Potent Honey Used as Antibiotic

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. After all the supposed progress science made in the twentieth century by developing antibiotics, it turns out that a 4,000-year-old remedy may be just as effective.

Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and nonhealing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback.

More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing this fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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High Intensity Interval Training for Cardio and Fat Loss

Is it possible that low-intensity aerobics for "fat-burning" is finally going the way of the dodo bird? More and more trainers are recommending intensity over volume as the key to fitness and fat loss. One of the best ways to up the intensity of your workout is with interval training. Nick Nilsson explains what interval training is and how to do it.

Without question, High Intensity Interval Training is one of the most effective means available for rapidly losing bodyfat and improving your cardiovascular conditioning. Not only do you burn many more calories while you're performing the training, you also stimulate your metabolism to a far greater degree than with lower intensity training, which is traditionally hailed for fat loss. Read more

Medical Myths Exposed as Untrue

"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."--Mark Twain

Unfortunately, for those who worship at the feet of "experts," experts can be wrong. For example, medical professionals are not that less likely to believe medical myths than ordinary people are.

Some claim drinking eight glasses of water a day leads to good health, while reading in dim light damages eyesight.

Others believe we only use 10% of our brains or that shaving legs causes hair to grow back thicker.

But a review of evidence by US researchers surrounding seven commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually "medical myths". Read more

Don't accept the opinion of experts as the last word on a subject. Do your own research and make your own judgments.

Burning Calories through Exercise Harder Than You Think

Many people hope to burn enough calories through exercise so that they don't have to change their eating habits. However, burning calories through exercise is harder than you think.

THE Spinning class at our local gym was winding down. People were wiping off their bikes, gathering their towels and water bottles, and walking out the door when a woman shouted to the instructor, “How many calories did we burn?”

“About 900,” the instructor replied.

My husband and I rolled our eyes. We looked around the room. Most people had hardly broken a sweat. I did a quick calculation in my head.

We were cycling for 45 minutes. Suppose someone was running and that the rule of thumb, 100 calories a mile, was correct.

To burn 900 calories, we would have had to work as hard as someone who ran a five-minute mile for the entire distance of nine miles. Read more

The only people who could burn significant calories through exercise are people who are already lean and fit. Otherwise, to lose weight, you're going to have to modify your diet.

The 20 Worst Foods in America

Men's Health reveals its list of the worst foods in America. How many do you eat?

Sure, a turkey burger sounds healthy. But is it, really? Not if you order the Bella from Ruby Tuesday, which packs a whopping 1,145 calories. (And yes, that's before a side of fries.)

To further enlighten you on the prevalence of preposterous portions, we spent months analyzing menus, nutrition labels, and ingredient lists to identify the food industry's worst offenders. Our primary criterion? Sheer caloric impact. After all, it's the top cause of weight gain and the health problems that accompany it. (As you read, keep in mind that 2,500 calories a day is a reasonable intake for the average guy.) We also factored in other key nutritional data, such as excessive carbohydrates and fat, added sugars, trans fats, and sodium. The result is our first annual list of the worst foods in America.

Eat at your own risk. Read more

20 Minute Dumbbell Workout

This video presents a full-body dumbbell workout that you can follow along with.

Did the Smallpox Vaccine Actually Eradicate Smallpox?

With governments herding children like cattle to be vaccinated at gunpoint, you would think that the effectiveness of mandatory vaccination was an indisputable fact, but is it?

The first vaccine mandated by governments was the small pox vaccine. Today, you’ll hear any number of medical professionals refer to the vaccine as proof of Western military medicine’s superiority over any other discipline. The World Health Organization proclaims proudly to anyone who will listen that the vaccine has eradicated smallpox (yet for a disease "indistinguishable from smallpox," apply the same vaccine used to protect against smallpox).

However, the record of mandatory vaccination is mixed at best.

For instance, one of the most stunning antidotes to the idea that smallpox was eradicated due to mandatory vaccination is the Japanese example. The practice of "revaccination" was prevalent there (and in the British Navy) until their vaccination rate exceeded 100%! In spite of this, Japan faced huge smallpox epidemics. All told, the Japanese lost 48,000 people to smallpox, most of them vaccinated at least once. When the government stopped the mandatory vaccinations, the epidemics were finally arrested. Were the smallpox vaccination truly effective as a prophylactic, such an example could not exist. Unfortunately, there are dozens just like it all over the world.

In 1904, the U.S. Army decided to forcibly vaccinate the Philippine population ostensibly to improve health conditions but more likely intended to protect military personnel. They touted its success when in the following two years smallpox appeared to be under control. However, from 1917 to 1919, in a population of 11 million that had a reported 100% vaccination rate, smallpox epidemics claimed over 70,000 lives out of 163,000 reported infections.

By contrast, Australia, from 1900 to 1915, which never instituted a mandatory vaccine program, reported 3 deaths due to smallpox over the entire period. Read more

Real World Fitness Cuts Stroke Risk

If you can perform ordinary daily activities, such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries, and kneeling and bending, your stroke risk may be 50% of those who can't perform those activities.

... New research shows that men and women over 40 who can climb stairs, carry groceries, kneel, bend, and lift may be 50% less likely to suffer a stroke than those who can't do those things.

That news, published in Neurology, comes from a study of some 13,600 adults in the U.K.

The study started in 1993. Back then, participants were 40-79 years old; none had a history of stroke, heart attack, or cancer.

Participants got their height, weight, and blood pressure checked. They also reported their history of smoking and later rated their ability to climb stairs, carry groceries, bend, kneel, and lift. Read more

What the study doesn't prove is if that there is a cause and effect relationship between strength and lower risk of stroke, but why wait for the study results to come in? The correlation between functional fitness and lower stroke risk has been demonstrated. That ought to motivate you to keep up your strength training, however much or little you do.

Why and How to Measure Your Bodyfat Percentage

The body mass index (BMI) seems to be the preferred method for determining obesity for health professionals, but in my opinion, the BMI is probably the worst way possible to decide whether someone is overweight. For one thing, it makes no distinction between being muscular or overfat for one thing. Most collegiate and professional football players would be considered obese according to their BMI. Nor does it does it distinguish between someone who is lean and muscular and someone who is skinny because of little muscle mass but who still carries too much fat. There is a much better method than the BMI.

Your body fat percentage is one of the best indicators of your fitness and nutrition program. Many people weigh themselves and judge their results on the bathroom scale. However there is one major problem with using the scale to determine your progress.

The best way to illustrate this is by using an example. Let's say you have been working out for a month now. You initially weighed 160 pounds. You weigh yourself this morning and you are 157 pounds. Your cannot believe that you've only lost three pounds! You become frustrated and want to give up.

The scale shows that you lost three pounds, but it does not tell you if you lost fat or muscle. Testing your body fat percentage will tell you how much fat you lost and how much muscle you've gained. You see even though the scale says you lost three pounds, you could have lost 8 pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle. That would equal a net loss of 3 pounds.

As a trainer, I always test my clients body fat percentage. There are three main ways to measure body fat. They are calipers, bio-impedance devices and hydrostatic testing. Hydrostatic testing can be done at universities or hospitals, but tend to be more expensive than most people are willing to pay for a body fat test. Read more

Chocolate, Sex, and Cold Meat Good for the Brain

Good news on the anti-aging front: dark chocolate, sex, and cold meat for breakfast are good for the brain.

Forget crosswords. If you really want to boost your brain power, eat dark chocolate, consume cold meat and have plenty of sex, if possible everyday.

A team of international researchers has carried out a study and found that while dark chocolate and plenty of cold meat for breakfast boost grey matter, sex keeps the brain fit in later life, the Daily Mail reported here on Monday.

According to the study, those wishing to improve their mental ability should also avoid smoking cannabis, watching soap operas and hanging out with those who moan. Instead, cuddling a baby, cheating at homework, reading out loud and doing a business degree can boost their mind power. Read more

Natural Homemade Hair Loss Tips

Rogaine, Procerin, and other pharmaceuticals are advertised as treatments for hair loss. Even if these treatments do work for you (and there is no guarantee that they will), you're going to be spending $500 a year at least for the rest of your life for these drugs. Wouldn't it be worthwhile to give natural hair loss treatments a trial before spending a lot of money on medications that may or may not work?

Natural homemade hairloss tips explained here includes herbal remedies and herbal treatments. It is a natural way to stop hairloss. Naturals are safe. As it is homemade it is profitable also.

The reasons for hairloss may varry from physical to mendal. Hair loss causes and natural home-made tips to remedies. Read more

How to Make Your Bodyweight Workout More Challenging

Most trainers know how to make a weight training workout more challenging: add more weight or reps. Since you can't or don't want to add more bodyweight, is adding more reps the only way to make a bodyweight workout more challenging? Not at all. There are several variables that you can adjust to keep progressing.

We recently received a note from a few folks looking to make their bodyweight workouts more challenging. It seems that what they are currently doing just isn't getting it done so today I will go into a few techniques on how to do so.

You see, the nature of progressive resistance training is just that -- progression -- you must keep progressing for it to work and if it isnt "challenging enough" simply pick a variable and build from there. Read more