Health Podcast with Connie Sellecca: Get Plants to Get Creative; Outgrow Your Allergies; Clean Your Desk to Lose Weight

In this episode we feature:

An interview with allergist Dr. Tanya Elliot

How plants and aromatic herbs improve your creativity.

Get in the garden to fix your gut.

How to manage your indoor allergies

Health Hacks for travel.

and more ways you can improve your health TODAY!

For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com

Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard

Transcript

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Music, hello. I'm Gib Gerard, and welcome to the podcast. This is another intelligence for your health with Connie Celica. Episode of the podcast. We've got a great episode for you today, including an interview with allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott, so all kinds of health information that you can use today to make yourself a whole lot healthier, plus, like I said that, interview with allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott here, without further ado, is intelligence for your health. With Connie Celica, we're always saying to put a green and growing plant on your desk, because the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that having a green plant nearby makes people 15% more productive. It's partly because the color green is linked to creative thought, plus plants improve air quality, so you may be getting more oxygen to your brain. Well, we can take that one step further, put potted aromatic herbs on your desk, like basil, thyme, mint or rosemary. In a review of over 40 studies, scientists found that inhaling the aroma of growing herbs energizes brain neurons that boosts your focus, concentration and short term memory by up to 50% we've been told it takes 21 days to form a new habit, but when it comes to developing a consistent exercise habit, plan to spend a little longer on it. Researchers from the universities of Chicago and Pennsylvania looked at habit formation, and they discovered it takes up to six months to establish an exercise habit. The study also measured how long it takes to develop a hand washing habit, and that only took a few weeks for people to do it regularly. In other words, not all habits are created equal. So why does it take so long for an exercise to become part of a routine? In a word effort, the study followed 30,000 people who swiped their ID cards as they entered a gym, and the results show that it takes six months for people to establish a consistent gym routine, and one of the biggest factors was if people went on the same days of the week each time, 70% of the successful study participated, participants went to the gym on the same days each week, and the longer the amount of time between gym visits, the less likely someone was to go back. So if you want to make exercise a habit, go the same days of the week every week, that makes you far more likely to stick with it coming up, we'll talk to allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott, and she'll tell us how many people can sometimes outgrow allergies and the allergens that most people never outgrow. But first, if you want to clean up your diet, start by cleaning up your environment. A study by the University of Minnesota found that people who sat at a tidy desk were more likely to reach for an apple, while people at messy desks were more likely to grab a candy bar for a snack. The researchers say that being in an orderly environment inspires us to do the right thing and follow rules, but being in a chaotic environment has the opposite effect. It makes us want to break the rules, so clean up your desk, kitchen, anywhere you eat, you may find yourself automatically making better food choices when you were growing up. Did you have freezing winters and sweaty summers, or was the temperature more mild and balmy? Because it turns out, our personalities are shaped by the climate we grew up in. In fact, according to the journal Nature, the average temperature of the place we grew up is one of the biggest factors in how our personalities developed. So people who grow up in a place where the average weather is sunny and 70 degrees tend to be friendlier, more outgoing and more willing to explore new things. And that makes sense, because when the weather is nice, kids are more likely to be outside, exploring and playing with friends, whereas people who grew up with harsh winters and sweltering summers tend to be less open and agreeable. Think of New Yorkers versus laid back Californians. Of course, that is a generalization, and the experts say if you see snow and run to strap on your skis and call your friends, the weather probably didn't affect you in the same way as someone who gets irritated every time it snows. Okay. Listen to this for an upset stomach. Go weed your garden or plant some flowers and vegetables. Researchers at University College Medical School in London found that spending just 15 minutes digging in the dirt can quickly soothe an upset stomach, and doing it every day helps ease. Even chronic stomach issues in as little as a week. That's because the soil releases a type of probiotic that we inhale while working in the dirt. It activates our parasympathetic nervous system, which not only helps us feel relaxed, it calms intestinal spasms and boosts production of stomach enzymes that keep our digestive tract running smoothly. Today, our guest is Dr Tanya Elliott. She's a board certified physician and allergist whom you may know from her appearances on The Today Show, and about one in four people have seasonal allergies, and up to 10% of the population is allergic to certain foods. So I asked Dr Elliot if it's possible for people to outgrow their allergies. We can see people outgrow allergies as we get older, and I would say 50 and older, we tend to see people with fewer environmental allergies. It's not to say they can't have other allergies, like medication allergies and skin allergies and other things. But for the most part, we see fewer environmental allergies over the age of 50. However, certain allergies like food certain food allergies you typically don't grow out of. So for example, for peanut allergy, only 10% of people will grow out of peanut allergy, similarly, only 10 or so, percent of people will grow out of shellfish allergy, and we actually see shellfish allergy occur later in life, so usually people over the age of 30, we typically don't see it as much in children. The answers as to why you see fewer allergies as you get older, our immune system is less robust. It takes a lot more for us to mount an immune response. One of the reasons why we think we see shellfish more later in life has to do with the pH balance in our stomachs, and it's been linked to both alcohol use and the use of antacids. Another thing that causes new onset of allergies, particularly in women, has to do with fluctuation in estrogen levels. But for example, when a woman gets pregnant, all of a sudden they have allergies. When women goes through menopause and perimenopause, all of a sudden their allergies get better, and vice versa. So we see about half women their allergies get better, and half of women their allergies get worse. And we're still trying to understand the science behind that, but we believe it is linked to changes in fluctuations in estrogen levels. Today, we're talking to Dr Tanya Elliott, who is double board certified in internal medicine and allergy and Clinical Immunology, and since such a huge percentage of people have seasonal allergies, I asked Dr Elliot if there are foods that make those allergic reactions worse, and which foods can reduce our allergic response. So some people benefit from a low histamine diet. So let me just say the foods that are high in histamine, things like pineapple, strawberries, wine has histamine content in it. Aged cheeses. Do any processed meats? Do cured meats, anything that almost like it's been sitting out for a while and has been fermenting tends to have high histamine content. And you may want to consider a low histamine diet during the peak of allergy season. And then there are our champion foods. So foods that you want to include in your diet because they help to either boost your immune system or reduce the allergic response. So foods that are high in quercetin, like blueberries, cruciferous vegetables, kale, raw onion, those are some of my go tos for people who want to try food options to help combat their allergies. I'm also a big fan of fresh ginger. It helps to just decrease inflammation overall in the nasal passages and the lungs. You can eat it. It's great, but I often will recommend that people just take a pot of hot water, add some fresh ginger, bring it to a boil and then break breathe in that humidified air to help calm down the inflammation that's occurring in the nasal passages and also in the lungs. On your next trip, pack this in your carry on bag a tennis ball. That recommendation comes from Travel and Leisure magazine. They say it may be exactly what you need to survive your flight without getting muscle cramps, a blood clot or jet lag. We all know sitting for an extended amount of time wreaks havoc on our health, but we can use a tennis ball to increase circulation. Just put it between your back and the seat, rolling it between your shoulders down your back legs and the bottoms of your feet. That will help you get your blood flowing if you can't get up and walk around. Today's medical term transient lingual Papyrus, that's what most of us refer to as a tongue bump. The red or white bumps often develop suddenly and can cause pain and tenderness for several days, and while they often feel enormous. Enormous inside our mouth. If you look at them in the mirror, they're rarely bigger than a pinhead. Where do tongue bumps come from? Doctors say they can be caused by a variety of triggers. The most common causes include stress, smoking, acid reflux from eating acidic food, or even something as simple as biting our own tongue. However, some people develop bumps every time they eat something sugary, while others get them from biting into something sour, like a lime. Whatever the trigger irritation can cause the tiny structures that contain our taste buds, called papillae, to swell up, split open, and trigger pain. The good news, most tongue bumps are harmless, and they usually clear up on their own in a few days. But talk to a doctor if a bump persists for more than a week or develops into a sore that changes colors or oozes since that may be a sign of a more serious health condition, and that's today's medical term, transient lingual papyrus coming up. We'll hear more from board certified allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott. She'll talk about the effect weather has on our allergic reactions. But first, if you had to guess which health factor was most likely to improve your sense of well being, would it be how much you exercise, how well you eat, or the quality of your sleep. Research in the journal frontiers in psychology says your sleep quality is hands down, the best predictor of your overall mental health and well being, meaning, if you ate a nutritious diet and got plenty of exercise, you could still undermine all health benefits and raise your risk for anxiety and depression by not getting enough good sleep. Of course, ideally, we'd be making all three health pillars, sleep, exercise and a healthy diet our top priorities. But if you have to focus on just one, this study shows a good night's sleep is most important. Maybe the easiest way to understand how processed food impacts your brain health is to know that it's now proven to be a leading cause for vascular dementia. What's that? Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's, and it's caused by decreased blood flow to the brain, which can deprive neurons of essential oxygen and nutrients needed to stay alive. So how does eating processed food lead to vascular dementia? Well, many of the ingredients in Ultra processed foods, especially the high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fats, are proven to cause inflammation. And while we often think of inflammation as being really bad for our hearts, growing research suggests it's even worse for our brains. In fact, a recent study in the journal Neurology found that the more calories we consume from processed foods, the higher our risk for vascular dementia. Okay, listen to this. A potato a day may keep your headaches away, according to the University of Michigan, eating a medium sized potato every day, rusted or sweet with the skin, could cut your incidence of migraines by 25% it's down to the potassium in potatoes, which relaxes blood vessels, so you're less likely to get the constriction of blood vessels in the brain that cause migraine pain. Not a fan of potatoes. Other foods high in potassium are kidney beans, lentils, spinach, clams, carrot juice, prunes and dried apricots. Back with more health intelligence from board certified physician and allergist Dr Tanya Elliott. And you may have noticed that your seasonal allergies get worse as the weather gets warmer, so I asked Dr Elliott to explain why that happens as it gets warmer, that's when you're gonna start to experience allergies. So we're all sort of experiencing that now. So let me just explain which pollens are most significant during which times of year, in the springtime, you're dealing with tree pollen allergy. So trees are the first things to bloom. So that's what's occurring in the springtime. In the summer, we're experiencing grass pollen allergy, and that pretty much starts in mid May and goes until around the end of July and then late summer, all the way up until the first frost. You're experiencing weed and ragweed pollen allergy and also outdoor mold allergy. And then even in the winter months, we have outdoor winter allergies, particularly in places like Texas, there's the cedar tree that starts to bloom in the winter time, and we call that cedar feeder fever, cedar fever. And the allergy is so bad that people actually feel like they have. Flu, and it turns out that it's actually allergy so it's almost like you're never in the clear, but based off of the time of year that you're experiencing symptoms, we're able to determine what it is that you are most likely to be allergic to. Now we have seen over the last few years that because we've had above average rainfall and warmer than usual winters, that allergy season seems to start earlier and last longer, and that seems to be a trend that is not going anywhere. Continues to get worse and worse each year back with more health intelligence from allergist Dr Tanya Elliott and I asked her to tell us about some common indoor allergens that people might not be aware of, and how can they reduce their presence in their homes? The dust mite and indoor mold allergy thrive in high humidity levels. So you want to make sure that you keep your humidity levels in your home at 20 to 50% and no higher. I will oftentimes see people say, Oh, I'm so congested at night, so I have a humidifier going in my bedroom, and that is the exact opposite thing that you want in your bedroom, if you have dust mite or indoor mold allergy, you want to have, if anything, a dehumidifier to reduce the humidity levels in your home. You also want to remove curtains and drapes. If you can, upholstered furniture. Those are all places where dust mites love to live. Carpeting. If you can, you want to remove that decorative pillows, stuffed animals that your kids have, all those things will harbor dust mite allergy. I often will tell my patients, if their child has a favorite stuffed animal that they drag around and who knows what kind of dirt and grime is on it, throw it in the freezer once a week and freeze it overnight, and it'll actually kill off the dust mites. So what about pet allergies, is there a way to manage that? So a few things that you can do if you have a pet allergy. You want to try to keep your pet out of the bedroom. You also want to try to just wipe them down and give them a shower once a week to wash up the allergen. Remember, there's no such thing as a hypoallergenic cat or dog, because you can be allergic to their saliva. You could be allergic to their their skin cells. It has nothing to do with whether or not they should want to get closer as a couple meditate or pray together, because research shows that when partners sit quietly in the same room, their heartbeats and breathing sync up, making them feel more connected. Another bonding activity for couples, cook together. Licensed counselor Allison Carver says, when you cook as a team, you're working toward a common goal, which can bring you closer. In fact, one study found that 92% of partners felt more connected after making a meal together, more intelligence for your health from board certified physician and allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott, if you'd like to know more about her, she invites you to follow her on Instagram. Her handle there is at Dr Tanya Elliott, her first name is spelled T, A, N, I, a, and I asked her to share her thoughts on air purifiers. Can they help with indoor or seasonal allergies? Indoor air purifiers can be expensive, however, they can be helpful for certain allergies. One is pet allergy, and the second is if you do want to leave the windows open, but you have outdoor allergies, because what they address are allergens that are airborne. What they don't help for are things like dust mite allergies, because dust mites are tiny organisms. They feed off of house dust. They're very large. They don't stay suspended in the air. So an air purifier isn't going to do anything. So it really depends on what allergy it is that we are treating. The other thing that's important for air purifiers is you want to make sure that they are the appropriate size for the space that you're looking to purify. So you make sure that the right size, that they are the right size for your room. Here's a good reason to give back. People who volunteer are healthier than those who don't. To start there's a direct link between volunteer work and a decreased risk of high blood pressure, and another study found that volunteering lowers inflammation and cholesterol. So what's the connection between being altruistic and improved health? It's all about our stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol interferes with our immune system and increases inflammation, which makes our blood stickier and damages our heart health. And since volunteering lowers stress, it improves our health to get that positive result, just go to volunteer match.org type in the things you're interested in, dogs, helping the homeless, teaching kids to read, and they'll match you with opportunities that are right for you. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com. It comes from Chuck Driscoll, who writes, I broke my foot so I can't work out right now. Does muscle turn into fat if you stop working out? Chuck, that is impossible. Muscle and fat are completely different tissues, so it's impossible for one to transform into the. Other when you exercise, especially if you work with weights, muscle tissue gets bigger and fat tissue gets smaller. So if you stop working out, the opposite happens. Your muscles shrink, and the space once occupied by muscle can get filled with fat and muscle can start to shrink after just one month of inactivity. So what can you do without using that foot work your upper body, your core and your other leg so you preserve your existing muscle tone until you can exercise your other leg again. Thank you for your email, Chuck. I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this. A good scare is good for you. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health believe experiencing fear as a child offers big therapeutic benefits, and experiencing too little fear may even be harmful. That's because fear in small doses is a way of training our brain to handle real danger. For instance, baby monkeys in lab, experiments that hardly blink when facing a snake will die prematurely, but monkeys taught by a mother to fear predators live longer, while the same applies to humans. Learning what to fear and how we react to fear helps us cope with dangers later on in life, one in three North American adults are now living with diabetes or pre diabetes, but you can drastically cut your risk for type two diabetes by walking every day. However, you need to walk at a speed of at least 2.5 miles per hour. That's according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, and it's not hard to do. Most adults already walk at a pace of two and a half miles per hour. That's considered a normal walking speed, and the study results showed that once people reached a pace of 2.5 miles per hour, their type two diabetes risk dropped, and it continued to drop even further as people increased their walking speed. So walking two to three miles per hour saw the diabetes risk drop 15% walking three to four miles per hour saw it drop 25% and if you go over four miles per hour, your risk is reduced by 40% basically, the faster you walk, the lower your diabetes risk, and it all comes down to the fact that a regular walking routine reduces body fat and helps lower insulin resistance. So if you're among the 30% of people with diabetes or pre diabetes, go for regular walks and make sure you're walking two and a half miles per hour or faster, more intelligence for your health from our guest allergist, Dr Tanya Elliott, and we know that the thinking on children's allergies has changed. It used to be that parents were supposed to avoid giving their children things like peanuts, eggs or milk too early, in case they were allergic. Now it's suggested that parents expose their children to these things as early as possible. So I asked Dr Elliot how to handle giving potentially allergenic foods to babies in terms of introduction, introduction, early on. So now the recommendation is to actually introduce peanut at the now, not the peanut itself, but peanut butter or peanut butter cookie at the age of four months, as opposed to waiting to two years, and that's even in people who have a family history of food allergies. So early introduction is now recommended. We've learned a lot again in the last 10 years about what happens when you delay introduction and then seeing this in the real world, for example. So peanut allergy in the US is anywhere from eight to 10% of the population, which is very high in other countries, for example, in the Middle East, they use something called bomba, which is actually a peanut based teething toy the insured the incidence of peanut allergy in those populations is point 2% because it is introduced early on into the diet. So when you expose through the through the GI tract, early on, you are less likely to develop allergies. The body says, Oh, this is coming through my GI tract, our GI tract, it tends to be very tolerant to certain things. It's the things that get put in our bodies. And your body says, Oh, nope, this is something that I can eat. This is a normally occurring thing, and you tend to have fewer allergies. That's it for our show today, our special intelligence for your health with Connie Selig edition of the podcast, I'm Gib Gerard. Don't forget to rate comment and subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify wherever you get your podcast. It helps us out a lot. And also, you can reach out to us on social media. All of our links are listed down in the show notes. We try to respond to every DM, every mention of the show, because ultimately, we do the show for you guys. So thank you so much for listening. You.