Control Your Health Part 3

Today I'm going to talk about hypertension or high blood pressure. It's estimated that over 70 million Americans have this disease. Some are being treated and there are a great many who have no idea that their blood pressure is elevated. First and foremost, get it checked, know what your numbers are.

Then you can begin to manage it. Even if you don't know your numbers, assume that you have it and begin to take care of yourself. First thing is to reduce your salt intake. The end of June I did a series on salt. Go back and take a look at those posts for more information. Avoid the prepared or processed foods as well as foods that are just naturally salty.

Reduce the saturated and trans fats in your diet. the trans fats are mostly in processed foods.

Avoid excessive alcohol which elevates the blood pressure.

Manage your stress through exercise, meditation, better sleep. Ask for support from your family and friends.

Lastly, but should be the first thing that you do is to control your weight. Losing just 5% of our body weight can have a significant impact on the blood pressure. Eat lots of greens, fruits and vegetables. Specific foods that are helpful for blood pressure include avocados, cantaloupe, broccoli and kidney beans.

Control Your Health Part 2

Yesterday I talked a little about Diabetes. Today I want to talk about gastroesophageal reflux (GERD). Because of our increasing weight in this country, we are seeing more and more of this disease. What it causes is persistent heart burn and indigestion.

The first thing is to lose weight - see yesterday's post - all that is there on losing weight pertains to this disease as well. There are a couple of other things you can do to take control here. Cut down on caffeine and alcohol intake. Both of these will make the symptoms worse.

Eat so that you have 3-4 hours before you go to bed. Eating and immediately lying down will make the symptoms worse. Try to stay up right after eating for at least 2 hours.

Eating smaller more frequent meals will also help. If you eat a big meal you are more likely to feel the symptoms increase, due to the increase pressure in the stomach from all the food.

Lastly reduce your intake of fatty foods and chocolate. Both of these will relax the sphincter that is between the stomach and the esophagus which will allow more acidic stomach contents to come up into the esophagus and cause a burning sensation.

Control Your Health

If you've been diagnosed with a disease such as diabetes, gastroesophageal reflux, or hypertension (high blood pressure), take control and don't let the disease control you. You can change your outcome by taking control of your life instead of letting the disease take control of you.

Let's talk about diabetes first. I'm specifically going to talk about type 2 diabetes. The first and the most impact on taking control of this disease is to lose weight. The first step in losing weight is to look at what you're eating. You want to lose about 10% at least of your body weight. The heavier you are, the more you will want to lose. Don't turn to some diet plan, learn to eat sensibly and avoid that foods that will make the diabetes worse. Sugar is not always the enemy. Simple carbs like bread, pasta, and rice are by far worse enemies than sugar. You want to get your carbs from fruits and vegetables. Foods to focus on are beans, nuts, vegetables and fruit. Be sure that you get some protein with every meal. Your first bite should be of protein so that the pancreas begins to create insulin in the right amount to help you utilize the calories you will be consuming.

If you must have dessert, make it a piece of fruit - that is the best dessert ever!

Diets

If you have had the TV on at all since right before Christmas you have seen a plethora of different diet and weight loss ads. They have dwindled somewhat in the past few weeks, but they are still out there in force.

Truth is, yes diets will work for awhile, but be honest. Every diet you have ever tried probably did work until you went off of it. The problem with diets is that they do not create a change that is lasting. Very few if any can stay on the diet because they feel deprived.

One of the people that I have been coaching regarding diet got it and she has written a new book about refusing to diet. I will give you more details as I get them. Once she got her head in the right place which she describes beautifully in the book, she began to put to work the healthy choices that we talked about. Doesn't mean that she can't have whatever she wants. She eats whatever she wants to eat. The difference now is that she doesn't want the whole cake, just a piece is fine. She has lost over 120 pounds which is testimony enough.

Alternatives To Driving To Work

Here's a thought that might strike a chord with you. We are so accustom to jumping in the car to go to work, have you ever considered riding your bike or walking? I know it may be "too far". But think about this. If you bike to work and it takes you an hour, on average you will burn approximately 500 calories a day. In 5 days that adds up to 2500 calories burned, which could result in a 2 pound weight loss without changing your eating habits or diet.

I also just saw something about a bill in congress that would make you eligible for a $20/month tax credit for riding your bike to work - that's $240 a year, and they're thinking about doubling this to $40/month. This may be an incentive with the cost of gas and up keep on your car.

Here's something else to consider. Do you drive your children to school or do they ride their bike? Encouraging them to walk or ride their bike to school will start them on an exercise habit that will stay with them for life.

What Exercise Can I Do For 10 Minutes?

Here's a 10 minute exercise that I call bounce and shake. When you first start this, you may find that 10 minutes is a long time especially if you have not been exercising. But stand with your legs about shoulder width apart. Begin bouncing on your feet up and down. As you do this then begin to shake your arms. You can shake them at the floor, to either side of you, or up in the air. Continue bouncing and shaking your arms for 10 minutes. Remember to take some deep breaths through all of this.

As I said, you might find that the first week or two of this is pretty tiring, but as you continue to do it, your endurance will improve. I have one individual who has lost over 100 pounds using this simple exercise on a daily basis for 10 minutes. See her blog.

Exercise -What's Good For You

I just read a recent study that shows that you can reduce your risk of major disease and improve your quality of life with as little as 10 minutes a day of exercise! I'd say that is pretty phenomenal!

But remember the one jumping jack study where they had a test group who only had to do 1 jumping jack a day and the other group had to do 30 minutes a day of exercise. At the end of the testing period, the group who was supposed to do 1 jumping jack a day was in better shape and lost more weight than the group who was supposed to exercise 30 minutes a day. Why, because most people doing 1 jumping jack felt like and did more than 1 jumping jack a day. The people in the exercise group found excuses not to exercise because it felt too much like work to them.

So can you commit to 10 minutes a day? Stayed tuned for more on what you can do during that 10 minutes.

Pulmonary Hypertension

Yesterday I mentioned the disease pulmonary hypertension. Today I want to explain a little about this complex disease. Pulmonary hypertension is basically a high blood pressure in the pulmonary system vasculature. It can be in the arteries, veins or capillary beds or a combination of these. Like the high blood pressure that we are all familiar with, this high blood pressure is in the lungs. This makes it difficult for oxygen to get into the blood stream and CO2 to get out of the blood stream. Hence you may become short of breath because your oxygen saturation levels will drop.

These high pressures in the lungs will put high pressures on the heart and result in a heart that fails. But these pressures don't just affect the heart, they also affect the liver and can result in liver failure as well.

While we do have earlier detection these days and we can closely monitor someone with this disease, the survival rate is not great beyond 3 years from the time of the diagnosis.

So if you end up with this disease as a result of a weight loss drug, is it worth losing a few pounds to the total detriment of your health?

Weight Loss Drugs Drawbacks

Lastly, I want to talk about Phenteramine (Adipex, Ionamin). This is one of the more dangerous drugs in terms of the side effects. While it can cause things like an increase in blood pressure, increase in heart rate, diarrhea, anxiety or restlessness, these are not the things to be mostly concerned about. The bigger risk here is the development of a disease called pulmonary hypertension. This is an insideous disease that comes on without any symptoms. Once we discover that it is present, we have very few things we can do to treat it.

This is a lethal complication for you and while losing weight is important, this drug can actually totally rob you of your future health and your future. The risk with this drug is just way too high to even consider using it.

More on the Weight Loss Drugs

The next drug which is fairly familiar out there is Meridia (sibutramine). While this drugs has a slightly higher weight loss average as compared to orlistat, the side effects are much more dangerous to your health.

First and foremost, if you are on this drug be sure that you are watching your blood pressure. Meridia not raises your blood pressure, but it can also increase the heart rate, compounding the problem with the blood pressure. You should never be using this drug if you already have high blood pressure or a problem with heart rate.

Additionally, this drug can cause nausea, constipation, dry mouth, or insomnia.

Having done some the clinical trials with this drug, I can tell you that the weight loss was fairly minimal at best.

Weight Loss Prescription Drugs

I have often been asked by patients for a prescription for a weight loss drug. My usual answer is no for several reasons. Mostly it is no because of the side effects of these drugs. First and foremost you need to know that no drug whether it is prescription or over the counter is going to be a majic pill for weight loss. Taking a pill to lose weight just is not going to do it.

The economy being what it is currently, for you to lose a significant amount of weight with any of the major prescription drugs is going to cost you upwards of $1000 a year. So cost in my mind is an issue for many, but it is not the most disturbing issue about these drugs.

The most disturbing is the side effects. Here's some of the side effects of the more common drugs out there. Orlistat (Xenical, Alli) cause oily stools which can leave oil spots on your underware and often causes a very uncomfortable urge to have a bowel movement. In addition it may cause a decrease in the absorption of vitamins which you normally get from foods that you eat. The studies have shown that an individual will lose about 6 pounds a year. That's not very impressive folks and you would do better to just eat sensibly and get some exercise in your life.

More tomorrow on some of the other weight loss drugs.

Lasting Weight Loss

There is one thing that those who have lost weight and keep it off do. The one thing is that they are willing to face their demons and continue to deal with their issues. Changing your attitude and being proactive about your issues will help you in your journey. Running from the issues, just makes them grow larger. One of my clients is like the poster child for this, after years of up and down weight and never being able to sustain a weight loss, she has faced her demons and continues to deal with her issues and best of all she is sustaining her 100+ pound weight loss.

If you want to read more about Laurie's story, go to Refuse to Diet. She will help give you some wonderful insights into how to go about facing those demons and dealing with your issues.

A good place to start is to begin journaling and writing down your negative thoughts about yourself and why you haven't been able to reach your goals. Learn to create positive thoughts and let go of the negative ones. Remind yourself that you are worth the effort! Move forward, love yourself for who you are now.

Metabolic Types and Stress

Two other factors that affect your weight loss and or gain and your diet is your metabolic type and the amount of stress in your life. There are those of us out there who are the sports cars and those who are trucks. You have to match the gas with the vehicle. Or in other words match your food with your internal metabolism.

Stress plays a factor here also in that stress produces cortisol and we know that cortisol increases belly fat. Cortisol also leads to carbohydrate craving which adds to your problem. Look for ways to reduce your stress and thereby your cortisol levels.

One Last Sugar Substitute

One last sugar substitute that I want to talk about is agave nectar. This is derived from a plant native to Mexico. It is not calorie-free, but is does contain more calories than refined sugar. More importantly, agave nectar has a lower glycemic index than sugar, so it is less likely to drive to blood sugar levels high. Refined sugar has a glycemic index in the 60's while agave nectar is in the 30's.

For more on glycemic index, see my February 19, 2009 post. The bottom line is the lower the glycemic index the less likely the blood sugar will be raised into levels that are really dangerous for our bodies.

Agave nectar can help you actually lose weight, because you will be using less of it than you would refined sugar.

Best Diet Tips #6

Lastly, there is not magic bullet for weight loss. Yes, there are many diets and plans out there that will help you lose weight, but until you change what is in your head, you are more likely to go off of the diet and gain the weight back, plus some. When you have the strong urge to go eat, ask yourself the question, "Why do I want to go eat?" Sometimes it is because you have not eaten for 6 hours, but I dare say that many times you will get the urge to eat not long after a meal. It's not hunger that is triggering this urge. Also, think about what you're telling yourself you want to eat. Is it healthy foods, or are you craving empty carbohydrates - ie. junk food.

Getting in touch with this will help you make that life style change. It's easy to say it's a life style change, but until you know what is triggering you to eat, you will never make it.

Best Diet Tips #5

Have you ever hit that plateau where you just can't lose any further weight? This is a problem for most dieters, which is one reason I say to just stay off of the scale except for once a month. You will have some weight gain at times, it happens.

Be aware of how your clothes are fitting. If they are beginning to be snug on you, look at how much you are eating. One of the very best ways to help you lose weight is to eat 6-8 very small meals a day. Not only will this help your blood sugar levels, but you will never get that ravenously hungry feeling. You'll be amazed at how the pounds will drop off.

Best Diet Tips #4

My next best tip for weight loss is to get connected. If you can find a group that holds regular sessions, this will be most helpful for you. Studies have shown that the more group sessions a person attends, the weight they lost.

Get help from your family and friends to keep you motivated not only to lose the weight, but also to keep it off. There is nothing more detrimental to your plan, than a family member or friend who continually functions in a non-supportive way. These things may not be in the conscious mind of the person, but what they do or say makes it easier for you to fall away from your plan. An example of this, would be my husband, who was OK with me losing weight, but when he would cook, we would have a huge meal. I finally asked him to stop cooking for the army when there were only 2 of us and that I would dish up my own plate. Believe me, I cut a lot of calories just by eating less.

Best Diet Tips #3

You don't have to be skinny to be healthy. If weight is an issue for you, continue to cut calories. Even a small weight loss like 10 pounds can positively affect your health.

Just losing 10 pounds can help lower your blood pressure as well as lower your blood sugar levels. If you are watching cholesterol levels, a 10 pound weight loss will positively affect the good and bad cholesterol levels in the direction that you are shooting for.

Don't put so much emphasis on losing 25 or 50 or 100 pounds. Put your emphasis on decreasing the amount that you eat.

Best Diet Tips #2

If you think you are following a low-fat or high protein diet, you will do well for about 4-6 months. Somewhere in the 4-6 month time frame, you won't be meeting the target for fat, protein and carbohydrate.

Most dieters have a hard time sticking to a very rigid diet plan. Don't fuss about it. Look at how much your are eating instead. If you cut the amount of food you will lose weight.

Best Diet Tips

Since diets are on most of our minds these days, I thought I would give you a few tips. First of all, as I have said before, I do not believe in diets, because if you "go on a diet," you will most assuredly "go off of the diet" at some point. I know you've heard it before, but it is a life style change. Changing habits, like eating a piece of cake instead of the whole cake.

The very best tip I can give you is that if you decrease calorie intake, you will lost weight. Now I don't advocate counting calories, but look at your portion sizes and cut them down. Do you need a whole bun with your hamburger, or could you get by with 1/2 a bun or no bun. For most of us, the thing we can increase is fruits and vegetables.