Call for your Health

It is well known that the Chinese have been using Green Tea as medicines for treating many disorders ranging from headaches to depressions, since nearly 4,000 years from now. However, in the current times, the scientific researches both in Asia and the Western countries are providing hard facts towards the green tea health benefits. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute during 1994, for instance, published the outcomes of the epidemiological studies directing that ingesting the Green Tea diminishes the risk of esophageal cancer by almost sixty percent in the Chinese men and women. Further, the University of Purdue researchers during recent times declared that a typical compound in the Green Tea slows down the cancer cell growth in the body.

Researchers also reveal that ingesting Green Tea brings down the total cholesterol levels besides improving ratios of HDL-High Density Lipoprotein or Good Cholesterol to LDL–Low Density Lipoprotein or Bad Cholesterol. Several medical conditions are remarkably benefited by drinking Green Tea, such as: Cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis, High Cholesterol Levels, Cardiovascular Diseases, damaged or disordered immune functions and Infections. Also tooth decay is believed to be avoided by drinking Green Tea as its bacteria-killing properties could aid averting food poisoning and can destroy the bacteria that are responsible to cause dental plaque. Even the skin preparations like deodorants and creams are being prepared using Green Tea nowadays.

When working towards the body and health you are dreaming of, you should try to get rid of every excuse that keeps you from attaining your goals. If you do this, you are much more likely to succeed. If your shins hurt while running, why not try swimming instead? If you don’t have the time to go to the gym one day, go for a quick walk during lunch hour. And if you use glasses and think this stops your from some sorts of physical training, you should maybe considering switching to contact lenses. Lenses don’t hinder your movement in the gym, they don’t get sweaty, they don’t fall off while jumping or running and they don’t obstruct your field of vision. All in all, glasses can be the challenge you do not need between you and great health.

Contact lenses just stay on and keep giving you perfect vision, through almost any kind of exercise you may perform. Lenses are cheap, they are very easy to use and handle and they are extremely comfortable. Modern lenses are so soft and well-designed, you won’t even feel that they are on! To buy contact lenses, simply make a quick search online!

Many medical authorities consider cigarette smoking the most harmful of the preventable risk factors associated with chronic illness and premature death. Approximately 40% of male smokers and 28% of female smokers die prematurely. Smokers have twice the risk of having a heart attack and are two to four times more likely to die suddenly from a heart attack than are nonsmokers.Hypertension results from peripheral resistance to blood flow, and cigarette smoking contributes to peripheral resistance by constricting the arterioles. Smoking significantly exacerbates the effects of high blood pressure. Although the number of people who smoke is declining, 46.3 million adults (25.7% of the population) continue to smoke.

Harmful Products In Cigarettes

Nicotine, carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases, tars, and chemical additives for taste and flavor are the hazardous products in cigarettes. Carbon monoxide and nicotine have a devastating effect on the heart and blood vessels. Nicotine is an addictive stimulant that increases the resting heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. It should be reclassified as a drug and placed under the jurisdiction of the food and drug a dministration (FDA). Carbon monoxide, a noxious gas that is a by product of the combustion of tobacco products, displaces oxygen in the blood because it has a greater affinity for hemoglobin. The diminished oxygen carrying capacity of the blood is partly responsible for the shortness of breath that smokers experience with mild physical exertion.

Cigarettes and other tobacco products are not regulated by the FDA because tobacco is not classified as a food or drug. Therefore the tobacco industry is under no mandate to disclose the nature and type of chemicals that are added to tobacco products.

These products may be harmful. The public has a right to know, but the tobacco industry has successfully resisted attempts by government agencies and consumer groups to force disclosure.

The harmful effects of cigarette smoking are insidious and take time to appear. The medical profession measures the damage from smoking in pack years. Smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for 15 years is equal to 15 pack years . Two packs per day for 15 years is equal to 30 pack years . Medical problems become evident after 25 to 30 pack years.

The challenge of Quitting

To quit the tobacco habit, you have to first break the addiction to nicotine and then break the psychological dependence on smoking. This involves a change in behavior, as well as effective ways to deal with the social and situational stimuli that promote the desire to smoke. Men have been more successful quitters than women. Data from 1974 to 1992 show that smoking among women decreased by 8% while smoking among men decreased by 15%. Today, more young women than young men are smoking, representing a reversal of a long standing trend. The increasing number of young women smokers, coupled with the number of years that women have been smoking, has reversed another trend: lung cancer has replaced breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among women.

Complicating the effort to quit, particularly among young women, is the fear of gaining weight. Approximately 65% of those who quit do gain weight, but the physiological adaptations that occur may only account for a 7 to 8 pound weight gain. The physiological mechanisms responsible are probably associated with a slowing of metabolism and slower transit time of food in the digestive system so that more is absorbed by the body. Weight gain beyond 8 pounds is probably caused by altered eating patterns rather than physiology. Food smells and tastes better. It may substitute for a cigarette, especially during social activities. It may provide some of the oral gratification previously obtained from smoking, and it may relieve tension. Weight gain can be avoided by eating sensibly and exercising moderately and frequently.

As a group, smokers are 7% thinner than non smokers, but smokers tend to distribute more fat in the abdominal area. The waist to hip ratio (WHR) is greater in smokers even though they are thinner. This fat distribution is not only aesthetically unappealing but also predisposes to coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and some forms of cancer.

1. Health is a constantly changing state of being that moves along a continuum from optimal health to premature death and is affected by an individual’s attitudes and activities.
2. Wellness means to engage in activities and behaviors that enhance quality of life and maximize personal potential by consistent balancing of physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social health.
3. Living a wellness lifestyle facilitates the development of health-related fitness, which includes cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and desirable body composition.
4. Lifestyle diseases represent the major threat to health and quality of life among Americans.
5. Personal motivation is the only way a person can adopt and maintain a wellness lifestyle. This motivation can be affected by family members and social pressure.
6. For change to occur, knowledge alone is insufficient. Attitudes and beliefs are the catalysts of behavior change because the more highly a health benefit is valued, the greater the chance of making a change and adhering to it.
7. An external locus of control is a belief that the factors controlling people’s lives are outside the people themselves and thus beyond their control. An internal locus of control is a belief in which people view themselves as being in control.
8. Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs people have in their ability to accomplish a specific task or behavior. These beliefs specifically affect ability to perform and achieve. A strong sense of self efficacy is central to self-regulation.
9. Many Americans now believe that it is possible to control many health-promoting and health inhibiting behaviors.
10. The discrepancy between health knowledge and health behavior is greatest among young adults.
11. Lifestyle change is one of the most pervasive human endeavors.
12. A fundamental belief in lifestyle-change programs is that health behavior is a learned response and therefore can be changed.
13. Health behavior is influenced by many complex forces, including family, role models, social pressure, advertising, and psychological needs.
14. The four steps in a lifestyle-change program are assessing behavior, setting specific and realistic goals, formulating intervention strategies, and evaluating progress.
15. Intervention strategies used in lifestyle change include behavioral contracts, stimulus control, positive and negative reinforcers, support groups, and behavior substitution.
16. Lifestyle change should be viewed as a learning experience rather than a test of willpower.

If you want to, you can take action that will greatly enhance your chances of living a healthy life. A major portion of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity that plague Americans today are a direct result of what they do and do not do. Research from the IHPDP consistently demonstrates the impact and benefits of high-level wellness. More than 20 years ago, Breslow and Breslow showed in a 10 year study involving 4855 adults that there was a consistent relationship between the seven health practices identified by the IHPDP and mortality and disability. The death rate and occurrence of disability were only about one half as great among persons with good health practices as among those with poor health practices. A 10-year follow-up study by Donaldson and Blanchard demonstrated convincingly that these health practices significantly predict wellness or illness. More specifically, study participants who followed six or seven of the health practices during the previous year had the most favorable levels of vitality, positive well being, job performance, anxiety, depression, lack of self-control, and physical illness. Participants who followed four to five of the health practices had intermediate levels of wellness factors, and those who practiced only zero to three experienced 50% greater mortality and disability than those with good health practices. In identifying these benefits, it is important to acknowledge that the emphasis here is on health-related fitness. Health-related fitness is the possession of various physical attributes that reduce the probability of disease and are vital to the quality of life. The components consist of cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition.

Cardiorespiratory endurance refers to the heart’s and the circulatory system’s ability to provide adequate amounts of oxygen to the cells to meet the demands of prolonged physical activity. This is the best physiological measure of total body endurance. Muscular endurance is the ability to exert repetitive muscular force. Muscular strength is the maximal force that a muscle can exert in a single contraction. Flexibility is the ability of a given joint to move through its full range of motion. Body composition refers to the amount of lean body tissue versus fat tissue.

Evidence of the benefits of wellness and the detriments of poor health is so compelling that the enhancement of health and wellness became a high priority for the United States. Since 1987, the Public Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services has led an effort to promote health and prevent diseases by formulating national health objectives. Published in the landmark document, Healthy People 2000, National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, these objectives provide benchmarks for judging the quality of life of the nation’s people.

How are Americans doing in achieving these objectives? Although improvements in some areas are encouraging, one deficiency is especially trouble ­ some physical activity. Of American adults, 40 to 50 million are sedentary, and the current trend is not good. Between 1985 and 1990, physical activity in all age groups declined by 10%. Furthermore, people who are active now are not active as frequently as they were 5 years ago.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of wellness is the attitude that helps each person to see life’s possibilities and to work toward the ones that are the most personally fulfilling. In this sense, it empowers people to exercise control over their wellness destiny and to accept the wellness challenge.

1. Improves cardiovascular system
2. Increases muscle tone, strength, flexibility, and endurance, resulting in improved physical appearance
3. Decreases risk of developing or dying from chronic diseases and accidents
4. Decreases recovery time after injury, illness, and childbirth
5. Regulates and improves overall body function Helps prevent some forms of diabetes Increases the ability to cope with stress and resist depression
6. Increases the energy level and job productivity and decreases absenteeism
7. Delays the aging process, and decreases recovery time after injury or illness
8. Improves awareness of personal needs and the ways to meet them
9. Increases the ability to communicate emotions to others and to act assertively rather than aggressively or passively
10. Supplies the body with proper nutrition Expands and develops intellectual abilities from a cognitive base and applies these abilities to their fullest extent in society
11. Acts from an internal locus of control
12. Learns to view life’s difficulties as challenges and opportunities rather than overwhelming threats
13. Develops self-confidence and ability to reach out to, understand, and care about others

Behavior assessment, the collection of data on target behaviors, is the lifeline of any lifestyle-change plan. It involves the process of counting, recording, measuring, observing, and describing. The individual self-assesses any behavior that can be quantified.Assessment tools are usually daily logs, journals, and diaries. Data should be collected long enough to note behavioral trends, usually a minimum of 1 to 2 weeks. Sometimes a behavior assessment will prompt a change in behavior without any other action. In most lifestyle-change programs a plan of action is not started until it is clear that assessment alone will not be enough to alter the behavior completely. Bootzin illustrates this point by citing the experience of a friend.

A friend of mine discovered that he was interspersing the phrase you know in almost every sentence he spoke. He decided to try to suppress that behavior. The first step he took-as it turned out, the only step that was required-was to record the number of times he said you know. Each day that he recorded, his frequency of emitting that phrase decreased. Recording served as a sufficient intervention to bring that verbal behavior under control.

The assessment phase also provides clues to a person’s commitment to making a change in lifestyle. A thorough, detailed log is a good sign that the individual has the motivation to carry out the plan. When the assessment phase is finished, there should be sufficient information to form a behavioral profile, state specific goals, and customize an intervention program that matches goals and strategies to a person’s unique circumstances and personality.

Set specific, realistic goals

Setting specific goals means setting goals that focus on concrete, observable, measurable behaviors. A behavioral goal to overcome shyness is very different from a goal that requires a person to initiate a conversation with a different person each day for the next week. If goals are specific, you know precisely what you are trying to accomplish and where, when, and how often it will occur. By using specific goals, you get instant feedback on your progress. Another way to increase specificity is to establish a timetable for achieving goals. A timetable adds structure to the plan and provides a way to evaluate progress.

Realistic behavioral goals are reasonable and relate to personal circumstances. Setting realistic goals also means forming them in the context of correct information. For example, an informed dieter knows that setting a goal to lose 10 pounds in a week is not reasonable. A more achievable goal is 1 to 2 pounds.

When setting goals, starting off small is best. Setting a modest goal initially facilitates some degree of success, which increases confidence. For complex lifestyle changes, behavioral psychologists recommend breaking down an ambitious, long-range goal into a set of intermediate goals, beginning with the easier ones and then moving gradually to more difficult ones. Goals should be structured in moderation. Extreme goals promote the erroneous attitude that lifestyle change is temporary. They create a strong sense of denial, encourage preoccupation with target behaviors, and invariably lead to failure. Exceptions include cigarette smoking, alcoholism, and drug dependence, for which abstinence is still the primary treatment.

The key to striving for high-level wellness is motivation. No single principle or incident can provide the stimulus necessary to institute change and maintain positive lifestyle habits. To make beneficial changes, you need to understand the many influences that create individual behavior. The family initiates health habits and out­looks. Children do not begin to brush their teeth because of a concern for dental care but because their parents insist on it. Social pressure becomes increasingly important as children age. All people are influenced by the desire and need to belong or to act like someone they admire. Adolescents and teenagers are especially susceptible to wanting to “fit in,” sometimes in a way that harms their health. For example, a friend or family member who smokes may influence a youngster’s decision to begin to smoke.A significant contribution to accepting the challenge of wellness is the knowledge and attitudes as similated during a lifetime. To change their health habits, people must internalize information and consider it valuable. Unfortunately, knowledge alone is not enough to bring about change. The discrepancy between knowing what is good for health and doing it is the health-behavior gap. People know that they should wear their seat belts and that they should not smoke, yet many people do not buckle up and continue to use tobacco products. For change to occur, the persons belief system must be affected.

An attitude is a predisposition for action, that is, what people believe and value as having importance is what they are most likely to pursue. To build a sound and accurate knowledge base, people need to consider the following factors -

• Based on the information, is the person at risk for negative lifestyle consequences?
• How high a risk exists if a decision is made not to institute change?
• If a lifestyle change is made, what are the benefits or advantages?

People are motivated by what they value. For some people, motivation is in the form of attitudes (values) concerning the desire to look better, feel better, or be more self-reliant. The more highly a health benefit is valued, the greater the chance of making and adhering to the change. Support in the form of compliments from friends and family certainly helps to provide motivation and reinforcement. However, for the challenge of wellness to be accepted for a lifetime, changes must eventually be made based on an internalized desire to make that difference. The ability to achieve any health change must result from a personal, ongoing goal and not from a desire to please or impress another person. If people engage in wellness activities because the activities are important to them, the wellness challenge has been accepted.

Understanding the concept of locus of control is important to be successful in the quest for improved quality of life. An individual’s locus of control may be either internal or external. When people view problems concerning their health or other parts of their lives as generally “out of their control” (that is, they view themselves as being at the mercy of other people, places, and events), they have an external locus of control. On the other hand, people who view their own behaviors as having a major effect, who feel that they are at least partially the “masters of their fate,” and who recognize that they can change the course of their health have an internal locus of control. People with an internal locus of control are more likely to succeed in wellness activities because they assume the necessary responsibility for their actions.Another vital concept in a wellness lifestyle is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to peoples belief in their ability to accomplish a specific task or behavior. Perhaps the most important influence in determining success of a wellness plan is people’s perceptions that they can complete it. Although the support of others is encouraging, success is likely to require generating a personal sense of competence. Self-efficacy is not earned, inherited, or acquired, it is something you bestow on yourself.

Self-efficiency suggests that people’s beliefs in their ability to perform specific behaviors influences the following -

1.  Their choice of behavior and the situations that will be avoided or attempted, such as to reduce use of drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes, to initiate an exercise regimen, or to practice relaxation.
2. The effort they will expend participating in a specific task (Often, more energy is devoted to a task, such as brushing and flossing teeth, when the individual perceives that it will be successful.)
3.  How long a person will persist with a task, such as maintaining an exercise program, even when facing difficulties
4.  Emotional reactions, such as anxiety (Negative emotions may be aroused when an individual is confronted with the threat of failure.)
5. People define their ability to succeed at various tasks in the following four ways.
6. By actually performing or accomplishing the task
7. By seeing others perform or accomplish the task without adverse effects
8. Through verbal persuasion
9. Through stressful or taxing experiences or circumstances that arouse the emotions

A strong sense of efficacy through healthy behavior is essential for self-regulation. For high-level wellness to be achieved, individuals must see themselves as successful and believe that they can accomplish a task. Although it is locus of control that establishes an attitude toward one’s role in achieving wellness, it is self-efficacy that establishes behavior. Self-efficacy links knowing what to do and actually accomplishing the task.