Geeko friendly's List: Health

• some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but are actually bad for you.
• some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them.
• stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg’s muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.
• The right warm-up should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you’re at rest, there’s less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. “You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise
• A well-designed warm-up starts by increasing body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles and dilated blood vessels pull oxygen from the bloodstream more efficiently and use stored muscle fuel more effectively. They also withstand loads better.
• To raise the body’s temperature, a warm-up must begin with aerobic activity, usually light jogging.
• The aerobic warm-up should take only 5 to 10 minutes, with a 5-minute recovery.
• While static stretching is still almost universally practiced among amateur athletes — watch your child’s soccer team next weekend — it doesn’t improve the muscles’ ability to perform with more power
• Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion.

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• The modern toilet has only been around for about 150 years — the “porcelain throne” was created to “give dignity” to the water closet, rather than considering human physiology.

• There are three fundamental problems with the Western toilet:

   
   
  1. It’s designed to be used in the sitting position, and this is an ineffectual position for evacuating the bowels
   
  2. The use of toilet paper is an ineffectual way to clean one’s posterior
   
  3. Defecating in fresh water, and flushing the feces away for treatment doesn’t make sense
• squatting prevents “fecal stagnation” which is a prime factor in colon cancer, appendicitis and inflammatory bowel disease
• “constipation has become a contentment in Western countries”
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• Squat toilets are also easier to clean, because they are simpler and there’s not as many surfaces to clean.
• The use of toilet paper also requires enormous resources. We use 36.5 billions rolls of toilet paper in the U.S. each year, this represents at least 15 million trees pulped. This also involves 473,587,500,000 gallons of water to produce the paper and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching purposes. The manufacturing process requires about 17.3 terawatts of electricity annually. Also, there is the energy and materials involved in packaging and transporting the toilet paper to households across the country.
• In Japan, high-tech bidets called Washlets are now the most popular electronic equipment being sold–60% of households have them installed. In Venezuela they are found in approximately 90% of households.
• it pollutes fresh water, and it requires municipalities to maintain extremely costly sewage treatment infrastructures.
• saying colon cancer is caused by toilets (and not diet and lack of exercise) to scare people into buying your product is…insanity.

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• Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious.

   

  He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.^[1]

• "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway", he said. In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat heavy breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a heavy breakfast.

   

  Bernays also drew upon his uncle Sigmund's psychoanalytic ideas for the benefit of commerce in order to promote, by indirection, commodities as diverse as cigarettes, soap and books.
• "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway", he said. In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat heavy breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a heavy breakfast.

• As is evident from the description of his campaign to publicize the Dodge cars, Bernays had a particular gift for the marketing strategy called the "tie-up" or "tie-in" -- in which one venue or opportunity or occasion for promoting a consumer product, for example, radio advertising, is linked to another, say, newspaper advertising, and even, at times, to a third, say a department store exhibition salesroom featuring the item, and possibly even a fourth, such as an important holiday, for example Thrift Week.

   

  In addition to famous corporate clients, such as Procter & Gamble, the American Tobacco Company, Cartier Inc., Best Foods, CBS, the United Fruit Company, General Electric, Dodge Motors, the fluoridationists of the Public Health Service, Knox-Gelatin, and innumerable other big names, Bernays also worked on behalf of many non-profit institutions and organizations.
• In the 1920s, working for the American Tobacco Company, he sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of women's rights marchers would light "Torches of Freedom". On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of 'Freedom'". This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public.
• Bernays used his uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.
• Bernays helped the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and other special interest groups to convince the American public that water fluoridation was safe and beneficial to human health. This was achieved by using the American Dental Association in a highly successful media campaign.
• In the 1930s, his Dixie Cup campaign was designed to convince consumers that only disposable cups were sanitary.
• Beyond his contributions to these famous and powerful clients, Bernays revolutionized public relations by combining traditional press agentry with the techniques of psychology and sociology to create what one writer has called "the science of ballyhoo.
• Bernay's most extreme political propaganda activities were said to be conducted on behalf of the multinational corporation United Fruit Company (today's Chiquita Brands International) and the U.S. government to facilitate the successful overthrow (see Operation PBSUCCESS) of the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.

• Bernays defined the profession of "counsel on public relations" as a "practicing social scientist" whose "competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields." To assist clients, PR counselors used "understanding of the behavioral sciences and applying them—sociology, social psychology, anthropology, history, etc." In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays argued that the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society.

   

  Bernays' celebration of propaganda helped define public relations, but it did not win the industry many friends. In a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described Bernays and Ivy Lee as "professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism and self-interest." And history showed the flaw in Bernays' identification of the "manipulation of the masses" as a natural and necessary feature of a democratic society. The fascist rise to power in Germany demonstrated that propaganda could be used to subvert democracy as easily as it could be used to "resolve conflict."

• In his 1965 autobiography, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where

   

   

  Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the best Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign.

   

   

  It is impossible to fundamentally grasp the social, political, economic and cultural developments of the past 100 years without some understanding of Bernays and his professional heirs in the public relations industry. As a result his legacy remains a highly contested one, as evidenced by the 2002 BBC documentary The Century of the Self, where he is described as "undemocratic". PR is a 20th-century phenomenon, and Bernays -- widely eulogized as the "father of public relations" at the time of his death in 1995 -- played a major role in defining the industry's philosophy and methods.

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• • Callous unconcern for the feelings of others and lack of the capacity for empathy.
   
  • Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.
   
  • Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them.
   
  • Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
   
  • Incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
   
  • Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.
   
  • Persistent irritability.

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  Sestavine:

  – 400 g špagetov
    – 300 g špinače
    – sol
    – sončnično olje  
    – 300 g skute
    – poper
     

  Priprava:

  V slani vodi skuhajte špagete in jih odcedite. Medtem operite špinačo in jo nekaj minut blanširajte v vreli vodi, odcedite in sesekljajte. V loncu segrejte olje in prepražite špinačo. Dodajte še skuto, sol in poper. Vse skupaj dobro premešajte in prelijte po kuhanih testeninah.
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• Before exercising in winter, drink a mug of hot water. It is useful from preventing a cold, and warming up your body from the inside.
• Before exercising in winter, drink a mug of hot water. It is useful from preventing a cold, and warming up your body from the inside.
• The most easy moment to catch a cold is when after exercising in winter. When exercising, your body releases energy, and energy is heat. After you stop exercising, your body begins to cool down, and the temperature is so cold, your body drops below normal temperature, thus easily catching a cold. How can we prevent this? Doesn’t mean we can’t exercise in winter. Here’s a few tips on how:
• Wear a hat, wind-glasses, or a scarf.
• Protection of forehead, ears, nose, and mouth are important
• Tuck in.

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• What happens when you drop a male rat into a cage with a receptive female rat? First, you see a frenzy of copulation. Then, progressively, the male tires of that particular female. Even if she wants more, he has had enough. However, replace the original female with a fresh one, and the male immediately revives and gallantly struggles to fertilize her.

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   You can repeat this process with fresh females until he nearly dies of exhaustion.
• This is called the Coolidge effect—the automatic response to novel mates. And it’s what started you down the road to getting hooked on Internet porn.
• For you, rats, and all mammals, the desire to have sex arises from a neurochemical called dopamine. Dopamine amps up the centerpiece of the primitive part of the brain—the reward circuitry. It’s where we experience pleasure, and where we get addicted.
• The evolutionary purpose of dopamine is to motivate you to do what your genes want you to.
• Sex and orgasm are the biggest natural blast of dopamine available to your reward circuitry. One of dopamine's nicknames is the "molecule of addiction."
• Dopamine surges for novelty. A new car, just-released movie, the latest gadget…we are all hooked on dopamine. As with everything new the thrill fades away as dopamine plummets.
• Here’s how the Coolidge effect works: The rat’s reward circuitry is squirting less and less dopamine with respect to the current female, but produces a big dopamine surge for a new female. Does that sound familiar?
• What’s a brain to do when it has unlimited access to a superstimulating reward it never evolved to handle? The brain eventually adapts, which can lead to addiction.
• These supernormal versions of natural rewards can override our brain’s satiation mechanisms—the “I’m done” feeling—because concentrated calories and fertilization opportunities are your genes’ top priorities.
• All addictions lead to the same major brain changes
• The addict then tends to neglect interests, stimuli, and behaviors that were once of high personal relevance
• Sensitization: The reward circuitry surges in response to cues related to the addiction, making the addiction far more compelling than other activities in the addict's life.
• Also, DeltaFosB, a protein that rises with sexual activity and helps preserve intense memories, accumulates in key brain regions.
• Hypofrontality: Frontal-lobe gray matter and functioning decrease, reducing both impulse control and the ability to foresee consequences.
• The master switch that triggers these addiction-related changes is DeltaFosB.
• It's important to know that drugs don't create any new brain mechanisms. They only magnify mechanisms already in place for natural rewards. The evolutionary purpose of DeltaFosB is to activate the binge mechanism (see below). It's a great mechanism...for another time and environment. These days it makes a porn addiction as easy as 1-2-3.
• Excess consumption (food or sex) is the signal to your primitive brain that you have hit the evolutionary jackpot. With sufficient stimulation dopamine levels and dopamine receptors begin to decline. This leaves you dissatisfied, craving more. This numbed pleasure response is your genes’ way to get you to gorge on food and mating opportunities.

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• The Kaiser Permanente Center For Health Research in Portland, Oregon conducted a phase I study into the effectiveness of shamanic healing as a treatment for chronic face and jaw pain. Twenty-three women who were diagnosed with Temporomandibular Joint Disorders (TMDs) participated in the study. At the end of treatment only four were clinically diagnosed with the TMDs present at the beginning of the study.

• To find your own point, take a quick deep breath and notice the point just inside the nose or on the upper lip where you have the most distinct sensation of passing air. Now exhale and notice the sensation at the same point.
• It is from this point that you will follow the whole passage of breath.
• Use this single point in order to keep your attention fixed. Without having selected such a point, you will find yourself moving in and out of the nose, going up and down the windpipe, eternally chasing after the breath which you can never catch because it keeps changing, moving and flowing.
• Distraction cannot be seen as distraction unless there is some central focus to be distracted from.

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• “In most societies, the three male imperatives are either dangerous or highly competitive. They place men at risk on the battlefield, on the hunt, or in confrontation with their fellows. Because of the universal urge to flee from danger, we may regard real manhood as an inducement for high performance in the social struggle for scarce resources, a code of conduct that advances collective interests by overcoming inner inhibitions. In fulfilling their obligations, men stand to lose — a hovering threat that separates them from women and boys. They stand to lose their reputations or their lives; yet their prescribed tasks must be done if the group is to survive and prosper. Because boys must steel themselves to enter into such struggles, they must be prepared by various sorts of tempering and toughening. To be men, most of all, they must accept the fact that they are expendable.”
• Have you ever wondered why – despite a slew of well-meaning PSAs – we culturally have a hard time shaking the idea that things like drinking hard liquor and smoking cigarettes is manly? It’s not just the marketing – it runs much deeper than the Marlboro Man. It’s the same reason we think motorcycle riding and car racing is manly. Such “vices” are bad for you, dangerous, and could potentially cut your life short.

• Thus when a modern man evinces a casual indifference to prolonging his life, we instinctually feel he’d be the kind of guy we’d want on our team when guarding the perimeter – the kind of man who’d run towards the danger instead of seeking out the safest place to hide.

   

  Likewise we’re instinctually wary of men who are super straight arrows – who abstain from any vices at all. Deep down we worry they hold to life too tightly – that their convictions might be a cover for cowardice.
• Girls who want to be tough and do guy stuff aren’t usually much criticized, and in fact may be encouraged and saluted.
• The reason for this difference in our reactions likely comes from the fact that in primitive times, pretty much all women were “tomboys.”
• “The harsher the environment and the scarcer the resources, the more manhood is stressed as inspiration and goal.”
• in cultures where resources aren’t scarce, where the livin’ is fairly easy, an emphasis on manhood would be weak or non-existent. And indeed, that is precisely what you do find.
• Throughout history, only a tiny number of human societies have chosen flight as their predominate response to threats. These extremely rare cultures did so largely because their resources were abundant, and they thus did not feel threatened by the incursion of rival gangs who were interested in grabbing a piece of what they had. In such cultures, a code of manhood is very weak, as men don’t need to toughen up in preparation to be critical hunters and fierce warriors. When food comes easily and life is peaceful, men don’t need to be men. As Gilmore puts it, “Perhaps without typical manhood ideology, men are permitted the luxury of remaining passive and dependent, rather like stone-age Peter Pans.”
• Adulthood requires mastering the art of delayed gratification and learning to embrace work – to do what needs to be done, rather than what we simply feel like doing.
• At times we all want to run from these demands and return to our magical childhoods where our every need was met and nothing was asked of us except to exist. Deep in the core of our identity, there is a part of us that wants to regress into “infantile narcissism” — to get back to the blissful, “primary, profound, primeval oneness with mother.”
• The object of shame is a man who “consumes more than he produces,”

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