“Let Her Get Fat” in Saudi Arabia
Sometimes, either you laugh, or you’re going to cry. This is from BBC News: Saudi Arabia
Saudis clamp down on women’s gyms
Saudi women are largely constrained to the home and single-sex environments
Many women-only sports clubs and gyms in Saudi Arabia face closure under a government clampdown on unlicensed premises, Saudi media have reported.
Women’s gyms have become popular in the ultra-conservative Muslim country where the sexes are heavily segregated.
But only clubs linked to medical groups can get licenses and others will be closed, the Arab News newspaper said.
Saudi women were reported to have launched an online campaign in protest called Let Her Get Fat.
Government departments are not allowed to issue licenses for commercial gyms and sports clubs for women, unlike facilities for men, the newspaper reported.
It quoted club manager Bader al-Shibani, who tried to open a women’s sports club along with the one he runs for men in Jeddah.
“I ran into a stone wall at every turn. Every department I visited denied that they had the authority to give permission to establish a women’s club,” he said.
Many clubs are registered as beauty salons, and offer fitness facilities and even exercise classes in addition, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs told the newspaper that commercial clubs do not have registration for the provision of sport and health services.
“It’s clear that one department is now taking the decision to put an end to the increasing number of unlicensed clubs,” lawyer and community activist Abdulaziz al-Qasim told Arab News.
A group of women launched an internet campaign in protest against the move, saying facilities linked to medical clinics were too expensive, and their health would suffer as a result of the closures.
Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving, must wear a head-to-toe cloak when out in public and must obtain permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry.
Jodi Picoult: Handle With Care
I just finished the latest Jodi Picoult novel, Handle with Care. I was uncomfortable with it at the beginning, as I often am with Jodi Picould novels. She’s like that guest who brings up topics no one else brings up, and sometimes you wish she would stop, but the conversation gets rolling and everyone has an opinion, and the party would be much duller if she weren’t there.
She’s also the friend you would go to if you had an embarrassing problem you couldn’t discuss with anyone else. We all need that kind of friend, an honest sounding board, not afraid to deal with the grit and grime of everyday life.
I know the reason her books make me uncomfortable is that sometimes I see things I don’t like about myself in her characters.
The subject of the book is a disease called osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), and Willow, the youngest daughter, has Type III, which means she was born with broken bones, her bones would break if you picked her up wrong, changed her diaper the wrong way, even if she rolled over. Her bones were brittle, and the slightest thing could cause a break. She is also very smart, and a delightful character.
Picoult takes us inside many heads – the mother, Charlotte, a former pastry chef (Picoult includes some of her very best recipes, YUMMMM), Sean, the fiercely loving father, Amelia, a troubled pre-teen who hides her bulemia and cutting, and Marin, the lawyer, searching for her own birth mother. When Charlotte files a wrongful birth suit against her best friend – and obstetrician – Piper, her life starts to fall apart. It’s hard to believe things could get worse than having a child whose bones break all the time, but things definitely get worse.
What I hated about Charlotte, who has learned to anticipate her damaged child’s needs, is seeing myself through her eyes. Frequently, she shows us our insensitivity to the disabled, how we patronize, how we are oblivious to the simplest needs. Charlotte is a little angry at the world, so protective that she bites back scathing words to outsiders – or doesn’t. People without disabilities – visible disabilities, we all have disabilities, don’t we, just some are visible and some are not? – can be so smug, so unaware of the hardships others face. I cringe when I read this book. I see myself, and I don’t like what I see.
I admire Jodi Picoult. I will read just about anything she has written, because of the courage she has to tackle the most sensitive subjects. This is not a comfortable book to read, but it is a worthwhile book to read.
The Camera-Phone Diet
Sometimes AdventureMan will say “Take a photo! You can talk about this place in the blog!” I give him the look that says “get your own blog, AdventureMan.” Like if there is no one else in the restaurant, I might try, IF there is no one watching us. If there are other people I might do it IF I can do it subtly . . . I don’t like to attract attention, and especially if it is a place I like going back to regularly, I don’t want them figuring out who I am.
But now . . . I have a whole other excuse! I think this diet from Real Age is a total hoot! Keeping a food diary is known to help lose weight, but snapping a photo BEFORE you eat helps you think about how much you are eating, keeps you conscious of it . . . who knew? I wonder who thinks these things up?
You can read all about this diet HERE
Try the Camera-Phone Diet
Could your camera phone help you lose weight? One study seems to suggest so.
When people in a small study snapped a picture of everything they ate for 1 week, something interesting happened. They took better stock of their meals — and ate less or ate more healthfully because of it.
Snap Your Way to Slimmer Hips
Just think of it as a digital version of a food diary — but better — because it forces you to think about what you’re eating before you put it in your mouth, instead of after. With written food diaries, it’s too late — people log their choices after the fact. Watch this 60-second video on how to dish up just-right portions.
Worth 1000 Words (and Calories)
In the study, the simple act of taking a picture caused people to pay closer attention to how much they were eating, how diverse their food choices were, or how healthful the food was. And that extra thought and attention actually helped them eat better.
Here are some more slim-down tricks to try:
Pace yourself. Find out how eating slowly can help you eat less.
Be regular. Here’s why you don’t want to skip meals.
Learn to decode labels. Yep, reading is good for weight loss.
Chart your weight loss with this nifty weight loss tracker that lets you see your daily progress.
RealAge Benefit: Maintaining your weight and body mass index at a desirable level can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.
Walnuts Help Protect Against Breast Cancer
Walnuts may prevent breast cancer
You can read the entire report on BBC Health News
Walnuts have been linked to heart disease prevention
Eating walnuts may help to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, research suggests.
The nuts contain ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols that may all reduce the risk of the disease.
Mice fed the human equivalent of two ounces (56.7g) of walnuts per day developed fewer and smaller tumours.
The US study was presented to the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.
Researcher Dr Elaine Hardman, of Marshall University School of Medicine, said although the study was carried out in mice, the beneficial effect of walnuts was likely to apply to humans too.
She said: “We know that a healthy diet overall prevents all manner of chronic diseases.”
“It is clear that walnuts contribute to a healthy diet that can reduce breast cancer.”
Previous research has suggested eating walnuts at the end of a meal may help cut the damage that fatty food can do to the arteries.
It is thought that the nuts are rich in compounds that reduce hardening of the arteries, and keep them flexible.
In the latest study mice were either fed a standard diet, or the walnut-based diet.
The animals fed walnuts developed fewer tumours, and those that did arise took longer to develop and were smaller.
Molecular analysis showed that omega-3 fatty acids played a key role – but other parts of the walnut contributed as well.
I remember reading another study where walnuts made veins more flexible and were helpful against heart disease. It isn’t any hardship, in this part of the world, eating fresh walnuts – they taste so GOOD!
Re-Igniting the Romance with Date Night
Good news – doing new and exciting things together help keeps a relationship fresh and intense. AdventureMan and I have always wanted to take dance lessons together, but have never had the time. I can hardly wait! Snorkeling in a new and exotic site . . . an African safari . . . trying a new restaurant, a new cuisine . . . finding new places to explore . . . novelty helps keep a marriage fresh and engaging.
From The New York Times. You can click this blue type to read the entire article.
Long-married couples often schedule a weekly “date night” — a regular evening out with friends or at a favorite restaurant to strengthen their marital bond.
But brain and behavior researchers say many couples are going about date night all wrong. Simply spending quality time together is probably not enough to prevent a relationship from getting stale.
Using laboratory studies, real-world experiments and even brain-scan data, scientists can now offer long-married couples a simple prescription for rekindling the romantic love that brought them together in the first place. The solution? Reinventing date night.
Rather than visiting the same familiar haunts and dining with the same old friends, couples need to tailor their date nights around new and different activities that they both enjoy, says Arthur Aron, a professor of social psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. The goal is to find ways to keep injecting novelty into the relationship. The activity can be as simple as trying a new restaurant or something a little more unusual or thrilling — like taking an art class or going to an amusement park.
The theory is based on brain science. New experiences activate the brain’s reward system, flooding it with dopamine and norepinephrine. These are the same brain circuits that are ignited in early romantic love, a time of exhilaration and obsessive thoughts about a new partner. (They are also the brain chemicals involved in drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.)
Most studies of love and marriage show that the decline of romantic love over time is inevitable. The butterflies of early romance quickly flutter away and are replaced by familiar, predictable feelings of long-term attachment.
. . . . . .
Dr. Aron cautions that novelty alone is probably not enough to save a marriage in crisis. But for couples who have a reasonably good but slightly dull relationship, novelty may help reignite old sparks.
And recent brain-scan studies show that romantic love really can last years into a marriage. Last week, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference in Albuquerque, researchers presented brain-scan data on several men and women who had been married for 10 or more years. Interviews and questionnaires suggested they were still intensely in love with their partners. Brain scans confirmed it, showing increased brain activity associated with romantic love when the subjects saw pictures of their spouses.
It’s not clear why some couples are able to maintain romantic intensity even after years together. But the scientists believe regular injections of novelty and excitement most likely play a role.
New Study Links Oral Sex to Throat Cancer
No, this is not an April fool’s joke. The article is found in Thursday’s BBC Health News, you can read the entire article by clicking on the blue type here.
Oral sex linked to throat cancer
A virus contracted through oral sex is the cause of some throat cancers, say US scientists.
HPV infection was found to be a much stronger risk factor than tobacco or alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins University study of 300 people found.
Traffic Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weight Babies
This is definitely NOT good news, not for Seattle, not for Kuwait:
Pollution link with birth weight
From BBC Health News
Traffic pollution was identified as a significant problem
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother’s level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003
UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
The researchers, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, used information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
They recorded details including each mother’s ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker – as well as where she lived when her baby was born.
Daily readings of air pollution from monitoring points around the state of New Jersey were taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The scientists then took data from the monitoring point which was within six miles (10 km) of the mothers’ homes to work out what their exposure to air pollution had been during each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.
It was found that mothers of small, and very small, birth weight babies were more likely to be younger, less well educated, of African-American ethnicity, smokers, poorer, and single parents than mothers with normal birth weight babies.
But, even after these factors had been taken into account, higher levels of air pollutants were linked to restricted foetal growth.
Two kinds of pollution produced by cars – tiny sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide – were found to have an impact.
Particulate matter is produced from vehicle exhausts and can lodge in the lungs. Fine particles, such as PM 2.5s, which penetrate deep into the lungs, have been linked to deaths from heart and respiratory diseases.
You can read the entire article Here, at BBC Health News.
Build Brainpower – Stay Young
From Real Age, an article about keeping young in mind as well as in body.
Build Your Brainpower
Think of your brain as your body’s fuse box. It gives you the mental powers needed to accomplish everything from simple tasks, like tying your shoes, to more challenging ones, like doing your taxes. To keep your intellectual juices flowing freely for years to come, we have a 3-step plan that’s focused on one concept: Feed your head. Nourish it with new challenges, new knowledge, and new places.
1. Take on New Challenges
Just as athletes hone their skills by training to attain out-of-reach goals, you can train your brain to be sharper by testing yourself just beyond your capability. So if Wednesday’s crossword puzzle is a breeze, but you barely get half of Sunday’s done, do your brain a favor and keep taking a whack at Sunday’s (as long as it’s not so frustrating that it’s no fun). It will trigger brain neurons and dendrites (the parts that catch info from neurotransmitters) to regrow.
2. Learn New Tricks
By finding ways to stretch yourself mentally, you’ll actually avoid brain shrinkage. The classic way to do this is to learn something new — whether it’s learning how to speak Spanish, play Sousa tunes on the harmonica, or make risotto. The point is for you to use parts of your brain that you normally don’t. Like muscles, your brain grows when it’s working outside of its normal routine.
3. Explore New Places
Driving, walking, or studying the subway system of a new city forces you to use many different parts of your brain at once. You’re using visual-spatial skills when you read a map and then need to translate it into verbal code for whoever’s driving (Honey, turn left! Now!). When you’re driving, you need to make quick decisions about where to go, which involves processing info quickly. Get lost? Even better. Figuring out how to get back also contributes to the brain-building process.
Can’t get away? Daydreaming about exploring new lands will also stir up your brain.
Being open to trying new things will help you steer clear of the mental monotony of a daily rut, and it’s the key to boosting your brainpower at any age.
“I Look Deep Inside . . .”
We were at one of those official dinners, and, as is my habit, I found someone even more shy than I am and started asking questions. It’s an old trick; it gets me through the most endless affair. She turned out to be very smart, very witty and entertaining, this Nigerian woman, so elegant, so well-mannered. We were having a great conversation.
“So what do you do in Kuwait?” I asked, almost yawning, I was so ashamed of myself for asking such a boring, common question.
She paused, looking at me like she was measuring me.
“I look deep within people, and I tell them things about themselves they never knew,” she responded.
“Oh no!” I thought to myself, “is she some kind of fortune-teller?” (Fortune tellers are strictly forbidden in my religion.) I’m usually pretty good with the old poker-face, but my eyes probably shifted, looking quickly for a polite exit.
She watched me, her eyes twinkling, grinning like a fisherman with a live one on the hook.
“I’m a radiologist,” she added, and we both cracked up. She really had me: baited me, caught me, hooked me good, and then did the old catch-and-release.
What Dreams Mean
Today on AOL heath: I was reading this article out of idle curiousity until I came across my own dream – below. I had college exam dreams for years – I had dropped a Shakespeare class but somehow it hadn’t been registered so I had to take a final I was not prepared for.
Later in life, one night I woke up groping the bed, scared my husband to death, and when he asked what was the matter, as I desperately searched the sheets, I said “I’m looking for the baby!” I was a brand new mother, and for me, it was very stressful.
Now, most of my really bad dreams come when I have a move coming up – panicked dreams of the movers arriving and I an not ready, or a flight to catch and I have not packed. Recently, I had a dream where I was stressed over not being ready for a flight and the airline called and asked me “Are you coming? We are ready to close the gate!” and (although I was not packed) I said “I’m on my way! Hold the plane!” and I woke up gasping.
It never occurred to me I would see my worst nightmare in print. Go Here read through and tell me if you see yours. . . What’s your nightmare?
Theme: unpreparedness
The dream: “I’m back in high school and don’t know which classes I’m supposed to go to, so I end up missing one — usually Mr. Westerman’s world religions class. I become terrified about not knowing when the tests are, then finals come around and I wake up completely freaked out!” — Lori Huffman, 31, Houston
Variation: You’re rushing to catch a flight but haven’t packed or can’t find your ticket. A new mother may dream she can’t find her baby.
What it means: Dreaming about something you’ve already accomplished (i.e., graduating from high school) can mean you’re scared to make mistakes in an area where you usually succeed. “Perfectionist people tend to have these sorts of dreams,” says Kramer. One explanation is that you may be tying your self-worth too tightly to how you perform at work. If you usually spend hours fretting over an upcoming event or presentation, give yourself a set time to prepare and then force yourself to put it out of your head. “The outcome doesn’t change by agonizing over it,” assures Nezu.
Recent Comments
intlxpatr on Shampoo Ginger tigerbutterya0c5ff1d… on Shampoo Ginger intlxpatr on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… John on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… intlxpatr on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 