Disease prevention

It Really Is About Watching Your Waist

on August 30th, 2010 by Rob

Isn’t this just the greatest picture? I love it. It seems to say so much about our evolution. Seems that people are getting heavier and heavier all the time… especially here in Mississippi. According to the CDC- average waist lines have increased about an inch per decade since the 1960’s!!!! Holy Snikies!!!!

I want to link some information here. I can’t beleive that I am linking to Oprah’s site….. as if she doesn’t have enough readers already. But this is good stuff. O.K. – check it: Dr. Oz talks about fat- the worst kind. If you would like to hear this stuff in video form- check it here.

The deal is that you can be within your “normal” weight range and still be at risk for health problems with a bigger waist. Turns out that women should have a waist no larger than 35″ and men should be be no larger than 40″. Bigger than that and you risk all sorts of horrible things…. cancer, heart disease and get this—– respiratory illness. WHAT? I guess I did have sleep apnea… I’m over it thanks to losing some weight.

So, you may ask, what can I do to lose the belly fat? Same thing you do to lose any fat… eat less, move more!

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Smile!

on August 1st, 2010 by Rob

Dr. Robert Neely told me one time to “only floss the ones you want to keep”- I told someone that the other day and they said, “yeah, I think they teach that joke in dental school”.

I guess doctors and dentists are still debating over the evidence that bleeding gums are somehow related to heart disease and heart attacks.

I had heard this and thought to myself…. how can that be? How can this CAUSE heart problems? My next thought was that it must be a relationship…. in other words, people that don’t think enough of themselves to take care of their heart, must not do a great job on their teeth either…. even though you can SEE their teeth.

Now, while this might indeed be true, this little cause/effect hypothesis thing I have going…. I have FINALLY heard something that made me think about it.

According to an article that I read in Baptist HealthSource magazine, (and according to the doctor that they interviewed), “Gum disease is a source of chronic inflammation, which causes the body to release substances that may speed plaque buildup in the blood vessels”. Additionally, “gum disease may increase the amount of bacteria in the blood…”

At this point…. I think that the jury is still out. However, if you are like me and would rather live to tell the tail of what a pain in the ass it was to floss all the time…. keep on saving those teeth!

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Mississippi- Like Coming Home Bigger

on July 4th, 2010 by Rob

Well, it has happened again. I read an article in USA Today a couple of days ago- Mississippi is ONCE AGAIN- the “FATTEST STATE IN THE NATION”. That makes it 6 years in a row.

I don’t know what we are going to do…. but we have to do something.

Check out the article here—- CBS NEWS SITE.

So- Can we change this? What do we need to do that? What do we need to do to do that? (I realize I just typed do to do)

I tell you what is surprising… Michigan is on the list. VERY STRANGE. You look at the others…. and they are the only northern state on the list.

The mere fact that we are at the top of the list means so much more than we are just fat and attractive…. we are all going to die!!! Well, not all of us- and not right now. But the point is that in addition to being fat and unattractive, we lead the nation in physical inactivity and hypertension and are second highest in the rate of diabetes.

How can this change? I am open for suggestions. Maybe Michele Obama can come down and help out.

You know, we can sit around and think about this and say– “well, all those Southerners are uneducated”—- Then we might say, “well, they are poor and have not had the opportunities that others might have had— they just don’t have anything else to eat” …. This is not true. I am neither poor or uneducated and I was still fat.

What can we do to change this?

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Here fishy fishy!!

on June 22nd, 2010 by Rob

This is good stuff!!! Protects against all kinds of things!

It’s good for your joints, skin, vision, brain, heart, helps lower bad cholesterol levels and even boosts fertility. It’s an anti-ager and an anti-inflammatory. It’s found naturally in a variety of delicious foods including walnuts, salmon, tuna, olive oil and avocados. It’s omega-3 – and it’s time you got to know the daily dose that’s good for just about every single part of your body.

When I started the People Magazine Weight Loss Chalenge- I decided that I would go all out. I had read Dr. Oz’s book, You: On a Diet and he recommended 1000mg of fish oil every day. Actually, he recommends 500mg in the morning and 500mg at night— but I have not been able to find anything other than 1000 or 1200mg tablets like the ones you see here.

This is not so much a weight loss thing as it is just a good health thing—- one that I have taken up and one that I think everyone should. As a matter of fact, I was reading an article (can y’all tell I read a lot?) not long ago that sited a study by Doctors in Munich that the fish oil may work slightly better than all those cholesterol-reducing drugs you see on TV. I know they HAVE to be less expensive.

In a separate study in Italy—- or Itly as we say here in Mississippi— two parallel studies were done. One group was given a fish oil pill each day compared to a group given a placebo. The other group was given Crestor and compared to a placebo group….. the results—– about the same rate of heart disease in the fish oil group as the Crestor group.

Pretty cool.

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Wellness at Work

on June 21st, 2010 by Rob

I have been seeing more and more of this—- and it only makes sense. It seems that —- are you ready?? Companies might save some money on health care/insurance if their employees are healthier.

I think that this is a great idea… and should go beyond the obligatory Weight Watchers meeting. As it turns out, Blue Cross here in Jackson has even built a walking/running track on the campus. Good for them! I think that they have the right idea that they could be saving MILLIONS over the long term.

Bank Plus— where it just happens that I bank– says that they have saved $3 for every $1 spent on wellness programs. Perhaps they are starting to look at these programs as more than an expense on the balance sheet.

Of course Mississippi is the fattest state in the nation…. and it seems the last to take on the problems of obesity. Check out this article that I saw in Fast Company. It seems like this is the model to follow.

What does your company do?? Is it enough?

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All it takes is 10 minutes

on June 12th, 2010 by Rob

Great article by the Associated Press this past week:

Associated Press:  Study- 10-minute exercise has hour-long effect

Bottom line here- work out and the effects to your cardiovascular system last long after you quit. However, I would say, based on my last video- that the effects might last much longer than an hour. If you will remember— and if you don’t, you can watch it here—- working out prevents vasoconstriction for, according to the study I read, up to 17 hours!!!! 17 HOURS!!!!!

Anyway- got to get moving!!!!

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A is for App—- not good! Get your kids moving!

on June 11th, 2010 by Rob

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/144/a-is-for-app.html

Read this article in Fast Company magazine a few days ago…. actually from last month. Anyway- seems like there are lots of apps for the three R’s….

A very bright guy- Joe Friedlander of Hazen, ND- wrote to the editor of Fast Company and explained that (Sorry I can’t link to the letter— I have scoured the FC site for it and can’t find it) we are raising a whole new class of sedentary people.

His exact words are, “… sedentary lifestyle encouraged by a proliferation fo digital devices designed to have us sit and stare—- our fingers are the last things moving. I … bemoan the ever-growing percentage of children that literally tip the scales after years of snacking and sitting in from of a screen. If we don’t get our children moving soon, in 20 years, we’ll have a population full of digitally literate diabetics.”

Well said Joe—- what do you think? Do you work hard to get your kids moving??

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