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Winter Back Ache

Winter Back Ache I’ve often commented that if it wasn’t for the cold, the dark, the blowing snow, black ice on the roads, the slush … winter would be just about perfect! Snowstorms trigger hazardous driving conditions, but they can also be treacherous for people who go no further than their driveways. Shoveling can result in aches and pains, broken limbs and sometimes even death. An Etobicoke man in his early 70s collapsed while shoveling his driveway Thursday morning, police said. The man suffered a heart attack and died shortly after. Earlier that morning, a 75-year-old woman fainted while shoveling the winter’s first dumping of snow from her driveway. Paramedics rushed the woman, who was in critical condition, to hospital. Shoveling-related medical emergencies spike in patients after a major storm. Shoveling is very strenuous and many people who go out shoveling lack conditioning. Often people don’t pace themselves, they just go, go, go. Especially when they are tr

What Science Says You Should Eat

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   What Does Science Say You Should Eat? By Brad Lemley, Photography by Dan Winters   From Discover Magazine, February 2004 issue , http://discovermagazine.com/2004/feb/science-diet/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C= Most diets aren't realistic or advisable, including the U.S. agriculture department's famous food pyramid. Instead, a Harvard scientist recommends a new way of eating based on the world's largest and longest food study. America clearly needs dietary guidance.   More than 44 million people are clinically obese compared with 30 million a decade ago, putting them at increased risk for heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and breast, prostate, and colon cancers. In the meantime, the noun diet seems to attract a different adjective every week, including Atkins, Ornish, Cooper, grapefruit, rice, protein, Scarsdale, South Beach, Beverly Hills, Best Chance, Eat Smart, and Miracle, not to mention Help, I’m Southern and I Can’t Stop Eating.

Weight Loss: Does it matter what food you eat?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=when-dieting-not-all-calo When Dieting, Not All Calories Are Created Equal A low-glycemic-index diet is better than a low-fat or Atkins diet in terms of improving metabolism and reducing the risk of various chronic diseases A calorie is a calorie, goes the popular mantra. But now doctors and dieticians might have to eat those words. Researchers have found that not all calories are created equal and that the types of calories you eat, particularly after losing weight, can have a profound effect on how efficiently your body burns calories and keeps off unwanted pounds. The ideal diet that promotes a fast metabolism — that is, your body's ability to quickly burn off calories — as well as promotes long-term health in terms of disease-free organs appears to be (surprise!) fresh vegetables and whole grains or any foods that reduce the surge of blood sugar after a meal. These foods are said to have a low glycemic inde

There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile.... then his wife took him to see a chiropractor.. and he felt much better after that...

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There was a crooked man, who walked a crooked mile.... then his wife took him to see a chiropractor.. and he felt much better after that...

Short leg syndrome

Standing straight when one leg is shorter is the equivalent of standing sideways on a hill. The person cannot help but lean to the shorter side. The spine may compensate by tilting the upper body in the opposite direction. This produces a "scoliosis" or sideways deviation of the spine. It also concentrates gravitational and kinetic stress on the area where the spine transitions to the sacrum and pelvis... the lumbo-sacral junction....  NOT GOOD. Often a person will try to compensate for a short leg by perching on short leg, usually with the longer leg bent at the knee and turned out...effectively shortening the long leg. NOT GOOD. Rather than balancing the pelvis, fatigue and strain usually causes the pelvis to over compensate. In either case, the distortion of the spine unevenly loads the joints and muscles, and promotes faster wear and tear, and injury. If you, or someone you care about, is persistently perching on one leg, or complaining of back pain, t

Short leg syndrome

Standing straight when one leg is shorter is the equivalent of standing sideways on a hill. The person cannot help but lean to the shorter side. The spine may compensate by tilting the upper body in the opposite direction. This produces a "scoliosis" or sideways deviation of the spine. It also concentrates gravitational and kinetic stress on the area where the spine transitions to the sacrum and pelvis... the lumbo-sacral junction....  NOT GOOD. Often a person will try to compensate for a short leg by perching on short leg, usually with the longer leg bent at the knee and turned out...effectively shortening the long leg. NOT GOOD. Rather than balancing the pelvis, fatigue and strain usually causes the pelvis to over compensate. In either case, the distortion of the spine unevenly loads the joints and muscles, and promotes faster wear and tear, and injury. If you, or someone you care about, is persistently perching on one leg, or complaining of back pain, t

Body Mass Index

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Source: http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01320/aaaabmi-chart-for-_1320321a.jpg  The body mass index is an advance from the older and less meaningful height and weight charts. And is the current tool used by health and insurance agencies to assess body weight and degree of obesity. However, it does not allow for individual variation of muscle mass and bone structure.    Click on image for better view http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01323/lf-jockology-obesi_1323094a.jpg Although body mass index (BMI) has been adopted by WHO as an international measure of obesity, it lacks a theoretical basis, and empirical evidence suggests it is not valid for all populations.1 The body mass index (BMI) does not accurately represent the amount of [body] fat,"2 The BMI has been around since the 1840s, but it has a number of weaknesses. Firstly, it doesn't give a real estimate of percentage body fat. Secondly, the BMI can be quite differen