Difficulty: Easy

Mornings are often the most hectic part of our days. You wake up late, realize that someone else is hogging the shower, the toaster is broken, and then all of the sudden you are late for work or school and haven’t even found matching socks yet.

Wake up to yoga instead of a strong cup of coffee. I have three easy yoga poses for you to do when you wake up that will help you get centered, focused, and ready to face the new day with a relaxed, positive attitude.

Wake Up to Yoga: Cody’s Morning Routine
 
Start by waking up fifteen minutes earlier than normal, as you should dedicate around three minutes for each of these poses. Get out of bed and pick a yoga spot. Near a window or somewhere with natural light is best. Now you are ready to try out these three easy poses.

Cat-Cow Pose:

Begin on your hands and knees. Inhale as you round your back for “Cat” pose, then exhale as you arch your back in the opposite direction to “Cow” pose. Slowly repeat the rounding and arching motion as long as you’d like.
Spinal Stretch:

Slowly rise from your corpse pose into a cross-legged sitting position. Lengthen your spine so you are sitting up straight, and it feels like a puppeteer is pulling upwards on a string attached to the top of your head. Then place your left hand on your right knee and inhale as you twist to the right until you are looking behind you. Exhale and return to the center, then switch sides and repeat. Ahhhh, say goodbye to that crick in your neck.



Downward-Facing Dog:

Start this one on your hands and knees, then shift your weight back so that you have folded your legs under your hips and are balancing on your toes with your arms stretched in front of you. From there, slowly straighten your legs so that your body is making a triangle with the floor, your hips being the highest point. Your feet should be flat on the floor and weight should be centered between your hands and feet. This will result in a nice, rejuvenating stretch throughout your legs, back, and arms.

Pretty simple, right? Doing these three poses when you wake up in the morning will help energize your body, mind, and spirit. And now, my zen friend, go forth to tackle the new day with a limber body and focused mind.

New to yoga? Read all about the wonderful health benefits of yoga, and then get started with yoga essentials for beginners.
This content was originally posted  by on "blog.codyapp"

Many governments are woefully unprepared for an epidemic of dementia currently affecting 44 million people worldwide and set to more than treble to 135 million people by 2050, health experts and campaigners said on Thursday.

Fresh estimates from the advocacy group Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) showed a 17 percent increase in the number of people with the incurable mind-robbing condition compared with 2010, and warned that by 2050 more than 70 percent of dementia sufferers will be living in poorer countries.

"It's a global epidemic and it is only getting worse," said ADI's executive director Marc Wortmann.

"If we look into the future the numbers of elderly people will rise dramatically. It's vital that the World Health Organization makes dementia a priority, so the world is ready to face this condition."

Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, is a fatal brain disease that has no cure and few effective treatments.

Like other forms of the disorder, it affects patients' memory, thinking and behavior and is an increasingly overwhelming burden on societies and economies. While there are a few drugs that can ease some symptoms in some people, there is no cure.

Even now, the global cost of dementia care is more than $600 billion, or around 1.0 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), and that will only increase, the ADI says.

In a policy report published along with the new data, Martin Prince, a professor at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said "most governments are woefully unprepared for the dementia epidemic". His report said only 13 countries have national dementia plans.

"This is a global problem that is increasingly impacting on developing countries with limited resources and little time to develop comprehensive systems of social protection, health and social care," Prince said in a statement.

Leaders from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries are due to meet in London next week for a special summit on dementia - a condition that includes Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), fronto-temporal dementia and many other causes of cognitive decline.

In Britain, dementia is the most feared health condition among people aged over 55 and costs the economy $37.6 billion a year - more than cancer, stroke or heart disease combined.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who will host the summit, has committed to spending 66 million pounds on dementia research by 2015. Campaigners welcome the investment, but also say it is a fraction - one eighth - of what is spent on cancer research in Britain.

Experts on neurological conditions, research campaigners and charities say they are determined the summit should not be just a talking shop, but should see leaders committing to dramatically increased funds for research and drug development in dementia, and to giving it greater political attention.

"Lack of funding means dementia research is falling behind other conditions," said Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society. "The G8 is our once-in-a-generation chance to conquer this condition and we must see meaningful action after the talking is over."

As well as more money for fundamental scientific research and for drug development, experts say they want the G8 summit to focus on ways to attract, develop and retain the best scientists, doctors and carers into the field of dementia.

The number of teens who have ended up in the emergency room after using MDMA – the drug present in both Ecstasy and Molly – has more than doubled in recent years, Medical Xpress reported.

According to a report released by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, emergency room visits among people under age 21 related to the use of MDMA have increased by 128 percent between 2005 and 2011.

"This should be a wake-up call to everyone, but the problem is much bigger than what the data show," said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. "These are only the cases that roll into the emergency rooms. It's just the tip of the iceberg."

Ecstasy is known for producing a feeling of euphoria and increased energy among users, according to Medical Xpress. However, the drug can also be accompanied by dangerous side effects, including overheating, rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure and dehydration – which can potentially result in kidney or heart failure.

Experts suspect that the increasing popularity of Molly, a powder-form of MDMA, may be driving the surge in emergency room visits.

"When (MDMA) was in a finished pill, it was difficult to tamper with," Pasierb said. "But now that it comes in a powder form, you might have an unscrupulous dealer who cuts it with speed or some other substance."

Health disparities between rich and poor nations could be banished in a generation by investment in research, vaccines and drugs to combat diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, global health experts said on Tuesday.

In a report setting out a plan for a "grand convergence" in health, the experts said world leaders needed to press for a concerted increase in research and development (R&D) investment to develop new medicines, vaccines and health technologies.

"For the first time in human history, we are on the verge of being able to achieve a milestone for humanity: eliminating major health inequalities...so that every person on earth has an equal chance at a healthy and productive life," said Larry Summers, a former U.S. Treasury Secretary who co-chaired a commission on global health.

The report also recommended taking bold preventative steps in public health, such as increasing taxes on tobacco and other substances that can be harmful, like alcohol and sugar.

Taking China as an example, it said a 50 percent tax on tobacco could prevent 20 million premature deaths and generate an extra $20 billion annually over the next 50 years.

Summers said effective drugs and vaccines now available "make reaching this milestone affordable" and urged world leaders to take on what he called "our generation's unique opportunity to invest in making this vision real".

The report, called "Global Health 2035: A World Converging within a Generation" was written by 25 leading international health experts and economists, chaired by Summers, of Harvard University, and published in The Lancet health journal.

It said spending should be prioritized in key areas, including aggressively scaling up new and existing medicines and policies for HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases and maternal and child health.

The report's authors said that if their recommendations were followed, roughly 10 million lives could be saved in low-income and middle-income countries in the year 2035 alone - progress that would bring enormous social and economic gains for the countries most affected.

To get to such a point, global investment in R&D needs to be at least doubled, the experts said, from around $3 billion a year now to $6 billion by 2020. Half of that increased investment would need to come from middle-income countries.

"The role of international assistance, while still vital, is going to increasingly emphasize scientific research, provide templates and models that can be emulated, and focus on development of techniques and dissemination of information," Summers said in a statement issued with the report.

He said while aid would remain critical it should become "less about financial support to individual countries and more about the provision of global public goods".

Richard Horton, The Lancet's editor and another of the report's authors, said the world should recognize that investing in health is also an investment in prosperity, social and financial protection, and national security.

"Investing in health means investing in a quality human beings value deeply, but which we do not capture well in our usual measures of development," he said.

Hong Kong confirmed its first case of deadly H7N9 bird flu on Monday in a further sign that the virus is continuing to spread beyond mainland China's borders.

The case coincides with the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed nearly 300 people in Hong Kong and had a significant impact on the city's travel and retail industry.

A 36-year-old Indonesian domestic helper with a history of contact with poultry and travel to Shenzhen in mainland China just north of Hong Kong has been confirmed infected by H7N9 and has been hospitalized in critical condition, Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man told reporters late on Monday.

Good childcare is a must for any working mother, but if you’re worried about putting your child in daycare, take heed.  A well run, quality daycare program can give you the reliable childcare you need and also be good for your child’s health – and yours as well.

Read on for six health benefits of daycare. 

1. Less emotional problems

Kids in daycare whose mothers are depressed are less likely to have their own emotional problems, separation anxiety and social withdrawal symptoms than those who are with their moms or an individual caregiver, according to a recent study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

2. An opportunity to grow
A quality daycare program can spell success in the future – especially places where the teachers know how to handle behavioral problems and where kids are given enough learning and socialization opportunities, stimulation, and affection. “If all those things are present, that bodes well for the children,” said Dr. Hayley Hirschmann, clinical psychologist with Morris Psychological Group, in Parsippany, N.J. Because kids are used to a schedule and routine, the transition will be easier when school starts, Hirschmann added.

3. Less colds later on
According to a study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, children who were in large daycare groups before 2 and half years of age had more respiratory and ear infections but were sick less often during elementary school than children who were cared for at home.

4. A bigger brain
Studies show that children who are in daycare early on have higher intellectual abilities, especially because they have opportunities for observation, parallel play and socialization, according to Dr. Francine Lederer, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, Calif.

5. Better behavior

One of the biggest benefits of daycare is socialization, because kids have to learn how to share, solve problems and be team players.  And at a well-run program with teachers who have a strong education background, kids learn to use their voices to solve conflicts, Lederer said.

6. Less stress for mom
Stay-at-home moms are more likely to be sad, angry and be diagnosed with depression than working moms, according to a Gallup poll. “A happy mama equals a happy baby,” Lederer said. For some moms, working isn’t an option, but if you think you will be a more calm, happy mom by returning to work, then daycare might be a good option.

Julie Revelant is a freelance writer and copywriter specializing in parenting, health, healthcare, nutrition, food and women's issues. She’s also a mom of two. Learn more about Julie at

This content was originally posted  by "Julie Revelant" on "foxnews"

People with a genetic mutation linked to Parkinson’s disease may have an increased risk of contracting the neurodegenerative disorder if they have been exposed to certain pesticides, according to a new study published in the journal Cell.

Conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., the research involved using human stem cells, derived from a patient with Parkinson’s disease, to analyze the relationship between Parkinson’s and pesticides.

Though previous epidemiological and animal studies have attempted to prove a connection between exposure to pesticides and a higher susceptibility to Parkinson’s, this was the first study that successfully used human cells to examine the link.

To conduct their analysis, researchers gathered skin cells from a Parkinson’s patient who possessed a genetic mutation linked to the disease, in the gene encoding a protein called alpha-synuclein. The researchers then transformed these skin cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and “corrected” the Parkinson’s mutation in half of the cells, in order to provide a basis for comparison.

Researchers then transformed all of these hiPSCs into a specific type of nerve cell damaged in Parkinson’s disease: A9 dopamine-containing neurons. These nerve cells are the first to be affected by Parkinson’s disease and are linked to motor sequencing, or the ability to start and stop movements – a common problem in Parkinson’s patients.

“Many think of Parkinson’s disease as tremor, shaking, rigidity and stiffness. But it’s also very important to know that it is the sequencing of movements – beginning and stopping a movement – where patients really get into trouble… and these particular cells really control that,” lead study author Dr. Stuart Lipton, professor and director of Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research, told FoxNews.com.

Researchers then exposed the nerve cells to a combination of pesticides, including paraquat, maneb, and rotenone, which are commonly used in agricultural settings in the United States. Notably, the levels of exposure tested by the researchers were well below EPA-recommended levels.

“We did a dose response of pesticides, and that particular dose had been implicated in the human epidemiological studies as being strongly associated with Parkinson’s,” Lipton said. “And what we found is we could give very low doses of that combination (of pesticides), and the cells with the genetic mutation would die – and the cells without that would not.”

Overall, the researchers determined that exposure to pesticides seems to increase the likelihood that people with a genetic risk for the disease will actually go on to contract the illness.

“If you’re susceptible to Parkinson’s disease, you will be more susceptible to getting it earlier if you are exposed to pesticides,” Lipton said.

Approximately 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease every year, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently named the illness as the 14th leading cause of death in the United States. Lipton and his colleagues hope their research will help pave the way for more studies into new treatment or prevention methods for Parkinson’s disease in the future.

“You should be able to screen people and tell them if they have a repertoire of genes. Then they might want to avoid exposures to pesticide,” Lipton said. “Another option is to take these susceptible cells and then…screen for drugs known and not-yet known that can protect these cells. And we already have several compounds of interest.”

Furthermore, Lipton and his colleagues believe their research will shed light on how certain genetic and environmental factors interact to make people more vulnerable to a wide array of neurodegenerative diseases.  Lipton said this could help pinpoint the “cause” of these diseases in certain individuals.

“This raises an important question for all neurodegenerative diseases of how much is it the genes, how much is it the environment and how much is both and the interaction between them?” Lipton said. “I think that’s important for every neurodegenerative disease.  You have a set of genes that makes you susceptible, but then there’s a second hit, something in the environment, which predisposes you to the disease.

This content was originally posted  by "Amanda Woerner" on "foxnews"

 The world is losing the battle against diabetes as the number of people estimated to be living with the disease soars to a new record of 382 million this year, according to a new report from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Approximately 24 million people have diabetes in the United States, making it the nation with the third highest rates of the disease - behind China and India.

Furthermore, an estimated 192,000 people die from diabetes in the U.S. every year, one of the highest rates of deaths due to diabetes of any country in the world, according to the IDF.

The vast majority of people have type 2 diabetes - the kind linked to obesity and lack of exercise - and the epidemic is spreading as more people in the developing world adopt Western, urban lifestyles.

The latest estimate from the International Diabetes Federation is equivalent to a global prevalence rate of 8.4 percent of the adult population and compares to 371 million cases in 2012.

By 2035, the organization predicts the number of cases will have soared by 55 percent to 592 million.

"The battle to protect people from diabetes and its disabling, life-threatening complications is being lost," the federation said in the sixth edition of its Diabetes Atlas, noting that deaths from the disease were now running at 5.1 million a year or one every six seconds.

People with diabetes have inadequate blood sugar control, which can lead to a range of dangerous complications, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart. If left untreated, it can result in premature death.

"Year after year, the figures seem to be getting worse," said David Whiting, an epidemiologist and public health specialist at the federation. "All around the world we are seeing increasing numbers of people developing diabetes."

He said that a strategy involving all parts of society was needed to improve diets and promote healthier lifestyles.

The federation calculates diabetes already accounts for annual healthcare spending of $548 billion and this is likely to rise to $627 billion by 2035.

Worryingly, an estimated 175 million of diabetes cases are as yet undiagnosed, so a huge number of people are progressing towards complications unawares. Most of them live in low- and middle-income countries with far less access to medical care than in the United States and Europe.

The country with the most diabetics overall is China, where the case load is expected to rise to 142.7 million in 2035 from 98.4 million at present.

But the highest prevalence rates are to be found in the Western Pacific, where more than a third of adults in Tokelau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands are already living with the disease.

Pharmaceutical companies have developed a range of medicines over the years to counter diabetes but many patients still struggle to control their condition adequately, leading to a continuing hunt for improved treatments.

Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Eli Lilly are all major suppliers of insulin and other diabetes therapies.

Sources: This content was originally posted  by "Reuters" on "foxnews"