The Truth About Stretching
Aug 19, 2008
Filed under
Yoga
This recent article in the NY Times has some interesting information about about stretching. The old and persistent myth is that stretching out before exercising is a good thing. Apparently, though, static stretching really isn’t so great for your body, and it may even make the muscles less able for athletic performance, and more vulnerable to injury. The good news is that dynamic stretching is very good for you, and it’s the new trend in pre-athletics warm-up, especially among professional athletes.
Check out the video at the end of the article. There’s a good demo and explanation of dynamic stretching.
After reading this article, I was surprised to find that the author didn’t mention yoga even once! Vinyasa Flow in particular is a lot like the dynamic stretching that the guy demonstrates in his video. And the pictures on the side margin of the article are all basically yoga poses. In fact, I’d argue that this article and video are essentially promoting yoga, without evening knowing it!
Yoga Smackdown
Aug 18, 2008
Filed under
Yoga
I was yoga-less all week. I’d already blown money on a seven-day Bikram yoga pass, but I didn’t want to go back after my first miserable class. Instead I seethed in resentment—pretty much the opposite of yogic behavior.
By Saturday I was a free agent again. So on Sunday evening, a sacred time usually reserved for watching TV in my pajamas, I traveled 45 minutes across New York City to attend one of my favorite Vinyasa classes. I needed to rekindle my love for yoga, so I selected the most un-Bikramlike session I could find, complete with soothing soundtrack and meditation.
Stepping inside from busy Union Square, I was relieved to scale the
creeky wooden steps of the studio and catch a whiff of Nag Champa
incense. I had made the right decision. When the class got under way in
a dimly lit room, I delighted in every flowing pose and Ujjayi —a
continuous and audible breath of air.
Last week’s experiment with Vinyasa’s crueler cousin inspired me to create a little side-by-side comparison.
Should Fast Food Be Banned From High Fat Neighborhoods
Aug 17, 2008
Filed under
Fitness
The rise of urban nutrition activism continues with the L.A. moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles, a low-income area underserved by healthier-menu alternatives and decent supermarkets. Advocates argue that in an obesity epidemic, it’s fair game to block businesses that serve up fatty fare. Opponents counter that attempts to stifle free choice in a free market smack of paternalism and even racism. The National Restaurant Association is predictably bothered; it smells a rat in the fryer.
The free choice argument is dubious. Cities have bylaws so that communities can regulate the character of their neighborhoods within the parameters of the law. If they go too far, courts decide. The New York City move to compel chain restaurants to post calories on display menus was challenged—but upheld. Now when you study the menu at the Times Square Cold Stone Creamery, you see that your menu choices weigh in at 100 calories to more than 1,300. (As my daughter noted when I bought her ice cream there last night, most customers do not shy away from the high-flying sundaes.)
If restaurants are banned, the real question becomes what, if anything, will appear in their stead? I’m trying to picture the impact of a similar law in a low-income neighborhood in my city. If you zoned out the White Castles and Kennedy Fried Chickens, would Better Burger move in? No, because it wouldn’t make business sense. Better Burger is a hip Manhattan burger chain with a healthy “mission.” But a chicken burger with air-baked organic fries and a soda costs $9.45 at BB, while the chicken-fries combo at a Manhattan McDonald’s is $6.69.
The fight at the fast-food level, in low-income neighborhoods especially, is about pennies, not nutrition. Healthy food often costs more, and that’s one reason (but not the only reason, it’s a very complicated cultural phenomenon) that obesity correlates to economic status in America. Poor eating is part of being poor.
That doesn’t mean that high-fat communities shouldn’t use the weapons they have. But banning isn’t the same as building. L.A. activist and writer Joe R. Hicks, who opposes the “nanny-state” fast-food ban, points to the arrival of Fresh & Easy as a more interesting way to attack the problem.
Fresh & Easy is a clever attempt by U.K. supermarket giant Tesco to conquer the U.S. market by building midsize stores that sell decent food for less. If you check out the F&E website, you see its mission (”We think fresh, wholesome food should be accessible and affordable to everyone”), and you see that they have stores in the South L.A. region. There’s one in Compton, and last month they broke ground in South L.A., making hay about bringing healthy food to underserved communities.
In the end, promoting the healthy-eating message (in schools too) will probably help more than shooting the fat-bomb messenger. But fast-food joints aren’t on the endangered-species list, and urban nutrition activism seems like a good thing to me.
Medical Tourism
Aug 15, 2008
Filed under
Fitness
You’ve probably heard about “medical tourism,” the traveling of patients to foreign countries in order to receive care. But what you may not know is just how popular medical tourism has become: according to Deloitte LLP, an international consulting firm, an estimated 750,000 Americans traveled abroad for medical care in 2007. Aggressive projections put this number somewhere around 6 million by 2010.
As interest in medical tourism increases it’s important to understand the nuts and bolts behind its allure, and the risks that it poses—both for patients and health care systems at home and abroad.
Saving Money
Over the past few years insurers and employers have warmed up to medical tourism as a way to save money: its cheaper for insurance plans to help fund patients’ trips to foreign doctors who charge much less for procedures than their U.S. counterparts.
The price differentials are stunning. According to a recent Deloitte report, Thailand, the world’s leading medical tourism hub, saw 1.2 million medical tourists from around the world in 2006. On average, medical procedures in Thailand cost a mere 30 percent of American prices. India, another destination that sees more than 400,000 medical tourists each year, charges just an average of just 20 percent as much as the U.S. Thousands of Americans also flock to Mexico and South America every year for cosmetic and dental surgery, where procedures cost anywhere from 75 to 50 percent less than they do in the U.S.
Easy Ways to Stay Healthy at the Office
Aug 14, 2008
Filed under
Tips
There are a number of steps you can implement with very little effort that can help you stay healthy at the office. A little bit of planning and a few small additions to your daily office routine can help you live a healthier lifestyle.
Clean Your Work Area
Is your desk making you sick? Your keyboard, mouse, telephone and even
your desk itself harbor germs, microorganisms, viruses and bacteria.
Use disinfecting wipes, a UV light or a natural micro-fiber cloth with
a disinfecting solution to help keep your workspace clean and free of
contaminants.
Wash Your Hands
In addition to your immediate workspace, anything you touch at work
could potentially be harboring contaminants, so it抯 a good idea to wash
your hands regularly. Ordinary soap and hot water is sufficient for
washing your hands and face. If you抮e in contact with a lot of people
during the day, keep a small bottle of a natural hand sanitizer nearby
in your desk or car. Remember, even if you maintain good hygiene and a
clean workspace, others you work with may not.
Use Full Spectrum Lighting
Poor lighting in your office? No windows in your workplace? Regular
office lighting can leave you feeling drained. Get a small full
spectrum lamp for your work area, you may notice a big difference.
Simulating daylight inside, full spectrum lighting is not only
brighter, it saves energy and is easier on your eyes.
Take it Easy on Your Eyes
Poor lighting may not be the only problem for your eyes at the office.
If you’re working at a computer all day, be sure to look away from your
monitor periodically and focus on other targets at varying distances to
give your eyes a rest every 15-30 minutes.
Get a Good Chair
If you’re spending 8+ hours in a chair almost every day, investing in a
high quality chair can have great health benefits. No seat can enforce
all the proper posture habits at work, but switching to a good chair
may provide you with an immediate benefit and make a difference in the
way you feel at the end of the work day.
Get Up. Walk Around. Stretch.
Take a break, stand up, and move around every 30 minutes or so. Simply
getting up and moving around for a few moments combined with some light
stretching can help keep you focused, less fatigued, and feeling better.
