Don’t believe the meatheads at the gym. Yoga is not new-age mumbo-jumbo. It’s an intense workout that can add years to your life, strengthen your muscles, relieve stress, and improve your flexibility. It can also be confusing, intimidating and difficult to learn.
No parasite has wriggled into our psyches quite like the tapeworm. The mere mention of one is enough to make most of us squirm. They lurk in our food, twist through our intestines and feast on our meals. They are the stuff of horror stories, occupying a very personal and frightening niche in our minds.
A snoring man can reach 85 decibels, making as much racket as a vacuum cleaner or a blender mashing margaritas. Sleepwalkers have been known to cook and eat full meals and even have sex during sleep. Narcoleptics can nod off at any time — during conversations, meals and while operating heavy machinery. Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare brain-wasting disease, throws people into a fit of wakefulness that eventually kills them.
The allure of a safari through the Serengeti or a trek up Kilimanjaro may inspire you to strike out for the heart of Africa, but before you make like Hemingway, there are a few things you should know. The huge continent is teeming with bug-borne, water-borne and human-borne diseases. Malaria poses one of the greatest threats to travelers, but yellow fever, cryptosporidiosis and African sleeping sickness are real dangers as well.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Some guys will stick to that motto for everything, including their own bodies. But your body won’t always tell you when something is broken. The following silent ailments can cause big health problems; some are even certified killers. Luckily, a little prevention goes a long way. Keep an eye on these health problems and they won’t get the best of you.
Alternative medicines and techniques claim to cure all, but most are dubious at best. We’ve come a long way from the days when crackpot medicine men sold dubious nostrums like snake oil from the back of covered wagons. Still, many of us are all too eager to buy into the latest natural or alternative miracle cure, healing technique or health philosophy. Guys are particularly vulnerable to such fodder — there’s nothing more appealing than an herb that could increase sexual potency, a simple bracelet that could lower blood pressure or a magnet that could reduce joint pain. Keep in mind, however, that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
When cars had big fins and the Space Race wasn’t just a video game, engineered food was all the rage, and kids dropped all their lunch money on synthetic astronaut drinks and freeze-dried ice cream. Today, engineered food has a somewhat different stigma. Preservatives and food colorings are suspect and the latest, greatest morsels science has to offer — genetically modified organisms — can be downright scary. But before you make any snap judgments about the scientists who are working to make the world a better place, take the time to learn what Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are.
You devour too many donuts, scarf down more than your fair share of cheeseburgers and pound more pints than any man should — and it’s starting to show. Maybe you’re a little pudgy and soft around the edges. Maybe your favorite jeans don’t fit anymore. Perhaps school children laugh and point as you waddle by, squealing gleefully as they mock your strained steps. Either way, it’s time to lose weight. If only it came off as easily as it piled on. If only there was a miracle pill that would melt the fat away with a few easy doses. But wait; there just might be such a pill. Since the dawn of the industrial age, scientists, doctors and quacks have worked diligently to devise diet pills, or something similar, with the goal of eliminating excess body fat. Some strategies have actually been successful, producing tonics that can make you as skinny as Iggy Pop after a bad night. Others are about as effective as a sack of diet potato chips. Keep reading to find out which diet pills work and which ones don’t.
