Encouraging Health

Which menu special should you order to keep your colon healthy? Go for the seafood platter.

According to a large 22-year study, men who eat fish and shrimp five times a week have a 40 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer. Just get it broiled, not fried, and go light on the butter.

What’s Fish Got That Colons Love?
Researchers aren’t sure why frequently eating fish has such a protective effect on colon health. The omega-3 fatty acids and the vitamin D in fish might get the credit. Or it could simply be that fans of fish eat less red meat — something known to raise colon cancer risk. Regardless, grab that mahimahi burger instead of the beef patty.

Fish Helps You Keep the Beat

In this ever more polluted world, sometimes you just can’t avoid a little bit of particulate matter in your lungs.

So go fish! Eating finny food not only reduces your risk for heart disease but also may protect your heart from air-pollution-induced arrhythmias.

Taking Heart Against Pollution
Short-term exposure to small airborne particles spewed from cars, power plants, and other industrial sources may cause an irregular heart rate. Serious stuff, because it could open the door to heart arrhythmias and even heart attacks in people who are over 60 or have heart or lung diseases.

Airing Things Out
But fish could help thwart that unhealthy chain of events. A study found that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil may help alleviate those irregular beats. That’s just what happened when people over 60 who were exposed to particulate matter took a daily fish oil supplement. Fish oil supplements aren’t for everyone, though, and should be discussed with a doctor first.

Fish oil supplements may work slightly better than a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure, according to new research released Sunday.

Chronic heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently around the body.

With few effective options for heart failure patients, the findings could give patients a potential new treatment and could change the dietary recommendations for them, said Dr. Jose Gonzalez Juanatey, a spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology, who was not connected to the research.

“This reinforces the idea that treating patients with heart failure takes more than just drugs,” Juanatey said.

The study findings were published online in the medical journal The Lancet on Sunday. They were simultaneously announced at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Munich.

“With a lot of these patients, you have no other choice,” said Dr. Helmut Gohlke, a cardiologist at the Heart Centre in Bad Krozingen, Germany. “They’ve tried other treatments and are at the end of the road.”

Italian researchers gave nearly 3,500 patients a daily omega-3 pill, a prescription-formulation pill derived from fish oils, produced by Norway’s Pronova BioPharma.

But doctors said people should get the same benefits from taking cheaper options like fish oil supplements — or just eating more oily fish like salmon.

Roughly the same number of patients were given placebo pills. Patients were followed for an average of four years.

In the group of patients taking the fish oil pills, 1,981 died of heart failure or were admitted to the hospital with the problem. In the patients on placebo pills, 2,053 died or were admitted to the hospital for heart failure.

In a parallel study, the same team of Italian doctors gave 2,285 patients the drug rosuvastatin, also known as Crestor, and gave placebo pills to 2,289 people. Patients were then tracked for about four years. The doctors found little difference in heart failure rates between the two groups.

Comparing the results from both studies, the researchers concluded that fish oil is slightly more effective than the drug because the oil performed better against a placebo than did Crestor.

“It’s a small benefit, but we should always be emphasizing to patients what they can do in terms of diet that might help,” said Dr. Richard Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago and past president of the American Heart Association.

Both studies were paid for by an Italian group of pharmaceuticals including Pfizer Inc., Sigma Tau SpA and AstraZeneca PLC.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish such as salmon and tuna have long been proven to offer health benefits like protecting the heart and brain, though scientists aren’t exactly sure how.

Bonow said that since cell membranes are made of fatty acids, fish oils may help to replace and strengthen those membranes with omega-3.

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I LOVE berries! Recently, a friend invited me to go up Interstate 5 near Everett, WA to buy berries fresh from the actual farmers. I bought a 1/2 flat of blueberries and immediately stuck them in the freezer, on the pretense of enjoying them in the winter. There were 8 baggies of them, now I think I have 3 or 4 left. They are so good!

Been known to gorge on blueberries in late summer and early fall, when they’re abundant and in season? Go ahead! Even in the world of fruits and berries, which is loaded with health-boosting, age-fighting nutrition stars, blueberries are a supernova.

They’re linked not only to skin, heart, eye, and urinary health but also to a lower risk of cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

So how much should you be eating to reap the protective health benefits? About 1 to 2 cups a day says Steven G. Pratt, MD, author of the new book SuperFoods HealthStyle: Proven Strategies for Lifelong Health.

First off, you may be thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot of blueberries, even in August!” Second, if they’re not in season, you’re wondering how on earth you’re going to eat a cup or more a day. Here’s how:

Stock your freezer. There’s evidence that frozen blueberries provide the same benefits of fresh, says Dr. Pratt. The big tip-off? A European study found that men who ate frozen berries daily had as much as 50% more quercetin, a particularly powerful anticancer antioxidant, in their blood than did men who abstained from eating berries.

When fresh blueberries are so last season, here are a few suggestions from Pratt and others on how to use frozen ones to get that “cup a day”:

• Put a cup of frozen berries in the fridge in the evening to defrost; in the morning, sprinkle them over cereal or stir them into yogurt. Forgot to defrost? Throw those chilly berries in the blender, and whip up a quick all-fruit smoothie.

• Boost the fiber and nutrients in your baked goods by tossing a handful into muffin or quick-bread batter. Just add 5 to 15 minutes to the baking time to compensate for their chilling effect.

• Float a few in a glass of cold club soda or lemonade as festive, edible ice cubes. (Kids will get a kick out of this.)

• Eat them plain, like tiny popsicles. (Another kid pleaser.)

• Add them to a salad of winter fruit about 15 minutes before serving.

Eating fistfuls of blueberries every day is certainly no risk to your weight. You’re only looking at 79 calories a cup. And all those antioxidants pay off big-time.

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Don’t answer that e-mail. Doctor’s orders! See, your body doesn’t respond as well as you think it might to the “get ahead now, sleep when you’re retired” philosophy. A group of 32- to 59-year-olds who got fewer than five hours of sleep a night for several years were twice as likely to develop high blood pressure as those who got a healthy seven or eight hours each night.

If you’ve shorted your sleep in favor of peeking at your inbox one more time or searching for the ultimate Spider-Man costume for your kids, you’re like most people over 30 who are getting historically low levels of sleep. Blood pressure is on the rise in this young age group too, and is related to lack of sleep. Here’s how it works:

When you snooze, your body goes into a lower blood pressure mode. Too little time in this low-key state can lead to consistently high blood pressure.

Less sleep means you spend more time dealing with stress instead of resting.

Cutting back on a full night’s sleep again and again also adds to your desire to eat. That’s because lack of sleep leads to a lack of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine. Your brain receptors crave dopamine, so they trigger sugar cravings in your body because sugar also releases dopamine — but constantly overdoing sugary foods increases your weight and your high blood pressure risk.

If getting enough shut-eye is a challenge, consider this: Whatever’s tempting you to stay up late will still be there tomorrow. But with rest, you’ll do those tasks better — and probably faster.

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Live near a busy intersection? Dig your downloaded iTunes? Then lowering your blood pressure (BP) may be as easy as shutting the window or turning down your player.

Too much noise exposure correlates with a steady rise in blood pressure. Makes sense. Loud sounds are known to stimulate the pituitary-adrenal cortical system.

Lay Off the Loudness
Heart rate basically soars in response to sudden loud sounds, like slamming doors or honking horns. But a gradual rise in noise hurts, too. In a study of assembly plant workers, the higher the volume got, the higher their blood pressure rose. Simple earplug use was enough to drop systolic blood pressure as much as 5.5 mm Hg. So just imagine what turning down your car stereo could do!

3 More Blood Pressure Points

Noise isn’t the only thing that can boost your blood pressure. Here are some other culprits to attend to:

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Potato chips. You aren’t doing your blood pressure any favors with high-calorie, nutrition-poor snacks that pack on pounds.

Recent research shows that a diet with ample amounts of vegetable protein, such as the protein found in sunflower seeds, may help keep blood pressure down. A diet high in animal protein offered no such benefit in the study. Stock up on sunflower seeds, cashews, and kidney beans to get your fill of blood pressure-lowering veggie protein.

Increasing your intake of fresh vegetables provides you with fiber and disease-fighting nutrients. Vegetable-rich diets may help reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Results of a new study suggest eating a diet high in vegetable protein may help lower blood pressure, though it’s not known how vegetable protein creates this effect. The unique protein composition or mineral content of vegetables may play a role. Exercising regularly, reducing stress, and limiting salt intake if you are salt sensitive will help you get a handle on your blood pressure as well.

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It’s lean, it’s laden with fill-you-up protein, and it helps keep your arteries clear. What is it?

It’s the mighty bean. Yep. Beans have it all — including the ability to reduce the amount of artery-clogging fat in your blood.

Lower Lipids
In a study, people who ate a half cup of cooked pinto beans every day for 12 weeks experienced a drop in total and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Which means beans could do great things for your heart health. Researchers theorize it’s the antioxidants in beans — called polyphenols — that may help lower blood lipids.

More Heart Safeguards
One possible caveat: In the recent bean study, HDL (good) cholesterol dropped a bit, too — something not seen in other bean studies. Follow-up research will be needed to see if it’s a fluke or holds true. In the meantime, here are a bunch of other reasons to make beans your best friends:

They help your pants fit better.

Thanks to all the fiber, they help control Blood Pressure.

Getting Rid of the Gas

The fact that beans help thwart colon polyps is all well and good. But how can you prevent the gassy aftereffects that often come with beans?

Here are some tips:

Rinse canned beans before cooking or eating them.

Pour off the soaking water for dry beans and use fresh for cooking.
Increase bean consumption gradually.

Offset the added fiber with plenty of fluids and exercise.

Bean There, Done That

Colon health doesn’t start and stop with eating beans, of course. You should also consider colon cancer screening.

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When it comes to heart health, a person’s weight may not matter as much as previously thought.

Surprising Findings
A new national study shows that about half of overweight people have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels while “an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity,” reports the Associated Press.

According to the American Heart Association, overweight people have a body mass index (BMI)—a measurement that assesses weight in relation to height—of 25.0 to less than 30.0, or about 10 percent over ideal body weight. Being overweight or obese has long been associated with a higher risk of heart problems.

But the new study shows that not as many overweight people are plagued with heart problems as once thought. On the flip side, people who are not overweight and seem perfectly healthy could have serious heart health issues.

About 51 percent of overweight adults—approximately 36 million people nationwide—had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar. Roughly one-third of obese adults—those with a BMI of 30.0 or greater—also fell into the healthy range.

And about a fourth of adults who were in the recommended weight range had unhealthy levels in two of those categories. “We’re really talking about taking a look with a very different lens” at weight and health risks, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.
Analysis: Weight still matters
“This is not to say that obesity is not a problem,” said researcher Rachel Wildman at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “But there may be certain individuals for whom obesity is not as big a problem as we thought.”

She believes other studies must be done before the information is taken too seriously. For example, the study did not take into account what people ate. The overweight but heart healthy individuals. may have better diets overall, she said.

“I don’t think this is completely genetic,” Wildman said. “I’m sure there are things people can do to help bring down their risk factors even if they can’t get the weight off.”

Study co-author Judith Wylie-Rosett said that the study shouldn’t send the message “that we don’t need to worry about weight.” Half of overweight people do have an elevated risk of heart disease. The study may mean, however, that for overweight people without risk factors, losing weight “might be important only from a cosmetic perspective.”

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Red wine isn’t the only beverage that helps keep your arteries clear.

Here are two other mighty fine choices: cranberry juice and tea.

Both are bursting with heart-protective flavonoids. To get the RealAge-recommended daily dose, you can drink several cups of tea (any kind will do) or two and a half small glasses of cranberry juice a day. Yup, it’s that easy.

All About Your Arteries
Whole fruits and veggies are good flavonoid sources, too. But it’s nice to know that what you drink can help nudge you toward the RealAge goal of 31 milligrams of flavonoids daily. Get enough and you’ll not only help give heart disease the boot but also fend off peripheral artery disease (PAD) — a condition that reduces blood flow to the limbs and vital organs. OJ and tomato juice have lots of flavonoids, too, by the way.

Extra Protection
Stave off artery disease with these additional love-your-heart steps:

Kick butt. Smokers are at particularly high risk.

Lace up your walking shoes. Carve out 30 minutes during your day to pound the pavement.

Love the good fats. That means grabbing nuts (not chips) and olive oil (not butter)

Cram in More Cranberries

Bursting with flavor, dripping with color, and abounding in cancer-fighters — the tiny cranberry has it all.

The bright red of the cranberry is a clue that it is jam-packed with flavonoids, including ones that appear to defend against cancer cell growth. So spread your turkey sandwiches with lots of tasty, fresh cranberry relish. It’s great on fish, in muffins, and as a salad topping, too!

Researchers testing a unique group of flavonoids — anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and flavonol glycosides — found that individually, each one prevented liver and breast cancer cells from multiplying. When the three are combined, as they are in a cranberry, they may be even more effective in squelching cancer cell growth. In the lab, it’s called synergy. In your mouth, it’s called divine.

Enjoy plenty of fresh cranberries this season by making sauces, cobblers, muffins, and breads with them. When they are out of season, stock up on dried cranberries and add them to cereal, salads, and trail mix. And cranberry juice with a splash of sparkling water is a terrific refresher. With every bite or sip, you’ll be doing something positive for your health, and positively delicious.

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