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Archives for June 2014

5 Reasons to Drink Coffee before Working Out

June 30, 2014 By Monica Hughes

Coffee is a part of millions of people’s morning routines. Working out is also something that people strive for in the morning. If you would combine the two and have a cup of Joe before a morning exercise, you could have a weight loss advantage.

Caffeine can offer plenty of benefits to your workouts as it is its own superfood. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages for coffee before working out.

Improved Circulation – Recent studies in Japan discovered that drinking a 5 once cup of coffee experienced a 30 percent increase in blood flow for over an hour. It goes without being said, the better the blood flow, the more oxygen for your workouts.

Decreased Pain – Studies at the university of Illinois observed those who consumed two to three cups of coffee an hour before a high-intensity workout. During the workout, they experienced a reduced amount of perceived muscle pain and they were able to push a little bit harder to get better results in muscle strength and endurance.

Improved Memory – Research shows that drinking caffeine improves long term memory for up to 24 hours.

Muscle Preservation – Caffeine also helps to reduce the loss muscle strength in aging. Major effects were found in the protection of the diaphragm and skeletal muscle.

Fuel for Muscles – Drinking coffee along with eating carbs gives more endurance than just carbs alone. Having both will raise levels of glycogen, energy stored for strength moves and endurance during a workout, up to 66 percent.

Remember, it is important not to overdo it. The recommended amount of caffeine for enhancing performance is about 6 mg per kg of body weight, or about a 16 ounce cup of coffee for a 150lb woman. Try to incorporate it in healthier ways than just adding creamer and sugar by adding almond milk or blending it into a smoothie. Keep a steady, regular intake so that your body adjusts and don’t forget that water should always be the main drink of the day.

See original story at foxnews.com

Woman Sets Out to Ban Surrogacy

June 28, 2014 By Monica Hughes

Jennifer Lahl has become the voice against the process of surrogacy; a procedure where women lend their wombs to couples who can’t conceive on their own. Lahl expounds on the issues of third-party reproduction in her new documentary, “Breeders: A Sub-Class of Women.” She focuses her argument against the child having no choice over immediately being separated from the biological mother, and that the woman who is to carry the child is really being exploited.

Other than certain states having rules regulating the process, there is no direct law stating it to be illegal. Should the choice of surrogacy be taken away from the people who cannot have their own biological children?

See full article abcnews.com

Technology’s All Encompassing Health Effects

June 27, 2014 By Monica Hughes

Since the invention of the wheel, technology has always and will always have an effect on humanity’s livelihood. In this day and age, we can’t imagine the world without it. Information from all over the world is ready to download into personal files at the touch of a button, making the world accustomed to moving and living that much faster.

To say that we could somehow live without technology would feel like telling some sort of fairytale. We can hardly go a day without using some type of advanced technological equipment, whether it is the latest iPhone model or a hairdryer. It’s just how our lives are. Our tools affect us in more ways than making human existence easier. Our physical and mental health is affected by the daily uses of technology.

Physical Health

I am sure that many people have been told at some point in their lives that using this or that device will cause you to go deaf, blind, get carpel tunnel or some other horrible injury to your body. Are there any of these rumors really true? Not really, but there are a few. Let’s take a look at some of the possible risks of affecting your body while using technology.

“Turn that down, you’ll hurt your eardrums” is probably the phrase that we hear most often. It might be wise to listen to their advice. Listening to anything higher than 85 decibels with ear buds in could damage the small hair follicles in the inner ear which cannot be replaced. If too much damage is done, permanent hearing loss could occur.

Damaging your eyes from using something like a computer or tablet is a different matter. You really can’t go blind from staring at a screen all day. True, your eyes may become tired or irritated after a full day of work, but that’s not permanent damage. It is called computer vision syndrome and it is usually triggered by not blinking and not taking focusing breaks leading to dry, burning eyes.

Texting or typing is one of those things that ‘everyone’ is doing now. I remember when I bought my first cell phone and started texting, my grandma told me to be careful that I don’t get carpel tunnel. There is no reason to worry about that. It’s just a myth. My fingers could obviously get stiff or sore from over typing or texting, but carpel tunnel is something completely different.

Using devices the wrong way could end up affecting other parts of your body, but these risks are easily avoidable. For example, if you own a tablet and place it frequently on your lap, you could hurt your neck muscles over time by bending your neck down so often. This is easily fixed by propping it somewhere and letting your neck remain in a neutral position. There is also a risk of a lap top being hurtful to the reproductive health in a man. Leaving the device on your lap for extended periods releases excess heat and radio-frequency electromagnetic waves which could compromise sperm quality and mobility. Avoid this by putting a cooling device under it or moving to a different surface.

Mental/Social Health

Using a laptop, cell phone or iPad late at night might cause more problems than not, starting with messed up sleep cycles. Staring at a bright screen before you turn in for the night would throw off your mind’s ability to normalize your sleep patterns, and could eventually cause sleep disorders.

With all of the use of social media on phones and computers now, more social and mental issues have been emerging from the use of the technology. Studies have shown a link between those who constantly use their cell phones and their reports of depression or anxiety. Other studies have shown that those who abuse technology have enough time with their devices to trigger the addiction-oriented parts of the brain.

Obsessively using gadgets possibly leads to other real problems. There is a real fear now in users described as “Fear of Missing Out” or FOMO. People feel the pressure of society to attend every event, share every experience and read every posted update. Isolation, insecurity, and anxiety are all related to the fear of “not being there” while it happens. Sure, having the ability to connect with anyone at all times has its benefits, but we must also remember that there could be very real social and mental side effects.

What about the future?

Technological advances have reached nearly every aspect of living in a big way except for medical advancements. Giant leaps in communication, business, home improvement, and even entertainment have brought about a society that people used to fantasize over in literature. It’s now the medical field’s turn to change the way we look at things like our health and systems of diagnosis.

The digital age has now made it possible for digitizing humans using wireless biosensors. We can now continuously monitor every body function. We can image any part of the body and form a three-dimensional reconstruction to eventually be able to print an organ. Miniature hand held devices can capture critical information anywhere including someone’s genome sequencing. Devices will be able to diagnose and treat patients at an individual level instead of the current method using the whole population. Information can be updated continuously and early indicators can present possible diseases before they even begin. How much better would you feel if you knew a loved one could have an impeding heart attack or stroke and had the time to prevent or treat the problem?

Possibilities of substantial growth in medicine and hospital procedures are endless. Eventually our sci-fi stories could become reality even more dramatically than we already know. Hopefully, it will all be for the better of us all.

Schrödinger’s Cigarette: Is Electronic Safer?

June 25, 2014 By Monica Hughes

It can safely be said that the majority of people know that smoking will have eventual negative consequences. The media along with all of the cigarette reports have made that fact quite certain in the public eye. Many times though, people simply don’t want to give up the feeling that they get from the ritual of lighting up, flicking the ash and breathing in the effects of the nicotine.

The tobacco industry has worked hard to try and come up with a safer alternative to the cigarette, but products like chewing tobacco have not quite met the mark. So far the electronic cigarette, or e-cig, has come the closest. With new innovative designs and flavors, the e-cig could be the healthier alternative to actually lighting up. However, not enough information has been gathered to make a substantial claim for them being safer and in a few years, their elite image could be ruined.

See full story at theatlantic.com

Cheating Death through “Suspended Animation”

June 23, 2014 By Monica Hughes

Anyone who understands anything about an ER knows that time is the most precious commodity in saving someone’s life. Doctors and surgeons literally race against the clock to get severely injured patients onto the operating table and hooked up to life support machines. If the patient bleeds out too quickly, the heart will likely stop and leave less than a ten percent chance of survival. If only there was a way to slow down time in order to save them.

A new clinical trial at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Samuel Tisherman is experimenting with a new procedure called induced hypothermia. This method will cool down a patient’s body to about 50 to 55 degrees to slow down cell activity and place the patient in a type of limbo or ‘suspended animation.’ The new process could give doctors up to 45 minutes of extra time that they would not have if a body was kept at normal temperatures.

See full story at cnn.com

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