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July 15, 2019
July 2, 2019
July 1, 2019
Who Decides What you Think About?
Here is a story (‘research’, pardon me), about what you think about verses what actually happens.
Well, it is actually way worse than this article implies: What is the third leading cause of death in this country? The cause not even mentioned in this research article that claims to list the top ten. (It is as interesting what you do not think about as it is what you do.)
But you may have read about the third leading cause of death in this country here recently. Shhhhhh, no one is supposed to think about that!
June 26, 2019
If you want to lose weight…
I first learned it as Fletcherizing… chewing eat bite 21 times before swallowing. It is big. It is easy. It is free. And it will help.
June 25, 2019
Twelve Tips for Healthy Sleep
These are from Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker, PhD. He got them from NIH Magazine Plus (Internet) [I edited some of it… they were wordy]
- Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
- Exercise is great, but not too late in the day. … not later than two to three hours before your bedtime.
- Avoid caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine can ‘take as long as eight hours to wear off.’
- Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed. (He talks about sedation not being the same as sleeping.)
- Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
- If possible, avoid medications that delay or disrupt your sleep. Some can be taken at a different time of the day.
- Don’t take naps after 3 p.m. Naps can make up for lost sleep but late afternoon naps can make it harder to fall asleep at night. (Naps are good. He did a whole section on that, but too late not so good.)
- Relax before bed.
- Take a hot bath before bed. (There is a whole chapter on temperature and getting to sleep quick – important and simple to implement.)
- Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom. He offers tricks.
- Have the right sunlight exposure – get bright sun in the morning, early part of the day; turn down the lights as bedtime approaches.
- Don’t lie in bed awake. He says get up and do something relaxing if lying in bed awake for more then twenty minutes makes you feel anxious or worried. I say breathe and ‘follow your breath’. (Mentally ‘notice’ your breath and keep you mind on that one thing. Look at the Blog Posts on breath and breathing to fill in the details. Essentially, you will be meditating; and asleep before you know it.
June 23, 2019
Amazing Breakthrough!
Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?
Above is the opening the the sixth chapter of Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker, PhD.
Below is the next three paragraphs.
“While it may sound hyperbolic, nothing about this fictitious advertisement would be inaccurate. If it were a new drug, many people would be disbelieving. Those who are convinced would pay large sums of money for even the smallest dose. Should clinical trials back up the claims, share prices of the pharmaceutical company that invented the drug would skyrocket.
Of course, the ad is not describing some miracle new picture or a cure-all wonder drug, but rather the proven benefits of a full night of sleep. The evidence supporting these claims has been documented in in more than 17,000 well-scrutinized scientific reports to date. As for the prescription cost, well, there isn’t one. It’s free. Yet all too often we shun the nightly invitation to receive our full dose of this all-natural remedy – with terrible consequences.
Failed by the lack of public eduction, most of us do not realize how remarkable a panacea sleep truly is. The following three chapters are designed to help rectify our ignorance born of this largely absent public health message. We will come to learn that sleep is the universal health care provider: whatever the physical or mental ailment, sleep has a prescription it can dispense. Upon completion of these chapters, I hope even the most ardent of short-sleepers will be swayed, having a reformed deference.”
And one last quote, from page 319. “As I write this chapter, a new report has discovered that medical errors are the third-leading cause of death among Americans after heart attacks and cancer.”
June 12, 2019
“Fasting” the movie (well documentary); Jason Fung, M.D.
It came out in 2017, but I only found out the other day. A great movie, staring (among others) Jason Fung, M.D. this movie is comprehensive, so it has a lot of stuff that will not apply to most people. But it is a very good documentary. Easy to find on Netflix – I do not know about the rest of it.
Also, it is a little scary, by design. The sicker you are, the more risky anything you do is, in terms of reaction – you have to be careful who you listen to.
It is interesting that it did not take them long in the movie to refer to T. Colin Campbell (the plant-based diet guy) – though they never did mention his China Study.
Now I am reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD., another very good book. In it he didn’t get too far along before he was referencing the Greek island of Ikaria – with regard to napping (important!). He never did mention Blue Zones though, by name. It is one of the five blue zones.
June 11, 2019
Jason Fung, M.D. – Excerpt from “The Diabetes Code”
page 149 and 150
“…meta-analyses reviewing all the available literature up to 2016, including twenty randomized controlled trials, could only conclude that ‘there is no significant evidence of long term efficacy of insulin on any clinical outcomes in T2D (type 2 diabetes). However, there is a trend clinically harmful adverse effects such as hypoglycemia and weight gain.’ In other words, insulin treatment, including medications that simulate only the glucose-lowering properties of insulin, carries no perceptible benefits and significant risks. Insulin is “significantly more harmful than other active treatments.” (Emphasis mine!)
If you are on insulin or pre-diabetic you might want to go back and read that again, meanwhile… there is more.
page 150
“A similar review in the Journal of the American Medical Association that included all relevant trials up to 2016 found that none of the drug classes considered, including metformin, SUs, TZDs, and DPP-4 inhibitors, reduced cardiovascular disease or other complications.”
“While the scientific evidence is crystal clear, diabetes guidelines are slow to reflect this new reality. “… 95 percent of published guidelines endorsed the use of diabetes drugs despite the nonexistent benefits.”
“The classic medical treatment, which relies almost exclusively on pharmaceuticals to reduce blood glucose, can therefore best be described as how not to treat type 2 diabetes.”
“Following the low-fat, calorie-restricted diet and increasing exercise have long been the recommended lifestyle treatment for type 2 diabetes. There is only one problem with this seeming common sense advice. It doesn’t work at all.”
June 1, 2019
Seth Godin Clearing Things Up
Justifying mediocre work
The list of reasons is nearly endless.
We need all of them to explain the shortcuts, phone-ins and half-work that we’re surrounded by.
All of them are pretty good reasons too. We’re in a hurry, the system is unfair, the market demands it, no one will notice, it’s not my job, I was handed a lousy spec, the materials are second-rate, the market won’t pay for quality, competition is cutthroat, my boss is a jerk, it’s actually pretty good, no one appreciates the good stuff anyway…
On the other hand, there’s only one way to justify work that’s better than it needs to be: Because you cared enough.
May 31, 2019
Burger King’s Impossible Burger
This is what is being build in the lot next to where our office is right now – I think. Here, read all about it:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/beyond-meat-is-a-disruptor-as-plant-based-meat-industry-sales-poised-to-reach-100-billion-2019-05-28?mod=mw_share_facebook&fbclid=IwAR3J7xdb_oG8iS1brXAygs3-a7iqRKgPnvPIWepdje825sUfLV56aWUfU7k
Parking will improve soon, too, I am sure:-)
Jason Fung, M.D. : Newly Published Research
I put this under ‘Jason Fung, M.D.’ on the Blog because it is new, and because it is research on Diabetes. But it has nothing to do with him: unless you have read his books and recognize a pattern.
This is ‘research’ in which we are supposed to read the headline, but never actually digest the small print – and it is written in such a way that it is not easy to digest even if you can. Read the last sentence of this Post. Dig into the article only if you think that you can appreciate what is, and what is not, being said. Then disregard all of it and go back and re-read Jason Fungs’ books.
Taken from Medscape
New Diabetes Cases in US Fall by 35% After 20-Year Rise
May 30, 2019
“Beyond Measure” – A Book Review
Beyond Measure (2015), by Vicki Abeles and Grace Rubinstein, is about rescuing an “over scheduled, over tested, underestimated generation”. It followed a documentary, also done by the author, called “Race to Nowhere.”
The issues of the current generation trying to become adults spills over into the conversations we have with patients – and their kids (they are all patients:-).
I had no idea the magnitude of the problem. Yes, we have – for years – talked about the heavy back packs; and now, of course we talk about “text neck”. That is the tip of the iceberg.
I would say that if you have school-aged kids, or will have, or they or their parents are in your life at all, this would be a book for you. It is well written, and though the authors spend a lot of print on the problem – details meant to convince and compel, which I do not need, but you may.
Here I would just like to share quotes that struck me.
“nature-deficit disorder” on page 79 – it becomes a health issue very quickly.
Meaningless (school work) leaving the kids with no sense of purpose. “Change the system not just the symptoms”. (They do a great job of getting to cause.)
“deep learning is as much about the process as it is about the product.
Become a “Rat Racer in Recovery” page 197. They do this a lot – it helps with retention:-)
“An act of cultural defiance” breaking old habit and familiar patterns – in maintaining balance – referring to digital detox.
“Define success with wellness at the core.” There is an idea that I can get behind!
In reclaiming a runaway schedule: ask what matter most (to yourself, and the kids – ask them the question).
Peace has to precede wellness – first measure of successful parenting – who they are verse what they do.
Focus on real connection
School work should be done at school.
“There is more than one path to a meaningful life.”
This whole book is about “project-based learning” as an alternative to what kids experience currently.
“Frustrated beyond function”
“A problem shrouded in silence a decade ago.”
“Childhood is not a race: say ‘no, it’s not a race'”.
“The most important lessons and qualities can not be measured – insisting on measuring them will never lead kids to thrive.”
Chapter 8, First Be Well – “The deliberate promotion of children’s wellbeing”, “Beyond healthy – strive toward happy”, Prevention: social and emotional learning; positive psychology (University of Pennsylvania, Martin Seligman); and… mindfulness (See 2014 cover of TIME magazine)
The coordinator of mental health services and outreach at Harvard started offering mindfulness classes in student dorms and found it to be the “single most effective tool” he’s encountered in his work so far.” Page 198
This hits home for me, of course, as a Tai Chi instructor, both at the local Community College, and a local gym. Mindfulness, relaxation, and developing both external and internal awareness, is at the very heart of Tai Chi.
I would like to end with a quote from the front cover of the book: “America. This is your wake-up call. With both heart and smarts, Vicki Abeles showcases the courageous communities that are rejecting the childhood rat race and reclaiming health and learning. Our kids really need us to listen.” – MARIE SHRIVER
