Are E-Cigarettes Safe?
An “e-cigarette” is an “electronic cigarette” that looks like a real cigarette but produces no smoke. It has a glowing red tip, to simulate the look, but is really just a stainless-steel tube that delivers nicotine to your system. When you puff on the ecigarette, the system delivers a mist that contains some flavoring and nicotine to simulate the “smoke” of a real cigarette. Just as there are menthol cigarettes, there are various flavors for ecigarette “smoke” like various fruits or even the mint of menthol.
Why do people use them?
They’re marketed a lot in airplanes (we were pitched one while flying Aer Lingus) because they produce no smoke, so smokers can enjoy the rush of nicotine while traveling on a plane, where most are non-smoking. With so many places banning smoking, from bars to hotels to airports, e-cigarettes offer an alternative way to get your nicotine without the smoke. You’re allowed to smoke an ecigarette indoors because there’s no smoke.
Also, since it’s water vapor with nicotine, it has none of the harmful effects of smoking. There is no tar because there is no smoke. There is still the risk of nicotine addiction but none of the smoke related carcinogens. In that respect it’s better than a regular cigarette.
In this way, it’s really no different than other nicotine delivery mechanisms like gums and patches. However, claims that it can help you quit smoking haven’t been backed up with data. Just as you can abuse gums and patches, you can abuse ecigarettes. The FDA has yet to make a ruling on ecigarettes, which are classified as drugs because they are a drug delivery system. Very recently, a federal judge ordered the FDA to stop the blocking of ecigarettes from China because they should be a tobacco product and not a drug device.
Are E-Cigarettes Safe?
In this Marketplace Money report, they take a closer look at ecigarettes, which cost around $100 a piece, and confirmed that there really isn’t enough information yet to make a decision on its safety. What we need is the FDA to take a long look at them, at the data, and issue a ruling on them.
If you want to learn more about e-cigarettes, this ebook has some more information.
Why Going to the Gym Saves You Money
There are many quality of life reasons for going to the gym, or at least being active on a regular basis, but there are also some clearly financial ones as well. While none of these require you to go the gym, the fact of the matter is that going to the gym is the easiest and most obvious way for most of us to get a workout. You don’t have to pay a pricey membership, but they provide the tools and the resources to be as efficient as you can with your time (if you go!).
Health Insurance
If you get insurance through your company, this won’t affect you quite as much (especially if you work in a large company). If you buy it independently, your weight will impact how much you pay for insurance. The more you weigh, as calculated by BMI, the more you’ll pay because you’re a greater insurance risk. This makes sense right? The more weight your body carriers around, the more wear and tear on your joints, on your organs, and that increases the likelihood you’ll need insurance for something.
Life Insurance
If you’ve ever been quoted life insurance, you probably know that the price you pay, in part, depends on how healthy you are. The healthier your weight, the cheaper your insurance is and can mean a savings of hundreds of dollars a year. If you have life insurance already, you can’t get it adjusted for your weight but if you haven’t purchased it, or have the opportunity to review it, hitting the gym and making yourself more attractive to insurers is a good idea.
Routine Maintenance
Think about all the things you sit in, the clothes you wear, and the things you use. How many are affected by your body size? It seems somewhat trivial but the more you weigh, the shorter your item’s lifespan. Chairs wear down faster, your shoes break down, your body creates indentations in your mattress faster, your car seats get worn down quicker, and your clothes fall apart sooner. The less weight you carry, the less wear you put on both yourself and the things you use.
Your Job
This isn’t fair but it’s true – better looking people get paid more, 12% more to be exact. “The main reason for the apparent victory of the lookers is that they are seen as more helpful and co-operative.”
There are four reasons why you should hit the gym to help your wallet, but don’t pay a pricey membership that you won’t use. Be smart about it since you can always run outside for free!
Why is alcohol bad for you?
You’ve probably heard about how red wine is good for you but also about how drinking alcohol is bad for you, right? If you’re curious like me, then you’ve wondered how wine could be good for you when it contains alcohol, which is bad… very very confusing. Today, we’ll take a look at why alcohol is bad for you in the hopes that we can put this contradiction to rest.
When you drink alcohol, your body has to work fairly hard to break it down in your body. One of the products created is acetaldehyde (ethanol is oxidized by alcohol dehydrogenase into acetaldehyde, which is then oxidized into acetic acid). Acetaldehyde has the potential to bind to proteins and form adducts, which can lead to organ disease.
As for processing alcohol, if you drink a lot, you can develop cirrhosis of the liver as it works overtime to process the alcohol. In addition, alcohol contains calories and the additional caloric intake can increase your weight. Finally, there are the effects of alcohol on decision making, motor function, and other core body functions that can lead to disaster.
Alcohol in moderation is generally acceptable but binge drinking can have a very bad effect on your body.
Top 8 Food Allergies
The Food and Drug Administration requires food manufacturers to list common food allergens on food labels and that includes the top 8 food allergens: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc.), fish, shellfish (crab, lobster, shrimp, etc.), soy, and wheat.
If a product contains one of those products or is processed in a facility that also processes those products, it has to be clearly labeled on the product. I think that this type of requirement makes sense though it does get a little silly when you look at a package of peanuts and it says “This product may have been processed in a facility that processes peanuts.” (duh)
How to Quit Smoking
Everyone knows smoking is dangerous for you the same way that everyone knows that eating a McDonald’s every day is dangerous for you, yet people continue to do both. It’s not that people are dumb, it’s that smoking is very addicting because your body craves nicotine. Nicotine enters the body by hitching a ride with the tar in cigarette smoke and gets absorbed into the bloodstream in your lungs, leaving the tar behind. It takes about tne seconds to feel the effects of nicotine, another ten before it reaches the rest of your body.
Cold turkey, patches, sprays, gum, and all sorts of home remedies have been made to help people quit smoking but so many don’t work because they don’t focus on the reasons why we smoke, they only focus on our biological need for nicotine. While it’s important to focus on that, you didn’t start smoking because you craved nicotine, your body hadn’t learned that yet. You smoked because you thought it would make you look cool or you thought it would relieve your stress. You continued because you were worried that quitting would make you fat or you felt depressed without the social connections you made with other smokers.
That’s why this program on how to quit smoking is so powerful. In addition to tackling the biological aspects of smoking, the program offers information on how to overcome the other reasons we smoke like weight loss and stress reduction.
Take a look and let me know what you think!
Diagnosing and Dealing with Dry Eyes
Around this time last year, the vision in my right eye was starting to get a little blurry. I wouldn’t notice it at first and it wouldn’t happen every day, but occasionally I would wake up and my eyesight was just a bit off. It was almost undetectable and, the most vexing part, was that it wouldn’t happen every day. So I ignored it for about a month until I was absolutely certain my vision was suffering.
As a little background, I wear contacts, the disposable ones you wear during the day for an entire month, and I was 28 at the time. I, like everyone else, wearing them too long (15 hrs a day?) but I didn’t think wearing them for such an extended period of time was going to cause too much damage.
Fast forward to a month later – I went in to see an optometrist to see if this was an issue. He said my eyes looked OK so he referred me to an ophthalmologist, which is pretty much a hardcore eye surgeon. We ran a few tests and one of them was a dry eyes test.
They take small strips of paper, put them underneath your eyelids, and ask you to close your eyes. The paper soaks up your tears and measures how lubricated your eyes are. Mine, apparently, were very dry. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for dry eyes but there are plenty of things you can do. Here’s what we settled on:
- Installed plugs. The ophthalmologist installed tiny little plugs that blocked the lower tear ducts in my eyelids. This prevented my tears from draining and kept more of my tears on my eyes. At first it was a little uncomfortable, I’d feel a poking sensation if I looked very far to the right or left. Within a day or two, I couldn’t feel them anymore.
- Change contacts. I went to a 24-hour wear contact lens, a day & night variety, so that I had increased permeability. I still take them out at night, just out of habit, so I’m almost 100% safe here.
- Change contact lens solution. I went from an all in one solution, which cleans using enzymes and other chemicals, to one that uses hydrogen peroxide and a special case. Over the course of six hours, the case converts the hydrogen peroxide into saline and cleans the contacts in the process. No enzymes means my sensitive eyes won’t be bothered.
While it sucks that I have dry eyes, fortunately the steps we’ve taken to deal with it aren’t horrible. One downside is that this episode delayed my ability to get Lasik, as the doctor didn’t want to do it while my eyes were unstable. Maybe this year we can give it a shot!
Ed Hochuli’s Workout
Ed Hochili’s one of the most respected NFL referees in the game and one of the most recognizable, because he’s ripped. A lawyer by day, he’s officiated for over sixteen years and is a fit 215-lb. 6′ 1″ man who some players even say should be suiting up. Want to know his workout routine? SI found out.
Never Flagging [SI.com]
How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints
Reader’s Digest offered up twenty three ways you can go through the drive thru and still eat healthy. I don’t frequent fast food places very often, partially for health reasons but mostly because I find them boring, but sometimes you really have no choice. You get to the airport and the food court consists of McDonald’s, Panda Express, a Starbucks, and a few other locally owned versions of other fast food chains. Even in those cases, keeping these tips in mind are helpful.
Some of the tips are obvious ones – go for the salad minus fried toppings, skip the cheese (the cheese at McDonalds has 50 calories and 2 grams of sat. fat!), ask for extra veggies. Some others are not as obvious such as:
7. Use hot sauce, not ketchup, on your french fries. Hot sauce is low in calories, has a big, adventurous flavor, and contains nutrients that are particularly good for your body. Plus, it gets you drinking lots of water, which reduces your appetite.
While they don’t quantify the difference, as I suspect it’s not much, but the idea that it gets you to drink lots of water is a clever one.
14. Get skinless chicken. This is particularly important when you’re hitting KFC, home of the finger-lickin’ good fried chicken. Ditch the skin — and much of the batter — and you’ll save 240 calories and 16 grams of fat on a typical serving.
I guess skin isn’t in anymore. 
What are Probiotics?
No doubt you’ve heard of the latest health craze that’s been sweeping the food aisles of your grocery stores. There’s been a lot of talk about “probiotics” and how eating them can improve your digestive system and make you generally healthier. Like many of the other things you’ve read, you might be wondering if it’s true, bullshit, or something in between… right?
Well, probiotics are good. The FAO/WHO defines probiotics as: “Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.”
Practically, probiotics are foods or dietary supplement that contain “good” bacteria, which are normally found in your body. If you’re familiar with Dannon’s Activia yogurt, then you’re familiar with a probiotic food (ignoring the Dannon lawsuit settlement). Yogurt, fermented and unfermented milk, juices, and other products are probiotics.
There’s research that probiotic supplements and foods can help with digestive issues like diarrhea after antibiotics, irritable bowel syndrome, and other problems of the digestive tract.
Are they a cureall? No and the research is still preliminary so time will tell how helpful probiotics are.
(Photo: mjecker)
Execise Helps Prevent Illnesses
With the winter months coming up, we are all a little wary of catching a cold (especially H1N1, the dreaded SWING flu) because we’ll probably be spending more time indoors. A recent study by the American College of Sports Medicine states that 45 minutes of exercise at moderate intensity for most days of the week will lead to a 25-50% decrease in illness. It’s better than any drug or shot.
Exercise Prevents Colds [Outside]
