In today’s economy, it is becoming increasingly difficult for teenagers and college graduates alike to find jobs. However, every summer there seems to be one stable job: lifeguarding.

Lifeguarding is an investment because you have to pay a couple hundred dollars to get certified, but in my experience, many employers offer to reimburse you. A lifeguard certification (life saving and first aid) is good for three years. However, you have to get recertified for CPR every year.

Some great places to work as a lifeguard would be the following:

• YMCA
• NYSC
• Your local swim club
• Your local swim school
• Your local gym
• Your College/University
• Your local Day Camp

One of  the most important benefits of being a lifeguard is the acceptance of the responsibility. For teens/young adults, lifeguarding is a great way to teach them how their attentiveness and actions greatly affect others. For example, this experience will likely encourage teens to think twice about driving and texting or drinking and driving. In some facilities, one lifeguard may be responsible for an entire pool. In other facilities like a day camp, a lifeguard may be one of twenty lifeguards responsible for one pool. It all depends on the facility but one thing remains: lifeguards are trained and responsible for safety first.

Another benefit of lifeguarding is the ability to teach people, young or old, how to swim. At the YMCA or day camp, lifeguards may be responsible to teach children as young as two how to swim or at least introduce them to the water.

Some strategies to being the best swim instructor are as follows:

• Know the names of your kids within two days—they generally respond better with individual attention
• Make the kids comfortable with you right away. Know their fears and favorite things; if you are aware of a fear up front, you can begin concurring it sooner. If they like to jump into deep water, make sure you allow them to participate in that favorite activity often.
• Form relationships with your kids. On Monday ask them how their weekend was and what they did. Play games like Goofy and learn what their favorite color and favorite activity at camp are.  Try to put everything in terms they will understand. For example, for young boys relate things to cartoons or super heroes.
• Make your kids want to come to swim lessons! They have to enjoy what they are learning!

Finally, the financial benefits of being a lifeguard. With a lot of responsibility comes a lot of compensation.

• If you are teaching swim lessons for a group and a parent thinks their kids requires extra time and attention and you agree encourage private swim lessons. In my experience, I found that children respond better and learn more quickly with individual lessons. Also, as a certified lifeguard you can charge anywhere from $20-$30/30 minutes depending on your experience.
• If you are not interested in teaching private swim lessons, people are always looking for lifeguards for private parties. The going rates for these range from approximately $25-$35/hour. Keep in mind, parties are usually a few hours like 3PM-8PM where you could make a well-earned $125 for the day.

Overall, lifeguarding is a great skill and certification to have. It looks great on a resume and shows extreme dedication and responsibility. If you choose to become a lifeguard…best of luck to you! My last words of advice…wear SPF 30 at all times!

What would you do if you learned that your town was the fattest in America?  Well, for the residents of Huntington, West Virginia, this was exactly their predicament in 2008.  All that was going to change, though, when British chef Jamie Oliver heard the news. Jamie Oliver is an all natural chef from England.  Well known for his work in revamping the English public schools food program, his latest project is titled Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which airs on ABC Friday nights at 9pm Eastern time.

Now, you might be asking what exactly is a food revolution?  Well, Jamie is a promoter of fresh food, this means no preservatives, no additives, no coloring, just fresh, fresh, fresh.  His goal for the show is to come into the city and effectively bring this idea to how food is made in the schools, on the street and in the home.

Jamie met a lot of opposition.  The residents were not so willing to follow his meals at home, and the schools were having trouble finding the time, money and extra help to pull off the freshly prepared meals.  

Also, the kids were not exactly thrilled with the meal changes.  Jamie went to great lengths to convince the town that his meals were better for them and still fast.  In working with the parents to show them the seriousness of the situation he is quoted as saying, “Statistically your kids will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents.”

Now let’s stop and think about this.  This next generation of kids will live shorter lives than their parents because of the food we feed them. Come on, people. We are taking years off our lives due to the fact that we don’t want to take an extra five minutes to prepare a fresh meal!  This was the point Jamie did get through to the parents, and he hopes to bring his meals to all of the county schools. So, are you ready to get on board? Follow his show on ABC or visit his page on ABC.com and finally take the initiative.

In the words of Jamie Oliver, “Cheers!”

Sadly more adults are overweight or obese today than ever before. According to the Mayo Clinic, Interleukin Genetics, Inc’s division Inherent Health is now offering an at-home test you can take to decide if your DNA is to blame for your heavy condition. In a short time, you’ll know if you can blame your family – or that half-eaten cheesecake sitting in the fridge.

You can purchase Inherent Health’s test online for $149. They send you a kit to swab your DNA and return it for the test results. Their laboratory then looks for Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in four genes (FABP2, PPARG, ADRB2 and ADRB3). The test offers a profile to assist you in managing your weight loss through diet and exercise, all with keeping in mind genetic factors that may play a part in your overweight or obese condition.

This test was examined by Stanford researchers, and their results showed that out of 140 overweight or obese women, those who kept with the diet given to them with the test results lost more weight than women who chose other methods. These successful women lost a total of 5.3 percent of their body weight, as opposed to the other women who lost 2.3 percent body weight.

The results of this test could be interesting, especially if you feel that genetics are part of the reason you are having trouble with your weight. The test brings exciting ideas about the beliefs of weight loss to the forefront, as scientists are thinking in different ways about weight loss.

One still can argue that the test taker who discovers that genetics are the reason for her overweight or obese condition needs to focus on healthy living – not on pointing fingers for her condition. If this test can be taken with the attitude of not only finding the reason for weight gain but understanding that the solution is still to focus on a healthy lifestyle (or other options, such as Lap Band Mexico), those who are overweight or obese will see greater success than if they simply focus on the results. The thought that the test results come with a suggested diet that has shown to be successful in a Stanford based study is certainly something to think about. Just don’t chew on the results – go for a walk instead!

If your work involves sitting the whole day in front of the computer, then you need to know that there is a warning from health experts about sitting too much: it is dangerous to your health. What is alarming is that even if you exercise regularly, the effects of sitting too much everyday can still be very bad for your health. The exercise you do in the morning before you go to work will not help in lessening the bad effects of sitting too much the whole day.

We all know that people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to become fat and susceptible heart attack, but that is just one part of it, there is more to prolonged sitting than just becoming fat. Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences says that “after four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals and the genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down.” A study in Canada that was published last year revealed that people who spend most of their time siting have a higher death risk whether or not they exercised regularly.

Now that we know that sitting too much could be deadly, what can we do to counteract it? Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge has this advice: “We don’t have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad, but it seems the more you can get up and interrupt this sedentary behavior, the better.” Ekblom-Bak has similar advice; she says, “People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits, but when they’re in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible, don’t just send your colleague an e-mail. Walk over and talk to him. Standing up.”

No, it is not a study about a new drug that improves on what Viagra can do, it is something even better than that. Researchers from North Carolina’s Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine successfully have completed a study that may help male patients who are suffering from inborn abnormalities of the reproductive organ, penile cancer, erectile dysfunction, and those who are sexually impaired as a result of accident. The researchers have grown erectile tissue in the laboratory and  have used it successfully in restoring the sexual function in rabbits. The scientists started by collecting smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells from the erectile tissue of rabbits. The cells were then grown in test tubes in the laboratory. After the cells matured and formed a sponge-like tissue, the process of surgically implanting the new erectile tissue in the rabbits followed. After a month, the implanted tissue began to reconstitute itself and formed the blood vessels necessary for erection. In time, the rabbits’ sexual functions were fully restored. The study was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We were able to show the tissue was able to integrate and function in the long term, which means we can start planning clinical applications in humans. Our hope is to be able to treat patients with many conditions, including congenital abnormalities of the penis, traumatic injuries, penile cancer and severe cases of erectile dysfunction that don’t benefit from drug treatments,” the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and senior author of the study, Dr. Anthony Atala said.

The study is really promising, but it is still in the early stage. This gives a lot of men hope because the researchers have shown that it is possible to grow erectile tissue in the laboratory. More than 30% of men do not respond to drugs for erectile dysfunction, and this study aims at addressing their problem.

Last year sparked the awareness of what we all know as the H1N1 flu virus.

Novel Influenza A (H1N1) virus, the “pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus” or “swine flu”, is a type of influenza virus that causes respiratory disease. It can spread between people, and as of August 25th, 2009, there have been 1528 hospitalizations, ICU cases, and deaths. On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6.  It was raised to this level in response to the ongoing global spread of the swine flu.

What does it mean to have a pandemic alert level of Phase 6? According to WHO, “Phase 6, the pandemic phase, is characterized by community level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different WHO region in addition to the criteria defined in Phase 5. Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way.”

Let us take a step by step look at the various phases this virus has gone through in order to get to this extremely serious phase.

In Phase 1 we know that the virus exists naturally among animals, especially birds. In this phases there are no reported cases of humans being infected by this virus that exists among the animals. A virus is proclaimed to be Phase 2 when it is known to have infected humans. At this point officials start to consider this virus as a potential pandemic threat. Phase 3 indicates that there are sporadic or clusters of diseases in people, which means that it seems as though this virus is spread via human to human contact. However, in reality, during this stage the disease is still not spread through humans.

Phase 4 means that human to human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza virus has occurred. The influenza virus may or may not yet be proclaimed a pandemic. Phase 5 means that human to human spread of the virus exists in at least two countries in one WHO region. This means that a pandemic is imminent.

The N1N1 virus has now passed Phase 5 and is in Phase 6. The most important idea to remember is to stay healthy and to take precautionary measures this upcoming season rather than panic about this pandemic.

Is exercise good for pregnant women? You may think that because pregnancy brings a lot of changes in the body of a woman, exercise may not be advisable for those who are pregnant. But a new study shows that a well-designed exercise program could be beneficial for both the mother and the baby inside her.

Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health for the Saint Louis University School of Medicine says that women who exercise during pregnancy are less likely to develop conditions like gestational diabetes. Dr. Artal also says that “exercise maintains musculoskeletal fitness and women can cope with the anatomical and physiological changes of pregnancy better when they’re in good shape. Women who exercise can also tolerate labor better and recover more quickly from delivery as compared to those who do not exercise.”

But it is not only the mother who benefits from exercise, the baby also gets something very good out of the mother’s exercise. The baby reaps cardiac benefits in the form of lower fetal heart rates every time the mother works out. A 30 minute session of moderate exercise each day is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But a pregnant woman must first seek the advice of her doctor before doing any kind of exercise.

“A lot of things depend on the level of fitness a woman had before her pregnancy,” Dr. Thomas Wang, a family practitioner for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, said. An expectant mother should see to it that the kind of exercise she will do will give her a good level of exertion but not too much that it tests her pregnant body’s limits. ”Anything that involves impact or the chance of abdominal trauma, they should try to avoid,” Dr. Wang explained.

The best exercise that a pregnant woman could pursue is any one of the following: walking, light dancing, and light swimming. Exercise that involves the risk of falling should be avoided.

When you take medication, how can you be assured that it is being released into your system at the necessary location?  Until now, there was less assurance.

However, Philips Healthcare has announced new “intelligent pill technology”.  The iPill has the ability to measure the amount of acid in the digestive tract.  When the pill reaches the location that has the correct acidity level, the medication is released.

Another feature of the iPill noted on Philips’ website is that “the capsule is designed to measure local temperature, and report measurements wirelessly to an external receiver unit.”

To read the full article about this advance in medicine, click here.