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My AIDS/Lifecycle Fundraiser - 2010 Calendar

Photos and Captions: Copyright 2010

I am so excited to announce that we are almost ready to print my 2010 Calendar, as my ALC 9 Fundraiser!!
This calendar contains double entendre captions and some provocative photos. The purpose is to promote riding safely, both in cycling and in sexual practices (to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS). To make your donations now, please click on the AIDS/Lifecycle logo. Please follow the Facebook link, then hit the photos tab, for more calendar images. Many thanks and sincere gratitude for your generosities! - Jasmin

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Physical Activity Is Natural Pain Reliever For Arthritis

I was just discussing this with one of my clients. She has expressed that she is in a much improved joint health. Now that she is more consistent with her training, she's become more injury resistant than when she was inactive. Well, here is a study that proves her experience.

Enjoy!

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2008) — It may seem counterintuitive to exercise when suffering with joint pain, but physical activity is actually a natural pain reliever for most people suffering from arthritis. A recent study published in Arthritis Care and Research journal concluded that regular exercise, specifically the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, is an effective course in significantly improving and managing arthritis pain. This is good news for the aging population of U.S. baby boomers who want to get back to basics with a natural remedy for pain. In fact, arthritis is projected to increase by 40 percent, affecting 67 million Americans, in the next two decades.

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See also:

Health & Medicine

• Arthritis
• Joint Pain
• Fitness
• Pain Control
• Chronic Illness
• Fibromyalgia

Reference

• Arthritis
• Fatigue (physical)
• Aerobic exercise
• General fitness training

The in-depth study looked at the effectiveness of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, developed in 1987 to reduce pain and stiffness by keeping joints flexible and muscles strong. Key findings of the study include participants reporting a decrease in pain and fatigue, an increase in upper and lower extremity function, and an increase in strength after participating in the basic, eight-week exercise program. Also, participants who continued the exercise program independently, beyond eight weeks, sustained improvement in reduced stiffness.

“The study showed that the exercise program is suitable for every fitness level, even inactive older individuals,” said author of the study Leigh Callahan, Ph.D., Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Many people believe the myth that exercise exacerbates their symptoms. The truth revealed in the study is that symptoms improved with exercise.”

Exercising for joint health is different than exercising for cardio health. People living with arthritis don’t have to sweat to achieve success. The basic eight-week Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program consists of low-impact routines with gentle range-of-motion movements that can be done while sitting or standing.

“Even minor lifestyle changes like taking a 10-minute walk three times a day can reduce the impact of arthritis on a person’s daily activities and help to prevent developing more painful arthritis,” explains Patience White, M.D., chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation. “Physical activity can actually reduce pain naturally and decrease dependence on pain medications.”

About the Study

The objective of the study was to evaluate the basic eight-week Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program for improvements in symptoms, functioning, level of physical activity and psychosocial outcomes. A total of 346 individuals with self-reported arthritis from 18 sites participated in a randomized controlled trial. The eight-week exercise program consisted of exercise twice weekly for one hour. The study participants had a mean age of 70 years (ranging from 32 to 94 years old), 90 percent were female, 75 percent were white and 60 percent had more than a high school degree.

Adapted from materials provided by Arthritis Foundation.

Top 8 Effects and Maladies Caused by Sleep Deprivation

In this entry, I would like to focus a little bit on proper rest and recovery but, I don't just mean from exercise training but also from life. Many of my clients are hardworking, self-employed, career-driven individuals. Because there are too many tasks that need to be handled on a daily basis, the hours of sleep needed are being compromised. Ask yourself, "Is it really worth it?" or do you need to start learning to establish boundaries to better focus on YOU. Here is an article that I want to share and hope that everyone will learn from.

By Hugo Rivera

Millions of Americans suffer from sleep deprivation. If you can lie down in the middle of the day and fall asleep within 10 minutes, then you too are sleep deprived. There are many reasons for this ranging from too much work to simply staying up watching TV. In this article we will explore what the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation are and the maladies that it can cause.

1. Impaired glucose tolerance.

Without sleep, the central nervous system becomes more active, something that inhibits the pancreas from producing adequate insulin, the hormone the body needs to digest glucose. "In healthy young men with no risk factor, in one week, we had them in a pre-diabetic state," says researcher Van Cauter when referring to a study that he conducted on the effects of sleep deprivation.

2. Possible link to obesity.

Growth hormone (GH) is secreted during the first round of deep sleep. As both men and women age, they naturally spend less time in deep sleep, which lowers GH secretion. Lack of sleep at a younger age, however, could drive down GH prematurely, accelerating as a result the fat-gaining process. In addition, there is also research that indicates a lowering of the hormone testosterone as well, something that would also make the gaining of fat and the loss of muscle and easy thing for the body to do.

3. Increased carbohydrate cravings.

This is due to the fact that sleep deprivation negatively affects the production of a hormone called Leptin. This hormone is responsible for telling the body when it is full. However, with decreased production of this hormone, your body will crave calories (especially in the forms of carbs) even though its requirements have been met. Not a good situation to be in for a dieter.

4. Weakened immune system.

Research indicates that sleep deprivation affects adversely the white blood cell count in humans as well as the body’s ability to fight infections.

5. Increased risk of getting breast cancer.

Richard Stevens, a cancer researcher at the University of Connecticut, has speculated that there might be a connection between breast cancer and hormone cycles disrupted by late-night light. Melatonin, primarily secreted at night, may trigger a reduction in the body's production of estrogen. But light interferes with melatonin release (since melatonin is secreted in response to a lack of light), allowing estrogen levels to rise. Too much estrogen is known to promote the growth of breast cancers.

6. Decreased alertness and ability to focus.

A recent study showed that people who were awake for up to 19 hours scored worse on performance tests and alertness scales than those with a blood-alcohol level of .08 percent–legally drunk in some states. Also, this can lead to injury in the weight room since lack of alertness can cause you to neglect securing a machine correctly or even lose balance as you perform an exercise.

7. Hardening of the arteries.

Stress imposed on the body due to lack of sleep causes such a very sharp rise in cortisol levels. Such an imbalance can lead to hardening of the arteries, something that can cause a heart attack. In addition, we also know that very high cortisol levels lead to muscle loss, increased fat storage, loss of bone mass, cause depression, cause hypertension, cause insulin resistance (the cells in the body lose the ability to accept insulin), and lower growth hormone and testosterone production.

8. Depression and irritability.

Lack of sleep also causes depletion of neurotransmitters in the brain that are in charge of regulating mood. Because of this, sleep deprived people have a “shorter fuse” and also tend to get depressed more easily.

Shielding The Brain From Too Much Insulin Can Prolong Life

ScienceDaily (Jul. 20, 2007) — One route to a long and healthy life may be establishing the right balance in insulin signaling in the body and brain, according to new research from Children's Hospital Boston. The study, published in the July 20 issue of Science, not only reinforces the value of exercising and eating in moderation, but also helps explain a paradox in longevity research.

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Insulin sends a vital signal in the body, telling cells to use sugar from the blood. When cells become less sensitive to insulin, which often happens as we age and gain weight, the body makes more insulin to compensate. For a long time, researchers thought that "more insulin signaling was good," says Morris White, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in Children's Division of Endocrinology, who led the new study. "But this insulin is also hammering the brain, and we now think that's probably a bad thing."

Recent studies in the worm C. elegans and in fruit flies have shown that reducing insulin signaling lengthens lifespan. But in mammals, reducing insulin signaling can lead to fatal diabetes. White suspected that the key to explaining this paradox -- and to maximizing both health and longevity -- is to reduce insulin signaling only in the brain.

To test this hypothesis, White's team measured longevity and other characteristics in three types of mice. One group had normal insulin signaling in their brains. The other two groups were genetically engineered to have reduced brain insulin signaling, having less of a protein called Irs2 that carries insulin's message inside cells.

As the mice aged and gained weight, their sensitivity to insulin decreased, and higher insulin levels began to bombard their brains. The mice with reduced brain insulin signaling lived 18 percent longer than the normal mice. They were more active in old age, retained youthful metabolic cycles (burning sugar by day and fat by night) and retained protective levels of anti-oxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, which protect against oxidative stress, or "biological rusting," in the brain and body.

In contrast, the mice with normal insulin signaling had become more sedentary, had lost the metabolic rhythms of youth and had reduced anti-oxidant enzymes, leaving them vulnerable to cellular damage. Such damage correlates with a host of age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and cancer, notes White.

White believes his findings suggest a new approach to preventing diseases that shorten lifespan. "If we could hit cancer and cardiovascular disease by attenuating how much insulin that gets to the brain, or the amount of insulin signaling that happens deep within the brain," he says, "that's going to be much easier than trying to cut every cancer out."

Drugs that regulate Irs2 signaling in the brain (but not elsewhere in the body) are one possible strategy, but no such drug has yet been found.

The easiest method, White says, is old-fashioned diet and exercise. Although obesity and sedentary lifestyles tune down the body's sensitivity to insulin, exercise tunes it back up. Furthermore, eating smaller meals keeps insulin low in the bloodstream, ensuring that less reaches the brain.

"This study gives a molecular explanation of why it's good to exercise and not eat too much," says White. "If we can put a sound scientific basis behind the idea that diet and exercise are good, maybe we'll convince some more people to do it."

The study also calls into question the long-term effects of insulin therapy for diabetes, White adds. "Too much insulin might be fine to keep glucose levels under control. But it's probably damaging your brain in the long run," he says. Better treatments for diabetes, he suggests, would concentrate on sensitizing the body's cells to low amounts of insulin.

The work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Yamada Science Foundation.

Adapted from Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719141139.htm

Basic Theories For Exercise

These are some things to share, to increase your knowledge and awareness about your body. To achieve maximum results and to move pain free, the provided theories are the key ingredients.
The link below is an article that defines pain and why it occurs. The article also offers a solution on how to manage pain during rehabilitation.

Please copy and paste. FYI this article is the same as the September 5 entry. I just want to emphasize its importance.
http://prdupl02.ynet.co.il/ForumFiles/8980632.pdf

Basic Theories ; To Keep in Mind During Exercise

SAID Principle – Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Our body adapts and gets better at any activities or even inactivity we subject it to do. I.e. if we sit all day while at work, then go home and sit to watch TV, our body gets good at sitting. Likewise, if we only lift weights all the time, our body will not be prepared to run or swim all of a sudden. A sudden attempt to change activity may result in joint injury that may become chronic.

Proprioceptive Enhancement – provides muscular and joint by joint movement efficiency.

Proprioception - is 3D awareness of the body in time and space; neural map that Central Nervous System (CNS) carries in the body.

Proprioceptors

1. Mechanoreceptors – located in the muscles, tendons, inner ear and most heavily in the joints. It sends very fast neural signals or stimuli. Is the general awareness of the body’s position, location and orientation prior to, and/or during movements.

2. Nociceptors – pain stimuli or noxious stimuli; neural signals consists of both fast and slow. Note: not always perceived as pain but can be referred as any problem happening within the body, i.e., startle reflex.

Motor Learning Theory - cognitive phase of learning in which the focus is learning how the human body moves, as well as recognizing how movement habits can be changed; paying attention to the quality of your movement (Perfect Rep Principle)

Elements of Efficiency - to be able to apply the perfect rep principle, in every movement, the elements that a learner should focus on are the following;

a. Perfect Form – train in perfect form so that the body will learn to move perfectly. Refer to SAID Principle

b. Dynamic Postural Alignment – when in motion, always have neutral stance with a lengthened spine (almost always with the exception of picking up a ball or light load from the ground).

c. Synchronized Breathing – expand chest when letting air in and relax to let air out while moving.

d. Balanced Tension and Relaxation – maintain relaxation while in motion – is one of the best technique in movement precision.

Enemies of Efficiency

A. Startle Reflex – is a survival mechanism that occurs in the presence of immediate physical threat. (Forward head, slumped, round shoulders and tensed muscles).

B. Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA) – move it or lose it! When you fail to move a certain body part or joint – in which it was meant to move, the nervous system loses the conscious control thus detaching your joint self-awareness.

Any muscle attached to an immobile joint cannot function optimally!

Adapted from Z Health Manual written by Dr. Eric Cobb

Also, please be aware that there are five elements that defines FITNESS. In no particular order, the following are:

1. Nutrition
2. Cardiovascular Endurance
3. Strength
4. Flexibility
5. Balance/Stability

*Note*
All of the 5 elements should be practiced almost equally. If one or more of the elements are missing, unwanted problems may occur as quick as within 24 hours after activity or, progressively within a period of 10 years or more.