For The 50+ People...Do It Because You Can

Here;s Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  I treat all types of athletes in my practice - from the professional players to the weekend warrriors.  There is one demographic that I particularly enjoy working with...these are my 50+ year old athletes that play competitive lacrosse, ice hockey, basketball and many other aggressive sports at least three times weekly.  These men and women  have their histories of various injuries - 'bad' knees, 'bad' shoulders, 'bad' hips.  Many of these patients have very responsible and stressful jobs, families to support, and elderly parents to take care of.  Playing their sport is their way to destress and have FUN in their lives.  They lose themselves in their activity and when they're finished playing hard, they've got a smile on their faces and ready to face life's many challenges...but they've got aches and pains.  They tell me that their allopathic physicians have advised them to stop playing their sport of choice. This translates to 'stop doing what you love in life'.   I don't believe in this philosophy and that's why these folks come to me for treatment.  Together, we develop a strategy so that they can continue to play their sport with minimum to no pain post game.
I believe you should participate in whatever sport you love to play.  The combination of acupuncture, chinese herbal therapy, diet and supportive exercises such as yoga and pilates can make the difference between living life fully or becoming a bystander.  My patients come to see me for weekly treatments.  They are all enjoying their sport of choice - post 50+ years of age and excited because since commencing treatments, they can run faster, play harder, and jump higher.  They are living life fully and participating in what they love to do in life.  They're playing sports because they CAN! 

It's Monday, So What Did You Do With You Weekend?

It's Monday and so what have you done with your weekend?  Did you play in the snow, go to the gym, take a long winter's day walk, eat right?  Or, did you slouch around the house, eat donuts, watch the football games accompanied by beer, pizza, hotdogs and other fairly derelict foods?
It's Monday and back to the work week.  How do you feel?  If you're feeling sluggish, bloated, fatigued and generally frumpy; I certainly doubt you lived a healthy two days.  If you're up to your game and going strong this Monday morning, then you must have done a few things right over the past two days.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  The weekend doesn't mean it's time to go crazy after all the hard work you've put into your diet and exercise regime all week.  Everyone is allowed a rest day and a 'cheat' meal.  It doesn't mean you should go crazy and eat the whole pizza, 5 wings, 6 beers and whatever else you stuffed into your mouth over the weekend.  It means to have a really nice meal, sitting down at a table like a civilized person, and enjoying that fabulous meal with some wine, music and good company.  Like I said...how do you feel today?  You feel and look like what you eat and how you maintain your lifestyle - think about it and go look in the mirror for your answer.

Deer Antler (Lu Rong) Spray Used by NFL Players for Natural Enhancement

Now, here's an interesting one for you gentlemen out there that might think Deer Antler spray (Lu Rong) is a good idea...think again....
Spray gives sports deer-in-headlights look, By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
Jan 20, 12:33 am EST
They harvest the so-called velvet antler (a soft coating that covers deer antlers) in New Zealand, freeze-dry it and then grind it into a powder. It then gets shipped to the United States, where it gets put into either capsules or liquid extracts that can become a simple oral spray. You can buy it for $68 a bottle.
For the elite athlete, experts say it’s essentially a human growth hormone, one of the substances organized sports is trying to keep out. The difference here is deer antlers are natural, not synthetic, and properly discovering it in a test falls somewhere between extremely challenging to virtually impossible.
Bengals safety Roy Williams says he uses the mouth spray "all the time.
Best anyone can figure, first you need to run a blood test (which leagues such as the NFL or Major League Baseball don’t do). Then you need to run a blood test at the exact proper time. Otherwise, nothing comes up.
“You can find it,” Jonathan Danaceau, a director at a World Doping Agency approved lab, told ThePostGame.com in its report about new Raiders coach Hue Jackson’s connection with a supplement company that produces the spray. “But saying whether this is synthetic or natural is hard to determine. It’s only detectable in blood, and most anti-doping tests are done in urine.
It’s a loophole for the athlete – turning drug tests into intelligence tests. You have to be stupid to fail one. The benefits of deer antler – or more specifically the substance IGF-1 that comes from it – are clear. IGF-1 is banned by everyone.
“It’s one of the proteins that is increased in human growth hormone … it’s considered performance-enhancing,” Danaceau said.
“It’s similar to HGH in that it aids in recovery. It helps build tissue, and strengthen tissue – more than you can ever do by training alone. Any preparation that is not naturally occurring is banned. Taking IGF-1 through deer antler is banned as well.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-deerantlers011911

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Lu Rong is a chinese herbal ingredient used in formulas for male infertility and erectile dysfunction, for very ill patients who are debilitated of any energy.  LISTEN UP AND LISTEN GOOD!!!!  When this ingredient is abused (as in the case of the NFL players), guess what happens?  They are like a machine on overdrive and after a while, they become depleted, sexually dysfunctional and exhausted.  It's like being on 'speed' for a prolonged period of time.  So, before you think you're so smart and go spraying deer antler up your nose, better think twice and three times about the side effects!!