January 13th, 2012
Most people don’t do them anymore, though they enjoyed a brief revival of interest when actor Jack Palance memorably performed several age-defying examples during his Oscar acceptance speech some years back.
The push-up is, however, still the ultimate and simplest barometer of fitness and strength training for a number of reasons.
To begin with, it tests the whole body by engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. Push-ups require you to be very fit because the body needs to be taut like a plank, with toes and palms on the floor ready for the act of lifting and lowering your entire weight.
Yet many people are simply not advised to get into the required shape to do them because the focus of health and exercise experts these days tends to be mainly on the upper body and cardiovascular fitness.
In fact, push-ups can have benefits for every age group. No one expects older people, for example, to pass muster at a Marine Corps boot camp exercise session. But the ability of seniors to do push-ups properly and regularly more than once-a-workout can provide a vital shield against the rigors of aging.
Push-ups provide the strength and muscle memory for a person to prevent injury during a fall. When people fall forward, they typically reach out to catch themselves, ending in a move that mimics the push-up. The hands hit the ground, wrists and arms absorb much of the impact and elbows bend slightly to reduce the fall. And people who can’t do a push-up may not be able to help themselves up if they do fall.
Next week we’ll feature more health advantages of push-ups, which, as part of a regular exercise regime and a balanced nutritious diet can help reverse an underlying cause of PCOS excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. By reversing this latter condition, you can facilitate Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome weight loss.
January 3rd, 2012
Obesity is spreading like wildfire among young people, with kids often wanting junk food before they are old enough to read.
But this fascination with unhealthy food that can make them fat isn’t inborn. Instead, the desire is implanted via a continuous barrage of advertising aimed specifically at children, according to a new report.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 75% of all ads aimed at young children and teenagers were peddling candy, snacks, sugary cereal or fast food. Children aged between 2 and 7 see, on average 12 food ads a day from various sources, which grows to about 4,000 a year, said the report.
Advertisers attract their attention by using popular characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Shrek to sell everything from Burger King hamburgers and french fries to Pop-Tarts and Skittles. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups are calling for a ban on this kind of advertising.
In an effort to head off such a ban, 11 major food and beverage manufacturers have formed a coalition to regulate their own advertising pitches. Although activists are skeptical, the coalition claims that, henceforth, members will commit at least half of their children’s advertising to healthier products.
Overweight children and adolescents have a much greater risk of becoming obese as adults than kids of normal weight. Regular exercise when combined with a balanced, nutritious diet at any age can help reverse an underlying cause of excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. By reversing Insulin Resistance, you can facilitate weight loss.
If left unchecked, obesity can also lead to the cluster of increased risks for heart disease called Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X) as well as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) – a leading cause of menstrual irregularity, acne and other skin conditions, excess facial hair and female hair loss. Overweight adolescents do not have a monopoly on PCOS, however. Up to 50% of PCOS sufferers may be females who are of normal weight or even lean.
Insulin Resistance-linked weight problems are also associated with Type 2 Diabetes, which is being seen at an increasingly younger age. Before the onset of this latter condition, however, most people develop reversible Pre-Diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are elevated beyond normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes.
Left unchecked, Pre-Diabetes may lead to the Type 2 variety, which can only be managed for the rest of a person’s life. Many Diabetics require daily injections of insulin.
Over the long term, Type 2 Diabetes severely increases the risk of blindness, amputation and kidney disease, as well as a heart attack or stroke. Some 90% of people with Type 2 also suffer from excess weight or obesity.
December 23rd, 2011
Overweight women with PCOS who suffer from kidney stones have a greater chance of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) – the key increased risk factor for stroke, which kills more women than men each year.
Previous reports have tied kidney stones to elevated blood pressure – one of a cluster of danger signs for the increased risk of heart disease called Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X).
Dr. Daniel Gillen and colleagues at the University of California in Irvine analyzed data from 919 patients with kidney stones, plus 19,120 subjects without a history of kidney stones who were included in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The subjects’ body mass index (BMI), a means of measuring levels of weight from normal to overweight and obese, was also taken into account.
Women who had a history of kidney stones were 69% more likely to report they also had high blood pressure, the researchers reported.
As the subject’s BMI reading rose, the difference in blood pressure between kidney stone-formers and non-stone-formers increased. Among those with the highest BMIs, kidney stone-formers had an average increase of 7.62 mm Hg in the top blood pressure reading and 4.36 mm Hg in the bottom reading.
The results suggest that overweight women with kidney stones may have a significantly higher risk of illness and death associated with this condition.
Stroke or a heart attack can result from Metabolic Syndrome, which is strongly linked with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Regular exercise when combined with a balanced, nutritious diet can help reverse an underlying cause of obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. By reversing Insulin Resistance, you can facilitate PCOS weight loss.
December 22nd, 2011
As the link between work-related stress and the onset of Metabolic Syndrome-linked heart disease in both sexes becomes clearer, it’s increasingly important to ensure you motivate yourself to remain calm during your working day.
Numerous studies have yielded a set of tips for lowering stress at work. For example, New Scientist magazine suggests workers should be moderately sociable. Research has shown that sociability is good for health, with a study of thousands of British civil servants revealing that moral support from colleagues, encouragement from supervisors and clear direction from bosses kept stress levels down.
Keep in mind that too much socializing, however, could lead to work piling up. Research from the University of California shows that a quarter of the working day is lost to interruptions, with emails, phone calls and text messages interfering with efficiency every three minutes. Half of all interruptions are self-generated and a quarter of tasks are put off to the next working day, sending stress levels soaring. So minimize interruptions to your work flow.
It’s a good idea to ensure your surroundings are as pleasant as possible. Simply being able to see your colleagues makes the working day much more manageable according to research by the University of Montreal, with the height of partitions dividing up open plan office space having an effect on stress levels.
Surprisingly, the higher the partition is, the more people complain about noise from their neighbors. The Canadian study showed that the optimum partition height is 4ft 3ins (1.3m) – high enough to provide privacy but low enough to ensure staff do not feel isolated.
And whatever you do, don’t forget to switch off .. in more ways than one. Mobile phones, Blackberries and other omni-present pieces of electronic equipment should be turned off after the working day is over to allow burnt-out brain cells to re-charge.
The cluster of increased risks for stress-related heart disease known as Metabolic Syndrome, also called Syndrome X, is strongly linked with obesity. Regular exercise when combined with a balanced, nutritious diet can help reverse an underlying cause of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance. By reversing Insulin Resistance, you can facilitate weight loss.
