Encouraging Health

Asian-American women have higher suicide rates.

From the article:

First and foremost, they say “model minority” pressure — the pressure some Asian-American families put on children to be high achievers at school and professionally — helps explain the problem.

“In my study, the model minority pressure is a huge factor,” says Noh, who studied 41 Asian-American women who’d attempted or contemplated suicide. “Sometimes it’s very overt — parents say, ‘You must choose this major or this type of job’ or ‘You should not bring home As and Bs, only As,” she says. “And girls have to be the perfect mother and daughter and wife as well.”

Family pressure often affects girls more than boys, according to Dr. Dung Ngo, a psychologist at Baylor University in Texas. “When I go talk to high school students and ask them if they experience pressure, the majority who raised their hands were the girls,” he said.

Asian-American parents, he says, are stricter with girls than with boys. “The cultural expectations are that Asian women don’t have that kind of freedom to hang out, to go out with friends, to do the kinds of things most teenagers growing up want to do.”

Asian-American Women, suicide

Asian-American Women, suicide

This articleshows that Just 10 minutes of exercise a day can help even the most inactive overweight women, U.S. researchers reported Tuesday.

From the article:

Tests on overweight and obese women, many of whom had high blood pressure, showed that even small amounts of exercise improved their fitness and toned them up enough to lower their overall risk of early death.

The study is the first to reinforce using hard medical data what other studies have suggested — that exercise does not have to be an all-or-nothing venture, Dr. Timothy Church of Louisiana State University and colleagues said.

So, women, start by taking small walks around the house or at work.

women, exercise

women, exercise

Too many vitamins may be the cause of some Prostate Cancer, says “Heavy multivitamin users were almost twice as likely to get fatal prostate cancer as men who never took the pills, concludes the study in Wednesday’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Here’s the twist: Overall, the researchers found no link between multivitamin use and early-stage prostate cancer.

The researchers speculate that perhaps high-dose vitamins had little effect until a tumor appeared, and then could spur its growth.”

So, gentleman, ask your doctor about your Prostate and vitamins.

vitamins, prostate, cancer

vitamins, prostate, cancer

According to Mark Sisson on his blog , men have to workout and exercise twice as hard as women to stay just as healthy.

Mark references this article, which states:

“The reasons for the troubled state of men’s health are complex. Biology — such as the different ways men and women react to stress — likely plays a role. And men, taught since boyhood to be stoic in the face of pain, often are their own worst enemy, avoiding doctors and engaging in risky behaviors such as reckless driving that threaten health. Men’s health issues also get less public attention and funding at a time when women’s health concerns — such as breast cancer — are in the national spotlight.”

I agree that Men’s health isn’t as well documented in the media. Men, on the other hand, need to take a more active role in their healthcare. What should you ask about? Glad you asked. How about Heart attacks? Testicular Cancer? Prostate Cancer? Breast Cancer?

Feel squeamish? Good! Now, call your Doctor.

Mens Health

Mens Health

courtesy of www.DiscoveryHealth.com

From the article:

–Avoid refined, processed foods — skip anything with white flour.
–Avoid fried foods and foods with hydrogenated oils — they’re toxic.
–Eat berries, soybeans and cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cabbage, brussel spouts, kale)
–Keep 2 medium-weight dumbbells by your bed. Do a few reps before sleeping and when you wake up.

To read the rest, click the above link.

[men, healthy[/tag]

Heart gives two different people chance at life
This article shows why organ donation is so important. There are not enough organs available for the growing need for those on the long list. I recurred a kidney in 2003 after mine failed.

I am pleading for my readers to place on your Drivers license that you want to bean or garn donor and tell your friends and familyI write $ down in a burning will. I have done all three; how could I be selfish now?

From the article:

“Two months ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, surgeons removed a transplanted heart from a patient who had died and re-transplanted it in another recipient.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done with a transplanted heart,” Dr. Lawrence S. C. Czer, medical director of the center’s heart transplant program, told Reuters. “Even with other organs, repeat transplantation is very rare.”

The second patient was a 45-year-old man with noncompaction syndrome, a rare cardiac condition in which the heart assumes a sponge-like appearance. The disease is progressive, and the man’s heart became more and more disabled despite the best medical therapy.

According to Czer, the patient first went on the waiting list for a heart transplant in 2002 but he improved and came off the list for several years. About a year ago, his condition worsened and again he was placed on the list.”

transplant, heart

transplant, heart

Teen shares positive thinking, courtesy of cnn.com, showcases this teens battle with cancer. He doesn’t let it get him down, and the public has latched onto his blog.

From the article:

“He nods supportively when his pals brag about their college acceptances and throws a gentle arm around a girlfriend who has ringlets of long, brown hair. But at night, this 18-year-old blogs from a world as sobering as his chalk-white skin and shiny bald head.

“All that stressing about which Ivy League they’d be going to while I’m stressing about whether those suspicious scans meant cancer and The End or not,” he writes. (Watch how a teen facing death shows others how to value life )

“That everyone would be moving on to the next stage of life … the whole College Experience … onwards to young rising professionals and newly weds and fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers and retirees … but my life ends here; this is my stop, a couple months short of graduating high school.”

His bloggings, posted on his hospital Web site at http://www.carepages.com/ (register, then type LevinStory) have reached well beyond the world of high school.”

teen, cancer, inspiration, blog

teen, cancer, inspiration, blog

Skinny people are Fat!, according to a Cnn.com article.

“Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.

“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat,â€? said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat mapsâ€? showing where people store fat.”

to read more, check the link.

skinny, fat

skinny, fat

BMI is getting questionedas the ‘end all’ measure of fitness.

An interesting discussion, courtesy of MSNBC.com

“While prior research has found that BMI isn’t always an accurate indicator of fatness in athletes, who may be more muscle than fat, the new study is one of the first to show that BMI may not necessarily work for the general population either.

Other experts say they’ve seen this firsthand with clients, and that clearly BMI isn’t the best test for everyone. “I don’t think it’s accurate enough,� says Dr. Kenneth Cooper, founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas.

Pivarnik says he worries that some people, particularly young women, may find that pumping iron puts them into the overweight category per BMI, so they skip weight training altogether.

“Don’t worry about the thinness,â€? he says. “Worry about the working out part.â€? ”

Click the link above to read more from ths eye-opening report.

BMI, skinny, cholesterol, fitness, body image

BMI, skinny, cholesterol, fitness, body image

This articlefrom RealAge.com tells us of the heart-healthy benefits of walnuts.

From the article:

“When walnuts are part of a healthful diet, they help lower your bad cholesterol — that sticky blood-fat that clogs your arteries and boosts your risk of a heart attack.

It’s the fat in walnuts that does such great things for your heart. The nuts are particularly rich in alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid with cardioprotective properties.”

I line putting Walnuts in a salad. It adds that crunch of bread cubes without the bad fat.

walnuts, heart healthy

walnuts, heart healthy