Encouraging Health

The struggle to stay slim doesn’t end, even after the fat pants are gone

Lenore Katz shed 137 pounds, gradually dropping from 272 pounds to 135 pounds, over several years. The 60-year-old grandmother from of Brooklyn, N.Y, has kept the weight off for five years, but she still has moments of panic about falling back into old habits of overeating.

But what happens after the fat pants are gone?

Some are surprised to discover the struggle doesn’t end when they hit their goal weight. While the outside world sees a slimmer body, their personal body image often remains distorted. Katz remembers the pain of standing out in a crowd as “the fat one.â€? As a result, she regularly feels the nagging worry of “Will I gain it back?â€?

For all the celebration over people who lose massive amounts of weight, diets usually fail in the long run, studies show. A recent weight-loss maintenance study from Duke University found that after losing an average of 18.7 pounds over six months of diet and exercise, most dieters regained an average of nine pounds over the next 2 ½ years. Up to two-thirds of dieters gain back most of the weight they lost, according to an analysis of 31 diet studies released by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles last year.

What dieters often don’t realize is, while they can relax a little about how much they eat, they have to remain vigilant. The worst mistake dieters who have lost a lot of weight make is to think that they’re “done,” and that they no longer have to choose their food wisely and responsibly.

For more articles, browse Encouraging Health.

Sweet red peppers, sunflower seeds, and mango chunks atop a bed of spinach sure make for a yummy salad. But could it make you strong like Popeye, too?

According to research, it very well might. Especially if you’re over 65. You see, each of those salad ingredients is rich in vitamin E. And seniors who get the most E test best on physical tasks, like how fast they can walk or how quickly they can get up out of a chair.

Why Your Body Needs It
The cells of your body can be damaged by certain by-products released during normal, everyday body functions. But vitamin E helps protect against that damage — including damage to muscle cells. That may partly explain why not getting enough E puts physical function and strength at risk in seniors.

Should You Supplement?
The RealAge recommended dose of vitamin E is 400 international units per day. If you’re not getting what you need from your food, consider adding a supplement.

3 More Reasons to Get Your “E”
E is not just a strength saver. Here’s what else it can do for you — at any age:

Boost your brain.

Protect you from Parkinson’s. A diet packed with vitamin E may help protect against Parkinson’s disease, recent research concludes, and almonds are a good source. Parkinson’s is a chronic neurological condition that hampers motor function. Other good food sources of antioxidant vitamin E include hazelnuts, wheat-germ oil, sweet potatoes, and peanut butter.

The loss of dopamine-producing brain cells characterizes Parkinson’s disease, a condition that results in motor dysfunction. Parkinson’s usually affects men and women over the age of 50, although in rare cases the condition strikes people under the age of 40. Researchers aren’t sure what causes Parkinson’s, but it may be a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Several studies have documented an association between moderate-to-high consumption of vitamin E-rich foods and decreased incidence of Parkinson’s disease. Researchers are not certain whether vitamin E supplements also reduce the risk of Parkinson’s. Most experts agree it is best to get vitamins and nutrients from food. Supplements, however, can help boost nutrient intake if your diet falls short.

A diet packed with vitamin E may help protect against Parkinson’s disease, recent research concludes, and almonds are a good source. Parkinson’s is a chronic neurological condition that hampers motor function. Other good food sources of antioxidant vitamin E include hazelnuts, wheat-germ oil, sweet potatoes, and peanut butter.

For more information, browse Encouraging Health

Here’s why these three foods are practically a staple among health - conscious celebs and foodies - plus how to pronounce them, so you can casually order an açaí smoothie with all the cool of George Clooney.

Açaí berries (ah-sigh-EE or ah-SIGH-ee) Brazilian surfers eat theirs with granola, and we know what their bodies look like! Packed with twice the disease-fighting antioxidants of blueberries, açaí has already made Oprah’s list of Top 10 Superfoods and The Washington Post called the blackberry-flavored fruit the “new pomegranate.” But you may find it easier to sip yours: Celestial Seasonings sells an açaí-green tea blend, and açaí martinis are on chic bar menus everywhere.

DIY açaí fruit soda: Just mix chilled sparkling mineral water with a few ounces of açaí juice, available at health-food stores. Sip. Look cool. Feel healthy.
Quinoa (KEEN-wah) Dry quinoa looks a bit like sesame seeds but when cooked it becomes fluffy with a hint of crunch, making it an excellent substitution for rice, cous cous, and pasta. Quinoa’s major claim to food fame, however, is what RealAge researchers call its “nutritional profile.” A cup of quinoa has more protein than a quarter-pound hamburger and more calcium than a quart of milk. Yowza. It’s also loaded with iron, magnesium, and a bevy of other minerals and B vitamins. No wonder the Incas named it “the mother grain.”

Matcha (MAH-cha) When you drink a cuppa matcha (also spelled maccha), you’re getting green tea’s powerful antioxidants to the max, because you’re actually consuming the whole green tea leaf in powdered form. In Japan, slightly bitter matcha is traditionally served syrupy thick. But in the US, you’ll find matcha stirred into lattes, sprinkled on ice cream, and used to bolster energy drinks and turn smoothies into pick-me-ups (it’s said to boost alertness). Just be respectful of matcha if you’re caffeine sensitive: Ounce for ounce, it has almost as much caffeine as coffee.

Browse Encouraging Health.

Young or old, spry or not — all of us are going to take the occasional spill. (We know, sometimes it’s like the ground just reached up and grabbed your toes!)

Whether you hit the pavement as a result is not about the initial misstep. It’s about your ability to right yourself when you lose your balance. And we’ve got three tips for helping you wobble like a Weeble and not fall down.

3 Ways to Sure and Steady
Choose dumbbells over weight machines. Dumbbells force you to balance the weights as well as lift them. Hint: Tap your balance muscles by doing lunges with weights in your hands.

Deciding between free weights and weight machines is like trying to decide between salmon and tilapia for dinner: They both have their strong points.

Both options build muscles. However, free weights (barbells and dumbbells) help you work on balance. Weight machines, on the other hand, can reduce the risk of injury from poor form. Here’s why.

Free Form or Injury-Free?
Lifting free weights can work your arms, chest, legs, and shoulders, but it also engages foundation muscles in your torso (the ones that give you good posture and balance) because your body has to work to steady the weights as well as lift them.

Using static weight machines doesn’t engage your stability muscles the same way. However, weight machines can help reduce your chances of overstretching a muscle or joint because they’re built to guide your motions.

So weigh your risks (prone to injuries?) and goals (to build muscle, balance, or both?) before lifting weights.

Make like a flamingo. Try doing whatever you’re doing on one foot. It will help improve your proprioception — your awareness of yourself in space — which leads to better balance. Hint: Brush your teeth or crank out a few bicep curls with this method.

Buy a ball. Adding stability-ball exercises to your workout routine tunes up your balance muscles, too. Hint: Try doing crunches, push-ups (hands on the floor and feet on the ball), or leg lifts with it.

Browse Encouraging Health for more articles.

Study found those who took 2,000 IUs a day lived 26% longer

Alzheimer’s patients who consume very high levels of vitamin E seem to live longer than those who do not, new research suggests.

The study comes on the heels of growing concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of giving any patient — whether suffering from Alzheimer’s or another illness — the high dosage in question: 2,000 international units (IUs) per day.

Findings stem from almost 15 years spent tracking survival rates among 847 men and women already diagnosed with various stages of Alzheimer’s.

Just over two-thirds of the patients were women, and the average age was almost 74. On average, patient outcome was followed for about five years.

About two-thirds of the patients had been prescribed two daily doses of 1,000 IUs of vitamin E, in conjunction with an Alzheimer medication from the class of drugs known as cholinesterase inhibitors.

Cholinesterase inhibitors are designed to halt the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is key to nerve pulse function in the brain. Alzheimer’s patients suffer from a drop in acetylcholine production, so this class of drugs prevents the otherwise normal elimination of excess transmitters among those who have none to spare.

Fewer than 10 percent of patients took just vitamin E, while about 15 percent took neither the vitamin nor the medication.

The researchers found that patients who consumed the prescribed daily dosage of vitamin E appeared to extend their life span by 26 percent, compared with those not taking vitamin E.

Though there were some preliminary indications that the enhanced survival benefit associated with vitamin E was even greater among patients taking both the vitamin and a cholinesterase inhibitor, Pavlik and her team noted that the 26 percent bump held up even without the Alzheimer’s drug.

However, those taking a cholinesterase inhibitor alone did not appear to gain any survival benefit.

For more information, please browse Encouraging Health and the 451 Press network.

Like the princess and the pea, your body also notices the tiny green seeds.

But in a good way. How? By getting stronger against strokes.

That’s because peas are chock-full of folate, a mighty B vitamin known to lower blood levels of a stroke-promoting compound.

Heard About Homocysteine?
Both natural folate and the synthetic kind (folic acid) found in supplements and fortified foods help lower homocysteine levels in the blood. That’s a fine thing, because researchers suspect that too much of the substance might encourage “bad” cholesterol to oxidize and contribute to artery-blocking (read heart attack- and stroke-causing) blood clots.

Several clinical trials are under way to test whether lowering homocysteine will reduce CHD risk. Recent data show that the institution of folate fortification of foods has reduced the average level of homocysteine in the U.S. population.

Recent findings suggest that laboratory testing for plasma homocysteine levels can improve the assessment of risk. It may be particularly useful in patients with a personal or family history of cardiovascular disease, but in whom the well-established risk factors (smoking, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure) do not exist.

Although evidence for the benefit of lowering homocysteine levels is lacking, patients at high risk should be strongly advised to be sure to get enough folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 in their diet. Foods high in folic acid include green, leafy vegetables and grain products fortified with folic acid. But this is just one risk factor. A physician taking any type of nutritional approach to reducing risk should consider a person’s overall risk factor profile and total diet.

Time for a Supplement
Because the average diet falls far short of the recommended amount of folate, you should take a multivitamin with 400 micrograms. That will help ensure you reach the RealAge Optimum dose of 700 micrograms per day. As for folate-rich foods, peas are a good start — but you can also stock up on asparagus, artichokes, avocados, bananas, and fortified cereals.

Browse Encouraging Health for more health articles.

As if the taste of your grandmother’s spaghetti sauce recipe weren’t enough incentive. Studies show that the yummy red stuff is a major cancer deterrent, too.

Your risk of developing certain cancers (like prostate, GI, skin, or breast cancer) decreases significantly when you eat 10 or more tablespoons of tomato sauce per week. S’getti, anyone?

Lovely Lycopene
Many scientists believe that the active ingredient responsible for the cancer protection is lycopene, a carotenoid known for its antioxidant properties. All tomato products contain lots of lycopene, but it’s more available to your body when it’s cooked.

Soup It Up
While you’re at it, add some cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, to your sauce. They contain chemicals that prevent cancer, too — so you get double protection.

Heads-Up for Men
You know that tomatoes are a powerful prostate protector. In a study of over 40,000 health professionals, Harvard investigators found that men who ate more than 10 servings tomato-based foods daily (like cooked tomatoes and tomato sauce,) had a 35 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who ate the least amount of these foods. The benefits of lycopene was more pronounced with advanced stages of prostate cancer.

In another study of prostate cancer, researchers looked at blood levels of lycopene and found that the risk of developing prostate cancer, especially aggressive cancer, decreased with increasing blood lycopene levels. Men taking 50mg of lycopene daily had significantly higher level of lycopene. In this study, researchers found that high level of lycopene in the blood was associated with low PSA (prostate specific antigen) levels. High PSA levels in blood are often a sign of prostate cancer.

For more information, please browse Encouraging Health.

Exactly how little can you do and still get fit? A new study suggests 1.7 might be the magic number.

Middle-aged men and women at risk for heart disease who walk at a moderate pace for just 1.7 miles a day improve several important measures of their aerobic fitness.

More Is More
Ok, we admit it. The data show that jogging at full speed for nearly 3 miles a day reaps the greatest cardiovascular benefits. But if jogging shorts and running shoes aren’t your style — or you’re just feeling kinda tired today — at least get yourself out there for 1.7 miles. It’s still enough to keep you on the road to better fitness.

More Ways to Do Less
Going slower doesn’t always mean that you’ll lose the fitness race. Here are some other ways to keep yourself in the game when you feel like throwing in the towel:
Slow it down. You don’t have to keep up with that marathon runner.

Take a breather. Right in the middle of your workout.

Break it up. Can’t pull together 30 minutes of exercise? Grab 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at lunch, and 10 minutes after dinner.

New research shows that lower-intensity exercise may help you shed more pounds than a faster-paced activity — as long as you burn enough calories from it. So get out of the high-speed lane. Walk, don’t run. Jog, don’t sprint. Skip the spinning class and pedal an exercise bike at a comfortable speed, all the while chanting: Do less, lose more.

The study compared two groups of women who did slower- or faster-paced sessions on the treadmill 4 days a week. During the sessions, each group exercised at their respective paces until the same number of calories was burned. After 3 months — with absolutely no dieting — the slower-goers had lost an average of more than 7 pounds each, while the quicker group had dropped only 4. Although the study was small, the numbers are compelling.

Browse Encouraging Health for more fitness ideas.

Study finds Ritalin, other stimulants, don’t boost risks of later addiction

Using stimulants like Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, particularly younger ones, does not seem to boost the risk of later substance abuse, researchers said on Tuesday.

There has been a debate over whether such medications are the best way to treat ADHD, a condition marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior that appears more often in boys than girls. Some experts have worried these drugs could make children more prone to substance abuse later on.

Two teams of researchers who examined the issue in studies published in American Journal of Psychiatry said their findings should offer some reassurance about using these stimulants.

A team led by Salvatore Mannuzza of New York University followed for 17 years a group of 176 young men who had been prescribed Ritalin for ADHD as boys. Those who began taking Ritalin at ages 6 or 7 had essentially the same rate of drug abuse as young adults — 27 percent — as a group of young men who did not have ADHD and did not take Ritalin — 29 percent.

Those with ADHD who started taking Ritalin at a slightly older age — 8 through 12 — did have a higher rate of future drug abuse — 44 percent, the study found.

Mannuzza said it was premature to conclude it was the Ritalin, rather than the mere fact of having a condition like ADHD, that increased their likelihood of later drug abuse.

Another team led by Dr. Joseph Biederman of Massachusetts General Hospital tracked for 10 years another group of boys with ADHD, some of whom were treated with stimulant medications and some not.

Those treated with medications had neither an increased nor decreased risk for subsequent drug or alcohol abuse compared to those not given drugs for their ADHD.

For more health information, browse Encouraging Health.

Don’t think of them as a treat. Berries should get daily play in your diet — especially if you’re at all concerned about your blood pressure.

Don’t think of them as a treat. Berries should get daily play in your diet — especially if you’re at all concerned about your blood pressure.

People with high BP who ate berries daily as part of a study saw a 7-point dip in their systolic blood pressure — after just 8 weeks of berry love!

Bursting with Goodness
Berries have a lot going for them: They’re jam-packed with polyphenols, like flavonols and anthocyanins. Plus, they’re loaded with vitamin C, folate, potassium, and fiber. With so much in such a tiny package, it’s hardly a surprise that it took just 4 ounces of a berry medley each day to boost the health of the study participants. Not only did their blood pressure go down, but their HDL (”good” cholesterol) went up, too.

Berry Many Possibilities
The berry medley in the study contained everything from bilberries and lingonberries to strawberries and raspberries, so the juicy possibilities for getting your daily dose are infinite. Given that you can eat berries one by one, they’re the perfect alternative to chips when stress calls for some hand-to-mouth action. But when you’re ready to experiment, try these fine ideas:

Add them to salads. Sprinkle raspberries on dark, leafy greens.

Drink ‘em.

Use them on barbecued meats.

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Blueberry-Ginger Relish

Take 5 minutes in the morning to get these pork chops marinating so they’re ready to grill the same night or even the next day. Serve with grilled corn on the cob and Frozen Raspberry Pie for dessert.

Makes 4 servings, 1 chop & 1/4 cup relish each

ACTIVE TIME: 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 2 1/2 hours (including 2 hours marinating time)

EASE OF PREPARATION: Moderate

4 bone-in center-cut pork chops (about 1 3/4 pounds), trimmed of fat

Marinade
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry (see Ingredient Note)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Blueberry-Ginger Relish
1 cup fresh blueberries, coarsely chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 serrano chile, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. To marinate: Place pork chops in a large sealable plastic bag. Whisk soy sauce, sherry, garlic, brown sugar and crushed red pepper in a small bowl. Add the marinade to the bag, seal and turn to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. To prepare relish: About 20 minutes before grilling the pork, combine blueberries, shallot, chile, cilantro, lime juice, ginger and salt in a small bowl.
3. Preheat grill to high. Remove the pork chops from the marinade (discard marinade). Grill the chops 3 to 5 minutes per side. Let them rest for 5 minutes before serving with the relish.

For more recipes and heathy ideas, browse Encouraging Health.