Risky Combinations of Medications

1. One in three adults age 57 to 85 take at least
   five prescription drugs
2. Mix of prescriptions, over-the-counters and
   diet supplements could be dangerous
3. 175,000 older adults visit the ER every year
   because of adverse drug events
4. Women are more likely to take prescription
   drugs and dietary supplements

In a recent study reviewed by CNN and Yahoo News US researchers found nearly one out of every 25 people aged 57 to 85 took dangerous combinations of drugs with the potential for serious interactions, and mixing of medications with non-prescription drugs are the culprit more than half of the time.

"The public has an awareness that two prescription medications used together might be dangerous," said study author Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago Medical Center.

"But what people don't fully appreciate is that non-prescription drugs can interact with prescription drugs and even other non-prescription drugs."


If prescription drugs are so good, where are all the healthy drug takers?

In article posted by naturalnews.com

“Drug companies claim that pharmaceuticals can do wonders for people: lower their cholesterol, end clinical depression, reverse osteoporosis, eliminate allergies, calm your children and many other similar promises. But if prescription drugs are so good for people, where are all the healthy medicated customers? “

There aren't any to speak of. There's nobody taking twelve prescriptions that have a clean bill of health. In fact, the more prescriptions a person takes, the worse their overall health. And if you approach the healthiest people you can find in a local fitness center and ask what prescription drugs they're taking in order to be so healthy, they'll give you a rather confused look: they don't take prescription drugs!

What You Can Do

Make sure you are receiving regular chiropractic adjustments

Attend FREE workshops at Back to Health Chiropractic to discover what your body requires for exercise, nutrition and emotional health

Chiropractic treatment is becoming mainstream medicine

There is a growing trend in healthcare today. Patients are increasingly more unsatisfied with the treatment they receive from the medical physician. In these situations, it is often because the persons problem is not one in which medicine is the best treatment choice.

The numbers of people seeking out alternatives to medical treatment is on a steady rise. You can see medical facilities offering alternatives and "wholistic" treatment in outpatient hospital related settings. These facilities are oftened staffed by providers that are not as skilled or experienced as those in private practice. Here'sa brief excerpt from an article I came across the other day.

"A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association way back in 1998 showed that visits to alterative practitioners increased from 34% in 1990 to 42% in 1997, in such disciplines as herbal medicine, massage, megavitamins, self-help groups, folk remedies, energy healing, and homeopathy. The probability of users visiting an alternative medicine practitioner increased from 36.3% to 46.3%, which totaled an estimated cost of over $21 billion, with at least $12 billion out-of-pocket, that is, paid by the patients themselves and not insurance companies. This increase was attributed to more people seeking complementary care, and not to more visits per patient.

More than one-third of hospitals now offer one or more complementary therapies, according to a survey by the American Hospital Association completed last September. The hospitals with these services tend to be located in urban areas, with the southern Atlantic states offered the most CAM services. The types of services offered vary from hospital to hospital, but include acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, nutrition, herbal medicine, and massage therapy. (Massage is one of the most requested services.) Over 80% of patients requested complementary services, even though they are not covered by insurance."

Of all the specialties that fall under CAM Chiropractic care is by far the one most utilized, most researched and most effective.

Pasted from <http://www.healthnews.com/blogs/melanie-grimes/natural-health/alternative-medicine/is-alternative-medicine-new-mainstream-2100.html>

For more info about the statistics concerning CAM usage go to this website, www.b2hc.com, and send us an email.

Add this blog to your homepage with igoogle.

Under the RSS feed on the right select igoogle and you can tailor make your homepage so recent blog posts show up on your homepage. You can also select other information to present on this homepage as well. Check it out. It is pretty cool. Here's the link http://www.google.com/ig.

Where to go for more information on EDT

Here is a link to the strength coach who has popularized the EDT or escalating density training programs. His name is Charles Staley and you can find him at www.staleytraining.com. Take a look at his site if you like. I like many of his concepts and have utilized them personally for years.

Toxic Levels of Benzene Found in Soft Drinks

Betweeen 1995 and 2001, FDA tested 24 samples of diet soda for benzene in its Total Diet Study: Nineteen (79 percent) were contaminated with benzene above the federal tap water standard of 5 parts per billion (ppb). The average benzene level was 19 ppb, nearly four times the tap water standard. The maximum detection was 55 ppb, 11 times the tap water limit. Each test result is from a composite of three individual soda purchases in three different cities that are blended together to make one sample. Go to http://www.ewg.org/ for more information.

Test results for other drinks also revealed the presence of highly elevated benzene levels. One cola drink the FDA tested was contaminated at 138 ppb, 27 times the 5 ppb tap water limit, and a fruit drink had 95 ppb. Orange and grapefruit juice also had benzene at levels well above FDA's 5 ppb level of concern.

"These results confirm our suspicions that there are highly elevated benzene levels in some very popular drinks," said Richard Wiles, EWG's senior vice president. "Once again, FDA has sided with big food companies and misled consumers about the problem of benzene in beverages, withholding data and issuing public reassurances that are contradicted by their own test results."

Benzene's toxicity is not in dispute. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Benzene is carcinogenic to humans and no safe level of exposure can be recommended." It is directly linked to leukemia and crosses the placenta to the fetus at levels greater than or equal to the amount in the mother's blood. The chemical is frequently detected in the food supply as a result of industrial pollution, making additional and avoidable exposures of even greater concern.

Environmental Working Groups (http://www.ewg.org/)

On February 24 and February 27, 2006, EWG purchased the following drinks at four major retail outlets in Washington, DC. They all contained ascorbic acid and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate—the ingredients that the FDA and the beverage industry have said can mix together to form benzene, a known human carcinogen.

Country Time Lemonade
Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange
Diet Pepsi Twist
Diet Pepsi Vanilla
Diet RockStar Energy Drink
Fanta Orange
Fanta Pineapple
Fruit20 Plus 10 Natural Apple
Giant Fruity Punch Cooler
Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red
Hawaiian Punch Lemonade
Hi-C Blast, Orange Supernova
Kool-Aid Jammers Blue-Raspberry
Kool-Aid Jammers Cherry
Kool-Aid Jammers Grape
Kool-Aid Jammers Orange
Lo-Carb Monster Energy
Monster Energy
Pepsi Twist Lemon
RockStar Energy Drink
Sierra Mist
Sunkist
Sunny D
Sunny D Baja Sunny D Intense Sport Cool Punch
Sunny D Orange-Fused Strawberry
Sunny D Smooth
Sunny D Smooth + Calcium
Tampico Citrus PunchTampico Grape Punch
Tampico Tropical Punch
Tropicana Twister Diet Soda (Diet Orange)
Tropicana Twister Soda Grape
Tropicana Twister Soda Orange
Tropicana Twister Soda Strawberry

Shoulder Pain Can Be One of the First Signs of Cervical Disk Disease

(Cervical Roots as Origin of Pain in the Neck or Scapular Regions
Spine, Volume 31 Number 17, August 1, 2006, pp E568-E573
Tanaka, Yasuhisa MD; Kokubun, Shoichi MD; Sato, Tetsuro MD; Ozawa, Hiroshi MD)

Tanaka and his fellow researchers found that “Pain in the neck or scapular region is one of the most frequent symptoms in
cervical radiculopathy, which is commonly caused by a degenerative process in the spine.” Neck or scapular pain usually precedes the radicular symptoms of arm-finger
pain, numbness, and motor weakness. “When the pain originates from an intervertebral disc or joint, it will not be relieved with surgery that simply decompresses the root without fusion.” When pain originates from a compressed nerve root, it may be perceived at a site referable to the root. The subjects of this study were 50 consecutive patients (42 males and 8 females) with radiculopathy who complained of neck or scapular pain as well as symptoms in an arm or fingers. Surgeries were indicated after ineffective conservative treatment for at least 4 months. [Important: this indicates that it is acceptable for patients with radiculopathy to undergo 4 months of conservative management / Chiropractic treatment prior to surgical referral.]

If you have some shoulder pain, do not disregard the possible seriousness of your problem. Most cases of shoulder pain come on during normal everyday activities. However, we frequently see cases of shoulder pain following motor vehicle accident.

From all washed up to washboard abs

Today, there are more people than ever in pursuit of a better body, smaller waistline and the ever-elusive washboard stomach. We are constantly inundated with advertisements for pills, potions and powders guaranteed to bring you whatever you desire in terms of better fitness and a better body. Every day I see television advertisements for new scientific breakthroughs for supplements that will help you lose unwanted fat while eating whatever you want. While the promises that these products may appeal to our desire for quick results with little effort, the missing ingredient in the weight loss solution is simple. The best way to achieve washboard abs is to eat smartly and exercise correctly. Now hang in there for a little better description of this never-before-described concept because you may just find this simple concept a bit more complicated than it sounds.

Now I will save any discussion about eating smartly for another time and purely and simply review the basics for a weight loss, body-transforming workout. If you desire to change your physique or transform your body follow this very simple resistance-training workout. But before doing so you will need to temporarily abandon any long duration steady state aerobic activities. This means there is no room in your workout for 45-minute elliptical sessions or 60-minute runs. These aerobic activities performed at a relatively constant level of intensity will confuse your body and slow or prevent the goal of changing your body composition. I will address how certain types of aerobic activity can impede fat loss in another article. So let us move on to the specifics of the workout.

In this workout you will do a few very simple things. They must be done correctly. This workout plan leaves no room for your own ideas or changes. If you do change or alter the workout, do not get upset when you do not see the results. So here we go. The workout is based on the concept of continuously increasing your training volume and weight in a predetermined strictly measured time period. This concept was popularized by Charles Staley, a nationally known strength coach, and he described it as EDT training. You will begin with selecting 3 pairs of exercises to perform with each workout. You will have 3 workouts per week. You will initially utilize single joint movements and the simpler compound joint movements. This means you will use exercises like overhead press, seated row, knee extension, knee flexion, calf raise, bicep curl, bench press and others that fit this description. Do not attempt to use squats or dead lifts with his workout in the beginning. Each pair of exercises will be performed in alternating fashion and in a 15-minute session. Once the exercise is selected you will need to find out the maximum weight you can perform the exercise with for 10 repetitions with (also known as 10 rep max). You will take that 10 rep max weight for each of the exercises in the pair and perform alternating sets (perform 5 reps of one exercise then go to the next exercise in the pair and perform 5 reps) of 5 reps with as little rest as possible in a 15-minute time period. You will record and journal each workout by specifically noting the exercise, weight, reps performed and sets performed. I will give you an example. You may start with a first pair of v-bar seated rows and knee extensions. When you have determined your starting weight take your position at the equipment, set the watch timer for 15 minutes and begin. You will do 5 reps with the seated row at your weight, get up and go to the knee extension machine to perform 5 reps there. Then you will walk right back over to the seated row and start rowing. Continue with this for 15 minutes recording how many repetitions you get with each set. You can rest from 2-5 minutes between each pair of exercises (after the 15 minutes of training is up). After you do this with all 3 pairs and have trained for 45 minutes, you are done.

This workout requires that you increase the number of total repetitions performed for each exercise the next time you do it. You will be resting less between sets and working more. More work and less rest mean you are utilizing resistance training to build muscle that will burn calories. This workout will take on an aerobic element because you are not resting long between exercises. Your ability to increase your training intensity is critical and often a missing part of the average persons workout. When you train with increasing intensity each time, your body will not be able to accommodate or get used to your workout. When you have the body continually fooled you can expect to experience changes in your body composition. The more muscle you have greater your calorie burning capacity. You will notice significant changes in your body composition, as you become a fat burning machine.

Try this total body workout in 16 minutes...if you can

This workout is not for the just-off-the-couch exerciser. If you do attempt this workout, respect it and make sure to give a 100% effort. Your first and last set should not differ by more than 3-4 repetitions. This is not very complicated so don't make it! If you cannot perform pullups, you will need to put another exercise in there, possibly pull-downs on a lat machine. The pull-up is the only exercise where it is understandable to fall way short on repetitions towards the end. At my peak, I could perform 10 sets of 10 repetitions of pull-ups with about 90 seocnds rest between sets. However, with only a 10 seocnd rest, your pull-up numbers will drop dramatically. You will be soaking wet and panting when finished, I always am. Good luck and train hard. Thank Tabata for this one.

Simple 16 minute fitness based workout

You do as many pull-ups (or dumbell curls, dumbell presses) as you can in 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, then again do as many pull-ups as you can in 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, and so on for 8 repetitions of doing 20 seconds of pull-ups followed by 10 seconds rest. Those 8 repetitions should take a total of 4 minutes.

Without any further rest than the 10 seconds after the eighth 20 seconds of pull-ups, you then start on push-ups - again it is 8 repetitions of as many push-ups as you can in 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest. The 8 repetitions of 20 seconds push-ups, 10 seconds rest takes 4 minutes.

Then you do 8 repetitions of 20 seconds of sit-ups, 10 seconds rest, and another 4 minutes have gone by.

Finally, you are on to squats, and (you've guessed it!) it's as many as you can do in 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest and repeat until you've done 8 lots of 20 seconds squats, 10 seconds rest.

*If you do not have the capacity to do pull-ups just do the other 3. If that is too easy, do it twice.

A Natural Herbicide

Gardeners’ Corner

Do You Have Weeds? Crabgrass?

Try Vinegar as an Herbicide!

Vinegar is acetic acid which can be used as a natural herbicide. Household vinegar is a 5% acetic acid solution which is effective against young, tender weeds, and annual weeds like crabgrass. Spray it directly on the foliage and try to totally saturate the weed without too much runoff. Within 24 hours the treated foliage will turn brown. However, the roots will not be killed entirely and the weed may reappear within a few weeks. Repeated applications will be necessary to entirely kill the root. Stronger concentrations of acetic acid work more effectively and will work on perennial and more mature weeds with repeated applications. Stronger acetic acid solutions can be found for home canning or organic products such as “Fast Acting Burn Out” can be found at your local garden center. Don’t apply if rain is expected or before watering since water breaks down acetic acid. Avoid spraying on windy days, to prevent drift from hurting other plants.


Carole Henry
The “Potted” Alley
Email: thepottedalley@gmail.com

The Risks of Hospitalization

I came across an all too familiar topic this weekend, the risks related to being treated in a Hospital setting. This is something we are all a little familiar with. I have had patient’s tell me that they felt they needed to use a sharpie marker to denote the leg they were getting surgery on. In a simple manner they wrote “this one” and “not this one” on each knee in minimize the chances of having the wrong leg operated on. I always laugh a bit at that. However, it really isn’t a laughing matter. It can mean serious injury or loss of life.

I was still in college when my grandmother, I called her Mom Mom, was taken to the hospital early one weekend morning. I stayed home to watch my sister and my mother made the trip to pick her up and take her to the hospital. My Mom-Mom was an amazing woman. She was in her late 70’s and would cut and care for all of her neighbor’s lawns all through the spring and summer. She had amazing energy and was a volunteer at the elementary school (unpaid of course) and had been for over 18 years until that trip to the hospital.

The first news from my mother that day was that she had passed away while in the care of the hospital. What I later came to find out was that when she was admitted, they kept her waiting and didn’t treat her as an emergency cardiac patient (78 year old woman with chest pains, duh?). They treated her as if it was angina, a basically benign cardiac related condition that is usually self-limiting or treated with simple medications. Well as you can imagine, it wasn’t angina. My Mom-Mom died in a hospital bed without being treated as an acute cardiac case. She died of an MI, myocardial infarction. MI’s are routinely treated when identified properly and people often survive.

Every medical intervention carries a risk. Every decision not to have a medical intervention also carries with it a risk. I have made it a point to continue to educate myself about all things related to healthcare, whether it is about Chiropractic or not. It is about protecting our family for my wife and me.

Below are a few excerpts and links to some more information about this topic.
“The mistakes aren't exactly minor, either. Between 40,000 and 100,000 people die every year because of shoddy handiwork, including surgical mishaps and drug mix-ups. One big problem: Hospital patients may get the wrong drug one time out of five, according to a study by Auburn University. The death toll from mistakes is at least as bad as that from car accidents or breast cancer, and maybe as bad as that from strokes. Another 100,000 people die because of infections from hospital-bred bacteria that are resistant to one or more of the antibiotics doctors use to kill them off, according to the Center for Disease Control. Some of those might be prevented by more hand washing or other precautions.”
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100214300&page=1

There was a paper written by Gary Null and others that attempted to describe the impact that medical interventions had on the health of Americans. You may know Dr. Null from PBS where you can find him selling his products. He can be a bit controversial but worth reading.

“The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year. “ http://www.webdc.com/pdfs/deathbymedicine.pdf

More bad news about medication for Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, drugs that could harm you & your posture
I was reading the September 7, 2008 N.Y. Times on-line and surfing mindlessly through the website when I came across this article on Osteoporosis. I don’t exactly know how I got there, but if you’ve ever been on the web, you know how this happens. After reading a while I thought this would be a good topic to write about in this issue of our email newsletter.

Drugs that could harm youThere was an article in the July 15th 2008 edition of the on-line Times. It reported that patients taking certain medications to prevent weak bones may not be getting the protection they thought they were. Many physicians were reporting seeing spontaneous fractures in their patients taking the exact medication that is supposed to prevent this. There has been research that proves the long-term use of Fosamax could lead to weak bones. Wow!
I have been aware for years of the dangers of the different prescription medications that have been used to treat osteoporosis. The argument has always seemed to be one of an individual’s ability to maintain adequate lifestyle modification (a healthy lifestyle) versus taking medication. I can understand why a family physician would assume that his/her recommendations of lifestyle modifications and proper diet and exercise would not be widely accepted or should I say diligently adhered to. We all know to some degree what is and what isn’t healthy to eat. However, few can consistently make the correct decisions as to what to eat and when to eat it. This is why they call the standard American diet SAD.

A few years ago one of the most common medical interventions for women was HRT (hormone replacement therapy). A very popular healthcare-related website reported “HRT boosts the risk of stroke by almost one-third and the risk of fatal or disabling stroke by more than half. These conclusions were drawn based on 28 trials involving nearly 40,000 women”. (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/01/26/hrt-strokes.aspx)

Here’s a brief statement about how widespread Osteoporosis is.
“Researchers estimate that about 1 out of 5 American women over the age of 50 have osteoporosis. About half of all women over the age of 50 will suffer a fracture of the hip, wrist, or vertebra (bones of the spine).” From the N.Y. Times website. http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/osteoporosis/overview.html

Osteoporosis & your posture
We commonly see the aging becoming more and more hunched forward. Most assume this is a product of aging and even more think this is caused by Osteoporosis. Both are entirely false. If hunching forward was a part of aging, why wouldn’t everybody creep forward and hunch forward at the same rate? Some simple logic will point out the weakness in the argument that age causes forward hunched posture (we refer to it as Forward Head Posture).

There was research conducted by a Mechanical engineer and published in one of the most prestigious spine-related research journals in the world, Spine. This researcher found that the forward bending posture of the upper back (thoracic) and neck causes Osteoporosis or bone weakening to begin. I have copied and referenced part of the conclusion from that research article. I added some explanation after it in bold italics.

“Postural forces are responsible for initiation of osteoporotic spinal deformity in elderly subjects. Vertebral deformities are exacerbated by anterior translation of the upper spinal column, which increases compressive loads in the thoracolumbar region of the spine.”
http://www.spinejournal.com/pt/re/spine/abstract.00007632-200303010-00009.htm;jsessionid=LGQMCNXv5kwwYhy2htkn1v4ysJL342P04PJ1LGtsLQ1XTP2PqNzp!-1004083789!181195629!8091!-1

The researchers concluded that the forward bending posture of the upper back and neck (like the Forward Head Posture I describe to my patient’s that are so afflicted) is an initiating event in the beginning stages of Osteoporosis. To make this a bit clearer, Forward Head Posture is a very important risk factor which can tell us if a person may eventually develop Osteoporosis. Just like smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, having poor posture could eventually lead to Osteoporosis. Every week I am lucky enough to see patient’s improving their Forward Head Posture. They are happy because they feel better, I am happy because I know they are healthier in so many other ways.

Toxic Chemical in Canned Formula Exceeds Doses that Seriously Harmed Test Animals

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) conducted tests of canned infant formula that found high levels of Bisphenol-A leaches from the metal can lining into the infant formula at levels which have been found harmful to test animals. This chmical has been linked to neurodevelopmental problems and reproductive problems. Could there be a link with the high incidence of ADD, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental diseases. Could the early exposure of our now adult males be a part or the cause of the current fetility challenges many couples face?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has not taken a fromal position on the dangerous interactions of BPA with our children. Go to this website and bookmark it for future reference if you want to find out more, www.ewg.org.

We were aware of this many years ago and continue to try and avoid any potential exposure to BPA.

Is Gatorade Healthy?

Do you think Gatorade is healthy? Have you researched this position? Well, my wife found our family an awesome dentist, Dr. Robbins in Exton, Pa, who was not afraid to confront us about whether or not our child consumed sports drinks that are unhealthy.

We brought our 10 year old in for a dental examination. The first and only question my son was asked was whether he drank Gatorade. The dentist went on to say that it caused more damage to the teeth than soda due to its acidity. My wife and I had been trying to avoid Gatorade ue to the high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) that is used as a sweetener. Most experts consider HFCS as one of the most harmful sweeteners in food and drink currently.

“Sports drinks have fewer calories than sodas, but the calories add up. A student who drinks an extra 20-ounce sports drink every day for a year consumes enough calories to gain 13 pounds over the course of the year.”
http://ucanr.org/spotlight/sportsdrinks.shtml

I wonder why more parents don't consider it important to know the quality of the food that their children consume. The sugar content in Gatorade could only be considered necessary for long duration endurance events of 90 minutes or longer (marathon training). Parents should not consider a normal day playing outside as a long duration endurance event.

What exactly is wrong with water anyway? If you add a little lemon to it (fresh squeezed) or some himalayan sea salt you can make it a very refreshing and healthy drink.

"There are three major drawbacks to the continual use of sports drinks like you describe in your question. The first is obesity since these drinks are rich in carbohydrates (that is why they taste so good). The second is drinking too many sports drinks can erode the teeth due to the acidity - not the sugar. And third, sports drinks are more expensive than the best fluid replacement of them all - water."
http://www.kidsgrowth.com/resources/advicedetail.cfm?id=2394

Soy found to decrease sperm count

Harvard researchers discovered that men who eat 1/2 of a serving per day of soy-based foods could have their sperm count significantly decreased because of it. Wow! How about this scenario. You think you are feeding your child a healthy serving of soy milk or soy-based formula and know you find out that you could be seriously damaging their endocrine system, for life. What exactly is a xenoestrogen? Xenoestrogens are substances that act like estrogen in how they affect the body. Excess estrogen inside the body is linked to cancer and other horrible diseases. If you do not remember, HRT(estrogen) therapy is one example of a medical intervention that was actually more harmful than the disease/condition that it treated. You may have read that Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen as described in our blog recently. You can read about this at msnbc, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25833435/, and the Scientifc American blog http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=soy-vey-does-eating-tofu-lower-sper-2008-07-23. I read about this in research articles around 5-6 years ago and have been talking to parents about it ever since. However, most if not all parents are told by their pediatrician that soy-based foods are entirely safe. Hmmm! If possible, I will have the research article posted on the website www.b2hc.com by the weekend.

Canada bans plastic bottles

Wow! Leave it to Canada to drop the hammer on the chemical industry. There is overwhelming evidence that plastic bottles both used for drinking water (or other adult beverages) and infant formula contain dangerous chemicals that have harmful effects to those exposed both young and old. This was the first time a government took action to reduce exposure to B.P.A., bisphenol-A. Check out the article in the April 18, 2008 edition of the N.Y. Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/business/worldbusiness/18cnd-plastic.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1219230725-J4mfYulnCH5Ooi22Pe3smQ). New York Senator Charles Schumer was reported as saying he will introduce a bill to ban the use of B.P.A. plastics in any food or beverage containers.

We have recently received our shipment of Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles. There has been too many questions about where to find safe drinking bottles. Call 610-361-9531 or send an email to info@b2hc.com if you want to know how to get a stainless steel water bottle. You can also look up Klean Kanteen online and order directly from them. There will be more information in the future about this in our newsletter. You can sign up to receive our free newsletter at www.b2hc.com. Throw out those old water bottles!

The $14,615 workout machine vs The 4 minute workout

I came across an advertisement in one of those airplane magazines a while back that caught my attention. What I found was the answer to becoming fit and losing weight. The only problem, it cost $14,615. It was a machine called the ROM. It actually looked very strange and I couldn’t even come close to comprehending spending $14, 615 for a machine but it did leave me wondering how they could make that claim. Could I actually exercise only 4 minutes per day and get the results I was looking for, improved fitness and fat loss?
Well, I'm going to save you a lot of money today because I'm going to explain to you how to achieve higher levels of fitness without an extremely overpriced machine. This "top secret" training method may do more for you than all your other exercises classes combined and leave you with 23 hours and 56 minutes to live the rest of your day.
But there's a small price to pay. Done correctly, you reach new levels of fatigue and exhaustion. I have gotten physically sick, from this training technique from pushing my body as hard as absolutely possible.
There’s that old saying that the Japanese can do it cheaper and faster when it comes to producing goods to sell to the masses. Well, this is a great example of how accurate that really is. This method of training was discovered by a Japanese researcher who was looking to find a way to increase both the anaerobic (doesn’t utilize oxygen for energy production) & aerobic utilizes oxygen for energy production) metabolic pathways in elite athletes.
This method was discovered by Izumi Tabata at the National institutes of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. Tabata had two groups of elite athletes to use in this study. One group exercised on bikes for 5 days per week for 6 weeks with each session lasting 60 minutes. The other group exercised 5 days per week for 6 weeks with each session lasting 4 minutes. The results were amazing. The 4 minute Tabata workout produced a greater level of caloric burn, which leads to greater fat loss, over a 24 hour period. Also, another incredible finding was that the 4 minute workout resulted in improvements in both aerobic and anaerobic performance. The athletes improved their fitness by working out 56 minutes less each day. Wow!
This training method is so simple, yet so incredibly difficult, that athletes tend to try it once, acknowledge its greatness, and then rarely go back to do it again. What is it? It's simple: take one exercise and perform it in the following manner:
1) For twenty seconds, do as many repetitions as possible.
2) Rest for ten seconds
3) Repeat seven more times!
That's it! You're done in 240 seconds or four minutes! Oh, and that thing you're trying to brush off your face? That would be the floor.
Eight sets of "as many reps as you can get done," followed with a brief ten second rest— simple and effective. The best exercise for the beginner Tabata trainer is the body weight squat.
It helps to have someone record the reps of each set for you because, well, you won't remember as you get dizzy from exhaustion.
You should measure you lowest set of repetitions performed to compare workout to workout. You are starting with body weight squats to a close to parallel position if possible. For those of you that can, go slow and deep with your squats. If you have some challenges with your knees or are concerned about your form, squat down to a chair, like a dining room chair. The depth of your squat will directly relate to the level of muscular effort required to perform every rep in this brief 4 minute workout.
I have done this workout with three to four different exercises in a row. I have used the squat, pushup, crunch and pull-up. In this format I worked out for 16 minutes and was totally slammed! I would like to give you a few pointers to get started.
First, you need to be able to see a wall clock with a second hand during your four minutes of fun. Stop at twenty seconds, rest ten seconds and go again. Watching the clock seems to help with the focus.
And remember this: you really shouldn't consider doing much after the Tabata workout. Your lungs will be going like a locomotive engine. Go ahead and plan anything you like, but don't be surprised if it just doesn't happen. The hardest thing about this workout is staying focused for four minutes. But then again, you could have bought the $14, 615 ROM machine, which would look nice next to your Nordic track.

Exercising Without Getting Results

What if I was to tell you that your workout was the main reason you were not getting the results you want. You may be working hard, sweating much and feeling sore all over but come to realize you have been at it for months and you are really not any closer to your training goals then when you began. Now I am assuming that you have a goal or reason for training. After all, without a destination for your vacation, how do you know where to go or even how to get there? This, for some people, is their biggest challenge. But let us really discuss how you could be exercising extremely hard but fail to get the results you want.
Let’s say your goal is to gain some lean body mass, muscle. I will cover three very common ways that you could fail at gaining lean body mass. The common thread among these three training mistakes is that they all involve having training techniques that are not congruent or in agreement with the training goal, increasing lean body mass.
The most obvious training faux pas can be realized when we consider the lack of attention your gym’s power rack receives in a day to day basis. There is the occasional guy doing standing barbell curls in the rack but rarely do you have to wait long to find it available. Consider this very important fact of muscle physiology. The greater the demand placed on the largest muscle systems of the body, the greatest response you will have from the body in producing anabolic hormones (the body’s natural hormones that drive muscular development) like growth hormone and testosterone. When you perform full body compound movements like the squat, deadlift and chin ups at the appropriate intensity and volume (amount of work performed) your body will respond by producing more muscle in response to the demand of your training. You cannot expect to create more muscle mass when exercising the smaller muscle groups with single joint movements like bicep curls and lateral dumb bell raises.
The next very common training mistake is one very few people realize that they are making, even when you ask them about it. Most people will tell you that they train hard. However, it’s been my experience that very few people are training at a high enough intensity to stimulate growth. When you consider that the body will only change or adapt when presented with an adequate physical stressor it makes obvious sense. The intensity with which each exercise is performed is a critical factor that cannot be overlooked. No matter what you selection of exercise, if you perform it at low intensity, you will never achieve your desired goal. However, if you are new to exercising, you may realize a bit of change or improvement in your physique even at a low intensity. This is generally limited and fleeting. This improvement in can be due to comparing a low intensity weight training program to no weight training at all. So consider this during your next workout. Are you exercising with enough intensity?
Now finally an overlooked weight training variable that is extremely underappreciated. Rest. Seemingly mastered by the masses this term has nothing to do with leisure and everything to do with that brief period of time with which you allow your body to recover from a weight training set. The rest period can be defined as the time you rest between sets of a particular exercise. It can be as short as 10 to 30 seconds or as long as 5 minutes. By manipulating your rest period you can challenge the body’s different energy systems and increase your potential for muscular hypertrophy (increased muscle mass). The biggest mistake with respect to the rest period is that most people rest too long. Rest periods that last longer than 1.5 to 2 minutes can diminish your potential for gaining lean muscle mass. Longer rest periods, like 3 to 5 minutes, can be valuable when training for strength but will not help you increase lean muscle mass. When you increase your rest period you decrease the over all level of weight training intensity.
So if we can wrap up with a brief summary here I think this article could assist you if your weight training goal is to increase your lean body mass. If we begin with the planning component of a good workout, then we should make sure to write down our exercises and select compound body movements (multiple joint movements) that will challenge the larger muscle groups of the body. Finally we shoulder remember the close relationship between shorter rest periods and increased intensity. Rest periods should be around 2 minutes or less and you should continually strive to push yourself to higher levels of intensity with each repetition you perform. If your time is as valuable as I believe it is, you owe it to yourself to make the most of it. Train hard but train effectively.

Did you drink your toxic water today?

There has been much media attention drawn to whether or not common everyday plastics are adding to the toxic burden of our families and possibly causing serious health challenges. The biggest question regarding plastics is surrounding Bisphenol A and it's devastating effects on the health of every person that is exposed to it. In my short time as a healthcare provider, Chiropractor, I have seen this topic come up several times but then fade away without any apparent change in the existing regulations surrounding the types of chemicals used in making plastics. Recently some reporters with a Milwaukee newspaper evaluated hundreds of research papers on this topic and their results were damaging for the plastic makers and the products that are sold everyday in our stores. There appears to be a huge effort to cover these concerns. You can review this recent article here http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=692150. Also, there was a recent program that aired on PBS in which Bill Moyers investigated Bisphenol A. A quick point to note. If you do a search for this chemical, Bisphenol A, you will find a few websites that repeatedly come up at the top of whatever search engine's list you see. These websites are managed by companies or interest groups that work with the chemical industry. Their only purpose is to provide information that will support the companies who have a financial interest in producing the plastics that contain Bisphenol A. Check this out! Look up Bill Moyers report on PBS and then also review the work done by the reporters with the Milwaukee paper. If you want a safe container for your water, go to The Paper Market in Kennett Square, Pa for a SIG bottle or come to my office to get a klean kanteen stainless steel water bottle. Drink safely!