Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Rabies Prevention Tips

The summer season brings with it many outdoor activities to enjoy including hiking, camping and picnicking. It is wise to be aware of your surroundings and to understand the possibility of encountering bats while exploring the outdoors, and even the possibility of encountering a bat in your own home.

Bats often reside in undisturbed areas such as eve troughs, attics and crawl spaces. So long as they remain there and cannot gain access to the living space of buildings there is no immediate health hazard. However, if bats can gain access to the living space of buildings, particularly areas where people sleep, the risk of exposure to rabies is significantly elevated.

Rabies is an infectious disease that affects the nervous system and is always fatal once symptoms develop. It is transmitted through the bite of an infected animal. Most human cases of rabies in the Unites States are due to prior bat exposure, and in most cases direct contact with bats is not documented.

Bites from bats may be so minor as to not wake persons who are sleeping when the bite occurs.

To keep bats from entering your home, do not leave unscreened windows or doors open to the outside, eliminate attic access to living spaces, make sure window screens are in good repair and keep up with routine maintenance on the exterior of your home.

Keeping your home in good repair by caulking and sealing exterior holes and making sure attic vents are screened can minimize the likelihood of a bat encounter. Bats have been known to enter homes through openings as small as a pencil.

If a bat or bats are identified in a room where people sleep, please take the following actions:
  1. Immediately move residents in the home to a bat free building
  2. Contact your local health department to help determine your risk of rabies exposure
  3. Begin work to exclude bats from the building
  4. Do NOT repopulate the building until you are certain all bats are excluded

For more information, please visit: http://www2.wataugademocrat.com/story/Health_Department_offers_rabies_prevention_tips_id_003446

Friday, July 23, 2010

10 Health Benefits of Cherries

10 Health Benefits of Cherries


Cherries are commonly found in many different desserts, from pies to turnovers and more, but they also provide plenty of health benefits. If you would like to know what the cherry can do for you, read on.

Arthritis: Cherries contain a phytochemical known as anthocyanins that numerous studies have shown help in pain, specifically pain caused by arthritis. One study performed by scientists at John Hopkins University showed that tart red cherries reduced inflammation, which causes much of the pain that comes with arthritis. Losing weight: Yes, cherries are an excellent addition to the diet of anyone trying to lose weight.



Content Source: Bukisa - 10 Health Benefits of Cherries

Monday, July 05, 2010

How You Might Use Yoga Fitness To Your Benefit

How You Might Use Yoga Fitness To Your Benefit

by Adriana Noton


It is common for people who exercise to find doing the same routine boring after a while. They might have a membership at the gym, use a treadmill in their living room and participate in the odd aerobics class but still find them not interesting after a while. Sometimes the key to getting into shape is to try new things and keep your mind and body active with what it is doing. The idea behind yoga fitness has many perks to it that might have you excited about exercise again.

Once you learn the reasons behind this type of activity then you might not view it in a strange way. Typical yoga might be pared with meditation and unusual and painful poses and stretches. The truth is many forms of yoga do use breathing activities and stretches, however when you are going it and having fun, then you are not really thinking about it anymore.

If you are willing to give yoga a shot, then you have many resources to try. Places that specialize in yoga classes and teachings will be able to give you some high quality classes that are instructed by certified yoga teachers. If you are part of a gym, it might have a yoga class for you to try. When you are new to the sport, there are beginner classes for you that move up to advanced when you are ready. DVDs can be bought or rented and tried in the home if that is how you would prefer to try it.

It will take a while to master the moves involved in completing the classes. It is important to give it a try and attempt a few different classes before you rule it out. It might seem hard and difficult at first, but with a few repeat classes you just might be on your way to becoming a pro.

This workout method has a way of conditioning the body and mind. You will have more energy and be able to focus better than before. Stronger muscles can happen with the continued use of yoga throughout the week.

Yoga should be combined with other forms of exercise to see some awesome results. For a tight and fit body you can try many different kinds of fitness that will help to improve your strength and endurance. When you are able to do yoga and other activities, your body will be in great shape.

Many people who are trying to loose weight will include yoga Toronto classes as part of their routine and schedule. It has many weight loss properties that can help you get into the best shape ever.

For a low impact exercise that can be used by pregnant women and seniors, the concept of yoga fitness can help everyone who gives it a try. It is a well loved form of exercise that has a strong history for a good reason. Most people try it and find that they cannot stop, it is a fun and rewarding type of class.


About the Author:


As a leader in the Fitness industry, Extreme Fitness strives to offer its members yoga Toronto. Check us out today and find out what one of the premiere gym Toronto is all about.


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

SilverSneakers Celebrated Fitness program's first anniversary

The SilverSneakers fitness program celebrated its first anniversary at the Field House Sports and Fitness Center last week with a cookout in Hinkston Park, Waukegan.

Program members work out three days a week at the Fitness Center. Besides the physical and health benefits, participants develop real camaraderie and friendships, according to Michael Wirsing, fitness center supervisor.

SilverSneakers is the nation's largest fitness program geared to help older adults stay fit, strong and active.

Residents with Humana Medicare Advantage, Humana Team Care Gold, Humana Team Gold, AARP Medicare Supplement, Secure Horizons and United Healthcare Group medical coverage are eligible to obtain free SilverSneakers memberships at the Field House Sports and Fitness Center.

For more information about the program, call (847) 782-3300 or visit the Fitness Center, 800 N Baldwin Ave., Waukegan.

Source:
Suburban Chicago News

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Team Fitness America Announced - Personal Trainer Of The Month June 2010

Motta has received notable client reviews and continues to show success with helping clients with their fitness goals, making him Team Fitness America June Personal Trainer Of The Month. Team Fitness America offers fitness throughout 17 states.

Team Fitness America announced their June Personal Trainer Of The Month out of New York City. Victor Motta, an ACE certified personal trainer, was chosen among the several hundreds of personal trainers that were eligible for the prestigious award. Motta is the first personal trainer at Team Fitness America to put New York on the map with the award.


Motta was nominated by each of his Team Fitness America clients along with the area’s Fitness Director. He has mastered every requirement of Team Fitness America while going above and beyond their requirements for customer service skills. Motta started out five years ago at a local YMCA where he jumped right into training people with disabilities and learned to modify his routines to meet their needs. He moved on to an athletic club where Motta learned martial arts and boxing to add to his fast growing repertoire later finding himself earning at spot with Team Fitness America while broadening his horizons.

Certified through the American Council on Exercise (ACE), which is the oldest certification body in the nation, and also enrolled at Brooklyn College, where he is working on a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science, Motta is well rounded. He combines his passion for helping others achieve their goals with his knowledge of both fitness and nutrition to create an amazing program for his clients. Motta has received notable client reviews and continues to show success with helping clients with their fitness goals, making him Team Fitness America June Personal Trainer Of The Month.

Team Fitness America offers clients the prospect to experience fitness training with one of their stellar personal trainers throughout 17 states. They started announcing a top Personal Trainer Of The Month to illustrate one fitness trainer’s ability to provide not only a satisfying workout with measurable results but also great customer service. Each month they announced top personal trainers from places such as Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Jersey, and Miami, but this month the city of Manhattan takes the first place prize from housing the top personal trainer.

For more information please visit:
http://www.i-newswire.com/team-fitness-america-june-2010/43384

Monday, June 14, 2010

Four Tips to Start Your Exercise Program

Often, the hardest step to take is the first one. Follow these 4 simple ideas to get you started on the road to fitness.

For the beginner, getting to the gym is the hardest part. Most of the time you just don't want to go and when you do, you don't know where to start! There are a million other things you could be doing with that time for work, for the kids, or just to relax. The thought of losing 20 or more pounds can really be overwhelming and that is why most people don't even try. You really just have to buckle down and determine to better yourself so make use of these helpful hints:

Make it Easy: The biggest reason most people don't get to the gym is inconvenience. This can easily be solved by joining a gym close to your house or work so it's not out of your way to get there. That will eliminate probably half of your excuses, which are only making you your own worst enemy.

Get a Partner: Hiring a trainer is awesome, but you don’t have to train with Jillian Michaels to see results. Even a workout partner will do. If you need motivation, team up with someone who can help you.

Make it a Habit: Make your gym time a part of your routine and go every day you say you will. They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, be it good or bad. This is simply you forcing yourself to create good habits. Exercise offers so many benefits for your health that you can't afford to put it off any longer.

Educate Yourself:Invest in magazines, fitness websites, or fitness tv shows to learn more about healthy eating, exercise, and the human body. The more you know, the more you will be able to stick to the plan because you’ll know why.

In order to get somewhere, you have to start. The weight loss may not be fast, but it will be rewarding. Take it one day at a time and eventually you will reap the benefits of hard work, and remember - the most effective piece of equipment you use on your fitness journey is a positive attitude.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Probiotics may help fat and weight loss

Daily supplements of Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) may help weight loss in people with obese tendencies, says new science from Japan.

Twelve weeks of consuming a fermented milk product containing the Lactobacillus strain was associated with a 4.6 per cent reduction in abdominal fat, and a 3.3 per cent reduction in subcutaneous fat, according to findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.



Furthermore, body weight dropped by 1.4 per cent and waist size decreased by 1.8 per cent, report researchers from Snow Brand Milk Products, Kyushu University, Nippon Milk Community Co., Iwaki Meisei University, and Isogo Central and Neurosurgical Hospital.

The study extends previous findings from Kyushu University researchers, which showed LG2055 may reduce fat levels (adiposity) and fat cells in animals (British Journal of Nutrition, 2009, Vol. 101, pp. 716-724; 2008, Vol. 99, pp. 1013-7). In addition, Snow Brand scientists have reported that LG2055 in fermented milk "has the ability to establish in the human gastrointestinal tract and alters the composition and metabolism of the intestinal microflora and physical characteristics of faeces", (J. Appl. Microbiol. 2001, Vol. 90, pp. 343-352).

Potential

With the World Health Organization estimating that by 2015, there will be more than 1.5 billion overweight consumers, incurring health costs beyond $117 billion per year in the US alone, the opportunities for a scientifically-substantiated weight management food product are impressive.

A breakthrough paper published in Nature in December 2006 (Vol. 444, pp. 1022-1023, 1027-1031) reported that microbial populations in the gut are different between obese and lean people, and that when the obese people lost weight their microflora reverted back to that observed in a lean person, suggesting that obesity may have a microbial component.

A recent study, published in Science Translational Medicine (Vol. 1, Issue 6, 6ra14), advanced this by successfully showing that the human gut microbiota can successfully be transferred to germ-free mice, and that this can then be passed on from mother to offspring.

Study details

The Japanese scientists recruited 87 overweight people with an average BMI of 24.2 kg/m2 to participate in their multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled intervention trial. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 200 grams per day of fermented milk with or without LG2055 day for 12 weeks.

At the end of the study, significant decreases were observed in the Lactobacillus group in body weight, BMI (1.5 per cent), waist circumference, and in the hips (1.5 per cent). No significant reductions were observed in the control group, however.

"The probiotic LG2055 showed lowering effects on abdominal adiposity, body weight and other measures, suggesting its beneficial influence on metabolic disorders," concluded the scientists.

Source:
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Products/Probiotics-may-help-fat-and-weight-loss-Study

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Taking Steps to Lose Your Weight With a Walking Workout

If you would like to lose a little weight and generally get into better shape, like many of us would, then it is very simple. You must consume fewer calories by eating and drinking than you expend as a result of physical exercise. Do this consistently over a period of time and you will be certain to lose weight. There is no big secret, no wonder drug and no miracle health supplement involved.

Basically, if you want to lose weight, then you need to eat and drink less (diet), burn more calories (exercise) – or both. In fact, the best solution is very definitely to do both simultaneously. Taking regular exercise will increase your metabolic rate – the rate at which you burn calories. As long as you exercise on a regular basis then you will burn calories at a greater rate when you’re not exercising, for example sitting watching the TV, typing on your computer or even sleeping.

Walking workout

Of course, the very thought of exercising can be off-putting for many people – but there’s no reason to avoid exercise, it needn’t involve getting all hot, sweaty and out of breath. One of the very best exercises that you can do is walking, something which the large majority of us do every single day. You just need to walk a little more often and a little further and you will soon reap the rewards – and there are numerous benefits available to anyone who walks on a regular basis.

The recommendation of many health and fitness professionals is that we should try to walk 10,000 steps a day. That equates to a distance of between four and a half and five miles for the average person. It sounds like a long way – but you may be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to achieve. Remember, that 10,000 steps is the total distance, it includes the normal walking that you do every day anyway. You aren’t starting from scratch.

Leave the car at home and walk to work – or get off the bus a couple of stops early and finish the last part of your journey on foot. If you do decide to take the car then just park it in a faraway corner of the parking lot so that you need to walk further. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Take a fifteen minute walk at lunch time. It all adds up.

Other than a comfortable pair of shoes, no special equipment is required to start a walking exercise program. However, you might find it useful to invest in a pedometer – especially if your walking is broken up into short sessions throughout your day. It will help you to keep track of your progress and to stay motivated.

If you are able to fit longer walks into your day then you might also want to think about getting an mp3 player if you don’t already have one. The miles and the time will pass much faster when you’re walking along listening to your favorite tunes.

Source:
http://news.netstrife.com/taking-steps-to-lose-weight-with-a-walking-workout/417/

Monday, May 24, 2010

NCRPO chief supervises officers’ fitness exams

The chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Monday said he will personally supervise the conduct of the 2010 First Semester Graded Physical Fitness (GPFT) of all Police Commissioned Officers assigned in Metro Manila.

NCRPO chief Roberto Rosales said he wanted to personally supervise the GPFT to emphasize his resolve to ensure that every NCRPO police is physically fit to keep up with the rigors of police work.

He explained that the GPFT is composed of sets of physical exercise like pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, 100-meter dash and road run (1, 2, or 3 kilometer run, depending on the age of the performer) which were established to provide minimum standards on the amount of physical activities that a policeman must pass to be considered fit and able for active police work.

The NCRPO chief explained that the activities included in the GPFT approximate some of the strenuous circumstances a policeman would face on a daily basis such as running after a fleeing felon, pounding an eight-hour patrol beat, conducting reconnaissance in rugged terrains, or taking part in quelling a mob during a Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) operation.

Rosales said that all Police Commissioned Officers or those with rank from Police Inspector to Police Senior Superintendent will take the GPFT at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City starting Tuesday and will last up to June 2, 2010.

He said the rest of the Police Non-Commissioned Officers will take the test in their respective police Districts and came out with a directive that teams of GPFT facilitators will be sent from another Police district to supervise the performance of every policeman so as to avoid familiarity with the supervisors and remove speculations that some are lax in implementing the set standard.

It was learned that during the last 2009 second semester GPFT in NCRPO, from the total personnel strength of 15,010 policemen, 13,022 (86.76%) had undertaken the test and from those who took the exam, 12,668 (97.3%) passed while 218 (1.67%) failed.

For more information please visit:
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/258837/ncrpo-chief-supervises-officers-fitness-exams