Strengthen Your Core Without Injuring Your Back 

Posted on March 5, 2019 | Leave a comment

A position you’ll see in the Five Tibetan Rituals for prevention and treatment of back pain

Fanatic Cook posted some (potentially) myth-busting videos featuring Dr Stuart McGill that may challenge your preconceptions about core exercises.

He [Dr McGill] says that a flexible back or a strong back are not protective of back injury. In fact, they are associated with more injury. The muscles of the back are meant to stabilize, to prevent movement. This is true for abdominal muscles and others of the core or torso. However, since back and stomach muscles are in constant use, they need to be maintained to provide endurance.

Now I don’t feel so bad about not being able to touch my toes by bending over at the waist. I regained the ability to do that eight years ago by following the Core Performance program. But that regimen took about five hours a week—more than I wanted to invest long-term

Source: How To Strengthen Abdominals Without Injuring The Back | Fanatic Cook

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Posted in Low Back Pain

Disappointing Weight Regain as of July 14, 2018

Posted on March 3, 2019 | 5 comments

I love peanut M&Ms

In just five and a half weeks since finishing Nuttin’ But Salads, my weight is up nine pounds, to 171. I failed even to keep eating one large salad daily.

BP is up significantly and I’ll probably be restarting amlodipine. Max of 153/109, more commonly 144/94.

Why? Candy, pastries, pie, cake, bread, alcohol.

Magnesium supplement fell by the wayside. Still drinking hibiscus tea when working.

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Posted in Weight Regain

Paul Ingraham on Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS)

Posted on February 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is probably the most common cause of knee pain in younger folks. I precipitated in it myself by accelerating my training program too rapidly in preparation for my last mountain climb

I just ran across this long PFPS article and didn’t want to lose track of it, so here’s the link.

The author is a (former?) massage therapist who thinks like a scientist.

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Does Your Doctor Use Automated Office Blood Pressure Readings? 

Posted on February 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

High blood pressure is linked to heart attacks

I’ve never heard of regular physician offices measuring blood pressure like this  meta-analysis describes. It may be the standard of care in the future if the automated device is affordable.

“Key Points

Question

Should automated office blood pressure (recording several blood pressure readings using a fully automated oscillometric sphygmomanometer with the patient resting alone in a quiet place) measurement replace readings recorded by nurses and physicians in routine clinical practice?

Findings

This systematic review and meta-analysis of 31 articles comprising 9279 participants compared automated office blood pressure with awake ambulatory blood pressure, a standard for predicting cardiovascular risk. Mean automated office blood pressure readings were similar to the awake ambulatory blood pressure readings and did not exhibit the “white coat effect” associated with routine office blood pressure measurement.

Meanings

Automated office blood pressure measurement should replace the recording of blood pressure by nurses and physicians in routine clinical practice.”

Source: Comparing Automated Office Blood Pressure Readings With Other Methods of Blood Pressure Measurement for Identifying Patients With Possible Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network

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Posted in High Blood Pressure

Can a Ketogenic Diet Prevent or Treat  Alzheimer’s disease?

Posted on February 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

Sunny’s Super Salad

Maybe…we don’t know yet. From a recent scientific article:

“Highlights

•Impaired brain glucose metabolism and amyloid β plaques are associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

•Ketones provide an alternative metabolic precursor to glucose in the brain.

•Ketogenic diets likely reduce amyloid plaques and may reverse their neurotoxicity.

•Modern diets high in carbohydrates may contribute to increasing Alzheimer’s incidence.

•The ketogenic diet (including carbohydrate restriction) might be useful in the management of Alzheimer’s disease.”

Source: The ketogenic diet as a potential treatment and prevention strategy for Alzheimer’s disease – ScienceDirect

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Posted in Alzheimer Disease, Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet

QOTD: Denninger on Politics and Blackmail

Posted on February 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

“I have long considered that one of the primary qualifications for being “accepted” into the major parties as a serious candidate (for anything) is that you’re able to be blackmailed.  There has to be something in your past that they know about and can use to “keep you in line.”  There is an utterly-ridiculous over-representation of people in the US Congress and other “high positions” that have been accused (or even proved) to have had interest in “little girls”, as an example, which has led to the (not very funny) anecdote that the only way to “get” this politician or that is to find them with a dead girl — or live boy.

As just one example I give you Dennis Hastert, who was Speaker of the House.  Long after he left office (but sadly for him, before he died) he was accused of structuring transactions illegally to pay off a kid he allegedly did inappropriate things with before he was in the House at all, say much less before he was Speaker.  It beggars belief that nobody knew of this alleged indiscretion before Hastert ascended to the House itself, say much less Speaker of the House.

Therefore this is a perfectly reasonable question: Who blackmailed him and what did they get?  I remind you that the Speaker of the House has near-absolute control over what is and isn’t heard on the floor and thus what bills can and cannot be voted on.”

Source.

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Posted in QOTD

The Secret of Weight Loss, and the Source of Coke Syrup 

Posted on January 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

From Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise…

“Humanity’s most complicated machines can’t even come close to the versatility that is a human:  if your car were able to fuel itself like a person, you’d be able to feed it gasoline or junk mail or plastic bags and it would turn that into a trip to Cleveland leaving only carbon dioxide and water vapor exhaust gas, and some form of car-poop that you presumably would compost so you could grow more car food.  Oh, and the car would self-repair for decades – your tires would grow back in the middle of the night.  Unfortunately your car would try to pick up on other cars, and might identify as a truck, but that’s a longer story.

The human body is excellently designed, and very, very consistent in its response to inputs.  But the owner’s manual sucks, and many times we don’t operate it properly or fuel it very well.  Case in point – achieving excellent health requires measurement.  Of what?  Unless you’re an adolescent reading this, you’re not getting taller.  What parameter might be changing that you could measure, say, every day?  Besides armpit hair length.  That’s too obvious, and everyone does that, anyway.  Think harder.

Oh, yes!  Weight!”

Source: Maps, the Secret of Weight Loss, and the Source of Coke Syrup – Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise

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Posted in Uncategorized