Posts Tagged ‘fitness’
High Blood Pressure In Adolescents
High blood pressure, which is also known medically as hypertension, is a state where the pressure of the blood coursing through your arteries is considerably higher than standard. Most medical practitioners will state that the beginning point for people over eighteen years of age is 120/80. However, there are causes that could render those numbers not normal. Age is one of them.
The first number is the systolic arterial blood pressure, which means that it is the pressure read when the heart contracts, beats or pumps out blood. The second number is when the heart sucks in blood, ready to pump it out again.
These statistics are given in millimetres of mercury and are written as mmHg. Higher readings of either of these figures can indicate a difficulty. One thing to make patent here is that it is impossible to guess or estimate the pressure of your blood without using either a sphygmomanometer ( the one your physician uses in the surgery), which is the gold standard for blood pressure monitoring devices or a home blood monitoring machine.
Blood pressure can become affected by numerous things such as: time of the day, age, weight, height, mood, fitness, diet, degree of activity and stress, which may or may not be part of ‘white coat syndrome’ amongst others. ‘White coat syndrome’ is the anxiety experienced by some people while they have to be examined by a physician. This applies to children more than to any other age group.
Blood pressure also changes during the day, so in order to acquire an accurate reading, it is necessary to take several all at the same time of day. It is also prudent to wait 45 minutes after drinking caffeine or ten minutes after arriving before taking a reading.
So, what is standard? The real answer, although it is annoying, is that only a medical doctor can tell you, but for an adult, they say that it is 120/80, for an adolescent it is 110/70 and for an infant it is 80/45.
However, whilst measuring and evaluating the blood pressure of adolescents, you have to remember that age, sex and height matter. Therefore, an adolescent is said to have high blood pressure if the blood pressure is over that of ninety percent of people of his/her age, gender and height.
The causes of hypertension are classified as primary or secondary. Primary means that it is all your body’s fault and secondary means that the reason is something else, say, medication. Hypertension can also be caused by race or other hereditary reasons. Males of African descent are especially at risk.
One of the things you can buy to keep you knowledgeable about your family’s blood pressure concerns is a home blood pressure monitor. These devices are quite cheap yet are very accurate, so buy an automatic digital monitor and take it to your physician to make sure that it is accurate and get the readings that are applicable to all the members of your family.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on the cause of high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.
Blood Pressure Control Is Just Good Health Control
If you have been informed that your blood pressure is too high (that is, that you have hypertension), then what you were actually being told was that your lifestyle is not especially healthy. This is because, unless your hypertension has come about because of ethnicity, age, sleeplessness or medication, you are doing something wrong in your daily life.
Blood pressure control for most individuals means initiating lifestyle changes for the better or taking tablets for life. If you have hypertension but you cannot go to see your GP as frequently as you would like, you could always buy a home blood pressure monitor and keep tabs on your blood pressure yourself.
The best sort to get is an automatic digital monitor with a self-inflating cuff. It should also have a pulse monitor and a number of memories, although you can always use good old-fashioned pen and paper. They are not costly any more and ought to cost between $30 and $100.
Some have a lifetime guarantee and are as accurate as your GP’s sphygmomanometer, which is the gold standard of blood pressure monitors. You should take your readings at the same time every day (or two or three times a day at the same times) and keep a record of it or them. In this fashion you can compare your progress (or lack of it).
The first thing to do is give up smoking (if you smoke, obviously) and then cut down on heavy drinking sessions, if you do that). Doing that will improve your general health whether you have high blood pressure or not.
The next thing to do is to reduce your weight, if you are overweight by dieting and exercise. If you are not overweight, you will still need to raise your level of exercise and change your diet for the following reasons. Exercise decreases your blood pressure and too much salt (also called sodium) will increase your blood pressure.
So, whichever way you look at it, you will need to exercise more and take on a low-sodium diet. One of the methods of reducing sodium in your diet is by eating fresh fruit and vegetables and stop eating canned and other fast foods, which are stuffed with salt.
These lifestyle alterations are not easy, so if you have to take some of them on board, consider getting help. For instance, you could use patches to help you stop smoking. You could visit the pub less frequently or simply go there later in the evening. You could ask your spouse to go on the diet too or you could join a support group on or off line.
There really are lots of resources out there to help you circumvent hypertension, but if you just cannot be bothered, then nip along to your doctor’s and get your first batch or high blood pressure tablets and be sure to create a repeat appointment, because you will be going back and forth for the rest of your life.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on a number of subjects, but is currently involved with work on foods for high blood pressure. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, just go to our site at High Blood Pressure Recipes.
Enjoying Alcoholic Drinks
In the West, alcoholic drinks are never far away from the scene at festive times, but do we aways know how to get the most from these costly luxuries? Too many people these days just think its a question of ‘getting as much down as possible in as little time as possible’. This is the wrong approach.
After all, most people realize that a good meal does not consist of eating as many chips as possible in fifteen minutes, so why should that principle not apply to consuming a drink too? You will get far more pleasure from a bottle of wine, if you spend an extra dollar on it and drink it slowly with a friend and some appropriate food than if you swill down a cheap bottle of plonk on your own. It makes evident sense, but not everyone sees it.
So, with that idea in mind, I have put together a few tips on how to get more enjoyment from your alcoholic drinks, if you are old enough and of that turn of mind.
Gin and Vodka – if these white spirits are your proffered snifter, always keep the bottle in the fridge, not the drinks cabinet. Keep the mixers in the fridge too. That way the ice will survive longer and you will not be tempted to have to gulp it down before the ice melts. If you are having friends around, go one step further and put the bottle in the freezer. It will not go solid. You can even cut the top off a plastic lemonade bottle, put the bottle of gin or vodka in that, fill it with water and then freeze it. Take off the plastic bottle and you have an attractive “collar of ice” around your bottle.
The Last Tot – five minutes or so after finishing a bottle of spirits, tip it out one more time and the bottle that you thought was drained will deliver one more tot of contents. It is not a lot, but it is a pleasant free surprise. The same works for many alcohol based products including underarm roll-on and scent.
White Wine – white wines taste best when they have been gently chilled over a prolonged length of time, but if you get taken by surprise visitors, put the bottle of wine in a jug of ice and cold water. Try not to have to place it in the deep freeze, it is too harsh, but if you have to, then ten minutes is all that it takes.
Port – it is always better to decant port and older, heavier red wines, because of the sediment that may be in the bottom of the bottle, which tastes horrible and because it assists the aeration of the wine. However, it is not always easy to see when the dregs are coming. The books say to use a candle, but they were written a hundred years ago. The concentrated beam from a torch is much better. Try using a Durabeam because its rotateable head allows it to be directed more accurately.
Decanters – from time to time the stopper becomes stuck fast. Tap it with another glass item and it should come loose. If not, run the neck of the decanter under hot water for a few seconds and it will come out.
Labels – if you store your wine in a damp place where the labels are likely to rot or fall off, spray them with hair lacquer first.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots
Atkins Diet Free Plan.
What is the Atkins diet and what will you have to sacrifice in order to obtain the results you’ve seen other people realize? You hate your size twelve, and you desperately want to come down to the size six that you were once, although you’ll settle for a size eight, if you have to. It doesn’t really matter as long you’re nowhere near your current size twelve!
You’ll have to begin with a working knowledge of what the Atkins diet is all about and what it might entail. On the other hand, if you don’t want to get caught up in detail, you could always just try out an Atkins diet free plan, which might help you to get a grip on the situation.
There is not definite place I can say for you to get an Atkins diet free plan of course, but I’ve discovered that the Internet is the best place for you to find out just about anything and everything you need to learn. Start by turning on your computer, it’s truly amazing how many snotty looks I receive when I state this blindingly obvious fact! In fact, you probably did the same just now!
Anyway, if you just cruise the Internet for an Atkins diet free plan, you’ll be amazed at the amount of other free plans that you’ll come up with as well. And if you’re not dead set on going the Atkins diet way, then you could just trial any one of the other free plans. As it suggests, it won’t cost you more than the time spent on the Internet.
So, what can you possibly hope to get from an Atkins diet free plan? To start with, you can see which types of foods you can eat and which type of foods you can’t eat. If you’re considering going with the Atkins diet then in the induction phase alone, there are some things that you’ll need to give up in order to stay on your diet.
On that list of food, which you may eat and still stay on your Atkins diet free plan, you’ll find that you can eat cream, cheese and butter as long as you remain within your moderate daily carbohydrate allowance, but avoid the fruits, the breads, the pastas and the pizzas. Basically everything that tastes great, you may think.
But, the statement is not completely true, as you’ll see when you look at the Atkins diet plan recipes which may or probably won’t come with your Atkins diet free plan. There are quite a few great tasting recipes you can consume and, although you may not not it yet, they’ll incorporate many of your favourite foods, just not anything high in carbohydrates.
As far as drinks go, the same principles remain true as in the rest of the Atkins diet free plan. That means, you must avoid sugared drinks or sodas like Pepsi, Ovaltine and sugared tea or coffee. Furthermore, you must to be careful with coffee, because it can be more addictive while on the Atkins diet for some people.
Likewise, caution is required with regard to alcohol. Some types, like lager or sherry contain too much sugar, while others, like Guinness or whisky are all right in moderation. However, you ought always to refer to your Atkins diet free plan before deciding what you may or may not drink.
Do you want to lose those excess kilos rapidly? Well, take a free look at Atkins Diet Free Plan, by visiting our website called The Atkins Diet Plan
Why Take A First Aid Course?
Have you ever been the first individual on the scene of a serious accident? I have – a cyclist took a corner too fast and rather sharp. He came off his bike and was knocked unconscious. I went over, but I had no notion what to do. I was sorry for him because I could not help and I felt embarrassed for myself and still do, ten years later.
This is why everybody ought to know the fundamentals of First Aid. Everybody ought to know how to make an accident victim comfortable and how to resuscitate him or her if necessary until medical professionals arrive.
Everybody should know what to do in the event of accidents that cause such common events as choking, drowning, fractured limbs, heart attacks, burns, scalding and electric shock. Everyday accidents that not everybody sees every day luckily.
A basic First Aid course will teach the ‘Four P’s’, although they might call it by a different name. The Four P’s are Preservation of life; Prevention of further injury; Promotion of recovery and the Protection of yourself.
This is attained by the application of ‘ABC’, which stands for ‘Airways, Breathing and Circulation’, which means that first you ought to check the nose, mouth and throat for blockages, then check for breathing and resuscitate if necessary, then stem any bleeding with bandages and tourniquets, if you have to.
Knowledge of CPR or artificial resuscitation is also desirable and it is also a major component of any First Aid course. Artificial resuscitation ought to be applied when the patient has stopped breathing or the heart has stopped beating. Some basic training is better before applying CPR, because it can harm a patient that does not require it.
Besides just wanting to be a decent citizen, there are several other reasons why you might like to take a First Aid course. Some jobs need that those who carry them out have been on a First Aid course. Professions that may need knowledge of First Aid include: supervisors of children like play school leaders, teachers, scout masters and youth club leaders.
Some jobs will more than likely provide their own First Aid course. This would almost certainly be the case in the police force and in factories where specific industrial accidents may happen such as chemical burns.
If your First Aid is a bit rusty, you should consider taking a refresher First Aid course. You will find numerous First Aid courses once you start searching. Your local community centre may arrange a First Aid course from time to time, so might your local hospital, police force, ambulance and fire services.
If not, you will always find a First Aid course on line. If you take a First Aid course on line, you will almost certainly have to go to an actual test of your knowledge if you want a certificate, although all the study can be done at home, which will save time.
Before you go, here is another mnemonic to help you remember: ‘BBB’, breathing before bleeding, bleeding before bones’ or should that be the ‘6 B’s’?
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently busy with First Aid trainer courses. If you have an interest in RC vehicles, please come over to our website now at First Aid Courses Online.