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Health24.com | These are the two pilates moves that will give you a rock-solid core
Okay, okay, I’ll admit it… I’m hella lazy and probably stubborn too. But I still want to be fit and healthy. That’s why I was super excited about taking up Pilates as part of the three-month #WHGetsFit winter fitness challenge. In my mind it was easy and pain-free. Boy, was I wrong. No regrets though – because it’s toned my body and done incredible things for my core.
Why you should focus on your core
A strong core isn’t just about showing off washboard abs in a crop top – though there is that… Your abs, obliques and lower back muscles all help your body maintain proper posture and exercise form too. These four moves in particular showed me flames, but were also very effective.
Read more: 5 easy pilates stretches that’ll finally sort out your lower back pain
1. Hundreds
Hundreds might look like an unassuming move, but it’s a killer – and if you’re not particularly fit (like me), you’ll feel it at take 40 already. But it works like magic to tone those abs and strengthen your core.
How to do it
Lying face-up, lift both legs up towards the ceiling and lower them halfway, so they’re at an angle. (If you have tight hamstrings, bend your knees slightly – as shown in the video.) Slightly curl your head up, reaching your arms alongside your body, palms facing down. Pump your arms up and down as you inhale for five counts and exhale for five counts. Repeat this breathing pattern 10 times while holding the position.
Read more: The core-crunching workout you can do anywhere
2. Double leg reach
When done right, these are the ideal core-strength builder. They’re challenging, but still great for beginners – that’s how simple they are to do.
Read more: Get killer legs with this lower body blitz workout
How to do it
Do these on a mat or any other comfortable surface. Lying on your back, extend your legs up to a 45-degree angle, toes pointed. Shoot your legs and arms out towards your head at the same time. Then bring your knees towards your chest, with hands lightly touching knees. Remember to inhale and exhale as you go. Repeat at least 10 times for beginners.
Ready to reveal an insane core? Just tag these simple exercises onto your next workout – and keep at it for best results.
This article was originally posted on www.womenshealthsa.co.za
Image credit: iStock
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When the seed becomes a plant, it has 48 hours to survive
During germination, the embryo within the seed must develop into a young seedling capable of photosynthesis in less than 48 hours. During this time, it relies solely on its internal reserves, which are quickly consumed. It must therefore rapidly create functional chloroplasts, cellular organelles that will enable it to produce sugars to ensure its survival. Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University of Neuchâtel (UniNE), Switzerland, have revealed in the journal Current Biology the key elements that control the formation of chloroplasts from proplastids, hitherto poorly studied organelles. Such a mechanism ensures a rapid transition to autonomous growth, as soon as the seed decides to germinate.
The surprising propagation and diversification of flowering plants in terrestrial environments are mainly due to the appearance of seeds during evolution. The embryo, which is dormant, is encapsulated and protected in a very resistant structure, which facilitates its dispersion. At this stage, it cannot perform photosynthesis and, during germination, it will thus consume the nutritive reserves stored in the seed. This process induces the transformation of a strong embryo into a fragile seedling. “This is a critical stage in the life of a plant, which is closely regulated, notably by the growth hormone gibberellic acid (GA). The production of this hormone is repressed when external conditions are unfavorable,” explains Luis Lopez-Molina, Professor at the Department of Botany and Plant Biology of the UNIGE Faculty of Science.
Import proteins submitted to the cell shredder
The awakening of the embryo causes the differentiation of its proplastids into chloroplasts, biological factories capable of producing sugar thanks to photosynthesis. “Thousands of different proteins must be imported into the developing chloroplasts, and this process can only take place in the presence of a protein called TOC159. If it is lacking, the plant will be depleted in chloroplasts and will remain albino,” explains Felix Kessler, Director of the Plant Physiology Lab and Vice-Rector of the UniNE.
How does the seed decide whether to keep the embryo in a protected state or, on the contrary, to take a chance and let it germinate? “We have discovered that, as long as GA is suppressed, a mechanism is set up, which ensures that TOC159 proteins are transported to the cellular waste bin in order to be degraded,” explains Venkatasalam Shanmugabalaji, researcher within the Neuchâtel group and first author of the study. In addition, other proteins needed for photosynthesis, of which TOC159 facilitates importation, suffer the same fate.
A high-performance biomechanism
When external conditions become favorable for germination, the GA concentration increases in the seed. The biologists discovered that high concentrations of this hormone indirectly block the degradation of TOC159 proteins. The latter can therefore be inserted into the membrane of the proplastids and enable the import of photosynthetic proteins cargoes, which also escape the cellular waste bin.
The genesis of the first functional chloroplasts, implemented in less than 48 hours, therefore ensures a rapid transition from a growth depending on the embryo’s reserves to an autonomous development. This high-performance mechanism contributes to the survival of the seedling in an inhospitable environment, in which it will have to face many challenges.
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How to make the gene-editing tool CRISPR work even better
Among the most significant scientific advances in recent years are the discovery and development of new ways to genetically modify living things using a fast and affordable technology called CRISPR. Now scientists at The University of Texas at Austin say they’ve identified an easy upgrade for the technology that would lead to more accurate gene editing with increased safety that could open the door for gene editing safe enough for use in humans.
The team of molecular biologists found conclusive evidence that Cas9, the most popular enzyme currently used in CRISPR gene editing and the first to be discovered, has less effectiveness and precision than one of the lesser-used CRISPR proteins, called Cas12a.
Because Cas9 is more likely to edit the wrong part of a plant’s or animal’s genome, disrupting healthy functions, the scientists make the case that switching to Cas12a would lead to safer and more effective gene editing in their study published Aug. 2 in the journal Molecular Cell.
“The overall goal is to find the best enzyme that nature gave us and then make it better still, rather than taking the first one that was discovered through historical accident,” said Ilya Finkelstein, an assistant professor of molecular biosciences and a co-author of the study.
Scientists are already using CRISPR, a natural mechanism used by bacteria to defend against viruses, to learn more about human genes, genetically modify plants and animals and develop such science-fiction-inspired advances as pigs that contain a fat-fighting mouse gene, leading to leaner bacon. Many expect CRISPR to lead to new treatments for human diseases and crops that have higher yield or resist droughts and pests.
But the CRISPR systems found in nature sometimes target the wrong spot in a genome, which — applied to humans — could be disastrous, for example, failing to correct for a genetic disease and instead turning healthy cells into cancerous cells.
Some previous studies have hinted that Cas12a is choosier than Cas9, but the research before now was inconclusive. This latest study, the researchers say, closes the case by showing that Cas12a is a more precise gene-editing scalpel than Cas9 and explaining why.
The team, led by graduate student Isabel Strohkendl and professor Rick Russell, found that Cas12a is choosier because it binds like Velcro to a genomic target, whereas Cas9 binds to its target more like super glue. Each enzyme carries a short string of genetic code written in RNA that matches a target string of genetic code written in the DNA of a virus. When it bumps into some DNA, the enzyme starts trying to bind to it by forming base pairs — starting at one end and working its way along, testing to see how well each letter on one side (the DNA) matches the adjacent letter on the other side (the RNA).
For Cas9, each base pair sticks together tightly, like a dab of super glue. If the first few letters on each side match well, then Cas9 is already strongly bound to the DNA. In other words, Cas9 pays attention to the first seven or eight letters in the genomic target, but pays less attention as the process goes on, meaning it can easily overlook a mismatch later in the process that would lead it to edit the wrong part of the genome.
For Cas12a, it’s more like a Velcro strap. At each point along the way, the bonds are relatively weak. It takes a good match all along the strip for the two sides to hold together long enough to make an edit. That makes it much more likely that it will edit only the intended part of the genome.
“It makes the process of base-pair formation more reversible,” Russell said. “In other words, Cas12a does a better job of checking each base pair before moving on to the next one. After seven or eight letters, Cas9 stops checking, whereas Cas12a keeps on checking out to about 18 letters.”
The researchers said that Cas12a still isn’t perfect, but the study also suggests ways that Cas12a can be improved further, perhaps one day realizing the dream of creating a “precision scalpel,” an essentially error-proof gene-editing tool.
“On the whole, Cas12a is better, but there were some areas where Cas12a was still surprisingly blind to some mispairing between its RNA and the genomic target,” Finkelstein said. “So what our work does is show a clear path forward for improving Cas12a further.”
The researchers are currently using these insights in a follow-on project designed to engineer an improved Cas12a.
The study’s other co-authors are graduate student James Rybarski and former undergraduate student Fatema Saifuddin.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Welch Foundation.
Fairy-wrens learn alarm calls of other species just by listening
Birds often eavesdrop on the alarm calls of other species, making it possible for them to take advantage of many eyes looking out for danger. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on August 2 have found that fairy-wrens can learn those unfamiliar calls — which they liken to a foreign language — even without ever seeing the bird that made the call or the predator that provoked it. Instead, the birds in their study learned to recognize new alarm calls by listening for unfamiliar sounds within a chorus of familiar alarm calls.
“Alarm calls warn of predators, but here the birds learnt the meaning of the call from the alarm calls of others without needing to see the predator,” says Robert Magrath of the Australian National University in Canberra. “This means it is a type of ‘social learning,’ where individuals learn from others rather than through direct experience. In this case, it’s even more indirect, because they only need to hear and not see the birds giving the familiar alarm calls. So theoretically they could learn with their eyes closed!”
Magrath’s group had long been interested in bird alarm calls and eavesdropping among species. Their previous work showed that birds can learn to recognize other species’ calls; it isn’t always an innate ability. Their studies showed that fairy-wrens could learn to associate a novel alarm call with danger if they repeatedly saw a model predator at the time they heard the call.
Those studies showed the birds were learning by direct experience. But the research team — also including Dominique Potvin and Chaminda Ratnayake from the Australian National University, and Andrew Radford from the University of Bristol, UK — suspected that birds could also learn from other birds, by listening closely to their calls.
“It makes sense to learn from others when it is dangerous to learn through direct experience,” Radford says. “The current experiment shows that they can,” and through the novel process of making associations between different sounds.
The team trained birds in the absence of any predator by broadcasting unfamiliar sounds in combination with the alarm calls of other fairy-wrens and other bird species. At first, the birds didn’t flee from the unfamiliar sounds. But after training, they often did flee to cover upon hearing the sounds. Their experiment showed the fairy-wrens also continued responding equally strongly in repeated tests over the course of a week.
It wasn’t that the fairy-wrens had become warier in general. Rather, they had learned to associate new calls with known alarm calls, without ever seeing the caller or the reason for their call.
“The results were striking,” Potvin says. “They show just how quickly social learning can occur in the wild through listening to alarm choruses, a tactic that’s likely to come in handy given how hard it is to see predators and callers in many environments.”
Social learning by whatever means can help to explain the widespread eavesdropping seen in nature, the researchers say. The new findings may also be relevant to conservation efforts.
Often, endangered species breed well in captivity only to be taken by predators soon after release. As such, there are now efforts to prepare birds for life in the wild by training them to recognize their predators prior to release. “We think it would also be helpful to train birds to recognize the alarm calls of other species,” Magrath says. Their new study shows just how to go about it.
This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant.
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Materials provided by Cell Press. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Health24.com | SEE: 84-year-old former Olympic gymnast still performing gravity-defying routines
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Health24.com | Horror stories of mental illness in SA prisons
The Life Esidimeni tragedy continues to haunt the families of the victims with the news of the re-election of former Gauteng Health and Social Development MEC Qedani Mahlangu into the ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) serving the most recent blow. These Life Esidimeni hearings revealed the silent suffering of one of the nation’s most vulnerable groups: psychiatric patients. They also demonstrated the inadequacies of an overburdened and maladministered public mental health care system.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s 161 984 prison population relies on 79 psychologists nationwide to cater to the needs of 984 mentally ill prisoners, according to the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) 2015/16 report. This leaves mentally ill prisoners with limited possibilities for adequate care.
The Wits Justice Project (WJP) spoke to a number of inmates about their experience of mental health care behind bars. These are the stories of two such prisoners.
Inescapable stigma
In a modest room packed with women dressed in variations of navy blue prison uniforms, Puleng* sits among fellow inmates and their visitors at Johannesburg Prison’s Women’s Correctional Centre. A lifetime struggle with bipolar disorder is one factor that contributed to her landing in prison.
Puleng was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder in 2002 after years of erratic mood swings and her first suicide attempt at the age of 12. She says there is a history of mental illness in her family. An uncle committed suicide when he was 25 years old and a female cousin was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 Disorder earlier this year, says Puleng.
Her family struggled to accept her diagnosis despite some of her aunts working as nurses and often exposed to mental illnesses and disorders.
“I’m from a family of medical professionals but the stigma is still there,” she says.
At the age of 31, Puleng found herself in a psychologically abusive marriage which was followed by a physically abusive relationship with a man named Morris*. Three months into their relationship, Morris threatened to drive into an oncoming train after Puleng threatened to leave him.
When she tried to escape, he allegedly grabbed her by her hair slamming her head against the dashboard. She fainted and when she came to, awoke to find him holding a knife to her throat. They struggled and he dropped the knife, instead trying to strangle her. In a final attempt to defend herself, Puleng says she picked up the knife and stabbed him once in the chest. He died as a result of the wound and Puleng was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
Understaffed and under-resourced
According to the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services (JICS) 2015/16 report, 984 inmates were diagnosed with mental illness. The most common illnesses were psychosis, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The report records 79 psychologists, who service 243 prisons nationwide. The DCS, much like national healthcare – which includes mental health care – is understaffed and under-resourced.
JICS Spokesperson, Emerantia Cupido says, “[Of] the 984 inmates reported, numerous were still awaiting trial and others had already been sentenced. Some are state patients and are housed at correctional centres within the hospital unit, due to the unavailability of beds at designated mental health care centres.”
DCS spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo says the department’s Offender Rehabilitation Path (ORP), outlines the different processes that should take place from when an inmate is admitted to correctional facilities.
“Inmates are screened within six hours of arrival, the emphasis being on any observable physical or mental abnormality – including suicidality (sic) and other signs of vulnerability. Admission officers and a nurse carry out this process.”
Ceaselessly ridiculed
This is followed by a comprehensive assessment within 24 hours of the inmate’s arrival. The assessment is used to design a nursing health plan to fit the needs identified.
“Thereafter, within 21 days, the inmate must be further assessed by a multidisciplinary team (or individual professionals) and informed of the various programmes and services that are available,” adds Nxumalo.
Puleng says although she receives psychiatric care at the prison, she faces numerous challenges as a result of her mental disorder.
She claims she is ceaselessly ridiculed for being a recipient of psychiatric care. The taunting comes from both inmates and prison officials, Puleng alleges.
Mentally ill but accountable
Moeketsi Nyareli sits in front of the one-room RDP house he shares with his mom in Evaton, South of Gauteng. It has been six months since the former policeman was released on parole after killing his wife in what he describes as dream-like, temporary insanity in 2009. For Nyareli, his six years in prison served as a time of healing and meditation. It provided a perspective on his mental illness.
Nyareli was diagnosed with major depression shortly after he got married in 2007. He says his wife’s behaviour changed, which made him suspect her of infidelity. In December 2009, his psychologist advised him to take two weeks off from work. He says the doctor feared that he was at risk of causing harm to those he served as a policeman. He took the time off from work but this did not improve his situation as his marital problems persisted.
On 16 December 2009, he attended a family gathering, which he claims his wife refused to attend with him. When he returned that evening, she was not at home and arrived after midnight in an unrecognisable vehicle.
“I told her that we would have to consider getting a divorce because I [had] had enough… I remember I was preparing to sleep. All of a sudden, I collapsed emotionally.”
Nyareli says he saw himself physically assaulting his wife but was convinced it was a bad dream.
Fit to stand trial
“At approximately 10am the next day, I woke up in a holding cell at Houtkop (the name of police holding cells in Vereeniging). A social worker and a pastor from the South African Police Services (SAPS) came to me and told me that I had killed my wife,” he recalls. “So I asked them, ‘Was it not a dream?’ And they said, no.”
Although Nyareli had a psychological disorder, he was deemed fit to stand trial and as a result, was held accountable for his actions. However, he says the court took his pre-existing diagnosis and the psychologist’s intervention into consideration and reduced his sentence to 12 years in prison – down from the initial 15 years he faced.
JICS spokesperson, Cupido explains that “it is the court who determines whether an inmate is fit to stand trial or not, as the inmate is referred for psychiatric evaluation at a psychiatric hospital. The court may then declare an inmate as a state patient. Only then will he/she be considered to be unfit to stand trial.
“The court will look at each individual case. The Justice Department, the Judiciary and the Health Department work in accordance with the (Mental Health Care) Act to make a determination,” adds Cupido.
Rehabilitation success story
While in prison, Nyareli enrolled in the Department of Correctional Services’ (DCS) numerous rehabilitation programmes, which he found therapeutic.
“They (DCS) have good programmes… I did anger management with an official, a social worker and a pastor. I discovered a lot about anger from each of them. The social worker would also have one-on-one (sessions) and they were helpful.”
He says that fateful night still haunts him, but he looks forward to rebuilding his life using the coping skills he discovered in prison. Now, however, he can no longer afford to see a psychologist.
Nyareli’s case is a prison rehabilitation success story. This, however, is not the case for some inmates.
A toiling mental healthcare system
Linda Thahane spent five years working at Johannesburg Medium B Prison as a Senior Litigation Paralegal for the DCS. She says her time working for the department gave her a front seat to observe the challenges inmates face within the correctional centre.
Thahane says many inmates who require psychological intervention fall through the cracks of the overburdened system. Prison officials fail to identify cases that required further inquiry, often dismissing them as insignificant.
“When you deal with inmates, you are dealing with people who do not trust the system. Secondly, you’re dealing with people who abuse drugs,” she says. “So even if you find the inmate is exhibiting such symptoms – members (warders) would just say, ‘Hayi, he’s [high] on ganja or whatever.’ Only to find that there are genuine points to consider that warrant some intervention,” she adds.
Psychologist Dr Sandra Hoffman has done extensive work at some of the country’s prisons including counselling at Cape Town’s notorious Pollsmoor prison for three years. She published three books, detailing her experiences as a prison psychologist. During her time working at the prison, she observed that laws governing mental health and incarceration were not always adhered to.
‘We are stuck in the past’
“From my own perspective, what the law said and what actually happened, were two different things. There were often people who were obviously in great distress and when I collaborated with the medical doctor, and had the person sent to Valkenberg (a mental health facility in Cape Town), these inmates were often sent back the next day. As overcrowded as the prison is, so is Valkenberg.
“In my view, not a lot has been done regarding mental health. We are stuck in the past. The best services are still given to the wealthy. Even among inmates of prisons, the wealthy and those with more status and power have greater access to better legal and health care,” says Hoffman.
DCS Spokesperson, Nxumalo, acknowledges that the correctional services mental healthcare could use a boost.
“A closer working relationship with the Department of Health would alleviate some of the challenges which are due to shortage of mental health professionals in DCS, as well as ensure that those inmates who require in-hospital treatment of their psychiatric conditions are processed and placed timeously.” Nxumalo says
*Not their real names
Sumeya Gasa works as an investigative journalist for the Wits Justice Project. The WJP investigates human rights abuses and miscarriages of justice related to the criminal justice system. See: www.witsjusticeproject.co.za
Image credit: iStock
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