A New Year of Good Health
Frontiers in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: CIMT
Are Calorie Counters on the Cardio Equipment Accurate?
Meal Replacements — Are They Worth the Weight?
Wellness Champion 2007: Matt Lehrer

It’s January - the perfect time of year to rededicate yourself to achieving total wellness. But, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, healthy lifestyles cannot be established overnight. That’s why Lifewellness is resolving this year to provide you with all the resources you need to be fully fit and healthy all year round.

We’re starting off with a newsletter that will provide you with ground-breaking medical information on subjects that really matter in your life. Dr. Naresh Rao presents the newest developments in cardiovascular disease prevention technology, a preview of imaging medicine to come. Quan Campbell, exercise physiologist and wellness coach, answers client questions about the accuracy of calorie counters on exercise equipment. Our registered dietician, Sabrina Chyzyk, takes the mystery out of the meal replacement shake – and gives a caveat to those thinking to jump-start weight loss with these simple “meals.” Finally, I am proud to announce our first-ever Wellness Champion. Every year, we will select four clients who exemplify the spirit of healthy living and show remarkable improvement. Our first Champion offers advice and inspiration to anyone looking to make life changes in the New Year.

May health and wellness be yours all year long,
Lee Rice, DO

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A ground-breaking device is on the horizon for the early detection of arthrosclerosis. Heralded for its innovation in scientific and medical journals, this technology still hasn’t gotten much notice from the general press. This state-of-the-art testing equipment is known as CIMT (Carotid Intima-Media Thickness), a 15-20 minute test that can pinpoint vascular disease in the earliest stages, before symptoms arise.

This convenient, safe and painless ultrasound measures the thickness of the first two inner layers of the carotid artery wall. . It monitors the level of plaque build-up in the carotid artery, and helps clinicians decide on the best treatment options. This gives doctors and patients valuable time to make lifestyle changes that can reduce atherosclerosis before it leads to diseases like stroke or heart attack.

The American Heart Association calls CIMT a “safe, non-invasive and relatively inexpensive technology” that can “add incremental information to traditional risk factor assessment.” Recently, the Mayo Clinic also evaluated the technology and found it to be a very useful instrument for evaluating arthrosclerosis. Unfortunately, this technology isn’t yet widely available. However, we may well find doctors and medical facilities increasingly invest in this device in the coming years.

CIMT is another tool in helping physicians diagnose and prevent arthrosclerosis in the early stages, before it become a significant medical issue. It has particular relevance for individuals who are at a high risk for vascular disease (for example, those who are overweight, have high cholesterol, have poor dietary habits or a family history of heart disease).

The fact remains that vascular diseases are a leading killer in the United States. For too many people, the first sign of vascular disease is a life-threatening emergency, such as a heart attack. Through CIMT, physicians may be able to discover and treat heightened levels of arthrosclerosis before it reaches that point.

The Lifewellness Institute is currently investigating the full research literature regarding this technology and will report its findings in upcoming issues of our newsletter.

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Are the calorie-counting devices on cardio equipment really accurate? Technically, yes, they do use formulas that provide good estimates – but only for an average user. What’s an average user? That depends on the brand of equipment – but generally the average user is a 20 year old male who weighs 170 pounds. What?

That doesn’t describe you? Not to fret. You can still use these calorie-counting devices to help you gauge your workouts. Cardio equipment that requires you to input your weight, age, and gender are more likely to be accurate, but there will always be a level of individual differentiation.

According to Jim Zahniser, Public Relations Manager of Precor, “A lot of consumers are looking for exactness in the calories count, but in truth the caloric expenditure metrics of cardio equipment are based on a generalized norm, and provide good direction to you but are not exactly accurate to each individual.”

That doesn’t mean you should ignore those calorie-counters. Just allow that your own calorie expenditure might not align perfectly with what the machine says. But if you are looking to count your calories, remember that your body has the final say on calories burned - and it will always be 100% accurate.

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It’s the beginning of a new year, and many of my clients are tempted to try meal replacement shakes or bars to lose weight. But before you fill a shopping cart of canned meals, you should know a little more about the so-called power of the meal replacement shake.

The truth is that meal replacements can work in promoting weight loss, but not because of some magical ingredient. It’s due to the fact that these shakes and bars contain fewer calories than the typical meal. In other words, instead of eating a meal with 750 calories, you drink a shake with 250 calories, reducing your caloric intake by 500 calories. A whole week of eating like that will result in a one pound of weight loss. Meal replacements can help with portion control because the shakes and bars are portioned out for you, decreasing the temptation to go for seconds. This also results in a reduced calorie intake. But there are drawbacks to using these shakes and bars.
As with most diets, many people regain weight they lost using meal replacement shakes because they immediately return to a higher caloric intake. The fact is that meal replacements can’t teach people how to make healthy choices. Also, these shake and bars take away from the pleasure of eating. Eating satisfaction comes from the taste, texture and feeling of fullness which a meal provides. And eating the same canned shake every day can get boring, and leave you unsatisfied. There are also many nutritive components found in foods that can not be found in a meal replacement.

In fact, a recent study revealed that because the texture of shakes doesn’t simulate whole foods they are not as filling as regular meals. Thus many study participants simply ate more during the next meal in order to feel full, thus undermining their weight loss goals.

However, if you do decide to use meal replacements for convenience and as a “jumpstart” to weight loss, be aware that they average about 170-250 calories - which is not enough to be considered a meal. Therefore, consider adding a few calories to round out your diet.

Here’s a general guideline:

• WOMEN: add 250 calories per shake (equivalent to 8 oz. milk/yogurt and 1 large banana)
• MEN: add 350 calories per shake (equivalent to 8 oz. milk/yogurt, 1 large banana and 1 string cheese)

Try to choose meal replacements that contain at least 3-5 grams of fiber, not more than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories, and < 1 gram of saturated fat per 100 calories.

Remember, meal replacements are no magical bullet to weight loss. The true magic formula is incorporating lifelong healthy eating habits into your lifestyle along with exercise. Now that’s definitely worth the weight!

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We are pleased to award our first-ever Wellness Champion Award to client Matt Lehrer! Matt and Violet, his wife of eleven years, are the proud parents of two children, Elliott (7) and Shoshana(4). He’s the president and CEO of Teamwork Athletic Apparel, a leading manufacturer of team sports uniforms. On the weekends, you can often find him piloting a small airplane across the skies of California.

Progress: Lost 22.7 pounds of actual fat in 3.5 months with no significant change to his lean body mass. He dropped his triglycerides by 48 points, his LDL cholesterol by 57 points and his total cholesterol by 70 points.

Matt’s inspiration: Matt says that one of his lifetime goals was to be healthy and fit to the end of his life, but he never got serious about getting in shape. In May of 2006, Matt got a wake-up call. His seven-year old son was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes, an auto-immune disease. Matt knew he needed to make his health a priority. “Part of managing Type I is being much more in-tune with what you are eating, how you are exercising, and what’s going on with your body. I wanted to be a great role model for my son, and the fact that he had diabetes really pushed me over the edge to take action on my lifelong goal.”

Matt’s advice: “Best is the enemy of better. What you need to do is take one step towards making your health better. That’s a lot easier that trying to go out and lose 50 pounds and then feeling disheartened if you only get to 25 pounds lost. It’s about slow and steady progress. Between one week and the next, I was happy if I lost a tenth of a pound.”

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