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Who Else Wants to Live to Be 100 Years Old?

6 Jul

There is an old saying that goes something like this: Youth is wasted on the young. For many people, this is true.  Whether this is true or not for you is unimportant, but here is something that is important. No matter how old you are now or how long you are going to live, life is short and it goes by in the blink of an eye. Whatever age you are right now, don’t you want to live as many healthy years into the future as you can? Sadly, many people think there is nothing they can do to make themselves healthier and live longer.  It is common to believe…

“It’s All In Your Genes.”

Sure.  Genes do play some role regarding the circumstances of your life. For example, not everyone is going to be 7 feet tall (>2m) and play basketball for an NBA team. Not everyone is going to be exceptionally healthy and live to be 100 years old even if they eat junk food and smoke like a chimney.  But there is something you can control and that’s living up to your genetic potential.  Listen, it makes no difference to you if someone else’s genetic potential is better or worse than yours.     The only thing that matters is YOUR genetic potential and how you maximize it. Here is something else you should know:  Most people think that because they did unhealthy things when they were younger — like eat a lot of junk food or smoke — that it is too late for them now.  The damage is done, so to speak. While in some instances this may be true, in many cases, the body has an amazing ability to recover and become healthy even after decades of abuse. We’ll talk about this more in a moment, but first, let’s see if living to age 100 is all in the genes. Over the past 50 years, the University Gothenburg has hosted one of the world’s first prospective study on aging. The participants included 855 Gothenburg men born who were all born in 1913. The first surveys were conducted in 1963 and continued on until the final survey was conducted with the ten surviving participants in 2013.  A total of 27% (232) of the original group lived to the age of 80 and 13% (111) live to 90.  All in all, 1.1% of the subjects made it to their 100th birthday. According to the study, 42% of deaths after the age of 80 were due to cardiovascular disease, 20% to infectious diseases, 8% to stroke, 8% to cancer, 6% to pneumonia, and 16% to other causes.A total of 23% of the over-80 group were diagnosed with some type of dementia.

The study showed that it helped the longevity of the participants if they paid high rent or owned a house by age 50, had a high aerobic capacity on a biking test at age 54, and had a mother who lived a long time. According to lead researcher Dr. Lars Wilhelmsen, while their mother’s longevity appears to indicate that genetic factors played a strong role in helping these men live longer lives, other factors that are indicative of a healthy lifestyle may be more important for living a long time. For example, among the longest lived men in the study, none were smokers and all of them were slim and had good posture. The fact they were non-smokers isn’t surprising but…

What About Being Slim and Having Good Posture?

Sure, the health benefits of being slim are also pretty obvious.  Numerous studies have focused on weight control and calorie-restricted diets and their benefits.  But what does good posture have to do with it? Chiropractors have known the benefits of having good posture for well over 100 years.  Even in the early 1900s, doctors of chiropractic believed that spinal structure is directly related to overall health – not just back pain.  Now, the results of this study do not say… or prove… chiropractic care can make you live longer,  but it does raise some very interesting questions. If good posture is an important factor for good health and living longer, and chiropractic helps you achieve good posture, does chiropractic care improve overall health and help you live longer? For now, you will have to make your own decision about that.  Hopefully more studies will be performed to give us more definitive answers about all of this.

Now for Some Great News About Quitting Smoking…

The chances of a smoker dying form cardiovascular disease are double that of someone who has never smoked.  However, if a smoker kicks their habit, their risk for a heart attack or stroke will decrease over time and while it may never be as low as a never-smoker’s risk, it can get close if given enough years.  Even those who quit smoking after age 60 will still experience a drop in cardiovascular risk over time. In a recent study, researchers attempted to calculate the number of years by which smoking accelerates death from heart disease.  They found that the age of smokers who die from cardiovascular disease is, on average, five and a half years younger than people who have never smoked in their lives.  By contrast, the age of former smokers drops to just over two years younger than life-long non-smokers.

Lead researcher Dr. Hermann Brenner writes, “Therefore, it is never too late to stop smoking.  Even people in the highest age group still gain considerable health benefits from it… Many heart attacks and strokes, with all of their serious consequences, could be prevented this way.” Clearly, your body has incredible recovery and recuperative powers.  It’s amazing how many people have lived long, healthy lives after years of poor diet, smoking, and even drug abuse.  There is an old saying that goes something like this:  The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is today.

The same applies for your health.  Start today.

New Study Claims Adolescent Drinking Alters Adult Behavior

11 Jun

Here is the shocking first sentence of a recent study abstract:  “Binge drinking is common during adolescence and can lead to the development of psychiatric disorders.”

Furthermore, binge drinking during adolescence may alter brain development during this important time, leaving lasting effects on genes and behavior that will continue into adulthood. In a recently published study in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine provided alcohol to rat subjects on-and-off in two day increments during their adolescence. Then, they observed them during adulthood. The rats given alcohol displayed much higher levels of anxiety than the control rats who were not given alcohol during development. Also, when given the choice between alcohol and water during adulthood, the rats given alcohol during adolescence drank more alcohol than the rats in the control group.

When researchers looked at the brains of the rats in the study, they found the rats in the alcohol group had higher levels of a protein called HDAC2 in the part of the brain called the amygdala. Previous studies have linked elevated levels of HDAC2 in the amygdala to higher levels of anxiety and alcohol-drinking behavior. This suggests that alcohol exposure during adolescence activates the gene/s responsible for increased HDAC2 expression.

Lead study author Dr. Subhash Pandey, a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Neuroscience Alcoholism Research at UIC writes, “This may be the mechanism through which adolescent binge drinking increases the risk for psychiatric disorders, including alcoholism in adulthood… On-and-off exposure to alcohol during adolescence altered the activity of genes needed for normal brain maturation… [The gene alterations] increased anxiety-like behaviors and preference for alcohol in adulthood.”

Which Is Worse, Eating Junk Food During Early or Late Pregnancy?

9 Jun

Does it matter if a mother eats junk food during pregnancy?  A recent study claims that eating junk food has different effects on the developing fetus depending on which stage of pregnancy an expectant mother eats junk food.

According to Dr. Jessica Gugusheff, post-doctoral researcher in the School of Agriculture, Food, and Wine at the University of Adelaide, “Our research suggests that too much junk food consumed late in pregnancy for humans has the potential to be more harmful to the child than excess junk food early in the pregnancy… Importantly, it also indicates that if excess junk food was consumed by the mother in those early stages of pregnancy, there may be a chance to reduce those negative effects on the baby by eating a healthy diet in late pregnancy.  The second critical window is adolescence and we’ve found differences between males and females. Our experiments showed that eating a healthy diet during adolescence could reverse the junk food preference in males but not females.”

Dr. Gugusheff also mentioned that the brain grows the fastest during these critical windows, which is probably why it is so susceptible to the effects of junk food at these times.

 

Want To Live Longer? Doing This Amount of Exercise Will Probably Prolong Your Life, But More Doesn’t Seem to Help.

4 Jun

The idea that exercise can help you live longer isn’t a new one. Experts have touted the benefits of exercise for decades. What is new is that researchers may have found the optimal amount of exercise needed to extend your longevity…

In a study published April 6, 2015 in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed information from more than 660,000 people ages 21 to 98 in the United States and Sweden who answered questions about how much time they spent doing physical activity, including walking, running, swimming, and bicycling.

The most interesting findings were that doing just a little exercise showed quite a bit of benefit and doing a lot more exercise provided only marginal returns. People who exercised a little, but not enough to meet current physical activity recommendations (150 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week), were still 20 percent less likely to die during the 14-year study than those who did not perform any physical activity.

People who engaged in the recommended level of physical activity saw even more benefit. According to the data, they were 31 percent less likely to die during the study than those who did not engage in any amount of physical activity. The maximum benefit was seen by people engaging in three-to-five times the recommended levels.  They were 39% less likely to die over the study period than people who did not exercise.

Here is something interesting:  Many believe if some exercise is good, then more is better.  But there appears to be a ceiling on the amount of exercise that has a beneficial effect on your health.

According to the study, exercising more than three-to-five times the recommended levels did not show any significant additional health benefits. (In fact, previous research indicates that excessive exercise can even be harmful to the heart.) The authors of the study write, “In regard to mortality, healthcare professionals should encourage inactive adults to perform leisure time physical activity and do not need to discourage adults who already participate in high-activity levels.”

Here’s the Biggest Take-Home Message from This Study:

While many people shy away from exercise because they do not feel like they have enough time to exercise enough, this study shows that the people most likely to benefit from increasing the amount of exercise they do are those who do not currently exercise at all.  In other words, if you are not doing any exercise, you can see quite a big potential benefit from just doing a little. You do not have to go crazy and start running marathons.  You just have to get moving and do something.

And the best part is: if you do a little exercise, then you will start to feel better and be able to do more.  Who knows, soon you may find yourself exercising the recommended levels and then one day you’ll look at your journal and realize you are actually exercising the maximum beneficial amount, as uncovered during this study. But reaching the maximum level is not the important thing, and if you are not doing any exercise right now, then you should not even think about that much physical activity.

Probably the biggest reason for failure is setting goals too high.  (I know goal-setting experts often say to set high goals and REACH FOR THE SKY!) If that is working for you, awesome.  But if you are like most people and do not reach a majority of the goals you set, let’s try something a little different.

Let’s set a very small goal, one that you can reach relatively easily and in a short time.  When you do, you will not only feel great, you will gain a little momentum. Once that first little goal is reached, set another small goal and so on… For many people, this is the best way to actually reach their big goals.

So, if you are not exercising now, then make a small goal.  Write down some small thing you are going to do TODAY just to get started. Make it easy.  Make it quick.  Then, just do it.  Tomorrow write down another one.  One of the best techniques is to write down your exercise goal the night before so when you wake up you know exactly what you are going to do that day. But let’s make this very clear:  make your goal very easy so you can get the ball rolling.  Remember, you are going to get quite a bit of benefit from just a small amount of exercise.

While We Are on the Topic of Exercise, Here’s Something You Should Think About:

Do you know how much television you watch every day?  According to recent research, the average American watches five hours per day!  And get this, the number increases with age.  By 65, the average American watches an average of seven hours of television per day. That kind of blows the whole, “I don’t have enough time to exercise” excuse right out of the water, doesn’t it?  But here is something else you should know: a study published in Diabetologia (the Journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) found that each hour spent watching TV daily increases an individual’s risk of developing diabetes by 3.4%.

It’s no wonder why the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported in 2014 that 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population of the United States, have diabetes.  What’s incredible is 8.9 million of that 29.1 million (27.8%) are undiagnosed.  That means almost 9 million people are pretty much ticking time bombs for all kinds of serious health problems and do not even know it. The good news is that many type 2 diabetics can benefit from diet and exercise.  (There is that “exercise” thing again!)

Advice for this month:  Take 20 minutes out of the five-to-seven hours you may spend watching  television and instead do a little exercise and watch what happens!

New Research Shows Eating at Certain Times May Decrease Heart Disease Risk

19 May

Everyone knows what they eat has a huge impact on both their energy levels and their overall wellbeing.  Because countless studies have demonstrated the effect nutrition has on many aspects of health, some experts even say that the majority of health problems can be avoided through proper diet (in addition to regular exercise).

In Other Words, You Are What You Eat. But what if there was a way you could be healthier without changing what you eat, even if you are already eating perfectly?  If that sounds interesting, then you are really going to like this… A new study conducted by scientists at San Diego State University found you are not only WHAT you eat but WHEN you eat.  The research, published in the prestigious journal Science, found that, “by limiting the time span during which fruit flies could eat, they could prevent aging – and diet-related heart problems.  The researchers also discovered that genes responsible for the body’s circadian rhythm are integral to this process, but they’re not yet sure how. “Previous research has found that people who tend to eat later in the day and into the night have a higher chance of developing heart disease than people who cut off their food consumption earlier.”

But this study was done on fruit flies, what does that have to do with humans?  Well, fruit flies have been long been used as a starting point to help identify the genetic basis of many ailments, including heart disease.

Some interesting details about the experiment:  The fruit flies were split into two groups.  One group was allowed to eat unrestricted all day and the other was only allowed to eat during a twelve-hour period.  Researches kept track of the sleep patterns and amount of food eaten by each group.

Results:  “Flies on the 12-hour time-restricted feeding schedule slept better, didn’t gain as much weight, and had far healthier hearts than their ‘eat anytime’ counterparts, even though they ate similar amounts of food.”   The researchers observed the same results after five weeks. According to researcher Dr. Shubhroz Gill, “In very early experiments, when we compared 5-week-old flies that were fed for either 24 hours or 12 hours, the hearts of the latter were in such good shape that we thought perhaps we had mistaken some young 3-week-old fruit flies [from a different part of the experiment]… We had to repeat the experiments several times to become convinced that this improvement was truly due to the time-restricted feeding.”

More Good News:  The benefits of time-restricted diets were not restricted to young flies.  When the researchers introduced the time restrictions to older flies, their hearts became healthier too.

What Is the “Take Home Message?”  Of course, more research must be done before the results can be extrapolated to real people, like you and me.  There are several factors to take into consideration with humans, like the fact that humans do not eat the same thing every day and lifestyle often affects when someone can or cannot eat.  Dr. Girish Melkani, a Biologist at San Diego State University writes, “Time-restricted feeding would not require people to drastically change their lifestyles, just the times of day they eat.  The take-home message then would be to cut down on the late-night snacks.”

Why Would Dietitians Recommend Mini-Cans of Soda as a Good Choice for a Snack?

18 May

First, what is a Registered Dietician?  The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ website says they are, “The world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.  The Academy is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education, and advocacy.” 

According to their website, “Registered dietitian nutritionists – RDNs – are the food and nutrition experts who can translate the science of nutrition into practical solutions for healthy living.  RDNs use their nutrition expertise to help individuals make unique, positive lifestyle changes.  They work throughout the community in hospitals, schools, public health clinics, nursing homes, fitness centers, food management, food industry, universities, research and private practice.  RDNs are advocates for advancing the nutritional status of Americans and people around the world.” 

In other words, Registered Dietitians are serious nutrition experts.  So, why would some registered dietitians suggest a mini-can of cola as a snack?  In fact, according to an article in the Star Tribune, “In February, several… experts wrote online posts for American Heart Month, with each including a mini-can of Coke or soda as a snack idea.  The pieces – which appeared on nutrition blogs and other sites including those of major newspapers – offer a window into the many ways food companies work behind the scenes to cast their products in a positive light, often with the help of third parties who are seen as trusted authorities.” 

The answer to this puzzling question can be found in a statement given to the Star Tribune by a Coca-Cola spokesperson, “We have a network of dietitians we work with… Every big brand works with bloggers or has paid talent.” 

The article also states, “Other companies including Kellogg and General Mills have used strategies like providing continuing education classes for dietitians, funding studies that burnish the nutritional images of their products, and offering newsletters for health experts.  PepsiCo Inc. has also worked with dietitians who mention its Frito-Lay and Tostito chips in local TV segments on healthy eating.  Others use nutrition experts in sponsored content; the American Pistachio Growers has quoted a dietitian for the New England Patriots in a piece on healthy snacks and recipes, and Nestle has quoted its own executive in a post about infant nutrition.”

In other words, it seems like these dietitians are getting paid to endorse a product that may not necessarily benefit the health of the people in their audience.  Everyone knows celebrities and athletes get paid a tremendous amount of money to endorse all kinds of things, including junk food.  Many times top athletes are paid more in endorsement deals than they make playing their sport, but is it really appropriate for certified nutrition experts to get paid to write about nutritional advice that may benefit their sponsors more than their readers?

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