Calcium Intake and Nursing

Japanese researchers recently found that consuming too-little calcium while nursing could accelerate the progression of gum disease. "Fluctuating hormone elves during and after pregnancy makes women more vulnerable to inflamed, infected gums," explains Susan Karabin, D.D.S., president-elect of the American Academy of Periodontology. "This condition will only worsen if women don't get enough calcium to help build and maintain the bones surrounding their teeth." To avoid your own dental problems, aim for three servings of dairy, fortified juice, or leafy green vegetables, which will meet most of the 1,000-milligram minimum you need every day (though a 500-milligram supplement may provide extra stay-healthy insurance). And even when middle-of-the-night feedings leave you too exhausted to brush your hair, never skip the twice-daily teeth brushing and flossing sessions, says Karabin. This, along with frequent professional cleanings, will get rid of infection-causing plaque and safeguard your smile.

Fitness and Parenting

All Child-Play and No Workouts Make Dad an Unfit Boy

Below is an excerpt for a great article in the NYTimes, which explores how becoming a parent can affect a person's workouts and fitness routines. Click here for the whole article.

THEY count among their ranks former marathoners and Ironmen, beached surfers and scuba divers. They lay off red meat and trans fats. They stay current on annual physicals and take their medications as prescribed.

And yet, this group of the once-fit finds itself at risk of becoming unhealthy and stacking on the pounds, because of one threat to their physical fitness: children.

...

Too many Americans have an all-or-nothing mentality toward fitness, said Dr. Harvey B. Simon, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. If they can’t find a 45-minute window to bike, they don’t substitute by strapping on a BabyBjörn and taking a stroll.

“There is a very common misconception, one that is shared by physicians as well as by the public, that exercise requires a set amount of time and a formal program,” said Dr. Simon, who has two grown daughters. “I’m fond of saying that the aerobic exercise movement inspired the few and discouraged the many.”

Heart-healthy exercise can take many forms (gardening, car washing, stair climbing) and needn’t be done in continuous chunks to be beneficial, said Dr. Simon, the author of “The No Sweat Exercise Plan.”

Having three and a half hours of exercise to lose puts the study’s participants well above the norm, said Janet Fulton, an epidemiologist in the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Centers for Disease Control. After all, three-quarters of Americans don’t meet the minimum requirement of two and a half hours a week, she said.

Still, cutting back on exercise as a new parent has hidden costs. “Reducing their activity in this critical period of time is probably not going to help their adjustment in terms of a new person in their house,” Dr. Fulton said. “The long-term stuff, the chronic-disease risk reduction, is great, but immediately, they’re not getting the mental-health benefit.”

For those parents who can’t stomach exercise, however, their children serve as a bulletproof cop-out. When single or childless people say they have no time to exercise, it can ring hollow. But a mother of three? Watch those heads nod in sympathy.

Reluctant exercisers use parenthood as “an excuse to not do it at all,” said Dana Wood, a mother and the health and beauty director for Cookie, a parenting magazine.

Drug Warning for Expectant Mothers

Drug Warning! Women who take anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Aleve, Advil, Motrin, Celebrex or Vioxx, during their first trimester of pregnancy may be more likely to have babies with congenital defects, especially heart abnormalities. Previous studies have shown that taking NSAIDs late in pregnancy can cause circulatory defects. For relief of minor pain during pregnancy, most doctors recommend Tylenol.

Eat This, Heal.... Morning Sickness

Fight queasiness with Popsicles, dry toast, ginger ale and citrus flavored water. Choose bland dishes without strong odors which can trigger nausea. Opt for nutritious unheated foods (they are less odorous than hot ones) such as sandwiches, salads, applesauce, yogurt and bananas. Fight fatigue by pairing complex carbohydrates with protein such as whole-wheat bread and hummus, or apple slices and string cheese.

How to Pick Up A Toddler

Lifting that 30-lb bundle of joy can wreak havoc on your back and knees if you're not careful. Here's how to do it right according to the American Physical Therapy Association.

*Kneel in front of your child with one knee on the floor. Hold her close with both arms and stand up, keeping your feet planted firmly and your back straight (don't bend from the waist). Try not to twist while lifting, and don't carry her on one hip.

* Hold her in front of your body with both arms, making a little seat for her with one of your arms.

This method should help keep your little one--and your back--safe and healthy.

Find this tip in the May 2007 issue of Health Magazine.

Pumping Iron

If you hope to get pregnant any time soon, you might want to increase your intake of iron from veggies, grains, and supplements, a new study from Harvard suggests. Using information from the Nurses' Health Study II (the large, ongoing study of women aged 24 to 42 sponsored by the National Institutes of Health), researchers analyzed nutrition and fertility data of 18,555 subjects who tried to become pregnant between 1991 and 1999. Specifically, they looked at ovulation infertility--meaning an inability to become pregnant due to poor or no ovulation--and iron intake. women with the highest intake of nonheme iron (which comes fro nonanimal sources such as spinach, legumes, or vitamin supplements)--on average, 76mg per day--had a 40 percent lower risk of ovulatory infertility compared with women with the lowest intake. (The RDA for iron in women is 18g, and 27 during pregnancy.) Intake of heme iron did not have this effect. "It's not clear right now how iron affects ovulation," says study author Jorge Chavarro, MD, ScD, research fellow in the department of nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health, "although some studies suggest that it is important for the development of the egg prior to ovulation."
from Elle, February 2007.

My Philosophy: Not a New Year's Resolution, a New Life Resolution/Revolution

Part 1
Because I am slim and fit, a lot of my clients and friends ask me if I diet. I don't believe the word "diet" should be a verb (as in, "Are you dieting?"). I'm a strong believer that one's diet should be a way of life. I don't believe in good foods or bad foods (chocolate cake=bad, rice cake= good). It should be noted that I do not consider highly processed foods, most fast foods, and foods containing certain artificial ingredients (hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, &c.) real food that is fit for consumption. Few things in life are black and white, so why should we expect what we eat to be so simple and binary?

My philosophy is that we should listen to what our bodies are telling us. If we are gaining weight, are becoming hypertensive, if our cholesterol levels are high, if we're always hungry/stuffed, we should take a good, unbiased look at what we eat, when we eat, why we eat, and how we eat, and we should modify those things until we are healthy. What we consume should not negatively affect us, and if it does and we do not change our eating habits, we only have ourselves to blame. We don't have to diet (ie. deprive) we need to adjust our diet (how, how much, and what we eat).

Losing Weight

To effectively lose weight, one needs to adjust their diet as well as their activity level. Doing one without the other probably won't have much of a lasting effect. Think of it as a lifestyle change that will give you a changed body, a healthier body. Our bodies are amazing things. They will do only what we ask of them. If you want the strong, lean body of an active, healthy person, you are going to have to embark on the process of becoming a strong, active, healthy person. You won't get a strong, lean body by watching 20 hours of tv a week and substituting rice cakes for potato chips. If you're willing to accept that your lifestyle as it is now is not giving you the physique you want and committed to altering your lifestyle and adopting a healthier diet and more physical activity, your body will listen. It may grumble, it may ache and complain, but it will listen.

A good friend of mine is always saying, you are the master of your own destiny. You are the master of your body as well.

Change Your Diet, Change Perspective

It's common for many people to improve the quality of their food, make healthier choices, and still find they are not losing weight. Portion size is very important. It is crucial. American meals, especially the ones served at restaurants, have lost all sense of proportion. Our dinner plates are huge. Our spoons are huge. We need to relearn what a real portion size is and accept that. As long as we believe that a steak should be 24 ounces (as opposed to 4-6 ounces), we are not going to get the bodies we want.
At home, use smaller plates and fill them mostly with brightly colored vegetables. Keep your protein portion about the size of a deck of cards and your starch about 1/2 cup (think of a baseball cut in half). Still hungry? Have some more steamed string beans, some more beets, another helping of broccoli.
When you are actively trying to change your diet, to nurture your palate to accept and enjoy healthier real flavors, and to lose weight, you may want to step away from the desserts for a while. You should probably cut out alcohol, which is high in calories. This does not mean that you will forever forgo these items, but just know that for the time being, you are taking a break and resetting your palate and your body. If you must, savor just a bite of some high quality sweet instead of having a whole dessert or candy bar.
When you achieve your goal weight, remember that you can have anything you want occasionally and in moderation.

Exercise

The healthiest way to lose weight is to adopt a healthy diet and exercise. We should all be getting 45 minutes a day of exercise. At least. Our bodies are designed to be active. Unfortunately, our jobs often require we sit still for long periods of time. This starts a vicious circle of fatigue and inflexibility. This vicious circle continues even when we first start working out. It can last a few weeks, but slowly, surely, your body will wake up and rise to the occasion. It will do what you ask of it; it will get stronger, more flexible, healthier. You will feel stronger, healthier. You'll have more energy. As you come into your body, you'll be amazed at how good it feels to be more active, to be stronger. Your body is meant to be strong and healthy and your hard work and exercise will be rewarded. Your body is a part of you. Don't neglect it.

Math

While I don't believe we should be wed to the scale, there are some important numbers to consider. 3500 is the number of calories in a pound. If over the span of a month, you consume 7000 extra calories, you will gain two pounds of fat. Likewise, if over the span of a week, if you decrease your calorie consumption by 200 calories a day (that's about equal to a slice of cheese and a can of soda) while increasing your energy expenditure (exercise) by about 300 calories every day, you can expect to lose a pound.
What about all those diets you read about that tell you to cut out carbs and you'll lose 10 pounds in a week.... well, most of that is water. It is safe and reasonable for most people to lose between 1-2 lbs a week. Unless you have an excessive amount of weight to lose, dropping more than 1-2 lbs a week usually indicates you are dehydrated (a side effect of ketosis, the state your body goes into when it's deprived of carbohydrates).
Going back to what I wrote earlier about being wed to the scale... you should use how you look, how you feel, how your clothes fit, as better indicators of your progress. Muscle weighs more than fat. How much more? A pound of fat is about the size of a large grapefruit. A pound of muscle is about the size of a small orange or tangerine. So if you are losing fat and gaining muscle, the numbers on the scale might not be moving very much. If the jeans you banished to the back of your closet or some other "thin clothes" are telling you you lost weight but your scale is telling you otherwise, rest assured that you may not have lost "weight" but you certainly lost fat.

Avoiding Gestational Diabetes

Women who exercise regularly before conceiving are less likely to develop diabetes during pregnancy, according to a Harvard study. Brisk walking before pregnancy reduced the risk of gestational diabetes by 24% compared to walking at an easy pace. In contrast, women who watched at least20 hours of TV each week and did not exercise before pregnancy were 2 times as likely as exercisers to develop gestational diabetes. While lifelong physical activity clearly matters, previous studies show that women can also reduce the risk of diabetes by exercising during pregnancy. -Archives of Internal Medicine

Maternal Fitness: Spotlight Obesity

Obesity Damages
Women who are obese during pregnancy have more complications and their babies tend to have more medical problems at birth according to a new report. Excess weight increases the risk of hypertension, gestational diabetes and bloodclots, and babes of obese mothers are more likely to have neural-tube defects and spend more time in the neonatal intensive care unit. To avoid gaining more weight than necessary it is critical to exercise regularly and eat nutritiously. -Wiley Institute for Fit Pregnancy

3 New Reasons to Breast-feed

1. You'll help raise a happier kid. Breast-fed infants are half as likely to experience anxiety throughout childhood, according to a study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Mom-baby bonding strengthens babies' stress response, making them more resilient, says study author Scott Montgomery, Ph.D. a Swedish epidemiologist.

2. You'll slash your risk of diabetes. Every year a woman breast-feeds makes her 15 percent less prone to develop type 2 diabetes, according to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "We think that breast-feeding burns fat stored during pregnancy, so nursing moms lose slightly more weight." says researcher Alison Stuebe, M.D. "This regulates the hormone insulin, preventing diabetes over time."

3. You'll protect your infant from allergies. Exclusively nursing for six months reduces your child's exposure to solid foods. Before that age, her still-developing immune system may not tolerate foods and may produce antibodies that can trigger an allergic reaction, explains Amal Assa'ad, M.D., medical director of the Food Allergy Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

from Shape Magazine, January 2007

Iron and Fertility

Fertility: Iron Supplements May Reduce Risk of Infertility
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: November 14, 2006 in NYTimes

Taking iron supplements may reduce the risk of infertility, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined data on women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II, a prospective study of registered nurses, ages 24 to 42. Over eight years of follow-up, researchers recorded more than 3,500 cases of infertility among more than 18,000 women who were trying to become pregnant. Of these, 2,165 underwent medical investigation to determine the cause, and 438 were found to suffer from ovulatory infertility, or the inability to produce viable eggs.
After statistically adjusting for age, smoking, physical activity and dietary patterns, the women who used iron supplements had, on average, 40 percent less risk of ovulatory infertility than those who used none. Moreover, the higher the dose of the iron supplements, the lower the risk, so that women who took the highest doses — more than 41 milligrams a day — reduced their risk of ovulatory infertility by 62 percent.
Still, Dr. Jorge E. Chavarro, the study’s lead author and a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, is not prepared to recommend iron supplements as an aid to becoming pregnant. “We need these results to be reproduced in randomized trials first,” Dr. Chavarro said. “But after a comprehensive evaluation of whether a woman has adequate body iron stores, it is certainly possible that this is something to be considered by healthy women who are trying to get pregnant.”
Writing in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the authors concede that the group of women they studied was trying to become pregnant and therefore might have been more health-conscious to begin with, but they doubt that this could have affected the results.

3 Moves to Stretch Away Stress

Stretch Away Stress!
Achy, sore, tired...Back pain can take over your whole body. New mothers know this better than anyone. Breastfeeding, changing diapers, lifting and carrying the baby/car seat/stroller/heavy diaper bag, and changes in breast size all attribute to back pain. Use these stretches to counteract the stresses on your back.
While these stretches are featured in the Fall 2005 issue of Fit Pregnancy, you don't have to be a mom to suffer from back pain and benefit from these stretches.


1. Chest, Calf, & Hip Stretch: stretches chest, shoulders, front of hips, and calves
l Stand with feet hip-width apart.
l Then take a step back with our right foot, toes pointed straight ahead, right heel down.
l Clasp your hands together with fingers interlaced behind your lower back, lifting your chest as you breathe deeply through your nose.
l Keeping your shoulders relaxed (down and away from your ears), lengthen your torso as you bend your left leg and lean forward slightly. Be sure to keep your knee in line with your ankle, and keep your right heel down. Keep your buttocks tight and abs drawn in.
lSwitch sides and repeat.

2. Chest Opener: stretches front of torso; strengthens neck and back muscles, improving posture.
lStand with feet hp-width apart and lace your hands behind your head, elbows wide. Breathe deeply in through your nose and out with your mouth. Gently press your head into your hands.
lStraighten arms, palms up, and lean back slightly, keeping your thighs and buttocks firm.

3. Lower-Back Stretch: strengthens entire back and gently tones muscles
lStand with feet hip-width apart, knees bent, hands on thighs, fingers pointing in.
lLean forward from hops and point your tailbone back to straighten spine, abs drawn in.
lInhale, then exhale as you round your back like a cat, drawing your abs in and bringing your chin toward your chest.

Note: All of you who know me or have trained with me probably know that I'm a fan of Fit Pregnancy. Visit www.fitpregnancy.com. A subscription makes a great present.