer progresses.

“But I wanted to get rid of this thing,” says Donnelly, who began his own research that prompted him to inquire about robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy, or RLP, a less invasive, state-of-the-art alternative to open prostate-removal surgery that is associated with a more rapid recovery and fewer post-operative complications. Neither his urologist nor his HMO, however, was supportive, insisting that his age, diabetes and weight excluded him from having the procedure. It took months of appeals to his HMO for Donnelly to get coverage for the RLP in early October.

Donnelly’s story illustrates the obstacles faced by patients as well as physicians, who must make treatment recommendations without information on how comorbid illnesses affect the course of a particular type of cancer and how the cancer treatment in turn affects the comorbid illnesses. This paucity of information is due in part to a lack of clinical trials designed to address these issues. In fact, elderly individuals and those with multiple illnesses are typically excluded from cancer trials, as they introduce unwanted variation into trial data (see sidebar). But this variation is precisely what must be measured in order to provide these individuals with the best possible care, especially considering that issues arising from comorbid conditions that influence physical functioning and quality of life are different from those that affect mortality.

The Road Forward

Understanding the impact of comorbid disease on cancer, notes Dr. Geraci, will first require more accurate assessment techniques. Most current indices used to gauge the impact of comorbid illness on cancer, the most common of which is the Charlson Comorbidity Index, fail to consider the severity of the comorbid illness (see sidebar). Although a number of studies aimed to increase understanding of the relationship between cancer and comorbidity, many of the clinical trials that have been conducted so far have tended to overlook complexities such as functional status of the patient and available social support.

Sanjay Asthana, MD, a gerontologist at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, hopes to improve this situation with a unique clinical trial to assess how cancer treatment affects both physical function and memory in elderly patients. The study will follow patients for two years and evaluate drug interactions, or “polypharmacy,” an important issue for elderly patients, who take an average of six to eight prescription medications. Dr. Asthana anticipates preliminary data from his trial by mid-2007.

Research at the University of Wisconsin is the result of a grant from the National Cancer Institute and National Institute on Aging that is funding eight centers around the country to study a variety of issues related to aging and cancer. But improving care for cancer patients with comorbid illnesses will also require better communication between primary care doctors and oncologists—no small feat considering the increasingly fragmented nature of medical care and the shortage of primary care physicians and gerontologists.

In the meantime, patients like McIlvain have taken the reins in managing their care. She totes around a list of her 11 daily prescription drugs and has become accustomed to detailing her medical problems to different doctors. Laughlin simply looks at the practical side of things. About managing his medications, he says, “You don’t gripe about it. You just do it.”

By Heather L. Van Epps, PhD

About AIDS / HIV

2007-01-04T09:57:00.000Z

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a viral infection that progressively destroys white blood cells, weakening the immune system, which is the body's system of fighting infection. The final and most serious stage of HIV infection is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 million people in the United States have HIV infection or AIDS. AIDS is a significant cause of non-traumatic death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44.
The information provided is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. A licensed healthcare professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.
HIV is transmitted through contact with an infected person's body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, and breast milk. Although lower concentrations of HIV are found in tears, urine, and saliva, transmission of HIV from these fluids is extremely rare. HIV can be transmitted during sexual contact with an HIV-infected person or by receiving contaminated blood through a blood transfusion, by sharing needles, or from an accidental stick from an HIV-contaminated needle. HIV can also be transferred from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth or in breast milk. HIV is not transmitted by casual contact or by close nonsexual interaction with someone at home, school, or work. Once human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has entered the body, it attaches to a type of white blood cell called a lymphocyte. The HIV virus incorporates itself into the DNA of these cells and reproduces, releasing new viral particles and destroying healthy cells. This weakens the immune system. Once a person is infected with HIV, he or she can begin to transmit HIV to other people. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) can develop within the first 1 or 2 years following HIV infection although it may take many years to develop. Symptoms of early HIV infection include persistent fever, rashes, swollen lymph nodes, and discomfort. While these symptoms typically resolve, the infected person can still spread HIV. In fact, individuals with HIV infection may feel well for several years before developing AIDS. Symptoms of AIDS include infections such as pneumonia, tumors, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, fatigue, diarrhea, and thrush. Treatment developments since the late 1990s have significantly improved the medical care of patients with HIV/AIDS. Diagnosis of HIV infection is done by testing blood or saliva. The information provided in the AIDS/HIV Condition Guide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. A licensed healthcare professional should be consulted for diagnosis of HIV infection or AIDS and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

New Test for HIV drug Resistance

A test to detect drug-resistant HIV strains in patients could allow more effective treatment of the virus.

It is more sensitive than existing methods, meaning resistant viruses can be detected at very low levels in patients' blood.

This could allow doctors to give patients the most appropriate treatment earlier than is currently possible.

The test, developed by Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina, is reported in the journal Nature Methods.The HIV genes mutate very quickly so that most people infected with HIV have many different forms of the virus in their bodies.

In some cases the mutated strains can become resistant to HIV drugs, making treatment ineffective.

Professor Feng Gao, who helped develop the new test, or assay, said: "Which resistant viruses are at hand can have important implications for the successful treatment of that patient."

He said there are already tests available to test for drug-resistant strains in patients, but these are time consuming and can only detect resistant strains when they are present at high levels in the patient's bloodstream. If the new test is developed for clinical use as Professor Gao hopes, it would enable such strains, even if present at only low levels, to be identified quickly in patients.

They could then be treated with the most appropriate drugs from a very early stage to prevent drug resistant virus particles building up.

Roger Pebody, treatment specialist for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Current tests for resistance to HIV drugs are expensive and hard to interpret.

"This means that only one in three people are offered them, despite guidelines encouraging their use.

"If this research leads to a simpler and more easily used resistance test, it will improve treatment outcomes for people living with HIV." Professor Gao said the test may also be useful in helping researchers to understand the process of resistance development in patients, as it is not yet clear which combinations of virus strains patients need to carry to develop significant drug resistance.

He said: "Our assay can detect all types of drug resistant strains, giving a more complete picture than other individual tests, from one blood sample."

"We can monitor drug resistance over time, for example which resistant strains appear first, second, third etc. [This] gives a lot of information on the dynamics of how resistance actually works."

He added that the test might eventually be useful in detecting mutations conferring drug resistance to agents causing other diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and tuberculosis.

HOW THE TEST WORKS
HIV genes with mutations known to be linked to drug resistance were identified
Fluorescent tags were added to genetic material from patient blood samples
Tags designed to stick to the mutated genes were green
Tags designed to stick to the same places where the genes were nonmutated were red
A computer programme counted how many molecules had each colour tag attached
The test could identify single mutated viruses in the sample
The test also detected viruses with more than one mutation