Last week I had the opportunity to attend a conference by Dr. Caroline Leaf.  She specializes in studying the brain and the chemistry behind it.  She explained how the various chemicals interact in the brain, the role stress plays on the brain, what exercise does for the brain, and how nutrition affects memory.  I like to think that I have a fair amount of knowledge about a variety of subjects, but I learned a lot of things I had never heard before.  So because I learned some new things that I thought were pretty fascinating, I decided that I would share it with all of you.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had several people asking me about the nervous system and the function of the brain lately.  Many people fear Alzheimer’s Disease and our deteriorating memory, and I was really looking for something to help them.  Are there some things you can do to improve your brain function?  Well, last Saturday gave me the answers I had been looking for.  And while I promised in the last newsletter that I wouldn’t focus on nutrition for a while, there are some things that will creep back in with this particular topic.  But I find that absolutely fascinating that the brain can be affected by what you eat.

In relation to the way we age, brain function is very important.  Personally, I feel it’s very important to understand what we are dealing with, and then go into more and more specifics over time.

Are you Right or Left Brained?
It’s a common miconception to hear that we are either Right Brained (creative) or Left Brained (academic).  However, recent research has shown this isn’t exactly true.  What actually happens is the left side of the brain looks at the details first, and the right side looks at the big picture first.  Dr. Leaf gave an example of this in her seminar and in her books:

Take the equation 2 X 2 = 4

The left side of the brain sees this as 2 X 2 = 4 and the right side of the brain sees this formula as 4 = 2 groups of 2.  Dr. Leaf’s research concludes, “When you put these two together, you have deep understanding.  If you don’t, you will only have partial understanding.” 

For instance, play the video below.  Which way is she turning?  
 

Are you sure?  Maybe you should look again.

The Corpus Callosum is the structure in the brain the connects the two together and allows us to make sense of things.

I know what you are thinking.  Jason, stop with all of the information….I can only hold so much in my head.  Actually, research is now showing we only use 0.001 percent of our brain.  If we were to use our brain to the full capactiy, we could hold 3 millions years worth of data.  “So when you feel like you cannot fit another thing into your brain, it’s not because it’s full; it’s because you have built your memory poorly”, says Leaf.  It’s a shame we can’t defrag our brain like we can a computer.  But maybe you can.

A lot of what I’m going to talk about in the newsletter in the coming weeks deal with brain function, memory, how you can improve it, and the things that you are doing that is destroying it.  Interestingly, a lot of it has to do with Dendrites, seen in the video below.

Interesting Fact: “Up to 35 to 75 percent of information can be lost if the memory is incorrectly built.”  Let’s see if we can improve your memory over the next few weeks.

If you are impatient and want more information, you can visit Dr. Leaf’s website and order the products I have as well.  (I have all of them, but you can pick the one’s that you feel will be the most beneficial for you.)

Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease that many people are afraid of.  I did some research and found a video about Alzheimer’s.  If you want to leran more about this disease, I hope this will explain it a little more.

If you’ve even be interested in learning about multiple sclerosis, this is a animated video that shows you more details of the disease.

Diabetes is a very real thing that a lot of people in the Katy area are dealing with.  If left untreated, Diabates can lead to more health problems, potentially amputation, and eventually premature death.  Diabetes is preventable with proper diet and exercise in most cases.  However, if you feel that you might have diabetes, please visit with your physician.  Half of the people who have diabetes don’t even know it.  Avoiding finding out the answer if you have it or not, is not the solution.  You must treat your diabetes if you want to keep healthy.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.  Get checked today.  Below is a short video about how diabetes works in the body.

Knowing about the prescription drugs you are taking is so important.

Do you know what to do if you miss a dose?  Do you know what other drugs might interact with your current prescription drugs?  Could certain herbs you are taking cause problems as well?

“DrugDigest is a noncommercial, evidence-based, consumer health and drug information site dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about drugs and treatment options.”

Take a few minutes to learn more about the prescription drugs you are taking.

A new study expresses a huge disappointments in the benefits of womens’ multivitamins.  A recent large study measured the efffects of womens’ multivitamins to stave off cardiovascular disease and cancer. Unfortunately after 8 years, the study showed that those who took multivitamins and those who did not, had the same results.  Therefore the multivitamins had little to no effect in womens’ health.  So if womens’ multivitamins is not the answer, what is?  The researchers advice was to use food for your nutrients instead.  Good, healthy food will actual let you absorb the nutrients you need to protect your heart and your health.  So getting in your B Vitamins and C Vitamins are important.  Get them from the proper sources:

1. B Vitamins

a. Increases Energy

b. Helps maintain regular blood pressure

c. Found in liver, soy, broccoli, legumes, fresh meats, salmon, corn, nuts, eggs, sunflowers seeds, citrus

2. Vitamin C

a. Boost Immunity

b. Reduces blood pressure

c. Citrus, green leafy vegetables, melons, tomatoes, broccoli, mango, red and green bell peppers

I put this in my blog for one of my clients.  She was asking about something she heard about concerning injecting into the bone instead of the veins.  It turns out that if they can make the injection into the bone, they instead will inject into the bone with this new technique.  I won’t embed this video into my blog, but if you would like to see it, you can do so here.  Please understand, this shows the process of injecting into the bone, so if you have a weak stomach, please don’t watch it.

Faced with the possibility of having a Total Knee Replacement, many in the Baby Boomer Generation and above are left to decide if it’s something they should do or if it’s something they can avoid having.  It’s a scary situation when you are faced with this decision and you may wonder if the surgery will make things better or worse.

ABC recently published a short article on some things you should expect before and after Total Knee Replacement surgery.  Here are a few things to consider:

1. Is it something you should go through? You definitely must talk to your physician.  You can find out what he recommends, and the beautiful thing about our health care system is that you can usually get a second opinion on your Total Knee Replacement as well.  Talking to other people who have gone through it as well is also a great idea.
2. What is the surgery like? The process of going through the surgery can be a little frightening.  After all, they are replacing a joint.  And while this is an everyday things for your surgeon, for us, it can be downright frightening.    For more on what happens during a Total Knee Replacement, take a look at the following video.
   Total Knee Replacement Surgery
3. Is there a danger in having this surgery? When there is a Total Knee Replacement, some complications can occur.  For instance blood clots, nerve and blood vessel damage, and infection.  However, as technology and surgeries improve, I’m sure the complications associated with Total Knee Replacement surgery decreases.
4. Where can I find more resources? Definitely do your research before you have a Total Knee Replacement surgery.  There is always new research coming out.  One website you can visit is the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.  On that site you can find many more resources for your total knee joint replacement.
5. Is there anything else I should know? Yes, before you have a Total Knee Replacement, you can begin to strengthen and stabilize the knee in order to make your recovery process easier.  Doing so will make your physical therapy go much smoother after your surgery.
6. What happens after the surgery is done? After your Total Knee Replacement, you should continue to workout after you have completed your physical therapy.  Doing so can further strengthen your legs and stabilize your knee in order to reduce the amount of force being put on the knee, therefore increasing the life of the joint.  Also losing weight may be something that would be beneficial in order to prolong the life of the knee.  The more weight you are carrying, the more force the joint is absorbing with each step.

Contact me if you are considering going through a total knee replacement surgery or have recently had one.  I don’t perform surgeries or administer phyiscal therapy, but I can use exercise to make your recovery process more successful.

The Houston Examiner posted an interesting article today about Baby Boomers.  Since I tend to work mostly with Baby Boomers, it caught my attention.  It talks about how Baby Boomers are not slowing down.  I find this very true.  Most Baby Boomers are determined to keep living life or even to start living life more than before.  In the process of jogging, swimming, hiking, biking, etc…. they end up getting injured.  This definitely keeps the physical therapists busy.  Personally, I don’t think people should slow down.  I believe many people have a physical activity program that is unbalanced and ends up resulting in injury.  This isn’t always the case, but often times it is.  So here are my tips to Baby Boomers to avoid injury and stay out of the physical therapy clinic.

1. Cross Train – Don’t focus on just one activity.  If you are a runner, include some other types of exercise that will help you use other muscles as well (swimming, biking, etc..).  Using any one particular group of muscles over and over again can lead to an imbalance among muscle groups. 
2. Strength Training – Add some strength training into your program.  It can help you balance out opposing muscle groups, prevent osteoporosis, and increase your metabolism.  Overlooked by many people, but it is essential as we age.
3. Stability – Work on stability exercises when you do your strength training.  I know you love sitting on the chest press and doing your chest workout, but get up and start doing more stabilization exercises.  The more you do your exercises on one leg or on an unstable surface, the more you will protect yourself from falls as you get older.
4. Consistency - While all of these ideas are meant to help you, doing them consistently is the key.  You can’t just choose to do it every January and expect it to work for you.  You have to consistently put it in your workout program in order to benefit from it.
5. Stretch – You have to include flexibility into your workout program.  Yes, I know…I don’t like to stretch either, but you have to.  Exercising all of the time without flexibility work will just cause you to tighten up more and more over time.

The reality is, there is no guarantee that you won’t get hurt.  Even the most trained athlete can get hurt if they step wrong, have a car accident, or {insert a host of other random events that could happen}.  But doing nothing at all will give you a better chance of getting hurt.  Add small things like this into your routine will benefit you greatly.

In a recent small study, they found that short bouts of intense exercises shows that it may be enough to prevent diabetes.  The study a group of 16 young men with a median age of 21 that performed 4 – 6, 30 second sprints on a stationary bike.  Over a period of 2 weeks (a relatively short time for a study) they saw an improvement in glucose, insulin, and non-esterified fatty acids.  There has to be more research on this with a wider group of participants, but it’s a start.  If you would like to read more, here is the full article.

Personal trainers meet new people every January who are determined to lose weight.  And as a personal trainer in the Katy area, I have discovered that a lot of people don’t see results simple because they aren’t sure how.  Sure, they know to lose weight they should exercise and eat healthier, but beyond that, they really aren’t sure exactly what to do.  If you are one of the people who are unsure of what to do, here is a simple guide to make sure you achieve your weight loss results.

1. What is your goal? – The first step is the easiest step.  You have to figure out what you want to accomplish.  There is more to it than that though.  As a personal trainer, I often ask people what their goals are, and I usually get the common response, “lose weight”.  “I want to lose weight” is not a goal.  You need to be very specific for your goals.  “I want to lose 20 pounds by April 15th,” is a good goal.  Write down your specific goal and keep it in a place you will be able to observe it so you can stay focused and lose weight.
2. What is my plan? – You have to have a solid plan if you want to lose weight.  What is your plan?  “Exercise and eat better.”  As a 12 year veteran of personal training, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this response.  That’s great, but it’s not a plan.  A plan would sounds like this, “I plan on working out 5 days a week.  I will spend two days a week doing total body strength training workouts and 3 days doing a 30 minute interval based cardiovascular workout.  My calorie intake will be approximately 1,500 calories and will be 40/30/30 split, etc……”  I know it sounds like a lot of stuff to be held accountable to, but let me ask you one question.  Of the two answers, who do you think is more likely to get results?
3. What am I going to eat? – Since we just talked about this, let’s expand on this a little more.  If you want to lose weight, you have to know what you are going to eat.  “Healthy” is not a plan.  You have to have a general idea about how many calories you are going to consume, a general idea of what you are going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, and the mixture of carbohydrates/protein/fat intake you are going to consume.  That is a plan to lose weight.  Of course you won’t know every little detail every day, but you should have a plan in place for those times when you can control what you are eating.  Nutrition is the biggest part of weight loss.  If you don’t have this step in place, expect about a 70% decrease in the amount of results you want to achieve.
4. How much cardiovascular activity are you going to do? – Cardiovascular activity is important, but I would say that 90% of the people I meet do this step completely wrong.  And these are usually the same people that usually don’t make it past March because they get so frustrated with their lack of results that they give up.  Some will get on a treadmill and walk.  They start losing a little bit of weight, only to see the results suddenly stop.  They get bored and tired of exercising for nothing and eventually give up.  Honestly, I would give up too if I didn’t get results.  The other people are the ones whose face is so red from killing themselves on the treadmill that they look like they are going to explode.  They are going as fast as they can, and usually hanging on for dear life, simply because if they fall off, they will probably get hurt.  Unfortunately, neither of these groups of people get long lasting results.  Your goal should be focusing on interval based training that allows you to both work hard, improve recovery heart rate, and see a gradual increase in your cardiovascular capability over time.  Not only does it produce faster results (to see the research studies on this, subscribe to my newsletter), you will be able to work out for less time to see those results.
5. What does your strength training program look like? – “I don’t want to do strength training
   

   Strength Training is essential to have a tone body.

   because I don’t want to get big.”  This is one of the biggest weight loss mistakes there is.  It’s a myth that strength training will keep you from losing weight.  In fact, if done properly, strength training will make you lose weight faster than if you avoid it.  If you tried it in the past and it did not work out for you, I bet it’s because you did not do the steps listed above at the same time.  A proper strength training program will not only help you increase bone density, muscle tone, and give you more defined shoulders and triceps, but will also help you lose weight faster.  If you avoid this crucial step, not only will you cheat yourself of achieving faster results, studies have shown you will be less likely to stick with your weight loss goals for the long term.

Katy residents, this year, make sure you get results.  For 12 years I’ve watch a lot of people succeed, and even more fail.  You can be successful, but you need to make sure you follow the steps above.  If you don’t have all of the steps in place to get results, contact me with the form below.  Don’t take chances on not achieving your results.  Contact me for a free consultation to discuss your goals and I will help you devise a plan to make sure your New Year’s Resolutions are a success.

If you are thinking about joining a gym, but are intimidated with the typical gym environment, I may have the perfect solution for you.  Contact me about the small, private facility I train at that will help you get results, without worrying about other people watching you.

New Year’s Resolution Complimentary Consultation

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I have four different articles I found today about your health.  They are all great reads.  Here is a brief description of each one.

1. A little extra weight Hurts the Heart – Doctors are studying themselves to see what happens when they follow their own advice (or if they don’t follow their own advice).  They are seeing that even a slight increase in weight gain increases the risk of a heart attack.
2. Linking Sleeplessness and Heart Disease – “After accounting for various other causes, the researchers concluded that one hour more of sleep per night was associated with a 33 percent decrease in the odds of calcification…”  This is an interesting article comparing how your sleep habits may give you some insight into your artery health.
3. US Black Women Appear to be Shrinking – It appears that the average height of black women is decreasing from one generation to the next for the first time in decades.  The article concludes this is directly related to poor nutrition and an increase in obesity. “Almost 80 percent of black females are overweight or obese, compared with 62 percent of the total female population, according to the CDC.”
4. Slow Starvation of Brain Triggers Alzheimer’s – “We need to improve our cardiovascular health, not eat more sugar,” Vassar said. “What is coming out in terms of the epidemiological studies is that exercise during mid-life is one of the best prevention strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, so people should stay active physically, and they should watch their diets and reduce cholesterol intake, because cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis, and that is true for the heart and the rest of the body as well as for the brain.”

Throughout the whole world, we have more amputations due to diabetes than landmines.  Considering there were 40,000 amputations in India alone last year, you get an idea of how big of a deal this is.  85% of diabetic amputations are preventable.  Preventable!  It is so sad when I hear about someone losing a leg or a foot due to not taking care of their health. 

I remember when I was in physical therapy school in the Houston medical center, doing rounds at ben taub and seeing a patient who had just had the lower part of his leg removed.  It was a sad thing to see. 

Let me just say that if you are at risk for diabetes, take care of your health.  If you have diabetes, please do not take it lightly.  The risk of losing a limb (which you can’t get back) will have a huge impact on your lifestyle.  Read More

Gluten free food can be hard to find, and I can’t even imagine how hard that would be if you have to travel.  I found an interesting website online today that helps those who need to consume a gluten free diet.  They offer:

• Restaurant tips
• Recipes
• Travel tips
• and tons of links to other websites

I think it’s a great website if you know anyone who has celiacs or has to be on a gluten free diet.

A gluten-free diet is recommended amongst other things in the treatment of celiac disease and wheat allergy. It is a diet completely free of ingredients derived from gluten-containing cereals: wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye, and triticale, as well as the use of gluten as a food additive in the form of a flavoring, stabilizing or thickening agent. Additionally, the diet may exclude oats. Some people for whom the diet is recommended can tolerate oat products and some medical practitioners say they may be permitted, but there is controversy about including them in a gluten-free diet because studies on the subject are incomplete. Source

Celiac Disease (CD) is a lifelong, digestive disorder affecting children and adults. When people with Celiac Disease eat foods that contain gluten, it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed. Even small amounts of gluten in foods can affect those with Celiac Disease and cause health problems. Damage can occur to the small bowel even when there are no symptoms present.
 
Gluten is the common name for the proteins in specific grains that are harmful to persons with celiac disease. These proteins are found in ALL forms of wheat (including durum, semolina, spelt, kamut, einkorn and faro) and related grains rye, barley and triticale and MUST be eliminated. Source