Mom was Right: Fish is Brain Food with Omega 3

An adage I heard in childhood turns out to be true; fish is brain food. Package with Omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D, eating fish twice a week is now recommended for good brain health and cognitive function. In 2006, I attended mind body medicine training sponsored by the BHI for Mind Body Medicine in Boston, Mass. and over fish for lunch one trainer suggested that Omega-3 and olive oil should be part of any healthy diet plan. She said there was research to prove it. One might wonder how many years it takes for us to learn what our mothers taught us.

Another recent study, reported this week in the NY Times, low blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids were associated with smaller brain volume and poorer performance on tests of mental acuity, even in people without apparent dementia.

In the analysis, published online in the journal Neurology, scientists examined 1,575 dementia-free men and women, whose average age was 67. The researchers analyzed the fatty acids of the subjects’ red blood cells. They used an M.R.I. scan to measure brain volume and white matter hyperintensities, a radiological finding indicative of vascular damage.

People in the lowest one-quarter for omega-3 levels had significantly lower total cerebral brain volume than those in the highest one-quarter, even after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking and other factors. They also performed significantly worse on tests of visual memory, executive function and abstract memory than those in the highest one-quarter. There was no significant association with white matter hyperintensity volume.

“We feel that omega-3’s reduce vascular pathology and thus reduce the rate of brain aging,” said Dr. Zaldy S. Tan, the lead author and associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Few in the study were taking omega-3 supplements, Dr. Tan said. The main reason that some had higher blood levels of omega-3’s was that they ate more fatty fish. Examples of fatty fish are salmon, sardines, smelt, and anchovies.

Whether we believe it because of science or faith in the wisdom of mothers, fish is good for us and our brains.

Marnie Blount-Gowan, Editor

Self-Care is Preventative Care - Take stock of your health

In the past, you went to the doctor because you had a problem and you wanted to learn what to do about it. Now you go to the doctor because you want to stay well and you learn instead that you have a problem. For years, people have been encouraged to look to medical care as the way to make them healthy...Doctors might be able to help, but so might an author of a good cookbook, a personal trainer, a cleric or a good friend. We would all be better off if the medical system got a little closer to its original mission of helping sick patients, and let the healthy be. That's the opionion of H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

He adds that the basic strategy behind early diagnosis is to encourage the well to get examined — to determine if they are not, in fact, sick. But is looking hard for things to be wrong a good way to promote health? Screening the apparently healthy potentially saves a few lives. But it definitely drags many others into the system needlessly — into needless appointments, tests, drugs and operations. Source: NY Times

When the primary focus of health promotion and preventative medicine is on screenings and tests, we may lose sight of the importance of behavioral health, how lifestyle and behavior affect wellness. A medical system that is flooded with rising costs and ever increasing insurance premiums needs to double down on promoting preventative self-care. While people who feel something is wrong with their health, who don't feel well in some discernable way, should check it out with their doctor, those who feel well might be better served by focusing their energy and efforts on maintaining an optimal healthy lifestyle. Even those who suffer from chronic disease may improve some aspect of their total wellness with more attention to self-care practices.

Diet, exercise, smoking cessation, alcohol moderation, stress managment, and innoculations for preventable diseases are active necessary steps to a healthy lifestyle. To brush any of them off is to miss an opportunity. Encouraging individuals and families to practice self-care and accepting more personal responsibility to reduce health risk factors could lead to a smarter more compassionate healthcare system.

While it may seem harder to maintain a healthy lifestyle than to get a prescription from the doctor, taking stock of your behavioral health can pay dividends down the road. Physical, mental, and emotional wellness may benefit from taking a personal health assessment of your lifestyle. Are your physically active on a daily basis? Do you practice the half-plate healthy rule for nutrition, by filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables? What steps do you take to manage stress?

Before we seek all health solutions in otherside sources, perhaps we need to consider taking steps every day to actively pursuing a healthier lifestyle. As Welch says, if you feel O.K. maybe you are O.K.
Marnie Blount-Gowan, Editor

Advice for Joint Pain - Get Moving! - 6 Reasons Why

To help manage osteoarthritis, doctors are recommending a range of moderate physical activity and weight loss. Exercise to improve flexibility can decrease joint stiffness and improve range of motion. The old advice of “taking it easy” has been replaced with “get moving!”

Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, was once considered a problem of old age but has begun showing u in more middle aged and young adults as a result of obesity and sports injuries. Studies have shown that weight loss, combined with exercises can improve joint function and build up muscles that support he joints, which in turn improves the patient’s health and quality of life.

Weight management is also necessary to proper joint function. Each pound of extra body weight adds the equivalent of four pounds to knees. Even a small loss of weight can reduce the risk of knee osteoarthritis for women, who are at greater risk than men.

Osteoarthritis can affect knees, hips, feet, hands and other parts of the body and occurs when the cartilage that cushions the space between the joints wears away. To lessen your risk for joint pain and the possibility of surgical joint replacement, consider this spring a great time to “step up to healthy joints”. Use the stairs instead of the elevator, going up and down. Stairs are good exercise, free and convenient. Park your car farther away from stores. Step outside as often as possible. Walking outdoors is more visually interesting and wakes up your senses.

One in two adults will develop osteoarthritis before the age of 85, and the risk increases to two in three adults who are obese. Take personal responsibility for moving and your joints will pay you back later.

Check out the 6 ways exercise can help below.

Marnie Blount-Gowan, Editor

Exercise can help you improve your health and fitness without hurting your joints. Along with your current treatment program, exercise can:

1. Strengthen the muscles around your joints

2. Help you maintain bone strength

3. Give you more strength and energy to get through the day

4. Make it easier to get a good night's sleep

5. Help you control your weight

6. Make you feel better about yourself and improve your sense of well-being

Though you might think exercise will aggravate your joint pain and stiffness, that's not the case. Lack of exercise actually can make your joints even more painful and stiff. That's because keeping your muscles and surrounding tissue strong is crucial to maintaining support for your bones. Not exercising weakens those supporting muscles, creating more stress on your joints. (check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program) – Source: Mayo Clinic

Headaches and Back Pain? - Learn 9 Positive Ways to Manage Stress

The stress response is a natural lifesaver but, called on continually, it can also be harmful. Never ending stress, or what feels like endless stress, can lead to a variety of health concerns. Several studies have also associated stress with a weakened immune system, which is responsible for fighting diseases. When stress is continual or feels like it is your body never get a chance to relax.  

When people are under stress they may experience: headaches, back ache, tense muscles, fatigue, insomnia and heartburn. They may feel nervous, fearful, confused, worried, irritable, hostile and unable to concentrate. Many times we can’t avoid the stressors in our lives and avoidance isn’t always the answer either. So what positive steps can we take to deal with stress?

1. Prioritize

When faced with more than one task, prioritize. Do one thing at a time. Dot it well and then move on to the next thing. Don’t rush yourself.

2. Improve Communication

You can significantly prevent relationship stress at home and work if you listen carefully, smile, admit if you were wrong, give compliments, and express your thoughts and feeling assertively but not in a hostile manner.

3. Share Your Thoughts

Share your thoughts with family, friends, and coworkers. Get advice. Ponder it. Others may see a way out of your stressful situation. And just communicating your concerns can relieve the stress of them.

4. Develop a Positive Attitude

Preventing and managing stress can be challenging. Having a positive, “I can do this” attitude will help you stay on top of your stress and see what good can come out of it.

5. Reward Yourself

Treat yourself as you overcome challenges. Plan some time off, go to a movie or dinner out with friends, read a good book, focus on healthy, fun activities.

6. Get Outside

Spending even a short time in nature has restorative powers. Take a walk or sit under a tress. Look around. Watch animals, look a the sky. Enjoy the scene and your place in it.

7. Exercise

Being physically active is one of the most effective ways of preventing and managing stress.

8. Eat and Sleep Well

A good night’s sleep and nutritious meals can help you develop a healthier lifestyle that can feel less stressful

9. Meditate

Take a time out to breathe. Focusing, even for a few moments, on your breath with a passive, non-judgmental attitude can de-stress your mind and body. Click here and take a timeout for a 10 minute Breath Meditation.

Sleep Deprived Americans Need a Good Night's Sleep

The person driving the car next to you on the freeway may be struggling to stay awake at the wheel. More than a third of U.S. adults sleep less than seven hours a night, and many of them report troubles concentrating, remembering and even driving. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the statistics in two separate studies. In one, 35 percent of people surveyed in 12 states said they slept less than seven hours a night, on average. The second study, based on a national survey, found about 23 percent said they had trouble concentrating because they were tired. Another 18 percent struggled to remember things, and 11 percent had difficulty driving or commuting. 

Do we consider proper sleep optional? And how does our lack of sleep time affect our work and leisure time? Many of those who have difficulty staying alert during their waking hours blame it on stress. Consider that the first step in stress reduction may not be reducing stress but rather regulating our reaction to it. 

Learning to let go of anger, frustration, worry, anxiety, and regrets can go a long way towards a calm mindset, free of the rambling thoughts that keep us awake at night. And letting go is a lot easier if you first calm your body. Exercise, more than 2 hours before bedtime, and meditation any time can help your body relax, put your mind at ease, and make it easier to sleep. Sometimes going through a mental gratitude check list at the end of the day can release tensions, provide positive re-enforcement for your life choices, and help you rest.

Here are some other tips from the National Sleep Foundation:

• Avoid napping during the day; it can disturb the normal pattern of sleep and wakefulness.
• Avoid stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol too close to bedtime. While alcohol is well known to speed the onset of sleep, it disrupts sleep in the second half as the body begins to metabolize the alcohol, causing arousal.
• Exercise can promote good sleep. Vigorous exercise should be taken in the morning or late afternoon. A relaxing exercise, like yoga, can be done before bed to help initiate a restful night's sleep.
• Food can be disruptive right before sleep; stay away from large meals close to bedtime. Also dietary changes can cause sleep problems, if someone is struggling with a sleep problem, it's not a good time to start experimenting with spicy dishes. And, remember, chocolate has caffeine.
• Ensure adequate exposure to natural light. This is particularly important for older people who may not venture outside as frequently as children and adults. Light exposure helps maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
• Establish a regular relaxing bedtime routine. Try to avoid emotionally upsetting conversations and activities before trying to go to sleep. Don't dwell on, or bring your problems to bed.
• Associate your bed with sleep. It's not a good idea to use your bed to watch TV, listen to the radio, or read.
• Make sure that the sleep environment is pleasant and relaxing. The bed should be comfortable, the room should not be too hot or cold, or too bright.  

Pleasant dreams,

Marnie Blount-Gowan, Editor

1-Minute Interval Exercise May Be Your Answer

Think you are too busy to fit in the necessary exercise for good health? Too short on time? New research shows quick intense bursts of exercise may be as beneficial as longer moderate periods of exercise.

Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, recently gathered several groups of volunteers. One consisted of sedentary but generally healthy middle-aged men and women. Another was composed of middle-aged and older patients who had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.

The researchers tested each volunteer’s maximum heart rate and peak power output on a stationary bicycle. In both groups, the peaks were not very high; all of the volunteers were out of shape and, in the case of the cardiac patients, unwell. But they agreed to undertake a newly devised program of cycling intervals. Intervals are short, sharp bursts of strenuous activity, interspersed with rest periods. Despite the small time commitment of this modified HIIT program, after several weeks of practicing it, both the unfit volunteers and the cardiac patients showed significant improvements in their health and fitness. For more information, Source: NY Times

So pump up your routine with short periods of intense exercise. Run up a flight of stairs. Cycle at a faster rate. Do 20 push ups. Run, don’t walk, as far and as fast as you can for a short period of time. (Consult a physician before starting a new exercise program.) Intervals may feel like hard work but the rewards are worth it. We never regret a workout. Even a short one. Give it a try and comment below.  

Marnie Blount-Gowan, Editor

Making Exercise and Eating Right Fun or Profitable

Jim Stoten

VW made taking the stairs fun. At the Swedish division of Volkswagan, one community health incentive program took the approach of a smart parent. Every successful parent learns that that a way to encourage good behavior, from room-cleaning to tooth-brushing, is to make it fun. Not surprisingly, the same principle applies to adults. Adults like to have fun, too.

In this spirit, they created an initiative called The Fun Theory. Their first project is documented in a highly popular (and fun) YouTube video. The idea was to get people to use a set of stairs rather than the escalator that ran alongside it. By transforming the stairs into a piano-style keyboard such that walking on the steps produced notes, they made using the stairs fun, and they found that stair use increased by 66 percent.

Lotteries may also serve as effective motivators toward better health. A group of scholars including Kevin G. M. Volpp, a physician and social scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, ran an experiment to encourage the employees at a health care management company to undertake a health risk assessment. One group of employees was offered a 25 percent chance to win $100 as an inducement to participate. The lottery was an effective motivator, increasing participation by about 20 percentage points. Source: NY Times

About two-thirds of the employees of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach are either overweight or obese — a number hospital administrators hope to cut down on through a new, free company-wide program.

“Unfortunately, being overweight or obese has become so prevalent in the United States,” said Dr. Mark Roberts, physician ambassador for the Good Life Employee Wellness Program. “In general, a workforce is about one-third overweight and one-third obese — and we’re no different.”

Roberts said the hospital used body mass index (BMI) results for the estimates. BMI measurements 25 and larger are overweight and BMIs 30 or higher are classified as obese.

“It really is a good way to screen for people to see if they are overweight,” Roberts said. “It’s not a perfect screening tool, but it does a great job of making people more self-aware.”

Participants in an employee wellness program now have access to an online fitness guide, daily e-mail coaching, communication with a personal trainer, online success journal, weekly e-mail progress reports and coaching from nutrition and exercise officials via e-mails and texts. The program encourages more nutritional meals and smaller portions combined with an emphasis on taking whatever time an employee can to increase exercise (i.e. taking the stairs or using a designated walking trail during lunch).

“I think the key to this program is setting the right expectations of lifestyle changes,” Roberts said. “This is meant to be a modest change in your lifestyle — in the way you eat and the way you move.”

The two medical sites will keep track of employee progress, and will give cash rewards for progress (i.e. $5 for staying at a healthy weight, or about a $1 a pound lost during a quarter of the year) and prizes like iPods. During the first quarter the program was implemented each participant lost an average of five pounds. Source: Gazettes

How Genes Can Be Affected By Healthy Lifestyles

We are not completely at the mercy of our genes. In many ways, they are at the mercy of our health and lifestyle decisions and habits. 

On one hand, our genes affect our health, since they can put us at varying levels of risk for issues like heart disease, weight gain, and even depression. And on the other, our lifestyles also affect our health in significant ways at the level of the gene. Eating fruits and vegetables can "turn off" the heart attack genes, and exercise can sway the development of stem cells.

Two recent studies in epigenetics illustrate this point. One found that eating well can "turn off" the genes that put one at higher risk for heart problems; the other showed that exercise can persuade stem cells to become bone and blood cells rather than fat cells. Each helps us see just how lifestyle variables work at the genetic level to modify our risk.

You and your genes are what you eat. In the first study, people who ate more raw fruits and vegetables had a reduced risk of heart disease, even if they carried copies of the gene that increases one's risk for cardiovascular disease. People who were genetically at the very highest risk of having a heart attack had about double the heart risk if they ate a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables, compared to people who ate a prudent diet.

The study illustrates vividly how eating well will not only help you feel better in an immediate way, but it could actually alter your genes and reduce risk to your heart in a long term way.

Exercise can affect our genes. Researchers are beginning to show that exercise may function, at least in part, by affecting the expression of our genes. Certain types of stem cells can "choose" how they differentiate, and exercise and environmental factors can actually determine the direction that cells take early in their development. When mice ran on a treadmill for as little as an hour three times a week, the exercise induced these stem cells to become blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, rather than fat cells.

If exercise can influence how stem cells differentiate into mature cells, it is certainly possible that exercise also works on the genetic level as it influences our risk for certain diseases. In many ways, they are at the mercy of our health and lifestyle decisions and habits. Family history can be a strong predictor of disease, but we have at least some power to change it. Making healthy lifestyle choices may mean the difference between experiencing a significant health issue and avoiding it.  Source: The Atlantic