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Monthly Archives: August 2016

Preventing Age Related Muscle Loss

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by webbywriter1 in aging, exercise, Uncategorized

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I continue to be astounded since I have come back from Korea about the numbers of overweight and out-of -shape people there are my age. The obesity is amazing and what is even more amazing is the romancing of illness and injury that goes on with the over 40 and over 50 set. It is as though men and women alike are having personal love affairs with their doctors. “My doctor said…..They told me….I am waiting to hear…” It is though doctors have replaced God and have become God in our society. Our need for them and complete dependence on them to cure us and save us is epidemic. It is as though all the love, sex and companionship we ever needed we are now finding in medical offices (plus inside little bottles). We turn our power and trust over to these people who we trust completely with our lives. Doctors are people too; usually highly trained technicians paid to diagnose symptoms and come up with a pill to fix that thing. They cannot save us from ourselves.

How to Help Prevent Age Related Muscle Loss

By Dr. Mercola

Chronological aging begins at birth, and you can’t stop the clock from ticking. However, there’s also biological aging, and evidence suggests the aging of your cells can indeed be slowed, and in some cases even reversed.

This is particularly true of muscle tissue, which can be regenerated even at an advanced age with the appropriate diet and exercise.

It may come as a surprise that muscle aging may start at a relatively young age. By the time you enter your third decade of life, age-related muscle decline may already have begun if you’ve neglected to take proactive steps to prevent it.

Without intervention, you can lose an average of nearly seven pounds (three kilos) of muscle per decade.1

It’s important to realize that your daily activities play a key role in this process. What you eat, when you eat, and how you exercise all translate into gene activities that dictate the speed at which your body ages.

Why Maintaining Muscle Mass Is So Important

Typically as a muscle ages, it not only diminishes in size and strength, it also loses its aerobic capacity. A less obvious side effect is that this loss of muscle mass can also lead to an overall decline in metabolic function.

Indeed, the biological role of your muscles goes far beyond mobility. Your muscles are also responsible for keeping your metabolic system intact, and maintaining muscle mass helps protect you against metabolic and hormonal decline, obesity,diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

It also enhances your cognitive function and slows down the aging process. Given the biological and metabolic importance of your muscles, age-related muscle degradation can herald a significant health crisis.

In short, once muscle loss sets in, your health is on a steep downhill slope. Loss of muscle equates to a general loss of physical energy, a tendency to gain excess weight, enhanced vulnerability to disease, and accelerated aging.

Not to mention the general loss of independence that comes with being too frail to move around unassisted.

As noted by Dr. Murtaza Ahmed in an article on sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss):2

“… [D]uring our youth we have far more muscle than we need for everyday tasks.

We only require 30 percent of our strength to carry out all the important tasks of everyday living such as getting up from a chair or climbing a flight of stairs, so as our maximum strength decreases by 5 percent every so many years we remain oblivious as we can still carry out all our activities of daily living with ease.

The trouble comes when our maximum strength starts to decline to around 50 percent of what it was in our youth, and suddenly everything that used to feel easy suddenly becomes hard.

First you find it hard to carry out more strenuous tasks such as getting out of a car, but eventually simple tasks such as getting changed or combing hair become challenging.”

Sarcopenia also increases your risk of falling, which can have life threatening consequences. Falls are the most common cause of hip fractures among seniors, which carry great risks of complications and usually require prolonged specialized care.

Fortunately, by making a few strategic changes to your lifestyle, you can significantly slow down or even reverse this chain reaction.

Insulin Resistance Promotes Muscle Wasting

First of all, it’s important to realize that maintaining healthy insulin sensitivity is part and parcel of maintaining healthy muscle and avoiding sarcopenia.

As you age, insulin no longer prevents your muscle from breaking down between meals and overnight as it normally does when you’re young. The same phenomenon occurs when you’re insulin resistant or diabetic.

The mechanism responsible for this is called mTOR (Mammalian Target of Rapamycin), which is part of the insulin pathway. This is why insulin sensitivity is essential for proper protein building in your muscle.

In short, to build muscle, the mTOR mechanism must be activated. If your insulin receptors are insensitive, this cannot occur, and muscle wasting becomes inevitable. The mTOR mechanism can be activated through both diet and exercise.

Whey protein is a highly beneficial dietary component as it not only increases GLP-1 — a satiety peptide that promotes healthy insulin secretion and helps your insulin work more effectively — it also boosts human growth hormone (HGH).

High-intensity interval exercises and intermittent fasting also promote HGH production in your body.

The triple combination of doing high intensity exercises while fasting and consuming high-quality whey protein 30 minutes after your workout is one potent strategy for preventing insulin resistance and muscle wasting.

Another lifestyle factor to consider is sensible sun exposure, as vitamin D is critically important for muscle function. (It’s also essential for bone health, along with calcium and magnesium.) Vitamin D deficiency also raises your risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, regardless of your weight.

Whey Protein — A Potent Muscle Promoter

Amino acids are essential for healthy muscle, and perhaps one of the most important is leucine, found in a variety of animal foods, including dairy, beef, salmon, chicken, and eggs, just to name a few. Leucine serves multiple functions in your body, one of which is signaling the mTOR mechanism I just mentioned. This causes protein to be created and builds your muscle.

According to fitness expert Ori Hofmekler, author of Unlock Your Muscle Gene, the requirement for leucine to maintain body protein is 1 to 3 grams daily, but to really optimize its anabolic pathway, an estimated 8 to 16 grams a day may be required. You’d be hard-pressed to reach that level eating most foods — with one exception.

While you’d need to eat about 1.5 pounds of chicken or 0.5 pounds of raw cheddar cheese to get 8 grams of leucine from your diet, you only need 3 ounces of high-quality whey to reach the suggested amount, making it an ideal choice.

If you’re over the age of 50, you may also need to increase your protein intake to maintain optimal muscle protein synthesis. Recent research3 suggests older people may need about 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which is double the current RDA guideline.

That said, there is an upper limit to how much protein your body can actually use, so protein in and of itself is not a magic solution against sarcopenia. There are risks involved with eating too much protein, including an increased risk for cancer, so you don’t want to exclusively rely on protein to “save” your muscles. You still need strength training to actually build muscle, and if you have cancer, you need to be particularly cautious about consuming excessive amounts of protein.

Beware of Inferior Whey Products That May Do More Harm Than Good

There’s no shortage of whey products on the market, but unfortunately most of them are of inferior quality and will not provide the health benefits associated with high-quality whey.  Make sure you use a whey protein concentrate. Concentrates also contain glutamylcysteine, the major precursor to glutathione; another phenomenal anti-aging nutrient.

For the highest quality possible, opt for whey derived from raw milk cheese manufacturing. One of the most important components of whey is glycomacropeptides (GMP), which has potent immune-supporting components that also support healthy gut flora. However, only whey produced from raw milk can grant you these benefits. Other varieties do not.

Avoid whey protein isolates, as they lack valuable nutritional co-factors such as alkalizing minerals, naturally occurring vitamins and lipids — all of which are lost in the processing of the isolate. To ensure you’re getting a high-quality product, make sure the whey you buy fulfills the following requirements:

Organic (hormone-free) Grass-fed Made from unpasteurized (raw) milk
Cold processed, since heat destroys whey’s fragile molecular structure Minimally processed Rich, creamy, full flavor
Water soluble Sweetened naturally, not artificially, and without sugar Highly digestible — look for medium chain fatty acids (MCTs), not long chain fatty acids

Compounds in Apple Peel and Green Tomatoes Help Prevent Muscle Wasting

Overall, your best dietary strategy is to eat real food, ideally organic and grass-fed, to avoid chemical exposures. Making sure you eat a varied diet that includes a wide variety of fruits and vegetables can go a long way toward warding off premature aging. For example, researchers at the University of Iowa recently published findings4,5,6 showing that apple peel and green tomatoes can help prevent muscle loss by decreasing the activity of a protein called ATF4.

ATF4 is a transcription factor involved in a process that depletes muscle protein synthesis; apples and green tomatoes contain two compounds that reduce ATF4 activity, thereby allowing for normal synthesis of muscle proteins. The two compounds in question are ursolic acid and tomatidine, found in apples and green tomatoes respectively. As explained by senior author Christopher Adams:7

“By reducing ATF4 activity, ursolic acid and tomatidine allow skeletal muscle to recover from effects of aging.”

Elderly mice fed a diet containing either 0.05 percent tomatidine or 0.27 percent ursolic acid increased muscle mass by 10 percent and muscle quality by 30 percent in a mere two months. The effects were large enough to effectively restore muscle mass and strength to a level comparable to that of a young adult mouse. As noted by Tech Times:8

“Previous studies had shown the compounds could prevent serious muscle wasting association with malnutrition or an extremely sedentary lifestyle, while the new findings suggest they can also be effective in reducing age-related weakness and atrophy in muscles.”

Exercise Is Key to Preventing Loss of Muscle

Total Video Length: 27:04

Last but certainly not least, avoiding age-related muscle loss is difficult if not near impossible without regular exercise. Resistance or strength training is particularly important for the elderly. The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, and the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommend engaging in muscle strengthening activities targeting all major muscle groups at least two days per week.9

The video above discusses the many benefits of resistance training, and

 

 

 

WORKPLACE SABOTAGE

11 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by webbywriter1 in Jobs and the workplace, Uncategorized

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I had a teaching job recently where I had to go through an extensive background check where the employer hired a firm to do the check. The firm literally called old employers and verified I had worked there and what kind of person I was. When that paperwork was done I had to do a group presentation in front of 30 people and answer their questions. That presentation was after several one-on-one personal interviews. Imagine how delighted I was to have jumped successfully through all those hurtles to and to get the job. Wonderful!

The first night I taught I met my co-worker (assistant?). It was the first time I had laid eyes on her. What followed was my co-worker, who had worked at the school several years, left class on a regular basis to go into admin and complain about me and what I was not doing right. For whatever reason, administration felt they had to appease this woman and give her whatever she wanted. When the co-worker began to criticize me and pick me apart in front of students the whole situation went into the toilet.

What were her motivations? Probably many and all along the lines of ‘less for you and more for me’ kind of thing. I was unhappy with that experience for sometime until, guess what, it started to happen all over again in another school. Having learned to not take sabotage sitting down; I immediately went to the  boss on two occasions and explained, carefully, exactly what had happened and how this affected the class and the students. I didn’t hear much back from him about the co-workers but suddenly (!) their attitudes changed completely and I was worthy of respect once more. It is a hard lesson that we have to be ever vigilant with individuals like this, but thoughtful review of past jobs shows I have been dealing with people like this a long time and just didn’t know it. Here is a good article on the subject.

How to Guard Against Workplace Sabotage

Falling prey to an unscrupulous saboteur in the workplace can sting, especially if the offender wants your job, credit for your ideas or to make you look incompetent.

The good news? “You’re never too young or too old to learn ways to deal with (saboteurs),” said Rebecca Weingarten, a New York-based executive, corporate and career coach. Below the experts advise how to effectively deal with workplace sabotage:

Know what you’re dealing with:“Workplace saboteurs come in a lot of shapes and sizes,” said Mary Hladio, president of Ember Carriers Inc., an organizational effectiveness firm. “What spurs these behaviors can be small or it has been their modus operandi for their entire career.” Saboteurs include gossipers and rumor mongers, finger pointers, slackers, people pleasers, avoiders, belittlers and downright bullies. With unemployment on the rise, a new kind of saboteur has emerged: one who, out of fear of losing a job, has taken on the attitude of “better you than me, so let me help that along,” warned Weingarten.

Don’t be naïve: Be cautious about to whom you complain, confide and tell your ambitions. The person you’re talking to might become intimidated, jealous or fearful for his/her position.

Check yourself: Once confronted with a possible sabotage, first look in the mirror and carefully consider the unpleasant possibility that you’re the problem, suggested Hladio. “If you’re unsure, consult with a trusted colleague. If you are not the problem proceed.”

Defining the Various Saboteurs

According to Mary Hladio, president of Ember Carriers Inc., one way to combat saboteurs involves understanding them.  What motivates them? What personality type are they? You can generically categorize them in three ways:

  • �Situational: a specific situation or circumstance makes this person difficult.  Stress becomes a huge factor with someone situationally difficult.  Find out what is going on in his or her world (professionally and personally) that could impact behavior.
  • �Deliberate: some people believe that being unreasonable or mean results in effectiveness.  Because no one has ever successfully cut off their behavior and results are achieved, they feel vindicated.
  • �Difficult: they have always been this way.  Their ingrained behavior is a part of their personality. Only a life-changing event or therapy can correct this trait.

Don’t get angry: Dealing with difficult people presents emotional challenges, so first take a deep breath and try to neutralize your emotions. Pause before responding and do not stoop to their level. The more you can get your emotions in check, the more control you possess.

Confront the saboteur: Conduct a brief, but pointed discussion with the saboteur. Ask why he or she chose to behave as such. “You’ll get the best results by being straightforward, direct and persistent,” instructed Hladio.

Go up another level or two (or three): If your manager seems unconcerned regarding a workplace saboteur, go to his or her boss. Be careful not to complain how the sabotage affects you; rather address how it affects job production.

Leave a paper trail: A paper trail of your work makes it harder for someone to claim a work idea/concept/project as his or her own. Sally Haver, senior vice president of the Ayers Group, said, “It is of paramount importance to archive relevant e-mails, back up your databases, etc. so, in the case of controversy, you’re covered.”

Find a new job: If all attempts to deal with workplace sabotage fail, sometimes leaving becomes your only option, said Patricia Donovan, a grievance chair at University at Buffalo. “If you do, do not do so without telling whomever in charge why you are leaving. Be calm, reasonable, honest and direct. … Be as professional, informed and intelligent as they say you aren’t,” she advised. “Then smile and vayamos. You’ve got better things to do with your life than shorten it by working with (saboteurs).”

By Larue Novick

LIVING MAGAZINE

HIDDEN TRIANGLES

10 Wednesday Aug 2016

Posted by webbywriter1 in dating, FRIENDSHIP, marriage, Uncategorized

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“I can’t believe it!”

“It’s true. Believe it. He really did!”

The two women went back and forth discussing the latest horror of their intimate social circle.

Their mutual girl friend had been in a long term relationship with a live-in boyfriend. They were all part of the same social group and attended the same events and parties. They had known each other forever.

They were shocked when the boyfriend suddenly (?) up and bolted the mutual apartment. Further shock and amazement followed when the same guy suddenly (?) tied the knot with a brand new girl no less than four months later.

Was any of this really sudden? Would we be surprised to find out that the young man in question had actually been ‘on the hunt’ for Ms. Right for quite some time? While, of course, still maintaining his ongoing relationship and living in the same place. Would the jilted girlfriend be surprised to find out that the signs had actually been there all along? Here is a recent article on the subject. The author is talking about married couples, but for my money, it applies to unmarried couple living together too.

 

6 Signs of Online Cheating

By Francesca Di Meglio

Updated January 31, 2016.

In an ironic twist, technology – meant to keep us more connected – has made our love relationships more complicated than ever. Online cheating – having virtual affairs that include sexting, racy exchanges of photos or emails, and flirtations on social networks without necessarily moving onto a physical affair – is yet another way spouses can betray one another. While in the honeymoon phase, couples would rather pretend that their spouse would never cheat, virtually or otherwise. But the reality is that no one can be certain of their spouse’s fidelity, and even the happiest couple is at risk when it comes to online cheating. After all, the Internet and other technology, such as cell phones, provide easy access to willing partners and immediate gratification. And without actual sex (or even necessarily the option of ever meeting face to face), online cheaters convince themselves that what they’re doing is not cheating.

So, by now, you’re probably wondering if your spouse could get tangled in an online affair (or more than one).

Here is a checklist of warning signs that your spouse is crossing the line and committing online cheating-

SIGNS OF ONLINE CHEATING

 

  1. Password-Protected Digital Devices

Someone having online affairs or reaching out to strangers for cyber sex will keep email and cell phones protected with passwords and pin numbers. You, even as a spouse, will not have access to these passwords. He or she might also be secretive when online by quickly switching Web pages or closing email as soon as someone else walks into the room. If your spouse keeps online or cell phone activity a secret, then he or she could be having a virtual affair.

  1. Secret Social Media Accounts

If you’re not a friend of your spouse’s on Facebook or Twitter, then he or she could be hiding something from you. If you are a friend, do you know all your spouse’s contacts? Even if you don’t know them all personally, do you know how your spouse knows them? Finding out about the people in your spouse’s various social networks and how he or she uses social networking sites is never a bad idea. And your spouse should know the same about you.

  1. Obsession with Responding to Online Contacts

Obsession with immediately responding to text messages, emails, andFacebook or Twitter messages is another sign that something fishy is going on. However, this warning sign must be considered among others. Truthfully, many of us are addicted to our phones and computers, and some of us are using them more for work and less for pleasure or in innocent ways (to get our favorite recipes, chat with our family and friends – not the kind with benefits – and keep tabs on current events).

  1. Leaving a Paper (or Digital) Trail

Look at your monthly cell phone bills and the browser history on your computer. These are telling signs of whether your spouse is embroiled in online cheating or Internet pornography. You can see if you’re spending more on text messages and whether there are foreign numbers on the bill. The Internet history can tell you something about the pages your spouse – and anyone else who has used the computer – has been visiting.

  1. Weird Behavior

One telling sign of any affair is a change in your spouse’s behavior. A spouse who is suddenly extra nice or extra mean could be compensating for an affair. One might be super sweet out of guilt or super mean in the hopes of justifying his or her behavior, according to Everyday Health.

  1. Double Life

Finding out about dual identities online – secret email addresses or social networking pages or a whole other identity in a virtual world – is a betrayal on its own. It’s one that needs to be addressed both as part of a greater conversation about online cheating and as a separate talk about what is a must to divulge.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT ONLINE CHEATING

Whether either one of you is committing online cheating, you should sit down and have a conversation about what you feel is appropriate online behavior for married people. Set some rules for yourselves, so you and your spouse know what crosses the line, and there’s no question about right and wrong down the road. Indeed, some people aren’t even sure online cheating is cheating. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks; it matters what you and your spouse think.

Always keep the lines of communication open. Secrets about what you’re doing and who you are talking to should not be happening between spouses. You should be open with one another. Once you’re keeping secrets like this, you are putting your marriage at risk. So, talk, talk, and talk some more.

Those who’ve already determined that online cheating is taking place in the marriage should see a marriage counselor or other professional to discuss the root of the problem and whether the marriage is salvageable. Much like other affairs, the person who committed the adultery, will have to regain trust by doing what he says he’s going to do and refraining from the inappropriate activity moving forward. Then, he has to hope his spouse can reach forgiveness.

 

 

 

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