Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Bankley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of functional medicine. Today, I'm going to talk
a little bit more about the benefits of exercise.
Last week, I did an entire show on some of the
lesser -known benefits of exercise. But before
I get, I'm going to come back to that, we're
also going to review a number of things that
have come out in the medical press lately, like
the connection between certain diets and your
risk of colon cancer. how to reduce your risk
of high blood pressure, and the connection between
the gut microbiome and hormones throughout your
body. And time permitting, maybe an update on
the horrors of trying to get your, air quotes,
health insurance company to pay for the health
care you need and what you can do to get around
that. So last week I did an entire episode on
some of the lesser known benefits of exercise
and I got far fewer messages and questions than
I usually get, which didn't surprise me because
one of the reasons I don't talk about exercise
that much on this show is because I figure most
people already know how important exercise is.
We hear about it often enough, but I've changed
my view on that. I think most people probably
don't know, really know, how important exercise
is and how to make exercise easier to get for
whatever health conditions they're struggling
with. People that you know, do you exercise regularly?
Do the people you know exercise regularly? What
stops you or people you love from getting the
exercise maybe you already know you need? Well,
I am a non -force chiropractor, and one of the
most common reasons people can't get exercise
is because of limited mobility and pain. And
there are lots of ways, even if you've quote
-unquote tried everything else, there are lots
of ways to relieve tension in your body and re
-educate your brain to eliminate patterns of
tension. So that's a new thing. Most people have
not heard of that. A lot of the musculoskeletal
pain, when you have aches and pains throughout
your body, a huge percentage of that comes from
patterns of tension that build up. over time
in your muscles and your joints. And you can
disrupt that pattern very quickly with a traditional
chiropractic adjustment. You can get a deep tissue
massage to force that tension out of your muscles
and your joints. And that feels amazing for a
little while. In my experience, it often doesn't
last as long as we might hope it would. And that
is because the pattern of tension that builds
up in your muscles that underlies much of the
pain. the aches and pains that people suffer
with that maybe come and go, but just never go
away completely. These things are due to patterns
of tension that build up from poor posture, stress,
driving a lot, sitting in front of a computer
all day, poor sleep posture. A whole host of
things contribute to this pattern of tension
that just builds up over and gets reinforced
over and over, sustained periods of time, years,
decades. And there's no flashing red light saying,
oh, there's tension building up in your hip rotator
muscles or your psoas muscle or the muscles in
your neck and upper back. But when people come
into the office with those complaints, that's
what I so often find. And it's great to get a
deep tissue massage or get a traditional chiropractic
adjustment to get quick relief from things like
that. But so often those things just don't last
because they're not addressing the fundamental
problem, which is that a pattern of tension has
built up. What does that mean? It means your
brain, normally if something is tense, if a muscle
is tense in your neck, in your back, any part
of your body, your brain is aware of that. and
we'll do something, usually when you're sleeping,
or if you have some stretching routines that
you do, that helps. But normally, you build up
tension in muscles when you're working, when
you're doing things that require your muscles
to work, and then you sleep, and you rest, and
you get up the next morning, and that tension
is gone. Well... Over time, especially as we
get older, some of that tension from the day
before is still there when you get up the next
day. And some of it's still there when you get
up the following year or the following decade.
Some of that same tension is there. And that's
because your body always wants to protect itself
from any kind of perceived threat. And there
are ways to help your brain realize that the
perceived threat is gone. It is totally safe
to relax and release the tension. those muscles.
So I mentioned that because I suspect, I strongly
suspect that most people know how important exercise
is. Maybe not, they know it's important for cardiovascular
health, maybe for mental health, which is what
we talked about last week. But if you're not
doing it, you know, there must be a reason. So
fatigue, aches and pains, I think are top of
the list. And there are ways that you're probably
not familiar with that can help eliminate that
fatigue. eliminate the aches and pains so that
you and folks you love can do the exercise that
maybe they already want to do, but just can't
do because of fatigue and pain. So if you know
folks like that, I'd love to be able to help
them. So last week, it didn't surprise me that
I didn't get as many questions about exercise,
but I... It brings to mind the fact that I want
to encourage you to please contact me with any
questions you have, or if you have family members
that you know have certain... questions that
they're not getting answered by their regular
doctor, please contact me. I always encourage
you to contact me. Send me an email, drbinkley
at binkleyhealingcenter .com. You can even text
me, 805 -218 -3939 is my cell phone. You can
text me anytime or email me anytime. You're never
going to bother me because I only check my email
a couple of times a day. So you're not going
to get an instant response if you email me. And
just know also that the ringer on my phone is
always off. So if you want to speak to me on
the phone, I'm happy to do that too. But the
easiest way to do that is to text me and send
a message saying, please call me. Happy to do
it. But the ringer's always off on my phone because
I get just far too many spam texts. But that
also makes me available. You can leave a text
anytime. You won't bother me. Just know if you
want to talk on the phone, leave a message and
I'll call you back. So I'd love to hear from
you. What do you like about this show? What do
you like most about this show? What would you
like to hear more of? Is there a health topic
or condition that you'd like to hear about, to
know more about? If it's something you're interested
in, many people, many other people are probably
interested. as well. So email me, text me, and
we'll talk about it on next week's show or privately.
If you have a private question, I can just respond
to you directly as well. So there's a great new
article that came out in the medical press last
week about how the 10 ,000 daily step goal is
debunked by a huge study published in Lancet
Public Health. It's a British medical journal.
So if you've never heard about it, a lot of people
have. The goal based on research since the 80s
in Japan is to get 10 ,000 steps a day. People
buy Fitbits, smartwatches, pedometers, other
devices. You can track your steps every day.
And the healthiest goal has always been to get
10 ,000 steps. So this latest research was published
in the British journal Lancet Public Health by
Dr. Melody Dean, PhD, Master of Public Health,
the University of Sydney, and her colleagues
on sample sizes for each outcome range from 61
,000 to 100 ,000. 161 ,000 for type 2 diabetes
and all -cause mortality. And her main point
is, we've always heard it was 10 ,000 steps a
day on official target for decades. And her research
has shown, their research has shown that 5 ,000
to 7 ,000 steps may be enough to dramatically
improve your health. So historically, the difference
between 10 ,000 steps And 7 ,000 steps did show
substantially lower risks for all -cause mortality,
cardiovascular disease, cancer mortality, dementia,
and depression. But the difference in all of
those things between getting 7 ,000 steps a day
and 10 ,000 steps a day was very small. And for
many of them, there was no statistical difference
at all between 7 ,000 and 10 ,000 steps. So they
performed a systematic review, pooling 57 studies
on daily steps and health outcomes. They used
31 studies. Sample sizes ranged from 61 ,000
to 161 ,000 for various conditions. And compared
with only 2 ,000 steps a day. First of all, it's
important to know there's other research that
shows that the average American gets about 5
,000 steps a day. If you're not just getting
out of bed. getting in your car, sitting at a
desk all day, and then reversing the process
when you get home. If you're up and about doing
any normal, what most people consider normal
daily activities, a lot of Americans get about
5 ,000 steps a day, and that's about two and
a half miles of walking. 10 ,000 steps is about
five miles. So 5 ,000 steps is about two and
a half miles of walking, and every step counts.
pretty much everyone is getting more than 2 ,000
steps. So this is what her data showed. Compared
with 2 ,000 steps a day, walking 7 ,000 steps
a day, not 10 ,000, but 7 ,000 steps a day compared
to only 2 ,000, was associated with a 47 % lower
risk of all causes of death, 25 % lower risk
of cardiovascular disease, 47 % lower risk of
cardiovascular disease mortality, dying from
a heart attack or a stroke. 37 % lower risk of
cancer mortality. 14 % lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
38 % lower risk of dementia. Very important to
keep your brain healthy, to exercise, to keep
the blood flowing to your brain. 22 % lower risk
of depressive symptoms. And 28 % lower risk of
falls. Well, this is really exciting news because
a lot of people think, oh my God, 10 ,000 steps.
I tried it. Get a pedometer. You get a smartwatch.
You get a Fitbit. Check your steps and you're
not anywhere near 10 ,000 steps. Some people
think, well, why bother then? I have to get the
10 ,000 steps or I'll just do my normal daily
routine. Well, every step counts. That's the
takeaway, most important thing to remember to
know about this if you don't know it already.
Every step counts. So if you increase it even
slightly, it's worth doing. And especially if
you can target a goal of 7 ,000 steps a day,
which is for many people going to be much easier
to achieve. Just achieving 7 ,000 steps a day
dramatically improves so many health outcomes
from all causes of death, cardiovascular disease,
cancer, cancer mortality, type 2 diabetes, dementia
is a big one, and lower risk of depression and
falling. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening
to Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost
Any Health Challenge. Here's an exciting study
demonstrating the benefits of exercise for reducing
your risk and improving survival outcomes for
colon cancer. It's a challenge study. published
in the American Society of Clinical Oncology,
and then simultaneously in the New England Journal
of Medicine. The authors of this study were very
excited about it, and I think for good reason,
because a modest structured exercise program
improved survival outcomes in patients who had
gone through chemotherapy for colon cancer. It
was conducted at 55 sites, predominantly in Canada
and Australia, 889 patients who had undergone
surgical removal of stage 3 or high -risk stage
2 colon cancer, and all these patients had completed
chemotherapy within the past two to six months.
So the phase 3 trial showed a 28 % reduced risk
of disease recurrence or death. These findings
were reported by Dr. Christopher Booth, Queen's
University in Kingston, Ontario. And five -year
survival rate is a common metric for cancer studies.
But beyond that, the study's results showed a
substantial overall survival benefit with the
exercise group as well, with an eight -year overall
survival of 90 .3 % in the exercise group. So
Dr. Booth summarized these findings during a
briefing at the American Society of Clinical
Oncology as follows. The CHALLENGE trial sets
a new standard of care for colon cancer. It's
a program of structured exercise after surgery
and adjuvant chemotherapy, which meaningfully
improves fitness, disease -free survival, and
overall survival. Well, this is huge because
it's basically a first -in -class anti -cancer
effect for a new form. of cancer therapy, the
benefit of which is so substantial that it's
comparable and in some cases exceeds the magnitude
of benefit from standard medical therapies in
oncology. Well, this is an oncologist talking
to a group of other oncologists at an annual
meeting saying that exercise is as good as and
even better than standard medical therapies in
oncology, which are chemotherapy, radiation,
and surgery. So that's profound. Pamela Koons,
Dr. Pamela Koons of Yale School of Medicine.
in New Haven at this conference was quoted as
saying, this is the first randomized phase three
trial in pages with high risk colon cancer to
demonstrate that post -treatment exercise is
actually doable, that patients were able to do
this where so many cancer patients can't, but
for various reasons, it's not only doable, but
achievable and effective in improving disease
-free survival. So that's exciting. And it's
important to point out now that she's mentioning
that, that why is it so difficult? Well, if you're
going through chemotherapy and radiation, you're
miserable. In addition to nausea and all the
other side effects, fatigue is just huge. A lot
of people are too fatigued to exercise when they're
not undergoing chemotherapy and radiation and
recovering from surgery, going through any kind
of cancer treatment. So the fact that they demonstrated
that this could work in people with advanced
cancer undergoing standard cancer therapies is
really exciting. And for those who are fatigued,
and overwhelmed and finding it very difficult
to do any form of exercise, please have them
contact me because there are ways to get your
body to a point where you can move your body
enough to make a substantial difference. And
far too many people don't know how to do that.
They know it's important, but they haven't figured
out a way that works for them. Everybody's different.
People need a little support for something like
this. There are ways that you probably use someone
you love, somebody out there who could benefit
from moving their body a little bit more and
just hasn't figured out a way to make it easy,
make it not such a Herculean effort to get out
and move. I had a man in his 70s come in a few
weeks ago that was struggling, starting to get
some earlier signs of Parkinson's, having difficulty
standing up from a seated position and walking.
But he did. He went to a neurologist and did
a full workup, and he does not have Parkinson's.
He does have a lot of stiff muscles throughout
his body and some weaknesses. So I showed him
how to do some simple stretches that are easy
for anyone to do. to loosen up and eliminate
some of that tension in the muscles that prevents
you a lot of times you feel like a muscle just
gets stuck just you're stopped and that's often
because of stiffness that you're not even aware
of But your body becomes aware of it when suddenly
it's just finally the final straw is muscles
are so tight that if you do a specific motion,
it triggers a dramatic response. So dramatic
that your body thinks you're about to tear some
tissue. You're about to injure yourself and it
just stops you. So there are ways to identify
those problems. Do some simple stretches. That's
what I did with this man. So I showed him how
to do some stretches for his hamstrings and his
calf muscles. And I did some stretches on the
table with his hip rotator muscles. Very common
problem. commonly overlooked problem. And then
I showed him how to do some simple squatting
exercises by holding onto a bar. If you imagine
holding onto a ballet bar or a stair rail, people
that don't have a bar like that in their house,
which is most people, I encourage, I just recommend
that they hold onto the edge of their kitchen
sink. and do some very simple squatting exercises,
not bending the knees beyond 90 degrees, and
most importantly, going down slowly, and even
more importantly, coming up very slowly. So just
with your own body weight for somebody who's
a little bit older and having weak muscles in
their legs, doing simple squats, squatting down
very slowly, and even more importantly, coming
back up very slowly is a gentle, effective way.
to increase strength, and it's flooding your
brain with feedback from those muscles and from
those nerves that control those muscles, which
will indirectly reduce your risk of falling,
have a better balance, and reduce the risk of
falls. In other news, here's a catchy headline.
This diet pattern is linked with worse survival
in colon cancer. So this is published in JAMA
Oncology. Greater intake of pro -inflammatory
foods was associated with worse overall survival
in patients with stage 3 colon cancer. So the
way they measured this is there's an EDIP score,
empirical dietary inflammation pattern score.
Say that three times fast. Basically, it's just
a questionnaire to study what people are eating
and specifically a list, a short list of 18 specific
food groups, which correlate with increased plasma
levels of C -reactive protein. IL -6 and TNF
-alpha, which are all blood tests that measure
systemic inflammation in your body. So certain
foods have caused inflammation in your body in
ways that can actually be measured. on blood
tests with tests like CRP, IL -6, and TNF -alpha.
These are measures for systemic inflammation
throughout your body. IL -6 and TNF -alpha are
cytokines. If you ever heard about the cytokine
storm that happened during COVID when people
got overwhelmed with cytokine production, chronic
inflammation that was a common cause of death
in COVID. So anyway, this was validated in several
large cohorts. Pro -inflammatory foods include
red and processed meats. refined grains and anti
-inflammatory foods to do the opposite have the
opposite effect include leafy greens dark yellow
vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes
they also measured coffee tea and wine which
actually had anti -inflammatory benefits so these
findings build upon a number of other studies
linking inflammation and colon cancer And these
two cohort studies showed that diets high in
pro -inflammatory foods conferred a much greater
risk of developing colorectal cancer. The takeaway
is avoid processed meats like ham and salami
and other processed meats that you buy in the
deli section of the supermarket, especially if
they have nitrates in them. If you love those
foods, as I do, I love ham. I love certain salamis.
I eat it in small amounts. And you can get them
without nitrates. Trader Joe's, some health food
stores have products, and if it's what you're
looking for, they will prominently advertise
that on the label, no added nitrates or nitrites.
These are one of the main... preservative chemicals
added to these processed meats that are hugely
a part of why they confer an increased risk.
of colon cancer. And also eat more greens. Eat
a big salad every day. My favorite recommendation
is a lot of people don't eat enough for lunch.
A lot of people skip lunch if they're working
in a nine to five job and eat their biggest meal
at night. Dinner is the largest meal for most
people. It's just part of our culture, but we
don't need a lot of food to sleep. It's much
better to eat your biggest meal in the middle
of the day at lunch and an easy way to get. And
some people say, well, I like to eat salads,
but you also have to have something with that.
Well, you can make a salad that is filling. Here's
how you do it. Make a salad for four people with
some good protein in it. Chicken, fish, nuts,
seeds, whatever kind of protein you like. Make
a salad for four people. and then eat the whole
thing yourself. So that's what a lot of people
don't do. They like salads maybe, but they just
think of it as a side dish. They don't eat enough.
They don't eat a big enough salad. So eat a huge
salad. And if you don't know how to make, if
that sounds disgusting or unpalatable to you,
email me and I will send you some recipes for
my favorite salads. It's not that difficult to
make. Really, really delicious salads. Better
than you can get or at least as good as you can
get in some high -end restaurants that might
be more healthy for you and still delicious with
a few simple tips. One of the most important
of which is don't put salad dressing from a bottle
or a jar and pour it on top of a bunch of dry
leaves. First step in a great salad, in my humble
opinion, is to get a big bowl, like one of these
big stainless steel bowls like you see in restaurants.
Put your greens in there, your spinach, your
mixed greens, whatever kind of greens you're
going to kale, whatever kind of greens you're
going to use as the base of your salad. And first,
put a little... a little salt and pepper and
some olive oil and either lemon juice or balsamic
vinegar and then toss all of that first so you
evenly coat all of the greens with a nice layer
of salt and pepper and acid and delicious healthy
olive oil and then whatever else you're gonna
put in the salad, put that on top and then don't
toss it because all that stuff will end up on
the bottom of the salad. The most important thing
is jar salad dressings, bottled salad dressings
are usually not very good for you at all. And
they're just not as tasty as making a good vinaigrette,
tossing your greens in that first and then putting
everything else on top and then maybe adding
a little extra vinaigrette on top of that. It
can also be nice if you like tomatoes on your
salad. One of my favorite things is to chop up
a couple of tomatoes, put them in a bowl, With
some Kalamata olives and some fresh chopped garlic
and some fresh chopped shallots. a little salt
and pepper, a little herb de Provence, and the
same vinaigrette, olive oil and some balsamic
vinegar. Sometimes I'll chop a whole avocado
into that and then toss that in a little bowl
and then add that to the top of the salad later.
And then if you're not a vegan or a vegetarian,
you want to put some animal protein on it, chicken
or salmon. If you don't have time to broil a
piece of salmon, that's a delicious thing to
add to any salad. Anything, for example, Anything
you think of that you would normally have on
a sandwich, you can put on a salad. You can put
any type of meat that you would normally eat
as a sandwich on a bed of mixed greens with a
vinaigrette and have that. As a salad, for example,
I like to make lemon chicken. I'll take some
leftover breast of chicken from a roasted chicken,
chop it up in little chunks and put it in a bowl
and squeeze the better part of a whole lemon
on it. Soak it in fresh squeezed lemon juice,
salt and pepper, a little herb de Provence. I
just did this yesterday with a delicious jalapeno
olive oil and it was to die for. And then, you
know, you stir that up a little bit, let it soak
for a little bit before you eat it. make lemon
chicken. Sometimes I'll also take some chicken
breast, chunked chicken breast and add a little
bit of oil and lemon and a fair amount of Dijon
mustard. Dijon mustard, you can get a couple
of different kinds, the yellow creamy kind. I
buy these at Trader Joe's, and they have a chunky
kind with just the whole seeds in it for even
better flavor. So the couple of different types
of Dijon mustard and cranberries. So oil, a little
bit of lemon, Dijon mustard, and cranberries
to chunk chicken is a nice, delicious protein
to add to the center of your salad. We're about
to run out of time here. Do you have a favorite
healthy, delicious salad that you wouldn't mind
sharing with listeners to this show? Please send
it to me and I'll take a look at it. I'd love
to know your favorite salad and what you like
about it and any other questions you have regarding
any health topic. Please email me or text me.
As always, thank you for listening. See if you
can find a way to get out and move your body
and make this week healthier than last week.
Have a great weekend. You've been listening to
Safe, Effective Natural Solutions with Dr. Todd
Binkley. If you have a health question you want
discussed on the show, email your health questions
to drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter .com. Take
advantage of this opportunity to ask questions
for yourself and for your loved ones because
our health matters. Join him next Friday at 2
p .m. for Safe, Effective Natural Solutions here
on 98 .3 FM, The Word.