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Calorie Density: key to losing weight: A year-long clinical trial by Penn State researchers shows that diets focusing on foods that are low in calorie density can promote healthy weight loss while helping people to control hunger. The calorie density (or energy density) of a food is a measurement of the average calories per weight (gram or ounce) of that food. Foods that are high in water and low in fat such as fruits, vegetables, soup, lean meat, and low-fat dairy products are low in calorie density and provide few calories per bite. Such foods include vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Combining these foods with high calorie-density foods such as pasta or meat can lower the overall calorie density of a meal thus making it healthier. The biggest factor in determining calorie density is the water content of a food. Water increases volume of a food without adding calories. The calorie density of foods influences your hunger, satiety and food intake. By eating foods with lower calorie density, you will feel full - but have eaten fewer calories. According to a recent research finding choosing foods that are low in calorie density help in losing weight, without the restrictive messages of other weight loss diets The researchers compared the effects of two diets one reduced in fat, the other high in water-rich foods as well as reduced in fat in 71 obese women aged 22 to 60. The participants were taught by dietitians to make appropriate food choices for a diet low in calorie density, but unlike most diets, they were not assigned daily limits for calories.

Weight Regain After Weight Loss: The formula for successful weight loss is deceptively simple. To lose weight you must burn off more energy than you take in from food. You will lose one pound of body fat every time you eat 3500 fewer calories than your body burns off. To achieve this, you don't need to know the exact amount of calories your body is burning off or taking in. As long as you correctly guess you're eating fewer calories than your body is burning off, you will lose weight. You need to determine how many calories your body are burning off everyday. By doing this you will be able to properly adjust the calories you are eating to maintain control of your weight. You also need an easy and inexpensive way to determine how much of your weight loss is muscle and how much is body fat. The more muscle, the more calories you burn at rest. Factors responsible for weight regain: Biological factor - To a large extent, the weight we are is determined by genes. More than 300 genes (so far) have been linked with obesity. Where our fat is deposited, how insulin is regulated, how much of various hormones our bodies secrete, and many, many more. Similarly, the regulation of appetite is complex. It's important to understand what is known about it, because what we eat and how we eat it can affect appetite on a short-term basis. One example: a major short term satiety regulator is cholecystokinin, or CCK. When we eat fat or protein, CCK is released, slowing down the digestive process and dampening our appetites. Interestingly, soluble fiber can slow down the breakdown of CCK, keeping us feeling satisfied for longer.

Top 10 steps to lower risk of Heart disease: The heart is a muscle that pumps blood and its essential cargo of oxygen and nutrients around the body. Like all muscles, it needs oxygen to work properly. Its supply comes in via the two powerful coronary arteries that network deep into the heart muscle. When something goes wrong with this supply, the condition is life threatening. The term heart disease covers many conditions, including abnormal heart structure, valve defects and defects with the ""pacemaker"", which triggers a regular heartbeat. However, the biggest killer of the western world is atherosclerosis - the build up of fatty sludge in the coronary arteries. This sludge, called atheroma, consists of cholesterol, proteins and tissue debris. It gradually narrows the arteries and restricts the vital supply of oxygen - rich blood to the heart. It also reduces the flexibility of the arteries, which can increase blood pressure and crack the normally smooth surface of the artery wall. Cracks create dangerous blood clots, which can block the artery completely. A variety of risk factors bring about atherosclerosis. The mixture of narrowed vessels, high blood pressure and blood clots is known as coronary artery disease. It sets the scene for pain and heart attack. Check out, What YOU can do to lower the risk for heart disease. LOWERING YOUR RISK OF HEART DISEASE: What to do: Why? Regular exercise increases beneficial high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which protects against atherosclerosis. It also increases heart efficiency, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, balances blood clotting factors and reduce stress. How? Take 15 minutes of moderate exercise (gardening, housework, brisk walking, dancing or swimming ) twice day five days a week. Moderate exercise should make you sweat slightly and breathe more heavily than usual.

A Plateful of heart-smart eating: For a long time heart disease has had a reputation of a strictly male malady. But it has been observed that, once women reach menopause, this advantage quickly dissipates. In fact, 11 times as many women die from heart disease as from breast cancer. The question arises as to, what happens at menopause that causes heart disease risk to skyrocket among women? Doctors suspect it has something to do with the hormone estrogen. Estrogen circulation in the bloodstream helps keep the arteries clear by regulating cholesterol levels - increasing ""good"" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol while lowering "" bad "" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. But as women pass through menopause, their body's production of estrogen dwindles - and with it goes some protection from heart disease. There are other health and lifestyle issues which can pump up your risk of heart disease, too. Among them are family history (a parent diagnosed with heart disease before age 60), diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, being overweight, physical inactivity, smoking, and high levels of stress - and not necessarily in that order. Any one is a serious risk in and of itself, and the overall risk only climbs as the risk factors add up. Exercise, such as walking for four hours a week, can protect your heart. None of these risk factors, however, is a guarantee that you're going to develop heart disease in your lifetime. In fact, every one can be offset to some degree simply by eating right.

Yoga for a Healthy Heart: Eight million women today are living with heart disease, and they're developing it at younger and younger ages. Stress is considered to be a major contributing factor. Yoga is a gentle form of exercise. It is not normally aerobic, and does not place a strain on the heart or other organs. A wide variety of yoga positions can be done in bed, sitting down, lying on the floor or standing. Yoga and circulation: The blood stream is the body's major transport system, carrying red blood cells to ferry oxygen to the tissues and remove carbon dioxide, white cells to fight infections, nutrients, messenger chemicals, and so on. Efficient circulation depends on a healthy heart and on elastic and unobstructed blood vessels, from the major arteries and veins to the tiny capillaries. The inverted poses, benefit the circulatory system. Nauli and Kapalabhati massage the heart, while the alternate increase and decrease in pressure on the heart created by the asana sequence helps to build a stronger heart muscle. Yoga and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD): Adopting a Yoga Lifestyle which includes a vegetarian diet and a no tobacco lifestyle makes the progression of CAD slower or make severe CAD patients recover faster. Yoga also helps you cope with stress and Anxiety which are also common causes of CAD. Yoga practice gives you a deeper knowledge of yourself which often lead to a healthy lifestyle and the elimination of the modifiable risk factors for CAD.

Iron deficiency and hair loss: One of the most common causes of hair loss in pre-menopausal women is not hormones, but a nutritional deficiency, with depleted iron stores being one of the most important factor. Iron deficiency is defined as having a ferritin level of under 40ng/ml or iron percent saturation under 20%. Iron is found mainly in the blood, and according to Dr Michael Sharon, author of Nutrients A-Z 'During one period, a woman will lose around 10-15 mg of iron, while throughout a pregnancy around 600-1000mg will be lost. Iron is the mineral that occurs in the greatest amount in the blood. The most important function of Iron in the human body is helping the production of both hemoglobin (the substance that carries oxygen withing red blood cells) and myoglobin. Myoglobin is a form of hemoglobin found in muscles. Iron is also involved in the oxygenation of your body's red blood cells. It is understood that levels of iron play a significant role in various body functions, however, it is also essential for the normal growth and maintenance of hair. If the amount of energy used up by the body is not replaced by food intake, then other non-essential stores will be used up. Unfortunately, this means the hair cells as they are not a vital part of living.

Cervical Cancer and Pregnancy: Cervical cancer occurring coincident with pregnancy is, fortunately, quite rare, probably less than 1 in 10,000 pregnancies. Pregnancy and cervical cancer can be categorized under two categories for a better understanding. Being pregnant when you are diagnosed. Pregnancy after treatment for cervical cancer. Being Pregnant when Diagnosed: A small number of cervical cancers are found in pregnant women. The decision to go for the pregnancy or its termination will depend on the stage of pregnancy and cervical cancer. For example, If your cancer is a very early cancer, such as stage IA, then most doctors believe that it is safe to continue the pregnancy to term. Several weeks after delivery, a hysterectomy or a cone biopsy is recommended (the cone biopsy is suggested only for substage IA1). He/She might recommend: A cesarean section followed by hysterectomy for delivery and treatment, or A vaginal delivery with hysterectomy several weeks later. If a pregnant woman has advanced cervical cancer, she and her partner, together with the physician, must decide whether to continue or terminate the pregnancy. Immediate treatment is the safest option for a pregnant woman with advanced cervical cancer. If you are less than three months pregnant, your doctor may want to treat you straight away. Your doctor may feel more than six months is too long to leave an invasive cancer without treatment. If you do have treatment then your pregnancy will be ended. Pregnancy after treatment for cervical cancer: Unfortunately, after most treatment for cervical cancer, you cannot get pregnant. This is because either you have had your womb removed (if you have had surgery). Or your ovaries will have stopped working (if you have had radiotherapy). If you have very, very early cervical cancer, you may be able to have a cone biopsy. This would mean you can still get pregnant and have a baby because your womb is still intact. Your doctor will take into account your wishes to become pregnant in the future. It will only be safe to have a cone biopsy if: The cancer cells are only in the cervix itself: The cancer is less than 3-5mm deep into the tissue of the cervix. The area affected is no bigger than 10mm across at any point. There is absolutely no sign of any cancer in a blood vessel, lymphatic vessel or lymph gland. Unless all these conditions are met, there is too big a risk that the cancer could come back.

LASIK Vs LASEK: Which one is better? LASIK (laser-Assisted in situ keratomileusis) refers to creating a flap in the cornea with a microkeratome (a surgical device that is affixed to the eye by use of a vacuum ring. When secured, a very sharp blade cuts a layer of the cornea at a predetermined depth) and using a laser to reshape the underlying cornea. LASEK (laser epithelial keratomileusis) on the other hand is a hybrid of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), the goal of LASEK is the preservation of the corneal epithelium. Rather than creating a flap with a microkeratome (as in LASIK) or scraping and removing the patient's epithelium (as in PRK), LASEK treats the epithelium with alcohol to loosen and separate it from the stroma and it is then rolled back. Both surgeries employ lasers to cut flaps in the cornea and rectify the shape. Main difference Between LASIK and LASEK is thickness of the flap which includes corneal stroma tissue in LASIK and only epithelial tissue in LASEK. LASEK procedure is ideal for people who have corneas too thin for LASIK. The incision heals faster than the incision made for LASIK, though it takes longer for good vision to return. A recent study by the University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report there were only minor differences in the results of both types of procedures. The slight differences in the visual and refractive results came out in favor of LASEK, though the researchers report these differences would not be obvious to a patient. Both procedures seem safe, effective, and predictable. The findings are published in the current issue (Dec 2006) of American Journal of Ophthalmology.

Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2007: With waistlines getting bigger and the lack of exercise reaching new heights, fighting childhood obesity ranks as the top health and fitness trend for 2007, according to a new survey. The Top 10 predictions for 2007 health and fitness trends, according to American College of Sports Medicine are: 1. Children and Obesity. Program development to reduce obesity among children was the number-one trend identified in the survey. Health and fitness professionals predict schools are unlikely to increase time devoted to physical education or nutrition education, and providing physical activity for kids may fall in the hands of the health/fitness industry along with fitness professionals. 2. Special Fitness Programs for Older Adults. Fitness clubs and retirement communities stand to benefit from health and fitness programs that cater to the older adult. The number-two prediction notes the baby boom generation is growing older and living longer, and their physicians are recommending they remain active.

Tips for a Healthy Holiday: Research has shown that those holiday pounds are part of the culprit of the obesity epidemic. Each year, many people just keep adding a few extra pounds until one day they wake up significantly overweight. If you're careful though, one can survive December without taking a hit to your waistline or your blood pressure. I know it's hard to resist all those yummy treats and drinks that surround you this time of year. But with a few simple changes in your diet and exercise pattern, you can hold steady and not gain any extra weight. Practice Conscious Eating Pattern: Pay attention to portion sizes, enjoying only a bite or two of those holiday treats. Don't deprive yourself, otherwise it will only lead to intense cravings, which can turn into binges. Satisfy your desires with a taste instead of a huge portion. Cut down on saturated fat in creamy dressings by mixing in some nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt. Use non-stick cookware so you can cook with a minimum of oil or vegetable oil spray. For a wonderful flavor enhancer, sprinkle food with vinegar or citrus juice. Add it at the last minute so the flavor is at its strongest. Substitute chopped vegetables for some of the bread in your stuffing recipe. Boiled shrimp, clams, or any un-fried seafood with cocktail sauce is an elegant and healthy party pleaser. Eat a little before you go to a holiday gathering; hunger can undo the best intentions.

Managing Diet During Holidays: During the festivity of the holiday season, it's easy to lose track of all of the extra food you eat around your home and office. Even the most careful calorie counters may note an increase in sweets and less-nutritious meals. While it's fun to indulge during times of celebration, it's also important to remember to balance your diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Food provides the mixture of nutrients that the body needs, not just for fitness and well being, but for life itself. Women Fitness (WF) nutrition program will show how you can improve your nutrition and make an amazing difference in the way you look, act and feel. Eating a well-balanced diet is easier when you have a clear understanding of each of the six nutrients that are so vital to human body. These nutrients all play different-yet very important roles in nutrition.

Improve Digestion with yoga: If you frequently suffer from bloating, cramping, and gas after meals, try practicing these poses. Yoga poses increase blood flow to your digestive tract and stimulate the intestinal action known as peristalsis so digestion is more efficient. Yoga also calms you, which in turn relaxes your digestive system and leads to more effective elimination. Forward bends increase the space in the abdomen and facilitate the release of entrapped gases. These poses heat the front of the body and cool the back body. For vatas, it is important to stay warm. The third chakra located in the solar plexus represents solar energy, or inner fire. Fire converts matter to energy in the form of light and heat. Physiologically, this refers to metabolism; psychologically, the transformational nature of fire relates to our expression of vitality, personal power, and will Practicing these poses daily on an empty stomach will help. Take a few deep breaths before every meal. Caution: Avoid these poses if you have had a hiatal hernia or abdominal surgery, have abdominal inflammation, a hyperthyroid condition, diarrhea, sciatica, or back problems, or are pregnant or menstruating.

Top 10 Triggers for Over-eating: For some women overeating means bingeing and for others it means consuming more or other than planned. Most of us are overeating for a hundred different reasons. We are eating due to stress, irritation and frustration. It may be worry or overwork. We eat because our stomach feels 'blah'. We are eating out of habit and with no real direction or thoughts about what we are doing with our face in the fridge. Identify, the ten ""triggers"" for overeating and then try to overcome them: Boredom- You eat when you're bored or do not have anything interesting to do or look forward to. TV is a favorite pass time especially when you are alone at home and bored. When food commercials are running 200 images per hour into our cerebral cortex it is difficult not to be draw towards the refrigerator. If food commercials are a trigger, watch nature shows or commercial-free TV. Beat it by: If you are just grabbing anything out of the refrigerator, make something healthy like cut veggies and leave them in the fridge. Feeling Deprived- You feel deprived of the foods which you enjoy and this leaves you craving for them even more. Media's attitudes towards emphasizing thinness as ideal has lead to restrictive dieting and avoidance of whole groups of foods. Unfortunately, because the foods being avoided are abundantly available, and food visibility and availability are powerful eating stimuli, the restrictor often breaks her ""plan"" and eats a forbidden food. Once this happens, overwhelming guilt followed by feelings of low self esteem motivate the individual to go on over consuming the avoided food in an attempt to numb these negative feelings. Beat it by: Focusing on balancing the calorie input to calorie output. Model healthy eating and exercise habits. Do this as a genuine concern for your own well-being. Eating high fat foods in moderation will do no harm.

Augmentation Mammoplasty (AM)- Cosmetic Breast Surgery: The size of your breasts is determined by the genes you inherited from your parents. No exercises, creams, or machines can change the size of your breasts. Breast surgery can enlarge small breasts using implants, reduce the size of large breasts, or lift sagging breasts. Keep in mind: Any surgical procedure done on your breasts will leave scars. Surgeons can hide many scars by making the incisions under the fold of the nipple. Before you make a decision about having breast surgery, ask your doctor to show you some photographs so you can see what the scars will look like. Some forms of breast surgery, especially breast reduction, can make it impossible to breast-feed. If you are concerned about not being able to breast-feed, talk to your surgeon before you have any type of breast surgery. Many women have one breast that is slightly larger than the other. Some women's breasts differ so much in size that their bras and other clothing do not fit properly and they feel self-conscious. A surgeon can perform surgery on one or both breasts to make them look more alike. Your surgeon will help you decide whether you would feel more comfortable making the smaller breast larger (using a breast implant) or making the larger breast smaller. Breast Enlargement: Breast enlargement technically called Augmentation Mammoplasty (AM) is a surgical procedure to enlarge small breast or breast that has lost their fullness by inserting a synthetic implant under the skin or muscle of the chest. For patients with mild to moderate breast sagging, it will also improve the shape of breast and the positioning of the nipple. The breast enlargement surgery is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. Breast implants usually feel like a natural breast. The major disadvantage of implants is that they sometimes become surrounded by scar tissue that makes the breast feel hard, or areas around the nipples or the incisions feel numb.

Herbal Management of Breast Cancer: Large-scale research projects are underway worldwide in an effort to discover and measure the effectiveness of therapies long-used by non-Western cultures to combat illness and promote health. One of these research projects, taking place in California, is the screening of Chinese herbs and compounds to measure their ability to fight breast cancer cells. By analyzing the active chemicals in more than 70 different herbs, scientists have found some considerable potency in a few of them. Some examples are: Ban Zhi Lian (Chinese) - Scutellaria barbatae (Latin) - This herb inhibited breast cancer cells in the lab, and will be tested in a group of women with metastatic breast cancer who are taking no other cancer drugs. Tea made from the herb has been used for a variety of purposes - including treatment of liver, lung, and rectal cancer. The herb is brewed into a dark tea. It's very potent, and only a small cupful provides a full dose. Avoid drinking lots of the tea in an effort to prevent cancer. Zhi Mu - Anamarrhena asphodeloides - Lab tests showed it to be ""highly active"" against breast cancer cells. Future clinical trials are being considered. Wang Bu Liu Xing - Vaccaria sigetalis - Also ""highly active"" against breast cancer cells in the lab, and being considered for future trials.

Exercise May Up Breast Cancer Survival: Better breast cancer survival may be among the many health perks of physical activity. The findings add strong new support to the growing body of evidence that healthy lifestyle factors such as eating well and exercising regularly provide significant health benefits, possibly even offering protection against cancer recurrences about on par with chemotherapy and even the newer hormonal and drug treatments. Regular physical activity reduces risk for invasive breast cancer, possibly by reducing levels of female hormones. Researchers recently tracked breast cancer survival among more than 1,200 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1990 and 1992. The women were 20-54 years old at the time of their diagnosis (average age: 42). They recalled their physical activity level at age 13, 20, and the year before breast cancer diagnosis. The association was particularly strong for women with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 -- the statistical threshold for overweight -- who also reported the highest levels of physical activity in the one year before their diagnosis. (For reference, a woman 5 feet 5 inches tall who weighs 150 pounds has a BMI of 25.)

Lift your spirits via food: The food you eat affects your mental health as well as your physical well-being. A bad diet can be one of the causes of depression on food swings. A healthy diet, on the other hand, may be enough to lift your spirits without the need for medication and counseling. Nutrition may not be the whole answer, but there is evidence that diet can affect the balance of mental and physical well being. Many experts now believe that drugs and medication are not always the solution to mild depression and a positive self-help approach can be beneficial in many cases. RESTORING THE BALANCE: Depression is closely connected with the food you eat. People who are depressed often lose their appetite, feel too low to cook, and eat junk food. A vicious circle develops poor eating habits lead to nutritional deficiencies which then increase feelings of depression. Doctors have discovered that many people who suffer from depression are also lacking in particular nutrients. Eating foods rich in these missing nutrients, combined with lifestyle changes and regular exercise, can produce significant improvements in people suffering from mild to moderate depression. Sometimes, better results have been achieved than with prescribed antidepressants. Foods to beat the blues: If you are feeling depressed, your first priority should be to eat a nutritionally balanced diet. You should also increase your intake of the following nutrients, which have been linked with depression.

Top 10 To Breaking Through Training Plateau: Starting your weight loss program with gusto, losing a few pounds and then finding that your progress has come to a dead stop is a natural and common occurrence for many dieters. This plateau is a result of the body's constant need to maintain equilibrium. When you start a new diet or fitness plan, you usually consume fewer calories but also burn more through exercise. As you're expending more energy than you take in, your body burns those few calories for energy first, then you begin to burn stored fat quicker than before, when your calorie intake was higher. Your body, lie a finely tuned machine settles into this new pattern of outgoing and incoming calories and gradually adjusts by burning fewer calories in order to safeguard its reserves. The result? Weight loss slows down as your body tries to retain fat stores so it can use its reserves as sparingly as possible. It's at this point that you'll notice your eating and exercise efforts aren't producing results and that you can't seem to shift the weight any more. In order to break through the plateau, you have to do few things: alter your eating habits and change your exercise program in a way that challenges your body.

Health and Fitness Needs During Lactation: Body image is among the greatest concerns of women during the first year after childbirth. The desire to lose weight and tone muscles in the postpartum period is common concern after child birth in today's society. Weight reduction can be difficult for anyone at anytime, but a mother who is trying to return to her pre-pregnancy weight is also challenged with additional stresses of increased child care commitments, less rest and sleep, household responsibilities, and, possibly, returning to work outside the home. A woman trying to be successful at weight management while breastfeeding will need the support of her family, friends, employer, and medical caregiver. This article provides preliminary recommendations for diet and exercise programming for breastfeeding women who have the desire and, in consultation with their health care provider, have determined that weight management is necessary. Nutrition during Lactation. Lactation places significant energy demands upon the mother, causing the additional expenditure of more that 500 calories per day. The recommended diet is at least 1,800 calories per day, the minimum recommended intake for lactating women. The food eaten should consists largely of complex carbohydrates, low in fat and sugar, and contains the necessary meat and dairy products to meet minimum safe nutritional intake guidelines (United States Department of Agriculture [USDA], 1995). No effort should be made to deliberately restrict total calorie intake, and women should feel free to eat to satiety when they are hungry but to refrain from becoming overly full. There is a need to make use of dietary exchange list to simplify meal planning and facilitates eating and recording food intake. The exchange list represented below consists of six groups of foods classed together because of similar calorie content and percentage of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The numbers and types of exchanges eaten should be recorded after each meal in a daily food log to keep a written track of the daily food intake. The strength of this type of dietary recommendation, which uses exchange lists, is that it allows the woman to plan and prepare her own menus based on the type of foods she and her family prefer. The diet should be composed of approximately 60% of carbohydrate (greater than equal to 10% of which is composed of refined sugars), 20% protein, and 20, 25% fat (greater than equal to 33% of which is composed of saturated fats.) Eat three or more meals per day, and eat snacks of fruit, vegetables, and grains whenever hungry.

Foods for Managing Obesity: Foods that are low in fat and release energy into the bloodstream slowly and steadily are the most useful for obese people trying to lose weight. Lean beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and white fish are all good sources of protein that do not supply large amounts of fat. These foods can be alternated with those containing vegetable protein, such as peas, beans, lentils, and tofu. Lean meat, about the size of a credit card and about as thick as your finger, once a day; turkey is a good choice. Salmon, cod, halibut, and tuna are excellent fish selections. Beans: lima, kidney, Navy, black, pinto, and black-eyed peas. Three or four eggs a week is fine. Protein-rich foods should be included in each meal, since they appear to help trigger the parts of the brain that tell us when we are full. Best milk sources are skim milk, no-fat yogurt, and low- or no-fat cottage cheese. Diet should contain 400 IU of vitamin D and 1,000 mg of elemental calcium for premenopausal women (1,200 mg for postmenopausal women). If dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D is less than these recommended guidelines, calcium and vitamin D supplementation is necessary. Pasta, basmati rice, rye bread, and porridge are useful carbohydrates for those wishing to lose weight. These foods are digested slowly and lead to a gradual rise in blood sugar levels, which leaves the stomach feeling fuller for longer. Try unsweetened whole-grain breakfast cereals and add a little artificial sweetener. Some research and many diets recommend cutting down on carbohydrate foods, specifically those that are refined, white rice, pasta, sweets, and white potatoes. This will avoid too-frequent spikes and dips in blood sugar that may stimulate appetite and can contribute to insulin resistance over time.

Skin Care for Exercisers: Exercisers are prone to numerous skin problems caused by increased moisture or friction or damaging elements like cold, sunlight, and infection. Many skin afflictions, however, can be prevented by keeping the skin dry, clean, and protected. INDOORS: Let's start with the gym. The key word for skin at any time is hydration, but when it comes to aerobic exercise in a hot, stuffy environment such as a gym, drinking an adequate supply of water is not so much a matter of comfort as a matter of urgency. Without vigorous exercise, you normally lose about 2 liters(4 1/4 pints) of water a day, only some of it through perspiration. Adding a good sweaty session at the gym will significantly increase the volume lost. When you are dehydrated, the blood flow to your skin is reduced, and over time this can result in a kind of grey pallor. In the long term, you will also find that the diminishing number of nutrients reaching the skin affects its daily renewal process, meaning skin can become dry and flaky, and washing several times a day will only exacerbate this. Hardly surprising, the best way to combat these effects not only for your skin but also for your general fitness performance-is to drink more water. Drink 500ml (1 pint) of water around two hours before exercise, then 250ml (1/2 pint) when you arrive at the gym-and around every fifteen minutes during your workout. If the thought of this makes you queasy during exercise, chances are you're already dehydrated. Gym skin also needs extra care on the outside. Exfoliate with a gentle body scrub at least two or three times a week and apply body lotion after showering.

PREGNANCY MYTHS EXPOSED: Pregnancy is a time when one gets to hear a number of myths; you must heard them all. Relax. A lot of the things you hear might not have a scientific basis. Here we deal with some of your worst pregnancy concerns, which could prove to be mere myths. Learn what's true and what's not as we expose 20 common myths. 1 KEEP YOUR PREGNANCY A SECRET TILL YOU CROSS YOUR THIRD MONTH. The day a woman discovers she's pregnant, she is advised by close family members usually female and elderly, to keep it a closely guarded secret. Reason revealing the happy news before completing the first trimester can invite the 'evil eye' and result in a miscarriage. Here the poor new to-be mother is bursting to announce the good news to all and sundry, but instead she has to wait a full three months before her world knows. There is rationale behind this the first trimester is considered a 'risky' period, as there are more chances of miscarriage. But the evil eye et al is to be ignored completely. The first trimester is usually the time when most women experience nausea and other unpleasant factors of pregnancy, so imagined being in office and running to the rest room every five minutes! You will either be ticked off for goofing or the women in the office will definitely catch on. Better you tell them and revel in the pampering from your colleagues as well! And remember, well wishers will only be happy for you. 2 THE SHAPE AND SIZE OF YOUR BELL CAN DETERMINE YOUR BABY'S SEX. This is something no pregnant woman will have missed. It goes like this: 'If your tummy is sticking out and not one seeing you from behind would guess you're pregnant, it's a girl!' Listening to the finality of that verdict, one would feel like telling the ultrasonologists of the world to look for another profession! The final word however, is that the shape and size of the belly depend on many factors like the build of the mother, the size and position of the baby, and the amount of fluid around the baby. There is no correlation whatsoever with the sex of the baby.

Nutrition to beat the competition: For the modern athlete, nutrition is taken as seriously as the training program. There are no shortcuts or false starts to a winning diet- the answer lies in balancing intake with output. The physical and psychological benefits of exercise are undeniable but, when strenuous physical exercise is part of your daily life, you must make sure that you are eating the right diet for long-term health. Athletes have similar nutritional requirements to those of the average person but, because of physical exertion, they may have increased carbohydrate needs. An endurance athlete's diet may consist of up to 67 per cent carbohydrate. Athletes should be wary of manipulating their diet to achieve short-term performance at the expense of lifelong health. No single food can magically enhance performance; only a good range of foods can enable an athlete to compete in peak condition. When a sports activity demands a high energy expenditure, an adequate intake of calories, macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fiber), and micronutrients (vitamins, most minerals and trace elements (is essential to maintain energy and fluid balance). Athletes should follow a balanced diet which is 'scaled up' to meet increased energy needs. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no need to eat a high- protein diet when undergoing training; in most cases it is better to obtain extra calories from carbohydrates, although athletes with very high energy demands, such as oarsmen, need a greater than average intake of fat so that the diet is not too bulky. However, some less energetic sports- snooker for example- do not require any increase in calories.

Top 10 Lifestyle Modifications to combat migraine: It has been observed that women tend to suffer more from migraine than men. There is completely no reason to believe that women who suffer from migraine live a life in constant dread of the symptoms. Try incorporating these general nutritional guidelines to combat or even overcome migraine: 1) Correcting and preventing low blood sugar level: One of the most common triggers of migraine is a low blood sugar level. This in other words is called Hypoglycaemia, a health state in which the blood sugar level in your body drops below the normal range, which is not safe and comfortable for your body. This however does not indicate that you should end up eating something sugary, for a increase in sugar level will lead to production of more insulin, which in turn will cause the sugar level to fall again. The symptoms may vary from weakness, shaking, irritability, nausea, fatigue and pallor. The good news is that sensible snacking and adopting good eating habits both high in fibre and sweet can prove beneficial. This could be fruit, a slice of wholemeal bread with a topping of banana, honey, biscuit, etc. Always keep healthy snacks readily available at work and at home. 2) Try sticking to fresh foods: Focus your eating plan on fresh vegetables, fruits and whole gram cereal foods, with lean proteins, small amounts of fat and plenty of water. Avoid processed meats such as salami and other sausages, mangetout and the flavor enhancer ""Monosodium glutamate"" (MSG). MSG is found in a lot of ready-made meals, bottled sauces, crisps and often in Chinese restaurant food. Stick to fresh foods and avoid MSG intake. Eat a variety of foods to keep your body well nourished and disease free.

Exercise and Asthma: Asthma is a lung disease that is usually chronic and can be life-threatening, if not managed properly. With proper management, most people can lead a normal, active life. During an asthma attack, the air passages in the lungs become narrow or blocked by mucus or a muscle spasm. Asthma attacks can be triggered by allergens such as pollen, animal dander, molds, fungi, chemicals in certain foods, and house dust. Irritants such as tobacco smoke, smog, exhaust fumes, household cleansers, and other chemicals may also cause asthma attacks. Even sudden changes in temperature or humidity, strong winds, and strenuous exercise may trigger attacks. Seventy percent of all asthmatics suffer, to some degree, from exercise-induced asthma. Exercise can often trigger asthma since you're breathing rapidly through your mouth. This air reaches the bronchial tubes without being warmed and humidified by passing through the nose. This cold and dry air can trigger asthma. However, most women who have mild to moderate asthma can participate or excel in sports, if their asthma is properly managed. Suggestions for making workouts more comfortable for asthmatics are: Consult with your physician before beginning an exercise program. Perform a 5 to 10 minute warm-up before vigorous exercise. Work out slowly for the first 10 - 15 minutes, keeping your heart rate below 140 beats per minute. Activities which require vigorous exercise (heart rate above 170 beats per minute) lasting longer than five minutes without any breaks generally cause an asthmatic to be more prone to an asthma attack. Often an exercise-induced asthma (EIA) attack doesn't occur during exercise, but within 5 to 10 minutes following exercise.