Men's Health

11 Ways to Live Longer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to beat the biggest man-killers.
Compiled By Geordie Brackin, Men's Health

Find More

6 Health Threats You Shouldn't Ignore
Get Your Beach Body Now!
Reveal Your Abs in Record Time

For us, the health of the American male is not just a weeklong pursuit. But in honor of Men's Health Week (June 11-17), we've compiled a list of our top tips for beating the biggest killers of men. Read them, follow our advice, and start living better year round.

Beat High Blood Pressure
Eat meat. In a recent Australian study, people with high blood pressure who replaced 8 percent of their daily calories from bread, cereal, potatoes, or pasta with lean red meat experienced a four-point drop in their systolic blood pressure in just 8 weeks.

Arginine, an amino acid in red meat, may help dilate blood vessels, lowering blood pressure. Plus, limiting starches lowers blood sugar and makes your body more efficient at burning fat.

Save Your Skin
Melanoma feeds on modesty. If you don't strip for a yearly skin screening, the cancer can spread undetected.

Made an appointment? Now make one with your honey. A Northwestern University study shows that when people learn how to do skin self-exams with a partner, they're more likely to check themselves (and each other) in the future.

Have a Healthy Heart
Eat more dairy. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, consuming three or more servings of dairy per day can slash your risk of heart disease by 31 percent.

"We don't know exactly how dairy lowers heart-disease risk, but other studies show that the calcium and magnesium in it can lower blood pressure," says study author Donna Spiegelman, Sc.D., a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard school of public health.

Want even more protection? Seek products fortified with vitamin D. British researchers found that daily D supplements lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of arterial inflammation, by 23 percent.

Lose Weight Over the Phone
Pick up the phone and ask for help dropping the pounds.

Researchers at the University of Kansas recently had 96 overweight people follow weight-loss counseling programs and discovered that the programs conducted by telephone were just as effective as face-to-face clinical counseling. On average, members of both groups lost 28 pounds in 26 weeks.

"Telephone-based programs have the benefits of convenience, lower transportation costs, and accountability with anonymity," says study author Joseph E. Donnelly, Ph.D.

Our pick: The phone program offered by John Berardi, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., co-author of Scrawny to Brawny. Go to johnberardi.com and receive a Men's Health reader discount.

Drink Coffee for Your Colon
Drink decaf coffee. A recent study at the Harvard medical school surveyed the tea and coffee consumption of men and women for 18 years and showed that drinking two or more cups of decaf coffee per day can slash colon-cancer risk by 52 percent.

Decaf coffee may have a positive effect on bowel motility. It keeps things moving which is an effect that the caffeine in regular coffee may cancel out.

Kick the Sticks
Go spit. A 2005 study in the British Medical Journal found that smokers who saw their results from a saliva-based nicotine test were 17 percent more likely to quit. The test, which involves spitting in a cup and measuring the amount of tobacco-derived toxins in the saliva, was used in conjunction with antismoking counseling.

Researchers believe that being able to see progress in the quest to quit in much the same way one can see the results of a cholesterol-lowering regimen helped motivate the participants.

Check a local drugstore for NicAlert, a saliva-based nicotine test ($15, also available at www.nymox.com).

Protect Your Prostate
Carve a pumpkin, cut your prostate-cancer risk. Eating a large slice of pumpkin pie (or 13 baby carrots) daily will give you about 8,000 micrograms of beta-carotene, an amount research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute shows may halve a man's risk of the disease. Top with whipped cream to boost your absorption of the nutrient.

Defeat Depression
Ask your therapist how many patients he treats. If it's more than 25, beware. Research has shown that a therapist's effectiveness decreases as his caseload surpasses this number.

A Finnish study found that men who exercise and are exposed to sunlight experience a greater reduction in depressive symptoms than those who work indoors. A CDC survey also found that people who exercise regularly feel less depressed.

Avoid a Car Accident
Cellphones make distracted drivers out of all of us, quadrupling a man's accident risk even hands-free.

One answer: Take a page from airline pilots. In a new study in Risk Analysis, researchers found that when pilots talked on a cellphone in a driving simulator, they caused 46 percent fewer virtual accidents than nonpilots did.

"They knew to disengage from the cellphone conversation at precise moments," says Jake Rose, Ph.D., the coauthor.

Decrease your own distractibility by hitting "hold" at the must-focus moments identified in the study: when merging, during stop-and-go traffic, and at intersections involving multiple turn lanes.

Ditch Diabetes
Eat to beat high blood sugar. When you consider that "glucose-intolerant" is another term for "diabetic," it's easy to see what you shouldn't eat. Namely, glucose-rich foods, such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes.

But Mary Vernon, M.D., prefers a more positive approach: "I like to emphasize what people can enjoy." So, use these guidelines to build a prescription diet.

One caution: If you're currently taking medication for high blood pressure or high blood sugar, consult your physician first, as this diet will cause both to drop.

Save Yourself from a Stroke
"Each daily serving of fruits and vegetables decreases stroke risk by 6 percent, so three servings decreases it by 18 percent," says James Bobenhouse, M.D., stroke-program director at BryanLGH Medical Center, in Lincoln.

No time to cook? Down a Tropicana Fruit Smoothie. One 11-ounce bottle equals 2 1/2 servings of fruit.

Provided by Men's Health


More on Men's Health on MSN Health & Fitness
Men's Sexual Health
Fitness
Nutrition
Heart Health
Superfoods: The Next Frontier
10 Foods That Are Tough to Digest
Ultimate Fitness Overhaul
Strong Men: Cancer Survivors

10 Reasons to believe the bible

1. Its Honesty
The Bible is painfully honest. It shows Jacob, the father of its "chosen people," to be a deceiver. It describes Moses, the lawgiver, as an insecure, reluctant leader, who, in his first attempt to come to the aid of his own people, killed a man, and then ran for life to the desert. It portrays David not only as Israel's most loved king, general, and spiritual leader, but as one who took another man's wife and then, to cover his own sin, conspired to have her husband killed. At one point, the Scriptures accuse the people of God, the nation of Israel, as being so bad they made Sodom and Gomorrah look good by comparison ( Ezekiel 16:46-52). The Bible represents human nature as hostile to God. It predicts a future full of trouble. It teaches that the road to heaven is narrow and the way to hell is wide. Scripture was clearly not written for those who want simple answers or an easy, optimistic view of religion and human nature.
2. Its Preservation
Just as the modern state of Israel was emerging from thousands of years of dispersion, a bedouin shepherd discovered one of the most important archeological treasures of our time. In a cave of the northwest rim of the Dead Sea, a broken jar yielded documents that had been hidden for two millennia. Additional finds produced manuscripts that predated previous oldest copies by 1,000 years. One of the most important was a copy of Isaiah. It revealed a document that is essentially the same as the book of Isaiah that appears in our own Bibles. The Dead Sea scrolls emerged from the dust like a symbolic handshake to a nation coming home. They discredited the claims of those who believed that the original Bible had been lost to time and tampering.
3. Its Claims For Itself
It's important to know what the Bible says about itself. If the authors of Scripture had not claimed to speak for God, it would be presumptuous for us to make that claim for them. We would also have a different kind of problem. We would have a collection of unsolved mysteries, embodied in historical and ethical literature. But we would not have a book that has inspired the building of countless churches and synagogues all over the world. A Bible that did not claim to speak on behalf of God would not have become foundational to the faith of hundreds of millions of Christians and Jews (2 Peter 1:16-21). But with much supporting evidence and argument, the Bible's authors did claim to be inspired by God. Because millions have staked their present and eternal well-being on those claims, the Bible cannot be a good book if its authors consistently lied about their source of information.
4. Its Miracles
Israel's exodus from Egypt provided a historical basis for believing that God revealed Himself to Israel. If the Red Sea did not part as Moses said it did, the Old Testament loses its authority to speak on behalf of God. The New Testament is just as dependent upon miracles. If Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead, the apostle Paul admits that the Christian faith is built on a lie (1 Corinthians 15:14-17). To show its credibility, the New Testament names its witnesses, and did so within a time-frame that enabled those claims to be tested (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). Many of the witnesses ended up as martyrs, not for abstract moral or spiritual convictions but for their claim that Jesus had risen from the dead. While martyrdom is not unusual, the basis on which these people gave their lives is what's important. Many have died for what they believed to be the truth. But people do not die for what they know to be a lie.
5. Its Unity
Forty different authors writing over a period of 1,600 years penned the 66 books of the Bible. Four hundred silent years separated the 39 books of the Old Testament from the 27 of the New Testament. Yet, from Genesis to Revelation, they tell one unfolding story. Together they give consistent answers to the most important questions we can ask: Why are we here? How can we come to terms with our fears? How can we get along? How can we rise above our circumstances and keep hope alive? How can we make peace with our Maker? The Bible's consistent answers to these questions show that the Scriptures are not many books but one.
6. Its Historical And Geographical Accuracy
Down through the ages, many have doubted the historical and geographical accuracy of the Bible. Yet modern archeologists have repeatedly unearthed evidence of the people, places, and cultures described in the Scriptures. Time after time, the descriptions in the biblical record have been shown to be more reliable than the speculations of scholars. The modern visitor to the museums and lands of the Bible cannot help but come away impressed with the real geographical and historical backdrop of the biblical text.
7. Its Endorsement By Christ
Many have spoken well of the Bible, but no endorsement is as compelling as that of Jesus of Nazareth. He recommended the Bible not only by His words but by His life. In times of personal temptation, public teaching, and personal suffering, He made it clear that He believed the Old Testament Scriptures were more than a national tradition ( Matthew 4:1-11; 5:17-19). He believed the Bible was a book about Himself. To His countrymen He said, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40).
8. Its Prophetic Accuracy
From the days of Moses, the Bible predicted events no one wanted to believe. Before Israel went into the Promised Land, Moses predicted that Israel would be unfaithful, that she would lose the land God was giving her, and that she would be dispersed throughout all the world, regathered, and then re-established ( (Deuteronomy 28-31). Central to Old Testament prophecy was the promise of a Messiah who would save God's people from their sins and eventually bring judgment and peace to the whole world.
9. Its Survival
The books of Moses were written 500 years before the earliest Hindu Scriptures. Moses wrote Genesis 2,000 years before Muhammad penned the Koran. During that long history, no other book has been as loved or as hated as the Bible. No other book has been so consistently bought, studied, and quoted as this book. While millions of other titles come and go, the Bible is still the book by which all other books are measured. While often ignored by those who are uncomfortable with its teachings, it is still the central book of Western civilization.
10. Its Power To Change Lives
Unbelievers often point to those who claim to believe in the Bible without being changed by it. But history is also marked by those who have been bettered by this book. The Ten Commandments have been a source of moral direction to countless numbers of people. The Psalms of David have offered comfort in times of trouble and loss. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount has given millions an antidote for stubborn pride and proud legalism. Paul's description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 has softened angry hearts. The changed lives of people like the apostle Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, John Newton, Leo Tolstoy, and C. S. Lewis illustrate the difference the Bible can make. Even entire nations or tribes, like the Celts of Ireland, the wild Vikings of Norway, or the Auca Indians of Ecuador have been transformed by the Word of God and the unprecedented life and significance of Jesus Christ.

A New Day Has Dawned

A New Day Has DawnedWe’ve another opportunity as God’s own to carry on; because Praise be to Him a new day has dawned.We each can determine what we want to do, "the harvest truly is great but the laborers are few".Souls are hurting many painfully lost, awaiting the news the price of sin was paid on the cross.Hearts are aching guilt tearing them apart; they can only be saved by inviting Jesus into their heart.But the invitation can’t be offered until the truth is heard; it is up to the few to share God’s Word.Condemnation does absolutely no good; we’re to reach out to others in love as Jesus said we should.Ridicule and faultfinding drive souls away, we shouldn’t speak until we’ve taken a moment to pray.Our hearts must be surrendered so we don’t judge or find fault, to do any different is equivalent to assault.Let’s each of us surrender to God anew today, determined to reach out to others in a kind loving way.Let’s seek God’s guidance before we utter a word, asking Him to prepare hearts for the message to be heard.May each of us be servants God can count on, as we lovingly go fourth on this new day He’s dawned!©December 15, 2006 Barbara PhilbrookAll Rights Reserved

Senator wants to bar forced use of ID implants

By: STEVE LAWRENCE - Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Forgot your company identification badge at home? That wouldn't be a problem if employees had a small identification device about the size of a grain of rice inserted under their skin instead of a badge.If that seems Orwellian to you, state Sen. Joe Simitian may have a solution. He's introduced a bill that would bar an employer or anyone else from requiring a person to have one of the devices implanted.
The measure is one of a series of bills the Palo Alto Democrat has proposed to control the use of so-called radio frequency identification devices, which can be placed in badges, passports, driver's licenses and on bodies to transmit radio signals with identifying information.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider four of the bills Tuesday.They also include measures that would bar use of RFIDs in driver's licenses and student identification badges before 2011 and set privacy-protection standards for RFIDs.A fifth bill by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, is also on the committee's agenda. It would require companies that issue identification cards or other items containing RFIDs to disclose the personal information that would be revealed by the RFID and what steps they've taken to protect that information.Simitian says he is concerned the information provided by RFIDs could be used to track people's movements or to steal their personal information with the use of an inexpensive monitor."When people understand the vulnerability of the technology and the absolute lack of any privacy protections or limits on information that can be broadcast, they understand why it's a legitimate source of concern," he said.The use of implanted RFIDs makes "you think we really are in a world we never could have imagined," he said.But Roxanne Gould, vice president for California government relations for the American Electronics Association, a high-tech industry group, said Simitian is taking the wrong approach, although her organization hasn't taken a position on the implant bill."Our bottom line is we're opposed to anything that demonizes RFIDs," she said. "The technology has been in existence for more than 50 years. It's in more than 1.2 billion ID credentials worldwide. ... We've not seen a single showing of ID theft or harm."Lawmakers should focus on preventing inappropriate use of RFIDs, not in restricting the technology, she said.Scott Silverman, chief executive officer of VeriChip Corp., a Florida company that makes implantable RFIDs, said his firm has a "very strong privacy policy" and doesn't oppose bills like the Simitian measure banning forced use of the devices."In principle, a device of this type should never be forced on anybody," he said.Two other states, Wisconsin and North Dakota, have enacted similar bans.Most of VeriChip's devices are implanted to identify medical patients, but the company has also made implantable RFIDs for security uses. Mexico's attorney general bought about 100 of them through a distributor a few years ago, Silverman said.It would take a larger device, about the size of a pacemaker, to track a person's movements by satellite, he said.Some of the other bills on lawmakers' agendas this week include:RECYCLING -- A bill by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Sherman Oaks, would require apartment complexes with at least five units to provide access to waste recycling programs. According to a Senate analysis of the bill, only 40 percent of Californians in multifamily housing have access to curbside recycling. The bill is on the Senate Environmental Quality Committee's agenda on Monday.MARRIAGE EQUALITY -- Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, has a bill that would make it easier for men to take their wives' last names when they get married. It's on the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda on Tuesday.HEMP FARMING -- Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is making another attempt to allow California farmers to grow hemp, a distant, low-potency cousin of marijuana that is used in myriad products. The bill is before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the proposal last year.ELECTORAL COLLEGE -- California would award its Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote under a bill by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, that's on the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee's Tuesday calendar. This proposal also was vetoed last year. The measure would only take effect if states with a majority of electoral votes adopted the same proposal.On the Net:www.assembly. ca.gov and www.senate.ca. gov
http://www.nctimes. com/articles/ 2007/06/18/ news/state/ 61707174441. txt