Stretching Tips - Free eBook

This free ebook is filled with tips, tricks and tactics to help you stretch properly so you get the most out of your time spent stretching!

If you stretch properly before and after a session at the gym, you will decrease your chances of serious injury and avoid soreness and pain. Stretching is not an activity meant to to cause pain: its whole purpose is to avoid pain. 

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Dopamine Part 2 - How Does Dopamine Affect Us?

Aging Leads to Obesity

Just as lower brain energy affects the rest of the body, the rest of the aging body affects brain energy. Before you start any diet regimen, get a full checkup to see if there are other possible contributing factors to your weight gain. Medications, including some that are prescribed for depression and epilepsy, can increase appetite, so be sure to ask your physician if your weight gain is a side effect from any medication you may be taking.

Cardiopause/vasculopause:

Changes in blood flow affect the brain, which results in a reduced metabolic rate. 

The immune system:

The loss of immunity causes increased infection, which challenges the brain and results in brain trauma. Once the brain is injured, it craves carbohydrates. While you are experiencing these cravings, it is difficult to manage food selections properly. The loss of thyroid hormone can also alter your metabolic rate. 

Male aging sexuality:

The loss of testosterone results first in abdominal obesity and then in total body obesity as muscle turns to fat. 

Female aging sexuality:

The loss of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone results in roughly 10 pounds of weight gain per decade beginning at about age 30. 

Muscular skeletal aging:

The loss of growth hormone results in a decreased ability of the body to convert fat to muscle, the loss of muscle and bone, and the loss of physical strength. The loss of control of the parathyroid hormone bursting results in an increase of parathyroid hormone throughout the body and a loss in calcitonin, which can affect bone density, which can alter food selection. Remember, frail bones, frail brain, frail body, and frail life. When we are in a malnourished state, we crave unhealthy, calorie-dense foods such as french fries, potato chips, sweets, and pasta. Changes in bone density also impact overall health and emotional stress; when we become frail and feeble, we lose motivation for a healthy lifestyle and begin to make bad food choices.

Metabolic Syndrome

A common illness related to obesity is metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms including impaired insulin sensitivity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and a large waist size. It’s amazing how the medical community talks about metabolic syndrome without connecting it to the aging body. Once you unlock the power of the AgePrint, you will understand that metabolic syndrome is a brain chemical disorder of dopamine.

A recent study found that when overweight patients with metabolic syndrome were put on diets similar to the one we recommend, the results were remarkable. These diets were designed to give participants 500 fewer calories than their daily caloric need while increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains and reducing consumption of red meat, sweets, and refined grains. During the study, the participants had higher HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), lower triglycerides, lower blood pressure, greater weight loss, and more improved fasting glucose than those not on the diet.

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Facts About Dehydrated Skin - Part 1

Today, millions of people lay claim to having dry skin. And there are certainly thousands of skin care products formulated and marketed especially for dry skin. Yet, as a genetic skin type, dry skin by itself doesn’t exist. What does exist is the skin condition of dehydrated skin. If you are an oil-dry skin type, you may or may not be dehydrated. Anyone with any skin type can have dehydrated skin. Your skin feels dry and tight. When you smile, it seems like your face cracks. Your skin tone has changed from bright and clear to ashen and dull. It’s likely that your skin is dehydrated. Unfortunately, none of the dry-skin moisturizers and treatments alone can correct dehydrated skin. They can only help. Correcting dehydrated skin requires you to change your environment and make lifestyle changes.

Dehydrated skin is dry to the touch and it may itch. You might have flaky patches and rough spots, and you might see blotchy patches when you look in the mirror. Your skin tone lacks vibrancy and radiance. If your skin remains dehydrated for too long, keratinization can occur. The dead skin cells build up on the surface of your skin until they coat it, making it nearly impossible for moisturizer to reach your skin. Your skin gets more dehydrated. With keratinization come congestion and breakouts. Your skin is crying out for moisture. The good news is that dehydration is only a temporary condition, no matter what your age. Your skin can quickly rehydrate and can start to function as healthy skin once again

Moisture Deprivation
To solve the problem of dehydration, you first need to know what’s causing it. Something, perhaps several things, in your environment, health situation, or lifestyle is making your skin dry. Some of the causes listed here are simple to correct, and some take more effort.

• You need to drink at least eight glasses, or 64 ounces, of water every day. This is in addition to other beverages you drink during the day, such as tea, coffee, or juice. You may want to eliminate these other beverages entirely, as these beverages can further dehydrate your skin and contribute to other skin conditions, such as acne.
• These systems keep the atmosphere dry, which removes moisture from your skin. Use room humidifiers to keep air moist. If you can afford it, install a humidifier on your home furnace. The cost starts at about $350.00 and goes up from there. If you use room humidifiers, make sure you clean them every week so that mold and fungus don’t grow in them. Circulating moist mold and fungus in the air can createeven more health problems.
• You can’t make the air outside more humid, but you can use humidifiers indoors. Fill a pottery crock with water and place several around your house. Refill when the water has evaporated.
• Overuse of exfoliants dries out skin, making it rough and red. Use your exfoliant less frequently. Use a very light touch with scrub exfoliants, and only use the kind with polyurethane beads or cornmeal.
• Overuse of topical prescription medications for skin, such as Retin-A, benzoyl peroxide, or hydroquinone. They can make skin dry, red, and inflamed. Cut back on use to every other day or every third day until your skin normalizes and redness is healed.

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Dopamine Part 1 - How Does Dopamine Affect Us?

Brain power is the fire that keeps your mind alive, awake, alert, and aware. However, when your brain is not producing enough dopamine, brainpower diminishes and you spiral down into a low-energy state. Without the brainpower that dopamine provides, you’ll notice that your body begins to slow down in every imaginable way. At first, you might feel fatigue, look pale, or even experience light- headedness. Then more complicated symptoms arrive, including a decreased libido, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, and difficulty performing the most routine tasks. You may also experience a decreased level of energy for physical activity or even self-destructive thoughts. Feeling tired all day is often too much to bear. Fatigue is a serious medical problem and a huge age accelerator. We seem to know this inherently because when we feel tired, we tend to respond; to compensate for a loss of energy, we unknowingly find ourselves self-medicating with food. Your brain and body begin to crave the energy they lack, and you become attracted to foods that will offer a similar energy rush, namely sugary foods, simple carbohydrates, and caffeine. Before you know it, you’ve gained weight and are literally addicted to these junk foods; without them, you will feel the symptoms of withdrawal. And each time you turn to them, you’ll need larger quantities to keep your energy and dopamine levels high.

Fatigue

The fact is a simple one: as you age, you will feel tired. Your dopamine production slows, your metabolism decreases, and you lose energy. Feeding your energy need with food only slows you down more. When fatigue is combined with illness and general aging, you have a recipe for disaster. The good news is that your energy can be restored so you won’t feel as tired.

Low Dopamine Levels

Low dopamine levels affect every pause in your body. This is one of the most powerful age accelerators, sending a code to the rest of the systems in your body that it’s time to stop functioning. Lack of dopamine can cause a cascade of poor health in every part of your body. The following pauses may be triggered by conditions that result from a dopamine deficiency:

Cardiopause:

The aging heart affects the rhythm of your heart by disrupting its electrical signals. The weight gain and fatigue that result because of a lack of dopamine raises your blood pressure, causing strain on the heart as it has to work harder than it used to. What’s more, poor food choices because of this lack of dopamine can lead to fatigue, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, further affecting the vascular system by clogging blood vessels all over your body, leading to plaque and blockages, and stroke.

Immunopause:

The immune system is like the sanitation engineers of the body, going around and cleaning up the garbage that makes you sick. When it’s compromised by excess weight caused by a lack of dopamine, it loses the ability to do this job properly. This is where all the diseases start: sinusitis, arthritis, dermatitis, to name a few. The excess fat interferes with the immune system’s ability to fight viruses and bacteria and to recognize and regulate our own cell overgrowth. Our bodies are constantly making precancerous cells that we have to control as we try to grow and repair. Obesity also accelerates every form of cancer in every organ, be it your brain, bladder, prostate, ovaries, colon, lungs, or thyroid.

Menopause:

A lack of dopamine might actually accelerate the onset of menopause so that heavier women may begin menopause earlier. Remember, hormonal loss is a major age accelerator, so early menopause would begin a second cascade of spiraling health as well as the more recognizable symptoms and conditions. For example, you may experience either hair loss or increased hair growth, often in unsightly spots, particularly the face. Excessive weight gain, fatigue, disturbed sleep cycles, depression, anxiety, and addiction can each cause a loss of sexual interest and feelings of low self-worth. All this is a result of a dopamine deficiency. Early menopause may also occur in women who are too thin.

Andropause:

For men, obesity resulting from a lack of dopamine can make detecting prostate cancer more difficult and results in a faster loss of genital size, sexual dysfunctions of all types, and loss of libido.

Osteopause:

Fat seeps into your bones during the development of osteoporosis, replacing normal bone. As a result of obesity, your bone structure thickens, making it all the more difficult to lose weight. Your skeletal structure was not meant to hold excess weight, and without a proper level of dopamine, you’ll feel the pain this burden causes on your back, knees, and hips, accelerating arthritis.

Dermatopause:

An increased size literally stretches your skin, damaging its texture. As anyone who has gained and lost weight knows, stretch marks are a constant reminder of your once larger size. Couple obesity with smoking, and dry skin and even psoriasis often show the world that your dopamine voltage is off.

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Sleep and Sleep Disorders Part 3 - Function of sleep

What does sleep loss do to our bodies? Our immune system becomes less efficient and productive with reduced sleep. Our ability to fight off infection under increased stress levels can become compromised.

For instance, increased reports of cold- and flu-like symptoms are reported at college health clinics in response to surveys about high stress-response levels (commonly presented as sleep loss). It is during deep (Stage 4) sleep when our immune system regenerates. Stage 4 sleep is also the time when growth hormone (the hormone responsible for growth and metabolism) is released, thus implicating the importance of a good night’s sleep for children.
 
Problems caused by sleepiness
The biological systems of our body follow a natural rhythm of activity and rest. Many of these cycles are activated during the stages of sleep, usually deep sleep (Stages 3 and 4) or dream (REM) sleep. Overall, all cycles follow an approximate 24-hour schedule. When an individual’s 24-hour schedule becomes skewed or altered due to work, travel, or personal habits, the timing of the sleep in terms of bedtime and wake time is offset. For instance, when traveling across time zones, we will experience a change in our sleep schedule. This change may present as either a delay (sleep occurs at a later time) or advancement (sleep occurs at an earlier time) in our sleep time. Last, our natural drive for sleep is strongest during the day and nighttime between the hours of 1:00 and 4:00. This feeling of sleepiness that occurs during the hours between 1:00   P.M.   and 4:00 P.M. is often misinterpreted as sleepiness resulting from having lunch. Taken together, problem sleepiness occurs if we alter our schedule of activity and sleep at a time when the drive for sleepiness is the strongest. Treatment efforts address this change or desynchronization of our normal wake-sleep rhythms by scheduling naps, implementing light physical activity to the schedule and utilizinglight therapy at varying times during the day to promote either sleepiness or wakefulness.
 
What does sleepness mean?
We are generally aware of our level and ratings of sleepiness.  We are all familiar with stories of businesspeople traveling and  staying up late to prepare for a big presentation. Or there is the  scenario of young adults and teens altering their sleep schedules  with in-house socializing (e.g., instant messaging) by staying up into the late hours of the night. Additional examples include patients who are recovering from medical procedures who may easily awaken from experiencing pain or restlessly shifting positions  while dipping in and out of sleep during the night. In each of these  scenarios, poor sleep is experienced, and if these sleep patterns remain unabated, the individual is at risk for mood alterations and  performance and health consequences.  A mounting sleep debt, regardless of the process that triggered it, has the same result: decreased performance efficiency, mood instability, and poor health and disease and disorder formation. Our defensive response to the challenges we face with poor sleep is weakened and remains that way. Poor sleep, especially when continuously experienced, lowers the immune system response. Couple poor sleep with exposure to environmental toxins, disease and infection exposure, and/or mental or physical stress, and we may see how the immune system can significantly be lowered.  It could be argued that the most common signs of sleepiness are not just ignored; rather, we do not know how to detect these signs. These signs are commonly reported as feeling the need to close the eyes, experiencing sensations of relaxed muscles, reduction in breathing (it starts to slow down), restless legs, and feeling chilled. Ultimately, daytime sleepiness is the consequence of poor, short sleep.

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Sleep and Sleep Disorders Part 2 - Understanding Sleep

This is the second part of Sleep and Sleep Disorders

Understanding Sleep

Sleep is considered now to be an  active state of being; the mind is a 24-hour mind, and it does stop  working, a surprising fact of which we often are not aware. We spend roughly one-third of our lives sleeping in this active state. Although the specific function of sleep still eludes researchers, many substantiated theories point to the necessity of good-quality  sleep to our existence and overall well-being.  Different brain cell chemicals and neurotransmitters regulate  our sleep-wake states by acting on a variety of cells in the brain. Sleep-wake functioning is analogous to a light switch with on and off features. A type of switch setting systematically turns on sleep,  including turning on different types of sleep, and systematically turns off each sleep stage correspondingly. This switch setting easily explains how our sleep progresses from light sleep to deep sleep and then transcends to dream, or REM, sleep. The neurochemical signaling begins when we fall asleep. An exact sleep chemical is still considered to be controversial, yet a number of studies suggest adenosine, which is a nucleoside, binds to cells and causes a cascade of events that promote drowsiness.

Adenosine levels in the blood increase during waking hours and have a cumulative effect throughout the day, causing drowsiness.  During sleep, adenosine levels decline, promoting wakefulness toward the end of the nocturnal period. The cycle begins again once we are awake. It is not surprising that stimulants such as caffeine cause wakefulness because caffeine competes for the same receptors to which adenosine binds. If more receptors have caffeine bound to them, sleepiness is less likely to happen.

 

Sleep Stages

Sleep architecture refers to the various stages in the sleep-wake cycle, typically defined by a brainwave (EEG) recording. In healthy individuals without sleep problems, these stages occur in a regular pattern throughout a 24-hour period. Sleep is of two types, dream or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that occurs every 1.5 hours throughout the sleep interval, or 18 percent to 25 percent of the  sleep period. 7,8 REM periods vary from a number of minutes to an  hour or more. REM sleep has a characteristic physiological pattern distinguished by the lateral saccadic (left to right) rhythm of the  eyes, absence of muscle movement (atonia), and heightened cardiovascular arousal.

Non-REM (NREM) sleep occupies a greater portion of the sleep period. NREM is further subdivided into stages 1, 2, 3, and 4, with corresponding physiological activity to each.

Stage 1 is considered light sleep and is estimated to be approximately 5 percent of the sleep period.

Stage 2 sleep is about 60 percent of the sleep interval and is considered formally to be sleep.

Stages 3 and 4 sleep are often collapsed together and are classified as deep sleep, a physiological event characterized by slow brain wave patterns and increased immune system activity. Non-REM makes up approximately 10 percent to 15 percent of the sleep period. A night of sleep is characterized as a predicted pattern beginning with the initiation of sleep onset (Stage 1) and progression to Stages 2, 3, and 4. Within 90 minutes after sleep onset, the first REM episode (generally four to five REM episodes per night) occurs. Following this sleep period, the cycle repeats itself, with at least four cycles of sleep per night. An excess or deficit in the amount of a type of sleep (e.g.,no REM), a misordering of the timing of sleep (e.g., sleep begins with REM), or an intrusion into sleep represent conditions for further study to determine if a sleep disorder exists.

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Benefits of Weight Training for Women

It seems obesity has become an accepted part of life. And, yet, despite this acceptance we see women going to the gym day in and day out and spending quite a bit of their life on the treadmill. While this helps to burn off some of the calories you will be consuming or have consumed during the day, there seems to be a hesitation when it comes to weight lifting and it seems women would choose to spend their time on the treadmill or elliptical machine rather than spend time with resistance training. But why? I believe it’s partially to do with fitness magazines that seem to endorse cardio training as a preference over resistance training. And while some activity is better than no activity, aerobic training cannot beat resistance training for the goals of fat loss, slowing down of the aging process, and combating osteoporosis.

While aerobic exercise is often touted as targeting fat loss, this can be a bit misleading as intensity, duration, and caloric consumption can be changing factors that unless you’re calculating METs, you can get quite wrong on guessing or just believing what the treadmill is telling you in calories burned. What is often not said is how resistance ramps up metabolism and this leads to an overall caloric burn situation in which, depending on intensity and duration, can last up to 48 hours. No amount of treadmill work is going to increase your caloric expenditure in such an intense way. With an increase in metabolism comes a nice boost in energy levels. Resistance training also leads to an increase in muscle tone. An increase in muscle tone is often referred to as ‘toning’ (the term toning is a misnomer).

Osteoporosis is not an uncommon occurrence in the female gender. It is well known but it seems not often said that weight bearing exercise helps to increase the density of bone and helps to stave off osteoporosis. Speaking of staving off age-related issues, growth hormone is released during resistance training. The nice thing about this is growth hormone helps in immune function, helps keep energy levels elevated, and slows the aging process. So while aging may not be our friend, resistance training can fight off some of the negatives of aging.

Having been around women of all ages for most of my life and a good part of my life spent around the subject of diet and exercise, I often hear the concern of hypertrophy (or muscle growth) and that woman are afraid that they will look like a bodybuilder. It should be clarified that women lack the amount of testosterone in their body to make this happen. And for that amount of muscle growth and accumulation to occur takes years and decades of planned training and a very large surplus of calories.

There also seems to be a lot of confusion on intensity. Intensity is defined as the closeness to ones one rep maximum. Obviously heavy lifting is going to be subjective to who is talking about the subject but there is no reason why women need to lift light weights for high repetitions. I think of light weights as those pink and purple dumbbells that seem to be so popular in fitness magazines geared towards women. A good repetition range would be in the 8-12 area. Keep in mind that the muscle does not recognize whether you are lifting a dumbbell, a barbell, a sandbag, or using a machine. And for those women that feel intimidated to venture into the seemingly male-dominated free weight area, machines are a very viable method. Not to mention that when using machines they are nearly fool proof and, for the most part, very safe to use.

A last thought on the pink and purple dumbbells—I find them insulting. I think when we see women in fitness magazines using and endorsing such light weights, it is undermining the strength of women. Unless there is a true physical limitation or a serious under training that keeps the female gender from picking up some chrome dumbbells or pushing something heavier than the first plate on a machine, there is no reason to portray women as not having the strength to get involved in strength training. Progress is the key here and this is only achieved by increasing resistance. I believe women should embrace their inner confidence, get strong, and get lean in the process. I can’t think of any woman that wouldn’t raise their hand if I asked, “Who wants to feel stronger, exude more confidence, and look better?”

I trust you’ll be raising your hand?

Author:

Joshua Morgan

lukofthairish@yahoo.com

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Posted in: Exercise,Fitness,Womens Health