Give your heart a Spring MOT!

According to the British Heart foundation, high blood pressure is just one of the risk factors for developing heart and circulatory disease, along with high cholesterol, diabetes and other lifestyle factors.

As many as 5 million people in the UK are walking around, undiagnosed, with high blood pressure. The only way to know whether you have high blood pressure is to have it measured. Everyone should know their blood pressure. The British Heart foundation recommends that everyone over 40 gets their blood pressure taken by a nurse or doctor as part of a health check to assess their risk for getting heart and circulatory disease.

Should you find that you do have a high blood pressure, don’t panic, there are not only medications to keep it under control, but easy lifestyle changes will make a big difference.

Making sure that you are physically active and maintain a healthy diet will help you to control your blood pressure. Making sure that you get enough sleep and stay in control of your stress levels can also help.

Many of the people who end up hospitalised as a result of more serious medical conditions caused by high blood pressure, were not even aware that they had a problem until it was too late.

Being aware of your blood pressure is extremely important, especially if you are over 65, have a family history or are overweight- it could even save your life!

There are plenty of perfectly functional and reasonably priced monitors available to buy in chemist and many doctors’ surgeries offer a free blood pressure monitoring service. Ask your GP for more information.

However if you want a state of the art monitor and wish to track your blood pressure at the touch of a button then you need to look no further than this bloodpressure monitor that is compatible with your ipad, ipod or iphone. Based on the iOS operating system and Bluetooth technology, you can test, track and share your blood pressure results wirelessly with your iPod touch: iPhone and iPad. The monitor is integrated on the arm cuff and works with the Free App. It can even work out averages to see if the chances that you have made to your lifestyle or any medication that you are on is having a positive effect. This information can then be sent to family members or caregivers at the tough of a button.

Bikini Body Countdown Part 2

Your summer holiday is approaching and the weather is hotting-up. You should be excited but the fear of stripping off in direct sunlight is niggling at the back of your mind... Well, don't panic and check out our Bikini Body Countdown Part 1 for how to get started on the road to your dream body by setting realistic goals and keeping track of your progress.

As anyone will tell you, the fastest way to kick-start your weight-loss is not only to watch what you are eating, but also to increase the amount of exercise that you do. Again, it is important to be realistic with your exercise goals. If you do very little exercise and you suddenly start going to the gym every day for two hours, you are going to lose interest very quickly (and quite possible do your body some damage too!) Ease yourself into a new fitter lifestyle by setting practical goals that fit with your lifestyle. Take a brisk walk in your lunch break or walk to and from work instead of driving. Get your family involved by walking the kids to school or going on a bike ride together at the weekend. Find an activity that you enjoy and you are much more likely to stick to it! Even small changes will make a huge difference to your level of fitness and will help you maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

If you need a bit more motivation to keep track of all of the positive changes that you are making, perhaps you should consider investing in a health tracker such as the Fitbit UltraWireless Tracker.

The Fitbit Ultra monitors your activity all day to provide you with real-time feedback on steps, distance, calories burned, and stairs climbed to encourage you to walk more and be more active. It wirelessly uploads your data to Fitbit.com so you can gain deeper insight into your daily or monthly fitness and sleep levels with free online graphs and charts. On Fitbit.com, you can earn fitness badges, connect with friends to share and compete on fitness goals, or join the Fitbit community for advice and encouragement. So you can get fit- one step at a time!

Bikini Body Countdown Part 1

The sunshine has finally come out and summer no longer seems a distant dream! But if the sudden prospect of sun on your bare skin has left you feeling terrified of cracking open your summer wardrobe then don’t panic! By making only a few changes to your lifestyle you could be bikini confident in no time!

Be realistic- you are not going to shed 5 stone before your Summer  holiday by drinking vinegar and having ice baths! Fad diets are difficult to stick to and can leave you feeling (and looking) worse than when you started. Yoyo dieting is one of the worst contributors to long-term weight gain. Eating healthily and getting more exercise is the best way to maintain a healthy weight- sorry, but there really is no magic lotion or potion!

Before you start trying to lose weight, weigh yourself- it might not be as bad as you thought!
Keeping track of how your weight changes can also help you track your progress and see the rewards of all your hard work! You can of course do this using a pen and notebook, but if you like to keep up to date with the latest gadgets and your smartphone is the centre of your life, then why not invest in a gadget to do all the hard work for you.The Fitbit Aria Wi-FiSmart Scale measures your weight, body fat percentage and body mass index (BMI) to provide a full picture of your weight trends. The Wi-Fi enabled scale lets you set goals, track your progress effortlessly, and stay motivated each and every day. Your stats automatically upload to your Fitbit dashboard where you can get a more comprehensive view of your health and fitness and track your eating and exercise habits so you can work out trends in your weight loss (or gain) and work out what really works for you!

Keep checking back for Bikini Body Countdown Part 2…

An egg a day keeps the doctor away!

In a recent study, reported on by The Daily Mail online, it was found that egg whites could lower the blood pressure dramatically in the same way as medication- but without the side effects!

A key element found in the whites was found to have the same blood pressure lowering abilities as Captopril, a high blood-pressure drug. 

Dr Zhipeng Yu, who led the research at China's Jilin University, said: 'Our research suggests that there may be another reason to call it 'the incredible, edible egg'. 

'We have evidence from the laboratory that a substance in egg white - it's a peptide, one of the building blocks of proteins - reduces blood pressure about as much as a low dose of Captopril, a high-blood-pressure drug.'

Dr Yu and his colleagues studied a peptide found in egg white called RVPSL. 

This has a powerful ability to inhibit or block the action of ACE, a substance produced in the body that raises blood pressure.

The findings were presented to the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New Orleans.

Dr Yu said: 'Our results support and enhance previous findings on this topic. 

'They were promising enough to move ahead with further research on the effects of the egg white peptide on human health.'

High blood pressure often goes undiagnosed and can cause severe damage to your organs, leading to serious health problems- and in a lot of cases there are no symptoms until it is too late.

It is important to be aware of your blood pressure. A lot of doctors surgeries and pharmacies offer free blood pressure tests, but if you face the management of your blood pressure on a daily basis, it may be more convenient and help you stay in control to opt for a more personal, high-tech solution. 

The iHealth BP5 bloodpressure monitor is based on the iOS operating system and Bluetooth technology, it allows you to test, track and share your blood pressure results wirelessly with your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. iHealth BP5 works with a Free App to test, track, graph and share your blood pressure results The whole testing process is amazingly intuitive- you can watch your pulse wave in a vivid interface and your results are recorded automatically. Using a minimal amount of storage space on your device. You can classify your historical results and obtain the average, to identify your blood pressure's trend and to examine the effectiveness of any medicine. You can even send your results instantly to your family or healthcare provider by E-mail, Facebook or Twitter to keep them informed of your health condition.

Get bikini ready quickly and easily!

Summer is quickly approaching; bikinis and crop tops are appearing in the shops. The countdown to our Summer holidays has begun!

If like a lot of us, this time of year has you feeling optimism and dread in equal parts, you are not alone- it is stressful pulling on last summer’s sundresses or trying on the first bikini of the year! But if you know that you are not going to like what you see- then why not do something about it now! 

There are plenty of ways to lose a bit of weight and tone up without having to starve or torture yourself! Find an activity that you enjoy- try a dance class or Zumba, or perhaps trekking in the fresh air? See what is available in your local area and step outside your comfort zone- you just might enjoy it!

Eating healthily doesn’t have to be a chore either- swap your soggy sandwiches at lunch for a nutritious soup and try out a new fruit or vegetable every week- you could be missing out on something really delicious!

There are some great apps out there to keep track of your calorie intake and exercise too. MyFitnessPal lets you record all the food that you eat and works out the calories and nutritional content of your daily consumption. It also lets you record your exercise and offset calories burnt against calories eaten, encouraging you to be more aware of your daily energy input and output. You can track your progress with charts and build up a support network of your friends and family or even other dieters.

If you would prefer to let a gadget record the amount of exercise that you are doing during the day (and gain a more accurate insight into your daily activity levels) you could invest in a FitbitUltra. The Fitbit wirelessly transmits the information that it gathers all day to your smart device or computer so that you can see where you can make improvements and congratulate yourself on your achievements. There is even the Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale that measures your weight, body mass index and body fat percentage to provide a full picture of your weight trends. It allows you to set goals, stay in control and stay motivated every day.

A lot of people are surprised by the unexpected calories that they are inadvertently consuming every day and shocked by how little activity they do in their day-to-day lives- sometimes just being aware of where you are going wrong can make huge changes to your weight, fitness and overall health and help you get that bikini-ready body back in no time at all!