New Spring, New Health Decisions

Article by Dottie Drake, RN, CPFT
Last month, I spoke at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business Conference. The new breast cancer specialist at Cape Regional spoke about our county being among the top three counties with the highest cancer rates. People seemed surprised and wondered why no actual reason was given, but I was not surprised.
I have been preaching disease prevention for 18 years now as a registered nurse and a health club owner. Everyone loses one pound of muscle per year over the age of 20 without strength training. If you lose muscle, you gain body fat. Body fat is where toxins that you are exposed to through the environment and unhealthy food ingestion are stored.
Belly fat is the biggest indicator of poor health. All of the organs that are needed to live are in that very important area. At some point, all of us have watched Dr. Oz show us a liver covered with fat. It is diseased and not working as it should be. Belly fat creates an estrogenic-like and atypical cell which fuels many cancers. Breast, prostate, colon, pancreatic, stomach and esophageal cancers are fueled by these types of cells. They create inflammation, which is death to healthy cells.
The number one external cause of inflammation in your body is sugar. Don’t think that artificial sugars aren’t as bad – they are actually cancer-causing agents.
At some point, you will realize that being healthy is a choice. You will need to both exercise and eat healthy. Cardiovascular exercise is done with your legs. Walking, biking, jogging, running and swimming are great ways to exercise. In a gym setting, you can sit down and do your exercises if you are not strong enough to stand.
Strength training, weight lifting or resistance training is the real fountain of youth. It is the only kind of exercise that builds muscle and bone and stops the age-related loss due to lack of use.
It is never too late to prevent, reverse or at least control all of your medical problems. You will succeed one step, one day at a time.
Stop by Miracles Fitness in Rio Grande behind Joe Canal’s where we train for health. For more information, call (609) 886-7070 or visit www.MiraclesFitness.com.