| Don't miss any of Bottom Line's Daily Health News. Add our address, dailyhealthnews@edhn.bottomlinesecrets.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. January 13, 2011  In This Issue...
 Marge Couldn't Remember Her Phone Number... But Now Her Brain Is 20 Years Younger... "I used to have a great memory," Marge told Dr. Ray Sahelian. "All my life I've worked with numbers," this former bookkeeper explained... "But now I can't remember simple phone numbers... it's so frustrating!" She'd lose things right after she put them down -- it was totally demoralizing. She was only 71, but she felt like a useless antique. Other doctors might have shrugged and said, "Sorry Marge, you're getting old... " But Dr. Ray Sahelian reversed her frightening decline almost immediately. Soon Marge's memory picked up dramatically and she was focused all day. Marge now says she hasn't thought so clearly in 20 years... Why Sucking In Your Stomach Harms Your Health Do you suck in your stomach? Or maybe the better question is, do you know anyone who doesn’t? Many people mistakenly believe that holding their stomach muscles tight not only makes them look more trim and fit, but also helps them stand straight and tall. But sucking in your stomach muscles makes it impossible to breathe correctly which in turn prevents you from having good posture. Poor posture leads to a host of other problems, including a sore neck and shoulder muscles, poor balance, arthritis and injuries. Indirectly, the shallow breathing that results from such a stance also can lead to anxiety and even lowered self-esteem. I discussed all this with Steven Weiniger, DC, a chiropractor in Atlanta, former delegate to the White House Conference on Aging and author of the book Stand Taller -- Live Longer. According to Dr. Weiniger, better posture leads to better health all around. By learning to breathe deeply "into our bellies," we can resolve many common health complaints. Though that sounds like simple advice, many people find it to be quite a challenge! If you don’t think this describes you, think again. Dr. Weiniger told me that most people believe that they are breathing correctly, but in reality, they are not. So here is a three-step program to get you on your way to stronger posture and better health. Step 1: Picture This! Before we get to proper breathing, you first need a realistic idea about the current state of your posture. Here’s an easy way to evaluate your posture: Have someone take full-length pictures of you standing, facing front and facing sideways... and don’t try to stand "right" for this photo session. You may be quite surprised by what your photos reveal. For example, many people lean to one side, a common problem that creates asymmetry and misalignment in the body. What to look for: On the front view, draw a line from the center of your forehead to directly between your feet to see whether there is a difference from one side to the other. On the side view, look to see if your cheekbones are further forward than your chest, which indicates a forward head thrust. According to Dr. Weiniger, moving through your day with misaligned posture changes everything. When you do this, your nervous system adjusts and adapts to your bad-posture habits, so that your crooked body begins to feel symmetric and normal to you -- but it isn’t. Step 2: Fine-Tune Your Breathing Now that you have a better idea of your true posture, we can move on to breathing. After years of holding in their tummies, many people have a tendency toward chest breathing. If you’re not sure whether or not this describes you, Dr. Weiniger said that you can consider achy muscles in your neck and shoulders a good clue. He explained that chest breathing requires muscles in these areas to do work that they are not designed for, so it’s not all that surprising that they’re sore by the end of the day. Some good ways to evaluate your own breathing: Dr. Weiniger suggests placing one hand on your belly and the other on your chest as you breathe to see which moves more, belly or chest -- that’s your default breathing mode. Your goal is to have belly breathing be your natural style. Another approach is to ask someone else to watch you breathe and report on what he/she sees. Ask someone to observe your breathing while you are lying down to see whether your chest and/or belly moves out when you breathe in. What belly breathing feels like: Try this to get familiar with the sensation of proper belly breathing. Lie on your stomach, cradle your forehead on your crossed arms and slowly breathe. This position locks the chest, thereby forcing breath into the abdomen -- note how this feels because this is what you want to learn to do naturally. Step 3: Reprogram Your Posture Now that you have learned about your posture and breathing tendencies... and you have experienced the sensation of belly breathing... Dr. Weiniger suggests the following exercises to help reprogram yourself to breathe deep into your belly throughout the day. He said that if you make it a point to spend a few minutes on these exercises several times during the day, belly breathing -- and stronger posture -- will become instinctive. Breathing Technique Exercise: In a seated or standing position, pull your shoulders back to expand your chest (lifting it toward the ceiling, keeping your head level and shoulders down) while holding your back straight. Now breathe deeply into your belly -- place one hand on it to feel the subtle movement. Take five breaths as slowly as you can. With practice, you will eventually begin to breathe this way without having to think about it. Breathing Focus Exercise: A good way to learn how it feels when your belly expands with your breath is to use a long scarf or stretchy resistance exercise band (such as Thera-Band, available at sporting-goods stores and online). Grasp the ends of the scarf or band, elbows bent at your sides, and wrap it around your waist tightly enough so that it squeezes just a bit. Now take five breaths, consciously, pushing your belly out with each breath. Breathing for Alignment and Balance: Using your best posture, stand on one leg and raise the other so that it barely touches or is slightly off the ground. Take five deep, controlled breaths while striving to remain still. Observe how your body must readjust to maintain control of your balance, realigning and shifting your center of gravity with each breath. This is not easy to do -- you may find yourself flailing to stay upright, especially if your posture is off-center. If so, try placing a finger on a wall for support, but touch the wall only as much as is necessary. Now repeat with the other leg off the floor. Doing "balance breathing" two or three times a day helps improve balance and alignment, and over a few weeks, most people find that they can balance with greater stability. So if you feel like your stomach sticks out, consider doing sit-ups to strengthen your abdominal muscles... or perhaps think about losing weight, because sucking it in isn’t the solution. Instead, changing your posture in the ways Dr. Weiniger describes will create better health overall. You will be more stable, which will lead to a more youthful bearing, and less likely to take a tumble -- all that simply by learning how to breathe from your belly! Source(s): Steven Weiniger, DC, a chiropractor in private practice in Atlanta and author of Stand Taller -- Live Longer (BodyZone). He has served on the White House Conference on Aging.  Arthritis Vanishes So Fast I Am in a State of Shock! Free Recipe Requires Just Two Ingredients... Huh? How can a recipe for gin-soaked raisins qualify as the arthritis remedy of the century? Hey, this was your decision! In the past few months, savvy readers like yourself have been writing in stunned with amazement about their personal results from the Wilen Sisters' secret raisin remedy. But we can understand your skepticism. So, rather than tease you any longer, we're reproducing a short version of the recipe right here... Are Thyroid Patients Radioactive? You may have heard recent media reports raising concerns about the fact that people with certain types of cancer and other diseases are "radioactive" (meaning that they emit radiation from their bodies) for up to a week after being treated for their illness with radioactive materials. This raises some disconcerting questions -- for instance, is it dangerous to share a bedroom or a bathroom with people who have had radiation therapy? To stand next to them at choir rehearsal? Is it safe to sit near such folks on a train or plane? There’s no question that radioactive materials used to treat cancer and certain other diseases stay in the body and, for a period of time, are theoretically powerful enough to be dangerous to other people. But how dangerous... and when? To get some perspective on this, I called Henry Duval Royal, MD, professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, who had some helpful advice to offer. Why Are We Worried? This issue grabbed headlines in recent months when it became the focus of a congressional report. While the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) once required hospitals to quarantine radioactive patients after treatment, that requirement was dropped in 1997. However, some legislators have reason to believe that stricter measures should be in place -- which is what led to the new report. Concerns were raised when patients treated with radioactive materials caused alarms to go off in public transportation systems and on bridges and in tunnels in New Jersey. Alarms also were triggered in landfills in Maryland and Massachusetts by household waste from patients being treated with radiation. The congressional report found that more than 10% of outpatients being treated with radioactive materials aren’t being appropriately educated about what they should do to avoid exposing family members to radiation. On the other hand, 7% choose to minimize the danger to family members and others with whom they interact daily by staying in hotels for several days, a move Dr. Royal calls "unnecessarily conservative." How dangerous is this? After the NRC rescinded its patient release regulation, researchers conducted a study measuring the radioactivity of patients receiving outpatient radioactive iodine therapy for thyroid cancer. Thirty patients and 65 family members (and their 17 pets) agreed to be monitored continuously for 10 days. For two days after radiation treatment, the patients were instructed to sleep alone and avoid prolonged close personal contact with others -- after that they could resume normal activities. The researchers learned that while family members were indeed exposed to radioactivity from the iodine, the amount was well below the limit of 5 millisieverts (mSv) per exposure determined to be safe by the NRC. The study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May 2000. Note: Though the study is now more than 10 years old, Dr. Royal said the radiation treatments have remained the same, so the findings are still valid. It sounds frightening, but according to Dr. Royal, the risk posed by being within a few feet of someone who has recently had radioactive iodine treatment actually is quite small -- especially when you take pains to avoid prolonged contact. Dr. Royal emphasized that risk is measured by the strength of each radiation dose, not by whether radiation sets off an alarm, and he added that it is important to realize that radiation detectors are designed to be very, very sensitive. Protect Your Loved Ones Nonetheless, Dr. Royal agreed that it makes sense to do what you can to minimize exposure to radiation. To err well on the side of safety, Dr. Royal said that patients should sleep in a separate bed for two weeks, which he said is "the absolute longest amount of time that there is any reason for concern." Other measures patients can take to protect their loved ones include...
Put most succinctly, Dr. Royal said his advice is to "pretend that you have a cold, and you’ll do all the right things." Source(s): Henry Duval Royal, MD, professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine and associate director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis. Be well,
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