All my friends know I just had a birthday. We are all aware that our mental functions slow down as we age. Our focus weakens and we lose memory. One reason is because oxidative stress. That’s why you hear so much about taking ’anti’-oxidants. These may help slow or even halt the aging damage.
Store-bought organic berries are a great source. Studies show that blueberries increase health and enhance cognitive function in aging. So make sure you add fresh blueberries to your breakfast protein shake (UltraMeal from Metagenics).
Mental decline is caused by oxidative stress or free radical damage to the brain. According to Dr. James A. Joseph, an expert on cognitive decline, “Ample research indicates that age-related neuronal decrements are the result of oxidative stress.” He says ”Oxidative stress and inflammation are the evil twins of brain aging.”
In 1999, Dr. Joseph published a landmark study on the subject in the Journal of Neuroscience. His study suggested that blueberries may hold the key to reversing mental aging. Dr. Joseph took four groups of rats and fed them a normal diet. Three of the groups were given strawberry, spinach, or blueberry extracts. Over the course of 8 weeks, he tested the rats for coordination and mental functioning. The blueberry group performed best on the coordination tests. This group also showed improved neuron functioning. His research led him to nickname blueberries “brainberries.”
I’m big on anything that lowers inflammation and blueberries also function as anti-inflammatory agent to protect brain integrity.
Blueberries are best eaten with other foods that contain fats. At the top of the list are walnuts and avocado. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. That makes blueberries and walnuts a powerful combination. These foods promote youthful flexibility in brain cell membranes.
“Polyphenols in berries and fatty acids in walnuts fluidize the cell membrane,” says Dr. Joseph.
Walnuts block disease-causing inflammation in our cells. Recent research links inflammation to cognitive decline, so reducing inflammation is important to promote better mental function.
People who eat breakfast are more mentally alert. They remember more, react quicker, and are more creative. This first meal delivers fuel to the brain after fasting all night. That’s way I recommend a the UltraMeal protein shake first thing in the morning. I know you are busy and often skip breakfast - a shake takes one minute to make.
As an afternoon snack, try a handful of blackberries and mix them with almonds. Enjoy green tea - it has lots of antioxidants. Enjoy strawberries and pecans. Try another UltraMeal shake in the afternoon. Shakes with blueberries are rich in antioxidants.
Order UltraMeal from www.DrJeffreyTucker.meta-ehealth.com
A study followed postmenopausal women to see if any of a variety of supplements reduced their risk of developing breast cancer. Among women using fish oil supplements, there was a 32% lower risk of developing breast cancer — although not of all types of breast cancer.
I recommend EPA-DHA 720 by Metagenics. Order @ www.DrJeffreyTucker.meta-ehealth.com
Last year my programs helped dozens of people lose weight and reshape there body. I love the challenge and opportunity
to increase the quality of your life and helping you create the body you want…to look and feel younger. My programs focus on losing body fat and adding lean muscle. Women love the lean, sexy look, nothing bulky! Men appreciate thetight abdominal look!
I’ll coach you on how to improve your flexibility, how to recover, eat properly, which supplements to take, and take care of yourself between the workouts – this is the info that will make you successful. I can do this in as little as twice monthly office visits - my program is based on exercise progressions so each month I introduce a new challenge and as long as you follow the plan, you can’t go wrong.
If you need coaching on the phone, I’m available. We can tweak anything you’re concerned with.
My exercise program requires you to lift anywhere from 4-6 times a week for 30 minutes. If that sounds like “too much” than this is definitely not for you. I have worked with men and women from teenage years to eighty year olds. I personally teach you the exercises and write individual programs for each of my clients. Please feel free to call me at the office to discuss your plans. 310-473-2911
Here is a circuit that I provided to one of my clients to help her achieve her New Years resoloution for weight loss and getting back into her favorite pair of jeans:
The circuit requires performing each exercise for 60 seconds and moving on to the next exercise – performing one exercise right after another. If she needs a break between exercises it should be as short as possible. At the end of the circiut she can rest for two minutes and then perform the entire circuit again. It should be done 3-4 times per week.
Placing static stretches at the beginning of a training session interrupts the natural flow of an optimal warm-up and fails to prepare you fully for the dynamic movements that follow. However…
what you do just before your workout begins can have a big impact on what you are able to do during your workout. Don’t carry out routine static stretching before competition, but you can perform static stretching exercises before a workout if you need corrective exercise. Static stretching helps to improve your static (non-moving) flexibility, it does not do a good job at preparing your body to move quickly and efficiently.
That’s why I recommend more dynamic mobility exercises before every regular workout once you are not in need of corrective exercises. Here are the facts:
Dynamic Mobility exercises prepare your body completely for the vigorous movements that make up the main part of your workout. Most sports involve forceful, strenuous activity, and mobility exercises and drills stimulate your nervous system, muscles, tendons, and joints in a very dynamic manner, unlike stretching.
Static stretching exercises simply elongate a particular muscle or group of muscles. You can always do static stretches at the end of your workout as part of the cool-down. This is because they bring your body back toward a state of rest and recovery and allow you to focus on relaxing and lengthening the muscles that you have put under stress during your workout.
Mobility and flexibility training has a cumulative effect over an extended period of time. After about two weeks I usually see clients experience less pain. After about four weeks or so, you should notice appreciable gains in your mobility, flexibility and ability to move smoothly during your activities. Best of all, you’ll also notice an appreciable improvement in your workouts – and your competitive efforts! Keep it up!
Here is some of the advice that I hear myself sharing with patient’s who suffer from low back pain.
Tip 1 – Don’t perform repeated bending over or heavy lift in the morning.
Don’t get right out of bed and start bending over to lift objects at home or for work. The lumbar disc pressure is greatest in the morning due to the uptake of fluid into the disc overnight. If the disc is pre-swollen and thus already has higher intradiscal pressure, then it makes sense to avoid any flexion (bending over, rounding your back) based movements early in the morning.
I love working out first thing in the morning. So I have to be especially careful when I bend over that I bend from the hips and not the lumbar spine. I make sure that I’m warmed up properly, and I do bodyweight squats before adding any loads to my deep squats or deadlifts. If you work in a manual labour based occupation, then if possible avoid the lifting jobs until a little later in the morning.
Avoid sitting in a slumped position. Sustained sitting postures tend to be a big factor in people who suffer flexion based back pain. If you have to sit for long periods, use a lumbar roll. Buy a McKenzie roll at Relax The Back Store, Acology on Wilshire Blvd., or use a rolled up towel to put in the small of your back.
Tip 3 – Regarding chairs at work & home
The biggest factor in back pain and back muscle fatigue is sustained poor posture – again, avoid slumping. The best chair in the world is useless if you don’t frequently change position. By this I mean getting up every 20 minutes. Stand up, reach both arms up to the ceiling as if you are pushing the ceiling upwards. Hold it for 20-30 seconds. If you have an ergonomic chair, change the elements of the chair such as height, pitch of the seat and angle of the back support often. While at work or driving long periods, every 1/2 hour change 1 element of the chair to share the load and fatigue around the spine-pelvis. If you have a poor chair, get a new one!
We move around a lot more in our sleep than you think - about 40 times per night. It may be a slight change in arm position, or flipping from one side onto the back. I’m not big on spending a ton of money on a mattress. If your mattress is more than 10 years, you probably need a new one. If you wake up stiff in the morning, try another bed for a couple of nights. If you wake up feeling better, it’s your bed. Get a good quality mattress, usually medium firm is the right one.
Tip 5 – Bending over
If you have to bend over to pick something up, then bend at your hips not at your back. A Romanian deadlift is an exercise/movement that involves bending over by pivoting the hips into flexion whilst keeping the spine in a neutral position. This is far more effective for protecting the lumbar spine from high disc pressure than bending from the spine or even deep squatting. When you deep squat to lift, most of us don’t have the flexibility in the hips to maintain a neutral pelvis position. What invariably happens is the pelvis posteriorly tilts (tilts backwards) and flattens out the lumbar spine. This is akin to flexing the spine and thus leads to higher disc pressures.
If the object you need to pick up is light and small, then use a golfers lift. This is performed by bending from the hips on one leg whilst the other leg extends straight out the back. Use one hand to support the balance on a table or chair.
If you happen to suffer an acute back pain episode, call me right away.
I was in Las Vegas the other day at a Chiropractic convention and I spent some morning time in the hotel gym. Ninety percent of the people in the gym were using machines… I was really disappointed so few people were using free weights. I advocate free weights and kettlebells. It was like being in the Matrix Gym on Westwood Blvd. in 1985.
People moved along very slowly and took long breaks between sets. I advocate very short breaks between sets, usually 20-30 seconds. One minute is a long break for me.
I did not see anyone really pushing heavy resistance. I saw lots of people doing 20 reps at a time. I advocate lifting heavy enough resistance so that the 6th or 7th rep is the max. I want to see people build muscle to increase there resting metabolic rate.
I saw lots of people doing cardio – the treadmills, ellip and bike machines were busy. So when clients ask me “How did I get this pain?” I ask them “How many hours do you sit at work?” If they sit at work and have a desk job, they probably sit in awkward or slumped postures (for 8-10 hours a day). These people don’t need to sit on a cycle machine, and then sit on more machines and exercise – and they don’t need to do bench presses and curls.
Working all day in a seated position results in short hip flexors, short pecs, and short biceps. This is the exact posture that causes most clients to suffer from so much neck and back pain.
So if you are going to spend time in the gym, your objective should be to reverse the effects of hours of sitting, and hours of poor posture and lack of a variety of movement. Don’t magnify the poor posture by picking exercises that you are sitting down in. Get up on your feet… do exercises that strengthen the muscles that keep the shoulders back, not the ones
that pull them forward. We need more rowing-type exercises to strengthen the muscles that pull the shoulder blades back.
I did not see one person in the entire gym of a BIG hotel connected to the convention center stretching. Who are these people getting advice from? If you sit all day you better be spending time stretching out your hip flexors.
If you want to look good as you age avoid forward head posture and rounded shoulders. Work the back side with rows and pulls, because those muscles are the ones responsible for making sure that you stand erect.
Next time you see me in the gym…let’s talk!
A recent study found the FlexBar exercise led to significant improvements in tennis elbow patients compared to traditional treatment. I am really impressed with the ease of use and the improvements I see in my clients using the FlexBar. You will need to order the FlexBar online.
See the exercise video http://info.thera-bandacademy.com/flexbarelbowmedial
Plantar fasciitis or heel spurs are common in sports which involve running, dancing or jumping. Runners who excessively pronate (feet rolling in or flattening) are particularly at risk as the biomechanics of the foot pronating causes additional stretching of the plantar fascia.
Symptoms: A chronic mild ankle sprain could have symptoms related to stretching of the ankle ligaments; mild pain; mild swelling on the outside of the ankle; some joint stiffness or difficulty walking or running.
Plantar fascitis can be heel pain, under the heel and usually on the inside, at the origin of the attachment of the fascia. Sometimes there may also be pain along the outside border of the heel. This may occur due to the offloading the painful side of the heel by walking on the outside border of the foot. It may also be associated with the high impact of landing on the outside of the heel if you have high arched feet. Pain is usually worse first thing in the morning. After a few minutes it eases as the foot gets warmed up, but can get worse again during the day especially if walking a lot.
How to best treat and prevent this from happening again: Rest until it is not painful. It can be very difficult to rest the foot as most people will be on their feet during the day for work. By walking on the painful foot you are continually aggravating the injury and increasing inflammation. However a good plantar fascitis taping technique can help the foot get the rest it needs by supporting the plantar fascia.
Cold therapy can be applied regularly until symptoms have resolved.
Stretching the calfs and plantar fascia is an important part of treatment and prevention. Simply reducing pain and inflammation alone is unlikely to result in long term recovery. The plantar fascia tightens up making the origin at the heel more susceptible to becoming inflamed. Tightening of the plantar fascia happens in particular over night which is why pain is often worse in the morning. A plantar fascia night splint is an excellent product which is worn over night and gently stretches the calf muscles and plantar fascia preventing it from tightening up overnight.
Arch supports or custom made orthotics are often required.
In office treatment includes using the warm laser, the Deep Muscle Stimulator (DMS), or the ’scrapping’ tools called Graston or SASTM. I like to use K-tape as well.
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