Category Archives: Personal Growth

Calcium and Weight Loss

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Information from the Nutrition Institute of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, appears to confirm the “rumor” that calcium rich diets result in lower body fat.

According to a recent study in mice conducted at the University, a diet that includes low-fat dairy products and calcium supplementation can result in significant weight loss through the burning rather than the storing of fat in fat cells. This is explained as being the results of the role that stored calcium plays in the breakdown and burning of fat inside our body’s cells.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the study, published on WedMD written by Jeanie Larche Davis:

“The researchers used mice bred to be obese in their current study. The mice were fed a special high-fat, high-sugar diet for six weeks. All had a 27% increase in body fat.

Some were then switched to a calorie-restricted diet. Of those, one group was given calcium supplements (calcium carbonate similar to Tums) and others were fed “medium” and “high” amounts of low-fat dry milk.

Body fat storage was markedly reduced by all three high-calcium diets, say the authors.
Those given calcium supplements had good results, when combined with the restricted-calorie diet.

Mice getting their calcium via supplements had a 42% decrease in body fat, whereas mice eating without supplements had an 8% body fat loss.”

The reason this was of great interest to me and it felt important to share is because I have observed over the past 10 years, that during any period of time that I have consistently taken calcium supplementation, in the form of powdered calcium/magnesium, my body weight has definitely decreased.

Within a month or so of not taking the calcium/magnesium powder, the weight starts to creep back on. This article helps to answer the question of why. Thyroxine, secreted by the thyroid, is a critical hormone in intracellular metabolism. Thyroxine also has a significant impact on intracellular metabolism and on the utilization of calcium.

Having a calcium rich diet would allow the thyroxin that is necessary for cellular metabolism to be more effecient in utilizing the fat stored in our cells for energy!

This article has been very clarifying and explains WHY high calcium diets facilitate weight loss. Armed with that information we can enjoy eating our spinach, kale and sardines knowing they are working away to keep our body fat burning.

With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved

Taking Control of Your Health

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It’s no secret that we Americans have reached an all time level of being “unhealthy”, thanks to an ever increasing stress-filled lifestyle. Despite widespread campaigns aimed at helping people stop smoking, eat better and exercise, the vast majority of Americans does not get regular exercise and are not eating enough fruits and vegetables. This has resulted in an explosion in obesity that has been sited as high as 63%, along with climbing rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other diseases associated with lifestyle and behavior choices.

As far back as 1996, Harvard Medical School published a 7- year study which confirms up to 70% of all cancer, heart disease, stroke and mature onset diabetes are preventable with lifestyle and behavior changes. And yet, the health of the wealthiest nation in the world continues to decline. Today the fastest growing population for obesity is found in children ages 4 to 8 years old.

Core factors for this epidemic amongst Americans can be found in a recent government study. In 2005, the Institute of Medicine published a major study identifying that ninety millionAmericans are “health illiterate”. This does not mean, in this Internet dominant society, that people do not have access to or are not receiving enough health information. It means that the majority of us do not know how to interpret or use the health information we receive to control or improve our health or prevent chronic disease.

Think of the last time you read the results of a new study in a magazine, and realized you did not know how to use that information to support or improve your health. In fact, data, presented to the American College of Health Care Executives identifies, “lack of information as the number one root cause of disease and death”. Yet, experts like Susan Edgman-Levatin, Executive Director, John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, acknowledges “It’s no secret that traditional methods of patient education are hopelessly ineffective.” To compound this, information on the Internet may or may not be reliable and is not crafted to explain the how and why our bodies become sick. We need to know the specifics of how to prevent illness not just what modalities, supplements or therapies can treat the condition.

The focus for this blog is to offer mini-tutorials in the science of  whole person health and wellness education, sharing with readers information that can provide tools, skills and knowledge to

(1) understand why and how chronic illness or dis-ease manifests in our bodies

(2) what can you do to control and/or heal your chronic conditions

(3) what do these conditions represent with regard to your whole self – what are the physical, emotional, nutritional, environmental and spiritual aspects of your life communicating

This information, while evidence-based and scientific in nature, will be demystified and include a self-care perspective to allow any and all who read this blog to take away some nugget of insight, knowledge or a new perspective they can apply to their personal health and wellness choices.

With all good wishes ~
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved

Food As Pharma

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Ran across an article that anyone could read and “get it” about what the food we eat can do to prevent disease and enhance our well-being. Functional food; what an appropriate name for food that is good for the function of our bodies.

Food As Pharma
By Alice Park

“Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be food,” and doctors now believe that ancient Greek healer may have been onto something. We need food for nourishment, of course. Without it, our cells and tissues would wither away from starvation. But what’s becoming clearer is that food is more than just fuel. What you eat can determine how elastic your blood vessels are, how easily you resist cancer-causing toxins and whether or not you will barrel down the road toward heart disease.

“There is an overwhelmingly strong database of studies suggesting that the quality of calories we eat has a huge impact on our well-being and our risk of chronic disease and longevity,” says Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.

But does food have real power to prevent disease? That’s the claim behind functional foods — products that are enhanced or otherwise designed to do much more than simply supply us with needed calories and nutrients.

And the early evidence suggests that the kitchen may indeed contain potent disease-fighting agents, just as the medicine cabinet does. In a groundbreaking 2002 study, researchers found that people at risk of diabetes could delay or in some cases even prevent the disease from developing by eating fewer calories, getting them from the right kinds of foods and exercising more than two hours a week. Even more intriguing, the study revealed that people who were genetically predisposed to diabetes benefited most. In essence, diet and other lifestyle factors altered their genetic destiny.

But before you eat to treat, say experts, remember that not every health claim on a label makes the food a functional food — and not all functional foods help prevent or reverse disease. The Food and Drug Administration does not recognize functional foods as a category, which means that a product’s promise to control cholesterol, tame inflammation or protect you from fractures may not be supported by studies. Experts don’t even agree on the exact definition of a functional food, but many go by the simple guide that it’s something that’s often good for you to begin with and that has some added benefit not found in the food’s natural state.

Other-than-butter spreads enhanced with plant oils, for example, qualify as functional foods, since they are less likely than animal fats to contribute to plaques in blood vessels, and the added plant sterols help reduce cholesterol even further. Soft drinks with extra vitamins and minerals don’t make the cut, however, since soda isn’t nutritious to start with.

It’s confusing, yes. But the best advice, according to experts: stick with foods that are naturally nutritious, and consider adding functional foods where you can. You have to eat anyway, so you might as well make it count. ”

With all good wishes,
G

Digestion and the Whole Body

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Just as our machines need electricity to operate, so do our internal organs and cells require electrical impulse to function and operate as well. The degree to which our nervous system is balanced and well functioning – or not – is the degree to which we are healthy and able to function at maximum capacity in the world.

Many healing arts such as acupuncture, yoga postures, meditation, chiropractic, breathing techniques, biofeedback, hypnosis, EMDR and other healing modalities attempt to restore balance to the nervous system as the pathway to improving internal and external bodily function. These methods address the cause of the presenting condition and not just treat the pain or symptom of the bodily malfunction.

Looking more closely at the digestive system and its intimate relationship with the immune system and the nervous system, we can easily follow the pathway of how brain function and the nervous system can create a “whole body”, systemic cascade of bodily reactions which overtime lead to chronic illness and disease.

Our nervous systems are impacted by stressors; however stress is not limited to just emotional stress as many believe. Stress includes poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, infection, excess exertion, surgery, trauma and reproduction.When our stresses or anxiety cause our brain to send biochemical messages to our cranial nerves, our digestive systems can be functionally affected. The anxiety and stress decrease our digestive and immune system functions.

A written medical schematic would look like this:

Stressor = a brain/ limbic system response and/or increased stress/adrenal cortisol secretion = decreased digestive function through sympathetic cranial nerves (vagus nerve) and decreased immune (bone marrow) function.

The effect of a stressor on the body in the short term can be readily overcome by a healthy, adaptive nervous system. It is the longer term stress, the chronic ongoing conditions and issues that place wear and tear on our nervous systems and organs and it is this friction or wear and tear leads to chronic illness.

By understanding the intimate dance of our body’s organs and systems and how to maintain a balanced, healthy nervous system we can avoid illness and chronic disease, live long, productive and disease free lives!

With all good wishes,
G

© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved

Eat by Color

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Have you ever thought about what color the standard American diet is? If it has a color, it is probably pasty beige – including the most popular “vegetables”, which are iceberg lettuce and French fries!

For a vegetable or fruit to have nutritional benefit they need to provide phytonutrients, which means plant nutrients. The vivid colors indicate the presence of these desirable plant chemicals and also act as a “table of contents” for which phytonutrient is contained within the fruit or vegetable.

Here is a quick color guide to choosing your fruits and vegetables:

• Red = lots of lycopene an antioxidant = reduces cancer risk
• Orange = beta-carotene an antioxidant = supports immune function
• Yellow-Orange = vitamin C = detoxifies and inhibits tumor cell growth
• Green = folate and iron = builds healthy cells and genetic material
• Green-light = indoles, lutein = eliminates excess estrogen & carcinogens
• Green-white = allyl sulfides = destroys cancer cells, supports immune system
• Blue (fruits) = anthocyanins = destroy free radicals
• Red-purple (fruits) = reservatrol = plaque reducer, mineral chelator
• Brown (legumes, whole grains) = fiber = carcinogen remover

Eating a colorful diet with many fruits and vegetables is the way to insure you are getting all the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients your body needs to keep your machine running smoothly and support your immune system to protect against disease from invading organisms.

Think RAINBOW the next time you prepare your plate.

With all good wishes,
G

© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved

Hot Flashes and Weight Loss

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As someone who has suffered through hot flashes, I found the following article from Web MD to be of great interest. As it is well written and well sited, I thought you might enjoy reading it and possibly it could be of some help to you or to other women you know going through the “power surges” of menopause.

Comments are welcomed!

Intense Diet and Exercise Program Lessened Symptoms in Menopausal Women in Study
By Katrina Woznicki

Web MD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
July 12, 2010 — Losing weight may help modestly reduce hot flashes in menopausal women, researchers say.

Hot flashes, also known as hot flushes, are common in menopausal women. They typically cause sweatiness and redness in the face and can be disruptive and last for five or more years. Past research suggests that a higher body mass index (BMI) — a measurement of height and weight — is associated with more severe hot flashes, but whether losing weight could make a difference has remained unclear.

Study author Alison J. Huang, MD, of the University of California at San Francisco and colleagues randomly assigned 338 overweight or obese women to either an intense, behavior-oriented weight loss program or to a health education program. The women were taking part in a study on urinary incontinence. Participants in the intensive weight loss program had a goal to lose 7% to 9% of their body weight in 6 months. They met with experts weekly and were encouraged to exercise for 200 minutes per week, such as brisk walking, and follow a 1,200 to 1,500 daily calorie diet. The health education program required women to attend four one-hour sessions that addressed nutrition and healthy living.

The women’s average age was 53, they had a BMI of 25 or higher, and had urinary incontinence. At the beginning of the study, 154 women reported that they were bothered by hot flashes. Among this group, a total of 141 provided data about their hot flash symptoms six months after the start of the study.

Sixty-five of the 141 women said they were less bothered by their hot flashes six months after participating in the weight loss program, 53 reported no change, and 23 women reported a worsening of symptoms. Compared with those in the health education program, women who were in the weight loss program and were bothered by hot flashes had more than twice the odds of reporting a measurable improvement after six months.

Improvements were associated with decreases in weight, BMI, and waist size. However, there were no significant associations between changes in flashing symptoms and exercise, calorie intake, blood pressure, and overall physical and mental function.

The findings are published in the July 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

“Among women who were at least slightly bothered by flushing at baseline, the intensive lifestyle intervention was associated with significantly greater decreases in weight, body mass index, abdominal circumference, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure relative to the control group,” Huang and her team write. “No statistically significant effect of the intervention on self-reported physical activity, total calorie intake or overall physical or mental functioning was observed. Our findings indicate that women who are overweight or obese and experience bothersome hot flushes may also experience improvement in these symptoms after pursuing behavioral weight loss strategies; however, improvements in weight or body composition may not be the only mediators of this effect.”

With all good wishes,
G
© by NIWH 2010 all rights reserved