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News on Health & Science

To Be Healthy, Work Up a Sweat

To be healthy, you really do need to break into a sweat when you exercise, say experts.

Official advice that 30 minutes of gentle exercise a day is enough to improve your health has been revised by the scientists who first developed the international fitness guidelines. Members of the American College of Sports Medicine are concerned the advice is being misconstrued.

Some may take this to include a mere stroll to the car. People should do at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, like jogging, three days a week, they say.

There is confusion about what is the ideal amount and intensity of exercise to improve health. All agree that regular exercise is essential. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said 30 minutes of gentle exercise each day could be enough to sustain a minimum level of fitness.

Recently, researchers at Queen’s University, Belfast, found walking for half an hour on just three days a week gave similar fitness and blood pressure benefits to walking for 30 minutes five times a week.

The sports scientists, however, say this advice is misleading and could encourage people to do too little exercise. “There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation.

Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health, while others believe that the light activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health,” they told Circulation , the journal of the American Heart Association.

Their original recommendations in 1995 were quickly adopted by the WHO. They now stress that adults need to top up their routine activities, such as casual walking and housework, with structured exercise.

This should include vigorous (jogging) and moderate aerobic exercise (a brisk walk), as well as twice-weekly activities, such as weight training, which maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance.

People can do short bouts of exercise to count towards their weekly goals, but these must last for at least 10 minutes. They say that even more exercise than this may have further benefits.

However, research has also shown that too much exercise can be damaging to the body. Professor Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, told The Guardian that it was difficult to give ‘one-size-fits-all’ advice.

“People who are very overweight would have to do an hour of exercise a day just to maintain their weight if they aren’t going to change their diets,” he said.

Source: The Times Of India

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News on Health & Science

Eat Your Way to Beauty

A quick guide to food that is not only good for you but also helps you look beautiful!

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Going on a diet can be a good thing; however, there are so many newfangled diet styles out there that you just do not know which ones work and which ones are just fads.

But regardless of whatever dieting system or style you are an advocate of, there are ten kinds of food that you should be ingesting a lot of to keep yourself trim, healthy and beautiful.


Top healthy food

Fruits :
Research proves that eating at least five portions of fruits each day has very real health benefits. It can help to prevent heart diseases and some cancers.

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Essential fatty acids (EFA):
Essential fatty acids, also known as the good fat, is needed to keep the cells of the body functioning properly. EFA also helps improve the condition of the skin and makes the hair and fingernails grow healthier.

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Garlic :
Garlic is high in antioxidants and is a kind of food that is widely known to prevent cancer. Garlic also helps lower the body’s cholesterol levels and reduces blood pressure as well.

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Green tea:
Green tea is full of antioxidants that help prevent specific kinds of cancer from developing in the body. It also pumps up the immune system and helps lower the levels of cholesterol in the body.

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Green vegetables:
Vitamins A and E, as well as fibre and iron, are found abundantly in green, leafy vegetables. Vitamin A retains the moisture in the eyes, the skin and the mucous membrane, while Vitamin E helps maintain the skin’s elasticity. On the other hand, fibre improves digestion, and iron is needed for the production of red blood cells.

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Milk :
Milk is the best source of calcium and vitamin D for the body. Calcium combined with vitamin D is good for keeping the bones and teeth strong, and it prevents diseases like osteoporosis.

Milk also has vitamin B2 and B12, which coaxes the body to produce more red blood cells. Red blood cells bring oxygen to the cells. Having a healthy supply of red blood cells swimming in the blood stream keeps the hair and skin looking healthier.

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Soy :
Soy also has cancer-preventing antioxidants as well as Vitamin E and amino acids. It helps the skin retain its smoothness and elasticity.

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Vitamin C :
Vitamin C boosts the immune system and makes the body less vulnerable to disease. Vitamin C is also an important key in the body’s collagen production, collagen being a chemical that keeps the skin elastic and wrinkle-free.

Yogurt :
Yogurt is also a good source of calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B. Aside from these, yogurt contains friendly bacteria that assists in digestion, hydrates the skin and clears the immune system.

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Chocolate :
Yes, you read it right. Chocolate is an essential food to eat to keep beautiful. Chocolate encourages the production of endorphins and serotonin, hormones that generate a nice and pleasant feeling for the body. You look beautiful if you feel beautiful.

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Do not forget water!
Water keeps the body hydrated. When the body is hydrated, the skin becomes smooth, supple and youthful. The hair has more shine and bounce when there is enough water in the body, and the nails are stronger. Water also flushes out the waste and toxins out of the body.

Source: The Times Of India

Categories
Pediatric

Give Your Children a Head Start

No one has a completely straight spine, but nearly 3 out of every 100 people have what’s known as scoliosis ­ an …. S-shaped curvature of the spine. Usually, this curvature isn’t a problem, but for some, the curve gets worse over time and can cause discomfort and problems with breathing and circulation.

Scoliosis might be even more dangerous than originally thought. A study in the journal Spine found that children diagnosed with scoliosis had significantly lower bone mineral density (BMD) than healthy children. These results were maintained over three years of follow-up measurements.

What’s this all mean? Basically, bone density is a good indicator of bone strength. The greater the bone density, the stronger your bones are. People with weak bones often suffer from osteoporosis, which can lead to painful falls and fractures. Researchers believe that osteoporosis is extremely uncommon in children, but these results suggest that children with scoliosis may be at risk.

Give your children a head start on health by making sure they visit your doctor regularly. A complete physical examination can help detect scoliosis and any other spinal abnormalities that may lead to problems later in life.

Reference:

Cheng JCY, Sher AHL. Persistent osteopenia in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Spine, June 15, 1999: Vol. 24, No.12, pp1218-1222.

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