How Heart-Healthy is Alcohol?
Dr. Joseph Mercola

Although past research suggests that drinking a glass or two of
wine a day may have some heart benefits, new findings suggest
that those studies were flawed.

Risks Outweigh the Benefits

There is some evidence that heavier drinking provides heart
protection — alcoholics have relatively ‘clean’ arteries — but
the other health risks of heavy drinking outweigh the benefits.

Early observations in the 1970s and 1980s seemed to indicate a
20 to 25 percent reduction in heart disease risk linked to light
drinking. However, the way those studies were carried out did
not allow researchers to say with certainty that the findings
could not be due to factors other than alcohol consumption.

Diet, Exercise, Quit Smoking

The British Heart Foundation responded to the new evidence by
saying that their advice remained the same: “… the best way to
reduce the risk of heart disease is to quit smoking if you
smoke, increase levels of physical activity and eat a healthy
balanced diet.”

BBC News December 2, 2005

Dr. Mercola’s Comment:Good advice from the British Heart
Foundation, so long as your balanced diet is nutritionally sound.

As I’ve said before about studies touting all the “benefits” of
drinking red wine, I personally do not advocate it. There are
many health experts that feel it is fine in moderation, but I am
still not convinced.

This is largely because I am convinced the alcohol itself is
actually a neurotoxin, which means it can poison your brain.
Additionally, it has the strong potential to seriously disrupt
your delicate hormone balance. Plus, drinking two or more
glasses (of wine or any alcoholic beverage for that matter) may
offset the benefit and increase your risk of certain cancers.

You also need to be aware that consuming large amounts of wine
will increase insulin levels and eventually have a negative
impact on your health that way as well.

If you absolutely insist on drinking red wine, check on the
growing conditions of the grapes used and how the wine is made.
And if you can, take a brisk walk to pick it up, as exercise is
your real ticket to preventing heart disease.

About the author:

This article is reprinted from Mercola.com, the world’s #1 most
visited and trusted natural/alternative health website. For a
limited time only, you can take the FREE “Metabolic Type Test”
to help you learn the right foods for your particular body type
so you can achieve optimal fitness & health. Just go to
http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm right now to take this
quick test!

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Diet Pill That Works Is There Really Such A Thing

Do you wonder if there is any such thing as a diet pill that works? The short answer is yes, there is a weight loss tablet which works. In fact there is more than one, however finding a diet pill that works for you can present a challenge. In this discussion you will discover several things which will help your weight loss pill to work, more efficiently.

Weight loss pills, just as diets, cant work solely on their own; they require your co-operation. If you can eat relatively healthy and undertake a small amount of exercise each week then the chances will increase that your diet pill will work.

A word of caution and warning needs to be inserted here. You should always see your doctor to make sure you have no underlying health issues causing your weight gain. It is also important for the Doctor to determine you are physically healthy enough to pursue a weight loss diet and exercise program.

It is well known that the best way to stay fit and healthy is by eating well and exercising. However, some people still require a little more motivation. This is when a weight loss diet pill comes into play. Diet pills can increase the speed and kick start your weight loss. The initial weight loss becomes a huge motivator.

Most diet pills claim that they are the very best product on the market. Often times claiming you will lose weight instantly and without effort. In some cases this is an outright lie. In other cases its partially true.

There is no single “best” weight loss pill nor will any have you losing weight (safely) in just a few hours. The best weight loss pills dont make false claims; they just tell you the facts. Sure they may hype it up a bit, but leave the outrageous lies to the pills that do nothing for you. So how do you choose a good diet pill that works?

Natural and Herbal Products
These products are generally what most diet pills are. Natural diet pills also will not expose you to dangerous side effects that chemical based pills can. If a product is marketed as “all natural” or “herbal” then you can be sure it is based on natural ingredients such as plants and minerals.

Look at the Marketing
If the diet pill company website has unrealistic claims and downright sleazy marketing tactics then you can become a little suspect of the product. A good diet pill company will not try to gloss over their products, they will simply give you the facts.

Look for a Guarantee
If a company offers money back, no questions asked guarantee then it means they are confident that their product works. Its not a good idea to buy a diet pill which doesn’t provide a money back guarantee.

Find Reviews
Finding reviews on the internet from real customers is simply the best way to determine whether a diet pill works. There are many websites which publish customer feedback. Remember a diet pill company will only ever publish positive testimonials on their website so it is important to research a variety of sources before pulling out your credit card.

One of the great ways to find reviews, about which weight loss pill or diet works is to hit the online forums or bulletin boards. An additional source could be chat rooms dedicated to talking about weight loss.

With a good common sense approach and a little work on your part, you can find a diet pill that works for you.

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3 Surefire Ways The South Beach Diet Exercise Can Work For You

Some of you may have heard of the south beach diet exercise, especially if you have been known to stay up to date on the health industry. For those of you who are a little less familiar with exactly how the diet has grown to be so successful, its actually a really easy concept. The diet mainly works by doing one simple thing. It slowly starts to reduce the amount of bad carbohydrates and fats that you are currently consuming and replaces them with good ones. Perhaps the fact that this concept is so basic and almost common sense, is the same reason that it getting so much attention lately. Due to the fact that it is a rather new trend in the health industry, there are not many great resources available for people that can afford professional help. Luckily, for this very reason we have put together the following guide to show you exactly how the south beach diet exercise can work for you.

Tip#1: I know what your asking yourself, What foods can we eat? right? Well this is perhaps the best part of this diet. The foods that it allows you to eat are actually reasonable sized portions of foods that you are bound to already be eating. Some of the foods include fish, chicken, beef, turkey, shellfish, nuts, eggs, cheese, and vegetables. The south beach diet exercise suggest to eat three meals a day consisting of these foods as well as garden salad. The garden salad should only use 100% olive oil as a dressing. The diet is split up into three phases. All of the phases consist of eating these foods. The first phase however will get you to cut out a lot of the foods that are high in sugar including all baked goods, ice cream, beer and alcohol as well as foods like bread, rice, potatoes, and pasta.

Tip#2: The best way to get your body to stop having cravings for foods that are unhealthy is to train it to crave other foods. By following the steps in tip number one and phase 1 of the south beach diet exercise, you can effectively train your body to crave the recommended foods. Some people think that this might take a long time, however in most cases this process will only take about two weeks which is the entire length of phase 1 of the diet.

Tip#3: After completing phase 1 you can now move on to phase 2. The second phase of the south beach diet exercise, unlike the first phase, does not have a suggested time period. This is because the second phase should be continued until you reach your desired weight. The most important part of this phase is continuing the diet and training that you completed during phase 1 of the south beach diet exercise and as well as exercising self control for foods the foods that you cut out during phase 1. This means that phase 2 allows you to occasionally have some of the foods you cut out during phase 1 only if you feel that you can exercise self control. The good thing is that the first phase will already have conditioned your mind and body, making phase 2 extremely easy.

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If you want to help your children lose weight, some changes have to be made. It is becoming more often that we read and hear a lot about the need to lose weight on a daily basis. Now that obesity is being recognized as an increasing problem, losing weight, especially in teens has gained a lot more significance.

Overweight kids have been the product of a “fast food” lifestyle that most families has grown accustomed with. Daily consumption of hamburgers and fries along with other add-on have made it easier for teens to gain more weight and at the same time get less of the essential nutrients that their growing body needs. It is becoming an unhealthy trend that needs to be addressed. It is usually up to the parents to take action.

So what is usually the quick and easy answer to help teenagers as well as adults lose weight? The simple combination of diet and exercise of course. Almost everyone is aware that following a healthy diet and regular exercise are keys to losing and maintaining a healthy weight. No new research is required before you can look into the causes of obesity in teenagers. More than just the fast food, it is also the larger portion sizes, or increasing inactivity that are causing more teens to become overweight.

There is not one single thing that they can easily change and make fewer people overweight. It is usually a combination of diet, exercise and other things that is the successful answer to any weight issues. The big concern is more on how to find the motivation to eat healthier and exercise regularly. This is probably the most difficult part of trying to lose weight. But even if one has the proper motivation to start eating healthier and exercising more often, trying to keep it up becomes an even harder task.

In the case of teenage kids, proper motivation may come from going to school each day. An educational institution that practices and preaches a healthy lifestyle would be more than helpful in keeping the weight of teenage and even younger kids in check. Schools can institute major changes in order to provide kids with healthy meals and regular exercise. Small steps such as banning soda and fruit drinks can help a lot.

There are many ways that a school might help kids in general become healthier. One is by providing real daily physical education requirements that can help make kids more active physically, a break from a sedentary lifestyle that they may be accustomed with at home. A school can also help in an effective weight loss program for kids by offering only healthy foods at school meals. Unhealthy foods or snacks should not be offered as an option for kids who don’t want to eat healthy.

Having adequate fitness equipment available to all students can greatly help in motivating kids to become more active. Such equipment should be made available for everyone and not just for those students who are participating in formal sports. Schools can also increase the number of informal sports that kids can play.

This way, kids do not have to be a member of the varsity basketball team in order to enjoy playing basketball at school. Of all of these changes, the program to increase physical education requirements will likely be the most useful in helping kids reach a healthy weight. Such programs can also help them avoid becoming overweight and further help kids build good habits that might stay with them into adulthood.

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