6 Exercises for a Flat Belly That You Can Do Right in a Chair

Office work has a lot of benefits. On the other hand, sitting for a long time can do harm to your health and body. An analysis of about 47 scientific research projects indicated that people who experience long time sitting can suffer from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity.
Luckily there are six exercises that you can do at your office chair to feel fresh and full of energy. Here they are:

Exercise # 06Knee to Chest Lift

Strengthens abdominal muscles, improves digestion, and helps to burn fat.

Procedure:

1.    Sit down on a chair. Keep your back straight without touching the back of the chair.

2.    Keep your feet on the floor hip-width apart.

3.    Keep your back straight. Lift your right knee, and pull it to your chest. Keep your belly sucked in.

4.    Put your hands on your shin to better stretch your lower abdominal muscles.

5.    Do this exercise 20-30 times by alternating your knees.

Exercise # 05Double Knee Lift

In this exercise, all of your belly muscles work efficiently and moderately at the same time.

Procedure:

1.    Keep your legs together.

2.    Hold the sides of the chair with both hands.

3.    While keeping your back straight, lift your knees and pull them to your chest. Your abdominal muscles should be tensed.

4.    Place your feet down, but don’t touch the floor.

5.    Perform this exercise 10-20 times.

Exercise # 04Double Knee Lift Combined With Body Side Bends

This workout will Shapes your waist. Oblique muscle workouts help to burn fat from the sides of your belly.

Procedure:

1.    Sit on the chair edge with a straight back. Hold the chair tightly with both hands.

2.    Bend your body to the side, and sit only on one glute.

3.    Keep your legs together, and lift both knees to your chest as described in Exercise 5.

4.    Return to your original position, and bend to the other side.

5.    Do this workout 10-20 times on each side.

Exercise # 03 Bending

This exercise helps you in burning fat on the belly sides and hips.

Procedure:

1.    Keep your feet on the floor.

2.    Straighten your arms at the level of your shoulders.

3.    Turn your upper body to the right, bend, and touch your left foot with your right hand. Stay in this position for a while.

4.    Return to the original position. Now bend to your right foot, touching it with your left hand.

5.    Repeat this workout for 20-30 times, interchanging sides with each bend.

Exercise # 02 Body Lift Above The Chair

Burns fat fast. Makes your belly, back, and shoulder muscles toned. To increase the

exercise intensity, you can use a chair with arms.

Caution: Don’t Do This Exercise On Rolling Chair.

Procedure:

1.    While sitting on the chair, hold the arms of the chair tightly.

2.    Lift your body above the chair to make your hips and legs hang in the air. Use your abdominal muscles to raise your knees to your chest.

3.    Stay in this position for at least 15-20 seconds, then slowly return to the original position and have a short break.

4.    Repeat the exercise 4 times.

Exercise # 01 Knee to Elbow Lift

This exercise is really good for your waist. It makes your oblique and lower abdominal muscles work out. To do it right, make sure your knee meets your opposite elbow. At that moment, your upper body should slightly turn.

Procedure:

1.    Sit on the chair with a straight back without touching the back of the chair. Put your hands behind your head.

2.    Lift your right knee to your chest. At the same time, bend your left elbow to meet your knee.

3.    Go back to the original position. Repeat 15 times.

4.    Change the knee and elbow, and repeat another 15 times.

5.    Try to make 4 series of each 15 lifts.

It is recommended that you do these 6 simple exercises every day in your office.You will not have to wait long for results! You can achieve even greater results if you combine the workout with a healthy diet plan.

Based on materials from Brightside

Foods That Are Proven to Naturally Whiten Your Teeth

7 Foods That Are Proven to Naturally Whiten

 Your Teeth

We all know the common (delicious) culprits that stain our pearly whites. Coffee, tea, red wine: We see you. But are there any foods or drinks that can actually do the opposite?

Believe it or not, the answer is yes. Not only can the right foods and drinks help scrub away stains and make your teeth look brighter, but some can also actually strengthen your chompers from the inside—and make them whiter on the outside.

So if you're curious about how to whiten teeth naturally, here are Seven dentist-approved picks to add to your menu.

Plain Yogurt

It’s a double-whammy, dental-wise. Yogurt is rich in calcium, which is essential for keeping your teeth looking healthy and bright. “Calcium-rich foods help strengthen the enamel, the outer layer of teeth that give them their whiteness,” says Timothy Chase, DMD, a cosmetic dentist at Smiles NY in Manhattan.

It’s also a good source of phosphorus, a mineral that works like a wing man to make calcium’s effects more potent. “While phosphorus doesn’t have a specific whitening effect, it does help maintain the enamel that gives teeth their outer beauty,” Chase says. Just steer clear of the flavored stuff. Over time, those added sugars can break down tooth enamel, dulling your smile.

Cheese

Like yogurt, it’s rich in the enamel strengtheners calcium and phosphorus. You’ll get the biggest bang for your buck from hard cheeses like cheddar, Gruyere, and Parmesan. Of course, you might not notice as much whitening action if you wash down your cheese plate with a glass of red wine.

Apples

Consider apples are nature’s best designer toothbrush. The crunchy feel of apples acts as a gentle abrasive to scrub away the plaque that can leave your teeth looking dull. “The chewing that’s required also promotes the production of saliva, which helps keep plaque from developing. And stains attach to plaque like Velcro,” says periodontics and nutrition expert Sandra Moldovan, MS, DDS CNS.

Carrots

Just like apples, carrots’ hard, crunchy texture can actually help scrub your teeth clean, say Muldovan and Freeman. You’ll want to stick with raw ones, though. Cooked carrots are too soft to deliver much scrubbing action.

Milk

Drink up for stronger bones—and whiter teeth. Milk is another top source of both calcium and phosphorus. Keep in mind that the mineral content goes up as the fat content goes down, so you’ll get the most of both nutrients from skim milk. (A cup of skim milk has 316 mg of calcium and 255 mg of phosphorus, while a cup of whole milk has 276 mg of calcium and 205 mg of phosphorus.)

Celery

Breaking down the crisp, fibrous stalks with your chompers helps scrape away stain-causing plaque and boosts the production of saliva. Crunch away, people. And maybe dip into a little peanut butter while you're at it.

Strawberries

Not only will they not stain your teeth red, but strawberries may also help make your teeth appear brighter and whiter. “They contain an enzyme called malic acid that works as a natural astringent to remove surface discoloration,” says Steven Freeman, DDS, owner of Elite Smiles in St. Augustine, Florida.

For even more whitening action, try applying mashed strawberries to your teeth like a paste for five minutes then rinsing and brushing as normal, he suggests. One study found that this method can help remove plaque to give it a whiter appearance without actually bleaching the teeth.

Sleep deprivation contribute to adverse weight gain

Source : Uppsala University 

In a new study, researchers at Uppsala University now demonstrate that one night of sleep loss has a tissue-specific impact on the regulation of gene expression and metabolism in humans. This may explain how shift work and chronic sleep loss impairs our metabolism and adversely affects our body composition. The study is published in the scientific journal Science Advances.

Epidemiological studies have shown that the risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes is elevated in those who suffer from chronic sleep loss or who carry out shift work. Other studies have shown an association between disrupted sleep and adverse weight gain, in which fat accumulation is increased at the same time as the muscle mass is reduced -- a combination that in and of itself has been associated with numerous adverse health consequences. Researchers from Uppsala and other groups have in earlier studies shown that metabolic functions that are regulated by e.g. skeletal muscle and adipose tissue are adversely affected by disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms. However, until now it has remained unknown whether sleep loss per se can cause molecular changes at the tissue level that can confer an increased risk of adverse weight gain.

In the new study, the researchers studied 15 healthy normal-weight individuals who participated in two in-lab sessions in which activity and meal patterns were highly standardised. In randomised order, the participants slept a normal night of sleep (over eight hours) during one session, and were instead kept awake the entire night during the other session. The morning after each night-time intervention, small tissue samples (biopsies) were taken from the participants' subcutaneous fat and skeletal muscle. These two tissues often exhibit disrupted metabolism in conditions such as obesity and diabetes. At the same time in the morning, blood samples were also taken to enable a comparison across tissue compartments of a number of metabolites. These metabolites comprise sugar molecules, as well as different fatty and amino acids.

The tissue samples were used for multiple molecular analyses, which first of all revealed that the sleep loss condition resulted in a tissue-specific change in DNA methylation, one form of mechanism that regulates gene expression. DNA methylation is a so-called epigenetic modification that is involved in regulating how the genes of each cell in the body are turned on or off, and is impacted by both hereditary as well as environmental factors, such as physical exercise.

"Our research group were the first to demonstrate that acute sleep loss in and of itself results in epigenetic changes in the so-called clock genes that within each tissue regulate its circadian rhythm. Our new findings indicate that sleep loss causes tissue-specific changes to the degree of DNA methylation in genes spread throughout the human genome. Our parallel analysis of both muscle and adipose tissue further enabled us to reveal that DNA methylation is not regulated similarly in these tissues in response to acute sleep loss," says Jonathan Cedernaes who led the study.

"It is interesting that we saw changes in DNA methylation only in adipose tissue, and specifically for genes that have also been shown to be altered at the DNA methylation level in metabolic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Epigenetic modifications are thought to be able to confer a sort of metabolic "memory" that can regulate how metabolic programmes operate over longer time periods. We therefore think that the changes we have observed in our new study can constitute another piece of the puzzle of how chronic disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms may impact the risk of developing for example obesity," notes Jonathan Cedernaes.

Further analyses of e.g. gene and protein expression demonstrated that the response as a result of wakefulness differed between skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. The researchers say that the period of wakefulness simulates the overnight wakefulness period of many shift workers assigned to nightwork. A possible explanation for why the two tissues respond in the observed manner could be that overnight wakefulness periods exert a tissue-specific effect on tissues' circadian rhythm, resulting in misalignment between these rhythms. This is something that the researchers found preliminary support for also in this study, as well as in an earlier similar but smaller study.

"In the present study we observed molecular signatures of increased inflammation across tissues in response to sleep loss. However, we also saw specific molecular signatures that indicate that the adipose tissue is attempting to increase its capacity to store fat following sleep loss, whereas we instead observed signs indicating concomitant breakdown of skeletal muscle proteins in the skeletal muscle, in what's also known as catabolism. We also noted changes in skeletal muscle levels of proteins involved handling blood glucose, and this could help explain why the participants' glucose sensitivity was impaired following sleep loss. Taken together, these observations may provide at least partial mechanistic insight as to why chronic sleep loss and shift work can increase the risk of adverse weight gain as well as the risk of type 2 diabetes," says Jonathan Cedernaes.

The researchers have only studied the effect of one night of sleep loss, and therefore do not know how other forms of sleep or disruption of circadian misalignment would have affected the participants' tissue metabolism.

"It will be interesting to investigate to what extent one or more nights of recovery sleep can normalise the metabolic changes that we observe at the tissue level as a result of sleep loss. Diet and exercise are factors that can also alter DNA methylation, and these factors can thus possibly be used to counteract adverse metabolic effects of sleep loss," says Jonathan Cedernaes.

Security gaps identified in Internet protocol 'IPsec'

                                                                                       

Materials provided by Ruhr-University Bochum

In collaboration with colleagues from Opole University in Poland, researchers at Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security (HGI) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have demonstrated that the Internet protocol "IPsec" is vulnerable to attacks. The Internet Key Exchange protocol "IKEv1," which is part of the protocol family, has vulnerabilities that enable potential attackers to interfere with the communication process and intercept specific information.

The research results are published by Dennis Felsch, Martin Grothe and Prof Dr Jörg Schwenk from the Chair for Network and Data Security at RUB as well as Adam Czubak and Marcin Szymanek from Opole University on 16 August 2018 at the Usenix Security Symposium.

Secure and encrypted communication

As an enhancement of Internet protocol (IP), "IPsec" has been developed to ensure cryptographically secure communication via publicly accessible resp. insecure networks, such as the Internet, by using encryption and authentication mechanisms. This type of communication is often relevant for enterprises whose employees operate from decentralised workplaces -- for example as sales reps or from home office -- and have to access company resources. The protocol can, moreover, be utilised to set up virtual private networks, or VPNs.

In order to enable an encrypted connection with "IPsec," both parties must authenticate and define shared keys that are necessary for communication. Automated key management and authentication, for example via passwords or digital signatures, can be conducted via the Internet Key Exchange protocol "IKEv1."

"Even though the protocol is considered obsolete and a newer version, namely IKEv2, has been long available in the market, we see in real-life applications that it is still being implemented in operating systems and still enjoys great popularity, even on newer devices," explains Dennis Felsch. But it is precisely this protocol that has vulnerabilities, as the researchers found out during their analysis.

Bleichenbacher's attack successful

In the course of their project, the researchers attacked the encryption-based logon mode of "IPsec" by deploying the so-called Bleichenbacher's attack, which had been invented in 1998. Its principle is: errors are deliberately incorporated into an encoded message, which is then repeatedly sent to a server. Based on the server's replies to the corrupted message, an attacker can gradually draw better and better conclusions about the encrypted contents.

"Thus, the attacker approaches the target step by step until he reaches his goal," says Martin Grothe and adds: "It is like a tunnel with two ends. It's enough if one of the two parties is vulnerable. Eventually, the vulnerability permits the attacker to interfere with the communication process, to assume the identity of one of the communication partners, and to actively commit data theft."

Bleichenbacher's attack proved effective against the hardware of four network equipment providers. The affected parties were Clavister, Zyxel, Cisco, and Huawei. All four manufacturers have been notified and have now eliminated the security gaps.

Passwords under scrutiny

In addition to the encryption-base logon mode, the researchers have also been looking into password-based login. "Authentication via passwords is carried out with hash values, which are similar to a fingerprint. During our attack, we demonstrated that both IKEv1 and the current IKEv2 present vulnerabilities and may be easily attacked -- especially if the password is weak. Accordingly, a highly complex password provides the best protection if IPsec is deployed in this mode," concludes Martin Grothe. The vulnerability was also communicated to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), as it coordinates the response to actual IT security incidents and provided assistance to the researchers as they notified the industry about the vulnerability.

All-clear for users and network equipment providers

The identified Bleichenbacher vulnerability is not a bug in the standard but rather an implementation error that can be avoided -- it all depends on how manufacturers integrate the protocol in their devices. Moreover, the attacker has to enter the network first, before he can do anything. Nevertheless, the researchers' successful attack has demonstrated that established protocols such as "IPsec" still include the Bleichenbacher gap that makes them potentially vulnerable to attack.

 

Blood test may identify gestational diabetes risk in first trimester, NIH study indicates

Early screening could allow for lifestyle changes before condition develops

 

Source of Information: NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

A blood test conducted as early as the 10th week of pregnancy may help identify women at risk for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related condition that poses potentially serious health risks for mothers and infants, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The study appears in Scientific Reports.

Gestational diabetes occurs only in pregnancy and results when the level of blood sugar, or glucose, rises too high. Gestational diabetes increases the mother's chances for high blood pressure disorders of pregnancy and the need for cesarean delivery, and the risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes later in life. For infants, gestational diabetes increases the risk for large birth size. Unless they have a known risk factor, such as obesity, women typically are screened for gestational diabetes between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy.

In the current study, researchers evaluated whether the HbA1c test (also called the A1C test), commonly used to diagnose type 2 diabetes, could identify signs of gestational diabetes in the first trimester of pregnancy. The test approximates the average blood glucose levels over the previous 2 or 3 months, based on the amount of glucose that has accumulated on the surface of red blood cells. According to the authors, comparatively few studies have examined whether the HbA1c test could help identify the risk for gestational diabetes, and these studies have been limited to women already at high risk for the condition. The test is not currently recommended to diagnose gestational diabetes at any point in pregnancy.

The researchers analyzed records from the NICHD Fetal Growth Study, a large observational study that recruited more than 2,000 low-risk pregnant women from 12 U.S. clinical sites between 2009 and 2013. The researchers compared HbA1c test results from 107 women who later developed gestational diabetes to test results from 214 women who did not develop the condition. Most of the women had tests at four intervals during pregnancy: early (weeks 8-13), middle (weeks 16-22 and 24-29) and late (weeks 34-37).

Women who went on to develop gestational diabetes had higher HbA1c levels (an average of 5.3 percent), compared to those without gestational diabetes (an average HbA1c level of 5.1 percent). Each .1 percent increase in HbA1c above 5.1 percent in early pregnancy was associated with a 22-percent higher risk for gestational diabetes.

In middle pregnancy, HbA1c levels declined for both groups. However, HbA1c levels increased in the final third of pregnancy, which is consistent with the decrease in sensitivity to insulin that often occurs during this time period.

"Our results suggest that the HbA1C test potentially could help identify women at risk for gestational diabetes early in pregnancy, when lifestyle changes may be more effective in reducing their risk," said the study's senior author, Cuilin Zhang, Ph.D., of the Epidemiology Branch at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Exercise and a healthy diet may lower blood glucose levels during pregnancy. If these measures are not successful, physicians may prescribe insulin to bring blood glucose under control.

The authors noted that further studies are needed to confirm whether measuring HbA1c levels in early pregnancy could determine a woman's later risk for gestational diabetes. Similarly, research is needed to determine whether lowering HbA1c with lifestyle changes, either in early pregnancy or before pregnancy, could reduce the risk for the condition.

Fasting: health benefits and risks

Fasting is commonly associated with the month of Ramadan. As you read this, billions of Muslims around the world are engaging in this declaration of faith that involves abstaining from food and drink from dawn until dusk. While fasting for Ramadan is down to spiritual beliefs, many of us choose to fast with the belief that it benefits our health. But does it?

In recent years, numerous studies have suggested that intermittent fasting - abstaining or reducing food and drink intake periodically - can be good for us, making it one of the most popular diet trends worldwide.

One of the most well-known intermittent fasting diets is the 5:2 Fast Diet - a plan that involves eating the recommended calorie intake for 5 days a week but reducing calorie intake to 25% for the remaining 2 days - to 500 calories a day for women and 600 a day for men.

According to Dr. Michael Mosley - author of The Fast Diet books - this eating plan can not only help people lose weight, but it offers an array of other health benefits.

"Studies of intermittent fasting show that not only do people see improvements in blood pressure and their cholesterol levels, but also in their insulin sensitivity," he adds.

In June 2014, for example, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting periodic fasting - defined in the study as 1 day of water-only fasting a week - may reduce the risk of diabetes among people at high risk for the condition.

Another study, conducted by Dr. Valter Longo and colleagues from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, found longer periods of fasting - 2-4 days - may even "reboot" the immune system, clearing out old immune cells and regenerating new ones - a process they say could protect against cell damage caused by factors such as aging and chemotherapy.

But what are the mechanisms underlying the suggested health benefits of fasting?

The potential benefits of intermittent fasting

Since the body is unable to get its energy from food during fasting, it dips into glucose that is stored in the liver and muscles. This begins around 8 hours after the last meal is consumed.

When the stored glucose has been used up, the body then begins to burn fat as a source of energy, which can result in weight loss.

As well as aiding weight loss, Dr. Razeen Mahroof, of the University of Oxford in the UK, explains that the use of fat for energy can help preserve muscle and reduce cholesterol levels.

"A detoxification process also occurs, because any toxins stored in the body's fat are dissolved and removed from the body," he adds, noting that after a few days of fasting, higher levels of endorphins - "feel-good" hormones - are produced in the blood, which can have a positive impact on mental well-being.

As mentioned previously, the study by Dr. Longo and colleagues suggests prolonged fasting may also be effective for regenerating immune cells.

"When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr. Longo explains.

In their study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the team found that repeated cycles of 2-4 days without food over a 6-month period destroyed the old and damaged immune cells in mice and generated new ones.

What is more, the team found that cancer patients who fasted for 3 days prior to chemotherapy were protected against immune system damage that can be caused by the treatment, which they attribute to immune cell regeneration.

"The good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting," says Dr. Longo. "Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system."

With the potential health benefits of fasting widely hailed by nutritionists worldwide, it is no wonder many of us are putting our love of food to one side in order to give it a try.

But intermittent fasting isn't all bells and whistles, according to some researchers and health care professionals, and there are some people who should avoid the diet altogether.