Many of us who are slim and trim blandly assume that we don’t have to concern werself about eating fat. We eat ice cream, chocolate candy, and drink whole milk to wer heart’s content. we don’t add inches to our waistline, so we naturally figure that, as far as we are concerned, calories don’t count.

The extra calories may not turn into a double chin—but the hard fats, which in many cases supply those extra calories, can still make plaques. wer cholesterol chemistry is not one bit different from that of wer overweight friends. Therefore, because it is entirely a matter of number, the great majority of coronary attacks hit among slim, or normal-weight people.

How Prevalent is Obesity

As this is being written, the population of the United States is estimated at 300 million. Surveys indicate that 90 million Americans are definitely overweight, 10 million are underweight, and 200 million can be considered as “just about right.” Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: atherosclerosis, coronary disease, excessive eating, fats, high blood pressure, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, overweight men, per capita food consumption, United States

A huge review of studies on pain relievers has found that a widely-used medicine may confer cardiovascular risks as serious as those found with Vioxx, an arthritis medicine that was withdrawn from the market two years ago.

Diclofenac, marketedas Voltaren, Cataflam, Solaraze and Arthrotec, an older non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has been on the market for decades and is one of the most-widely prescribed anti-inflammatories in the world especially in Europe. At commonly prescribed doses, it was found to increase the risk of cardiovascular events primarily heart attack and sudden death by 40%.

The good news from the study is that there are alternatives. “European consumers would be better off switching [from diclofenac] to naproxen,” says David Graham, a safety official at the US Food and Drug Administration, who authored an editorial1 accompanying the published review. Naproxen was found to neither increase nor decrease cardiac risk.
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Tags: American Medical Association, arthritis, atherosclerosis, Australia, David Graham, David Henry, Europe, heart attack, heart disease, New South Wales, Newcastle Mater Hospital, pain, Patricia McGettigan, safety official, the Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Newcastle in New South Wales, US Food and Drug Administration, vioxx, Waratah

No way, is it really true? Next time you are about to unwrap a chcolate bar or pop open that pop think about this list by Nancy Appleton, a PHD that wrote the book Lick the sugar habit. .I thought I knew why sugar was bad but here are well over 100 reasons why you should avoid it.

1. Sugar can suppress the immune system.
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body.
3. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
5. Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases).
6. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you loose.
7. Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins.
8. Sugar leads to chromium deficiency.
9. Sugar leads to cancer of the ovaries.
10. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose.
11. Sugar causes copper deficiency.
12. Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
13. Sugar can weaken eyesight.
14. Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.
15. Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
16. Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract.
17. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children.
18. Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease.
19. Sugar can cause premature aging.
20. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.
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Tags: adhd, alcoholism, Alzheimer�s disease, appendicitis, arthritis, Asthma, atherosclerosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bacterial infection, biliary tract cancer, bowel disease, breast cancer, cancer, cancer of the rectum, Candida Albicans, carcinoma, cardiovascular disease, cataracts, central reward systems, chromium deficiency, colon cancer, constipation, copper deficiency, Crohn's disease, depression, diabetes, dizziness, drowsiness, duodenal ulcers, eczema, endometrial cancer, epileptic seizures, excessive food intake, food, food allergies, gallbladder cancer, gallstones, gastric cancer, gout, headaches, heart disease, hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, infectious diseases, intravenous feedings, irritable bowel syndrome, kidney stones, laryngeal cancer, learning disorders, liver tumors, lung cancer, memory loss, metabolic syndrome, migraine, multiple sclerosis, myopia, Nancy Appleton, nearsightedness, neural tube defects, obesity, osteoporosis, pancreatic cancer, Parkinson�s disease, periodontal disease, peripheral vascular disease, polio, prostate cancer, schizophrenia, stomach cancer, sugar, sugar habit, Sweet food items, toxemia, travel time, ulcerative colitis, varicose veins, yeast infections

I think most people reading this weblog know that I am a pretty big fan of meditation and because of this I tend to find and post articles about meditation more than I should. I found this article at Psychology today and thought I would post it in its entirety.

In the highlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, people look at life differently. Upon entering the local Buddhist monastery, there is a spectacular sculpture the size of a large oak. The intricate carving of clouds and patterns are painted in powerful colors. But as soon as winter gives way, this magnificent work will melt to nothing. The sculpture, in fact, is made of butter, and it is one of the highland people’s symbols of the transient nature of life.

And life here is not easy. Villagers bicycle to work before dawn and return home long after sunset. Many live with nothing more than dirt floors and rickety outhouses. Upon entering these modest mud-brick homes, you’ll find no tables or chairs — just a long platform bed, which sleeps a family of eight. However, when the people invite you in for tea, their smiles are wide and welcoming. How do they possess such inner calm in conditions we would call less than ideal?

When villagers cook, sew or plow the fields, they do so in a tranquil state. As an approach to life, weaving meditation seamlessly into almost every action throughout the day seems unfamiliar to Western cultures. Is there something we can glean from this way of life that will improve our own? The romantic notion of quitting everything and joining Tibetan monks on a mountaintop is not the only way to meditate. You don’t need to quit your job, give up your possessions and spend 30 years chanting. Recent research indicates that meditating brings about dramatic effects in as little as a 10-minute session. Several studies have demonstrated that subjects who meditated for a short time showed increased alpha waves (the relaxed brain waves) and decreased anxiety and depression.
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Tags: alpha waves, atherosclerosis, brain meditation, California, cancer, cardiovascular disease, Chicago, clinical psychologist, depression, Diana Adile Kirschner, energy, Fairfield, fight disease, Harvard Medical School, heart attack, heart disease, Herbert Benson, infertility, Iowa, Irvine, Mark Epstein, meditation, Monterey Park, MRI technology, New York City, pain, Philadelphia, psychiatrist, psychologist, Psychotherapy, Qinghai, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Rob Nairn, Roger Thomson, School of Management, Steven Hendlin, the American Journal of Psychotherapy, tibetan monks, welcome tool