The rapid development of so-called NBIC technologies nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science are giving rise to possibilities that have long been the domain of science fiction.

Disease, ageing and even death are all human realities that these technologies seek to end.

They may enable us to enjoy greater morphological freedom we could take on new forms through prosthetics or genetic engineering.

Or advance our cognitive capacities.

We could use brain-computer interfaces to link us to advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

Nanobots could roam our bloodstream to monitor our health and enhance our emotional propensities for joy, love or other emotions.

Advances in one area often raise new possibilities in others, and this convergence may bring about radical changes to our world in the near-future.

Transhumanism is the idea that humans should transcend their current natural state and limitations through the use of technology that we should embrace self-directed human evolution.

If the history of technological progress can be seen as humankinds attempt to tame nature to better serve its needs, transhumanism is the logical continuation: the revision of humankinds nature to better serve its fantasies.

As David Pearce, a leading proponent of transhumanism and co-founder of Humanity+, says:

If we want to live in paradise, we will have to engineer it ourselves.

If we want eternal life, then well need to rewrite our bug-ridden genetic code and become god-like only hi-tech solutions can ever eradicate suffering from the world.

Compassion alone is not enough.

But there is a darker side to the naive faith that Pearce and other proponents have in transhumanism one that is decidedly dystopian.

There is unlikely to be a clear moment when we emerge as transhuman.

Rather technologies will become more intrusive and integrate seamlessly with the human body.

Technology has long been thought of as an extension of the self.

Many aspects of our social world, not least our financial systems, are already largely machine-based.

There is much to learn from these evolving human/machine hybrid systems.

Yet the often Utopian language and expectations that surround and shape our understanding of these developments have been under-interrogated.

The profound changes that lie ahead are often talked about in abstract ways, because evolutionary advancements are deemed so radical that they ignore the reality of current social conditions.

In this way, transhumanism becomes a kind of techno-anthropocentrism, in which transhumanists often underestimate the complexity of our relationship with technology.

They see it as a controllable, malleable tool that, with the correct logic and scientific rigour, can be turned to any end.

In fact, just as technological developments are dependent on and reflective of the environment in which they arise, they in turn feed back into the culture and create new dynamics often imperceptibly.

Situating transhumanism, then, within the broader social, cultural, political, and economic contexts within which it emerges is vital to understanding how ethical it is.

Max More and Natasha Vita-More, in their edited volume The Transhumanist Reader, claim the need in transhumanism for inclusivity, plurality and continuous questioning of our knowledge.

Yet these three principles are incompatible with developing transformative technologies within the prevailing system from which they are currently emerging: advanced capitalism.

One problem is that a highly competitive social environment doesnt lend itself to diverse ways of being.

Instead it demands increasingly efficient behaviour.

Take students, for example.

If some have access to pills that allow them to achieve better results, can other students afford not to follow?

This is already a quandary.

Increasing numbers of students reportedly pop performance-enhancing pills.

And if pills become more powerful, or if the enhancements involve genetic engineering or intrusive nanotechnology that offer even stronger competitive advantages, what then?

Rejecting an advanced technological orthodoxy could potentially render someone socially and economically moribund (perhaps evolutionarily so), while everyone with access is effectively forced to participate to keep up.

Going beyond everyday limits is suggestive of some kind of liberation.

However, here it is an imprisoning compulsion to act a certain way.

We literally have to transcend in order to conform (and survive).

The more extreme the transcendence, the more profound the decision to conform and the imperative to do so.

The systemic forces cajoling the individual into being upgraded to remain competitive also play out on a geo-political level.

One area where technology R&D has the greatest transhumanist potential is defence.

DARPA (the US defence department responsible for developing military technologies), which is attempting to create metabolically dominant soldiers, is a clear example of how vested interests of a particular social system could determine the development of radically powerful transformative technologies that have destructive rather than Utopian applications.

The rush to develop super-intelligent AI by globally competitive and mutually distrustful nation states could also become an arms race.

In Radical Evolution, novelist Verner Vinge describes a scenario in which superhuman intelligence is the ultimate weapon.

Ideally, mankind would proceed with the utmost care in developing such a powerful and transformative innovation.

There is quite rightly a huge amount of trepidation around the creation of super-intelligence and the emergence of the singularity the idea that once AI reaches a certain level it will rapidly redesign itself, leading to an explosion of intelligence that will quickly surpass that of humans (something that will happen by 2029 according to futurist Ray Kurzweil).

If the world takes the shape of whatever the most powerful AI is programmed (or reprograms itself) to desire, it even opens the possibility of evolution taking a turn for the entirely banal could an AI destroy humankind from a desire to produce the most paperclips for example?

Its also difficult to conceive of any aspect of humanity that could not be improved by being made more efficient at satisfying the demands of a competitive system. It is the system, then, that determines humanitys evolution without taking any view on what humans are or what they should be.

One of the ways in which advanced capitalism proves extremely dynamic is in its ideology of moral and metaphysical neutrality.

As philosopher Michael Sandel says: markets dont wag fingers.

In advanced capitalism, maximising ones spending power maximises ones ability to flourish hence shopping could be said to be a primary moral imperative of the individual.

Philosopher Bob Doede rightly suggests it is this banal logic of the market that will dominate:

If biotech has rendered human nature entirely revisable, then it has no grain to direct or constrain our designs on it.

And so whose designs will our successor post-human artefacts likely bear?

I have little doubt that in our vastly consumerist, media-saturated capitalist economy, market forces will have their way.

So the commercial imperative would be the true architect of the future human.

Whether the evolutionary process is determined by a super-intelligent AI or advanced capitalism, we may be compelled to conform to a perpetual transcendence that only makes us more efficient at activities demanded by the most powerful system.

The end point is predictably an entirely nonhuman though very efficient technological entity derived from humanity that doesnt necessarily serve a purpose that a modern-day human would value in any way.

The ability to serve the system effectively will be the driving force.

This is also true of natural evolution technology is not a simple tool that allows us to engineer ourselves out of this conundrum.

But transhumanism could amplify the speed and least desirable aspects of the process.

For bioethicist Julian Savulescu, the main reason humans must be enhanced is for our species to survive.

He says we face a Bermuda Triangle of extinction: radical technological power, liberal democracy and our moral nature.

As a transhumanist, Savulescu extols technological progress, also deeming it inevitable and unstoppable.

It is liberal democracy and particularly our moral nature that should alter.

The failings of humankind to deal with global problems are increasingly obvious.

But Savulescu neglects to situate our moral failings within their wider cultural, political and economic context, instead believing that solutions lie within our biological make up.

Yet how would Savulescus morality-enhancing technologies be disseminated, prescribed and potentially enforced to address the moral failings they seek to cure?

This would likely reside in the power structures that may well bear much of the responsibility for these failings in the first place.

Hes also quickly drawn into revealing how relative and contestable the concept of morality is:

We will need to relax our commitment to maximum protection of privacy.

Were seeing an increase in the surveillance of individuals and that will be necessary if we are to avert the threats that those with antisocial personality disorder, fanaticism, represent through their access to radically enhanced technology.

Such surveillance allows corporations and governments to access and make use of extremely valuable information.

In Who Owns the Future, internet pioneer Jaron Lanier explains:

Troves of dossiers on the private lives and inner beings of ordinary people, collected over digital networks, are packaged into a new private form of elite money

It is a new kind of security the rich trade in, and the value is naturally driven up. It becomes a giant-scale levee inaccessible to ordinary people.

Crucially, this levee is also invisible to most people.

Its impacts extend beyond skewing the economic system towards elites to significantly altering the very conception of liberty, because the authority of power is both radically more effective and dispersed.

Foucaults notion that we live in a panoptic society one in which the sense of being perpetually watched instils discipline is now stretched to the point where todays incessant machinery has been called a superpanopticon.

The knowledge and information that transhumanist technologies will tend to create could strengthen existing power structures that cement the inherent logic of the system in which the knowledge arises.

This is in part evident in the tendency of algorithms toward race and gender bias, which reflects our already existing social failings.

Information technology tends to interpret the world in defined ways: it privileges information that is easily measurable, such as GDP, at the expense of unquantifiable information such as human happiness or well-being.

As invasive technologies provide ever more granular data about us, this data may in a very real sense come to define the world and intangible information may not maintain its rightful place in human affairs.

Existing inequities will surely be magnified with the introduction of highly effective psycho-pharmaceuticals, genetic modification, super intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, nanotechnology, robotic prosthetics, and the possible development of life expansion.

They are all fundamentally inegalitarian, based on a notion of limitlessness rather than a standard level of physical and mental well-being weve come to assume in healthcare.

Its not easy to conceive of a way in which these potentialities can be enjoyed by all.

Sociologist Saskia Sassen talks of the new logics of expulsion, that capture the pathologies of todays global capitalism.

The expelled include the more than 60,000 migrants who have lost their lives on fatal journeys in the past 20 years, and the victims of the racially skewed profile of the increasing prison population.

In Britain, they include the 30,000 people whose deaths in 2015 were linked to health and social care cuts and the many who perished in the Grenfell Tower fire.

Their deaths can be said to have resulted from systematic marginalisation.

Unprecedented acute concentration of wealth happens alongside these expulsions.

Advanced economic and technical achievements enable this wealth and the expulsion of surplus groups.

At the same time, Sassen writes, they create a kind of nebulous centrelessness as the locus of power:

Go here to read the rest:
Transhumanism could lead to immortality for the elite - Gears Of Biz

Transhumanism has received significant media attention in recent times not in the least because the one of the movements leaders, Zoltan Istvan, ran for president in 2016 US elections.

But a British PhD candidate has warned of the darker side of a transhumanist future.

Sociologist Alex Thomas of East London University believes that transhumanism will further enforce a societal obsession with progress and efficiency at the expense of social justice and environmental sustainability. In an article published this week in The Conversation, Thomas argues that unbridled technological progress, in which technology become more intrusive and integrate seamlessly with the human body, could lead to a loss of basic societal values such as compassion and a concern for the environment.

Thomas interweaves examples ranging from new military technologies to powerful enhancement medications, arguing that, rather than assisting humanity, these technologies could potentially lead to a mechanisation of humanity and facilitate a subtle form of authoritarian control.

The rest is here:
The risk of a transhumanist future - BioEdge

GETTY

Were facing an epidemic of back pain, experts warn. Seven people in 10 have lived with neck or back pain for more than a decade and three in 10 have to take time off work.

Our modern, couch-potato lifestyle is to blame, says Tim Hutchful of the British Chiropractic Association (chiropractic-uk.co.uk). Millions of Britons spend at least 10 hours a day working at desks. Yet many are completely unaware that staying in the same position can cause unnecessary back strain.

Sit less and stand more

Research has found that people who do desk jobs suffer more back pain than those working in manual jobs where lifting is involved, says Hutchful. This is because sitting causes up to twice as much pressure on discs on the spine as standing. Using your joints and spine, however, strengthens them, reducing risk of injury.

If you work at a computer all day, consider using a standing desk, suggests Dave Asprey of uk.bulletproof.com. I use one from StandDesk that alternates between standing and sitting modes at the press of a button, he adds.

Or set a timer on your phone to go off every 20 minutes. When the alarm sounds, stand up and walk about even do a few squats.

Keep your core muscles fit for purpose

Your deep core muscles wrap around your trunk, supporting your spine like a natural built-in corset and Pilates exercises are perfect for ensuring they do their job properly, explains Lynne Robinson, founder of Body Control Pilates (bodycontrolpilates.com).

To locate your core muscles, sit tall, breathe in and, as you breathe out gently, engage your pelvic-floor muscles and draw them up inside (you should feel your abdomen hollow). Hold this internal zip for a few seconds, breathing as above. Now youve found them, engage them as required to help control your alignment and movements.

Dont slouch

We spend too much time in a C-shaped posture, hunched over desks, phones or steering wheels each day, warns chartered physiotherapist Sammy Margo (sammymargo.com). Our posture is a subconscious action so check in with yourself every half an hour to consider your position.

Think BBC bums to backs of chairs and fidget to redistribute pressure points. See the British Chiropractic Associations three-minute exercise routine Straighten Up UK at bit.ly/straightenup.

GETTY

Check how your bra fits

Four in five women wear the wrong-size bra, says Tim Hutchful. If breast weight isnt properly supported, the muscles in your neck and thoracic spine (upper back) constrict to carry the load, while bras that fit too tightly can restrict blood flow and dig into the middle of the spine, putting pressure on back nerves. Get fitted professionally and adjust the straps properly, he adds.

Declutter your bag

Stuffing your bag can mean you easily exceed carrying more than the recommended 10 per cent of your body weight, warns Sammy Margo. Try swapping to a smaller bag and alternate the shoulders you carry it on. Or, even better, use a backpack to distribute the weight evenly.

Rest your back comfortably

Sleeping gives your back the opportunity to fully rest, so make sure your bed is still providing adequate support, says Margo. If your mattress is more than eight years old, it will have deteriorated by 75 per cent, so replace it. Also avoid sleeping on your front, as this puts unnecessary pressure on your neck and back.

Wean yourself off your phone

The average human head weighs about 12lbs but for every single inch that it is angled forward, another 10lbs is added. So if you continually bend your head 3in, that adds an alarming 40lbs in weight to the neck, says Hutchful. Try gently rotating your head and neck after sending a text.

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Choose the right exercise

Walking, cycling, swimming, using a cross-trainer and Zumba classes are great forms of exercise if you have a history of back problems, explains Margo. Running, heavy weight lifting and high-intensity workouts are more jarring.

The sacroiliac joint, which connects the sacrum to the pelvis, is particularly sensitive to load-bearing activity like running. However, consistent runners are better equipped to deal with this its the on/off runners who tend to have problems. And beware of YouTube yoga videos if youre a beginner, as theres no proper guidance or instruction so youre prone to injury.

Assess your work station

Your lower back should be supported (use a lumbar support pad or a rolled-up towel if necessary). Your computer screen should be positioned one arms length away from you and aligned with your body so you face it straight, with the top of the screen at eye level. Visit chiropractic-uk.co.uk/posture for more advice.

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Common health myths and old wives' tales

Childrens car seats

The motion of lifting and twisting is hard to avoid when using car seats, so bend at the knees not the waist and shift the effort to your hips, arms and abs rather than your back, advises Hutchful. As soon as your child is old enough, let them climb into the seat independently. To get out of the car yourself, turn your whole body towards the door, lower your feet to the ground then stand up.

Eat at the dinner table

If youre watching TV, be aware that slumping in front of the box places enormous strain on your back particularly if you have a cushion-backed, soft sofa, warns Sammy Margo. Use a firm cushion behind your lower back for extra support. And make sure kids do homework at a table not on the floor on their knees.

Quit smoking

Smokers are three times more likely than non-smokers to develop chronic back pain, according to a US study by Northwestern University in Illinois.

Tweak your diet

Eat less inflammatory foods, such as red meat, dairy products and eggs, and more oily fish, which have an anti-inflammatory effect, advises nutritionist Earle Logan at

A Vogel. Magnesium-rich foods, like green leafy vegetables, oats, dried fruits such as figs, seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower and sesame, kidney beans and sardines encourage the proper absorption of calcium.

Cut down on caffeine and alcohol, which deplete magnesium and vitamins B and C, and are also triggers for inflammatory processes. Drink water instead dehydration is often a trigger point for joint pain.

Back pain relievers

lAustralian researchers found only one in six patients treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen achieved any significant reduction in discomfort. And this was outweighed by side effects, such as gastrointestinal problems, particularly if the drug is taken long term.

New NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines no longer recommend paracetamol for low back pain due to risks such as liver damage, explains Dr Hughes.

More here:
Exercise, diet change and more: The best ways to get rid of backache - Express.co.uk

In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.[1] The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.

Complete nutrition requires ingestion and absorption of vitamins, minerals, and food energy in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in the quality of life, health and longevity.

Some cultures and religions have restrictions concerning what foods are acceptable in their diet. For example, only Kosher foods are permitted by Judaism, and Halal foods by Islam. Although Buddhists are generally vegetarians, the practice varies and meat-eating may be permitted depending on the sects.[2] In Hinduism, vegetarianism is the ideal. Jains are strictly vegetarian and consumption of roots is not permitted.

Many people choose to forgo food from animal sources to varying degrees (e.g. flexitarianism, vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism) for health reasons, issues surrounding morality, or to reduce their personal impact on the environment, although some of the public assumptions about which diets have lower impacts are known to be incorrect.[3]Raw foodism is another contemporary trend. These diets may require tuning or supplementation such as vitamins to meet ordinary nutritional needs.

A particular diet may be chosen to seek weight loss or weight gain. Changing a subject's dietary intake, or "going on a diet", can change the energy balance and increase or decrease the amount of fat stored by the body. Some foods are specifically recommended, or even altered, for conformity to the requirements of a particular diet. These diets are often recommended in conjunction with exercise. Specific weight loss programs can be harmful to health, while others may be beneficial and can thus be coined as healthy diets. The terms "healthy diet" and "diet for weight management" are often related, as the two promote healthy weight management. Having a healthy diet is a way to prevent health problems, and will provide the body with the right balance of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.[4]

An eating disorder is a mental disorder that interferes with normal food consumption. It is defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive diet.

A healthy diet may improve or maintain optimal health. In developed countries, affluence enables unconstrained caloric intake and possibly inappropriate food choices.[5]

Health agencies recommend that people maintain a normal weight by limiting consumption of energy-dense foods and sugary drinks, eating plant-based food, limiting consumption of red and processed meat, and limiting alcohol intake.[6]

Read the original post:
Diet (nutrition) - Wikipedia

Three Northern Arizona University grads are hoping to jon a growing field: bringing the exercise world into the social media world.

Anthony West, Anthony Lawson and Matthew Drapkin are currently testing their new app, Universal Fitness, in San Diego and Flagstaff. They hope to releasethe beta version to the public before the end of the year.

The app is a kind of mashup of Facebook, Yelp and your favorite exercise tracking app. It allows users to share their workouts, tips and dietary advice with others and ask questions, as well as track their workouts, find and rate gyms and other facilities, and test their fitness. The number of places listed on the app is expected to grow as the number of users increases.

West and Lawsonacnowledged that Universal Fitness has many of the same features as millions of exercise apps currently on the market. However, most of those apps dont allow users to track more than one exercise type, provide a map for local gyms and workout facilities, or try to create and encourage a community of fitness, Lawson said.

We wanted to bring in all types of activity, West said. We wanted to bring different communities together who share a similar experience in trying to stay fit. It doesnt really matter what you do as long as you do it.

They want to create a voice and a place for individuals young and old who want to improve their health but need motivation from others to do so, Lawson said.

For example, there are some people who just lift weights and other people who just do cardio workouts like running or the elliptical, he said. But there is also a large and growing group of people who like mixing things up and doing both. Other apps in the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores focus on one type of activity: running, yoga, etc. Universal Fitness is designed to provide one location to track all of a users exercise, weightlifting, running, swimming, hiking, etc.

West and Lawson got the idea for a health app after they saw the effect that a lack of exercise and good diet had on their family members.

We both have a lot of family members with ill health, Lawson said.

We wanted to bring health and wellness to others, West added. We want to create a community of support for fitness here and across the nation.

The original idea behind the app was to make it easy to find locations to work out no matter where you are in the U.S., and eradicate the old excuse of not being able to work out while on a trip or vacation because you dont know where the closest gym is, Lawson said.

Users can add their favorite gyms and workout areas -- such as hiking trails -- to the app, which allows visitors with the app to scope out locations to workout, hike or run while visiting for work or on vacation, he said. This also allows you to connect with local fitness groups or enthusiasts who you might be able to partner with on a run or workout.

The app morphed into something much bigger when Drapkin joined the team, West said. Drapkin has a background in nutrition sciences. It was his idea to try to create a nutrition blog to provide information on diet and exercise app users and an exercise tracker to the app to count steps or reps. Theyre also toying with the idea of a rewards system for the app, much like the badge system that other exercise apps like FitBit and Strava use.

The app includes a blog with nutrition tips, recipes and a social media-type tab for photo and video shout-outs to friends or to ask questions. A shortcut button for feedback to the developers is also included.

While the finished app will be free to download, the trio is considering a monthly subscription service that would help users test their fitness and create custom workouts. Most of the financial support for the app will come from ads, Lawson said. He said the group is in negotiations with several advertisers now.

Right now, the trio has a Kickstarter page set up to help with startup costs and plans to release the beta version of the app by the end of the year.

See original here:
Universal Fitness: Putting the social in working out - Arizona Daily Sun

Fifty percent of women are on a diet at any given time, but despite our best efforts, sometimes the numbers on those scales just wont budge. We look at what you can change to boost your weight loss

Excess sugar is the main culprit when it comes to weight gain. When we have too much sugar, our body is programmed to store the excess as fat cells. You might avoid the obvious suspects of chocolate and cookies, but if youre replacing these with honey or dried fruit, your sugar levels could still be too high. The reality is that sugar is sugar, no matter how healthy the form.

TRY: Run a sugar audit for a few days. Keep a log of your diet you may be surprised by just how much youre consuming. Try weaning yourself off gradually, cutting back on sugary treats one at a time.

We drive around, sit at desks and use moving staircases, but the human body was designed to move. If youre exercising a couple of times each week but still not seeing results, take a look at what youre doing the rest of the time. Your workouts should be extra exercise on top of an active lifestyle. Studies have found that 80% of people fail to meet the government target of around 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week.

TRY: Introduce free exercise into your life take the stairs, walk the dog, bike to work if you can, or park your car further away from your destination so you have to walk the last part of your journey. It could be just what you need to kick-start your metabolism.

If you dont make time to eat mindfully, it can impact on your waistline. Breakfast is often eaten on the go, with 60% of people wolfing it down in under five minutes, and its common to eat lunch at our desks too. Plus, Brits eat six out of 10 of their meals in front of the TV meaning were not thinking about eating, and the average person only spends around 23 minutes per day chewing food.

This is bad news for our digestion. Our gut contains hormones that control appetite and tell us when were full, so taking the time to chew food properly helps activate these mechanisms.

Try: Challenge yourself to chew food for longer, aiming to be the last to finish when eating friends - you'll notice that your internal STOP button is more effective.

Youve probably cut down on the obvious fattening foods, but are you paying enough attention to portions of healthy food? We often assume that you cant have too much of a good thing, but a large portion of nuts, seeds or pulses can add up to a hefty calorie intake. While nuts do contain essential fats and are more nutritious than biscuits, theyre also very moreish and a handful of walnuts can contain 500 calories.

TRY: If you think its time to monitor your portions, then try the nifty kitchen gadget Mealkitt (39.99 from Mealkitt.com). With slots to weigh out carbs, oil, protein and veg, its a handy tool for retraining yourself to eat sensibly.

Craving carbs and sugar after a bad nights sleep is common. When youre over-tired, the reward receptors in your brain kick in, encouraging you to look for comfort food. Sleep deprivation also impacts hormone levels that regulate appetite, meaning the hunger hormone increases and the appetite suppressant decreases. A staggering 63% of people say they are unhappy with the amount of sleep they get, with only 8% stating they wake up feeling refreshed.

TRY: To ensure a better sleep, stick to a sleep schedule going to bed and waking up at the same time each day (even at weekends!). Give yourself a bedtime countdown, so you can start winding down an hour or so in advance.

Most of us juggle too many things: jobs, families, shopping, cooking the list seems endless. Stress is supposed to be a short-lived alarm response, but our busy lives can mean its a permanent state, rather than a passing mood. When you feel stressed your body releases the hormone cortisol, which floods your body with a glucose energy supply for that fight or flight moment.

The bad news is that cortisol causes your body to take healthier fat from places like your bum and thighs, and relocates it to the abdomen, where it becomes unhealthy visceral fat that puts pressure on your internal organs.

TRY: Try to include some calming activities in your life, such as crafting or yoga. Factoring me time into your schedule could make a big difference to your weight loss regime. For on-the-spot destressing, eating a banana is good, because the potassium helps to regulate your blood pressure.

Read more here:
6 reasons why your diet isn't working - including not getting enough sleep and feeling stressed - Mirror.co.uk

By Lee Ostaszewski/Local Columnist

We have enough things to worry about these days, what with climate change, North Korea and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.

The Mooch only lasted 10 days on the job, but you just know he is never going away. Thats how it is with all these reality TV show contestants er I mean members of the Trump administration.

With all this going on in the world we certainly dont need to worry about our brain leaking.

Apparently, however, we do. A growing number of people, as it turns out, have experienced brain fluid leaking out their ears.

Yuck is the appropriate response to this.

Ewwww is also acceptable.

Not surprisingly, this condition is linked to obesity. After all, what isnt? Brian leakage could also be caused by sleep apnea, too.

So basically, we all must be concerned anytime we eat or sleep. These activities are likely killing us.

And if being concerned about sleep apnea causes insomnia, be aware that there is an entire list of health issues caused by not sleeping, too.

By the time we sort it all out, I would rather just worry about North Korea or some nutso White House official.

While no one is sure why brain leakage happens, it seems obesity might be contributing to a condition where the skull bone thins, eventually resulting in a small hole where the cerebrospinal fluid can ooze out.

This hole can also lead to infections in the brain. So the hole needs to be fixed, which requires surgery. These types of surgeries are becoming more and more common.

We dont need this as a problem. Medical research is wonderful when it discovers cures and treatments. But when it digs up new issues we previously didnt worry about, then perhaps its time to stop.

Another example of a problem we previously had no clue about is being overfat. This does not necessarily mean overweight or obese. Instead, overfat can happen even if your weight and BMI appear to be in the good range.

Great.

Overfat occurs when you have too much belly fat. Which effects a large percentage of the population of middle-aged, American adults. And by large percentage, I mean 100 percent of adults who dont play quarterback for the New England Patriots.

Personally, I find this news disturbing.

Whats even more disturbing is that there is no viable solution to this problem. All science can come up with is diet and exercise. That is sciences panacea to every health condition: Diet and exercise.

When will science admit diet and exercise is not working?

Granted, it doesnt work mostly because we stop dieting and exercising approximately three days after starting.

We all want science to provide us with a simple, easy-to-follow solution to the obesity epidemic. One that doesnt require us to do very much nor try too hard.

There are companies out there that claim to have the answers. They say that their natural herbs or vitamin supplements reduce belly fat. But these claims fall into the same category as a politicians promises.

Such as having Mexico pay for a border wall, replace and repeal Obamacare, or acting so presidential well be bored.

The American public could use some boredom about now.

It would give us a chance to focus on other things. Such as how much belly fat is too much and what this stuff dripping out our ears might be.

Lee lives in Medway. Email him at lee.online@verizon.net.

Link:
Ostaszewski: Can medical research be great again? - MetroWest Daily News

Dying to know the secrets behind Beyonces post-baby slim down? The juicy details of her nutritious diet and exercise routine have been revealed to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY.

No, its not Photoshop. Beyonce, 35, just looks that good after welcoming twins last month. The secrets to having a killer body are pretty obvious (working out, eating right, drinking less, etc.) but how many of us are actually determined enough to follow through? Take a few lessons from Queen Bey if youre looking for extra motivation. Firstly, shes taking her time to lose the baby weight and doing it in a healthy, natural way, a source tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. Breast feeding is really helping to shed the pounds, and running around after daughter Blue helps too!

Its also beneficial if your partner or roommate lives a healthy lifestyle, that way you wont be tempted to buy a bag of Cheetos at midnight. In the Formation singers case, hubby JAY-Z is really pushing a balanced diet packed with protein. Theyve always eaten healthy, although now shes eating a little more meat and less vegan, the source continues. Exercise wise,Beyonce is going to Soul Cycle, which she loves, and shes doing a special high cardio circuit program thathertrainer designed especially forher. Even if the treadmill isnt your thing, you can try Beyonces FAVORITE workout practice yoga!

She does it every single day, our source adds. Sometimes even Blue tries to join in, its so cute!Beyonce loves the effect yoga has onherbody, but she really loves the effect it has onhermind. Its the perfect way to start the morning, and it gets her in the right mind set for the rest of the day. If that still sounds iffy, try exercising with a loved one. All that sweating and blood pumping will do wonders to your sex life! Beyonce and JAY can barely keep their hands off each other at Soul Cycle!

HollywoodLifers, do you think you could keep up with Beyonces workout routine?

Continued here:
Beyonce's Flawless Post-Baby Bod: Her Nutritious Diet & Exercising Secrets Revealed - Hollywood Life

Times Record staff

Transitional pastor named

Central Presbyterian Church announces that the honorably retired Rev. Rita Wilson will serve as transitional pastor while the congregation searches for a permanent pastor. Wilson joined Central in 1971 and served as director of Christian education for seven years. She retired in 2015 after 37 years of active service.

St. Scholastica offers several retreats

St. Scholastica Retreat Center, 1205 S. Albert Pike, will offer a weekend retreat Sept. 22-24 titled "Seven Sacred Pauses." Using themes drawn from Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr's book, "Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully" and Velma Frye's accompanying CD, "Seven Sacred Pauses: Singing Mindfully," the presenters will lead participants into the contemplative practice of deep listening.

Cost is $245. A $50 nonrefundable, nontransferable deposit is required at time of registration. Lodging and meals are included.

Additionally, the center will offer two ways to practice the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

Retreat in Daily Life will be held both in St. Scholastica Monastery and in northwest Arkansas. Participants will meet weekly in small groups from October through April, meet with a spiritual director twice monthly and spend time in daily prayer, scripture reading, and journaling.

Cost is $560 plus the cost of twice monthly spiritual direction at $20 per session.

Ignatius Transposed! Retreat in Daily Life "transposes" the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius for the 21st century, according to the teachings of the great mystic and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Biweekly meetings will be held between Aug. 29 and May 1 in northwest Arkansas and possibly Fort Smith, and can also be attended through Zoom conferencing.

Participants will meet from 6:30-8:30 p.m. every other Tuesday evening, meet with a spiritual director once a month and participate in 30-45 minutes daily of prayer, scripture reading and journaling.

Cost is $480 plus $20 per month for spiritual direction.

Scholarships are available.

Call (479) 783-1135 or (479) 651-1616 or email retreats@stscho.org or anahas@me.com to register or for information on these retreats.

Religion Notes is published each Saturday as a free public service. All items must reach the Times Record, 3600 Wheeler Ave., by noon Wednesday of the week the item is to be published. Photographs submitted cannot be returned but may be picked up at the office the week after they are published. Photographs will be kept for six months. The street address of the church and the name and phone number of a contact person must accompany each item submitted, or it will not be published. Email submissions to speterson@swtimes.com.

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Religion notes 8.5.17 - Entertainment & Life - Arkansas News ... - Arkansas News

Buy the rumor and sell the news doesn't always work out so well.

Investors who followed the old adage with Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) recently learned that lesson the hard way. Shares of the clinical-stage biotech surged after the company announced that it would provide a clinical update for its RSV F vaccine. Many clearly thought that Novavax would deliver some good news for its beleaguered program.

When the update actually happened, though, it was a different story for the stock. Shares gave up all the gains and then some as investors realized the news for the RSV F vaccine didn't justify the previous bounce. With the latest round of drama over, what's the best course of action?

Image source: Getty Images.

Prior to Novavax's update on July 24, I wrote that investors probably should brace themselves for bad news.I don't pretend to be in possession of any psychic skills in making that recommendation. It was simply pragmatism. I quoted the late motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, who once stated: "Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes."

Investors who placed big bets on tremendous news for the RSV F vaccine were disappointed. However, those who hoped for good news but were prepared for it to be really bad were in much better shape.The most important advice from Zig Ziglar's statement lies at the heart of what I think is the best reason to buy Novavax stock now: Capitalize on the sell-off from those who were counting on game-changing good news. Pardon the pun, but it could make sense to zig when others zag.

Sure, the story from Novavax didn't generate excitement. Still, though, the news wasn't really bad. The company's phase 2 study evaluating safety and immunogenicity of the RSV F vaccine in older adults was encouraging. Novavax now plans to initiate another phase 2 study in older adults focusing on efficacy next year. Its phase 3 study evaluating the vaccine in infants via maternal immunization appears to be progressing well.

It comes down to your time horizon. If you have a long-term perspective, buying Novavax stock after the recent plunge could make sense. There was no news that should make anyone have a more negative opinion of the RSV F vaccine. The market opportunity if the vaccine ultimately proves to be successful is still huge.

What if you don't have a long-term perspective? Your best bet is probably to stay away from Novavax for now. There are two main reasons why.

First, the biotech doesn't have any major catalysts coming up soon to drive the stock higher. The phase 2 efficacy trial in older adults won't even start until next year. There will be what Novavax refers to as an "informational analysis" of its phase 3 study of the RSV F vaccine in infants via maternal immunization, but it won't happen until near the end of 2017. An interim analysis isn't scheduled until sometime in mid-2018.

Second, Novavax continues to lose money and deplete its cash stockpile. The company reported cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaling $211.2 million at the end of March. That amount could be around $40 million to $50 million lower when Novavax announces its second-quarter results. Although the biotech should be able to fund operations into the first half of 2018, another stock offering is probably in the cards in the not-too-distant future. That would mean more dilution for current shareholders.

There is another alternative for investors who are somewhat bullish on the prospects for Novavax and its RSV F vaccine but want to reduce their risk exposure. You could buy call options.

If you take this route, probably the best approach would be to go with options with expiration dates well into the future. As already mentioned, there aren't obvious big catalysts coming soon enough to make short-term options worthwhile.

With longer-dated options, though, the informational analysis of the phase 3 study in infants could potentially drive Novavax stock (and options) higher. The interim analysis next year could provide a big boost. There's also always the possibility that Novavax forges a licensing deal with a bigger company or even gets bought out. And if none of this happens, the relatively low price of the option means you won't risk losing nearly as much as you would if you had bought the stock outright.

Keith Speights has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The Single Best Reason to Buy Novavax Stock Now - Motley Fool