You probably know that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” but did you know that “A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories”? As a chiropractor who believes that a healthy lifestyle includes a healthy weight, I believe that the latter equation is just as important as the former when it comes to your health. So does First Lady, Michelle Obama. In announcing a national plan to counter childhood obesity, she indicated that weight loss doesn’t have include an unnatural “minus” intake of food, but slight lifestyle changes, such as replacing soda pop with water or walking to school, are “small changes that add up.” The formula seems simple enough: reducing calorie intake by just 100 calories a day, or burning up that amount, would equal losing a pound every 35 days, or as much as 10 pounds or more a year. And, though individual losses might vary and educating children (and their parents) about nutrition is still very necessary, in my opinion making “small changes” is a healthy place to start for many kids.

Unfortunately, there are those who find such equations “misleading,” like the health blog at NYTimes.com . In it Tara Parker-Pope states that “numerous scientific studies show that small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight. When we skip a cookie or exercise a little more, the body’s biological and behavioral adaptations kick in, significantly reducing the caloric benefits of our effort.”

The question the article poses is “Can small changes in diet and exercise at least keep children from gaining weight?”  And it goes on to say that “While some obesity experts think so, mathematical models suggest otherwise.”

To read the blog in its entirety, click the link above. Then you can reach your own conclusions.

Posted via email from healthandfitnessnews’s posterous

You probably know that “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” but did you know that “A pound of fat equals 3,500 calories”? As a chiropractor who believes that a healthy lifestyle includes a healthy weight, I believe that the latter equation is just as important as the former when it comes to your health. So does First Lady, Michelle Obama. In announcing a national plan to counter childhood obesity, she indicated that weight loss doesn’t have include an unnatural “minus” intake of food, but slight lifestyle changes, such as replacing soda pop with water or walking to school, are “small changes that add up.” The formula seems simple enough: reducing calorie intake by just 100 calories a day, or burning up that amount, would equal losing a pound every 35 days, or as much as 10 pounds or more a year. And, though individual losses might vary and educating children (and their parents) about nutrition is still very necessary, in my opinion making “small changes” is a healthy place to start for many kids.

Unfortunately, there are those who find such equations “misleading,” like the health blog at NYTimes.com . In it Tara Parker-Pope states that “numerous scientific studies show that small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight. When we skip a cookie or exercise a little more, the body’s biological and behavioral adaptations kick in, significantly reducing the caloric benefits of our effort.”

The question the article poses is “Can small changes in diet and exercise at least keep children from gaining weight?”  And it goes on to say that “While some obesity experts think so, mathematical models suggest otherwise.”

To read the blog in its entirety, click the link above. Then you can reach your own conclusions.

Posted via email from healthandfitnessnews’s posterous

Let's face it, if you like beer, you're going to look for a good reason to drink it, whether it's a tailgate party, as a pizza accompaniment, or to help built strong and healthy bones. Say what? Up until I heard the recent news reports and read an article that appeared recently on the HealthDay News blog, I wouldn't have listed that last reason on the "pro" side of any health list I was making. But according to a new study published in Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture beer, or at least some beer high in barley and hops contain dietary silicon,contributes to bone mineral density. I'm a chiropractor, so naturally anything that helps to build bone density is good in my book. And, though there are foods, such as bananas, that also contain dietary silicon, if you like beer, this study is good news!

Beer for the Bones?

(HealthDay News) — Beer may help keep bones strong because it's a rich source of dietary silicon, which contributes to bone mineral density, a new study reports.

But the amount of silicon apparently varies by the type of beer.

"The factors in brewing that influence silicon levels in beer have not been extensively studied," study author Charles Bamforth, a professor in the food science and technology department at the University of California, Davis, said in a news release from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. The study is published in the journal's February issue.

"We have examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer," Bamforth said. Wort is liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer.

The researchers tested 100 commercial beers and found that their silicon content ranged from 6.4 to 56.5 milligrams per liter.

"Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon," Bamforth said. "Wheat contains less silicon than barley because it is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most of the silicon remains in the husk during brewing, significant quantities of silicon nonetheless are extracted into wort, and much of this survives into beer."

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about bone health.

SOURCE: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, news release, Feb. 7, 2010

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For many pregnant women, back pain seems to be unavoidable, especially the "more pregnant" a woman becomes! Chiropractic adjustments are safe and highly beneficial in relieving back pain due to pregnancy, and they are also helpful in relieving other pregnancy "complaints" such as heartburn, nausea, and swelling. "As a woman and a chiropractor, I understand the many subtle, and not so subtle, changes that a woman's body experiences during pregnancy," said Melody Shubert, D.C., of Shubert Natural Health and Chiropractic in Wichita, Kansas.  And, if needed, a well-trained chiropractor can also help with a breached baby. This is done by using the Webster Technique, a low force technique to manipulate the uterus and get the baby into the proper position for delivery. (A simple Google search on the Webster Technique can give you much more information.) For more helpful information on how chiropractic adjustments can help, Wichita Chiropractor.

Osteopathic manipulation is another alternative for back pain relief due to pregnancy. "Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is a viable option for improving function related to the low back and reducing back pain in the third trimester of pregnancy because its does not appear to have any negative side effects," said John C. Licciardone, D.O., M.S., M.B.A., the lead author of a study on OMT in the third trimester of pregnancy that was recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Results from this study showed that osteopathic manipulative treatment slows or halts the deterioration of back-specific function in the third trimester of pregnancy. To read more about this study, click here.

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80 Ways To Use Twitter As A SMB Owner

 

It’s pretty common. A small business owner comes to us looking for help promoting his or her business. We suggest using Twitter as a way to find new leads, build relationships and as an overall way to cost effectively market their business. The small business owner then turns around, tilts their head and responds, “Twitter? What can Twitter do for me?”

Well, I’ll tell you. Below are 80 ways a small business owner can use Twitter to build and market their business.

Just like last time, hit print.

Build Credibility

1. Answer common customer questions
2. Share insight and opinion
3. Pass on interesting links/posts
4. Tweet links showing your company featured on other Web sites or mainstream media
5. Tweet often to keep your brand in customer’s top of mind
6. Share high quality content that is relevant to your customers needs
7. Share information about your organization that customers, colleagues and others may be interested to know
8. Promote competitors when they deserve it
9. Tweet links to Slideshare presentations or videos of speaking engagements.
10. Promote upcoming speaking engagements
11. Mention awards you’ve won or accreditations you’ve earned
12. Be the one to break the news in your industry
13. Livetweet events

Market Your Business

1. Talk about company culture and values
2. Let people know the events your company will be attending this year
3. Offer discounts, coupons or special offers to customers who find you via social media
4. Offer discounts on conferences for folks who come to hear you speak
5. Show your human face
6. Talk about what you’re doing
7. Talk about who you are
8. Talk about why you do what you do
9. To get blog subscribers
10. Direct traffic to your site
11. Find referrals
12. Offer referrals
13. Connect vendors to one another
14. Hold contests
15. Highlight employees
16. Publish your Twitter handle on all direct mailings, email newsletters, on your Web site and all other marketing channels. Put it everywhere
17. Promote your latest blog posts and newsletters
18. Share reviews people have left about your site that made you laugh. Or smile
19. Tweet when you do something cool
20. Admit and apologize for flubs to help neutralize the impact
21. Be excited about your week
22. Ask for votes on social media sites (use sparingly)

Grow Ears

1. Track conversations about your brand for online reputation management
2. Track your most important keywords and subscribe to an RSS feed
3. Listen in on conversations about your general industry
4. Do free market research to see what people want/don’t want
5. Conduct Twitter polls to quiz consumer opinion
6. Learn about what’s working/not working for your competitors
7. See how your competitors are interacting with customers
8. Find out who your competitors are talking to and do some competitive intelligence
9. Track conversation patterns for your industry to determine when people are most active online
10. Identify Twitter trends or hot topics related to your industry
11. Find ways to connect what you do with what’s already trending on Twitter
12. Ask people for their opinions. Listen to them
13. Notify customers of any holdups, mishaps or things that may affect business

(Read more…)

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It’s time that we start paying attention to a real problem that has been around for a few years now and will only get worse. Let’s face it, kids who are overweight suffer physically and emotionally. And, statistics have consistently shown that unless there is affective intervention obese kids turn into unhealthy obese adults. Read on…

Experts urge screening for obesity in kids

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Doctors should screen children and teens between 6 and 18 years for extra pounds, a federal task force recommends.

For children who are found to be obese based on their body mass index (BMI), a standard measure of the relationship between height and weight, the task force also calls for referrals to a comprehensive program that includes dietary advice, physical activity, and behavioral counseling to promote weight loss.

The new recommendations update earlier ones from 2005. Skyrocketing rates of obesity have reached between 12 and 18 percent in 2- to 19-year-olds, increasing up to 6-fold since the 1970s, members of the United States Preventive Services Task Force report in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics. Obesity is linked to the early development of diabetes and high blood pressure.

For their update, the task force reviewed 13 studies of behavioral intervention in 1258 obese children and adolescents.

Moderate- to high-intensity programs, involving more than 25 hours of contact with the child and/or the family over a six-month period, resulted in a decrease in BMI 12 months after the beginning of the intervention.

In addition to dietary and physical activity counseling, effective programs included behavioral-management techniques such as self-monitoring and eating management. However, the programs only worked in children who followed through on treatment. (Read more at Reuters.com)

 

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