Thinking about buying some exercise equipment? It’s always best to learn the basics before beginning a search for any product. People who don’t do a little homework before making a purchase can find themselves regretting their decision very quickly.

First, think about the type of training you actually want to do. Do you want to build muscle? Improve your cardiovascular health? Complete a marathon? Your purchase decision should depend on what it is you want to achieve.

Once you decide what your major goal is, then you can research the available options. If building muscle is your priority, then look for products that provide a total-body workout. Multi-gyms can be a good choice if they provide enough variety to exercise all the body parts. However, they can take up a lot of space, so be sure the area you have set aside can accomodate any machine you consider.

Dumbbells are also a good option because they allow you to do many exercises that can work all the muscle groups. They can mimic the actual mechanics of movement in real life applications, leading many experts to give them an advantage when compared to the machine type strength training equipment.

Read the full story on buying exercise equipment

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EFT or Emotional Freedom Techniques is probably the most popular of a group of techniques collectively referred to as Energy Psychology (EP). Energy Psychology looks to achieve a psycho-therapeutic end, but it works at an energetic level within the body, rather than with the functions of the mind.

There are EP methods which utilize Chakras to achieve their emotional release work. EFT belongs to a different group, which seeks to use the body’s acupuncture system. It does this by gently tapping on acupuncture points to stimulate and “open” them, allowing an increase in the free flow of energy throughout the body. This can be very important in terms of our feelings.

The prime principle behind EFT is what is referred to as “The Discovery Statement”, which states that the cause of all negative emotion is a disruption to the flow of energy in our body - thereby a disruption of energy flow within our acupuncture system.

EFT claims that, energetically speaking, our default settings are ones of wellbeing, freedom and ease. When we create resistance to the flow of energy in our body, we experience lesser degrees of wellbeing and ease.

A useful metaphor is to think of our energy system as like the plumbing in our house. Disruption within our energy system is not dissimilar to a “kink” in the garden hose. A small kink will disrupt the flow of water but not to any great degree. If we think of ourselves in this situation, we experience this minor kink as feeling less well than we would like to feel, but for the most part, we can function fully. It is just that our quality of life is less than it could be.

Read the rest of the EFT story

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Everybody probably knows that too much fat in our diets is bad for our health. However, not all fats are created equal. In fact, certain fats are actually good for us in moderate quantities, and required by our body for proper function. Some of the reasons we need some fat in our diet include:

1) Provides a source of energy

2) Helps with hormone production

3) Lowers the risk of heart disease and certain cancers

4) Insulates and cushions the internal organs

5) Can help alleviate symptoms of PMS and Menopause

6) Promotes skin and hair health

7) Regulates blood pressure

8) Helps to improve brain function - especially in children

Read more about good fats and bad fats

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Have you ever taken a close look at the ingredient listing on the labels of your skin care products or cosmetics? Do you know what those substances are?

Many of the skin care products and cosmetics you are buying contain ingredients that are not only harmful to your skin, but also to your health. Many are known carcinogens and are only in use because they’re cheap.

You may think that it doesn’t matter what’s in skin care products or cosmetics. After all, you don’t eat them. However, think of all the medicines that are delivered through skin patches these days. While your skin may not absorb as much of the skin care product as it does of a medicine specifically designed to be delivered through a patch, repeated application will definitely result in some of the substances in the skin care products being absorbed into your body.

The FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors states “a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA”.

And an Environmental Working Group study showed that 89 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the FDA or any other public institution.

Read the full article on toxic ingredients in cosmetics and skin care products.

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Saw this today in the Daily Grist newsletter:

The Weight of the World
Exposure to chemicals could contribute to obesity, studies find

Obesity is largely blamed on calories (too many) and exercise (too little), but recent studies suggest that chemical exposure may also pack on pounds. And it’s tough to diet from so-called “obesogens,” which show up in everything from pesticides to food containers. Chemicals found to produce more and larger fat cells in mice include waterproof-paint ingredient tributyltin; diethylstilbestrol, which was widely prescribed to pregnant women from the 1940s to the ’60s; and estrogen-like bisphenol A, which showed up in 95 percent of people tested by one recent study. BPA promotes fat-cell activity in utero, producing “lifetime effects” that occur at “phenomenally small levels” of exposure, says biological sciences professor Frederick vom Saal; he dismisses the chemical industry’s claim that BPA poses no health risk as a “blatant lie.” The production and use of BPA has quadrupled in the last couple of decades, in roughly the same timeline that obesity has noticeably risen. Coincidence? Fat chance.

BPA is actually used more in baby bottles than water bottles. Along with a number of other plastics, it uses the #7 recycling symbol. Most water bottles use Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE), which will show the #1 recycling symbol. While PETE won’t make you fat (as far as we know), it may kill you, because bottles made from PETE may leach DEHA and acetaldehyde, both classified as carcinogens.

Technorati Tags: health risks of plastic, water bottles, BPA, PETE, obesity, chemical exposure, health

It doesn’t matter whether you are trying to take off a few pounds or fifty, you must still eat regularly to provide fuel for your body’s processes. Forget about skipping meals, because that will just defeat your purpose, and make you miserable to boot. Eating small meals throughout the day helps maintain your metabolism “furnace” and allows your body to use fat as fuel. If you need an example, think of the old coal furnaces that had to be constantly tended by adding fuel in order to keep a continual fire going. If the furnace went out, then it took a long time to get the temperature back up to a comfortable level. Fueling your body is similar. You want to supply a constant supply of the right kind of fuel.

How do you keep your body continuously fueled? You snack. Snacking can be very healthy if you eat the proper foods. The proper food list, however, does not contain the foods typically thought of as ’snacks’ - chips, candy bars and other sugary and high simple carbohydrate foods. What the list does include are foods that add some interest, some energy, and some protein to your diet.

Read the whole article about 5 healthy snacks

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You’ve probably seen the media coverage of the recent government report that found that most Americans are still not eating the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.

The researchers said that even though most people are aware that fruits and vegetables can lower the risk of many diseases, consumption is still a long way from reaching the government goals set in Healthy People 2010. Their research appears in a recent issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Only 32.6 percent of adults are eating fruit two or more times per day, and only 27.2 percent are eating vegetables three or more times a day,” said researcher Dr. Larry Cohen, an epidemic intelligence officer at the CDC. These findings fall far short of the national goal of getting 75 percent of the population to eat fruit two or more times a day and 50 percent to eat vegetables three or more times per day by 2010.

Most Americans are aware of the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, according to Cohen. “However, translating that awareness to actually doing it is lacking…..It could be due to lack of access, or that some people don’t like fruits and vegetables. There could also be cultural reasons,”

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine says “The problem is compounded by price incentives and disincentives that encourage people to eat highly processed foods,” Katz said. “It may also be compounded by the popularity of low-carb diets that discourage people from eating fruit.”

I’m just wondering if the researchers counted french fries and ketchup as vegetables. If so, then this study is really bad news.

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What is the body’s core?

Your body core is your body’s midsection, from the groin to shoulders. Every movement you make, be it something as simple as be it combing your hair or as taxing as running a marathon, begins from the core. An unconditioned core will limit your physical capaabilities. Our core muscles can be weakened due to sedentary lifestyles, and as a result we become subject to strain or injury. Even if you regularly work out or participate in sports, there’s a good chance that you’re not training the body core muscles.

Working the muscles in your core will improve the effectiveness of movements with your limbs. Most resistance exercise routines focus on building muscle. The idea behind training your core is to create a strong and stable base for those muscles.

Learn more about strengthening your body’s core

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Different areas of the United States have markedly different rates of three kinds of heart disease, according to a recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention which was published in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The types of heart disease studied were coronary heart disease, heart attack and angina. Rates for any of the three conditions ranged from 3.5 percent in the U.S. Virgin Islands to 10.4 percent in West Virginia. For heart attack specifically, rates ranged from 2.1 percent in the U.S. Virgin Islands to 6.1 percent in West Virginia.

Areas with the lowest levels of all three heart problems were Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The highest occurrences were in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

Study lead author Jonathan Neyer, an epidemiologist in CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, said “We hope this report will help states and U.S. territories better tailor their heart disease prevention efforts,”

Technorati Tags: coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, health, heart disease study

Some recent research indicates that taking an afternoon nap lowers the risk of heart problems by 37 percent - at least for men, and probably for women too.

The study was the largest ever done on the health effects of napping. It included over twenty-three thousand Greeks, the majority of whom were in their 50’s. The subjects who napped a half hour at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart problems, compared to those who didn’t nap, even after allowing for possible mitigating factors such as diet, exercise and smoking.

The researchers can’t say for sure if napping would benefit women as much as men, because enough women didn’t die during the study. But they think it’s likely that women would see similar benefits.

Sleep scientist Sara Mednick agrees. She’s a professor at the University of California and author or “Take a Nap! Change Your Life”. She says most people are not sleeping well, and that the daily 20 minute coffee break would be better spent napping, and that performance on memory tasks improves more after a nap than after a dose of caffeine.

So take that afternoon nap - and don’t worry about your boss. Just show him this post or point him to the NY Times lede blog.

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We’re not talking about whether or not your health can afford a heart attack. Not too many people would say yes to that one. This is about the financial price. Heart attack costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Let’s get up close and personal with the various charges one would have to pay. First, general ambulance service. $800-$1500, sometimes even more depending on your location.

Your second heart attack cost will be an additional $100+ for ambulance medical support.

Third, emergency room services at your local hospital. That’s at least $750. Then there are emergency room professional fees, another $250 or so. Then we have $500 for laboratory tests, about $300 for EKG, X-ray drugs, etc. Plan on about $2500 for your emergency room visit.

Your fourth cost will probably be your stay in the hospital CU while they figure out what to do next. That’s around $850 a day, and you’ll probably be there one day.

If you don’t live near a major medical facility with a heart specialist on staff, you are going for a ride in a plane or helicopter. $5000-$6000.

Up to here, you’ve spent about $10,000 or so. The rest of the costs will make that seem like chump change.

Read the rest of the article about heart attack costs 

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The best treatment for acne scars is prevention (avoiding picking or squeezing spots) but saying that doesn’t help those people who have the scars. And judging from the number of people who have this problem, it’s a lot easier to preach about not picking or squeezing than it is to avoid it.

Fortunately for people suffering from acne scars, there are a number of treatments now available.

Dermabrasion uses machines with rotating diamond edge wheels for shallow scars. The machines scrape away damaged skin and allow new skin to grow in its place.

Punch replacement involves removing the deep scar and placing a skin graft over it.

See the full article about acne scars

Technorati Tags: acne scar treatment, health, dermabrasion, punch replacement, scars