Coupling Keeps Your Heart Healthy
Coupling has cardiological, as well as emotional benefits. Moreover, breakups can strain, or literally break your heart.
Heart Disease Related Deaths May Increase
Coronary artery disease cases were decreasing during the last decades, but the cases have started increasing.
Cure For Type 1 Diabetes Found
New treatment gives hope of cure to type 1 diabetes patients.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Top Five Diseases Associated With Being Overweight
The obesity epidemic is on everyone's mind lately, as it should, given that the number of people battling the bulge has doubled in the last 30 years. Unfortunately, most of us are more concerned with how those extra pounds make us look instead of what those extra pounds are doing to the health of our bodies. In fact, scientists are consistently discovering new facts linking obesity to many different health problems.Generally speaking, men whose waist circumference exceeds 40 inches, and women whose waist circumference exceeds 36 inches are at increased risk of getting these diseases:
Heart Disease and Stroke
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a symptom of developing heart disease, and is a risk factor for having a stroke. One-third to one-half of all individuals with high blood pressure are overweight. Your Blood pressure rises as you gain weight, and usually begins to drop as you start losing weight. Once you reach the ideal weight for you height, your blood pressure usually stabilizes at a normal range..
Breast, Endometrial, Gallbladder and Colon Cancer
Post menopausal women who are obese have a 50% higher risk of getting breast cancer, and obese men have a 40% higher risk of colon cancer. Men and women have five times the risk of getting endometrial or gallbladder cancer if they are obese. Most recent research is beginning to indicate a higher risk of kidney, pancreas, rectum, esophagus, and liver cancer also.
Type 2 Diabetes
Although the exact mechanism behind it is not yet known, it is known that over 80% of patients with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Reduce your risk of this chronic illness, which can cause blindness, amputation, kidney and nerve disease, by walking at least 30 minutes everyday. Daily exercise has been proven to decrease the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
Osteoarthritis
The most common form of joint disease in the United States (with over 21 million people suffering), osteoarthritis is a major cause of disability in people over 55. Obesity is one of the top ten causes of osteoarthritis, and makes healing more difficult should joint replacement surgery be required.
Sleep Apnea and Respiratory Problems
Sleep apnea (also known as obstructive sleep apnea) is a diagnosis that within the last 10 years has been link to obesity or being overweight. In the past, many patients who snored loudly and stopped breathing during the night were simply considered to have nasal irregularities. It has been shown that many of these actually have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea and are therefore at a higher risk of stroke, heart disease, insomnia and mood disorders. They also usually have high blood pressure. Most people diagnosed with sleep apnea are overweight, and in many cases, losing weight reverses the condition.
Unfortunately, knowing about the risks of being overweight may give impetus to the decision to lose weight, but it does not make losing weight any easier. There is good news though; research shows that losing just 10% of your body weight reduces the risk of these diseases significantly. So whether you are 20 pounds overweight or 100 pounds, losing just 10% of your total body weight is enough to decrease the risk of these top five diseases. Keep that 10% goal in mind for whenever you begin to feel discouraged about how slowly the pounds are coming off. In the end, it is not what you look like that counts, it is how healthy you are, and it only takes a 10% weight loss to significantly increase the odds your future will be a healthier one.
Kerry-Ann Matthews successfully lost 75 pounds three years ago and still maintains it.During her four years of post secondary studies, she focused on health, nutrition and healthy weightloss.For free information on a guaranteed way to lose weight visit http://www.deliciousdieting.com
Heart Disease and Stroke
Hypertension (high blood pressure) is a symptom of developing heart disease, and is a risk factor for having a stroke. One-third to one-half of all individuals with high blood pressure are overweight. Your Blood pressure rises as you gain weight, and usually begins to drop as you start losing weight. Once you reach the ideal weight for you height, your blood pressure usually stabilizes at a normal range..
Breast, Endometrial, Gallbladder and Colon Cancer
Post menopausal women who are obese have a 50% higher risk of getting breast cancer, and obese men have a 40% higher risk of colon cancer. Men and women have five times the risk of getting endometrial or gallbladder cancer if they are obese. Most recent research is beginning to indicate a higher risk of kidney, pancreas, rectum, esophagus, and liver cancer also.
Type 2 Diabetes
Although the exact mechanism behind it is not yet known, it is known that over 80% of patients with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Reduce your risk of this chronic illness, which can cause blindness, amputation, kidney and nerve disease, by walking at least 30 minutes everyday. Daily exercise has been proven to decrease the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
Osteoarthritis
The most common form of joint disease in the United States (with over 21 million people suffering), osteoarthritis is a major cause of disability in people over 55. Obesity is one of the top ten causes of osteoarthritis, and makes healing more difficult should joint replacement surgery be required.
Sleep Apnea and Respiratory Problems
Sleep apnea (also known as obstructive sleep apnea) is a diagnosis that within the last 10 years has been link to obesity or being overweight. In the past, many patients who snored loudly and stopped breathing during the night were simply considered to have nasal irregularities. It has been shown that many of these actually have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea and are therefore at a higher risk of stroke, heart disease, insomnia and mood disorders. They also usually have high blood pressure. Most people diagnosed with sleep apnea are overweight, and in many cases, losing weight reverses the condition.
Unfortunately, knowing about the risks of being overweight may give impetus to the decision to lose weight, but it does not make losing weight any easier. There is good news though; research shows that losing just 10% of your body weight reduces the risk of these diseases significantly. So whether you are 20 pounds overweight or 100 pounds, losing just 10% of your total body weight is enough to decrease the risk of these top five diseases. Keep that 10% goal in mind for whenever you begin to feel discouraged about how slowly the pounds are coming off. In the end, it is not what you look like that counts, it is how healthy you are, and it only takes a 10% weight loss to significantly increase the odds your future will be a healthier one.
Kerry-Ann Matthews successfully lost 75 pounds three years ago and still maintains it.During her four years of post secondary studies, she focused on health, nutrition and healthy weightloss.For free information on a guaranteed way to lose weight visit http://www.deliciousdieting.com
Dealing With Compulsive Disorders
A definition of what compulsion means is usually worded in the
following kind of way: A psychological and usually irrational
force that makes somebody do something, often unwillingly.
These "irrational forces" are, in the case of compulsive
disorders, caused by repetitive thoughts, or mental activity.
This is an important factor in understanding and beginning to
alter the way that the person with the compulsion represents the
problem to themselves. By understanding that the irrational
force is caused by the persons own thoughts and activities, we
begin to move the problem away from some outside force that is
making them do something, and towards understanding that the
problem is something that is caused by themselves. They may not
yet feel as if they are in control of their own thoughts because
they have got into such an automatic pattern with their thinking
that it is occurring as if they have no control of it. And it
absolutely will feel that way. After all, whose thoughts are
they? In whose head? Whose mind is that? Who is the only one
listening to those thought? If there is no one else in your
head, they must be your own thoughts! And this is a great thing
to acknowledge because it means that accepting responsibility
for those thought puts the "thinker" back in control so that
they have a much greater potential to create changes.
The first thing I would explore with a compulsive client is
what Complex Equivalence exists in their mind about this
problem. What does this problem mean? What is it trying to
achieve? What does it allow them to do? What do they believe
would happen if they stopped this behaviour? Quite often fear is
a big driver of the compulsive behaviour, and frequently the
fear exists to keep the person safe. When you know what this
problem means, its truth and validity can be explored. Quite
often there is no logical link between the behaviour / thoughts
and the "reasons" why it is occurring. For example, one lady I
met felt compelled to check the locks on her car (to the degree
that she had to have new ones fitted every 6 months) and her
greatest fear was linked to the safety of her father after he
had nearly died. The was no obvious link between her father's
incident and the repeated behaviour of locking her car. Knowing
this didn't make the problem stop, but it did encourage her to
question the validity of the problem which had felt like a very
solid problem before she had thought about it in this way.
The next step can be taken if you believe that the client's
problem may be related to a significant emotional event. A
values elicitation can be very worthwhile for discovering what
"away from" values exist in their values hierarchy and can help
uncover SEE's that the client might not have consciously
realised were still having a negative impact.
As well as, or instead of this, I would use the fast phobia
technique. The fast phobia technique doesn't have to be
restricted to phobias only. It is a process which is very useful
at desensitising the negative emotions that occur when trigger
by stimuli so that the person can be around the stimuli without
feeling negative emotions. This means there is the opportunity
to be around things that used to make them feel a compulsion and
no longer feel it.
The compulsion blowout method can be used to demolish the
submodalities associated to the stimuli. Submodalities are the
codes that we use to make meaning of our experiences and
memories. When these are adjusted, the memory / experience will
no longer work in the same way as it did in the past.
There is of course a lot of room for manouver, as a therapist I
am flexible in my approach and will adjust techniques that I
already know if I think there is a way of having them work in a
more appropriate way for that specific client. Other techniques
I have used have included advising the client that they can do
as much as they like of one compulsion, but have to trade off
another. This works really well for multiple compulsions as the
list slowly whittles down until there is just one compulsion to
deal with. By this time they have also built up confidence in
their own abilities.
A friend once told me that he felt compulsed to run indoors
whenever a helicopter flew overhead. He was not too sure where
this fear had come from or why. One day he was picnic in a large
open field with his girlfriend. A helicopter flew overhead and
there was nowhere to run to. His fear occurred and he had to sit
through it, and as a result of doing so realised that actually
he was o.k. His fear was pushed beyond its threshold and as a
result ceased to exist in that context any longer.
Obviously the best course of therapy may not be to use the
"going beyond the threshold" technique but it is certainly a
good idea to test the reaction to the stimuli once some work has
been done so that the client is able to confirm their level of
improvement.
About The Author: Gemma Bailey is a hypnotherapist, NLP Master
practitioner and Life Coach based in Markyate, St Albans. Visit
http://www.gemmabailey.co.uk for more information.
following kind of way: A psychological and usually irrational
force that makes somebody do something, often unwillingly.
These "irrational forces" are, in the case of compulsive
disorders, caused by repetitive thoughts, or mental activity.
This is an important factor in understanding and beginning to
alter the way that the person with the compulsion represents the
problem to themselves. By understanding that the irrational
force is caused by the persons own thoughts and activities, we
begin to move the problem away from some outside force that is
making them do something, and towards understanding that the
problem is something that is caused by themselves. They may not
yet feel as if they are in control of their own thoughts because
they have got into such an automatic pattern with their thinking
that it is occurring as if they have no control of it. And it
absolutely will feel that way. After all, whose thoughts are
they? In whose head? Whose mind is that? Who is the only one
listening to those thought? If there is no one else in your
head, they must be your own thoughts! And this is a great thing
to acknowledge because it means that accepting responsibility
for those thought puts the "thinker" back in control so that
they have a much greater potential to create changes.
The first thing I would explore with a compulsive client is
what Complex Equivalence exists in their mind about this
problem. What does this problem mean? What is it trying to
achieve? What does it allow them to do? What do they believe
would happen if they stopped this behaviour? Quite often fear is
a big driver of the compulsive behaviour, and frequently the
fear exists to keep the person safe. When you know what this
problem means, its truth and validity can be explored. Quite
often there is no logical link between the behaviour / thoughts
and the "reasons" why it is occurring. For example, one lady I
met felt compelled to check the locks on her car (to the degree
that she had to have new ones fitted every 6 months) and her
greatest fear was linked to the safety of her father after he
had nearly died. The was no obvious link between her father's
incident and the repeated behaviour of locking her car. Knowing
this didn't make the problem stop, but it did encourage her to
question the validity of the problem which had felt like a very
solid problem before she had thought about it in this way.
The next step can be taken if you believe that the client's
problem may be related to a significant emotional event. A
values elicitation can be very worthwhile for discovering what
"away from" values exist in their values hierarchy and can help
uncover SEE's that the client might not have consciously
realised were still having a negative impact.
As well as, or instead of this, I would use the fast phobia
technique. The fast phobia technique doesn't have to be
restricted to phobias only. It is a process which is very useful
at desensitising the negative emotions that occur when trigger
by stimuli so that the person can be around the stimuli without
feeling negative emotions. This means there is the opportunity
to be around things that used to make them feel a compulsion and
no longer feel it.
The compulsion blowout method can be used to demolish the
submodalities associated to the stimuli. Submodalities are the
codes that we use to make meaning of our experiences and
memories. When these are adjusted, the memory / experience will
no longer work in the same way as it did in the past.
There is of course a lot of room for manouver, as a therapist I
am flexible in my approach and will adjust techniques that I
already know if I think there is a way of having them work in a
more appropriate way for that specific client. Other techniques
I have used have included advising the client that they can do
as much as they like of one compulsion, but have to trade off
another. This works really well for multiple compulsions as the
list slowly whittles down until there is just one compulsion to
deal with. By this time they have also built up confidence in
their own abilities.
A friend once told me that he felt compulsed to run indoors
whenever a helicopter flew overhead. He was not too sure where
this fear had come from or why. One day he was picnic in a large
open field with his girlfriend. A helicopter flew overhead and
there was nowhere to run to. His fear occurred and he had to sit
through it, and as a result of doing so realised that actually
he was o.k. His fear was pushed beyond its threshold and as a
result ceased to exist in that context any longer.
Obviously the best course of therapy may not be to use the
"going beyond the threshold" technique but it is certainly a
good idea to test the reaction to the stimuli once some work has
been done so that the client is able to confirm their level of
improvement.
About The Author: Gemma Bailey is a hypnotherapist, NLP Master
practitioner and Life Coach based in Markyate, St Albans. Visit
http://www.gemmabai
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