Health and Fitness Information

Involuntary or passive smoking is associated with premature disease and death. Estimates indicate that 38,000 to 43,000 nonsmokers who are regularly exposed to environmental smoke die annually from smoking related causes. 16 The majority of these (35,000 to 40,000) die from heart disease, and 3000 die from lung cancer. There is a dose response effect. The more the nonsmoker is exposed to environmental smoke, the greater the risk for premature morbidity (illness) and mortality (death).

Children of smoking parents are more likely to experience a higher incidence of influenza, colds, bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia. The impact of passive smoking on them can last a lifetime and may range from delayed physical and intellectual development to the hazards associated with prolonged exposure to carcinogenic substances.

An alarming trend is the escalating sale of smoke less tobacco products. Chewing tobacco and dipping snuff have become popular among high school and college men. The world health organization (WHO) has described the growing use of smokeless tobacco as a new threat to society. Nicotine is an addictive drug regardless of the method of delivery, and its effects are similar whether it is inhaled, as in smoking, or absorbed through the tissues of the oral cavity, as in dipping and chewing. The incidence of oral cancer may be 50 times higher among long term users of smokeless tobacco products than among nonusers. Smokeless tobacco is addictive and deadly.

Physical inactivity is finally being officially recognized as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease by the AHA. The upgrading of physical inactivity appeared in their latest position statement and reflects the importance of participating in physical activities regularly. The change occurred because the weight of the evidence that has been accumulating in the last 10 years shows that exercise produces many important health benefits. This is good news for those who have been physically active, and it may motivate some sedentary people to become active.

Physical inactivity (hypokinesis) is debilitating to the human body. A couple of weeks of bed rest or chair rest produces muscle atrophy, bone demineralization, and decreases in aerobic capacity and maximum ventilatory capacity. Your body was constructed for and thrives on physical exertion. The american college of sports medicine has established guidelines for the development and maintenance of physical fitness. The amount of physical activity needed to improve and maintain good health and to affect longevity is currently under investigation.

The evidence of investigators at the centers for disease control provided the statistical basis for the position change by the AHA. These researchers showed a relationship between physical inactivity and heart disease that was similar in magnitude to that of cigarette smoking, high serum cholesterol levels, and hypertension. approximately 26% of the population smokes cigarettes, 30% have blood pressures greater than 140/90, and 32% have cholesterol levels greater than 200 mg/dl.

Although these numbers are impressive and a significant change in any one would lower the incidence of heart disease, the researchers concluded that regular exercise was the one lifestyle change that could most affect the health of the nation. This is based on the fact that 78% of americans are sedentary or exercise too infrequently to enhance their health. Regular physical activity also has a modifying effect on many of the risks for cardiovascular disease.

Other major studies have supported the view that people who regularly engage in physical activities of moderate intensity have significantly less heart attacks and experience fewer deaths from all causes than people who exercise little or not at all. Moderate activity was the equivalent of walking 1 to 2 miles per day for a total of 5 to 10 miles per week. The greatest health benefits were gained by those who expended 1500 to 2000 calories per week (15 to 20 miles of walking) in physical activity.

A total of 17,000 men were followed for more than 30 years. Those who regularly walked, climbed stairs, or participated in sports activities decreased their risk from all causes of mortality. Those who expended a minimum of 500 calories per week (5 miles of walking or its equivalent) to a maximum of 3500 calories per week (35 miles of walking or its equivalent) experienced a progressive increase in longevity.

Investigators at the cooper institute for aerobics research 22 studied the relationship between physical fitness and mortality from all causes. The uniqueness of this study was twofold: first, the researchers measured the physical fitness level of all subjects by treadmill testing, and second, more than 3000 of the 13,344 subjects were women. Because of their lower risk for cardiovascular disease, women have essentially been neglected as subjects in heart disease studies.

The results of this study indicated that a low physical fitness level increased the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all other forms of disease. The difference in all cause mortality was greatest between those who were in the moderately fit category and those in the low fit category . The difference between the moderately fit and the highly fit was insignificant. For people who exercise regularly, the risk of dying from a heart attack compared with the risk for sedentary people is 35% to 55% less.

A study completed using only women as subjects investigated the physical fitness benefits versus the health benefits of three levels of walking intensity. One group walked at 5 mph, a second group walked at 4 mph, and a third group walked at 3 mph. The results showed that physical fitness improved on a predictable dose response basis. The fastest walkers improved the most and the slowest walkers improved the least, but the cardiovascular risk was reduced equally among the three groups. Low level exercise was as effective as the highest level in promoting cardiovascular health. Exercise for health does not have to be as strenuous as exercise for physical fitness.

A sedentary lifestyle imposes a financial burden on all people. Active people pay a price a lifetime subsidy of approximately $1900 to support the medical costs of sedentary people. The costs come from collectively financed programs, such as health insurance, sick leave coverage, disability insurance, and group life insurance. Because premiums and payroll taxes that finance these programs are equal for both sedentary and active people, the programs subsidize unhealthy behaviors. If sedentary people became more active, they would live longer and healthier, thus reducing the cost they impose on others.

The health and longevity returns from exercise and a physically active lifestyle are significant. Estimates indicate that longevity is increased by 1 minute for every minute spent walking and by 2 minutes for every minute spent jogging. The potential for improving the health status of Americans through appropriate lifestyle behaviors is evident from estimates indicating that 60% of all deaths are premature and approximately 50% to 60% of all illness and disabilities are preventable.

While the worlds of sports and fitness are intertwined, it was not until the 1970s that popular culture was ready to accept fitness as eagerly as it had accepted sports. Fitness had not yet taken on its importance for improving health, and popular opinion likened fitness to work and manual labor. In the 1940s and 1950s, few participated in fitness willingly. Among those who did were Jack LaLanne, Victor Tanny, Joseph Gold, Joseph Weider, and Les and Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton. These fitness pioneers, among others, drew people to the beach in Santa Monica, California-the original Muscle Beach. Visitors came to watch their feats of strength and acrobatic displays. More and more viewers became participants, and these people, originally on the fringe, became a part of the cultural mainstream. Jack LaLanne, Vic Tanny, and Joe Gold all started gym chains with bodybuilding as their main focus. Due toPage 602 the influence of Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton, women were introduced to the muscularity and strength that came with bodybuilding. No longer reserved for just for “strongmen,” bodybuilding brought about a change in the mindsets of all those who visited Muscle Beach.

From the seeds planted at the Santa Monica came Venice Beach, the home to bodybuilding legends Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, and many, many more. Venice Beach in the 1970s brought with it a fitness explosion across the globe. Not only did bodybuilding become mainstream, but the popular opinion of fitness changed dramatically. Americans in the 1970s would do anything to improve their health and fitness.

Sports and athletics grew in the 1970s as well. Women became increasingly more interest in participating in sports; however, very little funding was available for the development of woman’s athletics. A landmark law was passed in 1972. Part of a series of educational amendments, “Title IX,” legislated gender equity in athletics. Not only were women becoming more active and more physically fit, a law now existed that called for equal funding and equal opportunity for female athletes. On 21 September 1973, female tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the first-ever winner-take-all “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. The hoopla surrounding this event-and its outcome-provided even more incentive for women to become involved with sports and fitness. By 1977, a record 87.5 million U.S. adults over the age of eighteen claimed to be involved in some sort of athletic activity.

The fitness industry continued its growth into the 1980s. Gym owners tailored their facilities to attract customers and new gyms opened around the United States and around the world. A healthy lifestyle was becoming a part of popular culture. No longer was it unfashionable to be athletic, strong, or healthy. With the development of new technology, health and fitness were able to make their way into homes. Fitness tapes became available in the early 1980s and continue to encourage those to whom a gym or health facility may not be accessible. Innovators such as Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons were able to bring their exercise programs to a new population. Joe Weider became a significant force in bringing health, fitness, and bodybuilding as close as the mailbox through his magazines and pamphlets. Because of fitness pioneers such as Weider, Gold, Fonda, and Simmons, fitness continues to play a significant role in modern society. The importance of being in good health and physically fit has made and continues to have an impact.

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Any type of physical activity you choose to do–strenuous activities such as running or aerobic dancing or moderate-intensity activities such as walking or household work–will increase the number of calories your body uses (remember, calories in – calories out.) And the good news is it’s easier than one thinks to perform numerous aerobic activities throughout the day.

So we all know we’re supposed to exercise. So what? Without getting to technical, here are a couple reasons we all need to get out and exercise…NOW.

Exercise improves the strength and pumping efficiency of the heart, enabling more blood to be pumped with each stroke. This improves the ability to more rapidly transport life sustaining oxygen from the lungs to the heart and to all parts of the body.
Exercise tones up muscles throughout the body, thereby improving the general circulation, at times lowering the blood pressure and reducing the work on the heart.
Exercise causes an increase in the total amount of blood circulating through the body and increases the number of red blood cells and the amount of hemoglobin (matter which conveys oxygen to tissues), making the blood a more efficient oxygen carrier.

This increase in circulation has a twofold benefit to the body. First, an abundant supply of oxygen is taken not only to the muscles, but also to every part of the system.
And second, the blood is circulated through the eliminating organs at a much greater amount, thus resulting in an increase in the elimination of the body’s wastes. Both of these are essential for good health and healing.

There’s been a lot of talk about good and bad cholesterol lately. Well, aerobic exercise can raise your body’s high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels (good cholesterol) and lower your body’s low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels (bad cholesterol), improving blood flow, and increasing your heart’s working capacity.

To make a long story short, a physically fit person has greater ability to tolerate the physical challenges of daily life, whereas an unfit person would terminate activity because of fatigue. Trying to lose or maintain weight? Physical activity helps to control your weight by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. The number of calories you eat and use each day regulates your body weight. Everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food. Any physical activities in addition to what you normally do will use extra calories.

So now we have a little of the technical information on why exercise is good for the body (and soul we should add.) But where do we start and what types of exercise should we be focusing on?

First, your heart rate

While exercising, you want to work hard enough (intensity) for your heart rate to reach between 140 and 170, which is approximately double your resting rate. A person who is in poor physical condition will reach the Target Heart Rate with very little effort expended because the resting rate is high (80’s or 90’s) and the body does not have enough oxygen, so the person gets tired very quickly. On the other hand, the person in good physical condition will have to work harder to reach the target heart rate because the resting heart rate is low (50’s). Remember, the heart becomes a more efficient pump – delivering the oxygen needed with fewer beats. Therefore, it takes more effort to get the heart rate up to 170.

Low impact versus High impact

Aerobic activity is often coined either High Impact or Low Impact. The basic difference is that one foot always stays on the floor and supports the weight of the body in low-impact aerobics. High-impact aerobics include actions that take both feet off the floor, thus causing more jarring of the joints when the body weight hits the floor again. An example of Low Impact is walking while High Impact is jogging or jumping up and down.

The point is not to make physical activity an unwelcome chore, but to make the most of the opportunities you have to be active.

It is important to start at a low intensity and increase this over the following few weeks as the exercise feels easier. For example, 20 minutes of walking, jogging or a combination of walking/jogging may be sufficient to leave you rather breathless and fairly tired at the start of your program, but as the weeks go by, you may need to increase the pace or introduce jogging up some shallow hills to achieve a further increase in fitness.

To continue to increase your fitness level, you will have to increase the time spent exercising aerobically to 30 minutes per session for up to five sessions per week.

Examples of mild to moderate aerobic activities:

Take a short walk around the block
Rake leaves
Play actively with the kids
Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator
Mow the lawn
Take an activity break–get up and stretch or walk around
Park your car a little farther away from your destination

Examples of higher intensity aerobic activities:

Brisk walking
Jogging
Bicycling
Swimming
Aerobic dancing
Racket sports
Rowing
Ice or roller-skating
Cross-country or downhill skiing
Using aerobic equipment (i.e., treadmill, stationary bike)

Exercise can have a surprising number of benefits: it can improve your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance, which translates into an increase in energy; it can dramatically reduce the risk of coronary artery disease; it may also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and aid in weight control; and it appears to give self-esteem a measurable boost, and in general to improve your sense of well-being.

Scientists in an emerging field of research – epigenetics – have discovered that your genes are only 15 percent of the total genetic material you get from your parents. For example, your genes give you many individualizing traits like blue eyes or brown hair.

The remaining 85 percent – the epigenome – is a scaffolding of proteins that surround your DNA’s double-helix pattern. As it turns out, this “scaffolding” functions as an interface that interacts with your environment.

Based on the lifestyle choices you make, the epigenome has the power to turn genes on or off, changing the way your body translates your genetic coding into the proteins that make up YOU.

Furthermore, research is revealing that by making healthy choices (changing your diet, losing weight, becoming fit), your efforts can not only have a positive effect on your children but on your grandchildren as well.

On the other hand, a diet of fast food and sodas will not only wreck your own health, it could predispose future generations to chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

That helps to explain why so many schoolchildren suffer from high blood pressure and low HDL (good cholesterol). The poor dietary choices their parents made are coming home to roost!

The key point here is that you were never a “victim” of your genetic programming. Conscious decisions to improve your health will interact with your epigenome. In turn, the proteins in your epigenome can turn off genes that would have otherwise expressed themselves as disease.

Think of your genetic code as a library. You have thousands of choices, but you never check out all of the books.

The epigenome interacts with your environment and your choices to determine which books to “read.”

You can actually “talk” to your genes to improve your health and prevent disease.

This means you no longer have to live in fear of disease – even if you have a family history of it.

So don’t sit back and allow “bad genes” to ruin your health.

Start developing healthy habits today, help yourself and even better, you could be influencing the health of future generations!

There are many health and fitness clubs that offer special opportunities for their female clients. Most of the gyms and health clubs have classes that are co-ed, and they are also offering more individualized programs that target specific exercises for women.

Women need to learn stretching techniques that can be used to keep their bodies flexible, and these methods are sometimes different from the types of exercises available for men. The female body is often far more flexible than a man’s and, unless they keep the joints trained and moving, they will lose this ability over the years.

Some of the co-ed classes that are offered at a health and fitness club include spinning, stepping, Pilates, yoga, cardio, and weight training. Women are the dominant members of the stepping, Pilates, and yoga classes in almost every health and fitness club. The weight training classes generally have few, if any, women participants.

There are a couple of reasons that women tend to steer away from weight training. Women tend to believe that weight training and body building are synonymous and, therefore, they do not want to bulk up their bodies and look like male body builders.

Women may not know that much about weights and weight lifting techniques and many are reluctant to ask anyone for information. The barbells and heavy apparatus are still viewed as a man’s domain by many.

However, health and fitness clubs are now helping women rethink their ideas about weight training. It has been scientifically proven that working with weights will increase bone density in women. Strong bones and toned bodies are what women will gain from participating in weight training classes.

The bulk and large muscles will not appear on women unless they use testosterone drugs, since it is physically impossible for a female to develop those large and imposing muscles just by working with weights.

How does that old song go? “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you…”

Smiling has got to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to turn any mood around. But what if I don’t feel like smiling right now I hear you ask? Do it anyway!…Go on…you can do it…Force a smile.

You see…it’s not that hard.

All of those facial muscles that you just used to smile produced a natural chemical in your body called “Endorphins”. Now the good news is for those of you having a down day, is that the brain can’t tell the difference between a real smile and a fake one….So if you didn’t participate in our little experiment before, take a breath, fake a smile and soak up some good old Vitamin H (H is the chemical sign for “Happy”)

Here are a couple of situations where you may have to pull a fast one over your brain to set those endorphins free.

o Your pre adolescent child’s mood swing has just flown off the radar

o You’ve just shut the car door on your thumb in front of your husbands mother (Breath, breath, fake that smile….Vitamin H is on the way)

o You’ve just caught your toddler in the middle of the lounge room doing a wonderful impression of your dog “Sam” doing a wee wee.

Smiling leads to laughter, Laughter has been linked with happiness. When you’re happy you’re feeling good, right? Great, now let’s get changed into our runners and fake a smile…it’s time for exercise!

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What is tooth whitening?

Tooth whitening can be a highly effective way of lightening the natural colour of your teeth without removing any of the tooth surface. It cannot make a complete colour change; but it will lighten the existing shade.

Tooth bleaching, also known as tooth whitening, is a common procedure in general dentistry but most especially in the field of cosmetic dentistry. A child’s deciduous teeth are generally whiter than the adult teeth that follow. The procedure to bleach teeth uses oxidising agents such as hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide to lighten the shade of the tooth. The bleaching agent is typically less than 10% hydrogen peroxide equivalent.

Bleaching is least effective if your teeth have white spots, decay or infected gums. Bleaching is most effective with yellow discolored teeth.

Side effects of tooth whitening bleaching include: chemical burns (if a high-concentration oxidising agent contacts unprotected tissues, which may bleach or discolor mucous membranes), sensitive teeth, and overbleaching (known in the profession as “over white teeth”). Tissue irritation most commonly results from an ill-fitting mouthpiece tray rather than the tooth-bleaching agent. Anyone allergic to peroxide (the whitening agent) should not use a bleaching product. Also, prolonged exposure to bleaching agents may damage tooth enamel. Tooth whitener – whitening oral hygiene products. A tooth whitener product can bleach the tooth, which means that it actually changes the natural tooth color. Bleaching products contain peroxide that help remove deep and surface stains.

The procedure to bleach teeth uses oxidising agents such as hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide to lighten the shade of the tooth. Bleaching is most effective with yellow discolored teeth.

Side effects of tooth bleaching include: chemical burns (if a high-concentration oxidising agent contacts unprotected tissues, which may bleach or discolor mucous membranes), sensitive teeth, and overbleaching (known in the profession as “over white teeth”). Anyone allergic to peroxide (the tooth whitening agent) should not use a bleaching product. Also, prolonged exposure to bleaching agents may damage tooth enamel. Tooth whitening – tooth whitening oral hygiene products. A tooth whitening product can bleach the tooth, which means that it actually changes the natural tooth color. Bleaching products contain peroxide that help remove deep and surface stains.

Bleaching solutions. These products contain peroxide(s), which actually bleach the tooth enamel. Toothpastes. Unlike bleaches, these ADA Accepted products do not alter the intrinsic color of teeth.

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Pain management and healing are often inseparable and there is no reason why alternative methods such as self-hypnosis should not be used to manage pain and bring about positive effects in the healing process.

Pain management is a problem that contemporary medicine has struggled with for quite some time and often people only find relief when using alternative methods.

There are various different management strategies for chronic pain in the alternative health field and methods such as acupuncture and massage therapy have proven to be highly effective.

These can often reduce the dependence on pain-killing medications.

One of the problems that is seen with chronic pain management through the use of medication is that fact that the brain habituates to pain-killing drugs and this requires higher and higher doses of the medications.

Using some of the more powerful painkillers that are often prescribe by doctors such as Hydrocodone and Oxycontin, can often lead to serious addiction of taken for long periods of time.

They are effective but this is one of the reasons why many people prefer to try the alternative methods as the first resort for their pain management.

Obviously the strategies that are taken for the management will depend on the type and the severity of the pain.

Many of the pain clinics will focus initially on one form of treatment, as this will allow better feedback on the effectiveness of that treatment.

This treatment will often be a course of anti-inflammatory drugs or steroids to reduce the inflammation.

In more severe cases the drugs will be injected into the area that is causing the pain.

Additionally, pain clinics will prescribe anti-anxiety medication to relieve the tension that has built up from the pain.

Obviously these steps will only be taken after the patient has had no success with the milder over-the-counter drugs.

One of the best ways to lower your blood sugar levels and risk of heart disease, as well as improve your total health and well being is by becoming physically fit, or “in shape.” In our sedentary lifestyles, however, where it is much easier and seemingly more efficient to have many tasks done by others, exercising and being fit is highly unlikely to occur. With our ability to get things done over the Internet, through a phone call, or from the driver’s seat, you would think we would have more time to spend at the gym, or walking at the park…but, in reality, it seems we are just using the extra time for less important things than on our health.

Studies have shown that less than 25% exercise, and only 25% of that population are active enough to get a solid, 30 minute cardio workout 3 days a week, which is the recommended minimum for exercise. This is quite possibly the largest reason obesity and type 2 diabetes are becoming so prominent throughout the world. Something needs to be done before either of those two conditions becomes the number one cause of death for humans.

For those of us who choose to lay on the couch or sit in front of the computer whenever we have a spare moment, there’s no better time than the present to change your lifestyle. The most important alteration to make is to include some exercise in your daily schedule. You can start this in small increments, such as doing 30 minutes of cardio a day for 3 days a week. To achieve optimum health, your goal should be to work out at least half an hour every day of the week.

If you are ready to get into shape, you can start out by using the time set aside for working out to walk. Don’t worry so much about the distance, rather set a good pace, and keep it up for at least 30 minutes. You will also want to include warm up and cool down sessions of stretching. As you progress, try walking for longer periods of time, and after a while, you can start to measure the distance, which may present a fun challenge of being your previous distance during a specified amount of time.

To maximize your health and wellness, it is important to be in shape. The only way to do this is by adding exercise into your daily schedule. Start out slow, and work your way up so that you don’t injure yourself, or get burned out. Eventually, you will work up the energy to want to work out more, promoting a physically fit body.

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Enjoying a healthy and disease free life is what everyone is trying to accomplish. Fitness is closely associated with your health and long life expectancy. Doing the correct amount of exercises can make your heart stronger and your muscles leaner. Proper exercising will stimulate your mind and will give you a sense of content. The two main exercises that you should focus on are the aerobic and anaerobic ones.

Aerobic exercises are a great way to get your heart pumping and raise you metabolism. You don’t have to stay at home doing such exercises – you can go dancing instead. Dancing is one of the best ways to get your body in shape, because the dance moves focus on almost all your muscles. Other ways to get your aerobic exercise done is by swimming, hiking, or participating in other sports that interest you.

Anaerobic exercises are also a great way to have a healthy life. You can get your anaerobic exercises done in a gym. They are usually done with weights and you can ask a fitness instructor to help you out with figuring out how much weight you should lift and how many repetitions you should make. Doing an hour of anaerobic exercises can keep your metabolism high for up to 48 hours. This means that if you go to the gym 2-3 times a week you will be in great shape. If you prefer, you can do these exercises at home.