By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Gabe_Mirkin,_M.D.]Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

Pernicious anemia is due to lack of vitamin B12, which causes progressive nerve damage, forgetfulness, loss of ability to concentrate and abnormal sensations such as burning, itching and loss of feeling. However, many people with pernicious anemia do not have abnormally low blood levels of vitamin B12.

A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society shows that older people have lower blood levels of a chemical called homotranscobalamin II that carries vitamin B12 into the cells, so they need higher blood levels to have normal tissue levels.

(more…)

Bookmark or Share This Article:

Imagine this. It’s Friday and a week’s worth of stress has piled itself onto your shoulders. But you still have deadlines to meet and errands to run on your lunch hour. How will you ever get through the day and be able to make a seamless transition into the weekend?

Meditation and proper breathing can reduce your stress, improve your health, and help your fat loss.

In one study, published in the prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that meditation lowers blood pressure and even improves insulin resistance - thus a big help to people at risk of heart disease.

(more…)

Bookmark or Share This Article:

Nobody should ever die of heat stroke, a sudden uncontrolled rise in body temperature that causes you to pass out, because your body sends you warning signals as your temperature rises.

I once almost died from heat stroke in an unimportant local race in Arlington, Virginia. I am still embarassed by the stupidity that I showed when I ignored all the warning signs as my temperature continued to climb. First your muscles are affected, then your circulation and then your brain. As your temperature starts to rise, your muscles feel like a hot poker is pressing against them.

(more…)

Bookmark or Share This Article:

For blood pressure patients who wonder what those numbers mean when getting BPs, here is an explanation. Two figures are observed when taking blood pressures (e.g. 140/90). 140 stands for systolic pressure, 90 is the diastolic pressure. A normal systolic pressure should not exceed 140, and a normal diastolic pressure is no more than 90. An increase in both pressures can mean disaster.

Systolic hypertension is different from diastolic high blood pressure. The former is characterized by sudden augmentation in the pressure of blood when the heart is contracting.

(more…)

Bookmark or Share This Article:

Remember your physical education (PE) classes in school? If your experience was anything like mine, it was a class you truly hated. And if, like me, you were not a natural athlete, your painful memories may have actually discouraged you from exercising later in life.

A recent New York Times article, Putting the Gym Back in Gym Class (October 13, 2005), explores this problem and examines what some PE professionals have proposed to improve the situation. In part this re-evaluation is due to the sharp curtailment of school PE programs in recent years. As the article explains, School administrators began cutting physical education programs…because of the way many classes were taught. Budget cutters

(more…)

Bookmark or Share This Article: