The Facts on Sodium and High Blood Pressure

Everybody has sodium in their diet; it's a fact of life. Sodium is an essential nutrient. Some of us, however, may be getting too much, and often we aren't even aware of where it's hiding in the foods we're eating. Learn why lowering your sodium intake may benefit your health.

Sodium Intake Adds Up

The good news first: Salt has many uses. It raises the boiling point of water, tenderizes meats and enhances the flavour of many foods. The bad news is that table salt contains 2,300 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon. For most people and children 14 years and older, the recommendation is to limit sodium to less than 2,300 milligrams per day. For those with existing blood pressure or other health concerns, the recommendation may be even lower. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, children ages 1 through 3 are recommended to limit sodium intake to 1,200 milligrams per day; 1,500 milligrams per day for children ages 4 through 8; and 1,800 milligrams per day for ages 9 through 13.

It would be difficult to consume that much sodium in one concentrated bite. Instead, sodium intake adds up throughout the day. And based on estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only a small amount of the average American's daily intake comes from adding salt to food at the table. Salt in processed and ready-to-eat foods delivers the majority of sodium in our diets.

Sodium is prevalent in many of the foods we eat and in excess can be harmful to our health. However, a number of studies show that decreasing sodium intake can lower blood pressure. Consuming less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day for adults can have an additional impact on lowering blood pressure, especially when combined with the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, eating plan, a fruit and vegetable-centred diet that is lower in sodium and fat. Good sources of potassium — an important mineral of the DASH diet which has been shown to help decrease blood pressure — include potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, beans and orange juice.

Sodium's Hidden Sources

Beware: Sodium isn't only in salty snacks or the table shaker. Many of the already prepared foods and meals you consume at restaurants, cafes and grab-and-go items at grocery stores have sodium because it's an inexpensive way to add flavour and is an effective way to preserve foods. Even foods with low to moderate sodium content can lead to a high sodium diet if you consume too much of them.

Topping the list for the highest percentage of our daily sodium consumption are items such as bread, cold cuts and cured meats, pizza, fresh and processed poultry, soups, sandwiches (including burgers), cheese and pasta.

How to Reduce Sodium Intake

The best way to combat high sodium in your daily diet is to watch your intake of highly processed foods. Read the Nutrition Facts label and look for the Daily Value of sodium in the foods you eat. And consider these satisfying options to keep sodium under control: fruits and vegetables, unsalted nuts, legumes and whole grains (including brown rice, oats and barley).

Additional ways to lower sodium intake:

• Get more natural sources of potassium in your diet by including additional servings of fruits and vegetables.
• Watch portion sizes, especially when it comes to already prepared foods.
• Limit cured foods, including cold cuts and sausages.
• Rinse canned foods or look for no-salt-added varieties.
• Choose lower sodium packaged foods.
• Remove the salt shaker from the table.
• Increase your intake of whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, oats, bulgur, whole-wheat pasta and bread, wild rice and popcorn.
• Include beans, peas and more plant-based sources of protein.
• Substitute crackers and chips with a small number of unsalted nuts.

 

 

The Secrets of Sugar

For many of us, sugar provides an instant feeling of warmth and comfort. We identify it as an essential component of great-tasting foods, and of blissful culinary gratification. Its presence is unavoidable, even in foods that promise higher levels of nutritional value. In many corners of the globe, the human desire for sugar seems unquenchable. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find an addiction more commonplace than the one we experience for sugar. But it's an addiction that could be killing us in record numbers.

The documentary titled The Secrets of Sugar examines this addiction and its perilous impact on the well-being of our global society. Extensive research has pinpointed sugar's culpability in a number of our most common and life-threatening ailments, including high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and even Alzheimer's disease.

The weight-loss craze which began taking shape in the 1980s originated as an attack against fat. Yet, even in a climate where the public enjoys unprecedented access to low or no-fat foods, the rates of the damaging disease remain alarmingly high. "Which is worse: the sugar or the fat? The sugar, a thousand times over," asserts Dr Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist who serves as one of the film's key interview subjects. In his view, sugar is a poison and serves as a recipe for destruction for people of all ages. As a leading crusader against the dangers of sugar, Dr Lustig faces an uphill battle in altering existing practices within the food industry and educating an unsuspecting public who falls prey to their tactics.

According to the observations presented in The Secrets of Sugar, these tactics include ambiguous or misleading nutrition labels, fuzzy science, and mounting an advertising campaign unmatched in scale even by the tobacco industry.

Without a change in the public consciousness, the prevalence of sugar in our daily diets threatens to heighten disease epidemics to an even greater degree, and may eventually lead to the bankruptcy of the entire healthcare system within the United States and Canada. By exploring an issue that too often remains obscured, The Secrets of Sugar seeks to ignite a movement among its viewers to rectify this disturbing trend before it's too late.

The 3 Best Floor Exercises To Shrink Belly Fat Fast, Trainer Says

 

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When it comes to losing belly fat, it's important to focus on the basics: eating a healthy diet while in a calorie deficit, getting in regular cardio, and strength training at least 2 to 3 times per week. If you focus on these three things consistently, then you'll drop weight, shed fat, and reach your fitness goals. However, if you're already doing that, then you can also incorporate certain core exercises into your routine. Get excited, because we have the very best floor exercises to shrink belly fat that you'll want to check out ASAP.

When trying to get a flatter stomach and burn belly fat, many people make the mistake of doing endless sets of crunches, side bends, sit-ups, and weighted ab movements. The problem with doing weighted core work is that your abs can grow just like any other muscle group. Even if you get leaner and lose fat, your stomach can look "bulkier" because the abs have hypertrophied from all the training you've done. So today, we're going to focus on some super effective floor exercises that will produce results—no equipment required.

Nikki Metzger - Suspension Trainer Exercises

Without further ado, here are three of the best floor exercises to shrink belly fat that you can do as part of your ab routine. Check them out below, and next, be sure to read The 6 Best Exercises for Strong and Toned Arms in 2022, Trainer Says.

1

Supine Vacuum Pose

Tim Liu, C.S.C.S.

Begin this exercise by lying flat on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Once you're in this position, exhale all of your air, and hollow out your stomach. Draw your belly button in towards your spine as much as you can. This will activate your transverse abdominis muscle. Hold this position for 15 seconds to start, then build yourself up to a longer hold, up to 60 seconds.

Related: The 10-Minute Daily Workout To Shrink Abdominal Fat Fast, Trainer Says

2

Hollow Body Hold

Supine Vacuum Pose

Lay flat on your back with your arms extended over your head and feet straight out and together. Pressing your lower back to the floor, slightly curl up, lifting your legs and arms in the air. Your body should be in the shape of a banana. Hold for the prescribed amount of time.

Be sure to keep tension in your core at all times and try not to compensate with your lower back. You can regress the exercise by raising both your legs and arms higher until you get the strength to have it lower. Do the hollow body hold 3 times for 20 to 30 seconds each.

3

Reverse Crunch

Tim Liu, C.S.C.S.

Start this movement by lying down with your lower back flat on the floor. Keep your core tight, and raise your feet back towards your body, flexing your abs hard. Lower your legs slowly, maintaining tension in your core before performing another rep. Complete 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

For more…

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For more fitness inspiration, be sure to check out Secret Exercise Tricks To Tone Sagging Arm Skin While Walking, Trainer Says and The Best Hula Hoop Exercises To Shrink Belly Fat next.

Ghana confirms five cases of Monkeypox

 The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed five cases of the Monkeypox disease.

No death has been recorded among the cases, state newspaper, Graphic reported sourcing the director-general of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, who made this known Wednesday.

According to Dr Kumah, the cases were recorded in the Eastern, Western and Greater Accra regions.

12-suspected cases have been investigated since May 24, 2022, the report had it.

The GHS director revealed that one of the cases was recorded in a Ghanaian who travelled to the United States of America.

According to Dr Kuma Aboagye, there is currently no treatment for Monkey Pox.

However, he said there is a vaccine available but not in Ghana.

"But I don't think we have reached a stage where we will call for vaccination in Ghana," he said.

He further noted that the cases being recorded were mild to moderate.

Countries like Morocco and Nigeria have also confirmed cases of monkeypox, with Nigeria banning the consumption and sale of bush meat to avert the spread of the disease.

COVID: AstraZeneca vaccine remains unpopular in Germany

 In Germany, everyone who wants a coronavirus vaccine should receive one by September. But this plan will only work if millions of people accept the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca.

Many Germans have reservations about the AstraZeneca vaccine

Six security guards are standing on the wide, empty road leading to the disused Tegel Airport in Berlin. Their yellow high-visibility vests are glowing in the sun. The men are guarding the entrance to a coronavirus vaccination centre, which has been set up in what was once Terminal C of the airport.

They don't have much to do. Between three and five vaccination candidates arrive every hour, a guard says when asked. "That's all."

At Tegel, only the vaccine produced by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is available. Because of a lack of studies into its effects on older people, the vaccine has been approved in Germany for people younger than 65. In this age group, vaccinations are currently only available for people with underlying health conditions and members of groups with an increased risk of infection because of their occupations.

AstraZeneca remains on the shelves

Doctors, nurses and other medical staff often reject AstraZeneca because the vaccine is believed to be less effective against coronavirus mutations than the mRNA vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. Nationwide, only 87,000 of the 736,800 AstraZeneca vaccine doses delivered to date have been used, according to Germany's disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The sound of an engine disturbs the peace in front of the vaccination centre. A shuttle bus approaches and drops off three young women, medical assistants who work in a Berlin doctor's office.

"I was sceptical about getting vaccinated with AstraZeneca," says one of the women, who has to show the security guards her invitation to get a vaccine and her appointment confirmation. She says her boss then provided her with comprehensive information and also referred to the positive opinion of Berlin-based virologist Christian Drosten.

"That convinced me," she explains, before boarding the shuttle bus that will take her to the vaccination centre.

Terminal C of Berlin's disused Tegel airport has been turned into a vaccination centre

Poor communication

AstraZeneca is far better than its reputation, Drosten explained in a recent episode of his podcast "Coronavirus Update." He believes there has been a lot of misunderstanding and communication problems surrounding the vaccine.

Politicians such as health expert Kordula Schulz-Asche from the Greens have a similar view. The scepticism among the population is due to "really disastrous communication," Schulz-Asche told the German daily newspaper, Die Welt. Too little has been explained, and "horror stories" about the effectiveness of the vaccine are running rampant.

"To say that the AstraZeneca vaccine is the second rate is completely off the mark, both scientifically and in terms of actual effects," Carsten Watzl of the German Society for Immunology said in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. To improve acceptance of the vaccine, he suggested that those who receive AstraZeneca doses should be guaranteed a second shot with a different active ingredient.

"You can boost the immunity you triggered with the AstraZeneca vaccine again later with an mRNA vaccine without that causing any problems," he wrote.

Virologist Christian Drosten has said concerns about the ineffectiveness of AstraZeneca's vaccine are unfounded

Berlin abolishes freedom of choice

Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, has emphasized that AstraZeneca's vaccine prevents severe or fatal cases of COVID-19 "with similarly high efficacy" as those from BioNTech or Moderna. For physicians and nurses younger than 65 to insist on getting other vaccines is "inappropriate," he said. Those should be reserved for the elderly, given the overall vaccine shortage.

Until now, Berlin has been the only German state where people could choose their vaccine. But that has now changed.

"There is no freedom of choice about AstraZeneca," Dilek Kalayci, Berlin's top health official, said Wednesday. Different vaccines would still be issued in different vaccination centres, but people under 65 have no choice about which one they receive, she explained.

Kalayci's decision came after a recommendation by the commission on vaccination at the RKI. According to the institute, vaccines that are recommended only for people between 18 and 65 years of age should also be used "primarily" for these groups of people. However, this recommendation alone is unlikely to dispel scepticism about the British-Swedish vaccine and could lead to younger people being reluctant to be vaccinated at all.

Doctors also explain that side effects such as headaches and aching limbs or even fever are not uncommon after a COVID vaccination. In younger people, side effects occur more frequently because the immune system is still more active and reacts more aggressively to any vaccination than in older people.

Can the vaccination schedule still be maintained?

Meanwhile, the German Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance (ZI) is concerned that reservations about the AstraZeneca vaccine could considerably set back the vaccination schedule in Germany. Currently, the federal government expects that everyone who wants will be able to get a vaccination offer by the end of September. The ZI calculates that this schedule could be pushed back by up to two months if AstraZeneca's vaccine is not more widely accepted.

Meanwhile, in front of Berlin's Tegel vaccination centre, the shuttle bus taking the three medical assistants to their appointment has left. A second bus appears on the other side of the street, bringing two people back who have already been vaccinated.

The driver gets out, stands in the sun and lights a cigarette. He has time to spare. There are no new passengers with vaccine appointments in sight.

This article has been translated from German.

105-Year-Old COVID Survivor Credits Longevity to Gin-Soaked Golden Raisins

New Jersey resident Lucia DeClerck has lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak and coronavirus pandemic.

Lucia DeClerck is an absolute marvel. The 105-year-old New Jersey resident lived through the devastating 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak and now she has not only survived the second global pandemic of her lifetime, but she powered through her own case of COVID-19. 

"I'm very fortunate," she told 6ABC from her residence at Mystic Meadows Rehab and Nursing Center in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. "I'm feeling wonderful." The outlet reports that DeClerck never displayed any symptoms of the respiratory illness, even after testing positive for coronavirus. (But she did spend 14 days in the COVID unit at Mystic Meadows.) 

When pushed for her 'secret' to her longevity—and her successful recovery from COVID—DeClerk initially shrugged the question off, and said that all she did was pray. "And [I] don't eat junk food," she added. 

But her granddaughter, Shawn Laws O'Neil, said that maybe there was something that helped DeClerk's lifespan stretch past the century mark: a daily serving of gin-soaked golden raisins. "She said it kept her free of disease," O'Neil said. "She's never had cancer. She has all her own teeth." According to The New York Times, DeClerck starts every day with a serving of nine of the alcohol-enhanced raisins, and the recipe couldn't be easier. "Fill a jar," she said. "Nine raisins a day after it sits for nine days."

DeClerck's daughter-in-law Lillie Jean Laws said that, during the decade that DeClerck lived with them, she also downed a mysterious drink that was kept in the back of the refrigerator. Laws didn't know everything that was in the "root-beer-looking" beverage, but it seemed to be a combination of aloe vera juice, apple cider vinegar, ginger, and "a little bit of gin." 

"I would watch her and I would just shudder when she drank this stuff," Laws told NJ.com. "When she got older, I started asking her, what did she put in that stuff? She was lasting better than we were."

DeClerck has two surviving sons (she has outlived one of her sons), five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and 11 great-great-grandchildren. A little over a year ago, her family got together to celebrate her 104th birthday, but they postponed the party for her 105th until it is safer for them to be together. 

Mystic Meadows' oldest—and now possibly the most famous—resident has received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and we're among those who hope that she won't have to wait another year to blow out her birthday candles. We're also among those who will be buying a bottle of gin and a box of golden raisins on our next shopping trip.