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Staying Healthy During Tough Economic Times

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Many of us are feeling the economic crunch these days. Money is tight and the bills continue to arrive in our mailboxes. Stressful times such as these demand resiliency on our part, particularly in terms of our exercise and diet habits. Interestingly, a mentally stressed state can promote inflammation throughout the body. Avoiding mental stressors is not likely to be easy during these times, so we must consider the importance of avoiding inflammation caused by other factors, such as poor diet and lack of exercise.

When you hear the word inflammation, you probably think first about swelling, redness, pain, etc., that can occur following an acute injury, irritation or infection. In general, this is short-term, localized inflammation (confined to a certain area of the body). But inflammation can also occur without physical injury. This is general, body-wide (systemic) inflammation, and it can cause subtle biochemical injuries to body tissues, increasing the risk of developing a number of serious diseases over time.

We promote the development of systemic inflammation by avoiding exercise and remaining sedentary. Not surprisingly, we should exercise daily to help prevent inflammation, and we must also modify our dietary habits. Believe it or not, diet is actually the most important factor affecting inflammation. Scientific research suggests that most diseases are caused by chronic, diet-induced inflammation. The average American diet is high in calories and low in fiber and nutrients. Approximately 80 percent of the calories consumed by Americans are derived from refined flour products, refined sugar, refined seed oils (concentrated source of omega-6 and trans fats) and fatty meat. It is now common knowledge that eating excess calories from sugar and fat leads to postprandial (following a meal) inflammation, which is thought to function as an insidious promoter of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, hypertension, asthma, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis and cancer. That’s a long list of serious health conditions, all linked to a single culprit: inflammation.

Good Nutrition Is Inexpensive

Lean meat, fish, chicken, fruits, vegetables and nuts form the foundation of a diet that limits a postprandial inflammatory response. This is referred to as an “anti-inflammatory diet.”  Not surprisingly, this diet is recommended to help prevent the above-mentioned pro-inflammatory diseases, the treatment of which represents a massive drain on financial resources, both personally and for businesses.

A common argument is, “I can’t afford to eat lots of fruits and vegetables,” or “Healthy foods are expensive.” I tend to strongly disagree with these arguments. A cup of coffee and a doughnut can cost up to $5. A 20 oz. bottle of soda costs more than $1. In contrast, a 5-pound bag of frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower costs $5 at Sam’s Club, and a 1-pound container of pre-washed organic salad greens costs about $4. Both of those items can be consumed over several days by several people.

A large sweet potato that can be split between two meals costs about 75 cents. While certain nuts are very expensive (macadamias, for example), many are very reasonable. Lean meats, fish and chicken are reasonably priced and can be added to the vegetables and sweet potatoes. Fresh fruit remains very reasonable and should be one of the snacks of choice.

Dark chocolate is inexpensive and can be mixed with raw nuts and raisins for a great snack or dessert. I often melt a 50-calorie piece of dark chocolate with a little coconut oil and add some nuts and raisins. I place this combination on a piece of wax/freezer paper and place it into the freezer for about 10 minutes. My reward is an anti-inflammatory candy bar.

It is not more expensive to eat healthy, anti-inflammatory foods, if one shops wisely. Certainly, preventing the expression of chronic disease will save countless dollars and heartaches associated with the accelerated morbidity and mortality associated with pro-inflammatory living. In short, we cannot afford to eat any other way but anti-inflammatory.

Inexpensive Supplements for Health Promotion

There are also key supplements that support the reduction of inflammation and free-radical generation, and they’re also reasonably priced. (Free radicals are unstable molecules that can damage surrounding molecules in the body. They have been linked to an increased risk of cancer, among other diseases.) The basic supplements include a multivitamin without iron, magnesium, fish oil and vitamin D. The total cost is approximately $60 to $80 per month, which is less than $3 per day. If you can only afford one supplement, vitamin D seems like the best choice because research has demonstrated that vitamin D insufficiency is pandemic. The next best financial choice for a supplement would be a multivitamin/mineral without iron. After that, fish oil should be added, and finally magnesium. If a fifth supplement can be afforded, probiotics are the best choice, as they have a strongly anti-inflammatory effect in the gut.

If money is not particularly an issue, additional supplements should be considered, including coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, acetyl-L-carnitine, ginger, turmeric and garlic. These supplements help to promote ATP synthesis and reduce free radicals and inflammation.

The Bottom Line

While finances have been tight lately due to external economic forces, and may get worse in the near future, we can easily make this situation a lot worse by pursuing disease expression due to a pro-inflammatory lifestyle. Medical care for pro-inflammatory diseases is extremely expensive and generally preventable by adopting an anti-inflammatory diet that is no more expensive than one that is pro-inflammatory. Key supplements can be added based on financial ability.

We should consider that paying for expensive medical care will put most of us into debt even when economic times are good. So it makes no sense to pursue disease and expensive medical care with a pro-inflammatory lifestyle when economic times are not so good. In short, nutrition does not need to be compromised, even when the economy is down. Talk to your doctor for more information.

Foods That Promote Inflammation

  • High-fat meats (especially red meat)
  • Processed meats
  • Sugary snacks, sodas and cereals
  • Refi ned grains
  • Candy and junk food
 - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register Mark
Foods That Discourage Inflammation

  • Salmon and other oily fish
  • Flax/pumpkin seeds
  • Olive oil
  • Whole grains
  • Brightly colored fruits and vegetables
 - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register Mark

 

David Seaman, MS, DC, DACBN, is the author of Clinical Nutrition for Pain, Inflammation and Tissue Healing. He has a master’s degree in nutrition from the University of Bridgeport, Conn., and lectures on nutrition for Anabolic Labs (www.anaboliclabs.com).

How to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain: Weigh In

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If you’re concerned about your weight this holiday season, you’re not alone. Millions of people stress about how to enjoy the festivities – and at least a few of the treats, sweets and other holiday foods – without packing on the pounds they’ve worked so diligently to lose all year.

According to research published in the British Medical Journal, weighing in – both about your weight and about what you’re eating – is an effective way to prevent holiday weight gain. People who tracked both their weight and their energy intake actually lost approximately one-third of a pound over the 45-day study period, which spanned the holiday season and was marketed as a study on “winter weight gain.” Control subjects who did not weigh themselves or track what they were eating, on the other hand, gained almost a pound.

Members of the intervention group were advised to weight themselves every day, record their weight and reflect on any weight gain / loss. They also received weight-management tips, including eating and exercise suggestions; and a list of holiday foods and how much exercise would be required to burn the calorie total for each.

Your doctor can provide you with more information about weight maintenance in general and specific to the holiday season; and offer you more advice on how to enjoy the holidays without sacrificing the great work you’ve done all year to build the healthy body you deserve.

What’s in Your Child’s Lunchbox?

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Another school year means another chance to send your child off to class with a lunchbox filled with nutritious, concentration-maximizing food. Unfortunately, that’s frequently a chance not taken, particularly with the proliferation of ready-to-go, packaged snacks and so-called “meals” that don’t pass the test in terms of balanced nutrition.

Let’s change that today with a snapshot of how you can fill your child’s lunchbox the right way this year. Here are three suggestions to get you started courtesy of Dr. Claudia Anrig, who wrote a longer article on the topic back in 2010.

The Sandwich: This is a staple of many lunchboxes, but avoid store-bought white bread; also don’t be fooled by “enriched wheat” or “multigrain,” neither of which is whole wheat / whole grain and thus lacks fiber and many key nutrients. Also avoid processed meats; use sliced chicken / turkey (that you’ve prepared at home) and/or vegetables. Substitute almond butter for peanut butter, and use only fruit-juice-sweetened jelly / jam (if any). Dr. Anrig also suggests a healthy wrap as a sandwich option, ” which can be done by purchasing whole-grain tortillas and wrapping up healthier protein and vegetable sources.” And with hummus gaining popularity, it can be a healthier alternative to mayonnaise.

The Drink: Avoid milk, soda and even juice (the occasional 100 percent juice drink is OK every once in awhile). “The American Academy of Pediatrics says that juice consumption is contributing to cavities and gastrointestinal issues for children, while milk has proven to be a common food allergen. Your best option is to encourage your child to drink water. This can be done by providing water for them in their lunchbox using a stainless-steel thermos or by placing ice cubes in their thermos in the morning.”

children eating lunch - Copyright – Stock Photo / Register MarkThe Snacks: Chips, crackers, cookies and other processed, nutrient-limited foods are everywhere these days and appealing when you’re in a hurry, but you should limit their presence in your child’s lunchbox. “The side dishes for your children should be tasty cut vegetables, keeping in mind that greener is better. Fruit is also a great side dish, but while it is healthy, it is also a source of sugar and not as rich in vitamins and minerals as vegetables.” And celery or a few whole-grain crackers with hummus, apples with almond butter (if your child isn’t also eating it on their sandwich) and carrots with yogurt-based ranch dip are still better options in terms of nutritional content than many of the packaged snacks marketed to children (and parents).

Produce for Kids (www.produceforkids.com) is one of several organizations trying to improve children’s health via healthier eating habits. The organization has created the “Power Your Lunchbox Promise” to help parents and teachers help children eat more nutritious school lunches. For every promise made through the website, the organization donates $1 to Feeding America, which provides meals for needy families.

Produce for Kids also provides a variety of meal tips and lunchbox ideas – including recipes from a registered dietitian – on its website … all part of its mission to [educate] families on the benefits of healthy eating with fresh produce, [provide] simple meal solutions and [raise] money for children’s charities.

Foods That Fight Inflammation

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In recent years, researchers have come to appreciate that our diet can substantially influence the inflammatory state within our body. This view of inflammation is different than the standard view that characterizes inflammation as a response to injury, such as a sprained ankle, which then heals naturally and the inflammation goes away.

The new view of inflammation, developed over the past 10 years, is that it is a generalized state within the circulatory and immune system perpetuated by poor diet. The outcome of this is the dietary promotion of arthritis, osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and most other chronic diseases. We should call this “dietary trauma,” as it leads to the development of biochemical changes similar to a physical injury. The difference is that, for most people, dietary trauma occurs every time they eat, three or more times each day, every day.

In most cases, the outcome of dietary trauma is not noticed for years. It takes years to develop arthritis and other chronic diseases, so we don’t usually associate a poor diet with disease expression. This allows us to easily deny such an association between diet, inflammation, and disease. Thus, developing an awareness or mindfulness about eating is very important to help influence a behavioral change in our eating habits.

Foods That Promote Inflammation

Refined carbohydrates in the form of sugar, sweeteners, and flour produce inflammatory responses, as do refined oils and obese (fatty) meat. A surprise to many is that even whole grains and legumes (beans) can promote inflammation.

With the above in mind, consider that the average American consumes about 10 percent of calories from dairy products, 20 percent from refined sugar, 20 percent from refined grains, 20 percent from refined oils and 2 percent from alcohol. The biggest problems clearly are the sugar, grains, and oils. Approximately another 20 percent of calories come from obese meat, which is the fatty meat from domestic animals that live a sedentary life in feedlots, where they are fed a tonnage of grains/corn instead of grass/pasture. The remaining 10 percent of calories might be fruits and vegetables.

Foods That Prevent Inflammation

Rather than listing all the foods and snacks that should be avoided, let’s focus on the foods that reduce inflammation. Researchers recently characterized a diet that offers preventive benefits for heart disease, called the “polymeal,” which is consistent with the PaleoDiet, the traditional low-starch Mediterranean diet, and the anti-inflammatory diet.

A reasonable recommendation is for 80 percent to 100 percent of our calories to come from vegetables, fruit, raw nuts, potatoes, and either lean or omega-3 protein sources including fish, lean meat, skinless chicken, wild game, grass-fed animals and omega-3 eggs.

Spices such as garlic, ginger, turmeric, oregano and the other popular spices are all anti-inflammatory. The best oils/fats to use in moderation are extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil and butter.

Our focus should be on correcting the 80 percent of calories that come from sugar, refined grains, oils and obese meat. Worrying about yogurt, the occasional bran muffin, a cup of coffee, etc., has little influence compared to the tsunami of inflammation created by the 80 percent of calories derived from inflammatory foods.

Another key to reducing dietary trauma and inflammation is to eat appropriate amounts for your body. In general, overeating leads to an inflammatory response.

Avoid Dietary Extremism

If you currently snack on bags of inflammation and regularly do “drive-through self-shootings” at fast-food restaurants, you likely will view a life of eating anti-inflammatory foods as somewhat extreme. In actuality, the anti-inflammatory foods described above are not extreme at all and are completely consistent with our biochemical and physiological needs.

If you’re eating 80 percent or more of your calories from sugar, flour/grains, refined oils and obese meat, you’re a dietary extremist. For many, the mere thought of giving up bread and pasta is too much to bear.

On the other hand, assuming 85 percent to 90 percent of your calories are anti-inflammatory, have fun with the remaining 10 percent to 15 percent of calories borne of foods from the dark side. Don’t become an anti-inflammatory diet extremist and make eating healthy a stressful event.

6 Common-Sense Strategies to Get in Great Shape

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Legendary martial artist Bruce Lee once said, “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” He was right. In the world of fitness and exercise, simple principles give you the best results. Getting into shape does not have to be difficult.

Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need to annihilate yourself with grueling workouts that would exhaust most professional athletes. It’s not about training hard, it’s about training smart.

When sculpting a lean physique, quantity is not nearly as important as quality. You don’t need to spend endless hours on expensive equipment, either. Walk into the majority of fitness clubs these days and you’ll be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of exercise equipment. It’s hard to know where to begin. Not only is it intimidating, but in reality, none of these fancy machines with innumerable moving parts is necessarily more effective in building a lean, muscular, functional body.

Complex does not mean better. You are about to discover simple exercise strategies that can be done easily, quickly and with great results, even if you are a beginner. So, what should you be doing? Good question. Let’s get into some simple fitness tips and strategies to help you reach your goals.

1. Get Off the Machines

Free weights require more muscle activation for stabilization and control of movements, which means you burn more calories with every exercise. Muscles require energy to contract; the more energy you use with a movement, the more calories you burn and the leaner you get – assuming you don’t overdo training and maintain good form.

An effective exercise strategy is to perform compound, multi-joint free-weight movements that integrate the upper and lower body. For example, instead of simply standing in one place doing biceps curls for your arms, add alternating single-leg lunges while curling. You now get the metabolic effect of using the lower-body leg muscles and the added challenge of controlling the upper-body free weight. There is no need to go as heavy on the weights since the body must use more muscle to control proper balance.

Lifting free weights conditions the body to release substances (hormones, enzymes) that promote fat breakdown and encourage muscle building. You can capitalize on fat breakdown with a minimum of three days a week of weight training. This frequency encourages additional glycogen usage and storage, preventing carbohydrates from being stored as fat.

Try this fat-shredding free-weight routine: Do six sets of 12 repetitions per multi-joint movement (for example, biceps curls combined with lunges) with only 15 seconds of rest between sets. The nice thing here is you get the fat loss and cumulative volume muscle fatigue benefits of minimal rest between sets.

2. Fine Tune Your Cardio

The timing of your cardiovascular workouts affects your fat-loss / muscle-mass equation. Cardio promotes fat loss, but do too much and you may also get hit with a decrease in strength, muscle, and metabolism. Doing cardio workouts three times a week (minimum) in the morning before breakfast is ideal to capitalize on maximum fat burning. Since you will not have eaten for several hours, your body will be unable to recruit its stores of carbohydrates for fuel, and will instead burn stored body fat for energy. So, you burn more body fat in less time. If a morning cardio workout is not possible, then it is recommended after weight training, not before.

Implementing a simple strategy of cardio after weight training will also have a significant positive impact on preventing fatigue and turbo-charging fat loss. This capitalizes on the hormone optimization principle of surging growth hormone and testosterone (yes, this concept applies to women, too) to accelerate fat loss and increase lean muscle tone.

3. Keep Yourself Hydrated

Did you know that being dehydrated makes you fatter? Why? Because muscle glycogen (sugar energy created from ingested carbohydrates)is stored along with water. For every gram of glycogen in the muscle, there should be three of water. Dehydration forces glucose to remain in the bloodstream instead of muscle until it reaches the liver for overflow storage. When the liver is full, the glycogen (sugar) has no place to go but your fat cells. Not good!

Your body is predominantly made up of water. It doesn’t look that way in the mirror, but I assure you, without water, you’d be nothing but a pile of assorted amino acids, minerals, and some fatty acids. If we were to consider a single human cell, we’d be looking at a molecular structure that’s between 70-85 percent water. Water is the primary component of blood. Water transports oxygen throughout the body.

In short, water is an essential nutrient and perhaps the most neglected nutrient among individuals attempting to figure out “the best diet.” When you perspire, you lose water; thus, it becomes even more vital for anyone committed to an intense exercise program. While the old, but the unsubstantiated rule of eight glasses per day has held up just fine, multiplying your weight by .55 will give you a pretty good estimate of the ounces of water an exerciser should consume in a day. If you live in a warm climate and/or you’re in a hot environment all day, be it outdoor construction or fueling an indoor furnace, you should make a concerted effort to increase your intake a bit higher.

If you don’t want to do all this math and measure ounces, I suggest you always have water with you. A bottle of spring water should be fine. Sipping it throughout the day, even if you are not experiencing thirst, can act as a valuable step in helping to mobilize fat and keep cells healthy.

4. Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

How can you hit a target you can’t even see? You must set your goals and then document your progress via a journal, computer or cell phone application. This is the only verifiable way you can determine what does and does not work over time. Write down everything, from what you eat to when you eat, training programs, how you felt during and after workouts, etc. Take pictures of yourself as you progress to attach the visible senses to your goal.

Is this a lot of work? Yes! But how badly do you want to reach your goal? This is where the rubber meets the road and keeping a journal separates the serious from the dabblers.

Everyone who has ever achieved any success in this world has first had a plan; something that helped guide them in the right direction. We need a plan in order to see beyond “square one.” There’s tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, a year from now and even longer than that – and if you formulate your action plan for getting into shape now, every day you’ll get that much closer. A plan also clarifies more than just what you want to do; it clarifies what you have been doing, and is a valuable cross-referencing tool for adjustments in your methods and process. That way, you keep improving. This is true for exercise and diet. Outline a plan that includes what you want to do, what changes you must make to do it, and what the end result will be if you follow it. In fact, a diet will outline what you can and cannot do in order to meet your goal; both on a daily basis and in a general sense. Without this group of signposts on your way, how could you possibly have any direction?

5. Focus on the Core

For most people, your workout is motivated (at least to some degree) by the drive to improve your appearance. A prime target related to that goal invariably involves the elusive abdominals.

Most people target the midsection with crunches or sit-ups. Although these are good examples of isolation exercises for the abdominals, you should also integrate alternative exercises that develop strength within all muscle groups of the core. This will provide you with the best foundation to push through the tough workouts in pursuit of your best body.

When you focus exclusively on the abdominals by performing isolation exercises such as crunches, you compromise your core’s true strength and maximum performance potential; which doesn’t make it any easier to get lean for summer. A great exercise to maximize your core strength is the chop and lift. This is a great core exercise because it targets basic movement patterns that rely on the synergistic efforts of the abdominals, the back extensors, and the hips. It also involves upper-body muscle groups during the torso and arm movements. The chop and lift is best done using a high-low cable machine (you’ve seen it in your local gym; it’s usually on either “post” of an exercise rack, can be raised or lowered by pulling a pin and lets you attach a handle, bar, etc., and adjust the amount of weight) or resistance bands. The chop and lift may be performed in a variety of lower-body positions for variable intensity purposes.

How to do it: The chopping movement is the downward movement of the cable or band across the body from high to low; the lifting movement is upward movement across the body from a low to high position. You’re pulling the cable/band across the body and then returning it to the start position. The progression from beginner to advanced is as follows: tall-kneeling (i.e., both knees grounded), half-kneeling (i.e., one knee grounded), squat stance (i.e., standing with both feet in the same plane), and scissors stance (i.e., standing in lunge position). Your doctor can explain exactly how to perform the exercise correctly.

Progressing the chop and lift from the kneeling to standing position develops core strength at the hips without interference or compensation from the legs. Legs that are too powerful and dominant over the hamstrings may compensate for hip weakness, negating optimal core strength. The progression from asymmetrical to an asymmetrical stance (tall-kneeling to half-kneeling, etc.) highlights strength imbalances between the sides of the body. The chop and lift help develop cross-body patterning movements, facilitating symmetrical muscle tone and balance.

6. Don’t Fear the Deadlift

Deadlifts are by far one of the best exercises for producing overall strength and lean muscle. There is no reason to be afraid of performing a proper deadlift; the operative word being proper. When done correctly using the hips, glutes, and thighs, rather than the lower back, deadlifting is probably the most effective exercise for toning muscle. And believe it or not, women, this is the most powerful exercise for toning and shaping your rear end, period!

Deadlifting is a great exercise to use even if your only goal is to lose weight and look better. The reason is that it stimulates a lot of muscle, which helps to jack up your fat-burning metabolism and build more lean muscle. Machine movements such as leg extensions, leg curls and the inner and outer thigh machines could never compare to a good set of deadlifts.

Deadlifts allow you to build muscle in your upper and lower back glutes and hamstrings. Why waste your time working through countless other exercises when you can get such amazing results with a single one? Long story short: If you want to transform your body and/or get stronger, then you should be deadlifting.

How do you do a deadlift? It’s easy: With a barbell or a pair of dumbbells on the floor in front of you, grab the weight(s) with both hands, stand up straight and then lower it back to the ground. Remember, use your hips, glutes, and thighs (keep your hips down, butt out); don’t rely on your arms or around your back. You’re working the lower body, not the upper with this one. Again, ask your doctor about proper performance of this important exercise.

Since the deadlift recruits many muscles, your smaller and weaker muscles tend to fatigue before your larger, stronger muscles. If your weaker muscles are giving out and you keep pulling for more reps, you could be setting yourself up for injury.

So keep your repetition range to around six in the beginning and go slowly, staying true to the quality of the movement.

How can you start to include deadlifts in your current exercise program? Simple – just start doing them one to two times a week. If you are a beginner, then deadlifting twice a week could be the way to go; that way, your body can start to adapt to the movement pattern, and your strength levels will increase at a fast rate.

Keeping It Simple

Despite our willingness to blame ourselves, our genetics or our hectic schedules, when fitness or weight-loss failure arises, it’s often the result of flawed information destroying achievement potential. It’s misinformation swallowing up the fitness hopes of someone with good intentions. Most of the mistakes we make when trying to get in shape involve actions (or a lack of action) that neglect the importance of the critical relationship between eating like an athlete, exercising aerobically in moderation, and challenging muscle. All three elements are crucial if the goal is a long-term positive physical change. Once you learn to apply these strategies in a manner that fits comfortably into your life, you’ll find the payoff for the time you invest in exercise to be significant and extremely rewarding. When you implement these strategies, fitness failure will no longer be an option!

Muscle: The True Fat-Burning Machine

While aerobic exercise does increase short-term metabolism, it is a mistake to believe it is the secret to fat loss. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. When fat is burned, it actually has to be released into the bloodstream and shuttled into a muscle cell, where it is burned as fuel. Muscle, therefore, is the true fat-burning machine. If you increase muscle mass, even slightly, you increase caloric burn, not only while you exercise, but also while you eat, sleep and think.

Slow and Steady: Remember to Rest

As I’ve said before, one of the primary reasons people fail in their attempt to lose weight and get in shape is that they try to accomplish too much too soon. They are so inspired to exercise that they usually end up overtraining by working out too much. Another word for overtraining is burnout! Doing a massive volume of sets, reps, and days of training without adequate time to rest and recover is the quickest way to sabotage your progress. Muscles grow when you’re resting them, not working them.

One of the little-known secrets of getting into shape is more rest between workouts. In the fitness industry, the rest is known as the silent workout. Working out breaks muscles down; resting allows the body to regenerate and build more lean muscle. The simple workout principle is to get in, train smart, get out, rest, and eat properly.

The biggest obstacle to more rest is your own mindset. We tend to think that if we don’t go 150 percent, we are slacking off. It is a struggle in the beginning to follow this principle, but if you stick with it for just one month, you will see enormous positive changes in your body. Extreme training follows a vicious cycle in breaking down the body. When you train hard and don’t see progress, your first instinct is to go even harder. Keep in mind that’s the exact opposite of what you should do.

Is Your Teen Daughter Eating Enough (Especially If She’s an Athlete)?

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Anyone who’s been a teen lives with a teen or even knows a teen understands the teenage years can be challenging for all concerned. For teenage girls, those challenges include an often-unhealthy focus on body image and weight. The all-too-common consequence: unhealthy eating habits, particularly not eating enough. While this can have dire health results for any teen girl, in female teen athletes, the results can be even worse. Here’s why.

Teen girls who exercise too much and eat too little may be at risk for health problems because that pattern can be associated with what’s been labeled the “female athlete triad”: dietary issues, irregular or absent menstrual cycles, and osteoporosis. It all revolves around poor / inadequate nutrition, which can impact hormones and weaken bones.

So, how many calories should a teen athlete be eating on a daily basis? Believe it or not, up to 2,500; that’s 700 calories more than the recommended intake for sedentary teen girls. Many teen girls may not be getting enough calories regardless of whether they’re sedentary or active, emphasizing the importance of regular meals and snacks, even when your teen daughter is running from school to practice to homework at a frantic pace. Your doctor can tell you more about the “female athlete triad” and suggest ways to ensure your teen eats a balanced diet even on their busiest days.

Top 5 Herbal Formulas for Health and Wellness

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Why do the Chinese have a reputation for living long, healthy lives? A rich history of using Chinese herbs may play a role. Here are five of the most popular herbal formulas and how they help promote health and wellness in the body.

Modern Western pharmacology tends to focus on finding the single molecule that cures a disease. In contrast, Chinese medicine often utilizes herbal formulas that blend many agents to address underlying imbalances that may cause disease, while aiding in symptom relief – a “shotgun” approach that has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years. Medical practitioners all over the world have begun to incorporate more Chinese formulas into their practices to treat common, everyday conditions. Whereas raw herbs were once sent home with the patient and made into teas, today there are a variety of forms available over the counter, in practitioners’ offices and in health food stores.

Herbal Theory at a Glance

According to Chinese medicine, herbs and formulas have affinities to certain organ channels. Each herb has significance in a formula, similar to the way a pharmaceutical medication has a specific action. An herb can affect multiple organ systems, making its way through the body to help restore balance. It has been suggested that early Chinese herbalists could follow the energy of herbs through the body, which helped determine their medicinal function.

Chinese medicine has become much more mainstream in its use and indications. Over-the-counter products are now used based on their modern-day disease indications, and are used in their traditional applications for treating imbalances in organ channels. While modern medicine has tried to extract the most active components of herbs in an attempt to enhance their effects, Chinese herbal formulas continue to combine whole herbs. It is common to see herbs and minerals such as licorice, ginger, simple sugar, rice and salt added to help make the other components in a formula work better. Often, simple base formulas are used together or individual herbs are added. Here are five common Chinese herbal formulas that address basic health issues.

A Basic Formula
(Gui Zhi Tang)

This formula’s traditional use stems back to the classics, where it was one of the first formulas used to fight off signs of the common cold. It works by pushing pathogens out of the body, primarily through sweating. This formula has been modified to be a component of so many formulas that many modern patent medicine books do not recognize it individually as a formula. The major ingredient, cinnamon, has an overall immune-boosting quality that helps promote the movement of other herbs through channels.

Digestive Aid 
(Ping Wei San)

This formula is one of many available that work to tonify the stomach and improve digestion and elimination. It is often used when there is stomach upset, bloating and sluggish bowels due to overconsumption of cold foods and drinks. It has been used to help relieve fullness in the chest and abdomen. This can be commonly seen when people attempt to eat healthy and suddenly increase their intake of raw food, eat only salads or drink lots of iced beverages. The formula works by warming the digestive organs as a method of restoring function and helping decrease the feeling of heaviness. Similar formulas are used when people present with more heat signs like burning sensations when eating, or they alternate between loose stools and constipation.

PMS and Mental Support
(Xiao Yao San)

This formula, one of the most popular Chinese formulas used in America, focuses on supporting the mind/body balance. It has been given to women who suffer from PMS with emotional difficulties connected to their cycle. This formula soothes the mind and promotes blood movement, which also helps relieve pain and cramping.

Energy Support
(Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang)

This formula traditionally has been used to help strengthen weakened and debilitated patients by tonifying their core energy. It is like fixing the foundation of a house below ground so new improvements can be made above ground. An indication for this formula is when there is not enough strength to hold the body up and there is a feeling that things are sinking or collapsing. This formula has been used with various types of prolapses, frequent urination, loose stools, bleeding problems like anemia, and generalized weakness. It is used to help boost the body for many conditions and is often combined with other formulas for that purpose.

Liver Support
(Xiao Chai Hu Tang)

This formula has been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years and has kept its ancient indications while acquiring modern-day applications. It is one of the main formulas mentioned in the Shang Hun Lung, a classic text on herbal formulations from the Han dynasty, written between 202 B.C. and 221 A.D. Traditionally, it has been used for lingering colds that persist for more than five days with alternating fever and chills. It also has been used for women who catch colds right before or on the first day of menstruation. It is good for people who are more susceptible to illness during changes, like the beginning of a menstrual cycle. Recently, ongoing studies at UC San Diego and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have demonstrated its positive results on liver function for patients with hepatitis C. Over the long term, it has helped improve liver enzymes and general fatigue from chronic illness. This formula continues to be a part of many clinical trials in the U.S. and overseas.

Our Salt Intake Could Kill Us

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Well, at least most of us, and the damage it’s doing in terms of our heart health is staggering. A recent study suggests that the amount of salt consumed by the average adult American on a daily basis may be sufficient to actually damage the heart muscle and inhibit its ability to pump blood.

In the study, people who consumed 3,730 mg or more per day were more likely to have enlargement of the left chambers of the heart (the ones responsible for pumping oxygen-rich blood throughout the body) compared to people who consumed less daily salt. What’s more, high-salt consumers were more likely to have signs of heart muscle strain that could lead to eventual structural damage than lower-salt consumers.

Average sodium intake by most American adults on a daily basis exceeds 3,400 mg, according to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends an upper limit of 2,300 mg a day for people without cardiovascular risk factors. Interestingly, table salt is not the biggest culprit – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 75 of sodium consumption comes from “processed food and restaurant meals.”

Keep in mind that reducing your salt intake is beneficial for another heart-related reason: Sodium intake has already been correlated with high blood pressure and heart disease, which can cause heart attack, stroke and/or heart failure. Talk to your doctor for more information.

Death by (Fried) Potatoes

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Potatoes prepared by methods other than frying are a good low-fat, low-calorie, cholesterol-free source of fiber, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6 and folate.

But drop them in a deep fryer or otherwise cook them in oil (i.e., most often as French fries, potato chips or hash browns) and their nutritional value changes, certainly with regard to fat, calorie and cholesterol content. That’s why research links consumption of fried potatoes to an increased risk of early death – yes, we said death.

People who eat fried potatoes twice or more per week are twice as likely to die early compared to people who don’t eat fried potatoes. Eating non-fried potatoes is not linked to early death risk, according to the research.

You probably appreciated French fries and other fried potatoes aren’t good for you before reading this, but now the health risk is crystal clear: risk of early death. Considering Americans consume more than 100 pounds of potatoes (per person) annually, only about a third of which is the fresh variety (i.e., a baked potato), that means the majority of potato consumption is processed and potentially fried. Not a good trend, this research suggests. Talk to your doctor to learn more about how nutrition can impact your health.

Healthy Aging: A Question of Calories?

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Calorie restriction can be an important component of a sensible weight-loss program, particularly if caloric binging has been a staple of your weight gain.

But that’s not the only benefit of cutting down on the calories, suggests research that examined data gathered as part of the National Institute on Aging’s CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy) trial. Calorie restriction also may help slow the biological aging process itself.

In the study, researchers from Duke University School of Medicine analyzed data on 200-plus adults who restricted their calorie intake by 25 percent or maintained their regular diet, with the former group achieving an average 12 percent reduction in calorie intake over the two-year study period. Researchers assessed biological age before, during and after randomizing subjects by assessing biomarkers of cardiovascular, metabolic and immune function, among other variables.

At each annual follow-up assessment, subjects on the restricted-calorie diet experienced a small drop in their biological age (.11 years), while subjects not on calorie restriction saw their biological age rise by nearly a year (.71 years). What’s more, calorie-restricted subjects actually moved closer toward a younger, healthier reference point (young, healthy people in their 20s) determined by the researchers, while subjects not on calorie restriction remained unchanged in terms of movement toward or away from that reference point.

The lesson: Less calories (as part of a sensible eating plan, of course) may be the anti-aging mechanism we’ve all been looking for! Talk to your doctor for more information and assistance designing a balanced, sustainable diet that works for you.