The question about diets is a very controversial now. On the one hand we should distinguish medical diets and diets for weight loss. Medical diets are really helpful. They are created by specialists and are prescribed to people according to their diseases. A doctor, for example, can create a unique diet for any particular case. Moreover, cheap vitamins that can be found in many online stores are to be intaken very carefully.

On the other hand popular diets which we can find in the Internet or in magazines are not useful at all. If you have strong will strength you can achieve a result but to keep it you should always follow a diet with different supplements, like, for instance, Advanced Memory Formula which is not easy for most people. Secondly, if a diet is not under control it can even become dangerous for physical and mental health.

New research presented at an international conference has suggested that men and women prefer different foods, with men more likely to say they prefer meat while women more likely to say they prefer fruits and vegetables.

The findings were presented yesterday, 19th March, at the 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and are the result of a population survey by the Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet).

The survey, which took place from May 2006 to April 2007, asked over 14,000 adult American men and women questions about their eating habits, including foods at high risk of foodborne illnesses.

The investigators had such a rich and varied amount of data they thought it might be interesting to see if there were any gender differences among the responses.

Lead researcher Beletshachew Shiferaw said they were aware of some studies into the differences in eating habits between men and women but none as extensive as this one.

The results showed that:
Men were more likely to report eating meat and poultry, especially duck, veal and ham.

Men were also more likely to report eating shellfish, such as shrimp and oysters.

Women were more likely to report eating vegetables and fruits, especially carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and apples.

Women were more likely to report eating dried foods such as almonds and walnuts.

And women were also more likely to report eating eggs and yogurt, compared to men.

There were some exceptions to the apparent trend: for instance men were significantly more likely to report eating asparagus and brussel sprouts while women were more likely to report eating fresh hamburgers (as opposed to frozen, which men preferred more than women).

When it came to risky foods (ie those more likely to carry foodborne illnesses), men were significantly more likely to eat undercooked hamburger and runny eggs while women were more likely to eat alfalfa sprouts.
Setting the obvious curiosity factor aside, an important reason for this investigation was to help develop and target public awareness raising and prevention campaigns more effectively, explained Shiferaw:

“The reason we looked at consumption and risky behaviors was to see if there was a statistically significant difference between men and women and if there is this information could be used by health educators to target interventions.”

The ICEID conference was organized by the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the American Society for Microbiology, the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the World Health Organization.

Sources: American Society for Microbiology

People have always believed in magic and spiritual healing. That is inseparable from our human nature to believe in something and to attribute to somebody or something miraculous properties. Anyway, regardless of the advancements in modern medicine and treatments, alternative medicine is still alive and natural herbs as well as different other things and liquids, like, for instance miracle water are used by millions of people on the Earth.

We are not going to discuss the truthfulness of such products and we are not going to doubt its medical and healing properties as everyone decides for him/herself what to believe in. Alternative medicine is practically like Religion - you can’t prove that better results are reached by using this or that stuff, like the energized water that protects against evil eye or
miracle water that attracts money and wealth.

Some people believe that water, wood, stones and other stuff can be energized and possess healing properties. Well, we can’t but agree with them, at least partially as, for example, stones have strong magnetic and other physical qualities as well as water can be either ionizable or not.

Nowadays people are more stick to the Internet than reading simple real newspapers or magazines that can be obtained at the nearest corner. Online information is updated fast and you do not have to pay for it - hundreds of papers and journals are absolutely free and you can even search the archive of popular papers and magazines, like, for instance, health and fitness magazine or IT and technology magazines.

Recently I’ve found an interesting press-release of the famous Russian health magazine for immigrants in the United States and Canada issued by Jacob Bogatin:
“The Health Magazine has opened a new rubric called “I want to feel and look young”. This section helps people shape a new and emerging healthy life style. It provides readers with information about healthy diets, nutrition, and exercising, which helps and encourages them to look and feel better, but the main idea of this section is to place in the readers mind that there is a future whether you are 17 or 70.”

An interesting review, huh? May be it is worth trying to get a copy.

Mnap radiology medical center started to assist the first clients in the year of 2004. This was the beginning of labs development together with outpatient radiology opportunities. The center began to provide its patients with the latest cutting edge technological development as an Intense Modulated Radiation Therapy. This technology has helped thousands of patients who received personal care and treatment.

MNAP is a unique radiation oncology Philadelphia clinic that provides a great number of cancer treatment techniques and has a dedicated team of medical specialists in nuclear medicine. The board of doctors are qualified experts in the field of fighting cancer who are always testing the new methods available.

All the necessary equipment for treating tumors are provided to MNAP’s clients. MNAP is the official treatment and clinical education center that gets support from School of Radiation Therapy for Clinical Practice, besides MNAP is the only MRI Philadelphia center where doctors use Magnetom Avanto.

It is a widely known fact that the whole humanity is gaining weight.

Some people go in for sport, others torture themselves with different diets or take various drugs to lose excessive weight. But sometimes all these methods just don’t work or the effect is short and soon a man gains even more weight than he had before. Seriously obese people should take into consideration the risks of staying overweight. Hypertension, diabetes, insomnia, increased risk of heart attacks and other dangerous diseases develop due to excessive weight.

If you’re tired of fighting your own body, sick of diets and still don’t see any positive changes then a weight loss surgery may become your only salvation.

This operation is known as lap band surgery and has become very popular in last ten years. Lap (Laparoscopic or Gastric) banding is a type of easy surgeries where the size of the stomach is reduced using a band so that only small meals can be eaten and you feel fuller soon.

The procedure involves placing an adjustable band around the upper part of the stomach which creates a pouch. It fills up with food very quickly and a person feels satiation. Then the food passes through a small gap very slowly and digested normally. That leads to intensive weight loss in a natural way.

Lap band is a reversible operation and is usually done through a small hole in the stomach. It is a low risk surgery but some side effects may occur. In is necessary to understand that the risks of lap band surgery are much less meaningful than numerous benefits of this procedure. Living a healthy and happy life without extra lbs. is beyond these risks.

They may say they just have good genes, but you deserve to know: Many stars are jogging their butts off, and some resort to unsafe, even illegal weight-loss practices, say insiders. “To be fair, a lot of the top women are doing the right things: eating healthy and exercising, but not obsessively,” says Beverly Hills trainer Gunnar Peterson. “It’s the up-and-coming women who I often see starving and going to crazy extremes.” Here’s the silly stuff they’re doing — and the healthy, longer-lasting alternatives you should try instead.

They abuse laxative teas
“The big thing among teen actresses right now is dieter’s tea. It has a mild laxative effect. But many young girls are abusing it — drinking 10 cups a day. I knew one girl who ended up with long-term health problems. Drinking too much of these teas can cause vomiting, stomach cramps, chronic constipation or diarrhea. Not pretty! All that to lose a little water weight.”

The healthier way: “Skip laxatives — the only weight you lose with them is from waste. And it comes right back when you eat and drink again.”

They do superexpensive liquid cleanses
“Once, a very young actress client of mine bought $3,000 worth of supplements from her doctor to do a cleanse. All she was allowed to have for two weeks were liquids and the vitamins she bought — no solid food. She was already incredibly healthy — she worked out and ate really well, and I don’t think she’d had a sip of alcohol in her life. She said she just wanted to ‘clean herself out.’ I joked: ‘From what — apples?’ A week into it she broke down, ate an entire loaf of bread and admitted that her real goal had been to drop a few pounds. An actress friend of hers, who has an eating disorder, had done the cleanse and recommended it.”

The healthier way: Drinking plenty of water and eating well are all the ‘cleansing’ you need.

They subsist on coffee & booze
“One client I had would stave off eating as long as she could — it was just coffee, coffee, coffee all day. She’d have a practically zero-calorie salad in the afternoon, skip dinner then go booze with her friends. Her organs were so stressed that when we trained together, I could literally hear her heart pounding away in her chest. Working out was a waste because she was so exhausted.”

The healthier way: “I always advise eating regular meals — a mix of healthy carbs, protein and fruits and veggies.”

They misuse diet pills
“A musician who’d been taking an over-the-counter fat blocker came to see me. While on the drug, you can have bad side effects if you eat fatty foods, but she kept eating creamy pastas, ribs, you name it. The result: She had oily stools, bloating, gas and bad diarrhea, and she was vitamin-depleted. But she didn’t want to change her eating habits, and just kept taking it. Eventually she snapped out of it, followed a healthy plan I gave her and lost weight.”

The healthier way: “There really is no magic pill. Cut back on unhealthy fats on your own.”

They stay locked in the gym…
“There’s one singer-actress who works out at my gym for about five hours a day, even on weekends. She spent her birthday here. She comes in at 5 A.M., then in the afternoon, and again at night.”

…and then lie about it
“I had one actress who trained with me and took six Spin classes a week. And all she ate was lettuce and Swedish Fish. When the press asked her how she’d ‘transformed’ her body, she said, ‘Oh, I do yoga and hike with my puppy.’ That made me laugh. Don’t lie about how much you work out, because other women are going to think, I walk my dog, why don’t I look like that?”

The healthier way: Several hours of exercise a week is plenty. Several hours a day? Too much.

They obsess over the tabloids
“Paparazzi deliberately try to catch celebs in unflattering moments. It can be devastating. One actress came to me to lose five pounds after seeing a bad photo, and I had to convince her that, really, it was just a bad angle.”

The healthier way: “Remember that the only opinion of your body that matters is yours!”

Source: Glamour

British and Australian researchers believe that happiness can be inherited.

A study of nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins found genes control half the personality traits that make people happy while factors such as relationships, health and careers are responsible for the rest of our well-being.

“We found that around half the differences in happiness were genetic,” said Tim Bates, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who led the study. “It is really quite surprising.”

The researchers asked the volunteers — ranging in age from 25 to 75 — a series of questions about their personality, how much they worried and how satisfied they were with their lives.

Because identical twins share the same genes and fraternal twins do not, the researchers could identify common genes that result in certain personality traits and predispose people to happiness.

People who are sociable, active, stable, hardworking and conscientious tend to be happier, the researchers reported in the journal Psychological Science.

“What this study showed was that the identical twins in a family were very similar in personality and in well-being, and by contrast, the fraternal twins were only around half as similar,” Bates said. “That strongly implicates genes.”

The findings are an important piece of the puzzle for researchers trying to better understand depression and what makes different people happy or unhappy, Bates said.

People with positive inherited personality traits may, in effect, also have a reserve of happiness to draw on in stressful times, he said.

“An important implication is that personality traits of being outgoing, calm and reliable provide a resource, we called it ’affective reserve,’ that drives future happiness” Bates said.