Health Benefits from Hot Tub

Hot tubs are used for both pleasures as well as hydrotherapy purposes. They have shown positive results in the treatment for various chronic diseases like body aches, diabetes, etc. As a result, this is gradually becoming a popular means of therapy. Hot tubs are generally kept outdoors and the principles of sanitation used in swimming pools are used here also.

Stress relief

Most people these days suffer from a lot of stress and anxiety. Various factors including office pressure, academics, family life, etc. are the major reasons for the rampant stress and stress related disorders afflicting modern society. Insomnia is a direct effect of stress. Hot tubs can be effective in relieving stress and tension. The massaging jets are so relaxing that one can fall asleep quite soon. Reports suggest that relaxing in hot tubs for 15 minutes every night can improve sleep.

Muscle relaxation

Hydrotherapy can be useful for treating stressed muscles and nerves. In fact, the hot tub jets massage the body and relieve it from pressure. Because of the property of buoyancy, a relaxing time spent in a hot tub can make one feel much lighter and as a result, the joints are relieved of pain. Arthritis has a potential cure in hydrotherapy because of the reduction in muscle stiffness.

Blood circulation

Bathing in hot tubs can have enormous benefits in improving blood circulation. The high temperature in these tubs is important in opening the blood vessels. This process of vasodilation helps to decrease the blood pressure. Because of the dilated blood vessels, there is an ease of blood flow. This helps to stimulate the nerves of the circulatory system. This acts as a boost to the immune system of the body. However, patients suffering from blood pressure need to consult their doctors before taking to hydrotherapy. Also, alcohol needs to be avoided while switching from hot to cold water.

Help in Diabetes

Recent research has shown bathing in hot tubs can be very useful for patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. Soaking in the hot water for almost 30 minutes a day can be effective in losing weight, reducing blood sugar, and improving sleep cycle in people. For those who are unable to exercise regularly, hot water therapy seems to be a viable alternative. However, diabetic patients need to be cautious while undergoing therapy. As the drop in blood sugar is not clearly visible once inside the water, they must be careful while coming out of the tub. Also, the temperature needs to be controlled so that they do not get burns due to damaged nerves.

Hot tubs have a lot of health benefits. It is because of these benefits that many people are switching to this therapy for alleviating body pains and discomfort.

About the author

Grace Beckett is a blogging enthusiast and likes to write about health and lifestyle. For more information on custom pools Toronto, Ontario, Canada contact a swimming pool specialist at Bonavista Pools.

Good sleep will save from diabetes

U.S. researchers have found that a 7-hour night's sleep can prevent the development of diabetes in adolescents.

What is diabetes
Diabetes - a disease in which there is a persistent increase in the level of glucose in the blood. Distinguish type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. With type 1 diabetes is a destruction of the pancreatic cells, which produce insulin . Insulin is needed by the body to lower blood glucose. The remaining cells of the pancreas can not meet the body's need for insulin, so most of the glucose does not enter the cells, and stays in the blood.

With type 2 diabetes, pancreatic cells do not suffer, and the body is enough insulin. However, the cells lose their sensitivity to insulin - is developing the so-called insulin resistance . If we imagine that insulin - is a key that opens the cell for glucose, insulin resistance is at a key does not fit the lock and can not open the cage. As a result, glucose does not enter the cells, and stays in the blood.

The essence of the study
The study involved 245 healthy students. Average duration of a night's sleep during the week was 6.4 hours, and during the week of sleep was significantly less than the weekend.

The less sleep a student, the more pronounced was insulin resistance. As researchers found, the extra hour of sleep for teens who usually sleep at 6:00, will reduce insulin resistance by 9%. Since insulin resistance leads to diabetes, the more sleep to prevent the disease.

Type 2 diabetes boosts death risk from breast cancer

Sunday Sept 16, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in Cancer Causes and Control suggests that being type 2 diabetic potentially increases risk of death from breast cancer. Because having type 2 diabetes also means to have diabetes treatment, diabetes treatment can potentially be linked to higher risk for breast cancer death.

M. T. Redaniel of University of Bristol in Bristol, UK and colleagues conducted the case-control study and found women with breast cancer who also suffered type 2 diabetes mellitus were 40 percent more likely to die from all causes, compared with those with breast cancer only.

The association, which was derived already after adjustment for age, period, region, smoking status, body mass index, alcohol drinking and deprivation, was based on data from 52,657 women with type 2 diabetes diagnosed between 1987 and 2007 and 30,210 randomly selected women without type 2 diabetes.

This association can be easily understood. Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients have insulin insensitivity or insulin resistance and tend to produce more insulin than people without diabetes type 2 do. When insulin is produced, insulin-like growth factor-1 is also produced, which is known to promote cancer growth.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus was also associated with 29 percent increased overall risk for developing breast cancer. This association was attenuated after adjustment for other factors like age, period of cohort entry, region, and BMI. That is, women with type 2 diabetes were 12 percent more likely than those without the disease to develop breast cancer.

Diabetes treatments may make some difference in the risk of developing breast cancer. Compared with sulfonylurea, metformin monotherapy and insulin therapy were associated with 4 and 33 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer among women with diabetes. From the study report abstract, it is unknown whether using sulfonylurea would increase risk of breast cancer.

Of all the associations, the one between being diabetic and risk of breast cancer was the strongest, suggesting that it is important to maintaining adequate glycemic control alongside cancer treatment, the researchers concluded.

The findings suggest that type 2 diabetes may increase risk of developing breast cancer and death from the disease.

By David Liu, PHD