Mixed Messaging in Workout Trends

March 12, 2013

It’s not easy to be you.  How can it be?

You are told one thing about exercise and nutrition one day and then before you know it, you are told something contradictory the next. 

Sometimes it all just seems like too much.  And I would agree, it can be too much.  You shouldn’t have to work so hard to make sense of things.  I’m here to tell you it’s not your fault.

I blame the media.  Kind of.  And scientists.  Kind of.  And my fellow trainers.  Kind of.  Let me explain.

If no one reads your articles – which are increasingly being read online – then no one is looking at your banner ads, no one is paying your bills, and you and your media outlet have to shut down.   Thus, every story must have some shock value. 

No one is going to read the article that says more intense exercise is better than less, you shouldn’t skip breakfast, and that you shouldn’t eat too many carbs at night.  So every story that gets headlines reports a study that “proves” (ahem) the opposite.

For example, a recent article in the Washington Post ran with the following headline:

“Less intense but longer-lasting exercise may be better than strenuous workouts” 

When you examine the study used for this, you see that the media drew conclusions that cannot be drawn from the study.  Notice I didn’t say “wrong” conclusions. 

Now we get to the part where I blame the scientists.

The study was so poorly designed; you can almost tell that the researchers set out to get a study that gets them the end result they wanted.

I will keep this short and sweet.

There were three groups studied: a “sitting” group that did very little physical activity, a “minimal intensity physical activity” group and an “exercise” group (emphasis added by me to the last two groups).  The results showed that the minimal intensity physical activity group showed more improvement in various measures of health.  All you need to do is check out the graphics used to illustrate the problem with the conclusion here:

PLOS ONE

The study makes conclusions about “exercise” but there are too many variables changing to lead to the conclusions. And of course, the poor, unsuspecting media outlets that trusted the scientists – drew from the results.

Here are the two big problems, both easily visible in the graphic above.

1. Note that the exercise group did MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity) in the form of cycling (yellow section) while the minimal intensity physical activity did NO exercise at all.  They just stood and walked.
2. But next, and more importantly, note that the minimal intensity group did far less sitting than the exercise group.  Other than the higher intensity exercise, the exercise group sat down most of the rest of the day!  What was the difference in sitting time?

I hope you’re sitting down for this.

The exercise group spent 12.7 hours sitting while the minimal intensity physical activity group spent 7.4 hours sitting and about 8.6 hours standing or walking.  Yes, that’s right, by forcing the exercise group to sit as much as humanly possible the rest of the day, the researchers managed to “show” that less “exercise” is better than more intense exercise. 

Just what a shocking-headline-hungry media and an unmotivated public want to hear!

If you’re interested in reading the details of the study, it is from the Feb. 13 online issue of PLoS One.

Now we get to the part where I blame fitness trainers.

Even when a study is designed well, we don’t know how to use it properly.  Many of my colleagues claim to do “Tabata Training,” but not one of them anywhere is actually doing it.  In fact, most of them have never even read the Tabata study from 1996.  Anyone claiming to do Tabata training is really just doing interval training (not a sexy, catchy term anymore – Tabata sounds exotic and foreign!) where the interval is 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of full rest.

What’s the problem?

Without doing the intensity used in the Tabata study and only using the interval timing used, you are not doing Tabata training.  And it is impossible to achieve the intensities used in the study outside of a research setting.  You cannot do it with push-ups or jumping jacks.  It just can’t happen. 

So even my fellow members of the fitness industry have contributed to the problem by using a term they have no business using for training that they aren’t really doing.  If Izumi Tabata’s last name were “Jones” no one would be imitating his training.

And you, the poor public, just keep getting more confused.  Scientists tweak data to show a “breakthrough,” to score attention, while a media desperate for eyeballs and clicks scoops it up and leagues of well-meaning fitness trainers start haphazardly using whatever buzzwords they’ve heard in the media and from clients in an effort to ride current fads to success.

So which is better, less intense or more intense exercise?  I can’t answer that based on the study above.  And this is why you can seemingly never get definitive answers – only contradictory ones – no matter how many studies are done.  Too many of them are done not in the name of science but in the name of shocking stories dressed up like science.

Get Out of Your Chair Alive

March 04, 2013

Not sure if you’ve heard the news, but sitting is bad for you.  You live in a body created for – and best served by – regular movement. 

I’m not talking about intense exercise, just movement.  We aren’t meant to be still during long periods of our waking hours and we really aren’t meant to be sitting for long periods.

The big news splash last year on this topic revealed that if you sit for more than 6 hours a day, you are 40% more likely to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than 3 hours a day – even if you exercise!

With more and more labor engineered out of jobs, we sit more than we do anything else. We average 9.3 hours a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping.  Here are some more fun stats to scare you out of your seat. 

When you sit:

• Your calorie burning rate drops to one per minute
• Enzymes that break down fat drop by 90%
• After 2 hours, your good cholesterol levels drop 20% (since it’s not needed when less active)

And more fun with numbers…

• Obese people sit for 2.5 more hours per day than thin people (This is just a stat/fact – not a statement of cause and effect: It could be that once you become obese, you tend to sit more.)
• Between 1980 and 2000:  Exercise rates were constant; sitting time increased by 8%; obesity doubled

Sitting vs. Smoking: Which is worse?

The death rate for obesity in the US is now 35 million.  It’s 3.5 million for tobacco.  Smoking is finally illegal inside of most public buildings – perhaps sitting should be as well given these statistics!  Just kidding, of course. 

I know what you’re thinking:  “Okay.  I get it! Sitting is bad for me.  But what do I do about this?”  I’m so glad you asked.

1. Just get up more.  Take stretch breaks.  Set a timer if you have to.  Have walking meetings (If you’re in charge of leading meetings, then be a leader!)
2. Undo what gets tight from sitting.  When you get up, stretch the front of your shoulders, the front of your hips, and the back of your thighs.
3. Invest in a stand-up desk.  I finally did.  When I began a shift from strictly personal training to writing books and articles, consulting, and planning/delivering fitness presentations, I began to spend a lot more time seated at the computer.  Yes, even a full-time fitness professional was sitting too much!

There are a number of options for a stand-up desk.  You can get either an entire desk that elevates or an add-on to the desk which allows for keeping your existing desk.  The latter option is often significantly less expensive than the former. 

If you’re interested in investing in a standing desk, check out these companies: Ergotron and Ergo Desktop.

It is very easy to change from standing to sitting (for those times when you just really need or want to sit) and the ability to stand keeps my mind much sharper while at the computer.

The Bottom Line

You can’t sit for most of the day if you want to be healthy and live long.  If simply getting up more often can provide health benefits, then we should all take a stand for our health.  

Intermittent Fasting

February 19, 2013

Contrary to popular recommendations to eat smaller, more frequent meals, new research suggests that a short, periodic fast (called “intermittent fasting”) might actually rev up your fat-burning machinery while helping you control glucose and insulin. Important hormonal changes mean that you might lose more fat and gain more muscle, all by skipping a few meals.  Some data show that Intermittent  fasting, when done properly, might help extend life, regulate blood glucose, control blood lipids, manage body weight, gain (or maintain) lean mass, and more.

There is no conclusiveness to the research on intermittent fasting, but honestly there doesn’t likely need to be.  In my opinion “conclusive” will always be somewhat unachievable and unrealistic when it comes to human nutrition.  For some people it will be a wise approach that will lead to better health while for others intermittent fasting will be the wrong approach.

Elusive Conclusiveness

There is too much individuality and variability in humanity to make any one approach the answer for everyone.  From omnivorism vs. veganism to intermittent fasting, this is one truth that becomes apparent the more you investigate nutrition.  We all come from a line of genes that are built on highly diverse diets based on your ancestral geography.  And chances are good that it will be very different from the person next to you.  Espousing one approach as the correct way for all humans will always be wrong.

Traditional Doesn’t Necessarily Make it Right

Yes, the idea that we should return to our roots and eat “paleo,” run barefoot, and eat less often all have a certain appeal.  But we have to be very careful with this line of thinking.  I’m guessing that we’re not going stop bathing, using deodorant, or using cell phones are we?  Not everything we used to do as cavemen is practical – or even smart – anymore. We have evolved. It doesn’t mean we should ignore our evolutionary history, but it also doesn’t mean we should devolve and embrace everything from the paleo period of human history.

This is Your Brain on Calories

Sometimes I think I know too much about how the brain works. Your brain uses a very high amount of energy – around 20% of the calories you used in a day!  In fact, per unit of tissue, your brain uses more energy than your quadriceps muscle.  In caveman times, we were fasting/starving more often for sure.  But we also did not have to think as much as we do now.  The body of knowledge we have to walk around with combined with the incoming stream of information and news from around the world and in your own personal world is staggering.  And this means your brain is going to work harder and thus need more energy. 

Cause and Effect or “Just ’Cause I Said So?”

Too often with an extreme shift in thinking, something seems so shocking that it can create a buzz and cause people to rush and adopt a certain behavior.  Other people just do it because they know someone else who did it.  There is often a rush to find the next perfect diet, which is the risk with intermittent fasting. 

It could be that the results are just from people eating better food (since this often happens when someone is dieting anyway) and/or eating less junk (if you’re periodically fasting, you’re eating less junk even if you’re still eating junk when you eat.)  It could also be that a periodic fast might help you learn the difference between real hunger (the body telling you it needs something) and mental hunger (eating from boredom or any other reason than real hunger.) 

Find out More

If you want more information or would like to give it a try, I would direct you to the excellent free e-book by John Berardi of Precision Nutrition.  It is an excellent review of the pros and cons along with helpful details of how to try various versions of intermittent fasting.  It is mostly a spot on review of all the factors you would need to know to decide if you want to try it and if it might be for you. 

Do the research from credible sources and decide for yourself. 

How Do You Spell Immunity?

January 18, 2013

I bet you didn’t know that the word immunity is spelled with ZZZ’s, EOs, and greens!

It’s full-on flu season time!  And that means your best bets are to improve your own resistance.  Here are some essential tips to do just that.

Low in Z’s?

Don’t roll your eyes.  Close them.  And go get some rest.  We don’t get enough – you might be tired of hearing it, but that’s just because you’re chronically tired.  Adult humans need 7-9 hours of sleep a night.  No, you’re not the exception.  You’re fooling yourself if you think you are.  Sleep is when your mind stores the day’s memories and when your body sends out repair and recovery hormones.  If you cut it short, you cut short your body’s ability to defend itself from injury, inflammation, and illness. 

You don’t have to be an early-to-bed and early-to-rise person – that’s a big sleep myth.  You just need a quality 7-9 hours of sleep per night.  And yes, you can make it up.  Try to turn lights low early in the evening, avoid watching anything too stimulating on TV and don’t turn on that bathroom light if you get up in the middle of the night to go – use a night light.  Light entering your eyes shuts down melatonin production in your brain and this makes it harder for you to sleep.  

Use those EOs

EOs, or essential oils, can play a crucial role in building your defenses.  I asked Rose Chard, a certified aromatherapist, and owner of Your Body Needs to provide information on oils that strengthen the immune system. Here they are:

1. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris):  Recommended for most infections. Known to stimulate the production of white blood corpuscles and thus strengthen your body’s immune system. Thyme is excellent oil for addressing infection. It helps support good immune, respiratory and circulatory systems. Thyme brings relief and strength to the discomfort of infections such as colds, flu and bronchitis. It is also a powerful anti-viral.

2. Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia):  Tea is a powerful immune stimulant. Tea Tree is antifungal and antimicrobial.

3. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis):  strengthens the immune system and Eucalyptus (Eucalptus globulus) helps stimulate the immune system.

How to Use:

• All these oils can be used in a diffuser blend, up to 12 drops total. Perhaps, 5 drops Thyme, 4 drops Tea Tree and 4 drops Eucalyptus added to water in a nebulizer or tealight diffuser.

• As a rub, add 5 drops eucalyptus, 5 drops rosemary and 3 drops tea tree added to 1oz (30mls) of grapeseed or almond carrier oil. Use a small amount to rub over chest, neck, shoulders or feet once a day.

Eat Your Greens (and Other Healthy Foods)

Your body builds its defenses from vitamins and minerals – the micronutrients found in food.  They are not found in orange juice, but in real, whole, intact food.  Eat an orange, don’t drink the juice.  Plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, are packed with the micronutrients your body needs to build its immunity against viral and bacterial infections. 

And it might not be bad to take a supplemental probiotic and enzyme blend.  The probiotic will help ensure you have enough healthy, good bacteria in your gut that help with proper digestion and an enzyme blend will help your body more efficiently use the vitamins and minerals in the food you eat. In case you are wondering, I use a New Chapter’s All-Flora Probiotic and Omega-Zyme’s Enzyme Blend. 

And if you do get sick and have to take a round of antibiotics, once it is over, take a larger daily dose of the probiotics and/or consume extra probiotic foods to rapidly rebuild the colonies of healthy bacteria in your gut.

 

Immunity isn’t something we have or don’t have.  It is something we build.  And you can build it by combining healthy behaviors to make sure the flu flies right on by you this year!

Why an Apple a Day Might Not Keep the Doctor Away

November 06, 2012

Does an apple a day keep the doctor away?  Perhaps, but only if that apple is organic and free of pesticides.  If it isn’t, that apple may send you to the doctor faster than you think.

Recent news stories outlining how organic foods are not proving to be any healthier reflect a poor understanding of logic and science in most levels of society – from the media down to the average person.

First, organic farming is not new.  It is the way humans farmed for all of human history until the mid-1900’s when extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides began.  We have over 10,000 years of organic farming proving to be a healthy way for humans to farm.  By contrast, “conventional” framing has only been the convention for 60 to 70 years at the most.

What no one seems to be studying is whether conventional farming is as healthy as organic.  The common approach is to study the opposite and this makes little sense as organic farming is already the standard.

Next, apples are one of the “dirty dozen,” one of the foods that are most important to consume organically due to the high level of residual pesticides present on conventionally farmed apples. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates under a paradigm of “the dose makes the poison.”  Essentially, they continually lower the doses of pesticides in animal testing until no observable effects are seen.  And this is terrible science.

Current research on a number of pesticides is showing conclusively that there are a number of non-immediately observable effects from a number of pesticides.  They are proving to have powerful effects on hormones at lower doses (whereas at higher doses they show direct toxicity). 

This alteration of hormones has powerful effects on the size and function of many structures in our brains and has direct implications for everything from lowered IQ’s in children exposed to high doses of pesticides in utero and after birth, to our brains’ susceptibility to diseases like Parkinson’s.

As it turns out, it’s the poison that makes the poison.  If something is toxic to humans, there is proving to be no acceptable dose. 

An organic apple a day will help keep the doctor away while a pesticide-riddled apple might just bring the doctor your way.

For More on Health:

Women's Health

Mental Health

Baby Health

The Surprising Reason Why Men Find Curvy Women More Attractive

September 11, 2012

It appears that men’s preference for more curvy women has quite a lot to do with the fact that curvy figures historically have possessed more of the healthy omega-3 fatry acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), which is essential for proper brain development in children.

An article in the August 2012 issue of Psychology Today explains that men “know” something significant about women’s bodies that women don’t.  And it all has to do with nature’s mandate to produce children with great survival skills.  In fact, women are usually more like men’s ideals than they realize, and losing weight to meet the standard set by the fashion and modeling industries may not make them any more attractive to men. 

Men rate women as most attractive when they have a waist size that is 60-70% of their hip size.  To put things in perspective: The typical US undergrad has a waist that is 75% of her hip size. The average Playboy playmate is 53%, and the average fashion model is 46%. 

How does an “hourglass” figure relate to a woman’s success as a mother?  It has a lot to do with intelligence and body fat, which has everything to do with what you eat and where it comes from. 

The total amount of fat a human female carries is seven times that of other animals, and much more than men.  And the fat stored in women’s hips, butt, and legs is “protected” from weight fluctuations. Only during the last few months of pregnancy and while nursing do women start breaking down this lower-body fat, making it exclusively available to the growing fetus or infant.

Babies have an organ that is seven times larger than in other animals – the brain.  And it grows fastest in the first two years of life, and it only does so with ample supplies of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA.  Guess where women’s bodies tend to stash DHA? In the hips and legs. 

American children rank 31^st out of 64 nations in tests of academic ability. The highest scores are in places like Japan, where women have slender hourglass figures and have four times the amount of DHA in their blood.  American women are on average 20 pounds heavier than they were 40 years ago, and 40 pounds heavier than Japanese women of the same height.

Our modern eating habits may explain why we're packing on the pounds. With modern food processing techniques, the supply of DHA in our food supply has declined as we’ve become saturated with processed vegetable oils and animal products from animals fed grain and corn rather than grass.  As a result, in general, women’s body fat contains a lower percentage of DHA than previously in human history. However, developing babies still need the same amount.  So a woman’s body has no choice but to store more fat to ensure the proper amount of DHA is available. 

But that doesn't mean you should take drastic measures with your weight. The rise of the modern fashion model with the super-skinny, straight line body lacking curves has artificially skewed many women’s ideals of what is attractive.  The average fashion model has a general lack of curves that often leads to comparisons with the body type of a pre-teen boy.  The effect of fashion has affected women’s thinking:  Women are much less satisfied with their bodies after viewing images of super-skinny models.  However, men consistently prefer a curvier, fuller look that is nothing like the “ideal” presented by the fashion industry!

A better body that is both healthy and more attractive is – as usual – available through making better food choices.  Eating foods higher in DHA means your body needs to store less fat in order to have enough DHA. If we don’t get enough of what our bodies need, they tell us to eat more irrespective of real hunger.  

More for Sextember:

5 Ways to Prevent Facebook Drama During a Breakup

10 Dating Faux Pas

5 Signs a Date Went Badly

5 Tips for Mental Fitness

May 18, 2011

The mind is a terrible thing to waste.  But it’s also a terrible thing to let get out of control.  We all have our challenges in life, but we can also look those challenges in the face, see them for what they are and do something about it.  Here are 5 tips for doing just that.

1.       Outrun Fear with Exercise

In neurological terms, fear is the memory of danger.  Simply by taking action and exercising you’re circumventing the mechanism for the fear memory. 

Here’s how exercise helps you outrun fear:

 - It provides distraction
 - It reduces muscle tension
 - It builds brain resources
 - It teaches a different outcome
 - It reroutes your circuits (use sympathetic nervous system to move instead of wait and worry)
 - It improves resilience (learn to control anxiety and not let it become a panic)
 - It sets you free (literally…if you’re locked down, you’ll feel more anxious)

2.       Become Your Own Mind-Control Freak

I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.  Exercise is being used to treat depression – and often more effectively than commonly prescribed drugs.  Depression isn’t just all in your head.  It is a re-wiring of the physical and chemical structure of your brain.

About 17 million American adults experience depression at some point, to the tune of $26.1 billion in health care costs each year.  A 1999 Duke University showed that every 50 minutes of exercise conducted weekly is correlated to a 50% reduction in the odds of being depressed.

Humans are social animals, so if you’re depressed, it would be ideal to choose a form of exercise that encourages making connections and that can take place outside or in some environment that stimulates the senses.  This will stimulate your brain and make depression less likely.

3.       See What’s Really Going On

Ever notice how when something a little bad happens, we sometimes think it’s worse.  “Why is this happening to ME!?” We sometimes take negatives personally when they rarely are. 

You might hit a traffic jam when you’re already running late for an appointment.  Or perhaps the grocery store is out of the one ingredient you need to make that new recipe you want to try.  Any number of relatively minor frustrations can be made worse or better by your mindset.

At times like this, it’s important to stop and ask yourself “What is really going on and exactly how bad is this situation?”  Is it really the end of your child’s future hopes and dreams if they get a bad grade on a single test?  Or is it an opportunity to identify an area of study or organization that needs either a different approach or more focused effort?  It’s all in how you view it.  (For more info on “mindset,” see Mindset by Carol Dweck.)

4.       Are Your Challenges Making You Better or Just Challenged?

What frustrates you over and over?  And then ask yourself: “Am I learning anything from it?”  We get into patterns of doing things just because we’ve always done them.  If the frustrations make you search for solutions, get better at problem-solving, or cause you to think differently about similar situations moving forward, then there is value in those frustrations.

If all you’re getting is frustrated over and over without any growth or learning, then these are challenges best avoided.

For example, I’ve spoken for a fitness organization several times and have had to consistently fight just to be treated fairly.  Recently, it became apparent that they weren’t going to change the way they do things, so I’m not going to lend my talents and ideas to that organization.  I’m no longer expecting them to change, but instead I’m directing my energies where they will be fully appreciated. 

If you’re not learning or growing from a challenge and just repeating frustrations, then put your energies elsewhere.

5.       Get Away in Body or at Least in Mind

Remind yourself that the world is a very large and complex place.  Either get away from your surroundings by taking a short trip or get away in mind and spirit by connecting with a friend you haven’t spoken with in a while or diving into a cherished hobby or activity that you haven’t enjoyed in a while that will consume your mental energies in a positive enjoyable way to give you a mental holiday. 

For me, I get this either from playing sports that I love or in watching thought-provoking and/or highly entertaining movies where it is possible to lose oneself in the story.  Very soon, I’ll be resuming outdoor volleyball with some friends one night a week.  This is often a highlight of the week because for a couple of hours, my mind is focused only on the momentary needs of the next rally.  Nothing before or after that moment enters the mind.  And it just feels great afterward.

Keep your mind sharp by not using it so much!  It is humanly impossible to truly multi-task well (read the research if you don’t believe me) and our poor over-burdened brains are not meant to be constantly plugged-in and over stimulated by multiple streams of info.  Use these tips to keep your mind right, and you probably noticed while reading them that a lot can be done for the mind by getting the body moving.  If you’d like more details on how activity can benefit the mind, I’d encourage you to read Spark by John Ratey.

All kinds of fitness are mind-body fitness – so get moving for your brain, and enjoy the benefits to your body as a side effect!

Jonathan Ross 
Discovery Fit & Health Fitness Expert

Author, Abs Revealed
Everyday Fitness videos
 www.AionFitness.com
Everyday Fitness on Facebook

Sweet Spot of Stress

April 13, 2011

April is Stress Awareness Month.  It’s a good thing too since I’m sure you had no idea that chronic stress can take a real toll on you…right? It’s a common misperception that we need to eliminate stress. The truth is that struggling in life isn’t an option, it’s a requirement.

The good stress – “eustress” – keeps you focused, on your game, and doing things that matter to you.  The bad stress – “distress” – is inevitable at some point for all of us. 

Ideally, we periodically get hit with some negative stress, we handle it, recover to normal, manageable levels of stress, and life hums along.  Increasingly, life is less than ideal.

Stress used to be in the form of immediate threats to our survival.  (“Is that saber-toothed tiger going to eat me?”)  But now, the stresses are vague, long-term, and can’t be handled by a physical response.  (“My retirement fund is doing terribly.”  “How will I pay for college for my kids?”)

But the brain and the body only know one response to stress – the “fight or flight” response you’re likely familiar with. 

Your body gets pumped for action, and your brain starts alerting the attention and memory centers of the brain to heighten awareness of the stress. 

Acute stress is something we deal with in a relatively short period of time – hours or days at the most.  Chronic stress is anything that creates a stress response in your body for an extended period of time – weeks or months. 

The problem is when stress becomes chronic. Scientists don’t know exactly when the transition occurs from stress that builds up to stress that tears down, but they sure do know the effects when they see them.

Stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol) really like your hippocampus – a part of your brain that, among other things, plays a big role in memory.  If stress hormones get high enough for long enough, they can take over your memories, encoding even non-stressful events as stressful.  (Think of the war veteran who hears a firecracker and experiences a stress response like he was still in combat.)

Even worse, in excess amounts, stress hormones, can kill off the proteins that are designed to protect your brain from damage.  And with no nerve endings in your brain, you can’t feel the damage like you feel a sprained ankle.

The “feeling” of stress you experience is essentially the emotional echo of the underlying stress on your brain cells.  With chronic stress, the brain gets locked into the same pattern – typically one marked by pessimism, fear, and retreat from life. 

Normal events start to be perceived as stressful.  And the overabundance of stress can start to block access to existing memories.  (Think of stories you’ve heard about someone who panics while driving and steps on the gas instead of the brake pedal.)

Effective stress management does not involve eliminating stress.  It involves two components:

1.        Reducing the stress to eustress levels and acute distress events (like your car breaking down.)

2.        Re-taking control of your body’s response to stress.

The second one is best done with, you guessed it, exercise.  It provides a distraction, reduces muscle tension, builds brain resources, teaches you a different outcome to a stressor, reroutes your brain circuits to take action when stressed instead of “wait and worry,” and it sets you free (if you’re locked into a chronic stress pattern you feel anxious and restricted.)

One caveat though:  If you’re dealing with an excessive chronic stress load, your exercise efforts should not be at high intensity as very challenging workouts are another form of stress on the body so you don’t want to have workouts that “tear you down.”

Hitting the “sweet spot of stress” involves allowing enough stress into your life to give you purpose, meaning, and direction for your energies and efforts while avoiding getting locked into a chronic pattern of chronic stress that will tear down both your brain and your body.

My Teen’s a Nightmare – or Maybe Just Not Myelinated Yet

March 26, 2011

Ah, teenagers. Been there, done that. Do you remember being a teenager? Do you now have one of your own? Everyone falls into at least one of those two categories.It’s a universal truth that most teens are bad at decision-making. And anyone who has witnessed the “so-bad-it’s-hilarious” song and video “Friday” by Rebecca Black (getting over 55 million hits on You Tube at this writing) knows that teenage bad decisions keep coming.

On 3/28 at 10pm ET, Discovery Fit & Health will premiere My Teen's a Nightmare

Loud music, shouting, swearing, smoking and drinking -- these are just some teenage behaviors that are every parent's nightmare. But suppose you could just pack your bags and let someone else pick up the pieces? My Teen's a Nightmare gives overwrought parents the chance to do just that. Terrible teenagers are in for the shock of their lives -- their parents have left home and they're about to meet their match, teen expert Sarah Newton. Newton's moving in for four days to sort them out once and for all.

Ms. Newton has her hands full. But why?

The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) – home of our “executive decisions” like impulse control – doesn’t fully develop until we are well into our 20’s. So teenagers are governed more by the urges and impulses of a primitive “me first” reward system that isn’t yet kept in check by the PFC.

It’s not so much that teens make bad choices as they fail to inhibit behavior that has become reflexive. They have nearly adult bodies, but not adult brains. And their brains are close enough to being developed that it can get them into a whole lot of trouble.

Why do young people make bad decisions? All the circuits are there in their brains, but they have little myelin. Think of it like this…their brains are just about ready to go, a lot of the circuitry is connected, but their brains don’t yet know which circuits to treat as more important than the others.

When we repeat something often and learn it, those circuits in the brain get covered with more and more myelin. In essence, myelin is like insulation that wraps the circuit to protect it, keep it strong, and help it fire more readily. In terms of our discussion about teenagers, myelin = wisdom.

(For more details on the brain differences between teenagers and adults, see this excellent article from "How Stuff Works." )

But there is hope. In the book The Talent Code there is a reference to research from Marvin Eisenstadt who looked into the background of great historical or famous figures. There is a long and distinguished list of high achievers in history that lost a parent when they were young.

It sends a primal cue that "you are not safe."

This heightens the focus in a teenage brain at a time when the brain is most receptive to learning and mastering new skills. It provides a focus and direction for all the (commonly misspent) energy of youth.

When the proper motivation is there to focus the energy, teens can learn the skills and coping mechanisms necessary to achieve greatness later on in life.

Diabetes Disaster

March 24, 2011

Childhood obesity seems to be, quite literally, surrounding us these days. On Friday, March 25 @ 8 PM, Discovery Fit & Health will premiere "Big Babies."

The global epidemic of obesity is spawning a nursery-load of super-sized newborns, stressing parents, straining hospitals, and endangering the lives of moms and babies alike. In this sensitive and personal look at a serious and worsening problem, Big Babies follows three overweight women on their anxious journeys through pregnancy, into the delivery room and home again with newborns who weigh-in at thirteen pounds and more: twice the weight of an average infant.

A few days ago, a local major newspaper published an article on type-2 diabetes (the disease formerly known as "adult-onset" diabetes.) Unfortunately, it contained a lot of misinformation, some of it coming in the form of quotes from people in executive positions of children’s obesity programs who should know better.

One example is the director of the Child/Adolescent Diabetes Program at Children’s National Medical Center who promotes the idea that...."no one caused their diabetes."

(Translation: You didn't do anything to cause diabetes; it is just something that happened to you.)

Later on in the same article we are (thankfully) hit with some facts..."adults with pre-diabetes who lost 7% of body weight reduced risk of diabetes by 58%" and "It's crucial to find these children before their condition progresses to diabetes so that it can be reversed by lifestyle changes."

(Translation: by taking action, you can prevent diabetes.)

Are we to believe that our actions have an effect on diabetes, but that our inactions don't?

Type-2 diabetes is either affected by lifestyle choices or it isn’t. It can’t be only affected by positive choices.

As long as leaders in diabetes research conceal the truth that the majority (not all) of type-2 diabetes cases are lifestyle related, we will continue to struggle with this problem. This in no way means that anyone should feel guilty about it, but the truth is that the majority (again, not all, just to be clear) of type-2 cases are mostly self-inflicted through "inactions." And that is the real shame because it means most cases are avoidable.

With newborns essentially being born obese, we need to deal with the truths of diabetes and obesity rather than worry about making people feel bad.