Healthy Bytes

Sleep off the pounds

read time: 93 words, under a minute

Sounds like a late night sleezy commercial – eh?
But really there is a connection between sleep and weight.
That connection is hormones…

Hormones that toy with your appetite control system are affected by your level of rest.
Short change your sleep and you:
-> increase ghrelin which increases appetite
-> decrease leptin which signals satiety
-> increase cortisol which makes you fat

You crave those vending machine high calorie, high carb foods. That sends you on the sugar high, sugar crash cycle. And then of course you’re also likely to rely on caffeine.

Just back from a delightful hour at the pharmacy, also known as…

read time: 210 words, just a minute

…dinner. That’s right dinner.
Hippocrates wisely said “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

And we can add to that:
Eat a rainbow.
Half your plate should be veggies. The more colors the better.
Veggies are low in calories, high in fiber and flush with phytonutrients – such good stuff.

Your reds (tomatoes, peppers, watermelon) excel in lycopene which smacks down free radicals.

Your oranges (carrots, sweet potatoes, squashes) score high in alpha- and beta-carotene. Buddies that bring you Vitamin A… helps the eyes and skin.

Your orange/yellow group (papaya, orange, peach, pineapple) get stars for Vitamin C and beta cryptothanxin. Immune system support.

Your yellow/green group (greens, corn, avocado, peas) are leaders in lutein which protects against cataracts and macular degeneration

Your white/green group (leeks, scallions, onions, garlic, celery). The onion family scores with anti-tumor allicin. Others in the group are high in anti-oxidant flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol.

Your greens (cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, bok choi, kale) are teeming with indoles, sulforaphane and isocyanate defenders against cancer

Your red/purple group (beets, eggplant, grapes, berries) are bursting with anti-oxidants defending the heart and slowing aging.

Combine that with relaxing conversation and sharing with people important in your life.
Blend in some laughter.

Beats purple pills in orange bottles.

In the year Twenty-Thirty

read time: 364 words, under 2 minutes

The CDC just issued a report - The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 – that looks at a number of data points on a State by State basis.

Let’s look at a couple of current data points (this applies to the U.S. population):

• 80% of folks over 65 have one or more chronic diseases that can lead to disability and/or premature death.
• Health care costs are 3 to 5 times greater for the 65+ group as compared to younger adults.

In 2030:

• The 65+ population by the year 2030 - that’s just 23 years from now - will nearly double to 71 million / 20% of the total population.
• Health care costs will increase by another 25%.

The report notes that 35% of deaths in 2000 are attributed to 3 behaviors:
-> smoking
-> poor diet
-> lack of physical activity

Why? These behaviors lead to the top chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes.

What’s missing in this picture is the impact of excessive weight and obesity. Not because there isn’t one, but because it isn’t showing up in older data. The dramatic increase in obesity has been in the last 10 years. That trend is still in tact.

Chronic conditions take time.
However in the present, snippets like number of weight surgeries (lap band, bariatric) have tripled in teens portend future impact.

Here’s the thing. These are chronic conditions – meaning with you everyday – that develop over time. Diet and lifestyle choices you’re making right now are forming your reality in 2030.

As a culture we have a difficult time “saving for tomorrow”. That’s true in a financial sense as well as a health sense. Unfortunately chronic conditions generally can’t be “fixed” quickly or easily.

What choices are you making today – for yourself and for your children? If we raise our children with good diet and lifestyle habits, they’ll never need to be “re-trained”. And if we start taking care of ourselves immediately, we’ll enjoy better health now and in the year 2030 and beyond.

The CDC report concludes:

If people adopt healthier lifestyles, they will not develop the expensive, chronic diseases that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

A no-cost way to improve your heart health… and a whole lot more

read time: 246 words, about two minutes

How can you…
-> Lower your blood pressure
-> Lower your heart rate
-> Strengthen your immune system
-> Decrease the risk of heart attack
-> Decrease muscle tension, pain and joint pain
-> Increase blood flow and oxygen to the muscles, organs and brain
-> Improve digestion
-> Decrease stress
-> Improve depression and mental health
-> Improve memory, focus and brain functioning

… no pills, no hospital stay, no gimmicks…

Forgive.

Uh huh, forgive. That and those whom you hold a grudge against.

There have been many studies done over the past decade on the power of forgiveness.
You can read about 26 of them on A Campaign for Forgiveness Research

It’s a misconception that the forgiven/transgressor receives all the benefits.
Actually, the person forgiving is the true beneficiary.

Holding onto anger, bitterness, hate and resentment eats away at your energy and health. And it has power over you.
Letting go of those toxic emotions gives you control.

Forgiveness is a process. It starts with a decision. A choice only you can make for yourself. No can force you to do it… and no one can prevent you from doing it.
The decision is manifested in action.

You don’t have to make it public. You don’t have to reconcile with the person. You don’t have to forget. Forgiveness is about letting go and moving on.

Forgiveness won’t change the past.
But it will change the present… and the future.

“If you devote your life to seeking revenge, first dig two graves.”
- Confucious

Nap time – not just child’s play

read time: 137 words, about a minute

Maybe you think they were bribed.
Maybe you think they were ruled by pure self interest.
But Harvard researchers recently released the results of a large, six year study:
Napping can reduce death by heart disease 37%… yep, more than a third.
This was for the group that napped at least 3 times a week.

The occasional nappers showed a 12% reduction.

Lest you think this was a fluke:

• NASA researchers showed a 26 minute nap can yield a 34% boost in performance
• Stanford researchers showed napping improves mood and increases performance and alertness in doctors and nurses
• Salk Institute researcher Dr. Sara C. Mednick found napping keeps blood flow in the memory area of the brain constant through day; whereas, nonnappers have deceasing blood flow during the day.

Sleep on it and get back to me.

Stressed out?

read time: 344 words, about two minutes

Welcome to the laboratory of psychoneuroimmunology which basically studies how stress and the negative emotions stress creates manifest physically.

How about that gut feeling? And what about your broken heart?
The belief of Dr. Michael Jones, director of Northwestern Memorial’s Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders is the stomach and the heart are merely dumb beasts. It’s what’s going on in your brain that’s expressed in your organs.

In fact, the stomach is one of the first organs to be effected by chronic stress. And since digestion happens in the stomach, digestion isn’t happening well when you’re stressed out.

Chronic stress is not a singular event like getting caught in a traffic jam. It’s the constant elevated stress.

What Rockefeller University neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen has found is stress can change the brain’s “wiring”. Stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) activate an inflammatory response in the body. Some folks may primarily experience it in the stomach, perhaps the intestines, perhaps the heart, perhaps the joints. That response fires back to the brain in areas controlling blood pressure, heart rate and digestive organs as well as memories, fear and anxiety.

Cortisol and adrenaline constantly flowing throughout your body play nasty with the immune system, increasing the risk of infection as well as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis.

(Laughing and exercise cool down inflammation and boost the immune system).

You’re more likely to get sick when you’re experiencing a lot of stress.

Ohio State University researchers Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her husband, Ronald Glaser published a study in 1995 that showed relatives who were caring for Alzheimer’s patients took 24% longer to heal from small, superficial wounds than people in the same age and economic bracket who were not caregivers.

In a second study, they showed students coming up on midterms took 40% longer to heal than when they were ready for summer vacation.

Nutrition can help. But chronic stress is more of a lifestyle issue. Exercise, deep breathing, meditation, any form of relaxation. And of course, making changes in your life that alleviate the chronic stress.

Health and fitness survey

read time: 178 words, about a minute

Cooking Light surveyed 1,072 folks about health and fitness.

Some of the numbers…

- 6 percent of Americans adults get 30 minutes of exercise a day
- 22 percent exercise three to four times per week
- 19 percent walk or bike instead of taking transportation
- 41 percent take the stairs whenever possible
- 33 percent regularly park their cars farther from their destination to get in extra walking

- 67 percent recognize that making small, healthy improvements today add up to big benefits later
- 76 percent are satisfied with their mental and emotional well-being
- 45 percent are satisfied with their body weight
- 58 percent are satisfied with their stress level

Maybe these numbers are true, but I don’t believe most of them.
I might be able to believe the first two, maybe even the third. The rest of them - I believe - are exaggerated. I don’t have any data to back up my suspects, but the numbers don’t line up well with data on overweight and various prescription drugs.

Of course users notoriously exaggerate on surveys, sometimes as much as 40%.

How much would someone have to pay you to exercise?

If you’re an IBM employee, exercising 3 times a week scores you $150.
They’ll even pay you $150 for filling out your health record and another $150 if you stop smoking.

IBM is spending $130 million on “Wellness incentives”. Paid health time instead of paid sick time.
Studies show $1 spent on wellness = $3 saved on health care.

That lunch time power walk can actually save you money.

4 + 2 (legs) = better health

read time: 228 words, about a minute

Psychologist Dr Deborah Wells of Queens University in Belfast has reviewed numerous research papers about the health benefits of pet ownership.

Her findings to be published in British Journal of Health Psychology:
in general, pet owners are healthier than average…
Lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Further, dog owners tend to be healthier than cat owners, experiencing fewer minor ailments and serious medical issues.

Some of it’s obvious – dog owners walk more.
Some of it may not be obvious to non-dog people – dog owners tend to have more social contact.
I can testify to that. When dog owners are out walking their dogs and meet other dog owners there’s often a social exchange. Additionally, people spontaneously talk to you… or stop and want to pet your dog.

It’s like that with parents. They immediately bond on parenting issues and people spontaneously stop and chat with babies.

I was a bit surprised about the research. Not what they found, but what they didn’t discuss. Perhaps it’s not true, or perhaps no one has looked at it.
And that is: unconditional love. You could be gone for 30 minutes and when you get home, the typical dog greets you like a long lost friend. It never matters what you look like, how good a job you do or what your financial worth is.

Now wouldn’t anybody want a friend like that?

Overweight and canine

read time: 129 words, about a minute

Lovely. The FDA has now approved a prescription drug by Pfizer that suppresses a dog’s appetite. After all, dog obesity is increasing right along there with human obesity. And the same diseases are cropping up… diabetes, heart disease, arthritis.

But soon, you’ll be able to give your dog Slentrol - a selective microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibitor. It suppresses appetite and blocks fat absorption.

Oh and this drug will have a “strong” warning that it is for dogs, not people.

I don’t know. I’m betting the warning won’t quite be enough in which case a human may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, flatulence, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Hmm, that could suppress their appetite and then, they’ll LOSE WEIGHT.

Or, stop giving the dog crappy food, too much food and exercise with him!