Motion Health & Fitness

Tag: wellbeing

  • Know Your Health; Know Your Biomarkers

    Know Your Health; Know Your Biomarkers

    America is not a healthy nation. The US spends more on health care than any other high-income country but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, according to a 2023 report from The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. In fact, America is ranked No. 35 out of 169 countries in terms of overall citizen health, according to the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index. This means that 34 countries are ahead of us.

    It’s easy to see why. Nearly 60% adults in the United States have at least one chronic disease, with the most common being heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and obesity, according to the CDC. Consequently, biomarkers — objective measures of normal or abnormal processes or conditions or diseases —really matter. These might include blood pressure, resting heart rate, blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and body fat percentage, for example.

    Essentially half (47%) of American adults have high blood pressure (hypertension), according to the American Heart Association. That amounts to a whopping 122.4 million people. A normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 mmHg. A blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or more is too high. People with levels from 120/80 mmHg to 139/89 mmHg have a condition called pre-hypertension, which means they are at high risk for high blood pressure.

    Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart disease and stroke, which are leading causes of death in the United States. However, most people who have hypertension do not experience any symptoms. People usually discover that they have hypertension following a routine blood pressure check.

    Another all-too-common disease in the US is diabetes, which is diagnosed when a person’s A1C levels are 6.5% or higher.

    According to the CDC, 11.3% of the US population has diabetes, and 23% of adults are undiagnosed. This means that more 34% of the adult population likely has diabetes. Yet, about 90-95% of people with diabetes have type-2, which is preventable. Additionally, about 98 million American adults (more than 1 in 3) have pre-diabetes. If you get the sense that diabetes is a crisis in the US, you’re right. Having diabetes also raises the risks for other chronic conditions.

    For example, if you have diabetes, you are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. Chronic diseases are often linked.
    Diabetes is the top cause of kidney failure, causing nearly half (47%) of new cases. About 1 in 3 adults with diabetes may have kidney disease. High blood pressure is the second most common cause of kidney failure, causing 27% of new cases. In fact, 1 in 5 adults with high blood pressure may have kidney disease. Are you getting the sense that many of the most common chronic diseases are linked?

    Quite astonishingly, as many as 37 million Americans have kidney disease, meaning it affects 14% of American adults. In fact, kidney disease is the fastest-growing noncommunicable disease in the US, and it’s one of the top 10 causes of death.

    The kicker is that all of the above are preventable; it’s within our hands to heal or prevent them. But there’s more.

    High LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the bloodstream may increase the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular events like stroke. Normal cholesterol in adults is less than 200 mg/dL; borderline high is 200 to 239 mg/dL. Yet, about 86 million US adults age 20 or older have total cholesterol levels above 200 mg/dL, according to the CDC. And nearly 25 million adults in the US have total cholesterol levels above 240 mg/dL.

    The latest data indicate that 39.6% of US adults are obese, and another 31.6% are overweight. Taken together, 71.2%, or nearly three-quarters, of American adults are either overweight or obese. This comes at a tremendous cost to our national wellbeing. Overweight and obesity may increase your risk for developing health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers, according to the National Institutes of Health.

    Excess body fat is associated with high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as low levels of HDL (good) cholesterol. It also impairs the body’s responsiveness to insulin, raising blood sugar and insulin levels. Excess body fat contributes to major causes of death and disability, including heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, fatty liver, and depression. Yet, when it comes to health, the issue is not how much you weigh but how much abdominal fat you have. Research shows that abdominal fat is the worst of the worst because it is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease.

    Waist circumference is an indicator of the health risks associated with excess fat around the waist. A waist circumference of 40 inches or more in men, or 35 inches or more in women, is associated with health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Ideally, everyone should aim to keep their waist measurement less than half that of their height, according to scientists. That means a 6ft (72 inch) tall man should aim to keep his waist less than 36 inches, while a 5ft 4in (64 inch) woman should keep hers under 32 inches.

    Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome includes obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and irregular cholesterol levels. The risk of metabolic syndrome increases with age, and about 1 in 3 adults have metabolic syndrome.

    Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the US, as it has been for the past 100 years. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death. Together, they claimed more lives in 2021 in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease. Yet, diabetes, overweight and obesity can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease.

    The links between all of these chronic diseases is striking. Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart disease and stroke. If you have diabetes, you are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. Yet, people with high blood pressure usually have insulin resistance and have an increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those with normal blood pressure. So the relationship between diabetes and high blood pressure is a two-way street. Diabetes is the top cause of kidney failure. High blood pressure is the second most common cause of kidney failure. High LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the bloodstream may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Overweight and obesity may increase your risk for developing a wide array health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.

    Link after link after link. The connection between chronic conditions is stark.

    Yet, being thin doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re healthy. Thin people might still have cancer, diabetes or heart disease, for example.

    Health is comprehensive and encompasses a number of factors including nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress levels, lifestyle choices, and more. Weight is just one small piece of the puzzle and should never be used as the sole indicator of overall health.

    Wellness requires us to think holistically and address all indicators of health. Obsessing and stressing over one factor, such as weight status, can stunt progress and lead to decreased mental wellbeing.

    It’s important to recognize that medical interventions contribute less than 10% to overall health. Meanwhile, nutritional status accounts for a remarkable 80%. Nutrition addresses the root causes of diseases, whereas drugs often only alleviate symptoms. What we eat really matters… a lot.

    We know that exercise certainly improves health and wellness. Yet, a staggering 80% of US adults and adolescents are insufficiently active, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. What’s more, those leading sedentary lifestyles face a 20-30% higher risk of mortality compared to those who participate in at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week, according to the World Health Organization.

    Numerous studies show that consistent exercise decreases the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, many cancers, cognitive decline and mental illness. Meanwhile, a sedentary life is associated with an increase in cardiometabolic disease and shortened lifespans.

    While there are many reasons that people exercise, in my view it shouldn’t be about having the best butt or bigger biceps; it’s about being a happier, more fulfilled, more self-satisfied person. Everyone recognizes that exercise can change your body, but it can also change your mood, your attitude, and even your mind.

    Wellbeing is not just the absence of disease or illness. It’s a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. In short, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.

    Researchers agree that health-related quality of life is multi-dimensional and includes domains that are related to physical, mental, emotional and social functioning, and the social context in which people live. That said, loneliness and social disconnectedness are two of the greatest challenges of the modern era. Social isolation and loneliness are now considered demonstrated risk factors for depression and cancer. Our social connections, or lack thereof, really affect our health.

    Loneliness takes a toll on our health. It can lead to high blood pressure, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Loneliness has been linked to the progression of Alzheimer’s, raising the likelihood of dementia by 40%. And it can also double the risk of Type-2 diabetes. One study found that loneliness can be as much of a long-term risk factor as smoking. As a consequence, chronically lonely people tend to have an 83% higher mortality risk than those who feel less isolated.

    Brigham Young University researchers have revealed that loneliness is deadlier than obesity and should now be considered a major public health hazard. They discovered that lonely people had a 50% increased risk of early death, compared to those with good social connections. In contrast, obesity raises the chance of dying before the age of 70 by around 30%. Humans are social animals. We need community, we need friends. While solitude may be nice sometimes, loneliness isn’t.

    Research also shows that mindset really matters when it comes to health, and it can even extend your life. A classic study found that people who were optimistic about aging lived seven and a half years longer than those who had negative perceptions of it.

    The takeaway is that our health is mostly in our own hands. We can be proactive and we can largely control our own destiny. We are not fated to ill health, even if our parents or grandparents had specific diseases. Most of the diseases that modern Americans suffer from are lifestyle disease, meaning they’re the result of the way we live and the choices we make.

    We can make better choices to improve our health, the quality of our life, and even our life expectancy. We also need to remember that stress reduction and social connection play a big role in our wellbeing. We can do better, and we must do better. Our very lives depend on it.

    It’s preferable that your doctor tells you that you look better on the inside than on the outside. Your biomarkers really matter, and you should know them.

  • Honor Your Body Clock, Create Circadian Alignment

    Honor Your Body Clock, Create Circadian Alignment

    Scientists have isolated the body-clock genes that control 24-hour light-dark circadian rhythm, and it’s now known that every cell in the body has a synchronized clock. 
     
    The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to three scientists who discovered the body clock gene and its critical role in metabolic function. In a world of 24/7 non-stop chaotic eating, relentless stress, continuous screen-gazing, sedentary lifestyle and sleep deprivation, time has become irrelevant. These constant 21st century disruptions of the powerful cellular body clock cycles (aka, circadian rhythm) are wreaking life-threatening havoc on mental and physical health, resulting in obesity, metabolic syndrome, cancer and diabetes.
     
    “We didn’t realize at the time that this clock would be represented all over the body in many different tissues and control so many different biological processes that we go through every day,” says Michael Young MD, 2017 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology. “It left us with the understanding that our whole bodies are rhythmically active.”  
     
    Circadian Alignment is when the central and peripheral clocks are aligned: bright light during daytime, sleep at night, and food intake during daytime. Circadian Misalignment is when the central and peripheral clocks are misaligned: light at night, sleep during daytime, and food intake at night.
     
    This misalignment has become normalized. According to a recent study of the eating habits of more than 34,000 U.S. adults, nearly 60 percent said it was normal for them to eat after 9 p.m. 
     
    Yet, time-restricted eating (12-16 hours of non-eating) has proven to be the best match to our circadian clocks. This means we need to eliminate nocturnal eating. We should stop eating by 6-7pm and not eat again for at least 12 hours (14 hours is the sweet spot).
     
    Our bodies have evolved to process nutrients during the day, and to conserve energy at night. The body uses energy to repair all of its systems at night, while we sleep. Disrupting that natural rhythm can cause problems.
     
    Several studies have found, for instance, that eating dinner within three hours of bedtime may worsen heartburn or acid reflux symptoms. And limited research has suggested that eating one to three hours before bedtime is associated with more disrupted sleep.
     
    The most intriguing research on late-night eating, however, has focused on its relationship with body weight and metabolic health.
     
    In one 2019 study of nearly 900 middle-aged and older U.S. adults, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that those who consumed roughly 100 calories or more within two hours of bedtime were about 80 percent more likely to be overweight or to have obesity than those who did not eat during that window. Researchers have found similar results in adults in Sweden and Japan.
     
    And in a 2023 study of more than 850 adults in Britain, those who regularly snacked after 9 p.m. had higher levels of HbA1c, a marker for diabetes risk, and greater spikes in blood sugars and fats after daytime meals than those who did not typically consume late-night snacks.
     
    Research has also found that carbohydrates consumed in the evening result in greater blood sugar spikes than those consumed earlier in the day. That is in part because melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone that increases in the evening, dampens the secretion of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. Elevated blood sugars could eventually damage blood vessels and increase the risk of developing high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.
     
    Research suggests that it’s best to avoid eating for three to four hours before your usual bedtime. We should be eating during an 8-12 hour window, allowing 12-16 hours for regeneration. We should also be sleeping for 7-8 hours each night. 
     
    A regular bed time is critical for your health and wellness, as is a regular waking time. Additionally, sleeping too long can affect your ability to fall asleep that night. After a good night’s sleep, most people need to be awake around 16 hours before they feel sleepy again.
     
    Going to sleep between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease compared to earlier or later bedtimes, according to a recent study by the European Society of Cardiology. Early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body’s circadian clock, with adverse consequences for cardiovascular health, according to the study’s authors.
     
    The incidence of cardiovascular disease was highest in those with sleep times at midnight or later (25% higher risk) and lowest in those with sleep onset from 10:00 to 10:59 pm. There was also a 24% higher risk for falling asleep before 10:00 pm. Yes, the body clock is that precise and sensitive. 
     
    Humans are not nocturnal animals; we are diurnal. We need to honor our innate body clock by eating and sleeping in a manner that naturally suits us and promotes health.
  • Loneliness Has Become Endemic and It’s Harming Our Health

    Loneliness Has Become Endemic and It’s Harming Our Health

    lone·li·ness| ˈlōnlēnəs | noun
    sadness because one has no friends or company: feelings of depression and loneliness. 
    • the fact of being without companions; solitariness: the loneliness of a sailor’s life.
     
    We’ve all felt lonely from time to time in our lives. But there’s something much deeper going right now, and it’s really troubling.
     
    Loneliness rates are now at unprecedented highs. Multiple studies show that we’re in the midst of a growing loneliness epidemic. Even before the pandemic, nearly half of all Americans said they were lonely. 
     
    Covid only made the problem worse. Data collected in December 2021 found that 58% of US adults considered themselves lonely. Yet, the end of the pandemic surely hasn’t made loneliness go away.
     
    With young adults, the problem of loneliness is even more pervasive. In a recent survey conducted by Cigna, researchers found that almost 80% of young adults from the ages of 18 to 24 reported feeling lonely.  
     
    However, loneliness isn’t just an American phenomena. It’s becoming a public health emergency in other nations too, so much so that countries like Japan and the United Kingdom have appointed Ministries of Loneliness to tackle the problem in recent years. There are good reasons for these concerted national efforts.
     
    Chronic loneliness and isolation can harm both mental and physical health, contributing to conditions such as obesity, inactivity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, anxiety and poor sleep, which increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
     
    Yes, loneliness actually takes a toll on our physical health. Loneliness can double the risk of Type 2 diabetes and has been linked to increased inflammation, heart disease, stroke and even premature death. Quite famously, a 2010 study by Brigham Young University found that loneliness shortens a person’s life by 15 years. Remarkably, chronically lonely people tend to have an 83% higher mortality risk than those who feel less isolated.
     
    “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health,” says US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. He details how much social disconnection increases the risk of certain health issues: heart disease (29 percent), stroke (32 percent) and dementia (50 percent). All because we lack connection with others. We are fundamentally built for social connection. It’s hardwired into our human operating system. 

    Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were supposedly going to solve this, but it seems just the opposite has happened. Studies reveal that the more time people spend on their devices, the more lonely they often feel. People are more connected now than ever — through phones, social media, Zoom, etc. — yet loneliness continues to rise. Among the most digitally connected — teenagers and young adults — loneliness nearly doubled between 2012-2018, coinciding with the explosion in social media use.
     
    Anywhere you go in the world, the evidence shows that people who are more socially connected, people who interact and intentionally spend time with their friends and family members, are happier.
     
    Neuroscience has validated the importance of connections and illustrates how the human brain is hardwired to form personal connections. For example, scientists describe how people’s experiences leave a physical imprint on their brains.
     
    Experiences involving important social connections, such as love, friendship and family bonds, or those involving shame and trauma, physically register in the brain along neuropathways. Studies validate the influence of relational connections on physical and emotional well-being.
     
    Social connections are so essential to the health and well-being of humans that they share a neurological pathway with physical pain. The human body and mind do not differentiate between physical pain and social rejection or isolation in terms of the amount of stress placed on the body. Brain‐imaging studies have demonstrated that neglect by one’s peers stimulates the same areas of the brain as does physical pain.
     
    This is a real problem because less than half of American men report being satisfied with their friendships, and only about 1 in 5 said they had received emotional support from a friend in the last week, compared with 4 in 10 women, according to a 2021 survey from the Survey Center on American Life.
     
    Thirty years ago, a majority of men (55%) reported having at least six close friends. Today, that number has been cut in half. Slightly more than one in four (27%) men now have six or more close friends. Fifteen percent of men have no close friendships at all, a fivefold increase since 1990. 
     
    One large survey showed that the number of Americans who say they have zero close friends has quadrupled in the past 30 years. The numbers are especially bleak for men, with only 48% saying they are satisfied with the number of friends they have. 
     
    It’s important to get connected with real people in real life, not just online or on social media. Reach out to old friends and re-cultivate lost or faded friendships. When you do go online, look for local groups that share your interests; Meet Up is a good example. There are men’s groups and men’s circles, for example, that provide a sense of kinship and belonging. 
     
    There are many, many reasons to avoid isolation and loneliness. Reach out. Get connected. 
  • Stress Can Undermine Weight Loss and Increase Weight Gain

    Stress Can Undermine Weight Loss and Increase Weight Gain

    If you’re a stress eater (i.e., you eat to cope with stress), restricting calories can cause even more stress.

    If you eat a little less than your body needs, it can help you lose weight and body fat without sacrificing performance or wellbeing.

    However, eating a lot less, especially for a long time, and especially when you have major recovery needs—like hard athletic training or recovering from surgery—can actually thwart proper recovery. It can even cause your body to turn down the thermostat, restricting calorie burning. In essence, your body goes into preservation mode.

    Food is meant to nourish the body and the right amounts are vital to athletes. An excessive or chronic caloric deficit can impair performance, decrease lean muscle mass, and lead to a host of other issues ranging from hormonal imbalances to immune deficiencies.

    You need to eat enough to support your physiological needs. Unfortunately, most Americans (truly, the majority) eat well beyond their physiological needs. Stress is a common culprit.

    Cutting too many calories all at once can be very stressful and leave a person feeling like they’re starving. That’s not a formula for successful weight loss or athletic performance.

    It’s best to taper slowly, gradually reducing your caloric intake. Say, for example, that you (or your coach or nutritionist) determine that you should be eating 2,000 calories per day (I chose this because it’s a round number that’s easy to work with). Let’s also say that you discover, through the use of a food app, that you’re actually eating about 2,600 calories per day, which is why you’re overweight. 

    You’re best off tapering to 2,400 calories for about two weeks, and then dropping down 2,200 for another two weeks before finally settling in at your proper intake of 2,000 calories per day. This gradual step-down will keep your body from going into starvation mode and keep you from feeling hungry all the time, which will undermine your efforts. 
     
    Calorie requirements are highly individualized. An ideal daily intake of calories varies depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide calorie estimates for men and women based on age and activity level. For example, these guidelines note that the general recommended intake for adult women ranges from 1,600 to 2,400 calories daily, while men often require 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day to maintain healthy body weights.  
     
     
     
    Sedentary people need fewer calories because sitting is not very demanding, and most Americans are quite sedentary. According to a study reported by the American College of Sports Medicine, American adults, ages 20 to 75, reported spending an average of 9.5 hours sedentary each day, and most of this time was accumulated at work and during leisure-time. Then factor in that most of us sleep 7-8 hours per night. 
     
    Harvard Medical School says that sedentary adults require 13 calories for each pound of their body weight on a daily basis. For example, a sedentary 130-pound woman needs about 1,700 calories, while a 175-pound, inactive man requires about 2,300 calories daily to maintain a healthy body weight.
     
    Yet, those numbers are to maintain body weight. If you need to lose weight, you’ll need to lower your caloric intake. The University of Washington suggests that overweight adults need 10 calories per pound of their desirable body weight to move toward that healthier weight. For example, an overweight woman with a goal weight of 130 pounds needs 1,300 calories daily, while an obese man trying to reach 175 pounds needs about 1,750 calories daily to reach his goal.
     
    Again, any caloric reduction should be done slowly and gradually. Give your body — particularly your stomach and brain, which communicate hunger signals — time to adapt. Initially, at least, focus on eating slowly and eating more whole foods, instead of just eating smaller portions. After a week or two of these adjustments, you can begin to focus on portion sizes and limiting caloric intake, which should accelerate your weight loss. Being hungry all the time will cause a backlash and result in bad food choices and, ultimately, overeating. 
     
    Highly-processed foods, aka “junk” foods, are typically loaded with sugar, fat, and sodium. Beyond that, they often harm the microbiome, the delicate balance of microorganisms in the gut, which contributes to various health problems. Highly-processed foods are also associated with increased systemic inflammation. 
     
    If you can gradually shift to to eating more whole, minimally-processed foods more often, you’ll be on the right track. Don’t do it all at once and don’t be militant about it. Slowly cut your calories to a number that suits your sex, age and activity level. 
     
    Don’t restrict food to the point that it causes anxiety or stress. That will prove to be unproductive and will undermine your goals. Simply put, don’t deprive yourself. By eating more slowly, and eating foods that are high in protein and fiber, which are more filling, you can become more attuned to hunger sensations and learn to stop before overeating. 
     
    Lastly find healthier ways to cope with stress that don’t involve eating, such as taking a walk, doing a crossword puzzle, talking to a close friend or loved one, or even meditating. Stress is part of life; don’t let it undermine you. 
     
    Be compassionate with yourself. Be on your own side and don’t be so judgmental. Good things — the fruits of your labor — take time to manifest. Keep moving forward and know that your sustained efforts will pay off. Be patient and remain focused. 
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences Have Adverse Effects on Adult Health

    Adverse Childhood Experiences Have Adverse Effects on Adult Health

    In 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti was running an obesity program at his San Diego-based clinic. He discovered that the people most likely to drop out of the program were the ones successfully losing weight. Upon further inquiry, Dr. Felitti found that 55% of the people in the program acknowledged a history of childhood sexual abuse. Many of the women indicated that they believed their physical size helped to ward off sexual advances from men. For these women, excess weight was meant to be protective. For them, losing weight was not deemed helpful.
     
    Backing Felitti’s findings, longitudinal studies suggest that self-reported physical and sexual abuse during childhood greatly increase one’s risk for severe obesity in adulthood. One analysis using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health found more than double the risk for abused females and more than triple for abused males, compared to individuals with no history of abuse.
     
    This made Dr. Felitti, the founder of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Kaiser Permanente, wonder whether adverse experiences prior to one’s 18th birthday could be related to other negative health outcomes in adulthood. So, he initiated a study to find out.
     
    Now one of the world’s foremost experts on childhood trauma, Dr. Felitti is the co-principal investigator of the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a long-term, in-depth, analysis of more than 17,000 middle-class adults, 75% of whom were white. Done in conjunction with the CDC, the ACE study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997.
     
    Again, the participants were largely white, middle-class adults, and they were mostly educated people. In fact, 39.3% were college graduates or higher, and 35.9% had attended at least some college.
     
    The ACE study found that traumatic experiences in childhood, which are often protected for many years by shame and secrecy, can play out a half-century later in terms of emotional state, disease, and even life expectancy. The ACE study examined 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences due to their prevalence:
     
    1. Physical abuse
    2. Sexual abuse
    3. Verbal/emotional abuse
    4. Physical neglect
    5. Emotional neglect
    6. Witnessing a mother being abused
    7. A family member who is depressed, suicidal or diagnosed with other mental illness
    8. A family member who is addicted to alcohol or another substance
    9. Losing a parent to separation, divorce or death
    10. A family member who is in prison
     
    The ACEs study found a strong association between the number of adverse childhood experiences and later-life mental and physical health problems, such as heart disease, COPD, higher rates of STDs, and even premature death.
     
    Adverse childhood experiences dramatically increase the risk for seven of the 10 leading causes of death in the US. In high doses, they affect brain development, the immune system, hormonal systems, and even the way that DNA is read and transcribed. People who are exposed to very high doses have triple the lifetime risk of heart disease and lung cancer, and a significant difference in life expectancy.
     
    The ACEs study found that 67% of the population had at least one ACE; almost 25% of American adults have been exposed to three or more ACEs; and 12.6% (1 in 8) had four or more ACEs. The higher the ACE score, the worse the health outcomes are.
     
    In a middle-class population, one in 11 people experienced six or more of those adverse experiences in childhood. A so-called ACE score of six (experiencing any six of the 10 categories) made that person 4,600% more likely to become an IV drug user than a person who had experienced none of those categories. An ACE score of six also produces a likelihood of attempting suicide that is between 3,100%-5,000% greater than someone with none of these categories.
     
    An ACE score of six also shortens life expectancy by about 20 years.
     
    The findings showed that people who experienced four or more adverse childhood events (1 in 8 people) had:
     
    • Increased risk for smoking, alcoholism and drug abuse
    • Increased risk for depression and suicide attempts
    • Poor self-rated health
    • 50 or more sexual partners
    • Greater likelihood of sexually transmitted disease
    • Challenges with physical inactivity and severe obesity
     
    These individuals end up with a great likelihood of disease states in adulthood for two primary reasons:
     
    1. The use of various coping devices (i.e., smoking, drinking and overeating) that become destructive over time and
    2. The effect of chronic, major unrelieved stress on the brain and CNS can produce a chronic release of pro-inflammatory chemicals into the body and suppress the immune system.
     
    The good news is that ACEs can be screened, prevented and healed. Validating one’s existing strengths and protective factors is important. Some of the strategies that can be employed include:
     
    • Supportive relationships, including other family members and peers
    • High-quality, sufficient sleep
    • Balanced nutrition
    • Regular physical activity
    • Mindfulness and meditation
    • Experiencing nature
    • Mental health care, including psychotherapy or psychiatric care, and substance use disorder treatment, when indicated
     
    The widespread nature of adverse childhood experiences is a reminder that you never know what someone is going through at any given moment or why. It’s a reminder for us to refrain from judgement, and to always be kind.
  • Why It’s Critical to Manage Your Stress

    Why It’s Critical to Manage Your Stress

    There may be an even greater risk to your heart’s health than high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, obesity and physical inactivity. Chronic psychological stress may be more dangerous to heart health than each of these traditional cardiac risk factors.
     
    A recent study, published in JAMA, found that mental stress took a significantly greater toll on the hearts and lives of heart patients than did physical stress. The patients were more likely to suffer a non-fatal heart attack or die of cardiovascular disease in the years that followed.
     
    A previous study of patients from 52 countries found that those who experienced a high level of psychological stress during the year before they entered the study were more than twice as likely to suffer a heart attack during an average follow-up of five years, even when traditional risk factors were taken into account.
     
    The study, known as Interheart, showed that psychological stress is an independent risk factor for heart attacks, similar in heart-damaging effects to the more commonly measured cardiovascular risks.
     
    Stress is a profound, yet underrated, factor in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Stress, itself, exacerbates cholesterol levels, raises blood pressure and heart rate, and often creates the kind of pressure that prevents a person from engaging in adequate self-care activities.
     
    Science has shown that an unrelenting barrage of stress hormones can break down the body, leading to obesity, disease, depression and more. Stress hormones have a profound effect on the brain. They actually change the brain, alter behavior and impact mental health. There’s growing evidence indicating that depressive illness and hostility are both associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other systemic disorders.
     
    Ultimately, stress affects us in every way — body, mind, emotions and behavior. Here’s how:
     
    Stress can negatively affect the immune system, skin, hormones, bones, brain, heart, gut and muscles.
     
    The effects of stress in the body can manifest in many ways: headaches, frequent infections, tight muscles, muscle twitches, fatigue, skin irritations and poor breathing, for example.
     
    Stress can also affect our minds in the form of: worrying, impaired judgement, nightmares, indecision, negativity and hasty decisions, for example.
     
    Stress affect our emotions in the the following ways: loss of confidence, irritability, depression, apathy, alienation and apprehension, for example.
     
    Stress can also affect our behavior in the following ways: insomnia, restlessness, drinking more, smoking more, loss of appetite and loss of sex drive, for example.
     
    Stress affects our nervous system and raises cortisol levels, which can affect metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate and the immune system. Continually high cortisol levels result in weight gain, digestive problems, heart disease and a suppressed immune system.
     
    The immune system is designed to ward off these problems. However, the stress hormone cortisol is known to interfere with immune functioning. So, it’s important to find healthy ways to mitigate and manage your stress.
     
    It should be noted that not all stress is bad, however. Good stress allows us to respond to an immediate challenge with a burst of energy that focuses the mind. And transient stress is a response to daily frustrations that resolve quickly. The problem is chronic stress, which results from a toxic, unrelenting barrage of challenges that eventually breaks down the body.
     
    What can you do to mitigate the effects of chronic stress and/or anxiety?
     
    Regular physical exercise can help to tamp down stress and the body-wide inflammation it can cause. Research shows that exercise lowers anxiety levels, and it does it rather quickly — in about 10 minutes. Exercise is a great way to bring wellness to your brain. A single workout increases neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, and these mood boosters can also improve your memory and focus for up to three hours afterwards. So, exercise helps your mental health, as well as your cognition.
     
    A healthy, balanced diet can also help to relieve stress. What you put into your body affects you, for better or worse, in myriad ways. Sugar and processed foods can lead to inflammation throughout the body and brain, which may contribute to mood disorders, including anxiety and depression. Yet, when we’re feeling stressed or depressed, it’s often processed foods that we reach for as a means of coping. This just creates a feedback loop. 
     
    Adequate nightly sleep is also a stress reliever. On the other hand, poor sleep increases stress and promotes arterial inflammation. For this reason, developing good sleep habits can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular damage. Adopt a consistent pattern of bedtime and awakening, and avoid exposure at bedtime to screens that emit blue light, like smartphones and computers, or use blue-light filters for such devices.
     
    Maintaining a healthy social support network is also a critical means of stress management. Loneliness and isolation have been scientifically proven to be really bad for our health.
     
    Relaxation techniques, such as meditation, can result in a rebalancing of your hormone levels, including: increased serotonin (happiness hormone), increased endorphins (pain relief hormone), increased melatonin (sleep hormone), decreased adrenaline (action hormone), and deceased norepinephrine (fight or fight hormone), as well as the enhancement of your immune system. Simply put, meditation helps people reduce stress and build resilience.
     
    Controlled breathing has also been shown to reduce stress, increase alertness, and boost your immune system. Yogis have for ages long used breath control, or pranayama, to promote concentration and improve vitality.
     
    Studies have found that breathing practices can help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and attention deficit disorder.
     
    Consciously slowing your breath can turn on the parasympathetic nervous system, which can slow heart rate and promote feelings of calm and relaxation.
     
    A 2011 review article in Health Science Journal identified some of the potential health benefits of deep breathing techniques, particularly for deep breathing from the diaphragm. These include:
     
    • Reduced anxiety
    • Better stress management
    • Reduced hypertension
    • Decreased fatigue
    • Improved migraine symptoms
    • Reduced aggressive behavior in adolescent males
    • Reduced symptoms of asthma in children and adolescents
     
    Ultimately, techniques such as meditation and controlled breathing activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the brain and body. These techniques can help you become calmer, while relieving anxiety and stress, which can lead to healthier physical, mental and emotional outcomes.
     
    We will never eliminate all stress from our lives, but we can seek to reduce it, better tolerate it, and recover from it. Whatever you do, find ways to lessen and manage your stress. It can have a significant impact on your health.
     
    Although stress is a part of life, doing the following things can help you manage your stress:
     
    • Recognize your stress
    • Take time for yourself
    • Practice deep breathing
    • Meditate
    • Exercise
    • Put Joy and laughter into your life
    • Eat healthy, nutritious foods
    • Avoid putting anything unhealthy in your body
    • Have good sleep habits
  • Why You Need to Control Glucose and Insulin Spikes

    Why You Need to Control Glucose and Insulin Spikes

    Glucose is the main type of sugar in the blood and the major source of energy for the body’s cells. Glucose comes from the carbohydrates we eat, such as bread, potatoes and fruit. Though the body can also make glucose from fats and proteins, this process is neither rapid or efficient. Glucose is the body’s preferred fuel source and it produces ATP, which is the basic energy we need to live and function at the cellular level.

    When the body doesn’t need ingested glucose for energy, it stores it in the liver and muscles in the form of glycogen. When the body needs glucose again, it converts the glycogen back into glucose. This conversion process is designed to be a very efficient system.  

    If the amount of glucose released into your bloodstream after eating is more than your cells need and more than your liver can store as glycogen, excess glucose is stored as saturated fatty acids. This is why you may gain weight if you consume too much sugar. It should be noted that fiber and healthy fats help to slow the breakdown and release of sugar into the blood.

    The majority of glycogen is stored in skeletal muscles (∼500 g) and the liver (∼100 g). Fatigue develops during exercise when the glycogen stores are depleted in the active muscles.

    This brings us to insulin, which has a symbiotic relationship with glucose. Insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas, moves glucose into muscle and liver cells. While both glucose and insulin are critical to normal, healthy body functions, they must remain within strict limits. Too much or too little of either can be very dangerous, even deadly. 

    Eating a large amount of high glycemic index foods, such as refined sugars and simple carbohydrates—common in the typical American diet—causes your pancreas to pump out lots of insulin to remove excess glucose from your blood. However, that exposes your cells to too much insulin, which is also damaging to your health. 

    Excess insulin in your bloodstream can affect the arteries all over your body. It causes the arterial walls to get inflamed, grow thicker than normal and more stiff, which stresses and damages your heart over time.

    This is why it’s so important to avoid the constant cycle of glucose and insulin upswings. Ultimately, the pancreas can become exhausted and produces less insulin when glucose is high. The body may even become resistant to insulin. This is what happens to people with type-2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Insulin resistance is common in people who are overweight since they tend to eat more calories and their pancreas becomes overwhelmed.

    Stress can also cause a spike in insulin, increasing the prospects of insulin resistance. Chronic stress, whether physical or psychological, can affect your whole body. As part of the stress response, the adrenal glands pump out cortisol, the body’s main anti-stress hormone. Cortisol is released not only when you are physically stressed but also when you are psychologically stressed. 

    As your body perceives stress, your adrenal glands make and release cortisol into your bloodstream. Often called the “stress hormone,” cortisol causes an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure. Excess cortisol causes high blood pressure, aka hypertension. Higher cortisol levels are linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke, according to the American Heart Association. 

    Cortisol and insulin are intimately linked, as are stress and insulin resistance. One of the main functions of cortisol is to regulate blood sugar levels. Eating too much glucose-rich food causes a spike in blood sugar, which causes a subsequent spike in insulin, which causes a subsequent crash in blood sugar levels. This roller coaster-like effect is a huge stressor on your system and triggers the release of cortisol, which raises blood sugar levels by breaking down glycogen stores and stimulating cravings for sugary foods. Thus the cycle begins again.

    Ultimately, the ups and downs of blood sugar result in the ups and downs of insulin and cortisol. This tumultuous process exhausts both the pancreas and the adrenal glands.

    Reducing or managing psychological stress will not only help your adrenal glands recover, but can also help with reducing insulin resistance.

    One way to help assure healthy adrenal function is to adhere to a diet that is low in sugar, caffeine and junk food, as well as following a healthy sleep schedule. 

    Aside from limiting simple sugars and refined carbohydrates, the best way to manage your glucose levels is through exercise.

    Your body’s ability to uptake glucose and store it as glycogen (glycogen synthesis) is increased after exercise. The reduced glycogen stores in skeletal muscles after exercise allow carbohydrates to be stored as muscle glycogen. 

    Ultimately, the reduction of glycogen in skeletal muscle after exercise allows a healthy storage of carbohydrates after meals and helps prevent the development of type-2 diabetes. 

    Exercise improves insulin sensitivity in both healthy people and insulin-resistant people. Moreover, the risk for development of type-2 diabetes is reduced by regular exercise.

    Exercise offers three means to remove glucose from the blood: 

    1. Exercise uses lots of glucose for fuel. 
    2. Skeletal muscle is large and, therefore, serves as a significant reservoir for glycogen storage (80% of the glycogen is stored in skeletal muscles). 
    3. Exercise increases the glycogen storage capacity in skeletal muscles. More muscle, more storage.

    To recap, the keys are to avoid reactionary spikes in glucose, insulin and cortisol are: 

    1. Reduce your intake of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates 
    2. Exercise moderately every day
    3. Utilize proven methods to reduce stress (i.e., meditation, yoga, time in nature, etc.) 

    We can’t control everything, but we have the ability to control our food intake, the hormones affected by it, and our activity level.

  • Sleep Is Vital to Good Health, Yet Many of Us Aren’t Getting Enough

    Sleep Is Vital to Good Health, Yet Many of Us Aren’t Getting Enough

    One-third of U.S. adults are struggling to get a good night’s rest, according to a jointly conducted web survey by Gallup and mattress retailer Casper. This suggests that nearly 84 million Americans are not getting adequate sleep.
     
    Moreover, 65% said they were unable to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
     
    This sleep deficit has negative health consequences. Research confirms that not getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, or getting poor quality sleep, increases risks for high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and atherosclerosis, which happens when fatty deposits build up in arteries. Not getting enough sleep is linked to weight gain, diabetes and inflammation, all of which can worsen cardiovascular disease.
     
    The survey of more than 3,000 adults indicated that stress is a major factor in this epidemic of sleepless. If the word epidemic sounds hyperbolic, that’s exactly how the CDC describes it.
     
    Two years of the coronavirus pandemic drove stress levels to extraordinary levels and even as that now begins to wane, new stressors seem to have supplanted it. An American Psychological Association study recently found that Americans are feeling more anxious about inflation, global uncertainty, and the war in Ukraine.
     
    Our emotional and mental states are major contributing factors to how easily we fall asleep and whether we stay asleep all night.
     
    There are strategies you can utilize to help improve your sleep. For example, 30 minutes of daily exercise improves your odds of a great night’s sleep by 30%. That’s because exercise helps work off stress and anxiety. Moving your body and raising your heart rate help ensure a better night’s sleep.
     
    Creating some form of ambient white noise, such as with a fan or noise machine that creates nature sounds, can also be calming, soothing and sleep inducing.
     
    Healthy nutrition, meditation and/or breathing exercises can also be quite helpful. For example, you can count your in-breaths or out-breaths from one to 10. You can then count them backwards from 10 to one. If your mind wanders, bring your attention back to your breathing and start counting from one again. Focused breathing is relaxing in and of itself, but it can also help stop the mind from wandering. If you practice while lying in bed, eventually you’ll fall asleep while counting your breaths.
     
    Another useful strategy is to have a specific bedtime routine that you follow every night. Varying bedtimes and wake times put your body’s internal clock, the circadian clock, out of cycle. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, even on weekends, prevents this disruption. Changes in your sleep schedule thwart a natural sleep pattern, which throws off your circadian cycle.
     
    A regular bed time is critical for your health and wellness, as is a regular waking time. Additionally, sleeping too long can affect your ability to fall asleep that night. After a good night’s sleep, most people need to be awake around 16 hours before they feel sleepy again.
     
    Going to sleep between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease compared to earlier or later bedtimes, according to a new study by the European Society of Cardiology. Early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body’s circadian clock, with adverse consequences for cardiovascular health, according to the study’s authors.
     
    The incidence of cardiovascular disease was highest in those with sleep times at midnight or later (25% higher risk) and lowest in those with sleep onset from 10:00 to 10:59 pm. There was a 24% higher risk for falling asleep before 10:00 pm.
     
    When it gets dark, your brain ramps up its production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Essentially, melatonin helps you fall asleep — and stay asleep. On the other hand, light signals your brain to stop making melatonin, which helps you wake up and feel alert in the morning.
     
    Too much light just before bedtime, especially the blue light from electronic devices, can also disrupt our internal clocks. The brain’s nighttime surge of melatonin is known as melatonin onset. This naturally occurs as the sun sets and your environment literally starts to dim.
     
    However, modern humans no longer live by the sun’s daily cycle. We now have the ability to artificially keep our home environments bright at night. All that light signals to your body that it’s still daytime, which definitely doesn’t help you fall asleep. For this reason, it’s best to turn off screens and other intense lights a half-hour or so before bedtime. Reading by a dim light just before bed is a great way to ready the brain and induce sleep.
     
    Eliminating light in your bedroom is also a key requisite to a good night’s sleep. Even small sources of light, such as from your alarm clock or smoke detector can be disruptive, according to sleep research. There are tiny receptor cells in your retina that look for light intensity. Sleeping in a pitch-black environment helps ensure that those retinal receptors don’t find any light — until you’re ready to wake up in the morning.
     
    However, totally blacking out your room, such as with blackout curtains, in order to create a perfect sleep chamber may not be realistic for you. Yet, most of us can wear a sleep mask.
     
    Wearing a sleep mask could actually benefit your health. A small study at Northwestern University found that participants who slept in a dimly lit room had a continuously elevated heart rate. And in the morning, they also had more trouble getting their blood sugar into a normal range, a condition known as insulin resistance.
     
    These physiological changes happened even though their actual sleep wasn’t really disturbed. In fact, the participants generally said they slept fine. Yet, their brains and hearts knew that the lights were on, even though these people were sleeping. Even a relatively small amount of light was enough to shift their nervous systems into a more alert and activated state. The study provides evidence that sleeping with even relatively dim light exposure can be disruptive to our sleep-wake cycle.
     
    The resulting risk of chronic diseases like insulin resistance, diabetes, other cardio-metabolic problems is real. One five-year observational study of more than 40,000 women found that having a light or TV on while sleeping was associated with an increased risk of gaining more than 10 pounds.
     
    Furthermore, research shows that a lack of sleep can:
     
    • Affect cognition, decreasing focus and work productivity
    • Sap your energy and desire to work out
    • Elevate appetite and food cravings
    • Lead to more impulsive decisions, impacting food choices
    • Boost irritability, straining relationships
    • Increase stress levels (which makes sleep more difficult)
     
    In summation, for all these reasons, it’s best to:
     
    • Exercise daily, even if it’s just a walk
    • Create a cool, dark bedroom environment that’s conducive to sleep
    • Prepare for sleep by dimming lights and not using blue-light emitting devices 30 minutes before bed
    • Stop watching news or other distressing content before bed
    • Use breathing exercises when you’re having trouble sleeping
    • Keep specific bed and wake times
    • Wear a sleep mask
     
    Follow these tips, and you’ll enjoy a continually better night’s rest and, ultimately, a better quality of life.
  • Sugar: The Biggest Dietary Threat to Your Health

    Sugar: The Biggest Dietary Threat to Your Health

    For decades, Americans were warned to reduce their fat and cholesterol intake in order to prevent heart disease, the nation’s No. 1 killer of both men and women. However, it is now known that sugar is the greater threat to our national health.
     
    The link between sugar and heart disease was purposefully obscured for decades. In 1964, after studies began linking sugar with heart disease, the Sugar Association (a sugar industry trade group) began funding research that cast doubt on sugar’s role in heart disease, in part by pointing the finger at fat.
     
    First, we should note the difference between naturally occurring sugar and added sugar, which is the real threat.
     
    Sugar occurs naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains and dairy. Consuming whole foods that contain naturally occurring sugar is okay. Plant foods also have high amounts of fiber, essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and dairy foods contain protein and calcium.
     
    Since your body digests these foods slowly, the sugar in them offers a steady supply of energy to your cells. A high intake of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains also has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.
     
    However, problems occur when you consume too much added sugar — that is, the sugar food manufacturers add to their products to increase flavor and/or extend shelf life. The added sugar in our food is generally regular table sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup (a mix of fructose and glucose).
     
    Remarkably, sugar is the most popular ingredient added to foods in the US. In fact, about 80% of all sugar found in US foods has been added by the food industry. The top sources of sugar in the American diet are soft drinks, fruit drinks, flavored yogurts, cereals, cookies, cakes, candy, and other processed foods. 
     
    Yet, added sugar is also present in items you may not think of as sweetened, such as soups, cured meats, and ketchup. Yes, sugar isn’t merely found in sweets; it’s also added to many other processed foods, such as crackers, breads, peanut butter, and salad dressings. In fact, most processed foods contain sugar.
     
    While you might not think you’re eating much sugar, chances are you’re eating a lot more than you realize. Added sugar lurks in nearly 70% of packaged foods and is found in many sauces, snacks, most breakfast foods, and even many so-called ‘health foods’.
     
    The result: we consume way too much added sugar.
     
    Today, the average American consumes 66 pounds of added sugar each year, according to government data. That’s more than one pound of sugar each week!
     
    This is of great concern since too much added sugar is among the greatest threats to cardiovascular disease. Eating and drinking too many added sugars can also contribute to other health problems, such as type-2 diabetes and obesity. 
     
    “Sugar is actually more addictive than even cocaine, so it is probably the most consumed addictive substance around the world and it is wreaking havoc on our health,” says cardiovascular researcher James DiNicolantonio.
     
    Sugar’s impact on heart health has long been researched by Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
     
    In a study published in 2014 in JAMA Internal Medicine, Dr. Hu and his colleagues found an association between a high-sugar diet and a greater risk of dying from heart disease. Over the course of the 15-year study, people who got 17% to 21% of their calories from added sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with those who consumed 8% of their calories as added sugar.
     
    “Basically, the higher the intake of added sugar, the higher the risk for heart disease,” says Dr. Hu.
     
    High amounts of sugar overload the liver, potentially leading to fatty liver disease, a contributor to diabetes, which also raises your risk for heart disease.
     
    Consuming too much added sugar can also raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation, both of which are pathological pathways to heart disease.
     
    “The effects of added sugar intake — higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease — are all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke,” says Dr. Hu.
     
    Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the US. It kills more Americans each year than AIDS and breast cancer combined, according to the American Diabetes Association.
     
    More than 100 million US adults are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetes, according to a 2017 CDC report. Pre-diabetes is a condition that, if not treated, often leads to type-2 diabetes within five years. Despite the fact that more than a third of US adults have pre-diabetes, the majority don’t know it, says the CDC.
     
    Even a relatively small amount of sugar can do a lot of damage to your health. People who add 150 calories of sugar to their daily diet — from sources such as a 12-ounce can of Coke or an ounce of M&Ms — have 10 times greater risk of developing diabetes.
     
    Additionally, people who consume a diet high in fructose risk damaging their immune systems, a new study suggests. The study shows that fructose, which is commonly found in sugary drinks, sweets and processed foods, causes the immune system to become inflamed.
     
    Furthermore, researchers say that consuming too much added sugar (as well as artificial sweetener, fast foods, fried foods, processed foods, and alcohol) can harm your gut microbiome.
     
    The American Heart Association (AHA) has long suggested that men consume no more than nine teaspoons (36 grams) of added sugar per day. That’s close to the amount in a 12-ounce can of soda. Women are advised to limit added sugars to no more than six teaspoons a day (24 grams).
     
    However, the average American still eats about 17 teaspoons (19 for men, 15 for women) of added sugar a day, according to the CDC. That’s about double the recommended limit for men (nine teaspoons) and two-and-a-half times the limit for women (six teaspoons). This doesn’t include the sugars that occur naturally in foods like fruit or dairy products.
     
    In other words, American adults consume an average of 77 grams of added sugar per day. Again, that’s more than two times the recommended amount for men and two-and-a-half times the recommended amount for women. 
     
    Recognizing the problem, the AHA now recommends that sugar intake be limited to less than 6% of daily calories, and the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee agrees.
     
    Yet, roughly 90% of Americans still get more than 10% of daily calories from sugar, and the top 10% of sugar-consumers ingest a whopping 40% of their calories from sugar!
     
    Beverages are the leading source of added sugars, accounting for 47% of the total. Examples of sugary beverages include regular soda, fruit drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened waters, and coffee and tea beverages with added sugars.
     
    The US ranks third in the world in sales of sugary drinks. In 2013, the average American drank just over 38 gallons of soda a year — or about eight 12-ounce cans a week. 
     
    Reading food labels is one of the best ways to monitor your intake of added sugar. Total sugar, which includes added sugar, is often listed in grams. Note the number of grams of sugar per serving as well as the total number of servings. The package might only say 5 grams of sugar per serving, but if the normal amount is three or four servings, you can easily consume 20 grams of sugar. That’s a lot of added sugar.
     
    By simply being more aware, you can substantially reduce the amount of added sugar in your diet. It would certainly be worth your while.
  • Sean Kennedy: Health & Happiness Coach

    Sean Kennedy: Health & Happiness Coach

    Though my professional titles have long been Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (what a mouthful!), I’ve long thought of myself as a Health & Happiness Coach.
     
    I’m less interested in helping people build a physical monument to themselves (or their egos) than I am in helping them be happier, more confident and more self-fulfilled. I try to get people to focus less on the amount of fat or muscle on their bodies and more on reducing stress, improving self-esteem, sleeping better, lowering blood pressure and resting heart rate, developing better mobility and balance, and building stronger bones, ligaments and tendons, as well as muscles.
     
    A single workout increases neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline, and these mood boosters can also improve your memory and focus for up to three hours afterwards. Research shows that exercise even lowers anxiety levels, and it does it rather quickly — in about 10 minutes. So, exercise helps your mental health, as well as your cognition. Even a brisk walk can help boost your neurotransmitters and mood.
     
    Scientists at Duke University Medical Center tested three groups with depression. One was prescribed exercise; one was prescribed Zoloft; and the third was prescribed a combination of the two. Remarkably, the group that just exercised had the best results. And exercise seemed to do a better job of keeping the depression symptoms from coming back.
     
    Indeed, exercise has a multitude of positive effects; it even helps your brain grow new neurons. During a process called neurogenesis, new neurons (brain cells) develop in the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning information, storing long-term memories, and regulating emotions.
     
    Exercise also promotes brain plasticity by stimulating growth of new connections between cells in many important cortical areas of the brain.
     
    Yes, exercise even leads to a happier, healthier brain!
     
    The physical, emotional and mental benefits of exercise are numerous. So, there are bountiful reasons make regular exercise part of your weekly or even daily life.
     
    Yet, our wellbeing can be affected by more than just exercise.
     
    For example, there is a vital connection between the brain and the gut, where 90% of our serotonin receptors are located. The truth is, the foods we eat not only affect our physical health, but also our emotional wellbeing.
     
    Ultra-processed foods and foods that contain chemical additives negatively affect our gut health and increases our risk of illness. Ultra-processed foods, such as fast foods, are typically cheap, and they’re scientifically designed to be extra tasty and make you overeat. Even worse, ultra-processed foods are known cause inflammation and disease.
     
    On the other hand, a recent study found that fiber might be linked with a reduced risk of depression, especially in pre-menopausal women. Previous studies had already suggested the benefits of fiber for mental health. The link between dietary fiber and depression may be partially explained by gut-brain interactions, since fiber improves the richness and diversity of gut microbiota. It’s theorized that changes in gut-microbiota composition may affect neurotransmission.
     
    Additionally, according to the Cleveland Clinic, protein consumption (from foods like fish, beef, chicken, turkey, tofu, beans, eggs and unsweetened yogurt) has been linked to higher levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, the brain chemicals that play a role in your mood, motivation and concentration.
     
    So, our diets can indeed affect our mood state and mental wellbeing, as well as our physical wellbeing.
     
    Finding healthy ways to manage our stress is also very important. The stress hormone cortisol is known to interfere with immune functioning and even the workings of the cardiovascular system. In fact, stress is an underrated, yet profound, factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. Stress exacerbates cholesterol levels, raises blood pressure and heart rate, and it often creates the kind of pressure that prevents a person from engaging in enough healthy self-care activities.
     
    So, it’s important to find healthy ways to mitigate and manage stress. Lowering your stress levels with relaxation techniques, such as meditation, can reduce your risk of health problems.
     
    However, people often turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as food, alcohol, drugs and impulsive shopping to cope with life’s stresses. Yet, these things ultimately make our stresses even worse in the long run. Meditation, on the other hand, can be helpful in managing stress and anxiety, as well as a variety of other health conditions. Research studies have shown that regular meditation can actually change the physical structure and cognitive function of the brain.
     
    Ultimately, true wellness requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, where all of these factors are considered and implemented.
     
    It may seem intuitive or self-evident that being unhealthy could make someone unhappy, and there’s evidence to support that notion. A study at George Mason University found that the degree to which a disease disrupts daily functioning is associated with reduced happiness. According to the lead author of the study, “these results support the notion that health status is one of the most important predictors of happiness.”
     
    A study of the “Economic Determinants of Happiness,” based on data gathered by the U.S. Census, revealed that health is a far more powerful determinant of an individual’s happiness than his or her income, marital status, age or any other factor. In fact, self-described “healthy” people are 20 percent happier than average, while “unhealthy” people are 8.25 percent less happy.
     
    Okay, but how about the inverse? Can being happy make you more healthy?
     
    According to researchers at Southern Methodist University, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that people’s overall sense of life satisfaction and typical levels of happiness are linked to physical health.
     
    And, according to Harvard Medical School, scientific evidence suggests that positive emotions can help make life longer and healthier.
     
    Furthermore, according to Northwestern Medicine, happiness lowers your risk for cardiovascular disease, lowers your blood pressure, enables better sleep, improves your diet, allows you to maintain a normal body weight through regular exercise and reduces stress.
     
    Clearly, happiness and health are interrelated. And most research suggests that the connection between happiness and health is bidirectional. This means that greater wellbeing leads to better physical health, and better physical health leads to greater wellbeing. One thing leads to the other.
     
    This is why I have always taken a “whole-being” approach to health and wellness. We can’t simply focus on having a little less body fat, bigger biceps or a better butt and expect to be necessarily healthier and/or happier. Certainly, seeing improvements in your physique can be positive and uplifting. But adequate sleep, good nutrition and stress reduction are also vital to our overall wellbeing.
     
    Seeing verifiable improvements in your biomarkers (i.e., blood pressure, resting heart rate, LDL cholesterol, etc.) is not only a clear indication of improving physical health, it also gives you a big boost emotionally and mentally — even if your biceps don’t get any bigger or your butt doesn’t necessarily look better.
     
    Ultimately, exercise, a nutritious diet, meditation, and other forms of self-care can make us healthier, happier, and mentally sharper, all of which are very worthwhile pursuits.
     
    If you’d like help in forging a healthier lifestyle, please reach out to me. It could very well make you happier, too!