HYPNOTISED

Biker couple HYPNOTISED to lose weight…and now their leathers don't fit!

A BIKER couple claim hypnosis helped them shed nine stone after their daughter had a heart attack.

By FELICITY THISTLETHWAITE

PUBLISHED: 12:10, Tue, Dec 15, 2015 | UPDATED: 12:30, Tue, Dec 15, 2015

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PA REAL LIFE
A biker couple have spoken out about their amazing weight loss

Gail Barrett, 46, and husband Steve, 54 – known as Big Steve - admit they were both "pretty chunky" when they met back in 2004.

In time, they fell into a cycle of unhealthy eating, with Steve admitting he often chomped through an entire loaf of bread a day. 

But when Gail's daughter Paige, 26, suffered a shocking heart attack, the couple were forced to examine their own health and realised it was time to act. 

But neither of them are the dieting type - so they decided to hypnotise themselves into losing nine stone. 

Speaking about her new diet, Gail said: "In March this year, I was at a spa day for my friend's birthday and one of the ladies there mentioned she'd dropped six dress sizes with this app.

PA REAL LIFE

The couple had a shock when Gail's daughter had a heart attack

"I was like, 'What? How the hell do you lose weight with a phone app?' It was bizarre, but it interested me."

She added: "Looking back, we were ballooning. My knees were starting to feel it and I became flat-footed with the weight," said Mrs Barrett.

"We loved a few drinks – we still do – but food was the big issue. We had platter-sized plates at home, and we'd pile them high. We served up massive helpings and actually stuffed ourselves until it hurt.

"You're talking pork pies, bacon, chocolate bars, crisps, bagels. When I went shopping, I'd fill the trolley up with snacks, there'd be no real food at all."

Eventually, the couple's wake-up call came in the form of a phone call telling Gail her daughter Paige had suffered a heart attack in Melbourne, Australia, where she and her boyfriend at the time, were on a gap year.

Her mother explained: "She was in an induced coma in hospital to minimise any damage to her brain, as it had been 18 minutes before they could restart her heart."

Paige, who now has a defibrillator fitted, made a complete recovery, but it was certainly a turning point in her mother's attitude to health and fitness. 

After hearing about EasyLoss, the £5 weight loss app which had helped her friend slim down, Gail downloaded it herself back in March of this year.

Unbeknownst to his wife, Big Steve had also begun worrying about his weight, so she suggested they try the app together.

It works by delivering daily 40 minute hypnosis sessions, eventually working up to a virtual gastric band operation – which is all about training yourself to eat less by visualising that your stomach is smaller. 

Now, the couple have lost nine stone between them in just eight months. Currently, Gail is down to 10 stone 6 and her husband is down to 16 stone.

In August, they realised just how far they'd come when the Isle of Man Classic TT - a biker festival - for their holidays.

She said: "We realised we needed new leathers – not because ours were too small, which used to be the problem, but because they were so big they were hanging off us."

Gail and Steve's Daily Diet

Before

Breakfast: (Steve) Four Weetabix, (Gail) Bagels or butter with toast

Lunch: Ham sandwiches, a packet of crisps, a chocolate bar

Dinner: Chinese/Indian takeaway or a full roast dinner with potatoes and veg

Now

Breakfast: (Steve) One Weetabix, (Gail) small bowl of muesli/granola, and natural yoghurt

Lunch: A bowl of chopped veg and small portion of tuna or mackerel

Dinner: Fish and vegetables, or chicken and veg – no potatoes unless it's sweet potato, or the odd jacket potato

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/626922/Weight-loss-hypnosis-couple

Lower Blood Pressure (Hypertension)

Daily beetroot juice lowers blood pressure, scientists find

Drinking a daily cup of beetroot juice has been shown to significantly lower blood pressure among patients with high blood pressure, according to scientists from Queen Mary University of London.

Monday 19 January 2015

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Patients with high blood pressure who drank a daily 250ml glass of beetroot juice experienced an average decrease in blood pressure of about 8/4 mmHg (which for many patients brought their blood pressure levels back into the ‘normal’ range). This is due to beetroot – and other leafy green vegetables such as lettuce and cabbage – containing high levels of the substance ‘inorganic nitrate’.

The potential importance of these findings is substantial as large-scale observational studies suggest that each 2mmHg increase in blood pressure increases the likelihood of death from heart disease by 7 per cent and stroke by 10 per cent.

This is the first evidence of a long-lasting blood pressure reduction with dietary nitrate supplementation in a relevant patient group. The average reduction in blood pressure through a single anti-hypertensive drug is 9/5 mmHg. Therefore, these findings suggest a role for dietary nitrate as an effective, easy and affordable treatment in managing blood pressure with similar results to drug treatment.

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, Lead Author, Queen Mary University of London, comments: “Diseases of the heart and blood vessels – which can cause heart attacks and strokes - remain the biggest cause of death worldwide. However, unlike some other serious illnesses, we are fortunate in that we can make certain lifestyle changes which dramatically improve our heart and blood vessel health. This research has proven that a daily inorganic nitrate dose can be as effective as medical intervention in reducing blood pressure and the best part is we can get it from beetroot and other leafy green vegetables.”

The double-blind Phase Two clinical trial, published in the journal Hypertension and funded by the British Heart Foundation, was carried out among 64 patients aged 18 – 85 years. Half of the patients were taking prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs but were failing to reach their target blood pressure, and the other half had been identified as having high blood pressure but not yet on medication.

Patients were randomly assigned a daily dietary supplementation for four weeks – half received the dietary nitrate (250ml beetroot juice) and the other half received a placebo (250ml nitrate-free beetroot juice). In addition, patients were monitored for two weeks both before and after the study, bringing the total study period to eight weeks.

During the study, patients in the intervention group also experienced an improvement of around 20 per cent in blood vessel dilation capacity and around a 10% reduction in arterial stiffness. These changes in blood vessel function have been shown, by other studies, to be associated with substantial reductions in heart disease. There were no adverse side effects from the daily dietary nitrate.

In the two weeks after the study period, the blood pressure readings among patients in the intervention group returned to their previous high levels.

There were no changes to blood pressure, blood vessel function or arterial stiffness among the placebo group during the study.

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia concludes: “These findings are exciting because we’ve now tested the effectiveness of dietary nitrate in reducing blood pressure in 64 patients, over a sustained period of time, and found it works. Plus it’s so easy for patients to work this into their daily lives and see a positive benefit. The next step will hopefully be to run a large-scale Phase Three clinical trial so we can determine whether the impact of dietary nitrate is sustained long-term, and whether this should be recommended in NHS guidelines.”

“It is hugely beneficial for people to be able to take steps in controlling their blood pressure through non-clinical means such as eating vegetables. We know many people don’t like taking drugs life-long when they feel ok, and because of this, medication compliance is a big issue.

“For those looking to work dietary nitrate into their daily diets, the trick is not to boil the vegetables – as dietary nitrate is water soluble – but steaming, roasting or drinking in a juice all has a positive effect.”

Dr Shannon Amoils, Senior Research Advisor at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said:

“This interesting study builds on previous research by this team and finds that a daily glass of beetroot juice can lower blood pressure in people with hypertension – even those whose high blood pressure was not controlled by drug treatment.

“The possibility of using a natural product, rather than another pill, to help lower blood pressure, is very appealing.  The trial is small however, and the next step will be to see if this result can be repeated in a much larger group of people with high blood pressure and over a longer period of time.”

Source: http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/smd/146262.html

Is your WiFi making you ill.?? Read More Below.

We need to talk about WiFi allergies

Studies show no proven link between WiFi signals and the disease, but the symptoms are real, says Madhumita Murgia

Science doesn't support a link between supposed WiFi allergies and WiFi. Photo: Jochen Tack / Alamy

By Madhumita Murgia

5:47PM GMT 01 Dec 2015

British teenager Jenny Fry was found to have committed suicide in a wooded area near her home in Chadlington this summer.

At the inquest, held today, witnesses said Jenny previously spoke of suicidal thoughts in November 2014 following the death of a close friend. But her mother, Debra, has claimed it was an allergy to WiFi that killed her daughter.

The symptoms are real, but they are likely not triggered by WiFi.

The condition Jenny is thought to have had is known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS) – an illness with a range of inexplicable physical symptoms – headaches, nausea, tiredness and bladder problems – without a known medical cause. People who experience it claim it is due to the electromagnetic fields that radiate from mobile phones, WiFi routers, and televisions.

Jenny wasn’t alone. Reports suggest some four per cent of Britons say they feel sick when they are exposed to electromagnetic waves. In the United States, an entire community called the “electrosensitives” share tips on how to cure themselves, and have clustered in a small town in West Virginia, where wireless internet is outlawed.

The inquest heard Jenny Fry had been suffering from the rare condition electro-hypersensitivity (EHS)  Photo: © Facebook/Newsteam

The phenomenon has caught pop culture’s imagination: the television show Better Call Saul, a spin-off of the hugely popular Breaking Bad, depicts one of its characters as a recluse with EHS, who wraps himself in a “space blanket” to ward off mobile phone signals.

The tinfoil hat trope – now a metaphor for conspiracy theorists in general – goes back much farther than that. The hero of a 1927 short science fiction story by Julian Huxley, brother of Aldous, claimed that “caps of metal foil” could block the effect of mind control.

Tinfoil hats are emblematic of conspiracy theorists  Photo: Facebook

French courts have set a precedent by recognising EHS as legitimate. In August, a judge in Toulouse ordered that a 39-year-old woman receive £500 in disability benefits because WiFi had caused her to retreat from society and live in a barn.

Scientists, on the other hand, remain unconvinced. Several “double-blind” studies – where neither experimenter not subject knows if there is WiFi in the room – have been conducted. According to the World Health Organisation, most of them conclude that those with EHS individuals cannot detect WiFi exposure any more accurately than healthy people can. In other words, the symptoms are real, but they are not triggered by WiFi.

But the fact remains – the symptoms really do exist. While scientists and doctors don’t know what causes EHS, they can’t debate the fact that some people do display a host of “non-specific” symptoms, which present a disabling problem for those affected, leading to the loss of jobs, homes and perhaps lives.

The real debate today is not whether EHS has anything at all to do with WiFi. It probably doesn’t. The question is how can we help?

The leading explanation for this syndrome is that it could be caused by a reverse-placebo effect, known to psychologists as the “nocebo effect.” Believing WiFi is harmful may actually be causing people to become ill from it. In one study, just watching a documentary about EHS led people to feel physically unwell.

Sadly for sufferers, electromagnetic waves are going to become ever-more inescapable; seeping from our homes and workplaces to restaurants, public transport and even the city streets. If this is a psychological illness, there’s only going to be more of it.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/12027618/We-need-to-talk-about-WiFi-allergies.html

Worried about high cholesterol? It can cause heart attacks and even bring on a STROKE

WE'RE constantly bombarded with the news high cholesterol is bad for you - but what on earth is it in the first place?

By FELICITY THISTLETHWAITE

PUBLISHED: 07:11, Sat, Nov 7, 2015 | UPDATED: 21:14, Tue, Nov 10, 2015

GETTY
Food with plenty of saturated fats in will cause a high cholesterol

If you listen to your mum/wife/the news you'll know a high cholesterol is bad for you - but what is it and how do you lower it? 

Full English breakfasts, burgers, takeaways: they all contain fatty substances known to raise your cholesterol. 

Express.co.uk spoke to Linda Main, Dietetic Adviser for Heart UK, about high cholesterol and what we can do to make sure, as a nation, we're more healthy and happy. 

What is cholesterol - and is it bad if it's high? 

Cholesterol is essential and our bodies need healthy levels of it to function properly.  It is needed to build the outer wall of our cells (the body’s building blocks), to make vitamin D and some hormones.  Our liver makes most of our cholesterol, but we do get some from food too.  

Only animal foods supply cholesterol, there is no cholesterol in fruits, vegetables or cereal foods.  Less than 25% of our body’s cholesterol comes from food.

High cholesterol can affect anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity, weight, or age, because family history is a big factor. 

Most people who have high-cholesterol do not show any obvious symptoms. The only way to tell if you have high cholesterol is to have a simple blood test.  If you are aged between 40 and 74 your doctor can arrange this as part of a simple NHS Health Check.

How does having high cholesterol affect your body? 

The heart, blood vessels and blood make up our circulatory system.  The heart is a muscle which never stops beating, it acts as a mechanical pump.  

The heart has its own blood supply which comes from 3 small coronary arteries.  These divide many times to provide oxygen and nutrients to every part of the heart muscle to help keep it healthy and pumping normally.

Problems occur when any one of these arteries becomes narrowed due to the gradual build-up of fatty material (called plaque or atheroma).  This process is called atherosclerosis, it happens over many years and causes coronary heart disease.  

Sometimes an artery can become so narrow it cannot deliver enough blood.  This results in warning symptoms such as chest pain – this is called stable angina. 

When these fatty deposits become very large or extended they may burst.  Just like when you graze your knee, a blood clot and then scarring forms over the damaged area.  Over time this damage may partly or completely block the artery.  When this happens it is called acute coronary syndrome (ACS), unstable angina or heart attack. 

A heart attack does not happen overnight it can take 30-40 years, but the process is speeded up by having unhealthy levels of cholesterol.  And it can happen even faster if you have other risk factors too such as high blood pressure, diabetes or if you are a smoker.

How do you lower cholesterol? 

• Adopting a healthier lifestyle, such as eating a heart-healthy diet and being physicallyactive can help lower the levels of cholesterol in your blood.  And by encouraging other family members to do the same you are helping to protect them from future heart disease too. 
  
• Cutting down on saturated fats and eating more foods rich in unsaturated fats, eating more whole grains and fibre rich foods, incorporating plenty of fruit and veg into your diet, could have a dramatic effect on your cholesterol levels.
  
• Foods that are high in saturated fat include meat pies, butter, cream, hard cheeses, cakes and biscuits, and products containing coconut or palm oil.  Try swapping for foods containing saturated fat for oily fish, nuts, seeds, avocadoes and vegetable oils and spreads.
  
• Your diet should include a mix of sources of fibre, such as wholemeal bread, wholegrain cereals, fruit and vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds. You should aim to eat at least five portions of different fruits and vegetables each day.

What does it affect? Are you more susceptible to other diseases - cancer, heart attacks, diabetes?

The furring up or narrowing of blood vessels can happen in any part of the body. If it causes a restriction in the blood flow this means too little oxygen and nutrients reach that part of the body that the artery serves.  

In the heart this can cause angina or a heart attack, in the brain it can lead to a mini stroke or stroke and in the arms and legs it can lead to pain and difficulty walking. It can also cause the failure of key organs such as the kidney.    

Surprisingly it’s not the amount of body fat that you carry that contributes to unhealthy cholesterol levels but where on the body you store this extra fat.  Storing fat around the waistline is particularly bad. 

Scientists often refer to people as being apple shaped or pear shaped.  Being apple shaped increases your risk of heart disease as well as other problems such as type 2 diabetes. 

So having a large waist circumference is a bigger indicator of heart health risk than what your bath room scales say.  Ideally men should have a waistline below 94 cm (37inches) and women below 80 cm (32 inches).  Having a waistline over 102 cm (40 inches) in a man and 88cm (35 inches) in a woman puts you at serious risk of heart disease.  You should measure your waist at its widest part – around where your tummy button is.

Even if you have a healthy diet, don’t smoke, don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure you can still have high cholesterol if you inherit that tendency from a parent.

What top tips can you give to keep your cholesterol low? 

By adopting a healthy balanced diet and being physically active you can make big strides in your journey to maintaining healthy cholesterol levels. 

• Ditching foods with high saturated fats

Swapping them in for foods with unsaturated fats that are rich in omega-3, along with fuelling your body with foods high in fibre, helps you take positive steps to lowering your cholesterol levels. There are lots of simple swaps you can make to your everyday pantry staples.

• Choose wholegrain

High fibre foods such as breads and cereal products as well as heart healthy spreads. Ideally we should all being a portion of oily fish per week too. 

It is important for your doctor to find out what is causing your high cholesterol

Is there a treatment for having high cholesterol? 

Talk to your doctor if you have been diagnosed with high cholesterol. It is important for your doctor to find out what is causing your high cholesterol. As part of an NHS health check they can also advise you of your risk of having a heart attack in the future.  

Your doctor will often encourage you to make some changes to your diet and lifestyle to see if you can make a difference to your cholesterol levels over a few months. If after this time your cholesterol levels have not dropped, you may be advised to take medication to lower this. 

There are several different types of cholesterol-lowering medicines that work in a number of different ways, your GP can advise you about the most suitable type of treatment for your needs, and may also prescribe medication to lower your high-blood pressure if this affects you.”

If you have high cholesterol is it for life? 

If you have high cholesterol and manage to lower it by adopting a healthier diet or by taking a medicine then well done. However if you stop taking the medicine or revert back to an unhealthy lifestyle your cholesterol will go back up to pre-treatment levels.  

So it is important to make long term healthy habits rather than rely on short terms fixes. 

If you are looking for specialist products that play a role in managing cholesterol levels there are plenty of them too.  Try Hovis “Good Inside”; a loaf that has added Omega-3, derived from seeds.  Just two slices provides nearly half (42%) of the beneficial 2g/d requirement of omega 3, as ruled by EFSA.

And special dairy products that are fortified with plant sterols and stanols such as Flora ProActiv & Benecol can actively lower cholesterol too.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/617513/high-cholesterol-heart-attack-stroke-treatment