Weight Loss – Low Carbohydrate

In order to lose weight, most nutritionists recommend cutting down of carbohydrates in the diet. This should be done gradually, to allow the body to be accustomed to the change in food choices. Carbohydrate-rich food: some cereals, breads, pastries, carbonated beverages, chocolates, and sweets. Also, non-fat or low-fat food options should be considered in place of the usual favorite foods. There are non-fat dairy products already available in the market, so choices are not so limited. Most people can enjoy the snacks they like, without the unnecessary fat content.

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Ageing and agility

Shyamala turned 46 years recently, but could not celebrate her birthday as she had planned. She was rushed to the doctor for severe back and leg pain and was diagnosed as suffering from osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a common disease in women after menopause and of late there is an increase in the number of people suffering from it. Osteoporosis often leads to an increased risk of fracture.

According to Malathi Mohan, Dean, Academy of Fitness Management, the bone structure of healthy people undergoes constant remodelling. “In women, bone loss (quantity) exceeds bone formation around menopause, which in turn leads to thinning of bone. It also tends to increase the vulnerability and incidence of fractures. However, after 60, osteoporosis is prevalent equally in both sexes,” she says.

Osteoporosis itself has no specific symptoms; its main consequence is the increased risk of bone fractures. Some of the factors that lead to the disease are excessive consumption of alcohol, vitamin D deficiency, tobacco smoking, low body mass index, malnutrition and physical inactivity. To prevent the bone disease, include a few changes in the diet, get enough exercise and consider the right medication. And you are sure to rock even when you are 60!

Courtesy : Times of India

Get a personal exercise prescription

To help you stick to a fitness plan, ask your doctor to ‘prescribe’ a workout routine

It’s one thing if a magazine tells you to exercise. It’s quite another if your doctor does.
To help yourself stick with a fitness plan, try this: Ask your doctor to “prescribe” an exercise routine and to be specific about it. You’ll be five or six times more likely to follow it. Why? May be having a doc spell out how exercise can ward off life-shortening diseases hits home in a way nothing else does. You just may find yourself jogging out of the office.

When it comes to motivating people to get moving, the power of doctors is hugely underused. Less than 50 per cent of physicians recommend exercise to older patients, according to the latest research, even though there’s plenty of evidence that exercise can prevent or alleviate a bevy of health disorders. And the benefits aren’t just physical: The healthier people stay, the less they have to spend on medical care and prescriptions. So for those living a sedentary life, starting an exercise programme can end up producing a fatter wallet as well as a fitter body. Be sure the exercise prescription you get from your physician is detailed—that’s part of what makes it successful.

It should cover Frequency — How often to exercise. Intensity — How hard to push; start at a comfortable level and work up. Type — What to do; usually a mix of aerobic (stamina), strength, and flexibility work, but one type may be especially important for you. Time — How long to work out. Progression — When to change what you’re doing; set some step-by step goals. Benefits — What to expect; be sure you understand the specific ways your routine will help your health. Then, just follow doctor’s orders.

Courtesy : Times of India

New Asthma Treatment

Courtesy : Times of India

Free yourself from distortions

This method helps you revisit the past and free yourself from mental distortions and feelings that have resulted from challenging experiences early in your past life

Here is a method that allows you to go back in time, to revisit the past and free yourself from distortions in thought and feelings that have resulted from challenging experiences in your past life. There are two ways to free ourselves from distortion — we can either work out our issues through relationships and situations as they present themselves, or we can use psychological or spiritual means to come to peace with things. If we fail in either of these levels, it will eventually somatize (become cellular) in the body in the form of illness. A note of caution: Hypnotic regression is a powerful tool; do not use this method without the aid of a mental health professional if you are presently in treatment for a diagnosable mental illness, have suffered severe trauma, or are unable to control your emotions. To start, turn off the phone, sit back comfortably, close your eyes and begin to monitor your breath going in and out. Feel yourself calm. Begin counting backwards from 10 to 1 slowly. Next, take three minutes to imagine a warm, relaxing feeling flowing in through the tips of your toes, then flowing all the way up your body. Do another 10 to 1 countdown. Now mentally invite yourself to go to a place in time where you get the most healing effect, let your mind steer you to a past event. It may be a positive event designed to reacquaint you with your strengths, or a challenging event that will let you release emotional pain and gain self-understanding. If you invite yourself to go to “the original cause” of your ailment or issue, your mind will lead you to a past-life event. Encourage the memories and feelings you felt at the time to express fully. After 5-10 minutes, ask yourself, “What will I learn from this experience? And how will gain from it? The answers may come in the form of direct insight, imagery, or feeling. Conclude the session by counting up from 1 to 5 and on 5, open your eyes. Owing to its power, this method should be used only once a week.

Courtesy : Times of India

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Boosting Immune System

Meditation slows AIDS progression

Washington: Meditation may slow the worsening of AIDS in just a few weeks, perhaps by affecting the immune system, US researchers reported.

If the findings are borne out in larger studies, it could offer a cheap and pleasant way to help people battle the incurable and often fatal condition, the team at the University of California Los Angeles said on Thursday.

They tested a stress-lowering program called mindfulness meditation, defined as practicing an open and receptive awareness of the present moment, avoiding thinking of the past or worrying about the future. The more often the volunteers meditated, the higher their CD4 T-cell counts — a standard measure of how well the immune system is fighting the AIDS virus. The CD4 counts were measured before and after the two-month program.

“This study provides the first indication that mindfulness meditation stress-management training can have a direct impact on slowing HIV disease progression,” said David Creswell, who led the study.

His team tested 67 HIV-positive adults from the Los Angeles area, 48 of whom did some or all of the meditation. Most were likely to have highly stressful lives, Creswell said.

“The average participant in the study was male, African American, homosexual, unemployed and not on ARV (antiretroviral) medication,” they wrote in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

The meditation classes included eight weekly two-hour sessions, a day-long retreat and daily home practice. “The people that were in this class really responded and just really enjoyed the program,” Creswell said. “The mindfulness program is a group-based and lowcost treatment, and if this initial finding is replicated in larger samples, it’s possible that such training can be used as a powerful complementary treatment for HIV disease, alongside medications,” he added.

He said it was unclear how the stress-reducing effects of meditation work. It may directly boost CD4 T-cell levels, or suppress the virus, he said.

Drug cocktail adds 13 yrs to life of HIV+

Washington: Cocktails of HIV drugs help patients live an average of 13 years longer — if they are lucky enough to get them, researchers reported.

A person who started taking the drugs at age 20 could, on average, expect to live another 43 years, the researchers report in the Lancet medical journal on Thursday.

They looked at several studies of patients living in the US, Canada and several European countries who received drug combinations known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART. Robert Hogg of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada and colleagues looked at 43,000 patients in 14 different studies.

Put the squeeze on health

Why would you voluntarily drink up a blended bitter gourd? Norbert Rego asks around and comes up with some tasty pointers

SO, do you really enjoy that blended bottle gourd or bitter gourd first thing in the morning? Well, a lot of people surprisingly do. And what’s more, juice bars are not just mushrooming all around town, but are becoming popular hot spots too. Health aficionados across age groups are flocking to freshly made juices that are even quickly replacing those from tetra packs.

Tarana Masand, fashion designer, takes a combination of vegetable juices everyday. “I take any three different juices. It makes me feel better and keeps me full. Vegetable juices make you feel active, lighter, your skin and hair feel better,” she says.

Karnvir Bohra, film personality, feels juices should not be kept for more than half an hour. “Every morning, my wife and I drink spinach and tomato juice, which is good for our eyes and complexion. Amla juice is good for our hair,” he says.

What’s the fuss about juices anyway? Well, firstly, many people eat the same vegetables everyday. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chances of developing an allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can have a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally eat. Vegetable juices cannot be made from every vegetable, unlike fruit juices. They help you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables and allow you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. Juices in short, are almost a one-stop dose of everything your body needs.

“It is water, flavours, pigments, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and nutrients working synergistically to give your body the materials that promote healing, energy and protection from disease. But there is still a mystery left undefined. There is a miracle of energy supplied by live plants and fruits that comes from nothing else,” says Dr Ashwani Chopra, Delhi-based physician and gastroenterologist.

But there are still rules that you must follow while juicing. The juice must be prepared fresh and consumed soon after, or else it will lead to loss of essential vitamins and antioxidants. Vegetables must be washed thoroughly before preparing the juice. Avoid straining/discarding the pulp of the vegetables, as it will lead to loss of fibre. Use a pinch of rock salt instead of adding sugar. Limejuice enhances iron absorption, and ginger, garlic and cardamom add not just flavour but also aid digestion. Mix it up — use different vegetables every day. Avoid consuming any food an hour before or after a glass of juice for enhanced nutrient absorption. If you must buy, choose juices without preservatives or added sugar. Dudhi, amla, mix-vegetables, tomato, cabbage, spinach, karela and wheat grass are healthier options for diabetics and people on weight loss. And don’t try juices of vegetables you are allergic to.

“Juices should be a part of your diet but they should be of high quality and junk-free. Besides nutrients, there are certain things called ‘helper nutrients’ and these are all found in raw fruits and vegetables. Drinking raw vegetable or fruit juice is basically eating food the way God made it,” adds Dr Chopra.

Juice bars have now become new health hotspots. Amorettos, a juice bar chain, has positioned itself as a health and fitness brand with outlets in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. Juice Zone, North America’s juice brand, has set shop in Gurgaon and New Delhi with franchisees in Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Faridabad, Pune and Mumbai. HAS Juice Bar in Mumbai offers you a vast range of vegetable juices.

“Vegetable juices are good for all age groups. However, at no cost should they replace your daily katori of vegetables. When it is a choice between bowls of raw and home-cooked vegetables, then vegetables win hands down as compared to juices. Vegetable juices are a good way to meet the recommended allowances for the vegetable group. An average Indian adult is recommended 5-6 servings of vegetables per day. At least one third of this requirement can be met with a glass of juice,” says Dr Richa Anand, executive dietician, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai.

JUICING FOR LIFE

l Cabbage juice has ulcer-healing capabilities, but should be used in conjunction with a doctor’s prescribed therapy. However, patients with gas trouble should avoid it. l Cucumber juice cleanses your kidneys, lowers high blood pressure and improves skin problems. l Beet juice cleanses the blood and strengthens the gall bladder and liver. l Carrot juice is an excellent source of betacarotene, potassium, trace minerals, and anticancer nutrients, including phthalide and glutathione (antioxidants). l Celery juice contains the anti-cancer nutrients phthalide and polyacetylene (antioxidants). It is rich in potassium and sodium and helps lower BP.

l Garlic acts as a natural antibiotic

and blood thinner and can reduce cholesterol levels. Add a clove to your vegetable mix. l Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties and will also protect the stomach from irritation. Migraines and motion sickness can also be relieved by ginger juice. l Wheat grass juice is used as an enema. It helps detoxify the walls of the piles. It can be mixed with spinach and lime. l Bitter gourd juice is used as an anti-diabetic medicine. It also helps in purifying the blood. l Bottle gourd juice is used in the treatment of stomach acidity, indigestion, ulcers, epilepsy and other nervous diseases.

Diet for diabetics

A balanced prudent diet coupled with an active lifestyle is the best way to keep the sugar level in control, says Nita Mehta

Obesity is a great risk factor for diabetes. Omentum fat (belly fat) contributes to diabetes by making it difficult to get glucose inside the cell and let insulin do what it does best — deliver glucose to the cells for absorption. Simply being over weight, especially having a waist greater then 37″ for women and 40″ for men, makes your body less sensitive to insulin, leaving the glucose to float around in your blood. Omentum fat is also selfish, it uses up the insulin so it can’t do its job. A study shows that omentum fat sucks up a quarter of the insulin that passes through the blood supply. For a diabetic person it is important to know how much and what kind of carbohydrate is eaten in a meal. Carbohydrates are the first to get converted into glucose. There are some carbohydrates which instantly get converted to glucose and suddenly raise the blood sugar level. These are bad carbohydrates and include sugar and refined cereals like maida and white bread and polished white rice. Since refined food contains no fibre which means the calories are released easily and blood sugar level rises swiftly, excess intake of refined carbohydrates can cause diabetes. There are good carbohydrates too which are absorbed slowly into the blood stream and get converted to glucose and give rise to a gradual rise in blood sugar levels, making it easier for diabetics to adjust to the changes in blood glucose levels. Good carbohydrates are rich in fibre and include whole grain cereals like whole wheat flour (atta), wheat porridge (dalia) Lots of people tend to think that abstinence from certain food is the best way to deal with diabetes. Diabetics need to be aware of the kind of sugar present in different food and manage their intake judiciously.

Courtesy : Times of India

Health Tips

Dairy products such as cream, milk, cottage cheese and whole cheese need to be consumed in low fat versions. Sandwich meats, margarine, nuts, sauces and butter need to be taken in small portions. Majority of them are available in the lower versions of fat such as mayonnaise, fat free cheeses and substitute butter.

Another important factor that needs to be considered while embarking on health care is to quit smoking. It is four decade since smoking was considered as harmful for the health. Since then, most people  have reduced the tobacco intake. Currently, the world is witnessing an increasing trend of excessive smoking amongst the teens and the adolescents.

Stress has become the major decisive factor in workplace environment. Stress busters come in numerous forms. One such technique that would help in such situations is to embark on positive thinking. Individuals need to spend 30 minutes of their time doing something which they like. This includes visiting a friend, reading a good book, playing with the dog, watching a funny movie and listening to a soothing music. Meditation has also proved advantages in easing stress and calming the nerves.

Other important Tips

Healthy foods also play a vital role in regulating the health of individuals. A good protein rich supplement would be the perfect option. Also, drinking fruit juices both in the morning and evening would fulfill the daily vitamin requirement of the body. Vitamins are known to be good stress busters.

Excessive drinking of alcohol would be detrimental to the health of the person. While current studies have indicated that a glass of wine or drink each day can help prevent heart disease, excessive intake could lead to other health ailments such as cancer, kidney disease and liver disease.

Proper disciplinary following of health tips would make a person as fit as a fiddle.

Courtesy : http://www.allhealthonline.com