Sit Up Straight

We’re often told to sit up straight, type with our feet flat against the floor, and keep our shoulders relaxed. Thanks to the field of ergonomics, we now have these tips—and plenty of others—that help us to keep our bones and joints healthy while on the job.

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Smooth Running

Glucosamine sulphate occurs naturally in joint structures in the body and is an important compound in the manufacture of cartilage, which covers and protects the ends of bones. When cartilage degeneration leads to loss of mobility and accompanying pain, glucosamine sulphate supplements can help.

Cartilage degeneration is the main cause of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis. According to the Arthritis Society of Canada (arthritis.ca), it afflicts nearly one in 10 Canadians, making it one of the most prevalent diseases.

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Solutions to Male Depression

If you’re a man with symptoms of depression or chronic fatigue, and have been offered an antidepressant, you may want to consider checking your hormone levels first. Recent evidence shows symptoms of depression and fatigue in men may be linked to declining adrenal, thyroid, and sex hormones, namely testosterone.

After about the age of 40, men increasingly experience symptoms of fatigue and depression. Irritability, weight gain, loss of confidence, and social isolation often result in a diagnosis of depression. Severe fatigue is often attributed to burnout.

For many men, vacations, counselling, and medication fail to produce sustained improvement. They may find themselves on a raft of medications aimed at controlling their symptoms, rather than addressing the root cause of hormone decline. In addition, these same men may be diagnosed with hypertension, obesity, elevated cholesterol, heart disease, elevated blood sugar, or erectile dysfunction, all of which may be managed separately.

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The Truth About Sports-Enhancing Supplements

Here’s the lowdown on the most popular sports supplements.

Caffeine

Claim: improves athletic endurance

Research:

• enhances performance of trained athletes when low to moderate doses (3 to 6 mg/kg) are taken in supplement form
• enhances performance when taken 15 to 30 minutes before exercise
• Benefits high-intensity exercise such as soccer and rugby

Risks:

• can cause insomnia, nervousness, irritated stomach, nausea, vomitting, increased heart rate and respiration; large doses may cause irregular heartbeats and even death

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Stress-Busting Exercises - Stop, breathe, & stretch

Stress, for many people, is something to dread. For others, it is the means to their existence. While stress is a natural occurrence, and our response to it has helped us evolve and survive through the centuries, too much stress on a regular basis can be detrimental to our health.

Over 30,000 years ago the Cro-Magnon man needed his body’s response to stress to be swift, especially when hunting for, or being hunted by, large predators. Our Cro-Magnon guy needed this mechanism of his autonomic nervous system (what is termed the fight-or-flight response) to allow for important adjustments in the face of danger—in his case, to eat or to be eaten.

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