Can exercise helps to detoxify our body? A study.

Can exercise detoxify the body? Health experts are skeptical

Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:38AM EST
By Dorene Internicola
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The word "detoxification" is flung around the fitness community as frequently as kettlebells are swung.
Yoga teachers regularly speak of detoxifying twists, aerobics instructors of detoxifying sweat, dieters of detoxifying fasts. But health professionals are skeptical.
"If you start talking about exercising to detoxify, there's no scientific data," said Dr. Elizabeth Matzkin, chief of women's sports medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The human body is designed to get rid of what we don't need."
The same applies to fasting.
"No good scientific data supports any of those cleanses, where you drink juice, or (only) water for a week," she said.
Exercise is important, Matzkin added, because it enables our body to do what it is made to do, but the kidneys and colon get rid of waste. The role of exercise in that process is unclear.
"In general exercise helps our lungs; kidneys get rid of things that can cause us onset of disease," she said.
A healthy lifestyle - eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and exercising - is important to detoxifying because it enables our body to do what is intended to do.
"As for specific yoga moves, I'm not so sure," she said.
Yoga instructor and fitness expert Shirley Archer, an author and spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise (ACE) said the theory behind the effectiveness of detoxifying twists in yoga is that they squeeze the organs, which push the blood out so fresh blood can rush in.
"Better circulation equals better health," said Archer, who is based in Florida. "If detox means to eliminate from the body what it no longer needs, then certain yogic practices can help."
She said yogic deep breathing with strong exhalations can empty the lungs of unneeded carbon dioxide and allow for a fresh breath of more oxygenated air. "This nourishes all of our cells," she said. "It is also a method of cleansing because better circulation equals better health."
Meditative movement practices, such as yoga and tai chi, she added, can detox your attitude because they require staying in the present moment and discourage dwelling on the past.
Last summer, celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson began taking groups of 40-odd women on what she calls Detox Weeks, which involve at least three hours of workouts each day, as well as lectures on fitness and nutrition aimed mainly at encouraging lifestyle changes.
Similar weeks in other cities are planned for 2013.
"Women work out and think ‘Why can't my love handles, muffin tops go away'?" said Anderson, creator of the Tracy Anderson Method and a co-owner, with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, of fitness centers in Los Angeles and New York. "The most important thing is if you can become a consistent exerciser."
"A good workout is not five to 10 yoga poses," she explained. "You have to learn to scale up your endurance. If you can only jump for five minutes straight, we'll go to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes."
Anderson said she uses the term detoxification broadly to include everything from working up a good sweat to clearing the mind of destructive thoughts.
"Detoxification is a big topic," she said.
Nancy Clark, a registered dietitian in Boston, Massachusetts and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, said the body generally does a fine job of detoxifying itself through the liver and kidneys. Sweating has nothing to do with it.
"When you sweat you really don't detoxify anything," she explained. "If someone goes on a crash diet, then maybe toxins are released but then the body would take care of them. When you sweat you lose sodium."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Todd Eastham)

A wedding dinner at Ming garden, Time Square, Penang

Last night, I attended a wedding dinner at Ming Garden. My friend of  40 years, B was marrying off her daughter and he organised a grand dinner at the restaurant.  I thnk is about 50 tables of  invited guest and there was a three plus one band to keep us entertained.

The restaurant was famous for their fried duck dishes but the menu for the night was without their  duck dishes.  It was a eight dish menu  and the food was of good quality and taste.  I think it was about RM500 per table and wine and beers were free flowing. It was a joyful night and not much talking because the singers from band were entertaining.

The band make up of three ladies and one organist . One of the lady singer is a flippino girl married to a local and she has a very powerful voice singing the cabiret type of songs while another lady sings the ballet type and the last singer specialized in Chinese and mandarin songs. All the ladies were slim fit and presentable.  Luckily, this band kept me entertained for the whole night with good wine to accompany me. Not feeling like talking as it was a rush to reach the dinner place from my office.

It has been a long time since I have not played in a band and for such occasion, a good band is important to keep all the guest entertained.  There was a mixture of latin dances , gangnam style and disco numbers where some of the guest joined in for the fun. When come to the twist and the chacha, I saw  a couple of old folks joining in the dance.

Yes, the latin dances was my time and I have been doing the twist, the chacha and the waltz during my young days. I was not good as a dancer and I have the dream to learn it up but until now, it is still at its planning stage.  I talk to my wife about learning the dances together but she has been putting it off.  She is not much of a music person.

I believe latin dances can be a good exercise and a stress reliever. If you are good at it, it can be classify and elegant and it is a very good exercise and put grace into your walking. I am trying push myself to find me a good teacher.  A good dance is like a glass of fine wine. Syabas.

Well, the dinner ended well and it was a joyful night and I had a good sleep last night. I am longing for such good entertainment to keep my spirit and life brightly litted up. Life is like a good entertainment and so, we  enjoy it while it last.

Namaste.

The ironies in our life

If we slow down and re-look at life and we will know that there are alot of things not right with it. I have read many articles and a good article about life is how we spend a large part of life to earn money at the expense of our health and when we have enough , we used a large part of wealth to support our ill health. You may think that I am exeggerating but just think how expensive medication is now and how much it will increase over the years.

If we come down to the details, we will note that one heart operation cost RM50,000, eye operation cost RM12,000 or more. One MRI scan cost RM3,000 and one night in a hospital cost RM200 and it expensive than a three star hotel room in town. I believe it will become more expensive in the near future with a 10 % increase yearly.

Another irony is that we eat less to save money and become thrifty and when we are old, we eat less and selective in our eating habits  because we have to control our diet to keep good health. This is very true because I have seen how my FIL, J have been controlling his diet and in his later years, he is eating only vegetables and fish and in small quantity. Yet , he died of Cancer.  My advise to all you , readers  is to eat whenever you can eat but moderately. Don't go on a strict diet that you missed out all the good food in life.

Time is another limited factor in life. When we are young, we don't have the time for ourself and our family and when we are in our twilight years and having all the time in the world, our family members do not have the time for us as they will be busing living their lives.

This is a sad thing as even we are aware of these factors or limitations, we still not not do something about it. So awareness itself is not enough and we have to engage it and make the awarenss happen to live a meaningful and fruitful life.  Whatever passions we have or things that we want to do , we have to set ourmind to it and make it happen.  Don't let wealth and greed side track us in our pursuance of our dreams.

So, remember. Awareness is not enough..... engage your dreams and passions.

Namaste.

Live longer but in more pains- study

A sick world: We live longer, with more pain and illness

Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:34PM EST

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - The world has made huge progress fighting killer infectious diseases, but as a result we now lead longer and sicker lives, with health problems that cause us years of pain, disability and mental distress.

This "devastating irony", as researchers describe it, is the main conclusion of a five-year study that forms the most comprehensive assessment of global health in the history of medicine, according to the journal publishing the research.

The Global Burden of Disease study, led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at Washington University, finds that countries face a wave of financial and social costs from rising numbers of people living with disease and injury.

Among other findings are that while malnutrition has dropped down the rankings as a cause of death and illness, the effects of excessive eating are taking its place. Smoking and alcohol use have also overtaken child hunger to become the second and third leading health risks, behind high blood pressure.

Over three million deaths globally were attributable in 2010 to excess body weight, more than three times as many as malnutrition.

"We've gone from a world 20 years ago where people weren't getting enough to eat to a world now where too much food and unhealthy food - even in developing countries - is making us sick," said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, one of the lead researchers.

However, the major health problems now are diseases and conditions that don't kill, but make us ill. We now live longer with more health problems that cause pain, impair mobility, and prevent us seeing, hearing and thinking clearly.

"Very few people are walking around with perfect health, and as people age, they accumulate health conditions," said Christopher Murray, the IHME's director. "This means we should recalibrate what life will be like for us in our 70s and 80s. It also has profound implications for health systems as they set priorities."

The study, as the largest systematic effort to quantify world health levels and trends, involved more than 480 researchers from 302 institutions and 50 countries. It was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published as seven papers in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday.

Experts compared the study's scope and importance for future health and medical research with the vast project to map the human genome in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

"It's that kind of order of magnitude that we're talking about here," said Peter Piot, a professor of public health and director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"This is the most comprehensive assessment of human health in the history of medicine," Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, told reporters. "(It) provides the foundation for an urgent review of current priorities in health."

The research found that of 52.8 million deaths globally in 2010, chronic diseases took the highest tolls. About 12.9 million deaths were due to stroke and heart disease - conditions exacerbated by eating and drinking too much, smoking and taking too little exercise - and eight million were from cancer.

HIV/AIDS killed 1.5 million people in 2010, and tuberculosis, another infectious disease, killed 1.2 million.

While child mortality has decreased, there has also been a startling 44 percent increase in the number of deaths among adults aged 15 to 49 between 1970 and 2010. This is partly because of increases in violence such as homicide and traffic accidents and the AIDS epidemic, the researchers said.

A tired and restless heart

Today, I attended a court case and have to sit through a three hours ordeal .  It is quite strange to note that the lawyers in attendance have to switch between English and Bahasa  Malaysia when they presented their case in court.  Yes, it is quite strange but for foreigners, it will be absolutely shocking.  This is one of the greatness of Malaysia.

But, this is not the point.  The point is that I was tired and restless after the three hours ordeal.  Tiredness sets in and perhap,  it is due to strenuously sitting for three hours and trying to follow the case. Never mind, a sense of tiredness came into my mind and body system and I felt weak overall.  It might be because of AGE.

The tiredness brings restlessness. What am I trying to justify ? Life is only a matter of a few 10 years or 10 of 10 years to the maximum. What am I trying to prove ?

Days shift into weeks and weeks into months and months into years.  Time stops for no one and is that what I want to do for the rest of my life ? What is exactly what I want ? Any desire to do the things I want to do ? What are these things ? My mind cannot think of any when I search my heart ? Well, if  nothing then it does not matters , what I am doing now.  What is the difference do something and not doing anything if there is no unfulfilled task on hand.

In my younger days,  I could stay up until 4 am and the next day, I could go to work at 8am and I feel normal but nowadays, at 10pm at night, I would be yawning and my eyes gets so heavy that trying to keep it open draws tears to my eyes.  At times, it is an automatic shutdown.

Most of the time, the sleep is sound and I feel refreshed the next morning but after a hectic first few hours, the strain seeps in and my whole body system will be corrupted and tiredness will set in and bring along the restlessness. It is like "empat sekawan".   This old sitcom series tell us of four friends who will appear together everytime and is unseparable. One come, four will come together.  Just like Tiredness and restlessness.

Yes, the sight of old age is obvious and I cannot deny it.  I cannot only become aware of it  and it is not enough.  I must accept it and engage with it and to see whether I could be revived myself for a few more years and enjoy a few more years of good working life.  Have to burn the candle brigther before the candles burns out.

Namaste.

Nothingness - Lao Tzu

I got a friend, L who fell out of love recently and she sent me an sms to tell me that her boyfriend is so bad and they relationship broke up and she was heart broken.  She did not tell how bad is bad and I did not bother to ask her. I could sense the sadness in your words but what can I do excepI  to give her a few kind words.

I replied her SMS  and told her that life comes from nothing and if this is the case, then where does sadness comes from? This wisdom is nothin sg complicated. Life is a passing dream and it is hollow and since it  is empty, where does the sadness arise and hold on to. It  is a passing wind and when the wind is blowing, it is carrying dust with it and when the wind stop, the dust will fall.  Sadness is like the dust in the wind, it is just temporary and moving along with life.

If you can see through this wisdom, then you will know where did the sadness rise and the hurt and pain will not be there anymore. Nothing arise from nothingness. Everything is hollow and a passing wind.
 
 The great sage, Lao Tze  who created the " Tao Te Ching" says that nothing is static and everything continues evolving. How can this wisdom jive with the concept of " nothingness". Life comes from nothing and it evolves like the wind carrying the dust and ends with nothing when the wind ceases.

You cannot unload the dust when the wind is blowing as the dust will fly with the wind in directions which is out of your control and when it is time to cease, it will just fell away without a trace.

I believed my friend , L will get stronger as in her latest reply to me, she thank GOD for bring me to her and help her to ease her pain.  She is a very religous girl and I am thankful that she has this strong fate. The true love for a person is not possession but standing far enough to see the person you love grow and help them when they fall and leave enough space for them to breath and live.

Don't make them live or think like you as no two person is the same and letting them live the way they want is the path to their own truth in life.

Namaste.

Use your imagination

I had a chat with my old lady friend about 15 minutes ago and I invited to have coffee tomorrow morning at a certain coffee shop near the old court house.  She told me it is too early for her to meet at the particular coffee shop and asked to be late for 15 minutes.  This 15 minutes, I can spend it talking to my lady colleague which I am bring along to meet her.  She told me that since most of my time is occupied with my wife, I should be grateful to her for giving me this time to have a romantic chat with my colleague. But, I told her that how she know whether my lady colleague is young or old. She told me to use my imaginations if she is old. LOL.

To be logical, how can we use our imaginations regarding to this matters.  If the painting is painted by an amatuer, how can it imagine it to be painted by Piccaso ? If a thing is old and ugly , why we have to change it to look beautiful in our mind ? Of course, I understand beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder but it must be some kind of beauty , right ?  If the person is a sixty years old lady , how can I imagine that she is only  sweet 18 . Haiyoo, her logic and arguement cannot hold water.

She continued to tell me that she read a book which says " Being aware is not good enough" .  I imagine that the ultimate step is to do it. Like being aware of our breath is not enough to calm our mind, we have to actually tame and discipline our mind or be aware of our greed is not enough, we have to actually try to give to defeat greed.  In the Buddhist teaching, we are taught to be aware of things happening around us or in our mind but not to take any actions , just watch it drift by. So, this book  sounds like teaching people to practice engagement instead of just been aware.  Well, maybe I should try to read this book to understand more of its teaching instead of just imagining what is in this book. 

Using imagination to bluff our mind or blind our awareness is like creating an illusion.  Something that is not real but we make ourself to be real. Of course, living in illusion is much happier than living in real life because what we want  can happen in split seconds. In our illusion, things just happen the way we wanted it.  This act of illusion can make us weak and unable to face the reality in life. We become more complacent , kind and unreal to the real world.  Perhaps, we can practice such illusion technique in a secluded land or a fairy land and undisturbed by the real world.  All these fantacies and make beliefs  is  like a double edged swords as it can cut both sides deeply.

Nevertheless, it is okay to have sweet dreams but be prepared to face the real world which is often cold and hard. This is also part of awareness.

Namaste.