Disease-Control Workouts

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/29/targetted.health.club.program.ap/index.html

Nowadays, maintaining good health has become a recently popular and growing trend. I've noticed more and more people exercising and even taking the responsibility to sign up with a trainer or for a fitness class if they know they lack the motivation to do it themselves. Many people assume (myself included) that such sessions with a trainer or fitness classes are for people who want to lose weight and get into better shape. Recently this has become an outgoing trend. Illness and health-issues are the new reasons why more and more people are signing up for fitness memberships that cater to these problems.

"More and more clubs are offereing exercise programs fine-tuned for people coping with a variety of ailments," states the artcile. As the number of studies of the benefits of exercise has grown, so has the number of participants. 61 year-old Patti Kiernan signed up for a four-week Female Focus program at her gym after being diagnosed with osteoporosis. She's still in the program after two years. Along with the assistance of medication, exercise helped improve her bone density greatly. "Medical and fitness experts say that exercise not only elevates the mood and energy levels, but helps control weight -- a contributing factor for many diseases." Being overweight is a huge factor in the reoccurance of breast cancer. Keeping a balanced diet and exercising regularly helps maintain a healthy weight, which will lower the risk for relapse.

Unfortunately this article proves that some people don't adapt a healthy lifestyle until their present one forces them to change. It takes fraile bones or even cancer for people to change and start leading a healthy life. What can we do to get people to want to live healthier? I think it is good however that these classes are offered. It helps encourage people to make the change they need to become as healthy as they can be. I also like the fact the exercise is now becoming a form of treatment, and people are stepping away from our dependency on prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Exercise has little to no cost and you can reap the best benefits from it.

Food For Thought

Article Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,364448,00.html



In late May and early June, a salmonella outbreak linked to thousands of pounds of raw plum tomatoes ravaged across the country, effecting 30 states in the United States. Not only were tomatoes recalled at supermarkets, but even fast food chains such as McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King stopped serving tomatoes as a result of this outbreak. The source of the outbreak was unknown, and was also rumored to have possibly infected other vegetables. The first indication of the salmonella outbreak were from multiple reports in mid-April. Salmonella is, "bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals," according to Fox's article. Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps in as little as 12 hours after consuming contaminated food. This outbreak not only opened America's eyes to what they were eating but even more where our food is coming from.

For the past 19 years of my life I have spent my summers working on my grandfather's farm, and was shocked this summer to discover how clueless we are as a culture when it comes to our food. We grow our own tomatoes in Feeding Hills, MA, about one hundred feet from our food stand. About 95% of people who purchased our tomatoes asked where they had come from, and were more than willing to pay $2.00 a pound to keep their intestines clear of bacteria. I think what bothered me most was that people actually thought tomato plants produced salmonella. Plants don't produce the bacteria; Salmonella contamination is mostly caused by human or animal feces on the food product. Many of the new reports claimed that the source of the contamination wasn't known, but I believe the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug administration simply didn't want to admit the workers were going to the bathroom in the fields where the food was grown. Needless to say it was disappointing to see that it took a bacterial scare to encourage people to buy local produce.

This outbreak has brought about important questions that we should have been asking ourselves all along. Where exactly does our food come from? Who's handeling it? Is it being handled properly? What chemical or genetic alterations have been done to our food? Is this system we have really the best way to maintain our food, or is it just another American way that's all about convience?