Listeria on Caramel Apples - 28 cases, 5 deaths over 10 states

Not exactly what you want to be thinking about when enjoying a caramel apple, but a recent outbreak of Listeria has created illness in 28 individuals over 10 states, and has resulted in 5 deaths.  You can check-up on the statistics at the CDC.gov website as things continue to develop.

The caramel apples were commercially produced, so investigators are thinking that the apples were washed appropriately, and the caramel is normally not a carrier for bacteria, so perhaps the manufacturing locations where the apples were produced had some level of contamination.\

What is listeria?
Listeria is the bacteria (lots of subspecies for this one so we'll just stick with the genus name) that causes the rare bacterial disease, Listeriosis.  You get listeriosis by eating food that was contaminated with the listeria bacteria... which I feel kind of dumb spelling that out, but hopefully it clears up any possible confusion for some non-science people out there.  Listeria is the most dangerous for pregnant women, children and the elderly as these groups are the most likely to have a weakened immune system.  It can be killed by cooking, so when you see an illness caused by it, typically it is attributed to a food item that doesn't undergo cooking, or has been cooked and prior to packaging may have come in contact with a surface that was not properly cleaned & sanitized.  The most common culprits are things like hot dogs, deli meats, milk, soft cheeses, and any raw meat, poultry, fish, vegetables and fruit.  Listeria loves to hang out at temperatures like those found in a refrigerator, but then also likes your body temperature.

The trickiest thing with Listeria is how long it can take to show signs that you ate something that was contaminated by it.  According to FoodSafety.gov, the incubation period is 3-70 days!  Incubation means how long after ingesting it the bacteria needs to hang out in your system before you start to get sick.  Can you imagine trying to remember exactly what you ate 3 days ago, let alone 70 days ago?  So you can see why it's quite possible that more people became ill than are presently reported by the CDC.

What can you do to avoid this sort of thing?  Not a lot.  I mean you could just make your own candy apples, I guess.  I think what's more important is for you to assess your own health.  If you are very healthy, then even if you were to come in contact with something like Listeria or another food pathogen you are still going to become ill, but it's less serious than if you have a weakened immune system.  If you are often ill, or pregnant, you need to take precautions to avoid food sources (as mentioned above) that are the most common carriers of this type of bacteria because the mortality rate (odds of death from coming in contact with it) is incredibly high at 20%, as compared to Salmonella around 1%.  And if you have eaten something you suspect wasn't good, or your start developing symptoms or fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and especially symptoms of meningitis (which Listeria can present with), contact your family doctor immediately.

Curb Cravings with Easy Distractions

Hmmm, did you know that Obesity Week was Nov 2-7?  Neither did I. 

Some interesting tid bits from a few of the articles I read.  Each of the articles was discussing research studies that were presented at Obesity Week.

1.  Tapping your forehead for 30-seconds can help you avoid food cravings.  Actually they looked at tapping your forehead, tapping your ear, tapping your foot, and picturing a blank white wall.  Tapping your forehead just seemed to be the most effective out of all of these, perhaps because you could see your finger doing this action as well as feeling it.  So the researchers found that when their overweight or obese subjects were asked to think about one of their biggest food cravings, they were able to diminish these thoughts with the tapping action.  It seemed to interrupt the thought process.  Worth a shot if you're having a terrible time kicking the chocolate habit.

2.  Another strategy for avoiding cravings involved cognitive strategies.  The participants could picture "allow" (where they recognize it's okay to have the food, though they don't have to act on it immediately), "distract" (where they think about something other than the craved food), "later" (where they imagine what will happen down the road if they choose to eat this food), and "now" (where they visualize the reward of eating that food right now).  The researchers then used an MRI to see what brain patterns were initiated when these thoughts were used.  They found the most effect strategy was to use the "later" strategy as it stimulated the inhibitory portion of the brain the most.

3.  American's are now seeing a shift of how we view the epidemic of obesity.  Previously we had been more likely to push the blame onto the individual and now we are thinking that it is more of a community problem.  Not sure how I feel about this one.  While a lack of nutrition education and the fundamentals behind weight loss/gain/maintenance may be a community issue, it seems odd to suggest that the individual was an innocent victim/bystander.  With this sort of stance, how are we to improve the issue and educate the public?  Do we really want to take no responsibility for our own health and act as though it is the fault of our community?

4.  Finally, a study in Scotland showed that university students who had calorie labeling clearly displayed in their dining commons were more likely to make healthier (lower calorie) choices and less likely to gain weight.  College students are notorious for gaining that famous "Freshman 15".  What they found was that without encouraging the students to make particular food choices, the students commonly would make selections based upon the calorie labels and as a result showed less incidence of unintended weight gain.  We seem to be getting closer to this situation in the outside world, with at least some fast food restaurants clearly displaying the calorie content of their items.  If only all other restaurants got on board...  although, they'd probably find themselves out of business when customers realized that their "healthy" salad choice racked up around 1100 calories!

www.medscape.com

5 Easy Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Their Veggies

Yes, I know that's a picture of a kid about to eat an octopus... or actually about to NOT eat an octopus.  But do your kids ever give you the same look when you put vegetables on their plate... and then suggest that they eat them?

Mine do.  Well, at least one of mine does.  We have a rule at our house that they don't have to like it, but they do have to try it.  Even if they've "tried" carrots 100 times, they still have to try it again.  Their taste buds are constantly changing and something they didn't care for last week, might suddenly not seem so bad today.  But, like most parents, I do get frustrated with the poor quantity of vegetables they eat so I've found a couple sneaky ways to get their goodness into my boys' sweet bods.

1.  Make it into muffins.  

Steam up some carrots, or squash, or beets, or all of the above.  Then in a blender, puree it with some of the water you used to steam it, and add those veggies to a muffin recipe.  I have one in the "recipe revamp" section if you need a good one.  My boys actually are aware that I have put carrots in the recipe, but the still eat the entire batch before they finish cooling!  

2.  Juice it.

I have taken to juicing up some kale or spinach, and then I sneak it into my spaghetti sauce.  If you are juicing a ton of kale (for example) you may see a darker color of your sauce - it goes from bright red to more maroon.  I did this the other night and I think I used about 20 large kale leaves, which definitely affected the sauce color.  But my pickiest veggie eater said he loved the sauce.  If you fear they will notice the difference and not try it because of the color, maybe you suggest a special candlelit dinner that night.  ;)

3.  Juice it.

No, I'm not a broken record.  Just another way to use those beautiful leafy greens that you juiced up.  Try juicing up some kale and/or spinach and add this to your kid's favorite smoothie recipe.  It will definitely change the color of it, so I've managed to sneak it under the radar by putting the smoothie in a colored drink container (like an orange bottle) because no matter what you had put into that container it was going to look a weird color.  The addition of that green goodness isn't going to impart enough of a flavor for them to notice.

4.  Add it to Macaroni & Cheese.

I just did this tonight for dinner, and actually was waiting to see how well it went over before writing this post.  I steamed up some yellow squash (after peeling it, scooping out the seeds and slicing it).  Then I pureed it with some of the steaming water, and added the puree mixture to my cheese sauce.  I make the cheese sauce for our Macaroni & Cheese from scratch.  I think this technique might be slightly more difficult if your plan was to add it to Kraft Mac and Cheese, but you could always give it a try.  My boys gobbled it up and never noticed a difference.

5.  Dip them in Something.

This final option seems to be the easiest way to get them to at least eat the vegetables on their plate.  If a kid has enough ranch dressing to dip their broccoli in, they don't seem to notice the flavor of the broccoli at all.  Granted, the dressing itself is not the healthiest option, but the goal is to get the vegetables in, and you could always be more conservative with the dressings/sauces on other things at that particular meal.

On a side note, more is caught than taught.  That means if your kids see you eating your veggies and trying new vegetables.  Or even occasionally opting to try a vegetable you once disliked, they may be more adventurous with food as well.

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Gluten Sensor??

Yeah!  Just came across this amazing little device that is supposed to become available for consumers the beginning of next year.  If you are one of many who has to avoid gluten in foods, for whatever reason this device somehow tests foods and alerts you as to whether or not it contains gluten!  I have absolutely no idea how it works, and I imagine most of that information won't become available until the device is ready for purchase - but imagine how liberating this would be for those who have been unable to attend events and enjoy a buffet of foods cooked by strangers, or unable to dine out at a restaurant for fear your body would suffer later.

You can check it out at www.6sensorlabs.com and be put on their waiting list.

Brown Fat

Heard of it?  It's been around for quite some time.  But who has it, what does it do, and how can I increase mine?

Brown fat is very common in rodents and babies.  Not so much in adults.  Have you ever heard someone talk about how their extra fat layers are to keep them warm when the weather gets cold?  They are hinting at brown fat, but in reality, most of our fatty (adipose) tissue isn't brown fat, it's bubbling white adipose tissue that will not assist in keeping you warm.  Good try, though.  Rodents have a large volume of brown fat to help them survive in cold months.  Babies also have a large percentage of brown fat because they lack the ability to shiver to generate heat when they're cold.  Children lost most of their brown fat in the first 2 years of life.  As adults we might possess 20-30 grams of brown tissue.  To put this in perspective, if you weight 150 pounds, this is equivalent to  68.2 kg, or 68,200 grams.  If your percent body fat is 20%, that means you are carrying around 13,640 grams of white adipose tissue... so you can see that 20-30 grams of brown fat is not an awful lot in the grand scheme of things.

It is thought that the amount of brown fat you possess varies with the seasons, and perhaps more so in parts of the globe that have dramatic shifts in temperature over the course of year.  While this is directly in line with the theory that brown fat is needed to keep you warm, and thus your body would need more when it's colder and less when it's warmer, we are incredibly good at regulating our temperature.  So even if you live in Alaska, and it's winter, the thought is that you would wear more clothing and spend more time inside when the weather turns colder, right?  For this reason it's difficult to find dramatic differences in individuals living in different parts of the world.  1.  We are working with a super small amount of tissue in any given person and 2. we are great at adjusting what we wear and what we do based upon the weather report.

So what does brown fat do?  Well it seems that when we are able to increase the amount of brown fat tissue, we also increase our basal metabolic rate... um yeah!  who doesn't want their metabolism to run a little faster while you operate in the same manner??  It also can improve insulin resistance.  I don't see this as being a direct relation to the brown fat, but more a result of your body utilizing stored fat and ingested glucose more efficiently because your metabolism is kickin' it at a higher rate.  But still a great benefit, especially for those with diabetes or a family history of diabetes.

And finally, how can you increase yours?  Best of luck to you.  Think about this for a moment... I've told you that it's a component of rodents (to keep warm in the winter) and babies (to keep warm because they don't shiver to generate heat).  And then I mentioned how great we are at keeping ourselves super comfortable...  so to increase yours even a smidge... you've got to get UNcomfortable. 

You've got to make your body work a little harder to keep warm.  I've heard of people that love sleeping in a cold room so they can bundle up under the covers.  This isn't going to help you out unless your blanket is lined with ice packs, and in that situation you probably aren't sleeping too well.  You could try layering on cold blankets to cool down your body temperature, or others have researched having individuals stand in a cold room or outside (if it's cold) for 10 minutes without activity.  While both situations resulted in some weight loss, it's unclear whether it was because the chilling induced production of more brown fat, or if it just made the individuals shiver (which will burn extra calories as your muscles spasm).

What would I do?  I would try setting your home temperature a little lower.  It may help you to feel a little cooler and stimulate some brown fat production... or it may just result in a lower heating bill.  In any case, a lack of brown fat is probably not the major reason that you are overweight, or overfat - but making an effort to stimulate it at least shows you are thinking about making some changes for a healthier you.  :)

Sweetness

Are artificial sweeteners, those things that are supposed to replace sugar and keep your blood sugar lower, the very dirt-bags that are making your blood sugar harder to control?

A research study written up in Nature (nature.com) indicates the consumption of artificial sweeteners can alter your intestinal micro-organisms.  Those lovely little bugs that keep our body healthy by warding off invaders, etc.  The use of mice helped researchers to determine that there were indeed changes occurring in the intestine that were leading to glucose intolerance (that sneaky little insulin resistance sign that diabetes is on the horizon).

How did they figure that out?  It's interesting to those of us who love science, but the gist of it is this...  They took some mice and gave them some sweet drinks (that contained either aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin).  Note that they weren't getting huge doses, they were drinking amounts comparable to the upper limit for these artificial sweeteners as determined by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration).  They were then fed a regular diet or a high fat one - and no differences between the groups was found.  The mice who drank the sweet drinks then had some of their intestinal micro-organisms transplanted into mice that never had the drinks - and the glucose intolerance continued for those mice too.  The effect of the artificial sweeteners was reduced when antibiotics were introduced (because antibiotics will often kill the good and the bad bacteria in the intestine) - so introduce something to kill the bacteria off, and you see less of the glucose intolerance effect.

The researchers found that certain pathways - those found in abundance in those with glucose intolerance - were being over-represented in those mice drinking the artificially sweetened water. 

The tough part is determining whether or not the same results would show up for humans, because although we are mammals just like the mice, our body's are not exactly the same in the way we respond to things in our diet and environment.  While studies to demonstrate our response haven't been done just yet, a small pilot study may show a hint at what would occur on a larger scale.  7 individuals who were essentially artificial sweetener-naïve (the did not routinely consume saccharin, sucralose or aspartame) were given saccharin for almost a week at a level as high as the FDA's upper limit recommendation.  4 of the participants showed impairment in glucose tolerance, while the other 3 showed no improvement.  Certainly the number of participants wasn't high enough to state that 1/2 of people would showed impaired glucose tolerance, but the whole reason for those with insulin resistance, or diabetes, using the artificial sweetener is to improve their blood sugar control... and clearly that isn't what's happening.

Really interesting results.  It furthers my thought process that we just need to stop looking for an easy fix (replace "natural X" with "artificial X" and your health problem is solved) and simply move back to eating regular foods just with more attention to portion sizes.  So this would mean that instead of someone with diabetes, or insulin resistance, opting for a diet soda over the regular soda... perhaps we just forego the soda altogether!  Or instead of opting to eat the sweet dessert made with sucralose, we instead just make a different type of dessert or have a tiny portion of the one made with sugar.

P.S.  And after reading this research article, I have yet another item to scour the grocery store looking for so I can be sure not to bring it into my home ever again.

Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, Zilberman-Schapira G, Thaiss CA, Maza O, et al.  Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014.  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13793.html

Phentermine, Qsymia and Belviq welcome Contrave to the Family

On September 11th, a new appetite-suppressing drug was approved by the FDA... Contrave.  I thought this might be a good time to talk a little bit about the prescription medications that exist for weight loss and things you may want to consider before talking to your doctor about one of them.

Phentermine
If phentermine sounds familiar it's probably because it was famously part of the the Fen-Phen diet pill that was removed from the market back in 1996.  The issue was that the combination of Phentermine and Fenfluramine was causing a significant number of cases of pulmonary hypertension.  Many more than the trials and the labeling would have led the consumer to believe.  The removal of the Fenfluramine took away some of the side effects, but Phentermine is still not approved for long-term use so keep that in mind.  Phentermine will also speed you up quite a bit.  If you get some anxiety when you drink too much coffee, well hold on to your butt with this one.  Your body does eventually adjust, but initially you'll have a ton of energy from it, perhaps too much.  Phentermine helps to suppress the appetite and it is unclear whether it has any effect on metabolism.  So with suppression of appetite, you may experience weight loss as a result of eating less food.

Belviq
Belviq acts with serotonin to accomplish weight loss.  It seems that it enhances the activity of serotonin which can help improve mood and depression symptoms.  If this is the case, then it would be beneficial to those who tend to overeat as a reaction to depression or stress.  Belviq's action is thought to affect centers in the brain that control your appetite - like the hypothalamus.  In the trials for this medication, those taking it lost 3-3.7% more than those taking a placebo.

Qsymia
Qsymia is a combination of phentermine (mentioned above) and topiramate.  Topiramate is a migraine medication which carries a laundry list of side effects.  The worst seem to be some variations of neuropathy - tingling of your hands, feet, legs, arms, face... you name it.  Topiramate, since it acts directly with brain chemistry to help migraine sufferers is going do the same to you even though you might not have migraines.  It is not clear why this particular option showed better results in studies... 6.7-8.9% more weight lost than those taking the placebo.  Again, aside from acting on your appetite the researchers cannot determine if it plays a role with increasing metabolism.  This is by far my least favorite of all the options because it carries so many horrible side effects with it, and a quick glance at the reviews of it on webmd.com don't really indicate that people care much for it.

Contrave
This is the new one.  It is a combination of an anti-addition drug, Naltrexone, and an anti-depressant, Bupropion.  The brand name, Wellbutrin, of Bupropion might be better known.  It is one of the few anti-depressants that doesn't seem to cause weight gain in users the way that so many others may.  This drug showed weight loss of 2-4.1% in users as compared to those taking the placebo.  It, like the others, is an appetite suppressant... and again researchers don't really know if it does anything else.

So what do I think of these?  Well... that's a tough call to make for me.  If the medication is somehow also affecting your basal metabolic rate, then perhaps there is some benefit.  But in medicine we need to determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks.  This is generally the reason that unless your BMI is 30+, or 27+ with a history of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, you won't be getting your hands on it.  It just isn't worth it.

The fact that most are noted to affect appetite, and very little else, may help some who are struggling to reduce their calorie intake... but that just makes me wonder what you all are going to do when you stop taking the medication.  Will the length of time you take it be long enough for you to reset your body so that you are no longer wanting to eat such large quantities of food?  Who knows.  Are people willing to do the hard work of changing their eating habits and exercising while taking the medication?  Or are people just thinking they can pop the pill and solve all their problems?  I think these appetite-suppressing pills are a great alternative to those considering things like gastric bypass or lap-band surgery.  Much less invasive.  But if all they're really doing is suppressing your appetite, then do you think that maybe you could have saved that money and exercised some more effort on controlling over-eating behaviors?  What do you think?
 

Vitamin D and Infertility

I really am kind of on a Vitamin D kick lately... and I mean that literally as I've been taking 2000 IU's of this greatness for 2 weeks now and feeling awesome!

But I digress, the Vit D kick continues as I came across this post on medscape.com.  They commented on a study that found that being deficient in Vitamin D might hurt your chances of conceiving using IVF (in vitro fertilization).  Interestingly, they note in their report of the study that just by increasing your Vitamin D levels above 20 ng/mL you increased your odds of successfully implanting embryos.  Note that the normal range is typically thought to be more like 30-100 ng/mL with most health benefits occurring when you're riding around the middle of the normal range.

So this got me to thinking... because often when a woman is having trouble conceiving, she will do just about anything the doctor recommends.  One step may be to start a prenatal vitamin to help improve the odds of conception, right?  So I looked up a popular prenatal vitamin to see what levels of Vitamin D it provides.  Not surprisingly, it contains the 400 IU RDA for Vitamin D.  I'm not mad at the supplement company, but you would do yourself a solid if you upped your intake of Vitamin D to a higher level since this RDA is steadily being recognized as an outdated number.

Are you trying to conceive or looking at the expense of IVF?  Why not start a Vitamin D3 supplement to help improve your chances of conception, or have your levels checked to see if this might be contributing to your infertility.  NatureMade does make lots of Vitamin D3 supplements, as do places like Nature's Sunshine.  The key is to look for D3 as opposed to D2 as it's more readily used by your body (D3 is what sunlight hitting your skin allows your body to manufacture).

Vitamin D, you sneaky little devil!!

Are you wondering what the heck that picture shows?  It's supposed to look like the inside of your head (the squigglies are your brain matter, the chevron-ish symbol highlighted  with pink is your hypothalamus which sits just above your pituitary gland which is the highlighted asterisk... and then down below in the neck area is the thyroid gland which looks like a bowtie).

The picture is showing you how these different endocrine (hormonal) glands work together.  Well... the picture in addition to my notes scribbled to the side.  Let's talk a little bit about why you might want to up the amount of Vitamin D in your diet or add a sweet Vitamin D3 supplement.  Vitamin D has a lot of responsibilities, but this shows you just one of them.  Leptin signals the brain that we need more energy.  It sends a message to the hypothalamus.  The hypothalamus responds by sending TRH (thyrotropin releasing hormone).  Interestingly "thyrotropin" is another name for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone).  TRH travels to the pituitary gland where it [the pituitary] responds to the influx of TRH by releasing TSH.  TSH does just like it sounds... it heads over to the thyroid gland, and stimulates it to release more thyroid hormones.  The thyroid gland creates/releases the thyroid hormones T4 (thyroxine) and T3 (triiodothyronine).  It releases a whole lot more T4 in comparison to T3.  In the peripheral (outer) tissues, the body can then convert free T4 hormones to the more active free T3 hormones as needed (free=not bound to protein, thus available for use).  In our cells, T3 aids in helping to create ATP (energy) within the mitochondria.  Mitochondria are our energy powerhouses.  This increase in the production of ATP increases our ability to perform more activity.  Thus energy is produced.

The ATP is generated in a number of different ways from the macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate and protein) we consume with a lot of complex cycles that aren't necessary for you to fully comprehend to appreciate how amazing they are.  We can create energy from the food you just recently ate, and also from food you ate a while ago that was stored for later use (as fat).  But what does Vitamin D have to do with any of this?  Well, in order for the Pituitary Gland to take the signal coming from the release of TRH and transform that into a release of TSH, it needs Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is in a difficult spot because unlike other vitamins, it can be manufactured by the body.  It leads some to refer to it as a pro-hormone.  Proper exposure of the skin to sunlight should be sufficient in producing enough Vitamin D.  But is it really?  We have long been told that those United States residents who live at or below the 35th parallel (no farther north than Amarillo, Texas - as a reference point) receive enough sunlight to not need Vitamin D supplementation, whereas those residing north of this area would need a supplement between the months of November and May each year.  

Sufficient levels of Vitamin D can be determined with a simple blood test.  Naturally all labs will vary some in their testing of this and what their "normal" range is.  I recently had mine checked just to take it off the list of possible issues in my personal healthcare journey.  Normal range for my lab was 30.0-100.0 ng/mL.  My Vitamin D level was 30.1 ng/mL!  I was shocked.  We have enjoyed a spectacular summer in the Pacific Northwest, and I spent nearly every waking moment outside enjoying it - with the worst track record for applying sunscreen to myself.  Surely this should have resulted in a fabulous Vitamin D level in the middle of the normal range (therapeutic range), not at the bitter bottom!

With these results, I then pulled out my combination Calcium, Vitamin D3, Magnesium and Zinc supplement to see what levels that would provide.  I was quite sporadic when I did take it (between November and May), and was disappointed to find that even when I took it, the tablets were only giving me about 400 IU's of Vitamin D - and the current recommendations are more like 2000-4000.  Apparently I wasn't alone.  Residents in Orange County California showed similar issues with their Vitamin D levels.  In a random sample of 151 residents, 19.2% were deficient in Vitamin D.  It was disappointing to see this, since they sit around the 33rd-34th parallel, and thus shouldn't need supplementation at all during the year.  The results of my own labs and those found in other parts of the country made me wonder how low my levels were dropping during the fall-spring months when our sunlight is so limited.  No wonder I would often feel so lacking in energy and motivation.  I had always attributed it to the short days and long nights... and the gloomy gray weather, but was lack of Vitamin D to blame too?

Vitamin D can take some time to show improvement in your baseline levels, though supplementation may make you feel better long before your labs reflect it.  Having your levels checked isn't necessary.  You can pretty much assume that you aren't getting enough if you spend very little time outside, wear tons of sunscreen, and live in an area of the country about the 35th parallel (which applies to most of us).  

Another way you may be able to assume a low Vitamin D level might be if your thyroid tests are sub-par.  This actually was the initial factor that has gotten me this far.  My energy level was very low and my body was beyond stubborn when it came to weight loss.  My TSH levels always came back within the normal range (TSH fluctuates during the course of the day), but my thyroid hormones were off.  My free T4 was below the normal range, and my free T3 was barely into the normal range.  We determined that my T4 was doing a fine job of converting to T3, but why was my body opting to produce so little of them?  It wasn't even being stimulated to make more - otherwise we would have seen an increase in TSH to help bring them up into the middle of the normal range where they might actually show some real benefit.  Could it be that my low levels of Vitamin D were preventing the signal from getting to the pituitary gland?  Or preventing the pituitary gland from doing something with the signal?  Time will tell.  I have started my daily dose of 2000 IU's of Vitamin D3 (yes choose D3 over D2) and in another 10 weeks (12 weeks from when I started) I get to have my Vitamin D level rechecked, in addition to a recheck of my free T4 and free T3.

If you're struggling with low thyroid levels and you live in any part of the country, you may want to seek out a high quality Vitamin D3 supplement to help encourage smoother signals in the brain to assist in creating more energy for your body.  The fact that you supplement D3 and raise your levels doesn't mean your body will lose weight as a result, but it may give your body the energy it needs to move more, and more exercise/activity could result in better body composition in the end.

1.  D'Emden MC, Wark JD. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 enhances thyrotropin releasing hormone induced thyrotropin secretion in normal pituitary cells. Endocrin. 1987;121(3):1192-4
2.  Vidali S, Kneuver J, Lerchner J, Giesen M, Biro T, Klinger M, Kofler B, Funk W, Poeggeler B, Paus R. Hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis hormones stimulate mitochondrial function and biogenesis in human hair follicles. J Invest Dermatol. 2014;134(1):33-42.
3.  Horani M, Dror A, Holland D, Caporaso F, Sumida KD, Frisch F. Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency in Orange County Residents. J Comm Health. 2011;36(5):760-764.

Pain in the... ?

Let's talk about pain for a moment.  Pain in any part of your body is unwelcomed.  It really wears on you.  I am very fortunate to not have to deal with chronic pain.  Those that do, I applaud your strength because it is really draining.  Even low level pain, for a long period of time, can wear you down.

The big problem with pain is figuring out how to remove it or, at a minimum, manage it.  Some people make use of prescription narcotics.  Others utilize over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers like Ibuprofen, Aleve, or Tylenol.

I recently (within the past 6 months) have developed an issue with one of my knees.  For me it is not a joint issue, meaning it's not a meniscus tear, or arthritis, instead it's inflammation of a fluid-filled sac called a bursa.  The bursa is a great little tool.  It protects the ligaments riding on top of it from rubbing against whatever bone is beneath their insertion point.  We've got them in a number of different spots.  The issue comes when this bursa becomes inflamed.  There isn't a whole lot of room for swelling in these spots, so any swelling creates intense pain, and unfortunately there isn't much you can do to relieve the pain aside from waiting for the swelling to go down.

I tried everything.  First Tylenol, because I had some laying around and it usually works for my aches and pains.  Next I tried Ibuprofen, even though it wasn't usually effective for me, because I wasn't getting relief from the Tylenol.  When that didn't really do the trick, I moved onto Aleve, which may work great for pains that were relieved with Tylenol, but since mine wasn't relieved with Tylenol the Aleve was pretty useless too.  Mind you I wasn't taking all of these on the same day - the Tylenol and Aleve most definitely isn't something you want to double up on (they are both processed through the liver).

So nothing was helping, and I was getting less and less sleep - as bursitis does a fabulous job of sending out shooting pains that wake you up in the middle of the night repeatedly.  I had written a little on the anti-inflammatory benefits of Curcumin (the active component of Turmeric, the spice), but my mindset had focused more on reducing systemic inflammation that can lead to atherosclerosis and other diseases.  I hadn't really thought too much about the benefits for pain relief as a serious anti-inflammatory herb.  This began a few days of research reading.  I tend to overlook personal accounts of benefit - like what you might find all over the internet - and dig deeper for research studies showing results.

The animal studies I found showed benefit in rats who had laboratory-induced arthritis and were then supplemented with Curcumin.  Humans who were given either Curcumin or Ibuprofen seemed to show similar relief of pain for their arthritis as well.  In fact in the human study it was showing a mg:mg benefit - meaning for every 400 mg of ibuprofen they showed the same relief with 400 mg of Curcumin.  Interesting.  So this is where I started.  And at this range I was not showing much of any relief.  I was taking in a 500 mg capsule in the morning and then a few hours later would do another - but was never getting past the pain.  It was frustrating.  I still wasn't sleeping.  Ugh.  It made me wonder whether perhaps the placebo effect was taking over with the participants in that study.  They perceived they would feel less pain, and thus reported less pain.  Grrrr.

A few days later, overtired and seeking relief, I went digging for more data.  This is where I started coming across actual level of Curcumin that were needed for pain relief.  This was no low level, few 100 mg's, it was some serious consumption of 3000, 6000, 8000, and 12000 mg.  The dose of 3000 mg of this stuff made my consumption look like a joke.  No wonder I hadn't felt any better!  These studies were showing dramatic improvement in pain, even bone-on-bone issues where the patient should have felt pain but instead only complained of joint stiffness.  So I started upping my intake.  On that day I started with 2000 mg, and then ever 1-2 hours I would take another 1000 mg until I noticed a difference.  For me it was right around 5000-6000 mg where I noticed that I didn't notice the pain anymore.  The studies had shown a relatively short life of the Curcumin in your system, with limited effect after 12 hours - which just told me that prior to going to bed I might want to consume a little more.  The past few nights I can say that my sleep hasn't been uninterrupted by the bursitis pain, but I've only awoken one time each night to reposition and fell right back to sleep - instead of crying in desperation and eventually crashing after about an hour of wakefulness in the middle of the night.

Now this sounds great, but what's the catch, right?  Well the reason why try to avoid overdoing it with the Tylenol and Ibuprofen is the possible side effects.  Too much of either can seriously irritate your stomach - some people even develop ulcers and subsequent bleeding - and the Tylenol has to be processed through your liver which could effect the health of that organ too.  The Curcumin (or Turmeric) doesn't irritate the stomach and is metabolized as a food substance which is less detrimental to your organs than a synthetically generated medication.  In the studies, the only side effects seen were at the 12000 mg level and seemed to just be the occasional complaint of diarrhea.  Hmmmm.  So those taking 8000 mg or less didn't really complain of any issues, even when taking the supplement for 6+ months straight.  I will say that after having taken 6000-8000 mg per day for the past few days the only complaint I have is the occasional burp after swallowing the capsule - which tastes like death.  ;)   You would think swallowing a pill full of a spice like Turmeric would make it taste like Indian food, but nope!  Oh and the color of your poop might be a little surprise.  Kind of a yellow/orange color when you are ingesting that much bright orange spice.

What would I recommend?  Well... if you're dealing with pain, why not give it a shot?  It's not going to hurt you.  And for those taking prescription medications to deal with pain, if the Curcumin takes the edge off the pain so that you can now manage it with OTC meds, wouldn't that be a step in the right direction?

You certainly can ingest more Turmeric spice - but you'd be hard pressed to consume all that you need by adding it to your food... not to mention the fact that a ground spice is often "watered down" with anti-clumping agents so you really don't know exactly how much Turmeric/Curcumin you're getting.  I'm not saying this is unique to McCormick spices... I just happened to have some of their Turmeric lying around.  :)

The capsules seem to be the best route.  I would look for one that is 1000mg + per capsule.  My original experiment with this supplement utilized 500mg capsules, which makes for swallowing a lot of pills if you're trying to get to 6000mg per day.  The other thing to look for is a supplement that contains piperine as it helps to increase the bioavailability (ability of your body to access the active component of the supplement).  Black Pepper is one ingredient that can accomplish this.

CurcuminBP from Nature's Sunshine

I have ordered up some of this Curcumin from Nature's Sunshine which does contain the Black Pepper and also comes in the 1000 mg size.  I like that Nature's Sunshine puts enough of a supplement in each bottle to last 1 month, according to their portion size, but for my present level of need, this jar will only last about 1/3 of a month.  My current supplement did not contain the piperine.  I will comment after I have started taking this one about whether I notice improvement from the new brand or not.

The darker your bedroom, the better

Interesting research regarding the environment in which you sleep. Researchers are finding that the lightness of the room you sleep in may have an impact on your waistline.

I’m a big proponent of sleep. I always have been. Perhaps it’s party because I know what an awful job my body does of dealing with situations and responding to my commands when I haven’t slept well. During my graduate program I wrote a few research papers looking at things like Diabetes, Obesity and Shift-work. It was very easy to find studies looking at how going against our natural circadian clocks (that set our sleep/wake cycle) could create illness. The primary reason behind this was that those who were awake at night and had to sleep during the day were not having restful sleep during the day as their body was not coded to release melatonin (a sleep factor) at that time. Without the release of melatonin, the sleep cycle was easily disturbed resulting in poor rest patterns. And without appropriate amounts of rest, the body rebelled and accumulated extra weight resulting from the lack-of-sleep stress. The tendency to gain weight was independent of eating habits, meaning no matter how well you tried to eat a healthy diet, if you weren’t getting adequate sleep your body packed on extra weight and increased your risk of developing Diabetes.

Okay, so what does this recent research study have to do with that? Well, this study utilized a questionnaire to ask women about the environment in which they sleep. They were asked to rate the "lightness" of the room when they were sleeping. Light enough to read, light enough to see across the room (but not read), light enough to see your hand in front of you (but not across the room), or too dark to see your hand (or wears a mask) were the options to determine the lightness/darkness of the room. What they found was that independent of diet and exercise factors, those who slept in the lighter rooms were more likely to be overweight than those sleeping in darker rooms. The researchers theorized that this was because the presence of light, even when sleeping, can interfere with production of melatonin thus resulting in less restful sleep. This would be true even if the participant claims to be asleep the entire night - as melatonin would allow for more restful sleep waves with less time spent in the lightest levels of sleep.

So the best recommendations based upon this study are to sleep in a super dark room, without distractions (like the light from a television). If you live in a part of the country where this is difficult at times of the year (like us up here in the Pacific Northwest, or Alaska) you may want to look for blackout shades or purchase a sleep mask.

If you are waking up after sleeping 7-8+ hours and not feeling well rested, perhaps it’s time to evaluate your sleeping conditions as this should be enough to allow you to feel refreshed when you awake. 

If you do nothing else for your body to encourage good health, at least set yourself on the right foot with a good night’s sleep.

Am J Epidemiol. 2014;180(3):245-250. © 2014 Oxford University Press

Bliss Point and Obesity

Have you heard of this?  Doesn't it sound fabulous?  I mean who doesn't want to hit a point of bliss when they're eating something?  Isn't this the same as a food-gasm?

Well, not exactly.  The bliss point is something very different when we start talking about food - it is the holy mecca that the food industry doesn't want you to get to.  If you related it to sex, it would be the equivalent of really good, almost satisfying sex.  Imagine this... if someone wants to sell you a lot of their food, do they really want those first couple of bites to fully satisfy you?  Or would they sell more food if the flavors tantalized you, but didn't quite hit that satisfaction point?

The hypothalamus, in your brain, is what tells you that you are satisfied - in a number of different realms.  If you overwhelm one point of this satisfaction equation, you become delighted with whatever you consumed and no longer feel the need to keep eating it.  If a snack maker wants you to keep buying and eating their snack, they have to be sure the flavors are inviting, and addictive but never quite satisfy the hypothalamus.

Consider an example of chips.  Do you remember when Lay's potato chips came out with their slogan "betcha can't eat just one"?  They have to be sure you don't eat just one, because they won't sell many chips.  Lay's and other manufacturers do this by utilizing food chemists to concoct a fabulous array of seasonings/spices to dust onto their product.  Let's say that a spicy chip was going to get all of its heat from cayenne pepper.  If it did this, the hypothalamus would be hit repeatedly in the same spot, and satisfaction would occur - thus the Bliss Point would be reached.  You wouldn't feel the desire to keep eating the chips.  Instead, the chemist takes some of the cayenne pepper, in combination with other spices to reach the same level of heat, without reaching the bliss point of any of the receptors in the brain.  The same idea exists with the creation of sweet products.

So how does this relate in any way to obesity?  Well, let's think for a moment about the makeup of these snack products.  Typically not the healthiest ingredient lists.  So if you were to over-consume on calorie-dense, refined food products, your health and waist line will eventually suffer.  Then we've gone ahead and made the products unsatisfying to your brain with our wicked way of tweaking the flavors, so you continue to seek out more of these products in the hopes of hitting your bliss point.  Consider one more factor for a moment as well... your hypothalamus is also responsible for sensing that you've consumed enough calories with the release of leptin.  Leptin is released from our fatty tissue (storage).  If we start to accumulate a lot of stored fat, leptin continues to hit the hypothalamus, telling us to eat less - but we ignore it.  The more we ignore it the more the hypothalamus starts to tune out this signal - and we just eat more and more and become heavier and heavier.  Then on top of that, we feed ourselves snack foods that tease the hypothalamus to the brink of bliss, but without quite getting there.

Does this sound like a recipe [pun totally intended] for disaster?  How can we expect to maintain some semblance of health, when we feed ourselves garbage and then ignore our body's signals to eat less.  It's not that the food industry is to blame.  They have a bottom line to maintain and shareholders to report to.  It's not the food chemists' fault for creating these impressive concoctions -  not every chemist can go onto greatness and create the prescription drug that cures debilitating diseases.  It's our fault for indulging in these snacks and then being mystified when we have to loosen our belts.

The diet industry is taking note too.  Do remember the advertisements for Sensa?  I think this stuff is still around in some format.  You were supposed to shake it on your food and you would lose weight.  I hadn't really looked into it, I just had it stuck in my head that it was some sort of filler.  Like a fiber flake that filled up your stomach.  Nope.  This stuff was a seasoning.  It was virtually tasteless, yet was somehow adding more than enough flavor to a food to make it satisfy the hypothalamus!  Genius.  It was probably made by the same food manufacturers that created the problem in the first place!  AHHHHH!

So what would I do?  Just eat real food!  Make it yourself, make it from scratch (which doesn't take as long as people think), and then enjoy it.  You'll be satisfied because you aren't creating crap that doesn't satisfy, and you'll start listening to your body's cues again.  Achieve bliss in your own kitchen.

Co-enzyme Q10 - aka CoQ10 - aka Ubiquinone

Nature's Sunshine Coenzyme Q10

My comments a moment ago regarding the research on statins and diabetes risk inspired me to look into whether the increased incidence was a result of decreased levels of CoQ10. Coenzyme Q10 is produced by the body but levels diminish when an individual is taking something like a statin medication - or a supplement like Red Yeast Rice (http://www.naturessunshine.com/us/product/red-yeast-rice-120-caps/558/?support=3222472) which is an herbal cholesterol-lowering supplement. Replacement of the CoQ10 (http://www.naturessunshine.com/us/product/co-q10-50-mg-30-softgel-caps/4109/?support=3222472) is essential, but often not done and not even discussed by the physician prescribing the statin meds.

So this is what I have found thus far. 
1. Mice given Co-Q10 who had lab-induced Diabetes, showed a reduction in
damage to their kidneys! Yeah! Big problem as Diabetes progresses, as protein and sugar starts to spill over into the kidneys damaging them, taking it from just Diabetes to Kidney failure.
2. Depressed levels of CoQ10 lead to oxidative stress which damages lipids, protein and DNA. "Cardiovascular diseases, cancers, neurologic dysfunctions, muscle weakness, and other pathologies are attributable in part to decreased cellular CoQ10".
3. CoQ10 is essential for ATP production. ATP = energy for the body. Mice tested were given CoQ10 and then had to swim to exhaustion. Those with with CoQ10 had greater endurance and increased glycogen levels in the liver as compared to those without CoQ10. Yeah! Who doesn't want more energy for exercise??
4. And here's where it all kind of ties together: "...the formation of ROS [reactive oxygen species], that, in excess and over time, causes chronic oxidative stress, which in turn causes defective insulin gene expression and insulin secretion as well as increased apoptosis." Those ROS's are the very things that CoQ10 keeps on the down-low!!

Alright, let me pull this altogether in simpler terms. If you take a statin medication, or simply are getting older - your levels of CoQ10 are going to diminishing. Combine getting older with the statin medication and you've got a seriously low level of CoQ10. CoQ10 helps to create energy in your body which can make it easier to exercise for longer periods of time - and exercise can help to ward off the development of Type 2 Diabetes by making cells more receptive to insulin and sugar. CoQ10 also protects the body against free radicals (those ROS's we mentioned in #2 and #4 above), when free radicals go unchecked we end up with damage to cells, tissues, kidneys, pancreas, etc. If you already have diabetes, damage to the kidneys is what we're trying to avoid, and damage to the pancreas can help encourage development of diabetes as this is the organ which produces insulin! So what can you do? Well, if you are already taking a statin med, get yourself some Coenzyme Q10. If you're getting older, get some too. And if you fall in both those groups - um, well... I think you get the idea. 

1 - Sourrisa KC, Harcourta BE, Tangc PH , Morleya AL, Huynhb K, Penfolda SA, et al. Ubiquinone (coenzyme Q10) prevents renal mitochondrial dysfunction in an experimental model of type 2 diabetes. Free Radical Biology and Med. 2012:52(3);716-723.
2 - Lance J, McCabe S, Clancy R, Pierce J. Coenzyme Q10 - A Therapeutic Agent. MedSurg Nursing. 2012:21(6);367-371.
3 - Dam J, Fu X, Ji R. Antifatigue effect of coenzyme Q10 in mice. J Medicinal Food. 2010:13(1);211-
4 - Jin X, Wai Kei Lam C, Yan SK, Yang H. Oxidative stress and diabetes mellitus. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2011:49(11);1773-.

Statin Medication Use and Risk of Diabetes

This is interesting to me. So what they were finding in this observational study, was that with patients who took statin medications (to help to lower cholesterol and risk of cardiovascular events) they had an increased incidence of new onset Type 2 Diabetes. 

Since it was just a matter of the researchers observing the large volume of residents, they could not control the environment or the foods they were eating.

This makes it more difficult to determine what the route cause of the increased risk for developing diabetes was. Part of me wonders whether perhaps the reliance on medication to lower cholesterol, instead of changing dietary/lifestyle habits showed the greater problem. So if this group chose the statin medication to do the work for them, they may also not have been making healthy diet and exercise choices that would reduce any insulin resistance and prevent the development of diabetes too.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2014/06/19/dc13-2215.abstract

Superfood Smoothie you have to chew

The morning commute superfood shake/smoothie/chewy goodness in a cup. I, unfortunately, find myself having to consume my breakfast while on the road in the morning for the few days of the week that I work outside the home. I also have to wait 30-60 minutes after taking my morning medication before eating which also delays when I'm able to easy my breakfast. This "incredible hulk" colored breakfast was a creation I crafted last night and am still working my way through this morning (it's super filling).

1. I juiced 12 big leaves of kale... then in the blender I added
2. 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
3. 1/2 cup pineapple
4. 1/2 cup coconut milk
5. 1 plum
I then poured it into my cup and stirred in...
6. 3 T. Chia seeds.

The chia seeds will swell/hydrate over night so if you don't care for them when they bulk up then you may want to concoct this right before drinking it. But the chia seeds give you something great to chew on which is what helps make this do satisfying.

Enjoy!

P.S.  I did a quick nutrition analysis of the smoothie.  I used a recipe calculator I found on caloriecount.about.com.  It's very easy to use and free, but it seems that it underestimated the calorie content of the greek yogurt.  I would actually estimate there was more like 150+ calories coming from the yogurt, but it does show what a nice blend of high fiber carbohydrate, healthy fat, and protein this blend was.  

Make Your Own Coffee Creamer

I personally only use half & half in my coffee, but this is an interesting recipe that I will probably make for my husband who likes a little more sweetness in his. There are a number of ways to modify this too. 1. You could use just condensed milk (as opposed to sweetened condensed). 2. If you're doing a Paleo diet or perhaps enjoying your @Whole30 then maybe using some coconut cream (condensed coconut milk) along with coconut milk and perhaps some cinnamon (no extracts, at least for those doing the Whole30 as they do have alcohol in them). 3. If you're lactose intolerant, you could do the coconut variety, or perhaps craft your variety using the can of condensed coconut milk along with almond or cashew milk (yum) and then add a non-imitation extract.

I don't recommend the use of the Torani syrup. I'm not mad at them, I just think if you're trying to get away from putting lots of doctored foods in your bod, then why would you choose to add something that's essentially sugar, water, preservative and food coloring?

check out the recipe at http://myfridgefood.com/ViewRecipe.aspx?recipe=21288

but the basic recipe calls for 

1.  14 oz sweetened condensed milk

2.  2 cups milk

3.  your choice of flavoring - I recommend pure extracts, like vanilla or almond and maybe some organic cinnamon sprinkled in there too.

4.  No cooking required.  Just mix it all together in a container and enjoy.

Shakes and Smoothies

I dislike shakes. In fact, I really think they are just about the worst invention only because all too often they are passed off as this "healthy" item that is packed full of everything your body needs - when in fact they go down way too quickly, don't offer much satisfaction (in terms of making you feel full), and typically are nothing more than a chemist's dream concoction that you mix with milk or water. 

Now, that being said, I have on occasion had moments when I just plain wasn't hungry for dinner. You? I find it strikes a lot in the summer with the sun not setting in my area until about 9P. And then I have other moments when my husband is gone on deployment and I just don't want to make a big meal that my boys will barely touch - so I opt for something that they love, and saddle myself with a "smoothie" so packed full of nutrition that you can barely suck it up a straw and have to chew it.

Dinner is truly the only meal I could see it being appropriate to replace with a healthy beverage. Breakfast should be huge, lunch slightly smaller - and since dinner should be our smallest meal, an occasional substitution with liquid meal won't hurt you. If you are finding yourself at dinner, and wanting just a little something - I'm offering to you the recipe I just concocted that I'm chewing on as I write this.

I juiced 2 oranges, 1 pear, 2 plums, and 10 pieces of kale. Then I added 1/4 cup of greek yogurt and 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Threw in about 2 Tablespoons of chia seeds (that's the chewy part) and a few ice cubes. **It makes more than the picture leads you to believe. 

Yum yum. Enjoy! I bet it would be delish too if I put it in a popsicle mold and tossed it in the freezer - though I'm not sure how well chia seeds fare in freezer conditions. 

If you love your heart, avoid the processed meats.

"The risk of new heart failure and of death from heart failure went up by a significant 8% and 38%, respectively, for every 50-g rise in daily processed-meat intake, report Dr Joanna Kaluza (Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland) and colleagues today in Circulation: Heart Failure." 

Increased levels of stroke were also seen in a separate study.

Uh oh. Keep in mind this particular study, and others, are not saying that it is consumption of red meat that was causing the rise in new heart failure or death from heart failure incidences - but instead it was when those meats were combined with high levels of sodium and preservatives that problems occurred. Processed meats would be things like sandwich meats, sausages, and ham... among other things. The curing of meats with nitrates is another example which you can find with your bacon. 

Your best bet is to choose items that haven't been manipulated in some way for your ease of consumption. Look for items without preservatives (yes you will have to use them faster) or things like plain meat or pork that you can doctor-up yourself. Also, uncured bacon is slowly becoming available - so for now you'll have to dig around to find it - but it's worth it.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/826598

The Lone Wolf

I started referring to myself as a "lone wolf" a few years back when I was starting back into jogging for exercise and was wanting to build up to run a few 5K's.  A close friend and I were going to run in the Megan McClung Memorial 5K which was started as a remembrance for a local marine killed in combat who was passionate about exercise and competition.  We were talking about the race itself, and I openly told her that I would not be running near her during the race.  Not because she smelled bad or anything, but because I absolutely hate to run with other people. 

I take that back.  I don't hate to run with others, as here I was signing up to run with a bunch of other people.  I just cannot run with a friend at my side.  Not only do I not want to subject them to my grunting, panting, and spitting on myself (and possibly them), but no matter who the person is our pace is never the same.  And of all the things I don't want to be thinking about when I'm trying to hurl my body along for 3.1 miles, it's whether or not I'm slowing them down or they're slowing me down.  I also am typically sucking a fair amount of wind while running, so the odds of having a conversation with me are null.

My husband thought I was so rude for telling my friend I wouldn't be running hip-to-hip with her, but she got it and felt the same way.  The reason I decided to write about this is because I was talking to another friend earlier today, and she was remarking the same sentiments and I thought there might be more of you out there too.

I bring up this topic, because often I find myself suggesting that people find someone to workout with, or someone who will hold you accountable.  Like having a friend go to the gym with you will encourage you to keep going because you don't want to let your friend down.  So even if you are a "lone wolf", you can still have the companion that you look out for and vice versa. 

1.  You could meet up at the gym for a run on the treadmill.  You're both there.  Talking doesn't have to happen.  And you both can run at whatever pace you like.

2.  You could tell your spouse or a close friend about the run you just did once you complete it.  Utilizing online programs that allow you post about your runs can be fun too as you will see what others are doing and maybe find some other nearby routes -www.walkjogrun.net is one I've used and it's nice because you can make maps on it to see where you might want to go - I've also used the Noom app which lets me track my run with GPS and then if I so desire I can post it to my wall on Facebook... this is also great for making others feel like they should be exercising too (or just mad at you for making them feel lazy).

So it's okay to be the lone wolf, and exercise solo with only your thoughts to keep you company.  You clearly aren't alone  ;)

P.S.  Yes I know the picture I put with this is not a "wolf" but if you squint a little it could be an albino wolf??