Live a Healthy Life with Prevention

American’s today are beginning to throw the word “prevention” around a little more when it comes to their health.  As we discussed in our last blog, taking minor steps in the correct direction can decrease our chances of heart disease and dementia.  So besides getting an annual physical exam and teeth cleaning what can you do to stay healthy?

EXERCISE – This is the easy one.  Exercising, especially in low impact sports such as swimming, bicycling, yoga, or tai chi can help with increasing you cardiovascular endurance while maintaining both strength and flexibility.  The more your body is prepared for the unexpected, whether it is a simple fall or the need to run from a tiger in the safari, the less of a chance you will be injured during the process. 

WEIGHT CONTROL – In physical therapy when a patient cannot perform weight bearing activities because of joint pain or recent surgery physical therapists often put the patients in some sort of off-weighted environment such as a pool.  This is because increased weight on joints leads to breakdown of cartilage, ultimately causing osteoarthritis and pain.  If a person already has osteoarthritis the added weight of a couple pounds can significantly increase pain and disability levels.  Studies show that losing just 10 pounds can reduce the risk for osteoarthritis by 50%.¹

AVOID INJURY – I know what a lot of you are thinking here.  “Of course, we all try to avoid injury so that we do not need to visit health care practitioners.”  But there is more to this.  I would say that about 50-60% of all Achilles tear injuries that I see in the office are people who are “weekend warriors.”   If you are stuck at a desk 5 days a week for 9 months and then decide to partake in a full contact basketball tournament on Thanksgiving  day your are probably a “weekend warrior”.  Your chance of injuring yourself is tremendous; if you are not prepared for sports you will be injured.  Make sure to prepare for your upcoming sporting events by exercising regularly in order to increase your cardiovascular endurance, strength, and flexibility.

Take care of yourself today.  It can save you from pain in the future.  The pain is not just physical but can also be financial.  Protecting your body, especially your joints can save you thousands.  If you don’t exercise, are overweight, or partake in high impact sports you are at risk of wearing down the cartilage in your joints, creating pain, an ultimately causing you to spend up to $50,000 for a joint replacement, not including time away from work. 

If you are currently not maintaining this level of exercise or you need guidance on how to perform exercises correctly Hayashida and Associates offers many options such as Pilates, and both  one-on-one personal training and group fitness classes.  Prevent injury and live a healthy life.  The choice is yours!

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Eat a Mediterranean Diet...For Your Heart...For Your Brain....For Your Health!

The common theme nowadays is to find ways to decrease the cost of medical services.  Part of this is done by prevention techniques that are often not covered by insurance companies.  The general population is quickly finding out that they need to take care of themselves whether it is by diet or exercise in order to save on their health care dollars.  It has been long believed that by partaking in a Mediteranian Diet one can keep a heart healthy and avoid extensive heart disease; the largest killer in America.¹

The Mediterranean Diet consists of eating large quantities of fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, olive oil, and fish.  Low to zero quantities of dairy, saturated fats and red meat are eaten.  Wine is moderately drunk in a Mediterranean diet.

Recent research shows that the Mediterranean diet not only helps with heart disease but can also decrease the chances of suffering from brain infarcts, which can be thought of as mini-strokes that cause mild cognitive changes such as memory loss, like we might see in beginning stages of dementia. 

“Researchers found that people who most closely followed a Mediterranean-like diet were 36 percent less likely to have areas of brain damage, compared with those whose eating habits were furthest from the diet.” ²

This news is important for those in America, as it is believed that 1-4% of all Americans over the age of 65 have some sort of dementia, a number as large as 4.5 million people, according to the Mayo Clinic.

This new information, although not completely correlated, can help prevent dementia-related illnesses.  As we all know, “knowledge is power.”  Now is the time to become healthier.  It makes financial sense to take care of yourself; Save money, live healthy!

      1. American Heart Association; 2010. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4644

      2. CNN Health; February 8, 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/08/mediterranean.diet.brain/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

We've Moved Our Goleta Clinic!

We are excited to announce that we have relocated our Goleta clinic just down the street to a new location at Twin Lakes Golf Course. As you know, we have occupied the space in the Costco shopping center for the past 6 years. Starting Monday May 3, we began offering the same unparalleled care from our new location at 6030 Hollister Ave in Goleta. To insure that the transition is smooth, the same 3 therapists that were treating at the Marketplace clinic have moved to the Twin Lakes location and will continue treating their own patients. Also, our Santa Barbara location remains in the same spot at 2921 DeLaVina St just below the Trader Joe's.

To celebrate the grand opening, we will be holding an Open House on May 22 from 11am-4pm at the new location. This will be a chance for us to introduce the facility to our loyal patients and referring physicians. We will provide refreshments and also be giving away prizes.

Hope to you see you there!