The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona
by James Bogash
CAN I REALLY CUT MY RISK OF BREAST CANCER IN HALF? Of course we realize that the answer is yes, but just thought I’d remind you. And, before anyone goes and gets all excited, maintaining a lifestyle dominated by vegetables, fruits and soy it only lowered the risk 43%…not quite half…But add some vitamin D, exercise, stress management and even more cruciferous veggies (radish, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, etc..) you should destroy the remaining 57% risk…
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!
by James Bogash
Let’s get one thing straight. Just like diabetes, most of the cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are because of the choices we’ve made in our lives. To some, this may sound harsh, but the research continues to support this concept. This particular study goes even further.
Exercise is well known to be good for just about everything except for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (and if you don’t know what this is, it probably means you don’t have it…). Protecting our brain and emotional function is no different.
This particular study, while referring to congnitive impairment and not the more severe Alzheimer’s disease, shows just how strikingly powerful exercise is. Basically, those with the highest level of daily energy expenditure, when compared to those with the lowest, had a 91% lower risk of cognitive impairment.
Go back and re-read that number. 91%. Noventa y uno. Quatre-vingt-onze. You get the idea…
This does not include other protective factors like supplementation, positive dietary choices and meditation. Add in these and you begin to see how much power we have over the chronic diseases we may or may not deal with as we age.
by James Bogash
There has been a clear push in the US to increase activity levels. Heck–even Ronald McDonald is moving around like Richard Simmons these days. All the recommendations from our national agencies promote more physical activity. What could be wrong with this?
If you HAD to make a choice (and none of us really do, do we..?) between diet and exercise, diet has the more powerful effect. So why is the message on diet weak and exercise strong?
My personal, biased opinion is that there is money to be made in exercising. Equipment, memberships, trainers, coaches…. This all generates income for someone. No one loses. Heck–weekend warriors pulling hamstrings have a tendency to benefit my practice as well.
However, merely making the isolated recommendation to avoid refined carbs will cost the major confectionery companies (Kellogg’s, Quaker, Nabisco, Craft) untold millions of dollars. They would essentially be wiped out if we made strong national recommendations to avoid refined carbs, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors and colorings.
So the cynic’s view says that the health (or, in this case unhealth) of our country can be bought. Truth be told, nothing else seems to make sense.
Why do I bring this up? This particular study looked at newly diagnosed diabetics and what would happen if they did nothing (control), made positive dietary changes, or made the dietary changes and added exercise.
At 6 months the control group got worse. The other two groups improved despite needing less medication. However, there was no additional benefit to the exercise group.
This does NOT mean that you can scrap the exercise. It is likely that the exercise needs to be more aggresive than a pedometer based program. Aerobic (more short burst type) combined with strength training is the bare minimum. Also, exercise is a LONG term investment. I remember a commercial some years back where an overweight man in the locker room weighs himself, runs around the bench in the locker room and hops back up on the scale.
This desire for short term benefit is all too characteristic of the typical American mindset. Exercise is a lifestime of investment in your health and is not to be measured in 3, 6 or 12 month intervals, but rather health outcomes over the course of years and decades.
by James Bogash
I know. I know. Eat your fruits and veggies. Exercise. While we all kind of agree that this MAY lower our risk of cancer, just how much seems to get glazed over. After all, Grandpa Joe smoked and drank Jim Bean until he died in a brothel accident at 106. So just how much of an impact does a good lifestyle have on cancer rates?
Something important to consider. The weight of cancer prevention seems to be towards quitting smoking. This is, of course, a no-brainer. But, as this article mentions, 80% of the population are never or former smokers, this recommendation falls on the deaf ears of the bulk of the population who are already following this recommendation.
This particular study looked at adherence to an ideal body composition, physical activity, diet, and alcohol consumption on cancer rates, heart disease fatality rates and all-cause mortality (risk of dying from anything). Those with the highest adherence had a 42% lower risk of all cause mortality, 48% lower risk of dying of heart related causes (58% for women!!!!) and a 30% lower risk of dying of cancer.
These are general lifestyle recommendations. General. As in very simple to accomplish. I could expand on the specifics in a hundred ways to make them more effective.
The bottom line is that NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, is a powerful as lifestyle changes in lowering your risk of dying from anything. The strength of this message seems to continually be drowned out by “this for a cure” and “that for a cure” and prevention promotions sponsored by Coke (Basha’s Heart Smart T-shirts proudly promote Coke).
As a society we need to put our collective feet down and stop funding these organizations that promote a “cure” while shoving prevention with simple lifestyle changes to the fine print. Only THEN will they wake up and realize that this is what their individual charters
by James Bogash
In case you haven’t heard, cardiovascular disease is magnificently preventable. A handle of minor changes will send your risk plummeting; a full blown lifestyle overhaul will probably make it more likely that you’d get struck by lightning than die of a heart attack.
Based on this particular study, the odds are that you have NOT heard that you can prevent heart disease. They asked 1702 participants to identify 7 factors that the AHA feels contribute to heart disease. These 7 components included health behaviors (not smoking, regular exercise, and healthy diet) and health factors (ideal body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose). The least identified factors were exercise, fruit / veggie consumption and diabetes. Seriously? No one knew that exercise could lower your risk of heart disease? Maybe the message that we can prevent heart disease is still remaining as a deep dark secret? The proverbial pink elephant in the room?
The bottom line is that heart disease is very easy to avoid if you focus on some important concepts. Exercise, stress management, increased intake of omega 3 fasts along with decreased intake of omega 6 fats, high phytonutrient / low calorie diet and targeted supplementation using things like Vitamin D and fish oils.
Best Massage Therapist Mesa AZ
Arthritis Doctor Mesa AZ
Chiropractic Mesa AZ
Back Pain Doctor Mesa AZ
Rotator Cuff Doctor Mesa AZ
Chiropractor Mesa AZ
Massage Therapist Mesa AZ
PRP Therapy Mesa AZ
Knee Pain Doctor Mesa AZ
Stem Cell Therapy Mesa AZ
Headache Doctor Mesa AZ
Shoulder Pain Doctor Mesa AZ