Rob Zukowski is a New York State LMT, certified by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork, a Certified Medical Massage Therapist and holds a degree in Occupational Studies, with a focus on massage therapy, from the prestigious Swedish Institute College of Health Sciences. He has advanced training in sports massage, various relaxation therapies, and training in multi-therapeutic approaches to massage for oncology.

In addition to private practice, his experience includes being a massage therapist, lead therapist and member relationships manager in assorted fitness centers, spas, clinics and holistic healing settings and working in corporate wellness environments. Rob also works as a client services manager at a healing center, authors his own column on the subject of complementary and alternative medicine in a national HIV/AIDS magazine, works in student outreach and lectures on therapeutic massage for various pathologies.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Get a GoodBelly

More and more people are becoming "intolerant" to one food thing or another. Why? The answer you get depends on who you ask.

The medical name for food intoerlances is non-allergic food hypersensitivity. Non-allergic food hypersensitivity should NOT, NOT, NOT be confused with true food allergies. Some people are allergic to shell fish or nuts for example. That's a whole other, very serious issue and one you should should see a doctor about as it can be life threatening.

Food intolerance reactions can include pharmacologic, metabolic, and gastro-intestinal responses to foods or food compounds. Celiac disease, for example, is said to be an autoimmune disorder caused by an immune response to the protein gluten. Personally, I am lactose intolerant. Give me two slices of pizaa and within 20 minutes I have all the signs and symptoms of gastro intestnal distess. There have been times that I bloat so bad that I cannot close my pnats; not that I open my pants when I eat cheese, you get the point.

My system just doesnt like dairy products. Can you imagine a life without cheese? What a cruel world. Grwoing up with a primarlit Italian family we lived on cheese. Yes, yes, I know; fat, cholstroal and the like, but no one ever mentioned cholerstrerol to a ten year old Italian kid in 1977 when grandma was making homemade pizza. Medicine has come a long way since I was a child and we know a lot more about these things then we used to. I am not ten years old anymore and my reaction to dairy products is much like those slef help help books of the "bad boys and why we love them" genre.

Lactose intolerance is also called lactase deficiency and hypolactasia. It is the inability to digest lactose, a sugar that is found in milk and to a lesser extent milk derived dairy products. They say, whoever they are, that lactose intolerance is not so much a disorder, but a genetically determined characteristic.

Enter probiotics. Probiotics are living microorganisms. When taken in adequate amounts, they have a beneficial effect on the body. There are many kinds of beneficial bacteria, but not all beneficial bacteria are probiotics. To be clasified a probiotic, the strain must be shown to survive the stomach’s acidic environment in order to reach the rest of the digestive tract where it does the majority of its work.

After ingestions, probiotics will evebtually make their way out of the stomach and do numerous important things to assist in digestive health. For example, they dwell in the intestine, thrive off of the same nutrients as undesirable bacteria and help to lower the gut’s pH. They are not a one time, quick fix. They will pass through your syetem when the cells of the intestinal lining shed. So probiotics are something you shoudl add to your normal, dailt routine.

I have tried a number of different probitioc products in pill, chewable and liqaid form. The one that works best for me is product called GoodBelly. Goodbelly is a probiotic juice drink. It is soy free, gluten free, lactose free and non GMO. Not ony do I use the product daily, but when I am going to give in to my urge for cheese or milk or products that contain milk and dair products, I have and extar serving. Typically, I do not have any of usial synptions of my food intorance at that point, and if I do, they dont last long.

This past summer, I was speding a few days on Fire Island with a friend for his birtheday. Whenever I travel, I tend to pack food. Two staples are granola and GoodBelly. While I am not vegan, I do my best to eat as vegan as I can for reasons of health. The only two places that I know of in Manhattan to get GoodBelly is Elm Health, I go to the one on 7th Avenue and 14th Street, and Whole Foods, I frequnet the one on 7th Avenue and 24th Street. Wouldnt you know it, I had forgotten to pack my GoodBelly. We were alomot to the ferry when I realiozed that I had left the product at home. Lucky for me the GoodBelly web site has a map of locations where their products are availble. Unlucky for my firned; I asked him to drive almost 10 miles out of the way just to get my GoodBelly.

From the GoodBelly web site:

"GoodBelly probiotic drinks contain live and active cultures of the probiotic strain, Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (LP299V®). This particular strain was chosen out of many, due to the 16 well-documented research trials that indicate their ability to promote healthy digestion.* Additionally, these trials substantiate that LP299V® has a superior ability to survive the stomach’s harsh acidic environment in order to inhabit the intestine.

LP299V® has been used by millions of people safely for almost two decades. LP299V® was initially developed for use by gastroenterologists in Sweden to help their patients recover from surgery.

We offer a variety of products to suit individual tastes. All GoodBelly products contain 10 – 50 billion colony forming units of probiotics per serving.** It just depends on which product you choose, but even the minimum of amounts has been documented to be adequate in populating the intestines when used on a daily basis."

If you suffer from poor digestive ghealth, wheter it be non-allergic food hypersensitivity or just in general, you shold do some reaserach and talk to your doctor about adding probitics to your routine. If you get the go ahead, try some GoodBelly. They even have one of those "try us for 12 days" challenges. You can get details at http://www.goodbelly.com/ and http://12day.goodbelly.com/

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Some Winter Cold Tips

My favorite seasons are spring and fall; not too hot and not too cold. With winter here and frigid cold upon us, and not going anywhere soon, I tend to ramp up my vitamin intake as well as change some of my usual habits. 

When in come to vitamins...

Biotin, which is technically classified as vitamin B, is all cosmological. The cold winter air can wreak havoc on skin, hair and nails. Biotin works from the inside and rebuilds from beneath the skin.

If you are like me, the cold weather tends to keep you indoors a bit more than in the milder months. Being cooped up inside can lead to a little bit of cabin fever and cause some brain fog and concentration problems. There is less stimulation when you are staring at the same four walls more often than usual. Fish oil can help clear your head and concentrate better. I use it year round to keep my brain clear and focused for studies.

Vitamin B-12 is awesome. The cold, the darkness and the cloudy winters can lead to depression and anxiety. B12 is one of the first vitamins depleted during times of depression and anxiety. 

I sing the praises of Vitamin D. Since vitamin D is partially relayed through sunlight, northern residents don't get a lot of it in the winter months. I really can’t say enough good things about vitamin D. I take 2000 mg every day, year round, at my doctor’s advice.

It can be found in small amounts in a few foods, but most vitamin D  (they say 80% to 90% of what the body gets) is obtained through exposure to sunlight.

Vitamin D, in part, is used for preventing and treating rickets, weak bones, conditions of the heart and blood vessels (including high blood pressure and high cholesterol). It is also used for diabetes, obesity, muscle weakness, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, bronchitis, premenstrual syndrome and tooth and gum disease. Some people use vitamin D for skin conditions and boosting the immune system, preventing autoimmune diseases and preventing cancer. The list goes on and on if you care to look it up

You may take the train, bus or car instead of your usual walk when the cold weather is upon us. Now, you may not think that riding the rails has all that much of an impact on your exercise, but it does. There is this 10,000 steps a day program that I tend to do in addition to my regular work out. At my last job I traveled from an outer borough into the West Village of Manhattan and I wore a pedometer. By walking to the subway stop that is one stop away from my closets stop, taking the train to 23rd Street instead of Union Square or direct to the West Village, I gave myself a 2.5 mile walk to and from work. That’s 5 miles a day or 25 miles in a work week. In the winter, I went the closest and most direct route which brought me down to a mile a day. That’s 20 less miles of walking per week.

I used this calculator to find measure the caloric difference. With the longer commute I was burning about 3136 calories just by commuting to work. The shorter commute, around 627 calories.

Enter Calcium. If you do not get your usual amount of exercise during the winter months, it can lead to muscle weakening. When our muscles aren't doing what they should as well as the should, more pressure is placed on the bones. Calcium strengthens your bones. 

Vitamin c has been and still remains a staple in the cold/flu season battle. Drink pure fruit juices, many of which contain 100% of your daily vitamin C requirement in a single glass, or look for pill options. Personally, I prefer a liquid or gel or natural source, but something is better than nothing. Just watch your sugar intake with those juices.

Stay hydrated. Most people tend to drink water more during the warmer weather. But, spending more time indoors involves turning up the heat. All that unnatural heating lends itself to dry skin and chapped lips. Hydrate from the inside.

Zinc is the closest you can get to a "quick fix" vitamin during cold and flu season. Not only does Zinc boost your immunity, but it has been proven to shorten a cold when you already have one.

Other Tips:

Make sure to moisturize. It’s critical that people moisturize their skin in the winter months. Sources suggest that applying moisturizer immediately after showering locks in the moisture. With all the products out there, I still rely on Vaseline petroleum jelly, at least for my lips fingers and toes. You can get over the greasiness.

Don’t skimp on the sunscreen. It may be a summertime staple, but sunscreen is essential during cloudless winter days, especially if there’s sun-reflecting snow on the ground.
A long, hot shower feels great in the winter; but soaking in too much hot water can strip your skin of much of its moisture. Go for luke warm.

Crank up the humidity. Room humidifiers can help re-infuse dry, artificially-heated air with some much needed moisture. Yes, humidifiers can be pricey. I often fill a metal pot with water and place it on the radiator to let the water evaporate into the air. If I am feeling all fancy like, I will use a natural eucalyptus, pine or mint oil in the water to help clear clogged nasal passages from winter sniffles.

And finally, a lukewarm bath with oatmeal or baking soda, can help relieve skin that is so dry from the cold that it has become itchy.

As always, these are my opinions from my own research and not medical advice. You should always check with your doctor before taking or increasing vitamin intake, using certain products or changing your diet, exercise and health habits.

Monday, January 6, 2014

My Top 7 Seasonal Blues Busters

I have been reading an assortment of articles on doing away with post holiday, winter blues. Many of the ideas didn't quite apply to single, city dwellers.

Plan your garden for the spring for one. That's a great idea, but I live in NYC. I only have weeds that grown between the cracks in the sidewalk. Spouse "date night" was another suggestion. Again, a great idea, but I don't have a spouse and I am guessing my having a date night your husband is out of the question. There were a lot of suggestions  that revolved around activities and time with your kids. Marvelous idea! Love and raise those kids healthy and happy. Me, I'm a family of one.

So I thought, what would I do to quell the seasonal blues and boost my mental health and mood?

Below is my top seven. Enjoy and be of sound mind.

1.Volunteer

I have spent 1000's upon 1000's of hours doing volunteer work and mentoring volunteers. Not only are you helping others in some capacity, but rest assured, its a feel good moment for you as well. Look up organizations that do the work that speaks to your heart. The vast majority will have volunteer opportunities pages listed needs from a day activity to long term projects.

2. Meet someone new

I am talking about a new friend. We all have social media friends that we have never met. You read each others blogs and comment and tweet all the time. How about meeting face to face for coffee? You already know you have some things in common, take it to another level. If you have trouble finding what you want, comment and I will try to offer suggestions.

3. Do something free and cool

I can tell you that there are 100's and100's of things for free in NYC. Meditation, yoga, an assortment of classes and activities. Try something that you have wanted to thats different and wont cost you anything. Here is a start: To celebrate 50 years of philosophy classes in New York, Philosophy Works is offering their 10 week corse as a gift to you – no regular fee, just a $10 administrative charge. Visit http://www.philosophyworks.org/landing/

4. Change your commute

Maybe it sounds silly, but if you walk the same route and take the same train every day it gets boring. If you take a different street or subway, its a whole new view and chance to people watch people you haven't watched before. I do it all the time. If you are a visual kind of person the change of scenery and scene will be a treat.

5. People watch

Seriously. I do this a lot. I know its cold, but go to Times square, pop your ear buds in, listen to your favorite songs, drink some hot tea and watch the chaos that is Times Square. It's like reality TV. It's amusing and invigorating.

6. Something a little wild? No Pants Subway Ride!

Do it! I've done in a few times. It's a little bit wild, a little bit cold but a lot of fun. All these people getting together for an amusing and entertaining common goal has an awesome sense of community. The only two requirements are:

Willing to take pants off on subway

Able to keep a straight face about it

Check out http://improveverywhere.com for details.

7. Something healthy or holistic?

If you are in New York, or close by, check out the New York Open Center. They have a lot of free introductory classes. Check out http://www.opencenter.org/category/advanced-programs/

Have at it and be healthy!