A Walk in the Park May Stimulate Your Immune System
Aah, sunshine. It has gotten such a bad rap in the past few years that that beautiful warm yellow orb has seemed more like an enemy than the smiling friend children often draw. Well, today I read some good news about sunshine, or at least about Vitamin D, that I’m eager to pass along to you. As it turns out, Vitamin D is vital in activating our human defenses.
Danish researchers found that the immune systems’ killer cells, known as T cells, rely on Vitamin D to become active. If Vitamin D is lacking in the blood, they remain dormant and unaware of the possibility of threat from an infection or pathogen. “When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a Vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” said Carsten Geisler of Copenhagen University’s department of international health, immunology and microbiology, who led the study. “This means the T cell must have Vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough Vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize.” Scientists have known for a long time that Vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, and that there is a link between levels of the vitamin and diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. But, what they hadn’t realized is how crucial Vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system. And, of course, most Vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin’s exposure to sunlight. Though it can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish like salmon, herring and mackerel (or taken as a supplement), I would suggest that whenever possible, add a walk outdoors as part of your health regime. For more on this study, go to: reuters.comGetting Slim By Eating Fats? That All Depends…
As a chiropractor, I always advise weight loss for my overweight patients, not only as a way to keep organs such as the heart healthy, but every system of the body, including the musculoskeletal system (my specialty). Excess weight puts a burden on every part of the human body, including the vertebrae of the spine and joints such as those in the knees and hips. My patients tend to take my advice, so many of them ask my opinion on how they can lose weight in a healthy way. I’m always looking for information to share with them that will help to turn their “temporary” diet plan into a permanent lifestyle. The good news is that not everything that tastes good is bad for you, including fats. Recently I read an article that discusses “good” versus “bad” fats that I think you’ll find helpful when choosing a healthy diet.
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Monounsaturated Fat and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Monounsaturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids are the so-called “good” or healthy fats. They are referred to as healthy fats because they do not adversely affect your health and may actually contribute to good heart health. These types of fat come mainly from plant sources (e.g., vegetable oil), nuts, and fish (certain varieties).
Whenever possible, you should try and get your “good” fats from food sources rather than supplements. Eating more fish, walnuts and flax seeds will help. You can also take a supplement, but be sure to talk to your doctor first.
Add some sources for healthy fats to your next grocery list. These include: Extra virgin olive oil, avocado, wild-caught Alaskan salmon, ground flax seeds, walnuts (and most other nuts).
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Polyunsaturated Fat
Polyunsaturated fats provide omega-6 fatty acids and should be enjoyed in moderation as part of a healthy diet. Sources of polyunsaturated fat include corn oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil.
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Saturated Fat
Saturated fat should be limited as often as possible. Diets high in saturated fat raise cholesterol levels and can lead to cardiovascular disease. Saturated fat is found mainly in foods from animal sources. Foods that contain saturated fat include: whole milk, butter, cheese, red meat and coconut oil.
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Trans Fat
Trans fat should be avoided as often as possible. Trans fat is a type of unsaturated fat that actually elevates blood cholesterol levels more than saturated fat.
Trans fat is typically found in “junk” food, such as prepackaged baked goods and snacks. To locate trans fat on food packages, look for the words “partially hyrogenated oil” or check the nutrition label. Foods that commonly contain trans fat include most margarine, fried foods and commercially-baked goods.
Trans fat has been widely used in fast food for frying, but is now being limited or eliminated by many fast food restaurants. Ask about trans fat at your favorite restaurant and request nutrition data for their menu items.
You can view the nutrition data, including fat content, for many popular foods, fast food eateries, and restaurants online at About.com’s Calorie Count.
A Family That Gets Healthy Together Stays Healthier All Together
As a chiropractor I am very concerned about the obesity “epidemic” in this country. In my family chiropractic clinic I see the results of excess weight on the musculoskeletal systems of my patients (not to mention the organic health challenges such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease), especially as the human body ages. Unfortunately, the amount of time the body is required to carry around extra poundage and, therefore, begin to damage a person’s health, is starting earlier than it once did. Childhood obesity has been continuously rising and something THAT WILL ACTUALLY WORK needs to be done NOW to help to turn things around. That’s why I was particular happy to read the following WebMD feature:
Make Kids’ Fitness Fun and Safe
Over the past 30 years, childhood obesity rates have nearly tripled among kids in all age groups. How can you keep your child from joining the obesity epidemic? Keeping a child healthy and fit means keeping them active. Ideally, you can do that both at home and in activities at gyms, health clubs, and in after-school sports. But what if your child won’t set foot in a gym or participate in school sports? Here’s how to keep your child fit and active, happily and safely.
Make Time for Fitness and Family
The best way to get your child active is to be active yourself, says Brian Grasso, founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association (IYCA). “If Mom and Dad aren’t active, the kids won’t be either.” He recommends setting aside as little as 15 minutes a day for “family fitness time,” just like homework time, dinnertime, and bath time. (Click on the link above to read more.)
Exercise May Stave Off Mental Decline
Regular workouts protected cognitive function of older adults in two studies
By now, everyone should know that exercise is good for both body and mind. Exercise enhances and strengthens every function of the body and “keeps the cobwebs” from forming in the mind. Still not sure about exercise and “mental health”? Then read the following article below about a new study that confirms that exercise has a definitive effect of mental acuity:
Researchers found that people who did moderate physical activity in midlife or later had a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment and that six months of high-intensity aerobic exercise improved cognitive function in people with mild cognitive impairment.
Mild cognitive impairment is an in-between state between the normal changes in thinking, learning and memory that come with age and dementia, one of the studies explained. Up to 15 percent of people with mild cognitive impairment develop dementia each year, compared with 1 percent or 2 percent of the general population.
The first study included 1,324 dementia-free volunteers taking part in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. The participants completed a physical exercise questionnaire and were assessed and classified as having normal cognition (1,126) or mild cognitive impairment (198).
Those who said they did moderate exercise — such as swimming, brisk walking, yoga, aerobics or strength training — during midlife were 39 percent less likely to have mild cognitive impairment, while those who did moderate exercise later in life were 32 percent less likely to have the condition.
The Mayo team said exercise may guard against mild cognitive impairment through production of nerve-protecting compounds, increased blood flow to the brain, improved development and survival of neurons, and decreased risk of heart and blood vessel diseases.
The second study included 33 adults, average age 70, with mild cognitive impairment. Some were randomly assigned to do high-intensity aerobics for 45 to 60 minutes a day, four days a week. Others were put in a control group that had the same workout schedule, but did stretching exercises and kept their heart rate low.
After six months, the patients who did high-intensity aerobic exercise had improved cognitive function compared to those in the control group. The beneficial effects were more pronounced in women than in men, possibly because the body’s use of and production of insulin, glucose and the stress hormone cortisol differed in women and men. (To read more, click on the HealthDay link above.)
No Evidence that Chiropractic Causes Stroke According to Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation
Amidst a great deal of emotion and rhetoric coming out of Connecticut this week regarding the stroke issue The Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation has just released a very clear position statement on the issue of chiropractic and strokes.
Atlanta, GA, January 07, 2010 –(PR.com)– According to the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation there is no human experimental evidence that chiropractic adjustments or neck manipulations are causally related to strokes.
/> “While plaintiff’s attorneys and expert witness make claims and statements contending that such a causative link exists, the fact remains that these are based largely on anecdotes, case reports, and case controlled studies and cannot be used to prove causation” stated Foundation President Christopher Kent DC, JD a chiropractic researcher and attorney.
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For Better Health in New Year, Add Exercise to Your Day
Thirty minutes is all it takes, says exercise expert
(HealthDay News) — Want to feel more fit in 2010?
A professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says adding a half hour of exercise a day is the key to a healthier lifestyle.
“People don’t realize you can get tremendous benefit from regular physical activity even if you never lose a pound,” Peter Brubaker in a news release from the school.
Brubaker, director of the healthy exercise and lifestyle programs at Wake Forest, has these suggestions about how to get more exercise each day:
- Don’t feel like you need to exercise all at once. A few minutes here and there can add up to what you need.
- Walk. It’s efficient and easy. If you wear a pedometer to track your mileage, studies suggest you’ll boost your activity.
- Find ways to get exercise in your daily routine through things like taking the stairs.
- Track your exercise in a journal and don’t worry so much about weight loss. If you do want to shed pounds, 60 minutes of exercise a day is a good place to start.
- Try a variety of activities and challenge your family and friends to join you in exercising 30 minutes a day.
- Set realistic expectations. Change takes time.
More information
The National Institutes of Health has exercise tips.
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Santa Clara Chiropractic: “No Pain, No Gain?” Not When It Comes to Aging
If you’re 40+ you know that as we age our body feels and acts differently than it used to when we were younger. It hardly seems fair that as our mind appears to improve and become more “inventive,” our body seems to become less “cooperative.” We’re stiff in the morning; many of the activities we do during the day make us sore in the evening; and, if we’re not truly careful, even something as simple as turning too fast or bending over to pick up a dropped object, can send our back or some other muscle group into spasm. The good news is that there are specialized techniques available that is not only beneficial in slowing down the aging process of the body, but can aid us in avoiding some of those problems completely.
Take arthritis for example. To be sure, barring pharmaceuticals, traditional medicine doesn’t address this age-related condition. Why? The answer is that most medical practitioners are only concerned with the symptoms of arthritis. The chiropractic procedure is to look for the cause of the problem and relieve the pain at its source. Chiropractors, like your Santa Clara Chiropractor, have been helping individuals suffering from pain caused by arthritis, and other age-related problems, for over one hundred years.
Arthritic changes happen as your body ages because, over time, degeneration of particular joints takes place as a consequence of repetitive stresses, as well as years of poor gait, bad posture, and lack of beneficial movement. Chiropractic treatment reestablishes motion in your joints and decreases pain, and it ameliorates any vertebral misalignment that may be causing irritation and restriction. In addition, did you know that misaligned vertebra, along with causing arthritic changes in the spine and escalating pain, can also weaker your resistance and immunity? It’s an irrefutable fact, and this could be one of the reasons why it may seem that as you get older you develop more health problems and that it frequently takes longer for you to feel better again. Studies have shown that older individuals who are under chiropractic care stay healthier. To put it another way, as you get older, chiropractic care is good for what ails you!
Chiropractors are highly proficient when it comes to the health of the musculoskeletal system, from the small, growing frame of an infant to the full-grown body of a mature adult. Your chiropractor understands the aging process and has singular observational and diagnostic skills that aid in locating spinal misalignments and joint degeneration. In fact, a chiropractic examination can often reveal certain age-related conditions before they’ve begun to create noticeable pain. Furthermore, your Santa Clara Chiropractor can check your posture and check your gait to identify incorrect patterns that might cause more arthritic changes in the future.
So, if you have been feeling your age lately, but you’d like to feel a whole lot better, see your Santa Clara Chiropractor today!
Obesity, Inactivity Keeping Heart Health Stats Down
Treatments have improved, but Americans fall down on prevention, experts say.
By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDay News) — While physicians and surgeons are getting better at treating heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems, too many Americans are ignoring the basic rules for preventing them, according to new statistics from the American Heart Association.
Topping the list: too little exercise, too much weight.
In fact, 59 percent of adults surveyed last year reported no activity vigorous enough to prompt sweating and a significant increase in breathing or heart rate, according to the update. The findings are published online Dec. 17 in the journal Circulation.
“The things people need to focus on are our weight and our waist,” said Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, chair of the heart association’s statistics committee. “Those are driving a lot of other risk factors, such as cholesterol and diabetes.”
Tackling inactivity and overweight will be key to turning heart health statistics around said Lloyd-Jones, who is also chairman of the department of preventive medicine and staff cardiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Read more…
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How to Attack Holiday Stress Head-On
Expert offers tips for coping with common scenarios
SATURDAY, Dec. 12 (HealthDay News) — With pressures from the economic hard times, dysfunctional families and countless other factors, the holidays can contribute to emotional stress and depression.
But there are ways to cope with the various scenarios that people experience at this time of year, according to Dr. Laura Miller, director of women’s mental health in the psychiatry department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
For instance, she suggests:
If seasonal depression gets worse in fall and winter …
- A therapeutic light box, which provides powerful light beyond what you can come up with yourself, might help in the morning. A doctor can help obtain one.
- Exercise can also make you feel better.
If you’re busy and stressed out …
- Take time for fun activities such as walking, meditating, exercising and hanging out with friends.
- Consider buying prepared foods instead of trying to make everything yourself.
- In general, reduce the number of activities that are more stressful than joyful. Read more…
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Soy Beneficial for Breast Cancer Survivors: Study
Surprising finding shows it reduces risk of death, recurrence
By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) — Regular, moderate consumption of soy foods can help lower the risk of death and cancer recurrence in women who’ve had breast cancer, new research shows.
What’s more, the association between soy and a reduced risk of death held true even for women with estrogen receptor-positive cancers and women taking tamoxifen, according to the study published in the Dec. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“We found that women with a history of breast cancer who consumed moderate amounts of soy food were doing better in terms of prognosis. They had reduced mortality and reduced recurrence,” said study author Dr. Xiao Ou Shu, a professor of medicine and a cancer epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
There has been some concern that soy might increase the risk of breast cancer or worsen the prognosis for women already diagnosed with the disease because soy is what’s known as a phytoestrogen. That means that it can act like a weak form of estrogen in the body.
However, it appears those concerns may have been unfounded because Shu and her colleagues found that soy actually reduces the availability of naturally occurring estrogen by binding to its receptors.
“In our study, we found that soy food has a very similar effect to tamoxifen,” said Shu. Tamoxifen is a drug that blocks the action of estrogen in the body, which can be helpful for treating cancers that are fueled by estrogen. Read more…
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