Lie on the floor or a bench with your legs straight out. Your toes should be pointing towards ceiling and arms stretched above your head. Try raising your arms towards your toes while moving your legs up at a 45 – 90 degree angle, shoulders off the floor. Bring your arms way up above your belly button so that your body resembles a jack-knife. Return to the bench or floor with your legs and arms stretched out. Repeat 40 times.
• Vertical leg crunch
Lie on your back with legs straight up in the air. Place your hands at the back of your head for support. Try lifting your shoulder blades off the floor with your abdominal muscles doing most of the work. Do 6 crunches in a set, you can do 2-4 sets depending on your stamina.
• Mountain climbers
This is one of the most effective muffin-top exercises, simple yet intense. Be on your hands and toes, like standard push-up, pull your right knee towards your chest while your foot still rests on the floor, jump up and switch your feet while in the air so that when you resume the position your left knee is against your chest and right leg is behind you. This should be repeated multiple times in a minute.
• Donkey Kicks
This will help you get rid of muffin top and make your legs look awesome. Get down on all fours and make sure your stomach is pulled in and straight back. Kick your left leg behind you as straight as possible and hold that pose for at least 5 seconds, repeat for your right leg. Repeat ten times for each side.
• Spinning
This is an intense workout but effective workout. Spinning may be difficult when you do it for the first time. It’s a kind of cycling but the pace is much faster. In order to avoid exhaustion start out slow and increase your speed over time. You will be able to continue for longer periods of time as you keep practicing.
• Vacuum Exercise
To get rid of muffin top transverse abdominals should be your target. Start on all fours as for standard push-ups, keep your spine relaxed and inhale deeply. Pull your navel toward your spine and hold for 12 seconds when you exhale, that counts as 1. Repeat at least 12 times.
• Scissor Kicks
Besides helping you lose the muffin top this will help you improve your waist line, posture, and reduce back pain. Lie on your back with your hands at your side with your feet 6 inches from the ground. To eliminate the arch in your back pull your navel towards your spine. Keeping your legs straight and your feet off the ground, start kicking with both legs alternately towards the ceiling. Repeat 10-15 times.
He makes nutritionists frown, but a man who ate all of his meals at McDonald’s for six months says he’s lighter and healthier as he nears the end of his unconventional weight-loss plan.
John Cisna, a high school science teacher in Colo, Iowa, who gained national attention for his experiment, says he has lost 56 pounds, lowered his cholesterol and lost a total of 21 inches off his chest, waist and hips while dining only at the fast food emporium.
As enthusiastic as Cisna is about the results, even he’s incredulous about what he’s done. He documents his experience, which ends on March 15, in the new book, ”My McDonald’s Diet.”
“It’s kind of scary to realize that in nine days, I’ll have spent half a year of my life eating nothing but McDonald’s,” he told TODAY.
“I’m not bored of the food, but I am missing other foods. I am craving seafood. In fact, my first night when I am done with this, I’m going to have some shrimp and some scallops and some salmon. Maybe some asparagus on a bed of rice pilaf.”
As Cisna first told TODAY in January, he followed a 2,000 calorie diet, using the daily recommended allowances for carbohydrates, proteins, sugar and fat; and he walked 45 minutes a day.
Clinical trials show high levels of the mineral Selenium can raise chances of developing high-grade cancer by 91%
Men have been warned not to take a pair of popular vitamin and mineral supplements after research showed they can dramatically increase the risk of life-threatening prostate cancer.
Overdosing on the mineral selenium by taking supplements raised the chances of developing high-grade cancer by 91%, scientists found.
Vitamin E pills also boosted the risk of aggressive cancer, more than doubling it for men lacking selenium.
The researchers believe selenium can turn toxic when present in the body at excessively high levels.
At the same time, the mineral appeared to protect against the harmful effects of too much vitamin E.
The US study was a follow-up of Select, the selenium and vitamin E cancer prevention trial, which originally recruited more than 35,000 men to see if the supplements could help prevent prostate cancer.
Researchers stopped the trial three years early in 2008 after there were hints that instead of protecting men, vitamin E was putting them at greater risk, while selenium showed no benefit.
A subsequent comparison of 1,739 participants diagnosed with prostate cancer and 3,117 matched cancer-free individuals highlighted the supplement hazards.
Study leader Dr Alan Kristal, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, said: “These supplements are popular – especially vitamin E – although so far no large, well-designed and well-conducted study has shown any benefits for preventing major chronic disease.
Your fingers are an important part of your body, without them you would have a hard time with tasks like texting friends, chopping vegetables, working on a computer, holding things, balancing, or reading Braille. Your fingers are revealing, they reveal things about you and your health. Here are a few things you can learn about your body by looking at your hands, fingers, and palms:
• Blotchy Red Palms
If your palm is getting red and remain so for a long period of time this can indicate palmar erythema, a sign of liver disease. This is a sign of nonalcoholic fatty liver. It should be noted that if you are pregnant its normal to have red palms due to increased blood flow. Show your hands to your doctor if you have red palms.
• Swollen Fingers
If you notice swelling on your fingers and your rings won’t fit even after you shun the salt shaker and your period is not due this may indicate hypothyroidism, the underproduction of hormones by thyroid glands. These hormones help regulate your metabolism and keep your body functioning properly. See your doctor for a simple blood test.
Bony Outgrowths On Finger Joints
Bony outgrowths on finger joints can make it tough for your hands to function and make your fingers look deformed, it’s a sign of osteoarthritis. These are the nodules on the joint closest to your fingertips. As the side bones grow in size, the ends of bones rub together which stimulates growth of bone spurs. Physical therapy, heat or ice, rest, pain, and in severe cases surgery, can be done to treat it.
Finger Length
The length of your fingers can tell a lot about your condition. After a study conducted in 2008, it was published in Arthritis and Rheumatism that women who have ring fingers longer than their index finger are most likely to suffer from osteoarthritis, this physical indication is more prevalent in males. Long index fingers indicate higher chances of breast cancer in women and lower chances of prostate cancer in men.
Thick & Rounded Fingertips
If your fingertips are thick and rounded, or clubbed, this is telling you about health issues of your heart and lungs. The level of oxygen in your body can drop if the circulatory system is impaired. With time it causes the soft tissues of the fingertip pads to grow resulting in thick fingertips. Make sure to discuss it with your doctor.
When shaved hair becomes trapped inside the follicle or curls and grows back into the skin razor bumps occur. Irritation and development of pimples is caused by razor bumps. In extreme cases scarring may happen.
To prevent razor bumps:
1. Before shaving take a shower to soften the hair and open pores, not a long one. Wrinkling occurs when you stay in the water for too long which makes it difficult to get a proper shave.
2. Shaving should always be done in the direction your hairs grow, otherwise you’re pulling and cutting the hair follicle in an unnatural direction which will make it susceptible to growing into your skin and cause irritation.
3. The right shaving technique should be used to prevent razor bumps. Shave in slow small strokes rinsing the razor under water to clean it between each stroke, it won’t sit flush against the skin if the blade is clogged.
4. Use a product designed to treat razor bumps, one that contains salicylic acid, glycolic acid, witch hazel, aloe, or any combination of these ingredients is good. Some products may require you to put the solution on a cotton ball and dab it on your skin while others might come in a roller bottle that’s designed to go directly on your skin.
5. Before shaving let the hairs grow out a bit. It will only irritate or tear it open by shaving over razor bumps, leaving them vulnerable to infection(and probably not removing much hair in the process). See if the hair breaks out of the bumps on its own.
6. Try not to go over the same area twice. Less irritation is caused by shaving with the grain but not as close a shave. If you are going back over an area you have already shaved you should try to use this technique.
7. Cold water should be used for rinsing. Using a cold washcloth on the area or ending your shower with a blast of cold water will close your pores, leaving them less vulnerable to irritants and infection.
8. One should keep changing their blades of the razors as the unused razors are often breeding grounds for bacteria.
9. You can use a mixture of cooled and pureed cucumber with one cup milk on razor bumps and rinse it off after 10-20 minutes. This helps prevent razor bumps.
A controversial new study has found that annual mammograms may not help reduce breast cancer deaths and may increase the number of women unnecessarily getting treated for breast cancer.
The Canadian study tracked almost 90,000 women for 25 years, and found that having an annual mammogram between the ages of 40 to 59 did not lower the chance of dying from breast cancer more than having a physical examination.
The study, which was published in BMJ on Feb. 11, disconcertingly showed that 22 percent of invasive breast cancers were overdiagnosed by mammography, meaning the tumors would usually have been too small to cause symptoms or become life-threatening.
The BMJ researchers said that the current screening guidelines may be too much, and should be reconsidered.
Breast cancer screening guidelines in the U.S. have been a source of debate in recent years.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a panel of medical experts that advice the government, said in 2009 that women should only get mammograms every two years starting at 50. Before that age, the decision to be tested should be between the woman and her doctor, which usually meant it was not recommended unless the woman had high risk factors for breast cancer like specific genes or family history.
The panel argued that many mammograms lead to false positive results, and were detecting cancers that were too small to need treatment, leading to unnecessary procedures.
A later JAMA study showed that women who followed the panel’s recommendation were at no higher risk of late-stage cancers than women who got the test every year. However another study found that in women over 50 who had mammograms, for every one life saved, there were three women who were overdiagnosed.
Eric Lawson, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died. He was 72.
Lawson died on 10 January at his home in San Luis Obispo of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Susan Lawson, said on Sunday.
Lawson was an actor with bit parts on such TV shows as Baretta and The Streets of San Francisco when he was hired to appear in print Marlboro ads from 1978 to 1981. His other credits include Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty and Baywatch. His wife said injuries sustained on the set of a western film ended his career in 1997.
A smoker since age 14, Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro man and an Entertainment Tonight segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking. Ms Lawson said her husband was proud of the interview, even though he was smoking at the time and continued the habit until he was diagnosed with COPD.
“He knew the cigarettes had a hold on him,” she said. “He knew, yet he still couldn’t stop.”
A few actors and models who appeared in adverts for Marlboro cigarettes have died of smoking-related diseases. They include David Millar, who died of emphysema in 1987, and David McLean, who died of lung cancer in 1995.
Lawson is also survived by six children, 18 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
By Bonnie Berkowitz and Patterson Clark, Published: Jan. 20, 2014
We know sitting too much is bad, and most of us intuitively feel a little guilty after a long TV binge. But what exactly goes wrong in our bodies when we park ourselves for nearly eight hours per day, the average for a U.S. adult? Many things, say four experts, who detailed a chain of problems from head to toe. Download a pdf poster of this graphic.
Organ damage
HEART DISEASE
Muscles burn less fat and blood flows more sluggishly during a long sit, allowing fatty acids to more easily clog the heart. Prolonged sitting has been linked to high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, and people with the most sedentary time are more than twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the least.
OVERPRODUCTIVE PANCREAS
The pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that carries glucose to cells for energy. But cells in idle muscles don’t respond as readily to insulin, so the pancreas produces more and more, which can lead to diabetes and other diseases. A 2011 study found a decline in insulin response after just one day of prolonged sitting.
COLON CANCER
Studies have linked sitting to a greater risk for colon, breast and endometrial cancers. The reason is unclear, but one theory is that excess insulin encourages cell growth. Another is that regular movement boosts natural antioxidants that kill cell-damaging
— and potentially cancer-causing — free radicals.
Muscle degeneration
MUSHY ABS
When you stand, move or even sit up straight, abdominal muscles keep you upright. But when you slump in a chair, they go unused. Tight back muscles and wimpy abs form a posture-wrecking alliance that can exaggerate the spine’s natural arch, a condition called hyperlordosis, or swayback.
TIGHT HIPS
Flexible hips help keep you balanced, but chronic sitters so rarely extend the hip flexor muscles in front that they become short and tight, limiting range of motion and stride length. Studies have found that decreased hip mobility is a main reason elderly people tend to fall.
LIMP GLUTES
Sitting requires your glutes to do absolutely nothing, and they get used to it. Soft glutes hurt your stability, your ability to push off and your ability to maintain a powerful stride.
Leg disorders
POOR CIRCULATION IN LEGS
Sitting for long periods of time slows blood circulation, which causes fluid to pool in the legs. Problems range from swollen ankles and varicose veins to dangerous blood clots called deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
SOFT BONES
Weight-bearing activities such as walking and running stimulate hip and lower-body bones to grow thicker, denser and stronger. Scientists partially attribute the recent surge in cases of osteoporosis to lack of activity.
Trouble at the top
FOGGY BRAIN
Moving muscles pump fresh blood and oxygen through the brain and trigger the release of all sorts of brain- and mood-enhancing chemicals. When we are sedentary for a long time, everything slows, including brain function.
STRAINED NECK
If most of your sitting occurs at a desk at work, craning your neck forward toward a keyboard or tilting your head to cradle a phone while typing can strain the cervical vertebrae and lead to permanent imbalances.
SORE SHOULDERS AND BACK
The neck doesn’t slouch alone. Slumping forward overextends the shoulder and back muscles as well, particularly the trapezius, which connects the neck and shoulders.
Bad back
INFLEXIBLE SPINE
When we move around, soft discs between vertebrae expand and contract like sponges, soaking up fresh blood and nutrients. But when we sit for a long time, discs are squashed unevenly. Collagen hardens around supporting tendons and ligaments.
DISK DAMAGE
People who sit more are at greater risk for herniated lumbar disks. A muscle called the psoas travels through the abdominal cavity and, when it tightens, pulls the upper lumbar spine forward. Upper-body weight rests entirely on the ischeal tuberosity (sitting bones) instead of being distributed along the arch of the spine.
Mortality of sitting
People who watched the most TV in an 8.5-year study had a 61 percent greater risk of dying than those who watched less than one hour per day.
4%
14%
31%
61%
1-2
3-4
5-6
7+
Hours of TV per day
The right way to sit
If you have to sit often, try to do it correctly. As Mom always said, “Sit up straight.”
• Not leaning forward
• Shoulders relaxed
• Arms close to sides
• Elbows bent 90°
• Lower back may
be supported
• Feet flat on floor
So what can we do? The experts recommend . . .
Sitting on something wobblysuch as an exercise ball or even a backless stool to force your core muscles to work. Sit up straight and keep your feet flat on the floor in front of you so they support about a quarter of your weight.
Stretching the hip flexorsfor three minutes per side once a day.
Walking during commercials when you’re watching TV. Even a snail-like pace of 1 mph would burn twice the calories of sitting, and more vigorous exercise would be even better.
Alternating between sitting and standing at your work station. If you can’t do that, stand up every half hour or so and walk.
Trying yoga poses — the cow pose and the cat — to improve extension and flexion in your back.
THE EXPERTS
| Scientists interviewed for this report
James A. Levine, inventor of the treadmill desk and director of Obesity Solutions at Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University. Charles E. Matthews, National Cancer Institute investigator and author of several studies on sedentary behavior. Jay Dicharry, director of the REP Biomechanics Lab in Bend, Ore., and author of “Anatomy for Runners.” Tal Amasay, biomechanist at Barry University’s Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences.
The idea of “couch potatoes” tends to conjure up images of overweight, lazy unkempt slacker-types. We’ve heard about the research that has shown that the more hours of television watched per day, the higher the risk for overweight or obesity. The long-held belief was that television junkies weighed more because they snacked more while glued to the tube. But did you know that the actual position of lying down for long periods of time is actually dangerous to your health?
How Being Lazy Affects Fat Cells
A new study out of Tel Aviv University, published in The American Journal of Physiology – Cell Physiology, found that preadipocyte cells, which are fat cell precursors, change into fat cells more quickly and crank out even more fat when you lie down or sit down. These extended periods of siting or resting horizontally where we put weight on parts of our bodies are referred to as times of “mechanical stretching loads.”
In simple terms, being inactive causes your body to create more fat within your already-existing fat cells, so the cells themselves become larger. Constantly putting pressure on your body’s cells causes fat cells to spread out and grow bigger.
The Damage Is Irreversible
What’s more alarming is that more and more research is finding that the detrimental effects that prolonged leisure time has on your body can’t be “canceled out” by exercising, even if you do vigorous exercise such as running or cycling. This means you can’t justify spending hours stretched out in front of your television simply because you work out that same day. Even an hour at the gym will not counteract the irreversible, harmful effects that hours of inactivity have on your body.
A recent study published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that men who reported spending two or more hours per day sitting in front of a television had twice the risk of having a heart attack or cardiac “event” than the men who reported watching less television. And men who said they spent four or more hours being sedentary had a 50% higher chance of dying from any cause. Exercisedid not negate the risks associated with the hours of television watching. There are multiple other studies that found similar results.
Preventing Cell Damage
Now, scientists are conducting studies to determine the exact minimum amount of time of leisure activity that causes these changes in fat cells. In the meantime, experts currently recommend limiting sedentary activity – such as time spent watching television, playing video games, or surfing the Internet – to one hour a day or less.
To prevent this irreparable damage to your body, aim to cut back your tube time by several hours each week until you are viewing no more than an hour per day. In addition to slashing your risk of several health problems, you may find that you have more time for other activities you love. Or, use the extra free time to explore new hobbies or interests.
In this infographic you’d find everything you need to know about headaches. Almost all of us have had a headache at some time with different causes . Besides medication options, you can find 8 easy remedies for headache in this infographic.
Also this poster shows the common locations of headaches.
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