Proper and adequate blood flow is vital to your body's health and well being. Adequate blood flow is even more important to your brain since your brain is the organ which controls your entire body.

 

Decreased blood flow to the brain has been hypothesized to be a cause/contributing factor of many chronic and acute diseases (Alzheimer's, dementia, stroke, cancer, etc.)

 

The etiology of these diseases is hard to assess, making general health principles like adequate blood flow to your brain, even more important.

 

In a recent study, published in the journal Brain Circulation, a positive correlation was found between cervical lordosis and blood flow to your brain.

 

In English:

 

When test subjects had an orthotic device placed under their neck which changed the curve in their cervical spine, an MRI measured more blood flow to their brain. 

 

Why you care about this:

 

Proper cervical curvature has alot to do with how well your neck and spine is functioning.

 

Most of the time a correction towards better is performed to your neck, your neck moves better. A neck that is capable of better motion has a greater capacity for healthy mobility and restoration of the cervical curve can be a result.

 

In this podcast we discuss this study and why you should care about those implications.

 

• The basics of the study, what it tells you, why you should care, and why it's important.
• The potential application of this study and how it would apply to your health.
• Any problems or shortcomings with a study like this, and how those would apply.
• The importance of structure and function to your health.

 

This past Tuesday was Suicide Prevention Day. It's sad to reflect on your life and think of all the people you who know that have committed suicide. It's even sadder to think that everyone else also knows people who have committed suicide.

 

Keeping in the spirit of being positive and productive, we wanted to use this podcast to talk about an article that was written on the 10 Traits of Emotionally Resilient People.

 

Emotional resilience is being able to handle whatever life throws at you - and we know life can throw a lot - and keep moving forward towards your values and dreams.  It doesn't mean being perfect, having it all together, or not having moments of weakness. It means doing your best, and not staying in a down place for very long.

 

• The 10 traits listed in the article with a discussion on each one. What we liked, what we didn't and most importantly how that applies to real life and how we (and hopefully you) can benefit from using this information.
• How to create Emotional Resilience. It's all well and good to know what it is and to have it, but how do we cultivate it and grow it if we don't have it? Where does it come from?
• How to begin creating this in your children. The more kids can learn what emotional resilience looks like, the more stress and pain you'll be saving them.

Not sure if you've heard about Mindful Eating before, but it's something that's talked about enough (mostly in the background) and we thought we should bring it to your attention.

 

An initial challenge we discovered with Mindful Eating was the lack of a clear definition. It's challenging to have a proper discussion about something when it's mostly unclear what we're talking about.

 

To the best of our knowledge and understanding, Mindful Eating is a nutritional strategy that uses the psychological concept of 'Mindfulness' as a guide for helping you make choices about your nutrition.

 

From the Health Line Article... Mindful eating involves: 

 

-Eating Slowly and without distraction

-Distinguishing between hunger and non-hunger cues for eating

-Learning to cope with anxiety and guilt about food

-Appreciating your food

-Noticing the effects that food has on your feelings and figure

 

• A more in-depth conversation about all the tenets that incorporate the idea of 'Mindful Eating' and how those would apply to you and your nutrition
• How these ideas differ from all other, more accessible, strategies currently related to food
• The pros and cons of this strategy
• If we, ourselves would choose to use Mindful Eating

The new weight watchers app for kids is getting a lot of attention, some of it good, but according to the Healthline article that we've linked below, most of it is bad.

 

Weight Watchers has now rebranded itself as WW and launched Kurbo, a weight loss app targeting kids between 8-17. The issue that both parents and experts have with the app is they say it's sending the wrong message.

 

Some of the issues raised by these groups with the ads are:

 

- Before and after pics of children who have lost weight

- Concern that the point system, used by the app, is not teaching  

  children proper nutritional guidelines and behaviour around food

- Concerns about the quality of food - that app uses the red, light,

  yellow light system

 

The purpose of this podcast is to discuss the HealthLine article and share our opinions about the app and whether we think it's a good idea or not.

 

• What's the real issue here? As a parent, our job is to raise strong, independent humans. Health is a significant component of that. At the end of the day, does this app do that or not?
• How WW works and is this a good way for someone to learn how to eat?
• The most powerful way you can influence your kids.
• Are foods good and bad, and should our kids know this information?
• How we try (we are far from perfect) to feed our kids and teach them about the food that they should eat.