Menopause, a hot topic!

Menopause

It’s just starting to get more peaceful around the house. The kids are on their way to their own lives and it’s getting quieter at home. You seem to have a little more time and maybe this “empty nest” thing isn’t so bad! But wait, there’s more that comes with this age, and it’s not always so good. What’s with these hot flashes, sleep disruptions, weight gain, and the sometimes loss of libido? Menopause.Who invented this? And those are only some of the symptoms!
All women experience menopause and it’s different for all women. Some have gentler symptoms which seem to get over quickly; others can experience difficulties which can last for years. It’s part of the aging process as our bodies change and our hormone levels shift. The only way to not experience menopause is to die early. I’ll take menopause, thank you!
While the symptoms bring on many unwelcome changes to our lives, we do not have feel enslaved by these changes. Recent research has shown some very encouraging relationships between physical exercise and the reduction of typical menopausal symptoms. The most interesting news is that the positive changes don’t seem to come from a correction of hormone levels through exercise but rather through the acute effects of exercise and the long term effects of maintaining a good exercise program. The positive effects of regular exercise could include better cardiovascular fitness, decreased anxiety and depression, and an enhanced feeling of well-being. There are also potential improvements with sleep and bone density as well as decreased feelings of fatigue and chronic muscle pain.
It’s important to remember that the goal of an exercise program is to help “manage” the symptoms. As with any exercise program, it’s important to find a program or activity that you enjoy. The support of friends or a professional can be very helpful when starting an exercise program. It’s never easy, but doing so when we are experiencing a variety of physical and psychological changes that can come with menopause can make this especially challenging. It’s key to remember that the goal is to enhance our health and sense of wellbeing as well as minimize our menopausal symptoms.
Consistent cardiovascular activity as well as strength training is always the core of a good program. It’s interesting that it’s recommended that special consideration be given to those experiencing “hot flashes”. Research is showing that those with “hot flashes” do best when their typical exercise program is integrated with a relaxation based program, like yoga, with paced respiration. Evidently, this can significantly reduce the occurrence of “hot flashes”.
As always, it’s best to regularly consult with your physician before the onset of menopausal symptoms and take their advice on what type of program will be the most beneficial for number One!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

Exercise and colds

It’s that time of year? You know, the cold/flu season. All our friends, kids, significant others and strangers are really in the sharing mood. You can’t seem to wash your hands enough. Plenty of sleep, eating right, and keeping up our vitamin levels will help with our immune system.

There was an interesting article in the American Journal of Medicine in November of 2006 entitled “Moderate-intensity exercise reduces the incidence of colds among postmenopausal women.” The study was done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.

They studied a total of 115 overweight and obese, sedentary, postmenopausal women in the Seattle area to assess the effect of a moderate-intensity, year-long exercise program on the risk of colds and other upper respiratory tract infections in postmenopausal women.

The program of the moderate-intensity exercise group consisted of 45 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 5 days per week for 12 months. Control participants attended once-weekly, 45-minute stretching sessions. Over 12 months, they found that the risk of colds decreased in the “exercisers” relative to the “stretchers”. In the final 3 months of the study, the risk of colds in stretchers was more than threefold that of exercisers.

So the conclusion was that one year of moderate exercise can be a powerful tool to protect ourselves and boost our immune systems. Don’t let the season get you on your back, get up and fight!

louAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

Dan Buettner's Blue Zone

The Blue Zone

What is the Blue Zone? There recently was an article in the Fort Myers News-Press about the work that Dan Buettner has provided to the world. He has spent years researching the healthiest “groups” of people on the planet. Let’s get clear that by “healthy” we aren’t talking about being “ripped” or “hot” or whatever, but rather a state of being in good health, having vitality and strangely enough, being happy.
Rather than finding one “secret”, there was a common sense denominator. Was it a fad diet, crazy workout or some syrupy self help cliché? The world's longevity all-stars practice simple, common-sense habits as a natural part of their daily routine. The common denominator seems to be that all the groups he discovered having the qualities of good health, vitality and happiness had customs or practices that were moderate, natural and “made sense”, at least from my point of view.

Mr. Buettner provides us with nine behaviors of those who live the longest:

1) Move naturally -- be active without thinking about it. Identify activities you enjoy and make them a part of your day.
* Inconvenience yourself: ditch the remote, the garage door opener, the leaf-blower; buy a bike, broom, rake, and snow shovel.
* Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving, for example.
* Walk! Nearly all the centenarians we've talked to take a walk every day.

2) Cut calories by 20 percent. Practice "Hara hachi bi," the Okinawan reminder to stop eating once their stomachs are 80 percent full.
* Serve yourself, put the food away, then eat.
* Use smaller plates, plates, bowls, and glasses.
* Sit and eat.

3) Plant-based diet. No, you don't need to become a vegetarian, but do bump up your intake of fruits and veggies.
* Use beans, rice or tofu as the anchor to your meals.
* Eat nuts! Have a 2-ounce handful of nuts daily (it'll stop you from digging in the chip bag).

4) Drink red wine (my favorite) (in moderation)
* Keep a bottle of red wine near your dinner table.
* Keep the daily intake to two servings or less.

5) Plan de Vida: determine your life purpose. Why do you get up in the morning?
* Write your own personal mission statement.
* Take up a new challenge�learn a language or an instrument.

6) Down shift -- take time to relieve stress. You may have to literally schedule it into your day, but relaxation is key.
* Don't rush - plan on being 15 minutes early.
* Cut out the noise - limit time spent with the television, computer, or radio on.

7) Belong / participate in a spiritual community.
* Deepen your existing spiritual commitment.
* Seek out a new spiritual or religious tradition.

8) Put loved ones first / make family a priority.
* Establish family rituals (game night, family walks, Sunday dinners).
* Show it off: create a place for family pictures and souvenirs that shows how you're all connected.
* Get closer: consider downsizing to a smaller home to promote togetherness.

9) Pick the right tribe -- the people surrounding you influence your health more than almost any other factor. Be surrounded by those who share Blue Zone values
* Identify your inner circle. Reconsider ties to people who bring you down.
* Be likable!


Um, not too complicated! Almost sounds too simple. Have we come to believe that in order for something good to work in our lives it has to be either expensive or difficult? Most importantly here, we get to take a look at “what makes us happy?” And isn’t happiness what we all want out of our lives? Have we come to accept someone else’s definition of happiness?

Mr. Buettner wrote: “ For the first time in living history, life expectancy of our children is projected to drop, as a nation we're getting fatter every year. Diabetes is on the rise. Is this because Americans are less disciplined? Have we undergone a moral degeneration or are we somehow inferior to previous generations? I don't think so. We are products of our environment. Every day, hundreds of marketing messages rinse over our psyches--many of them encouraging us to eat things that aren't good for us. Machines have engineered physical activity out of lives and networked electronics are replacing face-to-face human contact. We live in environments of sickness.”

So check it out, you can read about Mr. Buettner’s work at: www.bluezones.com. Get up and get happy, it’s all up to you!


LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

Our Surgeon General

February 8, 2010

Everett Koop, US Surgeon General under President Ronald Reagan shocked the country by stating that tobacco was bad for us. The most shocking aspect of this was the fact that the US Surgeon General actually said something!
Since then, our country has actually had Surgeon Generals who have been engaged with health realities in our country. Now we have the present Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, her own shocking statements. What are these shocking statements?
“Today’s epidemic of overweight and obesity threatens the historic progress we have made in increasing American’s quality and years of healthy life. The hard facts:
• Two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese.
• 70% of American Indian/Alaskan Native adults are overweight or obese.
• The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. more than doubled (from 15% to 34%) among adults and more than tripled (from 5% to 17%) among children and adolescents from 1980 to 2008.
• An obese teenager has over a 70% greater risk of becoming an obese adult.
• Obesity is more common among non-Hispanic black teenagers (29%) than Hispanic teenagers (17.5%) or non-Hispanic white teenagers (14.5%).
To stop the obesity epidemic in this country, we must remember that Americans will be more likely to change their behavior if they have a meaningful reward- something more than just reaching a certain weight or dress size. The real reward has to be something that people can feel and enjoy and celebrate. That reward is invigorating, energizing, joyous health. It is a level of health that allows people to embrace each day and live their lives to the fullest – without disease, disability, or lost productivity. To be a nation that is Healthy and Fit.”
Dr. Benjamin’s words are much more than a political statement. She has spoken of an aspect of our culture that being our corporate and political structures, have long ignored or buried, depending on your view. This is the role that our lifestyle habits have now become national political and economic issues.
Go Regina!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

What's a Slim Fast?

Slim Fast's Disappearing Act

I’ve seen the ads too, a healthy shake for breakfast and lunch and a sensible meal for dinner at night. A healthy shake?

The 4 main ingredients are skim milk, sugar, fructose, and cocoa. In other words, milk, sugar, and sugar. Other ingredients include various vegetable oils, emulsifiers, and a dubious vitamin blend. A 375ml (1.5 cups) shake contains 12 grams of protein -- slightly less than what you'd obtain drinking the same amount of 1% low-fat milk.

This same shake contains 38 grams of carbohydrates -- 20 grams more than if you drank the equivalent amount of 1% low-fat milk (with those additional carbs coming from the added sugar). Considering that milk contains significant amounts of vitamins A and D, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B12, Calcium, Phosphorous, Magnesium and Zinc, I'd suggest that you chuck the Slim Fast shakes (vitamin blend and all), and simply drink milk instead.

In fact, get yourself a good blender (Vita-Mix is the ultimate), throw in some low-fat milk or soy milk, add a banana or some other fruit, add an organic carrot if you want some veggies, even add some wheat germ or flax seed, blend and drink down with a good multiple vitamin. Difficult, I think not! It’ll taste better and you’ll know what you’re drinking!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers

It's good for everyone!

If you’re trying to motivate yourself to get moving in the new year, here’s some added inspiration: research shows that exercise isn’t just good for the body, it’s also good for the brain — and not just the brains of older folks. So if you’re a younger person, listen up, if you’re an older folk, listen up as best you can.
Much of the research on the effects of exercise on the mind has focused on easing dementia in older folks, but recent studies show that kids and young to middle-aged adults get huge benefits as well.
One new study, for instance, found that teenage males in the best cardiovascular shape performed better on various cognitive tests at age 18 than their less fit counterparts. Those who improved their fitness levels between the ages of 15 and 18 achieved higher test scores than those who decreased their fitness during that time.
What’s more, the fittest 18-year-olds were more likely to achieve both higher educational and socioeconomic status later in life, according to results published in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bill Gates being the big exception.
“We cannot determine from this study alone that physical fitness causes better cognitive functioning,” says study author Georg Kuhn, a professor at the Center for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “But taken together with other studies, we can assume that better cardiovascular fitness may optimize cognitive performance and academic achievements.”
Kuhn and colleagues based their conclusions on a study that followed more than 1.2 million Swedish men who were born between 1950 and 1976 and enlisted for mandatory military service at age 18. The group had more than 260,000 sibling pairs, including more than 3,000 twins, almost half of whom were identical twin pairs.
The identical twin data are particularly telling, allowing the researchers to more clearly show the effects of environmental influences such as exercise over genetic factors. “On an average, the fitter twin was also the twin that scored higher in the IQ tests,” Kuhn says.
So kick your kids off the couch! Tell them to put on their running shoes and do something that gets their blood moving!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together Fort Myers