Health, Wellness & Nutrition

August is Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month. If you’re one of the many who have never heard of this particular disease, however, rest assured you are not alone. In fact, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation calls spinal muscular atrophy “one of the most common rare diseases” that exists in the U.S. today. Though it afflicts somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 Americans at any given time, the SMA Foundation reports that one in every 40 to 50 people are actually carriers of the gene responsible for this condition. But what exactly is spinal muscular atrophy?

It seems like every few months, there is another website, TV lifestyle show or magazine article touting the hottest new diet of the season. Whether it’s the DASH diet, the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet or the Keto diet, it can be overwhelming to sift through all of them to determine what they involve, if they can actually help with weight loss, and whether or not they can easily be followed. Now take a moment to imagine how bewildering it must be for your patients to try to sort through all of that information by themselves. This is why it’s imperative that you also keep abreast of major diet trends.

There’s no question that our world today has become much more fast-paced and interconnected than it was even five or 10 years ago. Today, we live in a society that runs on a 24/7 news cycle, instantaneous computer access, and the ability to order everything from groceries to a recumbent bicycle from our mobile phones while we are waiting to board a plane. On the one hand, this high tech world can allow us to connect with each other in ways that could not have been possible before. On the other, its speed forces us to work at that same pace, which can often come at the expense of our health, particularly our immune system.

According to a study funded by the Shanghai University of Sport, the results of which were published in July of 2016 in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, weather—and heat especially—has a huge impact on our fitness habits. In fact, out of the 502 subjects surveyed, the majority (51.8 percent) reported that they will actually delay their exercise routines in the summer months, citing heat as “the predominant adverse condition.” In fairness, getting too overheated by exercising when the temperature rises is a real concern, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicating the exposure to extreme heat can lead to heat stroke, a condition that can ultimately result in death.

When it comes to losing weight, it’s not too hard to come up with a long list of obstacles that can keep this dream from becoming a reality. Super-busy schedules can make it more difficult to find the time to prep healthy meals and then there’s the continual question of which type of eating plan is best. While any of these issues has the ability to derail the best weight loss intentions, another common concern is a slow metabolism. But what exactly is metabolism and how can one potentially jump start it to begin to shed those unwanted pounds?

You’ve researched the best diets that can help your patients burn fat, build muscle, lose weight, and lose inches. However, with the aging baby boomer population (those born between 1944 and 1964), and Generation X hot on their heels (those born between 1965 and 1983), you may have some of your middle-age and senior patients looking at diets that can help them maintain youthful skin, particularly for their face and neck. So which are the best face-healthy foods out there to give your patients the youthful glow they want?