Health is Wealth
Recipe: Spanish Omelet With Veggies and Cheese
Omelets are a great choice for a one-skillet meal, and our recipe delivers on nutrition and taste! This meatless dinner option provides 100% of your daily vitamin C and is a good source of calcium.
Makes 5 servings
Calories: 290
Total fat: 6 g
Saturated fat: 2.5 g
Trans fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 120mg
Sodium: 250 mg
Total carbohydrate: 43 g
Fiber: 6 g
Sugars: 5 g
Protein: 18 g
— Recipe courtesy of Digestive Disease Health Team Dietitians.
If you’re planning to start an exercise program and wondering where to begin, start with your core first, says physical therapist Brittany Smith, DPT. People often think of the core muscles as being the abdominal muscles, but the core includes the muscles in the abdomen, back and hips, all working together as a group.
“The core muscles provide stability for the entire body as it moves,” says Smith. “These muscles are activated when you stand up, turn, bend, reach, twist, stoop and move in most other ways. Everything starts with your core.”
Strong core muscles help you maintain good posture, while weak ones can lead to slouching and slumping. Poor posture can be a cause of aches and pain, especially in the back.
To get your core muscles in shape, you need to exercise.
“Our bodies were made to move, so any physical activity is really important,” says Smith.
She recommends these specific core-strengthening exercises below.
The first one engages the deep muscles in the abdomen, called the transverse abdominis. “These muscles help hold us in a better position to stabilize our core, thereby stabilizing our arms and legs,” says Smith.
“The more you work on these muscles, the more it will become second nature to hold these muscles tight when you’re lifting grocery bags, doing yard work or any other kind of physical activity,” says Smith. This will help support your body.
Other muscles that tend to be weak are the gluteus maximus in the buttocks, and the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus on the side of the hip. The bridge and clamshell exercises can help strengthen these muscles.
Smith emphasizes that getting the proper position of these exercises correct is more important than the number of repetitions you do. “It’s better to take your time, maybe do fewer reps, but with better quality,” she says. For that reason, it can be helpful to have the guidance of a physical therapist to get started.
Core exercises are the starting point of overall fitness because you need to hold those muscles engaged while you strengthen other muscles, such as the biceps in the arms or the quadriceps in the legs.
Smith suggests setting short-term goals (for about a month) and then more long-term goals. Once you have achieved short-term goals, such as getting around more easily, add other types of weight-training or resistance exercises to build muscle elsewhere.
With any exercise you do, always listen to your body, warns Smith. If you have pain other than muscle burn, take it easy. Reduce the number of repetitions, the weight or the duration of the exercises. Then build up gradually. “You don’t have to be in pain to make gains,” she says.
For each of the following, work up to one to two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions once a day.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Contract your abdominal muscles, and press the arch of your back down toward the floor, pulling your belly button toward your spine. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Make sure your lower back stays flat on the floor. Relax and repeat.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor with your arms at your sides. Squeeze your abdominal and buttocks muscles, push your heels into the floor and slowly lift your buttocks and hips off the floor. Keep your back straight. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds.
Lie on your side with knees bent in line with your hips and back, draw up the top knee while keeping contact of your feet together as shown. Don’t let your pelvis roll back during the lifting movement. Hold for 5 seconds.
Check-in with your care team, and focus on low-impact exercises and walking for good gains
If you’re living with advanced prostate cancer, you might be wondering exactly how far you should push yourself when it comes to physical activity and exercise. Should you take it easy and hold back? Or should you try to maintain your exercise routine?
And if you’ve had your prostate surgery or your prostate removed (prostatectomy) you may be concerned about any sort of limitations or restrictions on specific exercises to avoid further pain or injury.
Occupational therapist Maria Pickston, OTR/L, CLT, reminds us that each person’s medical history and cancer treatment is unique. So, before beginning any exercise program during recovery, it’s essential to obtain clearance from your oncologist or healthcare team.
Pickston shares some additional insight on how exercise can help with the process of recovery and why exercise is so important overall.
Your prostate is part of your pelvic floor, an area densely populated with a group of muscles and connective tissues that support the functions of your bowel, bladder and reproductive organs. Your pelvic floor muscles also aid your abdominals (core muscles) and back muscles in providing structural stability to your spine.
When we talk about prostate health, we’re most often talking about modifiable risk factors, which are the things you can do to reduce the likelihood of developing prostate cancer. But if you’re living with prostate cancer, focusing on your overall health is key and exercise is a big part of that.
“When you put the words ‘cancer’ and ‘exercise” together, it can feel like such a road block because it sounds counterintuitive to be exercising when you’re going through cancer treatment,” says Pickston.
“Years ago, people were told not to exert themselves and to take it easy. But in the last 20-plus years, we’ve had an explosion of research supporting the benefits of physical activity for cancer survivors and how exercise can improve the symptoms and side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.”
Exercise can have a huge impact on your physical, mental and emotional health and increase your energy levels — all things that tend to be affected when you have surgery or are going through cancer treatments.
“Prostate cancer treatment can lead to several side effects like loss of muscle mass and physical strength, sexual dysfunction, reduced bone density, increased fatigue, and a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes,” explains Pickston.
Exercise plays a vital role in tackling these challenges and enhancing the physical outcomes of treatment.
“Current research demonstrates that exercise is safe and beneficial before, during and after cancer treatment as it improves energy levels and the overall quality of life, enabling individuals to continue enjoying the activities they love,” notes Pickston. “A physically active lifestyle not only helps in lowering the risk of various cancers, but also reduces the risk of recurrence in some cancers, including prostate cancer.”
Translation: Once you check in with your care team, don’t let your cancer diagnosis stop you from working out.
If you’re living with prostate cancer, are going through cancer treatment or have had a prostatectomy, you want to talk to your healthcare provider first to before you begin any exercise program as you may need to adhere to certain precautions during those first few weeks of recovery.
There’s no one set exercise that specifically focuses on prostate health — but if you focus on improving your overall health, increasing your heart rate, improving your blood flow and getting those endorphins going, you’ll find that those things will have significant positive impact on how you’re feeling overall and your ability to recover from your condition and treatment.
“Individuals who are physically fit or active before their cancer diagnosis are more likely to regain their previous level of functioning compared to those who lead a more sedentary lifestyle,” says Pickston.
“In oncology rehabilitation, personalized programs are designed to cater to each individual’s unique circumstances. Special considerations are taken into account, including your medical history, current fitness level, the type and stage of your cancer, and the specific cancer treatment you are having to ensure that the rehab process is both safe and effective.”
Everyone responds to cancer and cancer treatments differently. What works for someone else might not come as easily for you — and that’s OK.
“Each individual’s journey is different, and your focus should be on finding an approach that suits your specific needs and abilities, fostering progress and overall well-being,” encourages Pickston.
And don’t feel like you have to push yourself too hard — you can, and should, rest when you need it the most. Exercise doesn’t always have to be a one-hour routine, either. It can be as simple as standing up and stretching during commercial breaks, walking to the end of your driveway and back, or making sure you keep up with your daily living activities around the house like laundry, cleaning and showering.
“Just the act of walking or going up and down the stairs is something you can immediately do when you get home after prostate surgery,” says Pickston. “Be patient with yourself and avoid pushing to the point of pain or excessive discomfort or fatigue. If it’s been a while since you’ve been active or your overall fitness level is low, start slowly and gradually build. The key is to be as physically active as your current condition and abilities allow.”
Specifically, aerobic exercise (also known as cardiovascular exercise) has wide-ranging full-body benefits that can impact your heart, brain, joints, skin and muscles. It not only extends your life expectancy, but it can also decrease your blood pressure and heart rate, and increase your blood flow, which has a direct impact on your sexual function, mood, digestion and more.
The American Cancer Society recommends engaging in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling for 150 to 300 minutes per week. Additionally, you’ll want to perform strength training exercises two days per week using body weight, resistance bands, dumbbells or fitness machines.
Again, if you can’t hit the ground running that fast, you can do small things to work your way back up to that routine.
“Think about all the physical activity you can do like playing with your grandkids, dancing, gardening, carrying groceries or doing chores around the house. But it’s even better if you begin to incorporate intentional exercises like brisk walking, swimming and weightlifting,” says Pickston.
“It’s crucial for those undergoing treatment to understand that exercise is the best way to treat cancer-related fatigue. As your strength and fitness improves, you can engage in meaningful activities more easily.”
One specific side effect mentioned earlier is loss of bone density, which can lead to osteoporosis, a condition where the bones become weak, less dense and more likely to increase your risk of fractures. Weight bearing exercises such as weight training, yoga, Pilates and climbing stairs are ideal for preventing bone density loss.
“Starting slowly with light weights and gradually increasing the load is key to avoid pushing too hard and experiencing pain or exhaustion,” advises Pickston. “With time and consistency, you will notice improvements in your fatigue, strength and overall health, fitness and endurance.”
Cycling is an excellent aerobic exercise, but it’s one you might want to hold off from doing at least in the early weeks after having prostate surgery. The reason is because you tend to put a lot of pressure on your sit bones and your pelvic area while cycling, and this can cause discomfort, pain and swelling if you’re not fully healed.
“You need to be sure you are cleared by your physician before initiating cycling for any amount of time first,” says Pickston. “Once you receive clearance, there are various bike seats and bike shorts available to help cushion or accommodate the perineal area, alleviating some of that pressure.”
After having prostate surgery, it’s common to experience side effects like urinary leakage and erectile dysfunction. Kegel exercises specifically are designed to help strengthen your pelvic floor muscles and reduce the likelihood of those side effects from happening as well as help quicken recovery from those side effects. These exercises are also often recommended for some people before even having surgery so their pelvic floor muscles start off having a strong foundation before going into surgery.
“Your pelvic floor is often compromised after prostate cancer treatment because surgical or radiation treatment can damage the surrounding tissues, including the muscles of the pelvic floor,” explains Pickston. “When the pelvic floor muscles are compromised, it can lead to weakness, pain and dysfunction. Seeking help from a pelvic floor physical therapist can address these issues.”
It’s also common to experience muscle tightness in your pelvic floor and surrounding muscles after treatment, and doing Kegels without proper guidance can worsen this tightness.
“A pelvic floor therapist will help to make sure you are performing your Kegels correctly and help guide you in managing areas of muscle tightness in your pelvic floor,” says Pickston. “Learning how to engage the pelvic floor muscles correctly during daily activities can significantly reduce leakage. Sometimes, just a few simple adjustments in movement can lead to dramatic improvement.”
Having overweight or obesity increases your risk for prostate cancer — but it can also provide additional complications during the recovery process in some cases.
“If you’ve had a prostatectomy, it’s normal to experience emotional ups and downs, but the important thing is that you focus on what small things you can do each day, to feel better every day,” says Pickston. “Physical activity improves both your physical and emotional health. It’s important for managing weight, maintaining or building muscle, reducing your risk of heart disease and keeping your bones strong.”
Mindfulness and meditation can improve your mood and motivation, while flexibility-focused exercises like yoga can provide additional benefits for stretching and getting your muscles moving and activated. By focusing on these low-impact exercises along with daily walking habits, you can develop an increased focus on your overall health while slowly ramping up your physical activity all in an effort to speed up your recovery from cancer.
“You want to get up, go outside and see what’s going on in your neighborhood,” encourages Pickston. “When you start exercising, your sleep improves. When your sleep improves, you’re able to heal better. And the more you can do early on, the more long-term effects you’ll experience along the way.”
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How Long Does It Take to Detox From Alcohol?
Wondering if you need an alcohol detox? Learn how to detox your liver from alcohol use, and how long it could take.
Of all your body’s organs, your liver takes the biggest hit when it comes to alcohol. Even if your relationship with drinking consists of occasional social drinking with friends or occasionally over-indulging in wine and cocktails during the holiday season, alcohol can still leave its mark. And it’s a mark that can be hard to reverse.
That’s why many of us wonder if a month of avoiding drinking is enough to “reset” your liver back to normal. It’s true that taking a break from alcohol for any amount of time will be beneficial overall, with some research showing that liver function begins to improve in as little as two to three weeks. But a full detox is needed for the most benefit, and how much time that takes depends on a variety of personal factors.
“It depends on how much damage has already been done,” explains liver specialist Christina Lindenmeyer, MD. “And if there are any complications related to the damage.”
Dr. Lindenmeyer explains what happens to your liver from prolonged and moderate alcohol use, and what a detox process would look like.
Your liver has enzymes that work like special tools to help metabolize (break down) different toxins that enter your body, such as alcohol.
In the short term, alcohol is processed through your liver in about an hour. Essentially, feeling “drunk” is when your liver becomes too overwhelmed to properly process alcohol, so it overflows temporarily into your bloodstream. This is what causes you to feel light-headed or tipsy after multiple alcoholic drinks.
In the long term, prolonged alcohol use can cause severe damage to your liver. Your liver has a specific pathway that the toxins follow to be broken down, so if over time, this pathway becomes overwhelmed by too many toxins, it can affect the efficiency of your liver’s work. In other words: It can’t keep up.
Certain health concerns and diseases can arise in your liver due to long-term alcohol use, including:
If your liver has taken a hit from prolonged alcohol use, there are ways to give it — and the rest of your body — a break.
You can make the move toward detoxing your liver through these steps:
The first and most important line of defense? You guessed it: Abstain from drinking. “Abstinence is the most critical intervention and treatment,” notes Dr. Lindenmeyer.
This is sometimes easier said than done, of course. If you’re a heavy drinker, you may need to wean off alcohol to let your body adjust. If you’re experiencing severe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, be sure to talk to a healthcare provider.
If you’re more of a moderate to occasional drinker, you may find the hardest part of stopping drinking to be the social pressures. Try replacing your usual cocktail or beer with a nonalcoholic option, including many of the now popular mocktails available so you can still enjoy social time with friends without having alcohol in the mix.
Another thing that will help your liver’s journey in recovery is good nutrition. There’s no miracle diet by any means, but the Mediterranean diet, for example, can help fill some of the nutritional gaps you may have due to alcohol use.
“Nutrition optimization is actually the most evidence-based and most important intervention aside from stopping drinking,” points out Dr. Lindenmeyer. This is because, for a lot of people who experience some kind of liver dysfunction, it makes them at risk of not getting enough proteins, calories or vitamins.
There are also certain foods like tea, fish and nuts that can benefit the liver’s function in many ways. Think of it as giving your liver a little boost in the right direction. “Nutrition therapy is very important in terms of feeding the liver and giving it the building blocks it needs to restore itself,” says Dr. Lindenmeyer.
Of course, we all want a simple, achievable number for how long we should abstain from alcohol in order for our bodies to fully heal from its effects.
But the truth is,the timeline of your liver detoxing is going to depend on different factors like:
“There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer,” states Dr. Lindenmeyer. “It depends on how much damage has already been done and any possible complications.”
There has been some research conducted on how abstaining from alcohol detoxifies your liver over time. A 2021 review of research notes that several studies determined that two to four weeks of abstinence from alcohol by heavy-alcohol users helped reduce inflammation and bring down elevated serum levels in the liver.
In short: A few weeks off will help. But the longer you can abstain from alcohol, the better. And if your liver has experienced long-term effects, your healthcare provider would probably recommend lifelong abstinence from alcohol to allow it to fully detox and recover.
“For patients who are left with cirrhosis after severe injury to the liver from alcohol, even one drink of alcohol is toxic to the liver,” cautions Dr. Lindenmeyer.
For many of us, alcohol becomes a casual routine associated with going out and spending time with loved ones. But if you’re drinking alcohol in excess of the recommended guidelines, you may be doing damage to your liver. It can be hard to notice at first if your body is sending you any warning signs that it’s overwhelmed.
Here are some common signs that your liver is taking a serious hit from alcohol:
It can be hard to find (or even know) the balance of how much alcohol your body is able to handle. If you’re not sure if your drinking crosses a certain line or not, try measuring your alcohol intake.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol should be consumed in moderation, which means one drink a day for women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB), and two for men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB) — unless your doctor says otherwise. If you’re keeping up with this average (or less), the damage from alcohol is most likely minimal.
On the other hand, binge drinking is generally defined as four drinks for women and five drinks for men within a two-hour period. And even occasional binge drinking episodes can have profound effects on your liver’s health over time.
Overall, a small break from drinking like a Dry January won’t necessarily fully “detox” your liver, but if you’re prone to overindulging in alcohol, you can see small health boosts such as decreasing inflammation of the liver and increasing your energy levels with such a break.
Just like a broken bone or infection needs time to heal, so does an overworked liver. While this depends on the amount of alcohol you have had over the years, your liver can see partial healing within two to three weeks, but this will depend on your health history.
Depending on the extent of liver damage you have, you may need to completely abstain from alcohol in order to give your liver the best chance for recovery. Talk to a doctor about your personal history and what’s right for you.
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Cleveland ClinicVerified account @ClevelandClinic 20 hours ago
Engage your abdominal muscles with these yoga poses that build a strong & stable center!
Contributor: Certified yoga instructor Patti Kopasakis, PT, DPT, SCS, RYT-200
Your abdominal muscles are just one component of your core. The gluteal muscles, diaphragm, hip flexors, and hip adductor muscles also comprise your core. These large muscle groups help control the movements you make throughout the day. Strengthening these muscles helps to absorb forces from daily activities and decrease the forces that move through joints.
Here is a group yoga poses that can help to improve your core muscles. Try holding them for two to three breaths at first, then increase the number of breaths to challenge yourself. On the one-sided poses, be sure to repeat on the other side!
Note: Poses should be entered into and moved out of slowly to protect muscles and joints. If you are having specific pain that has been ongoing for longer than two weeks or you have a specific injury, it is always best consult a qualified health care provider, such as a physical therapist, who can develop a plan specific to your needs.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/yoga-poses-that-can-strengthen-your-core-muscles/?
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