Sly Workplace Workouts

If you don’t have access to the gym and your local surroundings leave you uninspired, cardiovascular workouts can be rather dull. Despite this, working out at home or even at work during breaks needn't be a tiresome chore. Simple, breezy exercises can be fun and also help you stay on top of weight management in a largely idle lifestyle such as office work. Why not try quick bursts of the following?

·         Lunges

Not only are lunges good fun but they also have a playful element to them too. If you get caught lunging around in the changing room or outside during a work break, chances are you can just laugh it off and people will want to join in. Read here how to pull off a perfect lunge.

·        Marching

Marching is incredibly beneficial and again, plenty of fun if you do it to music in quick five minute bursts. Find a spacious spot and march in place consistently for five minutes while bringing your knees up to your waist (if you can!) every time. This will work your thighs, hips, abdominal and buttock muscles and you’ll feel fantastic once you get in the swing of things. Try and repeat this twice a day and you’ll slowly but surely build up stamina and strength.

·         Squats

Another great work out that can be completed in 5-6 minutes in a stationary position. Squatting will tone your hips and offer an efficient build up to lower strength you never thought attainable. We recommend doing as many reps as you can in 30 second bursts over several minutes. Try and keep symmetrical and sturdy and lower yourself as much as possible before getting back up.

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Perks of Water

Health experts, tabloids, broadsheets, your parents... if there’s one thing they’ve all been telling us for years it’s to stay hydrated. With the rise in junk food culture and fizzy pop substitutes, it can be difficult to convince even grown adults that they really should be drinking water instead. It’s not uncommon to encounter people in their 60s still hooked on their daily swig of coca cola, we’ve all grown up with it but only you can take a healthy turn for the better. So, why is water beneficial? 

•          Internal Transportation

Water is essential in just about every factor of your body’s inner processes, not surprising when you consider it composes 60% of us. It keeps your blood cells healthy and flowing, it transports nutrients and oxygen around the body and it’s also a great catalyst in the digestion and excursion of waste. You wouldn’t travel by boat without water would you? Don’t leave your biological vessel high and dry. 

•          Skin

Water is essential for the maintenance of healthy skin, which again is largely composed of moisture. Those who neglect hydration or drink excessive amounts of diuretics are likely to suffer from dried out skin and premature signs of aging. Keeping your skin soft needn’t be a chore, and while moisturisers can help maintain a level of skin hydration, its water you need to form that initial foundation. 

•          Cerebral Power

Not to imply drinking water will give you superman levels of intellect but it’s undeniable that without water, you simply won’t reach your mental peak. The brain is mostly comprised of water (notice a pattern here?) and drying it out like a sponge will only put it under unnecessary duress. By keeping hydrated you’ll aid concentration, alertness and creativity. 

•          Weight Loss

When people find themselves peckish in between meals, the reality is they’re probably just a little dehydrated. Fight the urge to tear open a bag of crisps and drink some water. It’ll fill you up, remove by- products of fat, improve your metabolism and keep your body occupied until you really are hungry. Then there’s the obvious fact it has no calories whatsoever so you can never feel guilty about drinking too much!

 

There are many more obvious perks of water so feel free to share your tips.

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Channel Island Co-Op Society to place defibrillators

The Channel Islands Co-op Society is paving the way for other well-known retail brands in regards to providing for public health needs. The company is planning to place defibrillators in 12 of their stores across in Jersey. The first defibrillator was installed in St Helier Grand Marche on the 16th of December, with the rest of the devices will be fitted within the next few weeks.

Staff who work in the branches have been thoroughly trained by St Johns Ambulance on how to use the heart restarting devices correctly. The service has provided 92 hours of training to Society colleagues.

Even though the stores reside on a relatively small island of Jersey, the devices were desperately needed for areas where an ambulance cannot reach quickly.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Society, commented on the project ‘There is nothing more precious than life and if sudden cardiac arrest occurs, anyone can help save a life with this equipment. We live on a relatively small Island but in the event of a cardiac arrest, each and every second counts until the ambulance arrives. A great deal of work has been put into ensuring that all of our food stores will have accessible defibrillators 24/7 and our colleagues in store are comfortable using them, should the need arise.’

How 3D printing can revolutionise the medical field

The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving its efforts into 3D printing. From advanced prosthetic limbs and using cells to print organs, experimental headway is being made within the industry.

Technology has always been a present feature in the medical field, and even more so now that bio printing has stormed ahead at the forefront of technological advances. To put it simply, bio printing works when cells are fused together with hydrogel to create tissue.

At the moment bio printing is just that, experimental, and many of the experiments underway still have progress to be made. The majority of projects developed over the past year still need to figure out how to apply their findings to humans. As a fairly new market it can be difficult to gauge exactly where it is going to go. Nonetheless there are two advancements this year which have captivated the medical community.

A company called Organov has already successfully printed sheets of cardiac tissue and blood vessels that beat along, just like any normal heart would. This could be game-changing for humans in the future.

Scientists at MIT have long been experimenting with bio printing, and Sangeeta Bhatia’s team have created miniature human livers. The human livers were created in a lab, and contain approximately a million cells. It seems that synthetic organs could not be far off.

Schools eligible to receive life-saving equipment!

Northern Irish schools will soon benefit from a new initiative, announced the Education Minister this month. Schools all over Northern Ireland will be eligible to receive vital life-saving equipment, including defibrillators, on top of the current first aid system in place, as a result of the new scheme.

The plan will affect both Primary School and Secondary schools up and down the country, although the new scheme won’t be completely free for those involved. It’s speculated that contracts will be available to receive training at reduced costs to ensure the proper steps are taking when using the machines. Schools will also receive a hefty discount on the machines themselves. Any school which decides to opt-in to the additional level of first aid will be strongly supported by health professionals.

The proposed plan won’t just affect schools though; the aim of the scheme is to provide defibrillators in 43,000 public places at a cost of over 100 million Euros.

Launching the new guidelines, John O’Dowd said: “Thankfully, the incidence of cardiac arrest in under-18s is very low” and added “however we know that in such circumstances the most effective treatment is CPR combined with the use of a defibrillator. This significantly improves survival rates.”

The scheme is also spreading out to areas where the risk of cardiac arrest is highest, such as leisure facilities and training grounds. The devices will be available at such locations and other heavily populated areas.

It’s great to see another city which has a strong focus on the health of the public.

The Shard becomes the new home of a defibrillator

The Shard welcomed almost one million visitors through its door during the first year of the opening to the public, and popularity has continued to steadily grow for the tourist attraction. Not content with being a beloved feature in London, they also want to become one of the safest, so much so they have recently become the new home of a defibrillator - which is the highest device in the whole of Western Europe.

The operations director of The Shard, Sandy Clarke has urged for "every business in London to get a defibrillator installed. If we can install one at one of the highest points in Europe, then anyone can do it!"

The director added "we know that having this equipment and properly trained staff to use it could help us save a life in the future."

The newly installed device is part of the London Ambulance Service's Shockingly Easy campaign, which has been taking the city by storm. The primary aim of the scheme is to fit over 1000 defibrillators across London. The scheme will be focusing on public areas such as businesses, retail areas, sports facilities and high footfall areas.







The campaign also provides support to organisations, and will help businesses through the process of purchasing and installing a defibrillator, staff training and becoming accredited with the London Ambulance Service.


Seeing such an attraction like The Shard investing in a defibrillator is a big step, and hopefully we could soon see other major players follow their lead.

Defibrillators Open Job Opportunities!

A Belfast company has created more than 40 jobs in the name of "making defibrillators as common as fire extinguishers” as said by the chief executive of HeartSine Technology. Declan O’Mahoney is focusing on portable defibrillators and says he wants to double the sales of the existing product over the next 3 years.

The 40 new jobs will contribute around 1.3 million a year to the economy. Mr O’Mahoney is dedicated to the cause, stating “Around 100,000 people die from sudden cardiac arrest in the UK and Ireland each year, a couple of hundred die in fires," he said.

The positions opening are in a wide array of sectors, from senior management, product development, quality control, customer service, sales and manufacturing. The company has stated they wish to employ those who live in the local area to help the area with jobs.

"Yet there is a fire extinguisher or a smoke alarm in every public building. Our products are already in schools, restaurants, churches, sports clubs and even oil rigs and I want to make sure they are in every public building in the same way that fire extinguishers are.”
He also added “Our objective is to strength our workforce in Belfast so that we can double sales of our existing product portfolio, in our target markets over the next 3 years”

It’s great to see a company put so much work into making defibrillators a common item for citizens.