The Fitness Icebear on the Treadmill

Funny how things go:

Alzheimer Prevention

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive degenerative illness that results in the destruction of a person’s cognitive skills and abilities, including thinking, reasoning, learning and retention, communication, and sometimes even motor. While much of the research currently being done on Alzheimer’s disease is on finding a cure and treatment for the symptoms, considerable progress has also been made in Alzheimer prevention.

As the president and medical director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Foundation International in Tucson, Arizona, Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., is one of the physicians at the forefront of Alzheimer prevention. He contends that the current research on the disease serves only to confirm the idea that Alzheimer prevention is the only practical way of dealing with it.

“We have to realize that the era of the magic bullet – drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease – is over,” asserts Dr. Khalsa. According to him, there is a need to take an integrative approach as what has been done for heart disease. “What works for the heart, works for the head,” he further adds.

Dr. Khalsa’s Alzheimer prevention principle is based on the concept that while the disease progression may be slowed down with medications and drugs, to prevent the disease from developing in the first place, certain steps ought to be taken. Foremost among these steps is to recognize and reduce the factors that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s – a Multi-factorial Disease

Many scientists agree with Dr. Khalsa that Alzheimer’s is actually a multi-factorial disease. That is, its development is dependent upon several variables, including but not exclusive to nutrition, chronic stress, and lifestyle choices. However, Dr. Khalsa believes that out of these risk factors, the most probable cause of Alzheimer’s are chronic, unrelenting stress and free radical damage and oxidative stress, all of which occur at a certain point in our lives as we age.

Studies show that there are people who appear to be able to protect themselves against memory loss even though their brains show significant damage from Alzheimer’s disease. It has been observed that these people are usually the ones who are mentally engaged or physically active. Additionally, there are also many Alzheimer’s patients who reach 80 and beyond with their memory intact, thus, suggesting that the disease is not a normal part of aging. All these findings further suggest that those who remain mentally active in their later years have a better chance at Alzheimer prevention that those who are not.

In an exciting development of the Alzheimer’s cure research, the Irish drug company Elan and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories in New Jersey worked jointly in a human test study which they announced in July 2001. This Alzheimer’s cure study is said to find out whether a new Alzheimer’s “vaccine” could halt or even cure the disease. However, after some of the volunteers of the study began to develop brain swelling after getting injected with the Alzheimer’s cure, the study was halted.

Alzheimer Test

It was not until 2005 that a new form of Alzheimer’s cure was discovered by Howard Weiner and his colleagues. The Alzheimer’s cure is actually a nasal spray designed also to target the beta amyloid formation in the brain. Said study is set to be tested on humans in 2006.

The Alzheimer’s test that Professor Solomon developed is called the 7 Minute Screen. It is actually comprised of four Alzheimer’s tests that can be administered in less than 10 minutes, or exactly seven minutes and 43 seconds on the average, by anyone who has had an hour of basic training.

The 7-Minute Alzheimer’s test was patterned after the designs of four older psychological test models but with improvements added to make it more sensitive to detecting dementia. Specifically, the Alzheimer’s test zeroes in on tasks that a person with Alzheimer’s would find difficult to do.

The notion is that if people remain mentally engaged, this would result in the establishment of more synaptic connections between neurons in response to new learning. As observed in children’s brains, new synaptic connection is an integral part of learning and is a process that continues for the person’s entire biological life. Thus, as you grow older, your synaptic connection should grow denser as well.

Is a Chiropractic a benefit to the "Well Individual"?

First question: What is chiropractic?

The word “chiropractic” is taken from Greek, and means “done by hand”.

This is exactly how chiropractic care works. The chiropractor uses his or her hands to manipulate your body, and help it to heal itself. It is the branch of the health sciences which focuses on the neuromusculoskeletal system.

That’s a very big word to simply say how your spine and nervous system work together. The spine is the highway for your central nervous system; if the highway is blocked or traffic is jammed, they are usually able healers. Many cultures, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, and even the Africans have used some form of chiropractic care for several hundreds of years.

Is chiropractic a benefit to the well person?

Should you visit a chiropractor when really nothing is wrong?

It is a benefit and here is why:

The nature of a chiropractic treatment is the belief in the body’s own healing abilities.

Quite often, we can have small problems in one area of our body, and not even realize it until the effect is felt in a much larger way - sometimes somewhere else.

The practice of a chiropractic care focuses on the connection between your spine and your nervous system:

the spine is the structure, and the nervous system is the function.

Chiropractic believes these two systems work in unison to keep and then restore your body’s health.

Why has it taken so long for chiropractic care to receive its proper recognition in western medicine?

Because by its very nature, it creates a divide between traditional, western philosophies and practices and what the chiropractor practices. In modern, western medicine, prescription drugs play a huge role in our healing process.

To circumvent all those years of development, and investment on the part of the drug companies, is like climbing a rock cliff. It has taken many years, much evidence, and the demand of the general public to finally make progress towards the implementation chiropractic medicine as a realistic form of healing.

Chiropractic care in the western civilizations however has experienced many hurdles on its way to becoming one of best forms of back care and preventive medicine available today. To date, much research has been done and much material published on the benefits and cost-effective nature of chiropractic treatment.

The number of Americans who seek chiropractic care has more than tripled in the last ten years, and continues to grow each year.

It is a known fact, if you’ve ever visited the chiropractor, the philosophy works, your body feels better, it heals better, and you aren’t cut, drugged, and off from work for 6 weeks to recuperate.

It is interesting to note here, that chiropractors are still classified as holistic healers.

In other words, they believe in the whole body approach to healing. So do the acupuncturists, and the herbal healers.

It seems to me, that the traditional medicine has a lot of "catching up" to do - and they thought they were in the lead...

Well - maybe you have your own opinion about this...

Static Contraction Training

My training method has a very successful track record over more than a decade. Perhaps you heard about Static Contraction Training from Tony Robbin's "Get the Edge" self-improvement program. Perhaps you heard actor Anthony Hopkin's telling Conan O'Brien about how he used SCT to get in shape. Or maybe you just talked to one of the 200,000+ regular folks who have successfully used my training in 82 countries around the world. That doesn't happen unless a training system honestly works!!

What we can learn from children

Children are naturally flexible. And they have boundless energy. I know this, because I have three sons:

5 - 3 - 1 year old.

Did you ever try to keep up with children?

In fact, when PROFESSIONAL athletes have tried to keep up with a child, they get exhausted within an hour.

Before my son hit the crawl stage, he had to do baby pushups - not to mention a lot of back hyperextensions.

In order to achieve the sit-up-in-bed stage, he had to do a lot of leg lifts and knee pullins. One of his favorite exercises was the "army crawl". That one whoops most adults within a few seconds.

After army crawls come "bear crawls".

Bear crawls are one of the most overlooked bodyweight exercises - and if you take a minute a day - well, maybe more like 30 seconds to crawl like a bear - believe you me, results are a coming down the pike.

After bear crawls flip over for a bit of crab walking, and you've virtually hit every muscle in the body, except the neck.

Now: how could this be turned into an Exercise workout?

1. Baby pushups - hips and legs on floor - push off palms, lower
and repeat
2. Army crawls - 10-20 seconds
3. Leg lifts - 10-20 to start
4. Leg pull-ins - 10-20
5. Bear crawls - 30 seconds
6. Crab walks - 10-20 seconds
7. Get-ups - lie on back and come to standing - 10x

So you see, even the most basic things we do as a child can be turned into a kick-butt workout, using nothing more than your own bodyweight :-)

A Physician´s Weight Loss Secret

Today I found a staement from Lori Domingo. She is "pleased" with a new diet she found on the web...

She states: "I was very skeptical about your program after having no success with 8 other popular weight loss systems.
Then I watched my sister-in-law shrink before my eyes while using your diet system.
Needless to say, it didn't take me long before I decided that if it worked for her, it just might work for me also.
I'm so glad I did. Now I'm 27 pounds lighter."

The interesting thing about this program is: it´s from Joy Siegrist, a medical doctor...

To find out more just click here.

Burn Your Fat - Fatburning Secrets of the Worlds Best Models and Fitness Gurus

I have to admit that there is a lot of hype out there about the RIGHT way to lose fat....

Wouldn´t it be nice to loose some weight AND fat? Of course it would...

I literaly read every book about these themes and I repeatedly find:

outdated information
no help section
no refunds
links to other sites asking for more money...

I realized that most programs are totally useless. Just these days I came across a website for a weight loss guide that is pretty impressive, with a good amount of quality information about weight loss.

But don´t take my word for it... you can visit the site I found by clicking here.

All the best!

How Safe Are Natural Diet Pills for Weight Loss?

Many of us have heard horror stories about the ‘diet pills’ that were popular a generation or so ago. These pills, available with a prescription, were basically ‘speed’ – which, in a slightly different form, was sold as a street drug. And yes, these pills did make women lose weight – sometimes a great deal of weight. This weight loss came at a heavy cost, though. A lot of people became addicted to diet pills. Others simply took them for so long, or at such heavy doses, that they ruined their health.

Nowadays, those types of diet pills still exist, but they are not prescribed or used nearly as often as they used to be. In general, people today are more aware of the importance of good health and doing things the natural way. All the same, losing weight is still a going concern, and there are many people looking for an easy way to do it – a ‘shortcut’, so to speak. That’s where natural medicine comes in.

Natural, naturopathic or herbal medicine has been around for literally hundred of years – long before western medicine or modern pharmaceuticals. It has also undergone a bit of a revival of late. People are disenchanted with the mainstream medical system, and looking for answers through an older system of medicine, one that is based on natural substances such as herbs and vitamins.

In fact, you can see how true that statement is just by browsing the shelves of your local drug store. Chances are, there will be almost as many herbal medicines available on your drugstore shelves as there are conventional medicines. Even some doctors are coming to accept the role that herbal medicine and natural medicine has to play. Even if they don’t out and out endorse it, many doctors will concede that natural medicine does no harm, at any rate.


So, when looking for a quick fix to the weight problems that plague so many of us, natural or herbal diet pills might seem very appealing. Actually, they really do have their strong points. Herbal diet pills are not speed – they don’t even resemble the harsh pharmaceutical diet pills of a generation ago, and they work in totally different ways. For example, some natural diet pills work as a ‘glucophage’ – they ‘eat up’ the excess glucose that is circulating in your system after you eat. Glucose, according to some, is precisely what does make you gain weight. It can even lead to other problems, such as diabetes later in life. Glucophage can be a great way of eliminating excess glucose in your system if you happen to eat too much.

Of course, as might be expected, that doesn’t work well for everyone – in fact, it sometimes backfires. You might use it as an excuse to eat even more, in fact, in which case no amount of glucophage can save you! It may also be true that this type of herbal remedy has inconsistent results – it may work much better on some people than on others. That having been said, though, there are people who have used glucophage and had excellent results.

Hair and Hair Loss

Hair is the fastest growing tissue of the body, made up of proteins called keratins.

Every strand of hair is made up of three layers: the inner layer or medulla (only present in thick hairs); the middle layer or cortex, which determines the strength, texture, and color of hair; and the cuticle, which protects the cortex.

Hair grows from roots, which are enclosed in follicles. Below this is a layer of skin called the dermal papilla, which is fed by the bloodstream carrying nourishments vital to the growth of hair. Only the roots of hair are actually alive, while the visible part of hair is dead tissue, and therefore unable to heal itself.

It is vital then to take care of the scalp and body in order to perpetuate hair growth and maintenance. Expensive treatments that claim to treat the visible hair and nourish it therefore are usually no more than bogus claims made to sell products.

Hormones called androgens, usually testosterone, can cause hair follicles to shrink, causing thinning of hair or eventual hair loss. Reportedly only bone marrow grows faster in our body than hair does.

The average scalp contains 100,000-150,000 hair follicles and hairs, with 90% growing and 10% resting at any given time. Hair actually grows in three stages: anagen, catagen, and telogen. The anagen phase is the phase where hair is actively growing, and of course this phase is longer for follicles in the scalp than anywhere else on your body, and lasts longer for women than men.

It is natural for follicles to atrophy and hair to fall out, and this is called the catagen phase. This phase is only temporary, and eventually the follicle enters the telogen phase where it is resting.

These are the 10% at rest mentioned above. Normal anagen phases last approximately five years, with catagen phases lasting about three weeks, and telogen phases lasting approximately 12 weeks. As you see it is natural to lose some hair.

Natural hair loss is considered to be in the range of 100 hairs per day. It is not apparent to most people that hair is actually being lost until more than 50% of a person’s hair is actually lost.

Arthritis is a big issue!

Arthritis is a big issue.

Look at some introductory facts. Referred to as the nation’s number one crippling disease and the most common chronic disease in people over 40, arthritis affects more than 40 million Americans.

And this figure is expected to rise to 60 million by 2020, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Arthritis generally afflicts people between the ages of 20 and 50, but can affect all ages, even infants. The average age of onset is 47 and about three out of every five people with arthritis are under 65 years of age.

Arthritic expenditures for just one person due to lost wages, medical treatment and other related expenses can come to more than $150,000 in his or her lifetime.

And doctors believe there are over 100 different forms of arthritis, all sharing one main characteristic: all forms cause joint inflammation.

Soon I´m going to release some very good infos about that!