Four diet habits help women lose weight in 50s, 60s

• Weight control: The battle of the waist line bulge can be particularly tough for women past menopause. But a new study found overweight women in their 50s and 60s who made four particular changes in their diets had the best long-term chance of losing weight or at least keeping off new pounds. Their secrets: Eating more fruits and vegetables, eating fewer desserts, drinking fewer sweetened beverages and cutting down on meats and cheeses, say researchers from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Dental cuts: It's increasingly difficult for poor adults in many parts of United States to get adequate dental care, as states trying to control Medicaid costs slash dental benefits, the New York Times reports. But having Medicaid coverage doesn't always solve the problem: many dentists won't accept it.
• Unwanted erections: The number of men who show up in emergency departments with unwanted persistent erections (a condition known as priapism) is higher than previously thought, researchers tell MedPage Today. Emergency doctors treated nearly 40,000 cases between 2006 and 2009, they estimate. One suspect in what may be an increasing problem: injected drugs for erectile dysfunction.

Today's talker: Women also can get too much of a good thing -- too many orgasms. The story of Kim Ramsey, a New Jersey woman who has 100 orgasms a day, is making the Internet rounds. As the Boston Globe points out, she's not alone: Researchers have published 28 papers describing "persistent genital arousal disorder" -- which "usually causes distress and exhaustion, not pleasure, and has no effective treatment." Ramsey says her orgasms can be triggered by driving over bumps in the road and has been linked to cysts growing on her spine. In most cases, the cause isn't known, but sometimes symptoms start after a woman stops taking certain antidepressant drugs, one study says.

Most Patients Are Reluctant To Ask Doctors To Wash Their Hands, Study Finds

More than 1.7 million Americans acquire health care-associated infections each year while in the hospital or doctor’s office, some of them antibiotic resistant. Many such infections could be prevented with simple hygiene measures, such as doctors and nurses frequently washing their hands.

Now a survey finds that many patients are reluctant to ask medical folks to lather up.

Researchers surveyed 200 hospital patients who were at risk for—or had previously had—a hospital-acquired infection. Nearly 100 percent of them agreed that health care workers should wash their hands before and after seeing a patient. But just 54 percent of them said they would feel comfortable asking doctors to wash their hands—and just 64 percent would feel comfortable asking a nurse. And when faced with the situation in real life, just 14 percent said that they had actually asked a health care worker to wash their hands.

The findings are in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. [Andrew Ottum et al., Do Patients Feel Comfortable Asking Health Care Workers to Wash Their Hands?]

So don't be shy about asking your docs to wash up. The good ones may even thank you.

Surgery seems best for heart disease in diabetics

New research shows that people with diabetes and several clogged heart arteries fare better with bypass surgery instead of having stents placed to prop open their blood vessels.

Doctors compared the treatments in a study of 1,900 diabetics and looked five years later to see how many had suffered a heart attack, stroke or death. Only 19 percent of the bypass group had, versus 27 percent of those given stents.

People like this represent about one-fourth of all heart disease patients.

Results were discussed Sunday at an American Heart Association conference and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

9 Essential Health Facts About Caffeine

As any habitutal coffee drinker knows, caffeine is a stimulant and a drug. Consume too much, and you’ll find yourself addicted and at-risk for associated health problems. But at the same time, study after study has shown that moderate consumption of caffeine-rich foods such as coffee, tea and dark chocolate can help lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer — partially because these foods are all rich sources of disease-fighting antioxidants. But before you pour another cup of joe or open that soda, here’s what you need to know.

The 9 Essential Facts about Caffeine:

#1 – Caffeine Can Be Good for You

The health benefits of caffeine are far-reaching — as long as it’s consumed in moderate amounts, says Rania Batayneh, M.P.H., a nutritionist and owner of Essential Nutrition for You, a nutrition consulting firm. “Caffeine stimulates the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that activates an area of gray matter in the brain responsible for alertness and productivity,” she says. And because dopamine regulates mood, a cup of coffee can improve your mood, at least temporarily. As a stimulant, caffeine has also been shown to boost endurance and speed in workouts, though not all experts recommend consuming caffeine pre-workout.

#2 – Too Much Caffeine Can Have Risks

The news is not all good when it comes to caffeine, however. “Caffeine is a drug, and like any other drug, it can have harmful effects when ingested in high amounts,” Batayneh cautions. “At doses of more than 500 milligrams, which is about the amount in four cups of coffee, caffeine has been found to cause nervousness, irritability, insomnia, an upset stomach, muscle tremors, and an irregular heartbeat.”
Some studies have found that caffeine can reduce your bone’s ability to absorp calcium. However, an analysis at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., found that caffeine-caused bone loss mainly affects elderly woman, and that it can be offset by adding milk to your coffee. A research review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year found that caffeine causes short-term blood pressure spikes, so people with high blood pressure are often advised to watch their caffeine intake.

#3 – Find Just the Right Amount of Caffeine

If you do choose to partake in caffeine, moderate consumption is best. “A healthy individual should try to consume less than 300 to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, which is roughly equal to three 6-ounce cups of coffee, four cups of tea, or six cans of soda,” Batayneh says. Pregnant women and people with high blood pressure should limit their intake to 150 to 200 milligrams a day, and children should consume no more than 50 milligrams daily. “At levels higher than this,” she warns, “uncomfortable symptoms such as restlessness and irritability may develop.”

#4 – Caffeine May Lessen Stroke Risk

One of the surprising health benefits of caffeine has to do with stroke risk. Previously, it was thought that coffee consumption might increase your risk for stroke. But a recent study of 83,000 women published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found that the women who drank more coffee had a slight decrease in their overall stroke risk.

#5 – Caffeine May Help ADHD

Another area where the perception of caffeine is changing is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Once thought to be a cause of ADHD, caffeine is now thought to be a potential treatment for the disease because, in moderate doses, caffeine enhances the ability to focus. Although more research on the topic is still needed, one mom made headlines last year when she announced that her second-grade son drinks coffee twice daily as an effective treatment for his ADHD — and she pointed out that she’s far from the only parent trying it.

#6 – Caffeine May Not Help Weight Loss

Although many people think of zero-calorie coffee as a diet aid, research has not confirmed that coffee can boost weight loss. “Caffeine can speed up metabolism, resulting in a few more calories burned throughout the day,” Batayneh says. “But high intake of caffeine can also lead to the production of cortisol, the ‘stress hormone,’ which has been linked to weight gain and, of course, stress.” Plus, most studies have found that the increased calorie burn from caffeine is not enough to produce real weight loss.

#7 – Caffeine Mainstays Are Preferred

When it comes to choosing your sources of caffeine, our experts almost unanimously voted in favor of the natural sources of coffee and tea over the potentially dangerous amount of caffeine, sugar, and other additives in sodas and energy drinks. “Coffee and tea, in moderate doses, contain many antioxidants and a respectable amount of caffeine, offering both feelings of alertness, increased mood and long-term health benefits,” Batayneh says.

#8 – Caffeinated Concoctions Spell Trouble

“Energy drinks, energy shots, and sodas are manufactured to provide quick boosts of energy with little nutritional benefit,” Batayneh warns. “Some energy drinks can contain as much as 70 grams of sugar — the equivalent of 17.5 teaspoons.”
Worse yet, energy drinks and shots can be dangerous because of their unnaturally high levels of caffeine combined with ingredients such as guarana (a stimulant), taurine (an amino acid that regulates energy levels and heartbeat), and ginseng (a root that is believed to increase energy). “Ingesting all of these at once can lead to caffeine toxicity, in which an irregular heartbeat, jitteriness, and irritability take over,” she adds. “These ingredients can also interact with prescription drugs and antibiotics, decreasing their effectiveness and possibly causing other harmful side effects.”

#9 – Inhalable Caffeine Might Be the Next Big Thing

From caffeinated gum to energy shots to drinks, manufacturers are constantly dreaming up new ways to ingest caffeine. One of the newest and buzziest methods on the market is the inhalable caffeine supplement AeroShot, a lipstick-sized container that contains B vitamins and 100 milligrams of caffeine, which is the equivalent of a large cup of coffee. To take an AeroShot, consumers simply inhale a fine powder that instantly dissolves in their mouth.
Created by David Edwards, a biomedical engineering professor at Harvard University, AeroShot is currently available in Massachusetts, New York and France. That might change, however, as the substance is now up for a safety review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Recently, the FDA issued a warning to the drug’s manufacturer, Breathable Foods Inc., calling the product’s current labeling false, misleading, and potentially dangerous. The agency has taken no further steps to remove AeroShot from the market.

How to Lose Weight Without Dieting?

The multi-billion weight loss industry has a dirty little secret: Dieting doesn’t work. To be sure, almost any diet out there will produce weight loss if you follow the rules.  Some of them will even produce very quick, dramatic weight loss. However, the majority of people who lose weight on diets will eventually gain it all back. Often, with interest.

Don’t despair: I do have a solution!

But first, let’s take a quick look at why diets are doomed to fail.

Dieting Triggers Hormonal Changes That Lead to Weight Gain

Much has been made over a recent study which found that dieting—especially the kind of dieting that produces rapid weight loss—messes with your body chemistry in ways that make it extremely difficult to maintain that hard-won weight loss.

First, the study found that losing weight triggers changes in hormones that rev up your appetite.  Obviously, that’s not helpful. Secondly, the study confirmed that sustained calorie restriction lowers your metabolism so that you burn fewer calories as you go about your daily activities. This lowered metabolism can continue for a year--or even longer--after the dieting stops.

Before you get too worked up about the metabolism thing, though, there’s another reality that has a much bigger impact on people who have lost a significant amount of weight. A smaller body requires fewer calories. That means that if you want to spend the rest of your life in a smaller body than the one you’ve got right now, you will need to spend the rest of your life eating less than you do now.

(Before you shoot the messenger, let me point out that I didn’t say you will spend the rest of your life hungry.)

Diets Stop Working When You Stop Dieting

The other reason that diets almost always fail is that they are temporary solutions to a permanent challenge.

Most dieters start out strong. They’ve just read the latest celebrity diet book or seen the latest diet guru on TV and they’re convinced that this diet—this latest combination of foods, or a certain prescribed eating schedule, or the inclusion of this certain seed or berry, or the strict avoidance of meat, wheat, sugar, white foods, blue foods, or foods beginning with the letter “g”--is going to be the breakthrough that releases the lean, mean physique they know is lurking in there somewhere.

Sticking to this new plan takes up an enormous amount of mental energy. For a while, your new regimen is all you think about.  It’s all you talk about.  And the weight comes off.  But sooner or later, the novelty and enthusiasm begin to fade and maintaining the discipline and laser-like focus becomes more and more challenging. A trip comes up and you can’t control the timing or content of your meals.  You come down with the flu and the only thing you can keep down is a “forbidden” food.  Or, most hazardous of all: you reach your goal weight.

This is the day that every dieter dreams of because that’s the day that they can stop dieting! That’s also the day that most dieters begin regaining all the weight they lost, if not more—at which point they’re in the market for the next miracle diet (which they won’t have to look far to find). And the cycle begins again.

An Alternative to Dieting

Let’s say that you have 10, 20, or maybe even 50 pounds to lose. I want you to forget for a moment about how you’re going to lose that weight. Instead, I want you to picture yourself at your goal weight and shape. Really picture it!  And now I want you to think very seriously and specifically about what sort of habits and lifestyle someone who spends their life in that kind of body would have.

How to Maintain a Healthy Weight

For example, to be a person who maintains a healthy body weight throughout life, you’d probably:

• Limit your intake of sweets, refined carbohydrates, and fried foods. (Note: I didn’t say “never eat sweets, refined carbohydrates, or fried foods.”)
  
• Avoid eating in front of the television or computer.
  
• Eat more vegetables and fewer starches. (In other words, gravitate toward foods that fill you up for fewer calories.)
  
• Take slightly smaller portions.
  
• Stop at a single cocktail or glass of wine.
  
• Have fruit for dessert—or no dessert, most of the time.
  
• Drink water or tea instead of soda.
  
• Make time most days for a 20-30 minute walk at lunch or before dinner, or both.
  
• Take time on weekends to shop and do a little cooking so that you’re not as dependent on take-out and prepared foods to get you through the busy week.
  

In other words, you’d be someone who incorporates my Quick and Dirty Tips for Eating Well and Feeling Fabulous (most of which are not about losing weight) into your daily routine.

The Secret is to Start at the Finish Line

Can you picture that trim, healthy person? Can you imagine what a typical day looks like? Can you see what’s on the dinner plate or in the kitchen cupboards? Good.  Because that’s what I want you to start choosing right now. That’s right. We’re going to skip the dieting phase entirely and go right to the eating well and feeling fabulous part. Because the very same things that you’d need to do to maintain that healthy weight are the things you need to do to get there in the first place. 

No dieting required!

And best of all, no re-gaining and re-losing the same weight over and over again.

Why We Overeat?

 

Most Eating Is Not About Hunger

In fact, there’s a growing body of evidence showing that that environmental cues may have a much bigger impact on how much we eat than physiological hunger—factors such as how much food is on the table or in the package, how much the people around us are eating, and even how big our plates are have a huge effect on how much we eat.

Does the Size of Your Dinner Plate Matter?

For example, researchers have observed that the average size of a dinner plate in the 1950s was 9 inches across. By the 80’s it had grown to 11 inches and today the average dinner plate is a whopping 13 inches.  The increase in obesity rates parallels the increase in dinner plate size almost exactly. Coincidence? Some people don’t think so.

A popular new diet book, called The 9-Inch Diet, by Alex Bogusky, starts by having you replace your over-sized dinner plate with 9-inch plates. Bogusky claimed that shaving three inches off his dinner plate helped him whittle three inches off of his waist.

We Eat With Our Eyes, Not Our Stomachs

So, can weight loss really be as simple as that? No rigid eating plans? No forbidden foods or special recipes? Well, environmental cues are extremely powerful. That old joke about someone’s eyes being bigger than their stomachs turns out to be truer than you might have thought.

A now-famous experiment involving trick soup bowls proved that your stomach doesn’t tell you when you’re full; your eyes do. Researcher Brian Wansink describes the soup bowl experiment in his book Mindless Eating. The subjects were asked to eat a bowl of soup and then to rate how full they felt. But some of the bowls were secretly refilled from the bottom as diners ate the soup The people with the bottomless soup bowl ate 73% more soup but rated their level of satisfaction exactly the same as the others—after all, they’d only had a single bowl of soup!

We Decide How Much to Eat Based on Visual Cues

It seems that we decide how much to eat based not on how hungry we are or how filling the food is, but according to visual cues, which can be misleading.

Another experiment by Wansink’s group shows that you’ll eat more from a large container, even if you don’t like the food! They replaced the popcorn at a movie theater with stale, 2-week old popcorn.  People complained about how terrible the popcorn was. Nonetheless, people who were given a large bucket ate about 35% more popcorn than those who were given a smaller container.

Apparently, the only ones who can be trusted to eat according to their actual physical appetites are babies and small children. Research by Barbara Rolls suggests that three-year-olds are not influenced by serving size; they eat according to their appetite. By the time they are five, however, they’ll eat more if they are served more. 

You Can Overeat Without Being Overweight

If super sized portions seduce you into over-eating unhealthy foods, you may cut back on more nutritious foods to compensate. You may be maintaining your weight, but at the expense of good nutrition.

How to Trick Yourself Into Eating Less

So this week, you can eat whatever you like (as long as you promise to eat your vegetables, of course). Plus, I want you to follow the following rules.

1. Use smaller dishes: Use smaller plates, bowls, and glasses. If your dinner plates are bigger than 9 inches across, use the sandwich plates instead.
   
   
2. Don’t use serving bowls: No serving bowls or containers on the table.  Put your food on the plate and then go to a separate area to eat it.  If you are still hungry when your plate is empty, wait at least 15 minutes before serving yourself seconds.
   
   
3. Prepare only what you need: When cooking, try to prepare only as much as is needed. Overcooking leads to overeating. That doesn’t mean you can’t cook enough for two meals. But when you’re done cooking, package up the second meal and put it away before serving yourself from the remainder
   .
   
4. Don’t eat while distracted: Do nothing else while eating. Being distracted by television, the computer, or reading material can lead you to eat far more than you otherwise would. If you’re watching a movie or surfing the web and you decide to have a snack, pause the movie or shut down the computer until you’re done eating.
   
   
5. Hide tempting food: Keep tempting but unhealthy foods out of sight.  When we see food we like, it actually makes us feel hungry.  The obvious corollary to this is to keep healthy foods readily available. In other words, line all the vegetables up at the front of the fridge. Bury the fudge in the back of the drawer.  And remember: chewing gum can help you avoid snacking.
   

Obviously, these rules all by themselves don’t ensure a balanced diet. But right now, we’re just experimenting with the environmental aspects of hunger and eating.

It might be best to minimize your time in restaurants this week, just for the sake of the experiment. You have very little control over portion sizes and other environmental cues in restaurants. At the very least, I suggest you avoid buffets, all-you-can-eat anything, and any restaurants that describe menu items with words like “jumbo” or “belly-buster.”

Questions to Ask Yourself

During your experiment with these behavioral strategies, here are some things to ask yourself:

1. Do you feel more or less hungry than you usually do?
   
2. Do you find yourself eating more or less at meals?
   
3. Do you find yourself eating more or less often?
   
4. Do you find it difficult or inconvenient to stick to the rules?
   
5. Do you notice any differences in your energy levels or mood?
   
6. Could you imagine continuing the experiment for more than a week?
   
7. How would you rate the overall quality and balance of your diet? Better or worse than usual?
   

Watching Your Weight? Beware the Dangers of Unplanned Eating

It's 2 p.m. right now, and I have no idea what I'm having for dinner tonight. But I am planning to eat dinner. And I know that I'll be making something using some of the vegetables I picked up at the farmer's market this weekend. That's not unplanned eating. On the other hand, before sitting down to write this blog, I went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. While I was waiting for the water to boil, I noticed the apple pie left over from last night's dinner on the counter and nibbled half a piece. I didn't go into the kitchen in order to get something to eat. But when I saw the pie, I grabbed a fork and dug in. That was unplanned eating.
Here are some more examples of unplanned eating. Do any of these sound familiar?

• You go to the mall to shop for shoes and walk by the food court. Before you know it, you've got a giant cinnamon bun in your hand.
• You go into a co-worker's office to talk with her and without even thinking about it, reach for a piece of Halloween candy from the ceramic pumpkin that's sitting at the corner of her desk.
• You're cleaning up from dinner and find yourself eating the extra mashed potatoes instead of putting them away.

Dangers of Unplanned Eating

This sort of eating is problematic for a number of reasons:
1. Unplanned eating is rarely motivated by hunger. After all, how hungry can you be when cleaning up from dinner? You just ate!

2. You're not choosing a particular food because it's nutritious -- or even because you particularly enjoy that food -- but because it happens to be in front of you. In my experience, the food that just happens to be in front of you is rarely as nutritious -- or delicious -- as meals or snacks that happen on purpose.

3. More often than not, you're focused on other things when you fall for these "calories of opportunity" and not paying attention to what you're eating. You barely taste it. What's the point of eating foods that you don't particularly want and aren't even conscious of consuming? (See also: Why We Overeat.)

4. You're unlikely to adjust what you eat later in the day based on any unplanned eating. When it's time for a piece of pie after dinner tonight, for example, I'm probably not going to think to myself, "Hang on, I already had some pie today. I'd better skip it." Because it usually doesn't affect subsequent food choices, unplanned eating can add a lot of calories to our day.

Unplanned and Unremembered

Here's another interesting thing about unplanned eating: When recalling what you've eaten over the course of the day, you're much more likely to forget or overlook things you ate without planning to. It's as if they never happened. People who do a lot of unplanned eating are often totally deluded about what and how much they actually eat. When I hear people complaining that they can't lose weight no matter how little they eat, I always wonder how much unplanned (and unremembered) eating is at work.

Those unplanned calories may barely register in terms of your attention, taste buds, or memory. But they do register in (and on) your body. I may forget that half piece of apple pie I ate this afternoon, but my hips will remember every crumb.

The Benefits of Mindful Eating

Paying attention to -- and cutting back on -- unplanned eating is really an extension of the principles of mindful eating: paying attention to our level of hunger, our surroundings, our enjoyment of food (or lack thereof), and how we feel after we eat. Sometimes, when we start paying attention, we realize how often we're eating not out of hunger or pleasure but out of boredom, loneliness, frustration, or simply habit. That realization can empower us to deal more constructively or appropriately with those emotions. When we try to eat more mindfully and consciously, we often discover that we choose foods that are better for us and get much more enjoyment out of what we eat.

Acid Reflux Natural Remedies

Acid reflux, commonly called heartburn, is caused when digestive acids flow up from the stomach and into the esophagus. The esophagus, located in the heart region of the chest, becomes irritated with a burning sensation.

There are lesser known symptoms other than heartburn for acid reflux as well: gas, bloating, flatulence and even apparently unrelated symptoms such as chronic dry coughing, sour or bitter mouth between meals, trouble swallowing, hoarseness, and wheezing.

Acid reflux usually occurs from a failure of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) to contract after swallowing food, thus allowing stomach acids to come up toward and into the esophagus.

This muscular failure to contract can be from several situations, including obesity, lying down after meals, eating just before bedtime, eating disagreeable processed fried foods, and over eating. Excess caffeine or alcohol can weaken the LES and induce occasional or reoccurring acid reflux.

Hiatel hernia, where the diaphragm muscle protrudes over the top of the stomach, is another contributing factor to acid reflux. If acid reflux occurs often on a regular basis, the condition becomes gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which can develop into cancer of the esophagus if ignored.

Over the counter (OTC) or prescribed medications lead to other problems, of course. So here are a few suggestions for natural remedies.

Long term solutions from Dr. Edward Group

In addition to the usual lifestyle changes in order to lose stomach fat -- eating right, cutting back on sugar, alcohol, and caffeine, moderate exercise, and relaxation -- Dr. Group recommends increasing intake of digestive enzymes.

This can be done by juicing frequently, and by eating more organic raw foods, or supplementing. Cooking or processing food destroys enzymes, considered by many to be more vital than vitamins and minerals because it takes enzymes to metabolize them.

Increasing probiotics is always a good idea. Homemade milk or water kefirs, and foods such as miso and homemade sauerkraut are potent and economical probiotic foods. Less economical but conveniently accessible probiotic supplements are also available.

He also recommends high vitamin D intake and using real sea salt. Before undertaking drastic dietary changes, Dr. Group recommends doing colon cleansing enemas then graduating to coffee enemas for the liver. All this may seem to be too much for handling mere heartburn.

However, in addition to eliminating or avoiding acid reflux, all of these recommendations are essential for overall health.

Immunity, as well as good physiological and mental health depends more on a healthy gut than even many health professionals realize.

Suggestions for quick relief from acute heartburn

Dr. Group recommends organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar, a tablespoon in a little bit of water, to eliminate heartburn. This seems counter intuitive in that apple cider vinegar increases stomach acid to aid digestion before meals. But there are many testimonials claiming it works.

He also likes to use baking soda (bicarbonate of soda, not baking powder), which actually shoots alkalinity way up. A tablespoon in a half cup of water can give immediate relief from heartburn. An ounce or two of unprocessed Aloe Vera juice is good for heartburn and stomach ulcers.

Dr. Andrew Weil advises using DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice) in chewable tablets or powder. He recommends chewing a couple of tablets or taking a half-teaspoon of the powder in water as often as it takes to get relief. He also likes slippery elm for soothing the esophagus.

Another counter intuitive remedy is a half or full teaspoon of 40,000 heat unit (minimum) cayenne powder in water. Many claim it works. Master Herbalist John Christopher cured his stomach ulcer this way. Cayenne is also an inexpensive heart tonic.