Fighting Infections

Post by SpirFit.

People with Back Problems and Spinal Problems

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This post is for people dealing with back problems and for people dealing with people with back problems.  This post is inspired by Steve Nash, his back problems, and the criticism he has received because he’s still swinging a golf club.  I have to say something about this because it hits home for me (since I have pre-existing back problems too, although my back problems are now under control and I am now back pain free thanks to God and thanks to my SpirFit knowledge, including knowledge of appropriate exercises.)  It baffles me how some people think it’s okay to criticize or even make fun of you in your pain. 

If You Know Someone With Spinal or Back Problems

When it comes to spinal conditions, or back problems, different cases are individualistically different.  Some may have trouble swinging a golf club while others do not (but any one of them will probably still have a lot of pain if they have to play high level NBA basketball games.) 

Just like with any medical condition, different patients experience things differently.  It is unbelievable how people can criticize someone with medical problems, problems that they do not understand.  If you don’t understand, just shut up with it, because God may punish you for this and give you the same pain.  Trust me, pain from spinal problems is something you don’t want.  As a Chinese saying goes, “You understand a needle is painful, but you don’t really understand until the needle penetrates your own skin and bone.”

The criticisms and negative comments toward Steve Nash is literally “adding insult to injury” and it’s appalling.  You are doing the same if you ever criticize someone in their pain or medical problem that you don’t understand (even if you think you do).  Don’t do that.

If You Have Back Problems

Also, if you have back problems, generally you should continue to engage in any physical activity that does not aggravate the problem or does not exacerbate the pain.  Physical activity that does not aggravate the problem actually helps you heal.  Inactivity actually will make your back problems worse.  This is backed up by medical literature.  Any good orthopedic doctor or doctor of physical therapy can confirm this.  For Steve Nash, if swinging a golf club and hiking does not give him much pain, then engaging in such physical activities actual helps the condition.  If chasing opponents like Steph Curry up and down the basketball court in NBA games aggravates his spine, then he needs to take a break to recover (especially when he’s 40 or above) before attempting to play at that level again.  From someone who knows spinal problems firsthand (and knows some of the medical literature on this), it seems like Steve Nash is doing exactly the right thing

News Story About Criticism of Steve Nash at:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/11/lakers-steve-nash-facebook-letter-golf

More exercise and health information or lessons are available at - http://spirfit.org/Academy/#fitness

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Simple and Cheap Way of Eating Healthy and Getting Slim

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Disclaimer: Talk to your doctor or RD before taking advice from this website or blog.  In using information from this blog, you release the author and owner of this blog and website from any liability.

Why Eating Fruits Makes You Slimmer - http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2010/06/you-will-not-gain-bad-weight-from.html

Feel free to follow us on Facebook by liking our Facebook at - http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpirFit/141881909215772 

More nutrition and fitness information or lessons are available at -http://spirfit.org/Academy/#fitness

Working with Your Company

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To companies we have worked with and to companies we will work with, we want to thank you for hiring us to serve and educate your customers and the public. We also want to remind you of our standards in educating your customers.

Win-Win-Win Situation

When you hire us to educate your customers, we will review your company’s products and we will recommend only those products we honestly believe (according to our expert knowledge) to be beneficial to consumers.  So far, we’ve always been able to find products (from every company we’ve worked with) that we can recommend to the public.  (As for your products that we cannot recommend, we will simply not mention them.)

Recommending only the products we deem healthy based on science is a win-win-win situation benefiting your company, consumers, and us.  It is better for your company if your potential customers listen to us (in buying some of your products regularly) than if your customers don’t listen to us at all (because they see us as sales people or advertisers recommending all the products from your company).

If we don’t adhere to this standard, we will lose credibility with consumers and the public.  If that happens, we would become useless as health, fitness, and science educators and thereby useless to your company.  In that case, everybody loses. 

Educators in Health, Fitness, Science, Academics, and Other Areas

We focus on truly benefiting the public.  As a result of this focus, we are gradually reaching more and more people.  We have an average reach of 200 people per day mostly online and in-person through workshops.  Also, we have over 3000 followers on various social media platforms.  Our reach is gradually growing.

To re-emphasize, we are educators (in health, fitness, and other areas), but we are not sales people.  We at the SpirFit Academy need to keep our scientific integrity, in order to maintain imprimatur from science professors and academia.  No amount of money is worth jeopardizing this. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve and educate your prospective consumers and current customers.

Lowering LDL Cholesterol

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If you need to lower your LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) or lower your overall cholesterol, a lot of what you need to do overlaps with what you need to do in managing weight, staying healthy and fit, or managing diabetes. To lower LDL cholesterol, the following four points are the simplest and most important:

1. Eat at least two MORE servings of fruits and/or vegetables per day than you already do now.   (This is good for weight control anyway as I’ve written in http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2010/06/you-will-not-gain-bad-weight-from.html  )  Also, fruits and vegetables have good fiber content and plant stenols which lower your absorption of LDL cholesterol.  Personally, I prefer fruits because they are more convenient and quick to just wash and eat.  In addition, fruits keeps your craving for bad sweets under control in the long term.  However, some people find it convenient to do salad vegetables by just preparing a big tupperware bowl of salad and keeping it in the refrigerator.  That's fine too.  Do whatever it takes for you to increase your intake of fruits and/or vegetables by two more servings per day.  Also, to give you an idea of one serving, a medium size apple is a serving.  A banana is a serving.  The size of a small or medium sized fist is a serving.

2. Eat more fish and take a fish oil pill at the meals you are not having fish.

3. Drink a glass of water (hot or cold) at the beginning of every meal.

4. Exercise one more day per week than you already do right now.

Here are additional important information in keeping your LDL cholesterol low:

• Avoid bakery products like cakes, brownies, cookies, and muffins.  They usually have high saturated fat and sugar content.  [Personally, I eat such products once every four months or less.]

• Keep planning your meals with the same concept as people managing or preventing diabetes.  Info about this can be found at - http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2013/04/diabetes-and-pre-diabetes.html

• Eat more nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts, and almonds.  Snack on them throughout the day.  Mix them into your vegetables and salads.

• On food labels, the following are bad:  saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium

• Foods with food labels, the following (bad) ingredients should not be more than 5% DV:

                               Saturated Fat

                               Cholesterol

• There should be 0% Trans Fat (as most food companies eliminated trans fats from their ingredients already)

For additional information on LDL cholesterol, visit the following reliable websites:

• Cholesterol numbers to aim for:  LDL, HDL, and total

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000386.htm

• Estimating and planning your fat intake -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat-grams/HQ00671

• LDL cholesterol calculator at -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ldl-cholesterol/CL00034

• High blood cholesterol information from Medline, or NIH (National Institute of Health)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000403.htm

• Muscular and aerobic fitness helps protect against effects of LDL cholesterol
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761039

• What is LDL?

Disclaimer: Talk to your doctor or RD before taking advice from this website or blog.  In using information from this blog, you release the author and owner of this blog and website from any liability.

More health and fitness information and lessons are available at - http://spirfit.org/Academy/#fitness

Neti Pot for Colds and Seasonal Allergies

Before I offer you the objective information (links below) such as those from medical sources, I will tell you my personal experience with the effective use of the neti pot.  When I had a bacterial infection in my sinuses and head (a few years ago) causing heavy nasal congestion, sore throat, headache, and fever, I used the neti pot to clear my nasal passages (in addition to gargling with warm salt water to clear my throat.)  It made a huge difference in not only clearing my sinuses, but it relieved the headache, and that feeling of pressure in my head was also relieved.  (It works better if you use the neti pot in addition to the conventional remedies.)


Dr. James Li, M.D., Ph.D. (of the Mayo Clinic) explains how the Neti Pot is effective for colds and seasonal allergies at-
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/neti-pot/AN01755

Dr. James Li, M.D., Ph.D. (of the Mayo Clinic) explains how to prepare the solution for the Neti Pot at -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/neti-pot-solution/AN01879

Instructions on how to use the Neti Pot are located at -
http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2010/05/hay-fever-and-neti-pot.html



For more information on health and fitness, feel free to visit our website at:
spirfit.org/Academy/index.htm#fitness

Cardio Then Stretch (Workout A)

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Here is a simple two step workout for people "with no time" and for people who need to start somewhere.


Step 1:  Do your cardio such as on an elliptical trainer, for 30 minutes (or whatever amount of time you have).

Step 2:  Do the following 3 stretches for both sides (legs).

Do this quad stretch next to a wall in case you need to hold on:






Note:  For those of you who claim to not have time, you could even do this one in 15 minutes  (10 minutes cardio + 5 minutes stretch.)

Disclaimer:  Check with your doctor before doing any exercises.  The producer or owner of this blog is not liable for any potential problems.