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Sunday, 04 July 2010

Personal Habits may be the Premier Cause of Hypertension

Many millions of people of all ages, but especially those older than 45 years of age, suffer from the symptoms of hypertension and high blood pressure. All around the world and specifically here in American we are seeing a spike in cases of hypertension. The cause of hypertension and high blood pressure cannot be traced to just one thing or one bad habit. A combination of bad personal habits however can be linked to the rapid increase in these types of cases nationwide.

High blood pressure or hypertension is a chronic medical condition. The shortened words for hypertension are HT, HTN or HPN. Systematic arterial hypertension is what is usually referred to when hypertension is referred to, and can be either essential or primary, or secondary. When there is no cause of hypertension discernible it is referred to as primary or essential hypertension. Most hypertension cases fall under this category (over 95%). When you have secondary hypertension it means that there is a cause of hypertension such as kidney disease or certain forms of tumors.

If hypertension is not treated it can lead to strokes, heart disease, heart attacks, heart failures or aneurysms. Life expectancy is routinely shortened by even moderate levels of high blood pressure and must be treated.

The leading cause of hypertension in the U.S. is smoking. Chronic or long term smokers are some of the most common victims of high blood pressure. Chronic drug use such as cocaine or amphetamine use can lead to high blood pressure as well. Obese people are in the high risk group to develop high blood pressure and those that have a diet which consists of food high in saturated fats have a high probability of developing hypertension.

Failure to exercise regularly at least three times a week for at least thirty minutes is also a leading cause of hypertension in adults and adults over 50. Some of the most at risk people are African Americans or those with Diabetes.

There are some diseases that can become the cause of hypertension and these include arteriosclerosis, sleep apnea, hyperthyroidism, and over 200 other diseases and causes.

Over consumption of alcohol, salt, and cigarette smoking can also be the cause of hypertension, as can a non-nutritional diet.

Our hectic lifestyles can also be the cause of hypertension. Worrying and stress over finances or relationships can raise blood pressure levels dangerously.

Whatever the cause of hypertension, we must alter our lifestyles to combat the lethal consequences of the disease which attacks so many Americans daily. People need to watch their salt intake, quit smoking, start eating more fruits and vegetables, and do some hard exercise at least three or four days a week on a consistent basis. By becoming healthier and fitter not only will we look better but we can reduce or eliminate hypertension from our lives. We will live longer, happier, healthier lives by just taking care of ourselves better.
Nature, God, and the unadorned beauty in you

If you don't see beauty in nature, you're probably in the midst of strife, the world is in conflict, and you're being called upon to overcome; and when you do, a new balance will be achieved; and in that achievement, natural beauty will reveal itself again to you. You'll look in the mirror and see the work of nature, of God, and the work of your own spirit looking back at you.

Some wise men say that the beauty we experience in nature is the very reason we must recognize the work of God therein, that nature itself is the work of God, his will, expressing itself for himself, and for you. In the end, says the philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, natural beauty is our perception of the cosmic Will manifesting itself in what we call the world – all, then, is beautiful. But if we do not look for it, it will remain hidden. If we insist on regarding nature as somehow evil, we will look away from it with disdain and abandon the very joy it offers us, perhaps the only joy for us. If, instead, we see nature as another philosopher of beauty does, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of Shaftesbury, as the mind of God molding the material of the cosmos, then we will also see in nature the good itself. If this is true, then that body, that face that is given to you, unadorned, without ornament, plain, in itself, is an expression of the beautiful and the good.

So often we look at one another and look for the ugly rather than the beautiful. Perhaps not as often, but often enough, we also look at ourselves and see less than beauty, less than good. You are, then, purposing to yourself an ideal against you, or another, fails to approximate. This ideal we form in our minds; we have gathered together samples of the human face and body and arranged these on a line in which what is ideal is at the middle, the mean, of the measurements of these samples. At one extreme are those whose measurements are less then the average, the mean, and at the other, greater than the mean. We will call natural beauty the mean, neither deficient nor excessive, but perfect, and the extremes ugly or deformed. The mean, then, becomes our ideal of a beautiful face and body. Failing to find ourselves ideally beautiful, we will feel a revulsion for ourselves and declare that natural beauty belongs only to the few, but not to us or most others.

If this is true, if only the idealize face and body possesses beauty, then why does God, why does nature, express such a wide variety, instead of only what is good and beautiful according to our idealization of it? Why are there so few ideal beauties and so many less? Could we possibly be on the wrong track? Could our ideal beauty be only an illusion, the wish of mathematicians, of the cerebral type? Could natural beauty be, instead of the mean, the whole spectrum, from one end to the other, of the expression of God's idea of natural beauty? Could Schopenhauer be right. Could all be beautiful, if we only look to find in all, and in ourselves, the cosmic Will, and the joy of God?

Look into the mirror again, at your face unadorned, and try to see what there is in it that would give God pleasure to behold. Then, enjoy yourself - God does!

Saturday, 20 March 2010

Beginner Weight Training Routines

When you are just starting out, whether you are old or young, you need to be very careful how you approach a weight lifting regimen. Beginner weight training routines need to be set up by an expert or personal trainer or you could end up injuring yourself very easily. The entire point of weight training is to break down the old muscle tissue and let the body naturally replace it with new, denser, stronger muscle tissue. This is what causes the next morning pain that most bodybuilders and athletes feel when they have a strong workout. Because weights put a lot of stress on muscles, joints, bones, and your respiratory system, you need to start slowly with beginner weight training routines. With some good practice and repetition you will progress rapidly and build strong lean muscle in just a few weeks.

If you are like most of us you just can’t afford a personal trainer but are enrolled in a nearby 24-hour Fitness, Bally’s, or small local gym. You may feel somewhat intimidated when you first start going to a gym because there are some huge freakazoids there that look like they have been mainlining steroids and HGH for a decade or two. Watching these guys grunt and scream and bench press 400 pounds can make anyone think twice before grabbing the 5 pound dumbbells off the rack. We may not want to look like them. We may even think of them as disgusting and self-absorbed to the extreme. All you want is to become a little stronger (okay, a lot stronger) and have the kind of body that doesn’t make members of the opposite sex laugh at you or want to vomit.

With today’s emphasis on health, beauty and fitness, we need to look good and feel good in order to succeed. No one wants to hire a weakling or an obese person. Most employers look at an obese person and think “lazy”. This may be patently unfair but it is the way of the world and if you don’t think looks matter when it comes to hiring you need a brutal reality check this very instant. Studies have been done on this subject and the results are far and away in favor of the attractive and fit person getting the job (every time) over the fat or weak looking person.

Beginner weight training can take the form of light weights such as dumbbells or barbells. Don’t try and lift more than you can comfortably pick up when you first start on this or any other regimen. It may be even better to go “too light” and just do extra repetitions (reps). Beginner weight training with light weights will avoid pulled muscles or pinched nerves, the two most common injuries among weight lifters. Back pain and even herniated disks can result from lifting too much weight. Straining too hard can cause hernias so you need to be lifting an amount that is comfortable for you and will not cause you to strain too much. This is not to say that you should take it easy either. Even if you are lifting small weights you should try and do more reps and take less time between sets for recovery.