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weight loss supplements

health tips , Weight Loss
weight loss supplements


Weight loss supplements are products that claim to aid in weight loss by boosting metabolism, reducing appetite, or increasing fat burning. It is important to note that the effectiveness and safety of weight loss supplements can vary, and they should be used with caution and under the guidance of a healthcare professional[1].

Some popular weight loss supplements include:

  1. Ga

    rcinia Cambogia Extract: Derived from a small, green, pumpkin-shaped fruit, garcinia cambogia extract contains hydroxycitric acid, which is believed to help with weight loss[2].

  2. Raspberry Ketone: This supplement is often combined with other ingredients like caffeine, bitter orange, ginger, and garlic root extract. One study found that a supplement containing these ingredients led to weight loss in participants[2].

  3. Green Tea Extract: Green tea contains catechins, which are antioxidants that may promote fat burning and improve metabolism. However, the evidence for its effectiveness as a weight loss supplement is limited[1].

  4. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): CLA is a type of fatty acid found in meat and dairy products. Some studies suggest that CLA may help with weight loss, but the evidence is mixed and more research is needed[1].

It's important to understand that weight loss supplements should not be relied upon as the sole method for achieving weight loss. They should be used in combination with a balanced diet and regular exercise for optimal results. Additionally, it's always recommended to consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new supplement regimen[1].

Please note that the safety and effectiveness of weight loss supplements can vary, and it's important to do thorough research and consult with a healthcare professional before making any decisions. The sources used for this response are as follows:

Sources:

  1. Mayo Clinic - Dietary supplements for weight loss

  2. Healthline - Weight Loss Medications: A Dietitian's Review 2023

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Belly fat loss excercise

Fitness Tips , Weight Loss
Belly fat loss excercise
To lose belly fat, focus on a combination of cardio exercises like running, cycling, or swimming, and strength training exercises targeting your core and abdominal muscles. Consistency and a balanced diet are essential for effective results. Always consult a fitness professional before starting any new exercise routine.
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how to weight loss

health tips , Weight Loss
how to weight loss
To lose body weight, you can try incorporating these healthy habits into your lifestyle:

1. Balanced Diet: Focus on a diet that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Avoid excessive sugary or processed foods.

2. Portion Control: Watch your portion sizes to avoid overeating, even with healthy foods.

3. Regular Exercise: Engage in regular physical activity such as cardio exercises, strength training, or any form of exercise that you enjoy.

4. Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water throughout the day to help control appetite and boost metabolism.

5. Sleep Well: Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night, as lack of sleep can interfere with weight loss efforts.

6. Limit Sugary Beverages: Cut back on sugary drinks like soda and juice, as they can add extra calories without providing significant nutrients.

7. Monitor Progress: Keep track of your weight loss progress and celebrate small achievements along the way.

Remember, it's essential to approach weight loss with patience and consistency. Consult with a healthcare professional or a registered dietitian if you need personalized guidance and support.
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How to Gain Weight Fast and Safely

WEIGHT GAIN ,
How to Gain Weight Fast and Safely
This is a concern, as being underweight can be just as bad for your health as being obese.
Additionally, many people who are not clinically underweight still want to gain some muscle.
Whether you’re clinically underweight or simply struggling to gain muscle weight, the main principles are the same.
This article outlines a simple strategy to quickly gain weight — the healthy way.
What Does Underweight Really Mean?

Being underweight is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5. This is estimated to be less than the body mass needed to sustain optimal health.
Conversely, over 25 is considered overweight and over 30 is considered obese.
Use this calculator Trusted Source to see where you fit on the BMI scale (opens in a new tab).
However, keep in mind that there are many problems with the BMI scale, which only looks at weight and height. It does not take muscle mass into account.
Some people are naturally very skinny but still healthy. Being underweight according to this scale does not necessarily mean that you have a health problem.
Being underweight is about 2–3 times more common among girls and women, compared to men. In the US, 1% of men and 2.4% of women 20 years and older are underweight (2 Trusted Source).
What Are the Health Consequences of Being Underweight?
Obesity is currently one of the world's biggest health problems.
However, being underweight may be just as bad for your health. According to one study, being underweight was associated with a 140% greater risk of early death in men, and 100% in women (3 Trusted Source).
In comparison, obesity was associated with a 50% greater risk of early death, indicating that being underweight may be even worse for your health (3 Trusted Source).
Another study found an increased risk of early death in underweight men, but not women, suggesting that being underweight may be worse for men (4 Trusted Source).
Being underweight can also impair your immune function, raise your risk of infections, lead to osteoporosis and fractures and cause fertility problems (5 Trusted Source, 6 Trusted Source, 7 Trusted Source).
What’s more, people who are underweight are much more likely to get sarcopenia (age-related muscle wasting) and may be at greater risk of dementia (8 Trusted Source, 9 Trusted Source).
Several Things Can Cause Someone to Become Underweight
There are several medical conditions that can cause unhealthy weight loss, including:
  • Eating disorders: This includes anorexia nervosa, a serious mental disorder.
  • Thyroid problems: Having an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) can boost metabolism and cause unhealthy weight loss.
  • Celiac disease: The most severe form of gluten intolerance. Most people with celiac disease don't know that they have it (10 Trusted Source).
  • Diabetes: Having uncontrolled diabetes (mainly type 1) can lead to severe weight loss.
  • Cancer: Cancerous tumors often burn large amounts of calories and can cause someone to lose a lot of weight.
  • Infections: Certain infections can cause someone to become severely underweight. This includes parasites, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
If you’re underweight, you may want to see a doctor to rule out any serious medical conditions.
This is particularly important if you have recently started losing large amounts of weight without even trying.

How to Gain Weight the Healthy Way
f you want to gain weight, it’s very important to do it right.
Binging on soda and donuts may help you gain weight, but it can destroy your health at the same time.
If you’re underweight, you want to gain a balanced amount of muscle mass and subcutaneous fat rather than a lot of unhealthy belly fat.
There are plenty of normal-weight people who get type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other health problems often associated with obesity (11 Trusted Source).
Therefore, it’s absolutely essential to eat healthy foods and live an overall healthy lifestyle.
The next chapter looks at several effective ways to gain weight fast, without ruining your health at the same time.

Eat More Calories Than Your Body Burns
The most important thing you can do to gain weight is to create a calorie surplus, meaning you eat more calories than your body needs.
You can determine your calorie needs using this calorie calculator.
If you want to gain weight slowly and steadily, aim for 300–500 calories more than you burn each day according to the calculator.
If you want to gain weight fast, aim for around 700–1,000 calories above your maintenance level.
Keep in mind that calorie calculators only provide estimates. Your needs may vary by several hundred calories per day, give or take.
You don't need to count calories for the rest of your life, but it helps to do it for the first few days or weeks to get a feel for how many calories you’re eating. There are many great tools out there to help you.

Eat Plenty of Protein
The single most important nutrient for gaining healthy weight is protein.
Muscle is made of protein and without it most of those extra calories may end up as body fat.
Studies show that during periods of overfeeding, a high-protein diet causes many of the extra calories to be turned into muscle (12 Trusted Source).
However, keep in mind that protein is a double-edged sword. It’s also highly filling, which may reduce your hunger and appetite significantly, making it harder to get in enough calories (13 Trusted Source, 14 Trusted Source).
If you're trying to gain weight, aim for 0.7–1 grams of protein per pound of body weight (1.5–2.2 grams of protein per kilogram). You can even go above that if your calorie intake is very high.
High-protein foods include meats, fish, eggs, many dairy products, legumes, nuts and others. Protein supplements like whey protein can also be useful if you struggle to get enough protein in your diet.
Fill up on Plenty of Carbs and Fat and Eat at Least 3 Times per Day
Many people try restricting either carbs or fat when trying to lose weight.
This is a bad idea if your goal is to gain weight, as it will make it harder to get in enough calories.
Eat plenty of high-carb and high-fat foods if weight gain is a priority for you. It is best to eat plenty of protein, fat and carbs at each meal.
It is also a bad idea to do intermittent fasting. This is useful for weight loss and health improvement but can make it much harder to eat enough calories to gain weight.
Make sure to eat at least three meals per day and try to add in energy-dense snacks whenever possible.



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Heart Attacks in AM, Fever in PM: How Your Body Clock Works

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Heart Attacks in AM, Fever in PM: How Your Body Clock Works
Like others in the modern world, you probably spend a lot of your day living by the clock.
Your body does the same thing with many of its internal functions, except that the clock it uses isn’t on a smartphone.
The body actually has many biological “clocks” that create the body’s circadian rhythms — the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a daily cycle. And now researchers are uncovering how treatment for conditions can be improved with by working with these “clocks.”
There’s a master clock in the hypothalamus in the brain. This is set by the light and dark cycle in your environment. There are also many peripheral clocks composed of molecules in cells throughout the body.
Scientists think that, in general, the circadian system optimizes the functioning of the body. But for people with certain diseases, the circadian system can make symptoms worse at specific times of the day.

Daily patterns in diseases

Several diseases show regular daily variations in their risk or severity of symptoms.
Cardiovascular disease. The risk of having a heart attack or stroke is highest in the morning. There’s also a second, but lower, peak in the evening for stroke.
These patterns coincide with changes in factors that can affect cardiovascular function, such as stress hormone levels, heart rate, or activity of the autonomic nervous system.
Colds or infections. One study found that fever peaked in the evening for bacterial infection and in the morning for viral infection.
In another study, nasal secretions during a cold were highest in the early morning, decreased during the day, and increased a little in the evening.
Asthma. For most people, asthma symptoms are worse at night than during the day. This coincides with a worsening of lung function.
Seasonal allergies. Seasonal allergy symptoms — sneezing, stuffy nose, and red, itchy eyes — are more common in the morning compared to the rest of the day.

Body clock and behavior affect symptoms

Although many diseases follow daily patterns, factors other than circadian rhythms can also play a part.
For example, with nighttime asthma, lying down or sleeping may contribute to a person’s symptoms.
Steven Shea, PhD, a circadian rhythm researcher at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, said these factors, along with circadian rhythms, “add together to make asthma symptoms even worse for some people during the night.”
With heart attacks, the mental stress of getting ready for work could contribute to the higher risk of heart attacks in the morning. This may vary throughout the week.
“Monday morning is the worst time for heart attacks because it’s also the first day of the workweek back at work,” said Courtney M. Peterson, PhD, an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Nutrition Obesity Research Center.
“This is an example of a combined effect due to the circadian rhythm, or biological clock, and behavior or what’s going on with your life,” said Peterson.
Shea’s lab runs controlled studies to further understand how circadian rhythms contribute to daily disease patterns.
In one study, the researchers found that the increase in the hormone epinephrine after exercise was twice as high at 8:30 a.m. as it was at 4:30 a.m.
Epinephrine plays an important role in the cardiovascular system’s response to stress. It causes a number of physiological changes, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, and more rapid breathing.
This study was done in healthy individuals, but Shea is now doing the same research in people at risk of heart problems, such as older adults and people with obesity or high blood pressure.
“We’re now looking at people with sleep apnea and asking them to exercise at different times of day and night in the lab,” said Shea, “looking at their physiological responses to different challenges at different times.”

Staying healthy with the body clock

Understanding how circadian rhythms affect disease severity can also help doctors treat diseases more effectively — what’s known as chronotherapy.
Some of this has to do with timing medications to match the circadian rhythms.
One study found that taking high blood pressure medications at night may have a bigger effect on lowering blood pressure.
Other research has looked at whether people’s symptoms of asthma and allergies could be improved if they took medications at certain times of day.
Shea said rather than taking a drug so you have the highest dose in the blood throughout the day, you take the medication so it peaks at the time of day when it’s most effective.
“By doing this, you could reduce the side effects and the cost of the drugs,” said Shea, “but you may also improve the efficacy.”
Another approach is to give people vaccinations when their immune system is most likely to produce a beneficial immune response.
One study found that older adults produced more antibodies in response to the influenza vaccine if they were vaccinated in the morning compared to the afternoon.

Healthiest times to eat

The timing of medications and vaccinations is only one type of chronotherapy.
Peterson studies how shifting when you eat affects health.
“There’s more and more evidence that the time of day that you eat has an effect on health,” said Peterson.
In one study, she put men with prediabetes on either a 12-hour or 6-hour feeding schedule. Men on the shorter schedule — known as time-restricted feeding — finished dinner by 3 p.m. each day.
Eating earlier and over a shorter period improved the men’s insulin sensitivity, lowered their blood pressure and, surprisingly, lowered their hunger in the evening.
This study combined both eating according to circadian rhythms and intermittent fasting, so it’s difficult to know the circadian effects alone.
But Peterson said that other research has found that eating more of your daily calories for breakfast and lunch — even without changing the time of meals — improves blood sugar control and other risk factors for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
This dietary research is still in its early stages, with no large clinical trials yet. But as larger studies are done, the effects of mealtime on health will become more clear.
“I expect in the next 10 years that we’ll probably have clear national dietary guidelines on meal timing,” said Peterson.
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Release of “13 Reasons Why” associated with increase in youth suicide rates

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Release of “13 Reasons Why” associated with increase in youth suicide rates

The Netflix show “13 Reasons Why” was associated with a 28.9% increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10-17 in the month (April 2017) following the shows release, after accounting for ongoing trends in suicide rates, according to a study published today in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The findings highlight the necessity of using best practices when portraying suicide in popular entertainment and in the media. The study was conducted by researchers at several universities, hospitals, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIMH also funded the study.
The number of deaths by suicide recorded in April 2017 was greater than the number seen in any single month during the five-year period examined by the researchers. When researchers analyzed the data by sex, they found the increase in the suicide rate was primarily driven by significant increases in suicide in young males. While suicide rates for females increased after the show’s release, the increase was not statistically significant.  
“The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” said study author Lisa Horowitz, Ph.D., M.P.H., a clinical scientist in the NIMH Intramural Research Program. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”
“13 Reasons Why” is a web-based series that tells the story of a young girl who kills herself and leaves behind a series of 13 tapes detailing the reasons why she chose to end her life. Although this show has received critical acclaim, it has also generated questions regarding how the show’s portrayal of suicide affects young people who watch it. The series premiered on Netflix on March 31, 2017.
To better understand the impact of “13 Reasons Why” on suicide rates, researchers analyzed annual and monthly data on deaths due to suicide sourced from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s web-based Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research(link is external). These data included information about the deaths of individuals between the ages of 10 and 64 that occurred between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2017, a timespan that encompassed the period before and after the release of the series.
The researchers examined whether the rates of suicide for the period after the release of “13 Reasons Why” were greater than would be expected based on suicide counts and trends observed in previous years. The researchers found that the rates of suicide for 10- to 17- year-olds was significantly higher in the months of April, June, and December 2017 than were expected based on past data. This increase translated into an additional estimated 195 suicide deaths between April 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2017. The observed suicide rate for March 2017 — the month prior to the release of “13 Reasons Why” — was also higher than forecast. The researchers note that the show was highly promoted during the month of March, exposing audiences to the show’s premise and content through trailers. The researchers did not find any significant trends in suicide rates in people 18- to 64 years of age.
As a comparison, the researchers also analyzed deaths due to homicide during the same period, to assess whether other worldly social or environmental events after the release of the show might have influenced suicide rates. Homicide rates can be influenced by some of the same social and environmental factors as suicide rates. The researchers did not find any significant changes in homicide rates following the release of the show. The lack of change in homicide rates during the period of interest lends some strength to the idea that changes in suicide rates were influenced by the show and not some other environmental or social factor that occurred during this period. 
The findings of this study add to a growing body of information suggesting that youth may be particularly sensitive to the way suicide is portrayed in popular entertainment and in the media. This increasing recognition of entertainment and media influence has led a variety of groups, such as National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention(link is external), the World Health Organization(link is external), and reporting on suicide.org(link is external), to create best practices for talking about and portraying suicide on screen. These guidelines recommend, for example, that the entertainment media should avoid depicting the suicide method used. The entertainment media are also urged to convey the message that help is available and to include accurate information about how people can seek help.  
While compelling, this research had several limitations. For example, the study used a quasi-experimental design, meaning that the researchers cannot make a causal link between the release of “13 Reasons Why” and the observed changes in suicide rates. The researchers cannot, therefore, rule out the possibility that unmeasured events or factors influenced suicide rates during this period.
The second season of “13 Reasons Why” was released in May 2018, and a third season is currently in production and is expected to be released sometime this year. The findings from this study should serve as a reminder to be mindful of the possible unintended impacts of the portrayal of suicide, and as a call to the entertainment industry and the media to use best practices when engaging with this topic.
Grants: MH117594
About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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