In different cultures at different times, there have been radically different views of female “beauty”. Some cultures have seen women as most desirable when they are voluptuous. The reason is not hard to find. When a family is rich, it can afford to buy all the best food. This shows most clearly in the children, particularly the girls and women who are less active than the boys. So when food is generally in short supply and what you can afford is not very nutritious, you almost certainly grow up thin. When you are looking to marry money, you therefore look for a well-padded son or daughter of marriageable age. At other times when even the rich cannot find good food, everyone makes a virtue of being thin, even accentuating the figure by using corsets to pinch in the waist to the disappearing point. In modern times, the one question of body size has been hijacked by big business. Magazines are full of pictures showing young women of painful thinness. This makes the ordinary person dissatisfied. The food industry therefore sells weight loss meals. The pharmaceutical industry sells pills and diet supplements. The publishing industry sells walls of books on weight loss, healthy eating, nutrition, cooking for weight loss, and so on. The world grows rich on the backs of those in search of weight loss.
So, cutting through all the hype and marketing double-speak, is there any one diet or strategy to make weight loss easier? Surely one of the books that sell in their millions, must have some value? Well, if weight loss was easy, no-one would be overweight. No matter who you are, where you live or what your lifestyle, shedding unwanted pounds is a challenge. The most interesting piece of research came out in February, 2009. It allocated a large group of people to four diets with different levels of fat, proteins and carbohydrates. Each of the four diets was nutritionally sound and offered healthy outcomes to the cardiovascular system. People were followed over two years and encouraged to keep the diet going for as long as possible. There were no significance differences in the results. Everyone lost an average of 7% of their body weight regardless of the diet followed. So here is a message from someone without a book to sell. People who follow a calorie-reduced diet lose weight regardless whether that diet is high- or low-carb, high- or low-fat, high- or low-protein.
The biology could not be easier to describe. We store fat in our bodies against the need for energy when there is no food to eat. At that time, we burn the fat to give us the energy we need. An effective diet tricks the body into burning the fat. It’s the equivalent of a famine. The lower the calorie intake, the faster you burn the fat, but the more hunger you will feel. This is where a drug like meridia becomes so important. This is one of the leading appetite suppressants, sending a message to your brain that your stomach is full. If you stop feeling hungry, it’s easier to keep to the diet. Over time, your stomach will naturally contract and you genuinely will be full when you eat smaller portions. Meridia helps you lose weight safely.
April 20th, 2010
We have to start with a slight problem of definition. The practice of massage varies significantly between different cultures. In some countries, it is not considered a part of medicine but serves a more social purpose, designed to improve mood and help people relax. In other countries, massage is fully integrated into the healthcare service as one of the many possible processes of physical therapy. In the US, massage would be considered a complementary or alternative medical treatment, i.e. it serves as a back-up to conventional medicine. Thus, when combined with other treatments, massage therapy helps to improve the mobility of joints, reduce swelling, ease muscle spasms and reduce pain. In accepting massage, the US medical profession is recognizing patients can get the best of both worlds: the healing powers of Western science and the more spiritual and relaxing powers of Eastern wellness. Massage is therefore increasingly made available to treat both physical conditions causing neck and back pain, nerve pain, etc., and also mental disorders such as anxiety, stress-related insomnia, etc.
In accepting massage in its hospitals, the US healthcare service is opening itself to the increasing body of scientific evidence showing massage as an effective treatment. Until a few years ago, the medical profession resisted holding clinical trials to test “alternative” remedies. Such studies as existed in other countries were treated with some contempt. Massage was nothing more that an indulgence in high-priced spas. Now the manipulation of the soft tissues by a skilled therapist is acknowledged to reduce physical pain, relieve stress and bring down blood pressure. The methods differ depending on the purpose of the treatment. In general, the therapist will press, manipulate and rub the relevant parts of the body. Most techniques rely on the use of the hands and fingers, but others use the forearm, elbow and, in a few cases, the feet. The pressure may be light and involve gentle stroking. Or it can involve the use of significant pressure to knead and reach down to deep layers of muscle.
If you are experiencing muscle spasms, i.e. an involuntary contraction like cramp that persists, the combination of massage therapy and the use of a muscle relaxant like skelaxin has been found particularly effective. This most commonly occurs in the back, buttocks and legs. It may be from a physical cause such as a herniated disk or sciatica with pain radiating from the nerve. The manipulation of the disk can rapidly reduce pain and improve mobility. As the more acute symptoms are relieved, the drug will ease the problems in the muscles and reduce the risk of further spasms. In the case of sciatica, more aggressive treatment may be required in the use of steroids or, if the pain does not subside, surgery. But, in all this, the therapist will be able to guide you through the process of relieving the acute symptoms and planning a rehabilitation regime to reduce the risk of the problems recurring. At this time, it is most useful if your doctor and the therapist work as a team. That gives you the best advice on the use of prescription painkillers and drugs like skelaxin, while receiving comprehensive physical therapy. It delays treatment and can lead to misunderstandings if you constantly have to move between different hospital or clinic departments.
February 28th, 2010