Travel Safe
January 2, 2010 by Dr. Jason Fowler
Filed under Nutrition
Here come the holidays, Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas, and New Year\’s. And the travel – Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days and the day before Christmas is just as busy.
If you are flying, you know what to expect – long lines, delays, crowded flights. But knowing what\’s to come doesn\’t necessarily provide reassurance. Traveling – particularly traveling by plane – makes many people crazy. Sitting in the terminal, waiting for your boarding call, you can see the deep lines of care, worry, and anxiety etched into peoples\’ faces.
However, whereas air travel may not be the funnest thing in the world, there are many action steps individuals and families can take to de-stress the experience. Traveling does not have to mean losing your mind and getting all wound up with tension and mental and physical strain.1,2
Here\’s a Top Eight List of things to do in the days before you fly and then during your flight – Before the flight -
Start packing early Organize your healthy snacks Organize activities for the kids Light exercises and stretches See your chiropractor During the flight – Walk around Wake up your muscles by doing gentle torso stretches while in your seat Breathe! Starting your packing early will make a huge difference in how you feel on the day of the flight. Imagine what it would be like if you did not have to dash all over your house minutes before you\’re supposed to leave for the airport, searching for that critical thing you must bring with you.
Make a list and make a plan. Promise yourself you\’re going to have everything packed, including the kids\’ backpacks, by the time you go to sleep on the night before you travel. You\’ll be amazed at how relaxed everyone is on the actual travel day, in sharp contrast to the usual mayhem and fighting.
A good supply of healthy snacks will keep everyone\’s energy level up, and minimize in-flight crankiness due to hunger and low blood sugar levels. 3 Most airlines do not even serve food anymore, and even if they did, you don\’t want it. Bring your own low-fat protein energy bars; little plastic cups filled with peanut butter; low-calorie muffins; trail mix with nuts, dried fruits, and chocolate; string cheese; low-fat crackers; and plenty of water.
Be sure to do light exercise and stretches the week of your flight. You are going to be lugging heavy baggage, and want to be ready for some awkward schlepping, dragging, and lifting.
Seeing your chiropractor before your trip will help ensure your body is in peak condition for any unexpected jars and jolts. And even when you\’re well-prepared, travel still has its stressful moments. Chiropractic treatment helps ensure that your nervous system will be flexible and adaptable, adjusting to whatever surprises are in store during your trip.
1Waterhouse J, et al: The stress of travel. J Sports Sci 22(10):946-965, 2004 2Reilly T, et al: Jet lag and air travel: implications for performance. Clin Sports Med 24(2):367-380, 2005 3Waterhouse J, et al: Factors associated with food intake in passengers on long-haul flights. Chronobiol Int 23(5):985-1007, 2006
For additional information on health please contactDr. Jason FowlerDr. Jason Fowler
Deciding On A Vegetarian Diet
January 1, 2010 by Alexis Martin
Filed under Nutrition
More and more of us are cutting meat out of our diets and turning towards a vegetarian diet meal plan. Many people are now starting to realize that vegetarians enjoy many health benefits above what meat eaters experience. As a result of this, more supermarkets are stocking a good range of vegetarian options and products and at restaurants you generally have a variety of menu choices that do not contain meat.
First and foremost, ditching meat and becoming a vegetarian brings several important health benefits. Since most vegetarian diets are much lower in saturated fats, vegetarians rarely have problems with obesity or develop type II diabetes. It is estimated that vegetarians consume around 25 percent less fat in their diets than meat eaters.
Vegetarians generally have healthier diets and the low levels of animal fats that are consumed means low levels of blood cholesterol. Over time cholesterol can build up in the arteries and stop blood from flowing and circulating effectively. This places pressure on the heart that can lead to heart disease, stroke, angina, heart attack and more.
It has been shown over and over again that a vegetarian diet can protect the body from certain types of cancer. Cutting meat out of the diet can reduce the risk of some cancers by at least 50 percent. Many fruits and vegetables are enriched with vitamins that have antioxidant powers capable of eliminating free radicals and toxins from the body. Cruciferous vegetables are especially powerful.
Eating a low fat vegetarian diet that does not include meat also helps your digestive system. Animal products tend to be very dense and are difficult for your stomach and digestive system to break down effectively. After a while your digestive system can become less effective at eliminating waste and this can potentially cause stomach, colon or intestinal cancers to form. Plant based foods are much easier for our digestive systems to deal with and eliminate effectively.
As well as being much better for your own personal health, eating vegetarian is much less damaging to the environment. Large parts of the Amazon Jungle are being decimated to make space for cattle stations and this is happening elsewhere in the world too. If you reject red meat, then you can do your bit to help prevent some forms of land degradation.
Research done into the environmental impact of meat production indicates that it is one of the most damaging industries. It is responsible for a lot of habitat loss, water and air pollution and the extinction of different species. Among meat production, beef and pork are considered to have the worst environmental impact. This is a very important reason to significantly reduce your meat consumption and move towards becoming a vegetarian.
If you follow a vegetarian diet, you will get the benefit of many health outcomes. On top of this, you can do your part to reduce damage and destruction of the global environment by cutting out meat on a high protein vegetarian diet.
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on nutrition
- Health nutrition bodybuilding dietary nutritional supplements that …
- Tips For A Great After Shot ยป Empowered Nutrition
- Calories in 85 % lean hamburger meat – Nutrition Facts and …
- Check This Out
Can Taking The Prescription Drug Warfarin Cause Me To Be Subject To Easy Bruising?
December 11, 2009 by Carolyn Cooper
Filed under Nutrition
If you were to think of bruises in a normal context, you would probably only be considering the off-colored marks that take place when you have fallen down or when you have bumped into something too roughly. Your thought process would probably change if you looked down and suddenly determined that you now had unexplained blue and purple bruises on your extremities. For people taking the prescription drug Warfarin, this sudden realization is a too common occurrence, but if you are new to using Warfarin, you would probably find this situation startling.
Warfarin is generally prescribed to people who tend toward developing thrombosis or for those people who are dealing with an existing blood clot. Taking Warfarin can help reduce the level of risk of embolism formation by reducing the size of the existing clot and then aiding in the prevention of new clots forming. Another candidate for Warfarin are people who have recently suffered a heart attack.
If you are noticing black and blue bruises on your arms and legs only since you began taking Warfarin, you will undoubtedly have questions about the bruising. Even though this bruising is likely a result of taking Warfarin, you still need to determine the reasons for them happening and what you can do to stop it.
Be aware that Warfarin is designed specifically as a blood thinner and anti-coagulant. Blood clots are prevented by this drug’s ability to reduce your body’s capability to clot the blood by inhibiting vitamin K’s function in the body; and because of the reduced clotting, minor contusions will likely bleed more profusely than they otherwise would if Warfarin were not being taken.
Consider how a bruise is actually created. A bruise forms when a blood vessel beneath the skin ruptures even though the skin itself remains intact. The blood seeps into the surrounding tissues from the rupture beneath the skin, giving bruises their dark coloration, and if multiple blood vessels are broken, the the bruise will be larger and darker.
Bruises can be very dramatic when a person is using Warfarin, because the blood is not clotting, and more blood comes closer to the surface of the skin. Consider all the times when you bark your shin, or when you bump into a countertop or a doorframe. When using Warfarin these instances can cause bruises that look like you have tumbled down the stairs.
If you are concerned about how you can prevent the bruises that occur because of Warfarin, you should first speak to your doctor. There might be additional medications that can reduce these effects of Warfarin or actual replacement drugs for Warfarin, but these alternative drugs may be considerably more expensive and less convenient. Remember that the blood thinning properties of Warfarin is the primary reason for it being prescribed.
However, this does not mean that you need to be helpless when it comes to dealing with your easy bruising either. This is where the unique, all natural formula found in the Bruises Be Banned daily program can be very beneficial. You might not always be able to be as careful as you like, but once the bruise becomes inevitable, take steps to do something about it. The Bruises Be Banned daily program can help fade existing bruises in a matter of days, but more importantly, it can help you reduce bruising easily or prevent bruising altogether before they occur.
Carolyn Cooper is known as a renowned expert on bruise treatment through a combination of her educational expertise in nutrition and her real life expertise with nutritional supplements for athletes, ranging from kids to the pro ranks. Get a free Special Report on bruising causes and see what she’s done to get us beyond the nightmares of easy bruising and prevent bruising



