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10 Ways to E-Boost Your Brain

In this era of modern technological advances, it’s easy to put your brain on pause and let computers, PDAs or televisions do the thinking for you, but there are ways to let technology work for your brain, to keep it fresh and build it stronger. You may never become the bionic man, but with recent research showing that the brain continues to grow late in life, it’s never too late for an e-boost. ~Photo Here

1. Surf the Web: A recent study hinted at the possibility that using an
online search engine for an hour a day can boost your overall brain activity. (Keep it in moderation, though, lest you develop Attention Deficit Disorder or severe social ineptitude.)

2. Use a Wii: If the evidence that exercise increases brain growth
doesn’t get you up and moving, consider the fact that obese people have an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Abdominal fat in particular secretes inflammatory chemicals that affect the brain, so get a Wii Fit and start doing some crunches!

3. Listen to iTunes: There is evidence that certain music can increase your
learning and retention ability, as well as your concentration and alertness. The bad news: that music is in High School Musical 3.

4. Play Games: Recent studies have shown that puzzles and word games can
improve your ability to focus, and there are dozens of free crossword and suduko websites online, in addition to newspaper sites that regularly feature such puzzles. Even video games can increase cognitive abilities, even if you don’t play ones targeted at your brain, like Big Brain Academy, Mega Brain Boost or Brain Age.

5. Watch TV Shows: What?!? There is a God! Yes, there is evidence that
contradicts popular belief that TV turns viewers into drooling zombies, and one study found that kids who watched more TV early in life did slightly better on standardized tests. Of course, it largely depends on what is being watched, so don’t expect those hours of Knight Rider reruns to turn you into a genius. The good news is that nowadays, you don’t even have to have a TV to watch TV, as networks put more and more content on their websites and on general sites like the Internet Movie Database.

6. Read an E-Book: This is a no-brainer (pun intended), but reading is good
for your brain. Reading not only helps you learn and boosts your vocabulary, but it also trains your brain to become more focused, increasing your memory and ability to reason. You can download free books at sites like Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and Google, or you can use e-book readers like Amazon.com’s Kindle if you’re on the go. (I hear Oprah loves it.)

7. Be Optimistic: According to recent studies, the power of positive
thought could be the real deal, with optimistic people suffering fewer strokes and recovering more quickly than pessimists. Browse the myriad of motivational, inspirational and self-improvement sites on the Web and find one that strikes a chord with you.

8. Laugh: Laughing stimulates the brain and other organs (insert joke
here), so do it more by frequenting sites like The Onion, Funny or Die or C-SPAN (Funny is in the eye of the beholder.).

9. Take a Quiz: It’s a fact: nerds live longer. Have you ever seen a
burly, athletic 90-year-old? Tap into your inner nerd by acing online trivia quizzes on sites like triviaplaza.com and funtrivia.com, then laugh at all the jocks who will die young.

10. Stimulate Yourself: It all comes down to stimulation. Practically
anything that stimulates the brain is a good thing, and Lord knows there’s plenty of stimulation on the Internet. One of the keys is to avoid a stagnant routine. Learn a new language, visit new sites, pick up new hobbies, study new topics. Just don’t limit yourself to your usual bookmarked sites (Sorry, Stuff On My Cat.).

Check out this website for more cool subjects www.aceonlineschools.com

Can Thinking Too Much Make You Fat?

Online students beware: a new study conducted by researchers at Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, indicates that heavy thought might contribute to obesity. The limited study — apparently, there are only 14 obese people in Quebec — suggests that intellectual activity causes increased fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels in your body. Since glucose is the only fuel used by brain cells, the brain may in turn tell the body to replenish the burned glucose by eating more.

In the study, the subjects were given food after three separate activities: relaxing in a chair, writing a 350-word summary of a document and engaging in a comprehensive battery of tests on a computer. Compared to the feeding time after the relaxation period, the subjects ate an average of 203 more calories after writing the summary and 253 more calories after taking the computerized tests. As icing on the fattening cake, they burned only THREE more calories during the “brainy” events than they did while relaxing, resulting in a net 200 and 250 caloric increase after the intellectual activities. Online students, of course, get the double whammy of not only craving more food due to increased brain function, but also experiencing the decreased physical activity of spending all their time in front of a computer. Linked with other studies that suggest that obesity decreases your brain function, it’s not hard to come up with this bleak equation: studying = weight gain = stupidity. Ergo, studying makes you stupid. (Having drawn that equation, I suddenly need a sandwich.) Of course, it’s not that simple. There are many other factors that contribute to weight gain — diet, physical activity, heredity — and even if you do find your cravings increase while studying, you can counter them by eating healthy foods and by taking time out to exercise a few minutes a day.

Check out this website for more cool subjects… www.aceonlineschools.com

Supplements for Food Cravings

Here are some supplements to help with food cravings. Some of these are backed by scientific studies and some are not.

§ Try amino acids: Tyrosine, phenylalanine, gamma-aminobutyric acid
(GABA), tryptophan, and glutamine all seem to help with cravings. These amino acids do two things: first they provide the body with needed nutrients and secondly, they are building blocks of brain chemicals (like
serotonin) that help modulate both mood and cravings.

§ B-complex: B-vitamins are also important co-factors in building brain
chemicals and are generally lacking in our diets.

§ Minerals: Chromium, magnesium and calcium have all been shown to help
with food cravings.

§ Balance blood sugar: Many herbs such as Gymnema and supplements such as
chromium, vanadium have been shown to help stabilize blood sugar, which is also thought to play a role in food cravings.

§ A good multi-vitamin: Multi-vitamins can help quell cravings. Many
include the B-vitamins and minerals (as mentioned above).

§ Exercise: Exercise reduced chocolate urges and there was a trend
towards attenuated urges in response to the chocolate cue.

Check out some more cool blogs at www.jmorrow50.wordpress.com

Brain Myths—Busted

Five examples of neurological nonsense you can forget about for good. ~Photo here By Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness The human brain has received unprecedented press coverage in the past few years, thanks in large part to big leaps in science's understanding of what goes on in the space between our ears. Yet, some stubborn myths remain.
For this special installment of Brain & Body, we're offering insights into which commonly held beliefs stem from reliable studies in neuroscience—and which are just plain mindless. For further information on these fallacies, we've consulted our favorite research neuroscientist and go-to brain guy, Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, Ph.D., of the Semel Institute's Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity at UCLA.

Myth: Listening to Mozart makes you smarter.
Reality: It may make you feel superior, but listening to Mozart won't make you any smarter than bumping along to the latest cut by Lil' Wayne. The Mozart idea first took hold following a 1993 study published in Nature that showed that 12 students scored higher on a spatial IQ test after listening to a Mozart sonata. Author Don Campbell ran with the notion in his pop-psychology book The Mozart Effect, and a multi-million–dollar industry arose selling CDs and videos to parents holding out hope their little ones would harness the intellectual power of Amadeus. However, subsequent research failed to replicate the (small) study's results. And the original researchers later re-emphasized the qualifications in their findings; notably, that the effect was temporary, not extending beyond 10 or 15 minutes. "The myth does bring attention to the value of music as a tool for stimulating the brain," says Molnar-Szakacs. "We know that playing a musical instrument in childhood improves performance in academic areas other than music. But just listening to Mozart while cramming for a test is no reliable way to improve your score, let alone your IQ."

Myth: People with autism have genius talents.
Reality: There's not a great deal known about savant syndrome, the very curious condition in which people with developmental disorders such as autism show astonishing skills in music, art, or math. But we do know that the widespread misconception about its prominence is traceable to the 1988 film "Rain Man," and that the movie's hero would be exceptionally skilled, and exceptionally rare, even among savants. According to Darold A. Treffert, M.D., of the Wisconsin Medical Society—a recognized expert on savant syndrome— approximately one in 10 people with autism spectrum disorder has some savant skills. (Among those with other developmental disabilities, fewer than 1 in 100 are savants.) Treffert estimates that no more than 50 people in the world are "prodigious savants" like the toothpick-counting character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.
Beware the characterization of genius, too. The famous "calculating twins" written about by Oliver Sacks, M.D., in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hatcould see prime numbers in a fallen stack of matches or tell you which day of the week July 4 would fall on in the year 3024, but they couldn't do simple multiplication.

Myth: Smarter animals have bigger brains.
Reality: A sperm whale's brain is more than five times the weight of a human's—yet the animal with the world's largest brain still can't play a decent game of chess. What gives? "The relationship isn't directly between brain size and smarts, but rather in the ratio of brain weight to body weight and smarts," explains Molnar-Szakacs. "In a human, whose brain weighs around 3 pounds, the ratio is about 1:50. But in other mammals it's closer to 1:80 or 1:200. So, the smaller the ratio, the more intelligent the animal." Molnar-Szakacs adds that, even beyond the brain-to-body weight ratio, it is what's inside the cranium that counts. "The parts of the human brain that control higher cognitive functions are the cerebral cortices," he says. "These are the areas responsible for the uniquely [high-functioning] human abilities of language, memory, and planning for the future. The cerebral cortices enable us to learn and adapt our responses to our environment in much more sophisticated ways than other animals. For example, we have the capability to override predominant, stimulus-driven responses, so that we can say 'no' to chocolate cake if it'll break our diet even if we are still hungry and know it would taste really good."

Myth: Drink enough alcohol and you'll start killing brain cells.
Reality: Drunken frat boys head-butting one another in a bar may give you pause to consider this one, but alcohol does not kill neurons or create holes in the brain. However, there's no denying that alcohol and other drugs of abuse impact brain systems. It's their effect on the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin that goose the brain's reward system, leading to feelings of euphoria—and, when more of the drug is needed to create the same effect, to tolerance and addiction. "Over the short-term, alcohol and drugs alter brain function rather than affecting brain structure," Molnar-Szakacs clarifies. "Slurred speech, impaired motor response, and impaired judgment are all symptomatic of compromised frontal lobes, the centers of the brain that direct higher-level decision making." Rarely, a chronic drinker may develop Wernicke-Korsakoff's Syndrome, a condition characterized by atrophy or shrinking of the thalamus and hypothalamus and the inability to recall or form memories. This syndrome's not a direct effect of drinking, but rather a secondary result of alcohol abuse so severe that absorption of vitamin B-1 is prevented, leaving the brain malnourished.

Myth: Most people use only 10 percent of their brain.
Reality: A quote from William James that's been mangled, misinterpreted, and misused may explain the myth's origins. In making a general point about human potential, the philosophical psychologist said that people "make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general." Anecdotal evidence of individuals suffering physical damage to the brain and continuing to function, such as the famous story of Phineas Gage, may also have contributed over the years. Thanks to the development of neuroimaging technologies—machines that allow us to view not only structures but functions of the brain at work—this myth is handily debunked. While we may not use all of our brain all of time, multiple areas are simultaneously recruited for every task we undertake. For example, all the different parts of the brain responsible for vision, sensation, planning, motor coordination, muscle activity, and homeostasis are required to play a game of tennis or write words on a page. In fact, new studies examining the brain at rest reveal that an entire network of regions is active even when a person is "doing nothing," notes Molnar-Szakacs.

See more at www.msn.com

Yoga

Statue of Shiva performing Yogic meditation in the Padmasana posture.

Statue of Tirthankara Parsva performing Yogic meditation in the Padmasana posture. Yoga (Sanskrit, P?li: ??? yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India.[1] The word is associated with meditative practices in Indian religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (?stika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices. In Jainism it refers to the sum total of all activities—mental, verbal and physical. Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. Raja Yoga, compiled in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga in the context of Hindu philosophy, is part of the Samkhya tradition. Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras. The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning "to control", "to yoke" or "to unite" Translations include "joining", "uniting", "union", "conjunction", and "means". Outside India, the term yoga is typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas
(postures) or as a form of exercise. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy is called a Yogi

Guide: If you want to try a trendy exercise these days, why not have a go at yoga. You will be in the company of host of celebrity converts who may be seen curling up in pretzel-like positions - Madonna, Sting, and Geri Halliwell leading the ranks. Yoga has experienced such a surge in popularity that certain classes are now so crammed with mats that it can be hard to do a basic sun salutation without head-butting a fellow practitioner.

Read more at www.wikipedia.org and www.medicalnewstoday.com

Pilates

Pilates (pronounced /p??l??ti?z/) is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany.[1] As of 2005 there are 11 million people who practice the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States.
Pilates called his method Contrology (from control and Greek -?????, -logia), because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles. The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and aim to strengthen the deep torso muscles.

Guide: Pilates (pronounced: puh-lah-teez) improves your mental and physical well-being, increases flexibility, and strengthens muscles. Pilates uses controlled movements in the form of mat exercises or equipment to tone and strengthen the body. For decades, it's been the exercise of choice for dancers and gymnasts (and now Hollywood actors), but it was originally used to rehabilitate bedridden or immobile patients during World War I.

Pilates is designed to strengthen the body's core by developing pelvic stability and abdominal control. The body will redevelop its natural foundation, which is often hindered by poor posture and motor control issues resulting from modern day living, injury, illness or heredity. This concentration of work within the core (abdominals, lower back, and hip
musculature) results in more fluid, efficient movements. Pilates builds co-ordination, strength and improves flexibility and joint mobility through slow, controlled movements and proper breathing. By combining elements of yoga, breath work, weight training and gymnastics, Pilates is a truly holistic form of exercise, producing amazing results.

Read more at www.wikipedia.org www.fyvie.net www.kidshealth.org

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking have been confirmed in studies. The word hiking is understood in all English-speaking countries, but there are differences in usage.
Guides:

Go Early: One key to a successful long and satisfying day hike is to start in the night. (Hey, DayHiker) I thought you said it was a "day" hike?

Lose some sleep. Deal with it. It’s OK. Think about it. Would you rather start out in the dark or end in the dark. You can always sleep after the hike is over. Getting on the trail at 3 or 4 in the morning sounds extreme, but it really makes sense. High altitude hikes can be prone to afternoon thunderstorms. It’s much better to reach the summit by 10-11am and be
well on the way back down during vulnerable afternoon hours. Another
benefit of heading out at or before dawn is cooler weather. Less heat means less sweating, therefore less water needed and a lighter load.

One of the classic "day" hikes begins around midnight ascending Mt Whitney to watch the sunrise. Hiking on a trail at night during a full moon is an adventure everyone should experience. A flashlight is hardly needed. Go Light: It’s simple: carry less, go further. A minimalist approach is suggested to food, clothing, and other items. Each hike should be planned considering the risks involved. One advantage to extreme day hiking on well-established trails is the reduced need for survival items since its harder to get lost or hurt yourself.
No one is suggesting you should not bring your single lens reflex camera with tripod, arctic parka for that summer blizzard, first aid kit capable of heart bypass surgery, enough food to feed everyone on the trail, and enough rain gear for the 100 year flood. However, every pound you carry will decrease the probability of your success. Of course, the tricky part is, the extra one pound you do carry could save your life.

Go Fast: Actually don’t go fast. The goal is to minimize time on the trail by developing a consistent pace with a minimum of rest stops. One can usually spot a novice hiker by bursts of speed, followed by many rest stops. The net effect is usually a slower trip.

Go Far and Go High: Early+Light+Fast enables one to go Far+High in one day and return to the creature comforts of a roof and indoor plumbing. A marathon-like distance with large elevation changes are made possible by this thinking. The personal challenge is to go as far and high as you can ... what someone else does is not the point.

Food: Trail Mix may not be the best food on the trail for a hike that has high levels of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Nuts and other oily, fatty foods are harder to digest when your body is using your oxygen elsewhere.
Also, fruit in excess can cause digestive distress. DayHiker has found the best foods on the trail are sport bars like Clif Bar, Promax, Balance Bar, etc ... and, for a sandwich that travels well and always seems to taste
good: PB&J. Please post your favorite trail food on the DayHiker forum.

Water: By studying the weather, the water sources, the trail, one can carry the minimum amount of water, which is probably the heaviest thing one carries on a day hike. An interesting idea is to stash water bottles on the way up, to be retrieved on the way down. A water filter may be an efficient way to go to minimize weight of carried water. The disadvantage is the time it takes to find water, stop and pump.

Clothing: If you have cotton or wool clothes don’t even think about hiking with them. Burn them, or give them to homeless street people who are cold and don’t move fast. This may be tax deductible. Consult your tax attorney.
There are many high tech fibers that wick (transport your sweat into the
air) and are warm (since not wet it feels warmer) and are incredibly light. Some of these trademarked fibers are coolmax, utralight mircrofeece, microfiber (microprocessors in these?), capilene, polartec, ultrawick, tactel, spandex, supplex, gortex, and lycra. By layering these materials it is possible to hike with incredibly light clothing, even in freezing weather. Try it. It works. There is a company, GoLite, that has adopted Jardines philosophy about light weight hiking.
Check them both out.

Hats: This is easy. Wear the largest, lightest brim hat you can stomach. Yes, it’s dorky looking but do it anyway. It keeps you cooler and lessens the chance for wrinkles and skin cancer.

Sunscreen: See the part of the last sentence on hats. High altitude and summer time are brutal to the skin. Low altitude and any sun are brutal to the skin. Put sunscreen on all days, cloudy or not. Consult your local dermatologist.

Shoes: The success or failure of an extreme day hike is tied to shoe selection. Heavy, stiff hiking boots are at a decided disadvantage to a light, flexible, comfortable shoe. Every pound of shoe is equivalent to carrying 7-9 pounds on your back. Minimize shoe weight by selecting a cross-trainer with ankle support, a trail-running shoe, or one of the
lighter hiking shoes that are readily available.
When you go to buy a "hiking" shoe you will almost always be encouraged to buy one with "great ankle support" and a steel shank so you won’t "feel the rocks." This makes sense if you are carrying a 60 pounds pack and are going through scree (small rocks) and other rugged cross-country terrain.
This also makes sense if you are the shoe salesman trying to make a $225 sale as opposed to a $85 lighter shoe. If you are hiking on a trail these are not a priority. Go for comfort and the cheaper price. "But I have weak ankles," is the lament. Fine: see Trekking Poles article. DayHiker suggests walking on a very hard surface with a full hiking boot for a whole day is not comfortable for a lot of people. The bottoms of your feet are in pain and blisters are usually not far behind. Comfort rules on a trail.
Regarding weak ankles - Consult your physician first, then consider this
possibility: Rigorous exercise may correct your perceived impediment.
Light jogging down hill or over a dry river bed full of smooth rocks may be just what the doctor ordered to get those ankles in shape.
Socks: It’s amazing how important sock selection is when engaged in an
long day hike of many hours. The coarse threads of hiking socks will
eventually begin to dig into your skin causing much discomfort and blisters. Avoid this by wearing a thin nylon sock, a liner, as a first layer, or just on pair of light ones. Bring an extra pair for replacement half way. There is something really refreshing about putting on a pair of socks half-way through a killer hike. One more thought: Before undertaking that marathon hike consider this - new socks, old shoes. It's not a good time to see if those new shoes work.

Trekking Poles: This is the best-kept secret for success on the extreme day hike. Common in Europe, and mandatory equipment for mountain climbers, trekking poles give an advantage, which most people don’t understand until they try them. The uninformed usually comment or think, "Where’s the snow?" "Aren’t they heavy?" "Do they help? "Are you really a wimp?"
It is estimated the use of trekking poles can add up to 20% efficiency to the body by transferring some of the load to your arms. Even more significant is the stability the poles provide, greatly reducing the need for leg muscles to continually provide balance. The chances of a sprained or broken ankle, the bane of a hiker a long way from help, is greatly reduced by the use of poles. Stream crossings, wet rocks or logs, ice, loose rocks, and steep areas are made safer. Using a very light shoe that does not have much ankle support is made possible with poles.

A single walking stick is better than nothing, but is more awkward than two lightweight trekking poles. Additionally, telescoping poles can be stowed in your daypack at times when they are not needed. Some models have shock absorbers built in which allows less stress on the wrists when stroking hard with the poles. Another feature is a slight taper on the hand grips which make for a more ergonomical grasp.

Turn Around Time: A carefully planned long day trip must have an estimated time that you stop and go back to civilization no matter what. Since you have no overnight equipment, food and water are minimal, and you are dressed lightly, it’s imperative to stick to a deadline for reaching your goal. In most cases you should be on your way back by noon, at the latest- especially when at high altitudes and/or when thunderstorms are probable.
If you don't do this, you might be the subject of a newspaper article chronicling the pros and cons of your survival techniques.

Read more at www.wikipedia.org www.dayhiker.com
www.hikingandbackpacking.com

Body Fat Percentage

As recommended, try to manage body fat as a regular mind maintenance to avoid those extra inches.

A person's total body fat percentage is the total weight of the person's fat divided by the person's weight and reflects both essential fat and storage fat. Essential fat is that amount necessary for maintenance of life and reproductive functions. The percentage for women is greater than that for men, due to the demands of childbearing and other hormonal functions. Essential fat is 2–5% in men, and 10–13% in women. Storage fat consists of fat accumulation in adipose tissue, part of which protects internal organs in the chest and abdomen. The minimum recommended total body fat percentage exceeds the essential fat percentage value reported above. A number of online tools are available for calculating estimated body fat percentage.

Read more at www.wikipedia.org

Don’t Forget The Warm Up and Cooling Down Process

Appropriate warm-up and cool-down periods are an important part of any exercise programme that aims to develop and maintain fitness.

THE WARM-UP
Why warm up?
A pre-exercise warm-up:
• warms your muscles by increasing the movement of blood through your tissues, making the muscles more supple;
• increases delivery of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles by increasing the blood flow to them;
• prepares your muscles for stretching;
• prepares your heart for an increase in activity;
• prepares you mentally for the upcoming exercise; and
• primes your nerve-to-muscle pathways to be ready for exercise.
The warm-up is widely viewed as a simple measure to help prevent injury during exercise. While scientific studies are ongoing to define the best warm-up techniques to gain this injury-prevention advantage, the warm-up in general is firmly established as a key to exercising safely and effectively.

Ensuring an effective warm up
To make your warm up effective, you need to do movements that increase your heart rate and breathing, and slightly increase the temperature of your muscle tissue. A good indication is warming up to the point where you have raised a light sweat.
If you’re exercising for general fitness, allow 5 to 10 minutes for your pre-exercise warm-up (or slightly longer in cold weather).
If you are exercising at a higher level than for general fitness, or have a particular sporting goal in mind, you may need a longer warm-up, and one that is designed specifically for your sport.

Warm-up options
Follow these options in the order listed.
1. General warm-up. To begin your warm-up do 5 minutes of light (low intensity) physical activity such as walking, jogging on the spot or on a trampoline. Pump your arms or make large but controlled circular movements with your arms to help warm the muscles of your upper body.

2. Sport-specific warm-up. One of the best ways to warm up is to perform the upcoming exercise at a slow pace. This will allow you to simulate at low intensity the movements you are about to perform at higher intensity during your chosen activity. Examples include a few minutes of easy catching practice for cricketers or baseball players, going through the motion of bowling a ball for lawn bowlers, shoulder rolls, side-stepping and slow-paced practice hits for tennis players, or jogging for runners. Sport-specific warm-ups are often designed by a qualified trainer in that sport.

3. Stretching. Any stretching is best performed after your muscles are warm, so only stretch after your general warm-up. Stretching muscles when they are cold may lead to a tear. Static stretching (stretching a muscle and holding it in this position without discomfort for 10-30 seconds) is considered the safest method of stretching.

Perform a light static stretching routine at the end of your warm up by stretching each of the muscle groups you will be using in your chosen activity. A static stretch should be held at the point where you can feel the stretch but do not experience any discomfort. If you feel discomfort, ease back on the stretch. Remember not to bounce when holding the stretch. Don’t spend so long doing your stretches that your muscles cool down and your heart rate returns to normal. It is better to keep most of your static stretching for after your exercise session, that is, after your cool-down.

Recent studies comparing a warm-up that includes static stretching with a warm-up that does not include static stretching have shown that, although pre-exercise static stretching does improve flexibility, it does not appear to prevent injury during exercise.
Apart from static stretching, other methods of stretching include ballistic, dynamic and PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching, each of which is best done under instruction from a qualified fitness instructor or sports coach.

THE COOL-DOWN
Why cool down?
The practice of cooling down after exercise means slowing down your level of activity gradually. Cooling down:
• helps your heart rate and breathing to return towards normal gradually;
• helps avoid fainting or dizziness, which can result from blood pooling in the large muscles of the legs when vigorous activity is stopped suddenly;
• helps prepare your muscles for the next exercise session, whether it's the next day or in a few days' time; and
• helps to remove waste products from your muscles, such as lactic acid, which can build up during vigorous activity.
You may see conflicting advice as to whether cooling down prevents post-exercise muscle soreness, also known as delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS). However, even if cooling down doesn’t prevent DOMS, the other benefits of cooling down mean that you should always make it a part of your exercise session.

Ensuring an effective cool-down
For an effective cool-down:
• perform low intensity exercise for a minimum of 5 to 10 minutes; and
• follow this with a stretching routine.

Cool-down options
1. Continuing your chosen exercise while gradually slowing its intensity. Gradually slowing down the pace and exertion of your activity over several minutes can seem a natural progression, as well as fulfilling the need to include a cool-down period at the end of your exercise.

2. Slow jogging or brisk walking. Another option is to jog or walk briskly for a few minutes after your exercise,
making sure that this activity is lower in intensity than the exercise you have just performed.

Stretching after your cool-down
The best time to stretch is after your cool-down, as at this time your muscles are still warm and most likely to respond favourably and there is a low risk of injury. Stretching helps to relax your muscles and restore them to their resting length, and improve flexibility (the range of movement about your joints).

As a guide, allow 10 minutes of post-exercise stretching for every one hour of exercise. Make these post-exercise stretches more thorough than your pre-exercise stretches. Ensure that you stretch all the major muscle groups that you have used during your exercise. Stretch each muscle group for 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 3 times.

Read more at www.mydr.com

Hair Scares
Excessive hair shedding

Each individual strand of hair has its own cycle, growing for six to eight years, resting for a few months, and then shedding. "About 10 percent of your hair is shedding at any one given time," Mirmirani says, pointing out that many things can interrupt the cycle and cause more hairs to shed earlier, including stress, fever, weight loss (even 10 pounds) or low iron levels. If you're noticing more shedding than usual, examine your lifestyle to see what might have changed or consult your dermatologist for tests.

Read more at www.aol.com