I didn't think this would happen for at least a decade more, but it did. The Canadian Medical Association's Journal (CMAJ) published a journal study comparing the treatment of Canada Post workers in Edmonton, Toronto & Vancouver using conventional treatment of cardiovascular disease versus naturopathic treatment.
And lo and behold, naturopathic treatment was more successful in reducing the 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality risk. In addition, the patients who were treated by a naturopathic doctor reduced costs to the health care system and the employer (Canada Post) by a whopping $1025 in the first year alone.
The study also analyzed naturopathic care vs. statins. Statins are a class of medication used to lower cholesterol and have been shown to decrease mortality risks. Naturopathic care resulted in a 2 fold improvement in benefit + a 2 fold reduction in cost. Therefore, that means naturopathic care was 4x more cost effective.
Dr. Brian Goldman, MD who hosts a show on CBC radio and is an emergency room doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto discusses this study and naturopathic medicine in this interview. Take some time to listen to it and you'll be surprised at how positive he is regarding naturopathic medicine's role in Ontario and Canada's health care system.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Saskatchewan/ID/2382402569/
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
Showing posts with label Weight Loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weight Loss. Show all posts
Is a chocolate bar worth 3000 sit-ups? That's what it'll take to burn it off.
I find that most people these days are unaware of what 100 calories or even 1000 calories really means. It seems like it's just a number. One is bigger than the other and we know that too many calories can be bad for you - that's what we've been told.
However there are ways to get through to patients and it's to re-phrase calories to number of minutes or hours needed of exercise to burn those calories. All of a sudden, when I tell patients that they may need to walk for one to two hours to burn off that bag of chips, the chips don't look as appetizing any more.
Here's a fabulous slide showing different fast food options and the number of hours or number of reps of a particular exercise needed to burn it off the meal.
It even makes me think twice about eating that bag of chips even though that's my weakness.
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
However there are ways to get through to patients and it's to re-phrase calories to number of minutes or hours needed of exercise to burn those calories. All of a sudden, when I tell patients that they may need to walk for one to two hours to burn off that bag of chips, the chips don't look as appetizing any more.
Here's a fabulous slide showing different fast food options and the number of hours or number of reps of a particular exercise needed to burn it off the meal.
It even makes me think twice about eating that bag of chips even though that's my weakness.
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
Portion Sizes - They have gotten bigger along with our waist lines
In a report released this month in the Lancet, researchers from Columbia University state that half of U.S. adults will be "obese" by 2030 - that means 164 million Americans, a staggering statistic. Medically, being obese (BMI 30-35) is a different term than being overweight (BMI 25-29.9)
I've also noticed a couple of trends as we've gotten bigger. Some clothes sizes have become misleading. Retailers and manufacturers know that the public are more averse to buying bigger sizes so they have actually shrunk the sizes on the labels while increasing the waist and hip sizes. Don't believe me? If you have a really old pair of jeans, try them on for size and try one with the same size today to compare.
Another trend is the hyper portion food sizes that have become the norm. It seems like we all love a good deal so the more the merrier. Take a look at this article showing a pictorial representation of the changes in portion sizes from 20 years ago. I would like to add to that list a can of pop from my youth (with something like 250mL) vs today's can with (330 mL).
By the way, the researchers also note that a mere 1% reduction in BMI would prevent 2.4 million cases of diabetes and 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke. I would like to add that a mere 15 minutes of exercise (done regularly) has been shown to significantly improve one's health. What are you waiting for? If you've fallen off a good lifestyle regiment, then it's time to begin again. And I'm talking to my patients specifically. I know, I'm a nag.......but it's because I care!
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our new Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
I've also noticed a couple of trends as we've gotten bigger. Some clothes sizes have become misleading. Retailers and manufacturers know that the public are more averse to buying bigger sizes so they have actually shrunk the sizes on the labels while increasing the waist and hip sizes. Don't believe me? If you have a really old pair of jeans, try them on for size and try one with the same size today to compare.
Another trend is the hyper portion food sizes that have become the norm. It seems like we all love a good deal so the more the merrier. Take a look at this article showing a pictorial representation of the changes in portion sizes from 20 years ago. I would like to add to that list a can of pop from my youth (with something like 250mL) vs today's can with (330 mL).
By the way, the researchers also note that a mere 1% reduction in BMI would prevent 2.4 million cases of diabetes and 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke. I would like to add that a mere 15 minutes of exercise (done regularly) has been shown to significantly improve one's health. What are you waiting for? If you've fallen off a good lifestyle regiment, then it's time to begin again. And I'm talking to my patients specifically. I know, I'm a nag.......but it's because I care!
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our new Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
Fat Distribution: Apple vs. Pear Shape - Both are Bad says new Lancet Study
In medicine, we're taught that women who are pear shaped (ie. with fat around the hips) are generally at lesser risks of cardiovascular disease than those who are apple shaped (ie. waist body fat). Though the body of evidence seems to suggest that, the March 2011 article in the Lancet seems to suggest otherwise - "So being an apple is no worse than being a pear. Both are bad" according to Dr. Di Angelantonio, coauthor.
Below is the citation for the full study should you wish to read it. But to summarize, fat is fat and too much, no matter where it's distributed on your body, is bad for your health.
The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Separate and combined associations of body-mass index and abdominal adiposity with cardiovascular disease: collaborative analysis of 58 prospective studies.
Lancet 2011; DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60105-0.
Available at: http://www.thelancet.com.
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our new Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
Below is the citation for the full study should you wish to read it. But to summarize, fat is fat and too much, no matter where it's distributed on your body, is bad for your health.
The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Separate and combined associations of body-mass index and abdominal adiposity with cardiovascular disease: collaborative analysis of 58 prospective studies.
Lancet 2011; DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60105-0.
Available at: http://www.thelancet.com.
Yours in Health,
Ian Koo, ND
Visit us on our new Facebook page!
www.NaturopathicEssentials.com
"The care you want, the health you need."
The Twinkie Diet - a nutrition professor's experiment
Click to view the video.
Definitely don't recommend this diet.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
Definitely don't recommend this diet.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
Why this one thing is a MUST if you want to lose FAT!
I harp on this all the time with my patients who are trying to lose weight......so much so that I feel like a nag. But I know I'm doing the right thing so I keep on doing it hoping that it sinks in. Sometimes my nagging works and patients know that I'm going to ask about it so they just do it to please me. haha Whatever works right? So what is this magical thing that's so important for weight loss?
SLEEP!!!
We are sleep-deprived as a society! And now thanks to research that appears in the Oct. issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, I have even more ammunition to push my position. The research out of the University of Chicago shows that a person who sleeps too little will inhibit their fat loss by 55%! A staggering amount. This was a cross over trial meaning that they used the same individuals keeping the diet constant with the only variable changing being sleep. For one period of the study, they slept for a hearty 8.5 hrs and then for the other period, they slept for 5.5 hrs. No exercise, just diet in the study.
When the dieters got 8.5 hrs of sleep, slightly more than half of the weight they lost was from fat, whereas only one-forth of the weight lost was from fat during the period they got 5.5 hrs a day.
It should be noted that the diets were strictly controlled in this study, but in the real world, sleep deprivation also leads to an increase in appetite and one would raid the fridge. That's because a lack of sleep increases a hormone called ghrelin, which makes you hungry.
Take home message: Get at least 8 hrs of sleep per night and some of you may need more.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
SLEEP!!!
We are sleep-deprived as a society! And now thanks to research that appears in the Oct. issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, I have even more ammunition to push my position. The research out of the University of Chicago shows that a person who sleeps too little will inhibit their fat loss by 55%! A staggering amount. This was a cross over trial meaning that they used the same individuals keeping the diet constant with the only variable changing being sleep. For one period of the study, they slept for a hearty 8.5 hrs and then for the other period, they slept for 5.5 hrs. No exercise, just diet in the study.
When the dieters got 8.5 hrs of sleep, slightly more than half of the weight they lost was from fat, whereas only one-forth of the weight lost was from fat during the period they got 5.5 hrs a day.
It should be noted that the diets were strictly controlled in this study, but in the real world, sleep deprivation also leads to an increase in appetite and one would raid the fridge. That's because a lack of sleep increases a hormone called ghrelin, which makes you hungry.
Take home message: Get at least 8 hrs of sleep per night and some of you may need more.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
Weight Loss: Why slow and steady is Best!
I find that the goal of most patients who come in to lose weight at the clinic is to do it quickly. We've seen shows like the 'Biggest Loser' where the participants shed pounds like crazy and want to get the same results. First off, unless you have the whole day to exercise and have all of your meals made for you, it's not necessarily realistic to be dropping 20 pounds in a week.
But there's another reason why slow and steady weight loss is important as well. As I've always conveyed to my patients, it's important to lose weight slowly because fat cells hold a lot of toxins and one does not want to disperse all of this too quickly into the blood stream. This is a concept that most people are not aware of, but a quick search of the medical literature shows that there is ample research to back up this line of thinking.
In the Sept 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, researchers at the department of medicine at the Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea show that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are released in high concentrations when one loses a lot of weight in a short period of time. POPs are known to increase the risk of various chronic diseases (ie. rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease have all been cited) and unfortunately, they along with other toxins such as mercury accumulate in our fat cells. The study showed that those who had lost weight had higher concentrations of the pollutants than at baseline, while those who had lost weight had a lower concentration of POPs.
Now we should not jump to the conclusion that weight loss is a bad thing. Reducing body fat is still a great goal and has many benefits, but ideally one should do it slowly. We can also use herbs or other nutritional supplements to help the body with the detoxification of POPs and other toxins.
The concept of detoxification if often frowned upon by some in the health care field, but again, there is ample scientific research to show that we can actually reduce the body burden of heavy metals, organochlorides, etc... We can touch upon this another day.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
But there's another reason why slow and steady weight loss is important as well. As I've always conveyed to my patients, it's important to lose weight slowly because fat cells hold a lot of toxins and one does not want to disperse all of this too quickly into the blood stream. This is a concept that most people are not aware of, but a quick search of the medical literature shows that there is ample research to back up this line of thinking.
In the Sept 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity, researchers at the department of medicine at the Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea show that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are released in high concentrations when one loses a lot of weight in a short period of time. POPs are known to increase the risk of various chronic diseases (ie. rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease have all been cited) and unfortunately, they along with other toxins such as mercury accumulate in our fat cells. The study showed that those who had lost weight had higher concentrations of the pollutants than at baseline, while those who had lost weight had a lower concentration of POPs.
Now we should not jump to the conclusion that weight loss is a bad thing. Reducing body fat is still a great goal and has many benefits, but ideally one should do it slowly. We can also use herbs or other nutritional supplements to help the body with the detoxification of POPs and other toxins.
The concept of detoxification if often frowned upon by some in the health care field, but again, there is ample scientific research to show that we can actually reduce the body burden of heavy metals, organochlorides, etc... We can touch upon this another day.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
New Year's Resolutions! Weight Loss & Quitting Smoking
Happy 2010 everyone!
Like every other year, many of you have set New Year's Resolutions for yourself. Two common ones seen here at the clinic is to 1) Lose Weight and 2) Quit Smoking.
First off, if you've tried to do this in the past and were unsuccessful, don't despair! If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.......and believe me, you will eventually get it right. Sometimes though, people just need a helping hand: support from friends and family members, advice from a professional or health care practitioner who is knowledgeable in these areas and can guide you through tough times is a must.
Failures should be looked upon as learning opportunities. It's what I tell all my patients. Don't beat yourself up about past failures. LEARN from them! Why were you unsuccessful in previous attempts? Make a list and work on solutions to those obstacles because these obstacles will be present this time around as well.
Obesity in a recently published report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine now ranks as the biggest health risk in North America, ahead of smoking! Who would have thought? It appears that the anti-smoking campaign this past decade has been making a considerable impact. Smoking rates have declined 18.5% in the U.S. between 1993 to 2008, however we've seen obesity rates increase by 85% over the same time frame. It should be noted that approximately 20,500 Canadians died of lung cancer in 2009 and 85% of that was due to smoking. I often tell smokers that they need to be aware that smoking increases the risks of ALL cancers - the smoke and the toxins pass through your entire body - the liver, kidneys, bowels - not just your lungs.
Diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and even things like low libido and erectile dysfunction can be attributed to one being overweight. My patients know that I'm not a fan of fad diets. I don't even like that word - 'diet'. It sends the wrong message. Diets too often implies that we'll be eating a certain way for a set period of time. But what happens when you go off the diet? Can you sustain this way of eating? The end goal isn't all about losing weight, it's about what kind of weight you've lost (ie. fat instead of muscle) and how you feel (ie. more energy). Often times, people find other health concerns are diminished when they lose weight (ie. back pain).
So make 2010 a good year.....the year you finally quit smoking and get your weight under control. Do this for yourself and for your loved ones!
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
FYI: 2010 is the year of the nurse. To all my friends and colleagues who are nurses, have an especially good year. We appreciate the job you're doing!
Like every other year, many of you have set New Year's Resolutions for yourself. Two common ones seen here at the clinic is to 1) Lose Weight and 2) Quit Smoking.
First off, if you've tried to do this in the past and were unsuccessful, don't despair! If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.......and believe me, you will eventually get it right. Sometimes though, people just need a helping hand: support from friends and family members, advice from a professional or health care practitioner who is knowledgeable in these areas and can guide you through tough times is a must.
Failures should be looked upon as learning opportunities. It's what I tell all my patients. Don't beat yourself up about past failures. LEARN from them! Why were you unsuccessful in previous attempts? Make a list and work on solutions to those obstacles because these obstacles will be present this time around as well.
Obesity in a recently published report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine now ranks as the biggest health risk in North America, ahead of smoking! Who would have thought? It appears that the anti-smoking campaign this past decade has been making a considerable impact. Smoking rates have declined 18.5% in the U.S. between 1993 to 2008, however we've seen obesity rates increase by 85% over the same time frame. It should be noted that approximately 20,500 Canadians died of lung cancer in 2009 and 85% of that was due to smoking. I often tell smokers that they need to be aware that smoking increases the risks of ALL cancers - the smoke and the toxins pass through your entire body - the liver, kidneys, bowels - not just your lungs.
Diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and even things like low libido and erectile dysfunction can be attributed to one being overweight. My patients know that I'm not a fan of fad diets. I don't even like that word - 'diet'. It sends the wrong message. Diets too often implies that we'll be eating a certain way for a set period of time. But what happens when you go off the diet? Can you sustain this way of eating? The end goal isn't all about losing weight, it's about what kind of weight you've lost (ie. fat instead of muscle) and how you feel (ie. more energy). Often times, people find other health concerns are diminished when they lose weight (ie. back pain).
So make 2010 a good year.....the year you finally quit smoking and get your weight under control. Do this for yourself and for your loved ones!
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
FYI: 2010 is the year of the nurse. To all my friends and colleagues who are nurses, have an especially good year. We appreciate the job you're doing!
Effects of a healthy meal on your body! (Must see Video)
Here's a video from ABC News of actual physical changes that occur to your body after eating a healthy meal vs. an unhealthy one. A must see!!!
I find that a lot of patients that come to me for weight loss or have cardiovascular diseases like diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol know which foods are bad for them. There is a lot of information out there and I find that people just need someone that can put all of that into a doable plan that is easy to implement. And I am happy to say that we have excellent outcomes and success rates here at the clinic.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
I find that a lot of patients that come to me for weight loss or have cardiovascular diseases like diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol know which foods are bad for them. There is a lot of information out there and I find that people just need someone that can put all of that into a doable plan that is easy to implement. And I am happy to say that we have excellent outcomes and success rates here at the clinic.
Yours in health,
Ian Koo, ND
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic Essentials Health Centre
"The care you want, the health you need"
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