Health

What if the epic training montage from Rocky IV (YouTube it if you haven't seen it) were real life? While we can't all have a song like Hearts on Fire as our personal soundtrack or own an American Flag robe like Apollo Creed's, we can still take some lessons from Rocky's training.

Let's pretend for a minute that this montage is actually a single exercise session. In the aforementioned film clip, Rocky and Ivan Drago are shown performing interval training involving resistance exercise intermixed with bouts of high intensity cardio. This type of high intensity interval training (HIIT) is extremely popular at the moment.

Is it possible that electronics could be an underlying cause for the rise of obesity and Type II Diabetes in the American culture? Though not the sole culprit, the truth is that television, computers, tablets and phones very much contribute to the general decline in aggregate health and weight management. The reason, however, lies far deeper than merely rendering the general population less active. Rather, it has much to do with the colored light emitted from the devices' screens and the resulting negative impact on sleep. Deficiencies in sleep, in turn, handicap not only the body's ability to utilize the energy it stores in fat but also has a profound effect on the amount of fat the body will create, fostering the tendency to gain weight.

Clearly something is out of balance. More than two-thirds of all American adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese, according to Health, United States, 2012, an annual report on the health of the nation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Health Statistics. If the current trend continues, it is estimated that 42 percent of Americans – men, women and children - will be obese by 2030.

With obesity on the rise, never before in the West have so many diet programs and products been available to those who want to lose weight. Some plans count calories or carbohydrates; others control what, how much, and when you eat; a few feature supplements or appetite suppressants, diuretics or laxatives; there are the workouts regimens and repetitions; and most extreme is stomach stapling. These weight-loss regimes are well advertised in various media, and classes, books, tapes, and DVDs abound everywhere. Americans now spend an estimated $55 billion a year on diet programs and products. Why then, are so many of us overweight?

This is where we start. This is not unique to me; on the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) webpage, the APTA describes Physical Therapists (PT's) as highly trained medical professionals that "understand how the body works and how to get you moving again." This boils down to "Movement = Life."

 Barley

“Beer, if drank in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.”Thomas Jefferson

Studies have revealed that beer can produce the same benefits as drinking wine. Whether you prefer ales, lagers, stout, bitter or wheat beers, studies show that one drink a day for women or up to two drinks a day for men will reduce your chances of strokes, heart and vascular disease. It's no secret that the stroke is the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S. and the leading cause of serious, long-term disabilities.
What's interesting is that it was proven (New England Journal of Medicine - Nov. 1999) that those who drank one beer a week compared to those who drank one beer a day experienced no variance in reducing stroke risks. It is said that light to moderate drinkers will decrease their chances of suffering a stroke by 20%.
A researcher at the Texas Southwestern Medical Center (May 1999) reported that those who consume moderate amounts of beer (one to two a day at the most) have a 30-40% lower rate of coronary heart disease compared to those who don't drink. Beer contains a similar amount of "˜polyphenols' (antioxidants) as red wine and 4-5 times as many polyphenols as white wine.
Alcohol has also been attributed of its ability to increase the amount of good cholesterol (HDL) into the bloodstream as well as help to decrease blood clots.
Beer also contains vitamin B6, which prevents the build-up of amino acid called homocysteine that has been linked to heart disease. Those of us who have high levels of homocysteine are usually more prone to an early onset of heart and vascular disease.

 “Clearly, drinking alcohol has some benefits. But there also are some very real risks. If you choose to drink, be mindful about it and always drink in moderation.”

— Donald Hensrud, M.D., Preventive Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Recently, consistent information has been provided in support of an association between light to moderate alcohol consumption and protection from vascular and all-cause mortality, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease, congestive heart failure, and recurrence of ischemic events. After reviewing the information with respect to major aspects of cardiovascular pathophysiology, to potential confounders and to underlying mechanisms, several concepts emerge. First, the recommended amounts of “safe alcohol drinking” in healthy individuals are up to two standard drinks (~20 g/d) for a man and up to one drink (10 g/d) for a nonpregnant woman. 

© Thieme Medical Publishers

Different types of ovarian cancer are classified according to the type of cell from which they start.
Epithelial tumors: About 90 percent of ovarian cancers develop in the epithelium,

Unfortunately, most women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed with advanced-stage disease (Stage III).

Ovarian cancer is cancer that begins in the ovaries. Ovaries are reproductive glands found only in females (women). The ovaries produce eggs (ova) for reproduction. The eggs travel through the fallopian tubes into the uterus where the fertilized egg implants and develops into a fetus.

In the weeks leading up to being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, I knew something wasn't right with my body. While I couldn't quite identify what it was, I could tell something was off – something was very different. A long-time fitness instructor and a healthy, active 37 year-old, the 20 pounds that I had quickly gained didn't seem logical, and on top of that, it seemed like one side of my stomach was bloating out more than the other.

In our present era where the public is bombarded with Fad Diets and costly vitamin supplements the facts belie the sobering reality.
A staggering 75% of Americans are now overweight or obese. The incidence of Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes and Cancer are rampant.

 <p<Q:>:

I read in a recent magazine about pet health that it would be Ok to feed my dog some pumpkin. Is this statement true or a fallacy?

<brA: :
Pumpkin is an excellent source of carotenoids, fiber, iron, zinc, potassium and vitamin A. It is first very important to pick the correct kind of pumpkin. You DO NOT want to use pumpkin pie filler from the baking section of the supermarket. You want to use only canned pumpkin. Pumpkin’s high fiber content allows it to be of benefit in cases of constipation, diarrhea and also for losing weight. The easiest way to help lose some weight is to decrease, by a small portion, the amount of regular food you are giving your dog and to replace it with the pumpkin. Amounts range from 1/4 cup in smaller dogs to a full cup in larger dogs, generally once a day. I actually have one client who brings in a combination of organic plain yogurt, mixes it with some pumpkin and freezes it in a small ceramic bowel. She then allows her dog to eat it as he is getting his acupuncture treatment. It takes awhile to be consumed and lasts about the same amount of time an acupuncture treatment lasts ( 15 -20 minutes). It works very well and provides a great, healthy treat to give your dog as well!

Are you like so many of my new patients - suffering from severe, one-sided lower back pain that came on abruptly? Are you anxious because it’s not getting better and pills hardly touch the pain? 

Are the muscles in your lower back and buttocks gripping with an aching persistence that is only interrupted by periodic jolts of sharp pain? Does your pain surge when you change positions,

When someone first calls my office and requests treatment to help them with low sexual desire, or problems with sexual functioning,

one of the first questions I ask them is, “Have you already seen your doctor to have blood work done to rule out a possible medical condition?”

Tiffany Nardella was just 35 years old when she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.

After college, I worked for a few years in the sexual health field with an emphasis on women's health. Since I had a heightened awareness of women's health issues, I took special care to make sure I had my annual exams and knew my own body.