How Your Genetic Profile Helps You Look Good

How Your Genetic Profile Helps You Look Good

Most of all, your ability to lose weight and look good depends on your genetic profile. In fact, your genetic profile controls between 25 to 70 percent of all factors affecting your weight and body composition. In addition, your genetic profile determines how your body processes ingested food, how hungry you become, how your body burns calories, how to provide energy for moving your body, and how much you eat.

Genes in Play

The genes, in your genetic profile, that influence your weight and body composition are described below.

FTO

FTO or Fat Mass and Obesity Associated gene is also known as the fatso gene. In fact, FTO is a gene variant that acts as a nutrient sensor affecting your hunger and the amount of food you eat. Also, anyone with a particular variation of this gene has a high probability of becoming obese. In addition, a study published in BMJ compared people with and without the FTO gene.  First the study reported that anyone with the FTO gene weighs 6.61 pounds more, on average. Also, anyone with the FTO gene is 1.7 times more likely to be obese. On the other hand, anyone consistently exercising 30 minutes a day, five days a week, is able to turn off this gene.

MC4R

Melanocortin-4 or MC4R is a receptor gene that controls your hunger, appetite, and energy balance. Regrettably, common variants of this gene are related to obesity and insulin resistance. As a result, anyone with this gene is likely to be obese.

PPARG

Next, the PPARG gene encodes the Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARG) protein. Indeed, the PPARG gene is involved in fat metabolism. And, when activated, PPARG creates fat cells along with absorbing dietary fats from your blood. Regrettably, too much activation of this gene leads to weight gain. In fact, obese people have large amounts of PPARG in their fat tissue. On the other hand, people with no PPARG encoded genes have less fat tissue in their limbs and buttocks. Consequently, to combat PPARG encoded genes and lose weight, you should eat more saturated fats than unsaturated fats.

ADRB2

Adrenoceptor Beta 2 (ADRB2) is an Adrenergic beta-2 receptor gene that codes for a protein which helps breakdown fat. As a result, when the hormone epinephrine is released, epinephrine binds to ADRB2 to release energy by breaking down fat molecules. Therefore, exercising and reducing the amount you eat is a good treatment to fight ADRB2.

FABP2

Fatty Acid Binding Protein 2 (FABP2) is a gene that helps metabolize fats and carbohydrates.

PGC-1-alpha

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) – A high rate of a chemical process called methylation increases metabolism. Above all, methylation adds chemical groups to the genes PGC-1alpha and TFAM (Transcription Factor A, Mitochondrial). As a result, methylation changes the rate in which these genes are converted to proteins and regulating mitochondrial biogenesis in your cells. Consequently, eating efficiently and exercising increases methylation, which in turn increases metabolism.

Role of Genetic Profile

Most of all, your genetic profile has a huge say when you try to lose weight. In fact, some of them are listed below.

Can You Even Lose Weight

First of all, genes that determine if you can even lose weight include FTO, TCF7L2, MTNR1B, PPARG, BDNF, and ABCB11. In fact, large studies have reported that people who participated in exercise and diet programs, lost less weight if their genetic profile included any of these genes when compared to others who did not. In addition, these people were more likely to get back the weight lost when compared with people who did not have these genes.

Control Body Fat Lost by Aerobic Exercises

Next, ADRB2 and LPL genes control body fat loss by aerobic or cardio exercises. Most noteworthy, a large study reported that the amount of fat lost by men was about the same irrespective of the amount of these two genes. On the other hand, depending on their genetic profile, women lost different amounts of fat. In addition, even with significant fat loss, weight loss depended on the genetic profile.

Genes Deciding Efficiency of Processing Carbs

The gene Insulin Receptor Substrate 1 (IRS1) affects a person’s insulin and the reaction to carbohydrates in the diet. In fact, a long term study reported that people with a variant of the IRS1 gene, who ate a high carb, low fat diet consisting of high fiber and whole plant foods had greater insulin sensitivity. As a result, because of low insulin resistance, their bodies needed lower insulin levels to absorb glucose from the blood. In addition, these people experienced greater weight loss when compared with people eating low carb, high fat diet.

Genes Deciding How Body Absorbs Folate

Next, the gene MTHFR has a significant association with a person’s folate or vitamin B9 status. In fact, folate acts as a coenzyme in DNA creation and in energy metabolism. Also, folate has a role in the biochemical processes that affect the metabolism of amino acid and homocysteine. Regrettably, high levels of homocysteine increases risk of heart disease. While low levels of folate causes anemia.

Genes Deciding Efficiency of Processing Proteins

The gene FTO affects body fat mass and BMI. In fact, a large study found that anyone, with FTO variants, lost more weight and body fat if they ate a moderate-to-high protein diet (25% of total daily calories) when compared to a low protein diet (15% of total daily calories). However, they also lost muscle with weight loss.

Genes Deciding if Strength Training is Even Helpful

Genes, that improve a person’s body composition while decreasing fat, because of  strength training include FTO, NRXN3, GPRC5B, GNPDA2, LRRN6C, PRKD1, SLC39A8, FLJ35779, MAP2K5, QPCTL-GIPR, NEGR1, LRP1B, MTCH2, MTIF3, RPL27A, SEC16B, FAIM2, FANCL, ETV5, and TFAP2B. Above all, strength training increases strength and muscle mass while decreasing body fat, thereby, resulting in better body composition. As a result you have a leaner look and able to burn a lot more calories every day. Especially noteworthy, when you are trying to lose weight it is necessary to do strength training, because it increases muscle mass, to make up for muscle mass lost with dieting or aerobic exercises.

Genes Deciding how to React to Fat in Your Diet

Genes that decide how to react to the fat in your diet include PPARG, TCF7L2, APOA5, CRY2, MTNR1B, and PPM1K. In fact, studies show that weight loss depended on the fat content in the diet. Another study reported that people with an unfavorable genetic profile, who ate more fat, were more likely to have more body fat, large waist and high BMR. On the other hand, people with a favorable genetic profile were able to consume greater amounts of fat, but without the higher BMI. Meanwhile, another study reported that people, with unfavorable genetic profile, on a low-calorie diet that was higher in fat, lost less weight.

How Genetic Profile Helps

For example, people with specific genetic profile benefit from high protein diet, lose weight, reduced food cravings, and low appetite. On the other hand, if you don’t have this genetic profile, a high-protein diet won’t help you lose weight. Similarly, other genetic profiles may make you lose weight with a low-fat diet especially low saturated fat diet.

Furthermore, research shows that those with a specific genetic profile may predispose them to eat fried food thereby making them obese. Also, research shows that someone with a variant of the IRS1 gene is more successful at losing weight with a low-fat and high-carb diet as opposed to a high-fat and low-carb diet.

In addition, your genes aren’t the only thing controlling your weight. Indeed, your lifestyle and environment also significantly controls your weight. For example, very active people with an obesity genetic profile have 30 percent lower risk of being obese compared to those who aren’t active. Similarly, adults with an obesity genetic profile who are older are less likely to be obese. On the other hand, younger adults, with an obesity genetic profile, gorging on meals, with sugary drinks and being inactive, are likely to become obese.

Do Genes Help Lose Weight – Study

Paradoxically, studies have shown that genetics can’t explain why some people lose weight on a low-carb diet like Atkins or why others succeed with a low-fat diet.

In fact, Stanford University Medical School researchers published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And, this study consisted of 609 overweight adults equally divided into a low-fat diet or a low-carb diet group. First of all, the low fat diet consisted of less oil, less fatty meats, full-fat dairy, and nuts. While the low-carb diet consisted of eating smaller portions of cereals, grains, rice, starchy vegetables, and legumes.

Moreover, the study lasted a year after which time one group lost 11.7 pounds while the other group lost 13.2 pounds – hardly a significant difference.

Meanwhile, other research indicated that the PPARG, ADRB2, and FABP2 genes metabolize either fats or carbohydrates. Therefore, each group had subgroup with genetic profile metabolizing fats and subgroup with a genetic profile metabolizing carbohydrates.

In fact, this more finely tuned analysis showed no significant weight change. In conclusion, neither genetic profile suited for metabolizing fat or genetic profile suited for metabolizing carbohydrates effect weight change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, though genetic profiles effects our weight, a combination of a healthy diet and exercise has the biggest impact on losing weight and body composition that is characterized by decreased fat and/or increased muscles.

How to Lose Weight – Foods with Strong Aroma

How to Lose Weight – Foods with Strong Aroma

Foods with strong aroma appear to have the potential to help lose weight. In fact, two studies describe two different ways of using aroma to achieve that goal.

Eat Foods with Strong Aroma

Above all, people naturally eat smaller bites of food that isn’t very tasty or food that is not familiar. Therefore, we associate smaller bites with food having low flavor or taste.

In addition, research shows that people take smaller bites when food aroma is strong. Indeed, our unconscious self-regulating mind tells us that because the food has strong aroma, it must be rich with calories. As a consequence, we take smaller bites. In addition, the self-regulating mind subconsciously tells us to take fewer number of bites to feel satiated. As a result, we eat less which, in turn, helps with our weight.

On the other hand, when food has very little or no aroma, our unconscious self-regulating mind tells us the food doesn’t have too many calories. As a consequence, we take bigger bites. In addition, our subconscious mind tells us that since the food likely doesn’t have too many calories, it’s OK to take many bites. As a result, we likely eat more, which, in turn, causes us to put on weight.

In fact, a similar effect occurs with taste. For example, we eat small amounts with each “bite” of a very salty soup. And likely we won’t take too many such “bites” of the soup. On the other hand, if the soup isn’t salty, we eat larger amounts of the soup with each “bite”. And likely we take too many “bites” of the soup.

Incidentally, the “bite” size reduction with salty soup is about 5%. Similarly, the “bite” size is reduced by about 5% for foods with aroma.

Role of Self-Regulation

Indeed, the key here is self-regulation. That you are consciously trying to not overeat. A similar thing happens, when you have a mouth-watering aromatic chocolate cake in front of you. No doubt, you would want to eat the biggest piece of mouth-watering cake. However, your self-regulating mind causes you to take a smaller piece. Then, eat that by further taking small bites while reducing the number of bites.

Or, if you have a low aromatic salad, you associate the low aromatic salad with fewer calories. Consequently, you not only take bigger bites of the salad but you take more of them.

On the other hand, this method does not work for someone whose eating habits are not self-regulated. In fact, you may be just the kind of a person, who, if they see a chocolate cake in front of you, you may eat not one slice, but even two or three slices. And if you have some very tasty and mouth-watering aromatic foods, you are tempted to take bigger bites and more of them.

In conclusion, the method works for anyone who has a self-regulating mind when it comes to food.

 

Smell Foods with Strong Aroma

Meanwhile, a new study reports that breathing the strong aroma of indulging high-calorie foods for more than two minutes satisfies your taste buds and your stomach. And, this reduces the temptation to eat the high calorie indulging food.

So, the next time you come across the strong aroma of indulging food, wait for two minutes or more before deciding on taking a bite. Or if the strong aroma of indulging food doesn’t reach your nostrils, carry a nebulizer with you. And, take a whiff with a nebulizer that gives off the scent of strong aroma indulging food. After waiting for two or more minutes, your desire for the indulging food may disappear.

On the other hand, since non-indulging foods don’t give off as much aroma, they do not affect our rewards system so much. As a result they have less influence on what we eat.

In fact, studies done at a school cafeteria and a supermarket demonstrated these effects. In the study, participants were exposed to the aroma of indulging cookies for more than two minutes as well as lack of aroma from the non-indulging strawberries. As a result the purchases of cookies were lower than the purchases of strawberries. Indeed, the prolonged exposure to the indulging cookies induced pleasure in the brain’s reward system resulting in a diminished desire for the actual eating of the indulging cookies.

On the other hand, when exposure to the aroma of indulging cookies was less than 30 seconds, more cookies were purchased than the strawberries. So, next time you come across strong aromatic indulging foods, soak the aroma for two or more minutes before deciding on eating the indulging food.

How Does it Work

Above all, olfactory fatigue is the common experience of losing sensitivity to smells after prolonged exposure. In fact, your body adapts to the smell. As a consequence, the effects of the smell weakens over time. And, eventually you won’t be able to recognize the smell. After prolonged exposure, olfactory fatigue allows your body to adapt to the smell so as not to overload your nervous system.

For example, smelling a cookie activates smells cells, located at the end of your nasal passage. As a result, the smell cells send chemical messages to the brain. And the brain interprets these messages before relaying them to the mouth. Indeed, this entire process is known as the olfactory referral.

Moreover, the olfactory referral happens with each breath exposing us to the smell. And, our bodies adapt to the smell with continued stimulation. As a consequence the effect of the smell weakens. In fact, our brains are programmed to tell us when smell changes. And not to tell us when things smell the same as they did a few minutes ago.

First of all, retronasal olfaction refers to acquiring smell related information through the back of the mouth. And, orthonasal olfaction refers to acquiring smell related information through the nostrils. In fact, both methods influence flavor. For example, food aroma such as vanilla causes something perceived as sweet, to taste sweeter. And, once you experience the smell of food along with its flavor, the two become associated; thus, smell influences taste and taste influences smell.

So when you smell food aroma for two or more minutes, you get the effect of having tasted it. And having tasted it satiates you. So the desire to actually eat it lessens.

 

How to Avoid Dangers of Prolonged Sitting – Get Up

How to Avoid Dangers of Prolonged Sitting – Get Up

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Advances in automation and technology has changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. One of the consequences of these advances, has been that people spend more time sitting at home and work. In fact, millions of people spend nearly 8 hours a day sitting while at work. And, while sitting is definitely more comfortable, prolonged sitting is detrimental to your health.

Furthermore, studies show Americans spend an average of six to eight hours every day sitting in their free time. And, during that time, they are either resting, watching television, playing video games, listening to music, reading a book or working on computer while sitting.

Moreover, a 2018 survey of 5,900 adults, reported that nearly 26 percent, of those responding, sat for more than eight hours a day. While, another 45 percent, of those responding, didn’t get any moderate or vigorous exercise. Finally, nearly 11 percent were not only physically inactive but also sitting for more than eight hours a day.

Effects of Sitting Too Much – Metabolic Consequences

1. Sitting too much causes your large leg muscles to become inactive. Regrettably, this inactivity has harmful metabolic consequences.
2. Most of all, sitting too much affects your metabolism, interferes with healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Indeed, research shows that sitting too much causes obesity, high blood sugar, increased blood pressure, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels. Moreover, all of these conditions make up what is known as metabolic syndrome.

Effects of Too Much Sitting on Blood Circulation

1. Slows down blood flow causing blood to pool in the legs and feet, leading to varicose veins, swollen ankles, or even dangerous blood clots.
2. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is caused by dangerous blood clots in the large veins of your legs. Sometimes, pieces of these clots break away from the clot itself and get into the narrow blood vessels of the lungs.
3. Sitting too much causes blood to pool in veins of the legs – resulting in increased pressure within the veins. As a result the veins stretch, which weakens the walls of the veins and damage the veins. Symptoms of varicose veins include changes in skin color, sores, rash or a burning sensation in the legs.
4. Causes brain fatigue. Indeed, uninterrupted sitting increases fatigue. Which, in turn, decreases heart rate.

Effects of Sitting Too Much – Weight & Obesity

1. Most of all, Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme that breaks down fat so that it can be used as energy. But when LPL activity decreases, the body’s ability to burn fat suffers. As a result, the body uses carbohydrates for fuel, which in turn causes fat stores to increase. Paradoxically the body continues to gain fat even while consuming a low-calorie diet.
2. Causes you to become obese. Indeed a study showed that being immobile makes you gain weight, while moving frequently helps prevent it.

Effects of Sitting Too Much – Muscles

1. Most noteworthy, muscles need to be used to become pliable. Regrettably, when muscles are locked in sitting position for long periods of time they get stiff. In addition, prolonged sitting weakens muscles in the midsection, glutes, and legs.  Consequently, you are risking injury because your lower body has difficulty holding you up when you are sitting down. In addition, your lower body has difficulty keeping you stable when you are walking.
2. Above all, prolonged sitting and slouching causes your neck and shoulders to curve and stiffen. As a result, your spine loses its flexibility as it absorbs pressure, and your pelvis rotates the wrong way.
3. When you sit for too long, it is difficult to maintain good posture. You start to slouch and slump as you re-position yourself to be comfortable. Before too long, this slouching at the desk affects your posture when you stand or walk. Poor posture is very unattractive, painful and messes up your spine.
4. Weight gain and poor posture while sitting too long causes your muscles in the back and neck to tense up and soon you have serious aches and pain throughout your shoulders, neck, back, hips, and legs.
5. Most of all, when you are sitting, your gluteus muscles are at rest and doing nothing but cushioning you. As these muscles lose their tone, you may have difficulty maintaining good balance.
6. Moreover, long periods of sitting day in and day out, causes your muscles to pull the nerves around them. As a result your nerves get pinched and you feel pain in the shoulders and lower back.
   

   Good and Bad Posture

Effects of Prolonged Sitting on Diseases

1. Above all, older people sitting for long periods of time are at risk of getting osteoporosis. Therefore older people need to increase their physical activity, because physical activity helps regulate bone maintenance, stimulate bone formation, and accumulation of minerals.
2. Also, research shows that sitting and inactivity increases risk of dementia.
3. Moreover, research suggests that excessive sitting has harmful effects on sugar and fat metabolism, which in turn increases risk of heart disease.
4. Above all, when muscles are inactive they burn less fat. Therefore, a combination of slower blood flow and less fat being burned by muscles, means fatty acids have an easier time to clog your heart. Indeed, research in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported that women sitting more than 10 hours a day have a much greater risk of developing heart disease than those sitting five hours or less.
5. Furthermore, a study shows that cells in muscles that don’t move much don’t need much sugar or glucose. As a result, these cells don’t respond well to the insulin sent by the pancreas via the blood. Consequently, the pancreas make more and more insulin and this leads to diabetes. In fact, research published in Diabetologia reported that those who sat for the longest period of time were twice more likely to have diabetes compared with those who sat the least. Furthermore, sitting for more than 8 hours a day has been associated with a 90 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
   

   Person with diabetes

Effects of Prolonged Sitting – Cancer

Most noteworthy, a Journal of the National Cancer Institute study of 4 million individuals and 68,936 cancer patients found that long periods of sitting, increases risk of colon, endometrial, and possibly lung cancer. Furthermore, the research reported that even among healthy, active people, the risk of getting cancer increases with each two hour increases in sitting time. Presumably, the increased risk may be due to excess insulin production, which encourages cell growth. Also the lack of movement decreases antioxidants in your body. Which in turn hinders the elimination of cancer-causing free radicals. In fact, excessive sitting increases lung cancer by 54 percent, uterine cancer by 66 percent, colon cancer by 30 percent.

Effects of Prolonged Sitting on Mental Health

1. A study of 3,367 government employees found that those sitting over 6 hours a day reported symptoms of anxiety and depression when compared with those sitting less than 3 hours a day.
2. Another study of 9,000 middle-aged women, in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that women sitting for more than seven hours a day were 47 percent more likely to suffer from depression than women sitting four hours or less.

Effects on Longevity

1. Most noteworthy, a study reported that reducing the average time spent sitting to less than three hours a day increases your life expectancy by two years.
2. An Australian study reported that people watching an average of six hours of TV a day lived an average 4.8 years fewer than those who didn’t watch any TV. Furthermore, every hour of TV that participants watched after age 25 was associated with an additional 22 minute reduction in their life expectancy.
3. Meanwhile, thirteen studies on sitting time and activity levels found that those who daily sat eight hours or more, without any physical activity, had a risk of dying which was the same as that from obesity or smoking.
4. Finally, another study reported sitting time contributed little to the mortality of very active people.

Effects on Mortality

1. Most noteworthy, a survey of 125,000 adults by the American Cancer Society found that adults who sat six or more hours a day were 19 percent more likely to die over the next 21 years when compared to adults who spent less time on the couch or at a desk after the workday is over. Indeed, the risks of dying were significantly higher for 14 of 22 specific causes of death. And, these 14 causes were: Alzheimer’s, suicide, kidney disease, COPD (such as emphysema), nervous disorders, Parkinson’s disease, peptic ulcer and other digestive disease, stroke, liver disease, pneumonitis, diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, and musculoskeletal disorders. Regrettably, over the next 21 years, 48,000 people who responded to the survey died.
2. Meanwhile, another study followed 8,000 American adults, over the age of 45, from 2009 to 2017. Above all, the study monitored physical activities of these adults between 2009 and 2013 and their deaths through 2017. Most noteworthy, the study found that adults, who replaced 30 minutes of sitting each day with low-intensity physical activity, had their risk of early death decrease by 17 percent. Also, adults, who replaced 30 minutes of sitting each day with moderate-to-vigorous exercise, saw their risk of early death decrease by 35 percent. Especially relevant, the higher risk of death holds even when people say they are trying to exercise. Regrettably, the recommended 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily does not eliminate risk from sitting during the remaining part of the day.
3. Regrettably, over the last 25 years, one of the leading causes of premature death in the United States has been the lack of physical activity. Furthermore, ten percent of early deaths in the United States were from being inactive.

Other Effects

1. Above all, being in front of the computer all day limits sun exposure. Consequently, since your body doesn’t get enough vitamin D from the sun, you have eat foods that contain vitamin D.
2. Finally, lack of activity reduces your endurance levels and cardio health within two weeks of inactivity. And studies show that the amount of oxygen people take in falls rapidly after not training for a month.

Remedies

Above all, remedies to offset the effects of prolonged sitting include the following.

1. Firstly, take a break every 30 minutes and walk around so that you can stretch your legs and clear your head.
2. Or, if a break is impossible, just stand up and move around for a minute or two.
3. Next, stand while you are talking on the phone or watching television at home
4. Also, verify that you will be comfortable working at a desk where you have to stand
5. Incidentally, check if you can use a desk exercise machine for your legs.
   

   Exercising your feet while sitting at a desk

6. Next, data from a million people showed 60 to 75 minutes of moderately intense physical activity negated effects of prolonged sitting
7. Meanwhile, walk across the hall to talk to a coworker instead of sending an email
8. And while an elevator may happen to be convenient, take the stairs instead
9. Incidentally, park your car as far away from the entrance as you are comfortable
10. In the same way, walk to your desk using a longer route from wherever you happen to be

Stack Sitting

Stack sitting is a technique to prevent your back from hurting. Most of all, stack sitting is used in the absence of a backrest. Above all, as you sit, stack the bones of your spine, from top to bottom in a single column to support your head without using any muscles. Moreover, the video shows how to do stack sitting.

Stretch Sitting

Similarly, stretch sitting is also a technique to prevent your back from hurting. First and foremost, sit back in a chair and curve your body forward from your waist, to elongate your back. Next, press your elongated spine against the back of the chair. Meanwhile, the video shows how to do stretch sitting.

Recommended Guidelines for Physical Activity

Meanwhile, the United States Department of Health and Human Services publishes physical activity guidelines and recommendations for Americans. And these guidelines recommend that, each week, Americans do either 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activities or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activities.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health’s Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute also publishes guidelines on physical activities. And, in fact, these guidelines provide examples of physical activities that you can do around the house. Finally, these guidelines also describe physical activities that are moderately intense.

How Good Sleeping Practices Delay Alzheimer’s Effects

How Good Sleeping Practices Delay Alzheimer’s Effects

First and foremost, dementia is a general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Furthermore, Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia. In fact, Alzheimer’s accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Most of all, alzheimer’s effects worsens over time. It is a progressive disease, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over a number of years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but with late-stage Alzheimer’s, individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment.

 

Especially relevant, Alzheimer’s effects include poor sleep.

Also, nearly 10% of Americans age 65 and older and one-third of Americans age 85 and older have Alzheimer’s. Furthermore, of those with Alzheimer’s, 81 percent are age 75 or older.

Alzheimer’s Effects – Protein tau

First and foremost, in one study, scientists studied 119 adults aged 60 and older. Also, 80% of these adults had no thinking or memory problems. While, the others had only mild thinking or memory problems.

In any case, among these adults, the study found that adults with reduced slow-wave sleep (also known as deep sleep) or poor sleep had higher levels of the brain protein tau. Incidentally, these elevated levels of tau are one of Alzheimer’s effects. Moreover, brain damage and mental decline caused these elevated tau levels.

Hence, Alzheimer’s effects include poor sleep or reduced slow wave sleep in older adults. So, poor sleep is a warning sign for the presence of Alzheimer’s.

Observational Studies of Alzheimer’s Effects – Amyloid Plaques

First of all, observational studies also found reduced slow-wave sleep as a common factor among adults, over age 65, who had amyloid beta plaques in their brain. In fact, amyloid beta plaques in the brain, are a physical sign of Alzheimer’s effects. Yet these adults did not show signs of Alzheimer’s effects, such as memory loss and cognitive decline.

Incidentally, slow-wave sleep (which is part of deep sleep phase) consolidates your memories. As a result, reduced slow-wave sleep hurts the memory consolidation process.

Especially relevant, amyloid beta proteins accumulate in the brain every day. Also, amyloid beta proteins are thought to be a waste product from the energy used by brain cells to communicate with each other. However, your brain sweeps out the excess amyloid beta proteins every night during slow-wave sleep.

Regrettably, some studies suggest that, interrupted slow-wave sleep causes build up of amyloid beta proteins to form plaque in brain tissue. Incidentally, scientists believe, this sign of Alzheimer’s effects, is also the first stage in the development of Alzheimer’s. Indeed, plaque can build up two decades before symptoms of memory loss and confusion appear.

PET Scans of Alzheimer’s Effects – Amyloid Beta Levels

Meanwhile, a 2015 study in Nature Neuroscience imaged the brains of 26 adults, between the ages of 65 to 81. Also, these adults had not been diagnosed with dementia and did not report any sleep problems. First, PET scans on the adults measured their brain’s amyloid beta levels. Then they were asked to memorize 120 pairs of words and tested on how well they remembered a portion of them.

The adults then slept for eight hours. During this time their brain waves were measured. And these brain waves searched for sleep disruptions, as well as to find out if they woke up during the slow-wave phase. The next morning, as they tried to recall the memorized words, their brains were scanned again.

Over all, adults with the highest amyloid beta levels in their brain had the poorest quality of sleep. Moreover these adults performed worst on the memory test. In fact, some forgot more than half of the words. In conclusion, then, improving the quality of your sleep results in the brain’s lowest amyloid beta levels.

Also, the high amyloid beta levels still remaining in the brain after sleep, likely turns to plaques. Therefore, these high residual amyloid beta levels are another growing sign of Alzheimer’s effects.

Role of Sleep

Lastly, 119 people aged 60 and over participated in a study to discover how sleep causes Alzheimer’s effects. Therefore, researchers related the participants measured brain waves, amyloid beta and tau levels with sleep. And, researchers found that decreased slow-wave sleep coincided with higher levels of tau in the brain along with a higher tau-to-amyloid ratio in the cerebrospinal fluid. Moreover, total sleep wasn’t a factor. In fact, people with high tau levels were sleeping longer, even taking afternoon naps, but they weren’t getting enough slow-wave sleep.

Conclusion

In the meantime, other studies report that aerobic exercise helps you get better sleep quality. Also, because overweight people tend to have more sleep problems, it’s important to lose weight.

In conclusion, exercising, losing weight, and practicing good sleeping habits helps you improve your sleep. Which in turn protects you from both amyloid beta plaques as well as tau proteins, both of which are growing signs of Alzheimer’s effects. In addition, good sleeping habits, like sleeping 8 hours every day, also protects you from all the other bad consequences.

Be on the Lookout for these Sleep Loss Symptoms

Be on the Lookout for these Sleep Loss Symptoms

Regrettably, sleeping less than 6 hours or a disturbed sleep where you were awake off and on during the night, has detrimental effects on your body. Therefore, it’s important for you to take recovery action the following day. However, to make that decision, it is useful for you to be able to recognize your sleep loss symptoms.

The Body’s Sleep Loss Symptoms

First and foremost, your body’s signs are listed below.

1. First, you may see signs of acne. In fact, sleep loss along with sweat and stress triggers acne.
2. Also, you may get a headache
3. Or, you may have puffy eyes & dark circles. Indeed, a study of 200 women with puffy eyes & dark circles, reported 40 percent were sleep deprived.
4. Next, you may see weight gain. In fact, sleep loss imbalances your hormones causing you to feel hungry. In addition, your body becomes less sensitive to insulin causing your blood sugar to rise.
5. Or, everything hurts. Indeed, sleep loss increases inflammation in the body, which in turn increases pain.
6. And you may feel like you have a cold
7. Lastly, you may feel fatigued

Cognitive

Next, your cognitive related sleep loss symptoms are listed below.

1. First, you may have reduced alertness
2. Or, a shortened attention span
3. Or, reduced awareness of the environment and situation
4. Also, you may be unable to concentrate.
5. Or, your decision-making skills are suffering
6. Or, you may feel disoriented
7. On the other hand, you may act impulsively. Indeed, you need a certain type of energy to make good decisions. And sleep loss drains energy, thereby resulting in poor impulsive decisions.
8. And you may show poor judgement
9. Also, studies show you may have difficulty reading emotions in other people. As a result, you may not be able to react to threatening situations.
10. Next you may suffer from the sleep loss symptom of low motivation
11. And poor memory. In fact, procedural memory, used in learning new tasks, is associated with REM sleep. And declarative memory, used to recall an event or fact, is associated with non-REM sleep. As a result, sleep loss that affects REM and non-REM sleep, seriously interferes with your memory.
12. Also, you may make a mistake by forgetting to do something
13. Or you may do something, but choose the wrong option
14. Next, you may fixate yourself on one thought
15. Too, you may have difficulty learning new concepts
16. Also, you may suffer from blurred vision or vision problems. Moreover, sleep loss can harm your visual working memory. Indeed, this is your brain’s ability to store pieces of visual information while at the same time filter out what you don’t need.
17. Regrettably, you may become forgetful
18. Or you may display impaired motor skills
19. Or you may become clumsy or get butterfingers. In fact, sleep loss makes it hard to keep your fine motor skills in tune.
20. Finally, you may show slower than normal reaction time

Food

Next, your food related sleep loss symptoms are listed below.

1. First, you may see an increased appetite and carbohydrate cravings
2. Second, you may crave for salt, sugar, or junk food
3. Finally, you may sip more caffeine

Sleep

Also, your sleep related symptoms are listed below.

1. First, you may sleep through alarms
2. Or you may go back to sleep
3. Or you may groggy when waking in the morning
4. Also, you may, unintentionally, fall asleep
5. Or you may show a tendency to doze off when not active for a while; for example, when watching television
6. Or you may feel sleepy or  groggy all day long
7. Regrettably, you may start nodding off while driving. In fact, an estimated 5,000 people died in 2015 in crashes involving drowsy driving, according to a Governors Highway Safety Association report. In addition, according to the American Sleep Foundation, about half of U.S. adult drivers admit to consistently getting behind the wheel while feeling drowsy. And, about 20% admit to falling asleep behind the wheel at some point in the past year.
8. Finally, you may be yawning frequently

Mood

And, your mood related sleep loss symptoms are listed below.

1. First you may be in a depressed mood
2. Or, you may suffer from moodiness
3. Or, you may be feeling down
4. Regrettably, you may become irritable
5. Finally, you may display a bad temper

Other Sleep Loss Symptoms

Finally, the other signs of sleep loss.

1. First, you may experience a reduced sex drive. In fact, REM sleep helps produce testosterone. So, REM sleep shorted by sleep loss, decreases testosterone levels, which, in turn, reduces your sex drive.
2. Or feel stressed
3. Also, you may become cranky
4. Too, you may suffer from paranoia
5. Or, hallucinations
6. Finally, your work efficiency suffers.

Sleep Loss Induced Diabetes – Best Proven Way to Win

Sleep Loss Induced Diabetes – Best Proven Way to Win

First and foremost, sleep loss increases the risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Most of all, more than a third of Americans routinely suffer from sleep loss because they don’t sleep the recommended 7 to 8 hours.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2017 reported that more than 100 million Americans either have diabetes or are prediabetes. Also, the CDC reports that nearly 1 in 4 Americans with diabetes don’t know they have it. And lastly almost 90 percent of prediabetes Americans aren’t aware of their condition.

What is Diabetes

When your body causes blood glucose (sugar) levels to rise higher than normal, you have diabetes (or hyperglycemia). Also, type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.

What is Insulin

First and foremost, the pancreas produce the hormone insulin. Also, insulin enables cells in tissues and muscles to absorb glucose from blood in circulation.  Most of all, tissues and muscles use the glucose to generate energy.

Regrettably, cells can become resistant to insulin. As a result, the cells are less able to absorb the glucose in the blood. And, this is called insulin resistance. As a consequence, the pancreas make extra insulin.

But, if this continues for a long time, the pancreas aren’t able to make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose levels normal. As a result your blood glucose levels rise. And you have what is called type 2 diabetes.

On the other hand, sometimes the pancreas stop producing enough insulin. And because there isn’t enough insulin, cells can’t absorb enough of the blood glucose. Which also results in blood glucose levels to stay high.

In conclusion, Type 2 diabetes develops, if over time, blood glucose levels continue to stay high, cells continue to stay resistant to insulin, or the pancreas stop producing enough insulin.

Role of Sleep Loss

Regrettably, one side effect of frequent sleep loss episodes is the potential for development of type 2 diabetes. Moreover, when you aren’t able to sleep 8 hours frequently your body suffers.

Circadian Rhythm

Persistent sleep loss affects the circadian rhythm. In fact, disruptions to the circadian clock reduces the effectiveness of insulin and over time contributes to insulin resistance.

Moreover, the latest research indicates that insulin also operates on a daily cycle. And the circadian clock controls this cycle by changing the timing of production and release of insulin by the pancreas. In addition, there are times of the day when cells are more sensitive and less sensitive to insulin.

Pancreas

Sleep loss also appears to affect the health of cells in the pancreas. In fact, sleep loss creates stress in pancreatic cells and also disrupts blood glucose levels.

Insulin

Most noteworthy, Stage 3 of the sleep cycle, also known as deep sleep or slow-wave sleep, is important for the body to be able to use insulin for regulating blood glycose or sugar.

And, research shows that sleep loss and poor-quality sleep:

1. First of all, decreases insulin sensitivity, which means your body has a harder time using the insulin
2. Also decreases the speed and effectiveness of the body to remove glucose from the bloodstream.

Studies Relating Sleep Loss to Diabetes

First of all, a study of 54,000 adults, reported that those who slept less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours are significantly more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

In addition, a meta-analysis of 11 studies reported that the risk of type 2 diabetes goes up as sleep loss increases as well as when they sleep become longer than 9 hours. In fact, the risk of getting type 2 diabetes was least with regular 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

Finally, four large studies reported a strong relationship between frequent sleep loss and risk of developing diabetes.

Above all, studies show that those who suffer from frequent sleep loss take up to 40% longer to properly regulate blood sugar after a high-carb meal. As a result, over time, the pancreas are subjected to added stress. And this can lead to type 2 diabetes.

What You Can Do

Existing Type 2 Diabetes – Combination of Aerobic & Resistance Workouts

Most of all, if you suffer from frequent sleep loss, you can exercise. In fact, a study reported that combining aerobic workout with resistance training improved glycemic levels in people with type 2 diabetes. Moreover, the study reported that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training had better results that each workout on its own.

Not Diagnosed With Diabetes – Combination of Aerobic & Resistance Workouts

Following up on the combination concept, another study looked at the effect on potentially preventing or at least delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes caused by frequent sleep loss episodes. So, the study, in the Journal of Diabetes Investigations, reported that the combination resulted in at least delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Description

Meanwhile, the study involved 10,680 Japanese women with an average age of 57.8 years. Also, these women had a mean BMI of 23.2 kg/m². And these women participated in an exercise program with 24 minutes of combined aerobic workout and resistance training followed by 6 minutes of stretching.

In addition, the women were grouped into four categories, depending on the number of exercise sessions they attended over a 5 month period.

1. First of all, category 1 consisted of women who attended 67 to 125 sessions
2. Next, category 2 consisted of women who attended 55 to 66 sessions
3. Next, category 3 consisted of women who attended 42 to 54 sessions
4. Finally, category 4 consisted of women who attended 1 to 41 sessions

Results

And, the study reported that women in category 1 had the lowest risk of getting diabetes. Next, women in category 2 also had low risk of getting diabetes. Finally, women in category 3 had about the same risk of getting type 2 diabetes as the women in category 4.

Most noteworthy, researchers found a negative linear relationship between number of sessions and risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Moreover, this negative linear relationship applied to women in all four categories. Which means that the more they worked out, the lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Furthermore, in each category, researchers found that women with lower BMI had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women with higher BMI.

Conclusion

Above all,  resistance training increased skeletal muscle mass. And, the aerobic workouts used those larger muscle mass to absorb and convert to energy, more blood glucose. As a result, blood glucose levels fell and more fat was burned.

In conclusion, going on an aerobic workout combined with resistance training program is a good way to counteract the downsides from sleep loss. Moreover, the workout program may help make sleep loss less frequent.

Surprising Way Intense Workout Helps You Look Good

Surprising Way Intense Workout Helps You Look Good

Belly fat, along with fat elsewhere in the body, is a source of energy for your intense workout. So, the more you exercise the more belly fat burned. And, more intense workout similarly causes more belly fat to burn. Meanwhile, a signaling molecule called interleukin-6, also known as IL-6, causes the transfer of energy from belly fat to exercising muscles, needing the energy, during an intense workout.

Belly Fat

First and foremost, visceral fat surrounds the abdominal cavity’s internal organs. Regrettably, visceral fat is really bad for you because it is responsible for cardio-metabolic diseases, cancer, dementia, and mortality. Also, visceral fat accumulates around your mid-section – resulting in an apple shaped body.

Energy Flow

First and foremost, contracting skeletal muscles, during an intense workout, produces IL-6. Next, IL-6 enters the blood stream. Next, the liver and the white adipose tissue absorb IL-6 from the blood stream.

Upon entering the liver, IL-6 triggers conversion of glycogen to glucose. Next, the blood stream absorbs the glucose. Furthermore, the blood stream transports and releases the glucose to the starving exercising muscles.

Also, IL-6 receptors, on the white adipose tissue cells, capture IL-6 in the blood stream. And this triggers the hydrolysis of triacylglycerol. As a result, the adipose tissue cells release energy-rich free fatty acids and glycerol — a process known as lipolysis. Next, the blood stream absorbs the free fatty acids. And the blood stream transports and delivers them to the exercising muscles where they provide energy.

Exercise and IL-6

Above all, the amount of IL-6 produced depends directly on the intensity, duration and mode of the exercise. For instance, an intense workout like rowing, doubles the amount of IL-6 in plasma relatively quickly. On the other hand, with an endurance aerobic workout, like long distance running, the IL-6 doesn’t peak until later.

In addition, the amount of IL-6 produced is inversely related to the glycogen levels in contracting muscles. So, the glycogen starved muscles release huge amounts of IL-6. On the other hand, glycogen rich muscles release very little IL-6. Most of all, a huge and immediate release of IL-6 occurs when you exercise for a long time and/or you have an intense workout.

Aerobic Exercise

For instance, levels of IL-6 in blood are significantly enhanced after 30 min on a treadmill, with peak levels occurring after 2.5 hours on the treadmill. Other studies didn’t measure IL-6 levels while running but at several times after running stopped. These studies reported the highest IL-6 levels immediately after the running stopped. This was, then, followed by a rapid decline.

Strength Training Exercise

Most noteworthy, the kinetics of the IL-6 response differs in strength training exercises such as concentric and eccentric exercises. First of all, a concentric exercise is one where contractions shorten the muscle, while eccentric exercise is one where the contractions lengthen the muscle.

In most exercises, the targeted muscle is working to perform the action. And the muscle does the work by shortening itself – known as concentric focused action. While during the return the targeted muscle relaxes. And the muscle does so by returning to its original length – known as eccentric focused action.

For example, in an intense workout like the biceps curl, the concentric portion occurs when you bend your elbow and bring the weight toward your shoulders. And the muscles do this by shortening themselves. While the return is eccentric focused because when you relax your muscles, they lengthen to go back to their previous length.

Concentric Exercise and IL-6

So, when you do concentric exercises, the increase in IL-6 is related to the duration of the exercise. Most noteworthy, there is logarithmic relationship between the increase in IL-6 and duration of the exercise. And, IL-6 levels decline after completion of the concentric exercise to reach original levels within a few hours.

Eccentric Exercise and IL-6

On the other hand, eccentric exercises cause only a modest increases in IL-6 levels. And the IL-6 levels peak at some time after the exercise ends. However, IL-6 levels stay elevated for several days after.

Demonstration

This role of IL-6 was recently demonstrated with obese adults doing an intense workout. In fact, exercise bikes were used, in the intense workout, to burn fat. As a result, these adults saw a decrease in their visceral abdominal fat. Above all, the demonstration clearly showed that IL-6 played a key role in the loss of visceral abdominal fat.

In fact, the before and after amounts of visceral fat was measured using magnetic resonance imaging techniques. And, a noticeable loss of visceral fat was measured. Regrettably, using a weight scale to measure body weight changes would lead to invalid results. This is because exercising increases muscle mass while also decreasing body fat. So a better approach to measuring visceral fat is to use a tape to measure waist circumference.

Takeaway

So what’s the takeaway.

First, it’s not any particular exercise that’s important but whether you get an intense workout doing the exercise. In fact, an intense workout is one where you sweat during the workout. Because if you don’t break a sweat, the intensity of the workout is low. Which means the body is expending little energy during the workout. And while you will burn some fat, the amount burned would be very little.

So what kind of exercises qualify? Most of us can easily name running, bicycling, fast walking, rowing, or paying tennis. But there are many others that may not be obvious because it’s not clear you can do them with intensity. For example, strength training with weights lower than your maximum, especially if you go through your workout fast enough to feel your muscles getting tired. While, on the flip side, even running wouldn’t qualify for an intensive workout, if you only do a leisurely jog that doesn’t even cause you to breathe much quicker than your normal rate.

By the same token, you also have to exercise for a sufficiently long duration. For example, because your muscles can’t take it anymore, you may finish your particular weight workout quickly. So if that happens, do a weight workout using different muscles. And, because you are doing several such workouts in sequence, you are effectively doing an intense workout over a long period of time.

Now, going back to the example of jogging. You can make up for your slow jog by jogging for a long period of time. For instance, jogging for at least one hour, would definitely tire you out, meaning you expended a lot of your energy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it’s not enough to only workout. Indeed, to successfully lose belly fat, it’s necessary to also change your diet so that you don’t eat back the fat you lost by your workouts.

14 Ways Strength Training Benefits Your Body

14 Ways Strength Training Benefits Your Body

Resistance exercise is any form of exercise that forces your skeletal muscles (not the involuntary muscles of your heart, lungs, etc.) to contract. Furthermore, benefits of resistance exercise, sometimes referred to as strength training, includes building and maintaining your muscles. As a result, you look strong. Most noteworthy, strength training or resistance exercise also includes working with weights. And working with weights results in faster muscle development and growth.

 

Benefits of Resistance Exercise

Benefits of resistance exercise (strength training) include:

1. First of all, working with weights is likely the only exercise where you can quickly see outlines of your growing muscles
2. Secondly, you actually feel the positive effect of all that strength training on your body
3. Thirdly, the strength that you feel in your body, makes you feel like you can do anything
4. As a result, your self-esteem improves because you sense yourself getting stronger
5. And, when you get sore after a workout, you believe that the soreness is a sign that you are getting stronger
6. Moreover, you are totally focused on strength training. All other thoughts disappear.
7. Also, the strength that you feel in your body takes the focus away from any obsession you had with your weight
8. Next, symptoms of both anxiety and depression are reduced
9. And resistance exercise improves sleep
10. Furthermore, stress is reduced
11. In addition, executive functions are improved. These functions include focusing on complex tasks, organizing, thinking abstractly, and planning for future events.
12. Also, memory and working memory improves
13. Most noteworthy, increased muscle strength improves brain function in adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
14. Finally, bigger muscle mass translates to reduced fat in your body

Conclusion

In conclusion, the many benefits of resistance exercise or strength training drives many to develop muscles, which in turn significantly helps their bodies become healthier and stronger.

Get Healthy Body Using Treadmill for Cardio

Rapid Fat Loss Best to get Body Good and Healthy

Rapid Fat Loss Best to get Body Good and Healthy

First of all, fat burning is part of day-to-day activities and especially while exercising. Consequently, increasing fat burning results in rapid fat loss.

Rapid Fat Loss

First of all rapid fat loss occurs when fat burning is in full swing. Also, fat burning is essentially oxidation of triglycerides. And, triglycerides are formed by combining glycerol with three fatty acid molecules. Furthermore, the three fatty acid molecules produce energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate.

Most noteworthy, triglycerides make up fat cells.  Also, the fat cells are located in the adipose tissue, commonly known as body fat.  In fact, the adipose tissue’s role is to store fat.  And, the adipose tissue is all over the body, including under the skin and wrapped around internal organs.

Energy Sources

Most of all, during exercise, the body needs energy.  Also, initially it gets it from glucose in the blood.  And, then, the body gets energy from the triglycerides in the fat cells.  Furthermore, triglycerides oxidized by oxygen deliver energy. And, the triglycerides get this oxygen from the blood stream  Also, oxidation releases three fatty acids, which are energy sources.

Energy Production Causing Rapid Fat Loss

First of all, the lungs inhale oxygen. Then the oxygen is transferred to red blood cells in the blood stream.  And, the oxygen rich red blood cells deliver oxygen to the triglycerides. Furthermore, the by-product of triglyceride oxidation is carbon dioxide and water. Consequently, the carbon dioxide and water enter the blood stream.  Then, the carbon dioxide leaves the blood stream and enter the lungs. And the lungs exhale the carbon dioxide.  Finally, the water in the blood stream leaves the body through the kidneys, intestines and skin pores (as sweat).

Most noteworthy, researchers from the University of New South Wales, in Australia, noticed rapid fat loss in the form of reduced weight. In fact, the majority of fat left the body as carbon dioxide.  In addition, they found that oxidation of 22 pounds of human fat needs 64 pounds of oxygen. And the lungs inhale this oxygen. Consequently, oxidation produces 62 pounds of carbon dioxide and 24 pounds of water.

Furthermore, the infographic below illustrates the process.  Most noteworthy, the infographic illustrates amount of fat burned by 50 year old, 5’ 8” male and female joggers in one hour.

Conclusion

In conclusion, faster oxidation causes rapid fat loss. And this occurs when you inhale deeply and rapidly.  Finally, this occurs when you are doing aerobic exercises such as jogging, running, swimming, cycling, elliptical trainers, etc.