Health And Fitness

The Top Strategies For Losing Weight In This Lifetime...

2008-11-08T19:32:00.001-08:00

by: Mark Battalini

Before you go on any diet you really need to ask yourself the following questions:

- do I really need to go on a diet, or do I just need to be a little more disciplined about my eating habits?
- would doing the minimum extra regular workouts make more sense than not working-out at all, but eating less?
- If I go on a diet, is my body going to be receiving sufficient minerals and vitamins to sustain itself?

Here's why all the questions.

Large numbers of people go on diets that don’t really need to do so, they are doing so simply to comply with some warped belief that the world expects everyone to look thin.

In fact, it could be quite counter-productive to go on a diet, if your body is not going to be receiving its required vitamins and mineral intake to replace those naturally lost during the day.

As a result of the above, before you decide to go on any diet, you might benefit from knowing that the most successful people at losing weight are not necessarily those who go on crash diets, but more likely those who increase (or start) their regular exercise program and eat more healthy meals a day.

However, if you are thinking of embarking on a diet, don’t risk doing so and risking further harm to your body without making sure you take vitamin and mineral supplements to replace those lost during a normal day.

So with that in mind, what diet plan you choose will ultimately end up either making or breaking your results...

So let's find out what kinds of diets MOST people are familiar with, and why the "MAINSTREAM" diets or fat loss diets aren't always the best choice.

What I mean by that is your typical dieting system or plan boils down to these three styles of diets:

-low fat diets
-low carbohydrate diets
-low calorie diets

Up first:

"Low Fat Diets"

Here's a good example of why low fat diets don't always forward you the results your hoping for and why you may need to consider an alternative dieting system.

Low fat diets have been in the mainstream for a really long time but if you look statistically speaking, more and more people in our society are getting more overweight year by year. With that fact alone it should tell you that just a low fat diet is not going to be the answer or end all be all to your weight loss issues. Why it's definitely not a bad start, consuming a purely low fat diet is not the answer to your weight loss concerns.

Up Second:

"Low Calorie Diets"

Trying to lose weight using a Low Calorie Diet STRUCTURED Plan is a sure fire way of failing even quicker than using a low fat diet plan. The problem with using a low calorie diet in and of itself is that you will do your body more harm than good. Simply stated, by using this type of method for weight loss all you’re doing is slowing down your body's fat burning capabilities which destroys all chances of losing weight. (You can lose weight using the low calorie method but all you'll lose is probably a few pounds of weight loss for the first few days, after that all weight loss stops --- this is known as a dieting plateau). You can never get slim by not eating and starving yourself.

Last but not least…

"Low Carbohydrate diets":

Although the popularity of the Low Carb diet has definitely hit the mainstream of dieting fads at super warp speed this is probably one of the HARDEST ways of trying to lose weight. The problem with Low Carb diets are that they are to regimented and tough to follow for the average dieter. As well they tend to deplete your system or body of too much energy (carbs) which in essence makes it almost impossible to stick with that type of plan for any length of time. Hence, another failed attempt.

So where do you go from here?

There's one system I have been fortunate enough to discover that has been working for me just fine.

It incorporates a structured balance between dieting and real world living.

In other words let’s face it, dieting is no easy chore. But if you want to get ahead of the curve (no pun intended) you need a system that you can incorporate into your everyday lifestyle and still be able to achieve the results you want. As well without wanting to strangle the poor bastard in the cubicle next to you for doing absolutely nothing just cause you’re so irritable because you’re STARVING TO DEATH!

And you definitely don’t need some fluffed up un-achievable, un-realistic diet plan system that has you starving all day long and is no way intended for you to succeed. In actuality the only thing it EVER succeeded in doing was costing you money and making you a complete train wreck for the short period of time (hopefully for everyone around you) that you were on it. (Oh yeah, it also makes the fat cat shareholders at these big dieting corporations a lot more richer too!)

If you want a personal recommendation for discovering a diet plan that works, that is TOTALLY REALISTIC and ACHEIVABLE and doesn’t make you the FBI’s most dangerous (for irritability) check out fat loss for idiots dieting system. I’ve personally tested this product and I can say that without a doubt it makes more sense to me than any other plan I’ve attempted or read about thus far to date.

What I liked the most about fat loss for idiots is it’s straight forward no B.S. style weight loss strategies about getting back to a healthier you and stop wasting time on every diet plan out there (not to mention your money) and to stay focused, take action and make it happen.

It’s a real world solution for a real world problem.

So if you're ready to discover The ”Ten Idiot Proof Rules” to Dieting and Fat Loss, and you’re ready to find a perfect Dieting Method for losing 9lbs. every 11 days. Then you need to unveil a True Powerful System that will change the way you think about eating. I recommend and encourage you to visit this webpage and learn everything you’ll ever need to know about losing weight and keeping it off once and for all!

Quite honestly, if you’ve ever even considered wanting to lose weight in this Lifetime than you need to go here now and see for yourself what Fat Loss For Idiots can do for your life and you’re health.

All The Best,
Mark Battalini

About The Author

Mark battalini is the Webowner of Web Info Resources which pertains to the health and Fitness Industry, Marketing your business on the Internet, and several other highly sought after informational topics.

If you would like more information on this particular article please go to http://webinforesources.com/fat-loss-for-idiots

Blow Away Your Dandruff

2008-10-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

by: Darren Brent

Do you suffer from itchy scalp but embarrassed to scratch in public?

Do you have hair loss while you always have white flakes shedding on your clothes?

You are not alone as there are millions like you who suffer from Dandruff. Understanding what this skin disease is and how to combat it effectively is the only solution. Dandruff is the name given to the shedding of skin on the scalp, and appears as white flakes in the hair causing discomfort. Although our skin sheds dead cells and renews itself every fortnight, the word dandruff refers to the unsightly shedding of dead skin which is known to be caused by a fungus. The common symptoms are itchy scalp and white flakes visible in the hair and surface when you scratch.

Dandruff is usually two fungi, Malassezia Furfur and Pityrosporum ovale, that reside in the human body. The fungus sometimes creates an imbalance, so that the renewal of skin cells leads to an overload of dead cells being shed. Most of the dandruff shampoos which claim to reduce dandruff contain Zinc Pyrithione and Nizoral. However, the more chemical you apply to your skin, the more the chances of an adverse reaction increase. In the case of an allergic reaction, consider trying out natural and herb based shampoos, which can contain the growth of dandruff.

You will need to wash your hair very frequently with these highly chemical based shampoos to curb the spread of these fungi. The main function of anti dandruff shampoos is to wash away and remove the dead skin cells faster than they can be shed. This is the only way to keep your scalp healthy and clean. Anti Dandruff shampoos contain strong chemicals which break down oils and contain fungicides to kill the microbial and fungi growth for cleaner hair and a healthier scalp. Lemon, orange, basil, papaya, cloves and other citrus fruits contain astringents that help keep the scalp clear of dead skin.

Applying herb based oils containing Lemon have concentration of anti fungal properties. Lemon oils are used to treat skin allergies which occur due to intense oil production. Lemon has a unique quality of sapping away excess oil which helps to eliminate acne and dandruff. Washing your hair after oiling it well with coconut oil is also known to benefit curbing dandruff. You can also condition your hair using eggs, once a fortnight as egg is known to give a beautiful shine to your hair.

About The Author

Darren Brent writes for the http://www.onestoptreatment.com We provides information on all aspects of finding Hair and Skin Care,The information provide by our SKIN CARE EXPERT!. You can find more details and tips about Hair and Skin Care in our education center.

Medication for Anxiety Disorders – The Various Options

2008-10-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

by: Greg Frost

There are many different anxiety disorders, but their one common underlying characteristic is the overwhelming and incessant worry and fear experienced. For those who suffer from anxiety disorders, there is a variety of treatments available to help you overcome this illness and live a normal life free from panic attacks. These range from medication to therapy and alternative medicines. Often, the different treatments can be combined together, depending on each individual’s needs as well as the particular anxiety disorder experienced.

Medications is a common treatment of anxiety disorders used to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety disorders and panic attacks, and are consisting of anti-anxiety drugs, beta blockers and antidepressants. Whilst this may seem ideal, it is always better to cure the problem at its roots – identify the cause of your panic attacks and overcoming it through behavioral cognitive therapy. Medication is a quick fix but it does not cure the problem. Also, it may cause a myriad of severe side effects, such as nausea and dizzy spells.

Anti Anxiety Drugs

Benzodiazepines are sedatives used to treat symptoms of panic attacks by slowing down the nervous system. They have few side effects, but the human body adapts to the intake of this drug and with time, higher dosages are necessary to see any effect. Generic brand names often prescribed are Clonazepam, Lorazepam and Alprazolam, anti-anxiety drug used for social anxiety disorders, GAD and panic disorders. There is a high danger of being addicted to these drugs, and it is necessary to slowly wean off it as you may experience withdrawal symptoms if you halt medication consumption.

Azapirones are a newer variety of anti anxiety drugs which take a longer time to take effect, ranging from 2 weeks to a month. They are usually prescribed for GAD and obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), and are less addictive with minimal withdrawal symptoms.

Anti Depressants

Anti depressants have been used for treating anxiety disorders, and take a longer time to see the effects, ranging from 4 to 6 weeks. They are often prescribed in place of anti anxiety drugs as there is less risk of addiction, but they have severe side effects including suicidal thoughts and agitation. They may also increase depression.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used to assist neurotransmitters by acting on the serotonin in the brain. They have severe withdrawal effects as well as side effects, although these are of a lesser magnitude than the older varieties of anti depressants. They are commonly prescribed for OCD, GAD and panic disorders.

Tricyclics and Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are older classes of antidepressants. Tricyclics can be combined with SSRIs for anxiety disorders except for OCD. However, MAOIs should not be taken with SSRIs as they react to produce hallucinations, seizures and blood pressure changes.

Beta Blockers

Beta blockers are used to treat heart conditions, but are also prescribed for anxiety disorders. By blocking the effects of norepinephrines, it is able to alleviate symptoms of panic attacks such as tremors and heart palpitations. They are hence useful for situations where the user is aware of the possibility of panic attacks occurring, such as before public speaking.

Anxiety disorders are treatable via medication, and usually treatments are a mix of different medications and combined with therapy. You should always seek your doctor’s advice in determining the type of anxiety disorder, and the appropriate medication that is suitable. Do not give up on medication if you do not see immediate effects, as it is possible that your body takes more time to react to the drugs. Alternatively, you may feel that another variety of treatment may be more suitable as well.

About The Author

Greg Frost is a leading innovator in the field treating anxiety attacks and the director of http://www.AttackAnxiety.org which specializes providing a whole range of Anxiety Treatment topics to assist you in your life.

5 tips to help with home recycling

2008-10-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

by: David Lynes - Loans4

The issue of recycling has been an important one for some years, but recently, with councils resorting to fortnightly collections in a bid to encourage recycling, this is an issue that has been receiving increased attention across the country. Councils are doing what they can to encourage recycling by providing recycle bins to households to make this task easier, and the government has pledged to increase the number of recycling bins in public areas to also encourage this activity.

We can all do our bit for the environment, help to reduce landfill site waste, and help others by recycling many of the items in our home – not just rubbish but all sorts of items. And once you get the hang of recycling you will find that it is an easy, effective, and useful way to do your bit for the environment.

Learn more about what can be recycled. Many people just think about things like cans or bottles when they think about recycling, but you can actually recycle pretty much anything. This includes textiles, rubber, building, materials, carton and cardboard, and more. Before you automatically throw something into to rubbish for collection think carefully about whether you could actually recycle the item in some way.
Familiarize yourself with the recycling bins in the area. There are different recycle bins for different things, such as some for bottles and cans, some for textiles, etc. The government has also promised to increase the number of recycling bins in public areas. In the meantime, it is a good idea to try and familiarise yourself with where the bins are in your area so that you know where to go to recycle your items.
Make use of the council recycle bin. Local authorities have issued many households with recycle bins now so there is no excuse for not being able to recycle. Make use of this facility and recycle as much as you can – with a bin on your doorstep there is not additional hassle involved and you could really help the environment in the long term.
Make sure that you use the right recycle bins for the right products. It can be encouraging to also use the recycle bins in public areas, as this will encourage others to do the same if they see you and others recycling their waste. However, do make sure that you use the recycle bins appropriately and don’t just stick all of your items into one recycle bin, as they are separate depending on the type of product that you are recycling.
Save on fuel and emissions. Wherever possible, if you have to drive to take your recycled waste to a public recycle bin area try and drop your recycling whilst on your way somewhere rather than making a special trip. This will save any additional pollution from driving and will save you petrol. Better still, if the recycling area is not far then take a stroll up there!

About The Author

David Lynes

Loans4 provide homeowner loan solutions for homeowners. Please visit http://www.loans4.co.uk for the latest finance related news.

Greg Winteregg, DDS, on Dental Associates

2008-10-15T16:32:00.001-07:00

by: Greg Winteregg, DDS

More than a few times a week I am asked to answer questions regarding when a Dental Practice should bring on a new Dental Assocatate. The questions come from dentists who need one (or think they need one) right away, as well as those just entertaining the idea for the future. There are obvious pros to adding an associate: more service for your patients, potentially more time off, someone to cover emergencies, etc. There are also some just as obvious cons: your patients may not like the new doctor, and you might worry about them making off with your patient base, etc. Thirteen years in private practice and close to as many as a trainer/consultant have taught me one hardbound rule: there is definitely a right and wrong way to go about this associate business.

If you are considering bringing on one or more dental associates (whether this is now or ten years from now), there are several things to consider:

1. When should you get an associate?
2. How would you structure compensation?
3. What's the best way to find one?
4. What are the important points to cover when interviewing?
5. How will you integrate them into your practice?

I'll start with number one: When should you get an associate?

This may be the most important question. This is also where the most errors are made. Let's say you are doing moderately well, still have some openings in your schedule and get about 10 new patients per month. You decide to expand your hours and bring in an associate to become more productive. The reasoning seems sound – you are adding more hours and providing more treatment opportunities for your patients – but this rarely works. New patients don't magically show up, the associate is unproductive and unhappy. You either a) let him or her move on or b) start moving work from your schedule to make the associate busier/happier. The net result is less profit and a problem, i.e "how do I keep my associate busy?"

In this scenario the office was in no position to justify adding an associate. As such, this begs the question: How do I know when the "right time" is? To answer this question, ask yourself the following:

1) Is your practice growing (or has it grown up to now and you just seem to have "maxxed out")?
2) Are you scheduled efficiently?
3) Is your business profitable?
4) Is your schedule relatively full?

If you answered "Yes" to all of the above, now is probably a good time to add an associate.

I'll give you this scenario: Your practice has rapidly (or steadily) expanded up to a point where you can't take in more patients than you currently are. You are operating efficiently and the office is profitable. You just can't see more people and things start to book out a couple of weeks in advance. Now is the time to add that associate to serve three purposes:

1) To provide faster and more efficient service to your patients,
2) To lighten your schedule so you can focus on the type of work you want to do and
3) To increase practice productivity.

If my practice was in the above situation, I would look at adding an associate – perhaps one to two days a week to start and roll from there.

From a practical standpoint, I would also look at how many charts I had. In my experience, handled effeciently, 1,000 charts can keep a doctor and hygienist productive. Maintaining a ratio of one doctor to one hygienist seems to also work well. If you are already have two full-time hygienists (who are booked), you may need an associate now. However, you also need to consider the other points above.

Business survival is inexorably connected to expansion. If the practice is growing (even a little bit), there will come a time when you can't produce any more yourself and need an associate. The level of production that will require an associate will be based on your style of practice, fees, type of dentistry you do, and other factors.

At MGE (http://www.mgeonline.com) we suggest you get an associate when there is more work than you personally can handle and patients are being pushed out on the schedule too far.. How long is too long for them to wait? Although this is ultimately your decision, it shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks. Too long of a wait is just not good service!

One of the questions asked above when deciding whether or not you should add an associate, asked about expansion. How much expansion do you need? To start, are you even getting enough new patients to support yourself? How many should you be getting? This depends in a large part on how you practice, but I'll give you a basic formula to use:

1) Take your total number of active charts
2) Multiply this by 20%
3) Divide "b" by 12 (months in a year)
4) The figure from "c" above gives you the minimum number of new patients you should be getting on a monthly basis to maintain your practice's health. Note that this is just to keep you going. You would definitely need to exceed this number to add an associate.

Example: Dr. Smith has 1200 active charts. 20% of this is 240. 240 divided by 12 is 20. To maintain a healthy practice, Dr. Smith should be getting at least 20 new patients each month.

Keep in mind this formula assumes a couple of conditions exist:

1) The new patients are fee-for-service.
2) The doctor has an acceptable skill level when it comes to treatment presentation and acceptance (which is reflected in production and collections).

If you want an associate, I recommend that you far exceed this 20% factor. This is where the "MGE New Patient Workshop" comes in handy – whether you want an associate or not. If you want more fee-for-service new patients to keep your practice healthy, to expand or to make it possible to add an associate the "New Patient Workshop" is the solution.

About The Author

Greg Winteregg, D.D.S is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Dentistry and was an MGE (http://www.mgeonline.com) client for 18 months prior to becoming a partner in the company in 1994. While a client of MGE he increased the number of new patients from 10 per month to over 60 per month – with no HMOs, PPOs or discount plans! During this period, he was also able to successfully integrate an associate and more than double practice revenues, while and reducing his work week to under 25 hours.

Understanding The Kinetic Chain - A Personal Trainers Guide To Movement Dysfunction Part 1

2008-10-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

by: Dax Moy

In this current era of 'functional' training, core stability and balance-oriented training it's easy to get carried away with learning what I call the 'HOW's' of exercise.

HOW to balance on a swiss ball, HOW to integrate movement patterns and HOW to devise exercise programmes that have a high transfer into 'real life' situations.

After all, these are FUN elements that demonstrate a greater application of knowledge, skills and abilities to our clients. Or do they?

Interestingly, when asked, many of my students (all qualified personal trainers and therapists) had little real foundational knowledge of what makes their exercises 'functional' beyond "they have a carryover into real life".

I call this a 'lack of WHY?!'

This 'lack of WHY' is a 'disease' of almost epidemic proportions within our industry and one which, in my opinion, will keep us from ever reaching professional status if left unchecked.

Simply put, too many fitness instructors are prescribing exercise based upon the latest trends, personal preferences and outright exercise mythology.

This is like visiting your doctor and being prescribed medicine based upon 'it works for me so let's give it a go'. I'm sure that you wouldn't be too impressed if this happened to you, but what about your clients?

What kind of 'professional' service are they receiving?

The aim of this series is to provide you with the WHY's necessary to make your exercise prescription much more than a 'hit and miss' process and plant your feet firmly on the road to professionalism.

We start our journey with posture, the foundation from which our function, and ultimately all personal training is built.

What Is Posture?

According to the American academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons posture committee as far back as 1947, posture is:

'That state of muscular and skeletal balance which protects the supporting structures of the body against injury or progressive deformity, irrespective of the attitude in which these structures are working or resting. Under such conditions the muscles will function most efficiently...'

The key to the above statement is Balance, for it is balance or it's antagonist imbalance that appears to be one of the major influences in creating structural deformation resulting in pain.

Indeed there is much evidence to suggest that chronic imbalance can result in Postural Distortion Patterns that can perpetuate the cumulative injury cycle. This appears to make sense, especially if the kinetic chain concept is applied to the equation.

The kinetic chain is best described as a movement system consisting of myofascial (muscular), Articular (joints) and neural (motor) components with each being dependent on the others for optimum performance, both statically and dynamically. This movement system requires precision of movement based on the alignment and mechanics of each joint as well as how these joints are recruited to create a movement pattern.

In simple terms, the movement produced at any joint in the kinetic chain directly affects the joints above and below it. Dysfunction in any one of these systems may have direct and detrimental effect on the function of its neighbours.

Clearly then, there is much to concern ourselves with when prescribing exercise and stretching programmes to our clients, as every programming decision we make will affect the systems of the kinetic chain. This is obvious of course, but have you ever stopped to think of it in this way before?

Now 'understanding the WHY' becomes much more important doesn't it?

Why Do These Imbalances Occur?

Firstly, we are ALL imbalanced to some degree, even if our posture is considered optimal (we'll talk about this later). This is because there is actually an inbuilt ideal imbalance between the muscles crossing any joint e.g. Knee extensors/flexors, plantar flexors/dorsiflexors. This is simply a reflection of the functional roles of these muscles and beyond the scope of this article.

The muscle imbalances that we must concern ourselves are those that create alignment distortions that affect structural function. These can be caused by but not limited to:

Postural Stress

Living, as we do, under the force of gravity has created a structure, which seems to have placed the ideal imbalance in favour of our extensors; after all, structure determines function.

Unfortunately, modern living creates a 'synthetic' environment where sitting dominates our function and as a result affects our structure.

For simplicity, it is useful to think in terms of postural stress as 'training for posture'.

Imagine 'training' 16 hours/day 7 days/wk for a specific event. You're probably going to get very good at it aren't you? Well, most people get very good at 'bad' posture!

Many posture experts tend to use VladimirJanda's 'short and tight' vs. 'long and weak' classification system (8) as a way of simplifying the processes that create and result from postural distortion and often classify muscles as 'tonic' and 'phasic'.

This oversimplification tends to ignore individual differences in terms of 'normal' posture as well as making assumptions based purely on static posture.

When a muscle becomes facilitated (not necessarily 'just' short and tight) it increases in 'tone' and may decrease the neural drive to its antagonist. This is known as reciprocal inhibition and is a normal quality of the kinetic chain.

However,it becomes a problem when muscles that are supposed to be 'turned off' during a movement sequence remain 'switched on'. This has the effect of creating a situation known as synergistic dominance, where synergists are forced to take on the role of a prime mover due to inhibition.

Pattern overload

Using our 'training for posture' analogy above, it becomes clear that any movement pattern repeated often enough has the potential to create strain upon the tissues creating that movement.

This may create stress patterns in the joint structure, leading to arthrokinetic inhibition where the joint itself causes inhibition of the surrounding tissues or lead to synergistic dominance as an avoidance pattern.

It is important that the stresses applied to our joints be changed regularly through changes in exercise, loads, planes and ranges as well as changes to postural alignment, if pattern overload is to be avoided.

Painful or prolonged noxious stimuli

Injury to a joint creating swelling and/or pain may activate the type 4 joint receptors (nociceptors) that are receptive to these stimuli. These receptors are capable of creating arthrokinetic inhibition in order to protect the joint from further damage.

Lack of core stability

This has been indicated as a possible cause postural distortion and pain. We all train for mobility but how many of us train for stability?

Just how much spinal flexion strength do we need in this vertically loaded body of ours?

Probably not that much! Simply stabilising the platform that our spines work off seems to improve the function most of the clients that I work with (myself included).

Other problems occur here when the tone/strength of Rectus Abdominis is greater than that of the Erector Spinae. Again, reciprocal inhibition and synergistic dominance have the opportunity to 'take root'.

In Conclusion

Our postures are often the only clear indicators of the forces acting upon our bodies. More importantly, they illustrate our ability to cope with those forces.

A clear understanding of WHY muscular imbalance and postural distortion occur is fundamental to every exercise that you will ever prescribe.

With this knowledge of WHY, it becomes easier to see HOW, WHEN and WHERE to apply exercises and stretches to your clients in order to bring about functional and aesthetic improvement.

When, and only when, you can do this you will truly be applying personal to your training.

Part 2 of this series will examine postural types and how to assess them both statically and dynamically.

Part 3 will examine manual muscle testing and Range of Motion assessments.

Part 4: Putting it all together. Programming for postural improvement.

About The Author

Dax Moy is a performance enhancement specialist and master personal trainer with studios in and around London.
Voted one of the UK's leading fitness experts, Dax runs the UK's only course designed for fitness professionals where they can learn in-depth assessment skills for testing and correcting Kinetic Chain Dysfunction.
For more information visit http://www.fitsystemtraining.com

How Subliminal Messages help you to Lose Weight

2008-10-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

by: Greg Frost

Ever found yourself looking at the weighing scales and wishing you could lose weight? And yet, you scoff at diet pills and weight loss programs that have not worked for you. This is your conscious mind at work. Your conscious mind tells you that it is not possible to lose those pounds, and that subliminal CDs to lose weight are a hoax. However, this is not true!

All your previous weight loss attempts have failed because your conscious mind has already decided that they will fail. Hence, subliminal CDs provide you with the key to losing weight, by bypassing the conscious mind that forms judgments and negative thoughts. The subconscious mind is uncritical, and accepts the opinions and ideas that you embed into it, helping to dispel these negative thoughts. With the help of subliminal CDs to inject positive affirmations into your subconscious mind, you will be able to lose weight now.

That is not to say that just by listening to a subliminal CD over and over you will lose weight! The magic behind subliminal CDs goes beyond that. The message that the CD sends out to your subconscious consists of a few different but simple principles which you will find yourself practicing slowly as you listen to the CD as per the instructions on the packaging. This is how it works.

1) Confidence

The subliminal CDs will give you the confidence in yourself to lose weight. By going straight to your subconscious, you are able to eliminate the root of the weight loss problem: your conscious mind. The conscious mind tells you that it is impossible and that you will never lose weight, and hence you never lose those pounds.

2) Eat Right, Exercise More

The subliminal CD will encourage you to exercise more, and eat right. You will find yourself more motivated to visit the gym, instead of merely thinking about it. In other words, the subliminal CD contains positive messages that help you transform your ideas into actions. You will feel your subconscious telling you to get busy and cut down on snacking, and to eat right. All these are knowledge that you already have, but just never put into practice!

3) Drink Water

It is important to drink a lot of water when you’re trying to lose weight. Water acts as a natural cleansing and detox routine, as it flushes out the toxics, fats and calories in your body. This is also a part of the magic of the subliminal CD, which encourages you to drink a healthy amount of water everyday.

Before you know it, you will find yourself avoiding snacks and unhealthy food as your body adjusts to take in only the amount of food that is necessary. This is not magic, it is simply the power of your subconscious mind being harnessed to overcome the negative thoughts that your conscious mind produces!

About The Author

Greg Frost is a leading innovator in the field of subliminal technology and the director of http://www.chargedaudio.com which specializes providing a whole range of subliminal cds for self improvement . Grab your free "Ultimate Success Unleashed" Subliminal Cd today at http://www.chargedaudio.com/freesubliminal.html

Subtle, Undiagnosed Symptoms Could Be Signs Of Subclinical Hypothyroidism

2008-10-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

by: Mark Hyman, M.D.

Do you have vague, uncomfortable symptoms with no obvious cause?

If so, you might be one of the 45 million people who have a chronic medical problem that is both under-diagnosed and under-treated.

Think about it…

Do you feel tired all the time and have trouble concentrating?

Is your skin dry? Do you retain fluid?

Has your sex drive gone downhill?

Are your hands and feet always cold?

Is your hair thinning, your voice a little hoarse, your fingernails a little thick?

Is your cholesterol high?

Do you have trouble losing weight or have you gained weight recently?

Are you depressed or anxious?

Do you have really bad PMS or trouble getting pregnant?

Do your muscles feel weak, crampy, and painful?

Most of these symptoms aren’t severe enough to send you to the emergency room.

In fact, we usually accept them as a normal part of life -- and so do conventional doctors. They don’t view these symptoms as serious.

But they certainly affect your quality of life. And they can lead to more serious problems, including heart attacks and diabetes.

So what causes these symptoms?

It’s called hypothyroidism.

In this condition, your overall metabolic gas pedal has slowed down because the master gland that controls it, your thyroid gland, isn’t functioning at full speed.

If your thyroid slows down, every other organ and system in your body slows down, including your brain, heart, gut, and muscles.

Thyroid function is really a gray area. But most doctors view it as black or white.

Conventional doctors tend to believe that you can diagnose hypothyroidism only through one blood test, called TSH, and that you only qualify for treatment if your blood level is over 5.0.

But this ignores a whole group of people who have what we call subclinical hypothyroidism. It is called that because doctors have a hard time diagnosing it.

Subclinical hypothyroidism may trigger many low-grade symptoms, like those described above. Yet it causes just slight changes in your blood tests.

In fact, it often only shows up in tests that most doctors never perform.

I see this all the time in my medical practice: Patients come in with vague complaints that alone may not seem too significant.

But when you put them all together, they tell an important story.

For example, take the 73-year-old woman who had fatigue, sluggishness, poor memory, slight depression, dry skin, constipation, and mild fluid retention.

Her doctor brushed her off.

But I believe that most of the symptoms of aging that we see are really symptoms of abnormal aging or dysfunction that is related to imbalances in our core body systems.

So I act as a medical detective to find clues where no one else is looking and put together a story about why a person feels sick. This gets them the answers and tools they need to get well.

In this case, we found that my patient had a sluggish thyroid. Although she didn’t meet all the conventional criteria for hypothyroidism, she had an autoimmune reaction that caused her thyroid to function poorly.

So we replaced her missing thyroid hormone, supported her nutrition, and made some simple lifestyle changes. She soon felt alert, energetic, and youthful -- and all of her other symptoms cleared up.

Another patient was a 28-year-old chronically constipated woman.

She also felt tired in the mornings, always needed coffee, and had trouble staying up at night.

She thought this was normal. She didn’t know she had a sluggish thyroid.

But as soon as we supported her nutrition and eliminated her food allergens (particularly gluten), which create inflammation and interfere with thyroid function, she improved.

Low thyroid function affects people of all ages.

It is very common because of our exposure to toxins such as heavy metals and pesticides, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic stress, all of which interfere with our thyroid function.

And your thyroid isn’t just linked to the symptoms described here.

It is the master metabolism hormone that controls the function and activity of almost every organ and cell in your body -- so when it is sluggish or slow, everything slows down.

Fortunately, we can diagnose and treat problem, with a comprehensive functional medicine approach that uses the concepts of UltraWellness.

First, I determine if you have any of the chronic symptoms of hypothyroidism or diseases associated with it, such as:

• sluggishness in the morning
• poor concentration and memory
• low-grade depression
• dry skin
• hoarse voice
• thinning hair
• coarse hair
• being very sensitive to cold and having cold hands and feet
• low body temperature
• muscle pain
• weakness or cramps
• low sex drive
• fluid retention
• high cholesterol

Next, I do a physical examination for clues to a low-functioning thyroid.

I check for a low body temperature. Anything lower than 97.6 degrees F may be a sign of hypothyroidism.

I might also find fluid retention, a thick tongue, swollen feet, swollen eyelids, an enlarged thyroid gland, excessive earwax, a dry mouth, coarse skin, low blood pressure, or decreased ankle reflexes. I might even find that the outer third of the eyebrows is gone.

These are all physical signs that can be put together along with other symptoms to form a story of what is causing the problem.

Then I perform specific blood tests that give me a full picture of thyroid problems.

Finally, I design a nutrition, lifestyle, and supplement regimen and hormone replacement plan as needed to help people regain their health.

In my next article, I will discuss the major preventable -- and mostly hidden -- factors that slow your thyroid down. And I’ll tell you more about the special tests I use to diagnose thyroid problems, as well as how to specifically treat low thyroid function.

About The Author

Mark Hyman, M.D. is a pioneer in functional medicine, practicing physician and best-selling author. A sneak preview of his book "The UltraSimple Diet" is available. See The UltraWellness Blog for more on Hypothyroidism: http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog/

A Simple Plan to Diagnose and Treat Low Thyroid Function

2008-10-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

by: Mark Hyman, M.D.

It’s an epidemic problem -- and you could have it.

Low thyroid function affects more than 30 million women and 15 million men. And it can lead to problems losing weight; decreased sex drive; depression; anxiety; thinning hair; and poor quality, thick, cracked fingernails.

So what’s responsible for low thyroid function and why are so many people affected?

Chronic thyroid problems can be caused by many factors, including environmental toxins such as pesticides, which act as hormone or endocrine disruptor\'s and interfere with thyroid hormone metabolism and function.

In one study, people released pesticides from their fat tissue as they lost weight.

This interfered with their thyroid function and caused hypothyroidism. The toxins slowed metabolism and prevented them from losing more weight.

This study is significant, because it shows exactly how toxins interfere with thyroid function.

Heavy metals such as mercury can also affect thyroid function. I see many people with chronic hypothyroidism and other thyroid problems because mercury interferes with normal thyroid function.

The other big factor that interferes with thyroid function is chronic stress. The more stress you are under, the worse your thyroid functions. Correcting poor thyroid function must address the effects of chronic stress and provide support to the adrenal glands.

The next major factor that affects thyroid function is chronic inflammation. The biggest source of this chronic inflammation is gluten, the protein found in wheat, barely, rye, spelt, and oats. This common allergen affects about 10 to 20 percent of the population. This reaction occurs mostly because of our damaged guts, poor diet, and stress.

I also think eating so-called Frankenfoods, such as hybridized and genetically modified grains with very strange proteins, makes us sick.

Our bodies don’t recognize these foods and create antibodies to fight them. This chronic inflammatory response interferes with thyroid function -- and contributes to the epidemic of inflammatory diseases in the developed world.

Lastly, nutritional deficiencies play a big role in thyroid dysfunction. These include deficiencies of iodine, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, selenium, zinc, vitamin A, and the B vitamins.

There are so many reasons for low thyroid function, yet conventional doctors tend to ignore them.

One young female patient of mine had more than 30 percent body fat and was unable to change her body, no matter how hard she worked. She ate perfectly, exercised with a trainer every day -- and her body still wouldn’t budge.

She also had a slightly depressed mood and other vague symptoms.

So I treated her with a low dose of Armour Thyroid, which is a natural thyroid replacement.

What happened?

Well, she not only lost 20 pounds and improved her body composition, but her mood improved and all her other symptoms went away.

I knew she had low thyroid function because I did the right tests.

Most doctors just check something called the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which doesn’t give a full picture of the thyroid. In fact, even the interpretation of this test is incorrect most of the time.

The newer guidelines of the American College of Endocrinology consider anybody with a TSH level over 3.0 as hypothyroid. Most doctors think that only anything greater than 5 or 10 is worth treating.

Unfortunately, this leaves millions suffering unnecessarily.

Other tests, including those for free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibodies, are essential.

I also look for associated problems such as gluten intolerance, food allergies, and heavy metals, as well as deficiencies of vitamin D, selenium, vitamin A, zinc, and omega-3 fats.

Low thyroid function is one of the most common problems I see, and treating it properly makes one of the biggest differences in my patients’ quality of life.

Unfortunately, by using the old guidelines and thinking, conventional medicine misses millions who suffer with hypothyroidism.

In fact, in one study, researchers tested everybody who walked through the gates of a county fair with conventional thyroid testing. They found that according to even conservative conventional standards, half of all the people who had hypothyroidism were undiagnosed, untreated, and suffering.

Once you have confirmed that a sluggish thyroid is contributing to your symptoms, the good news is that there are many, many, many things you can do to help correct thyroid problems.

I have developed a seven-step plan to address hypothyroidism:

Identify and treat the underlying causes of hypothyroidism, like food allergies, gluten, heavy metals, nutritional deficiencies, and stress.
Support your thyroid with optimal nutrition, including foods that contain iodine, zinc, omega-3 fats, selenium, and more.
Eliminate adrenal exhaustion and minimize stress by engaging in a comprehensive stress management program.
Engage in thyroid stimulating exercise, which boosts thyroid function.
Use supplements to help enhance thyroid function, including all the nutrients needed for proper thyroid metabolism and function.
Use saunas and heat to eliminate stored toxins, which interfere with thyroid function.
Use thyroid hormone replacement therapy to help support your thyroid gland.

I believe a comprehensive approach is needed to address chronic thyroid issues and to diagnose them. Most of the options for healing by conventional care are quite limited and only provide a partial solution. But by following my seven-step plan you can achieve optimal health and UltraWellness.

About The Author

Benchmarking : How To Make The Best Decisions For Your Practice

2008-10-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

by: Sherri Dumford

Today more than ever before, medical practice management is not just about caring for your patients - it is also about running a successful business. If you lack efficiency, your quality of service will ultimately suffer. To thrive, you need to make informed decisions, but this can be a challenge. After all, as the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know." Without a way to measure relevant financial and operational indicators, you might find yourself relying on educated guesswork. Thankfully, there is an alternative to good guessing: benchmarking - a strategic management tool that helps evaluate effectiveness and fosters goal-setting.

Essentially, benchmarking provides a snapshot of the performance of your business and helps you understand where you are in relation to a particular standard. If your accounts receivable are averaging a sluggish 54 days and you're wondering whether this is normal, benchmarking can show how you compare to your specialty's average at just 45 days, signifying not only that you're trailing behind your peers but that a reduction should be achievable. Or, if you find that your patient wait times have increased, benchmarking can help you find the optimal balance between same-day and future appointment openings. Benchmarking can even help effectively manage your successes. Suppose you know your practice is gaining new patients at an astonishing rate. Only by analyzing this growth will you be able to easily predict whether it is time to hire another full time employee, or if this is just a short-term spike in workload.

So, what exactly should you be benchmarking? In a nutshell, the statistics and trends you need to gather can be broken down into two categories; operational and revenue-related.

Operational benchmarking

Benchmarking your operations embraces everything from staffing and productivity to office flow and analysis of procedures performed. It will help you to uncover such details as:

* How many patients per month each provider is seeing,
* How many more procedures your practice is performing this quarter than last,
* Where the bottlenecks in office flow are
* What your patient retention rates are

All these factors impact the efficiency of your business. Once you know, say, the average number of statement reminders it takes before a patient pays their bill, you can work out when you should stop mailing reminders and turn the account over to collections. The savings in resources that these types of measures afford may seem slight, but added together over the course of several months it can transform your practice. Even managing relationships with referring providers, essentially a marketing exercise, can benefit from benchmarking - you will be able to give some impressive aggregate data to these providers that will help your practice stick in their minds.

One of the largest expenses in a practice comes in the form of payroll. Are you paying too much overtime or do you have too many employees to perform office operations that could be automated or even eliminated. I've seen many practices that are performing certain functions (i.e. logging patients manually) just because it has always been done that way. If it doesn't serve a purpose, it should be eliminated.

Revenue benchmarking

Similarly, revenue-related trends and statistics - whether concerning reimbursement, claim rejections and denials, the collections process or payer trends - can reveal the financial health of your practice and what steps you need to take to control it. Monitoring payer contracts, specifically, the contracted reimbursement rates for each procedure, may seem like a lot of extra work, but is a vital part of maximizing your revenue. A 2004 survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) found that practices that don't keep track of their payer contracts are reimbursed on average four percent less per evaluation and management (E/M) code billed. Thinking that a payer will always stick to the rate quoted in your contract without any input from your practice can be a costly mistake to make.

More general payer trends are also important to monitor because they are likely to indicate a parallel trend in your revenue. Armed with this knowledge, you can negotiate more skillfully when your payer contracts are up for renewal. The composition of payers is also an important factor, albeit one that is more difficult to influence. Consider a practice that has a stable number of patient visits per month. If the composition of payers shifts from a majority of commercial to a majority of government and self-payers, accounts receivable days are likely to increase and total revenue is likely to decrease. If you are proactively keeping track of these changes rather than just waiting until it is reflected in your cash flow, you can implement reimbursement policies to safeguard your practice.

Set goals

For benchmarking to be effective, however, it can't just be about measuring â€" it also should involve active goal-setting. To be able to set realistic goals, you need to evaluate:

* How efficient your practice is currently
* How much you have improved over time (compared to your own past data)
* How far you still have to go

Your own practice is the first best reference point - compare this month to last month as well as the same time last year. What has changed? In particular, focus on a workflow audit and an analysis of how much you are putting in compared to how much you are getting out. How quickly can you process payments and charges? What percentage of the amount you bill is never reimbursed? Which payers are rejecting the most claims?

Secondly, look outside your practice if you can. Be as diligent as possible about finding data that is specifically relevant to your specialty and type of practice. For example, a drop-in women's health clinic will not provide the best comparable data to an appointment-only OB/Gyn practice, even if the provider and staff numbers are similar.

Use analysis provided by associations such as :

* The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)
* The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)
* Healthcare Billing and Management Association (HBMA)
* The National Association of Healthcare Consultants.

In addition, look for information about best practices within your specialty. Subscribe to peer-reviewed trade journals and network as much as possible through local peer organizations, trade associations, software user meetings and opportunities within your specialty societies.

Be Compliant

In an increasingly regulated industry, benchmarking also has the added benefit of helping practices comply with the guidelines issued by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). These guidelines were issued to assist physician practices and third party medical billing companies to file claims more accurately, prevent fraud, and avoid conflicts with federal health care law. The seven steps that the OIG lists as integral to creating a compliance program are:

1. Conducting internal monitoring and auditing
2. Implementing compliance and practice standards
3. Designating a compliance officer or contact
4. Conducting appropriate training and education
5. Responding appropriately to detected offenses and developing corrective action
6. Developing open lines of communication
7. Enforcing disciplinary standards through well-publicized guidelines

Benchmarking takes care of steps one and two; because it provides more structure, benchmarking also lays a solid foundation for establishing procedures, highlighting required action steps, and other elements that are in line with the guidelines. By following the guidelines, your internal controls not only help you stay in compliance with applicable statutes and regulations, they also benefit your practice by increasing efficiencies and reducing errors and optimizing employee performance.

Let technology do the hard work

Of course, it is one thing to know what you should be doing and quite another to implement it. I still talk to physicians who insist that they just haven't enough time to benchmark with this level of detail. There is one straightforward solution to this problem: automate your practice. The right practice management software will not only make benchmarking much easier (running reports takes seconds rather than hours), but it will also streamline your workflow and maximize your revenue so that the goals that you've set become much more attainable. Generally, the cost of automating your practice is quickly recouped. One option would be to choose a lower-cost Internet-based solution that doesn't require purchasing expensive servers or hiring IT support.

The most important aspect of your business that a good practice management system can help with is the claims process. Choose a software solution that has claims scrubbing ability. This way, any errors on a completed CMS 1500 form will be detected before the claim is submitted, meaning that you won't have to deal with re-submitting returned forms several weeks later and the billing black hole that this sometimes can lead to. A practice management system should have all the different requirements of each payer stored and be dynamic so that as requirements change, so does the software. For instance, as of this writing, if you submit a claim for a patient over the age of 100 to Medicaid of California, the software needs to know that currently, the payer will only accept the claim if all dates are in six digit format (mmddyy) except in box 19, where an eight digit date is required. Being able to track how actual reimbursement compares to the contracted amount for each payer also simplifies this important aspect of benchmarking.

People power

Finally, the one thing that single-minded physicians occasionally forget when implementing a benchmarking system: the success of a practice can depend on its staff. You can't single-handedly be effective at benchmarking without the buy-in of your employees. Sharing the benchmarks of your organization with your employees is also vital to their performance! If they are unclear about what is expected of them, how will they know whether they are doing a good job? Drawing up job descriptions for your seasoned employees may seem unnecessary, but clarifying responsibilities can help tremendously. Explain what you are trying to achieve with benchmarking and how they can help. Share your goals!

Knowledge, no matter what your profession, is power, and keeping your finger on the pulse of your practice is an obvious first step in keeping it healthy both financially and operationally. Being a physician in the twenty-first century may involve some juggling of roles, but benchmarking and setting sensible business goals will ultimately reduce the challenges that it presents.

About The Author

Sherri Dumford is President and owner of Three Bridges Consulting in Alpharetta, Ga. and serves on the client advisory board of NueMD ( http://www.nuemd.com ), a provider of medical practice management software ( http://www.nuemd.com/medical_software/medical_practice_management_software.html )

How to Cure High Blood Pressure- 7 Blood Pressure Secrets Doctors Won’t Tell You

2008-10-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

by: Joe Barton

Do you know how to cure high blood pressure with no medication? Most people would probably say to eat healthy (lower your salt-intake) and make sure you exercise. Unfortunately, most doctors tell you this and forget to tell you the other treatments you can be doing to lower your score and eventually be med-free.

The truth is that doctors are educated in medical schools were natural health and simple 'common sense' secrets are not taught. Unfortunately, medicine and antibiotics are only being taught because our medical industry is completely reliant upon pharmaceutical companies.

But new research is now showing the sometimes medicines are not the only treatment. In fact, some natural treatments are just as effective as their medicine counterpart.

Which is making some think, "Is there something doctors are NOT telling us?"

Naturally Treat High Blood Pressure

High Blood Pressure Medications (Diuretics, Beta Blockers, Alpha Blockers, and Vasodilators) work because they lower your blood pressure. The problem is that they make it look that you are healthy but are your numbers showing the truth?

High Blood Pressure medications work because they synthetically alleviate the pressure of the arteries and blood. For instance, with diuretics the blood will become less salty (less thick) and your pressure with drop. Another example would be beta blockers which synthetically cause the heart to beat slower.

Though these medications look good on paper, they are NOT treating the disease known as the 'silent killer'. In fact, they could be prolonging your life but they will never fully treat the disease. And statistics show that users will eventually die from the high blood pressure.

But what if you could naturally treat high blood pressure.

7 Hypertension Tips Your Doctor Won't Share with You

So you want to know, 'how to cure high blood pressure'? First, you need to know how to prevent high blood pressure holistically. Because curing high blood pressure starts with a holistic treatment. Holistically treating hypertension simply means using the 'whole' body to cure the problem. This is completely different than taking a pill to synthetically thin out the blood.

Three Miracle Minerals- If you are suffering from high blood pressure, you should be supplementing your diet with 3 miracle minerals that lower high blood pressure. Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium have been shown to help lower blood pressure.
Garlic- Garlic has been shown to benefit the heart, lower cholesterol and lower high blood pressure naturally. The compound in garlic, allicin, is thought to naturally lower high blood pressure. Find a quality supplement today.
Folic Acid- Vitamin B which is found in green leafy vegetables reduces homocysteine levels in the blood. This vitamin will lower the risk of heart disease and alleviate the pressure naturally.
Apple Cider Vinegar- Many or my customers have found success with apple cider vinegar which contains vitamins C, A, E, B1, B2 and B6, in addition to potassium, magnesium, and copper.
Relieve Stress- Do you know there are numerous ways to relieve stress? Breathing exercises, exercising, or reading a book are simple ways to relieve stress and lower high blood pressure. And there are even more than this!
Your Diet! You know the major Do's and Don'ts about high blood pressure dieting. Just remember to be eating your water-soluble fibers (fruits and vegetables). Fibers, especially water-soluble, will flush your system and plaque. Also, switch to whole grains! With less plaque in the arteries you will eventually be hypertension-free! Our HBP report goes into great detail about how you can treat hypertension with your diet.
Green Tea! It is loaded with antioxidants and research shows it lowers high blood pressure. Whether it is the 'relaxing' factor or the natural herbs in green tea, 1 cup of green tea will be helpful for your health!

Normalize your High Blood Pressure in 3 Weeks or Less

What foods should you be eating? What other vitamins are a must? What exercises are an absolute do? What herbs are making doctors scratch their heads? Why is chocolate now good for you?

Are you interested in lowering blood pressure naturally, with out drugs? We offer a 100% guaranteed, medical doctor-approved HBP Remedy Report which shares numerous natural health tips and guarantees to normalize your pressure in 3 weeks or less. If you are serious about living young again, please visit our How to Cure High Blood Pressure Website.

About The Author
Guaranteed to work in 3 weeks or less! Joe Barton and Barton Publishing Inc. have been publishing Hypertension Remedy Reports that teach you how to cure high blood pressure naturally. Are you next?

http://www.bloodpressurenormalized.com/hbp1/

Laying a Good Foundation for Health

2008-10-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

by: Paula Muran

In the western medicine world, we have lost touch with the basic concept of true healing. We substitute a band-aid for a cure and wonder why we don't feel better. People get ill for many reasons. Each diseased state tells us that we are ignoring some part of self, and change is necessary. While many factors contribute to healing, and it happens on many levels, all require attention throughout the entire healing practice. Ignoring the body-mind (emotions and thoughts) would not provide adequate and long-term good health.

Physical symptoms like headaches, swollen glands, sneezing and colds, including more serious diseases like cancer, communicate that there is a disturbance in the emotional fabric of our being. Negative emotions like fear, doubt and worry stop the normal flow of energy. These emotions undermine us, and over the course of our lives cause unexplained and crippling diseases that end up controlling us.

The physical body falls apart because we fall apart emotionally. Recent scientific studies have shown that emotions sabotage everything—from simple success to kidney failure. When we don't care for the "whole self," the physical body simply mirrors those effects. Over the course of time, emotions like fear, anger and confusion take their toll. Repressed anger diminishes the functions of the liver. Hopelessness and despair play havoc with the gall bladder. Fear plays havoc with the kidneys, relationships and success. Confusion on the other hand, keeps whirling thoughts spinning, creating a cloud of chaos around us and we become imbalanced and ungrounded. Head colds for instance, are a direct result of emotional confusion. Long-standing negative emotional beliefs deteriorate the entire physical being. A constant string of repetitive negative words weaken and actually exhaust the physical body.

To heal we must feel. We must identify the root emotional cause of the disease. This process lays down a new foundation for good health and begins with a new attitude about being healthy. Any negative emotion causes us to stay stuck in a false perception about our self.

How do we identify negative emotions? The easiest way to identify negative patterns is to see them in family members and friends. Examine other people's behaviors. Notice all the things you like about them and all the things you don't like, especially the things that make you angry, envious or jealous. The people around you are actually reflections of you. What you see in another person that bothers you or angers you is a part of yourself that has not yet been loved and healed. Begin by criticizing your dearest friends. By doing this practice of looking at the faults of friends and family you get in touch with the parts of you that are out of balance and seek healing. This simple exercise offers you an opportunity to look deeply at your own emotional concerns and patterns. Once you locate personal limitation it's time for change.

Emotional patterns are created when you place a judgment upon an experience. To change, we must stay conscious of our feelings in situations. Stay calm, make no judgment—simply feel the energy. For example, let's take anger because anger is one of the most profound emotions and is easily felt. Imagine yourself in an angry situation; stay completely present and deeply feel the anger. Don't judge it—simply feel it. Now, love the feeling that anger produces. Anger can be motivation. It can be passionate. Change the negative charge that anger produces; begin to embrace and love the feeling of anger instead of repelling it.

Next begin to dialogue with the anger. Yes, that is correct, strike up a conversation with anger. Ask it questions like, "What are you teaching me?" or "Why am I so angry all the time?" Permit the answers to come into your conscious mind. As they do, you realize what the true issue is. Sometimes in that moment of realization the anger pattern can release. Other times it might take a few more conversations for the anger to release. This method allows the energy constriction caused by anger and other emotions to release. Any blocked energy begins to flow giving the physical body a chance to heal.

Even though healing begins with the emotions, the physical body must be strong enough to support the emotional body.

Supplements: Supplementation is important because food chemicals, pesticides and a hurried lifestyle play havoc on our systems. Take no more than five different supplements daily. I prefer liquids including Green-Magma and other green drinks. If you don't feel immediate results, they are not working.

Water: Only 5% of the American population gets sufficient water each day. Diet drinks, high corn-syrup drinks and coffee do not count towards proper hydration; in fact these drinks cause gastrointestinal inflammation, kidney and liver problems and an acidic environment. To properly hydrate drink at least half of your body weight in purified water by the ounce each day. For example if you weight 150 lbs. you need 75 ounces of purified water daily. Exercise: The number one killer today is a stagnant lymph system caused by a lack of exercise. Take a walk around the block or take a yoga, chi-kung or Pilate's class.

About The Author

Paula Muran is an awakened Spiritual Teacher, Medical Intuitive/Empath, Author and Speaker and an expert at reading energy. Pioneering the use of gemstones to heal the emotional body, Paula created the Sovereign Light System of Emotional Healing, authored the book Codes of Light—The Power of Our Beliefs, produced and narrated the best selling guided meditation on CD, Purify the Body Temple and leads profound healing journeys around the world. http://www.PaulaMuran.com

Natural Health Clinic Colon Center Stone Mountain

2008-10-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

by: Tricia Sandberg

Detoxification Diet: Truth About Colon Cleansing
Detoxification From Alcohol Toronto
The opposite is actually true as has been proved over and over again ever since Prof Yudkin launched his attack on sugars and starches in the 1960s. "Incorporate all of them and you're well on your way to seriously detoxing without ever going on a program. If you are in the urban area it is recommended that you find an oxygen rich area where you can perform deep breathing. Regular bathing helps the body to get rid of toxins that accumulate on the skin, and also opens the pores. Saunas and oil massages help the body to cleanse completely. Many different approaches to detoxification and wellness will work even though they attack the problem at different levels.Physicians with a spiritual orientation tend to be more inclined than others to employ fasting both personally and medically. Any deficiency of these in the diet causes problems removing toxins.

Morgans Detox Diet Plan

nor can the cells' waste products get out. One common detox diet is the combination of nothing but fruits and water for a given period. The promotion of chemicals being matabilized by our bodies can be helped with certain vitamins. Think of it detox as a spring clean for the body. Often people end up with side-effects from a detox program thus highlighting the importance of medical consultation an supervision when undergoing a diet change. Who should detoxify? Although everyone can benefit from a detox cleanse those of us who are overweight have unhealthy diets take medications drink alcohol have health problems or are exposed to chemicals in the workplace need it more than others. Most detox programs start with strict diets.

Foods That Detoxify

Your body will need to be properly primed and readied for the detox program so it can respond well. You simply can't demand your body to cleanse itself immediately. Over time consumption of processed foods non-vegetarian foods and sugars leads to clogging of the inner walls of the colon with waste matter. Seventy percent of all disease processes have some emotional component to them. So if you are doing all the right things and taking all the right drugs supplements and diet for something and it still isn't working these drops may be your ticket. Our body is designed to use natural substances. Any foreign substance will elicit a response from the immune system to try and remove it. The liver reduces toxins into compounds that the body can handle and eliminate through the kidneys (as urine), skin (as sweat), lungs (as expelled air) and bowels (as feces). Consuming three servings EACH of raw fruits raw vegetables and cooked vegetables (that's nine servings total) is the minimum for optimal health but you will want to take in five servings of each per day for a total of 15 servings servings/day on a detoxification program. See diet detox free plan Because most commercial coffees are not made for this detox purpose they are not likely to be effective. This detoxification method can be done at home and at your convenience all you need is fresh organic coffee beans and a French press coffee pot. Toxic substances have penetrated every part of our living; the food we eat. Since the presence of these toxic substances are known to cause the deficiency of several important vitamins and minerals in the body the third step involves restoring these deficient vitamins and minerals; essentially through nutritional supplements.

Body Detox Diet Plans

The cars we drive emit emissions that are detrimental to our health. When we fill up at the gas station we breathe in the fumes of the gasoline which adds toxins to our body. The transit time in a normally functioning digestive system should be less than 21 hours. The average person eating a normal western diet will have eight full meals of undigested food and waste matter within their digestive system. Experts agree that it's not good to try and loose excess weight in a quick manner. It's better to take your time and incorporate a package of exercise. Your body has an amazing self-healing mechanism built right in it but in order to let it work you have to give it the rest it needs. See more Home Detox For Alcoholics There are alternatives to costly colonics though you can find many products do a wonderful job of eliminating toxins from our body by converting them into a form more easily excreted by the body.

Liver Detox Symptoms

Detoxification is unarguably very important for a long lasting health. There are several ways to achieve detoxification of the system some depend on the type of chemicals we are attempting to rid the body of while others have a general effect. " Critics also believe that it's extremely likely that the weight gain will occur quickly after finishing this diet. Natural health therapists claim that a periodic detox can confer a host of health benefits. You may find your skin will get worse before it gets better, but soon you'll see a clearer more radiant complexion. Acne will improve, your eyes will look clearer and, as a bonus, you may find your appetite decreases and sugar cravings diminish. A detox programme may also incorporate complementary therapies such as massage homeopathy aromatherapy or even colonic irrigation. Learn more at http://www.detoxwithmastercleanse.info These are not becoming any less important to your family's health. Internal cleansing is a live long process similar to cleaning teeth and detoxing is a vital part in it.

About The Author

Tricia Sandberg is an expert in Detox Meth Home Remedy for over 10 years. Search Detox info at http://www.dietdetox-beyonceknowles.info

Colon Health Supplements

2008-10-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

By: Kathrine Perkins

Detoxification Diet: Body Cleanse
Super Body Cleansers And Detox For Athletes
Essential amino acids are those amino acids which we humans are not able to synthesize in sufficient quantities to meet our daily needs and that must be supplied by the food we eat. One of the servings of vegetables at least should be raw vegetables such as carrots celery or cauliflower. It only requires a finger prick blood sample and is a in home test kit. The human body is programmed to tackle low-level toxic attacks. Our bodies can detoxify potential carcinogens, or repair genetic damages. The protective mechanisms are repair, cellular shedding, detoxification and dietary antioxidants. The human body is quite capable of detoxification if it is fed with adequate water and fiber. If you have heart problems cancer or other major diseases you are advised to not use this form of diet.If we regularly eat a more balanced and well-combined diet such as my Ideal Diet we will have less need for fasting and toning plans although both would still be required at certain intervals throughout the year. Free radicals come from many household products.

Chlorella Colon Cleanse

The combination of vitamins and minerals through detoxification work in this fashion to remove toxins from your body tissues and body organs. This is done through our sweat feces and urine. Some detox programs still rely on simply water and fasting while others outline specific diets which tend to be mostly raw food. My clients are sometimes disturbed by this event but thereafter convinced continue their complete Internal Cleansing Kit each year with some mini detox in between. which not just benefit and strengthen our blood circulation kidneys liver bowels and lungs but our general health in the long run.

Detox - The Process Of Cleansing And Restoration

While our livers can still function despite a lot of damage once you've started feeling sluggish digest poorly have dull skin and start developing dark eye circles it's time to reward it for its hard work by undergoing a detox phase. Over time consumption of processed foods non-vegetarian foods and sugars leads to clogging of the inner walls of the colon with waste matter. emotional. Then, in November 2003, Woman's World magazine came to me with an unusual request. They wanted a one-day juice fast, the recipe for a special brew that would enable readers to quickly lose 3 to 5 pounds so they could fit into that special outfit or take off that holiday weight. You may have just pampered yourself with some kind of bodywork-this sometimes stimulates a healing crisis. This is a good thing. See Best Way To Body Cleanse You only need to do your research and there will be lots of detoxification procedures to choose from however it is always advisable to see your physician to be sure of what toxins constitute risk to your health and perhaps the best method to get rid of these. Toxins come in various forms and manners; the one unifying thing about them all is that they are dangerous to your health. The exhaust from your automobile is known to be rich in carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and medical scientists have shown that as little as 0.5% of these chemicals in the blood holds dangerous implication for health. The basic idea behind any detoxification program is; first.

Colon Diseases

As food is digested the nutrients and toxins are absorbed into the bloodstream. These toxins will continue to contaminate the cells instead of providing the nourishment that the cells need. The next recommendation to ensure good health is to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Although fruits and most vegetables are restricted in the initial phase of some low carbohydrate diets they are then allowed back in limited amounts. You want the natural sugar along with all of the vitamins minerals and fiber in the *whole* apple. See more Master Cleanse Opinions Calorie and carbohydrate intake are reduced leading to weight loss.

Detox Diet Drink

Just name it. However there are certain individuals who do not make good candidates for a detox diet. But I draw the line at certain things. The problem is that there is little scientific evidence that these things really work, other than making us think that we are doing something healthy. The massive diet and nutrition industries have created yet another myth, the Detox Myth, encouraging us to spend money on pills, treatments, spa breaks, books etc, but the benefits of the products are questionable, and the claims are not supported by science. The result is a gradual build up in toxin levels in the body and this can cause a wide variety of health problems including chronic fatigue acne headaches nausea and even chronic ailments which do not respond to conventional medicine. Learn more at http://www.superstars-detoxdiets.info This epic human tragedy led the Soviet society on a desperate search for ways to detoxify and protect their people from radiation poisoning. But it's a nice introduction to the issue and one you'll need to be aware of as you procede with your own personal herbal remedy learning.

About The Author

Kathrine Perkins is an expert in Master Cleanse Ingrediants for over 10 years. Search Detox info at http://www.mastercleanseresults.info

A 5 Step Killer DB Workout For Amazingly Fast and Effective Results

2008-10-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

by: Neelima Reddy

When you purchase the fitness equipment, you also get a sheet of paper with a list of exercises to do. No wonder you’re frustrated and no wonder your equipment turns into another expensive clothes hanger.

Here is a solution for you.

For those of you who can’t or don’t want to go to the gym but want a fast and effective workout, here are five steps that will get you to achieve the best results:

Step 1: Spend some cash on dumbbells and bench

If you have got a few bucks available, then go to a fitness equipment dealer and purchase some dumbbells and an adjustable bench. For a woman, start with 3’s, 5’s, 8’s, 10’s, 12’s, and 15 lb. db’s. For a man, go for 50’s with the increment of 5 lb. for each db.

Step 2: Set up your workout space

The most popular choice is the basement, while bedrooms are a distant second. Whatever you choose will do, but the one thing you need to make sure of is that you are doing the exercise correctly. Set a full length mirror in your workout room, it will help.

Step 3: Set aside 30 minutes at least four times a week for strength training

You can also do workouts for 6 days; just make sure that you are splitting up between your body elements for each day to work out. For example, one day, do chest, back, biceps and calves and on the next day, do legs, triceps, abs and shoulders. Use the same arrangements for the 4-day workout. You can also do them during daytime.

Step 4: The db strength training routine

Here are the db exercises that helps to get the most muscles worked in less time:

Chest – db flat bench press

Hold the db’s and lie down on the bench. Press your lower back into the cushion. Lower your db’s so that they are next to your chest, then push up and in an arc until they are above your chest. Feel the stretch at the bottom and also feel your chest muscles working as you go up. Then lower and repeat it again.

Back – db bent over row

Hold the pair of db’s at your side when you stand up straight. Pull your shoulders back, and stick your butt out as you bend forward. Your back should be nice and flat. When the upper body is parallel to the ground with your arms straight, then you are in the starting position. Now, imagine yourself rowing a boat. Make use of the action to drag your db’s up and back then towards the hips. Then lower and do it again.

Biceps – db standing curl

Keep your arms straight and hold the db’s with palms facing forward. Then place the arms at sides and raise the db by bending your elbows only. Don’t include your back and shoulder in it. Bend the elbow and keep the arms straight.

Calves – Standing calf rise on basement step

Put your both feet on the step so that you can situate yourself on the balls of your feet. In this position, maintain your legs straight, abs tight and butt tucked in. then lower your heels to the ground by maintaining the tight position with the rest of your body. Rise up as far as you can, up to the tippy toes. Then lower and do it again.

Legs – db squat for guys and lunge for women

For the squat position: keep your db’s at the sides. When you lower yourself, pretend you are sitting down on the chair. You must stay on your heels. Also, keep your torso tight for a great support to your spine. You can push back yourself, when you feel bending too far ahead as you go down.

For lunges: Keep the db’s at your sides. Keep your torso as stiff as a 2x4 then take big step forward with one leg. Once your foot are planted, lower your hips so that you are about to touch the ground with your tailing knee, but actually you are not touching. Move forward with your front leg. Repeat all the sets with one leg before switching to the other.

Triceps –db triceps kickback

Come to a position of bent over row. Keep the arms steady by raising them at your sides. Then straighten your arms until they are straight as an arrow. Slightly bend your elbows and then straighten your arms. This step is the reverse action of db standing curl.

Shoulders – Standing db shoulder press

Stand straight and be tight to support your spine and lift the dumbbell until they are even with your ears. The position must be in the straight line from your left elbow to your right elbow. Drive the db’s over your head in an arc and make sure that you keep the db’s moving above your head, but not in front.

Step 5: Keep your attention on what you do, instead of what you haven’t done

Don’t be discouraged when you can’t achieve your target workout. For instance, if you do three workouts this week then keep your target as four for next. Be honest with yourself, because it’s you that matters. Adjust your lifestyle so that you can achieve your goal.

About The Author

Neelima Reddy, author of this article writes for FitnessHealthZone.com. Fitness Health blog helps you learn everything you need to know for maintaining healthy and fit body. Know more about various exercises, body building, healthy diets, and exercise equipments for maintaining a healthy body. Visit: http://www.fitnesshealthzone.com

Fad Diets and Diet Pills- The Harmful Affects

2008-10-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

by GARY NEALON
Fat diets and miracle diet pill advertisements are all over the place these days- television, magazines, newspapers, and especially the internet. Unfortunately due to busier lifestyles, the overwhelming number of fast food restaurants, and lets face it... pure laziness... as a society we are getting fatter.

Due to those same busy schedules, people are looking for a quick fix; an easy and fast way to lose weight without a lot of effort or time required. Needless to say, creative companies have found ways to capitalize on this weight loss infatuation by selling bogus diet programs and products with no documented medical benefits. Even worse that are the diet pills that go unregulated because they claim to have natural herbals which do not have to be tested by the FDA. Not only do they not promote weight loss, but they can also have unexpected side effects or reactions because they have not been tested.

Often with these diet pills and natural supplements, they explode on the scene with expansive marketing campaigns, sell millions, and then disappear just as fast once people realize that they don't really work. You also have the extreme end of the supplement line, such as Ephedrine, which can actually result in complications and death.

Taking these weight loss pills can have devastating results, as in the case of Ephedra. Some of the fad diets can be just as harmful as the diet pills. Eating just one type of food, such as the grapefruit diet, can rob your body of essential vitamins and minerals. While they may lead to some immediate weight loss, in the long run they actually result in gaining more excess body fat. So if fad diets and diet pills don't work, what are the options?

It is a proven fact, that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is a fundamental change in your diet and regular exercise. Most people rely on what manufacturers tell them about the products they are selling, to determine if a particular food product is healthy or not. This is one of the biggest mistakes that people often make when trying to lose weight. So-called health bars can actually lead to additional weight gain!

Most people also try to cobble together their own workout program at the gym, which only leads them to disappointment and frustration when they don't see results. Without proper guidance, the average person will not see the results they are looking for and will just end up spending excess time in the gym.

Proper guidance is out there if you really look for it. I found a great program that not only gave me a workout program that I could use in and outside of a gym, but it also gave with a nutritional guideline that helped change my eating habits. It is a book called The Truth About Abs (don't be fooled by the name). While it does show you how to get a slim waste with ripped abs, it is much more than that. The author is a certified nutritional specialist and certified personal trainer, so he combines the best of both worlds. The program showed me how to not only lose the weight, but it also showed me how to keep it off.

There are plenty of other programs similar the one that I used, but it may require some research. Before you decide to take the easy way for a temporary solution to your weight loss needs, put some research into a program that combines a balance of diet and exercise. If you are looking for a six pack abs or fat burning program that will help you achieve your goals, get honest, unbiased reviews of all the top abs workout programs at http://www.thefitnessbookreview.com

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Be Realistic about Weight Loss

2008-10-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

by SANDRA PRIOR
To lose weight and keep it off, you need to cut kilojoules and get exercise. Most of us know this. But do you know how much exercise it takes to shed weight? You need to do an hour a day of intensive cardiovascular training, five days a week, plus some form of sport.

A two-year study by researchers from the Department of Health and Physical activity at the University of Pittsburgh in the US found that the women who lost the most weight logged 270 to 300 minutes of exercise a week. Can you imagine yourself doing that much exercise? Forever? The thought alone is probably enough to make you want to throw in the sweat towel and rip open that bag of crisps, right?

So isn't it better to make peace with the not-so-skinny body you've got and strive to be healthy and fit (while losing some weight in the process) rather than doing nothing at all?

Mind over Matter

In a study published in the Journal of The American Medical Association of 900 women with heart problems, it was found that the women who were overweight but fit were less likely to have blocked arteries or suffer a heart attack, stroke or any other heart problem than those who had a normal weight but were unfit. What set them apart was a healthy lifestyle - not starvation diets or army-like exercise regimens but healthy food choices and light exercise incorporated into their lifestyles.

They also knew that the body has limitations and that being overweight is a chronic condition - if you have a propensity to fat, you'll always go back to fat. While it's easy to think that with the correct diet and an appropriate exercise routine you can look like Jessica Alba, it's not realistic. She was thin to begin with, and her natural body shape and DNA mean she's likely always to be thin.

Comparing your body with that of another person would be like forcing your feet into someone else's shoes - someone with smaller feet. Work with your own body instead. Calculate your body mass index, which determines how much you should weigh according to your height.

If you are overweight or obese, losing between 5% and 15% of your weight will lower your risk of developing heart disease and will improve blood flow and lower your cholesterol levels. If you weigh 90kg, for example, that means losing between 4,5kg and 13,5kg. Once you're on the weight-loss track, the key to keeping it off is accepting that losing it is only the beginning. What should follow is a change in your lifestyle, incorporating wise food choices and some form of exercise.

The Physical Hurdles

Yes, you can reach a healthy weight through exercise and kilojoule control. Healthy weight is the size at which your body feels good and nurtured, as opposed to fashion weight, where your body looks thin but isn't necessarily healthy.

The best advice is to get moving. Fit bodies burn more kilojoules than inactive ones. Exercise builds muscle, which speeds up the metabolism at rest, which further helps the body burn off energy. As little as 10 to 30 minutes of daily exercise improves our quality of life and the way we feel about ourselves.

Exercise - particularly aerobic activity - increases the metabolic rate as well as the production of enzymes needed to burn fat. It also helps the body cope with stress - producing that heady rush of endorphins after a workout. Twenty minutes of aerobic exercise four times a week will keep you from feeling sluggish.

Consider taking up a fun sport with a friend, such as swimming, running, walking, cycling or hiking, or joining an aerobics class - all great fat-burning forms of exercise.

Start Small

Try some of these simple ways to get yourself in motion: climb the stairs at work instead of taking the lift; walk to the deli around the corner at lunchtime instead of ordering a delivery; use the stairs instead of the escalator at shopping centers; or get a dog, which will encourage you take it for daily walks.

If you've been completely sedentary for some time, start with 10 minutes of walking or swimming to ease your body into exercise mode. Beginners should work out three to four times a week, which is enough to start building cardiovascular fitness.

Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuild.rr.nu.

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The Perfect Rep: Unlocking The Ultimate Secret For Permanent Effective Training

2008-09-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

By: Joey Sheather

This will be the most important piece of information that you will ever read about weight training.

Repetitions… Your entire training career is composed of millions of them. You group them in sets and they are the basis of each workout. Performing them correctly is the difference between success and failure. A perfect repetition, seemingly simple, has many components and is powerfully effective. I am going to explain how to perform the perfect rep and why it is so important.

At the impressionable age of 14 I was lucky enough to be introduced to the world of weight training by a competitive bench presser and ex-Olympic wrestler. He was a cartoonish 5 foot 3, 65 kilo powerhouse with a barrel chest and black pony-tail mullet down to his arse. At his gym in Bellingen he would ensure that I learned and retained precise lifting technique during my first 12 months of training. Thank-you Kevin. Under his supervision I went on to become the Australian School-boys Bench Press Champion at the ripe old of age of 15 with a lift of 87.5 kilograms (192.5 pounds) at a HUGE (laughs) body-weight of 66 kgs (145 lbs). That was after only 6 months of training. Technique and intensity is EVERYTHING!

Kevin sold the gym to a great man called Scott who became a very close friend of mine, a fantastic training partner and the catalyst for my career in Personal Training. He looked somewhat normal in comparison to Kevin sporting a natural, balanced, muscular bodybuilder’s physique. His basic training philosophy was to hit each muscle group from every angle with perfect form designating set and exercise volume in proportion to the size of the muscle group, i.e. back being the most complex and largest received the most exercises while biceps being one of the smallest received the least. I learned a lot from him. Exercise form was always at the fore-front of his teachings.

>From Kevin I discovered that each exercise has an optimum movement path to generate maximum power safely. Scott showed me a broad range of exercises and how to apply good technique to each of them for consistent effectiveness and efficiency. I have taken these lessons with me throughout my career and applied them to my training and the hundreds of exercises that I have created myself.

Anyone who knows me will find that I am extremely particular about good exercise technique. I pay very close attention to the body position and movement pattern adjusting fine components so that the exercise is totally optimised. I must annoy the hell out of my clients sometimes. It works though.

WHY IS PERFECT EXERCISE TECHNIQUE SO IMPORTANT?

Reduced Risk Of Injury…

If you are to remain injury-free throughout your training career you must practise safe, tight, controlled lifting technique for every single repetition. If the movement is as close to biomechanical perfection as possible you will receive maximum stimulation with minimum risk. Injuries will halt your progress every time and can be very serious. Any chance to avoid them should be harnessed, implemented and retained.

Decreased ‘Cheating’ And Involvement Of Unrelated Muscle Groups…

If your form is sloppy there is a good chance that you are not hitting the target muscle as completely as you could be. As soon as your technique declines other muscle groups come into play assisting during the lift, often in an unsafe manner. A classic one is allowing your torso to swing during a bicep curl using your lower back, glutes and hamstrings to get the weight up. There is not only the danger of hurting yourself there is also the probability that you are not taking the target muscles to failure. Keep the form tight and you will stimulate the muscle safely and entirely.

Decreased Involvement And Fatigue From Ancillary Muscle Groups…

Related to the last point the execution of a perfect repetition every time will ensure the target muscle is isolated and fully fatigued before the ancillary muscles (assisting muscles) give out. To make this more clear I will describe two examples where this is a common occurrence. Example 1: when you perform a back exercise if you do not focus on engaging and isolating the targeted muscles of the back then the forearms and biceps will crash and burn before the back is fully worked. Example 2: when you perform a chest exercise if you do not focus on isolating the pectorals during the movement then the triceps and anterior deltoids will give out first impeding the progress of the chest. It is easy for ancillary muscles to come into play during an exercise if your form is sloppy because they are there to assist the movement. But because they are smaller and weaker if you do not make sure that the target muscle is completely fatigued first they will always give out holding backyour progress.

Increased Motor Neuron Innervation And Muscle Fiber Activation…
If you isolate the target muscle group and contract it slowly and intensely through the entire movement you will activate the greatest amount of muscle fibers. A safe and full range of motion (ROM) will involve muscle fibers from the origin (initial attachment) right across to the insertion (final attachment) of the muscle. A slow, intense, precise movement during the entire concentric contraction (muscle shortening) and eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening) will innervate more motor neurons ‘firing’ more muscle fibers. This will facilitate a maximum activation of the muscle fibers and total muscle contraction maximizing strength and muscle gain.

Improved Mind-Muscle Connection…

The mind-muscle connection is your ability to feel the target muscle contract completely and under total control during the execution of an exercise. Usually a muscle group that you find difficult to feel and to develop is one that you have a poor mind-muscle connection with. Consistent, strict form on all of your repetitions will help you gain control of these stubborn body-parts. The mind-muscle connection improves when the path from your motor cortex (the control centre of your brain for movement) to the working muscle becomes more efficient.

Improved Focus, Discipline, Intensity And Quality Of Training…
This level of precision for every single repetition that you perform during your workout demands a massive amount discipline, will-power and intensity. You control the movement of every exercise and apparatus as though it were part of your body. Be patient and apply it to all exercises performed until it becomes second nature. By this stage it will feel awkward to train with sloppy technique and you won’t miss it because you will become stronger and more muscular and injury-free.

COMPONENTS OF A REPETITION

Starting Point – where the body is in the appropriate position to begin the Repetition.
Concentric Contraction – where the muscle shortens as the weight is lifted through the predetermined Range of Motion (ROM). Also called ‘The Positive Phase’.
Mid Point – the point of greatest contraction at the top of the Repetition where you pause briefly before releasing the weight.
Eccentric Contraction – where the muscle lengthens as the weight is released to the Finishing Point. Also called ‘The Negative Phase’.
Finishing Point – same as the Starting Point.

GUIDELINES TO PERFORMING THE PERFECT REP
Learn And Practice Proper Technique…

Take the time to study the extensive step-by-step video exercise descriptions on my website http://www.GlobalWeightTraining.com. They are demonstrations personally performed by me explaining all the muscles involved, the detailed technique and what the repetitions should look like during a set. There are over 300 hundred exercises; learn them before you perform them.

Apply And Maintain Proper Technique…

Once you have learnt the exercise guidelines make sure you apply them to your training in the gym precisely and consistently. If you forget how to do something go back to the site and look it up.

Repetition Speed…

The repetition speed should for muscle growth and strength in bodybuilding, shaping and toning and for general health should be medium (1-2 seconds) during the Concentric Contraction (where the weight is lifted) and slow (2-5 seconds) during the Eccentric Contraction (where the weight is released). The exact seconds required for each phase of the repetition depends on the size of the range of motion (ROM) of each individual exercise. Example; Calf exercises have a smaller ROM so the time required to perform the repetitions slowly would be reduced. Squats, on the other hand, have a large ROM so the time required to perform the repetitions slowly would be increased. Performing exercise with speed is not without merit and it is prevalent in functional training, power-training, and sport-specific training but there is an increased risk of tissue injury with the sudden force exerted when lifting. There is also greater focus on the tendons, ligaments, bones and joints rather than the muscles.

Ancillary Muscles And Stabilizers…

You cannot perform an exercise safely or effectively unless your body is positioned in accordance with the guidelines for that exercise. This means that once you are set your ancillary muscles (the direct assisting muscles for the movement) and the stabilizers (the muscles that hold the rest of the body in the correct place) must be engaged so that a perfect repetition is performed every time. This will make your body safe, strong and functional.

Abdominals And Core Muscles…

It doesn’t matter which exercise you are performing your mid-section must be switched on for total maximum gains. The abdominals and the core inner muscles of the spine are the superstructure of the body which holds everything together under the stresses of exercise. They lock you safely into the correct position and maintain it during the set. Engaging them properly will stabilise the body, increase your total strength, increase the strength of the abdominals and core muscles themselves, protect the spine and facilitate the implementation of perfect repetitions for all exercises. * To use your mid-section properly during exercise pull your lower abs in towards the spine, pull in the obliques, contract the entire abdominal complex and lift the chest *

Symmetry And Precision Of Movement…

To be certain that both sides of your body develop evenly you must ensure that each exercise is executed symmetrically. Human bodies are never built with faultless balance and the rigours of life make that deviation from perfect symmetry even more profound. To diminish the impact of this continuing you need to train in front of a mirror as much as possible or utilise the constant critical eye of a training partner. This will allow you to supervise and fine-tune your exercise technique at all times reducing imbalances of strength, muscularity and functionality.

Range Of Motion…

Most of the time you need to use a full range of motion (ROM) to stimulate the all of the muscle fibers from the origin, across the belly (the middle bulk), to the insertion of the muscle. If you cheat and continuously use partial repetitions you will lose flexibility and miss out on muscle and strength gains from the outer angles. There is a limit, however, to how large the ROM should be. It is individual to each exercise and should be large enough for maximum muscle fiber stimulation without causing any joint or tissue injury from over-extension. There are techniques and set sequences that are based on partial repetitions but they have their own strict technique and should be used sparingly for shock tactics and variety.

Breathing…

You need to breathe properly during each repetition to maintain a continuous delivery of oxygen around the body to the working muscles. It will also reduce the build-up of carbon-dioxide. This will give you the energy to power through the set and decrease the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA – that awful burn from lactic acid which is caused from glycogen being burnt for energy without the presence of oxygen). Breathing properly also takes the pressure off your cardio-vascular system facilitating normal function under conditions of high stress from intense exercise. It is important to keep the blood pressure down and unnecessary strain off the body as no-one is unbreakable. Another advantage of full, rhythmic breathing is that it will pace the tempo of your repetitions. You can’t take slow, full breaths if your reps are fast and messy.

BASIC BREATHING TECHNIQUE DURING A REPETITION

Take a slow, deep intake of breath as the weight is released (when the target muscle stretches and lengthens during the eccentric contraction).
Breath out more forcefully as the weight is lifted (when the target muscle engages and shortens during the concentric contraction)There are alternate breathing techniques but this one is simple and safe so remember: breathe in when the weight is released and breathe out when the weight is lifted.

INTENSITY

Finally we come to my favourite word; Intensity. To cause the greatest amount of muscle fiber damage and to induce growth producing chemistry within the body you need to push each set to absolute failure or beyond. By that I mean that you make sure you grind out each repetition with perfect technique until it is not possible to perform another without losing your form. To go beyond failure you must utilise a training partner or spotter or perform intensity increasing techniques which are described on our website http://www.GlobalWeightTraining.com. You must however maintain precise technique for each repetition throughout the set no matter what your goal is or how far you push yourself.

There you have it my friends. I have given you the key. Place it in the lock and turn it. Don’t look back. There is so much out there to learn, understand and apply to your training. You may get a little lost among it all but if you know how to perform ‘The Perfect Rep’ every time the most basic element of successful training will be with you forever. Good luck and have fun…

About The Author

Joey Sheather is the head trainer at Global Weight Training, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to get into shape in the shortest possible time. For more information, visit http://www.globalweighttraining.com

Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About HIPAA And FERPA

2008-09-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

by: Kristine Dunne

Consider this question. Say the mother of a 22-year old student that you have treated requests to see her daughter’s medical records. The Bursar’s office confirms that the student is listed as a dependent for tax purposes. There seems to be no urgent reason for such a release and the student does not wish to give her mother access. How would you protect the privacy of her information?
Situations such as this one that require knowledge of privacy laws to resolve successfully are all too common in the average student health center, yet the acronyms HIPAA and FERPA tend to strike fear into the hearts of the staunchest of college health professionals. So much has been written anecdotally on the subject of how complicated and unspecific these laws are that some may be surprised to find that according to legal professionals, the intersections between the laws are generally clear-cut. This article aims to explain which laws apply to you and what you can do to avoid the headaches that ensue from a conflict between your principles as a care provider and the law.
Six golden rules of privacy law :

FERPA never applies to non-students
FERPA only applies when the student’s medical records are released
HIPAA doesn’t apply to records covered by FERPA or to student “treatment records”
Even if you treat non-students, you’re not bound by HIPAA unless you perform electronic transactions.
Student health and counseling centers that do perform electronic transactions for non-students only have to abide by HIPAA for those transactions.
State laws are applicable whether or not other federal laws apply

This is how these rules break down.
RULE 1: FERPA never applies to non-students

RULE 2: FERPA only applies when the student’s medical records are released

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is the older of the two federal privacy laws. Enacted in 1974, one aspect of its governance is the privacy of educational records. There is a popular myth circulating that student medical records fall under the FERPA’s umbrella term “educational records”. In fact, FERPA specifically excludes the treatment records of students in higher education from its definition of educational records (see USC 20, 1232g for a complete definition). It also excludes employees of an educational institution if they are not students. FERPA does come into play, but only if the records are released to someone outside the health center, whether that is the student, their parents, their professors, or another health provider outside the university, at which point they become “educational records” rather than treatment records.

It is important to note that it is not the request for the release that brings FERPA into effect. Many student health professionals believe that if a request to see the records is made that is in accordance with FERPA guidelines, they have to release them or be in violation of FERPA. Not so, says Kristine Dunne, BA, EdM, JD, an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Arent Fox, LLC.

“It's the release of the records that triggers FERPA,” she explains. “There are no rights extended under FERPA to those medical records until such time as they have been made available to someone other than the treating health professionals, at which point the FERPA protections of student records kick in.”

Applying this to the example at the beginning of the article, if state law doesn’t require you to release the student’s unreleased medical records to her mother, you are under no legal obligation to do so without a court order. Similarly, even if you think a professor may have a “legitimate educational interest” in requesting a student’s unreleased medical records, you still don’t have to release them.

FERPA is just one part of the puzzle, however. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is another relevant law that seeks to be the national privacy standard in health care. It was updated in 2003 to take into account the trend toward automation and electronic record-keeping. These privacy guidelines have been well publicized and generally uphold the kind of patient confidentiality that most health care providers are comfortable with and there has therefore been a widespread trend in health centers to apply these standards to student medical records, even if they are not legally required. It is important to realize, however, that while its principles of privacy and confidentiality are excellent, in most cases, compliance is not required by law.

RULE 3: HIPAA doesn’t apply to records covered by FERPA or to student medical records which are made, maintained, or used only in connection with the provision of treatment to the student, and are not available to anyone other than persons providing such treatment.

RULE 4: Even if you treat non-students, you’re not bound by HIPAA unless you transmit health care information in electronic form in connection with the submission of claims for payment.

HIPAA’s definition of protected health information (PHI) specifically excludes education records covered by FERPA and the treatment records of students in higher education as defined above. Dunne explains that the goal of this exclusion is simplification.

“If student medical records were subject to HIPAA, there would be two completely different schemes – up until the health center released the record, it would be governed by HIPAA, and when it had been released it would be governed by FERPA,” she says.

This was apparently considered unworkable by Congress, hence the blanket exception that HIPAA makes for any kind of student medical records. However, many student health and counseling centers also treat non-students, and this is where it starts to get a little bit trickier. To be considered a “covered entity” (i.e., bound by HIPAA), your health center must electronically transmit health information in connection with a “HIPAA transaction”. More detailed information on what constitutes a HIPAA transaction can be found in this primer released by The American Council on Education, but essentially it is any administrative or financial task carried out in the course of health care that transmits PHI. If you don’t perform electronic transactions, you don’t have to comply with HIPAA.

RULE 5: Student health and counseling centers that do perform electronic transactions for non-students only have to abide by HIPAA for those transactions.

Usually, every transaction of “covered entities” has to be bound by HIPAA standards, even if they are not all electronic transactions. However, because of the intersection with FERPA, these health centers are able to be bound by HIPAA just for the non-student transactions.

RULE 6: State laws are applicable whether or not other federal laws apply

With all the fuss about HIPAA and FERPA, don’t forget about your state’s laws concerning privacy. In some cases, state laws are the only ones that will apply to student medical records, but even where HIPAA or FERPA apply, state law is still relevant. Despite the fact that HIPAA is a federal law, it bows to state law in those cases where state law is more stringent. Arent Fox Associate Richard Liner, BA, JD, MPH, elaborates:

“HIPAA has an enormous pre-emption problem because it sets a floor and not a ceiling for health care privacy. Congress only established a minimum for protecting patient information. If a state’s laws or regulations are more stringent than HIPAA in their protection of patient health information, then covered entities must follow state requirements.”

This may conjure up ideas of conflicting laws, but Arent Fox counsels that generally, state laws are more specific and will very rarely conflict directly with HIPAA or FERPA. If more than one law is applicable, generally the more stringent requirements will apply. When in doubt, consult counsel before taking action.

Knowing the theory is one thing, but applying it can be a lot more complicated. FERPA requires the student to give written, dated permission before his or her student records information is released – even to other health care providers outside the university, which is a source of frustration for many. But the same information can be released, unauthorized, to school officials who have a “legitimate educational interest”. Similarly, FERPA allows unauthorized disclosure in an emergency, if it is “necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other persons”. Dunne counsels to rely on common sense to interpret these terms, and to consult counsel early in the process. No law can specifically cover every eventuality; the burden of responsibility and interpretation must, through necessity, rest on the care provider.

This responsibility weighs all the more heavy because schools are concerned about penalties for breaching FERPA. If the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) found a pattern of violations of FERPA with no obvious attempts to follow the guidelines, it could result in a removal of federal funding. However, it is important to know that individuals cannot be prosecuted for a FERPA breach and individual students cannot sue for damages for such a breach. Schools should carefully develop, implement and maintain compliance oversight with regard to these important privacy laws in order to prevent unlawful release of student records. Likewise, if your school treats non-students, files electronic claims and is bound by HIPAA for those transactions, you should make sure that HIPAA protections are implemented, even though a HIPAA violation may not – for now – result in a fine being imposed. Liner explains:

“In the vast majority of cases where there’s found to be a violation of HIPAA, there is what’s called an ‘administrative resolution’, which generally means the mistake wasn’t intentional and the organization voluntarily agrees to take appropriate remedial action.”

No civil fines for violations of HIPAA have been imposed so far, although Liner warns that is likely to soon change.

Although information on the triumvirate of privacy laws has always been available to those who know where to look for it, there is also a wealth of partial and incorrect information available on the Internet that has muddied the waters for those health professionals attempting to do a little research on the laws that apply to them. Dunne and Liner counsel that you should speak to a professional who knows the law in your state and the ins and outs of FERPA and HIPAA if you are worried about misinterpretation of the law. Even if you know the basics, state laws vary greatly and knowing the details of how the three laws intersect will allow you the greatest leeway to interpret them in a way that is consistent with your ethics.

“It is complicated,” sympathizes Liner. “Talk to the privacy officer within the university, if there is one. There are also a few government Web sites that are really good in terms of user-friendly guidance to help people navigate through the more basic pitfalls.” For instance, the Office of Civil Rights, the enforcement agency for the HIPAA privacy standards, offers tremendously helpful information and FAQs on its Web site.

“Consult with your legal counsel to ensure you’re interpreting and applying the law correctly,” adds Dunne. “And be clear to those who use student health center services, especially students, about the laws that apply.”

About The Author

Kristine Dunne, BA, EdM, JD and Richard Liner, BA, JD, MPH, Associates of the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Arent Fox, LLC. This article appeared previously in NuesoftXpress ( http://www.nuesoftxpress.com )

True Love Flirting

2008-09-26T03:20:00.000-07:00

True love is when you're still dancing, long after the music has stopped.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen Francois de La Rouchfoucauld.
True love cannot be found where it does not exist nor can it be hidden where it truly does,
This is true love. Do you think this happens everyday Westly "Princess Bride"
A memory of true love is like a favorite song; no matter how many times it plays again, you never get tired of it.
True love is knowing a person's faults, and loving them even more for them.
Once you find your true love, your heart will know it because it will always leave a feeling inside of you that never goes away.
I never felt true love until I was with you, and I never felt true sadness until you left me.
Only a person who has not felt true love can move on in life saying 'There are lots of other fish in the sea
True love only comes once in a life time, so take it as it goes and enjoy every bit of it while it is still burning strong.
A person can be in love with someone forever till the end of time. But if that person does not tell or show the feeling of love, it will be just another person living in a dream, lost of true love.
True love will be remembered by all, yet not all will know of true love.

Wanting To Know You More..

2008-09-25T03:17:00.000-07:00

I was once told that our souls had met, now only our hearts had to be introduced.
You dropped your smile: can I pick it up for you?
You know what would look great on you ? Me
I I cold rearrange the alphabet, I would put U and I together.
Are you sure that we haven't met some where in a past life?
I wish I were a tear so I could start in your eyes, live on your face, and die on your lips.
I'm a thief, and I'm here to steal you heart.
Can I have directions to your heart?
If God would have created something more beautiful than you he would have kept it to him self.
I looked up sexy in the dictionary today and your name was listed
Do you believe in love at fist site, or should I walk past you again?
I've heard sex is a killer, wanna die happy?
Is your father a terrorist? Because you're the bomb!
If you were a flower, I'd pick you
Your body is made up of 90% water and I'm thirsty
If someone is wearing a shirt with writing on it, go up to them and ask them, "Can I read you shirt in brail?
Smile if you want to know me more! U will find that I am as special as U

Thinking OF You

2008-09-25T03:02:00.000-07:00

Baby you must be tired because you've been running through my mind all night!
Is your dad a thief or something? Because someone stole the stars and put them into your eyes!
I think I need to call heaven because they've lost one of their angels
When God made you, he had to have broken the mold because I have never seen anything as beautiful as you.
Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?
If you were a Sprite, I'd obey my thirst!
Is your name Gillette? Because you're the best a man can get!
Do you have a map? Because I keep getting lost in your eyes.
Because you're hot you must be the reason for global warming
Damm, I'm glad I'm not blind! Then I can frame u in my mind and heart. What a cool!
Are you an over due book? Because you've got FINE written all over you!
I don't care about yesterday, coz I already 4get everything about memories. I just need a 2nd, When d sympathy comes up, a 2nd among 86400 2nds in a day, just like a wink, I will fall 2 u.
Whatever u already did, just love Ur self b'coz u did it. Whatever u felt, juz love Ur self b'coz felt it.
When u learn to love urself, u'd better love by far. And I hove u always stay d same b'coz there's nothing about u, I would change.

Cheers You UP!

2008-09-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

When you are lost, and can't see the light My love will be the star, shining so bright. This is fo you, one that I keep till the end For you are my life and friend.
When you are sad I will dry your tears When you are scared I will comfort you fears. When you need love, my heart I will share, when you are sick, I will be there and care.
In a blink of an eye to be exact. I hope you with all my heart and that's a fact.
You will feel my love when we are apart
Knowing that nothing can change my heart When you are worried. I will give you hope When you are confused or tense, I will help you cope.
You totally change my life and the I drink.
you came to me and I fell in love with you in a blink.
A special smile a special someone I cant replace. I love you, I always will use filled a space no one can fill

I Do Care

2008-09-21T06:16:00.000-07:00

A candle may melt and itis fire may die. But the love U have me will always stay as a flame in my heart
I wrote Ur name in the sand, but the waves washed it away. I wrote Ur name on my hand but I washed it the next day. I wrote Ur name on a piece of paper but I accidentally threw it away. I wrote Ur name in my heart & 4ever it will stay!
In my life I learned how : 2 love, 2 smile, 2 be happy, 2 be wrong, 2 work hard, 2 be honest, 2 be faithful, 2 4give, but I couldn't learn how 2 stop remembering U.
Bad time, night time, day time, day time, work time, off time, sad time, happy time, in the mean time "I'm thinking of U all the time."
They say sugar is sweet N honey is too. But baby what do I call U? Ur sexier than sexy N hotter than that. There's only one name 4 U & that 2 good 2 be true.
Waiting u is easy, missin U is hard. Within U was wiv me wrapped up in my arms. Constantly think of U when we r apart. I've got the padlock U have key 2 my heart.
I believe that God above created U 4 me 2 love. He picked U out from all the rest coz he knew I'd love U the best!
Ur only mine when I dream. When I wake I wanna scream. Ur not mine I am all alone. I can only text U on my phone. Do dreams lie or r they true. I hope so coz honey I want U!
Rose is exclusively 4 a nice person like U!! from an even nicer person like me!
First NiTe, First Sight, I Saw, I knEw, LoVe's SwEEtEr ThAn MoUnTaiN DeW, A pRoMise I madE & wiLL kEEp, 2 LoVe U aLwAys.
Words however sepcial...could never even start, 2 tell U all the love I have 4 U within my heart.
Another month, another year, another smile, another summer to but there I'll never be another U!
Why do birds fall fom da sky everytime U walk by? why do stars fall from da sky? coz like me they want 2 be near U!
Every night when I look at the moon, it reminds me of U. How U can see the same moon. It makes me sometimes sad coz I can see the moon, but I can B4t see U.