Medical Myths your Mom May have Mentioned.

In honor of Mother's Day, let's talk about some lies your mom may have told you.  To be fair, these are all floating around in our culture - so it's not your mom's fault.  In any case, I hope one of these topics strikes your interest and gets you doing some more reading about your health.

Your Face Will Freeze Like That

No it won’t.  But if this were true, it would be pretty funny.  Also, I would be pretty disfigured.  Well, MORE disfigured.

If you swallow your gum it will stay in your stomach for 5-7 years

Don’t make me laugh.  When Hercules swallows a LEGO it always finds its way out the other end – why wouldn’t a piece of gum?  There ARE parts of gum that don’t really digest, but it isn’t going to make you sick and it isn’t going to stay in your digestive track.  In my thinking, swallowing your gum is much better than spitting it out on the sidewalk.  YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Sugar Makes Kids Hyper

Wrong!  Sugar makes kids FAT.  Not hyper.  Sugar is calories.  There is nothing about it that would make a kid hyper.  In fact, sugar in small amounts can prompt serotonin production which can have a calming effect.  It’s not the sugar making your kid hyper, it is likely the circumstances.  Where does your kid get lots of sugar?  Parties, sleepovers, holidays, etc.  Those are situations where EVERYONE lets loose a little.  So it's not surprising that kids get a little wild.  In addition, kids can have a sugar crash just like adults.  If your kids have mood swings after eating sugar, stop feeding them go-gurt and fruit snacks and get them something with protein in it.

You lose 90% of your body heat through your head

I have been hearing this since I was a boy scout and it is completely wrong.  The only way it could be more wrong is if a republican said it.  If you want to hear the scientific low-down on this, check out Why Bald People Don’t Freeze To Death.

You Need to Stretch before Your Workout

Nope.  This is OLD info.  We used to think this was true, but it has been shown to be false.  In fact, in some cases stretching before a workout can increase your risk of injury. Warming up is a great idea.  Stretching AFTER your workout, also a good idea.  Stretching before – nope. 

Homeopathy is a Natural Remedy

Nope.  Homeopathy is not a remedy.  It’s diluted so far as to be absolutely useless as a medicine.  And let’s not be confused into thinking that being “natural” is the same as “good for you”.  Tons of terrible things are natural.  And tons of fantastic things are “unnatural”.  Just think Pop Rocks.  Need I say more?

Eating Fish (taking fish oil) Makes You Smarter

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.  Well, kind of.  It is true in small kids.  Their brains are developing, so get them some tilapia on the double.  But for grown-ups, the best way to make yourself smarter is to USE your brain.

Warm Milk/Turkey Will Make You Sleepy

At least every Thanksgiving, I hear some genius tell everyone that they are tired because of the tryptophan in turkey.  Last year I almost sprained my eyes from rolling them so hard.   I hate to break it to you, but you are tired because you just ate your body weight in white rolls, pie and stuffing.  It has NOTHING – NOTHING – to do with tryptophan.   The effect of tryptophan is SO TEENY that you would have to eat a LOT to have even a small effect. 

The whole warm milk story is the same lie.  Milk has tryptophan.  It does nothing.  There is trypotophan in milk, cheese, chocolate and oats.  When was the last time you heard someone say they were sleepy because they just had some oatmeal?  Do people sometimes feel more sleepy after drinking it?  Maybe.  It’s called the placebo effect.  Give them a warm glass of ANYTHING and they will probably go back to sleep.

Your Body Needs to be Detoxed

There are a zillion “detox” gimmicks.  They are all a ridiculous waste of money, and potentially dangerous.  Your body knows how to get rid of waste and bad chemicals and does not need your help.  (Unless you have certain SERIOUS medical conditions).   If you want to read more, see “Colon Cleansers are a Load of Crap”.

You Can Spot Tone a Target Area of the Body

If people really could spot tone a specific area, then why is it that no one but Ben Faux has a Thigh master?  First of all, there is no such thing as “toning”.  You are either building muscle or losing muscle.   Second, the key to looking more fit is: (drumroll)  diet diet diet.   If your problem area is your arms, then you are going to have to lose weight on YOUR WHOLE BODY.  Depending on epigenetics and other factors, a proportion of your weightloss will come off your arms, making them appear more defined.  So throw away your out dated machines in favor of eating right and exercising the whole body.

Healthy People Don't Go Hungry

If you think that in order to lose weight you need to starve yourself or be hungry all the time... YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.

Check out this CDC article on how you can actually lose weight by eating more and being FULL.  It's not a pill.  It's not magic.  It's called science.  Real science.  The kind done by scientists.

Happy eating!

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/energy_density.html

Your Mom takes Vitamins

Should you be taking a vitamin every day? 

Check out the article below to findout if spending all that money on vitamins is actually helping you.

http://fletcherallenblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/should-you-take-a-multivitamin/

As always, check with your doctor before you do something new with your bod.  You only get one, so try to avoid breaking it.

As a side note, I told a woman once that she appeared to have a "Vitamin Me" deficiency.  I thought it was a pretty effective pick up line but she said, "I don't like prison, so I've decided not to stab you."  Sheesh.  That's the last time I try a new pick up line on a nun.

Sitting All Day Kills

For all you people who hate reading...  here's a video!

Research has shown that sitting for long periods of time may be just as deadly as smoking cigarettes. Scary, right? When we sit for long periods of time our body goes into storage mode and stops working as effectively as it should. I know we are all busy behind our computers, but our challenge for you this week is to get up and get moving a few times during the day. The best solution is to stand up for a period of 10 minutes or so after each hour that you sit just to get your blood flowing and remind your body that it’s not in storage mode.

http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/09/16431050-obesity-expert-says-daily-workouts-cant-undo-damage-done-from-sitting-all-day?lite

Beating Fatigue

One of the top reasons people list for not taking care of themselves is: “I don’t have the energy”.  It’s a pretty compelling reason.  If you have ever tried to work out or do something strenuous when your body was working against you, you know it is pretty taxing.  So here are some facts about how energy works and how you can increase your energy levels.

How does body energy work?

All your cells have power plants in them called mitochondria (except for red blood cells).   The mitochondria pump out ATP (adenosine triphosphate).  The ATP is “burned” by your body for energy. Adenosine triphospate used during exercise is replaced by both odidative and non-oxidative resynthesis.  You can worry about that part later. 

The amount of energy you have throughout the day depends on how much ATP your mitochondria can produce.   Your ATP production levels vary according to all sorts of factors like diet, genetics, thyroid activity and… age.  Mitochondria efficiency can decrease by up to 1% per year.  Over 10 years, that is a huge drop in energy levels. 

You might be tempted to think that certain “lucky” people can exercise because they naturally have lots of energy.  But it’s just the opposite – those people have lots of energy because they exercise. 
Issues like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and diabetes have been linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, so taking care of your mitochondria should be on your To-Do list.

Things that can cause low energy

Low levels of Vitamin D, Niacin, B vitamins, zinc, iron, iodine, testosterone, and serotonin can cause fatigue.  If nothing else is helping you, talk to your doc about checking your levels.

If you hop onto Pubmed, you will see that there are a zillion reasons people have low energy.  If you have fatigue that is not helped by sleep, ask your doctor for help.   On the bright side, for nearly every cause of low energy two of the primary solutions are the same!

What can I do about it? Exercise!

The good news is that you can increase your body’s energy production by exercising!  Working out increases your energy in three ways:

1.       Increased blood flow to the brain helps manage stress and make decision making easier

2.       Increased mitochondria in your cells which in turn increases your ATP resynthesis rate

3.       Stronger muscle and cardiovascular system make your daily tasks easier

We all know we should be working out.  But what if you are trying to get healthy while fighting fatigue? Start easy.  Walk for 5 minutes on the morning.  If that goes well, do another 5 at night.  Do that 3 times per week and then increase your time slowly.  Your body WILL adapt by producing more energy – even if you feel like you want to die during the exercise.  Mitochondrial specialist Dr. Donald Johns calls this staying within your “energy envelope”.  You want to work out enough to get your body running at a higher speed without being unable to move two days later.

What can I do about it? Diet!

This part isn’t rocket science. Eat nutrient rich foods that are high in lean protein and low in fat and salt.  Some people maintain that if you exercise you can eat whatever you want.   This is sort of true.  However, you can’t exercise out of a bad diet.  Your energy levels WILL reflect the way you eat.  Eventually, so will your body.  Not all calories are equal and your mitochondria know it.

As a side note, a multivitamin won’t actually help you unless you have a specific deficiency in some area. Before you start taking eye-of-newt or whatever weird supplements that your neighbor sells – talk to your doctor.  If you actually DO have a mitochondrial dysfunction you may need coenzyme Q10, creatine, B12 or any number of things.  Let a real doctor decide what you need.

If low energy levels are keeping you from being healthy, start with some diet and exercise changes.  If that doesn’t help over several weeks, talk to your doc and find out if something else might be going on.  The good news is that no matter what your problem is, exercise is usually one of the solutions. It’s time to start using that fact for your own advantage.

 Sources

Wu I-C et al, “Metabolic Analysis of 13C-labeled Pyruvate for Noninvasive Assessment of Mitochondrial Function,” Annals NY Acad Sci 1201 (2010): 111-120.

Lo M-C et al, “Glycoxidative Stress-induced Mitophagy Modulates Mitochondrial Fates,” Annals NY Acad Sci 1201 (2010): 1-7.

Clay A et al, “Mitochondrial Disease,” Chest 120 (2001): 634-648.

Kim J et al, “Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Insulin Resistance,” Circ Res 102, no. 4 (2008): 401-414.

Lane RJM et al, “Muscle Fibre Characteristics and Lactate Responses to Exercise in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 64 (1998): 362-367.

Choi E-Y, Cho Y-O, “Effect of Vitamin B-6 Deficiency on Antioxidative Status in Rats with Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress,” Nutrition Res Practice 3, no. 3 (2009): 208-211.

Personal communication from Donald Johns, M.D. when he was chairperson of Neurology at Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital in Boston, MA.

What is Tabata Training?

(From Active.com)

 

There are various workout styles that you may have heard about; all styles are meant to help you reach your fitness goal. You may want to increase strength, lose weight, improve flexibility or build muscle. All in all, most exercise programs can help you reach whatever your goal is as long as you stick to a plan. Well, here's another type of workout you can add to your list—Tabata training.

Tabata training is a High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T) workout that lasts four minutes. 

The History of Tabata

Tabata training was discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo.

Tabata and his team conducted research on two groups of athletes: one group trained at a moderate intensity level while the other group trained at a high intensity level. The moderate intensity group worked out five days a week for a total of six weeks; each workout lasted one hour. The high intensity group worked out four days a week for six weeks; each workout lasted four minutes and 20 seconds (with 10 seconds of rest in between each set).

The results; group one had increased their aerobic system (cardiovascular), but showed little or no results for their anaerobic system (muscle). Group two showed much more increase in their aerobic system than group one, and increased their anaerobic system by 28 percent. 

In conclusion, high intensity interval training has more impact on both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. 

The Tabata Program

The Tabata workout lasts only four minutes, but is one of the longest four minutes you'll encounter. The structure of the program is: 

Workout hard for 20 seconds

Rest for 10 seconds

Complete eight rounds

You push yourself as hard as you can for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds until you complete eight sets. You can do pretty much any exercise you wish. You can do squats, pushups, rows, etc... Any exercise that works your large muscle groups is strongly recommended. Kettlebells work great too.

Tabata is great to get a quick workout in if you're short on time, need to switch up your routine, or need to improve endurance speed. Incorporate this type of workout into your fitness routine and produce results.

Trapped by stress, guilt or lack of motivation?

The other day I was sitting at a stop light and my mind was wandering a little, maybe thinking about the song on the radio.  Next think I know, I was rolling backwards!  I slammed on the brakes and… then realized that I never moved. The car in the turning lane next to me decided to pull forward and my brain thought I was the one moving.  Aside from nearly giving myself a heart attack, no harm was done.

When work is getting really busy, I start experiencing professional vertigo that is the mental equivalent to what happened to me at the stop light.  I start to feel like everything in life has stayed the same, but I am moving backwards and can’t catch up. Ever had that feeling?  The truth is, that MY light is going to be red until after work slows down and it’s just not my turn to go forward yet. I have to remind myself that I’m not really going backwards – it only feels that way. 

It can be difficult to exercise when it feels like life responsibilities are a boa constrictor around your neck.  But it's not just public accountants that feel this way.  Many moms have described feeling that there is so much to do that when they take time for themselves, guilt shows up.  Maybe this is related to the fact that tons of people are giving crappy advice on being the perfect mother, but for fathers everyone is just happy if you don’t spend 20 hours per week watching sports. Ironically, knowing that you should be taking care of yourself becomes just another thing that you SHOULD be doing and are failing at.  Sigh. 

Whether you are a public accountant, a parent, or just super busy, research shows that pent up stress can cause depression, anxiety, crankiness, mood swings, headaches, insomnia and chronic guilt.  

Whether you are caring for a family, a client or just caring for yourself, you need to start taking your mental health seriously.   It’s not okay to be permanently stressed and overwhelmed.

Here are some things you can try out to ease your mind:

If you are overwhelmed and stressed STOP ADDING THINGS TO YOUR LIFE! Stop saying yes.  Stop it. Say no.  Say it right now.  Practice it.  If the PTA or neighborhood watch needs volunteers, say no.  If your kid wants to take up soccer or shark wrestling say NO.  If someone with cancer in your neighborhood wants you to bake 1,000 cookies for a bake sale, SAY NO!  Try out this sentence:  “No, I can’t watch your (insert curseword) kid for the afternoon”.  Say NO to everything you can. You can take on some more stuff once you stop feeling like your Titanic is taking on water.  If you can’t say NO, I am offering my services.  For $1 per incident I will call whomever you want and tell them NO for you. 

You are a person too.  If something comes up where you really NEED to help someone -  like say… a sick friend who needs you – for Pete’s sake get some help for yourself first! You have a bunch of people who would love nothing more than to help you, but you are always trying to do stuff on your own, aren't you?  If a friend called me and said they had a toilet that needed scrubbing; I would laugh but I would be there in 30 minutes.  If you aren’t a friend, I will tell you NO.  Clearly you skipped the previous paragraph. Forbes Woman research showed that for working women, it’s not simply a matter of not being ABLE to ask for help.  They actually don’t WANT to because it may endanger their sense of being a good wife, mother, or employee.  If that sounds like you – then you need to talk that out with someone and find a healthier alternative.

Relax better, EVERYDAY. Take time every day to do something you find relaxing. Maybe it’s only 5 minutes on some days.  So what?  Take 5 minutes then.  Do something you enjoy.  If you feel guilty just remind yourself that you can’t help other people when you are a wreck.  Imagine that you are on an airplane.  You are strapping on your oxygen mask so you can help others later.  If someone is telling you that you SHOULD feel guilty for taking time for yourself, you need to have an upfront conversation with them about…  shutting up.  Ok I’m kidding.  Sort of.  Be nicer than that. Or not.  Your important relationships deserve your full attention – recognize that you are included in that list.  You deserve your full attention also.  If you have consistent guilt problems, check out this article or talk to someone who can lead you out of your guilt cycle.

Exercise is good for the mind. When it comes to mental health, one of the cheapest and most effective things you can do is exercise.  In many demographics, research has shown that exercise is more effective at improving mood than anti-depressants.  Just do it for 10 minutes a day.  Exercise will also increase your energy and help combat insomnia.  Exercise is more about consistency than intensity, so don’t worry if you are not running marathons.  Just start doing SOMETHING.  Most people find exercise is easier to do if you do it in the morning before life gets crazy.

Vitamin D. If it is winter, and you are feeling perpetually stressed or overwhelmed, get your vitamin D levels checked. If you’ve never had this done give it a shot.  If you are low, a little Vitamin D supplement can help quite a bit.

Stop eating junk. When your blood sugar is all over the place, it can mess up your moods and wear you down.  Eat better foods and try to get a lean protein every 3-4 hours.  This will help level out the swings in blood sugar and make it easier for you to handle stress.

Set lower goals. Yeah, I said it.  All the self-help gurus and people who make money by bossing other people around can shut their traps.  Stop reviewing everything that needs to be done each day.  Set a minimum and when you meet that line, you have succeeded even if you get nothing else done.  Here’s a good minimum – Go to work, complete 1 load of laundry and 15 minutes of exercise.  Or…  Cook Dinner, do 1 load of dishes and 15 minutes of cycling.   Doing a couple of things consistently every day will make a much bigger difference than burning yourself out trying to do everything.  What good will a perfectly clean house be if you don’t get to enjoy it because you are wearing a straitjacket in a padded room?

Be more Zen.  Stop half doing things.  Have you ever pushed through 6 loads of laundry only to run out of energy before putting away the Mount Everest of clean clothes?  Do 1 load of laundry and don’t start another until that load is put away.  If you are cooking, don’t think about anything but cooking.  Notice everything you can about the experience of chopping those vegetables. When you are doing a chore you hate (matching socks!) use it to practice accepting things you can’t change.  Practice being okay with it.  It all sounds a little silly, but you are trying to teach your mind to take a break from its incessant whining and worrying.  It is just as important to rest your mind as it is to rest your body.

Conclusion:  There are lots of ways to deal with stress.  The worst way is to drown yourself in distractions, bad habits or worrying.  Choose two of the above things and do it for two weeks.  If it doesn't make a difference, I have a money back guarantee.