Countryside La Vie Magazine

it’s a dog’s life! Swap your gym membership for a dog – it keeps you fitter and freer from stress say research findings.

For a healthier and stress free lifestyle you’re better off walking a dog than joining a gym. That’s the conclusion of a nationwide survey and in-depth study commissioned by Butcher’s Dog Food, which found that walking a dog daily lowered blood pressure, slowed heart rates, reduced stress and enables you to recover more rapidly after a burst of strenuous physical activity

The survey, which polled over 1500 dog owners and gym goers, revealed the average dog owner will walk the equivalent of Bangkok to London over their pet’s lifetime (that’s 333 marathons!) Over the course of a year they cover 676 miles – that’s a staggering 208 miles more than gym goers, who only clock up 468 miles in an average year. So, the exercise dog walkers get from simple walkies and games is almost one third more than they would get out of an average gym membership over the same period.

Dog walkers are also more likely to stick to their routine (92%) whereas gym goers are found to lose interest after two or three months (52%).

To further investigate the findings of the survey, psychologist Dr David Lewis studied the health and exercise habits of two groups of middle aged men and women – one group consisted of dog walkers the other non-dog walking gym members.

His controlled tests discovered:
*Dog walkers had a much quicker recovery time after strenuous exercise than gym goers. After 8 minutes of strenuous exercise on a stepping machine within sixty seconds, dog walkers’ heart rate had returned almost to resting rate. Among gym members it was still 29 beats above resting level.

*Dog walkers spend a greater amount of time on heart strengthening aerobic exercise than gym goers – only 48% of time is dedicated to aerobic exercise.

*52% of gym members reported suffering from high levels of stress compared to only 35% of dog walkers. *One in three (31%) dog walkers reported being able to manage their stress easily, felt confident and optimistic most of the time among gym members less than a quarter (24%) said the same.

According to Butcher’s Pet Care depending on whether you like to stroll down the streets or power walk around the park there is a dog to suit your fitness level. Below is a list to help you pick your perfect training partner.

Strollers: Basset Hound, Whippet, Shih-Tzu, Dachshund & Corgi.

Brisk walkers: Boxer, Doberman, German Shepherd, JackRussell Terrier & Retrievers.

Power walkers: Border Collies, Dalmatian, Springer Spaniels, Setters & Weimaraner.

Says Alison Cockcroft, Butcher’s Brand Manager “Come January hordes of men and women will flock to the gym to ward off the excesses of Christmas, but how long will it last? We wanted to test the theory that a ‘walkie a day’ is just as beneficial, if not more, than spending time pumping iron in the gym – we were delighted to find that it is!”

Yan and his team were asked to help raise some money for Charity. One of Yans clients Dr Anne Horan and colleagues are doing the (Playtex moonwalk) a 26 mile walk around London during the early hours of (19th May) Saturday / Sunday morning to raise money for the breast cancer charity “walk the walk “. On Saturday the 12th May Yan and his team all wore decorated pink bras for the day while working in the salon to raise awareness and funds for the charity .

Money raised that day £253.78

Yan Quote ”It was a great day ,good fun and a bit of a laugh for all the staff and clients who were there , thank you all “

Bleaching: expensive and dangerous?

The first three seconds decide what effect you have on another person. A naturally radiant smile is almost impossible to resist. On the other hand teeth get discoloured in the course of time, or even turn brown. Coffee- and tea-drinkers and smokers are particularly affected. But help is at hand from professional tooth-whitening procedures, otherwise known as bleaching. The Dentaprime Dental Clinic at Varna in Bulgaria provides one of the safest and most

efficient bleaching methods there is - with the most up-to-date equipment and at reasonable prices. The idea of whitening teeth is not new. But the ultrasound bleaching system is! Analysis of a long-term study has shown that ultrasound bleaching, using the Dentaprime Clinic (QuickWhite ©) system, is the most efficient and safest professional tooth-whitening procedure to have a long-term effect. There is no change to the structure of the teeth and treatment is extremely gentle. One particular advantage is that thedentist can adjust the colour of fillings and crowns. This means that your smile is completely natural and white.

Worldwide patent

To start with, your teeth and the spaces between them get a completely professional clean. Then the dentist applies the patented QuickWhite© contact gel, depending on the condition of your teeth and the desired result. After this you relax comfortably for about 40 minutes in a specially designed chair, the KaVo Primus, manufactured in Germany. The whitening process uses ultra-sound and provides the best possible result.

In the Dentaprime Clinic the patented bleaching process costs about sixty per cent less than in the UK. As well as receiving treatment many patients use the opportunity to take a short holiday on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. You can obtain more information on the internet at:
www.dentaprime.com

Men who eat a lot of fatty fish run a lower risk of prostate cancer, concludes a new research paper from Karolinska Institutet. The effect is likely to be attributable to the abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, although there is also a hereditary factor.

To find out whether omega-3 fatty acids in food affect the chances of developing cancer, scientists asked 1,500 Swedish men with diagnosed prostate cancer about their eating habits and then compared the answers with a healthy control group. The results strongly support the hypothesis of the healthiness of omega-3 fatty acids. Men who eat salmon more than once a week run a 43 per cent less chance of developing prostate cancer than men who never eat salmon.

The scientists also analysed blood tests to find any genetic factors behind prostate cancer. Their results show

that men who carried a special variant of the COX-2 gene were the only ones to benefit from the protective properties of fatty fish. The group of men who carried this gene variant and who often ate salmon had a 72 per cent lower chance than men who never ate fatty fish. Research shows that there is an interaction between dietary factors and our genes, but its always hard to say what role the genes play, omega-3 fatty acids can still be good for men who dont carry this gene variant in completely different ways.