But a new study sheds a dark shadow on healthy eating. In some cases, it may not do anything to improve your health. In fact, it may backfire in form of worse health and increased body weight.
In this study published in the Journal of Marketing Research, a group of people who were concerned about their fitness and health were recruited.
They were all given packs of “trail mix” (mix of nuts, dried fruits and chocolate chips). They could eat as much as they wanted.
There was a difference in the trail mix, though- specifically in the packaging. Half the group got normal trail mix packaging, whereas the other half got the same mix labelled “Fitness” with a picture of training shoes on it. Afterwards, everyone hit the gym.
Now, those who got the “fitness trail mix,” ate significantly more of it than the other group with “normal trail mix.” The fitness group also worked out significantly less than the ‘non-fitness’ group.
So why is this?
The only conclusion is that our mind plays a trick on us. When we think we’re eating healthy, we also think that we can eat more of semi-unhealthy foods and we don’t have to pay for it in increased weight or health issues. We also tend to think that eating healthy is enough and we don’t have to take other actions like working out.
Marketing firms have known this for years. The energy drinks, fitness bars, protein mixes and other packaged stuff sold with fitness imagery labels are most often loaded with sugar and other unhealthy ingredients. And the consumer thinks, by eating or drinking these “health foods” they’re improving their health: Why not eat an energy bar instead of going for a walk?
Previous studies have shown similar effects from vitamins. Those who take vitamins daily, tend to eat less healthy and workout less. The thinking is that we get enough vitamins from the pills and can therefore skip on our fruits and vegetables. This is especially dangerous when using cheap store brand supplements that have been proven to not include most of the ingredient list or are not absorbed by your body.
The bottom line is that for optimal health, we need to eat healthy, fresh, unprocessed foods. Fancy labels on the packages don’t do anything for our health.
And we also have to exercise and make other lifestyle changes.
Eating Healthy – This Is What Happens Immediately Switching to Organic
Eating organic is expensive and often difficult to manage (you’re not spending as much time at McDonald’s). But is it worth it?
A new study from The Swedish Environmental Research Institute put this question to the test, having a family of five switched completely over to organic.
What happened immediately was astonishing!
This was a typical Swedish family who very rarely ate organic. But with the support of The Swedish Environmental Research Institute and a supermarket chain, for two weeks they switched everything to organic.
That included food, cleaning products, all hygiene products, and even the father’s chewing tobacco.
Before switching, urine examples were taken daily, for a week, from every member of the family. The same procedure continued during the two weeks of organic eating.
In the beginning, and unbelievable amount of pesticides and other chemicals were found in the samples. That included: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (herbicides), Atrazine (herbicide), Boscalid (fungacide), Chlormequat chloride (CCC) and mepequat (growth inhibitors), Chlorpyrifos (insecticide), Ethylenebisdithiocarbamates (fungicide), MPCA (herbicide), Pyrethroids, such as cypermethrin and esfenvalerate (insecticides), Propamocarb (fungicide), Thiabendazole, iprodione, diuron, vinclozolin (fungicides).
Long story short, after only two weeks of using nothing but organic, most of these chemicals had completely disappeared.
Now authorities claim that the amount of each chemical was never above risk level. But there is no long term study taking into account the combined amount of so many different chemicals and what they will do.
Not only that, reliable studies have shown that many of the commonly used or “normal” chemicals cause erectile dysfunction.
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The traditional medical system has been totally in the dark when it comes to the underlying causes of Alzheimer’sand other types of dementia.
And how can you cure something when you don’t even know how it happens?
But a new study from Amen Clinics, UC Irvine, Johns Hopkins University, and Thomas Jefferson University reveals not just the cause of Alzheimer’s but also the exact mechanism of how it happens.
Which leads to a simple, free way to cure it.
These researchers used brain imaging scans already obtained from previous research work at the Amen Clinics. Altogether, they had access to 35,442 brain scans taken from 17,721 adults between ages 18 and 94. Their average age was 40.8.
The scans of 128 of each participant’s brain areas were taken both while they were at rest and while they were engaged in a concentration task.
They were then categorized into underweight (BMI less than 18.5), normal weight (BMI between 18.6 and 24.9), overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9), obese (BMI of 30 and up), and morbidly obese (BMI of 40 and up).
For all ages, brain function and blood flow declined progressively as BMI increased. This was true for almost all regions of the brain and both while the participants were at rest and concentrating.
This pattern was especially striking in the areas particularly involved inAlzheimer’s disease, namely the temporal and parietal lobes, the hippocampus, the posterior cingulate gyrus, and the precuneus.
For these areas, activity and blood flow started to decrease from normal weight, and then further to overweight, obese, and morbidly obese.
This is depressing when considering that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has calculated that 72 percent of American adults are overweight and 42 percent of them are obese. Sadly, 40 percent of young people aged 20 to 39 are obese, as are 44.8 percent of those between 40 and 59, and 42.8 percent of those above 60 years.
Dementia is a serious health condition in which the patient gradually loses his/her cognitive abilities. Studies done on this disease show there are numerous conditions that can cause Dementia. While, some of these conditions are treatable and can be avoided by making certain changes in lifestyle, there are others conditions about which not much can be done.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is a condition in which a person gradually loses his/her mental ability. The condition degenerates with time and as the condition worsens, patients experience a complete loss of their cognitive abilities.
What causes Dementia?
The condition is a result of gradual degeneration of brain cells in cerebral cortex, part of the human brain responsible for higher brain processes, such as thinking, reasoning, sensation, and memory. When the brain cells in cerebral cortex – the ‘grey matter’ of our brain – dies, patient loses their cognitive abilities. When this happens, patients face extreme difficulty in doing everyday tasks or reasoning through simple problems.
The biggest contributor to Dementiais Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the second major cause of this debilitating disease is vascular dementia. In vascular dementia, brain cells in cerebral cortex die gradually as a result of series of strokes, majority of which are minor in nature.
How stroke causes vascular dementia?
Cells in our body rely on life-nourishing oxygen for energy and growth and the oxygen is transported to different parts of the body by arteries. Stroke occurs when the brain does not receive the required amount of oxygen and blood. This happens when either the blood vessels that transfer the oxygen and other nutrients burst or are clogged.
When the brain cells are deprived of oxygen and blood for more than a few seconds, brain cells begin to die. The death of brain cells in cerebral cortex leads to the onslaught of vascular dementia.
Changes in lifestyle can reduce the risk of stroke
Vascular dementia is a very difficult condition to live with or see one’s loved ones dealing with. The patient loses their cognitive capabilities, causing great frustration and pain, as doing everyday tasks becomes progressively difficult.
Strokes can put you at a greater risk of developing dementia. With awareness and making changes in our lifestyle we can reduce the risk of developing stroke.
Therapeutic Interventions can help Alzheimer’s Patients
Alzheimer’s is a fatal brain disorder, and as of now, there is no cure for this condition. The disease worsens with time and is recorded as the biggest contributor to dementia.
Different stages of Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease has three stages – mild, moderate, and severe. A person suffering from Alzheimer’s may show all or some of the symptoms mentioned below:
Mild
Frequently getting lost
Noticeably slow in completing everyday routine tasks
Frequently placing common things in odd places or losing them
Asking repetitive questions or making repetitive statements
Poor judgment
Problem in managing money
Noticeable personality or mood changes
Moderate
Problem in writing or reading
Speech problems
Decreased ability to connect with current reality
Decreased ability to understand date and time
Disturbance in sleep patterns
Difficulty performing simple activities such as dressing, grooming, and eating
Frequently unable to recognize familiar people or places
Severe
Inability to speak coherently and communicate with others
Loss of ability to recognize family members and friends
Sleeping for long hours at a stretch
Increased susceptibility to skin infections, respiratory problems, and other illnesses
Losing control over common bodily functions such as bladder, swallowing, or bowel control
Severe or complete failure of memory
Requiring constant care and monitoring
The symptoms mentioned above confirm what people whose loved ones have Alzheimer’s know all too well – that Alzheimer’s is very difficult to cope with, both for the patients and their families. Though Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease and one that has no cure yet, therapeutic interventions can help improve a patient’s quality of life.
What are Therapeutic Interventions?
By definition, therapeutic interventions are non-invasive strategies used to treat the symptoms of a disease and to provide physical and mental relief to a patient.
Therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s try to connect an Alzheimer’s patient to his/her own life. Studies show that therapeutic interventions have a high success rate in decreasing an Alzheimer’s patient’s depression, anger, and anxiety.
Furthermore, as these activities require active participation of family members and friends, it also helps them to cope with the situation at hand.
Some of the important factors that go into therapeutic interventions are:
Routine – Creating a routine for Alzheimer’s patients is a must, as it lends consistency to each day and eases the confusion that is bound to occur with degenerating memory.
Structure – Structure is vital for Alzheimer’s patients as it defines each activity’s start and end time. Also, make sure that the place or room where each activity is conducted remains the same.
Planning – These include activities that are planned beforehand and cater to the patient.
Patient Involving – These include activities that engage Alzheimer’s patients and require their active involvement.
Customized activities – These include activities that are customized based on the previous experiences, history, interest, family, et al of an Alzheimer’s patient.
Uses of previous interests, hobbies, and skills – These activities are based on an Alzheimer’s patient’s previous interests, hobbies, and skills.
Examples of therapeutic interventions include: pet therapy, music, mediation, and exercise, to name a few.
Alzheimer’s disease is indeed difficult for both the patient and the family. However, therapeutic interventions can assist a great deal in improving the quality of the patient’s life.
This post is from the Brain Booster Exercise Program created for the purpose of helping to reverse Alzheimer’s, boost memory.It was made by Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the top-quality national health information websites. This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to slow down, prevent, or even reverse memory loss and boost your brain with energy and power. These exercises work to deliver as much nutrition and oxygen to your starving brain as possible and begin the restoring of the damaged brain cells.
Regain Your Erection Strength – Is ED Caused by The Mind?
The medical system often focuses on testosterone, narrowing on the arteries and other physical symptoms when diagnosing ED.
But there is more to it than that.
You may know that ED is more common in men who suffer from depression and anxiety, but a study in the journal Andrologia has just revealed that there are other ways the mind leads to ED.
Psychotic disorders involve abnormal thinking and perceptions such as delusions and hallucinations. Sufferers lose touch with reality and are typically unable to distinguish between what is real and what is not.
Schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, and alcohol or drug-induced psychotic disorder are the best-known ones, but psychotic episodes can also be caused by a wide range of medical conditions like stroke, dementia, brain tumors, etc.
In the new study, the researchers recruited 40 men with first-episode psychosis and 40 men who were psychologically healthy.
In addition to being asked to compete the standard International index of Erectile Function (IIEF5) questionnaire to test their sexual function, they also had their prolactin and testosterone levels measured.
Low testosterone tends to cause ED, while both high and low prolactin, a hormone produced by the pituitary gland, are common in ED sufferers too.
There were clear differences between the psychotic and nonpsychotic participants, with the former having higher levels of ED, lower levels of testosterone, and higher levels of prolactin than the latter.
When the researchers observed them for a while, they noticed that those whose psychosis went untreated developed even higher levels of ED and prolactin than those who had had a first episode only.
Regain Your Erection Strength – Testosterone Replacement Therapy and ED: Myth or Reality?
It could be happening to you!
Many men find themselves suffering from low testosterone and some of its more embarrassing side effects.
Desperate for a cure, they sign up for testosterone replacement therapy, a technique that comes highly recommended by many doctors.
But does this therapy really work? Is it a godsend or a medical sham? What does it actually do to your body?
Low-testosterone (or Low-T) can result in a variety of symptoms including decreased strength, lack of energy, and depression. Probably the most notable and most stigmatized of these symptoms is erectile dysfunction.
Low-T is relatively common and there are many treatments out there on the market that promise to return testosterone levels to normal.
A popular approach to treating Low-T is the use of testosterone replacement therapy. It appears to make sense. After all, what better way to replace missing testosterone than by boosting it a little with a shot from a doctor?
Recently, the FDA examined a sample of roughly a quarter of a million men and found that 21% had been prescribed replacement therapy medications without ever having been tested for Low-T. They also discovered that 57% of men on this therapy are also taking other medications for their heart that could interact with the testosterone replacement therapy and cause serious side effects.
What’s more, it’s very unclear if testosterone replacement therapy does anything to improve erectile dysfunction.
Up to 10% of men taking Propecia develop severe erectile dysfunction. And the worst part is, the ED can become permanent, even after stopping the drug.
The FDA knew about this problem before they approved the drug. They still know about it. But their only action has been to put a small warning on the package.
This post is from the Erectile Dysfunction Master Program, which was created by Christian Goodman for men who are looking for the best erectile dysfunction natural remedies. This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to permanently cure erectile dysfunction. By following the techniques in this program, you will be able to get hard fast without pills and maintain stronger erections for hours so you can enjoy sex again.
Erectile problems can be physical or emotional. If your problem is physical, you need to exercise the muscles around the genital area. If your problem is emotional, then you need to learn relaxation techniques. Erection Master will teach you steps that can help get rid of your erectile dysfunction for good. As long as you’re willing to commit 30 minutes of your time, 3 to 7 days a week for 1 to 2 months, they’ll work for you. You can practice the steps alone or with your partner.
These techniques are far more effective than Viagra, Cialis or other drugs for erectile dysfunction. The drugs only help about 40% of men who use them and can also cause very serious side effects.
Easiest and Most Effective Natural Approach to Cure ED – ED Caused by This Entertainment (Stop It)
Almost all men indulge in this entertainment at some time. And a little bit of it is no problem.
But a study just presented at the European Association of Urology Congress reveals that doing it a lot will destroy your love life and cause ED.
It is difficult to talk about porn without sounding either like a prudish schoolmarm or a manic marketer, which shows just how necessary scientific research is on this awkward topic.
Digital technology has caused an explosion in the easy accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of porn, which makes it all the more important to discover whether porn consumption andED are related in any way.
Researchers from Belgium, Denmark, and the UK published an anonymous online questionnaire that was mostly advertised to men in Belgium and Denmark.
A total of 3,267 men replied to the 118-question survey about their porn consumption, the frequency and enjoyment of masturbation, their sexual activity with partners, and their level of sexual function, enjoyment, and health.
The study deliberately recruited men who had had sex in the past four weeks so they could compare masturbation with “normal” sex.
Approximately 28.4 percent of the participants were single and 1.3 percent were divorced or widowed; 5.7 percent were in a new relationship and the remaining 65 percent were either in long-term relationships or married.
Being an online survey, it is unsurprising that the majority of participants were young: around 38 percent were between ages 18 and 25 and a small minority were over age 45 (10.4 percent); 29 percent were between 26 and 35, and 22.5 percent between 36 and 45.
On average, the men watched 70 minutes of porn per week, with some watching hardly at all, and others watching a spectacular 26.25 hours. 2.2 percent of them reported watching more than seven hours per week.
While the majority watched between five and 15 minutes at a time, 3.1 percent watched for more than an hour per session.
The findings were alarming.
Predictably, the occurrence of ED increased with the amount of porn consumed.
Sadly, 23 percent of men below age 35 reported some level of ED when trying to have sex with a partner. In fact, only 65 percent of the men reported feeling more satisfied after sex with a partner compared with how they feel after watching porn.
Why is this the case? The answers may lie somewhere in the findings, too.
First, 20 percent of the participants reported having to watch more extreme porn to get the same level of arousal as they did before. Second, 90 percent of the men reported fast-forwarding past the slow bits to get to the most arousing scenes.
The authors speculated that their participants’ EDwhile having sex with a partner resulted precisely from their lack of arousal during sex that is not as extreme or with partners that cannot keep up with that endless process of becoming more and more stimulating.
In fact, if this study had included men who had basically given up on sex, rather than those who had had sex in the past four weeks, they would probably have found a substantially higher prevalence of ED for the same reason.
Easiest and Most Effective Natural Approach to Cure ED – How Prostate Biopsy Leads to Weaker Erection and What to Do About It
Tens of thousands of men undergo prostate biopsy every year thinking it’s a safe, harmless procedure – only to wake up with the nightmare of severe erectile dysfunction.
But like all nightmares, when you wake up, they’re over. And so it goes for this one as well.
Yes, prostate biopsy causes worsened ED in most men, but there is something you can do about it, according to a new study recently published in BJU International.
In the largest study of its kind, a Canadian research team recently discovered that most men struggled with ED for up to 12 weeks after a prostate biopsy.
They recruited 220 volunteers who visited their hospitals for a TRUS-guided prostate biopsy. This is the test that is done to find out whether you have cancer if the doctor thinks there is a low or moderate chance that you have it.
The men completed questionnaires before the biopsy to report their level of erectile function. They were asked to complete those same questionnaires several times after the procedure: after 1 week, after four weeks, and after 12 weeks.
Most men reported worsened ED one week after the biopsy than before the operation. However, it did get better after four weeks and by the 12th week most men had regained the level of erection strength they had before.
Researchers speculated that some temporary nerve damage may occur during the biopsy, that hematomas could be responsible, and that the type of local anesthetic used can contribute. A hematoma is a solid swelling of clotted blood within body tissue, which may well be present for a few weeks after a biopsy. The procedure puts a needle into sensitive tissue, after all.
However, the ED may also be somewhat psychological. Indeed, the fear of having a needle put in such a delicate organ would cause most of us to go soft for a while.
Previous studies have shown that a majority of men report great fear of this procedure. And, ED is worse after the first biopsy than if men had undergone one in the past.
Any procedure like this does, of course, have a risk of infection and other side effects. If your risk of canceris very low, you may want to talk to your doctor about if the procedure is absolutely needed.
Remember also that the EDfollowing biopsy is usually not permanent. Most men gain their old stamina within 12 weeks. So usually, all you have to do is wait it out.
Easiest and Most Effective Natural Approach to Cure ED – The Male Problem That is Resistant to Medications – An Intolerable Calamity
Academics at the University of Toledo have been battling to develop a remedy for a type of ED that does not respond to traditional medication.
These drugs work for some men with ED, but there is a common health condition that causes a type of ED that does not respond to these drugs. The number of couples that hope for a new remedy is increasing every day as the condition that causes it becomes more widespread.
Men with diabetes have a terribly difficult task to get and keep their erectionthroughout sexual intercourse. In a 2002 Harvard study with 31,027 males between 53 and 90, those with type 1 and type 2 diabeteswere found to have a much higher rate of erectile dysfunctionthan those without diabetes.
In the last ten years, many academic papers have been published to examine the link between diabetes and ED. Researchers found that diabetics lacked some proteins and other substances that were required for an erection, but they just could not explain why this was the case in diabetics and not in non-diabetics.
Today, the reason for this problem is better understood than ever because of new research at the University of Toledo.
To understand why type 2 diabetes causes ED, you must remember that diabetes is a condition in which your body develops resistance to the hormones insulin and leptin.
Insulin is the hormone that removes glucose from the blood stream so that the rest of the body can use it as energy, while leptin’s main functions are to regulate the sensation of hunger and the storage of fat. If your body is resistant to both, as is the case in type 2 diabetics, it results in an excess of glucose in the bloodstream and the storage of fat that should either be burned as energy or excreted.
The connection between type 2 diabetes and ED is directly related to this resistance to insulin and leptin.
One of the chief mechanisms behind an erection works as follows:
1. Insulin and leptin stimulate proopio-melanocortin cells in the brain.
2. When stimulated, these proopio-melanocortin cells make a protein called melanocortin.
3. Melanocortins stimulate a nerve in the prostate that makes a healthy erection possible.
Accordingly, the ability to achieve and maintain an erectionstarts with the two hormones to which type 2 diabetics’ bodies are resistant. Their bodies are not properly responsive to insulin and leptin, and as a result, fail to produce the required proteins and nerve stimulation required for an erection.
This also explains why men with type 1 diabetes struggle with ED. Type 1 diabetics are not resistant to insulin. Instead, they completely lack insulin because their immune systems destroy the cells that release it. As they lack insulin altogether, the brain cells that set the erection pathway in motion cannot be stimulated, either.
At this stage the traditional medical system has no solution. The most obvious route would be to increase melanocortin proteins artificially by suppressing the enzymes that absorb the few available ones. Since this increases blood pressure and heart rate, however, it is not really an option. Replacing ED with cardiovascular disease solves nothing.
This is why it is so important to prevent type 2 diabetes through eating a healthy diet and adopting an exercise program. If not, it can ruin so much of the fun in relationships and in life more broadly.
This post is from the Erectile Dysfunction Master Program, which was created by Christian Goodman for men who are looking for the best erectile dysfunction natural remedies. This is an all-natural system that utilizes the power of exercises to permanently cure erectile dysfunction. By following the techniques in this program, you will be able to get hard fast without pills and maintain stronger erections for hours so you can enjoy sex again.
Erectile problems can be physical or emotional. If your problem is physical, you need to exercise the muscles around the genital area. If your problem is emotional, then you need to learn relaxation techniques. Erection Master will teach you steps that can help get rid of your erectile dysfunction for good. As long as you’re willing to commit 30 minutes of your time, 3 to 7 days a week for 1 to 2 months, they’ll work for you. You can practice the steps alone or with your partner.
These techniques are far more effective than Viagra, Cialis or other drugs for erectile dysfunction. The drugs only help about 40% of men who use them and can also cause very serious side effects.
