by rogerfit | Sep 24, 2018 | Health, Nutrition, Physical Fitness, Uncategorized
A Heart To Health Talk
Almost 19 million North Americans have a history of heart attack or angina. It is now one of the leading causes of death in the North America. More than 1 million North Americans have heart attacks each year. A heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), is permanent damage to the heart muscle. “Myo” means muscle, “cardial” refers to the heart and “infarction” means death of tissue due to lack of blood supply.
Nutrition and energy are delivered to the entire body by blood from the pumping heart. The heart itself requires constant energy in the form of oxygen and nutrients, which all come from the blood that delivered through the coronary arteries. A blockage in the coronary arteries prevents blood flow and causes the heart muscle to starve. The medical term for such starvation is ischemia, a condition that is accompanied by a chest discomfort called angina. If the blockage is severe, some of the heart muscle actually dies. When heart muscle dies, this is called a heart attack or myocardial infarction.
Fortunately, modern medicine already offers medical treatment acute heart attack. Preventive measures have been identified and are now being taught to prevent such an attack from occurring or recurring. Beta blockers are medications used to decrease heart rate and blood pressure. These can be given through an intravenous (IV) line or by mouth. Oxygen is used via nose plugs or a facemask if a person is having a heart attack. This is useful if breathing is difficult or the amount of oxygen in the blood is low.
Aspirin is used to decrease blood clotting. It works by preventing platelets from sticking together. Plavix (clopidogrel) is an additional platelet blocker given to those having a heart attack. Both aspirin and plavix are pills given by mouth. Clotting inhibitors called heparin, lovenox, and 2B3A are given via the IV and can help prevent the blockage from getting worse. A statin, or cholesterol pill, is often given to those having a heart attack. This too can stabilize a blockage and prevent it from getting worse. Chest pain can be decreased with nitroglycerine. This is given in a variety of ways, a dissolving pill under the tongue, a paste on the chest, or via the IV. Nitroglycerine helps dilate the coronary arteries allowing more blood to flow through. Morphine is another medication to control chest discomfort and ease anxiety. These medications mentioned work to stabilize a blockage, however, they are not very effective in removing one that has already formed. This job is done by “clot buster” medications or thrombolytics. T-PA (tissue plasminogen activator) and similar medicines can break apart a blockage and restore blood flow. Alternatively, this can be done with a balloon and stent procedure by a cardiologist.
However, there are practical ways that can lessen the chances of having a heart attack. Consuming at least five fruits and vegetables daily, exercising at least 2.5 hours per week, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking can decrease your chances of heart trouble by 35 percent, and the risk of dying by 40 percent, compared to people with less healthy lifestyles. Research have shown that people who eat a balanced diet and exercise more can substantially reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and death even if they're in their 50s or 60s. Most experts agree that a health-promoting lifestyle such as eating well, being active, and not smoking can cut overall risk of heart disease by 80 percent. Indeed, adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle makes a difference.
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by rogerfit | Sep 3, 2018 | Uncategorized
Your Heading Here
How Much Sleep Do We Really Need
Sleep plays a vital role in our daily regimen, as during this dormant period, it recharges and revitalizes our weary body organs and tissues. The amount of sleep an individual requires varies from person to person, to achieve this healthy balance, and to feel well rested upon awakening.
Researchers maintain a constant seven to eight hours of daily sleep throughout the year. However, researchers in North America tend to take a different view. They assert that because most of us can extend our daily sleep, we must need to do so. This would mean that people who seem content with seven and a half hours of sleep a day during the week but enjoy nine hours at the weekend are, unknowingly, chronically deprived, and actually need nine hours every day. Evidence for this is said to come from the many people who are sleepy in the daytime.
When we drift off to sleep, we either fall into a deep, restful sleep, or into a shallow, light sleep. It becomes obvious that if you experience a deep sleeping for few hours, it will be better than sleeping for long hours while experiencing a shallow sleeping as you will find yourself very tired, and your body is exhausted when you wake up.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who was not a good sleeper, had advocated “six hours sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool”
Many studies make it clear that the amount of sleep each person needs varies and depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid.
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by rogerfit | Dec 14, 2016 | Uncategorized
Personal Trainers. The Logic Behind Hiring One
There are many reasons why successful people and celebrities, just to name a couple, use Personal Trainers to achieve fitness.
It Gets Results!!!
That’s the reason why so many folks turn to Personal Trainers to get from mediocre health to excellent health.
The Facts:
9 out of 10 people will quit their exercise routine early and 6 out of 10 will quit within the first week.
The reasons: Making a lifestyle change is hard. With all the ads on TV claiming that you can get fit within 4 or 5 weeks are misleading. It’s a lifestyle change so it doesn’t happen in a month. Becoming healthy takes determination, patience and support. If any of the three mentioned things are lacking the chance of success decreases dramatically. Hire a Personal Trainer perhaps?
The Remedy
The good news is that just one of these components almost guarantees success- SUPPORT. With support the other components just seem to follow. Support is at the heart of what a Personal Trainer does.
A Personal Trainer also helps you find the time in your busy schedule to achieve your goals. They will design programs that help you find the time without the program interfering with your family duties etc.
We as Personal Trainers will also help keep you determined with your fitness goals. When someone first starts an exercise program they will be excited with the “new” way of doing things, but more often than not become bored. That’s where we come in. Reminding you why you first started in the first place and maybe switching up a few of the exercises to keep things fresh.
Finally a Personal Trainer SUPPORTS you. They’ll design programs for you which are safe, efficient and practical. They will keep you on the right track without you constantly wondering if you are doing the right exercises to achieve your goals and help you stick to them. Personal trainers are professionals and in case you’re wondering, they too had to start somewhere on the road to fitness. Nothing beats experience and with a Person trainer you get just that.
Don’t try to do it alone, we all need help from time to time.
Roger, owner of Rogersfitness.com
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by rogerfit | Oct 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
Coping With The Negative
You know it’s an odd thing the way our brains are wired to focus on the negative aspects of our day.
We can’t help it or can we? From a very young age it’s just the way our brains function. You ever hear the saying “bad news travels fast”? There is a very good reason for this and it’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way we are wired.
Through hard work and practice though we can rewire the brain to focus on the positive. You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, “focus on the positive things that happened in your day”, but never really put it into practice.
It could be something as simple as a good Samaritan holding a door open for you or some total stranger smiling at you when walking by.
Now comes the work that with practice you can achieve getting rid of the negative aspects in your life. Well maybe getting rid of them is a little exaggerated but at least put them in the back of your mind.
There are some negative things that we have to focus on like the death of a loved one, getting fired from your job, losing a pet, divorce, the list goes on and on. But with practice you can deal with these misfortunes in a better way.
For those little bits of negativity that happen to all of us in the run of a day, you have to focus on something positive. It doesn’t matter if it happened today, last week, or last year. Focus on that and even though that negativity is still somewhere in your brain, it’s not so prominent in your thoughts. After a while(no time limit for this), without even trying to do it, your brain will naturally focus on something positive.
Personally, I’ve been doing this for a couple of years and have still not totally rewired my brain to totally focus on the positive but there is a major improvement. My days are not perfect, but as long as I try this practice, they tend to be better 🙂
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by rogerfit | Sep 16, 2016 | Happiness, Mental health, Motivation, Uncategorized
Change, the moment it happened( I think.)
I’ve written in blogs a few times that if you think your life’s going no where that maybe it’s time for a change and that change is good.
Easier said than done, I know, and no one can just wave a magical wand and say to themselves, “there I’m changed”. If only it were that easy but anything worthwhile never is.
For me personally, (and just to let you know I’m still in the process) the decision to make some changes came one Sunday morning roughly 4 years ago. I was outside, having a smoke and a cup of coffee, the summer sun beating down on me, sweating out some alcohol from the Saturday night before and thought to myself, “I don’t like this anymore” and “NO” this didn’t happen overnight and to this day I’m not an angel but yeah, “Life is good”.
Friday night’s I’m exhausted from a week in my career but it’s a good exhausted. Being a Personal Trainer is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. That being said, partying up a storm on a Friday or for that matter, on a Saturday night is the farthest thing from my mind.
Like I said, to this day I’m still in the process of change. It takes patience and time. I’m no Psychologist and can’t tell you the proper steps to take to make this change and I don’t really think anyone, even a Psychologist, can tell you exactly how to do it. What worked for me isn’t necessarily going to work for you. We’re all different, that what makes us human.
This process has to come from the deepest parts of your soul, a decision to make some changes, no matter how small at first. Improvements don’t happen overnight but they will. It’s all up to you.
Change is indeed a scary scenario but well worth it. Peace.
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by rogerfit | Jun 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
Fitness tip of the Day…Get an accountability partner for exercise and weight loss support.
Exercise together, share tips and swap encouragement.
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