If you type Health and Fitness into Google, the number one search is this website.
It looks like they stopped making newsletters three years ago, yet they are still the top search result. The advice in the newsletters seems to be reasonable, even if the sponsors are a little questionable. When I tried to sign up for the newsletter, it didn’t work.
Check out the tips from three years ago and enjoy yourself.
Please address the problem of leaking in post menopausal women. I would love to run to improve my bone health but… I do kegels, still leak.
My first suggestion is to see a urologist. The body is a really complicated machine and there is no way that I could tell what your particular situation is. Make sure you take your health seriously and see a physician about this situation.
Here are some articles that discuss running and incontinence:
Overactive Bladder – Urgency/urge incontinence – The American Urogynecologic Society: A very thorough explanation of all the situations in which women may “leak.” There are suggestions here as well as therapies that are available. They mention the importance of keeping a Voiding Diary in order to assess the situation.
Incontinence: It Doesn’t Just Happen to Your Grandmother: A less thorough article about the issues, but concentrates on exercise incontinence. A very good description of what a Kegel Exercise is.
DEPEND – Learning Center – About Female Incontinence: More information from Depend Undergarments. No mention of Kegel Exercises or any other options, but they have a form for a Voiding Diary that you can print up and use.
Just as you mentioned Kegel Exercises are the number one recommended way to prevent incontinence in all situations, but here are some other tips that I gathered while looking:
Do not limit the intake of fluids before or during exercise. It is more important to stay hydrated when exercising.
Go to the bathroom right before you start exercising.
Use a tampon when running. This was recommended on a couple of websites and some of the women suffering from this swear by this technique.
There are some medications available that prevent bladder contractions. Contact your doctor about those options.
Some women wear a feminine napkin when they exercise (or there are products specifically designed for small urinary leaks). Considering how sweaty a good workout can make you, a little leakage on a feminine napkin or Poise pad isn’t going to be that noticeable.
Most importantly, don’t let this problem get in the way of your physical fitness. There are hundreds of ways to get fit and healthy. You and your doctor should be able to work out a plan so you can participate in sports and be healthy. Don’t rest until you find a way to make this work. You deserve a healthy and strong body.
Email from radman:
My question relates to different types of exercise. I have never been able to keep up exercise… but I have been using DDR and have been able to keep it up for a year.
I currently do DDR 3X a week at heavy level. It seems like it is a good workout for my lower body but, even though I get out of breath during each song, there is about 20 seconds between songs and the overall intensity just isn’t there. It says I have done 10 miles…but I am not near as fatigued/winded as if I jogged 10 miles… or even did 20 min on a treadmill(which I can’t stand doing). I love the DDR and am spending lots of time at it at a high level, but I haven’t really lost any weight and wonder if it is having an effect aside from lower body muscle toning… I have been going to the gym 2-3x a week and doing strength exercises for upper body and have enjoyed that. I was thinking of using the Yourself fitness to get more consistent aerobic exercise to lose some pounds (which I haven’t done with DDR). What are your thoughts on this? How would you integrate these different things (or would you?)
Radman,
You’re right. You’ve realized the limitations of DDR. In the end, it’s just a game. It’s an easy and fun way to get a little exercise in your day while having fun. If you are really serious about exercise, there are more efficient routines that work more of your muscles more intensely than DDR.
You’re also right about the exercise estimates. The calorie counters and the exercise comparisons are optimistic at best and misleading at worst. I wouldn’t believe either when evaluating how much exercise you’ve gotten from your session.
Yourself! Fitness is another exercise routine, but it’s more like a workout video than a game. It only took me a few weeks to earn all the perks of the game and I found some of the moves repetitive. There are as many different useful exercises as there are people in the world. You are at an exciting time right now. You get to explore them! The cool thing is that a lot of them (like running and walking and playing in the park) are free. Check out About.com’s Workout Center for some ideas. Find something you love and stick to it.
Now, about your weight loss. If you haven’t lost any weight from the exercise, you have run into one of the unalterable physics of the human body. Exercise alone won’t bring you significant weight loss. You need to exercise AND monitor your eating. I wouldn’t recommend cutting your calories drastically, however.
Start with slow, healthy changes to your diet. Add fruits and vegetables to your diet until you are easily (and comfortably) eating five servings a day. Make sure you have low-fat protein in your diet, whether it comes from meat, beans, or dairy. Drink at least five glasses of water a day. Make sure that you don’t allow yourself to get too hungry (I eat every three to four hours) to prevent binges.
These are the diet changes that have really helped me. If you want more ideas, check out Prevention.com’s Eat More, Lose More eating plan. If you want a more formal diet regime or you have serious problems with bingeing (eating until you feel too full more than twice a week), then I would recommend Weight Watchers.
Remember, I’m not a doctor, so make sure that everything you do is cleared through your general practitioner.
Good Luck!
Laura Moncur
Despite the recent study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging Americans to keep obesity under control.
They urge that the study is flawed because the data may have included subjects who were thin because of diseases, such as cancer or heart disease. Comparing death rates of people with diseases could have skewed the data, making thin people appear less healthy than overweight people. I suspect that subjects who were fat and had diseases were also included. If that is true, then their complaint is unimportant.
The most important thing is that we want to be healthy. Being slightly overweight doesn’t seem to negatively affect our health as much as they have been telling us for years, but everyone agrees about being obese. Negative effects from substantial obesity have been well documented.
There are so many descriptive words on the packages of food. Do they really mean anything. If something is “natural” does that mean it’s “organic”? Is it all a bunch of hype or is there some meaning to it all?
There are regulations about the word “organic” and you can look for the approved symbol. Other words like “natural” are used a lot but mean nothing. Check out this informative article.
Scientific American has a lengthy and in-depth article about the “Obesity Epidemic.” It’s a long article, but it’s worth the read.
I’ve talked before about the idea that the “Obesity Epidemic†is actually a method for the health insurance companies to deny coverage. That is one idea that this article doesn’t touch on. They very logically look at the available data and reveal that some of the figures that have been given to us were actually guesses and have been quoted so many times that they have become “facts” in the mind of the collective unconscious.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from this article:
“Underweight, even though it occurs in only a tiny fraction of the population, is actually associated with more excess deaths than class I obesity,” says Katherine M. Flegal, a senior research scientist at the CDC.
Oliver, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, is that “a relatively small group of scientists and doctors, many directly funded by the weight-loss industry, have created an arbitrary and unscientific definition of overweight and obesity. They have inflated claims and distorted statistics on the consequences of our growing weights, and they have largely ignored the complicated health realities associated with being fat.”
“The war on fat,” Campos concurs, “is really about making some of us rich.”
“H. L. Mencken once said that for every complex problem there is a simple solution–and it’s wrong,” Blair muses. “We have got to stop shouting from the rooftops that obesity is bad for you and that fat people are evil and weak-willed and that the world would be lovely if we all lost weight. We need to take a much more comprehensive view. But I don’t see much evidence that that is happening.”
Via: About.com – Is the Obesity Epidemic no Health Threat? – by Wendy Bumgardner
Bill Clinton is joining the American Heart Association in the fight against childhood obesity.
The most interesting part of this site is the discussion about Bill Clinton’s personal problems with weight and eating. Preventing heart disease starts with how you treat your body today.
Via: About.com – A New Initiative Against Childhood Obesity – by Paige Waehner
This article from Homemakers.com gives a list of foods that you should not buy for your family when going to the grocery store and their reasons. They also provide healthy alternatives. This is their list of no-nos.
Seeing a list like this makes me want to eat those things. I agree with all the reasons that they are items that one should avoid, but I still want to eat some Spam now. It’s very rare when I crave an item on this list, but seeing them all here together makes me think about them. I prefer articles that tell me all the great and delicious stuff I CAN eat.
There are risks with every pain reliever that is available in the drug store. Most of us are too busy trying to open the bottle to actually read about the risks, but this article explains them nicely.
The only problem with this article is that she doesn’t really explain the reason you might prefer anti-inflammatory pain relievers to other analgesics.
Tylenol (acetaminophen) is in the class of drugs called analgesics. It stops pain by elevating the pain threshold. It takes more pain to break through the acetaminophen barrier.
Advil (ibuprofen), Aleve (naproxen), and Aspirin are in a class of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). They stop pain by reducing the swelling that can cause pain. There is also some belief that they help you heal faster from an injury by allowing your body to heal while they stop the inflammation.
For those times that you overdo it at the gym, NSAIDs are the drug of choice, but then again, they might rip holes in your stomach. Acetaminophen might be a better option, but it might shut down your liver.
Choose your cure wisely.
Via: SportsGeezer
This podcast from Strength Radio started to sound like it might be a little over the edge, but every thing that Ken Gibson says is right on about caffeine.
The most important thing that he said is, “Coffee doesn’t give you energy. It borrows energy.” You’re not getting energy from your caffeine fix, you’re borrowing it from your sleep and your muscles. I have discussed my dealings with caffeine in detail and I can tell you that everything he says in this interview is an accurate description of what happens to you when you are addicted to caffeine.
02-02-04: Caffeine Withdrawal
03-12-04: How To Quit Soda
06-30-04: Diet Mountain Dew
09-23-04: Carbonation, Soda, Aspartame and Caffeine Withdrawal
03-18-05: Caffeine Dependence
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