Walk Free

Ideal for anyone who thinks she or he is too unfit to exercise

Although it may seem like a soft option, in fact walking is one of the very best forms of aerobic exercise. A 6-mile walk burns up only 20% fewer calories than a hard run over the same distance. An excellent choice for anyone who feels low in energy or is convalescing, walking is also particularly convenient because you can incorporate it into your daily routine to get you from A to B.

To begin with, decide to walk for 30 minutes a day at a pace where your breathing becomes heavy but not strained. Make sure you wear comfortable clothes and good walking shoes. If you walk to work you can carry another pair of shoes with you to change into.

After a week of walking for 30 minutes a day, go a step further. Try walking for an hour and see how far you get. As a guideline you should be able to manage 3 miles in an hour at a leisurely pace. As you become stronger you might like to try hill-walking or even running.

11 Tactics for Lasting Weight Loss

Lasting weight loss is more about small, sustainable adjustments to how you live and eat than it is following a rigorous, intense, short-term program that completely changes all aspects of your diet. The latter might deliver dramatic losses in the short term, but we all know how quickly the pounds can return once we get back into our everyday habits. Below are a handful of tips that can give your weight loss efforts the nudge they need to succeed:

1. Forget weight. Too many people focus on pounds when it comes to measuring weight loss. Instead, focus on better measures: how your energy levels are doing, how your joints are feeling, how your attitude is faring, how your clothes are fitting, how you look in the mirror. Sure, your weight is the clearest measurement of your progress, but your goal shouldn't be a number: It should be measured by your health and happiness. If your joints are telling you your weight-loss efforts are helping, then there's no better measurement you could have.

2. Develop movement habits. Research shows that people who fidget burn 500 or more extra calories in a day. Learn the lesson: all extra movements burn calories. So develop movement habits. Some examples: Stand when on the phone; leave the room during TV commercials; walk 10 minutes after dinner; tap your foot to the music. Develop one or two such habits, and you'll burn many more calories.

3. Drink water. You've heard the health benefits of water just so many times. So finally do it: Get yourself a big, interesting, friendly cup or Mason jar or travel mug, fill it up after breakfast, and keep it with you everywhere. Refill, refill, refill. At the end of the day, wash it out and have it ready for tomorrow. Nothing will satiate your hunger as well as plentiful cool water.

4. Entertain your mouth. Sometimes all it takes to halt the snacking is a piece of gum, a slow-to-dissolve piece of candy, a toothpick, even an olive pit. While society looks down on overt mouth habits in public, if you can be subtle, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an hour-long engagement with a piece of sugarless gum, particularly if it keeps you from snacking.

5. Shop the perimeter. Big grocery stores are laid out in predictable ways. Usually, the healthiest, freshest foods are around the perimeter: produce, meats, seafood, dairy, bakery. The danger is in the aisles, with its cookies, potato chips, canned foods, boxed foods, ice creams, and such. Your food-shopping goal: Stay only along the store perimeter. Just once a month, delve into the aisles for necessary staples.

6. Spice up your meals. Add zest to food with cayenne and jalape?o peppers, ginger, Tabasco sauce, mustard, and other spices. Studies find that zingier foods have thermogenic properties that boost your metabolism's fat-burning ability -- by as much as 25 percent, in some reports.

7. Sleep better. It sounds like quackery, but you really can encourage weight loss by sleeping. Research into sleep and hormone function finds that your metabolism rises and you burn calories more efficiently when you're well rested.

8. Nix Nickelodeon. Avoid the TV programs you enjoy with your kids or grandkids -- or tune out the commercials. Children's programming contains much more junk food advertising than adult shows: 2,800 calories per hour, on average, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. And studies find that watching less food on the tube translates to fewer fatty, sweet products in pantries.

9. Top your tank before exercise. Have a well-balanced carbohydrate/protein snack such as half an apple with peanut butter or crackers with low-fat cheese an hour or more before a workout. The carbs will keep energy high while you exercise, and the protein will slow your digestion, giving you stamina for sustained effort.

10. Skip the wine. If you sip a glass of wine or beer with meals, think about a prohibition diet. The drink isn't bad per se, but your body tends to give priority to processing alcohol, making calories from the food you eat more likely to be stored as fat, according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University.

11. Do the ring test. Should you cut back your portions of salt? Even if you don't have high blood pressure, try this test: Slip a ring on your finger. Now eat salty food, wait a few hours, and try to take the ring off. If sliding the ring is more difficult now than earlier, you're probably among the many people (mainly women) for whom salt causes bloat -- potentially grounds for several extra pounds, according to researchers at the University of Maryland. Check food labels for sodium and cut your intake to feel lighter on your feet.

Source: www.rd.com

What is Ebola?

Origins. Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a deadly virus originating in parts of Africa. This disease can be found in humans and non-human primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees), and has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976. The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) in Africa, where it was first recognised.

The Ebola virus comprises four distinct subtypes: Zaire, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire and Reston. Three subtypes, occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Ivory Coast, have been identified as causing illness in humans. EHF is a febrile haemorrhagic illness which causes death in between 50 and 90 percent of all cases.

Symptoms. Ebola is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. The fever has an incubation period of two to 21 days. No specific treatment or vaccine is yet available. However, different from popular misconception, Ebola does not kill within a matter of hours, and the virus will incubate for up to two weeks before symptoms begin to occur.

Transmission. The Ebola virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people. Burial ceremonies where mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can play a significant role in the transmission of Ebola. Lack of access to proper sterilization and protective garments make nurses and doctors easy target while treating Ebola patients.

Treatment. By ingesting extract from a West African fruit, it was reported can help treat Ebola once it has been contracted; however, these have to be verified medically. Development of Ebola vaccine is still going on, and recently successful when applied to monkeys. There’s not yet human vaccine yields positive results. However, there are some improvements in the remedial treatment so far.

Stroke

What is stroke? Stroke is not a single disease, but rather a pattern of symptoms that arises when a blood clot or ruptured blood vessel obstructs blood flow to parts of the brain and deprives its cells of vital oxygen.

The brain consumes about 20 percent of the body's oxygen and 70 percent of its glucose, though representing just two percent of its weight. This high metabolic rate, sensitivity to changes in blood flow, and dependence on continuous blood flow are what make stroke so dangerous. If blood supply to the brain is interrupted for as little as four minutes, brain cells begin to die. They are not replaced. There are two forms of stroke: ischemic - blockage of a blood vessel supplying the brain, and hemorrhagic - bleeding into or around the brain.

Although stroke is a disease of the brain, it can affect the entire body. The symptoms of a stroke include sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body (hemiparesis); sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech; sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes; sudden trouble with walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination; or sudden severe headache with no known cause. Stroke patients may have difficulty controlling their emotions or may express inappropriate emotions. Recurrent stroke is frequent; about 25 percent of people who recover from their first stroke will have another stroke within 5 years.

According to the National Stroke Association (NSA), it is important to learn the three Rs of stroke:

Reduce the risk.

Recognize the symptoms.

Respond by calling medical help or local ambulance service.

Generally there are three treatment stages for stroke: prevention, therapy immediately after the stroke, and post-stroke rehabilitation. Therapies to prevent a first or recurrent stroke are based on treating an individual's underlying risk factors for stroke, such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and diabetes. Acute stroke therapies try to stop a stroke while it is happening by quickly dissolving the blood clot causing an ischemic stroke or by stopping the bleeding of a hemorrhagic stroke. Post-stroke rehabilitation helps individuals overcome disabilities that result from stroke damage. Medication or drug therapy is the most common treatment for stroke.

Stroke is a medical emergency and should be treated as such. Getting treatment can lessen the effects of a stroke and disability, but in order to be evaluated and treated, stroke victims need to get to the hospital as soon as they experience symptoms. Being treated within three to six hours at a hospital with a stroke team provides the best chance to minimize long-term effects of stroke.

Scientists are working to develop new and better ways to help the brain repair itself to restore important functions. New advances in imaging and rehabilitation have shown that the brain can compensate for function lost as a result of stroke. Besides, there are centers offer stroke treatment by experienced medical professionals who use the latest technology to help the patients.

When Shall I Eat?

Where would food be considered in the matter of maintaining good health? Yup, everyone knows food is an important factor. Not only when we eat, but what we eat, and how much of each kind of food is taken into the body are the key questions.

Almost everyone enjoys eating. After working hard or having exercise, we are often hungry. The simple fact is that hunger is a signal that our bodies use to tell us to look after definite need. The signals make us feel uncomfortable and we seek to change conditions so that we may feel satisfaction. We need respond the signals in ways that bring not only comfort but desirable results.

Hunger is a sensation which occurs when muscles in the stomach are contracting and there isn't any food to keep the walls of the stomach from touching. Of course, it does not tell us what kinds of food are needed.

On the other hand, appetite is created by tastes, odors, colors, and appearance of specific foods that we like. Appetite for the taste of a food sometimes leads us to eat so much of one kind that we neglect another which our body needs. Unless we learn which foods are necessary, then appetite alone may become poor guide for us.

Scientifical resources inform us the effects of foods on human health and the kind of diet that gives the best results. In fact, not all people have the same food supply or money to purchase food. Nor do they have the same likings or family customs. There is a minimum amount all foods without which life cannot be sustained, as there is also an optimal amount which promotes our feeling of well-being and health.

In this changing world, we are facing more choices than ever. We need have some information and be able to choose the right food, the healthy food. What kinds of food do we need everyday in order to maintain good condition? Shall I have junk food or organic one for my lunch, canned vegetables or the fresh one for my dinner?

YOGA TODAY YOGA YESTERDAY

If you are happen going downtown you may see there are some yoga courses there, teaching yoga classes, and sometimes with lux facilites. This phenomenon maybe is something usual in our mind, and we take this as a matter of course. Many people has truly enthusiasm for yoga. Yoga today is respectable discipline practiced by many educated persons.

Historically speaking, the matters was different from this phenomenon. There was a time when people saw yoga just as an exotic thing and strange thing. Yoga was viewed just like freak things practiced by undercivilized people of some country.

Gradually, people wanted to know the hidden things behind yoga. And this process was not always in right ways. Some (western) people was right to be somewhat confused in their ideas concerning the Yogis and their philosophy and practice. Travellers to India have written great stories about the flocks of fakirs who fill the roads of its cities, and who claim the title 'Yogi.'

Sometimes Yogi was seen as a thin man, dirty, ignoramus, who either sits in a fixed posture until his body becomes become inflexible, or else holds his arm up in the air until it becomes unbendable. Those opinions are scarcely to be blamed. However, these strange people exist, but their claim to the title 'Yogi' seems as absurd to the true Yogi as does the claim to the title 'Doctor' on the part of the man who peels one's corns seem to the reputed surgeon.

After long periods, people progressively understood the mean of yoga and Yogi. And now many people all over the world confidently practice yoga, having a truly spirit to appreciate yoga in their daily life. Then, what's all about the meaning of yoga, etimologically speaking, and how was it built as a discipline through ages? That’s the next thing we will discuss.

Old Age Can Be the Best Time

Too many of us believe the illusion that growing old means living in a nursing home, losing one's mental acuity, or abandoning activities that gave pleasure throughout a lifetime.

Contrary to widespread belief, only 5% of the population will end up in nursing homes. The majority of elders remain in their own homes. Most are able to maintain themselves, occasionally needing help when doing things such as shopping or preparing food.

Statistics also indicate that healthy older adults can learn anything that a younger person can. The main difference is in learning style. While children can absorb all kinds of information at the same time, older people learn best when they're focused and are interested in the subject.

Finally, there is no need to abandon enjoyable activities; most can be pursued at any age. In fact, almost every older adults did some kind of exercise, read extensively, and kept up with the news.

Physical activity helps facilitates healthy aging. A woman in her nineties explains: "I walk at least a mile a day, usually two. When it rains, I walk in my apartment corridor." Mental stimulation is important too. Old age can be the time to do things one never had time for when busy with raising a family or making a living.

Finally there's a need for emotional support. Relationships with others help elders remain engaged with the world around them and with life itself.

Adapted from Healthy Aging, Dr. Marge Blaine

Opium

There are many criticisms levelled against alcohol and opium. However, the two are very different in their action. Under the effects of alcohol a person becomes a rowdy, whereas opium makes the addict dull and lethargic. He/she becomes even sleepy and incapable of doing anything useful. The evil effects of alcohol strike the eye every day, but those of opium are not so obvious. Anyone who wishing to see its devastating effect should got to Assam or Orissa provinces. Thousands have fallen victims to this intoxicant in those areas. They give one the impression of living on the verge of death. Though possess a good physique, but one addicted to opium look miserable and more dead than alive. An opium addict will stoop to anything in order to procure his dose of opium.

Trade in opium was obviously an immoral one and yet it went on flourishing. A thing of this type which simply ruins people should not be tolerated for a single minute.

After having statement on opium as an intoxicant, it must be admitted that its place in Materia Medica is incontestable. It is impossible to do without this drug as a medical agent. But that can be no reaason for using it as intoxicant. Opium is a well-known poison and its use as an intoxicant should be strictly prohibited.

Source: Key to Health, M.K. Gandhi (1948)