The 10 Commandments of Weight Loss

Archive for the ‘Men’s Health’ Category

Guys, let’s face it.

Aging is an inevitable process for all of us. However, you don’t have to take it “lying down”. As a matter of fact, you can literally manage the whole ordeal and either hang on to your body’s prime condition or regain that which has been lost for years following a few very basic principles.

Eating Habits

The first and most important aspect of your prime maintenance program has to do with what you allow to enter your body via your eating habits. You know what they say—”garbage in, garbage out”—and it couldn’t be more true than when it applies to your longevity and how good or bad you will age over the next few decades.

One thing that you will want to start doing immediately is to wean your body off of its cravings for and dependence on sugar. Sugar has a very insidious way of speeding up the aging process by weakening your body in a number of ways. In fact, Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., and author of “Lick the Sugar Habit” outlines the following detriments of sugar intake:

• immune system suppression
• upsets the body’s mineral relationships
• can raise the body’s triglycerides
• reduces the body’s ability to defend itself against bacterial infection
• causes a loss of body tissue elasticity and function
• contributes to copper deficiency
• interferes with calcium and magnesium absorption
• can weaken the eye sight
• can cause general premature aging
• causes tooth decay
• contributes to obesity
• can cause gallstones
• can cause heart disease
• can cause appendicitis
• can cause M.S. (multiple sclerosis)
• can cause varicose veins
• can lower vitamin E levels in the blood
• increases cholesterol and systolic blood pressure
• can cause cataracts
• deregulates bowel movements
• can cause myopia (near sightedness)
• can compromise the lining of the capillaries
• can make the tendons brittle
• can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease
• can lead to the formation of kidney stones
• feeds cancer
• the body changes sugar into 2-5 times more fat than it does starch
• may induce cell death

Need I say more about sugar?

Good. Let’s move on.

Another thing that you’ll want to get a handle on is alcohol. Not such a bad thing in moderation, excessive alcohol consumption inhibits the youthfulness and vibrance of the body by making it more susceptible to a number of diseases and infections which debilitate its ability to function.

Of course, some of the same diet intake strategies that are affective in weight loss help to maintain prime condition as well. Not making a habit of eating late or consuming a lot of dairy and animal fat products will help to both keep you trim and preserve the functioning of your arteries in order to help your body keep control of its blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well, measure which will protect you from developing heart problems.

In addition to things that you will want to restrict from you diet, there are several that you will want to make sure to supplement it with or at least make sure that you get plenty of in your regular intake.

First on this list is water. Cliche as it may sound, there wouldn’t be enough room to discuss all of the things that it does to keep the body’s systems clean and operable. Not to mention the aesthetic benefit that it has on the clarity of the skin.

Antioxidants will definitely need to be a part of your daily food regimen. These substances fight the aging effects of free-radical damage to the body. Some of the more popular antioxidants include:

• Green Tea
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin B
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Selenium
• Soy and Isoflavones
• zinc

Two of the easiest ways to add anti-oxidants to your diet are to drink green tea daily and to use soy milk with added isoflavones in the place of where you would use regular milk or cream.

Body Tone and Mobility

You may or may not be currently putting your body through regular resistance training. However, doing so get more and more important as you get older. Once past the age of 35, our bodies lose approximately 1% of their muscle mass annually. Since it is this muscle mass that gives your body its shape, form, and much of its strength, you will want to use resistance training to prevent atrophy and preserve as much of the actual muscle tissue as possible.

A second way in which resistance train helps you is that it keeps the bones strong and able to take abnormal amounts of pressure. This “practice” for the bones will come in handy in keeping them away from breaks and fractures that are very common as well as debilitating in older people.

Even more important than resistance training is your body’s flexibility. Nothing contributes more to optimal mobility than having flexible joints and muscles.

What’s more is that a regular stretching routine not only adds to mobility but also helps to guard against 3 of the most common injuries—those to your back, knees, and hip area. Many of these injuries are the result of a rigid body being twisted into positions beyond its strength capacity or its range of flexibility to the point that something “snaps”. Once any of these areas suffers major damage, it is generally never the same again.

The third major ingredient in preserving prime body tone and conditioning is cardiovascular activity. The benefits of such activity are obvious: a stronger, healthier heart and minimized body fat, the latter of the two helping the body maintain its most attractive shape and tone.

Preserving What You Have

When someone said “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, boy were they on target.

Taking the best care of your body’s condition before it begins to give you problems is the absolute most important part of any strategy to regain—or maintain—your prime.

Much of what has already been discussed has dealt with taking care of yourself through diet and exercise. However, there are additional things that demand attention cosmetically in order to “put the icing on the cake” in all of this.

Getting the proper rest so that your body may recuperate properly is of the utmost importance. Sufficient rest alone does a great deal to retard at least the appearance of aging. You’ll feel a heck of a lot better as well.

Other things can be done include staying out of the sun to avoid excessive skin damage, and following at least a basic washing and moisturizing regimen to keep the face clean and fresh. Good grooming also goes a long way as well with looking and feeling your absolute best.

The Final Word

Finally, it is imperative that you keep at least a once-a-year appointment with your doctor for an annual checkup. This is the best way to catch any deficiencies that may slip through the cracks with everything that you’ve got going on to keep yourself in peak condition.

Even with lots of effort being put into your body’s maintenance, a few things are bound to slip through due to your
individual lifestyle, habits, and genetic predispositions. Therefore, keeping tabs on your vital signs and being on the lookout for common killers like heart problems, cancers, and auto-immune deficiencies are paramount to your success.

Keeping all of these things in mind AND in practice will not only help to restore and retain your prime, but will help you to enjoy the absolute best overall quality of life that you possibly can.

To Your Best Body,

Lawrence Cole
Your Lifestyle and Fitness Coach
See this Weight Loss Article at YourBestBodyNOW.com

Some times we fail to understand the problem of an impotent person. We think that sexual dysfunction may not be a problem for reproduction. There is hi tech method of in vitriol fertilization by which even an impotent man can be father of a child without actually performing all sexual activities.

But, in fact the method is not so easy. Long time treatment for both the male and the female is to be carried out and some times minor to semi major surgeries may be required for either of the male or female or both of them.

So cost of this treatment is enormous and beyond the reach of common man. Apart from this, the method may fail some times to produce results. As such doctors will not guarantee of fertilization before starting of the treatment. Imagine the cost of this long treatment and surgeries, if required!

More over your health insurance companies may not bear the cost of similar kind of treatment. Bearing the cost is next to impossible for a common person where there is a nexus between the doctors, Insurance companies and hospitals has made medical treatment to sky high and has become out of the capacity of common citizens. With horror, we have read that 25% of Americans have no health insurance coverage. Because maintaining the insurance is also a high cost affair and may be beyond the reach of great section of common citizens.

Ignoring medical insurance coverage is even more dangerous.

So your ever lasting desire to be father of a child from your wife may be out of reach of you, if you are impotent and can not bear the cost of artificial insemination.

However, it is fortunate that very few people may have to resort to this extreme step.

In general what we find around that a quite good number of people are impotent due to their Erectile Dysfunction (ED) condition. This problem can now easily be overcome – thanks to the discovery of oral medicines like Viagra or Cialis.

Actually these kinds of medicines have given Men’s Health a new life. This is particularly applicable for an impotent person suffering from ED condition. We have seen that Sexual Health, which is the greatest part of Men’s Health of the male population, disturbed by the condition of Erectile Dysfunction, has greatly improved with these kinds of medicines.

However, initially it was found that these kinds of PDE-5 type inhibitors had some side effects like stomach upset increase in heart rate etc. Soon superiority of these medicines was proved.

It was found that, after prolonged use, the side effects of the drugs have greatly reduced. It may be due to the reason that the people become habituated with these medicines and developed some kind of resistance to these symptoms or their body resistance prevented them from these side effects.

However there may be only one trouble some times may happen with the users, for which, FDA has issued warnings also. That is the problem of blurred vision, which some times lead to blindness also. But the manufacturers also defend that the problem might have occurred for other reasons also. It is not the time for taking final decisions in this regard. Studies are still going on.

In fact the good effects of Viagra prevailed over the side effects and thus the medicine conquered the world.

In conclusion we must say that the sexual health is the supreme concern for any one having a sex desire and ability. If it is disturbed by erectile dysfunction, solution is right at hand and there is nothing to worry. Because, Viagra is here to revitalize ultimately one’s sexual health which is generally a essential component of Men’s Health..

Can we be as harmonic as those seven fictional characters on their way to mine their day away when we have a back ache? Can we obtain relief or do we have to endure a day of aches and pains while on the clock?

An article I recently viewed on the ArgusLeader.com website, indicates that back pain is the second leading reason people miss work. Truck drivers repeatedly have to deal with back pain from the continuous vibration of the spine while behind the wheel. Heavy lifting of patients and children puts nurses and parents at considerable risk. Statistics obtained from OccupationalHazards.com reveal that in the U.S., nursing ranks as one of the top 10 occupations for work-related musculoskeletal disorders. And, an estimated 12 to 18 percent of nurses wind up leaving their profession due to chronic back pain.

Now it’s understood that the career we choose can have an adverse effect on our physical health. You can sit behind a desk all day long in air-conditioning, you can drive a tractor-trailer down Route 66 daily, or work in the hospital emergency room. Simultaneously, you are putting severe strain on your neck and back. Can we take the time to heal ourselves before our issues escalate? Can we do something to alleviate the pain if it is already present? Is there anything we can do?

What is Yoga? It’s a system of exercises practiced for thousands of years as used to promote control of the body and mind.

Why Yoga? Because it can help. It has consistently been used to cure and prevent back pain by enhancing strength and flexibility. As many practitioners can attest, Yoga can offer effective healing that’s relatively free of side effects. The slow movements and gentle pressures reach deep into troubled joints. Additionally, the easy stretches in conjunction with deep breathing exercises relieve the tension that binds up muscles and tightens joints. Yoga is exercise and relaxation rolled up into one.

Who is a candidate? Each year, millions of Americans suffer from debilitating back pain. Both acute and long-term stress can lead to muscle tension and exacerbate back problems. Despite Western medicine’s phenomenal advances and powerful technology, two of the most commonly prescribed solutions—painkillers and surgery—do little to address the underlying causes of pain and can potentially cause side effects. In truth, a one-size-fits-all solution is impossible given that the causes and manifestations of pain—arthritis, strained ligaments, scoliosis, and herniated disks, to name a few—vary widely.

How does Yoga assist pain management? Yoga helps reduce pain by helping the brain regulate the secretion of natural painkillers into the body. Breathing exercises commonly used in Yoga can also help reduce pain. Muscles tend to relax when you exhale, because of this lengthening your time of exhalation can help produce relaxation and reduce tension. Maintaining a certain awareness of ones own breathing helps to achieve calmer, slower respiration and assist in relaxation and pain management.

What do I do to get started? First, rule out potential serious causes of the back pain. See your primary care physician and speak to her/him of your concerns. He will know how to proceed from there to investigate the cause of your back pain. Then, also inquire as to whether or not it is safe for you to practice Yoga as part of your recovery program.

Treat the injury with extra care. When you are in a lot of pain, usually the tissues are inflamed, it’s critical that you proceed at a slow pace. If you work in an aggressive fashion in order to improve your strength or flexibility too early on, it can cause you even more pain.

Looking for an experienced teacher with substantial training and experience should be your next course of action. A Yoga therapist will assist you by creating a program that is specific to your needs and limitations, especially those pertaining to your injury and medical condition. They will observe your form and practice, and track how you respond to the exercises. He or she will gauge which elements are likely to be helpful and determine whether modifications are necessary.

Studies have shown that strict bed rest can cause you more harm than good. Go ahead and try breathing exercises and practice a gentle asana as soon as you experience pain.

Stomach crunches are often prescribed by doctors in order to prevent recurring episodes of back pain. Looking at this from a yogic perspective this is imprecise. By doing to many crunches or ab exercises you can increase the tightness in the hip flexors, and potentially making the back problems worst. With Yoga, the approach is to examine which muscles need to be strengthened and which ones need to be stretched, and finally designing a program that would work on those specific needs.

Do avoid poses that worsen or aggravate your problem. If you have a lumbar disk problem, be careful with forward bends, especially those that include some form of a twist. Also, during transitions take care, attention tends to wander. Sudden changes of position should be avoided and stepping rather than jumping should be the standard.

Lastly, make certain to consult your physician before proceeding with any exercise program, including Yoga. Also, if Yoga is approved for you be sure to receive proper training from a qualified Yoga instructor.