Yogi the Bear's Medicine- Honey

Much of what was has been traditionally learned in natural medicine has been derived from watching which plants were consumed by animals who had fallen ill. Now, we are learning more about a common food item , honey, which is showing promise as a cough & cold remedy. This is important because parents have been seeking cough medicine alternatives since some over-the-counter formulas are being pulled from the shelves due to safety concerns. Now a study in the December, 2007, issue of The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine showed that Buckwheat Honey given to 2-18 year olds was effective in reducing symptoms of nightime cough such as cough frequency, bothersome nature of the cough, poor sleep quality for parents and children, and illness duration for less then 7 days. Buckwheat Honey was compared to formulas of honey-flavored dextromethorphan and no treatment a and faired better then the others when given as a single dose before bedtime. Although promising, it is important to make sure a cough/cold is of an uncomplicated nature prior to assuming that honey will be your answer, so getting evaluated by your physician is always a good idea. Happy and Healthy Holidays, Dr. Rinde

Medical Information Overload

It is tremendously confusing to try and learn about medical conditions through the Internet. I try and direct my patients to one main source through the national library of medicine (otherwise known as medline). This is a http://www.nlm.nih.gov/. It is great starting point to learn about your health. The other confusing thing is deciding what kinds of questions that are helpful when meeting with your doctor. The website Ask Me 3 is very helpul and basically states that the three most important questions when discussing your health condition is 1) what is my main problem? 2) what do I need to do?, and 3) why is important for me to do this? Check out http://www.npsf.org/askme3/ for more info.

Your Dream

This time of year people reflect on their dreams of what they want to create in life. If the voice in your head says "no one will ever believe me or that wont work"....consider this? The bottled water industry is a 50-100 Billion dollar industry in the United States. Someone thought "hmm, I could slap this mystical label on this plastic bottle and fill it up with water (which I know is supposed to be a pure source) and people will pay be $1.25 at least and maybe more!" Guess what? they were right and then some.

Ghrelin and Sleep Deprivation

Generally I recommend 7-8 hours sleep per/night. Pretty tough to get this amount these days right? Well if the incentive to sleep is not great enough consider this; Your appetite is effected by the number hours you sleep per night. Researchers have found that those people who are sleep deprived produce more Ghrelin (an appetite hormone) and less Leptin (appetite suppressant hormone). This is an interesting adaptation but may explain some of the association of sleep deprivation and weight management concerns. Also your body produces Growth Hormone during sleep which could play a role in preserving lean muscle mass. The benefits of good sleep habits are plentiful and a topic for another post. Research shows us there is not much more benefit for sleeping more then 7-8 hours a night. My opinion is that sleep is sacred, but understandable how many of us fore go rest for activity. It is worth experimenting on yourself to see how better you feel after a week of 7-8 hours per night and if you're actually more active (and productive) during the day on this amount of sleep. Let me know what happens.

22 pound weight reduction has many potential benefits

Recently I read an article (chan,97) bestowing the benefits of losing 22 pounds when suffering from obesity related health issues. (ie. diabetes, hypertension, angina, high cholesterol). The message is much different then you might imagine.

A 22 lb weight loss has the potential of of the following: A) blood pressure (20 mm/hg drop in diastolic blood pressure and 10 mm/hg drop in systolic blood pressure), b) cholesterol (10% reduction in total cholesterol, 15% reduction in LDL cholesterol, 30% reduction in triglycerides, and 8% increase in HDL cholesterol) , c) Diabetes ( reduced the risk of developing diabetes by 50%, decreased fasting glucose by 30-50%, and Hemoblobin A1C levels fell by 15%), d) and Angina symptoms decrease by 91%.

A 22 pound weight reduction is very realistic in a 6 months period of time. Weight loss should always be gradual 1-2 pounds per/week and should be done under the guidance of a qualified health professional trained in nutrition, lifestyle, and exercise.

Note: losing weight, in my opinion should be a focus of those overweight and obese and not the focus of those of normal weight or underweight. Keep a healthy and accurate body image and compare yourself to reality and not to air-brushed images in magazines.

source:
Chan,F. 1997. Obesity as a Disease. British Medical Journal.53(No.2).307-321.