Back and Spinal Fitness at PUSH as Rx leads the field with a laser focus on supporting our youth sports programs. The PUSH-as-Rx System is a sport-specific athletic program designed by a strength-agility coach and physiology doctor with a combined 40 years of experience working with extreme athletes.
The program is the multidisciplinary study of reactive agility, body mechanics, and extreme motion dynamics at its core. A clear quantitative picture of body dynamics emerges through continuous and detailed assessments of the athletes in motion and under directly supervised stress loads.
Exposure to the biomechanical vulnerabilities is presented to our team. Immediately, we adjust our methods for our athletes to optimize performance. This highly adaptive system with continual dynamic adjustments has helped many of our athletes return faster, stronger, and ready post injury while safely minimizing recovery times.
Results demonstrate clear improved agility, speed, decreased reaction time with greatly improved postural-torque mechanics. PUSH-as-Rx offers specialized extreme performance enhancements to our athletes no matter the age.
Feeling bad about skipping a day? Taking rest days from your workout may actually be healthier for your bones and body than a nonstop fitness streak, according to a small new study.
The preliminary research, presented at the American Physiological Society�s annual meeting, found that women who were Olympic rowers had more signs of inflammation and lower levels of bone-building protein in their blood during their most intense weeks of training, compared to recovery weeks that included days off.
These protein fluctuations may be a warning that training without adequate recovery could lead to injury or bone loss, study authors say.
In general, exercise is good for bone health. Bone mineral density, an indicator of bone strength, typically increases with regular physical activity, especially the weight-bearing type. But experts have often wondered if too much exercise could have the opposite effect, especially for female athletes. That can be a difficult thing to measure, says Nigel Kurgan, a graduate student in the Centre for Bone and Muscle Health at Brock University in Canada, because elite athletes may also follow strict dietary patterns that could also negatively affect bone health.
To help account for this, Kurgan decided to study 15 female heavyweight rowers training for the 2016 Olympic games. Rowers have a high incidence of stress fractures and are at increased risk for bone loss�but because these women weren�t competing in the sport�s lightweight category, restrictive eating and low-calorie diets were less likely to play a role.
At several points during the nine-month study, Kurgan took blood samples from the rowers to measure levels of two proteins in their body: osteoprotegerin (OPG), which stops bone mineral loss, and sclerostin (SOST), which inhibits new bone formation. The rowers� training ranged from 12 to 21 hours a week.
Levels of OPG decreased over the course of the study, indicating that the athletes were indeed at risk for bone loss. The highest levels of bone-growth-inhibiting SOST corresponded with the weeks with the highest training volumes, and vice versa. Inflammation in the body also increased during the most intense training periods.
The researchers also tested the rowers� bone mineral density at the beginning and the end of the study, and found no change. But they say that the consequences of intense training may only become evident after longer periods of time.
�We are learning that regardless of whether you eat well or not, the systemic inflammation of intense training�unless you bring it down from time to time�creates an issue for bone cells and all kinds of tissue,� says co-author Panagiota Klentrou, professor and associate dean in the department of kinesiology at Brock University. �When you�re at peak training volume, you also have to incorporate time for the body to recover.�
This theory likely applies to all levels of athletes, not just Olympic hopefuls, Kurgan says.
Recovery is important for other reasons, too: Muscles need time to repair themselves from the stress of hard training, and the body needs rest and adequate fueling to maintain high levels of functioning. A 2016 study in Frontiers in Physiology found that two days in a row of intense, CrossFit-style workouts lowered levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines in the body, suggesting a potential drop in immunity.
With further research, it�s possible that scientists could develop a blood test to let athletes know when they�re overdoing it, says Klentrou. �There may be markers that coaches can monitor to see if they have to adjust their training volume,� she says.
Amateur athletes don�t need to take such elaborate approaches, she says. �If they monitor the symptoms of their body and watch for signs of exhaustion and poor recovery from hard workouts, I think they�ll be pretty safe.�
You may think you eat food to fuel your body but that’s not all it does. Emerging research shows that what you eat actually influences the composition of your microbiome, which can help you feel healthier and lose weight.
“We have entered the gut-health era of diet and nutrition and it will be here for a long time indeed. The science is simply too persuasive to suggest otherwise,” top expert Jeannette Hyde says.
Microbiome is the term used for the bacteria, particularly those living in the intestines.
Hyde, a London-based certified nutritional therapist, is the author of “The Gut Makeover: 4 Weeks to Nourish Your Gut, Revolutionize Your Health and Lose Weight,” a popular book in the U.K., which was published here on May 2.
Here are excerpts from her recent interview with Newsmax Health.
Q:Why is our microbiome important?
A: Our microbiome communicates with our hormones to keep them balanced, it influences how aggressively we extract calories from food eaten, and it also communicates with our immune system and signals to our brain.
Q: What is a healthy microbiome like?
A: A healthy microbiome is dominated by beneficial bacteria and contains lots of different varieties of bacteria. An unhealthy microbiome is dominated by nasty types of bacteria, with the good ones left in the minority, and also has little variety of bacteria.
Q: What health problems does an unhealthy microbiome cause?
A: When the microbiome is out of balance, or deranged, we may experience digestive issues such as chronic bloating, wind, loose stools, constipation, or alternating between the two.
Q:How does a healthy microbiome help you?
A: A healthy microbiome is important to have a healthy microbiome keeping your weight, mood, and immune system in check. Early studies are also showing that eating foods to enhance the microbiome can lead to improvements in memory and mood, and autoimmune disorders to name a few
Q: How does the typical American (Western) unbalance the microbiome?
A: In the Western diet we often have a lot of grains (usually dominated by wheat) so there is very little variety of color, and the color beige dominates. It’s also often high in sugar, artificial sweeteners, and unhealthy trans fats. Artificial sweeteners can disrupt your microbiome too.
Q: Why is eating for your microbiome better than counting calories for weight loss?
A: The microbiome has been shown to influence on our hunger hormones, so a deranged microbiome could knock your hunger hormones out of balance, giving you cravings all the time.
Q: What is your diet for a healthy microbiome?
A: My diet features a low-grain Mediterranean diet in which you bombard your gut with diversity of plants, satiating proteins, and good oils such as extra virgin olive oil. After 2 weeks, you can add in foods that have healthy bacteria, like fermented milk kefir and smelly unpasteurized cheese Roquefort full of bacteria to plant in your gut, or sauerkraut or miso if you can’t tolerate dairy.
Here are Jeannette Hyde’s 6 tips for a healthy microbiome:
Bombard your body with diversity. It really can make food enjoyable having lots of different ones to look forward to. Get into the habit of trying to get as many different types of vegetables into each meal – chop lots of different fresh herbs on top, throw over a handful of pomegranate seeds, grate some carrot.
Drink fermented milk kefirevery day like medicine. It’s a convenient and delicious way to get tens of billions of beneficial bacteria into your gut in one sitting. You can blend it in a blender with fruit and nuts or mix it with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of garlic for a delicious salad dressing.
Make cold potatoes your friend – potatoes have been demonized for too long! They can be very good for your microbiome and consequently your weight. When potatoes cool down they form resistant starch, a type of fiber which cannot be digested in the top half of the digestive tract, making you feel full, and survive all the way to your colon where you gut microbes dine out on them.
Enjoy flax seeds. Often fairly inexpensive, flax seeds, known also as linseeds, are super foods for your gut bacteria and produce a fuel to keep your gut lining in good repair. You can use them in a shake each morning. It’s simple good housekeeping for the microbiome.
Eat Slowly. Eating slowly is so important to good digestive health. If we wolf down our food, undigested food can reach the colon and lead to a deranged microbiome, bloating, hunger and more. It’s such a simple action, and costs no money, and can deliver big results.
Try a 12-hour overnight fast. This is an easy way to give your microbiome a good long stretch to regenerate, and can help rebalance your hunger hormones so you feel less hungry generally.
A combination of exercise and sufficient vitamin D levels may reduce the risk of serious heart problems more than either one alone, a new study suggests.
An analysis of data spanning 20 years from more than 10,000 U.S. adults found that those who got the recommended amounts of exercise and had adequate vitamin D levels had a 23 percent lower risk of heart attack or stroke.
People who met physical activity targets but were deficient in the so-called “sunshine vitamin” did not have a lower risk.
The combined benefit of having adequate vitamin D and exercise levels was better than either factor alone, according to the Johns Hopkins University study. It was published recently in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
While the observational study does not prove cause and effect, it does support the idea that adequate exercise and vitamin D are signs of good health, the researchers said. Vitamin D is produced when the body is exposed to sunlight and is found in some foods.
“In our study, both failure to meet the recommended physical activity levels and having vitamin D deficiency were very common,” study co-author Dr. Erin Michos said in a university news release.
“The bottom line is we need to encourage people to move more in the name of heart health,” Michos added.
She is associate director of preventive cardiology and associate professor of medicine at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins.
Though the study found that the more people exercised, the higher their vitamin D levels, this was true for whites but not for blacks, the researchers said. Michos said people with darker skin may produce vitamin D less efficiently because their skin pigments act as a natural sunscreen.
Most adults can get adequate levels of vitamin D with a few minutes a day of sunlight in spring, summer and fall, along with eating a well-balanced diet that includes oily fish such as salmon and fortified foods like cereal and milk, according to Michos.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University, news release, April 27, 2017
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Chiropractic and Athletic Performance
Chiropractic care is a popular, alternative treatment option which focuses on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of injuries and/or conditions associated to the musculoskeletal and nervous system, primarily the spine. Many athletes, and civilians alike, seek chiropractic care to restore their natural health and wellness, however, chiropractic has been demonstrated to benefit athletes by increasing their athletic performance.
Mothers who eat a diet high in fructose-containing sugars while pregnant or breastfeeding are more likely to have a child with fatty liver disease, increasing their chances of developing obesity or type 2 diabetes according to new Australian research.
Carried out by the University of South Australia, the animal study looked at female rats given water supplemented with fructose-containing sugars including sucrose or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) before, during and after pregnancy.
The amount of sugar was equivalent to levels found in standard soft drinks.
After they were born, the offspring were either weaned by a mother who had access to the fructose-containing beverage, or by a mother who had access to water only.
The team then analyzed the offspring’s body weight, fat mass and glucose control and analyzed their tissues to find out the amount and type of fat in their livers.
They found that the offspring from mothers who had consumed the drink high in fructose were more likely to have a fatty liver, and that this was especially true for offspring who were weaned by mothers who drank the fructose-containing beverage.
Fatty liver can also have a negative effect on metabolic health, potentially leading to obesity or type 2 diabetes in the future.
The results also suggest that the timing of exposure to fructose sugars is important, and highlights the importance of diet for breastfeeding mothers.
Dr Sheridan Gentili, lead investigator of the study cautioned that, “As there are differences in physiology between humans and rodents, we need to be careful when translating this research directly to humans.”
However, she also added that, “This study highlights the importance of maternal nutrition during the lactation period. Guidelines for consuming added sugars or sugar-sweetened beverages during pregnancy should consider this.”
As well as soft drinks, many cereals and other processed foods also contain fructose-containing sugars.
The study can be found online published in The Journal of Physiology.
Schools won’t have to cut more salt from meals just yet and some will be able to serve kids fewer whole grains, under changes to federal nutrition standards announced Monday.
The move by President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department partially rolls back rules championed by former first lady Michelle Obama as part of her healthy eating initiative. Separately, the Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it would delay � for one year � Obama administration rules that will require calorie labels on menus and prepared food displays. The rule was scheduled to go into effect later this week.
As his first major action in office, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the Agriculture Department will delay an upcoming requirement to lower the amount of sodium in meals while continuing to allow waivers for regulations that all grains on the lunch line must be 50 percent whole grain.
Schools could also serve 1 percent flavored milk instead of the nonfat now required.
“If kids aren’t eating the food, and it’s ending up in the trash, they aren’t getting any nutrition � thus undermining the intent of the program,” said Perdue, who traveled to a school in Leesburg, Virginia, to make the announcement.
Health advocates who worked closely with the Obama administration on nutrition issues criticized the two moves, saying that the Trump administration is messing with rules that are popular with the public.
The menu labeling law would have required chain restaurants and other establishments that sell prepared foods to post the calorie content of food. The FDA said the delay “allows for further consideration” of ways to reduce costs or make the rules more flexible as supermarkets and pizza delivery companies have lobbied against it.
“The Trump administration is showing in two important ways that it puts business interests before its populist rhetoric on the campaign trail and what mainstream Americans want,” said Margo Wootan, a lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The school meal changes reflect suggestions from the School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools. The group often battled with the Obama administration, which phased in the healthier school meal rules starting in 2012.
The Obama administration rules set fat, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond. Schools have long been required to follow government nutrition rules if they accept federal reimbursements for free and reduced-price meals for low-income students, but these standards were stricter. Obama pushed the changes as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign to combat childhood obesity.
The Trump administration changes leave most of the Obama administration’s school meal rules in place, including requirements that students must take fruits and vegetables on the lunch line. Some schools have asked for changes to that policy, saying students often throw them away.
But the health advocates who have championed the rules are concerned about the freeze in sodium levels, in particular. School lunches for elementary school students are now required to have less than 1,230 mg of sodium, a change put in place in 2014. The changes would keep the meals at that level, delaying until at least 2020 a requirement to lower sodium to 935 mg. That requirement was scheduled to begin in the 2017-2018 school year.
“By forgoing the next phase of sodium reduction, the Trump administration will be locking in dangerously high sodium levels in school lunch,” Wootan said.
Before he signed the proclamation, Perdue and Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., ate chicken nuggets, fruit and salad with children at Catoctin Elementary. Perdue said he doesn’t see the changes as a rollback, but “we’re just slowing down the process.” He praised Obama’s nutrition efforts as first lady but said he wants the healthier meals to be more palatable.
He said the department will work on long-term solutions to further tweak the rules.
Becky Domokos-Bays, the nutrition director for Loudon County, Virginia, including Catoctin Elementary, said she has been experimenting with the lower sodium levels and she’s had a hard time adjusting some of the more popular foods she serves. Kids like her chicken noodle soup, she says, but rejected it when she lowered the sodium content because it was thinner and had less taste.
Perdue, a former governor of Georgia, said some schools in the South have had problems with grits, because “the whole grain variety has little black flakes in it” and kids won’t eat it.
“The school is compliant with the whole-grain requirements, but no one is eating the grits,” Perdue said. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Others don’t want to see any changes to the healthier meals. Outside the school, Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk and about 20 others protested ahead of the announcement. One sign read: “Sonny � Our children do not want big business soda, chips and fries!”
“Some people don’t like regulations, but these are important regulations that impact kids,” Burk said.
If you�ve never taken a yoga class before, the numerous poses can be pretty intimidating. Downward facing dog, crow pose, cat and cow, wheel, warrior, the list goes on. And if your first experience is in an overflowing class, the instructor likely won�t have a chance to make sure you�re perfectly positioned in each posture.
Granted, yoga is all about going with what feels right for your body. But doing certain poses incorrectly can lead to muscle imbalances and possibly even injuries down the road. And it�s important to note that newbie yogis aren�t the only ones susceptible to mistakes. Even if you�ve been practicing yoga for years, there�may be room for improvement.
Here’s yet another reason to make sure your kids are active: New research shows those with stronger muscles may have better working memory.
Evaluating 79 children between the ages of 9 and 11, scientists said they found that muscle fitness was directly related to a more accurate memory. The results also reinforced established research linking kids’ aerobic fitness to better thinking skills and academic performance.
“There are multiple ways children can derive benefit from exercise … to build healthy bodies as well as healthy minds,” said study co-author Charles Hillman. He’s a professor of psychology and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. “We know that kids are becoming increasingly inactive, overweight and unfit,” Hillman added. “So, it’s important to take studies like these … to basically indicate the benefit of physical activity and the importance of it.”
Physical Activity in Children
Only 1 in 3 children in the United States is physically active every day, according to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. One contributor is the 7.5 hours per day, on average, that children spend in front of a screen — whether it be TV, video games, computers or the like.
Children taking part in the study completed both aerobic fitness and muscular fitness assessments, including upper body, lower body and core exercises. Additionally, their working memory and academic achievement were measured by various tests.
Hillman and his colleagues found that participants with higher levels of aerobic fitness also scored higher on tests of memory and mathematics. But a new insight was gleaned with the finding that muscle fitness was directly linked to memory performance — though not academic performance. Hillman emphasized that the muscle fitness tests used in the research resembled the kinds of activity kids take part in regularly — not lifting large weights.
“It wasn’t pure strength the way that running is pure cardio,” Hillman explained, “in the sense that they were doing high volume [repetitions] and low weights. Much was body movement, such as pushups and squats or lifting light medicine balls. We were trying to mimic the way kids would typically be active.”
Working memory in both boys and girls appeared to benefit equally from greater muscle fitness, he noted.
Hillman said scientists aren’t sure how greater muscle fitness would work to enhance memory. Drawing from the results of animal research, he theorized that muscle fitness could help connections develop between brain neurons.
Dr. Bradley Sandella, fellowship director for sports medicine at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., said the new findings provided information he could use in his own practice.
“I think we always think about the benefit of physical activity on overall health, but not specifically for cognitive function,” Sandella said. “This is something I can use to motivate students, but also parents of students, to become more physically active. Not only do we know it’s good for physical development, but also that it’s good for cognitive development.”
He cautioned, however, that the study was preliminary and that long-term research is needed to determine any effects of muscle fitness on academic performance. The study also did not prove that stronger muscles caused memory to improve.
The study was published recently in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
SOURCES: Charles Hillman, Ph.D., professor, psychology and health sciences, Northeastern University, Boston; Bradley Sandella, D.O., fellowship director, sports medicine, Christiana Care Health System, Wilmington, Del.; April 2017 issue, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
Additional Topics: Whole Body Wellness
Maintaining overall health and wellness through a balanced nutrition, regular physical activity and proper sleep is essential for your whole body�s well-being. While these are some of the most important contributing factors for staying healthy, seeking care and preventing injuries or the development of conditions through natural alternatives can also guarantee overall health and wellness. Chiropractic care is a safe and effective treatment option utilized by many individuals to ensure whole body wellness.
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