Wellness
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.
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Diets
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at desserts and sweets.
Would you feel guilty eating sweets? You must not. There’s nothing wrong with eating an occasional sweet. It is much wiser to plan a dessert that is sweet again and now, rather than deprive yourself for weeks only to eat half your body weight in sweets later.
Balance Counts
Regrettably, way too many Americans eat way too much sugar. Our per capita consumption of sugar is 120 pounds per year! This works out to 600 extra calories a day which are devoid of any nutritional value. In view of the fact, it is obvious why Americans have a problem with obesity while falling short with other crucial nutrients like calcium, iron and folic acid.
A short note has to be stated about carbohydrates along with the bodies’ capacity to burn them. Which food would you believe causes obesity? As sugar is a concentrated supply of carbohydrates, extra calories can be carried by it. Excessive calories are converted into fat!
It can cause other health problems although sugar in the diet does not have the killer status of salt and fats. Tooth decay can function as the effect of sweets taken in between meals. Honey, which many believe is fitter than table sugar, truly has a paste which adheres cavity causing bacteria to teeth.
Sugar:�An Acquired Taste
Luckily our taste for sweets is acquired substantially like our taste for salt. This means by changing the numbers in our diet we can alter our flavor acquity for sugar.
Gradually replace less sweet foods, like tea biscuits and fruit tarts, for icing-load cakes and cookies. Make some of your favorite recipes with a third less sugar. Without altering the final product the sugar generally in most recipes can be reduced by 50 to 75 percent. You may use half the amount of concentrate to produce the same amount of sweetness as fruit juice concentrate is as sweet as sugar. Fruit juice concentrate additionally helps supply moisture to baked goods which are reduced in fat.
Assess the “tips” section for additional thoughts on checking your sweet tooth. Don’t forget, you want nutritional value for your calories. More healthy options go a long way in making you fit thin and cut.
Strategies For Cutting Back On Sugar
- If sweets are your downfall, try saving them. Plan cookie or a candy bar on the weekends, say, ahead of time. It’s far better to incorporate them to them than binge when feeling deprived.
- Bake your own sweets. Or try substituting applesauce for sugar in muffin and sweet bread recipes.
- Use dried fruits in cookies as additional sweeteners. As stand alone snacks beware as they�may stick to teeth and are rich in calories.
- Use powered sugar as a substitute for icings on chocolate cakes. Get a doilie and position on top of cake. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and remove doilie… Wallah! Poetry with no additional fat!
- Use “conserves” instead of “preserves”. The former do not have added sugar.
- Use sliced fresh fruit for pancakes or french toast. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. This helps bypass the maple syrup.
- Buy basic non fat yogurt and add your own personal fresh fruit. Flavored yogurts can include up to seven teaspoons of sugar that is added. This works nicely for sweetening chilly goods, but breaks down in cooking.
- Search for more than four grams of fiber and breakfast cereals with six grams or less of sugar that is added. Browse the label and beware of words that end with “ose”. These are sugars also: corn syrup solids, dextrose, maltose etc.
- Create your personal drink with half fruit juice and half mineral water.�These items can have just as much sugar as sodas.
- Eat fresh fruit whenever possible. When buying canned fruit, purchase those packaged within their very own juice or “lite” syrup.
- Avoid having sweets near “guests.” It is likely that you’ll eat them before your friends and family will.
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by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Chiropractic, Integrative Functional Wellness, Integrative Medicine, Wellness
El Paso TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at medication for joint pain and how they can make the pain worse.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are as common as candy, a staple of every home medicine cabinet and tossed casually in desk drawers, purses, and briefcases. Many people take these drugs, which include ibuprofen (sold as Motrin and Advil), naproxen (Aleve), and aspirin, at the first sign of a�headache or muscle cramps � and they are a daily ritual for many people living with arthritis.
But few people realize that NSAIDs carry a black-box warning, the strictest warning issued by the Food and Drug Administration. �Most people think that the government or FDA would not allow something dangerous on the market, especially since most of them are over-the-counter and [used] without a prescription,� says integrative medicine expert Sunil Pai, MD, author of An Inflammation Nation. �A black-box warning is the FDA�s attempt to let you know that you can end up in a casket if you are unlucky enough to suffer one of a medication�s serious reactions.�
Not only have NSAIDs been linked to a slew of serious side effects, including ulcers, hearing loss, allergic reactions and miscarriages, but they can actually worsen some of the conditions, such as arthritis, they are supposed to help.
�The scientific literature makes it abundantly clear that NSAIDs�have a significant negative effect on cartilage,� which accelerates the deterioration of arthritic joints, says Pai. �NSAIDs have no beneficial effect on [cartilage] and speed up the very disease for which they are most used and prescribed.�
Even worse, NSAIDs do not address the underlying conditions that cause pain and inflammation, such as a leaky gut, and can even exacerbate them. Stress, infections, alcohol, and a poor diet can all irritate the gut lining and lead to a leaky gut, but so can NSAIDs.
�If you use a full therapeutic dose of NSAIDs for two weeks, there is a 75 percent chance you will develop a leaky gut that doesn�t go away when you stop taking the drug, Leo Galland, MD, tellsExperience Life magazine.
6 Simple Dietary Interventions To Fight &�Heal A Leaky Gut
So, how can people with acute or chronic inflammatory conditions fight pain naturally? Some simple dietary interventions go a long way towards fighting inflammation and healing a leaky gut.
1. Try an Elimination Diet
Removing common foods that can irritate the gut, including gluten, sugar, dairy, processed foods and soy, can jumpstart the healing process. Sugar (and refined grains, which turn to sugar in the body), for example, is one of the single biggest drivers of inflammation and its downstream consequences.
When sugar cravings strike, try roasting root vegetables or sweet potatoes. Roasting concentrates the natural sweetness of the plant, but the fiber slows down sugar absorption in the bloodstream.
2. Eat Whole Foods
Michael Pollen�s recommendation � �Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.� � Is great advice when it comes to naturally fighting inflammation. Eating a Standard American Diet (SAD) � high in processed foods, unhealthy fats, and sugars � is like pouring kerosene on inflammation�s fire. Eating whole foods, rich in phytonutrients, helps put out that fire.
One fun way to eat more plants? Strive to �eat the rainbow,� or get at least one whole food from all the different colors of the rainbow each day:
- Red (pomegranates, strawberries, tomatoes)
- Orange (sweet potatoes, carrots)
- Yellow (lemon, squash)
- Green (avocado, Brussels sprouts, green tea)
- Blue/purple (berries, olives)
- White/tan/brown (garlic, onion, mushrooms).
Animal protein doesn�t need to be avoided if it�s grass-fed and pastured. Instead, try to reverse the ratio on your dinner plate: Make meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.
3. Supplement with Glutamine
Glutamine helps heal your gut by fueling the cells in your gut lining. You could think of it as a leaky gut superhero. �Glutamine heals the intestinal lining more than any other nutrient,� Liz Lipski, Ph.D., CCN, author of Digestive Wellness, tells Experience Life.
4. Get Your Omega-3s
Omega-3 fatty acids are natural inflammation fighters. Good whole food sources of omega-3s include wild-caught fish, grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, algae, and seeds such as hemp, chia, and flax. A high-quality omega-3 supplement is also worth considering. Even on a largely whole-foods-based, it can be hard to get the recommended daily amount of omega-3s.
5. Drink Bone Broth
Bone broth is one of the best natural sources of collagen, a protein found in abundance in our ligaments, tendons, bones, and skin. The collagen in broth is easily absorbed by our tissues and can not only help promote healthier connective tissue and ease joint pain, but it can also help heal a leaky gut. The best bone broth is homemade�but increasingly high-quality bone broth is available for purchase at cooperatives and health food stores.
6. Consider Botanical First Aid
Many plants are powerful inflammation fighters. Turmeric may be the best known and most studied.�Recent research suggests that the active ingredient in turmeric (called curcumin) has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities on par with commonly prescribed arthritis drugs like Enbrel and Humira.
A lot of other plants and plant compounds show similar activity in the body, including ginger, bromelain (an enzyme found in pineapple), capsaicin (the active ingredient in hot peppers), and ginger. Consult your healthcare practitioner before taking botanical supplements.
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Source:
http://www.drfranklipman.com/problem-nsaids-yes-mean-advil/
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Fitness, Wellness
Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it�s even harder.
How do you move forward?
If you don�t purposefully carve time out every day to progress and improve?�?without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you�ll be old and withered?�?wondering where all that time went.
As Professor Harold Hill has said?�?�You pile up enough tomorrows, and you�ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.�
Rethinking Your Life &�Getting Out Of Survival�Mode
This article is intended to challenge you to rethink your entire approach to life. The purpose is to help you simplify and get back to the fundamentals.
Sadly, most people�s lives are filled to the brim with the nonessential and trivial. They don�t have time to build toward anything meaningful.
They are in survival mode. Are you in survival mode?
Like Bilbo, most of us are like butter scraped over too much bread. Unfortunately, the bread is not even our own, but someone else�s. Very few have taken the time to take their lives into their own hands.
It was social and cultural to live our lives on other people�s terms just one generation ago. And many millennials are perpetuating this process simply because it�s the only worldview we�ve been taught.
However, there is a growing collective-consciousness that with a lot of work and intention?�?you can live every moment of your life on your own terms.
You are the designer of your destiny.
You are responsible.
You get to decide. You must decide?�?because if you don�t, someone else will. Indecision is a bad decision.
With this short morning routine, your life will quickly change.
It may seem like a long list. But in short, it�s really quite simple:
- Wake up
- Get in the zone
- Get moving
- Put the right food in your body
- Get ready
- Get inspired
- Get perspective
- Do something to move you forward
Let�s begin:
1. Get A Healthy 7+ Hours of�Sleep
Let�s face it?�?Sleep is just as important as eating and drinking water. Despite this, millions of people do not sleep enough and experience insane problems as a result.
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) conducted surveys revealing that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders. Not only that, 60 percent of adults, and 69 percent of children, experience one or more sleep problems a few nights or more during a week.
In addition, more than 40 percent of adults experience daytime sleepiness severe enough to interfere with their daily activities at least a few days each month?�?with 20 percent reporting problem sleepiness a few days a week or more.
On the flipside, getting a healthy amount of sleep is linked to:
- Increased memory
- Longer life
- Decreased inflammation
- Increased creativity
- Increased attention and focus
- Decreased fat and increased muscle mass with exercise
- Lower stress
- Decreased dependence on stimulants like caffeine
- Decreased risk of getting into accidents
- Decreased risk of depression
- And tons more� google it.
The rest of this blog post is worthless if you don�t make sleep a priority. Who cares if you wake up at 5 o�clock A.M. if you went to bed three hours earlier?
You won�t last long.
You may use stimulants to compensate, but that isn�t sustainable. In the long-run, your health will fall apart. The goal needs to be long-term sustainability.
2. Prayer & Meditation To Facilitate Clarity & Abundance
After waking from a healthy and restful sleep session, prayer and meditation are crucial for orienting yourself toward the positive. What you focus on expands.
Prayer and meditation facilitate intense gratitude for all that you have. Gratitude is having an abundance mindset. When you think abundantly, the world is your oyster. There is limitless opportunity and possibility for you.
People are magnets. When you�re grateful for what you have, you will attract more of the positive and good. Gratitude is contagious.
Gratitude may be the most important key to success. It has been called the mother of all virtues.
If you start every morning putting yourself in a space of gratitude and clarity, you will attract the best the world has to offer, and not get distracted.
3. Hard Physical�Activity
Despite endless evidence of the need for exercise, only one-third of American men and women between the ages of 25 to 64 years engage in regular physical activity according to the Center for Disease Control�s National Health Interview Survey.
If you want to be among the healthy, happy, and productive people in the world, get in the habit of regular exercise. Many people go immediately to the gym to get their body moving. I have lately found that doing yard work in the wee hours of the morning generates an intense inflow of inspiration and clarity.
Whatever your preference, get your body moving.
Exercise has been found to decrease your chance of depression, anxiety, and stress. It is also related to higher success in your career.
If you don�t care about your body, every other aspect of your life will suffer. Humans are holistic beings.
4. Consume 30 Grams Of�Protein
Donald Layman, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, recommends consuming at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Similarly, Tim Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Body, also recommends 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking up.
According to Tim, his father did this and lost 19 pounds in one month.
Protein-rich foods keep you full longer than other foods because they take longer to leave the stomach. Also, protein keeps blood-sugar levels steady, which prevents spikes in hunger.
Eating protein first decreases your white carbohydrate cravings. These are the types of carbs that get you fat. Think bagels, toast, and donuts.
Tim makes four recommendations for getting adequate protein in the morning:
- Eat at least 40% of your breakfast calories as protein
- Do it with two or three whole eggs (each egg has about 6g protein)
- If you don�t like eggs, use something like turkey bacon, organic pork bacon or sausage, or cottage cheese
- Or, you could always do a protein shake with water
For people who avoid dairy, meat, and eggs, there are several plant-based proteins. Legumes, greens, nuts, and seeds all are rich in protein.
5. Take A Cold�Shower
Tony Robbins starts every morning by jumping into a 57-degree Fahrenheit swimming pool.
Why would he do such a thing?
Cold water immersion radically facilitates physical and mental wellness.When practiced regularly, it provides long-lasting changes to your body�s immune, lymphatic, circulatory and digestive systems that improve the quality of your life. It can also increase weight-loss because it boosts your metabolism.
A 2007 research study found that taking cold showers routinely can help treat depression symptoms often more effectively than prescription medications. That�s because cold water triggers a wave of mood-boosting neurochemicals which make you feel happy.
There is of course, an initial fear of stepping into a cold shower. Without a doubt, if you�ve tried this before, you have found yourself standing outside the shower dreading the thought of going in.
You may have even talked yourself out of it and said, �Maybe tomorrow.� And turned the hot water handle before getting in.
Or, maybe you jumped in but quickly turned the hot water on?
What has helped me is thinking about it like a swimming pool. It�s a slow painful death to get into a cold pool slowly. You just need to jump in. After 20 seconds, you�re fine.
It�s the same way with taking a cold shower. You get in, you heart starts beating like crazy. Then, after like 20 seconds, you feel fine.
To me, it increases my willpower and boosts my creativity and inspiration. While standing with the cold water hitting my back, I practice slowing my breathing and calming down. After I�ve chilled out, I feel super happy and inspired. Lots of ideas start flowing and I become way motivated to achieve my goals.
Plus, it�s healthy to do something in the morning that kind of freaks you out! Get�s you feeling alive and sets the tone for living outside your comfort zone!
6. Listen To/Read Uplifting Content
Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning. It is common for the world�s most successful people to read at least one book per week. They are constantly learning.
I can easily get through one audiobook per week by just listening during my commute to school and while walking on campus.
Taking even 15�30 minutes every morning to read uplifting and instructive information changes you. It puts you in the zone to perform at your highest.
Over a long enough period of time, you will have read hundreds of books. You�ll be knowledgeable on several topics. You�ll think and see the world differently. You�ll be able to make more connections between different topics.
7. Review Your Life�Vision
Your goals should be written down?�?short term and long term. Taking just a few minutes to read your life vision puts your day into perspective.
If you read your long term goals every day you will think about them every day. If you think about them every day, and spend your days working toward them, they�ll manifest.
Achieving goals is a science. There�s no confusion or ambiguity to it. If you follow a simple pattern, you can accomplish all of your goals, no matter how big they are.
A fundamental aspect of that is writing them down and reviewing them every single day.
8. Do At Least One Thing Towards Long-Term Goals
Willpower is like a muscle that depletes when it is exercised. Similarly, our ability to make high quality decisions becomes fatigued over time. The more decisions you make, the lower quality they become?�?the weaker your willpower.
Consequently, you need to do the hard stuff first thing in the morning. The important stuff.
If you don�t, it simply will not get done. By the end of your day, you�ll be exhausted. You�ll be fried. There will be a million reasons to just start tomorrow. And you will start tomorrow?�?which is never.
So your mantra becomes: The worst comes first. Do that thing you�ve been needing to do. Then do it again tomorrow.
If you take just one step toward you big goals every day, you�ll realize those goals weren�t really far away.
Conclusion
After you�ve done this, no matter what you have for the rest of your day, you�ll have done the important stuff first. You�ll have put yourself in a place to succeed. You�ll have inched toward your dreams.
Because you�ll have done all these things, you�ll show up better in life. You�ll be better at your job. You�ll be better in your relationships. You�ll be happier. You�ll be more confident. You�ll be more bold and daring. You�ll have more clarity and vision.
Your life will shortly change.
You can�t have mornings like this consistently without waking up to all that is incongruent in your life. Those things you despise will meet their demise. They�ll disappear and never return.
You�ll quickly find you�re doing the work you�re passionate about.
Your relationships will be passionate, meaningful, deep, and fun!
You will have freedom and abundance.
The world, and the universe, will respond to you in beautiful ways.
Call Today!
Source:
Thrive Global
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by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Diets, Fitness
One in three Americans is overweight and another third are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But while carrying too many extra pounds can increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, health experts say a little bit of flab may actually be healthy.
But there is a kind of “Goldilocks Effect” — not too much, not too little — when it comes to body fat.
“Researchers have concluded that fat is actually a vital organ that releases hormones and sends special signals to the brain,” notes Dr. Holly Lucille, ND, RN. “Fat is an important macro nutrient and like any other macro nutrient, the quality makes a difference. Having the right kind of fat on your body is both protective and important.”
Jeffrey Friedman, a molecular biologist at Rockefeller University was among the first scientists back in the 1980s to discover that there was more to fat than merely storing calories. In his experiments with mice, he found that fat produces a hormone called leptin which is released into the bloodstream and binds with the areas in our brain that are responsible for appetite.
His lab’s obese mice had a genetic defect in their fat that prevented the manufacture of leptin which gave them the signal to stop eating. Humans with the same genetic defect can eventually eat themselves into obesity and premature death.
So, losing weight becomes a double-edged sword. When we lose fat, we lower our levels levels of leptin, the appetite off switch, and we become hungrier than before.
Leptin also affects our muscles and thyroid hormones so that lower levels of leptin slow down our metabolism. This combined effect drives us to regain weight. It may also explain why extreme dieters who lose vast amounts of weight in short periods of time nearly always gain it all back — and then some, scientists say.
Scientists also know that fat affects the size of our brains. People who are genetically leptin-deficient have smaller brain volume in some areas as do patients who are suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia which leave them malnourished. Leptin is also helpful in healing wounds and strengthens our immune system by activating T-cells.
“What’s important is the quantity and quality of your stored fat,” Lucille tells Newsmax Health. “The ‘good’ type of fat is called subcutaneous and is found directly under our skin in places such as our abdomen thighs, buttocks, and arms.”
Subcutaneous fat is easy to grab with your hand and tends to shift as the body changes position.
The so-called “bad” type of fat is visceral fat which is stored under the stomach wall, nestled against our internal organs. This type of fat can become inflamed and lead to diabetes and heart disease. It tends to be firmer and dense.
But experts warn that excess body fat of either kind is unlikely to be health-promoting. It’s important to keep fat levels at their optimal levels which can vary according to age and sex.
In general, women with more than 30 percent body fat are considered to be overweight and for men, the threshold is more than 25 percent.
Dr. Cate Shanahan, author of “Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food,” tells Newsmax Health that women, especially need a body composition of at least 10-12 percent fat in order to produce enough estrogen to cycle regularly and to maintain normal libido.
And as we age, a little more fat can enhance our looks.
“As we age we lose that facial body fat and our hormones simultaneously fall,’ she says. “Body fat helps support normal estrogen levels and therefore contributes to normal bone density — a critical factor in healthy aging after the age of 65.
“But that minimum percentage must be subcutaneous fat. When the visceral fat reaches more than 2 percent of our body composition it can lead to poor insulin sensitivity and potentially the beginnings of diabetes.”
The good news is that the “good” fat can fight the “bad” fat. By making a substance called adiponectin, subcutaneous fat helps take circulating fats out of your veins and into the subcutaneous tissues where they belong.
This hormone also reduces visceral fat. Exercise helps release adiponectin which is why sumo wrestlers can be both fat and fit. They exercise seven hours daily which keeps their visceral fat under control.
Experts say we should embrace the new science of fat, and Shanahan quotes an old French proverb that praises fat more poetically: “After a certain age a woman must choose between guarding her figure at the price of a hollow face.”
“I think the take away message of the new research is that we must keep a healthy level of fat to reduce our risk of disease while maintaining optimal body function,” notes Shanahan. “But don’t rationalize and run with the theory that eating bad fats are good for your health. You still need to choose your fats wisely and keep them within healthy levels.”
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Anti Aging
If you think that you can improve your brain by playing brain-training games, save your time and money, say researchers from Florida State University.
“Our findings and previous studies confirm there’s very little evidence these types of games can improve your life in a meaningful way,” said Wally Boot, an expert on age-related cognitive decline and an associate professor of psychology at FSU.
A growing number of people believe that brain training protects them against memory loss associated with aging. “Brain challenges like crossword games are a popular approach, especially among baby boomers, as a way to try to protect cognition,” said Neil Charness, professor of psychology and a leading authority on aging and cognition.
The belief is fueling the brain-training industry, which has become a billion-dollar business. Games are available online and through mobile apps for about $15 a month. But the Federal Trade Commission is looking at companies’ brain-boosting claims, and fined one for false advertising.
“More companies are beginning to be fined for these types of inflated claims and that’s a good thing,” Boot said. “These exaggerated claims are not consistent with the conclusions of our latest study.”
For their study, the FSU team focused on whether brain games could improve the “working memory” needed for a variety of tasks. They set up one group of people to play a specially designed brain-training video game called “Mind Frontiers,” while another group of players performed crossword games or number puzzles.
Researchers tested whether the games enhanced players’ working memory and therefore improved other mental capabilities, such as reasoning, memory and processing speed.
That’s the theory behind many brain games: If you improve overall working memory, which is fundamental to so much of what we do every day, then you can enhance performance in many areas of your life. “The thing that seniors in particular should be concerned about is, if I can get very good at crossword puzzles, is that going to help me remember where my keys are?” said Charness.
The team examined whether improving working memory transfer would translate to better performance on other tasks, something the researchers called “far transfer.”
“The answer is probably no,” says Charness.
What does work to improve aging brains? Exercise, he says, and predicts that “exer-gaming,” which combines exercise with� brain games, will increase in popularity.
“If your real goal is to improve cognitive function and brain games are not helping, then maybe you are better off getting aerobic exercise rather than sitting in front of the computer playing these games,” he said.
One activity that might fit into the area of exer-gaming is dance. A study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that dance was the� most effective way to reduce the risk of dementia.
Seniors who took part in brain-stimulating activities such as reading, writing, and doing puzzles, lowered their risk of dementia by as much as 47 percent. �Ballroom dancing, which combines thinking � remembering how to perform dance patterns � reduced the risk of developing dementia by an astonishing 67 percent.
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Natural Health, Wellness
Many people are exposed to dangerously loud sounds at work and at play, and most of them don’t wear ear plugs or take other steps to prevent hearing loss, a recent U.S. study suggests.
Almost 49 million adults work in very noisy conditions, and more than one-third of them never use hearing protection, the study found. Among leisure pursuits, firearms pose a particular risk and just 59 percent of the 35 million U.S. gun users represented in the study wear hearing protection all the time.
“The problem here is both the number of people using firearms and the potential noise-inducing hearing loss from the repeated gunfire,” said senior study author Dr. Neil Bhattacharyya of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“A rifle has an extremely loud single burst of sound and if you are firing hundreds of rounds, that can be very damaging, particularly without hearing protection,” Bhattacharyya said by email.
To assess how often U.S. adults are exposed to loud noise and how regularly they take steps to protect against hearing loss, researchers examined 2014 survey data representing 240 million people.
Overall, 22 percent were exposed to “very loud” sounds at work requiring them to shout to be heard at arm’s length. The exposures were for at least four hours a day, several days a week.
Roughly one in five people were exposed to loud sounds outside of work, and 62 percent of them didn’t use hearing protection, researchers report in The Laryngoscope.
With firearms, researchers found that one in five people who shot more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in the past year never used hearing protection. Most of the firearm-related noise exposure came during recreational shooting.
Lawn mowers were the most common source of non-occupational noise exposure.
Almost two-thirds of people around loud noises during recreational activities never used any hearing protection.
One limitation of the study is that it only included one year of survey data, the authors note. It also didn’t have medical records to document specific hearing or health problems associated with noise.
“Untreated hearing loss is associated with increased stress, depression and social withdrawal, and may exacerbate problems for those with cognitive changes such as dementia,” said Dr. Jennifer Derebery of the House Ear Clinic and Institute and the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine.
If people aren’t sure whether the noise around them is loud enough to damage their ears, they can get a sound meter app for their phone and use ear plugs or other protection whenever the app shows the sound is too loud, Derebery, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.
And there are good options for people to wear when they still need to hear the sounds around them, a concern for many hunters and concert goers.
“There are outstanding electronic ear muff and ear plug options that solve many of the complaints that recreational shooters and hunters have related to conventional hearing protection,” said Colleen Le Prell, an audiology researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas who wasn’t involved in the study.
“They allow quiet sounds, such as speech and sounds the hunter might be making as they walk, to be not only delivered but amplified, which can be very useful with someone who already has some hearing loss,” Le Prell said by email. “Hearing loss can be prevented, with the consistent and correct use of hearing protection devices.”
by Dr Alex Jimenez DC, APRN, FNP-BC, CFMP, IFMCP | Natural Health, Wellness
Many studies have found that the first 1,000 days after conception have a strong influence on a person’s life expectancy and susceptibility to chronic disease. Low birth weight is one of the main markers used to identify stress in early life, such as poor nutrition during gestation, but it can be used only until birth — about 280 days — and is far short of the first thousand days.
But researchers from the University of Washington suggest that an asymmetric lower face is a strong marker that also suggests early life stresses.
“Asymmetries in the skull and teeth have been used for decades by anthropologists to mark environmental stress, but they have only rarely been used in living populations,” said Philippe Hujoel, a professor in the UW School of Dentistry.
“Such lower-face asymmetries can be assessed by looking at the dental bite in the permanent teeth — an exam that can be completed in seconds and with more certainty than a mother’s recall of birth weight and more ease than a search for a birth certificate.”
Hujoel described a crooked, or asymmetric, bite as the teeth biting backward or forward on one side of the face and normally on the other side.
He emphasized that crooked teeth, overbites and underbites are different than an asymmetric bite and can be associated with both asymmetric and symmetric bites.
Hujoel and his colleagues studied data gathered from 1966 to 1970 in a group of 6,654 U.S. adolescent 12- to 17-year-olds. The study found that one in four had lower-face asymmetries.
“Lower-face asymmetries were common in a generation that became typified by an epidemic of diabetes and obesity in adulthood,” noted Hujoel.
He says that further research is needed to identify whether lower-face asymmetries can predict chronic diseases in living populations in the same way that skull asymmetries have been associated with degenerative diseases in long-deceased populations.
Earlier studies have linked facial symmetry with health, but a British study published in 2014 found no links. It did, however, find a small correlation between symmetry and higher IQ.
