I admit it. I have puppies on the brain. We met and took home the newest member of our family a few days ago, an adorable Newfoundland/Labrador mixed puppy who we named Sophie. Sophie at only 3 months old is adjusting to her New Hampshire home after being rescued in Tennessee, and despite the growing pains we’re having at getting her crate trained and waiting for her bladder control to develop more thoroughly, we already couldn’t imagine our home without this beautiful girl.

There have been many studies, both formal and observational, about the myriad health benefits of owning pets. Dog owners are generally less sedentary, have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, decreased response to mental stress, improved mood and better overall emotional state.¹ Pets also seem to improve recovery from severe mental illness,² improve recovery post-heart attack,³ and positively impact the mental state of dementia patients.⁴ Other studies even suggest that children exposed to pets around the time of birth (or at least early infancy) have decreased incidence of atopic conditions (e.g. asthma, allergies, eczema)⁵ though other studies suggest that children need to be exposed to both cats and dogs in order to lower risk.⁶

Despite the health benefits of owning pets, we have to acknowledge the risks. In the Northeast, the threat of tick-borne illnesses is very real and generally under-diagnosed. While for some this is enough of a deterrent to owning pets, others are willing to manage the risk. Some methods used include avoiding tick-infested areas, wearing light-colored clothing when outside for easy identification of crawling ticks, regularly checking your body and pets for ticks (daily or even after each outing), wearing protective garments (long pants tucked into socks, long sleeved shirts, etc. to prevent tick access to skin) and closed-toed shoes when outdoors, and wear insect repellent on your clothes (especially if it contains DEET or other strong pesticides). Topical tick prevention products for your pet are readily available, though you must weigh the risk of chemical exposure to you and your children against the risk of contracting a tick-borne illness when you make this decision. I’m hoping to get more information from our vet about less toxic alternatives that still provide significant protection from ticks, because in my opinion the risk of tick-borne illnesses is so high in this area that it’s worth pursuing some kind of additional protection.

In the home, keep pets well groomed, don’t allow pets on the furniture (especially the beds), and check bed linens nightly for the presence of ticks before getting into bed even if you don’t allow pets onto the beds. If you find a bite, remove attached ticks promptly by using tweezers or forceps to apply a steady upward pull, and alert your healthcare provider to get immediate treatment until test results are available. It is actually possible to save the tick (in a plastic bag with a water- moistened cotton ball) and have it tested for the presence of things like Lyme’s disease instead of putting the tick-bitten individual through the series of tests that are required to help identify infection, though immediate treatment before test results are available is still the best way to go.

Having pets can be an incredibly beneficial move for many people, though mitigating the risks pets bring through vigilant pet care and prophylactic approaches for their humans is very important. We are so excited to have Sophie and love learning more about her every day. Already I’m much more active and feel better (walking her three times a day will do that) and am looking forward to seeing how she grows and develops along with my little (and growing) family. Check out your local shelters and foster organizations to find that special member of your family, and let the bonding begin!

1     Arhant-Sudhir, K., Arhant-Sudhir, R., & Sudhir, K. Pet ownership and cardiovascular risk reduction: supporting
evidence, conflicting data and underlying mechanisms. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2011. Nov;38(11):734-8. doi:
10.1111/j.1440-1681.2011.05583.x.

 
2     Wisdom, J. P.; Saedi, G. A.; Green, C. A. Another Breed of “Service” Animals: STARS Study Findings about Pet
Ownership and Recovery from Serious Mental Illness. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2009 July ; 79(3): 430–436. doi:10.1037/a0016812.

 
3     Friedmann E, Thomas SA. Pet ownership, social support, and one-year survival after acute myocardial infarction
in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST). The American Journal of Cardiology. 1995;76:1213–1217.
[PubMed: 7502998]

 
4     Motomura N, Yagi T, Ohyama H. Animal assisted therapy for people with dementia. Psychogeriatrics. 2004;4:40–42.

 
5      Bufford, J. D., Reardon, C. L., Li, Z., Roberg, K. A., DaSilva, D., Eggleston, P. A., Liu A. H., Milton, D., Alwis, U., Gangnon, N., Lemanske, R. F. Jr., Gern, J. E. Effects of dog ownership in early childhood on immune development and atopic diseases. Clin Exp Allergy. 2008. Oct; 38(10):1635-43. Epub 2008 Aug 12.

 
6      Mandhane, P. J., Sears, M. R., Poulton, R., Greene, J. M., Lou, W. Y., Taylor, D. R., Hancox, R. J. Allergy Clin Immunol. Cats and dogs and the risk of atopy in childhood and adulthood. 2009. Oct; 124(4):745-50.e4. Epub 2009 Aug 22.

Most Americans are dealing with challenges in managing their weight, while nearly a third of us are classified as obese. Weight gain can sometimes be the result of decreased activity due to accidents or illness, but most of the time the weight just seems to creep on without us knowing.

Sobering fact: On average Americans gain 0.4-1.8 pounds per year during their adult lives.

Some research indicates that half of this weight is gained during the holiday season (average weight gain 1-2 lbs) and is rarely lost during the remainder of the year. To make matters worse, those who are already overweight or obese (or who used to be) tend to gain twice as much weight during the holiday season in comparison to their healthy weight counterparts and are much more likely to retain that weight.

How does this happen? Few people will remember sitting down and eating an entire pie or polishing off the remaining half of the lasagna. It doesn’t take enormous binges to edge the numbers on the scale higher. One pound of fat mass is approximately 3500 kcal, meaning that you only have to eat and extra 500 kcal per day in order to gain up to a pound of fat per week. While 500 can sound like quite a bit, let’s put this in perspective. There are approximately 500 calories in:

• 1-2 mixed drinks,
• 2 ounces of mixed nuts,
• 1 bagel with cream cheese,
• 3 ½ oz of potato chips,
• 1 slice of quiche….

Let’s be honest, one holiday party could account for a huge increase in calorie intake without eating a large volume of food. To try and make up for this, many people try the ol’ “diet during the week and live on the weekends and holidays” trick… these folks tend to be 1.5 times more likely to gain weight over the course of the year than those who manage their food intake consistently.

Before you start to think that things look bleak and that you’d better put clothes one size up on your Christmas wish list, there are things you can do to avoid the holiday nutritional pit falls. Here are 3:

1-      Always have a bit of protein with each meal and each snack. This is even more important during the holidays. Protein will help to maintain your blood sugar more evenly between meals, and is the most satiating type of nutrient- helps you to feel fuller, longer. Stress plant-based proteins like legumes and seeds which have fabulous amounts of fiber (which also help you feel full) and are fabulously nutrient dense.

2-      Stay well hydrated. People often misinterpret body signals such as fatigue and thirst. Feeling some vague discomfort, instead of identifying the source correctly people assume that they’re hungry and eat instead of resting or taking a drink of water.  On top of that, people generally associate water intake with sweating- when it’s cold outside the last thing you want to do is down an ice cold glass of water. While it may be less obvious, your water needs rarely get lower during the cooler months. That flakey dry skin of wintertime is trying to tell you that you need more water!  Herbal tea and diluted fruit juice count towards your water intake, so dig that water bottle out from the back seat of your car and fill it up!

3-      Keep healthy snacks on hand. The holiday hustle and readily available high-calorie foods can get the best of even the most rigorous advanced planner. Skipping meals because you’re too busy to stop will help insure that you’ll be famished by the end of the day and become more prone to overeating and making poor food choices, while holiday snacks around the house and the office invite a small handful here and a nibble there amounting to big calories by the end of the day. A small baggie of raw nuts and seeds with some dried fruit is very portable, tasty and only 1- 1½  ounces can help you keep going and give you a better option instead of the chips and cookies in the break room.

While taking a vacation from good nutritional habits may sound appealing, it generally is a great way to undo all the work you’ve done during the rest of the year. Taking care of yourself will help you be sure and have a happy holiday season and short-circuiting the common holiday weight gain. Don’t wait until the New Year to make a commitment to yourself.

Start now.

I had a patient the other day whose main concern was her weight. She’d tried everything and was at her wits end. The harder she tried the more weight she gained. She couldn’t figure out why.

During the intake she was adamant that we only talk about her weight struggle, but as I explained to her things are never that simple. We needed to get a lot more information about her in order to find out the particular ‘why’ in her case. Only then could we find the best ‘how’ to address her issues.

Over the course of the intake it became clear that she has a long history of poor sleep because she stayed up late. Why did she stay up so late? Well, it was because she felt anxious and jittery. And this led her to snack (typically high sugar foods) quite a bit. After all that, she was exhausted in the morning so drank significant amounts of coffee to get through the day and try to get through the exercise she’d do three days a week. A quick review of her medical history also showed that she has a history of elevated blood sugar and insulin levels. Classic.

She finished her story, and I paused. I told her that in order to lose weight she had to stop drinking coffee and sleep more. Needles to say she was very confused! All the diet aids she’d tried in the past contained stimulants, especially caffeine (which turns out to be the real reason she started drinking more coffee to begin with!).

Sleep deprivation is an independent risk factor for insulin resistance, which is both a cause and a result of weight gain.

When we don’t get enough restorative sleep, it changes how our bodies respond to food on a hormonal level. Sleep deprivation increases signals of hunger and decreases signals of fullness regardless of what we eat. For this patient, the more she stimulated her system thinking that it would help her lose weight, the later she would stay up because it made her tendency towards anxiety much worse, and the more she would rely on food as a form of self-medication.

Only when you work with the body instead of against it can you make effective change in your overall health. When what you’re doing isn’t working, it’s time to challenge your assumptions that might be causing more problems than they’re solving…  shift gears people!! And go to bed!!

Welcome, and thanks for checking out the blog! This will be the new home of  health related musings, recipes, and all manner of topics related to natural medicine and good health in general. Feel free to leave your questions, comments, recipes, etc. and enjoy!