The term Arthritis is actually a Latin word that means inflammation of joints. Arthritis causes inflammation of the joints due to damage to the cartilage. Patients suffering from arthritis could suffer from long-term joint damage, which could ultimately lead to disability from severe arthritis pain. Arthritic patients commonly feel pain in the early morning hours that slowly subsides as the day progresses.

There are more than 100 types of arthritis. Without a thorough examination the doctor will not be able to find which type of arthritis you are suffering from. Arthritis can stem from injuries and strains caused by sports, repetitive motion, overexertion etc. Arthritic diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, which are autoimmune diseases; septic arthritis, caused by joint infection; and the more common osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease that largely affects older people.

There are three stages of arthritis:

The first stage of arthritis is swelling. The second stage is rapid division and growth of the cells. In the third stage the cells release specific enzymes, which erode the bone, causing the joint to lose its shape. It is then the arthritis pain becomes unbearable. Since this is a systemic disease, it can migrate and affect other body organs. So it is better to detect arthritis at its early stage before it spreads to other parts of the body. Arthritis can be treated with proper therapy and medication.

Treatment: Arthritis treatment includes medicine, exercise, thermal modalities, joint protection and surgery.

Medicine: there are several effective arthritis medications available in the market for proper arthritis treatment. Anti-inflammatory drugs are helpful in most cases. However you should consult a doctor before buying any medicine.

Exercise: this helps strengthen muscles and joints plus increases blood circulation in those areas. Yoga is very therapeutic in reducing arthritis pain.

Rest: rest provides good arthritis relief, as proper rest helps the body to conserve energy and allows the body to heal and reduce pain.

Thermal modalities: cold and heat compresses give short-term relief to stiffness and pain.

Joint protection: this allows the patient to move with minimal stress to the joints. Joint protections like knee supports, back belts are common arthritis relief products widely available on the market today.

Bookmark It

Read more on Investors Chronicle

Bookmark It

After visiting a few websites belonging to fitness professionals, you will find it easier to market a fitness business online. Most of their sites will revolve around the owner, making it hard to distinguish one credible service from the next. After a while, they all start to look the same because the attempts to market a fitness business are so similar.

With so much information available on the Internet, you have to make your site content compelling. To market a fitness business effectively, your information has to catch the readers’ attention and possess something unique. Keep the focus on the customer, not yourself. Attempt to break free from the standard methods used to market a fitness business and put your clients first. Whether you create the content yourself or hire a professional writer, be sure to substitute “me” and “mine” with “you” and “your”. It’s great to market a fitness business using your credentials, but you don’t want to overdo it.

Remember that a website will often serve as a clients’ first impression of your business. Use a professional, user-friendly design to best market a fitness business. Give the impression that you are addressing each visitor individually, even though multiple visitors will be accessing your site simultaneously. Personalization is a great technique to help market a fitness business.

Most visitors who arrive at your website are interested in fitness. They have probably performed an online search and found your link – a vital way to market a fitness business. In many cases, they are already in need of something. Seize the opportunity to market a fitness business by responding to their concerns and questions. Solve their problems. Provide additional advice. Link your responses to various aspects of your business. If you want to succeed, you have to market a fitness business with diligence and professionalism.

To keep your attempts to market a fitness business current, record the details of visitors who come to your site but leave without making a purchase or inquiry. Use this information to contact them at a later date and attempt to seal the deal. The way to market a fitness business without being overbearing or pushy is to attempt a regular conversation without making the person feel obligated to buy or join. If you are persistent and patient, many of these contacts will become clients. You will be rewarded with more clientele and finally learn the secrets to market a fitness business properly.

Bookmark It

1. Make a great low fat mayonnaise by combining one teaspoon of Dijon mustard or satay sauce with a low fat yogurt.

2. Don’t skip meals. Skipping meals tricks the body into slowing down your metabolism in an attempt to conserve calories during a period where limited fats and fuel are available. Eating increases the metabolism.

3. Stuff vegetables like capsicum and zucchini with flavored fillings or minced chicken, white meat or fish. These are healthy and have very low levels of fat.

4. Use pita bread roll ups or wraps with salad fillings.

5. Eight hours after waking up, our metabolism slows down and that’s why 30 minutes of exercise before dinner will increase your metabolism for about two to three hours. This produces an increase in fat calories burned – even hours after the work out is over.

6. Good cooking and healthy eating begins with learning about nutrition and how to prepare healthy recipes.

7. Learn how to make your families favorite recipes and make sure that fats, salt, and sugar are cut out as much as possible. Substitute non-fat yogurt for cream, stir-fry without oil and use herbs and spices instead of salt to taste.

8. Consult your doctor before beginning an exercise or weight loss program.

9. Slowly eat and chew each bite during meals. This naturally causes you to eat more slowly and since it takes 20 minutes or more for your brain to realize that it’s full, you will eat less.

10. Complete three small meals and two snacks everyday instead of one or two huge meals. This prevents you from getting to hungry and over-eating.

11. Use chicken stock when stir-frying. This will cut down on hidden fat.

12. As much as possible do not remove the skins of fruits and vegetables since most of the nutrients are concentrated on the underside of the skin.

13. Warm water with just a squeeze of lemon juice before breakfast get the metabolism going for the day, this also help prevent constipation and is excellent for your skin.

14. Look for a weight loss “buddy,” club, or support friends. This will motivate you to stay on and enjoy your weight loss program.

15. Though it’s hard at first, try not eating 3 hours or more before bedtime.

16. Chilli helps to speed up metabolism – even the milder varieties.

17. Try making omelettes without adding the yolks! A dramatic decrease in fat.

18. Remove fat by dropping ice cubes into the baking tray. Fat will stick to the ice cubes.

19. Drinking hot water instead of cold water in the morning can increase the speed of your metabolism and burn more calories.

20. Eat before you go food shopping and always prepare a shopping list.

There you have it – a great list of weight loss tips that, if followed, can help keep you on track for your individual weight loss plan. To me the most important items is #14 – the buddy system. Losing weight and sticking to a weight loss plan is just so much easier with a good support system. That’s why I recommend an online support. They are there for you every step of the way. From delivered meals to personalized exercise plans they help and guide you every step of the way to a new and healthier you.

Bookmark It

The major thing to keep in mind when cooking is what hurts the foods and takes the nutrients out of them. You can eat a complete meal and end up not having adequate nutrients in any of the foods because of how you cooked. The major types of cooking that will burn away the vitamins include frying, boiling, saute methods and microwave. It is important to consider these methods before deciding on how you will cook your food.

One of the better methods used in preserving the nutrients in food is steaming. Steaming will actually preserve the vitamins and minerals that are in it. Because you don’t have to add any oils or fats, it can also help you with taking away things that you don’t need. A medium sized fish takes only 10 minutes of steaming time. It can be really that fast.

Boiling is also another healthy cooking method. However, do not overboil vegetables as this will kill all the nutrients and enzymes in them. If you need cooked vegetables, boil the water first. In boiling water, put your vegetables in for about 3 minutes. For some taste, you can always make a sauce to pour over the boiled vegetables.

Another thing that you should consider when cooking is what you are putting into the foods while they are on the stove. For example, adding extra salt can lead to a change in your blood pressure over time that isn’t necessarily healthy. In relation to this, you should stay away form flavors and ingredients that have high sodium or fat as part of the recipe. Use the healthier sea salt if you really need to.

All of the foods that you eat should be balanced with raw fruits and vegetables. Having these on hand will help in adding to nutritious value in your diet. Adding a salad or different fruits is always important to your meals.

Healthy cooking does not necessarily translate to bland food. Sure the food may not be as tasty due to the less salt and the cooking method used. But there are ways to getting round them like using natural ingredients; such as, garlic, onions or herbal leaves for flavoring. Take the steam fish for example.

Add in stir-fried chopped garlic, ginger and spring onions for extra punch! As a meal planner, your job lies in seeking these healthy recipes out.

Cooking for better health has its rewards in better nutrition and healthier food for the body. If you and your family are working on implementing a healthier lifestyle, then it means adopting these cooking tips and making healthier eating choices. Everyone stands to benefit in being nourished, feeling energized and looking well.

Bookmark It

Read more on Gawker

Bookmark It

Here are some top tips for healthy cooking:-

1. Invest in non stick pans – With quality non-stick pans you can get away with not using oil at all or by using a low fat cooking spray. You can also ‘fry’ some foods in a little water to prevent them sticking. If you have to use oil, use olive oil and pat food with kitchen roll after cooking to remove excess oil.
2. Look through your recipes collection for diet recipes and low fat recipes. Cook them in batches and freeze so that you always have a healthy meal option available.
3. Steam or stir-fry vegetables – Cooking them using these methods will help the vegetables to retain their nutrients, colour and taste. Look for healthy recipes like Chinese stir-fries and invest in a wok and steamer. You can buy Chinese bamboo steamers, which just sit on top of a pan of boiling water, or you can buy electric steamers. You can get a good electric steamer for less than the cost of one meal out and the ease of use is a real time saver.
4. Use olive oil – Replace other oils or fats with olive oil which is a mono-unsaturated oil and actually helps to reduce cholesterol. Make your own salad dressings from olive oil and balsamic vinegar to give your salad a Mediterranean taste and this will be lower in fat than commercial salad dressings. Search online for free recipes using olive oil. Some muffin recipes use olive oil or corn oil instead of solid fats.
5. Use fat free milk in cooking and baking to cut the fat content of your healthy recipes.
6. Replace fat in baking – Look for low fat recipes for cakes and biscuits or replace half the fat in recipes with pureed prunes, yogurt or mashed banana. Search for diet recipes for sweet treats.
7. Use fat-free yogurt or creme fraiche instead of using cream for pouring on dessert recipes or fruit.
8. Add more vegetables to casseroles and soups and use fresh or frozen vegetables rather than canned.
9. Don’t add salt to food – Season food with herbs, spices, garlic and lemon juice instead of salt.
10. Trim visible fat off meat and use lean meat in your low fat recipes. Cut down on how much red meat you consume and replace with fish and chicken or turkey.

Remember, cooking and eating healthy food is not hard work and definitely not expensive. If you play your cards right you can change you whole family’s diet and they won’t suspect a thing. That isn’t to say that they won’t notice anything though, because they will – they may well notice that they are losing weight, feeling better and getting fewer minor illnesses.

If that isn’t reason enough to try out a few these tips, I don’t know what is!

Bookmark It

It is sometimes hard to find the joy of the season. As you are going about your holiday preparations, try these five easy, on-the-go stress relief tips. They are as easy as using your five senses.

1. Experience holiday music. Really experience it. As you are doing your holiday shopping, listen to the music playing in the mall, shops and markets. Hopefully, it won’t be “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.” Music can be one of the best stress relievers. How can one not be soothed by the voices of Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby? Music can also conjure up the Christmas joys that were more prevalent when we were children. And better yet, sing along to the songs that you know. It doesn’t matter if you know all the words. You can always hum instead.

2. Enjoy the beauty of holiday decorations. Lights, trees, ornaments, wreaths and even the giant blow-up Santa Clauses on suburban lawns are all the visual treats of the holidays. When someone decorates their house or business for the holidays, it is a gift for all visitors and passersby to enjoy. So, do enjoy. Let the sparkling lights, dazzling ornaments, festive trees and blow-up Santa Clauses bring a smile to your face.

3. Feel the warmth of physical contact. People are naturally more affectionate during the holidays. We get holiday hugs from friends, family and coworkers. Hand shakes and good wishes are exchanged by everyone. Even for foes, the holidays bring out commonality as opposed to differences, embraces instead of bitterness. We get a handshake and a smile from our boss when all year we are ignored. Instead of being resentful about it, appreciate it. Thinking and expressing good cheer towards others will decrease your stress level tremendously. So, the next time you are at the market, put your arm around the bagger and wish him or he happy holidays.

4. Take in soothing aromas. The scents of the holidays are all around us. We cannot escape the pine fragrance of Christmas trees or the spicy smell of gingerbread cookies this time of year. Bayberry or cinnamon candles are other scents of the season. Researchers have found that certain aromas trigger our memories to surface. Perhaps the smell of fresh baked cookies reminds you of a pleasant childhood memory. Breathe in (deeply) those scents and let them take you away to your happy memories.

5. Taste the gift of seasonal delicacies. This stress relief tip is perhaps the easiest to use. There is no doubt that a huge part of the holidays is enjoying food. Yes, we will gain a few pounds. But, can you think of the holidays without getting together with family, friends, coworkers and feasting on holiday goodies? Many shops, businesses and your workplace are usually filled with treats to grab while going about your tasks. You may also receive a gift of food whether it be sweets, nuts or a bottle of wine from a friend or coworker. Savor the flavors and let them fill you with gratitude. Be grateful that you have more than enough food to enjoy and friends and family who care about you.

These holiday stress relief tips are all based on being mindful of the beauty of the season. You don’t have to do or have anything special to use them. You do have to slow down, be present and change your perspective. Use your mind and senses to destress and find joy. The holiday season will be over quickly, take advantage of the radiance and good cheer all around you.

Bookmark It