Blazing Minds » Health

Ryan O’Neal Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer

Danielle — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:00:40 +0000

Actor Ryan O’Neal was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. The actor suffered from leukemia in the 1990s, but went into remission in 2006. O’Neal lost the love of his life, Farrah Fawcett, to cancer in 2009. In a 2009 article in People magazine, O’Neal described cancer as “an insidious enemy.”

Professionals are attempting to contain the cancer for O’Neal. At this time, there is a risk that it can spread to his bones and other areas of his body. However, O’Neal is planning to undergo extensive chemotherapy and take a strong regimen of medications during this time. O’Neal says that he’s ready to battle this disease head on.

O’Neal’s memoir, Both of Us: My Life with Farrah, details his relationship with Fawcett and her struggle and consequent death from anal cancer in 2009. Of the book, O’Neal said, “Maybe this [memoir] was my way of trying to bring her back. At least it was a way to stay connected to her.”

In recent news, O’Neal cancelled an appearance on the ‘Today’ show. In a recent statement to People magazine, O’Neal wrote, “I am deeply grateful for the support of my friends and family during this time, and I urge everyone to get regular checkups, as early defense against this horrible disease that has afflicted so many.”

What Is Prostate Cancer?

Prostate cancer begins in the prostate, a small walnut-shaped gland that wraps around the urethra and is located below the bladder. It is responsible for assisting in the production of semen and helping with ejaculation. Men over 60 are more susceptible to prostate cancer than any other age group. Men who come from families that have a history of cancer also have an increased likelihood develop this disease.

Signs and Symptoms

A man in the early stages may first become aware of a problem because of pain during urination. He may also notice blood in his urine stream or have difficulty producing a steady stream of urine, even when the urge to urinate is very strong. If the disease has begun to spread, bone pain or tenderness may develop.

Detection and Treatment

Doctors diagnose prostate cancer by performing a biopsy, which involves taking a sample of tissue from the prostate. Once the doctor makes a prognosis, they can further assess the extent the cancer has spread by performing a CT scan or a bone scan. The extent of the cancer will help doctors decide on proper treatment. Treatment may include radiation therapy, surgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, proton therapy or a combination of several treatments.

The earlier medical experts can diagnosis prostate cancer, the more chances they have of containing it and saving the patient’s life. Ryan O’Neal is on his way to remission because he got regular checkups. A man should have a physical, which includes a test for prostate cancer, every two years, beginning at the age of 40. Anyone who has not had a checkup for prostate cancer should schedule an appointment today.

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Ryan O’Neal Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Fitness Marketing Using Articles

kimathic — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:00:12 +0000

Physical Fitness (Photo credit: Justin Liew)

Writing articles is one of the most effective ways of marketing your fitness business. There are many sites, forums, communities and blogs which accept contributions from fitness professionals who want to share unique information about solving health and fitness problems. You could also build your own blog. A personal blog will allow you to post regular fitness and health tips. With time, your blog will experience an increase in traffic. If readers find your tips useful, they will keep returning for more. Besides a blog, you could publish an email newsletter which can be sent out to readers weekly or fortnightly.

Articles will help you promote your services to the target market. In addition, once your article gets published, people will begin seeing you as an authority on the subject. However, many fitness professionals are not aware of the benefits of short articles and therefore fail to make use of this powerful marketing tool. The following are some guidelines that will help you start writing your own articles on fitness fast and easily.

1. Select a subject which will really interest people

The first step is to select a subject that is likely to capture the attention of many people. This might seem to be a rather obvious requirement. However, many fitness professionals don’t know what kind of subjects their customers would want to know about. Therefore, they might end up writing fitness articles on topics which people are not really interested in.

Before writing anything, you should first ask your prospects what kind of articles they would like to read. Would they like to learn about how to lose weight? Or are they interested in knowing about how to lower their blood pressure? This is all part of marketing. Don’t write on what you think your audience wants to hear; find out exactly what they are interested in.

2. Use a powerful headline

There is no use in writing an article if nobody is going to read it. Usually, a headline is what captures the attention of readers. Therefore, it is crucial that you think of a headline which is catchy. To get ideas of a killer headline, visit your local bookstore or newsstand and have a look at the magazine headlines. Copywriters are paid a lot of money to think of captivating headlines since that is what sells the magazines. Writing powerful headlines is a tactic that has been very successful in promoting my blog which offers weight watchers discounts and Bistro md coupons.

3. Apply the ‘magic formula’

Begin with an opening paragraph which gives details of the issue which you are about to address. After this, offer an easy step-by-step guideline which people can follow. You can then conclude the article by saying something like, ‘Follow these five simple steps and you will start losing weight in no time!’ At the end of the article, make sure you have a biography which includes a link to your site. This will offer reader a way of getting additional free information from you.

This is a post by Charles, an internet marketing and social media blogger. Currently, he is writing for a discount blog which offers weight watchers promotion codes and valid Bistromd coupons. He also blogs about coupon deals at blogs which share weight watchers discounts and Bistro md coupons.

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Fitness Marketing Using Articles is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Beat The Winter Blues With This Feel Good Food Infographic

John — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:32:48 +0000

If you’re a UK resident, then you’ll be no stranger to the dark, cold conditions that permeate throughout the winter months (and often even the summer months). During these darker periods, the lack of sunshine has been proven to cause the levels of the chemical serotonin (the so-called ‘feel good’ chemical) in the brain to dip, resulting in a feeling of depression often referred to as the ‘Winter blues’.

So how can you beat these Winter blues? What steps can you take to help you feel better during the colder, darker months? According to Put Pork On Your Fork, you can help beat the blues by eating what they refer to as ‘mood boosting’ foods (including pork, spinach, chilli, mango, bananas, walnuts, salmon, pineapple, chocolate and avocado).

Put Pork On Your Fork recently carried out in-depth research in the United Kingdom, which revealed that an incredible 53% of British people suffer from the January blues, and that 70% of Brits believe what you eat affects your mood. So to help people beat these Winter blues, they produced the following fantastically designed infographic, aimed at informing you which foods are best to help improve your mood (they’ve even included a menu for the ultimate feel good meal):

(Click for a larger version).

As always with our infographic posts feel free to take the infographic for your own blog or website, just please try and remember to link back to either the Put Pork On Your Fork or the Blazing Minds website.

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Beat The Winter Blues With This Feel Good Food Infographic is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Get Yourself Toned And Keep Fit With The JML Spin Gym – Review

Karen — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 07:34:05 +0000

Now thanks to the wonderful Sylvie at FuelMyBlog and those generous people at JML Direct, I was recently sent a rather strange contraption called the Spin Gym!

Now to be honest I was really sure on how this was going to work and it did remind me of one of those optical illusion toys that I had as a kid with the card in the middle and a bird on one side and a cage on the other, you know the ones I mean

OK! But What Does It Do?

The Spin Gym is a handy new gadget that with a little practise and a daily 5 minute workout it can effectively strengthen and tone your upper body muscles, such as your arms, shoulders, back and your chest.

The Spin Gym is based on the optical illusion that I mentioned earlier and has been designed and developed in helping professional athletes to train their upper body muscles.

It uses a combination of inertia, gyrotronics and isokinetics that allow you to get at least 20 lbs of resistance each time that you pull the outer rings, giving your upper body that workout it’s been screaming for.

Sounds Great But How Do You Use The JML Spin Gym?

It’s really quite simple to start using the Spin Gym, all you need to do is hold the two outer rings and spin the middle disc 20 times to wind up the tension in the cords.

Then simply pull your hands away from each other to spin the inner weight, when you feel the tension go, return your hands to their original place for the spinning weight to tighten up the cords again and repeat. Yes it’s that simple.

But it does take a little practice to get in to a good flow in using the Spin Gym to get it to keeping going, imagine clapping your hands, it’s that sort of movement and believe me after 5 minutes you certainly feel the muscles that have been given their workout

What Are The Benefits Of The JML Spin Gym?

Well, besides the fact that you can get a good workout of the upper body, the Spin Gym is so small you can carry around with you and use it anywhere, in the home, office on the beach, anywhere you want.

So there is no excuse that you haven’t got your own little personal gym with you when you are out and about, I take mine to work with me and then usually have 5 minutes just to keep to a routine and it’s just so easy to use.

OK, So How Do I Get One Of These Fancy Looking Spin Gyms

That’s easy You can grab yourself a Spin Gym from JML which retails at £29.99 and it comes with a handy drawstring bag to carry around with, instruction manual, extra cords (for when you need them), two DVDs (Fitness Instructional & Workout Video and Cardio & More) and of course the Spin Gym itself.

Sounds Great! But, I’d Love To See The Spin Gym In Action

Ah ha your wish is my command

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now is that easy or what

So there you have it, my overall thoughts are this is a great gadget and as it’s so small and easy to take everywhere there is no excuse not to, it’s certainly something I would recommend it

Don’t forget to check out the official JML Facebook page for more great gadgets like this one and loads more info

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Get Yourself Toned And Keep Fit With The JML Spin Gym – Review is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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The Legitimacy of Medical Research

Danielle — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:13:08 +0000

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

It always seems when election season rolls around, we are hit with invective about wasteful government spending, which is something many Americans seem to want. A consistent target of these attacks is medical research, which is bowdlerized and misrepresented in order to appeal to the public’s sense of outrage that money is being spent on ridiculous lab tests that bear no importance for society at large.

The image painted by politicians and their followers is such that scientists are bored nerds conducting bogus experiments in university labs on Uncle Sam’s dime. It’s a caricature and shows just how out of touch many people are with science as a profession.

Medical research is essential in understanding the scientific world around us. It drives new products we use every day to live. It also helps us work toward new treatments for breast cancer and other devastating diseases. This research has the potential to save lives, but sometimes that goal gets clouded by those looking on at what seems like tomfoolery. By and large there are simple misunderstandings. Recently, the Traditional Values Coalition accused Hunter College in New York of spending $9.4mn tax dollars on studying penis size when in fact the study was focused on sexually transmitted disease. Further, none of that funding even went towards collecting that data. Instead, it went to a program to train scientists and that program gave a small portion of the money as a grant to the author of the final paper. By isolating one aspect of research, taking out all the degrees in between the money and the study, then obfuscating the real reason behind the study, the aim is to win money back from what is thought to be frivolous expenditures.

While the means is unfortunate, the end is not a bad one. Many claim that in light of the economic and financial realities of many Americans, funding needs to come from somewhere; and medical research is not necessarily exempt from that. It is true that all belts must tighten. The problem is defaming medical research to the public in order to “win funds” from a specific sector and apply it to one that is “more deserving.” Shrimp on a treadmill is not helping Joe America get a job, they say.

Not only are they ignoring the scientist who has that job, they are dismissing the patients who benefit from this research. Should we have cut funding to scientists who developed the vaccine for polio?

An unintentional effect of this strategy is turning away men, women and children who would otherwise be interested in pursuing a career in science – something America desperately needs, considering our worldwide ranking in math and science education.

The movement of capital gains gravity when there is less to move around and right now, there is very, very little. The desire to cobble together funds from anywhere is understandable, but real conversations need to be had about how to do that – not cowardly attacks based on over-simplified and incomplete information.

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The Legitimacy of Medical Research is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Pull Your Head Out Of The Sand And Out Of Your Bargain Bucket

BigDaddyCash — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:15:42 +0000

We’re in denial. You, me, your friends and neighbours, all of us are in denial. We know that junk food is calorific but we assuage our guilty feelings by inventing clauses whereby the calories don’t count: It doesn’t count if it’s a Friday night; It doesn’t count because it’s just this once; It doesn’t count because it’s probably not as rich as a different brand…

One of those excuses is about to be eliminated, maybe to your advantage, maybe not. The change is this, fast food restaurants are going to be required to give dietary information on the products they serve so that you DO know how many calories are in that burger and fries. So now you’ll know if you really can’t eat it or if it’s ok, given that you’ve been good the rest of the week. (You have been good, haven’t you?)

You Are What You Eat So You Should At Least Know What You’re Eating

It's A Night Out, Now Let's Eat!

Will having the calorific, sodium and salt levels printed out for all to see help you make wiser dietary decisions while you’re out? Do you know what your RDA is and more importantly, how close you are to going over while you’re queuing for your kebab with mayonnaise, chilli sauce and chips?

The health department here in the UK is encouraging food chains to display dietary information on the menu boards that hang all over the walls of the restaurants. This initiative is a part of the Responsibility Deal, the government’s programme that will see the private sector playing a part in solving public health problems. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley said that: “One in six meals are now eaten outside the home and for those meals, we often have no idea how many calories we are eating.”

The first of the restaurant chains to take up the challenge is going to be McDonalds. They will be introducing a ‘smarter menu’ to all 12,000 restaurants in the UK over the coming week. Later other restaurants will also join in the fray on fat, including Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Starbucks. In total 38 restaurant chains and franchises are expected to be providing dietary facts by the end of the year.

But Will The data Make a Difference? Won’t Most People Still Order The Foods That They Ordered Before, The Things That They Went In For In The First Place?

It seems so. McDonalds in New York began producing information regarding their product range as early as 2008 and since then the average calorie burden of each meal has dropped from 829 calories to 785Kcal. Only one in six customers are affected by the strategy, and they ordered about 100Kcal less at the counter. Women and people in wealthier neighbourhoods were the most likely to be affected by the message contained in the menu, the youth market were the most likely to ignore it.

In the US a federal law has been drafted which will require all restaurant chains who operate out of 20 locations or more to make available calorific and dietary information from next year. Now New York’s a busy town and things might be different back in the Boondocks but the existing data from McDonalds seems to point at the response being a massive “Whatever, I’ll take my usual.”

@DanCash is prone to a pizza in Islington when he’s out on the town, while getting a takeaway in Camden is all part of a great night out.

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Pull Your Head Out Of The Sand And Out Of Your Bargain Bucket is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Are Individuals Dialing Up Trouble Living, Working by Cell Phone Towers?

Business.com — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:54:02 +0000

Did you ever think that your cell phone and the means to use it could end up killing you?

According to a recent warning from a group of trade activists, residing in close proximity to cellphone towers could end up leading to such horrific outcomes as melting your brain, saddling you with cancer or even worse, neutering your reproductive organs. If that’s the case, are you ready to go back to a land line?

In an interview with FoxNews.com, Dr. Robin Bernhoft, president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), warned that individuals living close to cell towers and antennas are in danger of becoming sick.

Whitney Seymour, a member of the activist Web site Citizens for Health, adds that the FCC standards regarding cell transmission antennas were structured on previous studies formed nearly 20 years ago using data even before that time.

So, is it time to ditch the cell phone and pack up the family if you’ve got a cell tower within eye sight of your home? Not so fast proclaim many in the cell phone industry.

They point out that scientific evidence for the most part does not provide a direct connection between cell phone towers and health issues, noting that the normal exposure level is thousands of time below safety standards.

According to a recent report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, “Although there remains some uncertainty, the trend in the accumulating evidence is increasingly against the hypothesis that mobile phone use can cause brain tumors in adults.”

Despite that rather reassuring view, some towns across the nation have not waited for all the scientific evidence to be determined.

In the town of Hempstead, New York, a group of concerned mothers successfully lobbied town officials last year regarding where cell phone towers could be placed in relation to their kid’s schools. The mothers said they were taking a pro-active position, not wanting to find out when it was too late that the towers may pose a health risk.

An ordinance was passed that banned wireless companies from placing equipment closer than 1,500 feet to residences, day care centers, schools and buildings for worship, unless they provide compelling information that there is a definitive need.

While the mothers may have been taking a pro-active approach, a 2010 British study from London’s Imperial College reported that children born to mothers who resided close to cell phone towers when they were pregnant did not appear to be at a higher risk for cancer.

Despite the findings, researchers do point out that their research does not fully remove the chance that children may be at risk for other health problems down the road.

And lastly, a 2010 Canadian study published in The National Research Council Journal, states that living close to a cell phone tower can prove very harmful to one’s health.

According to the study, low-level microwave radiation from cell towers increases the risk of developing cancer and a number of other illnesses. Despite that warning, the illnesses among those living or working near cellular infrastructure were consistent with microwave exposure, and were well below the danger limits set by Health Canada.

So there you have it….it really all depends on who you talk to as to whether or not living and/or working near cell towers is a danger to your health.

With all the varying information out there, don’t be surprised if more and more cell phone users and those living by towers end up disconnecting from the debate.

In the meantime, I’ll stick to texting as my primary choice of communication!

Photo credit: mobile.huddler.com

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Are Individuals Dialing Up Trouble Living, Working by Cell Phone Towers? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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McDonalds React To The Ban On Toys In Unhealthy Kids Meals By Making The Food Healthier!

BigDaddyCash — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:04:40 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

McDonalds is reacting to increasing pressure from its more health savvy customers and is reducing the weight of fries it serves and introducing seasonal fruit and vegetables into the mix.

Happy Meals, which, thanks to the toys that its sponsors provide, are a must have for many kids all over the world, are going to come under the change from September, in some states at least. After the initial trial the changes will be rolled out to the rest of the country’s 14,000 restaurants in the US. This won’t be the first time McDonalds has changed the make up of the Happy Meal, in the past they removed the fries completely which obviously went down like a dry lunch so the fries were put back on the menu. Jan Fields, McDonald’s US president observed: “People come to McDonald’s and, first of all, they want the choice and the control to be theirs, but their expectation of a Happy Meal does include a fry. When we did it without fries, there was a huge disappointment factor.”

The new meal will contain about half of the number of fries that the current Happy Meal contains, down from approximately 70 grams of potato to 30 grams, this edible shortfall will be made up with fruit or vegetables such as apple slices, carrot sticks, pineapple or raisins. What exactly depends on the region and the time of year. Despite the variations McDonalds say that the changes will reduce the amount of calories by about 20%.

Healthier Food Shouldn’t Be More Expensive

The prices of commodities have led to a recent increase in the flat price of a McDonalds meal, however, Fields says that the changes to the Happy Meal won’t directly affect the price of the food. Because of its status as the world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonalds has been under increasing scrutiny to see what action it will take in relation to health, the obesity epidemic and the introduction of bans on toys in meals which aren’t deemed healthy enough to market at children. Jack In A Box responded to pressure not by making their meals better for children but by removing the toy in a preemptive move which they put down to a focus on the quality of their food rather than trying to bribe children.

Fast food restaurants have two choices in the face of the ban on toys, either remove them from food which isn’t thought to be healthy enough or improve the nutritional balance of the food they serve and include the toys, effectively ‘bribing’ the kids to choose food that is better for them.

McDonalds spokeswoman Danya Proud (who we’ve met before, again talking about health issues at McDonalds’ restaurants) said on the issue of improving nutritional balance that: “We know we’re a leader and we know we need to be part of the solution, but we can’t be looked at as providing the only solution.”

Fields sees this as a great marketing strategy as well as bringing benefits to their customers. She says that: “People tell us they want to feel good about visiting us regularly, about the food options that we serve, and want to visit us even more often.” However, after the changes that McDonalds introduced back in 2006 with chicken nuggets and apple slices marketed as Apple Dippers it was recorded that although 88% of customers knew about the fruit option with the meal only 11% of customers ordered apple instead of fries. What the Dippers were dipped in was a caramel sauce, not terribly healthy; they won’t be going forward with that in September’s menu change.

As well as the number of fries which each serving includes, McDonalds is also endeavouring to reduce the amount of sodium in its food by about 15%, after that they will be reducing the saturated fats and sugar in its recipes and has engaged an auditor to see how well they’ve achieved their targets in 2020.

@DanCash is a feature writer who’s keen to see the takeaways in Fulham get healthier, just like Southwark takeaways

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McDonalds React To The Ban On Toys In Unhealthy Kids Meals By Making The Food Healthier! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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How Polluted Is Your Local Ball Pool?

BigDaddyCash — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:39:30 +0000

When you take the kids out for a meal you want to give them something nutritious and wholesome, something that will fill them up with yummy yummy goodness providing for healthy development, both intellectually and physically. Funny then that all they seem to want is fried processed carbs, mechanically recovered meat and fizzy drinks on top!

So you visit one of the ubiquitous junk food restaurants where they can fill up on calories and starches and then burn them all off again as the fly around the ball pool screaming like banshees and having great larks and lorks a lordy. So there they are, happily fed and playing in a safe environment where you can leave them to duke it out by themselves for five minutes while you get to catch a glimpse of today’s paper.

But put that paper down for a moment and look at what your treasured mites are gadding about in. Dr Erin Carr-Jordan, who also happens to be a developmental psychologist did and she filmed what she saw. Not only that but after having not been able to get a response from the management she made it her pet project to investigate just how filthy the PlayPlaces and restrooms really were. (spoiler alert: VERY!) Erin’s research took her to more than 50 separate ball pools where she took samples which she then sent back to the lab to have analysed.

So, while the restaurants claim that the play equipment, including ball pools, tube slides and all every day it’s not hard to see that they don’t thoroughly disinfect, otherwise there wouldn’t be meningitis, gonorrhoea and coli which normally reside in an environment far more brown in the intestines of both humans and pigs. In 1999 a study by Davis, Corbitt et al already found that ball pools should be sanitized regularly due to the huge levels of bacteria that can be found on the surfaces. Things don’t seem to have improved much and if a public swimming pool had the same cocktail of bacteria and toxins it would be closed down. However, in a restaurant it seems to be a different story.

A spokesperson for the best known restaurant chain in the world, Danya Proud, (no, seriously) said that it was “unacceptable but not reflective of our business and our restaurants. As far as I’m concerned it was an isolated matter and we took immediate corrective action to thoroughly sanitize the PlayPlace.” Clearly hadn’t watched the video or read the complaint thoroughly then? Dr Carr-Jordan went to more than 50 play pits and found that the problem was endemic, not isolated!

Dr Carr-Jordan said: “One of the ultimate goals is to put regulations in place that would require cleaning these places once a week or month or whatever comes back as necessary. There is more potential for hand-to-mouth transmission… You often see kids go down the slide and immediately grab some food.”

Chicago’s department of public health explained that while they cannot cite a restaurant for having a filthy, unsanitary, graffiti riddled play area per se, they can issue a citation for rodent or insect infestations in these areas.

Dan Cash is a features writer in the UK. Rather than going to get contaminated at the ball pool himself, he gets food delivery in Ealing instead. There’s that Indian takeaway in Fulham, yummers!

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How Polluted Is Your Local Ball Pool? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Why Living Next Door To A TakeAway Doesn’t Necessarily Make Teens Fatter

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:43:09 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Running counter to natural assumption, proximity to fast and junk food doesn’t cause an exaggerated risk of obesity in school-age children and teens, a new study has revealed.

The research, carried out in Maine, found no correlation between overweight and obesity and the proximity of fast food outlets to schools and colleges. David Harris PhD of the University of Southern Maine in Portland et al wrote in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour that “Unhealthful (sic) food choices are ubiquitous” so retailers selling low nutrition, high salt, high sugar foods “[…] have no significant effect on student obesity.”

Of course there are several previous reports that show that the availability of processed foods in any particular neighbourhood will increase not only the risk but also the incidence of obesity among the population. Harris also postulated that the results may remain consistent with school age children if they’re allowed to go out for lunch and have a number of fast food options available nearby.

In order to examine the relationship, or lack there-of between poorly balanced food retailers and the young Dr Harris and his team posted questionnaires to 1,100 students at 11 high schools In the Maine area. Almost exactly half were returned with responses to physical data requests such as height, weight age, plus queries regarding the consumption of sweetened drinks and fast food.

Once the numbers had been crunched it was discovered that 10 schools had at least one shop selling soft sugary drinks and 8 had at least one fast food outlet within .6 miles of their gates.

Among those who responded to the survey 25% stated that they were either overweight or obese, 73% that they were normal build and 1.8% that they were underweight. However, the number who said that they were actually obese was 12.5%, 3.5% less than the national norm of 16%.

While it’s easy to use statistics to prove or disprove cause and effect whichever side of the debate you find yourself, it should be noted that the authors of this study wanted to point out that rather than making no difference, the facet that poor food choice is so endemic in society today that immediate proximity to sources of junk food now has little or no impact on the figures.

While the survey participants admitted that slightly more than 10% of them drank soda every day and half said that they had it at least once a week 33% said that they’d been for a burger in the previous month and half a pizza in the same period. Given this, Harris’ team found that it wasn’t the locus not the number of restaurants that had any detectable significance on the rate of obesity or even higher that usual weight. They wrote that their findings “fail to support the hypothesis that the built environment near Maine high schools influences students’ rates of overweight or obesity.” When they looked at the studies which supported the view that proximity had an affect on weight they found that the definition of a fast food eatery was much broader and the proximity much shorter, as little as a tenth of a mile, or 160 metres.

The researchers do point out also that the study is based on a relatively small participancy and self-reporting has inherent faults so the data collated should only really be used as a guide as opposed to empirical evidence. Dr Christopher Carpenter of the University of California at Irvine who published a study that found proximity did have an affect observed these factors and referring to the low return of questionnaires supposed that: “Maybe fast food eaters are stigmatized from sending back the survey.”

Dan Cash is a features writer who loves to chow down on the odd Indian takeaway from Norwich when he’s visiting his sister out in the wilds of Norfolk. If you want takeaways Milton Keynes is another great place to try, but remember, only as an occasional treat!

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Why Living Next Door To A TakeAway Doesn’t Necessarily Make Teens Fatter is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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How To Keep Safe In The Kitchen

BigDaddyCash — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:15:28 +0000

I read in my local newspaper yesterday that the kitchen of the pub I used to work in while a student had caught fire over the weekend during a busy evening service. My friend Juliette who still works there said on her Facebook page:

Burning Down The Pub

“So at peak time on my pub shift the chef comes running in shouting ‘FIRE’! Before you can say ‘blasted chip pan’ the pub was in flames. A mass exodus ensued followed by 4 fire engines, 2 ambulances and several police cars! Now, some would suggest that I attract a somewhat abnormal amount of bad luck…

“AU CONTRAIRE..! Rescued by truck loads of brave strong firemen and plied with Tequila to settle the nerves!?! I’d imagine that’s what Heaven is like!”

It’s timely to remind us that no matter how careful we think we’re being it’s always important to keep safety at the forefront of our minds. It’s easy to make jokes about being rescued by brave strong firemen but as with any fire, no matter how small, it could easily have led to some-one being hurt, or worse.

With gas, electricity and water all in close proximity to one another all in the same room kitchens are obviously going to be one of the most dangerous rooms in the home. Not only is there the risk of fire, there’s the falling danger coming from standing on chairs to reach high shelves, slip hazards from spills and toxic risks from keeping cleaning products under the sink. Most people’s natural reaction would be to catch anything we dropped but in the instance of a knife this is fraught with danger, if you miss catching the handle you could grab the blade and even if you don’t it could then drop onto your foot.

As well as the obvious safety hints like not leaving stoves and grills unattended and storing heavy items at ground level there can be other articles of advice that can easily be overlooked. For example, health and safety professionals recommend keeping a fire extinguisher at least 10 feet away from a potential source of fire, ideally near the kitchen door. At first sight it seems counter intuitive but after a moments’ thought it becomes clear.

Another aspect of home safety which is overlooked is illumination, if your sight isn’t so good having a high contrast edge to your work surfaces can be a good idea so that you know when glassware and other sharps are getting too near the edge.

Electric hobs heat up very quickly but they cool down very slowly, so it’s a good idea to develop the habit of never touching the stove. Of course that makes cleaning the hob difficult so you should douse the surface before touching it if there is the possibility it is hot. Touching it casually or leaning against it is a definite no-no!

If there is a fire, if there is any chance of success you should try to tackle it yourself first of all, however, bear in mind that kitchen fires can escalate very quickly and get out of hand in a flash. Make sure that everyone in your household knows where extinguishers are and how to get safely out of the house.

Dan Cash is a features writer currently reporting on kitchen accessories such as condenser tumble dryers and cheap washing machines.

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How To Keep Safe In The Kitchen is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Britain Is Europe’s Whiplash Capital, For All The Wrong Reasons!

BigDaddyCash — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 08:58:02 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) are claiming that Britain is the “Whiplash capital of Europe” since one in every 140 people is claiming to have received a whiplash injury every year. They claim that the huge increases in motor insurance are down to the massive volumes of claims against insurance companies and the payouts that they have to make because of ‘cash for crash’ claims taken up by no-win-no-fee lawyers.

Whiplash injuries are hard to diagnose and easy to fake. Whiplash occurs when the muscles and ligaments of the neck are stretched unnaturally quickly when the vehicle in which the victim is travelling comes to an abrupt halt snapping the head in the direction of travel. Because the symptoms are hard to see yet easy to fake the ABI has found that they are easy to fake by fraudsters.

1,200 claims are made for whiplash injuries in the UK every year which is six times as many as the number of people who make work related claims per annum, although many people are reluctant to claim against their employers, stating that they either don’t know how to claim or are worried about the repercussions of claiming against their bosses.

Those 1,200 claims amount to three quarters of personal injury claims in Great Britain, that’s the highest number of claims made anywhere in Europe. For this reason, while the NHS spends £8,000,000 on treating collision related soft tissue injuries, insurance companies are giving approximately £2,000,000,000 in whiplash compensation. Because of this expenditure on payments the cost is naturally passed on to the consumer resulting in insurance premiums rising by nearly 40% over the past twelve months. The ABI also estimate that whiplash claims amount to 20%, or £74.00 to every insurance policy.

James Walton, assistant director of the ABI said to the 2011 whiplash conference that: “Despite the statistics I doubt that the UK has some of the weakest necks in Europe. Often difficult to diagnose, easy to fake and exaggerate, whiplash is a fraudster’s dream.”

The ABI are recommending that healthcare professionals, insurers and lawyers form a partnership which will ideally help prevent whiplash and treat it effectively when it does occur as well as clamping down on and identifying fraudulent claims.

If there were consistent medical guidance on diagnosis and treatment allied with raising driver awareness of safe stopping distances then claims, both genuine and false, could be reduced, saving discomfort, injury and money for insurance customers.

Dan Cash is a feature writer concerned with all areas of road safety. He’s riding in the Brighton Naked Bike Ride to raise awareness of the vulnerability of cyclists on city streets and feels that no win no fee compensation claims are legitimate as many people can’t afford to take insurers to court if they are liable for their own fees prior to taking the case to court. If you’re short of funds following a car crash a no win no fee solicitor may be your only option to cover medical and living expenses.

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Britain Is Europe’s Whiplash Capital, For All The Wrong Reasons! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Cut The Costs Of Luxury Breaks; Fly BA and Leave The Kids At Home!

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:56:56 +0000

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If you’re thinking of getting away this summer then you might have another reason given to you by British Airways as they cut their fares by up to 30% on their business class routes and up to 60% in their first class cabins if you can find a destination you want and can book before June 21, 2011.

British Airways will be slashing the prices on tickets to over 80 destinations, the offer on discounted tickets includes tickets booked before the end of the month for travel before New Year’s Eve. Business flights to Caribbean destinations including Grenada and Jamaica are attracting discounts of 24 to 29%. As well as the flights, BA are also offering holiday packages, offers include stays at resorts like the 4 ½ star Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa located in Montego Bay. It recently received a Five Diamond AAA standard. They’re also offering holiday deals in Dubai, booking now could put you in poll position when the F1 Grand Prix arrives later on this year; the BA offer includes stays at the Ritz-Carlton anmd hotels further into the desert such as the Al Maha Desert Resort and Spa.

Fly to Buenos Aires and you can get up to 25% off the book price for your ticket, take a trip over to Hong Kong and you can cut up to 20% off of the price. 29% is the amount you can save taking a business seat over to the States.

If you have family and taking the kids on this kind of a holiday sounds like it would bore them to death, why not make it a real ‘family’ holiday, ie, taking a holiday from your family? I know, I know, you want your little poppets beside you at all times as you go to spas which don’t often let under 16s through the door or eat out at restaurants that don’t have a child-friendly menu or go to a club to try and recapture your youth while having to find a nanny who will come to your hotel.

You could do that or you could just leave them at home, trust me, they’ll get just as much out of it as you do, more even. Thompson have found that 40% of parents don’t even like holidaying with their own kids so don’t deny it any longer, a real holiday would indeed include time off as a parent.

Now, leaving your children to fend for themselves for two weeks while you’re in the Bahamas might attract the attention of the local constabulary when you get home but there are actually people who like children, even other people’s so think about sending them to summer camp or perhaps relatives; it’s what grandmas were invented for. All it costs is crossing your heart and promising to put them in a better class of care-home when the time comes.

Dan Cash is a feature writer who’s looking at the financial possibilities of taking a luxury yoga spa holiday. He might have to sell a kidney but that’s fine, he might just make it a detox holiday instead.

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Cut The Costs Of Luxury Breaks; Fly BA and Leave The Kids At Home! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Love It Or Hate It, In Denmark Marmite Is Now Illegal!

BigDaddyCash — Fri, 27 May 2011 07:15:51 +0000

Their slogan has been “Love it or Hate it” for a couple of years now but it appears that the Danes hate it so much that Marmite is now illegal on their shores.

Image via Wikipedia

Thanks to strict food safety laws which take a dim view of any kind of additive, Denmark has decided that yeast extract should become illegal as added vitamins are seen as a threat to public health. Other ‘dangerous’ foods include Rice Crispies, Shreddies, Horlicks and Ovaltine.

Since 2004 any foods containing fortification have been removed from shops which could explain why Danish bacon tastes so much better here than it does there. Unlike Britain, Australia and New Zealand Marmite had never really taken off in Scandinavia, confined, as it was, to the few ‘English Shops’ that exist in the major cities. Then the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration noticed tht it contained additives and promptly banned it.

The sale of any foodstuff which has “added vitamins, minerals and other substances” must be approved by the Danish government following a health scare involving the effects on children and unborn babies of foods with increased vitamin levels combined with others. The resulting high vitamin and mineral levels are thought to be potentially harmful to development.

This isn’t the first time Marmite has courted controversy though, a few years ago some Welsh schools banned it from their menus as it was thought that the salt content was too high for the little ones. However, the addition of vitamins and minerals to foods is rarely done in order to do harm. In China it’s been known for unscrupulous baby formula manufacturers to add melamine to their products to increase protein content, not withstanding the fact that it’s toxic.

In the west on the other hand, food testing, labelling and rigorous testing by the Food Standards Agency means that we can be fairly certain that anything we eat that’s sold as food will in fact have a certain amount of nutritional value, even those turkey based food substitutes that Jamie Oliver so famously got upset about a year or two ago.

Edward De Bono, the inventor of lateral thinking recommended that the peoples of Israel and Palestine should all be given Marmite and encouraged to eat it as often as possible. Marmite as a yeast extract, contains zinc and a lack of zinc, as well as affecting the libido, can make men irritable and belligerent. Because much of the bread eaten in the Middle East is unleavened, ie, no yeast the population could all be suffering from zinc deficiencies. Replace the zinc and people will be less confrontational and, quite possibly, better lovers to boot.

Like all Scandinavians, the Danes do consume considerably higher levels of beer than their Jewish and Arab counterparts so a lack of yeast in their diet is unlikely to arise from the denial of Marmite but you can’t put Carlsberg on your toast in the mornings.

Dan Cash is a features writer who loves a spot of Marmite! There are takeaways in Stoke On Trent who will deliver Marmite on toast. But can you get Marmite on your prawn toast from the Chinese takeaway in Stoke? I think I might have hit upon something…

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Love It Or Hate It, In Denmark Marmite Is Now Illegal! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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Financial Assistance Given To Pursue UK Deformities Case.

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:26:56 +0000

A man seeking compensation for birth defects he believes were caused by his mother taking medication while he was in utero has won legal aid and is now able to begin a court case against the maker of the drug.

Hundreds of people in the UK claim that they were harmed when their mothers were prescribed Primodos, made in the 1970s by a company which is now a part of the Bayer AG corporation.

Peter Todd, a lawyer who specializes in injuries and deformities caused by drugs and vaccines said that he had been informed that a limited sum of money was being made available by the legal services commission. Todd said “We applied for legal aid so that we would be able to review the case and whether there was now any reasonable prospect of success.”

The legal aid grant will pay to identify a suitable expert in the field to prepare the preliminary reports, Todd was not prepared to mention how much the legal aid came to although he will have to apply for further funding if the case is to progress through a trial.

Karl Murphy, 38, was born missing several fingers and toes after his mother was given the drug while pregnant with him. Murphy said that he found a letter in his mother’s attic among a bundle of papers gathered by German journalists in the 1970s in which Schering employees expressed doubts about the safety of the drug, saying that they thought there could be harmful effects.

People suffering deformities and other affects of the drug tried to file a case in the 1980s but it failed in the early stages and Bayer denies that there is any evidence that the drug is associated with birth defects.

The request for legal aid was originally denied by the Legal Services Commission. However, an independent appeals board recommended that the monies be given.

Mike O’Brien, formerly a junior health minister told the House of Commons last year that there had been 3,500 reports over the past few years relating to the harmful side affects of the drugs ethinylestradiol and norethisterone, both of which were present in Primodos. Three reports concerning adverse reactions specifically mention Primodos, Mr O’Brien said.

It was in 1975, approximately two years after Mr Murphy’s birth, that the Committee of Safety of Medicines advised that drugs and medications containing synthesized and natural hormonal chemicals, this included Primodos, should not be used or prescribed for use during pregnancy and that a warning alerting women to the possible hazards in pregnancy should be made a part of any and all advertising and promotional material.

Like the far more infamous drug Thalidomide Primodos was specifically prescribed to women in early pregnancy, the point in the foetuses development when the drug could do the most harm. Thalidomide was found to have no noticeable effects on foetal development in later stage pregnancies and is still in use in countries where leprosy is a problem as it is effective as a treatment. Obviously it has very bold warnings that women must never touch it if they even think they stand a chance of getting pregnant.

Dan Cash is a feature writer who reports on no win no fee UK legal battles and sports injury claims as well as consumer law.

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Financial Assistance Given To Pursue UK Deformities Case. is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2012. Please link back when using this source material.

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