health, wellness, and meditiation
With Ramadan being just a week away, its important to make sure that we as muslims are in check for doing all things good. The holy month calls for our devotion to making good deeds and acts of kindness and then carrying on forth these same acts 365 days a year. Below is our to-do list for Ramadan, feel free to add on to it in the comments section:
Ramadan can be very demanding on our day to day work, since the body is deprived of food for almost 12 hours at the least, keeping our energy and morale high can be a very daunting task. Since the body has to obtain energy from whatever is stored from the food we ate during suhoor, its important we conserve the energy but obtain the same energy levels we do on any other day.
Continue reading “5 Tips to increase your work productivity during Ramadan”
Get fit this Ramadan.
Ready or not here it comes.
Get healthy, in shape and well just get ready to get the most out of this Ramadan 2015.
Late night prayers, iftar and lots of food, and getting some extra rest. It all adds-up so get your physical and spiritual self in shape and ready.
here it comes!!!
For more information
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The curcuma longa plant which is also known as turmeric might hold some very interesting secrets to solving health related issues which include back and neck pain. Multiple studies have shown that turmeric and its constituent of curcumin can help or treat a wide range of cancers, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune problems, neurological ailments including Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and diabetes neuropathy, among other metabolic diseases.
Dr. Joseph Maroon who is a noted UPMC neurosurgeon says he uses curcumin supplements as part of his health regimen as an ultra-marathon runner. He not only actively uses it himself but also recommends it to his patients with pain and inflammation from degenerative problems of the spine, neck and lower back.
Curcumin influences 700 genes, including ones that inhibit activation of the COX 2 gene, which produces an enzyme by the same name that causes pain and inflammation. The compounds that are present in turmeric act as a natural pain killer, which make it a great natural remedy for inflammatory pains.
Not only does turmeric not have any adverse side effects of it consumption but its also one of the ingredients that are actively used in Asian curries. Most people who prefer to take curcumin though try to taken them in tablet form but those who feel more adventurous do add it to their food as well.
Dr. Maroon recommends “people consume 500 to 1,000 milligrams supplement of curcumin a day, with daily doses not exceeding 2,000 milligrams. A teaspoon of turmeric contains about 200 milligrams of curcumin. Some health advocates recommend consuming turmeric rather than a curcumin supplement because other compounds in turmeric offer their own health advantages”.
Overall the benefits on consuming curcumin and its ability to address more than one medical issue that neck pain makes it the perfect natural ingredient to add to food or consume as a supplement. It has no side effects and is ten times cheaper than over the counter medicines that doctors usually recommend to ease inflammatory pain in the knees, back and neck.
Almost 80% of people will face some type of spinal problem in their lifetime. It’s a perfectly natural thing to go through back pain but in some cases the signals of back pain might be more serious than just something that disappears in a few days. Even though 92% of the times back pain is resolved without conventional medicine, sometimes not being able to treat it correctly can only make it worse.
Most of the time doctors will prescribe bed rest for a short period and some anti-inflammatory medicines. These work most of the time but for those who continue to get persistent pain even after taking these, might be looking at much more serious symptoms such as the ones we posted below:
According to doctors the most common spinal problem is degenerative arthritis of the spine, which leads to neck or back issues over longer periods of time. Other spinal issues can come from sources much more innocuous than inflammation. In fact, those working at a desk job could be setting themselves up for back problems later in life through poor posture.
It is important for patients to convey the right signals to the doctors for them to understand the severity of the problems. If any type of back pain is not resolved in 6 weeks, its possible that you have a more serious problem to deal with. In a lot of cases not treating back pain on time can lead no neck pain and knee pain as well. Making sure that we’re able to identify some of the symptoms stated above can help doctors treat you better.
Most doctors will tell their patients who suffer from knee pain that its important to do some sort of exercise to relieve knee pain but the constraints on those exercises are that they should be low impact on your joints. Some of the exercises recommended for knee pain are usually light jogging or brisk walks. This limits patients from progressing in terms of pace and running quality.
Some patients who love outdoor activities love to run and their knee pain and doctors advice overpowers their ability to progress in their physical exercises. New research has now proven that running faster overtime can actually be just as good for knee pain as a brisk walk. Therefore limiting physical exercise related to the knee is no longer an issue.
Researchers surveyed runners logging 1KM at 5, 7 and 8 miles an hour. For each individual stride, they found that the faster people ran, the more stress was put on the knee. However, the faster you run, the fewer strides you make to cover the same distance. That means speeding up actually allows your knees to absorb less impact over your whole run.
Scott Weiss, a New York-based exercise physiologist and athletic trainer also added that why some doctors are skeptical about running as an exercise for knee pain patients would be more related to the fact that runners with knee pain do not tend to train properly and dive in head first without considering the consequences.
Training properly is key. The main issue people have when increasing speed: They tend to start running on their toes. But running on your toes can’t be maintained without your lower legs taking a beating, Weiss explains. “Since we became bipedal (using two legs to walk), natural human gait has been to land on the heel of the foot—and that’s the best way to absorb shock from the body,” Weiss says.
Another tip to learn to run faster is called heel-striking and must be done with the help of a running coach. Increasing your stride length and heel landing is key to decreasing the shock to joint. Its safe to say that if you love to run you can master running fast over time and not worry about increasing your overall knee pain at all.
There’s nothing wrong with sitting, it gives our body some rest and in some cases also a feeling of relaxation but anything in large quantities is never good for us and its applies to sitting too. For example sitting too long at your work desk can have adverse affects on your back and spine and so to combat that pain its always optimal to get up and talk a short walk for 5 minutes after every hour of sitting.
What’s even better is that recent research has helped figure out the optimum amount of time we should actually be sitting. This is great news for office executives and workers who are concerned about the affects of sitting on long term back pain. Why should you be worried just as much as any other person who spends most of their work day at a desk? Medical researchers have long warned that prolonged sitting is dangerous, associated with a significantly higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and depression, as well as muscle and joint problems.
A statement by the British journal of sports medicine states that we should take breaks for at least 2 hours of the 8 hours we spend sitting at our office desks. It is also recommended that we should work up to spending at least half of the eight hours workday in light intensity activities such as a quick stretch or a fast walk for 5 minutes around your office.
Why does sitting have such a massive impact on our body. Director of Active working, Bradley Gavin states “Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can get burned off, slow down. The muscles in your lower body are turned off. And after two hours, good cholesterol drops 20 percent. Just getting up for five minutes is going to get things going again. These things are so simple they’re almost stupid.”
Other additional research has also shown that people who tend to stand and move through out the day are usually 15% more productive than their counterparts. Therefore these light intensity activities done throughout the day are essential to maintain good health, steer clear from any future back pain and finally also remain productive.