A lot of people send me e-mails asking about the importance of weighing regularly as part of a fitness program. They often ask “As long as I’m fit, isn’t it OK to be overweight?” Here is my typical answer:
Weight does matter, so don't completely ignore it. It does seem true that one can be "Fit and Fat" as Dr. Steven Blair has said many times in his research articles on fitness.
If you’re overweight and trying to lose weight my advice has always been to focus first on the basics of a healthy lifestyle - healthy eating with an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, healthy fats from olive oil, canola oil, and fish, and combine this with a regular exercise program. If you do these things really well, I believe that your weight will find its way to exactly where it should be. Remember, a big part of healthy eating is to avoid consuming excess calories.
Good health is a multifaceted phenomenon – and everything matters. Luckily, the formula for success is pretty simple, at least in concept – eat right, exercise, maintain a healthy weight, don’t smoke, don’t drink excessively, and manage stress as best as you can.
These days we have a lot of good evidence that chronic stress is an important area to pay attention to as part of an overall fitness program. Chronic stress has a negative impact on our physiology and increases the risk for chronic disease.
We talked about Transcendental Meditation for stress relief in podcast 071. There appears to be good medical evidence that a regular meditation practice can help to lower blood pressure and even improve insulin resistance.
If you need to lose weight then it is a good idea to step on the scale at least once a week to monitor your progress, and to catch any slips in the wrong direction. But don't focus only on your weight. Yes, an optimal weight with a BMI under 25 has consistently been associated with reduced risks of chronic disease. But, fitness is about more than just weight.
Monte
www.fitnessrocks.org
Monday, November 12, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Blog 018 - a wake up call
I came across an article in the associated press today about how so many young people are taking medication to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. There has been a 68% increase in the number of people between the ages 0f 20 - 44 taking drugs to lower their cholesterol over the past 6 years.
Astonishing.
I made a video blog in which I discuss the article. Send me your comments.
Monte
www.fitnessrocks.org
Astonishing.
I made a video blog in which I discuss the article. Send me your comments.
Monte
www.fitnessrocks.org
Monday, October 22, 2007
Blog 017 - thinking
The first really chilly fall weather blew through our coastal New England town a few days ago. It was a good chill, the kind that makes me feel giddy and full of energy. I had an irresistible urge to pull on a sweater and go for a walk outside, and maybe afterwards have a cup of coffee and a conversation at the kitchen table.
I followed Old Dock Road to the harbor where a few boats are still waiting for one last chance to go out into the bay before being pulled out of the water for dry storage until next summer. Ducks were paddling around in the water and seagulls were waddling around on the boat ramp. It isn’t much of a ramp, just a narrow concrete driveway that slopes down into the water. On either side of the boat ramp there is wet, squishy sand where trailers get stuck if their wheels veer off the side.
Scallops were dangerously exposed on the muddy banks of the harbor because of the low tide. Seagulls love scallops.
I’ve seen the occasional seagull eat a scallop before, but this evening there were lots of seagulls eating scallops – it was a feast in progress.
Before a seagull can eat a scallop it has to open the shell, and that is what makes watching the whole thing so fascinating. It would seem that the only way a seagull could eat a scallop is if it happened to come across one that had already been opened by another animal with nimble fingers and maybe a pocketknife. But they don’t need any help at all. They have figured out a way to open the scallops all by themselves.
The birds have recognized the difference between the hardness of the concrete boat ramp and the squishy sand on either side of it. The first time I saw a seagull drop a scallop on the boat ramp I thought it was just a quirky chance event. After all, it’s just a dumb seagull, how could it know that a boat ramp would be a better place to drop a scallop than the squishy sand?
But, this evening the seagulls were dropping scallops on the boat ramp over and over until finally the shells popped open and the birds could get at the prize inside. They never dropped a scallop on the squishy sand.
The seagulls have figured out how to use the concrete to their advantage. A real biologist would probably have a different explanation for this behavior, but to me it is clear that they are thinking at a level that is higher than what I had given them credit for being able to do.
Seagulls were flying in over the water clutching a scallop in their beaks. As they approached the boat ramp they would swoop up high and circle around making sure there were no other birds nearby that could steal their cargo and then with laser guided precision they would drop the scallop on the concrete and chase it down to the ground to see if it had cracked. They repeated this process as long as it took.
Amazing.
We humans live in our artificial world and scarcely even acknowledge the millions of other creatures with whom we are sharing this planet and this life. It is to their detriment that we behave so arrogantly, and to ours as well.
If a seagull can figure out how to open a scallop what else might it be thinking about? Do seagulls feel giddy and full of energy on brisk fall days, like me? Because we can’t speak to them we assume they have nothing to say, and no stake in the future of this planet.
Turn off the television that is streaming nonstop garbage into your brain and go outside for a walk. If you look around you will almost certainly be amazed at what you see.
It’ll make you think.
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
I followed Old Dock Road to the harbor where a few boats are still waiting for one last chance to go out into the bay before being pulled out of the water for dry storage until next summer. Ducks were paddling around in the water and seagulls were waddling around on the boat ramp. It isn’t much of a ramp, just a narrow concrete driveway that slopes down into the water. On either side of the boat ramp there is wet, squishy sand where trailers get stuck if their wheels veer off the side.
Scallops were dangerously exposed on the muddy banks of the harbor because of the low tide. Seagulls love scallops.
I’ve seen the occasional seagull eat a scallop before, but this evening there were lots of seagulls eating scallops – it was a feast in progress.
Before a seagull can eat a scallop it has to open the shell, and that is what makes watching the whole thing so fascinating. It would seem that the only way a seagull could eat a scallop is if it happened to come across one that had already been opened by another animal with nimble fingers and maybe a pocketknife. But they don’t need any help at all. They have figured out a way to open the scallops all by themselves.
The birds have recognized the difference between the hardness of the concrete boat ramp and the squishy sand on either side of it. The first time I saw a seagull drop a scallop on the boat ramp I thought it was just a quirky chance event. After all, it’s just a dumb seagull, how could it know that a boat ramp would be a better place to drop a scallop than the squishy sand?
But, this evening the seagulls were dropping scallops on the boat ramp over and over until finally the shells popped open and the birds could get at the prize inside. They never dropped a scallop on the squishy sand.
The seagulls have figured out how to use the concrete to their advantage. A real biologist would probably have a different explanation for this behavior, but to me it is clear that they are thinking at a level that is higher than what I had given them credit for being able to do.
Seagulls were flying in over the water clutching a scallop in their beaks. As they approached the boat ramp they would swoop up high and circle around making sure there were no other birds nearby that could steal their cargo and then with laser guided precision they would drop the scallop on the concrete and chase it down to the ground to see if it had cracked. They repeated this process as long as it took.
Amazing.
We humans live in our artificial world and scarcely even acknowledge the millions of other creatures with whom we are sharing this planet and this life. It is to their detriment that we behave so arrogantly, and to ours as well.
If a seagull can figure out how to open a scallop what else might it be thinking about? Do seagulls feel giddy and full of energy on brisk fall days, like me? Because we can’t speak to them we assume they have nothing to say, and no stake in the future of this planet.
Turn off the television that is streaming nonstop garbage into your brain and go outside for a walk. If you look around you will almost certainly be amazed at what you see.
It’ll make you think.
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Blog 016 - an inflammatory response
In medical school a professor once told me that I would forget half of what I was being taught, and the other half would ultimately be discovered to be untrue. It was a bleak and discouraging perspective. Hopefully, it was an exaggeration.
But, since I started medical school in 1981 there have been some big changes in the way we think about a lot of important issues. One of these is heart disease.
Back in the day, we believed that coronary heart disease was a consequence of eating too much cholesterol with all of the excess cholesterol being deposited onto or into the inner lining of the arteries to our heart. The metaphor often used to describe the process was “corrosion accumulating inside a pipe.” It was an overly simplistic point-of-view that led to the “obvious” mechanical solution of coronary artery bypass surgery – “putting in new plumbing” as a heart surgeon once joked to me and my peers while on rounds one day.
Coronary artery bypass surgery has extended the lives of many patients, but bypassing the clogged blood vessels does absolutely nothing to change the underlying disease process that got the patient into trouble in the first place.
We used to think that a heart attack was a consequence of a coronary artery getting progressively more narrow because of cholesterol accumulating in the artery wall until it was finally swollen shut, thereby obstructing blood flow to the heart muscle. Now we think that a non-obstructing plaque inside the lining of a coronary artery breaks open and causes a blood clot to form inside the coronary artery, thus acutely obstructing blood flow and causing a heart attack.
We are beginning to recognize that our fundamental understanding of what causes coronary artery disease was not exactly right. It is more complicated than corroding pipes and globs of fat accumulating inside blood vessels. Now we are talking about “oxidative stress” and “chronic systemic inflammation” as the underlying causes of heart disease.
The phenomenon of oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation are consequences of our modern, unhealthy lifestyle. And, these phenomena cause more than just heart disease. It’s beginning to look like oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation play a role in most of the chronic diseases that afflict us today.
Here’s the good news – oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation can be largely prevented or reversed with a healthy lifestyle.
I’m not even going to pretend that I understand the nuances of oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation. The more I read about them, the more confused I become. But, I am fascinated by the cellular biology involved. Over the next few weeks on the Fitness Rocks Podcast I will be sharing my efforts to understand these complex processes that are at the origin of so much sickness.
While you’re waiting for me to get a handle on this stuff you should be eating your fruits and vegetables and exercising every day. And, if you smoke – quit.
Have a great workout.
Monte Ladner, M.D.
www.fitnessrocks.org
But, since I started medical school in 1981 there have been some big changes in the way we think about a lot of important issues. One of these is heart disease.
Back in the day, we believed that coronary heart disease was a consequence of eating too much cholesterol with all of the excess cholesterol being deposited onto or into the inner lining of the arteries to our heart. The metaphor often used to describe the process was “corrosion accumulating inside a pipe.” It was an overly simplistic point-of-view that led to the “obvious” mechanical solution of coronary artery bypass surgery – “putting in new plumbing” as a heart surgeon once joked to me and my peers while on rounds one day.
Coronary artery bypass surgery has extended the lives of many patients, but bypassing the clogged blood vessels does absolutely nothing to change the underlying disease process that got the patient into trouble in the first place.
We used to think that a heart attack was a consequence of a coronary artery getting progressively more narrow because of cholesterol accumulating in the artery wall until it was finally swollen shut, thereby obstructing blood flow to the heart muscle. Now we think that a non-obstructing plaque inside the lining of a coronary artery breaks open and causes a blood clot to form inside the coronary artery, thus acutely obstructing blood flow and causing a heart attack.
We are beginning to recognize that our fundamental understanding of what causes coronary artery disease was not exactly right. It is more complicated than corroding pipes and globs of fat accumulating inside blood vessels. Now we are talking about “oxidative stress” and “chronic systemic inflammation” as the underlying causes of heart disease.
The phenomenon of oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation are consequences of our modern, unhealthy lifestyle. And, these phenomena cause more than just heart disease. It’s beginning to look like oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation play a role in most of the chronic diseases that afflict us today.
Here’s the good news – oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation can be largely prevented or reversed with a healthy lifestyle.
I’m not even going to pretend that I understand the nuances of oxidative stress and chronic systemic inflammation. The more I read about them, the more confused I become. But, I am fascinated by the cellular biology involved. Over the next few weeks on the Fitness Rocks Podcast I will be sharing my efforts to understand these complex processes that are at the origin of so much sickness.
While you’re waiting for me to get a handle on this stuff you should be eating your fruits and vegetables and exercising every day. And, if you smoke – quit.
Have a great workout.
Monte Ladner, M.D.
www.fitnessrocks.org
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Blog 015 - sunsets
Over twenty-five years ago I was sitting in a lecture in medical school listening to a professor talking about something. I don't remember what the subject was. But, I’ll never forget that in the middle of the lecture he put up a slide of a fragile, yellow flower poking up from a city street. The brightly colored little flower was in stark contrast to its barren concrete surroundings.
The professor asked us to look at the picture and consider that there is beauty all around us in the world, even if sometimes we have to try hard to find it. He pointed to the flower and said "See, here through a crack in the asphalt in this urban jungle, a tiny flower struggles to press its face against the sun - beautiful!"
He was right. It's easy to forget these days that we live in such a wonderful world - there is so much ugliness and despair that one can become overwhelmed. Seeing the good things sometimes takes an effort.
I live 3 minutes from the ocean by bicycle. You might think that means I'm at the beach every day, but I'm not. I often find that I just “can't find the time.” This translates to “I don't always make the effort.”
When I’m feeling gloomy I find the time for a bike ride to the beach. I sit on the sand and listen to the sound of the waves; I watch the sea birds swooping and soaring over the water, and I marvel at how the setting sun paints the sky in brilliant red and orange hues.
It doesn’t make the troubles in my life or the world go away, but the experience helps to restore me. It gives me the strength and the will to go on trying. It reminds me of the eureka moment I had when a professor showed a picture of a simple yellow flower stretching its petals so hopefully toward the sky.
This weekend I thought I’d share my bike ride to the beach with you by capturing some of it with my video camera. I've posted a compressed file on this blog and at youtube. It’s also on the video page of the Fitness Rocks website. I'll be sending it out as a podcast later this week. Some of the detail was lost in compressing the file to upload it, but I think it’s still pretty. I call it "Sunsets." Send it to a friend who’s feeling down.
I hope it brightens your day.
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
The professor asked us to look at the picture and consider that there is beauty all around us in the world, even if sometimes we have to try hard to find it. He pointed to the flower and said "See, here through a crack in the asphalt in this urban jungle, a tiny flower struggles to press its face against the sun - beautiful!"
He was right. It's easy to forget these days that we live in such a wonderful world - there is so much ugliness and despair that one can become overwhelmed. Seeing the good things sometimes takes an effort.
I live 3 minutes from the ocean by bicycle. You might think that means I'm at the beach every day, but I'm not. I often find that I just “can't find the time.” This translates to “I don't always make the effort.”
When I’m feeling gloomy I find the time for a bike ride to the beach. I sit on the sand and listen to the sound of the waves; I watch the sea birds swooping and soaring over the water, and I marvel at how the setting sun paints the sky in brilliant red and orange hues.
It doesn’t make the troubles in my life or the world go away, but the experience helps to restore me. It gives me the strength and the will to go on trying. It reminds me of the eureka moment I had when a professor showed a picture of a simple yellow flower stretching its petals so hopefully toward the sky.
This weekend I thought I’d share my bike ride to the beach with you by capturing some of it with my video camera. I've posted a compressed file on this blog and at youtube. It’s also on the video page of the Fitness Rocks website. I'll be sending it out as a podcast later this week. Some of the detail was lost in compressing the file to upload it, but I think it’s still pretty. I call it "Sunsets." Send it to a friend who’s feeling down.
I hope it brightens your day.
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Blog 014 - what's your HEART score?
On Saturday September 22, 2007 on Fitness Rocks Podcast 064 I will have an interview with medical researcher Dr. Arch Mainous from the Medical University of South Carolina. We will be discussing his work in developing the HEART score which is a simple scoring system designed to assess ten year risk of coronary heart disease based on self-reported data. I have reproduced the HEART score for men and women in this blog post so you can get your own score. This is not intended as medical diagnosis, advice, or treatment. Regardless of the results you get with this test, you should discuss them with your personal doctor.
HEART Score for women:
RISK FACTOR - POINTS
Age (years)
45 - 49 - 0
50 - 54 - 2
55 - 59 - 2
60 - 64 - 2
History of Hypertension - 2
History of High Cholesterol - 2
History of Diabetes - 4
Smoking Status
Never - 0
Former - 0
Current - 3
Body Mass Index
<30 - 0
>30 - 1
Estimated 10-year risk - Total Points
<10% - 0 - 6
10 - 20% - 7 - 9
>20% - 10 - 14
HEART Score for men:
RISK FACTOR - POINTS
Age (years)
45 - 49 - 0
50 - 54 - 0
55 - 59 - 2
60 - 64 - 2
Family History of Heart Disease - 2
History of Hypertension - 1
History of High Cholesterol - 2
History of Diabetes - 2
Smoking Status:
Never - 0
Former - 0
Current - 2
Physical Activity:
Often or very often - 0
Sometimes - 0
Seldom or never - 1
Estimated 10-year risk Total Points
<10% - 0 - 2
10 - 20% - 3 - 5
>20% - 6 - 12
MAKE SURE YOU DO THE HEART SCORE THAT IS CORRECT FOR YOUR GENDER.
Do not draw any conclusions about your individual risk of having a heart attack or developing heart disease from this score without first discussing the results with your personal doctor. I encourage you to print out this blog and take it to your next doctor's visit. Check out Fitness Rocks Podcast 064, Saturday, September 22, 2007 to listen to an interview with Dr. Mainous, the medical researcher who developed the HEART score.
An abstract of Dr. Mainous' article can be found by clicking this link to the American Jounal of Cardiology.
Monte Ladner, M.D.
www.fitnessrocks.org
HEART Score for women:
RISK FACTOR - POINTS
Age (years)
45 - 49 - 0
50 - 54 - 2
55 - 59 - 2
60 - 64 - 2
History of Hypertension - 2
History of High Cholesterol - 2
History of Diabetes - 4
Smoking Status
Never - 0
Former - 0
Current - 3
Body Mass Index
<30 - 0
>30 - 1
Estimated 10-year risk - Total Points
<10% - 0 - 6
10 - 20% - 7 - 9
>20% - 10 - 14
HEART Score for men:
RISK FACTOR - POINTS
Age (years)
45 - 49 - 0
50 - 54 - 0
55 - 59 - 2
60 - 64 - 2
Family History of Heart Disease - 2
History of Hypertension - 1
History of High Cholesterol - 2
History of Diabetes - 2
Smoking Status:
Never - 0
Former - 0
Current - 2
Physical Activity:
Often or very often - 0
Sometimes - 0
Seldom or never - 1
Estimated 10-year risk Total Points
<10% - 0 - 2
10 - 20% - 3 - 5
>20% - 6 - 12
MAKE SURE YOU DO THE HEART SCORE THAT IS CORRECT FOR YOUR GENDER.
Do not draw any conclusions about your individual risk of having a heart attack or developing heart disease from this score without first discussing the results with your personal doctor. I encourage you to print out this blog and take it to your next doctor's visit. Check out Fitness Rocks Podcast 064, Saturday, September 22, 2007 to listen to an interview with Dr. Mainous, the medical researcher who developed the HEART score.
An abstract of Dr. Mainous' article can be found by clicking this link to the American Jounal of Cardiology.
Monte Ladner, M.D.
www.fitnessrocks.org
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Blog 013 - the deadly burger
In 2007 the number of Americans who are obese kept going up, according to the Trust for America’s Health. I’m not surprised.
My oldest son graduated from college last May with a degree in Math – 3.87 GPA in the Dean’s Scholar Program at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s a really smart kid, and I’m very proud of that.
I bring up my son in this discussion of obesity because his next stop in life is culinary school at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He is not, by the way, overweight. My enthusiasm for fitness has been embraced by all of my kids. I’m very proud of that, too.
He spent this summer living at home with us and working as a chef at a local restaurant in our hometown on Cape Cod. He works a shift from around 2:00 PM until close to midnight five days a week. He is home during the day and he watches cooking shows on television. I normally never turn the television on, so this is a new thing for me to have this background noise. I don’t like it.
Yesterday, I was walking through the living room and stopped briefly to see what he was watching. A woman who I recognized as one of the more popular cooking stars was preparing something she called “Butter Burgers.” I felt compelled to watch.
Two beef patties with a huge dollop of butter mixed with herbs smeared between them, wrapped in bacon and then slathered in mayonnaise. The television audience was wild with enthusiasm for this lethal burger.
Every year Americans get fatter. Being obese is associated with significantly higher risks for all chronic diseases, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The Trust for America’s Health claims that in a public opinion survey 85% of Americans stated that they believed we do, in fact, have an epidemic of obesity. So, there is a real public health problem, and people apparently know about it.
But, you can still become rich and famous in America teaching people how to make Butter Burgers. What am I missing?
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
My oldest son graduated from college last May with a degree in Math – 3.87 GPA in the Dean’s Scholar Program at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s a really smart kid, and I’m very proud of that.
I bring up my son in this discussion of obesity because his next stop in life is culinary school at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He is not, by the way, overweight. My enthusiasm for fitness has been embraced by all of my kids. I’m very proud of that, too.
He spent this summer living at home with us and working as a chef at a local restaurant in our hometown on Cape Cod. He works a shift from around 2:00 PM until close to midnight five days a week. He is home during the day and he watches cooking shows on television. I normally never turn the television on, so this is a new thing for me to have this background noise. I don’t like it.
Yesterday, I was walking through the living room and stopped briefly to see what he was watching. A woman who I recognized as one of the more popular cooking stars was preparing something she called “Butter Burgers.” I felt compelled to watch.
Two beef patties with a huge dollop of butter mixed with herbs smeared between them, wrapped in bacon and then slathered in mayonnaise. The television audience was wild with enthusiasm for this lethal burger.
Every year Americans get fatter. Being obese is associated with significantly higher risks for all chronic diseases, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The Trust for America’s Health claims that in a public opinion survey 85% of Americans stated that they believed we do, in fact, have an epidemic of obesity. So, there is a real public health problem, and people apparently know about it.
But, you can still become rich and famous in America teaching people how to make Butter Burgers. What am I missing?
Monte Ladner
www.fitnessrocks.org
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