Protect Your Brain-You Might Need It Someday!

Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia seen in aging patients, is on the rise. Such diseases devastate those who suffer from them, as well as family members who go through it with them. Can you imagine not knowing who or where you are? Not recognizing your surroundings? Your own family members?

This degenerative brain disease is characterized by changes in brain tissue such as plaque and tangled nerve fibers. Because Alzheimer’s has no known cure, prevention is of the utmost importance. You may not be able to change your genetic makeup that could predispose you to this disease, but there are things you can do to help keep your brain healthy and reduce the chance that you’ll suffer from the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

By now, you probably know what I’m going to say first: Watch your diet! Eat lots of all-natural foods so your body has the nutrients it need to remain healthy. Drink plenty of water every day. Take your vitamins: C, E, and the B vitamins are especially important for brain function, as is Co-enzyme Q10.

Some herbs may be helpful in increasing brain function. If you’re considering taking an herbal supplement, I highly recommend that you talk to a herbalist—someone knowledgeable about the various herbs, their effects on the body, their interaction with any medications you may be taking, and the proper preparation of herbs. Many herbs are available over the counter. Just remember, herbs were drugs before pharmaceutics were drugs. Herbs can be dangerous if used improperly.

The motto for full brain function seems to be “Use it or lose it.” Studies show that playing games, or doing tasks that require language skills, decreases the likelihood of degenerative changes in the brain. This is good news for all you lovers of Scrabble, crossword puzzles, word games, and journal writing. These have been found to be common denominators among people who never develop the symptoms of degenerative brain disease.

Get your family together for regular game nights. If you have neighbors who live alone, ask them to join you. Do you tackle the crossword puzzle online at work each morning? Well, you now have a way to defend yourself when co-workers accuse you of goofing off: “I’m protecting my brain function so I can perform work tasks more effectively!”

One of the more interesting findings from the latest studies indicates that social interaction at meals can have a slowing effect on the rate of brain degeneration. This is interesting in light of the fact that, over the years, it’s become less and less common for families to sit down to meals together, even as the incidence of degenerative brain disease seems to be increasing.

Make it a point to dine with your family regularly, and turn off the TV while you eat. If you find conversation lacking, or your family interactions routinely turn into uncomfortable silences, have a list of safe topics handy to draw from. Appoint one family member as the facilitator for the meal: that person can choose the topic or topics and keep the conversation going and on track.

If you live alone, join friends for lunch or dinner. One of my friends suggested that talking on the phone while eating might have the same positive effect, and may be an option for people who live alone. Perhaps you have a neighbor or friend who lives alone—invite them to eat with you on a regular basis; if you wish, make it potluck.

Alzheimer’s is just one of the many diseases that seem to have a genetic component. You may have an inherited tendency toward a certain disease, but remember—you can go a long way toward stacking the deck in your health’s favor if you start learning new, preventative habits now.

Further Reading

Aging With Grace, by David Snowdon, Ph.D.

Keep Your Brain Young, by Guy McKhann, M.D. and Marilyn Albert, Ph.D.

Are Drugs Really the Answer?

Chapter 17 of the book "The Health Manifesto, a simple Guide to Living a Longer Healthier Life" by Dr. Joan Coff, published in 2004.

Original Chapter Title--Medicine Cabinet, alter to a false God:

I’ve often thought it was interesting that in a society in which we ask our kids to “Just say no” to drugs, every home is built with a special place in which we store our drugs. Not only that, we have entire stores dedicated to the sale of drugs.

What does this say about our national dependence on drugs? What does it say about our acceptance of chemical solutions to our problems? What does it teach our children? When I was a child, the strongest drug we ever took was orange-flavored baby aspirin. Nowadays, doctors prescribe adult-strength drugs to children in alarming numbers. Never before have so many kids been drugged into submission. Our kids learn early that a little pill—from Ritalin to Prozac—will make everything okay. Why, all of a sudden, do so many kids need mood-altering drugs such as Prozac? What does this say about how we care for our children as a society?

Of course, prescription drugs are not the same as street drugs—or are they? Street drugs are taken to make one feel good about life. How many prescription drugs on the market today are sold to do exactly the same thing? How many prescription drugs are used to cover up symptoms of something much deeper than the pain? Isn’t that why people use recreational drugs?

What does the use of drugs say about our attitudes toward health and healing? Could it be that we think solutions come from outside us? Do we want to give responsibility for our health to a doctor, who then prescribes something to “fix” us? Are we saying, “I don’t want to make the effort to correct the problem—just cover up the pain so I can ignore what’s really happening with my health”?

Our attitudes about health come from the education we’ve gotten from the drug companies, which spend billions on advertising each year. Is what we learn from them true? Are drugs the best way to deal with our healthcare issues?

In Chapters 3, 38, and 39, I present the idea that symptoms are signals from your body that something is wrong. Symptoms should not be ignored. When you rush to the medicine cabinet for an over-the-counter drug, you’re covering up your symptoms (so you can ignore and forget about them). Over time, continued covering and ignoring leads to serious health problems.

Healing does not come from a bottle. Pills and potions do not make you well. Yes, they can temporarily relieve pain, but don’t fool yourself by thinking that the underlying problem is gone—you’ve just covered it up for the time being. It will be back. If aspirin got rid of headaches, wouldn’t you just take it once and never have another headache? I

antacids relieved your stomach problems, why would you have to take them after every meal? Wouldn’t once be enough?

A full medicine cabinet is a sure sign of ill health. Take look in your medicine cabinet. Is it full? If so, it’s time to change your lifestyle. Throw out the over-the-counter meds you bought at the drugstore without a prescription. Just because they sell it in the drugstore without a prescription doesn’t mean it has no side effects. Contact your medical doctor to find out if there is a safe, effective way to reduce your use of prescription drugs. Keep only what you absolutely need—your toothbrush, toothpaste, a box of Band-Aids. Okay, keep one bottle of pain reliever—but use a black marker to print on the label “This is not a cure,” to remind yourself when you take them. Keep some emergency supplies: gauze and tape, ipecac syrup for poisoning (if you have kids in the house), and a tube of antibacterial salve or a bottle of hydrogen peroxide for disinfecting cuts.

If you’re healthy, you won’t need much else. If you’re not healthy, find out why and correct the problem. Don’t cover up the symptoms. Remember, it’s much more cost-effective to catch and correct a health problem when it starts. It costs a lot more to take care of after you’ve spent ten years covering up the symptoms with over-the-counter drugs while the condition progressed.

Further Reading

 

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, By Robert Mendelson M.D.

Natural Alternatives to Prozac,  by Michael Murray N.D.

Under The Influence of Modern Medicine,  by Terry A. Rondberg, D.C.

Medicine on Trial,  by Charles B. Inlander, Lowell S. Levin and Ed Weiner

Medicine, Monopolies and Malice, by Dr. Chester A. Wilk

Pots, Pans and Microwaves

We’ve talked a lot about how, what, when, and how often to eat, how to balance your diet, etc. How you prepare your food is also important. Back in the 1970s, I read Back to Eden, in which Jethro Kloss warns about the dangers of aluminum cookware. At the time I had an aluminum coffee pot, the old percolator type, and an assortment of aluminum pans. After I read Kloss’s book, they all went right in the trash. What he said about the dangers of aluminum made sense to me. He talks about his experience of using aluminum cookware which led him to investigate early studies on aluminum poisoning, After I became a chemistry student, it made even more sense.

Cooking is complicated. Heat causes chemical reactions to take place between different substances. If you put molecules side by side and heat them, they’re going to interact, making connections and doing a creative little dance together. I don’t just mean cooking different foods together, but the interactions of foods and the containers they’re cooked in. Now, such interactions may seem unlikely, even impossible—after all, a cooking pot or pan is a solid, sturdy object. However, there are many different degrees of “solidity.” It turns out that, at cooking temperatures, your very solid-looking pan may be releasing molecules from its surface. Some foods contain corrosive chemicals that pull molecules from the surface of the pan, even without the addition of heat.

Just as heating food in an iron pot can add more iron to your diet, heating food in an aluminum pan can add more aluminum to your diet. Adding iron (a mineral the body needs) is probably not a bad idea; adding aluminum ( poisonous to the body) is probably a bad idea. I would venture to say that adding molecules of chemical lab created nonstick coating is not a good idea either. Nowadays there are other reference sources that say the same thing. What you cook with is as important as what you cook. High aluminum levels have been indicated in Alzheimer’s disease, and are thought to affect brain function.

Remove any aluminum cookware from your kitchen. The nonstick pans must go as well. In my opinion, the only healthy cookware is cast iron, stainless steel, or glass, all of which are more stable at higher temperatures. In other words, the heat you use to cook with is not high enough to make those materials shed molecules. Stainless steel and glass are not susceptible to the corrosive actions of foods. Iron seems to be, but some proponents of iron cookware cite that as one of its advantages. You add iron to your diet as you cook.

Stainless-steel cookware comes in a wide range of prices, so anyone can afford to use it. Almost any store that carries cookware will have a large selection of stainless steel. If you use plastic cooking utensils, replace them with stainless also. Glass cookware is reasonably priced as well. I’m a fan of Corning ware. It’s glass, it’s easy to clean, and

comes in many styles. I have Corningware everything, from pie “tins” and bread pans to casserole dishes and soup pots. It’s not fragile but it is breakable, so you may have the cost of replacing it now and then.

If you’re used to cooking on a chemical-coated nonstick surface, your new pans will take some getting used to. My best advice for avoiding scorched pans is to coat them with oil and use a somewhat lower cooking temperature. Place pans to soak immediately after using.

 

Microwave cooking has been around for many years; I’m sure everyone has an opinion on whether or not microwaves will affect your health if you cook with them. My latest research finds that there is still no definitive answer to this question, although the research seems to be leaning more and more towards the "Not safe to cook with" answer in the debate.

 

With that in mind, all I can tell you is that in my opinion, It’s better to err on the side of caution. This goes back to the “If it ain’t natural, don’t eat it theory,” mentioned in the section on MSG, artificial sugar, and other unmentionables. As always, I’m a proponent of staying as close to natural as possible. With that in mind I think you should use a stove to cook food, not microwaves. It’s just not natural to cook your food with radiation energy, which is what microwaves are.

Does this mean you should toss out that microwave oven? Ideally, yes. However, in the time-pressed world most of us live in, your microwave can come in really handy now and then. Why not save it for when you really need to cook or defrost something fast? Just don’t use it to prepare everyday meals.  Don't use it to heat water when you have a stove and tea kettle right there in the same room.

When you do cook food in a microwave, use glass containers. Supposedly there are safe, microwavable plastics, but why take the chance? Glass won’t shed molecules in a microwave. Plastics shed molecules all the time.

Replacing your cookware is relatively easy, and needs to be done only once: all you have to do is buy new pans. Not using the microwave oven may be more of a challenge. Just do your best and what you can afford, and remember—every time you avoid unnatural things in your diet, you add more health to your life.

Further Reading

Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss

Total Wellness, by Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.

 

 

 

 

Massage is Not a Luxury

When people think of massage, the first thing that usually comes to mind is relaxation. What could feel better than an hour spent on a massage table being kneaded until your muscles are so relaxed that they remind you of cooked noodles? Oh, to be pampered in the hands of a good massage therapist as you listen to relaxing music and let your cares drift away with your tension! To many people, this sounds like a luxury, an indulgence.

Yes, massage can help you relax, and in doing so seems to combat the ill effects of stress on your body. If you want to stay healthy throughout your life, relaxation and stress reduction are not luxuries but necessities. If you live a fast-paced lifestyle, the very act of taking an hour out of your schedule just for your own relaxation is itself a healthy thing to do. If done on a regular basis, an hour spent having a relaxing massage can make a huge difference in your stress levels. Don’t let your busy lifestyle prevent you from caring for your health. Make regular appointments to unwind with a massage.

Massage has many benefits beyond the reduction of stress. Massage relaxes tense muscles. Muscles become tense for a variety of reasons: overuse from hard physical labor or intense exercise, repetitive motions, stress, and injury. Tense muscles can reduce your range of motion and restrict your flexibility and mobility, as well as cause pain and discomfort. Massage releases tension and helps muscles regain the normal function necessary for health.

In tight, constricted muscles, the normal flow of blood through the veins and arteries of muscle tissue can be reduced. Massage relaxes the muscles, permitting the increased circulation of blood. This reduces strain on the heart and increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to cells throughout the body. When your body is delivering plenty of oxygen and nutrients to your cells, you’re less likely to be fatigued. Increased circulation also aids in flushing metabolic waste products out of your system. The healthy circulation of blood throughout the body increases the likelihood of overall health.

Massage therapy can increase your immune-system function. In fact, there is a specific technique in massage for just that purpose. Just as massage in general aids in blood circulation, lymphatic massage improves the flow of fluids within the lymphatic system, which is involved with fighting illness and disease. Keeping your immune system functioning at its highest level is necessary for health.

Massage also helps increase nerve function. Just as constricted muscles can reduce the flow of blood through veins and arteries, constricted muscles can reduce the flow of signals in the nerve fibers that run through the muscles. Interference in nerve signals

means that your brain and body are not communicating as they should, which can cause a multitude of health problems. Releasing muscle tension reduces pressure on nerve fibers, thus improving brain/body communication. Proper nerve function is a necessity for good health.

This is just a partial list of the benefits of massage. As you can see, all of them are valid physical health reasons for massage therapy, and indicate that, if you want to remain healthy throughout your life, massage is not a luxury but a necessity.

If you want to experience the benefits of massage, ask friends for referrals. Many people have regular massages—you might know someone who just swears by their massage therapist. Many medical providers and chiropractors refer to massage therapists, so ask your doctor whom he or she recommends. You can also look in the phone book for your state’s massage board; call them for a list of licensed providers. While you’re at it, check for massage schools in your vicinity; most of them offer a reduced rate for an appointment with a student practitioner.

As with any other healthcare provider, it’s important that you feel comfortable and able to communicate well with your massage therapist. You may want to ask for a consultation to meet and discuss your health concerns before you make an appointment for massage. Remember, there are many types of massage. A very light touch may be more for relaxation, whereas the massage therapist may use quite a bit more pressure for deep-tissue therapy. Always communicate with your therapist about your level of comfort with the work being done.

If you’ve never had a massage, it may take a few appointments to relax chronic tense muscles. I routinely recommend that patients start with four to six one-hour visits to get their bodies really loosened up. I then encourage them to have regular massages to maintain their health. By “regular” I mean once a month, or once every two months, or whatever works best for you. Your doctor or therapist can recommend a schedule for you.

Some people have missed out on the benefits of massage because of their concerns about being partially disrobed. Most massage therapists are extremely sensitive to their clients’ privacy and modesty. Massage does require that the therapist work on bare skin, but not that you be totally naked. Most therapists will have you disrobe to undergarments, or put on loose shorts and a top for your session. The therapist will cover you with a sheet or towels, and will normally uncover only the area being worked on. Don’t let this concern keep you from getting the care you need.

Make regular massages a habit. Not only will you feel more relaxed and more flexible, you’ll be increasing your circulation, nerve, and immune-system functions. All three are necessities for your long-term health.

Further Reading

Massage Therapy Principles and Practice, By Susan G. Salvo, LMT, CI, B

Get Out and Play (League Sports!)

Participating in league sports is a fun way to increase your health on several levels. First, it gives you regular opportunities to exercise, which of course improves your physical health. League sports can also offer you opportunities to increase your mental health by increasing your self-confidence and creating a supportive social network.

Almost any sport you can name can be played in a league. Leagues are commonly formed through health clubs, schools, and sports organizations. Sports that require special facilities—such as pocket billiards, ice hockey, or bowling—usually have leagues through the facility.  Check your local paper in the sports section or lifestyle section for local league listings and announcements, and of course search on line for opportunities to play.

There are many levels of play in league sports. For soccer, baseball, rugby, basketball—you name it—there will be teams for beginning to advanced players. If you’re a beginner, don’t fret—part of the league director’s job is to develop the league by promoting the sport. In most cases, they’ll want new players and will be happy to help you find the team and the position that’s right for you.

Pick the league that’s best suited to the ability you now have in the sport you love. As you improve (which is likely, since you’ll now be playing regularly), you can always move to a more advanced league. Some leagues are very competitive; others are more for socializing. Do you really want to win, or do you just want to have a fun night or day out? Pick the level of competition that best suits your personality. If you feel that team sports don’t really suite your personality, ask about leagues that offer individual competition opportunities. You will enjoy all the social aspects of being on a league, but your wins and losses will be entirely up to you.

Playing league sports is a great way to meet new people—after all, you already have something in common with everyone in the league! If you’re a bit shy, don’t worry—you’ll find conversation easy when you have the sport to discuss. If you’re single, league play can be a valuable way to develop a supportive network of friends. If you’re married or in a relationship, you could choose a league that encourages couples to participate together. Even if your partner chooses not to play, the friendships you develop can add a new dimension to both your lives.

My experience with league play is that some people come and go, but many people participate year after year. You really do get to know them. In fact, I’ve met and gotten to know some of my closest friends from years of playing in pocket-billiards leagues.

In most cases, league play involves developing skills that can be carried over into other areas of your life, often with great benefit. For instance, most sports require developing physical skills and coordination, as well as encouraging the discipline and focus necessary to win. These are the same skills necessary for success in many other aspects of life. For most people, each success brings higher self-esteem. Competition and cooperation among teammates are skills that can be taken into the workplace to help develop a winning team there as well. Skills in social interaction and good sportsmanship are useful almost everywhere in life.

Those are the physical, social, and mental benefits of playing league sports. But there’s another thing that’s important to your overall health—having fun. Playing league sports can be a lot of fun. (If it isn’t, you might be in the wrong league for your performance level or personality.) Having fun, relaxing, getting some exercise, developing new skills and friendships—put it all together and you have a ticket to good health.