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Health Care

Tips to stay safe during cold-weather months

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With temperatures falling into the 30s this week, people will be turning up the heat to stay warm. But, as the temperature drops, the number of patients treated by the Vanderbilt Regional Burn Center typically increases due to unsafe heating methods that result in injury.

Heating fires account for 36 percent of all residential home fires every year and are the second leading cause of all residential fires following cooking, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. It is estimated that more than 50,000 heating fires occur in the United States each year and result in 150 deaths, 575 injuries and $326 million in property loss.

Blair Summitt, M.D., Interim Medical Director for the Vanderbilt Regional Burn Center, says these fires can cause severe and even fatal injuries to occupants, with alternative sources of heat often to blame for the most tragic injuries.

“While space heaters, fire places and wood-burning stoves can help people warm their homes during the colder months, it is critical that they be used properly,” Summitt said, noting that portable heating devices account for more than 50 percent of home structure fires. “We often see more patients this time of year from preventable tragedies and encourage people to follow strict safety guidelines when heating their homes.”

Summitt offers the following tips to stay safe during the cold-weather months:

· Heating equipment and chimneys should be cleaned and inspected annually.
· Keep anything that can burn away from heating equipment.
· Space heaters should never be plugged into an extension cord or power strip.
· Throughout the year, test smoke detector batteries and always have a fire extinguisher within easy reach.

In the event of a burn injury, Summitt offers these recommendations:

· Flush the burn area with room temperature water.

Don’t apply ice. It can be too harsh for burned skin and cause tissue damage.

· “Folk remedies” such as applying butter do not help the healing process and may increase the risk of infection if the burn is severe.

· Room temperature water alone or a very mild soap can be used to gently clean the area.

· Keep the burned area clean and dry as it heals. The area can be covered with a light bandage if needed. A small amount of an over-the-counter ointment can be applied to keep the bandage from sticking to the skin.

Seek medical treatment when:

· A burn covers a large area, especially if blistering occurs.

· There is extreme pain or loss of sensation.

· Burns occur to the face, eyes, hands or feet.

· A burn involves chemicals or electricity.

· There is smoke inhalation due to fire exposure.

· A burn does not appear to be healing appropriately.

Ask and Answer

How does cardio burn fat all over the body?

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Ask:

It seems like it doesn’t do anything… Although it does A LOT, how does it burn fat from all areas?

Answer 1:

Fat is stored fuel. You are always using a mix of fat (free fatty acids) and carbohydrates (glycogen) as fuel. The proportion varies with the intensity of the exercise until you go anaerobic (> your cardiovascular system’s ability to transfer oxygen). Anaerobic energy production uses strictly glycogen. You lose fat deposits when you take in less fuel than you need to power your day. When you eat too much, the excess is converted to stored fat.

For more than you wanted to know about fat metabolism.

Answer 2:

Diets suck! Just eat healthy and balanced meals. Firstly, let me just tell you that skipping meals or not eating much doesn’t make you loose weight. You want to loose weight in a moderate fashion so that your body doesn’t gain all the weight back as soon as you begin to eat normally. Drink lots of water; Eat every 2-2.5 hours, small meals, 5-7 times A day. Reduce your caloric intake to 1,200-1,300 calories a day and your total fat grams to less than 35 grams. I’m Vegetarian and I barely work out and I’m super thin; what you should do is WALK…it is actually better than running b/c it makes your ankles weak over time. If you do run, jog on the treadmill with no incline. Try the bike too. A thin person is this way because it is 90% of what we eat and 10% workout/exercise. Choose as well if you want to work out more, or eat less if you want or a combo. But remember to choose Which one will work for you and if you do decide to not workout then view the links I will provide to eat the necessary requirements the body needs. Anyway, With cardio, the belly is burning fat b/c you are sweating all over-Not a lot of people know that walking burns fat around the mid section. If you’re into sit ups, you should try AT LEAST to do 3 sets of 10 on a mat. If you’re not familiar with sit ups, just ask personal trainers at a gym one day-you can just walk in and ask them-they wouldn’t hesitate to answer. Continue reading How does cardio burn fat all over the body? →

Ask and Answer

How do you burn stomach, hip, and thigh fat? Are there any certain foods that help to burn fat?

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Ask:

I also need some exercises that burn fat, and how to get that annoying fat off of my lower abs. Is there any to create a walk/run program around my neighborhood?

Answers:

Answer 1:

Yes, there are foods that help burn fat. There are also tricks to eating in a way that makes you lose fat.

1. Eat 5-6 small meals a day instead of 2-3 big ones. Each meal should be a portion (size of your palm or fist) of protein and a portion of carbs, plus 2-3 vegetables a day. This trick stabilizes your blood sugar and keeps your metabolism up.

2. Eat more in the morning than in the evening. Ideally, your biggest meal is breakfast, and each meal gets smaller throughout the day from there.

3. Drink more water. Your urine should be clear all day, except first thing in the morning. If your urine is clear, your kidneys are properly hydrated, so they can filter your blood fulltime. This frees up your liver to do its other job: metabolizing fat!

4. Eat more fiber. Fiber makes you feel full longer, stabilizes blood sugar, and therefore keeps your metabolism high. Look for the word “whole” in your bread, tortillas, cereal, and pasta (whole grains have all three parts of the grain: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. These work together for maximum fat-burning). Also, eat fruits, vegetables, brown rice, oatmeal, beans, and nuts.

5. Drink green tea.

6. Don’t eat 3 hours before bedtime.

7. Don’t eat 3 hours before or an hour after you work out. Low blood sugar maximizes fat burning.

8. When you’re hungry, drink a glass of water or eat a handful of nuts. Both function as great appetite suppressants.

9. Don’t overdo a diet. You shouldn’t ever try to lose more than 2 pounds a week. Any more than that, and your body will fight back and resist fatloss — or worse, will burn muscle instead of fat, and then you’ll just look flabby. Here’s a calorie calculator:

As for your ab fat, sorry. There’s no such thing as spot reduction. Your fat comes off one whole body layer at a time. What you can do to make your stomach look better is perform ab exercises, so at least your muscle wall is straight. Here’s a whole blog about lower abs.

Answer 2:

There are certain foods that are beneficial and certain you should avoid.

* Drink sufficient pure water — your weight divided by 2 = ounces per day. Take fluids between meals, using reverse osmosis purified water, unsweetened juices, and herbal beverages. Try liquid chlorophyll in pure water, it is delicious and refreshing!
* *A minimum of 50% of your food should be alive — fresh, raw, unprocessed. Dead food cannot build strong bodies. Eat foods in season and foods that can spoil. (But eat them before they spoil, of course!)More is preferable!
* *Eliminate foods used in a microwave. Try to eliminate using the microwave for anything you eat or drink.
* *Eliminate processed sugars and white flour and any foods that contains these; i.e., read labels. Substitute whole grain foods for white — stone ground whole wheat, brown rice, etc. Continue reading How do you burn stomach, hip, and thigh fat? Are there any certain foods that help to burn fat? →

Ask and Answer

What is the easiest way to burn fat?

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Ask:

Basically I want to know an easy way to burn fat, with excersising and maybe healthy foods?
Are there any foods that burn fat or help you burn fat?
And what is the most effective way to burn fat excersising?

Answer:

I highly recommend losing the weight slowly and correctly. I guarantee the faster you lose it, the faster it will come right back. The last thing you want to do is crash diet and really mess up your metabolism. Remember, it didn’t take you 3 months to put on all the extra weight, so it definitely will not take only three months to lose it. The safest total weight loss per week is 1 pound. There is 3,500 calories in a pound of body fat, so in order to lose 1 pound, you simply need to create a 500 calorie deficit per day. Over the course of a week, this equals out to 3,500 calories or 1 pound.

The best way to hit this 500 number every day is to create a 250 calorie deficit through your diet and another 250 calorie deficit through cardio exercise. Remember, you want to fuel your body with high nutrient foods and keep your metabolism “stoked” throughout the day. The worst thing you can do is limit your food intake to severely which will cause your body to go into starvation mode and hold onto your body fat reserves. Your body is thinking its getting ready for a period of famine and will hold onto all the energy it can to survive this period. I recommend eating at least 1,500 calories per day and make sure you’re eating “clean” and nutritious food. You want to make sure to eliminate all the excess and empty calories from your daily intake. The best way to do this is to write down everything you eat.

I recommend a general “clean” diet to adhere to. I would focus on lean protein sources (chicken breast, turkey breast, egg whites) and non-white starchy carbs such as brown rice, whole wheat pasta and boiled red potatoes.

I recommend starting on a light exercise program after your medical physical has been completed. You will experience the best results from a solid cardio program along with a nutritious diet when compared to only focusing on your diet.  Continue reading What is the easiest way to burn fat? →

Ask and Answer

Why do I get far better results for fat loss walking looong for 2 hours to 3 hours than anaerobic sprints?

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Ask:

HIIT and anerobic sprinting exercise is SUCH A SCAM for fat loss. For me it does NOTHING AT ALL.

I get thebest results going for a looong slow walk for 3 hours.

WHY IS THIS?

Answer1:

It’s not a scam if done properly. However, most people don’t do it properly. And, even if done properly, it makes only a slight difference. You only have about ~100 grams of muscle-based glycogen in your body to replace during “afterburn”, so even though that will require more energy, it’s not so much more that you’ll notice a huge difference. Exercising for fat loss is the wrong way to go about burning fat anyway. You can burn fat in your sleep or you can run 24×7 and never burn an ounce of fat if you eat too much. That makes the key to losing fat, diet…proper eating habits.

You’re probably expecting too much from HIIT. It’s is extremely difficult for those short all out burst and quite enervating overall. So, it’s probably not for you.

Here’s a quick 12 mintue HIIT workout which if much better than sprints because it works the whole body both aerobically and anerobically . However, if you don’t want to build muscle, then just walk. All you need to do is burn calories and the way to do that is to move a lot of weight for a long time. That can be done however you prefer from walking to dancing to cycling to swimming, etc.

Read my answer about why exercise is not the key to fat loss

Check out these fat facts.

• If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you have to lose fat eventually. There are no exceptions to this fact.

• A pound of fat will yield about 3500 calories (Kcal) of energy.

• Your body will burn hundreds of calories even if you are in a coma. That’s your BMR. Go here to find out what it is ?

• An average person must run or walk about 5 miles (8 km) every day to burn one pound of fat per week AND THEIR DIET MUST ALLOW IT.
Continue reading Why do I get far better results for fat loss walking looong for 2 hours to 3 hours than anaerobic sprints? →

Ask and Answer

What is a good distance to start running when you are overweight?

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Ask:

I am really overweight, and know that i need to lose weight. I figured the best way to lose the weight is to start running, but I dont know what is a good distance to start with. Obviously I am too out of shape to run the whole distance, so should I run as far as a can then walk when I am out of breath? I am embarrassed that people will see me walking and running, any tips?

Answer:

It is not so much about the distance that you can run until you can’t breathe anymore that is going to cause you to lose weight. From my own experience, I started out walking & then slowly incorporated some slow running spurts into a combination of a walk/run program until I could run without having to stop at all. I was so overweight that I could not walk up the stairs without being out of breath & my heart palpitating!! That was embarassing enough for me. I could not walk 10 minutes without my feet hurting so bad from my excess weight in the beginning. I made a choice/commitment to myself to lose 100 lbs in 1 year. Now it is 1 yr and 1 months later and I have managed to lose 101 lbs so I know that you can do it too. I knew I had to quit smoking in order to run so I quit cold turkey 1 1/2 years ago. I knew there was no way that I could run if I smoked so therefore I would never lose the weight.

I made a decision to make a ‘lifestyle’ change including what I ate. I eat more protein now to build leaner muscle which burns fat & calories faster. You can find protein in eggwhites, chicken and turkey. Eat more fiber such as apples because fiber tricks the body into thinking that you are fuller longer. Believe me I was just like you. I just couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore at the way that I looked or felt about myself.

I had lost weight in the past by running so I knew it would work again. At that time I only needed to lose 35 lbs and I did. All of this was no due to overeating, it was due to a medication side effect which caused a slowed down metabolism & therefore I gained more weight more quickly.

What I did was start out with the walk for a couple of weeks at least 3 times a week for 15-30 or as much as you can tolerate. You will begin to feel better mentally just by being active & when the endorphins kick in even for just walking. When you are comfortable enough then try doing some really slow running & focus on your breathing. That is the biggest thing to overcome & tackle in running in the beginning to go any distance. What worked for me was deep breathing from my abdomen and then slowly breathing out of my mouth and ‘feeling’ my body be relaxed as I just jogged in ‘slo mo’ and I do mean really slow. I didn’t care what other people thought at this point. My determination to keep it going and to lose the weight was stronger than what other people thought of me. As I have heard other people say; those people that you think are looking at you funny are just doing that — looking…not running or moving physically at all. That is the point, you are doing it and they are not. I said to a running friend ‘when does it ever get easier?’ and like a day later I read somewhere in a running book that “If it was so easy than everyone would be doing it”. It makes alot of sense doesn’t it? don’t be so hard on yourself. The fact that you are willing is 1/2 the battle. Trust me, stick with it and don’t over do it. Listen to your body. If you have pain, never run or walk through it. Give yourself a rest day so the muscles can repair themselves. In the end you WILL run and get to a certain distance that you will feel good & confident about. I feel so much better about myself. I could not even lift or drag 100 lbs if I had too. I still have more work to do but I need machines in a gym to do some weight or strength training which down the line will help also build more leaner muscle. If you stick with it, I guarantee that you will see the results that you want. You just have to be patient & look at the ‘big picture’ if you miss a day or two and say to yourself that ‘I have the rest of my life’ to get out there & walk/run. Your legs will be more toner and more of muscle and so will your butt. My face is alot thinner and my waist too. You will feel great both mentally & physically and running can be very addictive so hang in there for the long haul. One day at a time is all you have to handle. I still stop and walk sometimes because I am trying to go faster but I have read that is better to do rather than to keep on running because you will tire your body out & get fatigued quicker and in the end ruin what your intentions where anyway. I really wish you luck & I would love to know how your progress is coming along. Think positve thoughts & affirmations while you are out there. That also helps alot & motivates you more too and eventually trust me you won’t even think twice if anybody is looking at you. You will just feel so good about yourself and what you are doing and you will just keep feeding on that feeling. Good Luck. This probably has to be my longest answer to anyone ever but I can truly relate to where you are right now. : ))

My own experience, learning from others and reading alot more on health and wellness and I did lose my goal weight. In actuality I gained alot more than just losing the weight, you will see what I mean…

Answer 2:
I was 40 lbs overweight when I started in Mar 08, I found the best way to run and stick with it, is to make a rountine of getting out there, not worrying about time or mileage but just making the effort to do something. In the begining I scheduled *bc I’m a sahm and husband works alot* a time where he was home to look after the kids. Usually 5 am more often than not and I set a goal of going out around the block and if I had to walk, I did but only for a minute maximum. My first time out was 10 mins, and it took me a bit to get past that. Once I could get that block mastered I went to the next block and repeated that I’d run more than I walk and I found the best way to do running is to pace yourself slowly and build up endurance gradually.  Continue reading What is a good distance to start running when you are overweight? →
Ask and Answer

How exactly does a protein shake diet help you burn fat?

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Ask:

I don’t really understand how protein helps someone burn fat. And, if you have protein shakes plus a semi-regular meal plan throughout the day, is it possible to gain weight?

Answer:

Hi,

I thought I would give you some pointers I have learned the hard way from my own bad ‘uninformed’ choices.

What I have learned to do is the Adkins type of high protein diet without the fats, simply because of my gallbladder – biliary – pruritus – hives diseases that breaks out whenever I eat nuts or olive oil or dressings or other fats.

What I finally learned to do is what is taught in most high school nutrition classes where they teach students to add up all the RDA’s [Recommended Dietary Allowances] or DV’s [Daily Reference Values] for each day of vitamins and minerals from digestible ‘food;’ i.e. bran is not included in this analysis since it is not digestible for humans and is like a horse eating straw instead of digestible grass or alfalfa. I also know that synthetic vitamin supplements are more toxic in the long term than beneficial to any animal, and mineral supplements are super toxic since they are ‘metallic’ minerals and oftentimes raw fertilizers that have not yet been converted via photosynthesis into a plant.

What I ‘now’ eat is a-lot of 12 hour crock potted beef heart and round steak, then mixed with tomato sauce and boiled celery to make a quick microwave super high protein chili. I crock pot since my digestive system is in such poor shape and I need as many nutrients as I can get out of the semi-expensive foods I buy. I have also learned to always eat enough vegetables to be a minimum of 2 x the weight of the meat that I eat – in order to not have any constipation or worse. I used to have reddish stools since I was likely on my way to getting colon cancer from eating much more meat protein than I could ever digest properly in my stomach and colon. Continue reading How exactly does a protein shake diet help you burn fat? →