Fructose Overload Infographic

The Hidden and Pervasive Cause of High Blood Pressure

People who eat a diet high in fructose are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure, or hypertension. The results of a study suggest that cutting back on foods and beverages containing a lot of fructose might decrease your risk of developing hypertension.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart and kidney diseases. An increase in the general consumption of fructose, which is used to sweeten a wide variety of processed foods, has occurred at the same time as a rise in the prevalence of hypertension.

According to Newswise:

"The study involved 4,528 US adults 18 years of age or older with no prior history of hypertension. Study participants answered questions related to their consumption of foods and beverages such as fruit juices, soft drinks, bakery products, and candy."

Fructose Causes Blood Pressure to Skyrocket

Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was far cheaper to use in their products.

This switch drastically altered the average American diet.

HFCS is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet increased 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to the USDA. It now makes up the number one source of calories in America.

Given the rising rates of both fructose consumption and high blood pressure, researchers jumped in to find out if there's a link, and low and behold they found one.

In the latest study, which was conducted in part by Dr. Richard Johnson, chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado and one of the leading researchers in this field, it was found that those who consumed 74 grams or more per day of fructose (the amount in 2.5 sugary drinks) had a 77 percent greater risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg.

For comparison, a normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg. Consuming 74 grams or more of fructose daily also increased the risk of a 135/85 blood pressure reading by 26 percent, and 140/90 by 30 percent.

This is significant because the average American now consumes 70 grams of fructose EVERY day. This is in contrast to 100 years ago when the average intake was about 15 grams and that was mostly in the form of healthy fruits. So we are consuming 500% more than we did a century back.

Fructose Drives up Uric Acid Levels AND Blood Pressure Readings

I would STRONGLY encourage everyone to have their uric acid level checked to find out how sensitive you are to fructose. Let me explain why.

Thanks to Dr. Johnson's research, we now know that fructose generates uric acid within minutes of ingestion. High levels of uric acid are normally associated with gout, but it has been long known that people with high blood pressure and kidney disease, and people who are overweight, often have elevated uric acid levels.

It was thought this increased uric acid resulted from the disease, but it appears now that it may have been CAUSING it!

Glucose and fructose are different types of simple sugars. After they are separated apart and broken down in your body they are metabolized using completely separate pathways. Glucose is utilized by every cell in your body -- in fact, your body was designed to use it for energy.

But fructose breaks down into a variety of waste products that are bad for your body, one of which is uric acid.

Uric acid drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure.

In fact, 17 out of 17 studies demonstrate that elevated uric acid levels lead to hypertension.

According to the latest research in this area, the safest range of uric acid is between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter. Dr. Johnson suggests that the ideal uric acid level is probably around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.

When your uric acid level exceeds about 5.5 mg per dl, you have an increased risk for a host of diseases, including not only hypertension but also:

• Kidney disease
• Insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes
• Fatty liver
• Elevated triglycerides, elevated LDL, and cardiovascular disease
• For pregnant women, preeclampsia

Dr. Johnson has developed a program to help people optimize their uric acid levels, and the key step in this program is complete elimination of fructose.

My Updated Recommendations for Fructose Consumption

Fructose is found in virtually every processed food out there, including in "healthy" varieties sweetened with agave. It's also common in sodas and fruit juices, and these should be the first areas you cut back on (processed foods included).

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.

Fructose is also found naturally in fresh fruits, but these may not be nearly as problematic as fructose from added sugars. One of the reasons for this is because whole fruits contain high amounts of natural antioxidants, as well as other synergistic compounds that may help counter the detrimental effects of fructose.

However, if you are already suffering from high blood pressure or signs of insulin resistance like diabetes, overweight and high cholesterol, you should be particularly careful to limit your fructose, including that from whole fruits, to 15 grams per day or less.

Now, if you have your uric acid level checked and have a level of 4 for men, or 3.5 for women, you probably are at a very low risk for fructose toxicity and can be more liberal with this limit.

The higher your uric acid though, the more you need to limit or even avoid fructose until your uric acid level normalizes.

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose Limes 1 medium 0 Lemons 1 medium 0.6 Cranberries 1 cup 0.7 Passion fruit 1 medium 0.9 Prune 1 medium 1.2 Apricot 1 medium 1.3 Guava 2 medium 2.2 Date (Deglet Noor style) 1 medium 2.6 Cantaloupe 1/8 of med. melon 2.8 Raspberries 1 cup 3.0 Clementine 1 medium 3.4 Kiwifruit 1 medium 3.4 Blackberries 1 cup 3.5 Star fruit 1 medium 3.6 Cherries, sweet 10 3.8 Strawberries 1 cup 3.8 Cherries, sour 1 cup 4.0 Pineapple 1 slice (3.5" x .75") 4.0 Grapefruit, pink or red 1/2 medium 4.3

Fruit Serving Size Grams of Fructose Boysenberries 1 cup 4.6 Tangerine/mandarin orange 1 medium 4.8 Nectarine 1 medium 5.4 Peach 1 medium 5.9 Orange (navel) 1 medium 6.1 Papaya 1/2 medium 6.3 Honeydew 1/8 of med. melon 6.7 Banana 1 medium 7.1 Blueberries 1 cup 7.4 Date (Medjool) 1 medium 7.7 Apple (composite) 1 medium 9.5 Persimmon 1 medium 10.6 Watermelon 1/16 med. melon 11.3 Pear 1 medium 11.8 Raisins 1/4 cup 12.3 Grapes, seedless (green or red) 1 cup 12.4 Mango 1/2 medium 16.2 Apricots, dried 1 cup 16.4 Figs, dried 1 cup 23.0

What Else Impacts Your Blood Pressure Levels?

Fructose is emerging as a powerful player in hypertension, so avoiding this pervasive sweetener as much as possible is an important strategy. However, if you have high blood pressure you should take care to avoid all foods that will raise your insulin levels, and this includes sugars and grains. Even whole, organic grains will rapidly break down to sugars, so they too should be avoided. 

If you have high blood pressure (or high cholesterol or obesity), you’ll want to avoid foods like:

• Breads
• Pasta
• Rice
• Cereal
• Potatoes

Next, one of the most effective ways to lower your insulin levels and your blood pressure is through exercise. A regular, effective exercise program consisting of aerobics, Peak Fitness exercises, core building and strength training, can go a long way toward reducing your insulin levels and your blood pressure.

The vast majority of people can normalize their blood pressure by implementing these strategies, along with:

• Reducing your stress – Stress, including unresolved emotional issues, can contribute to hypertension in some people. Prayer, meditation, or the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are all useful techniques to keep your stress levels under control.
• Normalizing your vitamin D levels – It has recently become clear that normalizing your vitamin D levels can have a powerful effect on normalizing your blood pressure. Lower vitamin D levels are also unquestionably associated with an increased risk for heart disease.
  
  
  Additionally, previous research has revealed that if your blood pressure doesn't drop notably over night, you run an increased risk of having cardiovascular problems. Here, the connection is also elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels as elevated blood sugars can result in diabetes and other diseases, which increase cardiovascular problems.
  And likewise, vitamin D has been shown to have a positive impact on diabetes, so it's all linked together.
• Taking high-quality animal-based omega-3 fats – Omega-3 fats such as krill oil are essential for your heart health and have been found to lower blood pressure. Taking krill oil daily is a simple way to help support your heart health.

These strategies should help to resolve high blood pressure issues for the vast majority of people, however, it’s VITAL that you do go on a medication to lower your blood pressure if your blood pressure is very high!

This is one of the few instances where drugs are necessary, as without it you are putting yourself at serious risk of a stroke, and the brain damage that occurs during a stroke tends to be permanent and irreversible. 

Once the cause of your problem has been addressed using the lifestyle changes above, then you will be able to slowly wean off your medication.

Foundational Lifestyle Strategies to Maintain Healthy Blood Pressure

What do the Numbers Mean?

If you've ever had your blood pressure taken, you know that there are two num­bers given in a blood pressure reading. The upper or first number is yoursystolic blood pressure reading. The lower or second number is your diastolicpressure.

Example:

120 / 80 =

120 systolic arterial pressure and

80 diastolic arterial pressure

Systolic pressure is the highest pressure, in your arteries and occurs when your ventricles contract at the beginning of your cardiac cycle. Diastolic pressure refers to the lowest arterial pressure, and occurs during the resting phase of your cardiac cycle.

Both numbers in a blood pressure test are important, but if you're 50 or older, your systolic pressure gives the most accurate diagnosis of high blood pressure. According to the most recent report (issued 2003) by the Joint National Commit­tee (JNC) on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, the following guidelines apply for determining whether you might suf­fer from hypertension:

Blood Pressure Classification Systolic Diastolic
Normal	<120 and <80
Pre-hypertension	120-139 or 80-89
Stage 1 Hypertension	140-159 or 90-99
Stage 2 Hypertension	≥160 or ≥100

per JNC 7 Express, December 2003

Getting an Accurate Blood Pressure Reading

Your blood pressure readings can vary significantly from day to day – even from morning to evening, and often within the same hour. It is when your blood pres­sure remains consistently elevated that significant health problems can occur. However, it's important to remember that there are several variables that can affect the va­lidity of your blood pressure reading. For example:

• If you're overweight, a size 'average' blood pressure cuff can lead to a falsely elevated blood pressure reading. Estimates indicate that eight to ten percent of overweight and obese patients are wrongly diagnosed as hypertensive due to ill-fitting blood pressure cuffs. Since two-thirds of Americans are overweight, this is a significant concern. You should make sure your doctor or health care professional is using the right size cuff for your size.
• Arm position. If your blood pressure is taken while your arm is parallel to your body, your reading can be up to 10 percent higher than it really is. Blood pressure readings should always be taken with your arm at a right angle to your body.
• White coat hypertension, which is an elevation in blood pressure caused by the stress or fear associated with visits to doctors and other medical personnel, can be a transient but serious concern. Stress reduction in this situation is key. To decrease your risk of being falsely diagnosed with hypertension in this situation, I'd encourage you to breathe deeply and relax when you're getting your blood pressure taken.

First, Evaluate Your Diet

Groundbreaking research published in 1998 in the journal Diabetes3 reported that nearly two-thirds of the test subjects who were insulin resistant also had high blood pressure, and insulin resistance is directly attributable to a high sugar, high grain diet along with insufficient amounts of exercise. So, chances are that if you have hypertension, you also have poorly controlled blood sugar levels, and most likely eat a diet high in grains and sugars, and low in healthful fats.

Why does insulin resistance promote hypertension?

As explained by Dr. Rosedale, insulin stores magnesium, which relaxes your muscles, but if your insulin receptors are blunted and your cells grow resistant to insulin, you can't store magnesium. It simply passes out of your body through urination. If your magnesium level is too low, your blood vessels will constrict, which will raise your blood pressure and decrease your energy level. I actually wrote my first medical review paper on this in 1985.4

Insulin also affects your blood pressure by causing your body to retain sodium. Sodium retention causes fluid retention. Fluid retention in turn causes high blood pressure. Another dietary mechanism responsible for driving up your blood pressure is directly and specifically related to your fructose consumption.

Fructose breaks down into a variety of waste products, one of which is uric acid. Uric acid drives up your blood pressure by inhibiting the nitric oxide in your blood vessels. Nitric oxide helps your vessels maintain their elasticity, so nitric oxide suppression leads to increases in blood pressure. In fact, 17 out of 17 studies demonstrate that elevated uric acid levels lead to hypertension.

According to the latest research in this area, the safest range of uric acid is between 3 and 5.5 milligrams per deciliter, and there appears to be a steady relationship between uric acid levels and blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, even down to the range of 3 to 4 mg/dl. The ideal uric acid level appears to be around 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women.

How to Take Control of Your Blood Pressure

If your hypertension is the direct result of an out-of-control blood sugar level, then normalizing your blood sugar levels will also bring your blood pressure readings into the healthy range. To accomplish that, the first thing you need to do is remove all grains and sugars, particularly fructose, from your diet until both your weight and your blood pressure have normalized.

To emphasize how important this one action can be, consider the following: According to a 2010 study5, those who consumed 74 grams or more per day of fructose (the equivalent of about 2.5 sugary drinks) had a 77 percent greater risk of having blood pressure levels of 160/100 mmHg. Consuming 74 grams or more of fructose daily also increased the risk of a 135/85 blood pressure reading by 26 percent, and 140/90 by 30 percent.

This is significant because the average American now consumes about 70 grams of fructose EVERY day! Worse yet, about 25 percent of all Americans consume over 134 grams of fructose a day.

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, for most people – especially if you struggle with high blood pressure and insulin resistance – it would be wise to limit your fruit fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed that you will consume "hidden" sources of fructose from most beverages and just about any processed food you might eat.

Two Foods You Should Never, Ever Eat After Exercise

If you're like most people, one of the biggest hurdles you face when trying to maintain an exercise program is finding the time to do it on a regular basis. The great news is, you might never have to resort to this excuse ever again!

There's increasing amounts of evidence supporting the notion that you can cut your workout time significantly while reaping better benefits.

The study above is yet another example of how a significantly shorter workout, performed at greater intensity, can give you better results than your conventional strength training routine.

The UF Health Science Center explains:

"Called NeGator, it uses eccentric — or negative — resistance training, which capitalizes on the fact that the human body can support and lower weights that are too heavy to lift.

Through a system of motors, pulleys, cams and sensors it adds weight when a person is performing a lowering motion, and removes that weight when the person is lifting.

… The team has distilled down to what a person needs to do to get the benefit of strength training while doing as few exercises as possible in as little time as possible as infrequently as possible."

Here -- just as in my Sprint 8 exercise -- you're striving for maximum effort during one set. And then you're done.

The NeGator workout described above is a great way to lower your exercise time but it will not increase your growth hormone like Peak 8 exercises do. I have been exercising for over four decades and in my mind this is the biggest improvement in exercise training I have seen in that time.

I certainly didn't invent it. I actually used a specific type of Sprint 8 exercises, interval training, when I was in high school, college, and medical school. But like most people, when I finished school, I stopped exercising like that.

Sprint 8 type exercises are what kids and animals spontaneously do. It is the natural way to stay fit and one of the only ways we know to increase growth hormone naturally.

Evolution of Sprint 8 Exercises

I first became sensitized to this work through Dr. Al Sears' PACE program. I really loved his concept and explanation and was highly motivated to implement the program but I never fully did.

Earlier this year I met Phil Campbell who wrote the book Ready Set Go. Phil is a major expert in this area and provided me with very detailed and specific instructions on how to implement the program.

How Shorter, Faster Exercises Stimulate Growth Hormone Production

To fully grasp the benefits of Peak Fitness exercises, you first need to understand that you have three different types of muscle fibers:

1. Slow
2. Fast
3. Super-fast

We now know that in order to naturally increase your body's production of human growth hormone (HGH), you must engage yoursuper-fast muscle fibers.

HGH is a vital hormone that is key for physical strength, health and longevity.

Neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor conventional strength training will work anything but your slow muscle fibers, and hence has no impact on production of HGH. On the contrary, it has the unfortunate effect of actually causing the super fast fibers to decrease or atrophy, further impeding natural HGH production.

Power training, or plyometrics burst types of exercises will engage your fast muscle fibers, but only high-intensity burst cardio, such as Sprint 8 exercises, will engage your super fast fibers and promote HGH.

Exercise Also Stimulates the Growth of New Brain Cells

You've probably already heard that exercise is good for your brain function too. In fact, it increases production of brand new brain cells, a process known as neurogenesis. More brain cells can lead to improved thinking and processing of information.

The question was largely: how?

Recent studies, published in the journals Cell and PloS One are now bringing us closer to the answer.

Part of the answer involves the adult stem cells, which your brain is full of.

Adult stem cells have the capacity to divide into new stem cells or new neurons as needed, but certain factors can slow them down, such as bone-morphogenetic protein, or BMP.

"The more active BMP and its various signals are in your brain, the more inactive your stem cells become and the less neurogenesis you undergo," the New York Times explains. "Your brain grows slower, less nimble, older."

Exercise reduces the impact of BMP, so that your adult stem cells can continue performing their vital functions of keeping your brain agile.

Remarkably, mice with access to running wheels reduced the BMP in their brains by HALF in just one week. In addition, these mice also showed "a notable increase in Noggin, a beautifully named brain protein that acts as a BMP antagonist," the New York Times writes.

It appears that the less BMP activity you have in your brain, the more beneficial Noggin is produced as well.

The New York Times quotes Dr. Kessler, author of several of the recent studies on this topic:

"If ever exercise enthusiasts wanted a rationale for what they're doing, this should be it. Exercise, through a complex interplay with Noggin and BMP, helps to ensure that neuronal stem cells stay lively and new brain cells are born."

I add this in here to emphasize, again, that exercise is not just about losing weight and bulking up. It's about far more than just looking good – it can also help your brain function, and that's surely something we all want to hold onto!

This is also important to remember when it comes to school age children, and as I discussed in a recent article, physical education programs can have a dramatic impact on school performance.

Two Foods You Should Never Eat After Sprint 8 Exercises

It would be best to AVOID all sugar and fruit juice for two hours after your workout, otherwise you will obliterate the growth hormone response and ruin the major benefit of the workout, which is to increase your growth hormone level. Remember that after age 35, your growth hormone levels radically decrease.

The reason why restricting these carbs after exercise works is that they will prevent the production of the hormone somatostatin. One of the primary purposes of this hormone is to inhibit the production of human growth hormone.

Virtually all exercises, certainly nearly all cardio or standard aerobics, fail miserably when it comes to increasing growth hormone. So if you decide to use the only type of exercise that will increase growth hormone, then it would be a shame to make a foolish food choice that would wipe out most of the benefit from doing these amazing types of exercise.

When you break your exercise session into intervals like this -- short segments that alternate high intensity with a rest period in-between – you can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities in a fraction of the time.

This makes logical sense when you consider that, historically, long-duration exercise isn't "natural." Our ancient ancestors never ran for mile after mile without rest or recovery. Their exercise was primarily hunting -- short bursts of exertion, followed by periods of rest.

By exercising in short bursts, followed by periods of recovery, you recreate exactly what your body needs for optimum health, and that includes both the production of growth hormones and the burning of excess body fat.

Please understand that the sugar and juice restriction are really intended for nearly everyone reading this whose primary purpose is to increase human growth hormone naturally, through exercise, to improve their health.

There is a very small group of elite and professional athletes who are actively competing, where increasing growth hormone is not their primary goal. For these athletes, consuming some carbs, preferably dextrose-based, in the recovery period is probably a good idea to improve their recovery time, as they are competing and not so concerned about long-term growth hormone levels.

It is also important to understand that the two hour post workout sugar restriction is for Sprint 8 exercises NOT for strength training or, if you chose to, aerobic exercises. Since neither of these exercises increases growth hormone, there is not an issue with the sugar restriction within the bounds of replacing needs generated from the exercise.

Fast Recovery vs Growth Hormone Release

To expound on this issue further, Phil Campbell provided the following information:

"When I train young athletes in speed – www.40speed.com - I explain to them that the research shows 20 to 25 grams of protein (within 30 minutes of training) with a 4 to 1 ratio of carbs to protein, starts the recovery process quicker.

This advice is given to everyone as general advice in most fitness magazines today and is mostly based on research led by Dr John Ivey on young cyclists who have to perform several days in a row, and a quick recovery during competition is extremely important. Clearly, young athletes more concerned with fast recovery than maximizing HGH release should use this strategy.

However, if you are middle-aged, or in a non-competitive phase of training, and keeping HGH circulating as long as possible is your goal, then protein intake (20 to 25 grams after training) is a great strategy, but you need to monitor the glycemic rating of carbs because of the variable impact of carbs on insulin, which in turn impacts the HGH release process.

There are a couple of variables that come into play that can change the rules for adults wanting to maximize human growth hormone from exercise.

Research shows that a spike of insulin after training increases somatostatin (the hormone that shuts down HGH).

So, here's where this issue gets complicated, because it's difficult to estimate the glycemic rating of food on different people with different muscle to body fat ratios. And what makes this issue very complicated is that the insulin producing process is variable for every adult to some degree.

It depends on where you are on the Metabolic Syndrome scale. Metabolic Syndrome just became an official medical condition in 2001, and the research shows that even a few carbs can spike insulin for some people with insulin resistance.

If you are lean and do not need to drop a lot of body fat, then you can probably eat some carbs without spiking insulin -- and maybe even some refined sugar depending on the interaction of the carbs with an intake of post-training protein, which will somewhat negate the impact of the carbs on the insulin response – as opposed to an intake of carbs on an empty stomach.

So, as you can see, there are many variables that come into play.

In short, carbs with the protein can be good after training as long as the glycemic response doesn't spike your insulin.

Research shows that the insulin response of an individual is lessened with youth and/or lean body weight (muscle vs. body fat), and that's another reason why it's so important to maintain muscle throughout life.

From a performance training strategy perspective for runners, I would suggest consider training with the strategy of maximizing HGH release (except on really hot days or on the one-long-run-a-week day) because this strategy should build muscle to make you faster, and reduce body fat so you have less to carry.

For competitions, and those hot, long-training days, I'd suggest using the quick recovery strategy of 1 to 4 ratio of protein to carbs, because in this instance, your body does not care what the quality of glucose is; it just needs glucose."

Sitting All Day: Worse For You Than You Might Think

Even if you exercise regularly, it might not be enough to counteract the effects of too much sitting.

Many people have sedentary jobs and also engage in sedentary leisure activities after work, with the result that a lot more time is spent sitting than moving. A study calculated how much time a group of men spent sitting during an average day, and found that those who sat during the day were substantially more likely to die of heart disease.

According to NPR:

"Specifically ... men who reported more than 23 hours a week of sedentary activity had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who reported less than 11 hours a week of sedentary activity. And many of these men routinely exercised ... [S]cientists are just beginning to learn about the risks of a mostly sedentary day."

What Did the Researchers Find?

The research linking too much sitting with increased risks of disease and premature death is quite eye-opening:

• Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
• A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting compared to those who sat infrequently.
• Sitting time is a predictor of weight gain, according to a study of Australian women, even after accounting for calories consumed and leisure time physical activity, such as exercise time.
• The risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity had only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.
• People who use a computer for 11 hours or more a week, or watch TV for 21 hours or more a week, are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for 5 hours a week or less.

An editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine also highlighted much of the recent evidence linking too much sitting with biomarkers of metabolic health. They reported research showing sitting time correlates with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other prevalent chronic health problems.

The "Active Couch Potato" Effect

Perhaps most potentially disconcerting about the health risks of sitting is that exercise does not appear to be enough to counteract its negative effects. This makes sense, really, as how could one hour of activity make up for 15 hours of sedentary ones (plus eight hours of sleep)?

Writing in a British Journal of Sports Medicine editorial, researchers state:

"Even if people meet the current recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity on most days each week, there may be significant adverse metabolic and health effects from prolonged sitting -- the activity that dominates most people's remaining "non-exercise" waking hours."

In other words, even if you're fairly physically active, riding your bike to work or hitting the gym four or five days a week -- you may still succumb to the effects of too much sitting if the majority of your day is spent behind a desk or on the couch.

Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon the "active couch potato effect."

As written in the journal Exercise and Sports Science Reviews:

"We further examined relationships of TV time with continuous metabolic risk in men and women who reported at least 150 [minutes per week] of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity -- the generally accepted public health guidelines for health-enhancing physical activity.

Among these healthy physically active adults, significant detrimental dose-response associations of TV time were observed with waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, and 2-h plasma glucose in both men and women, as well as fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol in women only.

This observation -- the Active Couch Potato phenomenon -- is important.

The particular metabolic consequences of time spent watching TV are adverse, even among those considered to be sufficiently physically active to reduce their chronic disease risk. This finding reinforces the potential importance of the deleterious health consequences of prolonged sitting time, which may be independent of the protective effect of regular moderate-intensity physical activity."

Can Too Much Sitting Drastically Increase Your Risk of Disease?

That is one of the reasons why I was intrigued with this study, but I am not convinced in the conclusion they reach and suspect more of it is related to the lack of optimal exercise than the actual act of sitting.

It is my belief that we all require some level of high-intensity exercise training, like Sprint 8 about once a week or so and if we fail to incorporate this into our exercise program there will be negative health consequences. Since it is likely that far less than 5% of the population engages in this activity it is no surprise that this association was found.

Obviously there was not a group in this study that was compared using this form of exercise as it is not widely practiced or even appreciated among most researchers as different from traditional cardio type exercises.

Sitting is not intrinsically harmful -- except when done incorrectly for long periods on a consistent basis. Your body simply wasn't meant to be sedentary and numerous metabolic and other body processes are negatively impacted by long periods of inactivity.

So I simply do not accept the conclusions of these researchers, as everything I know and understand about exercise and health does not align with their controversial findings.

What Can You do to Reduce Your Sitting Time?

Having expressed my disagreement with this study there are still many changes you can make to minimize the impact of too much sitting. Clearly sitting is not something most of our ancient ancestors did so doing too much of it is likely to lead to problems. Unfortunately, most of us, including me, spend the majority of our day sitting.

One of the things I do to compensate for this is to spend about one hour or more every night lying on the floor doing an Egoscue exercise called the tower. It is a powerful simple structural movement that helps to realign my body posture and helps to radically compensate for the structural DE compensation that occurs as a result of sitting too much.

Simple Egoscue Exercises to Try Out

Following are four examples of Egoscue exercises that you can also use to help compensate for some of the damage caused by excess sitting. For more information about Egoscue, visit Egoscue.com or PatchFitness.com. You can also email painfree@egoscue.com with questions.

Foot Circles & Point Flexes

1. Lie on your back with one leg extended and the other leg bent and pulled up toward your chest
2. Clasp your hands behind the bent knee
3. Keep the foot on the floor pointed straight up toward the ceiling
4. Circle the lifted foot outward for the indicated number or repetitions, then reverse direction for the same number of reps
5. For the point/flexes, bring the toes back toward the shin to flex, then reverse the direction to point the foot forward for the indicated number of reps
6. Switch legs and repeat
7. Repeat 40 times in each direction

Frog (2 minutes)

1. Lie on your back with your arms at your side, palms up, and hands relaxed
2. Place the soles of your feet together
3. Relax your upper back and hips

Static Extension Position (2 Minutes)

1. Start down on the floor on your hands and knees with your major joints aligned (i.e. shoulders directly above elbows and wrists, hips directly above knees)
• Hands should be placed shoulder width apart, palms flat with fingers pointed straight ahead
• Arms must remain straight, elbows locked
2. Walk your hands about 6 inches forward and then move your upper body forward so that your shoulders are again above your hands but now your hips are forward of your knees about 6 inches
3. Relax your low back allowing it to arch with the movement coming from the tilt of your pelvis
4. Collapse your shoulder blades together and drop your head down
• Your shoulders should be directly above your hands
• If your low back begins to hurt, back your hips up toward your knees; this will make the exercise a bit easier
5. Hold as directed on your menu

Standing Forward Bend (2 minutes)

1. Stand with your feet pointing straight and hip width apart
2. Place your palms on your low back/upper buttocks area
3. Tilt your hips forward to place an exaggerated arch in your low back
4. Pull your elbows and shoulder blades together and hold
5. Now bend forward from the hips (NOT from your low back)
• Keep the low back arched as you bend over
6. Tighten your thighs and shift the weight into the balls of your feet
7. Hold as directed on your menu

5 More Tips to Try …

• Make sure you get up frequently. At least once every hour make sure you get up from your chair to stretch, march in place or take a quick stroll outside. Research shows that a larger number of breaks in sedentary time are associated with better metabolic profiles, including waist circumference and glucose metabolism. So anytime you are sitting, be sure you are breaking up the sitting time with frequent breaks.
• Use an exercise ball for a chair or a standing workstation. Unlike sitting in a chair, sitting on an exercise ball engages your core muscles and helps improve balance and flexibility. You'll also burn a few more calories as you keep the ball level than you would otherwise. Standing rather than sitting can also be a helpful option.
• Stay active throughout the work day. Walk around, pump out a couple minutes of squatting, do some stretching. Break up your sitting and avoid long stretches of unmitigated motionlessness.
• Stand when you can. Whenever possible, do your work standing instead of sitting. For instance, try putting your laptop on a high counter that you can access while standing, walk around your office while you're on the phone, and communicate with your coworkers in person instead of sending an email.
• Cut back on your TV, video game and computer time at home. Make your leisure time as active as possible, as much as possible. Instead of lounging on the couch in the evening, play a game of hide-and-go-seek with your kids, take a yoga class, spend time cooking in the kitchen, or go for a walk around your neighborhood.

Remember, Exercise is Important

Remember to make your exercise time count by including very high-intensity sessions such as Sprint 8. You probably only need this once or twice a week at the most. You'll also want to include exercises that really challenge your body intensely along with those that promote muscle strength, balance and flexibility.

Then, don't just collapse on the couch after your workout. Challenge yourself to stay as active as possible even during your non-exercise hours to reach your highest level of health.

My current favorite fix for insomnia is Emotional Freedom Technique

Most people can learn the basics of this gentle tapping technique in a few minutes. EFT can help balance your body's bioenergy system and resolve some of the emotional stresses that are contributing to your insomnia at a very deep level. The results are typically long lasting and improvement is remarkably rapid.

What is the Emotional Freedom Technique?

The Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT, is the psychological acupressure technique I routinely use in my practice and most highly recommend to optimize your emotional health. Although it is still often overlooked, emotional health is absolutely essential to your physical health and healing - no matter how devoted you are to the proper diet and lifestyle, you will not achieve your body's ideal healing and preventative powers if emotional barriers stand in your way.

EFT is very easy to learn, and will help you:

• Remove Negative Emotions
• Reduce Food Cravings
• Reduce or Eliminate Pain
• Implement Positive Goals

EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over five thousand years, but without the invasiveness of needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians on the head and chest while you think about your specific problem - whether it is a traumatic event, an addiction, pain, etc. -- and voice positive affirmations.
This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive affirmation works to clear the "short-circuit" - the emotional block -- from your body's bioenergy system, thus restoring your mind and body's balance, which is essential for optimal health and the healing of physical disease.
Some people are initially wary of these principles that EFT is based on - the electromagnetic energy that flows through the body and regulates our health is only recently becoming recognized in the West. Others are initially taken aback by (and sometimes amused by) the EFT tapping and affirmation methodology, whose basics you will learn here.
But keep in mind that, more than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works. I have witnessed the results in my patients since deciding to use EFT exclusively in June of 2001. Indeed, because of its very high rate of success, the use of EFT has spread rapidly, and medical practitioners employing EFT can now be found in every corner of the country and world.
This manual will provide an overview on how and where to tap, and the proper affirmation techniques, so that you can begin using EFT immediately to help yourself and others. It will also provide an introduction to some advanced EFT techniques and principles you can employ.

Tapping Locations & Technique

There are two basic areas to learn in order to use EFT: the tapping locations and technique, and the positive affirmations. These areas, as well as some advanced EFT principles and techniques, are covered in the following sections.
You should be able to successfully treat many problems by diligently applying the following instructions.
If you are not getting the results you would like, or you have a particularly traumatic issue, please do not give up! Instead, consider consulting with an EFT professional. Dr. Patricia Carrington has some guidelines on selecting an EFT therapist, followed by a list of EFT practitioners throughout the U.S. and world. Many of these therapists even offer a free 15-minute phone session in which you can ask them questions to see if you connect.

Proper EFT Tapping

The basic EFT sequence is straightforward and generally takes my patients only a few minutes to learn. They have the slight advantage of me personally showing them the tapping points, but you should be able to pick up these points relatively quickly. With a little practice, you will be performing each round in under a minute.
NOTE: While it is important to tap the correct area, you need not worry about being absolutely precise, as tapping the general area is sufficient.

It's All in the Fingertips

The first thing to understand is that you will be tapping with your fingers. There are a number of acupuncture meridians on your fingertips, and when you tap with your fingertips you are also likely using not only the meridians you are tapping on, but also the ones on your fingers.
Traditional EFT has you tapping with the fingertips of your index finger and middle finger and with only one hand. Either hand works just as well. Most of the tapping points exist on either side of the body, so it doesn't matter which side you use, nor does it matter if you switch sides during the tapping. For example, you can tap under your right eye and, later in the tapping, under your left arm.
I modified this approach slightly by having you use both hands and all your fingers, so that they are gently relaxed and form a slightly curved natural line. The use of more fingers allows you to access more of the acupuncture points. When you use all your fingers you will cover a larger area than just tapping with one or two fingertips, and this will allow you to cover the tapping points more easily.
However, many obtain quite successful results with the traditional one-handed two-finger approach. You can use either method, but I tend to use my modified version in an effort to be more complete.
Ideally, you will want to use your fingertips, not your finger pads as they have more meridian points. However, if you are a woman with long fingernails you should of course use your finger pads (otherwise you may end up stabbing yourself).
You should also remove your watch and bracelets, as that will interfere with your use of the wrist meridian tapping.

Tap Solidly - But Don't Hurt Yourself!

You should tap solidly, but never so hard as to hurt or bruise yourself.
If you decide to use both hands, I recommend slightly alternating the tapping so that each hand is slightly out of phase with the other and you are not tapping with both hands simultaneously. This provides a kinesthetic variant of the alternating eye movement work that is done in EMDR and may have some slight additional benefit.
When you tap on the points outlined below, you will tap about 5-7 times. The actual number is not critical, but ideally should be about the length of time it takes for one full breath. There is probably a distinct benefit for tapping through one complete respiration cycle.
Please notice that these tapping points proceed down the body. That is, each tapping point is below the one before it. That should make it a snap to memorize. A few trips through it and it should be yours forever. However, unlike TFT, the sequence is not critical. You can tap the points in any order and sequence, just so long as all the points are covered. It just is easier to go from top to bottom to make sure you remember to do them all.

Remove your Glasses and Watch Prior to Tapping

Glasses and watches can mechanically and electromagnetically interfere with EF, so I advise everyone to remove them prior to tapping. For quick sessions conducted upon yourself, this is not critical, as you can easily tap around them, but I think there is always a benefit to removing them when possible.

Using EFT in Public: Eliminating any Embarrassment

Many people are concerned about embarrassing themselves by using EFT in public, especially when implementing my revision of it, which really makes one stand out in a crowd.
After a while of using and perfecting the technique - in private quarters, if you prefer - you will be able to use only two fingers of one hand, and to say the affirmation softly under your breath or silently. This way you can do EFT in just about any social setting, and if people even notice what you are doing at all, it will appear to them that you are merely thinking.

Finding the Right Tapping Points

The tapping points, and their abbreviations, are explained below, followed by a chart of the points. They are presented below in the exact order in which they should be tapped.

	1. Top of the Head (TH)With fingers back-to-back down the center of the skull.
	2. Eyebrow (EB) Just above and to one side of the nose, at the beginning of the eyebrow.
	3. Side of the Eye (SE) On the bone bordering the outside corner of the eye.
	4. Under the Eye (UE)On the bone under an eye about 1 inch below your pupil.
	5. Under the Nose (UN) On the small area between the bottom of your nose and the top of your upper lip.
	6. Chin (Ch)Midway between the point of your chin and the bottom of your lower lip. Even though it is not directly on the point of the chin, we call it the chin point because it is descriptive enough for people to understand easily.
	7. Collar Bone (CB)The junction where the sternum (breastbone), collarbone and the first rib meet. This is a very important point and in acupuncture is referred to as K (kidney) 27. To locate it, first place your forefinger on the U-shaped notch at the top of the breastbone (about where a man would knot his tie). From the bottom of the U, move your forefinger down toward the navel 1 inch and then go to the left (or right) 1 inch. This point is referred to as Collar Bone even though it is not on the collarbone (or clavicle) per se.
	8. Under the Arm (UA)On the side of the body, at a point even with the nipple (for men) or in the middle of the bra strap (for women). It is about 4 inches below the armpit.
	9. Wrists (WR) The last point is the inside of both wrists.

The abbreviations for these points are summarized below in the same order as given above. It is, again, the order in which they should be tapped:

TH = Top of Head EB = Eye Brow SE = Side of the Eye UE = Under the Eye UN = Under the Nose Ch = Chin CB = Collar Bone UA = Under the Arm WR = Wrists