Metabolism Management

People are always counting their calories and fighting themselves tooth and nail to avoid that one indulgence only to see little benefit as a result. Why? Much of reason is that their metabolisms adjust making their slightly-adjusted diets have little effect. Little do people know that they can actually get in better shape by eating more. By doing all of the following advice in this article (listed below) and sustaining these changes you can actually change your metabolism forever. It takes time and hard work but I never thought that working out hard and eating a lot was that unpleasant. Not to mention that there are countless other benefits to you physical and mental health that will come as a result of these changes.

• Engage in aerobic exercise 4 to 5 days a week: Several studies show that aerobic activities cause your metabolism to stay increased for a period of time after exercising.
  
• Work your muscles:Lifting weights and/or other strengthening activities like push-ups and crunches on a regular basis (at least 2 to 3 times each week) will boost your resting metabolism 24/7.
  
• Eat enough food - at least 1,000 calories: Your body and metabolism thrive on food, so when you fast, crash-diet, or restrict calories below 1,000, your metabolism will slow down in a response to conserve energy.
  
• Eat every 4 to 5 hours: Because our bodies work hard to digest and absorb the foods we eat, your metabolism revs in response. This is called the thermic effect of food. Take full advantage and schedule meals and snacks every 4 to 5 hours.
  
• Incorporate lean protein with every meal: Eating any food creates a thermic effect and boosts metabolism after consumption. However, the consumption of protein has the absolute greatest metabolic boost when compared to carbohydrate and fat. Plus, eating the appropriate amount of protein will ensure you're able to maintain and build muscle mass (the more muscle mass you have, the greater your metabolism).

The Power of Mindfulness

"Mindfulness" is the practice of focusing one's self in the present. Things like paying attention to your mood, heart rate, temperature, stress level, etc. By focusing like this you recognize things that may have escaped you previously or feelings you may be ignoring. Many people practice mindfulness as part of meditation.

Recently researchers at UCLA compared those who were more "mindful" to those who were not by monitoring their brain activity. Their finding was that those were more mindful experienced less negative emotions and showed greater calmness in their brain activity.

So based on this research we know that mindfulness works, but what it doesn't tell you is that it is not easy. It takes discipline and focus. When we are busy with deadlines, errands, and are bombarded by the information that surrounds us every day, it becomes quite difficult to focus on the present and on one's self. As a result some of us neglect ourselves to a point of extreme emotional discomfort that goes beyond the point that a little mindfulness each day can clear up. That is why we need to remember to be mindful everyday, even if just for a few minutes. You may already do this and not even know it. Possibly when you walking, cooking, or taking a shower part of your mind wanders into thinking about your current state. Remember the importance of these times especially when the more stressful moments arise.

Fat Tax

"LONDON (Reuters) - A "fat tax" on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday. Researchers at Oxford University say that charging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 17.5 percent on foods deemed to be unhealthy would cut consumer demand and reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes."

A fat tax? Funny idea, maybe a good one though. I am usually against the government interfering with people's freedoms. I'm the first to say that people need to take personal responsibility for what they eat. However, as this article points out, this tax would hit the poorest groups the hardest. They try to use this as a point against the fat tax when in actuality it is the most important reason we need it. Lower socioeconomic groups also suffer the most from poor diets. The truth is that most inexpensive foods (i.e. fast foods) are also the most unhealthy, while healthy, fresh foods are significantly more expensive (been to Whole Foods lately?) making them inaccessible to the poor.

The point is that everyones got to eat but the poor have far less healthy options (ever seen a Whole Foods in Watts, or Compton?). Couldn't a tax like this be used to tilt the scales the other way? Possibly, tax unhealthy food and subsidize wholesome options???

Oh, and if you were wondering about why this matters to people like you and I, I can tell you that the increased health care costs of the poor come out of our tax dollars, which are directly related to diet and other lifestyle differences.

Models Banned for Being Too Skinny

"I absolutely don't want models who are too skinny... They are a bad example for young generations." Explained designer Raffaella Curiel who fired 15 models from her show in Rome because they were too skinny, complying with a fashion code signed by the Italian industry last year to combat anorexia.

I had never heard about this ban that came in the wake of a 21-year-old Brazilian model's death from anorexia a month earlier. At the time of her death the 5-foot-8 inch model weighed 88 pounds.

We all obviously understand the reasoning behind these new regulations but I am curious to know about the weight and height of the 15 models banned form the show. I mean where do you draw the line? I think anorexia and other eating disorders have a lot more to do with self-confidence and satisfaction than creating a certain appearance. Maybe this is the first step to make improvements or possibly a inane stab at addressing a problem that is more complex than we perceive it to be from the outside in.

Email: "Like bleeding to death from a thousand pinpricks"

http://www.slate.com/id/2165452/nav/tap1/

A great article about the role email plays in modern work and life. Is it true that email "eats away at people's time, a minute at a time... [like] bleeding to death from a thousand pinpricks?"

Or is the following description a little more accurate?

"Many people who are addicted to e-mail are more correctly described as addicted to work. Lots of e-mail makes you feel important. E-mail addicts (like me) fear the empty inbox and, strangely, the potential freedom that e-mail provides. A BlackBerry can make you feel accountable at night, but it also lets you say, play golf, while still monitoring any situation that might come up. When business is conducted through e-mail, it shifts the responsibility of actually working off of the physical setting of the office and back onto you. That lack of structure, or the need to provide your own structure, can be uncomfortable. Still, you often find confident people who are immune to e-mail addiction. They just don't understand what the fuss is about. They check e-mail when they need to; they turn it off when they've got stuff to do. It's a tool that serves them. "

Set yourself some boundaries and follow them. Soon email will serve you as it serves many others.

The Truth About Stem Cells

(skip to the bottom if you are already knowledgeable about stem cell research)

A few weeks ago a few friends and I had a contentious debate about progress of stem cell research and the actual use of stem cells. Without solid knowledge of the subject our debate was reduced to conjecture, and assumption. This weekend I did some research to find the bottom line on stem cell research.

Stem cells are specific cells found in the VERY early stages of development of all organisms. These cells have not yet specialized so they can become anything in the organism. For example, a stem cell can become a skin cell or a nerve cell later on in development. In fact, a stem cell is what eventually multiplies and multiplies until you have a whole organism (e.g. a human). So stem cells are what is used for cloning.

When a sperm and egg fuse you have your first stem cell. This cell then divides, and then those two cells divide, etc. taking us through the stages of embryonic development. As this process continues the stem cells change into specialized cells that make all the organs and tissues of an organism. These specialized cells cannot be used for anything else other than their specialized usage (not exactly true but good enough for our purposes). That is what makes stem cells so valuable. They can be anything. They can even be used to create a whole new organism (i.e. cloning). This means that someone who has a damaged organ that must be removed can use stem cells to create a new organ to replace it. Or someone who is paralyzed because his/her spinal cord was cut can use stem cells to re-attach their spinal cord and walk again. The applications are endless and there has actually been a case where a blind man's vision was restored using stem cells.

So up until this point I think we have covered what is more or less basic knowledge that most people have about the subject, but here is what most people don't know is: What is the source of stem cells?

Answer: A fetus. This is what creates all the debate about stem cell research and what has made it illegal in the U.S. It's the idea that using fetuses is morally questionable. But what people don't know is that the only stem cells that can be used for research are those of an embryo that has only reached UP TO 16 CELLS in size. At this point the fetus is still microscopic! This also means that stem cells can be created in a lab using the eggs and sperm of those who donate or sell them. They do not need to be gathered through abortions.

Also, in case you didn't know, people sell there sperm and eggs all the time. Stem cell research would not cause people to do this for the first time.

Tattoo Regret: Is Nothing Sacred?

Tattoos are getting easier to remove. Estimates: Up to 45 million Americans are tattooed; 17 percent of them regret it; the annual number of tattoo removal treatments might be 100,000. Summary by a removal company's CEO: "As your life changes from young to middle-aged to older, from single to married to divorced, you get tattoo regret." Sample reasons: 1) Get my ex-fiance's name off my body. 2) I don't want my tattoos to show around my strapless wedding gown. 3) I need to start looking employable and marriageable. 4) I want to replace my old tattoos with new ones. Current removal technology: multiple expensive laser treatments to break down each color. Impending technology: special ink that can be removed with a single laser treatment. CEO's pitch: The new ink will embolden "fence-sitters who always wanted a tattoo but have been afraid of the permanence." Half-cynical view: It'll make them feel as though they're getting a real tattoo when, in fact, they aren't. Fully cynical view: Removable tattoos for the era of removable relationships."

In today's world, obsolescence dominates. Hot one moment, gone the next, it seems that nothing these days has any permanence: not our goals, not our toys (as the only thing we can seemingly count on is that our new "technologies" our outdated the moment we receive them), not our relationships (see divorce statistics). Even the tattoo, what was once the ultimate symbol of permanent commitment, can now be edited right out of existence.

The question is, is anything sacred? Do we every commit to anything anymore for the long haul? And if the answer is no, what consequences are we suffering?

Research: Stem Cells Can Make Blind See

http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070606/scientists_stem_cells_can_make_blind_see-id-104433.html

http://www.physorg.com/news100319385.html

Macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in older people and is believed to affect about 14 million people in old age and 30 percent of 75-year-olds. Lyndon da Cruz of the University College London Institute of Opthamology has had some success transplanting retinal pigment epithelium cells within patients' eyes. Now Cruz and his colleagues hope to use cells grown in a petri dish. The project received an $8 million gift from an anonymous U.S. donor whose father became blind and who obviously couldn't invest his money in a U.S. firm doing the same research. "This is totally geared toward getting in the clinic," said Pete Coffey, a colleague of Cruz' at the institute. "Our goal within the five-year period is to have a cohort of 10 or 12 patients we can treat. If it hasn't become routine in about 10 years it would mean we haven't succeeded. It has to be something that's available to large numbers of people."

Another interesting article from 2003 - Stem cells used to make a blind man (from eye injury) see again:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=4180

216 Common Chemicals are Linked to Breast Cancer

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-cancer14may14,1,1252250.story?page=1&ctrack=3&cset=true&coll=la-headlines-health

Experts have long suspected that diet plays a role in causing breast cancer. But new research found "no association that is consistent, strong and statistically significant" for any particular foods raising or reducing breast cancer risk.

There is substantial evidence, however, that regularly consuming alcohol, being obese and being inactive increase risk. Now new evidence of 216 common chemicals found to cause cancer in test animals has been reported. Of those, people are highly exposed to 97, including industrial solvents, pesticides, dyes, gasoline and diesel exhaust compounds, cosmetics ingredients, hormones, pharmaceuticals, radiation, and a chemical in chlorinated drinking water.

As Ana Soto, a Tufts University professor of cell biology who specializes in cellular origins of cancer and effects of hormone-disrupting contaminants"More and more, cancer looks like an environmental disease." This is not to say that there are not genetic and hereditary factors in the development of breast cancer, but simply to point out the apparently great influence of environment and lifestyle.

Unwanted Baby Drop Box - This is for Real!

http://www-cgi.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/10/japan.babybox.ap/index.html

This is truly one of the strangest - and to be quite honest, innovative - practices I have read about in a long time. Around the world there are hospitals that allows people to drop off unwanted babies in an anonymous "drop box." These baby drop offs exist in Japan, Germany and South Africa.

"In Japan the baby drop-off, is called 'Crane's Cradle,' was opened by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto as a way to discourage abortions and the abandonment of infants in unsafe public places. The hospital described it as a parent's last resort.'"

"A small hatch on the side of the hospital allows people to drop off babies in an incubator 24 hours a day, while an alarm will notify hospital staff of the new arrival. The infants will initially be cared for by the hospital and then put up for adoption."

"'We started the service but hope it won't be used,' head nurse Yukiko Tajiri said. "I hope it is seen as a symbol that we are always here for parents to share their difficulty.'"

Some Facts About Bottled Water

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/4505/water-facts-bottled-or-tap

"Bottled water has become the fastest growing commercial beverage sold in the United States. In 2005, Americans spent nearly $10 billion on bottled water."

"To date, no independent investigation has shown that bottled water passes more safety and health checks than tap water. In fact, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) tested 103 brands of bottled water and concluded there was no assurance that water out of a bottle is cleaner or safer than water from the tap. Another of their conclusions didn't surprise me either: They estimated that 25 percent or more of bottled water is nothing more than tap water."

"...a five-year supply of bottled water cost over $1,000 compared with $1.65 for the same amount of tap water. Not to mention the environmental impact of the many discarded plastic water bottles that are not recycled. "

Kidney for Sale?

If times get hard, you can sell your car, your house, your belongings... However, in most countries, including the United States, you can't sell your organs. The emerging question is, should you be able to?

The justifications behind prohibiting the sale of organs are primarily ethical. It is clearly the poor, primarily in third-world countries, that would be the first to get in line.

Yet, with a burgeoning international black market, one wonders whether or not legalizing and regulating the sale of organs would better address the ethical concerns at stake.

William Saletan's solution?

"The surest way to stop him from selling his kidney is to make it worthless, by flooding the market with free organs. If you haven't filled out a donor card, do it now. Because if the dying can't get organs from the dead, they'll buy them from the living."

ROWE: Results-Only Work Environment

"Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do."

"The endeavor, called ROWE, for 'results-only work environment,' seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours. Hence workers pulling into the company's amenity-packed headquarters at 2 p.m. aren't considered late. Nor are those pulling out at 2 p.m. seen as leaving early. There are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. No impression-management hustles. Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do. It's O.K. to take conference calls while you hunt, collaborate from your lakeside cabin, or log on after dinner so you can spend the afternoon with your kid. The official policy for this post-face-time, location-agnostic way of working is that people are free to work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done."

Created for corporate employees at Best Buy, those who worked in ROWEs were found to be more productive, and happier. To me this just makes sense and is long overdue. I really hope more corporations see the light!!!

The FDA Gets More Power; But We Don't Save Money

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902383.html

"In a study last year, the Institute of Medicine concluded that the federal system for approving and regulating drugs is in serious disrepair. That report, requested by the FDA, followed two years of controversy over drug safety after the 2004 withdrawal of the arthritis drug Vioxx because of the risk of heart attack."

As a result the FDA was now provided with new powers and a more intense role in monitoring drug safety. At the same time, the legalization of importing cheaper drugs from other countries was not included. As the one dissenting senator put it:

"Safe drugs are obviously important, and there are a lot of good provisions in this bill," Sanders said. "But a safe drug doesn't mean anything to somebody who can't afford it."

Prescription Painkillers Becoming More Popular than Marijuana

Marijuana has long been the most popular illicit drug in the U.S., but federal researchers say that there are now more new recreational users of prescription painkillers than new pot smokers.

"While marijuana continues to be the most commonly used illicit drug, the misuse of prescription drugs is clearly a growing national concern that requires action from multiple segments of our society," said Assistant Surgeon General Eric Broderick, SAMHSA's acting deputy administrator.

"We know that 70 to 80 percent of those 12 years or older said they got their drugs from a friend or relative and, very likely, those came from the family medicine cabinet. Only 4.3 percent got the pain relievers from a drug dealer or other stranger, and only 0.8 percent reported buying the drug on the Internet. Parents and other caregivers should store their prescription drugs carefully and dispose of any unused drugs before they can fall into the wrong hands."

Health care errors affect 1 in 10 patients

http://health.yahoo.com/news/174715;_ylt=AusAbB.Y4TemHmIBXOl2pKIqLcsF

"Errors in medical care affect 10 percent of patients worldwide, according to the United Nations health agency"

One thing I have always noticed is that those who are highly involved in managing their health, especially when they are ill, end up getting better treatment and are more comfortable with the things going on with their health. There is a certain level of stress that comes along with not knowing/understanding what is going on with your body and mind. We often think that we are incapable of understanding what is actually going on with our bodies and minds but this is usually NOT the case. So when this study states that 10% of patients are affected by health care errors, it becomes clear that we must each take some personal responsibility to understand our health and any treatments, tests, etc. we receive. When things do not appear to be correct it is in our hands to speak up.

FDA urges new warnings on antidepressants

http://health.yahoo.com/news/174727;_ylt=AioqeA3zXokxvp38epcrar0qLcsF

"All antidepressants should carry new warnings about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in young adults ages 18 to 24 during initial treatment, U.S. health officials proposed on Wednesday." Currently "cautions about the chances of suicidal behavior in children and teens who take the drugs" are listed in a Black Box on the packaging.

"Studies showed a 'slight increase;' in suicidal thinking and behavior among young adults during early treatment, which was generally the first one to two months, the FDA said. The data did not find a higher risk for adults older than 24."

"Adults 65 and older who are treated with the drugs have a decreased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions..."

Coffee, Healthy or Not???

http://health.yahoo.com/news/174676

"There's evidence...that the beverage may protect against certain types of colon cancer, as well as rectal and liver cancer... However... coffee may increase the risk of leukemia and stomach cancer, with the case for leukemia being strongest.
The findings suggest that people who may be vulnerable to these risks -- for example pregnant women and children -- should limit coffee consumption..."

Study: Online Dating is Virtually Irresistable to Married People

http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/news2003/onlinedatingmarried.html

"The Internet will soon become the most common form of infidelity, if it isn't already."
"The vast majority said they loved their spouses but sought an erotic encounter online because of boredom, a partner's lack of sexual interest or the need for variety and fun."
"Because there is no touching involved in online chat conversations, married people often rationalize their behavior as harmless fun"

The Many Health Benfeits of Sex

http://love.ivillage.com/lnssex/0,,askmen_bgswkm45-p,00.html

Here's the list. For more of an explanation on each read the article (it's short).

-reduce stress
-improve sleep well
-increase blood flow
-burns calories
-improves self image
-can cure headaches
-boosts your immune system
-repairs tissue
-improves cognition
-keeps skin healthy
-works as an antidepressant
-increases production of sex hormones testosterone and estrogen
-testosterone: helps fortify bones and muscles, and it keeps your heart in good working condition
-estrogen: protects against heart disease
-increases brain power
-increases heart rate
-can help fend off diseases and ailments
-improves self esteem