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Articles from Masenka.Be - your guide to a healthy lifestyle

Lifting weights as good as running for fat loss 2008-02-10 04:30:27 By lifting weights you can burn as many calories as with running or jogging. Also exercising the muscles can work preventive for diabetes. A British research shows that you train certain muscles with weight training, which also use energy and burn calories while you are resting. These are a different kind of muscles than those that are build up by jogging. The researchers think that you also get more muscle mass by lifting weights. Your whole body and metabolism profit from this. According to the scientists this is the same results you get from jogging. By jogging you improve you overall condition and your metabolism. For elderly people lifting weights is a good option to achieve weight loss and to stay fit. Elderly people often cannot practice sports that increase stamina, like jogging, and don’t exercise at all anymore. ...

Quality of sleep worse for smokers 2008-02-09 04:01:59 The sleep of smokers is less deep than that of non-smokers and smokers feel often less rested after a full night of sleep. Brain scans of smokers show that at night they experience light withdrawal symptoms. This causes a light disturbance of the sleep. Also nicotine makes it harder to fall asleep. Forty middle-aged smokers participated in the tests. Of them 23% complained that they were still tired in the morning, against 5% of the non-smokers. The brain activity showed that smokers are lighter sleepers than the non-smokers. The tested people had no other conditions that could effect the quality of sleep. ...

Soft drinks can cause gout 2008-02-08 04:52:33 Men who drink large amounts of soft drinks or other drinks that are rich in sugar have a higher risk of gout. British researchers discovered that men who drink two or more glasses of soft drink daily had more than 85% more chance to get the joint effecting disease gout. Gout has been on the rise again in the UK and the researchers wanted to know the reason for this. The investigation involved 46000 men who were monitored for twelve years. They were all older than 40 years old and all had no history of gout or any other joint disease. Those who drank a lot of sodas or fruit juices with added sugars suffered more from the painful condition than those who had one glass per month on average. Light soft drinks had no negative effect. According to the scientists sugar and fructose effect the amount of uric acid in the blood. Uric acid makes crystals form in the joints and when those get infected you have contracted gout. Gout is especially prevalent in the big toe. ...

Calcium pills can increase chance of heart attack 2008-02-07 04:43:57 Taking calcium pills to prevent decalcification of the bones can double the risk of a heart attack. This is shown by a research published in the British Medical Journal. According to the researchers the extra calcium can lead to calcium deposits in the arteries. This increases the chance of a heart attack. Researchers at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands think that a lack of vitamin K2 can also play a role in this. In general adults don’t ingest enough vitamin K2 to prevent calcification of the arteries. ...

Young alcohol drinker often gets metabolic syndrome 2008-02-06 04:06:12 Those who have drunk too much alcohol in their youth or young adulthood have greater risk of getting metabolic syndrome later in life. This is the result of an American study among 2800 adults. Of those who drank a lot of alcohol during puberty and started young with drinking, the majority suffered from obesity, cholesterol problems and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Of the group that drank too much alcohol when young, 43% suffered from obesity. About 63% suffered from a lack of the good HDL cholesterol. In the group that had drunk with measure during puberty these problems manifested a lot less. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a variety of conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity and heart problems. The researchers think that the poisoning of the body after excessive drinking makes the body more susceptible to metabolic syndrome. Young in this research meant before puberty. ...

Work stress can cause heart attack 2008-02-05 04:26:55 If you are suffering from a lot of stress at work, then the risk of a heart attack can increase by two thirds. Relaxed employees don’t run that extra risk. When the pressure at work increases, also the risk for coronary heart disease increases. This serious condition disturbs the circulation of blood in the heart muscle. Doctors at the University College draw this conclusion from the results of a long term study. They have followed 10.300 London based employees since 1985. They didn’t only pay attention to the direct influence of stress, but also unhealthy habits that stem from the stress, like unhealthy eating, smoking and drinking. A third of the problems come from bad habits. The workers got metabolic syndrome because of that. This includes obesity, metabolic problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. The effects showed most clearly in men and women under 50. This is most likely because older employees are put in less stressful situations. ...

Bad lifestyle affects ability to have children 2008-02-04 04:08:30 Many couples who have problems to get pregnant in a natural way can do something about it themselves. Lifestyle seems to be a major influence on the conception. The normal of people who seek medical help for conceiving has increased the last years. Many of them can prevent fertility issues by leading a healthier lifestyle. Especially to quit smoking and passive smoking and losing weight can help. But also the age that women try to get pregnant these days contributes to the difficulties. These factors contribute to the fact that women need to wait longer before they get pregnant. Non smokers conceive on average in about 2 to 3 months. Smokers need to wait 5 to 6 months. Also ivf is affected by an unhealthy lifestyle. The chance that ivf succeeds is 50% lower for smokers and passive smokers than non smokers. ... Children

The basics of a healthy lifestyle 2008-02-03 04:21:03 The basics of a healthy lifestyle are in essence quite simple, but in the treadmill of daily life they are easily forgotten. The three areas that need to be addressed in order to improve your life the healthy way are: Diet & Nutrition Exercise Relaxation Diet & Nutrition You are what you eat is often said. And it is as true now as it has always been. Modern science has shown us that your body renews itself about every 7 years. This means that you are not the same person you were 7 years ago. Every molecule in your body has been replaced with another that you have somehow ingested in the last 7 years. Being through food, drink or breathing. That’s why it is so important to monitor what you put in your mouth. If you eat a lot of junk food, drink a lot of alcohol and smoke for example you are filling your body with toxins and your body after a while will be build from toxins, paving the way for all the modern diseases to kick in, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, high c ...

Being content is better than being happy 2008-02-02 04:26:52 People that are content with their life often achieve more than people who are in general very happy. And on average they also live longer. A strong feeling of happiness doesn’t make people more successful or mentally fit. This is reported by American researchers. In total 120.000 people from all over the world were examined. Those who were just content with their life were earning more money and got higher grades in school. Those people who graded their life with a 9 or 10 and who said they were often very happy, had less success in their lives. They did have more stable relationships though than those people who were less happy. They did have more physical health complaints. The explanation for the differences is not evident, say the researchers. They think that people who often feel very happy are more likely to accept their situation and don’t try to get further in life. Also they might be inclined to take their health less seriously due to their optimistic outlook. ...

Smoking cannabis is just as bad as 20 cigarettes 2008-02-01 04:04:11 The smoke from a cannabis cigarette (joint) carries the same cancer risk as that of 20 cigarettes. The more often someone smokes cannabis, the greater the risk for lung cancer. That smoking cannabis is more dangerous than smoking normal tobacco was already known, but researchers in New Zealand have proved exactly how dangerous. Those test subjects that have smoked a joint daily for more than 10 years, or 2 per day for 5 years, have 5,7 times higher risk for lung cancer than the subjects who didn’t smoke. The smoke from a joint is just as unhealthy as the smoke of 20 cigarettes. There is more ammonia, nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen oxide in the smoke of cannabis than there is in smoke of cigarettes. The results of the study were published in the European Respiratory Journal. In total more than 80 users were examined. Other factors, like lifestyle and health history were also taken into account when compiling the results. ...

Increase cartenoid intake by adding fatty acids 2008-01-31 04:51:25 Fresh and brightly colored vegetables, like the ones you often find in salsa sauce and other exotic salads, are rich in cartenoids. Cartenoids are powerful anti-oxidants which help to decrease your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease or cataract. To fully enjoys the benefits of the cartenoids you have to combine them with some fat. Scientists of Ohio State University discovered that people who ate a salad that had half an avocado (which is rich in good fats) in it, absorbed 10 times more beta-carotene and lutein than those who ate a salad without avocado. Beta-carotene can be found in carrots and lutein in spinach. Eating avocado with salsa increased the absorption of the lycopene from the tomatoes in the salsa almost fivefold. Fatty acids help the intestines to absorb the cartenoids into your body. Furthermore these fats are an essential part of the lipoprotein that take care of the transport of the cartenoids in the blood. So every time you eat brightly colored vegetables add s ...

Burn fat, exercise your back 2008-01-30 10:01:31 Training your back can help your loose fat. Your fat burning capabilities are higher when you train a lot of muscle fibers. And there are no bigger muscles than the big back muscles (latissimus dorsi), also know as the lats. So train your back by doing pull ups to enlarge your lats and increase your fat burning. ...

Fast senior lives longer 2008-01-29 04:45:05 Seniors who walk faster have a higher chance of living 10 years more than seniors who walk slower. A research at the University of Pittsburgh has shown this. Nine years ago the walking pace of a group of American senior citizens was measured. Of all the people who walked slower than 2,4 kilometers an hour, 77% have died in the mean time. Among the faster seniors, who walked faster than 4 kilometers an hour, only 27% have passed away. The explanation according to the researchers: the ability to walk is influenced by many vital parts of your body, like the heart, lungs and bones. If a senior walks fast it is a sign those body parts are working well. ...

Lack of sleep increases diabetes risk 2008-01-27 04:00:14 Short nights have more serious consequences than just feeling tired. People who sleep too little have a higher risk of developing diabetes. This was discovered by scientists at the Columbia University in New York. They investigated the development of diabetes over a period of 10 years. People who slept on average 5 hours or less per night developed diabetes more often than people who slept 7 hours on average. Lack of sleep reduces the sensitivity of the body to the hormone insulin, say the researchers. Insulin removes glucose from the blood. Also lack of sleep causes the body to make more of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol raises the glucose level in the blood in such a way that a normal amount of insulin is not enough to remove the glucose from the blood. Because of this people develop type 2 diabetes. Remarkably people who stayed in bed 9 hours or more also had an increased chance of diabetes. ...

Caffeine dangerous during pregnancy 2008-01-26 04:57:04 Women have an increased risk of a miscarriage if they drank a lot of drinks containing caffeine every day during the first months of their pregnancy. Women who drank 200 mg of caffeine (about two cups of coffee) or more daily, doubled the risk compared to women who ingested no caffeine whatsoever. To prevent any risk, women should not drink any beverage that contains caffeine (like coffee, tea and cola) during the first five months of their pregnancy. The scientists who discovered this suspect that caffeine is harmful to the fetus, because the fetus cannot digest the caffeine properly due to a still underdeveloped digestive system. The stimulating compound can lead to narrowing of the blood vessels which can lead to a decrease in blood flow to the placenta. ...