Tag Archives: insulin

circuit-training

Activity: essential prevention against all diseases

Health & Nutrition, , , , , , , ,

Activity is important to maintain a healthy body.
I refer to my article: “Benefits of Exercise”
When you are not sleeping your body was designed to be almost
continually active.
If you immobilize a limb for just three hours, it starts to degenerate.
That’s why even during sleep you automatically flex and stretch and
turn more than a hundred times in one night. Inactivity is deadly!

You can read this in a report by Dr. Walter Bortz in the Journal of
the American Medical Association in 1982.
He reviewed over a hundred studies showing that the sedentary lifestyle
developed in the last 50 years in America causes widespread bodily
damage. This damage occurs independently of other health risk factors,
like smoking, alcohol, fat, age and family history of disease.

Here follows some of his findings:
By itself, simple inactivity causes a chain reaction of cardiovascular
decay. First, it reduces vital capacity. That means, sitting like a slug
reduces your ability to take up and use oxygen.
As a result, muscles, organs, and brain become partially oxygen deprived.
In addition, inactivity reduces cardiac output, that is, the ability of your
heart to pump blood around the body.

So the tissues of couch potatoes become double deprived.
They get less oxygen and less blood and the essential nutrients the blood contains.
In an effort to make up these deficits, your body constricts arteries,
thereby raising blood pressure. This arterial constriction on top of
a weakened heart not only increases the risk of clots and stroke, but also
makes your cardiovascular system less able to respond to sudden movement
or changes of position.

Consequently, sedentary folk often suffer dizziness on standing, because
the impaired system cannot instantly increase blood flow to the brain.
With any sudden movements they are prone to falls and accidents,
because the restricted system of blood flow cannot respond efficiently.

One of the most interesting studies shows that more sedentary people
than active people are hit and killed in traffic accidents.
Because their weakened cardiovascular systems make them incapable of
performing the nimble moves required to avoid oncoming traffic, with out
becoming dizzy and staggering or falling in the process.

Inactivity also increase levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.
Triglycerides are the fats you store, and we know that inactivity makes you fat.
Inactive muscles shrink, compromising your ability to burn fat, to perform
even simple tasks, like running up stairs,and even to hold up your skeleton.

Bones also thin and weaken, because your skeleton requires continuous
resistance exercise in order to grow new bone matrix.
A combination of inactivity and poor bone nutrition is the major cause of
the epidemic of osteoporosis now burdening America – another man made
– entirely preventable disease.

Inactivity also disrupts bowel function and disorders glucose metabolism,
independently of whatever food you eat. The near epidemics of intestinal
disorders and adult-onset diabetes in America bear mute testimony to our
slug lifestyle.

Sex hormone levels also decline with inactivity, now linked to the huge
increase in impotence in America. The evidence is overwhelming that the
incidence of male impotence in America has doubled since the 1940’s.

Activity Can Save Your Life
One of the best studies was conducted by renowned exercise guru
Dr. Kenneth Cooper at his Aerobics Center in Dallas.
They followed 13,344 men and women for 15 years.
This meticulous research, controlled for all major interfering variables, like age,
family history, personal health history, smoking, blood pressure, cardiovascular
condition, and insulin metabolism.

At the fifteen-year follow-up, reduced risk of death was closely correlated
with physical fitness. This included death from cardiovascular diseases,
a variety of cancers, and even accidents.

There is no longer any doubt: exercise can save your life, while couch
potatoism creates an existence that is nasty, sick, and short.

For Science based Nutrition, Training & Health resources , visit: www.muscle-health-fitness.com 

Activity Strengthens Heart and Lungs

Numerous studies show that exercise protects your body by maintaining
vital capacity, and therefore maintaining adequate oxygenation of tissues.

The average sendentary American male aged 45 has lost half his ability
to take up and use oxygen. With one year of the right exercise he can
restore it to the level of a 25 year old.

Dr. Bortz rightly stated that the health benefits of restoring vital capacity
are superior to any drug or medical treatment in existence.

In contrast to the weak cardiac function of sedentary folk, the athlete’s
strong, slow pulse is telling evidence of a healthy heart.
Many have rates in the 40s, and the Colgan Institute one recorded champion
cyclist Howard Doerfling at an incredible 29 beats per minute.

Sedentary folk, however, are likely to show heart rates in the 80s or 90s.
When heart rate rises above 84, risk of coronary heart disease more than doubles.

Activity protects blood pressure
The majority of average people show blood pressure of 120/80, which is regard
as normal but this is not normal at all. We know know that these people are already
on their way to disease. Risk of cardiovascular disease starts to rise as systolic blood pressure goes above 103 mmHg.
By 120 mmHg, previously thought to be normal, risk has risen from 51 to 77 per
10.000 people. That is an increase of 50%.
By 135 mmHg, a level that many physicians still regard as marginal, but acceptable,
risk has doubled. Beyond 135 mmHg you are a walking time bomb.

The same applies to diastolic blood pressure. Usual levels found in average people
are 80-89 mmHg. Recent research shows that these figures indicate a pre-disease state. Diastolic pressures below 80 mmHg shows an incidence of new cardiovascular disease of 10 cases per 1000 people, but by 90-89 mmHg it shows an incidence of 40 cases per 1000 people, a risk increase of 300%.

Don’t fret. It’s easy to reduce blood pressure with the right exercise.
Many studies show that exercise works for older people as well, in whom you might think the damage to blood pressure is permanent.

In a typical study sedentary hypertension patients, aged 55 to 78 years were followed.
All had elevated blood pressure.
After participating in an exercise program, systolic blood pressure felt by a whopping
20 mmHg. Regular exercise will lower blood pressure in almost anyone.

Activity Lowers Cholesterol
Despite media bleatings, cholesterol is not the bad guy.
Cholesterol is essential to every function of your body.
It forms part of all your organs, including your heart and your brain.

Your body makes all your steroid hormones, including adrenalin, estrogen and testosterone from cholesterol. You cannot live without it.

Most of your cholesterol is not from food at all. It is manufactured in your body mainly
by the liver. When a healthy person eats high cholesterol foods, the liver immediately reduces its own cholesterol production to keep blood cholesterol low and healthy.

Disordered cholesterol metabolism is the cause that blood cholesterol rises to dangerous levels and is a man-made disease, caused mainly by our degraded nutrition and
sedentary lifestyle.

As you probably know, we have “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and “bad” low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Total cholesterol is mostly LDL and this is still one of the best predictors of cardiovascular disease.
You can measure this total cholesterol with a simple device at home,
it is called the “Accumeter”.

What is a healthy cholesterol level? You may ask.
The American Heart Association and other US health authorities made in mid 1980
below 200 mg/dl their official recommendation.

Today we know that this is too high.
In a comprehensive study by Dr. Jeremiah Stamler, he followed 356,000 men
in 28 US cities. Following his research, death rates from cardiovascular disease
starts to rise when cholesterol gets above 168 mg/dl.
Total cholesterol in sedentary American men and women rise over 200 mg/dl
in their 30s and reach about 220 mg/dl by age 45.

It’s clear that sitting like a slug expose oneself to disease.
Recent research shows that average cholesterol levels in runners and bodybuilders
ranged between 158 mg/dl and 183 mg/dl.
It proves that exercise makes the healthy difference.

Chardiovascular diseases are far out our biggest health problem.
It kills more than twice as many Americans as all cancers, nine times as many as
all other lung and liver diseases together, and 28 times more than all forms of diabetes.

There are good reasons to warn everybody starting an exercise program
to have a thorough medical and physician’s approval before they start.
Sudden exertion in sedentary people “raises their changes of a heart attack by….100 fold!
A health letter from the Mayo Clinic stated:
“Most people who have heart attacks during activity are sedentary or have underlying heart disease and overdo it.”

Activity Prevents Cancer
Most cancers are slow-growing diseases, eating silently away at your body for years
before they show up.
Despite the overblown claims of successful treatment by the National Cancer Institute,
once a cancer emerges, medicine is usually  powerless.

Remember the swift deaths of Michael Landon of pancreatic cancer and Jaqueline
Onassis of Lymphoma. If there was an effective treatment, don’t you think those
immensely rich people would have bought it?

So if a little of the right exercise can prevent cancer, it’s worth than all the gold in
Ford Knox. And above all, like the other best things in life, it’s free!

From a study by Dr. Kenneth Cooper, it showed that incidence of all forms of cancer
was closely correlated with lack of physical exercise. Unfit men and women where
300% more likely  to develop cancer.
But the best finding from this study is that you have to move only a smidgen  out of
couch potatoland to prevent cancer big time.

Activity Against All Diseases

The right exercise is a major strategy for preventing and  treating All diseases.
Physicians who do not incorporate exercise into their treatment protocols are
guilty of malpractice.

The right exercise maintains your heart, lungs, your muscles, your bones, a healthy
level of bodyfat, even your intestinal function.
But what about more  subtle functions, such as insulin, and your body’s handling
of sugar?

We know that couch potatoism leads to glucose intolerance.
However, research has shown not long ago that getting off the couch not only
maintains insulin function to deal with the sugar, but also can reverse decades
of damage. In healthy people the right exercise completely protects glucose tolerance against the degenerative changes in insulin metabolism that lead to adult-onset diabetes.

Research has revealed the major way  in which activity protects you against all diseases.

It started with evidence that exercise increases overall white blood cells.
Then came more precise findings that moderate exercise increases bodily production of
lymphocytes, interleukin 2, neutrophills, and other disease fighting  components
of the immune system. There is no longer doubt that the right exercise strengthen
your immunity.

Hence it strengthens your resistance against all sorts of damage, decay, bacteria, viruses,
toxins, even radiation. Remember the wise words of Louis Pasteur, the father of
modern medicine: “Host resistance is the key”.

Facts about the Glycemic Index

Health & Nutrition, , , , , ,

One important factor when trying to lose weight is to choose
foods that keep your insulin levels fairly constant.
This is especially true in regards to carbohydrates.
When we eat foods that contain carbohydrates, the carbohydrates
are digested in the stomach and intestines and are absorbed
into the bloodstream, generally in the form of glucose.

When the carbohydrates we eat cause the blood sugar to quickly
rise to high levels,excess insulin can cause to much sugar
to be absorbed by the cells.This results in a condition of
low blood sugar. The subsequent stress on the body stimulates
the adrena glands to secrete hormones into the blood.
Metabolism rises, glucose is manufactured from stores in
the liver and the entire body may be activated in what is
called “fight-or-flight response.”

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a classification of ranking of carbohydrates,
based on their potential for raising blood glucose levels.
Carbohydrates that are broken down slowly and cause only a moderate
increase in blood sugar, have a low Glycemic Index.
Some carbohydrates fall in between.

Specifically, the Glycemic Index measures how much a 50-gram portion
of carbohydrates raises your blood sugar levels compared with a control.
The control is either white bread or pure glucose.
Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream faster than any other
carbohydrate and is thus given the value of 100.
Other carbohydrates are given a number relative to glucose.
Foods with low GI indices are released into the bloodstream at a slower
rate than high GI foods.

All carbohydrates cause some temporary rise in your blood glucose level.
This is called the glycemic response. A number of factors influence
this response: the amount of food eaten, the digestion and absorption
rate of food, including the physical structure, ripeness, particle seize,
the degree of processing and preparation, the commercial brand, the
nature of the starch, acidity and the characteristics of the diabetic
patient. These factors naturally effect each food’s glycemic index
position or rank.

The slower your body processes the food, the slower the insulin is
released and the healthier the overall effect is on your body.
In addition, differences exist in the glycemic indexes due to the choice
of reference food, the timing of blood sampling or the computational
method used to calculate the glycemic index.

When you desire to lose weight, you choose the foods that raise your
blood sugar level slowly. You’ll discover that many of those foods are
high in fiber and will keep you feeling fuller for a longer period of time.
And if you have been on a diet, you will be thankful for this.
The longer you feel satisfied, the less temptation you will have to eat
something in between your meals that will spike your blood sugar.

As fructose is a slow moving sugar, almost all fruits, except bananas
and dried fruits, have a low GI. Also, all vegetables that contain
lots of fiber, except carrot and corn. Whole grains, starches and pasta
have a higher GI. On top of the list are white bread, refined grains
and some potatoes.

The Glycemic Load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of
carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account,
but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone.
A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate
turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate
is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things
to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar.
That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon
for example, has a high GI, but there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon
glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of
11 to 19 is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Following the latest research it appears that women experience cravings
about 10 times during the day. The most common times for these cravings
to appear are at 10 am and 4 pm. Interesting enough, these cravings
correspond almost exactly to your low blood sugar levels as well as
your low levels of serotonin. This is a chemical that drives women to
start eating. And because the drive is so strong, it’s quite difficult
to overcome.

Research performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Clinical Research Center uncovered this truth when it found a
relationship between carbohydrates in the brain and weight loss.
Dr. J. Wurtman, lead researcher of the study, demonstrated, that
eating carbohydrates high on the GI raised the levels of serotonin
in the brain.

The results also showed that women suffering from premenstrual syndrome
eat to many carbohydrates and as a result gain weight.
Others overeat when they are depressed, stressed or angry in an effort
to balance these serotonin levels.

The objectives of diet management in diabetic patients are to reduce
hyperglycemia, prevent hyperglycemic episodes, and reduce the risk of
complications. For people with diabetes, the GI is a useful tool in
planning to achieve and maintain glycemic control.
High GI foods are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, causing an
escalation in blood glucose levels and increasing the possibility
of hyperglycemia. The body compensates for the rise in blood sugar
levels with an accompanying increase in insulin, which within a few
hours can cause hypoglycemia. As a result, awareness of the
glycemic indices of food assists in preventing large variances in
blood glucose levels.

A low GI pre-event meal may be beneficial for athletes who respond
negatively to carbohydrate-rich foods prior to exercise or who
can’t consume carbohydrates during competition. Athletes are advised
to consume carbohydrates of moderate to high GI during prolonged
exercise to maximize performance, approximately 1 gram per minute of
exercise. Following exercise, moderate to high GI foods enhance
glycogen storage.

The fat content of food is one of the components that affect the GI.
Like fiber, fat acts like a brake on the absorption process.
Apart from this fact, fat just make food to taste better.
Fats also play an important role of signaling your body to stop eating.
This is vital to any weight-management program. The fat that you eat
causes the body to release a hormone called cholecystokinin.
This hormone is stored in the stomach until notified by the presence of
fat and is responsible for informing the brain that you’re satisfied.
It really is a marvellous thing and it means you don’t have to
deprive yourself.

Another factor that influence the absorption rate of glucose is
the protein content of the food. Protein seems to have the greatest
effect when it comes down to satisfying those hunger pangs,especially
for a long period of time and makes you feel fuller.
Protein also helps you to stay alert. However, we have to be aware of
the good and the bad protein. Always make sure you choose the lean
protein in either beef, fish, chicken or plant-based protein.

Protein itself rates zero on the GI scale, this means you don’t have
to be sparingly by adding it to your diet, only watch the calorie content.
It slows down the rise in insulin that happens when you eat any form of
carbohydrate. This means, if you add some protein to a food that ranks
high on the GI scale, you will counteract the spiking effect in insulin
rise. Another benefit of protein is, that it keeps you feeling full
longer after you eat it.It is therefore a good idea to add some protein
to your breakfast. And if you take a snack, make sure it contains some
form of protein.

If you like fish, you are doing yourself a favor. Fish not only
slows down the spiking in your insulin level, it also contains a rich
source of Omega-3 fatty acids. Eat fish at least twice a week.

The Glycemic Index is an excellent tool. It provide you with a
weight-management system that puts you in control of the foods you eat,
how much you eat, the way you eat and when you like to eat.
When you have a good variety of foods from which to choose, it makes
it easier to stay with the system.

Try eating according to the Glycemic Index, you will be pleasantly
surprised how easy it is to keep your weight under control and
you’ll also find that your energy level will rise as a bonus!

You can find the Revised International Table of Glycemic Index (GI) and Glycemic
Load (GL) Values—2008 By David Mendosa by visiting:www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm