What I've Learned From My Patients, #1

When It's Time, It's Time. And not a moment sooner. When is it time to make a more healthful lifestyle choice (exercise, lose weight, make better dietary choices)? When it comes from within. When the pain of change is less than the pain of current circumstances. When the illusion that the current state of health is "normal" somehow dissipates. When the vision of what the current rate of decline will look like in 30 years hits home. When the reasons for health take front and center (play with your grandchild, continue to be able to support your family, play golf, hike in the mountains, etc., etc., etc.). When you realize that in order to take care of others, you must take care of yourself (you're worth it!).

What happens when we're sedentary?

A recent study,* as reported by Dr. Malik Slosberg, "thoroughly describes what is termed 'Inactivity Physiology.' In our progressively sedentary culture, there has been a rapid reduction in demand for energy expenditure as we sit more in more driving in cars, sitting all day at work, sitting watching TV, sitting playing video games, sitting while reading, and sitting while relaxing.

"Sitting has an extremely low demand for energy expenditure, because as this paper explains, there is virtually no muscle contraction of any major trunk or lower extremity muscles. With this reduction in energy demand for approximately 70-80% of our waking day, muscle fibers do no use their stored glycogen and resist the inflow of additional glucose which can be toxic to cells in excess amounts. Thus, insulin resistance develops along with elevated blood sugar (hyperglycemia) which is then converted to fat, raising serum trigylceride levels and increased size and number of fat cells.

"The insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension (known as the Metabolic Syndrome) contribute to the diseases associated with the corresponding increase in obesity. These metabolic derangements along with increasing waist girth leaves individuals at dramatically increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiac death, type II diabetes, and all-cause mortality."

Moral of the story? Get up!

*Wittink H, et al. The Dangers of Inactivity; Exercise and Inactivity Physiology for the manual therapist. Manual Therapy 2011; 16:209-216.

It's Like A Wave

How we remember to take care of ourselves, then forget for awhile, then get a wake up call, and get back to doing what we know we need to do for optimum health and happiness. Take my core stabilization exercises, for example.

My goal: to do them every day. My reality: not even close! A snow holiday and a Thanksgiving weekend and come Monday morning I notice it's been a week since I last did them! So what do I do? I may gnash my teeth, scold myself, despair at my inconsistency, or -- miracle of miracles -- just take the ten minutes and DO them. Because after a week, I'm not feeling as perky and lively as I like to feel, and that's enough to remember and to take action.

Dr. Donald Epstein (founder of Network Chiropractic) talks about learning to listen to subtler cues, from our environment and from within our bodies. When we do that, we generally can minimize unnecessary suffering! We don't need the whack of a two-by-four to get our attention! We can respond to a gentle nudge, and be grateful for the nudge.

Meadowbrook Farmers Market

John and I had a lovely time at the Meadowbrook Farmers Market on the campus of the Seattle Waldorf School (2728 NE 100th Street). We saw old friends and made some new ones! Lots of computer users stopped by and we taught them the Y-W-T-L (Young and Well Throughout Life) and Aikido exercises to loosen up tight problem areas (neck/shoulder/upper back/wrist/elbow). Towards the end we offered John's Kiatsu services! Definitely a service to be continued at our upcoming dates on July 12, August 2 and 30, September 20, and October 11.