Health Topics Web

You only get one back in life. Sure, surgery can “fix” a back but it will never be what it once was.

Even if you already have back pain or damage, it is still worth changing your ways and preserving what you have left.

Changing Your Ways

Yes, you see most people lift incorrectly and this is why they develop back bain. Human beings were never meant to be sedentary, work in offices or lift heavy objects. We were supposed to be highly mobile for most of the day which gives great flexibility to the back.

Stooping

Ever notice how golfers stoop down to collect the ball from the hole? They never bend at the knees.

Each time they do that, they wear away a minute portion of the back. When you stoop, you are actually loading your back with half of your body weight!

If you stoop, you should always bend at the knees. Always!

Correct Lifting Procedure

The correct way to lift is to do it like an olympic powerlifter.

- look ahead while lifting

- keep the weight as close to the centre of your body as possible

- bend at the knees to approach the weight

- lift with the legs first then the arms, never with your back

Follow these simple steps and you will have a back that will last you a lifetime!

So many people that I know, beginners especially, use the wrong rowing technique. They basically put their back into it and they can easily get lower back pain or injuries this way.

The ideal rowing machine technique is almost a 2 phase movement.

The Legs

As you start to move backwards, your arms should be straight. They should not bend at all. We want to do the entire first movement with our legs.

Lean back as far as your arms will let you, so that your arms are locked out.

Now push out with the legs until your legs are completely straight.

Your legs are doing all the work here. Your arms are simply “hanging on”.

The Arms

Now time for the second phase. Your arms and legs should be straight at this moment.

Now pull your arms towards you until your hands meet your chest.

Congratulations, you have done half of the correct technique successfully.

Now Reverse

Now simply do the reverse to return to your original position.

So the first step is to move your arms away from your chest until they are locked out in front of you.

Now move your legs back so that they are bent. Don’t move your legs too early!

Transition

Although the motion is a 2-step motion, you want to have a nice transition between the two in the middle of the motion. You’ll develop this with practice.

Take a look at the video below to recap:

You can go to the gym and sweat it out and not gain any muscles. I see hundreds of guys do this whenever I go to the gym. If you want to build bigger muscles then you have to do your workout properly. Here’s how:

Work Out To Failure

The last rep that you do in each set should be to failure. This is the most important thing.

What this means is that you should not be able to do any more reps at that point in time. That last, most difficult rep is where 80% of your muscle gains are going to come from.

If your last rep is easy then you are simply not working hard enough.

8 To 12 Reps Per Set

This is the idea amount of reps to do in each set. That last rep should be to failure. If it isn’t, then you simply need to add more weight so that it is.

2 Or 3 Sets Per Workout

After a short rest period of no more than 30 seconds, you should do another set again. Limit your workouts to about 2 sets. The reason for this is that you don’t want to overwork those muscles.

Free Weights

Free weights are much better than machines. With free weights, you typically use many muscles (compound training) and they work together to achieve optimum balance.

When you use a machine, you can easily form bad habits and actually work the wrong muscle groups. Machines aren’t bad but free weights are better.

Adequate Rest

Large muscle groups you should give a day’s rest before working out again. I’m talking about the thighs for example. However, smaller muscle groups can be worked every day, for instance the biceps and triceps.

But giving them a day’s rest is not a bad idea anyway. When you rest, the muscle repairs itself and this is when you gain muscle.

Hyperhidrosis is a condition where the body sweats excessively. Not just a slightly higher level of perspiration but where the sweat almost runs off the body. Whilst the medical profession may prescribe drugs and high aluminium containing antiperspirants, there are some natural cures that you can try.

Bicarbonate Of Soda

This is especially useful if you have sweaty underarms. Simply run the ingredient into the affected area after first washing it.

Tomato Bath

This sounds crazy but some people swear by it. Run a regular bath but then throw in 2 cups of tomato juice.

Rock Crystal

These crystals are made up of many small minerals. You can find them at alternative health stores and even some regular pharmacies.

St. John’s Wort

If your hyperhidrosis flares up especially when you are feeling anxious or excited then you may find that this herbal remedy, what is called “nature’s natural antidepressant”, may help you.

Diet

Many people have reported that changes to their diet can cure their hyperhidrosis. The technique that appears to have the most potential is the raw food diet. This is where you eat more fruit and uncooked vegetables in your diet, at the expensive of hormone stuffed animal products.

Exercise

Many hyperhidrosis sufferers claim that if they exercise earlier in the day then they will sweat less for the remainder. This is still the case if they hydrate themselves fully to replace lost fluids during exercise.

As you can see, there are a great many natural ways to cure your hyperhidrosis and you need not necessarilly opt for the controvesial drugs or surgical options.

Premature ejaculation affects most men at some time in their lives. Good job then that there are many ways to cure it.

Different Positions

This is one of the easiest ways. Did you know that the missionary position can actually the worst? Try other positions, especially where the woman is on top and in the dominant position.

Condoms

The first thing to try is a thicker condom. This will reduce the oversensitivity that you would otherwise experience. You’ll find that this will buy you about an extra 5 minutes minimum.

Alternative, look for condoms containing anesthetic. These are quite popular and both Durex and Trojan manufacture these condoms. They contain an active ingredient called “benzocaine”. 5 minutes after rolling on the condom, you should feel that the edge has been taken off your arousal and you can last at least 5 minutes longer, if not ten.

Kegels

These are an exercise of the PC muscle - a muscle group located in the genital/groin area. These are the same muscles that are used when you voluntarily stop the flow of your urine.

By working these muscles daily, after approximately one to two months you will develop great ejaculatory control. Exerting these muscles will allow you to stop ejaculation whenever you feel that it is coming on.

Antidepressants

These are another potential cure. There are a number of SSRIs that can be prescribed for premature ejaculation. The most popular is Paxil.

The reason that these drugs work is because they reduce anxiety which is actually the primary cause of premature ejaculation in 99% of cases.

Nearly everyone that I know does not do manual handling correctly, which includes lifting as well as pulling and pushing.

How To Lift Correctly

There are actually a few techniques to lift correctly but all follow the same principles.

First of all, you should bend at the knees and not at the waist. Even stooping over at the waist like golfers do when they retrieve their ball from the hole is bad for the lower back. Their lower back is effectively lifting the entire upper body, even though the ball might weigh practically nothing.

Secondly, you should keep the weight as close as possible the the centre line of your body. This means it should be kept central and it should also be kept close to you.

Third, as you lift you should do so in a controlled manner and not a jerky one, otherwise you risk dropping the load and injuring yourself. A good tip is to look straight ahead as you lift, much as an Olympic weight lifter will do. This will help to keep your body vertical and prevent you from leaning forward or backward.

The Benefits Of Lifting Correctly

If you lift correctly then you should hopefully not get any back trouble in future years to come.

The problem with humans is that ever since we learned to walk on two feet we have put the health of our backs at risk. Worse still, the modern sedentary lifestyle and evolution of the desk job have made this problem worse. Regular exercise to mobilise the back is also recommended if your day to day job does not involve any outdoor or manual work.

There are many ways to cure this problem that affects the majority of men at some point in their life.

First of all, you can use various numbing creams. Most of these contain a topical anesthetic. That means that it can be applied safely to the skin. The most important ingredient to look for is “lidocaine”. This will within minutes desensitise your penis slightly and take the edge off your sensation meaning that you will not reach orgasm too early.

Another way is to use antidepressants and one of the most commonly prescribed ones is Paxil, although other drugs from the SSRI class are used by those looking to find out how to cure premature ejaculation. The problem with these drugs is that they can have serious side effects for some people.

One good way it to make sure that when you have sex that it is not the first ejaculation of the day. Ideally, you should masturbate earlier in the day at least twice. This way, you will be able to last much longer. It’s a totally natural method of preventing premature ejaculation but it does involve some planning and preparation beforehand. In my opinion, it’s one of the best methods though.

There are also some exercises called “Kegels” that allow a man to orgasm without an ejaculation. This way, you can have several peaks in your sexual experience in a similar way to a woman and this is often also known as the MMO or “male multiple orgasm”. This last method requires a lot of practice, training and workouts of muscles in the groin area. Whilst it requires a lot of investment, it is supposed to be the best way to cure premature ejaculation out there.

Bad breath can be very embarassing. Especially when you’ve had it for some time but had no idea, then a close friend reveals it to you or your find out some other way. Luckily there are many bad breath remedies available but first we need to quickly understand why we get bad breath.

Causes Of Halitosis

Bad breath is caused by bacteria which produce smelly sulphur compounds. The bacteria come from rotting food in a drying environment. So clearly, we need to control the bacteria and the conditions in which it thrives.

Water And Hydration

It is so important to keep the mouth moist to prevent bad breath. Some say that you need to drink 10 glasses of water per day but this is not strictly true. What is important is to use the water effectively. Think about it - if you just gulp water then it passes over the throat and tongue only once.

Much better is to swish it around in your mouth and even gargle it. The swishing is really easy to do, even in the workplace!

Also, take small sips rather than large gulps.

Probiotic Yoghurt

Recent studies have shown that probiotic yoghurts are helpful in preventing halitosis.

Floss

Most people don’t bother flossing but if you suffer from bad breath then you must do this at least daily. Flossing removes the rotting food from between your teeth and just under the gumline. If you smell the floss after using it, then you will be glad that you flossed and removed that gunk from your mouth!

Mouthwash

Use a mouthwash at least once per day. There are various different types and some people say that you shouldn’t use alcohol based mouthwashes because they dry out the mouth. This is correct, but I still recommend them because the alcohol is very effective at killing bacteria which are the ultimate cause of bad breath.

Use A Tongue Scraper

A lot of bacteria resides on the back third of the tongue. This is difficult to reach and a toothbrush often causes gagging. Invest in a tongue scraper which you can use to scrape the tongue after brushing your teeth in the morning.

“Hocking”

This is one of my favourite techniques. Often, food gets trapped on the tonsils and the surrounding area and rots for days. This is a major cause of halitosis! If you clear your throat by “hocking” almost violently, then this is a great way of removing the rotting material and curing your halitosis.

Canker sores is a strange term but it describes nothing more than a mouth ulcer. We all get them from time to time and they are often painful, especially when they form in clusters.

What Causes Canker Sores?

There are a whole host of causes. The single most common is injury which can be caused by biting the inside of the mouth accidentally while chewing, foreign objects such as eating utensils or even deliberately chewing.

There are also other reasons which have been difficult to diagnose such as menstrual cycles, hormonal changes, stress, toothpaste ingredients and more.

Now that we know what the causes then we should be closer to identifying a cure for canker sores as well as good preventative practice.

Carbamide Peroxide

Known by brand names such as Amosan and Cankaid, this pharma solution is an anti-bacterial and will aid in healing.

Topical Analgesics

These work to cut down the pain sensation, often by slightly numbing the affected area. Common ones contain benzocaine.

Wet Tea Bag

This is a common home remedy used to relieve the symptoms of canker sores and mouth ulcers. You need to hold it in place on the affected area for around 10 minutes. It might be a little messy at first but the tannin in tea appears to help the healing process and to relieve the pain.

Other Cures

There are other less popular cures which nevertheless, people have reported success with. These include placing a raw onion on the affected area, plum juice, diluted hydrogen peroxide and more. No doubt that your mother probably has her own recommendations too!

Prevention

The best way to prevent canker sores appearing in the first place is to have a healthy and balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables. This will ensure that you are not deficient in any vitamins and your mouth is kept clean. Chewing gum can also help with this but beware if you frequently suffer injury when chewing gum then this may not be for you.

Toe nail fungus (or onychomycosis) can be an embarassing condition for either gender. It can be especially difficult to kick because essentially the fungus is feeding off you and your toe nail in much the same way as it would off a plant in nature. Nevertheless, there are a number of ways to get rid of nail fungus, some of them natural and some of them manufactured.

Essential Oils

Particularly tea tree oil for nail fungus is a great cure. No one really knows how it works but it is perhaps one of the best and most safe and natural toe nail fungus cures.

In fact, the best way to obtain it is in the form of a compound, when combined with other beneficial oils such as lavender, clove or jojoba. Your pharmacy or health store will definitely stock this cure.

Vinegar, Hydrogen Peroxide, Bleach

These toe nail fungus treatments I have placed together because they work to attack the fungus. Typically, you should look to soak your nails in a diluted solution of these and then wash off when done. After repeated applications, you should find that the fungus will not return.

Vicks Vapor Rub

Also known as “Tiger Balm” in the East, somehow this has amazing anti-fungal properties. No one really knows why but perhaps it is due to the menthol content.

Drug Treatments

There are many drug treatments available for toenail fungus. These include Lamisil (Terbinafine hydrochloride) and Sporanox (Itraconazole) which are powerful anti-fungal drugs.

Prevention

In general, you should keep the toes as dry as possible. Fungi like dark, dank conditions. It is best to wear breathable socks such as those made of cotton as well as open toe footwear such as sandals.