Fighting back - self-defense tips

The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network says that one in six women will suffer a sexual assault, while the risk for girls in college is four times higher. What makes these statistics worse is that sixty percent of rapes and sexual assaults are never reported to the police at all. For young women aged 18 to 24, these assaults could happen at a safe place, like the college campus, and by persons known to them either on a date or at late night parties. In cases of date rape, prevention is the best protection. Set your dates for lunch, use your own transportation, and share the cost of meals, tickets, and so on. Men who spend money come to expect sexual favors in return.

For the dark alley assaults by criminals, prevention is still the best defense. Avoid walking alone on unfamiliar routes, and avoid taking short-cuts. Body language and self-confidence are a good defense, according to several experts, and if you look down or avoid eye-contact it's a signal that you can't take care of yourself. Girls who stay in shape or know a martial art for self-defense are also advised to save themselves by running away, and fighting back only as a last resort. Learning self-defense martial arts like karate, judo, jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, taekwondo, or simple wrestling or boxing, is a good way to develop self-confidence. It also keeps you in shape. There are self-defense tips to protect yourself from assault, even if you're out of shape, and not trained to fight back:

• Have the will to fight: 90 per cent of self-defense is mental. You need to have the will to fight back. Know that you're saving yourself from a lifetime of trauma by resisting violently and verbally.
  
• Verbalize your defense: martial-arts practitioners shout when they deliver punches and kicks. It's a way of tightening the core muscles and generating aggression. Shouting also keeps the attacker off-balance and gives you an opening to free yourself and run.
• Slaps are better than punches: you can put more upper-body strength in a slap than in straight jabs or punches. A stinging slap to the side of the head can disorient your attacker long enough to let you escape.
• Know the vital soft points of men: in self-defense classes you learn to target the attacker's throat, temple, ears, eyes, nose, groin, and chin. An upward palm strike to the chin is pretty effective in disorienting the attacker. Use elbows to hit him in the face and knees to attack other soft points, bite down on his arm till you can taste blood.
• Use non-lethal weapons: a car key jammed between your fingers turns into a knife, heels, keychain Pepper Sprays, tasers, and pocket-knifes are non-lethal weapons for self-defense.
• Take a self-defense class: All the tips in the world cannot prepare you for real-life situations. Paralyzing fear and panic that turns into helplessness are part of sexual assaults. Taking a self-defense class lets you overcome these mental consequences. It also give you the self-confidence to fight back a bigger and more aggressive opponent.

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Ana Ivanovic making millions

Tennis pro Ana Ivanovic is currently ranked 18 on the WTA Tour and is the ambassador for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Photographed above at the Dubai International airport by Zarina Fernandes of Gulf News, Ivanovic is wearing a grey jersey dress with frills from Sydney-based designer Mrs Press. Ana reportedly makes $140,323 playing professional tennis, but her off the court earnings reach into the millions of dollars. It was calculated at $7 million last year by Forbes.



Ana Ivanovic keeps her body in shape with running, weight training, and rope jumping. In an interview with Gulf News Ivanovic says that despite making millions in endorsements, she would really like to make it back to the number one position in women's tennis: "I really hope I am on my way back. It has been a very tough two years. I was taking things for granted. At first everything seemed easy, I was winning a lot of matches and getting a lot of success, but now I have learnt to appreciate the good times, because in your career there are always going to be ups and downs no matter what you do." With all those millions and Ana's achievements in tennis came fame, and the loss of privacy: "I have never really found myself comfortable in that kind of limelight. I like to have my privacy. I don't like people knowing what I do in my free time. I am also a very shy person, but I understand that people want to know more."

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Computer training patients with schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis

Medpage today reports that computer training is showing promise in improving cognitive abilities in patients with conditions as disparate as schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis (MS). After 16 weeks of intensive targeted treatment, patients with schizophrenia were significantly better able to identify words they had generated themselves from those supplied by others (P=0.02), according to Karuna Subramaniam, PhD, and colleagues from the University of California San Francisco. In another study, a cohort of patients with MS who had 12 weeks of computer-based cognitive training showed increased activation of the prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, areas of the brain involved in the performance of complex tasks, according to Massimo Filippi, MD, of Vita-Salute University in Milan, Italy, and colleagues.

Back in 2001 a Yale University School of Medicine study came to a similar conclusion: that by using a computer schizophrenic patients can improve their mental functioning. Computer training stimulates mental activity in the brain, which can then enhance learning during work therapy. This computer training covers specific attention related tasks, memory tests and executive function tasks. Video game makers have been marketing computerized brain games, like Nintendo's Brain Age package, to exercise the brains of seniors and prevent symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Michael Woodward, medical director of aged care at Austin Health, says "If you stimulate the mind and get more synapses (junctions between brain cells), you're probably protected from the pathology that causes Alzheimer's. It doesn't stop the pathology progressing, but it gives you more of a buffer."

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Young women intimacy relationships

A Canadian study has found that young women in heterosexual relationships slowly lose their desire for sex over time, but men don't. Researchers Robin Milhausen and Sarah Murray surveyed 170 undergraduate students at the University of Guelph between 18 and 25 years old in monogamous relationships. For each additional month that women were in a relationship with the same partner, their sexual intimacy decreased by 0.02 on the Female Sexual Function Index, while the sexual desire in their male partners remained the same. The survey is subject to errors in reporting based on gender: young men cannot admit to low sexual desire while young women face embarrassment in admitting to a passionate desire for sexual intimacy.

Relationships are also being affected by pornography available on the Internet. Many young men watch graphic sexual acts performed for the camera, and then desire to replicate these mostly unrealistic acts with their sexual partners. Researcher who interviewed young female performers in the porn industry, found that they had to pretend to enjoy being treated badly. It also creates a negative body image among young men and women; when they compare their bodies and sexual organs to what they perceive on screen. Young women also attribute their decision to remove pubic hair to watching porn. A recent study found that young women who had seen pornography were likely to be pressured by their male partners into having a group-sex experience.

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Victoria Justice birthday girl

Victoria Justice turned 19 on February 19, and the first people to sing her 'Happy Birthday' were British fans at the airport in London! Posting the photo on her Twitter Victoria wrote: "I've arrived in London!Some lovely UK peeps were @ the airport 2 greet me w/ a happy b day song :{). 2day's my actual b day, I'm 19!" So why is the Victorious starlet in London on her birthday? It's all part of promoting the new line of Victorious kids clothing in Europe. Victoria tweeted: "Morning! Guess what UK-ers? I'm going 2 be signing Victorious CD's @ HMV Oxford Circus,London on Wed.Feb 22nd @ 5pm! Can't wait 2 see u! RT!"



Victoria Justice blows out candles on her birthday cake, which the Victorious cast and crew surprised her with on February 17. Justice tweeted: "Right before every1 went 2 lunch on set today, the entire cast & crew was there 2 surprise me w/ a cake 4 my b day which is this Sun.! Omg.." Actress, singer, dancer, and lover of food, Victoria Justice is not clueless about driving cars but does have one regret: "My last year of being a teenager & I still don't have my license... I gotta get on that;{). Haha. xoxoxox"

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Katrina Law gladiator fitness

Actress Katrina Law from the TV series Spartacus: Vengeance wearing a Gold and Glam leather jacket, Killer couture jeans, and an AMI necklace in Regard magazine. Katrina Law is of German, Italian and Taiwanese descent and represented the American state of New Jersey in the Miss Teen USA Pageant....she's also a singer and dancer. Being from New Jersey, Katrina told Maxim about her fitness inspiration from a movie shot in that city: "I'm a huge fan of Rocky and often work out to the soundtrack as motivation." For getting in shape for Spartacus, Katrina Law tells TV Equals: "I did gladiator boot-camp for two weeks beforehand with the boys and the stunt team and the rest of the gladiators and I was the only woman that was there. So, that was interesting. And then in that we do gut drills, sprints, the circle of death, races, circuit training and all this other stuff. Then after that we have floor practice and bow and arrow practice."



Left, Katrina Law as the slave girl Mira. Speaking to AfterEllen Katrina maintained that while the women of Spartacus were subjugated in the show: "I think this is a great series for women to be on because we do get a lot of range. We do get to express a lot of our sensuality, our power, and get to explore that side, and we don't have to stand in the background." Right, Katrina Law in Maxim India, wearing a Van Heusen blue cardigan and Calvin Klein underwear. She told the mag: "When it comes to nudity and sexuality of the show, I think of it as if I'm in a big pool of ice cold water and I just have to dive into it head first and get it over with." The show does have a lot of nudity, but not only for women as Katrina told TV Equals: "All the boys dropped their cloths and I was suddenly staring at eight penises and I didn't know that was going to happen in the middle of a scene and I suddenly didn't know where to look."



Speaking of muscled gladiators and their diet and fitness, a study by forensic doctors at Austria's Institute of Archeology found that gladiators had a vegetarian diet! "Tests performed on bits of bone taken from the skeletons of some 70 gladiators buried at Ephesus seem to prove that they ate mainly barley, beans and dried fruit," said Karl Grosschmidt. So all the lean and muscular bodies came from a mostly vegetarian diet and grueling workouts, while the soft and fat bodies of the rich Romans came from gluttony and inactivity. While ordinary Romans ate oatmeal, wheat and barley, bread soaked in olive oil, and apples, pears, dried plums and raisins, the rich gorged themselves on pork, lamb, cheese and high-fat foods. The lesson for today's world is for us to be physically active and eat less meat.

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Minka Kelly diet coke and...heart health?

Actress Minka Kelly and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg teamed up with Diet Coke for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) The Heart Truth® campaign. Seen below left, Minka Kelly walking the runway in sequin covered Diane von Furstenberg gown during The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2012 Fashion Show in New York, during the New York Fashion Week, on February 8 2012. The annual event aims to raise awareness about heart disease as the No. 1 killer of women and puts celebrities in red gowns by some of the country's most famous designers. However as reported in philly.com critics have questioned the ethics of associating a cola brand with heart health: "It's totally inappropriate for the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) to have a Coke logo on its website," said Corinna Hawkes, a food policy and public health specialist. "Coca-Cola's leading brand remains full-calorie Coke."



Other people believe that even as cola companies are making people and kids obese, they are providing funding for research into childhood obesity, and that it's better to use their money and brand name to promote a healthy lifestyles. "Coke is so popular that if we can, over time, get them to create healthier products or healthier messages, then we have won," said Bhatia, chief of neonatology at Georgia Health Sciences University. Meanwhile Minka Kelly has always said that while she eats healthy, she doesn't cut out all junk food from her diet. Minka told Self magazine: "On a typical day I have egg whites and oatmeal for breakfast, a salad with protein for lunch, and fish and veggies at night. But once in awhile, I have that cheeseburger and fries!" In the right photo, Minka Kelly wears a gorgeous red Arabella dress from Nonoo's Spring/Summer 2012 collection, with nude Brain Atwood heels, at Bacardi's 150th Anniversary Celebration in Miami, Florida, on January 28, 2012.

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Excess calories early puberty

The link between excess calorie consumption, obesity, and early puberty has been known for some time. A certain percentage of body fat is needed for a girl to start menstruating, and normally this happens in the teens. But overeating, and eating the wrong kind of food, at an early age causes weight gain, which triggers the secretion of a hormone called leptin. This in turn causes the secretion of Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH), which regulates the development of the menstrual cycle in women and spermatogenesis in men. Biologist Sandra Steingraber published a paper in 2007 titled, "The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know," found that girls as young as 8 were starting to menstruate, develop breasts and grow pubic and underarm hair. Rising childhood obesity rates clearly play a role, she said, noting that chubbier girls tend to reach puberty earlier than thinner girls. "The world is not a good place for early maturing girls," Steingraber said. "They are at higher risk of depression, early alcohol abuse, substance abuse, early first sexual encounter and unintended pregnancies."

A 2009 study, "Nutrition in Children and Breast Cancer Childhood", was led by Professor Jaak Janssens, president of the European Cancer Prevention Organization. It found that "Childhood obesity, lack of physical activity, and high glycemic (processed) carbohydrate consumption were among the strongest determinants influencing the onset of puberty." Another study in 2010, published in the journal Pediatrics, and paid for by the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers, in the United States, found that overweight girls were more likely to hit puberty early and have more breast development. This would increase their risk of breast cancer, because of longer lifetime exposure to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which can feed some tumors.

This month a new study by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, appearing in the journal Endocrinology, has used lab experiments on female rhesus monkeys to establish a direct link between excess calories and early puberty. The rhesus monkeys have similar reproductive and developmental organs as humans. "We found that increased caloric intake accelerated body growth and puberty onset, with consistently elevated levels of the hormones leptin and IGF-1," says Ei Terasawa, a professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Public Health. "This can be very traumatic physically and psychologically to a young girl who is already showing signs of being a woman at age 8 rather than age 12."



Another reason for kids to have natural foods like fruit, vegetables, grains, and pulses, which provide antioxidants, fiber, and essential nutrients while keeping down total calorie consumption. Even if kids are very active and in good physical shape, they should not have greasy sugary junk food more than once a week, because it becomes addictive.

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Victoria Justice fitness fundamentals

The third season of Nickelodeon's hit show Victorious began on January 28 with Tori Vega, played by cute Victoria Justice, showing off her real skills at foot archery! In a previous interview Victoria revealed: "I can pick up anything with my toes, including small things like pennies." But some skills are learned on the job, or just acted out, like portraying a female mixed martial arts fighter:



Back in 2009 when Justice was only 16, she had a guest spot on Nickelodeon's other hit show iCarly in the episode, iFight Shelby Marx with Miranda Cosgrove (on the right). Victoria told Star Pulse that she knew nothing about MMA fighting or other extreme sports before playing a female fighter: "Dan [Schneider] actually wrote the part for me based on this female fighter named Gina Carano. She's really cool, not your typical fighter. She's really pretty and girly, but tough too. I'd love to be like her. It's been cool to play my character [Shelby Marx]." Acting, singing, and dancing are part of her job; in her free time the favorite fundamental activity of Victoria Justice is not sports, boys, or Twitter; they're lower down on the list. What she talks about in interviews, takes photographs of, and tweets about.....is FOOD! From her twitter:

Italian food literally, is one of the many things that instantly puts a smile on my face haha. Rocce cibo italiano il mio mondo.

I love Cuban food!!! Hola hola bueno buenoooo

I went with Mexican food, apparently a lot of you guys love it haha. Sushi next time

Thai food was a success. Now back to dance rehearsal.

We had Chinese food for lunch today & I carefully selected a fortune cookie.

Having authentic Puerto Rican food that my cousins are making with some of my "Fun Size" cast members.

Going to grab some Indian food with some of my "Fun Size" cast members.

Just had the BEST carrot cake of my life. God, I love food.

A good sandwich on a nice French bread baguette can be so satisfying... I like food way to much. What's your favorite food?

Farmerssss market!!! Bacon hot dogs, fresh fruit, and crepes. Ahhh I love food...

You know how they say "diamond's are a girl's best friend"? They were wrong. It's food. Haha.

So where does all that food go??? Obviously not in her body; she's got to be eating tiny portions! Victoria Justice will be turning 19 later this month, she's still pretty slim, but is developing womanly curves.



Looking gorgeous attending the InStyle Golden Globe Awards after party at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 15, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. Victoria Justice is wearing a Jewel and Pearl Cocktail dress by Amen, Christian Dior cannage bow pumps, and carrying a Lauren Merkin Caroline clutch. Victoria recently became the spokesperson for the 2012 Donate My Dress campaign, and donated a mini dress to the program: "I'm really excited to be a part of the Donate My Dress organization. Prom can be really expensive; this program is an easy way for girls everywhere to get involved and help other girls in need." In an interview with the February 2012 issue of Total Girl Victoira sharred her views on inner beauty: "It doesn't matter if you don't look like the girls you see on the cover of magazines. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and I think your personality is what makes you the most beautiful, the way you treat other people and the way you carry yourself. Don't be afraid to stand out. Being an individual is cool and you should embraced your personality. Lady Gaga is an example, she's made it okay to be different and I think that's made her more beautiful. If we all looked the same, then life would be really, really boring. I personally think freckles are adorable."

With all the food that she's eating 5'5½" tall Victoria Justice keeps slim with high energy dancing. One of her tweets reads: "My entire body is so. sore. That's what you get from 6 hours of straight dancing... Wow. I wish someone would carry me all day haha."



Slim Victoria Justice playing some Mario Tennis in one of the recent episodes of Victorious. She tells Candy magazine about how she keeps her hair beautiful: "You know, my mom's an ex-hairdresser and there are two things that she taught me. The first thing is that when I'm washing my hair, I should finish with a cold water rinse because it smooths the follicles and adds shine. The second thing is to keep my hair up in a towel as long as I can after showering to lock in moisture, making it really soft." From her Twitter it seems that the fitness fundamentals of Victoria Justice are pretty simple: focus on cardio, which helps with her dancing. Like rope jumping: "I do it as a cardio workout for when I sing." Another tweet reads: "I was jumping rope in front of my house and I found this ginormous dead bee! It matched my rope handles." Rope jumping helps with rhythm and balance, and that's why boxers also make it a part of their training.

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