March 2011
This has been a very wet and snowy winter so far. I was recently in Detroit and Green
Bay where they have snow piled up taller than the buildings. There is so much snow and
nowhere to put it. I am sure that as the weather warms up and the snow begins to melt the
water will flow. Here in the west our mountains are packed with extra snow. The forecast
is for a very heavy spring runoff. I can remember back when I was in college that we had a
similar condition. When the snow began to melt they had to divert the rivers and creeks
down 2nd South Street in Salt Lake City. They actually turned the street into a runoff
river by sandbagging the curbs. People were photographed fishing and canoeing down 2nd
South that year.
Our thoughts go out to the people of Japan and that region of the world during this difficult time.
We at Brazil Botanicals wish the best and will find ways to donate through local organizations in
the relief effort.
So, I hope that as you read this month’s newsletter that you are
dry, warm and safe.
In this newsletter you will learn why less protein is more, water is
not enough and that coconut water is a real solution to hydration. I have also included a
great article on dehydration. This article should have particular appeal to moms and dads
and anyone taking care of children. Also I give you justification to take that power,
yeah! Finally I added a little red flag warning about the potential risks with the federal
health care reform act.
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PROTEIN: LESS IS MORE! | If you’re already eating a diet
rich in whole foods, guzzling a protein shake might make you overdose on protein. People
are being misled to think that more is always better. In reality, excess protein is stored
as fat—not muscle. Protein should account for roughly 20 to 25% of your calories; on a day
that you exercise for 1 hour, eat about 8 to 10 ounces.
Erin Palinski, RD, CPT,
agrees that too much protein can have adverse effects, especially on women. It’s important
for women to stay hydrated because the body requires more water to break down protein,
compared with fats or carbs. Excess protein can also lead to bone loss, she says.
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WATER: IT’S NOT ENOUGH! | Many experts agree that although
water is sufficient to get you through a workout it does not replenish electrolytes.
Electrolytes need to be replaced since they act as the “gating” mechanism for the flow of
fluids into our cells. However, most sports drinks are chock-full of ingredients you don’t
need, such as sugar, artificial flavors, and food coloring, says Julieanna Hever, RD,
ACE-certified personal trainer, and author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Plant-Based
Nutrition (Penguin, August 2011). In addition to this most of the popular branded sports
drinks have incomplete and unbalanced electrolyte profiles.
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COCONUT WATER: THE SECRET SOLUTION! | “Coconut water is the
best pre, during and post workout beverage available,” says Dr. Tim Hollingshead, DPM, and
CEO of Dr. Tim’s Juices. The coconut water’s naturally occurring sugar content helps
replenish the body’s glycogen stores when muscles are ready to be refueled at half the
calories of popular sugary sports drinks. And coconut water offers a healthy combination
of electrolytes and leucine—the number one amino acid for rebuilding muscle.
From KidsHealth.org
(Here is a very
informative article on dehydration and children. Please take the time to better understand
this critical health care issue.Once you read this you will better understand the power
and positive healthy impact that coconut water provides.)
 Under normal conditions, we all lose some body water every day in our sweat, tears, urine,
and stool. Water also evaporates from our skin and leaves the body as vapor when we
breathe. We usually replace this body fluid and the salts it contains with the water and
salts in our regular diet.
Sometimes, however, kids lose abnormally large amounts of water
and salts through fever (more water evaporates from the body when body temperature is
increased), diarrhea, vomiting, or long periods of exercise with excessive sweating. Some
illnesses might also prevent them from taking fluids by mouth. If they're unable to
adequately replace the fluid that's been lost, kids can become dehydrated.
RECOGNIZING DEHYDRATION
If your child has fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, or is sweating a lot on a hot
day or during intense physical activity, you should watch for signs of dehydration, which
can include:
- dry or sticky mouth
- few or no tears when crying
- eyes that look sunken into the head
- soft spot (fontanelle) on top of baby's head that looks sunken
- lack of urine or wet diapers for 6 to 8 hours in an infant (or only a very small
amount of dark yellow urine)
- lack of urine for 12 hours in an older child (or only a very small amount of dark yellow urine)
- dry, cool skin
- lethargy or irritability
- fatigue or dizziness in an older child
PREVENTING DEHYDRATION
The best way to prevent dehydration is to make sure kids get plenty of fluids when they're sick or
physically active — they should consume more fluids than they lose (from vomiting, diarrhea, or
sweating).
How you keep a child adequately hydrated can depend on the circumstances. For
example, a child with a sore throat may become dehydrated due to difficulty drinking or
eating. Easing the pain with acetaminophen or ibuprofen may help, while cold drinks or
popsicles can soothe a burning throat while also supplying fluids.
Infants with blocked
noses who have trouble feeding can be helped by flushing their nostrils with saltwater
(saline) nose drops and suctioning out the mucus with a bulb syringe.
Fever, which can be a factor in dehydration in any infectious disease, can be controlled with medications or
room-temperature sponge baths and dressing the child in light clothing.
It's important that kids drink often on hot, dry, and windy days. Those who participate in sports or
strenuous activities should also drink some extra fluid before the activity begins. They
should also drink at regular intervals (every 20 minutes) during the course of the
activity and after it ends. Ideally, sports practices and competitions should be scheduled
for the early morning or late afternoon to avoid the hottest part of the day.
Thirst is
not a good early indicator of dehydration. By the time a child feels thirsty, he or she
may already be dehydrated. And thirst can be quenched before the necessary body fluids
have been replaced. That's why kids should start drinking before thirst develops and
consume additional fluids even after thirst is quenched.
Kids with mild gastroenteritis (also called the "stomach flu," which can cause nausea, vomiting,
and diarrhea) who aren't dehydrated should continue to eat normally but should be encouraged to drink additional
fluid to replace fluid losses. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),
recent studies have shown that most kids with gastroenteritis can safely eat a regular
age-appropriate diet while they're sick. In fact, feeding a regular diet to kids who have
diarrhea may even reduce the duration of diarrhea, while offering proper nutrition.
Infants with mild gastroenteritis who aren't dehydrated should continue to receive breast
milk or regular-strength formula. Older kids may continue to drink full-strength milk.
Foods that are usually well tolerated by kids with gastroenteritis who aren't dehydrated
include: complex carbohydrates (such as rice, wheat, potatoes, bread, and cereals), lean
meats, yogurt, fruits, and vegetables. Avoid fatty foods or foods high in simple sugars
(including juices and soft drinks). If the child is vomiting and isn't dehydrated, give
fluids frequently, but in small amounts.
TREATING DEHYDRATION
It's important for parents to learn to recognize the early signs of dehydration and to respond quickly if they
develop. Younger infants and children should be watched very carefully because they're
more likely to become dehydrated than older kids or adolescents.
The goal in treating
dehydration is to replace fluids to restore the levels of body fluids to normal. As with
prevention, strategies may differ depending on the age of the child and the condition
causing the dehydration. An older child who's mildly dehydrated due to overexertion will
probably be thirsty and should be allowed to drink as much as he or she wants. Plain water
is the best option for the first hour or two. After this, the child might need drinks
containing sugar and electrolytes (salts) or regular food. Also, the child should rest in
a cool, shaded environment until the lost fluid has been replaced.
Kids who are dehydrated
due to vomiting or diarrhea from an illness (such as gastroenteritis) should have their
lost fluids replaced with a special drink called an oral rehydration solution (ORS). This
is available in many grocery stores and pharmacies without a prescription and is designed
for children who are dehydrated. It contains just the right combination of sugar and salts
to help the intestines absorb what the body needs.
The replacement of lost fluids is known as rehydration, which is achieved by quickly replacing
the lost fluids using an ORS over
the course of a few hours. Start the rehydration process by giving your child 1 or 2
teaspoons (5 or 10 milliliters) of an ORS every few minutes. This can be done with a spoon
or an oral syringe, or even in popsicle form. Although this may not seem like enough
fluids to rehydrate your child, these small amounts can add up to more than a cup (237
milliliters) an hour. Even kids who are vomiting can usually be successfully rehydrated in
this way because the small frequent sips get absorbed in between the vomiting episodes. In
addition, the correction of dehydration often lessens the frequency of vomiting. If the
child does well, you can gradually give bigger sips a little less often.
In nursing
infants, breastfeeding should be continued at all times, even during the initial
rehydration process. The oral rehydration solution can be given in between breastfeedings.
For kids who are normally formula-fed or who eats solids, formula and foods should be
stopped during rehydration and restarted as soon as the child is no longer showing signs
of dehydration several hours later. Changes in formula usually aren't necessary.
Other
"clear liquids" often used by parents or recommended by doctors in the past are no longer
considered appropriate for use in dehydrated kids. Drinks to avoid include: water, soda,
ginger ale, tea, fruit juice, gelatin desserts, chicken broth, or sports drinks. These
don't have the right mix of sugar and salts and can even make diarrhea worse.
Once your
child is rehydrated, you can resume a normal diet, which should include lots of complex
carbohydrates (such as rice, potatoes, and whole-grain breads and cereals), lean meats,
yogurt, fruits and vegetables, as well as the child's usual milk source (breast milk or
formula for infants and full-strength cow's milk for older kids). But be sure to avoid
fatty foods or foods high in simple sugars, such as juices and soft drinks. Resuming an
age-appropriate diet early is essential in supplying your child with necessary calories
and nutrients and can even reduce the duration of gastroenteritis.
It's also important to
note a number of old wives' tales about treating dehydration are not recommended. For
example, the practice of withholding food for more than 24 hours is inappropriate and can
be unsafe. Likewise, specific diets that have been commonly recommended in the past — such
as the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) — are unnecessarily restrictive
and do not provide the best nutrition for a child's recovering intestinal tract. Also,
over-the-counter medicines for diarrhea or vomiting are not recommended for children, as
they can have potentially dangerous side effects. Appropriate fluids — not medicines — are
the key to treatment.
A few dehydrated children do not improve when given an oral
rehydration solution, especially if they have very frequent bouts of explosive diarrhea or
frequent vomiting. Kids who can't replace losses because of vomiting, difficulty
swallowing, massive diarrhea, or other reasons, might need to receive intravenous (IV)
fluids in the hospital.
If you're treating your child for dehydration at home and feel
that there's no improvement or that the dehydration is worsening, call your doctor
immediately or take your child to the nearest emergency department.
In a study published in the March edition of the journal Current Biology, researchers
find that the brain’s learning ability seems to be recharged during light slumber. Your
brain's ability to learn may get recharged during the light, dreamless slumber that
accounts for up to half of your night's sleep, according to a new study conducted at the
University of California, Berkley. The study found that bursts of brain waves called
sleep spindles may network between important regions of the brain to clear a path to
learning.
These spindles which are fast pulses of electricity help transfer fact-based
memories from the hippocampus, brain’s memory center to the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s
hard drive. This frees up the memory center of the brain and allows it to take in fresh
data. Matthew Walker, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC
Berkeley said “these sleep spindles predict learning refinement”.
In the study researchers
used nearly 50 young adults and subjected them to demanding memorizing tasks. They then
split the group in two and allowed one group to nap and kept the other group awake. Later
in the day the entire group was subjected to more memorizing exercises. The group that
remained awake demonstrated significant challenges with memorizing the new information
compared to the group that was allowed to nap. In the end the nappers appeared to have an
improved capacity for learning.
Acai juice can help you with the quality of your sleep
including naps. The vitamin B in acai helps to regulate the dopamine and serotonin
production in your brain. These are the neurotransmitters in your brain that impact sleep
production. An excess or shortage of either of these neurotransmitters can cause you to
sleep restlessly or not at all. Supplementing your diet with a high quality acai juice
will support improved sleep and based on the study above will even impact your ability to
learn.
Mass. Health Reform Hasn't Halted Medical Bankruptcies. Researchers also say those once uninsured now have coverage that is 'skimpy' and 'defective'
-- Robert Preidt
TUESDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) -- The percentage of personal bankruptcies caused by medical
bills or personal illness has changed only slightly since Massachusetts began requiring people
to buy health insurance in 2006, a new study finds.
The finding challenges the Obama administration's claim that medical bankruptcies will decline
under the new U.S. health care law, which is largely patterned after the Massachusetts law,
according to the Harvard University researchers.
They found that the proportion of bankruptcies in Massachusetts that were medical-related
dropped from 59.3 percent to 52.9 percent between early 2007 and mid-2009. This 6.4 percent
decrease is non-significant, according to the study authors.
They also found that the actual number of medical bankruptcy filings in the state rose from
7,504 in 2007 to 10,093 in 2009.
"Health costs in the state have risen sharply since reform was enacted. Even before the
changes in health care laws, most medical bankruptcies in Massachusetts -- as in other states --
afflicted middle-class families with health insurance. High premium costs and gaps in coverage --
co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services -- often left insured families liable for
substantial out-of-pocket costs. None of that changed. For example, under Massachusetts' reform,
the least expensive individual coverage available to a 56-year-old Bostonian carries a premium of
$5,616, a deductible of $2,000, and covers only 80 percent of the next $15,000 in costs for
covered services," the researchers wrote.
"Massachusetts' health reform, like the national law modeled after it, takes many of the uninsured and makes them underinsured, typically giving them a skimpy, defective private policy that's like an umbrella that melts in the rain: the protection's not there when you need it," lead author Dr. David Himmelstein said in a Physicians for National Health Reform news release.
He was an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School when he conducted the research and is now professor of public health at City University of New York.
The study is published March 8 in the American Journal of Medicine.
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