Archive for June, 2010
June 13th, 2010 | 
Author: What would you do if you had only two options and must choose one, a short life that was healthy from the beginning till the end or a long life that ended with many years of disease and its attendant sufferings, pain, surgeries, disability, immobility, bed sores and many others?
These are the two options available in a world where cure for incurable lifestyle diseases is sought after instead of prevention. In a world without preventive health education and motivation for lifestyle change to prevent diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, degenerative joint diseases and other diseases of civilization, the only people that would escape the above-mentioned sufferings are those that die early before disease strikes.
None of us would choose to die early or commit suicide for the sake of escaping disease or its attendant sufferings and neither would any of us want to end our long lives like many who worked so hard only to suffer heart, kidney and organ failures, paralysis from stroke and degenerative diseases affecting the spine, cancer and other preventable but incurable diseases.
If it turns out that I’m right, then it means nobody wants to die young and nobody wants to live a sadly- ending long life. For those of you that belong to this category, I’ve got good news for you: “You can remain young even in old age by slowing the ageing process and staying disease-free. In other words, even though you can’t reduce your calendar age, you can do something about your biological age such that you can have the anatomical, physiological and biochemical systems of a 30-year old in a 90-year old.
Did I hear you say impossible? Then you must not have seen the 90-year old woman climbing trees the other day on CNN because you needn’t be a mathematical genius like Einstein to figure out that her muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints could not be functionally older than yours when you were 30 provided you could climb trees then.
Experts now know that our health would benefit more from a slowing down of the ageing process by a new approach that teaches prevention instead of traditional medical approaches that passively address prevention and target individual disease. The people in developed nations who get the best curative management are increasingly experiencing more than one age-related disease and now, co-morbidity, the term used to describe the presence of more than one disease in an individual, has become a big health problem in these parts.
Recent advances in the study biological mechanisms responsible for ageing, which give rise to most diseases and other age-related health problems show that aging can be slowed down and disease can be prevented when we adopt healthy lifestyles as preached by medical professionals genuinely interested in prevention instead of cure. Embracing this new model of health promotion and disease prevention will not only guarantee a longer healthy lifespan but also a longer calendar lifespan and independence of invasive medical and surgical management. We must therefore be wise and embrace health promotion and disease prevention.
Here are a few rules you must follow to slow down aging and prevent disease:
Always seek preventive health knowledge from experts: By attending seminars and trainings organized by orthodox medical professionals like physiotherapists and doctors in preventive health, you will understand how your body works and you will acquire lifestyle change skills necessary to change your lifestyle from a disease-promoting to a disease-preventing lifestyle. Disease and its medical and surgical management make you age fast while a positive lifestyle change helps you slow down aging and prevent disease.
Do not lose your muscle strength: Muscle strength declines with age and the faster you lose muscle strength, the older you become. Strengthen all muscles in all parts of the body as advised by your physiotherapists and certified trainers. Note that exercise in the hands of people who don’t understand your anatomy and physiology is dangerous. Many orthopedic patients referred to me damaged their backs, necks and joints while exercising.
Do not lose your balance and co-ordination: Balance refers to your ability to remain stable especially when in the upright position. Coordination refers to your ability to use the right muscles at the right time and in the right sequence of steps that make up an activity and at the right intensity. The faster you lose them, the faster you age. When balance is lost, people begin to rely on walking sticks and frames and loss of coordination makes simple tasks like taking a spoon from a plate of food to the mouth impossible such that the individual has to be fed.
Do not lose your muscular endurance: Muscular endurance refers to the ability of a particular muscle group to perform repeated contractions or work over a period of time. The faster you lose your muscular endurance, the faster you age. The more your muscular endurance, the more your ability to work for prolonged periods before fatigue sets in.
Do not lose your cardiopulmonary endurance: This refers to the ability of your heart and lungs to supply your tissues with the amounts of blood and oxygen required in long periods of activity involving large muscle groups. These activities include, brisk walking, running, swimming, biking for long periods. The faster the rate at which the time you can safely spend on these activities diminishes, the faster you age. Your preventive health physiotherapist can safely help you increase the amount of time you can safely spend on these aerobic activities.
Do not lose your flexibility: flexibility refers to the ability to move your joints, knees, hips, ankles, elbows, shoulders, the joints in your neck and back and other joints in the body through an unrestricted, pain-free range of motion. This depends primarily on the ability of the muscles to lengthen and this depends on how often these muscles get stretched through the maximum possible range. Muscles that don’t get stretched regularly become permanently shortened and lose the ability to lengthen to allow full movement.
The old woman climbing the tree on CNN could because she never stopped flexing her hips to climb trees and so the muscles which allow flexion, the hamstrings did not get shortened. Many people half her age will hurt their hamstrings if they attempt to climb and so, even though younger in calendar age, their hamstrings are biologically older than hers. I’m not advising you to start climbing trees so I will not be responsible for any fractures or deaths through falls from trees. Your physiotherapist can design a programme that will help improve your flexibility.
There are many other determinants of aging and your preventive health physiotherapists and doctors will teach you to improve them and stay young and disease-free.
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Though many people have not even heard of Lupus, it is common – more common than some well-known diseases such as multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and leukemia. But because not much is known about the disease, treatment of lupus is made more difficult. What is lupus, exactly?
Diagnosis and treatment of lupus(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/Lupus.html) is made more complicated by the fact that currently, there is no one single test that can positively identify the disease. In fact, lupus is often mistaken for other diseases with some similar symptoms, such as multiple sclerosis or arthritis. In fact, lupus is an auto-immune disease in which the body essentially “turns” on itself. When this happens the body creates antibodies that attack the body rather than protect it.
Lupus(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/Lupus.html) sometimes only affects a single area of the body. Some of the most common areas to be affected are:
# Lungs: lupus can cause inflammation of the lungs’ lining, which can lead to pneumonia or pleuritis
# Kidneys: Inflammation of the kidneys can be caused by lupus, and this inflammation can lead to nephritis. The onset of nephritis is usually not accompanied by pain, so the lupus may not be detected.
# Heart: Chest pains, and subsequent hardening of the arteries, may be caused by lupus
# Blood: Anemia and inflamed blood vessels can result from lupus.
Lupus can often be identified by a rash on the body, most often on the face. Sunscreen can help to treat this rash. Some medications for other illnesses can trigger attacks, so this should be kept in mind in the treatment of lupus. Flu shots are recommended for lupus treatment, as they can prevent secondary infections which commonly occur in those with lupus. Other suspected triggers of lupus are dental fillings and hair dye, though there is no conclusive evidence of this. Because fear and anxiety may be triggers of lupus attacks, discontinuing use of certain products believed by patients to trigger attacks may be beneficial, even if these substances do not truly affect the body physiologically.
Natural Treatment of Lupus(http://www.mitamins.com/disease/Lupus.html)
A healthy diet containing necessary vitamins and nutrients, as well as regular exercise, are most effective in the prevention and treatment of lupus. Other kinds of meditative or calming activities, such as breathing exercises, can be effective in lupus treatment and can prevent skin flare-ups.
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As our standard of living is getting better day by day, the need of money to fulfill our needs is also on the continuous rise. For this purpose a large number of people are spending a major portion of their time in working. The practice of early to rise and late to bed is adversely affecting our health, body as well as mind. As in office we usually have to spend a lot of time while sitting in a same posture, it causes stomach ache, back ache, pain in the arms, shoulders, etc. As we lack of time for taking care of all these inconveniences, we are bound to ignore all these problems.
Well, a best solution for this issue has been created by some of the companies. Massage at work London is a beneficial technique through which several companies are serving those people who cannot leave their work and spend time in massage parlor. Corporate massage London is a service where the therapists are called in the office to provide their valuable service. You just need to fix an appointment with them according to your convenience and the service provider would reach there on time.
There are various therapies used in the process of Massage at work London. The most popular one is Chair massage London. This therapy is all about taking a comfortable massage through a dedicated chair. The chair is designed in such a manner that it provides a relaxing pressure on all the affected areas of the body. This is how the technique of Chair massage London works. So stop think and immediately fix an appointment with such service provider to feel the real comfort without avoiding work.
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Finding Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) solutions that work is easy, even though western medical culture appears to use the term “IBS” as a general holdall for any digestive tract problem that cannot be immediately diagnosed.
The condition manifests itself at any age, in males and females, most commonly as mild or severe abdominal pain, with or without a bloated abdomen feeling, often accompanied by alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation. In diagnosing this condition today it is recognised that there are psychological and medical factors to be considered, whereas for many years, Irritable Bowel Syndrome solutions were determined by considering only the so-called “brain-gut” link, and ignoring lifestyle in general.
There are a number of self-help Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) solutions that may well reduce, or even cure, the condition however, the symptoms may also indicate other underlying medical conditions, so a visit to the doctor is recommended. Natural remedial actions are recommended before considering over the counter medications that may give temporary relief but ignore the long-term underlying problem.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Stress
It is rcognised that psychological factors contribute to bowel disorders, and stress is the number one condition that affects health and plays a part in IBS. This stress may include anxiety over job loss, divorce, family death, insolvency, existing health problems, fears of examinations and even passing the driving test. Relaxation and stress management techniques will enable identification of a particular stress source and then removing it from the equation will go far in reliving IBS. Also, exercise is a tremendous way of reducing the stress in life apart from helping to keep daily bowel movements regular.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Diet
As in so many health related problems, the importance of diet cannot be over-estimated, and as different foods have varying effects on the body, Irritable Bowel Syndrome solutions may well be found in a diet change. Missing out foods suspected of triggering the problem on a one by one basis will identify those that bring on IBS and various nutritional supplements will enhance a deficient diet.
Depending on the predominant symptom, diet modifications help and constipation requires a higher intake of fruit, vegetables and other foods with a high fibre content, while diarrhoea requires a reduction in caffeine content, spicy foods and alcohol. Similarly, removing beans from the diet will reduce the tendency to flatulence.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Medication
Apart from prescription medications there are any number of over-the-counter medications readily available as well as natural preparations. “Imodium” is good for diarrhoea and “Lactulose” for constipation. Natural preparations such as Probiotics as found in yoghurt should not be ignored although their effectiveness is doubtful, as are traditional Chinese remedies as Self-Help Irritable Bowel Syndrome solutions.
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