Mental health tips and tricks by Akram Ismail

Medical tips and tricks with dr. Akram Ismail right now? Good news, chocoholics: Your occasional indulgence might just be the key to staying slim. According to 2012 research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, individuals who regularly consume chocolate are thinner than those who abstain. If you want to feel good on the inside and the outside, stick to dark chocolate and you’ll enjoy a boost of inflammation-fighting antioxidants, too. Sitting at a table to eat instead of doing it at your desk, on the sofa or standing up reduces your risk of over-eating by making you more mindful during meals. Research from Cornell University in the US found that people eat far more in social situations – think standing at the buffet, when walking or talking, or at your desk while working – than when sitting down and thinking about how each mouthful smells, tastes and feels. Discover extra info on dr Akram Ismail.

Some people might need to reset their goals, potentially by adjusting the total number of calories they are aiming to eat or changing their exercise patterns. The important thing is to keep a positive outlook and be persistent in working toward overcoming the barriers to successful weight loss. Successful weight loss does not require people to follow a specific diet plan, such as Slimming World or Atkins. Instead, they should focus on eating fewer calories and moving more to achieve a negative energy balance. Weight loss is primarily dependent on reducing the total intake of calories, not adjusting the proportions of carbohydrate, fat, and protein in the diet. A reasonable weight loss goal to start seeing health benefits is a 5–10 percent reduction in body weight over a 6-month time frame. Most people can achieve this goal by reducing their total calorie intake to somewhere in the range of 1,000–1,600 calories per day. A diet of fewer than 1,000 calories per day will not provide sufficient daily nutrition.

Fitness and alternative health news by Akram Ismail : Pilates strengthens your whole body, not just your core. One of the keys to truly enhancing your fitness is what I call “balanced strength.” That’s when each part of your body works together to produce the right amount of force, at the right time, to do your favorite activity in the most efficient way possible. Efficiency means you’ll be able to do it for longer and with more ease. I see lots of strong people in my office, and they can’t understand why they’re in pain. It’s entirely possible to be “strong,” but have certain muscles working harder than others. This creates an imbalance, which eventually leads to problems. Pilates emphasizes full body strength that is coordinated, which helps promote balanced strength throughout your body, and leads to less injuries over time.

Make an appointment. Most experts recommend a dental check-up every 6 months — more often if you have problems like gum disease. During a routine exam, your dental hygienist will remove plaque build-up that you can’t brush or floss away and look for signs of decay. They will also look for early signs of oral cancer, wear and tear from teeth grinding, and signs of gum disease.

Despite the media attention and all the information that’s available, people simply aren’t losing weight. But there are some very good reasons for this: too much misinformation is available, too many people rely on fad diets, too many people look for a pill to help them lose weight and too many people just don’t want to acknowledge that it takes some work to lose the weight. Yet for those who do work to lose weight, the end result is always worth it. It’s important to make the right kind of changes in order to lose weight and to keep that weight off over time. You will be healthier and your body will work more efficiently if you choose nutritious, high-quality foods and effective, high-impact exercises. Here are some steps to help you out.

You might be over wearing face masks. However, public health regulations mandate that you comply with your town or state’s regulations and cover your face while in public. You may feel that a mask makes it hard to breathe and limits your ability to interact socially. Depending on your political persuasion, you may even feel that facemasks represent government overreach into your personal health decisions. If you’re a healthcare worker, this face mask fatigue may not be relevant to your life but to everyone else’s.