Excercises and blood circulation, Physical activity Vs Excercises

The higher oxygen content of the blood will aid muscle nutrition. As circulation improves in both quality and quantity throughout the body, the total effect is admirable: Muscles are strengthened; so is the whole supporting system. It appears, too, that there may be a double defect on the heart itself: It becomes more efficient in its pumping not only during activity but at other times as well, thus reducing the strain on it at all times; in addition, it appears that activity which builds endurance also stimulates the development of new and extra blood vessel pathways to feed the heart muscle. 

Thus, if there should be trouble in the future, if a coronary artery should become choked by atherosclerosis and a heart attack occurs, that attack is likely to be less severe because of the extra circulation available. Because of the extra circulation, much less damage to the heart muscle is likely to occur, and chances of survival are greatly increased. The best activities for exercising the heart and lungs and for building endurance are those that are continuous in nature-brisk walking, jogging, swimming, for example. The effectiveness of walking is not fully appreciated by most people. It brings many muscles into play.

 It is a continuous activity. It lends itself to putting a healthy progressive load on the body. Start with a relatively easy mile walk. Gradually lengthen the walk and increase the pace. Keep doing this until, for example, you are up to a three-mile walk as fast as you can get your legs to carry you, and you are getting great benefits every step of the way. Jogging, too, has its merits, as a simple and practical aid in developing both muscular strength and endurance. It is inexpensive, requires no special skill, can be done outdoors and, in inclement weather, indoors.

Start with a jog that is only a little faster than a brisk walk. Jog until you begin to puff. Then walk. Then jog again. Your body should be upright, not bent forward. Keep the buttocks in, not protruding; the back straight, not arched; bend the elbows; breathe through nose and mouth. The objective is to start at a comfortable level and gradually exert you more and more. At first, you may jog for 50 yards, walk for 50 yards keep alternating, and cover about a mile. As you keep working till, you will find you can increase the distance, jog more and walk less.

Even perhaps interspersing some sprints, running as fast as for 50 yards, and then dropping back to a jog or walk. Over a period !11(1l1ths, you may progress until you can cover as much as three miles at a good pace, walking very little of the time. Be sure you obtain your doctor's approval before you start jogging as an exercise. 

Who need excercises? - How muscle activity helps?

DO YOU NEED EXERCISE?

The chances are that, like most of us, you are getting too little daily exercise. If you need specific clues to the fact that you can benefit from more activity, here are some: heart pounding or hard breathing after relatively slight exertion; a long time required for your heartbeat to return to normal after heavy exertion (you can measure the heart rate by the wrist pulse); stiffening of legs and thighs after climbing stairs; aching muscles after such activities as gardening or furniture moving; waking up from sleep as tired as before; frequent restlessness. 

Your physician, as part of his preventive medicine program for you, will be glad to determine with you, on the basis of your specific present condition, daily activities, and other personal factors, whether you need more exercise, how much time you need to devote to it, what kinds of activities would be best suited for you.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTIVITY

Undoubtedly you will benefit from a soundly planned regular exercise schedule, even if it occupies no more than just a few minutes a day- and more on this shortly. Along with such a schedule, you can, and should, find other opportunities for increasing your activity. For one thing, it is possible to find opportunities for physical recreation that can supplement scheduled exercises and provide enjoyment. The list is almost endless: fishing trips, family outings, evenings of dancing, bowling in an office or neighborhood league, walking, etc. 

For another thing, there are opportunities for stepping up daily activities-and little bits of action add up in their good effects. It's a matter of attitude, of recognizing that it is good to use the body As much as possible and of seeking chances to do so.

Walk up a flight Physical Activity in 85 or more of stairs instead of relying entirely upon the elevator; walk part III much or sometimes all the way to the market, to the office. Interrupt sedentary work with little bursts of activity, even if no more than getting lip out of the chair and bending, stretching, moving about, flexing the  squatting, imitating a few golf swings. 

Weight Loss and body mechanism

WEIGHT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

It would be a fallacy to say that obesity is ever the one and only cause of a death. But the association between overweight and excessive death rates is unmistakable. Among overweight men, mortality from all causes is 150 percent that for other men; among overweight women, 147 per- cent that for other women. 

As for individual diseases, insurance statistics show that overweight men and overweight women, respectively, have these excesses of mortality as compared with the general population: 142 and 175 percent for heart attacks; 159 and 162 percent for cerebral hemorrhage; 191 and 212 percent for chronic nephritis (kidney disease); 168 and 211 percent for liver and gallbladder cancer; 383 and 372 per- cent for diabetes; 249 and 147 percent for cirrhosis of the liver; 154 and ) percent for hernia and intestinal obstruction; 152 and 188 percent f or non -cancerous gallbladder diseases. Obvert is associated with many diverse types of health hazards. There are breathing difficulties, since the greater the weight in the chest.

wall, the greater the work involved in breathing. With their increased difficulty in breathing, obese people have less tolerance for exercise. They have a higher rate of respiratory infection than do people of normal weight. They may experience two complications related to their breathing problem: lethargy may develop because of accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood from decreased ventilation; and as the result of reduced levels of oxygen in the blood, the body, trying to compensate, may produce increased amounts of red blood cells. 

The latter condition, called polycythemia, often is responsible for the ruddy complexion of obese people. It may lead to blood-clotting problems. Heart enlargement and congestive heart failure attributable to obesity have been reported. Many studies have established that more hypertension, or high blood pressure, exists among the obese than among the non-obese, that the obese hypertensive experiences a greater risk of coronary heart disease than the non-obese hypertensive, and that mortality rates for obese hypertensive persons are greater than for others with obesity alone or hypertension alone. Obese people often have impaired carbohydrate tolerance that may be sufficient in degree to be classified as diabetes.

Difficulties during anesthesia and surgery have been associated with obesity. In women with significant degrees of obesity, menstrual abnormalities and abnormal hair growth (hairsutism) have been observed with some frequency. For pregnant women, obesity can be a hazard in several ways: it is associated with a greater incidence of toxemia, of complications during delivery, and of stillbirths. Some skin problems are related to obesity. Thus, the extra surface area of the skin in the obese person may lead to excessive perspiration, and the juxtaposition of moist skin areas in adjacent folds may lead to boils, fungal infections, and other inflammatory conditions.

It has been well established that in many health problems, significant benefits often follow loss of weight. Among such conditions are hyper- tension, angina pectoris, congestive heart failure, varicose veins, rupture of intervertebral disks, osteoarthritis, and many other varieties of bone and joint disease. And certainly not to be omitted from even a partial list, many foot aches and backaches may be relieved to a significant extent, sometimes even completely, by weight loss.

10 ways to check your Medication is Proper or Not.

If a patient is receiving hydrocortisone and then is given either an antihistamine or a barbiturate, the hydrocortisone effect is lessened. If a patient is taking an antihistamine for an allergy and uses alcohol, the result may be central nervous system depression. If a patient is using alcohol and takes a barbiturate, there is a marked increase in the effect of the barbiturate, which has been responsible for many deaths. An understanding of the complex details of drug interaction is some- thing for a doctor to be aware of and make use of, not for a patient to worry about. And the point of mentioning the subject here is simply this:

If you are already taking one or more drugs for a condition, when you see a physician about a new condition let him know what you are taking. If you are taking drugs under a physician's direction, get his advice even on such a seemingly simple matter as whether it will be all right, if you develop a headache or a cold, to take aspirin or other agents to make yourself more comfortable.

PROPER USE OF MEDICATION 

Although most sick people benefit from their contact with the treasure chest of modern medications, the experience is unhappy for too many. Much of the unhappiness could be avoided by common sense procedures based on awareness of the realities of diseases and medications. The rules are simple and few:

1.       Take medications on your own only for the most minor conditions, and seek medical advice if there is no clear improvement within a day or two.

2.        A Special Word about Medicine Taking If you are using a medication prescribed by a physician, do not take any medications on your own for some other problem unless you have been informed they will cause no trouble.

3. When you seek medical help for a problem, leave it up to the physician to determine whether you really need medication or whether it may be wiser, in a particular situation, to let the body use its defenses to overcome the problem-for the body often can do exactly that. Don't be in a rush to take something, to pressure the physician to give you some- thing. Make it clear to him that you understand that sometimes no medicine is the best medicine.

 4. Follow the physician's instructions to the letter when he gives you a prescription. Get it filled immediately. Take exactly as directed-in the prescribed dosage, for the prescribed length of time.

5. If you notice any untoward reactions while taking a medication, let your physician know immediately. A side reaction may not be serious -or it may be. If it's the latter, prompt measures can ameliorate it.

6. Do not save leftover drugs.

7. Ask your physician to instruct the druggist to label the bottle or other container of any medication prescribed with the name of the medication. You will find that more and more doctors today believe strongly in this. It can be a safety measure, helping you to avoid mistakes in taking medication.

8. And if trouble should arise during the course of taking the medication. If there should be an accidental overdose, if a child should happen to get hold of the medication and use it, the immediate identification of the compound may well help to prevent fatality.

Moreover, your knowledge of what you are taking can come in handy if you have to consult another physician while your own is away.

9. Safeguard medication. Never leave any, including aspirin, standing around on a dresser or a table. Return it to the medicine cabinet immediately after use. A medicine cabinet should be kept closed and locked. It's a good idea, especially in any household with children, to have a medicine cabinet equipped with a combination padlock, or a drug safe or chest with combination lock. Your druggist can advise you about obtaining one at reasonable cost.

10. Teach your children to properly respect medications. Do not tell a child that medicine is like "candy" because it tastes good. Instead, even at a very early age, teach him that medicine is to help overcome illness, and that it doesn't matter whether he likes it or not, it is something he must have when sick to make him well, and never at any other time. 

Penicillin overdose side effects! How to avoid it?

A Special Word about Medicine Taking of many people that if a little is good, more is better. With potent agents, excessive dosage can produce real trouble. Similarly, under dosage can cause problems. Inadequate antibiotic dos- age, for example, carries its own risk. One common example is the patient with a "strep" throat who takes penicillin, improves, stops treatment, then gets the sore throat back again.

Once more, he takes some penicillin but not the full prescribed amount. Again the sore throat dis- appears only to recur after a short time. And so a disease that can be eradicated by continued administration of penicillin for eight to ten days is converted into one that drags on with repeated remissions and relapses. Physicians have, in fact, long suspected that many failures of anti- biotic treatment stem simply from failure of patients to keep taking medication as prescribed. A recent study uncovered disturbing evidence that many parents may be risking their children's health by failing to make certain they take their medication as long as necessary.

Actually, in acute "strep" infections, penicillin treatment for 10 days is considered essential to prevent rheumatic fever. Yet in a follow-up of 59 children for whom a 10-day course of penicillin had been prescribed, investigators found that 56 percent of the youngsters had stopped taking the drug by the third day, 71 percent by the sixth day, and 82 percent by the ninth day. When a doctor prescribes medication, the first thing to do is to get the prescription filled immediately. The value may be lessened, or even lost completely, if you delay.

Then follow directions of the doctor to the letter. If you are not certain you understand them, ask him for clarification-even for instructions in writing as to exactly what you are to do. Take all the medicine pre- scribed, not some amount you arbitrarily settle on. Don't decide, if you begin to feel better, that you can stop or reduce dosage. Sometimes, illnesses require several prescriptions. Very much worth noting here is an old principle taught to nurses: read every label three times. You can use that principle to advantage at home. 

Human body reactions to Medicines and Foods Vs Medicines

REACTIONS TO MEDICINES

It may seem unbelievable but there are more than 250 diseases that can be caused by the very medicines designed to treat and cure illness. You may well ask, "Why is this possible?" The reasons are not difficult to understand. Over the past twenty-five years or so, many hundreds of new com- pounds have been developed for treating and preventing disease. Many are powerful and complicated substances.

Their very effectiveness depends upon their great potency and complexity. In some instances, trouble has come unexpectedly because a powerful A Special Word about medicine taking new agents was not tested fully under every conceivable circumstance. Thus, for example, thalidomide seemed to be an excellent and harmless tranquilizing agent in most people, but when it was used by pregnant women it had terrible effects on their unborn children. Another reason for drug-induced illness is that human beings do have tendencies to develop allergic or sensitivity responses. These vary considerably, just as they do for foods. One person may eat eggs until the hens scream for mercy-and enjoy them with impunity; another person, allergic to them, cannot eat one without developing some upset.

And so with other foods

Because of sensitivity problems, a medicine that is highly beneficial for 95 percent of the population may cause trouble, even potentially serious trouble, for the remaining 5 percent. A good example is penicillin, clearly a lifesaving drug. It has, indeed, probably saved well over a million lives since its discovery. But it also has caused severe sensitivity re- actions in scores of thousands of people and has taken the lives of thousands.

As you may have noticed, physicians today inquire carefully about possible previous sensitivity reactions to penicillin before administering or prescribing it. Just as some people, after repeated exposure, become allergic to rag- weed pollen or to poison ivy, so some, after being helped once or even several times by an antibiotic, may develop allergic reactions to the com- pound. Usually the problem is mild-skin rash, hives, or slight fever- and disappears once the drug is stopped. Occasionally, however, there are anaphylactic, or shock like, reactions which are life-threatening, and these can be overcome only if heroic measures-adrenaline and other injections-are used in time.

Still considered the single most valuable antibiotic,penicillin is a major allergy producer because it has been so widely used. It is estimated that 10 percent of Americans have become sensitized to the drug. Still another reason for undesirable reactions is that no drug is 100 percent specific-hitting the bull's-eye, so to speak. In the course of countering the problem for which it is being used, it may produce other effects, and these have to be reckoned with. Consider, for example, the gastrointestinal upsets-cramps, diarrhea, sore mouth, rectal itch-which may occur after use of many antibiotics.

They can come about because of an upset in the natural germbalance in the body. Many harmless bacteria are always present in the gastrointestinal tract. Some, in fact, are essential to digestion; some manufacture vitamins. When a potent antibiotic is introduced to fight infection, it may also decimate this normal bacterial population. Moreover, these friendly bacteria serve another purpose in the body.