Health and Style Guide
Avoiding Dehydration
What does a couch potato and tri-athlete both need?
Consuming the proper amount of water throughout the day is essential each day if you spend your day watching T.V. or running a cross country marathon. The human body depends on water for several functions such as to rid the body of toxins and waste, keeps skin healthier, improves energy, and aids in food digestion. Also about 60% of the body is made up of water. So the question that so many people are faced with is how to maintain the adequate amount each day.
The state of dehydration is basically when the body has lost too many fluids. There are two main formals for calculating the amount of water that is needed each day. One is to drink 8 to 10 glasses of water each day. However when you are calculating the amount needed additional factors have to be consider like amount of exercise, climate, and health conditions. Depending on these factors you may need to increase the amount. Another formal is to divide your total body weight by 2 and the result in ounces is what your body requires. Again you have to consider the above additional factors.
Keeping your body hydrated is one of the keys to maximum performance while exercising. Also the body’s recovery after sweating depends on the fluids being replenished. About two hours before you exercise you should drink about eight to sixteen ounces of water and another eight ounces 30 minutes before your workout. During your exercise it is a good idea to keep a water bottle or hydration pack nearby to drink about four to eight ounces for every 15 minutes of exercise.
If exercising is not part of you daily routine it is still a good idea to carry a water bottle with you at all times to remind you to drink the proper amount. Waiting until you feel thirsty is not a way to remind yourself to drink water. The body is already dehydrated when the feeling of thirst occurs. Coming up with a routine each day will help form a habit of drinking enough water and put you on your way to a healthier you.
To get started on your way to daily hydration routine view our hydration bottles and paks for everyday use or for exercising.
SEE and BE SEEN! :Tips for Night Runners, Walkers and Cyclists
With winter here and the days getting shorter it presents a problem for runners, walkers and cyclists. They must exercise before work or after work, usually meaning before sunrise or after dusk. Being out in the dark presents a variety of visibility problems for pedestrians and drivers. The two most important tips to remember when out at night are to SEE and BE SEEN!
Runners, walkers, and cyclists vision is poorer at night, which makes it harder to see oncoming potholes, branches, wire fences and other hazards hidden in the dark. Carrying a small mag light or a lightweight modern LED flashlight is very efficient and compact for the amount of light that they put off. If you do not want to carry a light in your hands then try a headlamp flashlight.
Drivers need to see you. There are several easy solutions to making yourself visible to traffic. Avoid wearing dark colored clothing. Light colored clothing reflects more light. Choose modern highly reflective clothing that is designed for maximum nighttime visibility.
There are several reflective options:
- Many active wear companies sell apparel for night exercise. The apparel is made of highly reflective fabrics. Not only does this clothing help to make you highly visible but it also can protect you from the cold winter weather. Many companies sell reflective jackets, thermal vests and long sleeve shirts.
- Reflective safety vests, like the ones worn by many roadway workers, can easily be worn over regular workout clothing. Reflective vests create a bright glow of the outline of your body helping oncoming traffic to see you.
- A very simple item is reflective tape. It is designed to reflect light back to its source and allow drivers to see you from any direction. It is easily applied to any clothing you are wearing.
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Remember that just because you are wearing reflective gear doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take extra precautions. Light yourself up like a Christmas tree and don't let the darkness stop you from exercising but please be prepared to SEE and BE SEEN!
Promising practice: Yoga gains respect in medical community
By Sarah Avery
The (Raleigh) News & Observer
The ancient practice of yoga is finding a new following – among doctors and medical researchers who work to discover its benefits for a variety of illnesses.
Researchers at UNC Hospitals are studying yoga’s benefits for people with irritable bowel syndrome.
Doctors at Duke University recently completed a study showing that yoga provided significant improvements with hot flashes, sleep and energy levels for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.
And in Eastern North Carolina, an oncologist in Beaufort County sees improvement in his patients who take yoga classes.
“There’s been an explosion of data using yoga as a treatment option,” said Dr. Shelley Wroth, an obstetrician at Duke Integrative Medicine and a yoga teacher. She said studies have found that yoga helps people suffering disease such as hypertension, anxiety, arthritis, chronic back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, stress, depression, diabetes and epilepsy.
“It shows so much promis.” Wroth said.
A recent study at Duke involved breast cancer patients who were experiencing severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. Because of their illness, they were prohibited from taking hormone replacement therapy, so yoga was proposed as an alternative. The study found significant improvement among the women in the study who took yoga classes, compared with another group of women who did not.
“There’s a lot of actions to stress that exacerbate the menopausal symptoms,” said Laura Porter, co-author of the Duke study. “Yoga-the physical poses and the more cognitive aspects of it- dampens the stress reactivity.”
But even as science establishes yoga’s benefits, less is known about why it helps. Porter and others postulate that the practice reduces stress through stretching poses, practiced breathing and meditation. For patients, stress reduction may pack extra potency.
“By taking care of stress, you’re starting to eliminate some of the disease that are caused by it,” said William Frey who is leading a yoga class at Rex healthcare in Raleigh as part of UNC-Chapel Hill study among patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
Frey said he began offering yoga eight years ago through UNC-CH’s Program on Integrative Medicine.
“There was some concern we might be bringing spiritual elements into a very clinical setting,” Frey said. “Getting the word out was difficult – so much else was going on that was scientifically based, this was pushed off. But as people have seen its staying power, and see the results and research, there’s beginning to be more respectability.”
Causes not clear
Yoga’s legitimacy has increased with interest by the National Institutes of Health, which now funds studies on yoga and its effect on diseases. But some skepticism remains, in the medical profession and among patients.
Gioia O’Connell, a 54-year-old breast cancer survivor from Apex, said she wasn’t’ sure that yoga would help her.
After receiving a cancer diagnosis in 1994 and undergoing a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and rounds of daily drugs, she felt wrung out.
“It helped with stiffness, aches and pains. And the breathing really did help my energy level.”