Please give credit to the Public Health Bugle for re-posts

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Martial Arts: It’s not about fighting!

By: Maneera Saxena Behl

Not just a tool to beat up bad guys and bullies, but practicing martial art benefits the entire body and mind.

Martial arts are a combination of various self-defense systems and mind-focusing work-outs. Not only does it train one to be an adept warrior, but also ensures that the person practicing this form stays mentally agile and physically fit. Feeling disturbed and angry? Not a problem as martial arts reverses energy imbalances within the body and also calms the raging emotions within one’s mind.

Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Judo are some prominent martial art examples. The term ‘martial art’ is often used to describe the various East Asian fighting arts. The more appropriate origin of the term ‘martial art’ lies in a Latin word meaning ‘Arts of Mars’, the Roman warrior God.

In fact, a study published in the May 1985 edition of Psychology Today Magazine highlighted the confirmed benefits of practicing martial arts. It revealed that people who made any of the above martial arts a part of their daily routine showed lower levels of stress and anxiety and higher levels of self esteem and intelligence. So, here is the scientific reason you were looking for to get motivated enough to get that Black Belt you always wanted!

Martial Arts Demystified

Historically the appearance of the first martial art practices dates back to the late 1^st millennium BC. The modern martial art prevalent in Asia is a unique admixture of early Indian and Chinese martial art practices. In Europe, martial arts appearance dates back to the classical antiquity. The various boxing and wrestling contests which we often get to view on our television sets is a good recreation of the historical gladiatorial combats prevalent in ancient Europe.

Martial art does not alone prepare a fighter in you. These days it is used as a means to promote mental and physical well being. Not only does it give one a sound body, but a sound mind as well. Therefore many people nowadays include martial art practices in their daily health and fitness regimen.

Physical Health Benefits of Martial Art:

Martial arts increases a person’s strength, stamina, coordination and flexibility.

The various physical health benefits of martial arts may be listed as follows:

• Strengthens the lymphatic system and boosts lymph flow
• Improves cardiovascular health and one’s breathing capacity
• Strengthens the digestive and excretory systems
• Helps to lower high blood pressure, triglyceride and cholesterol levels
• Lowers one’s susceptibility to cold, allergies, cancer, digestive disorders, abdominal ailments,  arthritis and other degenerative disorders
• Tones muscles, strengthens muscles and makes muscles injury resistant
• Supplies more oxygen to body cells and tissues
• Strengthens immune system
• Prevents Type 2 diabetes
• Improves glandular functioning
• Gives relief from fatigue and menstrual problems

1) Blame Your Crooked Teeth on Early Farmers (source: Wired Magazine)

When humans turned from hunting and gathering to farming some 10,000 years ago, they set our species on the road to civilization. Agricultural surpluses led to division of labor, the rise of cities, and technological innovation. But civilization has had both its blessings and its curses. One downside of farming, a new study demonstrates, was a shortening of the human jaw that has left precious little room for our teeth and sends many of us to an orthodontist’s chair.

2) Gary Taubes Talk on Why We Get Fat (source: Value Investing World)

I’ve been getting Gary Taubes’ lectures sent to me from my friend Miguel Barosa at Simoleon Sense

I think the title says it all.

Enjoy!

I recently came across this article that was featured in Nature’s journal “Obesity” and also on Reuters. It’s promising research on a new scale known as the “Body Adipose Index” or BAI. It’s no mystery that the widely accepted Body Mass Index (BMI) is flawed in its’ attempt to correlate with healthy risk factors. We need a more accurate tool…so could BAI be the new BMI?

Original Article

By: Reuters

The new measure, called the Body Adiposity Index, or BAI, relies on height and hip measurements, and it is meant to offer a more flexible alternative to body mass index, or BMI, a ratio of height and weight, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

BMI has been used to measure body fat for the past 200 years, but it is not without flaws, Richard Bergman of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues wrote in the journal Obesity.

While there are other, more complex ways to measure body fat beyond simply stepping on a scale, BMI is widely used both by researchers and doctors.

It is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. A person who is 5 feet 5 inches tall is classified as overweight at 150 pounds (68 kg) and obese at 180 pounds (82 kg).

But there is a lot of wiggle room in that calculation.

For example, women and men with the same BMI might have very different levels of extra flab. BMI numbers cannot be generalized across different ethnic groups or used with athletes, who have extra lean body mass.

The team made the index using data from a Mexican-American population study. They confirmed the scale’s accuracy using an advanced device called a dual-energy X-ray absorption or DEXA scanner. Tests in a study of African Americans showed similar findings, suggesting BAI can be used across different racial groups.

BAI is a complex ratio of hip circumference to height that can be calculated by doctors or nurses with a computer or calculator.

The team says BAI still needs some fine tuning, and they still need to test it among whites and other ethnic groups, but they think it has promise as new tool, especially in remote settings with limited access to reliable scales.

“After further validation, this measure can be proposed as a useful measure of percent fat, which is very easy to obtain. However, it remains to be seen if the BAI is a more useful predictor of health outcome, in both males and females, than other indexes of body adiposity, including the BMI itself,” the team wrote.

Obesity has become a global epidemic, with more than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, considered to be obese – more than double the number in 1980. Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.

Article first published as The Paleo Lifestyle: Living and Playing Like Cavemen on Technorati.

source: flickr.com/photos/lord-jim/2245362817/

By: Ali Al-Rajhi, head editor

I have started to adapt to a more Paleolithic lifestyle after reading Arthur De Vany’s book “The New Evolution Diet”and Mark Sission’s book “The Primal Blueprint,” I have found that it’s a much more natural lifestyle that our bodies may have been better suited for. The following were some question I asked myself when I began to learn more about the Paleo lifestyle.

1. What is Paleo?

In the simplest terms it’s adapting to a lifestyle (primarily our diet & physical activity) to best suite what your body was intended to do in terms of genetics. The best examples of how such a life was lived are derived from how our Paleolithic ancestors lived.

2. What is the Paleolithic Diet (or Paleo Diet)?

A diet “based on the simple understanding that the best human diet is the one to which we are best genetically adapted” (thepaleodiet.com). In essence, consuming whole fruits and vegetables, lean protein (lean meat, chicken, fish), avoiding processed foods and grains. This is analogus to the fact that our Paleo cousins consuming what was in their environment (e.g., hunting wild game, fishing, consuming berries, etc) and avoiding what they did not with the logic that our genetic makeup has not changed significantly from our Paleo cousins.

A book I recently read by Dr. Arthur De Vany – author of “The New Evolution Diet” and a prime example of how the Paleo lifestyle can be beneficial – makes a very important point: It is difficult for the average person to live exactly like our Paleo cousins, instead we should try to mimic our diets to what was consumed (a diet high in protein and whole fruits & veggies) by adapting to what is already in our environment. For example, shopping only the periphery of the super-market (meats, fruits, veggies) and avoiding the center isles (processed foods, cereals, breads, etc), except for certain nuts which are rich in protein and healthy fats.

About the Talk

(source: TED.com)

Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive — and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? At TEDxPennQuarter, McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

About the Speaker

(source: TED.com)

Longtime reporter Christopher McDougall is also a longtime runner — and he brings his reporter’s passion and eye for detail to the mysteries of running in his latest book. “Born to Run” examines humanity’s inborn need to run and sweat, and it’s filled with passion, odd facts, oddly pertinent digressions and deeply engaging journeys to running subcults (and cults-of-one). The book has inspired at least one fan site.

McDougall writes for Outside, Men’s Health, New York and other magazines. His other, equally intriguing book, is Girl Trouble: The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World.

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Here is a video I found that teaches you the correct techniques for barefoot running.

Learn to Run Barefoot with Lee Saxby and Terra Plana from GTB Goodtruebeautiful GmbH on Vimeo.