2 people eat same breakfast. One dies & one lives.

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Friday, 6-15-2007

2 people eat same breakfast. One dies & one lives ….

It really can happen. Here’s why & how to be the one that lives & stays healthy.

(My original title was 2 men eat the same breakfast. And, I do write it that way. But it’s now beginning to be known that women are as at risk of heart attack & related diseases as men are. In fact, their risk may be higher in some ways once they pass menopause.

Whole Foods Market has an excellent free handout on Women & Heart Disease that I recommend you read if you are a woman or have women in you life you care about.)

The common breakfast foods in this post are steak & eggs.

Let’s say each person eats a six ounce steak & two fried eggs for breakfast or brunch.

Here’s why the results can be so different.:

1. Their health status is different.

2. The quality of their food is different.

3. They eat different things with their food.



1. Their health status is different.:

The man who dies could be someone who smokes & believes that he will succeed in not getting lung cancer from it. He even could be right. Many people who smoke don’t get lung cancer. But what he doesn’t know is that everyone who smokes damages their cardiovascular system & disables their natural defenses against heart attack, stroke, & more. So, he hasn’t quit. And, his homocysteine is over 16.0 & his blood vessels are so choked with plaque that a small clot will cause a heart attack or stroke. He doesn't know what it is & has never had it tested. Smoking has also given him high blood pressure he doesn’t know he has because he has never had it checked. It’s 178 over 105.

He also eats too much fatty meat from animals penned up & fed grains, including his steak today. So he’s eaten too much omega 6 oils, too little omega 3 oils. His HDL cholesterol is quite low, 36, as he’s also not gotten that tested; he doesn’t take any supplements that raise it; & he never exercises. His LDL cholesterol is over 180; he also doesn’t know that as he has never had it tested; & he takes no supplements to lower it.

Even worse, because he eats so many refined grains & no vegetables to speak of & never exercises, his HBA1C reading is 9.3; he has type II diabetes; & he doesn’t know it as he’s never had his blood glucose or HBA1C tested -- & he hasn’t yet had symptoms that he saw a doctor about. He also doesn’t know that this increases his risk of heart attack by more than double or that it’s one of the causes of his high blood pressure.

The man who lives got lucky & never started smoking or he did & found out what its real risks are to his cardiovascular system & quit.

He knows he has desirable blood pressure because he has it measured every so often. It tends to average about 116 over 65. When it’s taken at his doctor’s appointments, he always asks what the reading was. He exercises regularly, eats a lot of vegetables every day & some whole fruit or real fruit juice every day; & he has found & uses a way to physically relieve stress & uses it almost every day. He also takes several supplements that keep blood pressure down, notably including 200 mg a day of CoQ10.

He knows his homocysteine level as he has that tested every so often. And, because he doesn’t smoke & takes several supplements that lower it, it’s tended to be about 8.0.

He has high LDL readings of over 70 as he exercises regularly, including strength training; takes supplements that increase it; & drinks one or two glasses of red wine most days. His LDL is around 100 as he takes sterol supplements & eats many foods with sterols or soluble fiber every day. And, he gets both tested every time he gets his homocysteine level tested.

But there’s more:

2. The quality of their food is different.

The man who dies eats meat several times a day. So, to be able to afford it, he buys his meat from stores & restaurants that serve only meat from animals penned up & fed grains. That’s the cheapest kind to get. But eating it often harms your health.

And, that’s the kind of steak he has today. It’s loaded with omega 6 oils from the grain; it’s quite fatty from the cow that it’s from getting stuffed with grain while it was penned up; & it’s also high in saturated fats.

The man who lives eats beans & nuts & nonfat dairy & wild caught fish & seafood for most of his protein intake. He only has beef a few times a month. So he only eats beef that is grass fed only & never penned up to be fattened.

That’s the kind of steak he is eating today as he’s found & patronizes an upscale restaurant that serves it. It isn’t cheap. But he only eats it a few times a month so he finds it affordable. It’s a bit chewier & more strongly flavored than the grain fed beef. It’s more like wild game. But it has some omega 3 oils & very little omega 6 oils. It’s quite lean. And the fat it does have is low in saturated fats.

3. They eat different things with their food.

That also makes a surprising difference.

The man who dies has his steak & eggs with French fries that were fried in an oil high in omega 6 oils. He has his eggs fried in butter. And, he has a piece of white bread, refined grain, toast with jam that has high fructose corn syrup as its sweetener. Then he has a large caffeinated soft drink with it.

The man who lives has onions sautéed in extra virgin olive oil on his steak. And he has his eggs fried in extra virgin olive oil also.

He has a small bowl of strawberries & one of peeled & sliced kiwifruit. And, this being a brunch, he has a glass of a sparkling red wine.

The result is the man who dies has extra saturated fat that acts like sludge in his blood vessels which aren’t up to the job & dies of a massive heart attack within hours of eating his brunch.

The man who lives has very little sludging in his blood vessels. But they can handle it. And his body disposes of it efficiently. And he lives several decades more in good health.


Ask yourself:

What kind of message are your food & health practices sending your heart?

Powerful new way to protect your life & health ….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Monday, 6-11-2007

Powerful new way to protect your life & health ….

Can you imagine driving a loaded semi truck on a busy freeway without being able to see out of the windows?

If people did that, it would be no surprise to find a rather high rate of serious accidents. And, it would be also no surprise that some or most of the accidents killed or severely injured the driver.

Until recently, this has been the case with people & their health. Even worse, for most people it still is.

I know of a woman who had a heart attack recently. And, as far as I know, neither she nor her husband had any clue she was at risk for one.

I met another woman who didn’t know she had type II diabetes until she suddenly found she couldn’t see well enough to drive or read.

My Dad has survived three heart attacks through extremely good luck & good medical care. And, even though his Mom died of a heart attack, he didn’t know he was at immediate risk for one until the first one happened to him.

This is no longer necessary. These conditions take years to develop usually. And, the more knowledgeable doctors & other people who want to help people avoid such surprises, now know about them. There are key blood tests for quite a few risk factors which show such events are on their way unless the risk factors are reversed.

Even better, we’re now beginning to know how to move these indicators from undesirable or dangerous readings to much safer or desirable levels.

In addition, not only can this often be done without drugs, many of the things you can do to reverse bad readings on one of the key indicators will also improve others as well.

If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning, you’ve seen this information before here. But the woman I spoke of who had a heart attack, had her heart attack quite recently.

So, it seemed to me to be important to highlight how important these tests are.

Gradually, we are developing more accurate & specialized blood tests for developing health problems.

But the main ones we cover today are already known to address many of the risks well enough to give you superb protection from bad health surprises if you move each of them into the desirable zone.

1. For men, most doctors know that LDL cholesterol levels of over 160 are a significant risk factor for heart & other cardiovascular diseases.

There is some controversy as to how low your LDL reading should be. Many doctors think 100 is low enough while some who treat people with serious cardiovascular disease think below 80 or even 70 or below is better. Some other experts in preventing disease believe that below 120 is good enough if the more important indicators are in the desirable range. My own conclusion is that most people should aim for about 100 & that it’s likely that almost everyone should be at 120 or below. In may opinion, that includes women of all ages.

The good news is that eating a health enhancing diet, at least some regular exercise, & some key supplements, notably, sterol supplements, niacin, & inositol hexaniacinate can get most people to that level without drugs.

People with readings far above 160 or who already have severe cardiovascular disease my also need statin drugs. And I know of at least two cardiologists who normally use supplements with their patients prescribe statins for those kinds of patients – at least initially.

2. We are now beginning to find that HDL cholesterol levels are even more important. If excess LDL is like unpicked up garbage in your blood vessels, normal HDL is like garbage collectors. So, if you have enough HDL, even higher levels of LDL may be safe.

In fact, high levels of HDL tend to go with substantially increased longevity. Women tend to have higher readings than men. But for both men & women, it’s desirable to have LDL of over 60. And, it’s important to keep your HDL above about 45 if you possibly can.

We’ve done posts on some of the many things that increase HDL levels. But the most important seem to be regular, vigorous exercise, niacin & or inositol hexaniacinate, choline, chromium, &, particularly for men, regular light or moderate drinking of red wine, all seem to increase HDL.

Extra virgin olive oil as your main source of fats & oils helps. And, getting enough omega 3 oils also seems to help.

3. Blood glucose tests.

There are two main ones: fasting blood glucose & HBA1C. Fasting blood glucose is like a snapshot that tells you what your level is right then. And, because it’s the reading from the sugar on your red blood cells that tend to live about 60 to 90 days, HBA1C is an even more important measure. HBA1C tells what your average glucose level was for every day over the last 60 to 90 days.

These two tests are critical to get regularly. If your blood glucose begins to be too high it tends to get worse. And, if it gets & says too high or higher, it ruins your circulation with all sorts of horrible results. The doubling of risk of heart attack for men & the quadrupling of risk for women for heart attacks, are just the tip of the iceberg. Excessively high blood sugar & the vascular damage it causes do a whole list of horrible things to you.

So, do yourself a favor, & get these two tests soon. (Women are particularly at risk for problems in this area. But, today, so are many men.)

For fasting glucose, 99 or a bit lower is desirable. And, 110 or over consistently is not.

Over about 120 or 130 is classified as type II diabetes.

For HBA1C, the desirable range is at about 5.8 or a bit below. 6.0 or higher is not good. 6.1 & higher is now classified as type II diabetes.

Lowering bad readings on these tests without drugs is doable, particularly if you take strong action when the higher readings first show up. But high glucose is so dangerous, if your readings are much higher than the 120 & 6.1 listed above, your doctor will likely prescribe drugs. However, even with the drugs, you are only likely to be safe if you still do the nondrug things to lower high glucose readings.

These include:; eating controlled amounts of whole grains or none; likely eliminating rice & white potatoes, regular exercise almost every day or every day; totally giving up soft drinks & hardly ever eating refined grains; eating very little or no sugar; & eating more vegetables of all kinds than most people do plus eating health OK protein foods & oils almost every day instead.

Two supplements that seem to help are chromium polynicotinate & alpha lipoic acid. And, I’ve read that magnesium & cinnamon supplements may also help.

4. Homocysteine. High levels predict early death, cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging, & all kinds of mental decline.

What’s high? According to the more knowledgeable prevention oriented doctors I’ve read, 9.0 or higher. And, even the less informed doctors are beginning to know that 12.0 & higher is bad news.

The 6.0 to 8.0 levels typical of healthy teens & young adults are the desirable range. Since homocysteine levels tend to increase as you get older, a more realistic target range for older people is the lower end of the 7.0 to 8.9 range.

Cigarette smoke raises homocysteine significantly. So staying totally away from it is critical.

Other things that lower it are eating a lot of green vegetables & other plant food with high levels of folic acid; taking 800 micrograms or more of folic acid each day; getting at least 30 to 75 mg of vitamin B6 (100 mg or more of B6 is not a good idea); & getting 500 micrograms to 1,000 of vitamin B12. Taking a decent multivitamin & a decent B complex supplement in addition can also help. But avoid running your total B6 intake above 100 as doing so seems to cause nerve problems.)

And, if those two things don’t do the job, 500 mg a day of N-acetyl Cysteine (NAC) &/or daily supplements with TMG or betaine may well do the job. (Betaine hydrochloride is too acid for many people & also seems to work less well.)


We’ve covered 5 tests here: LDL & HDL cholesterol; fasting glucose; HBA1C; & homocysteine.

There are about a dozen more that it’s important to test for: triglycerides, C-Reactive Protein, various blood clotting factors, & more.

But it’s absolutely critical to your health to get these 5 tests initially; take strong corrective action if they are out of the desirable zone; & to get follow up tests to see if the corrective actions are working well enough – or to get the tests every year or so to be sure they stay where they should be even if they were in the desirable range initially.

Why subject yourself to horrible health surprises when you can see if they are coming & steer out the way?

With these tests you can do exactly that.

Exercise makes fat loss safe to do….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Wednesday, 5-16-2007

Exercise makes fat loss safe to do….

Earlier research found that when people only ate fewer calories to lose fat, part of the weight they lost was muscle.

This made them weaker & means that if they gain the weight back as usually happens, they may also be fatter than before since they start then with less muscle.

But, when people who ate fewer calories AND exercised, they either lost no muscle or gained some. This often did mean a slightly smaller weight loss. But their FAT lost increased. And their percent of their bodyweight as fat also improved more than the people who didn’t also exercise.

Yesterday, I saw a study reported that was done at Washington University in St Louis which found that something very similar happens with bone density. People who lost fat & weight by eating fewer calories only also experienced significant bone density loss.

Those who lost the fat & weight with exercise, did lose a bit less weight; but they lost no bone mass or density. And, they lost virtually the same amount of fat.

Since broken bones in older people can often be serious or even life-threatening, that’s quite significant.

The conclusion is clear that losing fat by cutting calories only will make you weaker & more likely to suffer broken bones. It isn’t a safe or desirable way to do it.

But, if you add doing regular exercise also, losing fat then becomes safe to do.

Even better, these studies used things like walking for their exercise. Well done strength training ADDS muscle to you & INCREASES your bone density.

As you’ve likely read, either here or elsewhere, as little as two sessions of half an hour, done each week with at least one day off in between of well done strength training is enough to give you this effect.

As you might imagine from this information, it’s quite common for people who lose fat while also strength training & who continue the strength training on an ongoing basis to lose fat and keep it off.

And, it’s almost universal that people who lose fat without exercise gain it back.

So, if you want to lose fat permanently, & do it without damaging your health, be sure to add exercise & include at least two days a week of well done strength training. And, keep doing that exercise each week.

***********
Some of you may be new to exercise or you may need some ideas to help you make more & better progress with your exercise goals.

Or, if you need inspiration or some ideas on an exercise plan that fits you, here’s a resource that many have found to work well:

Exercise expert Jon Benson has co-authored an eBook that has some guidelines on how to get good results from exercise.

Here’s the exciting thing about his book:

It has the stories & exercise routines of 52 people of both sexes & many ages who got well -- & discarded excess fat – by exercising.

They tell their stories of how they got into exercise & what exactly they do in their exercise programs. It also has their very good results. Some got incredibly good results.

There are enough role models & ideas you are virtually certain to find one or several that are enough similar to you that you can do it too.

You’ll also see exactly how people who are like you & started where you are--or maybe even at a worse level--were able to do it successfully.

Studies show that people learn best by emulating real role models in this way & that they are much more likely to master & use what they learn emulating real role models.

This eBook, Fit Over 40, provides that for you.

And, almost all the 52 people do some form of strength training.

In addition, many of them, including Jon Benson, lost quite significant amounts of fat that they have kept off since.

Does that sound like it’s worth checking out?

If so, here’s more information on Jon’s book. See: http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth

Skinny, sedentary people found to be fat inside….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Monday, 5-14-2007

Skinny, sedentary people found to be fat inside….

It’s been known for quite some time that fatter people who exercise regularly are often healthier than skinny people who get no exercise.

And, we’ve even known that people who are fatter than they’d like or should be who begin to exercise regularly improve their health right away – even before they show significant loss on the scales.

That’s partly because in only a few weeks they do gain muscle & lose fat. And, their circulation improves. But often the muscle gained & fat lost are about the same initially unless the new exercisers also eat better. So their weight on the scale often doesn’t change much at first.

Research reported in last week's online health news now helps explain why skinny people who are sedentary are not in good health.

It turns out that skinny people who are sedentary & don’t exercise regularly ARE overfat & under-muscled.

The new studies found that such people have too much visceral or internal fat for them to be in good health. It’s hidden from sight & doesn’t show up on the scale. But it does cause health problems.

So, the most important key to good health no matter what you now look like fat-wise is to exercise regularly.

And, if at least two days a week you strength train or lift weights, it works better because you gain muscle mass.

If you also are active or do aerobic exercise on several other days a week without overdoing it, that also helps.

And the recipe for fat loss without hunger is to:

Do both kinds of exercise very week;

Eat almost all your food as whole fruits, vegetables, and health OK protein foods & fats;

Stop eating refined grains, snacks & most packaged foods, & drinking soft drinks;

And, it also helps to eat no whole grains or much less whole grains, & to eat whole grains that you do eat early in the day.

The research now conclusively shows that exercise is the key to good health. Better foods do help as does stopping harmful & fattening foods.

But the most important thing is to do regular exercise.

Stop Snoring & Sleep Apnea. New information….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Tuesday, 5-8-2007

Stop Snoring & Sleep Apnea. New information….

Some of you may have read my earlier post on this.

If your significant other complains about your snoring or worse --

Or, if you wake up without feeling rested & then have little energy all day or fall asleep when you’d rather not during the day even though you spend enough time sleeping–

Or, if you’ve been diagnosed as having sleep apnea—

There’s some new information I just discovered you should know about.

Snoring & sleep apnea can ruin your sex life or strain your marriage. They often deprive people who have them of normal energy & vitality. They can also cause high blood pressure, brain damage, strokes, & heart attacks.

There may be a way you can get rid of all or most of that within a few days for & just a few bucks.

I accidentally discovered this last night while I was reading a magazine.

(I describe it right after the next section about the procedure I described in my previous post.)

The other procedure, the Pillar Procedure, I did a post on earlier sounds effective. And, if it’s effective for a person, is clearly far superior to the CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure device; but it is somewhat invasive.

(The Pillar procedure does a minor implant in the tissue in your throat that slips down to block your breathing. It is reported to work quite well. And the recovery time is so fast, some people have gone to work later in the day when they’ve had it done in the morning.

If you travel a lot or your snoring or sleep apnea are quite severe, you may want to check it out at www.pillarprocedure.com It also may be worth trying if the next method I just found last night doesn’t do enough for you.)

The Pillar Procedure costs several hundred dollars. Plus, as busy as many of you are, it can be hard to get that done even if you might have an interest in doing it.

This is because you do need an evaluation appointment with the doctor. You need an appointment to have it done. And, you should have a follow up appointment after you’ve had it done to see how it’s worked for you.

Here’s the information on the new method I found last night that it may well pay you to try first.:

To see the new info I found, go to www.sonapillow.com

I've noticed that if my wife snores slightly, it's always when she is sleeping on her back. So I have her change positions to sleep on her side which seems to help her snoring stop snoring quite reliably. This pillow uses that effect of sleeping on your side & then triples it by holding your head at such an angle that snoring becomes almost impossible.

People who have used it report dramatically reduced snoring; much less sleep apnea problems; & increased daytime energy.

I've not used one yet or had my wife try one. And, it's possible it might not work for you.

But it certainly looks well worth trying. And, you don't have to go anywhere or set an appointment or two with a doctor in the middle of your busy life to get one.

Even better, within a few days you can get it delivered; put it to use; & it may well stop your snoring & sleep apnea problems.

Important caution:

Sleep apnea & snoring can often be caused or triggered by being overfat & underexercised.
Clearly you’ll feel better & protect your health if stop snoring & sleep apnea with either the Sona Pillow or the Pillar Procedure.

But being overfat; underexercised; or both can also harm your health & ruin your sex life.

So, if you also suffer from those conditions, please stop eating refined carbohydrates & drinking soft drinks. Eat a lot more green, nonstarchy vegetables & lean protein & beans -- & nuts if you are not allergic to them. And, carefully add some regular walking & strength training to your life each week.

Within days or at most a few weeks, you’ll be much healthier. And, if you keep doing it from now on, you’ll be a LOT less fat.

That will also improve your sex life & protect you from expensive to treat & dangerous diseases.

Eating to keep off unwanted bodyfat is NOT a fad….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Thursday, 4-12-2007

Eating to keep off unwanted bodyfat is NOT a fad….

Yesterday, the Food & Wine section of our local newspaper ran a story by Janet Helm of the Chicago Tribune entitled: Urban Food Legends.

She gets most of her facts right; & the list she includes of popular diet books from 1864 to 2007 is very well done.

However, she also says, under How to Spot a Fad: “Avoid diet plans that require you to eliminate entire categories of food or rely on expensive supplements.”

To give her credit, some of the food categories eliminated by some diets are not that good for your health or doable; & she is absolutely correct so far in saying that taking supplements for fat loss as your main method is virtually always a waste of time & money.

(Many supplements do protect your health. But the few like green tea extract that help you lose fat only are about one percent effective. That may change one day. But don’t count on it.

And, since eating right & getting the right exercise every week DO help you avoid or lose unhealthy extra body fat & also have HUGE health benefits, adding supplements to lose fat is simply unnecessary. Further, the people who do try to rely on supplements only seem to STAY fat.)

However, most people in the United States & most food companies still seem to think that soft drinks & refined grains are normal, safe, & OK to drink & to eat.

Unfortunately, there is very convincing evidence that both regular & diet soft drinks actively make people fat. And this is particularly true when consumed several times every day by sedentary people over 30 years old.

So, guess what? If you don’t want to get fat or stay fat, it’s NOT a fad to eliminate them from what you eat & drink – or do so about 99.8 percent of the time.

That’s NOT a fad or a myth. It’s a FACT.

Whether sweetened by sugar -- or worse, by high fructose corn syrup – regular soft drinks add calories to your intake but do NOT make you less hungry.

Diet soft drinks are sweetened with compounds that many health writers believe are not entirely safe to consume.

And, surprisingly, the studies show they fatten just about as much as regular soft drinks when people drink them regularly.

It seems that when your body gets the taste of sugar but not the effects it manipulates your hunger hormone to make you hungrier & hungry for a real sugar fix. So even though the diet soft drink had no calories, you’re more likely to add a candy bar to it. And the amount of sugar you take in remains about what it would have been had you drunk a regular soft drink.

This, eliminating them from your diet for health & fat loss reasons, is also true of artificially hydrogenated oils.

Partially hydrogenated oils contain transfats (often also called trans fats). These directly trigger a large increase in the kind of LDL cholesterol that causes heart & vascular disease when eaten. They also help make you fat since they add calories & no nutritive value. And, they may help trigger type II diabetes. Thankfully, they are on the way to being totally outlawed.

Unfortunately, I read recently that fully hydrogenated oils are being substituted by some food companies to avoid the bans on transfats.

These are sometimes called interesterified fats or oils.

These apparently also trigger a large increase in the kind of LDL cholesterol that causes heart & vascular disease when eaten. But they are MUCH worse than partially hydrogenated oils since they also definitely trigger type II diabetes.

So, it’s NOT a “fad” to eliminate from what you eat any food that has partially hydrogenated or interesterified or fully hydrogenated oils. Eliminating these unnatural fats from your diet IS a prudent way to protect your health; lower your future medical bills; & to live longer.

And, eliminating them also will help you avoid or lose unhealthy extra body fat. Foods that contain them like crackers, cookies, pastries, pie crusts, cake, & ice cream tend to be foods with a lot of sugar and refined grains or both.

And, eating less of those at least 95 percent of the time is a proven way to avoid or lose unhealthy extra body fat.

Eliminating foods with refined grains definitely helps avoid or lose unhealthy extra body fat. They deliver very little nutrition &, worse, have no fiber. So, like sugar & regular soft drinks, they add to the calories you take in without making you less hungry.

And, their health track record is as bad. People who eat a lot of refined grains are not only fatter, they are more likely to get type II diabetes & heart & cardiovascular disease.

People who eat only whole grains tend to be in better health than people who eat refined grains; but unless they get huge amounts of exercise each day & do so every day, they tend to be fatter than is good for their health.

Eliminating whole grains AND refined grains IS getting to be more popular. This may prove to be a temporary thing which would make it a fad.

And, I’m the kind of person I dislike giving up things I’m not certain I have to, so I plan to continue to eat some whole grain foods a few times a week.

But many of the people who have given up all grains by eliminating whole grains AND refined grains have lost most of their extra bodyfat.

The explanation seems to be that humans evolved before they started eating grains. So we tend to digest & use them much less well than natural protein foods, vegetables, & fruits.

So, I do plan to cut my consumption of whole grains by 80 or 90 percent. And, if, when I do, my waist measurement goes down by several inches, I will definitely do a post on it.

Take Omega 3 Oils for Depression? Probably yes….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Thursday, 4-5-2007

Take Omega 3 Oils for Depression? Probably yes….

In recent news I read that a study found some people taking omega 3 oils or omega 3 supplements was not as effective as other studies have found.

In some people, depression is caused by actual brain damage & in others by a temporary reaction to severe stress. So, for some such people, taking omega 3’s might well be less effective than other measures.

And, there are other cases of depression with causes that omega 3’s may not help.

There is evidence that regular exercise helps most people who are depressed & is often as effective as taking antidepressants. And, it is often effective in as little as one or two weeks. Antidepressant drugs often must be taken for several weeks to see if they work for a particular person. Then sometimes they work well. Sometimes they have bad side effects. And sometimes they don’t work at all. Plus they cost a good bit of money.

Cognitive therapy, which helps people shut down the thoughts that lead to depression & learn & practice the thoughts that make it very rare or turn it off can work very well.

(See the books Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman, PhD & The Adversity Quotient by Paul Stoltz, PhD for more information. Dr Seligman is the discoverer of the technique; & Dr Stoltz has improved it & easier to learn.)

So, unless the depression is quite severe or the person is already doing regular exercise for over three weeks without enough effect, it would seem prudent to me to try exercise & cognitive therapy first for depression.

Here’s why I also think adding omega 3 containing foods like sardines, wild caught salmon, & oysters AND supplements of DHA, Omega 3 supplements from purified fish oils or purified Cod Liver Oil also is probably a prudent & beneficial thing to do.:

Some people HAVE experienced improvements in their depression in a few days. So it certainly is worth trying. Only the best done cognitive therapy works that fast.

But more importantly, there is now abundant evidence with increasing coverage in many media, that the diet of most people in the U.S. is severely lacking in omega 3 oils & has quite excessive amounts of omega 6 oils. And, people who increase their intake of omega 3 oils often experience a multitude of health benefits.

(So also limiting consumption of grain fed beef & pork: & eating no refined grains; & a eating modest amount or less of whole grains might well also help depression. And, doing so has many other health benefits – including making it easier to lose excess bodyfat.)

So, even if adding omega 3’s & reducing omega 6’s fail to help your depression, or of another person who is depressed, & do it quickly, doing so will definitely improve health –
for you or for them.

And, in addition to that, adding omega 3’s & reducing omega 6’s may combat depression quite well in almost everyone if it’s continued long enough.

Here’s why.

People with adequate omega 3’s think better & may more easily grow new brain cells.

(Recent studies found children with adequate omega 3’s DID grow new brain cells & do much better in school than children who did not have adequate omega 3’s. And, we are increasingly finding that what works to improve young brains also works in adults – even elderly ones. So my bet is that adults with adequate omega 3 intake also grow new brain cells better or maybe at all compared with adults who don’t. And regular exercise has been recently shown to grow new brain cells – in adults.)

So doing regular exercise & getting adequate omega 3’s long enough confers a real brain power advantage over people who do not, particularly if it’s done long enough.

This may be why studies of populations of people who eat a lot of omega 3’s from fish tend to show far less depression. They do it for a lifetime. So the process has time to do the job.

The other reason I think it’s wise to get adequate omega 3’s & restrict omega 6 oils is that it seems to sharply improve the ability of people to tolerate stress without getting cranky, irritable, nasty, in a rage, & violent.

There’s been a lot of research on this. And the evidence is very strong from what I’ve read. It works on children, jail inmates, Alzheimers patients, & adults.

Here’s how that prevents depression & very forcefully so.

People who have happy marriages & who relate well to their families; have a lot of friends; & who have good social support otherwise; & who almost never get into pointless quarrels, have dramatically better health.

They have as many as 20 times less heart attacks or more as people who have anger management problems & little social support. They tend to never get high blood pressure & almost never have blood pressure high enough to justify taking drugs for it.

And, they are almost never depressed.

Since getting adequate omega 3’s seems to make having such human relationships easier to do by helping people avoid nasty & emotionally hurtful behavior around other people & to avoid bad moods of an irritable nature in themselves, I think anyone who is depressed would be well advised to get adequate omega 3’s for the rest of their lives.

*************

It should be noted that getting more than adequate omega 3’s, particularly if combined with a high alcohol intake or some anti clotting or “blood thinning” drugs can cause excessive bleeding enough to be dangerous. And, some fish that are high in omega 3’s like King mackerel & to a lesser extent some tuna, are high enough in mercury to be a problem.

So the prudent course seems to be to do moderate supplementation with DHA & omega 3’s using algae derived DHA & purified fish oils -- & to eat foods like sardines, wild caught salmon, & oysters from unpolluted waters two to four times a week since they have dramatically less mercury or none but to not increase your supplements or foods beyond that.

Corn oil is NOT a health enhancing food….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Monday, 4-2-2007

Corn oil is NOT a health enhancing food….

In recent news I read that the corn oil industry recently was given the OK to put a label on corn oil saying it was good for your health.

1. It’s NOT good for your health.

2. The information presented to support the application for this label is outdated AND woefully incomplete.

3. Corn growers have no worries if you never buy or eat corn oil again.

(It’s quite salable as an ingredient for biodiesel fuel. And, since the demand for biodiesel is rising rapidly as it’s a somewhat sustainably produced fuel & is mostly NOT made from petroleum & can be produced in the United States.)

1. Corn oil is NOT good for your health.

a) Most people in the United States now eat as much as five times too much omega 6 oil
-- in oils containing it, in grains that contain it, & in beef & poultry that has been penned up & forcefed grains high in omega 6’s.

And most people in the United States now eat or ingest about four times too little omega 3 oil.

As a result, instead of getting equal amounts of each, they are getting twenty times as much omega 6 oils as omega 3’s with the result that:

their immune systems are weaker than they should be;
they experience excessive amounts of inflammation;
their moods are worse & they experience more irritability than they should; they think & learn less well than they should;
there’s some evidence they are much more likely to experience heart problems;
& when children eat this way, recent research suggests that they learn more slowly, perform worse in school, & their brains grow more slowly.

Corn oil has virtually no omega 3 oils & is quite high in omega 6 oils.

For this reason alone, corn oil not only is NOT good for you, eating as little of it as is possible is wise.

In addition, I’ve read that cooking with corn oil, & other oils high in omega 6’s, tends to produce health harming chemicals some of which cause cancer much more than cooking with oils like almond oil or olive oil that are mostly monosaturated fats.

For this reason, it’s important for your health to eat foods (like wild caught fish & seafood or beef fed ONLY grass) that are high in omega 3’s or supplement with purified fish oil & DHA (an omega 3 good for your brain) & to limit ingesting omega 6’s to the best of your ability.

2. The information presented to support the application for this label is outdated AND woefully incomplete.

People who eat a diet high in saturated fat & use a lot of butter for cooking who switch to oils like corn oil that are high in omega 6’s, which are polyunsaturated, DO lower their LDL cholesterol.

But corn oil & other polyunsaturated oils high in omega 6’s are NOT good for your heart.

Stopping the analysis there is incomplete – dangerously so.

Doctors used to think that just lowering total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol prevented heart disease. And, to some extent this IS true.

But, what more recent research & analysis has found, is that increasing HDL cholesterol is MUCH MORE important for your heart & more predictive of longevity than just lowering total cholesterol or LDL cholesterol.

And, CORN OIL, & other oils high in omega 6’s, LOWER your HDL cholesterol.

So, they INCREASE your risk of disease & death if you eat much of them or eat them often.

Olive oil also reduces LDL cholesterol; but it does NOT lower HDL.

And, extra virgin olive oil also has antioxidants that keep your HDL & LDL from oxidizing – which is also important to good health. I’ve even seen some reports extra virgin olive oil INCREASES your HDL cholesterol.

Eating avocados & nuts like pecans, almonds, & walnuts to some degree, also lower LDL cholesterol without harming your HDL’s. They tend to be high in monosaturated oils & have sterols that lower LDL cholesterol. (So do many vegetables.)

So, saying corn oil is health enhancing by reducing LDL cholesterol is like saying if I give you quarters & you pay me back a dollar for each quarter I give you, you’ll get richer -- & NOT saying that each quarter you get will cost you a buck.

It simply isn’t so. Corn oil is OK for biodiesel. It is NOT a health enhancing food or even a desirable food.

3. Corn growers have no worries if you never buy or eat corn oil again.

(It’s quite salable as an ingredient for biodiesel fuel. And, since the demand for biodiesel is rising rapidly as it’s a somewhat sustainably produced fuel & is mostly NOT made from petroleum & can be & is produced within the United States.)

I grew up in Iowa in the heart of the corn country. So I would actually like to see corn farmers do well indeed. The economy based on corn growing supported me when I was a toddler -- & supported both my parents until they were young adults.

But the trends seem to indicate they’ll make a lot more money selling their corn oil for biodiesel than they will selling it as food.

And, you’ll be healthier if you never eat or buy corn oil again.

Exercise & Eat right -- Save our economy?? YES….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Friday, 3-30-2007

Exercise & Eat right -- to save our economy?? YES….

Here’s why:

1. People who exercise and eat right and do other things that work to protect their health, like NOT smoking, are less fat & MUCH healthier than people who don’t –

so they tend NOT to get type II diabetes or heart disease or PAD, peripheral artery disease, erectile dysfunction or have strokes & therefore tend NOT to need multiple doctor visits, drugs, surgeries, & early in life funerals -- nor are they likely to get senile.

2. Millions of people in the United States have been doing the exact opposite for many years and many of them are baby boomers just now beginning to cascade in a wave into the ages where people have been following bad health practices begin discovering they have these diseases as a result.

The result of that is massive increases in health care costs (most people are paying more for health coverage AND getting less coverage); and an increasingly large share of our economy is going to health care costs that could have been avoided.

And, that’s not all, people who are doing doctor visits or disabled or senile – or dead – don’t do as much work as healthy and alive people do.

So, our economy is already suffering from more costs & less productive work done.

And, the really bad news is that it will get rapidly worse to a terrifying degree if nothing is done.

But you can fight back. You can follow good health practices yourself. And, you can encourage other people to do so whether they are friends, family, or, if you employ people, they work for you.

If you’ve been reading my posts or following the health news recently, you’ve read about how exercise is in many ways the least used & most effective health practice.

People who exercise think better and even grow new brain cells. They become more stress resistant. And, they are leaner and tend NOT to get type II diabetes or become senile or to develop cardiovascular disease. They even get fewer cancers.

So, if you exercise and encourage everyone you know to do so who isn’t already, more people will exercise and fewer will get avoidable disease; less will be spend on medical costs; or more productive work will be done.

And, that may keep health care costs and lower productive work done from dangerously slowing our economy.

Exercise & Eat right -- to save our economy?? The answer is definitely yes.

However, if you’ve virtually never exercised -- or the person you want to encourage to exercise hasn’t, how do you or that person get into it in a way that fits you or them and gets good results?

What if you had a book with dozens of different kinds of people who got good results from exercise, overcame different kinds of challenges to get into exercise, & where each one shared their exercises & strategies?

That would solve that problem for most people. And, it would give almost anyone enough information and inspiration to get started well.

That resource exists. And, as you can see, I think well of it. So, I’ve become an affiliate to sell it. And, the rest of this post is an email from the author, Jon Benson on today’s topic.

(If you have liked my posts and would like to support this blog and you decide to buy Jon’s book, please do it through the URL listed below.

Thanks.)

http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth

The newspapers all said, "Exercise saves you money!" What are they talking about?

----------------------------------------------

FIT OVER 40
Success For Life e-Zine 3/29/2007

Your Freee Weekly Newsletter from Jon Benson and Fit Over 40

Sent by permission only

----------------------------------------------

The headlines read:

"Health Costs Will Surge Without Better Prevention"

Not "may surge"...WILL surge.

By prevention, they mean exercise and savvy nutrition -- not killing yourself in a gym or on a treadmill and starving.

That never works. I've said that for years. I show you what 'does' work in my book –

(Fit Over 40)

http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth (In case you don't have it yet)

Here are some excerpts from the CDC's latest report.

If you ever thought that exercise and good nutrition was just about health,
hold on to your wallet.

"The cost of caring for aging Americans will add 25 percent to the nation's health care bill by 2030 unless people act now to stay healthy."

That's a direct quote.

This means more taxes for everyone. This means our kids will pay through the nose for our poor habits.

The article continues...

"Currently, 80 percent of Americans 65 or older have at least one chronic disease
that could lead to premature death and disability."

The vast majority of disease is preventable. That's right -- the vast majority. Why?
Because the majority is self-induced.

Most people are sick because they do not take proper care of themselves until it's too late.

The good news is sick people can feel better through exercise and proper eating.

The better news is healthy people can add years to their lives and save billions in
government spending...

...by eating right and exercising.

There's a pattern forming here.

"Given the demographics, the economic impact on healthcare will be enormous,"
said Dr. Richard Murray, a vice president at Merck & Co. Inc., whose foundation funded he study."

"If people adopt healthier lifestyles, they may not develop the expensive, chronic diseases
that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease."

Wow...the Top 3 killers! All decreased and even stopped in their tracks by something
everyone can do.

Everyone, at any age.

(See) http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth --- > for proof

The report concluded with this statement:

"We have the opportunity for prevention," Merck's Murray said. "We need to be serious
about it."

Listen: exercise and nutrition does not need to be tedious, but it does need to be taken
seriously.

Most people will wait until life takes a bite out of them until they get off their tails and take action.

The shame of that is they are missing out (on) life by missing out on the joy of being fit and healthy. There's nothing like it.

Now you have one more reason to start now: the future of our economy depends on it.

Just remember: it can still be a lot of fun. And it should be. I've shown you 52 people who made it fun, ages 40-80.

Read more about them on my website –

http://www.fitover40.com/aff/iehealth

Have fun, help prevent disease, and save some bucks. That's a win-win-win.

Sincerely,

Jon Benson Creator, Co-Author, "Fit Over 40"

Eat cruciferous vegetables for good health…

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Friday, 3-2-2007

Eat cruciferous vegetables for good health…

Cruciferous vegetables are very good at preventing cancers of all kinds.

Their mixed carotenoids are one of the most health enhancing known for many other reasons.

Dr Al Sears makes a very convincing case that eating cruciferous vegetables makes men sexier using the same micronutrients that prevent cancers.

And, the MORE nonstarchy vegetables you eat, the less excess bodyfat you’ll wear --AND the longer you’ll live. Cruciferous vegetables are nonstarchy vegetables.

Eating more nonstarchy vegetables automatically reduces the excess calories you might otherwise eat. You simply are less hungry then for more fattening foods.

Most of you probably know that Broccoli; Cauliflower; Brussels Sprouts; Cabbage—both green & red; & Kale are all cruciferous vegetables.

And, so are all these !!

Arugula; Bok Choy; Collard Greens; Horseradish; Napa Cabbage; Kohlrabi; Radish;
Rutabaga; Turnips; & Wasabi.

Some, like horseradish are extremely pungent. And, there is quite a variety of them.

Kale is one of the most health-enhancing of the cruciferous vegetables--as is broccoli.

However, Kale tends to take up a lot of volume in its fresh form & is one of the harsher tasting cruciferous vegetables.

But you can make a really filling & tasty vegetable dish by sautéing a large amount of Kale that’s been well washed with water & drained in extra virgin olive oil with some minced garlic cloves added.

The volume of the Kale shrinks by an incredible amount. So much so that an awesome amount of the fresh Kale leaves become a reasonable serving size for just one person.

And, the flavor is MUCH milder.

Cauliflower is by far the mildest cruciferous vegetable. You can eat it either raw or cooked. And, if you cook it, you can mash it up as a much lower glycemic index substitute for mashed potatoes – or mix it with mashed potatoes to lower the net glycemic index of the dish.

And, there are many ways to make health OK coleslaws with red or green cabbage or both.

Also, as you can see, there are many ways to make salads that have only different cruciferous vegetables in them.

I’m out of time today. But that will get you started if you haven’t already begun eating cruciferous vegetables.

Lose fat; prevent cancer; & improve your mood….

Welcome to our health & self help blog.

Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.

Today's post: Thursday, 2-22-2007

Lose fat; prevent cancer; & improve your mood….

It’s gradually becoming common knowledge that refined grains & high fructose corn syrup & large amounts of sugar in a person’s regular diet tend to cause obesity (excess bodyfat) & type II diabetes the longer people eat like that & the older they get.

And, that’s even more likely if people who eat that stuff also do sedentary work, watch TV for recreation, & never get regular exercise.

And, in my last 3 posts, I mention research that shows that losing even a small amount of excess fat – or, just doing regular exercise -- each cut your risks of getting all cancers.

It turns out that eating refined grains & high fructose corn syrup & large amounts of sugar, as many people in the United States & elsewhere still do, also directly tends to increase the risk of cancer & cause it to grow faster if present.

That one I did not know myself until just the last few days.

Also, there is strong evidence that many people, particularly women, often have uncontrollable & excessive mood swings because of the roller coaster that way of eating puts your body’s blood sugar through.

It’s also known that if you eat grain foods, only eating whole grains & virtually never eating refined grains results in much better health results than people experience who only eat refined grains.

This is no surprise. Whole grains have many more nutrients & dramatically more fiber than refined grains.

And, I’d heard of health experts who recommend eating a so-called “caveman diet” that only contains lean protein foods; & vegetables, mostly green non-starchy ones; & some fruit; nuts & seeds; & some beans.

Their point, which I strongly suspected is accurate, is that until about 10,000 years ago, that’s what our hunter-gather ancestors ate for the several million years before that.

So, it’s what our bodies are designed by our evolution to eat.

Just in the last week, I’ve found strong evidence that following this way of eating may have considerably stronger health benefits than I had previously imagined.

And, it may virtually guarantee losing any excess fat & keeping it off.

I met a health oriented man a few months ago. And, he had mentioned adopting the “caveman diet” as the way he ate.

What I didn’t know until this past week is how he did it or what incredibly positive results it had given him,

Since he was already eating all the health OK things from that diet when he began it, all he did was eliminate ALL grains, even whole grains.

I was amazed & stunned by the results he got -- that I just recently learned about.

He lost fifty pounds of fat with no other changes or feeling hungry & did it in just the first few months after he stopped eating grains.

Since I’ve been eating a big serving of whole grains for breakfast each day & worried that it might be causing the extra twenty pounds of tummy fat I haven’t yet lost, I had been considering eating differently to check.

His experience has convinced me to gradually drop whole grain foods to once or twice a week or less as I clearly will be less fat & be healthier once I do so.

And, I’ve recently learned eating even whole grains triggers even worse health problems than excess bodyfat for a surprisingly large part of the population.

The book with some of the background on why eating no or far less grains—even whole grains—is better for you & that I also saw just in the last few days is:

Going Against the Grain: How Reducing and Avoiding Grains Can Revitalize Your Health by Melissa Diane Smith

It’s a quality paperback & currently available on Amazon.com. And, it has extraordinarily good reviews there.

In my own case, I seem to be one of the people who can eat SOME grains.

But eating a large serving of whole grains seven days a week clearly has made my tummy fatter than I’d like. And, it may be the main initial cause of the acid reflux disease I developed.

So my plan is to set up a large list of health OK & enjoyable foods I can eat instead & eliminate all grains for two or three or even four or more weeks to see if feel better or start losing fat.

And, then I’ll eat a smaller serving of whole grains once or twice a week to see if I continue to lose fat or not.

The old message was that whole grains are a LOT better for your health than refined grains.

And that’s DEFINITELY still true.

But, it’s beginning to look like eating no grains at all or just a very small amount of whole grains may be even better for your health -- & a LOT better for losing fat & keeping it off.