Health Advice

We all know the benefits of cardio exercises but there is also a theory that high impact repetitive cardio exercises such as step and running can cause pre-mature damage to your joints. There is also evidence to suggest that these types of activities can also prolong the effective life of your joints. Osteoarthritis is when the spongy tissue that cushions our joints and breaks down – this can be from too much of a single exercise, increasing your training too quickly, wrong trainers and a poor training technique. Signs of osteoarthritis are pain in your joints during or after your workout. Some simple rules to follow include:

• Wearing appropriate footwear.
• Start with small sets of workouts and increase gradually.
• Change the type of workouts – step, skipping, running etc.
• Stay in line to ensure your alignment through hips, knees and ankles.

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Running is one of the most effective cardio-vascular exercises you can do to improve overall fitness. Start by buying a good pair off running shoes - this doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive. Most god stores should be able to recommend running shoes for you and the correct type are needed to prevent injuries and for the correct type of running. Prices vary by brand but you should expect to pay about £40-£120. If you’re new to running you’ll find it extremely difficult to do 20mins continuously - start off by doing short bursts of jogging and walking. If you’re already using the treadmill and want to try outdoor running it’s recommended that start by short distances as environmental factors such as rain, wing and heat can change your body’s responses to running. Also the ground will play a big role - grass will have less impact on your knees then concrete.

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In the 1980’s a survey was carried out in the US and results showed that virtually all types of food poisoning was down to two main areas, improper cooling of food, and the improper refrigeration of food.

For individuals its worth remembering that to avoid harmful bacteria growing once you have bought frozen food or food that needs to be chilled you need to refrigerate it as soon as it arrives in the kitchen, so bacteria can capitalise on the sudden fluctuation in temperature immediately.

For businesses it’s not uncommon to have different refrigerators for different food items. Large scale catering companies often spend millions to ensure that the quality of their food is not compromised, as a direct result of the strict standards set by the industries food regulator, who monitor and can impose fines or even shut down the entire kitchen if food storage is found to be compromised in any way, the two most important things to remember is that the specification of whichever one you choose must allow you to ‘control the temperature’ and enable hygiene maintenance.

To keep food at the right temperature there are general operating temperatures published for example:

• Cooked foods need to be between 0 to 3 degrees.
• Frozen foods to be from -18 to -21 degrees.

These temperatures not only help maintain food safety but also the quality of it in the long term, the law also states that storage information and instruction should be displayed clearly on the packaging on all frozen food items.

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The Food Standards Agency advises that to maintain a balanced diet we need to eat a variety of foods from each of the five food groups. You can be eating the right foods but even if your portion sizes are too big this can cause a problem hence portions too needs to be controlled to aid a healthy diet and long term weight loss. An average portion of fish or meat should be no bigger than the size of a pack of cards!

Daily percentages of your daily intake are recommended below:

• Breads and Cereals - 33%
• Fruit and Vegetables - 33%
• Milk and Dairy - approximately 15%
• Meat and Fish - approximately 15%
• Foods high in fats and sugars - less than 8%

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The British Health Journal has published the results of a 15 year study of peoples salt intake, it revealed that individuals who ate and consumed less salty food, could potentially expect a reduction of a 25% lower risk of cardiac arrest or stroke, together with a 20% lower risk of premature death.

Furthermore evidence is presented that a reduction of Sodium might prevent cardiovascular disease, and confirm conclusively that lowering the amount of salt intake also reduces the risk of high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease.

In the UK the Food Standards Agency recommends no more than 6mg of Salt. Some foods which can contain high amounts of hidden salt are those such as ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, pickles and mayonnaise.

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Glucosamine sulphate is found in various protein sources such as chicken and oily fish. This protein occurs naturally in our joints where it stimulates the production of connective tissue to help prevent the bones rubbing together. Levels can deteriorate naturally over time however if you are struggling to get enough from your diet then a supplement to help replenish the loss can help. Cod liver oil is one of the popular supplements and known to help maintain supple and flexible joints. You can also get a gel to apply to joints and massage in and patches too which can provide relief from on the spot muscular tension and joint discomfort.

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During the winter nights and months it is normal to feel miserable especially as the weather changes for the worst.  Winter blues are those days where as feeling down you do have days which are good and negative feelings don’t take over your life.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) on the other hand can leave you feeling depressed and lethargic all the time.  Symptoms may start as early as September and last until the spring.  Suffers often crave carbohydrates and sweet foods and the inevitable weight gain only leaves them feeling lower.  There are lots of treatments available and you should speak to your GP if you think your suffering.

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