Naturopathic Solutions

I just came across this story. Can you believe they're even contemplating this?

Why not just teach the parents and children healthy lifestyle choices?

Read on: 

Obese children are to receive potentially life-threatening stomach surgery on the NHS under controversial new guidelines out next week.

Overweight teenagers as young as 14 are set to undergo major operations such as a gastric bypass, stapling and banding in a bid to curb Britain's obesity epidemic. Gastric bypass surgery is regarded as a safer form of stomach stapling, which bypasses part of the small intestine to reduce the capacity of the stomach.

In addition children under 12 will be offered anti-obesity drugs - despite the medication being licensed only for use in adults.

Experts proposing the guidelines say these "last resort" measures should be used only when children are so fat their health is endangered by heart disease, diabetes and other weight-related disorders.

Full Article

I would like to congratulate one of my clients who has shown what can be done when you really apply yourself.

Matt has had a back injury which has really limited what he could do in the past but this time around he's really been able to cut loose.

We've been training together for 6 weeks now and the he's been completing 1-2 sessions per day (not with me!). Anyway, he's just had his re-assessment at his local gym and in the past 6 weeks he's lost 5.2% body fat, 4.6kg, and a total of 34cm. These are great figures when you consider his lomg term back injury.

His greatest gain so far though is his fitness and whilst he hasn't re-tested that yet, we both know that it's increased significantly. In our session last Thursday we did Intervals on the treadmill where he ran at 10km/hr for 1 minute, then jogged at 8km/hr for 2 minutes. We did this for the whole session and this really shows how far he has come.

Well done mate!

Ray

A recent study, reported here in the NYT, finds that cutting back the amount of smoking is not an effective strategy for gaining health benefits.   The NYT article details a study, which appears in the journal Tobacco Control, which followed the health of more than 50,000 Norwegian smokers over more than two decades.

The results of the study, according to the article:  “The researchers found that those who reduced their cigarette intake by 50 percent or more did not have a better mortality rate from all causes of death than heavier smokers did. They did not even do better when it came to diseases specifically associated with smoking.”

The results are somewhat counter-intuitive but this quote from the article offers a possible explanation:

“It is unclear why those who cut back did not seem to be healthier. One possibility, the study said, is that to compensate for the cigarettes they give up, smokers inhale smoke more deeply and smoke more of each cigarette.”

In any event this study makes it clear that the only clear path to improved health for those currently smoking is total cessation.   And of course, total cessation  is the right answer for all smokers.

This Courier Mail article recaps a study by researchers, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which found that pregant woment who ate fruits and vegetables during pregnancy on a regular basis were 46% less likely to miscarry. 

According to the article, vitamin tablets, dairy products, fish and white meat also increased the odds of a successful pregnancy.

This solid statistical evidence certainly reinforces the importance of a healthful diet for all pregnant women.