Health and Nutrition

According to the passage, heart is a

Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.

According to the Journal of American Geriatrics: If an inactive 70-year-old were to begin an exercise programme of 'moderate activity', the result would be a gain of 15 years in his age and if the subject were to achieve the 'athlete' level of conditioning, he could experience a potential improvement of 40 years in his age!
Harvard researchers tracked the workout habits of 17,321 healthy men for over 20 years and found that those who burnt at least 1,500 calories a week in activities such as running, brisk walking, cycling or swimming had a 25 percent lower death rate than men who burnt a meagre 150 calories per week exercising. That's the equivalent of the difference in mortality between non-smokers and men who smoke a pack of cigarettes daily!

Another Harvard study followed the living habits of more than 47,000 men aged 40 to 75 years for six years, and after adjusting for factors like diet and family history found that those who worked out at least thrice a week were significantly less likely to develop colon cancer or polyps (tumorous growth that can be a precursor to cancer) as compared to sedentary men.

Being overweight increases the risk of colon cancer. Obese men have a 50 per cent higher risk of contracting the disease and those who carried extra weight primarily in their abdominal region were 3 ½ times as likely as their leaner subjects. Researchers believe that exercise reduces the risk of colon cancer by lowering insulin levels that tend to be higher in normal weight people who are not physically active. The lower level of insulin promotes bowel activity, which does not allow cancer causing toxins to linger in the body for long.

Exercise reduces the risk of all types of cancer, by significantly boosting our body's internal defense against free radicals. No antioxidant action plan is complete without regular exercise, for the natural endogenous antioxidants (those produced by the human body), such as SOH, GSH and catalase may become too fragile for supplements to have their full effect.

For long, it has been known that exercise reduces blood pressure in the sedentary, helps lessen angina pains, and decreases harmful body fat which would otherwise affect the arteries and the heart. The heart, like any other muscle in the body, gets bigger, stronger and more efficient with exercise and pumps more oxygenated blood to different parts of the body. Not only are nutrients transported throughout the body; the muscles in the body also become more efficient at extracting oxygen from the bloodstream. Circulation improves too, partly because exercise boosts the number of small blood vessels (capillaries) that deliver oxygen to tissues and carry the excess away, including the deadly LDL cholesterol.

Exercise also burns body fat and raises metabolic activity. Most commonly people desirous of burning unwanted calories follow an exercise regime. Exercise helps regulate blood sugar metabolism and therefore may help to ward off the diseases.

Just as exercise strengthens the heart and lungs, bones and muscles, it may also power the brain, leading to faster reflexes, increased alertness and a pervading sense of well-being. Today's Archimedes would find creative inspiration, not in the bath, but on the treadmill. Aerobic exercise increases the amount of certain brain chemicals that stimulate growth of nerve cells. It also triggers the release of several key neurotransmitters, including epinephrine and norepinephrine that are known to boost awareness.

A vigorous workout stimulates the body to pump out the so called stress hormones, such as cortisol and epinephrine that prepare your heart, lungs and muscles for 'fight and flight'. By working out regularly, you almost 'train' the body to react less intensely to stress, as a result of that you can cope better with anxiety provoking events.

Directions: The following question contains paragraph with sentence or phrase missing indicated parenthetically. From the alternatives, select the sentence or phrase that best provides the missing link.

There is no area surrounding medical care that has as many experts, most of them hawking some new vitamin or nutritional supplement that will purport to "burn away fat" or transform me into a "muscled man to be envied". You do not have to go farther than the magazines at your home or office to find the vast variety of weight-loss products out there. Yet there is scant evidence for the claims that they make. (_____). It all comes down to the lax rules and regulations for supplements, which are seen as "foods" in the eyes of our advertising regulation system. Lots of money, lots of advertising and enticement, yet very little evidence or results.

Directions: Insert a suitable article from the alternatives given below to complete the following report.

Alternative health therapies include a range of practices and products. Rather than using drugs and surgery, most treatments are intended to help the body heal itself or improve the well-being. Because some of these therapies have not been scientifically verified, some people argue that they do not work. People may choose alternative treatment because they are dissatisfied with conventional medicine, or they prefer not to take drugs. A 2007 survey found that almost one in five adults had visited an alternative health practitioner in _____ previous year.

Directions: Fill I, II, III and IV with P, Q, R and S to make a meaningful story.

We know that sleep, rest and exercise are essential for health; walking is, in fact, the best form of the exercise. So, __I___ is very useful. It provides exercise to the body and freshness to the mind. A morning walk exercises many parts of the body-legs, arms, waist and chest. II_ improves the working of the lungs. It increases appetite and regulates digestion. As a result; we feel active __(III). The cool morning breeze _IV__. It recreates the mind and gives new energy to the body for the day's work.

P. is very refreshing Q. fresh air R. as well as fit S. a regular morning walk

Excessive use of cell phones may cause

Directions: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows.

Holding a cell phone to your ear for a long period of time increases activity in parts of the brain close to the antenna, researchers have found. Glucose metabolism — that’s a measurement of how the brain uses energy — in these areas increased significantly when the phone was turned on and muted, compared with when it was off, experts say.“Although we cannot determine the clinical significance, our results give evidence that the human brain is sensitive to the effects of radiofrequency-electromagnetic fields from acute cell phone exposures,”
Clearly there is an acute effect, and the important question is whether this acute effect is associated with events that may be damaging to the brain or predispose to the development of future problems such as cancer as suggested by recent epidemiological studies,”