Linda Bacon, Ph.D, dreads swimsuit season, but not because she has anything against the beach.

Instead, the California-based nutritionist fears what the season brings: scores of otherwise health-conscious citizens who subject themselves to deprivation diets (like the Master Cleanse) or intense exercise regimens, often in blazing hot weather, to look slimmer in revealing clothes.

Many unwittingly end up harming their health — and possibly even their hearts.

“Early June and January are the two times of year people do crazy, desperate things to get thin fast,” says Bacon, a nutrition professor at the City College of San Francisco, California, and the author of “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.”

“They go on fasts, yo-yo diets, detox programs, and ‘cleanses’ without realizing that there are serious consequences to weight loss and nutrient restriction.”

That crash dieting doesn’t work and can be dangerous is a message that gets lost in the national clamor over rising rates of overweight and obesity.

Thinking of trying a lemonade fast or cabbage soup diet? Here’s what to keep in mind if fitting into your skinny jeans or your Speedo is high on your summer agenda.

Crash diets may harm your heart

Cardiologist Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York City, and author of the forthcoming “Doctor of the Heart: A Life in Medicine,” opposes crash diets (less than 1,200 calories a day) and detox plans like the Master Cleanse.

The Master Cleanse involves consuming a mixture of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper — and nothing else — for several days.

Health.com: America’s healthiest superfoods for women

He says these very low-calorie regimens are based on the false theory that the body needs help eliminating waste.

Research suggests rapid weight loss can slow your metabolism, leading to future weight gain, and deprive your body of essential nutrients. What’s more, crash diets can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of dehydration, heart palpitations, and cardiac stress.

“A crash diet once won’t hurt your heart,” Dr. Rosenfeld says. “But crash dieting repeatedly increases the risk of heart attacks.”

Bacon adds that long-term calorie-cutting can eventually lead to heart muscle loss. “Yo-yo dieting can also damage your blood vessels. All that shrinking and growing causes micro tears that create a setup for atherosclerosis and other types of heart disease,” she says.

Chip Stinchfield, a 55-year-old shop owner in New Canaan, Connecticut, has experienced the cardiac effects of dieting firsthand. On the advice of friends, he went on a Master Cleanse for days and exercised vigorously. Another time he ate nothing but cottage cheese, beets, and peanut butter. Both were “quick, easy fixes” that helped him drop up to 10 pounds fast.

But both diets also gave him shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and “the feeling like I was going to have a heart attack.”

Under pressure from his family, who thought his dieting might disable or kill him — like many extreme dieters, Stinchfield kept his doctor in the dark about his radical habits — he eventually went back to sensible eating.

Beware of fad diets

Experts have known for decades that extended crash diets can be dangerous — especially when the diets become a fad.

In the late 1970s, an osteopath named Robert Linn published “The Last Chance Diet,” a best seller that advocated a miraculous “liquid protein diet.” Following the lead of their favorite celebrities, millions of people bought quarts of Dr. Linn’s liquid formula and embraced the diet (or one of many copycat versions), averaging just 300 to 400 calories a day.

The diet seemed to work wonders — some people reported losing as many as 10 pounds a week on the formula. But then the news of sudden deaths began to trickle in.

Health.com: 6 diet trends you should never try

An investigation led by the Food and Drug Administration turned up nearly 60 deaths among liquid dieters. Although some of the deaths occurred in people with underlying diseases such as atherosclerosis (and therefore could have been coincidental), government researchers who examined otherwise healthy dieters who died of ventricular arrhythmias found that the pattern of deaths suggested “the effects of protein-calorie malnutrition on the heart,” including atrophy of the heart muscle.

Experts have since tried to pinpoint the dangers of crash diets (technically known as “very low calorie” diets). Shortages of potassium, magnesium, and copper have been suggested as possible causes of the arrhythmias seen in crash dieters, and studies have also found that the diets can cause a drop in blood pressure and sodium depletion.

The true extent of the risk posed by crash diets is unclear, however. Much of the research has been conducted in obese people — a population that can actually benefit from these extreme diets — and in most studies the health of the participants is carefully monitored.

Experts stress that very-low-calorie diets should only be followed with a doctor’s supervision. But crash dieters are more likely to consult their friends than a doctor — which can get them into trouble.

Brooke Robertson, 23, learned these lessons the hard way. Last spring the Auckland, New Zealand, mom reportedly suffered a minor heart attack after she lost 100 pounds on a diet of Red Bull and the occasional fistful of dry cereal.

Despite the international publicity, Bacon doesn’t think desperate dieters will consider Robertson a cautionary tale. “There’s absolutely no benefit to fasting or detoxing,” she says. “Extreme diets are simply bad for you and they don’t work. But every year people engage in magical thinking.”

How to lose weight — safely

If you’re overweight, slimming down is critical for your overall health. Even moderate weight loss can lower your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer.

But it’s important to lose weight safely, which usually means slowly: Most experts recommend dropping just 1 to 2 pounds a week. And despite what some brand-name diets claim, the best way to do so is to exercise regularly and stick to a diet that limits saturated fat and sugars and emphasizes fruits and vegetables, lean meats and fish, and whole grains.

“The key to losing weight is a combination of diet and exercise,” says Dr. Rosenfeld. “One alone will not do it.”

Here’s a way to target the neck and shoulders: dumbbells.

Strength training using dumbbells not only reduces pain, but also improves the function of your neck and shoulder area.  Here are 5 exercises that you can do with dumbbells to reduce pain and improve function in the neck and shoulders.

1. The one-arm row

2. Shoulder abduction

3. Shoulder shrug

4. Reverse fly

5. Upright row

Start with light hand weights and increase the weight of your dumbbells only after you are comfortable with the lighter weights.  The starting weight should be 6 to 12 pounds.

Perform these exercises 3 times per week.  Mix up your workouts.  Do exercises 1, 2, and 5 one day, and then the next day do exercises 1, 3, and4.  Switch back and forth each time you exercise.

When starting out, do 2 sets of each exercise 8 to 12 times.  As you get stronger, add a third set.  Once you can do an exercise comfortably for 3 sets, then increase the weight slightly.

These exercises are a great compliment to your chiropractic adjustments.  Try them out and see how it goes!  If you have any questions about the exercises, email me or ask me at your next appointment.

Have a great day!

Dr. Jason Gerard DC

Sources:

Science Daily December 28, 2009

Journal of Applied Physiology November 2009; 107(5):1413-9

I wonder if the two pilots flying Northwest Airlines Flight 188 had a feeling in the back of their minds that said, “Isn’t there something I’m supposed to be doing right now, but I can’t remember what it is?”

After all, their flight was scheduled to land in Minneapolis, but both pilots were so busy on their laptops that they overshot their destination by 150 miles.

How pathetic is that?  You would think the pilots would have been paying attention to minor details like:

* The fact that they were flying at 35,000 feet and were responsible for the safety of 144 passengers on board.

* Flight control had been trying to contact the pilots for over an hour

* People were trying to call the pilots on their cell phones

* The pilot’s instrumentation in the cock pit showed that they had veered off course

* The time on their watch would suggest they were late for something they were supposed to do…land the plane in Minneapolis and hour ago.

This was such a debacle that the White House was being briefed and F-16 military fighter jets were ready to take off…because the flight was off course, off schedule, and out of contact.

This is definitely an “Are You Kidding Me” moment.  But we’ve all seen this story before by countless individuals.  Think about it.  How many people do you know who set goals, talk about their dreams, and plan out their objectives for a better life only to become distracted?  They’ve veered from their flight plan and find themselves off course and off their schedule.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Because all of us have had a time when we find ourselves a long way from the plans we made and the goals we set.

I think it’s a great idea to make plans and goals to improve your life.   But remember, there is a good chance that circumstances will cause you to veer from your plan.  And when that happens, don’t stress out about it.  Just make the decision to get back on course.

Dr. Jason Gerard DC

I get lots of different health news and information sent to me and an article by a heart surgeon caught my attention.  I’ve kept the article in its entirety and I recommend you take a few minutes to read it.  It’s very informative.  The article discusses the myths and dangers of the “low fat” diet.

Enjoy!

Heart Surgeon Says Low Fat Is A Big Fat Lie

By Dwight Lundell MD

What you are about to read requires an open mind. You have to look at facts instead of massive advertising and failed, faulty theories. Are you ready?

Fact: From 1900 to 1980, obesity rates in the US remained stable at 14% to 15% of the population.  Since 1980, however, obesity rates have skyrocketed. Today, nearly 66% of the population is overweight or obese. This spike is directly linked to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) creation of the food pyramid, advocating 11 daily servings of grains and cereals.  This is not a coincidence.

For most of my 25 year career and 5,000 heart surgeries, I accepted low-fat dieting theories.  I also believed the theory that dietary cholesterol was a primary cause of heart disease. But as heart disease continued to soar, year after year, my doubts began to haunt me.

I treated thousands of patients after they became ill.  The question that haunted me was what was causing heart disease, obesity and diabetes in the first place?  As I examined the data, it was clear that these conditions spiked in the 1980s and continued to climb.

Study after study has demonstrated the negative effects of consuming a grain-based, low-fat, high-sugar diet.  On the other hand, there is no credible evidence to suggest that a low-fat diet equals lower incidences of heart disease and obesity.  In fact, all the evidence proves otherwise. The low-fat and cholesterol theories are based on incomplete science.

“We are what we eat” is a slogan that is often repeated. But it is not quite accurate.  Instead of focusing on what we put inside our bodies, we should focus on how our bodies metabolize the foods we put there. And how we metabolize low-fat, high-sugar and grain-based foods is clearly reflected in obesity and heart disease statistics.

Fact: 65% of the nation is overweight or obese.  More people develop heart disease today than ever before at an earlier age.  Every 34 seconds a person in this country loses their life to a heart attack.  That’s 2,500 a day.

The National Institutes of Health, the National Cholesterol Education Program, the American Heart Association, the US Department of Agriculture and a host of other medical organizations continue to promote a low-fat diet and statin medications to reduce cholesterol.

These organizations are wrong, but to admit it threatens their bottom line. You don’t have time to wait for government, the medical community and food manufacturers to admit their mistake. And you can stop blaming yourself for excess pounds and ill-health, if you have faithfully followed their mistaken regime. Your life and health happens now and it’s in your control.

The cholesterol and low-fat theories are firmly planted in our consciousness. From the advice of our physicians, to the TV ads for statin drugs, to the grocery store aisles packed with low-fat foods… these faulty theories are reinforced at every turn. Their powerful marketing may be persuasive, but it is not scientific fact.

Here’s the first step that will go a long way to improving your health.  Return to the diet of your grandparents, before governments and food manufacturers declared war on fat and real food to fit faulty theories.  Your grandparents were not afraid to drink real milk and eat eggs, butter and red meat.

I am not advocating these foods in large quantities. But their elimination, in favor of low-fat, high-sugar, grain-based foods has resulted in inflammation and staggering rates of obesity.

Packaged low-fat foods created for shelf life – not human life – never touched your grandparents’ plates.  Hydrogenated omega-6 vegetable oils and margarine were not even invented.  For your grandparents, sugar was a treat reserved for special occasions. Today, it has become a daily staple.

The drug companies have done a magnificent job convincing us that we cannot get well without medication. This is not true. Your body is a tremendous, self-healing organism.  When you consume real food and essential nutrients, it will respond and flourish.

Low-fat packaged foods, filled with sugar and omega-6 oils, strongly contribute to inflammation. This is the true cause of heart disease, diabetes and a host of other diseases.  There is no better time than right now to understand how the faulty cholesterol theory created an epidemic of inflammation and what you can do about it.  You only have one heart. Keeping it healthy is not nearly as difficult as you might think.

Note: Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa, AZ.  He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation and Chief Medical Advisor for Asantae. In 2003, Dr. Lundell made the most difficult decision of his 25 year surgical career.  As traditional medicine continued to chase the cholesterol theory of heart disease, Dr. Lundell closed his surgical practice. He then devoted the rest of his life to speaking the truth that inflammation causes heart disease. By lowering inflammation, heart disease has a cure.

Dr. Lundell is the author of the world-wide bestselling book, The Great Cholesterol Lie. This book is a revealing look at heart disease and the faulty theories of low-fat diets and cholesterol.  He also reveals his clinically-tested recommendations for lowering inflammation that can prevent and reverse heart disease. For more information, go to the website www.thecholesterollie.com

I hope you enjoyed the article.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me!

Sincerely,

Dr. Jason Gerard, DC

The thing is, there is only  one philosophy that works better than all the rest.  That approach is the “take care of yourself on a regular basis” approach to health. 

Unfortunately, some of the patients that I see are of the belief that they are “entitled” to have good health and feel great all the time without having to do anything.   They think they can eat whatever they want, rarely exercise, and only take care of their body when “something hurts”…and feel great.  

But it doesn’t work that way.  At least not in the long run, and especially as you get older. 

Here’s a question to think about…How come no one questions the idea of servicing a car regularly throughout its lifespan?  You know, things like keeping the interior and exterior of the car clean, changing the oil every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, rotating the tires, putting in new spark plugs, and so on. 

You want to know why?  Because it’s the right thing to do.  Everyone knows that if you take care of your car regularly, then it will not only run better but in the long run will cost less.  So why is it then that some people take better care of their cars than they do their health?  How come some people think it makes sense to take care of a car regularly, but not their body? 

Here’s the dilemma we all face, whether we like it or not… 

1. Our bodies all experience “normal wear and tear” from living our daily lives.  And this normal wear and tear breaks our bodies down.  

2. We are all aging, and it’s unavoidable.  And guess what?  Aging slowly but surely breaks our bodies down. 

3. We all experience stress in our lives.  Some more than others, but we all do.  Whether it’s relationships, finances, work, environmental, etc.  And what do you think stress does to our bodies?  You got it…breaks it down. 

These 3 things are unavoidable, and happen each and every day whether we like it or not.  And these 3 things are constantly working against us to wear our bodies out and decrease our health and quality of life. 

So what should we do?  Here’s something I want you to do.  Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle, and on the left hand side, write all of the things that are causing your health and quality of life to decrease.  I’ve given you 3 things for that side…normal wear and tear, aging, and stress.  You might have others to add to that list. 

Now, on the right hand side of the paper, write down all of the things you do on a regular basis to improve your health and quality of life.  These are things that will counter act the things on the left hand side of the paper that are decreasing your health. 

Do you see the problem that exists for some people?  Some people can’t write anything down on the right hand side of the piece of paper.  They aren’t doing anything on a regular basis to counteract the negative effects of list on the left hand side of the page. 

These are the people who hurt all the time.  They have a sore back or neck all the time.  They complain of being sore and stiff all the time.  Are constantly on multiple medications all the time.  They get sick all the time.  They have trouble sleeping.  They are always tired.  They rarely feel very good.

 Do you know anyone like this?  Most of us do. 

Here’s the point to all of this.  What’s YOUR health mindset?  Are you someone who believes in taking care of yourself on a regular basis?  DO YOU take care of yourself on a regular basis?  Or do you neglect yourself?  Is your lack of activity causing your health and quality of life to slip away from you?

 I’ve seen a lot of patients over the years and I can tell you that the patients who take care of themselves on a regular basis are ALWAYS healthier than those who don’t.   They always feel better, they are always happier, and they actually spend less on their health care than those who don’t take care of themselves regularly.

So think about your health and what you need to do on a regular basis to keep yourself healthy and feeling great.  Then make sure you are doing it.  And if you do, I promise you’ll enjoy a much better quality of life.

Dr. Jason Gerard, D.C.

The results showed that “hands on” treatments, led by chiropractic care, were the “top-rated” treatments for people suffering from back pain.  The massage survey also found that chiropractors were given the highest “satisfaction with care” ratings, well above those given to medical doctors who administered various forms of care to back pain sufferers.

The survey found that more than half of the respondents had pain that severely limited their daily routine for a week or longer, and 88% said it recurred throughout the year.  The report stated that while many go to a primary care physician for diagnosis and treatment, the majority were disappointed with the results.

On the other hand, the majority reported that they were “highly satisfied” with the care they received from chiropractors.  Respondents were also asked to rate the types of treatments they received.  Again, chiropractic/spinal manipulation got the top honors.

Dr. Orly Avitzur, a medical neurologist, said, “The survey showed “hands-on” therapies, which include chiropractic care, are “very successful” and I almost always recommend them.”

This is exciting news because Consumer Reports has a great reputation.  What’s also nice is that the positive comments are coming from people just like you and I, so no one’s trying to scam or manipulate what’s being reported.

So if you know someone who could benefit from chiropractic care but is skeptical or unsure of whether or not chiropractic care could work for them, please share this information with them.

I’m sure you are like me and hate to see your friends and family suffer with pain, so let them know that chiropractic care is a proven option to restore their health and relieve their pain.

Dr. Jason Gerard, D.C.
Forest Lake Chiropractor

In the coming weeks and months, you will hear things on the news about the swine flu, and the vaccine that is coming out.  But you are not going to get the full story on TV or in the paper.  I will share with you information you’re not supposed to know about and information that authorities will refuse to admit.

I found this information on the natural news website.  The information below is written by Mike Adams.  Make sure you read it and stay informed about this hot topic.

Here are 10 things you’re not supposed to know about the swine flu vaccine.

#1 – The vaccine production was “rushed” and the vaccine has never been tested on humans. With any testing or safety data, nobody knows if the vaccine will be safe, or if it will cause side effects.

#2 – Swine flu vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants that cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.

#3 – The swine flu vaccine could actually increase your risk of death from swine flu by altering (or suppressing) your immune system response. There is zero evidence that even seasonal flu shots offer any meaningful protection for people who take the shot. Vaccines are the snake oil of modern medicine.

#4 – Doctors still don’t know why the 1976 swine flu vaccines paralyzed so many people. And that means they really have no clue whether the upcoming vaccine might cause the same devastating side effects. (And they’re not testing it, either…)

#5 – Even if the swine flu vaccine kills you, the drug companies aren’t responsible. The U.S. government has granted drug companies complete immunity against vaccine product liability. Thanks to that blanket immunity, drug companies have no incentive to make safe vaccines, because they only get paid based on quantity, not safety (zero liability).

#6 – No swine flu vaccine works as well as vitamin D to protect you from influenza. That’s an inconvenient scientific fact that the U.S. government, the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies hope the people never realize.

#7 – Even if the swine flu vaccine actually works, mathematically speaking if everyone else around you gets the vaccine, you don’t need one! (Because it can’t spread through the population you hang with.) So even if you believe in the vaccine, all you need to do is encourage your friends to go get vaccinated…

#8 – Drug companies are making billions of dollars from the production of swine flu vaccines. That money comes out of your pocket — even if you don’t get the shot — because it’s all paid by the taxpayers.

#9 – When people start dying in larger numbers from the swine flu, rest assured that many of them will be the very people who got the swine flu vaccine. Doctors will explain this away with their typical logic: “The number saved is far greater than the number lost.” Of course, the number “saved” is entirely fictional… imaginary… and exists only in their own warped heads.

#10 – The swine flu vaccine centers that will crop up all over the world in the coming months aren’t completely useless: They will provide an easy way to identify large groups of really stupid people. (Too bad there isn’t some sort of blue dye that we could tag ‘em with for future reference…)

The lottery, they say, is a tax on people who can’t do math. Similarly, flu vaccines are a tax on people who don’t understand health.

(Source: Natural News, July 28, 2009)

Dr. Jason Gerard
Forest Lake Chiropractor

All I Want Is:  1.  To have less headaches this coming year!

                      2.  To loose fifteen lbs. and have more energy!

                      3.  Low back pain vanished!

                      4.  Get my children off their asthma/ allergy/ ADHD meds!

                      5.  Blood pressure finally under control naturally!

Understand:

To be truly well requires four things to be working optimally and ALL at the same time.

                       1.  Eating well = 80% naturally derived food and 20% man-made food in you diet

                       2.  Moving more = 25 minutes/day aerobically working out and 25 min/day doing some 

                            form of resistance exercise at least 4-5 times/week

                       3. Thinking well = 15 minutes/day reading something truly positive/inspiring to you

                       4. Functioning better = Getting your spine checked 1x/week and commiting 10 min/day

                           to spinal and/or postural exercises

Now That’s What Xmas Should Be All About!!!

The drug companies and media attempt to sell us on the idea that it’s all bad luck or genetics. But if you really examine that idea, does it make any real sense?  For example, why has type II diabetes increased by a WHOPPING 90% in just the last decade alone?  Bad genes?  In ten years?  What about the billions of dollars we put into cancer research every year, yet one out of every three people in the US today above 60 years of age has been diagnosed with it? Are we really closer to a cure?  Do I even have to mention heart disease?  A wise person once said to me, the quality of one’s life is defined by the quality of questions one asks.  Maybe we’re as a society asking the wrong questions?  Think about that for a second.

I propose to you to ask this life altering question instead.  Instead of “Why is our health in so much trouble”, how about asking, “What do I need to do to live a healthy life”?  Amazing that when you ask a better question, the possibilties are endless.  So now that you have asked a better question, here’s your answer.

Five keys to transforming your health…

1.  You need to average 6-7 hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep

2.  You MUST get your heart beating at 60% of its maximum for 15 minutes, 4 days/week MINIMUM

3.  You need to cleanse your body at least 4 times/year and eat half of your food organically

4.  You need 10 minutes/day to close your eyes without ANY distractions to clear your mind

5.  You MUST maintain and optimize the system that controls everything, the nervous system