Small changes can have big impact on overall health

Lenexa, KS (Oct. 6, 2008) –This October, during National Chiropractic Month, the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) is encouraging families to make simple changes in an effort to improve their overall health and well-being.

“Making small consistent changes are the keys to achieving better health,” says Dr. Frank Jimenez of Integrity Chiropractic and Wellness in Lenexa, KS and a member of the American Chiropractic Association. “Chiropractic, because of its focus on prevention, can play an integral role in helping Americans improve their health.”

Doctors of chiropractic are trained and licensed to serve as primary care doctors, Dr. Jimenez notes. “They stress preventive protocols such as, dietary and nutritional counseling, exercise, rehabilitation and ergonomics.”

Dr. Jimenez and the ACA recommend the following health tips.
 Exercise daily
 Control your weight
 Commit to proper nutrition
 Avoid smoking or other tobacco products
 Use alcohol in moderation
 Control any chronic diseases or disorders (including high blood pressure, diabetes, or osteoarthritis).

Doctors of chiropractic provide drug-free, non-invasive treatment options for many types of pain and inflammation. For example, chronic back pain, neck pain, joint pain and headaches can often be reduced with the appropriate combination of chiropractic manipulation, rehabilitative exercises and lifestyle counseling – all of which are offered by doctors of chiropractic in a patient’s personalized treatment plan.

“Consumers also should know that chiropractic treatment is a covered benefit in virtually all traditional insurance policies,” adds Dr. Jimenez. “As many as 87 percent of all insured American workers have coverage for chiropractic services in their existing health care plans.”

A significant amount of evidence has shown that the use of chiropractic care for certain conditions can be more effective than traditional medical care, with many patients feeling improvement shortly after their first chiropractic visit.

This October, during National Chiropractic Month, talk with a doctor of chiropractic about ways you can achieve better health. “Doctors of chiropractic believe that prevention is the key to health and wellness. Discover how treatment by your local doctor of chiropractic can not only improve your spinal health, but also start you on the road to wellness.”

Dr. Jimenez is working in collaboration with the American Chiropractic Association to observe National Chiropractic Month. For more information on chiropractic or any of the tips mentioned above contact Dr. Jimenez at (913) 888-2066, visit his office website: www.integrity-chiropractic.com or visit the ACA’s website: www.ACAtoday.org.

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Hundreds expected to take the Plunge

ERIN MATHEWS
Hundreds of Salinans may soon feel like a real weight has been lifted from their shoulders — and their thighs and hips and stomachs. More than 850 people are signed up so far to participate in Pound Plunge, a free, community-wide, 12-week program designed to help participants lose weight the healthy way through regular exercise and nutritious food choices.

“We’re doing the whole thing — nutrition, exercise and having fun,” said Ellen Hogeland, fitness director for the Salina Family YMCA and one of the event organizers. “If we can get a lot of people in Salina motivated, then that’s the key.”

The program, which was patterned after a similar event in Hays, kicks off from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Bicentennial Center, where new four-person teams will still be able to register. Salina Regional Health Center nurses have volunteered to take blood pressure readings, and participants will have the option of having blood work done at half price to determine cholesterol, lipid and glucose levels.

At 9:45 a.m., Salina Mayor John Vanier will address the crowd. At 10 a.m., Jez Luckett, a Garden City man who lost 150 pounds while a contestant on the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser,” will give a motivational message.

Participants, who must be 18 or older and not pregnant, can sign up until Sept. 20 to compete as part of a team. Team members should plan to visit the YMCA each week between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays or during YMCA hours Wednesdays to weigh in and track their progress. Weight information will be kept confidential.

Read more about Pound Plunge in Friday’s Salina Journal.

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I spent some time looking through one of my textbooks that I have acquired since going to school, looking for some ideas to give people out there in the blogosphere to stay healthy so they can keep doing what they love to do. I think before I can clearly give any sound suggestions. I think it is important that I have some sort of assessment tool in hand so I can maybe gauge what people are struggling with and what they would like suggestions in changing.

With that being said I do want to make you aware of the fact that I am not a Doctor (yet) and before you take the advice of anyone you should always consult a Medical Doctor and get a physical done before embarking on a new fitness and diet regimen. However, I can assist you with figuring out what you enjoy to do for physical activity and what you enjoy eating so that the term diet doesn’t sound so foreboding.

There are six dimensions of wellness that make up the health continuum

1. Physical
2. Intellectual
3. Interpersonal/social
4. Emotional
5. Spiritual
6. Environmental

A person can be emotionally well but not be physically well. They can have intellectual wellness but lack social wellness and spiritual wellness. Or even intellectual wellness but no physical wellness.  So what good is knowing all there is to know about blogging or even how to successfully build and maintain a web site if you are so run down you can’t focus? Instead you pop another No Doze and hope to stay awake for another hour trying to scoop someone. Before you know it the excessive caffeine builds up in your digestive tract and starts causing ulcers. Ok so that isn’t a very good push for caffeine as a whole as I am sitting here with a freshly opened can of Diet Pepsi next to me as I type this out. My problem is that I am on a high enough dosage of Zoloft that it makes me drowsy about two hrs after taking it so I need the boost through something so I go through a 24 can case of Diet Pepsi in about four days. That is six cans a day and at 35 mg’s of caffeine per can that is 210 mg’s a day of caffeine. So no I am not hoping on the caffeine is bad for you bandwagon because that would certainly make me look like a hypocrite.

I think what I would like to do instead is take some time to put together a survey OMG not another survey LOL. Yes just so I can help people see where their habits are and then help use the results to better suggest what they could try to make staying healthy maybe not so tedious and boring so they can be alert and handle the demands of their editors and readers or at least their readers if they are self edited. So I am going to be working after my podcast this Friday to put together my own little survey to send out to willing participants.

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I opened up my email this morning and saw this story about bloggers who are blogging themselves to death. “Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.”

I was disturbed at this trend in how we are becoming such a slave to the PC and Internet that we are willing to die for our work. Not only that but die at an early age. This got me thinking about what other trends in health are on the rise over just the course of a decade or so. According to National Center for Health Statistics,and National Vital Statistics Reports between 1999 and 2001 the leading six causes of death due to diet and inactivity were heart disease,cancer, stroke,diabetes,kidney disease, and hypertension.Further in a 2000assessment people who led sedentary lives had 23.2 days in a 30 day time period where they felt healthy. They reported 3.9 days out of the month were they felt sad, blue or depressed and 8.1 days having trouble sleeping.”Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.” These numbersdefinitely support on some level the New York post’s information regarding blogging till you drop.

I looked into some other statistics and what I found was just more confirmation that our sedentary lifestyles are not helping us but hurting us instead. In the most recent study I could find from the CDC I found this:

The percentage of adults who spent most of their day sitting increased from 36.8% in 2000 to 39.9% in 2005. A similar increase was seen among both men and women, adults aged 25 years and over, and non-Hispanic white adults. Overall, the percentage of adults who spent most of their day standing or walking decreased between 2000 and 2005. A similar decrease was seen among adults aged 65 years and over and non-Hispanic white adults.

Kansas Jumped from 5% reporting unhealthy days of more than 14 days to 9% from 1993 to 2006

Kansas also jumped from 6.5% to 9.1% reporting mentally unhealthy days of more than 14 days to 1993 to 2006

Overall in Kansas there has been an increase of 4 days to 5.4 days of being physically or mentally unhealthy.

Between 1998 and 2006 Kansas reported fair or poor self rated health initially in 1993 of 12.0 to 17.3 in 2006

These numbers are from

Health, United States an annual report on trends in health statistics.

On the plus side smoking has decreased for men and women nationally with smoking by men at 50% in 1965 to just under 30% in 2005 and just over 30% in women to about 20% within the same time frame. Even smoking by pregnant mothers declined from 20% in 1995 to 10% in 2005

Between 1999 to 2004 adults between 18 and 44 eat 1 to 3 meals out at a rate of just over 50% while they eat 4 or more meals out about 35% of the time

Overweight including obese has risen from 45% to 70% for the 20 to 74 yr old age group between 1960 to 2004

Arthritis/musculoskeletal, heart/circulatory, mental illness, diabetes are the top 4 conditions reported between 2004 to 2005 that cause activity limitations

Last but not least Antidepressant use by men increase from about 3% between 1988 to 1994 to about 7% between 1992 to 2002 and by women from about 4% between 1988 to 1994 to about 13% between 1999 to 2002

So you can see some pretty disturbing trends here. I love to blog and at the moment I am not getting paid huge bucks to blog, but I can’t see running my health into the ground to get a jump on the competition. I am in bed no later than 12:30 each night with the rare exception that I am working on a design, I keep healthy foods around to snack on like whole wheat bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwich’s , carrots, grapes, bananas, yogurt, skim milk, diet soda just to name a few. I make sure I get at least 30 min of fairly intense activity about every other day. At the moment that is taking the form of house work and playing out doors with my kid. I too am on antidepressants so I really have to work at keeping my body in good shape so the antidepressants can properly do there job.

You can see why now is it is crucial to focus on preventative health measures instead of treatment. Because in the case of the bloggers who blogged themselves ragged their deaths could have been prevented if in fact their sedentary lifestyles contributed to the cause of their deaths, in which reading this article it appears that it did.

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For years, the common knowledge has been that if you want to lose fat, you have to do aerobic exercise. But while it is in part true, that belief unfortunately led many women to think that they could skip strength training. A study changed that way of thinking.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics recently found that strength training — or weight lifting — plays a key role in controlling a woman’s weight. They discovered that women who lifted weights just twice a week were able to avoid the slow, one to two pound weight gain per year that’s so common in middle age. While that might not sound like a lot, over the years it can really add up. Another plus? Women who lifted weights had healthier hearts.

So how does lifting weights help keep you slim? It’s simple — strength training builds muscle, and muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, 24 hours a day — even when you are asleep! So if you aren’t already, make strength training a part of your fitness program. Your efforts will pay off for years to come!

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In addition to being essential to general health and well-being, exercise is helpful in managing many MS symptoms. A study published by researchers at the University of Utah in 1996 was the first to demonstrate clearly the benefits of exercise for people with MS. Those patients who participated in an aerobic exercise program had better cardiovascular fitness, improved strength, better bladder and bowel function, less fatigue and depression, a more positive attitude, and increased participation in social activities. Since 1996, several additional studies have confirmed the benefits of exercise.

Inactivity in people with or without MS can result in numerous risk factors associated with coronary heart disease. In addition, it can lead to weakness of muscles, decreased bone density with an increased risk of fracture, and shallow, inefficient breathing.

An exercise program needs to be appropriate to the capabilities and limitations of the individual, and may need to be adjusted as changes occur in MS symptoms. A physical therapist experienced with the unique and varied symptoms of MS can be helpful in designing, supervising and revising a well-balanced exercise program. Any person with MS who is initiating a new exercise program should also consult with his or her physician before starting.

Periods of exercise should be carefully timed to avoid the hotter periods of the day and prevent excessive fatigue. With some guidelines, a good exercise program can help to develop the maximum potential of muscle, bone and respiration, thereby avoiding secondary complications and gaining the benefits of good health and well-being.

Source:National Multiple Sclerosis Society

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WASHINGTON - Jan. 7, 2008 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing recommendations to the regions affected by severe winter weather and flooding in Western states. USDA is hopeful that this information will help minimize the potential for foodborne illnesses due to food spoilage from power outages and other problems that are often associated with severe weather events.

“Power outages can occur at any time of the year and it often takes from a few hours to several days for electricity to be restored to residential areas,” said USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond. “Without electricity or a cold source, foods stored in refrigerators and freezers can become unsafe. Bacteria in food grow rapidly at temperatures between 40 and 140 °F, and if these foods are consumed, people can become very sick.”

Steps to follow to prepare for a possible weather emergency:

• Keep an appliance thermometer in the refrigerator and freezer. An appliance thermometer will indicate the temperature in the refrigerator and freezer in case of a power outage and help determine the safety of the food.
• Make sure the freezer is at 0 °F or below and the refrigerator is at 40 °F or below.
• Freeze containers of water for ice to help keep food cold in the freezer, refrigerator or coolers after the power is out.
• Freeze refrigerated items such as leftovers, milk and fresh meat and poultry that you may not need immediately — this helps keep them at a safe temperature longer.
• Plan ahead and know where dry ice and block ice can be purchased.
• Store food on shelves that will be safely out of the way of contaminated water in case of flooding.
• Have coolers on hand to keep refrigerator food cold if the power will be out for more than 4 hours. Purchase or make ice cubes and store in the freezer for use in the refrigerator or in a cooler. Freeze gel packs ahead of time for use in coolers.
• Group food together in the freezer — this helps the food stay cold longer.

Steps to follow after the weather emergency:

• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.
• The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and the door remains closed.
• Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after 4 hours without power.
• Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40 °F or below when checked with a food thermometer.
• Never taste a food to determine its safety!
• Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator and freezer as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period of time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for 2 days.
• If the power has been out for several days, check the temperature of the freezer with an appliance thermometer. If the appliance thermometer reads 40 °F or below, the food is safe to refreeze.
• If a thermometer has not been kept in the freezer, check each package of food to determine its safety. If the food still contains ice crystals, the food is safe.
• Drink only bottled water if flooding has occurred.
• Discard any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance that it has come into contact with flood water. Discard wooden cutting boards, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples and pacifiers.
• Undamaged, commercially prepared foods in all-metal cans and retort pouches (for example, flexible, shelf-stable juice or seafood pouches) can be saved. Follow the Steps to Salvage All-Metal Cans and Retort Pouches in the publication “Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency” at: www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/
  keeping_food_Safe_during_an_emergency/index.asp
• Thoroughly wash all metal pans, ceramic dishes and utensils that came in contact with flood water with hot soapy water and sanitize by boiling them in clean water or by immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water.
• When in Doubt, Throw it Out!

FSIS has available a Public Service Announcement (PSA), available in 30- and 60-second versions, illustrating practical food safety recommendations for handling and consuming foods stored in refrigerators and freezers during, and after, a power outage. Consumers are encouraged to view the PSA at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/news/Food_Safety_Videos/.

News organizations and power companies can obtain hard copy (Beta and DVD) versions of the PSA by contacting the Food Safety Education Staff in FSIS’ Office of Public Affairs Education and Outreach by calling (301) 344-4757.

Consumers with food safety questions can “Ask Karen,” the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov. The toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day.

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Resolutions ready? Take the plunge

12/29/2007By KALEY LYON

Hays Daily News

It’s back!

As 2008 draws near, The Center for Health Improvement is preparing for a repeat of what turned out to be its most popular event yet, Pound Plunge.

The program, which encourages locals to eat healthy and exercise right, shocked staff members and the entire community when about 1,500 people signed on last year to drop the pounds.

While it’s too soon for exact numbers, the second annual event is expected to be another big one, said Stephanie Schaffer, fitness manager.

“They keep coming in every day,” Schaffer said of this year’s registrations. “I’m expecting a lot more.”

The 12-week weight loss program will begin on Jan. 10 and end April 3. Each team must consist of four members, and the deadline to register is Jan. 6.

The beginning of the year is a good time to have such an event — New Year’s resolutions often help keep participants motivated, she said.

“New Year’s is a time when a lot of people in our country set goals,” Schaffer said. “The big thing is to lose weight and to exercise. It’s just a perfect time of the year to implement a team like this.”

Overall, the routine will be about the same as last year. Participants will receive a weekly nutrition or exercise tip to help them drop pounds and keep them off, she said.

The teams also will weigh in each week to track their progress, and at the end of the program, the team with the highest percentage of weight lost will receive a prize.

Unlike last year, when only the first place team received a financial award and free membership to the center, the top three teams will be rewarded.

Also unlike last year, team members will have the opportunity to weigh in on new digital scales, and individuals’ blood pressures will be recorded at the beginning and end of the program to gauge improvement, Schaffer said.

The program isn’t limited to the center — it strives to include the larger community and encourages participants and other local entities to get involved, she said.

“It’s just about getting people moving,” Schaffer said. “It’s just to teach people about fitness and exercise and nutrition, and they love it.”

Schaffer said she expects many of last year’s participants to try it again, and there also are many new team members already signed up.

“I think we’ll have people who did it last year who had great success. They’ll come back,” she said. “I think you’ll have people who did it last year and maybe have found out they need to do it a different way this year. And then you’re going to have the people who are going to come back, and this motivated them to lose weight and keep weight off.”

Deanna Staab, Hays, is one such individual. She participated in last year’s health challenge and has continued losing weight ever since.

At November’s Pound Plunge reunion, Staab took first place for having lost, and kept off, the highest percentage of body weight since the challenge began in early 2007.

Staab lost 13 pounds during pound plunge, and by continuing to eat and exercise healthy since then, has lost an additional 24 pounds.

“I really enjoy it,” she said. “I feel better and started exercising regularly, so that was the key — just to lose a little at a time.”

Staab’s team dubbed themselves the “hot tamales,” and the team support is what kept her going, she said. Her goal for Pound Plunge 2, which she has already signed up for, is to lose an additional 10 pounds, she said.

“I’m just happy about it,” Staab said. “It’s a good deal and everybody should sign up. It just gives you an idea of where you’re at and what you should be doing.”

Reporter Kaley Lyon can be reached at (785) 628-1081 Ext. 138, or by e-mail at klyon@dailynews.net.

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Here is the latest weight loss and fitness carnival these are all great reads and I enjoyed reading them as well. My friend Cindy is in the Blog Mastermind Program with me and she has blossomed in her blogging skills since joining the Blog Mastermind program. Tupelo always has great articles and I have a new favorite with Weight Loss Dude as he puts himself out there through pictures of himself through his weight loss process. That takes guts for anyone to do that.

Flexibility Exercises posted at Weight Master

How to Count Calories posted at Strength for Her

Facing Fear with Deliberate Awareness posted at Tupelo Kenyon

Why I’m Not A Vegetarian posted at Weight Loss Dude

Michelle’s Corner- Tips to ward off weight gain at the office posted at IAmSoOverMe

Coffee and Fitness posted at Go Workout Mom

Being Present Through Sensuality posted at Tupelo Kenyon

A Healthy Career Change posted at ask the CareerCounselor

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Ok so I had to do this project for stress management class last semester and I chose to do a weekend retreat at home. I followed a model from a kit by Susan Piver called Bliss in a Box: A Contemplative Retreat at Home. I thought it would be a cool thing to show my readers what my weekend retreat schedule would look like if I actually got to do it.

A weekend retreat does not have to be mega expensive or intricately planned out the old adage Keep It Simple Stupid applies to this. As you will see I have a pretty well balanced retreat schedule. Now one thing I would like to mention is that Susan uses yoga for the exercise part of this retreat I can’t do yoga so I threw in a substitute from a book called The Easy Stretching Workbook by Karen Smith I have here at home.

Other than that I have pretty much stuck to the outline Susan provides in the kit.

So without further adieu here is my retreat schedule and the various elements I would be using during the retreat.

Weekend Retreat

One Week Before

1. Cut down on caffeine

2. Cut down on processed foods

3. Cut down on sugar and white flour

4. Alert friends, family and colleagues that you’ll be unavailable during your retreat

Supplies to gather or purchase

1. Meditation Cushion

2. Cd Player

3. Alter materials- lavandar candles, a bowel of water,2 long stem red roses ,two bud vases,incense-vanilla,grandmothers photo

4. Journal

5. Essential Oils

6. Easy stretching workbook

Food to buy

1. Brown rice

2. Fish(Salmon,canned tuna In water)

3. Whole grain bread

4. Peanut butter

5. Lean beef, and chicken breast

6. Green tea

7. Bottled water

8. Bananas

9. Green beans

10. Tomato’s

11. Eggs

12. Lemons

13. Onions

14. Low fat Mayo

Retreat Schedule

Friday

5:30- Arrive home,prepare alter space and assemble all retreat materials

6:00-7:00 Consecration of Alter Space and Journaling

This is where the pre-analysis comes in by asking the following questions:

1. Why have I chosen to do a retreat?

2. What skills do I hope to learn?

3. What qualities do I hope to cultivate?

4. Besides me, who in my life will also benefit from what I learn and cultivate

5. How will they benefit?

7:00-8:00 Cook Dinner

1. Lemon Baked Salmon

2. Brown rice

3. Steamed green beans

4. Green tea

8:30-9:00 Meditation

9:30-10:00 Relaxing bath with essential oils

10:00-10:30 Guided body scan and sleep

Saturday

8:00-8:30 Dress,wash face,brush teeth

8:30-9:00 Meditation

9:00-10:30 Breakfast

· Whole grain toast and egg

· Banana

· Apple juice

10:30-12:00 Contemplation,Journaling.Journal about the following questions:

1. Why can’t I feel?

2. How might my life change if I were to let these feelings in?

3. What am I afraid might happen?

4. What do I hope might happen?

12:00-2:00 Lunch

· Grilled chicken breast

· Tomato slices

· Water

2:oo-3:00 Meditation

3:00-4:00 Easy stretching

4:00-5:00 Tea break(green tea and banana)

5:00-6:00 Free time take a w walk

6:00-8:00 Cook Dinner

1. Grilled lean hamburger with sauted onions

2. Steamed green beans

3. Banana

4. Green Tea

8:00-9:00 Contemplation Journaling

Answer the following questions:

· Whom do I need to forgive?

· What would it take for me to forgive?

· Can I forgive them right now anyway?

9:00-9:30 Guided body scan

9:30-10:00 Bath and sleep

Sunday

8:00-8:30 Dress,wash face,brush teeth

9:00-9:30 Meditation

9:30-10:30 Breakfast

1. Whole wheat toast with peanut butter

2. Banana

3. Apple juice

10:30-12:00 Contemplation Journaling.

Answer the question- What is my experience of God, if any?

12:00-2:00 Lunch

· Tuna salad on wheat crackers

· Banana

· Green tea

2:00-2:30 Walk

2:30-3:00 Easy Stretching

3:30-4:30 Tea break

4:30-6:00 Free time,catch up on reading

6:00-7:00 Dinner

· One egg omelet with grilled onions

· Banana

· Green tea

7:30-8:00 Meditation

8:00-9:00 Begin to put retreat supplies away

9:00-9:30 Journal

This is the post analysis part of the retreat where I journal about what I have learned,felt and realized during this experience.

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