JOURNAL
Quick Weight Loss and Your Health
High-protein weight loss programs like the Dukan, Atkins, and South Beach Diets are growing in popularity. They challenge traditional medical guidelines, which suggest that overweight individuals should consume small portions of only low-fat foods in order to lose weight. Instead, diets such as the Atkins suggest that eating an unlimited quantity of high-protein, low-carb foods can leave people feeling fuller for longer and achieve superior results.
While a high-protein nutritional balance is proven to be effective for weight loss, many nutritionists, dieticians, and doctors worry that it could have a harmful impact on health. So what are the possible risks?
Food Deserts
Have you ever dreamed of lying around on a desert island, soaking up the sun? Well today, around 23.5 million Americans live in the desert[1]. That’s not the idyllic white sands and cocktails type of desert though – in fact, it’s much more sinister than that. They live in food deserts.
Desert Island Dreams
Food Deserts in America are full of dreams of only one thing – easy access to healthy, affordable foods. To qualify as a food desert, then, a geographical location will offer little or no affordable, healthy food options within a reasonable travelling distance[2]. There are more of these areas than you would think. In fact, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that nearly 24 million people in America today live more than one mile away from a supermarket and have limited or no means of transport. What’s scarier is that 2.3 million Americans are living in low-income, rural communities that are ten or more miles away from retail outlets selling a good range of healthful foods[3]. That’s an awfully long way to go for fruits and vegetables, especially when you don’t own a vehicle and public transportation is poor.
One-a-Day...Not so much
Vitamins and other supplements should help your health, not harm it —in fact; the whole idea behind the campaign to “take your vitamins” is to provide your body with essential nutrients it might not be getting through your diet.
However, there are some vitamins and minerals that may have adverse effects on your health if you take them in the form of supplements, these effects can range from transient and unpleasant symptoms, to severe and life-threatening diseases; in the worst cases, certain vitamins may raise your risk of cancer.
Step Aside Condom - Presenting a New Birth Control Method
Following up from our last post about improving the male condom (http://urbansculpt.com/blogs/2014/3/15/improving-the-male-condom), a new condom alternative may be available to you soon. The condom has always been the only form of birth control that protects against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). That is, until now. Scientists are working on a new type of birth control that will also protect against some STIs.
Improving the Male Condom
Last November, 812 creative minds set out to improve one of the most important tools in sexual health, the male condom. Their work was in response to a contest sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that wanted to encourage new innovations to make the condom more functional, comfortable, and more likely to be used. The foundation chose 11 winners, out of the over 800 participants, who were awarded with $100,000 to further develop their idea. The idea that shows the most promise after this development will receive another $1 million to continue work on their product.
Are you taking life too seriously?
Life is a serious thing. It’s full of ups and downs and twists and turns that sometimes make you feel like you are on a rollercoaster. There are times that get us down and times that require greater focus but if you’ve ever been accused of taking life too seriously, perhaps it’s time to recognise the grave effects that that can have. After all, having fun and enjoying life is not all about having fun and enjoying life, but it’s also about looking after your mental and physical health. In fact, taking life too seriously inevitably leads to stress – and stress is a killer.
Saving a Superfund: Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal
Most urban waterways have seen their share of abuse. Having acted as lifelines of industry and commerce long before anyone ever paused to consider environmental consequences, these rivers, streams, and canals have absorbed decades worth of industrial waste, chemical runoff, and untreated sewage, most of which was eventually carried into the ocean, thereby accounting for the mercury content of much of the fish we eat today.
But what if that waste hadn't been carried away? What if, instead of being swept out to sea, all those chemicals and byproducts remained right where they were dumped, festering for decades in the middle of a busy city?
The Amazing Health Benefits of Breastfeeding
You have probably heard that breastfeeding provides a wide range of amazing health benefits for babies, but you may not realize that the act of breastfeeding can also substantially improve a mother’s well being. Read on to discover the five most fascinating and surprising ways in which choosing to breastfeed can boost your health and extend your life
1) It makes you less likely to develop a range of different cancers:
A large number of independent research projects have shown that women who breastfeed are reducing their chances of suffering from cancer. For example, those women who breastfeed for more than three months slightly reduce their risk of developing endometrial, ovarian cancers, and they are more than 10% less likely to develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetimes.
Mapping Emotions
Have you ever felt your heart ache with sadness, or the flutter of nervous butterflies in your stomach? How about the all-over tingle of happiness or the pit-of-the-stomach emptiness of depression? We sneer with disgust and puff our chests with pride – all these may be true in a metaphorical sense and we certainly have the language connections to back them up. However, recent research suggests that our emotions have real physiological reactions to go with them.
It has long been accepted that emotions induce some sort of physiological reaction – cheeks burning with shame, for example, or palms that sweat with nerves. Now though, researchers in the Biomedical Engineering department of Aalto University, Finland have mapped exactly which parts of the body are affected by which emotions.
Cervical Cancer - Prevention and Detection
What is Cervical Cancer?
Cervical cancer tends to develop slowly inside the surface cells of the cervix. The cervix has two types of surface cells known as squamous and columnar. Squamous cells are where the majority of cervical cancers originate.
Cervical cancer is caused overwhelmingly by HPV(Human PapilIomavirus). HPV is a commonly spread STD, taking various different forms and causing diverse effects for those afflicted. Some forms of HPV lead to cervical cancer and genital warts, other varieties of the illness prove to be harmless.