10 Reasons Your Belly Fat Isn't Going Away
Yes, stomach pudge may be stubborn, but here are a slew of
research-proven ways to dump it for good.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
10:34 PM
World news & wallpaperz
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| Smart girl |
Tap your foot
Your skinnier friends are probably fidgeters, who burn up to 350 calories a day just by tapping their feet or being restless.Try it for a few days. Walk around while you’re on the phone, or tap out a tune with your hands or feet (in the privacy of your own office, of course).
In fact, do a couple of swaps a day and you can drop 10 pounds in 5 weeks! So try these 25 easy tweaks—and get the slim body you want in no time.
10:31 PM
World news & wallpaperz
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| Health |
20 Tricks to Stay Slim Without Thinking About it
Forget counting calories. Instead, follow these totally
doable waist-whittling tips that happen to require zero deprivation.
The no-diet diet
Sneaky calorie bombs are hiding everywhere, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer scale creep. "You're still in control of your eating," says Keri Gans, RDN, who counsels clients in New York City. "Don't worry too much about occasional indulgences. It's the little things you do every day that can keep you on track." She's talking about super-simple tricks that help you feel less hungry and burn more fat from breakfast to bedtime. Here, we've collected our favorite nondiet tips
6:25 AM
World news & wallpaperz
The
Basics
It’s important to take care of yourself and your baby during
pregnancy. To keep you and your baby healthy:
·
See your doctor or midwife regularly.
·
Get important prenatal (“pree-NAY-tuhl”) tests.
·
Don’t smoke or drink alcohol.
·
Eat healthy foods and stay active.
·
Prevent infections.
9:49 PM
World news & wallpaperz
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| health care |
“I am thrilled,” Ms. Skrebes said, referring to her policy. “It’s affordable, good coverage. And the Web site of the Minnesota exchange was pretty simple to use, pretty straightforward. The language was really clear.”
The experience described by Ms. Skrebes is in stark contrast to reports of widespread technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online health insurance marketplace run by the federal government since it opened on Oct. 1. While many people have been frustrated in their efforts to obtain coverage through the federal exchange, which is used by more than 30 states, consumers have had more success signing up for health insurance through many of the state-run exchanges, federal and state officials and outside experts say.
Alan R. Weil, the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, an independent nonpartisan group, credited the relative early success of some state exchanges to the fact that they could leap on problems more quickly than the sprawling, complex federal marketplace.
“Individual state operations are more adaptable,” Mr. Weil said. “That does not mean that states get everything right. But they can respond more quickly to solve problems as they arise.”
In addition, some states allow consumers to shop for insurance, comparing costs and benefits of different policies, without first creating an online account — a barrier for many people trying to use the federal exchange.
The state-run exchange in New York announced Tuesday that it had signed up more than 40,000 people who applied for insurance and were found eligible.
“This fast pace of sign-ups shows that New York State’s exchange is working smoothly with an overwhelming response from New Yorkers eager to get access to low-cost health insurance,” said Donna Frescatore, the executive director of the state exchange.
In Washington State, the state-run exchange had a rocky start on Oct. 1, but managed to turn things around quickly by adjusting certain parameters on its Web site to alleviate bottlenecks. By Monday, more than 9,400 people had signed up for coverage. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange does not require users to create an account before browsing plans.
“The site is up and running smoothly,” said Michael Marchand, a spokesman for the Washington exchange. “We’re seeing a lot of use, a lot of people coming to the Web site. If anything, I think it’s increasing.”
Other states reporting a steady stream of enrollments in recent days include California, Connecticut, Kentucky and Rhode Island.
In Connecticut, a spokesman for the state-run exchange, Access Health CT, said users have generally had a smooth experience with the Web site other than “a couple of bumps and hiccups on the first day.”
By Monday afternoon, the Connecticut exchange had processed 1,175 applications, said the spokesman, Jason Madrak.
Daniel N. Mendelson, the chief executive of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company, said: “On balance, the state exchanges are doing better than the federal exchange. The federal exchange has, for all practical purposes, been impenetrable. Systems problems are preventing any sort of meaningful engagement.”
“By contrast,” said Mr. Mendelson, who was a White House budget official under President Bill Clinton, “in most states, we can get information about what is being offered and the prices, and some states are allowing full enrollment. All the state exchanges that we have visited are doing better than the federal exchange at this point.”
In California, Peter V. Lee, the executive director of the state-run exchange, said that more than 16,000 applications had been completed in the first five days of open enrollment. Mr. Lee said that while the consumer experience “hasn’t been perfect,” it has been “pretty darn good.”
Some state-run exchanges have run into difficulties because they rely on the federal marketplace for parts of the application process, like verifying an applicant’s identity. Minnesota, Nevada and Rhode Island are among the states that have reported problems with the “identity-proofing” process, which requires state-run exchanges to communicate with the federal data hub.
Brandon Hardy, 31, of Louisville, Ky., was one of the first to sign up for health insurance through Kentucky’s state-run exchange, working with an application counselor who guided him through the process last Wednesday. Mr. Hardy, who is uninsured and has epileptic seizures that land him in the hospital every few months, spent about 45 minutes filling out the online application, and learned that he would be eligible for Medicaid under the health care law.
“It was pretty easy,” Mr. Hardy said of the process. “What I really need is a neurologist, and now hopefully that will happen. This is like a huge relief.”
Attempts to sign up for coverage through the federal marketplace have often proved more frustrating.
Bruce A. Charette, 60, of Tulsa, Okla., said he had been trying to log onto the Web site for the federal exchange since last Wednesday, but had not been able to see the available plans or their rates.
Mr. Charette said he was asked verification questions that did not appear to match his identity. One question, he said, asked about the name of a pet for which he had purchased health insurance two years ago. “I don’t have any pets,” he said.
“It’s obvious that the site is overloaded,” said Mr. Charette, an electrician who works in the aviation industry and said he did not have health insurance. “I am not going to stare at a computer screen for 45 minutes, waiting for a response. It looks as if the Web site is freezing up.”
Still, some groups helping people sign up for insurance through the federal marketplace said they were finally able to complete applications on Tuesday, a week into open enrollment.
“This was the first day that I have been able to get onto the Web site and sign people up,” said Laura Line, corporate assistant director for Resources for Human Development in Philadelphia, which has a contract to help people in Southeastern Pennsylvania enroll in health plans through the federal exchange. “We have been setting appointments and answering a ton of phone calls now that we are able to do something.”
1:37 AM
World news & wallpaperz
Women who smoke during
pregnancy may be putting their children at increased risk for conduct problems
in childhood, researchers found.
1:34 AM
World news & wallpaperz
Women who smoke during
pregnancy may be putting their children at increased risk for conduct problems
in childhood, researchers found.
Across three different
studies, children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy -- whether they were
reared by their genetically-related mother or an adoptive mother -- had higher
mean scores on measures of conduct problems compared with children whose birth
mothers did not smoke during pregnancy, according to Gordon Harold, PhD, of the
University of Leicester in England, and colleagues.
In the two studies that included children raised by their
genetically-related mothers, there was a positive association with number of
cigarettes smoked per day and conduct problem scores among genetically-related
children (P<0.001
and P=0.005), they
wrote online in JAMA Psychiatry.
In the two studies (including one from the previous pair) that
included children adopted at birth and raised by genetically-unrelated mothers
-- but whose birth mothers smoked during pregnancy -- researchers found a
positive association between conduct problem scores and the number of
cigarettes that their genetically-related mothers smoked daily while pregnant (P=0.007 and P=0.04).
Prior studies have
shown a relationship between children's conduct disorders and prenatal smoking
in mothers, although that research did not separate prenatal environmental
influences from genetic and postnatal environmental factors.
Past research also has
shown a relationship between smoking
while pregnant and a child's hearing loss and obesity in the offspring.
The authors studied the
relationship between genetically-related mothers' smoking while pregnant with
their children's conduct disorders in three studies of 1,088, 310, and 636
children, respectively, raised by genetically-related or -unrelated mothers.
The first study -- the
Christchurch Health and Development Study -- was a longitudinal birth cohort in
New Zealand that assessed maternal smoking during pregnancy and child behavior
until age 7.
The second study -- the
Early Growth and Development Study -- was a U.S., ongoing, longitudinal,
multisite study of adopted children and parents, as well as birth parents.
Birth parent data were used to assess maternal smoking, while adoptive parent
data were used to assess the child's home environment.
The third study -- the
Cardiff In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) study -- was an English study of children
conceived through reproductive technologies such as homologous IVF,
single-parent IVF, and embryo donation, where authors focused only on children
born through maternal IVF.
Conduct problems were
reported by mothers and teachers in the Christchurch study, by adoptive mothers
and fathers in the Early Growth study, and by mothers and fathers in the IVF
study.
Neonatal maternal
smoking was reported retrospectively in each study.
Outcomes were adjusted
for child sex, birth weight, race, placement age, breastfeeding, maternal
education, maternal age at birth, family breakdown, parenting practices, and
family socioeconomic status.
Parenting practices
were assessed through measures of maternal emotional responsiveness and
avoidance of restriction, and punishment and hostility.
Maternal smoking habits
were broken down into zero cigarettes daily, one to nine cigarettes daily, and
10 or more cigarettes daily.
The prevalence of
smoking varied by study. The New Zealand study had a prenatal smoking
prevalence of 50% among children raised by genetically-unrelated mothers and
32.7% by those raised by their birth mothers. In the U.S. sample, smoking was
common to 40.8% of pregnant mothers. The English study had a prevalence of 5.7%
of smoking mothers who raised their children, and 3.9% of smoking mothers whose
children were raised by others.
Although rates of conduct problems differed between studies,
associations between maternal smoking and child behavior problems were
significant in each. However, there was no significant relation between
maternal smoking and behavior issues in children born through embryo donation (P=0.98).
An accompanying
editorial by Theodore Slotkin, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, noted
that "There is little doubt that at least one component of tobacco smoke,
nicotine, is sufficient to disrupt brain development and to evoke subsequent
behavioral abnormalities" in prior research, and that the current study
clearly shows that the effects seen in animal models are replicated in humans.
The model used in this
literature should inform future studies into toxicants responsible for
neurodevelopmental disorders related to cigarette smoke, Slotkin added.
The authors found their
study was limited by the small number of genetically-unrelated smokers in the
English study, as was the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy among
those genetically-related mothers. The study was also limited by a lack of data
on co-exposure to other drugs or alcohol, use of self-reported smoking data,
and lack of time-specific data on smoking and other behaviors and exposures.
10:36 PM
World news & wallpaperz
Approximately
20 percent of women in the United States have their first baby after age 35,
and if you’re pregnant or trying to conceive, you might be worried about having
a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby.
After 35,
a woman has a higher chance for having a baby with trisomy 13, 18 and 21.
Trisomy 21 is also known as Down syndrome, a condition that affects one
in every 691 babies in the United States, according to the National Down
Syndrome Society.
Down
syndrome is a big concern for women. According to a recent survey by Ariosa
Diagnostics, more than 50 percent of women said they were worried about Down
syndrome and other genetic conditions.
At age 30,
the chances of having a baby with Down syndrome are about one in 900 and at age
35, they increase to one in 300. Yet “the majority of babies with Down syndrome
are born to women under age 35,” according to Dr. Genevieve Fairbrother, an
obstetrician and gynecologist in Atlanta, Ga. She said that although the
individual risk is lower, more women under 35 are having babies.
Also,
women over 35 who become pregnant have an increased risk for gestational
diabetes, pre-eclampsia, placental abruption and placenta previa. They’re also
more likely to be overweight and have high blood pressure, diabetes and thyroid
disease.
If you’re
over 35, here are some things you should consider:
Lose
weight and get healthy
“There’s
no magic threshold about 35,” Fairbrother said, who added that aside from
genetic problems, most women who give birth after 35 will be fine. Yet many
complications can be prevented with simple lifestyle choices. So if you have
diabetes, thyroid disease or are overweight, get your health under control. And
if you drink or smoke, stop immediately.
Take a
prenatal vitamin
Starting a
prenatal vitamin with at least 1 milligram of folic acid for at least three
months before getting pregnant and continuing through pregnancy can help
prevent neural tube defects like spina bifida.
Get an
ultrasound at 6 weeks
Most
providers won’t do an ultrasound until eight weeks, but if you’re over 35, you
should consider an ultrasound at six weeks, according to Dr. Sara Gottfried, an
obstetrician and gynecologist in Berkeley, Cali., and author of the New York
Times bestseller The Hormone Cure. If you’re considering first trimester
genetic screening, an early ultrasound can help you get ahead of the game and
can also look for placenta previa – a condition that occurs when the placenta
cover’s the mom’s cervix.
Get screened for high blood pressure
Get screened for high blood pressure
Since
blood pressure drops in the second trimester, it’s important to have your blood
pressure measured in the first trimester to determine your risk for
pre-eclampsia. “You don’t want to miss that window,” Gottfried said.
Decide on
genetic tests early
Before
getting pregnant or as soon as you know you are, it’s important to decide if
you want to have genetic testing. Tests like chorionic villus sampling
(CVS) need to be done early, usually around 11 weeks.
“I think
one of the important pieces for a woman to understand (is) what her values are
and what kind of testing she wants to do, because the timing of it can come up
pretty fast,” Gottfried said.
Consider
the risks
At age 35,
you have the same risk of having a miscarriage or other issue if you have an
amniocentesis as you do having a baby with a genetic problem. An amniocentesis
is a prenatal diagnostic procedure that involves using a needle to take a
sample of amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus. According to the Ariosa
Diagnostics survey, 58 percent of women over 35 would avoid an
amniocentesis.
If you’re
concerned, you might want to consider the new, non-invasive, and extremely
accurate cell-free DNA tests. “I think every couple has to ask themselves, ‘How
are we going to use this information, how accurate is it, how important is it
for us, what level of certainty do we need to know?’” Fairbrother said.
Get
screened for gestational diabetes
Gottfried
recommends women over 35 get an early screening glucose loading test done at
the first prenatal appointment to look for high blood sugar. Women should
then repeat the test between 24 and 28 weeks.
Eat right
and exercise
“Pregnancy
is a stress test on your body,” Fairbrother said. And gaining too much weight
can increase your risk for gestational diabetes, weight problems and for having
an overweight child.
Aim to eat
an extra 200 to 300 calories a day, and be sure to eat plenty of lean proteins,
fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy and healthy fats. Also, 30
minutes or more of exercise on most days is ideal.
Julie
Revelant is a freelance writer specializing in parenting, health, food and
women's issues and a mom.
1:01 AM
World news & wallpaperz
Good news
for couch potatoes: Researchers are developing a drug that provides all the
benefits of exercise, with no actual workout required, according to the New
York Times.
In a study
published in Nature Medicine, researchers injected a compound into
obese mice that increased production of the muscle protein REV-ERB, which is
known to have an impact on sleep and on animals’ internal biological clocks.
The
animals injected with the compound lost weight and improved their cholesterol
levels – even when on a high-fat diet, the New York Times reported.
Furthermore, the injected mice also used more oxygen during the day and
expended 5 percent more energy compared to mice in the control group – even
though they were not exercising more.
Researchers
also examined the effect that REV-ERB had on muscles by engineering a test
group of mice designed to express abnormally low levels of REV-ERB. This group
of engineered mice were highly un-athletic, exhibiting very low levels of endurance
and displaying a maximum oxygen capacity approximately 60 percent lower than
that of normal mice.
However,
when researchers injected these mice with the compound, they were able to
stimulate the production of REV-ERB, strengthening the muscles of the weakened
mice, according to the New York Times.
Additionally,
when researchers injected the compound into sedentary mice, the animals were
then able to run longer and for greater distances than untreated mice.
The drug
"certainly seems to act as an exercise mimic," study co-author Thomas
Burris, chairman of the department of pharmacological and physiological science
at St. Louis University School of Medicine, said.
Though it
is still unclear whether or not the drug can be safely used in humans, researchers
hope it will someday be used to help disabled people experience some of the
health benefits of exercise.
12:52 AM
World news & wallpaperz
(Reuters) - The death toll from a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in
China's western Gansu province on Monday more than doubled to 54 people, the
municipal government said, with hundreds injured as many homes in affected
areas collapsed.
The quake hit Minxian and Zhangxian counties, about 170 km (105
miles) southeast of the provincial capital of Lanzhou, at 7.45 on Monday
morning (7.45 p.m. ET Sunday), the official Xinhua news agency said.
It put the number of people seriously injured at 296. Earlier
reports by the official Xinhua news agency said 22 people had died.
Eight towns in the remote, mountainous area sustained serious
damage in the quake and subsequent flooding and mudslides, state media said.
There were also power outages, while cell phone and Internet
coverage was disrupted, residents and state media reported. The Red Cross
Society of China said it had sent relief supplies to the
affected areas, including jackets and tents.
"Many have been injured by collapsed houses," said a
Minxian county doctor surnamed Du. "Many villagers have gone to local
hospitals along the roads."
Photos posted on Chinese social media showed roads on the sides of
riverbanks that had subsided and farmhouses reduced to piles of red bricks.
About 380 buildings had collapsed and 5,600 sustained damaged in
Zhangxian county, the Dingxi municipal government said in a microblog post.
A school building in Minxian county was also damaged, a teacher in
the area said, although he said he didn't believe any students were injured
because they were away on summer holidays.
Heavy rain is also forecast for the areas hit by the quake, which
officials fear would compound the damage by causing more landslides and
flooding.
A second 5.6 earthquake struck the same region about 90 minutes
after the first, Xinhua said, the most significant of several aftershocks. The
United States Geological Survey said the first quake had a magnitude of 5.9.
Gansu abuts Sichuan province, where a 6.6 quake in April killed
164 people and injured more than 6,700, China's worst quake in three years.
That quake hit close to where a devastating 7.9 temblor killed
some 70,000 people in May 2008.
Among those killed in the 2008 quake were thousands of children,
raising suspicions that the schools that had collapsed on them had been poorly
constructed, in part due to corruption.
11:43 PM
World news & wallpaperz
KARACHI: About 25 million people in
Pakistan smoke and according to an estimate about half of them will die of
tobacco related diseases, said Dr Syed Hussain Askary, Head of Dental Public
Health, Director Academics & Administration, Fatima Jinnah Dental College
(FJDC).
According to World Health
Organization, globally 5.4 million deaths are caused every year due to tobacco
use and by 2030 there will be more than 8 million deaths every year.
Unfortunately, 80% of these deaths will be in developing countries like
Pakistan.
FJDC observed Tobacco Control Week
to marked World No Tobacco Day, which is celebrated globally every year on May
31. The inaugural seminar was arranged on May 30 at Fatima Jinnah Dental
Hospital.
Professor Dr Naveed Rashid,
President Pakistan Dental Association Karachi, professor Dr Tasleem Hosein,
Principal, FJDC and Dr Gulrukh Askary, head of Oral Pathology, FJDC, also
showed keen interest in the activities.
Leaders and experts in the field
presented lasted research & information and provided training to over 1000
attendees. The seminar highlighted that tobacco use leads to diseases affecting
the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attack,
strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, and cancer,
particularly lung cancer, cancers of lungs and mouth and pancreatic
cancer.
It is also the number of cause of
bladder cancer. The high prevalence of oral cancer has been linked to tobacco
use, particularly in conjunction with chewing betel quid (paan and guthka).
While oral cancer is the eleventh
most common cancer worldwide, in Pakistan, oral cancer is the second most
common cancer after lung cancer in males and breast cancer in females. Tobacco
is therefore responsible for the two most common cancers in males in Pakistan.
Tobacco-induced oral diseases also
include periodontal disease, tooth loss and congenital defects.
These contribute high to the
countries burden disease. Dr Hussain Askary informed that dentists are playing
a very important role in addressing tobacco use in the population, especially
among youth of
the country.
Dentists have special advantages in
tobacco prevention and cessation, as they build patient interest in tobacco
cessation by showing the actual tobacco effects in the mouth and give advice on
the health
effects of tobacco and usually
succeed in preventing it at an early stage. (PPI)
11:41 PM
World news & wallpaperz
ISLAMABAD: A total of 982 microscopy centres have been established across the country to provide free of cost diagnostic facility to tuberculosis patients.
According to official sources, more than 700,000 tuberculosis patients were treated free of charge while 100 percent coverage of WHO-recommended treatment strategy for detection and cure known as Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) is achieved in the country.
They said external quality assurance for sputum microscopy is implemented in 40 districts of the country while five reference laboratories have been established included one at federal level and one each at provincial level.
They said training and health education materials have been developed and all health care providers have been trained.
Dr. Sharif Astori from Federal Government Poly Clinic (FGPC) said TB is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.
He added the disease is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease.
He said in healthy people, infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis often causes no symptoms, since the person's immune system acts to wall off the bacteria.
He said the symptoms of active TB of the lung are coughing, sometimes with sputum or blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. He added tuberculosis is treatable with a six-month course of antibiotics.
Pakistan ranks sixth globally among 22 high tuberculosis burden countries, and contributes 43 per cent of the disease towards the Eastern-Mediterranean region of World Health Organization (WHO).
According to available data, the incidence of TB per 100,000 population in Pakistan is 181, case notification per 100,000 per year is 150 while the treatment success rate is 85 per cent.
An estimated one-third of the world's population is currently infected with TB due to which World Health Organization is working on its plan to cut TB prevalence rates and deaths by half by 2015.
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