MIND the diet

by Amy Phariss

With this information, the researchers came up with a list of 15 dietary components that were put into one of two categories: “brain healthy” or “unhealthy.” The foods are a combination of foods found in the Mediterranean and the DASH diets, and researchers found that the combination of foods (rather than following just one of the diets) was particularly helpful in preventing dementia and promoting brain health. According to researchers, “Participants with the highest MIND diet scores had a significantly slower rate of cognitive decline compared with those with the lowest scores.”

So, which foods are included in the MIND diet?

The Diet recommends specific “brain healthy” foods to include in your diet. These foods include:

• 3+ servings each day of whole grains

• 1+ servings each day of vegetables (other than leafy greens)

• 6+ servings a week of leafy green vegetables

• 5+ servings a week of nuts

• 4+ meals a week of beans

• 2+ servings a week of berries

• 2+ meals a week of poultry

• 1+ meals a week of fish

• Fats primarily from olive oil

Unhealthy foods are to be limited in the MIND Diet including:

• Less than 5 servings each week of pastries and/or sweets

• Less than 5 servings a week of red meat (beef, lamb, pork and products made from these meats)

• Less than 1 serving a week of cheese and fried foods

No one likes to be in pain. In fact, I have spent the past 20+ years helping people get out of pain. The most common question I hear is “How can I get this pain to go away?” The answer to this is simple. We first need to know Why you are hurting. Then we can figure out how to stop the pain. So, why are you hurting? There are many different reasons for pain to occur in our bodies. Pain can be due to a problem in the Muscles, Joints, Tendons, Organs or Nerves. It can also be due to Medication, Psychological reasons, or Nutrition

• Less than 1 tablespoon a day of butter or margarine

Finally, there are a few key points to remember when developing an eating plan based on the MIND Diet. First, it’s not a rigid diet with specific daily meals. Instead, based on your likes, budget and lifestyle, you can create a weekly diet that works best for you. Add in the berries you like best. Eat a fish you can afford and have access to. Swap out almonds with walnuts when you get bored. It’s not a one-sizefits all diet but more of a way to view your overall eating habits so you can include the best foods for your brain and limit foods that aren’t doing you any cognitive favors.

Many health care professionals diagnose pain by Special Tests. During these tests, your practitioner will use their hands to push, pull and twist the areas that are causing you pain. These tests are very useful to find what structure is causing you pain. If you place stress on a structure and it increases your pain, it is likely that structure is contributing to your symptoms. Although helpful, many of these special tests are only 60-80% accurate. While this may look good at first, changing the way the question is framed will show that this also means they are 20-40% inaccurate. Misdiagnosis of pain can be very costly. At best it keeps you in pain longer, while in other cases it can allow symptoms to intensify. When you are dealing with pain, missing your favorite activities and sleepless nights… you want to be as accurate as possible!

Second, like all the best health recommendations, this diet is a lifestyle change instead of a quick-fix meal plan to

The addition of Diagnostic Imaging in Physical Therapy has revolutionized the way pain is addressed. By utilizing Diagnostic Imaging, PT’s are now able to look inside you get you whittled into shape for swimsuit season. It will require a lot of change for some of us who have a penchant for pastries or eat out most meals, often prepared with fat and showered in salt. So, it will take time to adjust, and baby steps are a perfectly fine way to start the journey. and diagnose your pain with over 98% accuracy. That means that we can find the real problem, or problems, and address them from the beginning. No more trial and error. No more “try this for a few months and if it doesn’t get any better we will try to get an MRI”. With the addition of Diagnostic imaging, your Physical Therapist can now say “From my evaluation it looks like you have a problem in ____. We are going to do a Diagnostic Ultrasound and confirm this and fully check your joint.” In a matter of a few days, we can have your test performed, results given to you and a new, more comprehensive plan to improve your pain.

Diagnostic imaging in physical therapy includes:

1. Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (MSKUS)

Next month we’ll explore more details about the MIND Diet and offer some recipes for getting started. Until then, simply pay attention to how often you’re reaching for the leafy greens and pass, if possible, on the extra slathering of butter. We’ll be right there with you, in solidarity.

Sources: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthyweight/diet-reviews/mind-diet/ https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/what-to-know-aboutmind-diet https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25230996/

MSKUS is a safe, non-invasive, and painless diagnostic tool. It is used to diagnose structures such as tendons, muscles, bursas, ligaments, nerve entrapment/pinching and joint structure changes. Like a video, MSKUS captures real-time images of body structures and can assess a joint/area while it moves. This feature is especially useful as many times pain does not occur at rest, only with movement.