Archive for March, 2008
Are you stranded in a remote place without any facility for keeping you fit? Or are you too much tied up with a hectic schedule and feeling irritated with not being able to maintain the daily exercise routine? Here is the answer to keep you fit and fine, and in tune with the adage “Health is Wealth”.Take some time and check out on the latest physical fitness guide called “XFit” that is available for download to cell phones and other mobile devices. This full, complete body exercise program is the brainchild of Joel Lenorovitz and Jason Ryer.
What triggered the development of such a program? The answer is that one of the co-founders of the program was volunteering on a service at some remote village that has no access to any gym. In order to keep up to the fitness regime, the playing cards were used. Exercise was assigned to the cards beforehand-for example, Ace for Abs, two for push-ups, three for lunges and so on so forth. It was called “The Deck” and soon spread like wild fire and everybody caught up the fever and became the ultimate in convenience in working out. ‘The Deck’ concept was being transformed with graphical representation and text description of specified exercises. It soon developed into an effective and convenient workout.
The idea to make it easy and to stay fit; this program is ideal instead of spending money in a health club membership or by buying latest equipment. This program comes for a free download with six exercises in any of the mobile devices such as BlackBerry, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia etc. Though the program comes with 50 exercises, one needs to buy a key-code for $24.95 to unlock the workout. But before the purchase, one needs to check out if it works on the specific mobile device.
The next obvious question that comes in mind is how does it work? Once download to the mobile device, the program gives the basic instruction to prepare one to use the program, including the basic navigation and the warm up exercise. Next, the workout begins with the first exercise, target the body region and read the instructions. The intensity levels of the workout are divided into-beginners, intermediate and advanced.
At home, or at work, at vacation or just about anywhere one can pull out the device and make use of the time to get in shape and feel fresh.
Again, man is not to be satiated and be complacent, he is in the journey to explore more and discover the new. “XFit” is now being developed to be used into as many different devices as possible and also to be in the hands of many people. A program that promotes a healthy lifestyle is soon going to grip the entire world with its additional features such as Yoga, Pilates, free-weight, stability ball and other exercise methods to expand the fitness routine and make it an every man’s best companion.
“The important part of improving the management of diabetes is to understand glucose trends with the goal of minimizing fluctuations. We are always looking for new tools like these to enable diabetes people to monitor their glucose continuously so that they can take action according to the blood glucose levels whether it is high or low and by putting them in offense not defense” said Richard Bergenstal, M.D. endocrinologist and Director of ‘International Diabetes Center (IDC)’.
“Free Style Navigator Continuous Glucose Monitoring System” was approved by ‘The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’ in the United States for people with diabetes. Abbott’s “Free Style Navigator “system provides minute by minute information of the changes in the blood sugar level, how quickly and which way. This instrument is designed in a way to discretely and continuously measure glucose levels through a sensor in the back of the upper arm or abdomen. This information can lead to positive adjustments resulting in tighter glucose ranges. Traditional tests of blood glucose should be done before adjusting therapy for diabetes management based on the results and alarms from the “Free Style Navigator” system.
The “Free Style Navigator” system measures glucose levels continuously which can lead to better diabetes management because it is designed to provide information than traditional finger stick glucose measurements.
For people with diabetes who require insulin and want to tightly manage their disease, Abbott’s “Free Style Navigator” system offers a number of key advances. The system can be clipped to a belt or can be carried in a pocket or a purse monitors the glucose levels by measuring and transmitting glucose information once per minute to the pager sized receiver. Before the glucose levels become too high or too low it provides audible or vibrating alarms. If the glucose is rising and falling it displays five directional trend arrows to help people understand and also stores historical data and glucose trend information for up to 60 days. In addition to these features the sensor and the transmitter are designed to accommodate showering, swimming and a range of normal physical activities.
In two separated pivotal clinical trials the accuracy, safety and efficacy of the “Free Style Navigator” system have been demonstrated including five-day in-clinic study and a study of people with type1 and type2 diabetes at home.
‘Five-day in-clinic study’, a specific research study was conducted with 58 people from the age 18-64. By demonstrating accuracy over five days of wear the study met it primary endpoint. According to this study the measurements allowed patients to make either correct or safe treatment decisions, benign treatment decisions or no treatment decision.
The ‘home use study’ was also conducted with the people having type1 and type2 diabetes who used this system at home. The study participants with type1 diabetes spent less time in hypoglycemic state that is serious condition for this population. In participants with type2 diabetes spent less time in hyperglycemic state which is a serious problem for type 2 diabetic people.
A new commercial about “Viagra” on YouTube is talked much about these days. The commercial which speaks about the new “Zantrex(R)-3InstaShot”. The commercial could be found funny however carries serious message for the consumers of ‘Viagra’. It has gained much popularity among the women who seem to be complying with the views expressed in the commercial.
The commercial seems to be embarrassing for men however has won consent among the women. The commercial talks about the men who take Viagra to increase the potency however it questions the goodness of it as the men are left with no energy to remain awake at all after the hectic work schedule.
The commercial weight loss programs have been recently reviewed by ‘Johns Hopkins Health Alerts’, a free service of University health publishing and John Hopkins Medicines. It has recently conducted a research on weight loss and tried to find out whether the commercial weight loss programs actually work.The study released in New York, NY on March 11, 2008 has at present given an analysis of the latest research on weight loss. It has concluded that the person who stays in any commercial weight-loss program for longer period is likely to achieve more in terms of weight loss and eventually it leads to a greater weight loss overall.
It has also suggested few weight lost approaches which could be adopted to achieve better weight loss and physical fitness. It has given stress to a three-pronged approach which includes altering the behavior, changes in the diet and increase in the physical activity.
“Until now there is no way to determine which orthopedic patient is at low risk and which one is at the high risk” said Ethel Siris, a Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University of physicians and surgeons in New York City.Some of the people with low bone mass will have a fracture but most of them never have fracture. To point out the people who need treatment can be find out using FRAX algorithms. To calculate an individual’s 10-year risk of fracture ‘World Health Organization (WHO)’ developed an algorithm that was released on February 21.
For the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis that includes the algorithm is the new guide for a clinician. Osteoporosis can be diagnosed by a low impact fracture or a bone density score of -2.5 as a measure by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry or a DXA scan. In US about 10 million people have Osteoporosis. To strengthen the bones this group needs to be treated with one of the several pharmaceutical products.
The people whose bone density scores range between minus1.0 and minus2.5 are known to have osteopenia. The treatment of people with osteopenia is more of a puzzle that is about 34 million. The risks for fracture are high in this group of people but it is not clear that who among group need the treatment. By keeping this population in mind the new tools were developed.
