Health, And The Many Reasons To Exercise In Your Life

Most people need to follow some sort of exercise program, in order to stay healthy. Here you will find a few good reasons why you should start exercising now.

a) Contributes to fat loss, it is well proven from scientific research all over the world that physical exercise contributes to weight loss. If you burn more calories than you consume through nutrition, you will lose weight. When you exercise, you burn more calories than when you do not. It is really simple, the more you exercise, the more weight or fat you will lose.

b) Prevent disease, the chances of developing several various diseases has been proven to decrease when exercising. These
diseases include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the stroke.

Around four out of five deaths caused by heart disease and cancer, are linked to factors that include stress and lack of exercise. People all know that diabetes increases the chance for heart attacks and strokes. What this shows, is that many of the risk factors and diseases caused by not exercising are working in conjunction to damage your health. To prevent this from happening, start exercising.

c) Improving disease, many severe and minor diseases can be improved or even healed through regular exercise. These even
include the diseases listed above. By following a regular plan, you can also decrease HDL cholesterol levels, decrease triglyceride levels, and decrease your blood pressure as well.

Exercising on a regular basis will also reduce the risk of prostate cancer for men, breast and uterine cancer for women, and much more. All of this is scientifically proven, which is why you should start exercising today.

d) Enhance your state of mind, everyone knows from the many scientific studies that regular exercising will lead to an increased release of endorphins in the body. These chemicals will fight depression and make you feel happy. The body releases these endorphins only 12 minutes into the workout.

There is another chemical known as serotonin that is increased during and after a workout. The increased levels of serotonin in the central nervous system is associated with feelings of well being and decreased mental depression. The chemical can also help you sleep better at night.

e) Enhance your wellness, when you are in great shape and well fit, you will have more energy and you will notice that your overall mood is improved. You will have experienced that you can stretch beyond your own limits and you know that you can do more than you thought possible.

f) Persistence, exercising regularly will give you more energy, which can help you be more productive at home and at work. Exercising can help give your new goals a sense of purpose and give you something to focus on and aim for. This can help you increase your persistence and prevent you from going off track while you aim for your goal.

g) Social capabilities, after a workout on a regular basis you can boost your self esteem. This can help you look better and you will be more comfortable as well. Exercise will also help you to become more active and meet new people, which will prevent you from feeling isolated and unsupported. Exercise will also increase your interests in sex, and can help you to improve your marriage or your partner relationship.

After knowing all of these tips and reasons to exercise, you should not hesitate to get out there and exercise. You can exercise at home or go out there and join a gym. There are several different ways that you can exercise, all you have to do is select a few that you like. Take a little bit of time out of your day and start exercising, you will feel better than ever before and your body will thank you.
By: James Murray
Article Source: http://www.HealthArticleBank.com

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The latest trend in birth control is to do away with menstruation altogether. Convenient, definitely. But is it safe?

Jasmine Bhatia hates getting her period, which brings cramps so severe that they extend down her legs, making it hard to walk. "To say it gets bad is an understatement," says Bhatia, 25, a copy editor in New York City. Bhatia's gynecologist prescribed painkillers and birth control pills, offering her the option of taking the Pill back-to-back — no dummy pills, no period — every other month. For Bhatia it's a reprieve, like being sentenced to home confinement instead of prison. "Even having to deal with periods half as often has made a big difference in my life," she says.

Okay, so not everyone's period is more torturous than an episode of Breaking Bonaduce. Still, you've likely fantasized about how great it would be to dispense with those days of the month when your jeans fit like cellophane, you're capable of restraining-order-worthy rants, and it takes a small Samsonite to tote around your tampons.

That fantasy is becoming a reality, albeit slowly. Birth control makers are increasingly cranking out products that aim to hit the pause button on your period for months, even years. You've seen the ads for Seasonale, a pack of 84 tablets introduced in 2003 by Barr Laboratories that makes periods a quarterly affair, like estimated taxes. Two other forms of birth control — Depo-Provera (the injectable drug that debuted in 1992) and Mirena (a kind of IUD that became available in 2000) — may completely eliminate periods (many women stop menstruating on them, though that's not a given). For years there's been the route Bhatia took — simply chucking the fourth week of the pill pack. And now Wyeth Laboratories has invented a pill called Lybrel that would do away with periods altogether; the FDA is likely to approve it by this summer.

But a period-free life, like a guy who keeps his apartment spotless, may not be as good as it sounds. For starters, the term "period-free" is approximate at best — Barr Labs has been rebuked by the FDA for making the claim on TV, when spotting and breakthrough bleeding are common side effects of Seasonale that can persist for up to a year. "It was really inconvenient, which kind of defeats the purpose," grumbles Pierrette Lo, 27, of Houston, who tried Seasonale last year but gave up after a few months.

Most women are open to less frequent periods, according to surveys, but some balk at the idea of eliminating them completely. "The idea of never having a period would be kind of weird," Lo says.
But scientists say it's the monthly bleed that's weird. Since the days when instant messaging meant exchanging grunts around the campfire, women have spent most of their reproductive years pregnant or breastfeeding — i.e., period-free. Until birth control became widely available a century or so ago, women had about 100 periods in a lifetime. We modern gals can expect about 450. The shift may not be a bad thing — still, from a biological point of view, experts say, skipping periods is as natural to women as the maternal instinct. "The notion that you have to bleed to be healthy is incorrect," says David Grimes, M.D., of Family Health International, a nonprofit consulting and research group. "Indeed, there is no medical need to bleed."

But hold on, you say. Turning your body into a baby factory may be natural, but forcing the issue by swallowing estrogen and progestin is not. And it's true that oral contraceptives pose risks. Because estrogen promotes clotting, doctors don't recommend the Pill for women with a history of heart attacks or strokes, or for smokers. And some women say birth control pills dampen their sex drive, saddle them with dreaded pounds, and can turn even a sunny personality into a Joan Crawford impersonator. But the Pill has some health benefits, too: It reduces the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.

You'd expect period-skipping pills to be radical, but ingredient-wise they're relatively mild. Seasonale's hormone hit is equivalent to that of popular low-dose pills like Alesse and Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo: 30 micrograms of estrogen and 150 micrograms of progestin. If approved, Lybrel would be the lowest-dose combination pill out there, with 20 micrograms of estrogen and 90 of progestin.

How could lower amounts of hormones send Aunt Flo packing? It turns out we'd be period-free even on standard birth control pills if it weren't for a 40-year-old marketing ploy as crafty as the money-back rebate. The Pill's inventors worried that women would shun this newfangled and vaguely scandalous product if, on top of liberating them from unwanted pregnancies, it took away their monthly cycle. So they dreamed up the placebo week. The sudden hormone-level drop causes a bleed — but one that serves no biological or health-promoting purpose. So if you already pop the Pill, you're most of the way toward suppressing your period as it is.

Breakthrough bleeding is more common when a low-dose pill is taken continuously — possibly because with low hormone levels the padding of the uterine lining is thinner and more fragile, hence more susceptible to wear and tear. In one trial, 28 percent of women still had irregular bleeding after 6 months of continuous Pill use; after a year, 10 percent of women did.

Not the best hassle-to-convenience ratio. But if you have a problem like cramping, endometriosis, or recurring ovarian cysts, skipping periods may be worthwhile. In studies, continuous birth-control use soothed symptoms more than the traditional Pill. "It might not be a good option for everyone," Bhatia says. "But for me it could really be great."
By: Apoorva Mandavilli

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