Questions & Answers

I want you to do a little experiment. Get an ice pack, and get a watch with a timer. Put the ice pack on your thigh, and start the timer. After 1 minute has elapsed, remove the ice pack.

Now take a look at your skin. What color is your skin where the ice pack was laying? For most, the skin will look white / blanched.

Now put the ice pack on your other thigh and leave it there for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes have elapsed, remove the ice pack.

What color is your skin now? Most people will find that their skin will be red. And if your skin turns red after only 5 minutes, you’ll probably find that it turns really red after 20 minutes.

When your skin begins to cool, the initial reaction is constriction (shrinking of the diameter) of blood vessels. This happens after a short period of time (1-2 minutes for most people). The result of constriction of the blood vessels is that “whiteness” or blanching.

As you all know, after we have engaged in high-intensity physical exercise our muscles are all but depleted of glycogen. Glycogen is typically the primary stored fuel source we use to push us through these workouts and also aid in our recovery so we can repeat our efforts next time. New research recorded recently has shown that athletes who ingested caffeine combined with their post workout carbohydrate drink had 66% more glycogen in the muscles up to four hours after finishing exercise than those who consumed a carbohydrate drink alone.

In order for us to be ready for the next workout, ‘re-fueling’ is paramount. However, if we can store a little more fuel in our muscles it can only result in us being able to give more effort in our activities and for longer period of time. That being said, if we are able to increase glycogen uptake in the muscles this can do absolutely no harm in our goals to increase muscle size long term either.

An estimated 30-35% percent of the population suffer from a certain type of food intolerance, and those who are suffering from that intolerance aren’t always identified the first time around. The most common culprits we usually think of are lactose, wheat, gluten, artificial colorings and preservatives. However, what would you say if I told you that it was fruit and some types of vegetables and grains?

When people think of detoxing they think of eating no solid food or drinking boiled cabbage water all day, which to some can mean torture rather than cleanse.

One particular individual was documented to have ate no solid food for 10 days and drank a mix of lemon juice, water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, also a quart of salt water and then a laxative tea. Hence to say she suffered with acne, irritability and headaches. Her goal was to lose some body-fat and cleanse her body of free-radicals.

In this instance, she took the word ‘cleanse’ a little to far as this ultimately ended up doing the reverse of what she originally wanted.

These extreme ways to shed body-fat and detoxify the body have become more common place as of late, particularly with the younger generation due to stories coming to light that some famous celebrities have tried these extremes with great success.

Want to learn how to save $6000 per year in health expenses? Allow me to tell you about an interesting article from Journal of the American Medical Association relating being overweight in young/middle age to Medicare expenditures in older age. The study looked at Medicare data from 1984-2002 with baseline data from 1967-1973 for 9978 men and 7623 women (ages 33-64) who did NOT have heart disease or diabetes and were either normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), overweight (BMI 25-29.9), obese (BMI 30-34.9) or severely obese (BMI>35). After the authors had adjusted for age, race, education, and smoking, they found some very amazing difference in annual and cumulative charges for men and women:

You constantly hear about America’s notorious cholesterol problem, but did you know how prevalent it actually is? Many people are shocked to learn that a whopping 50% of Americans have high or borderline-high cholesterol levels, putting them at risk for a host of ailments, including heart disease. Although the situation is serious, it’s fortunately quite easy to fix – if you’re committed to a healthier lifestyle, just follow these five steps.

1. Eat heart-healthy foods: Try the Cheerios challenge to lower your cholesterol in just weeks. The soluble fiber found in Cheerios and other whole-grains, fruits, and vegetables has been linked to reductions in cholesterol in clinical studies.

Is strength training safe for pre-teens? If it is, what kind of program should they engage in? Let’s have a look at the answers to these questions.

Strength training (which can include bodyweight-resisted and weight-resisted exercises) can be safe and effective for pre-pubescents to participate in. However, as their bodies are developing, care must be taken to avoid any injuries that might be permanent (i.e. damage to growth plates). A carefully constructed and monitored routine can have many benefits including:

• Improved sports performance
• Increased bone density
• Increased strength and endurance
• Increased cardio respiratory function
• Improved coordination
• Improved body composition
• Discipline and self confidence

One way injuries can arise is as the result of an “incident” like falling or during a lift. Another way they can happen is over time, through repetitive or cumulative stresses (i.e. tendonitis).

In either case, you may experience several different sensations. Sometimes the pain is sharp, sometimes dull, and other times the painful area simply feels “tight”.

When the injured area feels “tight”, the first solution that comes to mind is stretching. But what if you found out that stretching could make the problem worse instead of better? You may be wondering “Is that even possible?”

The quick answer is: Yes, it is possible. But whether or not stretching can make the problem worse has to do with (1) which tissues are involved and (2) the cause of the tightness.

It’s possible that the injury involves certain tissues that are slightly (or not so slightly) torn / disrupted. When you stretch, there is a chance of tearing tissue.

Exercising during pregnancy has obvious benefits for the mom, such as keeping weight gain under control, maintaining fitness level, and relieving stress, but until recently, little has been known about the positive effects on the unborn baby.

Research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society implied that exercise has cardiovascular benefits not only for the mom, but for the developing fetus as well. Dr. Linda E. May and colleagues from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences hypothesized that fetuses whose mothers exercised would have better autonomic nervous system function than fetuses not exposed to exercise.

The answer to this question seems pretty simple, but it’s actually a bit more complicated than you might imagine. There are definitely going to be folks who say, “Yes, without a doubt, supplements are needed.” There will also be those “naturalists” who won’t advocate any supplement at any level for anything. I have to admit…I fall somewhere in the middle. There are several supplements that have been studied extensively and seem to pass the test when it comes to safety and efficacy, but does that necessarily mean you need to take them? Good question, huh? The point of writing this little article arose because some members have brought up the issue of supplements and their cost, and whether they really need them to reach their goals. Let’s take a closer look at this hot button issue.

Let’s face it… When it comes to weightlifting, there’s a whole lotta cheating goin’ on.

At its roots, cheating comes from never really learning good form in the first place. Many people simply “learn” by watching others. Often, this is not good enough. The subtleties and nuances of technique are difficult for the inexperienced to see, if they can be seen at all! Exercise is a science, and the movements of exercise need to be learned.

Also, the tendency to cheat increases as the weight / load increases. This is not to say that using light weights guarantees good form. It doesn’t. But the two things that result in cheating / loss of form are actual load and perceived load.

Actual load is the weight on the bar. It’s just that simple.

Perceived load is relative to how fatigued you are. Fatigue can be local or systemic. Local fatigue involves the muscle or muscles you are working. Systemic fatigue means your cardiovascular system is taxed. Both can spell trouble when it comes to keeping good form.

I don’t mean to imply that cheating the weight up (or down) is necessarily a bad thing. Used as a tool by an experienced lifter, it can be a powerful intensity technique. But, believe it or not, there is a proper form to this kind of cheating!

Is it just me, or does it seem like every Olympic race results in a new world record? This trend has been increasingly prevalent at the recent Games, and it makes sense – every four years, Olympians train to be faster, bigger, and better than in previous years.

But there are also a couple of tricks modern athletes have up their sleeves: better technology, better science, and better sports medicine. There are three primary factors that allow elite athletes to perform seemingly superhuman feats. They are:

• Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max)
• Lactate threshold
• Running economy/efficiency

You’ve all had that experience. You eat a nice meal and then go to bed thinking all is just fine…until you wake up in the middle of the night with the sweats and a stomachache. The most likely culprit for that sickly feeling is food poisoning, a fairly common occurrence in the United States. According to the CDC, there are approximately 76 million cases of foodborne illness each year, with 325,000 resulting in hospitalization and 5,000 resulting in death.

Despite the fairly high prevalence, most people probably aren’t all that concerned about foodborne illnesses. In fact, there are a number of safeguards in place to minimize risk to consumers, not to mention the food safety guidelines we should all be following when handling food items at home. Let’s take a closer look at food safety in general and address some practical tips you can use to keep yourself safe and healthy.

Read on for the conclusion of Rick Schaff's article, "Vaccine Dangers". Make sure to check out the previous two installments to catch up: Vaccine Dangers - Part 1 and Vaccine Dangers - Part 2.

My Personal Thoughts

I grew up like most of us, believing that vaccines have saved the world from every dreaded disease since smallpox. However, as I dug deeper into naturopathic studies, holistic medicines, and alternative methods of healing, my mind opened to include other ways of thinking. As I learned about nutrition, the human body, and the immune system I began to realize that vaccines did not seem be the best options for optimum health in many situations. I’ll never forget the day I was studying graphs that tracked the rise and decline of many different diseases. In every one of them it showed diseases at their height and how they naturally began to decline as sanitary living conditions improved. All the graphs showed the same thing over and over; when vaccines were introduced during the history of a disease’s path, they had virtually no effect on the natural decline path of the disease. In fact, most graphs reflected a small spike in disease regeneration upon the vaccine introduction. What the graphs showed me was that vaccines have been given way more credit than they deserve throughout history. That information, coupled with the previous data I have shared was enough for me to re-think my position on all vaccinations and to examine more closely what specific vaccinations may be truly beneficial. I started asking myself questions like, “what’s so wrong with chicken pox or measles?” If a child has a strong immune system, it seems to me like these uncomfortable bouts of illness will only serve to help build up their immune systems naturally. The alternative is to try and vaccinate our kids against every known illness and inadvertently put them at a greater risk by overloading their systems with toxins. Jenny McCarthy brought up this exact point on Larry King Live and said, “I’ll take measles any day over autism.”

Vaccines contain elements considered by many to be dangerous, and one of them is mercury. According to Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D., Assistant Director PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois: “Mercury is a cumulative poison. Repeated exposure is very dangerous.” Yikes! A popular preservative used in many vaccines is a substance called Thimerosal, which is made up of about 50 percent ethyl mercury. Thimerosal is used to prevent bacteria from growing in multi-use containers of vaccines, including flu shots. Ironically, mercury isn’t necessary to prevent bacteria from growing. This potential problem could be eliminated by mass-producing only single ampoule vaccine containers; however, that would be more expensive to make, which would cut into profits or raise costs. Again, mercury is a cumulative poison, which means rather than being expelled, it slowly builds up in the body with serious consequences such as destroying brain cells and nerve cells. Even “trace” amounts of this toxic metal can be damaging to your health.

Unfortunately, we are repeatedly exposed to trace amounts of mercury from many different avenues and this continuous exposure is a problem. Therefore we must take every precaution to eliminate and reduce all exposure if we want to remain healthy. As a result of mounting pressure from many sources, the pharmaceutical companies are currently making a big effort to remove thimerosal from many vaccines. I wonder, however, why they are spending so much time and energy to remove a chemical that they claim is safe?