Healthspan Blog

Since I got my Masters degree online (technically correspondence not online) I’m fairly interested in online education. So when I learned that they have online nursing degrees, I figured I had to blog about it, especially when I saw nursing PhDs.

According to the US Department of Labor, job prospects for nurses will be strong. No wonder local papers are full of high school students looking at nursing as a profession.

As I try to gain muscle weight, I lift weights every day and eat a lot of protein. For a while that meant chicken and egg whites. Did I ever get bored of chicken and egg whites though! The last couple of days I’ve had pork chops and apple sauce for dinner. It’s not chicken, but it won’t be long before that also gets old. I was able to find a few pork recipes which should help. Of course if you add sauces and things, you eat more non-protein…

I suppose if I get too bored with my diet I could just fly to Peru for some frog juice but I’m not sure how much protein frog juice has…

I spend my days and nights studying this stuff and providing it to people. I’ve seen literally thousands of mini-miracles with omega-3s and other nutrients in terms of health.

I was at a nutrition conference in California a few months back. A Dr. Maroon, chief surgeon of the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave a talk on fish oil and omega-3 fats. He said that he put every member of the Steelers on the fish oil at the start of the 2005 season; you know, the year they won the Superbowl.

I for one am a firm believer in fish oil, whether it’s the cod liver oil of old, or the highly refined, pollution-free brands of today. Yet, I was still amazed that this physician said it made all the difference. Certainly, it can affect the body in many positive ways, from joint relief, to bone building, heart health, cognitive acuity, softened skin, dry eye relief, mood lifting, anger control, and reduced inflammation overall. It really is amazing stuff, especially if you don’t eat fatty fish, like salmon, sardines, mackerel, tuna, halibut, etc.

I’m not saying that any one nutrient is gonna win the Superbowl for your team, but I know the importance of fish and fish oil. Every cell in your body contains these fats. It’s what makes your cell membranes fluid and dynamic. Other oils can do the same, but these other oils (omega-6 fats) are pro-inflammatory. Omega-3s from marine or plant sources (e.g., flax, walnuts, hemp) are anti-inflammatory. They are the peace makers in the body, while the omega-6 fats from vegetable oils (e.g., corn and soybean) are the warriors. They help fight infection and heal wounds. But there’s too much omega-6 in the modern diet. The trick is to balance it with omega-3s. One other important fact: Up to 20% of the dry weight of your brain is DHA, one of the omega-3 fats found in fish and algae. DHA is hard to get from any other source.

With regard to what to take, it’s all a matter of what works for you. If you like fish, eat salmon and sardines. If you’re on the go and want to get your daily dose of omega-3, have some good quality fish oil around. The dose depends on the quality. If you don’t mind a slight fishy taste, cod liver oil (1-2 tablespoons daily) is great because it is full of other nutrients (e.g., vitamin D) as well. It’s not nearly as bad as what it used to taste like. Nordic Naturals sells a great product. Personally, I take highly refined fish oil capsules from Iceland Health (0.5 to 1 gram a day of EPA and DHA) because it does not repeat on me (no fishy taste), and I only have to take one pill. It’s also free of mercury and other pollutants. There are many other good brands out there, like Nordic Naturals, Omax, Coromega, Zone, etc. There is also a prescription form (Omacor) for people with high triglycerides and heart troubles.

Probably the best brand is Pharmanex. A little hard to get since it’s a network marketing company but you can go to faq.mypharmanex.com/ and order Marine Omega. It’s expensive, but it is the best.

The take home message is that this stuff is ESSENTIAL! Your opinions don’t count here, because the science is absolutely fullproof on this. And you really don’t want to argue with me about science. However, if you wish to follow your old fashioned doctor to an early grave, that’s your business.

The question is not whether you should get this in your diet, but rather how much and in what form. Each of you (if you have a lick of sense) needs to figure that out for yourself.

Question:

I bought a bowflex about 6 months ago and have been consistently training on it. I am very, very happy with it. I’m 155 pounds and my bench has gone from 4 sets of 120 to 4 sets of 240 with a max of 300. I’m wondering if anybody who has used one knows if bowflex weight is the same as the weight on a flat bar bench at a gym? From what i’ve read on the internet and articles on it, it has a 1:1 ratio being exactly the same. I would just like to know if I go try to show up one of my buddies at the gym with my 300 pd bench, is the bar going to collapse on my chest like a douchebag because i’m being fooled by the weights on the bowflex?

Answer 1: not the case at all. You build stabilizers using dumbbells more so then a barbell. Cables won’t give you mass.

Answer 2: It really is two different exercises. If you use the bowflex a lot and do not use a regular straight bar to bench, you will not be able to do the same weight. Just like if all you do is bench with a straight bar and then you just try use the bowflex. You will definitely be able to do more than you normally would have with a straight bar but it will not be one to one. There is a different form. When you use cables, your arm angle is always changing. With a straight bar, your arms are in a fixed position. I stopped using the straight bar for awhile and only used dumbells but when I went back to regular benching there was an adjustment period.

Answer 3: You never watched their infomercials? They have these jacked guys that work out in the tradition ways and then they try to use the bowflex and are all over the place and the weight is too much. This has the same effect when you reverse it.

Answer 4: While not everyone has used the same exercise you’re using a lot of people in the gym will use cables to do certain exercises they do other than bench, such as curls, raises, upright rows, etc. From my experience, the numbers on the cables are significantly higher than the amount of weight I would be using on a free weight. You also have to consider that the hardest part of the movement in cables is at the highest point/peak, whereas with the same free weight exercise (say for example flies) the tension is actually the least at the top of the movement.

Answer 5: you are only 155 lbs., correct? Don’t go into the gym and try to be Johnny Weightlifter. Don’t go putting a crap load of weight on the bar and try it. You will look like a fool and hurt yourself. Make sure you have a spotter and gradually increase the weight starting from what you normally would do. I would say start with 135 and work your way up.

I am 165 now. When I was 155 to now, I put up anywhere from 225 to 245 depending on how often I work out. I think that is pretty good but I have been lifting for most of my life. That is why I am telling you to start at 135 and gradually increase. I think it was just this year that somebody posted a newspaper article about a guy in Jersey that killed himself benching. That sounds pretty ridiculous but stuff like that happens.

Answer 6: if you could do 135 I’d be surprised- are you kidding me? First off- you weigh 155 pounds. Benching your body weight is a good standard, if you can bench your body weight your doing OK. Second off- for a 155 pound person to max at 300 lbs should let you know how much of a joke a bowflex is. Only the upper, upper echelon of body builders can lift twice their body weight. To put into perspective how much weight 300 pounds is, its the bar, 2 45 plates on each side, then a 25 on each side, a 10 on each side and a 2 and a half on each side. There is literally no physical way you can lift 260 pounds man, sorry. Also- to double your bench from 120-240 in 6 months is also basically impossible without the use of illegal substances(or legal prohormones).

Answer 7: I have a bowflex along with dumbells. There is no comparing the “weight” on the cables with the bowflex to the true wt of freeweights. The weight you’re lifting with the bowflex is highly variable and depends on body position, how far you pull down the wt bars, etc. That said, the bowflex is an excellent home gym that’s quite safe and will build muscle.

Answer 8: an apples and oranges comparison - The lifting mechanisms are obviously very different, you’re going to have to hit an actual gym and see what you can do. I’d wager you won’t be able to press anywhere near 300 lbs using free weights, however. In other words yes, you’re being fooled by the bowflex … so be careful when you hit an actual gym and free weights, and make sure you’ve got a spotter to help.

Answer 9: Compare bowflex to a bow and arrow. When you first start cocking the string back, there’s not as much tension, but the further you go, the more tension. Same for a bowflex. When you’re benching 300 pounds it’s likely that it’s not a constant pressure and it maxes out at 300 towards the top, and at that stage you can extend your elbows to support the weight rather than have the pressure work against your muscles. Contrast that to free weights, where there is a constant pressure bearing down on you throughout the entire workout. Don’t be surprised when you are lifting significantly less with free-weights.

If you don’t want kids now, but you’re only pretty sure you don’t want kids in the future, you might be wondering about the posibility of having a Vasectomy Reversal. According to his website, Dr. Schow’s has a 95 percent success rate over his last 500 vasectomy reversals. Success means “restoring more than 1 million motile sperm to the ejaculate.”

I’m not sure if a million sperm is considered good or not (good for having a baby that is). Perhaps one of our readers can comment on that.

Vasectomy reversals are done at MMHC’s National Vasectomy Reversal Center. Dr. Schow performs 4-6 reverse vasectomy surgeries each week at the center.

Dr. Schow, the Vasectomy Reversal Doctor has worked on a Fellowship in Male Infertility and Microsurgical Vasectomy Reversal at the University of Minnesota; on Urological Surgery at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont; as Staff Urologist and the director of The Center for Male Infertility and Microsurgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas; and at the Southwest Impotency and Infertility Center in Van Buren Arkansas.

Dr. Schow now directs the Minnesota Men’s Health Center and its National Vasectomy Reversal Center. I’m not saying you should make a decision based on this website I’m linking to, but I think you would want to call Dr. Schow to discuss your case.

Question: I woke up this morning an my lower back is all in knots. Ive been trying to stretch it out for hours and nothing is really helping. I need to spend the next 3 days in a computer lab writing papers for finals week and there is no way I can do that with my back in its current state. Anyone know any tips or secrets to loosening the lower back? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1: Healing Back Pain by Dr. John E. Sarno. Get it. Feel better.

Answer 2: The heated patche are great. Soaking in a hot bath - as hot as you can stand it - is even better. Stretching exercises will help. 2 that work well are:

Get on all 4rs and wiggle your hind parts (ok wiggle may be the wrong word) basically rotate your hips left and right. It’s a tad embarrassing in front of others but it is a very good lower back exercise.

The other is to lie on your stomach and do a push-up making sure to keep your pelvis on the floor. It’s a stretch so go slow and don’t overdo it.

Answer 3: A chiropractor or acupuncture might help. If you have no time or money try “lying on a tennis ball” - put a tennis ball under you. and roll around on it. I think the deader the ball, the better. It is a great way to get the knots out. If it’s too much pressure on your back, you can use the tennis ball method against a wall

Answer 4: If you must be active, take some Advil. Per my dentist, who is also an M.D., it is the best OTC pain reliever for muscle pain. Another friend of mine, who has a Ph.D. in Pharmacy, says four Advils are roughly equal to one Vicodin. My wife has seen her down four at once for severe muscle pain, so we know that’s OK.

Any excercise that tightens the stomach and abdominal muscles is likely to help, but this may not be possible if you are really hurting.

I’ve also found that some lower back pain is psychological, often stress induced. Get rid of what’s bothering you and the pain may subside.

Answer 6: As others have mentioned, the Sarno book is good but I think you aren’t looking for reading material at the moment. Stress is one major cause of back pain. As it sounds like exam time, you are probably doing a lot of standing or sitting in one position for a long time to go along with your stress. Heating pads work great to loosen the lower back muscles and increase blood flow.

Also do plenty of stretching but focus on the hamstrings as they contribute alot to back tightness and are much easier to stretch well. The lower back is tough to stretch because of the limited range of motion one has. Good luck with the back pain and the finals.

Answer 7: Finals week stress is the worst. I used to hit the sauna and whirlpool on campus for study breaks - helped a lot. A low back stretch that I do is - lie on back, grab right knee and pull quad towards chest. Repeat left leg. Then touch each knee to the floor across your body, while extending your arm in the opposite direction (carefully). Another description here.

It’s common in Yoga which can also reduce stress and stretch out the back. Don’t take too much advil or stuff like that or your liver will be unhappy. You’re probably damaging your liver enough in college as it is.

I’m sure most have heard about the lawyer with TB who went on his honeymoon to Europe recently. I don’t want to get into the morals of that here - there are some opinions posted on that over here and maybe here - I want to talk about the cost of treating TB:

Speaker’s tuberculosis was discovered when he had a chest X-ray in January for a rib injury, Huitt said.

His care — which could also include surgery — could cost between $250,000 to $350,000, she said.

The air ambulance flight and other costs of transporting him from Atlanta to Denver on Thursday morning totaled another $12,000, said a spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente, Speaker’s health insurer, which paid the bill.

Keep in mind that the guy is 31 years old. I hope he has good insurance and that no one else got sick from him.

I’ve touched on suing for medical reasons before, so now I plan to talk about mesothelioma lawyers.

Mesothelioma is a very serious form cancer that seems to affect people who have inhaled asbestos particles. The cancer attacks the mesothelium, the protective sac around many internal organs.

Is this another case where companies knew they were exposing people to hazardous conditions but cared more about profit than the safety of their workers? In some cases, yes. That’s where the lawyers come in.

For example one court found auto companies responsible for $25 million in damages because a man who worked on asbestos filled brake lines got mesothelioma.

Before you say that’s too much consider the healthcare costs and the pain caused by treatment of mesothelioma:

Fake has mesothelioma, a disease in which cancer cells form in the lining of the chest or abdomen. It’s nearly always the result of asbestos exposure. Fake, who worked as a boilermaker for 35 years, learned he had the disease on April Fool’s Day 2005, and soon after came the removal of his right lung and its lining, as well as his diaphragm and pericardium, a tissue sac that surrounds the heart. He underwent 30-minute radiation treatments every weekday for two months, leaving him with fourth-degree burns at the radiation site and literally “cooking from the inside out” as the right side of his body blistered, Marilyn Fake said.

Are you going to sit there and say any maount of money is enough to compensate a guy for 4th degree radiation burns? No, if his employers didn’t do everything in their power to keep him safe, they should have to pay. According to one mesothelioma lawyers’ website, finding the right attorney is everything in these cases - I hope Bill Fake finds an attorney that can help him.

If you have any big lumps that your doctor is telling you not to worry about, I recommend a second opinion.

About a year ago I had an infected sweat gland removed from my upper back, near my neck. It was a big, hard lump that I had had for years. In high school I was worried it was cancer but a doctor told me not to worry about it so I didn’t. I wish I had talked to a better doctor…

Eventually (many years later) my wife and I thought it just looked too weird and it had to go.

The surgery was fairly minor - they used local anesthetic, showed me what they took out (it looked like a fleshy ping pong ball), and sent me home.

I had one other infeected sweat gland that no one paid attention to (I knew it was there) because it was on my lower back just below the waist line. Somehow I managed to pop this one. It turned red and became painful.

The doctor who removed my first one saw it and said I’d better come in for surgery right away. 2 days later I had gotten my EKGs, bloodwork, urine tests, etc. done to make sure I could handle my first ever general anesthesia. Because this one was popped and deep and whatever they were going to knock me out.

I spent a couple days in the hospital recovering. They couldn’t stitch up the wound completely because of the infection so I have a little tube sticking out of the wound to drain all the bad stuff. It’s very hard to get comfortable (not surprising when there’s a hole in my back) and I have trouble sitting and sleeping. I can’t bend my back.

Anyway, if you have an infected sweat gland or two (or just a couple of round bumps that could be anything) see about getting them taken care of before they cause you extra trouble. Now that doesn’t mean go get surgery. My father in law has had one of these bumps for 50 years or so and if it never bothers hims than not getting surgery was obviously smart.

I’m just saying find a doctor who can tell you what it is and the advantages and disadvantages of getting it removed. Because if knew then what I know now I would have gotten both of mine removed last year - thus avoiding the second, more serious surgery with its longer (I can’t work out for 2 weeks) recovery time.

I don’t want to sacrifice too much protein to get a bar that tastes great, but I don’t want to be eating something that tastes like concrete mix. I don’t want too much sugar in my protein bar either. It’s the amount of sugar in the bar that you have to look out for.

1) Cliff’s Builders Bar has 19 Grams of protein. Not entirely healthful, there is a fair amount of saturated fat. The proteing source is mainly soy. Taste good, and come in four different types. An acquaintance of mine is going through chemotherepy for cancer treatment, and still trying to work out. Refered him to this Cliff’s Builders Bar and it’s about the only one that he finds palatable enough to keep down. It’s like 25% of RDA of saturated fat or some such. So if you only eat one or two you’re OK. If you ate like six or seven it’s probably not a good thing.

2) Detour Bars by Designer Whey are pretty good, and I always like a Balance Bar when I am in a pinch for a quick snack. Today I just tried one of those 42 Gram Protein Shots that are out now - Great boost of Protein to spike a meal if you’re trying to intake at least a gram per pound of bodyweight but the taste leaves alot to be desired. Anyway, Detour bars are pretty good and they make low sugar ones that taste ok. The peanut caramel tastes like a snickers. Detour bars were rated best protein bar like 5 years in a row, very high quality protein and very healthy. Instead of sugar they use sugar alcohol.. keeps it tasting good but healthy because ur body doesn’t digest sugar alcohol.

3) DeFranco Energy Bar was created by DeFranco who trains NFL athletes.

4) Nitro Tech is my favorite.

5) Out of the 10+ brands I tried Universal Hi-Protein Fudge Brownie bars are the best, bar none. Taste delicious, they’re soft enough to where you won’t struggle to chew them, and they pack 33g of protein (300 cals) in one bar. They also have the best deal price-wise, as $22-26 dollars (depending on the site and how hard you want to Froogle) gets you 16 bars, as opposed to 12. The brownie is damn good for a protein bar, though. I would think the peanut butter is on the same level (never tried it), just comes down to if you like peanut butter and chocolate or straight up chocolate more.

Other bars off the top of my head that I tried (Protein Grams):
Universal Animal Snak (32g) - it’s a got a great peanut butter taste, and the bar is soft so its easy to eat, but the bars are absolutely loaded with sugar
Met-Rx Protein Plus Peanut Butter (32g) - decent taste but really hard to chew the damn things
Met-Rx Protein Plus Chocolate Chunk (32g) - see above; decent taste but hard as a rock, making it an annoyance to eat
Detour (30g) - these bars are dry as hell and require at least one full bottle of water to finish
Pure Protein Brownie, Smores (32g) - Brownie was dry, Smores was atrocious
Met-Rx Colossal 100 (35-40g) - Tried the cookie dough bar , tasted like unsweetened cookie dough. These things are meal replacements, however, and contain a ton of carbs, fats and calores

6) The U-Turn is also very good - sister product to the Detour bar is the U-Turn, which is more like a Three Musketeers bar. I preferred that to the Detour.

7) Pure Protein blueberry and strawberry shortcake bars are really good. I must be the only one who hates those Detour bars I really didn’t like them. They tried to be a Snickers, but something is really off to the point where I can’t eat them at all anymore. I know the general consensus seems to favor them though.

Concrete mix: I tried some protein bars but agree they taste like gunk. I just get some whey scoops in a drink easier, tastes better. But for energy, Oatmeal Raisin Power Bars (any supermaket) are awesome. Bout 40 Carbs, 10 g protein, loads of B vitamins.