Live Longer Live Healthier

Live Longer Live Healthier is the title of our new book. In the opening chapters we point out that Americans are living longer, but because of the poor lifestyle choices that most of us  make when we are younger, most of us will live the extra years in poor health.  This information to back this statement is readily available.

In the book we emphasize that the habits we cultivate when we are younger will profoundly affect the quality of our life as we get older. There is solid scientific evidence for this statement. For example a recent study published in the journal Circulation analyzed data on 1,478 healthy participants in the Framingham Heart Study. They found that the longer participants had elevated cholesterol during the prior 20 years  the greater their risk of having a heart attack after age 55. In fact for each decade that they had elevated cholesterol the risk for having a heart attack increased by almost 40%.

When it comes to matters of your health an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound  of cure.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Exercise To Calm Your Mind

Exercise is a cornerstone of the TriEnergetics program along with proper eating and stress management. Imagine my surprise when in the opinion column of the weekend Wall Street Journal I saw an article extolling the virtue of exercise as a refuge from the racket of everyday life. Better than that the article referred to some very important figures in literature and philosophy.

For example the danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said that "Health and salvation can only be found in motion."

Joseph Addison an 18th century English essayist said that exercise promotes a well tempered mind. He wrote, "I exercise my self an hour every morning upon a dumb bell that is placed in a corner of the room." Although I don't exactly understand or agree with what he did, I laud the effort.

Robert Frost ended a 1946 poem "Directive" with this advice. "Here are your waters and your watering place. Drink and be whole again beyond confusion." We agree and advise everyone to to use exercise not only as a physical outlet but as a method for finding inner peace.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

How To Improve Your Memory

Do You Want To Improve Your Brain Fitness?

Many of us are concerned about how to stay sharp mentally. There is a lot of interest and a lot of money spent on mind games that have been designed to exercise your brain. There are also mobile apps such as Luminosity and Fit Brains that claim to boost cognitive ability and ward off mental decline.

Do they actually work?

David Linden a professor of neuroscience at the John Hopkins School of Medicine doesn't think so. He says "the effects are small and don't last very long."

So if the games don't work what does? Dr. Linden believes that the best way to maintain mental fitness is with physical exercise. "Walking 30 minutes a day has a greater effect than playing any brain game. Even moderate, low intensity exercise is five times more beneficial to cognitive tasks than playing brain games on your iPad" he says.

Research has shown that exercise increases the volume of the brain and elevate patters of activity. The effects are especially beneficial for middle aged people.

The bottom line is clear. Exercise your brain by exercising your body.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Healthy Eating

The dietary buzz word in the 1980's was low fat. In order to avoid fat the manufacturers created a new generation of "healthy" low fat treats. A perfect example are the SnackWells. All of these low fat foods had two things in common.

• They had less fat
• They had more empty calories from carbohydrates.

Think of carbohydrates as sugar because your metabolism rapidly converts starches to sugar.

As Americans ate more low fat foods and more empty calories they gradually became fatter and fatter. The result is the obesity epidemic that is now the number one public health problem. The reason  for the weight gain is easy to explain. It has to do with blood chemistry.  Remember carbohydrates are sugar. A bagel is no different than a candy bar. It is basically a carbohydrate that becomes sugar after it is digested. Sugar stimulates the body to produce insulin. Insulin in turn drives the fat cells into storage overdrive. This causes weight gain.

As people continue to overdose on low fat high carbohydrate foods their cells become more resistant to insulin. This causes them to gain even more weight and also increases their insulin resistance. The result in many instances is Type 2 diabetes.

The lessons to be learned is that fat in your diet is not necessarily bad. Refined carbohydrates in your diet are always bad. Eating a reasonable diet with a balance between protein, fats and whole grains is always good.

You are what you eat. A good rule to follow before taking a bite is to ask yourself whether this particular food will nourish me or it it just empty calories. To learn more about healthy eating refer to our book TriEnergetics.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Coconut Oil To Treat Alzheimer's

 According a recent book, coconut oil reduces the symptoms of Alzheimer's. Is this to good to be true? We think it is, but let's look at the science that attempts to explain  how coconut oil might improve the symptoms of Alzheimer's.

It has been proposed that ketones may help treat various neurological diseases. Ketones are the byproducts of the breakdown of fat in the body. Small amounts are normal, but in cases of severe fasts, uncontrolled diabetes or a very low carbohydrate diet abnormal amounts of ketones accumulate in the blood. This is a very serious medical condition and requires urgent and vigorous treatment.

So what does this have to with Alzheimer's disease? Dr. Mary Newport, a pediatrician, wrote a book about improving Alzheimer's symptoms with coconut oil and another medium chain triglyceride MCT. The book is based on her research to improve the condition of her husband whose health was rapidly declining. Her theory, based upon her library research, was that coconut oil would raise the level of ketones in his body. Ketones in turn were a possible way to reverse or improve his neurological condition.

Dr. Newport began feeding her husband coconut oil and MCT. She reported that this improved his memory, improved his depression and reduced his walking problems. A followup MRI showed that his brain had stopped shrinking. Was it the coconut oil?

We love personal reports like this and we are impressed by the improvement in her husband's condition. Better yet the treatment did not require drugs that were either expensive or having the possibility of serious side effects. Unfortunately it will take a number of controlled studies to prove whether there is some substance in the treatment.

Of course you can try it on a family member or on yourself if you are so inclined. Otherwise we recommend that you follow the advice of the Harry Nilsson song. "Put The Lime in The Coconut" drink it all up, and call the doctor in the morning.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Believe It Or Not These Are The Sugar Guidelines

The American Heart Association has proposed specific guidelines for sugar consumption.  Most women should consume no more than 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) of added sugar a day;  most men no more than 37.5 grams (about 9 teaspoons) a day.  This translates to no more than 100 calories of added sugar for women and no more than 150 calories for men.

Think about this.  That is precious little sugar and it is so easy to exceed these limits.  In factost Americans do exceed them, frequently by alot.  For example a 16 ounce bottle of soda has about 44 grams (11 teaspoons) of added sugar.  How many sodas do you drink a day?  Even foods like yogurt and baked beans may be loaded with extra sugar, beyond the sugar naturally in them.

If you are serious about reducing your sugar intake you need to act like a detective and examine the labels on the foods that you eat.  Here are a some examples of added sugar in beverages and foods.

Beverages (8 oz)                                                     Added Sugar (G)

Cola                                                                                   22

Tea, instant, sugar sweetened                                            21

Cranberry juice cocktail                                                    20

Soy milk, chocolate                                                          10

Food

Candies, caramel, 2.5 oz package                                    36

Milk chocolate candy bar                                                 19

Vanilla pudding 4 oz                                                        19

Canned baked beans 1 cup                                               15

Glazed doughnut 1.4 oz                                                   14

If it feels to you as though you are in sugar trouble, you are not alone.  Most of us are. If you are really serious about wanting to improve your health, lose weight or just plain feel better you must pay attention to the sugar trail., and greatly reduce the amount of added sugar that you consume.It will not be easy to do this since most of us are addicted to the sugar high.  In the next blog we will discuss common sense actions that will give you a jump start toward defeating the sugar siren.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

How Sugar Can Kill You

Can sugar kill you? In previous blogs we discussed the fact that sugar is a siren killing us softly with her song. Now there is new and reliable evidence that excess sugar can increase your risk of dying from heart disease.

In an article recently published in the JAMA Internal Medicine magazine the investigators reported that people whose sugar intake accounted for more than 25% of their total daily calories had twice the risk of dying from heart disease than those whose intake was less than 7% of their total calories.

It does not take that much extra sugar to make a difference. The problem is that sugar is hidden in so many processed foods. This results in most Americans eating more than the safest amount of sugar. For example having a cinnamon roll with your morning coffee, a sugary soda at lunch and some ice cream after dinner would put you in a high risk group.  Someone who normally consumes 2,000 calories a day would substantially increase their risk of heart disease by drinking only two 12 ounce sodas a day.

In our opinion this has been the most important and reliable study to document the link between sugar consumption and heart disease.  The researchers are not certain about the exact mechanism that is responsible for the increased incidence of heart disease.  In previous blogs we have reported that excess sugar has been shown to increase blood pressure and levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.  It may also increase inflammation linked with heart disease.

According to the researchers, sugar from fresh fruits and vegetables does not count in the unhealthy tabulation of bad sugar calories. This does not make complete sense to us since sugar is sugar is sugar. We think that it may also be the chemicals and additives present in processed foods that are partly responsible for the increase in heart disease reported in this study. In any event it makes sense to follow the dictates of moderation in eating. Focus on fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods and avoid extra sugar calories whenever you can.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net