It doesn’t look like a chiseled Ryan Gosling or a Victoria Secret runway model. Still it’s beautiful, no?
This is the velella (Velella Velella), a small free floating hydrozoan. It’s currently the only known species in the genus.
They’re also known as sea-rafts or by-the-wind-sailors, for the obvious reason that it uses the the “sail” you can see in this image for locomotion. Because of this, they are often found washed up on beaches.
Democracy means a lot of things in America; it means we are allowed to make and spend money the way we please. it means we are able to cross financial class barriers and be competitive with our success. and it also means that the majority dictates the larger picture. the larger meaning of what we want to represent to the world. Moving forward, it means keeping the faith.
In life, we also have choices. Personally, professionally, that you “take this obligation to yourself freely,” these carry us forward. Autonomy from the Greek words for “self” and “law” means “one who gives oneself their own law.”
Choose yourself. Choose to invest in yourself and your ideas. With every minor step forward, your subconscious will see the value in making good choices. And the larger democracy of our beliefs will move us forward with or without resistance. No matter what you believe, struggling is always the more difficult proposition. But it usually produces really great results.
By Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD
CHICAGO–January is ripe with people trying to sell you something new; how to lose weight in 7 days by standing on your head and eating some obscure fruit one can only attain by trekking through the rain forest in some remote location. Most of these “new” diets have some sort of scientific-sounding “hook” or “secret” that is oftentimes just a re-branding or new packaging of older ideas. Enter The Virgin Diet.
J.J. Virgin–before you make a joke– is a health and fitness expert, and according to her website, “is a Certified Nutrition Specialist, a Certified Health and Fitness Instructor with advanced certifications in Nutrition, Personal Training and Aging and Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition.” She has been a diet and fitness adviser to a number of celebrities including Gene Simmons, Ben Stiller, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tracie Thoms, Janeane Garofalo, and Brandon Routh.
The “Hook”
The Virgin Diet claims that the weight gain is about inflammation; namely that certain foods interact with our system, stressing it to a point of hormonal release and fat storage. It claims eliminating certain foods, from 7 different groups, will alleviate these symptoms.
The Evidence
About a third of the general population believes that they have food allergies. Research shows that only about 5% actually do. Part of the problem is the confusion about the term food allergy, which is different from a food intolerance or food sensitivity:
It’s no surprise that the 7 foods that Virgin eliminates also happen to be those which are most likely to cause food allergies (peanuts, eggs) or intolerances (soy, dairy, gluten, corn, sugar). If you have a problem with a particular food, eliminating it from your diet will certainly help with the symptoms (like diarrhea or rashes) it is causing.
Sleep is an essential functional part of being and staying healthy. For athletes, it is a strong factor in performance. Most of the repair and strengthening in your body occurs during stage 4 of the sleep cycle–your deepest sleep. But if you don’t go through all the cycles appropriately, you won’t get to the 4th stage, inhibiting many vital functions needed to repair, restore and strengthen your body.
Stage 1: In the first stage, your muscles relax as you fall asleep.
Stage 2: Five to ten minutes after falling asleep, you enter a deeper slumber and your brain starts to produce chemicals that release hormones.
Stage 3 & 4: These are the deepest and most reparative stages. The body releases growth hormone, which helps repair bone and muscle.
REM Stage: The 5th stage of sleep is vital for pain tolerance and motor skills. It strengthens cognitive and nervous system function.
_______________________________________________________________________
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 75% of Americans have problems sleeping and are not getting the recommended 7-9 hours per night our bodies need to recuperate from the daily grind.
Cellular Repair
Repair for the daily wear and tear on the body is correlated with how much deep sleep you get. If you don’t have a regulated night cycle, you won’t get to the deepest stage of sleep that is required for release of growth hormone. These hormones shift the body’s process to anabolic–where it is able to initiate muscular repair, break down fat and stimulate cell division to replace old or malfunctioning cells.
Digestion and Weight Regulation
It is a digestion regulator, releasing hormones that break down fat to supply energy for tissue repair. Adequate sleep is required for weight management. Sleep deprivation causes hormones like leptin–a hormone that regulates a feeling of fullness–to decrease. You end up feeling hungrier without being satisfied by what you eat, causing you to eat more and gain weight.
Muscle Relaxation
During the night muscles can take a break and relax. Respiratory muscles also relax, resulting in the breathing rate slowing down. During REM sleep, muscles become so relaxed that they actually become temporarily paralyzed, called muscle atonia. When muscles are relaxed, there are less metabolites formed, allowing for additional cellular repair and replenishing.
Immunity
It keeps the immune system in check by releasing hormones that act as messengers, telling the immune system to produce antibodies, kill potentially cancerous cells and decrease inflammation.
Cognitive Function
It also enhances cognitive function by consolidating memory. Storing short term memory to long term memory occurs during sleep through the strengthening of neuronal connections.
While flu vaccines offer protection, they are not failsafe. This year’s flu vaccine is 62 percent effective, scientists reported on Friday in the CDC’s weekly publication, meaning that almost four in 10 people who receive the vaccine and are exposed to the virus will nevertheless become infected.
This is considered “moderate” effectiveness and is in line with previous years’ flu vaccines, which range from 50 percent to 70 percent effective, Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the CDC’s influenza division, told reporters.
Experts recommend the vaccine for everyone over 6 months of age. Even if it does not prevent flu, immunization can reduce the severity of the illness, preventing pneumonia and other life-threatening results of flu.
Public health authorities were correct in their forecast of which flu strains would emerge this season and therefore what vaccine to make: one that contains two strains of influenza A and one strain of influenza B. An A strain, called H3N2, predominates this season, though the B strain has caused about 20 percent of cases.
About 10 percent of cases have been caused by a B strain that is not in the vaccine, which “has space for only three strains,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said.
Dr. Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan, a co-author of the vaccine-effectiveness study told Reuters this year’s vaccine was “a good vaccine, but not a great vaccine.”
It is less effective for the frail elderly, for people receiving chemotherapy for cancer, and for people taking oral steroids, as their immune systems have been weakened and are often unable to produce an effective number of antibodies in response to the vaccine.
One reason flu vaccines are far from perfect, said Monto, is where in the body the viruses find a home – congregating on the surface of small airways in the respiratory tract, while virus-fighting antibodies that are stimulated by vaccines mostly stay in the bloodstream.
5 Resolutions to make you feel great this year:
1. Gaiam Yoga Block $10.95
2. Soybu Compression Pants $70
3. KT Athletic Tape $19.99
4. Yoga Tune Up Trigger Point Massage Ball $9.95
5. Garden of Life Vitamin Code Multi-Vitamin $24.99
At a meeting of The American Society of Hematology on Sunday, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania presented their findings on what very well could be a genetic therapy cure for cancer.
The concept utilizes a disabled form of HIV that genetically alter the patients own T cells to attack malignant B cells. Providing the patient with something better than a drug–a lasting way for the immune system to fight cancer.
University of Pennsylvania researchers developed the experimental treatment that has been tested on 12 patients,
The U.S. has strict privacy laws guaranteeing people access to traditional health files. But implants and other new technologies
Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: Esquire by Matthew Buchanan.
