YOUR GUT MICROBIOME CAN FORETELL YOUR FUTURE I just finished finishing reading Brain Maker [2015, Little Brown & Co., $28 ($12 at Amazon)], a fascinating book by David Perlmutter, MD. Its subtitle, The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain—for Life, pretty much explains its subject matter. You are home to some 30 to 50 trillion microscopic creatures, mostly bacteria, both inside and outside your body. These bacteria create a micro-ecosystem called the microbiome (along with fungi, viruses and archaea). Your gut hosts by far the most bacteria Dr. Perlmutter, one of the nation’s leading neurologists, explains...
PLANKS —THE BEST EXERCISE FOR PUTTING BACK PAIN BEHIND US I keep reading where doing planks is one of the most effective exercises we can perform. So along with my hip stretches, I’ve added planking to my morning exercise routine. The basic plank is simple: All you need do is hold a push up position while resting on your forearms. But holding the position had been a bit of a challenge. I started with doing 3 sets of just 15 seconds each, and have now worked up to 3 sets of a minute each. Plank Benefits Doing planks is the...
MINDFUL EATING FOR THE HOLIDAYS I was intending to write a post this Thanksgiving week on how not to gain weight over the holidays. But you’ve seen all the suggestions many times before: snack wisely, don’t go overboard on appetizers, watch your portion sizes, limit desserts, limit liquids, skip seconds. In other words, deprive yourself and take the fun out of Thanksgiving (or Christmas) dinner. You don’t need to hear all that again. Matter of fact, from what I’ve read depriving yourself can actually lead to increased cravings and overeating. If you don’t eat that holiday dish you really want...
FALL PREVENTION —TALES & TIPS I’ve had periodic falls with resulting sprains and broken bones ever since I was a kid. Mostly, these resulted from doing foolish things—like jumping off the roof of my garage when I was ten. But, now as I age, I seem to be taking more tumbles—at least once a year. I’ve fallen three different times during half-marathons, luckily I was able to finish each. I also fall now and again while doing everyday pastimes. Several years ago when I lived up at Lake Tahoe, I fell on an ice patch while fetching a newspaper in...
ANXIETY —FINDING RELIEF WITH EXERCISE Like many folks, I have a certain amount of stress in my life. But some people I know are actually experiencing anxiety, which seems a step beyond stress. I wanted to know the difference so I went online and read a few articles. I found that stress comes in response to external causes, such as an overload of work or having to give a speech in front of a group. Stress subsides once a situation has been resolved, like catching up with your work or after giving the speech. Anxiety, on the other hand, is...
CHRONIC INFLAMMATION —HOW IT CAN ACCELERATE YOUR AGEING Lately, I’ve been seeing more mentions in both print and online of inflammation and its role in disease. So, I decided to research it a bit. I found that there is both the good & the bad; Acute inflammation vs. chronic inflammation Acute inflammation is your body’s response to protect and repair your body from an injury—say when you strain a muscle or from an infection such as the flu. With these, your immune system sends a host of white blood cells to fight the problem. You can see this form of...
IS IT WINTER BLUES OR SAD? Daylight saving ends this Sunday. And thus, here in Southern California, the sun will soon disappear over the horizon by 5pm & earlier day by day. Even though we’ll now have an additional hour of sunlight in the morning, most of that will be lost by mid December. Personally, I’ll have my usual dose of winter blues from now through March. (I can’t imagine what folks up in Fairbanks Alaska go through with only some 4 hours of sunlight a day for the shortest month.) But if I can get outdoors for a spell,...
RESISTANCE BANDS —THE GO ANYWHERE FITNESS TOOL I keep a resistance band slung over a hook in my bedroom closet. Two or three times a week I grab it down and use it in my strength training exercises. It’s perfect for performing a seated row, lat pulldown or a side leg lift. Resistance bands come in a couple of types. I use the strong but lightweight tubular band kind with two handles. The other choice is a large flat loop without hand grips that looks like a giant rubber band. Both types offer tensions anywhere from 15 pounds to 200...
FOOD LABELS —TELLING THE TRUTHFUL FROM THE TRICKY Reading the front of food packages, you’d believe that nearly all their contents are healthy. Labels with claims such as “low-fat,” “no-additives,” “fresh,” and “natural” are more often than not misleading. That’s because these trick terms are unregulated and are used by many food manufacturers to convince people to purchase highly processed and unhealthy products. The more reliable information can be found on the back of the package in the nutrition facts box and the ingredients listing. Ingredients are listed by quantity, from highest to lowest. Healthier products will have whole foods...
LAP SWIMMING —DIVE INTO A GREAT WORKOUT I have to say that I enjoy swimming in the ocean more than swimming laps in a pool. However jumping into a pool lane is so much easier & less time consuming than the whole wetsuit routine I go through at the shore when I’m getting ready for a triathlon. These days I feel stressed for time plus I’m not participating in another triathlon anytime soon. So once or twice a week I go lap swimming at the Ventura YMCA. Depending on how much time I have I’ll swim 30 or 40 laps...
