Healthy Living

Archive for June, 2012

The numbers on your scale do not indicate whether you are fit or fat. Far more significant than your total body weight is the composition of your body tissue. If a man’s fatty tissue is bigger than 14% up to 15% of his body mass, or if a woman’s is more than 20% to 22%, he or she is overweight, or more precisely, over fat.

A small amount of fat is needed for padding the internal organs and as insulation under the skin. Excess fat leads to such diseases as diabetes, gout, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and gallbladder problems. There are very few, very fat persons. The reason is that the fittest, not the fattest survive.

The problem now is focused on how to resolve the problem. The problem with most people who want to lose weight is that they have the propensity to concentrate more on getting those numbers lower than what they are seeing now. What happens next is that they strive harder to achieve a lower weight, according to the “ever reliable” result of the weighing scale.

It would be more important to think of the human body as a heat-exchange engine that works on the basic principles of energy physics. The caloric balance equals the total calorie intake minus the total calorie expenditure.

Some of the calories people ingest are used for basal metabolism. As people get old, their bodies require fewer calories for this basic upkeep. Some calories are excreted as waste products. Some go into “work metabolism,” the energy expenditure required for any physical activity.

Hence, if people take in more calories than are used by these functions, there is a definite caloric excess. By the laws of physics, energy is transformed rather than destroyed. In this case, each excess of 3,500 calories is changed into a pound of fat. If people want to reverse this process, they have to burn up 3,500 calories to lose a single pound.

Winning the War Against Fat

When you think of fighting fat with exercise, you probably think of hours of hard, sweaty exertion. If this is the case, then, you will not get any farther. This is because people who are so much into losing more by exerting more effort tend to get bored easily.

Why? Because experts contend that when people exert more effort than what they are capable of doing creates a tendency to develop weariness and ennui. Hence, they give up, stop doing their routine exercises, and end up sulking in the corner with a bag of chips that seems to have all the bad calories in this world.

Now, you might ask, “What should be done instead?” The answer: cross training.

After some intensive studies and experimentation’s, health experts were able to come up with the concept of incorporating cross training in order to overcome or break the monotony or dullness in an exercise program.

Cross training refers to the integration of diverse movements or activities into a person’s conventional exercise routine. The main purpose of incorporating cross training into an exercise program is to avoid overdoing excess muscle damages and to put a stop to an imminent boredom.

Three of the most commonly used activities whenever a person decides to engage into cross training are swimming, running, and cycling.

In cross training, distance is one way to extend your activity as your condition improves. For this reason, you need to traverse a measured distance.

If possible, swim the course and measure the distance. If you will be using a running track, such courses usually are a quarter-mile per lap for a complete circuit.

Cross training offers a variety of benefits for fitness and fat loss. It builds up the strength and endurance of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. It has also some tranquilizing effect on the nerves, and it burns up calories as much as it makes your “losing weight” more bearable.

Cross training has three basic components:

1. Endurance exercises to condition the heart, lungs, and blood vessels and to induce relaxation. These begin with a careful planned walking and jogging regimen, depending on fitness level.

2. Exercises to strengthen the muscles, particularly those important to good posture. These include some activities that are selected to encourage some people who are already burnt out with a particular routine.

3. Exercises to improve joint mobility and prevent or relieve aches and pains. These consist of a series of static stretching positions that are safe and effective for most of the people who wish to try to lose some fat.

Indeed, cross training is a great way to modify the concept of exercising and losing fat without having to endure monotonous activities. In fact, the idea of exercising is to like what you are doing, hence, if you engage into cross training, you will be aware of it that you have already achieve your desired weight.

Boiled down, cross training is, certainly, one way of having fun.

Your bones hang out in a lot of joints. Knee joints. Hip joints. The joints in your fingers and the joints in your toes.

Wherever bones meet, there is also cartilage, a rubbery, protective layer that ensures your joints bend smoothly and painlessly. But even cartilage cannot do this tremendous job alone. A thin membrane called the “synovium” provides fluid that lubricates the moving parts of the joint. When the cartilage wears out of the synovium becomes inflamed, the result is generally a case of “osteoarthritis” or “rheumatoid arthritis.”

In osteoarthritis, the cartilage can be eroded so much that bone does rub on bone. Thos type of arthritis develops gradually over a lifetime as a simple result of the wear and tear placed on your joints over the years. Very few people escape some degree of osteoarthritis, though the severity varies a great deal.

As a matter of fact, if you are over the age of 50, you are likely to have at least one joint affected by osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis affects men and women equally and is by far the most common type of arthritis, with almost 16 million Americans in the list.

In rheumatoid arthritis, damage to the synovium is at the source of trouble. Doctors and researchers are not absolutely sure what causes it, but most think that rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which the immune system actually attacks certain tissues in the body, including those that connect the joints and the synovium.

Rheumatoid arthritis begins with swollen, red, stiff, and painful joints, but it may progress until scar tissue forms in the joint or, in extreme cases, until the bones actually fuse together. Almost 75% of the 2 million people with rheumatoid arthritis in the United States are women. The disease can hit as early as teen years.

Exercising Your Prevention Options

Investing a little time in developing a good weight-bearing low-impact exercise and stretching plan can add up to great results when it comes to staving off arthritis pain. Strong muscles help protect the joints from wear and tear, and the movement keeps joints flexible.

That is why the quest for fitness is at hand, even if you are 50 years and over. However, most Americans over 50 are still right where they always were sitting back and watching others jog by. Most of them contend that that is just for people who have been athletic all their life, or some say exercise is for young people and engaging into exercise will do them more harm than good.

There are still some that insist on excusing their selves in exercise routines because they do not just have time or they have less energy than ever before. These are all lame excuses. Hence, it is time to start to get rid of those pains. Start exercising.

Consequently, preventing arthritis is not an exact science, but physicians have discovered a few ways to lower your risk. Here is how:

1. Do not weight around

The single most important measure anyone can take to prevent osteoarthritis of the knee is to lose weight if they are overweight. Extra weight puts extra stress on your knees. If you are 10 pounds overweight, for example, you put 60 pounds per square inch of extra pressure on your knees every time you take a step. That extra pressure can slowly but surely erode the cartilage in your knees, leading to arthritis.

A study has clearly supported the theory that weight loss weighs in on the side of prevention. In the study, overweight women who lost 11 pounds or more over a 10-year period decreased their risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee by 50%.

2. Stretch those muscles

Any kind of stretching is good as long as you do not bounce, which can lead to a muscle pull. This is according to some of the professors of clinical medicine in New York City.

Try to hold a slow, steady stretch for 15 to 20 seconds, then relax and repeat. It is best to flex up by stretching before any exercise, especially running and walking. But it is also a good idea to stretch each day. Ask your doctor to teach you stretches that focus on potential arthritis trouble spots, such as the knees or the lower back.

3. Walking is always the best exercise

Take a good long walk at least three times a week or participate in a step-aerobics or low-impact exercise routine maximum results. There is no proof that running is bad for the joints, but remember, it may aggravate an injury if you already have one. Just remember to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

The bottom line is that of all the healthful habits, exercise is the most important. This is because people are designed to be active. Hence, it is really important for people to exercise in order to stay healthy and keep those joints free from wear and tear.

Just keep in mind that the unexercised body, even if free from the symptoms of illness or problems like arthritis, is not at its full potential. Hence, start exercising right now!

Embossed or cartilage tissue formation, which can be formed near the toe is called a bunion. It is nothing but the result that comes from wearing too tight and uncomfortable shoes.

The longer you do not pay attention to the disease, the greater is the possibility of complications, which in most cases are deformation of the thumb overlapping the fingers, accompanied by redness, inflammation, swelling, often unbearable pain. In its worst forms bunion at can lead to irregular gait.

As already mentioned, the main cause of the disease are too tight shoes. Equally, the emergence of the bunion can cause more incorrect walking.

Secondary, but still conducive to the emergence of unpleasant body are still poor nutrition retention in the body of excessive amounts of mineral salts, calcium and magnesium, leading to joint damage and deformities also hereditary.

Diseases of bone such as arthritis, osteoarthritis and others. can also be a prerequisite for the development of bunion.

Disease is as simple as it is difficult. The foot needs a rest – to a minimum should reduce prolonged walking, loading, wearing tight shoes and high-heeled ones.

Compliance with the diet may also be helpful. Help more bathrooms come with potion from chamomile or sumac and paw made from clay or molten beeswax.

For training in the gym sure that strengthen the body and health. But they also have a hidden threat that is so far indirect, and communicable diseases. In fact, more dangerous and it is common health problems and workout – due to error, negligence or overload. Most common in this respect are injuries to muscles, joints and tendons.

What are sports injuries?
Sometimes also known as “athletic injuries”, the majority of sports injuries are similar to injuries that normally occur in non-athletes. However, the key fact that differentiates them from the other general type of injuries is that such injuries may have occurred during sporting activities. Many are common to a variety of sports.

What are the risk factors for sports injuries in arthritis?
With respect to arthritis in particular, following risk factors may contribute to the occurrence of sports injuries:
Age: Elderly are more prone to sports injuries, in fact, any injuries as compared to the young and middle age people.
Weight: Obese or overweight people with arthritis have a tremendously increased risk of developing a sports injury.
Occupation: Certain occupations such as those involving overuse of the joints or heavy weight handling can also make a person prone to such injuries.
Malnutrition / improper diet: Lack of healthy, well balanced diet will result in improper nutrition and deficiency of important minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron. All of these can collectively increase the risk of sports injury in arthritis sufferers.

Women: Studies and clinical trials show that women, especially of post-menopausal age (after 45) are more vulnerable to sports injuries. This is probably because of the fact that they are also at higher risk of developing osteoporosis.

Examples of sports injuries

Strain and tearing of muscles and their tendons are injuries common in the gym.

Actually there is a very thin line between being the norm and pathology.

Moment of deviation, delay of one hand in motion, changing center of gravity … and now you must visit the doctor.

And if one goes by stretching the muscle in a few days or weeks, often breaking it puts the end of many careers.

Everyone knows what muscles – those specific bodies that ensure and implement our movements.

Injuries do they do the opposite: prevent normal movement and exercise.

Tendons form the transitional tissue which attaches muscle to bone or fascia.

Their characteristic is its elasticity and stretch their hard, for this reason strain on them is a painful injury.

Stretching is a type of injury, where tissue for some time very strained, but the force is not sufficient to affect their integrity. In muscles that can occur when they are subjected to sudden and severe contraction in this process, engaging them and support system – ligaments. In practice, without having a complete tear, we micro-tears, stretching of the muscle fibers, often bruising and swelling. Symptoms here are pain, swelling, weakness, and therefore reduced functionality of the working group of muscles.

Tearing of a muscle or tendon caused by acute stress on the muscle, non traffic, etc. In practice, rupture occurs where when applied less force would have a strain, ie damage, just a serious injury. When the site is operated and prepare timely, connective tissue ingrowth and take appropriate measures, the trauma becomes chronic, turned into a hernia. When an injury of this kind is important to immediately cool place, preferably with water or ice packs. After 24 to 48 hours ice pack is replaced by another, most often against such flows. It is time to visit a doctor.

Conclusion
Once an injury has been sustained, there are still measures that may prevent arthritis. Avoiding strenuous or demanding activities may decrease the chances of arthritis. In many cases, the problem can be surgically corrected, restoring proper mechanics and thereby hopefully preventing arthritis. However, this is needed only in extreme cases.
If arthritis does result, there are also many ways to treat the symptoms. The first is activity modification (lifestyle and dietary changes). Occasionally, orthotics or braces may help. Medications such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen may offer relief, although, only temporarily. Physical therapy, including exercises, is also helpful. New over-the-counter nutritional supplements such as Provailen may also help. Occasional joint injections may give some relief. When all other measures have failed, surgery ranging from arthroscopy to joint replacement can be performed.