Showing posts with label Scoliosis. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Most People Can Skip Calcium Supplements, Prevention Panel Says

Women have been told for years that if they don't take calcium supplements religiously, they're putting themselves at risk of crippling hip fractures in old age. Now the word from a major government panel: Why bother? There's no evidence that taking calcium supplements reduces the risk of fractures for most people, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said. The recommendations were published online Monday by the Annals of Internal Medicine. That applies to postmenopausal women, the target audience for calcium supplements. "We're not saying don't use it," says Linda Baumann, a member of the task force and a professor emerita of nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "But think about it, because we're not sure it has the benefit you think it has." The task force said that taking up to 1,000 milligrams a day of calcium supplements and up to 400 international units of vitamin D daily did nothing to prevent fractures in healthy people, while slightly increasing the risk of kidney stones.

That's just a bit less than the 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day recommended for postmenopausal women by a 2011 Institute of Medicine report. More might be better, the USPSTF panel concluded, but there's no evidence that's true. The panel gives independent recommendations to the federal government on the risks and benefits of treatments. Reports like this always come with caveats, so here goes: The recommendations don't apply to people who already have osteoporosis or vitamin D deficiency. And the advice doesn't apply to people over 65 who are at risk of falls. The task force members would have loved to review data on whether taking calcium and vitamin D supplements earlier in life would be useful, Baumann tells Shots. Teenagers' calcium intake is pathetically low, even though they're still growing. "The other thing that's really unclear is the appropriate dose and dosing regimen," Baumann says. The studies the panel relied on were all over the map on how much people took — and when. And because most studies have looked at calcium and bone health in white women, there's no good data on men or minority groups. Vitamin D supplements have become trendy of late, promoted as preventing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Some doctors recommending up to 50,000 IU in a week.The USPSTF is looking at whether D influences cancer, so stay tuned for that. An accompanying editorial concludes, "While we wait for the results of further research, the USPSTF's cautious, evidence-based advice should encourage clinicians to think carefully before advising calcium and vitamin D supplementation for healthy individuals." Calcium supplements aren't as trendy, but some women are "taking three, four, five calcium pills a day," says Cliff Rosen, an author of the 2011 IOM report, and an osteoporosis researcher at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute. Taking that much can up the risk of kidney stones by 17 percent, he says. And there's also evidence that calcium supplements may contribute to heart disease. The calcium in food doesn't seem to cause those problems, Rosen says. So the best advice for everyone, from teens to their grandmas, is get calcium from food. "A glass of milk is 300 milligrams. Three glasses of milk a day, and you get there without a problem."

About Dr Kevin Lau

Dr Kevin Lau DC is a Singapore chiropractor and the founder of Health In Your Hands, a series of tools for Scoliosis prevention and treatment. The set includes his book Your Plan for Natural Scoliosis Prevention and Treatment, a companion Scoliosis Exercises for Prevention and Correction DVD and the innovative new iPhone application ScolioTrack. Dr Kevin Lau is a graduate in Doctor of Chiropractic from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and Masters in Holistic Nutrition. He is a member of International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the leading international society on conservative treatment of spinal deformities. In 2006 I was awarded the "Best Health-care Provider Awards" by the largest Newspaper publication in Singapore on October 18 2006 as well as being interviewed on Primetime Channel News Asia as well as other TV and Radio. For more information on Dr Kevin Lau, watch his interviews or get a free sneak peek of his book, go to:

Website - http://www.hiyh.info.
ScolioTrack Website - http://www.ScolioTrack.com.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HealthInYourHands.
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/DrKevinLau.
Twitter - http://www.Twitter.com/DrKevinLau.

About Dr Kevin Lau

How Whole Body Vibration Exercises Can Help Improve Fitness in the Elderly

By Dr. Mercola

Exercise is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle, and it can be a part of your life no matter what your age. In fact, staying active becomes increasingly important as you get older.
Even frail seniors of advanced age can improve muscle strength and agility with exercise, which is important for preventing falls and injuries.
For seniors who have a hard time performing aerobic exercise, using a Whole Body Vibration (WBV) platform (such as The Power Plate) can help them improve performance, allowing them to become stronger, faster and more agile, according to recent research¹.
As explained by Dr. Keith DeOrio, M.D²., WBV stimulation affects your entire body musculature, as well as your internal organs and glands.
Your muscle spindles fire secondary to the mechanical stimulation produced by the vibrating plate, and this rapid firing of the muscle spindle causes a neuromuscular response that leads to physiological changes in your brain as well as your entire body.

How Whole Body Vibration Can Improve Fitness in Those Over 65

The featured study was funded by the Spanish government, and while small in scale, it suggests Whole Body Vibration (WBV) training can stimulate muscle growth and improve overall fitness in the elderly. As reported by Reuters:
“Twenty-four men and women over 65 performed 10 squats held for 45 seconds on the vibrating platform, with a minute rest in between, three times per week for 11 weeks. The study also included 25 people who did not take part in the vibration exercises.
... Those who did the exercises were, on average, able to do two more reps of upper and lower body strength exercises, had almost half an inch more lower body flexibility, and walked 33 yards one second faster than before the vibration training...”
Other studies have also demonstrated significant gains in most measures of muscle performance in sedentary and elderly individuals when using WBV. It has also been shown to provide a number of additional health benefits in the elderly. For example, one study, performed by the University of Liege in Belgium³, investigated the effects of controlled whole body vibrations exercises on overall health in elderly patients and found that after six weeks (performing 4 one-minute sessions, 3 times a week), the participants experienced:
143 percent improvement in physical function 57 percent improvement in the quality of walking
77 percent improvement in equilibrium 41 percent reduction in pain
60 percent improvement in vitality 23 percent improvement in general health

Reduce Bone Loss with Whole Body Vibration

Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. In the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones.
A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25 percent of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result⁴.
Weight-bearing exercise, like resistance- or strength training, can go a long way to prevent brittle bone formation, and can help reverse the damage already done. WBV training can also be helpful here, especially in the elderly.
In a study⁵ by Medical College of Georgia researchers, using vibration therapy 30 minutes daily for 12 weeks improved bone density in mice, a finding that adds support for their use in humans, especially the elderly. It's thought that the vibrations prompt movement of the cell nucleus, which may trigger the release of osteoblasts to build bone. Previous studies have also found that WBV training increases bone density in the hip and inhibits bone loss in the spine and hip areas.

Vitamin D and K2 Are Also Critical Factors for Bone Health Throughout Life

For optimal bone health you also need to optimize your vitamin D levels, and make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2. Both of these nutrients are essential for healthy bone formation and maintenance, and they work in tandem. This is why, if you take high doses of vitamin D3, you also need to take extra vitamin K2.
The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries.
So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.
While the ideal or optimal ratios between vitamin D and vitamin K2 have yet to be elucidated, Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, author ofVitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life, suggests that for every 1,000 IU's of vitamin D you take, you may benefit from about 100 micrograms of K2, and perhaps as much as 150-200 micrograms (mcg). So, if you take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D3 per day, that means you'd need in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 micrograms (0.8 to 1 milligram/mg) of vitamin K2.

Insulin Resistance and Age-Related Muscle Loss

In related news, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Nutrition Working Group has released a scientific review⁶ that examines the role of nutrition in the development of sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass).
Sarcopenia affects about 10 percent of those over 60, with higher rates as age advances. It may seem like common sense that if you don't use your muscles, they'll eventually atrophy away, yet so many people fail to apply this information. The older you get, the faster your muscles atrophy if you're not regularly engaging in appropriate exercise. However, dietary factors are also at play. According to the authors:
“A loss of fast twitch fibers, glycation of proteins, and insulin resistance may play an important role in the loss of muscle strength and development of sarcopenia.”
As I keep repeating, insulin resistance caused by excessive sugar consumption is at the root of virtually every disease and health ailment you can think of, and that includes age-related muscle loss. In fact, if your insulin receptors are insensitive, the mTOR mechanism, which is part of the insulin pathway and builds protein in your muscles, remains inactivated, making muscle wasting more or less inevitable. So, needless to say, it's very important to keep your insulin levels low to avoid becoming insulin resistant — not just for your overall health, but also to maintain healthy muscle.

Nutritional Factors that help Preserve Muscle Mass, Strength and Performance in Seniors

The IOF review identified a number of important dietary factors shown to have a beneficial impact on the maintenance of muscle mass with advancing age, as well as the treatment of sarcopenia. These include:
Protein: The authors suggest an intake of 1.0-1.2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day to maintain optimal muscle and bone health in seniors who do not have severely impaired renal function.
This is more than the recommendations issued by Dr. Ron Rosedale, who believes one gram of protein per kilo of leanbody weight is sufficient for muscle maintenance and repair without detrimentally triggering the mTor pathway, which he believes ma play a role in the development of cancer.
So if you are really lean, the recommendation is close but if you are obese you could be consuming far too much protein based on the IOF recommendation. However if your goal is to increase muscle mass, then the extra protein would make sense.
Whey protein is an excellent choice of protein for a number of reasons, but in part because it increases GLP-1, a satiety peptide that promotes healthy insulin secretion, and helps your insulin work more effectively. Just use the dose of protein you feel is appropriate for your needs. 20 grams if you want to follow lower protein Dr. Rosedale approach and double that if you want to increase muscle growth.
Vitamin D: The authors recommend optimizing vitamin D levels through exposure to sunlight and/or supplementation if required.
Avoiding dietary acid loads: Acid-producing foods such as meats and grains can have a detrimental impact on musculoscletal health when consumed in excess, and especially in combination with insufficient intake of vegetables and fruits, which have an alkalinizing effect. The authors recommend increasing consumption of vegetables to help prevent sarcopenia
Vitamin B12 and/or folic acid
According to Dr. Ambrish Mithal, co-author and Chair and Head of Endocrinology and Diabetes division at Medanta, New Delhi⁷:
"Strategies to reduce the numbers of falls and fractures within our ageing populations must include measures to prevent sarcopenia. At present, the available evidence suggests that combining resistance training with optimal nutritional status has a synergistic effect in preventing and treating sarcopenia.”

Other Beneficial Supplements for Optimal Muscle Performance

Two additional supplements that can help optimize muscle performance, regardless of your age, are:
Carnosine in the form of beta-alanine: Carnosine is a pluripotent dipeptide composed of two amino acids (beta-alanine and histadine), found most notably in your muscles, where it helps buffer lactic acids and serves as a potent antioxidant that can help quell muscle inflammation. Most studies find that if you want to increase athletic performance with carnosine, your best bet is to use beta-alanine instead, since beta-alanine appears to be the rate limiting amino acid in the formation of carnosine.
While you can easily purchase these as supplements, I do NOT recommend doing that. It is far better to get them from whole foods. The foods with the highest amount of useful dietary dipeptides like carnosine would be animal proteins, like eggs, whey protein, poultry and beef.
Astaxanthin: A phenomenally potent antioxidant that has been shown to help improve muscle endurance, workout performance and recovery. It also reduces inflammation from all causes, including workout injuries, and even enhances your ability to metabolize fat.

How Whole Body Vibration Training Prevents Muscle-Wasting

Jumping back to where we started, by stimulating your fast- and super-fast muscle fibers, Whole Body Vibration training using a Power Plate appears to be very helpful for preventing and/or reversing age-related muscle wasting. It will also kick-start your pituitary gland into making more human growth hormone (HGH), which plays an important part in promoting overall health and longevity.
WBV is a truly revolutionary approach to fitness because it addresses your neuromuscular system as a whole, rather than one limb or muscle group at a time. Not to mention it's time efficient, allowing you to trim off several precious hours per week from your workout time. When used together with my Peak Fitness program, which includes high intensity interval training; a series of powerful high-intensity burst-type exercises, you can complete your entire workout a fraction of the time you'd have to spend on traditional workouts.
WBV training using the Power Plate is really the perfect complement to high intensity interval training to build strength, shed excess fat, and improve athletic performance. Both of these techniques also help you produce growth hormone (HGH) naturally. To learn more, please see this previous article.

It’s Never Too Late to Start Exercising

As you can see, age-related muscle wasting and bone loss doesn't have to happen to you... Following the advice detailed above can go a long way toward maintaining healthy bones and muscle mass as you age.
The earlier you start, the better, but remember, you are never too old to start exercising. Research shows that, no matter your age, you stand to gain significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity through exercise. My mom didn't start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 78, she has gained significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.
And, if you’re presently incapable of engaging in aerobic exercise, using Whole Body Vibration training may be just the thing to help you get more active... If you're still on the fence about starting an exercise program, there's no time like the present. I guarantee it will make a major difference in your energy level, self-esteem and probably your entire outlook on life. It is really THAT powerful, whether you're 18 years old or 80!

About Dr Kevin Lau

By Dr. Mercola

Exercise is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle, and it can be a part of your life no matter what your age. In fact, staying active becomes increasingly important as you get older.
Even frail seniors of advanced age can improve muscle strength and agility with exercise, which is important for preventing falls and injuries.
For seniors who have a hard time performing aerobic exercise, using a Whole Body Vibration (WBV) platform (such as The Power Plate) can help them improve performance, allowing them to become stronger, faster and more agile, according to recent research¹.
As explained by Dr. Keith DeOrio, M.D²., WBV stimulation affects your entire body musculature, as well as your internal organs and glands.
Your muscle spindles fire secondary to the mechanical stimulation produced by the vibrating plate, and this rapid firing of the muscle spindle causes a neuromuscular response that leads to physiological changes in your brain as well as your entire body.

How Whole Body Vibration Can Improve Fitness in Those Over 65

The featured study was funded by the Spanish government, and while small in scale, it suggests Whole Body Vibration (WBV) training can stimulate muscle growth and improve overall fitness in the elderly. As reported by Reuters:
“Twenty-four men and women over 65 performed 10 squats held for 45 seconds on the vibrating platform, with a minute rest in between, three times per week for 11 weeks. The study also included 25 people who did not take part in the vibration exercises.
... Those who did the exercises were, on average, able to do two more reps of upper and lower body strength exercises, had almost half an inch more lower body flexibility, and walked 33 yards one second faster than before the vibration training...”
Other studies have also demonstrated significant gains in most measures of muscle performance in sedentary and elderly individuals when using WBV. It has also been shown to provide a number of additional health benefits in the elderly. For example, one study, performed by the University of Liege in Belgium³, investigated the effects of controlled whole body vibrations exercises on overall health in elderly patients and found that after six weeks (performing 4 one-minute sessions, 3 times a week), the participants experienced:
143 percent improvement in physical function 57 percent improvement in the quality of walking
77 percent improvement in equilibrium 41 percent reduction in pain
60 percent improvement in vitality 23 percent improvement in general health

Reduce Bone Loss with Whole Body Vibration

Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. In the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones.
A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25 percent of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result⁴.
Weight-bearing exercise, like resistance- or strength training, can go a long way to prevent brittle bone formation, and can help reverse the damage already done. WBV training can also be helpful here, especially in the elderly.
In a study⁵ by Medical College of Georgia researchers, using vibration therapy 30 minutes daily for 12 weeks improved bone density in mice, a finding that adds support for their use in humans, especially the elderly. It's thought that the vibrations prompt movement of the cell nucleus, which may trigger the release of osteoblasts to build bone. Previous studies have also found that WBV training increases bone density in the hip and inhibits bone loss in the spine and hip areas.

Vitamin D and K2 Are Also Critical Factors for Bone Health Throughout Life

For optimal bone health you also need to optimize your vitamin D levels, and make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2. Both of these nutrients are essential for healthy bone formation and maintenance, and they work in tandem. This is why, if you take high doses of vitamin D3, you also need to take extra vitamin K2.
The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues. Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries.
So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.
While the ideal or optimal ratios between vitamin D and vitamin K2 have yet to be elucidated, Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, author ofVitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life, suggests that for every 1,000 IU's of vitamin D you take, you may benefit from about 100 micrograms of K2, and perhaps as much as 150-200 micrograms (mcg). So, if you take 8,000 IU's of vitamin D3 per day, that means you'd need in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 micrograms (0.8 to 1 milligram/mg) of vitamin K2.

Insulin Resistance and Age-Related Muscle Loss

In related news, the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Nutrition Working Group has released a scientific review⁶ that examines the role of nutrition in the development of sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass).
Sarcopenia affects about 10 percent of those over 60, with higher rates as age advances. It may seem like common sense that if you don't use your muscles, they'll eventually atrophy away, yet so many people fail to apply this information. The older you get, the faster your muscles atrophy if you're not regularly engaging in appropriate exercise. However, dietary factors are also at play. According to the authors:
“A loss of fast twitch fibers, glycation of proteins, and insulin resistance may play an important role in the loss of muscle strength and development of sarcopenia.”
As I keep repeating, insulin resistance caused by excessive sugar consumption is at the root of virtually every disease and health ailment you can think of, and that includes age-related muscle loss. In fact, if your insulin receptors are insensitive, the mTOR mechanism, which is part of the insulin pathway and builds protein in your muscles, remains inactivated, making muscle wasting more or less inevitable. So, needless to say, it's very important to keep your insulin levels low to avoid becoming insulin resistant — not just for your overall health, but also to maintain healthy muscle.

Nutritional Factors that help Preserve Muscle Mass, Strength and Performance in Seniors

The IOF review identified a number of important dietary factors shown to have a beneficial impact on the maintenance of muscle mass with advancing age, as well as the treatment of sarcopenia. These include:
Protein: The authors suggest an intake of 1.0-1.2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day to maintain optimal muscle and bone health in seniors who do not have severely impaired renal function.
This is more than the recommendations issued by Dr. Ron Rosedale, who believes one gram of protein per kilo of leanbody weight is sufficient for muscle maintenance and repair without detrimentally triggering the mTor pathway, which he believes ma play a role in the development of cancer.
So if you are really lean, the recommendation is close but if you are obese you could be consuming far too much protein based on the IOF recommendation. However if your goal is to increase muscle mass, then the extra protein would make sense.
Whey protein is an excellent choice of protein for a number of reasons, but in part because it increases GLP-1, a satiety peptide that promotes healthy insulin secretion, and helps your insulin work more effectively. Just use the dose of protein you feel is appropriate for your needs. 20 grams if you want to follow lower protein Dr. Rosedale approach and double that if you want to increase muscle growth.
Vitamin D: The authors recommend optimizing vitamin D levels through exposure to sunlight and/or supplementation if required.
Avoiding dietary acid loads: Acid-producing foods such as meats and grains can have a detrimental impact on musculoscletal health when consumed in excess, and especially in combination with insufficient intake of vegetables and fruits, which have an alkalinizing effect. The authors recommend increasing consumption of vegetables to help prevent sarcopenia
Vitamin B12 and/or folic acid
According to Dr. Ambrish Mithal, co-author and Chair and Head of Endocrinology and Diabetes division at Medanta, New Delhi⁷:
"Strategies to reduce the numbers of falls and fractures within our ageing populations must include measures to prevent sarcopenia. At present, the available evidence suggests that combining resistance training with optimal nutritional status has a synergistic effect in preventing and treating sarcopenia.”

Other Beneficial Supplements for Optimal Muscle Performance

Two additional supplements that can help optimize muscle performance, regardless of your age, are:
Carnosine in the form of beta-alanine: Carnosine is a pluripotent dipeptide composed of two amino acids (beta-alanine and histadine), found most notably in your muscles, where it helps buffer lactic acids and serves as a potent antioxidant that can help quell muscle inflammation. Most studies find that if you want to increase athletic performance with carnosine, your best bet is to use beta-alanine instead, since beta-alanine appears to be the rate limiting amino acid in the formation of carnosine.
While you can easily purchase these as supplements, I do NOT recommend doing that. It is far better to get them from whole foods. The foods with the highest amount of useful dietary dipeptides like carnosine would be animal proteins, like eggs, whey protein, poultry and beef.
Astaxanthin: A phenomenally potent antioxidant that has been shown to help improve muscle endurance, workout performance and recovery. It also reduces inflammation from all causes, including workout injuries, and even enhances your ability to metabolize fat.

How Whole Body Vibration Training Prevents Muscle-Wasting

Jumping back to where we started, by stimulating your fast- and super-fast muscle fibers, Whole Body Vibration training using a Power Plate appears to be very helpful for preventing and/or reversing age-related muscle wasting. It will also kick-start your pituitary gland into making more human growth hormone (HGH), which plays an important part in promoting overall health and longevity.
WBV is a truly revolutionary approach to fitness because it addresses your neuromuscular system as a whole, rather than one limb or muscle group at a time. Not to mention it's time efficient, allowing you to trim off several precious hours per week from your workout time. When used together with my Peak Fitness program, which includes high intensity interval training; a series of powerful high-intensity burst-type exercises, you can complete your entire workout a fraction of the time you'd have to spend on traditional workouts.
WBV training using the Power Plate is really the perfect complement to high intensity interval training to build strength, shed excess fat, and improve athletic performance. Both of these techniques also help you produce growth hormone (HGH) naturally. To learn more, please see this previous article.

It’s Never Too Late to Start Exercising

As you can see, age-related muscle wasting and bone loss doesn't have to happen to you... Following the advice detailed above can go a long way toward maintaining healthy bones and muscle mass as you age.
The earlier you start, the better, but remember, you are never too old to start exercising. Research shows that, no matter your age, you stand to gain significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity through exercise. My mom didn't start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 78, she has gained significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.
And, if you’re presently incapable of engaging in aerobic exercise, using Whole Body Vibration training may be just the thing to help you get more active... If you're still on the fence about starting an exercise program, there's no time like the present. I guarantee it will make a major difference in your energy level, self-esteem and probably your entire outlook on life. It is really THAT powerful, whether you're 18 years old or 80!

About Dr Kevin Lau

Surprising Health Hazards Associated with All-Fruit Diet

By Dr. Mercola

Fruits are loaded with healthy antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which is why eating them in moderation is fine for healthy people. However, many benefit by restricting their fruit intake.
Fructose, a simple sugar found in fruit, is preferentially metabolized to fat in your liver, and eating large amounts has been linked to negative metabolic and endocrine effects. So eating very large amounts – or worse, nothing but fruit – can logically increase your risk of a number of health conditions, from insulin and leptin resistance to cancer.
For example, research has shown that pancreatic tumor cells use fructose, specifically, to divide and proliferate, thus speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer.
As a general health rule, I recommend limiting your total fructose consumption to about 25 grams per day on average, and that includes fructose from fruit. However, if you have insulin resistance, heart disease, cancer or high blood pressure, you may want to cut it down to 15 grams or less.

Kutcher Lands in Hospital After Adopting All-Fruit Diet

Actor Ashton Kutcher recently disclosed health issues brought on by following an all-fruit diet,¹ adopted in preparation to play the character of Steve Jobs in the upcoming film “Jobs,” due out April 19.
Jobs had adopted an all-fruit diet in his younger days, and even the brand he co-founded – Apple – was a nod to his dietary obsession. Kutcher recently told USA Today:²
"First of all, the fruitarian diet can lead to like severe issues. I went to the hospital like two days before we started shooting the movie. I was like doubled over in pain. My pancreas levels were completely out of whack. It was really terrifying ... considering everything."
The “everything” is likely a reference to pancreatic cancer – the disease that killedSteve Jobs on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56. Even though Jobs consumed a fruitarian diet years before he contracted his pancreatic cancer, there could be some relationship.

Why Large Amounts of Fruit May Not Be Healthy

While people are becoming increasingly aware of the connection between excessive fructose consumption and obesity and chronic disease, many forget that fruit is a source of fructose as well. Many tend to believe that as long as fruit is natural and raw they can have unlimited quantities without experiencing any adverse metabolic effects.
Eliminating processed foods and soda – which are loaded with high fructose corn syrup – and replacing it with an all-fruit diet is likely not going to improve your health. As Marisa Moore, registered dietician and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics told CNN Health:³
“When you only eat fruit, you're excluding a lot of valuable nutrients from your diet. Protein is one of the main ones that comes to mind... Protein acts like a building block for your muscles and skin and organs. The same goes for fats. Although they often get demonized, fats play an important role in our hormone levels and brain function.”
It’s important to consider ALL sources of fructose, and to try to limit your total consumption if you want to optimize your health. Granted, fruits contain beneficial dietary fibers, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which is why they’re an important part of a healthy diet – as long as they’re eaten in moderation. I believe most people would benefit by replacing the fruit with 50-70 percent of their calories from healthy fat. You also need moderate amounts of high quality protein.
An all-fruit diet is essentially an all-fructose diet, and this is bound to spell disaster for your health, at least long-term. Studies have shown that fructose can induce:
Impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and diabetes Elevated triglycerides Abdominal obesity
Leptin resistance Inflammation and oxidative stress Endothelial dysfunction
Microvascular disease Hyperuricemia Renal (kidney) damage
Fatty liver disease High blood pressure Metabolic syndrome

The Fructose Pancreatic Cancer Connection

Pancreatic cancer is one of the faster spreading cancers; only about four percent of patients can expect to survive five years after their diagnosis. Each year, about 44,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S., and 37,000 people die of the disease. Cancer of the pancreas has a terrible prognosis--half of all patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer die within 10 months of the diagnosis; half of those in whom it has metastasized die within six months.
Your pancreas contains two types of glands: exocrine glands that produce enzymes that break down fats and proteins, and endocrine glands that make hormones like insulin that regulate sugar in your blood.
Steve Jobs died of tumors originating in the endocrine glands, which are among the rarer forms of pancreatic cancer. His cancer was detected during an abdominal scan in October 2003, as Fortune magazine reported in a 2008 cover story.⁴ He reportedly spent nine months on "alternative therapies," including what Fortune called "a special diet,” although there was no mention of what type of diet this might have been. In 2004, after the cancer had spread, Jobs opted for surgery. Unfortunately, it did not cure him.
Five years later, he underwent an experimental procedure called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), which involves delivering radiation to tumor cells by attaching one of two radioactive isotopes to a drug that mimics somatostatin, the hormone that regulates the entire endocrine system and the secretion of other hormones. This treatment also failed. After having a liver transplant, Jobs succumbed to the cancer in 2011.
Interestingly enough, research published in 2010⁵ suggests fructose may have a particularly significant impact on pancreatic cancer.
Insulin production is one of your pancreas’ main functions, used by your body to process blood sugar, and, in the laboratory, insulin promotes the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. However, there’s more to it than that. The research in question showed that the way the different sugars are metabolized (using different metabolic pathways) is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding pancreatic cancer cells and making them proliferate. According to the authors:
"Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer – a finding that Dr. Warburg received a Nobel Prize for over 90 years ago. Tumor cells do thrive on glucose and do not possess the metabolic machinery to burn fat. However, the cells used fructosefor cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. If this difference isn't of major consequence, then I don't know what is. Whether you're simply interested in preventing cancer, or have cancer and want to live longer, you ignore these facts at your own risk.
There’s reasonable cause to suspect that if your body maintains high levels of insulin, you increase the pancreatic cancer's ability to survive and grow. In fact, researchers now believe that up to a third of all types of cancers may be caused by diet and lifestyle. So if you want to prevent cancer, or want to treat cancer, it is imperative that you keep your insulin levels as low as possible.

Should You Eliminate Fruit from Your Diet?

Short answer, no, it wouldn’t be wise to eliminate fruit entirely. Fruit is definitely a source of fructose, and one that can harm your health if you eat it in vast quantities, but eating small amounts of whole fruits is fine if you are healthy.
In vegetables and fruits, the fructose is mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all of which help moderate the negative metabolic effects. However, if you suffer with any fructose-related health issues, such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, obesity or cancer, you would be wise to limit your total fructose consumption to 15 grams of fructose per day. This includes fructose from ALL sources, including whole fruit.
If you are not insulin resistant, you may increase this to 25 grams of total fructose per day on average.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you'd consume about 15 grams per day. Today the average is 73 grams per day which is nearly 500 percent higher a dose and our bodies simply can't tolerate that type of biochemical abuse. So please, carefully add your fruits based on the following table to keep your total fructose below 15-25 grams per day, depending on your current health status.

Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose
Limes	1 medium	0
Lemons	1 medium	0.6
Cranberries	1 cup	0.7
Passion fruit	1 medium	0.9
Prune	1 medium	1.2
Guava	2 medium	2.2
Date (Deglet Noor style)	1 medium	2.6
Cantaloupe	1/8 of med. melon	2.8
Raspberries	1 cup	3.0
Clementine	1 medium	3.4
Kiwifruit	1 medium	3.4
Blackberries	1 cup	3.5
Star fruit	1 medium	3.6
Cherries, sweet	10	3.8
Strawberries	1 cup	3.8
Cherries, sour	1 cup	4.0
Pineapple	1 slice (3.5" x .75")	4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red	1/2 medium	4.3

Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose
Boysenberries	1 cup	4.6
Tangerine/mandarin orange	1 medium	4.8
Nectarine	1 medium	5.4
Peach	1 medium	5.9
Orange (navel)	1 medium	6.1
Papaya	1/2 medium	6.3
Honeydew	1/8 of med. melon	6.7
Banana	1 medium	7.1
Blueberries	1 cup	7.4
Date (Medjool)	1 medium	7.7
Apple (composite)	1 medium	9.5
Persimmon	1 medium	10.6
Watermelon	1/16 med. melon	11.3
Pear	1 medium	11.8
Raisins	1/4 cup	12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red)	1 cup	12.4
Mango	1/2 medium	16.2
Apricots, dried	1 cup	16.4
Figs, dried	1 cup	23.0

How to Determine Your Individual Susceptibility to Fructose Damage

As already stated, those who need to be careful about their fruit intake are people with high insulin levels. You can measure your fasting insulin level to find out for sure, but if you have any of the following problems it is highly likely you have insulin resistance syndrome:
Overweight
High Cholesterol
High Blood Pressure
Diabetes
Yeast Infections
Besides that, you can also use your uric acid levels as a marker for your susceptibility to fructose damage, as some people may be able to process fructose more efficiently than others. The higher your uric acid, the more sensitive you are to the effects of fructose. The safest range of uric acid appears to be between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), and there appears to be a steady relationship between uric acid levels and blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, even down to the range of 3 to 4 mg/dl.
According to Dr. Richard Johnson, the ideal uric acid level is probably around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.
If you are one of those who believes that fruit is healthy no matter how much you eat, I would strongly encourage you to have your uric acid level checked to find out how sensitive you are to fructose. Eat the amount of fruit you feel is right for you for a few weeks and then check your uric acid level and see if your levels are healthy. If they are elevated you might try reducing the fruit to recommended levels and rechecking your uric acid level. Many who are overweight likely have uric acid levels well above 5.5. Some may even be closer to 10 or above. Measuring your uric acid levels is a very practical way to determine just how strict you need to be when it comes to your fructose – and fruit -- consumption.

Is there Such a Thing as an Ideal Diet for Everyone?

Nutritional requirements can vary wildly from one person to the next, which is why I’ve been a longtime proponent of eating in accordance with your nutritional type. For example, if you’re a protein type, fruits are generally not beneficial for you with the exception of coconut, which has a higher fat content that is beneficial for protein types. On the other hand, carbohydrate types tend to fare well with fruit and can safely consume moderate amounts. This is an important distinction, and everyone should try to eat primarily the specific fruits that are best for their unique biochemistry.
However, many find nutritional typing to be too complex. So to simplify matters, while still allowing for a fully personalized program, I recently updated and revised my Nutritional Plan. It consists of three levels, from beginners to advanced, and covers the basic requirements of a healthy diet.
Keep in mind that emerging evidence suggests your diet should be at least half healthy fat, and possibly as high as 70 percent. My personal diet is about 60-70 percent healthy fat, and both Paul Jaminet, PhD., author of Perfect Health Diet, and Dr. Ron Rosedale, M.D., an expert on treating diabetes through diet, agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat. It's important to understand that your body requires saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as meat, dairy, certain oils, and tropical plants like coconut) for optimal functioning.
When you take this into account, it’s easy to see that an all-fruit diet could wreak absolute havoc with your health.
Keep in mind that frequent hunger may be a major clue that you're not eating correctly. Not only is it an indication that you're consuming the wrong types of food, but it's also a sign that you're likely consuming them in lopsided ratios for your individual biochemistry. Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and feel ravenous, remember this is a sign that you haven't replaced them with sufficient amounts of fat. You do want to make sure you're adding the correct types of fat though, such as:
Olives and Olive oil Coconuts and coconut oil Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans Organic pastured egg yolks Avocados
Grass-fed meats Palm oil Unheated organic nut oils

If You Seek Optimal Health, Pay Careful Attention to Your Insulin Levels

Three lifestyle issues keep popping up on the radar when you look at what’s contributing to pancreatic cancer: sugar intake, lack of exercise, and vitamin D deficiency. Obesity and physical inactivity makes your body less sensitive to the glucose-lowering effects of insulin. Diminished sensitivity to insulin leads to higher blood levels of insulin, which in turn can increase your risk of pancreatic cancer.
It’s a no-brainer that an all-fruit diet can seriously jeopardize your insulin sensitivity, thereby raising your risk of any number of health problems, including pancreatic problems. It’s simply FAR too much fructose for most people. I personally developed diabetes when I tried the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type" diet, which included eating large amounts of fruit for breakfast. So please, be careful of any diet that seems to extreme, and remember the human body NEEDS healthful fats and high quality protein for proper functioning.
Remember to listen to your body over the long term to guide you as to the best food selections. If your energy level deceases, you have a difficult time maintaining your ideal weight or are hungry all the time, there is a good chance that you have yet to find the optimal fuel for your body. As for fruits, use caution if you have any kind of insulin related health issues, as discussed above, and limit your total fructose consumption to 15-25 grams of fructose per day, depending on your health status.

About Dr Kevin Lau

By Dr. Mercola

Fruits are loaded with healthy antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which is why eating them in moderation is fine for healthy people. However, many benefit by restricting their fruit intake.
Fructose, a simple sugar found in fruit, is preferentially metabolized to fat in your liver, and eating large amounts has been linked to negative metabolic and endocrine effects. So eating very large amounts – or worse, nothing but fruit – can logically increase your risk of a number of health conditions, from insulin and leptin resistance to cancer.
For example, research has shown that pancreatic tumor cells use fructose, specifically, to divide and proliferate, thus speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer.
As a general health rule, I recommend limiting your total fructose consumption to about 25 grams per day on average, and that includes fructose from fruit. However, if you have insulin resistance, heart disease, cancer or high blood pressure, you may want to cut it down to 15 grams or less.

Kutcher Lands in Hospital After Adopting All-Fruit Diet

Actor Ashton Kutcher recently disclosed health issues brought on by following an all-fruit diet,¹ adopted in preparation to play the character of Steve Jobs in the upcoming film “Jobs,” due out April 19.
Jobs had adopted an all-fruit diet in his younger days, and even the brand he co-founded – Apple – was a nod to his dietary obsession. Kutcher recently told USA Today:²
"First of all, the fruitarian diet can lead to like severe issues. I went to the hospital like two days before we started shooting the movie. I was like doubled over in pain. My pancreas levels were completely out of whack. It was really terrifying ... considering everything."
The “everything” is likely a reference to pancreatic cancer – the disease that killedSteve Jobs on October 5, 2011, at the age of 56. Even though Jobs consumed a fruitarian diet years before he contracted his pancreatic cancer, there could be some relationship.

Why Large Amounts of Fruit May Not Be Healthy

While people are becoming increasingly aware of the connection between excessive fructose consumption and obesity and chronic disease, many forget that fruit is a source of fructose as well. Many tend to believe that as long as fruit is natural and raw they can have unlimited quantities without experiencing any adverse metabolic effects.
Eliminating processed foods and soda – which are loaded with high fructose corn syrup – and replacing it with an all-fruit diet is likely not going to improve your health. As Marisa Moore, registered dietician and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics told CNN Health:³
“When you only eat fruit, you're excluding a lot of valuable nutrients from your diet. Protein is one of the main ones that comes to mind... Protein acts like a building block for your muscles and skin and organs. The same goes for fats. Although they often get demonized, fats play an important role in our hormone levels and brain function.”
It’s important to consider ALL sources of fructose, and to try to limit your total consumption if you want to optimize your health. Granted, fruits contain beneficial dietary fibers, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, which is why they’re an important part of a healthy diet – as long as they’re eaten in moderation. I believe most people would benefit by replacing the fruit with 50-70 percent of their calories from healthy fat. You also need moderate amounts of high quality protein.
An all-fruit diet is essentially an all-fructose diet, and this is bound to spell disaster for your health, at least long-term. Studies have shown that fructose can induce:
Impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and diabetes Elevated triglycerides Abdominal obesity
Leptin resistance Inflammation and oxidative stress Endothelial dysfunction
Microvascular disease Hyperuricemia Renal (kidney) damage
Fatty liver disease High blood pressure Metabolic syndrome

The Fructose Pancreatic Cancer Connection

Pancreatic cancer is one of the faster spreading cancers; only about four percent of patients can expect to survive five years after their diagnosis. Each year, about 44,000 new cases are diagnosed in the U.S., and 37,000 people die of the disease. Cancer of the pancreas has a terrible prognosis--half of all patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer die within 10 months of the diagnosis; half of those in whom it has metastasized die within six months.
Your pancreas contains two types of glands: exocrine glands that produce enzymes that break down fats and proteins, and endocrine glands that make hormones like insulin that regulate sugar in your blood.
Steve Jobs died of tumors originating in the endocrine glands, which are among the rarer forms of pancreatic cancer. His cancer was detected during an abdominal scan in October 2003, as Fortune magazine reported in a 2008 cover story.⁴ He reportedly spent nine months on "alternative therapies," including what Fortune called "a special diet,” although there was no mention of what type of diet this might have been. In 2004, after the cancer had spread, Jobs opted for surgery. Unfortunately, it did not cure him.
Five years later, he underwent an experimental procedure called peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), which involves delivering radiation to tumor cells by attaching one of two radioactive isotopes to a drug that mimics somatostatin, the hormone that regulates the entire endocrine system and the secretion of other hormones. This treatment also failed. After having a liver transplant, Jobs succumbed to the cancer in 2011.
Interestingly enough, research published in 2010⁵ suggests fructose may have a particularly significant impact on pancreatic cancer.
Insulin production is one of your pancreas’ main functions, used by your body to process blood sugar, and, in the laboratory, insulin promotes the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. However, there’s more to it than that. The research in question showed that the way the different sugars are metabolized (using different metabolic pathways) is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding pancreatic cancer cells and making them proliferate. According to the authors:
"Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different... These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation."
The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer – a finding that Dr. Warburg received a Nobel Prize for over 90 years ago. Tumor cells do thrive on glucose and do not possess the metabolic machinery to burn fat. However, the cells used fructosefor cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. If this difference isn't of major consequence, then I don't know what is. Whether you're simply interested in preventing cancer, or have cancer and want to live longer, you ignore these facts at your own risk.
There’s reasonable cause to suspect that if your body maintains high levels of insulin, you increase the pancreatic cancer's ability to survive and grow. In fact, researchers now believe that up to a third of all types of cancers may be caused by diet and lifestyle. So if you want to prevent cancer, or want to treat cancer, it is imperative that you keep your insulin levels as low as possible.

Should You Eliminate Fruit from Your Diet?

Short answer, no, it wouldn’t be wise to eliminate fruit entirely. Fruit is definitely a source of fructose, and one that can harm your health if you eat it in vast quantities, but eating small amounts of whole fruits is fine if you are healthy.
In vegetables and fruits, the fructose is mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all of which help moderate the negative metabolic effects. However, if you suffer with any fructose-related health issues, such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, obesity or cancer, you would be wise to limit your total fructose consumption to 15 grams of fructose per day. This includes fructose from ALL sources, including whole fruit.
If you are not insulin resistant, you may increase this to 25 grams of total fructose per day on average.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you'd consume about 15 grams per day. Today the average is 73 grams per day which is nearly 500 percent higher a dose and our bodies simply can't tolerate that type of biochemical abuse. So please, carefully add your fruits based on the following table to keep your total fructose below 15-25 grams per day, depending on your current health status.

Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose
Limes	1 medium	0
Lemons	1 medium	0.6
Cranberries	1 cup	0.7
Passion fruit	1 medium	0.9
Prune	1 medium	1.2
Guava	2 medium	2.2
Date (Deglet Noor style)	1 medium	2.6
Cantaloupe	1/8 of med. melon	2.8
Raspberries	1 cup	3.0
Clementine	1 medium	3.4
Kiwifruit	1 medium	3.4
Blackberries	1 cup	3.5
Star fruit	1 medium	3.6
Cherries, sweet	10	3.8
Strawberries	1 cup	3.8
Cherries, sour	1 cup	4.0
Pineapple	1 slice (3.5" x .75")	4.0
Grapefruit, pink or red	1/2 medium	4.3

Fruit	Serving Size	Grams of Fructose
Boysenberries	1 cup	4.6
Tangerine/mandarin orange	1 medium	4.8
Nectarine	1 medium	5.4
Peach	1 medium	5.9
Orange (navel)	1 medium	6.1
Papaya	1/2 medium	6.3
Honeydew	1/8 of med. melon	6.7
Banana	1 medium	7.1
Blueberries	1 cup	7.4
Date (Medjool)	1 medium	7.7
Apple (composite)	1 medium	9.5
Persimmon	1 medium	10.6
Watermelon	1/16 med. melon	11.3
Pear	1 medium	11.8
Raisins	1/4 cup	12.3
Grapes, seedless (green or red)	1 cup	12.4
Mango	1/2 medium	16.2
Apricots, dried	1 cup	16.4
Figs, dried	1 cup	23.0

How to Determine Your Individual Susceptibility to Fructose Damage

As already stated, those who need to be careful about their fruit intake are people with high insulin levels. You can measure your fasting insulin level to find out for sure, but if you have any of the following problems it is highly likely you have insulin resistance syndrome:
Overweight
High Cholesterol
High Blood Pressure
Diabetes
Yeast Infections
Besides that, you can also use your uric acid levels as a marker for your susceptibility to fructose damage, as some people may be able to process fructose more efficiently than others. The higher your uric acid, the more sensitive you are to the effects of fructose. The safest range of uric acid appears to be between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), and there appears to be a steady relationship between uric acid levels and blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, even down to the range of 3 to 4 mg/dl.
According to Dr. Richard Johnson, the ideal uric acid level is probably around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.
If you are one of those who believes that fruit is healthy no matter how much you eat, I would strongly encourage you to have your uric acid level checked to find out how sensitive you are to fructose. Eat the amount of fruit you feel is right for you for a few weeks and then check your uric acid level and see if your levels are healthy. If they are elevated you might try reducing the fruit to recommended levels and rechecking your uric acid level. Many who are overweight likely have uric acid levels well above 5.5. Some may even be closer to 10 or above. Measuring your uric acid levels is a very practical way to determine just how strict you need to be when it comes to your fructose – and fruit -- consumption.

Is there Such a Thing as an Ideal Diet for Everyone?

Nutritional requirements can vary wildly from one person to the next, which is why I’ve been a longtime proponent of eating in accordance with your nutritional type. For example, if you’re a protein type, fruits are generally not beneficial for you with the exception of coconut, which has a higher fat content that is beneficial for protein types. On the other hand, carbohydrate types tend to fare well with fruit and can safely consume moderate amounts. This is an important distinction, and everyone should try to eat primarily the specific fruits that are best for their unique biochemistry.
However, many find nutritional typing to be too complex. So to simplify matters, while still allowing for a fully personalized program, I recently updated and revised my Nutritional Plan. It consists of three levels, from beginners to advanced, and covers the basic requirements of a healthy diet.
Keep in mind that emerging evidence suggests your diet should be at least half healthy fat, and possibly as high as 70 percent. My personal diet is about 60-70 percent healthy fat, and both Paul Jaminet, PhD., author of Perfect Health Diet, and Dr. Ron Rosedale, M.D., an expert on treating diabetes through diet, agree that the ideal diet includes somewhere between 50-70 percent fat. It's important to understand that your body requires saturated fats from animal and vegetable sources (such as meat, dairy, certain oils, and tropical plants like coconut) for optimal functioning.
When you take this into account, it’s easy to see that an all-fruit diet could wreak absolute havoc with your health.
Keep in mind that frequent hunger may be a major clue that you're not eating correctly. Not only is it an indication that you're consuming the wrong types of food, but it's also a sign that you're likely consuming them in lopsided ratios for your individual biochemistry. Fat is far more satiating than carbs, so if you have cut down on carbs and feel ravenous, remember this is a sign that you haven't replaced them with sufficient amounts of fat. You do want to make sure you're adding the correct types of fat though, such as:
Olives and Olive oil Coconuts and coconut oil Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans Organic pastured egg yolks Avocados
Grass-fed meats Palm oil Unheated organic nut oils

If You Seek Optimal Health, Pay Careful Attention to Your Insulin Levels

Three lifestyle issues keep popping up on the radar when you look at what’s contributing to pancreatic cancer: sugar intake, lack of exercise, and vitamin D deficiency. Obesity and physical inactivity makes your body less sensitive to the glucose-lowering effects of insulin. Diminished sensitivity to insulin leads to higher blood levels of insulin, which in turn can increase your risk of pancreatic cancer.
It’s a no-brainer that an all-fruit diet can seriously jeopardize your insulin sensitivity, thereby raising your risk of any number of health problems, including pancreatic problems. It’s simply FAR too much fructose for most people. I personally developed diabetes when I tried the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type" diet, which included eating large amounts of fruit for breakfast. So please, be careful of any diet that seems to extreme, and remember the human body NEEDS healthful fats and high quality protein for proper functioning.
Remember to listen to your body over the long term to guide you as to the best food selections. If your energy level deceases, you have a difficult time maintaining your ideal weight or are hungry all the time, there is a good chance that you have yet to find the optimal fuel for your body. As for fruits, use caution if you have any kind of insulin related health issues, as discussed above, and limit your total fructose consumption to 15-25 grams of fructose per day, depending on your health status.

About Dr Kevin Lau

Dr Kevin Lau DC is the founder of Health In Your Hands, a series of tools for Scoliosis prevention and treatment. The set includes his book Your Plan for Natural Scoliosis Prevention and Treatment, a companion Scoliosis Exercises for Prevention and Correction DVD and the innovative new iPhone application ScolioTrack. Dr Kevin Lau is a graduate in Doctor of Chiropractic from RMIT University in Melbourne Australia and Masters in Holistic Nutrition. He is a member of International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT), the leading international society on conservative treatment of spinal deformities. In 2006 I was awarded the "Best Health-care Provider Awards" by the largest Newspaper publication in Singapore on October 18 2006 as well as being interviewed on Primetime Channel News Asia as well as other TV and Radio. For more information on Dr Kevin Lau, watch his interviews or get a free sneak peek of his book, go to:

Website - http://www.hiyh.info.
ScolioTrack Website - http://www.ScolioTrack.com.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HealthInYourHands.
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/DrKevinLau.
Twitter - http://www.Twitter.com/DrKevinLau.

About Dr Kevin Lau

Richard III, scoliosis and me

Seeing Richard III's skeleton, I felt a shiver of empathic pain. Scoliosis twisted both our spines

By Julie Myerson

The remains of King Richard III, found beneath a Leicester car park. Photograph: University of Leicester/Corbis

The discovery of the bones of Richard III, lying quietly under a Leicester city council car park for 500-odd years, is historically fascinating and imaginatively compelling. But, inspecting the newspaper photograph of those meticulously laid-out, gingery and desiccated human remains, I am startled by another sensation: that of raw, physical connection. Because Richard and I share not only our height – a surprisingly tall five foot eight – but also our skeletal deformity: scoliosis. Though his was far more pronounced (and therefore disabling) than mine, still, just like him, my adult life has been dogged by an "S" curvature of the spine.

I was in my late teens, an energetic ballet and swimming type, when one day without warning my back went into spasm and I found myself crunched over in agony. I think I saw a chiropractor and that was that. Except that over the next few years, it only took one wrong move – sneezing, laughing, reaching for a drink of water – and I'd be suddenly skewed, immobile and in pain for days.

At 28, I had a baby. Then – rather quickly – another, and another. By the time the smallest was a few months old, I rarely had a day when I could move freely and without pain. Life went on – I still went to work – but I was a different person, rarely upright, never far from a bag of frozen peas, entertaining my children from the bed or the floor.

Finally, I had an MRI scan. The consultant grabbed a plastic spinal column off his desk and, with one vicious twist, bent it out of shape. "This is you," he said, demonstrating how my "mild to moderate" scoliosis was wearing out my vertebrae. I swallowed and asked him if swimming might help. He shrugged: "Not a lot. You'll find you get progressively more immobile as you get older." I was 31 years old. I sat in the hospital car park and cried.

In fact, I was lucky. An insightful friend insisted I try Pilates and today, after more than 20 years of twice-weekly classes, my scoliosis is hugely less pronounced – mild rather than moderate – and my fear of immobility mostly laid to rest. On a bad day, one shoulder and one hip will be noticeably higher than the other, and I'll ache a bit (all right, a lot). But I stretch every day – every hour if I have to – and at 52, I rather like that I'm now comparatively supple for my age.

And though over the years my scoliosis has frightened, exhausted and (frankly) enraged me, I now wouldn't want to be without it. It's taught me patience and – in constructive and unexpected ways – about pain. It's taught me to observe myself with curiosity and kindness, rather than tension and terror. More than anything, though, it's taken me on this wild, uncompromising journey through my body, and shown me how to relish the light, unthinking joy of movement. The truth is, I don't mind being like this. My deformity has become my friend.

Still, looking at what's left of the poor Plantagenet king, I find it hard to view that ancient, twisted snake of vertebrae without a shiver of empathic pain. Our bones are everything, the very core of us. They carry us through life – far more viscerally individual than those other pumping organs we can scarcely visualise. And because they (literally) create the shape and poise of us, even long-dead ones seem to contain clues of the living people we once were.

I know enough about living with scoliosis to understand that a curve like his would have informed and warped every moment of the day. He would have woken stiff and skewed, only to have to negotiate his way through a day of disability and paralysing spasm. Poor man. It touches me deeply to see his deformity – his and mine – lying there visible and exposed and still somehow pungent, when everything else has been rinsed by time and decay.

Seeing Richard III's skeleton, I felt a shiver of empathic pain. Scoliosis twisted both our spines

By Julie Myerson

The remains of King Richard III, found beneath a Leicester car park. Photograph: University of Leicester/Corbis

Prevent Back Pain and Other Common Problems by Sitting Correctly

By Dr. Mercola

From smart phones to computers to iPads, our beloved electronic devices are crippling our posture and contributing to weight gain, back pain, and joint problems like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Fortunately, there are a few strategies and exercises – such as changing your position often and “reorganizing” your torso – that can address a lot of these potential problems and help keep you more fit and properly aligned.
As miserable as back pain is, that may be the least of your worries if you spend a significant portion of your time on your duff. Sitting may actually cut years off your life. Lack of exercise is sitting’s evil accomplice. The more you sit, the less your body wants to move.
According to a study in the British Medical Journal,¹ reducing the average time you spend sitting to less than three hours per day could increase your life expectancy by two years, which is a significant decrease from the 4.5 to 5 hours per day the average American now spends on a chair or sofa.
An analysis of 18 studies showed that people who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least.² Sitting has actually joined smoking and obesity as an important risk factor for chronic disease.

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

A number of studies have investigated the health ramifications of a sedentary lifestyle. The research linking too much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death is quite noteworthy:
Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.³
A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting, compared to those who sat infrequently.⁴
According to an Australian study, sitting time is a predictor of weight gain among women, even after controlling for calories consumed and leisurely physical activity, such as exercise.⁵
People who use a computer for at least 11 hours per week or watch TV for more than 21 hours per week are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for more than 5 hours per week.⁶
Your risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity has only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.⁷

Going to the Gym May NOT Be Enough

Interestingly, research has also suggested a regular fitness regimen might be insufficient to counteract the effects of excessively sedentary habits during the remaining hours of the day, due to the adverse metabolic impact of sitting. Especially if the fitness regimen is focused around equipment that puts you back in a seated position like a recumbent bike or rowing machine. A 2009 study⁸ highlighted much of the contemporary evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems.
According to the authors:
"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting – the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours."
In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week, you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."
According to a New York Times article,⁹ after just an hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in your body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting slows your body’s metabolism of glucose and decreases your HDL, which is the type of lipid you want MORE of, instead of less. This explains why those who sit habitually for extended periods of time have higher risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

The Key To Sitting Successfully: Stand Up

The basic remedy is to get up and do a few simple exercises – but you have to do this frequently if you spend a lot of your life in a chair. Most back, neck, and other muscle pains are related to imbalanced absorption of force throughout your body, created by working in unnatural positions for extended periods. When you teach your body to establish and repeat correct positioning, the pain often goes away. You must correct your foot, pelvis, torso, shoulder and neck positions as these are all required for good posture and balance. When these core areas are positioned improperly, you will likely develop pain first in those areas, with other areas soon to follow. As the center of your body changes its structure to adapt to the demands you ask it to do most frequently, the extremities will follow..
For example, a great deal of carpal tunnel issues do not result solely from improper wrist position, but from forward rotation of the shoulder. The forward rotation of the shoulder is directly connected to the position of your lower back, and pelvis. As the shoulder changes position all of the muscles and nerves below the shoulder are adversely affected. The result is symptoms within the wrist that cannot be fixed at the wrist.
A basic remedy is to simply get up! But additionally, there are certain exercises you can perform to further reduce the adverse impact of sitting.
In the interview above, Kelly Starrett, popular mobility expert and physical therapist with Crossfit, shares some excellent tips for maintaining good posture while working for extended periods in a chair.¹⁰ The key is to change positions often – at least every 20 to 30 minutes – and maintain proper torso alignment, regardless of what position you’re in. Starrett recommends standing up often and doing some specific realignment exercises, which are actually quick and easy.
Sitting, especially while doing computer work or texting, tends to result in leaning forward with your head, neck, shoulders and upper back. The key is to teach your body to support itself in a more neutral position, without overcorrecting.

Realigning Your Body in Five Easy Steps

Starrett recommends a five-step series of body “reorganizations” or realignments, done in the following sequence:
Stand up with your with feet pointing straight forward or slightly inward.
In the interview Kelly recommends that we realign the pelvis by simply squeezing your butt tightly, we would like to add that this will be more effective for the majority of people if also told to internally rotate their feet 10-15 degrees (big toes slightly towards each other), roll feet to the outside of the arch and then try to pull the back of the legs together without the heels moving. This will allow the thigh and butt muscles to work together; the squeeze alone is otherwise less effective.
Create some tension in your core by slightly tightening your abdominals (this is not an extreme tightening – just to 20 percent of your max)
Correct your shoulder position by externally rotating (think of unscrewing) your shoulders and arms (rolling your shoulders back), which brings your shoulder blades closer together, your chest up and forward, and your thumbs pointing away from your body
While keeping your shoulders externally rotated, turn your hands back to neutral, so that your thumbs are now facing forward
These basic alignments can be applied no matter what position you’re in – whether you’re standing, sitting, kneeling, or anything in between. In the video, Starrett demonstrates exactly how to perform these simple corrections, making it much easier to visualize. If you practice these exercises regularly, you’ll be preventing many of the problems that commonly arise.
In case you’re wondering if you can just substitute a balance ball for your chair, there is little evidence for any benefit. Studies show minimal, if any, postural improvement, and one study even showed “spinal shrinkage” from using these balls as a chair.¹¹The apparatus you sit on is far less important than the positions in which you teach your body to sit.
However, the ergonomic revolution has led to the birth of some interesting desks and workstations that offer the option of standing up to work. Some workstations even have a treadmill underneath for walking. Sales of the “TredDesk” have reportedly grown tenfold since its introduction in 2008. There are a number of companies putting a lot of money into research and development in this area, and I suspect to see many more of these designs coming down the pike.

Foundation Training Exercises:

Foundation Training is another way to compensate for long hours spend sitting. Foundation training exercises are powerful simple structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture. This program was developed by Chiropractor Eric Goodman as a way to address his personal chronic back pain, and have been a great answer to the increasing physical challenges of modern society. As a starting point, Dr. Goodman suggests making the following adjustments to your body when sitting. These recommendations are not meant to replace the way you sit constantly, but to give you useful alternative positions to use. It is recommended that you try them often, as your body is likely in need:
Backrests tend to promote excessive rounding of the spine and push us into what's called an anterior head carriage. Sit upright on the front edge of a chair and practice the next 2 tips. At least 2/3 of your thigh should be off of the chair, and your knees should be no more than 6 inches apart while practicing.
When sitting, try to keep your chin behind your chest bone. When your chin is too far forward, you will inadvertently teach your hip flexors to remain abnormally short and you set yourself up for increased compression and degeneration.
An easy way to learn to lengthen your hip flexors without hyperextending your spine is to slowly increase the distance between your rib cage and pelvis while keeping your chin pulled in and down towards your throat. This is demonstrated in the last 5 minutes of the TED Talk listed above.
For more information on Foundation Training, please refer to my earlier article and interview with Dr. Goodman, as well as watching the videos below in which Dr. Goodman demonstrates two of his favorite exercises:..
Yet another type of exercise called Egoscue can also be helpful in mitigating the damage from excess sitting

Take Breaks from Sitting to Ground Yourself to the Earth

Another downside to sitting is the lack of contact with the Earth, since most of us are sitting indoors. Have you noticed how much better you feel when you walk barefoot on the Earth, whether it’s dirt or sand or grass?
Science has finally solved this mystery!
For most of our evolutionary history, humans have had continuous contact with the Earth, but this is certainly not the case today. We are separated from it by a barrier of asphalt, wood, rugs, plastics, and especially shoes. Living in direct contact with the Earthgrounds your body, producing beneficial electrophysiological changes that help protect you from potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields. Some of the EMFs closest to our bodies are those generated by the electronic devices that have practically become a modern appendage – like smart phones and iPads.
Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot/bare skin contact with the Earth. Research indicates Earth’s electrons are the ultimate antioxidants, acting aspowerful anti-inflammatories.
Chronic inflammation leads to a multitude of health problems. Therefore, reducing inflammation will help mitigate the negative effects of excessive sitting. Earthing (grounding) decreases the effect of the potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields that are emitted by those electronic devices we’ve come to depend on.
Bottom line: the more you can walk or stand barefoot upon the Earth, the healthier you will be. Whenever possible, take a moment to venture outside and plant your feet in the wet grass!
We are designed to move well, sit well and play well within our environment. It is up to us to teach our body to do these things as it is designed to. We can only deprive our body of what it requires for so long before it begins to rebel against us physically.

About Dr Kevin Lau

By Dr. Mercola

From smart phones to computers to iPads, our beloved electronic devices are crippling our posture and contributing to weight gain, back pain, and joint problems like carpal tunnel syndrome.
Fortunately, there are a few strategies and exercises – such as changing your position often and “reorganizing” your torso – that can address a lot of these potential problems and help keep you more fit and properly aligned.
As miserable as back pain is, that may be the least of your worries if you spend a significant portion of your time on your duff. Sitting may actually cut years off your life. Lack of exercise is sitting’s evil accomplice. The more you sit, the less your body wants to move.
According to a study in the British Medical Journal,¹ reducing the average time you spend sitting to less than three hours per day could increase your life expectancy by two years, which is a significant decrease from the 4.5 to 5 hours per day the average American now spends on a chair or sofa.
An analysis of 18 studies showed that people who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sat the least.² Sitting has actually joined smoking and obesity as an important risk factor for chronic disease.

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

A number of studies have investigated the health ramifications of a sedentary lifestyle. The research linking too much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death is quite noteworthy:
Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.³
A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting, compared to those who sat infrequently.⁴
According to an Australian study, sitting time is a predictor of weight gain among women, even after controlling for calories consumed and leisurely physical activity, such as exercise.⁵
People who use a computer for at least 11 hours per week or watch TV for more than 21 hours per week are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for more than 5 hours per week.⁶
Your risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity has only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.⁷

Going to the Gym May NOT Be Enough

Interestingly, research has also suggested a regular fitness regimen might be insufficient to counteract the effects of excessively sedentary habits during the remaining hours of the day, due to the adverse metabolic impact of sitting. Especially if the fitness regimen is focused around equipment that puts you back in a seated position like a recumbent bike or rowing machine. A 2009 study⁸ highlighted much of the contemporary evidence linking sitting with biomarkers of poor metabolic health, showing how total sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems.
According to the authors:
"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting – the activity that dominates most people's remaining 'non-exercise' waking hours."
In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week, you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch. Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."
According to a New York Times article,⁹ after just an hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat in your body declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting slows your body’s metabolism of glucose and decreases your HDL, which is the type of lipid you want MORE of, instead of less. This explains why those who sit habitually for extended periods of time have higher risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

The Key To Sitting Successfully: Stand Up

The basic remedy is to get up and do a few simple exercises – but you have to do this frequently if you spend a lot of your life in a chair. Most back, neck, and other muscle pains are related to imbalanced absorption of force throughout your body, created by working in unnatural positions for extended periods. When you teach your body to establish and repeat correct positioning, the pain often goes away. You must correct your foot, pelvis, torso, shoulder and neck positions as these are all required for good posture and balance. When these core areas are positioned improperly, you will likely develop pain first in those areas, with other areas soon to follow. As the center of your body changes its structure to adapt to the demands you ask it to do most frequently, the extremities will follow..
For example, a great deal of carpal tunnel issues do not result solely from improper wrist position, but from forward rotation of the shoulder. The forward rotation of the shoulder is directly connected to the position of your lower back, and pelvis. As the shoulder changes position all of the muscles and nerves below the shoulder are adversely affected. The result is symptoms within the wrist that cannot be fixed at the wrist.
A basic remedy is to simply get up! But additionally, there are certain exercises you can perform to further reduce the adverse impact of sitting.
In the interview above, Kelly Starrett, popular mobility expert and physical therapist with Crossfit, shares some excellent tips for maintaining good posture while working for extended periods in a chair.¹⁰ The key is to change positions often – at least every 20 to 30 minutes – and maintain proper torso alignment, regardless of what position you’re in. Starrett recommends standing up often and doing some specific realignment exercises, which are actually quick and easy.
Sitting, especially while doing computer work or texting, tends to result in leaning forward with your head, neck, shoulders and upper back. The key is to teach your body to support itself in a more neutral position, without overcorrecting.

Realigning Your Body in Five Easy Steps

Starrett recommends a five-step series of body “reorganizations” or realignments, done in the following sequence:
Stand up with your with feet pointing straight forward or slightly inward.
In the interview Kelly recommends that we realign the pelvis by simply squeezing your butt tightly, we would like to add that this will be more effective for the majority of people if also told to internally rotate their feet 10-15 degrees (big toes slightly towards each other), roll feet to the outside of the arch and then try to pull the back of the legs together without the heels moving. This will allow the thigh and butt muscles to work together; the squeeze alone is otherwise less effective.
Create some tension in your core by slightly tightening your abdominals (this is not an extreme tightening – just to 20 percent of your max)
Correct your shoulder position by externally rotating (think of unscrewing) your shoulders and arms (rolling your shoulders back), which brings your shoulder blades closer together, your chest up and forward, and your thumbs pointing away from your body
While keeping your shoulders externally rotated, turn your hands back to neutral, so that your thumbs are now facing forward
These basic alignments can be applied no matter what position you’re in – whether you’re standing, sitting, kneeling, or anything in between. In the video, Starrett demonstrates exactly how to perform these simple corrections, making it much easier to visualize. If you practice these exercises regularly, you’ll be preventing many of the problems that commonly arise.
In case you’re wondering if you can just substitute a balance ball for your chair, there is little evidence for any benefit. Studies show minimal, if any, postural improvement, and one study even showed “spinal shrinkage” from using these balls as a chair.¹¹The apparatus you sit on is far less important than the positions in which you teach your body to sit.
However, the ergonomic revolution has led to the birth of some interesting desks and workstations that offer the option of standing up to work. Some workstations even have a treadmill underneath for walking. Sales of the “TredDesk” have reportedly grown tenfold since its introduction in 2008. There are a number of companies putting a lot of money into research and development in this area, and I suspect to see many more of these designs coming down the pike.

Foundation Training Exercises:

Foundation Training is another way to compensate for long hours spend sitting. Foundation training exercises are powerful simple structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture. This program was developed by Chiropractor Eric Goodman as a way to address his personal chronic back pain, and have been a great answer to the increasing physical challenges of modern society. As a starting point, Dr. Goodman suggests making the following adjustments to your body when sitting. These recommendations are not meant to replace the way you sit constantly, but to give you useful alternative positions to use. It is recommended that you try them often, as your body is likely in need:
Backrests tend to promote excessive rounding of the spine and push us into what's called an anterior head carriage. Sit upright on the front edge of a chair and practice the next 2 tips. At least 2/3 of your thigh should be off of the chair, and your knees should be no more than 6 inches apart while practicing.
When sitting, try to keep your chin behind your chest bone. When your chin is too far forward, you will inadvertently teach your hip flexors to remain abnormally short and you set yourself up for increased compression and degeneration.
An easy way to learn to lengthen your hip flexors without hyperextending your spine is to slowly increase the distance between your rib cage and pelvis while keeping your chin pulled in and down towards your throat. This is demonstrated in the last 5 minutes of the TED Talk listed above.
For more information on Foundation Training, please refer to my earlier article and interview with Dr. Goodman, as well as watching the videos below in which Dr. Goodman demonstrates two of his favorite exercises:..
Yet another type of exercise called Egoscue can also be helpful in mitigating the damage from excess sitting

Take Breaks from Sitting to Ground Yourself to the Earth

Another downside to sitting is the lack of contact with the Earth, since most of us are sitting indoors. Have you noticed how much better you feel when you walk barefoot on the Earth, whether it’s dirt or sand or grass?
Science has finally solved this mystery!
For most of our evolutionary history, humans have had continuous contact with the Earth, but this is certainly not the case today. We are separated from it by a barrier of asphalt, wood, rugs, plastics, and especially shoes. Living in direct contact with the Earthgrounds your body, producing beneficial electrophysiological changes that help protect you from potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields. Some of the EMFs closest to our bodies are those generated by the electronic devices that have practically become a modern appendage – like smart phones and iPads.
Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot/bare skin contact with the Earth. Research indicates Earth’s electrons are the ultimate antioxidants, acting aspowerful anti-inflammatories.
Chronic inflammation leads to a multitude of health problems. Therefore, reducing inflammation will help mitigate the negative effects of excessive sitting. Earthing (grounding) decreases the effect of the potentially disruptive electromagnetic fields that are emitted by those electronic devices we’ve come to depend on.
Bottom line: the more you can walk or stand barefoot upon the Earth, the healthier you will be. Whenever possible, take a moment to venture outside and plant your feet in the wet grass!
We are designed to move well, sit well and play well within our environment. It is up to us to teach our body to do these things as it is designed to. We can only deprive our body of what it requires for so long before it begins to rebel against us physically.

143 percent improvement in physical function	57 percent improvement in the quality of walking
77 percent improvement in equilibrium	41 percent reduction in pain
60 percent improvement in vitality	23 percent improvement in general health

Impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance, and diabetes	Elevated triglycerides	Abdominal obesity
Leptin resistance	Inflammation and oxidative stress	Endothelial dysfunction
Microvascular disease	Hyperuricemia	Renal (kidney) damage
Fatty liver disease	High blood pressure	Metabolic syndrome

Olives and Olive oil	Coconuts and coconut oil	Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw nuts, such as, almonds or pecans	Organic pastured egg yolks	Avocados
Grass-fed meats	Palm oil	Unheated organic nut oils

Pages

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Most People Can Skip Calcium Supplements, Prevention Panel Says

About Dr Kevin Lau

About Dr Kevin Lau

Monday, February 11, 2013

How Whole Body Vibration Exercises Can Help Improve Fitness in the Elderly

How Whole Body Vibration Can Improve Fitness in Those Over 65

Reduce Bone Loss with Whole Body Vibration

Vitamin D and K2 Are Also Critical Factors for Bone Health Throughout Life

Insulin Resistance and Age-Related Muscle Loss

Nutritional Factors that help Preserve Muscle Mass, Strength and Performance in Seniors

Other Beneficial Supplements for Optimal Muscle Performance

How Whole Body Vibration Training Prevents Muscle-Wasting

It’s Never Too Late to Start Exercising

About Dr Kevin Lau

How Whole Body Vibration Can Improve Fitness in Those Over 65

Reduce Bone Loss with Whole Body Vibration

Vitamin D and K2 Are Also Critical Factors for Bone Health Throughout Life

Insulin Resistance and Age-Related Muscle Loss

Nutritional Factors that help Preserve Muscle Mass, Strength and Performance in Seniors

Other Beneficial Supplements for Optimal Muscle Performance

How Whole Body Vibration Training Prevents Muscle-Wasting

It’s Never Too Late to Start Exercising

About Dr Kevin Lau

Surprising Health Hazards Associated with All-Fruit Diet

Kutcher Lands in Hospital After Adopting All-Fruit Diet

Why Large Amounts of Fruit May Not Be Healthy

The Fructose Pancreatic Cancer Connection

Should You Eliminate Fruit from Your Diet?

How to Determine Your Individual Susceptibility to Fructose Damage

Is there Such a Thing as an Ideal Diet for Everyone?

If You Seek Optimal Health, Pay Careful Attention to Your Insulin Levels

About Dr Kevin Lau

Kutcher Lands in Hospital After Adopting All-Fruit Diet

Why Large Amounts of Fruit May Not Be Healthy

The Fructose Pancreatic Cancer Connection

Should You Eliminate Fruit from Your Diet?

How to Determine Your Individual Susceptibility to Fructose Damage

Is there Such a Thing as an Ideal Diet for Everyone?

If You Seek Optimal Health, Pay Careful Attention to Your Insulin Levels

About Dr Kevin Lau

Saturday, February 9, 2013

About Dr Kevin Lau

About Dr Kevin Lau

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Richard III, scoliosis and me

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Prevent Back Pain and Other Common Problems by Sitting Correctly

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

Going to the Gym May NOT Be Enough

The Key To Sitting Successfully: Stand Up

Realigning Your Body in Five Easy Steps

Foundation Training Exercises:

Take Breaks from Sitting to Ground Yourself to the Earth

About Dr Kevin Lau

The Price You Pay for a Sedentary Lifestyle

Going to the Gym May NOT Be Enough

The Key To Sitting Successfully: Stand Up

Realigning Your Body in Five Easy Steps

Foundation Training Exercises:

Take Breaks from Sitting to Ground Yourself to the Earth

About Dr Kevin Lau