P90X

We live in a world of quick fixes when it comes to losing weight and looking good. With Americans spending $40 billion a year on everything from pills and shakes to pre-packaged meals and cellulite creams, we’re obsessed with buying almost anything to drop a few. Just don’t try to sell any of those products to Tony Horton.
If you don’t know who Tony Horton is, maybe you should. He is one of the hottest names in fitness as the creator of P90X, the at-home extreme fitness DVD program that has swept the nation and sold more than three million copies. He is also the author ofBring It—a lifestyle guide designed to whip you into shape. But what makes him different from almost any other exercise guru?
We asked him for his best advice on how to really “bring it.”
Exercise for the Right Reasons
First things first, you need to ask yourself if you are ready to make a change in your life and commit to it. Horton said hopping on the Stairmaster for 20 minutes three times a week is a start, and better than nothing, but is not going to give you the level of fitness essential for a healthy life.
Why are you making this change? Horton said if it is just to be thinner, you need to reevaluate yourself.
“Get away from the whole aesthetics factor. It shouldn’t be about eating foods that will help you be smaller later. It doesn’t matter how small you are—the fitness is what matters,” he said.
Instead, Horton said to concentrate on all the other benefits of exercise, and if you lose a few pounds in the process—that’s a bonus.
“If I exercise today and eat well, I turn back the clock. Cells will grow stronger, my immune system will function better and improve my quality of life. Memory will improve, I will have less stress and feel better,” he added.
Don’t Put Garbage in Your Mouth
Most people will tell you that healthy eating can be the most difficult part of getting into shape. Counting calories, weighing food and eating packaged diet foods don’t translate to a lifestyle most of us can stick to. Horton said he believes it’s as simple as this—“Don’t put garbage in your mouth.”

“Nine times out of 10, almost everyone knows the difference between healthy and not healthy food. We all know soda and doughnuts are not good, but we eat them anyway. We are unconscious eaters,” he said.
Horton’s program starts with a cleanse to get the body functioning efficiently by eating mainly fruits and vegetables, cutting out sugar and alcohol, and of course processed foods.
“Ultimately the most important thing is to put healthy whole foods in your mouth. I have never counted a calorie in my life. I just make sure there are fruits and veggies on my plate every time I eat,” he said.
Take It Easy on Yourself
Hearing that people shouldn’t beat themselves up may sound surprising coming from someone as dedicated to fitness as Horton. But he claims America’s obsession with perfection is what causes us to fail.
“If you feel like you can’t do this, it’s OK to hit the pause button. The reason why so many people struggle is we have too many perfectionists. Who cares if you had a chocolate chip cookie? As long as you are in the game and participated, don’t beat yourself up,” he said.
Taking it easy also includes physical rest.
“Stress and not enough sleep will eventually kill your mojo, and you are more likely to fail. But if you have restful sleep, you will be able to sustain and be less stressed out,” he said.
Stick With It
So you’ve decided to change your lifestyle—you’re exercising, eating right and getting enough sleep. But how can you keep it up? Horton said the main thing is to understand how important it is in your life. But he also said he has a fool-proof way to stick with your exercise regimen—get a calendar and hang it on the refrigerator. Write down at the beginning of each month exactly what time you are going to work out every day, and as the days go on, cross out each day with a red pen. Sound silly? There is a method behind the madness.
“If you have already scheduled it like other appointments in your life, it is on there and it is about guilting yourself into doing something for yourself. Then you cross it out. It really works. It’s the simple techniques you follow and are able to stick to,” he said.
Winging It
Call it being lazy, call it falling off the wagon, call it taking a break—whatever you call it, it means making excuses as to why you are not living the healthy lifestyle you have the potential to live. And Horton said “winging it” will get you nowhere.
“Eighty percent of the people who say they don’t have enough time are full of crap. What they are saying is they don’t like it, and they don’t want to—that is the thing that drives me the most crazy—what people are doing to themselves is slow motion suicide,” he said.
Surround Yourself With Like-Minded People
How many times have you been out for happy hour and tried your best to make healthy choices, only to get heckled by your friends who are trying to get you to dive into the beer and nachos? According to Horton, you might want to think about getting some new friends.
“If you spend time with super-fit people who are getting up the next morning to run a marathon, you aren’t going to have a doughnut and a glass of wine. But if you are surrounded by people who don’t care, then you’re not going to keep your act together,” he said.
Horton emphasized having a rock-solid plan to be prepared for others to try and make you eat, drink or not exercise to make themselves feel better.
“Misery loves company. You need something powerful in your life to combat the negative things that are surrounding you,” he said.

Pancreatic Cancer

Brian Lenihan was one of 371 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Ireland each year.
The average age of diagnosis is 74, but the disease can hit younger people, particularly those with a family history of the disease. It is very much a silent cancer, with no early-warning signs.
Mr Lenihan was suffering from stomach pains when he was referred to the Mater Private Clinic in December 2009 for tests by his own GP. It was after these exams he received the diagnosis.
Symptoms often do not appear until the tumour grows large enough to interfere with the function of the stomach, liver, and other nearby organs.
Surgery is the main treatment for pancreatic cancer. But surgery is only possible if the cancer is at an early stage. This involves the removal of all or part of the pancreas, which is buried deep in the abdomen. Chemotherapy can be given to shrink the tumour and Mr Lenihan underwent chemotherapy treatment while Minster for Finance in the last government.
His father Brian Lenihan Snr died from cancer in 1995 at the age of 64. He underwent a liver transplant in 1989 at the Mayo Clinic in Boston.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest fatality rates of all cancers, remission is rare, and the five year survival rate is less than 5%.
Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze lost his battle to the disease at 57 years old in 2009 and Michael Landon, star of Little House and the Prairie, died within nine months of diagnosis.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is currently being treated for pancreatic cancer. He had a liver transplant in 2009 and is currently attending the same clinic which treated Swayze in California.

Myasthenia Gravis

Improving the strength of patients with Myasthenia Gravis, a disease characterized by varying degrees of muscular weakness, is the goal of a new study being conducted at Baylor College of Medicine.
Volunteers are needed to test the effectiveness of an investigational drug that may partially improve muscle strength in patients with this disease, said Dr. Yadollah Harati, professor of neurology and lead investigator on the clinical trial.

Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease caused by a defect in the transmission of nerve impulses to muscles. It occurs when normal communication between the nerve and muscle is interrupted at the neuromuscular junction, which is the place where nerve cells connect with the muscles they control.
Men and women between the ages of 18 and 80 who are diagnosed with generalized Myasthenia Gravis are eligible to sign up for the study. They must be experiencing limb muscle weakness and fatigue but have stable symptoms.

Green Tea

A recent study published in the journal Immunology Letters indicated a specific way in which a compound found in green tea provides health benefits, including protection against autoimmune diseases like cancer, juvenile diabetes and Lou Gehrig's disease.
The researchers explained that there are many different types of specialized cells that play a role in immunity. In people who have autoimmune disorders, some cells begin to attack others that are essential for good health, leaving harmful cells to replicate and distribute themselves throughout an individual's body.

However, regulatory T cells help prevent this from occurring and maintain a balance of the different cell varieties.
The study's results showed that the polyphenol EGCG found in green tea stimulates a higher production of regulatory T cells, thereby reducing the risk of autoimmune disorders.
The investigators noted that while there are drugs designed to provide this function, there have been concerns about the toxicity of these medications.
"This appears to be a natural, plant-derived compound that can affect the number of regulatory T cells, and in the process improve immune function," said lead researcher Emily Ho..

LA Fitness

LA Fitness

1. Combining Resistance and Cardio for Maximum Weight Loss Results
A combination of cardiovascular exercise (e.g treadmill, crosstrainer etc) and resistance exercise (e.g swissball, weights machine, free weights) will achieve significantly better weight loss results then doing only cardiovascular exercise. For example, 3 cardio workouts, 1 swissball workout and 1 light handweight workout per week will achieve significantly better weight loss results then doing 5 cardio sessions per week. The naked trainer DVD 1 with its 30 minute swiss ball session and 30 minute hand weights session is a great way to add some resistance training to your weekly regime.

2. Goal Setting and Planning is ESSENTIAL
There is no point embarking on anything if you do not have a goal in mind, and if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. Sign up to www.thenakedtrainer.net (FREE), set your health goals, create a weekly exercise plan and guarantee success.  

3. An Easy Program Adhered to Will Always Beat a Hard Program That’s Never Followed
When creating your exercise plan it must be achievable and enjoyable. Someone who plans to do three moderate intensity, 30min exercycle sessions per week, and sticks at it, will get far better weight loss results then someone who plans to do seven, 1hr, high intensity rower sessions, but only actually averages one a week because they rarely have an hour to spare and they don’t enjoy the work outs.

4. The Myth About Exercise Intensity For Weight Loss
Short, high intensity workouts (20-30 minutes) achieves as much, if not better weight loss results then the traditional longer, low intensity workouts (45min – 1hr). High intensity means HIGH INTENSITY though. The sweat should be pouring off you by the end of the 20-30 minutes.

5. Creating Exercise Variety to Achieve Better Results
Combining high intensity cardio exercise with resistance exercises is a great way to get maximum weight loss benefit from your workout and keep things interesting. For example, 5 minutes on a treadmill, 10 press ups, 10 sit ups, 10 lunges, 4 times through.

6. What is a Healthy Weight Loss
You should aim to lose no more then 1/2kg per week. Any more then this and there is a very high chance that you will simply put it all back on plus more.

7. Best Time of Day to Exercise to Lose Weight
Exercising in the morning burns more calories then exercising at night, however the difference is so small that if you are someone that prefers exercising at night then you are better off sticking with your preferred evening training.

8. The Most Effective Food Tip
The best thing you can do to improve your diet is to keep a food diary and nominate a friend or family member to show it to every week. This simple process will force you to think a lot more about what you put in your mouth. Small monthly changes to your diet achieve far better long term benefits then drastic crash diets.

9. The Little Things Really Do Count
Do not under estimate the benefit of adding small activities to your every day life. All those things like, ‘take the stairs’ and ‘get off the bus a block early’ make a huge difference if done regularly. Jump on www.thenakedtrainer.net and join the ‘Gimme20’ group to receive a 1 minute exercise order via email once every couple of days (completely FREE).

10. Keeping up Some Exercise with a Lower Limb Injury
If you have a minor lower limb injury (knee, hip, ankle) then the best cardio machine is a treadmill as it is very low impact due to the cushioning, but because it is still a weight bearing exercise it will help to strengthen and improve the injury. A crosstrainer is not a good exercise option if you have a lower limb injury due to the slight twisting movement associated with the exercise.

Mediterranean Diet

US News Media Group, publisher of usnews. com and the annual Best Hospitals rankings, questioned 22 renowned experts in heart disease, diabetes, diet and exercise to review 20 diet plans. The method of evaluating the diet plans included a rating scale measuring effectiveness, ease of compliance, nutritional completeness and health risks on a five-point scale.
The review of the diet plan did not include exercise and physical activity and the cost. The review ranked Ornish Diet first for heart health as it involves low-fat, high fiber, vegetarian food. It also rejuvenates mind and body with the help of exercise, yoga and meditation.

Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) Diet was ranked at second place whereas DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet was at third place. These two diet plans have originated from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and involves the application of scientific findings to improve heart and overall health.
The DASH Diet was ranked first in the category of best diabetes diet while, Mayo Clinic Diet, the Ornish Diet and the Vegan Diet shared the second ranking.
The review honored DASH Diet and the Mediterranean Diet with the prize for best overall diet, while TLC Diet and Weight Watchers were ranked second.

Dash Diet

Dash Diet

"Excess weight during childhood leads to numerous health problems and is even associated with premature death as an adult," the authors write as background information to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, the authors note that examinations of food-based dietary patterns acknowledge that consuming various nutrients together can have positive influences on health. One such diet pattern, The Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) was originally studied as a treatment for adults with hypertension, according to background in the article.

Jonathan P. B. Berz, M.D., M.Sc., of Boston University Medical Center, and colleagues evaluated the effects of a DASH-style eating plan on BMI (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) in a racially diverse sample of adolescent girls. The authors examined data from 2,237 girls 9 years of age who participated in the National Growth and Health Study from 1987-1988 and were followed up for 10 years. Data were gathered annually and each participant was given a DASH food group score based on individual adherence to dietary requirements.

Higher DASH scores were associated with higher total energy intake, as well as higher average intake from each food group (whole grains, vegetables, fruits, lean meats, low-fat dairy and nuts/seeds/legumes). Girls in the highest quintile of DASH scores had the smallest gains in BMI during the study, and had the lowest BMIs at the end of follow-up. Conversely, at age 19 years, girls in the lowest DASH score quintile had an average BMI that was greater than the threshold for overweight as defined by the 85th percentile for age.

"In particular, higher consumption of fruits, whole grains and low-fat dairy products led to less weight gain," the authors noted. Participants who consumed two or more servings of fruit per day had the smallest gains in BMI during the study years and had the lowest BMI at the end of follow-up. Compared with participants consuming the least amount of whole grains, those who consumed the most had lower BMI scores over time and a lower BMI at the end of follow-up. The same results were seen for girls consuming higher amounts of low-fat dairy products.

"We found that higher adherence to a DASH-style diet resulted in a consistently lower BMI between the ages of 9 and 19 years," the authors conclude. "Such an eating pattern may help prevent excess weight gain during adolescence."

The DASH Diet Predicts Weight Gain

In an accompanying editorial, Robert C. Klesges, Ph.D. and Marion Hare, M.D., of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tenn., comment on the findings of this study. "As Berz et al point out, the DASH diet has been well validated in adults, and there is absolutely no reason for it to not work in children," they write. "The DASH diet is flexible and should meet the food preferences of most children. However, interventions for children need to be simplified; therefore, it make sense to specifically recommend increased consumption of fruits and low-fat dairy products."

"In summary, Berz et al add to a growing body of literature that will eventually help us to understand and hopefully treat pediatric obesity. A logical step in this literature is to test the DASH diet in children along with other efficacious adult obesity interventions."

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.

Octomom

The state medical board has revoked the license of the fertility doctor who helped "Octomom" Nadya Suleman become the mother of 14 children through repeated in vitro treatments, according to a decision made public Wednesday.
The Medical Board of California said it was necessary to revoke Dr. Michael Kamrava's license to protect the public. The revocation takes effect July 1.
The Beverly Hills fertility doctor has acknowledged implanting 12 embryos into Suleman, then 33, prior to the pregnancy that produced her octuplets. It was six times the norm for a woman her age.
That was a mistake, according to the board, which rejected an earlier recommendation to give Kamrava five years of probation to dole out the harsher punishment.
"While the evidence did not establish (Kamrava) as a maverick or deviant physician, oblivious to standards of care in IVF practice, it certainly demonstrated that he did not exercise sound judgment in the transfer of twelve embryos to (Suleman)," the board said in its 45-page decision.
Kamrava's lawyer Henry Fenton did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
Since Suleman's octuplets were born in January 2009, the medical community and public have puzzled over how a doctor could have implanted so many embryos into a patient and how the babies were carried to premature birth.
In practice, fertility doctors avoid mega-births, as high number multiple births are sometimes called, because the process can put the mother at risk for serious complications and death. Crowding in a mother's uterus could also result in premature birth, cerebral palsy, developmental delays or other health problems for the babies.
To date, Suleman's octuplets are the world's longest surviving set. When they were born, the unemployed single mother already had six children — also conceived through Kamrava's treatments — and was living with her mother in a small house that would soon be foreclosed on.
In early interviews, Suleman praised Kamrava's care and wrongly claimed that she had only been implanted with six embryos, with two of the embryos splitting to become twins.
With a tearful apology, Kamrava testified at his hearing last year that he implanted Suleman with 12 embryos because she insisted on it and she consented to undergoing fetal reduction if too many of the babies became viable.

The board responded to that defense, writing, "A fetal reduction procedure has risks, including the loss of all pregnancy, and to assign even a scintilla of responsibility to a patient who becomes pregnant and then elects not to follow through with a procedure that may jeopardize her (and possibly her family's) prized objective is troubling and telling."
In the hearing, Kamrava said before implanting 12 embryos, he "tried all sorts of conservative ways to help this young woman become pregnant and she wanted to have a large family."
"I'm sorry for what happened. When I look back, I wish I had never done it," said Kamrava at the Oct. 21 hearing, wiping at tears. "It's a very risky, unhealthy pregnancy. She's lucky she made it through, both for the babies and her."
Kamrava said that months passed after the treatment, and he never heard from her, despite efforts to contact her. He says he only heard from Suleman again after the babies were born.
The state also found that Kamrava was negligent in the care of two other patients — a major factor in the decision to revoke his license.
"This is not a one-patient case or a two-patient case; it is a three-patient case and the established causes of discipline include repeated negligent acts," the board decision reads.
Kamrava was found to have implanted seven embryos in a 48-year-old patient, resulting in quadruplets. One fetus died before birth.
Kamrava said at his hearing that he recommended four embryos be implanted, but he implanted seven because the patient insisted.
In another case, Kamrava went ahead with in vitro fertilization after tests detected atypical cells, which can indicate the presence of a tumor. The patient was later diagnosed with stage-three cancer and had to have her uterus and ovaries removed before undergoing chemotherapy.
Kamrava said he should have referred her to a gynecological oncologist but simultaneous to her treatment, news broke about Suleman's octuplets and he became too distracted to follow up the patient's care.
In February, a judge recommended the board put Kamrava on five years of probation, but the ultimate licensing decision belonged to the board. Citing negative publicity surrounding Suleman's case, the judge had said it was unlikely Kamrava would make similar mistakes again.
The board "adamantly" disagreed with that assessment, saying the doctor had already used bad press as an excuse for failing to care properly for the fertility patient who should have been referred to a cancer specialist.
"Accordingly, the board is not persuaded that relying on the public or the media to fulfill or supplement the board's public protection role is sound policy," the decision reads.
Medical board spokeswoman Jennifer Simoes said Kamrava could petition for the board to reconsider the revocation, but it's unlikely it would change the outcome since the board chose to make its own call on Kamrava's license rather than accepting a proposed decision.
By law, Kamrava can petition for reinstatement three years after revocation takes effect.