How to do a tummy crunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/are-crunches-worth-the-effort/

No one needs to perform hundreds or even dozens of crunches, said Brad Schoenfeld, a professor of exercise science at Lehman College in the Bronx and an author of a newly published review article about core exercises titled “To Crunch or Not to Crunch.” And while everyone needs some basic minimum of core strength — getting up out of a chair requires a certain amount of core strength; serving a tennis ball requires more – “six or eight crunches would be plenty,” he said, “and only a few times a week.”

It’s also important you perform them correctly, Dr. McGill said. “Don’t flatten your back into the ground,” he said. Instead, place your hands, palm down, beneath your lower back to lessen pressure on the spine. Bend your knees, and “pretend that your head and shoulders are resting on a bathroom scale,” he said. Lift them only enough to send the imaginary scale’s reading to zero. “You don’t need to crunch up very much” to achieve the desired workload on the abdominal muscles, he said.

Or forgo the crunches altogether. “Personally, I do not believe that it is necessary to specifically train the core,” said Thomas Nesser, an associate professor of exercise science at Indiana State and senior author of the study about core stability and performance. In most instances, if you “train for your sport, core strength will develop,” he said, and it will be the right amount and type of core strength for that sport.

 

 

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I’m glad to read that i don’t have to do dozens or hundreds of crunches now.

Health podcast – dementia

Listening to a podcast on dementia. Seems like a lot of people think that dementia is a single disease but its actually a main description of a lot of different diseases such as vascular or alzheimer’s. Seems like people with dementia tend to lose weight but its not because of the disease but its because they are not fed properly (there was a reference made to a nursing home in France which has a 3 hour lunch break so that patients don’t need to rush through lunches).

They can also keep wanting to go pee (as narrated bny the caregiver of an Indian dementia patient) as the brain is not wired properly. My grandma was exactly like this. She would feel like peeing but that was just her mind talking.

The podcasts also brings up personality chances, says that singing, dancing, helps. It also brings up a point that most often caregivers are not given enough support. In China they’ve found that the families think that idealy is to put the dementia patient at home. But if the behaviour symptoms are bad, short term placements is approprite. Another findings showed that people with dementia when brought to a carehome and then brought back home tend to deteriorate.

This podcasts also shares what is done to make home stay for dementia patients more comfortable and easier to cope.

Very good podcast. One of the most detailed of all the dementia podcasts i’ve listened to. And it hightlighted everything i went through and observed. Btw, its by the BBC.

 

 

Your health – to bother or not to bother

I’ve listed down my perspective to why we should start bothering about one’s health.

1) You are what you eat
2) Why wait for the problem to occur and then going through all that pain and inconveniences?
3) If you can prevent or minimise the pain, why not? Why instead put up with the symptoms and later suffer?

4) God has given you this body, don’t over abuse it. Take care of it as well as you can.

5) It is more painful to be laying in the hospital than to watch your diet day to day.
6) Being overweight is usually a precusor to other health problems (speaking of which, i’ve to lose 5 kgs…. sigh)
7) Why fear check-ups, needles etc when it will help your, stop the bad symptoms and shorten/exclude future hospital stay?

Why did i or why do I still do check-ups etc on myself? Its because I just want to take decent care of my body. So that I won’t suffer too much when the time comes. So that all i need to do is maintenance and not an overhaul.

I look after my body the same way as i look after my car – regular check-ups. My car is an old car but it still runs fine because of periodic checks, tweaks to keep it in as good running position as possible.

I always encourage everyone to be brave and look after their bodies.

Here’s the last bit… If say the illness was actually preventable and yet you didn’t prevent it AND when you eventually get it, you start to complain and be sad about it. Then I’ve only one thing to say, you are accountable for it. Like my cholesterol problem. I blamed myself for not watching my diet and blamed no one. I put the food in my mouth, right? No one force feeds me. So what did i do? I cut back on meats, oily stuff and coconut milk based food. Oh yes, plus the exercise too. Did it work? Perfectly!

oral sex and cancer

The Cancer-Causing Sex Virus
Matthew Herper, Forbes.com
Posted: 23 July 2010 1128 hrs

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.

Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink and has run 40 Boston marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer.

Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that the government doesn’t track its incidence.

Researchers believe it is transmitted via oral sex. But top researchers estimate that there are 11,300 HPV throat cancers each year in the U.S. – and the numbers are growing fast as people have been having more sexual partners since the 1960s. By 2015 there could be 20,000 cases.

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So how?

Put it where its meant to go. Mouth to mouth. Genitals to genitals.

Don’t swap the jigsaw puzzles everywhere and shove a square peg into a round hole.

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Do you have a death wish?

I know alot of people who at some point in their lives, refuses to take care of their health and bodies.

You reach 35 yo and realise, oh… i am not feeling well. I feel dizzy. And what do you do? Nothing?!

Its amazing that that is the general attitude alot of people i know have.

Take my colleague for example. She’s married with two kids. Age 36. Very busy mother/wife/daughter but doesn’t exercise at all. Has asthma and high blood pressure. Is grossly over-weight. Eats everything and anything she likes without any form of control, that means she also eats things that triggers her asthma. Usually after a long lecture from her other colleagues (+ me) she’ll shrug it off, giggles out of guilt and go back to her old routine. AND here’s the good part, she doesn’t take her high blood pressure medicines regularly and doesn’t carry her inhaler with her at all. So tell me, do you think she has a death wish?

Its all about discipline!

You know you can’t eat it, don’t! You know you can’t do it, don’t

Why be a hero, get sick, spend money on medicines and doctors’ visits and inconvenience your family and friends?

And the funny thing is, when at the end of the day they find themselves sick with the very disease that they could have prevented/cured, they don’t want to die. My take is : YOU ONLY HAVE YOURSELVE TO BE BLAMED!

I understand that in some cases, illness can strike fast and not give you time but the case i am stating here is for those who could have done the right thing from the onset to change. For example, I had high cholesterol. What did i do? Saw the doctor, took some tablets to bring it down and now? I am still keeping it down. I am making a concious effort to keep all the health readings at an acceptable and healthy level. I remedied it. Made the effort and is still keeping it up.

Lifetyle change •  Eat more carefully • Exercise • Know your body • Take important medicines regularly • Go for regular check ups •

Stay away from forbidden foods (you know what you can/can’t eat) • Be discipline with what you put in your mouth •

Moderation is key • Love life, live! • Understand your disease (eg. high blood pressure, diabetics) • Learn to manage your disease •

Know the symptoms • Family support • Learn to adapt • Find alternatives for your favourite foods • Keep active • Watch your weight • etc etc etc

So do what is right if you love the very body God has given you, if you love your family.

Don’t make lifestyle changes when its too late. Do it now!!!

cut down on salt

quoted: This, he said, is because “salt reduction has been shown to have a direct [blood pressure independent] effect on the heart, the brain, the kidneys and also reduce stomach cancer and osteoporosis — factors that were not considered in this analysis.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/pinch-salt-save-lives-money/story?id=9616916&page=2