What would you do if I told you that if by this time next week I was going to check in on your health, and if you weren't sick, I was going to kill you? Call me a health terrorist. Either you find a way to guarantee you'll be sick, or you'll be dead. What would you do? How could you not just increase your risk, but actually guarantee that you will be ill?
This is a question I always ask my students when we talk about common colds, flues, and other contagious illnesses. Instead of having them think about staying well, I turn their thought process around and make them come up with ways to get sick. Most classes give me the same responses to start. Things like don't wash your hands; hang around others who are sick; spend time in a school or day care; or touch others who are sick, and then touch your nose or eyes. When I get those responses, I then come back with a question: will that guarantee you will get sick? Remember your life is on the line. At this point I get usually get blank stares, since we've been taught by society to focus so much on minimizing germ transmission that they rarely have any concept of what it takes for our bodies to really get sick.
If you want to guarantee illness, you must first look at what it takes to keep yourself healthy. Will washing your hands guarantee health? How about being around only healthy people? If you never go to a school or day care, will you never get sick? Look at all those who are always around sick people, and rarely get sick themselves. How does that work? Being and staying healthy has very little to do with germ exposure. Your risk of getting sick is much more determined by how you take care of yourself, than how often or what type of critters to which you expose yourself.
As we move into the cold and flu season, this is an especially important concept to discuss. How can you reduce your risk of getting sick? It all comes down to looking at the host, and not spending so much time on the bugs.
1. Make sure you are getting adequate high quality rest. Not only is it important to sleep for an adequate amount, but it is also important to make sure that it is good quality. That means without the TV or radio and the room as dark as you can get it. This is true for not only adults, but also kids. Nightlights disturb our sleep.
2. Eat a diet that consists of adequate protein, has lots of veggies, and is as unrefined as possible. Sugar is an immune suppressant, and directly competes with vitamin C to get into your cells. The more processed your food, the more your body has to process it to get rid of its waste. If you can't tell what type of plant or animal it came from, think twice (or thrice) about putting it in your system.
3. Drink plenty of water. Dehydration is a common occurrence in our population. We tend to "hydrate" with soda, fruit juice, milk, energy drinks, and coffee, all of which dehydrate instead of hydrate. If you don't have enough water in your system, it's like having the toilet full of waste without water to flush it down. Things get plugged up and start to smell.
4. Keep your vitamin D levels up. I discussed this in a previous blog, but one of the issues with cold and flu season is dropping vitamin D levels. Have your level checked, and make sure you're in the 65-80 ng/ml range.
5. Learn to handle stress better. Your immune system is suppressed by stress, and that stress can be mechanical from your spine as much as emotional or chemical. If you are not handling stress well, you will not be able to fight off those bugs, and getting a regular chiropractic adjustment has been shown to stimulate the immune system.
6. Protect yourself from temperature swings. We've been enjoying some great weather for the past few weeks, but we all know winter is on its way, and it will soon be freezing cold outside. Does being cold cause us to get sick? Yes and no. When our body temp drops, we become more susceptible to infection, and when we put ourselves in a position to not stay warm when we're outside, that's exactly what happens. Bundle up, keeping the head and ears warm and protecting the neck from wind. It seems these are the areas that are most important to keeping ourselves in the best shape.
So, if you were the health terrorist, and I was the victim, what would I do? I'd stay inside all day long; eat crappy food and drink lots of processed fluids; stress myself out; don't sleep; and go outside in the cold and wind in shorts and a t-shirt for as long as I could stand it. Would this guarantee my illness? Maybe not guarantee, but it's as close as I can get. Focus on yourself instead of the bugs, and chances are, you won't have to worry about the bugs.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Mom's Stress Isn't Trivial
It's the time of year to pull out the pile of research that I've collected about how stress affects the human body. Next month I have to be prepared to articulate eight hours of lecture to chiropractors about not only how it changes us, but also what we can do to help our patients reduce the effects. There are many results of stress that are startling to those that haven't studied the subject, but some of the most shocking deal with the consequences of stress during pregnancy.
Men and women are different, plain and simple. From a physiological viewpoint, there are certain reactions that are predominantly male and others that are female. There are certain conditions that are more prevalent in one sex than the other. In regards to stress, this holds true as well. Men and women react differently to stress. They have the same basic response, but how the body ends up expressing itself is different. There is both a masculine and a feminine reaction to stress.
Women generally have a slower, but exaggerated response to stress, taking longer to start, but secreting higher levels of hormones that stick around longer. They tend to retain their memory function better during stressful events, but stress disrupts their sex hormones more than men. While men feel a "fight or flight" reaction, women are more prone to "tend and befriend". Women also exhibit more ruminative thinking, where they rewind the event over and over. There are significant differences in stress response between the sexes, and it relates to how their hormones are supposed to work in the body.
In the lecture, after I've described the different reactions, I discuss how the stress reaction changes over time, starting with prenatal exposure. Here are two statements that I think need to be shouted from the loudest media outlet available:
"Prenatal stress exposure may pre-program the brain to increased susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders" and "Prenatal stress exposure to males causes physiological and stress reaction feminization". (links to the full text articles are at the end of this blog)
In plain English, that means that if mom is stressed, especially during the early part of her pregnancy, the baby can suffer life long consequences, including an increased risk for conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. In addition, if the baby is male, they likely will develop a physiology that is more female than male, and their reactions to stress will follow in that female mold instead of following a traditional male pattern.
Do we really want our little boys to end up physiologically like little girls? Does anyone want their kids to end up with a lifetime of emotional suffering? I would hope the answers to both questions are a resounding NO! Then why are we not telling women at their first prenatal visit that they need to do whatever they can to reduce their stress level for the health of their baby? Why aren't expectant fathers, brothers, grandparents, and even coworkers being told that the best thing they can do for the new baby is reduce the stress level of the expectant mother? Are we afraid that moms and dads can't handle the truth? Granted, this research has only been out for a few years and was done on mice, but there is research that hits the media outlets almost before it is published in the journals and no researcher in their right mind would ever consider doing this on humans. Extrapolation from animals to humans is all we have on pregnancy models. I would think that at the very least magazines like Parenting, or Pregnancy and Newborns would have this as their cover story at least once a year.
Some research relies on word of mouth for its publicity, and it seems that prenatal stress exposure and its long term consequences is in that category. For the health of not only our families, but of our society as a whole, I believe it is imperative that we help our pregnant mothers understand that they hold the long-term health of their baby in their minds. Increasing their stress levels can have profound negative effects on their babies. Anyone who cares about that baby should make it their priority to minimize the stress exposure of mom. Mom's stress isn't trivial, it's paramount to the health of our future generation.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
The Neuroendocrinology of Stress: A Never Ending Story
Examining the Intersection of Sex and Stress in Modeling Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Men and women are different, plain and simple. From a physiological viewpoint, there are certain reactions that are predominantly male and others that are female. There are certain conditions that are more prevalent in one sex than the other. In regards to stress, this holds true as well. Men and women react differently to stress. They have the same basic response, but how the body ends up expressing itself is different. There is both a masculine and a feminine reaction to stress.
Women generally have a slower, but exaggerated response to stress, taking longer to start, but secreting higher levels of hormones that stick around longer. They tend to retain their memory function better during stressful events, but stress disrupts their sex hormones more than men. While men feel a "fight or flight" reaction, women are more prone to "tend and befriend". Women also exhibit more ruminative thinking, where they rewind the event over and over. There are significant differences in stress response between the sexes, and it relates to how their hormones are supposed to work in the body.
In the lecture, after I've described the different reactions, I discuss how the stress reaction changes over time, starting with prenatal exposure. Here are two statements that I think need to be shouted from the loudest media outlet available:
"Prenatal stress exposure may pre-program the brain to increased susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders" and "Prenatal stress exposure to males causes physiological and stress reaction feminization". (links to the full text articles are at the end of this blog)
In plain English, that means that if mom is stressed, especially during the early part of her pregnancy, the baby can suffer life long consequences, including an increased risk for conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. In addition, if the baby is male, they likely will develop a physiology that is more female than male, and their reactions to stress will follow in that female mold instead of following a traditional male pattern.
Do we really want our little boys to end up physiologically like little girls? Does anyone want their kids to end up with a lifetime of emotional suffering? I would hope the answers to both questions are a resounding NO! Then why are we not telling women at their first prenatal visit that they need to do whatever they can to reduce their stress level for the health of their baby? Why aren't expectant fathers, brothers, grandparents, and even coworkers being told that the best thing they can do for the new baby is reduce the stress level of the expectant mother? Are we afraid that moms and dads can't handle the truth? Granted, this research has only been out for a few years and was done on mice, but there is research that hits the media outlets almost before it is published in the journals and no researcher in their right mind would ever consider doing this on humans. Extrapolation from animals to humans is all we have on pregnancy models. I would think that at the very least magazines like Parenting, or Pregnancy and Newborns would have this as their cover story at least once a year.
Some research relies on word of mouth for its publicity, and it seems that prenatal stress exposure and its long term consequences is in that category. For the health of not only our families, but of our society as a whole, I believe it is imperative that we help our pregnant mothers understand that they hold the long-term health of their baby in their minds. Increasing their stress levels can have profound negative effects on their babies. Anyone who cares about that baby should make it their priority to minimize the stress exposure of mom. Mom's stress isn't trivial, it's paramount to the health of our future generation.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
The Neuroendocrinology of Stress: A Never Ending Story
Examining the Intersection of Sex and Stress in Modeling Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Introduce Your Kids to Food
Obesity is on the rise, as are immune system disorders like allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. Much of this, I believe, comes from the choices we make in our diets. As adults, we have control over what we put in our mouths, but our kids rely on us to make good choices for them. Infants especially are at the mercy of adults to make the best choices for what goes into their mouths. Yet, when I see what parents are feeding infants, I am often flabbergasted. Either most parents don't understand the impact of what they are doing, or they haven't ever been taught what's best. Let's talk about how we introduce our kids to food.
Recommendations are pretty consistent when it comes to infants and diet: breast milk is best, and formula is a distant second. Dietetic and pediatric organizations alike recommend nothing except breast milk or formula for the first six months of life. That means no juice, cow's milk, cereal, or anything else. The reason for this is simple. Infants are designed to absorb milk from mom undigested, with whole proteins made and absorbed. When we introduce foods before the pores in the intestines have begun to close, we set our kids up for a significantly increased risk for allergy related conditions; everything from true allergies to asthma to autoimmune conditions like type I diabetes. Increasing the immune response can also lead to general inflammation; one factor we see that leads to obesity. Early introduction of "real" food is detrimental to the long term health of your child.
"But my kid isn't sleeping through the night" or "they seem hungry yet" is a common thing I hear when I make this recommendation. Shouldn't I add cereal to the formula? Absolutely, positively not. Breast milk is about 54% saturated fat. While formulas range in their nutrient content, none have as high of fat content as breast milk, and most of them have polyunsaturated fat. By adding less fat, formula generally increases its carbohydrate content instead, and by having polyunsaturated fat, overall, the formula is less nutrient dense; it takes more to keep the baby full. Research has shown that fats and protein keep us full, while carbohydrate generally increases our appetite. By adding cereal, which is difficult for the infant to digest, the parents are also introducing protein that often causes immune reactions, and starts the road to an overstimulated immune system. Instead, I recommend parents add what keeps the infant full: fat. Yes, I said add fat to the formula to keep them fuller longer. Start with a small amount of organic unrefined extra virgin coconut oil, and increase it until they seem satisfied. This is a fat that is easily absorbed, utilized, and as similar as we can get to the fat in breast milk.
At six months of age, parents can start adding in "real" food. The question comes in though, as to which foods to start with. Often, parents are told to start with rice cereal. While rice is minimal in its allergenicity, I take a different approach. Of all the foods out there, which category do we see the least allergies with, and which foods do we want our kids to eat the most of? Is it rice cereal? Will eating rice cereal improve our health throughout our lives? Probably not. The foods we want to eat the most and are the least allergenic are vegetables. Why not start there? Pick out those vegetables that we want them to eat the most of, and introduce one per week; broccoli, spinach, carrots, peas, squash, and whatever else you can find green, yellow, or orange. By adding in one per week, you can watch for any potential reactions the immune system may start and identify which food is the likely culprit.
After introducing all of the vegetables, you can move on to fruits, with a few caveats. There are certain foods which should not be introduced to children under the age of two. These include all berries, shellfish, nuts, and peanuts. Those are the classic food allergies, and safest to be kept away for a longer time. So, with the exception of berries, start adding in fruits, again, one per week. Avoid those infant "desserts", since they often add extra sugars and may contain berries. Use the fruits as the child's dessert, but always start with the vegetables in the meal. After all, how does broccoli taste after a nice sweet apple or pear? Don't let them decide, be the parent.
By the time all of the fruits and veggies have been introduced, the child with be almost a year, and you can move on to proteins and/or cereals. Personally, I see no reason to add cereal to their diet. It's bland and they can get plenty of carbohydrate from the fruits and veggies they'll be loving by this time. Stick with the proteins (meats) instead. After a year, you can start the introduction of milk and eggs if you choose. While dairy has been promoted as a base for your child's health, we'll talk in later blogs about how we've been duped into buying a refined product that has much less benefit than we are led to believe.
Kids' palates develop early, and starting them on foods in the wrong order can make it much more difficult to introduce foods that can help them live long healthy lives. My approach to introducing foods is focused on not only getting the most important food group in early (veggies), but also on minimizing the risk of allergic reactions later in life. If every parent used this approach, would we see a reduction in allergies? I can't prove it, but common sense says we would. Even if it wouldn't, getting the veggies in early gives them nutrients they won't get anywhere else, and hopefully sets their taste so they will eat more of them throughout their life.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Recommendations are pretty consistent when it comes to infants and diet: breast milk is best, and formula is a distant second. Dietetic and pediatric organizations alike recommend nothing except breast milk or formula for the first six months of life. That means no juice, cow's milk, cereal, or anything else. The reason for this is simple. Infants are designed to absorb milk from mom undigested, with whole proteins made and absorbed. When we introduce foods before the pores in the intestines have begun to close, we set our kids up for a significantly increased risk for allergy related conditions; everything from true allergies to asthma to autoimmune conditions like type I diabetes. Increasing the immune response can also lead to general inflammation; one factor we see that leads to obesity. Early introduction of "real" food is detrimental to the long term health of your child.
"But my kid isn't sleeping through the night" or "they seem hungry yet" is a common thing I hear when I make this recommendation. Shouldn't I add cereal to the formula? Absolutely, positively not. Breast milk is about 54% saturated fat. While formulas range in their nutrient content, none have as high of fat content as breast milk, and most of them have polyunsaturated fat. By adding less fat, formula generally increases its carbohydrate content instead, and by having polyunsaturated fat, overall, the formula is less nutrient dense; it takes more to keep the baby full. Research has shown that fats and protein keep us full, while carbohydrate generally increases our appetite. By adding cereal, which is difficult for the infant to digest, the parents are also introducing protein that often causes immune reactions, and starts the road to an overstimulated immune system. Instead, I recommend parents add what keeps the infant full: fat. Yes, I said add fat to the formula to keep them fuller longer. Start with a small amount of organic unrefined extra virgin coconut oil, and increase it until they seem satisfied. This is a fat that is easily absorbed, utilized, and as similar as we can get to the fat in breast milk.
At six months of age, parents can start adding in "real" food. The question comes in though, as to which foods to start with. Often, parents are told to start with rice cereal. While rice is minimal in its allergenicity, I take a different approach. Of all the foods out there, which category do we see the least allergies with, and which foods do we want our kids to eat the most of? Is it rice cereal? Will eating rice cereal improve our health throughout our lives? Probably not. The foods we want to eat the most and are the least allergenic are vegetables. Why not start there? Pick out those vegetables that we want them to eat the most of, and introduce one per week; broccoli, spinach, carrots, peas, squash, and whatever else you can find green, yellow, or orange. By adding in one per week, you can watch for any potential reactions the immune system may start and identify which food is the likely culprit.
After introducing all of the vegetables, you can move on to fruits, with a few caveats. There are certain foods which should not be introduced to children under the age of two. These include all berries, shellfish, nuts, and peanuts. Those are the classic food allergies, and safest to be kept away for a longer time. So, with the exception of berries, start adding in fruits, again, one per week. Avoid those infant "desserts", since they often add extra sugars and may contain berries. Use the fruits as the child's dessert, but always start with the vegetables in the meal. After all, how does broccoli taste after a nice sweet apple or pear? Don't let them decide, be the parent.
By the time all of the fruits and veggies have been introduced, the child with be almost a year, and you can move on to proteins and/or cereals. Personally, I see no reason to add cereal to their diet. It's bland and they can get plenty of carbohydrate from the fruits and veggies they'll be loving by this time. Stick with the proteins (meats) instead. After a year, you can start the introduction of milk and eggs if you choose. While dairy has been promoted as a base for your child's health, we'll talk in later blogs about how we've been duped into buying a refined product that has much less benefit than we are led to believe.
Kids' palates develop early, and starting them on foods in the wrong order can make it much more difficult to introduce foods that can help them live long healthy lives. My approach to introducing foods is focused on not only getting the most important food group in early (veggies), but also on minimizing the risk of allergic reactions later in life. If every parent used this approach, would we see a reduction in allergies? I can't prove it, but common sense says we would. Even if it wouldn't, getting the veggies in early gives them nutrients they won't get anywhere else, and hopefully sets their taste so they will eat more of them throughout their life.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Microwaves and Plastics Don't Mesh
Remember when defrost meant all day on the counter? Or when popcorn was only made on the stove? How about reheating actually included having to find a clean pan? Food preparation has significantly changed in the past thirty years, and not always for the better. In conjunction with this change, society is setting a pace for us that few can maintain. Work all day, run the kids all night, home maintenance all weekend, and somewhere in the middle we're supposed to find time to plan our meals so we can eat right. It's not always easy to be in the kitchen preparing real food, and so many rely on the quick and easy, which often includes the microwave.
As a rule, it is best to avoid using microwaves to reheat or prepare our food. Ever put bread in the microwave? What happens? It comes out nothing like it went in. It's rubbery in some areas, and gooey in others. Microwaves change the chemical properties of food, which make it less able to be utilized by our bodies. That, however, is not really the worst part of microwave use. The most dangerous aspect of microwaves is when we put food into plastic containers and then heat it. Simply put, any form of plastic in a microwave is deadly.
Most everyone realizes that plastic isn't meant to be eaten, but rarely do we really contemplate what happens when we heat plastic next to food. Plastic is a petroleum product, so it is fat soluble, and when it is warmed, it softens. When we use plastic containers in the microwave, some of the plastic will invariably end up leaching into our food. Few would call this a good thing, but it seems even fewer really understand the consequences of plastic in our bodies. Petroleum products in general, and plastics specifically, are hormone disruptors. That means that when they enter the body, they mess with the natural cycling and signaling of our hormones.
Hormones play an extremely delicate balancing act in us. Most often, we have several hormones working in harmony to bring normal function in the body. When one hormone is elevated or lowered, it creates abnormal function. In the case of petroleum products and plastics, the hormones that are affected are the estrogens. Plastics in the body act as estrogens. They find the receptors that estrogens bind to, and stimulate them. Unlike estrogens however, which will leave after a short time and move on to be degraded, plastics continue to stimulate that receptor over and over, and are very difficult for the body to eliminate, so will often go on to over-stimulate other receptors as well. This creates significant imbalances in the body, and specifically induces estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance creates significant problems, including feminization of males, infertility in both sexes, quicker onset of menarche (first menstrual cycle), increased symptoms of PMS and menopause, and acceleration of many types of cancer. I firmly believe that many of the symptoms that revolve around sex hormones today are at least partly related to the plastics that we have introduced into our diet through the use of plastics in the microwave. Whether it's the cheap throw-away containers, the expensive hard plastic, or the "microwave" safe bags that our frozen veggies are sold in, no plastic is safe to be put in the microwave.
A safer use of the microwave would be putting the food in glass or ceramic containers for reheating. Neither of these can leach into the food, which means you are not picking up unwanted chemicals as you warm things back up. I'm not saying that microwave use is good for our food. We can, however, make it much safer if we keep anything that is petroleum based far away from them.
In our fast paced society, microwaves have become a mainstay, and plastic containers the standard. The combination, however, is a deadly mix of hormone disruption that, until it is stopped, will continue to subvert the health of Americans. You can significantly improve your health and the health of your family by simply avoiding food that is heated in any plastic container. In my opinion, there is no such thing as "microwave safe" plastic.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
As a rule, it is best to avoid using microwaves to reheat or prepare our food. Ever put bread in the microwave? What happens? It comes out nothing like it went in. It's rubbery in some areas, and gooey in others. Microwaves change the chemical properties of food, which make it less able to be utilized by our bodies. That, however, is not really the worst part of microwave use. The most dangerous aspect of microwaves is when we put food into plastic containers and then heat it. Simply put, any form of plastic in a microwave is deadly.
Most everyone realizes that plastic isn't meant to be eaten, but rarely do we really contemplate what happens when we heat plastic next to food. Plastic is a petroleum product, so it is fat soluble, and when it is warmed, it softens. When we use plastic containers in the microwave, some of the plastic will invariably end up leaching into our food. Few would call this a good thing, but it seems even fewer really understand the consequences of plastic in our bodies. Petroleum products in general, and plastics specifically, are hormone disruptors. That means that when they enter the body, they mess with the natural cycling and signaling of our hormones.
Hormones play an extremely delicate balancing act in us. Most often, we have several hormones working in harmony to bring normal function in the body. When one hormone is elevated or lowered, it creates abnormal function. In the case of petroleum products and plastics, the hormones that are affected are the estrogens. Plastics in the body act as estrogens. They find the receptors that estrogens bind to, and stimulate them. Unlike estrogens however, which will leave after a short time and move on to be degraded, plastics continue to stimulate that receptor over and over, and are very difficult for the body to eliminate, so will often go on to over-stimulate other receptors as well. This creates significant imbalances in the body, and specifically induces estrogen dominance.
Estrogen dominance creates significant problems, including feminization of males, infertility in both sexes, quicker onset of menarche (first menstrual cycle), increased symptoms of PMS and menopause, and acceleration of many types of cancer. I firmly believe that many of the symptoms that revolve around sex hormones today are at least partly related to the plastics that we have introduced into our diet through the use of plastics in the microwave. Whether it's the cheap throw-away containers, the expensive hard plastic, or the "microwave" safe bags that our frozen veggies are sold in, no plastic is safe to be put in the microwave.
A safer use of the microwave would be putting the food in glass or ceramic containers for reheating. Neither of these can leach into the food, which means you are not picking up unwanted chemicals as you warm things back up. I'm not saying that microwave use is good for our food. We can, however, make it much safer if we keep anything that is petroleum based far away from them.
In our fast paced society, microwaves have become a mainstay, and plastic containers the standard. The combination, however, is a deadly mix of hormone disruption that, until it is stopped, will continue to subvert the health of Americans. You can significantly improve your health and the health of your family by simply avoiding food that is heated in any plastic container. In my opinion, there is no such thing as "microwave safe" plastic.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
How Big is Your Cookie?
Think of your favorite holiday or family event. Invariably, it will revolve around some sort of feast. Somewhere mixed in with that feast will be a table filled with desserts: cookies, pies, cakes, brownies, bars, ice cream, candy, everything sweet and delicious to our palate. Hovering around that table you will find the youngest at the gathering; little hands reaching up to snatch another cookie from the pile, stuffing a whole piece of cake into their mouth before it gets taken away, or literally diving face first into the heaping bowl of ice cream. We've all seen it. And we've all probably smiled at their tactics, turned away, and not had another thought about it. It's a sad day in the lives of our children.
When parents fill the plates of little ones during these times of feasting, they usually do a pretty good job of controlling the kids' portions. Rarely do I see a huge pile of turkey, green beans, or broccoli on the plates at the kids' table. Most often, it is a mixture of what they know the kids will consume with the least amount of effort expended by the parents. After all, we want to have a little time to celebrate as well. The rub comes when the main course has been packed away and the dessert table has been unfurled. It seems our notion of portions goes completely berserk then.
Let's face it; when it comes to portions, size really does matter. You can't expect a 98 pound woman to eat the same amount as a 250 pound man. That's just common sense, right? If you saw that woman eating the same amount, you'd think "what a pig", and expect that at the next gathering she would have added considerable girth if she continues. Yet, we completely ignore that concept when it comes to our kids and dessert. Let's take that same 250 pound man and his 50 pound son. Dad is five times the size of junior. His main course plate is overfilled with mouthwatering foods that he only gets a few times per year. If he's lucky, he might even have room for seconds. Junior's plate, on the other hand, is modest in comparison, and rarely would we expect him to go back for seconds. Now it's time for dessert.
Dad and son head over to the heaping repast, and dad picks out his favorite piece of pie. Junior wants some too, so he cuts a slightly smaller piece, and hands it over. Here's where I get confused. Dad is five times junior's size, eats at least three to four times that of his son at the main course, and then gives his son a dessert that is 75% of the size he'll eat. How does this make sense? If we look at it from a size perspective, Junior's piece of pie would be the equivalent of dad eating almost half the pie.
At my own family gatherings, I've seen many of my nieces and nephews hanging around the dessert table working on their fourth, fifth, or even sixth serving before mom, dad, or grandparent intervene and tell them "only one more, and then you're done". That's the same as mom, dad, or grandparent saying to themselves, "I've had 25 cookies, another five and I'll be done". In whose world would this be OK? Look at the size of the kids and look at the size of the adults. You can't let kids have the adult portion or more of dessert and expect them to be attentive, mello, and compliant. Instead, you can expect them to be belligerent and bounce off the walls. We see the rate of childhood obesity skyrocketing, and we can't add two and two together and learn to make proper portion sizes for our kids. I'm completely baffled on this. When did common sense leave?
I realize most kids love their sweets, but it is up to their parents to learn portion control. Look at what you would reasonably eat and look at your size. Then look at their size, and decrease the portion accordingly. If kids want to pig out on vegetables and protein, I doubt you'll find much of an issue with their health. Overindulging on sweets, on the other hand, can lead to a life of obesity and chronic disease. Do what is right for your kids: give them their correct portion.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
When parents fill the plates of little ones during these times of feasting, they usually do a pretty good job of controlling the kids' portions. Rarely do I see a huge pile of turkey, green beans, or broccoli on the plates at the kids' table. Most often, it is a mixture of what they know the kids will consume with the least amount of effort expended by the parents. After all, we want to have a little time to celebrate as well. The rub comes when the main course has been packed away and the dessert table has been unfurled. It seems our notion of portions goes completely berserk then.
Let's face it; when it comes to portions, size really does matter. You can't expect a 98 pound woman to eat the same amount as a 250 pound man. That's just common sense, right? If you saw that woman eating the same amount, you'd think "what a pig", and expect that at the next gathering she would have added considerable girth if she continues. Yet, we completely ignore that concept when it comes to our kids and dessert. Let's take that same 250 pound man and his 50 pound son. Dad is five times the size of junior. His main course plate is overfilled with mouthwatering foods that he only gets a few times per year. If he's lucky, he might even have room for seconds. Junior's plate, on the other hand, is modest in comparison, and rarely would we expect him to go back for seconds. Now it's time for dessert.
Dad and son head over to the heaping repast, and dad picks out his favorite piece of pie. Junior wants some too, so he cuts a slightly smaller piece, and hands it over. Here's where I get confused. Dad is five times junior's size, eats at least three to four times that of his son at the main course, and then gives his son a dessert that is 75% of the size he'll eat. How does this make sense? If we look at it from a size perspective, Junior's piece of pie would be the equivalent of dad eating almost half the pie.
At my own family gatherings, I've seen many of my nieces and nephews hanging around the dessert table working on their fourth, fifth, or even sixth serving before mom, dad, or grandparent intervene and tell them "only one more, and then you're done". That's the same as mom, dad, or grandparent saying to themselves, "I've had 25 cookies, another five and I'll be done". In whose world would this be OK? Look at the size of the kids and look at the size of the adults. You can't let kids have the adult portion or more of dessert and expect them to be attentive, mello, and compliant. Instead, you can expect them to be belligerent and bounce off the walls. We see the rate of childhood obesity skyrocketing, and we can't add two and two together and learn to make proper portion sizes for our kids. I'm completely baffled on this. When did common sense leave?
I realize most kids love their sweets, but it is up to their parents to learn portion control. Look at what you would reasonably eat and look at your size. Then look at their size, and decrease the portion accordingly. If kids want to pig out on vegetables and protein, I doubt you'll find much of an issue with their health. Overindulging on sweets, on the other hand, can lead to a life of obesity and chronic disease. Do what is right for your kids: give them their correct portion.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
American's Favorite Addiction
Addiction has become a huge issue in America today. Where we once had only alcohol and tobacco as common addictive substances, the list of things to become addicted to has grown exponentially. Now we can choose from a wide variety of illicit or prescription drugs and have added other whole categories, like sex and pornography, gambling, video games, and social media. For some reason, Americans have a hard time practicing moderation, and seem to take everything to excess. Yet, I don't think any of those listed rank as our favorite addiction. That role seems to be reserved exclusively for our favorite pick-me-up: caffeine.
You say caffeine isn't an addiction? I beg to differ. What do you call someone who can't function normally without a drug, craves the drug when it isn't in the system, and experiences withdrawal symptoms when the drug is taken away? I call that person an addict! Those are all classic signs of addiction, and quite likely, common signs exhibited by many of those reading this, especially if it's early in the morning.
Caffeine has been utilized for thousands of years, mostly consumed as coffee or tea. Until sanitation practices become standard in the early 20th century, coffee and tea were some of the only "safe" beverages you could consume, since you boiled the water before making either. The boiling effectively killed most of the nasty critters that would make us sick. The other "safe" choice was beer or wine. Here, the alcohol kept the bugs from getting a foothold. So, yes, caffeine has been an integral part of our development. But, that doesn't mean it's been consumed at the rate it is today, nor does it mean that it is beneficial to our health.
In today's America, caffeine has become the new cigarette. It's legal, it can be consumed anywhere, and it gives us a pick-me-up fix that we crave. It has been added to everything from soda to energy drinks to super charged coffee. You can even get it in pill form if you don't care for the flavors available. Caffeine has become a multi-billion dollar, Wall Street traded industry, all focused on helping us get our fix. One local coffee shop even says "Life is short, stay awake for it", a blatant hook to infer you'll miss out on life without their addictive product.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the flavor of a good cup of coffee, and I regularly drink a variety of teas. However, I do everything I can to do so safely, meaning I avoid as much caffeine as possible. Why you ask? What's the big deal about being addicted to this meek and mild drug? It's the affect on our stress response that I care about.
In my blog How Full is Your Barrel?, I talk about how stress is cumulative to our bodies, regardless of the type of stressor. What seems to be forgotten, is that research has clearly shown that caffeine increases your body's reaction to stress, meaning that when you consume this drug, your barrel gets smaller. If on a normal day, you had a certain amount of stress, it would cause a certain reaction in your body. On a day you have caffeine, that same amount of stress causes an exaggerated reaction in the body, so you have a higher chance of symptoms "spilling" out. This exaggerated response happens for 24 hours after you ingest caffeine, and is not something to which the body adapts. It matters not if you are a pot a day of Jo drinker or if you just have an occasional can of caffeinated soda; the reaction will be there.
If the stress and caffeine link weren't bad enough, there's another not so small issue that isn't well known. Every 8 oz cup of caffeinated coffee (equal to about a 12 oz soda, 16 oz of black tea, or 32 oz of green tea), will take about 80 mg of calcium with it when it leaves in the urine. In today's world of Sally Field peddling osteoporosis drugs on the TV, no one seems to be talking about one of the easiest prevention strategies: stop using all the caffeine.
But, you say, coffee and caffeine are GOOD for us, haven't you heard the news? Yes, I've seen multiple attempts by the caffeine industry to convince the gullible public into believing that their product is at worst harmless, but probably beneficial to you. I keep coming back to the stress reaction. The more stress in your life, the quicker it will destroy your body and mind (I'll explain more in future blogs). Stress is killing us, and we're finding ways to justify our use of an addictive product that exaggerates our stress response and makes us more prone to osteoporosis. That just doesn't pass the common sense smell test.
Does that mean you have to swear off all coffee and tea? Why, not at all. You just have to work to keep the caffeine down. Coffee can be decaffeinated by 98%, so decaf is just fine. Just fine that is, as long as it is safely decaffeinated. Most coffee is decaffeinated with either dichloromethane (shown to cause cancer) or ethyl acetate (breaks down into ethanol). Neither one is necessarily safe for consumption in my view. A safer method to decaffeinate is the Swiss Water Process method. This process utilizes no chemicals to take the caffeine out, but a simple diffusion method that leaves a coffee bean with most, if not all, of the original flavor without the caffeine. Look for a coffee that is labeled "naturally decaffeinated", "Swiss Water Processed" or "chemical free". All of these will be utilizing the same safe decaffeination
Enjoying your morning doesn't have to be dictated by when you get your jolt of caffeine. A good night's sleep will do wonders to reduce the "need" for caffeine (more to come on that as well). Caffeine has no qualities that are beneficial when compared to what it takes from us. To have good health, you really must learn to give up the addiction and "just say no" to the drug.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
You say caffeine isn't an addiction? I beg to differ. What do you call someone who can't function normally without a drug, craves the drug when it isn't in the system, and experiences withdrawal symptoms when the drug is taken away? I call that person an addict! Those are all classic signs of addiction, and quite likely, common signs exhibited by many of those reading this, especially if it's early in the morning.
Caffeine has been utilized for thousands of years, mostly consumed as coffee or tea. Until sanitation practices become standard in the early 20th century, coffee and tea were some of the only "safe" beverages you could consume, since you boiled the water before making either. The boiling effectively killed most of the nasty critters that would make us sick. The other "safe" choice was beer or wine. Here, the alcohol kept the bugs from getting a foothold. So, yes, caffeine has been an integral part of our development. But, that doesn't mean it's been consumed at the rate it is today, nor does it mean that it is beneficial to our health.
In today's America, caffeine has become the new cigarette. It's legal, it can be consumed anywhere, and it gives us a pick-me-up fix that we crave. It has been added to everything from soda to energy drinks to super charged coffee. You can even get it in pill form if you don't care for the flavors available. Caffeine has become a multi-billion dollar, Wall Street traded industry, all focused on helping us get our fix. One local coffee shop even says "Life is short, stay awake for it", a blatant hook to infer you'll miss out on life without their addictive product.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the flavor of a good cup of coffee, and I regularly drink a variety of teas. However, I do everything I can to do so safely, meaning I avoid as much caffeine as possible. Why you ask? What's the big deal about being addicted to this meek and mild drug? It's the affect on our stress response that I care about.
In my blog How Full is Your Barrel?, I talk about how stress is cumulative to our bodies, regardless of the type of stressor. What seems to be forgotten, is that research has clearly shown that caffeine increases your body's reaction to stress, meaning that when you consume this drug, your barrel gets smaller. If on a normal day, you had a certain amount of stress, it would cause a certain reaction in your body. On a day you have caffeine, that same amount of stress causes an exaggerated reaction in the body, so you have a higher chance of symptoms "spilling" out. This exaggerated response happens for 24 hours after you ingest caffeine, and is not something to which the body adapts. It matters not if you are a pot a day of Jo drinker or if you just have an occasional can of caffeinated soda; the reaction will be there.
If the stress and caffeine link weren't bad enough, there's another not so small issue that isn't well known. Every 8 oz cup of caffeinated coffee (equal to about a 12 oz soda, 16 oz of black tea, or 32 oz of green tea), will take about 80 mg of calcium with it when it leaves in the urine. In today's world of Sally Field peddling osteoporosis drugs on the TV, no one seems to be talking about one of the easiest prevention strategies: stop using all the caffeine.
But, you say, coffee and caffeine are GOOD for us, haven't you heard the news? Yes, I've seen multiple attempts by the caffeine industry to convince the gullible public into believing that their product is at worst harmless, but probably beneficial to you. I keep coming back to the stress reaction. The more stress in your life, the quicker it will destroy your body and mind (I'll explain more in future blogs). Stress is killing us, and we're finding ways to justify our use of an addictive product that exaggerates our stress response and makes us more prone to osteoporosis. That just doesn't pass the common sense smell test.
Does that mean you have to swear off all coffee and tea? Why, not at all. You just have to work to keep the caffeine down. Coffee can be decaffeinated by 98%, so decaf is just fine. Just fine that is, as long as it is safely decaffeinated. Most coffee is decaffeinated with either dichloromethane (shown to cause cancer) or ethyl acetate (breaks down into ethanol). Neither one is necessarily safe for consumption in my view. A safer method to decaffeinate is the Swiss Water Process method. This process utilizes no chemicals to take the caffeine out, but a simple diffusion method that leaves a coffee bean with most, if not all, of the original flavor without the caffeine. Look for a coffee that is labeled "naturally decaffeinated", "Swiss Water Processed" or "chemical free". All of these will be utilizing the same safe decaffeination
Enjoying your morning doesn't have to be dictated by when you get your jolt of caffeine. A good night's sleep will do wonders to reduce the "need" for caffeine (more to come on that as well). Caffeine has no qualities that are beneficial when compared to what it takes from us. To have good health, you really must learn to give up the addiction and "just say no" to the drug.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
How Full is Your Barrel?
Americans are more stressed out today than at any other point in our history I believe. Some of that comes from increased expectations with less reward, some is from the diet and lifestyle we have created, and some is from our environment. Whatever the source, our bodies have a specific reaction to stress, and if left unchecked for too long, stress can lead to serious health consequences. When I lecture to peace officers or doctors about stress, I can find a detrimental reaction in every body system in response to stress.
Even though our bodies have a singular reaction to stress, all stressors can be put into three distinct classic categories. Either they will fall into chemical, physical, or emotional. I'm leaning toward adding a new, fourth category that is energetic, since technically that can't fit into any of the others, and yet we are finding it too is a stressor.
Chemical stressors include such things as what we eat, drink, and breathe, and everything contained by each. Food can be very good for us, or it can be a stressor if it is highly processed, missing key components or categories, or if it is contaminated with anything from pesticides and herbicides to pathogenic bacteria. Our beverage choices have a huge impact, since most in America rely on dehydrating beverages like soda, coffee, energy drinks, or alcohol to replenish water, which only leads to more need. Other beverages like milk, fruit juices, and sport drinks are loaded with excess calories that are difficult for the body to process. Our air, even on the best of days, is sadly polluted. Last I heard, running a marathon in downtown Minneapolis was like smoking two packs of cigarettes. Add to all of this the drugs we take voluntarily or involuntarily through our air, food, and water sources, and chemical stressors are at a level unseen in human history.
Emotional stressors come in only a few forms for most of us: friends, family, and money. While some would add work, boss, co-workers, and a variety of others, I believe that if you took money out of the equation, most of those stressors would leave as well. While friends are supposed to not be a stressor, they can be as well. And, we all know that we can choose our friends, but we can't choose our families. From any generational perspective, family is probably one of the biggest causes of emotional stress.
Physical stress shows up in anything we actually do, or don't do. Exercise, while a stressor, is good for us. A lack of it, is a physical stressor. Prolonged positions, repetitive motions, and injuries are all examples of physical stressors. I believe physical stressors, while not declining, have changed in the last hundred years or so. We were once a very physical society. Whether we worked the farm, mill, store, or home, most had a very physical life. Today, we have conveniences that take most of this physicality away, leaving us with a lack of physical activity, which is in itself a significant stressor.
Energetic stressors including things like electromagnetic waves from our buildings' electrical supply, cell phones, wifi, blue tooth sets, and a whole host of other devices that we have come to rely on, unknowing their true effects on individual or societal health. This category could not have been imagined by the developers of the stress concept any more than the automobile could have been imagined by those who lived two hundred years ago, yet from what is being found, it is a true stressor to the body.
Whether emotional, chemical, physical, or energetic in origin, the reaction created in the body doesn't change, but is compounded with increasing amounts of stress. Think of your body as a barrel and stress is water. Every day you put in the "normal" stressors in your life; you put a certain amount of water for each of the stressor types: physical, chemical, emotional, and energetic that you constantly encounter. The water gets higher, and higher, and higher, until it's almost at the brim. Then you have something happen in your life that is a significant stressor. You lose your job; a parent dies; you have a motor vehicle accident; you get a staph infection; or anything else that creates stress in the body. There's no place left to put any more water, and it spills out of the barrel. But, where does it go? There's no "ground" around our barrel, so what happens to that water? It expresses as disease in your weakest area.
The type of stressor is irrelevant; the expression will be whatever your body has the least strength to protect. I have seen many patients over the years that have had physical stressors like motor vehicle accidents develop colds within a week of being in the accident. Did the accident expose them to the virus? Doubtful. I have seen a multitude of others that lose their spouse, and end up in significant physical pain for at least the next year. Did they do anything differently over that year that would have explained the increased pain? More than likely not. The source type doesn't matter, you will express in your weakest area. For some that means physical pain; things like lower back or neck pain or headaches. Some have chemical weaknesses and develop diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. Others have emotional weaknesses and may develop depression, anxiety, or eating disorders.
Our bodies can only handle so much stress before our barrel is full of water, and it begins spilling into our weakest areas, where we develop symptoms. That means when we look at symptom reduction and healing, stress reduction can often have a profound impact. With chiropractic, I am removing physical stress. With clinical nutrition I'm removing chemical stress. Either one might might allow for more reserve to fight other stressors. We can't always look to specific sources of symptoms, sometimes they simply are the body's expression of weakness due to stress. Just how full is your barrel? Is it time to "empty" it a little? I'll be talking more about stress in future blogs, and how you can make your barrel larger, or your water level lower.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
Even though our bodies have a singular reaction to stress, all stressors can be put into three distinct classic categories. Either they will fall into chemical, physical, or emotional. I'm leaning toward adding a new, fourth category that is energetic, since technically that can't fit into any of the others, and yet we are finding it too is a stressor.
Chemical stressors include such things as what we eat, drink, and breathe, and everything contained by each. Food can be very good for us, or it can be a stressor if it is highly processed, missing key components or categories, or if it is contaminated with anything from pesticides and herbicides to pathogenic bacteria. Our beverage choices have a huge impact, since most in America rely on dehydrating beverages like soda, coffee, energy drinks, or alcohol to replenish water, which only leads to more need. Other beverages like milk, fruit juices, and sport drinks are loaded with excess calories that are difficult for the body to process. Our air, even on the best of days, is sadly polluted. Last I heard, running a marathon in downtown Minneapolis was like smoking two packs of cigarettes. Add to all of this the drugs we take voluntarily or involuntarily through our air, food, and water sources, and chemical stressors are at a level unseen in human history.
Emotional stressors come in only a few forms for most of us: friends, family, and money. While some would add work, boss, co-workers, and a variety of others, I believe that if you took money out of the equation, most of those stressors would leave as well. While friends are supposed to not be a stressor, they can be as well. And, we all know that we can choose our friends, but we can't choose our families. From any generational perspective, family is probably one of the biggest causes of emotional stress.
Physical stress shows up in anything we actually do, or don't do. Exercise, while a stressor, is good for us. A lack of it, is a physical stressor. Prolonged positions, repetitive motions, and injuries are all examples of physical stressors. I believe physical stressors, while not declining, have changed in the last hundred years or so. We were once a very physical society. Whether we worked the farm, mill, store, or home, most had a very physical life. Today, we have conveniences that take most of this physicality away, leaving us with a lack of physical activity, which is in itself a significant stressor.
Energetic stressors including things like electromagnetic waves from our buildings' electrical supply, cell phones, wifi, blue tooth sets, and a whole host of other devices that we have come to rely on, unknowing their true effects on individual or societal health. This category could not have been imagined by the developers of the stress concept any more than the automobile could have been imagined by those who lived two hundred years ago, yet from what is being found, it is a true stressor to the body.
Whether emotional, chemical, physical, or energetic in origin, the reaction created in the body doesn't change, but is compounded with increasing amounts of stress. Think of your body as a barrel and stress is water. Every day you put in the "normal" stressors in your life; you put a certain amount of water for each of the stressor types: physical, chemical, emotional, and energetic that you constantly encounter. The water gets higher, and higher, and higher, until it's almost at the brim. Then you have something happen in your life that is a significant stressor. You lose your job; a parent dies; you have a motor vehicle accident; you get a staph infection; or anything else that creates stress in the body. There's no place left to put any more water, and it spills out of the barrel. But, where does it go? There's no "ground" around our barrel, so what happens to that water? It expresses as disease in your weakest area.
The type of stressor is irrelevant; the expression will be whatever your body has the least strength to protect. I have seen many patients over the years that have had physical stressors like motor vehicle accidents develop colds within a week of being in the accident. Did the accident expose them to the virus? Doubtful. I have seen a multitude of others that lose their spouse, and end up in significant physical pain for at least the next year. Did they do anything differently over that year that would have explained the increased pain? More than likely not. The source type doesn't matter, you will express in your weakest area. For some that means physical pain; things like lower back or neck pain or headaches. Some have chemical weaknesses and develop diabetes, heart disease, or cancer. Others have emotional weaknesses and may develop depression, anxiety, or eating disorders.
Our bodies can only handle so much stress before our barrel is full of water, and it begins spilling into our weakest areas, where we develop symptoms. That means when we look at symptom reduction and healing, stress reduction can often have a profound impact. With chiropractic, I am removing physical stress. With clinical nutrition I'm removing chemical stress. Either one might might allow for more reserve to fight other stressors. We can't always look to specific sources of symptoms, sometimes they simply are the body's expression of weakness due to stress. Just how full is your barrel? Is it time to "empty" it a little? I'll be talking more about stress in future blogs, and how you can make your barrel larger, or your water level lower.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
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