Tag: exercise

anxiety disorders, depression, exercise, Miami holistic health coach, Miami psychologist, yoga,

How putting a spring in your step heals your body and mind . . .

Optimal health is more than simply what you eat. While whole foods are a cornerstone to achieving long-term health, it is not enough to optimize your health if you do not include other important practices, like relaxation, relationships, meditation, or regular exercise. Exercise to move your body on a consistent basis is a key strategy to help you optimize your health and avoid several chronic health problems.^1,2 If you struggle with your health or suffer from some disability, you may believe that you are incapable of starting a new fitness program.

This may be because you assume that exercise consists only of lifting weights or long-distance running. The reality is that any type of fitness program is beneficial for you so long as you engage in your fitness program consistently. Working with a professional personal fitness trainer will give the additional guidance, inspiration and support to do it consistently.² The key to exercise is finding the best type of movement for your body and lifestyle.

In general, there are many different types of exercise such as anaerobic resistance training , low intensity aerobic cardiopulmonary, and flexibility and stretching exercises. There are also high intensity programs that incorporate brief intervals and jumping movements like sprinting or plyometric exercises. All types of movement can benefit you and enhance your health. What is important is that you strive for a flexible program of exercise that you begin and commit to it consistently. Below are many different kinds of exercise and some of their key benefits.

Non exercise movement: Simple everyday activities and house duties such as cooking, working on your garden and doing laundry and cleaning are all types of movement. Several studies suggest that prolonged sitting increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease and many other chronic health conditions even if you exercise vigorously on a consistent basis. Sitting or being inactive for a prolonged period of time has also been found to be associated with reduced life expectancy. Fortunately, if you find yourself sitting for an extended period (e.g., working a desk job), you need only stand periodically to undo the negative effects of sitting.^2,3 Try stretching and moving about 2 to 3 times every hour to promote optimal health.
Low intensity cardio exercises: Any movement that maintains you at 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate, such as brisk walking or jogging. It improves your cardiovascular condition, lowers your resting heart rate and blood pressure, helps to increase your HDL, preserves your cognitive functioning and lowers your risk for many chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. When you walk or jog, aim for 30 to 60 minutes, 3-4 times a week.
Strength training: Lifting weights or doing full body weight exercises is important and necessary for optimal health. Adding a strength and conditioning program to your exercise program is key to preserving lean muscle mass. Strength training helps you to improve your metabolism, strengthens your bones, elevates your mood, helps you to sleep better and increases levels of endogenous opioids that decrease pain. Strength training can also help to optimize your hormone levels. Lifting heavy weights with brief rest periods will help you to produce more human growth hormone and testosterone. It is a known fact that levels of important hormones like growth hormone decline with age. Engaging in strength training twice a week is all that is necessary to preserve muscle tone.
High intensity, brief exercises: Doing sprints , tabata training or high intensity interval training has several distinct advantages. First and foremost, it saves you a whole lot of time. For example, doing 6-8 rounds of all out sprints for 15-30 seconds and taking 1-2 minute rest periods will amount to no more than 20 minutes. Anyone can squeeze 10 to 20 minutes during their day. In addition, brief, high intensity exercises may help you to enhance your metabolism, burn fat, increase your production of human growth hormone and elevate your cardiopulmonary capacity more so than long periods of low intensity cardio exercise. If your goal is to lose weight, incorporate high intensity interval training 2 to 3 times a week.
Flexibility training programs: Yoga or Pilates have several key benefits as well. They can help you to stay limber, strengthen your core, improve balance, attention and concentration, reduce pain and elevate your mood. Many studies have found that adding a yoga practice reduces feelings of anxiety and depression.³

There are several other benefits to consistent exercise. Research has found that regular exercise can also help you to reduce systemic inflammation by enhancing your body’s production of the anti-inflammatory, cytokine interleukin (IL)-10.⁴Cytokines are chemical messengers that work to orchestrate your body’s immune system and inflammatory response. Strive to exercise for 30 to 45 minutes, four to five times per week to achieve optimal physical and mental health. And, remember to have fun and play with your workouts. Vary your workouts, avoid sitting for an extended period and try adding brief, intense exercise routines a couple times a week.

To your success and health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

Metzl, J (2013). The Exercise Cure: A Doctor’s All-Natural, No-Pill Prescription for Better Health and Longer Life.
Hartfield, F.C. (2018). Fitness: The Complete Guide.
Ratey, JJ (2013). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
O strowski, K, Rohde, T, Asp, S., Schjerling, P, and Pedersen, BK “Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine balance in strenuous exercise in humans.” Journal of Physiology. (1999), 15; 515(Pt 1): 287–291.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.drjosesandoval.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

EMFs, RF exposure, cancer, Miami holictic health coach, Miami psychologist

How your brain heals with exercise . . .

In Psychology and Wellness

If you’re like most people these days, you probably know that regular exercise does your body good. You know that exercise can help you gain physical strength, lose weight, improve your cardiovascular endurance and help you obtain that “beach body” that you’ve been dreaming about in your sleep. You may also know about the various benefits of exercise for your health such as how it will help you to lower your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. It certainly is all over the news these days on T.V., online and media advertisements. You rarely hear, however, about how the benefits of exercise extend far beyond gaining strength and your heart health. More than just having that “beach body” you desire and being great for your heart, exercise is important for preserving and building your most important muscle – your brain!

Several human and animal studies strongly suggest that exercise induces neurogenesis (i.e., the production of new brain neurons and synaptic connections), enhances your longevity pathways (i.e., upregulates your body’s surtuins) stimulates autophagy (i.e., cellular cleansing and renewal), protects your brain against strokes, and helps you to preserve your memories to avoid having those senior moments.1,2,3,4

Exercise promotes the production of brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), lactic acid , which fuels your muscles and brain (it increases norepinephrine), and other nerve growth factors. It also helps to raise the circulating levels of proteins like FNDC5 as well as many other myokines, which act to preserve brain health, reduce systemic inflammation and help to stimulate angiogenesis (i.e., the formation of new blood vessels that help to improve cerebral blood flow) so it will help to repair damaged brain cells.5 Many of these effects have been demonstrated in people with Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis (I give much credit to my personal training & exercise regimen for my full mobility & good health).6,7

So if you’re concerned about preserving your brain health and want to avoid having those regrettable senior moments, it is important that you exercise regularly. Although the research suggests that more vigorous exercise like sprinting or H.I.I.T. training seems to lead to greater benefits, simply walking briskly 3-4 times a week for 30 minutes will help you to build a better brain.

To your health and success,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

Cotman, CW & Berchtold, NC. “Exercise: a behavioral intervention to enhance brain health and plasticity.” TRENDS in Neurosciences. (2002). 25 (6), 295-301.
Hayes, K, Sprague, S, Guo, M, Davis, W, Friedman, A, Kumar, A, et al. “Forced, not voluntary, exercise effectively induces neuroprotection in stroke.” Acta Neuropathologica. (2008)115, 289–296.Katya Vargas-Ortiz, Victoriano Pérez-Vázquez, and Maciste H. Macías-Cervantes. “Exercise and Sirtuins: A Way to Mitochondrial Health in Skeletal Muscle” International Journal Molecular Science. 2019 Jun; 20(11): 2717.
Praag,H, Kempermann, G & Gage, FH. “Running increases cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult mouse dentate gyrus” Nature Neuroscience. (1999). 2, 266 – 270.
Huh, JY, Panagiotou, G, Mougios, V, Brinkoetter, M, Vamvini, MT, Schneider, BE, et al. “FNDC5 and irisin in humans: I. Predictors of circulating concentrations in serum and plasma and II. mRNA expression and circulating concentrations in response to weight loss and exercise.” Metabolism. (2012) 61 (12), 1725-38.
Ahlskog, JE. “Does vigorous exercise have a neuroprotective effect in Parkinson disease?” Neurology. (2011). 77 (3), 288 – 294.
Gold, SM, Schulz, KH, Hartmann, S, Mladek, M, Lang, UE, Hellweg, R, et al. Basal serum levels and reactivity of nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor to standardized acute exercise in multiple sclerosis and controls Journal of Neuroimmunology. . (2003). 138, (1–2), 99-105.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.drjosesandoval.com.com website is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

Meditation Plus Running as a Treatment for Depression

In Media & News

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
March 16, 2016

Meditating before running could change the brain in ways that are more beneficial for mental health than practicing either of those activities alone, according to an interesting study of a new treatment program for people with depression.

As many people know from experience, depression is characterized in part by an inability to stop dwelling on gloomy thoughts and unhappy memories from the past. Researchers suspect that this thinking pattern, known as rumination, may involve two areas of the brain in particular: the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that helps to control attention and focus, and the hippocampus, which is critical for learning and memory. In some studies, people with severe depression have been found to have a smaller hippocampus than people who are not depressed.

Interestingly, meditation and exercise affect those same portions of the brain, although in varying ways. In brain-scan studies, people who are long-term meditators, for instance, generally display different patterns of brain-cell communication in their prefrontal cortex during cognitive tests than people who don’t meditate. Those differences are believed to indicate that the meditators possess a more honed ability to focus and concentrate.

Meanwhile, according to animal studies, aerobic exercise substantially increases the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus.

Both meditation and exercise also have proven beneficial in the treatment of anxiety, depression and other mood disorders.

These various findings about exercise and meditation intrigued researchers at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., who began to wonder whether, since meditation and exercise on their own improve moods, combining the two might intensify the impacts of each.

So, for the new study, which was published last month in Translational Psychiatry, the scientists recruited 52 men and women, 22 of whom had been given diagnoses of depression. The researchers confirmed that diagnosis with their own tests and then asked all of the volunteers to complete a computerized test of their ability to focus while sensors measured electrical signals in their brains.

The researchers found that the depressed volunteers showed signaling patterns in their prefrontal cortex that are associated with poor concentration and focus.

Then the researchers had all of the volunteers begin a fairly rigorous, supervised program of sitting, followed by sweating.

To start, the volunteers were taught a form of meditation known as focused attention. Essentially entry-level mindfulness meditation, it requires people to sit quietly and think about their respiration by counting their breaths up to 10 and then backward. This practice is not easy, especially at first.

“If people found their thoughts wandering” during the meditation, and especially if they began to ruminate on unpleasant memories, they were told not to worry or judge themselves, “but just to start counting again from one,” said Brandon Alderman, a professor of exercise science at Rutgers who led the study.

The volunteers meditated in this way for 20 minutes, then stood and undertook 10 minutes of walking meditation, in which they paid close attention to each footfall.

Then they clambered onto treadmills or stationary bicycles at the lab and jogged or pedaled at a moderate pace for 30 minutes (with five minutes of warming up and five minutes of cooling down).

The volunteers completed these sessions twice a week for eight weeks. Then the researchers retested their moods and their ability to focus and concentrate.

There were significant changes. The 22 volunteers with depression now had a 40 percent reduction in symptoms of the condition. They reported, in particular, much less inclination to ruminate over bad memories.

Meanwhile, the members of the healthy control group also reported feeling happier than they had at the start of the study.

Objectively, the volunteers’ results on the computerized tests of their ability to focus and their brain activity also were different. The group with depression now showed brain cell activity in their prefrontal cortex that was almost identical to that of the people without depression. They could concentrate much better and hone their attention, attributes that are believed to help reduce stubborn rumination.

“I was quite surprised that we saw such a robust effect after only eight weeks,” Dr. Alderman said.

He and his colleagues theorize that the meditation and exercise may have produced synergistic effects on the brains of their volunteers.

“We know from animal studies that effortful learning, such as is involved in learning how to meditate, encourages new neurons to mature” in the hippocampus, he said.

So while the exercise most likely increased the number of new brain cells in each volunteer’s hippocampus, Dr. Alderman said, the meditation may have helped to keep more of those neurons alive and functioning than if people had not meditated.

Meditation also may have made the exercise more tolerable, he said, since some studies indicate that being mindful of your breathing and your body during workouts increases people’s enjoyment of the exertion.

“I’ve started meditating,” said Dr. Alderman, a long-time athlete.

Of course, this was a small study and the scientists did not follow their volunteers long term, so they do not know if any mood improvements linger. They also have no idea whether similar or even greater benefits might occur if someone were to run and then meditate or to practice both activities but on alternating days. They plan to study those questions in future experiments.

exercise, anxiety disorders, depression, yoga, Miami psychologist, Miami holistic health coach,

How putting a spring in your step heals your body and mind . . .

In Psychology and Wellness

Optimal health is more than just what you eat. While whole foods are a cornerstone to achieving long-term health, it is not enough to maximize your health if you do not include other important practices, like relaxation, meditation, or regular exercise. Exercise and moving your body on a consistent basis is a key strategy to help you optimize your health and avoid several chronic health problems.1 If you struggle with your health, you may have an adverse reaction to the word exercise.

This probably is because you assume that exercise consists only of lifting weights or long-distance running. The reality is that any type of movement is beneficial as long as you do it consistently. The key to exercise is finding the best type of movement for your body and lifestyle.

Generally speaking, there are many different kinds of exercise such as resistance training and strength conditioning, low intensity cardio, and flexibility and stretching exercises. There are also high intensity programs that incorporate brief intervals and jumping movements like plyometric exercises. All types of movement can benefit you and enhance your health. What is important is that you strive for a flexible program of exercise that you can start and commit to consistently in the long haul. Below are many different types of exercise and some of their key benefits.

Non exercise movement: Simple everyday activities and house duties such as cooking, working on your garden and doing laundry and cleaning are all types of movement. Several studies suggest that prolonged sitting increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease and many other chronic health conditions even if you exercise vigorously on a consistent basis. Sitting or being inactive for a prolonged period of time has also been found to be associated with reduced life expectancy. Fortunately, if you find yourself sitting for an extended period of time (e.g., working a desk job), you need only stand periodically to undo the negative effects of sitting. Try stretching and moving about 2 to 3 times every hour to promote optimal health.
Low intensity cardio exercises: Any movement that maintains you at 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate, such as brisk walking or jogging. It improves your cardiovascular condition, lowers your resting heart rate and blood pressure, helps to increase your HDL, preserves your cognitive functioning and lowers your risk for many chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. When you walk or jog, aim for 30 to 60 minutes, 3-4 times a week.
Strength training: Lifting weights or doing full body weight exercises is important and necessary for optimal health. Adding a strength and conditioning program to your exercise program is key to preserving lean muscle mass. Strength training helps you to improve your metabolism, strengthens your bones, elevates your mood, helps you to sleep better and increases levels of endogenous opioids that decrease pain. Strength training can also help to optimize your hormone levels. Lifting heavy weights with brief rest periods will help you to produce more human growth hormone and testosterone. It is a known fact that levels of important hormones like growth hormone decline with age. Engaging in strength training twice a week is all that is necessary to preserve muscle tone.
High intensity, brief exercises: Doing sprints or high intensity interval training has several distinct advantages. First and foremost, it saves you a whole lot of time. Doing 6-8 rounds of all out sprints for 15-30 seconds and taking 1-2 minute rest periods will amount to no more than 20 minutes. Anyone can squeeze 10 to 20 minutes during their day. In addition, brief, high intensity exercises may help you to enhance your metabolism, burn fat, increase your production of growth hormone and elevate your cardiopulmonary capacity more so than long periods of low intensity cardio exercise. If your goal is to lose weight, incorporate high intensity interval training 2 to 3 times a week.
Flexibility training programs: Yoga or Pilates have a number of key benefits as well. They can help you to stay limber, strengthen your core, improve balance, attention and concentration, reduce pain and elevate your mood. Many studies have found that adding a yoga practice reduces feelings of anxiety and depression.2

There are several other benefits to consistent exercise. Research has found that regular exercise can also help you to reduce systemic inflammation by enhancing your body’s production of the anti-inflammatory, cytokine interleukin (IL)-10.3 Cytokines are chemical messengers that work to orchestrate your body’s immune system and inflammatory response. Strive to exercise for 30 to 45 minutes, four to five times per week to achieve optimal physical and mental health. And, remember to have fun and play with your workouts. Vary your workouts, avoid sitting for an extended period of time and try adding brief, intense exercise routines a couple times a week.

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

Metzl, J (2013). The Exercise Cure: A Doctor’s All-Natural, No-Pill Prescription for Better Health and Longer Life.
. Ratey, JJ (2013). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
O strowski, K, Rohde, T, Asp, S., Schjerling, P, and Pedersen, BK “Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine balance in strenuous exercise in humans.” Journal of Physiology. (1999), 15; 515(Pt 1): 287–291.