One such property that you can study and that can open up a lot of other topics is the color of your blood. Ever since you were a child who had your first bloody wound, you have realized that your blood is actually red. This is a rather common knowledge in your science class as well. But your blood is actually composed of several materials that are different in color like the plasma that is yellow.

So what makes your blood red?

There is a material in your blood that is called hemoglobin. It is a protein that can be found in red blood cells. An oxygen-transport metalloprotein, hemoglobin is tasked mainly with the transport of oxygen from your lungs (your main respiratory organ) to the rest of your body. The oxygen that you inhale is essential for the cells and tissues in your body to burn nutrients from which it would get the energy it needs to function efficiently. Hemoglobin also functions to collect carbon dioxide that is brought back to your lungs for you to expel through exhalation.

Your hemoglobin has a great amount of iron, a substance that enables that transportation of oxygen. Now this iron that has attached oxygen in it is the very reason your blood is red.

Now, as your red blood cells-and the hemoglobin in it-are expected to last for at least four months before they are automatically replaced by your body, you need to make sure that you try to do your best in the gathering of external factors that would boost your body’s iron content. There are foods and exercises as well as medications that would help keep your body’s iron content high so that it can keep on pushing the hemoglobin around into doing its task of carrying oxygen around the body.

Your blood is definitely important, even if in terms of the simplest attribute like the color. Understanding these attributes can contribute to your understanding of just how essential it is that you keep your blood flow healthy.

]]> http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-is-blood-red.html/feed 0 http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-should-i-change-to-a-heart-disease-diet.html http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-should-i-change-to-a-heart-disease-diet.html#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:00:03 +0000 admin http://www.bamadelt.com/?p=492 A heart disease diet should not be thought of as a temporary solution to get you over a difficult time. If you have had a heart bypass, a stent or heart attack or been diagnosed with Coronary Heart Disease then there are lots of things about your lifestyle that the hospital’s cardiac rehab team will have talked to you about. One of those recommended changes will have been to change your eating pattern to a healthy heart disease diet.

Ideally your lifestyle should have been assessed and recommendations been made as to the best way forward for you. Switching to a heart disease diet will make a big difference not just too how you feel in the coming months but in the years to come to your quality of life and health.

It’s important to remember that there is no rush. Small steps that are taken every day will overtime add up. You may have been told to make lots of different changes not just to what you eat but also to how much you drink and the activity you do. You do not want to change everything at once! If you rush into changing everything you will find it hard to maintain and after a few months be back to square one. Don’t think of it as a change in your diet which is a temporary measure and has an end point. A heart disease diet should be thought of as a lifelong commitment to healthy eating.

A heart disease diet plays an important part in your recovery, which once you see and feel the benefits will also affect how you feel in yourself. How you are thinking will affect how you feel and how you feel will affect what you do. Therefore it is important to think about a heart disease diet as a new way of eating for the rest of your life.

How you think and feel about food is often neglected when going on a diet or changing the way you eat. How you were brought up will have an impact on not just your food choices but on how you feel in yourself.

Were you ever rewarded with food? I expect you can remember being told “if you are good you can have some sweets.” We all have an emotional attachment with food as it makes us feel good.

Cut out all processed foods and reduce the amount of salt you have. Consider the way you cook your meals, steaming or grilling your food would be a good place to start. Reducing the amount of calories you eat each day is a good place to start and you can do that simply by buying a smaller dinner plate.

The reality is that it only takes a tiny imbalance to make a huge difference. Eating just one extra chocolate biscuit (100 calories) each day, could lead to a weight gain of 5kg (just over 10lb) in a year! Therefore by adding a physical activity program as well as switching to a heart disease diet lines you up for success.

]]> http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-should-i-change-to-a-heart-disease-diet.html/feed 0 http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-should-parents-be-aware-of-childhood-disorders.html http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/29/why-should-parents-be-aware-of-childhood-disorders.html#comments Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:00:03 +0000 admin http://www.bamadelt.com/?p=490 A person’s childhood is the most beautiful aspect of life. Most of us associate health problems and disorders with adult life but a number of children are also affected. There are a number of childhood disorders that are not detected till adult life as most parents do not pay attention to them. Most of the symptoms associated with this disorder look as normal aspect of growing up and importance is not given to identify the tell tale signs of it.

These disorders could be physiological, physical, emotional and mental. A child which was perfect in the initial couple of years could suddenly develop what is known in medical terms as childhood disintegrative disorder. The exact cause for this is yet to be determined but it has been found to be linked to neurological problems. This condition mostly affects children in the age group of 3-4 years.

Some of the symptoms include

Inadequate social skills,Inability to control bowel and bladder movementUnable to use expressive or receptive language,Inability to develop peer relationship,Unable start or continue with a conversation.

Most parents when they come across such symptoms in their child, initially think of it as shyness but if the symptoms continue for a prolonged period of time it is time to sit up and take notice.

These disorders can be treated if diagnosed at the correct time. The treatment could vary from one child to the other. Most childhood disorders can be termed as behavioral while others can be termed as brain based disorders.

Nearly all such disorders fall within the two categories of behavioral or brain. The brain based disorders are mostly caused due to neuro chemical problems while the behavioral disorders are due to emotional stress or anxiety that a child undergoes due to a number of reasons.

The most common reasons for emotional stress could be due to divorce of parents, relocation from a particular school or area, bullying at school, peer pressure and loss of pets.

External air can be polluted from many sources, but U.S. government legislation is beginning to have an effect on the level of pollutants in the air and general air quality is improving.

However, the air in your home is not only the same air that you breathe outside your home and so therefore has the same pollutants; it also contains many other particles and molecules produced from an array of things inside your home. This effectively makes the air in your home likely to be more polluted than the air outside.

So where does all the additional pollution come from? If you have pets in your home the pet produces allergens that float in the air and can cause an allergic reaction and respiratory problems for those affected. Simple everyday dust from carpets, soft furnishes and so on floats in the air; just look in a room that has the sun shining through and its looks as if the room is thick with dust particles.

Of course, if someone in the home smokes, then this is the single worst cause of internal air pollution. Not only does it fill a room with acrid smoke, the smoke contains hundreds of harmful chemicals that cause serious respiratory, lung and heart conditions; even by just breathing second-hand smoke.

Good quality air filtration systems can help, but only on a limited basis. A good air cleaning system will keep the air cleaner, but as far as allergy and asthma sufferers are concerned an air filtration system should be complementary to controlling the main source of the allergens that course the respiratory problem.

As far as cleaning air full of cigarette smoke, a good air filter will help, but it can never get rid of all the chemicals floating around; the only sensible answer is to stop smoking, or at least ban it in the home.

Air filtration systems do improve air quality, but it is important that you fit the correct filters. There are a multitude of filters on the market. The high efficient particulate air (HEPA) filter is a popular choice and traps many pollutants and allergens (about 99.7 percent). Electronic ion filters do a similar thing by using an electrical charge that attracts particles. You can also get air filters that are a combination of both.

The one thing that many people forget about is changing or cleaning air filters. There is little point in having an air filtration system and never replacing the filters; in fact the air quality is likely to end up worse than if you didn’t have a filtration system. Mark the dates that the filters need cleaning or replacing on a calendar. This way you will know exactly when to replace them.

]]> http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/27/what-to-do-about-internal-air-pollution.html/feed 0 http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/27/why-do-i-feel-tired-all-the-time-causes-of-tiredness.html http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/27/why-do-i-feel-tired-all-the-time-causes-of-tiredness.html#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:00:03 +0000 admin http://www.bamadelt.com/?p=498 At some point in life, people feel like they do not have energy at all. That feeling of weakness or lack of strength is often regarded to as tiredness. This condition is usually manifested physically. People feel fatigued due to a lot of reasons. Some of the most common ones are listed below.

The first cause of tiredness is hypothyroidism. This is a condition where in the thyroid glands do not work properly. They are not able to produce and release hormones that are needed by the body to complete certain processes. Aside from tiredness, a non functional thyroid can also cause the skin to turn yellow. It can cause the nails to be brittle and it can also cause the hair to fall out. Other effects include constipation and weight gain as well as mental problems such as depression and memory loss.

The second cause is often referred to as Guillain-Barré. This condition is related to the functions of the nerves in the body. When the nerves do not function well, signals to and from the brain are not efficiently relayed. As a result, it can cause fatigue especially in the arms and limbs.

The third cause is sickness. Any disease that is caused by bacteria or virus can make a person feel tired. This is because when someone is sick, the body has to work harder to fight the foreign bodies. During this time, the body uses a lot of energy to prevent the virus or bacteria from making the sickness worse. Because so much energy is being used, there is less energy for the body to use for daily routines.

The fourth cause is diabetes. It is said that if the amount of sugar in the bloodstream is high, the body will not be able to function well. This is because too much sugar slows down the metabolism of the body. It also prevents the nutrients from being absorbed by the body because they fill up the cells.

The fifth cause is vitamin deficiency. Certain vitamin deficiencies can cause a person to feel weak and experience lack of energy. For instance, if a person lacks Vitamin C, the body will be more vulnerable from getting anemia, diabetes and toxin accumulation. Vitamin C helps in cleaning the body and making the body strong by improving the absorption of nutrients. Vitamin B12 is also very important for people in order to prevent fatigue. This vitamin is vital to avoid depression and numbness in certain parts of the body. It can also improve the metabolic processes therefore food can be broken down more easily. In addition to this, another vitamin that belongs to the B-complex is equally important to fight fatigue. This is Vitamin B9. Lack of this will result to the inefficient transportation of oxygen to the different parts of the body. Vitamin B9 improves the immune system and makes it easier for the organs to receive oxygen to perform important functions.

These are just some of the reasons why people feel tired. Check if some of them are causing your tiredness.

Understanding tiredness is your first step in overcoming this problem. You will be able to answer the question “why do I feel tired all the time ” if you check out the link.

Prevention

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Let’s start by talking about prevention. Although the average adult gets two to three upper respiratory infections a year it doesn’t mean you have to.

Avoid over training. While studies suggest being active will help reduce the chances of catching and the duration of a cold, the average triathlete flirts with over training which can hinder your immune response. Over training is a major contributing factor for many triathletes and one of the best ways to measure this is with your morning heart rate. Make a habit of taking your pulse first thing in the morning before getting out of bed, make it a part of your training journal with notes about how you are feeling in a general sense. After establishing a good baseline on well days, you can assess mornings that you wake up fatigued and or sore. With a heart rate that is 5% higher than your base you will want to scale back your workout that day and lower the intensity. If your heart rate is 10% higher than the base, just take the day or two off completely to rest. Also know the other symptoms of over training.
Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energyMild leg soreness, general aches and painsPain in muscles and jointsSudden drop in performanceInsomniaHeadachesDecreased immunity (increased number of colds, and sore throats)Decrease in training capacity / intensityMoodiness and irritabilityDepressionLoss of enthusiasm for the sportDecreased appetiteIncreased incidence of injuries.

Eat a well-balanced diet. The immune system depends on many vitamins and minerals for optimal function. It doesn’t matter what sort of diet and eating philosophy or plan you are into – overwhelming evidence shows that getting the micro and macro nutrients you need will help keep you well.

Get enough rest. Even if you are not over training, most adults are not getting enough regular sleep. If you are not getting enough rest at night your immune system will not be firing on all cylinders. While coffee might jump start you in the morning, your immune system will still be a little sluggish.

Wash your hands. Your mom was right, washing your hands keeps the germs off. You touch a lot of things, and in between all those things you touch your face. By extension, all that nasty stuff you touched is essentially going right into your mouth, nose, & eyes.

Come to my office. There is not any definitive research, but a lot of preliminary studies and reports suggest there might be some improvement in immunoregulatory function with spinal manipulation. Even still, Chiropractic care can help with getting enough rest, nutrition, and over training when a skilled Chiropractor takes the time to assist you with those areas of your health.

Get sick. Sometimes it is unavoidable and you end up with an upper respiratory infection or the flu anyway. Being sick and exposed to virus and bacteria is how we build immunity in the first place. Once we recover from the flu virus you are immune to that virus for life, not a bad deal really. Since you are already sick, take the time to rest and recover. Embrace the awful symptoms as they are your bodies method of fighting. I recommend avoiding over the counter medicine that just treats symptoms – that fever is how your body fights the cold & flu. It may also trick you into feeling better than you are and lead to future over exhaustion and fatigue.

Work out or not? Training while sick.

Alright, so you aren’t feeling well and want to know if you should work out anyway?

Depends… In doing some more research to validate my own opinions on the matter, it was hard to come up with any short and concise advice. You really have to figure out your symptoms and know if you just have a mild cold, allergies, the flu, or possibly something else. This is the standard disclaimer – go to your doctor if you are unsure. Relying on Internet advice, even from a health care professionals blog, is not a smart move. Make an appointment if you have any questions or concerns.

I am going to take a bit of risk and assume we are only talking about the little gray area of “kind of sick” “un-descriptive not feeling well” and we all know that obvious violent flu, food poison, pneumonia, and other very obvious levels of sick are no goes for working out.

If you are otherwise fine and the workout is your only concern it is safe to say that if your symptoms are above the neck and you do not have a fever, exercise is probably safe. Intensive exercise should be postponed until a few days after the symptoms have gone away. Use some caution, you might be able to workout through a little head cold but if not taken care of and monitored it can develop into something more serious.

However, if there are symptoms or signs of the flu, such as fever, extreme tiredness, muscle aches, swollen lymph glands, then at least two days for everyday you where sick are needed for recovery before you continue with intense exercise again.

but, but, but…. I was sick for a whole week, you really want me to take two weeks off? Three weeks without training!

It does sound a bit severe, but hear me out.

1. you where probably over training anyway – if your immune system was up to par you probably would not have been sick as long. Also, if you jump back into heavy training you will be very likely to have a repeat or two and miss well more than 3 weeks, but with actual sick days.

2. If you happened to just be very sick and weren’t simply over trained – that is hard on your body. Your immune system just ran it’s own ironman event and it needs time to recover from it’s own sort of workout. Just like an injury, you want to come back stronger than before so let your body heal.

3. You are not going to lose that much fitness… Really, it will be OK. If you don’t follow my advice and start training anyway, you will have a noticeable decrease in performance and fitness. It is expected and normal, but guess what? You’ll slowly pick it up and be back to normal in about……. oh right around two week. Probably the same place as if you just took the time off to begin with, but with the disadvantages mentioned above.

Feeding the addiction. If you consider yourself a seasoned triathlete, you more likely than not have an addictive personality and training is your vice. You’re fixated on psychological/physical effects of physical exercise and fitness and being sick is driving you crazy, feeling better and taking time off? Do some light cross training. Go for a walk. Did out that Beach Cruiser bike. Being physically active is okay, and there is some benefit too. You can go for a bike ride, but you don’t have to make it a work out. Try that water aerobics class before lap swim, those old ladies will enjoy the company and if you can trust stereotypes – they probably bake some mean cookies. Show some restraint and you can be back into training healthier and faster and not suffer a mental breakdown from training withdraw.

Like many people my health insurance covered very little towards the expense of hearing aids. ($250) I asked myself, “is it possible to buy quality made hearing aids, direct from the internet?” The answer I found after sifting through many websites, was to try out a new, less known brand called, Myhearpod hearing aids.

After reading customer reviews, and checking to see if anyone was displeased with the hearpod brand I decided to give them a shot. I did not find anyone bad mouthing the brand. Because the company has a 45 day money back guarantee, I took a gamble and purchased these hearing aids.

I would like to give you a quick review of what I like about my new myhearpods, I bought the pair of CIC (completely in the ear canal) style hearing aid, because I like the idea of using my ear naturally to funnel sound. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the ordering process, all I was required to do was enter my audio gram results, into an internet form, selected the model, and pay the bill.

I waited less than a week for my hearing aids were shipped to my home. This fast service leaves me speechless. How did they do it so fast? I got a years supply of batteries as a bonus. In the box comes instructions, and the hearpods, silicon pillows to used for comfort, wax guards. I was a little taken by how small and tiny these things are at first, when they are in my ears they can not be seen.

After much anticipation and of course reading the instructions, I was ready to try on my new ears, and I am blown away at the quality, and I give them my highest recommendation to everyone who reads this. While the hearing aids are not as good as perfect hearing; I think they are the next best thing to it. As for the 45 day trial period I wouldn’t dream of giving them up now.

Now I’m not the world’s strongest man, or anywhere near it, but 135 pounds is what I’ll load onto a barbell for my heavy shoulder workout for maybe 6 reps on a good day. I weigh 170 pounds as of this writing and, not to toot my own horn, but my frame is significantly more muscular than this kid’s was at the time. Nonetheless, dad encouraged his son to crank out 8 reps for him.

I watched intently to see how disastrous this would be, and I was not let down. The kid’s back was completely arched to the point where his shoulders and head were parallel with the ground, and the range of motion was only about a foot downwards and back up. Easily the worst and most uncomfortable form I had ever seen for a shoulder press.

“It hurts,” the son reluctantly admitted to his father after the eighth rep was completed.

“It’s going to hurt the other team that much more,” dad replied as he added an additional 10 pounds to each side of the bar.

I am a strong proponent of getting your children involved in a strength and conditioning program, whether they are involved in sports or not. But what must be realized while designing a program for your children is that their bodies are still developing, and any damage done by a poor and dangerous training system can significantly hinder this development. Don’t overload your children with weights before they’re ready.

I would not recommend strength training with weights for any child before beginning high school. However, there are alternate exercises that can be done to build strength. I would recommend body weight exercises such as pull-ups, pushups and lunges, as well as plyometric exercises like clapping pushups, tuck jumps and broad jumps.

Once your child is in high school, I would slowly integrate weight training, but with light weight and high repetitions. Aim for the 15-20 rep range at first and max out at 12 reps. Begin with compound lifts only, like bench presses, lat pull-downs and squats. Be sure to stress proper form!

Towards the later years of high school, you can start introducing higher weights into their workouts and shoot for the 8-10 rep range per set. Make sure that your child understands that more weight should only be added to a lift if the exercise can be performed properly. Otherwise, decrease the weight.

What Causes Tendonitis?

As we said, it can be caused by a variety of reasons but the one that happens most often is overuse. The condition has long been a part of sports medicine, because overuse of muscles during certain types of athletics can cause the tendons to become irritated. It can also happen because of an injury to a specific area, and when the injury causes pain during movement, the body will try to compensate for that pain by moving slightly off, putting more stress on the surrounding tendons and muscles than necessary and irritating the connecting tissues.

If an injury occurs to the lower back for example, the body will tend to move at a slightly different pace, so as to avoid irritating the injured area. This causes undue stress on the tendons connecting the hip and leg muscles and the tendons will become irritated by the erratic movement. Simple aging can also lead to this condition developing, due to bone pain or joint pain throughout the body.

Tendonitis Treatment

The treatment for this condition will depend primarily on what caused it to develop. The pain and swelling associated with it can be treated with anti-inflammatory medicine and analgesics but will not completely remove the pain, or accelerate the healing process for the tendons. Topical ointments that contain menthol can help, because they ease any joint pain and the menthol will increase the flow of blood to the injured tissues, accelerating the healing process.

Other treatments that may help the body begin to heal itself will involve physical therapy, or even chiropractic treatments. A pinched nerve in the back can be very painful and cause irritation to the surrounding tendons. The best way to treat that is through chiropractic manipulation of the spine, relieving the pressure on the nerve and increasing the blood flow to the affected areas. Physical therapy practices will alternate hot pack treatments to ease pain and increase blood flow with physical exercises to ease the tension within the muscles and tendons and begin to restore flexibility once more.

Other Measures That Can Be Taken

Sports injuries and repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome can be effectively treated by immobilizing the injured muscles and tendons until healing has begun. As a treatment for tendonitis, this can be very effective, and can improve the overall healing time because further injury is being prevented at the same time. The key to recovery from this condition, as with all injuries of this type are rest, reducing the inflammation and alleviating the pain.

]]> http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/25/what-exactly-is-tendonitis.html/feed 0 http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/23/what-should-i-do-to-reduce-my-knee-pain.html http://www.bamadelt.com/2012/04/23/what-should-i-do-to-reduce-my-knee-pain.html#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:24:03 +0000 admin http://www.bamadelt.com/?p=510 Pain in the knee can be extremely distressing. The structure of the knee is such that many areas of the joint are susceptible to severe pain as they readjust or wear away. Knee pain could be caused by accidents, sports related injuries, and slips and falls. If neglected, it could result in many problems in the knees such as cartilage or ligament tears, inflammation, sprains, tendonitis, dislocation, joint infection, ligament injury, bone bruises, edema, sub-articular stress fracture or collection of fluid in the joint.

Knee pain can interfere with your daily activities and make your life difficult. You must ensure that you do not neglect it because lack of medical attention might further worsen the condition.

Treatment Options

There are many ways of treating knee pain, and most of these aim at breaking the inflammatory cycle. If the pain has just begun, you could try some home remedies such as over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain medication, protection with knee pads, rest, ice packs, compression with a wrap or brace, and elevation. But if the pain does not respond to these remedies within a week, you would need to consult a physician or an orthopaedic specialist for further evaluation of your condition and the recommendation of the ideal treatment option. Only then would you be able to get effective and lasting relief.

A proper treatment plan is designed only after your physician diagnoses the root cause for the pain. An x-ray or MRI of the knee is required in most cases.

Physical Therapy as a Treatment Option

It is essential to mobilize and strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee during treatment. Therefore, the entire program of physical therapy is designed in such a manner that the pain can be reduced and at the same time, greater flexibility can be brought about. This in turn, can also improve the function. Apart from that, some other knee pain treatment methods include:

• Massage and Myofascial Release
• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
• Ice or heat to eliminate muscle spasm and inflammation
• Ultrasound to treat soft tissue injuries
• Traction

Other Pain Management Techniques

There are many more knee pain treatment options available. Some of the most common of these include:

• Exercise
• Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
• Manual Techniques
• Administration of analgesics, NSAIDs, narcotic medications, muscle relaxants, and anti-convulsants and antidepressants
• Radiofrequency radio ablation
• Surgically implanted electrotherapy devices
• Prolotherapy
• Injections

However, it is always advisable to seek the help of the expert before deciding upon any of these options for treating knee pain.

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