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Barefoot training: Powermetrics and Plyometrics - Featuring the Supercat
Monday, November 21, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Post-op ACL reconstruction maintenance program
Retro Treadmill 10 minutes - 10% incline approximately 2.0 mph
Ladder Drills 3-5 times each way - 2 in 2 out
Lateral Band Walk - 5 x 10 meters each side
Around the worlds 10 x each direction each side
Angle Eccentric Squats 3 x 10 each side
Single Leg BOSU Squats 3 x 8 each side
Split Squats 3 x 10 each side
Single straight leg crossed deadlifts - 3 x 10 each side
Single Leg Bridges Heel Raise 3 x 10 each side
Side Bridges 3 x 10 each side
Ball Hamstring Curls 3 x 10 each side
Bridges with alternating knee extension 3 x 10 each side
Rose Wall Slides 3 x 10 each
Cone Touches 10 x each cone
Single Knee Balance 10 x 10 seconds
Towel Scrunches 1 minute each foot
Calf Stretching against wall 3 x 20 seconds
Box Drops 30 x each foot
Knee to chest Hamstring stretch 30 x each foot
Hope it works for you!
Ladder Drills 3-5 times each way - 2 in 2 out
Lateral Band Walk - 5 x 10 meters each side
Around the worlds 10 x each direction each side
Angle Eccentric Squats 3 x 10 each side
Single Leg BOSU Squats 3 x 8 each side
Split Squats 3 x 10 each side
Single straight leg crossed deadlifts - 3 x 10 each side
Single Leg Bridges Heel Raise 3 x 10 each side
Side Bridges 3 x 10 each side
Ball Hamstring Curls 3 x 10 each side
Bridges with alternating knee extension 3 x 10 each side
Rose Wall Slides 3 x 10 each
Cone Touches 10 x each cone
Single Knee Balance 10 x 10 seconds
Towel Scrunches 1 minute each foot
Calf Stretching against wall 3 x 20 seconds
Box Drops 30 x each foot
Knee to chest Hamstring stretch 30 x each foot
Hope it works for you!
Wrestling Warm up
This dynamic warm up is to help train coordination and get wrestlers used to staying on the balls of their feet. This warm up is a bit unorthodox but it encompasses many aspects that are often left out in wrestling training. I have also included a dynamic mobility program which will not only improve range of motion, it will also stimulate core muscles and motor programs that wrestlers need to have to avoid injury. The warm up is one of the most important aspects of training. It brings blood flow to the tissues and wakes up the nervous system prior to engaging in intense activity. Wrestling is a sport that requires many repetitive movements but they are often short ranges of motion allowing wrestlers to develop stiffness. This type of training also causes diminished coordination. These drills and exercises will challenge a wrestlers coordination and if performed daily, their athletic ability will be enhanced and injuries will be prevented.
Most people gas out not because they are out of shape, but because they failed to be nourished, hydrated and/or did not warm up properly. A good warm up should last approximately 15-30 minutes. We will have to breathe very deeply and quickly while exerting maximal effort during competition and practice. Our body has negative responses to activity that is ramped up very quickly. It is a shock to your system. We want our body to have already experienced some short duration high intensity bouts of activity prior to starting intense drills or walking on to the competition mat.
Warm Up – 1 x each – can do length of room or around the room. I would prefer going the length of the room. Total should be 50-100 feet each.
Frankensteins 1 x, Knee to chest walks 1 x, Walking lunges 1x, Retro Walks 1x, Power Skips 3x, High Knees 3 x, Butt kicks 3x, Lateral Shuffle 3x, Carioca 3x, Backward Reach Runs 3x, Hip extension thrusts 3x, Small Bounding 3x, Straight knee bounding 3x, Bounding 3x, 2 foot jumps 1x, 1 foot jumps 1x, 2-1-1-2 jumps 1x, lateral jumps 1x each direction, backwards jumps 1x, Jaguar Walks 1 x, Gorilla Jumps 1 x, Bear Crawl forward 1x, bear crawl lateral 1 x, Bear Crawl Backwards 1 x, Crab Walks forward 1x, Crab walks Bwd 1 x, Speed High Knees 10 x 5 yards 10 seconds as many reps ass possible – 10-15 minutes total
Next Move to Mobility – Forward and Lateral Leg Swings 3 x 10 each leg, Sumo Squats 10x, Overhead deep Squats 10x, Worlds greatest lunge 10 x, Forwards and backward Arm Circles 30 x each , Arm crosses 30 x, Trunk Rotations 10 x each side, Supine Trunk rotations reaches Single leg 10 x each side, Prone Press ups 10 x each, Supine to prone upper and lower body rolling 10 x each, prone to supine upper and lower body rolling 10 x each, Supine hip press bridges 10 x each side, q ped trail legs 10 x each leg each direction, mountain climbers 30x each foot, Kickovers 10 x each side, Diagonal In and out abs 10 x each side – no more than 10 minutes
Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2t09AM9QmE
Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2t09AM9QmE
Friday, November 18, 2011
I had dinner with my Dad tonight. good man. We talked alot about nutrition during the time we spent. My dad is currently under my supervision for fitness and weight loss which is really cool because I never could convince him to totally come on board with the things I have been telling him.
So, after we spoke I decided I would write everything out that we were talking about so he could read it. I know I didn't get to cover all of the details of our topic of conversation while we ate. I really want to make sure he has all of the information. It's very important to me that he has this information so he can more wisely guide his life. now that I have his attention, I figure this is a good time to tell him what's up because I care about him. I must care about you too. I figured maybe I had created enough clout with this stuff that I could convince you to think differently about somethings too.
So let me see if I have this right. People's bodies are always being damaged by our behaviors, some worse than others, environmental factors and through the natural process of human life. This causes damage to our cells and tissues but our bodies, when healthy are able to repair fixable cells and remove damaged cells as wells as toxins and allergens via the immune system. When we are babies, our immune systems are weak and need exposure to the world to develop strength. For the most, we develop immunity to many common causes of disease. These were the diseases which originally caused us to get an illness. Today we have wiped most of those out of existence. Yet we are more ill than ever.
We are having a healthcare issue because of one thing and one thing only. People are sicker than ever. We are awaiting the babyboomers, the largest and soon becoming oldest population to reap it. They are being prescribed medicines to "fix" problems which are not truly the causes. This in turn allows the causes of the problems to continue. Am I just bitching and complaining, No! My parents are babyboomers and so are many of yours. One day I will be someones Dad and I want to be able to tell them what's really going on! Just like my Dad did for me. I am going to have to live through a time period when we have a pandemic of chronic disease. Healthcare expenditures are expected to double which is already more than the military spends each year.
What are these things that are causing us to get sick when we should have developed the immunity to avoid acquiring diseases from yesteryear in a civilization that was uncleanly and unsanitary. The streets today are clean but the human body is not. The worst part, to me, is yet to come.
The illnesses we get today are of two categories chronic behavioral and chronic reproductive. When I say chronic, I mean they do not occur until after the 5th but possibly the fourth decade of life? Why is that? Do all older people suffer from these illnesses. No, it is still only a small percentage of the population who continue to become ill and stress system. I agree, the population has grown but the illnesses are different than they used to be even less than 50 years ago when many of these babyboomers were born. They are also different and similar among people in the U.S. and other countries liek the U.S. around the world.
When I say behavioral I mean there is a great behavioral component to these illnesses. These illnesses require improper behaviors that create enough damage in the body to create dysfunction at least on the cellular level. Unfortunately some of the behaviors are known and people are very aware of the risk they are taking when engaging in the behaviors. Other detrimental behaviors are occurring in the most dangerous environment ever. the one which isn't acutely or immediately dangerous. The one that is being promoted in which ingesting certain food products that are actually borderline toxic or poisonous to our systems when done in excess over time. The problem is that we don't know what these things are and what excess is. These behaviors primarily stress our detoxification organs such as the liver and kidneys, as well as are filtering organs such as the skin and lungs. Digestive organs, such as the colon and pancreas also take tons of stress from trying to handle ingesting so many foods and substances that are harmful. When have you ever heard of heart cancer? Blood cancers are usually found when people are young.
When I say reproductive, I mean sex organs. Many of the diseases of these organs, especially cancers, we experience today are secondary to dysfunctioned reproductive organs. Breast cancer is rampant in our society and women do not get it til middle age. Women also suffer from cervical and ovarian cancers at an alarming rate. Men are also seeing low testosterone on the rise and prostate cancer like never before. Many of the foods we eat are loaded with chemicals and toxic levels of natural food products. There are more wheat, corn and soy consumed in this country without knowing it is aggravating. Many of these chemicals and foods cause elevated levels of sex hormones, primarily estrogen manifesting different issues in each gender. People really don't know how much of certain things they are eating. they also don't know what it does to their body. nor are they taught to.
How are fruits and veggies paired in the same category when they are not even close to the same thing nor does our body process them in a similar way? I now know, because of this and many other reasons, the food guide pyramid was not set up based up on health or these would have easily been considered separate categories. I had a friend tell me once that he did not have to eat veggies because he ate enough fruit everyday. This was one time that I truly realized something was wrong in society. My friend is highly intelligent and a pretty informed person. Unfortunately you have to be careful of which information you consume!
Is this normal? I don't think so. Especially when we can study the past. Our diets have changed more in the past 50-60 years than they ever had in human history. People are less active and eat more than ever. Have you ever eaten pancakes or french toast for breakfast to feel the sudden crash or potential need to vomit during increased physical activity such as exercise? It doesn't happen after you eat veggies, meats, fruits, nuts, seeds, and small amounts of dairy. We were designed to work and be active. Especially during the day. Eating food that causes us to be unable to be physically active after wards and appropriately functional is counterproductive to everything.
Today we eat all day long and eat the wrong foods. We sit around barely able to have enough energy to get through the day. Why is this? A large meal during the day was historically in the evening time after a hard days work in any time period previously except for the current one. Today the average person eats at least three square meals during any given day and grazes snacking on foods in between which more often than not are loaded with carbohydrates. Eating meals heavy in carbohydrates preceding physical activity is tremendously detrimental to our health and our energy levels, ultimately causing us to gain body fat and get sicker over time. There is nothing wrong with large people who are not expanding. However, expanding waist lines are abundant today and cannot be removed when we talk about the health and performance of our society. Eating large meals causes our insulin to raise above normal levels. Exposure to high levels of insulin is detrimental to humans. Certain foods do cause this to happen more than others. Overeating or eating too many servings of anything will cause our bodies to divert attention from allowing us to feel energized and alert to being sluggish and fatigued.
Ingestion of carbohydrates, especially simple and processed, causes our insulin to increase. The types of carbohydrates consumed by our society causes our insulin to spike, hyperinsulinemia. Not the normal spike. Insulin levels always increase following a meal but certain foods cause it to spike abnormally high. When insulin spikes abnormally high several things occur. First we get rebound hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, which causes fatigue, decreased mental alertness, and lower levels of energy. Second our livers increase production of triglycerides which are carried on our LDL(bad) cholesterol. During periods of inactivity, our muscles are resistant to insulin. this is why exercise is important. Particularly resistance or high intensity exercise. Low intensity exercise is good for the heart, i.e. cardio as I have mentioned previously. The former causes the muscles to crave nutrition and they in turn become more sensitive insulin causing a lowered sensitivity to our fat. Careful we can still not overeat, rule # 1. We can eat a little more if we are active however because the negative sequelae, that I am going to speak of next, are less likely to ensue.
The triglycerides are transported to the fat tissue for storage. It is harder to release energy from our fat tissue once it is stored there. Blood tests will then show high triglycerides and high LDL cholesterol. Our current answer, pills? Now that we have stored energy in the fat and we are starving and fatigued because our blood sugar is low, we will crave food, and be likely to overeat. this is also one of the reasons why diets often fail. People retain body fat even when they aren't eating as much. Our muscles start to burn their own sugar stores before the body turns to fat. This in turn causes hunger. People are getting hungrier and hungrier as they deplete themselves from food during the day. Being more physically active during the day when the muscles are a bit hungry for blood sugar pushes the body to begin to target the fat cells for our energy. As we begin to exercise, if our muscles are a bit starved, we should begin to consume more carbohydrates to help refuel our muscles. A topic for another day.
Our red blood cells also carry blood glucose after digesting a carbohydrate rich meal. This is very counterproductive because our red blood cells are our main transport of oxygen. Look up HBA1C for anyone concerned more on this topic. Any person with Diabetes will know this number. The doctors test it to make sure it doesn't get out of control. Why? Elevated HBA1C indicates that red blood cells are carrying to much blood sugar and too little oxygen. In turn, we do not get enough oxygen to our tissues. Over time this really begins to be counter productive to healing and repair as well as living, especially with any energy. I know I want as much oxygen to my tissues as possible. Yes, this is a double whammy for smokers.
If elevated blood sugar and insulin levels increases our cholesterol, triglycerides and causes damage to our tissues, why do we treat these problems with pills. People are addicted. Eating releases dopamine, the feel good neurotransmitter in the brain. We are designed to need to eat and our bodies reward us when we do. You guessed it. When we over eat we increase secretion of dopamine creating a greater connection to overeating. Humans love pleasure and avoid pain. Too much of any pleasure often leads to pain, or ultimately us becoming in a state of pathology or sickness.
That isn't it! Elevated insulin levels also increases pressure on the kidneys secondary to the reabsorption of sodium and subsequently fluids. This causes increased production of uric acid. This uric acid spills into the blood leading to gout. Gout has not been common for long. It's prevalence increased during the time when England began to trade for sugar increasing the imports nearly 100 times near the beginning of the 1800's. Doctor's new back then gout was associated with too much sugar and diabetes. Gout is primarily urine that spills into the blood stream, yes. It smells like urine when drained from a joint. Nasty!
High blood pressure puts stress on our hearts. Insulin also causes an increased stiffness to our arterial walls. This in turn leads to heart disease. How do we fix this? current answer pills. Doesn't sound like pills get to the cause of this problem. It only perpetuates it further. Which is why I am writing this. my Dad needs to know this stuff. You need to know it too. This is all preventable. Facing the worst healthcare, or simply, health crisis in history and people are still not being empowered to make better decisions.
Finally, this all causes cancer as well. Cells, tissues, and reproductive organs are unable to repair themselves. Insulin causes tissues to grow, it is anabolic. Excessive insulin production also causes damage to our pancreas. The nerves do not receive an adequate oxygen supply and cannot transmit the appropriate messages to and from our organs. This is marked in individuals with poorly controlled Diabetes. Many people with diabetes often experience skin related nervous system issues such as loss of sensation to the fingers and the toes because they are the farthest away from our hearts. The deep blood supply to all of our tissues and organs is effected. The the nerves and the blood supply to the pancreas is also effected causing even further dysfunction and regulation of our sugar and insulin. Our immune systems are also stressed because the widespread damage is relentless and taxing. Our immunity to disease is impaired. We are truly in a pathological state of being. The nerves in the brain can no longer repair themselves and plaques begin to buildup. Cells which are damaged and mutated begin to proliferate. These cells were once easily cleaned up by an appropriately functioning and healthy brain and immune system. these cells grow and grow until they become tumors. If caught early enough, many cancers can be treated. However, many cancers, especially those of the organs mentioned previously are caused by the behaviors mentioned previously and the cause of the problem continues and the person experiences one illness after another. One pill after another, until they are barely human and being supported entirely by the medical system.
It doesn't have to be this way. We are facing times like no other when it comes to health. The system is set up to keep people less unhealthy not healthy. You have to take it into your own hands if you want to be healthy. It takes a wellness based mind set in order to be healthy. We have to care. We have to make an effort. Wellness is from the neck up and health is from the neck down. Deciding to change your beliefs and your behaviors is often difficult. It starts with having the proper information.
We can no longer live in the dark ages as scavengers with little or no concern for how we eat, what we put into our bodies and where it came from. Scavengers do this. Humans are not scavengers. We are hunters, predators, gatherers and farmers. We never let someone else do our thinking for us when it came to nourishment in the past. We always made our own choices. Every time we make a bad choice today, we are voting to keep the system the way it is. The Revolution will happen. This Revolution doesn't require guns, bombs, death and destruction. It just requires that we change what we believe and how we view our actions regarding nourishment. This will be an information intensive Revolution. With awareness we shall prevail! All we need to do is have a better sense of human! Stay human!
Thank you and thanks Dad for giving me the tools to think differently about everything and a desire to help others.
Lyneil Mitchell, DPT
Once again I know this once long. I hope you made it to the end. This makes my social media director crazy. I can't help it. I had to get this out to all of you and my family. Thanks again!
So, after we spoke I decided I would write everything out that we were talking about so he could read it. I know I didn't get to cover all of the details of our topic of conversation while we ate. I really want to make sure he has all of the information. It's very important to me that he has this information so he can more wisely guide his life. now that I have his attention, I figure this is a good time to tell him what's up because I care about him. I must care about you too. I figured maybe I had created enough clout with this stuff that I could convince you to think differently about somethings too.
So let me see if I have this right. People's bodies are always being damaged by our behaviors, some worse than others, environmental factors and through the natural process of human life. This causes damage to our cells and tissues but our bodies, when healthy are able to repair fixable cells and remove damaged cells as wells as toxins and allergens via the immune system. When we are babies, our immune systems are weak and need exposure to the world to develop strength. For the most, we develop immunity to many common causes of disease. These were the diseases which originally caused us to get an illness. Today we have wiped most of those out of existence. Yet we are more ill than ever.
We are having a healthcare issue because of one thing and one thing only. People are sicker than ever. We are awaiting the babyboomers, the largest and soon becoming oldest population to reap it. They are being prescribed medicines to "fix" problems which are not truly the causes. This in turn allows the causes of the problems to continue. Am I just bitching and complaining, No! My parents are babyboomers and so are many of yours. One day I will be someones Dad and I want to be able to tell them what's really going on! Just like my Dad did for me. I am going to have to live through a time period when we have a pandemic of chronic disease. Healthcare expenditures are expected to double which is already more than the military spends each year.
What are these things that are causing us to get sick when we should have developed the immunity to avoid acquiring diseases from yesteryear in a civilization that was uncleanly and unsanitary. The streets today are clean but the human body is not. The worst part, to me, is yet to come.
The illnesses we get today are of two categories chronic behavioral and chronic reproductive. When I say chronic, I mean they do not occur until after the 5th but possibly the fourth decade of life? Why is that? Do all older people suffer from these illnesses. No, it is still only a small percentage of the population who continue to become ill and stress system. I agree, the population has grown but the illnesses are different than they used to be even less than 50 years ago when many of these babyboomers were born. They are also different and similar among people in the U.S. and other countries liek the U.S. around the world.
When I say behavioral I mean there is a great behavioral component to these illnesses. These illnesses require improper behaviors that create enough damage in the body to create dysfunction at least on the cellular level. Unfortunately some of the behaviors are known and people are very aware of the risk they are taking when engaging in the behaviors. Other detrimental behaviors are occurring in the most dangerous environment ever. the one which isn't acutely or immediately dangerous. The one that is being promoted in which ingesting certain food products that are actually borderline toxic or poisonous to our systems when done in excess over time. The problem is that we don't know what these things are and what excess is. These behaviors primarily stress our detoxification organs such as the liver and kidneys, as well as are filtering organs such as the skin and lungs. Digestive organs, such as the colon and pancreas also take tons of stress from trying to handle ingesting so many foods and substances that are harmful. When have you ever heard of heart cancer? Blood cancers are usually found when people are young.
When I say reproductive, I mean sex organs. Many of the diseases of these organs, especially cancers, we experience today are secondary to dysfunctioned reproductive organs. Breast cancer is rampant in our society and women do not get it til middle age. Women also suffer from cervical and ovarian cancers at an alarming rate. Men are also seeing low testosterone on the rise and prostate cancer like never before. Many of the foods we eat are loaded with chemicals and toxic levels of natural food products. There are more wheat, corn and soy consumed in this country without knowing it is aggravating. Many of these chemicals and foods cause elevated levels of sex hormones, primarily estrogen manifesting different issues in each gender. People really don't know how much of certain things they are eating. they also don't know what it does to their body. nor are they taught to.
How are fruits and veggies paired in the same category when they are not even close to the same thing nor does our body process them in a similar way? I now know, because of this and many other reasons, the food guide pyramid was not set up based up on health or these would have easily been considered separate categories. I had a friend tell me once that he did not have to eat veggies because he ate enough fruit everyday. This was one time that I truly realized something was wrong in society. My friend is highly intelligent and a pretty informed person. Unfortunately you have to be careful of which information you consume!
Is this normal? I don't think so. Especially when we can study the past. Our diets have changed more in the past 50-60 years than they ever had in human history. People are less active and eat more than ever. Have you ever eaten pancakes or french toast for breakfast to feel the sudden crash or potential need to vomit during increased physical activity such as exercise? It doesn't happen after you eat veggies, meats, fruits, nuts, seeds, and small amounts of dairy. We were designed to work and be active. Especially during the day. Eating food that causes us to be unable to be physically active after wards and appropriately functional is counterproductive to everything.
Today we eat all day long and eat the wrong foods. We sit around barely able to have enough energy to get through the day. Why is this? A large meal during the day was historically in the evening time after a hard days work in any time period previously except for the current one. Today the average person eats at least three square meals during any given day and grazes snacking on foods in between which more often than not are loaded with carbohydrates. Eating meals heavy in carbohydrates preceding physical activity is tremendously detrimental to our health and our energy levels, ultimately causing us to gain body fat and get sicker over time. There is nothing wrong with large people who are not expanding. However, expanding waist lines are abundant today and cannot be removed when we talk about the health and performance of our society. Eating large meals causes our insulin to raise above normal levels. Exposure to high levels of insulin is detrimental to humans. Certain foods do cause this to happen more than others. Overeating or eating too many servings of anything will cause our bodies to divert attention from allowing us to feel energized and alert to being sluggish and fatigued.
Ingestion of carbohydrates, especially simple and processed, causes our insulin to increase. The types of carbohydrates consumed by our society causes our insulin to spike, hyperinsulinemia. Not the normal spike. Insulin levels always increase following a meal but certain foods cause it to spike abnormally high. When insulin spikes abnormally high several things occur. First we get rebound hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, which causes fatigue, decreased mental alertness, and lower levels of energy. Second our livers increase production of triglycerides which are carried on our LDL(bad) cholesterol. During periods of inactivity, our muscles are resistant to insulin. this is why exercise is important. Particularly resistance or high intensity exercise. Low intensity exercise is good for the heart, i.e. cardio as I have mentioned previously. The former causes the muscles to crave nutrition and they in turn become more sensitive insulin causing a lowered sensitivity to our fat. Careful we can still not overeat, rule # 1. We can eat a little more if we are active however because the negative sequelae, that I am going to speak of next, are less likely to ensue.
The triglycerides are transported to the fat tissue for storage. It is harder to release energy from our fat tissue once it is stored there. Blood tests will then show high triglycerides and high LDL cholesterol. Our current answer, pills? Now that we have stored energy in the fat and we are starving and fatigued because our blood sugar is low, we will crave food, and be likely to overeat. this is also one of the reasons why diets often fail. People retain body fat even when they aren't eating as much. Our muscles start to burn their own sugar stores before the body turns to fat. This in turn causes hunger. People are getting hungrier and hungrier as they deplete themselves from food during the day. Being more physically active during the day when the muscles are a bit hungry for blood sugar pushes the body to begin to target the fat cells for our energy. As we begin to exercise, if our muscles are a bit starved, we should begin to consume more carbohydrates to help refuel our muscles. A topic for another day.
Our red blood cells also carry blood glucose after digesting a carbohydrate rich meal. This is very counterproductive because our red blood cells are our main transport of oxygen. Look up HBA1C for anyone concerned more on this topic. Any person with Diabetes will know this number. The doctors test it to make sure it doesn't get out of control. Why? Elevated HBA1C indicates that red blood cells are carrying to much blood sugar and too little oxygen. In turn, we do not get enough oxygen to our tissues. Over time this really begins to be counter productive to healing and repair as well as living, especially with any energy. I know I want as much oxygen to my tissues as possible. Yes, this is a double whammy for smokers.
If elevated blood sugar and insulin levels increases our cholesterol, triglycerides and causes damage to our tissues, why do we treat these problems with pills. People are addicted. Eating releases dopamine, the feel good neurotransmitter in the brain. We are designed to need to eat and our bodies reward us when we do. You guessed it. When we over eat we increase secretion of dopamine creating a greater connection to overeating. Humans love pleasure and avoid pain. Too much of any pleasure often leads to pain, or ultimately us becoming in a state of pathology or sickness.
That isn't it! Elevated insulin levels also increases pressure on the kidneys secondary to the reabsorption of sodium and subsequently fluids. This causes increased production of uric acid. This uric acid spills into the blood leading to gout. Gout has not been common for long. It's prevalence increased during the time when England began to trade for sugar increasing the imports nearly 100 times near the beginning of the 1800's. Doctor's new back then gout was associated with too much sugar and diabetes. Gout is primarily urine that spills into the blood stream, yes. It smells like urine when drained from a joint. Nasty!
High blood pressure puts stress on our hearts. Insulin also causes an increased stiffness to our arterial walls. This in turn leads to heart disease. How do we fix this? current answer pills. Doesn't sound like pills get to the cause of this problem. It only perpetuates it further. Which is why I am writing this. my Dad needs to know this stuff. You need to know it too. This is all preventable. Facing the worst healthcare, or simply, health crisis in history and people are still not being empowered to make better decisions.
Finally, this all causes cancer as well. Cells, tissues, and reproductive organs are unable to repair themselves. Insulin causes tissues to grow, it is anabolic. Excessive insulin production also causes damage to our pancreas. The nerves do not receive an adequate oxygen supply and cannot transmit the appropriate messages to and from our organs. This is marked in individuals with poorly controlled Diabetes. Many people with diabetes often experience skin related nervous system issues such as loss of sensation to the fingers and the toes because they are the farthest away from our hearts. The deep blood supply to all of our tissues and organs is effected. The the nerves and the blood supply to the pancreas is also effected causing even further dysfunction and regulation of our sugar and insulin. Our immune systems are also stressed because the widespread damage is relentless and taxing. Our immunity to disease is impaired. We are truly in a pathological state of being. The nerves in the brain can no longer repair themselves and plaques begin to buildup. Cells which are damaged and mutated begin to proliferate. These cells were once easily cleaned up by an appropriately functioning and healthy brain and immune system. these cells grow and grow until they become tumors. If caught early enough, many cancers can be treated. However, many cancers, especially those of the organs mentioned previously are caused by the behaviors mentioned previously and the cause of the problem continues and the person experiences one illness after another. One pill after another, until they are barely human and being supported entirely by the medical system.
It doesn't have to be this way. We are facing times like no other when it comes to health. The system is set up to keep people less unhealthy not healthy. You have to take it into your own hands if you want to be healthy. It takes a wellness based mind set in order to be healthy. We have to care. We have to make an effort. Wellness is from the neck up and health is from the neck down. Deciding to change your beliefs and your behaviors is often difficult. It starts with having the proper information.
We can no longer live in the dark ages as scavengers with little or no concern for how we eat, what we put into our bodies and where it came from. Scavengers do this. Humans are not scavengers. We are hunters, predators, gatherers and farmers. We never let someone else do our thinking for us when it came to nourishment in the past. We always made our own choices. Every time we make a bad choice today, we are voting to keep the system the way it is. The Revolution will happen. This Revolution doesn't require guns, bombs, death and destruction. It just requires that we change what we believe and how we view our actions regarding nourishment. This will be an information intensive Revolution. With awareness we shall prevail! All we need to do is have a better sense of human! Stay human!
Thank you and thanks Dad for giving me the tools to think differently about everything and a desire to help others.
Lyneil Mitchell, DPT
Once again I know this once long. I hope you made it to the end. This makes my social media director crazy. I can't help it. I had to get this out to all of you and my family. Thanks again!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Join us for our Grand Opening at Revolution Physical Therapy on August 26th
Open House: Grilling & Drinks
August 26th, 2011 5:00 - 7:00 PM
The event will be held in house at our clinic, located at 20630 Route 19, Suite 102 Cranberry Twp, PA 16066. While you're here, please take the opportunity to talk to our staff about how physical therapy can DRAMATICALLY improve the quality of health you experience every day. From muscle pain and fatigue to headaches and migraines, our professionals have helped hundreds of people to more fully enjoy their lives by freeing them from pain and discomfort. We are not just physical therapy practitioners: Revolution is a place to empower your own self improvement and wellness. Come talk with us about our specialized programs, including weight loss and nutrition, sports performance training, prenatal and post partum programs, as well as chiropractic care and massage therapy. We look forward to meeting you, and are excited to be a new part of your growing wellness and healthcare community.
August 26th, 2011 5:00 - 7:00 PM
With summer's end right around the corner, stop in and celebrate Revolution's arrival into the Cranberry area with free food, drinks, and fun. Have a seat as we roll out the massage chairs for you, and see how much better you feel. Bring the whole family to experience our exclusive Sports Science Lab. This training system is used by many premiere professional athletes, including Pittsburgh Steeler, Troy Polamalu. Let us clock the speed of your pitch or swing using our state of the art speed guns.
The event will be held in house at our clinic, located at 20630 Route 19, Suite 102 Cranberry Twp, PA 16066. While you're here, please take the opportunity to talk to our staff about how physical therapy can DRAMATICALLY improve the quality of health you experience every day. From muscle pain and fatigue to headaches and migraines, our professionals have helped hundreds of people to more fully enjoy their lives by freeing them from pain and discomfort. We are not just physical therapy practitioners: Revolution is a place to empower your own self improvement and wellness. Come talk with us about our specialized programs, including weight loss and nutrition, sports performance training, prenatal and post partum programs, as well as chiropractic care and massage therapy. We look forward to meeting you, and are excited to be a new part of your growing wellness and healthcare community.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Current economic state of our health
Health Statistics
Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in Americans , 19 million people. 20 percent (46 million) of people report M.D. diagnosed osteoarthritis and rates are expected to increase to 67 million by 2030. Arthritis results in 36 million outpatient visits, 750,000 hospitalizations and 81 billion dollars in medical costs (1 percent of the GDP). Physical activity is promoted to assist in health and wellness however many people are limited in their physical activity because of arthritis. 1 in 3 Americans, nearly 100 million people, live with some type of cardiovascular disease causing 6 million hospitalizations and 81 million outpatient visits each year costing a total of 448 billion dollars. Dropping cholesterol levels by 10 percent in our people could yield a nationwide decrease in heart disease by 30%. 66 % of people who suffer a heart attack never return to work and are permanently disabled.
We spend 1.4 trillion dollars in healthcare costs which is about 75 % from chronic diseases. Chronic disease accounts for 5 of the top 6 causes of death. Chronic disease accounts for 70 % of the deaths in the U.S. which are the most preventable causes of death through lifestyle modifications. There has been an increase in American obesity in adults age 20 to 74 years over the last 30 years from 15 to 32 percent. There is an increase in obesity in children and adolescents from 5 % to just almost 20% in the same time period. Obesity currently represents a cost of about 117 million. At the current rate, 33% of all children born after the year 2000 are predicted to develop type II diabetes. There are currently 11.8 million persons with diabetes. A staggering 24% of our people have metabolic syndrome with associated insulin resistance.
These numbers can't be ignored. Wellness is the solution!
Healthcare Statistics - Current economic state of our health
Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in Americans , 19 million people. 20 percent (46 million) of people report M.D. diagnosed osteoarthritis and rates are expected to increase to 67 million by 2030. Arthritis results in 36 million outpatient visits, 750,000 hospitalizations and 81 billion dollars in medical costs (1 percent of the GDP). Physical activity is promoted to assist in health and wellness however many people are limited in their physical activity because of arthritis. 1 in 3 Americans, nearly 100 million people, live with some type of cardiovascular disease causing 6 million hospitalizations and 81 million outpatient visits each year costing a total of 448 billion dollars. Dropping cholesterol levels by 10 percent in our people could yield a nationwide decrease in heart disease by 30%. 66 % of people who suffer a heart attack never return to work and are permanently disabled.
We spend 1.4 trillion dollars in healthcare costs which is about 75 % from chronic diseases. Chronic disease accounts for 5 of the top 6 causes of death. Chronic disease accounts for 70 % of the deaths in the U.S. which are the most preventable causes of death through lifestyle modifications. There has been an increase in American obesity in adults age 20 to 74 years over the last 30 years from 15 to 32 percent. There is an increase in obesity in children and adolescents from 5 % to just almost 20% in the same time period. Obesity currently represents a cost of about 117 million. At the current rate, 33% of all children born after the year 2000 are predicted to develop type II diabetes. There are currently 11.8 million persons with diabetes. A staggering 24% of our people have metabolic syndrome with associated insulin resistance.
These numbers can't be ignored. Wellness is the solution!
Wellness is the Greenest Medicine Part 2
Wellness is the Greenest Medicine Part 2.
There is a delinquency in the level of awareness of common beneficial health and wellness practices in the people of the U.S. employed outside of the healthcare industry. We are currently in a serious epidemic of obesity and poor health in our country. Health insurance premiums are escalating at an outrageous rate. There is a serious movement towards proactive health and wellness at this time.
Health insurance companies are beginning to pay for wellness programs, corporate wellness incentives, gym memberships etc. They are beginning to realize it is cheaper to promote prevention than paying for the effects of not preventing. There is an escalating proportion of our disposable income which is being spent on wellness products in an effort to maintain our youth, good looks, and wellness which was more than 200 billion dollars in the year 2002 and is projected to be more than 1 trillion by 2010.
Currently, even lay people realize that taking antipyretic (anti – fever), antibiotic and anti-inflammatory medications to do not fix the cause of the problem only masking the symptoms. The common cold is caused by a viral infection and physicians still prescribe antibiotics which have been demonstrated harmless against viruses.
Individual people are becoming empowered, are able to make better decisions and are better consumers. Every day you can see wellness on the rise. Restaurants are adding healthier alternatives to their menus. There are more exercise facilities than ever. More vitamins and supplements are being glorified in mainstream advertising.
Wellness is a ubiquitous product and will sell for many reasons. Technology and increasing demand are lowering the price. New health insurance plans will also make wellness products more affordable because of their financial need to advocate prevention. Medicare typically dictates the reimbursement trends of the entire health insurance field and is now beginning to promote wellness and prevention. Medicare currently pays for preventative services such as colorectal screens and flu and pneumonia vaccines, ultrasound for abdominal aneurysms, mammography, PAP and pelvis exam, prostate screening, diabetes, glaucoma, bone density testing(females after age 60), medical nutrition therapy, smoking cessation, and nutritional counseling for those who have hyperlipidemia or other significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease
People seek wellness because they see that it helps their peers, currently a luxury that causes envious demand. Wellness has legs and partially sells and markets itself. Anytime someone sees a person of their own similar caliber get stronger, look younger, improve their performance, or advance themselves in any way, the person wants to know about how they did it. There are currently television shows and programs which are centered on wellness, e.g. “the Biggest Loser”. Wellness products are some of the most continually consumed products on the market. Once someone is exposed to a wellness product or has a positive experience with them, they often become fanatical. This leads to sampling of other potential products which might be of benefit.
Information is a product that can be continually consumed. More awareness only leads us to seek more awareness and leaves us more open to the reception of future changes and exposures to products. Everyone truly wants good health and to delay the aging process. It’s just a matter of time before they seek it proactively. The wellness industry provides the solutions to this universal dilemma which everyone eventually encounters.
People are becoming more aware that the deterioration of our physical condition due to the aging process does not have to occur so quickly. Disposable income is inversely related to leisure time today. People are more likely to not purchase an item today not because they can’t financially afford it but because they can’t make the time to enjoy it. Wellness services significantly expedite the process towards attainment of this universal need and want. People will now be able to accomplish more of their goals and aspirations because they will have more time and will be even healthier for a longer time to allow them to function at high levels to achieve these goals.
Wellness programs may alter the world as we know it and boost our economy like never before. The more well people there are the more effective they can be at any endeavor they so choose to conquer. It is clear that wellness will affect us all and will change our lives just as the personal computer and automobile have. 50 years ago wellness was a luxury. The majority of people had to work very hard just to obtain basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing and healthcare. Today lay people have more disposable income than ever. Wellness is a natural step in the fulfillment of human destiny which is a realization of a higher ethical foundation for human society.
Wellness is the Greenest Medicine Part 1
Wellness is the greenest medicine.
Getting older is not the same as getting sicker. People in our society have significantly correlated the two but they are not directly related. It takes many years of negligence and abuse for the body to start to break down and to enter a truly pathological state. There are many things that occur in the body as we age that causes it to become weaker and more susceptible to pathology. This doesn’t mean that we cannot slow down the process. More and more we are witnessing people living longer and some of those people remain essentially disease free, healthy and physically active well into their golden years to enjoy the benefits of retirement. Many others however are learning that they have not prepared well for their golden years and are about to enter a difficult time filled with frequent trips to the doctor, hospitals and a rapidly declining ability to move freely about their environment.
The effects of the Baby boomers born from 1946 to 1964, have been and will be widespread. The first boomers are now entering their senior citizen term of life. By 2030 the number of U.S. citizens over the age of 65 will double to about 71 million people. Healthcare spending will increase at least another 35 percent due the increasing age of the population. Medicare costs have increased almost 10 times in the past 25 years from 37 billion to 336 billion dollars. Baby boomers are responsible for the increase in sales in all of the trillion dollar industries as they have been leading the consumption trends for decades. Baby boomers are responsible for 5 trillion dollars in sales of the 10 trillion spent in the U.S. today. Generation X, (1965-1980), initially called the baby bust for the small number of births compared to the baby boomers, has followed the trends of the Baby Boomers and will continue to do so. Generation X will be entering their most productive years starting in 2010.
Baby boomers will continue to want to work for social and health advantages. Baby boomers now more than ever, have the ability and need to continue to work past retirement age. They have more advantages such as Celebrex to ease pains of aching joints and less financial ability to enjoy retirement. We also have the Americans with disabilities act enacted in 1990 which limits discrimination of disabled Americans and provides legislation requiring accessibility to businesses for disabled people. Older Americans will need to work and they will have to be provided with employment opportunities to see that they are able to provide for themselves into their golden years.
Harry Dent has proposed many economic forecasts which have manifested and is well known for his age wave theory. Dent, an economist, proposed that the American economy would crash in 2007 to 2009 because of the beginning of retiring baby-boomers. Consumer spending typically peaks around age 50. 2 million people per year will reach retirement age and most will not be retiring. Dent proposed that many jobs may have winter off options and prescription drug coverage. We may see sodium free and other healthy snacks in office food areas. People will want to stay healthy to allow themselves to work and avoids injuries such as car accidents and falls.
It is obvious to see that many people saw their retirement age get extended a few years after the economic crash. Many people need to have saved millions of dollars to be able to thrive and enjoy their retirement years. The people who have not prepared appropriately will need to continue to preserve their ability to work and provide for themselves and their families. Wellness is on the rise. Our society must progress this way. It is inevitable.
Evolution of Wellness Part 5
Times have significantly changed and so has the wealth of the average American. 80% of people living under the poverty line in the U.S. have a car. Healthcare, hygiene, nutrition, physical activity and wellness however have not followed. Our basics of needs have been met. We are able to have an endless amount of luxury yet, we continue to eat like peasants. The average American spends a lesser percentage of their income on food than nearly every industrialized country in the world. For most of us, if we can, we spend as little as possible on food. We have to save our money to get the things we really need to be “happy” such as a cell phone, big screen TV, super efficient computer, Ipod, luxury automobile or better yet booze, cigarettes and drugs.
Our society, in preservation of its own capitalism, provides poor quality, cheap nutrition options on every corner via convenience stores, gas stations and fast food restaurants. We wouldn’t need as much of the medical services used today if we would simply learn and understand what we need to do for ourselves to be happy and healthy and why we need to be proactive to do so. True health care scales at the level of the people.
Mankind has become addicted to instant gratification and the availability of abundance while seeking to provide more and more concentrated forms. As with all addictions, the first step is to realize that the addiction is the problem. As with all addictions, the avoidance of healthy behaviors and the acceptance of unhealthy behaviors in everyday practice are ultimately leading to failure of the human body and the collapse of societal responsibilities.
As we proceed into the future, there will be a turning point. We will, at some time in the future, reach a critical mass in which people will have too many problems and societal breakdowns for those in power to allow it to continue. Over the past 100 years society has flourished, advances in technology have been made and mankind has reaped the benefits. In the same period, we have however been ignoring the truth that all of this has led us to experience increasing declining health.
Attempts have been made to find every shortcut possible in order to live an immoral and unhealthy life while still remaining intact as a society. Soon we will enter an age when people will see the transparency in the errors of our ways during the period in which our morals were forgotten and our health ignored. Soon people will gravitate away from this past era that is currently being promoted. Soon we will gravitate again towards the improvement of mankind.
Wellness is the ultimate luxury. Wellness is the pursuit of self actualization and can only be achieved once all basic needs are met. Mankind will resume its pursuit of self-actualization, its pursuit of wellness. Some day in the future mankind may look back at the last 100 years and refuse to accept the fact they are descendants of a society that acted so irresponsibly. Much like the people in our society in the present who view the days without personal hygiene (like toothbrushes and daily showers), the people of the future will view the behaviors of mankind today like we are cretins. 20th century Americans will become the new Neanderthal. They will say you are acting like an American, generation negligent and greedy. The only generation in history that couldn’t keep man evolving towards its natural progression. The generation, which in its own arrogance, greed, poor self discipline and complacency, stifled the progress towards societal wellness and self-actualization.
As I said before times are changing. The Revolution has begun! We are ushering in a new generation of wellness that will effect change on our society. I am very excited! I hope you are too. I also hope you are enjoying reading this. Thanks for the support!
Evolution of Wellness Part 4
Evolution of Wellness Part 4
We also applied this microscopic view on our nutrition. We moved from eating foods for their whole value to simply focusing on the smaller parts of the foods. Scientists corrupted the food industry by pledging allegiance to specific nutrients and condemning others. Foods are what are good for us not nutrients. Nutrients may play a significant role, but there is limited evidence that suggests removing nutrients from a whole food and ingesting them individually actually plays a role in good health. Many foods carry their nutrients on the fiber or skeleton structure of the food and are digested differently when removed from the fiber. Some other nutrients do not work when removed from other nutrients in the whole foods form. Food is not to blame but the economic competition of people which has destroyed the diet.
During the 1950’s common people did not eat outside of the home regularly nor did they workout at gyms. Technology and competition has driven the market to change significantly. On one hand there is an abundance of food which is unhealthy. On the other hand, gyms are sprouting everywhere because people want to look better and maintain some level of physical fitness to combat the terrible food they eat and the increasingly more sedentary lifestyles they are creating.
Our bodies were developed over millennia to consume certain food types and get plenty of physical activity. Our physical and mental health is heavily influenced by our homeostatic balance and hormone regulation which is directly related to our diet and levels of physical activity. Throughout most of history, the only carbohydrate foods that were available were the wild roots, tubers, fruits, vegetables, and nuts that our ancestors gathered. These foods were loaded with fiber and nutrients. They were slowly digested and absorbed to provide a slow-release, sustained form of energy.
With the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, humans began to cultivate grains such as wheat, rice, corn, oats, and barley. These foods quickly became a foundation in the human diet. These foods were also consumed in their natural unprocessed forms. Whole, cracked, or coarsely ground grains were made into porridges or baked into hearty whole-grain breads. They were very different from the carbohydrate sources the average person consumes today. These foods were also not easy to come by and people had to work hard to farm or gather foods from their environment which exponentially burned calories by the second.
While the introduction of cereal grains substantially changed the human diet, the past 200 years have had an even greater impact on the types of carbohydrates available in the food supply, starting with the invention of high speed grain mills in the early 1800s. Using this technology, producers remove the fibrous bran and nutritious germ from grains to make finely ground flour from just the starchy endosperm portion of the grain. People eagerly adopted this new flour, which had a very long storage life and made softer and lighter breads, cakes, and pastries. Unfortunately, this new white flour was also virtually devoid of the vitamins, minerals, and fiber found in whole grain products. Its superfine texture makes it quickly digested and absorbed in the body, causing a rapid release of glucose and subsequently insulin into the blood. The past fifty years have brought the most dramatic changes of all to our food supply. Products made from quickly digested white flours, such as breads, bagels, crackers, pretzels, and baking mixes, have become a staple in most people's diets.
Cultural changes usually take place over millennia. The long duration typically allows the culture of the people to adapt to better ensure their survival in a new climate or while using a new technology. As mankind entered the age of abundance, we have achieved a plethora of options and luxuries much too quickly. We were not prepared to handle the responsibility. Man has acquired the ability to instantly gratify with just about everything and has also been enabled to be complacent.
We have had a movement in western civilization in the past 100 years in which abundance has quickly replaced the lifestyle of scarcity. From the ancient Greeks to the industrial revolution, the average human had very limited resources and had to keep a preventative mind set in regards to health and life. After WWII, the baby boomers emerged on the scene and the U.S. experienced an economic boom of unparalleled proportions. Since that time, technology and quality of life have soared and the ability to have the American dream has been realized. We have more gadgets and more luxuries than could ever have been imagined by our ancestors. It is now all made very affordable and achievable to us as well. Everyone can have a home, blackberry, super efficient computers, big screen TV’s, IPods and luxury automobiles. The efficiency and longevity of a car from my childhood cannot even be compared compared to an economical car like the Honda Civic or the Hyundai Sonata of today. These cars are loaded, have sun roofs, and they never break down.
Everything has seemed to progress towards improved quality of life. Everything except for our health.
Evolution of Wellness Part 3
Evolution of Wellness Part 3
These changes in health care have greatly shifted our focus of attention regarding our own health. As I will mention many times throughout this writing, people make their decisions through incentives. They choose by picking which decision will have the greatest benefit and the least amount of consequence. When a person has health insurance they are lulled to sleep in terms of being alert to their own responsibility of their health. They did not have to worry about getting sick because their health insurance would cover medications and surgeries that would eliminate their symptoms.
Medicare allowed people to not have to plan for a healthy life as they grew older. People could virtually be careless and worry free because their medical costs and healthcare would be covered when they entered old age. Medicaid was developed to allow people with disabilities and those living below the poverty line to have coverage.
It is obvious that people do not find as much value in anything they receive for free. This in turn allowed the insurance companies to begin a dictatorship over the healthcare industries setting fee schedules for reimbursement of services they deemed necessary. People did not care how much these services cost nor did they have enough knowledge to determine the appropriate treatment for their type of ailment. Unfortunately, these mandates have caused doctors to only prescribe treatments that the insurance companies reimburse for. Insurance companies also do not reimburse for lifestyle modification training programs for patients that are diagnosed with these problems. Insurance companies are reimbursing less and less causing the physicians to have to see more patients, ultimately allowing them less and less time to spend on patient care.
Physicians are also being employed more and more through hospitals and less and less by private practices. Hospitals are a system that focuses more on the bottom line and is ran by people with MBA’s and law degrees not healthcare practitioners.
I have heard so many stories from my patients that sound something like this, “I was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and was placed on medication A.” I ask, “Did they talk to you about your diet and exercising?” The patient usually says, “Yes, they told me to start exercising and eating healthier, but I have a bad back and I have tried to lose weight but it never works. There are so many different diets out there that focus on carbs, no carbs, high protein? Its all just so confusing. I have cut down my sodium intake in the past year as well. What else can I do?” The patient then tells me that regarding the exercise part the physician says, “Well just do what you can” and regarding the diet, “it sounds like you are on the right track just keep up with what you are doing, and maybe you could try weight watchers.”
Patients with herniated lumbar discs and that are not dietitians or personal trainers struggle with the basic understanding of exercise and nutrition and need a structured plan and guidance. Unfortunately the doctors are not educated this way, the pharmaceutical companies wish to preserve the status quo and insurance companies do not reimburse for effective exercise, weight loss and nutrition programs. These people are left to slip through the cracks only years later to have a triple bypass heart surgery, along with type II diabetes and a total joint replacement from becoming less and less active making the hospitals and the pharmaceutical companies, you guessed it, billions of dollars.
Why would they want to change, they are getting rich off of the current system. Any social system that has members capitalizing from the misfortunes of other members of society will eventually be exposed, sure to have trouble, and have to change its ways. This time is not far away. The revolution has already begun!
Evolution of Wellness Part 2
Evolution Part II
In ancient times of the early Greeks, wellness was highly recommended and practiced. Preventative medicine was heavily utilized prior to the 20th century. Many early physicians such as Hippocrates(460 -370 BC) and Galen(AD 129 – 217) wrote about and advised people to be proactive in their wellness and hygiene. Not only did hygiene entail cleanliness but it also required a significant regimen of diet and exercise principles. The Greeks term for wellness was regimen.
This wellness was not done in the pursuit of luxury but out of necessity. The Greeks understood that lifestyle choices would affect their health. In ancient times, the consequence of irresponsibility in our own hygiene would often lead to death. They could not be kept alive through the technologies or medications we are so lucky to enjoy today. The consequences were felt more immediately and because people lived in a small community everybody saw the error of the ways of the socially negative deviants. When someone was sick everyone had an opportunity to experience it. There is an obvious incentive. If you knew a person that was sick it would only make sense to not do what they did to make themselves sickly. Today people can avoid being around sick people. In fact children are rarely exposed to the real reasons why people are sick and most adults live in denial that poor behaviors and decisions lead to chronic disease states. They do not spend time in hospitals and they do not draw the connections with many of the subtle yet negative behaviors their family members and friends make to propel them towards chronic disease. We caudle our children so much today that we do not tell them the truth even though it is what is best for them. When someone gets cancer or has a stroke or heart attack, it is preventable on many levels.
For many people , their answer is genetics, God, or fate. Many people do not realize that the chronic diseases plaguing our society today are almost entirely preventable. Many people do not understand and recognize the fact that these people made conscious choices to end up where they did. Some of them, however, were unaware of the harmful effects their behaviors would have on them in their future. These people are typically doing what other people around them do and were not asking questions of contemplation. We do not have to have the same fate. There are some aspects that we cannot control and these should not waste our attention. However, there are aspects which we can control and should control in order to save our quality of life.
At the end of the 19th century significant changes occurred in the way we approached health and wellness. The invention of the microscope allowed us to identify compounds which could destroy bacteria and combat diseases. This was a great time in our history but just like everything else, our human nature has once again spoiled the technology.
- Dynamite was originally created to help with mining and was then utilized to kill people.
- Priests were created to spread the good word and hold up the principles of the bible. Then human nature caused them to be corrupt, greedy, abuse power and molest the youth.
- McDonalds created fast food to help people get their meals more quickly and over time the food has become full of more and more harmful products and assisted with ruining the diet of people in the U.S. and is now growing throughout the rest of the world.
- Gas stations meshed with convenience stores to provide a quick one stop shop to refuel our cars and our bodies. Unfortunately the gas prices continue to rise and the food they provide is primarily of an unhealthy variety that should not be consumed on a consistent basis. In fact, I cannot remember seeing one wise food choice in the last gas station I went into during my travels this weekend. The gas was $2.89 a gallon and provided cakes, candy, chips, chocolate, cigarettes, soda, energy drinks, and many other unhealthy choices. At least they had water, maybe the only consistently consumable product provided.
- The microscope, although greatly beneficial, caused a cultural shift in the way we approached medicine and health. Medicine as a science relies on evidence to determine best practices. Physicians and scientists now had a tool which allowed them to see the effects of chemicals on microorganisms. This creates a significant conundrum. On one hand we can now affect harmful microorganisms in order to cure diseases and heal the sick. On the other hand, if something could not be seen by a microscope, it could not be studied and evidence could not be created. Therefore science was completely reliant on a tool that could not answer all of the questions that were being asked. None the less, for nearly a century, small substances such as vitamins have not been able to be studied in terms of their beneficial effects. Medicine and science shifted from being preventative to searching for a pill or chemical we could place in side of the body to alter a disease state or control someone’s symptoms. As we can see today, medicine and pharmacology are not solving our problems and may even be perpetuating the current state we are in today.
Every time we go to see our physicians, we expect them to use their high levels of understanding, knowledge, education and experience to do the best things for us. We end up getting little or no access to their knowledge of healthy behaviors, spend less than a few minutes with them, and leave the office with a prescription for a medication or to make an appointment for some invasive medical procedure.
We now know today that many, but not all, physicians do not know how to help people without giving them a pill. For example, when a person is diagnosed with a chronic disease such as high blood pressure, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, or obesity, the most effective treatment is through a slow process of lifestyle modifications, proper nutrition, exercise, and more daily physical activity.
The cause of the problem was not initially a chemical or hormonal imbalance that can be fixed with a pill. The cause is our behavior, our culture.
I have never seen a representative from a broccoli company marketing to physicians. In fact, I have never seen a commercial for broccoli either. If we want health, not sickness, we must take some of the control and responsibility. No one is going to look out for you better than you!
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