Is there a cure for the common cold? (Tips on preventing the sniffles this winter)
It isn’t likely that you’ll be able to prevent yourself from catching a cold entirely, but there are plenty of ways to decrease your chances of getting sick, as well as ways to minimize the severity of your cold if you do happen to fall ill this winter.
Three Easy Ways to Prevent Common Colds:
1. Keep it Clean – Cold and Flu germs are spread through contact. Therefore, you want to ensure that the surfaces with which you interact with other people (i.e., telephone, door handle, counter top, your hands, etc.) are clean and not harboring germs. You also don’t want to pick anything up from another person who has come into contact with the same surface. Pick up some antibacterial cleaners and soaps for your home to nip colds in the bud.
2. Keep Your Airways Hydrated – It is easy to suffer from dry, scratchy throats and sinuses during winter. Central heating dries out the air, which in turn dries out your mucous membranes. Some simple fixes for this are buying a humidifier or using a saline sinus spray. A humidifier will help to rebalance the humidity levels in your home. Ideally, these levels should be around 45% humidity. Dehydrated sinuses can often manifest symptoms similar to a cold, and they can also exacerbate infection.
3. Be Conscious of Your Body – Eating healthy, exercising and sleeping will all boost your immune system. Providing your body with what it needs in terms of energy sources will make it easier to produce the antibodies that attack and heal infections.
Three Easy Ways to Ensure a Speedy Recovery:
1. Keep it Clean (Again) – The last thing you want is to stop cleaning up while you’re sick. You’ll just re-infect yourself and anyone else that comes into your environment. Properly dispose of used tissues, wash your sheets, and wash your hands at the bare minimum.
2. Liquids and Vitamins – When you are fighting off a cold, your body is working much harder than when you are healthy. This means it needs extra nutrition and fluids. Taking immune system boosting vitamins assists those functions and processes, making it a little easier on your body. Some of the most important vitamins to take are Zinc, Vitamin C, Echinacea, and B vitamins. There has also been a lot of research done on the healing properties of Colloidal Silver.
3. Take it Easy, but Not Too Easy – While it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough rest, you don’t want to stay in bed all day for a week. Rest if you need to, but try to maintain your normal schedule, including gentle exercise. Exercising detoxifies your body, and will also help you sweat out the infection.
Common colds shouldn’t last for more than a week. If you are suffering from fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, recurring infections, or other severe symptoms, make a visit to your physician. For more information on how to obtain an affordable health insurance plan, visit TheHealthQuote.com for a free personal health insurance quote. Having a comprehensive health insurance plan is important and not something to be overlooked. With all the affordable health insurance plans available, there is no reason you can’t have at least basic health coverage.
Its winter and its cold outside, how can I keep up my summer exercise routine?
Depending on where you live, braving the elements of winter in the pursuit of exercise can seem daunting. It doesn’t seem as easy to go for a jog around the block or toss a Frisbee in the park like you would in summer. Maintaining your summer exercise routine is still entirely possible, however, it just requires a bit more planning and creativity.
Here is a list of Dos and Don’ts for exercising in winter:
Do:
• Dress warmly and in layers. The most important thing you can do when exercising outdoors in winter is to make sure you’re dressed appropriately for the season.
• Wear shoes with traction grip to avoid slipping on wet or icy surfaces.
• Confirm with your family physician first that exercising in colder temperatures won’t aggravate any pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma. (If you don’t have health insurance, or don’t know how to find affordable health insurance, websites such as TheHealthQuote.com can help you find a personal health insurance plan within your budget.)
• Consider exercising indoors at a public gym, shopping mall, or your home.
Don’t:
• Exercise outdoors in extreme weather. If you live in an area that experiences extremely cold temperatures, don’t try to exercise outdoors.
• Think you have to be sweating. Wear layers and remove them as you get hotter. If you want to ensure that you’re keeping your heart rate up, wear a heart monitor.
• Give up! There are plenty of options for exercising in your home or at the local gym. Stay active and Spring will be here before you know it!
Essential Vitamins and Their Effect on the Body
We last looked at some essential foods and food groups that will help your heart and reduce the risk of coronary disease/failure. Today we will discover just how wonderful and important vitamins can be to the body. Believe it or not, we can obtain nearly all of the vitamins our body requires just from the foods we eat, however supplements are an easy way to make sure that we get the ideal amount into our system. It is important, however, to understand the role that vitamins play in our lives and how to recognize the signs when our body tells us that we are deficient in a particular vitamin. Ready? Alright, here we go.
• Vitamin A – Simply put, vitamin A helps us see. The properties of the vitamin help strengthen eye muscles allowing us to see better, see colors brighter. Vitamin A is also important for healthy skin. A deficiency in vitamin A, while rare in the United States, can lead to blindness or other vision problems.
• Vitamin B – There are many different variations of B vitamins, but they all serve the same general purpose – they produce and aid in the transport of energy around the body. Vital to red blood cells, B vitamins transport oxygen throughout the body. There are also certain vitamins in the group that aid in the transport of iron in the body. A deficiency in the B vitamin group is signified by fatigue, memory loss and high blood pressure.
• Vitamin C – Vitamin C is perhaps one of the most important vitamins in our diet, it surely gets talked about the most! Vitamin C is essential for repairing damaged tissue, regenerating muscle cells and fighting off infection. This is why drinking orange juice when you have a cold is such a good idea! A lack of vitamin C will manifest itself through sore muscles, bleeding/soft gums, and a general tendency to be affected by infectious diseases. Again, with our diets today, vitamin C deficiencies are extremely rare.
• Vitamin D – Much like the group of B vitamins, there are a few different varieties of vitamin D, all of which perform separate tasks in the body. The main role of the D vitamins is to assist in bone growth and bone structure maintenance. Vitamin D works hand in hand with Vitamin K which we will get to in just a bit. Lack of D vitamins can lead to brittle, porous bones, increased tendency towards tumor growth and unstable hormones. Too much vitamin D, on the other hand, combined with a deficiency of Vitamin K can lead to the calcification of soft tissue.
• Vitamin E – Vitamin E, as discussed in the last blog post on heart health, is vital to protecting tissue, muscle and skin. Think of it as providing a protective layer around your organs. It can protect your lungs, heart, and liver. Vitamin E also works hand in hand with some of the B vitamins in transporting oxygen around the body and can assist Vitamin C in regenerating damaged tissue. Although the effects of Vitamin E deficiency have not been studied in great detail, the benefits include acting as a possible antioxidant (antioxidants balance out free radical cells in your body, most of which eventually lead to tumors). Vitamin E, as it seems, works hand in hand with many of the other vitamins in your body, helping out where needed.
• Vitamin K – As previously mentioned, Vitamin K works with Vitamin D to provide balance and stability to your bone processes. A deficiency of Vitamin K will allow the calcium and Vitamin D to take over your soft tissue, resulting in calcification of your soft tissues. Vitamin K is also essential in the formation of blood coagulation, preventing excessive bleeding whenever you cut yourself. Hemophiliacs lack the receptors in their body to accept vitamin K in the necessary doses and as a result, have difficulty forming blood clots.
Now that you know the important roles that vitamins play in your body, day in and day out, you can make better, more educated decisions when it comes to your diet and nutritional intake. Knowing how your body uses the vitamins and minerals you consume every day will also raise your awareness concerning the difficulties and conditions that might arise from being deficient of any of these vitamins.
5 Everyday Essentials that Can Lead to a Healthy Heart
One of the biggest causes of death in the world today is heart failure. With so many people suffering from heart related illnesses, one might ask themselves “Is there anything I can do about this?” Thankfully, there are quite a few steps you can take on the road to achieving and maintaining a healthy heart.
Diet and exercise are two of the most important factors when it comes to having a healthy heart. Today, we will focus on the diet side.
There are 5 basic and essential needs for the human body: Proteins, Fats, Fruits & Vegetables, Dairy, and Grains. Every individual in one way or another needs these to survive in a healthy manner. Below I will break down some of the best ways to get these heart healthy essentials into your diet each and every day.
• Proteins – Whether you are a meat lover or a vegetarian, the human body cannot survive without protein. Protein is the basic building block of muscle tissue, and guess what; the heart is the most important muscle in the human body! Although red meat contains the highest abundance of usable protein, your body can also obtain it from fish, chicken, eggs, and beans. All of these foods are high in protein and are not hard to come by, by any means. Combining an abundant source of protein with regular exercise is the first step towards building a healthy heart.
• Fats – Now I know what you are thinking, isn’t fat bad? Well it depends. There are 3 kinds of fats, Trans fats, which we all know are bad and have hopefully said goodbye to long ago; Saturated fats clog up arteries and eventually lead to stroke or cardiac arrest; Monounsaturated fats, however, move freely through the blood stream and are easily broken down by the body making their energy instantly available. Although diets high in fat should be avoided whenever possible, ensuring that your body has enough monounsaturated fat to produce and store energy will increase the efficiency of your heart. Many nuts are high in monounsaturated fat including walnuts, pistachios and peanuts. Substituting a light olive oil spray for heavy salad dressing is an excellent way to incorporate heart healthy fats into your diet.
• Fruits and Vegetables – Our bodies evolved with a certain dependence on fiber and plant materials in order for it to survive. While diets are still changing and the benefits of incorporating meat into our everyday diets have been realized, do not forget about vegetables. The main source of fiber in the average American diet comes from fruits and vegetables, but studies show that Americans in particular are still not getting enough. The American Heart Association recommends 15 grams of fiber for every 1000 calories your body consumes. The fiber in your diet assists with digestion, prevents cholesterol buildup from foods high in oils and polyunsaturated fats, and improves satiety (the feeling of being full or satisfied after a meal) by slowing the digestion process. Fruits and vegetables that are highest in fiber include oatmeal, peas, citrus, and strawberries. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and carrots round out the list of vegetables with the highest fiber content.
• Dairy – When consuming dairy products, one must be careful. While the nutrients contained in these products are essential to the body (i.e. calcium, potassium, and magnesium) they can also be very high in the polyunsaturated fats, remember those from earlier? The items found in dairy however, besides the fats, have been known to reduce blood pressure, specifically potassium. The role of potassium in our body is to maintain a healthy fluid balance. This ultimately leads to balanced and healthy blood pressure. Healthy blood pressure is essential to the health of your heart by making its job much easier. Recommended dairy products include low fat milk, low fat cheese, and yogurt. It is important, however, to be aware of your intake of dairy products. While consuming the recommended amount of dairy products will serve to decrease your blood pressure, eating too much can begin to have the opposite effect as it will increase your cholesterol levels and begin to clog your arteries.
• Grains – Grains are perhaps the most important step in maintaining a healthy heart. Grains are so versatile; they perform many of the tasks of the above food groups; lowering cholesterol, decreasing blood pressure, and enriching the muscle tissue of the heart. Much of the value of grains comes from vitamin E, a proven protector of muscle tissue. It is important that as your heart becomes strong, that you maintain it with a healthy diet of grains. Grains are also a good source of fiber, often consisting of varieties that cannot be easily obtained from fruits or vegetables. Foods high in grains include bread, bran and brown rice. Substituting “whole wheat” items into your diet can reduce your risk of heart attack by up to 30%.
Each and every food item listed above can be easily obtained at any grocery store. Remember the three main steps. Strengthen your heart with proteins, assist your heart with dairy, fiber, and dietary fats, and lastly, protect your heart with grains and minerals.
What are the Drug Companies Doing with All of their Profits?
There is a question that has been asked of large corporations from the moment their profits are made public…Where do all of their profits go? Many individuals do not agree that companies who create products to help others stay healthy should be charging so much for their products. Many consumers feel that they are being taken advantage of by unfair prescription drug pricing just so these companies can see huge profits.
It turns out that the drug companies generally have 3 major spending areas:
• Research and Development
• Advertising/Marketing
• Administration Costs
Although the drug companies as a whole make exorbitant profits, research has shown that in the majority of cases, these profits have been re-invested into research and development products. You must keep in mind that once the drug is discovered, tested and approved, yes, it is relatively easy to produce. The truth of the situation, however, is that before a drug becomes available to the public, the company that paid for all of the research, testing fees, insurance against possible suits and claims, is already millions, sometimes billions of dollars in the red.
With this being the case, one could argue that the prices are necessary in order to keep these companies in business. Without the drug companies, we would not be without a lot of the prescriptions that make it possible to go outside without sneezing due to allergies. We might have missed some of the best years of a loved one’s life because a potential life saving drug was not created.
It is true that without a health insurance plan, it is very difficult to afford name brand prescriptions. However, there are systems in place either through the government or through your insurance company that can help subsidize the cost of these drugs and make them accessible for you and your family should the day come where you ever need them. Before you go off judging the drug companies for their expensive prices, keep in mind all of the fees they incur. The research alone costs millions. Their insurance is possibly even more since they are constantly under threat of a lawsuit if someone has an ill effect from the drug. Furthermore, all of the testing that must be done on the drug before it goes to market, much of which is mandated by the government, can not only delay the realization of a medication’s profits, but it can also contribute to the initial costs of getting a drug approved for sale.
Staying Healthy In A World Of Medical Problems
An astonishing number of Americans are affected by either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Not only do they face the difficulties of dealing with diabetes, but they are also at risk for other medical conditions.
The key to preventing these issues begins with a heatlhy lifestyle, and of course obtaining health insurance for you and your family in order to maintain preventative care. Once you have those things in place here are some other tips!
A small US study suggests that people with type 2 diabetes who drink the equivalent of four cups of coffee or more a day may be causing their blood sugar levels to go up by 8 per cent (compared to non caffeine days), thus making it harder for them to manage their condition.
The study was carried out by Dr James Lane, a psychologist at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues, and is published in the February issue of Diabetes Care.
Other recent studies have shown that in habitual coffee drinkers with type 2 diabetes, caffeine appears to raise glucose and insulin after intakes of standardized carbohydrate loads. Lane and colleagues decided to investigate if this effect manifested after meals in the everyday life of type 2 diabetics and how it might undermine their efforts to manage their condition.
They used small glucose detection devices implanted under the abdominal skin of 10 patients so they could observe the rise and fall of their blood sugar while they went about their normal day for 72 hours, the first time such a thing has been done in relation to caffeine consumption, they said.
The patients had established type 2 diabetes and were regular coffee drinkers who consumed at least two cups everyday. They were also trying to manage their diabetes through a combination of diet, exercise and drugs, but not with extra insulin.
On one day the patients took caffeine capsules equal to about four cups of coffee and on the other day they took identical capsules except they contained a placebo. The study was a double blind crossover study, so neither the patients nor the drug administrators knew which capsules contained the caffeine and which contained the placebo.
The patients all had the same nutrition drink for breakfast but chose their own food for lunch and dinner.
The results showed that on caffeine days, the patients’ average daily sugar levels went up by 8 per cent. After meals the blood sugar levels were even higher: 9 per cent after breakfast, 15 per cent after lunch, and 26 per cent after dinner.
Lane said they didn’t know how caffeine drove up the glucose levels but they had a couple of ideas.
“It could be that caffeine interferes with the process that moves glucose from the blood and into muscle and other cells in the body where it is used for fuel. It may also be that caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline — the fight or flight — hormone that we know can also boost sugar levels,” said Lane.
Either way, it appears that caffeine causes blood sugar to rise which is bad news for patients with diabetes, he added.
As more research evidence gathers to support this conclusion, it is likely that official guidelines for how to manage diabetes will advise diabetics to avoid coffee and other drinks that contain caffeine, said the researchers.
As Lane pointed out:
“Coffee is such a common drink in our society that we forget that it contains a very powerful drug: caffeine.”
“Our study suggests that one way to lower blood sugar is to simply quit drinking coffee, or any other caffeinated beverages. It may not be easy, but it doesn’t cost a dime, and there are no side effects,” he added.
The next stage would be to do a study where coffee drinking diabetes patients gave up caffeine to see if this helped them manage their blood sugar levels more easily.
Thanks to Medical News for this helpful information!
Preventing Problems During Pregnancy
Every parent wants the same thing: a heatlhy pregnancy and a health baby. However, with the stresses in the world today, many babies can be affected in ways that parents would never expect.
A recent study of stresed mothers painted a startling picture.
Severe emotional stress during the first delicate months of a woman’s pregnancy may permanently impair the neurodevelopment of her unborn child, leading to an increased risk of schizophrenia later in life, new research suggests.
The link between maternal stress and fetal development is not new: A study in the Lancet in 2000 suggested, for example, that a mother’s stress during pregnancy may increase the risk of congenital brain malformations in her baby. And it has been well established that severe maternal stress is associated with low birth weight and premature birth. Now, a new study by British and Danish researchers in this week’s Archives of General Psychiatry examines the impact of stress — the acute, agonizing kind, such as that experienced with death or sickness in the mother’s immediate family, and not the run-of-the-mill anxiety of daily life — on the future psychiatric health of her offspring.
The study group consisted of 1.38 million births recorded in Denmark, from 1973 to 1995. Children were followed from age 10 until their death, their departure from Denmark, the onset of schizophrenia or the end of the study period in 2005. Researchers determined also whether the birth mothers had suffered extreme stress — due either to the death or illness (heart attack, cancer or stroke) of a first-degree relative — six months prior to and at any time during pregnancy. The data showed that women who experienced a close family member’s death during the first three months of pregnancy had a 67% increased risk of having a child who would develop schizophrenia later in life. Stress before pregnancy or in late pregnancy had no such effect; neither did stress associated with a family member’s illness.
Intuitively, it makes sense that death would have an impact that illness did not. “The problem with diagnoses of heart disease and that kind of thing is that it’s likely that there has been worry about the health of that individual for some time,” says the study’s author, Kathryn Abel of the Centre for Women’s Health Research at the University of Manchester. “Once somebody gets admitted with a heart attack or stroke or a serious illness, in some way there is relief because they’re being managed — it might not be such an acute event, which we know death to be, even when someone has been ill for a long time. When they die, that’s it.”
If the severity of maternal stress matters, then one would expect the death of child to cause more injury than the death of a parent. Indeed, says Abel, her data hinted at such a response — compared with women who lost a parent, those who lost a child appeared to have a higher likelihood of giving birth to a child at risk for schizophrenia — but her sample size was too small to confirm the theory.
How the mother’s emotional stress impacts her fetus’s growth is still mostly a mystery. It’s possible that increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol interfere directly with fetal development. Or it may be that the mother’s stress response triggers a cascade of other chemical changes — in her immune system, in blood levels of sex hormones, or perhaps in cell-signaling proteins called cytokines — that may indirectly affect early fetal development. Whatever the exact mechanism, its effects lend credence to the theory that starting early in pregnancy, “mothers transmit information to their fetus about what condition they’re likely to be born into — whether they’re going to be thrifty and expect to be in a relative state of starvation, for example, or whether they can expect plenty — a clear evolutionary advantage,” says Abel. “But it may be that in some settings, it has an adverse consequence because it restricts the growth of the fetus, and perhaps causes abnormal development of the brain, which makes it more susceptible to diseases, such as schizophrenia.”
Though the current study looked only at schizophrenia risk, Abel and her collaborators at the University of Aarhus believe that maternal stress may have a similar effect on the risk of other conditions, among them depression and other mental disorders, along with social consequences such as the risk of criminal conviction or the likelihood of marriage, “things that tend to cluster in the deprived,” says Abel. “We have not shown that this is specific to schizophrenia. We’ve just only looked at schizophrenia.”
Abel hopes to replicate her findings in Sweden — with a bigger study population and richer data, including the socio-economic status of mothers. “Social class is one of the big, enduring predictors of risk of mental illness. The lower the social class the higher the risk. You’re born with this risk,” says Abel.
The other big congenital risk factor is genetics, first-degree family history being the most powerful risk factor for schizophrenia. And, in fact, the new study found that the added risk associated with maternal stress disappeared in children whose mothers already had a family history of mental illness — showing once again that the interplay of environment and genes is anything but straightforward.
Thanks to Time for this great information!
8 Tips To Cancer-Proof Your Body
We all know someone or know of someone who has faced a battle with cancer. It’s a struggle that no one wants to face, so it’s important for us to take the right steps to avoid the battle! Here are some tips to help increase your chances of preventing the disease that has affected so many!
Drink pomegranate juice
Some say this luscious, lusty red fruit is Eve’s original apple, but what the pomegranate truly banishes is cancer risk. The fruit’s deep red juice contains polyphenols, isoflavones, and ellagic acid, elements researchers believe make up a potent anticancer combo. It’s been shown to delay the growth of prostate cancer in mice, and it stabilizes PSA levels in men who’ve been treated for prostate cancer. And now University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers have learned that pomegranate may also inhibit lung-cancer growth. If you currently smoke, have smoked in the past, or hang around in smoky places (Cleveland, for instance), the juice of the fruit could bolster your defenses.
Use it: The mice in the Wisconsin study received the human equivalent of 16 ounces of juice per day, so quaff accordingly.
Eat blueberries
Got pterostilbene? Rutgers University researchers say this compound — found in blueberries — has colon cancer–fighting properties. When rats with colon cancer were fed a diet supplemented with pterostilbene, they had 57 percent fewer precancerous lesions after 8 weeks than rats not given the compound did. Eat blueberries and you’ll also benefit from a big dose of vitamin C (14 milligrams per cup). In a study of 42,340 men, New England Research Institute scientists discovered that men with the highest dietary vitamin C intake (as opposed to supplements) were 50 percent less likely to develop premalignant oral lesions than men with the lowest intake were.
Use it: “About two servings daily is the human equivalent of what we fed the rats,” says Bandaru Reddy, M.D., Ph.D., a chemical-biology professor at Rutgers. Load up at breakfast: A cup and a half of blueberries over cereal, plus 8 ounces of juice and half a grapefruit (for extra vitamin C), will do the trick. If that’s too much to stomach at dawn, spread it out over the course of the day.
Relax a little
Purdue University researchers tracked 1,600 men over 12 years and found that half of those with increasing levels of worry died during the study period. Talk about flunking the exam. Only 20 percent of the optimists died before the 12-year study was completed. More anxiety-producing news: Thirty-four percent of the neurotic men died of some type of cancer. How neurotic are we talking? “Think of the biggest worrier you know — someone who stresses out over everything,” says psychologist Daniel Mroczek, Ph.D., who conducted the study. “That man is probably above the 95th percentile in neuroticism. Then think of the most cool, calm, collected man you know. He’s probably below the fifth percentile.”
Use it: To develop that critical, casual Jeff Spicoli vibe, learn to slow down your fast times: “The more time you spend in the present moment, the more relaxed you’ll be, because most mental anguish occurs over stuff that’s already happened or that may or may not happen in the future,” says Claire Wheeler, M.D., Ph.D., the author of “10 Simple Solutions to Stress.” “For the most part, right now is pretty damn good. If you practice being present while shaving, for example, eventually you’ll also be more present when eating, making love, and working.”
Pop selenium
Selenium has long been thought of as a cancer fighter, but you can have too much of a good thing, says David J. Waters, Ph.D., D.V.M., director of the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation, in West Lafayette, Indiana. A study of almost 1,000 men, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that when those with the lowest initial levels of selenium in their bodies received a daily supplement over a 4 1/2- year period, they cut their prostate-cancer risk by an impressive 92 percent. But men who started out with high selenium were rewarded with an 88 percent increase in total cancer risk when they took the supplements. Moral: It pays to get your selenium level right.
Use it: Selenium in the body is measured through toenail clippings. Send yours to the Murphy Foundation, and for less than $100 (price varies by state), they’ll ship them to a lab and then inform you of your level 2 weeks later. If yours is out of range, the foundation will explain how to adjust your intake of Brazil nuts, tuna, meats, grains, and selenium supplements. Learn more at www.seleniumhealthtest.com.
Order sushi
As mentioned, Gary Stoner is using seaweed to fight the Big C. When he fed the polyphenols from brown seaweed to mice that had been bombarded with UV rays, their incidence of skin tumors dropped 60 percent. And the polyphenols shrank existing tumors by 43 percent. Better still, the doses that produced these effects were the equivalent of only 1 or 2 tablespoons in a human being. “Seaweed is low in calories and fat, yet it provides heart-helping fiber, bone-building calcium and iron,” says nutrition consultant Molly Morgan, R.D., C.D.N., owner of Creative Nutrition Solutions, in Vestal, New York. “Dried, roasted seaweed sheets used in making sushi also provide vitamins A and C.”
Use it: “Eat more sushi rolls,” says Stoner. “It’s not quite the same seaweed, but it has some of the same compounds.” As a bonus, sushi itself is a great muscle food. A typical spicy tuna roll has only 290 calories but packs 24 grams of protein. Also, look for a Korean-made, seaweed-fortified drink called EntroPower (entropower.com), which should be hitting U.S. health-food stores soon.
Spend more time outside
Scientists have viewed vitamin D as a potent cancer fighter for decades, but there’s never been a gold-standard trial — until now. A Creighton University study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women who supplemented their diets with 1,000 international units of vitamin D every day had a 60 percent to 77 percent lower incidence of cancer over a 4-year period than did women taking a placebo. “I don’t think the effect is limited to women,” says Joan Lappe, Ph.D., the lead study author. “Vitamin D is necessary for the best functioning of the immune system — it causes early death of cancer cells.”
Use it: Nature intended us to make vitamin D from the sun, but depending on where you live, the time of year, and how much of an agoraphobe you are, you may not reach the optimal level of 80 nanomoles per liter of blood that way. A blood test can give you a baseline. From there, Lappe recommends supplementing with 1,100 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D in a stand-alone pill every day. Vitamin D is also in sardines, salmon, shiitake mushrooms, and reindeer meat — which may explain Santa’s longevity, despite the odd hours and jelly belly.
Clear your air
Secondhand smoke may be even worse for you than we thought. A recent American Journal of Public Health study reveals that nonsmokers working in smoky places had three times the amount of NNK, a carcinogen, in their urine than nonsmoking workers in smoke-free joints had. And their levels of NNK rose 6 percent for every hour worked. “There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and the greater the exposure, the higher the risk,” says the study’s lead author, Michael Stark, Ph.D., principal investigator for the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland, Oregon.
Use it: Nine states have banned smoking in all workplaces, bars, and restaurants: Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington. So change locations, change professions, or change the laws. As you sip your pomegranate juice, sign up with Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights at no-smoke.org.
Invest a little sweat equity
Study after study has pointed to the cancer-beating power of exercise. Now research from Norway has found that even a tiny dose of exercise has big benefits. A study of 29,110 men published last year in the International Journal of Cancer shows that men who exercised just once a week had a 30 percent lower risk of metastatic prostate cancer than did men who didn’t work out at all. Increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of the exercise correlated with a further, gradual reduction in risk.
Use it: Just one bout of weekend warriorism — a company softball game, pickup basketball, racquetball with your crusty uncle — might qualify you for inclusion in the cancer-free 30 percent.
Tips courtesy of MSNBC.com.
Stress Tips
Meditating for just 20 minutes a day for five days helped to increase energy and decrease anxiety and stress, as measured by levels of stress hormones, a small study found.
Using the so-called integrative body-mind training method, which comes from traditional Chinese medicine, the study participants reported better attention and control of stress than those relying on relaxation training, which is popular in the West.
Although derived from Chinese medicine, integrative body-mind training uses aspects of other meditation and mindfulness training, the study authors said.
“A meditation method developed in China showed remarkably better performance among those who went through the training compared with those who used relaxation training,” said lead researcher Michael Posner, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon’s Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences.
In the study, published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers assigned 40 undergraduate students from China to either integrative meditation or relaxation therapy.
Posner’s group found the students who used integrative meditation for 20 minutes a day for just five days showed greater improvement in conflict scores on a test of stress levels, lower anxiety, depression and anger. Conversely, they displayed more energy, less fatigue, a significant drop in levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and an increase in immunoreactivity, compared with students receiving the relaxation therapy.
Integrative body-mind training was developed in the 1990s, and has been studied in China since 1995. Based on the results from hundreds of adults and children ranging from 4 to 90 years old in China, the practice appears to improve emotional and cognitive performance and social behavior, the study authors said.
Because the study was done in China, Posner said he’s not sure if the same meditation method would work in the United States.
“This is a kind of scientific demonstration about the possible advantage of meditation, at least for the Chinese undergraduates,” Posner said. “It could be culturally specific.”
Posner does think, however, that the study shows it’s possible to change the levels of stress hormones with training.
Tips compliments of MSN Health.
