HERE’S THE SCOOP ON A TYPICAL DIET

Your body is smarter than you think. It knows when you are hungry and is equipped with a survival mechanism. If you cut your calories less than 1200 a day, your metabolism will definitely slow down to conserve energy. When you slow down this calorie burning ability, your body will no longer need these calories as before you started the diet. It’s not fair, is it?

Your body also holds on to fat until you absolutely need it, and with most diets the weight you lose is typically muscle and water. You don’t want to lose muscle mass because muscle burns calories. When you lose muscle you slow down your metabolism even more.

You know the feeling….most diets usually leave you hungry, tired and craving all the foods you miss. It’s hard to stay on this diet, and most people will usually fall off the diet and go back to their old eating habits.

Let’s face it….for most of us the pounds usually creep back.

There is hope for people who want to lose weight. Think about losing inches instead. Don’t think about dieting; think about a healthier way to feel satisfied by maintaining your energy level and less stomach grumbling throughout the day.

You want a healthy inch loss system that works by preserving your lean body mass promoting your weight loss from the fat that you want to get rid of. When you maintain lean body mass, you will keep your metabolism cooking. You want to be able to control your hunger, boost your energy level and support your metabolism, and stay satisfied, not deprived!

Another critical ingredient to help with the success of inch loss is leucine - an essential amino acid that help your body preserve muscle mass while you lose weight from fat! This also helps protect you from the drop in metabolic rate that happens with most diets.

Eating healthy, exercise and incorporating a healthy inch loss program will make a healthier, happier you!

diets, inch loss, leucine, weight loss

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

During the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), several studies have highlighted the benefits of getting good nights of sleep. Researchers from various scientific centers conducted analyses, which showed that lack of sleep is linked with major health defects. It is already a fact that chronic sleep insufficiency becomes more and more prevalent in the modern society and this might lead to important public health implications.

One of the studies conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor on 341 families with a child in second through fifth grade found that children identified to be at risk for sleep-disordered breathing are more likely to experience anxiety, known to be associated with hyperactivity, compared with children not at risk for sleep-disordered breathing. These findings were just very preliminary according to the researchers, as more study is needed to confirm them.

Another study presented at the meeting belonged to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Xianchen Liu, MD, PhD. The study, focusing on 335 participants between 7 and 17 years of age, found that short sleep time is associated with obesity in children and adolescents. Being overweight is often associated with diabetes and heart risks, conditions that continue to make more victims even among children and adolescents. Researchers also found that sleep deprivation is also linked to behavioral problems, leading to poor academic performance and poor relationships.

What exactly led to obesity in the case of those sleep deprived was the subject of another study by researchers at the University of Chicago led by Plamen Peney, which concluded that people who don’t get enough sleep often indulge on excessive sneaking. Excessive sneaking means more calories, and more calories, more weight.

Also related to children, the researchers at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, led by Kristen Stone found that prenatal drug exposure such as nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, opiates, is linked to greater sleep problems in children. These children were more likely to have sleep problems as adults, the researchers said.

Another study at the meeting looked at the way marriages influences women’s sleep and found that those involved in unhappy unions were about 50 percent more likely to suffer symptoms of insomnia than their happily married counterparts. Happy marriages appear to benefit women’s sleep time. On the other side, the findings leaves open the question of whether an unhappy marriage makes it harder to sleep or whether poor sleep can ruin a perfectly good marriage.

Pierre Philip of Universite Bordeaux in France, author of another study on the importance of sleep, found that drivers who use to drive during night time, depriving themselves of sleep, were more likely to experience fatigue, which impaired their driving performance. That might further lead to car crashes and, worse, to death.

Sleep was also found to lead to a healthy aging when not interrupted or helped by sleeping pills, researchers at the University Of California, San Diego. The study focusing on nearly 2,300 women found that those who didn’t sleep during the day and did not suffer of insomnia or did not use sleeping pills had more chances to “successfully” age.

Overall, researchers attending the meeting highlighted the need of getting the right amount of sleep every night, about eight-nine hours for adults and up to 12 hours for children.

Also, it is recommendable that you have the same hour to go sleep, avoid exercise around sleep time, avoid eating too much around that hour, but, at the same time, you should not go to bed hungry. Leave your worries at the bedroom’s door is another piece of advice you can take. They might cause hours of insomnia, research shows. Find every way possible to improve your sleep, as good sleep means good health.

© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia

Health & Wellness Haven recommends a natural supplement that promotes a state of relaxation and restful sleep.

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 6 PA-Men’s-Health-Week

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – The Pennsylvania Department of Health is recognizing National Men’s Health Week, an initiative to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and to encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. The observance is June 9 - 15, leading up to and including Father’s Day.

“Men need to become more aware of their health and health care needs,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Calvin B. Johnson. “The fact remains that men, on average, die six years earlier than women and yet, so many of the health risks they encounter are preventable and treatable if diagnosed early through testing and screening.”

According to research by the National Men’s Health Network, men have higher rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and suicide. Men are also less likely to adopt healthy behaviors, such as good eating habits, and they often show great reluctance in seeking help for physical or psychological problems or participating in screening programs.

Screening tests can find diseases early, which is important because it makes treatment easier and there’s a greater chance of a full recovery. Some common screenings include blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, colorectal cancer and prostate cancer.

Dr. Johnson encourages men to talk to their doctor about which tests are most appropriate and how often they should be performed.

To learn more about the Department of Health and its services, visit www.health.state.pa.us or call 1-877-PA HEALTH.

CONTACT: Stacy Kriedeman
(717) 787-1783
SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Health

Health & Wellness Haven recommends nutritional supplementation to build good health and strong bodies for all men. Supplementing your diet with pure, all natural vitamins, minerals and protein will improve your overall health.

Lack of vitamin D may cause juvenile diabetes

Updated Thu. Jun. 5 2008 8:11 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Children who live in countries at higher latitudes, such as Canada, where there is less sunlight for much of the year, are far more likely to develop juvenile diabetes than kids who live at or near the equator, new research says.

The findings suggest that a lack of vitamin D, which the body produces when ultraviolet light hits the skin, has a role in the development of the disease. Vitamin D can also be obtained from supplements and from some foods.

“We see this very characteristic signature that makes it unmistakeable that vitamin D deficiency is the cause of childhood type 1 diabetes,” said study author Dr. Cedric F. Garland, professor of family and preventive medicine at University of California, San Diego.

Garland believes that vitamin D protects the cells that produce insulin. In type 1 diabetes, the body is unable to produce insulin, or cannot effectively use the insulin it creates.

Garland conducted the research along with scientists from UC San Diego and the Moores Cancer Center. The findings were published in the online edition of the journal Diabetologia.

Dr. Shayne P. Taback of the Manitoba Institute of Child Health in Winnipeg said the study adds strong evidence to the debate that vitamin D plays a role in the development of type 1 diabetes.

“The conclusion that vitamin D treatment may make a significant dent in how many children may actually get the disease I think needs to be tested, but is potentially very exciting,” Taback said.

Taback believes that a clinical trial will be able to conclusively determine if a vitamin D deficiency directly causes the development of the disease.

According to supplementary information that accompanied the study, type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, is second only to asthma as the most common chronic disease in children.

According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada, more than 200,000 Canadians have type 1 diabetes. Canada has the sixth highest rate of the disease in children under 14 years of age in the world. Canadian juvenile diabetes rates are rising by three to five per cent per year.

The disease can lead to blindness in young and middle-aged adults, and other complications such as kidney failure.

The researchers suggested that children take a vitamin supplement of 1,000 international units (IU) per day, as well as get five to 10 minutes of sun exposure a day, to prevent the development of the disease.

But some doctors say that such a recommendation may be premature. Researchers are planning a major international study to test out the theory that vitamin D prevents juvenile diabetes.

Samantha Vineberg, whose five-year-old daughter Joelle has type one diabetes, says vitamin D supplements appear to be a low-risk option.

“If there is no harm in giving your child the vitamin D, then to me it’s a preventative measure,” she said.

Based on a report by CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip.

SUNBURN….OUCH!

Dermatologists are unanimous on the best advice about sunburn: “Don’t get one!” That deep, dark tan Americans worship as the hallmark of health and beauty can be very hazardous for your skin. Overexposure to sunlight for prolonged periods of time damages the skin, leads to premature aging, and can cause skin cancer.

About 50 percent of all cancers occur on the skin. Sunlight ranks as a major cause of skin cancer. Malignancies tend to develop on parts of the skin most exposed to the sun, especially the face. And evidence is conclusive that in susceptible individuals, prolonged ultraviolet radiation leads to skin degeneration with a breakdown of the skin’s elastic fibers. In other words, today’s deep tan creates tomorrow’s deep wrinkles.

THE LEATHERY LOOK

Sun damage to the skin is irreversible. Over-exposure to the sun is the single most destructive factor you can inflict on your skin. It becomes dry and wrinkled, with a coarse, off-color leathery look. The sun, dermatologists now realize, can make skin look old before its time. Aging is, as yet, an inevitable human process. But wrinkling and other changes such as brown spots, mottling, skin thinning and senile-keratosis (patches that are thickened, reddened, scaly, prickly), occurs in direct proportion to the skin’s exposure to sunlight. Furriers tan hides to make leather by stretching the animal skin and drying it. The same effect occurs when you over-expose your skin to the sun.

ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT

Ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun are what damages the skin. Sunscreens have been developed to absorb, reflect, or scatter dangerous UV rays away from the skin to prevent its penetration to the dermis while, at the same time, permitting the passage of some less harmful tanning rays.

SPF - Sun Protection Factor - refers to the amount of sunlight required to produce a sunburn when no sunscreen is present versus the amount needed to produce the same level of sunburn through a sunscreen. A product with an SPF of 4 enables people to stay in the sun without burning four times longer than they could without the sunscreen while permitting some tanning.

Many dermatologist believe that if people fully understood skin cancer and aging, applying a sunscreen would be as much a part of daily hygiene as brushing the teeth or applying deodorant.

Look for these healthy products to avoid unnecessary sunburns:

SPF 30 for Body

Protect and prevent premature aging of your skin. This sunscreen provides broad-spectrum protection against both harmful UVA and UVB rays. Filters out sun’s harsh rays to protect against skin damage. High protection against sunburn for blondes, redheads and those with fair skin.

LIP CONDITIONER

An all-family, all-weather, all-day product. For guarding against sunburned lips, it’s valuable on the beach. SPF 15 lip treatment is waterproof and protects lips by holding moisture in.

DAILY SPF 15 MOISTURIZER

Protect your skin daily with a moisturizer that nourishes and protects your face with antioxidant vitamins. Skin is intensely moisturized and fine lines and wrinkles are visibly diminished. Nonirritating SPF 15 sunscreen - hypoallergenic.

SUNSCREEN TIPS:

• Apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before sun exposure, again after swimming and exercising
• Use sunscreen liberally. Too thinly applied you may be getting less protection than the label says
• Wear sunscreen under makeup daily
• Reapply sunscreen every two hours when out in the sun, more often if you perspire heavily in hot weather
• Don’t forget to apply it to where you part your hair
• Always protect your lips with sunscreen

Certain drugs such as tranquilizers, diuretics, antihistamines, and certain deodorant soaps make your skin more sensitive to sunlight. If you’re taking any medication, ask your doctor before you step into the sun.

Information obtained From The Field, October ‘98