How to Calculate Your BMI

Your BMI is simply determined by the ratio of your weight and height. More specifically, BMI is calculated using the following formula:

BMI = weight / (height)2

This formula uses the metric system, with weight in kilograms and height in meters. To calculate your BMI based on height in inches and weight in pounds, multiply the result by 703. 

BMI = 703 x weight (lbs.) / (height [in.])2  

Interpreting Your BMI 

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) considers BMI scores for average individuals to be ranked as follows:

Condition BMI

Underweight Below 18.5

Normal 18.5-24.9

Overweight 25.0-29.9

Obesity 30.0 and above

It is important to note, however, that BMI scores may fail to properly estimate the level of body fat in certain individuals. Athletes and others with muscular builds, for example, may fall into the overweight category despite having near perfect physiques, while the elderly and those who have lost muscle mass may fall into the underweight category despite having excess body fat. 

The other important thing to note is that BMI assessments vary by sex and age. BMI scores for boys are slightly lower than for girls (aged 7-16), and scores for women are slightly lower than for men (aged 18 and up). 

Despite these caveats, for most people, the BMI is a simple and useful tool for determining disease risk due to excess fat. 

Risk Factors Associated with High BMI

There are a number of risk factors linked to high BMI scores that put individuals at significant risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gall bladder disease and some types of cancer. These include:

• High LDL cholesterol (considered “bad” cholesterol)

• Low HDL cholesterol (considered “good” cholesterol)

• High blood sugar

• High triglycerides

• Sedentary lifestyle

• Smoking

How much BMI do I need to loss to see improvements?

It may seem that a significant amount of exercise is needed to lose weight but even a small drop of 5 to 10 percent body weight can help lower the risk for obesity related diseases. As with all exercise programs, care must be taken when starting up. Check with your doctor before you begin and discuss the fitness program you intend to start. 

Depending how many additional risk factors you have, your doctor may advise a weight control program rather than a weight loss program. For dangerously high BMI scores, your doctor may advise more drastic measures, which may include surgery. However, for most individuals, a sensible fitness program and healthy diet that is incorporated into daily life and maintained in the long term can significant lower BMI scores and thus lower the chances for excess fat related disease.

References

1. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Assessing Your We

• If you are experiencing pain, where is it located and when did you first notice it?

• Does the pain or discomfort seem to be the result of a recent injury or activity, or has it existed for some time?

• Are there activities or circumstances that make it better?

• Are there activities or circumstances that make it worse?

You may also be asked about any pre-existing medical conditions or prior injuries, your family’s medical history, and other treatments you have received from health care providers. Once completed, your chiropractor then will carry out a thorough chiropractic examination, with a special emphasis on the spine. In addition to general tests such as blood pressure, respiration, reflexes, and pulse, the examination may include certain tests to assess the range of motion of the injured or painful body part, muscle tone and strength, and neurological integrity. Additional diagnostic studies such as X-rays or laboratory tests may be performed or recommended. 

The medical history, physical examination and diagnostic tests all help to determine a specific diagnosis. The chiropractor will explain the diagnosed condition to you and determine if it is likely respond well to chiropractic care. If so, the chiropractor will explain the proposed chiropractic treatment plan or other treatments to you and the anticipated length that the treatment should take. Both short- and long-term goals for your treatment will be discussed, and additional therapies may be recommended for future visits, such as:

• Application of heat or cold to affected areas.

• Massage and stretching.

• Modalities to speed healing of soft tissues and improve pain control, such as electrical stimulation and traction.

• Rehabilitative and general exercise to improve muscle balance, strength, and coordination.

• Lifestyle counseling about healthy eating and weight loss.

Many chiropractors begin treatment during your first visit, although some may wait until the next appointment to perform the first adjustment. During a typical adjustment, you will be placed in various specific positions while your chiropractor treats the affected areas. For example, you may be asked to lie face down on a padded table specifically designed for chiropractic adjustments. Chiropractors then use their hands to apply a controlled, quick force to a joint, which extends it beyond its usual range of motion. The goal of this maneuver is to increase the range and quality of motion in the area being treated and to aid in restoring health. You may hear cracking or popping sounds as your chiropractor manipulates your joints during the treatment session. This is similar to cracking one's knuckles, and there are rarely any feelings of pain or discomfort. 

As your course of treatment continues, your chiropractor will evaluate your progress, to see how much your treatments are helping, and may adjust the recommended treatment regimen accordingly. 

Resources:

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/chiropractic/what-expect-first-chiropractic-consultation

http://www.ctchiro.com/FAQ.php

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/chiropractic/introduction.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chiropractic-adjustment/MY01107/DSECTION=what%2Dyou%2Dcan%2Dexpect

http://www.mychiro.com/chiropractic.htm

http://www.pazdelchiropractic.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10

The nutrients in any vegetable begin to deteriorate as soon as it’s harvested, including those all-important cancer-fighting antioxidants. The sooner a vegetable is eaten after it’s picked, the more nutrients it has. Having a home garden is ideal, as you can simply walk out your door, pick what you need and plop it straight into the cooking pot or salad bowl. Of course, not everyone has the space or time for a garden, so what’s the next best thing?

If you have a nearby farmers’ market, the veggies from there are usually grown locally and are generally fresher than what you can get at the supermarket. Barring that, the next best choice is, surprisingly, frozen vegetables.

What most people don’t know is that frozen food can often be more nutritious for you than fresh, especially if the fresh variety has been transported over a long distance. If you’re living in New York and are eating fresh peas grown in California, those peas have endured a number of days in a truck before arriving at your market. 

Also, any sugars in the vegetable begin to convert to starch from the moment it’s picked, which is why freshly picked corn straight from the farm is so much sweeter than the kind that’s been sitting in the supermarket for a few days. However, frozen peas and many other vegetables are generally flash frozen on the spot where they are harvested, preserving those nutrients.

Cooked vegetables are generally not as nutritious as raw, though if you do cook them be sure to do it only long enough make them tender. The longer they cook, the greater the nutrient loss. There are, however, some exceptions. Tomatoes, for example, provide greater amounts of lycopene when they are cooked than when eaten raw. Cooking breaks down the plant’s cell walls, releasing greater amounts of nutrients. Zucchini, carrots and broccoli are best eaten cooked for this reason.

Canned vegetables are generally lowest in nutrients, as so many vitamins are lost in processing under high heat. The water-soluble vitamins B and C and polyphenols are easily lost when canned or boiled. Researchers at the University of California found that between 85 and 95 percent of the vitamin C in canned peas and carrots were lost in processing. The vegetables containing fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D E and K can be steamed or boiled, however, without losing a great amount of nutrients.

Raw vegetables are generally best, but if you find eating raw veggies unappealing to the point where you avoid them, it’s fine to eat them lightly cooked. Better to get some healthy nutrients than none at all!

Skiing can be one of the most exhilarating, refreshing, and transcendental experiences imaginable. It provides exercise for the entire body, fresh, crisp mountain air for the lungs and excitement for all of our senses. 

It is, however, quite a dangerous sport, not only due to the inherent dangers of falling of or colliding with parts of the scenery but also because of the unpredictable nature of fellow skiers whose expertise may vary considerably. 

Protection and preventive care are therefore essential elements of keeping safe and uninjured on the slopes. Along with a properly fitted ski helmet, a vital piece of protection that most skiers still eschew, pre- and post-skiing warm-ups and long-term physical training can help immeasurably in avoiding injuries or reducing their impact and recovery time.

Regardless of the skier’s level, skiing puts enormous and often sudden physical demands on the body, regularly stretching muscles and joints past their normal operating limits. In order to avoid injury, the skier’s body must be limber and resilient, and there are few regimens that are better for toning a skier than yoga.

Long-term yoga not only provides significant improvements to flexibility, but also builds muscle strength and endurance, which are critical for the intense physical demands of skiing. Yoga has many varieties, some of which concentrate on the spiritual rather than the physical and may not provide much benefit for skiing. Look for somewhat physically demanding yoga such as Bikram, Ashtanga or Vinyasa. 

Ideally, a skier’s yoga program should provide full-body training, with an emphasis on stretching and strengthening hips, knees and ankles, the most important joints for skiing. Try to incorporate yoga at least three times a week for a minimum of an hour as anything less may not provide sufficient benefit.

Just before hitting the slopes, the smart skier should stretch and warm-up for at least 15 minutes, regardless of previous physical training. Unprepared muscles, tendons and joints can suffer greatly for the shocks and unexpected crashes, and early injuries can ruin an entire skiing holiday. 

A full description of pre- and post- stretching for skiing can be found online by searching for “skiing stretches”. Concentrate on stretching your calves (a curb stretch can be a simple and effective method), quadriceps, hamstrings and shoulders. Don’t forget though that your entire body will need care.

Post-skiing care should include not only the prerequisite hot-tub session but also a full body massage. A licensed chiropractor should also be consulted if you’ve suffered a significant fall or other injury even if it did not require immediate medical care. There can be many hidden issues caused by the hard falls inherent in skiing and an experienced chiropractor can quickly detect these problems. 

When dealing with soreness, it’s important to note that much of this is due to microscopic muscle damage rather than lactate accumulation. It is therefore, essential to drink lots of fluids with no alcohol or caffeine the first few days in order to recover more quickly. Save the celebrations for the end.

By being prudent about your safety, conditioning your body beforehand and caring for it afterwards, you can continue to enjoy this magnificent sport for most of your life. 

Doctors of Chiropractic are not licensed to write medical prescriptions or perform surgery in the United States. They rely instead on a variety of manual treatments, including spinal manipulation and mobilization, which are designed and selected to improve function and alleviate pain for their patients. The chiropractic field is based on treatment with as little use of medication as possible, and is defined by the National Chiropractic Association as ideally a "drug-free, non-surgical science."

That said, most chiropractors recommend that their patients have a primary care physician, and they recognize the efficacy of medications to relieve extreme pain and other conditions. If medication is needed, many chiropractors work closely with their patients' primary care physicians to determine which medicines may be needed to reduce pain or speed the healing process. If chiropractors are also licensed in a field such as homeopathy or naturopathy, they may recommend those types of remedies, or provide general nutritional counseling. Their ability to do this depends on regulations that vary widely from state to state in the U.S. 

One state, New Mexico, has recently passed legislation that allows some chiropractors to prescribe medicines. This legislation was considered valuable to the public because the state contains many areas of low population in which the only medical professionals available are chiropractors. After completing a standardized course, these Advanced Practice chiropractors are allowed to prescribe medicines from a strictly regulated formulary. This program has provided access to these medicines to many residents of New Mexico who would otherwise have had to travel several hours to see a medical doctor. Whether this approach will be taken in other states is yet to be seen.

In many cases, chiropractic care is all the therapy that is needed to treat common problems such as lower back pain. Chiropractors are trained in how to perform the manipulations that correct these problems. However, if the problems are more serious or if concurrent conditions are present, chiropractic care may be complemented by other medical treatment. We certainly urge you to consult with your primary care provider in such cases, and to rely on their specialized training to determine if medication is needed. 

Resources:

http://www.acatoday.org/content_css.cfm?CID=2205

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/chiropractic

http://willistonchiropractic.com/about-chiropractic/