Clinic Wellness Team. A key factor to spine or back pain conditions is staying healthy. Overall wellness involves a balanced diet, appropriate exercise, physical activity, restful sleep, and a healthy lifestyle. The term has been applied in many ways. But overall, the definition is as follows.
It is a conscious, self-directed, and evolving process of achieving full potential. It is multidimensional, bringing together lifestyles both mental/spiritual and the environment in which one lives. It is positive and affirms that what we do is, in fact, correct.
It is an active process where people become aware and make choices towards a more successful lifestyle. This includes how a person contributes to their environment/community. They aim to build healthier living spaces and social networks. It helps in creating a person’s belief systems, values, and a positive world perspective.
Along with this comes the benefits of regular exercise, a healthy diet, personal self-care, and knowing when to seek medical attention. Dr. Jimenez’s message is to work towards being fit, being healthy, and staying aware of our collection of articles, blogs, and videos.
Throwing punches in the ring is only part of the reason why professional boxers have knockout bodies. They also sculpt their strong physiques with tons of cross training—with a focus on building a rock-solid core. “Core conditioning is crucial for boxing,” says Chris Algieri, a professional boxer and two-time world champion. “Most of the power in a punch comes from being able to forcibly rotate your core, giving the strike explosive power.”
A sturdy core also helps keep a boxer’s body safe during a match. “The boxer has to be able to take blows to the body without damaging their ribs and organs,” explains Algieri. “The muscles in the abdominals and obliques act as body armor against opponents’ attacks.”
You don’t have to be a pro fighter to reap the ab-chiseling benefits of a boxer’s training. In the video above and in the gifs below, Algieri demonstrates his go-to conditioning exercises for a strong, stable core that’s ready to roll with the punches.
Bicycle crunches
This move is great for boxers because it focuses on core stability, while also rotating the shoulders and incorporating the lower body. Plus it’s an athletic movement that hones coordination.
What to do: Begin by laying on your back with hands behind head, then alternate bringing each elbow to the opposite knee, while maintaining a tight core. Do 10-20 continuous crunches with each elbow. Rest and then repeat 2-3 times.
Side plank
This is a key exercise for a boxer, since the movement promotes both core stability and shoulder girdle strength—crucial for throwing those strong punches.
What to do: Turn to one side with your legs extended and your feet and hips planted on the ground. Now, put your elbow under your shoulder and push your abs and hips up until the top of your body forms a straight line. Hold for 30-60 seconds. Return to the starting position, then move to the other side and repeat.
This is an awesome move that challenges balance and coordination, as well as core strength.
What to do: Start off in a plank position. With your weight resting on your left forearm, slowly lift your right arm off the ground, reaching it out in front of you. Lower back down, and alternate to the left arm. Do this 10 times with each arm.
T-push-up
The T-push-up will help you build core stability, as well as posterior shoulder strength and flexibility. Boxers experience a lot of wear and tear on the shoulder, so it’s important to strengthen each part of the shoulder. Plus, the push-up works the anterior deltoid, which is important for movement and power when punching forward.
What to do: Begin in a standard push-up position. Lower your body slowly, as you would for a regular push-up. But as you push yourself up, turn to one side, raising that side’s arm towards the ceiling. Return your hand to the floor, then repeat on the other side. Do this 15 times on each side.
Alternating leg with ball pass + seated underhand pass
This exercise really works your lower abdominals and also promotes full-body coordination. Boxers will often explode out of a crouched position, so it’s important to have strong lower abs to support this movement. And the second part, seated underhand pass, uses isometric holds to promote core strength and stability. Plus it hones the hand-eye coordination necessary to be a great fighter.
What to do: From seated position with feet off the ground, squeeze your abs and pull knees in as you pass a weight (or medicine ball or an imaginary object) under your bent leg. Repeat 20 times.
Accordion side crunch
This isometric hold promotes core strength, while the crunch tones your obliques and increases endurance. It’s also another move that promotes coordination between the upper and lower body.
What to do: From side position, simultaneously crunch and pull knees in, keeping feet off the floor and focusing on your obliques. Repeat this 15-20 times.
Russian twist
This classic ab move will improve your core rotational strength, which is important for maximizing power when throwing a punch.
What to do: Starting in a seated position, explosively twist from one side to the other. Aim to twist to each side 15-20 times.
Sit-up with a twist
This is a full-core movement, which works you upper and lower ab muscles in the initial sit-up, then fires up your obliques during the twist. Similar to Russian twist, this sit-up variation strengthens rotational core movement and improves your ability to generate power from the core (aka the essentials for throwing a punch.)
What to do: Starting on your back, roll up into a sit-up, with one leg extended and one foot pressed into the floor, knee bent. From here, explosively twist to the side, bringing your opposite elbow to the bent knee. Do this 15-20 times, then switch to the other side.
When you’re on a diet, you may gravitate to the “diet” food section at the supermarket, but beware: Diet foods can destroy your diet and make you fat. Although labeled “diet” or “low-fat,” they may be high in sugar and can make you gain weight, not lose it.
Researchers from the University of Georgia fed rats a diet high in sugar but low in fat that was meant to imitate many popular diet foods, and found that the animals gained weight when compared to rats fed a balanced rodent diet.
In addition, the high-sugar diet induced a host of medical problems, including liver damage and brain inflammation.
“Most so-called diet products containing low or no fat have an increased amount of sugar and are camouflaged under fancy names, giving the impression that they are healthy, but the reality is that those foods may damage the liver and lead to obesity as well,” said the study’s principal investigator, Krzysztof Czaja.
“What’s really troubling in our findings is that the rats consuming high-sugar, low-fat diets didn’t consume significantly more calories than the rats fed a balanced diet,” said Czaja, an associate professor of veterinary biosciences and diagnostic imaging in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Our research shows that in rats fed a low-fat, high-sugar diet, the efficiency of generating body fat is more than twice as high — in other words, rats consuming low-fat high-sugar diets need less than half the number of calories to generate the same amount of body fat,” he said.
Researchers divided rats into three groups and monitored their body weight, caloric intake, body composition, and fecal samples over a period of four weeks. One group consumed a diet high in fat and sugar, another group was fed a low-fat, high-sugar diet, and a third group was given a balanced or “normal” diet.
Both the low-fat, high-sugar and high-fat, high-sugar groups showed significant increases in both body weight and body fat when compared to the balanced group. They also showed an increase in liver fat.
The accumulation of liver fat in the high-sugar, low-fat group, Czaja said, “is a very dangerous situation, because the liver accumulating more fat mimics the effect of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.”
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is caused by fat buildup in the liver. Serious forms of the disease can cause liver damage similar to that caused by heavy alcohol use.
The two high-sugar diets also caused chronic inflammation in the intestinal tract and brain. Previous studies found that the brain inflammation changed signals in the brain that controlled the ability to determine when one is full.
“The brain changes resulting from these unbalanced diets seem to be long term, and it is still not known if they are reversible by balanced diets,” Czaja said.
Previous studies have shown other problems with low-fat diets. A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders linked low-fat diets with depression. Low-fat diets have also been linked to heart disease. One study found that diets low in fat lowered the body’s level of HDL — the “good” cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease.
Seattle, take a bow. Jackson, hit the gym. A new study ranking the nation�s 100 fattest cities has found residents of the Mississippi city topped the scales nationally, while Jimi Hendrix�s hometown has the smallest proportion of overweight residents.
The analysis, by Wallethub.com, found that 70 percent of Americans aged 15 and older are overweight or obese � in line with statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But some cities are more likely to have more residents who hit those thresholds than others.
On balance, the south tended to rank higher in the new study, which has historically been the case, while residents of colder, northern states and the Pacific Northwest fared better.
Dr. Charles Platkin, director of the New York City Food Policy Center and Distinguished Lecturer at Hunter College, City University of New York, tells Newsmax Health the new rankings aren�t entirely surprising but bring attention to regional factors that may play a role in U.S. obesity trends.
“There isn’t any major new information here,” Platkin explains. “There are a lot of variables that go into diet and obesity, including poverty levels, and diet and culture of southern states, for instance.”
The 10 fattest cities on the new list tended to be southern:
Jackson
Memphis, Tenn.
Little Rock, Ark.
McAllen, Texas
Shreveport, La.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Mobile, Ala.
Lafayette La.
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Knoxville, Tenn.
At the other end of the spectrum, researchers found the following 10 cities to be on the lowest end of the �obesity� scale:
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.
Portland, Ore.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.
Boston-Cambridge, Mass.
The researchers, as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggested a variety of factors play a role in U.S. obesity trends. Among them:
Regional variations in diet. The south is famous for barbecue, fried foods, and sweet tea; northern and coastal cities may offer a wider range of healthy options of vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. These differences in dietary patterns are influenced by social, demographic, cultural, historical, and economic factors
Poverty. Economic factors play a role in food choices and activity levels. According to the USDA, 42.2 million people live in households where access to healthy foods is limited, often because of poverty-related issues. In such households, families may not be able to afford to eat regular, balanced, healthy meals, or may turn to less-healthy alternatives to save money. Such households are more prominent in the south than the northeast, the west, and the Midwest.
Education. Schooling and personal achievement, uncertainty about jobs, and even access to good grocery stores also factor into food choices linked to obesity rates.
Activity, exercise trends. Northern metropolitan cities and other areas, such as the Denver area, that are popular places for healthy physical activities � such as hiking, skiing, and other outdoor sports � tend to rank lower in obesity scores.
Shopping habits. The shopping and dietary habits of people who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, are other factors. Most households receiving SNAP benefits, according to the USDA, don�t consume the same quantities of fruit, whole grains, and other healthy foods as people who aren�t on receiving food assistance.
USDA research has shown that 11 states � located along the western and southern borders of the country plus the District of Columbia � have higher-than-average levels of poverty and more people receiving SNAP benefits. These factors explain, at least in part, the prevalence of obesity across southern states. There is a higher level of food insecurity and greater use of SNAP benefits.
Platkin notes the survey rankings don�t aim to solve the nation�s obesity crisis, but they could inform aggressive promotions and education � similar to what Americans have done with in past public health campaigns, such as those aimed at tobacco use.
“Look at things we have done successfully, like smoking cessation and recycling,” he says.
Culturally significant programs like food access and cooking classes might make a difference in regions of the country where obesity rates are especially high, he adds.
Combatting poverty could also lead to improvements in diet and activity levels in some cities.
“Culturally, what are the diets, how much outdoor appeal is there, physical activity, and what about binge drinking in these areas?� he says.
To check out the complete list of the nation�s 100 fattest cities, check out Wallethub.com.
Researchers in the USA have developed an ingenious system that uses virtual reality to help prevent falls by detecting and reversing balance impairments in elderly people.
The sense of balance declines in elderly people, as well as in those with neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis. This leads to greater reliance on visual cues to maintain balance and prevent falls.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and North Carolina State University (NC State) developed a system to recreate the visual illusion of losing balance, tested on volunteers walking on a treadmill. The participants walked on machines set up in front of a large screen depicting a moving hallway.
“As each person walked, we added lateral oscillations to the video imagery, so that the visual environment made them feel as if they were swaying back and forth, or falling,” explains study co-author Jason R. Franz.
The researchers used 14 cameras to record the positions of 30 reflective markers on each volunteer’s legs, back and pelvis.
In response to visual disruptions and perceived loss of balance, the volunteers took longer or shorter steps, as the scientists expected. Their head and trunk swayed further sideways with each step. The variability of these measures — their tendency to change from one step to the next — increased much more significantly.
During the experiment, the researchers analyzed muscles’ ability to respond to perceived loss of balance and identified which muscle groups worked to correct it. The researchers found that individual muscles were highly coordinated in preserving walking balance.
The scientists’ data provide important reference measurements that could be used in future clinical procedures to detect balance impairments before they start to cause individuals to fall.
This kind of system could be used as a therapeutic tool to help teach balance-impaired individuals how to improve their balance and avoid falls.
According to the study, falls lead to the hospitalization or death of hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans every year.
The study is published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
More bad news for plus-sized Americans: Obesity is the leading cause of preventable life-years lost in the nation, a new study finds.
Obesity steals more years than diabetes, tobacco, high blood pressure and high cholesterol — the other top preventable health problems that cut Americans’ lives short, according to researchers who analyzed 2014 data.
“Modifiable behavioral risk factors pose a substantial mortality burden in the U.S.,” said study lead author Glen Taksler, an internal medicine researcher at the Cleveland Clinic.
“These preliminary results continue to highlight the importance of weight loss, diabetes management and healthy eating in the U.S. population,” Taksler said in a clinic news release.
Obesity was linked with as much as 47 percent more life-years lost than tobacco, his team said.
Tobacco, meanwhile, had the same effect on life span as high blood pressure, the researchers found.
The researchers noted that three of the top five causes of life-years lost — diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol — can be treated. And helping patients understand treatment methods, options and approaches can have a significant effect, the study authors said.
The findings also emphasize the importance of preventive care, and why it should be a priority for physicians, Taksler’s team said.
However, the researchers acknowledged that some people’s situations may be different than those of the general population. For example, for someone with obesity and alcoholism, drinking may be a more important risk factor than obesity, even though obesity is more significant in the general population.
“The reality is, while we may know the proximate cause of a patient’s death — for example, breast cancer or heart attack — we don’t always know the contributing factor(s), such as tobacco use, obesity, alcohol and family history,” Taksler said. “For each major cause of death, we identified a root cause to understand whether there was a way a person could have lived longer.”
The findings were scheduled for presentation Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine, in Washington, D.C. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
A nutrient in meat and eggs may conspire with gut bacteria to make the blood more prone to clotting, a small study suggests.
The nutrient is called choline. Researchers found that when they gave 18 healthy volunteers choline supplements, it boosted their production of a chemical called TMAO.
That, in turn, increased their blood cells’ tendency to clot. But the researchers also found that aspirin might reduce that risk.
TMAO is short for trimethylamine N-oxide. It’s produced when gut bacteria digest choline and certain other substances.
Past studies have linked higher TMAO levels in the blood to heightened risks of blood clots, heart attack and stroke, said Dr. Stanley Hazen, the senior researcher on the new study.
These findings, he said, give the first direct evidence that choline revs up TMAO production in the human gut, which then makes platelets (a type of blood cell) more prone to sticking together.
Choline is found in a range of foods, but it’s most concentrated in animal products such as egg yolks, beef and chicken.
Hazen said he and his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic wanted to isolate the effects of choline on people’s levels of TMAO and their platelet function. So they studied supplements.
The researchers had 18 healthy adults –10 meat-eaters and eight vegetarians/vegans — take choline supplements for two months.
The supplements provided around 450 milligrams of choline daily — roughly the amount in two or three eggs, Hazen said.
One month in, the study found, the supplements had raised participants’ TMAO levels 10-fold, on average. And tests of their blood samples showed that their platelets had become more prone to clotting.
“This study gives us one of the mechanisms by which TMAO may contribute to cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. J. David Spence.
Spence, who was not involved in the study, directs the Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.
For the healthy people in this study, Spence said, the TMAO rise from choline might not be worrisome. But, he added, it might be a concern for people at increased risk of heart disease or stroke.
Spence suggested those individuals limit egg yolks, beef and other foods high in choline.
Hazen had similar advice. “You don’t have to become a vegetarian,” he said. “But you could try eating more plant-based foods, and more vegetarian meals.”
He also pointed to the Mediterranean diet — rich in olive oil, vegetables and fish. In an earlier study, Hazen said, his team found that a compound in olive oil seems to inhibit TMAO formation.
The new study uncovered yet another compound that may counter TMAO: low-dose aspirin.
In a separate experiment, the researchers had some participants take 85 milligrams of aspirin (a baby aspirin) a day, in addition to choline supplements. That, it turned out, lessened the rise in TMAO and the change in platelet activity.
Doctors already prescribe low-dose aspirin to certain people at risk of heart disease and stroke.
It’s possible, Hazen said, that aspirin’s effects on TMAO are one reason it helps ward off cardiovascular trouble.
The current study is small and preliminary. But it’s the latest to suggest that the gut “microbiome” plays a key role in cardiovascular disease, Spence said.
The “microbiome” refers to the trillions of bacteria that dwell in the gut. Spence said researchers are just beginning to understand how gut bacteria and their byproducts affect the cardiovascular system.
But one hope, he said, is to figure out what balance of gut bacteria supports cardiovascular health — and possibly use probiotic (“good” bacteria) supplements to help treat people at high risk of heart disease or stroke.
Spence said his own lab is working on just that.
There are, of course, many factors in heart disease risk — from age to high blood pressure to diabetes to smoking, Hazen pointed out.
“We’re saying a portion of the risk is related to the gut microbiome,” he said.
Hazen and a colleague report potential royalty payments from several companies related to “cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics.” One company, Cleveland HeartLab, recently launched a test for measuring TMAO levels.
The findings appear in the April 25 online issue of Circulation.
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at sit/stand desks to see if they help with back pain and burn calories.
Regular utilization of sit-stand desks at work can help burn off calories and stop weight gain when coupled with other low-intensity tasks, according to findings from a current study in Occupational Medicine. The sit- stand desks did not increase pain or reduce productivity.
�In fact, other longer-term studies are demonstrating that using a sit-stand desk may actually reduce pain,� clarified lead writer Bethany Barone Gibbs, PhD, FAHA, Assistant Professor of Health and Physical Activity, Clinical, and Translational Science in the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
For patients who have back pain or have lately experienced spinal surgery, the recommendation to stand on and off during the day is very important, commented A. Nick Shamie, MD, Chief of Orthopaedic Spine Surgery and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery at UCLA School of Medicine.
�Sitting down puts significant pressure on disks and the backbone,� Dr. Shamie said. �In addition, the pressure on discs is extremely high when one is seated and bends forward to pick something off of the flooring,� he noted.
The Way The Study Was Performed
For the study, 18 people (9 men, 9 women) performed standardized deskwork at different positions for three independent one-hour sessions: 60 minutes sitting, 60 minutes standing, and 60 minutes spent alternating between sitting and standing for 30 minutes each. Standardized deskwork contained posts that were typing from a magazine, copying definitions from a dictionary, and math exercises. Areas completed experimental sessions in a haphazard order, at least and within four weeks.
All participants were between the ages of 22 and 57 years old, had earned at least a high school degree, and worked sedentary office occupations having an average daily sitting time of 8.8 hours.
Sit-Stand Desks May Burn Off 50-60 Calories Each Day
The research found that if your person stood for thirty minutes during each hour, they might burn 5.5 more calories than they’d have by sitting for the entire hour. Standing for the full hour burned an extra 8.2 calories. Changing evenly between sitting and standing on the course of an 8-hour day�4 hours sitting and 4 hours standing �could burn off as much as 56.9 calories for guys and 48.3 calories for girls.
While the number of calories is comparatively small, it may be sufficient to stop weight gain from working a sedentary job. In reality, the researchers pointed to other studies showing that modest increases in daily activity, the equivalent of burning 100 calories per day, prevents weight gain in most individuals. Routine usage of sit-stand desks could be one of many small tasks that would help weight is maintained by office workers, the researchers noted.
The Advantages Of Sit-Stand Desks
�Sit-stand desks are an easy way to get an increase in energy cost that matches into America�s present office culture. By combining the action of standing for part of the day with other occasional actions�say, electing to walk to the printer farthest away from your work space or selecting to make use of the restroom that�s found a few flights of stairs away�you can attain a significant amount of extra energy cost while at work which could help in weight control,� Dr. Barone Gibbs said.
�It’s essential that we understand standing at work isn�t going to burn off as many calories as choosing a brisk walk or a long term,� Dr. Barone Gibbs said. �However, our findings add to an increasing area of research that demonstrates the advantages of sit-stand desks, including increases in energy and productivity, blood sugar, and lower pain, and potentially blood pressure.�
Folks can certainly go online and also read reviews of the greatest sit-stand desks and how to incorporate them into work setting, Dr. Shamie said. He included that sit-stand desks are simply one part of back care. Eating a healthy diet, sleep, regular exercise, are all factors that play a job in an overall healthy lifestyle and back care, he explained.
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