About Extra Virgin Olive Oil Benefits for Health, Diet and Weight-Loss

 An introduction as to why you should include extra virgin olive oil in your diet and the facts you may find interesting.

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 Olive oil is a popular oil used in cooking and has several benefits.  According to experts in nutrition eating extra virgin olive oil contains a high percentage of heart-healthy and anti-inflammatory monosaturated fats and anti-toxicant polyphenol compounds.  Consuming as little as a tablespoon a day is associated with a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared to those who don't. 

Click here to see how this new Italian superfood can help you lose 2-3 lbs. weekly. bit.ly/3rIvYI1  As with any product, look it over first!

  Extra virgin olive is a natural source of antioxidants and healthy unsaturated fats that promote long-term health by fighting inflammation and chronic disease.  

 Other benefits include lowering heart disease,

 Decreasing inflammation and stroke, 

 Improving skin health, 

 Weight loss,

 Improving brain function,

 Reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, 

 Reducing the risk of certain cancers.

  If you will use EVOO to help lose weight here are a couple of additional facts that will give you a tad more insight; monounsaturated fatty acids (mufa) found in extra virgin olive oil are the beneficial fats that promote weight loss.  

  Medium-chain triglycerides, broken down and absorbed by the liver may enhance calorie burning. 

  Those who subscribe to the Mediterranean diet will find the diet uses olive oil as the primary fat source, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds.

  More than just hype, extra virgin olive oil, is the less processed product that maintains the component oleocanthal, which protects LDL (bad) cholesterol from oxidation. When buying Evoo (extra virgin olive oil), you need to consider some things.  Let's start with the container, it should be of glass and dark to avoid oxidation. Next, carefully examine the label to see if vegetable oil has been added. To ensure a more recent product, check the manufacturer's date since time and heat lessen the properties and the acidity is up to 0.8%.  By checking these things you can be assured that you are getting a good product.

  You should add extra virgin olive oil to take advantage of all the benefits that will enhance your well-being.

Stay  Healthy   

    M.N.Curry

  Click the link to find out more about how Olivine, the new Italian superfood, can help you to lose 2-3 lbs. weekly. bit.ly/3rIvYI1  

Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

  

  One of the most undemanding and most workable ways to knock over blood sugar amount, eliminate the dangers of “cardiovascular disease,” and perk up health and welfare, in general, is exercise.
Despite that, in today’s inactive world where almost every indispensable job can be carried out online, from the ergonomic chair in front of a computer, or with a streaming line of messages from a fax machine, exercising can be a hard argument to win over.

  The Weight of Exercise

  Everyone should exercise, yet health experts tell us that only 30% of the United States population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all. In fact, inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in the U.S., because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance.
  The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling your diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes in particular, exercise can improve insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

Type 2 Diabetes

  Diabetes is on the rise. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes every year increased by 48% between 1980 and 1994. Nearly all the new cases are Type 2 Diabetes, or adult-onset, the kind that moves in around middle age. Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes include increased thirst, appetite, and need to urinate; feeling tired, edgy, or sick to the stomach; blurred vision; tingling or loss of feeling in the hands.

  The causes of type 2 diabetes are complex and not completely understood, although research is uncovering new clues at a rapid pace.
  However, it has already been proven that one of the reasons for the boom in type 2 diabetes is the widening of waistbands and the trend toward a more deskbound and inactive lifestyle in the United States and other developed countries. In America, the shift has been striking; in the 1990s alone, obesity increased by 61% and diagnosed diabetes by 49%.
  For this reason, health experts encourage those who already have type 2 diabetes to start employing the wonders that exercise can do for them. Without exercise, people have the tendency to become obese. Once they are obese, they have a bigger chance of accumulating type 2 diabetes.
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that over 80% of people with type 2 diabetes are clinically overweight. Therefore, it is high time that people, whether inflicted with type 2 diabetes or not, should start doing those jumping and stretching activities.

Getting Started

  The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a “dyed-in-the-wool” sluggish, is to consult with your healthcare provider. If you have cardiac risk factors, the healthcare provider may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

  Certain diabetic complications will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk of further blood vessel damage and possible retinal detachment.
  If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor. If you are taking insulin, you may need to take special precautions to prevent hypoglycemia during your workout.

Start Slow

  For those who have type 2 diabetes, your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk. If you have not been very active before now, start slowly and work your way up. Walk the dog or get out in the yard and rake. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park in the back of the lot and walk. Every little bit does work, in fact, it really helps a lot. As little as 15 to 30 minutes of daily, heart-pumping exercise can make a big difference in your blood glucose control and your risk of developing diabetic complications. One of the easiest and least expensive ways of getting moving is to start a walking program. All you need is a good pair of well-fitting, supportive shoes and a direction to head in.

  Indeed, you do not have to waste too many expenses on costly “health club memberships,” or the most up-to-date health device to start pumping those fats out. What you need is the willingness and the determination to start exercising for a healthier, type 2 diabetes-free life. The results would be the sweetest rewards from the effort that you have exerted.

Stay Healthy
MN Curry

The Benefits of Cardio Interval Training

  In a long-term study of the health of the people in the United States, the U.S. Public Health Service documented the chances of developing heart disease among various groups in the population. Long before any symptoms appeared, epidemiological research could identify high-risk groups.
  Among the highest risk factors are male sex, age over 35, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high levels of certain blood fats, and a family history of cardiovascular disorders.
Other researchers have added to this list another risk factor: the compulsive, hard-driving, highly anxious personality. The greater the number of severity, the greater the person’s overall risk.

  These threats to the heart can be divided into two main categories: those beyond individual control, such as age, sex, and heredity, and those that can be controlled, avoided, or even eliminated. Among those in the second category are what cardiologists call “the triple threat.” These are high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high cholesterol levels in the blood.

  If you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, your risk of having a heart attack is twice that of a nonsmoker. If you smoke, have hypertension, and eat a diet high in fats without any exercise at all, your risk is five times greater than normal.

The Healthy Heart

  If these risk factors endanger the heart’s health, what enhances its well-being and improves its odds of working long and well?

  Obviously, quitting cigarettes and eating a low-fat diet will help. The next best thing you can do for your heart’s sake is to give it what it needs: regular exercise or complete cardio interval training.
  The heart is a muscle, or, more accurately, a group or “package” of muscles, similar in many ways to the muscles of the arms and legs. And just as exercise strengthens and improves limb muscles, it enhances the health of the heart muscles as well.

  Since World War II, several large-scale statistical studies have evaluated the relationship between physical activity and cardiovascular disease. One well-known survey compared 31,000 drivers and conductors of some bus companies. The more sedentary drivers had a significantly higher rate of heart disease than the conductors, who walked around the buses and climbed stairs to the upper level.
  The why and how behind these statistics were best explained by classic experiments with dogs whose coronary arteries were surgically narrowed to resemble those of humans with arteriosclerosis. Dogs who were exercised had much better blood flow than those kept inactive.

  The exercise seemed to stimulate the development of new connections between the impaired and the nearly normal blood vessels, so exercised dogs had a better blood supply to all the muscle tissue of the heart. The human heart reacts in the same way to provide blood to the portion that was damaged by the heart attack.

  To enable the damaged heart muscle to heal, the heart relies on new small blood vessels for what is called collateral circulation. These new branches on the arterial tress can develop long before a heart attack — and can prevent a heart attack if the new network takes on enough of the function of the narrowed vessels.

 With all these facts, it is now boiled down to a single question: What should be done in order to prevent such dilemmas?

 Some studies showed that moderate exercise several times a week is more effective in building up these auxiliary pathways than extremely vigorous exercise done twice often.

  The general rule is that exercise helps reduce the risk of harm to the heart. Some researchers further attested the link between exercise and a healthy heart based on the findings that the non-exercisers had a 49% greater risk of heart attack than the other people included in the study. The study attributed a third of that risk to a sedentary lifestyle alone.

Hence, by employing cardio interval training, you can absolutely expect positive results not only in areas that concern your cardiovascular system but in the overall status of your health as well.
  This particular activity that is definitely good for the heart is a cycle of “repeated segments” that is of an intense nature. In this process, there is an interchange period of recuperation. It can both be a comprehensive activity and moderate motion.

  Consequently, the benefits of merely engaging in this kind of activity can bring you more results than you have ever expected. 

These are:
1. The threats of heart attack are lessened, if not eliminated
2. Enhanced heart task
3. Increase metabolism, increase the chance of burning calories, therefore, assisting you in losing weight
4. Improves lung capacity
5. Helps lessen or eliminate the cases of stress
Indeed, cardio interval training is the modern way of creating a healthy, happy heart and body.

Stay Healthy
MN Curry

Admonition to myself: 11-hour workdays boost heart disease risk.

                                                                                                                by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

  Achtung! I am writing this article for myself... and for the legions of ultra-busy people who work 11 hours a day or more. We are the people who keep the world going... but to be able to do so, we need to stay healthy and alive.

On April 6, 2011, Bloomberg News reported that we were at risk and needed to take immediate action to minimize the problem.

The facts.

  Adults who worked 11 hours a day or more had a 67 percent higher risk of developing coronary heart disease than those who worked eight hours, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported (April 5, 2011). The researchers also found that by adding working hours to a standard heart attack risk assessment model, they could increase the accuracy of heart disease predictions by 5 percent.

Heart disease is the nation's leading killer.

  According to the National Institutes of Health, heart disease is the nation's leading killer. More and more people succumb to it because more and more people are working more and more hours, making ours the least leisured generation ever, the one with the greatest challenges and risks.

Remarks by Mike Kivimaki, the project lead researcher.

  Current evidence on coronary heart disease prevention emphasizes the importance of focusing on the total risk rather than single risk factors. "People who work long hours should be particularly careful in following healthy diets, exercising sufficiently, and keeping their blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood glucose within healthy limits," said project director Kivimaki.

  Srihari Naidu, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, New York, said these data show that how people live -- their stress levels, sleeping, eating, and exercise habits -- can affect their risks for heart disease. "The choices we make in our lifestyle may have consequences," Naidu said.

Study details

  The research followed 7,095 civil service workers in London who were aged 39 to 62 at the start of the trial. They were screened for heart disease every five years. The study found that 192 people developed heart disease over 12.3 years of follow-up. Those who worked 10 hours a day had a 45 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who worked seven to eight hours.

Self-talk for myself.

  If you're one of those people who work 10 hours plus a day, listen up. I'm one of you.... and like you, I need to take such warnings with more seriousness. So, for me, you, I've created a list that I intend to keep right next to my computer. You should, too...

1) Don't ignore this warning, the way you've ignored previous warnings.

  You're no spring chicken; you're getting older... and if you want to get older still, don't just read these survey results... LIVE THEM!

  The plain fact is, that researchers have known for a long while the risk factors causing heart disease. You've seen, what, a few dozen warnings... and managed to ignore most of them, not the least of which comes from your physician as he urges you for the umpteenth time to stop smoking.

  Personal note: I don't smoke cigarettes, and never have. That's a must for all those who value life over nicotine.

2) Get up and boogie.

  I spend my entire, extended work day at the computer. To force myself to get up, I keep a list of peppy, jump-up music readily at hand. Who doesn't want to get up and boogie when the song is Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".... or any other lively number that gets more than your feet moving.

Music on... jump up... and move that body.

  Okay, so you're not Fred Astaire. So what? Exercise and its benefits are for the do-er, not the watcher... and it's your heart we want to keep in tip-top shape.

3) Walk.

Make it a point to walk, briskly too, at least 40 minutes a day.

  Walk, too, every other chance you can... to the post office, the barber, to the local cinema. You know the advantages of walking; you've known them all your life. Now decide to do something. Leave the car at home... and walk.

4) Eat small portions more often.

  The obesity phenomenon which was once pretty much an American affair has gone universal with a vengeance. Heart disease and excess pounds are, we know, related. But you can start solving this problem... today... by eating more often throughout the day but eating less.

  Here, too, I bet you already know what to do... you just aren't doing it. So, vow to make changes now, exchanging those high-sugar, high-salt, high-fat foods for celery and company.

  Get over the "giving up" mentality. Replace with the "here's what I'm getting" mentality. What you get here is plain: more of the distinctly limited time which is the most important thing you can get. Getting more time is absolutely essential thing, and you have it within your power to get more of it.

Now for strictly work-related observations.

  There are many reasons for working 10 hours a day or more. You might have hefty bills to pay and need the extra bucks. You might like the finer things in life. You might think yourself, and actually be, indispensable to your business. You might even be one of those who works hard to avoid the turbulence of unceasing family problems. Whatever your reason... enough is enough.

1) Review what you do, everything you do. What is essential and what is merely desirable? It's time to find and jettison what you can. Put your daily work life and activities under a microscope and scrutinize them closely.

2) Got people who can help? Learn to delegate. No, these people will NEVER be as good at what you do as you are... but they're there and good enough to assist. Besides, they can learn. Cutting back on one task or another may give them the chance to show what they can do to help you even more.

3) Ask yourself how much good you really do in your 10th or 11th hour on the job, where the principle of diminishing returns applies.

  Can you legitimately postpone a task until tomorrow? Is the physical price you pay, the extra fatigue, not to mention cumulative health risks worth overworking today... when it could easily be done, and freshly so, tomorrow?

You determine your fate.

  The ancient Greeks believed that Clotho spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle;   Lachesis measured the thread of life with her rod, and Athropos cut of the thread of life and chose the manner of a person's death.

  Now you have replaced them all... how much of life, even the matter of your death, is at the very least influenced by you. I want more of it... and I now vow to do everything to lengthen my thread, not curtail it. Will you join me? Lach Haim.

About the Author

  Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and home-based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by M. N. Curry