Slim People at Risk for Fat Related Health Problems?

By: Ainsley Laing

Do you assume that because someone is thin that they are also fit? Well, hold on to your hat, researchers are saying that many thin people have the same heart disease risk and type 2 diabetes risk as obese people. In fact, they say that some thin people are at higher risk than sumo wrestlers! The reason? Intra-abdominal fat.

According to Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College London, “being thin deosn’t aurtomatically mean you’re not fat”. It’s what’s inside that makes a difference to your health. Internal fat surrounding vital organs such as the heart and liver can be as dangerous as the fat that you see. Since 1994, Dr. Bell and his collegues have been mapping the fat stores of people to show where people store fat. They have scanned and recorded more than 800 people.

When most people gain weight, the fat is subcutaneous and we see it. We have known for years that a person who gains fat around the middle of their body is at increased risk for heart disease etc., but this was viewed as an obesity related issue. Now, it’s clear that even thin people are at risk.Of the women scanned in the study, 45% of those with normal body mass indices (BMI) had excessive levels of internal fat. Of the men? 60%!

Dr. Bell’s research indicates that people who control their weight with diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of fat around their internal organs, no matter how slim they appear on the outside. This leads us to the idea that exercise is the key to controlling levels of fat you can see and fat you can’t see.

What’s the difference in the health risks of subcutaneous fat and intra-abdominal fat?The metabolic characteristics of intra-abdominal fat are different from subcutaneous fat (the stuff you see). Intra-abdominal fat releases free fatty acids to drain directly into the liver, whereas subcutaneous fat drains into the systemic circulation. The influx of free fatty acids in the liver results in overproduction of very low density lipoprotein, and retention of low density lipoprotein, the “bad cholesterols” in the bloodstream. This can also lead to a lower level of high density lipoprotein, the “good cholesterol”.

This research offers a possible explanation for, while the population in developing South East Asian countries still have lower rates of obesity, have a high per capita incidence of Type II diabetes and heart disease. Of course, smoking is still prevalent in this region as well…

What to do? Exercise and eat healthily! And remember… Muscles burn fat.Around age 35, unless maintained through exercise, the body begins to lose muscle and gain fat. Since muscles require energy where as fat cells act as energy storage, a person who stays slim by dieting will require fewer calories as they lose muscle. Over the years, the metabolism slows down because the body has less muscle to burn energy. Any extra energy will be stored as fat somewhere even if it’s not visible to the naked eye.If the muscle mass is maintained, the body will simply use fat rather than store it.

It’s a simple concept, really…. Dieting may keep a body slim; but healthy eating and a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise keeps a body slim, strong and disease resistant. Hmmm…just more proof that exercise keeps you younger.

Sources:
Subcutaneous and Visceral Adipose Tissue: Their Relation to the Metabolic Syndrome Bernardo Léo Wajchenberg http://edrv.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/21/6/697Abdominal fat and health riskshttp://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/article.cfm?aid=930Strength Training in Diabetes Managementhttp://www.redorbit.comUltrasound measurements of intraabdominal fat estimate the metabolic syndrome better than do measurements of waist circumference1,2 Ronald P Stolk, Rudy Meijer, Willem PTM Mali, Diederick E Grobbee and Yolanda van der Graaf on behalf of the Secondary Manifestations of Arterial Disease (SMART) Study Group http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/77/4/857

Sugar Feeds Cancer?

By: Ainsley Laing

Is there a link between sugar consumption and cancer? Seventy years ago, Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of glucose as the fuel that grows cancer cells. In other words, sugar feeds cancer. Ok, this makes sense. All of our body’s tissues use glucose for fuel.

First, some boring stuff. A few new studies have followed along these lines and have associated sugar consumption with several types of cancer: A study done on women in Mexico linked high carbohydrate diets with breast cancer. The same link was made by a study done on American women.

A small study at University of Southern California identified a significant increase in risk for small bowel cancer in people who consumed the most sugar in coffee, tea and non-diet sodas. (Not the purpose of the study. It was chance finding).

A Harvard School of Public Health study demonstrated that a diet high in simple carbohydrate foods such as white rice, white bread and white potatoes increased risk of pancreatic cancer in overweight and sedentary women. Besides cigarette smoking, this is the first risk factor identified with pancreatic cancer. Colorectal cancer risk has been linked to higher insulin levels, as well.

This pancreatic cancer study findings make sense. The pancreas produces insulin – the hormone that helps the body utilize blood glucose. Overweight people tend to be “insulin resistant”. This means the pancreas works harder producing more insulin. It’s a vicious cycle.

Here’s some food for thought. Cancer rates have increased over the last 100 years or so. Mostly, this is attributed to increased cigarette smoking (there’s no arguing that this is the single most risk factor for many types of cancers, not only lung), and arguably the presence of more industrial chemicals and pollution.

Let’s look at the consumption of sugar over the same period. In 1815, the average per capita consumption of sugar in Great Britain was 15 pounds per year. By 1974, the consumption had risen to 120 pounds per year. Holy cow – that’s a lot of desserts!

Nowadays, in the US, the average per person yearly amount is 150 pounds per year. This is NOT including corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup which is the stuff that sweetens soft drinks. The average American drinks 34 gallons of soft drinks per year. Ugly statistics.

It’s also worthy to note that the use of refined white flour started in the early 1800’s in Europe. The rice that is so popular in Southeast Asian cuisine (highly processed) because of its color and quick cooking properties started to be widely used after World War 2. Is there an increase in cancers due to these dietary changes? It would logically follow. Both white rice and white flour cause a blood sugar spike similar to white sugar. Diets high in white rice and white flour, known as refined carbohydrates are associated with increased incidence of Type II Diabetes. Not to mention the nutritional value is very poor because of processing. It is known that the fiber that is in brown rice and brown flour has protective effect against certain cancers including pancreatic and…Type II diabetes. Hmmm.

More and more, nutritionally oriented doctors are saying to cancer patients that cutting down on sugar and refined carbohydrates could slow the growth of the cancer (given that “sugar fuels cancer”). But the real science is not concrete enough for the medical community to say unequivocally that carbs increase cancer cell multiplication.

Since sugar gives you no nutrition (vitamins, minerals, etc) makes the body fat and causes cavities, it can’t be good. Doctors, nutritionists and scientists may be divided on the subject, but you can bet that I will be eating “brown” and looking out for hidden sugar in food as much as possible. It looks like “the writing is on the wall”….

Sources:
“The Good Fight”. Health Sciences Institute http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealerts/ea200407/ea20040701.html“Sugar Link to Small Bowel Cancer”. PersonalMDhttp://www.personalmd.com/news/a1997030601.shtml“Cancer Decisions Newsletter” http://www.cancerdecisions.com/082102_page.html“Study Suggests Possible Link Between High Starch Diet and Pacreatic Cancer”.Science Dailyhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020904073950.htm
Labels: blood sugar, cancer, colon cancer, insulin resistance, pancreatic cancer, refined carbohydrates

To Stretch or Not to Stretch

By: Ainsley Laing

I started teaching fitness classes a long time ago. So long ago, in fact, that Jane Fonda was THE NAME in fitness and all the classes were called Aerobics. In those days, there was no certification
for instructors and most of us came from a dance background. In other words, we did what we wanted with very few guidelines.

Along with the increase in popularity of these classes and fitness in general came certification, liability insurance, expert guidelines and large amounts of scientific research on fitness topics. In other words, teaching fitness classes became a “real job”.

Since that time, stretching seems to be a really controversial area of fitness. When do we stretch? How do we stretch? Does stretching prevent injury? Do you get sore if you stretch properly? And
you know what? After many studies, the mysteries remain.

Of course, there are a couple of generally accepted beliefs I would like to share with you to help you better understand and plan your fitness activities.

A muscle’s strength is related to its ability to stretch. In other words a muscle expands before it contracts. This is particularly easy to see when you look at someone jump. First the person will bend the knees (expand the muscles) and then spring up (contract).

A warm muscle stretches more easily than a cold one. The follow on to this idea is that a warm muscle is also stronger in that it is more resistant to tearing with heavy use.

How is this applied to fitness programs? Well, the number one thing I always say to my clients is “Warm-up first before stretching”. The response from clients is often, “isn’t stretching a warm-up”? The answer is (polite yet emphatic) NO!

The purpose of a warm-up is to get the blood flowing to the muscles and joints and get the heart ready for what is to come. The best warm-up is usually about 5 minutes of a lower intensity version of the activity you are about to perform. For example, walking for a time before you begin running is good. For weight training, it’s also good to walk first followed by some rhythmic arm movements to warm up upper body joints.

Now here’s a big controversy among fitness professionals: when is the optimal time to stretch? Well, I like to stretch at the end of the workout or at several times during the workout if resistance
(weight) training – when the muscles are very bendable. My mental picture of this is that muscles, tendons and ligaments are like taffy candy. When taffy is cold, it breaks when bent. When taffy
is warm, it pulls and stretches.

While no one has yet managed to prove conclusively that stretching prevents injury or reduces muscle soreness, most athletes and fitness enthusiasts will tell you that stretching really helps them feel better after a workout. My personal observation is that stretching promotes a balanced range of motion in the joints and generally promotes the feeling of relaxed well-being after a orkout. Some of my most popular classes end with a stretching session and a few minutes of deep breathing/deep relaxation. Very nice!

Valentine’s Day Resolution: Take Care of Your Heart

By: Ainsley Laing
Aah, Valentine’s Day. What a great holiday. Did you know that the origin of this holiday is not really known? There are lots of suggestions by historians…but no one really knows for sure. Try doing a web search for “the history of Valentine’s Day” and you will see. Yet, it is such a popular holiday. A chance to celebrate and be grateful for the love that we have in our lives is truly special!

So what are your plans? A romantic dinner? Flowers? Popping the question? It’s all so exciting, isn’t it?

Here’s an idea: why not take care of your real, blood pumping, heart and appreciate it on this wonderful day? For without it, we would not be enjoying this or any other day! Or better yet, why not get together with your honey and make a plan to make sure that both of you are in good health to celebrate many more Valentine’s Days?

The American Heart Association celebrates the whole of February as Heart Health Month. During February, the organization strives to educate people about how to stay well and keep their hearts in shape. They challenge people to address general wellness factors and give them ideas on how to do it. In general, they urge awareness of how to recognize heart problems and strokes, what to do if you have symptoms, how to assess personal risk factors, get regular medical check ups, regular exercise, healthy eating habits and no smoking.

Ok. We all know we should exercise, eat “right”, have regular medical checks and lower stress levels. Let’s look at some of the current dietary and exercise recommendations specifically aimed at maintaining a healthy heart. After all, the more research the medical folks do, the more they change what the “right” things to do are!

Exercise is pretty simple: at least 30 minutes of moderately rigorous exercise most or all days of the week.

Interestingly, the type of exercise makes little difference in terms of heart health. Weight training has proven to be heart healthy as well as more aerobic activities. No matter what you enjoy, just stay moving!!!

Diet is not so simple. Some of the newer recommendations include:

Wellness Issues
Eat LOTS of vegetables, some fruit, whole grains and lean protein.
Add Omega-3 fats, which come from fish oil, nuts, seeds and some oils.
Eat much less processed foods because they contain trans fats which are more harmful to the heart than saturated fats!
Fry food much less often. Frying food changes the structure of fat molecules (trans fats) and degrades protein.
The heart needs B-vitamins to keep it healthy. Processed grains (white flour, rice, etc) lose 60-90% of the vitamins in processing. Eat brown and unprocessed where possible.
Keep desserts and sweets to a minimum.
Add a multivitamin, just to make sure to get necessary nutrients (especially B vitamins).
Wellness Issues:

Learn to cope with stress, communicate better, manage anger etc. Repressed emotions are terrible for the heart as well as overall health (and cause relationship problems too)
Stop smoking
Control alcohol intake
Be aware of direct relatives who have had heart disease or Type 2 diabetes (a risk factor for heart attacks)
If you have Type 2 diabetes, follow your physician’s instructions!Keep your body fat at normal levels.

So, this Valentine’s Day, when you are feeling your most romantic….show your partner how much you love him/her by making resolutions to become more heart healthy by the time the next Valentine’s Day comes around. Taking care of your body so you will be around for your partner a long time is soooo romantic ….. and sexy!

Wellness and Making Good Choices

By: Ainsley Laing

What do you think of when someone says the word wellness? What does it mean to you?

Out of curiosity, I looked up “definition of wellness” on the web and a bunch of different results came up! Many of them referred to being physically, medically or mentally well.

My favorite definition of wellness comes from the National Wellness Association of Singapore – “wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence”. An active process….

To me, wellness represents the integration of physical, mental/emotional and spiritual fitness. A healthy mind and a healthy body so to speak. Throughout our lives, all these components change constantly because of new experiences and learning along with the body changes…especially as we enter middle age and beyond.

Do you know anyone who in midlife has become depressed or suddenly changed their behavior to what seems like a crazy destruction of all aspects of their life? We often refer to this sort of behavior as midlife crisis. Everyone has changes in priorities, lifestyles etc. in midlife, but why do some seem to really go to extremes?

Psychologists tell us that very few people truly experience classic midlife crisis. Most of the time, the most extreme cases of change either ends up being classic depression or the person has had chaotic interpersonal relationships/job loss etc., all their lives.

Perhaps, these people are just lacking the integrated components of wellness that I am referring to above. In other words, they may get 1 or 2 components right, but just lose sight of the others. Something is missing…

For example, say John Anyman who is 40. He is very fit, goes to the gym, runs and is on his local soccer team. He has been married for 15 years, has an eight year old child and a profession that he enjoys (good job). But he walks around with the nagging feeling that something is missing in his life. He just can’t decide what that is.

One day, John leaves his family, quits his job and moves to Morrocco to “find” himself. Five years later, John is no happier than he was before. Why? The nagging feeling that something is missing is still there. John changed the outward trappings of his life without turning inward. In addition, he now lives with the loss of his family and the guilt of hurting them.

Perhaps if John had looked at all the aspects of wellness, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, seen which area was lacking in his life and made small changes first, he would have kept his family and gotten rid of the nagging feeling. To quote a common cliché: happiness begins within.

Many of us midlifers (me included) go through a sort of metamorphosis for a variety of reasons. In my case, this metamorphosis started because of family breakdown which lead me to reevaluate my life and set my own priorities of what is important. Unfortunately, I did not notice that something was missing for complete wellness before my life situation changed.

What had been missing for me? Emotional fitness. I had never before thought to define priorities in this area and therefore did not ask loved ones for what I needed. My emotions were left to be controlled by daily situations, and the behavior of my husband (who was having his own “midlife crisis”) and child. I was on “autopilot” and feeling that my life was without love. It wasn’t until my physical body started to show signs of my emotional pain, that I was able to see that there was something wrong in my approach to my life. Hence, my metamorphosis began…and continues! An active process…

The message here for fitness enthusiasts is that working out and eating right is only one part of what makes us healthy. If the balance is not there in the other areas of our lives, and we are not taking care of our emotional selves – our bodies will show the signs sooner or later.

Make good choices!

Sources:
http://www.answers.com/topic/wellness

The Many Disguises of Mono Sodium Glutamate

By: Ainsley Laing

The other day, I got an email from an American guy who lives in Malaysia. He was saying that cooking with mono sodium glutamate (MSG) is a real health problem to Malaysians and that he “doesn’t allow it in his house”.

MSG, so what’s the big deal? It’s the stuff used in large quantities in Chinese/Southeast Asian food, right? Wrong. It’s everywhere in almost all processed foods! You see, it was derived from seaweed in Japan in the 1930s and very quickly became popular in United States as a food additive. As long ago as the 1970s, manufacturers promised to take it out of baby food because of suspected problems – no kidding.

Consumers long ago became savvy to MSG listed as an ingredient on food labels and stopped buying things with MSG. So guess what? Manufacturers just renamed the stuff. Here are some of the ingredient names in food that are “cover names” for MSG:

Broth
Casein or Caseinate
Glutamate
Hydrolyzed Yeast
Autolyzed Yeast
Yeast Extract
Hydrolyzed Protein
Natural Flavors

MSG is one of the most popular food additives in food in the US. Fast food chains and restaurants use a lot of it. McDonald’s use it to flavor French fries, the Grilled Chicken Fillet and the Sausage Patties. Pizza Hut uses it to flavor their Chicken Wings. In the supermarket, you can bet that if it’s a sauce, salad dressing, snack foods, potato, tortilla chips, soups, crackers, cookies it’s probably got MSG in it. It’s everywhere – even baby formula. If it’s a processed or “convenience” food, it’s likely to have MSG.

Why? Because people buy stuff that tastes good.

The science here: Have you heard of glutamic acid or glutamate? It’s a naturally occurring amino acid in foods. MSG is the sodium salt extracted from glutamic acid. Originally, MSG was derived from protein rich foods, like seaweed; but now it’s made from starch, corn sugar, molasses or sugar beets. Well, glutamate naturally occurring in foods is a bound amino acid and the body is equipped to process it as other protein. But, when processed it becomes free and the body processes it differently.

Simply put, high levels of unbound glutamate causes free radical damage throughout the body. So, eating a lot of processed protein foods where the glutamic acid has been “unbound” results in free radical damage – which is host to all sorts of diseases, most notably cancer. MSG falls into this category. And since it tastes so good, people want more and more of it. Other processed protein foods which end up with free glutamic acids include: ultra pasteurized milk, (this is an unlikely one) the wax they put on vegetables and fruit contains hydrolyzed protein and ultra pasteurized soy milk.
Another side note: MSG is an excitotoxin. When consumed, it excites brain neurons so much that they are damaged or even die! Aspartame, sold in the U.S. as NutraSweet and Europe as Candarel is also classified as an excitotoxin. Yuk.

What to do? Well, I suppose we as consumers have to vote with our purchases. Armed with the knowledge that food manufacturers and restaurants are using MSG and disguising it; we need to read labels, ask questions and stop buying products that will harm us.

Eat well, stay healthy!

Resources:
Everything You Need To Know About Glutamate And Monosodium Glutamate http://www.ific.org/publications/brochures/msgbroch.cfm
Interview with Dr. Russell Blaylock on devastating health effects of MSG, aspartame and excitotoxins http://www.newstarget.com/020550.html

New Year’s Resolutions? Ask for Help

By: Ainsley Laing

What kind of New Year’s resolutions did you make this year? Did they involve improving your health, fitness, nutrition or related health habits? Every year, many of us start off with good intentions, only to find that “life” gets in the way. A couple of months along we find we are no closer to achieving what we started out to do.

It’s easy to justify or excuse these “failures” in a variety of ways. Maybe it wasn’t a high enough priority or we are just too busy and so forth. But there’s one element in all of this that might be overlooked – genuine support and understanding by the people we care about. An important part of this relationship dynamic is that we feel the person or people closest to us have faith in our abilities to do what we set out to do.

Fitness trainers see this sort of thing a lot. A person comes for training, gets going well and then starts missing sessions. When the person is asked why, the answer is usually something like “I feel that I am taking too much time away from my family” or “my wife feels that we are not spending enough time together”. I once had a spouse of a client tell me right in front of the client that the client has started to get fit many times and failed and that now he doesn’t believe she can do it!” I felt the client’s hurt and self doubt with that comment. Certainly, the comment does not encourage her success. That’s really tough.

If you are having trouble keeping fitness resolutions (or any resolutions) year after year, take a look at your family and friends. Do you feel that they are they enthusiastically supporting your efforts and believe in your ability to accomplish what you start? If not, try to think of some ways to change this situation for the better. Here are some ideas:

Recruit a support group of people who can support and mentor you to help offset some of the difficulties and self doubt you are experiencing. Your supporters don’t have to be fitness enthusiasts (although your trainer is a good place to start). They can be friends or colleagues whom you enjoy. Even better: talk to people who are accomplishing goals while experiencing resistance or lack of support by their loved ones.

Communicate, communicate, communicate and communicate again!

It’s up to you to find a way to communicate the importance of your goals to your family and friends emphasizing your need for them to support you.

Tell your loved ones how difficult this change is for you and how past failures affect your self confidence in this area….and that you need them to help you!

Ask for their suggestions on how you can meet their needs and also accomplish what you want to do.

Try to find out how they feel about what you are doing - if there are fears or insecurities involved. Sometimes there can be hidden agendas such as a spouse’s fear that you getting fit will cause you to change in a negative way or a child who thinks you will spend less time with them. Then, with this knowledge, together, discuss ways to make sure everyone feels secure and happy with any changes in routines etc.

You will be amazed at how much cooperation and enthusiastic support you will receive, just by asking…

Have a wonderful year!

The Shocking Facts About Diets and What is The Right One for YOU

By: Dave Osh

Do you have an idea why fad diets spread like a “bush fire” even though 95% of dieters fail?

Lat month, just in Yahoo, 1.2 million people searched for diets and weight loss. Out of them 200,000 were looking for diet and weight loss pills. Only 450,000 people searched for fitness and exercise. Out of them 50,000 were
looking for fitness and exercise program and a teeny-weeny group of 5,000 people searched for a fat loss solution.

Shocking figures in a world of free flow information. Weight loss, diet, and pills are still 3 times bigger than fitness and exercise. It should have been the other way around…but it isn’t!

95%of diets fail due to a combination of hormonal changes, muscle loss and flat out frustration.

Hormonal Changes

Your body’s natural response to shortage of calories is to conserve fat. This "starvation response" is associated to hormonal changes and makes life difficult for most dieters.

Muscle Loss

If a dieter persists long enough with the self-imposed starvation, the body begins to break down muscle tissue for fuel. When protein is broken down, it releases nitrogen. Your body will quickly wash away the nitrogen by releasing water from tissue cells, causing an immediate reduction in
water weight and a noticeable drop on the scale. However, water and muscle loss is nothing to celebrate. The water weight will be quickly regained as soon as you have something to drink, and the missing muscle can wreak havoc on your metabolism for a good long time.

Frustration

Studies show that most dieters don’t keep up the starvation routine for long. They’ll eventually return to their old eating habits. When this happens, the weight is inevitably regained. The kicker is that while they lost both muscle and fat during the diet, what they put back was all fat. So, even though they may weigh the same as they did when they
started, they now have a lot more fat and a lot less muscle than they did before the diet. This means that their metabolisms are slower and their calorie requirements are lower. That’s one reason dieters are prone to regaining all of the lost weight and more.

The Solution

Combine Healthy Diet with the Resistance Training. Your first priority to solve the diet dilemma is to add resistance exercise. Most people that add exercise to their diet take the wrong way. They perform long duration cardio exercise which may worsen the problem because they continue to lose more muscle and take their metabolism to a free-fall
spiral.

What is a healthy diet?

A healthy diet is based around natural whole food especially fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and lean protein. A healthy diet keeps your metabolism in high gear with 4 to 6 small meals a day. It’s flexible enough to allow some treats from time to time. No food is off-limits, but sweets and junk food are avoided at least 90% of the time.

What is the Right Resistance Training?

The right resistance training is the one that allows you to preserve your muscles while you are dieting and even gain some muscles which boosts your metabolism. Resistance training can be done in your home using body weight exercises or at the gym using resistance machines and free weights – better even to do them both. Effective resistance training is
performing several sets each one with 6-15 repetitions till you fail to do even one more. If you can do more than 6-15, increase the resistance.

Is this All? What About Cardio?

You don’t need cardio training to solve the diet syndrome. Healthy diet and resistance training kick-off fat loss without losing muscle. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do cardio training. It will accelerate your metabolism and improve your heart’s health. Short duration high intensity cardio like intervals is proven to accelerate metabolism more effectively than long low intensity flat cardio.

Kick Start Your Next Successful “Diet”

Instead of periodical diets, change your lifestyle and adopt 4-6 healthy meals a day with 40 minutes of resistance training 3-4 times a week and 20 minutes of interval training 2-3 times a week. Never diet without resistance training and you will never be part of the shocking statistics.

Resource:

Dieting and Metabolism by Renee
Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer

Is Bottled Water Really Better?

By: Ainsley Laing

Do you drink bottled water because you believe to be a healthier option than your local tap water? You might want to re-think this. Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a recently published 2-year long study by the Environmental Working Group in the U.S.

The bottled water did not turn out to be much better than tap water -and in some cases worse.

The study's lab tests on 10 brands of bottled water detected 38 chemicals including bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Though some probably came from tap water that some companies use for their bottled water, other contaminants probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.

"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.

Ok. Let's explore this further. The bottlers take already polluted tap water, "purify" it with a carbon filter, reverse-osmosis or even distillation (the purest). Then the water is put back into disposable plastic bottles where it may remain in the plastic on the store shelves for weeks. Chemicals from the plastic leach back into the water and can create an even more hazardous potion. Not to mention any bacteria that may come off the equipment or the hands of the people working in the plant multiply over time in the bottles.

What a bargain!

Hmm... and this is in the US! What about other parts of the world where industrial pollution is not regulated like the US? My family and I live in Malaysia. The water is chlorinated here, so there's not much risk of bacterial infection - but the chemicals in the ground water from poorly regulated and unreported industrial activities is cause for worry.

An example of this is a pesticide free vegetable farm in nearby Singapore that we visited a year ago. During the tour, the guide stated that, for ethical reasons, the farm did not actually call itself organic because they didn't know what the land in the area had been used for 15 years before. Hence, they didn't have a complete picture of what pollutants are in the soil. Yet, the farm next door had a big sign stating it was "organic"!

Convenience can be a good reason to buy bottled water; but why not consider purifying your own? At least then, you know where it came from! You can store the water in glass which is less likely to leach pollutants back into the water. It's simple to do and much less expensive. There are tons of brands of purifiers and filters for you to choose from.

At our house, we distill our water and use a Brita brand carbon filter. The distilled water is very pure (which makes a wonderful tasting coffee) but requires a fair bit of electricity. The Brita filter removes only some of the chemicals and pollutants but is only a matter of pouring the tap water into the jug through a filter. Simple, fast and inexpensive. In many places, you can also purchase 5 gallon glass bottles of water purified in your preferred way for home delivery which is convenient and a bit more cost effective than the individual plastic bottles.

Stay hydrated!

Resources:
API Press Release: "Bottled water has contaminants too, study finds" By Jeff Donn.

Exercise for Physical, Emotional and Intellectual Fitness

By: Ainsley Laing

In July, my daughter and I went snow skiing (yes, I did say July - southern hemisphere winter). During the week we skied, both of us took lots of lessons. My daughter because she is new to skiing and me because the last time I skied was 18 years ago! Those of you who ski know that the way one skis is different than it used to be because the design of the skis has changed. Easier in many ways once you embrace the differences!

Anyway, the instructor that I had said something that really stuck with me... and hence this article. He said "it takes 1000 repetitions of a movement to make it become automatic". If you are involved in a sport, performing art or other physically based pursuit, this will make a lot of sense to you. As a dancer and fitness instructor, I see this in action a lot. Rehearsing for a show, ideally one rehearses to the point where the body takes over on stage. If the movements are automatic, you can emotionally freeze up (stage fright), engage the audience or even think about other things and your body will do it anyway. When this happens, for me this feels as if my head has detached from my body and is having a great time!

So what is the point being made here? The brain makes new neural pathways for each new movement that we do. It grows much in the same way as when you play a mathematics game or do any new intellectual activity. Also, when you use these new physical movement skills in different ways, the brain has to develop ways to access these movements from memory and sequence them.

Given this, it stands to reason that doing not only exercises you enjoy but also a variety of exercises leads to better health and a more flexible brain at all life stages. After all, we insist our kids expose themselves to sports, games, math, music, languages, drama (ok, too long but you get the idea) to help them grow and develop!

So, let's say that you have a routine that has gotten you fit and you like it because it works within your life goals and restrictions. (Life can get in the way of one's fitness activities!) For example, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays you like to go for a run early in the morning. Tuesdays and Thursdays you work out with weights at home. It makes you feel good, you like it and you don't want to change. Don't! But how about "tweaking" your runs to include other things? Or incorporate different types of running, such as sprinting into your routine? In the case of your weight workout, how about varying the speed of each lift? Small changes seem simple enough, but my guess is your brain will resist at first - it will "feel" weird.

Now, let's look at the link between brain fitness and emotional well being. I think you will agree that brain health and emotional health are connected. I mean, how clearly do you think under extreme stress? Some years ago, I was seeing a psychotherapist because I felt I needed help coping with the stress of some life changes I was making. One of the things I learned is that an emotionally healthy person is flexible and less fearful of change. The more stressed or fearful we are the more we tend to try to control the situations we put ourselves into. Add this idea to the knowledge that we have of exercise improving mood and helping with depression (runner's high or whatever you want to name it) and what conclusions can we make?

* Moving your body builds new neural pathways.
* Physical movements build different neural pathways as do intellectual activities.
* Stress causes physical as well as emotional responses in the body and the brain.
* Exercising increases the feel good hormones in the body.
* Exercise helps with physical manifestations of emotions like sleep problems, lack of appetite and nervousness.
* A stressed or fearful person doesn't handle change well.
* The brain, like the body can become less flexible with age unless it is used (the old anecdote that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks").
* Physical activity improves mental acuity, emotional well being and brain flexibility.

My personal conclusion.... Adding or changing fitness activities or taking up new sports appears to be yet another way to keep our brains (and bodies) fitter, younger and help us be more confident when presented with stressors associated with life's challenges.

Salsa dancing anyone?

Resources:
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-fitness/2008/4/17/how-exercise-revs-up-your-brain.html