Benefits of Drinking Alcohol: Alcohol in moderation may extend your life
December 21, 2006
MSNBC has an interesting article on an Italian study on alcoholism.
While the obvious notion of overconsumption of alcohol being detrimental to one’s health is supported, apparently drinking it in moderation can actually extend your lifespan.
A study on over 1 million drinkers and 94,000 deaths yielded the results: “According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of alcohol — up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women — reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine. However, “things radically change” when consumption goes beyond these levels, study leader Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo, from Catholic University of Campobasso, said in a statement. Men who have more than four drinks per day and women who have more than two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, the data indicates.”
The things I do for my health … *hic*
Link to MSNBC article: Want to live longer? Toss back a few cocktails
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What causes headaches? How to avoid and treat an Headache?
December 19, 2006
It’s one in the morning, your ten-page paper is missing ten pages, and your neighbor has the latest N’SYNC hit on repeat. What could make this scenario worse? How about if your head hurts like crazy, so bad that it feels like someone pounded you a couple of times with a baseball bat. Headaches can, at times, make you totally unable to think coherently. Luckily, there are ways both to avoid and treat them.”Nearly all cases of headaches for college-aged people can be classified as tension-induced headaches,” says Jennifer Perrone, MD, a resident in a New York City hospital. It’s not surprising that the number one cause of your headache is stress. Stress from the professor who won’t bump up your grade. Stress from your high-maintenance significant other. Stress from your parents.
There could be other causes of your ill-timed headache, too. If you’re a heavy coffee drinker or ritually down a couple Diet Pepsis a day, you may be more inclined to have late night head pains. Surprisingly, the pains don’t come from too much caffeine, but a lack of it. “If you’re used to having lots of coffee or soda and then you go without any for a day,” Perrone says, “you probably will get some sort of headache as a result.”
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!Meditation for Beginners, benefits of meditation
December 8, 2006
Meditation can bring relaxation, focus, and clarity to your life — just don’t expect it all right away.
For many, the word ‘meditation’ evokes thoughts of inner peace, true wisdom, spiritual enlightenment, and even extra sensory perception. However, my first piece of advice for anyone interested in meditation is to forget all that mystic mumbo jumbo.
Put all such notions completely out of your mind. Instead, think of meditation the same way you think of brushing your teeth: It’s good for you and you should do it at least once a day. The reason behind this line of thinking is simple: Clouding your mind with expectations of the fantastic will only serve to prevent you from truly focusing on the task at hand. Namely, meditating.
The startling and revelatory tooth brushing analogy doesn’t end there. Brushing your teeth is probably one of the few things you do with your full attention and concentration. You don’t brush your teeth while scarfing down breakfast on the way to class, or while you’re Napstering the Bee Gee’s “Saturday Night Fever” (arguably, their finest work).
Your sole concern is polishing those ivories — and if it’s not, it should be. In a very real way, if you’ve ever brushed your teeth like this, you’ve meditated. Mission accomplished! Anytime you do something with single-mindedness, full concentration and participation, you’re meditating.
For anyone interested in meditating without a toothbrush, here’s an exercise to get you started:
1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Bend your knees slightly and shift forward so the balance of your weight falls 40% on your heels and 60% on the balls of your feet.
2. Place your hands, palms flat, on your abdomen. The tips of your thumbs should touch just below your belly button and the tips of your index fingers meet just above your pubic region. Basically, you’re forming a triangle with your thumbs and index fingers that points towards your “fun zone.”
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!Are you drinking enough Water?
December 8, 2006
What do you drink when you get thirsty? In most college dining halls and snack bars, you’re faced with an astounding selection of sodas, juices, and the like. And a lot of them are spiked with caffeine and taste nice and sweet.
Then there’s water. It contains no legal stimulants, and doesn’t come in funky flavors. It seems kinda boring. But when it comes to liquid consumption, water’s the best thing for you.
In fact, water is necessary for survival. “[The human] body is composed of 50 to 60% water, and you need to keep the body’s water balance at that level,” says Jean Bigaouette, a nutritionist in Albany, NY. Every day the body loses water through sweating and breathing, and you need to replace it. By the time you get thirsty, you’re body is crying for more water.
Everybody should aim to take in 64 ounces of fluids each day (that’s eight cups). It’s not as hard as it sounds.
“Have two glasses at each meal and one in between,” Bigaouette suggests. Or try carrying a bottle of water with you at all times, and take a gulp whenever the urge strikes. It’s easy to go through several 16 or 20-ounce bottles in a day.
Whatever your sipping strategy, “spread [water consumption] out over a day, don’t just guzzle it all at once,” Bigaouette says. Your body needs constant water replenishment, and having all 64 ounces in one sitting won’t do much good — and you’ll have to pee pretty bad.
If you need a little inspiration to get all that water into your system, consider everything water does for you.
Advantages of drinking water
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!How to go Meatless and Stay Healthy
December 8, 2006
A vegetarian diet can be healthy and easy — if you do it right.
When you go away to college and leave behind home-cooked meals, there’s no one forcing you to eat a healthy, balanced diet. College dining halls present a challenge for all students, but vegetarians can have a particularly hard time getting all the necessary nutrients while at school, especially with the limited offerings at many slop, er, dining halls.
Vegetarianism can be a very healthy lifestyle choice. Complete vegetarian diets provide all the vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein and fats a person needs, and can be filling without too many calories. They can also be cheaper than diets including meat — an important consideration for poor college students paying for their own food.
Disease prevention is another benefit of vegetarian diets — which generally include less saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein than non-vegetarian diets. Lower incidences of high blood pressure and certain types of cancer have been found in vegetarians.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!What to expect from a trip to the gynecologist
December 8, 2006
A trip to the gynecologist really isn’t so bad. Here’s what to expect.
If you’re a female college student, it’s probably time to see a gynecologist. If you already have, that’s great. If not, consider making an appointment. Most health professionals recommend that women see a gynecologist for an exam when they turn 18 or when they become sexually active — whichever comes first.
A lot of women put off their first visit because they’ve heard horror stories or don’t know what to expect. If you haven’t been to the gynecologist yet, you should go soon so you can get your reproductive organs examined and make sure you don’t have any gynecological problems. If there are any problems, regular gynecological exams will help you detect and take care of them early. Also, if you want to use birth control pills or certain other types of contraception, a gynecological exam is required.
When you make an appointment, let them know if it’s your first exam. If you have any questions, ask. They should tell you not to use vaginal creams or douches or have sex during the 24 hours prior to your exam. And don’t schedule an exam during your period. According to Planned Parenthood, menstrual fluid can affect the results of some lab tests.
Don’t worry — despite what you may have heard, a gynecological exam is not a big deal. It only takes a few minutes and nothing traumatic happens. You do have to take off your clothes, including your bra and underwear. If you feel uncomfortable being alone in the exam room, it’s perfectly fine for a friend, your mom, or a nurse to stay in there with you. Of course, if you want to be alone, that’s fine too.
If you liked this article, click here to buy me a beer!Advice for women, how to perform self breast examination(SBE)
December 7, 2006
Get to know your breasts better by doing a monthly self-exam(BSE).
Your breasts. If you’re a woman, they’re always within reach. It might be easy to take them for granted. But you need to make sure you give them all the attention they deserve: Do regular breast self-exams.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there’s no better time to start: Women should be doing breast self-exams monthly. Women should also get a clinical breast exam every three years starting at age 20. If you’re a guy and there are any important women in your life, you should encourage them to examine their breasts regularly.
Don’t think being young means you don’t need to worry about breast cancer. The disease can strike women in their 20s and younger. It’s the leading cause of cancer deaths in women 20 to 39. I used to think young women weren’t at risk, until a woman in my class — someone I played soccer with — was diagnosed sophomore year of my college. Thanks to early detection and treatment, she’s now in full remission. In fact, if breast cancer is caught early it is curable 97% of the time. So get in the habit of doing monthly breast exams now — and develop a healthy habit that should last a lifetime.
According to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, here are the instructions for breast self-exams. First, make sure you check your breasts at the same time each month so you can recognize changes. Look for lumps, hard knots, or skin that thickens or dimples. If you find any changes, tell your doctor immediately. Most breast lumps are not cancerous, but it’s better to be safe and find out for sure.
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