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THE TOP 10 FITNESS MYTHS

OK, I don’t care if you’ve been hitting the gym and working out for years, chances are you’ve fallen for a few fitness myths. While some myths may contain half truths, many of these exercise induced myths have largely been debunked by current research, but surprisingly the following 10 are still in circulation.

MYTH ONE: YOU CAN SPOT REDUCE.
No matter how many crunches you do, it’s not possible to melt fat off just your midsection. You have to work the whole body–weights for muscle strength and endurance, cardio to utilize fat as fuel combined with healthy diet is the only way.

MYTH TWO: AEROBIC WORKOUTS BOOST YOUR METABOLISM FOR HOURS AFTER YOU STOP.
The myth that working out in the morning will keep your body burning calories at a higher rate all day is only partially true. You do end up burning more calories after you get off the treadmill, but only about 20 over the course of the day, not the several hundred extra many people seem to expect.

MYTH THREE: TREADMILLS ARE BETTER FOR YOUR KNEES.
People with knee problems may have been told that running on a treadmill gives you more cushion than running on pavement. Read more…

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Fat Holds The Key To Your Health.

Everyone has stubborn fat you just can’t shift, whether its love handles or back fat. Maybe you obsess over bingo wings, or know your stomach will never be flat, no matter how much you diet and exercise.

Until recently, it was thought our body shape and fat deposits were due to our genetic makeup – turns out this is only part of the story. According to new research, the way fat accumulates around our body reveals far more about our health and diet than we thought, and the key to getting rid of those wobbly parts forever is to understand why you pile on the pounds in certain places.

The wrong foods, hormonal imbalances, stress and toxins can also determine where we store fat. Weight doesn’t go on evenly all over, and while it’s largely genetic there are certain lifestyle factors that determine where fat is deposited.

The Problem: Stomach Fat
The Cause: Stress
Stomach Fat has been linked to stress levels. When we’re stressed cortisol is released from our adrenal glands and this causes the body to lay down fat around the stomach. A recent study at Yale University found that even slim women are more likely to have excess abdominal fat if they regularly feel stressed. Read more…

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First of all, the concept of vibration to help you lose weight is not a new one. Vibration machines have been around for decades. Dr. John Kellog (of corn flake fame) designed some of the earliest mechanical vibration massage machines. These “Vibro-Therapy” contraptions included a mechanical massage bed and a wooden vibrating chair which Kellog claimed could clear out the intestines, dissolve backaches and improve muscle tone.

Even though people think of vibrating belt machines as products of the 50′s, they were first introduced in 1928 by Dr. Kellog at his health facility in Michigan. Women wanting to lose weight hoped to vibrate their fat away. Vibrating belt machines became even more popular after World War II. Women put away their work clothes and tried to look more like the glamourous actresses of the times by shaking their fat off.

When vibration wasn’t enough, women turned to the next logical step: electric shock. The Relax-a-Cizor first introduced in 1949, promised to zap the fat off. More than 400,000 were sold before they were taken off the market in 1970 due to many unpleasant side effects.

Vibration type fitness machines have made a 21st Century comeback. Unlike the shaking belts of the 1950s, this time the vibration is focused on the entire body. Read more…

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Guys, you may not worry about cellulite, but believe me, women do. Well, ladies, we’ve had jeans that squeeze our stomach in, others that lift our butt and now Wrangler has launched jeans that go after our cellulite.

The jeans “Smooth Legs” skinny jeans are made from fabric treated with caffeine, Retinal and algae extract, all ingredients used in products that “reduce the appearance” of cellulite—notice I said “reduce the appearance” not get rid of. Wrangler says that 69% of women in clinical trials reported an improvement in the “appearance” of their thighs.

The clinical trial held in France required the jeans to be wore for eight hours a day, five days a week during the six week testing period.

All this to reduce the appearance of cellulite–Actually by wearing the Jeans you don’t have to worry about cellulite, as your legs are covered. Maybe that should be the pitch.

But wait there’s more, it’s no longer enough for our items of clothing to perform just one task, now to add to the collection of multitasking clothing, Triumph is set to launch bottom-moisturizing control pants. Each of the pieces in the collection is infused with tiny aloe vera micromoisture capsules. Read more…

Premenstrual Syndrome is among the most common health problems reported by women, affecting approximately 1 in 3, and there’s not much modern medicine has to offer. Ancient traditional medicine, though, in Asia and Persia used a spice called saffron to treat menstrual disorders. But what did they know–that was 3,500 years ago (in fact the earliest recorded use of any medicinal plant). Didn’t they realize you can’t really know anything unless it’s put through a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial? Well it took 3,500 years, but now we finally have it. Watch my 2-min. video Saffron for the Treatment of PMS to see the results.

The spice saffron is composed of the female reproductive organs of the flower of the saffron crocus. Each flower just produces a few threads, such that you need 50,000 flowers to make a single pound of spice–enough flowers to fill a football field. No wonder it’s the most expensive spice in the world. Thankfully, the PMS study found benefits using a tiny amount. What if you could get away with using even less, though?

In my 2-min. follow-up video Wake Up and Smell the Saffron I profile one of the wildest studies I saw published last year that documents psychological benefits from even just the scent of saffron. Read more…

According to Cancer.org a caregiver serves a home health aide and companion to elderly individuals or those those dealing with chronic illness. Duties may include feeding, dressing and bathing patients, as well as arranges schedule, managing insurance issues and providing transportation.  The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP notes that, “65.7 million caregivers make up 29% of the U.S. populationproviding care to someone who is ill, disabled or aged.”  A caregiver can always use a break: You need both short moments to yourself during the day and bigger breathing spaces that last a whole 24 hours or more. Unfortunately, breaks are not always easy to arrange or achieve. So many caregivers simply keep plowing forward without making themselves much of a priority. Result: big-time burnout.

How can you tell when you really, truly need to arrange help and make more time for yourself? Consider these four warning signs:

1. All you ever talk about or think about is caregiving.

Compassion fatigue is a very real condition to which caregivers are vulnerable. (Professional nurses and social workers get it, too.) Your caring is critical — but because you’re an individual, it’s not the entirety of your life even when it takes up most of the hours in a given day. Read more…

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The price you pay for the sedentary lifestyle is not good. A listener asks, “Does sitting cause cancer?” I agree this is scary—calm down. Here’s what is going on. We’re sitting more than ever. We go from sedentary jobs to sedentary activities after work—resulting in a lot more time sitting than moving.

There was a research study of more than 17,000 individuals in 2010 linking to much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death.

1. Men and women who reported more than 23 hours a week sedentary activity had a 64 percent risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week.
2. People who use a computer for 11 hours or more a week, or watch tv 21 hours or more a week, are more likely to be obese.
3. Too much sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems.

OK you get it—sitting itself is not fundamentally harmful—except when done incorrectly for long periods of time on a consistent basis. Your body was not meant to be sedentary—look at all your moving parts. (If you’re driving look later.)

Numerous metabolic and other body processes are negatively impacted by long periods of sitting. Read more…

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A 12-year-old middle school student, Jasmine Roberts, a seventh gradeer at Benito Middle School, New Tampa, Florida received first place at the Hillsborough County Regional Science and Engineering Fair by comparing the ice used in drinks at five fast food restaurants with the water from toilet bowls in the same five restaurants.

The results—seventy percent of the time the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.

In four of the five restaurants, ice from the self-serve machines had more bacteria than toilet water, as did three out of five cups of ice from drive trough windows.

Sixty percent of the restaurant ice also tested positive for E. coli, which comes from the feces of animals and can cause serious illness.

While a certain amount of bacteria in water is considered harmless, no amount of E. coli is acceptable, however small.

We already know that soft drinks are one of the worst fluids you could drink–number one source of calories that has helped fuel the obesity epidemic in the USA–and if that’s not bad enough, now we find out that soft drinks–dispensed through insufficiently cleaned fountains or filled with contaminated ice–can expose you to more harmful bacteria than toilet water–yuk!

If you just can’t go cold-turkey and give up your fast food soda all at once–then next time you pull up to the window say “hold the ice”! Read more…

Many times people assume that the best way to get fit, lose weight and feel great is through cardiovascular exercise.  Although cardiovascular exercise like walking, biking and running are essential for strengthening your heart and lungs, it’s not the end all be all solution to staying fit and raising the quality of your work and life.  What if I told you that doing less cardio and more resistance training could make walking the hospital floors, caring for patients and working long shifts easier? Resistance and strength training, I argue, is more useful for nurses, as it’ll make many of your day to day activities much easier.  Here are four reasons why every nurse should start doing resistance training.

1.  Nurses often work long shifts and are constantly on their feet.  The last thing you’d want to do is take another hour of your day walking on the treadmill or going for a jog.  Instead, get a couple of free weights, resistance bands or dumbbells and do some strength training exercises for 30 minutes.  Research shows that even strength training can improve cardiovascular fitness as well. [1]

2.  Have you ever had trouble moving a patient from their bed, lifting them up from a seat or assisting them down the hallway or to the bathroom?   Read more…

For a dollar a month, Indian gooseberry (amla) powder may work as well as a leading diabetes drug without the side effects. Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/amla-versus-diabetes/ and I’ll try to answer it!  Also, please check out my associated blog post on amla and cholesterol. Read more…