Whereas, many of us are proactive about our fitness, trying to eat better and being mindful when we gain a few extra pounds, we don’t generally think about the health of our brain. A bit of decline seems to be accepted as normal, “oh, I don’t remember names as well,” but as a whole we don’t make an effort to do something about it. The old adage (use it or lose it) does apply, but even staying intellectually challenged isn’t enough. Consider that the incidence of Alzheimer’s is expected to triple over the next fifty years. As people live longer the chances of dementia also increases.
Whether you exercise to be healthier, fitter, or to be more competitive there are a few numbers to know that can tell you how you are progressing. Even if you lead an active lifestyle and believe yourself to be quite healthy it’s still possible to miss or ignore signs of a growing deficiency. Knowing what’s what is the first step in making corrective moves. Below are a few self-tests that have been developed to gage your fitness, heart health and overall wellbeing. These tests are not meant to replace regular medical examinations. Use them to quantify your current health and fitness status.
Having extra or too much information about something is rarely a problem particularly when compared to the opposite, not enough information. This is true in most facets of our lives in business, in our relationships and in managing our health. Being unaware or simply ignoring early signs of a health condition won’t make it go away. In fact catching it early and addressing it can usually prevent even reverse major concerns. Without your health, frankly without quality of life what do you really have? Being of unsound health will quickly pervade every part of your life and threaten everything that makes you, you.
A recent study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led by Dr.Seth Crockett tracked over 2,000 people while assigning participants into 4 groups. One group was given calcium supplements, another Vitamin D, a third group took both and the last group took neither for 3-5 years. On follow-up 10 years after the start of the study those who took calcium alone or with Vitamin D were more likely to have developed polyps.
A new year is upon us and along with it a host of self-perpetuated goals and stresses. Whether you admit to making New Year’s resolutions or not the fact is we all generally strive to do better, to be better in the New Year. Culturally it becomes a time of renewal a sort of restart button if you will. Some people even have their own rituals they practice such as pulling around luggage at the midnight hour hoping for more travel. Others write letters of emotional baggage they would like to leave behind then throw them into the fire, while still others eat grapes for good luck. Whatever your ritual, whatever your desires this has become the time of year where anything is possible if only we want it enough to make it happen.
While Type 2 Diabetes is not actually contagious it has reached epidemic levels and not just in America, but worldwide in developed and developing nations. Once known as adult onset diabetes it is now becoming frightenly more common among children and teenagers. Between 2000 and 2009 the occurrence of childhood diabetes rose 30%. Overall in the United States 30 million Americans now have diabetes with type 2 being the most prevalent form.
If you are like most ageing American’s you likely started to notice waking-up stiffer, tighter and maybe even with some back pain. Perhaps this has even been ongoing for a while now. In the last few years I noticed this myself, the likely culprit wear and tear from years of competitive sports. Even mostly sedentary people have back issues only in their case it’s usually from a weak core and poor postural habits.
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, a big rock you know that exercise is extremely beneficial to your heart, builds muscle and bone density and aids weight loss. Science is now showing us the effect exercise has on the brain, your brain, my brain, any brain for that matter and the results are pretty amazing.
Okay, so you exercise several times a week making sure to do resistance exercise as well as cardiovascular training. You cleaned up your diet cutting back on empty calories, too much sugar, processed foods and now eat plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables. You’re a rock star, a beast even, but wait your work may not be done. Now you need to sleep, and by that I mean get an adequate, uninterrupted, consistent, amount of sleep. No more burning the candle at both ends either, 4 or 5 hour nights, that’s not going to cut it. I once had a physiology teacher say, “every hour of sleep you skip you can take off the end of your life”.
As the USDA rushes to make changes to their food pyramid, many of us already have. Many Americans have taken up low carb or very low carb diets such as The Paleo Diet, South Beach Diet or even Atkins. Still others though not restricting carbohydrates eat a large amount of protein as well. With more and more evidence exhibiting that obesity, diabetes and heart disease have all increased with elevated carbohydrate intake it’s no surprise that consumers would alter their diet and animal protein consumption would fill the gap.
Sounds like the title of a new thriller only this one is for real. Hypertension or high blood pressure has been given the designation of the silent killer because it has no symptoms, no warning signs and most people afflicted don’t even know they have it. Getting scared yet, you should be? Consider about one in three adults is hypertensive. So, what exactly is hypertension anyway?
We all know that our hearts are essentially a pump that circulates blood throughout the body. Each time our heart beats the force pushes blood out into the arteries. These arteries are made of muscle and semi flexible tissue not unlike elastic that will stretch to accommodate the force of the pump. Blood pressure is simply the measurement of outward force on the arterial walls.
Whether you workout on your own, take group classes or have a personal trainer you likely have started to notice the benefits of an ongoing exercise program. You now may look leaner, feel stronger and have more energy than before. While many of us generally start an exercise program to look better by losing some weight, toning up or adding some muscle the benefits of your efforts actually go much deeper.
Do you have the will power to walk into a bakery and not buy anything? If this is a battle you have fought and lost, and perhaps more than once, you must take comfort in knowing you are not alone. Still this fact probably doesn’t make you feel any better, you may be angry with yourself, possibly even depressed. Those few blissful moments, the ones you so skillfully rationalized into being (I worked out today, I’ll eat a light dinner) have now passed. Soon it will just be you, your mirror and your conscience. Oh, if I can just walk past the bathroom mirror and not look.
IBS is a catch term to describe a wide range of digestive symptoms. In fact 1 in 6 people are said to suffer from IBS and it is the number 1 reason patients seek out a gastroenterologist. To be clear IBS is different from inflammatory bowel disease which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. IBD causes inflammation, ulcers or other damage to the intestinal lining whereas IBS does not. IBS is considered a functional disorder (the digestive system looks normal, but doesn’t function as it should).
IBS symptoms include: gas, bloating, fullness, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, sometimes alternating, and mucus in stool. Reports of back pain, headaches, anxiety, sleeping problems and fatigue are not uncommon.
Thousands of years ago Herodotus the 5th century BC Greek historian wrote stories of a mythical fountain that bestowed eternal youth. In the 16 century Juan Ponce de Leon searched for such a fountain in what is now Florida. Today some scientists believe they may have found a type of fountain of youth if you will, within our own bodies. This source of eternal youthfulness may be attributed to a repetitive DNA sequence that caps our chromosomes known as telomeres.
Researchers at Harvard University recently released their results from an experiment testing an enzyme on mice to effectively arrest aging. What they discovered was profound.
First a bit of biology 101. The nucleus is sort of like the administrative center of the cell. It is protected by a porous double plasma membrane. Within the nucleus we find the chromosomes which contain our DNA. The genes within the DNA hold the recipe for everything that makes us. The ends of the chromosomes are protected by end caps known as telomeres, these caps function sort of like the plastic tips on your shoe laces. Every time a cell divides the telomeres get shorter, in effect the cell gets older and after several divisions (Hayflick Limit) the cell dies before the telomeres completely run out. This prevents damage to the genes and the possibility of passing on mutated information.
