All posts by IT Admin

Preventing Golf Injuries

A lot of golfers are playing hurt which doesn’t necessarily mean broken-bones, but more commonly, tendinitis, sore muscles and arthritis. Almost 2/3 of amateur golfers will sustain a golf injury and this is typically due to poor swing mechanics, being out of shape or most likely, they don’t adequately warm up.

Golf stretches can help prepare for your round and promote a fluid golf swing, which can improve your performance.

Remember: Keep stretching gentle. Don’t bounce. If you feel pain, you’ve stretched too far.

Quadriceps

Lower Back

Hamstrings

Hips

Wrists

Shoulder

Core

Other Tips to Prevent Golf Injuries

Bottom Line

Images courtesy of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

What Happens To Your Body When You Wear Heels?

Pump Bump

Morton’s Neuroma

Bunions

Does The Heel Height Make a Difference?

Want to Soak your Feet?

Try this soak bath to soften your feet…

How to Minimize the Negative Effects of Wearing Heels

Bottom Line

If you are on your Feet All Day…Do These Exercises

Does Weather Affect Joint Pain?

How the weather can affect joint pain, and what to do about it.

How do our bodies know when a storm could be looming? Many patients say they “feel it in their bones”, but is it just an old wives’ tale?

Can joint pain actually predict weather changes? Believe it or not, your weather forecasting might have some validity, thanks to the effects of barometric pressure changes on your body.

How Might Weather Cause Pain?

What is Barometric Pressure?

Furthermore, when people have chronic pain, sometimes nerves can become more sensitized because of injury, inflammation, scarring, or adhesions.

What about altitude?

Treatment Options and Comfort Measures

  1. Stay warm. Dressing in layers, keeping your home heated, and warming up the car before you get in can help ease pain related to cold weather. Heat lets muscles relax, so it’s a soothing way of helping with pain.
  2. Try to prevent swelling. Warmth helps with joint pain, but not necessarily swelling. Try wearing Spandex gloves at night to try to keep fluid out of the joints or compression stockings to help with foot and knee pain.
  3. Keep moving. . Before you go outside during cold weather, try to exercise your painful joints to loosen up stiffness.
  4. Improve your mood. People in chronic pain often feel anxious, depressed, and irritable. Learn how to pace yourself, and figure out how to improve your sleep.
  5. Realize that the pain is temporary. When weather-related pain strikes, remember it isn’t a permanent change. It’s short-lived.

The great debate over White meat and Dark meat

The great debate over white meat and dark meat has been going on for as long as nutritionists can remember. Some people don’t like dark meat, while others extol its virtues and eat nothing else.

But what is the difference between white meat and dark meat?

What is Dark Meat?

  • Dark meats simply have more myoglobin proteins, responsible for giving dark meat its reddish color.
  • The more myoglobin, the darker the meat and the richer the nutrients.
  • Myoglobin provides muscles with the oxygen they need during exercise or movement.
  • Chickens and turkeys (being flightless birds) generally have dark colored drumsticks and thighs because they walk around a lot.

What is White Meat?

  • White meat is made up of muscle fibers designed for fast-twitch and quick bursts of energy.
  • It tends to contain very little myoglobin (which is what makes it lighter) and contain large amounts of protein.
  • Breast and wing meat are white meat.

Dark Meat is NOT All Bad For You

Take a look at the nutrition.

  • Most dark meats tend to contain more zinc, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, vitamins B6 and B12, amino acids, iron than white meat.
  • Dark beef meat contains about 11 times more zinc than tuna, and about 3 times as much iron than raw spinach.
  • Chicken and Turkey dark meat contain vitamins A, K, B6, B12, niacin, folate, pantothenic acid, and minerals as selenium, phosphorus and zinc.

It is the higher levels of saturated fat that have given dark meat a bad name.

Calories in Dark Meat vs White Meat

Summary

  • Light meat chicken is lower in calories and fat than dark meat chicken, but it is also higher in protein.
  • Dark meat, however is more nutritious in vitamins and minerals and not so saturated in fat.
  • By removing the skin of poultry, the amount total and saturated fat decreases

Any way you slice it, chicken can be good for you so go ahead and add a little dark meat to your plate!

4 Core Exercises That Are Better Than Regular Planks

Everyone knows how much I LOVE planks!

Planks are great, but most people tend to just dangle in them and remain static, which does not optimize the results. Even when performed correctly, static planks only work one section of your core muscles.

Don’t get me wrong, in order to perform the below listed exercises, you MUST master the plank.

However, to most effectively strengthen your core, you have to work all of your core muscles:

  • Rectus Abdominus
  • Internal and External Obliques
  • Transversus Abdominis
  • Glut Muscles
  • Lumbar Parapsinals

Here are four exercises better than regular planks:

1.Rowing Machine Rollouts

 

  • Stand in front of a rowing machine and bend forward at the waist to place your palms on the seat of the machine.
  • From here, inhale through your nose and, keeping your arms relatively relaxed, extend them in front of you so that your body lowers into a plank position.
  • Once your body forms a straight line from your head to heels, forcefully exhale and squeeze your core to fold your arms and torso back toward your legs.

2.Single-Arm Plank + Single-Arm Banded Row

 

  • Get in a plank on the floor, a few feet away from the end of a secured resistance band.
  • Your body should form a straight line from head to heels.
  • With your feet spread hip-width apart and your hands spread shoulder-width apart and just in front of your face, brace your core and squeeze your glutes.
  • Grab the end of the resistance band with one hand and, keeping your body and torso stable, row the band toward your chest.
  • Perform all reps, then switch sides.

3. Stability Ball Knee Tucks

 

  • Start in a push-up position with your feet up on the ball.
  • Make sure that you engage your core and raise your hips so your back is flat before you begin.
  • Keep your back flat and try not to raise your hips as you draw your knees into your chest.
  • Extend both legs back out to the starting position and repeat.

4. Quadruped Bird Dog + Single-Arm Row

 

  • Get on your hands and knees on a bench.
  • Grab a dumbbell with one hand, and lift and extend the leg of the same side behind you so that it is parallel to the floor.
  • Keeping your core braced, row the dumbbell up toward your ribcage.
  • Do not allow your back to hyperextend or body to twist.
  • Pause, then slowly lower the dumbbell toward the bench.
  • Repeat all reps, then switch sides.

Why a Calorie is NOT a Calorie

Myth: Calories are the most important part of the diet

It is true that all “calories” have the same amount of energy.

1 calorie (Kcal) = 4184 Joules of energy

When it comes to your body, things are NOT THAT SIMPLE!

  • Refined carbohydrates are not good for you
    • This includes added sugars like sucrose and high fructose corn syrup
  • Refined carbohydrates tend to be low in fiber and they get digested and absorbed quickly
  • This leads to rapid spikes in blood sugar
  • Hence, they have a high glycemic index (GI)

When we eat a food that spikes blood sugar fast, this leads to a crash in blood sugar a few hours later and then we get cravings for another snack (probably high in carbs L)

  • The two main simple sugars in the diet are glucose and fructose
  • Glucose can be metabolized by all of the body’s tissues
  • Fructose can only be metabolized by the liver

Ghrelin is the “hunger hormone.”

  • It goes up when we are hungry and down when we are satiated
  • Fructose leads to higher ghrelin levels (more hunger) than glucose
  • Fructose does not stimulate the satiety centers in the brain

A high consumption of fructose can cause:

  • insulin resistance
  • abdominal fat gain
  • increased triglycerides

Note: Fruits also have fructose but in addition, they have fiber and water which can mitigate the negative effects of the fructose.

  • Low-carb diets lead to more weight loss, often 3x as much
  • People start eating less calories without trying
  • Even when calories are matched between groups, the low-carb groups lose more weight
  • Low-carb diets also cause significant water loss and reduce excess bloating

Low-carb diets tend to include more protein than low-fat diets

  • Protein uses energy to metabolize and turn into glucose used throughout the body

ENTER FRUCTOSE

  • It goes directly to your liver, where it starts manufacturing fat
  • Triggers more insulin resistance and causes chronically elevated blood insulin levels
  • Now, everything you eat gets stored as dangerous belly fat
  • You also get a fatty liver, which generates more inflammation

Now you can see just how easily 750 calories of soda can create
biochemical chaos.
In addition, the soda contains no fiber, vitamins, or minerals.
These are “empty” calories devoid of any nutritional value.
But they are “full” of trouble.

Summary:

  • First, you wouldn’t be able to eat 10 cups of spinach, because it wouldn’t fit in your stomach
  • If you could, what would happen?
  • They contain so much fiber that very few of the calories would actually get absorbed
  • Those that did would get absorbed very slowly
  • There would be no blood sugar or insulin spike, no fatty liver, no hormonal chaos
  • Your stomach would distend sending signals to your brain that you were full
  • You would also get many extra benefits that optimize metabolism, lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and boost detoxification

 

Bottom Line:

  • Refined carbohydrates (high glycemic index) lead to faster and bigger spikes in blood sugar, which leads to cravings and increased food intake.
  • Even though fructose and glucose have the same chemical formula, fructose has much more negative effects on hormones, appetite and metabolic health
  • Low-carb diets consistently lead to more weight loss than low-fat diets, even when calories are matched between groups.
  • Different calorie sources can have vastly different effects on hunger, hormones, energy expenditure and the brain regions that control food intake.
  • Even though calories are important, counting them or even being consciously aware of them is not at all necessary to lose weight.
  • In many cases, simple changes in food selection can lead to the same (or better) results than calorie restriction.

Tips for a Healthy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving comes around once a year, so now is the time to splurge, right?

Well….maybe not!

Gaining weight during the holiday season has become a national pastime. Year after year, most of us pack on at least a pound (some gain more) during the holidays — and keep the extra weight permanently.

But Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your nutrition and fitness goals. With a little knowledge, you can still enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving feast.

Breast Cancer Awareness: Shoulder Pain

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States (other than skin cancer). But millions of women are surviving the disease thanks in part to early detection and improvements in treatment.

Shoulder pain in breast cancer survivors is a common condition that should not be ignored. Early detection and treatment are important in preventing long-term complications.

Dr. Eric M. Wisotzsky is the Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine and Director of the Cancer Rehabilitation Program at MedStar National Rehabilitation Health Networks. He is also an Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Many breast cancer survivors who have had surgery, chemotherapy and radiation report shoulder pain especially when lifting their arm overhead. What might be the problem?

Shoulder problems are extremely common after breast cancer treatment. Up to 68% of breast cancer patients may experience shoulder pain and/or restricted shoulder motion. There are two common causes of these symptoms.

What if physical therapy doesn’t help?

Shoulder discomfort after breast cancer treatment is extremely common and is not likely to be a sign that your cancer has spread or returned, however it is always important to inform your oncologist of any new pain symptoms.

When’s the Best Time to Exercise?

Whether you can’t start the day without your morning run or you prefer to squeeze in your sweat sessions at the gym after a stressful workday, it’s a given that exercising at any point in the day is always better than being a couch potato.

But does it really make a difference whether you work out in the morning or the evening?

Turns out, it might, depending on your goals.

There is some evidence that working out on a completely empty stomach — or “in a fasted state” — prompts the body to burn more fat and potentially stave off weight gain, compared to exercising at other times.

In a groundbreaking Belgium study, researchers persuaded young, healthy men to eat 30% more calories and 50% more fat than they typically eat. The men were divided into 3 groups:

What Happened after Six Weeks…?

Sedentary group

Men who exercised after breakfast

Men who exercised first thing in the morning

While the early-morning exercise prevented weight gain, this is not the same thing as inducing weight loss. Combining a healthy well-balanced diet along with being physically active is the best strategy to prevent weight gain.

However…as we have seen, early-morning exercise in the fasted state is more potent than an identical amount of exercise in the fed state.

Afternoon Advantages

If you can’t fit in a workout before noon, don’t sweat it. The body can adapt to any workout time but consistency is key. Research suggests that sticking to a specific workout time can result in better performance, higher oxygen consumption, and lower perceived exhaustion.

Core Temperature:

Hormone Levels:

Morning Perks

Sleep:

Curb Appetite:

The Bottom Line

In the end, it’s most important to find a consistent workout schedule.

If working out in the morning is best for your schedule, make sure to warm up muscles that might be cold and tight from sleep.

To keep afternoon workouts consistent, treat them as unbreakable appointments…find a workout buddy (that may help).

“Exercise is beneficial regardless of the time of day you do it.”

An Early FLU Shot is Better than No Shot At All!

The flu, short for influenza, is a respiratory disease caused by the influenza virus. Some common symptoms are fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and fatigue.

The seasonal flu shot is a vaccine taken to protect against the flu every year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu shots are recommended for all Americans over the age of 6.

Who should get the flu shot?

The CDC recommends it for anyone over the age of 6 months, with rare exceptions (see below). Dr. Priya Nori, an Infectious Disease specialist states, “since the most widely available influenza vaccine is an inactivated vaccine (meaning that it cannot actually transmit the flu as an inactivated particle), almost everyone is eligible.”

Those who can safely tolerate the vaccine, include:

A recent CDC study found that the rate of life-threatening allergy is extremely rare, “at 1.31 per one million vaccine doses given,” Dr. Nori reports.

What’s new about the flu shot in 2016-2017?

Who should not get the flu shot?

When is the best time to get the flu shot?

Can the shot make me sick from the flu?

Thank you to our medical contributor

Priya Nori, MD

Medical Director, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program

Montefiore Health System

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

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