Archive for health
Santa Clara Chiropractor: Exercise is Great, But Maintaining a Healthy Weight Takes More
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s another blog on exercise, my favorite topic as a Santa Clara Chiropractor other than talking about the benefits of chiropractic treatment. And, if you’ve read my other blogs on exercise, you know I’m a big believe in “move it or lose it.” But, if you’ve read the entire content of most of my blogs, you also know that I believe that exercise is just part of a healthy lifestyle. An essential part, to be sure, but eating nutritious meals, drinking plenty of water, and visiting your chiropractor (that last one may be slightly biased), along with giving up unhealthy habits like smoking, are crucial not only for maintaining good health, but in keeping body weight in check. That’s why I wasn’t surprised by the latest government data that indicated that more Americans are exercising, but rates of obesity and smoking have not changed.
Health experts, such as chiropractors, and the U.S. government all recommend getting daily exercise — about an hour a day of moderate exercise for most adults — to keep weight off and prevent heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Plus, we chiropractors are well aware that keeping weight off not only helps to prevent the diseases just mentioned, but it also helps to slow down, and often prevent, arthritis and stress injuries of the musculoskeletal system caused by excess weight.
But, excess weight is not only caused by, and sustained through, lack of exercise. Here are some more “fun facts” from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics:
- The prevalence of obesity among adults aged 20 and over has increased from 19.4 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2009.
- In 2009, 9 percent of adults 18 and over had diabetes, up from 8.2 percent in 2008 and 5 percent in 1997.
- 20.6 percent of adults smoked, about the same as in 2008.
- Nearly 23 percent of adults had at least one day of binge drinking in 2009, defined as having five or more drinks in a day.
- Most Americans believe they are healthy. More than 66 percent said they had excellent or very good health, down from 68.5 percent in 2008. 2.4 percent said they had poor health.
- Just over 4 percent of all Americans said they had an asthma attack in the past year
There are no shortcuts and no way to get around it: Good health and vibrant wellness is created and maintained through an overall healthy lifestyle.
Your Santa Clara Chiropractor: “When The Good Go Bad”
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As your Santa Clara Chiropractor, I have a confession to make: I’m a health nut, plain and simple. I believe that the human body is an amazing organic instrument that, just like a musical instrument, requires care and attention in order for it to “play” the way it was designed to. Some health practices are obvious: Eat nutritious meals, avoid processed foods and too much salt and sugar, stay hydrated, get plenty of exercise, and last but not least, see your chiropractor on a regular basis! However, other health practices may not be quite so apparent, such as keep your refrigerator clean. Yep, that’s right! A refrigerator that contains old food or food spills, is a health hazard with major health consequences. How unhealthy? There is a detailed, and sometimes amusing, account of just how unhealthy “bad refrigeration” can be in an article by in Bloomberg Businessweek, which I highly recommend your reading if you have a chance. But, in the meantime, I would like to pass along a few things that you should be aware of.
Though office refrigerators were the focus of the article and studies, it’s equally important, of course, for each of us to ask ourself how often we clean out our home refrigerator. According to a study conducted by the ADA and ConAgra Foods, 44 percent of office refrigerators are cleaned once a month and 22 percent are cleaned only once or twice a year. The article suggested that the next time someone was looking for a relatively bacteria-free place to store their lunch, they should consider that the bathrooms in most offices are probably cleaner than the fridge. (At least they are cleaned more often!) According to the Agriculture Dept., the foods most likely to turn unhealthiest the quickest are casseroles, cold cuts, poultry, yogurt, and sour cream. Though such food items are healthy “in the beginning,” can go from bad to lethal. Last year at an AT&T Center in San Jose, California, a co-worker who was trying to be helpful, cracked open the office fridge to clean it and noxious fumes sent seven of her co-workers to the hospital and forced authorities to evacuate the building while men in hazmat suits spread down the fridge!
So, add “clean the refrigerator” to your health “to do” list. Even food that’s good for you when it’s fresh, can be bad for your health given enough time!
First of all, if you are someone who reads my Santa Clara chiropractic blogs, then you know that as your Santa Clara Chiropractor I am a passionate advocate of living a healthy lifestyle that, as I’ve written so many times, includes a healthy diet, good hydration, plenty of exercise and, of course, regular chiropractic care! In addition, I’m sure that if you are someone who is already concerned about your health, you don’t get your diet and nutrition guidelines from watching television. We all know that most TV advertisements that are about food, especially “convenience” food, are meant to sell, sell, sell, whether or not the product is actually good for you. That said, it always nice to take a moment to reflect on just how “unhealthy” TV ads can be. So, I read with great interest an article today in the New York Times Fitness and Nutrition section on the subject. The article detailed a study that concluded that if Americans ate only foods advertised on TV, they would consume 25 times the recommended amount of sugar and 20 times the amount of fat they need, but less than half the dairy, fiber, and fruits and vegetables.Yikes! Those statistics even shocked me!
Taping 28 days of prime-time TV (as well as Saturday-morning programming) on the four major broadcast networks, researchers identified 800 foods promoted in 3,000 ads. Then, using a nutritional software program, they analyzed the content of the items, comparing the foods’ nutritional values with the government’s food guide pyramid and recommended daily intake values for various nutrients (based on a 2,000 calories per day diet).
Are you ready for this? Not only would a 2,000-calorie diet made up solely of foods from commercials provide too much cholesterol, saturated fat and salt, and not nearly enough nutrients like iron, calcium or vitamins A, D and E, just one advertised food item by itself would provide, on average, three times a person’s daily recommended servings of sugar and two and half times the daily recommended servings of fat.
The study will be published this month in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
You Say Tomato and I Say…Sunscreen
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Aah, summertime. Time to head for the beach or a nice sunny park. So, bring out the picnic basket and blanket, the toys and swimsuits, and the sunscreen and tomatoes. Tomatoes!? Yep, that’s what I said. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, an antioxidant, which not only increases collagen in the skin and adds up to fewer lines and furrows, but actually helps to protect the skin again sunburn. According to Prevention Magazine, a recent study found that volunteers that consumed five tablespoons of tomato paste daily for three months had 25 percent more protection against sunburn.
Surgery As a Last Resort at Any Age
Posted by: | CommentsAs a chiropractor, it is my professional point of view that surgery should be the last resort for conditions of the back, hips, and knees. chiropractic treatment is a conservative, non-invasive and drug-free approach to problems relating to the musculoskeletal system. That said, I am also of the persuasion that surgery for most health problems should be a last resort as well. As I’ve said before, there is no such thing as a “minor” surgery. All surgeries, no matter how small, carry big risks. But, not only is surgery risky, there is no “undoing” this permanent attempt at correcting a problem. However, until just a few years ago, I would not have imagined that weigh loss would fall under the “only have surgery as a last resort” category. But, more and more adults are having bariatric surgery or other weight-loss surgery as an attempt to remedy their obesity. Again, surgery is surgery, and this type of surgery has high risks for already “at risk” obese adults. What has been even more disturbing to me is the fact that some parents are opting for surgery for their obese children, even though the risks of bariatric surgery are not only substantial in general, but the long-term safety and effectiveness in children remain largely unknown.
Now, what I am about to pass along will probably fall into the “duh, you think” category for most of us, but in reviewing studies on the “obesity epidemic,” scientists from Britain and the United States lifestyle changes such as better diet and more exercise should always be the first option, and treatment with drugs should be used rarely. In other words, bariatric surgery, or weight-loss surgery, such as operations to apply gastric bands to limit the stomach size of severely overweight people, should be a last resort.
Yes, it is true that childhood obesity can adversely affect almost every organ in the body and often has serious consequences, including high blood pressure, abnormal blood fats, insulin resistance or diabetes, fatty liver disease, and psychosocial complications, it is also true that parents need education (and perhaps intervention) and schools need to provide better food options and more daily exercise for children, and communities need to support parental efforts as well. No “toys” as a prize for buying high caloric kids meals is just the beginning. In my opinion as a healthcare provider, without education and support, even children who undergo bariatric surgery will continue to crave high caloric foods and still not get the healthy exercise they need.
Santa Clara Chiropractor: Are Extra Pounds Putting Your Joints on Overload?
Posted by: | CommentsWhat’s a few extra pounds? Over time, they can add up to a number of health challenges from heart and pulmonary diseases and diabetes to back and joint pain. Excess poundage puts unnecessary stress on organs, like the heart, and on joints in the low back, hips, and knees. Over half (62 percent) of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to recent studies. That is a gigantic number and a big problem (no pun intended).
Excess weight, in the form of body fat, is hard on the structure of the human body. It was not designed for the added. Just an additional 20 or 30 pounds can literally overload the musculoskeletal system. For instance, in order to compensate (counterbalance) for weight in the belly, the pelvis tilts forward. This causes joints in the low back to compress. Joint compression constricts nerve function and creates painful inflammation. Weight-bearing stresses can cause a pinched sciatic nerve or create misalignments of the spinal column that impinge nerves. This is the reason that most overweight individuals suffer from low back pain. Misaligned vertebra can not only produce new arthritic changes in the spine, but can continue to irritate the degenerative changes that have already taken place over time.
Where does chiropractic care fit in? First of all, to be clear, a healthy body weight is a necessity in order for the musculoskeletal system to function optimally. That said, in addition, chiropractic treatment relieves nerve restrictions in the spine and helps to restore motion back into the joints of the musculoskeletal system, like in the low back, hips, and knees. And, exercise and physical activity is a lot easier when the spine is in alignment and the joints have healthy mobility. Exercise will not only help with weight loss, but it can actually slow down degenerative changes as a person ages.
It is always a good plan to visit a healthcare professional, like your chiropractor, to discuss diet and exercise. Along with helping men and women suffering from back pain and joint inflammation due to arthritis, chiropractors offer expert advice on the type of lifestyle changes that can help a person to stay healthier and more active through the years. Arthritis and immobility do not have to be a foregone conclusion of aging. The human body was designed for a lifetime of pain-free movement.
So, if you’ve been throwing your weight around and the result is back and joint pain, your chiropractor can help relieve your suffering. Make an appointment today!
