What is inflammation?

Inflammation is when aspects of a body's immune system reddens and swells as a response to infection and/or injury. This is the body's attempt to heal and protect.

Acute inflammation is immediately after an injury lasting from a few moments to a few days.

Chronic inflammation is an over-responsive immune reaction lasting years. Many diseases (IBS, arthritis, cancer, depression, heart disease) are now being linked to chronic inflammation.

Long term inflammation can be linked to "wear and tear" conditions as well as lifestyle habits (stress, weight, smoking, alcohol, poor diet). 

Does unhappiness cause poor health?

People tend to think that unhappiness causes disease or illness, but a recent study shows that this is not true.

Dr Bette Liu from the University of New South Wales in Australia looked at over a million women (aged 55-63) over a 10 year span.

The researcher found that only after becoming sick did rates of happiness decrease, not the other way around.  The conclusion of this study is that poor health causes unhappiness. Dr Lie says: "We found no direct effect of unhappiness or stress on mortality".

Therefore, it makes very good sense to focus on being healthy, as a way to stay happy.

It's almost obvious that if focused on health ( good nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, hydration),  that happiness would follow.

What is N.E.A.T.

N.E.A.T.  stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or the energy expended during normal life which does not include sleeping, eating, or exercise.

N.E.A.T includes things like walking to work, fidgeting, housework, and/or yard work.

Office workers have low N.E.A.T.; farm workers have high N.E.A.T.

N.E.A.T. also increases with overfeeding and decreases with underfeeding.

The mechanism which regulates N.E.A.T. is unknown.

What is metabolic syndrome?

Metabolic syndrome is a combination of 4 conditions which can also be seen as prediabetes.

The co-existing conditions are high blood pressure, high levels of LDL cholesterol & triglycerides, low levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) and excess fat around the waist.

In the US about 34% of the population have this condition which is also known as CHAOS (in Australia), Reaven's Syndrome, and Metabolic Syndrome X.

This condition may be a result of stress, age, sedentary behaviour, diet, as well as excessive alcohol use.

The first line of treatment is a change of lifestyle.

What is "prediabetes"?

Prediabetes is a condition of higher blood sugar levels (fasting plasma glucose level of 7), but not high enough to be diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetes.

Some of the same long term complications associated with diabetes (heart disease and nerve damage) may begin during prediabetes.

Prediabetes is treated by loosing 5-10% of total body weight through lifestyle changes.

Why are diets so hard to stick to?

A public health researcher at the University of Buffalo recently looked into the question of why follow through on diets is so difficult.

He found that maintaining a diet is a "thinking" event requiring planning, scheming, will power, etc. which are all cognitive skills.

But follow-through on a diet requires good "feelings" in  order to be successful. If one doesn't enjoy the foods in a diet, the diet will fail. A successful diet needs to have a very strong emotional component. If the "thinking" and the "feeling" of a diet are not congruent, the health change will fail.

So the key issue, in designing a new diet, is much more than what's healthiest to eat....but also what are the most enjoyable as well as the healthiest foods to eat. 

What is Magnesium?

Magnesium is a chemical element needed for over 300 chemical reactions in the body. It's also known as an anti-stress mineral and natural tranquilizer.

Magnesium is depleted in people whose diets consist of processed foods, baked goods, soda, more than 7 alcohol units/week, caffeinated drinks, calcium supplements.

Magnesium is also depleted in people who are under alot of stress and who have poor diets.

Lack of magnesium looks like hyperexcitability, muscle weakness, sleepiness, aggression.

Studies done with high risk youth have found diets rich in magnesium are associated with reduced aggression and for reduced ADHD symptoms.

Magnesium can be found in dark, leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and cocoa.

What is the Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) for Depression?

Studies are showing the healthy lifestyles can be just as effective as pharmaceuticals for the treatment of depression. The following six have been identified as being particularly useful for healing from depression. Depression is an illness of decreased motivation; so the challenge is how to sustain these lifestyle changes until depression is erased or reduced.

1) Social connection.
2) Enhanced sleep.
3) Sunlight exposure.
4) Physical exercise.
5) Engaging activity.
6) Omega-3 fatty acids.