Tina Sarkey’s Health & Fitness News

Ayurvedic Chiropractor Dr. Mark Poletti said something that really hit home a few years back. “We are all a lab experiment of one.” I remind myself of that daily as I approach my own wellness and everytime a client walks in the door. What combination of modalities is going to steer this person toward optimal wellness and a zest for living? I usually have to ask that question at every visit, however, as the human body is fluid and dynamic. Constantly changing with one’s activities, posture, emotions, thoughts, age,and habits, the body responds to both the stresses and joys of life. The way I have always figured it, the more I learn the more I can individualize sessions to each “lab experiment of one.” So in addition to my certifications in both Polestar and STOTT Pilates, years of personal training experience, and numerous bodywork/therapuetic massage techniques, I completed a Yoga Alliance 200 Hour yoga teacher certification with Sandy Carden of Union Yoga in spring of 2008 and added another tool to the box.

How I decide what tool to use depends on what the individual needs are. Most back and shoulder pain sufferers need to at least start with Pilates movements that are carefully controlled under my watchful eye that build strength and stability. If a someone has difficulty executing a movement that they should be able to perform, therapuetic massage may be suggested to release trigger points (areas of muscle dysfunction that leave the muscle unable to shorten and lengthen normally). If someone comes to their session in a particularly anxious state, they might be encouraged to perform yoga breathing and movement to reconnect the mind with the body. If a client has a headache, we might try craniosacral release methods that influence the connective tissue on the skull. If they client has chronic tension headaches, I might perform myofascial release massage on their trapezius muscle (a muscle that can sustain a 60% contraction due to stress alone), and then encourage gentle strengthening of parts of that muscle with Pilates or yoga movement. I can’t tell you how many times I have carefully set up the Pilates equipment for a fitness session and find that the best laid plans must be changed to accommodate the needs of the client. Walking to my door, I pay attention to a client’s expression, gait and posture. Limping usually gets you a session on the massage table. Shoulders around the ears might mean we do yoga that day. It makes my job fascinating to watch the many changes and expressions of life.

Please read the following press release from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (www.safecosmetics.org) and share this with your friends!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 11, 2007

NEW PRODUCT TESTS FIND LEAD IN LIPSTICK

Top brands L’Oreal, Cover Girl and Christian Dior test positive for lead

Boston – Toys made in China aren’t the only products laced with dangerous heavy metals: lipstick manufactured in the United States and used daily by millions of American women also contains surprisingly high levels of lead, according to new product tests released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The lead tests were conducted by an independent laboratory over the month of September on red lipsticks bought in Boston, Hartford, Conn., San Francisco and Minneapolis. Top findings include:

More than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested (61 percent) contained detectable levels of lead, with levels ranging from 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm). None of these lipsticks listed lead as an ingredient.

One-third of the tested lipsticks exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy – a standard established to protect children from directly ingesting lead. Lipstick products, like candy, are directly ingested into the body. Nevertheless, the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick, which fits with the disturbing absence of FDA regulatory oversight and enforcement capacity for the $50 billion personal care products industry.

The good news is that the tests show it is possible to make lipstick without lead: 39 percent of lipsticks tested had no detectable levels of lead, and cost doesn’t seem to be a factor. Some less expensive brands such as Revlon ($7.49) had no detectable levels of lead, while the more expensive Dior Addict brand ($24.50) had higher levels than some other brands.

Among the top brands testing positive for lead were:
-L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” – 0.65 ppm
-L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” – 0.58 ppm
-Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” – 0.56 ppm
-Dior Addict “Positive Red” – 0.21 ppm

Lead is a proven neurotoxin that can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as lowered IQ, reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure. Lead easily crosses the placenta and enters the fetal brain where it can interfere with normal development. Lead has also been linked to infertility and miscarriage.

“Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure,” said Mark Mitchell, M.D., MPH, president, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.

“The cosmetics industry needs to clean up its act and remove lead and other toxic ingredients from their products,” said Stacy Malkan, author of the just-released book, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry.”

“Repeated, daily exposures to low levels of lead add up – and they add up on top of lead from paint and drinking water, which is especially a problem in low income communities. There’s no excuse for lead in lipstick or toys. Companies should act immediately to reformulate lead-containing products,” Malkan said.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is calling on the industry to reformulate products to remove lead, to require suppliers to guarantee that raw materials are free of lead and other contaminants, and to join the campaign in demanding that the FDA more strictly regulate personal care products.

The full report, “A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick,” including complete test results, is posted at www.SafeCosmetics.org.

Read more about lead in lipstick at www.NotJustaPrettyFace.org.

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Founding members of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics include: Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, Breast Cancer Fund, Clean Water Fund, Commonweal, Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, National Black Environmental Justice Network, National Environmental Trust and Women’s Voices for the Earth.

For more information and background on the campaign, see www.SafeCosmetics.org.

Hello, again! I plead guilty - I have not updated my blog in quite some time. My excuse? I have been super busy finishing the requirements and coursework for my second Pilates certification from Polestar Pilates.

My first certification from Stott Pilates was developed by an ex-ballerina/exercise physiologist, Moira Merrithew, and her background has certainly influenced how the courses were structured and how she believed Pilates should be taught. The Polestar Pilates certification courses were developed by Brent Anderson, a physical therapist from Miami, Florida, and his physical therapy background is infused throughout the program. The Polestar courses gave me the tools necessary to break down all components of the Pilates movements to benefit those who don’t move like an athlete or ballerina, or to benefit those athletes or ballerinas who in spite of years of physical effort still need work on their movement patterns.

While my current certification will say that I am trained in “studio” Pilates, anyone who graduated from the same program before me would have been issued a “rehabilitation” certificate for the same training. But for liability purposes, they decided that any current grads should be licensed medical professionals if they were going to have the “rehabilitation” title on their certifcate.

While I am not a licensed medical professional (massage therapists are not licensed in Michigan) and therefore do not do rehabilitation, I can say that I do “prehabilitation.” That is, I focus my efforts on helping clients to develop biomechanically safe and proper movement patterns using Pilates and other exercise and movement techniques so that they will hopefully not become injured and need rehabilitation. And I have also worked as a “post-rehabilitation” professional for those who were injured and have been through physical therapy. Due to managed care health systems and the “cookie cutter” protocols that the insurance companies dicate, physical therapists often do not feel that a client receives all the care that they need before their insurance coverage ends. That is where I come in, as a non-medical professional, who can work in conjunction with the physician and physical therapist to target exercises that will continue to help the client make improvements.

Other recent training? A classical Pilates review course taught by Celine Dion’s full-time trainer, and a cranial and somatic fasica release course with Earle Timberlake. The learning continues. Isn’t that what life is about?

Hope you are all surviving the pre-holiday rush. I’ll write more later this week.

Yours in good health,

Tina

While I do not advocate ANY diet program, I am always searching for good articles on health and fitness, and the Weight Watcher’s website has proven to be an excellent resource. Click here to read an excellent article on how to incorporate a 10,000 step program into your life to improve your body composition. The article also cites research done on the Amish who eat a high-fat/high-sugar diet, yet have only a 4% obesity rate. They also average 14,000 to 18,000 steps a day. And there is a table of “step equivalents” so that you can add activities other than walking to reach your goal of 10,000 steps.

I am so delighted to know that coffee won’t raise my risk of heart disease. To me, coffee is like chocolate is to other people. I have known for years the French press and expresso style of making coffee has some risk, so I put small paper filters in my cappuccino maker when I make it. I am sure that some purists would be horrified. Click here to read the good news.

May 5, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Our Sick Society
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Is being an American bad for your health? That’s the apparent implication of a study just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

It’s not news that something is very wrong with the state of America’s health. International comparisons show that the United States has achieved a sort of inverse miracle: we spend much more per person on health care than any other nation, yet we have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, Japan and most of Europe.

But it isn’t clear exactly what causes this stunningly poor performance. How much of America’s poor health is the result of our failure, unique among wealthy nations, to guarantee health insurance to all? How much is the result of racial and class divisions? How much is the result of other aspects of the American way of life?

The new study, “Disease and Disadvantage in the United States and in England,” doesn’t resolve all of these questions. Yet it offers strong evidence that there’s something about American society that makes us sicker than we should be.

The authors of the study compared the prevalence of such diseases as diabetes and hypertension in Americans 55 to 64 years old with the prevalence of the same diseases in a comparable group in England. Comparing us with the English isn’t a choice designed to highlight American problems: Britain spends only about 40 percent as much per person on health care as the United States, and its health care system is generally considered inferior to those of neighboring countries, especially France. Moreover, England isn’t noted either for healthy eating or for a healthy lifestyle.

Nonetheless, the study concludes that “Americans are much sicker than the English.” For example, middle-age Americans are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes as their English counterparts. That’s a striking finding in itself.

What’s even more striking is that being American seems to damage your health regardless of your race and social class.

That’s not to say that class is irrelevant. (The researchers excluded racial effects by restricting the study to non-Hispanic whites.) In fact, there’s a strong correlation within each country between wealth and health. But Americans are so much sicker that the richest third of Americans is in worse health than the poorest third of the English.

So what’s going on? Lack of health insurance is surely a factor in the poor health of lower-income Americans, who are often uninsured, while everyone in England receives health care from the government. But almost all upper-income Americans have insurance.

What about bad habits, which the study calls “behavioral risk factors”? The stereotypes are true: the English are much more likely to be heavy drinkers, and Americans much more likely to be obese. But a statistical analysis suggests that bad habits are only a fraction of the story.

In the end, the study’s authors seem baffled by the poor health of even relatively well-off Americans. But let me suggest a couple of possible explanations.

One is that having health insurance doesn’t ensure good health care. For example, a New York Times report on diabetes pointed out that insurance companies are generally unwilling to pay for care that might head off the disease, even though they are willing to pay for the extreme measures, like amputations, that become necessary when prevention fails. It’s possible that Britain’s National Health Service, in spite of its limited budget, actually provides better all-around medical care than our system because it takes a broader, longer-term view than private insurance companies.

The other possibility is that Americans work too hard and experience too much stress. Full-time American workers work, on average, about 46 weeks per year; full-time British, French and German workers work only 41 weeks a year. I’ve pointed out in the past that our workaholic economy is actually more destructive of the “family values” we claim to honor than the European
economies in which regulations and union power have led to shorter working hours.

Maybe overwork, together with the stress of living in an economy with a minimal social safety net, damages our health as well as our families. These are just suggestions. What we know for sure is that although the American way of life may be, as Ari Fleischer famously proclaimed back in 2001, “a blessed one,” there’s something about that way of life that is seriously bad
for our health.

It appears that obese people who walk to lose weight do better with a stroll than an all-out power walk, and here’s why. Click on the link below.

Obesity Study

Please check back often as I will post interesting health and fitness news and research.

Today’s post is of interest to massage therapists and those who have heel pain. There is a link between Achilles tendon pain and high cholesterol. Please read the following news item for further information:

“Heel Hurts? See a Doctor” - MSNBC