This Might Make You Happy.

27 Apr

Do you want to be happy? If you do, it really is quite simple. Allow me to explain with the help of this quick story…

Many years ago there was a very lonely man. He did not have many friends and did almost everything alone.

One day while eating, he saw the owner of the restaurant carry in a huge pile of mail. It was the holiday season and he watched as the restaurant owner opened at least 100 holiday cards!

The lonely man was astonished and told the restaurant owner that he did not get any holiday cards. Not one.

The restaurant owner’s reply was simple… “How many do you send out?”

“Well… none. Why would I? No one sends any to me.”

The restaurant owner smiled and said how he ALWAYS sends his out the first week in November. That way, everyone he sends one to has plenty of time to send one back and almost everyone he sends one to sends one in return.

Now, I’m not sure if the lonely man learned anything from this story, but I sure did. I learned that the secret to getting what you want is to first give other people what they want.

If you want to receive holiday cards, you should send out holiday cards FIRST.

If you want good people in your life, you should be a good person FIRST.

If you want people to help you, you should help them FIRST.

Always try to improve other people’s lives. That is the way to improve yours.

And if you want to be happy, go make someone else happy.

If you put your own self-interest aside and help people get what they want and help them be happy, if they are a good person, then they will help you get what you want and help you be happy too.

7-UP Used to Include Psychiatric Medication?

26 Apr

The lemon-lime flavored soda 7-UP was created by Charles Grigg of the Howdy Corporation in 1929 and first launched two weeks before the 1929 stock market crash. It was originally named “Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda” and included lithium citrate in its formula. Lithium citrate is a mood-stabilizing drug that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it is still used today for people with bipolar disorder, among others. Obviously, such a lengthy name wasn’t ideal on the consumer side of things, so the beverage’s name was quickly shortened to “7-UP Lithiated Lemon Soda”, then chopped to just “7-UP” in 1936. The lithium citrate, surprisingly, stuck around in the drink all the way until 1950 when new research showed it had potentially dangerous side effects.

Are You A Good Enough Person To Do This?

26 Apr

Here is proof that there are still amazing people in the world. Are you one of them?

Every day, it feels like all the news covers is the dark, horrible side of humanity.
Sure, people do bad things, even evil things. But, there is another side to this story. There’s a clear argument that can be made that many more people are good than bad. For every one bad person in the news (or going viral on the internet) there are hundreds, thousands, or millions who did not do anything wrong. In fact, many, if not most, probably did quite a bit of good.
So, why don’t we hear about all this good? Quite frankly, it’s because bad stuff sells. It sells much more than good news. People love drama. It’s no coincidence Honey Boo Boo, The Kardashians, and The Jersey Shore were/are monstrously successful shows.
That’s why I bet you have probably heard of those shows but have not heard about this…
Rabbi Noah Muroff lives in New Haven, Connecticut and bought a desk off Craig’s List for $200. So far, that’s nothing shocking… but it gets better…
When he got the desk home, he couldn’t get it into his office in one piece. So, Rabbi Noah took the desk apart and pulled out the drawers.
Behind one of the drawers, he found a plastic bag. At first glance, Muroff saw what he thought to be a $100 bill.
When he opened the bag, he discovered there were quite a few $100 bills. In fact, there was $98,000 in cash. That’s ninety-eight THOUSAND dollars in CASH.
WOW! So let me ask you a question… What is the first thing you would do with that money after you stopped jumping around cheering? Pay off some bills? Buy a car? Go on vacation? Give some to charity?
Muroff did none of that. Instead, he did the right thing. He called the person he just bought the desk from and told them what he had found.
As it turned out, the desk’s previous owner had hidden her inheritance money in the desk and had forgotten all about it.
Muroff returned the money. All of it. He is quoted as simply saying, “The most important thing in life is to be honest.”
That’s it. There was no police chase. No drugs or violence. No one yelling and screaming. Just an ethical and moral person choosing to do the right thing and not making a big deal about it or even looking for public approval or praise.
The comments posted on this story were varied. Some praised him and said they would do the same thing. Others said he was a fool and they would have spent the money. Some said it is all just a matter of the amount and that we all have a price. If that was $10 million… or $1 billion… that he would have kept it.
So, the question for you is, what would YOU do? Let’s say it was $10 million and no one else knew. It was your secret. Do ethics and morality really have a price?
Do YOU have a price?

Low Back “ON-THE-GO” Exercises (Part 1).

25 Apr

Low back pain (LBP) is a reality in most of our lives at one point or another. It can range from being a “nag” to being totally disabling. Let’s look at some exercises for the low back that can be done from a SITTING position so that they can be: 1) Performed in public (without drawing too much attention) and 2) Repeated every one to two hours with the objective to AVOID LBP from gradually getting out of control (STOP the “vicious cycle” so LBP stays “self-managed”).

RULES: 1) DON’T do any exercise that creates SHARP pain; 2) Stay within “reasonable” pain boundaries; 3) DO these multiple times a day WHEN you feel tight, stiff, sore (take 10-30 sec. every hour rather than 15 min. twice a day).

SITTING LOW BACK EXERCISE OPTIONS:

1) SITTING BEND OVERS: 1) Slowly bend forward from a seated position and attempt to reach the floor; 2) Spread the knees as needed to allow for a full range of motion; 3) Hold for 3-10 seconds or until it feels “loose.” 4) Do the opposite – sit and arch your low back as far back as is comfortable. Repeat frequently for short hold-times – make it “fit” your time limitations/schedule!

2) SITTING HIP / BACK STRETCH: 1) Cross your leg; 2) Raise the knee to the opposite shoulder; 3) Arch the lower back until you feel an increase stretch in your buttocks; 4) Twist your trunk to the side the knee is raised; 5) Move your knee up/down and around to “feel” for the tightest “knots” and “work” them loose; 6) Modify by bending forward 7) REPEAT on the opposite side.

3) SITTING TRUNK ROTATIONS: 1) Slowly twist your shoulders and trunk to one side while keeping your knees straight; 2) Reach back and pull for additional stretch if comfortable; 3) Hold for 3-10 seconds or, until it feels “loose;” 4) REPEAT on the opposite side.

Remember, DO these MANY times a day (at least once every hour). We have many others as well (ask us)!

We realize you have a choice in whom you consider for your health care provision and we sincerely appreciate your trust in choosing our service for those needs. If you, a friend, or family member requires care for back pain, we would be honored to render our services.

Fibromyalgia Dietary Considerations.

24 Apr

Anti-inflammatory foods can be broken down into four categories: 1) Fruits and vegetables; 2) Protein Sources; 3) Fats and Oils; and 4) Beverages.

In the fruits and vegetables category, whole fruits, berries, and vegetables in general are rich in good things like vitamins, minerals, fiber, anti-oxidants, and phytochemicals. In particular, green and brightly colored vegetables and whole foods (such as broccoli, chard, strawberries, blueberries, spinach, carrots, and squash) are great choices.

Besides being low in calories, high in fiber, rich in vitamin/minerals and more, berries EVEN taste good! For example, one cup of strawberries contains >100mg of vitamin C (similar to a cup of orange juice), which helps our immune system function. One cup of blueberries includes a little less vitamin C but it has minerals, phytochemicals, and anti-oxidants at only 83 calories per cup. A cup of cranberries has only 44 calories (it can also help with bladder infections), and a cup of raspberries has 64 calories and has vitamin C and potassium. Less common, but equally nutritious, are loganberries, currants, gooseberries, lingonberries, and bilberries. Put these, or a mixture of these, on salads, yogurt, or a whole grain cereal and enjoy a VERY satisfying snack or meal! The health benefits of phytochemicals and flavonoids include cancer prevention, bladder infection treatment, and may even help your eyesight (such as from lutein in blueberries and raspberries).

Protein sources include fish/seafood, especially oily ocean fish like salmon and tuna, as these are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Soy and soy foods like tofu and tempeh as well as legumes are great plant sources of protein, though some doctors may recommend staying away from soy. Nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, and Brazil nuts are also great protein sources.

Fats and Oils: Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in flax seeds, canola oil, and pumpkin seeds, as well as cold-water oily fish. Other fats that are anti-inflammatory include monounsaturated fatty acids, which are found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts and have been found to be cardiovascular disease “friendly” as well. Other healthy oils include rice bran oil, grape seed oil, and walnut oil.

Beverages: Our bodies need water! Of course, tap, sparkling, or bottled water are great sources of water. So are 100% juices, herbal tea, low-sodium vegetable juice, and if tolerated, low or non-fat milk.

Meal suggestions include: Breakfast – oatmeal with fresh berries and walnuts; Snacks – whole fruits, nuts, seeds, and fresh vegetables; Lunch and Dinner– choose fish and less fatty red meats; cook with olive and canola oil; load up a salad with fresh vegetables and fruit, avoid deep fried foods – rather, bake, broil, poach, or stir-fry instead. Fill up HALF of your dinner plate with dark green or brightly colored vegetables. Avoid the following: junk food, high-fat meats, sugar (sodas, pastries, candy, rich desserts, and sweetened cereals), highly processed foods, trans-fats and saturated fats (i.e., bacon and sausage), and white flour products (get 100% whole grain instead). Some research suggests not eating “nightshade plants” like tomatoes and eggplant.

If you, a friend or family member requires care for Fibromyalgia, we sincerely appreciate the trust and confidence shown by choosing our services!

GO NUTS!

23 Apr

Our basic premise is that your body is amazing. You get a do over. It doesn’t take that long, and it isn’t that hard if you know what to do. In these notes, we give you a short course in what to do so it becomes easy for you, and for you to teach others. We want you to know how much control you have over both the quality and length of your life.

This month we want you to Go Nuts. Yes, GO NUTS every day. Another key study—it is HUGE—looked at 3 million years of men and women’s lives– and indicates that eating an ounce of nuts a night (walnuts are our favorite for health benefits, as they are the only nuts with those omega-3) can reduce your risk of dying from any cause by 20%–that’s as great as your benefit from walking an extra 6,000 steps a day or quitting a ¼ pack per day cigarette habit. That’s a HUGE effect from an ounce of nuts… and the people who did it were thinner too!

Yes, we already had nine studies including three randomized controlled trials (the “gold standard” of studies) indicating nuts reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus, and one on cancer of the breast and prostate with walnuts… so what’s so big here?

What’s so important is this data covered “all causes of death” —heart disease, stroke, cancer of all types, respiratory disease—and it involved many people followed for many years. Let’s get specific about this study, and then we’ll describe some of the others that support an ounce of GOING NUTS EVERY NIGHT as a way to stay younger.

This study examined nut consumption and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality among 76,464 women in the Nurses’ Health Study (1980–2010) and 42,498 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2010). Nut consumption was assessed at baseline and updated every two to four years. Now, here’s a HUGE part—they followed these people for nearly three decades, during which time 16,200 women and 11,229 men died. Nut consumption was inversely associated with total mortality among both women and men, after adjustment for all other known or suspected risk factors. The ratio for death among participants who ate nuts, as compared with those who did not, was 0.80 for seven or more times per week—in our terms that means your RealAge is 2.6 years younger from just eating an ounce of nuts every day. WOW. Who knew getting younger could be so easy—and I love nuts!

Now for some other data: Walnuts and Pistachios are the Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz of nuts – cause like us, they’ve got a hard shell covering a center of pure goodness (stop that laughing!)…

Walnuts: In a large Spanish study comparing a Mediterranean-style diet with 1.5 ounces of nuts and/or olive oil a day versus the usual Spanish diet, the walnuts-olive oil groups enjoyed a 30% reduced heart attack and stroke rate, not too shabby from just enjoying walnuts. And, eating two ounces of shelled walnuts a day made blood vessels more flexible (a sign of heart health) and improved cholesterol levels, reduced high blood pressure, and made glucose control, and insulin regulation better.

Please turn over…

But these walnuts aren’t the only nuts that have turned out to help you achieve a younger RealAge! A very interesting study about pistachios looked at the amount of healthy bacteria in stool samples of people who ate pistachios compared to those who ate no pistachios at all. It turns out that pistachios came out the winner for promoting the growth of beneficial microbes in the digestive tract; another choice, almonds, ranked number two (no pun intended).

So any nut, even peanuts (a legume), reduced all cause mortality in that large recent study. But we have our own favorite ways of eating them. It seems nuts have their own hierarchy (and we’re not talking about who gets voted off the island first). You want them to be raw, fresh, and unsalted. That’s because nuts lose up to 15 percent of their healthy oils when they’re roasted (roasting at high temperatures may even cause the formation of chemicals that promote aging). Here’s our pecking order for processing nuts, from best to worst:

• Fresh
• Freshly toasted or dry roasted (in your oven: roast at 350F for 9 minutes)
• Roasted in their own fat and salted (packaged)

We don’t eat any nuts roasted in partially hydrogenated fat or nuts that are sugared.

Tony Soprano’s sidekick Paulie ‘Walnuts’ Gualtieri was always frantically worried about his health. He could have found it in eating an ounce of his nickname a day. That would have made him and will make you healthier, happier, and protect your heart, brain, lungs, sex life, kidneys, and that youthful glow on your skin! So enjoy GOING NUTS EVERY DAY!!

Thanks for reading. And feel free to send more questions–you can always send us questions at youdocs@gmail.com, and some of them we may know enough to answer (we’ll try to get answers for you if we do not know).

Young Dr Mike Roizen (aka, The Enforcer)

NOTE: You should NOT take this as medical advice.
This article is of the opinion of its author.
Before you do anything, please consult with your doctor.

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