The smartest plan for attacking a heart attack is, of course, preventing one from ever happening. Choose three of the following preventive strategies that you're currently not doing. Make them a habit. The closer to the top of the list you get, the more you reduce your risk of heart disease.
1. Convince Your Wife to Stop Smoking
Nonsmoking husbands of smoking wives face a 92 percent increase in their risk of heart attack, according to a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Breathing secondhand smoke boosts LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels, decreases HDL ("good") cholesterol, and increases your blood's tendency to clot.
2. Walk, Run, or Lift Weights for 30 Minutes Four Times a Week
Middle-aged men who exercised vigorously for 2 or more hours cumulatively per week had 60 percent less risk of heart attack than inactive men did, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
3. Lose 10 to 20 Pounds
If you're overweight, dropping 10 to 20 pounds could lower your risk of dying from a first heart attack by 16 percent. Being overweight drives up cholesterol and blood pressure, the precursors to coronary disease. A 10-year Mayo Clinic study found that overweight people had heart attacks 3.6 years earlier than normal-weight people did, and that obese heart-attack patients tended to be 8.2 years younger than normal-weight victims.
4. Drink Five Glasses of Water a Day
In a study at Loma Linda University, men who drank that many 8-ounce glasses were 54 percent less likely to have a fatal heart attack than those who drank two or fewer. Researchers say the water dilutes the blood, making it less likely to clot.
5. Switch from Coffee to Tea
A Dutch study found that people who drank 3 cups of tea a day had half the risk of heart attack of those who didn't drink tea at all. Potent antioxidants, called flavonoids, in tea may provide a protective effect.
6. Grill Salmon on Saturday, Have a Tuna Sandwich on Tuesday
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say that eating fish at least twice a week can lower your heart-disease risk by more than 30 percent. The magic ingredient is the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish. In another study, men without heart disease were 10 percent less likely to die suddenly when their blood levels of omega-3s were high.
7. Ask Your Doctor About Vitamin E and Aspirin
Men who took the antioxidant and the blood thinner daily cut the plaque in their clogged arteries by more than 80 percent, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania study.
8. Eat a Cup of Total Corn Flakes for Breakfast
This cereal contains one of the highest concentrations of folate (675 micrograms) of any cold cereal. Taking in that much folic acid daily (the recommended amount is 400 mcg) cuts your risk of cardiovascular disease by 13 percent, according to researchers at Tulane University. Folate works by reducing blood levels of artery-damaging homocysteine.
9. Count to 10
Creating a 10-second buffer before reacting to a stressful situation may be enough to cool you down. Men who respond to stress with anger are three times more likely to be diagnosed with heart disease and five times more likely to have a heart attack before turning 55, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
10. Eat Watermelon
It contains about 40 percent more lycopene than is found in raw tomatoes, and a new study by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service shows that your body absorbs it at higher levels due to the melon's high water content. Half a wedge may boost heart-disease prevention by 30 percent.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
5 Heart Foods
5 foods that can help rein in out-of-control cholesterol
1. Almonds
These nuts provide a rich source of cholesterol-lowering sterols, but Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., a cholesterol researcher at Stanford University, credits monounsaturated fat with most of the benefit. Unlike saturated fat, the mono kind doesn't block the removal of LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream.
2. Apples
Earlier this year, Cornell University researchers found that eating one Red Delicious apple a day can block LDL oxidation, resulting in an 8 percent drop in levels. Bonus: Apples (and their skins) contain soluble fiber, the kind that scrubs artery walls clean. Cut one up and mix it into your oatmeal, another top source.
3. Beans
Much has been made of soybeans' ability to overcome everything from cholesterol to cancer. Gardner isn't convinced: "I'm not sure how much of the health benefit is soy versus what soy displaces." When it comes to controlling cholesterol, he says, that means substituting a vegetable patty for a fatty beef burger and topping your salad with edamame or kidney beans instead of chicken tenders a couple of times a week.
4. Blueberries
Similar to the resveratrol in grapes, pterostilbene, an antioxidant found in blueberries, can stimulate liver cells to better break down fat and cholesterol, according to USDA scientists.
5. Fish
Two weekly servings of fatty fish, like salmon, can lower LDL by 20 percent. Tufts University scientists found that, in high enough quantities, the omega-3 fatty acids from fish chewed through cholesterol molecules in the bloodstream and shrank the size of remaining LDL particles by 12 percent.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
1. Almonds
These nuts provide a rich source of cholesterol-lowering sterols, but Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., a cholesterol researcher at Stanford University, credits monounsaturated fat with most of the benefit. Unlike saturated fat, the mono kind doesn't block the removal of LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream.
2. Apples
Earlier this year, Cornell University researchers found that eating one Red Delicious apple a day can block LDL oxidation, resulting in an 8 percent drop in levels. Bonus: Apples (and their skins) contain soluble fiber, the kind that scrubs artery walls clean. Cut one up and mix it into your oatmeal, another top source.
3. Beans
Much has been made of soybeans' ability to overcome everything from cholesterol to cancer. Gardner isn't convinced: "I'm not sure how much of the health benefit is soy versus what soy displaces." When it comes to controlling cholesterol, he says, that means substituting a vegetable patty for a fatty beef burger and topping your salad with edamame or kidney beans instead of chicken tenders a couple of times a week.
4. Blueberries
Similar to the resveratrol in grapes, pterostilbene, an antioxidant found in blueberries, can stimulate liver cells to better break down fat and cholesterol, according to USDA scientists.
5. Fish
Two weekly servings of fatty fish, like salmon, can lower LDL by 20 percent. Tufts University scientists found that, in high enough quantities, the omega-3 fatty acids from fish chewed through cholesterol molecules in the bloodstream and shrank the size of remaining LDL particles by 12 percent.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Quit Smoking Tips
Smoking has always been detrimental to the health of the smokers and to the people who live around them. It does not require any explanation to understand how directly lungs of the smokers are affected by smoking tobacco. Smokers, in spite of knowing full well how dangerous smoking of tobacco is, sometimes state that they find it difficult to quit smoking. Quit smoking tips are, therefore, nothing new and not unknown to the people in general.
Quit smoking tips should contain the losses suffered by humanity due to the habit of smoking by large number of men and women all over the world. It has already been established by the researchers in the sphere of public health that smoking indirectly or passively is more harmful than any direct smoking. This is to mean that smoking is harmful to the smokers, but the people who are forced to inhale the exhaled smoke of the primary smokers suffer more loss physically.
Smokers can tell others what quit smoking tips should be, because they know pretty will how badly lungs, heart, larynx, stomach and other internal organs of the physique are affected simply for smoking tobacco
. The physicians unanimously advise the patients to quit smoking immediately. The diabetes and patients suffering from hypertension and tuberculosis patients must never touch the cigarettes.
It is another fact that the environment of the earth is polluted due to smoking of cigarettes by millions of men and women on the earth. It is again good when people have become conscious of the ill effects of smoking tobacco on the atmosphere of the earth.
Sometimes, gradual withdrawal of smoking tobacco is advised as one of the quit smoking tips. One should think twice before submitting this prescription. One must quit smoking once for all. If a man is allowed to prolong the habit in the name of quitting the habit, he is sure to remain in contact of the nicotine effect of tobacco which is the main cause of this kind of intoxication.
It is always important to motivate the smokers to quit smoking immediately and not as early as possible. The smokers lack self-confidence and cannot believe that they can really quit smoking at any time. Smokers must be placed under all out campaigns against smoking tobacco, campaigns through all of the offline and online media. This measure will help in building up confidence in them.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
Quit smoking tips should contain the losses suffered by humanity due to the habit of smoking by large number of men and women all over the world. It has already been established by the researchers in the sphere of public health that smoking indirectly or passively is more harmful than any direct smoking. This is to mean that smoking is harmful to the smokers, but the people who are forced to inhale the exhaled smoke of the primary smokers suffer more loss physically.
Smokers can tell others what quit smoking tips should be, because they know pretty will how badly lungs, heart, larynx, stomach and other internal organs of the physique are affected simply for smoking tobacco
. The physicians unanimously advise the patients to quit smoking immediately. The diabetes and patients suffering from hypertension and tuberculosis patients must never touch the cigarettes.
It is another fact that the environment of the earth is polluted due to smoking of cigarettes by millions of men and women on the earth. It is again good when people have become conscious of the ill effects of smoking tobacco on the atmosphere of the earth.
Sometimes, gradual withdrawal of smoking tobacco is advised as one of the quit smoking tips. One should think twice before submitting this prescription. One must quit smoking once for all. If a man is allowed to prolong the habit in the name of quitting the habit, he is sure to remain in contact of the nicotine effect of tobacco which is the main cause of this kind of intoxication.
It is always important to motivate the smokers to quit smoking immediately and not as early as possible. The smokers lack self-confidence and cannot believe that they can really quit smoking at any time. Smokers must be placed under all out campaigns against smoking tobacco, campaigns through all of the offline and online media. This measure will help in building up confidence in them.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Decision Making Skills
Good decision-making is an essential skill for career success generally, and effective leadership particularly. If you can learn to make timely and well-considered decisions, then you can often lead your team to spectacular and well-deserved success. Effective decision-making means you make things happen instead of letting things happen.
The various steps in the decision making process are enumerated below:
Recognize the problem. You must first recognize that a problem exists and that change is needed. Once you see that a problem exists, try to define the problem completely. Big problems must often be broken down into smaller, easier to deal with, components.
Analyze the problem. You must now analyze the problem to make sure you understand all of the issues that are involved. You don't want to resolve a problem to only find out that you addressed a symptom and the root problem still exists. Be specific as possible in your analysis.
Consider your goals. Make sure you factor in the goals that you are trying to achieve. Becoming more aware of your goals and the priorities you place on them will help you see more clearly what is desired.
Look for alternatives. Do not just find the most practical or feasible solution. You will want to find as many solutions as possible so that you can have a number of choices when you make your decision.
Select the best alternative. Analyze each alternative considering the different costs involved. Keep in mind that costs are not only financial. If there is no one best alternative or none at all which seems satisfactory, perhaps a new alternative can be created by compromise, or by combining some of the possible ideas you have.
Put your decision into action. Make the decision and put it into action. Make sure you allocate the proper resources to take action.
Accept the responsibility. You made the decision, now monitor how the resolution to the situation is working. If it does not work, take responsibility and be ready to make another decision.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
The various steps in the decision making process are enumerated below:
Recognize the problem. You must first recognize that a problem exists and that change is needed. Once you see that a problem exists, try to define the problem completely. Big problems must often be broken down into smaller, easier to deal with, components.
Analyze the problem. You must now analyze the problem to make sure you understand all of the issues that are involved. You don't want to resolve a problem to only find out that you addressed a symptom and the root problem still exists. Be specific as possible in your analysis.
Consider your goals. Make sure you factor in the goals that you are trying to achieve. Becoming more aware of your goals and the priorities you place on them will help you see more clearly what is desired.
Look for alternatives. Do not just find the most practical or feasible solution. You will want to find as many solutions as possible so that you can have a number of choices when you make your decision.
Select the best alternative. Analyze each alternative considering the different costs involved. Keep in mind that costs are not only financial. If there is no one best alternative or none at all which seems satisfactory, perhaps a new alternative can be created by compromise, or by combining some of the possible ideas you have.
Put your decision into action. Make the decision and put it into action. Make sure you allocate the proper resources to take action.
Accept the responsibility. You made the decision, now monitor how the resolution to the situation is working. If it does not work, take responsibility and be ready to make another decision.
"I pray this article empowers you to M.A.N. up!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)