Today at Titan

In a day and age where we can connect to the whole world 24/7/365, our world has become a much smaller and more productive place to be an entrepreneur, shopper, or networking junkie. However, the trade off is the punishment our minds and bodies incur from losing sleep. A Chronic lack of sleep can make us vulnerable to heart disease and diabetes among other illnesses. Speaking from experience, I know that the majority of Americans get less than the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.

Well, just in time for the big turkey day, a new study just came out regarding napping and it’s positive effects on your memory. it involves the “slow wave” sleep which is before the REM sleep. The “power nap” of is as little as 12 minutes is needed to produce the “slow wave” sleep. Researchers believe that our brains are still working, figuring out problems and creating new ideas. Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, conducted a study they taught 20 English-speaking college students lists of Chinese words spelled with two characters — such as sister, mother, maid. Then half the students took a nap, being monitored to be sure they didn’t move from slow-wave sleep into the REM stage. Upon awakening, they took a multiple-choice test of Chinese words they’d never seen before. The nappers did much better at automatically learning that the first of the two-pair characters in the words they’d memorized earlier always meant the same thing — female, for example.

So the point of the story is take a nap, and don’t damn the tryptophan in the turkey that you’re going to eat, it’s good for your brain. And your Chinese character recognizing skills.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Posters like this one were posted all over the United States during World War I and II…

According to a new federally funded study being published in the Journal of Law & Economics, television ads from fast food companies like McDonald’s have and are contributing to childhood obesity in the United States. A 2006 Institute of Medicine report suggested a link between advertising and childhood obesity, but concluded proof was lacking. Michael Grossman, an economics professor at City University of New York and the co-author of the new study states that they have evidence to prove there is a link between the two. Lisa Powell, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Institute for Health Research and Policy, in a separate study, concluded that fast-food commercials account for as much as 23 percent of the food-related ads kids see on TV.

So it’s not a surprise that a third of American kids are overweight or obese, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I have experienced this first hand as my daughter could recognize the golden arches before she could sing the alphabet. And what about the visual cues or triggers that stimulate consumers to buy, or the newest movies or television stars endorsing the fast food restaurant with cheap trinkets included with kid’s meals, forget it…our kids never had a chance.

What’s funny about the new study coming out is that McDonald’s Corp., the giant fast-food chain responsible for the widely seen “I’m Lovin’ It” ad campaign, referred questions about the study to the National Council of Chain Restaurants, who also did not respond, instead of admitting that their excellent advertising propaganda has and will continue to make them billions of dollars at the expense of our children’s health.

Sorry fellas, this one doesn’t pertain to you…

Dr. James F. Clapp III from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland suggests that women who continue vigorous exercise during pregnancy stay healthier decades after. His research is published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, November 2008.

Here’s the study:
The analysis included 20 women who continued exercise throughout pregnancy and 19 women who stopped or reduced their exercise volume by at least 75 percent before the 12th week of pregnancy. The women resumed a regular recreational exercise program by 6 months after delivery.

Results showed that the women who had exercised while pregnant were exercising at 82 percent of their pre-pregnancy level, whereas the other women were exercising at about 52 percent.

Here are the results and some of the benefits you will enjoy:
1: Low cardiovascular risk profile when you approach menopause.
2: Lower resting heart rate.
3: Lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol.
4: Gain less weight over time.
5: Higher self-assessed body image.

This is what you have to do to enjoy those benefits:
1: Get pregnant.
2: Continue a vigorous weight-bearing exercise program during pregnancy.

Some of us remember those words our parents uttered to us everyday after school, and and many of us were happy to oblige. However, those words are becoming extinct in a society filled high definition television, playstation 3, xbox 360, the internet, and whatever else we can distract our children with inside instead of sending them outside for some fresh air. Yes, I know, there is an argument for the dangers outside of the house like sexual predators, stray dogs, pollution, etc. but the truth is, there was that problem when we were kids and it didn’t stop us from playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. The problem is that there are less kids in the neighborhood outside to pal around with…

The American Heart Association just presented research on Tuesday at their annual scientific sessions in New Orleans that obese children had arteries representative of someone three decades older. WHAT???!!! So does that means your teenager is going to have a mid life crisis?? Yep, on the inside at least. The research further states that obesity in male adolescents is a greater risk factor for cardiovascular disease than smoking. Seriously…yeah, and that’s the good news.

Dr. Catherine McNeal, an associate professor of internal medicine and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and a pediatrician at Scott & White Hospital in Temple states, “The prevention of this starts prenatally, with educating mothers and fathers about the nutritional needs of raising an infant and a child.” Dr. McNeal also says, “Most young parents fail to understand the nutritional requirements of a child and fail to balance the caloric intake with energy expenditure. . . A study two years or so ago suggested that this generation of youth would be the first generation to not outlive their parents.”

So seriously, start telling your kids to “Go outside, and don’t come back until it’s dark.” Or else…

Well, we have finally entered the 21st century here…it’s about time!!!

It took only a failing economy, a new president, and frozen credit for us to finally decide to speak out. hahhahaa….I really don’t know how to start off a blog, or what I’m supposed to talk about when I blog, but i hear about it everywhere and decided to finally check it out more because I have a break between patients and want to make my time productive time vs. just browsing the internet.

Today is Veteran’s Day and I watched High School Musical with my daughter, Ainsley, at the mall. I was surprised to see that many people at the mall, and even more surprised that people were consuming again. We waited in line for 15 minutes to get tickets to a almost full theater, and another 15 minutes for some popcorn and soda. When we left the mall, there were people stalking me for my parking spot, heaps of people going in to the mall, and even more coming out with bags of stuff in their hands. Aside from the most obvious of changes that have taken place in this country over the last couple of weeks, I’m starting to notice change…

Maybe it’s holiday cheer coming early, maybe it’s a new president, maybe it’s Americans waking up and remembering that the country was built on hard work and labor, and that we’re ready to put our hard hats back on and punch in the time clocks…Whatever it is, I like it.