Courtesy of:
John H. Keefe III, D.C.
(918) 663-1111
IN THE NEWS: Zero Tolerance for Zero-Calorie? It sounds enticing enough, particularly for anyone trying to lose weight: zero calorie. Over the years, artificial sweeteners have emerged as the popular choice for people who want to prevent weight gain and diabetes without sacrificing the sweet taste of their favorite desserts and beverages. In fact, these days you'll find artificial sweeteners in a wide range of food and drink products including soft drinks, gum, candy, jelly, yogurt, breakfast cereals, baked goods and many other processed foods. But is "zero calorie" all it's cracked up to be? According to new research, consuming zero-calorie artificial sweeteners may have the same impact as consuming good-old fashioned sugar. For the study, presented this month at the American Physiological Society's 2018 Experimental Biology meeting, researchers gave one group of mice sugar (glucose or fructose) and a second group zero-calorie artificial sweeteners: aspartame (sold under the brand names Equal and NutraSweet) or acesulfame potassium (sold as Sunett and Sweet One). In less than a month, the group given artificial sweeteners showed significant changes in their metabolism, particularly related to the processing of fat and energy. The researchers suggest these changes could increase the risk of obesity and diabetes in a similar fashion as that produced when consuming excess amounts of sugar. This isn't the first study to suggest artificial sweeteners may negatively impact metabolism and how the body processes fat and energy. The moral to the story: Avoid consuming too much sugar, whether it's natural or artificial! Talk to your doctor about a low-sugar, balanced, nutritious diet that helps you maintain a healthy weight and avoid the health consequences associated with obesity.
WELLNESS: Top Healthy Habits (We Tend to Ignore) For the sake of this discussion, let's assume you're exercising regularly and eating a balanced, nutritious diet – the two most common habits people think of when they hear the phrase "healthy habits." Today's lesson is on the top healthy habits you probably haven't adopted yet – and failure to do so is damaging your health and wellness in ways you can't imagine. 1. Make More Calls (Without Your Phone): Research suggests mobile-phone use not only has physical consequences ("text claw," "cell phone elbow," forward head posture, etc.), but also psychological ones, including anxiety related to receiving (or not receiving) messages, reduced face-to-face communication skills, and even a condition coined "nomophobia" (fear of being without your phone). So write a letter (yes, on paper) or card to a loved one; set up a regular get-together spot with your best friend (yes, you can use your phone to coordinate it) ... and make conscious, deliberate, empowering decisions to leave your phone at home more often (yes, you can do it). It's one of the healthiest habits you'll ever adopt. 2. Complete "The List": We all have lists, whether on paper or in our heads; lists of things we want to do, need to do or both. But how many of us actually complete our lists? Do you find your "to-do's" traveling from one list to the next, day after day, week after week, or even longer? That's a problem. Procrastination leads to pressure and guilt, neither of which benefits your health. And when it comes to longer-term goals or "resolutions," if you will, there's a reason you wrote "clean out the garage," "start reading every night" or "take a vacation this year" on a list. If every day is another "why haven't I done it yet" conversation in your head (or with your significant other), you'll quickly find yourself in an entirely unhealthy place. 4. Do a Little Prep Work: It's 9 p.m. and your day has felt like just about every day lately: rushed, overflowing with responsibilities, and with absolutely no opportunity for even a few precious moments of "you time." Common sense tells you relaxation time has finally arrived ... but wait: If you take just a few minutes to prepare for the next manic morning, you'll lighten your proverbial load and start the day in a better place. Figure out what you could do sooner, rather than later, in your life and then get it done!
CONDITION OF THE WEEK: NECK PAIN One of the most annoying problems can be nagging pain in the neck. This not only can affect your moods but it will affect your ability to relax and get a normal night’s rest. A common cause for neck pain is faulty posture like “text neck” from looking down at your phone constantly. This can also develop by an overstuffed pillow that elevates your head too much. Minor injuries can lead to misalignments that over time will lead to nagging pain. Of course whiplash is a common cause for neck pain which sometimes doesn’t show up until years after the accident. Neck pain is one of the signs of misalignments in the neck and these misalignments lead to stress on the delicate nerves of the neck. If you carry misalignments in your upper neck that can affect your eyes and sinuses, can affect the normal control to the pituitary gland which can lead to other hormonal issues, it can lead to symptoms into your shoulders and down into your arms and hands. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that develops from nerve pressure in the neck. So if you have shoulder pain, elbow discomfort, wrist pain or numbness or weakness in your hands this can be a sign of nerve pressure in the neck. Misalignments left uncorrected over time lead to degenerative joint disease which not only causes more neck pain but affects how you can turn/bend your neck.
FUNNY BONE: If I won the award for laziness, I would send somebody to pick it up for me.@@ There are a 100 billions nerves in the human body, and there are people who have the ability to irritate all of them.@@ When people ask me what is more important, food or love, I don't answer because I'm eating.@@ Some people just have a way with words, and other people … oh … not have way. Steve Martin@@ Optimist: The glass is half full. Pessimist: The glass is half empty.
Mother: Why didn’t you use a coaster!@@ I asked my daughter if she’d seen my newspaper. She told me that newspapers are old school. She said that people use tablets nowadays and handed me her iPad. The fly didn’t stand a chance.
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