Dessert with Breakfast
What could be better than a diet that includes a large breakfast followed by a dessert? That's my kind of diet.
The Aging Eye and Health
Light from the blue spectrum has been shown to have an effect on our health. Researchers have found that the aging eye filters out a large percentage of blue light and as a result older adults sleep worse and have poorer memories. Their findings could be an explaination for why shift workers have higher incidences of insomnia, cancer and heart disease. Blue spectrum light is found in LCD screens and compact flourescent lights. The cunundrum is if we have too much night time exposure to blue light we can have trouble going to sleep, but if we don't get enough during the day we can also have trouble with insomnia. Check out the linked NY Times article for more information and be sure to follow this link as well.
High Intensity Interval Training
I've read about short but intense interval training for several years now, but this article cites some very interesting studies showing its effectiveness. I was especially intrigued that these intense work outs had such a good effect on blood sugar, a problem many of my patients have.
Rotator Cuff Syndrome treated with Yoga
Loren Fishman, MD specializes in physical medicine and is a long time practitioner or yoga. He injured his rotator cuff to the extent that he couldn't lift his arm above his shoulder and while waiting for surgery thought he would do a little yoga. One of the poses he did was a head stand. Much to his surprise when he got up from the head stand he could move his arm above his head. He went to his office and had one of his colleages do some muscle testing while he did the shoulder stand. What they found out was that the subscapularis muscle (the one on the under side of the shoulder blade), the rhomboids (between the shoulder blades) the serratus anterior (on the ribs) and the pectoralis muscles (upper chest) were activated with the head stand and stayed more active immediatley after.
One thing led to another and he decided to a study. Since he knew that he couldn't have just anyone do head stands he first had to come up with a modified version that could be done safely. I've had a couple of my patients try his modified poses and the patients have experienced pain relief and increased range of motion.
Running Injuries
Who has more, forefoot strikers or heel strikers?
A study done following Harvard varsity runners has shown that heel strikers have more injuries than forefoot strikers. It was a small study, only 52 runners, but it showed that the heel strikers were twice as likely to get injured. I read this in the New York Times on 2/10/2012.
Kettleballs
Can Kettleballs help back pain?
I've never tried kettleballs, but this article from the NY Times caught my eye. It showed that done correctly execising with kettleballs can be very beneficial for back pain. Kettleball exercises include swinging which recruits core muscles if done correctly. I think these should be sold with a warning to not try this at home. If you're interested in learning to use kettleballs please get expert instruction.
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