January 22, 2014 | Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD
Can Shoulder Stand Save You Too?
Aging Well; My Favorite Secrets To Beautiful
Shayna Robinson
1) Change your diet: Eat anti-inflammatory.
There are certain foods that reduce inflammation and cause positive cell turnover. I try to eat a diet rich in spinach, kale, blueberries, coconut water, olive oil, agave and peppermint. Watermelon and cantaloupe can be great during the summer. The best athletes will also supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals. My essentials include a proprietary blend for liver detoxification (NOW brand Liver Regenerator and Detoxifier), Thyroid health (NOW brand Thyroid Energy), Raw B Complex (Vitamin Code Brand), Undernatured Type II Collagen (NOW brand UC-II) and a hair, skin and nails proprietary blend (Nature’s Bounty Brand).
2) Sweat: Work out hard enough to detox.
Some argue sweat causes breakouts, but that’s only if you don’t shower immediately after a workout. Sweat is your bodies natural detox process, and it also helps maintain body temp and water balance. When you sweat, your body causes your metabolism to adjust to a burning mode. It’s struggling to maintain the internal body temperature, and your thyroid is engaged producing endorphins that make exercise feel easier so your body is more efficient. Sweating should be part of your goals in exercise to maintain healthy organs.
3) Electrolytes: Refuel the right way.
Both muscle tissue and neurons are considered electric tissues of the body. Muscles and neurons are activated by electrolyte activity between the extracellular fluid and intracellular fluid. Electrolytes work to aid the body in transferring water in and out of cells. Without proper electrolytes the ability of muscles to contract is weakened and can cause muscular contractions (such as cramping). It’s important to maintain this electrolyte balance when exercising so that there is proper contraction of muscle and nerve fibers in addition to maintaining the proper strain on the kidneys. In terms of aging, constantly being dehydrated can lead to cell death and a diseased cell turnover. Keeping yourself hydrated results in healthy cell turnover, muscular strength and correct rapid firing of the nerves. I love coconut water for it’s hydrating benefits. It makes my skin glow and unlike other sports drinks, it has a natural electrolyte component, as opposed to synthetically added electrolytes in Gatorade.
4) Regimen: Set your routine.
Your body functions better and more efficiently when it knows what to expect from your level of care. When you nourish your body with good food, exercise, sweat and electrolytes, it responds in the best possible way–glowing skin, a young complexion, a body that rivals a teenager and recovery from the common daily routine. Send your body a positive message in these three ways on a daily basis and it will function better and look better in 4-8 weeks.
Rain and Joint Pain
The rain is upon us and if joint pain and inflammation has got you down, you’re not alone. There’s a very real correlation between barometric pressure and inflammation. So let’s break down the facts:
Barometric pressure is the weight of the atmosphere that surrounds us. When it’s warm out, our bodies pull fluid into the tissues and joints.
If you imagine the tissues surrounding the joints to be like a balloon, high barometric pressure that pushes against the body from the outside will keep tissues from expanding.
But barometric pressure often drops before bad weather sets in. This lower air pressure pushes less against the body, allowing tissues to expand and those expanded tissues can put pressure on the joint.
When there’s less pressure we expand. For example, on a plane, despite a pressurized cabin our feet and legs swell. Some are at risk for deep vein thrombosis. Our blood pressure goes up as our body swells and expands.
Furthermore, when people have chronic pain, sometimes nerves can become more sensitized because of injury, inflammation, scarring, or adhesions.
For whatever reason, the nerves are just hypersensitive, and they just keep firing, based on what you do — or not for any reason at all. But if there’s some expansion internally — in other words, the body can either expand or contract based on outside pressure changes — then that’s going to affect how pain is signaled.
Bone Mineral Density and The Athlete
Start thinking about Bone Mineral Density. It’s an important factor in injury prevention, now and in your future health–and it’s cumulative. That means if you’re an athlete and aren’t getting the proper nutrition, rest and relaxation your body needs now, you’re setting your body up for failure later.
Bone Mineral Density is a cumulative history of energy availability, hormonal fluctuations, genetics, good nutrition, behaviors and environmental factors. As you get older, bone mineral density falls as our muscular infrastructure changes. When you do damage to your body, by starving/binging yourself, exercising too hard, not getting enough sleep and allowing stress to become a regular component in your life, you seriously alter your future body.
