9 Overlooked Stipulations In The Health Care Reform Bill

Leave it to the Staff at Mark's Daily Apple to dig through the literally thousands of pages of the Health Care Reform Law to find these nine stipulations.
Remember to look at the date this Blog was posted!

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Bacon or bagels? Higher fat at breakfast may be healthier than you think

Bacon or bagels? Higher fat at breakfast may be healthier than you think

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, OHIO
drdavidmarcon.com

Are You Working Hard Enough?

The big question when resistance training is have you reached muscle failure or mental failure? Mike Mentzer said clients paid him to to get the last two reps. The reps you need for muscular development are typically the ones that are left undone.
Good Post by Drew Baye about breaking the mental barrier.

Intense burning in the muscles, a rapid heart rate and labored breathing are normal sensations resulting from high intensity muscular work, and not real pain or an indication of physical harm. These sensations are not a cause for concern. What they do indicate is that you have reached the most productive part of the exercise.

The notion that quantity is a substitute for quality is a common mistake made by many lifters regardless of their level of experience.

To stimulate the greatest possible increases in strength and size it is necessary to work as hard as possible. Do not make the common mistake of confusing doing more exercise for working harder. Working harder means putting more effort into each exercise, and if your level of effort is high enough you will neither need nor be capable of performing a large volume of work.

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Do P90x and CrossFit qualify as good fitness programs?

I've been thinking about this subject for awhile; P90X & CrossFit are they Healthy?
Many assume if you workout more often that you become healthier or that all forms of activity produce health & fitness. True you may become stronger, faster,increase endurance and lose weight but that does not guarantee that you have improved your health.

The sheer volume of both P90X and CrossFit, in time will cause injury and illness. Most cannot sustain the level of intensity and and the time commitments. I believe if the activity is actually healthy than anyone can partake and can do so over their entire life. If not than I wholeheartedly believe it should not even be started.

My rationale stems from a more scientific approach. I want to do what I need to do ,exercise wise, to stimulate my body. Not any more or any less.

To determine if your exercise routine is increasing your overall health you have to define all the players; HEALTH, FITNESS, EXERCISE.

As ofter as we use these terms there really isn't a standard definition utilized by Medical researchers & fitness experts. I like the definitions laid out by John Little & Doug McGuff, MD in their bookk Body by Science They used multiple sources to come up with workable definitions.

Without quoting verbatim, health is when you are w/out dis-ease or pathology and your body is in a state of homeostasis. Homeostasis being the balance of catabolism (breaking down) and Anabolism (building up).

Our body is constantly building up and tearing down in order to maintain some type of balance. The complex process of blood clotting is an example. The blood is constantly clotting and breaking down clots in it's attempt to maintain a viscosity thin enough to insure smooth flow thru the arteries but capable of stemming any bleeding with out clogging the artery. This process is just one of many that when working efficiently displays the balance of catabolism/anabolism.

Fitness is the body's ability to withstand challenges, both internal and external, above a resting metabolism.

Example, one may be considered fit if he or she is capable of climbing 5 flights of stairs in a row. But another individual would be more fit if they were capable of climbing all the stairs in the Empire State Building. The least fit individual can hardly get out of bed.

Exercise in the end is any activity undergone that stimulates a positive physiological adaptation that maximizes fitness without minimizing Health.

I personally have reduced my training from 1 hr 30 min 4-5 days per week to 30 minutes once every 7 days. Now can every reduce their exercise to this level; absolutely. Will everyone mentally be capable of working out 1x a week; probably not. The issue is that many use exercise as a mechanism to cover up a poor diet or at least poor choices. Eventually, the bad diet overtakes the most avid exerciser.


Mark Sisson, a former workout-aholic, who now preaches intense exercise followed by adequate rest recently blogged about both P90X & CrossFit. His "Pros & Cons" type discussion is very balanced and his assesment factually based. Give it a READ!

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Cincinnati Bearcats Off-Season Conditioning

Don't get me wrong, I love my Bearcats and Coach Lawson has way more experience conditioning football players, but form is obviously not an issue.
See for yourself. GO CATS!


Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle

I have made reference on a earlier post to Sarcopenia. I truly believe that this condition is at the root of many cases which erroneously are diagnosed as "Arthritis". Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is not an inflammatory condition. It does reduce mechanical advantage at the affected joint which increases the work load of the soft tissue (muscles & ligaments). These soft tissue entities will breakdown under the additional work creating the pain and inflammation common to sufferers. Increasing the capacity of the muscle is the only practical way to increase function.

Melov, et al "Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle" have potentially found the fountain of youth with their study. Many have advocated weight training for longevity of life but were unable to quantify the results, until now!

following exercise training the transcriptional signature of aging was markedly reversed back to that of younger levels for most genes that were affected by both age and exercise. We conclude that healthy older adults show evidence of mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness, but that this can be partially reversed at the phenotypic level, and substantially reversed at the transcriptome level, following six months of resistance exercise training.

Now you know resistance exercise is more than just vanity and narcissism, will you participate or spectate? Maybe they can come up with a pill?

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Exercise Helps Protect Brain of Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Study Suggests

More proof that exercise is the best form of preventive Medicine.

"Physically fit MS patients had fewer lesions compared to those who weren't as fit and the lesions they did have tended to be smaller," Prakash said. "This is significant and can help explain why the higher-fit patients did better on tests of brain functioning."

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Tofu can harm environment more than meat, finds WWF study

Lord Stern of Brentford, one of the world’s leading climate change economists

switching from beef and lamb reared in Britain to meat substitutes would result in more foreign land being cultivated and raise the risk of forests being destroyed to create farmland. Meat substitutes also tended to be highly processed and involved energy-intensive production methods.

Working Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Low Carbohydrate Diet for Type II Diabetics

Here is an article endorsing a Low Carb diet by Richard D. Feinman, PhD,Professor of Biochemistry at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, co-editor-in-chief of the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, and Director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Society which endorses Low Carbohydrate diets for Type II Diabetics

Low Carbohydrate Diets: Why You Don't Want the "Experts" to Tell You What to Eat

The loss of control of glucose metabolism is what makes a low carbohydrate diet a good therapeutic approach, and it's why I'm astonished that experts encourage people with diabetes to eat carbohydrates and then "cover" them with insulin [1].

It strikes me as odd that what most experts know about metabolism - diabetes is, after all, a metabolic disease - they learned in medical school from somebody like me [2]. The first thing we teach medical students at Downstate Medical Center is that there is no biological requirement for carbohydrate.

It is astonishing that we continue to be lead astray by the very people we entrust our health. Is Medicine so slow to change because of their fear of change or just the fear of being wrong for so long? As an aside, my most recent dental appointment revealed another postive for the low carbohydrate diet. My teeth were nearly free of tartar despite not brushing them constantly, not flossing, and drinking my 3-4 cups of coffee a day.

High Carb Foods Can Cause Heart Attacks

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Nautilus North Study

REVOLUTIONARY NEW FAT LOSS PROGRAM



In February of 2006, 33 subjects, comprised of 22 women and 11 men (aged 25-64) agreed to take part in a radical experiment at Nautilus North Strength & Fitness Centre. After years of listening to “the latest thing” to come down the river of diet programs, we decided to conduct a study to determine just how little exercise was required to lose pure body fat, understanding that simply losing “weight” was relatively easy as some of that weight would be lean tissue. The study lasted 10-weeks. No supplements or special dietary restrictions were imposed, save for using a well-balanced but modestly reduced calorie diet in conjunction with a workout that lasted a mere two minutes and performed but once a week. Here are the results:

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS: 442.4 lbs.

GREATEST WEIGHT LOSS (MEN): 43.2 lbs
GREATEST WEIGHT LOSS (WOMEN): 25.8 lbs
AVERAGE WEIGHT LOSS: 17.02 lbs.

TOTAL PURE FAT LOSS: 405 lbs.

Greatest Fat Loss (Men): 33.8 lbs
Average Fat Loss (Men): 20.9 lbs.
Greatest Fat Loss (Women): 23.6 lbs.
Average Fat Loss (Women): 13.2 lbs.
AVERAGE PURE FAT LOSS: 15.58 lbs

STRENGTH INCREASES
(After only 10 workouts!):

Lower Body (Men): 43.05%
Upper Body (Men): 30.42%
Lower Body (Women): 43.73
Upper Body (Women): 32.51%
AVERAGE OVERALL STRENGTH INCREASE: 35.46%

TOTAL LEAN (MUSCLE) INCREASE: + 132.8%

Average Lean Gain % (Men): + 6.21%
Average Lean Gain % (Women): + 4.52%
OVERALL AVERAGE LEAN (MUSCLE) GAIN: + 5.11%

Never in the history of fat loss and exercise (and that’s quite a history) has there ever been this much fat loss from this little amount of exercise – and all of the above results were achieved employing a workout that lasted (on average) a mere 2 minutes and was performed only once a week! Moreover, when the results were compared between groups that trained with more exercise versus those that trained with less, that those who trained the least lost more fat and gained more muscle by a ratio of 2-to-1! No 45-minute per day sessions on a treadmill were necessary – nor any other form of aerobic exercise.

Knowing this, think for a moment of the billions of man-hours that have been wasted over the years by people who believe they “have to” train several hours a week if they wish to lose body fat.

In terms of diet, the subjects on the study consumed regular food – three meals a day, plus two snacks; food that you can find in any supermarket. No drugs were involved. No supplements were employed, nor were they required. And, in case you were wondering, we are half way through another round of this program, this time with 65 subjects – and ALL of them are repeating the results of those on the first study.

To learn more about the Type of Training utilized in this study go to Body By Science. and John Little's site,Max Contraction


Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr David Marcon
drdavidmarcon.com

Running Barefoot Better Than Running Shoes

Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners

Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years1, but the modern running shoe was not invented until the 1970s. For most of human evolutionary history, runners were either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and little cushioning relative to modern running shoes. We wondered how runners coped with the impact caused by the foot colliding with the ground before the invention of the modern shoe. Here we show that habitually barefoot endurance runners often land on the fore-foot (fore-foot strike) before bringing down the heel, but they sometimes land with a flat foot (mid-foot strike) or, less often, on the heel (rear-foot strike). In contrast, habitually shod runners mostly rear-foot strike, facilitated by the elevated and cushioned heel of the modern running shoe. Kinematic and kinetic analyses show that even on hard surfaces, barefoot runners who fore-foot strike generate smaller collision forces than shod rear-foot strikers. This difference results primarily from a more plantarflexed foot at landing and more ankle compliance during impact, decreasing the effective mass of the body that collides with the ground. Fore-foot- and mid-foot-strike gaits were probably more common when humans ran barefoot or in minimal shoes, and may protect the feet and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries now experienced by a high percentage of runners

Barefoot Running: How Humans Ran Comfortably and Safely Before the Invention of Shoes

"By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike..."

The Effect of Running Shoes on Lower Extremity Joint Torques
As pointed out in the above reference article, shod runners heel strike, then into mid-stance and finally the push-off. Thus, the need for shock absorbing qualities in the heel and additional support in the medial arch.

These findings confirm that while the typical construction of modern-day running shoes provides good support and protection of the foot itself, one negative effect is the increased stress on each of the 3 lower extremity joints. These increases are likely caused in large part by an elevated heel and increased material under the medial arch, both characteristic of today's running shoes.

I have noticed a ton of ilio-tibial band syndrome and associated pain in the antagonist adductors and hip flexors in competitive runners.

Finally, the disproportionately large 54% increase in the hip internal rotation torque may have particularly high clinical relevance, given previous findings that indicate that competitive running may increase the risk of OA of the hip joint the current findings indeed represent substantial biomechanical changes

Everyone knows of the ill effect that high heels represent, but did you ever think running shoes created a greater issue to your poor body?

Remarkably, the effect of running shoes on knee joint torques during running (36%-38% increase) that the authors observed here is even greater than the effect that was reported earlier of high-heeled shoes during walking (20%-26% increase) [9, 10, 11]. Considering that lower extremity joint loading is of a significantly greater magnitude during running than is experienced during walking [31], the current findings indeed represent substantial biomechanical changes. It is likely that the shoe characteristics previously found to increase knee joint torques in walking are similarly responsible for much of the increases in knee torques presently observed in running

I plan on taking a closer look at the Vibram Five Fingers I had a patient of mine come in over the summer with a pair of these funky looking footwear. It is really hard to describe them because they are so unique. Best way to envision them is a pool shoe with space for each of your toes. The particular patient is a student at UC and works at Benchmark Outfitters in Blue Ash. He said over the first 2 weeks he noticed muscle soreness in his calves and strangely enough his feet. He was clear about the distinction between it being muscular not bruising. Since that time I have seen Mark Sisson running in them on the beach and raving about them. My birthday's coming up and I think I've found my own gift this year.

Additional Links:

Mark's Daily Apple Video-Mark running in Vibram Five Fingers!Running shoes may cause damage to knees, hips and ankles
Running Barefoot, Forefoot Striking & Training Tips
LA Times Article


Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

The Definitive List on Edible Oils

I was talking to my lovely wife the other day about this Grapeseed oil she had purchased. I was raised on Extra Virgin Olive (Granda Orlandi bought it in a can that looked like the kind that contains paint thinner) we don't need another oil in the House! Well, it seems a friend of a friend went to a cooking class at Williams Sonoma where they learned that Grapeseed oil has a higher heating tolerance than Olive Oil thus making it a better choice when cooking. I don't like to take anyones recommendation on what foods are safe until I do a little investigating. Now I make no bones about the fact that I work smarter not harder, so I checked with one of the better Nutrition Blogs Mark's Daily Apple , which should be added to your favorites if it already isn't. Mark's okay with the Grapeseed oil but as you will see when you check out the link, it's not a must have product. It seems that ancient Romans used the oil from the grape and thus benefited from the properties of resveratrol. The big drawback is that it takes quite a bit of grape to get a little oil, another words it's expensive. I ate the Grapeseed cooked Poultry and I did like the sweeter taste along with the reduced mess afterward (higher flash point means less stuck on the griddle). And I can see myself using the rest of the bottle (this stuff ain't cheap) but I don't think Grapeseed oil will be on the shopping list in the future.
Check out Mark's Daily Apple for the definitive oil list!

Work Smarter Not Harder!
Dr. David Marcon
Cincinnati, Ohio
drdavidmarcon.com

Older Americans #1 Problem: Sacroplasty

Older americans are most noted for their slower pace, loss of balance and deminishing capacity to perform activities of daily living. One of the main issues is Sarcoplasty; the decrease in the number of muscle fibers and select type II fiber atrophy.
Many studies have alluded to the fact that as we get older our muscles become less fatigable as compared to our younger selves. This study Enhanced Fatigue Resistance In Older Adults During Repeated Sets of Intermittent Contractions published in the January 2010 issue of Journal of Strength and Conditioning re-inforces this notion.
The point to be made is most exercise programs designed for older americans typically involve aerobic activities (walking,water aerobics,cycling) and possibly some high repetition/low resistance weight training. All of these activities avoid the key component neccesary to produce strength and power which in turn would aid in ADL's.
Personally, I find that 15-20 minutes of heavy resistance training ( based upon the client's ability) improves their overall health picture, including the ability to climb stairs, rise out of chairs, beds, autos,etc.

Exercise - Work Smarter Not Harder

Exercising has always been a part of my life as child and adult. As I grew older my joints began hurting more and more with each birthday. I figured out how to exercise properly. Since I have been following these protocols my health and fitness has made a huge improvement. No joint pain, increased fat loss, increased metabolism and increased energy levels.

My Motto is Work Smarter Not Harder.

If you interested and want to improve you health contact Clough Chiropractic today.

Watch the below video. Hear how proper exercise and rest made a huge difference for me!

Get Fit Today!

Dr. David Marcon

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.drdavidmarcon.com