Heart Smarts Six steps to avoid a heart attack

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The "big five" risk factors—smoking, family history, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure—all raise your risk for heart attacks, says Marla Mendelson, M.D., a professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. To reduce your risk, she suggests you:

• LEARN YOUR FAMILY HISTORY
  If someone in your family had cardiovascular disease before age 55, your risk goes up.
• DON'T SMOKE
  Did we really have to tell you this?
• KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
  Do your own cholesterol and blood pressure math. Optimal total cholesterol: less than 200 mg/dL, while BP should be no higher than 120/80.
• EXERCISE REGULARLY
  Get at least five hours of cardio every week.
• EAT WELL
  Keep fast food to a minimum and stick to a diet high in lean protein, vegetables, fruit, and whole grains.
• KEEP YOUR COOL
  Stress doesn't hurt as much as the things you do when you're stressed—eat too much, drink too much, and don't exercise. Find healthy ways to handle it.

What To Eat (And Avoid) This Summer

To help you stave off unwanted warm-weather calories, we've compiled a list of the foods you should never order in three popular summer-time locales

by Lindsay Brown

THE CARNIVAL

AVOID: No surprise here: that sugar-covered funnel cake is loaded with calories and fat. If you can't resist the pastry, split it with a few friends so the damage is minimal.

BEST BETS: Typically, you want to avoid any meat on a stick that's been dipped in a fryer. One exception: the corn dog. At just 250 calories, it may be the one permissible carnival indulgence. With fewer than 300 calories, kettle corn and corn on the cob (minus the mounds of butter) are also tolerable options.

THE BASEBALL GAME

AVOID: A salted soft pretzel might seem significantly healthier than greasy stadium fare, but it's packed with almost 500 calories and a whopping 101 grams of carbs.

BEST BETS: More and more stadiums are stepping up their game when it comes to concession options, adding healthy items like sushi, sandwich wraps, and fresh fruit to their menus. But even fan favorites such as hot dogs and peanuts are relatively low in calories.

THE BOARDWALK

AVOID: Nachos. They may be tasty, but they're drowned in processed cheese and sour cream (for a total of 940 calories and 57 grams of fat). BEST BETS: Enjoy a boardwalk staple: saltwater taffy. Seven pieces contain only about 150 calories. Frozen yogurt in a sugar cone (300 fewer calories than soft-serve ice cream) won't blow up your summer body, eithe

Reduce Health Insurance Costs By Staying Fit

Reduce Health Insurance Costs By Staying Fit

One of the best ways you can keep your health insurance costs down, besides being young, is to keep your body fit and healthy. Here's a few quick things to consider as you make your lifestyle choices.

As Your Weight Rises, so Does Your Health Insurance Costs

Health insurance costs rise as your weight to height ratio (or Body Mass Index, BMI) increases. This is because you run a proportionately higher risk for several weight-related diseases as your weight increases, such as heart disease. If you find that you are overweight or obese according to your BMI, then you might want to consider enrolling in a fitness program. The money you save in health insurance costs might well cover the costs of your fitness program, plus your quality of life would likely improve.

If You Smoke, You Could Be Burning Money By Paying More For Health Insurance

It's true, smoking is another factor that can have a tremendous effect on your health insurance costs. Smoking is a difficult habit to kick, so while an added cost every month for health insurance might not be enough motivation to take the plunge, it can definitely be added to the list of the benefits of being a non-smoker.

Diabetes Raises the Price of Health Insurance

Sometimes diabetes is an unavoidable effect of genetic disposition, but often, especially in the United States where obesity is nearly an epidemic, diabetes is an avoidable factor is rising health insurance costs. This kind of diabetes can be avoided by keeping regular blood sugar levels so that your insulin reservoirs don't get exhausted before their time. That mean eating high-carbohydrate foods in moderation, and eating on a regular basis to avoid over-compensating for lost calories.

Health Insurance is Expensive, But You Can Help Reduce Costs By Being Healthy

Health insurance will likely never be as affordable as we'd like, but there are important choices we can make in our lives that will help reduce its ultimate costs. Healthy living not only reduces health insurance costs, it also reduces doctor bills, increased overall energy levels and as a result improves quality of life. Since a lifetime is finite, it's important to try to live the time we have as best as we can.

Health Clubs vs. Home Training - A Cost Analysis

Health Clubs vs. Home Training - A Cost Analysis

I've thought about the idea of joining a health club for quite a while now, but I've always had this nagging feeling that it's just not going to be worth my money. But as I grow older my health and fitness becomes way more important to me, and I am starting to consider a health club as a viable way to stay in shape.

Let's take a look at the different criteria I can base my decision to join a health club on, starting with finances.

Health Clubs vs. Home-Grown Training, a Cost Analysis

Health clubs can vary in price quite a bit, but for this example I will use the pricing structure for a local health club called "Soul Fitness". This health club costs around $30 / month, with a slight discount if you buy for multiple months at a time. Say I pay monthly for a three full years. That would mean the first year it would cost me about $360 for the first year, $360 for the second year and $360 for the third year, for a total of $1,080.

If I decide to work out at home, instead of buying a health club membership, then there are a couple of things I'm going to need: 1) space and 2) fitness equipment. Given that I have the space, what is the equipment going to cost? Let's say to start with I should get one cardiovascular machine and one weight machine. To keep it versatile, the weight machine will be a simple bench with an incline and enough weights to keep me busy for a while, which would run around $200. For the cardiovascular workout, I go for a middle-quality recumbent exercise bike, which runs me around $200 as well.

Health Clubs vs. Home-Grown Training - Final Costs

If I plan to invest in one new machine every year, at a cost of roughly $200, for the first year home-grown training will cost me $400, for the second year $200, and for the third year $200, for a total of $800 over three years. Over a three year period, home-grown training is more affordable by about 26%! Plus, I get to keep the equipment.

Health Clubs vs. Home-Grown Training - Travel Costs

Of course, by training at home will save on travel costs, since there's no commute to the health club. Say you travel about 5 miles to and 5 miles back from the health club. If your car gets around 25 miles to the gallon, and you exercise 4 times a week, that's about about 1 2/3 gallons of gas a week. If you exercise for 50 weeks out of the year, at a cost per gallon of $2.00, that's a total of $160 a year, making your total cost of home-grown training about 36% less than going to health clubs.

Health Clubs vs. Home-Grown Training - Conclusion

So it seems that home grown training is more cost-effective than buying a membership to a health club, but there are other factors to consider when deciding which route to take. For one, the social aspect of a health club can have a direct effect on how much exercising actually gets done, and the variety of equipment at a health club definitely is is plus. But if costs are your concern, and your concern is general over-all fitness, go with your own equipment instead of a health club and use the extra money to buy some protein bars.

Pilates: How Effective is it for Burning Calories?

Pilates has held a certain presence within the fitness media for quite some time. It seems that soccer moms and brides-to-be having been talking up the benefits of Pilates for the past few years.

Awareness

One thing that people who practice Yoga and Pilates both have in common are the fact that they have a heightened sense of overall awareness when it comes to their bodies. Pilates trains your mind to build symmetry and coordination, both very important to your overall health and well being.

Building a Stronger Core

Pilates

Though Pilates can help you build a stronger core, that doesn’t mean that you will automatically have flat abs. In order to lose weight in your middle, you must lose weight to begin with. Work on building better flexibility and standing up straighter. These are important aspects of building a stronger core.

Body Control

Body control is extremely important when it comes to building strength and losing weight. You must learn to build body symmetry and how to control your body in such a way that it benefits you and your overall health. Pilates can help with this.

Overall Body Fitness

One of the main benefits of Pilates is the fact that it is good for your body overall. It does not overdevelop some parts of your body. Instead, it trains your body as an integrated whole. It promotes strength and awareness and will help you to properly balance all of your muscle groups.

Everyone Can Benefit From Pilates

It doesn’t matter how old you are or what type of physical condition you’re in, Pilates can benefit you and everyone. It has the most amazing health benefits and those who are at any age of physical fitness level can easily get into Pilates. Once you have strengthened your body’s core, you will find that sitting is much more comfortable. You will also see the results of your Pilates exercise program improve drastically. You will feel more stable when you are walking, standing or sitting. Additionally, you’ll find that you have better posture.

You won’t just be working out some of your muscle groups, but instead will be working out all of your muscle groups.

Stay Comfortable

One of the nice things about Pilates is that you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Start off by buying a Pilates DVD or checking out a Pilates book from the library. Or, take a class at your local health club, learn the routine and continue doing it at home. Pilates is something you can do individually, with a class or a friend or family member. It often helps to work out with someone or to have a weight loss buddy. It’s extremely beneficial to have someone to share your ups and downs with and to track your progress.

Keep a Journal

Keeping a fitness journal allows you to track your progress easier. Pay close attention to what you’re eating, what exercise you’re doing each day and whether or not your routine is effective. That way, if you suddenly find that you’re not losing weight or as much weight as you think you should be, you can look back and see what you might be able to do differently or what might have changed to cause the sudden weight loss plateau.

How to Grow Taller Naturally - This Works Even If it Seems You Have Stopped Growing

If you are petrified of going under the surgeon's scalpel and rightfully want to avoid taking any steroids in a bid to increase your height then there are many natural ways of increasing your height.

Pay heed to these natural tips on how to grow taller naturally.

Eat a diet that helps your bones. A healthy diet consisting of high proteins and carbohydrates will reach to your cartilages and bones and hence help you to grow taller quickly. Make sure that you also get vital vitamins and essential nutrients such as calcium in your diet. Avoid unhealthy foods that will not help better your health or increase your height. You can go in for natural supplements to supplement your natural diet if the need arises.

Exercise your way to grow taller naturally. Exercises and sports can definitely help you gain those elusive inches provided you do the right ones. Sports such as swimming and cycling as well as participating in track and field events can help stretch out your body to the utmost limit and you might soon notice your shorts getting shorter as time passes by.

Stretch your way up. If you are into weight training at the gym then performing stretching exercises is the best way for a warm up as well as for a stretch-up. Touching your toes and crunches can help stretch your spine while hanging by your fingers or ankles from a horizontal bar can help stretch each limb of your body. Your trainer would be able to help you out by showing you the right way to stretch your body without any problem.

Get into those special shoes. You may be surprised to learn that there are special shoes available in stores and over the Internet that may look normal from outside but would have a special insole and heel inside. These shoes can help boost your height without any problem or effort from your side.

Pay Close Attention Here-

Do you know that there is a mind blowing secret using which you can increase your height with 3 inches or more In Just 6 Weeks? And that too regardless of your age? There is a little known underground secret to growing taller which no one knows

Causes of Chest Pain - Reasons for Left and Right Sided Chest Pain

Any kind of discomfort or pain sensed in the right or left side of the chest is referred to as chest pain. There are several medical reasons that can be the causes of chest pain. In this article, we find the main reasons for left and right sided chest pain.

The first thing that comes to our mind when we refer to chest pain, is the fear of an heart attack. However, it is not essential that all types of chest pain are related to heart health. Chest pain can be caused due to non-cardiac problems as well. Sometimes, the pain may not serious and only causes mild inconvenience. However, there are times when chest pain can be an indication of threat to life. Many a times, abdomen pain is mistaken with chest pain. Chest pain due to muscle catch is quite a common occurrence. Suppose, while at a high speed you stop suddenly, you can get a twitch in the muscles of the chest wall. This can result in severe chest pain. Muscle catch can be due to fast breathing or abnormal posture as well.

Causes of Left Sided Chest Pain

Since our heart is located at the left side of the chest, left sided chest pain causes people to panic as heart attack is often thought to be the prime cause of left sided chest pain. It is not so every time. Even minor problems like acid reflux, heartburn or gas can lead to left sided chest pain. The gas formation in the intestines and stomach give an upward thrust on the chest wall that can give rise to a condition of breathlessness or tightness or pain in the chest, which is similar to cardiac pain.

Whenever, there is some mental stress or physical exertion, the heart needs more blood to sustain the heart beat. In case of any blockage in the artery, sufficient amount of oxygen fails to reach the heart and this causes acute pain. This kind of pain is due to heart attack. This pain is usually not confined to only to the chest, but gets extended to the shoulder, the throat and sometimes the jaw. It is accompanied by other symptoms like palpitation, excessive sweating, vomiting or paleness of skin.

Causes of Right Sided Chest Pain

Right sided chest pain is unlikely to be a result of any problem related to the heart. Some of the causes of right sided chest pain can still be dangerous to the health; while others are not serious conditions. The serious causes behind right sided chest pain are: right sided chest pain due to pneumonia, gall bladder diseases or liver inflammation. If there is right sided chest pain, the first thing that needs to be identified is whether the pain is oriented locally or centrally. In some cases, it has been observed that when the gas problems turn severe, an acute pain is experienced by the patient. In these cases, the patient fails to determine whether the origin of the pain is the chest or the abdomen.

The most commonly observed cause of right sided chest pain is gallstones. Gallstones are formed due to crystallization of bile and cholesterol in the gallbladder, which leads to an inflammation of the gallbladder. This type of pain is severe and constant. Right sided chest pain could be the symptom of some liver diseases like hepatitis as well. Though it is not a very common symptom, in certain cases, it has been noticed that prior to the diagnosis of hepatitis, patients have complained of right sided chest pain.

The root cause of left or right sided chest pain needs to be established, before starting of any treatment. Thus, anyone suffering from chest pain should consult the doctor without any delay. In case of any kind of chest pain, electrocardiogram and chest radiograph may be suggested to detect any heart problems. If required, an ultrasound is conducted to detect gallstones and blood test for hepatitis.

By Bidisha Mukherjee

Fat inhibitors : Things to keep in mind before taking them

The weight loss industry has become sizeable with the introduction of many new drugs that claim to be instant or quick weight loss solutions. Some of these drugs may produce good results by helping people with their desired weight loss, however, in many cases most of the drugs prove ineffective. Among the effective weight loss drugs are some fat inhibitors and appetite suppressants.

Xenical is the most popular fat inhibiting drug. Xenical slimming pills, which is available only on a prescription from a doctor. It is generally prescribed to very overweight or clinically obese people to help them lose their extra pounds.

Xenical contains orlistat as its main ingredient that works by blocking about one-third of dietary fats from getting absorbed in the body. The unabsorbed fats that remain in the body generally pass out through normal bowel movements.

Things to keep in mind before taking Xenical
Xenical is a prescription drug, so you need to take it exactly as per the doctor’s directions. Before taking it, you need to ensure that

1. You aren’t allergic to the active ingredient or inactive ingredients of Xenical
2. You don’t have certain pancreatic problems
3. You haven’t had any recent surgery to stomach or intestines

You cal also buy Xenical online. So if you buy it from any online source, then you need to ensure the tablets you receive aren’t torn or tampered. Also check the expiry date on the pack of these tablets.

Moreover, Xenical is not recommended for pregnant or breast-feeding women for their weight loss treatment. It is also not recommended to women who intend to become pregnant. It’s advisable to have your through check up done from a medical doctor before you intend to take Xenical for reducing those extra pounds from your body.

Health & Fitness Article

What Are Health & Fitness Articles?Internet is a very good source of getting education but at the same time it also gives the useful information about the various other aspects of life like the Health & Fitness and the many other entertaining things. Health & Fitness is important in the life of all of the people but there are some people who are more concern about their Health & Fitness.

Therefore to target such people there are many websites on the Internet, which are giving marvelous topics on the Health & Fitness. The importance of these articles can be analyzed from the view of those people who have taken the advantage from these articles. In the Health & Fitness articles there are various solutions of the problems of the people related to health issues and these articles also give the information on different facts related to health.

Topics Under Health & Fitness Articles

There is a diverse category of the issues which come under the Health & Fitness, like the discussion on various diseases, cure of the diseases as well as the preventions, impact of various things on the health of an individual, research articles related to fitness as well as medicine, government of the state policies related to the Health & Fitness, health care products, health clinics, new discoveries related to health, gyms and the health clinics, discussions on the various types of the exercise tools and many other things which directly or indirectly are related to the Health & Fitness. You can say that all the areas under the medicine and all of the areas under the fitness come under this category. Therefore, if you just go on any of the section of the Health & Fitness on the websites, you can get a lot of information over there.

Importance Of Health & Fitness Articles

The most important thing for any individual in the life is his own health because no other thing in the universe can replace its importance. On the basis of this you can better understand the importance of the health and fitness articles. These articles are not only visited by the doctors and the physicians only but also common people daily go through them to get the awareness about the health issues. The medical professionals can get the point of views of the different doctors and physician all around the world and with time can make their knowledge more dynamic, on the other hand the other people can get the cheap and the easy approach to different health issues.

Contents Of Health & Fitness Articles

In most of the Health & Fitness articles the issues related to different health and fitness are discussed, like in the case of the cosmetic surgery, the guidelines will be given not only related to surgery only but also to the impact of surgery on the health. Besides, that the fitness articles usually have the complete descriptions related to different health equipment. Basically to make the common people aware of the health issues such articles are highly appreciated and there are many websites, which are providing the best quality content. As the field of health and fitness is very dynamic and with each passing day there come new inventions and discoveries related to health, therefore, such websites should keep them updated so that they can provide the target users with the quality and the updated contents.

Health and Fitness Make the Difference Between Living Well and Living

Quality of life is what we all want. Good health helps us achieve a high quality of life. Fitness makes us want to live it every day. If you agree with these three premises, keep reading.

The Purpose of Health and Fitness Tips
To inform you of new developments in the health and fitness fields is our aim. We'll do the research; we have the resources. You get the results. The name of the game is 'current' and 'relevant' for today. Forget all the excess baggage of the so-called fitness gurus.

Become Healthier and Fitter Faster
While we know you are interested in becoming healthier and fitter or maintaining the health and fitness you have, we also know you have limited time to devote to it. We therefore pledge to you a fast, simple method to hop aboard the fitness fast train. Get on track with the facts.

Health Professionals, Medical Doctors and Health and Fitness Writers and Editors Make Up Our Staff
Our staff experience in the booming Health and Fitness field adds up to more than 100 years. Not that anyone is age 100 or even close, but we all plan to live that long. We want to make sure we have company. So we invite you along for the ride. We'll spur you on and help you over the rough spots to your own fitness destination.

Diet and Exercise are Keys to Healthy Living
But you know all this. So our aim is to give you the shortcuts, the little-known tricks and proven methods to help prevent boredom and hopelessness in your quest for good health. Our high tech world has advanced in the fitness field also. In fact, so fast that we want to get the information out to you yesterday. That's what the Health and Fitness Tips Site is all about…the latest up-to-the-minute-in-the-zone information for your health and fitness.

The Health and Fitness Tips Newsletter
Is a free weekly newsletter that is delivered straight to your email box. It's short, to the point, and it's absolutely free. This newsletter contains one weekly health and fitness tip that will get you on the right track. Click here and become one step closer to your health and fitness goals for the year 2002!