TENSION HEADACHE

This type of headache usually occurs over both sides of the head and often settles at the base of the neck. A fullness, tightness, or pressure is often described. Sometimes these headaches show the peculiarity of being continuous day and night for long periods of time. Sustained muscle tension, as well as vascular changes may be involved. Sometimes a similar headache may follow injury (auto accidents, head trauma) and gradually resolves over many months.
Simple remedies may be used with success in the treatment of headache. A person should lie down in a quiet area, apply a cold compress to the head, and seek to put the mind at rest. Often a drink of water or mild nerve-calming tea such as catnip or chamomile tea can relax the person until the headache passes. More severe types of headaches can be treated with the hot foot bath.
This is described in the section on hydrotherapy. Adding mustard to the foot bath may also bring relief through acting as a counterirritant as well as pulling blood to the lower extremities (called derivation) to relieve congestion in the head. Extra hours for sleep, daily nature walks, or a change of pace may be needed. General hygienic recommendations for a more healthful diet, systematic exercise, and improved stress control are valuable preventives.

Imaging regional cerebral blood flow

The evidence we have examined indicates that meaningful neural events may entail activity in a distributed network in such a manner that at each of the cortical loci involved there is coherent activation of neurons in an area extending over several millimetres. One corollary of this is that the patterns of activation are accessible to macroscopic imaging techniques that measure local changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) associated with changes in the metabolic requirements of active neurons. Techniques such as PET and fMRI can be used to provide images of rCBF with a spatial resolution of several millimetres. SPET provides images of rCBF with somewhat less sensitivity and resolution. It is likely that the demand for increased rCBF during neuronal firing will be greatest in the vicinity of the synapses, since synaptic processes consume a substantial amount of energy.
In principle, the activation of either excitatory neurons or inhibitory neurons can cause an increase in rCBF. In practice, it is likely that whenever neurons in a particular cortical location are engaged in meaningful processing, local circuits that include both excitatory and inhibitory neurons will be active, since a combination of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission would generally be required to produce meaningful temporal and spatial patterns of neural activity.
None the less, because the major long-range fibres that bring specific information from a distant site to the local circuit are excitatory glutamatergic fibres, and these incoming fibres usually form synapses with many local neurons it is reasonable to assume that an increase in local CBF reflects an increase in excitatory input to that location, while a decrease in local CBF reflects a decrease in excitatory input to that location.
Studies using PET confirm that mental processes are associated with activation at a distributed set of cerebral loci, with relatively extensive activation at each locus. For example, in studies of word generation carried out in collaboration with colleagues at Hammersmith Hospital (Frith et al, 1991a, 1991b), we found that during the internal generation of words beginning with a specified letter, there is activation of extensive regions in the left dorsolateral and medial frontal
cortex, posterior cingulate and thalamus, while there is a diminution of activity in the superior temporal gyrus. The extent of activation in these regions was substantially greater than would be accounted for by smoothing arising from sources such as the limited spatial resolution of the PET camera. In these studies, the pattern of cerebral activity associated with the internal generation of words was determined by subtracting the pattern of activity during the articulation of a list of words provided by the experimenter from the pattern of activity during the articulation of words generated by the subject.

The Metabolic Syndrome

A person with metabolic syndrome has three or more of the following:
• A large waist (forty inches or more for men and thirty-four inches or more for women; to measure your waist size, don’t go by your belt measurement—instead, wrap a tape measure around the largest part of your midsection and make sure you keep the tape measure parallel to the floor)
• Borderline or high blood pressure (anything above 130/85 mm Hg)
• A high level of triglycerides (above 150 mg/dL)
• Low HDL (under 40 mg/dL for men or 50 mg/dL for women)
• High fasting blood sugar (above 100 mg/dL)
What does metabolic syndrome do to the body? Doctors and researchers think that metabolic syndrome’s impact on health is more than the sum of its parts. Basically, in people with this disorder, blood sugar levels stay high after a meal or snack instead of dropping to a base level as they do in most people. The pancreas, sensing still-elevated glucose levels, continues to pump out insulin. Constant high levels of insulin and blood sugar have been linked with many harmful changes, including damage to the lining of coronary and other arteries, increased triglyceride levels in the blood, changes in how the kidneys handle salt, and blood that clots more easily. Chronic overstimulation of the pancreas may exhaust it so that it stops supplying enough insulin.
This cascade of changes isn’t healthy. Damage to artery walls, high triglycerides, and increased chance of blood clots can lead to heart attacks and some strokes. Changes in the kidneys’ ability to remove salt contribute to high blood pressure, another path to heart disease and stroke. And dwindling insulin production by the pancreas signals the start of type 2 diabetes, which greatly increases the chances of having a heart attack or stroke, as well as nerve, eye, and kidney damage.
Even after heart disease appears, the metabolic syndrome continues to complicate things. Among almost sixty-five hundred men and women who had bypass surgery, for example, those with metabolic syndrome were four times more likely to have died within eight years of their surgery than those without it. This syndrome was especially hazardous for women, who were thirteen times more likely to have died.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention applied the given definition of metabolic syndrome to almost nine thousand people who took part in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In this sample, about 23 percent had the metabolic syndrome. Applied to the entire United States, this would mean about forty-seven million Americans have this problem. The treatments outlined in the next chapters can decrease the chance that you’ll have the symptoms that characterize metabolic syndrom.

Low HDL

Recommendations for people with low HDL levels are a little less cut-and-dried than those for the other lipid problems. That’s because we don’t have any studies showing specifically that if we raise HDL levels, heart disease risk goes down. We know HDL is good for the heart, so we believe that the higher the levels the better, but no studies have unequivocally proved that. Why? Because all the drugs we employ to raise HDL levels typically lower the LDL or triglyceride values at the same time. This makes it hard to tell which change caused the benefit of fewer heart problems. Recent animal studies have also shown that there may be good ways to raise an HDL cholesterol level and bad ways to do that, so without knowing how a drug has led to a change in HDL, one can’t readily predict if its effects would be beneficial or detrimental.
None of the statins alter HDL levels very dramatically (about 4 percent to 10 percent increase), whereas the fibrates and niacin do a better job of raising HDL levels (about 10 percent to 15 percent). Despite the unanswered questions about treating HDL, it is a very important blood value, with some studies indicating it predicts coronary disease risk better than any other single lipid value. The large observational study called the Framingham Heart Study suggests that every 1 mg/dL decrease in HDL increased the risk of having a heart attack by 2 percent to 3 percent. And the NCEP classifies an HDL level below 40 as a major risk factor for developing heart disease.
Most doctors don’t often prescribe medications to raise HDL levels, because the drug that works best—niacin—can be hard to take and may have side effects that are particularly undesirable in
the population most likely to have low HDL levels: diabetics. More options should become available in the near future, as the study of HDL metabolism is the most active area of cutting-edge research in the lipid field, and several new approaches are currently in early clinical trials. Luckily, though, there are a lot of lifestyle changes that raise HDL levels that are also beneficial to the rest of your cholesterol profile, your heart in general, and just about every other part of your body. The following can help you raise your HDL level:
• Exercising
• Not smoking
• Avoiding foods with trans fats (a lot of margarines, fried foods, some commercial baked goods)
• Losing weight if you’re overweight
• Drinking a small amount of alcohol every day (typically one drink for women, two for men)
Again, while we don’t know if raising HDL through these changes will help prevent heart disease, we do know that their other benefits will definitely decrease heart disease risk.

If Fish Is Good for Me, Should I Take a Fish Oil Supplement?

Interest in the heart-healthy benefits of fish oil dates back about two decades, beginning with a 1980 study showing that Eskimos in Greenland—who eat nearly a pound of fish a day—have low rates of mortality from heart disease. In subsequent years, there has been substantial research on the effects of fish oil on the heart and arteries. Laboratory studies have shown that fish oil, which contains what are known as n-3 or omega-3 fatty acids, makes blood platelets less sticky, helps protect the linings of arteries, and may also lower blood pressure.

Population studies from several countries have shown lower rates of heart disease in people who eat fish regularly. In 1998, data from the Physicians’ Health Study showed that eating fish once a week versus less than once monthly halved the likelihood of dying suddenly from a heart attack. Total heart attack rates (including heart attacks that led to nonsudden death) and total cardiovascular deaths were not affected by fish consumption or the amount of omega-3 fatty acids ingested. One year later, a report in the Lancet described a randomized trial in which men who’d had a heart attack received either a fish oil supplement, 300 mg of vitamin E, both, or neither. The group who received the fish oil supplement had significantly lower rates of heart attack, stroke, or death during the next three and a half years. Sudden-death rates dropped by 45 percent.
Additional support for fish oils comes from a report on nearly eighty thousand women in the Nurses’ Health Study. Published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, this fourteen-year study found that eating fish at least twice a week versus less than once a month cut in half the risk of strokes caused by clots blocking an artery to the brain. The Nurses’ Health Study also found that eating one to three servings of fish per month cut the risk of heart disease by 20 percent, while eating at least five servings a week lowered risk by 40 percent.
Anyone hoping to benefit from fish oil would probably be better off sticking with dietary sources, primarily from cold-water fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring. Forgoing meat for cold-water fish—or any fish for that matter—may lower cholesterol and heart disease risk simply by reducing the amount of saturated fats in your diet.
Three groups of people may benefit from fish oil supplements. One group includes people with arrhythmias, or disordered heart rhythms. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil can stabilize wayward electrical activity in the heart and calm arrhythmias. The second group includes people with high levels of triglycerides, especially those who can’t control the problem through diet and exercise, because fish oil supplements have been shown to help lower triglycerides. The third group includes people with coronary heart disease. The American Heart Association recommends that these people eat one serving of fatty fish a day; recognizing that this may be more fish than most people will eat, the association notes that a supplement can be substituted.

How Is Cardiac Arrest Different from a Heart Attack?

Most people think of a heart attack as something that happens quickly and causes someone to grab his or her chest and fall to the ground. That’s actually a picture of cardiac arrest. A heart attack, as
the term is commonly used today, generally means the blockage of an artery in the heart that kills some heart muscle. (Medically speaking, this is a myocardial infarction.) A heart attack usually gives some warning. Chest pain or other symptoms can prompt someone to get help before the blockage totally disrupts the heart’s rhythm.
Cardiac arrest, though, strikes suddenly and out of the blue. Most cardiac arrests occur when the heart’s powerful lower chambers, the ventricles, start beating very fast (ventricular tachycardia [ta-kih-CAR-dee-uh]) or fast and chaotically (ventricular fibrillation). Either one of these makes it impossible for the heart to pump blood to the body.
After just five seconds without blood circulation, a person passes out. In another few seconds, the lack of oxygen in the brain causes nerves to start firing, making the muscles twitch and the eyes roll back. Even that activity stops in less than a minute. The chances of surviving a cardiac arrest fall about 10 percent for each minute the heart stays in ventricular fibrillation. Shock the heart back into a normal rhythm within two minutes, and the victim has an 80 percent chance of surviving. Deliver that shock after seven minutes—the average time it takes an emergency medical team to arrive in many cities—and the odds are less than 30 percent.
If someone near you goes into cardiac arrest, calling 911 is a must. CPR is also important because it keeps blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs. If there’s an automated external defibrillator nearby, use it following the instructions on the device.

Enjoy Lighter, Smaller Vegetarian Dinners

It seems to be an American custom for people to eat their biggest meal in the evening. From a standpoint of heart attacks, this is the worst time to eat a big meal . . . especially a meal with a preponderance of fat. It has been definitively established by researchers that the blood is more likely to clot 2 to 8 hours following a meal with a high fat intake. It would therefore seem logical to avoid heavy meals – particularly in the evening – to minimize the chances of intravascular clotting. The occurrence of a heart attack after eating a heavy meal has been recognized by doctors for years. Just think of how often you read or hear about a man in his prime dying of a heart attack while in bed at night.
Retired people, of course, can regulate their mealtimes easily. Business people can dine at an earlier hour in the evening and can certainly regulate their diet to promote their health and prolong their lives.
It can begin with a raw combination salad with lemon and olive oil dressing. Follow it with 2 lightly cooked vegetables such as stringbeans, zucchini, peas, corn on the cob, kale, okra, vegetable chop suey, etc. Several nights a week add a baked potato – but do not drench this potato in fat! Season it with a spray of Bragg Aminos, sea kelp and Bragg Organic Olive Oil instead of butter.
Now we are not telling you that the price you must pay to avoid a heart attack and live a longer life is to give up good flavor. Not at all! As mentioned previously, French dishes, soups, salads, potatoes, veggies, etc. are world famous and among the best heart-healthy recipes. A good French chef rarely uses salt and cooks with very little fat. The secrets of French flavor lie in the use of herbs, garlic, olive oil, onions, green peppers and mushrooms.

To Enjoy Your Daily Walk Is Important

Your walking should never be done self-consciously, no heel and toe routine and no time limiting. Let it be the most functional and enjoyable of exercises. Walk naturally – with head high, spine stretched up, chest out and tummy in. Swing your hips, arms and body into action. Walk as though your legs began at the middle of your torso. Breathe deeply! You will feel physical elation and will carry yourself proudly with body erect and arms swinging easily from your shoulders.

Move at your own pace, with a free spirit and a light heart. If you want, listen to motivational tapes or music. As you walk, your body ceases to matter, you become as near a poet and nature philosopher as you will ever be.

Walk your worries away! As blood courses through your arteries, cleansing and nourishing your body, you are filled with a sense of well-being that clears your mind of troubles and nourishes it with positive thoughts. As we stride along on our hike, we say to ourselves and sometimes aloud with each step – Health! Strength! Youth! Vitality! Love! for Eternity!

It’s beneficial to also take a hiking tour once a year. Select interesting areas which you, your family and friends would like to see, and hike about 15 miles daily. You will broaden your knowledge of our beautiful planet and of Mother Nature, as well as help to build a more powerful, healthier and long-lasting heart. The websites listed below will help you in your selection.

Alcohol is a Depressant and Killer!

Alcohol, generally considered a stimulant, is actually a depressant. It dilates the blood vessels, in time breaking the tiny capillaries, especially of the nose, cheeks, neck and ankles (example: red, swollen nose of hard drinkers). Alcohol is also a relaxant and dulls and paralyses the brain. The drinker loses good judgement and control of the body, and is therefore the cause of thousands of car accidents, crimes, killings, rapes and unnecessary deaths. Drinking alcohol is dangerous and an unhealthy way to relax!

The chief toxic effect of alcohol is on the brain and nervous system. Alcohol burns up by depleting the body of vitamin C and also B (the essential nerve vitamin). This, in combination with capillary dilation, can lead to brain hemorrhaging – which in turn, can lead to paralysis. Medical research has shown that the boisterous actions, loud speech, joviality, bravado and devil-may-care attitude of the alcoholic are actually the beginning paralysis of certain parts of the brain!

Stay away from alcohol! It is nothing but empty calories. It will burden your body with unhealthy, flabby fat, in addition to its other toxic, poisonous and injurious effects. The numbing effect of alcohol on the pain centers of the brain and nervous system is a special danger to anyone with a heart condition. Without Mother Nature’s warning signal – pain – a heart attack, which might have been averted, may prove fatal.

It’s Harmful to Your Health to Overeat!

Second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day our faithful, loyal heart is working to keep us alive. In both our waking hours and during our sleep, our heart takes only a sixth of a second to rest between beats. The hardest work the heart has to do is right after an individual has eaten. The bigger the meal, the more work it has to do in pumping vast quantities of blood into the digestive tract.
New studies done by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, found that one out of five Americans are obese and the rate is climbing yearly – it’s an epidemic! Obesity is defined as anyone over 30% of their ideal body weight. This leads to high triglyceride levels which can cause diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Remember, exercise is a major key factor in lowering weight and helping keep the heart healthy and fit. Fact: only 20% of Americans exercise one hour weekly, yet they spend over 15 hours with TV and the web weekly.
Current obesity studies show increases in all age groups. The biggest gain is in the 18 to 29 years old group at 12.1%, up from 7.1% back in 1991. American children (1 in 3) are more overweight than ever! The number of overweight children ages 6 to 17, has zoomed up since the 1960’s. Overweight children are at high risks for adult on-set heart disease and diabetes. Teach your children healthy eating habits by being a healthy, trim, fit example for them.
Overeating puts more strain on the heart than any other one thing! Many people load up on a ten-course dinner and soon afterward suffer a heart attack! Overeating is a dangerous, deadly habit that can lead to serious consequences. You should make it a habit to always get up from the table feeling that you could eat a little more.

Salt Affects Your Blood Pressure

What causes high blood pressure? Medical Science recognizes many causes: tension, strains, stress, toxic substances such as cigarettes and gasoline, food additives, insecticide sprays, etc. and the side effects of drugs and industrial toxins are all suspect. What can you do to protect yourself from these injurious agents? You would do well to exclude as many of these harmful factors from your environment and life as soon as possible!
However, there is one cause of high blood pressure which can be easily avoided. Sodium chloride (common table salt) is the major cause of high blood pressure! Up to now, we have been talking about causing high blood pressure in the normal person. But how about the effects of salt on those millions suffering from our country’s most prevalent and preventable ailment – excess weight? This is a prime area for research because obesity is known to be frequently accompanied by high blood pressure. Medical researchers proclaim a link between high blood pressure and salt intake in obesity.

Hypertension Can Be Prevented

According to scientists, they have found that we all carry a salt gene, called angiotensinogen, that can affect our blood pressure. Those with mutated forms of this gene are more likely to develop high blood pressure, say researchers in the Hypertension Journal. Blood pressure declines in people with this altered gene when they use less salt. The Am. Heart Assoc. recommends no more than 2,400 mgs of sodium daily. Bragg Liquid Aminos, a delicious all-purpose seasoning, contains less than 110 mg organic sodium per 2 tsp – a safe salt substitute.
Read food labels! Cured meats (salami, hot dogs, etc.), frozen dinners, canned soups, stews, chilis, pretzels, chips, and snack foods contain lots of salt. Sweets such as cookies, cakes and soft drinks are loaded with sodium, best to avoid them. Instead, consume lots of calcium and potassium rich foods; both of these minerals have healthy beneficial effects on blood pressure. For further hypertension info, check out these websites: www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/ press05262000.html,
www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/index.html, www.bloodpressure.com

Tobacco – Enemy of Your Heart and Health

Whether it’s cigarettes, cigars or pipes, tobacco is one of the heart’s worst enemies! Here is what Dr. Lester M. Morrison, noted California heart specialist and pioneer in the low-cholesterol diet for the treatment and the prevention of heart disease, said about tobacco:
Tobacco is a poison. Nicotine, the main ingredient of tobacco, is a poison affecting the brain, heart and other vital organs. The tobacco plant is directly related to the deadly nightshade family of plants. Aside from the chief poison, nicotine, there are other well-known poisons present in tobacco: arsenic and coal tar substances and carbon monoxide (when tobacco is burned).
Dr. Morrison also said, Nicotine is the most noxious substance that affects the blood vessels in man. Nicotine is a powerful drug that constricts the arteries, narrowing still more the vital passageways of the blood, already clogged by other toxic residue. The tobacco smoker does double damage to his heart – first, by filling the bloodstream with the harsh poisons of tobacco and, second, by narrowing the arteries and other blood vessels, preventing a free flow of life-giving blood.

Teenagers Now Susceptible to Heart Disease

Nutritional biochemist, famous Dr. T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University has found that one out of two children born today will develop heart disease, and a new study from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (http://www.americanheart.org/), shows that heart disease actually begins developing early in childhood. Fatty deposits in the coronary arteries begin appearing by the age of 3, in children who partake in a typical American diet -processed foods laden with fats. By the age of 12, nearly 70% of our children have advanced fatty deposits, and by the age of 21, early stages of heart disease is evident in virtually all young adults! Dr. John Knowles, of the Rockefeller Foundation, has cited that 99% of all children are born healthy, yet are made sick as a result of their eating habits. The tender years of childhood should be the healthiest of all, bones are strong, hair is thick, liver and endocrine glands are functioning to full capacity, and they should have inexhaustible energy; yet, their bodies are being fed hamburgers full of steroids, antibiotics, hormones and chemicals; milk that is often indigestible which can cause ear aches, colds, allergies, asthma and lots of health problems.
The latest studies find “adult” diseases are related to what we eat throughout our early years in life. In fact, 95% of coronary disease can be prevented by implementing healthier eating habits earlier in life - reducing dietary fat and consuming more fresh vegetables, fruits and natural complex carbohydrates such as whole grains is very important.
Prevention is important - reward your child for good behavior with fresh fruits, instead of sugary processed candies; establish healthy eating habits before any damage to their health occurs.

Essential Fatty Acids Decrease Health Risks

Two kinds of unsaturated fats are necessary for your very survival. These are the essential fatty acids omega-6 (linoleic acid) and omega-3 (linolenic acid). Since your body cannot manufacture these fatty acids, they must be obtained from the foods you eat. Omega-6 is fairly common and is found in most of the vegetable oils sold in the grocery store. I suggest, however, that you try to buy your vegetable oils in health foods stores, if possible. Most typical grocery store oils, which are processed for mass distribution, are often filled with free radicals and bad fats called trans-fatty acids. Omega-3 is found in soy oil, walnut oil, flax oil, and canola oils and in dark green, leafy vegetables. I suggest that you purchase all oils in dark-colored green or amber bottles, since clear bottles tend to make the oils go rancid after a time due to chemical changes caused by exposure to sunlight.
It is especially important to make sure that you supplement your food plan with enough omega-3 fats, since the American diet is usually deficient in this nutrient. While the ideal ratio of omega-6 oil to omega-3 should be between 3:1 and 4:1, a recent study showed that for most people their level of omega-6 is 20 times their level of omega-3.
The benefits of ingesting the proper amount of unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids include:

• Lowering cholesterol levels
• Lowering high blood pressure
• Decreasing symptoms of heart palpitations and angina
• Preventing significantly the risk of heart attacks and strokes
• Decreasing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis
• Decreasing the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis
• Correcting or markedly improving skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema
• Lowering the risk of cancer

There are several other ways to increase the amount of essential fatty acids in your diet. For example, cold-water fish such as salmon, mackerel, and trout are rich sources of the essential fatty acid metabolites DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). These have been shown to help lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol levels, and lower one’s risk for cardiovascular disease. Aside from simply eating fish a minimum of twice per week, you can supplement your diet with omega-3 by taking fish oil capsules (taken with a meal), available at most pharmacies or health food stores.
Flax oil is another rich source of omega-3 and all essential fatty acids, which is why body builders mix it into their protein drinks so often. It is best taken not in capsules but in liquid form to make sure that it is fresh and of high quality. The next time you are fixing a green salad, try using a tablespoon of flax oil as a dressing, or half a tablespoon mixed with sunflower oil or a little vinegar. You may also lightly brush it over meat after it has been cooked.
Other acceptable oils or products containing oils include corn oil, Hellmann’s Light Mayonnaise, Kraft Light Mayonnaise, Smart Balance Soft Spread (no trans-fatty acids), and unsaturated corn oil. Products such as Promise, Take Control, Fleischmann’s Margarine, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! (spray, not solid) are excellent butter alternatives. If real butter is your only alternative when dining out, use it in moderation.
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Exercise for Heart Health

Be aware that doing the right kind of exercise is one of the best prescriptions for gaining and maintaining a healthy heart and cardiovascular system. According to an excellent ten-year study done at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute:

• Regular exercise is associated with marked reductions in the long-term risks for major cardiac events such as heart attack or stroke, and death from heart disease.
• People who exercise regularly, at least three times per week, reduced their chance of a cardiac event from 30 to 50 percent.
• A study from the Cooper Clinic shows that physical fitness is directly correlated with increased life span and fewer deaths from cardiovascular causes and cancer.
• Even for obese individuals or for people with several coronary heart disease risk factors, physical fitness strongly decreases the chance of developing symptoms of heart disease.

The Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute has found that the following types of exercise are most effective in treating people with cardiovascular disease, or for people wishing to avoid developing cardiovascular disease:

• Dynamic or aerobic exercises, which include walking, running, cycling, swimming, aerobic dancing, cross-country skiing, and using elliptical machines.
• Light isotonic exercises such as using handgrips or weight lifting (frequent repetitions with low amounts of weight).

The Pro Circuit Exercise Program,fills this prescription perfectly in that it alternates periods of aerobic exercise with periods of isotonic (weight training) exercise.
But before beginning any exercise program, if you are a healthy but sedentary woman over the age of fifty or a man over the age of forty, remember that the American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you should always consult with your physician and have a preexercise medical examination. This is even more important if you have high blood pressure, chest pains, high cholesterol, or any serious risk factors for heart disease, or if you are a smoker.

Negative Effects of On-the-Job Stress

For many of us, most of our stress is encountered in the workplace because we spend so much time there. A lot depends on our ability to financially support ourselves and our families and to achieve success in the eyes of the world. Therefore it is important to develop tools for managing on-the-job stress.

According to Dean Sunseri, individuals who do not manage their work-related stress have a higher level of absenteeism, decreased work performance, and emotional instability at their jobs. In their personal lives, this inability to manage stress leads to relationship problems, emotional isolation, substance abuse, verbal/physical violence, and increased high-risk behaviors such as alcoholism.
A recent study by Drs. Nicole A. Roberts and Robert W. Levenson of U.C. Berkeley, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, shows that high levels of on-the-job stress seem to play a significant role in marital problems and could potentially lead to divorce if the stress isn’t acknowledged and managed. “These influences of job stress were found regardless of couples’ marital satisfaction, husbands’ work shift, and couples’ parenthood status,” the authors wrote. They went on to suggest that when job stress levels become highest, couples should make an extra effort to be attuned to themselves so that they could find ways to handle their stress in a constructive manner. “This may include employing stress management techniques, making an effort to infuse positive emotions into marital conversations, and finding ways to talk about job stress rather than avoiding it.”
This is often easier said than done. According to a recent article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, job stress can sneak up on you so gradually that you don’t even realize it. Many employees entering the workforce are young and single with ample time for leisure activities, exercise, rest, and sports. As they grow older, marry, have children, and acquire a mortgage and other major responsibilities, their stress load will build and their productivity levels drop. Add to this the fact that many companies lay off employees during times of economic recession, burdening those who remain with an increased workload and even greater stress.
Recently I saw a dramatic example of this when a shipping company called me to inquire about my corporate program. Their top salesperson, a middle-aged man named Arnold, had serious physical problems. Arnold was 400 pounds, had a fifty-two-inch waist, and had a blood sugar level of 126, which made him diabetic. Arnold hadn’t been this heavy or this sick when he first went to work for them. But the stresses of his workload and the amount of constant traveling he had to do had brought him to this point. Arnold was a prime candidate to drop dead of a heart attack. And if he had, his company would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, Arnold is thrilled with the program and has already lost twenty-five pounds.
Dee Edington, director of Michigan’s Health Management Research Center, has spent twenty-five years researching how major corporations have saved literally millions of dollars in health care costs by offering services to their employees such as wellness programs, onsite gyms and fitness programs, and health newsletters. What Edington stresses, however, is that companies should not focus on just those employees whose stress loads and health needs are the greatest. There are tremendous long-term benefits in retaining relatively healthy employees who eat right, exercise regularly, and manage their stress healthfully. “It is much easier to help a low-risk person remain low-risk than to try to change a high-risk person to low-risk,” Edington says.
Unfortunately, most corporations do not take responsibility for their employees’ health. Even if you are fairly healthy, you cannot count on your workplace to take responsibility to help you maintain your health and emotional well-being. Ultimately, that responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders.
In this fast-paced, stress-filled world, the only answer is to develop your own stress management skills. I have found the following stress management techniques to be tremendously effective. I suggest that you experiment with one or a combination of these until you find what works best for you.

Reduce Your Health Age to Increase Your Performance Levels

All of us have a chronological age and a health age. One of the hardest tasks we face in the workplace and in life is learning how to manage our health and performance so that the wear and tear of the job doesn’t make us old before our time.
We have all seen men and women who slow down and become old before their time, with a health age much greater than their chronological age. The person who burns the candle at both ends might be fifty but looks and feels like he’s seventy.
On the other hand, we all know incredibly youthful and energetic individuals who might be fifty, but look, feel, and perform like a thirty-year-old. Their health age—their general level of fitness—is below their chronological age. The factors that determine our health age include body fat percentage, resting heart rate, upper body and lower back strength, metabolic rate (normal thyroid), cholesterol, fasting glucose, and triglyceride levels. Those in our society who have a lower health age are the new elite because they have the energy to perform dynamically while others are struggling to maintain the status quo. For example, I have one sixty-seven-year-old
client, Alvin Edinburgh, who is so fit he was chosen to be one of the Olympic torchbearers.
When I turned fifty, my doctor told me I had the health age of a nineteen-year-old. This is not just luck or good genes. It has everything to do with how you manage your greatest asset, your health. Achieving and maintaining optimum health in your thirties, forties, and fifties are governed by very specific lifestyle choices—as are maintaining physical vitality, a good mental outlook, and passion during your last decades of life. The best news is that it is never too late to start.
Doctors used to say that our health was 50 percent heredity and 50 percent environment. They have since revised those percentages to 33 percent heredity and 66 percent environment. So aside from serious injuries or inherited health problems, you have a tremendous amount of control over your health age and, therefore, your performance age.

The Silent Killer – High Blood Pressure

What happens when you blow too much air into a balloon? If it doesn’t pop, the overextended balloon becomes thin and delicate. Properly inflated, the balloon can be safely bounced, bent and moved around. A balloon with too much air becomes a pop waiting to happen. Don’t let this happen to your vessels and heart.
Weneedblood pressure for our blood to circulate. Too much pressure makes the heart and blood vessels thin and delicate. Increased pressure on the arterial walls makes them more susceptible to fatty deposits.
High Blood Pressure is Often Symptomless
The dangers of untreated hypertension can be deadly! If left untreated, the arteries can become hardened, scarred, and less elastic, unable to carry adequate blood to the organs. The heart, brain and kidneys are most vulnerable. High blood pressure is the highest risk factor for stroke and heart disease. High blood pressure causes the heart to enlarge and become less efficient, known as left ventricular hypertrophy. This dangerous condition can lead to heart attacks. Many connect stress with high blood pressure. Some studies have suggested thatchronic stress can lead to permanent increases in blood pressure and heart rate. Example: air traffic controllers who have high-pressure jobs, have a two to four times higher rate of hypertension and heart problems.
For a healthy, fit heart, it’s wise to keep your blood pressure within the normal 120/70 range. You can manage this with simple dietary and lifestyle changes. Exercise, deep breathing, ample sleep and a healthy diet helps keep your blood pressure under healthy control.
Don’t eat salt or add salt to food, and avoid prepared foods with high salt, sugar and fat contents. Especially avoid simple sugars like refined sugarand keep yourfat intake to a minimum! Never use highly saturated fats. Avoid the fast, nutritionally empty foods so common in our on the go culture. Eat nutritious foods!

What Miracles Exercise Can Do for You

Get outdoors fast and get physically active when you feel dark moods, anxieties, worries, blues, depression and tensions overtaking you – otherwise these negative moods can damage you! Walking or any other outdoor exercise will help clear up your thinking and put your problems in perspective. Any form of outdoor recreation recreates the human personality. The ancient men of India who desired to become one with God believed the body and bloodstream had to be pure and strong before this could become a reality. Thus, they developed a physical fitness system called Yoga. They daily practice their belief that the body is meant to be stretched, strengthened and exercised correctly in order to remain healthy. No matter what your calendar years, start turning back your biological clock now faithfully with exercise.
Benefits that Moderate Daily Exercise Brings You:

• Exercise increases circulation, and brings more oxygen into your body. You will feel more energetic.
• Exercise relieves stress, strain and tension. Tension gets locked in the tight, stiffened areas of your body, especially the neck, back and spine. Exercise will stretch and loosen these areas as it restores youthful limberness. You will feel more relaxed and at ease.
• Overcoming chronic tiredness is a major benefit of exercise. That chronic tired feeling to a great extent is due to a lack of sufficient circulation to your brain. Exercise brings the oxygen-laden blood into this vital area with an energizing and revitalizing effect.
• Exercise helps calm the nerves. Nothing can calm the nerves better than 30 minutes of brisk walking and exercise. It also helps to promote a good night’s sleep, which is absolutely essential to maintaining calmness, repose and serenity.
• Exercise increases emotional control. Exercise helps to strengthen the nerves of the body and create the composure that comes from a healthy nervous system and a balanced state of mind.