Diet Programs End up in the same Familiar Situations, usually

The typical diet

As with most things these days, everyone wants rapid results and when looking to lose weight, we’re no different. The problem is that rapid weight loss is unsustainable, as illustrated in the typical regimen below:

1. Begin diet. Calorie intake cut from 3,000 to 1,000 calories per day or even less.

2. Rapid weight loss occurs. After two weeks, weight loss is approximately 3.5kg (8lb).

3. Weight loss slows. After three weeks, total weight loss is either approaching or static at 3.5kg.

4. Metabolic rate slows. To conserve body resources and because the rapid weight loss has included metabolic rate boosting muscle, the body elicits the ‘starvation response’. (Metabolic rate is the body’s calorie burner; the more muscle you have, the faster you burn calories).

5. Weight loss stagnates. Weight loss halts, motivation plummets.

6. Previous eating patterns resumed. Having achieved some weight loss, original eating plan is resumed.

7. Weight increases. To guard against future ‘famine’, the body stores more food as body fat, effectively laying down more reserves as a self-protection mechanism. This is compounded by a lower metabolic rate due to loss of muscle during the diet phase.

8. Significant weight gain occurs. After a few weeks, not only has the lost weight been put back on, but more weight has also been gained overall, resulting in the dieter ending up heavier than before the diet began.

Circle completed

Sowa-Rigpa - Buddhist Himalayan Medicinal System

The world's oldest surviving system of medicine called "Sowa-Rigpa" -popular in the country's Himalayan region and said to be taught by Gautam Buddha himself - got official approval from the Indian government on Thursday. The decision to approve it as part of the Indian medicine system was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and later announced by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni. 

The government's decision came following representations from many quarters for granting recognition and legal status to the system. Sowa-Rigpa, commonly known as 'Amchi is one of the oldest surviving systems of medicine in the world and is practiced in India in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling in West Bengal, Lahaul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, a statement issued here said. 

According to the statement, the theory and practices of Sowa-Rigpa are similar to Ayurveda and also include few principles of traditional Chinese medicine. "The fundamental text book of Sowa-Rigpa is believed to have been taught by Buddha himself and is closely linked with Buddhist philosophy," it said. 

To give the system legal sanction, amendments will be carried out in sections 2,3,8,9 and 17 of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970. "It is expected that the legal recognition of Sowa-Rigpa will lead to the protection and preservation of this ancient system of medicine and will help in its propagation and development," the statement said. 

"This will also open new vistas leading to collaborative research and scientific validation of the Sowa-Rigpa system, besides conservation and protection of the medicinal plants used in the system," it said. Also, its recognition will lead to setting up a mechanism to regulate its education and practice.
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Air Pollution Damages

Air pollution damages more than just your lungs — it can break your heart too.

A new study has revealed that microscopic particles in polluted air can adversely affect the heart’s functioning by obstructing its ability to conduct electrical signals. Researchers at Harvard University have based their findings on an analysis of 48 patients living in Boston, all of whom had coronary artery disease.

They used 24-hour Holter monitors to examine electrocardiograms for the conductivity change called an ST-segment depression, which indicates inadequate blood flow to the heart or inflamed heart muscle. The average 24-hours levels for all pollutants included in the analysis were below accepted or proposed National Air Quality standard thresholds, meaning patients were breathing air considered healthy. “We found that an elevation in fine particles, from non-traffic as well as traffic sources, and black carbon, a marker for traffic, predicted ST-segment depression.

“Effects were greatest within the first month after hospitalisation, and for patients who were hospitalised for a heart attack or had diabetes,” the study’s senior author Diane R Gold said. Previous studies documented that exposure to road traffic can trigger heart attacks and that particulate air pollution can raise the rise for a heart attack.

“When coal sales were banned in Dublin, Ireland, and black smoke concentrations declined by 70 per cent within the next 72 months, cardiovascular deaths fell by ten per cent,” said Gold. The ST-segment changes Gold observed were not associated with symptoms in the patients, all of whom had undergone in-hospital procedures to examine or open up their coronary arteries. Nevertheless, the findings expand the evidence that air pollution can affect heart health, either through inflaming the heart muscle or through reducing blow flow to the heart.

“The study suggests the need for greater vigilance by physicians and heart patients in the weeks after discharge from the hospital,” the researchers said.