Osteoporosis is a condition of decreased bone mass. You may have had a bone density screening in the past to test for signs of osteoporosis. Normal bones have small holes throughout, but an osteoporotic bone has large holes or appears “porous.” These large holes or pores are caused by insufficient amounts of calcium in the bones and many factors contribute to this. Inadequate calcium intake is one factor, but other lifestyle habits can be leeching calcium from your bones as well. Even if you already have osteoporosis or are at risk for the condition, there are lifestyle changes that you can make now that will help make your bones stronger and help you prevent the bone fractures all too common with osteoporosis.

8 Simple Lifestyle Steps for Preventing Osteoporosis

1. Adequate Calcium Intake – You’ve heard it time and time again and this one is never going to change. You’ve got to get enough calcium folks! Calcium in milk has a greater bioavailability than calcium in supplements, but if you can’t do milk products, supplements will suffice. If you simply don’t prefer milk products, please at least split the difference. I recommend taking your calcium plus vitamin D supplement with milk. This is a simple way to try to fool the body into thinking that the calcium supplement is as bioavailable as the calcium in milk.

2. Vitamin D – Calcium is not absorbed as well without vitamin D available in the system. Those with low Vitamin D levels do not absorb calcium well. Make sure you get your vitamin D levels checked and keep them up. Make sure you take your calcium with vitamin D.

3. Watch Your Sodium Intake.  Sodium will leech calcium from your bones. Keep your sodium intake to less than 1500 mg per day. The salt shaker is completely off limits, folks. Strictly limit processed foods and limit eating out – both are terrific sources of sodium. Sodium does occur naturally in milk and meats; however, you need these in your diet (see #1). Meats are complete protein sources and they are necessary to build and rebuild muscle mass broken down with exercise. Try whey protein isolate (I like CardioWhey ). Whey protein is not only a complete protein with every amino acid, but is a terrific way to build muscle and contains very little to no fat and sodium.

4. Alcohol.  Limit your alcohol consumption to one drink per day at the most. Consuming more than one drink per day is a risk factor for bone loss.

5. Pump Some Iron.  Weight lifting is very important for preventing osteoporosis, but why? When you work your upper body and build a strong core, you are building a strong, stable body. The more muscle you have, the more your bones have to carry around all day – and this is a good thing! More muscles lead to stronger bones.

6. Skip the Elliptical and Stair Climbing Machine.  Instead, run walk or jump. Good “pounding” exercises like these will strengthen your bones while whittling your weight. Jumping is the most effective bone building cardiovascular exercise that we know. Jump rope, do jumping jacks, jump on the kids’ trampoline, anything will work.

7. Follow exercise with whey protein.  Use whey within one hour of your workout (before or after). Working out breaks down muscles and whey protein gives the body the tools it needs to rebuild those muscles.

8. Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables.  Fruits and veggies are incredibly important as they help to prevent the leeching of calcium from your bones. Fruits and vegetables help balance the acid: base ratio in your body. Junk foods like cookies, donuts and potato chips make your body more acidic and this promotes calcium leeching from the bones. Excess sodium, junk food, and even meats will increase the acidity of your body’s fluids, but colorful fruits and vegetables will help to balance it and in turn help keep calcium in your bones where it belongs.

For more information about osteoporosis click here.

Got your attention, didn’t I? Parents and health experts are outraged by childhood obesity, but kids aren’t the only ones suffering. I do a lot of workplace wellness talks and I keep noticing that soda pop and other high-calorie, sugary drinks are the most readily available beverages in most offices. How many of you have soda machines, sugary coffee creamers and other unhealthy beverages within 20 feet of your desk? I see many more soda machines than water coolers and this really drives me nuts.

Scientific data show that consumption of one or more sugary soft drinks during the day increases the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes by 67%. Non-caloric, diet soft drinks are no better. Artificial sweeteners not only turn on the sweet tooth for the day, thereby increasing daily calorie intake, but research shows that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners increases the likelihood of developing the metabolic syndrome by 40%.

Reality is most employees spend all day sitting at a desk. They’re not exercising and chances are they’re drinking sugar all day, whether as coffee creamer, soda pop or lemonade, causing constant spiking and crashing of the blood sugar and increasing disease risk. Business owners and managers bring me in to talk about health and wellness in an effort to improve employee health, but also to improve health insurance costs. Bottom line is employers themselves need to do a better job of getting healthy beverages (we’ll talk snacks later) into the workplace and employees need to ask for them.

Here are some healthy options for workplace beverages:

• Water: Learn to drink water again. Everything does not have to be flavored.
• Tea and Coffee (limit caffeine after noon and avoid sweeteners)
• Sparkling waters (we like LaCroix, Mendota Springs and Ice Mountain)
• Have access to ice and a water cooler and provide cups – getting water needs to be as convenient as getting a can of soda pop (and providing it free of charge helps).

Whole Foods discontinues krill, citing ’sustainability issues’.

Read about the sustainability of CardioTabs Ocean Safe Omega-3.  http://www1.cardiotabs.com/oceansafefaq.asp

You can get a free sample of Ocean Safe Omega-3 from CardioTabs.  Simply send an email requesting yours to info@cardiotabs.com.

Good Things are In-Season Now.

If you haven’t been through the produce section of your local supermarket lately, now is your time to get there!  Move away from the frozen fruits and vegetables and check out what’s fresh.  I try to buy organic whenever possible, but realistically, this is still expensive to do.  Even more important than organic on my list: buying local.  

Locally grown produce is available at your neighborhood supermarket or farmers’ market.  The benefits of buying local are many fold.

• Buying locally grown produce helps your local economy.
• When grown locally, transportation time is null.  Your fruits and veggies get from the farm to your plate in a much shorter time than if they’re grown somewhere in South America.  Travel time is huge for retaining nutrients.  The lesser the time in transit, the more nutrient dense your produce will be.  (Less time in transit also equals less gas used – you’re benefitting the environment!)

The most important thing when buying produce is to buy a variety of colors as every color is associated with a different type of antioxidant behavior.  Again, I buy organic when possible, but ultimately, it’s the look and firmness of the fruit or vegetable that sells me.  Just always make sure to wash your fresh produce thoroughly.

Springtime Fresh Fruits and Veggies You’ve Got to Try:

Have you noticed the strawberries this spring?  They’ve been gorgeous this year.  It’s only Tuesday and our family is on our second case this week!  We cut them up and serve with dinner – a giant bowl is gone in minutes at our house.  They taste great and are loaded with antioxidants.  They’re a power food!

Clementine oranges are affordable by the case right now.  They’re easy to peel and you can eat two or three at a pop.  A plus – kids love them!

Asparagus is everywhere this month.  We brush it with olive oil and a little Mrs. Dash or other salt-free seasoning and grill it on foil outside.  Grill it just enough so that it’s a little soft outside and crunchy on the inside.  This is another kid favorite and is high in vitamin C, and has a ton of antioxidant behavior. 

Artichokes are another seasonal veggie that are often overlooked.  They’ve looked great lately, too.  We simply steam them, pull off the leaves and eat the bottoms.  Then be sure to pull the ends of the leaves and eat the heart.  At dinner, we make two artichokes and everyone shares (except the heart – there is always a fight for that at our house)!

More doctors focus on vitamin D deficiencies – KansasCity.com#Comments_Container#Comments_Container.

Every once in a while a reader will ask us our opinions about whole body, colon cleanses, or detox cleanses. This is a great question and one that I’d like to share the answer with everyone.

Do I recommend cleanses? NO! Absolutely not.

First, know that cleansing is an ongoing process. It’s not something that should happen once or twice a year. The body does a very good job of cleansing itself when given the right tools. If you are following an anti-inflammatory diet like Forever Young, your body is cleansing itself regularly. A good diet will help your body cleanse daily. An anti-inflammatory diet full of colorful fruits and vegetables will sweep any toxins from your body and also sweep your colon. Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants, which help reduce inflammation-causing free radicals, thereby reducing toxins in the body that cause disease.

Should you consider a cleanse prior to starting your new anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle? No! Consider your diet your cleanse. Following a good anti-inflammatory diet is not only perfectly safe (unlike some cleansing systems), but will cost you no extra money. A once yearly cleanse is not going to reduce your chance of disease, but following a good diet (your body’s natural daily cleanse) certainly will.

Many people are also under the assumption that so-called detox cleanses will undo all the damage caused by a poor diet and lifestyle. Not so. Only a healthy diet and lifestyle followed every day will keep your body running clean and efficiently.

By: Dr. James O’Keefe

A recent New York Times article profiled a group of New Yorkers who consider themselves “modern cavemen.” The hunter-gatherer lifestyle really can be ideal. Here is a link to a Mayo Clinic Proceedings article I co-authored with Dr. Loren Cordain, one of the leaders of the hunter-gatherer movement. The article, Cardiovascular Disease Resulting From a Diet and Lifestyle at Odds With Our Paleolithic Genome: How to Become a 21st-Century Hunter-Gatherer, can be found here.  When you eat the Forever Young way, you are essentially eating a hunter-gatherer style diet. Straight from our book, The Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle, here are the basics you need to know to live a hunter-gatherer’s lifestyle and eat the hunter-gatherer diet.

Nine Steps Toward a Hunter-Gatherer’s Diet

If you want to be in sync with your genetic heritage, here are the steps you should follow to become a hunter-gatherer.
1. Thrive on the earth’s natural bounty. Eat whole, natural, fresh foods; avoid highly processed foods.

2. Consume a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and berries, and low in refined grains and sugars.

3. Increase consumption of omega-3 fatty acids from fish, fish oil, and plant sources like walnuts, canola oil, greens, soybeans, and flaxseed.

4. Avoid trans fats entirely. Eliminate fried foods, hard margarine commercial baked goods, and most packaged and processed snack foods. Also eliminate consumption of fatty meats and high-fat dairy.

5. Increase consumption of lean protein such as skinless poultry, fish, game meats, and whey protein. Eat only lean, fresh cuts of red meat and limit consumption of saturated fats, including fatty, salty processed meats like bacon, sausage and deli meats.

6. Incorporate olive oil or canola oil into your diet, Avoid corn, safflower, sunflower, and vegetable oils.

7. Choose purified water, tea, nonfat unsweetened dairy or soy milk, and red wine. Avoid soft drinks, fruit juices, high-fat dairy, and sports drinks. Even 100 percent fruit juices are still loaded with too much sugar and should be considered off-limits. However, low sodium vegetable juices are very nutritious.

8. Use your body as it was designed and programmed over the millennia and engage in daily exercise from a variety of activities that incorporate aerobic and strength training as well as stretching exercises. Outdoor activities are ideal.

9. Develop and maintain relationships that provide social support (e.g., spouse, family, friends, neighbors, community, etc.) Try to also include some activities that involve altruism and nurturing.

By: Dr. James O’Keefe

We’ve fielded a lot of questions lately about mercury and other toxins in fish oils. Mercury and other contaminants are commonly found in the fish richest in omega-3 fats, like salmon and tuna. That’s why the Environmental Protection Agency recommends limiting your fresh fish intake. At the same time, the American Heart Association and other national and international health organizations recommend we get more omega-3 fats from fish in our diets.

Both CardioTabs Omega-3 Fish Oil and CardioTabs Ocean Safe Omega-3 undergo extensive purification processes, including molecular distillation, which is the only method that removes PCBs, heavy metals (such as mercury, lead, and cadmium), DDT and other contaminants to below detectable levels for human consumption. Our omega-3 products are manufactured to the Global Organization for EPA and DHA (GOED) standards. CardioTabs is also an active member of the Council for Responsible Nutrition and participates in the Natural Products Association’s True Label Program. Our products are independently tested for purity by 3rd party laboratories. CardioTabs Ocean Safe Omega-3 is Gold Certified for purity by an independent, nationally recognized third-party laboratory.

By: Joan O’Keefe, RD

Some people ask why CardioTabs sells a whey protein product. Isn’t that just for athletes, people ask. The answer is simple. Whey protein isolate is one of the absolute best things you can use to fuel your body. Not only is whey protein isolate the cleanest, purest, most complete (and nonfat!) protein source available, but it tastes really great too. Whey protein isolate will keep you feeling full for a long time. It can also help you build lean body mass.
We have formulated CardioWhey to contain only the highest quality whey protein isolate with none of the concentrates and fillers many whey products contain. We’ve also added magnesium and chromium and to CardioWhey.
I know that CardioWhey  is one of the healthiest things I can recommend to my clients. We’re all busy and whey protein is truly easy to make, especially for breakfast. It takes less than 30 seconds to make and it’s portable. There IS time for breakfast. Here are a few taste-tested recipes we’ve developed that provide the color and protein you need to start the day right.

Memory-Boost Smoothies
(Blueberries are a terrific memory-boosting food and this is a great way to get them into your diet.)

Blueberry/Apple Sauce
1 cup nonfat skim milk
½ cup unsweetened apple sauce
½ cup frozen blueberries
1 scoop CardioWhey Vanilla
Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Berry Blend
1 cup nonfat skim milk
½ cup frozen strawberries
½ cup frozen blueberries
1 scoop CardioWhey Vanilla or Chocolate
Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

More Color & Protein

Mandarin Orange
1 cup nonfat skim milk
½ cup canned mandarin oranges (drained)
1 scoop CardioWhey Vanilla
(Try adding ½ cup frozen blueberries – tastes great together and packs even more of a nutritional punch.)
Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
1 cup nonfat skim milk – we used unsweetened almond milk, yum!
¼ cup canned pumpkin (plain, not pumpkin pie mix)
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice (nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon combined)
½ banana
2 scoops CardioWhey Vanilla
Try adding a few ice cubes to this to make really cold.
Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Note – while all recipes listed here call for skim milk, you can substitute with nonfat, unsweetened non-dairy milk. We tried skim milk and unsweetened almond milk in the recipes and loved both results.

By: Joan O’Keefe

The health of your arteries is critically important to virtually every aspect of your health. Too much salt (sodium) ages your cardiovascular system by raising your blood pressure and hardening, stiffening and thickening your arteries and the walls of your heart. You want to keep your blood vessels soft, smooth and supple like they were when you were a child and a teenager and avoid developing the rigid, inflamed and crusty pipes that can lead to a heart attack, stroke and congestive heart failure.

As an American adult, your chances of developing high blood pressure during your lifetime are 90 percent. If you continue to follow your current lifestyle, sooner or later you will probably get hypertension-the medical term for high blood pressure. Why? For starters, the average American consumes about 4000 mg of sodium daily, which is about six to ten times more salt than we were designed to eat. Add the fact that blood pressure rises in response to too much body fat, stress, and sugar and too little sleep and exercise, and you have the recipe for high blood pressure. In February 2005, the Center for Science in the Public Interest estimates that too much sodium kills 150,000 Americans each year. Excess sodium does much more that just raise your blood pressure. A study by David Calhoun, MD, reported in February 2005 Cardiology News showed that high-sodium intake reduced blood vessel wall function. In addition, salt leaches the calcium from your bones, making you prone to osteoporosis and fractures, and also appears to increase cancer risk- especially in the GI tract. A recent study found that extra salt in the diet increased the likelihood of heartburn (also known as esophageal reflux) by as much as 70 percent.

A good place to start lowering the sodium in your diet is by removing the salt shaker from the table and hiding it in an inconvenient spot. But only about 5 percent of the salt in our diet comes from the salt shakers; 75 percent comes from processed and restaurant foods. Most people do not choose to eat high-sodium products- they just eat foods that are readily available in our culture. Salt is everywhere in our modern diet, even in foods such as bread that don’t taste salty. Processed foods are loaded with salt to help preserve freshness, and the more sodium you eat, the more you will crave salt. When you eliminate highly processed, high- sodium foods from your diet, you will take a huge step toward a healthier more vigorous life.

Fresh fruits and vegetable contain virtually no sodium and thus are great for lowering your blood pressure along with your weight. We recommend at least nine servings of fresh produce daily. Unprocessed meat, poultry and fish contain only small amounts of sodium, but the more highly processed versions like deli meats, smoked, or barbecued meats, beef jerky and other commercially modified meats are usually very high in salt. The processed snack foods are generally also high in sodium. Try to get used to eating nuts that are unsalted or only lightly salted. Look for the sodium content on food labels and avoid items that have more than 400 mg per serving. Limit your daily intake to not more than 2300 mg (about one teaspoon) – the average American eats almost two times this much. One glass of regular V8 vegetable juice has over 1000 mg by itself. (low-sodium V8 or tomato juice is great) and a single dill pickle has 440 mg. A high potassium-to-sodium ratio is one of the most important parameters of a healthy diet. We are designed to take in much more potassium than sodium, but the ratio is reversed and sodium dwarfs the potassium consumption. So how do you get more potassium? You guessed it-lots of fruits, vegetables, lean protein and other Forever Young natural whole foods.

A Rainbow of Salt Varieties to Avoid
White salt: table salt
Red salt: ketchup
Yellow salt: mustard
Black salt: soy sauce
Green salt: pickles and olives