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Medical Frontier's News Grossman Wellness E-News July 21, 2009 |
In this Issue
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Hear Dr Grossman Speak at the Denver Athletic Club
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Surprising Findings About the Mediterranean Diet
by Terry Grossman, M.D. -
Is Lead Exposure History?
by Lolita Hanks, FNP -
Having More Muscular Strength Reduces Your Risk of Cancer
by Terry Grossman, M.D. -
Objectivity in New Food Poisoning Statistics
by Karen Kurtak, L.Ac.Dipl.Ac. -
Vibrating Plate Exercise Hastens Weight Loss
by Terry Grossman, M.D. -
Telephone Consultations with Frontier Medical Institute/Grossman Wellness Center
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Hear Dr Grossman Speak at the Denver Athletic Club
Our medical director, Dr. Terry Grossman, will be speaking at the Denver Athletic Club on August 5, 2009 at 5:30 PM. His lecture will be titled “How to Live to 100 (and Beyond) in Perfect Health.” The talk will last about an hour, is free of charge and will be open to the public. In this lecture you will learn how you can take advantage of the latest preventive medicine strategies and diagnostics to essentially render yourself immune to heart disease and stroke and to reduce your risk of cancer dramatically. If you wish to attend, please RSVP to Gina Fontaine by Monday, August 3 at 720-891-1959 or yogigina@msn.com
Surprising Findings About the Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean Diet has been found valuable in reducing mortality from all causes as well as reducing risk of diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and many types of cancer. Key components of the Mediterranean diet include predominance of fresh vegetables and fruits, monounsaturated fat in the form of olive oil, high legume consumption, moderate amounts of alcohol, high amounts of grains and cereals, low dairy, high fish and seafood consumption and relatively low consumption of red meat. A recent European study was designed to investigate which components of the Mediterranean diet had the greatest effect on reducing mortality. The researchers studied 23,349 individuals from Greece for 8 ½ years. Higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet was associated with a 14% decrease in mortality overall.The individual components of the diet that led to these beneficial effects were: • Moderate alcohol consumption 23.5%• Low meat consumption 16.6% • High vegetable consumption 16.2%• High fruit and nut consumption 11.2% • Hi unsaturated fat consumption 10.6%• Hi legume consumption 9.7% Interestingly high cereal grain consumption, low dairy consumption and fish and seafood consumption appeared to have minimal effects on longevity.Prior to this study, vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts, fish and seafood, and cereals were presumed to be beneficial for health, while meat and dairy products were felt to not be beneficial. It now appears that most of the benefit comes from consuming adequate amounts of vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts and moderate alcohol.
Is Lead Exposure History?
When we think of lead exposure we think of paint, utensils and pipes. We also might think that lead poisoning/exposure is history. However, we are still exposed to lead today and that exposure can cause health problems for us. There is lead in foreign products, ceramics, in drinking water, and the environment that we may inhale . There is not a safe level of lead to have in one’s body. Unfortunately, lead will not always be detected by a serum (blood) test. The body utilizes its defense mechanisms and can move the lead from the blood and store it in your bones and/or heart . This is to keep the lead out of the blood stream so that it is not constantly circulating. Lead is released back into the bloodstream via bone turnover. Bone turnover describes the process of old bone being broken down during pregnancy, trauma, fractures and menopause, which leads to the creation of new bone. Another cause of bone turnover is when we eat acidic diets (high sugar and trans fats) the body will use calcium from your bones to buffer your blood to make it more alkaline, maintaining a proper pH of the blood. Lead in the bloodstream is toxic. This trickle of lead in the blood stream can also damage the kidneys and may be a cause of high blood pressure. A lead testing kit is available at www.leadtesting.org. To minimize bone turnover, eat an alkaline diet, which is low in refined sugar, caffeine, alcohol and full of green vegetables. Exercise and supplement your diet with calcium, magnesium and vitamin D supplementation to support your bone health.Work with your integrative health care provider to evaluate if you have lead in your body. If you do, you will likely benefit from its removal.Click on the link below for a good article that lists seven areas that expose us to lead.
Having More Muscular Strength Reduces Your Risk of Cancer
A study was conducted jointly between the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Cooper Clinic in Dallas Texas. About 8500 men of all ages who were participants of the Cooper clinic were followed between 1980 and 2003. Death rates from cancer were 67% lower among men who were in the upper third for muscular strength compared to those in the lowest third. This markedly decreased risk in cancer was found to be independent of amount of body fat or waist circumference. At Grossman Wellness Center we recommend that all of our patients perform muscle strengthening exercise. In addition, we have recently begun to change our recommendations from 45 to 60 minute workouts twice a week of moderate exercise to 18 minute workouts of more vigorous training three times a week. We have found that these shorter intervals of intense muscle strengthening exercise can produce even greater benefits than the longer workouts.
Objectivity in New Food Poisoning Statistics
The FDA’s power and financial resources were recently elevated by the Obama administration, prompted by new statistics suggesting that one in four Americans fall ill with food poisoning every year. Much of the blame is placed on slack regulation of our nation’s food production. I would like to suggest that there are two root causes that eventually gave rise to this staggering statistic.First of all, In his book “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Michael Poulin elegantly demonstrated how conventional food production is the antithesis of how nature works. His ideas lead to the acceleration of the “Slow Food” movement. Aside from so many other factors, mass production of food and food-like products creates a huge chasm of vulnerability. Secondly, I question how many incidents of food poisoning are an “immunity” problem. Just because a person gets exposed to a particular bacteria or virus doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is going to develop an infection. Have you ever wondered why coyotes, dogs and vultures can eat the flesh of dead, rotting animals strewn with pathogenic bacteria and survive? The answer to this puzzle lies in stomach acid. The acidity in the stomachs of these animals is so acidic that virtually no bacteria can escape its dissolving wrath. Though not as powerful as scavengers, stomach acid in humans serves as a first line of defense against the pervasive onslaught of pathogenic bacteria.I think it is important to add another dimension of objectivity and question if the alarming elevation in incidents of food poisoning is, in part, a result of the widespread use of acid-blocking medication such as Zantac and Prilosec.
Vibrating Plate Exercise Hastens Weight Loss
Vibrating plates or exercise platforms seem to be particularly beneficial in helping people rid themselves of stubborn fat deposits, particularly those around abdominal organs and the heart. A group of scientists from Belgium took a group of 79 overweight individuals and divided them into four subgroups. One group served as a control, a second dieted but did not exercise; another dieted and did standard aerobic and strength training exercise, and the final group engaged in diet and supervised whole body exercise on a vibration plate. The four groups followed the diet and exercise programs for six months and then were followed for an additional six months. Over the course of the year, the control group gained weight. The group that dieted only lost 6% of their body weight, but did not maintain the weight loss. The diet and conventional exercise group lost 7% of their body weight and managed to keep it off, while the diet and vibration group lost 11% of their body weight in six months later still maintained a 10.5% weight loss.The biggest surprise to the researchers was that the vibration plate exercise had an effect on decreasing intra-abdominal or visceral fat, which is associated with increased risk for high blood pressure and heart attacks. The average time spent exercising was less than 12 minutes per session for the first three months and 14.2 minutes in the second three months. Participants did squats, lunges, calf raises, push-ups and sit-ups on the vibrating platform. Exercising while muscles are vibrating forces the muscles to contract repeatedly which builds lean muscle mass more quickly.We recently installed a vibrating plate for patient use at Grossman Wellness Center and have begun to utilize it to help our patients build muscle mass more quickly and to rid themselves of stubborn abdominal fat deposits.
Telephone Consultations with Frontier Medical Institute/Grossman Wellness Center
A significant number of our patients do not live in Denver, and, in fact, many of them do not even live in the United States. If you have a health issue you’d like to discuss with Dr. Grossman, Dr. Catalano, or Karen Kurtak, our nutritionist/ traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and can’t come to Denver, consider scheduling a telephone consultation with one of us. For more information or to schedule a telephone consultation, please call us at 303.233.4247 or via email at info@fmiclinic.com |
 Terry Grossman, MD |
 Michael Catalano, MD |
 Karen Kurtak, LAc |
 Lolita Hanks, FNP-C | ||
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