diet

BUT I EXERCISE…

August 25, 2011 by James Bogash

We certainly live in a society that is supportive of physical activity, whether or not we are actually active or not. Heck–Ronald McDonald promotes physical activity. There are “get out and play” campaigns endorsed everywhere to promote school children to play. So where’s the problem?

Exercise alone is not going to do it. Period. We can promote events for the kids to come out and play, but if we feed them hot dogs and potato chips we’ve completely dropped the ball.

We could easily argue that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were active. They had no choice. But 3-5 days per week of targeted exercise? I’m thinking that caveman didn’t get together on Saturday mornings for an group aerobic class around the campfire.

This particular study, while a little complex, concludes that diet is the critical factor in managing our risk towards diabetes, NOT exercise. That’s not to say that exercise is not important, but I hear far too often about patients who are exercising in an attempt to lower their cholesterol or blood sugar but are not as diligent about diet. It’s the wrong focus and needs to change if we want to avoid diabetes.

Better yet…do the exercise AND the dietary changes!

LOW BONE DENSITY? THIS MAY BE WHY..

August 11, 2011 by James Bogash

This is not the first time I’ve addressed bone health and I’m pretty certain it won’t be the last. I’m just not sure why my message hasn’t yet changed public policy as it relates to bone health.. Here’s a little secret.

Bone health has virtually nothing to do with calcium. Sure, calcium is a component of bone, but so is silica, molybdenum and phosphorus (among many others). More importantly is the signals that our body sends to add or destroy bone. Our understand has moved from bone merely being an inactive calcium depot to bone being a very active and important player in our risk for diabetes and body composition.

So the recommendations for bone health are not isolated to a single nutrient or single change such as weight bearing exercise. Bone is merely reflective of our overall health. Better health = better bones.

This is exemplified by this particular study. Researchers looked at dietary patterns and how they related to bone health. A clear pattern existed with those with the worst dietary patterns (high consumption of refined cereals, soft drinks, fried potatoes, sausages and processed meat, vegetable oils, beer, and takeaway foods and low consumption of other vegetables, vegetable dishes, tea, coffee, fruit, wholegrain breads, and breakfast cereals) clearly had lower bone density than those with the better habits (high consumption of legumes, seafood, seeds, nuts, wine, rice and rice dishes, other vegetables, and vegetable dishes and low consumption of bacon and ham).

Pretty basic and clear cut. Think on this scary thought. How many teens are sitting on their collective duffs not exercising (bad for bone) eating the poor dietary pattern noted above. This is an absolute recipe for disastrous bone health very early on.

DO THIS TO PREVENT ALZHEIMER’S

June 30, 2011 by James Bogash

From a society standpoint, the “company line” is that we don’t know what causes Alzheimer’s and we don’t know how to prevent it. Untold dollars go to finding a cure. A recent approach was geared towards vaccination against amyloid plaques (AP) that accumulate in Alzheimer’s. The results were disappointing.

The AP accumulate as a result of the process. They do NOT cause Alzheimers, but are merely the side effect. So a vaccination to get rid of the APs, which did work at lowering the amount of plaques in the brain, did nothing to affect the symptoms of Alzheimers in these patients.

The reality is that we have a very good grasp on what causes Alzheimers. It starts with breakdown of the ability of brain cells to produce energy (in the form of ATP from the mitochondria if you happened to stay awake in high school biology). The brain cell can no longer survive and begins to die off. Great if it’s just a single brain cell. But what if this is a pattern that occurs over the course of decades and in specific regions of the brain (in the case of Alzheimers this region is the hippocampus and neocortex)? You slowly lose function and at some point the diagnosis of Alzheimers is on the table.

So anything that harms the mitochondria (stress, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, processed foods, smoking, excess calories etc..) is to be avoided. Anything that protects the mitochondria (high quality diet w/ lots of fruits/veggies/spices, less calories, healthy fats, mutlivitamins, etc..) is good.

Using this template, seeing in this particular study that a diet low in saturated fats and refined carbs led to better markers of AP, while a high saturated fat and refined carb diet clearly showed an increase in these markers.

Bottom line is that it is NOT genetic, it is lifestyle. The research is well beyond the point where any sane person concerned about Alzhemiers disease would definately adopt healthier lifestyle changes to lower their risk rather than wait for the “experts” to de

http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/68/6/743

MONKEY EAT, MONKEY DO?

May 3, 2011 by James Bogash

It has become very clear that our children’s collective health is deteriorating. Obesity, diabetes, liver problems and medication use are at levels that shock me. I personally cannot understand the use of cholesterol lowering meds given to children by a pediatrician. How do you give a drug to a population at incredibly low risk of a heart attack (the process of destroying our vascular health is a decades-long endeavor and medications that are taken 20 or 30 years before an “event” will never have the benefits outweigh the risks) in lieu of lifestyle changes?

But those changes HAVE to begin with the parents. These kids pick up their bad behaviors from their parents. Keegan, who is now 5, eats wild caught salmon, artichokes, olives, hummus and squash because he loves to steal them from my plate. It’s all he’s seen and he thoroughly enjoys these foods. The first time I heard him order a 1/2 water, 1/2 lemonade (which was our concession to allowing him something different to drink when we go out) I was pleasantly floored. I had been quietly ordering this for months, but he had picked up on my queues.

Here we have yet another study that supports the fact that parents are not choosing the right lifestyles for themselves. I know that parenthood can be challenging. But that is NEVER an excuse to pull through the fast food drive thru instead of spending a little more time getting healthier fare for your children. Our society is paying the prices for these choices.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/127/5/881