Beauty Quick Tip : The juice in Pomegranates strengthens skin and hair by fending off damage from UV rays !

Overall, American, Canadian, and European cities that have implemented smoking bans had an average of 17% fewer heart attacks in the first year, compared with communities who had not taken such measures. Then, each year after implementing smoking bans (at least for the first three years, the longest period studied), smoke-free communities have an average 26% decline in heart attacks, compared with those areas that still allow smokers to light up in public places.

The findings, published independently by two research teams using similar data, are in the medical journals Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The new studies should grab the attention of cities as well as states—such as Tennessee and Virginia—that still permit smoking in (at least certain sections of) bars, casinos, restaurants, and other public places. Overall, 32 states and many cities in the United States have passed some type of law prohibiting smoking in public spots. (You can check out the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation to find out if your local community has a ban.) In addition, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, and Scotland have passed such bans.

In 2005, there were 1.26 million heart attacks in the U.S., and about 445,687 of those people died, according to the American Heart Association. The new research suggests that a nationwide ban on smoking in public and workplaces could prevent 100,000 to 225,000 heart attacks each year in the U.S., says one study author, David Meyers, MD, of the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

Who is at risk for cancer?
Everyone has some risk for cancer. In the United States, cancer is likely to affect 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women at least once in their lifetime. The amount of risk you have depends on a number of factors. These factors include tobacco use, lifestyle choices (such as diet and exercise), family history and factors in your workplace and environment.

How can I keep from getting cancer?
Unfortunately, some risk factors for cancer (such as family history) are out of your control. But you can control some of the important risk factors for most types of cancer, such as your diet, exercise habits, your exposure to sunlight or tanning beds and whether you are overweight or use tobacco products.

Seeing your doctor regularly can also help. Depending on your age and medical history, your doctor will probably run tests (called “screenings”) to try to detect the early signs of certain cancers. For most types of cancer, the sooner the cancer is found and treatment begins, the better your chances of recovering.

How does smoking and other tobacco use affect my risk for cancer?
If you smoke, quitting smoking is the single most important thing you can do for your health. Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), mouth and esophagus, and it can also contribute to cancers in other parts of the body.

According to the American Cancer Society, people who quit smoking at any age live longer than those who continue to smoke. For example, smokers who quit before age 50 have half the risk of dying within 15 years compared with those who continue smoking. And the more you smoke, the more damage you do. People who smoke 2 packs or more per day are nearly 20 times more likely to develop cancer than nonsmokers.

Other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff, can also cause cancer. If you use tobacco products and want to stop, talk to your family doctor. He or she can help you make a plan to quit.

Can diet and exercise really help?
Eating a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercising regularly are good for your health in general. By eating well and staying in good physical shape, you can help reduce your risk of many diseases, including certain types of cancer.

It’s not hard to change your diet for the better. Just make choices that include whole grains (such as whole wheat bread or pasta), fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. Cut back on sweets and alcohol, and include fish and poultry in your diet on a regular basis. Making just a few of these changes can improve your overall health.

If you’re not used to exercising, start slow. Choose a type of exercise you enjoy, so you’ll be sure to stick with it. Try to gradually work up to exercising 30 to 60 minutes, 4 to 6 times a week. If you have heart problems or any other health concerns, talk to your doctor before starting an exercise program.

Should I tell my doctor that I was treated for cancer as a child?
Yes, this information is important. Your doctor will want to know about your childhood cancer and treatment. The treatments for a childhood cancer can cause problems later in life. These problems include obesity, brittle bones, depression, heart trouble, women’s health issues, and a higher risk of other cancers. Up to 60 percent of childhood cancer survivors who are now adults have at least one ongoing or late-arising health problem.

You can work out a plan for follow-up with your family doctor. You may have to talk to your parents or your childhood doctors to get the best plan for your health care now.

How does my family history affect my risk for cancer?
Unfortunately, some types of cancer seem to run in families. People of a certain race or ethnic group also may have a higher risk of some kinds of cancer.

Your doctor will ask you whether other people in your family have had cancer. If someone in your immediate family (a parent, brother, sister or child) has had cancer, you probably are at higher risk for cancer, also.

You can’t change your family history, but it helps to be aware of it. If you and your doctor know that cancer tends to run in your family, you can watch more closely for the early signs of the disease. For example, if you are a woman and have a family history of breast cancer, your doctor may want you to start having mammograms more often or at a younger age.

What about factors in my workplace or environment?
There may be substances in your surroundings that can cause cancer or put you at a higher risk of developing cancer. These can include dust and vapors in the air you breathe and chemicals that touch your skin. Exposure to the sun without protection can cause skin cancer and breathing tobacco smoke (by smoking yourself or by breathing secondhand smoke) puts you at risk of lung cancer and other types of cancers.

Ask your employer if there are any materials in your workplace that can cause cancer. These may include asbestos, solvents and chemicals used for manufacturing or cleaning, smoke or fumes from burning materials and many others. Your employer should have a material safety data sheet (MSDS) for each substance that could potentially damage your health. All employers are required by law to complete these forms and you have a right to see them. Your employer should also give you equipment, such as a mask and protective clothing, to help decrease your exposure to any harmful materials.

Take a look at the environments you spend time in outside your workplace, as well. Too much exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer, the most common form of cancer. Try to stay out of the sun as much as you can. If you must spend time in the sun, wear protective clothing and sunscreen with an SPF (sun protection factor) of at least 15.

Breathing in smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe (even if you’re not the person who’s smoking) causes damage to your body that can lead to cancer. If you smoke, you need to quit. If someone in your family smokes, offer to help him or her quit, or ask him or her to not smoke when you are around.

Patients receiving optimal drug therapy after suffering a heart attack do not gain any additional benefit from taking supplemental omega-3 fatty acids, a new study finds.

In a study of almost 4,000 people who suffered heart attacks, researchers found no difference in rates of heart attack, stroke, sudden cardiac death or death from any cause regardless of whether they were taking the supplements or not. This finding contradicts previous studies, which suggested that taking omega-3 fatty acids improved long-term survival.

“Although omega-3 fatty acids are considered effective for improving prognosis after acute myocardial infarction, no randomized, double-blind trial has tested their effect on top of current, strictly guideline-based treatment,” Dr. Jochen Senges, a professor of cardiology at the Heart Center Ludwigshafen at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, said in a prepared statement.

“In our study, we saw no beneficial effect. In patients who are already taking optimal medical therapy, cardiac event rates become very low, and omega-3 do not further improve them,” he said.
The findings of the study were to be presented Monday at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting, in Orlando, Fla.

For the study, Senge’s team randomly assigned more than 3,800 patients who participated in the trial to treatment with highly purified omega-3 fatty acid supplements or placebo. In addition, patients received optimal medical care.

At the time of their heart attack, almost 78 percent of the patients underwent angioplasty to open the blocked coronary artery. Other patients (8 percent) received clot-busting drugs.
Upon discharge from the hospital, most patients were prescribed drugs known to reduce the risk of having another heart attack. Almost 94 percent of the patients were prescribed beta-blockers, 83 percent got ACE inhibitors, 95 percent took aspirin, 94 percent got a statin, and 88 percent received the anti-clotting drug clopidogrel (best known as Plavix), according to the report.

Over a little more than a year, 4.1 percent of the patients died, 3.9 percent suffered another heart attack, 1.7 percent had a non-lethal stoke, and 1.5 percent suffered sudden cardiac death.

There were no differences in these outcomes for patients receiving omega-3 fatty acid supplements or the placebo, Senges’ group found.

Other studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids do appear to help prevent heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids are found naturally in oily fish such as mackerel or salmon.

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, noted that the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for people who have suffered a heart attack has been demonstrated in other trials.

“Prior trials have shown a modest benefit of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation after [heart attack],” Fonarow said. “To demonstrate this modest benefit, in the previous GISSI-Prevention trial, over 11,000 patients were enrolled and followed many years,” he said.

“With the smaller number of subjects [in the new trial] who were at lower risk of recurrent events, no incremental benefit could be demonstrated — potentially due to the study being substantially underpowered to detect modest benefit,” Fonarow said.

So, in his opinion, “the balance of data would still support omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, along with other guideline-recommended therapies and lifestyle modification, for patients with and at risk for cardiovascular disease.”

1. Eat breakfast.
A study published in the February 2002 journal Obesity Research found that eating breakfast was a key behavior among people who averaged a 60-pound weight loss and kept it off an average of six years. Participants told researchers that skipping breakfast made them so hungry that they overate during other meals and snacked on unhealthy, high-calorie foods.

2.Measure that cereal.
The average serving of cereal is 1 cup. Yet most adults pour out at least twice that.

3. Scoop and save.
Every now and then someone comes up with such a cool kitchen utensil that you just have to rush right out and buy it. That’s the Lê Scoop. Its function: to scoop out the inside dough from a bagel, leaving you with the outer crust (and, of course, less fat and fewer calories). Fill the inside with nonfat cottage cheese sprinkled with ground flaxseeds for an easy, low-fat, low-calorie breakfast.

4.Buy the smaller size.
The larger the portion in front of you, the more you’ll eat. It’s a proven fact. When researchers sent 79 parents home with a video and either 1- or 2-pound bags of M&Ms along with either a medium or jumbo size tub of popcorn for each family member, they ate more M&M’s from the 2-pound bag than the 1-pound bag, and about half a tub of popcorn, regardless of the tub size.

5. Make smart switches.
See how much you can save by switching from high-fat, high-calorie indulgences to lower-fat, lower-calorie options. Just by making the following substitutions, you could lose 25 pounds a year:

6. Skip the soda.
If you drink non-diet soda, you can cut 160 calories (per 16 ounces) out of your day just by switching to diet soda. Better yet, drink green tea or water flavored with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

7. Start with soup.
Studies show that people who start a meal with soup–especially broth-based soup–end up eating fewer calories by the end of the day without feeling hungrier.

• Regular exercise can prevent and reverse age-related decreases in muscle mass and strength, improve balance, flexibility, and endurance, and decrease the risk of falls in the elderly.
• Regular exercise can help prevent coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure.
• Regular, weight-bearing exercise can also help prevent osteoporosis by building bone strength.
• Regular exercise can help chronic arthritis sufferers improve their capacity to perform daily activities such as driving, climbing stairs, and opening jars.
• Regular exercise can help increase self-esteem and self-confidence, decrease stress and anxiety, enhance mood, and improve general mental health.
• Regular exercise can help control weight gain.

Consequences of physical inactivity and lack of exercise:

• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with heart disease and some cancers.
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise are associated with Type II diabetes mellitus (also known as maturity or adult onset, non-insulin dependent diabetes).
• Physical inactivity and lack of exercise contribute to weight gain.

Exercise recommendations:

• 30 minutes of modest exercise (walking is OK) at least three to five days a week is recommended. But, the greatest health benefits come from exercising most days of the week.
• Exercise can be broken up into smaller 10-minute sessions.
• Start slowly and progress gradually to avoid injury or excessive soreness or fatigue. Over time, build up to 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day.
• People are never too old to start exercising. Even frail, elderly individuals (ages 70-90 years) can improve their strength and balance.

Exercise precautions:

• Individuals can begin moderate exercise, such as walking, without a medical examination. The following persons, however, should consult a doctor before beginning more vigorous exercise:
• Men over age 40 or women over age 50.
• Individuals with heart or lung disease, asthma, arthritis, or osteoporosis.
• Individuals who experience chest pressure or pain with exertion, or who develop fatigue or shortness of breath easily.
• Individuals with conditions that increase their risks of developing coronary heart disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cigarette smoking, high blood cholesterol, or having family members who had early onset heart attacks and coronary heart disease.

Myth 1 - Fad diets are meant for long-term.

Fad diets (not naming any names) simply do not work for losing weight and keeping it off. This is primarily because fad diets promise quick weight loss by telling you to eliminate certain foods from your diet.
While you may lose weight from one these diets by cutting out bread for example, it’s simply hard to follow this for the rest of your life. You’ll either get tired of following the diet, or your body will begin lacking nutrients. For this reason, fad diets can be unhealthy. Your body needs essential nutrients.

Myth 2 – Food like grapefruit and celery can burn fat.

No foods have the ability to burn fat. While some foods containing caffeine have the ability to speed up your metabolism for a short period of time, they can’t cause weight loss.




Myth 3 – Diets low in carbohydrates are healthy.

The health benefits in the long-term from a diet containing high protein and low carbohydrates aren’t known. However, obtaining the majority of your daily calories from meat, eggs, cheese, and other high-protein foods is not a balanced and healthy diet. You can have an elevated risk of heart disease by eating too much fat and cholesterol, contained in these foods. You could possibly feel nauseous, tired, and weak by eating a diet that is high in protein and low in carbohydrates.

Myth 4 – Skipping meals can help you lose weight.

Those that skip eating breakfast and eat less times during the day usually weigh heavier than those that eat a balanced breakfast and eat several small meals during the day. It’s believed that because the people that skip meals tend to feel hungrier later on after starving themselves, they indulge and binge eat.
And finally, the biggest misconception of them all: Eating low-fat or non-fat food does not mean you’re eating less than if you ate the same size portion of the product that does not market less calories.

Myth 5 - Low-fat or non-fat foods are necessarily healthy.

Many of the processed low-fat and nonfat foods that you find at supermarkets and grocery stores have the same, or even more calories than their comparison “full fat” version. They could possibly even contain flour, sugar, or starch thickeners as a way to improve flavor and texture after the fat content is removed. Ingredients like this add calories.

1. YOU’RE ALWAYS ON CALL

Recently jobs consist of heavier workloads and longer days. Companies now expect their workers to be available around the clock. They find new ways to keep in touch with workers whether it’s via cell phones to emails. This amount of around the clock availability can lead to high amounts of stress in your daily lives. Stress can lead to heart beating faster and making blood pressure rise.

Our bodies aren’t equipped to always be on called, so leave work at work and free yourself from some stress that can lead to higher life threatening problems, and risks such as diabetes, depression, and heart disease. Make sure to always make time for yourself.

2. DON’T KEEP TO YOURSELF

Having a fun and healthy environment is important to your daily life. Tension at work can reflect in all aspect of your life. Studies have proven that people who dislike there jobs are more likely to become depress especially at times like this where jobs are such a main part of your life. Try to build close relationships in the workplace to help you release some tension. Don’t become the gossiper at your job either, but me social and friendly with others.

3. KEEP SURROUNDINGS CLEAN

You might think your desk looks cleaner then your co-workers, but its probably still filled with germs that can lead to the flu, colds, and intestinal problems. Keep your desk clean pass a disinfecting wipe over your desk, phone, mouse, and keyboard at least once a day. Store your snacks in the break/lunch room, many times storing food in your desk can lead to mold. This will help you keep away some food temptation and keep your environment germ-free. Don’t apply too much cream and lotions, they can transfer to other places around your desk, give them enough time to absorb before you start handling things again.

4. TOO MUCH SNEEZING

You think staying away from your sick co-workers is going to safe you from getting sick, but your wrong germs can stay outside the body and in common places such as door handles for up two day. Always important to wash your hand, and do avoid handshakes with co-workers you’ve heard coughing. Add on to your schedule a couple more actives to boost your immune system, such as exercising two to three times a week.

5. STAY AWAY FROM TOO MUCH COMPUTER

Staring into a computer screen for too many hours can cause damage to your eyesight. Eyestrain can cause permanent changes, and lost of vision. Take a break in between computer use, too much staring into a screen can cause your eyes to dry out so remember to blink frequently. Having your computer further to you is healthier on your eyes, and modifying the color on your screen so it’s not too bright.

1. Obesity
Controlling appetite with leptin

The hot world in obesity this year was leptin. When a connection between this hormone and weight loss was first discovered in 1994, researchers helped fat, overfed lab mice stay slim. And they believed they could do with people what they did with mice: Inject some leptin, and kiss pounds good-bye. Humans, it turned out, were more complicated. When they lost weight their bodies became stingier with calories consumed and more efficient in retaining existing weight. Not willing to give up on leptin, scientists at Colombia Univeristy Medical Center in New York City Started looking at the hormone as a possible weight-loss-maintenance drug. They discovered through scans that brain activity areas connected to restraint and control declines after weight loss.

2. Alzheimer’s
New research for brain diseases

Scientists in England this spring won permission from British medical authorities to create new embryos called cytoplasmic hybrids, eggs from rabbits or cows that have had their nuclei replaced with human genetic code. No Frankenstein’s at work here: The goal is to produce stem cells that will help determine the causes of an find treatments for incurable and debilitating conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

3. Smarter Sweets
More reasons to eat chocolate

We know that dark chocolate cocoa powder has up to three times the anti-oxidants found in green tea, plus twice the antioxidants in red wine; that’s good for your heart. And studies have shown that dark chocolate’s polyphenols affect serotonin levels in the brain; that’ll boost your mood. But this year dark chocolate has gained even more favor in medical circles. In one study, heart-transplant patients showed a decreased risk of clogged arteries two hours after consuming 40 grams of dark chocolate. In another, researchers found that subjects who ate a 22 gram CocoaVia dark chocolate bar daily for two months lowered their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And investigation is underway o see if dark chocolate can be used to decrease PMS symptoms. Sweet news for us all.

4. Sleep
How too little hurts women’s hearts

Talk about alarm clocks: After studying both women and men who have trouble sleeping. Researchers this spring discovered new links between sleep deprivation and the risk of heart attack. In particular, they learned why sleep problems had more of an impact on female hearts that they had on the cardio systems of men. Turns our women may be more prone to long-term inflammation in their bloodstreams, which results in increased risks of both heart disease and diabetes. In fact, “women who reported taking a half-hour or longer to fall asleep showed the worst risk profile” lead researcher Edward Suarez, PhD, explains.
In the sleep trials, Suarez and his colleagues found higher levels of three important signals in the bloodstreams of poor sleepers: C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, both of which are associated with inflammation in numerous tissues, and fibrinogen, a protein that’s associated with heart disease. The study is preliminary but notable because it focused on sleep, disease triggers, and gender.

5. Liposuction
Using Fat to fight disease

Fat on your belly or thighs? Rarely considered a valuable thing…until now. The America Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) announced this summer that, compared with fat in other areas the body, belly and inner-thigh fat contain tissue with higher concentrations of stem cells. Surgeons and researchers hope to use the tissue to build stem cell lines and drugs that might one day treat diabetes, spinal cord injuries, or severe brain diseases. “Adult stem cells, derived from our own tissues, hold strong promise for improved clinical therapies,” says J. Peter Rubin, MD, a member of the ASPS fat Grafting Task Force and co-director of the Adipose Stem Cell Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

10 – It helps you lose weight
Keeping your weight under control will help you look and feel better about yourself, and you can avoid problems associated with being overweight.

9 – It keeps you busy
Boring weekends, holidays ect. When no one is around and your stuck at home sick of watching TV re-runs, go out and exercise. This is a great way to limit the stress surrounding your life.

8 – It keeps your heart healthy
If you have a family history of heart problems then exercise might give you a few extra years. Exercise elevates your heart rate and breathing, all these things help keep your heart healthy. Remember, the heart is a muscle too.

7 – It is a stress relief
When you are exercising you tend to let go of a lot of the stresses in your life like work, family and so on. If you find that you are getting more and more stressed at home, even at small things, then try and get out for some exercise a bit more often.

6 – It sets a good example for children
It gives your children an opportunity to experience some type of self discipline for themselves, it’s a great bonding opportunity to get your kids to join in and they get a head start on their physical activity.

5 – Sweat cleans out toxins and breathing cleans out energy
Sweating and hard exercise is important for women especially because it cleans out their internal energy channels. Women with minor and some major health problems have been able to improve their condition by performing harder exercise and sweating it out.

4 – You can prevent osteoporosis
Exercise is a vital part of preventing osteoporosis. This disease is particularly bad and strikes mainly in women so start lifting weights and doing things like yoga, stretching and running.

3 – You can prevent breast cancer
Many experts agree that exercising regularly may help to prevent cancers and in particular breast cancer. This is a good enough reason for me!

2 – You feel great!
If you have ever been to the park on a warm summers morning and done some sprinting or laps with a good friend then you will know the feeling I am talking about. It is a great feeling that is brought on by chemicals being released into your blood and can last well into the day.

1 – You’ll live longer
Research has shown that you can extend you life by exercising regularly.