How to stay healthy while avoiding the dirtiest places at the gym – WLTX.com

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New Years resolutions typically attract more people into gyms. Many people want to start off January on the right foot. They set their alarm and drag themselves to the gym early and in the cold weather. This seems like a good idea and it is, however people are hitting the gym at the height of cold and flu season.

It also turns out the gym can be a dirty place.

Numerous studies have shown that gyms can be a breeding ground for those cold and flu viruses, as well as E. coli, MRSA and other bacteria and virus strains that can quickly make you sick and take you out of your day to day routine.

Where are the gym germs hiding?

The biggest thing about the gym is there are a lot of areas where germs, viruses and fungus can be year-round, explained Bryan Combs, CRNP, a nurse practitioner at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing.

He goes on to say, the worst places are the handle bars on elliptical machines, treadmills, bicycles, and weight machines. Even if the handlebars are cleaned regularly, handlebars are going to be covered in bacteria, Combs said.

On top of that, many people assume the machines have been cleaned after each use, but that is often not the case. It is best to clean the machines on your own before and after each use.

You need to use wipes or a disinfectant spray to wipe down the machines or weights before and after. Once you clean the equipment, hang your towel on an area that you know is clean. When you get done, clean it again for the next person.

The places we go to clean up could also be dirty, including the towels. Something that people may also assume are clean, are the towels that gym patrons grab when they walk into the facility.

While the towels have been washed, a lot of gyms use the same container to carry dirty towels to the washing area and then use the same one to bring clean towels back, so they can become contaminated again.

Combs recommends bringing your own clean towel to make sure you avoid contamination with the germs from dirty towels. In addition, he explains how it is also important to always wash your towel after each workout, too.

Locker rooms and showers are other unsanitary places at the gym. Combs stresses how important protecting your feet by wearing shoes in all areas of the gym, but especially in bathrooms. If you sit down, make sure a clean towel is placed on top of the bench or seat.

Walking barefoot in locker rooms or showers is an easy way to contract MRSA or pick up a fungal infection like athletes foot. By wearing clean shoes, you can prevent catching something that is spread by skin contact.

Staying hydrated is key when participating in physical activities. While using reusable water bottles is recommended and good for the environment, it is important to always wash them after every use.

Some people use the same water bottle each time they go to the gym. If you dont take it home and wash it, and you go to the gym a few or several days a week, the water bottle could be covered in bacteria.

Combs says soap and hot water are the best ways to wash the bottles after each visit to the gym.

If you are tempted to keep your sweaty clothes on, experts say you may want to reconsider.

As soon as you leave the gym, you should change clothes as soon as possible. A lot of people continue to wear their sweaty clothes for an hour or hour and a half. Its important to take those off and shower as soon as you can after a workout.

Last, gym bags are often the most overlooked germ carriers.

Think about it, they tote around dirty shoes, clothes and water bottles, but are rarely cleaned. To prevent the spread of germs, it is important to always spray the bags with a disinfectant spray to kill the bacteria. This is recommended after each use if possible, but at least a few times a week for frequent gym-goers.

While most people know that door handles, bathroom knobs and faucets are contaminated, it is important to use paper towels to turn off faucets and open the door after washing your hands.

Combs says by following the above tips, along with an overall healthy lifestyle, you can help ensure that you are boosting your immune system and stay in optimal condition all year long.

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Healthy Lifestyle Consultant Course at Jiva Ayurveda – Views of Ingrida a Jiva Student.mp4 – Video

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Be Healthy!Eat Well,Live Well By Acidophilus Probiotic and FOS For Healthy Lifestyle Tips!! – Video

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Healthy Lifestyle Starts from the Kitchen with Ms Jean Yeap – Video

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Healthy Treasures Online – Learn how to have a healthy lifestyle and living life to the fullest! – Video

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Taking a bath isn’t just relaxing. It could also be good for your heart, study says – CNN

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It could also lower your risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study finds.

They discovered this after tracking the bathing habits and cardiovascular disease risk of more than 61,000 Japanese adults for 20 years.

Bathing linked to heart health

Participants ages 40 to 59 with no history of heart disease were followed from 1990 to 2009. At the start of the study, they were separated into groups by how often they took a bath in a tub on average: less than once a week, one to two times per week, almost daily or every day.

The researchers also gathered information on potentially influential factors, such as the participants' weight, smoking status, how often they exercised, alcohol intake, job status, education, how long they slept, perceived mental stress and life enjoyment.

By the end of the follow-up period in 2009, out of more than 30,000 final participants, the researchers documented 2,097 cases of cardiovascular disease, including 275 heart attacks, 53 sudden cardiac deaths and 1,769 strokes. They found that the more the participants bathed, the lower their risk was for cardiovascular disease.

The temperature of the water, based on participants' descriptions, also mattered. There was a 26% lower risk for heart disease with warm water, and a 35% lower risk of cardiovascular disease for hot water.

Why bathing could help the heart

Tub bathing is considered to have a preventative effect against heart disease by improving what's called "hemodynamic function," the report said. This describes the way that blood is able to be pumped efficiently through the body, said Dr. Eric Brandt, a cardiologist and lipidologist at the Yale School of Medicine's Yale New Haven Hospital, who wasn't involved in the study.

Good hemodynamic function would mean that the heart is able to efficiently pump blood without having to fight against conditions such as high blood pressure.

"Good hemodynamic function translates to a low blood pressure or normal blood pressure states, where the heart is able to pump efficiently and get blood to all the organs," Brandt said. "Bad hemodynamics are either extreme high or low blood pressure states where the heart has to work harder, essentially.

"It seems like tub bathing is similar to exercise in that it increases the heart's work, [but] it does so by relaxing the blood vessels and getting blood pumping to other parts of the body. So it creates this extra temporary work for the heart, but not one that's a negative consequence."

Sudden death associated with hot baths is common in Japan, where the study was conducted, but frequency of bathing wasn't associated with a higher risk of sudden death in this study.

Other factors for consideration

While the study suggests that daily baths could help lower your risk for heart disease, that isn't the only factor to consider.

Brandt isn't convinced that bathing alone is the main reason for the study's findings of lower heart disease risk; it's more likely, he said, that regularly taking a warm or hot bath "can have a temporary physiological change that's similar to exercise," and that other healthy lifestyle factors came into play.

"Our population is so different than the Japanese, and lifestyle especially," Brandt said. "The risk might be different for Americans compared to Japanese in the context where we carry a heavier burden of chronic lifestyle-related illnesses. I would say that among patients where this could apply is that among people up to their 70s, with tub bathing at least there wasn't a signal in the study of cardiovascular harm."

While there's only a link between bathing and a lower risk of heart disease, bathing likely doesn't lead to any kind of cardiovascular harm if done safely, Brandt said.

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Mentoring a healthy lifestyle

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In this day and age, we parents need to be positive mentors to our children to promote a healthy lifestyle.

What does being a mentor mean? It means someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with the less experienced. Who better to mentor children than their parents? After all, we are the ones who would lay down our lives for them at a moment's notice.

We will do almost anything to ensure their safety and comfort in life. We spend a large share of our lives grooming them to be responsible adults. We live by sound moral ethics and promote healthy living so that they will do the same when they are adults. We encourage giving back to the community and helping our fellow neighbors whenever possible.

In my childhood, parental mentoring had its challenges. There were seven children in my family, four boys and three girls. My twin sister and I were the youngest. My dad left my mom and our family when my sister and I were 11 months old. He took the keys to the car, and I've never seen him to this day. My brother, Todd, was two days less than a year older than us, so Mom had three babies in diapers, no job, and no support system. Those were rough times for us, but Mom kept us all together. I never remember Mom sitting down when we were little. She mentored a very strong work ethic!

I did not have my birth dad as a mentor, but I had many other positive role models during those formative years. One was Mrs. Hupp. She was an older woman who had lost her husband and visited the coast to stay at her cabin in the summer months. I would spend weeks with her during the summer. Her cabin had no running water, and we baked many pies on her wood-fueled oven. I remember the deer in the backyard and the raccoons we fed and watched with a spotlight that shone brightly over the tree trunk that we placed the scraps on. Those were some wonderful times! I still miss Mrs. Hupp and how she mentored me to appreciate the simple things in life.

Then when I was in high school, my counselor, Steve Jurist, helped me find a way to realize my dream of going to college. I was the first to get a college degree in my family, and was able to change my life and lift myself from the poverty that my biological father had left us in so many years before.

Never miss an opportunity to help and mentor others. Show your children that you care by spending time with them. Whether you teach them to knit, bake a pie, or ride a horse, you will impact their lives. You may not realize it today, but the result will be the same. Their lives will be improved because you took the time to share a little of yourself with them while mentoring a healthy lifestyle.

I love to see mother and daughters in our store learning to knit together. It is fun to see them mentoring patience, perseverance and just sharing stories about life, while they craft a hand-knit item together.

At Alpaca Direct, we are proud to be a part of the mentoring process when it comes to learning the fiber arts of knitting, crochet and hand-spinning yarn. We carry a full line of fiber art accessories, including hundreds of needles and thousands of yarns. Our unique selection of products also includes Peruvian hand-loomed lace scarves, warm alpaca socks and cuddly alpaca teddy bears.

Our building is handicap accessible, with ample parking and is easy to find. We are located on Hayden Avenue, just two blocks west of Highway 95 in Hayden.

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Mentoring a healthy lifestyle