Another Path to Maximum Fitness Results in Minimal Time

Posted on June 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Another Path to Maximum Fitness Results in Minimal Time
Push-ups are one of the 12 exercises

Push-ups are one of the 12 exercises

Medical Daily has the details, or you can go straight to the research report. A quote from the former:

It’ll be an uncomfortable seven minutes, but it could be a more effective workout than hours spent running or weight training, Florida researchers say. In a new study published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal, two experts said that a combination of 12 exercises done over the course of seven minutes could be just as good for you as hours spent on other kinds of exercise….

It’s called high-intensity circuit training. These are body weight exercises, so you can’t blame lack of equipment as an excuse not to workout.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Cheapest Obamacare Plan to Be $20,000 per Year

Posted on June 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Cheapest Obamacare Plan to Be $20,000 per Year

…according to a report at cnsnews.com.

Gee, that seems kind of expensive. Median U.S. household income in 2011 was only $50,000.

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Mediterranean Diet Linked Once Again to Longevity

Posted on June 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Mediterranean Diet Linked Once Again to Longevity

…by Johns Hopkins researchers. 

Six thousand Americans were followed over the course of almost eight years, with attention to heart disease and death. Significantly lower death rates were seen in nonsmokers, and those maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and eating the Mediterranean diet. The more adherence to those healthy factors, the lower the risk of death

h/t Lyle J. Dennis, M.D.

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What Does Dr. Parker Look Like?

Posted on June 3, 2013 | Comments Off on What Does Dr. Parker Look Like?

I don’t post many pictures of myself here. It’s right for you to wonder what a “diet doctor” looks like. Well, I’m not fat. At a shade under 6 feet tall (183 cm), I weigh 170 lb (77.3 kg).

Steve Parker MD

Steve Parker and son Paul hiking at Horton’s Creek in Arizona on the Mogollon Rim

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Kevin Trudeau In Trouble With Feds Again

Posted on June 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Kevin Trudeau In Trouble With Feds Again

I’ve written before about twice-convicted felon Kevin Trudeau. He’s a well-known infomercial pitch man who wrote Weight Loss Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About.

Problem now is, he never paid his $37.6 million (USD) fine to the Federal Trade    Commission. Says he ain’t got the moolah, but the FTC doesn’t believe him.

ABC News has the story:

According to the government, credit card records demonstrate that the corporate entities owned or directed by Babenko [his wife] have been paying almost all of Trudeau’s American Express and Diner’s Club bills.  Her companies, the authorities say, have also paid for Bentley automobiles, private jet travel and the rent on a 14,000-square-foot mansion in Illinois.

I don’t feel sorry for Trudeau; I’m sad for the  folks he mislead in to buying his book.

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Improve Your Fitness In Just 12 Minutes a Week

Posted on June 2, 2013 | Comments Off on Improve Your Fitness In Just 12 Minutes a Week
A treadmill is one of many ways to do high-intensity interval training. Tabata's classic study used a stationary bicycle.

A treadmill is one of many ways to do high-intensity training. Tabata’s classic interval study used a stationary bicycle.

…if you’re an overweight out of shape man. The lede touts three 4-minute workouts a week. The fine print adds a 10-minute warm-up and 5-minute cool-down. So now we’re up to 19 minutes x 3 = 57 minutes a week.

Medical Daily has the details, or you can go straight to the research report. These guys walked, jogged, and ran on an inclined treadmill. The 4-minute “exercise” is intense.

Study participants increased their oxygen consumption, a common measure of fitness. The also dropped their fasting blood sugars by 5%.

I don’t see why you couldn’t replicate these results with other types of exercise, such as bicycling, burpees, or running outdoors.

We’ve already established that most of us will never exercise for two or three hours a week. How about an hour? If you’re sedentary now, what are you waiting for?

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Coenzyme Q10 Seems to Help In Chronic Heart Failure.

Posted on June 1, 2013 | Comments Off on Coenzyme Q10 Seems to Help In Chronic Heart Failure.

Details are at MedPageToday. Patients taking 100 mg three times a day had better outcomes compared to placebo. A separate study suggested that CoQ10 improves pumping action of the main heart chamber, the left ventricle.

BTW, the Mediterranean diet helps prevent heart failure in the first place.

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Girlhood Physical and Sexual Abuse Linked to Food Addiction Later

Posted on June 1, 2013 | Comments Off on Girlhood Physical and Sexual Abuse Linked to Food Addiction Later

MedPageToday has the story:

National surveys suggest that more than a third of girls in the U.S. experience some degree of physical or sexual abuse before they reach adulthood, the researchers noted. Studies also have linked childhood abuse with an increased risk for adult obesity and anorexia nervosa and bulimia, but the new analysis is the first to explore an association between child sexual and physical abuse and a wider range of binge eating and food obsession issues now grouped together under the umbrella term ‘food addiction’.

“Our findings suggest that women with a history of childhood abuse are more likely to report engaging in these uncontrolled, addiction-like eating behaviors, and we also found that the harsher the abuse they experienced, the stronger the association,” the investigators wrote.

The article also helps you figure out if you have food addiction.

 

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This Is What You Get When You Turn Over Healthcare to Politicians and Bureaucrats

Posted on June 1, 2013 | Comments Off on This Is What You Get When You Turn Over Healthcare to Politicians and Bureaucrats

From MedPageToday:

Medicare provider information in two separate databases was inaccurate most of the time and generally inconsistent between the two, compromising the program’s ability to detect fraud and abuse, a government watchdog found.

Data in at least one field were inaccurate in 48% of inspected records in the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) and in 58% of inspected records in the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS), according to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

Moreover, provider data were inconsistent between NPPES and PECOS 97% of the time, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) didn’t verify most provider information, the watchdog agency said in a report released Thursday.

Having to deal with these agencies is one of the many reasons doctors don’t own and run their own practices.

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My Second 24-Hour Fast: Stay Busy To Make It Tolerable

Posted on May 31, 2013 | 2 comments
Does this model fast to stay this skinny?

Does this model fast to stay this skinny?

I just finished my second-ever 24-hour fast. It went well, although not quite as easy as my first one in February. The novelty has worn off. I had more thoughts of food and eating this time.

Dietriffic dietitian Mel Thomassian spurred me to finally try fasting by summarizing what we know and don’t know about intermittent fasting and effects on health.

I had a brief pang of guilt about half way through this last fast when I realized I had just drunk 7.5 oz of Diet Coke. Then I remembered it had no calories, so I was OK as far as I’m concerned. I drink black coffee, too.

Here’s the mind game that get’s me through the fast. I eat my last meal, then sleep for seven hours. Next, I get up and putter around the house for a few hours, then head to the hospital for my 12-hour shift. So I’m not tempted by food at home, nor bombarded by food ads on TV for most of the 24 hours. It helps to be busy. Soon enough, the 24 hours is up and I break my fast.

I’m tempted to extend the fast longer, or try a physical work-out after a prolonged fast. It’s self-experimentation, not an obsession or eating disorder. A longer fast might be easier if my wife joined in. At this point she doesn’t even know I’ve done these two fasts.

The Fast Diet is pretty popular right now. Check out Dr. Yoni Freedhoff’s review.

Steve Parker, M.D.

 

 

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