Robert H. Lustig, MD, UC San Francisco Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.

Among the helpful resources for parents and teachers with the same question is http://teenagebrain.blogspot.com which compiles interviews with many specialists on the topic.

Some quotations from these interviews sum up the current knowledge:

The greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for impulse-control, judgement, decision-making, planning, organization, and involved in other functions like emotion, occur in adolescence. This area of the brain (prefrontal cortex) does not reach full maturity until around age 25!

Dr. Cohen’s summary: Don’t explain things to teenagers the same way you would an adult. Make sure their diet is as balanced as possible. If they are not getting healthy fats (particularly omega 3 fish oils) to help  with brain development and  and healthy proteins (crucial for neurotransmitter formation) their brains are not going to function as well as they could.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime I know your teenager isn’t a criminal; this points out how important fish oil is for mood stabilization and how omega 3′s have been shown to help with depression and bipolar disorder.

Notes from Dr. Cohen: I find this video insightful, educational and entertaining. Enjoy!

No, the research didn’t focus on Mercy. It actually focused on Judo athletes showing that “grip strength of national level judo athletes receiving chiropractic adjustments improved compared to those receiving sham (or a placebo).”

There are many reasons you might want to improve your grip strength: Mercy, Judo, rock climbing, or fighting back against that aggressive hand shaker at work who crushes your hand to prove he’s “tough.” Regardless of your reason, chiropractic adjustments will help your nerves function more efficiently and that will improve your grip strength. Call ProActive Chiropractic in San Francisco if you want to improve your hand/wrist strength and get back to work and back to play.

The 10 cereals with the highest sugar content (by percentage weight) are:

• Kellogg’s Honey Smacks (55.6%)
• Post Golden Crisp (51.9%)
• Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow (48.3%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries (46.9%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch Original (44.4%)
• Quaker Oats Oh!s (44.4%)
• Kellogg’s Smorz (43.3%)
• Kellogg’s Apple Jacks (42.9%)
• Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries (42.3%)
• Kellogg’s Fruit Loops Original (41.4%)

The EWG just published a wonderful report addressing this issue and giving healthy alternatives (remember protein is crucial at breakfast). Spend a few minutes going through it, especially if you’re a parent and your kids eat dessert for breakfast, I mean cereal.

Written by Health Realizations, Inc.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical form of synthetic estrogen used in countless commonly used household items including water bottles, plastic food containers, food packages, canned goods and more. In all about 6 billion pounds of the chemical are produced around the world each year, amounting to $6 billion in sales.

New research has revealed that BPA may make infant girls more aggressive by “masculinizing” their brains.

The chemical, which helps harden polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resin, has been linked to serious human health conditions even at low levels to which Americans are commonly exposed.

“In laboratory tests, trace BPA exposure has been shown to disrupt the endocrine system and trigger a wide variety of disorders, including chromosomal and reproductive system abnormalities, impaired brain and neurological functions, cancer, cardiovascular system damage, adult-onset diabetes, early puberty, obesity and resistance to chemotherapy,” according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

Now, a new study has revealed another serious risk of BPA – the potential to negatively impact behavior in young children.

BPA May Alter Your Toddler’s Behavior

Exposure to BPA in utero could lead to increased aggressive behavior when those babies become toddlers. The study, the first of its kind to research the effect of BPA on children’s behavior, found that children with exposure to the highest levels of BPA before the 16th week in pregnancy had much higher scores on tests for aggression — similar to those typically found in boys — than girls with less exposure.

Since BPA is a synthetic form of estrogen, it’s capable of mimicking the effect of estrogen in the human body. During early pregnancy, estrogen is important in the development of the male brain, and researchers suggested that BPA might make the female brain more masculine.

“In the developing brain, timing is everything,” neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain, told USA Today. “I’m worried that tiny amounts of this stuff, given at just the wrong time, could partly masculinize the female brain.”

Previous studies have also found more reasons to avoid BPA during pregnancy, childhood and adulthood, including:

• Developmental problems in fetuses and infants
• Early puberty
• Genital deformities
• Down’s syndrome
• Disrupted reproductive cycles
• Structural damage to the brain
• Increased cancer rates in certain organs and cell lines

How are You Exposed to BPA?

BPA is common in plastic bottles (including baby bottles), but that is far from the only way you can be exposed. BPA is also widely used in:

• Plastic gallon milk bottles
• Plastic microwavable plates, ovenware, and utensils
• Tooth sealants
• Glasses
• Food cans, soda cans, infant formula cans, etc. (as most have plastic lining in the cans)
• Baby toys, bottles, pacifiers, and sippy cups

The problem is that BPA can leach out of these products during everyday use, contaminating your food and water and causing serious health problems.

BPA is so widely used that it may be nearly impossible to avoid exposure entirely, however you can greatly reduce your exposure by avoiding BPA-containing products as much as possible, including one of the biggest BPA predators: plastic water bottles.

Plastic containing BPA may be called:

• Polycarbonate
• Lexan
• Polysulfone

11 Tips to Significantly Reduce Your Exposure to BPA

Almost everyone has the chemical BPA in their body right now.

“Widespread and continuous exposure to BPA, primarily through food but also through drinking water, dental sealants, dermal exposure, and inhalation of household dusts, is evident from the presence of detectable levels of BPA in more than 90% of the US population” researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Given the confirmed health risks of this ubiquitous chemical, even at low-level exposure, it’s important that you take steps to reduce exposure to yourself and to your family. Fortunately, the steps are simple and easy to incorporate into your lifestyle:

1. Avoid most disposable plastic water bottles. Instead, bottle your own water (in glass or BPA-free plastic) from filtered tap.

1. Buy your own personal reusable water bottle made of HDPE (high density polyethylene) plastic, which is BPA-free!

1. Purchase glass baby bottles instead of plastic.

1. Buy milk and juice in glass containers (NOT plastic).

1. Use baby bottles and sippy cups made of polyethylene plastic (#1, #2, #4 recycling symbols) or polypropylene (#5) (these are usually colored, not clear)

1. Replace plastic food and drink containers and utensils with glass, ceramic or metal varieties.

1. Avoid using canned foods (as they mostly have plastic linings) or foods wrapped in plastic.

1. Avoid soda cans (as they mostly have plastic lining). If you drink soda, choose the glass bottles instead.

1. Don’t let children put plastic toys in their mouths, or give them natural fabric toys instead of plastic ones.

1. Be careful with BPA-containing plastics, if you choose to use them. This means not exposing them to heat (microwave, dishwasher) or harsh detergents (bleach, etc.), throwing them away if they’re scratched or worn, and not letting food or beverages sit in the containers for too long — all of which increases the amount of BPA that may leach into your food.

1. Dental sealant may leach BPA. Although this is being debated, you may want to avoid dental sealants on your children’s baby teeth, or ask your dentist if the sealant is BPA-free.

Again, you may not be able to avoid BPA entirely, but by taking these precautions you can ensure that you and your family are leading as pure and toxin-free a life as possible.

I absolutely love working with kids for one key reason… they get better really quickly. I love seeing results which is why Applied Kinesiology (AK), chiropractic, and nutrition is a perfect marriage for me.

A person will walk into our downtown office with pain and limitations in movement, and by the time they leave they have made significant improvement. This is even more apparent with kids because they don’t have as much scar tissue, and because they haven’t had the issues for months or years – their bodies still remember what is normal.

A case study published in Journal of Chiropractic Medicine followed a ten year old child. “The child was a poor reader, suffered eye strain while reading, had poor memory for classroom material, and was unable to move easily from one line of text to another during reading. He was using 4 medications for the asthma but was still symptomatic during exercise.”

“Chiropractic care, using applied kinesiology, guided evaluation, and treatment. Following spinal and cranial treatment, the patient showed improvement in his reading ability, head and neck pain, and respiratory distress. His ability to read improved (in 3 weeks, after 5 treatments), performing at his own grade level. He has remained symptom free for 2 years.’”

This is an interesting study and the results fortunately are not uncommon in my practice. If your child is suffering from headaches, neck pain (both of which are far more common than the general public believes, unfortunately), asthma, low back pain, bed wetting, and/or learning disabilities bring them in. Our unique approach typically gets great results and if it doesn’t seem like I can help, I’ll point you to someone who can.

Visit ProActiveSF.com to find out more.

Posted via email from ProActive Chiropractic in San Francisco, California

I am studying for my advanced sports chiropractor certification (CCSP) and ran across this interesting information. I know many of my patients bike to my office downtown at Market and Battery and take long rides on the weekend. Too often we think short bike rides are less risky. These stats prove otherwise:

• More children ages 5 – 14 go to the ER with head injury related to biking than any other sport
• Each year over 500,000 people go to the ER for bicycle related injuries
• There are ~ 900 fatalities each year
• Statistics suggest between 70 – 80% of all crashes involve head injury
• 90% of fatalities involve collisions with motor vehicles
• 1/3 at intersections
• Males are 7X more likely to die
• Most likely to occur within five blocks of home
• Almost half occur in driveways and on sidewalksThe Take Home: Wear a Helmet!
• Ensure proper fit
• Make sure it is worn correctly (I often see people with a helmet on and the clip is not buckled – which is useless)
• 85% of head injuries could be prevented with a helmet
• Universal use of helmets could prevent one death every day and one brain injury every four minutes

Thanks to:

Posted via email from ProActive Chiropractic in San Francisco, California