Health and Fitness, February, 2020

[Harriet]

Hearts are everywhere this month! It's the month for seeing cute red valentine shapes wherever we go, and also for considering how loving care affects our well-being, and therefore health.

❤️

The two go together, say research teams from Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Riverside, who found that "positive well-being" is a factor in heart health. That concept may not be a surprise to anyone, but the researchers think they've quantified it.

The positive psychology researchers looked at caring actions such as
1) building relationships,
2) expressing gratitude,
3) practicing kindness and
4) dropping grudges.

Of course, they also looked at other healthy associations like exercising regularly and getting enough sleep. But in the final analysis, they were surprised that simple "positive well-being" was associated with a 13 percent reduction in the incidence of coronary artery disease, independent of other traditional risk factors.

Lisa Yanek, Asst Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins adds one more practical idea to remember: "Other studies have found that smiling can help decrease stress."

Are you avoiding the candy inside the heart-shaped boxes this month? Chocolate is so tempting. I think I could forgo nearly any sweet as long as no one put any chocolate in front of me. And when it goes on sale after the 14th ... .. ugh! I try to be satisfied with the cocoa I add to smoothies and cherry oatmeal!

What tips do you have for avoiding temptation?

[Lynlee]

I found the book The Disease Delusion by Dr Jeffrey Bland in the library and read some more today.
He is on about functional medicine ( the whys of why people get sick, as opposed to treating symptoms)
and working with our body (my words) instead of against it, and questioning the wisdom of adding a heap of different meds when chronic problem causes are ill defined.
He used the example of Az Indians not coping with what has become their western diet, and the current diseases prevalent. Diabetes and Kidney failure are biggies here. Same here for native folk in homeland communities, though not their original homelands, mostly. Pacific Islanders too easily run to obese.
I'm also thinking of some celtic genetic disorders that assist in times of famine too. My family has that from both sides. There are other side effects. epigenetics too.

Anyway. I'm not that far into the book. I'm considering my need for B vitamins suppliments, ignored for some years for starters. Daily would be good. Consistently/
Q10 got a mention too, which Harriet mentioned to me an age ago.
I'm wanting to up my yoga and tai chi classes as well.
Seeing as I've had 3 abnormal GT tests 1975 - 80. I need to be serious about no sugar thing, even though I'm repeatedly told diabetes is not an issue. But keep a check on it said the first doctor.( it was way low - 1.7 on the down cycle in the next two tests. But definitions have changed a lot over time. Now <4 is considered low.)
Chocolate? I are the rest of my Christmas chocolate today and will endeavour not to buy any more.
I can do without the headaches that happen with it, I try to remind myself of that when temptation bites.
I suspect bs goes low regularly as my brain goes off line during 2hr tai chi classes especially.
Nut bars with about 10% sugars, I'm not sure they are the answer. I try to carry them with me.
I need a new test kit to find out what is really happening..
.

[Nancy]

I did ten. Min. On stat bike.
Take up old broken sewing mach. Some of my exercise.
There are recall on heart meds. To lower # like chol. & bp.

[Ramblinrose]

I am back to following the eating plan that I had success with a while back. I couldn’t stick with the other ones because I missed my skinny muffin which makes my body eliminate my body waste in a more timely way. I find this is important for my body to feel good.

Still low carb, no sugar or white stuff. I’m still staying away from dairy as well except for a bit of cream in my coffee.

Bunching up my gyms days will be a challenge. I much rathe do M,W,F than my new T,W,Th but I’m not willing to give up my trainer so I’ll just have to adjust.

Will have my body evaluated on Thursday and am anxious to see my results.

[Nancy]

I have been on the stat bike for my exercise plus up and down the stairs several times doing laundry.
My weight is about the same that is a relief.

[Harriet]

In January, I lost the holiday pounds that had been added. Happy about that. Did not want to keep them.

[LadyMaverick]

Thinking and processing out loud.

The results of my last DEXA scan showed a slight loss of bone density. Not osteoporosis, but beginning osteopenia. The PA prescribed high level of prescription D3 and calcium as precautionary. This sounded okay until I realized.... My blood work showed my calcium levels are at the higher end of the normal range. Blood work shows D3 & B12 levels are good.

My thoughts.....if my calcium and D3 are good why should I start taking heavy prescriptions to make them higher? When I asked the PA this question he didn't answer but read me the ADA recommendation. When someone shows indications of osteopenia the ADA recommends additional calcium and D3. I asked but what if they aren't deficient? The PA didn't answer that question. Isn't too much equally as bad?

I eat some sort of greens (collard greens, spinach, turnip greens, kale, mustard greens, beet greens, bok choy, okra, swiss chard) almost every day which is high in calcium. I suspect most people don't eat daily greens and would need to get it in a pill form.

So.....I'm trying to decide whether to take the prescription D3 and calcium even though my blood work shows they are already good. My brain says no. The PA says yes.

Thoughts? Has anyone else faced this decision?

[Harmony]

No one has ever suggested this to me. My Dr. continually pushes those bone medicines which I have heard bad things about. Maybe the extra calcium and Vit D pushes your body into accepting them into bones to grow them stronger? I'd probably try it for a while and look at next lab work.

[Harriet]

LadyM, you're right that the greens you are eating are a way more bioavailable and natural method for your body to get calcium than supplementation. The various lists out there usually have several greens as the top 5 or 6 foods that offer us the most calcium, depending on whether they are measuring by volume or grams and whether they're comparing frozen, etc. I know that my favorite, collards, are often on top, and I think spinach, kale, turnip and beet are almost always high on the lists. The concept that "bones are made of calcium" was a train of thought several decades ago, with the conclusion drawn that as long as it was calcium from somewhere, one way was as good as another. But bones are made of so much more than one "ingredient", more like a hundred, so the wise thing for us to do is get real food into the body, so that we can get our wisdom out of the way. Then body wisdom can pick and choose what's needed.

As for me, for HRH and my parents, doctors have always aimed for a level of 50 on our vitamin D tests. Many doctors just say everyone (adults) should take 2,000 IU of D-3 daily, and don't even test. My hormone dr agrees with this and says the problem with testing is that results are so dependent upon the season, giving false assurance in sunshiny months. You can routinely find D-3 up to 10,000 IU on local pharmacy shelves, or if doctor wanted daily doses that high and you didn't find higher than 5,000, you could just take two - if gelcaps they are small and easy to swallow. If your provider is saying that the dosage should be higher than that, and therefore wants you to take a prescription when your level is not bad, then I would question that. Why can't you just take the time to increase your level with over-the-counters. Why should you rush to some prescription level answer when there's really not much of a question.

[Twins' Mom]

LadyM, it sounds like your practitioner is just going "by the book" and hasn't thought further about the recommendation. Harriet has a lot of good thoughts. Is the reduction in bone density significant? I think weight bearing exercise is also a recommendation to keep bones strong.