Tips to pamper and groom your feet

The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) is a good source for information and tips on good foot hygiene. As summer is here, we try to reiterate to you the good practices that can contribute both to your foot health and to your body’s overall wellbeing. Reminding you what to do and what to avoid when going for a pedicure session can only help keeping you fit and healthy.

Remember that if you have certain health problems, a customized pedicure session should be taken into consideration. For example, if you have diabetes or poor circulation of blood in your feet you need a special treatment to avoid complications In case of hepatitis or skin diseases you need special care to avoid transmission of your illness to others.

Considering that you are fit and healthy, look what you should do:

-Arrange your pedicure session early in the morning. Salon staff is not tired and foot baths are usually cleaner. If you’re not an early bird make sure that the salon follows all cleaning and sterilizing rules, filters and cleans the foot bath between clients.

-if you have your quality pedicure utensils, bring them to the salon and ask the pedicurist to use them while treating you to avoid bacteria and fungus that can move easily from one person to the other if the salon doesn’t use proper sterilization techniques.

-Use a pumice stone, foot file or exfoliating scrub to eliminate thick, dead skin build-ups (so called calluses) on the heel, ball and sides of the feet. Soak feet in warm water for at least five minutes then use the stone, scrub or foot file to gently smooth calluses and other rough patches.

-Use a toenail clipper with a straight edge to trim nails. These clippers ensure your toenail is cut straight across and avoid the risk of ingrown toenails incurred by other tools like manicure scissors or fingernail clippers with small, curved shape. See a podiatrist if you have a tendency to develop ingrown toenails.

-Use an emery board to smooth nail edges. Do not scrape the nail’s surface and do not press too hard while filing lightly in one direction.

-Use a wooden or rubber manicure stick to remove dirt, build-ups and keep clean under your nails. Many times dirt can not be seen but is there. Never use sharp tools to clean under nails. Using anything sharp makes it easy to puncture the skin, leaving it vulnerable to infection.

-Apply emollient-enriched moisturizer to keep soles soft and maintain the proper moisture balance of your feet’s skin.

-Push back cuticles using a rubber cuticle pusher or manicure stick but do not exaggerate doing it too often.

-Remove polish regularly using non-acetone nail polish remover and re-apply polish if toenails are healthy.

Things you should not do:

-Avoid shaving your legs before a pedicure session as freshly shaven legs or small cuts on may ease the entry of bacteria and fungus.

-Don’t use the same tools for pedicure and manicure because bacteria and fungus can transfer between toes and fingers.

-Forbid technicians to use foot razors, cutters or similar tools to remove dead skin. Incorrectly used razors can lead to permanent damages and can easily cause infection if the pedicurist goes too deep into the skin.

-Toenails’ edges should not be rounded to avoid development of painful ingrown toenails.

-Never share nail files with friends and be sure to bring your own to the salon if you have doubts that the salon replaces them with each customer. Emery boards can’t be sterilized, are extremely porous and can trap germs that spread.

-Avoid leaving moisture between toes as it can promote the development of athlete’s foot or a fungal infection.

-Never cut cuticles because they serve as a protective barrier against bacteria. Pushing back cuticles all the time can make them thicker while cutting cuticles increases the risk of infection.

-Don’t apply nail polish to cover up problems like thick and discolored toenails, which could be a sign of a fungal infection. Treat these problems with care and if they persist ask your doctor for help. Nail polish locks out moisture and doesn’t allow the nail bed to “breathe.” 

Dangers of bodybuilding

The recent death of the 28-year old Romanian bodybuilder Viorel Ristea in Miami, just before the start of the Fitness Universe Week-end where he was supposed to compete again, raised the issue of the risks of extreme training to achieve perfection in bodybuilding. He had previously ranked third in the Musclemania Universe contest in Las Vegas and intended to become number one this year. Unfortunately he died while asleep in his hotel room in Miami. Some say that his death is related to the steroids he may have used while others say that his strict diet was the cause, Viorel Ristea`s body succumbing to dehydration. We all know that a popular method among bodybuilders to make their muscles more visible during a competition is abstention from drinking liquids some three days before contests.

Bodybuilding is a sport that sometimes requires extreme efforts to change the aspect of the human body to the extent that most of the muscles become evident. The bodybuilder is training himself to get his muscles grow as much as possible in parallel with loosing fat, finally making his muscles look as a sculpture of Michelangelo.

To achieve a maximum visibility of their muscles the athletes use methods to increase the sensation of evidence for their muscle. They usually place lights in proper places, oil their bodies and tan them according to a carefully programmed training to be in their pick during competitions and doping is firmly ousted from this world.

Arnold Schwarzenegger might be the best known bodybuilder for persons not connected with the sector, but those more interested in bodybuilding most probably also know Jay Cutler, the present day Mr. Olympia, a title that officially recognizes the top bodybuilder of the Charles Atlas, Steve Reeves, Reg Park or Lou Ferrigo. Every newcomer in the bodybuilding training dreams to be their look-alike. Let’s have a look in the history of this sport to see how dangerous it is.

Tips to avoid tears while chopping onion

Everybody knows that chopping onion is a torturing business that and gives you a kind of stinging or burning feeling and makes your eyes water intensely.

What really happens when cutting onion?

We got the real clue only in 2002 when a Japanese researcher discovered the enzyme released by cut onions and named it lachrymatory-factor synthase. In contact with air, this enzyme turns the amino-acids (sulfoxides) into sulfenic acid. Chemical reactions continue with the conversion of this acid into syn-propanethial-S-oxide, an unstable substance that irritates the eye when reaches it. The eye tries to eliminate the irritant and the lachrymal gland starts to produce tears. In this case we are speaking about reflex tears, specialized in removing irritants affecting the eyes. Reflex tears differ from basal tears that avoid eyes from drying out or emotional tears, triggered by extreme emotions - happy or sad.

I am sure that this lecture may have reminded you about your chemistry and biology lessons in school but gave you no clue on how to avoid tears while chopping onion. So let’s see what specialists say about this – and who could know more than chefs that chop hundreds of onions daily. The bad news is that none of their tips proved to be perfect.

Tips to avoid crying while chopping onions:  click HERE to read more...

Tips to avoid headache after putting cold foods and drinks in your mouth

You may have noticed that while drinking a really cold beer or eating an ice-cream, an unexpected headache appears. Some of us are affected more, with short sessions of extreme pain while others simply do not feel such pains. Statistically, only one third of the population is affected by such pains, mainly while eating cold food during very hot summer days, but recent studies showed that it also happens in normal temperature conditions and during cold days.

So, what really happens? When eating or drinking something cold, the nerves in the upper part of the mouth named “hard palate” inevitably make the surrounding tissues lower their temperature and a signal of possible danger of freezing is sent to your brain. To avoid a possible reduction of the brain temperature, blood vessels in the head shrink. As the relatively low quantity of cold food or drink in your mouth cannot keep the sense of freezing for more than a few seconds, the warm blood can rush again through the vessels and the fast change from constriction to dilation triggers the tough headache. This pain is usually felt in the mid-frontal and sometimes in the temporal area and peaks in half to maximum one minute. In medical terms, the fast constriction and dilation of the blood vessels in the brain causes pain receptors to stimulate the trigeminal nerve. The sensory information from the mouth cavity is mainly transported by this nerve and triggers the mentioned pain.

This is not a migraine, it usually fades quickly after it appears but sometimes can last up to five minutes and it does not pose a serious health problem to you. Sometimes, the headache is associated with a toothache, even if teeth are healthy.

If the pain had already appeared, the simple way to get rid of it is to warm up the hard palate (roof of the mouth) either touching it for a few seconds with your thumb or with your tongue, that can get warmer fast after swallowing the cold food/drink. The warming procedure gives a proper signal to the brain and calms down the pain.

As usual, preventing the pain is easier than calming it down, so a better idea would be to avoid direct contact of the cold food with the posterior part of the palate where sensible nerves are placed. A good result is obtained if you eat cold food slower and in smaller bites. Wolfing food down in seconds is bad for your stomach too, so you should make a habit consuming food slowly. Also, liking ice cream is better than taking bites.

More about the eyes

You may have read and tried my eye exercises I have given you here a couple of months ago. After consulting others, I come today with further advice on how to protect your eyes. Next to exercises your eyes need proper nutrients to function optimally.

Never forget to include in your diet Vitamins A, C, E, as well as minerals like copper and zinc. I always recommend avoiding buying them from the drugstore and diversify your meals with natural food. You need antioxidants like beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin to get a better sun protection for your macula (yellow spot of the eye) and best place to find them is green and yellow vegetables like dark leafy greens, egg yolks, yellow peppers, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and carrots. They help you keep macula young and avoid getting blind. Good antioxidants are anthocyanin-rich blueberries, grapes, and goji berries that also have anti-inflammatory properties that can help improve your vision.

Cataract is another disease that often affects eyes and foods rich in sulfur, cysteine, and lecithin help protect the lens of the eye against it. Try to eat more garlic, onions, shallots, and capers to receive more of these protective ingredients.

To maintain the eye health giving structural support to cell membranes you should also make use of DHA, a fatty acid found in coldwater fish like wild salmon, sardines, mackerel and cod.

Dry eyes can also lead to poor eyesight, so do not forget the general rule of the two liters of water you should drink daily, a habit that also prevent dehydration and dry eyes. Good quality water should be drunk and artificial tears should be dropped in your eyes if needed.

Your life style is also very important for the health of your eyes. Enough sleep is equally important for eye health, because eyes rest during the sleep just as your whole body. While slipping your eyes also rest, repair, and recover. Your vision may weaken if you do not have enough sleep (and enough is eight hours of sound sleep a night). Try to you’re your eyes during the day resting them for a few moments every hour. Do it even more often if you work intensively in front of the computer.

Avoid factors that can contribute to eye damage limiting contact with toxins or stressful factors like blinking lights, computer screens, environmental allergens, chlorine in swimming pools, direct air conditioning and heating, extreme weather conditions (dry, cold, heat), reading in dim lighting and constantly rubbing of the eyes. Do not smoke and limit your exposure to cigarette smoke as it may increase optic pressure. Remember to wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from UV exposure.

In the end I want to give you some more tips with exercises you could practice to maintain optimal vision and may also keep those annoying eye floaters at bay. Clean your hands carefully and perform these exercises several times a day, in the morning, before bedtime, or any time your eyes feel tired.

-Warm your eyes. After washing your hands with hot water place them against your eyes for a few seconds. Your eyes will get warmer and feel more relaxed. Repeat this several times, as long as your hands are warm.
-Massage your temples. Using your thumb knuckles, massage your temples in small circles, several times in one direction and several in the other. Repeat the same actions above the mid-point of the eyebrows at the forehead, then below the eyes on both sides of the bridge of the nose.

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Raised White Dots on Eyelids Are Not Acne

Many of us may have noticed the appearance of some pronounced spots (not more than small raised lumps) on the upper or lower eyelid. They do not hurt and develop slowly, during the years. They usually look lighter in color, but sometimes have a white top and cluster together. Beware! They are not acne.

One misperception is that stress is their cause, but the truth is that several other things might make them appear – anything from skin tags (acrochordons) to "white spots" generated by dermatologic diseases or cholesterol deposits (xanthelasma) and even oil gland problems. I know that dermatologists are very expensive, but the large spectrum of causes and implications makes the specialized check of a doctor mandatory.

Irrespective of their cause, the main question you might want to ask your doctor is: Can They Be Removed?

Unfortunately the answer is not so easy. You may be lucky to find out that it could be the type of lumps or patches that are quite common and although they often alarm people they are of no harm. The white or yellow bumps that appear as a result of lipid collection or high cholesterol do not mean that your blood cholesterol level is necessarily high. Nevertheless, do check your cholesterol!

These lumps are usually determined by fatty cells in the eyelids and unfortunately there is no simple solution for them. Creams, lotions and potions usually fail to give the expected result. Massage sometimes brings improvements but pose some risks as the tissues and blood vessels in that area are very delicate and improper massage may damage them. That is why surgery (in fact a small incision made by the doctor under local anesthesia) could be the only solution to remove these white dots.

Always remember that any surgery leaves a scar – smaller or bigger, depending on a multitude of factors, from the dimension of the dots to the skill of the surgeon and the healing capacity of the patient. Techniques sharply improved recently and scars could be so minor that you do not even see them. But they do exist. Also, the white dots may recur in the future and a second surgery might be deemed unfit.

The raised white spots on the lids might be a form of cyst in the eyelid. They feel like bags filled with a thick fluid that can be slightly moved when touched. They are quite specific and cannot be mistaken for acne. In rare cases, the white bumps may be on the inner side of the eyelid, making you feel uncomfortable.

As all the up-mentioned white dots are placed on the eyelid, the dermatologist may ask for further checks with an ophthalmologist and if a gland problem is suspected you may need to approach an endocrinologist.

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Weight-loss control

Surprising ups and downs in the efforts made by many to control their body weight made me study the reasons behind weight fluctuations.

First thing I have discovered was the absence of a proper plan. Striving to lose kilos as fast as possible has only one result: you put them back after finishing the diet. We even have an expression for this: the yoyo syndrome.

So what can be done?

Read more here...

Tips: How to stay healthy and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Sport is health.
Get your metabolism going! Do sports regularly (at least once or twice a week) and do not miss any opportunity to exercise and move your body (climb stairs, walk on foot or ride the bicycle).

Ballast substances giving a feeling of fullness.
Cheat hunger: ballast substances contained in whole grains, vegetables and fruit quickly create a feeling of fullness that lasts.

Drink, drink, drink!
Only if you drink enough fluids (at least 1.5 liters per day - coffee does not count!), you can help your body eliminate metabolic waste.

Eat vegetables!
Vegetables, by increased volume contributes to filling the distended stomach and giving a feeling of fullness, while providing you with necessary vitamins and minerals. The consumption of "green" food, with their entire fiber content, allows you to eat sufficient amounts of food without gaining weight.

Motivation
We all have ideals, dreams, desires, but you have to realize that all this depends on your health. It's easy to reach your goals and maintain your health by keeping these things in check: lots of exercise and a balanced nutrition. It all up to you to succeed.

Cut back on sweets!
Caloric needs of a normal weighted adult woman with an average daily activity level is about 1800 kcal, while for men it's around 2200-2400 kcal/day. Limit your intake of sweets. Carbohydrates should represent 50% of daily caloric needs. Do not drink sweetened sodas. Drinking water would be the best solution: it does not contain any calories, it requires no effort of digestion and it's an ideal environment for life processes.

You should eat more of these products:
- cereals, grains, cooked rice and pasta dishes;
- fresh greens and vegetables (potatoes, peas, beans etc);
- fresh fruit whenever you can.

Balance and moderation!
Always eat in the morning. The interval between meals can be 5-6 hours, and dinner to be as "light" as possible and at least 3 hours before bedtime. Sit at the table, do not eat "on the run", chew your food well before swallowing, take your time to enjoy and appreciate the taste of the food.

More exercise!
Daily walks outdoors, taking a deep breaths, making sure we get as much oxygen into the body as possible. Adopt a regular, preferably daily, physical activity. To generate positive health effects, physical activity should be performed frequently (at least 3 times per week), at least 30 minutes/session.

Losing weight. Understanding metabolism

The metabolism is the process (rate) by which the calories in your body turn food into energy. Do not misunderstand that the metabolism is largely dependent on the weight you have. Weight depends primarily on the balance between calories consumed and calories burned. It can be defined as an engine that burns calories and a scale that regulate caloric needs.

Metabolism involves three essential elements:

1. Basic Needs
These are known as basal metabolic rate and includes calories needed to sustain vital body functions. In a person, forming a basic metabolic rate 66-75% of total daily calories needed. In other words, the BMR is quantity of minimum energy (expressed in calories) that your body needs to stay alive in conditions of bed rest.

2. Digestion and absorption of food
Approximately 10% of total daily calories are digested and absorbed by the body. Somewhere may sound ironic, but it takes calories to burn calories.

3. Physical activity
The amount of calories burned depends on how much exercise you do every day.

Alcohol: just use, do not abuse

Drinking more than the equivalent of 12g of pure alcohol (125 ml wine or half a liter beer) can put women at risk to die of cancer. About double this quantity can put men at a similar risk. The amount of alcohol that puts you at risk depends on the weight and age of the drinker; the mentioned levels refer to women and men of average weight only.

An important number of cancer cases can be avoided if alcohol consumption is limited to less than a standard drink. Even more cancer cases would be prevented if drinkers reduced their alcohol intake to below recommended guidelines or stopped drinking alcohol at all.

The general message is: drink occasionally, but not regularly!

French fries: How to make fried potatoes healthier

We all know that fried potatoes are dangerous for human health because during the frying process they generate cancer-causing substances. Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance, is formed during high temperature processing of potatoes in low moisture conditions. You get the same bad result if you bake, fry or roast potatoes.

So, what can be done?

Experienced chefs know a trick: they boil potatoes for a short while before frying them. Pre-cooked this way, potatoes can be fried faster, avoiding an excessive formation of acrylamide. Eating potatoes cooked this way helps your liver and generally helps digestion.

Pre-cooking can also be done briefly placing the potatoes chips in a microwave before frying.
Pre-cooking through boiling or microwaving gives a pleasant colour to the potatoes and does not change the taste of the fried potatoes.

Frying should be done at 190 Celsius degrees, thus sharply reducing the acrylamide level.

Pre-soaking potatoes before frying can dramatically reduce the formation of acrylamide and may therefore reduce any subsequent risk it may pose.

Washing raw French fries, and then soaking them (from 30 min up to 2 hours) reduced the formation of acrylamide by up to 48%, but only if they were fried to a lighter color.

Scientists are still trying to find ways to lower the acrylamide levels, a compound that has been a source of health concerns in fried foods, by silencing certain genes of several sorts of potatoes. Nevertheless, gene manipulation is in itself a very debated topic around the world. One thing is certain though - the future of food products and cooking will never be the same!

Eye exercises: How to maintain a sharp vision

Glasses and contact lenses gradually worsen your vision so trying to get rid of them might be a good idea. Putting the eye muscles at work through regular exercises helps keeping your eyes healthy and you can eventually get rid of glasses.

Here is a series of exercises that might be used daily to keep eyes in good shape.

Up-down
Sit in a chair and look at an imaginary vertical line on a wall 3 meters in front of you. Trace it up as much as possible without moving your head. Trace the line back and continue the move to the extreme low. Repeat the move eight times.

Left-right
Sitting comfortable in a chair, look at an imaginary horizontal line on a wall 3 meters in front of you. Trace it to the extreme right with your eyes, not moving your head. Trace the line back and continue the move to the extreme left. Repeat the move 8 times.

Zero
Repeat the up mentioned exercises tracing a huge imaginary zero on the wall. Rotate your eyes in both directions. Repeat the move eight times.

Infinity
Imagine a giant infinity symbol ( ∞ ), on a wall 3 meters in front of you. Slowly trace its contour with your eyes. A slow movement gives better results than speeding. Reverse the move and follow the contour of the infinity sign the other way. Repeat the move eight times.

Focusing
Focus the eyes on your nose. After a few seconds, focus on a painting or something else on a wall 3 meters in front of you. To keep the best rhythm, breathe deeply while exercising and switch focus after each breath. Repeat the move eight times.

Zooming
Sitting in a comfortable position stretch your arm and keep your thumb up in front of you. Focus both eyes on it. Bring the thumb nearer to your face until you touch the nose tip focusing on it all the time. Immediately stretch the arm back, while the eyes focus the thumb all the time. Repeat the move eight times.

These exercises form a batch that should be repeated several times a day. They make the eye muscles stronger, increase their flexibility and provide a general improvement of the vision. During the day, also try the following two exercises.

Blinking
Although you are tempted to avoid blinking while watching the TV or working in front of the computer, try to override this involuntary reaction meant to avoid the short period of time when you cannot see. Blinking is good because the short pause of darkness generated by the blink allows the eye to refresh and discharge previous information. The eye strain is reduced and eyes get relaxed proportionally to the blink rate. So simply blink more often while in front of the TV or computer screen.

Covering
Stay comfortable and relaxed in a chair. Take several deep breathes. Cover your eyes with your palm but leave enough space to blink unhindered. Keep the wrist on your cheek and fingers on the forehead (slightly bent to give room for blinking).

Do the exercises several times a day for a few minutes. It calms both your eyes and mind.