Boehner pushes for new debt limit showdown just after November election http://t.co/UgVVuPr6 via @TPM

Boehner pushes for new debt limit showdown just after November election http://t.co/UgVVuPr6 via @TPM

Only realizing now that @cschweitz citizenship is actually @burberry #didntknowthatwaspossible

A buyer beware about raspberry ketones

A buyer beware about raspberry ketones

By
Dr Ellie Cannon

PUBLISHED:

16:00 EST, 5 May 2012

|

UPDATED:

16:00 EST, 5 May 2012

Claire Squires, 30, died just before the finish at this year’s London Marathon

The death of Claire Squires just before the finish at this year’s London Marathon rightly struck a chord.

The 30-year-old from North Kilworth, Leicestershire, was said to have been suffering from arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat – which can be caused by a number of different diseases.

Millions of Britons suffer and, while serious, it is treatable.

What causes the heart to flutter?

The
rhythm of the heart is controlled by the electrical beat of the nerves,
and if these short-circuit the heart will beat too fast or too slowly.
This can cause chest pain and dizziness. Arrhythmia can also be caused
by infections, medications, heart disease, alcohol and illegal drugs.
Herbal and cold remedies and diet pills have also been linked.

Which types of arrhythmia do young people suffer with?

The
commonest type of arrhythmia in young people is SVT – supraventricular
tachycardia – when the heart beats too fast in bursts that can last
hours or even days. The cause is usually unknown. Youngsters can also
suffer arrhythmias where the heart goes too slowly. Some will get
episodes where they feel their heart skips a beat or there is a
fluttering/pounding in the chest. The heart is having an extra or early
beat and we all feel these from time to time.

How would I know if I have arrhythmia?

Certain symptoms would warrant investigation, such as fainting, dizziness, palpitations or chest pain, and the abnormal rhythm would be seen on an ECG.

Are these conditions on the rise?

We seem to be seeing more, but there is greater awareness and our methods of detection are improving. Widespread use of illicit drugs and alcohol among youngsters would lead to more arrhythmias.

Tiny defibrillators are sometimes implanted into the body to ‘shock’ the heart out of abnormal rhythms if it is going dangerously fast

What’s the treatment?

Medications to slow the heart rate, such as the beta blocker sotalol, are used to control the common type of SVT. In other types, surgical procedures may lead to a permanent cure. For those with an arrhythmia where the heart is too slow, a pacemaker can be inserted to speed it up. Tiny defibrillators are sometimes implanted into the body to ‘shock’ the heart out of abnormal rhythms if it is going dangerously fast.

Should people with arrhythmias exercise?

Appropriate ways should be discussed with a doctor. For sports such as marathon running, it is not only the exercise that triggers the arrhythmia but the stress and adrenaline of competition.

www.twitter.com/Dr_Ellie

By
Dr Ellie Cannon

PUBLISHED:

16:00 EST, 5 May 2012

|

UPDATED:

16:00 EST, 5 May 2012

Claire Squires, 30, died just before the finish at this year’s London Marathon

The death of Claire Squires just before the finish at this year’s London Marathon rightly struck a chord.

The 30-year-old from North Kilworth, Leicestershire, was said to have been suffering from arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat – which can be caused by a number of different diseases.

Millions of Britons suffer and, while serious, it is treatable.

What causes the heart to flutter?

The
rhythm of the heart is controlled by the electrical beat of the nerves,
and if these short-circuit the heart will beat too fast or too slowly.
This can cause chest pain and dizziness. Arrhythmia can also be caused
by infections, medications, heart disease, alcohol and illegal drugs.
Herbal and cold remedies and diet pills have also been linked.

Which types of arrhythmia do young people suffer with?

The
commonest type of arrhythmia in young people is SVT – supraventricular
tachycardia – when the heart beats too fast in bursts that can last
hours or even days. The cause is usually unknown. Youngsters can also
suffer arrhythmias where the heart goes too slowly. Some will get
episodes where they feel their heart skips a beat or there is a
fluttering/pounding in the chest. The heart is having an extra or early
beat and we all feel these from time to time.

How would I know if I have arrhythmia?

Certain symptoms would warrant investigation, such as fainting, dizziness, palpitations or chest pain, and the abnormal rhythm would be seen on an ECG.

Are these conditions on the rise?

We seem to be seeing more, but there is greater awareness and our methods of detection are improving. Widespread use of illicit drugs and alcohol among youngsters would lead to more arrhythmias.

Tiny defibrillators are sometimes implanted into the body to ‘shock’ the heart out of abnormal rhythms if it is going dangerously fast

What’s the treatment?

Medications to slow the heart rate, such as the beta blocker sotalol, are used to control the common type of SVT. In other types, surgical procedures may lead to a permanent cure. For those with an arrhythmia where the heart is too slow, a pacemaker can be inserted to speed it up. Tiny defibrillators are sometimes implanted into the body to ‘shock’ the heart out of abnormal rhythms if it is going dangerously fast.

Should people with arrhythmias exercise?

Appropriate ways should be discussed with a doctor. For sports such as marathon running, it is not only the exercise that triggers the arrhythmia but the stress and adrenaline of competition.

www.twitter.com/Dr_Ellie

There’s a new weight loss regimen that trumps almost all other extreme diets in terms of ill advisability and downright cartoonishness. The K-E Diet has doctors putting feeding tubes into healthy people – usually young women before their wedding days – to help them lose weight: Up to 20 pounds in 10 days. The “patients” tote around a solution in a bag or purse, which delivers fats, protein, and water (no carbs) through the nasogastric tube into the stomach. Patients consume about 800 calories a day, and do not eat any actual food over the 10-day period.

To put it lightly, there are a few issues at play with the diet, which range from medical to ethical. The K-E diet puts the body into a state of ketosis, where it is burning fat instead of carbohydrate. In the short term this isn’t so bad, but might lead to bad breath and stress the liver and kidneys. Healthy people will generally rebound from this short bout of ketosis, but might be fatigued, or constipated from the lack of bulk and fiber in the solution.

The bigger issue is the fact that the diet pushes us further into the any-means-possible attitude toward weight loss. David L. Katz, MD, MPH, founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, voices his serious concerns about the diet, underlining that “it is appalling… because it opens up a whole new world of shockingly bad ideas.”

If we’re willing to go the feeding tube route (which, by the way, is generally a medical procedure for people who cannot eat for legitimate reasons, and is not terribly pleasant), why not use other dramatic medical methods, Katz asks. “Why not medically controlled anaphylaxis for weight loss?” he wonders. “Why not a medically induced coma/anesthesia for weight loss? There is truly no limit to our weight-loss idiocy, and the willingness of the unscrupulous to capitalize on it.”

Another issue is that because weight loss happens so quickly in the K-E diet, it’s a virtual guarantee that it will come back on later. It’s a Band-Aid solution to the larger problem. Weight loss works over the long term only when one actually changes the behavior and lifestyle choices that led to overweight in the first place. “In terms of quick weight loss,” adds Katz, “it is a guarantee of quick rebound, since it involves no useful behavior change whatsoever. It has nothing at all to do with health, and basically endorses the notion that weight loss by any means is acceptable. If that is so, I recommend a 10-day cocaine binge. It will work as well, and probably be more fun, than a nasogastric tube.”

Finally, the obvious ethical issue deserves some attention. What doctor would in good conscience give a feeding tube to an otherwise healthy patient because he or she wanted to lose weight for an event? “The job of physicians is not to come up with any way to satisfy a patient’s whim no matter how fundamentally at odds with health. Our professional mission is to promote and protect health – and to serve the patient IN THAT CONTEXT.”

It’s a sad situation when doctors agree to dramatic medical methods to please their patients. “We are abdicating our profound responsibilities and most sacred pledges,” says Katz, “ when we renounce a commitment to health, and adopt an ‘oh what the hell…’ approach. It is a disgrace. Again, I think this opens up whole new roads in the realm of shockingly irresponsible idiocy on the part of doctor and patient alike. On behalf of my profession, I am ashamed.”

It’s hard to imagine that this method is in line with the Hippocratic oath that doctors take as they begin their careers. If the feeding tube diet becomes an acceptable form of weight loss, what methods will follow?

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PARTICIPANTS of the HSBC Coffee Talk event: JL Martinez, Kat Azanza, Rescina Bhagwani, HSBC SVP for Communications Johanna Garcia, Lala Agregado, Jessica Zafra and Art Mendoza

KAT Azanza and Rescina Bhagwani

Work hard, party hard, cleanse, repeat,” said Kat Azanza, co-owner of the all-natural juice fast Juju Cleanse, during the 4th HSBC Coffee Talk.

Good advice from the cleansing guru, who was among the six invited speakers for this year’s HSBC hot topic, “Hot Summer, Hot Diets,” at  Makati Shangri-La.

Born out of the idea that good conversation and coffee are inseparable, the HSBC Coffee Talk this year invited an interesting mix of guests.

There’s the advocate of the traditional diet-and-exercise regimen, “Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition” runner-up Art Mendoza and CrossFit devotee Lala Agregado; writer/columnist Jessica Zafra; fad dieter JL Martinez, who has already lost 120 lbs on the HCG diet; “big spender” Rescina Bhagwani, whose big investment in the Cohen diet program (more than P50,000) is already giving her huge returns (lost 65 lbs so far, and counting); and the no-nonsense straight talk from the Juju Cleanse guru Azanza.

“If you have a craving, you have to have it,” said Martinez, who endured 40 days on a highly restrictive, 500-calorie-a-day diet of the controversial HCG diet.

Martinez said the trick is in the portion size. You want chips, you’ll get chips—but not the entire bag, please. The first mouthful, he said, is to tell your brain you’re eating all right; the second is to satisfy the taste buds. Succeeding servings after will merely be stored, useless calories.

Mendoza, who lost 129 lbs during the “Biggest Loser Pinoy Edition” reality show competition, is now a staunch devotee of exercise. While he was able to put in hours of exercise while on the show (up to six hours a day, he confessed), returning to the daily grind of the real world does not allow him that luxury. That’s how the intense CrossFit training came into the picture.

Put out the fire

“Metabolism is like a fire. If you keep on putting small twigs the fire will keep on burning and even gets larger and larger. But if you throw in large logs, you will put out the fire,” Mendoza said.

HSBC Coffee Talk hosted by Johanna Garcia (center), HSBC SVP of Communications, with (from left) JL Martinez , Kat Azanza, Rescina Bhagwani, Lala Agregado, Art Mendoza and Jessica Zafra

Keep the fire burning, he continued, by consuming leafy greens and veggies and good sources of protein like fish.

Another CrossFit devotee, Agregado said she has dieted all her life—since high school, in fact. She even tried the once popular Bangkok Pills, and experimented with Xenical. While they all actually worked, the excess weight came back just as quickly, too. What she needed was something manageable and permanent.

“I always bring food  even when I travel. Dieting is always a struggle so I should be always prepared,” said Cohen advocate Bhagwani. That’s true even when she travels, here or abroad. Because Cohen is a very precise diet, including weighing and measuring food, she said she seals her food rations in Ziplocks whenever work requires her to travel.

Zafra has long ago sworn off fastfoods, which she describes as high-calorie cardboard deep-fried in lard. You get zero nutrients. Worse, you gain weight.

“You’re better off eating bagnet with rice and bagoong,” she said. Zafra is no fan of any diet. Rather, she believes people must have a healthy body image.

Since we live in a world where giving in to temptation is inevitable, and even essential for you to control your cravings, cleansing has become a regular part of some people’s health regimen.

“You need to find that balance. It’s like tuning up your car. Make it a part of your regimen,” said Azanza.

A Juju Cleanse is a doctor-approved detoxification process. Each drink is packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals your body needs to function. Cleansing your digestive system takes only three to five days.

“Coffee and conversation are an unbeatable combination. This is what the HSBC Coffee Talks are all about, allowing our customers to have great conversations over great coffee—on us,” said Johanna Garcia, SVP for communications of  HSBC.

For only 250 bonus points (500 bonus points for premier MasterCard credit cardholders) with your spending until May 31, you can get your fave Starbucks brew. Present a charge slip with a minimum purchase of P2,500 at any Starbucks branch nationwide in exchange for instant bonus points and a tall handcrafted beverage of your choice, or a three-pack Starbucks VIA.