Examine Health - Recent Articles

A Practice That Makes a Noticeable Difference

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:14:47 +0000

Stretching might be one of the most important activities that you can perform for your physical health. The flexibility that you gain in your muscles and connective tissues help you in all other sports-related activities. You can move easier and with less pain. Maybe most importantly is the injury prevention that you gain from stretching on a regular basis. There is a reason that Yoga has become so popular in our society, having a primary stretching component, it provides many benefits to our bodies.

If you've never given stretching the consideration that it deserves, continue reading, I'm going to tell you about what goes on when you stretch, and some techniques to make it more enjoyable and more effective. I guarantee that you'll learn a lot and maybe even be inspired to take up a regular stretching practice. I know it's one of the most enjoyable parts of my daily practices.

Oatmeal - Redux

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:50:56 +0000

You all must think I'm crazy with all my talk about oatmeal. It's just that every morning when I sit down at my bowl of oatmeal I'm completely blown away at how delicious and nutritious it is! And it keeps getting better!

That's the amazing thing about it. I was passionate about my oatmeal back when it was rolled oats and banana! Since then I've learned much about food, nutrition, oats, and superfoods that those days seem like light-years ago. I've been holding off telling you about my findings because I didn't want to bombard you with oat-stories! However, this morning I just have to write, as I just made another discovery!

Cooking Under Pressure

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:28:22 +0000

One of the things that the cleanse did for me was blow open my previous conceptions of cooking. Now I've always been, what I would probably call, your average cook. I could cook 10 or 15 meals really well. They were my specialties. I had perfected them to the point that I was proud of them. I also was stuck in a rut with them. However, having to follow the rules of the cleanse, and opening myself up to a new style of cooking (vegetarian) and several new cookbooks, provided a welcome variation to my standard meals. Many of the meals that we made during the cleanse, we're still making today. In fact, I'd argue a vast majority of them.

However, one aspect of this cooking style that we had a challenge getting used to, was the preparation of the ingredients. Primarily, beans and grains. Many of the recipes called for beans or grains. In fact, they opened my eyes to a whole new world of preparing beans and grains. The problem is that they take FOREVER to prepare and cook. Beans need to be soaked overnight, then cooked for 4 hours. Grains are better after being cooked for 6 hours. Now obviously you're not constantly tending them during the periods of time, but it certainly requires some careful planning. We had to get into the habit of shopping for meals that were two nights out, in case we needed to soak something overnight. It really takes the spontaneity out of cooking.

Luckily, I found the ultimate solution to this problem! Once I stumbled across this piece of equipment, it changed my whole world. We now use it every day, and it's by far the most important item in the kitchen.

It's the Little Things that Make All the Difference

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:43:11 +0000

It's often assumed that big changes originate from big moves. That in order to make a greater difference, one needs to make a greater effort. I have found that this is not always true, in life, but especially when it relates to your health. The human body is an example of a system that responds very well to gradual change and consistent effort.

There are many, many examples of this. Taking vitamins or herbal supplements is a great one. Taking a single multivitamin for one day, or even better yet, taking a massive dose of vitamins in a single sitting, is not going to have much of a sustained effect on your general health. This is primarily because your body can only absorb a limited amount of the vitamins at one time. Therefore, in order to truly realize the benefits of taking vitamins, or another supplement, you need to take maintenance doses over a period of time. This will eventually saturate your blood with the vitamins that you're taking and allow your body to maintain a constant level within the body.

The Single Best Tip for Managing Your Email

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Mon, 10 May 2010 01:20:06 +0000

A lot of us manage our work via email. Knowledge workers, as they've been come to be known, often live and die by email. This is where the work comes in, and this is where the work gets delivered when it's finished. Outlook can become this huge dashboard portal for your entire work life. It can schedule your appointments, track your to-do list, store reference documents, manage incoming requests, and send out the resulting deliverables. So it makes sense to learn to optimize your email system the best way possible.

Lots of people get overwhelmed by the amount of email that they get. The inbox can become overrun with items that aren't relevant, need to be filed, need to be done, or need to be deleted. Once this happens, it can be difficult to crawl out of the hole and get back to a homeostasis that you can feel comfortable with.

There are a lot of email management systems out there, some simple, and some complex. A lot of them can be very good once you get them all set up (which can be daunting in the first place), and if you rigorously stick to them (which can be as stressful as having an unmanaged inbox).

In this article, I'm not going to try to provide you with a complete email management system, that would take much longer than the scope of this single article. However, I can provide you with my single favorite tip, the method that I provide to anyone who expresses email frustrations to me. I think you'll find that it will make a huge difference in your email management, as well as your general productivity and accountability.

How To Stay Fit in 20 Minutes a Day

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Wed, 05 May 2010 16:54:43 +0000

You might have already read my article about P90X. I maintain that this is the best program to get you whipped into great shape in a limited amount of time. However, the problem with P90X is that it takes time. To the tune of 60 minutes or so each day. Now, this is the type of commitment that is required for those types of results; and you WILL get results, I guarantee it. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time in my schedule on a regular basis. So after I completed the P90X program, I began to look at how I could enter some sort of 'maintenance mode' where I could keep up the gains that I've made, but open up some time in the schedule for other things I enjoy, like mountain biking, rock climbing, running, swimming, etc.

28 Day Cleanse : Day 28

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:42:16 +0000

We made it 28 days and truthfully I learned an awful lot. I have lots of new things that I want to tell you about, and will be in the next couple of weeks. The whole experience was quite enlightening. I can't say that I've ever done that intensive of a focus on my nutrition and my health in general. Sure, I've focused on gaining muscle mass, or dieting to drop fat, or training for an athletic event. However, I can't help feeling like those were all misguided efforts now. The way of looking at health and nutrition that Scott introduced me to makes so much sense, that it really provides you with an AH-HA! moment regarding the rest of your nutritional choices.

28-Day Cleanse - Day 1

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:22:34 +0000

So the first day on the cleanse had some wins and some losses. All in all, it was a success.

One of the aspects of this program that is taking some getting used to is the preparation for all the meals. There are lots of grains and lots of beans. Both of which need to be soaked overnight before being cooked. This requires planning and forethought. Well, we succeeded in soaking the whole oat groats for our morning oatmeal, and it turned out fabulous. It was my first time eating whole oat groats, and they were delicious. Basically these are rolled oats, before they get rolled. Or steel cut oats, before they get chopped up.

I had a question about the requirement to use whole oat groats. I'm a big oatmeal fan and have been eating rolled oats for years. My question was what kind of nutrient damage is being done by simply flattening an oat groat?

28-Day Cleanse - An Experiment

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:15:03 +0000

I've been thinking about detox and cleanses for a while now. I've made arguments in the past, about how our bodies are strong and capable and can handle anything we throw at it. However, I've been convinced that this is a shortsighted argument. The fact of the matter is that we're putting things in our body today that is so far outside of anything that it's prepared for and it's definitely affecting our health. Yes, our bodies are tough, and miraculous machines of digestion and filtration, and they do a tremendous job of keeping us upright and walking around, despite all of the garbage that goes into it. It's surprising that we're not all lying in ditches somewhere.

And if you never decide to do a cleanse or any kind of detox on your body, you'll probably keep right on living. The question becomes the quality of that life, and how long will it last? With 100,000 Americans a year diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease, and 320,000 Americans that are on a kidney dialysis machine already. More than 1 million Americans suffering and bleeding from kidney stones. And colon cancer killing over 60,000 Americans each year. There's plenty of evidence that something about our way of life is not copasetic with the natural functioning of our bodies. And I don't know about you, but I plan on being healthy, active, and pain-free until the end of my days. If I can avoid some of the maladies that have become common in our modern society, just by cutting out some junk food and watching what I eat, I'm sold.

Achieve Your Goals Through Conscious Habit Implementation

ben.anderson@examinehealth.com (Ben Anderson) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:46:11 +0000

The Brain's Propensity for Pathways

Your mind is made up of connections. Millions and millions of connections. Each cell in your brain connects with thousands of other cells. Neurons fire electrical impulses from one to another, triggering chemical reactions and coordinating our thoughts. This mass of connections forms a mesh through which there are hundreds of thousands of pathways through. An electrical impulse could travel from one side of your brain to the other every minute of your life and never need to follow the same path.

The interesting thing is that they do follow the same paths. The neurons in your brain tend to utilize the same paths over and over again. Each time a particular pathway is used, it becomes strengthened. The next time that function is needed, or that thought recalled, it hops along the same neurons in the same order. This is the formation of habits. This is also the basis for learning. As we continue to utilize a particular thought sequence, it becomes further ingrained into our brain. We become more proficient as a result of the increased traffic through that pattern.

Particular patterns become worn and are more likely to be activated. They also operate at increased efficiency. Think of them like grooves that are worn in your brain. The deeper the grooves become, the more likely those actions and pathways are to be used. These pathways can also represent associations themselves. A song can remind you of a particular time period in your life. This is due to the strong association that you have in your brain between the two memories.