Yoga had been an essential part of Indian history since ancient times. Interestingly, in recent times it has spread to even the remotest countries of the world. Given its immense benefits for body and mind, this form of exercise is now practiced far and wide.

Why Chose Yoga?

Yoga promotes healing from within, meaning equipping your body to tackle all the issues it is facing. The philosophy of yoga is to connect the body, mind and spirit. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health explains multiple studies have shown how benefits of yoga cover several aspects of wellness, including stress management, mental/emotional health, healthy eating, active habits, sleep and balance.

What Makes It Different From Other Forms Of Exercises

Like many other exercises, doing yoga everyday offers many benefits to people. However, people are still hesitant to do yoga. The fast-paced perceptions of people make them think something as laid back as yoga will not give them the changes they need.

The results of yoga and exercise are different as yoga focuses on postures and relaxations of muscles. The movements in yoga are slow and controlled unlike exercises. You may try to keep your breathing stable, but the physical excursion makes it difficult.

Yoga also focuses on energy efficiency, meaning you do not feel drained and tired, rather rejuvenated after doing it. You will also see an overall increase in your lifestyle quality.

What Changes In Your Body Once You Start Practicing Yoga Every Day

You Will Find Household Activities Easier

Yoga stretches your muscles, making them longer and more flexible. This helps you move more easily in daily life. Bending, reaching, and lifting become simpler, and you're less likely to get hurt. Staying flexible keeps you active as you get older.

Yoga poses use your body weight, building muscle strength. You'll feel stronger in your arms, legs, and core. Holding poses helps strengthen bones too, which is important for preventing bone loss. Strong muscles make everyday tasks easier and support your body.

You Will Have Better Stability And Posture

Yoga challenges your balance, making you steadier. Poses that require balance strengthen the muscles that keep you upright. Better balance helps prevent falls and improves your coordination. You'll feel more stable and confident in your movements.

It also teaches you how to stand and sit correctly. This helps fix bad posture habits. Good posture reduces pain in your back and neck. Standing tall improves breathing and digestion. Practicing yoga helps you become more aware of your body's alignment.

You Will Not Fall Sick As Often

Yoga lowers stress, which helps your immune system. Moving and relaxing during yoga improves your body's ability to fight off sickness. Reducing stress hormones helps your body stay healthy. Regular practice strengthens your natural defenses against illness.

You Will Find Doing Work Easier

A primary benefit of yoga is its ability to reduce stress. The calming effects of yoga lower cortisol levels, the hormone associated with stress. Regular practice promotes relaxation and inner peace, aiding in stress management.

Meditation and breathing exercises, integral to yoga, enhance present-moment awareness and focus. Practicing mindfulness during yoga improves concentration and attention, benefiting work, study, and other areas of life.

You Will Feel More Emotionally Stable

Yoga fosters emotional awareness, leading to better emotional regulation. Through mindfulness and meditation, you become more aware of your feelings, resulting in a more balanced emotional state. Yoga is a journey of getting to know yourself better. Through mindfulness and reflection, you become more aware of your body, thoughts, and feelings.

You Will Sleep Better

Yoga improves sleep quality by promoting relaxation and reducing stress. Deep breathing exercises and gentle stretches before bed calm the nervous system, preparing the body for restful sleep.

Who doesn't want big, bulky arms? After all, they are a symbol of strength and, in many cases, muscularity. Therefore, many people work extensively on their biceps and, more importantly, their triceps. However, what they often forget is that some exercises may give good results but could also prove detrimental to their shoulders.

Here Are 5 Triceps Exercises That You Stop Doing

First things first, doing a wrong triceps exercise could put your shoulder at risk. While they target the triceps effectively, they also involve movements that could lead to discomfort or long-term injury, especially for those prone to shoulder issues. Here’s a look at some triceps exercises you should be cautious about and safer alternatives you can incorporate into your routine.

Cross-Body Skullcrusher

While the cross-body skull crusher may help isolate your triceps, it also puts substantial stress on your shoulder joints. This movement demands significant internal rotation, which could prove harmful if done repeatedly over time.

Instead, opt for the standard dumbbell skull crusher. By keeping your elbows tucked in close to your sides and allowing for external rotation, you can target your triceps without risking shoulder strain. This variation offers the same benefits, including effective elbow extension, but with much less risk.

Weighted Bench Dip

The weighted bench dip might seem like an easy way to boost your ego and target your triceps. However, adding plates to your lap can intensify the pressure on your shoulder joint, leading to internal rotation. This can multiply your risk of injury manifolds.

A safer alternative to this would be weighted close-grip pushup. This variation still targets the triceps while allowing you to work through a more natural range of motion, placing less stress on your shoulders.

Dumbbell Kickback

This exercise may work wonders for your triceps muscles but it doesn’t engage the muscle through its full range of motion. The tension is most noticeable at the bottom of the movement, leaving your triceps underworked in the middle of the exercise.

For a more effective triceps workout, try the X press down on a cable machine. This move maintains tension throughout the entire contraction, ensuring continuous resistance for your triceps. The crossbody motion also provides additional mid-back engagement, making it a bonus benefit of this exercise.

Dumbbell Overhead Extension

While the dumbbell overhead extension can target your triceps, it again leads to internal rotation in the shoulder. Moreover, once you reach the top of the movement, there's minimal tension left on the triceps.

Switching to a cable overhead extension provides constant tension throughout the movement. Using a cable machine and incline bench ensures your shoulder stays in a safer position while still offering a deep stretch and effective contraction of the triceps.

Diamond Pushup

Although the diamond pushup is often recommended for targeting the triceps, its hand placement increases the likelihood of internal rotation in the shoulders, which can lead to discomfort or injury.

A simple adjustment to your grip can make a big difference. By separating your hands slightly to a position just narrower than shoulder width, you can still target your triceps while reducing the risk of shoulder strain.

Microplastics are the latest health crisis. Recent studies have shown that microplastics and their smaller counterparts, nano plastics have reached almost every corner of our body, including lungs, liver, heart, guts, brain, and even testicles and placenta. Last month, researchers at the University of New Mexico discovered that our brain is constantly accumulating plastic, which has become 0.5% of its weight. So what do we do? The answer is simple cut down consumption. Here's what you can do.

5 Steps You Can Take To Cut Reduce Microplastic Accumulation In Your Body

A recent study has shown that switching from bottled water to filtered tap water could cut microplastic intake by about 90% — from 90,000 to 4,000 particles each year. Teeny bits of plastic break off from the inner side of plastic bottles and become a part of the water, particularly when the bottle is squeezed or exposed to heat. Over time, these particles accumulate in the body and may pose long-term health risks, although the exact effects are still being studied.

It is recommended to use a stainless steel, glass, or copper reusable water bottle with filtered water to reduce microplastic consumption. Not only is this better for your health, but also a more sustainable alternative for the environment.

Choose Right Tea Bags

A 2019 Canadian study revealed that steeping a single plastic tea bag at brewing temperature (203 degrees Fahrenheit) releases about 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into each cup.

“We think that it is a lot when compared to other foods that contain microplastics,” researcher Nathalie Tufenkji at McGill University in Quebec told *New Scientist*. “Table salt, which has a relatively high microplastic content, has been reported to contain approximately 0.005 micrograms of plastic per gram of salt. A cup of tea contains thousands of times greater mass of plastic, at 16 micrograms per cup.”

To avoid too steep (pun intended) health consequences, experts recommend using paper or loose-leaf tea bags instead. Choosing tea brands that specifically mention plastic-free packaging can also help reduce your intake.

Boil and Filter Tap Water

In many cultures, boiling water before drinking it is an ancient custom and/or necessary for survival. Research suggests that when it comes to microplastics, the intervention could be just as critical.

A 2024 study found that boiling water can quickly and effectively rid home drinking supplies of microplastics. Researchers found that boiling and filtering tap water could reduce the microplastics (and nanoplastics) in water by nearly 90%. How does it work? As the water temperature rises, the limescale — that chalky residue left in water kettles — interferes with the plastics, absorbing them and removing them from the water.

Avoid Other Everyday Plastic Sources

Your kitchen may be another source of exposure. Plastic cutting boards, for example, can shed tiny bits of plastic during food prep, which may end up in your meals. Similarly, heating food in plastic containers — especially in the microwave — can cause plastics to break down and leach harmful particles into your food.

Simple changes such as switching to wooden or glass cutting boards, and using ceramic or glass containers for heating food, can go a long way in reducing your daily microplastic intake.

While avoiding microplastics altogether may not be possible, these small steps can help you significantly reduce your exposure and protect your long-term health.

Globally, tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for the most deaths of any infectious disease. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) data, around 1.25 million people died from the bacterial infection in 2023. It was also the same year when new cases hit at an all time high, around 8.2 million people being diagnosed with TB.

Historically too, TB was one of the deadliest diseases, which killed 1 in 7 people in the US and in Europe in the late 1800s. However, with the development of antibiotics and strong public health efforts, cases have declined significantly over the 20th century. However this is for the second year in a row that TB cases have increased in the US. The number has reached their highest levels in over a decade.

According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 10,300 cases were reported in 2023—an 8% increase from the previous year. This marks the highest number of TB cases since 2011.

Both the total number of cases and the infection rate have gone up, with 34 states reporting an increase. The rise has been observed across all age groups.

Why Are TB Cases In The US Increasing?

As per CDC, there maybe several key factors that can help us understand what is driving this surge. The factors are as followed:

International Travel and Migration – The majority of TB cases in the U.S. occur in people born in other countries, where latent infections may later develop into active TB.

Weakened Immune Systems – Other illnesses, such as diabetes or HIV, can lower immunity and trigger latent TB infections to become active.

Localized Outbreaks – Certain states have seen sharp spikes in TB cases. For example, Kansas reported a 148% increase in 2023 due to an outbreak in the Kansas City area. Alaska and Hawaii continue to have the highest case rates in the country.

History of TB And the US

Earlier this month, the US called for a halt in USAIDS, which also was spent on war against tuberculosis cases and deaths. This is in reference to the Trump administration's call of USAID cuts, which had provided about a quarter of the international funding for tuberculosis services in other countries. This had amounted to $250 million annually, noted the WHO.

How does US influence the fight against tuberculosis in the world? As per WHO, US funding cuts could affect the drug supply chains in other countries, which are now "breaking down". Not just limited to that, but laboratory services are "severely disrupted" and surveillance systems are "collapsing", which is making it difficult to identify, monitor and treat tuberculosis cases. Some research trials are also affected, since they have been put on a halt.

The highest burden of disease is faced by many countries, the number as of now remains 18, where national tuberculosis programs are also affected. The most vulnerable countries are in Africa.

What Is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body. It is transmitted through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Without proper treatment, TB can be fatal.

What Are The Symptoms?

• Persistent cough that lasts more than three weeks
• Fever
• Night sweats
• Unexplained weight loss