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WARNING: Some of the material in this edition might make you think that the world is flat again.
Saturated fats AREN'T bad for you.
Whoa
They're actually healthy and necessary for you.
Wow
But the research is really starting to pile up to show that saturated fats in the right amount are actually a healthy part of a human diet. These include fat from:
-Meat
-Dairy
-Coconut and Palm Oil
But if you think about it historically, it makes a lot of sense. Back in the early days of human history, people ate lots of meat and animal fat, and the prevalance of heart disease as an illness didn't really start to occur until after the 1920's.
Eskimos, Japanese, and Mediterranean diets all contain lots of animal fat and cholesterol, and yet the prevalence of heart disease is dramatically lower than American diets.
In one study, they actually found that increased intake of saturated fat led to a DECREASE in coronary heart disease and LOWER cholesterol.
(from the leading nutrional journal in the world:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/5/1102)
So what's making people fat and killing people?
Sugar, white flower, foods fried in vegetable oil, trans fat, processed food.
Especially in the case of vegetable oils (corn, safflower, soybean, etc) because the use of vegetable oils in cooking is putting toxic levels of omega 6's into your body, and when the omega 6's turn rancid, they can destroy cells.
If you need oil to cook, they recommend coconut, palm, or flax oil. Otherwise olive oil is a fair choice.
Also of interest is that red meat, eggs, and butter...all demonized in the past as targets for heart disease are all healthy and nutritious if used properly. Before you pound on the fat, it's important to eat based on your unique metabolic type:
http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm
The true key is to cut your sugar and processed carbs, reduce trans fat, and get your excercise.
Wanna learn more? Check out my sources:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/5/1102
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/3/550
http://www.mercola.com/2002/aug/17/saturated_fat1.htm (AMAZING ARTICLE)
Be Well and stay adjusted,
Jonny
After spending a week in the Dominican Republic for a week on a chiropractic mission trip, I've never felt better about going into this great profession and the incredible results it can generate.
So that brings me to the next topic, Chiropractic and Stress.
"But Jonny, what does Chiropractic have to do with stress. I thought it was just for neck pain, back pain, and headaches"
And you know what, it does help those things, but the main premise of Chiropractic is founded on health and wellness, and a big part of that is by managing your stress response.
Everytime a bone in your spine gets stuck in a poor position (subluxated), the nerves traveling in and out of the spine are sending faulty messages to your brain; the most important organ in the entire body. If your brain is getting garbage information in, it will send garbage information out.
Remember from the first note, that stress is stimulated by a branch of your nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. When you are subluxated, the first thing that tends to happen is an unnecessary stress response. And the results?
- Decreased immune function (get sick more)
- Increased anxiety and depression
- Back pain, neck pain, headaches
- Left unresolved STRESS WILL lead to the chronic diseases discussed before
Chiropractors have been measuring the stress response for years. In fact, many of the tools chiropractors have been using for ages to find your misalignments and nerve interference have been based on measuring the body's stress response.
And from first hand experience, there is really nothing like a visit to the chiropractor after some of those long and stressful days in the classroom or at work. You can always tell when they get that right segment because it's like a weight has been removed off your shoulders immediately.
So that'll close my 3 part introduction to the dangers and remedies for stress.
Remember that your health can be controlled by your lifestyle choices. An investment in wellness now...while can be expensive, will save you hundreds of thousands in the future in the face of chronic diseases.
Eat well, think well, move well, and GET ADJUSTED.
If you have any questions or comments on how you can make some easy and simple lifestyle changes
or better yet, you're looking for a good chiropractor. Feel free to message me or leave comments.
Be Well and Stay Adjusted,
Jonny
So I've got about 8 hours before my flight to the Dominican Republic takes off, but I figured I'd do part 2 of my stress segment.
So now that we know a little bit about stress, let's talk about some sure fire ways to fight stress and how you can incorporate them into your life
Excercise: Of course everyone knows about excercise and how great it is, blah blah blah, I don't have enough time, I hate the gym, etc. I've heard it all. We live in a sedentery world, and it's killing us. You can't afford not to. Jonny's got some solutions for you don't worry.
- Hungry? No food in the fridge? Awesome. Call up your best friend and walk to restaurant of your choice (Ideally a subway, panera, or crispers)! Anyone ever wonder why people from New York don't get fat? They walk everywhere! But I know how especially you girls love your walks, so why not make them productive?
- Find yourself channel surfing? Shut off the TV, call a friend, and take a stroll around campus
- Yoga. The slow rhythmic breating performed in Yoga works miracles against stress. They're also a great way to put movement and extension into your spine. And best of all, they're free at your University gyms! Plus they provide a great work out. And guys, if it's good enough for NFL superstars to train with, I think you can handle it.
- Dance classes - They're fun and they get your heart rate going, and best of all, you don't even feel like you're excercising. Don't like the classes? Take a page out of Dane Cook's book and "F- guys, I just want to dance" and go to a club and shake it.
- Swimming. Hanging out at the pool and getting that vitamin D? Hop in the pool and swim 4 laps and get those muscles going.
- Take the stairs everywhere. Make use of those UCF parking garages and park on the top floor of the garage. Come to think of it, get to school a little early and park far from class and walk there.
That's just the tip of the ice berg, just whatever you do, make it fun! Call a friend and do it together. Humans were designed to move and the advent of TV and the computer is killing people by depriving people of movement.
Sleep: What? College kids don't sleep, who needs sleep? Ever wonder why college kids gets stressed out and sick every semester around finals time? They go from little sleep to no sleep in no time flat. Time to fix that here are the stats:
- Getting 8 hours of sleep is worth more than 5 hours of sleep with the 3 hours extra study time. The research is mind blowing.
- Daylight savings time - The rate of motor vehicle accidents goes up immediately when we spring foward into day light savings.
So how do you add sleep to your day? Well the key is being consistant. If you sleep 4 hours a night in the weekdays, and 14 hours on weekends...no go, not effective.
- Set an alarm when it's time to go to bed. Wow, crazy thought, but try it out. Soon as that alarm goes off, you're hittin the hay, no excuses.
- Check out the tea aisles in your grocery store and hit up those sleepy time teas.
- Stay away from drug induced sleep. Drug induced sleep tends to deprive you of that valuable REM sleep you hear about, and may make you more irritable when you wake up.
- Find the book for your most boring class, sit in your bed, and read...works like a charm every time.
Leisure: Have one day a week where it's your time to do whatever you want, and make it worthwhile so you look foward to it. Some recommendations?
- Get a massage
- Driving range/batting cage
- Go to the beach
- Pick up a hobby and develop it. (Learn to play guitar anyone?)
- Add your own, it's your day! If you're pretty active (read: excercise 4-5 days a week), make this your TV or movie day
Coming to you next week, the world's best kept secret in beating stress revealed in WWN - STRESS (part 3)
Be well and stay adjusted,
Jonny
Sorry for missing last week's note, it's been a busy week. So as I was studying for my finals week in Chiropractic school, it hit me what the topic of this week's note would be.
S-T-R-E-S-S
Of course everyone knows about stress. From a student perspective you have the stress of school, paying bills, taking loans, girlfriends, boyfriends, exams, image, fast food, etc. And as a society, divorce rates are high, terrorism, bills, taxes, work, traffic. Day to day, your body is under a lot of mini-stressors. Am I right or am I right?
Stress is a response run by the sympathetic nervous system. The system was designed to help our anscestors amp their bodies up to confront (fight) or run away (flight) from a dangerous situation. It's also responsible for those stories about grandma lifting a car to save a child or how an athlete can increase their performance under pressure.
But you're not running away from a sabretooth tiger, saving babies from cars, or playing in game 7 of the world series on a daily basis are you? Of course not, but the same physiology that occurs in a fight with a tiger is what's happening in your bodies as you worry about your bills or your boyfriend on a daily basis. This is CHRONIC STRESS.
The chronic stress that your body is under everyday is the biggest contributor to the diseases that we face in our lives in this age. Here's how in science and regular terminology:
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Stress turns off LDL ("bad cholesterol") receptors, resulting in more LDL in the blood. Decreases HDL (Good cholesterol) aka - Heart Disease
- Stress increases adrenaline levels in the blood leading to more free radicals placed into the blood stream. aka - Free Radicals destory cells and DNA
- Stress raises blood glucose levels aka - Insulin resistance and diabetes
- Stress increases sensation of pain
- Stress hormones decrease short term memory and rational thought
- Stress hormones increase glucose and fat storage in the belly. aka Obesity
- Stress shuts down cell mediated immunity. aka - Increase chances of infection. Decreased response to tissue damage and cancer growth
- Sympathetic nervous system uses up serotonin precursors. aka - Not enough serotonin for brain leading to depression and sleep disorders
And I promise you, these are all normal responses to stress. When you're avoiding danger, you WANT these things to happen. This is your body's ultimate survival mechanism.
The problem is when you're living your daily lives outside of survival, but your environment is placing these stressors on your body. You always want your body to have an appropriate response to your environment. Therefore when you have an inappropriate response to your environment, disease is the result.
So it is critical that we all regain control of our body's response to stress, and I will show you some ways how with diet, lifestyle, and of course, quality chiropractic care.
Until the next issue...
Great news for Flroida college students. Getting sun is a GOOD thing...as long as you're not getting burned.
Everyone knows about the link between sun burn and cancer, and that's definately still true. However, if you're going overboard on sunscreen or avoiding the sun completely, you're missing out on an EXTREMELY valuable promoter to your health.
Exposure to sunlight is a critical for your body's production of Vitamin D. As with many deficiencies, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a laundry list of diseases, namely breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and EVEN skin cancer.
Of course it's important that I mention how important it is not to get burned. Sunscreen is also designed to block UV-B (Vitamin D uses UV-B) so sunscreen should be used sparringly unless you know you're going to be getting a lot of sun in the danger hours (10am-2pm). If you're worried about burning, try covering up.
Another key note: Vitamin D is a fat-soluable (read: you can have too much) so overdosing is possible. If you're getting enough sunlight, you don't really need the fortified products. If you're worried about it though, then get screened by an appropriate healthcare provider.
So soak up that bright healthy Florida sun UCF kids, just remember, no burning!
Be Well and Stay Adjusted,
Jonny
Before we look into this week's information about the importance of Omega 3 Fatty Acids, here's a quick little grocery shopping tip I decided to add based on my most recent trip to the store:
ALWAY READ THE INGREDIENTS LABEL
Deceptive marketing tactics are rampant in grocery stores and if you're interested in improving your eating habits, it's critical that you look past the cover of the food and look at the ingredients. Always check the label when you see things like:
"All Natural" "No Trans Fat" and "Made with Organic ingredients"
Instead, look at the ingredients label and make sure your DOESN'T have:
"High Fructose Corn Syrup" "hydrogenated oil (any kind, doesn't matter)"
if you're looking to buy organic food make sure it has the "USDA Organic" label on it
Just do it for fun one day and notice how many boxes that say "natural" have high fructose corn syrup and other preservatives in it. And how many boxes that say "No Trans fat" have hydrogenated oils in it.
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Trans Fat WILL make you FAT, SICK, and will lead to chronic disease in the long term. You can quote me on that. More on this another week.
Why You Need Omega 3's in your Diet now
Many of you have probably heard about Omega 3 Fatty Acids, and how they're good fat that can help prevent heart disease. While this is true, if you're not getting Omega 3's into your diet because you're not worried about heart disease, you are definately missing the boat on this CRITICAL nutrient.
Disorders such as ADHD, Alzheimers, Depression, Autoimmunity, Diabetes....it goes on and on have been linked to Omega 3 deficiency. It is also a key factor in regulating inflammation and clotting of the blood. Your brain and nervous system are the most important organ and organ system in your body, and it NEEDS omega 3's to function properly. Just like your muscle cells need protein, your brain cells, your neurons use omega 3's as their building blocks. Unfortunately, the Western diet is completely deficient in this valuable nutrient and hence the rise in these neurological diseases. Instead of using Omega 3 fats to make your cells, it ends up using trans fats and saturated fats to compensate, and the cells cannot function the way they should.
Now it's important to make the distinction that you probably wouldn''t use the supplement to treat a disease (though research has shown promise in treating ADHD). It all goes back to living a life of wellness. When you put in the materials that your body was designed to use, your body won't break down, and the disease becomes a NON FACTOR.
You're not likely to get the Omega 3's that your body needs from food alone, so it's important that you supplement it in your diet with a pure source. A $20 bottle of Omega 3 fish oils is a small price to live without these diseases that can cost you hundreds of thousands on top of your life. Here are tips to make sure you get the right kind:
- Ideally, you should get the liquid form as it is used and absorbed most efficiently in your body
- MAKE SURE YOUR FISH OIL SAYS PURIFIED OF MERCURY AND PCB's
- Make sure your bottle says EPA and DHA as the source of fatty acids.
For more information on Omega 3's check out the following links:
As always
Be Well and Stay Adjusted,
Jonny
Welcome to my first in a series of Weekly Wellness Notes! I decided that I'm going to get a headstart in developing my skills in Patient Education, so any comments are more than welcome.
So what will you find here? Well one of my hobbies lately has been to search the Internet and find articles by the leading health and wellness experts from around the world. Here, you'll find some of the easy, inexpensive, and POWERFUL ways to improve the way your body works.
Here's a little teaser of what you'll find:
- Research on Omega 3 fatty acids have shown promise in more than just heart disease (read: depression, ADHD, MS, Parkinson's, and more)
- Exposure to sunlight (read: no burning) helps PREVENT cancer by increasing Vitamin D.
- Always getting headaches? Cut out your sugars, especially High Fructose Corn Syrup. Sugar substitutes (aspartame = neurotoxic) are no better, and over the long term are probably worse.
Today's article: Taking Control of Your Health
Myth 1: "I'm young, I can worry about my health when I get older"
United States Leading Causes of Death:
1. Cancer (New 2006 stats)
2. Heart Disease (New 2006 stats)
6. Diabetes (Old 2004 stats)
So what's the big deal? These diseases are for the most part completely preventable.
And I know most of you are young adults and things like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are buried in the back of your minds because that's a middle/old age thing. But here's the thing: NO ONE HAS EVER WOKEN UP ONE DAY WITH CANCER, HEART DISEASE, or DIABETES.
It's a slow gradual process of people not taking care of themselves. So many people just accept these things as part of the aging process because they're so common now, but it is absolutely untrue. Your body has an amazing ability to heal, and it doesn't just breakdown like that without your help! Given the proper resources, your body can recover from almost anything.
I don't know about you, but as I grow older, I refuse to accept a lifestyle of chemo and pain killers (prolonged use leads to GI eroding and liver malfunction). It starts by taking control of your health now.
So here's my philosohpy on achieving true Health and Wellness:
1. A nervous system running on all cylinders without interference (more on this later)
2. Proper excercise and nutrition (read: the food pyramid is wrong)
3. Reducing the intake of common and unknown toxins.
4. Balance and moderation of your indulgences
My notes will focus on easy ways to reduce the physical, chemical, and emotional stresses placed on your body that lead to dis-ease. So stay tuned, some of the things you'll be reading about here will change many of your lives.
Be well and stay adjusted,
Jonny
For a lot of people that read this, they probably won't be surprised at all, but here's my latest attempt to make the world a better place.
So this quarter at Life, I'm working on a little something called Project H2O. If you do a little research, you come to realize that access to clean fresh water is an enormous problem around the world. Between dysentery from contaminated water, dehydration from no water, and wars fought to claim water, limited H2O is responsible for illness and death of hundreds of millions around the world.
And to be honest...I'm a little tired of my standard door to door asking people to donate to an abstract cause and purpose. I want a self-sustaining product, where people can give money, and they get a product they want and need...but with a message.
So we came on this concept: sell water to people to bring water to the rest of the world. And yeah, I'm sure you guys will be like "Ethos does that", and yeah you're right. Ethos does sell a $2 bottle of water and donates $0.05 of it.
I'm going to do better than that. We're gonna sell water for $1, and donate $0.25 - $.50 from each bottle. How? Because we make zero profit. Everything gets donated.
We've already raised a few thousand dollars and ordered our first shipment of 2000 bottles of water, and we are going to get this thing all over Atlanta over the next year. But we aren't stopping there. Our orders are going to continue to grow and we will continue to spread to wherever this ride will take us. We're taking this non-profit, and we're branding the Project H2O name, so when you see this next to Zephyrhills and Dasani one day, you can pick up our bottle and help save the world.
So why am I writing this?
To toot my own horn? C'mon you know me better than that.
I need your help to spread the word and if you're feeling bold, selling water too. Get back to me if you have any comments or you're intrested in helping.
Cause "You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
Jonny
