Preliminary Health Care Podcast

Weight Lifting Reduces Belly Fat

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/weight-lifting-reduces-belly-fat.html A recent study demonstrates that weight lifting is more effective than cardio exercise at reducing weight. This result, however, is not unexpected because of how each mode of exercise affects the functioning of fat cells. Watch the video to learn more. Link to story: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287400.php Link to Exercise eBook: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/p/exercise...

How Sleep Affects Your Eating Behavior

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-sleep-affects-your-eating-behavior.html Poor sleep has powerful implications on eating behavior, generally favoring your seeking and consuming highly pleasurable junk foods. Watch the video to understand how/why this happens, then download the Sleep eBook to improve you own sleep. Link to story: http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/wellness/ways-lack-of-sleep-can-affect-your-diet/ss-BBh9T89#image=1 Link to Sleep eBook: http://preli...

Breathing to Reduce Anxiety and Stress

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/breathing-to-reduce-anxietystress.html Simple breathing techniques can powerfully reduce feelings of stress and anxiety. This article gives a brief overview "proper breathing." I hope to provide a bit of insight and encourage you to try it. Link to story: http://www.details.com/body-health/exercise/201404/how-to-breathe-right-vranich-breathing-exercise?mbid=synd_foxhealth Link to Stress eBook: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot...

eReaders Hurting Your Sleep

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/ereaders-hurting-your-sleep.html Exposure to light (especially light of the blue spectrum) acts as a signal to your brain to keep you awake; conversely, dim light triggers the release of the sleep hormone called "melatonin." Electronic-screen devices are particularly rich in bright, blue-spectrum light. A recent study demonstrated the detrimental effects of these devices on sleep by asking participants to read either a book in eithe...

Cholesterol Meds on the Rise

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/cholesterol-meds-on-rise.html The use of "statins," a type of cholesterol lowering medication, have been on the rise; 28% of people over the age of 40 have used these medications in the past month. Cholesterol has long been accused of causing cardiovascular disease. However, EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN TOLD ABOUT CHOLESTEROL IS WRONG. (Watch the video to learn more.) Use of statins comes with several side effects, many of which exacerbate...

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs questioned

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/good-carb-bad-carb-questioned.html The "Glycemic Index" was devised as a way of helping people control blood sugar levels. This would be most beneficial for people with diabetes, but has become simplified to "good carbs" and "bad carbs." The good/bad carbs concept has since been applied to related topics such as weight loss. While the Glycemic Index does seem to have a sound theoretical basis, the many nuances of everyday life seve...

Weight Loss News Extravaganza

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/weight-loss-news-extravaganza.html We have a whole slew of weight loss news items today. First, a bit of biochemistry to explain the actual chemical processes which use fat as fuel. Then: Should obesity be considered a disability? We might find an answer to this, but first we need to set the scene with an accurate understanding of body-fat regulation; as is, we incorrectly think of being overweight as a choice...to realize it's NOT,...

Supplement Lies

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/supplement-lies.html It should come as no surprise that a supplement manufacturer would try to cheat you. The incentives behind drugs and medication are the same...to make you believe you are an inherently feeble creature in need of their synthetic product. When this drives decisions, you must expect those same entities to skirt ethicacy for profit. Ask yourself: do you believe you are inherently unhealthy? Then ask, "why am I buyin...

A New Direction

Hello Reader, I'm writing this post as it marks a change in direction for Preliminary Health Care, a change I hope is more perfectly aligned with my vision. It is of my sincerest beliefs, that Health is a birthright to all of us--a birthright that is being stripped from us by perverse financial incentives. For example: food producers are NOT necessarily incentivized to provide us with healthy food options, but rather to make us believe they offer something healthy regardless of t...

How Often Should You Eat, Part 5: Implementing “Infrequent Eating”

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-often-should-you-eat-part-5.html Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts, this being the final: the first installment was meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice, after which were posts addressing the effects of eating frequency on fat loss, muscle mass, and aging & longevity. Here we’ll discuss how to create a metabolism capable of “Infrequent Eating.” If you’re reading th...

How Often Should You Eat, Part 4: Aging, Longevity, & Disease

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/ Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts: the first installment is meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice; here we’ll focus on the effect of eating frequency on aging, longevity, and age-related diseases. Previous posts dealt with fat loss and muscle mass. The final installment will discuss how to create a metabolism capable of “Infrequent Eating.” In the previous post on how eating fr...

How Often Should You Eat, Part 3: Muscle Mass

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-often-should-you-eat-part-3-muscle.html Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts: the first installment is meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice; here we’ll focus on the effect of eating frequency on muscle mass. The previous post dealt with fat loss, and later posts are on muscle mass and health & longevity. The final installment will discuss how to create a metabolism capa...

How Often Should You Eat? Part 2: Fat Loss

Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts: the first installment is meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice; here we’ll focus on fat loss, and later posts are on muscle mass and health & longevity. The final installment will discuss how to create a metabolism capable of “Infrequent Eating.” Ever notice the paradox in fat-loss advice? On one hand, you’re supposed to eat less—but on the other, you’re supposed to eat often to “keep your meta...

How Often Should You Eat, Part 1: Raising Doubts

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-often-should-you-eat-part-1-raising.html Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts: this installment is meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice, followed by installments focused on fat loss, muscle mass, and health & longevity. The final installment will discuss how to create a metabolism capable of “Infrequent Eating.” How often do you eat? How often do you think you should e...

Cholesterol: What is it good for?

Read Full Post at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-often-should-you-eat-part-2-fat-loss.html Because of the complex nature of this topic, I’ve broken it down into 5 parts: the first installment (http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-often-should-you-eat-part-1-raising.html) is meant to raise your suspicions about traditional advice; here we’ll focus on fat loss, and later posts are on muscle mass and health & longevity. The final installment will discu...

The Key Ingredient to Muscle Growth

More at http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-key-ingredient-for-bigger-muscles.html There is certainly no shortage of ready-made training programs promising you bigger muscles; the huge number of such programs, though, seems suspicious. Sure, you can compare any 2 programs and find all sorts of differences in “training variables” (weight, reps, sets, rest periods, frequency, exercise selection, exercise order, etc.), but let’s be honest—without understanding what causes mus...

How Exercise Helps Manage Blood-Sugar and Diabetes

Why is Blood-Sugar Important? Your body is made of nearly 100 trillion cells! One thing that they all have in common is a constant demand for fuel, of which there are 4 major types: • Sugar • Fat • Ketones (made from fat when fat is being burned rapidly) • Protein (amino acids) Most cells of your body are able to use each and are not dependent on any particular fuel-type. Further, most cells of your body are able to store fuel, and replenish those stores with fuel circulating within your blo...

When You Blame Calories, You Blame Victims

More at: http://preliminaryhealthcare.blogspot.com/2014/11/when-you-blame-calories-you-blame.htm We’ve heard it to the point that we accept it without questioning: “It’s all about calories-in v calories-out. If you wanna lose weight, you have to eat less and exercise more.” The first problem with these sentiments, though, are that they are absolutely FALSE! Of course, this should be concerning because it means we’re all using incorrect information to try improving ourselves. But there’s ano...

Eating on a Budget

More at: preliminaryhealthcare.com This article is not about clever means of being thrifty at the supermarket. No. Instead, I want to discuss a subject that few probably think about—how our natural eating-behaviors impact our grocery bill. Home-Ec 101: When buying groceries, you should find bargains. You normally prepare a few eggs for breakfas, but egg prices have been going up and your local grocery store has bulk breakfast cereal on sale; $3.74 would feed you an egg breakfast for four d...

Food, "Food," and Drugs

Food, “Food,” & Drugs The following is adapted from our free Nutritional Basics eBook. We tend to think about food in simplistic terms, like “calories,” “good for you, bad for you,” or “how much (insert nutrient here) is in it.” In reality, though, food is a symphony of signals playing to your body more strikingly than any drug. You cannot understand nutrition in these simple terms, but must rather appreciate that each element of a food combines and interacts with your body as to be greate...

The Freshman 15

The Freshman Fifteen We’re closing in on the end of Fall Semester, and many college freshman will have been anxious or experienced the dreaded Freshman Fifteen (I’ll just refer to this as “F15” from now on). The F15 is usually blamed on things like cafeteria eating and no longer remaining in high-school athletics (eating more and exercising less). These surely have something to do with it, but not how you likely assume. Rather, the F15 is a manifestation of complete upheaval to a student’s l...

Don't Let Fall Back Set YOU Back!

Don’t Let “Fall Back” Set YOU Back! The following consists of adapted material from the our free eBook on Sleep and the Circadian Rhythm, and Fat-Loss eBook (release: 12/1/14). Today is the first day of Standard Time, when we return from Daylight Saving Time by setting our clocks back an hour to find an earlier sunrise and sunset. Most of us don’t appreciate how BIG the impacts of changing daylight has on us—don’t appreciate how completely intertwined we are with our environment—and so wil...

Fed Up, Good Calories Bad Calories, The Medium is the Massage

How Exercise DOES and DOESN'T Affect Fat-Loss

How Exercise Does & Does NOT Affect Fat-Loss Exercise is undeniably vital to human health, including attaining/maintaining a healthily low level of body-fat. However, the way in which exercise does this is not as likely believe. We’ve always been told that exercise burns calories—but this isn’t what really happens…calories are not little packets of fuel to burned or stored; rather, nutrients can be converted to work (burned) or stored (perhaps as body-fat, but also as muscle, glycogen, bone,...

Eating Less and Exercising More = Disordered Eating

The most common weight-loss advice is to “eat less & exercise more” (ELEM). On a very playground toy sort of way, this can make sense: something must become of the food you eat, either it is expended or stored; if you don’t expend as much as you eat, then, it must be stored. The problem, though, is that your body’s management of energy is far too complex to be explained in this simple teeter-totter model. The actual physiology as to why/how is riddled throughout the site (check out the bott...

Fat & Starving: Why Heavier People May Eat More than Smaller People

More at www.preliminaryhealthcare.com The most common advice we hear for weight-loss is to “eat less and exercise more” (ELEM). By inference, eating more and exercising less makes you fatter. Further still, this mentality assumes and implies that being fat is a choice—a choice made by lazy weak-willed gluttons. You’ll be able to find why this is all wrong in other posts or in the full Fat-Loss eBook (coming Dec 1st, 2014), but here I want to explain how/why this paradigm is exactly backward...

Shame on Fat-Shamers

More at www.preliminaryhealthcare.com This will be an incredibly brief post, but I couldn't contain my irritation. Let me post a link to what I'm talking about: Woman packs on 50 pounds to prove 'no excuses for being overweight. If you don't want to watch it, I don't blame you. I'll give a brief synopsis of the story. Essentially, this woman has voluntarily gained a lot of weight, and is now losing it, in order to prove a point. I can only assume that her point is those who struggle with t...