People Who Enjoy Life Actually Age Better, Study Shows

by | Jan 23, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Older Women 2Love life and it will love you back, a new study says.

A British study found that older adults who enjoy life also enjoy better physical abilities as they age. Researchers at University College London spent eight years following nearly 3,200 men and women aged 60 and over in England to monitor their physical function and assess their enjoyment of life. Participants were asked to assess their contentment, by rating their agreement with the following statements, on a four-point scale:

    • I enjoy the things that I do.
    • I enjoy being in the company of others.
    • On balance, I look back on my life with a sense of happiness.
    • I feel full of energy these days.

The researchers also interviewed the subjects to find out if they had any physical impairments when performing simple daily activities like getting dressed and also measure their walking speed.

“The study shows that older people who are happier and enjoy life more show slower declines in physical function as they age,” researcher Andrew Steptoe said in a release. “They are less likely to develop impairments….and their walking speed declines at a lower rate than those who enjoy life less.”

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Slash sugar in your diet without going into shock

by | Jan 22, 2014 | Diet, Sensible Eating, Sugars | 0 comments

Sugar From the sweetener you stir into your morning coffee to the after-dinner dessert you can’t resist, the amount of sugar you consume between breakfast and bedtime adds up quickly.

Americans down more than 22 teaspoons a day, according to the USDA, which is more than double what experts recommend. At the same time, research links diets high in added sugar to increased risk for diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

So what’s the best way to slash sugar without sending your relentless sweet tooth into shock?

“Save your sweet budget for things that taste great, like dessert,” suggested Jacob Teitelbaum, a physician and author of “Beat Sugar Addiction Now.”

Use the following strategies to cut sugar where it won’t be missed and ward off cravings without feeling deprived.

Commit to a sugar quota.

The first step to reducing your sugar intake: Figure out exactly how much of the sweet stuff you’re shoveling in. Find the grams of sugar on a nutrition label and divide that number by four. That’s how many teaspoons of sugar a food or drink contains. The American Heart Association recommends that women limit themselves to no more than six teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar per day and men no more than nine teaspoons or 36 grams. The good news: How you spend those spoonfuls is entirely up to you, said Teitelbaum.

Know what counts as sugar.

Natural sweeteners like evaporated cane juice, agave nectar, honey and fruit juice concentrates might have healthy advantages over refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but that doesn’t mean they should be excluded from your sugar budget. Also, don’t be fooled by words like “organic” or “raw” in front of a sweetener’s name – it’s still sugar.

Don’t fear all artificial sweeteners.

Sugar substitutes shouldn’t be feared, but some are healthier than others, said Teitelbaum. He recommends naturally derived, filtered zero-calorie sweeteners such as stevia and erythritol. “Keep in mind that brand matters in terms of taste,” he said. Unless stevia is properly filtered, it can leave a bitter, licorice-like aftertaste. Sweet Leaf is a good option, as are Truvia and PureVia, which are blends of stevia and erythritol. If there’s no stevia in sight and all you have to choose from are the traditional pink (saccharin), yellow (sucralose) and blue (aspertame) packets of chemical-based sweeteners, pick pink. “There’s a very long safety record with Sweet’n Low,” said Teitelbaum.

Don’t drink your fruit.

Sweetened fruit juices are one of the biggest sources of added sugar in our diets. Some varieties contain more than a teaspoon of sugar per ounce along with little real fruit. For example, a 15.2-ounce bottle of Tropicana grape juice drink packs 72 grams – 18 teaspoons’ worth – of sugar and contains only 30 percent juice.

Find good-tasting soda alternatives.

Like fruit juice, soft drinks do serious damage in the sugar department. A 20-ounce bottle of Cherry Coca-Cola is loaded with 70 grams of sugar, for example. Teitelbaum suggests switching to coconut water, which contains a fraction of the sweet stuff (a 14-ounce bottle of Zico Natural has 60 calories and 12 grams of sugar) plus at least 500 mg of potassium per serving. Or look for beverages sweetened with stevia or erythritol, like SoBe Lifewater, Vitamin Water Zero or Zevia zero-calorie soda.

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Why Laughing Is Good for Your Health

by | Jan 16, 2014 | General Health | 0 comments

Old Woman An old Yiddish proverb says, “What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” Everyone knows that laughter makes you feel good and puts you in high spirits, but did you also know that laughter actually causes physiological responses that protect the body from disease and help your vital organs repair themselves? A good laugh can be compared to a mild workout, as it exercises the muscles, gets the blood flowing, decreases blood pressure and stress hormones, improves sleep patterns and boosts the immune system. Furthermore, a study by the John Hopkins University Medical School showed that humor and laughter can also improve memory and mental performance. Yet despite the fact that laughter has so many benefits, far too many of us forget to even crack a smile every once in a while, let alone laugh. The following are some ways to incorporate more laughter and joy in your life:

• Don’t take life too seriously. We all have obstacles in life and we all make mistakes. There is no reason to beat yourself up over it. In fact, if you can laugh light-heartedly at your own foibles, you’ll find that you give yourself that extra happiness and confidence boost that can get you over any hurdle. This also extends to other people. Try not to be too hard on others — a smile and a chuckle goes a lot further than criticism.

• Find the humor in a bad situation. Sure, there are some situations that are genuinely sad and certainly not laughing matters. However, most situations in life have an ironic or ludicrous side to them. The next time you feel the stress levels rising, take a minute to think about the irony of the situation and allow yourself to laugh over the things you cannot control. This will decrease the amount of cortisol that your body produces due to stress, lowering your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and heart rate.

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Get Fit: 5 Secrets to Exercising During Menopause

by | Jan 14, 2014 | Exercise, General Health, How Your Body Works | 0 comments

Lady If you’re like most women, your sneakers are probably collecting more dust bunnies than miles. But if you want to find hormone happiness during perimenopause and menopause, it’s due time to dust those babies off!

“All exercise, ranging from housework to running marathons, impacts menopause in a positive way,” In fact, exercise can help prevent the muscle and bone loss from which many postmenopausal women suffer, according to the American Council on Exercise. Also, arecent Penn State study found that menopausal women who exercise experience fewer hot flashes in the 24 hours following their workout. While a recent study from the MsFLASH Research Network found some conflicting information — that aerobic exercise isn’t significantly associated with reduced hot flashes — it did find that exercise does have positive effects on sleep quality, insomnia and depression in both perimenopausal and menopausal women. What’s more, exercise may be effective at treating menopausal depression, according to a recent review published in The Cochrane Library,” says Dr. Diana Bitner, MD, a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner & Physician and board-certified OB/GYN. “My patients who exercise on a regular basis have fewer menopause symptoms as well as improved body chemistry — lower cholesterol, better sugar control, less weight gain, and stronger bones. Women who exercise have better sleep, better mood and better quality of life.”

According to Dr. Bitner, body fat (which, of course, tends to increase after menopause) spurs hot flashes and night sweats, leads to poor sleep, saps energy, brings down moods and can wreck self-image. Put that all together, and that also means a torpedoed libido. “I talk to my patients about belly fat as a furnace that makes them hot and tired. As belly fat increases, energy decreases and hot flashes, night sweats and sleep disturbances increase. As belly fat increases, so does insulin resistance — and this can cause cravings for carbohydrates and more menopausal weight gain,” she says. “If a patient has a high BMI and body fat percentage, her risk of snoring and sleep apnea increases, adding another reason for poor sleep, low energy, and hot flashes.”

Ready to dust off those kicks? Here’s how to boost your body for good:

10 Tips for January Weight Loss

by | Jan 10, 2014 | General Health, Sensible Eating, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Fit It’s that time of year where it seems like everyone is talking about being healthier and losing weight.

But if you’re like most people, the good intentions never seem to translate into success and each January you’re back wondering which diet to go on next.

So here are 10 tips for losing weight in the New Year.

1. Ask: What do I want to achieve?

Most people think purely in terms of losing weight.

But what’s the point losing weight and then gaining it all back a few weeks later?

In other words, think about what the real goal is. It’s not just to reach a certain weight. It’s to reach it and stay there!

2. Accept that it will take longer to lose weight than you expected.

Everyone is in a hurry but the fact is most people have unrealistic expectations about how fast they will lose weight.

If you’re expecting to lose weight faster than you actually can (and who isn’t influenced by fad diet claims of losing massive amounts of weight in a short time?) you are likely to be disappointed and more likely to give up.

Instead, the best thing you can do for yourself is accept that it will take a little longer and that’s ok.

3. Don’t overhaul your diet.

Completely overhauling what you normally eat might seem healthy and virtuous but these sort of changes are too drastic to maintain. If you’re replacing your regular diet with something that resembles rabbit food, ask yourself if you’re really going to be sticking with it for more than a few weeks.

Instead make small changes that are easier to integrate into your life.

4. Don’t do anything unpleasant.

Have you ever tried a diet that was so unpleasant that you couldn’t last on it for more than a week and then you blamed yourself for lack of willpower?

When it comes to cutting back the calories, there is no place for “no pain, no gain”. If it’s unpleasant, you won’t keep doing it.

5. Keep a food diary.

Everyone talks about writing down what you eat and with good reason. It works! If you have to choose one action to take, take this one. It’s that powerful.

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Should I Stop My Statins?

by | Jan 8, 2014 | General Health, Health organization, Research | 0 comments

Statin You’ve probably heard of Lipitor, Zocor, and Crestor. You may even be taking one of these cholesterol-lowering drugs, which are known as statins. They are the most commonly prescribed medication, and for years, they’ve been touted as the best way to manage cholesterol.

Now, top Harvard cardiologists are questioning current cholesterol guidelines. The data to support this claim isn’t as solid as we thought, and we are now seeing that statins can cause some serious side effects, such as:

  • Muscle pain, damage, and aching
  • Mitochondrial damage
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Neurologic problems such as memory loss
  • Sexual dysfunction

 

In fact, researchers are now learning that mistakes were made in previous studies, prompting doctors to prescribe statins to patients who really didn’t need them. And this is a dangerous mistake to make, because statins come with some serious risks. Morecardiologists are speaking out.

We used to think that there were very few side effects associated with this drug, but the truth is, up to 20 percent of statin users have experienced serious side effects like muscle pain, damage, and aching or high muscle enzymes. Statins can also poison your mitochondria, which are your cells’ energy-production factories and the single most important factor in healthy aging and wellness. Statins can hinder the mitochondria’s ability to produce energy effectively and can even kill cells off completely.

In one study, two groups of overweight, sedentary people were put on an exercise program for 12 weeks. One group was given a statin and the other group wasn’t. After 12 weeks, the group that had been taking the statin saw no improvement in their fitness level. It was as if they hadn’t exercised at all! In fact, when muscle biopsies were performed, doctors found the members of this group had four and a half percent less energy-production capacity in their cells. They were actually in worse condition than before they started the exercise program!

This is quite serious. I believe, in the next 10 years, we’re going to see a backlash against statins. In fact, we’re starting to see it already. We’re seeing now that they may not benefit everybody we thought they would. And we’re seeing that there are some serious risks involved. So, stay tuned for more on this.

Watch Dr. Hayman’s video here