Cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis… There are so many ailments and diseases we face as a society and they are becoming more and more widespread. Many of these issues have only been prevalent in our society for less than a hundred years, while human beings have been on this planet for thousands of years.

The question we should be asking ourselves is not how do we cure these ailments but rather what are we doing wrong that is causing them?

Here are some theories that I’ve recently been thinking about on what might be causing many of our current ailments. Again, these are just ideas; just my thoughts. Take these ideas with a grain of salt. My ideas may be completely wrong and currently there may be nothing to support these thoughts but at the very least I would like to get people to think outside the box. Think about how we might be living our lives the wrong way which is leading to a lower quality of life and premature death.  The fact that cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and so many other diseases are continuing to rise while our life expectancy in this country is no longer going up (this is the first generation of people believed to not outlive their parents) tells us we need major changes in our lifestyles.

Skin Cancer Theory– The common recommendation by doctors is to stay out of the sun. So I’m thinking, should we start living in caves? Should we do what Mr. Burns did in a Simpsons episode and block out the sun? Hundreds to thousands of years ago, when we had to spend most of our day outdoors hunting and gathering, were we dying of skin cancer? Why do we find ourselves to look more appealing when we have a tan? We manufacture our own vitamin D with adequate exposure to sunlight so why is staying out of the sun appropriate advice?

I’m thinking skin cancer has become prevalent because we are not spending ENOUGH time in the sun. Our bodies are so conditioned to be out of the sun that when we spend just 30 minutes in the sun we easily burn.  So of course we can develop cancer if we continue to damage the largest organ of the body. And sure we can blame our depleted ozone for not protecting us but remember our body is an adaptable organism. If we never spend any time in the sun, our body will not be conditioned to handle the sun’s radiation.

Let’s not forget about the sunscreen we use to “protect” us from sun burn.

You ever read the ingredient list?

Water , Octyl Palmitate , Glyceryl Stearate SE , Glyceryl Dilaurate , Benzyl Alcohol , Propylparaben , Carbomer , Fragrance , Sodium Hydroxide , Methylparaben, Cinnamates, OMC (Octyl Methoxycinnamate), Ethylhexyl p-Methoxycinnamate, Salicylates, OCS (Octyl Salicytate), Homomenthyl Salicylate, Triethanolamine, PABA (Para Aminobenzoic Acid), Padimate O, Padimate A, Glyceryl Aminobenzoate, Octyl Dimethyl Paba, Octocrylene, Zinc Oxide, Titanium Oxide, Benzoophenones, Oxybenzone, Dioxybenzone, Avobenzone.

What the heck is this stuff? Sure it may block UV rays from penetrating the skin but are any of these chemicals carcinogenic themselves?

Your skin is an absorbable organ (think drugs, nicotine patches etc.).  Would you want to eat any of these ingredients? Why would we apply it to our skin?

The Natural Academy of Science posted a comprehensive review on how balancing your omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids in your diet plays a huge role in preventing skin cancer so no doubt our everyday diet plays a huge role in skin cancer, not just the sun.

http://www.pnas.org/content/98/13/7510.full

Breast/Cervical/Uterine/Ovarian Cancer Theory – While we may not know what causes breast, cervical or uterine cancer, here’s a thought: Birth Control Pills.

Disrupting your endocrine (hormonal) system can lead to many changes of the body (steroids for example). The endocrine system is an integrated system that functions as a chain. If one link of the chain is disrupted, then the whole system is affected.

So my thoughts are what happens when you introduce progesterone, estrogen or any combination of sex hormones to the body synthetically for many years? How does this disrupt the endocrine system? Could this put unwanted stress on the sex orgrans (breasts, ovaries,uterus, cervix) which may lead to cancer in the long run?

For one we know that estrogen and progesterone (common hormones used in birth control) play a role in the development of the ductal and alveolar structures of the breast. (Human Physiology: The Mechanisms of Body Function, eighth edition Sander et. al 2001 pg 674). Could a hormonal imbalance (too much or too little) cause a change in these cells where maybe they grow out of control (i.e. cancer cells)? How do these hormones affect the other sex glands, especially when an imbalance is present?

It seems too often we perform isolated studies on the body when the body is an integrated system. We may find the answers we’re looking for when we start thinking simpler.

Prostate Cancer Theory – my guess here is prostate cancer may be due to an inefficient amount of sex.  The old saying, “if you don’t use it, you lose it” may be true here. As we become older and typically unhealthier our sex drive decreases. I’m guessing  sex drive in our society as a whole is on the decline. Being overweight and not eating healthy I’m sure plays a big part in this.

The prostate glands major function is to secrete the bulk of the fluid in which ejaculated sperm are suspended (Human Phys page 640). So I’m wondering if a person stops ejaculating on a regular basis (at least a couple times a week), could this cause an enlarged prostate over many years? Could this trigger prostate cancer?

Again, these are just questions and theories I have. By no means am I a cancer expert but I have to think the answers we are looking for when it comes to solving these issues lies within our everyday lifestyle habits. Whether it’s the inactivity, poor diet, stress… I think we’ll find that these are the major issues causing our problems. That way we can stop spending so much time, money and effort on trying to find a complex cure and work on something much simpler… but sadly there is much money to be made on the gullibility of our society. And if we can convince people they can still be lazy and just take a pill to be healthy, we’ll continue this free fall of sickness and disease…maybe we need to start over…

Before you misinterpret this article, let me first say that Yoga is a fantastic exercise modality that can yield great levels of flexibility, stability and strength along with a better sense of well being and body awareness (just to name a few of its benefits).  But like all exercise, the proper yoga pose needs to be selected for the client performing the exercise along with proper execution (technique) of the exercise. This is where I see most Yoga routines fail.

Many proponents of Yoga say it is beneficial for the simple fact that it has been around for 1000’s of years. But one important thing to understand is people today move much different than people from 1000’s of years ago, let alone 100 years ago. We are a chair-borne society where our body is acclimated to withstand the rigors of sitting for many hours a day.  We perform little movement throughout our day in order to survive which is ultimately leading to our inability to move efficiently (Have you seen the movie WALL-E?).

Compare this to people of 1000 years ago who had ideal flexibility and used their body daily for hunting and gathering.

It is important to understand that many of the Yoga poses/exercises created were for healthy, flexible, strong people, hence why you might see exercises such as these executed with ease.

The average person today has the inflexibility/overactivity of the following muscles based on the way we are now using our body: Calf complex, Biceps femoris (short head), Hip Flexor complex, Adductor complex, Low Back extensors, Thoracic flexors, Lats, Chest and Cervical extensors and elevators. This leads to this type of posture:

If you look at the bad posture, notice just the lower back area. This is called an anterior tilt of the pelvis and excessive lordosis (arching/extension) of the lumbar spine. This creates a great deal of stress through the low back region during movement and is a major culprit for why 80% of the population has low back pain/stiffness. We won’t even discuss how this poor posture creates pain throughout the other areas of the body.

Based on this idea of posture, the yoga instructor should select appropriate exercises for their clients based on their current posture state (both static and moving posture). For example, these poses may do more harm than good:

Most people move with excessive lordosis through the low back region so poses like these will only exacerbate the issue and may lead to low back and hip problems.

How cool is this pose? Problem is look at the shoulder. See how it’s in front of the rest of the body? Most people already have rounded shoulders so this is a great way to put a lot of wanted stress onto the anterior superior part of the shoulder complex.

The Downward  Dog is a fantastic exercise to stretch and strengthen the posterior kinetic chain, however most people have tight calves, biceps femoris, lats and thoracic flexors. Therefore you tend to see this:

Heels off the floor,toes turned out, elbows bent, bent knees, rounded upper back, forward head….

These compensations can lead to poor posture/movement and injury. Why not make modifications so the person can perform the exercise with much better form? How about we elevate the hands to a chair or box? It is vital for both the person instructing the pose and the person performing the pose to realize when technique is less than ideal so adjustments can be made.

So here’s my final thought. How about we combine Yoga with Human Movement Science? Not only can we challenge and enhance our body using a modality of exercise that has been around for 1000’s of years but combine that with the understanding of how the body should move so we can appropriately select the BEST routine possible.

Namaste

Finally! A piece of machinery that allows me to do cardio for my abs! Now if they can only invent a cardio machine that works my neck, I can also get rid of my double chin!

It’s amazing how ignorant and gullible we are when it comes to buying health and fitness products. I know I’ve been guilty in the past of buying the next best exercise equipment  only to use it as a place to hang my dirty clothes.

The latest “ab” machine is the ab circle which they market as cardio for your abs. Really, cardio for your abs. Because your abdominals and spine are great structures built to generate huge amounts of locomotion (note the sarcasm).

Just take a look at their website:

www.abcirclepro.com

Let’s take a look at the motion. Essentially it’s lateral spinal flexion and hiking up of the hip while in a hip flexed position and an anterior tilt of the pelvis. The two primary muscles that create this motion are going to be the obliques and the quadratus lumborum.

So it’s really not a great abdominal exercise (although they will be working to a degree with someone who has a strong core to stabilize the trunk, which is not most people). It’s more of a low back and oblique exercise. You know why 80% of the population has low back pain? Our immobile society has poor core(spinal) stabilization or essentially too much motion through the lumbar spine. So here’s a great product to further exacerbate dysfunctional human movement.

Here’s what you’ll probably end up looking like after spending some time on the ab circle.

But hey, no pain, no gain right?

Oh but wait! There’s more! Not only can use this machine for your abs, but you can also use to train your hips and buns!  All for only $200!

For $200 you can join a gym for 4-7 months and have access to every essential piece of fitness equipment necessary to get you the body you’re looking for.

The fact is the hips are in a flexed position the entire time which pretty much negates any glute max toning (activation) whatsoever. So can we sue them for false advertisement?

Solution

Eat less, move more. I know, miserable. “You mean I can’t eat anything I want and I have to exercise?”

Look, currently there is no concrete evidence that supports the idea that working out a particular muscle will burn the fat around that muscle. Otherwise we’d all have really muscular jaws from all of the chewing we do.

You will start losing body fat when you begin to consume less calories than you expend. If you want to see your abs again, you need to get your body fat well below 20%. Just think, if you have 30% body fat and weigh 160, you have 48 lbs of FAT on your body. If that doesn’t motivate you to get your ass in gear, then call it a day and head over to the local buffet and enjoy the little time you have left (I know that’s harsh but it’s reality).

So let’s make an educated guess here:  Which burns more calories, the Ab Circle or running? The Ab Circle or using the elliptical trainer? Ab Circle or circuit weight training? If you guessed it’s NOT the Ab Circle for any of these questions, The Angry Trainer applauds you. Understand you must work to achieve the body you want, there’s no easy way of going about it.

Do these two simple things right now!

1) Hire a trainer: you don’t know what you’re doing when it comes to exercise. If you think you do, you’re lying to yourself. You will lose 60% more weight when you have a coach helping you.

2) Start logging your food and counting your calories. www.dotfit.com has a fantastic nutritional program that can help you figure out how many calories you need to eat to achieve your fitness goal along with exercise and supplementation support. Email the angry trainer if you need support: theangrytrainer@gmail.com.

Shady health and fitness products are one reason why The Angry Trainer exists. Make sure to avoid these “scams” you see on T.V. and consult a professional for your health and fitness needs.

Best wishes,

The Angry Trainer

How can having high cholesterol be a risk factor for heart attacks when numerous studies refute this idea?

The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease  by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD.,is a fantastic book that has hundreds of references of scientific information that discuss the topic of cholesterol and heart disease. This can be a great resource for you to do your own learning. Here is one study discussed in this book that I found very interesting.

The MONICA project, conducted by the World Health Organization, looked at 113 groups of scientists and doctors in 27 countries around the world where data was collected to look at the relationship between blood cholesterol and mortality rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) among other things. The country of Finland has a very high death rate due to CHD and their average serum cholesterol levels were around 250 mg/dl (considered to be high).  One might conclude that high cholesterol levels = high risk of CHD based on that statistic alone. However, the project also demonstrated numerous other countries such as France had a mortality rate that was 300,000 people LESS than Finland, yet they average the exact same serum cholesterol levels, 250 mg/dl. The real mystery that scientists are trying to figure out is why then do people in France have such high cholesterol levels but experience low mortality rates due to CHD?

Should I take cholesterol lowering drugs?

As mentioned in Part 1 of this discussion, cholesterol is not the cause of CHD. So based on that alone it wouldn’t make sense to take them. It’s also important to discuss the many side effects that may come about from taking cholesterol lowering drugs called statins.

One side effect is muscle weakness and pain. I’ve actually seen this first hand where one of my elderly clients had chronic pain in her legs. Within two weeks of stopping the statin drugs, the pain went away and she started getting stronger and stronger. The possible reason why statin drugs may increase muscle weakness and pain is they inhibit Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient that supports muscle function and also acts as an antioxidant.

Other side effects being reported with long term use of statin drugs include abnormal liver and kidney function, immune system depression, an increase in cancer risk, and degenerative muscle tissue condition called rhabdomyolysis.

Not to mention if you lower your cholesterol too much that having low cholesterol has been linked to an increase risk of depression, violent behavior, stroke, and brain dysfunction. Sounds appealing right?

Did you know that the cholesterol drug industry sold 26 BILLION dollars worth of drugs last year? According to Dr. Ron Rosedale, a researcher in the field of medicine and disease, major consumer groups have identified 8 out of the 9 major “experts” have payrolls with pharmaceutical companies. Do you know how much your doctor makes from prescribing you cholesterol lowering drugs?

A Solution

By all means I am no expert when it comes to cholesterol but all I wanted to do with this article is to illustrate some fallacies when it comes to this highly debated topic based on many readings I have come across. At the very least it is important for our society to become educated and more aware of the choices they make when it comes to improving one’s health.

There are two things you can do right now to improve your health.

1) Start exercising every day. Walking is hardly a sound exercise program so this should only be a part of your exercise program. Work on improving your cardiorespiratory system, your coordination, balance, core stabilization and strength, and posture. I.E. Go hire a professional. Understand we were never taught in school how to be healthy so go hire a highly respected trainer in your area to help you with your exercise needs. The little money you spend now to PREVENT health problems will be significantly less than the money you have to spend trying to get cured from a disease. Exercise has been shown to decrease your risk of: CHD, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cancer, and depression to name a few.

2) Eliminate processed foods and learn how to cook. It’s much easier to get healthy when you know what’s going into your body so start a food log and have a nutritionist help you with eating a balanced diet. Also stop worrying about eating foods high in cholesterol. Studies show if you eat high cholesterol foods, your liver will stop producing as much cholesterol. If your diet is low in cholesterol, your liver will just manufacture more.

Thanks for reading! (Man this is therapeutic for The Angry Trainer!!!)

Reference: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/07/21/statin-drugs-part-four.aspx

Nature Medicine September, 2000;6:965-966, 1004-1010.

The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease  by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD

This is the face most people make when I ask them what cholesterol is. It’s a look of confusion and uncertainty. The word cholesterol has such a negative connotation in our society. We associate it with Coronary Artery Disease and heart attacks. We take cholesterol lowering drugs in fear that cholesterol is the actual cause of a heart attack and avoid eating foods high in cholesterol because “experts” claim this will lead to high cholesterol in the blood and possible heart disease.  But is this really true?

I smell BULLSHIT

Do you know what cholesterol is? If I asked you to define cholesterol, what would you say? Let me guess… You’d say that there is the good kind and bad kind. The bad kind is called LDL and causes heart disease. The good kind is called HDL and the higher amount of HDL we have the “healthier” we are.

Sadly this is what we’ve been conditioned to learn as this is being taught in schools and the pharmaceutical companies have awesome advertising that try to solidify this idealogy. I say sadly because there are so many fallacies surrounding the idea that cholesterol causes heart disease. Before we explore these fallacies, we need to have a better understanding of what cholesterol is and what are its functions in the body.

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a steroid and is a precursor for other steroids such as the sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, etc). It is a major component for every single cell membrane on this planet as its major function is to waterproof cells. Our body naturally produces and recycles cholesterol and delivers it to anywhere in the body new cells need to be created or damaged cells need repair.

Our body transports cholesterol via two major “vehicles”: HDL and LDL.

WE NEED TO THROW the idea of “GOOD” and BAD” cholesterol in the toilet

HDL stands for High Density Lipoprotein. Cholesterol attaches to HDL when it needs to be transported from an area of the body back to the liver where the liver decides whether it needs to be used/recycled or excreted.

LDL stands for Low Density Lipoprotein. Cholesterol attaches to LDL from the liver where it becomes transported to an area of the body that is building new cells. This is why LDL levels are always higher than HDL as your body is always manufacturing new cells as old cells die or repairing damaged one.

As you can see, both LDL and HDL are essential. The idea that HDL is “good” and LDL is “bad” is ridiculous. HDL and LDL are not cholesterol. They are the buses for which cholesterol rides in order to get to places in the body. We say HDL is “good” because our body is transporting cholesterol away from an artery and LDL is “bad” because it is transporting it to an artery. But it’s important to understand that HDL and LDL are transporters of cholesterol to ALL CELLS of the body, not just arterial walls. And as we’ll learn in the next section, cholesterol doesn’t even cause a heart attack. At the most, it’s a weak risk factor for heart disease.

So here ‘s a theory I have: If you have high LDL levels, which is a risk factor for heart disease, maybe all this means is your body is trying to create many new cells or you have damaged many cells. Why is your body trying to create new cells? Perhaps because many old cells are dying or being damaged. Why are old cells dying/being damaged at fast rates? Maybe this is because you’re eating poor quality, processed foods, using cholesterol lowering drugs and/or not exercising? Hmmmmm……

RISK FACTOR VS CAUSE

A risk factor is essentially a coincidence that something is associated with a disease or infection. A cause is the one that is responsible for the action or result, in this case disease.

The major known culprit of heart disease is a build up of plaque in the arterial walls. Plaque is not cholesterol, it is essentially a scab or scar tissue that is being built up on top of lesions or areas of stress on the inside of the arterial wall. During this process, cholesterol is present in high concentration to help the scar tissue cover up the lesion by reinforcing the cell walls. This leads to a hardening of the arterial wall as a protective measure and prevents the artery from widening. When there is too much damage and hardening of the arterial wall, we call this atherosclerosis.

So what’s causing damage to the arterial wall? Possibly eating trans fatty acids, being diabetic and overweight, smoking, high blood pressure and/or emotional stress. The one thing these all have in common is cholesterol is high in people who exhibit these traits so of course cholesterol gets blamed for this dilemma when in actuality it is trying to heal this process. Taking cholesterol lowering drugs does not repair the plaque, all it does is reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood. Lowering your cholesterol levels when your body is trying to heal these lesions is equivalent to taking away fire fighters away from a fire fight!!

As you can see, cholesterol is an innocent bystander in this process but because of it’s association, scientists label it a risk factor. Often times, and mistakenly so, risk factors get misinterpreted as causes. This has lead us down the wrong path of thinking and created mass confusion!

Thanks for reading and Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll take a look at some research surrounding cholesterol and why experts are leading us to believe that drugs are the solution to having high cholesterol!

References:

The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease  by Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/05/28/cholesterol-heart.aspx

Biology 5^th Edition, Campbell, Reese, Mitchell

75 million Americans are obese (1/3 of the population)

By the year 2050, over half of the population (hundreds of millions) will be an extreme fat ass.

Approx 18 million people have diabetes and roughly 8 million more have not been diagnosed yet.

There were close to 500,000 deaths due to Coronary Heart Disease in ’05.

We can all name at least 10 people who have died from cancer.

I think we get the point. The problem is if we health and fitness experts are so good at what we do then why as a society are we getting worse?

Americans spend $35 billion a year on health and fitness related issues… 35 billion and we’re getting worse?

THERE IS SO MUCH BULLSHIT OUT THERE RELATED TO HEALTH AND FITNESS

The truth of the matter is we (health and fitness experts) know more about the human body then the rest of the population (which makes us experts) but we know very little about how it functions and we still have a lot to learn.

How many companies can you think of play on the gullibility of our society and sell people dishonest products and services?

Think about this, we are all guilty of purchasing some kind of abdominal machine/equipment through some snazzy infomercial. And did using that machine get us the result they advertised?

Or how about that new fad diet that is suppose to give you that rock hard body or slimmer waist line?

Or how about that drug ad on the tv that tells you how wonderful the drug is but it has numerous side effects, one of them usually being death?

This infuriates the Angry Trainer.

WHO IS THE ANGRY TRAINER?

The Angry Trainer is my alter ego. He’s the little voice in the back of my head that doesn’t hesitate to throw up a red flag when I get a high reading on the bullshitometer. This little voice doesn’t often get to see the light of day so for my own psyche, it’s important that I let him out to play from time to time.

The purpose of this blog is to have some fun and educate, not create enemies (even though it may seem like that from time to time).  There are so many products/services/ideas out there that may have good intentions on improving our health but it’s important we establish good from bad, right from wrong, more efficient from less efficient.

Here are some topics we’ll discuss in the near future that really get the Angry Trainer going:

Cholesterol doesn’t cause heart attacks

The media is overreacting to the Swine Flu

The TENS UNIT(electric therapy) is misused by Physical Therapists

PLIE Squats suck, unless you enjoy pain through your sacrum

SPIN NAZIS

Walking is too easy

Yoga: Great idea, Poor Execution

Curves: The all female gym where you can chat your calories away

INNER and OUTER thigh machine: My vote for the worst exercises ever

And much, much more. Until next time!

TheAngryTrainer

References:

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/index.htm#estimation

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db01.pdf

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1566436/Half-of-adults-will-be-obese-by-2050.html

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4591