Blood pressure drops when overweight children lose small amounts of weight.

The strains of being overweight on the body mentally and physically are numerous.  Blood pressure is but one of the factors that can change with an increasing waistline and in children it sets them on a rollercoaster of long term health issues.

Our blood pressure is a measure of the force at which blood courses through our system. 120/80 has been set as the normal reading for blood pressure and is taken in measurements of millimetres of Mercury. The reading 120/80 is in fact two measurements. You would read this as 120 over 80 mm of Hg(Mercury). This is a measure of amount of force pushing against your artery walls when the heart is contracting and when the heart is at rest. The first figure corresponds to when your heart is contracted – the Systolic pressure. The second figure is the Diastolic pressure- when the heart is at rest.

Reading taken above the norm are given the term Hypertension – hyper meaning raised, therefore high blood pressure and readings lower than the norm are classified as Hypo-tension – hypo meaning low or decreased.

For anyone either of the two extremes have serious health outcomes. But for a child to experience hypertension – High blood pressure describes a condition that places their heart at risk, in fact their whole cardiovascular system. Literally their whole system is always operating under stress, being forced to work above the level that it can tolerate.

A Canadian study has also shown that obese children have the arteries of an elderly person.The aorta in particular is seen to be severely under stress in these children.When the aorta is placed under constant pressure it loses its elasticity and stiffness occurs, this then is associated with complications of the cardiovascular system and even early death

Reducing the Childs weight through effective healthy lifestyle changes promotes a responsible long term solution for that child. Small weight changes have been shown to decrease blood pressure in the severely overweight child. Education is the key here, BEFORE the use of medication. 

Prevention, being proactive and setting long term goals is vital in this situation.

Increased chance of breast cancer with HRT

The studies are coming through now that point the finger directly at the increased chance of aggressive forms of breast cancer amongst those women who take HRT – hormone replacement therapy. Recent studies had suggested that only those types of cancers that were more treatable had increased in this group, however not so with the latest study.

This recent study looked at specifically the HRT that was based on estrogen-plus-progestin, or combined hormone therapy, not estrogen-alone therapy. Over all the rates of all cancers have increased with HRT use, so that the only reason why some women are still given HRT is to combat the effects of menopause that haven’t responded to non-hormonal therapy.

 It is strongly recommended that every effort to exhaust all non-hormonal therapies before HRT is contemplated.

Breast Feeding protects your child

"Exclusive breast-feeding helps protect infants against common infections and lessens the frequency and severity of infectious episodes not only in developing countries but also in communities with adequate vaccination coverage and health care standards," 

SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood

simple stretches for our children

Getting us oldies to change our routine is often fraught with excuses and dramas, but teach a child something early on in life and they will accept it more readily into their routine.

Straighten Up was also designed to be brought into the school curriculum to teach our children about looking after their spinal health.These simple exercises are a great way for children to learn to look after their bodies and keep them in a regular habit of exercising.

Please visit the link below for a great exercise routine to share with your children.

http://www.straightenupamerica.org./Handouts/files/page2_2.pdf

Please Note: Check with your Chiropractor or other healthcare professional before starting "Straighten Up" to make sure these exercises are appropriate for your specific needs.

Straighten Up Australia

If you're looking for a daily stretching program that enables you to get that overall stretch happening - then Straighten Up is for you. Designed by Ron Kirk of Life University, this program is being used to promote spinal health throughout the USA.

During my studies at Life Uni, Ron was a keen advocate of daily spinal health. We as students all took his spinal health care classes as part of our curriculum. This routine takes 3 minutes to complete, does not need fancy special equipment and can and should be done easily at home.

Done routinely, these Straighten Up exercises focus on getting your body ready for the day ahead. They can be done before your day even commences or even in a break during the day. Theses exercises form a great platform for an active healthy lifestyle.

For how to do these exercises click on this link. Straighten Up


Please note : Check with your Chiropractor or other healthcare professional before starting "Straighten Up" to make sure these exercises are appropriate for your specific needs.

GI and GL values of food

Have you ever eating a meal, felt full and then soon after felt hungry AGAIN?  Surprising it’s not the amount that you might have eaten but what you have eaten. Different foods have the capability of leaving you feeling fuller for longer because of their GI and GL values.

So what are GI and GL values?

They are the classification of foods based on their effect on our blood glucose levels. Mostly this classification is given to carbohydrates. It replaces the older classification of simple or complex carbohydrates. After we have eaten, food is digested and converted to the base compound of glucose. The amount of glucose that is produced differs according to the food. A food that produces a high spike of glucose in our blood would be classified as a High GI food. A low GI value food would slowly release glucose into the blood and for a longer period of time. So GI values are about the quality of the food and the bodies’ ability to turn it into sugar. GL values are about quality and quantities; assessing the impact of the food (how much of that food is in fact made up of the carbohydrate).

For example

Watermelon has a GI value of 72 (into the high range). The average serve of watermelon is 120 grams. Of that 120 grams, only 6 grams account for the carbohydrate (relatively only a small portion of the total). So the GL value is 4, because the potion that is carbohydrate is small in comparison to the total amount.

Whereas for a white potato baked, without the skin, and baked in no fat, has a GI value of 98(again a high value). The average serve would be 150 grams. Of that 150 grams, 27 grams is the carbohydrate content (a higher proportion). The so the GL value is 26.

But now compare that to another type of potato, a Pontiac without the skin and baked in no fat, is still high at a GI value of 93, the serving size is still 150 grams but the carbohydrate content is only 18 grams. Making the GL value far lower at 17.

The ranges for GI are

High values greater than 70         Medium 56-70                   Low below 55

The ranges for GL are

High greater than 20                       Medium 11- 19                  Low below 10

Generally speaking foods low in GI value will be low in GL value also. Foods in the medium to high range in GI value can range from low to high GL ranges like the example of watermelon.

What can they do for your health?

Foods with a high GI value can be detrimental to our health because it pushes our body to extremes. Low GI level foods don’t stress our bodies as much and provide nutrients and energy levels on more of a constant level. Therefore keep you satisfies for longer periods of time.

So what are the benefits?

• Low GI carbohydrates reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
• Low GI carbohydrates prolong physical endurance
• Low GI diets help people lose and manage weight
• Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
• Low GI carbohydrates improve diabetes management
• Low GI carbohydrates reduce the risk of heart disease
• Low GI carbohydrates improve blood cholesterol levels
• Low GI carbohydrates can help you manage the symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome PCOS
• High GI carbohydrates help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise

Does that mean I can’t have certain foods?

No, the aim is to have a higher proportion of your meal from the low GI values of foods and the smaller portion of high GI values. Also the choices of the type of foods that you eat can make a vast difference. For example if you wanted to keep the GI values down in your meal and it was based on rice instead of choosing Jasmine rice you could opt for Basmati rice. Jasmine rice is notorious for making you feel full and sated quickly only to leave you hungry again soon after. That is because it has a GI value of 89 – into the high range and a GL of 37. While Basmati rice has a GI of 69 it has a far lower GL value of 28, still high but far lower than the Jasmine rice.

Who can benefit from this type of diet?

We all can basically, but those who need to control their blood sugar levels and energy levels need to pay close attention to a low GI/GL diet.