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While our cozy memories of the holidays are slowly fading, our scales and tighter pants still give testimony to the feasts that were enjoyed. The end of the year is also a time of self-reflection, which often leads to new plans for the coming year. Ambitious resolutions are made, and we are highly motivated to keep them during the first weeks of January. Above all, these include regular exercise, losing weight or even abstaining from nicotine. And yet, our enthusiastic plans usually only last for a few months or are already discarded at the end of January. This begs the question, why is it so hard for us to keep our good intentions?
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Overweight and obesity presents an important global health problem, with an upward trend. However, this development is not limited to adults, it is increasingly affecting children and adolescents. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 41 million overweight children under the age of five worldwide in 2016, from which around half were in Asia and one quarter in Africa. The USA takes a prominent position. The number of overweight and obese children of school age has tripled since 1970 and now accounts for around 20%. The classification of overweight and obesity in children is not consistent and is to some extent differently defined. Nonetheless, the Body Mass Index (BMI)…
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Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have become indispensable in today’s world. Every day, millions of people use these networks to share their lives and their thoughts with others. They are especially popular with celebrities and public figures. Although photos, posts and tweets of superstars and politicians seem to be a part of everyday life, reading posts from hospitals and nursing homes seems quite unusual. Yet, many health care and nursing professionals use these platform as a vessel to voice their daily job experiences. For example, Instagram has more than four million posts under #nurse, while up to 100 tweets per hour are published on Twitter under the same…
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Christmas is coming, and in only a few days the space under the christmas tree will be filled with presents and the dinner table will also be set with many festive dishes. It’s not only the holidays that threaten our diets - sweet treats tempt us into sin even during the pre-Christmas period. At the same time, the winter weather does not particularly invite us to add intensive exercise as another task to our long list of Christmas errands during the last December weeks.
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With more than one billion known cases, arterial hypertension poses a real global health issue. As it is rarely accompanied by symptoms, health care professionals often neglect or diagnose hypertension far too late. If left untreated, it can lead to serious secondary complications and can contribute greatly to premature mortality. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), normal blood pressure is defined as lying between a systolic value of 120 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure of 80 mmHg. Still, measurements which are below normal blood pressure are still considered optimal and cardioprotective. By definition, arterial hypertension starts at a value of 140/90 mmHg. The range…
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Heart attacks are caused by the blockage of an already atheroscleroticly damaged coronary artery. The main risk factors for atherosclerosis are well known and primarily include obesity, arterial hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking and lack of physical exercise. Statistically speaking, the probability of suffering a heart attack, differs significantly during the seasons and spikes during the Autumn and Winter months. An important trigger for coronary events seems to be the notable combination of low temperatures and physical exertion. A Canadian study found that on days of heavy snowfall, hospital admissions and death rates increased significantly because of heart attacks, linked to the…
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Everyday modern life is becoming increasingly characterized by our lack of physical activity. Many people spend their entire working day doing sedentary activities, while driving cars to get around and remaining inactive in their free time. The human body, however, is not adapted to a low-activity lifestyle, which can lead to health problems in the medium to long term.
