Stay healthy working at your computer
Computers are a fact of life, and there’s no getting around it. The world runs on computers and your job probably required you to work on a computer, at least sometimes. For other people, working on the computer is a full time job. Sitting at your computer for hours at a time, day after day, can really take a toll on your body and your health. But you’re not out of luck! There are many things you can do to stay healthy while working at your computer all day.
The first thing to remember is that you’re unique. Your body has different needs than your co-worker’s body, and only you know what your body really needs. But you’ll never know what your body needs unless you try listening to what your body is telling you. If you always feel tired and unmotivated after working at your computer for a few hours, don’t just assume that’s normal. You being tired is your body’s way of saying it needs something, but figuring out what your body needs isn’t always easy.
If you’re always tired in the morning, try eating healthy breakfast (or eating something different for breakfast). Your brain needs a constant supply of glucose, and without that you will feel tired and lazy. If you tend to get tired after lunch or closer to the end of work, try eating something different for a healthy lunch. Some foods will make you tired, so simply tweaking your diet slightly can keep you energized and awake for the rest of the day. If you like to skip meals like breakfast or lunch because “you don’t have time to eat”, I would re-think that thought. Your body needs food and water to operate correctly, and if you’re truly concerned about staying healthy you should make an effort to eat five small meals every day.
Do you get a headache after working on the computer for a couple hours? There are several factors that could be causing it, most of which you can directly affect. For example, looking at a computer screen for a few hours can cause eye strain which can lead to a headache. To combat eye strain, take a 5 minute “break” every hour. Walk around the office or step outside for a couple minutes. Not only will this help relieve tension in your eyes, it can help clear your head keep you motivated at work. Caffeine can also give you a nasty headache, so try replacing your morning coffee with tea or juice for a week and see if that helps.
Your posture will also take a toll on your body too. If you tend to slouch in your chair a lot, your spine will bend into a shape that is not natural and that will cause severe health issues when you get older. Your spine is responsible for almost all your bodily functions, conscious and unconscious, and an injured spine can lead to a weak heart, bad lungs and much more. If you sit at a computer all day with bad posture, these problems will manifest themselves sooner rather than later. So make a conscious effort to track your posture, and if you notice yourself slouching, stand up for a minute and sit back down with good posture. Try not to lean forward either, sit with your spine as straight as possible.
Make sure your computer screen is at your eye level. If you consistently have to look up or down to see your computer screen, adjust your monitor. Keeping your neck in an awkward position for 8 hours a day (or more) will take a toll on your spine too. Most computer monitors are too low, so bring a few books (or a big dictionary) from home to put under your computer screen and make it taller.
Because it’s hard to be active while you’re sitting at your computer, it’s important to take a break every couple of hours to stand up, take a little walk and stretch your body a little. Even if you just take a few minutes to do 50 jumping-jacks it will get your blood flowing and you’ll feel more energized. If you sit still for long periods of time, blood can pool up in your legs. Then when you stand up you could pass out because your blood pressure will drop while your body tries to pump that excess blood out of your legs. You’re more likely to pass out if you haven’t eaten recently, which is another great reason to eat five small meals a day.
Tags: Body, computer, health, neck
Brain food and exercise keeps you healthy and happy
You know the brain is probably the most important part of your entire body. It only accounts for 2% of your body weight, but consumes and uses more than 20% of your daily calorie intake. This is another reason counting calories is bad, but I’ll save that for another time. It’s important to keep your brain running optimally throughout the day. This will help you stay focused, be more productive, and have more energy.
The main fuel supply for your brain is glucose. Glucose comes from things like fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts. Your brain needs glucose to function properly, and only uses backup sources in extreme circumstances such as lactate. When you exercise your muscles produce lactate as a byproduct, and new studies show your brain can use that lactate for fuel, which is why people ran run for miles without eating.
The frontal cortex of your brain is extremely sensitive to low glucose levels, while the parts of the brain that regulate vital organ functions are not very sensitive at all. This is why you feel dizzy and tired when you don’t eat, instead of having an irregular heartbeat or breathing pattern. It’s also a warning to get some food that is high in carbohydrates in your body as soon as possible.
You have to be careful not to over-do it though. High glucose levels can kill your cells, including your brain cells, just another reason soda is bad for you. See, when your body is flooded with glucose, it tries to get rid of it like it was a pathogen. The resulting response from your immune system can cause serious damage to your body, and cause problems with cognition that can result in Alzheimers disease.
What can you do? Eat smaller meals more often. Instead of the usual 3 meals a day, try to stretch it to 5 meals a day but lowering the amount of food per meal. Your brain functions the best with 25 grams of glucose in your bloodstream, that’s about the amount you’ll find in a banana. So eat a banana when you wake up, a granola bar for brunch, eat a hardy lunch, have an apple after work then eat a good dinner.
You can also eat raw carrots and wheat bread in the morning. Your body takes longer to break down the carbohydrates from these, and can therefore provide a steady stream of glucose for your body. Any food low on the glycemic index is good if you can’t eat again for a few hours.
Tags: Body, brain, exercise, health
Household germs making you sick
Chemicals found in common home furnishings can cause asthma and flu-like symptoms, and your basement or bathroom may be harboring allergy-inducing mold. You could even be experiencing a reaction to a more dangerous substance that could cause kidney damage or cancer.
Since our homes are more and more insulated from the weather outside, this allows germs to easily stay alive and accumulate in your house. Even if you keep your house very clean, there is more you can do to.
CNN has the rest of this story, I highly recommend you read this as soon as you can.
Tags: flu, germ, health, home, house
Pesticides in Coca Cola another reason to stop drinking soda
Some of Coca-Cola’s fruit based drinks (like Fanta) contain pesticides like those used to kill bugs, insects, grass and weeds. Read the warning label on pesticides and you’ll see under no circumstances should you ever put it in your body, and if you do by accident, call poison control immediately. How comforting is it that those same chemicals might be in your soda drink.
The Coca Cola company is dismissing this study, saying there is no need to worry about what they put in their soft drinks. They also said they will not be removing or changing any ingredients to try and solve this problem.
The report itself singled out soft drinks containing “relatively high” levels of pesticides. In the findings, the researchers claimed that scarce attention has been paid to pesticides in soft drinks derived from fruits and vegetables, despite strict regulations on use of the chemicals in other finished products.
A Coca Cola spokesperson said that the company was confident that all of its products tested were in compliance with safety regulations relating to agriculturally sourced ingredients. With this in mind, you better think twice before drinking your next soda.
Tags: Body, cola, Drink, health, soda
Fighting your risk of a heart attack through genes
During their tests, scientists have discovered a gene they believe is an indicator of hardened arteries, which will result in heart problems later in life. The gene they found is called Neuropeptide Y, and they were able to isolate this gene to hardened arteries.
“These and other genetic findings may help us in the future to identify these patients prior to development of coronary artery disease or their first heart attack”.
Even though this is really great news, it doesn’t do anything to attack the root of the problem, poor diet and poor health. Heart disease has never been a problem for young people (until now) because previous generations didn’t eat food filled with red dye, antibiotics and hormones. They were also active, playing football and soccer instead of playing games on their Xbox or computer.
Instead of eating fast food, soda and chips every day and hoping scientists find a cure for your laziness, be proactive and keep yourself healthy from the beginning. Trade those potato chips for an apple or some carrots. Drink juice instead of soda. Small steps like this can prevent heart disease altogether.
On a side note, cherries are great as preventing and even curing artery disease. The antioxidants in cherries can clear plaque out of your blood vessels just as well as those expensive prescription drugs can.
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