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Archive for September, 2011

To have a solid training programme for peak performance in sports, choosing the type of activities for your programme is important. Let us take a look 3 type of activities that can be used to organize a training programme for peak performance in sports.

The next principle in FITT is Type of activities that must be conducted and organized for peak performance in sports. Having planned and established the required frequency of training and decided upon the measure of intensity of training, it is important to use the correct type of activities to use in training to promote peak performance in sports. Here, we can classify type of activities used according to the following categories.

a. General Fitness Activities

These are activities and exercised that are more fitness related with very little skill related activities.Common activities in this category include weight training, aerobics, interval training, body resistance training, plyrometric training, fartlek, partner resistance training, endurance based activities, body pump, skipping, etc. The examples mentioned here are extremely effective training tools to improve fitness of athletes for peak performance in sports. They are also easily implemented and monitored, which is a good thing for a coach. The down-side of this is that it can be boring to the athletes. Performing monotonous runs, painful weight lifting and repetitive body resistance exercises are not exactly the most fun and inspiring things in the world to do. These form of activities need to form only a minor portion of the total training time for each session. It is recommended that anywhere from 10-20% of the time should be devoted such training activities. Another way to implement such activities is to use them as a form of disincentives. Any sub-standard performances in training can mean more of these general fitness activities

b. Sports Specific Training Activities

As the name implies, these are activities that are related to the sports been played by the athletes. These activities should form the bulk of all training times. They will include activities, drills, games and any other form of exercises that are related to the sports. Players are involved in their chosen sport because they are passionate about it in the first place. Nothing will motivate them more than to get them to practice what they have signed up for. For example, it will not make sense for water-polo players to spend more time out of the swimming pool than in it. Water-polo players must spend as much time as they can in the water so that they get use to the sports medium as much as possible. It is up to the coach to be resourceful to come up with as many sports specific training activities as possible for peak performance in sports. So if the aim one of the session is to build agility as well as dribbling skills in soccer, perhaps using dribbling skills at high intensity with lots of changes in direction will be the right activity for the session.

c. Cross Disciplinary Activities

Cross disciplinary activities are activities with little familiarity to the chosen sports being played, but they still allow the players to maintain and improve their fitness, conditioning and skills. This form as activities is especially important during breaks from the main sports season. Very often playing too much of the same sport year in year out can be very detrimental to the athletes psychologically as well as physically. Burn out from over exposure to the same sports can occur if too much of the same activities are done. To counter this and get the players a break, engaging in relevant cross disciplinary activities can be very helpful to refresh the players. In most continental European soccer leagues, the leagues have winter breaks lasting between 2 – 4 weeks during the Christmas and New Year period. During this break, the players do not just go on vacation and do nothing. In fact, many teams will bring their players away from cold countries to warmer ones to engage in some other activities other than soccer. These activities keep the players renewed and refreshed. Some team also make use of the wintry cold and snow, by engaging in skiing to keep their players conditions at their peak, so that when they return for the second half of the season, the players are still in good shape to play the remaining games. This form of cross disciplinary activities is extremely useful to recharge player’s batteries.

With a good mixture of these three types of activities in the training programme, athletes will find the variety, motivation and usefulness in them to improve their peak performance in sports.

If you are starting a weight loss program, it may be helpful for you to know that there are some simple steps you can take to make any weight loss program more effective. I will share here 3 tips that have been proven successful to me and to thousands of other people in their weight loss journey.

Be Realistic And Set Achievable Goals

This means that first of all you will have to consider your lifestyle, health condition and environment. How many changes can you do in your lifestyle? How much can you exercise, if at all? Are you sure that your family and friends will be supportive? Can you change your diet at your workplace or when you socialize?

Some diets are easier, while others are very demanding. Jumping on an impossible to follow weight loss program, at least for you, is not going to help achieving your weight loss goals. Choose a diet that is not very hard to do and stick with it, even if the result are slower.

Rebuild Your Digestive System

If your weight program is not very effective it might be because your digestive system, and further your metabolism is not functioning at his best. Therefore is hard to absorb the nutrients from your new diet and effectively burn the fat away. Over a lifetime, no less than 100 tons of food pass along the digestive tract; so some maintenance is more than welcomed.

People have reported amazing improvements in their weight loss progress after applying some simple steps to fine-tune their digestive system. This one of the easiest and underused way to boost any diet or weight loss program.

Get Support

Active support, if possible. Finding friends who have the same goal and the same motivation can make a huge difference along the way. Having someone to chat to, to share your difficulties and progress will make you more motivated to stick with your weight loss goals. Can also be a source of inspiration and strength in the hard moments that will inevitably come.

By following these simple tips, you can start seeing results in your efforts to lose weight. There are, of course more things you can do to boost your weight loss program and lose weight easily.

Dry skin rash is among the most common symptoms of an allergy. It can be caused by a substance in the food, condition, or thing you have come across with or induced. This is happening out of the overreaction of the immune system to the substances or allergens that are foreign to the body. It excretes anti allergens or histamine that dilates the blood stream, thus the itching and swelling of the skin surface.

These are rashes than can appear to be dry, depending on the level of strength of dilation. It is just important that the dry skin rash is given the proper medication and not escalated due to some erroneous beliefs.

Dry skin rash is a mild symptom of allergy but comes along with an itchiness that is difficult to avoid scratching. Still, you have to refrain from doing so as this will not help you in any way but even escalate the itching and also leave marks after the episode. To help comfort your feelings, you can use hypoallergenic solutions and ointments. These products can be applied to the affected areas and let the effect sink in. If this will not suffice, you can take safe antihistamines the strength of Diphenhydramine. There are also some other antihistamine medicines that are approved and prescribed by health experts for this kind of condition.

The dry skin rash you are experiencing right now might be an effect of the things you hold, the animal you pet, the food you have taken in, or the weather condition. Animals, like cats, can transfer to your hands or skin a kind of allergy causing protein through its saliva. You do not actually have to touch the pet saliva to get infected.

This can be transferred to its fur after grooming or more directly when it licks you. Other animals can do the same effect to you through the dander they shed. So if you are wondering how you got allergy through animals, there are handfuls of ways for that.

The dust or air contacts your body, including the eyes and the entire face. So if the dry skin rash is imminent even to those areas, you had definitely got in contact with dust or air that carries substances you have allergy with. What is in the dust or air that could have caused it? Pollen, bacteria, micro insects are just among the things or allergens that goes with the gush of the air or dust. These things can be carried to your eyes, the face, and the body without any preventive techniques to avoid them. When this happens, take antihistamines to limit the effect.

Dry skin rash is an allergic reaction to almost anything that alerts your immune system to overreact. If you are experiencing this, you do not really have to worry but take the safest ways to alleviate the itch that comes along with the dry skin rash.

Antihistamines are the best medicines for this but if not available yet, you can use and apply hypoallergenic solutions and ointments. It is also important that you try to prevent scratching the dry skin rash you have as doing so will only alleviate the itch but will eventually irritate the affected skin. When the allergic reaction is finally gone, the dry skin rash will definitely leave remnants or marks.

Individuals who experience frequent or severe allergic reactions, of which they are unable to determine the cause, may be referred to an allergy specialist by their regular physician. An allergy specialist can usually determine the specific allergen, or in some cases multiple allergens, which are causing these reactions by a skin test.

There are three different types of skin test which can be preformed and typically only one of these is used. The determination of which test will be given is generally based on what type of allergen is suspected in causing the allergic reactions.

Allergy Tests

The most of common of these tests given is the scratch or puncture test which is done by introducing certain suspect allergens to the skin by lightly scratching or pricking the skin with very small amounts of allergen extracts. This test is generally used when trying to determine the most common types of allergies such as hay fever, mold, food, pet dander, and dust mites.

Another type of skin test which can be preformed is where the allergen is injected through the top layer of the skin with this injection being done typically in the arm. This test can be used to determine if allergic reactions may be due to certain types of venom caused by insect stings, or when taking certain medications such as penicillin.

The third type of skin testing which can be performed is called a patch test which is typically used to determine what is causing a contact dermatitis.

Contact dermatitis is an inflammation or irritation of the skin which may be caused by many substances some of which include perfumes, latex, metals, medications, and preservatives. Once the results of these skin tests are known, the allergist will then discuss with you the treatment options available which may include medications or allergy shots. However, in most cases once the allergen is known, these substances can be avoided which can decrease or stop the allergic reactions all together.

Routine physical activity is such a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle. Many of us are familiar with exercise as a weight loss aid; however, routine fitness is so much more beneficial to our health than we assume. When you engage in physical activity you not only feel younger but you actually increase your lifespan and your well-being. In this article I will list several statistics regarding physical activity.
Many people believe that in order for fitness to be effective you have to spend hours at the gym. That is simply untrue. Studies show that 58 % of successful exercisers engage in three or more different activities each week. What this means is that you are not stuck with the same old boring gym routine. You can go swimming one day and play ball the next. Do you have to work out 7 days a week? That’s a big no. studies reveal that 30 % of successful exercisers work out only 5 days out of the week. However, it is important to get a good ratio of cardio and weights. Remember that at least 30 minutes of cardio is necessary. People who exercise regularly are able to reduce the impact and risk of depression, heart disease, back pain, and diabetes. Doctors agree that physical fitness helps a lot in all of those areas. People who exercise have a much easier time attaining weight loss. Fitness increases your metabolism and helps you build calorie burning muscle. Without exercise, weight loss is nearly impossible.

These are just a few statistics regarding physical activity. It is extremely important to exercise regularly, consume a healthy nutrition, and utilize all natural herbal remedies (such as appetite suppressing hoodia) in order to lose weight and attain a state of well-being.

Over five million Americans are estimated to be living with chronic viral hepatitis. Up to 1.4 million have hepatitis B and over 3 million are infected with hepatitis C. With the observance of May as Hepatitis Awareness Month, I’m reminded of my own screening experience six months ago.

I walked past the tabletop plastic Christmas tree with blinking white lights and sporadic tinsel. Winter decorations always seemed a little out of place to me in sunny southern California. I waited a few minutes at the lobby desk, and eventually I was directed to a woman who spoke English. I asked her where the screening event was.

“It is testing for hepatitis B.”

“Yes, I know. Is it here?”

“You want testing for hepatitis B?”

“Yes. Is this the Herald Community Center?”

She nodded, and with a sigh of resignation, explained that I needed to go out and in the next building. “Hepatitis B!” she called after me, in a last ditch attempt to explain the situation.

I work on the Los Angeles Hepatitis Intervention Project (LA HIP), a project of the Asian Pacific Liver Center (APLC) of St. Vincent Medical Center, so actually, I didn’t need an explanation. I was in San Gabriel, CA, a predominantly Chinese suburb of Los Angeles, attending one of the APLC’s free screening events. I think the woman thought that I didn’t need to be screened, since I’m not Asian. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) disproportionately affects Asians and Pacific Islanders (API) in the U.S. — approximately one in ten has HBV and doesn’t know it. It is a particularly big problem in immigrant populations since many countries do not test for hepatitis B or vaccinate against it. Mothers with chronic HBV unknowingly pass the infection on to their babies whose immune systems are not strong enough to fight it off. The disease often shows no symptoms until middle age when severe liver damage has already set in. If caught early, the infection can be controlled with medication, and those who test negative can be vaccinated to prevent contracting it in the future. The APLC’s senior nurse practitioner, Mimi Chang, MSN, NP, recommends that all Asians and Pacific Islanders who have not built up antibodies to hepatitis B, either through vaccination or previous exposure to the disease, be immunized.

Asians and Pacific Islanders are not the only ethnic groups affected; any immigrant or child of immigrants from a country with a greater than 2% prevalence of HBV should be screened, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In addition to all of the API countries except Japan, this includes countries from Africa, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, and Europe, among others. A complete list is included at the end of this article. It is also important to screen and vaccinate babies adopted from any of those countries, even if the adoption organization in the foreign country claims all tests and immunizations are up to date.

The virus is transmitted through blood contact, so household members and sexual partners of those with chronic HBV should be screened and vaccinated, as well as pregnant women, health care workers, homosexual men, intravenous drug users, and anyone traveling to a country with a high prevalence of hepatitis B. I didn’t know about viral hepatitis back in 1992 before I left to work in Russia. Luckily, I didn’t have a problem, but I wish my doctor had recommended that I get vaccinated. Unfortunately, because family doctors in the U.S. are lacking basic knowledge about the disease, testing and vaccination are not recommended as often as they should be for those at risk.

I have very little opportunity now to be exposed to HBV, and as a healthy adult, if I were to contract it, I would probably clear the disease on my own, but I wanted to understand the screening process that is part of our project. I went in to the other building and made my way to the registration table. Everyone was speaking Chinese. I grabbed a survey form and asked one woman where the screening was being set up. She didn’t understand. I asked her if she knew where Mimi or Jason were, two members of the APLC staff. She pointed me to another woman at the end of the table. I asked that woman, and she stared at me silently for a few minutes, shaking her head sideways. “Hepatitis B screening!” she barked at me. I guess she thought I was in the wrong place too.

A third woman approached the second woman and chatted with her loudly in Chinese. People reached around me from behind to grab survey forms, looking askance at me as they left. The new woman asked me what I wanted, and I asked again about Mimi, Jason, or any of the APLC staff setting up to screen. Her face lighted up. “Yes, yes!” she said excitedly. “You go see lady down there.”

I followed the direction of her outstretched arm to a tall blonde woman I had never seen before – the only other white woman in the room. Disheartened, I approached her. It turned out that she was the representative for Gilead, the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the event. While she didn’t know Mimi or Jason and had never heard of the LA HIP project, she did know that the screening would be upstairs, so I headed that way. I needed a familiar face.

I found Jason and the APLC volunteers setting up to screen. On one table there were a few laptop computers for entering basic registration data and preparing a test tube label for each patient. I hadn’t realized that staff was inputting this info twice — once on site and then again into the new data base LA HIP programmers had designed for them. It was good that I learned this; now our programmers are creating a way for the staff to easily upload this registration excel sheet into the data base directly, eliminating the data entry duplication. Other tables were set up with test tubes, rubber gloves, and disposable needles for drawing blood. The screening room was very organized, with signs in English and Chinese.

After taking some photos for the LA HIP Facebook page, I went back downstairs to sit in on the lecture by Tse-Ling Fong, MD, a liver specialist at the APLC. I was very excited to attend his talk; I had read a lot about hepatitis B and was eager to fill in any gaps in my knowledge. Additionally, I was curious to see what kinds of questions the audience members would have. Dr. Fong approached the front of the room and stood under a bright red slide with a large white “B” — part of Gilead’s “B Here” campaign to raise awareness of hepatitis B in the Asian American community. Except for that massive B shining brightly above Dr. Fong, the rest of the slide was in Chinese. Then he began speaking in Chinese. He spoke in the same voice, with his usual calm, measured tone, and sounded so like himself that I had to strain to be sure that it wasn’t English. No, he was definitely speaking Chinese.

The experience was a little surreal, like watching a ventriloquist dummy. I was sure that he would switch to English in a few minutes. He didn’t. I turned to the man next to me. “Do you think he is going to do the entire lecture in Chinese?”

“Yes,” he answered. I groaned. “Do you need me to translate for you?” he offered. I smiled, happy to finally feel welcome, but declined. The man pointed to the survey form in my hand. “You know this is a test for hepatitis B?” I explained that I worked on a project doing outreach and designing a data base for Dr. Fong’s group, so yes, I did know. It felt good to finally give an explanation. I reminded him that Asians were not the only ones infected with hepatitis B, but he didn’t seem convinced.

I left my seat and moved up closer, crouching in the aisle to take pictures. When I was done with that, I filled out my survey form, and then I listened to Dr. Fong, trying to pick out Chinese phrases to identify. It was useless. The red slide with the white B stayed up the whole time, taunting me. Many of the audience questions seemed to deal with specific results of previous screenings, which I deduced from the lab reports being waved about as each question was posed. There were probably 70 people or so at the lecture, and on a Thursday afternoon at that, so people were definitely interested in the topic. This presentation had been advertised in Chinese language newspapers and was held at a community center in a predominantly Chinese area; other screenings were often held at local health fairs or churches in API communities.

When the lecture was over, a man with thick glasses made an announcement in Chinese. My neighbor explained the system — a range of numbers would be called out and when the number on my survey form fell into that range, I could go upstairs for the screening. He told me how to say 37 in Chinese so that I could recognize it when it was called. Right. I think it had seven syllables. Luckily Mimi spotted me and brought me upstairs herself. The staff entered my registration data, made a test tube label for my blood, and asked me to verify the information they had printed out.

As Mimi tied the tourniquet on my arm and felt for my vein with her finger, I looked away, slightly light-headed. “You’re not going to faint on me, are you?” Mimi asked loudly. “I’ve never had anyone faint on me.” A number of elderly patients smiled at me and chuckled. My lecture neighbor appeared at the table across from me and rolled up his sleeve for the nurse. “You’ll be fine, won’t you?” I nodded and breathed in deeply, focusing my gaze intently away from my arm. I imagined the hubbub that would ensue if I did pass out. “What was she doing here?” they would cluck at each other. “Didn’t she know this was a hepatitis B screening?”

The blood was drawn without any fainting spells and I gathered my things to leave. A young man offered me a bottle of water on my way out of the screening room, and then downstairs a pair of women handed out bright pink boxes from a local bakery. A present! A completely wonderful, unexpected present! I walked out into the bright sunlight, dumbfounded. An old Chinese man stood by the door with his box, apparently as surprised as I was. We looked at each other and smiled.

“It is nice, yes?” he pointed towards his box.

“It’s great!” I agreed. “I’m starving.”

Excited like a little kid, I tore open the pink box as soon as I reached my car. There was a little custard cup with fruit on top (I ate that right away) and two triangles of a sandwich with the crust cut off. I bit into one and the three layers slid out in succession like a set of stairs. It was white, pink, and gold, the ham all slippery from the mayonnaise and strange, foamy cheese. I ate all of it and loved it. If I’d also had a cup of tea, I think I would have fallen asleep right there, completely content.

Wednesday, May 19, was World Hepatitis Day, and the entire month of May is dedicated to hepatitis awareness. Currently 800,000 to 1.4 million Americans are chronically infected with HBV, a real tragedy since a vaccine does exist. The APLC’s Mimi Chang, MSN, NP, explains that the majority of those infected are foreign-born or the children of recent immigrants who just don’t know that they are at risk. “Hepatitis B is a silent disease. Patients don’t have symptoms until the liver is seriously damaged.” She adds that a bigger problem for the APLC is that many patients who test positive either have no insurance or are underinsured and can’t afford the treatment. “Patients who have HIV automatically get Medi-Cal, but there is no system for that with hepatitis B. They are similar diseases, but one is covered, and one is not. The CDC fund for HIV is much bigger than the one for viral hepatitis.” Patients who avoid treatment until they need liver surgery or a transplant create a much heavier financial burden on the health care system than they would have if their condition had been monitored and controlled.

The U.S. health care system needs to welcome all of its citizens, sick or healthy, recent immigrant or fourth generation American. My neighbor’s offer to translate, Mimi’s joking to relax me, and the pretty boxed lunch went a long way towards making me feel comfortable and, well, wanted. Shouldn’t we do at least that for our fellow citizens — particularly when the financial stability of our country and, even more importantly, lives are at stake? Solid policies to spread awareness and distribute timely treatment instill the warm acceptance that all Americans need to feel good about our country again.

Thankfully, my test came back negative for the hepatitis B antigen and negative for antibodies, which means I have no immunity to the disease and should be vaccinated. It is a series of 3 shots, $17 each at a reduced rate at the APLC. Next time I’ll try to catch the APLC’s other liver specialist, Dr. Ho Bae, when he gives a talk in Korean. I have no doubt that it will go as well as the first time.

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CDC recommends that people born in these countries or born of parents from these countries be tested for hepatitis B.

APPENDIX: LIST OF COUNTRIES WITH ‡2% HBSAG PREVALENCE

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina, Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Congo, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia (including Czech Republic and Slovakia), Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Djibouti, East Timor, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Europa Island, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Glorioso Islands, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Juan de Nova Island, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Helena, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tomelin Island, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

excerpted from:
Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Vol. 17, p.28-33. Info can also be found on CDC website, MMWR Report for Sept. 19, 2008, figure 3 and table 3.