Asthma and Exercise

Most people with Asthma can exercise and become fit. But the type, and intensity of exercise Asthmatics can do varies greatly from person to person. Here's a video that outlines the rules of thumb.

Asthmatic or not, be sure to consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program. Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways. It causes bronchial passages to become inflamed and arrowed in response to triggers like cold, exercise, and stress, and allergens like dust mites, dander and smoke.

Breathing becomes labored and difficult, and in extreme cases, Asthma attacks can be fatal. Asthma is on the rise. Asthma affects about 25 million people in the U.S. according to the National Institutes of health.

The cause has been debated for decades. The hygiene hypothesis: it was thought that living in a too clean environment, like suburban America, and smaller family size decreased a child's exposure to bacteria and viruses, thus preventing the immune system from developing normally and allowing it to instead set its sights on allergic triggers like dust.

More recent studies in less clean urban areas suggest Asthma causes are more complex and no one explanation has come to the forefront.

There are many types and degrees of Asthma. There is no cure, but modern medicine has provided options that help keep most Asthma symptoms under control most of the time. They include, drugs, swallowed, inhaled and injected, and lifestyle changes like diet and exercise. Yes, people with Asthma can exercise.

The most common symptoms are wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing.
But exercising with Asthma is a two edged sword. Exercise is an irritant trigger.

It can induce Asthma. In fact, there is a whole category of asthmatics for which exercise induced Asthma, EIA for short, is the main issue. However this can be overcome. Studies show that exercising for fitness, particularly aerobic exercise, strengthens and builds the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems to the same extent as it does in non-asthmatics.

Asthmatics can become very fit. Many Olympic and professional athletes, have exercise-induced Asthma.

So what kinds of exercise can and should asthmatics do and, what precautions should they take.

Pick an exercise that gets your heart rate up without putting too much pressure on your breathing.

Generally, low intensity activities like walking, biking, moderate aerobics and swimming outdoors where fumes from pool chemicals are less of an irritant, are more easily tolerated. Activities like high intensity aerobics or calisthenics can be more problematic and should be approached gradually.

Exercise limitations; vary greatly from person to person. Some asthmatics have trouble with even low intensity exercise, while others can do almost anything most of the time.

First and foremost consult your doctor before you begin.

Rules of thumb:

· Depending on your particular condition, you may need to take medication, or take a puff or two from your inhaler before you begin.
· If you use a peak flow meter, test yourself and don't exercise unless you're in normal range.
· Keep your emergency inhaler handy during exercise just in case.
· Avoid triggers whenever possible.
· If it's too cold or the pollen count is high outside, exercise indoors.
· Exercise outside when the air is clear and humidity is higher.
· If you exercise in the cold, wear a scarf over your nose and mouth to warm and moisten the air as you breathe.
· Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water before, during and after exercise.
· Take time to warm up with slow dynamic movements like marching in place or gentle stretching.
· Start slowly and monitor how the exercise is affecting you.
· Avoid sudden bouts of intense exercise.
· Breath through your nose if possible in a relaxed controlled pattern
· Try using pursed lip breathing. Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth with lips pursed as though whistling. It helps avoid hyperventilation and manages shortness of breath. It helps your airways relax and dilate so you can expel carbon dioxide and take in oxygen.
· If exercise induces your Asthma more severely, with your doctors approval, you may want to try easing in with gentle movements while seated in a chair.

The bottom line is exercising with Asthma is a very individual undertaking. One size does not fit all. Some people can do almost anything, while others have trouble with even light exercise.

Talk to your doctor, listen to your body, Start gently and build up. Stay in your comfort zone. Take precautions, get fit and live well.

Can Exercise Cause A.L.S.?

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been all over the news lately because of the ubiquitous A.L.S. ice bucket challenge. That attention has also reinvigorated a long-simmering scientific debate about whether participating in contact sports or even vigorous exercise might somehow contribute to the development of the fatal neurodegenerative disease, an issue that two important new studies attempt to answer.

Ever since the great Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig died of A.L.S. in 1941 at age 37, many Americans have vaguely connected A.L.S. with athletes and sports. In Europe, the possible linkage has been more overtly discussed. In the past decade, several widely publicized studies indicated that professional Italian soccer players were disproportionately prone to A.L.S., with about a sixfold higher incidence than would have been expected numerically. Players were often diagnosed while in their 30s; the normal onset is after 60.

These findings prompted some small, follow-up epidemiological studies of A.L.S. patients in Europe. To the surprise and likely consternation of the researchers, they found weak but measurable associations between playing contact sports and a heightened risk for A.L.S. The data even showed links between being physically active — meaning exercising regularly — and contracting the disease, raising concerns among scientists that exercise might somehow be inducing A.L.S. in susceptible people, perhaps by affecting brain neurons or increasing bodily stress.

But these studies were extremely small and had methodological problems. So to better determine what role sports and exercise might play in the risk for A.L.S., researchers from across Europe recently combined their efforts into two major new studies.

The more impressive of these, which was published in May in Annals of Neurology, involved almost two dozen researchers from five nations, who developed a deceptively simple but scientifically rigorous research approach. They asked 652 A.L.S. patients if they’d be willing to talk about their lives and activities and did the same with 1,166 people of matching ages, genders and nationalities. They conducted extensive in-person interviews with each volunteer, asking them how active they had been in professional or amateur sports, at their jobs and during leisure time. They also asked about past histories of injuries and accidents, including concussions and other head trauma but also other injuries.

They then compared answers from the people with A.L.S. to those of healthier people.

The results should reassure those of us who exercise. The numbers showed that physical activity — whether at work, in sports or during exercise — did not increase people’s risk of developing A.L.S. Instead, exercise actually appeared to offer some protection against the disease. Even pro athletes showed no heightened risk, although they represented such a tiny subset of the patients with A.L.S. that firm conclusions cannot be drawn, the researchers say.

One aspect of people’s lives did significantly increase their risk of developing A.L.S.: a history of multiple hits to the head. Men and women who had sustained at least two concussions or other serious head injuries were much more likely than other people, including never-concussed athletes, to develop A.L.S.

These results coincide closely with those of the other new study, a review article published in July in the European Journal of Epidemiology, which gathered data from 50 years’ worth of epidemiological studies related to A.L.S. risk (including the other new study) and teased out the effects of physical activity. Most of the studies were limited in scope, but they amplified one another’s validity when combined, the researchers thought.

And their main finding was that “in the general population, physical activity is not a risk factor for A.L.S.,” said Dr. Benoit Marin, a neuroepidemiologist at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris who oversaw the new review.

But as Dr. Marin also pointed out, the studies involved were all associational, meaning that they cannot establish cause and effect. Exercise and a reduced risk for A.L.S. might be linked to other lifestyle factors, such as a healthy diet, and not to each other.

The new studies also cannot dispel the lingering and troubling questions about the effects of head injuries from contact sports.

“I would not consider this issue settled,” said Ettore Beghi, a neuroscientist at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan and senior author of the study published in May in Annals of Neurology.

In the United States, a few researchers have begun to look at football and A.L.S. risk, a plausible research concern, Dr. Beghi said, given evidence that head trauma sustained playing football might contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. But to date, the football data has been inconclusive.

For now, he and other scientists are continuing to study Italian soccer players, as well as athletes in other sports, including rugby, which, for some reason, confers no increased risk of A.L.S., although it involves considerable contact. Such research may ultimately “shed some light on the underlying mechanisms of the disease, which are still poorly understood,” Dr. Beghi said.

The greatest obstacle to advancing the research, he added, is “the lack of funding,” a situation that could be ameliorated, somewhat, with all of that ice dousing.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/can-exercise-cause-a-l-s/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Low Carb Diet Comes Back Around Yet Again

A new study has caused the infamous low carb diet to come back around in the press yet again despite mountains of scientific evidence that in the long term, calories in vs. calories out–not carbs or fat–is what matter most in weight loss. The study was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and it included 148 men and women. Half of the participants ate a low-fat diet while the other half ate a low carb diet, cutting out breads, pastas, potatoes, high sugar fruits, baked goods and other carb-laden foods.

At the end of the study, the low carb group lost eight pounds more than the low fat group, leading press headlines to once again shout the benefits of a low carb diet from the rooftops. Low carb dieting began as far back as the 1800s, but it became incredibly popular in the 1970s, when Dr. Atkins was at the height of his career. His eating plan became so entrenched in the American mindset that it became known as “the Atkins Diet,” or as some people enjoyed calling it, “the Atkins.”

Atkins’ philosophy was that by cutting out carbs, a person’s body would be pushed into what is called ketosis. That is when the body is forced to burn fat as fuel, but it is also a condition suffered by diabetic people as well as those with kidney disorders. Few doctors think that ketosis is a healthy state in which to be, and it is hard on the kidneys and other organs. The Atkins diet starts people out on a phase called “induction” in which they eat almost no carbs, then moves them into the weight loss phase, where they can eat limited carbs in the form of vegetables. Maintenance allows some fruit and alcohol as well.

It is true that people lose weight on the Atkins diet or most any low-carb eating plan, but some experts say that the weight loss is due mostly to the drastic calorie reduction that occurs when carb-rich foods are cut from a person’s daily intake. Indeed, as USA Today reports, larger studies have shown no significant difference in weight loss between low fat and low carb diets.

Perhaps the most research has been done on the effect of calorie restriction as it pertains to weight loss. What the body of research over time shows is that calories are the main factor in determining weight loss. When someone burns more calories than they ingest, they will lose weight barring any underlying medical condition. This has been proven again and again in numerous meta-analyses over at least 50 years.

Nearly all diets rely on one basic factor for success: calorie restriction. Whether that restriction occurs due to cutting out food groups, counting points, measuring portions, eliminating sweets, adding exercise or replacing meals with shakes and bars, all the diets have one thing in common and that is a net reduction of calories.

Low carb diets have come back around yet again, but like the current gluten-free hysteria, low carb is a trend; a fad that keeps waxing and waning over time. To lose weight for the majority of healthy people, calories must be reduced somehow, and no amount of marketing for any specific diet will change this proven fact.

http://www.viralglobalnews.com/health/low-carb-diet-comes-back-around-yet-again/16086/

5 Simple Tips to Enjoy Holiday Summer Food While Protecting Your Health

#1) Eat a Fresh Orange With Your Barbeque to Block the Carcinogens

Fresh oranges are high in natural vitamin C compounds that help block the cancer-causing effects of barbequed foods. When meat fat is burned to a crisp, it produces carcinogenic chemicals that promote colorectal cancer.

Continue here: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/789543-follow-these-5-simple-tips-to-enjoy-holiday-summer-food-while-protecting-your-health-at-the-same-time-2/