Who among us can truly say that they are as lean and toned as they ever want to be?

Who among us can truly say that they are as lean and toned as they ever want to be? Most people, even the fitness buffs, are in a constant fluctuation between their ideal body and a body that is not quite ideal. So how do we sway this struggle in our favor? Quite often the difference between the body that you have today and the body that you wish you had is made up of simple daily decisions. Read on for simple fitness and weight loss pointers that could very well turn the body you have today into a masterpiece tomorrow! 

• Eating small meals every 2-3 waking hours will increase your metabolism and reduce fat storage. Make sure that these are healthy meals containing protein, carbohydrates and fat. 
• The easiest way to effortlessly lose weight is to not eat three hours before bed. It has been proven that not eating three hours before bed reduces fat storage throughout the night. 
• Eating a balanced diet is key in maintaining a healthy body weight. The American Council on Exercise suggests that this balance break down into 12-20% protein, 55-65% carbohydrates, and 25-30% fat. 
• The average Venti sized Frappuccino weighs in at 530 calories. This staggering number equals 2.5 bagels, or one third of the recommended daily calories for an average woman. Beverages such as this contain high amounts of sugar should be consumed rarely since the extra calories they contain are readily stored as fat. 
• Desserts should be eaten sparingly at an average of no more than two each week. If you have an insatiable sweet tooth, try munching on unsweetened dried fruit, or sugar free Jell-O. 
• Eat a small meal and wait 20 minutes before deciding if you need more food. This will give your stomach and brain time to communicate. If have eaten enough food, your brain will alert your body and you will find that you don't desire anything more. If you are still hungry after this period, eat a small amount more and wait another 20 minutes. 
• Fat free foods, when eaten in excess, will still be stored as fat! Fat free cookies and crackers are made up of a whole lot of SUGAR! Yep, the secret is out! Sugar is just as fattening of a substance than fat itself, when eaten in excess. 

Take the time to incorporate these tips into your daily lifestyle, and you will be pleasantly surprised with your results! Remember that healthy weight loss takes time, so be patient! Make an effort towards your goal everyday and don’t get discouraged!

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I know the drugs work for some people, but they didn't work for me

A drug-free hair loss product, from a surprising source, may be the new answer to thinning hair, alopecia, and male pattern baldness. 

"You have no idea what it's like," says Joe Rice, a 60-year-old professional from Fort Wayne, Indiana. "I started losing my hair in my twenties. It's miserable. It has a way of shaping your whole life." 

Joe's worn a toupee for years. No one sees him without it, not even his closest friends. He's tried "just about everything" to stop hair loss, including Rogaine and Propecia, without success. But deep down, he still holds out hope. 

"I know the drugs work for some people, but they didn't work for me," he sighs. "Just show me one new hair, and I'm a customer for life." 

Joe is not alone. Millions of men and women suffer in silence from alopecia, baldness and thinning hair. And while hair loss isn't fatal, it is a serious condition with profound psychological effects. For many, hair loss brings feelings of shame, despair, and crippled self-esteem. 

Since 1999, a group of scientists in Japan, led by researcher T. Takahashi, has been studying botanical extracts looking for a safe, effective solution for hair growth. After testing over a thousand different extracts, they found three promising natural chemicals. One was from barley. One from Chardonnay grapes. And one- by far the most potent- was an extract from ordinary apples. 

One year later, the scientists announced even more striking findings to the international community. They compared the apple extract, known as procyanidin B-2, Their results seemed almost impossible: in head-to-head tests, the apple chemical proved to be twice as effective in stimulating new hair growth. 

In further experiments on mice, the apple procyanidins, repeatedly produced "extensive hair growth." 

In clinical trials on humans, the results were even more exciting. The procyanidins from apples consistently grew new hair in men with male pattern baldness, the most stubborn form of unwanted hair loss- and without any of the side effects of hair loss drugs. 

Scientists are normally conservative when it comes to conclusions. But the statements from the Takahashi group were unequivocal. "Procyanidin B-2 therapy," they wrote, "shows potential as a promising cure for male pattern baldness." 

For Joe, and 60 million other men and women, this research means new hope. "Of course I'll try it," he says. "Just show me one new hair..."

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An educated dieter is a successful dieter

Reading Labels is an essential part of any weight loss program. Being able to clearly identify key components of a food item is vital to the success of your diet. You have to be careful when you read the label and be extremely thorough. Labels are placed on food items because it is required by law. Marketers are forced to display this information but it does not keep them being tricky about it. 

Lets take a look at a sample label. 

See here we have the Serving Size of the food item. First we have the Serving Size which is 1 oz. or 28 grams. Then there is the Servings Per Container which is 16. This is where you have to be careful. On small items like a bag of chips or cookies, people tend to skip this part of the label and go straight to the Amount Per Serving Section. This where you will kill yourself. Most small items have a Servings per container with more then 1. They usually have 2 or even 2 1/2 servings per container. Not being aware of this, people do not correctly calcuate the Nutrition Facts for that item. When they think they are eating 200 calories in reality they are eating 400 or even 500 calories. 

Next thing to look at is Calories and Calories from fat. Most people only look at the total calories. Here we see that this item has 190 calories. Not alot of calories. But here is the killer. Calories from fat is a whopping 150. Making this item over 80% fat. A big misconception of people who read labels is, there is not a lot of saturated fat because the lablel says only 2grams of saturated fat. Wrong, there is another 15 grams of fat. Where does this come from? My best guess is that about another 10 -13 grams of fat are trans fat which is the fat responsible for obesisty. 

Next we see the % Daily Value. This is recommended daily allowance set by the FDA. This item has a total of 25% fat inregards to your recommened dailiy aloowance. That means that is you eat 4 of these food items, your fat intake would have to be cut off for the rest of the day. 

Another item we should look @ is Total Carboydrates. This is the evil demon among low-carb dieters. The FDA's recommended daily allowance for carb intake is around 330 grams per day. There are good carbs and bad carbs. The bad carbs would be considered Sugars. In this case there is only 1g of sugar and 3 g of Dietary Fiber. In regards to carb intake this is a good product. 

Then there is the protein. The more the better. Remember this fact. 1 gram of protein and carbs are the equvalient to 4 calories. 1 gram of fat is the equivalent to 9 calories. I hope this article has cleared up some issues in regards to reading labels. An educated dieter is a successful dieter.

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Another benefit of adding fruit to your diet is the added water intake

Without question, fruit has wonderful natural benefits for the human body. Fruit is packed with vitamins and fiber much like vegetables, but comes in a wide variety of sweeter, more palatable flavors. 

Adding fruit to your diet is an excellent thing to do, but there are a few things that you need to keep in mind: 

1. Eat fresh fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Juice is often sweetened, but fresh fruits have natural sugars. Also, you don’t receive all of the needed fiber and vitamins from fruit juice as you do from fresh fruit. 

2. If you do have a craving for fruit juice, then go for fresh fruit juice instead of those that contain artificial flavors and colors. Or even better, try making your own fruit juice, taking care not to sweeten it with too many calories. 

3. Choose fresh fruit over processed fruits. Again, processed and canned fruits do not have as much fiber or vitamins as fresh fruit, and processed and canned fruits are nearly always sweetened. 

4. Wherever possible eating locally produced seasonal fruits and vegetable fresh from the garden or grove is preferred. 

5. Fresh fruit makes the absolute perfect dessert for any meal. Throw out the cake and add a fresh fruit bowl to the dining table. 

6. Fresh fruit also makes the perfect snack. It’s far better to grab a banana or apple when hunger pangs strike, than a bag of greasy potato chips. Plus, fresh fruit just tastes better. 

7. It’s interesting to note that nature produces several varieties of fruits resembling the shapes of the organs of our body, which are useful and beneficial to that specific organ. Here are some examples: 

• Apricot - Brain 
• Mango-Papaya - Stomach 
• Almonds - Eyes 
• Apple - Heart 
• Grapes - Lungs 
• Cashew nuts - Kidney 

8. Fruits and vegetables have in them a natural storage of the sun’s energy. If we make a daily practice of having fresh fruit and vegetables, or one glass of real fruit juice and two or three cups of green juice of vegetables, our requirement for food will be reduced to a minimum. We will have enough energy to maintain the body in a healthy condition. 

Overall, just remember that fresh fruit is better for you than canned fruit, fruit juice, processed fruit, or cooked fruit. Eat as much fresh fruit as you like. 

Another benefit of adding fruit to your diet is the added water intake. Water is a simple, yet effective tool in the fight against the scale and the emergency room, and is often overlooked by most people. 

But that is a whole other subject... 

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Chelation Therapy is definitely the most effective alternative to surgery for Atherosclerotic vascular disease

In our everyday life, our body is exposed to various toxins almost all the time. We are facing toxin attacks in the food, in the water we drink even in the air we breath. Heavy metal toxins like Mercury, Lead and Cadmium gets deposited and builds up plaque in arteries and blood vessels and narrows the passage for blood flow (medically termed as Atherosclerosis). This in turn leads to all sorts of problems and even heart attacks and might ultimately require surgery to bypass the blocked arteries. 

Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) Therapy is the process in which chemicals bond with minerals and toxic metals and remove them from the body. The word Chelation has been derived from the Greek word “chele”, meaning to “claw”. 

The doctors have used chelation therapy for a long time now and the most important chelating agents used by them is EDTA (Ethylene Diamine tetra acetic acid). This is a synthetic amino acid that is highly effective in binding with the harmful metals and releasing them out of the body through the urine. 

Chelation Therapy is definitely the most effective alternative to surgery for Atherosclerotic vascular disease. This therapy when applied properly has considerable effect on patients and thousands of patients have been cured without any need for bypass surgery or angioplasty. 

There are two types of Chelation, classified mainly based on the way they are applied; Intravenous Chelation, where the chelating agent is injected through the veins and Oral Chelation, where the patient takes the chelating agent through his mouth just as any other medicine. Intravenous chelation is comparatively costly and would necessarily require a doctor to assist the patient, however, oral chelation is one of the easiest processes and is comparatively cheap. 

Any oral chelating agent would contain a synthetic amino acid called EDTA along with the other components like Royal Jelly, honeybee pollen, unprocessed honey, natural vitamin C and B12. EDTA is particularly effective in removing heavy metals like Mercury from our circulatory system. 

An Oral Chelating agent becomes more effective due to the presence of components like Royal Jelly and honey. Our body perceives it as food and it gets absorbed in the system very fast where as the EDTA in the chelating agent binds with the toxic metals and removes them out of the body. 

This would help you to remove toxic metals from your blood flow while gaining and maintaining you heart’s health. When thousand s of patients today are adopting this chelation therapy to fight against atherosclerosis and maintain a healthy heart, why should you be left out?

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Adult acne affects people from every ethnicity and background

For a long time, acne was considered a problem for teenagers to deal with. It seems that acne and teens go hand in hand. It is almost a cliché of the teenage years. In fact, adult acne is also a very common problem. Many adults suffer from a variety of skin problems. Pimples are not just a problem of the young. People over the age of 25 have issues with acne, too. While adult acne occurs in both men and women, it tends to be more prevalent in women. The statistics suggest that 50% of all adult women have acne, as compared to only about 25% of adult men. Adult acne affects people from every ethnicity and background. 

There are many causes of adult acne. Since the main cause of pimples is hormones, which is probably why women tend to have more zits and skin problems than men. Other things also cause acne. These can be things like overactive sebaceous glands that allow an excess of oil to be secreted onto the face, clogged pores, etc. For many people, genetics plays a role in whether or not they have acne. Other things that can trigger breakouts are stress and environmental issues like weather and allergies. 

While there are many acne products available to treat breakouts and blemishes, some of the ones that work for teens can be too harsh for adults. It is important to have a good daily cleansing regimen. This alone can help many adults clear up their acne prone skin. Others find that topical treatments can help with their blemishes. For moderate to severe acne problems, some adults may find that a trip to their dermatologist is necessary. A dermatologist can prescribe antibiotics or other ant-acne medications. 

As we age, our skin becomes less able to repair itself due to a loss of collagen. The skin of adults is not as resilient as that of younger people. So adult acne can be a much more serious problem because it can cause easily cause scarring in adult skin. It is a good idea to treat breakouts and not give in to the temptation to squeeze or pop whiteheads or blackheads that appear on the skin. Doing this type of thing can lead to permanent scarring of the skin. 

For both adult men and women, adult acne can have the same effects on them that it does on teenagers. Emotional distress, embarrassment, and low self-esteem due to acne breakouts can be just as big of a problem for an adult as for a teen. Everyone wants his or her skin to look good. How we look contributes greatly to how we feel about ourselves, so having skin issues can be just as serious a problem as other things.

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All the side effects of fish oil are avoidable

Side Effects of Fish Oil. Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of fatty acids. Fish oil is recommended as source of Omega 3 fatty acids. Fish oil products are becoming increasingly popular due to the many health benefits. However, there are some side effects of fish oil.

If you take large doses of supplements which contain high level of vitamins (especially vitamin D) in addition to Omega 3 fatty acids, the significant risk is possibility of vitamin poisoning. Vitamin poisoning is a condition which can lead to toxic symptoms. For this reason, you should take fish body oil instead of fish liver based oil.

Another side effect of fish oil is heavy metal poisoning. Many fish contain heavy metal (mercury, lead, nickel, arsenic and cadmium) and other contaminants (PCB's, furans, dioxins). If you eat fish, avoid fish species which contain toxin mercury and contaminants, including Largemouth Bass, Sturgeon, and others such as Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel, and Tilefish.

OK, I hear you ask: should you give up fish oil? All the side effects of fish oil are avoidable. If you are concern about the side effects, you should take fish oil supplements as your source of Omega 3 fatty acids. In fact, only fish oil contains the form of DHA that can be used by your body. In addition, fish oil helps to protect you against wide spectrum of diseases and promote overall health. Specifically, fish oil is beneficial to:

• Cardiovascular health

• Skin health and skin disorder, like eczema, psoriasis and rosacea

• Visual function

• Brain function

• Neurological health

• Immune system

• Diabetes

• Gout and arthritis

So,how to avoid the side effects of fish oil? The best source of Omega 3 fatty acids is fish oil supplements. These tips would help you to choose pure and quality fish oil supplements, to ensure you are safe from the above mentioned side effects:

• Choose supplements that are manufacture under strict GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) compliance.

• Choose the supplements that contain high potency of DHA

• The fish oil should be in ester form

• The fish oil should be free from contaminants

• Choose the supplements that are processed with molecular distillation

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Herbal supplements have rapidly gained popularity among users over the past decade

Revitalize Your Health With Herbal Supplements - There is a reason why comfort foods like homemade soups and aromatic herbal dishes seem to have a healing effect on the body. It is because many of the fresh herbs and spices used to create these tantalizing dishes have tons of healing supplemental vitamins and nutrients packed into them. However, you don’t have to be a chef de jour to take advantage of the healing power of herbs. Just go online to a health food store and order your favorite herbal supplement.

Herbal supplements have rapidly gained popularity among users over the past decade. Although eastern cultures have known about the healing effects of herbs for hundreds of years, the power of herbal nutrition supplements are just now beginning to be discovered by western civilization.

The timing of our new “discovery” couldn’t be better. It seems like every month there is a new initiative launched to try and wing Americans off of their dependency on over-the-counter drugs and prescription medicines. Oftentimes, people have been using these medicines so long that their immune systems have adapted to them and they are no longer effective in treating and curing the underlying illness.

However, with healing herbal supplements, your body can begin to heal itself naturally, safely, and effectively. It really doesn’t matter what type of illness or discomfort you are experiencing. There is a natural herbal supplement available to treat just about every ailment, ache, and pain that you may have.

If you are struggling with weight issues, there are safe and natural herbal dietary supplements that can help you conquer the battle with weight loss. If you are having problems with high cholesterol and are becoming a candidate for heart disease and cancer, herbal nutrition supplements such as garlic, ginkgo biloba, and turmeric have been shown to help reduce these risks and stimulate the immune system and healthy blood flow.

Herbal supplements are a natural and effective alternative method of revitalizing and reinvigorating your health. They are safe, affordable, and just flat out work. But don’t take my word for it. Ask the millions of people worldwide who have benefited from the natural healing power of herbal supplements. As always, talk to your doctor before taking on any new medical treatment.

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Your genetic composition can make you susceptible to some types of cancer

Food helps us by supplying many vital micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Your genetic composition can make you susceptible to some types of cancer. Your way of eating plays a major role in increasing or reducing the risk of cancer.

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive substances found in plants. They protect us against diseases when they are in our body. Isoflavones and Lycopene are phytochemicals.

Isoflavones decrease the risk of breast cancer for premenopausal women, while Lycopene decreases the prostate cancer risk in middle aged men.

Soya is a great source of Isoflavones like genisteinm and daidzein. Although isoflavones are weak estrogens, the established hypothesis has been that isoflavones exert antiestrogenic effects when placed in a high-estrogen environment (pre-menopausal women) and estrogenic effects when in a low-estrogen environment, (post-menopausal women).

Daidzein was found to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in many studies.

Genistein:

• Reduces the protective mechanisms of cancer cells.
• Acts as an antioxidant.
• Inhibits several enzymes in cellular signaling pathways.
• Increases levels of transforming growth factor-beta' that inhibits the growth of tumor cells.
• Inhibits the growth of wide range of both hormone-dependent and hormone-independent cancer cells.

Decreased rates of breast, uterus and prostate cancers are associated with Soya consumption because of its antiestrogenic action.

Lycopenes:

• Tomatoes, watermelon and other orange-to-red colored vegetables and fruits like
• paprika, rose-hips etc. contain abundant lycopenes. A better level of Lycopene is
• produced from tomatoes when they cooked with olive or canola oil.

Lycopenes are natural carotenoids that act as antioxidants. They also block the conversion of food mutagens found in fried, cooked meats and fish in the form of heterocyclic amines.

Lycopenes are good inhibitors of cell proliferation and lower the oxidation of LDL-cholesterol thus minimizing the heart disease risk.

Lycopenes reduce the risk for stomach, breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer. Both raw and cooked tomatoes have same amount of cancer fighting power. Lycopenes stimulate the enzymes that block the carcinogenic damage to the cell.

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Getting the vitamins and minerals we need is critical to maintaining good health as we get older

Far from the Flintstones shapes many of us chewed as kids, adult vitamins provide nutrients needed by a full-grown body. While vitamins are abundant in many foods, many adults do not follow diets that provide all of the vitamins and nutrients needed; a supplement can help augment our daily intake.

Like children, adults need certain vitamins to help our bodies function properly. Vitamins can also help prevent certain types of diseases. For example, vitamin D helps strengthen bones and reduce risk of osteoporosis. Vitamin A enhances vision, and vitamin C helps fight colds. Vitamin B can give us energy, which is certainly necessary in today's busy world. And vitamin E helps skin stay taut, which is definitely a bonus as we begin to age.

Some vitamins are fat-soluble, while others are water-soluble. The first type of vitamins is stored until the body can use the nutrients. These include vitamins A, D, E, and K. The latter type directly enters the blood stream, and what isn't used is excreted through the urine. These vitamins-vitamins B and C, in particular-need to constantly be replenished.

If you are not into popping pills, there are indeed ways to up your vitamin intake by adjusting your diet. These foods are high in vitamins:

Vitamin A

Eggs, milk, carrots, spinach, nectarines, canteloupe, apricots, sweet potatoes

B Vitamins

(There are several types of B vitamins)

Whole grains, seafood, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy products, green leafy vegetables, beans, peas, citrus fruits

Vitamin C

Citrus fruits, canteloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage

Vitamin D

Dairy products, fish, egg yolks

Vitamin E

Whole grains, green leafy vegetables, nuts, egg yolks, sardines

Vitamin K

Green leafy vegetables, dairy products, pork, green leafy vegetables

If you are able to get the vitamins you need directly from the foods you eat, you will benefit most greatly. If not, there are many multi-vitamins available over the counter that will help you reach your nutritional needs. Getting the vitamins and minerals we need is critical to maintaining good health as we get older. Those chewable vitamins you took as a child started the job; it is your responsibility to maintain it!

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Many women also experience emotional symptoms during menopause

Menopause is the time in a woman's life when her periods stop and she is then unable to bear children. This happens because as a woman ages, her ovaries stop making enough of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Some women just stop having periods. Others experience symptoms, such as:

• A change in the menstrual cycle. This is one of the first signs of menopause.
• Hot flashes. Hot flashes are the most common symptom of menopause.
• Thinning of your vagina and vulva (the area around the vagina). The skin of your vagina and vulva becomes thinner with menopause.
• Urinary tract problems. 
• Headaches, night sweats, trouble sleeping and tiredness are other symptoms. 

Trouble sleeping and feeling tired may be caused by hot flashes and night sweats

Many women also experience emotional symptoms during menopause. These symptoms may include sadness, anxiety and loss of sleep. For some women, symptoms can be severe and they might need to seek treatment for these independently of the physical symptoms.

If menopause hot flashes are really beginning to get you down, but you don't want to go the route of artificial HRT, then you might want to start considering some of the great natural alternatives that are now available. Wild yam cream, for example, has been giving women relief from menopause hot flashes for many years now. Wild yam is gentler on the body than HRT treatments, and so a little slower to work sometimes. It does work, however, and doesn't bring with it the risks associated with artificial hormone replacement either.

Other supplements that can be used to help alleviate menopause hot flashes include vitamin E. Vitamin E has a number of additional uses for use by menopausal women. It can help keep the skin in good condition, and more importantly, keeps the heart healthy too.

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Vitamin

Civilizations throughout the ages have known that certain foods have qualities that can help to create health for people. And depriving people of certain foods would mean allowing them to succumb to disease. For example, in the age of the sail, scurvy was kept away with lemons and limes.

It has only been in the past hundred years that people have come to understand that food contains nutrients and those nutrients are necessary for life. Some of those nutrients, but not all have been labeled as "vitamins." Part of the word, "vita" is the same root as "vital" which means life.

There are 13 vitamins, but there have not always been. Vitamin A, C, D, E, and K plus the 8 B vitamins make up the roster of vitamins today. Other nutrients, formerly considered to be vitamins, have been reclassified by scientists as they develop an understanding of the things that make our body work.

While the best way to get these vitamins is through our diets, sometimes it is not always possible. Eating a balanced diet is difficult these days, because our lives are very busy. An alternative is to use vitamin supplements to help us get all the vitamins we need to survive in healthy, disease-free bodies.

The human body can exist for quite some time without vitamins, but it does need all of them in order to properly function free of disease. If you're concerned that your diet is not helping you maintain an intake of all of these vitamins, you should consider finding a multi-vitamin supplement to help you. Taking a regular dosage will help ensure that you are getting enough vitamins and your body will get rid of any of the vitamins you don't need any more of.

If you do have vitamins in your house, keep them stored in a cool, dry place and keep them away from children. Even though vitamins are necessary for life, children need to be careful not to have too many; especially vitamins that contain iron.

Eating a balanced diet should be an important part of a healthy lifestyle plan. If your life cannot always include a balanced diet, you may want to consider getting a vitamin supplement to make sure you are getting everything your body needs.

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