Health Watch: Take Care of Your Spine (1)

These tips can help you avoid back problems

Tip of the Week
The most common mistakes leading to a bad back are poor body mechanics and unhealthy habits. How you move objects, your posture, not stretching before exercising and the wrong kind of shoes all contribute to one of the most common medical problems today. Back pain affects eight out of 10 people in their lifetime, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Douglas Won, founder and director of Minimally Invasive SpineCARE and Star Medical Center in Plano, Texas, offers some tips to improve overall back health:

First, maintain proper body mechanics:

• Stretch before exercising or doing any strenuous activity.
• Push heavy objects across the floor instead of pulling or lifting them.
• When lifting is necessary, lift with your knees, not your back.
• Avoid sudden movements and “twisting” motions when carrying objects – even a bag of groceries can do serious harm when handled improperly.
• If you work in an office, check your chair and desk to make sure they are the right height for you.

Info Cloud
Well, know that English has 21 consonants, its five main vowels are, a, e, i, o and u. Now the difference between vowels and consonants is where and how the sounds are produced in the mouth.

Right, vowels are produced with an open mouth or throat,whereas consonants are restricted by vocal chords, teeth, tongue or lips.

Right, another way to distinguish between vowels and consonants is, vowels are the pleasing sounds of words. The parts that can be sung. For example, a, e, i, o, u…

Nice, consonants, on the other hand, are the short non-singable sounds. I mean, there’s no way to make the cuff sound melodious. So are there any English words that don’t have any vowels?

Not, really, besides interjections and onomatopoeia like grr, and bzz. There is the mathematical expression,“nth”, n, t, h, as in I’ve told you for the for the nth time, now other any words with no  consonants.

Well, besides the single letter words, i and a, there’s a kind of lava called “a a” spelled aa.

Interesting, okay. And now just for fun, here’s a word that contains all five vowels in alphabetical order, facetious, f, a, c,e, t, i, o, u, s.

The useful word that describes someone who tries to be funny but is instead annoying.

Language Lab
mechanics n. [mechan字根:機械]
the way in which something works or is done:
- The mechanics of writing a thesis are different from those of writing an essay.
the study of machines:
- Raymond is majoring in mechanics at school.
mechanic n.
someone who is skilled at repairing motor vehicles and machinery:
- a car mechanic

minimally adv. [min: 小]
very small or slight in size or amount
- Patrick claims he's only minimally successful, but actually he's one of the richest men in the country.
minimally invasive
- a minimally invasive surgery

strenuous adj.
/ˈstrɛnjəwəs/
requiring or showing great energy and effort
- The patient should avoid any strenuous activities after the operation.
- James does strenuous exercise to keep himself fit and healthy.
- Strenuous efforts have been made by the government to improve the condition in public schools.

improperly adv.
not proper, right, or suitable: such as not correct, not following rules of acceptable behavior : legally or morally wrong
- Many teachers in the country were improperly trained back in the old days.
- The mayor was accused of using the taxpayers' money improperly.

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