With the New Year comes another round of New Year’s resolutions, most of which revolve around weight loss and wanting to lose 10, 20, 50 or more pounds. A stringent plan of attack may even be put into place to go to the health club four times of week, eat healthy and meet that goal. Unfortunately, many will fail.

The problem is that there is a big difference between wanting to lose the extra weight and actually following through and doing something about it.

These findings were confirmed in a recent Gallup Poll, which revealed that most Americans — 55 percent — say they would like to lose weight. However, less than half of those people (27 percent) are making a serious attempt to lose the weight.

There also seems to be a misconception of what is considered overweight, as 36 percent of Americans in the study considered themselves to be in the overweight range, but when the Poll compared the self-report information to their reported ideal weight, the number of overweight people jumped to 62 percent.

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Regular workouts can help you prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. They promote healthy blood sugar levels, improve your mood and energy levels, help control your weight, promote healthy bone density and more.

In other words, there’s no shortage of benefits to hitting the gym or taking a brisk stroll or two around your block on a daily basis. That’s why experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five or more days per week.

However, exercise, by its very nature, can also put you at risk of injury, especially if you’re new to working out or carrying excess weight. Even the most seasoned exercisers can find themselves with injuries from overuse of joints, accidental falls, or improper technique.

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Even though the holidays are supposed to be a joyous time of year as you celebrate with family and friends, they have the tendency to elicit feelings of depression, loneliness and despair, leading to bouts of depression and a sense of feeling utterly overwhelmed by expectations.

And it seems everywhere you turn you hear on the news or read in the newspaper stories about the poor state of the economy — only compounding feelings of desperation.

By changing your outlook on the holidays and practicing gratefulness for the people in your life and your health — along with finding ways to give back — you can start embracing the holiday season once again with open arms. It’s amazing how showing your love, consideration and serving others changes your perspective during times of hardship and stress to a more positive one.

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Add to your list below the endless series of things that make you fat, many of which have to do with architectural planning and design. TreeHugger.com compiled this excellent list, which contains numerous waist-expanding phenomena you probably hadn’t thought of …
1. Cul de Sacs: A study by Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia found that residents in neighborhoods with grids and interconnected streets traveled 26% fewer miles by car than those who lived in neighborhoods of cul-de-sacs.

2. Cars: The less people walk, bike or use public transit, the more likely they are to be obese. If you don’t have a car, it’s also more difficult to load your fridge with tons of food.

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Acne is often thought of as one of the rites of passage of being a teenager — one that, fortunately, you get to grow out of. Yet, acne does not always disappear once you reach your 20s and beyond.

Having acne as an adult can lead to feelings of embarrassment, shame and lack of self-esteem.

“Despite the fact that adult acne tends to be generally milder than teenage acne, this common medical condition can have a significant impact on a person’s overall quality of life — regardless of when it occurs,” said dermatologist Julie C. Harper, MD, FAAD, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

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If you are the type of person who checks your ceiling for spiders before falling asleep, or you cringe at the thought of a bug coming anywhere near your body, you may want to brace yourself. There is a “miniature ecosystem” — complete with dust-mite-eating fungi – -living and thriving in the place you’d least expect it: your pillow.

And it doesn’t matter if you just bought your pillow or have had it for 20 years. In a new study published in the journal Allergy, researchers at the University of Manchester sampled 10 pillows that were between 1.5 and 20 years old. ALL of the pillows had fungal spores — more than 1 million per pillow!

Each sample contained four to 16 different species, and the one that was the most common, Aspergillus fumigatus, is also the one that’s most likely to cause disease. Bread and vine molds and fungus usually found in damp showers and walls were also found.

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For years, physicians who practice environmental medicine, including myself, have been advising their patients to avoid toxicants that can produce problems with our neuralogical, endocrine and immune systems later in life.

In my own practice, many patients have taken my words to heart, and let me guide them on a detoxification program to chelate heavy metals and to remove solvents and pesticides. Many of my patients have told me they feel significantly better after they complete this program. Often they will report better cognition when we have finished.

However, the majority of physicians do not pay attention to this and do not encourage their patients to pay attention to this.

Now just in the last 10 days, I am delighted to see several articles all confirming what I have been telling my patients and readers for many years.

The three organ systems that heavy metals, solvents and pesticides , affect are the neurological system, the immune system, and the endocrine system system.

A new article from the prestigious Environmental Health Perspectives, a United States governmental publication, has just come out entitled Time after Time: Environmental Influences on the Aging Brain.

Here are some important quotes from that article:

“The population of Americans aged 65 and older is expected to double between 2010 and 2050, and by midcentury the proportion of the human population made up of people over age 80 is projected to have quadrupled since 2000. So factors that affect this aging population are of increasing importance. Of particular concern are the neurological diseases and disorders typically associated with advanced age, among them Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, dementia, and reduced cognitive function. Investigators are studying the effects of not just present-day exposures and environmental influences such as physical and mental exercise, but also exposures that occurred much earlier in life, whose effects may only become apparent in old age.”

Please note this includes exposures in the womb and in childhood.

“Now, however, there is increasing evidence that the brain is capable of generating new neurons and other functional brain cells even during advanced age. There is also evidence that the older brain can respond quickly and positively to external influences such as physical exercise and intellectual stimulation. This is prompting considerable interest in developing strategies for protecting and enhancing neurological function in the elderly.”

Lead has particularly been studied for its known ability to damage neurological tissue:

“One study assessed 466 elderly participants in the VA Normative Aging Study who were environmentally but not occupationally exposed to lead. The study showed that higher bone lead levels were associated with steeper declines in these men’s cognitive skills over several years of followup, even after adjusting for confounding factors. Other work assessed the impacts of low-level lead exposure combined with self-reported chronic stress in 811 older men participating in the same study. It, too, found these exposures to be associated with impaired cognitive ability.”

“Lead and mercury have been associated with liver disease, which itself is associated with adverse neurological health effects, including a condition that produces a type of neuronal plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Chemical exposures that adversely affect kidney and liver function can also hamper the body’s ability to detoxify and excrete environmental toxicants, thus letting them remain in the body—an effect that may be particularly problematic in advanced age when a body’s defense mechanisms are in decline.”

This is one reason I advise my patients to stop eating mercury-laden fish. In addition, many of my patients are getting chronic low lead exposure, due to dishes and drinking glasses that they have bought at common retail outlets. Many of these dishes are made in China where lead is everywhere.

I would advise all my patients and readers to ask their doctor at their next physical exam to get a blood lead and blood mercury level to make sure that they are not in the toxic zone of these harmful heavy metals.

Solvents too are a problem. To quote further:

“More substantial evidence links various solvent exposures to other neurological conditions, including cognitive impairments, neuropathy, and what is sometimes called “pseudodementia,” when temporary neurological dysfunction produces symptoms similar to those of dementia. Organic solvents, including toluene, have also been found to impair color vision, while other solvent exposures have been linked to hearing loss, particularly when combined with noise exposure. Such exposures have been primarily studied when they occur occupationally, but some epidemiological studies suggest there is also potential for adverse effects from ambient environmental exposures.”

I am also delighted to see that this article brings up the role of gonadal hormones in maintaining neural cognition. I have seen this in my practice in many women who choose at menopause not to start on estrogen. I am glad to see that more research will be done on this subject.

Here is what they said:

“Weiss says gonadal hormones (i.e., androgens and estrogens) also deserve far more research attention for their influence on neurological function in the elderly.29 These hormones determine sexual differentiation, but they also are involved in neurogenesis and have demonstrated neuroprotective effects in adult male and female animals.”

The good news about this article is that it ends with looking at protective factors for our precious brains. Increasingly, physical exercise is being found to offer significant protection for the aging brain. Here is what they say:

“Some studies have reported a doubled or even tripled ability of the dentate gyrus to generate new neurons in rodents that exercised. Growth of new dendritic spines, which are important for learning and memory, appears to be stimulated as physical or aerobic exercise increases the expression of genes associated with regulating the secretion of neurotrophin proteins, particularly brain-derived neurotrophic factor, says Kirk Erickson, principal investigator of the University of Pittsburgh Brain Aging and Cognitive Health Laboratory. One hypothesis for this, he explains, is that because exercise stimulates blood flow, it may also increase available levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor”

“In experiments with mice, aerobic exercise has been associated with improved spatial memory.38,40 Such activity has also been associated with increased hippocampus size, Erickson explained in a talk at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,42 and “no pharmaceutical treatment has been able to replicate this effect.” According to Kramer and Erickson, findings from human studies that examined the effects of brisk walking and other aerobic activity have been consistent with those in animal studies.”

Read the whole article HERE or download HERE

In Other New Environmental News

In other news, just released this past Sunday, September 21, 2014, a new study from Duke University has shown that flame retardants in furniture pose significant danger. They were looking for exposure in children who were bornt to mothers who were exposed to it during pregnancy. This is what they found:

“A study by Duke University and the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group found evidence of exposure to a potentially harmful fire retardant in the urine samples of all 22 mothers and 26 children tested. On average, the children had nearly five times more than their mothers of a chemical formed when the fire retardant, TDCPP, breaks down in the body.

TDCPP – a primary focus among the chemicals studied – is often present in the foam used to make sofas, pillows, mattresses and carpet padding, among other household items. California has declared TDCPP a cancer-causing agent and includes warnings on all products using it and selected other chemicals. The Consumer Product Safety Commission lists TDCPP as a probable human carcinogen.

“The general population of the U.S. has constant, chronic exposure to these chemicals,” said Heather Stapleton, assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “In some homes, it’s a much higher concentration than in other homes” – depending on myriad factors including the house’s size and ventilation rates, where the furniture was bought and what kind it is, and the type of home insulation.”

Read the Original Article Here

In yet another article just released, the EPA is proposing changing standards for pesticide exposure to farmworkers. This is an effort to give more protection to the workers exposed. But what about us, the consumer who constantly gets exposed to this low-level pesticides on a daily basis? That builds up to create what we call a body burden, which then affects our long-term health.

I am very pleased to see that the EPA is stepping in to change the standards at least for farmworkers.

Read More Here

It is very exciting that this new information is showing that aerobic exercise can bring benefits to our brains. That combined with avoidance of exposure to solvents pesticides and heavy metals, can go a long way towards helping us to stay neurologically healthy.

Drop me a note on twitter! Are You paying attention to these toxicants? Is your doctor getting a blood mercury and lead level on your annually? what your thoughts about chemical exposures in our society today?

I hope to hear from you!

Remember to follow me on Twitter and Like me Facebook where you can leave me questions and comments.

Wishing you the best of health!

Dr Soram