Most people have harbored misconceptions about over the counter drugs such as aspirin, and Advil for example.  People think aspirin or non-aspirin pain relievers are safe just because they don’t require a prescription. That myth has caused numerous hospitalizations and even deaths and it may be causing miscarriages as well according to the research study published in BMJ (2003;327:368, August 16, 2003)  (formerly, British Medical Journal)

The study found that women who take aspirin or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil, and Aleve) during pregnancy increase their risk of miscarriage by 80%. These drugs work by suppressing the production of prostaglandins.  Prostaglandins are fatty acids needed for successful implantation of an embryo in the womb.  Because NSAIDs and aspirin act on the whole body, not just the part that hurts, the use of them can lead to abnormal implantation of an embryo which can often result in a miscarriage.
 
Protect your unborn child and research any medication before considering using during pregnancy.  Ignorance is NOT bliss.

One common mistake people make when bending to pick something up from the floor or tie their shoes is that they bend from the lower back. This adds unnecessary stress on the joints, ligaments, soft tissues, and discs of the lumbar spine. This is because our lumbar spine is meant for stability and our hips are meant for motion.  Think of the discs of your spine like a jelly donut. When you push on the front, where does the jelly go? To the back. In the case your spine, your disc can be pushed back, and potentially outward, pushing on the nerves such as the sciatic nerve. Repetitive bending can create disc problems as well as damage the ligaments and soft tissues that support the lower back. Mastering the hip hinge will protect your spine, and help maintain proper hip motion (save yourself from a hip replacement!)

How to hip hinge: 

1.  Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointed forward.

2. Keep your arms at your side, shift your weight onto your heels, push your hips back toward the wall behind you and hinge forward at the hips. Bend forward at the hips until your torso is midway between vertical and parallel to the floor. Let your knees slightly unlock (keep them above or slightly in front of your ankles.)

3. Contract your glutes and push up off your heels.  Push your hips forward and upward, slowly returning to upright. 


Repeat 10 times. Do daily.

Plastics (or the chemical name, phthalates) are now considered the number one pollutant in the human body. They make products flexible, durable, and these chemicals are also in items you would not consider to be plastics, like pesticides, detergents, cosmetics, medications, or your shampoo. They are found everywhere. It is difficult to completely avoid them. 

You can live in the most pristine place on planet earth and still find animals polluted with plastics.

It is an interesting fact that plasticizers are over 10,000 to 1,000,000 times higher in our bodies than any other toxins that have been found in EPA studies.

Unfortunately once in the body, these plastics do enormous damage.

7 Ways Plastics Damage the Body

1: Phthalates damage the chemistry of fatty acids most importantly, the fatty acid, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). This is the fundamental chemistry necessary for making every cell lining or membrane. These fatty acids are the foundation for brain health including memory and recall.

2: Phthalates can create a zinc deficiency which will compromise the metabolism of vitamins A and B-6. In turn this could lead to conditions such as indigestion, depression, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and accelerated aging. 

As a quick side note the combination of low zinc and low DHA can lead to chronic inflammation. Medical literature has clearly identified chronic inflammation as one of the most common underlying pathologies of most diseases leading to auto-immune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, MS) to cancer and heart disease.

3: Phthalates has been found to be responsible for damaging the pancreas leading to diabetes, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome X. 

4: Phthalates has been found to lower sulfation.  This means that you are no longer able to effectively detoxify like you should. This in turn can lead to a whole host of health challenges.

5: Phthalates damage hormone function, especially thyroid and testosterone.   

6: Phthalates can poison the peroxisomes needed for the control of the chemistry of cholesterol. They can cause high cholesterol while at the same time keep cholesterol from forming the “happy hormones” (neurotransmitters) of the brain. 

7: Phthalates can damage the body's ability to make catalase. Catalase is absolutely essential for devouring up the hydrogen peroxide that cancer cells make to allow them to metastasize or wildly spread throughout the body. Lack of catalase is a reason why many cancers briefly seem to be in remission after treatments, only to resurface months or years later with lethal consequences.

These are only 7 of the devastating effects of plastics in our bodies. Many diseases will never be cured until the phthalates are out. 


Stay tuned to learn how to detoxify and remove phtalates from your body. 



Compliments from Functional Medicine University - www.FunctionalMedicineUniversity.com

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Grisanti and his functional medicine community. Dr. Grisanti encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. Visit www.FunctionalMedicineUniversity.com for more information on our training in functional medicine. Look for practitioners who have successfully completed the Functional Medicine University's Certification Program (CFMP) www.functionalmedicinedoctors.com. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Grisanti is required.

You are probably sitting down right now reading this. I am sitting as I type this. Unfortunately, sitting is something that we cannot avoid. We sit at work, school, while driving, watching television, waiting in lobbies, the list goes on. Although we often feel relief while sitting, we do not realize the damage that extended periods of sitting does to our bodies.

Dr. Joan Vernikos, a NASA scientist, and author of book “Sitting Kills, Moving Heals” studied the aging process of astronauts while in space, who were found to be prematurely aging in space. Dr. Vernikos noted the same findings in bed ridden individuals. What these 2 groups had in common was the lack of interaction with gravity.

The changes in bone and muscle that occur here on Earth in one year’s time is approximately one percent loss of bone or one percent loss of muscle. In space this occurs in just one week to one month. Incredibly, you get close to a 10-fold acceleration of the aging process when you live in a gravity-free environment!

Some of the effects of prolonged sitting are:
- loss of bone mass
- loss of muscle tissue (atrophy)
- abnormal stresses on the spine, disc, and nerves due to poor posture
- increased risk for cardiovascular disease
- increased risk for obesity

Interestingly, lipoprotein lipase (an enzyme that attaches to fat in your bloodstream and transports it into your muscles to be used as fuel) is dramatically reduced during inactivity, and increases with activity. The most effective activity is standing up from a seated position, hence going against gravity.

Does this mean you should never sit? No! Prolonged standing can also negatively affect the body. It’s all about moderation and incorporating different movements into our daily routine. As Dr. Vernikos stated, “ It’s not how many hours of sitting that’s bad for you; it’s how often you interrupt that sitting that is GOOD for you!”. This means getting up after every 20 minutes of sitting, changing positions, jumping, squatting, kneeling, the possibilities are endless!

So by the time you finish reading this, don’t just sit there, stand up, jump up, and don’t let gravity keep you down!

Sources:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/23/vernikos-sitting-kills.aspx

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22634869