Thrive OK Wellness

Fit for Life Expo Encourages Healthy Habits for Oklahoma Families

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:37:05 +0000

OKLAHOMA CITY– Despite the fact that Oklahoma consistently ranks in the top 10 most obese states in the nation, Oklahomans are making substantial strides in creating healthier lifestyles .

The Fit for Life Health Expo is a family-oriented event that educates Oklahomans on the benefits of exercise, nutrition and disease prevention. Presented by the OKC Health and Wellness Group, the eighth annual health expo will be held Saturday, April 28, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the University of Central Oklahoma Wellness Center,100 N. University Drive in Edmond.

This free health expo is open to the public and will feature presentations from several local experts on weight-loss and personal fitness. They will explain their personal struggles and success. New to this year’s event will be a family fun run sponsored by Red Coyote running and fitness and interactive stations like the “sugar shack” that allow children to see how much sugar is in some of their favorite drinks and snacks. Other activities include free and low-cost comprehensive health screenings, AAA car seat inspections, fitness demos with the OKC RiverSport rowing coaches and an indoor bounce house for the kids.

More than 25 booths will display information, products and services as well as provide samples, give-a-ways and screenings. Local experts will be on hand throughout the day to answer questions about health-related issues.

The OKC Health and Wellness Group is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inform and educate Oklahomans on various aspects of preventative healthcare. Natural healthcare options and the important benefits of integrative health choices, which include chiropractic pain relief, massage therapy, dance and yoga for relaxation as well as active stretching techniques. Door prizes are given away throughout the expo. The health and wellness information provided at each event is presented in a fun and interactive manner so that the whole family can get on board with a healthy lifestyle.

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Destress Your Life

admin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:21:00 +0000

By John Kells and Mary Schrick Ph.D., ND
From Full Circle Health, and Advertiser in Thrive Magazine

For most of us stress is a way of life. In fact, many of us are so used to stress we are not even aware of its negative impact. Knowing your stress hormone levels can give you an indication of how well you are managing the stresses of your life. Keeping tabs on your cortisol and DHEA levels can give you and your doctor important information about how your life is affecting you and possibly how long you might live.

Hormones and the Brain

To help you cope with life’s stresses, your body has certain built-in hormonal mechanisms in place. Stress hormones help send energy where it’s needed in the body during an emergency. The all important ‘do it now’ processes that the body summons during times of stress include increasing energy and strength and improving brain function. During an emergency you need to hear better, smell more sensitively, and gather and process information more quickly.

Stress hormones have a powerful influence on the brain, playing a very important role in modulating both emotional and cognitive function. They help insure that you have all the mental faculties you need to cope with the ups and downs of life. This is the good news about stress hormones. The not-so-good news is that when it comes to stress hormones more is definitely not better. As necessary as these hormones are, excess amounts have long been recognized to cause disease. Excessive stress hormone levels can trigger many stress related conditions, including high blood pressure, blood sugar problems, fat accumulation, compromised immune function, exhaustion, bone loss, heart disease and, we now know, memory loss. Everyday stress can bring on minor memory failures and temporarily alter the ease and speed with which the brain retrieves and processes information. Relentless, extreme, or long-term exposure to stress hormones can actually damage and shrink the brain.

Using new imaging techniques, researchers have found that some Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients have about 25% atrophy in the hippocampus region of the brain. The hippocampus is the part of the brain used for processing and storing information. It is crucial for proper cognitive function, memory and emotional well-being. Losing twenty-five percent of this region of the brain is similar in impact to losing one of the four chambers of the heart.

The Stress Response

A simple way to look at stress is that it is anything that challenges the homeostatic balance of the body. This homeostatic balance includes ideal body temperature, proper pH of the bloodstream, optimum blood sugar and pressure levels, even a proper ratio of bone building to bone remodeling. Stress can be anything that upsets this balance.

Your stress response helps you “fight the tiger” during stressful situations. By increasing blood sugar levels, heart rate, and even improving cognition, your stress response helps you get up and get going. It is regulated in part by two hormones, cortisol and DHEA. Under normal conditions cortisol and DHEA work together as a kind of stress management partnership. However, when you are under continual stress, and your adrenal glands are forced to continually pump out these stress hormones, these glands can become exhausted and the natural restorative balance between DHEA and cortisol can be interrupted. With DHEA in short supply, the damaging effects of excess cortisol can go unchecked.

DHEA has been shown to improve brain function and cognition, ensuring a better response to new information and an increased capacity to remember what you have learned. Brain tissue has five to six times as much DHEA as other tissue in the body. People with Alzheimer’s disease have DHEA levels that are half that of healthy people of the same age.

With its abundance of cortisol receptors, the hippocampus is the part of the brain most sensitive to this hormone. Cortisol actually improves memory when it circulates briefly through the brain. However, the reverse is true when cortisol levels stay elevated for long periods of time. Patients with chronically high levels of cortisol show accelerated degeneration of the hippocampus, the brain region crucial for proper cognitive function and emotional well-being. This is similar to what happens with severe diseases of the brain, like dementia and Alzheimer’s. As these diseases progress, the all-important hippocampus will atrophy.

Recent studies have also shown an important link between obesity and elevated levels of cortisol. It seems that an increased level of cortisol, likely the result of stress, directly stimulates food consumption in humans. Additionally, pharmaceutical research has found a link between weight gain and elevated levels of cortisol production. An enzyme with the fancy name, 11beta Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type I (11HSD1), activates the transformation of inactive cortisone into active cortisol in various tissues, especially abdominal adipose tissue. In a sort of “catch-twenty- two,” excess abdominal tissue, which contains high levels of this enzyme, causes a rise in cortisol which in turn increases the craving for more food, especially the class of foods called “comfort foods.”

Another study showed that women who suffer depression and chronic stress also had high cortisol levels and significant atrophy in the hippocampus. Newborns who suffer great stress just after birth also show mental impairment, including memory deficits. Over the long run, it appears that their brains actually age faster than those of newborns who do not experience severe stress.

The release of stress hormones into your system is meant to help your body respond to thirty seconds, or maybe even thirty minutes of stress. Your stress response is not designed to manage the long term, unrelenting stressors that many people experience today. Turning the stress response on indefinitely wreaks havoc with the body and the brain.

Plasticulture Gardens for Fall

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:10:17 +0000

Over the past few decades, farmers have experimented with “plasticulture systems” to increase their marketable vegetable yields. The plasticulture system has three main parts — plastic mulch, raised beds, and a drip irrigation system that runs underneath the plastic. Drip irrigation lines deliver both water and liquid fertilizer directly to the plant’s root zone.

As a gardening technique, plasticulture improves yields, reduces water erosion and helps with weed control, nutrient leaching and soil compaction. The use of raised beds covered in plastic increases plant and product quality, which ultimately brings greater yields at harvest.

Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry (ODAFF) Plasticulture Program Coordinator, Micah Anderson, installed six rows of the raised beds at the Governor’s mansion. Each row is approximately 100 feet in length. Plasticulture equipment makes quick work of these constructed rows. This type of garden can be started on as little as an acre of farmland.

Governor Mary Fallin has expressed her desire to grow produce on-site that can be used by the mansion’s chef for meals. The governor hopes to have corn, okra, zucchini, tomatoes and more from the garden this year.

The Department of Agriculture, situated along Lincoln Blvd., had to get their plasticulture garden going too. “With the drought this summer, plasticulture gardens were the way to go,” says Justin Whitmore of the Oklahoma Dept. of Agriculture. Whitmore spent hours in the stifling heat this summer laying in the garden rows.

About 70 farmers in Oklahoma are taking part in the ODAFF sponsored plasticulture program. The use of plastic mulch makes agriculture more productive and efficient by cutting costs and saving time. Plasticulture also reduces competition from invasive weeds and insects. Some disadvantages of this growing method include high start-up costs for the equipment to lay the plastic, complicated design processes, installation and management. Most growers, however, consider the advantages of using a plasticulture system to far outweigh the disadvantages, simply based on the increased vegetable production.

The Oklahoma Plasticulture Grant Program offers small and limited resource farmers an opportunity to diversify their enterprises by adding specialty crop production to their operations. The program emphasizes marketing and requires a three-year commitment based on funding availability. The plasticulture projects range from ¼ – 1 acre in scale. Farmers that take part in this program apply once on a rolling basis. Farmers accepted into the program will have to provide soil and water test results to ensure that the plants will be productive. They also receive $500 per year with this program.

As published in The Fall 2011 issue of Thrive Oklahoma Magazine

Thrive Oklahoma Magazine – Fall, 1st Anniversary Issue

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:26:22 +0000

Welcome to our fall issue of Thrive Oklahoma Magazine… finally a break from this summer’s heat! Last issue I encouraged parents to use the summer break to emphasize learning and try new activities. Doing so is a great supplement to the continuous learning model recently adopted by OKC public school district.

As we get our families back into that stable, reliable fall schedule, I can’t help but look back on the wonderful opportunities given during the record drought month of July. I had the honor of being an invited speaker on health and wellness at the 89th Annual Oklahoma PTA Convention by the Oklahoma PTA president, Anna King.

With this issue of Thrive, you’ll find personal stories by our authors that may help you bring out your own personal best! There are always choices. Don’t shy away from new opportunities. Educate yourself so you can make the best decisions for you and your loved ones.

This issue marks our first anniversary in Oklahoma!
Helping our readers nurture body and mind with Stories of,,,

– Empowerment
– Women’s Health
– Life Long Romance
– Fall Gardening Ideas
– Fall Foliage Family Destinations
– Thunder Behind the OKC Thunder
– OKC Welcomes Sunflower Market
– Anti-Aging
– Healthy Fall Recipes

View the Magazine Online

See you out there and off the couch this fall!

Angela C. Slovak, Ph.D
Founder of OKC Health and Wellness Group

Thrive Welcomes Sunflower Farmers’ Market to Oklahoma City

admin — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 01:32:42 +0000

Welcome Sunflower Farmers' Market

For the first time this full service all-natural and organic grocer famous for the slogan, “serious food at silly prices,” ® is here in middle America. As a chain located mostly in the western states, Oklahomans can now enjoy a natural & organic store that specializes in a great selection of produce – offering them all at very affordable prices.

The company, founded in 2002, is a pioneer in developing the emerging value segment of the natural and organic foods retailing industry. There’s been a big industry shift to assist consumers with a “better – more natural and organic products – along with a bigger and better selection of produce items and natural vitamins and supplements,” says Steve Black, VP of marketing for Sunflower. This type of demand makes Sunflower Markets a perfect fit for Oklahoma City.

The store is conveniently located at the NE corner of 63rd and N. May Ave.

Customers will love it from the moment they walk in the store. Shoppers won’t see big fancy expensive equipment and cases – just good ole fashioned tables and display units. Fresh produce will be the anchor department, but the natural organic meats, homemade sausages, great dairy selection, bulk grains and snacks plus and the best coffee you can buy will be the other mainstays of this store. “Our company is all about customer service and making eating healthier [and] affordable,”
says Black.

For special offers on exclusive products visit Sunflower Market’s web site for manufacturer’s coupons that can be printed right from the site. Also look for Double Ad Wednesday, which means you get to shop back-to-back ads that overlap by one day. This brings extreme value to the customer that wants to eat healthy – but just simply couldn’t afford to in the past. www.sunflowermarkets.com

Thrive Subscriptions Available

admin — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 03:00:28 +0000

Our magazine is statewide and many folks in rural and remote areas of Oklahoma have requested that Thrive be delivered right to their door.
We’ve had so many of these requests lately, we want everyone who needs a subscription to know that it’s just $18 for 1 year of Thrive delivered directly to you.
Email your requests to thriveokinfo@gmail.com Be sure to check your neighborhood Homeland store and all SuperCuts locations for the latest issue of Thrive!

Tulsa’s Get Lean Program

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:30:39 +0000

by Paul Fairchild

Thrive Oklahoma magazine previously reported on Mayor Mick Cornett’s efforts to put Oklahoma City on a diet. Now Tulsa mayor Dewey Bartlett, also tired of seeing his hometown at the bottom of healthy city lists, is looking to get Tulsa lean. Bartlett’s goal for his plan, Get Lean Tulsa, is tied directly to the city’s position on those lists. He wants to pull Tulsa to the top of those lists by 2021.

Explaining why one group or another isn’t living healthily is difficult. It costs the Centers For Disease Control a small fortune to answer questions like that at the municipal level. Victoria Bartlett, the First Lady of Tulsa and Get Lean Tulsa’s biggest proponent, hints that the CDC isn’t needed to answer that question. A little common sense will do just as well.

“When you travel across the city and you look at the different attitudes of people and their lifestyle, you can easily conclude that it’s cultural, it’s generational, it’s learned behavior,” she says. “One of the focuses of Mayor Bartlett’s administration is to educate the public, to teach people to start seeing their bodies from the inside out so that they know what they’re putting in their body and what they’re doing with their bodies produce the end result of the appearance of their body.”

Tulsa Get Lean Program Download pdf of entire article

OKC Riversport Fitness… That’s Fun!

admin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 02:28:43 +0000

If you have not been down to the Oklahoma River lately, you need to take your family down there for some healthy outdoor fun.

You will find many fun activities including… rent a kayak or a paddleboat, a bicycle, or even a Dragon Boat! The Boathouse provides everything you need, including lessons.

There is also a state-of-the-art fitness, cardiovascular and weight training center.

To see the story as published in Thrive Magazine go to this page in our article section.

http://thriveokwellness.com/okc-river-spor…ness-thats-fun/

Thrive Magazine Scoops MSNBC.com

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 03:33:28 +0000

Thrive Magazine scooped MSNBC with and article about Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity! The new July, August issue was the first in the nation to print this story… 3 weeks ahead of national news!

Michelle Obama Addressing Walmart Employees

Supporting Walmart for Healthy Family Foods
There are 310 million people in the United States. One quarter, or roughly 78 million are children. One in every three of them, or 23 million, are obese. Of those, all are susceptible to diabetes, and about one in three, or 10 million, will develop it. High blood pressure, cancer, asthma and heart disease are other risks they face. Doctors don’t use the word “epidemic” often, but they’re using it with childhood obesity. The problem is off the hook.

to view the entire Article Go to http://thriveokwellness.com/our-first-lady-on-a-mission/

Thrive Magazine

admin — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:37:22 +0000

Thrive Oklahoma Magazine is the premier Health and Wellness Magazine in Oklahoma. We are committed to educating our Oklahoma neighbors throughout this beautiful state on how to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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