American Adults Are Overweight

A headline in today’s local newspaper proclaimed that more than two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese.  We have heard that so often that it is no longer shocking.  

What is shocking is this picture of Jack and Jackie Kennedy taken in 1955.  I can already hear your comments, “OMG, they are too skinny!” or “They are so thin, they must have an eating disorder.”  

Do any of you remember when most Americans were this thin?

Today American women seem to be on a perpetual diet, but they don’t seem to be getting any thinner. They say things such as, “I wish I could lose some weight, but I just don’t have the discipline,” or “I really know I should lose some weight, but it’s not that important to me right now.”  Or, we hear the Oprah-like statement, “We just need to be happy with our body, no matter what size we are.”

As a health coach, I want to help people get healthy - and, overweight or obese is NOT healthy.  In fact, I’ve set a goal to help 500 women become healthy.  

How am I going to define “healthy?”

Since it’s important to use objective measures rather than just asking women how they feel, let me explain what I’m going to use.

1.) BMI under 24.9 – To find your BMI, put your current weight and height in the BMI calculator.  If you are in the normal range, “good for you!”

Being overweight or obese is NOT a cosmetic problem.  That extra weight raises your risk for serious health problems such as: gallstones, type 2 diabetes, abnormal blood fats such as high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood pressure, cancer, osteoarthritis, infertility, coronary artery disease, a stroke and sleep apnea. Medical care related to obesity in our country in 2002 was estimated to be $100 billion.  

2.) Blood Pressure under 120/80 – Blood pressure tends to rise with age if you are not following a healthy lifestyle.  Nearly 1 in 3 American women has high blood pressure.  You can prevent high blood pressure by reducing sodium (salt) intake, being active, and keeping a normal BMI.  High blood pressure increases the risk of heart disease.  To measure your blood pressure, you can schedule an appointment with your physician or go to your local pharmacy and use their FREE blood pressure cuff.

3.) Total cholesterol under 150 mg/dl. – A high cholesterol level puts you at greater risk for coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke and cancer.  Lower blood cholesterol levels are linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer and stroke.  To get a cholesterol test, you can give blood at your local blood bank and they will usually send your cholesterol reading for FREE.  You can also schedule a finger prick at a local Walgreen’s, look up an on-line cholesterol screening test or make an appointment with your physician. 

If the readings of your three screenings are not in the “ideal” range, you are welcome to sign up for a coaching program.

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© 2007-2013 Melinda Coker

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: “Melinda Coker, health coach and author of the book, Diet and Cancer: Is There a Connection?, teaches men and women around the world how to develop a healthy lifestyle.”

A Tribute to Blue

Our sweet, tired Blue wore completely out today.  When I took him out the back gate for his absolute favorite pastime in the whole world  - a walk – he just laid down and couldn’t get up.  Rick carried him to the car for a ride to the vet.

Blue was in “shock” and “dehydrated” so the vet kept him at the clinic so he could do some tests.  We were all hoping for a miracle.  After a couple of hours of tests, x-rays and fluids, Dr. Ramsey called to say there was nothing more to do.  The x-ray showed that his heart had shrunk and was unable to produce the blood volume he needed – possibly due to a tumor on his adrenal glands.

Rick and I went back to the clinic and loved on him as he breathed his final breath.

He was such a regal, beautiful dog.

It’s hard to believe he started out so tiny.  Here I am holding him at 3-weeks of age.

Our poodle, Pogo, sired two litters and we were awarded two pups in 2001 – Blue and his sister, Molly, who ultimately went to live with Candace.  Those two were best buddies and ran and played like crazy whenever they were together.

Sometimes to keep them quiet they were put in their pen.

Our dogs have always loved to travel and when in the car they are strapped in with their seat belt harnesses.

Blue was a member of a large “tribe” for awhile with Pogo, Molly and Doodle Bug.  As you can tell, walks could be quite exciting!

Halloween in Hollytree was always quite thrilling, with hundreds of trick-or-treaters.  So Pogo and Blue got dressed up each year and we all sat out on the porch with our treats.

Blue always had a special place in Logan’s heart and whenever Logan would visit, Blue was either in his lap or on his shoulders.

 Blue has also had his moment of fame when he was asked to be in a music video.  Stayton Bonner sings a song about his dog, Willie.  Unfortunately, Willie had died so Blue was asked to stand-in.  He did a great job and we should have gotten him his Screen Actors Guild card so he could have starred in more productions. ☺

A trip to the Circle Star Pet Resort was always a treat for Blue and Riley.

Bye, bye my beautiful boy.

RIP my sweet Blue and enjoy your new, energized body!

LET’S PLAY BALL!

Other Links:

Blue could HOWL with the best of them.  He hated for us to leave and he would howl to let us know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyhXOm3ULJg

He loved our feral cats and he and Socks would cause quite a ruckus.  Socks will certainly miss you, Blue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMoMZKxKS5k

Blue has slowly weaned Riley away from playing as he got sicker.  But, they did love to play while Blue felt good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXUOe7r0u4Y

The “Me and My Poodle” video by Stayton Bonner (Unfortunately, he took down Blue's video, but here is the song.)

Me and My Poodle song w/o video

  
http://www.yallwire.com/player/staytonbonnermeandmypoodle.html?detect_bitrate=_300


Blue
April 5, 2001 – July 19, 2013

Arthritis, Inflammation and Leaky Gut

If you've got arthritis, you know how painful it can be.  Approximately half of all people over 65 report having arthritis with symptoms of swelling, limitation of motion, or pain.  The regions of the body most affected are the hands, neck, lower back, hip and shoulder.

There are three types of arthritis with a known cause:

1. Traumatic Arthritis - Joints can be inflamed as a result of an injury, such as from tripping and spraining an ankle.
2. Suppurative or Septic Arthritis – Joints can be infected with bacteria from the blood stream.  This tends to occur in infants and young children.
3. Gouty Arthritis – Uric acid crystals can accumulate in the joints.

Other forms of arthritis are said by doctors to have “no known cause.” Arthritis of “no known cause” can be divided into two broad categories:

1. Degenerative (osteoarthritis) - This is the most common arthritis found in people living in Western civilizations.  It is seen in x-rays of the hands in over 70% of people who are 65 years and older.
2. Inflammatory - This includes juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus, and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). These aggressive diseases affect less than 5% of the people living in the United States today. 

Arthritis just means inflammation of a joint.  Arthritis is not a genetic disease, nor is it an inevitable part of growing older.  Many studies have linked the inflammation of arthritis to our Western diet.

As recently as 1957, no case of rheumatoid arthritis could be found on the continent of Africa.  These once unknown joint diseases have now become common as people have migrated to wealthier nations or moved to the big cities in their native countries.  With these changes people have abandoned their traditional diets of grains and vegetables for meat, dairy products, and highly processed foods.

Although unknown in Africa before 1960, African-Americans now lead in the incidence of lupus in the US.  The mechanisms by which an unhealthy diet causes inflammatory arthritis are complex and poorly understood, but involve our intestine and immune system.

Leaky gut syndrome has been theoretically suspected as a major factor in a wide range of food and chemical sensitivities, arthritis, asthma, headaches, digestive problems of varying seriousness and chronic fatigue.

Our intestinal lining (or gut wall) is a semi-permeable membrane, like a sieve, that allows small molecules (the products of digestion) to pass through, and blocks the larger molecules. These larger molecules then travel through our intestine and are eliminated. When functioning as intended, the gut wall prevents those larger molecules from stimulating food sensitivity and inflammatory reactions.

Infections, toxins (such as drugs, chemotherapy, anti-inflammatory medications) and an unhealthy diet (too high in fat, cholesterol, and animal protein) can compromise the barrier and allow large molecules to pass into the blood.  This condition of increased intestinal permeability is referred to as a "leaky gut."

Patients with inflammatory arthritis have been shown to have inflammation of the intestinal tract resulting in increased permeability.

What to do about "leaky gut?"

In scientific studies, fasting has been shown to decrease intestinal permeability, thus making the gut "less leaky."  This may be one of the reasons fasting has been shown to dramatically benefit patients with rheumatoid arthritis.  When patients return after the fast to a diet with dairy products, the gut becomes more permeable and the arthritis returns.  An unhealthy diet containing dairy and other animal products causes inflammation of the intestinal surfaces and thereby increases the passage of dietary and/or bacterial antigens (foreign proteins).

Some components of the rich American diet are known to impair the function of the immune system.  Vegetable oils (both the omega-3 and the omega-6 variety) are particularly strong suppressors of the immune system.  Low-fat diets have been shown to retard the development of autoimmune diseases, similar to lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in experimental animals. Those vegan diets that have failed to help arthritis patients have been high in vegetable oils, which are known to damage intestinal integrity.

The importance of the overall diet cannot be overemphasized.  Proper foods such as whole starches, vegetables and fruits, keep the intestinal barriers strong and the immune system in a fighting condition. In addition to being free of animal products, the diet must be low in fat of all kinds - vegetable oil (even olive oil, corn, safflower, and flaxseed oil) and animal fat.  When it comes to blaming individual foods, dairy products seem to be the most troublesome foods, causing the most common and severe reactions.  Many reports indicate grains, such as corn and wheat can also aggravate the symptoms.  The truth seems to be almost any food can cause trouble, but few people react to vegetable foods.

The immune suppressing quality of oils (for example, fish oil and primrose oil) has been used to suppress the pain and inflammation of arthritis, but like too many drug therapies the ultimate outcome may not be best for the patient.  Suppression of the immune system prevents it from doing its work of removing invading foreign proteins.

One dangerous paradox in arthritis treatment is that the drugs most commonly used to treat arthritis are toxins to the intestinal barrier.  All commonly used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like Advil, Motrin, Naprosyn, etc.), apart from aspirin and nabumetone (Relafen), are associated with increased intestinal permeability in man. While reversible in the short term, it may take months to improve the barrier following prolonged use.

What won't change in either form of arthritis with a change of diet, is the permanent destruction, stiffness and deformity which has already happened through years of disease.

If you suffer from arthritis (either degenerative or inflammatory), try changing your diet for at least two  weeks.  Eat only whole starches (sweet potatoes, brown rice), vegetables (green and yellow) and fruits (except citrus).  Water is your beverage.

After 2 weeks, you should be feeling much better.  At that point you can add in grains and citrus.  If you start to have symptoms again, eliminate those and add them back in one at a time to see if you can decide which food(s) cause the adverse reaction.

Stop taking any nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and if necessary, replace with aspirin or nabumetone (Relafen).

If you try this "anti-arthritis" diet, write a comment and let me know how it worked for you.