health tips

5 Cooking Mistakes That Pack on Pounds

It’s no tip that grill dishes are installed with dark mixture and calories. That’s because home-cooked dishes are a good thought for anyone examination their weight. Conquering a kitchen is a good initial step, though if we haven’t eaten out in months and a scale still won’t budge, it competence be time to take a closer demeanour during your cooking habits. Below a few mistakes that could be derailing your weight-loss plans.

Using too most oil
yes, olive oil is a ‘good’ fat. But a kitchen tack is also crazy-dense calorie correct – a singular tablespoon clocks in during 120 calories. That might not sound like a lot, though if you’re not profitable attention, it’s easy to use as most as 3 times that amount. Sticking to that singular tablespoon stipend can be generally tough with vegetables, given they tend to catch oil quickly. A useful trick, lightly steam your veggies (or protein) to prepare them by before adding them to a stir-fry.

Estimating portion sizes
We all know a significance of portion control, though during a finish of a prolonged day, holding a time to magnitude any part out can seem painfully time consuming. Instead, we eyeball portion sizes – a use that could potentially supplement hundreds of dark calories to an differently healthy meal. Avoid profitable a cost for weeknight indolence by holding a time to unequivocally learn what healthy portions of grains, fish and produce demeanour like.

Being a worker to a recipe
If we miss certainty in a kitchen, it’s tantalizing to follow recipes to a T. But by blindly adhering to a part list, you’re blank out on profitable opportunities to make healthy tweaks. For example, if a recipe calls for one crater of cream, try substituting half of that with greek yogurt, or even pureed avocado. This simple swap cuts calories and fat but sacrificing on hardness or taste.

Snacking while we prep
Resisting a titillate to taste-test while prepping your food can seem impossible, generally when you’re starving. And while a small snacking never killed anyone, a handful of walnuts here and a cut of avocado there can unequivocally supplement up. To equivocate ruining your ardour (and your meal) try nipping resin or sipping a potion of  sparkling H2O while we cook. Still munching? Time for some tough love: for each punch we take, put a small reduction on your plate.

Leaving leftovers adult for grabs
Picture this: cooking was delicious, you’re absolutely full and we know we should be satisfied. That is, until we go to do a dishes, and a pot of pasta on a stove starts job your name. Preempt a incentive to go in for a second assisting by putting leftovers divided as shortly as possible. In this case, that aged proverb binds loyal – out of sight, out of mind.

Source: http://phucanpc.com/4155/5-cooking-mistakes-that-pack-on-the-pounds/

Bionic Man: Controls Artificial Leg with his Thoughts

For the first time ever, doctors have developed an artificial leg that is controlled by the person’s thoughts. And it happened here at the Rehabilitation Institute Of Chicago (RIC).

“So I move my leg out, push the toes down and bring my toes back up,” said Zac Vawter, the first man in the nation to have a so-called bionic leg.

He is able to make these movements just like people with a fully functioning leg do: With his thoughts.

In 2009, Vawter lost his right leg from above the knee down in a motorcycle accident. His bionic leg allows him to bend his knee and move his ankle. “It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s neat. It’s intuitive. It puts energy into me walking and moving around.” With a regular prosthetic leg, movement like this isn’t possible.

So how does this all work?

Two nerves in Vawter’s leg were rewired to his hamstring muscle.  Those nerves communicate with the sensors inside the prosthetic leg socket. The sensors send a message to a computer. “So when he thinks about straightening or bending his knee, this computer can detect that and tell the knee to bend or to straighten,” Dr. Annie Simon, Biomedical Engineer at the RIC.

A team, headed by Dr. Levi Hargrove, spent four years perfecting the technology Vawter is using. “He’s giving back so much,” Hargrove said. “He’s taken a less than ideal situation and made the most of it and he’s helping potentially, millions of people.”

Vawter, a software engineer, knew about RIC’s bionic research. He never thought one day, that technology would be used to help him walk.

“RIC is really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with prosthetics and it’s exciting to contribute to that and to help them push forward into new areas of research,” Vawter said.

RIC research is funded through an $8 million grant from the U.S. Army with a goal of creating better prosthetic limbs.

More than 1,200 soldiers have had lower limb amputations from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/09/25/bionic-man-amputee-controls-artificial-leg-with-thoughts/

Baby Sunscreen Recall: Revealed Microbial Contamination

The number one selling sunscreen in the U.S. natural markets, W.S. Badger Company, has voluntarily recalled 30,000 of its baby and kids’ sunscreen lotions because of potential disease-causing bacteria.

On Monday, the New Hampshire company announced in a press release that it is recalling all lots of its 4-oz. SPF 30 Baby Sunscreen Lotion and one lot of its 4-oz. SPF 30 Kids Sunscreen Lotion (lot # 3164A) due to three types of microbial contamination: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida parapsilosis, and Acremonium fungi.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Pseudomonas is one of the most common pathogens that typically develops in people in the hospital and/or with weakened immune systems. Healthy people can be exposed to Pseudomonas aeruginosa, especially after exposure to water. In children, ear infections and skin rashes may occur.

A Candida parapsilosis infection is typically caused by a yeast and mainly affects children, infants, and those with a weak immune system. Acremonium fungus is a slow-growing mold that may lead to opportunistic infections, such as herpes simplex, lymphoma, and pneumonia.

Badger Founder and CEO Bill Whyte explained that the voluntarily recall came after doing a routine re-testing of the organic children’s products. “All of these lots passed the required microbiological and comprehensive challenge testing prior to sale. It was during routine re-testing that we discovered that the preservative system in several lots had been compromised,” Whyte said in the press release.

Source: Medical daily.com

 

Better use of antibiotics could be key to fighting ‘superbugs’

Better use of antibiotics could help fight the infection Clostridium difficile – the super bug.

A team from the University of Leeds, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxford University, mapped all cases of Clostridium difficile (C.diff) in Oxfordshire over a three-year period (2008 to 2011).

C. diff causes severe diarrhoea, cramps and sometimes life-threatening complications, and has traditionally been thought to be transmitted within hospitals from other sick C.diff patients.

The research found that less than one in five cases of the so called ‘hospital superbug’ were likely to have been caught from other hospital cases of C.diff, where the focus of infection control measures has been.

By assessing the genetic variation between C.diff cases, the team identified those cases that were matched and were likely to be linked. By adding hospital records and the community movements of each case, they worked out if that transmission was likely to have happened as a result of hospital or patient contact.

Source: sify.com

Omega-3 fatty acids not tied to women’s mental sharpness

Women who consume plenty of omega-3 fatty acids may not have better thinking and memory skills as a result, according to a new study.

Some researchers have suggested that fatty acids found in fish and fish oil supplements might protect against memory loss.

But studies trying to test that theory have been “all over the place,” said Dr. Jennifer G. Robinson from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, senior author of the new report.

“There’s nothing really convincing, (in) one direction or the other,” she told Reuters Health.

To address the uncertainty, she and her colleagues analyzed data collected as part of the large Women’s Health Initiative trial focused on hormone replacement therapy.

For the new study, they compared women’s fatty acid levels to their performance on six years’ worth of thinking and memory tests.

The study included 2,157 women ages 65 to 80, and Robinson’s team looked at their levels of two omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). The researchers also adjusted for the effects of hormone therapy in the women who were taking it.

On seven kinds of thinking and memory tests, Robinson and her colleagues found no differences between the one-third of women with the lowest omega-3 levels and the one-third with the highest levels.

That was after also taking into account other health and lifestyle factors, like whether women smoked and how much they exercised.

The tests measured women’s short-term memory for numbers and pictures and their ability to recognize shapes that are flipped or rotated, for example.

Scores on those exams did decline gradually over time, but there was no link between a woman’s omega-3 levels and how far or fast her scores fell, the study team reports in Neurology.

Robinson said Women’s Health Initiative participants tended to be healthy and well-educated, which may have bolstered their “cognitive reserve” and protected against memory loss – even without extra omega-3 fatty acids. It’s possible, she added, that the fatty acids would make a bigger difference among less-advantaged women.

Or, it may be that researchers would have to measure fatty acids over longer periods of time to see a link with thought processing. The blood levels used here probably only reflect diet over several months, she said.

“It’s just one snapshot, one point in time,” Robinson said. “The feeling as we look at all these chronic diseases … is it’s really what happens over your lifetime that’s important in terms of diet and physical activity.”

Alan Dangour, who has studied fatty acids and memory at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said omega-3s are important for brain development early in life. But after that, the data get a bit fuzzier.

“There is no good evidence to support the consumption of omega-3 supplements to promote or maintain cognitive health in later life,” Dangour, who wasn’t involved in the new research, told Reuters Health in an email.

“However, omega-3 fatty acids are an important part of the diet and may have other health benefits,” he said.

Source: Zee News

Breastfeeding Concerns Prevalent Among New Mothers

Almost all new mothers experience breastfeeding concerns in the early postpartum period, and these are associated with stopping breastfeeding, according to a study published online Sept. 23 in Pediatrics.

Erin A. Wagner, from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and colleagues characterized breastfeeding support, intentions, and concerns in a cohort of 532 expectant primiparas who were followed-up through 60 days postpartum.

The researchers found that there were 4,179 breastfeeding concerns reported in 2,946 interviews, which could be grouped into 49 subcategories and nine main categories. At day three, 92% of participants reported at least one concern, with the most common concerns being difficulty with infant feeding at breast (52%), breastfeeding pain (44%), and quantity of milk (40%). Concerns correlated significantly with increased risk of stopping breastfeeding and with use of formula, with the peak adjusted relative risk at day three. The largest population attributable risks (PARs) for stopping feeding were infant feeding difficulty on day seven (adjusted PAR, 32%) and milk quantity at day 14 (adjusted PAR, 23%).

“Breastfeeding concerns are highly prevalent and associated with stopping breastfeeding,” the authors write. “Priority should be given to developing strategies for lowering the overall occurrence of breastfeeding concerns and resolving, in particular, infant feeding and milk quantity concerns occurring within the first 14 days postpartum.”

Source: http://www.empr.com/breastfeeding-concerns-prevalent-among-new-mothers/article/313173/#

Walnuts may prevent diabetes and heart disease

Eating walnuts daily can ward off diabetes and heart disease in at-risk individuals, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Connecticut found daily intake of 56 g of walnuts improves endothelial function in overweight adults with visceral adiposity.

The study included a sample of 46 adults aged 30-75. Participants had a Body Mass Index larger than 25, and a waist circumference exceeding 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women.

They were also required to be non-smokers, and all exhibited one or more additional risk factors for metabolic syndrome, a precursor of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The group was randomly assigned to two 8-week sequences of either a walnut-enriched ad libitum diet or an ad libitum diet without walnuts. Those chosen for the walnut diet were instructed to consume 56 g of shelled, unroasted English walnuts per day as a snack or with a meal.

“We know that improving diets tends to be hard, but adding a single food is easy,” explained Dr David Katz, Director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center and lead author of the research team.

“Our theory is that if a highly nutritious, satiating food like walnuts is added to the diet, there are dual benefits: the benefits of that nutrient rich addition and removal of the less nutritious foods,” Katz said. The research found that daily intake of 56 g of walnuts improves endothelial function in overweight adults with visceral adiposity.

“The primary outcome measure was the change in flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery,” researchers said. “Secondary measures included serum lipid panel, fasting glucose and insulin, Homeostasis Model Assessment-Insulin Resistance values, blood pressure, and anthropometric measures.

“FMD improved significantly from baseline when subjects consumed a walnut-enriched diet as compared with the control diet. Beneficial trends in systolic blood pressure reduction were seen, and maintenance of the baseline anthropometric values was also observed. Other measures were unaltered,” they said. The study is published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Source: Indian Express.com

Hot exercise classes catching on like fire

Mimi Benz discovered her fervor for hot exercise by accident. She had taken heated yoga classes but had never thought to combine high temperatures with her true passion, indoor cycling, until the air conditioning broke during a cycling class at her gym.

From that first hot ride, she was hooked.

“I loved it,” says Benz, explaining that with a heated workout she didn’t have to waste time warming up. “It improves blood flow throughout your body, so you go into a high-calorie burn more quickly. And it feels really good afterwards.”

In 2011, Benz opened the Sweat Shoppe, a heated indoor cycling studio in North Hollywood.

“I wasn’t sure how people would respond, so in the beginning we had half heated classes and half non-heated classes.” But the demand for heated classes was so high that by 2013 they’d eliminated non-heated rides from the schedule.

As the demand for hot workouts continues to rise, heated studios are popping up all over, offering everything from traditional Bikram yoga, which started the hot exercise trend with a regimented sequence of yoga postures performed in a 105-degree room with 40% humidity, to hot power yoga, hot Pilates and hot barre. Some classes even incorporate hot weightlifting.

Bikram’s static poses can be sustained at over 100 degrees, but more dynamic classes are typically in the 95-degree range, and the Sweat Shoppe’s SweatCycle classes top out at 85 degrees. “If you go hotter, that’s nuts” and not safe, says Benz.

The allure of heat

As for why people love the heat so much, Benz says it’s partly a psychological response to sweat streaming from your pores. “People feel they’ve accomplished more if they’re drenched. It is very addictive; a lot of our clients can’t cycle anywhere else because they’re so used to riding in a heated environment.”

Laurel Hilton, a writer and hot-yoga enthusiast from Mill Valley, Calif., agrees that once you go hot it’s hard to go back. “I’m addicted to sweating. In the heat you get a sort of exhausted euphoria. You almost feel like you’re floating during practice. Without heat, it’s just not the same experience.”

After becoming acclimated to high temperatures, working out in the heat gets easier. “It’s the same thing any football coach knows,” says Craig Crandall, director of the Thermoregulation Laboratory at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. “When you take [players] out in the beginning of the season, you can’t work them out hard. They’ll die.” But give them a chance to acclimate, and they’ll be able to push themselves.

Another reason people are attracted to heated workouts: If a heat-acclimated person does the usual workout in a cool environment, it will be a breeze in comparison, says Benz.

Does heat make a better workout?

Though many heated exercise champions believe they’re burning more calories because their hearts are beating faster, that’s not true, says Crandall. “It’s oxygen uptake that determines the number of calories burned, not heart rate.” When people exercise in the heat, they lose blood volume as they sweat, so the amount of blood ejected per heart beat decreases. To compensate, the heart rate increases. For a given workload, a person’s heart rate will always be higher in the heat.

“We know exercising in heat will cause a slightly higher oxygen uptake, but [the difference is] very small, less than 10%,” and likely to be offset by a decreased workload, Crandall says.

Another common misconception is that sweating profusely “detoxifies” the body. “That’s silliness,” says Crandall. “I don’t know of any toxins that are released through sweat.” He adds that the function of sweating is to cool you down, not clean you out.

So is there any physiological benefit to working out in the heat? Crandall says the benefit is heat acclimation itself, which improves sweating efficiency, increases blood flow to the skin and expands blood volume, bringing more blood to the muscles.

There is some evidence that heat acclimation can boost athletic performance. A 2010 study looking at elite cyclists found that those who added a 10-day heat training regimen to their normal training routine saw a 7% increase in their performance. The performance-boosting effects lasted one to two weeks after heat exposure.

But Santiago Lorenzo, the study’s lead author, former Olympic decathlete and a professor of physiology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pa., cautions, “The results we saw apply to highly trained cyclists. How to translate this to someone of average fitness or a weekend warrior? Chances are it would still work—but we need studies to confirm that.”

Safety during heated exercise

“Even if you’re running in the desert or an area with high humidity, you still usually have a draft to cool you off,” says Shannan Lynch, director of education for Mad Dogg Athletics Inc. “But when you sit in a heated room without airflow, the temperature can get dangerously hot.”

The conditions can lead to reduced blood flow to your skin, thus less cooling, and eventual heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. Warning signs include a dry mouth, headache, increasing fatigue, nausea and dizziness.

If you exercise in the heat, Lynch says, replace the fluid that you lose. Weigh yourself before and after. American College of Sports Medicine guidelines recommend that people drink 20 to 24 ounces of water or sports beverage for every pound they lose.

As far as contraindications for heated exercise, “If you have any kind of heart condition, only try it after you get the green light from a physician,” Lynch says, adding. “Pregnant women should not be exercising in a heated environment.”

Source: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-sweat-it-20130914,0,522826.story

Questioning Steroid Shots for Back Pain

Injecting steroids into the area around the spinal cord, known as an epidural, is the most commonly used treatment for back pain, but a new review of studies suggests that injecting any liquid, even plain saline solution, works just as well.

Researchers pooled the results of 43 studies involving more than 3,600 patients who got various kinds of injections for back pain. As they expected, they found some evidence that epidural steroid injections provided more relief than steroid injections into the muscles.

But the study, published online in Anesthesiology, also found that there was little difference between the amount of relief provided by steroidal and non-steroidal epidural injections.

The researchers suggest that any liquid injected epidural can help reduce inflammation, enhance blood flow to the nerves and clean out scar tissue.

“Epidural steroid injections may provide modest relief for up to two months in people with back pain due to nerve inflammation,” said the senior author of the study, Dr. Steven P. Cohen, a professor of anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins.

But steroids have side effects, and “most of the short-term benefit seems to be not from the steroids, but from the local anesthetic and saline, which may ‘calm’ inflamed nerves that send pain signals,” said Dr. Cohen. “Doctors should consider significantly reducing the steroid dose, or even not using steroids in patients who are at high risk.”

Source: nytimes.com

Global Warming Slowdown Hinders Climate Treaty Effort

More than ever, scientists say they’re convinced the Earth’s climate is warming. Yet lawmakers are struggling to do anything about it because the pace of change has unexpectedly slowed.

The data has caused a United Nations panel to lower predictions of the pace of global temperature increases by 2100, according to draft documents obtained by Bloomberg ahead of publication due on Sept. 27. Still, the most complete assessment of climate science in six years also is likely to conclude that melting ice will make sea levels rise faster than previously projected.

The findings muddy the picture about how much carbon dioxide output is affecting the climate, giving ammunition to those who doubt the issue needs urgent action. Skeptics have succeeded in “confusing the public,” said Michael Jacobs, who advised the U.K. government on climate policy until 2010.

“It’s been a very organized campaign by climate skeptics, using the very, very tiny number of scientists who don’t agree with the almost unanimous view of everybody else and inflating small uncertainties into apparently major challenges to the scientific consensus,” Jacobs said. “One of the challenges of the panel this year is to convince the media, politicians and the public that there is this extraordinarily widespread consensus on the major facts about climate change.”

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com