Ever feel so stressed that you become forgetful & forget important things? Or do you sometimes say that stress is giving you gray hair; making you age faster? It’s not just your imagination. Two new studies show how stress makes you forgetful and speeds up the aging process. A team of researchers, writing in the journal Science, explains that stressful situations over which a person feels he or she has no control activate an enzyme in the brain called protein kinase C. Another group of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California at San Francisco, has found a mechanism by which psychological stress literally speeds up aging at the cellular level.
News on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been very mixed, leaving a lot of women questioning what they should be doing. I hope to make these contradictory findings more clear.
Data from one of the studies, the Women’s Health Initiative, linked estrogen-progestin pills, such as Prempro, to increase risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer. So high were the risks that the government study was halted two years ago, and many women were scared off hormone therapy altogether.
But an earlier, 2000 analysis of data from the Nurses Health Study (NHS) - another hormone test, had found seemingly contradictory results: Subjects who took hormones were 40 percent less likely to suffer heart attacks.
To put it all in perspective…A WOMAN’S RISK from taking menopause hormones may depend on THE AGE she starts taking them, according to an ongoing review of the two largest hormone studies.
Another recent, separate study of the WHI data, however, found new risks from estrogen-progestin pills, especially for women who are overweight and those over age 60. The University of Vermont analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reinforced earlier suspicions that the pills raise the risk of potentially fatal blood clots in the legs. Another study in the same issue found no such increased clot risk associated with estrogen-only pills.
What should confused women take away from this evolving research? Maybe the clearest clues come from research by Grodstein’s colleague, Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition in the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Stampfer’s research has shown that a healthy lifestyle-weight maintenance, no smoking, healthy diet, physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption-could prevent about 80 percent of heart disease in women. “Overall,” says Grodstein, “if women can maintain a healthy lifestyle, they can very successfully avoid heart disease without taking hormones.”
A study found that eating large servings of red meat may increase one’s risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers at the University of Manchester in the UK examined data on more than 25,000 people ages 45 to 75 whose health and lifestyle habits had been followed for up to nine years. Though red meat consumption showed the greatest correlation to incidence of RA, the researchers also found an increased risk from a higher level of protein consumption from all dietary sources, not just steak and burgers. Lifestyle factors are believed to be responsible for as much as 40 percent of the risk for RA. Cigarette smoking, for example, has been consistently linked to the development of RA. Studies have indicated that other risk factors may include drinking coffee and not getting enough vitamin C, while a diet high in fish and moderate alchohol consumption (for women) have been suggested to be preventative.
A new study of hikers in the Alps suggests that it may be OK to exercise downhill, especially if one is looking to reduce blood sugar. The Austrian researchers found that, while hiking uphill was more effective for lowering levels of fats called triglycerides, hiking downhill was better for reducing blood sugars and improving glucose tolerance.
There has been a lot of confusion over cholesterol in the diet. Many people assume that the cholesterol in the foods you eat-eggs, meat and full-fat dairy products like whole milk, butter and ice cream-contributes directly to the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream. Not true. Scientists have known for decades that how cholesterol gets into your blood is quite complex. In fact, saturated fat and transfatty acids are the major dietary determinants of cholesterol in your bloodstream, not the cholesterol you eat. That said, the cholesterol in foods can increase blood cholesterol to some degree, more in some people than in others depending on genetics. Thus, if you’re told you have elevated LDL-cholesterol, you should keep your dietary cholesterol at a maximum of 300 milligrams a day. Fortunately, if you’re already following a diet that’s low in saturated fat, that’s easy to do. Most cholesterol-containing foods are also foods that contain a fair amount of saturated fat. (Eggs are an exception.)
Forget everything you’ve heard about carbohydrates making you fat. They don’t-unless you eat too many of them. But that’s true of anything. What’s important to keep in mind about carbohydrates when it comes to heart disease is that certain carbohydrate-rich foods have clearly been associated with a decreased risk. The foods we’re talking about are vegetables, fruits and whole-grain items like whole-grain breads and cereals. Why is not completely clear. It may have something to do with the fact that these foods all contain fiber, which is associated with better weight management and therefore with a reduced risk for heart problems. Fiber takes up a fair amount of room in the gut and apparently has the ability to help people feel sated (Full) even though it doesn’t contain any calories. Research has also shown that fiber helps keep down blood glucose and, to a small extent, helps lower blood cholesterol. In the ERA study, women who had suffered a heart attack and subsequently ate at least three grams of fiber from whole-grain foods every day, such as cereals and whole-wheat bread, experienced slower progression of atherosclerotic plaque afterward than women who consumed less fiber. Some studies have even suggested that fiber decreases blood pressure. But it’s also important to note that people who eat plenty of high-fiber foods have less room in their diets for high-calorie foods that can contribute to increased weight-and increased blood pressure. Whatever the mechanism by which fiber works, hundreds, if not thousands, of studies have consistently shown a link between diets high in produce and low rates of chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease. It’s the same for diets high in whole grains and produce.
Looking to eat more fruits and veggies? Start at your local farmers’ market.
Farmer’s markets offer several advantages when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Among other things, they bring fruits and vegetables at the peak of freshness and nutritional value. Further, farmer’s markets turn grocery shopping into a fun daytrip, combining entertainment with the opportunity to actually meet the people who grow the food.
Researchers at Northwestern University have laid to rest the myth that people with arthritis shouldn’t exercise. Just the opposite turns out to be true: Older people with arthritis who exercise are less likely to develop physical limitations that hamper their daily lives.
Arthritis is among the leading causes of functional decline, which refers to difficulties with such everyday activities as shopping, bathing, dressing, preparing meals and walking short distances. According to Dorothy D. Dunlop, PhD, the study’s lead author, the new findings suggest that regular vigorous exercise could help stave off this decline in arthritis sufferers.
It is true that older arthritis patients may have to get 20-30 minutes of exertion in small bursts, rather than all at once. But weaving activity into your daily routine can still be effective, says Dunlop. Walking for an errand instead of taking the car, climbing stairs and even gardening can all be part of a plan to keep active. Before launching any exercise program, she adds, be sure to consult your physician.
You already know you need to cut back on your intake of dietary cholesterol and saturated fats to combat heart disease. But what you do eat can help along with what you don’t. Remember, though, as you introduce more of these foods to your diet, substitute-don’t add calories or extra fat, even heart-healthier fats. And keep in mind that individual foods can help your health only as well as the overall nutrition plan they’re part of. With those caveats, here are
some foods that research has shown can help lower your risk of heart disease:
* Fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, including salmon, tuna, mackerel, lake trout and sardines.
* Nuts, especially walnuts and almonds (eaten in place of foods containing saturated fats).
* Oatmeal and oat bran, plus cold cereal made from oatmeal or oat bran, which have been shown to lower cholesterol.
* You can also lower cholesterol with foods, ranging from orange juice to margarine, fortified with plant sterols, which block the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines. The American Heart Association recommends plant-sterolenhanced foods only for people who already have high LDL cholesterol levels, not for routine prevention.
New research at Stanford University suggests that what one eats can be a factor in controlling bad cholesterol levels, just like what one doesn’t eat, and that there’s more to fighting cholesterol than taking powerful medications such as statins. The study, which compared two different low-fat diets, found that a low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans has twice the cholesterol-lowering power of a conventional low-fat diet. While previous studies have shown that such a plant-based diet can lower cholesterol, people on these diets typically also consume lower amounts of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol.
Researcher John A. Baron, MD, of the Dartmouth Medical School recently updated a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on the Calcium Polyp Prevention Study. Calcium supplements, which many people take to help ward off osteoporosis, may have a beneficial side effect: This study reports that calcium supplements protect against the development of colon polyps, which can turn cancerous. This protective effect seems to persist for as long as five years after people discontinue taking the calcium supplements.
Greek researchers have found more evidence that the diet consumed by them and their Mediterranean neighbors has something going for it, healthwise. A study concluded that a 60-year-old who sticks to Mediterranean eating habits can expect to live a year longer, on average, than a similar person eating differently. This study in the British Medical Journal is among the first to specifically find it prolongs life. The Greek researchers focused on people who eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, fish and olive oil, while avoiding saturated fats
Another recent study, by Greek and US researchers, found that heart-disease patients who followed a Mediterranean diet were 30 percent less likely to die. The study followed 1,300 men and women over nearly four years.
