Lose Weight Naturally: Avoid The Fat Free Trap
Feb 1st
In my research for ways to lose weight naturally I came across a paradox. In the last several years Americans have consumed significantly less fat yet Americans have become the most overweight people in the world.
How can this be? More and more nutritionists and health care professionals are coming to the conclusion that the consumers’ love affair with the low-fat and no-fat foods is responsible for this paradoxical phenomenon. In other words, Americans consume huge amounts of these low or fat free foods. That has resulted in the general fat reduction. However, the increased consumption of the low or fat free food is believed to be a major factor for the alarming rise of obesity among Americans and a reason for the paradox.
In fat free or low fat foods the “fat” component must be removed or replaced, yet the flavor and the consistency of the product must remain palatable and similar to the natural product. To produce the fat free alternatives, useless carbohydrate additives or chemicals are added to achieve the delectable quality. The caloric equivalents of these altered products are often similar to the natural products and sometimes they even exceed the original number. There are instances where the caloric equivalents are significantly reduced but this is frequently achieved with toxic carbohydrate replacements such as aspartame.
Many of the fat altered products are labeled and/or promoted as healthy alternatives. An unsuspecting consumer who is honestly trying to either lose weight naturally or simply to eat healthy foods believes that these products will help his cause. The “healthy” fat altered foods project a sense of comfort to the consumer who may feel that it is alright to consume a larger quantity. It appears that as a result of this false sense of security, Americans have indeed reduced their intake of fat but are doing it at the expense of their over-consumption of unhealthy carbohydrates.
To lose weight naturally, artificially produced or fat free foods are not suitable for one’s diet. On the contrary such foods may jeopardize your efforts to lose weight. If you feel that you absolutely have to use these foods, please make sure that they do not contain sugars as the firsts 5 ingredients listed on the product label. I hope this information will prompt you to re-examine the fat altered foods, remove them from your diet and begin your journey to lose weight naturally and once and for all.
By: Dita Irvine
Article source: http://www.goarticles.com/
About the Author
My daughter’s battle with weigh loss inspired me to research the topic that touches so many people. By training I am a scientific researcher. I would like to help by sharing with you interesting and useful information that may help you on your weight loss journey. Please visit my websites Tips To Lose Weight Naturally or Lose Weight Naturally
Insomnia Help: Medication Versus Natural Remedies
Feb 1st
Insomnia is an increasingly common sleep disorder in the world today, with more and more men and women reporting occasional or regular sleep disturbance. The good news is that most sleep disorders can be treated effectively without medication, simply by establishing good sleep habits that teach your body and mind how to fall asleep and how to stay asleep for the entire night.
Most people, at some point in their lives, experience some type of acute insomnia – that is, sleeplessness that may occur infrequently, often as a result of medication, stress or lifestyle changes.
Chronic insomnia, on the other hand, is defined as sleeplessness that occurs at least several nights each week for a period of several months. In some instances, an underlying health condition or illness may be the cause of chronic insomnia. A visit to your health care provider can help determine if an illness or other health condition is the root cause. But many men and women who suffer from chronic insomnia experience sleeplessness as the result of an inability to effectively cope with the stress of everyday life. For these individuals, as well as those who suffer from acute insomnia that is not related to medication or temporary illness, learning to modify existing behaviors and adopt new habits can go along way toward encouraging a healthy sleep routine.
• Reserve your bed for sleep and intimacy. Don’t use your bed as a place to do work or watch television. By using your bed for sleep, your body and mind will begin to automatically associate the bed with going to sleep.
• Decorate your bedroom for sleep and comfort. Remove electronics, like TVs and computers, and make sure the bedding, including pillows and blankets, are comfortable. Invest in a good mattress. Make sure your bedroom is also comfortably heated and cooled. If outside noises bother you, consider adding a white noise machine, or wearing small, comfortable earplugs. If light is a problem, try hanging lined shades or curtains or wearing a lightweight sleep mask.
• Avoid alcohol, as well as caffeinated beverages, before sleep. While most people recognize caffeine as a stimulant, alcohol can also interfere with sleep by causing wakefulness during the night. Nicotine is also a stimulant.
• Avoid eating heavy meals prior to bedtime. While a light snack an hour or more before bedtime probably won’t interfere with sleep, a heavy meal can cause wakefulness, and can also cause indigestion. It’s also a good idea to avoid any foods that may cause indigestion when lying down.
• Exercise regularly, and at the right time. Exercise can help reduce stress that may be interfering with your sleep. But exercising too close to bedtime can actually make it difficult to fall asleep. Experts suggest exercising no closer than three or four hours prior to bedtime.
• To bathe, or not to bathe? Some people find a warm bath before bed relaxing, while others find it keeps them awake. The best way to know if a bath can help you relax is to add it to your routine and see how it affects you.
• Establish a regular routine – and repeat it each night. The body and mind crave routine and regularity to establish inner rhythms that can aid sleep. Find what works for you – reading a book, listening to music – before bed, and then stick to it.
• If you find yourself unable to sleep, try getting up and doing a relaxing activity, like reading, until you feel sleepy.
• Learn to meditate or to practice self-hypnosis. Guided imagery – imagining a peaceful scene and picturing yourself there – can be an effective sleep technique when practiced regularly.
In some cases of acute insomnia, or while behavior modification is under way for acute or chronic insomnia sufferers, some health care providers may prescribe sleep aid medication to help individuals fall asleep or remain asleep longer. However, sleep medications present certain side effects. Some individuals may become addicted to sleep aids, while others may develop a tolerance, resulting in an unsafe increase in the amount of medication necessary to achieve sleep. Many individuals also report feelings of sleepiness during the day when taking these medications. For these reasons, most sleep specialists and other health care providers only prescribe medications when other interventions fail, or as a stopgap during behavior modification.
Insomnia is not an uncommon condition. As stresses increase in daily life, more and more men and women are experiencing the effects of insomnia. Fortunately, for most men and women changes can have a significant effect on resolving most sleeplessness. They key is to identify causes which may be interfering with your sleep, and to maintain regularity when establishing new, helpful behaviors.
By: Healthmate
Article source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Karen Zabel is a freelance writer who writes about self improvement and insomnia help.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid for Developing Great Muscles
Jan 29th
CLA is three to five times more prevalent in grass-fed animals than in those who feed on grain. However, making the switch to meat from grass-fed animals may not be the simplest way to get CLA. CLA weight loss supplements are made with synthetic versions of the fat and can be found at stores that specialize in nutritional supplements. But did you know there is a specific type of natural trans fat that can stimulate fat loss and promote lean muscle building. This natural trans fat actually happens in the meat and milk from animals like goats, sheep, venison, bison, cattle. It is called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and is known to help prevent cancer and burns fat.
Enhancement to the immune system. Being able to enhance a person’s immune system is a positive benefit to anyone whether they suffer from a thyroid condition or not. Certainly supplements such as Myoplex Deluxe which is often used by bodybuilders and athletes do so because they know that it contains the CLA which can help them to recover and repair any injuries after they have worked out. It also positively impacts immune function, and may inhibit lean tissue wasting caused by cytokines. What this translates to as far as bodybuilding is concerned is that you may actually increase lean muscle mass, reduce body fat, and boost immune function overall.
Maybe a little bit, but it’s not worth it. Conjugated linoleic acid should be used to help you on your way to a healthy lifestyle, not in place of a healthy lifestyle. Remember, the only way to truly lose weight and keep it off for a lifetime is to change your lifestyle; to eat right and exercise. It’s true…supplements can help you achieve better results…but you won’t achieve any results if you don’t change your lifestyle! Many recent studies and surveys conducted by scientists have proven that women who lift weights two or more times a week can dramatically reduce their abdominal fat. Weights lifts are the exercise which makes your muscles grown strong and large. This can burn your calories from your body by increasing the body metabolism Calories must be used as energy, but in our normal life this calories are stored as fats, which deposited in your belly regions.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison was one of them. One of the conclusions of his research was that burgers can be cooked safely if done so with care, namely trying to reduce the burning of the meat or of the juices coming from it. This can be done by using proper cooking temperatures, turning the food often to prevent charring, using leaner meats and handling them without pressing or piercing the pieces, since this will cause the flavorful juices to drip out. The basic thing to remember is that it’s not the grilling that is unhealthy, it’s the burning. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The research has indicated it may also help you to maintain healthy triglyceride & cholesterol levels and help you keep a healthy heart and veins. It has also shown some promising signs of being an anti-cancer agent.
By: Andrew Carl
Article source: http://www.goarticles.com/
About the Author
Read about Bodybuilding Supplements and also Barbell Bench Press and Bent Over Barbell Row
Risk Factors For Heart Diseases
Jan 29th
General Characteristics
In the last decade, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of deaths from heart attacks. In 1970, nearly a million Americans died of cardiovascular disease; now the annual toll is below 600,000. The cause for this improved mortality rate are unknown, but most experts believe that the increased awareness of cardiovascular risk factors and their correction have played an important role in cutting the death toll.
What are the risks?
Eventually, about half of all Americans develop some form of heart disease. The most common is a hardening of the arteries caused by a buildup of fatty deposits along the vessel lining. This is a slow process that usually takes many years to develop into serious disease. If the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle, become severely blocked by the fatty deposits, warning symptoms of heart disease may appear. These include shortness of breath, chest pains (angina pectoris) that are relieved by rest, or a combination of the two. In many people, however, there are no warning signs — the first symptom of heart disease may be a heart attack. This is why it is important to identify and correct possible risk factors before they reach this stage.
In recent years, a number of these risk factors have been identified. Some of them, such as age, sex and family history of heart disease, are things over which we have no control. But there also are a number of factors that can be modified or eliminated, and such action appears to reduce the portability of a heart attack. The three most important controllable risk factors are high blood pressure, high levels of blood cholesterol and cigarette smoking. In fact, many experts attribute the recent decline in cardiovascular deaths to the fact that more people than ever before are now being treated for high blood pressure. Changes in the American diet that have reduced the consumption of butter, eggs and animal fats – and consequently lowered the average blood cholesterol — and a reduction in smoking by middle-aged men also are credited with lowering the toll. Since the likelihood of developing heart disease increases when two or more risk factors are present, modifying the controllable ones helps reduce the hazard of those over which we have no control.
Role of Diet
Studies have shown that population groups whose diets are rich in cholesterol and other animal and dairy fats have more heart attacks that those whose diets are low in these saturated fats. Americans, whose diets are high in meat and eggs, have a higher incidence of heart disease than the Japanese, who end to eat very little meat and other animal and dairy fats.
Studies have also shown that high blood cholesterol — more than 200 miligrams per mililiter of blood — can be lowered by modifying the diet. This means eating more fish and poultry while cutting consumption of red meat, eggs, butter and other dairy fats, and increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and cereal grains. Substituting polyunsaturated cooking oils (corn, safflower or sunflower oil, for example) for lard or hardened shortening, and using margarines whose labels indicate a high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fats (for example, 4 to 2) instead of butter or margarines with less favorable ratios (e.g., equal or 2 to 3) also help to lower blood cholesterol.
Role of High Blood Pressure
People with high blood pressure have a marked increase in heart attacks and strokes. The cause of most high blood pressure is unkown, but it usually can be lowered by the use of antihypertensive drugs, reduced salt intake, and weight loss in people who are overweight. Controlling high blood pressure is an important preventive measure because it increases the work load of the heart and also directly contributes to hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis).
Role of Cigarette Smoking
Since 1964, when the Surgeon General reported that cigarette smokers on the average had a 70 percent greater chance of having a heart attack than nonsmokers, many other studies have confirmed that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor. This risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked, and recent studies hae found that low-tar, low-nicotine cigarettes do not lower the risk of heart disease. Stopping smoking is now considered one of the best things you can do to help prevent a heart attack.
Other Risk Factors
Sedentary life style. Although evidence linking a sedentary life style to increased likelihood of heart disease is indirect, physically active people are known to have wider coronary arteries, which presumably would not be as prone to blockage as those sedentary people.
Type A personality. In recent years, much discussion has focused on the relationship between the type A personality, characterized by anxiety, impatience and perfectionism, and the risk of a heart attack. Although many assessments have confirmed this relationship, scientific proof definitely linking personality type and the development of heart disease is yet to come.
Diabetes. People with diabetes, a serious disease in which the body cannot regulate its blood sugar (glucose), have a higher incidence of coronary disease and heart attacks. The incidence is increased further if the diabetic has other risk factors.
Obesity. the Framingham Study recently concluded that obesity alone increases the risk of heart disease — a hypothesis that has been debated for years. Since obesity often coexists with hypertension, diabetes and a sedentary life style, weight control is an important factor in reducing a number of coronary risk factors.
Sex and age. Some risk factors, such as age and aging and a person´s sex, are unavoidable. Statistics show that men under the age of 45 years are 10 times as likely to develop coronary artery disease as women in the same age group. Between the ages of 45 and 60 years, however, the sex difference diminishes. After age 60 years, the incidence of coronary artery disease is about equally distributed between men and women.
Family history. An inherited susceptibility is also an important risk factor that cannot be avoided. Some manifestations, such as high blood pressure or an inherited tendency to have very high blood blood cholesterol levels (familial hyper-cholesterolemia) can be controlled by drugs and diet.
Summing Up
The relationship between heart disease and certain risk factors, such as high blood cholesterol, hypertension and cigarette smoking, has been established by many studies. Because coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death (via heart attacks) in the United States, prevention takes on a special importance. Reduction of dietary fat, cessation of cigarette smoking, control of hypertension, weight loss and exercise are all steps that help check the development of atherosclerotic coronary disease and reduce the risk of heart attack.
By: Amaury H
Article source: http://www.articledashboard.com
I am the owner and author of Hoodia Gordonii Side Effects. You can find the original article here: Risk Factors for Heart Disease. If you’d like to read more of my articles, please visit my site!
HNPCC – A Hereditary Cancer Syndrome
Jan 23rd
HNPCC stands for Hereditary Non Polyposis Colon Cancer – HNPCC is a hereditary syndrome that is caused when a person inherits a mutation in one of five different genes. HNPCC is also called Lynch Syndrome, after Dr. Henry Lynch who realized that it was a separate disorder from other hereditary colon cancers. HNPCC is not a form of cancer, rather a syndrome that puts people at high risk for colon cancer. If people born with HNPCC do not undergo regular screening beginning at an early age, they have an 80% chance of developing colon cancer. This type of cancer (HNPCC) accounts for 5-6% of all colon cancers.
How is HNPCC Inherited?
Parents with HNPCC have a 50% chance of passing the HNPCC gene to each of their children. Individuals who do not inherit the gene cannot pass it to their own children. Unfortunately, some individuals with HNPCC do not have an affected parent. These individuals, who are the first to have the condition, are referred to as having a new altered gene mutation. Once they acquire the mutated gene, they can pass this HNPCC gene to their children.
What Causes HNPCC?
The cause of HNPCC is caused by damaged genes. Specifically, there have been genetic markers identified which is reflective of micro satellite instability. The DNA mismatch repair genes have been identified as HMSH2, HMLH1, HPMS1, and HPMS2. If you have been identified as having HNPCC, then one or more of these genes will show micro satellite instability. Patients with HNPCC usually develop colon cancer at an earlier age than the general population. There is a propensity for right-sided lesions.
How is HNPCC Diagnosed?
HNPCC is diagnosed usually after one or more family members develop colon cancer. The family history is examined to see if there is cause and effect. This is usually accomplished by genetic counseling. The primary method that doctors and genetic counselors determine if you have HNPCC is by looking at the types of cancer and age at which cancer developed in you or your family.
If the genetic counselor you or your family does have HNPCC, the next step usually involves looking at tumors from people in your family (if they are available). If the tumors suggest that there is a detectable genetic error predisposing your family to HNPCC, the next step is a genetic test to try to identify the error. If someone in your family is found to have an error in one of the genes associated with HNPCC, then other family members can be tested for the same error to find out if they too have inherited the predisposition to HNPCC.
What Can I Do?
If you suspect you might have HNPCC, the best things you can do are research your family history and then meet with a genetic counselor. An ideal method is to create a flowchart of your family history going back 3 or more generations. List the relatives and determine if any of them had colon cancer, and if they had died from the disease. Then schedule an appointment with a genetic counselor to review the information. She will ask additional questions and determine if a genetic test is recommended. If someone in your family has recently been diagnosed with the cancer, then they are an ideal candidate to have the test performed. They will need to provide a tumor sample.
Colon Cancer Prevention through Screening
If your family has a history of colon cancer or you have the HNPCC gene, then you must get screenings done earlier than the general population, and more frequently. The standard method is colonoscopy. With colonoscopy, the doctor will examine the colon and small bowel with a flexible fiber optic camera. The doctor will search for small growths called polyps. If any are encountered, they will be removed during the procedure and sent for biopsy. Polyps are benign when they first develop but will eventually evolve in cancer if left undisturbed.
Final Thoughts
Depending on your family history, you could have a colonoscopy beginning at age 20. The general population is recommended to have a colonoscopy at age 50 and every 5 years thereafter if no problems or family history of cancel is evident. The frequency and age to start will need to be decided with consultation with your family and your doctor. If you have any symptoms such as dark purple colored stool, blood in the stool or rectal bleeding, consult your doctor immediately. It could mean the difference between life and death.
By: William F. Smith
Article source: http://www.goarticles.com/
About the Author
William writes articles for various topics. His family has a history of colon cancer and was tested for the HNPCC gene. His specialty is dog health but he has various other interests. You can visit his newest websites at John Deere Snow Thrower and Toro Snow Thrower.
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