Yin Teing’s Health Blog

There is quite an interesting article in Yahoo Health that talks about the common myths and truths about our feet.

Example, wearing flip flops may not be the best option. Well, all podiatrists will surely agree that high heels are bad for your feet, knees, back and posture especially if typically worn for long hours.

Diabetics will need to take special care of both feet and as such, going barefoot is a bad bad idea.

Still, for most, I believe going barefoot on the earth is good for your health. Most of the time, we walk on concrete or tiles. We spent our lives surrounded by electronic gadgets such as computer, TV, MP3 and mobile phones. Our bodies will absorb ions due to the proximity and the hours that we spent exposed to these items.

By swinging your hands back and forth (in front and back direction), you can clear meridian blockages along your hand and the surrounding area of your torso. I tried that one day when I was not feeling well and immediately felt better (from the swinging and having my bare feet with direct contact of the earth in my garden).

Diabetes, relatively unknown 100 years ago, is now becoming so common. In 2005, it is estimated that 7% of the American population (20.8 million people) have diabetes. Diabetes used to occur in older adults but now is getting common in teenagers and people in their 20s.

The main cause of it is due to sedentary lifestyle and/or high refined sugar consumption:

• Type 1- lack of insulin. The pancreas cannot produce enough insulin, resulting elevated glucose levels in blood. Those who suffer from type 1 diabetes requires regular insulin injections. At the moment, there is no identified cure if all the beta cells in the pancreas have been destroyed.
• Type 2- insulin insensitivity. A sedentary person who have a uncontrollable sweet tooth is very susceptible to Type 2. What happens is that the person constantly take too much of sugar. This triggers the insulin to try to bring down the blood sugar levels and pushing it to the muscles and organs. After a while, the muscles no longer respond to the insulin and thus does not take in the sugar, causing elevated levels of sugar.

Many people, at least those I know, resigned to the fact that they will have to live with this condition for life.

It does not have to be that way for Type 2.

Do you know that there have been cases of people reversing the diabetes type 2 due to exercise and a change in diet? But please be careful if you are surfing for these stories in the net, because some could be selling certain type of product/ fad diet book that is out in the market without any conclusive/ adequate research. If it is really as effective as it claims, then our local government hospitals will be stocking that in their pharmacies- but these so-called miracle pills or herbs never make it to the local hospital’s pharmacies.

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Today, an article in Sunday Star is quite interesting: it talks about a study conducted to find out the effects of exercising without losing weight. Subjects (slim, obese & diabetic men) were given an exercise program but with a twist- they have to eat more to compensate for the extra calories lost.

The results:

• even though there is no weight loss, there’s a reduction in the waistline of all the subjects.
• this shows a reduction in the metabolic active fat tissue located in our abdomen area: which is quite bad for health.

Conclusion from the study:

• By virtue of just exercising, there are various health benefits that are being discovered by researches all the time- even if it means that we are not losing weight when we exercise
• It’s a huge mistake if we think that the only motivation for us to exercise is just to lose weight- because if that does not materialise in a short time (most of the time, most people’s willpower is short lived), we’ll just give up- and never reap the benefits of exercising

I have started exercising actively again since last year and as mentioned in previous posts, I did not see the results weight loss until after a year (coz of my sweet tooth). But the benefits are enormous. I remembered when I first started yoga, I felt especially tired after the first few classes. Could be some dissolving of hard toxins accumulated for ages- and after a while, I rely on exercise to fight my fatigue. Only when I start combining with healthy diet of less sugar, more vege and fruits, I am able to reap the full benefits- feeling well even when I did not visit the gym, increased stamina, higher tolerance of stress, and able to wear clothes that I had not previously able to wear : )