Fasting - Is It Good for You?

Fasting can be beneficial to you if done in perspective. What do I mean by that you might ask. Skipping meals is not fasting, it's skipping meals to reduce calories. The problem is that when you do sit down to eat, you tend to eat too much at that meal, because your brain does not register that you have eaten until you have eaten way too much.

The best way to fast is for one to two days per week. I recommend that you do this with a minimal calorie intake, so you actually not totally fasting, but getting some calories that can be utilized by the brain so that you gain clarity in this process. I do not recommend that you just go a whole day without eating anything.

If you would like to know more about fasting, please respond to this post and I will get you more information.

How Many Calories - Men

Ok, today is the day for the men's numbers. The same rules apply as to the activity levels. You're either active or sedentary. Be honest with yourself, nobody else will know unless you tell them.

Men Active Men Sedentary

Age 19-30 3000 calories 2400 calories
Age 31-50 3000 calories 2200 calories
Age 50 or older 2800 calories 2000 calories

So if you eat at McDonald's for lunch and you have the Big Mac Extra Value Meal with a Medium size Coke, your total calories in that one meal alone is 1130 calories. Can you see the problem here. By eating fast food you tend to get about half your caloric intake in one meal.

Fast food does not necessarily mean low in calories or that it is good for us.

How Many Calories Do You Need?

I just read an article about the number of calories we should have each day. I am not a big proponent of calorie counting, but I did find this interesting. The thing I found most interesting is that the average number of calories consumed by American adults has increased from 1970 to 2003 by about 520 calories. I thought this number was probably a little on the low side since the average weight of American adults has increased dramatically over this period.

I'll talk about women today and men tomorrow. For both, the active individual is one sho has physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles a day at 3-4 miles per hour - for you step counters that's 6000 steps a day. Additionally, active individuals have light physical activity associated with their typical day to day lifestyle.

There is one other factor in play as to the number of calories besides physical activity, and that is age. As we get older, we need less.

Women - Sedentary Women Active
Age 19-30 2,000 calories 2400 calories
Age 31-50 1,800 calories 2200 calories
Age 51 or older 1600 calories 2000 calories

Range of Motion

Range of motion is exactly as it sounds. Putting a joint through it's complete range of mobility. Do not try to hyperextend or hyperflex a joint. Start out slow and gentle moving each joint through it's range of mobility for you. You may have some joints that are stiff or sore and you're not able to bend them like you know you used to be able to. That's OK, don't move them beyond what is comfortable.

You can do this sitting in a chair or even lying in bed. Start with your fingers, one finger at a time. If mobility is not such an issue for you, you can start with the whole hand. Go through each joint in the hand wrist, elbow, shoulder, etc. Flex and extend each joint 5 times.

If you're having stiffness this is a good way to start getting those joints moving again.

Building Muscle

To build muscle you need to be eating some protein. The form of the protein is not as important as you just getting the protein. For example, a great source of protein is eggs, especially eggs from free range chickens. This particular source of protein contains conjugated linoleic acid(CLA) which is necessary for the body to form good muscle.

I know I've written about this before, but I think it never hurts to hear it again. If you are beginning an exercise routine, then be sure that you are getting adequate amounts of protein which contains CLA. The best source for supplemental CLA is here.

Eventhough you may take a supplemental CLA, it is still important to eat protein. This doesn't have to be beef, but be sure that you have a good source.

What to Exercise

Continuing from yesterday, start with the upper body. Do the biceps, triceps, shoulders and chest.

When you start out, so 1-2 of these muscle groups 3 times a week. As you increase your ability, you can do 2-3 or all of these on a single day. Remember go slow!

The lower body includes the quadriceps, gluteals, calves, and abdomen. If you get a 2 pound ankle weight to start, this will be more than adequate. Obviously the abdomen is done with crunches. Go easy with the crunches. You don't want to end up with a sore abdomen because you got carried away.

You can alternate upper and lower body 3 times a week, so one day do biceps, triceps, on day 2 do quads and gluteals. On day 3 shoulders and chest. Day 4 calves and abdomen. The goal is to eventually be able to do either all four of the upper body or all four of the lower body on one day.

Simple Exercises

I spoke yesterday about walking and that is a great way for you to get started. By the way, walking is considered a weight bearing exercise, so it will help prevent osteoporosis.

There are some other things you may want to consider as far as increasing your strength, range of motion, and cardiovascular endurance. The first thing to remember is not to push yourself to exhaustion. This is not helpful to the body.

Start in small amounts, short periods of time, and progress slowly. This is not a race. Your goal is not to build the biggest muscle in the shortest time.

You can start at home with some simple things using a 15 ounce can of fruit or vegetables. Start by doing 10 repetitions, then a 1 minute rest, 8 repetitions, 1 minute rest, etc. After you have done 4 reps, and 1 minute, do 20 reps and 2 minutes of rest.

Exercise

Yes we all need to do it. But it doesn't mean we need to go to the gym or have a personal trainer. One of the simplest things you can do is to walk every day. I don't just mean around the house or at work. I mean setting aside time where you walk either outside or on a treadmill for a set period of time.

Start with 15 minutes of continuous walking. Something that will help is to listen to some soothing music or if you are in the country side, listen to nature. If you're walking on the treadmill, you can watch TV, but I would recommend that you not watch the news. Put positive things into your head while you're walking, not the total negative that you see on the TV news.

Increase your amount of time by 5 minutes every 3 days until you are up to 1 hour of continuous walking. Push yourself a little with some inclines, but go at it gradually. Don't feel like you have to run a marathon your first day out!

Intestinal Flu

Should you fall pray to the intestinal flu bug with acute vomiting and diarrhea, here are some things to help you get through this illness. Once you start vomiting, do not drink anything until you have not vomited for at least 1 hour. Then start with ice chips for the next 1-2 hours. If you are still feeling nauseated, keep on with just ice chips. Once the nausea is less, then you can start on sips of water. I do mean sips here. Do not take several gulps of water or other liquid, or it will come right back up.

You can advance to gingerale or gatorade, be sure to dilute the gatorade with at least 50% water. The ginger in the gingerale is actually very soothing to the stomach and will help a great deal to decrease the nausea. Again, be sipping not drinking a lot.

Once you've gotten through the nausea part and vomiting has not occurred in 6 hours, you can try something bland like toast or jello. Jello is great because it turns to liquid to help you not become dehydrated and it does contain some sugar to help feed the cells. The premise here is go slow and a little at a time.

Sleep

Yesterday I talked about sleep and the effect on the hormone cortisol. Many of you may have experienced a sleepless night or have trouble sleeping. One night is not a big deal, however, you probably noticed that you didn't feel as well the next day.

Setting a sleep ritual is important if you have difficulty sleeping. You should try to go to sleep at about the same time every night and waken about the same time every morning. When I follow this ritual by getting to bed at my usual time, my internal alarm clock will waken me at the same time every day.

Another thing to keep in mind is that as you get older, you have less periods of the deeper levels of sleep. So you tend to sleep in level 1 or 2. In level 1 sleep, you literally will wake up when you naturally turn or move which is about every hour. Hence if you have a clock by the bed, when your eyes open you see the clock. Every hour you see the clock and you think you have not slept. In fact you have slept, but not at a deep level. Put the clock so you cannot see it when you awaken at night.

For more information about sleep, see my other posts related to sleep under the keyword sleep.

Rest for Brain Health

The last thing I want to mention about brain health is rest. Getting into good sleep habits is important for the brain. Research has shown that people who have slept only 4 hours a night have an increase in a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone which is related to the deposition of fat in the abdomen. Cortisol also has an effect in the brain.

The area of the brain where memory occurs is the hippocampus. When cortisol levels are high, this area of the brain begins to shrink. By increasing sleep to 8-9 hours, the amount of cortisol drops significantly. The other thing about cortisol is that when the levels are high, the brain cells are unable to produce energy to function.

I'll talk a little more about sleep again tomorrow.

More on Brain Health

You may find it interesting that you are less likely to develop dementia if you are socially active. Many studies have indicated that if you have a large social network, you are less likely to develop dementia.

This doesn't have to be a formal thing. Just hanging out with friends and family can really make a difference in your mental health. Research has shown that social interaction has a positive effect on both memory and cognition.

This doesn't mean you have to spend the entire day in social interaction, but you should look to have at least one social interaction a day. That is not a terribly big order, but as you get older it is more and more important for this to happen.

Exercising the Mind

While physical exercise is important to keep your brain functioning at a high level, exercising the mind is equally important. What I mean by that is challenging the mind to keep it sharp. The key to mind exercise is to have it be a challenge, include variety and novelty.

If you like to play cards, play multiple card games. Bridge is great, but also play some other card games.

There are multiple computer programs which challenge the mind. You can also do something as simple as using the mouse with your opposite hand.

My favorite thing is to do a crossword puzzle every morning. I've now added to that and do a sudoku and kakuro puzzle every morning as well. These types of puzzles help keep the mind sharp.

Keeping Your Brain Healthy

I've been talking about food the past several days, but now I want to shift gears and talk about some other things to help you keep your brain functioning at peak capacity.

Just as your heart requires some exercise so does the brain. Studies have demonstrated that individuals who perform aerobic and strength training actually improve their cognition or ability to think. There has also been a decrease in the rates of dementia in individuals who are exercising regularly.

Any activity that requires thinking to perform, such as dancing, tennis, tai chi, yoga, Pilates, skiing, or even jumping rope, keeps the brain actively working. To turn the brain on more, try doing resistance training with balance and agility exercises.

For brain health, 3-5 times a week will keep your brain going. Now for some of you, I kow you just said, but I don't want to go to the gym. You don't have to go to the gym. You can do some of these things at home, but if you need some type of structure, you can get the Wii Fit. This is the nintendo game played on a TV. It will put you through the balance, strength, and aerobic workouts.

Other Anti-Inflammatories for the Brain

Yesterday I was talking about the anti-inflammatory effects of turmeric. The last brain food I want to mention is another anti-inflammatory food. I should actually say foods, because it is any of the omega 3 fatty acids.

Foods in this category are things like flax seed oil, olive oil, avocados, and fish such as salmon. I have written many things about the omega 3 foods, you can see these postings under omega 3.

Bottom line is that these are also anti-inflammatory foods and they help protect the brain from stroke.

A Spice That Helps Your Brain

I have written about this spice before as an anti-inflammatory and it is part of the anti-inflammation diet. Turmeric which is often used in soups, stews and casseroles does indeed help the brain as well.

Turmeric helps keep the brain healthy by decreasing oxidation which occurs with increased inflammation. Turmeric also decreases plaque in the blood vessels.

The brain is similar to the heart in that plaque in blood vessels can become oxidized and break free. In the heart this causes a heart attack, in the brain it causes a stroke.

More Brain Health Foods

To fight inflammation which is a key problem in the brain, a good source of omega 3 is essential. Nuts are one of the best sources. Specifically almonds, pecans, and walnuts. I have written about almonds and walnuts before, but nothing about pecans.

Pecans are high in antioxidants as well as containing omega 3 fatty acids. This makes them very beneficial in terms of decreasing free radical damage, but also to decrease inflammation in the brain and decrease plaque in the blood vessels in the brain, putting you at less risk for a stroke. Stroke like a heart attack is not from the high cholesterol, but rather from the high degree of inflammation in the brain which causes a chunk of plaque to break loose and become lodged in a blood vessel.

Brain Health Food

You'll love these next foods for brain health. I've spoken about most of them before, but this is in relation to brain health and keeping your brain functioning at a high level.

These three things should be taken in moderation, so a little is good, but a lot is not. The reason they are good is because of the antioxidants that they contain. The first of these is coffee. You can see back in August on the 21st, I talked about the effects of coffee. This was mostly focused on the caffeine effects of coffee. So this is the important thing to know. Again, there is some good in a little coffee. A lot of coffee is not so good. For brain health 1-2 cups a day maximum. This does not mean 1-2 of the extra large grande sizes. This means 1-2 of the 6-8 ounce size cups.

The second food here is red wine. Red wine is loaded with antioxidants. Again, this does not mean you drink a bottle of red wine every day. If you are aware of the Mediterranean diet, this diet is to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts and then wash it all down with a glass of red wine. Remember though, if you are trying to lose weight, it may be better for you to not do the alcohol every day.

The last food in this high antioxidant grouping is chocolate. Now I have your attention. The best is to eat raw cacao as it is highest in antioxidants. I have a couple of entries in the blog on chocolate, just click on the word chocolate to see those.

Brain Health

I said I would talk more about foods that help your brain stay healthy and functioning at it's best. One of the things that really helps brain health is to reverse or minimize oxidation and inflammation. Oxidation occurs because of free radicals, so there is a huge need for us to decrease this potential damage to the DNA in our brain cells. The way to do this is with antioxidants.

The best antioxidants for the brain are the darker colored vegetables and fruits. Vegetables include spinach, brussels sprouts, beets, and eggplant. Fruits include berries, plums, prunes, cherries, red grapes, and oranges.

For the anti-inflammatory foods, go back and review the anti-inflammatory diet information starting on 2/13/09.

Keep Your Brain Healthy

Want to know how to keep your brain functioning at it's highest and best level? I think we all want to go here. If you have had a relative or known someone who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, then you have probably already wondered how you can keep your brain functioning at it's best.

I believe there are 5 things you can do to keep you brain functioning at it's very best. The first thing is to eat well. I have written a few things about brain foods. If you look in the key word list on this blog under Brain Food, you will find them. One of the things that I have found to be most helpful in clearing my thinking is to actually cleanse the body which in turn cleans out the bad chemicals from the brain as well. I just recently did a series on cleansing, but if you are interested in cleansing the mind, respond to this post and I will send you more information.

Just some simple basics that clog up your brain are things like sugar and flour. Better to look to foods with natural sugars and whole grains or nuts. Researchers describe brain food diets as those that include fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, fish and poultry.

There are some specific foods which help the brain. Berries, especially blueberries improve short term memory, help clear arteries and improve blood flow to the brain.

More on brain foods tomorrow.

Decreasing Your Cancer Risk

We all have cancer cells in our bodies every day. However, our immune system recognizes them as not normally part of us and destroys them. So keeping the immune system absolutely as strong as you can is the most important thing you can do.

There are some other things you can do to decrease your exposure or risk from cancer causing chemicals. Some of the chemicals to avoid are sodium nitrite found in processed meats (hot dogs, bacon, sausage, etc.) and artificial chemical sweeteners. You should also be aware of the chemicals found in personal care items like shampoo, soaps and lotions. You will absorb these chemicals through the skin and they can be just as harmful as those that you ingest.

The World Cancer Research Fund promotes healthy foods and exercise as a way of decreasing the risk of cancer.

Antibiotics - When Should You Take Them?

I was asked the other day about whether a person should take antibiotics for a cold. This has been a source on consternation for me for years. Colds are caused by viruses. Antibiotics only help with bacterial infections and the antibiotics cannot do it alone. Your immune system in fact has to do most of the work. So having a healthy immune system is by far the most important thing in keeping you well.

Usually when the immune system is compromised by stress, lack of sleep, or something else is when you become sick with a cold. You can be healthy, but stress will really knock your immune system down and open the door for a virus to take hold.

The other thing to be aware of is that viruses usually last 10-14 days. Most people get impatient and want to be better right now. That is not going to happen with antibiotics, so don't rush off to the doctor in search of a magic pill. Rather boost up your immune system so that it can handle the virus.

Vitamins Good, Bad, or No Effect

As a researcher, I always go crazy when the news media picks up on some bit of research and runs with it, without really looking at whether the study is valid or not. A prime example is the Women's Multiple Vitamin study. I was some what surprised to see that this was actually published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Of course what the media picked up on was that the study "showed" that multivitamins are useless against cancer and heart disease in women.

Now, let's take a look at the study. This was actually a survey, which means that the results are only as good as the questions asked of the participants and the truth of the answers. What am I talking about here. If you really want to know if vitamins work, then you need to design a study in which you actually give the participants vitamins. This published study did not give anyone vitamins, merely asked the question, "do you take a multivitamin?" Most people would answer this question yes. But if you go look and count how many times a week they actually take the vitamin, it will likely not be every day. Now I know there are us out there who would rather not eat than to miss our vitamins, I'm one of those, but this is not the average person out there. The other question you have to ask is what kind of vitamins were they taking. Was it the cheapest brand they could get? Was there any quality control behind the vitamin they were taking to say that they were actually getting what it said they were getting in that vitamin. Oh, and here's another thing, were the components in the vitamin actually able to be absorbed by the body.

The interesting thing about all of this is that here is a "study" that says vitamins have no effect towards cancer and heart disease. The conclusion is that if vitamins don't have an effect, then you must need to take the expensive, toxic medications of big pharma. Well, I for one am not buying this one. Until they can put together a decent study, this does not show me anything and there are far more studies that do show the effects of vitamins.

Lastly, Detoxifying the Skin

The skin is the last organ I'll talk about cleansing. I'm not talking about soap and water here, although that is important as well. The skin has to be able to breathe in order to cleanse itself. If you are applying oils, the skin's pores become clogged and it is not able to breathe. The first thing to do is to stop applying creams or lotions which contain oils. Oil is not what lubricates the skin. What lubricates the skin is water. The skin should be kept moist and supple with creams or lotions that are water based.

Also look at the cream or lotion that you are using. Does it contain alcohol? There are actually some good alcohols and there are bad alcohols. The molecular weight of the alcohol will determine if it is a drying or moisturizing alcohol. Cetyl and stearyl alcohol both are of a molecular weight such that they actually attract water. If you cream just says alcohol or ethyl alcohol, then it will be more drying than moisturizing.

Eating fruits and vegetables will also help cleanse the skin. The antioxidants in fruits and vegetables as well as supplements actually end up coming out through the skin. This will help remove toxins that have built up in the skin.

Of course bathing is important. Use care with the types of soaps and cleansers that you use on the skin. Again, soaps can be drying which can inhibit the skin from functioning normally. I talked a little about this previously.

Lung Cleansing

We might not think about cleansing the lungs, but they too need to get rid of as much toxic waste that builds up there as well. You probably know what the next thing is that I'm going to say. If you are a smoker, you deserve to stop and help your lungs to cleanse. If you live or work with a smoker who smokes around you, you deserve to get away. Second hand smoke is as bad as smoking. The free radical damage from just one cigarette is astronomical.

Whether you are a smoker or not, there are ways to help cleanse the lungs. If you live in the city, this is more difficult, because cities are rife with air polution and other toxic chemicals. Finding the cleanest air that you can in your environment and taking several deeps breaths will help you remove polutants from the lungs. This will not take a great deal of time, but you need to take a few minutes and really concentrate on breathing deep and exhaling just as deeply. If you can get into an environment where there is less or no polution that is even better.

Liver Cleansing

The other major filtering organ is the liver. The liver's sole job is to remove wastes and toxins from the blood. Cleansing the liver should be done to remove the excess wastes and toxins that build up there, but it should be done with supervision. You should have guidance as you go through this process.

There are some things that you can do to help the liver detoxify. First and foremost is eating a diet that is rich with fruits and vegetables - raw is better than cooked. Secondly, you should be aware of the types of fats you're putting into your system. I know I have spoken about this before, but one of the things that really gums up the liver is hydrogenated fats/oils. Get rid of the margarine. Use the olive oil and vegetable spreads that do not contain hydrogenated fats/oils. This means any hydrogenated fats/oils, even the partially hydrogenated ones.

Since I do recommend that you have guidance with this process, contact me via the blog if you are interested in detoxifying your liver.

Cleansing the Kidney

Since the kidneys are the other way in which you get rid of wastes and toxins, it makes sense that you would want to cleanse them at the same time that you're cleansing the bowel. Cleansing the kidneys is pretty easy.

Since the kidneys are a filtering unit, the best way to help clean them out is to drink lots of water. I've already spoken about water in the September of 08, and in the dieting tips #6. I do in fact mean water here and not coffee, tea, sodas, juices or other liquids.

Our bodies are 50% water, so the minimum amount of water you should be drinking each day is to take your weight, divide by 2 and that's how many ounces of water you should be drinking. Here's an example: if you weight 160 pounds, divide by 2 you get 80 - 80 ounces of water is the minimum you should be drinking.

Now if you want to cleanse the kidneys, you will need to drink more than the minimum amount of water. Also keep in mind if you are doing heavy physical activity or exercise, you will need even more water to not only replace what you are losing with activity/exercise but to cleanse the kidney. If you don't replace what you're losing, the kidneys are challenged with more toxins to filter out with less volume. Think of the kidney's as a sifter. The more water through the sifter, the easier it is to filter out the particles. If the particles become too big, they clog up the tiny filtering units in the kidney.

What to Cleanse and How

There are multiple areas of the body that you will want to cleanse. I'm going to write about 5 areas over the next 5 days.

The first area and a good place to start is the colon. If you eat foods that contain toxins (most of what we eat today does contain toxins), you will definitely want to start here. Now think about the fact that if the food you are eating is not moving very fast through the intestine, your body will have lots of time to absorb those toxins. The goal then is to speed things up such that you are having at least one bowel movement per day. If you are someone who only has a bowel movement every 2-3 days, your body is absorbing lots of toxins in the colon.

So how do you cleanse the colon? I'm not talking about enemas here. The first and best way for you to begin to cleanse the colon is by eating at least 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Organics are best because they have less chemicals used in growing and processing them. Learn to love your fruits and vegetables and your body will love you back by being healthy.

Whole grains also help in moving wastes through the intestine, so be sure to include them with your fruits and vegetables.

You can also utilize some supplements if need be, but I highly recommend you go with the natural way which is fruits, vegetables and whole grains. That being said, some of the supplements you can use to help cleanse the colon are psyllium husks or seeds and flax seeds. If you are wondering about an herbal product, respond to the blog and I will give you more information about the safe usage.

Benefit #4 of Cleansing

Toxins are things like free radicals. Free radicals can cause damage in the DNA structure of our cells which results in permanent damage. While we might not even be aware of the damage to the cell structure, over time this is one of the leading causes of aging. So detoxing or cleansing can help you get rid of free radicals as well as help your immune system repair those DNA structures that it can repair.

In addition, toxins cause the cells of the body to be stressed. The more stressed the cells, the faster the aging process. So removing toxins from the body can assist you in slowing that agin process.

Cleansing can help you get rid of free radicals and other toxins that stress the body, thereby allowing you live a longer healthier life.

Benefit #3 of Cleansing

Restoring all of the systems within the body so that they can function in harmony together as they were meant to is a huge benefit of cleansing. When certain organs or organ systems within our body become toxic, it is hard for them to function in coordination with the other organs and systems within the body.

An example of what happens when our bodies become toxic is the more processed foods that we eat, the more chemicals and other toxins - like hydrogenated oils - that we consume, the harder it is for our liver to detoxify and rid the body of toxins. What happens, it begins to deposit the toxins in fat stores, we gain weight, - as we gain weight, our endocrine system especially the pancreas begins to become over taxed with the demand for insulin and the toxins develop an resistance to insulin attaching on the receptor site so that glucose can move into the cell out of the blood stream. We end up with diabetes, and potentially all of the complications of diabetes. Our bodies become sick.

Cleansing can help you remove the toxins from organs such as the liver so that you can live a healthier life. While cleansing helps, I have to say, the other thing you should be doing is watching what it is that you put into your body.

Benefit #2 of Cleansing

The burden of toxins on the body come out in physical complaints such as stiffness or pain in joints, allergies, headaches, depression, fatigue, and digestive problems to name a few. The more we overload the system with toxins, the more problems that will arise.

Cleansing can help you decrease the load of toxins and make you feel much better in the process. The first time that I did a cleanse, I was having some pretty severe foot and ankle stiffness and pain. After a 2 day cleanse, the stiffness and pain was almost completely gone. I became an instant believer in cleansing. Subsequently I have found other benefits, but this really speaks to this particular benefit.

Most illnesses occur because of toxic overload on the system. These toxins are in the foods that we eat, the air we breathe and the water that we drink and bathe in.