Barb's Daily Dose

The Secret to Health

Ok, here it is, the secret to health.  Are you ready?  Really, this is ground breaking research.  Ok, the secret to health for a 93% reduction in risk of diabetes, an 81% decreased risk of heart attack and a 50% lowered risk of stroke is to do the following 4 things:

1. Don't smoke
2. Eat a healthy diet
3. Lose weight
4. Exercise

Sam's 6 Secret Ways for "Sticking to the Routine"

Submitted by Guest Writer: Samantha Dennerline

Samantha Dennerline is a healthy college student home for the summer. Here is a list of ways she keeps to her routine:

It is always hard to keep a routine going with a change of scenery and lifestyle. To college students going from independence at school to home for the summer: here are some tips to make sure that your healthy lifestyle stays with you no matter where you are.

A Little Workout is Better Than Nothing at All: A busy day can cause stress or a mellow day can cause laziness and on either of these a workout may be the last thing you want to do. So, instead of looking at it like a workout, look at it as another way to relax. Get a playlist of your favorite songs and a magazine and just bike slowly for ten or fifteen minutes or even walk on the treadmill. Although it may not seem like much it a good way to think and get alone time. I guarantee you will feel energized and get a great night sleep.

FED UP! Camarillo’s Fight Against Pediatric Obesity the Boy's and Girl's Club's “GET HEALTY PROGRAM”

Fed Up! “A new global epidemic is unfolding. Our children are proving to be the most vulnerable class of victims. In fact today’s kids may be the first generation in U.S. history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Eating too much unhealthy food coupled with getting too little physical activity accounts for a lot of what’s making our children heavier. It’s time to fight back.” Susan Okie M.D.

Worried about childhood obesity, but don’t know what to do? Take a cue from the Camarillo, California Boys and Girls club.

In 2007, Greg Stuart, president of the Camarillo’s Boys and Girls Club had an idea. Could he improve the health of his members with a consistent approach to fitness at his club and little help from the community?

They started with fun filled activities in different booths set up around a central area. Kids made their way through a series of health screenings that included height, weight, body fat percentages, vision, nutrition and physical fitness. They made it interesting and fun for the kids.

Rate of obesity The kids in the boys and girls club had an alarming 42% incidence of being overweight or obese. Clearly something needed to be done.

Limit Tuna

I love Tuna sandwiches.  I grew up eating them with thick slices of tomato.  When I got to college, my roommates made Tuna Melts with sour cream and onion potato chips.  Now we're talking.  I love seared Ahi Tuna on a salad. Yum.  There's just this one nagging issue, too much tuna is Not good for you. It's not good for pregnant women and not advised for kids.

The Trouble With Tuna

Since tuna is a larger predator fish, it eats lots of the smaller fish, which means it has more time and more opportunity to absorb more of the mercury from the sea. Tuna concentrates the mercury and other environmental toxins in it's fat. Mercury is highly toxic to our brains and nervous systems.  This is why it's best to limit tuna during pregnancy and while children are young.

What's Safe

According to the FDA, it's best to limit yourself to no more than 1 can (6 oz) of tuna each week. Light tuna is considered safer than albacore.
 

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is another great resource for information, it has guides to safe and sustainable seafood.

Vitamin D

It seems that every day we're learning just how important Vitamin D is for our bodies. We need at least 15-20 minutes of sun exposure each day to absorb enough light to make this essential vitamin. Unfortunately, even people who live in sunny areas, are so used to using sun screen to help prevent skin cancer and dark spots on the skin, that we're not getting enough Vitamin D.

Normal levels of Vitamin D have been shown to protect against these and many other conditions:

• Memory decline
• Breast cancer
• Colon cancer
• Osteoporosis
• Bone Pain

New recommendations are for people to get between 400-800 IU/day. If you're over 50 ask your health care provider for a blood test for Vitamin D.  As it turns out, many people are seriously deficient and may need mega doses of up to 50,000 IU each week for 6-8 weeks.  

Normal Level

We'd like to see levels of at least 30 ng/ml.  If it's too low, most people will improve within 2 months with supplements.

Moo Juice & Calcium

If you're like most Americans, you may not be getting enough calcium or Vitamin D in your diet. We know that we build most of our bone mass by our 20's.

If you have kids at home, be sure that they are getting at least 3 servings of calcium rich food a day from yogurt, cheese, milk, or calcium fortified orange juice. If they're not getting enough, consider a multivitamin or a calcium supplement.  Look for one that also has Vitamin D. 

Your kids need at least 1200 mg/day which = 3-4 servings. So skip the fruit juice, unless it has calcium in it and pour the moo juice

Likewise, many of my patients and most women I know steer clear of dairy for a variety of reasons. They may be lactose intolerant, or worry about the calories.  If you're not getting 3 servings every day, then also think about a supplement.  I advise my patients to keep their calcium chews or chewable tablets in the car.  You don't have to spend a lot of money on this, just find one that you like and will actually take.

I've been eating lots more non-fat greek style yogurt, mixed with a little Splenda.  

Good luck,

Hold the Fries

A recent article in USA Today reported that American children aren't getting enough fruits or vegetables. Ok, no surprise there, but what really caught my attention is that they lumped French fries into the vegetable category!  Come on.  French fries are not vegetables, they're carbohydrates. 

Glucose Bombs

We diabetic educators call them "glucose bombs" because they're rapidly converted from greasy, (OK, they can be delicious) salted potatoes to blood sugar in a nanosecond.  In fact, the researchers found that French fries accounted for about 25% of kid's vegetable intake. Is there any wonder that childhood obesity rates are so high and many children are headed toward Type 1 Diabetes.

Worms

I recently received a question from a mom.  It stopped me in my tracks. She wrote to me because her 16 month old child had been treated repeatedly for worms.  She had to give her child de-worming medication every month. She didn't say where she was from, but it seemed as if this was not an unusual circumstance, but happened in her community routinely.

What a scenario, that thankfully most of us who live in places where we have running water don’t have to deal with.  Yet there are areas of the world where mothers must confront many serious challenges to keeping their babies and children healthy.

Flintstones Gummies

Wow, this is a first for my family.  We have never finished an entire bottle of vitamins and needed more of the same. Our typical pattern is to buy vitamins, take them for a few days, maybe weeks, then forget to take them.  The vitamins get shoved to the back of the cabinet, where they languish with the other forgotten over the counter remedies.  They're forlorn and forgotten and 3/4 full. They end up expiring before we find them again. 

Guilty as charged

Then I have to deal with guilt.  First, from wasting the vitamins, and thinking about people around the world who really need vitamins. Then from the waste of money, and finally for being a slacker mom and forgetting to remind the family to take their vitamins. 

Probiotics

Probiotics are now more widely accepted than ever in helping people maintain healthier intestines. The most easily recognized probiotics are contained in containers of yogurt. Probiotics are the actual bacteria that live not just in yogurt, but also in our bodies and help maintain a normal pH and a healthy body. Probiotics are protective and keep the bad, harmful bacteria from overgrowing.

This is one of my favorites, and is available at Trader Joes.

We all have lots of different kinds of bacteria in our bodies.  We have good healthy bacteria, and harmful, pathogenic bacteria. The good bacteria help keep the harmful bacteria from multiplying out of control and causing diarrhea.