Author Archives: bhealth
Author Archives: bhealth
– by Joey Atlas, M.S., Exercise Physiology, Womens’ Body Enhancement Specialist
Any woman who is trying to lose weight has either tried the exercise route – or knows at some point she may have no choice but to try it.
However – while this sounds logical, there is a big problem most people are not aware of… Let me explain:
We all know at least one person who has tried, and failed, by deciding to exercise as a way to lose weight. This problem of weight-loss failure that many people experience is caused by a fundamental myth we’ll cover in a minute.
Most common exercises and workouts methods are simply bad for most average, middle-age women. Injuries and “burnout” are obvious effects – but what most women don’t know about is the baffling result of excess weight gain and extra body-fat.
Touted as one the best machines to “tone and slim down the thighs” – this machine actually causes more damage than any good it may do.
At minimum – the time wasted on this machine takes away from other things a woman could be doing to ignite her natural fat-loss.
The other hidden problem with this machine is that it was derived from rehab settings and physical therapy use.
As a single joint – one muscle-group movement – it actually opens the door for physical imbalance – if not direct injury, due to overuse syndrome….
Here’s a brilliant move by some smart Canadian hospitals you want to read about and then consider to follow their example and get rid of that machine in your own kitchen:
Hospitals in Eastern Ontario are working to get the deep fryers out of their cafeterias in a bid to improve healthy options for patients, visitors and staff — a development health advocates welcome.
Removing deep fryers, dropping super-sized drinks and cutting sodium content are three of the measures hospitals are taking as part of the Healthy Foods in Champlain Hospitals initiative. All 20 hospitals in the region have signed on the program voluntarily.
“Hospitals really should be the role models for healthy eating because we deal with the after effects of unhealthy eating,” Sabine Mersmann, vice-president of patient service in seniors and community care at Pembroke Regional Hospital, tells Yahoo Canada News.
Healthy Foods is an initiative of Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network, which focuses on reducing cardiovascular disease in the area by cutting risk factors like high sodium consumption, obesity, high blood pressure and low consumption of fruits and vegetables.
The goals of Healthy Foods in Champlain Hospitals are to both remove less-healthy options from hospitals in the region while offering both more healthier options and more nutritional information.
Pembroke Regional Hospital has just achieved the bronze level of the program, which means removing deep fryers and deep-fried options from hospital cafeterias and gift stores, and providing clear nutritional information for their entrees. Changes have already been made in the cafeterias in hospitals in Pembroke, Renfrew, Almonte, Arnprior, Carleton Place, Kemptville and Winchester.
“That went over fairly well and was actually, for the kitchen, a great initiative and they’re very proud of it,” Mersmann says.
Health advocates have long called for measures like the Healthy Foods initiative. A 2008 editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal called for healthier options in hospitals, reading “despite nutrition’s indisputable role as one of our most important determinants of health, grassroots calls for hospital cafeteria reform often face resistance from hospital administrators and even some allied health professionals.”…
Every minute of the night and day, for decades, Jaswir Grewal was in pain.
The constant ache in his back forced him to leave his jobs as a mechanic and banana grower. The pain troubled his sleep, made him irritable with his wife, depressed about his prospects and rarely left his thoughts. At times, he said, it felt like more than he could bear.
“It was like a bad toothache and a migraine all mixed in together. But those things are temporary and this was 24/7,” he said.

“They put me on painkillers to stop the idea of depression or, dare I say, suicide, because something like that will push people to that point and I’ve been near there. It has been like that.”
Until this week. Early on Tuesday morning, doctors at the Royal North Shore Hospital fitted Mr Grewal with a spinal implant that is already being heralded as a breakthrough in treating chronic pain – even though he was the first human to be fitted with a permanent version of the device.
The Saluda implant was inserted within the spinal canal, about five millimetres from the spinal cord. From there, the implant sends an electrical current through the nerves to provide relief in the area of the body that is experiencing pain.

Unlike conventional spinal implants, which are prone to giving patients electric shocks or dropping out of range when the person changes posture, it also has the unique ability to record signals back from the nerves immediately after they have been stimulated, and adjust its level of impulse.
“Nobody has ever been able to record these kinds of signals before, or do anything about them,” said pain specialist Dr Charles Brooker, who oversaw the operation and has no commercial arrangement with the manufacturer….
Read on https://www.smh.com.au/national/health/saluda-spinal-implant-for-pain-relief-heralded-as-breakthrough-20151013-gk7s9c.html
The brain needs a workout the same as the body. When you flex the muscles of your brain, you’re helping to build pathways to memories from the past and you can recall them much easier.
If you want to maintain a healthy brain and keep building those neural pathways throughout old age, you’ve got to exercise your brain properly.
Here are a few tips on exercising your brain so that you build those important memory muscles:
Make it challenging – Any task that increases your knowledge can help flex your brain muscles. For example, you may want to learn a new language, game, sport or go back to school and take a class or two.
Make it fun – If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’s not likely you’ll be able to focus on it. Choose brain activities which are fun and challenging – games such as Sudoku and crossword puzzles are excellent exercises.
Focus on the task at hand – Multi-tasking isn’t a good idea if you want to remember what you’re doing and how you did it. Your brain becomes confused when you’re trying to do too many things at once, so be sure you’re focused on whatever new challenge you choose.
Use all your senses – Smells, textures, colors and tastes can all help you remember things much better. Taking notes, speaking aloud what you want to remember, noticing the smells surrounding you and taking visual, colorful pictures can stimulate the brain in all areas.
Do something different – Put a variety of tasks in your brain exercises and don’t stick to things you already know. Studies show that even varying the route you take to work can enhance your work day by helping you concentrate.
Focus on the important – When attempting to remember complex or volumes of materials, focus on the basic formula or “picture” rather than trying to remember all the details. It may be helpful to create a “mind map” which is a visual creation of a map with the main areas highlighted.
Organize your thoughts – You can remove the brain clutter and remember things much easier if you organize your thoughts as you would unclutter a desk or cabinet. Write down things such as thoughts, conversations and other experiences you want to remember and then go over them at some point during the day.
There are so many fun ways to keep your brain active and alert. Research all you can and find new ways to challenge yourself on a daily basis.
Studies are constantly appearing which have us worried about the habits we form in our daily lives. It may have to do with drinking too much, smoking, not getting enough sleep or too much stress. There’s always something that we should change to become healthier.
Those bad habits may also be instrumental in hindering your brain health – memory, in particular. Alzheimer’s disease is a constant concern among the aging baby boomer population and it’s now sixth in the cause of American deaths.
Although Alzheimer’s disease is mostly considered a disease of the elderly, bad habits that you develop early on can begin a domino effect which can harm your brain and make it easier to become affected by memory diseases.
Here are some habits which can greatly affect your memory and the health of your brain:
Poor diet – A poor diet can take a toll on your brain as well as your body. You may not be able to see the effects on the brain as you can with the body, but the harm is happening is subtle ways such as difficult in focusing, bad memory recall and cognitive functioning.
Smoking – Everyone should know of the harm that smoking can cause to the brain, but smoking can also be a factor in decline of memory between the ages of 40 and 50 years old.
Lack of sleep – When you don’t get enough sleep at night, you may feel as if you’re in a fog during the day. If this condition becomes chronic, you run the risk of damaging the neural pathways of the brain which may affect memory recall.
Lack of exercise – Your brain can mimic the body when you don’t exercise enough. The hippocampus portion of the brain which is responsible for memory storage may become sluggish and your cognitive and recall brain functions may be impaired without the proper amount of exercise.
Alcohol and drug use – Some people may have conditions which require prescription drugs for treatment, but overuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs can greatly impair your ability to remember things. Alcohol consumption may also destroy cells of the brain and make it more difficult to build them back up.
Other reasons to change bad habits are the effects they may have on your body. Heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer and diabetes may also occur if your bad habits aren’t under control.
Oh no, yet another diet? Well possibly, a brand new study shows some very promising outcome so keep reading…
Want to lose abdominal fat, get smarter and live longer? New research led by USC’s Valter Longo shows that periodically adopting a diet that mimics the effects of fasting may yield a wide range of health benefits.
In a new study, Longo and his colleagues show that cycles of a four-day low-calorie diet that mimics fasting (FMD) cut visceral belly fat and elevated the number of progenitor and stem cells in several organs of old mice — including the brain, where it boosted neural regeneration and improved learning and memory.
The mouse tests were part of a three-tiered study on periodic fasting’s effects — testing yeast, mice and humans — to be published by Cell Metabolism on June 18.
Fasting’s lifelong effects
Mice, which have relatively short life spans, provided details about fasting’s lifelong effects. Yeast, which are simpler organisms, allowed Longo to uncover the biological mechanisms that fasting triggers at a cellular level. And a pilot study in humans found evidence that the mouse and yeast studies were, indeed, applicable to humans.
Bimonthly cycles that lasted four days of an FMD which started at middle age extended life span, reduced the incidence of cancer, boosted the immune system, reduced inflammatory diseases, slowed bone mineral density loss and improved the cognitive abilities of older mice tracked in the study. The total monthly calorie intake was the same for the FMD and control diet groups, indicating that the effects were not the result of an overall dietary restriction.
In a pilot human trial, three cycles of a similar diet given to 19 subjects once a month for five days decreased risk factors and biomarkers for aging, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer with no major adverse side effects, according to Longo.
“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects in the body,” said Longo, Edna M. Jones Professor of Biogerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC Longevity Institute. Longo has a joint appointment at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “I’ve personally tried both, and the fasting mimicking diet is a lot easier and also a lot safer.”
The diet slashed the individual’s caloric intake down to 34 to 54 percent of normal, with a specific composition of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and micronutrients. It decreased amounts of the hormone IGF-I, which is required during development to grow, but it is a promoter of aging and has been linked to cancer susceptibility. It also increased the amount of the hormone IGFBP-, and reduced biomarkers/risk factors linked to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, including glucose, trunk fat and C-reactive protein without negatively affecting muscle and bone mass…
At some point, many people consider weight loss surgery. As with any type of surgery, there are certain risks and concerns. You should make sure that you fully understand the potential dangers and the possible benefits of undergoing a surgery designed to help you lose weight.
You should only consider getting surgery if you are obese, understand the risks, and are ready to make changes to your diet after the surgery. You will need to make changes to your daily lifestyle, after the surgery is completed.
Talk to Your Doctor
When you start considering surgery for weight loss, you are going need to schedule a doctor’s appointment. They should explain the different types of surgery and risks involved. They will also let you know if you are a suitable candidate for surgery.
Types of Weight Loss Surgery
There are four main types of weight loss surgery. Each of these surgeries involves making some type of change to your small intestine or stomach. The four types of surgery include:
• Gastric Bypass
• Adjustable Gastric Band
• Gastric Sleeve
• Duodenal Switch
Gastric Bypass Surgery
Gastric bypass is one of the more common types of surgery. With this type of surgery, only a small part of your stomach is left available for the digestive process. This small part of the stomach is referred to as the pouch. When you consume food, the food will pass from the pouch straight to your small intestine. This pouch cannot hold much food, so you are unable to eat as much.
Adjustable Gastric Band
Another common type of surgery is the adjustable gastric band. A surgeon will place a small band around your stomach. The band has a balloon, in order to control the tightness of the band. By adjusting the band, the amount of food that your stomach can hold can be adjusted.
Gastric Sleeve
The gastric sleeve requires the removal of most of the stomach. This leaves a small section along the upper part of the stomach, referred to as the gastric sleeve. Using this surgery can also limit a hormone called ghrelin, which could suppress your appetite.
Duodenal Switch
The duodenal switch is a fairly complicated surgery where most of the stomach is removed. A gastric sleeve is used to bypass the majority of your small intestine. This limits how much you can eat. This will also limit your body’s ability to absorb nutrients, potentially limiting your intake of vitamins and minerals.
Finding the Right Surgeon
If you decide to go through with one of these surgeries, you will need to find a qualified surgeon. Your physician should be able to provide you with some recommendations. When you begin searching for the right surgeon, make sure that they are certified by the American Board of Surgery and are a member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
Find out what their success rate is and how many different weight loss surgeries they have performed. Ask if you can find out what their rate of complications are and what side effects could occur.
You may need to lose some weight before you undergo surgery. Depending on the surgeon that you find, you may need to lose anywhere from 15 to 30 pounds. Most people are also required to quit smoking, if they are a smoker, since this could lead to complications.
Any time that you undergo surgery, there is a potential risk of complications – this is no different with weight loss surgery. You need to ensure that you understand the entire process and all of the risks. Talk with your doctor to learn more about the surgery for weight loss and find out if you are a suitable candidate.
Are you struggling to stick to your latest diet? When you are on a diet, it can be really tempting to grab a bag of chips off the grocery store shelf or stop at a fast restaurant on the way home from work. One of the major concerns with dieting is being able to follow through with the guidelines of the diet. If you want to increase your chances of success, take a look at these 5 tips for sticking to your diet.
#1 – Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
Plan your meals out ahead of time, possibly a week at a time. You can take a look at all the meals you intend to eat for the week and make a shopping list. When you wait until the last minute to prepare a meal, you are more likely to make unhealthy choices. Write your meal plan for the week down on a sheet of paper and attach to your fridge for quick reference.
#2 – Clear Your Cupboards
If you have a bag of cookies tucked away in a kitchen cabinet, throw them out. Go through your kitchen and clear your cupboards of any food that is not allowed on your diet. If you have opened food that you need to get rid of, such as canned goods, give them away to a local food drive.
#3 – Keep Track of Your Weight Loss
Tracking your results will give you extra motivation to keep at it. Use a text file on your computer to keep track of your weight loss. Another option is to create your own weight loss journal, using a notebook. Write down your current weight, every two weeks.
In addition to your weight, you may also want to measure yourself. Taking your measurements provides a more realistic indication of how successful your diet has been. Measure your waist, your hips, calves, thighs, and arms. When you weigh yourself, you are not taking into account any muscle gain. The scale only provides part of the picture, use your measurements for a more accurate look at your weight loss.
#4 – Avoid Weighing Yourself Daily
While weighing yourself occasionally and keeping track of it in a journal or text file can provide extra motivation to stick to your diet, weighing yourself daily will do the opposite. You will not see results from day to day. In fact, you may have off weeks where you do not have any weight loss. Weighing yourself daily can discourage you from your goals.
#5 – Let People Know You Are Starting a Diet
Tell your family, friends, and co-workers that you are going to be following a diet. This will give you additional motivation and help you follow through with your plans. Your friends and family will help you stick to your goals and keep tempting junk food away from you.
Telling people about your diet also makes you accountable for your choices, as you would not want to go through the embarrassment of telling people you quit your diet a few days after starting it.
Remember these tips, to increase your chances of sticking to a diet. Plan your meals ahead of time, to avoid last minute choices, clear out your cupboards of food that you cannot eat on your diet, track your weight loss results, avoid daily weigh-ins, and let people know that you are starting a diet. These tips will help you avoid making bad decisions and straying from your diet.
As a final suggestion, to help you stick with your diet, remember the reasons why you started your diet in the first place – stay on your diet to continue losing weight and achieve positive health benefits.
Are you looking for the most effective weight loss diet? When looking for the right diet, try not to fall for the gimmicks. As you browse magazines, websites, and listen to advice from your friends, you will be bombarded with suggestions and tips that may not work for your fitness goals.
Instead of listening to what other people have to say, learn how to choose the best diet for your specific needs.
Talk to Your Doctor
The first thing you should do is visit your doctor, before you start exploring which weight loss diet is going to work for you. When you visit your doctor, they will offer advice that could help you pick the right diet. They will also consider any existing medical conditions that you have and let you know if any of your medications will be affected by the diet.
Let them know about the diets that you are considering and discuss tips for getting proper exercise. Listen to your doctor’s advice, as he or she likely has a good idea of what options are the healthiest for your exact physical condition.
Think About Diets You Have Previously Tried
As you look into various weight loss diets, take into consideration any diets that you have tried before. What was it that you did or did not like about the diet? Did it help you lose weight? Did you have trouble sticking to the diet? By looking at past dieting attempts, you may be able to avoid the same mistakes.
Consider Your Food Budget
Some diets may require a membership fee, expensive meal plans, or weight loss supplements. If there are any additional costs related to the diet, will these costs work with your current budget? Fully evaluate any added costs before making a final decision.
Factor in Any Medical Conditions
If you have a specific medical condition that requires you to eat or avoid certain foods, then you will need to find a diet that will work around your medical condition. As mentioned, your doctor should be able to provide you with further insight into this.
What Should You Look for in a Diet?
Comparing different diets and searching for a good weight loss plan, you should look for specific factors. Try to find a diet that is flexible. You will be more likely to stick to your diet if it does not restrict you from eating specific food groups or force you to eliminate certain foods. The diet you choose should be flexible and contain a variety of foods.
Make sure that the diet contains a good balance of nutrients. Eating a balanced diet is something that almost every doctor will recommend. When you completely eliminate a food group or source of nutrition, you could be depriving yourself of essential vitamins and minerals. If you need to take a vitamin supplement, on top of following a diet plan, then you may want to continue searching for a different weight loss diet.
You should also try to find a diet that includes food that you like. If you hope to find a diet that you can stick with a long period of time, it is vital that you will be satisfied eating the foods on the diet. Otherwise, you may end up eating unhealthy junk food, to fill the gap left by the diet.
Keep all of these considerations in mind, as you search for the perfect weight loss diet. Start by talking to your doctor. You should also think about past dieting attempts and take your food budget into account. Find something that meets your individual needs and avoid relying on the advice of friends or following the latest diet trend.

The food that you eat can be just as important as the food that you avoid, when it comes to healthy weight loss. If you want to lose weight, but are not looking for a restrictive diet, then you may be able to start losing weight by avoiding certain foods. Use the following list of 8 foods that you should avoid.
#1 – Frozen Meals
Frozen meals are often full of potentially harmful ingredients, in order to increase their shelf live and help the food stay fresh in your freezer. One of the ingredients that is often included to help with this preservation is sodium. Consuming too much sodium will cause your body to retain more water – leading to bloating.
#2 – Soda (Diet or Regular)
Studies have shown that drinking diet soda can lead to an increase in sugar cravings. The artificial sweetener provides the drink with a taste that is similar to a regular soda drink, but without the sugar. In studies of people that regularly drink diet soda, researchers found that people tend to make unhealthy food choices throughout the day.
Regular, non-diet soda can also be bad for your health, due to the abundance of sugar. By cutting soda, diet or non-diet, from the drinks that you consume, you are sure to lose weight.
#3 – Alcohol
Almost all alcohol contains empty calories with no nutritional value. Also, your liver treats alcohol like a toxin, and will focus on expelling it from your body, limiting your body’s ability to burn fat. Many alcoholic beverages also contain a lot of sugar, which can lead to weight gain. It is highly unlikely that you will find a doctor that will recommend that you drink alcohol for healthy weight loss.
#4 – Candy, Snacks, and Sweets
Cut candy, snacks, and sweets from your diet. Cookies, baked goods, doughnuts, and other snacks have no benefit for your body. Consuming these treats can increase your bad cholesterol, potentially increasing your risk of heart disease and other medical issues.
#5 – Fast Food
Fast food meals are often heavily processed and contain a large amount of unhealthy saturated fats. Greasy French fries, hamburgers, and shakes may sound appetizing, but they can be incredibly bad for your body. Instead of relying on fast food, make your own meals at home.
#6 – Fruit Juice
The majority of the fruit juices sold in grocery stores do not contain a high concentration of real juice. Even the drinks that claim to be 100%, natural juice, are often full of sugar and other harmful ingredients.
#7 – Gluten-Free Foods
Unless you are allergic to gluten, you have no reason to avoid it. In fact, eating gluten-free foods has no real benefit for people that do not have a medical condition that would require them to avoid gluten. These gluten-free products are typically made with an increased amount of sugar, corn syrup, and other ingredients, in order to replace the missing gluten. Unless you have a sensitivity to gluten, avoid gluten-free products.
#8 – Bread
You do not need to completely remove bread from your diet, but cutting down on your intake of bread could help you lose weight more effectively. If you are having a sandwich, consider making it an open-faced sandwich – using just a single slice of bread, instead of two slices.
Avoiding these foods is a great way to kick start your healthy weight loss. You may not need to make a drastic change to your diet or your lifestyle. Instead of completely changing the food that you eat, simply start eliminating some of the unhealthy options in your diet. You can begin by cutting out the foods listed above.
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