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Month: September, 2010

Would you like pills with your burger?

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Drugs, drugs, drugs … if some people have their way, you will be getting prescription drugs along with your fast food.  Is anybody else outraged by this idea?  I’m not kidding ~ there really are doctors that are proposing putting statin drugs in little packets, kind of like catsup packages, at fast food restaurants.

(NaturalNews) What do you get when you combine fast food with Big Pharma? Pharmaburger! That’s the name of episode one of the new “Food Investigations” mini-documentary series created by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews.com.

Food Investigations (www.FoodInvestigations.com) features short documentary videos (under 10 minutes each) exposing little-known facts about fast food and processed food products. The videos are free to watch at the website, and they’re also available at www.NaturalNews.TV where thousands of other holistic health videos can be viewed for free every day.

The Pharmaburger mini-documentary takes issue with the doctor from Imperial College London whose study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, led him to recommend that statin drugs be handed out like ketchup packets at fast food restaurants. This, he claims, would “counteract” the heart risk dangers of fast foods.

Just pop a pill every time you chow down a junk food cheeseburger, in other words, and the health risks will be cancelled out. It’s a juvenile, short-sighted point of view about health and nutrition, of course, but the idea has a surprisingly large number of followers among practitioners of mainstream medicine (many of which are arguably illiterate when it comes to nutrition in the first place).

Ultimately, the idea seeks to turn fast food restaurants into pharmacies, lining up gullible customers to be dosed with powerful prescription pharmaceuticals based on no diagnosis, no doctor visits, and absolutely no consideration of their current health condition or possible drug interactions. To call it “medicine” is an insult to the very definition of the word.

The sad truth of the matter is that some members of the medication profession want to intoxicate everyone with dangerous chemical medications, and they are hoping to use fast food restaurants to achieve that goal. This Pharmaburger mini-documentary tells the rest of this story which will surprise most viewers.

At the end of the day, individuals need to start taking responsibility for themselves and their health.  Popping a pill isn’t going to fix things.  When you are ready to take responsibility, call Remmel Wellness Center to schedule an appointment and help yourself get healthy. 

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic center located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 29, 2010
filed in Heart Health, Weight Loss, Wellness

Cold virus makes kids fat … Really??

Original caption: Not faked. I was trying to t...
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Who are you trying to kid?  When I saw this article written NaturalNews.com, I just knew I had to share it will all of you.  The story is too fantastic, in a very sad sort of way, to just ignore: 

The headlines have it all backwards. “Childhood Obesity Might Be Linked to Strain of Cold Virus” says BusinessWeek. “Childhood cold virus could lead to development of obesity” claims the Telegraph (UK). Not to be outdone, MSNBC rolls out this whopper: “Nothing to sneeze at: Common cold virus may make kids fat.”   To take a line from Seth and Amy on SNL … “Really??”

What are all these headlines referring to? A new study out of the University of California, San Diego, revealed that obese children were far more likely to have been infected with adenovirus 36 (AD36) than fit children. This is what’s called an “observational correlation” in scientific terms.

From this observational correlation, the scientists involved in the study as well as virtually the entire mainstream media leaped to the false conclusion that the virus must be causing obesity. It’s sort of like saying that pregnancy causes sex. They have it all backwards.

Here’s why:

Being obese (which is caused almost entirely by food and exercise choices) makes you more susceptible to infections because it impairs immune function. So obese kids are more likely to be infected with AD36 right from the start. Furthermore, obese kids are far more likely to have reduced time outside playing in the sun, so they’re more likely to be vitamin D deficient, making them even more susceptible to infection.

They’re also more likely to be living on junk foods rather than healthful foods, contributing both to obesity and poor immune defenses. All this adds up to the real cause of their infections: Poor health and poor immune function.

That’s why obese children have a high correlation with AD36 viral infections. They have a common cause: An unhealthful lifestyle that attracts both infections and obesity.

The hidden vaccine agenda
Laughably, the so-called “scientific” medical community can only see this issue in one way: The virus must have caused the obesity! This reversal of cause and effect coincidentally happens to support — guess what? A vaccine agenda against AD36. If they can convinced everyone that AD36 causes obesity, they can roll out an “obesity vaccine” and claim that taking the vaccine stops you from getting fat. (It’s the same scam currently being pushed for HPV vaccines.)

It’s another vaccine victory for an industry that wants us all to believe viruses determine most of the health outcomes in our lives and that our own actions have no role in our own health. That’s the message in this warped virus-obesity story, of course: Your kids can’t control their body weight through eating and exercise, it’s all about the virus! So pay no attention to their food. It doesn’t matter.

Nonsense. And the mainstream media reports on this science are just blatantly false. “Children who are exposed to a cold-like virus when young are more likely to develop obesity, scientists have claimed” says the Telegraph article. That’s utterly false, and it doesn’t even follow from the research — which only established a correlation, not a causative role. The Telegraph has inserted its own cause-effect time flow into the facts of the study, assuming a causal link between the virus and obesity.

In reality, no such causal link exists. The study merely found a correlation, and when you find correlations, you can’t leap to a conclusion that B causes A. Because maybe you’ve got it wrong and A causes B.

Stuck in the germ theory era
But why does mainstream medicine and the mainstream media automatically leap to the false conclusion that a virus causes obesity? Because that’s the way they think. They’re stuck in the germ theory of disease where they mistakenly believe an invading germ or microorganism is responsible for patient health. They discount the role of the patients’ own actions in their health outcome and thereby steal away power from patients and place it in the hands of the drug companies — the organizations responsible for coming up with “miracle chemical cures” to these infectious viruses.

This idea is strongly reflected in a statement from study leader Dr Jeffrey Schwimmer who said, “It is time that we moved away from assigning blame in favor of developing a level of understanding that will better support efforts at both prevention and treatment.”

So let’s translate this statement from the study author, shall we? What he’s essentially saying is “Stop blaming people for their own behavior because food choice and exercise has nothing to do with obesity, and instead we need to be vaccinating children against obesity while calling it ‘treatment.’”

Notice, too, that as long as people believe their obesity problems are caused by viruses, then they can play out the “victim” role which is exactly what Big Medicine wants. Keep eating those cheeseburgers and junk foods while blaming it on a virus. Don’t bother with exercise or taking care of yourself, and if anybody asks, just tell them “the virus made me fat.”

It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet that is precisely what MSNBC, BusinessWeek, the Telegraph and countless other newspapers are publishing this very minute! A virus makes you fat, and it doesn’t matter what you eat.

I find it astonishing that so many large and powerful media outlets can’t seem to hire writers who bother to think before they write.

Really??? Really.   And, when you are ready to stop playing the blame game and are willing to take responsibility for your health, come to Remmel Wellness Center where we combine a number of treatments and therapies with education to help you lose weight, get healthy and stay that way.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic center located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 28, 2010
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Rising Obesity and Rising Costs

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Do you want to hear something really scary?  In 10 years, a full 75 percent of Americans will be overweight, making it the fattest country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

Citizens of the world’s richest countries are getting fatter and fatter and the United States is leading the charge, an organization of leading economies said Thursday in its first ever obesity forecast.

“Food is much cheaper than in the past, in particular food that is not particularly healthy, and people are changing their lifestyles, they have less time to prepare meals and are eating out more in restaurants,” said Sassi, a former London School of Economics lecturer who worked on the report for three years.

That plus the fact that people are much less physically active than in the past means that the ranks of the overweight  have swelled to 67 percent in the U.S. this year from well under 50 percent in 1980, according to the OECD.

 This means that disease rates and health care spending will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic. 

So, what are the costs associated with obesity?  Higher medical bills are the most obvious cost, but that’s only a portion of the real-life costs.

George Washington University researchers added in things like employee sick days, lost productivity, even the need for extra gasoline, and found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.

That’s far more than the cost of being merely overweight, $524 for women and $432 for men, concluded the report being released Tuesday, which analyzed previously published studies to come up with a total.

Why the difference between the sexes? Studies suggest larger women earn less than skinnier women, while wages don’t differ when men pack on the pounds. That was a big surprise, said study co-author and health policy professor Christine Ferguson.

Researchers had expected everybody’s wages to suffer with obesity, but “this indicates you’re not that disadvantaged as a guy, from a wage perspective,” said Ferguson, who plans to study why.

Then consider that obesity is linked to earlier death. While that’s not something people usually consider a pocketbook issue, the report did average in the economic value of lost life. That brought women’s annual obesity costs up to $8,365, and men’s to $6,518.

A major study published last year found medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for the obese than normal-weight people. Tuesday’s report added mostly work-related costs, things like sick days and disability claims, related to those health problems.

It also included an unusual finding, a study that calculated nearly 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline are used every year because of increases in car passengers’ weight since 1960.

And the thing is, nobody is doing anything to stop this trend.  Americans have a lazy, herd of sheep mentality and will continue to eat unhealthily, will continue to sit in front of the television or computer or video game rather than exercise, and will continue to think it is acceptable to take pill to counteract their poor choices.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again …  we don’t have a healthcare crisis in America, we have a culture crisis. It is time to change the way we think, act and behave. Taking a pill isn’t going to make everything all better. There are ways to get healthy and lose weight, and we can help, but you have to make a decision… and the decision that needs to be made is to be an active participant in your health.  When you have made that decision, call us at Remmel Wellness Center and find out just how healthy you can be when you take responsibility for your health.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic center located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 27, 2010
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Secrets From 5 Experts To Look Younger Than You Are

Let’s face it … I don’t have a fairy godmother who can waive a magic wand and put me in the most amazing clothes, and do my hair and make-up.  I have to rely upon myself, and that’s not saying much!  You might feel the same way.  So, if you don’t have the top stylists, hair dressers and make-up artists to help you look fabulous every time you walk through the door and you don’t have a fairy godmother or a genie in a bottle, what can you do to look younger than your years?  Follow these tips from 5 experts in their respective fields and proudly proclaim your age (minus a few years)!!

THE COSMETIC DERMATOLOGIST

Who: Heidi Waldorf, MD, associate clinical professor at Mount Sinai Hospital’s department of dermatology in New York.

Top Secret: Diligently apply sun protection. (You knew that was coming.)  “Most women miss the jawline, neck, chest, and hands, and they’re all very telling of aging skin,” says Waldorf. Beyond that, if you’re not planning to get pregnant, use topical retinoids a few times a week. You can get them in OTC products or in higher concentrations from a dermatologist. “Studies show they help aged skin look more normal microscopically,” Waldorf says.

This tip really has me thinking … I put sunscreen on my face, but I’m not as good about protecting my hands, neck and chest unless I am planning on spending time in the sun.  But my hands do look older than I would like for them to!

Next Best Tips: Once you hit 40, regular, gentle exfoliation helps keep the complexion lustrous. Of all the anti-aging products on drugstore shelves, Waldorf recommends RoC Deep Retinol Correxion Wrinkle Serum and SkinMedica TNS Essential Serum, which she calls, “chicken soup for the skin.”

I do a gentle exfoliation on a regular basis, and it really does keep my skin glowing, but I think I’ll go get me some RoC Deep Retinol Correxion Wrinkle Serum on my way home tonight!
THE IMAGE CONSULTANT

Who: Kelly Machbitz, certified image consultant in Tampa, Florida, and author of All About Face.

Top Secret: Soften the eyeliner. “Women tend to go too heavy, which drags the eyes down and makes them look older,” says Machbitz Instead of black, try a slate or grey. “Then, with your pencil or brush, just dot along the rim where your lashes are, and lightly connect the dots without drawing a harsh line straight across.” 

Huh…. I must be psychic!  I never have been one to use a heavy eyeliner, but just about a week ago I started to really go more minimal on the eyeliner, and it has brightened and opened up by eyes, and I think it does give me a fresher, more youthful look.  Try it yourself.

Next Best Tips: Lose the dark-outline lip trick. “You can create a much fresher look by using a nude lip liner to define the shape, and then filling in with a clear or subtle gloss,” says Machbitz. And when it comes to choosing the right foundation it’s worth a one-time splurge at the makeup counter to have a specialist help you pick the right foundation so it looks like you’re not wearing anything. Before buying, let the product dry on your skin (the color can darken) and check it outside in the daylight. Once you have the perfect shade, you can always match it with a less pricey product.

This is one of my favorite current fashion trends.  I love the subtlety of the natural look with a light lip gloss.  It is youthful and confident without looking contrived.

THE DATING COACH
Who: Rachel Canis, professional matchmaker and president of Best Foot Forward, a Chicago dating service.

Top Secret: Downplay. “Make sure you’re not going into dead-on cougar attire,” says Canis. “I’m talking about wearing really tight clothes that show it all. I don’t care how great your body is. After a certain age, it looks like you’re trying too hard, and you just come off older.”  Then again, she says, “dressing super corporate can age you too.” Young women have a sense of feeling comfortable with themselves, which is why Canis recommends mixing in some softer fabrics. “Try a structured piece with a flowy piece, or a tight tank top with a fuller jacket,” she says. “I always seem to meet people when I’m wearing a cocktail dress and a pair of funky flip-flops.”

If I left my house in “dead-on cougar attire” I would be too embarrassed to get out of the car!  But I do see a lot of absolutely beautiful women with amazing bodies, who are my age or older, and there comes a time when it just isn’t appropriate any more.  …. Just sayin’ …..

Next Best Tips: Err on the side of less makeup, versus more. Peachy colors and a little shimmer are all you need for a young and dewy appeal, says Canis. Also trendy can be tricky. “The short, sculpted hairdos are great in your twenties, but when you’re older, they frumpify you. And at a certain age, you really don’t want to be doing green nails.”    

When more than one expert includes the same tips, you really need to pay attention!
THE PHOTO DIRECTOR

Who: Katherine Schad, director of photography at O, the Oprah Magazine.

Top Secret: If you’re posing for a photo, “black and white film is more forgiving than color,” says Schad. “And shoot outdoors—an interior flash can be glaring if the photographer isn’t a pro.” The key to projecting “young”, she says, is being relaxed. One tried-and-true trick: Look away from the camera and then turn back so the “click” will capture your spontaneous energy.

I do like black and white photos from an artistic perspective but I have never been very comfortable in front of a camera.  Hmmm … I guess if I want to take over Oprah’s spot on TV when she retires, I’ll have to get used to it!  (In the mean time, listen to my radio show: Live, Laugh & Love with Laurie every Monday at 2:00pm Eastern on www.LifeImprovementRadio.com - I don’t have to worry about cameras when I am on the radio!)

Next Best Tips: Schad, who often shoots real women for her magazine’s makeovers, re-dresses her subjects in a classic look with a fun little twist: “Maybe a cute black dress with a pair of great red shoes, or jeans and a crisp, white shirt, with an unusual appliquéd jacket,” she explains. As for hair? Overly-fussy updos are a little dated, she adds. When in doubt, get a blowout.

I think I’ve got this tip down … but maybe not?  Let me know!

THE “REAL AGE” DOCTOR

Who: Micheal Roizen, MD, author of RealAge: Are you as young as you can be? and coauthor, with Mehmet Oz, MD, of YOU: Staying Young.

Top Secret: Above and beyond everything else, the No. 1 key to looking younger is a healthy attitude, says Roizen, who chairs the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. “And the trick to that is re-focusing on how fortunate you are. Instead of griping, that jerk cut me off, you want to be thinking, At least I’m not as obnoxious as he is—or, in as much of a hurry.”

Thank you, very much!!!  A positive attitude can make all the difference and your demeanor and how people perceive you.  When you are relaxed and have a smile on your face, you probably also look and act younger than your years.  I try to live my life this way, and I think it works!

Next Best Tips: Number 2 on the list (take Roizen’s test to determine your “real age”) is avoiding cigarettes, including second-hand smoke, which is “amazingly detrimental to your skin and health.” Number three is exercise. To get maximum youth benefit for minimum sweat, find 30 minutes each day to walk, and every week do the following: a half-hour of resistance training plus three 21-minute bouts of cardio in which you go as fast as you can for the 10th and 21st minute. Not only will these interval blasts boost your metabolism, says Roizen, “but they’ll increase the size of your hippocampus, which will keep you remembering long into the future.”

 Check and check!  I don’t smoke.  Never have, never will.  And I make an effort to exercise on a regular basis.  If you need help in this arena, call us at Remmel Wellness Center.  Our mental health counselor can help you with a smoking cessation program.  If you want to enter into an exercise program, we have partnerships with gyms and trainers and can make recommendations to help you fit exercise into your lifestyle.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 25, 2010
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My Favorite Athlete – Kelly Slater

Slater at Trestles, San Onofre State Beach, Ca...
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If you have been reading my blogs for very long, you may have come to the conclusion that I don’t always run with the crowd.  I am into fitness and sports as both a participant and fan, and I am super-excited that the Tampa Bay Rays are doing so well and have a chance to go as far as the World Series again this year.   But my two most favorite athletes are not in mainstream sports: Lance Armstrong and Kelly Slater.  They are both masters of their sport, have incredible skill, grit and determination and, at least to me, are poetry in motion.  Plus, they are both incredibly good looking (read: HOT)!

This post reprints a GrindTV blog about Kelly Slater who, after 20 years as a professional surfer, is still dominating his sport and winning tournaments….

Nine-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater won the Hurley Pro Saturday at Lower Trestles, the same San Clemente, Calif. venue where he won his maiden victory as a pro nearly 20 years ago to the day.

Of course, if and when any mention of his win makes the mainstream sporting press in the U.S. it’s likely to be shoehorned between coverage of the latest hot dog-eating contest and a brawl between college mascots.

Yet this win in particular should be acknowledged because it marks a milestone in sports that’s rarely — if ever — reached. I’m biased, of course, so I’ll ask you to shoot my theory down by answering the following question off the top of your head: Please name an athlete — any athlete — who’s been the dominant force in their respective sport for a span of two decades?

Mind you, I’m not talking about somebody who’s hung around the top level for 20 years with a single title or two to show for it. Sports history is rich and thick with lovable legends who’ve endured like Brett Favre, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, even George Foreman. Yet there’s a large chasm between enduring and dominating — as in being the primary gravitational force that others must orbit around. Favre, Ryan, Ripken and Foreman were all that force for a time, no doubt, but for 20 years? Nope.

Find me somebody who, let’s say, holds the record for being the youngest and oldest world champion. Whose career win percentage over two decades was near 80% and climbing. Who 20 years after his debut win as a pro, recaptured a lead in the race for yet another world title, maybe a 10th? Somebody who’s owned the top slot in their sport’s All-Star voting 15 times, and year-after-year humbles a fresh set of young rookies — even those less than half his age — who are allegedly coming to dethrone him. Yep, those are just a few of Slater’s stats.

I’ve been racking my brain to trying to come up with somebody else. I even asked my buddies deep inside Y!Sports and ESPN for help. Surely they’d know someone? “A bowler? poker player? billiard champion?” In their defense, they were buried in NFL and MLB drama and had little time for such silliness from an Action Sports guy. Nevertheless, they politely threw me some meat just to appease me, Jordan, Armstrong, Navratilova and Bonds. I didn’t want to rile them by telling them Slater’s stats trump all of the above.

I dug deeper, only to find that most athletes who rule for two full decades come from sedentary sports, like golfing, curling, angling or lawn darts. Or they spend their careers in idle positions that are highly specialized, like pitching, punting or goal keeper.

Arnold Palmer and the Golden Bear are good examples of golfers who enjoyed marathon careers. Jack won his first championship in his early 20s, and The Masters when he was 46. Yet, even according to Golf Magazine, the 70s was the only decade he owned, while Palmer ran the show in the 60s.

Tiger Woods is the obvious man-to-beat now. And though Woods (the first golfer to ever hit the gym?) is four years younger than Slater, and just 14 years into his pro career, his reign will undoubtedly surpass all comers. But that’s still TBD for now, especially since Woods is slumping after his recent foray into public relations hell.

Mariano Rivera is arguably right there with Tiger. He’s been baseball’s dominant closer for 15 solid years. And he stands a decent chance of going five more years since, well, he only throws a handful of pitches per week.

Admittedly, I’m operating under a completely deranged definition of an athlete, especially compared to the contemporary excuse for one. I weigh all of them against an ancient Roman scale that involves lions, tigers and The Colosseum — an imaginary venue where today’s sedentary athletes would become breakfast, brunch or lunch at best.

I know this sounds like an absurd notion. There’s simply no way a surfer can enter the conversation when we’re talking about the most dominant athletes ever, right? Can we even dare to measure Slater’s athletic feats against Wayne Gretzky and Jerry Rice? Those two really did dominate physically grueling sports for two decades. That’s why they’re considered the greatest. And maybe being blasted into the reef at Teahupoo isn’t as scary as being checked, or catching an ill-timed pass over the middle, but watch, then consider which fate you’d choose given the choice.

Whether surfing is a sport or not is an argument even surfers can’t agree on. In fact, anything with judges is suspect since it’s crossing into art. But there’s no denying that whether you’re paddling into 25-foot waves at Waimea Bay, or flying high at five-foot Bells Beach, the act demands endurance, timing, speed and flexibility, not to mention commitment, all which favor the young and athletically spry…or so we were told.

After winning five straight titles in the 90s (six total) Slater retired in 1999, which, when translated, means he went surfing more. He chased swells around the planet for three years, visiting friends at every stop, waiting for a new crop of talent to mature and actually threaten his legacy before coming back to competition in 2003. In his first year back, he fell short in the final heat of the season. But by 2005 he had his title back, repeating again in 2006, and nabbing another in 2008. Now he’s leading in 2010.

Like Favre, Slater threatens retirement at every turn. Unlike Favre, he tends to go the distance when he comes back. Today 38-year-old Slater is not only defying gravity with his results, but halting time with his surfing, which is still getting better. When asked how old he thinks he’d be if he didn’t know how old he was, he says 24. Take one look at his sculpted physique and you’d agree that’s his real age.

 **** Yeah, I agree – he does look and move like a 24 year old ~ dang! :-)   If you would like to knock some years off your age, the anti-aging protocols offered by Remmel Wellness Center can help you live a longer, healthier life – even if you don’t look like Kelly Slater!

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 23, 2010
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Misleading Claims that Food Manufacturers Make

Example of an American grocery store aisle.
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In my crusade to educate and inform Americans on the foods they are eating so that we can all make educated and informed choices when we shop, I came across a great article in Scientific American that really blasts the claims that food manufactures make on their labels.  These claims are misleading marketing ploys to sell more product by convincing the purchaser that the food is “good for them.”  The reality is that the claims have very little to no proof to back them up, and a consumer who is relying on these claims to improve their health may be doing more harm to themselves than good.

Read this article that was printed in the September 20, 2010 issue of Scientific American:

From cereals that boost immunity to yogurts that regulate digestion and juices that keep heart disease at bay, grocery stores in the U.S. are brimming with packaged foods and beverages that claim to improve health. Such declarations are good for business: sales of “functional foods”—those that manufacturers have modified to provide supposed health benefits—generated $31 billion in the U.S. in 2008, a 14 percent increase over 2006, according to Rockville, Md.–based market research firm Packaged Facts. But consumers are getting a rotten deal. Although health claims for foods may appear to be authoritative, in many cases science does not support them and the government does not endorse them. Not only do these products, many of which are nutritionally bereft, fail to deliver on their promises, but they may also give consumers a false sense of security that discourages them from taking more effective measures to attain wellness, such as exercise or medication.

In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 17 food and beverage manufacturers concerning false or misleading health and nutrition claims on their products. It was an unusually expansive crackdown for the agency, whose regulatory power over food companies has declined over the past decades, thanks to Congress and the courts, which have tended to come down on the side of the food companies. The FDA’s move, accompanied by an open letter from Commissioner Margaret Hamburg about the importance of accurate nutrition labeling, was a significant step toward halting the exploitation of science by food marketers, but it does not go far enough in protecting consumers from deceptive marketing.

The FDA currently issues guide­lines for what claims companies can make about their foods. It allows statements about how products affect the normal structure and function of the body but prohibits unauthorized claims about disease. The agency, though, does not review compliance before food is packaged and shipped. Food products arrive at the stores emblazoned with questionable claims. Cheerios can lower cholesterol 4 percent in six weeks, asserted the box label, until the FDA sent General Mills a cease-and-desist letter in May 2009. Redco Foods’s Salada Naturally Decaffeinated Green Tea promised to tackle Alzheimer’s, rheumatism and cancer, until the March crackdown. The agency is then forced to play catch-up. Meanwhile the snake oil sits on supermarket shelves.

Holding health claims for food to the same scientific standards as those for drugs—and requiring manufacturers to convince the FDA of alleged benefits before releasing products for sale—would result in far fewer health claims on packaged foods, if recent developments in Europe are any indication. In 2006 Europe began holding food makers to rigorous scientific standards. Since then, the European Food Safety Authority has rejected, on the basis of insufficient evidence, a whopping 80 percent of the more than 900 claims they have assessed thus far. Among the rejects were claims about probiotic ingredients, which are commonly found in yogurt products and often touted for their alleged digestive benefits, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are frequently added to products ranging from orange juice to baby food and are often said to promote brain development. The simple act of asking for evidence is sometimes enough to reveal the shoddiness of a claim—some European firms drew supporting materials from Wikipedia, the American Heritage dictionary and the Bible.

Differences between the lenient U.S. system and the more restrictive European system are easily apparent. For instance, visitors to the Web site for Activia (www.activia.com)—a yogurt product from Dannon—will have a very different experience depending on which country they indicate they are from. The U.S. version prominently displays the product’s putative health benefits, asserting that it can “help regulate your digestive system by helping reduce long intestinal transit time.” (It does not say explicitly that the yogurt helps to alleviate constipation, which would be a clear violation of the FDA prohibition of unauthorized claims about specific medical conditions.) The U.K. version, on the other hand, says only that the yogurt contains an exclusive bacterial culture and, like other yogurts, is a source of calcium and vitamin B12.

Industry representatives complain that having to prove claims about the health benefits of food would cost too much and take too long. It’s a lame argument. The nation is currently engaged in a struggle against skyrocketing rates of obesity and other diet-related diseases that are among the leading causes of death in the U.S. In this context, unsubstantiated health claims on processed foods are a harmful abuse of science that we should not tolerate.

****

If you are unsure about some of the claims being made, or are overwhelmed by the choices presented to you when you walk into your supermarket, search out a nutritionist or other professional who does grocery store tours.  These tours help you shop smarter and healthier.  Remmel Wellness Center is part of the Holistic Health Network, which is organizing grocery store tours in Pinellas County.  You can contact us for dates and locations of these tours.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 22, 2010
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The Problem with Zapping Fat

Open your eyes and you see it everywhere … body fat.  With the percentage of Americans who are overweight or obese exceeding 60%, you know exactly what I am talking about.  I have fat, and odds are, you have fat, too.  I really don’t think anyone likes being fat, and most people who are overweight or have excess fat in the wrong place want to get rid of it.

We are a society that wants the quick fix – diet pills, surgery … and now, two non-surgical, non-diet devices—one that deflates fat cells, one that destroys them—have been cleared for “body contouring” in doctors’ offices by the Food and Drug Administration.  The following story comes from the Wall Street Journal:

Zeltiq grabs onto love handles and belly pouches and freezes the fat cells inside, causing them to self-destruct over several months. Zerona is a low-level laser that rotates around the waist, hips and thighs, forcing the fat cells to empty in a matter of weeks. In both cases, there are no incisions, no downtime and no need for anesthesia. The fat is reabsorbed by the body.

Several other devices that claim to painlessly blast away fat with ultrasound, radio waves or lasers are already on the market or hoping for FDA approval soon. These high-tech weapons in the battle of the bulge are less invasive than liposuction—which involves loosening fat internally and vacuuming it out with a tube, a procedure that nearly 200,000 Americans had last year.

Of course, there is still no magic wand for the 66% of us who are overweight or obese: Eliminating fat cells without also eating less or exercising more may make fat crop up elsewhere and ultimately do more harm than good.

That’s because fat cells are not just passive storage depots for surplus calories. They are busy chemical factories that send signals all over the body, helping to regulate growth, puberty, healing, disease-fighting and aging. Among the 100 or more hormones that fat cells secrete are adiponectine, which helps manage metabolism, and leptin, which tells the brain to eat more or less (although the brain doesn’t always listen).

Much about fat cells remains mysterious. They’re among the largest and longest-living cells in the body, capable of expanding at least 64 times their original size (the upper limit is unknown). A lean adult has about 40 billion fat cells; an obese adult can have 120 billion.

In general, it’s healthier to have a larger number of small fat cells than fewer, fatter ones. Subcutaneous fat cells, under the skin in places like the hips, thighs and lower belly, may be unsightly, but they are relatively benign.

Their principal work is to pull excess fat out of the bloodstream, package it and store it in big droplets—one per fat cell—until the body needs it for energy.

Healthy fat cells are precisely attuned to the body’s needs, says Michael D. Jensen, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “When you eat too much, the fat cells store it up, and when you miss a meal, they give it back to you.”

But if fat cells aren’t working properly, they don’t store and release fat effectively. Harmful versions called visceral fat cells accumulate in and around organs like the heart and liver, and release fat into the bloodstream, raising the risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.

Why some fat cells stop working, and why some proliferate while others just balloon isn’t understood.

Heredity clearly plays a role, as does taking in more calories than the body needs. But fat-cell function doesn’t necessarily correlate with weight gain. Some people are able to carry 100 extra pounds and still have functioning fat cells; others run into metabolic trouble when they gain just a few pounds, according to Dr. Jensen.

Until recently, experts thought that all the body’s fat cells were created by around age 20, and that they never died, just grew and shrunk as people gained or lost weight. But scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute recently discovered that even in lean people, about 10% of the body’s fat cells die and are replaced each year.

“The fact that the number seems to remain constant over the years indicates that something is very much regulating the number of fat cells. That’s what I’m interested in right now,” says neuroscientist Kirsty Spalding, the lead researcher.

The amount and distribution of fat also changes naturally with age. “People tend to gain subcutaneous fat through middle age, and then it starts to diminish, first on the back of the hands, then in the lower legs and elsewhere,” says James L. Kirkland, a professor of aging at the Mayo Clinic. It piles up as visceral fat instead—and eventually appears in muscle, liver and even bone marrow, where the fat is a substitute for new bones. “Losing subcutaneous fat is not good, paradoxically,” Dr. Kirkland says.

That’s partly why some obesity experts are wary of the new fat-blasting techniques. The devices can’t target visceral fat, only subcutaneous fat, and if patients continue to consume more calories than they burn, they may hasten that process of accumulating harmful fat instead.

Some experts also worry that forcing fat out of fat cells can increase the level in the bloodstream.

“Fat is very toxic,” says Dr. Jensen. “It’s not something you want in large amounts floating around free. You want it inside a cell, protected.”

Another danger is that losing fat cells could will lower leptin levels, signaling to the brain to eat more.

“That’s one of the reasons it’s so, so hard to maintain weight loss—the body is trying to defend a weight it got used to,” says Mitchell Lazar, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania.

*****  The best, most effective way to lose weight is to change the way you eat and how much activity you do.  For people who want a fast change, weight loss programs like Ideal Protein provide a healthy, physician supervised way to drop the pounds.  When you lose weight using the right foods and exercise, you will actually lower the amount of fat in your blood stream (unlike some of the non-surgical, cosmetic alternatives), and lower your cholesterol, your blood pressure and get your pancreas to produce insulin naturally.  A good, reputable clinic, like Remmel Wellness Center, will also provide education, information, coaching and counseling to help you make lifestyle changes so that you are able to keep the weight off.  Call 727-525-1141 to find out if Ideal Protein is right for you.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida.

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1 Comment by Laurie Puckett on September 20, 2010
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Energy Drinks in a Nutshell – Actually a Coconut

A coconut which has been stripped of its husk....
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I have discovered a new energy drink … and it is actually something that is good for you!!!  I’m sure you won’t believe me when I say it will boost your energy without gobs of sugar and caffeine, so you will just have to try it for yourself.  But this is something that I would even recommend to teenagers.  What is this new product?  Actually, it is something old… Coconut water! 

Read this great article on the benefits and which celebrities are drinking it:

More and more Americans are turning to energy drinks to fuel their session at the gym.

About $4 billion worth of sports beverages are sold each year, but now a more natural alternative is gaining in popularity.

The newest way to replace needed nutrients during and after a workout is as close as the nearest desert island – coconut water.

The all-natural product boasts many benefits.

A recent study finds that it contains the same five electrolytes found in human blood, compared to two found in Gatorade.

“Commercial energy drinks usually have dyes in them, which can be neurotoxins and they’re extremely loaded with refined sugar,” said health counselor Tanya Roller.

According to the federal government, Gatorade contains more than five grams of sugar for every 100 calories.

Coconut water contains less than three grams of sugar for every 100 calories.

Celebrities like Madonna are endorsing this newly trendy, but old drink.

She is a major investor in a drink called Vita Coco, one of the world’s largest coconut water companies.

Research also shows that, due to its ingredients, coconut water is an excellent cure for hangovers.

That means with a lot less sugar and more electrolytes, you can get a push of energy from a natural source.

Posted by Laurie Puckett, as she sits at her computer drinking coconut water, at the Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic facility located in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 17, 2010
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Still No Magic Pill for Weight Loss

Apple.
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There is no quick fix or magic pill that will help you lose weight.  Losing weight takes dedication.  Keeping the weight off takes even more dedication - to a lifestyle change. 

Once again, pharmaceutical manufacturers are seeking to develop a diet pill that will help people lose weight without killing them.  If they succeed, they will be rich beyond even their wildest dreams, but they haven’t succeeded yet.

Federal health officials say weight loss with a new diet drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals was minimal and safety questions remain about its effects on the heart.

Arena Pharmaceuticals has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its drug lorcaserin for obese and overweight patients. If approved the pill would be the first new prescription diet pill in a dozen years. However, in a review posted online, the FDA says weight loss with the drug was “relatively low” and questions whether the drug might cause heart valve-disease _ a side effect seen with older diet pills.

On Wednesday the FDA will ask a panel of experts to assess lorcaserin’s safety. The agency is not required to follow the panel’s advice, although it often does.

If you really want to lose weight, call us at Remmel Wellness Center.  We will work with you to lose the weight in a quick, healthy way using Ideal Protein.  We will also help you keep the weight off when you meet your goals by education, counseling to address reasons for poor food choices, and/or with hypnosis.  Call to schedule an appointment to see how you can change your life in a healthy, natural way.

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic center located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida. 

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 16, 2010
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Old Remedies Made New (Beer)!

Glas of german "Würzburger Hofbräu" ...
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I don’t know if you heard about this, but I served on a jury last week on a misdemeanor drug possession case.  The defense attorney asked the prospective jurors whether they believed marijuana should be legalized for medical reasons or for any reason at all; much like alcohol.  That got me thinking about the medical use of marijuana.  I don’t know much about it, but it has been in the news a lot over the last few years. 

Then I saw an article in the New York Times about the medical benefits of psychedelic mushrooms for late stage cancer patients.  Again, I don’t have any person experience or knowledge of the benefits of shrooms, but it is an all-natural, chemical-free alternative to pain management.  Then today I come across an article touting the benefits of a nice, ice-cold beer for people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis.  But be careful about mixing alcohol and prescription medications.  Some of those combos can cause liver failure.   The irony here is that as I am writing this post, I am listening to Life Improvement Radio and the song playing is “Everybody Must Get Stoned” by Bob Dylan!  Coincidence?  I think not :-)  

Here is the article that discusses the benefits of beer as an anti-inflammatory for treating rheumatoid arthritis:

Some three million people are living with rheumatoid arthritis, and the vast majority are women.

The best relief you can offer? Buying the next round.

A first-of-its-kind report shows that beefing up on booze may take all the pain away.

Heidi McIntyre has been suffering from arthritis since her teenage years.

“Well, it’s very painful,” said McIntyre. “My hands are stiff, especially in the morning.”

It turns out, the only pain reliever she may need is a cold beer.

A study from the University of Sheffield in England found that non-drinkers are four times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than those who drink more than 10 days per month.

Researchers say alcohol drinkers may also suffer less damage from rheumatoid arthritis.

This includes less severe symptoms, less damage to joints, and less joint pain.

The study authors were clear to state that they are not sure why alcohol has these effects, but it appears that alcohol not only relieves some of the pain, but also reduces the pathways in the body that may cause the condition.

While this information may be interesting, it’s also the first time this effect has been shown in humans.

People currently taking rheumatoid arthritis medications can experience serious side effects, including liver failure—if mixed with alcohol.

Most importantly, the beneficial effects of alcohol noted in this study can also be obtained with many well tested and safer conventional therapies.

Have fun with this information, but don’t do anything illegal!

Posted by Laurie Puckett at Remmel Wellness Center, a full service wellness and chiropractic center located in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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No Comments by Laurie Puckett on September 15, 2010
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