Mens Health has a great article on the nutrients and eating skills necessary to lose fat. I usually hate the slant of these articles because I thing the target them at 18 year old kids getting ready to go to the bar but thats just my attitude. The article is great and I am going to paraphrase the points here as I think there is some knowledge I can add and the article was a little wordy.

1. To lose weight, you must cut calories
The low-fat/low-carbohydrate debate comes down to this: You still have to eat fewer calories than you burn if you want to lose weight. Every study I looked at shows this. The perfect weight-loss diet is the one you can live with, whether you cut fat, carbs, or some combination.

2. Take Whey protein
A daily shake made with two scoops of whey protein, fruit (fresh or frozen berries or a banana), and water or crushed ice will decrease hunger. You can buy whey protein at any grocery store nowadays, this is the best option for protein enhancement in your diet.

3. Meat kills fat
Protein takes the most calories to assimilate and digest, followed by carbohydrates, followed by fat. Animal proteins increase thermogenesis more than vegetable proteins, so the best calorie-burning foods are lean meats. Build your dinner around lean chicken, beef, or pork. That way, you’re burning the most calories through digestion at the end of the day, when your metabolism is slower. This is one of the big reasons that I think people are too concerned about their fat intake but at the same time do not eat enough protein.
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: colon cancer, consistent energy supply, dairy products, diabetes, fish-oil supplements, food, heart attacks, heart disease, inflammation, MDlabs.com., oil, osteoporosis, potato chips

We have all beleived that aspirin use will lower the risk of heart attack, mostly becuase it thins the blood. The problem I have always foudn though is that too much aspirin will stop the blood from clotting quickly and this in itslef almost led to a quick trip to the hospital for my wife last year.

This new study below though seems to show that it is not so obvious as to wether Aspirin really helps to prevent heart attacks but in itslef it is a good read with lots of findings

Long-term, low-dose aspirin provides no clear net value for primary prevention of cardiovascular events in apparently healthy adults, according to a meta-analysis of patient-level data.

In people not known to have cardiovascular disease, aspirin reduced composite MI, stroke, and vascular death rates to 0.51% per year compared with 0.57% among controls for a relative 12% reduction, according to Colin Baigent, B.M.B.Ch., of the University of Oxford, England, and colleagues in the Antithrombotic Trialists’ Collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease, Colin Baigent, coronary heart disease, diabetes, heart attack, heart attacks, heart disease, high blood pressure, Michigan, stroke, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, United Kingdom, University of Oxford

If you are new to the game of weight loss, you are probably already overwhelmed and confused with dozens of ads on diet plans and diet pills struggling for space on the prime time television. Almost always these diet plans and pills promise you the moon so as to make themselves attractive to the masses. The problem, however, is that almost always these dieting goodies fall short of their promises.

Take diet pills for instance. If any diet pill would really work per its promise, you would be losing weight miraculously from the comfort of your home. All your pounds would melt away magically without any effort on your part. You don’t need to diet or exercise for the purpose of weight loss.

You just pop a pill and see the pounds start going away, leaving you with a slimmer body. But all these would be possible only IF diet pills would work as advertised. But do they really work so fantastically? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: heart attacks, obesity

A new three-in-one-pill could reduce the risk factors for heart disease and stroke by 50 per cent and revolutionize prevention of these medical conditions, which kill thousands of Canadians every year, according to a study released yesterday.

The study, published in the Lancet, showed that when blood-pressure medications, Aspirin and cholesterol-lowering medication were taken together in one pill, known as the Polycap, they were just as effective as when taken separately.

“People could take a pill a day and, literally, keep the doctor away,” said Salim Yusuf, a cardiologist and the study’s lead author. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: atenolol, Cardiologist, cardiologist and the study's lead author, diabetes, head, heart attacks, heart disease, high blood pressure, India, lead author, McMaster University, obesity, Population Health Research Institute, Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University, Prevent Heart Disease A, ramipril, Salim Yusuf, stroke, strokes, USD

We all want our kids to be fit and healthy, but with the fast lifestyle which most of us lead these days, helping kids stay healthy seems to be a tough job. With childhood obesity reaching alarming levels, it is time we take a look our kids’ life and don’t let them become victims of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, kidney problems, heart attacks, stroke, hypertension, etc. Even if your kid is not obese but eating junk foods, you should still read this article because if he continues with his present lifestyle, it is only a matter of time before he would be displaying a big fat belly like his peers.

Teaching our kids the advantages of following healthy eating habits can help control childhood obesity to an extent. In this article I will offer you four simple eating tips which have worked wonders for my own kids. I am sure you would find them equally helpful.

1. Don’t let them have soda: Soda is probably the number one enemy of your kid, in that it would make him gain weight by leaps and bounds. The only way to control your kid’s soda intake is to find alternative ways to quench his thirst. Water of course is the best medicine, but children are not always willing to drink plain water. So what would you do? Well, you could add low-fat or low-calorie flavors into water to make it tasty. Just be sure to check the calorie and fat contents of the flavors you use.

Further, you can also add a tablespoonful of sugar in water to make it sweet. Children often drink soda mainly because of its sweet taste, but once they find a good alternative in ’sugary-water’, it would be easy to prod them to dump soda for good. Remember that a can of soda contains an equivalent of several tablespoonfuls of sugar; if you could substitute that with just one or two tablespoonfuls of sugar, don’t you think it is a better and healthier option?

2. Be an example: Preaching the rules of healthy eating to your kids is of no use if you don’t follow them yourself. Remember that kids would pick up a bad habit from you quicker than a good one. If you wish to keep your kids healthy, you would also need to lead a healthy lifestyle.

3. Educate your kids adequately: There are several ways to do this. Say, when you shop for grocery, teach your kids how to pick up healthy foods and snacks for themselves, how to identify the high-calorie and sugary foods, etc.

4. Discard junk foods out of your home: It is also important that you clean your kitchen cupboards as well as refrigerator of all the junk foods and stock them with healthier alternatives instead, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. If you keep only healthy foods at home at all times, your kids are less likely to stray than otherwise.

When you have your meals, you should not only eat healthy foods yourself, but also show them how much you enjoy eating those foods. If you have a habit of munching on a packet of chips or popcorn while watching your favorite movie, you should substitute it with apples or carrots; if you really need to eat popcorn, cook them at home using low-calorie oil or margarine instead of butter.

Tags: diabetes, heart attacks, home using low-calorie oil, hypertension, obesity, stroke

We went through the bad end of the time change this weekend. The shortest nights sleep of the year was Saturday night and I sure felt it after my workout this morning dragging my butt through the afternoon. But, what about your health and the Daylight savings? Does it affect you or not?

It seems that when the clock is moved forward or back one hour, the body’s internal clock — its circadian rhythm, which uses daylight to stay in tune with its environment — does not adjust. In a study of 55,000 people, for example, scientists found that on days off from work, subjects tended to sleep on standard time, not daylight time: their waking hour followed the seasonal progression of dawn.

In other studies, scientists tracked large groups of people for eight weeks at a time as they made the transitions to daylight time in spring and to standard time in autumn. They found that in spring, people’s peak activity levels were more in tune with their body clock than with the actual clock. Studies suggest that this disconnect between body time and clock time can result in restlessness, sleep disruption and shorter sleep duration. Other studies have suggested links between time change and increases in heart attacks, suicides and accidents, though scientists say more study is needed.

Tags: heart attacks, restlessness

Teenage obesity is fast becoming an epidemic. Even a couple of decades ago, the level of teenage obesity was not as high as it is now. So what is the reason behind such a huge increase in the number of obese teens? Junk food intake is obviously the primary cause. Nowadays, teenagers prefer to gorge on junk foods over eating healthy meals. Leading an inactive lifestyle is the secondary cause behind teenage obesity. Instead of playing outdoor sports, you would find most teenagers glued to either video games or the idiot box.

Forget about parents, even doctors are worried about the increasing number of overweight teenagers. Obesity is often linked to harmful diseases such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, hypertension, high blood sugar, etc. Previously, heart attacks used to afflict middle-aged adults; nowadays it is not surprising to find teens and young adults becoming susceptible to heart attacks, and obesity is the primary reason behind it.

It is time that we forget about high-caloric pizzas, soft drinks, colas, sodas, sweets, burgers, beer, alcohol, etc., and focus on low-caloric organic and natural foods. Obesity not only makes you physically weak and unhealthy, but also affects your mental health. Depression, which is affecting so many teens today, is often a direct side-effect of obesity.

Now, we all know that reduction in food intake is one of the best ways to combat obesity. However, you cannot ask a teen to eat less since adolescence is the period of growth for the body and as such, it needs plenty of nutrition during this time, even more than an adult. However, you can certainly ask your teenage kid to make the right food choices and lead an active life. Here are a few tips:

a) There are basically two types of calories out there: simple and complex. Simple calories are available in junk and sugary foods (cakes, biscuits, soda, pizza, etc.) while complex calories are available in natural fruits such as orange, apple. You should develop a taste for complex calories and avoid simple calories.

It is not that you would never be able to taste junk foods. Eating junk foods once in a while is okay, but eating them regularly means inviting trouble for yourself.

b) Your present sedentary lifestyle has to go. Realize that you can never remain fit if you don’t ever move your body. Participate in outdoor sports, workout in the gym; engage in swimming or dancing, etc. Do anything that MOVES your body. DO NOT sit on the couch for 24 hours because that couch is going to be your deathbed.

Tags: anything that MOVES, depression, food choices, food intake, heart attacks, high blood pressure, hypertension, junk food intake, obesity, outdoor sports, Swimming

How many times a day does every man and woman receive an email promoting some kind of pill that is supposed to help with Erectile Dysfunction? Fortunately I do not suffer from this but I know that enough people do that Viagra and Levitra are the biggest spam email products on the internet today.

One of the big problems for many of the people taking Viagra or Levitra is that the Erectile Dysfunction that they suffer from is a  by product of but health and the drugs if not watched may cause heart attacks or even death. Because of this it is not a good idea to buy a drug that you are not too sure of the side effects of.

The reason that I am even writing this post is because I just ran across an FDA warning that the government is trying to crack down on products that promise a lot but may not deliver anything. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: erectile-dysfunction, fda, heart attacks, levitra, pills, spam email, spam email products, viagra

This is about a month old study but I thought that it would be a good idea to give out this info on a study that had to conclude that fasting seems to lower the chance of heart attacks in people that fast one day a month. The anti-fasting people will not like this and I can not seem to fast for any length of time but this study was not looking for this result as some studies seem to do but instead just concluded that this was the only possible result to their study.

Mormons and heart disease

Mormons have less heart disease — something doctors have long chalked up to their religion’s ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their “clean living” habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each month.

A study in Utah, where the Mormons are is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.

Fasting and improved health

People did not have to “get religion” to benefit: non-Mormons who regularly took breaks from food also were less likely to have clogged arteries, scientists found. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Benjamin Horne, Chapel Hill, eating habits, fasting, food, heart attacks, heart disease, heart disease researcher, Intermountain Medical Center, mormon, North Carolina, president, Salt Lake City, Sidney Smith, University of North Carolina, University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah

Earlier this year there were some stories around about fears that Prilosec and Nexium may not be quite as healthy as they should be for people taking them for dealing with acid reflux disease and that they increased heart attack risk. The FDA is now saying that there are no increased risk of heart attacks with these drugs in the long term

Long-term use of Prilosec (omerprazole) and Nexium (esomeprazole) is not likely to be associated with an increased risk of heart problems.

FDA has completed a comprehensive, scientific review of known safety data for both drugs, which are used to treat the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and other conditions caused by excess stomach acid. While long-term studies reported to the agency on May 29, 2007, collected safety data, the study protocols did not specify how heart problems, such as heart attacks, were defined or verified. As a result, evaluating the information that was gathered about the safety of both drugs in these studies was challenging. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acid reflux, fda, gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD, heart attack, heart attacks, nexium, prilosec, study protocols