Own Your Wellness... Staying Fit As We Age

The Good Food Book Online

2008-09-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

FREE - now you can read
The Good Food Book online. Lose weight, lower cholesterol
or high blood pressure, control diabetes, or just eat healthfully,
with food lists and 100 recipes

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine

2008-09-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Salt Helps Retain Fluid

September 7, 2008
Researchers at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, UK show that the salty drinks help your body to retain fluid and therefore increase the time that you can exercise, particularly in the heat (European Journal of Applied Physiology, July 2008). They fed drinks of four different salt concentrations to competitive cyclists. The higher the concentration of salt, the less urine they produced. This shows that salt helps their bodies to retain water so they will have more fluid available to cool their bodies in the heat. However, this study showed that it did not improve their performance.

In 1942, the United States Government asked James Gamble of Harvard Medical school to set up guidelines for soldiers who must fight in the heat. His classic, impeccable experiments are still the basis for recommendations today for fluid and mineral replacements for athletes.

He showed that the only mineral that needs to be replaced during exercise or other hard work in hot weather is sodium. So when you exercise in the heat, make sure that you take in extra salt, either in a sports drink or in salted foods such as peanuts or pretzels.

If you are concerned about the effect of this extra salt on your blood pressure, buy a simple blood pressure cuff and take your blood pressure weekly, just to make sure that you are not taking too much salt or exercising too little.

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Reports from DrMirkin.com

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Is monosodium glutamate (MSG) harmful?

Many people still avoid MSG as the culprit in "Chinese restaurant syndrome", even though no scientific studies were ever able to show that MSG causes headaches, flushing, tingling or anything else. However, a recent study of Chinese peasants suggests that MSG may cause weight gain (Obesity, August 2008).

The subjects were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG used, and those in the group that ate the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users. Previous studies on mice and rats found the same effect. Dr. Ka He, the lead author of the study at the University of North Carolina, concludes that MSG makes food taste better so people eat more.

It's not easy to avoid MSG even if you read food labels. Everyone eats significant amounts of monosodium glutamate because all foods that contain protein have a building block amino acid called glutamic acid which is converted in the body to glutamate.

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If exercise helps to prevent cancer, what is the mechanism?

We do not really know how exercise helps to prevent cancer, but the most widely accepted theory is that exercise helps to keep the mitochondria in cells from producing as many free radicals. Free radicals, produced when mitochondria convert food to energy, can attach to the DNA and damage it to cause uncontrolled cell growth.

More than 50 studies associate regular exercise with lowered cancer risk One of the latest, from Tokyo, followed almost 80,000 men and women for ten years (American Journal of Epidemiology, August 2008).

The more these men and women exercised, the less likely they were to develop cancer. The decreased risk was greater in women than men, especially among the elderly. Exercise appeared to be particularly associated with reduced risk for cancers of the colon, liver or pancreas in men and for cancer of the stomach in women.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine - July 6, 2008

2008-07-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am such a strong believer in Dr. Mirkin's advice that I want
to present his ezine as published - I couldn't say it better than
he does...

Caffeine Boosts Hot Weather Performance

A study from Toledo, Spain shows that giving caffeine to
dehydrated bicycle racers helps them ride faster, longer and with
more power in hot weather (Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, July 2008). When combined with water and
carbohydrates, caffeine ingestion increases the force of muscular
contractions which helps them to pedal with more power. Almost
all professional bicycle riders take caffeine is some form because
they know it helps them to ride faster.

Another recent study from the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign shows that caffeine helps to reduce muscle
pain in riders pedaling as hard and as long as they can
(International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism,
May 2008). Other studies have shown that caffeine is a diuretic
only when a person is at rest, not during exercise.

These reported benefits of caffeine for cyclists can be
expected to apply to other sports as well. However, people with
heart damage should be cautious about taking caffeine before
exercising. It is a stimulant and may increase risk of irregular
heart beats.

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Reports from DrMirkin.com

Stretching
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/stretching.html

Elbow pain
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/8502.html

Jogging for fitness
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/jogging_fitness.html

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Why are football players at high risk for diabetes?

People who have huge muscles usually have high levels
of insulin because insulin causes muscles to grow. Exercise
makes muscles so sensitive to insulin that it prevents blood sugar
levels from rising too high. However, when these people stop
exercising, their muscles are not as sensitive to insulin and blood
sugar levels rise, this causes insulin levels to go even higher, so
they eat more and gain weight.

A study from Mt. Sinai Medical Center shows that
National Football League linemen are more than twice as likely as
other Americans to develop diabetes in later life. More than 60
percent of NFL linemen become diabetic, compared to only 30
percent for the average American (The American Journal of
Cardiology, May 2008).

People who have large muscles when they are young
need to continue to exercise for the rest of their lives. If they
reduce the amount of exercise or stop exercising for any reason,
they must do everything in their power to protect themselves from
gaining weight. Before insulin can do its job of driving insulin into
cells, it must first attach to special insulin receptors on the surface
of cells. Extra fat in the body prevents these receptors from
responding to insulin, so blood sugar levels rise even higher. To
compensate for this, insulin levels rise higher also, which sets the
person up for diabetes and premature death.

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Are statin drugs the best way to lower
cholesterol?

In this month's issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings
(July 2008) is an article showing that lifestyle changes lower
cholesterol as much as the most powerful statin drugs, AND they
also lower triglycerides and weight, which the statin drugs do not.

If your doctor prescribes drugs to lower cholesterol and
does not teach you lifestyle changes, I think you should find
another doctor. All of the lifestyle changes that lower cholesterol
also reduce your risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and
many cancers. You should eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole
grains, beans, nuts and other seeds.

You should restrict refined carbohydrates (sugar and flour in any form),
saturated fats and partially hydrogenated oils. You should exercise
regularly and vigorously, avoid smoking and avoid being overweight.
These will do more to keep you alive and well than any drug that your doctor
can prescribe.

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Potato Salad Recipes for your Picnics

Gabe's Favorite Potato Salad
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/recipe33.html

Green Bean-Potato Salad
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/potatogreensalad.html

Sweet Potato Salad with Pineapple
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/sweetpinesalad.html

New Potato Salad
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/newpotatosalad.html

You'll find lots of recipes and helpful tips in
The Good Food Book - FREE at
http://www.drmirkin.com/goodfood/index.html

Art Kramer on Why We Need Walking Book Clubs

2008-07-02T22:16:00.001-07:00

Art Kramer on Why We Need Walking Book Clubs

Neuroscientist Art Kramer, in perhaps the most fascinating interview we have had so far, would like everyone to combine both physical and mental stimulation along with social interactions, suggesting, "Why not take a good walk with friends to discuss a book?". He also previews highly thought-provoking research. If you can only read one article in this newsletter, read this.

Published in: Sharp Brains

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine - June 15, 2008

2008-06-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health e-Zine
June 15, 2008

Update on Vitamin D

The hottest subject in medicine today is the amazing
number of diseases associated with low vitamin D levels. People
with low levels of vitamin D are at double the risk for blocked
arteries in their legs, called peripheral artery disease
(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, June 2008);
markedly increased risk for heart attacks and strokes, angina, and
heart failure (Circulation, January and April 2008, Archives of
Internal Medicine June 2008); increased rate of aging of their
tissues (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November
2007); cancers of the breast, lung and colon (American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, November 2007); diabetes (Epidemiology, May
20, 2008). Other recent articles show that Vitamin D helps pain
control (Pain Medicine, April 2008); and vitamin D reduces the risk
of falls (Archives of Internal Medicine, March 2008).

Next winter, ask your doctor to draw blood tests called
vitamin D3 and D2. If your D3 level is below 40 ng/ml, you are at
increased risk for a host of diseases. You can take pills
containing D2 or D3. D2 is the plant pre-vitamin D that is so weak
that it usually will not help raise your blood level. On the other
hand, D3 is the animal pre-vitamin D that appears to be quite
effective. Scientists do not agree on the optimum dose for people
with blood levels of D3 below 40 ng/ml. It used to be 200
international units per day. Today, many doctors think that it
should be at least 2000 international units. You can also meet
your needs for vitamin D from sunlight by exposing a few inches
of skin for 15 minutes every other day in the summer. However,
during the winter in northern climates, the sun's rays come in at
an angle and are therefore markedly reduced by the increased areas
of atmosphere through which the sun's rays must pass. You can
solve this problem with a tropical vacation.

I have found that tanning beds provide almost no vitamin D.
Ultraviolet light is classified into UVA and UVB. UVB are the
rays that cause skin cancer. They are also the rays that cause the
skin to manufacture vitamin D. Since manufacturers of tanning
bulbs are concerned about skin cancer, they reduce the
percentage of UVB emitted from tanning lamps. This also
markedly reduces the rays that provide vitamin D.

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Reports from DrMirkin.com

Lowering blood pressure
http://www.drmirkin.com/heart/3046.html

Piriformis syndrome
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/F230.html

Light spots on suntan
http://www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/G232.html

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: When competing during very hot weather,
is there a good way to recover between events?

Researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia
showed that you can recover faster and compete at a higher level
by soaking your legs in cold water (14 degrees C) for five minutes
during rest periods between events (British Journal of Sports
Medicine, June 2008). The cooling session dropped body
temperature a half degree centigrade and the athletes were able
to cycle faster with greater power output.

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Dear Dr. Mirkin: Are heart attacks more common in summer or
winter?

Breathing cold air turns on your immunity. Your immunity
is supposed to attack and kill germs, but as soon as the invading
germ is gone, your immunity is supposed to shut down until the
next attack. If it remains active, it causes inflammation, a
condition in which your immunity attacks your own body to damage
your blood vessels, joints and other tissues. Researchers at the
German Research Center for Environmental Health in Neuherberg
showed that exposing men, who had previously had heart attacks,
for five consecutive days to colder weather increased blood levels
of three markers of inflammation: C-reactive protein, interleukin-6
and fibrinogen (Epidemiology, May 2008). This could explain why
heart attacks occur more commonly in the winter. Cold
temperatures also increase blood pressure.

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Recipe of the Week

Summer Vegetable Curry
http://www.drmirkin.com/recipes/recipe12.html

You'll find lots of recipes and helpful tips in
The Good Food Book - FREE at
http://www.drmirkin.com/goodfood/index.html

Should Hot Peppers be part of your Healthy Diet and Lifestyle?

2008-06-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

The active heat source in all hot peppers is the potent compound
capsacin. It is also the active compound that makes pepper spray
such an effective weapon. If you enjoy torturing your tongue you
can try the jalapeno or habenero. Another case altogether is the
Bhut Jolokia. It has been certified as the world's hottest pepper
by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Just in case oral torture is not your thing, there are the many-fold
health benefits of the hot pepper to consider. Either way, hot
peppers should be part of your healthy diet and lifestyle.

For many centuries people have used hot peppers as powerful
medicinal aids. They are used to stimulate digestion, reduce appetite,
increase circulation,for pain relief,to suppress the common cold,
and to open clogged airways in the nose and lungs. That is not a bad
set of benefits, but it is just the start. The health benefits
continue on to include lowering cholesterol, reducing blood clotting
and treating the symptoms of chronic fatigue, asthma, and infections.

Some of the most incredible benefits of hot peppers is for reducing
appetite. The type of hot pepper may not matter, although some people
claim that red (cayenne) peppers work the best. The capsacin is actually
the relevant compound for reducing your appetite with hot peppers.

Capsacin increases blood flow to the intestines and increases the muscular contractions of the intestinal walls (peristalsis). It also seems to block
the sensory information from the intestine to the brain.

Therefore, it blocks hunger signals from reaching your brain. You will
not even know that you are hungry. Eating less will lead to weighing less.
One other way that hot peppers help you lose weight is that they can speed
up your metabolism. That is three of the big hitters in weight loss:
low appetite, decreased calorie intake, and increased metabolism. All
from one compound. It seems that capsacin can do many things.

There are probably one to two hundred different hot pepper diets on the
web right now. There are a half of a dozen methods of delivering the
capsacin into your body. They all are just different ways of doing
the same thing. They promote the use of the capsacin in hot peppers for
reducing appetite, relieving pain, or increasing circulation. This
compound can help you lose weight, heal wounds through increased
circulation, and make you feel better by relieving pain.

Using hot peppers for reducing appetite has been a well known herbal
treatment in Asia for centuries. Different sources give varying
information as to how it works. Some believe that the capsacin they
contain blocks messages between the intestines and brain, others
think that capsacin simply makes you feel full. Which ever is the
cause, the benefits of hot peppers in weight loss are indisputable.
The type of pepper is not extremely important, but cayenne, or red,
peppers are the most commonly used.

You have to be careful though. The usual side effects are burning
and upset stomach. It is best if you start with low doses and
increase them until you have reached the optimal amount for your
health. Whether you want to use hot peppers for appetite suppression,
metabolic increase, or weight loss their benefits have been proven
over the centuries.

Now that you know how to help yourself by using a natural approach
to suppressing your appetite you should now think about how good
you would look like with a set of six pack abs.

You can realize your dream by combining good nutrition and my Firm
and Flatten Your Abs conditioning program. It has worked for thousands
of people, it can work for YOU! Do it now!
Courtesy of
Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat,Feed the Muscle

Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, Basil, and Balsamic Vinegar Recipe

2008-04-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

This recipe serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
For the balsamic vinegar:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pasta:
3-4 heirloom tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil, julienned
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
12 ounces pasta, fresh or dried, such as fettuccine
1 teaspoon olive oil

Garnish: fresh basil leaves

Cooking Instructions
1. Pour the vinegar and salt into a small bowl, add olive oil, garlic and 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt and pepper and mix. Taste for seasoning.
2. Wash and chop the tomatoes. Toss with the balsamic vinaigrette and the julienned basil leaves. Add the mozzarella.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta, bring to a boil and cook until al dente, 3 to 4 minutes for fresh pasta or according to the directions on the package.
4. Toss the pasta with 1 teaspoon of olive oil to prevent it from sticking and mix with the tomato-basil salad.
5. Divide the pasta among 4 large, warmed dinner plates. Arrange several spoonfuls of the tomato-basil salad on top.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1 cup of pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella
Calories 339
Total Fat 13 g
Saturated Fat 4 g
Protein 8 g
Total Carbohydrate 46 g
Dietary Fiber 5 g
Sodium 292 mg
Percent Calories from Fat 35%
Percent Calories from Protein 10%
Percent Calories from Carbohydrate 55%

Sounds yummy - going to try it out - how about you?

Food & Nutrition / Recipes

Shedding Light on Dark Chocolate by Catherine Boal

2008-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

In a previous post about Flavonoid-rich Cocoa found healthy for the brain I promised to do a little research about chocolate manufacturers...
this is what I found:

Shedding Light on Dark Chocolate by Catherine Boal
The US based Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) has released a guide to cacao content labels in order to demystify confused chocolate consumers.

The luxurious image of dark chocolate combined with increased publicity about its purported health benefits has made it a popular chocolate choice - leading many manufacturers to incorporate product labels proclaiming percentage cocoa content.
However, this is frequently easily misunderstood by consumers who fail to understand the exact nature of the cacao composition and can make inaccurate assumptions about the health benefits or taste of the product.

CMA president Lynn Bragg said: "We wanted to provide consumers with useful information for a greater appreciation of this trend, as cacao terminology becomes increasingly more important."

The CMA consumer guide defines cacao percentages as "the total percentage of ingredients (by weight) which come from the cacao bean". ....read more at http://confectionerynews.com/news/ng.asp?id=72675

April 4 1968

2008-04-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

Remembering Martin Luther King...

I remember and I remember that 1968 was a tragic election
year... two months after Martin Luther King was assassinated,
Robert Kennedy was shot - hard to believe that was 40 years
ago!

I hope that this year we will have the kind of election the
American people need.

remembering april-4-1968

Fran

Music and Life - Alan Watts

2008-04-02T03:38:00.001-07:00

The Meaning of Life

Is it possible to have goals while also enjoying the journey?
I think a lot of baby boomers understood that...
What do you think?

There are more interesting videos at http://vlogon.blogspot.com

Sleep, Tetris, Memory and the Brain

2008-03-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

As part of our ongoing Author Speaks Series, we are honored to present today this excellent article by Dr. Shannon Moffett, based on her illuminating and engaging book. Enjoy!

(and please go to sleep soon if you are reading this late Monday night).
------------

Two years ago I finished a book on the mind/brain, called The Three Pound Enigma: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock its Mysteries . Each chapter profiles a leader in a different aspect of mind/brain research, from neurosurgery to zen Buddhism, from cognitive neuroscience to philosophy of mind. One of my subjects was Dr. Robert Stickgold, a zany, hyper-intelligent mensch of a Harvard sleep researcher. When I met him, I was in medical school and having a grand old time—I’d exacted an extension of my tenure beyond the customary four years, so I had enough time to write the book, do my coursework, and have a life. I was busy, but still got enough sleep, had time to exercise daily, and even went for dinner and a movie sometimes. Although I found Stickgold’s work interesting, there was a part of me that just didn’t get it.

Fast-forward to the present, when I am a resident in emergency medicine at a busy inner-city trauma center; I have two-year-old twins and a husband with a 60-hour-a-week job of his own. I do not exercise. I do not eat unless I can do something else productive at the same time, and even when I do get to sleep in my own bed, my slumber is fractured by the awakenings of two circadianly disparate toddlers. It seems to take me twice as long to “get” new concepts as it used to, and I never feel like I’m functioning at top speed. In short, I am a mess. And NOW I get what Stickgold’s work is all about, and understand that he is both quantifying and explaining exactly what I’m feeling.

Sleep is so obvious a physiologic need (from insects to mammals, all animals sleep) that it doesn’t even occur to most of us to wonder why we have to do it—why in the world would we need to lie down, paralyzed, for a third of our lives, with our brains in some sort of auto-pilot chaos? What do we get out of the process? It is astonishing how sparse is science’s answer to that question, but Stickgold and others are beginning to provide a solution, and their answer ought to make any of us who are interested in mental fitness sit up (or rather, lie down) and take notice.

When I met him, Stickgold was just hitting his stride in what would turn out to be his specialized area of research—the connection between sleep and cognition, and in particular, between sleep and memory. I had become interested in his work partly because he was using non-traditional research tools: while many neuroscience experiments involve setting their subjects tedious made-up tasks, Stickgold had heeded the suggestion of one of his undergraduate research assistants and was using video-games as his mental challenges.

Using the computer-game Tetris he’d found what many of us knew anecdotally: that just as they fall asleep after long Tetris practice sessions, players hallucinate images of the peculiarly-shaped Tetris tiles drifting down their fields of vision. It turns out, Stickgold found, that even subjects with severe amnesia, who couldn’t recall having played the game at all, had the same experience. He hypothesized that those images must have something to do with a particular kind of skill memory, known as procedural memory— the type of physical memory created when you practice the violin, or learn to play tennis, or write calligraphy. This type of memory is often preserved even in people with severe amnesia. It seems likely that sleep is serving to somehow organize this type of memory. And it turns out that without any further practice, the subjects showed improvement in their Tetris scores after they’d “slept on” their newfound skill.

In a more traditional experiment, Stickgold has shown that after a snooze, people performed much better on a recently-learned finger-tapping task than after the same amount of time without sleep. Even doubling the amount of time spent learning the task had an insignificant performance benefit compared to simply getting a night’s sleep between sessions. He later showed that you don’t even need a whole night’s sleep but that an hour’s nap can give you the same learning benefits (thank Heavens, I say, from my new vantage-point as a sleep-scavenger).

Stickgold also showed that subjects who weren’t allowed to sleep soon after learning a new skill never regained the lost benefit, and—unless given more practice/sleep cycles—never got quite as good at the skill as those who’d been allowed to sleep soon after their training sessions.

More recently, Stickgold’s lab has shown that sleep makes a stunning difference in the ability of a particular kind of memory known as “declarative” memory to withstand interference. Declarative memory has to do with facts: what you ate for breakfast today, where you last put your keys, what you read in this morning’s paper—all of these are declarative memories. In an elegant experiment, Stickgold taught a group of people a list of word-pairs. Then one half the group was sent off to bed, while the other half was asked to remain awake.

At the end of the waiting period, half the sleepers and half the awake subjects were taught another set of “interference” words, pairs designed to confuse the memory of the original pairings. Immediately afterward, all subjects were tested on the initial word-pairs. The group that had received the interference teaching but slept beforehand averaged about 76% on the test. The group that received the interference training but had remained awake between the two sessions averaged about 32%.

Apparently, just sleeping on the new information had somehow cemented it into subjects’ minds so that it was resistant to interference. To those of us who are desperate to retain—accurately—the new information with which we are bombarded each day, such research is eye-opening, and potentially life-changing.

Stickgold is not the only scientist studying human sleep, of course—there are others working on sleep and cognition (most with results similar to Stickgold’s), and more researchers providing convincing evidence that sleep boosts your immune system, improves your mood, and—oh yeah—helps you stay awake when you want to be. There is also evidence that getting poor or insufficient sleep raises your risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes; increases your blood pressure; and makes you accident-prone: all great reasons to get a good night’s sleep (which, according to scientists, is 8-9 hours of uninterrupted slumber). Yet, like many Americans, I am more motivated by the studies showing sleep’s cognitive benefits. I had been going to go hit the books when I finished this piece—now I think I’ll just hit the hay. Maybe you should, too.

-- Shannon Moffet has an MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, and is in her residency in emergency medicine at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA. Her book on the brain (and eight dynamic brain-mavens, including Robert Stickgold) is The Three Pound Enigma: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock its Mysteries. Moffett recently appeared on The Brain Fitness Program, which aired nationwide on PBS.

Sleep-Tetris-Memory-and-the-Brain

Flavonoid-rich cocoa found healthy for the brain

2008-02-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

By studying differences in people living on and off the group of islands called Kuna, researchers found that people who regularly drank cocoa rich in flavonoids had less chance of having dementia, diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School (Boston, Massachusetts, United States) found that native people living on the island group Kuna, off the Caribbean coast of Panama in Central America, did not have high blood pressure when young and old. However, if these natives left their homeland for the Central American mainland, their blood pressure went up.

After about fifteen years of research to find a cause for this difference, the researchers found that Kuna natives drink several cups of cocoa each day. However, if they move away from Kuna, then that habit did not continue or did not continue in exactly the same way.

The researchers eventually found the crucial link. They discovered that cocoa drank by Kuna natives is very high in the compounds called flavonoids, while the cocoa drank on the mainland is not rich in flavonoids.

Derived from plants, flavonoids is a class of secondary metabolites that have been shown in previous studies to improve the body’s response when attacked by carcinogens, allergens, and viruses.

If proven true, flavonoids have the potential to help prevent cancers and cardiovascular diseases. (Other foods and drinks shown to contain flavonoid compounds include fruit, vegetables, tea, and red wine.)

Because flavonid compounds have a bitter taste, they are often removed from cocoa made by manufacturers in large quantities in most countries.

To confirm their findings, the researchers gave flavonoid-rich cocoa to 50-year-old and older people, while another group of the same age range was given cocoa without flavonoids. Their study found that the flavonoid-rich group had blood flow in the brain that was 10 to 15% better than the brain flow in the non-flavonoid group.

Within their study, the collaborators mention that some chocolate and cocoa manufacturers are beginning to realize the health benefits of flavonoids. As a result, they are reintroducing them into their products.

Note: I intend to do some research of my own to identify some
manufacturers who are selling chocolate and cocoa containing
flavonoids and report that information back to the readers
of this blog.

Fran

Youtube Crowned World's 2nd Most Popular Website

2008-02-16T13:52:00.001-08:00

According to data at Alexa.com which ranks websites according to their visitor traffic, Web 2.0 video sharing site Youtube.com has now overtaken Google.com as the world's second most visited website. Is this proof that video search marketing has come of age and is becoming a threat to traditional online search?

read more | digg story

The 10 Habits of Effective Brains

2008-02-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

The LA Times just completed a wonderful 4-part series on how learning and memory work. The NYT re-emphasized the importance of physical exercise for neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons). To put this news in better perspective, let's review some good lifestyle options we can follow to maintain, and improve, our vibrant brains.

1. Learn what is the "It" in "Use It or Lose It". A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain's beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses.

2. Take care of your nutrition. Did you know that the brain only weighs 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake? As a general rule, you don't need expensive ultra-sophisticated nutritional supplements, just make sure you don't stuff yourself with the "bad stuff".

3. Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain: physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.

4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts until they become your default mindset and you look forward to every new day in a constructive way. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts, actually kills neurons and prevent the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons.

5. Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. "Use It or Lose It" does not mean "do crossword puzzle number 1,234,567". It means, "challenge your brain often with fundamentally new activities".

6. We are (as far as we know) the only self-directed organisms in this planet. Aim high. Once you graduate from college, keep learning. The brain keeps developing, no matter your age, and it reflects what you do with it.

7. Explore, travel. Adapting to new locations forces you to pay more attention to your environment. Make new decisions, use your brain.

8. Don't Outsource Your Brain. Not to media personalities, not to politicians, not to your smart neighbour... Make your own decisions, and mistakes. And learn from them. That way, you are training your brain, not your neighbour's.

9. Develop and maintain stimulating friendships. We are "social animals", and need social interaction. Which, by the way, is why 'Baby Einstein' has been shown not to be the panacea for children development.

10.Laugh. Often. Especially to cognitively complex humor, full of twists and surprises. Better, try to become the next Jon Stewart (Note: I just corrected his name from "John"...which may call for a #11: Spellcheck!)

Now, remember that what counts is not reading this article-or any other-, but practicing a bit every day until small steps snowball into unstoppable, internalized habits...so, pick your next battle and try to start improving at least one of these 10 habits today!

For more in depth information on these topics, check:
Your Brain Fitness Center - Hot Topics .

Mutton Pies share TV Star Status with Prince Charles

2008-02-05T09:49:00.000-08:00

Mutton Pies share TV Star Status with
Prince Charles

Surfing the net took me a long way yesterday, not only across the
Atlantic Ocean but back in time more than half a century ago.

I followed a link named "Get Reading" thinking it was taking me to
a site encouraging people to do more reading but I landed in a
publication "Get Reading" published in an english town called
Reading by the Reading Evening Post.

The story of the day was about a segment of the show named One's
The One featuring Prince Charles who was promoting mutton meat
as a tastier alternative to lamb or hogget, the phase between
lamb and mutton.

The article reported that the Prince of Wales has been drawing
attention to mutton for a couple of years as a way of helping the
local farmers as well as introducing a tasty dish.

Chef Alan Oxlade, whose pub specialises in serving fresh mutton
from Longcourt farm in Newbury, said: "Mutton is less fatty than
lamb and it has more flavour than lamb, which can be just six
months old when they kill it. Mutton is from sheep over two years
old.

Mr.Oxlade was given a recipe for a mutton and turnip pie which was
cooked for two to three hours in chicken stock, juniper berries,
onion, celery, and winter vegetables. It was then put into dishes
with pastry added over the top. After the pre-recorded segment on
The One Show, live guests in the studio were invited to taste
Mr. Oxlade's mutton pie.

After his five minutes of fame, Mr. Oxlade has decided to share his
pie with more than the celebrities on the show. He says "it's quite
a wintry dish made with the best neck fillet of mutton, which is why
we have priced it at 12 pounds" So mutton and turnip pie is now a
special on the menu at the Shoulder of Mutton, and if it's popular,
it may become a regular feature of the menu.

As I hinted in introducing this article, I was reminded of a time
during the German occupation in Brussels, Belgium when people in
my family traveled in old tramways to the countryside to buy mutton
from farmers who were selling it on the black market.

In my home we made a ragout with the mutton meat cut in chunks and
cooked slowly on the stovetop - various winter vegetables were
added when the meat was close to being done.

Mutton was eaten in Belgium, France, England and I imagine in many
european countries but mutton seemed to have lost popular favor in
England after WW2. I read that the reason for that was that the
soldiers got so much canned mutton throughout the war (no gourmet
cooking there!) they shunned mutton when they came home.

The New York Times reported in a 3-29-06 article Much Ado About
Mutton, But not in These Parts that most Americans have never
tasted mutton, putting us and our Anglo-Saxon cousins in the
minority since mutton is consumed in quantity in France, Africa,
The Caribbean, the Middle East,India, parts of China, Australia
and New Zealand.

I googled the word "mutton" and found some sites featuring recipes,
of course the mutton in the recipe is most often lamb but the spices,
cooking methods and presentation make those recipes look mouth-
watering. I am adding URLs to a couple of sites for you to visit.

Mutton Bityani
http://people.cis.ksu.edu/~aruljohn/recipes/indian/muttonBiryani.html

SpiderKerala Recipes - Mutton Biryani
http://www.spiderkerala.com/kerala/recipes/popups/RecipeDetails.aspx?RecipeId=243

HDL INFUSIONS TO REVERSE ARTERIOSCLEROSIS - Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

2008-01-19T17:28:00.000-08:00

A study from the Cleveland Clinic shows that plaques can be removed from arteries in just six weeks. Thirty years ago, researchers showed that a family living in a Northern-Italian town, Limone sul Garda, lived to be very old and were extraordinarily resistant to heart attacks. Lots of people live to be one hundred years old and do not suffer heart attacks, but these people were extremely unusual because they had extremely low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol that prevents heart attacks. The researchers found that these people had HDL cholesterol that were much denser and had much larger particles than the normal HDL cholesterol.

Subsequent studies showed that large, dense HDL cholesterol is far more effective than other HDL cholesterol in clearing the bad LDL from the bloodstream. So researchers concluded that the large, dense HDL is so much more effective in preventing heart attacks that these people don't need very much to prevent arteriosclerosis.

Before the discovery of this special HDL cholesterol, researchers would not have wasted their time trying to give HDL to prevent heart attacks because they could not patent a biological product and therefore could not make any money from their experiments. However, this special large, dense HDL-Milano is a specific product that can be patented, and if they could prevent heart attacks by giving this special HDL cholesterol, they could make a lot of money. So they were able to copy the gene for large, dense HDL cholesterol from the people living in Milano and by genetically engineering other cells, could produce huge amounts of the large, dense Milano HDL .

The next step was to infuse the HDL-Milano, once-a-week for six weeks, into people with plaques in their arteries and show that the plaques became much smaller. That has been done. It will be more than six years before HDL Milano is available to the public. For now, avoid smoking and being overweight, restrict meat, chicken, whole milk dairy products and partially hydrogenated fats. Eat huge amounts of plants. Exercise regularly and you won't need the HDL -Milano by intravenous infusion.

JAMA, November 4, 2003

Dr.Mirkin's Archive

Can we Get Rid of Age Spots?

2007-11-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

I recently noticed some brown spots on the back of my hands, yikes
are those age spots? Some sources of information blame those spots,
also called liver spots on deterioration of cells of the liver due
to age so I checked on a couple of medical websites that say the
age spots have no relation to our liver functions.

While reading up on this I do find out that these spots generally
appear on the hands, arms, and face of someone who is over 40. It's
been quite a while since my fortieth birthday party so I fit the
profile... now I need to decide how much these telltale brown spots
are affecting my self-confidence...and what if anything I want to
do about removing them.

My older sister reminds me of the frequent admonitions my family
gave me about using sunscreen anytime I bared some skin in the
summertime and I used to forget!

I tell her there's no use in dwelling on 'I told you so' scenarios,
I eventually did learn to carry sunscreen with me and slather it all
over my children too! I was always very careful about protecting
my children from sunburns. Prevention is the best way to prevent
sunburn and blemishes that are the result of exposure to the sun's
UVA and UVB rays. I also wear a flattering wide-brimmed hat!

Although age spots are not expected to become cancerous, I think
it's a good idea to seek a medical opinion, since it is assumed that
the person with age spots has had a lot of exposure to the sun. That
would be a good time to discuss the pros and cons of the available
treatments to remove age spots.

Chemical Peel: In this treatment, blemished skin is peeled away with
the help of a Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) solution.

Dermabrasion: This method uses a special tool to sand the top layers
of the affected skin, allowing new skin to grow.

Laser Treatments: this more expensive treatment burns the skin off
the age spot by penetrating it and that skin dies and peels off on
its own so that new skin can replace it.

I would advise anyone who is thinking of professional age spots
removal to carefully check the credentials of the clinics, doctors
and staff they are thinking of choosing in matters of certification
and customer satisfaction.

“Deepak Chopra Question” on Yahoo Answers!

2007-11-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

“What small change can you do to make the world that you live in better?"

Join the dialogue now with Deepak Chopra as he asks the first in a series of questions featured on Yahoo! Answers, “What small change can you do to make the world that you live in better?" Answer Deepak’s question by going to Yahoo! and searching for “Deepak Chopra Question”

Deepak will be asking a new question every month on Yahoo! Answers through March 2008so stay tuned for more thought- provoking discussion!

Deepak Chopra's newsletter 'Namaste' is such a great source of emotional comfort to me...I want to share this article...

Emotional Freedom
Ask yourself this question, is there an upset in my past that I am holding on to that is influencing my current life? Perhaps an early childhood incident positioned your perspective on the world around you; or maybe a love relationship that—at one point was the answer to all your prayers—broke your heart when it ended through death, divorce, or separation; or maybe there’s something that you’ve done that you have never forgiven yourself for.

Throughout our lives we accumulate these moments of sadness, disappointment and regret and as we stew on them and build our lives around them, they bloom and become who we are. In time, they can evolve into such toxic emotions as hopelessness, negativity, anger, guilt and self-loathing. We honor those emotions because they feel real—not because they are right—and over time we unconsciously weave them into our emotional state and eventually into our physiology.

Yes ultimately they become part of our body and begin to take on a life of their own. Headaches, depression, turbulent sleep, poor digestion, chronic pain and constant anxiety are all signs that toxic emotions have taken hold within our bodies...read more at:

http://chopra.com/namaste/november07
What do think? Please comment...

Cheers, Fran

Staying Fit as we Age with Bowflex Home Equipment

2007-10-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Regular exercise is very important for anyone who wants to stay fit and
trim. Walking or running are two activities that many choose, cycling
is the favorite sport for others but going to a gym on a regular basis is
the preferred way to keep in shape for many people who are fitness conscious.

However, many factors might conspire to make visiting the gym very difficult:
conflicting working schedule, traffic congestion, the price of gas...

Having powerful home equipment such as Bowflex allows you to pick your
favorite time for exercising: early morning, late in the evening, whatever
suits your schedule.

Bowflex Home Equipment is also a great gift for someone you care about -
the prices are reasonable and Boxflex requires only a monthly payment, with
no charge for delivery until Dec.31 2007... that is a huge benefit for a heavy
piece of equipment!

Each link below will take you to a different page and the Promo Code AW47SHIP
for free shipment shows on each of those pages.

EXP 12/31/07
Free Shipping on all Bowflex® home gyms and all accessories with
Promo Code AW47SHIP10511240" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

EXP 12/31/07
Free Shipping on all Bowflex Revolution® home gyms and all accessories
with promo code AR47SHIP10511242" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

EXP 12/31/07
Free Shipping on all Bowflex Revolution® home gyms and all accessories
with promo code AR47SHIP10511242" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

EXP 12/31/07
Free Shipping on Bowflex SelectTech® dumbbells and accessories with
promo code AD47SHIP 10511248" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

I hope you will find the right piece of equipment to promote your own fitness
or maybe to help someone you care about promote theirs!

Happy Shopping,

Fran

Do our children need more physical activity?

2007-10-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

You might have read a recent Reuters dispatch about a British think-tank findings on the subject of obesity. After a two-year-long study into the causes of obesity, the Britsh Department of Health-sponsored project found "that the technological revolution of the 20th century has led to weight gain becoming unavoidable for the majority of the population, because our bodies and biological make-up are out of step with our surroundings"

I know how hard it is for adults to loose a lot of weight once we have put it on, so if we follow the conclusion of the British think-tank attributing the "obesity epidemic" to environmental conditions, I think that in order to change a culture one has to begin with the children. The dictators of the early 20th century, in communist Russia and China, also fascist Germany and Italy understood that to create new attitudes for their population, they needed to indoctrinate the children.

I'm not thinking in terms of indoctrination but simply a recognition of the horrendous economic cost of the chronic health problems this growing "obesity epidemic" will cause.

It would be fairly easy to change the trend if we started with young children because we would not have to curtail the children's food intake - it would mostly take an increase in physical activity!

Anyone who grew up in the fifties or sixties remembers mother's injunction to "go play outside" - the long evenings playing various ball games or just riding bikes, running around playing hide and seek, with Mothers or Fathers calling repeatedly for kids to come in for bedtime...(sigh...
nostalgia) In most neighborhoods we no longer hear children's voices late into the evening.

We have to get a lot more physical activity and also healthy food in our schools, At home we need
to balance sedentary activities like TV and the computer with physical activities - that would also cut out a lot of snacking I think.

When parents see the results of changing their children's lifestyle starting at an early age, I think they would see the wisdom of joining the trend in order to stay healthy longer so that they can live to enjoy their children and their grandchildren.

The article I referenced 'Obesity by Jennifer Hill' can be found at http://www.reuters.com/article/health-SP-A/idUSL1720090120071019?sp=true

Why do Men Avoid Medical Check-ups?

2007-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

I recently noticed that in discussions about planning some kind of national Health Care plan, some objections centered on the assumption that some people who might not need a Health Plan would be forced to pay for insurance - these people who do not need medical check-ups were described as younger men.

I personally know several men in their twenties, thirties who are diligent about having insurance for their automobiles and getting any suspicious symptoms checked out in order to protect their investment and make sure they won't have any undue interruption in their mobility!

Yet, many young men who are not satisfied with their physical condition - excess weight and/or discomfort with some symptoms that may be indicative of hypertension, heart, kidney, liver, or endocrine problems are reluctant to start a relationship with a physician who could help them get answers to their anxieties through appropriate tests.

Some may be justified in feeling that they don't need a physician because they generally are living a healthy lifestyle, they tend to eat a healthy diet with fruits, vegetables and whole grains,they drink alcohol moderately and they don't smoke... they participate in some kind of sport or exercise not only for the enjoyment, but also for the pleasure they get from looking and feeling fit.

Nevertheless, having an established relationship with a primary physician is a good idea even if check-ups are rare - in case of a sudden serious illness, an accident or questions about some suspicious lump, the physician would have a file with a baseline history that would probably be very helpful.

So why is it that more women than men believe that it is important to have a primary physician and timely check-ups?

Getting Rid of Belly Fat

2007-09-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today I want to write something about belly fat This is a serious concern for me and I imagine for a lot of people. Dr. Gabe Mirkin has published two
excellent articles about related subjects and I will post links to those articles.

I tried to extract a few basic things Dr.Mirkin says so I could understand what
causes this concentration of fat in the belly area and here they are:

Belly fat comes from high blood insulin levels;

Insulin is released by our pancreas to prevent theblood sugar levels from rising
too high after we eat;

Insulin drives triglycerides into the fat cells of our body;

High blood levels of insulin constrict arteries;

Heart attacks can be caused by constricted arteries;

Insulin also acts on the brain to make us eat more;

Insulin acts on our liver to manufacture more fat and then on the fat cells in our
belly to store that fat;

Before going on to describe any more scary processes, I would rather quickly provide
some practical suggestions to stop the production of extra insulin!

Avoid the foods that cause blood sugar levels to rise quickly, such as bread, spaghetti, macaroni, bagels, rolls, crackers, cookies and pretzels; refined corn
products and white rice; and all products with added sugar.

Eat lots of veggies, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts. Eat fruits and root veggies (potatoes, carrots, beets) only with other foods.

Dr. Mirkin says that sit-ups can strenghten the belly muscles but will not cause the loss of fat, the only way to reduce a fat belly is to lose weight overall, and any type of exercise will help you to lose weight, along with good eating habits of course!

To read Dr. Mirkin's excellent articles go to: Belly Fat Causes Diabetes, Heart Attacks and Treatment of Insulin Resistance

What's the latest in the debate on antioxidants?

2007-08-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is Dr. Mirkin's response to the question: What's the latest in the debate on antioxidants?

Another study shows that taking antioxidant vitamins does not prevent heart attacks (Archives of Internal Medicine August, 2007).

8,171 women over the age of 40, all with a history of heart disease or with three or more risk factors for that disease (high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol) were randomly assigned into groups and given either 500 milligrams of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) every day, 600 units of vitamin E every other day or 50 milligrams of beta carotene every other day.

None of the antioxidant vitamins, either alone or in combination, helped reduce
the risk of a heart attack. As of today, there is no evidence that taking antioxidants vitamin pills helps prevent heart attacks.

Instead of taking antioxidants, we now think you should aim to prevent your mitochondria from making excessive amounts of oxidants. The cells of your body have tiny chambers in them called mitochondria that help convert food to energy. When they do this, they knock of electrons from nutrients, and these extra electrons
eventually end up attached to oxygen.

Electron-charged oxygen, called reactive oxygen species or free radicals, then
attach to the DNA cells to damage them and shorten your life.

At this time, scientists have only one practical way to reduce the amount of oxidants produced by mitochondria: exercise. Vigorous exercise helps the mitochondria burn food more cleanly with the production of fewer oxidants.

Find answers to all your health questions at Dr.Gave Mirkin's website

Aging and Longevity

2007-08-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

So far I have discussed ways to preserve our health with advice and suggestions
related to healthcare, exercise and nutrition. An article I read yesterday made
me consider the effects of emotions and personal attitude on a person's general
health... Here's the article:

Tips for Staying Healthier Longer

Every one would like to live a longer and fulfilling life. Everybody also knows how hard it is. A human being is full of sentiments, feelings, desires, different stages of life and social interaction.

All of the above affect health of a person differently. Pain, sorrow and happiness are part and parcel of human beings. Given all these things how can one stay fit and live a longer life?

A good portion of staying healthy relates to the way one feels towards life and how sensitive one is towards different aspects of life. Family relations, money problems, social tensions etc. can take a heavy toll of one's health.

With constant grief, sorrow and troubles over the life span of a person, one definitely becomes weak in heart and body. One cannot live a healthier and fuller life. These are surely going to shorten the life span of a person.

In our society, emphasis is being laid on diet and exercise. Of course these cannot be undermined, but a greater part is also played by one's feelings and thoughts.

A person passes through various stages of depression, happiness, setbacks, personal troubles etc. One key factor for effective health lies in controlling these sentiments.

One can have a very good diet and exercise, but still remain unhealthy, sick and may live a short life, if one is not having good feelings. In order to have proper health and a long prosperous life, it is important to control one's sentiments and feelings.

The truth is that one can have no control over so many things like death of near and dear ones, social conflicts, crimes, diseases, wars etc. These are extraneous to a human being and these will have to happen.

I have seen many happy families in one moment and getting ruined in the very next. There are countless such situations which happen within no time and leave one shattered.

The best thing is to understand that one can have no control over a large number of things in one's life. To feel for them is but natural. If one realizes that there is nothing that one can do about those happenings, the pressure of pain will get reduced.

One should always try to control whatever is within one's control. These can be family issues, job related problems, relations with the society, personal behavior and above all personal thoughts. One main factor of reducing tensions is to develop a habit of thinking positively.

One can experience a healthy and long life with right ideas, control over one's thoughts and sentiments and being more practical with life. Remember "nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so".

Of course diet and exercise are quite important. In the diet category, simple food like green vegetables, dairy products, fruit, fish etc. are more important. Walking briskly is one simple exercise which can keep one fit. One should take long and brisk walks everyday in order to stay healthy.

Author: AdamJr: Helium – Where Knowledge Rules...
If any one finds my articles with content similar to that on Helium elsewhere on the Internet, please let it be known that they are my writings only and appear under my pen name of Altaf Sahibzada.

Cycling Instead of Walking? Getting Maximum Benefits

2007-08-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

For a different slant on our heart health, let's focus a little on a type of exercise that Dr.Gabe Mirking says anyone at any age can enjoy while at the same
time getting maximum benefits, and that is cycling instead of walking or running.

If your regular exercise bike hurts you, Dr. Mirkin says to alternate between sitting and standing on your pedals, because when you ride a conventional stationary bicycle, the narrow bicycle seat can cause the pudental nerve in your pelvis to be pinched and cause numbness and pain in your crotch and genitals.

Switching to a recumbent stationary bike

When you sit on a recumbent bicycle that has the pedals at the same height as your pelvis, your legs are not separated by the seat so you don't need a narrow bicycle seat. You sit on a seat shaped like a regular chair which is contoured to fit your back and is very comfortable. Anyone who can sit in a chair can use a recumbent stationary bike, so even elderly people with poor coordination and weak muscles can get the benefits of exercise.

Diana on her Greenspeed trike with Thunder

Diana Mirkin says if you're 60, 70, 80 or any age and want a really fun way to exercise, try a Recumbent Trike! You have no problem with balance, no risk of falling, and you can move as fast (or slow) as you like. Climbing hills is no problem because the gears go down really low, and you can stop right in the middle of the hill if you get tired.

She says: "I got mine so I would have a good way to exercise my dogs, who can run much faster than I can. It's so much fun that when I'm through riding with Thunder for 2-5 miles, I go another 30-50 miles by myself. One guy who passed me on the trail said "that's like taking a lawn chair out for a ride" – and he's right, it's that easy and comfortable."

My trike is a Greenspeed, made in Australia, but there are lots of other brands and styles to fit your taste and budget. Ask your local bike store, or go to www.bike123.com . Greenspeed's web site is www.greenspeed.com.au

http://www.drmirkin.com