More Public Transportation, Less Obesity

The problem of obesity is known to be at an all-time high in the United States, with an ever-increasing number of young people being found to either be obese or be at risk of it. This is, of course, a bit of a severe problem, and the federal government has attempted to take numerous steps to try and fix the problem. However, recent research has also started to delve into what might be the cause for these problems. According to a study that looked into the frequency of obesity in various countries, it seems that there may be a connection between walking, biking, and public transportation and the frequency of obesity in people.

The study has found that countries where walking, biking, or taking public transportation to work, shopping, or school have largely lower frequencies of obesity in the general population. The study found that the higher the rate of use for public transportation and methods such as bicycles or walking, the lower the recorded instances of obesity. It was also noted that Americans, who largely prefer to travel by car from one location to another, have the highest obesity rates in the world, and are also the people least likely to walk, cycle, or take mass transit.

An estimated 12% of all people use active transportation in the United States, with 9% of that number walking, 1% riding bikes, and 2% taking a bus or train. As for the rest of the population, the car is found to be the favored means of getting around – incidentally, a third of that segment of the population have been found to be obese. This is in comparison to the 67% of commuters in Latvia, 52% of the population that prefers to walk in the Netherlands, and 62% of Swedes who walk, bike, or use mass transit. The obesity rate for Latvia is at 14%, while the Netherlands has it at 11% - significantly lower than for the US.

Part of the reason for this was found to be the structure of most European cities. The roads tended to be narrower and allowed less traffic flow, discouraging people from using cars. In contrast, US areas have much wider roads to allow for more vehicles to pass, and to speed up the flow of traffic. European cities, therefore, are structured to discourage too many people from driving cars, while American cities are designed to accommodate large numbers of vehicles on the road at once.

Workaholism: Working For The Sake of Constant Activity

Some people are not aware that there is a world of difference between being “hardworking” and being a “workaholic.” Being hardworking is characterized by perseverance and diligence. However, being compelled to work for the sake of working, and you feel panic, anxiety or a sense of loss when you aren’t working, is a case of being a workaholic. And that is a totally different story.
The difference between the two lies in knowing when to stop and set boundaries. A hardworking person knows when he/she has worked long enough. On the other hand, the workaholic feels uneasy and not yet satisfied with his/her work even if he/she has been doing it for hours longer than the usual. The lack of constant activity makes the workaholic person uneasy and incomplete.
According to Diane M. Fassel, author of Working Ourselves to Death and Chief Executive of New Measures, which conducts employee satisfaction surveys, “the workaholic is addicted to incessant activity. The behavior continues even if the worker becomes aware that it is personally harmful — even harmful to the quality of the work.”
Compared to drug addiction and alcoholism, being a workaholic is viewed by many as praiseworthy. They are rewarded for working excessively, which never happens with addiction.
However, mental health professionals are now considering workaholism as a condition that can cause both mental and physical damage. There are certain types of people who are more susceptible to workaholism than others. They are the perfectionists and those who have the need to be always in control.
Also, these are the people who engage in too much work in order to escape from a bad relationship or to make up for an absence in one’s personal life. The danger of working too hard is that the stress that goes along with it has been shown to lead to substance abuse, sleep disorders, anxiety, and, ultimately, to physical problems like heart disease.
The following are tell-tale signs of workaholism:
When most people close to you feel neglected by you because of your work, you should certainly take their concerns seriously.
When you regularly conceal from family members that you are working, even sneaking into the next room to work on your laptop, you may have a problem.
Nowadays, people are just too willing to get connected, 24-7. Advances in technology have significantly contributed in transforming people into becoming workaholics. The advent of mobile phones, laptops, and internet shops allow people easy access to go online wherever they are; be it in the restaurants, on the sidewalk, at home, or during vacation.
Workaholism can be very hard to change. It will require professional help, as well as behavioral and cognitive therapy. During treatment, workaholics may go through withdrawal syndrome. The active support of family members and friends may be needed to turn the tide.

Why Some Soldiers Don't Get Battle Stress

War is a jarring thing. The sounds of shells being fired, the sight of comrades getting shot, and the experience of things exploding within one's immediate vicinity can all have a tremendous effect on mental health and stability. It is, therefore, not all that surprising that people who have seen combat are a little jarred, and may not be quite normal. Depression, anxiety, and other disorders are not uncommon side effects of having seen battle, which is why the military has established programs and services specifically to help returning soldiers cope with what's happened to them. However, there are also a few people that, simply put, don't seem at all affected. According to recent research on the matter, certain individuals have lower levels of stress hormones and, as a consequence, don't get stressed.

It is known that some people simply perform better than others when put into a high-stress situation. Some people have the ability to keep cool heads, regardless of what is going on around them. This is true for mundane situations, such as an approaching deadline, and it is true for combat situations, with shells exploring, bullets flying, and all manner of unpleasant sensory data coming in. A recently completed study has managed to find what may be the reason for such behavior, and why not everyone is capable of displaying such calm. There have been some who theorized that this might be more linked to biochemistry than mental health.

According to the study, blood samples taken from soldiers who fared best under levels of extreme stress had lower levels of cortisol and higher levels of neuropeptide Y. What does this mean for the average person? It means that the soldier in question had lower levels of a stress hormone, and higher levels of a chemical that is designed to damped the stress response of the body. This means that the body's systems manage to turn down stress levels much better than the average person. Now, the next aim of the research team is to find some way to extend this benefit to those who aren't as cool-headed under stress. Potential benefits for mental health are still undetermined.

The Prospect Of Depressing Sex

Most grouping equal stimulate with pleasure, happiness, or at least base, physical enjoyment. What the average mortal does not mentally associate stimulate with is depression. However, there are whatever grouping that actually mentally associate stimulate with any number of negative factors. Everything from discomfort to boredom to pain can be cited, and in whatever cases, it can actually leave a mortal feeling lethargic and depressed for a long period afterwards. It isn't meet the elderly – who tend to be stereotyped as existence too old for stimulate – who have this problem, as there are numerous grouping in their younger years that are known to experience discomfort or depression at the prospect of stimulate or afterwards.

People with this difficulty sometimes have conditions that attain stimulate an state that only cannot be enjoyed, but there are also those who have clean bills of health, in both the physical and mental fields. This difficulty is meet as likely to manifest among the well-adjusted and hard-working grouping as it is in those who are mentally unstable and psychologically imbalanced. It isn't a lack of friends, kinsfolk or personal support structure, either. It can be quite tempting to assume that this difficulty with stimulate only stems from issues towards the partner or to stimulate in general, but extended analysis might expose that this is not the case. There are meet whatever grouping that are incapable of finding pleasure in sexual intercourse.

There are cases of grouping – usually women – who experience pure episodes of depression that last for several hours after intercourse. These cases have null added wrong with them physically, and their psychiatric profiles are as connatural as one could get aside from the problem. While it is true that grouping can sometimes feel quite sad after intercourse, this is not thoughtful an adequate explanation for the pure depression and dysphoria that the above cases feel, as it is significantly more tumultuous and goes beyond the simple feeling most experience. The answer to this question, however, is still thoughtful to be up to speculation.

The Reasons For Abnormal Blood Sugar

When the body fails to regulate blood sugar (glucose), it may result in serious, and even fatal, complications like diabetes. The regulation of glucose is a function of not one, but three organs of the body, namely the pancreas, the liver, and the muscles, with some help from fats. However, a startling new discovery about a hormone released from the bone is significantly changing our understanding of diabetes and giving new clues on how to deal with it.

Diabetes is considered to be the fifth leading killer of Americans. In addition to the body's failure to regulate glucose, other specific types of diabetes result from specific genetic syndromes, surgery, drugs, malnutrition, infections, and other illnesses.

On the other hand, new research suggests that the issue is even more complex than what it seems to be. A hormone from the skeleton may influence how the body handles sugar. There is also increasing evidence that demonstrates that the signals from the immune system, the brain, and the gut play very important roles in controlling glucose and lipid metabolism. These findings are mainly relevant to Type 2 diabetes, the more common kind, which comes on in adulthood.

While elevated blood sugar defines diabetes, the reasons for abnormal sugar tend to be different from one individual to another. It is in understanding exactly what signals are involved that raises the hope of providing the right care for each person each day, rather than giving everyone the same drug.

Lead researcher, Dr. Gerard Karsenty, first described the findings at a conference where the assembled scientists appeared to be overwhelmed by the potential implications of the study. It was the first time that the skeleton was actually seen as an endocrine organ, producing hormones that act outside of bone.

In his previous work, he had shown that a hormone produced by fat, called leptin, is an important regulator of bone metabolism. In this work, idea that if fat regulates bone, bone must regulate fat was tested. His experiment with mice revealed that a previously known substance called osteocalcin, which is produced by bone, acted by signaling fat cells, as well as the pancreas. The net effect is to improve how mice secrete and handle insulin, the hormone that helps the body move glucose from the bloodstream into cells of the muscle and liver, where it can be used for energy or stored for future use. Insulin is also important in regulating lipids.

Patients with Type 2 diabetes no longer heed the hormone’s directives due to the cells' resistance to insulin. Their blood glucose levels surge and production of insulin in the pancreas decline as well.

The experiment revealed an increase in osteocalcin which addressed the twin problems of insulin resistance and low insulin production. The mice became more sensitive to insulin and it increased their insulin production, thus bringing their blood sugar down. As a bonus, it also made obese mice less fat.

Should osteocalcin works in humans as well, it can be considered as a “unique new treatment” for Type 2 diabetes. Most current diabetes drugs either raise insulin production or improve insulin sensitivity, but not both. Drugs that increase production tend to make insulin resistance worse. A deficiency in osteocalcin could also turn out to be a cause of Type 2 diabetes.

Why You Should Considering Having Sex Regularly

Sex is a good thing, not only for partners who want to bond more with each other, but also for the individual's health. This is, of course, provided that sex is done in moderation. However, it is important to keep in mind that having too much sex can take a bad toll on you and your health.

Below are some of the health benefits of sex:

1.It's a great form of exercise. Not only is it an enjoyable kind of exercise, but if you are one who's into trying different sexual positions, then you're using your different muscle groups.

2.It improves muscle and bone strength. Like any other form of exercise, sex puts our bones and muscles to use, giving them a strengthening workout of sorts.

3.It betters your cardiovascular health. It does so by increasing blood flow throughout the body and positively changing the good to bad cholesterol ratio.

4.It's a great stress reliever. Thanks to the oxytocin released by the body during sexual activity that releases endorphins that induce relaxation.

5.It improves blood oxygen levels. A healthy session of love making can increase the amount of oxygen in the cells. This helps keep our organs and tissues working perfectly.

6.It acts as an analgesic. Sex triggers the release of oxytocin in the body. This hormone increases one's pain threshold, providing significant relief from pain.

7.It offers prostate protection in men. Regular ejaculation is helpful in draining the fluid buildup that is said to cause various kinds of prostate-related problems.

8.It helps in women's hormone production. Instead of taking hormone replacement pills for estrogen deficiency, having regular sex sessions can naturally increase a woman's estrogen level. This will, in turn, help protect her heart and keep her vaginal tissues supple.

Again, it is important to emphasize at this point, that none of these benefits will be attainable if you have too much sex. Once or twice a week should be enough to give you the benefits you need from sex.

Stress Smoking and Hair Loss

Almost everybody has to deal with stress on a day-to-day basis. From the baby trying to call an adult's attention, to the working head of the family trying to bring food to the dinner table, we all deal with stress in our own ways.

On a positive note, stress has its beneficial effects. It can sometimes give us an extra energy boost to accomplish tasks and helps keep us focused. However, when it becomes too much to handle, people start manifesting various psychological and physical symptoms of being overstressed. One of the many physical manifestations of being stressed is hair loss.

If you're thinking hair loss in the sense that they just start falling off on their own. That isn't the case. It is because when one is stressed, they get into habits that lead to hair loss and thinning.

One of the many habits stressed out people have is smoking. Smoking changes the way the body grows hair and restores the scalp. Smoking increases the amount of DHT or dihydrotestosterone in the hair follicles by 13%, and increases testosterone levels by 9%. Together, these two hormones increase the amount of hair lost and the rate it is lost.

Aside from aiding in the production of hormones that speed up hair loss, smoking also makes the blood vessels in the scalp constrict, thereby impeding the blood flow to the scalp. To add to that, carbon monoxide in the smoke you inhale interferes with the blood's oxygen carrying ability, making it even more difficult for fresh blood to get to the scalp to avoid further hair loss.

Smoking is just one of the many bad habits we turn to when we're pressured and stressed, there are still a lot more stress habits that could cause your hair loss. Would you still want to keep smoking after knowing that it's causing your baldness?