Dec 23 2014
Doctors are writing prescriptions for fruits and vegetables to combat obesity.
Doctors have been writing a whole lot of prescriptions lately at New York’s Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, but most of these ‘scrips aren’t for the pharmaceuticals and drugs you’d expect. Instead, these doctors are treating their patients – mostly poor children with obesity and other health problems – with a cure that has been conspicuously absent from modern medicine in the U.S.: fruits and vegetables. Under their doctor’s supervisions, these patients are filling their baskets with carrots, spinach, and tomatoes instead of Xenical, Phentermine-topiramate, and Benzphetamine.
The program is called the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program but usually goes by the clever acronym, FVRx for short. It’s helping inner city kids with weight related issues with a common-sense effectiveness that no expensive drugs, education campaigns, or even surgeries have before. It started with 50 patients in New York at the Harlem Hospital Center a couple of years ago and quickly spread to three other NYC hospitals, medical centers in Boston, and now is taking seed at least 30 health centers around the country.
The simple-genius behind FVRx started with a chef named Michael Nischan who was dismayed when his two young sons were diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes. When Nischan found out the disease can be reversed and even eradicated with a healthy diet and exercise, the light bulb went on that we should be incorporating fresh food and better diets into our formal medical treatment. But there were so many barriers to get veggies onto the plates of poor, uneducated, and inner city kids.
So he founded Wholesome Wave, which connects low-income people with local produce as part of a medical mandate. The program works just like any treatment plan, where patients enrolled in the program meet with a doctor or nutritionist once a week to get their blood pressure, insulin levels, and weight measured.
But before they leave the doc’s office, they’re presented with a written prescription that the patients can cash in for Health Bucks. These Health Bucks are accepted at 140 farmers’ markets throughout the city. Each patient is prescribed $1 per day in Health Bucks per person of their family who needs them.
While $28 a week for a family of four may not seem like it goes a long way to buy fruit and vegetables, but the program allows their Health Buck to buy at least twice as much as face value. The farmers love it because they’re reimbursed the full value of their fruits and veggies when they redeem the bucks, the difference made up grants and community non-profits that fund the program. Farmers also see a huge increase in attendance at the markets and in their profits – up about 37% on average per participating farmer. In turn, they’re able to hire more people, plant more crops, use more land, and reinvest in their local agricultural endeavors. The children and the families who are written prescriptions are also given nutritional education, recipes, and tactics how to sustain the good diet, like freezing veggies in preparation for the winter months when the markets shut down.
So far, New York’s FVRx program is reaching thousands of children and their families who desperately need better eating and health practices, who otherwise live in “Food Deserts” where they eat most of their meals at fast food chains like McDonalds or out of local convenience stores like 7-11 or neighborhood bodegas.
With two years worth of data under in their basket, the hospitals are doctors are beyond encouraged by the results. They found:
– 97 percent of children in the program and 96 percent of their families ate more fruits and vegetables.
– 90 percent of families shopped at farmers’ markets weekly or more than two or three times a month.
– 70 percent understood more about the health value of fruits and vegetables.
– Almost 40 percent of participating children lowered their Body Mass Index after just four months.
– Nearly all participants lost weight and saw a drop in blood pressure.
Doctors and program workers are even more encouraged by the anecdotal feedback they get from children. Many of them have never even eaten some vegetables before, and go through a process of being bewildered, experimental, and then empowered by trying cucumbers, squash, and broccoli for the first time. The children especially say it reduces their anxiety, helps them focus at school, they sleep better, and losing weight through the healthier diet actually gives them more energy and empowers them to exercise more, which starts a positive cycle of wellness in their lives.
In the long run, these programs will cost far less than treating obesity, especially with pharmaceutical drugs that can cause side effects or even death from adverse reactions. Childhood obesity especially has reached epidemic levels, with 1 in 3 U.S. children and adolescents obese or overweight. Likewise, 34.9% of adults are overweight or obese, which adds up to 78.6 million Americans. Obesity and the medicals issues it brings disproportionately affects people of lower socio economic status and minority groups. The total cost is upwards of $147 billion as of 2008 and growing every year, a bill we all end up paying for.
Jan 8 2015
15 Tips to help you sleep better.
1. How much sleep do you need?
Studies show that 62% of Americans have some trouble sleeping every week and up to 40 million Americans have a chronic sleep disorder, yet researchers and sleep specialists still can’t agree on the exact number of hours sleep we should get. It does seem that most people need at least eight hours of sleep each night to function optimally. However, some people feel great and are energetic with only 5-6 hours, and some people need way more.
2. Know your body and sleep patterns
Your body and mind adhere to natural patterns of sleep and wakefulness called the circadian rhythm. This internal clock could vary based on many small factors, like seasons, the amount of exercise you get, noise as you try to sleep, and light. So it’s important to pay attention to what works for you and helps you feel the best rested so you can replicate those conditions. Keep a sleep journal for a few weeks, recording what you did during the day and especially at night before sleep, the duration and quality of your sleep, and how you felt when you woke up.
3. Go to bed and wake up at the same time
Most people’s bed times fluctuate wildly based on their activity level, what they have planned for the next day, and if they’re up late having a good time on the weekend. But the best way to sleep well is to establish a consistent bedtime and stick to it. If you want to make changes, then do so gradually.
You should also try to stick to the same wake up time every morning. If you are getting plenty of sleep then you won’t even need an alarm – your body will wake up naturally.
4. Create a relaxing bedtime routine
Most people who don’t sleep well have a hectic or active nighttime routine and then expect to fall asleep easily once they lay down. But your body needs to unwind and get in a relaxed state, which triggers your circadian rhythms. About an hour before bed time, try reading a book in soft light, taking a hot bath or shower, listening to relaxing music, deep breathing, or stretching or light yoga.
5. Take a nap…but a short one
Naps during the middle of the day are great to help you feel refreshed and energize your brain, and making up for lost sleep the night before, but make sure you don’t nap for longer then 30 minutes.
6. What you eat and drink makes a big difference
You probably want to eat smaller meals at night because heavy meals with fatty or rich foods take more work to digest, which will interfere with your sleep. For that same reason, stay away from acidic or spicy foods in the evening, too.
If you’re still hungry and need a snack before bedtime, eat something light that combines tryptophan-containing foods with carbohydrates, which will calm the brain and allow you to sleep easier. Those could include:
Half a turkey sandwich
A small bowl of whole-grain, low-sugar cereal
Granola with low-fat milk or yogurt
A banana
If you have trouble sleeping stay away from alcohol – it might help you doze off faster but it will wake you up and reduce your sleep quality. Most people also love their coffee, especially I they don’t sleep well (sense a vicious cycle?) but caffeine can impact your sleep patterns even 12 hours after drinking it!
7. Those after-dinner doldrums
One of the crucial times for people who don’t sleep well is right after dinner, when they feel drowsy and start becoming sedentary. But by winding down too early in the evening, they actually disrupt their later sleep pattern. So if you’re feeling like melting into the couch in front of the TV after dinner, get up and do some light activity or something fun that gives you energy instead. Even an after-dinner walk can boost your energy levels and help you feel much more relaxed later on.
8. Increase exposure to sunlight
Melatonin is the hormone that’s controlled by your exposure to light and in turn regulates your sleep-wake cycle. When it’s dark in the evening (or winter) your body secretes more melatonin to make you sleepy, and it produces less during sunny times. Unfortunately, modern life disrupts a lot of peoples’ melatonin levels. Sitting in an office all day under artificial light is one of the biggest conditions that mess with your melatonin levels, and the same can be said od staring at backlit screens – television, computers, and smart phones – so often.
So make sure you roll down the windows and open the sun roof, eat lunch outside, take breaks outdoors, and go for a walk when there’s still light.
9. Exercise
People sleep way better if they are consistently active and get exercise. You don’t have to spend countless hours at the gym – even 30 minutes of movement and walking a day helps your ability to get a good night’s rest.
10. Turn off the electronics
Consider all of your technology the enemy when it comes to sleeping well, so turn off your television at least two hours before you go to bed and minimize time on smart phones, iPads, and your computer. Reading on a Kindle if you want to read eBooks, which isn’t backlit. All of this technology is probably the single biggest detractor from good sleep for our modern society.
You should also use dimmers on lights in the bedroom and close curtains to make sure the bedroom stays dark. When you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, use a flashlight or have a glow night-light so you don’t have to flip the switch and flood the room with light.
11. The bed should be used for only two things, sleep and…
You should get in bed only when it’s time to sleep or when you’re getting romantic. Other than that, lying around in bed will confuse your body’s natural alarm clock and make it harder to get rest at night.
12. Keep your bedroom cool
A bedroom that’s cool and has good ventilation is most conducive to a good night sleep, so set the thermostat to around 65 degrees and keep a fan or humidifier going. (The ‘white’ noise those create also helps many people sleep.)
13. Calm your mind
Too often, our thoughts consume us, and especially at night it’s hard to turn off stress, concern, anger, and even positive excitement, inhibiting sleep. There are several ways to cope with this. First, practice relaxation techniques, deep breathing, and mediation before you go to bed every night. You can also write out your To Do list for the next day so those tasks won’t be on your mind. If a thought or feeling keeps you awake on a consistent basis, write it down on a pad you keep on your bed stand, then revisit it in the morning so you can address it with clarity and positivity.
14. If you wake up and can’t go back to sleep
Some insomniacs have trouble going to sleep, while others doze off fine but then wake up and can’t get back to sleep. If you are the latter (I know I am!) then try to stay out of your head when you wake up. Visualize a beautiful place that makes you feel calm and feel the sensation of rest. Don’t worry about falling asleep – just focus on feeling relaxed and your breathing. If you still can’t fall asleep after 15 minutes or so don’t fight it – get up (without turning on bright lights) and do a non-stimulating activity, like reading a book, listening to music, or watering plants. If something is worrying you then write it down so your mind will feel with confidence that it doesn’t need to hang on. Then lie back down and try it again.
15. It may be time to see a doctor
Most of us can greatly increase the quality of our sleep with these strategies, but if you’re still struggling with sleep, it’s impacting your health, job, or relationships, or you feel depressed or anxious, visit a doctor. You might have a condition like sleep apnea, which is easily treated, or a sleep specialist may recommend gentle prescription medication just to help you get in a better pattern of sleep.
By Norm Schriever • Health and Wellness, Uncategorized