You should!

It appears that eating 3 servings per day of whole grain bread could reduce by a third the risk of two of Britain’s top killers: Heart disease and cancer.

Whole grain bread is nearly unprocessed and unrefined, meaning that all the elements are still present, as intended by nature. Unlike processed grain, which is composed only by the endosperm, whole grain bread has 3 layers:

83% of Endosperm

14% of Bran

3% of cereal germ

But most people don’t know the benefits of whole grain bread, since the market is flooded with refined grains. Just take a look at your cupboard and you’ll certainly find processed grain pasta, white bread, white rice, refined grain cakes and pies, and much more, like nearly everyone else we know.

But the benefits are far greater than you could think. You don’t need to cut off all your processed grain intakes, but with some simple changes in your cooking ingredients, you would meet the recommended amount of 3 servings a day.

Instead of eating toast in the morning you could eat whole grain bread, or muesli instead of the usual cereals. At lunch time you could take a whole grain sandwich or replace your pasta by whole grain pasta, they taste the same, and are just a bit more “al dente”.

Finally, for dinner, just replace your white rice with unprocessed rice, which tastes perfectly fine, with some Indian food or as Pilaf. And you could still have your white grain snacks (chips, crackers, cakes etc.).

But reducing heart strokes and cancer are not the only benefits from eating whole grain bread, recent studies have shown additional benefits such as:

-        Type 2 diabetes risk reduced by 21-30%

-        Better weight maintenance

-        Reduced risk of asthma

-        Healthier carotid arteries

-        Reduction on inflammatory disease risk

-        Lower risk of colorectal cancer

-        Healthier blood pressure levels

-        Less gum disease ant tooth loss

But why do so many people stick on white grain?

A survey from Whole Grain Health (WGH) shows that:

-        70% are not aware of whole grain health benefits

-        54% do not know what whole grain is

-        77% do not check what ingredients are in foods

-        72% said would eat more whole grain if they knew the health benefits

-        15% only eat 3 servings of whole grain a day (the recommended amount).

Everyone needs to sleep. It’s an activity our body has to do in order to recuperate for the next day. Without sleep, a person could lose the ability to focus and physical capability, making even the simplest task seem challenging. This is the reason why some cultures encourage sleeping midday so that the body could recuperate for afternoon activity.

It’s a common belief that a person should be able to sleep at least eight hours without interruption. But recent study and history shows that during the middle ages, the idea of sleeping for eight hours was non-existent. One historian, Roger Ekirch, published a study showing that people during the Middle Age did not sleep for eight hours. Instead they would sleep for four hours (two hours after dusk), wake up for an hour or two and then sleep for a further four hours. During the two hours individuals were awake they would do their chores, read or simply stay in bed enjoying intimate moments with their partner.

One science experiment has looked into why people in the Middle Ages would have followed this 4-2-4 sleeping pattern. Several individuals were placed in a light controlled room for 14 hours a day and their sleeping patterns were monitored. After four weeks, most individuals began to fall into the 4-2-4 pattern without any external influence.

The study goes to show that the sleeping habit in the past is due to the lack of lighting. Although this doesn’t have any conceived health benefits, some health experts believe that this type of sleeping pattern could help a lot of people especially those concerned that they can’t sleep for a few hours at night.

Top 5 Tips for Building Muscle

Many magazines give tips on how to build muscle, and make it seem like an easy task. The truth is that gaining muscle takes time and can be very challenging. You need to be disciplined and have an understanding of how muscle development works if you want to gain a toned body.

The following tips will help you gain the body you want:

1. Weight lifting – Weight lifting is a form of anaerobic exercise that focuses on muscles instead of calorie burning. By lifting weights you cause micro-tears in your muscles, when the muscle repairs its self it is slightly bigger and stronger than before.

2. Eat Lots of Calories – this tip can be tricky and requires careful monitoring especially on the food you eat. You can eat lots of calories but you don’t have to eat excessively. Calories are still required since it will help in developing your muscles. Think of it as your fuel for a more ripped body.

3. Infrequent Training – consistent exercise is required but you don’t just focus on one part of your body. Switching between building muscle and improving your cardio is suggested by many trainers. Your Muscles need time to heal after a tough work out and therefore building different areas of muscle on different days is a good tip to gain an all-round  toned body.

4. Increase the Amount You Lift Each Time – this tip is directly related to infrequent training but it focuses on weight lifting. You have to make sure that you constantly adjust the weight you lift to build bigger muscles and improve your strength.

5. Stay Hydrated/Drink Lots of Water – when training it can easy to forget to drink. You will definitely sweat a lot during your weight lifting exercises and staying hydrated is important for a healthy body.

Opus Energy is a supplier of energy to businesses around the United Kingdom. The Northampton based company raised £55,000 for a motor neurone disease charity through a clay-pigeon shoot.

The Opus Energy Shooting Challenge was held at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School based in Pangbourne. The event saw more than 100 patrons from across Europe attend the event and compete with Opus Energy staff in a range of team-based games. All of the money raised on the day went to Heaton-Ellis Trust, a Motor Neuron disease charity based in Berkshire.

During the day the company also hosted an auction which raised £25,000, nearly 50% of the total. The auction offered attendees skiing holidays, Saracens rugby tickets and helicopter lessons for attendees.

Motor neuron disease is a progressive disease which affects a person’s upper and lower neurons. This can affect a series of muscles that control movement including; walking, swallowing, breathing and speaking. Motor neuron disease leads to wasting and weakness of the muscles and can affect people of any age.

The money raised at the Opus Energy event will help towards finding a cure and improving technologies to find the defective genes which cause it.

Heaton-Ellis Trust employee Romilla Arber stated the day was a huge success for the trust. This year’s event gained the trust a considerable extra amount of income compared to last year. Everyone had a great time despite the chilly temperature and raised money for a worthwhile choice.

Charlie Crossley, Opus Energy’s Managing Director stated the event was a great success and we are very pleased to have raised £55,000 for the Heaton-Ellis Trust. We would like to thank everyone who showed up to the event and also a big thank you to the Royal Berkshire Shooting School for helping us organise the day.

Walking is one of the simplest types of exercises. It doesn’t require extensive equipment, it doesn’t require any training and it can be done by practically anyone. Although it’s a well known exercise with various benefits for health, additional discoveries have been made which prove walking can benefit us even more greatly when done in a regular fashion.

A recently published study by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute reveals that walking can also help reduce BMI as well as increase sensitivity to insulin. The reduction of BMI or Body Mass Index has been publicised for a long time.  However, the findings that walking can also help improve insulin sensitivity is something new and should be considered especially by those who suffer from diabetes.

The author of the study believes that 10,000 steps on a daily basis should be enough to help a person improve their insulin sensitivity. Walking 10,000 steps is like walking five miles which should be very simple especially for those who are already working out.

Insulin sensitivity is a very important feature in our body. If your body has insulin resistance, your body will easily suffer diabetes. Insulin helps trigger the tissues in the body to absorb glucose. Without the ability to absorb glucose, the sugar level in the body increases and diabetes cannot be avoided.

Walking 10,000 steps on a daily basis may seem like a very challenging task but it’s a very healthy exercise with a wide variety of benefits.

The old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is true because of the obvious health benefits of the said fruit. Change “apple” with “beer” and people will think that you have a drinking problem. You can’t just drink beer every day since there is a common conception that beer simply harms your body.

Not so fast

Recent studies in Spain suggest that drinking a pint of beer a day can actually have multiple health benefits. Among the health benefits of drinking a pint of beer is lowering the risk of diabetes, helps in preventing high blood pressure and even foster weight loss.

The Protective Effect of Beer

Beer may not look like a healthy drink but it actually has vitamins, folic acid, iron and calcium. It’s an impressive list and comparable to drinking a glass of wine every day. Since the beer’s alcohol content is relatively lower than other alcoholic drinks, it’s still safe to drink. A pint, when it comes to alcoholic content, is almost the same as a glass of wine.

The Catch

But the mere fact that beer comes with impressive healthy benefits doesn’t mean you can just drink beer everyday and expect to have a clean bill of health. According to research, preventing high blood pressure and diabetes as well as fostering weight loss is only possible with the help of a Mediterranean diet. This means your diet will focus on fish, vegetables, fruits and lots of olive oil. According to the research, those who went through this diet with a pint of beer noticed that they are also losing weight aside from feeling healthy.

Women drinking more than three cups of coffee every week have lesser chances of experiencing depression. A study published in September 26, 2011 in Archives of Internal Medicine indicates that coffee drinking women will less likely develop depression. The study was made on more than 50,000 women in USA with an average age of 63. It’s also a survey that covers the past 10 years of the participants’ coffee drinking habit.

Prevention not Cure

It should be noted that the study only tries to take a closer look at the relation between coffee drinking habits of women and depression. This means the survey only indicated that coffee has assisted women in preventing depression. No indication was made to tell that coffee was used to assist women deal directly with depression and other minor mental problems.

Caffeine and Depression

One curious fact about the study that relates coffee and depression is the type of coffee women take. It can be assumed that women do not experience depression because of caffeine. However, some of the women who drink more than three cups of coffee every week only drink decaffeinated coffee. Simply put, the reason why women do not feel depression is not due to caffeine.

Warning of Overdrinking

The study does warn women that such early conclusions should not be taken as a definite preventive method for depression. Drinking too much coffee can still cause some health problems due to caffeine. Regular coffee consumption should be more than enough if the study proves to find a definite relation between coffee and depression in women.

One of the common work-related problems that can affect a person’s productivity is stress. Under stress, a person will have a hard time concentrating and common office tasks become increasingly difficult. Stress could even lead to actual physical problems with fatal complications.

However even though stress can be a big problem if no actions are taken, it can be easily remedied with the right attitude. The most popular trick to deal with stress is to change the environment, situation or stimulus.

Calming Techniques While in the Office

It’s very easy to experience stress while in an office environment because of the pressure of the work load. But anyone can easily deflect this type of condition with simple changes in their environment and some stimulus. A very simple trick is to listen to very soothing music every once in a while. It’s also important to take a real break during lunch time which means you should not think of work and enjoy the quiet environment.

Dealing with Stress Outside the Office

Dealing with stress is a lot easier outside the office because of the additional facilities available. A simple walk in the park, jog or bike ride can be a good stress reliever not to mention a good way to exercise and burn fat. Some individuals join yoga classes and different types of meditation to experience serenity and practice the calmness while at work. Hans Selye, a pioneering Hungarian endocrinologist, who discovered the General Adaption Syndrome (also know as stress sydrome) stated “Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one”.

Stress can be devastating to anyone. Before it becomes dangerous; deal with stress by changing your environment and focusing on quieter locations. It’s also ideal to exercise and practice yoga and meditation in order to better deal with stress in the office.

A person under the state of hypnosis is often thought to be asleep or under full control of the hypnotherapist. But in reality, a person under hypnosis is actually fully aware of his conditions. He or she is simply in an advanced state of focus and concentration and the therapist have increased capacity of suggestion. Forget about magicians with pocket watches trying to control their subjects. Hypnotherapy is basically a method to increase one’s attention and focus.

The beauty of hypnotherapy is that it can be used for medical purposes. Among those is to help stop smoking permanently. Under the right hypnotherapist, a person can quit smoking after a few sessions. It’s even possible for someone to quit smoking after just one session especially if they go through intense hypnotherapy sessions.

The main advantage of hypnotherapy in dealing with smoking is that it doesn’t require any type of medication. It’s also the best therapy for many smokers because the only reason they can’t stop is that they don’t have any will power. Through hypnotherapy, they go through powerful suggestions that they should stop smoking.

Hypnotherapy is not only limited to one-on-one sessions. There are also CDs and DVDs that can act as a hypnotherapist. This is often the choice of busy people since they can’t find the time to visit a therapist. The option is also cost effective since it doesn’t require an actual interaction with a person. However seeing a hypnotherapist in person is likely to yield better results and stop you from smoking sooner.

The Harley Health centre offer this service to patients and claim to have a 95% success rate. To find out more about the company visit their site here; http://www.harleyhealthcentre.com/stop-smoking

Circle Partnership is an organisation made up of some of the best clinicians in the field. The group is the biggest healthcare partnership in Europe with over 2,500 members. Circle currently have 4 hospitals within the UK, these are located in; Bath, Nottingham, Stratford-up-Avon and Windsor. The Bath branch has already won an award for its services despite having only being open for a year.

The company structures its hospitals in a slightly different way to other UK medical centres. Circle has allowed medical professionals to co-own the places they work in. The company believes that Doctors and Nurses have an important view of how the company runs and puts them in charge of their specific areas. The company call this approach “Circles”, where each separate unit has a lead doctor, nurse and administrator. They believe this maximises the hospital footprint and harnesses the collective wisdom of the large group of professionals. Departmental managers work with Clinical leaders for each of the companies departments and together make decisions on how to improve their area. This allows the doctors treating the patients to make decisions in their patient’s best interest.

Circle employs many top professionals within its hospitals to make sure it provides the highest possible level of service. Executives on the company’s Bath team board include; Shelagh Meldrum, Neil Bradbury and Jonathan Boulton. Most of the company’s staff have been within the industry for a long period of time. Some staff have also trained with top professionals in their field outside of the UK including Neil Bradbury, who worked in Australia and the US with top knee surgeons.
The company has made a case for more companies to change their management style to improve their service. Using their real world evidence they have approached NHS management, politicians and healthcare opinion formers. Many of the healthcare professionals also provide their thoughts on hospital leadership in this debate. The company believes that their centres are proof that this form of management does work.