Cell phones have more germs than a toilet seat

Cellphones carry up to 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats, a new study has revealed.

Experts said the reason is that phones are often passed between people which spreads the germs around - but they are never cleaned which means the diseases keep on building up.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, said during his ongoing experiments he has found that bugs get onto a phone because it is so close to our hands and mouths.

When somebody lets a friend or a stranger use their mobile their bacteria easily gets onto the device too.

Professor Gerba added that because mobiles are electronic some people are reticent about cleaning them, the Daily Mail reported.

While toilets tend to get cleaned frequently, because people associate the bathroom with germs, cellphones and other commonly handled objects - like remote controls - are often left out of the cleaning routine.

Junk food could also damage brain, says study

Obesity-inducing junk food could also give you dementia through high blood pressure and cholesterol, which interrupt blood supply to the brain, says a study.

Some animal studies have specifically implicated insulin, a hormone, suggesting that Alzheimer's could be 'diabetes of the brain'. But the latest theory also points to high levels of fatty and sugary food damaging the brain by interrupting its supply of insulin.

In type 2 diabetes, junk food prompts our cells in becoming resistant to the insulin they need to convert sugar into energy.

Insulin is required to regulate brain chemicals, key to memory and learning, to make and strengthen connections between brain cells and to maintain the blood vessels that supply the brain with blood and oxygen, the journal New Scientist reports.

The study suggests that something similar may be happening in Alzheimer's, with a bad diet preventing brain cells from responding properly to insulin.

Rats developed Alzheimer's after being fed a compound that prevented their brains from using insulin, according to the Daily Mail.

Suzanne de la Monte, study co-author from Brown University, US, said: "They were demented. They couldn't learn or remember." When researchers fed healthy men and women fatty and sugary foods for a month, levels of insulin and beta amyloid rose.

With rates of diabetes soaring, dementia could be reaching 'epidemic' proportions.

The Alzheimer's Society's director of research, professor Clive Ballard said: "One in three people over 65 will develop dementia. Research like this points us in new directions for treatment development." 

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Gym supplements 'can do more harm than good'

High levels of additional protein can cause side effects, which include nausea as well as kidney and liver damage, according to The British Dietetic Association (BDA).

It now demands clearer warnings about what is in gym supplements that can come in the form of powders and bars, the BBC reported.

The body needs protein for muscle growth and many gym goers use it to try to get bigger quickly.

Gym supplements come under food law so although they have to be labelled properly what is in them can vary.

They are different to medicines, which legally have to ensure contents are more specific.

There have been warnings before, most recently from the Food Standards Agency, which advises people not to take gym supplements containing DMAA.

The BDA argues there is now evidence to show excess levels of additional protein taken over a long time can cause health problems.

"The more protein in your diet the more you have to get rid of," the BDA.

"People who have these high protein diets are now running into problems with their kidneys because of the amount of protein they must get rid of," it added.

The association believes people can get enough protein naturally from things like chicken and milk.

However, the Health Food Manufacturers' Association, which represents the supplement industry, says compared to other foods or medicines, gym supplements have an enviable record.

Many people commenting on Newsbeat's Facebook page also defended the reputation of gym supplements. 

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Real Muscle Real Fast!

by:Netfrenz
Adding muscle seems to be a mystery to most, yet if you pick up a copy of any fitness or bodybuilding magazine and you’ll almost always see a headline like this: “Gain 15 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks.”

If it were so easy you’d have millions of muscle-heads running around. Even though building muscle tissue can be a challenge, I’m going to outline some very specific principles that can pack on the muscle faster than you can throw away that copy of “Muscle and Fiction”!

Before we get started though I want to clarify a few points.

The ridiculous claims made by most fitness and bodybuilding magazines are only there to get you to buy that issue – nothing more! If you are serious about strength training you need to be reading books and NOT cheesy fitness magazines.
Ok… here we go.

In order to add muscle tissue you must force the body to add it. Your body won’t just add a pound of muscle just because you followed a 3-set workout that you read about in Muscle + Fitness. You need to give the body a reason to make improvements – in this case add muscle tissue.

You have to provide what I call a “stimulus”. This can be done in many ways and I’ll address a few in just a moment. Basically, you need to force the body to add muscle by subjecting it to levels of stress it is not used to. Some methods are more obvious than others but all can work. Here are a few examples of how this can be done effectively.

First, the basic and common methods:

Increase weight or resistance
Perform more repetitions
Perform more sets
Move the resistance slower
Rest less between sets and exercises

Now for the more advanced methods:

Pre-exhaust (perform an isolation exercise first and immediately continue with no rest on a compound movement. ex. chest flye and then chest press)


Static holds (hold the resistance in the hardest position of the range of motion. ex. the top position during a leg extension)


Partial reps in weak range (perform a portion of the rep where you are weakest. ex. the top half of a rep of leg extensions)


Strip-set (after a warm-up set, perform 3 sets back to back with no rest while starting with the heaviest weight possible and each time strip off some weight to allow you to continue)
1 ½ reps (perform one full rep and then on the second rep only perform half the normal range of motion and then return to starting position to begin the next rep. ex. one full rep of lat pulldowns, pull second rep all the way down, resist weight back up but only half way and then pull back down)
These are just a few examples of methods of increasing intensity to ensure progress. The key point to remember is that whatever you do it must be progressive in order for it to elicit a physical change. This is even more critical for those looking to add muscle size.

Although this article is geared towards individuals who are interested in gaining muscle size, the principles can also be used for individuals who want to build strength, increase metabolism, or tighten and tone muscles.

Here are some general recommendations for different goals…

If your goal is to tighten and tone muscles:

Focus on increasing reps, decreasing rest, and changing exercises frequently
Train each muscle group twice per week
Perform fewer sets of many different exercises (1-2 sets per exercise)

If your goal is to increase strength and power:


Focus on increasing weight
Train each muscle group once every 7-10 days
Perform multiple sets of each exercise (2-5 sets per exercise)


If your goal is to increase muscle size

Focus on shocking muscles by changing variables frequently (exercises, set and rep schemes, rest time, etc)
Train each muscle group on a variable schedule (experiment by training a muscle group 3 times a week and then once every ten days)
Perform multiple sets for a while and the perform single sets for a week or two


Some final reminders:

The recommendations above are general and of course would need to be adapted and adjusted for your personal goals and experience. For those of you who are advanced and may be thinking there’s no way you can build strength by training once every 10 days I challenge you to try it for at least 4 weeks, or those of you who think that you need to stick to the same basic movements like bench to build size I challenge you to try shocking the muscles by changing the exercises you perform each week for 4 weeks, and those of you with little experience I hope that you’ll throw away the fitness magazines and learn what really works.

There are some great books on these subjects and for those of you who are serious about strength training I personally recommend you check out the books “APEX” and “No Turning Back” by Brian Johnston. You can find them online at www.iart.com

If you have any questions about the techniques described in this article please feel free to contact me. You can email me at jesse@achieve-fitness.com

I wish you the best!