Basic Health FactsVikram Singh Sankhala

Food – What does your Body Need

• There are at least 114 vitamins and minerals that your body needs to stay healthy, and one or two foods will not provide all those nutrients.

• When you are eating, your portions should be as follows: ¼ for protein, ¼ for your grain, and ½ for your fruits and vegetables

Do Calorie Requirements vary

• The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism rate, and the faster you will burn calories.

• Michael Phelps, a swimmer, consumes about 10,000 to 12,000 calories per day, which is four to five times more than an average man.

• Phelps is a very tall and active, and he works out at least five to six hours per day.

What are Therapeutic Diets

• Modifications of normal diet used to improve specific health conditions

• Normally prescribed by doctor and planned by dietician

• May change nutrients, caloric content

How much of your Body is Water

• The human body is at least 60-70% water, and you need to maintain that level of water throughout the day to keep your body productive and to prevent health problems.

• It has been discovered that you can survive without food for up to one month, but you cannot survive without water after three days.

• The main reason why you have to drink water throughout the day is because you will lose a lot of water from your daily activities through sweating, breathing, talking, and urinating, and other activities.

How much water do you need to Drink Daily

• Take your total weight in pounds and divide it by two; that is how much water you need to drink in ounces per day. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, then you would divide it by 2, and then you would need to drink 100 ounces of water daily.

• If you want to know how many cups of water you should be drinking, take the total number of ounces and divide it by eight, because a cup is eight ounces.

• For example, if you take 100 and divide it by 8, then you would get 12.5 cups of water.

A Thumb Rule for Water

• A good way to make sure you get enough water throughout the day is to drink at least one cup of water every hour or two.

• Also, it is important to drink at least one cup of water when you wake up because you are dehydrated from sleeping through the night.

Why Exercise

• Strong heart

• Lower blood pressure

• Raise high-density lipoprotein levels (HDL), which is the good cholesterol

• Lower low-density lipoprotein level (LDL), which is the bad cholesterol

• Build muscle mass

• Improve blood flow

• Reduce the aging process (health and medical experts say that exercise is “the closest thing for anti-aging process”)

• Weight loss

How much exercise

• According to fitness and health experts, you should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily.

Type of exercise: Endurance

• Involve using the majority of muscles in your body.

• Some example of endurance exercises are long distance running or jogging, taking long hikes or very long walks lasting for many hours.

Type of exercise: Strengthening

• Also called resistance training or Anaerobic Training

• Use of External Weights or Bodyweight.

• The stronger your muscles are, the higher your metabolic rate to help you burn fat quicker

Type of exercise: Stretching and Bending

• Increases Flexibility

Type of exercise: Balancing

• Will increase Co-ordinated Function of Groups of Muscles

Recovery of your muscles

• Do not train the same muscles two days in a row because your muscles need time to recover after a workout.

• For example, if you work on your upper body on Monday, work on your Lower body on Tuesday to give your upper body muscles a chance to recover.

Benefits of sleeping

• Eliminate toxins: Sleeping for the recommended amount of time will help your internal organs to recover and recharge, and to clear out toxins such as alcohol and drugs, and undigested waste from the cells and bloodstream.

• Break down nutrients: Sleeping is when the digestion process breaks down nutrients and absorbs them into your blood stream

• Improve immune system: Sleep will help to build your immune system and keep it strong to fight off stress and sicknesses, such as colds, flu, and other infections and diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and dementia. And that is why when you are sick, you are supposed to get a lot of rest and sleep.

• Decrease physical pain: Two common physical pains associated with lack of sleep are back and joint pain. Whenever you decide to take a pain medication for any of these reasons, ask yourself whether you get enough sleep for not. There are also many other pains that developed from lack of sleep.

How many hours a day should you sleep.

• Infants = 16 hours

• 1-5 =10 to 14 hours

• As children get older, their hours of sleep will decrease one to two hours.

• Teenagers = 8-9 hours

• Adults = 7-8 hours

Sleep Helper

• Unwind the Stresses of the Day

• Do anything you like to take your Mind away from tensions and worries into something you enjoy.

Health Checks - Resting Heart Beat

• Take your resting heart rate once a week.

• Use your index and middle fingers

• Do not use your thumb because it has a different pulse • Find the pulse on your neck or arm wrist

• Time your pulse for 10 seconds

• Multiple it by 6 to get your total heart rate

Workout heart rate

• Take your resting heart rate after your workout.

• Wait for about three minutes after exercising and then take your heart rate.

• If your heart rate is getting closer to your resting heart rate, then your health is improving.

• If your heart rate is taking too long to come back to your resting heart rate, it is a sign that your body is not coping well with stress, and your health is not improving.

Weight and Blood Pressure

• Keep a notebook containing your weekly record of Trends in Weight and Blood Pressure.

• Make sure you get your Blood Sugar and Blood Cholesterol tested once every Six Months.

• Do a Full Body Check up once a Year.

Play a Sport – Body and Mind Conditioner

• Performance

• Fitness

• Wellness

• Lifestyle

About Muscles

Can Muscles mass increase or Decrease

• Atrophy – muscles can decrease in size as a result of injury, illness or lack of exercise.

• Hypertrophy – muscles can increase in size with an increase in physical activity. Increase in muscle size by addition of myofilaments (actin and myosin).

There are two different types of muscle fibres:

• Slow Twitch Muscle Fibres• Contract slowly but can contract repeatedly for prolonged periods of time.

Therefore endurance fibres.

• Fast Twitch Muscle Fibres• Contract rapidly but easily exhausted Suited for speed and strength

What does the amount of ST and FT Fibres in your Body Depend on:

• Your genetic inheritance of fibres determines your speed or endurance potential. Training will increase the efficiency of what you predominantly have – not increase the amounts of certain fibre type.

What are Muscles made of

• Muscles are composed of bundles of fibres •

• Each fibre is composed of a covering or membrane called sarcolemma and a gelatin-like substance called sarcoplasm

• Sarcoplasm contains hundreds of contractile myofibrils, mitochondria and the sarcoplasmic reticulum

• Each myofibril contains many protein threads called myofilaments (thick and thin filaments)

What is the effect of Exercise on the Brain

Effect on Brain: Neuroplasticity

• Refers to the ability of the brain to shape itself according to experience

• Refers to physical change on a neuronal level

What physical changes occur when we learn?

• Neurons connect with other neurons

• A Synapse or a Synaptic Junction is what connects neurons and contains neurotransmiters

• Synapses strength changes with learning

• More synapses form between neurons

What happens when we exercise

• Heart rate increases

• Hormones respond

• •Pituitary gland releases human growth hormone to increase production of bone, muscle, or connective tissue cells.

What is the Pituitary Gland

• Located in brain, limbic system

• Secretes Hormones

• Influences:• Thyroid: neck

• Adrenal: kidneys

What does the Thyroid Gland do when we Exercise

Releases hormones• Increase heart rate and blood pressure

• Regulate body temperature

• Elevate “alertness” in brain to increase concentration and reaction time

What do Adrenal glands release

• cortisol: causes blood pressure to rise, triggers increase in glucose, acts as anti-inflammatory agent (repairs tissues) Curbs non-critical functions (e.g., thirst, urine, hunger). Effects immune system.

• aldosterone: bodily response to anticipate dehydration through impact on kidney function.

• adrenaline (fight or flight) mechanism. A stimulant, increases strength and frequency of heart contractions. Speeds breakdown of stored carbs into glucose for muscle energy.

Physical effects of exercise

• Increased blood flow to the brain• Blood volume increases

• Blood flow is more “predictable”

• Small vessels grow – increase in number

• Brings O2, glucose, nutrients to brain cells, vital for cell health

• Cell growth: supports new connections, particularly in hippocampus- memory

• Blood washes away “metabolic wastes” such as “amyloid beta protein” (implicated in development of Alzheimers)

In short

• Exercise has short term effects of mood, concentration, memory and stress that last for several hours after exercise

• Moderate exercise for a six month time frame is beneficial to begin to see long term benefits

The Future of Health

• Implants to monitor real time Body and Mind Indicators.

• Critical and Precautionary Risk Thresholds for Indicators to trigger Real Time consultation and correction from a specialist