Tag: Dangers of Sugary Drinks

Dr Beecher’s October 2013 Monthly Chiropractic Newsletter

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“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others

and the world remains and is immortal.”  ~ Albert Pine

New Research Shows

How Sugary Drinks

Are Probably Harming Children As Young

As 2 To 5 Years Old…

 

Also this month:

• Study Shows The Negative Effects Of Facebook Photos: Research shows sharing pictures of yourself on Facebook may have a significant negative impact on real-life relationships.
• Wonder Twin Powers Have Been Activated! How New England twins Frances and Lucas Rosa turned tragedy into incredible success and have become role models for children, teens, and young adults all over the world.

 

Houston – Earlier this year, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a ban that would stop restaurants, delis, movie theaters, food carts, and stadiums from selling certain sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces as a way to help combat obesity in the city. As you can imagine, there was enormous public and political backlash.

Eventually, an appeals court ruled against the proposed ban just before it could go into effect, citing that it was an overreach of executive power. While it may not be Mayor Bloomberg’s place to tell you or your children not to drink sugary drinks, research has tightly linked sugar-sweet beverage consumption to weight gain among older children.  But what about younger children?

New research published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, studied 9,600 children from birth to age five.  The researchers found correlations between sugary drink consumption by children as young as two years old and weight gain in later years. The drinks examined in the study were sodas, sports drinks, and any other sugar-added beverages or juice drinks that were not 100 percent juice.

Because of the study’s size and length of follow-up, many experts believe the information to be very valuable.

According to Dr. Dyan Hes, Medical Director of Gramercy Pediatrics in Manhattan, who has been lobbying for public policies like soda taxes that would make these drinks less attractive to families, “It’s a fantastic study because we need more evidence… We know that sugar-sweetened beverages are the greatest contributor to increased obesity in young children because they’re cheap. It shows that by giving your children sugar-sweetened beverages by age two, you’ve already set up habits that are very hard to break.”

Here’s what is really important about this study: The study did not find that two year olds who drank at least one sugar-sweetened drink to be any heavier than other two year olds.  But, drinking just one sugary drink per day did set those toddlers up for weight gain in the near future.  In fact, the children who drank at least one sugary drink per day were already heavier by the age of five.

According to Scientific America: In fact, they were 1.43 times more likely to be obese than preschoolers who consumed sugary drinks less than daily, even after accounting for other factors that could influence weight gain.  Mark DeBoer, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia, says the findings support the hypothesis that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has a cumulative effect over time. “We were struck by this data that even at a very young age, the sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to weight gain… and we wanted to put this information out for pediatricians and for families to help them make healthier choices for their children.”

Why Do Sugary Drinks Cause

So Much Weight Gain?

The answer to that question is most likely two-fold.  First, is simple caloric intake.

Sugary drinks are full of “empty calories.”  In other words, they contain very little (if any) nutritional value but are high in calories.  These calories, because they are liquid, do not make you feel full. So someone drinking all these empty calories will still need to eat solid food to feel full, increasing the total amount of calories consumed in a day. The second reason is how your body chemically reacts to sugar.  These types of drinks are usually loaded with fructose. Fructose can be harmful to your body by setting up the conditions for not only obesity, but also diabetes.

This “junk sugar” unstabilizes blood sugar levels and makes your pancreas work overtime.  Your pancreas is the organ responsible for secreting the hormone insulin so the sugar in your blood stream can be absorbed by cells.  After years of sugar consumption, the pancreas may “wear out” and an individual could become a type 2 diabetic.

Many type 2 diabetics start taking insulin injections when the better solution for many may to manage their blood sugar levels may simply be proper diet and exercise.  However, the best solution is to prevent the condition altogether by limiting consumption of bad sugar, such as sugary drinks (along with a proper diet and regular, moderate exercise).

Here Is Something Disturbing…

A UCLA study published in the Journal of Physiology is the first to show how a steady diet high in fructose can damage your memory and learning.

Researchers investigated the effects of high-fructose syrup. It’s similar to high-fructose corn syrup, a cheap sweetener six times sweeter than cane sugar which is used in most soft drinks, processed foods, condiments, and even many baby foods.

They fed rats a fructose solution instead of clean drinking water for six weeks. Then, they tested their ability to remember the way out of a maze.

The results were quite shocking.  The rats fed fructose syrup struggled to negotiate the maze, demonstrating significant impairment in their cognitive abilities.  They were slower and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity.  Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats’ ability to think clearly and recall the route they’d learned six weeks earlier.

Additionally, the fructose-fed rats showed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls your blood sugar and synaptic function in your brain.

Researchers concluded that a high-fructose diet negatively affects the way the brain functions. According to Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a Professor of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a Professor of Integrative Biology and Physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, “Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think… Eating a high-fructose diet over the long-term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information.”

 

            Don’t forget, if you ever have any questions or concerns about your health, talk to us. Contact us with your questions. We’re here to help and don’t enjoy anything more than participating in providing you natural pain relief.

Inspirational Story Of The Month

(Names And Details May Have Been Changed To Protect Privacy)

 

 

Wonder Twin Powers

Have Been Activated!

How New England Twins Frances and Lucas Rosa Turned Tragedy Into Incredible Success and Have Become Role Models For Children, Teens, and Young Adults All Over The World.

 

Without the bad, how could we value the good? Without tragedy, how can we truly experience and understand happiness?  These puzzling paradoxes are what often make life both difficult and wonderful.

New England twins, Frances and Lucas Rosa, are no strangers to these very paradoxes.  At only 16 years of age, they have turned unimaginable tragedy into incredible success, and they are an inspiration for children, teens, and adults all around the world.

Frances and Lucas lost their older brother Vincent when they were only eight.  About six months later, they lost another brother, Dominick.  Dominick was taken at the age of 21 by heroin and Vincent passed at age 23 by a Fentanyl patch, a painkiller like morphine commonly used for cancer patients.  Both had struggled with substance abuse for several years.

There is an old saying that goes something like this: There are only two kinds of people in the world when the going gets tough.  Those who run away, cringe, and cower, and those who stand up and fight with all they’ve got.  The Rosa twins are the latter… times ten.

Frances and Lucas made the decision to use their brothers as motivation to become the best people they can be and to help others along the way.

Both Frances and Lucas are on the Winnacunnet High School wrestling team, and according to their coach, they are the hardest working kids on the team.  They have been extremely successful wrestlers, with both ranked in the top 10 in their state.

But, these two “wonder twins” are much more than just tough wrestlers.  At the age of only 16, they are also published authors!  They wrote the book Cryptidpedia: The Encyclopedia of Unexplained Phenomena, Strange Places and Rumored Creatures Not Yet Proven Real completely by themselves from ages 12 to 16. The book is 312 pages long and has an incredible illustration on each page, accompanied by a short paragraph description.

Clearly, the Rosa twins have achieved more by the age of 16 than most people twice their age by understanding that life is all about one thing: perspective.  The definition of perspective is: The proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it.

Frances and Lucas have the ability to do what most 40 year olds cannot. They understand that life is not easy.  It is not all fun and games.  In fact, it is not fair, and it will kick you in the teeth sometimes.  They have embraced the difficulties and challenges of life, and made the conscious decision to use it as motivation to even greater success.

Every time life kicks, they kick harder.  Due to their perspective and ability to think accurately and take action, they will ALWAYS be successful at WHATEVER they choose to do.

 

We love helping our patients and their friends and relatives through their tough times and

getting them feeling better!  We are here to help you stay feeling better and looking younger!

Don’t be a stranger.  You really can afford Chiropractic care! Don’t wait until you can no longer move!

Did You Know?…

5 Things You May Not Know

 

Do you the ideal temperature for optimal sleep?  Did you know that a certain type of food can help alleviate a migraine headache?  What about belly fat, where does that come from?  Here’s the inside scoop on these and other little-known facts…

• Half of American adults do not get enough sleep. While many factors may play a part, one simple thing you can do to sleep better is to lower the thermostat.  The ideal temperature for sleep is around 68 degrees.  If you’re having trouble sleeping, drop it down to about 65 degrees.
• While certain supplements can help alleviate migraines, beans are a surprising natural alternative. Black beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas all are rich in magnesium, which plays a critical role in alleviating headaches. 
• Certain foods and vitamins can actually help elevate your mood and alleviate some symptoms of mild depression. Among the most beneficial foods to lift your spirits are dark chocolate, salmon, and dark-colored vegetables (such as peppers and broccoli).
• Prolonged stress results in increased production of cortisol, our primary stress hormone. This increase in cortisol triggers an ancient biochemical reaction in us, and as a result, the body responds as if it is starving and automatically stores fat in the belly.  While stress may be a major cause of belly fat, alcohol can make it even harder to lose.  Aside from the sugar and the calories involved, it is the way in which alcohol is metabolized by the liver and its biochemical effects on your hormonal balance that contributes to belly fat production. 
• We’ve all heard that carrots are great for the eyes, but spinach and salmon are actually two of the most beneficial foods for your eyesight. The combination of antioxidants in the spinach and the omega-3 fatty acids in the fish can strengthen and protect your eyes.

 

Tip Of The Month

What Not To Do On Facebook

If You Want Great Relationships!

 

If you are on Facebook, this information might be very important to you.  Why?  New research from the University of Birmingham, University West of England, and the University of Edinburgh has found that sharing pictures of yourself on Facebook might have a significant negative impact on your real-life relationships.  According to CBS News, “People who frequently post photos to Facebook can’t control how their various ‘friends’ will perceive the posts.  It’s worth remembering that the information we post to our ‘friends’ on Facebook actually gets viewed by lots of different categories of people [including] partners, friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances,” said Dr. David Houghton, lead author of the report… and each group seems to take a different view of the information shared.  Our research found that those who frequently post photographs on Facebook risk damaging real-life relationships.  This is because people, other than very close friends and relatives, don’t seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves.” 

The study also found that people who share a lot of pictures of themselves tend to have less intimacy and closeness in their real relationships.  The researchers also discovered that people who shared pictures for advertisers (with pictures of products) were viewed negatively.  In other words, you may be helping the brand awareness of the product while also damaging your own personal relationships.

 

Remember, we’re always here to help your body heal

and maintain the pain free body you deserve.

 

This information is solely advisory, and should not be substituted for medical or chiropractic advice.  Any and all health care concerns, decisions, and actions must be done through the advice and counsel of a healthcare professional who is familiar with your updated medical history. We cannot be held responsible for actions you may take without a thorough exam or appropriate referral. If you have any further concerns or questions, please let us know at 281-286-1300.