Whiplash Pain Is Real, Study Says

A released study now confirms the severity of pain associated with whiplash. A 10-year study in Australia found that facet joint pain was the definitive cause of chronic head and neck pain in 60% of patients suffering from chronic neck pain following motor vehicle whiplash injuries. These findings were published in the journal Spine.

In addition the study showed that 87% exhibited a limited range of cervical motion. Together these findings suggest that many whiplash victims would respond well to chiropractic care since adjustments are specifically directed to the facet joints.

In fact, studies published in the Journal of Manipulation and Physical Therapy showed that chiropractic adjustments can eliminate or reduce joint pain and restore range of motion at the specific level of injury.

Chiropractic for recovery.

Whiplash pain may have more than one cause. Whether your symptoms stem from facet joint pain, muscle strains, or ligament sprains, chiropractic can restore function to the area of injury.

Doctors of chiropractic undergo extensive training in managing strunctural problems. Spinal adjustments help to remove nerve interference, break down scar tissue from old injuries, increase circulation to enhance healing, and reduce inflammation.

Let me help you resume your normal routine -- without pain, without drugs, and without surgery.

-Dr. John G Florendo

Unlimited Wellness Institute
6141 S. Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 115
Las Vegas, NV 89118

Office: (702)920-6556
Fax: (702)920-6555

Email unlimitedwellness@gmail.com for any questions or concerns.

Natural Solutions and Your Diet

     Eating tasty foods is one of the life’s pleasures.  But the fact is the foods that you eat play a major role in your health.  Your body has the amazing ability to turn the foods you eat into the energy it needs to move muscles, regulate organs, power the brain and aid in healing.

     Unfortunately, the food you eat can also play a major role in common diseases and disrupt the natural healing process.  Many of today’s convenience foods can place unnatural demands on your body slowing you’re healing process and depriving your body of essential nutrients, which often leads to potentially deadly diseases.

     Eating well means eating a variety of foods everyday.  But it also means eating regularly and avoiding excess Kevorkian foods, such as Pre-Packaged Convenience Foods, High Fat Lunch Meats, Lobster (anthropoid), Margarine (hydrogenated oil), NutraSweet (methanol alcohol), Junk Food, Olestra (fat free chips), High Fat Dairy Products, Chlorine (water), Caffeine Products and Alcohol.

     The fact is, learning to eat well may take time.  Many people have been “trained” to enjoy sweet, salty, and fattening food.  All this processed food can taste great, but its difficult for the body to process and contains very little nutritional value.  The good part is you don’t have to give up all your favorite foods at once.  Try subtle changes and you will find that over time, each change has become a lasting healthy habit. Healthy food choices include Fruits, veggies, Fish, Chicken, and Turkey intake less fat; Also 8-10 glasses of water per day.

     While food does play a major role in a healthy lifestyle, numerous factors contribute to overall health.  When your body works overtime, it depletes many vitamins and minerals that each cell needs to function properly.  Because of this, a supplement is often required. Chiropractic also enhances all body functions, such as digestion and absorption.

For more information on nutrition or ways to live a healthier life style call us at 702-920-6556 or email us at unlimitedwellness@gmail.com

Chiropractic Care For Back Pain Relief

JULY 18, 2013, 12:01 AM

Alternatives for Back Pain Relief

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

This column appears in the July 21 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

If you have never suffered from lingering low back pain, you’re lucky or, more likely, young. Up to 80 percent of us will experience low back pain at some point. And for most, there won’t be an identifiable cause.

In the past 10 years, the most popular nonsurgical medical treatment for “chronic, nonspecific” low back pain has been injection therapy, or shots into the lower back of various substances — usually cortisone but also liquid ibuprofen, morphine and vitamin B12. Doctors have been turning to injection therapy at a “disproportionately escalating rate,” according to an overview of back-pain treatments by a team led by Dr. Janna Friedly, a back specialist and an assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, because it’s relatively easy to administer, less invasive than surgery, can provide some pain relief for a few weeks for some people and is profitable for physicians.

But the benefits do not last, the latest science shows. In a commentary published in May in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the Netherlands point out that there is almost no evidence that the shots ease most people’s pain long term, even after multiple injections. Other recent studies have concluded that injections also do not significantly reduce the likelihood of back surgery later. And in a particularly sobering study published in February, researchers found, to their surprise, that a small group of subjects with pinched nerves in their backs showed less improvement after injection therapy than a control group during a four-year follow-up period. Based on the available data, the JAMA authors conclude, doctors “should not” recommend injection therapy to their patients with chronic low back pain.

The lack of other options that can be administered in a doctor’s office, however, is frustrating to physicians and their patients, says Dr. Friedly. Doctors “want to be able to do something,” she says. But it may be that in their desire to treat back pain, doctors are compounding the problem and creating a disease state where none may exist. “I think we’ve begun pathologizing pain,” she says.

Since most adults develop an aching back at some point, Dr. Friedly says, it shouldn’t always be viewed as an abnormal condition that requires costly medical care. Having some back pain can be a normal aspect of aging that should be met with acknowledgment, patience and, even more important, a change in lifestyle, particularly exercising more.

According to a study published in March, a simple walking program can help adults strengthen their aching backs as much as a more complicated series of back exercises. A comprehensive review published in May in The Clinical Journal of Pain finds that there is “strong evidence for short-term effectiveness” of yoga against back pain, although whether the benefits last beyond a year is less certain. Other experiments have found that Pilates, stretching classes, acupuncture and stationary bicycling each provide some people with some pain relief, although in head-to-head studies, no one of those options is superior to the others.

And perhaps all of them work, to some degree, simply by distracting people. In a 2012 Japanese study, when adults suffering from chronic back pain visited an amusement park, their self-reports of pain dropped significantly, only to climb again as soon as the trip ended.

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A note from Dr. John Florendo

Chiropractic care is an organic approach to the cause of the pain. All nerves originate at the spine and exit off the cord through foramen or tunnels formed by the spinal column vertebra. A vertebra misaligned to a millimeter can occlude the foramen and cause nerve irritation and disrupt normal messages from the brain to the body. This is a subluxation. Get checked for subluxations regularly to stay healthy.

Special Report: What Is An Adjustment?

What is a Chiropractic Adjustment?

            The chiropractic adjustment is a gentle, yet dynamic thrust applied to a particular spinal joint in such a way as to generate movement in a specific direction. Chiropractic adjustments restore proper mechanics of the spine, which enhances joint function, corrects specific joint problems, and prevents injury due to improper spinal dynamics. This facet of chiropractic care principally affects problems that are musculoskeletal in nature. Because of the relationship between spinal nerves and organ function, the removal of nerve interference by the correction of spinal fixations and subluxations is thought to enhance many other areas of general health as well.

How many adjustments will I need?

            Applied repeatedly over a period of time, spinal adjustments can help restore mobility to even the most chronic spinal fixations. Deep-rooted fixations that have existed for several years typically require months of care. Fixations of lesser duration and severity respond in less time. A recent, mild fixation will often respond in as little as one treatment. Condition never really goes away-only the symptoms do. As long as the spinal malfunction continues to exist to some extend, it may undermine body function and health and may ultimately cause symptoms once again. The best way to prevent recurrence is to continue care until an appropriate correction has been made.

            Sometimes after progressive degeneration of spinal joints has begun, certain conditions cannot be totally corrected. Yet chiropractic treatment can improve function and relieve discomfort if administered regularly.

How often will I need to see my Chiropractor?

            It is important to remember that spinal fixation is an on going process. The chiropractor's recommendation for treatment is based on the specific nature and history of the condition in each case. Chronic, long term fixations and subluxations may require intensive care for a number of weeks, followed by a gradually diminishing frequency of care to encourage the changes that are desired. Acute, painful conditions need to be handled in stages. Most often, the pain and inflammation of injury must first be treated with ice and other physiotherapy for a period of time before attempts can be made to correct the spinal malfunction responsible for the condition. Such acute case management is typically carried out on a daily basis at first until the symptoms subside and adjustments can be administered several times a week 

Weight and Fit of Backpacks

S.O.S Save Our Students….

From Their Backpacks 

      Some Backpack Facts:

-  The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that more than 3,300 children aged 5 to 14 were treated in emergency rooms last year for injuries related to book bags.

-  An Auburn University study shows heavy backpacks may be a serious threat to spinal development.  In their survey sample, the average pack was 17%of the child’s body weight.  This is the equivalent of a 150 lb. adult carrying a 26 lb. pack.  67.2% of the children studied suffered muscle soreness, 50.8% back pain, 24.5% numbness and 14.7% shoulder pain.  Studies at Johns Hopkins Children Center also show overloaded backpacks as the cause of shoulder or lower-back pain and poor posture in kids.

-  Back pain in kids is on the rise.  A study published in the journal spine found 6% of 10 year olds complain of back pain, increasing to 10%-15% for 12 year olds.

-  University of Michigan researchers estimate that up to 60% of children will experience back pain by the time they reach 18.

-  The risk of spinal damage is such a concern to the Education Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand, that in 1996 they imposed weight limits on book bags after finding that most half of primary school pupils were carrying bags weighing more than 6 pounds.

-  More than 5 million adult Americans are sidelined from work each year due to chronic back pain.  How many of these problems started in youth?

 

What can you do?

      Make sure that your child’s backpack is not harming his/her overall spinal development and posture.

1.     Choose The Right Backpack.

Put as much thought into buying your child’s backpack as you do their shoes.  Assure a good fit.  Look for heavily padded shoulder straps (which should fit snug but not too tight), bags that don’t hang too low down the back and, ideally, a waist strap.  Avoid packs or bags with a single strap.

2.     Don’t overload the backpack

If the loaded backpack causes the child to lean forward to carry it, it’s too heavy.  This stresses the spine, which can lead to a lifetime of health problems.  For elementary school ages, maximum weight is 10% of total body weight.  That means that a 50 lb. child should not carry more then 5 pounds.  For pre-teens and teens, the maximum should be 15% to 20% of total body weight.  Put heavier items at the top of the pack closest to the body (to allow the legs to help support the weight).

3.     Lift it Properly.

Face the backpack.  Bend at the knees.  Use both hands and check the weight of the pack.  Lift with the legs.  Apply one shoulder strap and then the other.

4.     Carry it the right way

Use both shoulder straps.  (Make sure kids understand that this means one strap over each shoulder.)  This keeps the pack close to the body and distributes its weight evenly across the back and shoulders.  Use the waist strap, too, to distribute some of the weight to the pelvis and hips.

5.     Have your child’s spine checked, if You’re Wondering.

The consequences of carrying heavy backpacks are not something people think about until it’s too late.  If you’re wondering about the state of your child’s spine, our office will be glad to do a complimentary spinal screening.  Just call Unlimited Wellness Institute (702)920-6556 to arrange a convenient time.

Special Report on Walking

Walking as an exercise can help relieve tension and enhance a persons general attitude toward life. Walking is well known as an effective weight control exercise.

A moderate pace of 4 miles per hour burns approximately 5 calories per minute, or 300 to 400 calories per hour. Taking a brisk walk before a meal may decrease your appetite.

Walking keeps the body energized and promotes physical fitness. It is an exercise that benefits:

Heart: Allows the heart to pump blood more efficiently.  During vigorous and prolonged exercises, such as walking, the heart beats more rapidly, helping to strengthen the heart muscle. A strong heart muscle can help lower high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Lungs: Helps the lungs develop a greater capacity. Eases breathing and improves the entire respiratory system.

Muscles: Helps tone muscles in legs, thighs, and abdomen.

Bones: Strengthens bones, enhances physical endurance, and improves balance. Walking can help retard bone loss-osteoporosis-which is especially important for women and older adults.

Blood: Walking causes calf muscles to contract, increasing circulation.

Getting Started

Set a goal for the pace you would like to achieve, but start slowly. Take your pulse during each walk to determine your heart rate: Put the first and second fingers of your right hand on the radial artery of the inner wrist of your left hand.  Count the number of beats in 6 seconds and multiply by 10 (equals heart beats per minute.) Take your pulse 5 minutes into your walk, and again just before you end your walk.

Do not expect to walk 10 miles the first time out. Start slowly. Walking, like any vigorous exercise, requires moderation until the body has built up some stamina.

Begin by walking at a relaxed pace for 10 minutes, working up to 20 minutes every other day at a brisk pace. After you have been walking briskly for 20 minutes 3 days a week for 1 month, increase your walking time to 30 minutes. Repeat 30-minute walks 4 or 5 times a week.

Do’s and Don’ts

Wear comfortable, lightweight, and flexible shoes with sufficient arch support and cushioning for the bottom of your feet.

-  Do allow one-fourth to one-half inch of space between the longest toe and the tip of the shoe. This will give your feet room to expand while walking.

-  Don’t wear shoes made of material that prevents your feet from “breathing.” The best shoe materials are leather, canvas, and nylon mesh

-  Don’t ignore the elements when walking outdoors. In summer, wear a hat or visor to protect your head and face from the sun. light colored, loose-fitting clothes are best in hot weather. In winter, wear several layers of clothing to trap heat between layers.

-  Before setting off on the days walk, be sure to warm up first.  Walk slowly for about 5 minutes and then gradually build up your exercise pace.  Starting slowly allows the bodies temperature, pulse rate, and respiratory rate to increase gradually, reducing the chance of injury.

-  After each days walk, examine feet for red spots and tenderness that could signal the beginning of a blister. Cover with moleskin to help prevent further irritation. Never pop a blister; it can become infected.

-  If you feel heel pain or discomfort in the knees and lower back, it could be the result of pressure exerted on these areas when walking on hard surfaces without proper cushioning in your shoes.  This pressure is called food shock and can be alleviated with insoles.

Remember to cool down after a vigorous workout or long brisk walk.  Blood tends to pool in the legs after exercise and can deprive the body of much-needed oxygen. A gradual cool down, including a slow 3 to 5 minute walk and stretching, will help pump blood back up to the body where it is needed.

If you would like to learn more about enhancing your lifestyle and well being through walking, or if you have any questions about the information please call Unlimited Wellness Institute 702-920-6556

Pain Pill Problems

The Problem With Pain Pills
By Tara Parker-Pope

In the new e-book "A World of Hurt: Fixing Pain Medicine's Biggest Mistake," the New York Times reporter Barry Meier explores the murky world of presciption pain medicine. He makes a strong case that opioid drugs used to treat chronic pain, like OxyContin, not only are addictive and deadly but often don't work for many people who use them and lead to a range of additional health problems.

Today it's clear that the long-term use of these drugs can not only be ineffective for chronic pain, but they aso create bad body reactions and addictions that deteriorate the soul.
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I believe that early detection of problems is better correction of the cause. Your nervous system is the master control center for the entire body. Get your nervous system checked before any drugs or surgeries.

- Dr Florendo

What I Learned From My Mom And Dad Growing Up

What I Learned From My Mom And Dad Growing Up 

Being in an Asian family, I grew up eating a lot of rice! Three

times a day! Rice is a complex carbohydrate or simply a starch.

Starch means a long complex chain of simple sugars. These types 

of foods raise they sugar level in your body fast. Higher 

glycemic index or sugar level are pre-cursors to diabetes,

weight gain and high acidity. High acid levels in the body have

been linked to autoimmune diseases, degeneration of the joints 

and even cancer. So watch your complex carbohydrate intake and 

remember less is more. My next blog will be about simple

carbohydrates, so stay tuned!

-Dr. John G. Florendo

LUNCHEON Thursday June 6, 2013

If you are interested in coming, please
email us at unlimitedwellness@gmail.com
or call our office at (702)920-6556.

Seat are limited!!

For Athletes, Risks From Ibuprofen Use

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

(Condensed form)

Many active people use the painkiller ibuprofen on an almost daily basis. In surveys, up to 70 percent of distance runners and other endurance athletes report that they down the pills before every workout or competition, viewing the drug as a pre-emptive strike against muscle soreness.

But a valuable new study joins growing evidence that ibuprofen and similar anti-inflammatory painkillers taken before a workout do not offer any benefit and may be causing disagreeable physical damage instead, particularly to the intestines.

Physiologically, it makes sense that exercise would affect the intestines as it does, because, during prolonged exertion, digestion becomes a luxury, said Dr. Kim van Wijck, currently a surgical resident at Orbis Medical Center in the Netherlands, who led the small study. So the blood that normally would flow to the small intestine is instead diverted to laboring muscles. Starved of blood, some of the cells lining the intestines are traumatized and start to leak.

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Note from Dr. John Florendo: 

If you're having pain, it's an indication that your body has nerve irritation somewhere and needs to be evaluated. Schedule for a thorough chiropractic or orthopedic, physical and neurobolic exam.

February Raffle Winner!

Spring Internal Cleaning!

Make Aware of 40% Failure in Hip Implant By BARRY MEIER

I found a great article from The New York Times. Please read!

-Dr. John G Florendo

Aware of 40% Failure in Hip Implant

By BARRY MEIER

Published: January 22, 2013

Document: Projection of Hip Implant Failure Rate

An internal analysis conducted by Johnson & Johnson in 2011 not long after it recalled a troubled hip implant estimated that the all-metal device would fail within five years in nearly 40 percent of patients who received it, newly disclosed court records show.

Johnson & Johnson never released those projections for the device, the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R., which the company recalled in mid-2010. But at the same time that the medical products giant was performing that analysis, it was publicly playing down similar findings from a British implant registry about the device’s early failure rate.

The company’s analysis also suggests that the implant is likely to fail prematurely over the next few years in thousands more patients in addition to those who have already had painful and costly procedures to replace it.

The internal Johnson & Johnson analysis is among hundreds of internal company documents expected to become public as the first of over 10,000 lawsuits by patients who got an A.S.R. prepares to go to trial this week. The episode represents one of the biggest medical device failures in recent decades and the forthcoming trial is expected to shed light on what officials of Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics division knew about the device’s problem before its recall and the actions they took or did not take.

The trial, which is expected to begin Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, may also provide a guide to the consequences of the A.S.R. episode to Johnson & Johnson, both for the company’s finances and its reputation. Last year, the company took a $3 billion special charge, much of it related to medical and legal costs associated with the device. DePuy has offered to pay patient costs for replacement procedures.

The A.S.R. belonged to a once-popular class of hip implants in which a device’s cup and ball component were both made of metal. While the A.S.R. was the most failure-prone of those implants, surgeons have largely abandoned using such devices in standard hip replacement because their components can grind together, releasing metallic debris that damages a patient’s tissue and bone.

On Friday, Judge J. Stephen Czuleger, who is presiding over the Los Angeles case, unsealed a number of motions that contained portions of pretrial depositions of DePuy officials as well as related company records. Those disclosures, like the company’s estimate of the A.S.R.’s failure rate, represent only a tiny fraction of the information that will become public if the trial proceeds. Over the last two years, plaintiffs’ lawyers working on A.S.R.-related lawsuits have reviewed tens of thousands of internal DePuy documents and taken depositions from dozens of company executives.

Executives of DePuy have long insisted that their handling of the A.S.R. was forthright and appropriate. In mid-2010, when DePuy recalled the implant, officials said they were doing so because data that year from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales showed for the first time that it was failing prematurely at a higher rate than competing implants. In 2011, the British implant registry updated its projected failure rates for A.S.R. patients who had had it the longest, saying it was failing in one-third of them. It was that estimate that was challenged by DePuy.

About 7,000 of the A.S.R. lawsuits have been consolidated in a federal court in Ohio. An additional 2,000 cases have been consolidated in a California state court. The California case chosen to go to trial this week was selected because the plaintiff, a man named Loren Kransky, has cancer and may not live much longer, lawyers involved in the case said. DePuy has already settled a few A.S.R. cases before trial and it may choose to do so in Mr. Kransky’s case as well.

About 93,000 patients worldwide received an A.S.R., about one-third of them in the United States.

There are two versions of the A.S.R., one used in standard hip implants and the other used in an alternative replacement procedure known as resurfacing. Only the standard implant was sold in the United States. Both versions of the A.S.R., however, used the same metal hip cup as part of their design.

Asked for comment about the company’s internal analysis, a spokeswoman for DePuy, Mindy Tinsley, said in a statement that it “was based on a small, limited set of data that could not be used to generalize” the overall failure rate for the A.S.R.

In 2011, when DePuy challenged the British joint registry’s findings, the company made similar comments. Other medical organizations, however, have also projected very high failure rates for the A.S.R.

Hip implants, which are generally made from metal and plastic, often last for 15 years before they wear out and need to be replaced. Such devices can fail prematurely for a variety of reasons, but the early replacement rate is typically 1 percent after a year, or 5 percent at five years.

In pretrial testimony, Paul Voorhorst, DePuy’s director of biostatistics and data management, said that the company performed several reviews of A.S.R. failures in patients in fall 2011, a year after it recalled the model.

Based on the number of patients who had already undergone device replacement at the time, DePuy estimated that about 37 percent of patients who got an A.S.R. might need to have it replaced within five years of receiving it.

Last year, The New York Times reported that DePuy executives decided in 2009 to phase out the A.S.R. and sell off its inventories weeks after the Food and Drug Administration asked the company in a letter for additional safety data about the implant.

The F.D.A. also told the company at that time that it was rejecting its efforts to sell the resurfacing version of the device in the United States because of concerns about “high concentration of metal ions” in the blood of patients who received it.

In other pretrial testimony released Friday, a DePuy engineer stated that company officials were aware in 2008 of reports by an English surgeon that the resurfacing version of the A.S.R. was releasing high levels of metallic ions, particularly in women. As a result of the reports, company officials felt they had to move quickly to redesign the implant.

Happy Valentines Day :)

3 Reasons Japanese Women don't get old or fat

3 Reasons Japanese Women Don’t Get Fat Or Old

Let’s be clear… This is an outrageous statement. However, did you know that Japan has one of the longest life expectancies of any population?  On top of that… they have the longest health expectancy!

WHO
Many know that Japan boasts a very healthy population. One of the worlds healthiest. The Japanese healthcare system according to the World Health Organization consistenly ranks around the 10th spot in the world. While the USA & Canada are down around 37 & 30 respectively.  But don’t let the WHO global report bring you down as there are those that are skeptical as to just how accurate and relevant it’s rankings really are.

Okinawa Centenarian StudyDid you know that in Okinawa, Japan, there were so many centenarian’s (people who live to be at least 100 years of age or more) that, in 1975, an ongoing study began and is still ongoing?

Not only are these people living to 100 (or beyond) they also have a history of aging slowly and delaying or sometimes escaping, the chronic diseases of aging that have be ravaging, in ever increasing numbers, the populations here in North America including dementia, cardiovascular disease (such as coronary heart disease and stroke) and cancer.

The goal of the Okinawa Centenarian Study is to uncover the genetic and lifestyle factors responsible for this remarkably successful aging phenomenon so that they can better the health and quality of life for the rest of us.

How to Stay Healthy & Live to 100Of course living to 100 if you’re struck with serious disease and lack of vitality is a miserable thought. What if you could live to 100, be healthy, clear minded and full of vigor and vitality?

Well, it looks as if both science and anecdotal evidence are saying that there is a lot we can learn from the Japanese people and their way of life… especially their diet.

We cover diet a lot here on FOHN. It turns out, as the old expression goes, we really are what we eat. Many of our featured expert interviews cover diet and just how important it is when acheiving our health and wellness goals.

Our title for this blog post was inspired by this blog post. It mentions some pretty interesting points about the Japanese diet and lifestyle.

Here are 3 reasons that describe exactly why Japanese women do not get as fat on average as the populations here in North America. Many of these below factors also could possibly promote the long life & health span mentioned in the Okinawa study.

1. The ingredients simmering in a Japanese kitchen are a simple variety of foods eaten on a consistent and daily basis:

• Fish
• Sea Vegetables
• Land Vegetables
• Soy (I’ll add that there are also many fermented soy products consumed in Japan which we don’t see much of here in North America)
• Rice
• Fruit
• Green Tea

2. The Japanese enjoy home cooked meals on a daily basis. A traditional meal consists of grilled fish, a bowl of rice, simmered vegetables, miso soup, sliced fruit for dessert and green tea. The Japanese consume almost 10 percent of the world’s fish, although they make up about 2 percent of the world’s population. That’s 150 pounds per year, per person compared to the world average of 35 pounds. And this daily dose of omega-3 fatty acids may well explain why they live long and healthy lives. That, and the fact they consume 5 times the amount of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower and brussel sprouts) than Americans do.

3. The emphasis of Japanese cooking is to use what is fresh and in season. According to author Moriyama, “Japanese supermarkets are cathedrals of freshness. Food is not only dated, it’s timed—Japanese women buy fish, meat, vegetables, or prepared meals that are timed by the half hour they were packed that day.”

Although anecdotal, it seems to reason we could all benefit from eating more fresh local organic foods and produce.

Fermented Foods – Gross but Good?

Finally lets touch on one food that is supposed to be provide numerous health benefits from heart health to potentially helping suppress tumors in breast cancer studies. Natto is apparently the same consistency of mucous and tastes just about the same. However somehow the Japanese apparently consume this super food regularly and it may very well be a major contributor to their health as well.

There are many other soy products that the Japanese consume regularly as well, many of them fermented; Nama Shoyu is one of them. It’s important to note that many of the soy products consumed here in North America are processed/refined/cooked and therefore do not contain the many health properties listed in the above raw/live/fermented (cultured with good bacteria and enzymes) products.

What Do You Think?

Do the Japanese really have it all figured out? Is it really reasonable to assume that just eating a simple diet of fresh and local produce (getting away from processed and refined foods) can be the answer to staying thin and healthy for a really long time?

Please let us know your opinion in the “comments” section below and share, link, tweet and plus this post for your friends!

Be Well!

- Erai Beckmann

Article from The Future of Health Now

http://www.thefutureofhealthnow.com/3-reasons-japanese-women-dont-get-fat-or-old/

New Year; New You.