Never start gymming without proper guidance from an expert. It could cost your life

Agencies
June 4, 2017

Jun 4: The heady profusion of modern gymnasiums, be it at home, office or elsewhere, has made workouts a rage, but exercising without a proper training regime and guidance can take a toll on your health, and even be fatal, warn experts.gym

A recent incident of a young software engineer in Kolkata dying after falling from the treadmill has only highlighted the risks of unmonitored workouts and over-exercise. According to fitness experts, a trainer must have a questionnaire regarding the client’s medical history and pre-training assessment to find out how far the person can push himself or herself.

“A person who is clueless about fitness, needs to have a fitness trainer who can fix a ‘goal of training’ for him. If somebody with a back or a joint pain wishes to lose weight and the trainer, unaware of his illness, puts him into a high intensity workout regime, the pain will only aggravate,” says Chinmoy Roy, a fitness trainer with the National Cricket Academy.

“A questionnaire and a pre-training assessment by the trainer should do the trick. It should ask if the person has any metabolic issues like diabetes or blood pressure, cardiac issues or joint pains because in case he suffers from any of these complications, the exercise and its intensity will be completely different,” he explained.

Citing the example of Cameroon footballer Marc-Vivien Foe who died of cardiac arrest while playing for his country in the Confederations cup in 2003, the physio said though death during exercise is a rare occurrence, every such incident should act as a wake-up call for everybody.

Some experts rue that most of the gyms lack certified trainers and a flexible client-specific fitness module. “I believe a fitness trainer should at times have a better understanding of anatomy than a doctor. A doctor is not asking you to pick up a hundred kg weight, but the trainer is. So he should know his job very well. However, more than 90% of the fitness trainers in city gyms lack proper certifications,” said noted fitness trainer Ranadeep Moitra.

While stating that certifications for fitness trainers have started in India, Moitra argued that theoretical knowledge is often not enough. “It’s good that some private organisations have started certain initiatives to train the fitness instructors. However, in a majority of cases, certification only involves clearing a theoretical exam,” he claimed.

Strongly criticising the random use of steroids in fitness training, Moitra said the onus is both on the trainers and the trainees. “The onus is also on the trainees. Today, people are using steroids just to look good in a night club. They are running behind outer beauty rather than inner strength. This mindset has to change,” Moitra said.

According to doctors, unaccustomed physical activity without any prior conditioning can lead to extreme consequences like sudden cardiac death. “Therefore, a trainer should guide you through these kinds of fitness training regimes. People should first condition their body for physical activities and gradually increase the level of exercise,” according to cardiologist Sushan Mukhopadhyay of Kolkata’s Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals.

To avoid serious health issues, the fitness centres should teach their trainers basic life-support therapy and provide them a shock defibrillator, if possible. “It is a must for people working as fitness trainers to be aware of basic life-support therapy so that they can do a basic cardiac massage,” said Mukhopadhyay.

“In nearly 50% of the cases of sudden cardiac deaths, the patients can be revived by giving shock treatment. Therefore. a shock defibrilator can be of good use in emergency situations,” he added.

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 5: After a woman filed a lawsuit against a diet soda company, the California court has declared that the beverage does not promise to help buyers in losing weight.

The woman had gulped down the drink for over a decade but did not lose inches as a result.

The three-judge panel declared during the hearing: "The prevalent understanding of the term in (the marketplace) is that the 'diet' version of a soft drink has fewer calories than its 'regular' counterpart."

However, the members of the US 9th circuit court have felt that the consumers tend to make out something of their own that is unreasonable and eventually hamper the reputation of brands through a deceptive allegation, reports Fox News.

The response was due to a misleading case filed against Diet Dr Pepper by Shana Becerra from Santa Rosa, California. Shana claimed that she has been addictively purchasing the low-calorie beverage for the past 13 years hoping for losing some fat but failed to lose even a single inch.

The woman also stated that the attractive and fit models misled her into believing that drink will help her in perfecting her body like them.

However, the court's decision was that advertisements are for representational purposes only. "Cannot be reasonably understood to convey any specific meaning at all," as written by Judge Jay Bybee.

Shana had last week made such allegation against Diet coke as well where the court came to a similar verdict. She claimed that she had found various studies where it is evident that the artificial sweetener aspartame used in diet beverages actually boosts weight gain.

But the artificial sweetener is approved in by the concerned administrative department and thus is used in most American drinks.

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Agencies
July 8,2020

Probiotics that broaden the mix of helpful bacteria in the gut may help to ease depression, say researchers.

Foods that broaden the profile of helpful bacteria in the gut are collectively known as probiotics. These "good bacteria" can be taken as supplements, or found naturally in yoghurts or fermented foods.

For the findings, the research team from the University of Brighton in the UK searched for relevant studies published in English between 2003 and 2019, which looked at the potential therapeutic contribution of pre-and probiotics in adults with depression and/or anxiety disorders.

Out of an initial haul of 71 studies, just seven met all the criteria for inclusion. All 7 investigated at least one probiotic strain; four looked at the effect of combinations of multiple strains.In all, 12 probiotic strains featured in the selected studies, primarily Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, and Bifidobacterium bifidium.

One study looked at combined pre-probiotic treatment, while one looked at prebiotic therapy by itself. The studies varied considerably in their design, methods used, and clinical considerations, but all of them concluded that probiotic supplements either alone or in combination with prebiotics may be linked to measurable reductions in depression.

And every study showed a significant fall or improvement in anxiety symptoms and clinically relevant changes in biochemical measures of anxiety or depression with probiotic or combined pre-probiotic use.

Of the 12 different probiotics investigated, 11 were potentially useful, the findings showed.'Probiotics may help reduce the production of inflammatory chemicals, such as cytokines, as is the case in inflammatory bowel disease, the researchers suggested.

"They may help direct the action of tryptophan, a chemical thought to be important in the gut-brain axis in psychiatric disorders," they added.

In this way, with a better understanding of the mechanisms, probiotics may prove to be a useful tool across a wide range of conditions," the authors wrote.

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Agencies
May 20,2020

Washington D.C., May 20: While a dairy-rich diet is helpful in meeting the body's calcium requirement, outcomes of a large international study links eating at least two daily servings of dairy with lower risks of diabetes and high blood pressure.

The dairy-rich diet also proved to lower the cluster of factors that heighten cardiovascular disease risk (metabolic syndrome). The study was published online in journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.

The observed associations were strongest for full-fat dairy products, the findings indicated.

Previously published research has suggested that higher dairy intake is associated with a lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome. But these studies have tended to focus on North America and Europe to the exclusion of other regions of the world.

To see whether these associations might also be found in a broader range of countries, the researchers drew on people taking part in the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.

Participants were all aged between 35 and 70 and came from 21 countries: Argentina; Bangladesh; Brazil; Canada; Chile; China; Colombia; India; Iran; Malaysia; Palestine; Pakistan; Philippines, Poland; South Africa; Saudi Arabia; Sweden; Tanzania; Turkey; United Arab Emirates; and Zimbabwe.

Usual dietary intake over the previous 12 months was assessed by means of Food Frequency Questionnaires. Dairy products included milk, yogurt, yogurt drinks, cheese and dishes prepared with dairy products, and were classified as full or low fat (1-2 percent).

Butter and cream were assessed separately as these are not commonly eaten in some of the countries studied.

Information on personal medical history, use of prescription medicines, educational attainment, smoking and measurements of weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose were also collected.

Data on all five components of the metabolic syndrome were available for nearly 113,000 people: blood pressure above 130/85 mm Hg; waist circumference above 80 cm; low levels of (beneficial) high-density cholesterol (less than 1-1.3 mmol/l); blood fats (triglycerides) of more than 1.7 mmol/dl; and fasting blood glucose of 5.5 mmol/l or more.

Average daily total dairy consumption was 179 g, with full-fat accounting for around double the amount of low fat: 124.5+ vs 65 g.

Some 46, 667 people had metabolic syndrome--defined as having at least 3 of the 5 components.

Total dairy and full-fat dairy, but not low-fat dairy, was associated with a lower prevalence of most components of metabolic syndrome, with the size of the association greatest in those countries with normally low dairy intakes.

At least 2 servings a day of total dairy were associated with a 24 percent lower risk of metabolic syndrome, rising to 28 percent for full-fat dairy alone, compared with no daily dairy intake.

The health of nearly 190,000 participants was tracked for an average of nine years, during which time 13,640 people developed high blood pressure and 5351 developed diabetes.

At least 2 servings a day of total dairy was associated with a 11-12 percent lower risk of both conditions, rising to a 13-14 percent lower risk for 3 daily servings. The associations were stronger for full fat than they were for low-fat dairy.

This is an observational study, and as such can't establish the cause. Food frequency questionnaires are also subject to recall, and changes in metabolic syndrome weren't measured over time, all of which may have influenced the findings.

Nevertheless, the researchers suggest: "If our findings are confirmed in sufficiently large and long term trials, then increasing dairy consumption may represent a feasible and low-cost approach to reducing [metabolic syndrome], hypertension, diabetes, and ultimately cardiovascular disease events worldwide."

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