Back Clinic Scoop.it. Scoop.it was founded in 2007 as Goojet, a widget platform for mobile phones, by Guillaume Decugis and Marc Rougier. Following the rapid rise of the Apple App Store which made its widget technology redundant, the company changed its strategy to focus on content marketing and rebranded as Scoop.it. The company launched its current content curation service in private beta at the end of 2010. Before opening to all users as a free service in November 2011.
The website enables its users to discover content on their topics of interest that they can curate and publish to their own web page and share to their social networks. Scoop.it received attention from influential bloggers who had identified a need for web content curation. The website rapidly grew in popularity, being ranked by Alexa among the top 1,000 websites globally in 2012, and as of July 2013, it had been visited by more than 75 million people according to VentureBeat. Inbound.org also ranked Scoop.it among the top 50 marketing technology companies in the world. Dr. Jimenez utilizes this platform to further his mission to help those in pain. For answers to any questions you may have please call Dr. Jimenez at 915-850-0900
A current study conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, or ILR, determined that several of the most expensive ads under popular search terms on Google, including phrases such as “Top personal injury lawyers” and “El Paso accident lawyer”, costed personal injury lawyers approximately $700 every time a possible client clicked on it.
While these elevated costs have demonstrated a definite growing advertising trend among attorneys, these statistics have developed a tremendous concern among Texans who value the integrity of their civil justice system. As a matter of fact, the increased amount of personal injury lawyer advertising shows how misleading ads have become, putting greed ahead of justice. Furthermore, this method of advertising can burden courts with questionable lawsuits, leading to more delays and denials of justice for those with legitimate legal claims.
According to the Institute for Legal Reform’s research study, personal injury attorneys in the United States were estimated to spend a total of $892 million in television advertising in 2015, a growth from $531 million in 2008. The large sums being invested on these expensive ads were utilized in the study to show the way many personal injury lawyers are predominantly more interested in lining their pockets rather than being interested on the client’s safety and overall health and wellness.
The current study conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce placed various cities in Texas among the top national rankings of personal injury attorney advertising. The 68 percent increase in personal injury lawyer ads on television during the previous An evident increase of approximately 68 percent in personal injury lawyer television ads over the previous eight years was most notable in Houston, Texas, ranking among the top 10 United States television markets for trial lawyer advertising in 2015.
Because more Texans have started depending on the internet and television for a majority of their health information, it’s fundamental for individuals to be able to distinguish between all the helpful resources and misleading lawsuit advertising. In addition, many personal injury attorney advertisements have started attempting to influence consumer’s decisions, guiding them away from seeking medical attention from qualified doctors, chiropractors and medical specialist as well as misleading them to questionable lawsuits.
People have to begin to understand the purpose of personal injury attorney advertising. Many personal injury lawyers are acting on their own self-interest, one that is often not in the best interest of clients and patients. Texans must learn to protect themselves against those recruiters who’s main purpose is to enlarge their own bank accounts rather than helping victims who need it. Clients with questions regarding the medical care and treatment they deserve for their settlement should ask their doctor, chiropractor or medical specialist, not a personal injury lawyer. Subsequently, people should be aware of misleading advertisements attempting to guide them away from a healthcare professional.
Misleading personal injury advertising can put people�s overall health and wellness at risk. Fortunately, there are ways to avoid the consequences of this often selfish practice: don�t allow a lawyer be your doctor, chiropractor or medical specialist.
Its common for personal injury lawyers to advertise on the internet and television today. However, recent studies have started to demonstrate that from the vast majority of ads, an increased percentage of them be misleading, steering people away from medical care and treatment after being involved in a personal injury case.
Neck pain is characterized as the most prevalent symptom after being involved in an automobile accident. During an auto collision, the body is exposed to a sheer amount of force due to the high speed impact, causing the head and neck to jolt abruptly back-and-forth as the rest of the body remains in place. This often results in the damage or injury of the cervical spine and its surrounding tissues, leading to neck pain and other common symptoms associated with whiplash-related disorders.
Just as the way some iconic advertising campaigns might create among us a unique cultural bond, TV watchers and internet surfers today share a common experience. We�re all aware of � and annoyed by � personal injury lawyer advertisements, �If you�ve ever been injured, call now for a free consultation��
Personal injury lawyer advertising is a huge presence on our TV screens and computer searches. It�s also the most visible element of the vicious cycle of lawsuit abuse in this country. Where does the money come from for these ads? Personal injury lawyers get rich filing lawsuits that are often weak on facts or fueled by imbalanced laws. The bounty they reap from these lawsuits goes into the huge volume of injury ads that we see constantly, so they can recruit more plaintiffs for more questionable lawsuits.
About $900 million was spent last year on personal injury ads on TV alone, according to a U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform report. Online, more than 90 percent of the top 25 most expensive Google search terms are related to litigation, according to the report, and the high prices are bid up by high advertiser demand.
Why advertise 24/7 for lawsuit plaintiffs? To create �class members� for personal injury lawyers to bring mass tort lawsuits. What happens to the millions of plaintiffs signed up by the ads and web links? They are bought and sold by the lawsuit generators as if they were cattle or corn futures. Who regulates these ads to make sure they are truthful and ethical? As you might have guessed from looking at the ads, they are barely regulated at all � but they should be!
This aggressive plaintiff recruitment comprises just part of the cycle of lawsuit abuse � lawsuit friendly laws make personal injury lawyers rich as they file more and more lawsuits, and lawsuit riches buys nearly a billion in TV ads to gin up more plaintiffs and wealth-producing lawsuits. The rest of the cycle of lawsuit abuse is the personal injury lawyers putting their money into political campaigns and supporting pro-lawsuit politicians who help to preserve the imbalanced laws � and try to create new ones. Seem a little complicated? It�s not, and we�ve laid it out with a few graphics here.
So the next time you see a personal injury ad that is giving you advice about what to do, remember these three things:
You shouldn�t believe everything you see in the largely unregulated world of personal injury lawyer advertising.
Personal injury lawyer advertising can mislead and scare consumers on important issues, such as their health care.
Personal injury lawsuits are often about making those lawyers rich, not making victims whole.
ANYTHING GOES WITH PERSONAL INJURY ADS
While our country has regulatory agencies whose mission it is to ensure that advertisements are accurate and straightforward for American consumers, one group evades advertising regulation: personal injury lawyers. This group is flooding the airwaves and internet with ads making unsubstantiated or hyperbolic claims to lure potential plaintiffs into lawsuits that make these personal injury lawyers millions.
We�re all familiar with the ominous ads that warn about health dangers or a long list of side effects and promising cash compensation to patients. Yet these sensationalized lawsuit ads do not disclose the low probability of experiencing an adverse health effect. That�s because lawsuit ads are not subject to the same level of oversight for accuracy and disclosure as advertising for other industries.
The disparity is clear when you look at how strictly other ads discussing health treatments are regulated. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates all consumer product ads that where company�s product can affect consumers� health, insisting that these ads must:
be truthful and non-deceptive
have evidence to back up claims
not be unfair, and
include only accurate testimonials that disclose any information that might influence buyers
None of these requirements exist for lawsuit ads, which largely can say whatever they want about the effects of health treatments or products. Without regulation, personal injury lawyers can dramatize product risks while acknowledging none of the benefits.
Additionally, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) requires that product claim ads must present the benefits and risks of a prescription drug in a balanced fashion. Companies are required to list the most significant risks of the drug. Similar to the FTC, the FDA requires that these ads must not be false or misleading in any way.
These restrictions do not apply to lawsuit ads, which are often intentionally misleading. There is a rigorous testing and claim substantiation that drugs must go through for all marketable claims, but no such process exists for lawsuit ads. Thus, we see ads with unsubstantiated claims from studies personal injury lawyers may have commissioned or from doctors who are on their payroll. That simply doesn�t seem balanced.
Even cosmetic ads are regulated more strictly than lawsuit ads. Cosmetic ads are subject to the same advertising regulations that the FTC uses for other industries (i.e., fair, backed by evidence, non-deceptive, etc.) These regulations exist for a reason, and personal injury lawyer ads should be held to the same standards as demanded of other advertisers.
There is harm in allowing lawsuit ads to continue to make misleading claims � it can be can be dangerous for consumers, who are repeatedly hearing these wild, unregulated proclamations. American consumers are inundated with personal injury lawyer advertisements � we can�t escape them. In fact, nationwide, personal injury lawyers spend up to $75 million each month on this advertising.
As a result of this onslaught of panic-inducing ads, patients are increasingly discontinuing health care treatments that their physician believes would provide them with significant benefits and pose little risk. Americans are listening to unregulated ads instead of their doctors, which has doctors concerned. That�s why the American Medical Association, an organization representing more than 200,000 physicians and medical students, recommended that lawsuit advertisements come with a warning that patients should first consult with a physician before discontinuing medications.
These advertising tactics are intended to generate lawsuits and enrich personal injury lawyers. Consumers deserve, and should demand, greater responsibility and disclosure in lawsuit advertising. For now, consumers must recognize that these ads are not always accurate, and personal injury lawyers have a vested interested in scaring audiences into lawsuits. Don�t fall for it, and don�t get trapped in their web.
How Big Data Is Big Bucks For Personal Injury Lawyers
Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse shared our take on big data and the increase in certain lawsuits in a recent letter to the editor in the Dallas Morning News. It also serves as a good reminder: �Don�t Let a Lawyer Be Your Doctor.�
Texas trial lawyers have a history of searching for ways to make millions of dollars at the expense of our health care system, ultimately reducing access to health care, driving up the cost of consumer goods and limiting job creation.
The recent story, �Health insurers fear Texas trial lawyers are seeking billions, but attorneys say that�s hype� (March 30), shows how the combination of big data and health care can create a gold mine for personal injury lawyers.
So, when sick or injured consumers get a call from a lawyer, not a doctor, Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse is urging caution through a new Sick of Lawsuits (www.sickoflawsuits.org) campaign. The public needs to be aware of the millions spent on misleading television and online advertising.
�Don�t let a lawyer be your doctor,� is sage advice and something TALA is working to ensure that Texans hear and act on. What lawsuit ads don�t say can be harmful. When it comes to lawsuits involving a person�s health, consumers should examine the source carefully.
Jennifer Harris, Austin, Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse (as published by the Dallas Morning News)
Personal injury lawyer advertising is a huge presence on our TV screens and computer searches. It�s also the most visible element of the vicious cycle of lawsuit abuse in this country. Where does the money come from for these ads? Personal injury lawyers get rich filing lawsuits that are often weak on facts or fueled by imbalanced laws.�For Answers to any questions you may have please call Dr. Jimenez at�915-850-0900
Peripheral neuropathy is a medical condition where nerve damage or dysfunction occurs, triggering common symptoms such as tingling or burning sensations or numbness in the hands and feet. The source of the neuropathy can often be difficult to diagnose but some of the factors which can contribute to the development of the condition include: vitamin deficiencies, traumatic injuries, diabetes, chemotherapy, alcoholism, infections, kidney disease, tumors and exposure to poisons.
Although these are some of the most frequently reported factors responsible for the development of the condition, many of the common foods people eat on a daily basis and in large quantities can actually worsen peripheral neuropathy. The following are various of the foods which can aggravate nerve damage and dysfunction as well as increase the painful symptoms of neuropathy.
Gluten
First of all, what is gluten? Gluten is a storage protein found in wheat, barley and rye. The most common sources of gluten include a majority of breads, cereals, pasta, crackers, cookies, cakes, pastries and all foods containing white, wheat, cake or baking flour.
People with celiac disease, best described as a gluten allergy, can trigger and worsen the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy if gluten is consumed. Approximately 50 percent of adults with celiac disease aren’t even aware that they have this autoimmune disorder. Celiac disease, as mentioned before, is an allergy to gluten, however, many individuals may have a sensitivity to gluten without celiac disease. As a matter of fact, 18 million people in the United States have currently been diagnosed with some form of gluten sensitivity. Both gluten sensitivity and celiac disease can cause or increase tingling sensations and numbness as well as other neuropathic symptoms.
If you have any type of gluten sensitivity or allergy, suitable alternatives to the storage protein include: rice, oatmeal, corn and rice-based cereals, breads labeled as gluten free and potatoes.
Refined Grains
Refined grains can aggravate peripheral neuropathy because these are high-glycemic, meaning they can have a tremendous impact on your blood sugar levels. Because refined sugars cause a spike in blood sugar, inflammation throughout the body is increased, worsening any other symptoms associated with it. Chronic inflammation can both cause peripheral neuropathy and worsen nerve damage, resulting in increased pain and decreased function of many structures of the body.
According to the Diabetes Association, controlling glycemic levels in the body can be the most effective strategy for preventing the progression of neuropathy associated with pre-diabetes or diabetes, which is the most common reason for the disorder.
To control glycemic in the body, replace refined grains and products, including white and wheat bread, enriched pasta, white and instant rice, low-fiber cereals and processed snack foods, such as pretzels, potato chips and crackers, with whole grains. Nutritious whole grade alternatives include oats, barley, brown rice, quinoa and millet.
Added Sugars
Supplementary sugars which are added to foods, such as cane sugar, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup, add sweet flavor to many of our favorite snack but these supply very few nutrients to foods and can ultimately increase the symptoms associated with peripheral neuropathy.
Common sources of added sugars include: regular soft drinks, candy, milk chocolate, sugary cereals, pancake syrup, jellies, frozen desserts and commercially baked cakes, cookies, pastries and pies.Similar to refined grains, they are high-glycemic and can affect blood sugar levels in the body. Additionally, diets rich in added sugars are most commonly associated with poor nutrient intake.
To protect yourself against nutritional deficiencies which may lead to worsened neuropathic symptoms, choose nutritious foods with natural sugars, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, instead of sugary snacks.
Bad Fats
Fats are as essential to your diet as protein and carbohydrates as these are necessary to provide energy to the body and to assist in processing a variety of vitamins and manufacturing hormones. However, when our diet is made up of mostly bad fats as compared to good fats,�many complications can begin to affect the body.
The worst type of dietary fats are trans fats. Trans fats are commonly listed on labels as hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated oils. These can increase inflammation in the body, raise bad cholesterol or LDL, and may contribute to the development of insulin resistance which can harm small blood vessels necessary for delivering nutrients to the peripheral nerves.
Saturated fats commonly found in fatty meats and dairy products are often given a bad reputation within the medical field but research studies, including one study from Harvard Health Publications, show that a diet with a moderate amount of saturated fat from fruits, such as avocados and coconut oil, may offer extensive health benefits to the cardiovascular system. Further studies also concluded that a small to moderate consumption of animal saturated fat can also provide several health benefits. It’s recommended to eat moderate amounts of healthy fat sources, including: avocados, nuts, seeds, coconut oils and ghee.
Dairy
Dairy is one of the most inflammatory foods in our modern diet, second only to gluten. It causes inflammation in a large percentage of the population. Individuals who’ve already developed peripheral neuropathy have some form of nerve damage and inflammation can impact the nerves even further, subsequently increasing the pain and other symptoms associated with neuropathy. �Inflammation caused by the consumption of dairy can also result in digestive issues, such as bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea and may worsen autistic behaviors.
Why the Food We Eat Impacts Neuropathy
Essentially, the food we consume provides our body with the necessary nutrients it needs to function properly. Without the proper nutrients, our metabolic processes can suffer and our overall health and wellness can decline. The food we eat is central to our well-being.
Nutrients are the substances found in food which are fundamental for the growth, development, repair and maintenance of the body’s functions. If an individual’s diet is deficient in nutrients, their health may be affected. Nutritional deficiencies occur by consuming a diet made up fast foods, junk foods or processed foods with very little whole foods. In addition, consuming regular beverages such as soda, coffee, energy drinks, sugary drinks and alcohol, can deplete essential vitamins and minerals in the body, including: vitamins B1, B6, B12, folic acid, calcium and magnesium, among others.
Nutrients are in charge of giving our bodies instructions about how to effectively function by also providing it with the necessary materials to carry out the appropriate functions to maintain overall health and wellness. In conclusion, its important to remember that the food we eat can act as a medicine to maintain, prevent, and treat diseases, such as peripheral neuropathy.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
Neck pain is characterized as the most prevalent symptom after being involved in an automobile accident. During an auto collision, the body is exposed to a sheer amount of force due to the high speed impact, causing the head and neck to jolt abruptly back-and-forth as the rest of the body remains in place. This often results in the damage or injury of the cervical spine and its surrounding tissues, leading to neck pain and other common symptoms associated with whiplash-related disorders.
Peripheral neuropathy most commonly develops in patients who’ve been previously diagnosed with pre-diabetes. According to researchers from the University of Utah, early interventions can allow people to maintain their overall health and wellness. Further research studies have revealed that peripheral nerve damage begins with pre-diabetes and obesity.
Approximately more than one in three adults in the United States, about 86 million people, have pre-diabetes. Without the proper body weight and moderate physical activity, 15 to 30 percent of these individuals could develop type 2 diabetes within 5 years.
“We now know a lot more than we did 3 to 5 years ago about neuropathic pain in patients with pre-diabetes. Neuropathy affects patients with pre-diabetes in a continuum,” stated Dr. Rob Singleton, MD, and professor of neurology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. “We think obesity and the dysfunction of lips or fats are what’s actually causing the issues.”
During another research study conducted and published by researchers from the University of Michigan in JAMA Neurology, peripheral neuropathy was also commonly diagnosed in patients with obesity, regardless if they had normal blood sugar levels when compared with lean, control patient participants. This same study additionally confirmed that the rate of neuropathy increased in individuals with pre-diabetes and diabetes, leading the researchers to conclude that pre-diabetes, diabetes and obesity are possible metabolic drivers of peripheral neuropathy.
Dr. Singleton and his team of researchers have been studying peripheral neuropathy associated with pre-diabetes and metabolic syndrome as well as which forms of treatment may work best for the condition. Metabolic syndrome is characterized as the group of risk factors which increases the chance of experiencing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Risk factors include: high blood pressure; elevated blood glucose, high cholesterol and abdominal fat. Throughout their research, they discovered that many patients with metabolic syndrome had pre-diabetes and peripheral neuropathy.
�We have demonstrated that in pre-diabetics with neuropathic pain, exercise can reduce neuropathic pain and can increase the intradermal nerve fibers in the thigh and ankle. We are in the process now of replicating that study,� Dr. Rob Singleton explained in an interview with an endocrinology advisor. �You need to improve lipid, or cholesterol, function and glucose levels. Lifestyle issues have to be addressed.�
The Relation Between Pre-Diabetes & Peripheral Neuropathy
New research studies have evaluated the relationship between pre-diabetes and peripheral neuropathy. In a study published in Diabetes Care, Dr. Christine Lee, PhD, of the University of Toronto, determined that pre-diabetes created similar risks towards nerve damage and dysfunction, which often lead to the development of peripheral neuropathy, as those caused by diabetes.
Evidence suggests that peripheral neuropathy begins in the early stages of the diabetes pathogenesis. Dr. Lee and other researchers evaluated 467 individuals. The researchers found that peripheral neuropathy was common in 29 percent of adults with normal glucose levels as compared to 49 percent in adults diagnosed with pre-diabetes and 50 percent in adults diagnosed with diabetes. The researchers also established that pre-diabetes, or a progression of elevated glucose levels in the course of 3 years concluded an increased risk of developing peripheral neuropathy and nerve damage or dysfunction.
“Early interventions such as lifestyle changes involving proper diet and exercise, could be ultimately essential towards preventing severe nerve complications,” stated Dr. Christine Lee. Another study published in Diabetes Care by Dr. Rob Singleton in 2006, supported this statement. Dr. Singleton and other researchers concluded that dietary changes and physical activity can result in cutaneous reinnervation as well as improved symptoms in patients with pre-diabetes.
Peripheral Nerve Damage Before Diabetes
Its fundamental to acknowledge that the nerve injury which occurs with peripheral neuropathy can occur before diabetes develops. As a matter of fact, current research studies have shown that obesity, even with normal blood sugar levels, has been associated with causing peripheral neuropathy as well as pre-diabetes.
Fortunately, more and more research studies and evidence on the issue has been published to help enlighten doctors and the public. Although it is essential to maintain fasting glucose levels between 70 to 80 mg/dL, it is equally important to manage a healthy weight, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. All of this can be achieved without the use of medication or bariatric procedures. Natural treatments and holistic care options are also available to help control the symptoms of the disease.
Nerve dysfunction, characterized by symptoms of pain, tingling sensations and numbness are common among individuals with diabetes. However, new research studies have found that nerve injuries can also occur as a result of obesity, where patients are diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
Neck pain is characterized as the most prevalent symptom after being involved in an automobile accident. During an auto collision, the body is exposed to a sheer amount of force due to the high speed impact, causing the head and neck to jolt abruptly back-and-forth as the rest of the body remains in place. This often results in the damage or injury of the cervical spine and its surrounding tissues, leading to neck pain and other common symptoms associated with whiplash-related disorders.
Your diet plays a crucial role in your mental well being and physical health, as they are intricately connected. Have you ever thought about everyday spices
Consider adding these 10 spices below to your current diet, or better yet cook with them to improve overall brain health, and help prevent, or at the very least stave off future cognitive decline. These top spices have been studied extensively by world renowned psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen, and is widely discussed in many of his journal publications and books, including one of his latest Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. He recommends the 10 spices below to be incorporated into your every diet to have a happier and healthier brain.
Used in your morning cup of coffee or tea, added into pastries, cakes and cookies, even sprinkled over your breakfast cereal and oatmeal, sugar is that sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrate which is most commonly found in most of the foods we consume today. Sugar is also hidden in many of the favorite treats we eat on a daily basis, such as fruit juices, sodas, candies, ice cream and almost all processed foods, including popular condiments like ketchup.
Although it’s common for people to regularly ingest sugar in every meal, how much sugar is acceptable to consume? More importantly, can excessive sugar cause negative side effects to your health? What is the exact function of sugar in the body? These are only several of the fundamental questions we must ask ourselves before we continue to eat foods with high amounts of sugar.
Excessive Sugar: Is it Bad for Your Health?
According to a research study released in February 2015, the average American today consumes approximately 32 teaspoons, or 126 grams, of sugar per day, amounting to 134 pounds of sugar per year. Moreover, people are ingesting excessive amounts of sugar in the form of fructose or high-fructose corn syrup. While this highly processed form of sugar is cheaper, it is also 20 percent sweeter than regular table sugar, which is why most food and beverage manufacturers utilize the product, allowing them to save more money in the long run.
Knowing these statistics, our concern is that the human body is actually not designed to consume excessive sugar, much less in the form of fructose. As a matter of fact, the body metabolizes fructose differently than sugar. Fructose is actually a hepatotoxin, meaning it is toxic to the liver, and it is metabolized directly into fat, which can result in a variety of issues that can have significant effects to your health.
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The Effects of Consuming Too Much Sugar
Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology in the University of California and a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism, explained that the human body is capable of safely metabolizing at least six teaspoons of added sugar per day. However, because most Americans are consuming over three times that amount, the majority of the excess amounts of sugar in the body are metabolized into body fat, which can lead to other debilitating chronic metabolic diseases.
The following are several side effects which occur due to excessive sugar:
It overloads and damages your liver. Excess sugar or fructose can have similar effects to that of alcohol. All the fructose you eat travels directly to one single organ: the liver. This can severely affect the organ, leading to potential liver overloads and damage.
It tricks the body into gaining weight and affects insulin and leptin signaling. Fructose can fool your metabolism by stopping the body�s appetite-control system. Also, it fails to stimulate insulin, failing to suppress ghrelin, otherwise known as the hunger hormone, that then fails to stimulate leptin, also known as the satiety hormone. This causes you to eat more, developing insulin resistance.
It causes metabolic dysfunction. Eating excess amounts of sugar can cause a variety of symptoms to develop, identified as classic metabolic syndrome. These symptoms include: weight gain; abdominal obesity; decreased HDL and increased LDL; elevated blood sugar; elevated triglycerides; and high blood pressure.
It increases your uric acid levels. Increasingly high levels of uric acid are considered to be a major risk factor for heart and kidney disease as well as the leading cause of Gout. As a matter of fact, the connection between fructose, metabolic syndrome, and uric acid levels in the body has become so clear that an individual’s uric acid levels can be utilized as a marker for fructose toxicity. According to recent research studies, the safest range of uric acid is between 3 to 5.5 milligrams per deciliter. If your uric acid level is higher than this, then it�s clear that you are at risk of experiencing the negative health impacts caused by excess sugar or fructose.
Sugar Increases Your Risk of Disease
One of the most severe effects of eating too much sugar is its potential to damage the liver, leading to a condition known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD. The same disease that you can get from excessive alcohol intake can also be caused by excessive sugar or fructose intake. Dr. Lustig described the three similarities between alcohol and fructose:
The liver metabolizes alcohol the same way as sugar, since both serve as substrates for converting dietary carbohydrates into fat. This promotes insulin resistance, fatty liver, and dyslipidemia, or abnormal fat levels in the blood.
Fructose causes superoxide free radicals to form, resulting in inflammation, a condition that can be also caused by acetaldehyde, a metabolite of ethanol.
Fructose can directly and indirectly stimulate the brain�s hedonic pathway, or addiction pathway, creating habituation and dependence, the same way that ethanol does.
While these are some of the most commonly known ways that excess amounts of sugar or fructose can negatively affect the body, there are other ways the body can be affected as well. Evidence from several of America�s most respected institutions now confirms that sugar is a primary dietary factor that drives the development of chronic disease and obesity.
One study found that fructose is readily used by cancer cells to increase their proliferation, in other words, it feeds the cancer cells, promoting cell division and speeding their growth which allow the cancer to spread faster.
Alzheimer�s disease is another deadly illness that can arise from excessive sugar consumption. A growing body of research found a powerful connection between a high-fructose diet and the risk of developing Alzheimer�s disease through the same pathway that causes type 2 diabetes. According to some experts, Alzheimer�s and other brain disorders may be caused by the constant burning of glucose by the brain.
Other diseases that are linked to metabolic syndrome that may potentially develop from excess sugar include:
Type 2 Diabetes
Hypertension
Heart Disease
Peripheral Neuropathy
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Lipid (cholesterol) problems
Dementia (Alzheimer�s disease)
Cancer
How to Manage Your Sugar Consumption
Sugar, in its natural form, is not bad as long as it�s consumed in moderation. This means avoiding all sources of fructose, particularly that found in processed foods and beverages such as soda. Approximately 74 percent of processed foods contain hidden added sugar under more than 60 different names. Ideally, you should consume more whole foods and less processed foods.
Furthermore, it’s recommended to limit the consumption of refined carbohydrates, such as waffles, cereals, bagels, etc. and grains, as these can break down sugar in your body, increasing your insulin levels and causing insulin resistance.
As a general recommendation, its advised for people to keep their total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, including that from whole fruit. Keep in mind that although fruits are rich in nutrients and antioxidants, they also naturally contain fructose, and if consumed in high amounts, they may actually worsen your insulin sensitivity and raise your uric acid levels.
Remember that artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose should also be ultimately avoided, since they can develop a completely different set of health complications which may be far worse than the issues sugar or corn syrup can cause.
Avoiding the Cravings
More evidence from recent studies has revealed that obesity, pre-diabetes and diabetes can be driving factors for, not only chronic conditions such as peripheral neuropathy, but also for a diversity of other chronic diseases, including cancer. It�s essential to realize that you don�t have to give up sugar completely but you must reduce it significantly from your diet. Research studies have demonstrated that no one should be consuming more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day, including fruit sugar as well.
In order to become healthy and fight off chronic illness, here are some additional dietary tips to remember:
Increase your consumption of healthy fats, such as omega-3, saturated, and monounsaturated fats. Your body needs health-promoting fats from animal and vegetable sources for optimal functioning. In fact, emerging evidence suggests that healthy fats should make up at least 70 percent of your diet. Some of the best sources include: organic butter from raw milk; virgin olive oil; coconut oil; ghee; raw nuts like pecans and macadamia; free-range eggs; avocado; and wild Alaskan salmon.
Drink pure, clean water. Simply swapping out all the sweetened beverages like sodas and fruit juices for pure water can go a long way towards improving your health. The best way to gauge your water needs is to observe the color of your urine, it should be a light, pale yellow, and the frequency of your bathroom visits, ideally, this is around seven to eight times per day.
Add fermented foods to your meals. The beneficial bacteria in these healthful foods can support your digestion and provide detoxification support which helps lessen the fructose burden on your liver. Some of the best choices include: kimchi; natto; organic yogurt and kefir made from grass-fed milk; and fermented vegetables.
How to Give Up Your Sugar Cravings
Sugar is highly addictive and can often affect dependency centers in the brain and it can have an emotional component as well. In order to suppress sugar cravings, it�s essential to detox. A variety of healthcare professionals can help design appropriate sugar detox programs. Such programs can be great for detoxing the body from unwanted chemicals, eliminating sugar addiction and decreasing inflammation.
The temptation to eat or indulge in sugary foods will always be there, especially with the abundance of processed foods and fast foods everywhere. However, most sugar cravings arise because of an emotional challenge. If this is what causes you to crave sugar, there are solutions such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, that can help. This technique is a simple and effective strategy to help control your emotional food cravings. Ultimately, seeking medical help or support to decrease your sugar consumption can be the best first step to cleanse your body and improve your overall health and wellness.
On average, people consume sugar from their favorite snacks and foods on a daily basis, however, processed foods and beverages can have an excessive amount of sugar which may affect the body’s overall health and wellness. The human body is not designed to handle the excess sugar and its regular consumption can lead to a variety of complications, including diabetes.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
Neck pain is characterized as the most prevalent symptom after being involved in an automobile accident. During an auto collision, the body is exposed to a sheer amount of force due to the high speed impact, causing the head and neck to jolt abruptly back-and-forth as the rest of the body remains in place. This often results in the damage or injury of the cervical spine and its surrounding tissues, leading to neck pain and other common symptoms associated with whiplash-related disorders.
Being overweight or obese is assumed to be the primary factor for people to develop type 2 diabetes. Excess weight is generally associated with insulin resistance and diabetes, however, it’s this insulin resistance, not the excess weight, which can cause the disease to develop.
Because of this, many individual’s who maintain a healthy weight may not necessarily be metabolically healthy, which can in turn increase the risk of diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, regardless if they’re overweight or obese. According to researchers from the University of Florida, one of the greatest risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes is actually inactivity, which can increase the risk or pre-diabetes even if you have a healthy weight.
Inactivity and Pre-diabetes
If you were looking for motivation to get moving, this study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is as good as it gets.1
In a research study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a survey of more than 1,100 healthy-weight individuals, those who were inactive, or physically active for less than 30 minutes per week, were more likely to score an A1C test level of 5.7 or higher, which is considered to be pre-diabetic.
The researchers suggested that people who live a sedentary lifestyle yet have a healthy weight may have �what is referred to as normal-weight obesity or skinny fat, which they described as a high proportion of fat to lean muscle.
�Don�t focus solely on the scale and think you�re OK. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, make sure you get up and move,� lead author Arch Mainous III, chair of health services research, management and policy in the University of Florida�s College of Public Health and Health Professions, stated in a news release of the subject matter.
Weight May Not Reveal a Person�s Metabolic Health
Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, USCF, explains that weight isn’t necessarily an accurate tool to determine a person’s metabolic health. Dr. Lustig is best known for speaking out about the health risks of sugar. In a 2015 interview, he declared the issue of “judging a book by its cover” in terms of weight and health.
Approximately more than two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese. About 50 percent have pre-diabetes or diabete and 1 out of every 3 have high blood pressure. Many of these individuals additionally have high serum triglycerides, which can be a huge factor when it comes to heart disease and stroke. Insulin resistance is a component of all of these health issues. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, at least 50 percent of the American population has some form of insulin resistance, regardless if they have an excess of weight or not.
Exercise is Essential to Prevent Diabetes
A variety of research studies and other evidence have concluded that regular participation and engagement in exercise and physical activity, which includes reducing time being spent sitting, can be crucial to help lower an individual’s risk of developing diabetes. Exercise can even help treat the disease once you’ve been diagnosed.
Sitting for more than eight hours a day has been shown to increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 90 percent, while people with diabetes who participated in a six-month moderate-intensity exercise program experienced considerable health improvements, including decreased fat in the abdomen, liver and around the heart.
How to Determine if You�re Pre-Diabetic
If you’re uncertain on what your fasting insulin and glucose levels are to determine if you’re pre-diabetic, there are various blood tests which are recommended to receive annually. The fasting insulin level reflects how healthy a person’s blood glucose levels are over time.
A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally, you will want it to read below 3. A fasting glucose level below 100 mg/dl suggests you�re not insulin resistant while a level between 100 and 125 confirms you may have pre-diabetes. If these results, or your A1C level, confirms you either have or are at risk of pre-diabetes or diabetes, its fundamental for you to take action. Furthermore, a hip-to-waist size index chart can also be helpful to help determine the proper diagnosis for pre-diabetes or diabetes.
When it comes to evaluating whether the individual is overweight or obese, the previous tests may be better than utilizing the body mass index method, or BMI, as this test fails to factor in both how much muscle and intra-abdominal fat mass, or the visceral fat that accumulates around the inner organs, an individual may have. These can be indicators of insulin/leptin sensitivity and other associated health problems.
Insulin Sensitivity Improvements in Two Weeks
Fortunately, with proper exercise and a carefully balanced diet, people can reverse the course of type 2 diabetes. These benefits have been documented in as little as two weeks, in some instances, occurring just after one exercise session. During a research study for example, inactive but healthy middle-aged adults improved their insulin sensitivity and regulated their blood sugar over two weeks of interval training, about three sessions per week. A follow-up study also found that interval training positively impacted insulin sensitivity.
The research study was conducted involving people with type 2 diabetes and after only one interval training session, the individuals experienced an improvement in the regulation of their blood sugar for the following 24 hours. By exercising in short, high-intensity bursts, known as intervals, you can exercise for longer periods of time at a slower, steady pace and still experience the benefits.�A recommended high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, approach is the Peak Fitness method, which consists of 30 secons of maximum effort followed by 90 seconds of recuperation, for a total of eight repetitions. Very slow weight lifting for your resistance training is also recommended.
Standing Up From Sitting is Also Essential
Moreover, it’s important to understand that exercising for 20 or 30 minutes a day but sitting for the rest is not enough physical activity to begin categorizing yourself as an active individual. In fact, sitting for an extended period of time has been linked to the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes, primarily because it can increase aging at a cellular level.
In a research study involving women ranging from 64 to 95 years of age, those who were sedentary and sat for more than 10 hours a day who engaged in only 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise experienced shorter telomeres. In addition, the sedentary women were biologically about 8 years older than the active women in the research study.
The telomeres are utilized to measure biological aging because every time a cell divides, these become shorter. Shorter telomeres have also been associated with other chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Furthermore, the body’s ability to properly respond to insulin can be tremendously affected by only a single day of excessive inactivity. Sitting for extended periods of time can cause the pancreas to produce increased amounts of insulin. A research study published in Diabetologia, found that individuals who sat for long periods of time were twice as likely to develop diabetes of heart disease compared to individuals who sat for short periods of time. It’s recommended to replace the majority of your sitting with exercise or physical activity, keeping sedentary habits to three hours a day or less.
What to Do if You Have Pre-Diabetes or Diabetes
Being thin doesn’t necesarily mean you have more lean muscle than fat in your body. Having a higher percentage of fat than lean muscle can set the stage for insulin resistance. It’s not as simple to assume you’re metabolically healthy just because you’re not overweight or obese, especially if you live a sedentary lifestyle. Thin people who are also sedentary have as much risk of developing type 2 diabetes as someone who has excess weight.
The good news is, there�s plenty you can do to not only reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes but also to improve your metabolic health at the same time.
During the three-year Diabetes Prevention Program study, lifestyle interventions were found to be more effective than the diabetes drug Metformin at preventing or delaying the development of the disease in people at higher risk. A follow-up research study monitored the group for 15 years and lifestyle interventions were still more effective than Metformin at preventing diabetes.
One of the most important dietary recommendations is to limit net carbs, or total carbohydrates minus fiber, and protein, replacing them with higher amounts of high-quality healthy fats, such as seeds, nuts, raw grass-fed butter, olives, avocado, coconut oil, organic pastured eggs and animal fats, including animal-based omega-3s.
If you�re insulin resistant or diabetic, its also suggested that you limit your total fructose intake to 15 grams per day until your insulin/leptin resistance has improved, increasing to 25 grams, and then begin intermittent fasting as soon as possible.
In conclusion, exercise and physical activity while reducing the amount of time spent sitting, together with a balanced diet, including optimized levels of vitamin D and gut health, as well as proper sleep, are crucial towards preventing or improving type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Taken together, this plan will �also substantially lower your risk of diabetes and related chronic diseases, helping you to avoid becoming victim to a health condition you might not even realize you have.
Type 2 diabetes is commonly described to develop in overweight or obese individuals, however, recent research studies have demonstrated that slim, healthy people are also at risk of developing the disease. In fact, a sedentary lifestyle has been linked to be the major factor behind the development of type 2 diabetes in American adults.
For more information, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .
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