Equipment, Examples, and Hibiscus

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Wherever I am, I observe people. Here are a few recent observations about kids, fitness, and tattoos. Tattoos? It doesn’t go where you think it might.
Kids and Exercise Equipment
As I was working out on the treadmill in the fitness room of the hotel I stayed at in Fort Worth, the door opened and a mom and her son walked in. I would say he was about seven or eight years old, and he wanted to try out the elliptical trainer. No luck—he wasn’t big enough to get any type of movement. Then he tried the . . .

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Don’t Get on the Scale

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I’m a fan of Seth Godin, one of the first Internet marketers, and his daily blog; sometimes it’s a page, sometimes only one or two sentences. His messages deal with all aspects of business and marketing, but sometimes, he uses examples from everyday life. Here’s one that’s brutal but honest:

Don't measure anything unless the data helps you make a better decision or change your actions. If you're not prepared to change your diet or your workouts, don't get on the scale.

Metrics dictate what . . .

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Special Message: Enough!

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You may have seen the news that actor and comedian Robin Williams reportedly took his own life on Monday. I was on a plane when I heard, and the guy next to me just kept saying over and over, “He was only 63!” That was my seatmate’s age and mine as well. One of the contributing factors was depression. I know it was severe depression and needed to be treated by physicians, but there’s plenty of mild to moderate depression going around.

We don’t know all the details, but I’ve had enough—enough of men, especially baby boomer men, who refuse to acknowledge they might be depressed. They certainly won’t bother to get an actual diagnosis. They walk around fatigued, tired, and unable to accomplish anything. Those are signs of depression? Yes!

I don’t want any more tragedies especially for men in my age group! I want them to become productive again and be able to have the vigor they used to have.

Many people, especially men, don’t want to address depression because they believe there’s a stigma attached. That’s why Paula talks about her battle with depression and urges me to talk about it, too: the more people open up about it, the less effective the stigma becomes.

My mother-in-law spent years living half a life. We always suspected she was depressed, but she refused to take that medication. When she moved into continuing care, she was given an antidepressant along with her other meds, and she came alive—more like the person Paula and Steve remembered from childhood. Her last few years were some of her best. If you suspect you may be depressed, don’t wait until you’re in a nursing home to treat it. I guess the other side of that coin is that it’s never too late to feel better.

Not everyone will need an antidepressant, but that’s getting ahead of the game. I don’t want any more tragedies but even more, I want men and women in my age group—baby boomers—and of all ages to really live every day they’re alive. If you have a friend or family member in trouble, speak up. I know you don’t want to meddle, and neither do I, but meddling is a whole lot better than watching people fritter their life away.

For men only: quit playing games. I always say you can’t walk off a heart attack. Well, you can’t walk off depression without some guidance. So get off it and get after it. Today!

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Never Going to Happen

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I was walking in the cereal aisle of a grocery store the other day. Actually, I walked up, then down, at different times. I can’t explain it, but I’m sure it’s a man thing. Even with a list, I wander around and around. But the way I shop is not the point—it’s the way other people shop.

The first time, a little girl in a grocery cart jumped up pointing to the Fruit Loops shouting, “There they are!” I don’t know whether she saw the television ads or normally ate them, but a three . . .

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The Bottom Line on Handshakes in Healthcare

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This week I’ve talked about physicians opinions on human contact in the healthcare setting as well as a couple of studies that establish that pathogens can be transferred from normal human contact such as handshakes in hospitals and other medical locations.

Normal human contact. That sounds much different from talking about handshakes or fist bumps, doesn’t it? Puts a different feel to it. That’s the Number One problem I see with limiting actions such as handshakes in the healthcare setting: we lose the feeling expressed through common human contact. Some people who don’t like . . .

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More Research on Hospital Handshakes

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Two studies on handshakes have made the news recently (1,2). Both indicate that avoiding handshakes and perhaps moving to something such as a fist bump might be a good idea in the healthcare setting. Let’s take a closer look.

In the first study, researchers had two healthcare workers start at the ground floor of a hospital and then proceed to the surgical suite on the 5th floor. They pushed the buttons on elevators, used door handles, etc. Then they shook hands with 20 other healthcare workers working on the surgical floor. After contact, the 20 unsuspecting workers were . . .

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Don’t Touch That!

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What if this sign greeted you the next time you walked into your doctor’s or dentist’s office:

Handshake-Free Zone: To protect your health and the health of those around you, please refrain from shaking hands while on these premises.

In my head, I’m thinking no way that will ever happen—then my dentist fist-bumped me the other day. I immediately knew what he had read, so this topic went to the top of my list of things to write about. I’ve been tracking some . . .

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How to Reverse Heart Disease

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In this final message of the week on reversing heart disease, I’m going to tell you why I think the program was successful, a couple of problems that I have with it, and the bottom line.
 
The Training
The key to this program in my opinion was education. The program began with a five-hour seminar with limited participation: no more than 12 participants. Here’s what they did in the training:

  • Explained the relationship between diet and heart disease in other cultures throughout the world.
  • Showed the damage to arteries in very young . . .

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What to Eat to Reverse Heart Disease

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We’re going to continue our look at the recently published research on the way to reverse CAD. Remember, 89% of the people recruited for this study were still following the diet more than three years later. Let’s take a look at what they ate and what they didn’t eat.

The paper describes the core diet as consisting of the following: whole grains, legumes, lentils, other vegetables, and fruit. Of course, this is a completely vegan diet. The researchers assured the subjects that they would reach their protein intake every day.

The researchers prohibited many foods as well . . .

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Reversing Heart Disease

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Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and Canada in people 65 and older. Many people who are younger have high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and arrhythmias; the side effects of treating those issues impair their lives, and they can’t do all they’d like to do because of physical limitations due to coronary artery disease (CAD). But what if there were a way, without medications, without surgeries, to reverse CAD? This was the question posed in a recently published study (1) that we’ll examine this week.

The primary author is Dr. Caldwell . . .

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