Health and Fitness Tips

The use of steroids is headline news right now both in the United States and worldwide. Big names in professional sports have rumored, or admitted to using steroids to bulk up their bodies and improve their game. Our teenagers look up them as role models and it's sad to see them letting our teens down. When they see their favorite athlete using steroids, they believe if it's all right for these stars, it's all right for them too.

Few realize what some of the terrible side effects are for those who use anabolic steroids. Some teenagers discover too late and the damage is irreparable or they are dead. Yes, it is that serious!

Anabolic steroids are a synthetic substance that promotes the growth of skeletal muscles and is related to the male hormone testosterone. There are over 100 known steroids that have been developed since first discovered in 1930. They were found to be effective in building skeletal muscle in laboratory animals and were first used by weight lifters and bodybuilders. It caught on with other athletes and is so prolific it has been know to affect the outcome of sports.

The lawful medical uses of these steroids are used to treat some impotence, delayed puberty, and help the body fight wasting diseases like HIV infection. These steroids are illegal in the United States but are smuggled into the country and sold by drug dealers. The use of steroids can effect a good portion of a teenager's body.

Users of steroids use injection as a means to getting the substance into the body. They often are not careful and use non-sterile injections or share needles with other abusers.

Manufactured steroids are often made in environments that are not sterile and this puts the user in added danger. Hepatitis B and C, HIV, and other viral infections can be injected into the body with non-sterile needles. Infections can form at the injection sights and cause abscesses to form. A potentially fatal side effect is endocarditis which is a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the inner lining of the heart.

Steroid use has also been linked with liver tumors and blood-filled cysts in the liver. If these rupture as they sometimes do, they cause internal bleeding, another potential life threatening condition.

Steroids affect the cardiovascular system. Misuse can cause heart attacks and strokes. These can affect all athletes, even teenagers.

There have been many reports of teenagers who have died of taking steroids. Steroids decrease the good levels of cholesterol, and increase the bad cholesterol which can increase the risk of blood clots that stop the blood flow to the heart or brain and become fatal.

Steroid use can cause problems with the skin, such as acne and cysts. It can also cause oily skin and hair.


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Steven Godlewski is a self-made millionaire and is currently working with Life Force International products. He has an extensive background in nutrition as well as other health related fields. For more health-related articles and a FREE bottle of Liquid Vitamins see their website at: http://www.pillfreevitamins.com SEE video at: http://www.emii-dcf.org

If you're looking for diets that work fast - yes there may be a few, but with short term results.

So why try to lose 10 pounds in 3 days to impress someone, but only to stack the weight back in 3 days to depress yourself? It just doesn't make sense.

However there are diets that work fast, and in a healthy manner that will keep the weight off.

Whether you care about the quality of the diet or not, here are 3 tips to consider -

1) The diets that work fast may produce the incredible weight loss initially, but long term you will gain back the weight and more. The reason being is, the diet or meals are too restrictive - leaving out your favorite foods which makes you feel deprived of food.

As a result, you will be more prone to cravings - and end up eating more and eating the wrong kinds of food.

Look for meals that are flexible and consists of foods that you will enjoy.

That way, you're more likely to stay with it and lose more weight in a healthy manner down the road.

2) Healthy diets that work fast must encourage you to
- eat more natural wholesome foods
- eat high nutrient density food
- eat fruits and vegetables as a main source of carbohydrates and fiber
- eat moderate amounts of high quality protein at each meal
- eat healthy fat from sources such as nuts, seeds, organic eggs, wild fish or fish oil, virgin coconut oil and olive oils, avocados, etc

Eat this way - you'll fuel your body with the right nutrients, and reduce the likelihood for cravings of sweets or junk food.

3) Diets that work fast should be educational and make it easy for you to adjust to new found habits. Not only should the meals be healthy and tasty, it should be manageable in a way that it becomes a daily habit - and overtime, replaces your old unhealthy lifestyle.

There's no doubt there are diets that work fast which promises the world . But if you can over-look the hype, and just focus on the quality of the foods with the aim to lose weight sensibly, you will lose more weight than any one looking for that quick fix.

This is where a diet like Fat Loss 4 Idiots can show you how to eat the right kind of foods to burn the body fat and keep it off.

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The human body is made up of over 75% of water, and as we all know, we cannot live without water. The fact is, we can only survive for a total of 3 days without water. Water has however, been replaced in most diets by soft drinks and other sugar sweetened refreshments. Keep in mind that water is a healthier and necessary for leading yourself towards a better health and longevity.

Your own personal need for water can vary greatly due to exercise, weight, and temperature. Research has proven that over 2/3 of adults don't get the water they need on a daily basis. By drinking water on a regular basis you can replenish your body and keep it well hydrated and functioning as it should be.

A majority of us wait until we are thirsty before we drink water. Keep in mind, this way isn't a reliable gauge of the water needs for the body. By the time you are thirsty you have already lost two of more cups of the body's water supply. Therefore, drinking water regularly is much better than simply waiting until you are thirsty.

It is very important that you don't substitute beverages with alcohol and caffeine for water. The reason behind this is that those types of beverages act as a diuretic and can cause you to lose more weight through increased urination. You may think and feel as if you are getting more water through these beverages, although the fact is that you are letting it go almost as fast as you consume it.

Anytime you exercise, you need more water. Due to perspiration, your body will lose quite a bit of water. For each pound lost due to exercise, you need to drink 2 cups of water. Even when you lay down to sleep, your body loses water. By drinking a glass or more of water before you go to sleep, you can wake up with your body functioning as it should be.

It should become more obvious that when you are sick you'll need more water than any other tine. When you get a cold or the flu, your body can become dehydrated quite quickly. You can help to prevent this by drinking more water at times when you become sick.

There are several mixed opinions as to whether purified water will actually provide benefit. This is a subject you should explore yourself as you determine the best type of water for yourself.

Always make it a habit to drink water on a daily basis. You should keep a bottle of water with you at all times and drink it throughout the day. You should also teach yourself to drink water instead of other beverages that don't replenish the nutrients your body needs.

At The Treadmill Workouts website, you can read more about treadmill workouts and the tread climber.

As people age, they begin to complain more of pains in their muscles and joints. They seem to stiffen up with age, and such commonplace activities as bending over for the morning paper can make them wince.

Such pain can grip so fiercely that they are sure it begins deep in their bones. But the real cause of stiffness and soreness lies not in the joints or bones, according to research at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, but in the muscles and connective tissues that move the joints.

The frictional resistance generated by the two rubbing surfaces of bones in the joints is negligible, even in joints damaged by arthritis.

Flexibility is the medical term used to describe the range of a joint's motion from full movement in one direction to full movement in the other. The greater the range of movement, the more flexible the joint.

If you bend forward at the hips and touch your toes with your fingertips, you have good flexibility, or range of motion of the hip joints. But can you bend over easily with a minimal expenditure of energy and force? The exertion required to flex a joint is just as important as its range of possible motion.

Different factors limit the flexibility and ease of movement in different joints and muscles. In the elbow and knee, the bony structure itself sets a definite limit. In other joints, such as the ankle, hip, and back, the soft tissue-muscle and connective tissue-limit the motion range.

The problem of inflexible joints and muscles is similar to the difficulty of opening and closing a gate because of a rarely used and rusty hinge that has become balky.

Hence, if people do not regularly move their muscles and joints through their full ranges of motion, they lose some of their potential. That is why when these people will try to move a joint after a long period of inactivity, they feel pain, and that discourages further use

What happens next is that the muscles become shortened with prolonged disuse and produces spasms and cramps that can be irritating and extremely painful. The immobilization of muscles, as researchers have demonstrated with laboratory animals, brings about biochemical changes in the tissue.

However, other factors trigger sore muscles. Here are some of them:

1. Too much exercise

Have you always believed on the saying, "No pain, no gain?" If you do, then, it is not so surprising if you have already experienced sore muscles.

The problem with most people is that they exercise too much thinking that it is the fastest and the surest way to lose weight. Until they ache, they tend to ignore their muscles and connective tissue, even though they are what quite literally holds the body together.

2. Aging and inactivity

Connective tissue binds muscle to bone by tendons, binds bone to bone by ligaments, and covers and unites muscles with sheaths called fasciae. With age, the tendons, ligaments, and fasciae become less extensible. The tendons, with their densely packed fibers, are the most difficult to stretch. The easiest are the fasciae. But if they are not stretched to improve joint mobility, the fasciae shorten, placing undue pressure on the nerve pathways in the muscle fasciae. Many aches and pains are the result of nerve impulses traveling along these pressured pathways.

3. Immobility

Sore muscles or muscle pain can be excruciating, owing to the body's reaction to a cramp or ache. In this reaction, called the splinting reflex, the body automatically immobilizes a sore muscle by making it contract. Thus, a sore muscle can set off a vicious cycle pain.

First, an unused muscle becomes sore from exercise or being held in an unusual position. The body then responds with the splinting reflex, shortening the connective tissue around the muscle. This cause more pain, and eventually the whole area is aching. One of the most common sites for this problem is the lower back.

4. Spasm theory

In the physiology laboratory at the University of Southern California, some people have set out to learn more about this cycle of pain.

Using some device, they measured electrical activity in the muscles. The researchers knew that normal, well-relaxed muscles produce no electrical activity, whereas, muscles that are not fully relaxed show considerable activity.

In one experiment, the researchers measured these electrical signals in the muscles of persons with athletic injuries, first with the muscle immobilized, and then, after the muscle had been stretched.

In almost every case, exercises that stretched or lengthened the muscle diminished electrical activity and relieved pain, either totally or partially.

These experiments led to the "spasm theory," an explanation of the development and persistence of muscle pain in the absence of any obvious cause, such as traumatic injury.

According to this theory, a muscle that is overworked or used in a strange position becomes fatigued and as a result, sore muscles.

Hence, it is extremely important to know the limitations and capacity of the muscles in order to avoid sore muscles. This goes to show that there is no truth in the saying, "No pain, no gain." What matters most is on how people stay fit by exercising regularly at a normal range than once rarely but on a rigid routine.

Go to The Treadmill Workouts website to find out more about hiit training and the tread climber.

There is an increasing awareness about maintaining health and wellness, and the best way to stay healthy is to eat healthy. There are three main factors, which helps us in developing a complete healthy body: good diet, regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle.
Let us begin with diets and have a look on some healthy food groups, which we should consume. It is also essential to see the calorie-content of various foods as elevated calories in food results in health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Health experts believe that a healthy diet can lower the risks of number of life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, heart attack and osteoporosis. Hence, developing, managing and maintaining a good diet has become an essential part of our health routine.

And for doing this we should know the basic difference between a well-balanced diet and a nutritious diet. Although, most of us believe that a well-balanced diet and a nutritious diet are one and the same, in reality they are not!!! A nutritious diet would comprise of foods, which contain all the essential nutrients such as protein, vitamin, fats, carbohydrates and minerals. A well-balanced diet implies a diet that not only contains foods with all the essential nutrients, but also, in correct proportions and adequate amount. Even if you take all the essential nutrients through your daily foods, but if they are not in correct proportions or adequate amounts, you may still have to face the health problems. Therefore, instead of opting for just a nutritious diet, every health-conscious person should opt for a well-balanced diet.

The ingredients of a well-balanced diet differ according to the sex, age and physical fitness of an individual. An older adult may be unable to eat certain foods required to fulfill his/her nutritious requirements. However, a well-balanced diet can help an older adult to get the essential nutrients even through a sparse diet. For example, 100 grams of wheat and 100 grams of rice contain nearly 12 grams and 6.4 grams of protein, respectively. Similarly, 100 grams of ragi and 100 grams of rice contain 344 mg and 9 mg of calcium, respectively. Therefore, by planning a well-balanced diet we can give all the essentials nutrients even with the small amount of foods.

To derive all the essential nutrients from the foods, we shall always need to choose a variety of healthy foods. All the five essential nutrients can be derived, if a diet includes foods from the following groups:
· Green leafy vegetables
· Fresh or seasonal fruits
· Cereals and pulses
· Fish and meat products
· Dairy products such as curd, cheese etc.

Today, obesity and overweight are one of the major factors for life-threatening diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart attack and diabetes. Obesity and overweight problems are essentially caused due to not eating correctly and consuming lot of calories. Calories are needed everyday by our body for proper metabolic functioning. However, over-consumption of calories can lead to various health problems. Daily calorie needs of an individual depend on various factors such as age, physical fitness, height and weight and body composition. Hence, you also need to be conscious about the foods, which are calorie rich. Take a look at following figures:
· 28 grams of butter = 200 calories
· 37 grams of potato chips = 200 calories
· 75 grams of burger = 200 calories
· 66 grams of hot dogs = 200 calories
· 385 grams of apples = 200 calories
· 357 grams of green peas = 200 calories
· 588 grams of broccoli = 200 calories
· 1425 grams of celery = 200 calories

Knowing this you would surely choose to buy a few kilograms of apples that provide you other nutrients also rather than to eat burgers or hot dogs to avoid unnecessary calorie intake. Ideally, women require 1940 calories and men require 2550 calories intake in a daily basis. You may also plan a well-balanced and optimum calorie-intake diet by discussing it with your dietician.

Remember, you can avoid a lot of future treatments and medications by maintaining a well-balanced diet and optimizing your health care.

Jennifer is an expert Internet marketing professional with years of experience in various industries such as: Business, Real Estate, Balanced -diet, Web-Design, Health & Medicine and many more.