The Pain Problem

According to an article in The Back Letter, from 1996 to 2006, the total amount spent on prescription pain killers has more than tripled.  We now spend $13.2 billion on these medications every year.  The researchers are not certain, but they believe that the trend is due to increased utilization as a result of higher rates of obesity, higher perceived stress levels, and a generally poorer American lifestyle.  I’m certain all this is true, but as someone who deals in peoples’ pain every day, I find it important to understand what pain really is in order to better deal with it.

Regardless of a person’s condition, understand that the pain is not really the problem.  Pain is merely a symptom of a problem.  Think of pain as your own personal smoke alarm or check engine light.  We are hard wired through our nervous system to feel pain at a brain level most every time that we have dysfunction or some kind of imbalance in our body.  In other words, pain is there to alert us that something is not right and to keep us from doing even more damage to that injured area.  So again I say that the pain is not the problem.  And any time you are taking a pain reliever, you are merely covering up the symptom of the real problem.  It is exactly like shutting off the smoke alarm and going back to bed.

So what should you do if you are in pain?  Find the problem.  Often times the pain can be the result of something you are doing repeatedly or a problem in your lifestyle (diet, exercise, stress).  It could be something from work, the way you sit, or the way you sleep.  If you can’t find the problem, make certain you find a doctor, chiropractor, therapist, etc. who does.  Do not settle for pain pills as a solution.  Pain is often the result of inflammation (swelling) in the body.  People who are in chronic pain need to deal with the chronic inflammation.  This is where changes in diet, beginning light exercise, reducing stress, improving sleep are all critical.  Drinking more water and reducing sugars, grains, and corn/vegetable oils can be effective as well.  As I’ve said so many times, the omega 3 fatty acids that are found in fish and krill oils are essential and necessary for reducing any inflammatory process in the body.  One thing is for certain; continuing to take increased amounts of pain pills is not solving the problem.

Exercising Better School Grades

In staying true to the back-to-school theme, I found this information.  Middle school students who perform more vigorous physical activity than more sedentary students tend to do better in school, according to a new study done by researchers from Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University.  Does this mean that P.E. class is the answer?  “Physical education and activity during the school day reduce boredom and help keep kids’ attention in the classroom,” said Dawn Podulka Coe, the study’s lead author, “but enrollment in PE alone did not influence grades.”

The researchers did find that students who took part in more vigorous physical activities – such as organized sports like soccer or football, or non-organized after-school activities such as skateboarding – did approximately 10 percent better in core classes such as math, science, English and social studies.  According to Coe, “The students who performed better academically in this study were the most active, meaning those who participated in a sport or other vigorous activity at least three times a week.”

The difference between vigorous activity and moderate activity is thought to be related to heart rate. Moderate activities, such as walking or raking leaves, don’t increase the heart enough. Vigorous activities, such as running or swimming for exercise, increase heart rate, causing the exerciser to breathe harder and increase oxygen to the brain.

With school about to start, I urge all parents to take this new study to heart. Get your kids out doing vigorous exercise.  And while this study was performed only on sixth graders, I’m confident the benefits will work for the parents as well!  Be the example for your kids and schedule time for exercise together.

The Backpack Dilemma

With the start of school right around the corner, it’s a good time to discuss backpack safety.  While I don’t believe that backpacks are inherently evil, it is common knowledge that overloaded and improper fitting backpacks can lead to numerous spinal problems and symptoms including back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and headaches.  In fact, the journal Spine reported that 74% of backpack users complained of such symptoms and also had “poorer general health” than those not using a backpack.

The professional weight recommendation is that a backpack should not weigh more than 15% of the child’s body weight due to the risk of serious back pain and scoliosis complications.  For most kids, this is not a great deal of weight!  Both straps need to be worn over both shoulders and the bulk of the pack should rest upon the lower back.  If you can find a pack with elastic in the shoulder straps, this also relieves some stress/shock of the upper back and neck.

See the chart below to determine how heavy your child's, or your backpack should be.

Apples and Pears

As we put on weight and our body changes shape from an ideal anatomy, we assume two basic body shapes based on two different types of fat.  We either become an apple shape or a pear shape.  There are different health risks and complications with each of these types.  But, as I recently learned, there are different strategies on how to combat these types of fat and body shapes and failure to recognize these will make weight loss more difficult.

The apple shaped body is the result of belly fat otherwise known as visceral adipose tissue.  This is dangerous as this fat gets deep inside the abdomen and crowds the organs.  This apple shape is associated with a greater risk of heart disease, breast cancer, diabetes, gall bladder problems, high blood pressure, and colorectal cancer.  The pear shape has fat that is more superficial and surrounds the muscles of the hips and thighs.  This fat is associated with osteoporosis, varicose veins, life-threatening blood clots, and menopausal symptoms.  In both instances, a person is carrying excess fat and both instances need to include a better diet with exercise programs that include high-intensity cardio training as well as strength training.  Both types of weight are complicated by the stress hormone cortisol.  Research shows that mild exercise such as walking will not affect this hormone levels.  However, high intensity exercise can blast the fat away by increasing human growth hormone.  This means you have to push yourself and work hard, but you also need to take measures to reduce emotional stress as well.  Regarding both body types, sugars and processed carbs must be reduced while protein and vegetable carbs must be maintained.

The difference between apples and pears is that the apple shape is largely from a sedentary lifestyle and high glycemic foods such as sugars and processed grains.  A low glycemic diet coupled with the exercise and stress reduction mentioned above will generally produce results.  Recent research has shown that the pear shape is more involved with various toxins and this toxic stress to the system will alter the adrenal and thyroid hormones.  For this reason, weight on the hips and thighs may be less life threatening, but it’s also harder to lose.  Detoxification protocols are the most effective way to address the fat stored with the pear-shaped body.  These programs include a low-glycemic, healthy diet, but add various supplements to clean the liver, colon, kidney, and gall bladder.  Most experts believe the source of toxicity in these cases is from various pesticides and even heavy metals.  Your detox program needs to address these sources.  Avoiding soy, coffee, alcohol, lunch meats, and the trans-fats will also help when dealing with a pear shape due to their influence on estrogen levels.  Flax seeds, cruciferous vegetables, organic meats, artichoke hearts, broccoli, beets and bean sprouts are foods that have been proven effective in lowering estrogen levels to aid in fat loss.  

Weight loss can often be a challenge, but I’ve seen the difficulty first hand with the pear-shaped body type.  Likewise, I’ve seen these detoxification programs produce results.  We use a 10-day detox by Metagenics.  This is the best program I’ve found over the years to relieve the toxic stress.  However, ten days is often just the jump-start and continued supplementation may be required for 6-12 months when dealing with excessive weight on the hips and thighs.  There are many detox programs out there.  Look into these as a strategy for weight loss and better health.

And the Loser Is . . .

A recent study looked at what foods are the worst if you are attempting to lose weight.  They found that the food that caused a person to gain more weight per serving than any other food out there was potato chips.  They also concluded that eating the right foods and avoiding the wrong foods may be more important than just eating less food in general when it comes to losing weight.

In a similar study, researchers looked at what diet strategy was the most effective.  The two dietary programs that topped the list were the D.A.S.H. program (standing for the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) and the Mediterranean diet.  Both of these diets promote the consumption of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole grains and low-fat dairy (in this order of priority).  Likewise, both approaches recommend avoiding sugars, red meat and salt.  In the end, both diets are quite effective in reducing high blood pressure and reducing weight at the same time.  You should also take note that these approaches turn the food pyramid that we’ve been taught since grammar school upside down.  Rather than grains and dairy as the foundation of our pyramid, they are found in lowest priority while vegetables and fruits make up the base.

Whether it’s these two diets or any other effective diet, one thing is clear.  Sugar and table salt must be reduced while vegetables and fruits must be increased.  Our eating habits are just that – habits.  And to change any habit, you must start by changing your beliefs.  You must start looking at sugar, processed snack foods, fried foods, and artificial sweeteners as poisons that are as toxic as arsenic.  They may not kill as quickly as arsenic, but over time the effect is the same.  Commit to making vegetables and fruits along with lean meats such as chicken, fish, turkey, and low fat beef (preferably free-range sources for all of these) the staples of your diet for just one month while cutting sugars, chips, crackers and snacks for just one month and see what happens.  If you don’t notice a favorable change, consider it a failed experiment and go back to your old habits.

Cleaning Out

Even the American Cancer Association recognizes that around 80% of cancer is related to environmental toxins – from what we eat, drink, and breathe.  According to all sources, despite some futile efforts to control it, the toxic load that we take in only seems to increase.  This is why I always recommend an annual detoxification or cleanse to attempt to flush out all the impurities, toxins, and general unwanted goop that builds up in our system over the year.

In researching different types of cleanses, I discovered that detoxification programs are considered somewhat controversial as there is not a great deal of scientific data to support their significance.  Even though I’m a fan of the data, sometimes common sense must prevail and cleaning out your system once in a while is just that.  There are dozens of methods by which to cleanse, but you must realize that just like with everything in nature, your body will do this naturally if you just give it a chance.  The first step of any detox is to clean up your lifestyle for a few weeks.  This means taking a break from the sugars and artificial sweeteners, the processed grains, the hydrogenated oils, and any other chemicals such as caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol.  For a few weeks, try committing to just fruits, vegetables, and lean meat that has never seen the deep fryer.  This toxic vacation will give your liver, kidneys, colon, and skin to work naturally and clean out.

If you simply cannot commit to this amount of time, you could do an accelerated cleanse by using different herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion root, or burdock.  Unsweetened green tea and diluted cider vinegar have also shown benefit.  Every major vitamin company has their own detox program using their supplements.  Any of these programs should include extra water and fiber to help clean out.  Fresh squeezed lemon water first thing in the morning is effective as are foods such as spinach, kale, red peppers, garlic, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cilantro.  Join us for our Detox Wellness Talk next Monday, July 2^nd at 5:30 p.m. to learn more about detoxing. Register on Facebook, on Eventbrite or by calling our office at 812-273-HEAL (4325).

Belly Fat

O.K.  I don’t believe there’s anyone out there that is particularly fond of belly fat or as it is often referred to -- the “muffin top.”  In the past, I’ve discussed that the excess around the girth starts producing its own hormones including estrogen.  In that article, I shared how this abdominal fat is a primary predictor of not only cardiovascular disease, but also of diabetes and cancer.  These are 3 of the 4 top killers in our society.  So obviously eliminating the belly fat is a big deal, but for anyone who has tried, it can be a challenge.  One of the reasons losing belly fat is so difficult is that it’s not there only as a result of poor diet and lack of exercise.  Chronic stress will also contribute to the spare tire.

When you have any perceived stress, your body releases certain "fight-flight" hormones including cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine.  This is a normal healthy response to any threat or perceived stress. Typically, these hormones will go up and down throughout the day with stress. The problem is that when you are chronically stressed your cortisol levels goes up and stay up. These elevated cortisol levels cause the body to resist weight loss because your body thinks times are hard and you might starve.  So it hoards the fat you eat and takes fat from healthier areas and moves it to your abdomen causing increased inflammation and insulin resistance in the body. This belly fat then leads to more cortisol because it has higher concentrations of an enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol.  This increased cortisol retains more abdominal fat and the cycle continues.

So what can be done?  To lose the weight in this area you must reverse the cortisol and fight-flight reaction.  Fortunately, as long as you can find a form of exercise that you don’t resent and get more stressed over; all exercises will at least temporarily inhibit the stress and cortisol response.  Secondly, stress is most often a perception – we are not truly in a life-threatening situation.  Thus, you need to practice shifting your mind and your thoughts from what is wrong in life (stress) to what is right (gratitude).  Meditation to quiet your mind is also critical.  This change in the brain will change the hormones released.  Finally, your fuel sources need to be appropriate.  Caffeine, nicotine, sugar, flour and processed grains all act as stimulants that stimulate stress.  Lean protein, healthy fats (omega 3’s) and the minerals found in raw fruits and vegetables help to shut off the stress response.  In essence, if you eat, think, and exercise appropriately, you can reverse this deadly epidemic to our health and society.