Misconception and myths about excercise and weight loss

Misconceptions and myths about exercise and weight loss

How much true how much false

Now a days people are getting more conscious towards thier health and fitness. Similarly there are several common misconceptions about exercise and weight loss, but don’t let yourself be fooled! Here are the Top 6 Fitness Myths and the Truths that debunk them:

Myth #1: You can take weight off of specific body parts by doing exercises that target those areas.
Truth: This concept is called "spot training" and unfortunately, it doesn’t burn fat. When you lose weight, you are unable to choose the area in which the reduction will occur. Your body predetermines which fat stores it will use. For example, doing sit-ups will strengthen you abs but will not take the fat off of your stomach. Similarly, an activity like running burns fat all over your body, not just your legs. You can, however, compliment a balanced exercise program with a selection of weight training exercises to gradually lose weight and tone the body.

Myth #2: Women who lift weights will bulk up.
Truth: While on a weight lifting program, the right hormones (testosterone) are necessary in order to bulk up. Women’s testosterone levels are much lower than men’s, so in most cases, they are not capable of building large muscles. In fact, since muscle takes up less room than fat, women tend to lose inches when they strength train. So in addition to the physical benefits (increased metabolism, decreased risk of osteoporosis, increased strength), strength training will help you slim down too!

Myth #3: If you can’t exercise hard and strongly there is no point?
Truth: Even moderate activity is shown to reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke. If you don’t have 30 minutes in your nd often, there’s really no point.day to exercise, try splitting it up into 10-minute segments instead. Everyone can find 10 minutes to spare sometime during the day! There are simple things you can do to increase your activity without having to go to the gym: take the stairs instead of the elevator, jump rope or do body weight exercises (push ups, crunches) at commercial breaks, take a short walk after lunch. Remember that any exercise is better than none!

Myth #4: Performing abdominal exercises will give you a flat stomach.
Truth: This is similar to Myth #1 above. The fact is, the only way to get a flat stomach is to strip away the fat around the midsection. This is accomplished by doing cardio/aerobic exercise (to burn calories), strength training (to increase metabolism) and following a proper diet. Abdominal exercises will help to build muscle in your midsection, but you will never see the muscle definition unless the fat in this area is stripped away.

Myth #5: You will burn more fat if you exercise longer at a lower intensity.
Truth: The most important factor in exercise and weight control is not the percentage of fat calories burned, but the total calories burned during the activity. The faster you walk, bike or swim, for example, the more calories you use per minute. Although you will be burning fewer "fat calories", you will be burning more total calories, and in turn, will lose more weight.

Myth #6: No pain, no gain!
Truth: Exercise should not be painful! At the height of your workout, you should be sweating and breathing hard. You should not be so out of breath that you cannot answer a question, but should not be so comfortable that you can carry on a full conversation. That’s how you know you are working at a good level. It’s important to distinguish between muscle fatigue (feeling "the burn") and muscle/joint pain (sharp and uncomfortable pain during movement). Pain is your body’s way of telling you that you’re doing something wrong. Listen to your body. If it’s painful, stop!

There’s a lot of fitness information out there- some reliable, some not. The important thing is to ask questions. If you don’t understand something or question the source, simply visit our site http://www.holisticayurveda.110mb.com/ and http://www.holistic-ayurveda.blogspot.com/ for their advice and knowledge respectively. Sticking to the truths of these myths will keep you healthy, injury-free, and on track to meeting your fitness goals.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

– A disorder of mind and gut interrelation.

“It is more important to know what sort of Person has the disease than to know what sort of disease a person has”

– Hyppocrates

IBS is a unique disease entity in itself. It not only has physiological component but involves psychological component also that has its major impact in the manifestation of this disease. The medical management of patients with IBS is still unsatisfactory. Doctors are still taught that IBS is diagnosis of exclusion and patients readily sense that they are being told that nothing is really wrong with them. Many people soon realise that the medication they are being offered has little role to play. This mood of negativity once established further worsens the condition and is difficult to dispel.
IBS is best regarded as a complex of symptoms without a single cause. Disordered gut motility, visceral hypersensitivity, intestinal inflammation, and genetic and environmental factors have been suggested as being causative factors. In some cases, a well defined point of onset of syndrome symptoms seems to exist, such as after gastrointestinal infection but the most plausible view is that the symptoms of IBS are an integrated response to a variety of complex interactions combining biological and psychological factors. The concept of IBS is a disorder of brain – gut interaction with physical and psychological components, which places the emphasis on the perception of symptoms and their impact rather than on the symptoms themselves.
The psychological profiles of patients presenting with IBS are well characterised and about half of them have been found to have a demonstrable psychiatric disorder. Whether these abnormalities are cause of effect of is debated but since most of the diseases are psychosomatic in origin therefore it is more prudent to consider it while dealing with this disease because the patients with IBS are clearly more likely to have depression and abnormal behaviour patterns, including anxiety, sensitivity and somatisation. More specifically some patients develop maladaptive behaviour regarding eating and defecation which reinforces the magnitude of symptoms and their impact on quality of life. Moreover, concurrent psychiatric disorders are associated with poor outcome in irritable bowel syndrome.
The main problem a clinician is faced with is how to diagnose an IBS. For this Rome III criteria have been devised:

Symptoms of abdominal discomfort or pain, for three days a month in the past three months, associated with two or more of the following three features:
o Relieved by defection.
o Onset associated with a change in frequency of stool.
o Onset associated with a change in consistency (form or appearance) of stool.
Criteria fulfilled for the past three months, with onset of symptoms at least six months before diagnosis.

Treatment:
Growing evidence supports the use of antidepressants for IBS, but the mechanism of action of these drugs in the disorder remains unclear. Their beneficial effect is independent of mood or anti-cholinergic effects on the gut, which can be important in encouraging patients to accept their use. Clearly, although their antidepressant action is likely to be important in patients with a coexisting disorder, a separate and key action may be to influence psychological pathways leading to reduced somatisation and a reduced tendency to regard gut sensation as indicating illness.
Tricyclic antidepressants: They seem to be more useful when the main symptoms are pain and diarrhoea. Evidence suggests that a low dose of tricyclic antidepressant e.g. daily doses of amitriptyline as low as 10 mg are efficacious as, and produce fewer side effects than, conventional doses.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors: They are thought to be more helpful in constipation and pain or bloating symptoms. e.g. Paroxetine (Tab Parotine 10 mg BD or according to response)
Cognitive behaviour therapy: It shows patients how events, thoughts, emotions, actions, and physiological responses are interlinked; the perception of sensation and the patients’ thoughts are of particular importance. It is most appropriate for those patients who are considerably distressed by their symptoms, are open to the idea that psychological factors play some role in their difficulties, and are willing to participate in this therapeutic approach. Cognitive behaviour therapy is as effective as antidepressant therapy and its benefit lasts longer.
Combining cognitive behaviour therapy and antidepressants can produce the best response.
Along with this the symptomatic treatment of the symptoms should also follow.

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  If it is constipation predominant then encourage high roughage diet and Isapghol with milk or Lactulose (Gush or Ree-Lax 10 gm or 15 ml) as a single dose and adjusted according to patients response).


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  If it is diarrhoea predominant then advice to avoid legumes and excessive dietary fibre along with Loperamide (Cap Eldoper) 2 – 8 mg daily.

In both the above conditions Cap. Syncrospas 100 mg tds (max duration in one go = 6 weeks) should also be added.