Why it is important to keep active
It is important that you exercise and keep fit especially as you grow older because it will greatly improve your health. Fitness is just as important for the disabled although exercises will have to be adjusted to suit.
Physical activity is just as important a part of a weight loss program as eating the right food. A growing number of women are overweight or obese. Being overweight or obese increases your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, breathing problems, arthritis, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea (breathing problems while sleeping), osteoarthritis, and some cancers.
It is not just how much "fat" you have but also where it is located. "Pear" shaped women, have a tendency to store fat around the hips and buttocks whilst "apple" shaped women store fat around the waist. There is greater concern for women with an "apple" shape because of carrying extra weight around their waists. A waist larger than 35 inches raises health risks, for example heart disease, diabetes or cancer. You can work out your body shape by measuring your waist and hips in inches and then divide your waist measurement by the hips measurement. A result of 0.8 or more generally indicates an "apple" shape woman.
Exercise helps you to lose fat and build strong bones and prevent osteoporosis. It has been found that bone density is lost when weight loss is achieved through dieting alone. Exercise not only helps to prevent bones from breaking but also makes the body stronger and improves balance, and so helps to prevent falls. Though care has to be given when exercising, it is also important to ensure that the body has enough nutrients to build muscle otherwise minerals could be leeched from the bone and so make the bones weak. Therefore it is best not to exercise on an empty stomach.
Exercising provides a lot of benefits to the body such as:-
· help to reduce anxiety, depression, and improve moods
· help to control stress
· help to control weight
· provide more energy
· help with sleeplessness
· help you look better.
To reduce the risk of injury you need to do a slow aerobic warm-up, then stretch before any aerobic or strengthening activities. An aerobic activity is an activity that speeds up your heart and breathing while moving your body at a regular pace. If you have been inactive for a while you will need to start slowly and gradually build up the pace without hurting the body.
Before starting any sort of exercise routine make sure that you talk to your health care provider especially if you have any of the following:-
· have or at risk of heart disease or a stroke
· have or at risk of diabetes
· are obese
· have an injury such as a knee injury
· older than 50 years
· are pregnant
The best way to stay fit is to have a well-rounded workout plan, which combines aerobic activity, muscle-strengthening exercises, and stretching. The ideal plan is to do at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity three of four times a week, adding muscle-strengthening activities to your aerobic workout two to three times a week. Exercise is not just for weight loss but is an important part of keeping and maintaining a healthy body.
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Gill Webster is dedicated to helping people, especially women over 40, learn how to live a healthy beautiful life, while succeeding at weight loss. To learn more, jump to www.slimyouwin.com, sign up for her free newsletter on health and fitness and receive her free e-book. Signup is a simple sign and Gill guarantees a no-spam policy!
Arthritis Pain—How to Avoid Accidental Acetaminophen Poisoning
Accidental Poisoning from Acetaminophen
Acetaminophen is the most popular painkiller in the US. It is best known by the brand name Tylenol but is sold under 97 different brand names. It is known as paracetamol in many parts of the world. It is also sold in combination with other drugs in more than 100 products.
During cold and flu season, people who take acetaminophen for arthritis are at risk for acetaminophen poisoning. Taking just twice the recommended dose of acetaminophen can cause acute liver failure. Unfortunately, this has already happened to an alarming number of people because it isn't hard to do. Two years ago, more than 56,000 people visited the emergency room due to accidental acetaminophen overdoses and 100 people died from unintentionally taking too much. Worse yet, the numbers appear to be growing.
How Can This Happen?
This happens so easily because acetaminophen is found in many different products. If you are taking the maximum recommended dose of just two acetaminophen-containing products, you can easily take an overdose.
For example, the maximum recommended dose of acetaminophen per day is 4000 mg. That equals 8 extra strength acetaminophen pills per day. You might easily take that much for arthritis pain.
Now let's say you get the flu and decide to take a Cold & Flu product for your aches and stuffiness. Many of them include acetaminophen as the primary ingredient for reducing fevers and aches and pains. So, that will dose you with 1000 mg of acetaminophen every 6 hours or another 4000 mg a day.
By taking both products at the maximum recommend dose, you put yourself at risk for acute liver failure.
The problem doesn't end there. You might get a head ache and pop some Excedrin. That's 500 mg more acetaminophen per dose. Maybe you are in a car accident or have some dental work done. Prescription narcotics like Vicodin and Percocet contain from 325 mg to 750 mg of acetaminophen inside each pill. That can quickly add up.
Other Acetaminophen Complications for People with Arthritis
For some people, arthritis is caused by suboptimal detoxification pathways. Such people do not have the level of enzymes necessary to carry out the sulfoxidation necessary for a body to properly process and detoxify acetaminophen. In these circumstances, even the recommended level of acetaminophen may cause acetaminophen poisoning.
Furthermore, this same pathway is necessary for detoxifying many of the chemicals we are exposed to in our environment and through our food. This means that our detoxification system can also be weakened through chemical exposure. Similarly, if we swamp our system with acetaminophen, we don't have enough detoxification power left to fully deal with all the other assaults in our daily environment.
If you have any known food sensitivities or chemical sensitivities, it is best to assume that your sulfoxidation pathways are already challenged enough, without adding the extra burden of acetaminophen in your system.
How to Avoid Acetaminophen Poisoning
Carefully read the label of any cold or flu medicine or painkiller that you are considering to ascertain how much acetaminophen it contains.
Healthy young adults should never exceed 4000 mg/day total from all sources for short term use. For long-term use healthy young adults should never exceed 3250 mg/day, according to clinical pharmacist Sandra Dawson, RPh, MSHA who lectures on pain management in long term care.
People who are vulnerable to damage from acetaminophen should take no more than 2000 to 3000 mg per day, according to Dr William Lee of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. This lower maximum dose includes the healthy elderly since liver and kidney function generally decline with age. Of course, for vulnerable populations, long-term use this maximum dose will also need to be even lower.
Copyright 2006 by Barbara D. Allan
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At age 25, Barbara Allan developed a type of arthritis similar to rheumatoid arthritis. Within a few years she ended up using an electric cart to get around. She is now completely free of arthritis and writes about arthritis treatments that work for arthritis in general and, especially for rheumatoid arthritis.
7 Fast Weight Loss Tips To Speed Up Metabolism
These fast weight loss tips will help you to drop a lot of extra pounds, if you need to lose quite a bit of weight. These 7 fast weight loss tips will also help you, if you are already in decent physical condition, to sculpt your body to an even greater degree.
Any weight loss tips to help speed up metabolism do just that. They help you. You still must have your overall fitness and nutrition plan in line with the goals you want to achieve.
You need to be focused on each aspect of your plan. If you expect to use these fast weight loss tips but don't exercise and just watch television eating a bag of chips every night, they won't do a thing for you.
Are you ready to add these fast weight loss tips to your lifestyle?
In order to get rid of any amount of excess weight, you must speed up metabolism. Your metabolism is a biochemical process that occurs in your body.
Your metabolism helps to break down nutrients in your bloodstream. This helps you to add more lean muscle, resulting in a greater expenditure of energy, meaning you'll get rid of more fat.
You have billions of cells in your body that can use up an enormous amount of energy if you are active. The fast weight loss tips listed below will help you do this. However, if you aren't active they won't burn up much at all, meaning you'll have a tendency to easily add fat to your body.
Thankfully, using the fast weight loss tips in conjunction with your healthy and active lifestyle you can speed up your metabolism quite noticeably.
Fast weight loss tips: #1. Eat specific foods. A number of food additives, like spices, can help to speed up your metabolism by creating a thermodynamic burn that has been shown to last a few hours after you eat.
Fast weight loss tips: #2. Time your meals. The majority of your calories should be earlier in the day. Your meals should contain less total calories as the day goes on. Try to eat little or preferably nothing at all after your evening meal. Don't skip any meals. You should be eating 4 - 6 meals each day.
Fast weight loss tips: #3. Make sure you eat enough. One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight is they don't eat enough.
If you don't consume the proper amount of calories you will send your body into what is known as a survival mode. This happens when your body does not have enough calories, so it conserves energy to prepare for possible starvation.
On the opposite side of this, is if you eat too many calories the excess will be stored as fat. You need to exercise in order to burn more calories than you eat. Therefore, moderation is the key when it comes to calorie intake.
Fast weight loss tips: #4. Increase your daily activities. To prevent fat storage and to drop any excess that you might be carrying you must increase your daily activities.
This needs to include weight training and cardiovascular training. The more calories you burn, the faster you will lose weight. It's that simple. An increase in lean muscle mass results in a dramatic increase in fat burning.
One more thing; try to exercise first thing in the morning. Research has shown that you can dramatically increase your fat burning ability if you exercise after a fasted state. Meaning just after you wake up.
Fast weight loss tips: #5. Do weight lifting before doing any cardiovascular work. The only exception of course is to perform 5 - 10 minutes of cardio before your weight training in order to warm up your muscles.
This is important because you need the energy in your muscles for weight training. By the time your weight training session is complete you will have used up all of your preferred energy sources.
This means that you will actually be burning fat cells during your cardio session.
Here's what happens if you do this in reverse.
First, you will only be burning carbohydrate sources of energy during your cardiovascular workout. No fat cells will be used up for energy. Next, you will not have the energy in your muscles in order to get the most out of your weight training.
You will not be able to increase your lean muscle, which is very important if you want to lose your excess weight.
Fast weight loss tips: #6. Change up your exercise routine on a regular basis. For the most part you should change some aspect of your workout every 2 - 3 weeks. This can be anything from the number of reps or sets per exercise. The exercise order you perform and the exercises themselves.
If you do the same thing week after week, month after month your body will start to get used to what you're doing to it and will eventually stop making changes. You will also stop adding any more lean muscle.
The more muscle you have the more calories you will burn even when at rest.
Fast weight loss tips: #7. Meal combinations. Always eat protein / carbohydrate meals earlier in the day. Eat protein / fat combination meals (meaning little to no carbohydrates) in the late afternoon and evening.
The only exception is if you normally exercise in the evening. Then your first meal after your workout should consist of protein and carbohydrates.
Never eat carbohydrates and fat together in the same meal.
With these seven fast weight loss tips you will speed up metabolism and burn excess body fat at a much faster rate.
Try these fast weight loss tips out for a while and you'll notice a difference after a couple of weeks.
About The Author:
Phil Beckett is a health & fitness trainer, author & educator. Get the results you want with less work. For more info on fast weight loss tips & how to speed up metabolism, visit:
http://www.womens-health-fitness.com/fast-weight-loss-tips.html
