Portrait on the Mantel

Listen up; 30 minutes of of physical activity is not enough for health benefits. We need to be engaged in far more activity to fight heart, stroke and many type of cancer. Additionally, we’ll need to increase our activity annually to maintain weight and to receive continued benefits.

Muscle contractions remove sugar from the bloodstream, without insulin and continue to remove sugar up to an hour after exercise. Therefore the more time you exercise the longer you’ll will protected from  the damaging effects of sugar in the blood.

Muscle get their energy from sugar and fat in the blood system. When you’re resting (sedentary) muscles need insulin for sugar to pass into the cells. But when you’re exercising sugar passes into the cells without insulin.

So as the 70’s slogan said Keep On Trucking and never stop moving, muscle have only one purpose to do work. So don’t stop working those muscle.

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Exercise alone doesn’t lower LDL (bad cholesterol) as much as previously thought. If you want to lower your LDL levels you must change your diet as well.

Additionally, eating eggs do not increase your risk of heart disease. This according to a review of the scientific literature. The notion that eggs contributes to heart disease comes from the fact that eggs are a very concentrated sources of dietary cholesterol. However, all studies are showing that there is not association between eating eggs and cholesterol levels.

Eating eggs will raise cholesterol levels for some Americans, but they will also show elevated cholesterol levels of both good and bad cholesterol.

So what this says is that it’s safe to go back to eating eggs, personally I just reduce the number of yokes I eat. But eggs have always been an excellent source of protein.

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Alcohol reduces heart disease in men, this according to a Spanish study on alcohol consumption. The study revealed that men who drank alcohol daily reduced their risk of developing heart disease by 35%.  Extreme drinking between 3 and 11 shots of hard liquor per day reduced risk of heart disease by 50%.

Women did not experience the same results. It’s believed that women experience a different effect from alcohol because of hormonal differences and how women process alcohol.

Additionally, excessive alcohol consumption contributes to 1.8 million deaths per year or increase risk factors of developing numerous other diseases.

Researchers have long known that alcohol raise HDL (good cholesterol) which prevents LDL (bad cholesterol) from clotting in the arteries. Alcohol is linked to developing cardiomyopathy which is a weakening of the heart’s ability to function adequately.

There you have guys alcohol double edge sword, just remember to drink responsibly.

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Health care reform in the U. S. is useless with reforming the countries food industry. Obesity is and will still be a problem in the U. S. even after a health care reform bill is signed.

The cost the U. S. medical care system $147 billion each year to treat obesity related illnesses. It cost another $116 billion to treat diabetes, 100’s of billion to treat heart disease and billions more to treat many types of cancer caused by eating a western diet. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention 75% of the U. S. medical care dollars are spent to treat diseases linked to diet. Additionally, studies point out that over the past 20 years 30% of the increased in medical care is attributed to the rise in the country’s obesity rate during that time.

Its true exercise will only get us so far, the food we eat need to be re-evaluated.

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4 things you may not have known about eating saturated fats:

1. Eating Saturated fat can improve heart disease and cholesterol; Saturated fat lowers Lp(a) which is associated with increased risk of heart disease and contributes to higher levels of HDL cholesterol which keeps your heart healthy.
2. Prevents loss of bone density and osteoporosis; saturated fat transport calcium to the bones, which is why dairy has both calcium and saturated fat and calcium supplements don’t do the body good without saturated fat in the diet.
3. Strengthen your immune system; saturated fats contains essential fatty acids which are naturally anti fungal, anti microbial and anti viral. This beneficial fats provides the body with needed pathogens.
4. Feeds your brain; the brain consist mostly of fat and cholesterol and needs saturated fat. Omega 3 fatty acids needs saturated fat for its utilization.

It’s important to note that you include good choices of saturated fat like those from organic sources.

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FYI a report in the Inorganic Chemistry detailing the many advancements in the field of solar energy production provides hope for us all. The concept by which people are able to power their own homes using sun energy is showing signs of reality as scientist are improving ways of storing large quantities of solar energy.

This emerging scientific discovering involves splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen that can be stored in fuel cells as fuel. Better even is that the process is proving to be both green and sustainable.

Scientist expect energy usage to triple over the next 100 years as more countries increase their industrialization.They also believe that personal energy production will increase especially in 3rd world countries.

Although currently the cost are still high, long term potential for energy from an unlimited source is invaluable. Hopefully as this new research begin to tease itself out new industries are needed to help solve both the cost issue and help with availability.

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Study’s published in the Arthritis Care & Research are beginning to reveal that when patients are given the option they’re choosing alternative treatments. The article reveals that patients are more willing to take personal responsibility with medical decisions when their doctors give them the opportunity to consider other options.

Shared decision making (SDM) is a term used to describe the doctor patient interaction in which both parties exchange information and decide jointly which course of treatment to take. A relatively recent concept, SDM has been shown in prior studies to help lower the number of high risk treatments given to patients.

The researchers involved goal was to highlight the importance of patient involvement in the decision making process. Rather than doctors simply prescribing a potentially dangerous therapy with no questions asked.

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Researchers shows that a glass of fruit juice contains more calories than a glass of soda. Fruit juices can be high in fructose, a simply sugar linked to obesity due to its quick conversion to fat.

Conversely whole fruit rich in fiber, anti-oxidants and other vital nutrients provides the body with needed nutrition. Where as fruit juices have been stripped of these nutrients during processing.

Although, grape, orange and apple juices do contain small levels of anti-oxidants and polyphenols, which make them better choices than soda. However, due to processing and packaging much of the nutrients are lost by the time the juice reaches our fridge. Additionally, many juices are reconstituted from concentrate, again losing many more vitamins and minerals.

A better option is to squeeze your own juices. Juicing fruits and veggies is a great way to reduce sugar and boost vitamins, minerals, enzymes and nutrients.

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