Columbia Advanced Chiropractic, LLC

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The Official Word on Sports Nutrition Regarding Diets and Body Composition…Discussion Over!

The Official Word on Sports Nutrition Regarding Diets and Body Composition…Discussion Over!

Let’s end this debate now.  The puzzle is now complete.  We have the data and we know what works.  We know the  ‘too much protein is bad for your kidneys’ talk that some doctors and others tout is wrong.  There is simply no data to validate this unless you have pre-existing, unrelated, kidney disease.  We know that fasting/cleansing is good for you, not bad.  For those who say ‘your body is always cleansing…that’s what the kidneys and liver are for,’ we can reply by showing them the research that far more can be done.  For those who say that ‘protein is protein, ‘  we can clearly demonstrate that this is not the case…not even close.  Many say ‘I’ve tried everything and nothing works.’  Maybe that person has tried other programs, but they most certainly have not incorporated caloric restriction and intermittent fasting.  If they had, they would’ve achieved the results they were looking for.  Being 80% of health and how we look is due to nutrition, whereas only 20% is due to exercise, it’s quite important to have a lifestyle system that addresses the 80% part.  By taking care of the 80% part, you will perform and recover better with the exercise part.  They are not mutually exclusive.  Lapses in nutrition will only get you more injuries.  I see this all too often.

You get the point.  It’s time to do what we know works instead of looking for excuses when it comes to diets and body modification.  This is about YOU and how you can feel, function, and look better.  Continue Reading →

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Why ALL Diabetics Should Be Incorporating Fasting

Why ALL Diabetics Should Be Incorporating Fasting

Okay, I’m not going to save the juicy part until the end of the blog.  So, here it is: fasting not only allows for better diabetes control but it also helps to reverse diabetes.  Science has now proven what many have already know for some time.  Do you know a diabetic?  Are they on a routine like me (Isagenix)?  If they’re not, they need to be if they want optimal health.

My story:  those who are familiar with me know  I began a particular nutrition/lifestyle program some time ago that involves caloric restriction and intermittent fasting to not only positively affect my athletic performance and recovery, but also to better lock down tighter blood glucose control.  As an insulin dependent diabetic for now over 35 years, I always want to do all I can to be as healthy as possible.  Sadly, I have found in my experience (and from discussions with many other diabetics over the years) that endocrinologists do not emphasize true prevention and nutritional intervention.  No, statins are not prevention…sorry.  More on that soon. On the topic of nutritional intervention to help diabetic control, there is a lot of research yet very few physicians touch on its importance.  This is rather unfortunate. With a bit of education and desire, it is easy to discover ways to better manage diabetes. Continue Reading →

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Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 3

Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 3

The 3rd and final part of our discussion about the incredible InBody 570 covers 3 more studies that further validate its accuracy.  I know blogs that discuss studies aren’t always the most ‘fun’ to read, but it is important to have evidence readily available to show others that your InBody 570 bioelectrical  impedance analyzer assessment is vital to your health and should be part of your medical health history.  It can be used to help your primary care doctor (PCP) figure out ways to help you…hopefully many times through dietary intervention (like caloric restriction and intermittent fasting) vs. just administering drugs. Continue Reading →

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Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 2

Introducing the InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 2

Part 2 of the discussion on the InBody 570 covers two of five important studies (and there are more) that help to validate the accuracy and legitimacy of the InBody 570.  This technical and may I say, ahem, somewhat boring information is important to discuss as your healthcare providers like to see objective health data. It’s time for the entire healthcare industry to understand and embrace what improvements in body composition can do not only for the individual patient, but also for the healthcare system as a whole.  Figure it this way: the more healthy we are, the less disease we will have.  This translates to less healthcare costs and this is good for everyone!  This blog and the next one serve to help educate not only our patients and those who will want to come to our office to get assessed, but also their healthcare providers who will be viewing these results.  Body composition is SO important.

Whether you are on our body modification program (caloric restriction and intermittent fasting…and most all of you should be interested in this to optimize your health) or are an athlete looking to improve your performance and recovery in your respective sport, the 570 is unmatched on the market, it is FDA approved, and it provides data that is vital to your health.  This is about your health.  It’s time to think of your future and what you should be doing to live longer and healthier!

The first study of interest is from 2004 and the lead author is Shinichi Demura.  The study was published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology and Applied Human Science.  The name of this study is Percentage of Total Body Fat as Estimated by Three Automatic Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzers. Continue Reading →

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Introducing The InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 1

Introducing The InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer Part 1

We are excited to be introducing our patients to the FDA approved  InBody 570 Body Composition Analyzer.

So, what does this incredible machine do?  Well, it does a LOT.  Simply put, it provides information about what you are made up of…do you have enough muscle, too much fat, are you more likely to have serious health issues due to too much visceral fat, too much systemic inflammation, etc…?  Did I mention this unit has cleared FDA testing?

It is now considered to be one of the gold standards for body composition assessment.  This might seem like an odd piece of equipment for a sports medicine chiropractic office, but in reality, all sports chiropractors should all have one.  It is vital to have a quality body composition analyzer as so many patients need to improve their muscle:fat ratio as an imbalance in this plays a direct role in a patient’s ability to recover.   In addition, we can determine the intracellular water weight vs. the extracellular water weight in the body.  This helps us in a unique and validated fashion to determine whether a patient has systemic inflammation. This is very important to be able to assess.  On the topic of visceral fat, the major contributor to vascular health and an indicator that most have probably never had checked, yes, the 570 has you covered (it’s validity has been compared to abdominal CT scans). Continue Reading →

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Do You Want Your Brain To Function Better?

Do You Want Your Brain To Function Better?

As a sports chiropractor, my training involves learning how to best treat the body to effect changes in many ways for dysfunctional joints, muscles, ligaments, cartilage, fascia, and more. We know that chiropractic adjustments alter neurological pathways that change joint mechanics and alter muscle tone and tension, allowing for a change in biomechanics at local and more global regions.  This is great and it works well, but what about all the ‘holistic’ training we receive? Chiropractors are supposed to take care of the whole body, inside and out, but most of us do not do that when we only treat the body from the outside.  This approach is not complete and it does not allow us to fully help our patients. Continue Reading →

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How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

How To Overcome Your ‘Set Point’ To Maximize Body Composition Change

Whenever we engage in any type of weight loss/body modification plan, we have to be realistic with our goals.  The trendy ‘lose 30 in 30’ programs rarely yield results that last because the programs are quite abusive to your body and not many people have the will to continue on such a tough voyage.

Before I go any further, I will touch on the difference between weight loss and body modification.  Weight loss is just that: losing weight.  You will lose fat and muscle weight.  This is not a good thing.  We want to be lean and muscular, not lean and soft.  Most all programs on the market can only address total weight loss and this is not what you want.  Body modification is achieved through losing fat weight while maintaining or gaining muscle percentage/weight.  This should be the goal of all diet programs but virtually none on the market can achieve this goal because they do not employ the proper system.  Dieting is not about cutting calories.  It’s about working with your body to get it leaner and stronger and using validated science to achieve this.  Going forward, I will only refer to dieting programs as body modification as this is really the goal of anyone who is trying to get leaner and healthier.

The key to any successful body modification program is sustainability.  In other words, can you continue this program into the future or will you eventually fall off the tracks and go back to your old ways?  In the overwhelming number of cases, people try a program for a while and then back off of it as it is too hard to maintain.  They end up where they were before they started.  This time, though, they tend to be more frustrated and their bodies are more resistant to future change.  We should not have to endure these failures. Continue Reading →

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Why The A1C (Glycated Hemoglobin) Test For Diabetics Does NOT Give Us The Whole Picture

Why The A1C (Glycated Hemoglobin) Test For Diabetics Does NOT Give Us The Whole Picture

Diabetics are familiar with the A1C test.  It is performed to assess roughly a 90 day period of sugar that is attached to your hemoglobin.  It is supposed to tell us if we are taking good care of ourselves.  The test is performed every 3 months because the average life of a red blood cell is 90 days.

Diabetics are told that the A1C is the ‘holy grail’ of knowing if you are in good health or not.  It’s the aim of most every diabetic to get that number lower!  I’ve been diabetic for over 35 years and it’s great to learn new things.  What have I learned?  I now know that the A1C, although a great test to determine the ‘average’ blood sugar reading over 3 months, does really nothing more than that.  It does NOT accurately tell us all we need to know about our diabetic health.

The A1C for a non-diabetic person is about 5.7%.  A ‘well-controlled’ diabetic will have an A1C at 6.5% or lower.  If someone’s A1C is 8.0% or higher, then they are generally in trouble!  Long-term high blood sugar levels lead to high levels of oxidative stress (free radical damage).  This damage is mostly what is responsible for killing diabetics.  Afterall, 65% of diabetics will die from heart disease/stroke and this damage is caused by, you guessed it, poor blood sugar control. Continue Reading →

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Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks: My Personal Experience With Caloric Restriction and Intermittent Fasting

Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks: My Personal Experience With Caloric Restriction and Intermittent Fasting

INTRODUCTION

I’ve been in the health and fitness business for close to 20 years.  I’ve worked with many supplement and nutrition companies but none could fully deliver what I needed for both my patients and me. I’ve always considered myself to be ‘in great shape’, but there is never a time that more cannot be done for a diabetic, like me.  I’ve always looked for products or systems that could lower my oxidative stress (high free radical levels) so that there would not be cumulative damage to my body by such stressors. There are options, but they are all allopathic in nature…meaning, they treat an existent problem yet do nothing to reduce/eliminate what is causing the problem.  With diabetes and most other health issues, this is too late.  I needed to find a system that could get to the cause of the oxidative stress.

My evolution led me to a program that I have now discovered is unmatched by any other in the industry for my health, and for yours.  Period. Continue Reading →

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All Proteins Are Not Created Equal

All Proteins Are Not Created Equal

Yes, it’s true.  All proteins are not created equal. But before we can go further, we need to understand that our diet consists of macronutrients and micronutrients.  Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats are our macronutrients and micronutrients are what we ingest in smaller quantities, like our vitamins and minerals.

When we eat food, it does not declare itself as simply a carbohydrate, protein, or fat.  Most foods have a variety of macronutrient components and our bodies do an amazing job at breaking down each ingredient into particles that can then be utilized.  This is why eating high quality food without lots of chemicals is preferred.  Our body has enough to do without the need of bombarding it with toxins and unnecessary compounds.

There are basic components that make up proteins. They are called amino acids and there are 20 of them. Of these, 9 are considered ‘essential‘, because we cannot create them from other foods we eat. This means you have to consume them in the protein sources you are eating.  By definition, a complete protein is one that contains at minimum, all 9 of the essential amino acids. There are also 3 amino acids  in the essential amino acid family that are called Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs).  These 3, leucine, isoleucine, and valine, are important for muscle function and many medical treatments.  In the fitness community, we want to ingest a lot of foods that contain BCAAs.  Luckily, most animal proteins contain BCAAs and all the other essential amino acids. Vegetarians and vegans can acquire BCAAs and essential amino acids, but many times this involves food combining, and food combining is not the most efficient way to achieve the objective. Continue Reading →