Exercising is more effective than dieting

I saw an article that said that dieting is just as effective as diet and exercising when someone is trying to lose weight. I could not believe what I was reading. There is no way in hell that just dieting alone is as effective as dieting and exercising when trying to lose weight.

            First, exercising is more effective than dieting when trying to lose weight. If it was not, then why do health experts tell us to always go to the gym and get a lot of cardio when doing so? Humans need to burn calories and exercising is one of the most effective ways to do so. Dieting is helpful when trying to lose weight and people should always try to eat healthy, but to so that it is as effective is not true.

            I have many friends who do not have the time to exercise as much as they would like and so they diet. While they do lose weight, it is not as much as they would like and always seem to be not in a good mood.

            Not only does working out help you lose weight, I think that it allows you to relax and clear your head. It is for some people a chance to get away for a little while. To just put those headphones on and go.

            Whereas dieting just makes you upset that you cannot eat certain things while watching others eat them in front of you. Also, I find it a lot harder to keep on my diet than it is to get into a gym routine. I look forward to getting done with work and go to the gym. I do not look forward to eating a meal that I probably am not going to like.

Weather and the Body

I arrived in Chicago last Tuesday. Before I took off I recieved an email saying " You will not be prepared for this" and boy was my friend right.

 

I arrived at O'Hare during a snow storm that had been hitting Chicago hard for 2 days. The weather outside was 0 degrees with a wind chill factor bringing it down to -25. Now folks I live in California... Los Angeles to be exact. I came from 75 degrees to 0 degrees and my body could not handle it. Any part of my body that was exposed almost froze and moved to the rest of my body instantly. Over the course of the past week my body has built up a tollerance so it gets better each day but not by much. I really empathize with the people who live here in Chicago. I personally could never live here even though the city is beautiful.

 

Did you know this city has the largest population of polish people outside of WARSAW? Crazy huh? Stay warm everyone and cherish it!!!

 

 

Anemic and life

My neice just got told she's anemic three months ago and has been battling it since, but recovering from anemia can be far more complicated than just taking iron supplements.

 

Anemia is a common blood disorder that occurs when your blood doesnt have enough hemoglobin to carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body.  Most commonly, anemia is caused from iron deficiency either caused from poor eating, blood loss, pregnancy, or growth spurts, and chemotherapy.

 

Symptoms can include:

Often, no symptoms

Paleness

Feeling tired

Unusual shortness of breath during exercise

Fast heartbeat

Cold hands and feet

Brittle nails

Headaches

It can take years of eating an iron deficient diet for a person to become anemic as iron is stored in the liver and can be taken from there.

Things you should know about taking iron supplements.  Like other vitamins andminerals iron works with other vitamins and minerals to be properly absorbed and utilized in the body.  Both B12 and Vitamin C are essential to absorbing and utilizing Iron so deficiency in one may contribute to deficiency in the other. However, vitamin C should not be taken at the same time as your iron supplements and should be taken on an empty stomach. Also, some foods inhibit the absorbtion of iron such as dairy products, tea, coffee, ice cream, alcohol, and chocolate and should be avoided as much as possible.

 

It can take up to two months for a person to get back to feeling normal after starting iron supplements but it can take 8-12 months for stores of iron in the liver get back to normal.

 

Anemia if severe and untreated can lead to heart failure and pregnancy problems (if your pregnant of course) such as premature delivery and amnion rupture.

 

Foods High in Iron:

Liver and other meats

Seafood

Dried fruits like apricots, prunes and raisins

Nuts

Beans, especially lima beans

Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and broccoli

Blackstrap molasses

Whole grains

Iron-fortified breads and cereals (check the label)

Health on a new level

With the interest in health that the United States has seen lately, there is no surprise that many websites have opened up to try and explain certain health issues. Like all other websites on the internet, there are good sides and bad ones. I did however, find one health related site that was not only educational but it was entertaining. It was a social networking site and health site rolled into one. It was kind of a “medical MySpace.” That social networking site is called www.medsocial.com
Like other social networking sites, Medsocial has an area where you could e-mail with other people that are apart of the network. It also allows you to have “friends” which are basically those who you talk to most often. And like the other social networking sites, it has blogs and allows you to post pictures.
However, there is one huge difference that Medsocial has over any other social networking site that I have been too. Unlike other social networking sites that have areas where you can be in a group and discuss a wide variety of a certain subject, Medsocials’ forum sections are all health related, but they are divided into certain topics that are then divided into certain topic discussions.
For example, I love exercising and always concerned about the proper ways to exercise, what are different ways to lose weight or what are the proper foods to help keep cholesterol down. Well, with the forum section of Medsocial, there are many topics that involve all of these topics. First, there is a general topic called healthy lifestyle and in that topic, there are several subjects about a healthy lifestyle. The subjects are as follows: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diet and healthy eating, exercise and fitness, weight loss and a general healthy lifestyle discussion. All of these topics are ones that I, as a person with a genuine concern for a healthy living would be interested in.
I appreciate the fact that the topics in the forums are more structured, which I believe keeps people more focused on the discussion at hand. Where as if the topics were more broad, people tend to get off topic, which stops people from either contributing to the topics or joining them at all.
These forums have also enhanced my knowledge about health and medicine related issues because of the topics that are here. The topics range from sexual health and sexuality to healthy aging. Plus there is a general discussion board with a variety of topics that the other subjects do not cover. And as a man, it is nice to read from other men about the topics that are important to men. It is nice to hear something about men’s health that does not always involve Viagra, even though there is an erectile dysfunction discussion board.
I believe Medsocial is a very valuable social networking site for children, students and adults a like. It will help people who are concerned or even curious with everything health related, plus a lot of medical professionals use Medsocial to communicate with each other. I do not even consider it a social networking site anymore, I consider it a tool that can and does come in very valuable in my life and I am convinced it will be valuable if you use it as well

Not the right answer to weight loss

I recently read an article that said a growing number of children are having weight loss surgery known as laparoscopic gastric banding, where an elastic color installed around the stomach limits how much someone can eat. This is something that is very scary to me.
To tell a child that they way to just lose weight is to have an easy way out, which is surgery. What kind of message does that send to children? It says that no matter what you do, the only way to achieve a certain goal is through surgery. There is no mention of the medical information or the health information about the children, just the fact that kids can have this.
The article said that children could not have this surgery many years ago because of the dangers but procedures and doctors now have become much better at performing this surgery. Well I agree that doctors today have become better but not to the point where children should have this procedure.
Now, in rare cases where genetics is the main reason where a child is overweight and no form of exercise will help them, then I can see the surgery being preformed. It is the last option. The doctors have looked at the child’s medical info and said that the surgery is the only option. However, this will not always be the case. Too many kids and too many doctors will want to perform this surgery without looking at the medical info and the health info of every child and will just perform this surgery. For the children, it’s the easy way out and for the doctors, it’s in easy payday. The parents should be either jailed or given civil fines. They are held accountable for their kids tagging so why not this?

Safe sex is now forced in Texas

The governor of Texas signed a bill today that said by 2008, all school girls entering the sixth grade will be required to get vaccinated against an STD that causes cervical cancer.
To some extent, I like this idea. I like the fact that even a more conservative state such as Texas would take the initiative and make the state as safe as possible in the fight against sexually transmitted diseases. The reason I say conservative, and this is not in any way to offend anyone, but usually conservative places are against forms of birth control. And while this is not birth control, it does deal with the reality that children have sex even at that young age and it is there to help protect them.
The problem with this program that I do not like is that the story does not say much about the drug and the health info about it. What is the medical information about the drug? What are the side effects? What of the child’s health information will not make it safe for her to use the drug? I find it sometimes hard to always let the government say something and everyone must follow, but that is a different argument.
I wish it was up to parents of the daughter, who know the daughter and her medical information and her health information who would make her take this shot. But I guess when parents do not always live in reality, it is up to someone else to make sure that the children are as safe as possible.

The fat problem of America

McDonalds says it will select a new trans-fat free oil for cooking its french fries, or as some of you call it, freedom fries. Now there has been a lot of talk in the news about trans-fat and if cities, such as New York and Chicago should ban the oil.



For me personally, being a medstudent, I do not eat fast food at all because I
know how bad it is for your body and won’t eat it. However, I think that if
people really want to eat this kind of product, then I think they should be
allowed too. Everyone knows the medical information that fast food makes you fat, is bad for all areas of your body
and will hurt you down the line, yet you still want to eat it, that is up to
that person. If you choose to ignore the medical info that proves how bad this is for you then you are ignorant, or
can't read or don't have access to this medical info.



I sometimes feel that people either want to stay healthy or not, but it is up to
that person to do so, not authority figures. However, I do realize that
unhealthy people are causing health insurance prices to raise as well. Perhaps
they should have their credit card information attached to their
medical information. This way when they
go to McDonalds and purchase a quarter pounder and add two pounds onto their
ass, the doctors, insurance companies, and everyone else can just look at their
medical info and
medical records and clearly see that that
person is a useless slob that eats too much fast food.

I think the red-coated commies and civil rights libertarians would have a hay
day with allowing insurance companies and credit card companies share
medical information like this. They
would scream foul and raise a storm about how their civil liberties were being
violated by sharing medical information and
medical info through these means would raise
the ACLU's guard. Those same people would also weight 359 pounds, and
would most likely be less motivated to dispute the claim out of sheer laziness.

Oh well, I'm only lazy enough to write a stupid blog about how to exploit the
overweight through merging medical info and
credit card info