April 2011

In This Newsletter:

Hello everyone! It is spring time and the birds are singing again. In fact even the frogs are croaking at night. For living in the desert we have had a lot of rain this past winter and spring. Some days it feels more like Seattle or Portland. But because it is the desert we are grateful for the moisture as it will go along way during those 110 degree summer days. In this newsletter you will learn 5 simple things you can do to improve the quality of each day, become aware about the dangers of antibiotics and Super-Bug infections, unravel the confusion about muscle confusion, get a peek at what’s inside the HCG diet craze, celebrate Grilled Cheese Sandwich month and get some great advice about your foot health.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, another reason to drink your favorite Dr. Tim’s juice, one ounce at a time! It really does help support good health.

5 things to improve the quality of life:

#1. Ponder, think good thoughts
#2. Move, get up and get going
#3. Do something for someone, be of service
#4. Spend time with a loved one
#5. Go Outside, get outdoors

The antibiotics your doctor is prescribing you today may not work tomorrow.

The over-prescribing of antibiotics is the cause of an alarming rise in the incidence of “Super-Bug” infections. A Super-Bug infection is a term given to infection from bacteria that have become resistant to common antibiotics. The most common reason for the resistance is from the over use and abuse of antibiotics. This happens when you go to the doctor and he or she is unable for a variety of reasons to arrive at a proper diagnosis given a set of signs and symptoms that are common to colds and viruses. What seemed harmless and even considered a good idea 2 or 3 decades ago of prescribing patients antibiotics without confirming the root cause of the illness is now exploding into these super-bug infections. It seems that the wisdom behind what most of us learned early on in our medical education about prescribing antibiotics, that is: one bug, one drug, has been lost over the years. Perhaps it could be blamed on our health care system and the costs associated with expensive lab work or the desire to not let a patient leave empty handed from their visit, or it may be because patients have been more persistent about getting something, anything for their illness or sadly even just that physicians have become ignorant to the real dangers of this practice. Regardless, the problem is here and it is growing: very good antibiotics are no longer killing the bugs! WHO, the World Health Organization has reported that we are now progressing to the point where “Super Super-Bugs” are developing resistance to our strongest antibiotics. These bugs include such diseases as tuberculosis and malaria. It is vitally important to realize and demand from your doctor that an accurate diagnosis be made and only the most appropriate and efficacious drugs be used. I have included a recent article reporting on this very real threat to our health.

WHO: Antibiotic overuse gives rise to 'super superbugs'

Tuberculosis, malaria among diseases becoming resistant to various drugs By Manuel Mogato and Esha Dey MANILA/WASHINGTON— Misuse of 
antibiotics has undermined the global fight 
against infectious diseases like tuberculosis 
and malaria and could make the drugs 
ineffective, the World Health Organization 
warned Thursday.



An estimated 440,000 new cases of 
tuberculosis resistant to several types of 
drugs were reported last year in nearly 60 
countries across the globe, according to the 
agency.



"At the same time, other age-old diseases are 
on the rise with the possibility of no cure," 
said Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director 
for Western Pacific area. Shin called on WHO's 
193 member-states to commit resources and 
adopt policies to fight the growing problem of 
drug resistance.



"Antimicrobial resistance is a global concern 
not only because it kills, but because it 
increases health costs and threatens patient 
care.

"

A gene that makes bugs highly resistant to 
almost all known antibiotics, or "super superbugs," has been found in bacteria in the 
water supplies in New Delhi. The gene, called 
NDM 1, first emerged in India three years ago 
and has spread across the world.



MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus 
aureus, is a superbug that alone is estimated 
to kill 19,000 people each year in the United 
States -- far more than HIV and AIDS.



The WHO used World Health Day on Thursday 
to launch its "Combat Drug Resistance! No 
action today, no cure tomorrow" policy.



Separately, the U.S. health regulator said it 
would expedite certain drug approval 
processes to tackle the growing problem of 
antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Confused about muscle confusion?

A term that may seem new to many and that is getting a lot of use these days is the term: muscle confusion. This term refers to the training technique that utilizes an exercise routine that is varies and prevents your muscles from becoming habituated or use to the same routine. Research has shows that doing the same exercises using the same routine allows the muscle groups to become habituated or used to the stress and thereby reduces the effectiveness of the exercise. That means the muscles or muscle groups won’t burn as many calories as they did when you first began using that particular routine or in other words: your muscles get bored. Research shows that by changing up muscle groups and the exercises used to target them prevents this from happening and allows you to burn more calories and build better muscle health.

Here are some ways to do it:

Vary Your Tempo


Using resistance training spend 3 to 4 seconds on the down movement whether you’re lowering your body or a weight. (You canuse dumbbells or a barbell.)

Reps: 10 to 15

Sets: 2 or 3

• Dumbbell shoulder press

• Pullup

• Dumbbell bench press

• Barbell row

• Dumbbell squat
• 
Barbell lunge

Get a spring break body no matter the season.

Switch Sides

Performing a workout that challenges your body, and your mind will help keep boredom at bay. Single-arm and single-leg exercises force you to concentrate on keeping one side (and your torso) stable while the other one moves. Exercises that target alternating sides “can lead to increased calorie burn, strength, and core stability.”

Reps: 6 to 10 per side

Sets: 2 or 3

• Alternating dumbbell bench press

• Alternating dumbbell row

• Single-arm cable row
• 
Single-leg dumbbell straight-leg deadlift
• 
Single-leg squat

Muscle Burn Circuit


Do as many reps of each exercise as you can in 1 minute, maintaining good form. Move to the next exercise without resting. Complete the circuit four times for a total of 28 minutes.

Bench jump straddle


Straddle a bench. Bend your knees and lower your butt until it just touches the bench. Use the momentum of your arms and explosively jump, landing both feet on the bench. Step down with your left foot, then your right. Squat slowly, tap your butt on the bench and jump up again.

Push up’s to fail

With your arms shoulder width apart place your hands on the floor and your feet stretched out behind you and do as many pushups as you can. Try to keep your back straight and go until your arms burn.

Medicine ball figure-eight


Maintain a wide squat, your feet about twice shoulder-width apart. Hold a medicine ball or basketball with both hands straight in front of you, and move the ball in a figure-eight motion, swiveling your hips back and forth. Don’t arch your back.

Straight-leg situp


Lie on your back with your legs straight and arms extended above the top of your head. Lift your torso as if you’re trying to touch your toes, keeping your legs on the ground. Lower your body back to the start position.

Bench hop


Stand next to the side of a bench, both feet together. Reach down and grab the short end of the bench. Jump over it, and as soon as your feet hit the floor, jump back to the other side. Your hands should never leave the bench.

Upgrade Your Cardio

Take something ordinary, such as a high school football stadium, and turn it into a fitness playground. Look at what you’re doing in your normal routine and apply it outdoors.

Start at the end zone and jog the length of the field to the opposite end zone. Run diagonally across the field until you reach the corner. Jog up the steps to the top of the stadium. Turn around and run down the path you just took. Run laterally down the field to the opposite end zone. Jog up the steps to the top. Turn around and run down the path you just took. Run across the opposite diagonal of the field. Continue the bow-tie pattern until you have made it to the top of all four corners of the stadium. (This routine can also be adapted for walking.)

Research shows that drinking water can increase metabolic rate x 30 % and that it will last for nearly 90 minutes, sip Dr. Tim’s ISO-5 powered by coconut water and get all this and the added benefits of water plus essential electrolytes.

HCG Diet Dangers: Is Fast Weight Loss Worth the Risk?

It's dubious. There's no good evidence it works. But hCG dieters insist they're dropping pounds, fast. By Angela Haupt, U.S. News & World Report Thousands of people are latching onto a diet that promises rapid weight loss—up to 30 pounds a month—and, judging by its recent surge in popularity, actually delivers. But the so-called hCG diet is either a weight-loss miracle or a dangerous fraud, depending on who's talking. The plan combines drops or injections of hCG, a pregnancy hormone, with just 500 calories a day. While some believers are so convinced of its power they'll willingly stick themselves with a syringe, the government and mainstream medical community say it's a scam that carries too many health risks and doesn't lead to long-term weight loss.

"It's reckless, irresponsible, and completely irrational," says Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Can you lose weight on it? Of course, but that's mainly because you're hardly consuming any calories. And any benefit is not going to last."

HCG is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat infertility in both men and women. But its weight-loss roots trace back to the 1950s, when British endocrinologist A.T.W. Simeons realized that giving obese patients small, regular doses of the hormone helped them lose stubborn clumps of fat. It only worked, however, when coupled with a near-starvation diet. Simeons began touting hCG as a potent appetite suppressant that would make anything more than 500 daily calories unbearable. And he claimed the hormone could blast fat in key trouble spots like the upper arms, stomach, thighs, and buttocks, while preserving muscle. Save for a few tweaks, the modern-day incarnation is largely as Simeons presented it: Dieters supplement an extremely low-calorie meal plan with daily injections prescribed off-label by medical professionals, or take diluted, homeopathic hCG— typically in drop form—sold online, in drugstores, and at nutritional supplement stores.

Exactly why the hCG diet is experiencing a revival now is unclear, but the hype has sparked a response from the FDA. In January, the agency warned that homeopathic hCG is fraudulent and illegal when sold for weight-loss purposes. Though the FDA said such products aren't necessarily dangerous, their sale is deceptive, since there's no good evidence they're effective for weight loss. What's more, all hCG products, including injections prescribed by a doctor, must carry a warning stating there's no proof they accelerate weight loss, redistribute fat, or numb the hunger and discomfort typical of a low-calorie diet.

Nonetheless, doctors are still doling out prescriptions for the daily injections, typically inserted into the thigh. At New Beginnings Weight Loss Clinic in Florida, for example, an in-house physician has prescribed injections to 3,000 clients since 2008, and clinical director Jo Lynn Hansen has recently observed a marked jump in interest. There, clients can opt for either a 23-day plan ($495) or a 40-day regimen ($595). After taking a six week break and eating normally—to prevent the body from becoming "hCG-immune"—many resume the process, completing multiple cycles. "We have people flying in from all over the country," Hansen says. "It's just a tiny little needle that pricks the skin. Anyone can do it."

Though hCG dieters have some leeway in how they spend their 500 daily calories, they're urged to choose organic meats, vegetables, and fish. Dairy, carbs, alcohol, and sugar are all off limits. A day's meals might consist of coffee and an orange for breakfast; a little tilapia and raw asparagus for lunch; a piece of fruit in the afternoon; and crab, spinach, Melba toast, and tea for dinner. If dieters slip up, they're encouraged to compensate by drinking only water and eating nothing but six apples for 24 hours. That's thought to help squeeze out water weight, a psychological boost to help them get back on track.

"It wasn't that hard to pull off, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat," raved London-based fashion stylist Alison Edmond in February's Marie Claire. "In the end, I lost a total of 25 pounds, ending up at a weight I hadn't been in 10 years." Despite success stories like hers, scientific evidence on the plan is shaky at best. In 1995, researchers analyzed 14 clinical trials on the hCG diet. Only two concluded hCG was any more effective than a placebo at helping people lose weight. And nearly 10 years earlier, a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal stated hCG has "no value" as a means of managing obesity, and that the diet has been "thoroughly discredited and thus rejected by the majority of the medical community."

Detractors say the hormone isn't some miracle ingredient to weight loss—the restrictive diet is. "If you don't eat, you lose weight," Cohen says. "If hCG truly diminished hunger, it would be a wonderful drug. But if that were the case, why couldn't you just modestly reduce your intake while using it? Why would you have to simultaneously starve yourself?" But believers insist that, thanks to hCG, they can stick to a low-calorie diet without hunger pangs, while losing unwanted fat. They're adamant that hCG is essential to the diet's success. "People are strongly convinced that this hormone will keep them on a 500-calorie diet. And the power of suggestion can be a very strong force," says Cohen.

Of course, the regimen isn't without risks. The hormone is known to cause headaches, blood clots, leg cramps, temporary hair thinning, constipation, and breast tenderness. The FDA has received at least one recent report of an HCG dieter developing a pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal blood clot in the lung, says agency spokesperson Shelly Burgess. Yet, the hormone's full risk profile is unknown. "HCG was studied briefly [for weight loss] and found to be ineffective, so we have no idea what its potential risks are," Cohen says. "Do I have data that it causes heart attacks, stroke, or cancer? No, I don't, because we just don't know at this point." While hCG may be safe on its own—the FDA says it's safe as an infertility treatment—pairing it with an extremely low-calorie diet could have unexpected side effects.

Two years ago, Lori Hill, 40, of Salt Lake City, Utah, began a 28-day hCG diet cycle. She says she lost about 26 pounds, including thigh fat, largely without hunger. But she felt ill almost immediately, and by the last week of the diet, Hill—a fit and active soccer referee—couldn't climb a flight of stairs without gasping for breath. The effort made her muscles burn and shake, too. After completing the cycle, Hill regained all the weight she had lost, plus an additional 15 pounds. "I starved myself and threw all my nutrients out of whack," she says. "You're tricking your body into letting you starve, without feeling any major hunger. What you're doing to your body just isn't worth it."

There's no question that 500 calories a day is tantamount to malnutrition—dieters should never dip below 1,200, say experts—and federal dietary guidelines recommend more than three times the amount of calories the diet prescribes for women ages 19 to 30. Moreover, extremely low-calorie diets can cause severe bone and muscle loss, electrolyte imbalances, gallstones, and even death. "I've heard a lot of people say the side effects of this diet are overwhelming," says registered dietitian Keri Gans, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "And they could start as soon as one day in—you'll start feeling irritated and tired."

To Gans, the regimen is nothing more than a crash diet—and an expensive one at that. A more sensible route to weight loss, she says, is no more mysterious than choosing healthy foods, limiting portion sizes, and exercising. "This is another approach for people who believe there's a silver bullet, but there is no such thing. All this diet does is show you how to restrict, and a person can only do that for so long without returning to old habits."

Foot health answers: What is a bunion?

The word bunion comes from around the 18th century. Bunion is probably a modification of the East Anglian dialect word bunny ‘lump, or swelling’, representing a 15th-century form bony, glossed in a contemporary English-Latin dictionary as ‘great knob’. This was apparently borrowed from Old French hugne ‘bump on the head’. Some mistakenly believe that it comes from the French word for onion, but this is simply not true.

A bunion is the bony prominence on the inside of the base of the great toe. This boney prominence or “great knob” can become exaggerated in size due to mechanical forces on the foot creating the deformity. Often this boney deformity will become red, swollen and very painful due mostly to the irritation caused by wearing shoes.

Treatment can be as simple as changing shoes to as involved as undergoing surgical repair. Should you find yourself battling with this kind of malady you should consult with a Podiatrist.