Encouraging Health

Pillows

See the light: Get the right light, and you’ll have lots more energy.
But that can be a challenge, given the poorly lit offices we sit in and the scant doses of daily sunlight (which contains brain-activating short-wavelength blue light) we get.

Get pumped with protein: Unless you plan to run a mar­athon, carbo-loading for energy is out. Instead, eat protein to increase mental alertness and energy.

Lend a hand: Research shows that you get a “helper’s high,” a rush of endorphins that lasts for hours.

Breathe hard—more often: That post-workout rush of energy you feel is well-documented: Movement sends oxygen through the bloodstream to invigorate cells.

Bag a new brew: Boost your energy with white tea, which has a delicate flavor that requires little sweetening, and tea has the highest concentration of L-theanine, an amino acid that, according to recent research, stimulates alpha brain waves to boost alertness while producing a calming effect.

Tackle the blahs in bursts: Shake up your routine for 15 minutes at a time to get an energy boost.

Get hands-on help: Could your energy be blocked? Hands-on therapies like acupuncture and Reiki.

Take a tech-free break: Being at the mercy of electronic devices keeps us in “fight-or-flight mode”.

Meditate for a minute: Time-crunched? Great news: You can reap the benefits of meditation—a hike in alertness and attention—in three-minute mini–breaks.

Clean up your sleep: The buzzword in sleep science these days is sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene usually includes three areas: fully darkening your bedroom (turn your alarm clock away from you if the display gives off too much light), regulating room temperature to a moderate coolness (too hot or too cold, and you’ll wake up), and using white noise (a fan or quiet music) to help induce sleepiness.

Alcohol

A study of nearly 1.3 million British women offers yet more evidence that moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of a handful of cancers.

British researchers surveyed middle-aged women at breast cancer screening clinics about their drinking habits, and tracked their health for seven years.

A quarter of the women reported no alcohol use. Nearly all the rest reported fewer than three drinks a day; the average was one drink a day. Researchers compared the lightest drinkers — two or fewer drinks a week — with people who drank more.

Each extra drink per day increased the risk of breast, rectal and liver cancer, University of Oxford researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The type of alcohol — wine, beer or liquor — didn’t matter.

That supports earlier research, but the new wrinkle: Alcohol consumption was linked to esophageal and oral cancers only when smokers drank.

Also, moderate drinkers actually had a lower risk of thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and renal cell cancer.

For an individual woman, the overall alcohol risk is small. In developed countries, about 118 of every 1,000 women develop any of these cancers, and each extra daily drink added 11 breast cancers and four of the other types to that rate, the study found.

But population-wide, 13 percent of those cancers in Britain may be attributable to alcohol, the researchers concluded.

Moderate alcohol use has long been thought to be heart-healthy, something the new research doesn’t address but that prompts repeated debate about safe levels. U.S. health guidelines already recommend that women consume no more than one drink a day; two a day for men, who metabolize alcohol differently.

omega-3

an ever-growing body of research is showing that the epidemic of diseases associated with the Western diet — cancer, heart disease, depression, and much more — might be curtailed simply by restoring something we never should have removed from our diets in the first place: omega-3 fatty acids.

We are, it is often — and accurately — said, what we eat. Recent diet trends, from Atkins to South Beach, have put the emphasis on upping our intake of protein or cutting out carbohydrates. Meanwhile, cholesterol, saturated fats, and trans fats have been stigmatized, leading to the belief that waging a total war on fat is the best way to get a slimmer waistline and a longer life. But fats are as crucial to a healthy body as protein is; they end up holstered into the heart, protecting organs, and building the cells of the brain, an organ that is itself 60 percent fat. The key to good health lies not in ruthlessly striking fat from our diets, but in eating the best possible fats for our bodies. And a growing chorus of nutritionists agrees that those fats are omega-3s.

Seek out grass-fed beef, free-range chickens and their eggs, the best olive oil, canola oil, and butter you can find, and lots of fish and shellfish, preferably small wild-caught species from clean waters. In other words, if you are looking for a guiding principle, keep it simple and eat like your ancestors ate.

Brid Flu

taken from humans could provide protection from lethal strains of influenza, including the bird flu and the 1918 Spanish flu strain, according to research published this week.

has yet to be tested on humans, but scientists expressed optimism in using antibodies to defend against various types of the flu. Antibodies are proteins that the immune system produces to fight harmful substances in the body.

The research, funded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was conducted on mice and cell cultures. The findings appear online this week in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Scientists from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, and the CDC collaborated on the research.

“We pooled our distinct expertise to isolate and characterize a novel family of human antibodies,” said Robert Liddington, director of the Infectious Disease Program at the Burnham Institute. “We were surprised and actually delighted to find that these antibodies actually neutralized a majority of other influenza viruses, including most of the regular, seasonal flus.”

If the antibodies are tested to be safe and effective, it could take several years to develop a licensed product, according to a press release from the National Institutes of Health.

“These are fully human monoclonal antibodies — no further engineering has to be done,” Marasco said. “The antibodies we characterize in our published works are molecules to go into clinical trials and hopefully one day, will be approved for into human treatment.”

Alzheimers

10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s from the Alzheimers Association:

1. Memory loss.
Forgetting recently learned information is one of the most common early signs of dementia. A person begins to forget more often and is unable to recall the information later.

What’s normal? Forgetting names or appointments occasionally.

2. Difficulty performing familiar tasks.
People with dementia often find it hard to plan or complete everyday tasks. Individuals may lose track of the steps to prepare a meal, place a telephone call or play a game.

What’s normal? Occasionally forgetting why you came into a room or what you planned to say.

3. Problems with language.
People with Alzheimer’s disease often forget simple words or substitute unusual words, making their speech or writing hard to understand. They may be unable to find their toothbrush, for example, and instead ask for “that thing for my mouth.”

What’s normal? Sometimes having trouble finding the right word.

4. Disorientation to time and place.
People with Alzheimer’s disease can become lost in their own neighborhoods, forget where they are and how they got there, and not know how to get back home.

What’s normal? Forgetting the day of the week or where you were going.

5. Poor or decreased judgment.
Those with Alzheimer’s may dress inappropriately, wearing several layers on a warm day or little clothing in the cold. They may show poor judgment about money, like giving away large sums to telemarketers.

What’s normal? Making a questionable or debatable decision from time to time.

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Hearing Aids

What is hearing loss?
Hearing loss is a sudden or gradual decrease in how well you can hear. Depending on the cause, it can range from mild to severe and can be reversible, temporary, or permanent. Hearing loss is also known as hearing impairment, which includes being born without hearing (congenital hearing loss). This topic focuses only on gradual hearing loss.

Gradual hearing loss affects people of all ages and is the third most common long-term (chronic) health problem in older Americans.1 It affects up to 40% of people age 65 and older and up to 80% of people older than 85.2

If you have hearing loss, you may not be aware of it, especially if it has developed gradually. Your family members or friends may be the first to notice. For example, they may notice that you are having difficulty understanding what people are saying, especially when many people are talking at the same time or there is background noise, such as a radio playing.

Hearing loss can affect what and how much you do in the workplace and at home and can also affect your personal safety. Because it may result in less social interaction, hearing loss may contribute to loneliness, depression, and loss of independence. However, hearing aids and other devices are available to help you hear.

Headache

In their latest book, YOU: Being Beautiful, RealAge experts Mehmet Oz, MD, and Michael Roizen, MD, recommend massaging these key acupressure points to ease the grip of a tension headache.
Your temporalis muscle: With your index and middle fingers, apply pressure to your temporalis muscle. It’s that tender spot where you feel a muscle move when you clench your teeth.

Behind your ears: Using your thumbs, massage in a circular motion the spots just underneath the large bones behind your ears.

Between your eyes: With your middle finger and thumb, gently pinch the skin just above your nose and press upward so you feel the pressure around your eyebrows.

The web of your hand: Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the fleshy pad of skin between the thumb and index finger on your opposite hand.

And over on Headaches.about.com, Mark Foley, D.O., suggests
Pranayama, or yogic breathing, is a good way to learn to breathe. Begin by sitting quietly without any distractions. Take a nice, slow, continuous breath in through your nose. Hold it for a few seconds without making any other movements. Then slowly exhale through your mouth. Again, like during inhalation, your exhalation should be smooth and continuous. Once you’ve exhaled, take a short, deliberate pause before starting the cycle again. It sounds simple, but even simple tactics can help you deal with tension headaches.

Using natural methods to get rid of headaches is best, rather than pumping your body full of medications.

Stopwatch

In a 2001 position paper, the ACSM recommended a minimum of 150 minutes per week (roughly 30 minutes per day 5 times per week) of moderate-intensity physical activity for overweight and obese adults to improve health; however, 200 to 300 minutes per week was recommended for long-term weight loss.

“More recent evidence has supported this recommendation and has indicated that more physical activity may be necessary to prevent weight regain after weight loss,” reads the ACSM’s position paper published in the latest issue of the College’s journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

Specifically, evidence published after 1999 indicates that between 150 and 250 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity is effective in preventing weight gain greater than 3% in most adults but will provide “only modest” weight loss.

Greater amounts of weekly physical activity — in the order of 250 minutes or more per week — have been associated with “significant” weight loss, the ACSM notes. Overweight and obese adults will most likely lose more weight and keep it off with at least 250 minutes per week of exercise.

The ACSM also recommends strength training as part of a health and fitness regimen. “Resistance training does not enhance weight loss but may increase fat-free mass and increase loss of fat mass and is associated with reductions in health risk,” the writing committee notes.

Dieting combined with increased physical activity will increase weight loss as compared to dieting alone.

Break out those tennis shoes and walk for an hour a day, then lift some weights each day, to get your metabolism up and running.

Olive Oil

Is it possible to cook at home with low-fat, low-cholesterol and low carbohydrate recipes?

The answer is yes. I’ve been cooking mostly low-fat and semi-vegetarian for six years. Gone are processed foods, sugar, processed flour, high carb breads (any over 5 grams of carbs per slice). Also gone are high starch content foods, such as potoatoes, peas and corn. My middle doesn’t need help gaining weight.

There are a bundle of low-fat and vegetarian cookbooks out there these days. You will see about ten of them on my shelves that I am constantly going to for ideas.

What about cooking? You ask. Learn about vegetables; it will require you to re-learn how to cook, how to prepare, when to add vegetables to a pan, pot or baking dish. Hard vegetables, like parsnips, carrots, beets are added in the beginning of a recipe, for they take longer to cook. Soft vegetables, like eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash are added towards the end of a recipe, they don’t take as long, and you want their crunchiness and flavor intact (not to mention all their good vitamins and minerals).

Using oils will require a new lesson as well. There are different oils for different uses. Some are heathier than others. Canola, vegetable and olive oils are best to use. Canola and vegetable are good for sauteeing, frying and baking. Olive oil is good for lightly frying, sauteeing, dressings and flavorings.

Cooking at home can be healthy and flavorful. It just takes learning.

Nurses

Many novice nurses are thrown into hospitals with little direct supervision, quickly forced to juggle multiple patients and make critical decisions for the first time in their careers. About 1 in 5 newly licensed nurses quits within a year, according to one national study.

That turnover rate is a major contributor to the nation’s growing shortage of nurses. But there are expanding efforts to give new nursing grads better support. Many hospitals are trying to create safety nets with residency training programs.

The national nursing shortage could reach 500,000 by 2025, as many nurses retire and the demand for nurses balloons with the aging of baby boomers, according to Peter Buerhaus of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The nursing professor is author of a book about the future of the nursing work force.

Nursing schools have been unable to churn out graduates fast enough to keep up with the demand, which is why hospitals are trying harder to retain them.

Medical school grads get on-the-job training during formal residencies ranging from three to seven years. Many newly licensed nurses do not have a similar protected period as they build their skills and get used to a demanding environment.

Some hospitals have set up their own programs to help new nurses make the transition. Often, they assign novices to more experienced nurses, whom they shadow for a few weeks or months while they learn the ropes. That’s what O’Bryan’s hospital did, but for her, it wasn’t enough.

So more hospitals are investing in longer, more thorough residencies. These can cost roughly $5,000 per resident. But the cost of recruiting and training a replacement for a nurse who washed out is about $50,000, personnel experts estimate.