Des Moines Chiropractic May, 2018 Newsletter

Sandy recommends Movie Musical Scores

I oftentimes get very caught up in listening to the music in the background of movies.  I love the way a musical score can set the tone and mood for movies.  It certainly has a huge influence on how the viewer processes emotions, views the characters and events happening up on the screen.  Yet a well composed score can be enjoyed and listened to long after the movie is off the big screen.

When I think about music that has touched my heart, composers John Williams and John Barry come to mind.  John Williams is an American composer, conductor and pianist.  He’s known for his many film score compositions including music from the Star Wars movies, Jaws, Superman, Indiana Jones, E.T., Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Hook, War Horse, the first three Harry Potter films as well as many, many other well-known movies.  He is known for his long-standing collaboration with film director Steven Spielberg.  A former conductor of the Boston Pops, he has also penned a number of well-known compositions for TV, including themes for the Olympics.

But the score that I have long admired and listened to more than anything else is the soundtrack from the film Out of Africa, which was scored by English composer John Barry.  The music John Barry composed is, in my opinion, one of the finest film scores ever; it greatly complemented the incredible cinematography of Africa which I enjoyed seeing in the movie.  I have listened to the soundtrack countless times and chose it as the soothing background music played during labor and delivery of my two daughters.  The Out of Africa soundtrack earned John Barry an Oscar for Best Original Score and it remains on the American Film Institute’s list of top 25 American film scores.

Years from now, I suspect and hope that some of today’s movie scorers/composers, will be remembered for their extraordinary contributions to 20th and 21st century music.

Sheri  Recommends  Brenton Arboretum:

I have been looking for a good place to take my Rileigh out for a good off leash walk since I moved in February.  Dr. Krohse recommended I try Brenton Arboretum located about 6 miles from me at 25141 260^th St by Dallas Center.So a couple weeks ago we ventured out there on a Saturday morning and completely fell in love with the place!  Nothing was in bloom yet but it was beautiful.  I could see the potential for when it will be in full bloom.  We cannot wait to explore the seven different trails they have over the 140 acres of land littered with several different varieties of trees & wildflower prairies.  The bird watching will be amazing I am sure and Rileigh will have a blast in the many lakes and creeks we will discover.  What a gem of a place so close to home!

 

Consider these questions:

• When a girl’s body adds fat to the hips and breasts during puberty, do we blame it on laziness and overeating?

• If a bodybuilder takes testosterone and HGH and adds muscle mass, do we think he got bigger because he ate more, or do we understand he ate more because he was getting bigger?

• Picture an elite 11 year old gymnast whose parents are both over 6 feet tall. Do we think she’ll be going to the Olympics as long as she eats less and exercises more, or are we confident that when she hits puberty her body will pull her kicking and screaming to a height where the Olympics will be out of the question?

All these questions highlight the main reason we get fat: hormones.  Certain hormones tell our body to grow; some tell us to get taller, some tell us to add muscle, and some tell our bodies to get fat.  When these hormones are present in our body at high levels, our bodies will follow those messages with any energy present in the body.  If that gymnast starves herself, she will experience extreme fatigue, but her body will grow anyway!  Hormones are more powerful than eating less and exercising more.

So what hormone tells the body to get fat?  Insulin!  Look up insulin on Wikipedia and you’ll see that insulin “forces fat cells to take in blood glucose, which is converted into triglycerides.”  Having high insulin is like taking a fat-producing steroid.  The bodybuilder above eats more because the hormones are causing his body to grow.  The same logic applies to insulin.  Look at the picture to the right to see how powerful this effect is.  The picture is a person with diabetes who injects himself with insulin in the same two locations over a period of years.  The fat cells in those areas respond by growing.  Simple!  Notice the man is thin overall…

People’s bodies have regions that respond to the hormone insulin differently.  If a man has higher amounts of insulin present, his belly will usually get bigger.  If a woman has higher amounts, her hips and butt will often get fatter.  Ever seen a person with a big mid-section but slim arms and legs?  Every day, right?  We all also know people whose bodies don’t get fat at all even when high amounts of insulin are present.  Lucky them!  But if your body has regions that respond to high insulin by getting fat, your way to decrease fat is to consistently keep your body in a low insulin state.

Insulin increases in direct response to the amount of sugar and simple carbohydrates you eat.  Eat a 600-calorie bowl of ice cream, and the sugar in it spikes insulin.  It’s like you flipped the on-switch for your fat building machine.  Then the sugar and fat in the ice cream are the building blocks to create fat.  In contrast, 600 calories of meat, cheese, and vegetables won’t spike insulin.  Even though some building blocks are present, the on-switch for fat building isn’t flipped so your body simply won’t create fat.

Soda, candy, frappucinos, and ice cream are obvious sources of sugar.  However, many foods thought of as healthy create large spikes in your insulin.  Many wheat breads and pastas, tortilla shells, bagels, rice, fruit juices, milks, and yoghurts have the same effect on your insulin as eating a candy bar (or two).  To learn more about different foods’ effect on your blood sugar look up “glycemic index” and “glycemic load”. Low glycemic index and load foods do not cause your insulin to increase much, while high glycemic foods can be thought of as the insulin on-switch for your fat-building machine.  Search for Harvard Medical School’s webpage “Glycemic Index for 60+ Foods” and you can see that wheat bread has a glycemic index just one point below white bread!

“Why don’t we just follow the common advice to ‘eat less and exercise more’ to lose weight?”  Imagine you were invited to an expensive, deluxe all-you-can-eat dinner with the instructions to show up as hungry as possible.  What would you do that day to make sure you show up absolutely ravenous? Personally, I’d eat less and exercise more!  Can you see the irony that the plan to be as hungry as possible is also the plan that we’ve been told to lose weight?  It’s no wonder that “eat less and exercise more” doesn’t work well for most people!

So to have successful weight loss and maintenance, we’re looking for plans that consistently keep your body in a low-insulin state and that don’t have you feeling hungry.  My research and observations of patients, family, and friends who have had success dropping weight and keeping it off have led me to recommend three main diets, though there are many variations of these.

• Weight Watchers – The most recent update to the Weight Watchers plan allows unlimited vegetables and fruits and assigns the most points to higher glycemic load/index foods.   As a result, we have had patients drop between around 30 pounds up to 160 pounds and maintain the improvement for years while being able to eat enough to never feel hungry.  If you enjoy the group meetings, points-based food tracking app, and the ability to have some insulin-spiking treats with clarity about how much you can have, consider Weight Watchers.

• Paleo/Primal – These diets cut out food groups that a theoretical hunter/gatherer human wouldn’t be able to get while roaming through the woods.  No grains, dairy, sugar, or processed foods.  However, you can eat unlimited vegetables, moderate fruits, healthy fats and protein sources so you shouldn’t feel hungry.  The most popular version of this is the Whole30 challenge diet where people eat this way for 30 days and often drop 15-20 pounds in that time.  Personally, I dropped 25 pounds in two months through the Standard Process Purification Program in 2010 and have maintained the improvement ever since by basing my diet on these philosophies.  These diets also eliminate many foods that can negatively affect people’s health, and the period of elimination can reveal the problem food.  I personally found out that gluten was the underlying cause of year-round allergies causing sneezing, stuffed-up sinuses, and constantly itchy roof of my mouth.

• Ketogenic/Keto – Starting with Atkins and popular recently as a result of many stars slimming down (Kim Kardashian dropped the baby weight with keto!) the keto diet can result in rapid weight loss.  With the keto diet you significantly restrict carbohydrates while eating unrestricted fats (healthy ones are recommended such as coconut oil, real butter, olive oil, nuts, and avocados) and moderate vegetables and protein.  Fat is highly satiating, and we have had multiple patients come in reporting rapid 20-plus pound weight loss while sharing, “I don’t feel hungry!”  After a person reaches their goal through keto, they will probably want to increase vegetables and fruits for their nutritional value.

“Can I just exercise more?”  Years of dietary advice have suggested that you can just exercise more to lose weight.  That may work for some people.  However, if your body responds to insulin by adding fat, then increasing exercise while still eating a consistently higher glycemic diet won’t work very well.  I bike about 7,000 miles a year and understand that if I still ate the way I used to I would be significantly overweight today.

“What if I try one of those three diet types and I don’t lose weight?”  Again, the answer is to look to your hormones.  If you diligently try one of the diets above and your body doesn’t slim down at all then you most likely have another hormone problem.  You might have low thyroid or an adrenal imbalance not letting your body lose weight.  When estrogen and progesterone change as a woman goes through menopause, that can trigger a period of weight gain as well.  You may need to consult a skilled doctor, dietitian, or endocrinologist who can determine what’s stopping your body from decreasing fat.

Feel free to ask any questions or read more in the book, “Why We Get Fat & What to Do About It”  🙂