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The Sinatra Solution Metabolic Cardiology Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Couch Potatoes vs Athletes Now let's take a closer look at how coenzyme QIO, L-carnitine, D-ribose, and magnesium work in synergy to promote cardiovascular health, general health and even the well-being of a "couch potato." Have you ever wondered if athletes are genetically endowed with superhuman qualities? The feats they perform, whether on the athletic field, atop a mountain, or on the water, are well beyond the capabilities of you and me. It's a statistical fact, and not just an expression, that the fit are more likely to survive.

In other words, if you are a couch potato, there could be a genetic issue behind your condition. What A Rat Race Investigators at the University of Michigan Medical School found a way to actually breed rats with reduced capabilities for aerobic exercise—I guess you call this a "survival of the unfittest" experiment. They essentially bred the weakest rats in each of eleven generations to one another. On the flip side, they did the same with the more aerobic exercisers, involving over 2,900 of them, thereby breeding "super rats.

Stop Prediabetes Now: The Ultimate Plan to Lose Weight and Prevent Diabetes Jack Challem See book keywords and concepts

Up to that point, I had been pretty much a couch potato except for an occasional long walk or hike. Another battery of tests in 2005 indicated still more improvements, mostly because of increased physical activity. My fasting blood sugar was now down a couple of more points to 82 mg/dl—perfect normal. My HbAlc was stable at 5.2 percent, and my fasting insulin had decreased to 4.9 mcIU/ml, which was superb. In addition, my cholesterol was down to 203 mg/dl and my triglycerides had declined to 78 mg/dl. Dr. Ron (as patients refer to Dr.

Although her metabolism so far did a good job of burning off her calories, she was an inveterate couch potato and had very little muscle. That's why she was so flabby. She learned that this type of lifestyle would eventually lead to diabetes. Kim started to improve her eating habits and reduce her intake of alcohol. She also joined a gym and started exercising three days a week. Six months later, while showering, she happened to notice how much firmer her buttocks, legs, and arms had become.

If you have been a couch potato, begin with a leisurely ten- to fifteen-minute walk (or more, if you have the time) each day. If the weather is not conducive to walking, drive to a shopping mall and walk there— however, focus on walking to keep up your pace, not on window shopping. If you tend to get bored while walking, find a walking partner to talk with. You can also listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks on your MP3 player. Many public libraries allow people to download books. If you walk outdoors, however, be aware of your surroundings and personal safety.

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes: An Innovative Program to Prevent, Treat, and Beat This Controllable Disease Steven V. Joyal See book keywords and concepts

In fact, the approach can be adjusted to meet the needs and fitness level of anyone, from elite athlete to out-of-shape couch potato. If you have a little more time to exercise or if you would like a change of pace, we also discuss other types of physical activities that are beneficial for improving insulin sensitivity and blood glucose control and how and when to monitor your blood glucose around your exercise sessions. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND DIABETES Physical activity has far-reaching effects and benefits for everyone.

The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie Craig Pepin-Donat See book keywords and concepts

But you can achieve the same results simply by altering your food consumption and avoiding foods high in saturated fats and sodium that actually stimulate your appetite, or by replacing some couch potato snack time in front of the TV with physical activity. All it takes is the motivation and desire to get up and go for it. Charles Damiano makes the point that, "Our culture has been transformed into having a quick-fix mentality. Many people are more willing to pop a pill than to make the adjustments in their lifestyle that will bring about significant and sustained results.

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back Michele Simon See book keywords and concepts

McDonald's just kicked off a campaign to advertise healthy eating and promoting physical activity to couch potato kids. Statistics are pretty clear that the obesity problem is especially bad among minorities in urban neighborhoods, arguably because there are more fast-food joints in poor neighborhoods than produce stands and good-quality supermarkets.

Even 5-10 minutes of daily physical activity can improve health Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

It's something that's doable, even if you've been a couch potato for 10 years. Heck, just walking across a large parking lot takes a couple of minutes. Do that twice and you have 5 minutes of walking. I call it "bite-sized exercise." It shouldn't be hard to find an extra five minutes in your busy schedule, either. People spend more than 5 minutes waiting in line at the McDonalds drive-through. You can waste a whole hour waiting on a pharmacist to fill a prescription for dangerous prescription drugs. Why not invest just 5 minutes in your own good health? The key here it to make it DAILY.

Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it Sue Palmer See book keywords and concepts

See for instance: - 'How to Avoid couch potato Syndrome', pages 70-73 - 'Detoxing Family Life', pages 159-162 - 'How to Detox a TV Addict', pages 274-275 • Talk to your child about the fact that the bedroom TV will be removed, and when. Explain clearly why life will be better without it, e.g.: - there will be more time for talking, playing, having fun with parents and others - the family will be able to share time together (including family viewing) - it will help your child sleep better and do better at school.

See also 'How to Avoid couch potato Syndrome', 'Thirty-three Things a Child Should Do by the Age of Ten', 'Detoxing Communication', 'Thirty-four Life Skills for Your Child to Learn', 'How to Encourage Creative Play'. • Demonstrate to your child that, while it's fine to occasionally slump in front of a screen and be entertained, it's much more fun to entertain yourself and others. But if you don't switch off the magic box and make the effort to do something, you'll never discover the joys of living in the real world.

HOW TO AVOID couch potato SYNDROME • Ensure your child has plenty of opportunity for free movement and exercise at all stages in development. • Babies and toddlers: - Give babies opportunities to lie on their tummies and backs (but put them to sleep on their backs). - Create safe spaces for toddlers to run, play and tumble - preferably both indoors and out. - Don't panic about the dangers of dirt and mud - remember that children reared in 'super-clean' environments may fail to develop resistance to everyday infections. - Don't always put your child in the buggy - let him or her walk.

Pet nutrition revealed: the Health Ranger interviews Dr. Lisa Newman on pet nutrition and pet food ingredients (part 3 of 4) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Your animal might become more of a couch potato because of illness. You are going to have to adjust the nutrition based on the illness. Now, for puppies that need a lot more protein, you are going to feed them more food because they need more calories. You can add canned meat to give them more protein. The senior dogs that need less protein and calories can simply eat smaller portions. Mike: With all the ingredients you have, you must have some logistical and supply challenges. How do you manage to put this together and make it work?

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back Michele Simon See book keywords and concepts

As we have seen, an important way that industry deflects blame for incessantly promoting unhealthy products is to point to the nation's couch potato tendencies. With MyPyramid, government officially adopted the food industry's argument that exercise is the real answer to the nation's health woes. Of course exercise is important, but so are other healthy behaviors, such as getting enough sleep. If one side of the pyramid shows someone walking up stairs to emphasize the importance of exercise, why doesn't the other side show someone lying down to illustrate the importance of rest?

Feed Your Genes Right: Eat to Turn Off Disease-Causing Genes and Slow Down Aging Jack Challem See book keywords and concepts

Friends often kidded Suzanne, calling her "the ultimate couch potato" because sprawled on the sofa seemed like her most natural position. At age twenty-six, Suzanne started to develop droopy eyelids and a slight tremor in her left arm, and she went to a neurologist for an exam and tests. The doctor arranged for a muscle biopsy, which was used to analyze Suzanne's mitochondrial DNA. The tests found that she had probably been born with damage to her mitochondrial DNA. She was diagnosed with a mitochondrial myopathy.

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back Michele Simon See book keywords and concepts

For example, in responding to pressure to get soda out of schools, the American Beverage Association indicts our couch potato culture with this ready quip: "It's about the Couch, Not the Can."9 Other times, the goal is to position obesity as being too complex to be reduced to a single "solution" (e.g., food), as reflected in this line from the GMA: "Effective solutions to obesity must take a comprehensive approach, incorporating sound nutrition, increased physical activity, consumer and parent education, and community support.

Best Choices From the People's Pharmacy Joe Graedon, M.S. and Teresa Graedon, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

In some respects the couch potato may be in greater danger of developing joint problems than many athletes. If you are overweight, you put more strain on your knees and hips and increase your risk for later problems. We are also beginning to learn that what you eat may influence your risk of arthritis. Good Foods versus Bad Foods Q. / was eating a piece of chocolate when a friend said, "That's not good for your arthritis." Since then, another friend told me to avoid tomatoes. All this advice is confusing me.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

This is not to suggest that you need to eat nothing but brown rice and torn and run five miles a day, but it is to suggest that if you're hooked on sugar or fat you scale back and that if you're a couch potato you get up and move your body. (You'll get more specifics in the next chapter.) When your physician offers you a drug, don't unquestioningly take it, but ask questions first. THE MYTH OF THE FDA AS OUR PROTECTOR Not long ago there was a television news program about a controversial fake fat that had recently been approved by the FDA.

Smart Exercise: Burning Fat, Getting Fit Covert Bailey See book keywords and concepts

Let's compare the levels of fatty acids in the blood of three individuals: an Olympic athlete, a moderately athletic person, and a couch potato. The Olympic athlete releases fatty acids before she even begins to run. Her fat cells seem to say, "She's going to run! We've got to release fatty acids right now before she starts!" The moderately athletic person might not release fatty acids for fifteen minutes, while the couch potato might not release them for thirty minutes or, if he hasn't exercised for a very long time, not at all.

Bottom Line's Prescription Alternatives Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA See book keywords and concepts

If you exercise, you are 34 percent less likely to develop hypertension than if you're a couch potato. Just a brisk half hour walk three or four times a week can lower blood pressure from three to 15 points in three months. Exercise will also help reduce stress, an important component in hypertension. The Six Core Principles for Optimal Health are your foundation for treating hypertension naturally. When you're treating hypertension, it's especially important to keep your antioxidant levels high, eat plenty of fiber-filled vegetables and whole grains, and drink plenty of water.

PowerFoods: Good Food, Good Health with Phytochemicals, Nature's Own Energy Boosters Stephanie Beling See book keywords and concepts

Even the biggest couch potato gets up in the morning, brushes her teeth, gets dressed, and moves around to some extent. So in general, even for the most sedentary lifestyle, we can add back 10 percent of the adjusted BMR just for being up and about. That means that our fifty-year-old, inactive, 140-pound woman with the age-adjusted BMR of 1448 would actually need a minimum daily intake of 1593 calories (1448 + 145) to meet her basic needs, and this amount of calories will result in weight loss over time, especially if she increases her activity level.

Conscious Eating Gabriel Cousens, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Kapha is inert, thick, heavy, sluggish, stable, viscous, sticky, cold, and slow-moving. A "couch potato" is an image that fits a kapha who is in a kapha imbalance. Physical Characteristics of Kapha People Weight is one place kaphas regularly tend to store energy. Kapha females and males have a difficult time losing weight. Females tend to gain weight in the lower part of their bodies, such as the hips and buttocks. Kapha women tend toward water retention, especially premenstrually.

Become a couch potato by overeating fatty, oily, fried foods, getting no exercise, and napping after meals. 2. Eat at least one sweet, oily dessert and lots of ice cream and other dairy products each day while watching TV. 3. Overeat and concentrate on sweet, oily, salty, and cooling, frozen, chilled, and watery foods. Eat an excess of wheat bread and pastries. 4. Avoid all exercise. 5. Suppress all creativity and do one's best to become inert mentally and physically. Createno waves in your life or job and do a lot of repetitive work. 6. Use tranquilizers to excess and hypnotics. 7.

Doctor, what Should I Eat?: Nutrition Prescriptions for Ailments in Which Diet Can Really Make a Difference Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

If you're a couch potato and lead a sedentary life, add an extra 3 calories per pound; if you're moderately active, increase it by another 5 calories per pound; if you really are the strenuous, physical type, allow 10 more calories per pound. According to these guidelines, someone who weighs 175 pounds and is moderately active should consume the basic 10 calories plus an additional 5, making a total of 15 calories per pound or 2,625 calories per day.

I'm not suggesting that you run a marathon, but neither should you become a couch potato. Walk as much as you comfortably can— every day (but wait for an hour or so after eating). However, rest is also important. You should relax in bed for an hour or two every day, depending on how bad your heart failure is. This will return more blood from the legs and abdomen to the heart, which can usually handle a brief extra load such as this. The resulting increase of blood pumped to the kidneys helps improve their function so they excrete more salt.

Eat and Heal (Foods That Can Prevent or Cure Many Common Ailments) the Editors of FC&A Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

Even if you're a couch potato, you lose up to 10 cups a day — through sweat, urine, even breathing. And if you're active, you lose even more. To stay healthy, you must constantly replenish your body's supply of water. Drink about six full glasses a day, minimum — just don't count alcohol or caffeinated drinks, like coffee and soft drinks. These actually increase the rate your body loses water. And don't wait until you're thirsty to head for the water fountain since thirst is not always a reliable gauge of your body's needs.

Herbs for Health and Healing Kathi Keville See book keywords and concepts

And the young couch potato who forgoes exercise to spend hours in front of a television or computer tends to suffer more from constipation than an active child. Laxatives suggested for constipated adults, even herbal ones, are generally too strong—in both taste and action— for children. To treat a constipated child, turn to a gentle combination of licorice and apple juice, with either fennel or ginger to relieve intestinal gas.

Natural Health Secrets From Around the World Glenn W. Geelhoed, M.D. and Jean Barilla, M.S. See book keywords and concepts

Even if you're a couch potato, you can do these exercises at home or at your work place: ¦ Move your hands around in gentle circles for a few minutes about 4 times a day. This rotation of the wrist restores circulation and eliminates a major cause of CTS symptoms. ¦ If you don't have symptoms, but your daily activities make you a candidate to develop them, try this exercise to prevent it from happening to you: With a rubber band around your fingers, open and close your fingers 10 times, 2 or 3 times a day.

Prescription Medicines, Side Effects and Natural Alternatives American Medical Publishing See book keywords and concepts

Bob played the occasional game of golf, but other than that, he was strictly a couch potato. But Bob's doctor had put the fear of God into him. His doctor told him he was heading for a heart attack, or possible even a stroke if he didn't change his ways Of course, both Bob and his doctor knew that a life-time meat eater was not going to become a vegetarian overnight, and that he was not about to take up jogging or tennis. At first, Bob tried taking regular walks in the evening, but quickly got bored with it.

Smart Exercise: Burning Fat, Getting Fit Covert Bailey See book keywords and concepts

The moderately athletic person might not release fatty acids for fifteen minutes, while the couch potato might not release them for thirty minutes or, if he hasn't exercised for a very long time, not at all. The unfit person burns fat at the trickle level only; the fatty acid flush never occurs. It's almost as if his fat cells know that his muscles can't burn a lot of fatty acids, so why bother releasing them? A very fit person whose muscles burn fatty acids well uses the sudden release almost like a fuel injection.

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