Encouraging Health

Ice-cold sodas and fruity drinks may hit the spot on a warm weekend, but could sipping unsweetened tea instead save you from a pain-filled future?

Maybe so. In a study, the more of a common soft-drink sweetener called fructose that men consumed, the greater their chances of gout.

Substance Surplus
Gout is characterized by sharp crystals that form in the foot or leg joints — the big toe most often — causing sudden and severe pain.

Fructose may be a factor in the disease, because it increases uric acid in the body — and too much uric acid can set off the gout-provoking process. Go really overboard on soft drinks and the risk of gout may skyrocket — as much as 85 percent higher in a recent study. But tea doesn’t appear to affect risk. And coffee may even reduce it!

Don’t Let Gout Get You

Here’s what else you can do to keep gout out of your future:

Lay off the surf ’n’ turf.

Keep your weight in check.

Cut back on the booze.

Land and Sea and bees knees.

Eating foods that are high in a protein called purine — such as a seafood and steak dinner washed down with a cold beer — can bring on gout, a particularly painful type of arthritis that primarily attacks leg and foot joints. If family history makes arthritis a potential hazard, turns out you can slash your risk of gout by eating more low-fat dairy foods (string cheese, yogurt, milk) and less surf and turf.

An overload of foods high in purine is a requirement for gout. Your body converts purine into uric acid, a waste product that’s normally eliminated through your kidneys. But when there’s too much uric acid in your system, it forms tiny, sharp crystals that take up residence in the lower leg and foot joints (the big toe is a favorite site), causing intense pain, redness, and swelling. People with certain inherited characteristics linked to rheumatoid arthritis are prone to uric acid buildup and gout.

Browse Encouraging Health.

Try something different. Add a little lychee to your fruit salad. Not only will it add an exotic tickle for your taste buds, but it will tickle your ticker, too.

When scientists recently measured the heart-helping polyphenol content of fruits popular in France, lychees were bested only by strawberries. Grapes came in third.

The Top 10
Who would have thought lychees — cultivated in China — would become a fave fruit in France? But the top polyphenol-spiked fruits there, in order, are: strawberries, lychees, grapes, apricots, apples, dates, cherries, figs, pears, and white nectarines.

The small, heart-shaped red fruit is now going global and making an appearance in U.S. markets, too, especially during the summer.

Two More for Your Ticker
In addition to impressive amounts of polyphenols, lychees also have heart-smart vitamin C and potassium.

French scientists describe how high and low doses of polyphenols have different effects. At relatively low doses, the French researchers found that the same polyphenols play a beneficial role for those with diseased hearts and circulatory systems by facilitating blood vessel growth. The amount of polyphenols necessary for this effect was found to be the equivalent of only one glass of red wine per day or simply sticking to a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables containing polyphenols. This diet is known as the “Mediterranean Diet.” This study also adds to a growing body of research showing dose-dependent relationships for many types of commonly used compounds. For instance, research published in the October 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that aspirin, through different mechanisms, also has a dose-dependent relationship for heart disease and cancer.

Browse Encouraging Health.

Walking shoes — check. Pedometer — got it. But do you have a goal?

No goal? Better set one. It doesn’t even matter if you hit the mark. People who put a target on their radar — like walking 10,000 steps a day — walk a whole lot more than people who don’t have a goal. Studies prove it.

The End Game
Walking 10,000 steps a day is an ideal physical activity goal, according to new guidelines.

And in a large review of the research, scientists discovered that people with this goal — or a personalized step plan — literally walked the extra mile, logging about 2,000 extra steps a day. Plus, when people tracked their progress with a pedometer, they lost weight and improved their blood pressure.

A Few More Motivators

In addition to your comfy shoes, your daily-steps goal, and your pedometer, here are a few more tools to help you keep on keeping on:

Some tunes

Your furry friend

A buddy

Contingency Plans
Of course, if you’re not an animal lover, having a pet you don’t like isn’t a boon to your stress-less plans. But not to worry. There are plenty of other ways to motivate yourself to walk more: 1. Make a walking date with a friend (It’s much harder to talk yourself out of it once you’ve committed to someone else.)
2. Find a virtual exercise buddy and report your walking activities to him or her each day.
3. Splurge on a virtual trainer. They’ve now got wristwatch-sized GPS devices that do everything from measuring speed, distance, calories burned, and heart rate to letting you know when your pace has slacked off.
4. Register for a charity walk.
5. Remind yourself of the benefits.

Browse Encouraging Health.

Summertime can be good for your blood sugar. Just make sure you pack your picnic basket with whole-wheat buns, brown-rice salad, and an oat-berry crumble.

With whole-grain foods like these, it will be smooth sailing. Studies show that nutrient- and fiber-dense whole grains help keep blood sugar levels quite steady.

Insulin Action
Whole grains are chock-full of fiber, antioxidants, vitamins (especially B and E), and minerals (magnesium, potassium, selenium, zinc, and — whew! — iron). All are great for your body in so many ways. But the real key here is fiber. It slows down digestion, keeping blood sugar on an even keel and insulin levels more stable. Vitamin E and magnesium might boost insulin sensitivity as well.

Good-for-Your-Blood-Sugar Plan
Along with aiming for six servings of whole grains daily, try these other tricks for keeping your blood sugar in a healthy range:

Be choosy about your carbs.

Invest in some comfy walking shoes.

Whittle your waist. First step: 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Belly Fat — And How to Make it Scram

1. All fat is not alike. Eat more calories than you burn and the extras get packed away in one of two places — long-term storage depots beneath the skin (subcutaneous fat) or short-term bins deep in the abdomen (visceral fat).

2. The fat you don’t see is the most dangerous. soft, superficial stuff that ripples your thighs and tummy may be a bikini spoiler, but if you can pinch it, it probably won’t kill you. However, if you have a solid “beer belly” . . . well, you’re likely headed for more trouble than a politician hooked up to a polygraph.

3. Stress makes you fat. Not only does stress lead you to eat Haagen-Dazs straight from the carton, but it also triggers the release of cortisol, a stress hormone.

4. The fat you eat affects the fat you get. When monkeys munched on trans-fat laced diets for 6 years, they developed more deep-belly fat than those who went trans-fat-free, even though both ate the same number of calories.

5. Blasting belly fat isn’t hard. If you’re not overweight but still have an oversized waist, the fastest way to shrink your omentum is by walking. Taking a brisk 30-minute walk each day will keep those fat cells from expanding.

6. Whole grains scare away belly fat. If you and a friend go on a diet but you eat whole grains (meaning brown rice, steel-cut oats, and whole-wheat pasta, not whole-grain Pop Tarts) and your friend eats processed grains (anything made with white/enriched grains and flours, cupcakes to noodles), you both might lose the same amount of weight, but you’ll shed more belly fat and lower your levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of damaging inflammation. And your food will taste better, and you’ll feel full longer. AND you’ll have a flat stomach!

Browse Encouraging Health.

Regular java fixes may cut chances of dying from heart disease

Long-term coffee drinking does not appear to increase a person’s risk of early death and may cut a person’s chances of dying from heart disease, according to a study published on Monday.

Previous studies have given a mixed picture of health effects from coffee, finding a variety of benefits and some drawbacks from the popular drink. The new study looked at people who drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

Researchers led by Esther Lopez-Garcia of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain followed 84,214 U.S. women from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 U.S. men from 1986 to 2004.

They found that regular coffee drinking — up to six cups a day — was not associated with increased deaths among the study’s middle-aged participants. In fact, the coffee drinkers, particularly the women, experienced a small decline in death rates from heart disease.

The study found no association between coffee consumption and cancer deaths.

There has been a debate among scientists about the health effects of drinking coffee, which typically contains the stimulant caffeine and a number of other important compounds.

The people who took part in the research completed questionnaires on how frequently they drank coffee, other diet habits, smoking and medical conditions. The researchers then studied the mortality risk over the period of the study among people with different coffee-drinking habits.

The study found that women who reported drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than women who did not drink coffee. The researchers saw a smaller decreased risk for men but it was not statistically significant.

Drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with a small reduction in overall mortality risk, the researchers said.

Browse Encouraging Health.

If you don’t know a pentapeptide from an antioxidant and, frankly, you don’t care — you just want your gator-dry legs to be soft and silky-smooth — look no farther than your kitchen. The answer lies in that bottle of safflower oil sitting on the shelf. This polyunsaturated oil, beloved by cardiologists for being good for your heart, is just as good for your skin, but from the outside in.

The oil, which is pressed from the seeds of spiky yellow safflowers, is a super moisturizer. “That’s because it’s very high in linoleic acid, a fatty acid that skin normally makes to keep its moisture level up and barrier function intact,” says New York City dermatologist Amy Wechsler, MD, RealAge’s skin expert. Because the body’s linoleic acid production gets sluggish with age, it helps to replace it from the outside.

“In theory, you could use olive oil, too, which is also high in linoleic acid. But you’d smell like a salad!” Wechsler says. Along with being odorless, safflower oil has the advantages of being colorless and cheap. And that’s not all. Safe enough for sensitive skin, it’s so gentle that it’s massaged into the skin of newborn babies at some hospitals.

Although this natural oil is one of Wechsler’s favorite treatments for dry lower legs (where flakiness can be especially persistent), you can use it body-wide — though not when you’re in a mad rush, as it takes time to soak in. “Smooth it on immediately after a bath or shower to seal in the moisture your skin has just absorbed. You can even apply it on your face, as long you don’t get it into your eyes; stop a bit below the lower lid.”

If you’re not sure about moisturizing with pure cooking oil, you can find safflower oil in moisturizers, lip balms, and scrubs. “Look for a product that lists it among the first three ingredients, which means it contains a high concentration of the oil,” says Dr. Wechsler.

Otherwise, just pour some safflower oil into a pretty little squeeze bottle and add it to your toiletries. No one will ever guess you cook with it, too. And your legs will look amazing!

Browse Encouraging Health.

An excerpt from my article on the HPV Vaccines.

From the CDC, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a common virus that is spread through sexual contact. HPV has virtually no symptoms, so people do not know they have it. There are approximately 40 types of genital HPV. Some types can cause cervical cancer in women and can also cause other kinds of cancer in both men and women. Other types can cause genital warts in both males and females. The HPV vaccine works by preventing the most common types of HPV that cause cervical cancer and genital warts. It is given as a 3-dose vaccine.

The HPV vaccine is routinely recommended for girls 11 and 12 years of age and is given in a series of three injections over a six-month period. The second and third doses should be given two and six months (respectively) after the first dose. The vaccine is also recommended for girls and women 13 through 26 years of age who did not receive it when they were younger. HPV vaccine may be given at the same time as other vaccines. Unfortunately, there haven’t been long-term studies on gay men who receive an HPV vaccination.

This past year, I’ve been following the HPV Vaccine trials and subsequent recommendation that young girls be vaccinated against the HPV virus. During this time, there have been side notes in the mainstream press about little known side effects. Whether or not the two companies of the vaccines, Merck and Glaxo Smith Kline, were aware of these side effects, they owe an explanation to the families of the girls and young womena n explanation. Are more studies needed? Should there be full disclosure of all, if any, possible side effects? Sure. Is it going to happen? Who knows.

The companies should be commended for finding a vaccine against a virus that kills women needlessly each year. Each parent must decide for themself to vaccinate their children.

For more health articles, browse Encouraging Health.

Your immune system is responsible for helping fight off everything from the common cold to cancer. A tall order!

Send in some reinforcements so it doesn’t get battle fatigue. Here are four foods your immune system loves.

Sweet, Creamy, Steamy, Crunchy . . .
Oranges, yogurt, tea, and pumpkin seeds are the order of the day when it comes to giving your immune system a treat, according to experts Michael Roizen, MD, and Mehmet Oz, MD, authors of the best-selling (and now newly expanded and updated) YOU: The Owner’s Manual. Here’s how these four superfoods help:

Oranges are chock-full of vitamin C, an antioxidant vitamin that helps your immune system fend off disease-causing invaders. Other good C options: bell peppers, strawberries, cantaloupe, and broccoli. Or take 400 milligrams of vitamin C three times daily.

Yogurt (unpasteurized) contains Lactobacillus acidophilus — a healthy bacterium that helps thwart fungus-related infections. Or take a 20-milligram acidophilus supplement twice daily.

Tea is full of flavonoids, powerful vitamin-like substances that reduce immune-system aging. You’ll also find them in oats, onions, broccoli, tomatoes, apples, and berries.

Pumpkin seeds are great year round, not just at Halloween, because they contain zinc — a nutrient that’s been shown to help reduce the average length of the common cold.

Here’s more good nows on how Zinc can help your workout:

Fatigue during workouts could have many underlying causes. Recent research suggests a lack of zinc could be one factor. When 14 men were fed either a low-zinc or zinc-supplemented diet for 9 weeks, the men on the zinc diet performed much better on exercise tests compared to the men on the low-zinc diet.

Aim for at least 12 milligrams (mg) of zinc per day from food and supplements. However, zinc can be harmful in excessive amounts, so avoid getting more than 30 mg per day. Zinc helps rid the body of excess carbon dioxide that builds up during a workout, so if you’re low you may tire more quickly. It also facilitates oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide output, and other metabolic processes that help maintain stamina. Zinc performs a variety of other functions in the body, as well, including aiding in the synthesis of genetic material, maintaining a healthy immune system, speeding wound healing, and helping enzymes perform their various functions.

Browse Encouraging Health.

You could crush that 3 p.m. cookie craving just by chewing a little of this: gum.

That’s right. A study found that chewing gum can really put the kibosh on your afternoon appetite in a big way.

Countering the Snack Attack
People who chew either sweetened or sugar-free gum after lunch feel full longer, have fewer hunger pangs, have fewer cravings for sweets, and eat fewer afternoon snacks — compared with people who don’t chew gum.

Tickled Taste Buds Signal “Full”
How does chomping gum suppress hunger? It’s simple. When you eat, your taste buds are stimulated by the food. But the cool thing is that exposure to the tastes and smells of food also lessens how good it tastes. That, in turn, is one of the cues that signal your brain that you’re full, so cravings go away. Chewing gum may have this same effect — but without all the calories!

Mindful Consumption
You can make the gum trick work even better by thinking about how many snacks you’ve eaten. Then, try these other tips for better snack management:

Don’t snack in front of the computer.

Discover your emotional snacking triggers

Grab a tall drink of water before every snack.

Choosing the right appetizers may help you eat less:

If you’re trying to watch your weight, you don’t have to entirely avoid that bread basket and dish of olive oil before your meal. Noshing on whole-grain bread dipped in olive oil may actually help you eat less overall. Consuming a small amount of healthy unsaturated fat, such as olive oil, before a meal slows the rate at which the stomach empties, which means:

You’ll digest your food more slowly, so you’ll eat less but still feel full.

Your blood sugar won’t hit a high peak after you eat, but will remain at a lower, stable level.

Your body will more easily absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, as well as fat-soluble nutrients such as lycopene and lutein.

It doesn’t take much: Just 70 calories worth will do the trick. This translates into half a tablespoon of olive oil, 6 walnuts, 12 almonds, or 20 peanuts.

Browse Encouraging Health.

Don Hayen has a handy way of deflecting the instant pity that comes when he reveals his Alzheimer’s disease: “But I haven’t lost my keys all day,” he quickly jokes.

Hayen is part of a growing new movement in Alzheimer’s: Patients whose disease is diagnosed early enough that they are still articulate and can demand better care and better research. They are giving a voice to a disease whose victims until now have remained largely silent, and powerless.

It’s a shift with big ramifications.

Alzheimer’s patients are joining their counterparts with cancer and HIV to lobby Congress for more money to hunt treatments. Some are advising top scientists to push for higher-stakes research even if it means higher risks. They’re even offering unprecedented glimpses into how a mind slowly unravels as they blog about their dementia.

“It’s labeled incurable and you end up being a vegetable. People think as soon as you’re labeled that way, you are. A lot of us aren’t,” says Hayen, 74, a retired San Diego, California, physician who joined about 30 other early stage Alzheimer’s patients last month for a lobbying blitz at the nation’s capital.

“I can still speak for those who can’t.”

More than 5 million Americans are estimated to be living with Alzheimer’s disease, although no one knows how many have been diagnosed. But research suggests as many as half of Alzheimer’s sufferers may be in the disease’s early stages. Doctors say they’ve begun diagnosing far more people who still have years of independent living ahead them than they did just a few years ago.

And this week, the Alzheimer’s Association begins pilot-testing a campaign in three cities — Richmond, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — aimed at increasing early diagnosis. “Know the signs — early detection matters,” advertising will urge.

Diagnosis can be difficult. There is no single test for dementia. Memory problems aren’t always even the obvious first symptom; Hayen cites unprovoked anger and disorientation.

Browse Encouraging Health .