The role of exercise in your life

Exercise is an important aspect of every persons life. If you don’t have a career which allows you to live as our forefathers, then you are undertaking a regime it was not intended for. The old adage ‘use it or lose it’ is truer than ever, whether we are talking about you muscle strength, general fitness or even your mind.

Heart monitors has developed a test which allows you to calculate the maximum heart rate or appropriate heart rate you ought to achieve in order to achieve certain health-related goals, whether its:

1. Maintaining fitness

2. Losing weight

3. Increasing stamina

4. Increasing muscle strength

These are all goals which we can achieve at all ages, though their utility will differ at different times in your life. The best exercise regime is that which is embedded in your life, but is also flexible enough for you to adjust depending on the context of your life. For instance:

1. Establish a routine. Going to a gym 5km from your home might be a chore. But what if you made it a part of your daily routine, like always going prior to shopping for the family, or perhaps as a train stop on your way home from work. If you have an appointment some days, then you can always go another day to make up for lost time.

2. Make it serve a purpose. You are more likely to sustain an activity if you recognise the functions it serves; whether its mental alertness, toned body, physical stamina, business networking or extra-family relationships.

3. Making it fun is the best way to ensure you do it. Some of us like competitive sport because it appeals to our basic values. I hate the idea of working out in a gym, but I do like bike riding because I like exploring. I like table tennis because its competitive and is not going to strain muscles reaching for a shot.

4. Make it sustain physical health – not diminish it. I am one of the few family members who has not strained his muscles, and thus maintained an achieve exercise regime. As we get older our bodies degenerate. Our muscles weaken, our bones become brittle and they lose mass. Some sports like squash, and even tennis become too strenuous on our bodies, so more care is needed, or an alternative needs to be considered.

5. Replace fluids. If you are performing sport, drink before, during and after to ensure adequate fluids. This is particularly important if you are riding a bike because you might be on a road when you collapse from heat exhaustion or dehydration.

6. Good diet: If you exercise without a healthy diet you are actually diminishing your immune system. Ensure enough Vitamin B & C, and enough sunshine (Vitamin D).

The value of exercise has long been recognised for reducing the effects of depression, creating a more positive outlook on life, as well as conferring the positive effects of changed environment and positive body image.

The first step before you start exercising is to establish your maximum heart rate.

There is a mathematical formula to predict your Maximum Heart Rate, which is based on your age. Some formulas also consider your weight. The formula is simply:

WOMEN: HR = 226 - your age

MEN: HR = 220 - your age

If you are a 32-year-old woman, your age-adjusted maximum heart rate is 226- 32 years = 194 bpm (beats per minute).

The second task is to establish the required heart rate to achieve your exercise objective.

The following table is intended to match your exercise regime with your intended goal. For instance, if the 32yo woman above intended to simply lose weight she should exercise at 60-70% of her maximum HR of 194bpm. i.e. 116.4 to 135.8bpm. Since her goal is to lose weight, the amount of exercise she does will depend on her dietary intake of calories. Her exercise regime will however affect her metabolism.

Ideal For	Benefit Desired	Intensity Level (% Maximum heart rate)
Light Exercise	Maintain Healthy Heart/Get Fit	50% - 60%
Weight Management	Lose Weight/ Burn Fat	60% - 70%
Aerobic Base Building	Increase Stamina Aerobic Endurance	70% - 80%
Optimal Conditioning	Maintain Excellent Fitness Condition	80% - 90%
Elite Athlete	Maintain Superb Athletic Condition	90% - 100%

Source: www.heartmonitors.com/exercisetips/heart_rate_basics.htm

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

The value of Vitamin D

For years we have been told the dangers of excess exposure to sunshine. What we have not be told about is the cost of our lack of exposure to sunshine. Maybe those melanoma advertisements were just too effective? Maybe fears of ozone layer destruction made us reflect more on the intensity of the sun. Those fears were overstated however. But more probably most people simply lack sunshine exposure because of livestyle decisions. Less outdoor sport & sun, more indoor sports, if not computer games and TV.

The problem is that sunshine is a major source of Vitamin D.

What difference does Vitamin D make?

Adequate Vitamin D will reduce your risk of heart and bone diseases, cancer (some 17 different cancers by 77%, including breast & ovarian cancers), fibromyalgia and diabetes (Type-1 & Type 2), as well as auto-immune disorders like M.S. and rheumatoid arthritis. Contrary to popular belief, sunshine reduce your risk of skin cancer if exposure is not excessive. Researchers have used Vitamin D to block malignant melanoma tumors from developing in human cells. Today, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes are commonplace, while they were very rare a century ago.

Sunshine is however important for other reasons, particularly mood enhancement, who reduces a person’s vulnerability to depression and anxiety, particularly if combined with exercise. Walking in the sun will raise your spirits and it may save your life.

What are the risks?

There is a single risk of excess sun exposure – skin cancer. It is seldom a point argued in TV advertisements, but there is a single racial group whom are particularly vulnerable to skin cancer, the Celtic/Irish population, and yet the world is being scared into over-concern about skin cancer. It must be acknowledged that the amount of sun spot or solar flare activity is not constant, so neither is your exposure. Incidentally, such variabilities in solar radiation are a likely explanation for 'perceived' global warming. Regardless, sensible exposure to the sun is not dangerous under any conditions.

The role of Vitamin D

Vitamin D performs a number of roles in the body:

1. It functions as a hormone.

2. It is a vitamin

In 1990, Professor Gary Schwartz, Ph.D of Wake Forest University, made a positive correlation between the incidence of prostate cancer and a Vitamin D deficiency. Those with a Vitamin D deficiency were people who primarily live in the extreme latitudes or polar regions. Contrary to his observation, we are given warnings about the ‘summertime’ risk of solar exposure, but this fails to consider the winter deficiency. His studies in the US showed that men in the tropics (with higher sun exposure) were 20-40% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those men in northern USA. Prostate cancer patients consistently show a Vitamin D deficiency.

How Vitamin D works

Vitamin D helps your body reduce the risk of getting cancer.

1. Converts tumor cells into normal cells. Cancer cells divide rapidly in your body but don’t differentiate themselves into specific cells. Vitamin D helps this process, restoring the cancer cells to productive cells and inhibiting cancer growth.

2. Prevents cancer cells from multiplying. Cancer cells can’t reproduce and spread to new tissue when introduced to Vitamin D.7 Laboratory and animal studies show that Vitamin D prevents cancer cells from multiplying and also tells them when to die.

3. Keeps cancer from spreading. Vitamin D promotes normal cell growth. As a result, it helps prevent cancer cells from spreading.

4. Suppresses genes responsible for cell proliferation. Research shows that Vitamin D can suppress genes prone to mutation and likely to form cancerous growths.8

5. Inhibits formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. During the creation of new blood vessels, new vessels begin to branch off existing vessels. This is bad news if they’re cancerous. For any tumor to have a chance to grow, there must be formation of new blood vessels to feed it. Vitamin D inhibits formation of these vessels naturally, starving the tumor of the nutrients it needs to grow.

How to Get Enough Vitamin D

1. Get 10 to 15 minutes a couple days a week. It’s free, and will make you feel great. Depending upon where you live, this might not be possible.

2. Eat foods with high Vitamin D. Best sources are small fish like herring, sardines, and anchovies. Stay away from the larger fish that are higher up on the food chain, as the mercury content may be too high.

3. If you can’t get enough sun because of work commitments, climate conditions, consider taking a Vitamin D supplement every day, and not just a multivitamin. Take cod liver oil, because it’s the best natural source of Vitamin D after sunshine. Just a 1,360 IU (i.e. a single teaspoon) of Vitamin D is all that is required, though you can take up to 5,000IU, particularly Vitamin D3. A multivitamin will only give you 200-400 IU of Vitamin D3.

Food Sources of Vitamin D

1 Tablespoon Cod Liver Oil 1,360IU

3-1/2 ounces of Salmon, cooked 360IU

3-1/2 ounces of Mackerel, cooked 345IU

3 ounces Tuna fish, canned in oil 200IU

1-3/4 ounces Sardines, canned in oil 250IU

8 ounces Orange juice, fortified 100IU

1 cup Milk, organic, from grass-fed cows and fortified 98IU

¾ to 1 cup of Cereal, fortified 40IU

The radicalisation of science

Note how society is full of self-righteous, uninformed people who seize upon any popular slogan with little thought of their own. i.e. You might see a person disparage a parent for allowing their children to play in the sun. The sunscreen makers clearly have an interest in misrepresenting or sensitising your risk from sun exposure. This is despite sunshine being one of the best ways of delivering Vitamin D to the body.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Survival guide - How to perform CPR

Its a basic skill that we should all know..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ArXuQwjj7Q&has_verified=1

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Cheap Health Services in the Philippines

I regularly travel to the Philippines so I often avail of the cheap health care facilities in the country. The benefit of the Philippines is:
1. Cheap flights with discount airlines like Tiger Airways (Singapore), Air Asia X (Malaysia) and Cebu Pacific (Philippines). These airlines use either Manila or Clark airports in the Philippines. Air Asia X is currently expanding its destinations to Sydney and Korea, so watch these airlines.
2. Cheap accommodation in regional areas of just $US20, or $70 in central Manila, though door-to-door inquiries in Ermita will find you a place for $20/night.
3. English speaking

You can of course combine your dental and medical work with a holiday. I would suggest that you do not have to go to an expensive high-class, expensive hospital in the Philippines for test work. I found a cheap diagnostic lab in Lipa City, Batangas which does X-rays, blood tests, mamograms, etc. The turnaround is 8-24 hours, so you can hang out at Starbucks or McDonalds.

This makes sense if you travel to these places or you have dental or medical work which exceeds $US10,000. I have my teeth cleaned for about $6, though its going to be more if products are imported, or you go to classy establishments with foreign-educated doctors.

Some tips on using these services:
1. Doctors like to refer you to their mates, so they can each charge a P600 fee, and give you no advice at all. If you are rich, fine, you are helping these doctors serve the long queue of poor customers outside, as you as a foreigner are given centre-stage. Go straight to diagnostics if you know what you have.
2. Make use of any Filipino relationships you have established. If they have some family doctor, they can help you save money. The chances are that they are competent if your friend comes from a 'upper' middle class family.

Filipinos can be the worst and best people. Great friends to have if you find a good one. Some of you might be interested in retiring in the Philippines. If so check out my Philippine foreclosed property blog. On our last trip we went to Puerto Galera, which is not a bad place to retire. Many foreigners. At this point the tourist area facilities are under-capitalised, but a Robinsons shopping mall is currently under construction at Calapan.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Are you experiencing joint pain?

I have for a long time been experiencing joint pain and what I thought to be "circulation issues". The incidence of this was usually associated with drinking alcohol, and I thought eating animal fats, or simply fats, but fact it was an accumulation of uric acid in my blood. I am slightly over 40yo, and such problems occur from this age, usually in men, but also in women. You can specify a blood test to test for uric acid.

If your levels are in the upper levels of the recommended range you might have a susceptibility to the build-up of uric acid. If your uric acid levels are over the recommended levels, you will want to adjust your diet, and if the problem persists, you should consider medication.

Foods containing uric acid and the compounds that metabolize into uric acid include most animal meats, such as beef, lamb, pork and seafood. Poultry and ham, the "white meats," can have some purine, so should be eaten in small amounts. The "red meats" are most detrimental, particularly bacon, because of its added processing. Alcohol and breads which contain yeast also have high uric acid so should be avoided.

Gout is a common form of arthritis arising from high levels of uric acid in the blood stream. To prevent gout, those susceptible to
uric acid accumulation need to know how to lower their uric acid levels. The easiest way to lower uric acid is though proper eating habits and medication. This means limiting alcohol and avoiding purine rich foods, which will convert to uric acid.

The good foods you can eat are:
1. Black cherry juice (or "sour cherry or bitter cherry") helps to relieve the gout symptoms in conjunction with a uric acid-reducing diet.
2. Folic acid can also assist in reducing inflammation in gout episodes.
3. Increase your intake of low-fat dairy foods to lower your uric acid levels, eg. Low fat milk, yogurt and cheese
4. Drink plenty of water to lower uric acid. I have previously criticised the need to take water because I thought the body always produces an excess (unless you do strenuous exercise or live in a tropcal/hot climate). For gout/uric sufferers at least, like myself, my previous advice does not hold. They should be having eight glasses of water a day. Liquids low in caffeine and calories help to remove uric acid from the blood stream. Mother SOMETIMES knows best after all.
5. Celery, tomatoes, cabbage, parsley, kale and all green leaf vegetables are also helpful in low uric acid diets.
6. Fresh fruits including blueberries, strawberries, bananas and cherries are some of the fruits gout sufferers should include in their diet.

Sources:
www.joint-pain.com/foods-high-in-uric-acid.html
www.ehow.com/how_2056151_lower-uric-acid-prevent-gout.html
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Best cooking method

I am a low-maintenance person. I don't invest a lot of time and energy in cooking. Basically you could say I eat to survive, as opposed for the enjoyment of eating. So here is how I ensure I make my food as nutritious, flavoursome and easy to prepare as possible. Basically my system rests upon steaming.

1. Buy one of the stainless steel multi-level steamers. I have one made by 'Ideal Kitchen', Made in China, which has served me well. I have a large one, however you could save energy by getting one which matches the amount of food you need to cook (i.e. how many people you are cooking for).

2. Fill the pot with hot water - why heat up water twice (i.e. hot water cylinder & stove)

3. Use enough water that it does not burn dry

4. Cook in stages - meats and hard vegetables first (i.e. red meat, carrots, potatoes). The amount of time needed depends on how the food is prepared. If thinly sliced you can cook food for less time, and simply cook all at once.

5. Empty the ingredients on a plate. If you want to cook the ingredients, you can pour under cold water, but better to let the food simply cool.

What I do is stick to my favourite vegetables each night, but change the meat. i.e. Beef, lamb, frozen fish satchels in a plastic bag. With these satchels, I get taste variety, as I eat the vegetables using the source from the fish. i.e. Birds Eye Hoki fish in mint & mushroom sauce, if I am not mistaken. I sometimes place steamed vegetables in the hot plate with fried mince or egg, for another flavoursome option.

The benefits of this method are:

1. Reduced cleaning - I only need to wash utensils, one plate, glass lid of steamer, the steamer pot and the steamer. Simple rinse if you have just cooked. Already sterilised by hot steam. You don't have to wash the vegetables.

2. Reduced fat - Steaming removes all the animal fat

3. Kills germs - The dirt and insects which maybe in the food are killed, and they tend to fall out of the vegetables. Bacteria will be killed. Steaming offers a more even form of cooking than most forms as hot water vapour gets in everywhere.

4. Detoxifies - Any volatile chemicals like pesticides are going to be driven off

5. Safety - Mixed concerns here. Be careful not to burn yourself when lifting the lid on the steamer - those gases are hot. Its hard to set the house alight because there is no oil. Mind you I guess there is animal fat (i.e.) derived from the cooking, though its usually not much. I often burn the streamer dry, and I find it gives the food a slightly burnt taste. You will usually smell the burnt residues in the steam water before you burn the house down.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

The health benefits of capsicum

One of the most impressive vegetables in terms of nutrition is capsicum. I have long eaten this vegetable because of its taste. It has a great flavour, so I need not add any seasoning to my steamed vegetables. The benefits are:

1. Stabilises blood pressure

2. Improves circulation

3. Anti-fungal agent

4. Anti-flatulence agent

It is said to help you avoid heart attacks. See the following website for more information.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com

Coping strategy for a heart attack – Attention over 60s

Heart attacks become more probable over the age of 60yo. Here are some tips on how to stay alive. Firstly:

1. Always keep two aspirin and a bottle of water here by all the time, particularly next to your bed
2. Have a phone close at hand if you live alone, so you can call for help
3. Know the emergency number in your country, and have it programmed into your speed-dial. i.e. 911 in the USA/Canada, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand, 999 in Britain, Other countries – see Wikipedia or your telephone directory
4. Have your neighbour’s telephone number as well.

The majority of heart attacks occur during sleep, so the victim doesn’t wake up. If you are one of the “lucky ones” who is awoken by the chest pains, then you need some information about how to react:

1. Do not lie down!
2. Immediately dissolve two aspirin in your mouth and swallow them
3. CALL Emergency
4. Unlock the front door
5. Phone your neighbour or a family member who lives nearby:
6. Hell out "heart attack!
7. Tell them you have taken 2 aspirin.
8. Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for the arrival of help
9. DO NOT lie down ~ unless you fall down.

P.S. If you are bored, start writing your final will. My guess is you won’t be.

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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com