How Dangerous are Nutritional Supplements?

Unless you have been under a rock for the last 6 months you have seen many articles about the dangers of nutrition supplements including a very popular article put out by the New York Times titled “Older Americans are Hooked on Vitamins”. But how dangerous are they really?

To put this into perspective consider that drug overdoses currently kill over 85,000 Americans each year. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Medications like aspirin and ibuprofen routinely kill over 7,000 people every year. Opioids along account for 50,000 deaths and are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years of age!

Now what about deaths from nutritional supplements?

According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, which has been tracking supplement and drug issues for over three decades, there have been 13 alleged deaths from vitamins in 31 years! Let that sink in 13 years less than 1 death per year compared to over 85,000 deaths from pharmaceuticals.  However, according to Dr. Andrew Saul, the editor in chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News, “My team looked into this and we could not find substantiation, documentation, proof or convincing evidence of one single death.” In most of these alleged cases people were taking both medications AND nutrition supplements.

Considerations When Taking Nutrition Supplements

Although nutrition supplements have a great safety record there are supplements that can be toxic in high doses, supplements that interactive with medications, and supplements that should not be used by certain populations.

Blood Thinning Supplements

Many nutrition supplements thin the blood slightly including all types of Omega 3 Fatty Acids and many herbs and spices. This is usually not an issue unless you have a blood clotting disorder or are taking prescription medications such as Warfarin or Coumadin which are very strong blood thinning agents. In this case it is critical to avoid any and all supplements which thin the blood because it can push you over the edge and you can develop internal bleeding!

Other Drug/Nutrient Interactions

There are literally hundreds of drug/nutrient interactions and even drug/food interactions some of which are quite serious and acute, and others which can create a problem over the long haul.
For example, grapefruit is a BIG no/no when taking many drugs including Calcium Channel Blockers, Erectile Dysfunction Drugs, and Statins (most common cholesterol lowering drug class) to name a few.

Preventing Drug Interactions

ALWAYS check online to see any and all interactions for any medication you are taking INCLUDING over the counter medications. For example acetaminophen (Tylenol) and alcohol can be deadly and is one of the most common causes of liver failure. Google drug interactions for any drug you are taking and also google drug/nutrient interactions, and drug/food interactions. Do NOT assume your physician or pharmacist will always know or inform you of all of these – be proactive and know these interactions for any medication you are taking.

There are numerous excellent medical websites for drug interactions where you can enter your medications to see if there is any possible interaction between different medications such as Webmd. Read the entire product label for any medication or nutrition supplement and ask for the drug wrapper from your pharmacist for prescription drugs. The FDA has a great site for common interactions with different classes of drugs here: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-you/drug-interactions-what-you-should-know A great site for drug/nutrient interactions is https://www.integrativepro.com/Resources/Drug-Nutrient-Interaction-Checker or https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements

Also check for drug/nutrient depletions because many drugs deplete or prevent absorption of important nutrients. For example, proton pump inhibitors (like Nexium and Prilosec) can prevent proper absorption of key minerals like magnesium which can cause serious issues over the long haul including cardiac arrhythmias. Here is a good list of common drug/nutrient depletions and interactions: http://www.naturemade.com/~/media/Images/NatureMade/PDF/Health%20Care%20Professionals/HCP%20Updates%20042315/Common%20Drug%20Classes%20and%20Nutrient%20Interactions%20Chart%20FNL.ashx and also this one: http://www.nutritional-solutions.net/images/phocadownload/Rx_DepleteInteractions.pdf

A little checking can prevent any potential issue with drug/nutrient interactions; drug to drug interactions, and drug/food interactions.

Are Eggs Really Bad for You?

Demonizing eggs seems to occur on a regular cycle, and there has been a lot of bad press lately based on yet another study on eggs and health that came up with negative conclusions.      So what is the deal with this study and are eggs and egg yolks bad for people?   

To answer this question lets take a look at cholesterol since it is the bad actor that everyone tends to blame for blocking arteries and causing heart attacks and stroke.     Almost all of the cholesterol in your body is made by your liver, and in fact the most popular cholesterol lowering medications work by decreasing your body’s production of cholesterol in the liver.  

Even if you eat NO cholesterol your body will make it because you cannot survive without it!  In addition, for most people your dietary intake of cholesterol has little to no effect on your circulating levels of cholesterol, and this includes egg yolks!  

As reported by NPR:

“[E]ating cholesterol can raise levels of it in the blood, but, as a growing body of research has shown, not by that much. Consuming sugar, trans fats or excessive saturated fat (from unhealthy sources) can be more harmful to cholesterol levels than dietary cholesterol itself.

Most of the cholesterol in our bodies we make ourselves in the liver, and total body levels are heavily influenced by genetics, gender and age. As more and more research suggests that some degree of cholesterol consumption is harmless, if not healthy, the egg's reputation is gradually returning.”

In 2015, dietary cholesterol (and egg restriction) was finally eliminated from the U.S. dietary guidelines, and the controversy appeared to have settled. Now, a new study is again urging people to avoid eggs, linking egg consumption and dietary cholesterol to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death.”

Latest Egg Study in the News

The study, published in the journal JAMA on March 19, 2019, analyzed data from 29,615 American adults pooled from six prospective cohort studies with a median follow-up of 17.5 years, and claims to have found a dose-dependent relationship between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality.

According to lead researcher Wenze Zhong, Ph.D., the results suggest there’s no safe amount of egg consumption, and the team believes the results should be taken into consideration when the U.S. dietary guidelines are updated.

Big Problems with this Egg Study

A careful review shows that are the multiple major flaws in this study.  According to Stuart Phillips,  Ph.D., director of the McMaster Centre for Nutrition, Exercise, and Health Research -- the amount of risk, that is reported in the study is trivial because the actual change in risk is insignificant.    For example the study quotes a relative risk increase of 17%.  However, the absolute risk (which is all that counts!) paints a very different picture and equates to 17 versus 15 coronary events (2 events total) per 1,000 person years.   Needless to say this difference is meaningless.

It is also important to note that their data is based on people’s memory of what they ate which has been proven over and over again to be very inaccurate.

Andrew Mente, PhD., principal investigator for the Epidemiology Program at the Population Health Research Institute, pointed out another problem with the data from this study:

“The primary hypothesis here is that eggs increase your bad cholesterol, and the more you eat, the worse it gets. But buried way down in the appendix is a note that they found higher egg intake is related to a reduction in LDL, your bad cholesterol. So, what’s driving the association in this research? It seems like there’s a contradiction with the findings.”

Several Studies Have Confirmed Eggs Are Good for Your Heart

There have been several large meta-analyses have completely refuted the claim that egg consumption raises your risk for CVD.

Not All Eggs Are Created Equal

Unfortunately most eggs you see in the store come from concentrated animal feeding operations, which are notorious for causing Salmonella infection. Eggs can become contaminated while they are being formed if the Salmonella bacteria exist inside a chicken’s ovaries.

So look for organic, cage free eggs or free range eggs meaning the chickens are not given any chemicals or medication and the same thing with the chickens feed.  Chickens are omnivores by nature and thrive on a diverse diet and roaming free range for their food. 

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Can a Week of Camping Change a Night Owls Daily Circadian Rhythm?

Circadian Rhythm is commonly referred to as your sleep/wake cycle, and this cycle has huge implications for human health and longevity.      Ideally your daily cycle should be in sync with the earth with wake cycles controlled by exposure to high levels of “blue light” early in the day and lack of exposure to Blue or Green light during the evening.

Many aspects of our modern lifestyle can wreak havoc on our ideal circadian rhythm with potentially deadly consequences if continued over the long haul.    Three of the biggest disrupters of a healthy circadian rhythm include:

Overexposure to blue and green light spectrum in the evening and night

Underexposure to Blue and Green light early in the day

Out of sync feeding cycles with a lot of eating occurring in the evening and night

Blue and greenlight are part of the spectrum of light given off by the sun, digital screens (including phones, tablets, TV’s and computers, electronic devices and fluorescent and LED lighting.      Early exposure to sunlight is the ideal source with an early walk outside.

In the normal course of human evolution prior to the advent of electricity humans got no blue/green light exposure at night and this is important because Blue and/or Green light signals “wake-up” to the pineal gland in the brain and shut off melatonin production.    This is a very big deal because melatonin does a whole lot more than make you sleepy including supporting the healthy functioning of all our cells and specifically the energy powerhouse of your cells the mitochondria.

Out of sync prolonged eating – another key element of our evolutionary heritage is that humans rarely ate anything at night.     There was no light so people tended to eat during the day and go to sleep relatively early.      In addition, modern life includes way too long a daily window of eating with most Americans eating during a 15-hour window with almost constant food/calorie intake.

This prolonged eating window coupled with late night eating is also out of sync with our genetic heritage.   Constant food supply and nighttime lights are a very new phenomenon for humans beings. This is only something that has only been part of our existence for the past 50 – 100 years.   For hundreds of thousands of years prior to this no one ever ate at night, and people consumed all their calories during a much shorter time window during the day.    In addition, people were forced to fast on a frequent basis.

Camping to the Rescue! - Believe or not something as simple as going camping for one week has been proven to rapidly fix all of these issues!   A 2013 Study in “Current Biology” showed that people’s circadian rhythm will synchronize to a natural, midsummer light-dark cycle if given the right stimulus (camping)/    For the first week of the study participants went through their normal routines of work, school, social activities and their normal sleep schedules.

For the second week participants camped in tents outdoors with only natural light and campfires (no blue or green light!).    No digital devices were allowed.     The response was pretty amazing:  they shifted their wake up time approximately 2 hours earlier and melatonin release and shut-off was optimized with light/dark cycles of the earth.    This was true even for self-proclaimed “night owls”. 

Needless to people almost always adjust their food intake timing while camping as well with the strong tendency to not eat during darkness.

Is it Worth It to Start Exercising Late in Life?

If a person has not been active for the entire life and is in their 50’s it is easy for them to feel that starting so late in life is not worth it.   A new study suggests it definitely is worth the effort!

People who start exercising in their 50’s reduce their risk of an early death just as much as people who’ve been exercising their whole lives as compared to people who are sedentary the whole time.     What is also interesting is that in this study the lowered risk occurred regardless of how an individual’s BMI fluctuated throughout their lives.    This means that people whose weight fluctuated a lot go the same benefits as those whose weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) stayed steadier.

Researchers looked and 315,059 people and divided them into three groups:

People who were active throughout their whole lives

People who were inactive as youngsters but became active as they got older

People who were active in their youth who because inactive in later years

Of course, those who regularly exercised throughout their lives fared well.     However, those who upped their activity level in their 30's, 40's, and 50's had mortality rates 32 to 35 percent lower than the control group – just as much as those who exercised their whole lives!

Other studies including a 2009 Swedish Study showed the same kind of risk reduction specifically for men who started exercising in their 50’s.     A 2003 study from Denmark showed similar results for men and woman.   A 2017 study found that people who increased their activity level later in life still reduced their risk of early death from cardiovascular disease by 25%.

Muscle Increases Metabolic Rate and other Surprising Benefits of Resistance Training

Because the muscles function as the engines of our bodies they play a major role in maintaining our metabolic rate.    Even at rest, muscles account for almost 30% of the total calories burned because muscles require lots of caloric energy for muscle remodeling which happens 24 hours per day.    For those who do not perform resistance training exercise, each pound of their muscle uses approximately 6 calories per day.   However, for those of us who perform resistance exercise regularly each pound of our muscle uses approximately 9 calories per day because of higher levels of muscle remodeling and building stimulated by resistance training.

The key take home is that the resting energy requirements of strength trained muscles is 50% higher than the energy requirements of non-strength trained muscle!   In addition stronger muscles allow you to perform physical activity at a higher level which increase the energy demands of exercise as well.    Actual overall resting metabolic rate increases approximately 7% for 3 full days following a strength training session!   Over the course of a year, this increase can add up to the energy contained in 10lbs of fat.   Put another way strength trained muscles can help you lose 10lbs of fat over the course of a year.

Strength training is also highly effective for regulating blood sugar.   Your muscles are you largest storage area for sugar, in the form of glycogen, so larger and stronger muscles help pull out more sugar from your blood.   Strength training also increases insulin sensitivity and glycemic control for enhanced sugar transport from your blood to your muscles.

Resistance training has also been shown to reduce resting blood pressure and decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol.   In fact the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association both recommend regular resistance training to combat cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Benefits of the Bear Hug Squat

The Barbell Squat is one of the most popular and productive exercises available if done properly.    However not everyone is ready to perform this exercise safely.   Safety is about a lot more than squatting in a rack (which is of course important to provide a safety valve if a lifter gets in trouble during a barbell squat).     To be able to perform a barbell back squat safely requires high levels of ankle mobility, hip mobility, core strength and stability, and shoulder mobility.    This means that at least half of the people in a gym are not ready to perform this exercise safely.  In addition, every person’s anatomy is different as it relates to the lengths of their shins, femur, and torso and this has direct bearing on how they can and should squat (see this previous blog post on this subject:       http://workoutanytime.blogspot.com/2019/02/squats-and-anatomical-variation-among.html)

So is there a way to overcome these challenges and have pretty much everyone squat safely?   

  

THE ANSWER IS THE BEAR HUG SQUAT!

For all the people out there with injured knees, hurt backs, this exercise can often be incredibly beneficial.. There a few reasons the Bear Hug Squat works so well.  

First – the load is in front of the body – this changes everything in a beneficial way.   For anyone who is not interested in competitive power lifting or just feeling they need to back squat putting the load in front of the body is a MUCH better way to go, and that can include Goblet Squats with kettlebells or dumbbells or several variations using an Ultimate Sandbag including the bear squat.

You get the whole body involved.    Learning to use the upper body correctly by doing bear hug squats builds a stronger core and results in better movement automatically.

Second - Go Deeper Than Before: Many believe that the purpose of squatting is just strength. The truth is squatting is a great check of lower body mobility as well. The better we can perform a deep squat, the less likely we are to have low back issues. The Bear Hug Squat allows you to safely go so much deeper in the squat so that we not only build strength, but great flexibility as well!

However, just like anything, you have to know how to do it right.

How To Safely and Effectively Perform The Bear Hug Squat

Begin by standing over the middle of the Ultimate Sandbag (larger Ultimate Sandbags work better because of their increased dimension)

The tension we create against the Ultimate Sandbag and the dimension creates a different squat than even the kettlebell Goblet Squat!

Hinge at the hips scooping your hands underneath the Ultimate Sandbag while keeping your back straight. Your chest should be facing the ground and your shoulders retracted making sure that you do not round out your back.

With your hands scooped underneath the Ultimate Sandbag grab it and explosively drive the hips and direct the sandbag straight up the body.

You should create enough force from the hips to release the USB just prior to chest height, with your arms wrapped tightly around the middle of the USB. Hence, its name Bear Hug Squat.

·       Turn your feet slightly outwards.

·       Keeping tension in the upper body by driving you elbows into your ribs and initiate movement by pushing your knees outwards.

·       Drive your knees out as you begin and then slowly begin to sit back on your heels.

·       Go as deep as possible trying to sit back upon your heels and continually driving the knees out.

·       Pause for a brief moment and drive through your feet to accelerate your body back upwards to starting position.

·       Repeat for the number of reps in your program.

·       To release the bag after your last rep you will return to the start position by hinging at the hips and lightly releasing the bag to the floor.

Here is an excellent video tutorial:   https://youtu.be/rAzEIluFMg8  Ultimate Sand Bags are an approved piece of equipment for Workout Anytime Clubs and can be purchased directly through Power Systems.