Monthly Archives: October 2009

How Fear Can Damage Your Health

paranoid-eye-is-watching-you

Fear and anxiety lead to stress. When you are stressed, adrenaline drips into the system. When you live like this long-term you do great physical harm to your  body.

Forced to remain in situations that produce stress, your metabolism changes. The human body is simply not constructed to constantly operate on emergency power. Long term exposure to high levels of adrenaline leads to disorders such as hypertension. Over-exposure can lead to loss of appetite, insomnia, fatigue, loss of libido, irritable Bowel Syndrome and a general decline in health.

Adrenaline harms our immune systems, contributes to heart disease and helps in the development of cancers. A long-term study of 400 male and 200 female executives—people who routinely operate under high levels of adrenalins—showed that the men suffered more heart problems and the women more cancer than people who had less stressful, anxiety-causing jobs.

Find Extra Time

Do you spend an hour a week reading junk mail? That’s 60 minutes that you could spend reading a good book, or maybe even writing a book. Do you spend five hours a week watching sitcoms on TV? That’s nearly 300 minutes you could spend polishing up your English or taking your family to the park. Here are a few tips to find extra time:

Organize your day. Make a checklist of the work you need to get done every day. Be realistic when writing the list, and then stick to it. When you’ve finished the day’s tasks, you may find some time left to pursue those extra activities. Also, a daily planner is nice for helping you remember activities scheduled in advance.

Set goals. Decide on some short-term and long-term goals for your time. Write these goals down and put them where you will see them every day. By setting goals, you can quickly identify what activities are not contributing to your overall plan.

Make healthy decisions. Eat quality food, get plenty of sleep, and exercise regularly. Yes, this will consume a few of your precious minutes. But you’ll also have more energy. That means you’ll be more likely to spend your evenings productively instead of collapsing in front of the TV.

Using Garbage as a Fuel

BURNING-GARBAGE

The things in garbage do not look like coal, petroleum, or natural gas; but they are chemically similar to these fossil fuels. As we use up our fossil fuel supplies, we might be able to use garbage as an energy source.

Burning garbage is not a new idea. Some cities in Europe and the United States have been burning garbage for years. The heat that is produced by burning garbage is used to boil water. The steam that is produced is used to make electricity or to heat nearby buildings. In Paris, France, some power plants burn almost 2 million metric tons of the cities garbage each year. The amount of energy produced is about the same as would be produced by burning almost a half million barrels of oil !!

But there are problems in using garbage as a fuel.Garbage that burns easily,such as food scraps and paper,must separated from metals,glass,and other materials that do not burn easily.This separation process is normally costly.Another problem is that burning garbage can pollute the air.

Our fossil fuel supplies are limited.Burning garbage might be one kind of energy source that we can use to help meet our energy needs.This method could also reduce the amount of garbage piling up on the earth.

Joining a Health Club

health-clubYou should do some investigating before you decide to join a health club.

Make sure that the contract you sign is accurate. Check the agreement to be certain that the fees listed are correct, that the penalties for breaking the contract are specified, and that no hidden charges are included l.

As soon as you begin thinking about joining a health club, make a list of your needs and requirements. Decide if you want (or will ever use) facilities such as a swimming pool, hogging track, steam room, weight machines, racquetball courts, or a bar and lounge. Your requirements will determine what kind of club you should join and where you will truly get your money’s worth.

After you have decided what type of exercise club is best for you, visit some local clubs and check out the facilities. Make sure that the equipment is in good order, that the changing rooms and exercise ares are clean, and that there are enough instructors for everyone. Talk to some of the members to see if they are satisfied with the club and its management. Ask them if they have had any problems with contract, the club’s hours, or lack of equipment. Once you have found the best club, you are ready to sign a membership contract.

How to Prevent Cheating

cheatInstructors should take steps to prevent students from cheating on exams.

To begin with, instructors should stop reusing old tests. A test that has been used even once is soon known on the student grapevine. Students will check with their friends to find out, for example, what was on Dr. Thompson’s biology final last term. They may even manage to find a copy of the test itself, “ accidentally” not turned in by a former student of Dr. Thompson’s.

Instructors should also take some commonsense precautions at test time. They should make students separate themselves—by at least one seat—during an exam, and they should watch the class closely. The best place for the instructor to sit is in the rear of the room, so that a student is never sure if the instructor is looking at him or her.

Last of all, instructors must make it clear to students that there will be stiff penalties for cheating. One of the problems with our school systems is a lack of discipline. Instructors never used to give in to students demands or put up with bad behavior, as they do today.

Anyone caught cheating should immediately receive a zero for the exam. A person even suspected of cheating should be forced to take an alternative exam in the instructor’s office. Because cheating is absolutely morally wrong, it should not be tolerated.