Soda Drinking Every Day Could Raise Women's Stroke Risk

Yet another study is linking regular consumption of sugary drinks with risk of stroke.

The newest finding, first reported by Reuters and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, shows that women who said they drank the most soft drinks in the study had an 83 percent higher risk of ischemic stroke than those who reported drinking the fewest soft drinks.

Earlier this year, a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine showed a link between drinking a diet soda every day and higher stroke and heart attack risk.

"It makes sense, if [sugar sweetened beverages] increase the risk for obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, inflammation, then it should, in fact, raise the risk for cardiovascular disease, and that's what we're seeing," Cleveland Clinic's Adam Bernstein, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters.

The study included 39,786 men and women in Japan between the ages of 40 and 59, who were tracked between 1990 and 2008. They filled out a questionnaire asking them about their soft drink consumption.
By the end of the study period, 453 people had ischemic heart disease and 1,922 people had had a stroke (1,047 of which were ischemic, the other 859 were hemorrhagic).

Researchers found that women who had drank the most soda in the study -- Reuters reported that this was nearly a soda a day -- had a higher risk of ischemic stroke than those who drank the least soda in the study. However, researchers didn't find a risk between soda consumption and ischemic heart disease, or hemorrhagic stroke for either men or women.

A previous study from Harvard researchers did find a link between sugary drink consumption and increased coronary heart disease risk, at least for men, ABC News reported.

In that study, which included 43,000 people who were part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, coronary heart disease risk was found to be 20 percent higher for the men who drank a daily sugary drink, compared with those who didn't drink any sugary drinks, according to ABC News.

The findings are important because we as Americans drink a lot of sugary drinks, and it's necessary to know what the potential ramifications are. After all, a recent Gallup study showed that nearly half of Americans drink a soda every single day.

Cholesterol Levels Improving In U.S. Adults

Our cholesterol levels are collectively going down, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The new study shows that levels of total cholesterol and levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol have decreased in adults between 1988 and 2010.

Overall, total cholesterol went from 206 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood in 1988-1994 to 196 milligrams per deciliter in 2007-2010.

Researchers also found that levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol went down from 129 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood in 1988-1994 to 116 milligrams per deciliter in 2007-2010.

Researchers also noted that more adults received lipid-lowering drugs during this time period, going up from 3.4 percent in 1988-1994 to 15.5 percent in 2007 to 2010.

"The favorable trends in TC, non-HDL-C, and LDL-C may be due in part to a decrease in consumption of trans-fatty acids or other healthy lifestyle changes, in addition to an increase in the percentage of adults taking lipid-lowering medications," the researchers wrote in the study. "They are unlikely to be the result of changes in physical activity, obesity, or intake of saturated fat."

The study was based on the cholesterol levels of participants in the National Health and Examination Surveys administered between 1988 and 2010. Researchers used information from 16,573 people in the 1988-1994 survey; 9,471 people in the 1999-2002 survey; and 11,766 people in the 2007-2010 survey.

Earlier this year, a study in JAMA also showed that cholesterol levels in kids and teens were getting better. However, one in 10 youths still had high cholesterol between 2007 and 2010, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found.

It's important to keep cholesterol in check because too much of it can lead to heart disease and stroke by building up on the insides of your arteries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out.

How Yoga Helps Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) - how can yoga help?

What is MS?

A disease of the central nervous system, MS can affect people in different ways and in different areas of the body. How MS affects individuals depends on which parts of the brain and spinal cord are affected by the disease. Whatever stage of the illness you are in, yoga has a lot to offer as a self-help tool.

How can Yoga help MS sufferers?

• Yoga can help the body’s own self-healing mechanism and may slow down or even halt the disease process.
• Yoga increases energy and counteracts fatigue. Most exercise programmes ask you to expend a lot of energy; yoga, by contrast, helps you to conserve your energy so fatigue lessens.
• Yoga can help lift depression. The sense of well being brought about when we practice yoga can greatly help lift the depression which is often associated with MS.
• Yoga has a beneficial affect on all body systems, improving their function. The respiratory system is strengthened, digestion improves, immunity is enhanced, the nervous system is soothed.
• Yoga stretches keep joints from becoming stiff and muscles from becoming weaker. People with an illness are often afraid to use their bodies, so the mind limits the body. However, the beauty of yoga is that the simplest stretches are often the most effective. Moreover, yoga postures can be modified to suit everybody regardless of how disabled a person is. Yoga can be practiced from a wheelchair or even a bed.
• Yoga breathing techniques along with meditation rest the brain. When you have MS, the brain becomes both excited and fatigued at the same time and so it is important to rest it by focusing on the breath.
• Yoga does not need any fancy equipment, you can practice at home.
• Yoga improves sleep patterns and promotes a feeling of well being.

I Lost Weight: Jennifer Hodges Got Hooked On Group Fitness Classes And Lost 212 Pounds

Name: Jennifer Hodges
Age: 41
Height: 5'8"
Before Weight: 369 pounds

How I Gained It: I was addicted to fast and processed food. And I led a very sedentary lifestyle. Food filled a void for me. A void left by working parents, a lack of friends. I ate because I was bored. I ate because I was lonely. I ate because I could. I just ate. The bigger I got, the more I ate and the worse I would eat. I think a lot of the eating habits stemmed from growing up in the restaurant business, having food available all the time. I would feel good when I was eating, but as soon as I was done, I would feel horrible.

 So I just didn’t stop.

I would eat a large bagel (or two) loaded with cream cheese for breakfast, a large take-out sub/fast food for lunch, then stop on the way home from school/work and get another fast-food meal and then stop at the gas station for a candy bar. Then go home for dinner, and then just eat for the rest of the night. Once I got home it was like an all-night buffet. I just didn’t stop eating: ice cream, chips, pizza. I always felt that people were judging me and talking about me when I would grocery shop, or be out with my kids and feeding them vegetables while I am munching away on a candy bar.

Breaking Point: When I fell in the backyard and couldn't get up. My three young children had to run inside the house to get my husband. He had to roll me on a blanket and drag me inside. That was my "a-ha" moment. I knew I needed to change my lifestyle not only for myself, but for my entire family.

How I Lost It: I enrolled in a gym. I started out very slowly. I began at the gym on the recumbent bicycle, but I longed to get into the group fitness room. I could see the room from my bike and I just couldn’t wait to get in there, but I was so worried what other people might think about me. Finally after about three months I decided I didn’t care anymore what other people thought. This journey was for me and my family, not for other people. In January 2009, I took my first Les Mills group fitness class: Body Step. I was very nervous, and I was too big and too out of shape to use the step, so I just did the moves on the floor. I also spoke to my instructor, told her of my goals and my limitations and together we came up with a signal that I could give her so she could show me an easier option. After three months, I started using the step. I was feeling more confident in myself and in my body. I had people in my class noticing that I was losing weight, and I started to make some friends in the group fitness class. I also started adding BODYPUMP to my routine right around this three-month mark. Soon after I was able to do two hours of consecutive exercise; cardio and strength. And I loved it! I loved the person I was becoming.

The athlete in me started to emerge. So I started trying other Les Mills classes, like BODYCOMBAT and RPM. My body started to change shape; I was becoming leaner, fitter, a better person on the outside and the inside. Group fitness has forever changed my life. Now, nearly four years later, I am a BODYPUMP and RPM addict! I also love the core training program CXWORX. CXWORX has made me a more efficient runner and overall athlete. And I have made great friends with my group fitness buddies! We cheer each other on and motivate each other.

I also totally changed my diet and started paying close attention to what I was putting in my body. I gave up all processed and fast food -- all of it! Now, I try to be somewhat creative with my meals, but I never learned how to cook when I was younger, so this is all new to me! I have several cookbooks and my husband gives me lessons, too. He is a very good cook and makes wonderfully healthy meals. I'll have an egg-white omelete with spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers and tomatoes for breakfast with a slice of Ezekial bread. Lunch is generally my largest meal of the day, lean protein like fish, chicken or shrimp on a bed of greens, or a salad with a lot of beans. For dinner, I usually have whole wheat pasta, brown rice, quinoa or couscous with lean protein. And during the day I snack on all sorts of fruit. Apples, bananas and mangoes are my favorite. At night, I occasionally have some air-popped popcorn or a frozen yogurt bar.

My life is completely different. I run marathons, triathlons, and participate in endurance challenges and mud runs. And more importantly, I can play with my kids. We go on family bike rides and run 5Ks together. It's a great life, and I enjoy every moment of it.

After Weight: 157 pounds

Why Can't I Stop Eating At Night?

What does it mean when you crave food in the middle of the night? I can eat nutritiously all day, but come one, two, three in the morning, I am starving to death and I have to EAT. I bring fruit, crackers and a vegetable/fruit smoothie up every night or I'll be up and down the stairs all through the night.
I exercise at least five days a week and for the most part maintain a healthy diet. Any thoughts or suggestions?
-- Allison

Allison is hardly alone in her late-night eating habit. We talked to nutritionists and sleep experts to get a better sense of what causes us to break into the fridge in the wee hours. Turns out, there are many conditions that can cause this type of eating, but they have markedly different symptoms.

"It could be something called night eating syndrome, which is also associated with lack of appetite in early morning," says Joseph Kaplan, director of the Mayo Sleep Center at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. "It happens when the body's clock is on one schedule for being awake and sleep and different schedule for when they get hungry."

No one knows what causes the condition, but those who have it do have some commonalities: it's more prevalent in obese patients, those with anxiety and depression and, according to Kaplan, higher leptin levels among obese night eaters. Leptin is the hormone secreted by fat cells that signals to the brain that the body has reached satiety.

There's more evidence that night eating syndrome may be centered in neural hormonal cycles: extreme cases of night eating symptom have been successfully treated with the SSRI Zoloft, which affects the area of the brain that controls the sleep-wake and eating cycles, Kaplan explained.
Night eating syndrome is dangerous because it leads to weight gain and because it is disruptive to the sleep cycle. If someone is waking up in the middle of the night, they can't properly move through their sleep cycles, what Kaplan terms "sleep architecture": three stages of non-REM and REM sleep that are necessary to be properly rested.

Anyone concerned about night eating syndrome should speak to a doctor, Kaplan counsels, where diminishing potential stressors and sources of anxiety should be the first areas of inquiry. "Look carefully at stressors, anxiety, depression -- talk to a doctor about those possibilities," says Kaplan. "See a dietician to control calories. And if it's still a problem, drug therapy can be considered. Also, Bright light therapy has worked in a few cases."

The relationship to anxiety could be a lot similar, says Dr. Loren Greene, a clinical associate professor in the Endocrinology Division of the Department of Medicine at NYU. "You're anxious, so you don't sleep well and then it's comforting to eat something."

But Greene suspected something else at play: reactive hypoglycemia. While a healthy person will emit insulin and experience blood sugar changes immediately following a meal as a reaction to the glucose they ate, those who are pre-diabetic may have a delayed insulin secretion, causing a disruption in sleep.

"If you eat a late dinner, say 10 p.m. with a dessert, some times you start putting out insulin in the middle of the night which can cause your blood sugar to peak and drop," Greene says. She recommended that, as a diagnostic measure, nighttime eaters should ask their doctors for a blood sugar test kit. When they wake up, they can prick a finger and see their blood sugar level. If it's low, they can assess why: while it could be a combination of pre-diabetes and late eating, it could also be one of the several medications that cause low blood sugar.

There are several other conditions that can be associated with nocturnal eating. Greene pointed to a case study of a night eater who had a tumor that affected her pituitary center -- the brain region related to feelings of satiety, but stressed that this was highly unusual. Binge eaters may also pick late night for their extra meals.

Given the healthy lifestyle Allison described and the lack of details about stressors, BMI and more, the best solution, agreed both doctors was to go to her general practitioner armed with as many observations about the night eating habits as possible.

Stress-Busters For Better Sleep - I

That looming work deadline you're not close to meeting. Your crazy mother-in-law. The election.
Stress. We all have it -- and aside from being uncomfortable during the waking hours, it could be keeping you up at night. In fact, a full 65 percent of Americans report losing sleep because of stress, according to findings from the Better Sleep Council.

"[Stress] is the single most common thing that causes people to have trouble getting to sleep," says Joe Ojile, M.D., founder and CEO of the Clayton Sleep Institute in St. Louis, Mo. and a board member of the National Sleep Foundation.

But the good news, according to one new study, is that spending time undoing the day's stress before bed can help actually you sleep better. The findings, presented at the CHEST 2012 conference earlier this week, suggest that a 10-minute stress-reduction technique can help to alleviate stress and improve sleep quality.
Researchers from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. taught 334 study participants a bedtime technique involving deep breathing and imagery, which they dubbed a "tension tamer." Sixty-five percent of the volunteers reported decreased stress after trying out the new method -- and that group also reported better sleep.

"A novel stress reduction technique, the 10-minute Tension Tamer, can reduce perceived stress levels in a majority of subjects resulting in improved sleep quality, decreased sleep latency and improved fatigue," the authors wrote in their abstract.

While the findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal (meaning we should consider them preliminary), working to cut back on stress before bed is a great way to help you sleep better, Ojile explains. And while this study focused on imagery and deep breathing, that's definitely not the only effective option.

"The act of doing it is a much more important issue than which thing is done," he says. So we asked Ojile to talk through a few other 10-minute techniques worth trying. But first it's worth noting what not to do: Skip reading work emails from bed, which will only agitate you, and keep the television in another room. "The bedroom should be completely devoid of any stimulus," he says.

Read through these suggestions, then tell us: What do you do when you're too stressed to sleep?

Skipping Breakfast Could Make You Want More High-Calorie Foods, Study Suggests

If skipping breakfast has ever left you with a craving for some high-calorie mac and cheese or a big, juicy burger, a small new study might explain the reason why.

Researchers at the MRC Clinical Science Centre at Imperial College in London found that there is more brain activation in response to high-calorie items when a person has skipped breakfast, compared with when a person has had their morning meal.

"Through both the participants' MRI results and observations of how much they ate at lunch, we found ample evidence that fasting made people hungrier, and increased the appeal of high-calorie foods and the amount people ate," study researcher Dr. Tony Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., said in a statement.

The study included 21 male volunteers who were asked not to eat anything before coming in for the study for two visits. On one visit, they were fed a 750-calorie breakfast before undergoing an MRI brain scan where they looked at images of high-calorie foods. They were then fed lunch.

The second visit, they weren't fed any breakfast before undergoing the brain scan where they looked at high-calorie foods. After the brain scans, they were fed lunch.

Researchers found that activity in the orbitofrontal cortex -- the part of the brain that plays a part in reward and pleasantness from food -- was different when the participants were fed breakfast, compared with when they fasted from breakfast.

Specifically, researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortex was more activated when the participants hadn't eaten breakfast.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience; because it has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, its findings should be regarded as preliminary.

The findings back up prior research on negative ways skipping breakfast can affect your body and brain.

Sleep Position And Personality: Is There A Tie? Experts Not So Sure

Side. Stomach. Back. Fetal: Most people have a preferred sleeping position. But can the way you get shut-eye say something about your personality?

Several news outlets including the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and Fox have recently cited research that asserts a direct connection between sleeping positions and psychological characteristics.

But some experts say there is little evidence to back up the claims. And as it turns out, the recently cited "research" is actually a survey -- conducted by a hotel chain -- about the most common sleep positions.
Robert Phipps, a U.K.-based body language specialist, then gave an analysis he says was akin to a horoscope.

"Yes, it was never meant to be taken seriously and there was no research on my part," Phipps told The Huffington Post in an email.

The analysis in question linked sleep positions with different personality characteristics. As the Telegraph reported:

People who sleep in the fetal position are "worriers." (The tighter they curl up, the more comfort they're supposedly seeking.) Those who sleep on their stomachs, with their arms stretched are "free fallers. (They reportedly feel their lives are out of their control.) "Yearners" -- those who sleep on their sides, with their arms outstretched -- have a dream-chasing nature about them. And "Logs," those who sleep straight, have rigid personalities.

Despite the idea of a "sleep-o-scope" sounding somewhat far-fetched, this isn't first time personality types and sleep positions have been linked.

According to Dr. Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, in the 1940s, there was an article by a psychiatrist who claimed side-sleepers lacked moral fiber. The article prompted Idzikowski's decision to research whether there was any link between personality traits and sleep position, he told HuffPost in an email.

Idzikowski surveyed 1,004 British subjects about their preferred sleeping positions and asked them to check boxes with adjectives they felt described their personalities. Through factor analysis of the data, Idzikowski found an association between certain sleep positions and certain psychological traits.

The BBC reported on the results in 2003: Those who sleep in fetal position were said to be tough on the outside but sensitive on the inside, for example. "Log" sleepers were found to be easy-going and social.

"Yearners" were open, cynical and slow to make up their minds. "Free fallers" were outgoing but thin-skinned and did not like criticism.

Still, Idzikowski's research relied on self-evaluations, and he said that when the survey was conducted among a group of Southeast Asians, the archetypes no longer held up.

Philip Gehrman, a professor of psychiatry and a member of the Penn Sleep Center, expressed doubts over whether there's deep meaning behind how people sleep.

"You can't argue with the fact that they did in fact find a correlation between sleeping position and personality," Gehrman told HuffPost. "[But] the link between sleeping [position] and personality is unlikely to be anywhere near strong enough to make those kinds of statements."

So what does influence the way people sleep? According to Gehrman, it's simply personal preference.
"It's really just a matter [of whether] you are comfortable," he said.

According to Dr. Stuart Quan, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, it would be difficult for people to have their personalities tied to one sleep position, because most people move around in their sleep.

"They will toss and turn. They're naturally switching positions," Quan said. "People who say 'I only sleep on my side, my left side,' they tend to move."

On the other hand, correlations between sleep positions and quality of sleep can exist, according to Quan, but such ties are likely the result of pre-existing health conditions.

Sleep apnea, for example, a disorder in which people experience irregular breathing during sleep, can be made worse by sleeping on one's back, Quan said. Heartburn, too, is another condition that could be made worse by the position a person sleeps.

What can influence the quality of sleep, according to Quan, is what people do while they are awake.

"Nicotine is a stimulant. If you exercise right before you go to sleep, you tend to be hyped," Quan explained.

"Even if you get into an argument with your partner and then you try to go to sleep, those are obviously things that affect people trying to go to sleep."

Caffeine, medications and exposure to certain light -- like that of a laptop -- can all sabotage the potential for a good night's sleep. As a result, Quan discourages people from checking emails or watching television right before bed.

"We tell people the bedroom is for two things and they both start with S," said Quan. "The other things should be omitted and should be done somewhere else."

Can't sleep? Michael Decker, Michael Decker, Ph.D., an associate professor at Georgia State University and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, breaks down which old-fashioned remedies really work.

10 Tips to Start Living Now

Do you dream about being in a relationship, but your weight isn't ideal so you choose to hibernate? Do you long to make a career move, but are paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong decision? Do you want to have a family, but feel your life needs to be in "perfect" order first? Do you wish to visit a particular destination, but put it off because feel the trip is too indulgent? Now ask yourself this: If tomorrow were your last day on Earth, would you have any regrets? Are you living in the future and ignoring the present?

"Live for the moment" is a statement we have all heard, and it is usually followed by, "because you never know if it will be your last." When we hear this we usually pause, reflect and resonate with this statement. We might even vow to change a certain behavior or act on a particular goal, but usually this is short-lived and we resort to our old habits, fears and motivations. Then we feel stuck and full of regrets. But why?

We live in a world with to-do lists, goals that may not be our own and responsibilities that may outweigh our wants and needs. Oftentimes, we are taking care of others before we even acknowledge our own desires. To make matters worse, fear tends to rise to the forefront and it may present itself as the "rational" decision, when instead it is just the safe choice. You may want to leave your job, but fear tells you it is not the reasonable choice. The key is to drown out the negativity and strike a balance between the "shoulds" and the wants. It is one thing to be a responsible person, and another to be living your life for someone else entirely or waiting for the perfect set of circumstances for your life to truly begin.

I have a holistic health practice, and I work with clients on their physical and emotional health. I have a client who has an incredible heart and many gifts, but she was unable to recognize them or even utilize them. She was waiting for marriage for her life to begin and as a result, she was not nurturing her gifts -- working with children and art. She ignored her creative side and her giving nature and instead made dating and husband-hunting her priority. She had a preconceived notion that her career would not be financially lucrative, and she needed a partner to share the burden. As a result, her career was on hold, she was meeting the wrong men, her health was suffering and her spirit was empty. We worked for several months on recapturing her passion and taking action steps to live in the now. She went back to school for art therapy and guess whom she met there? Her husband.

Many times we don't believe that it is possible to have our dream life, or we feel we don't deserve it. We make plans, but we rarely take action today. We even talk ourselves out of our vision because it seems easier to coast along a stream rather than risk a potential current.

But living in the future does not ensure a happy life today. Too often, we spend time planning our goals and we forget to be happy now. As a result, we save all of our joy for a day in the future that is not yet guaranteed.

When you think about your wish list for your life, are you living it now? Does everything have to happen in a particular order? Are you holding onto a certain set of beliefs that no longer suit you? What messages are you sending out into the universe -- are you asking for something, but then finding reasons why it shouldn't happen now?

Vow to begin today with no regrets. Commit to showing the world why you are here. Promise to live with passion. Spread your wings, stretch your spirit and learn to soar. After all, tomorrow is a present to be lived today.

American Couples Having Trouble Sleeping: Survey

In theory, sleeping next to a warm body can provide feelings of comfort, safety and security. But in practice, maybe one bed partner is a snorer, or a couple can't agree on the temperature of the bedroom or one sleeper is always hogging the covers
.
In fact, one in four people say they sleep better alone than in bed with their partner, according to a recent survey from the Better Sleep Council.

The survey was conducted in September, and asked more than 500 Americans age 18 or older and in a committed relationship how -- and how well -- they slept.

Most of the survey respondents, 85 percent, reported at least some trouble sleeping, including a partner who tosses and turns or snores, a bedroom that is too hot or too cold or an uncomfortable mattress. But women were found to be more sensitive to their sleep surroundings than men, with only 12 percent saying they have no trouble sleeping, compared with 20 percent of men who said the same.

So what's a bed-sharing couple to do? If snoring is the big problem, avoiding alcohol before bed and having the offending partner sleep on his or her side might help. Couples who argue over the thermostat might try each using their own blankets. Others might try out sleeping in separate beds or bedrooms.

Healthy Aging: 4 Things You Should Do

Everyone knows by now that eating right, exercising, and shunning smoking and other bad habits increases our chances of having a long and healthy life.

If you're hitting some -- but only some -- of these goals, it's better than nothing. But according to a new study, you're likely missing out on the full benefits that come with living a healthy lifestyle across the board.

In the study, which included 5,100 middle-aged British civil servants, those who engaged in four key behaviors -- not smoking, moderate drinking, exercising regularly, and eating fruits and vegetables daily -- had triple the odds of avoiding disability, chronic disease, or mental health problems over a 16-year period, when compared with people who practiced none of these behaviors.

Each of the four behaviors, practiced on their own, increased the odds of what the researchers termed "successful aging" by 30 percent to 50 percent. When practiced together, however, the behaviors seemed to produce a compound benefit greater than the sum of its parts.

"Individual healthy behaviors are moderately associated with successful aging, but their combined impact is quite substantial," says lead author Séverine Sabia, Ph.D., an epidemiology and public health researcher at University College London, in the UK. "Multiple healthy behaviors appear to increase the chance of reaching old age disease-free and fully functional."

The findings suggest that following a healthy lifestyle is a lot like collecting compound interest on a loan or investment, says Richard Birkel, Ph.D., senior vice president of health at the National Council on Aging, in Washington, D.C.

"By treating our bodies with care and avoiding harmful substances over a long period of time, the health effects are compounded," Birkel says. "Over time, because we are free of disability and illness and have more energy, we are able to live more fully and take on more challenges. ... There seems to be a virtuous chain reaction in which small positives lead to a critical mass of health and well-being."

The idea that healthy behaviors can amplify each other might seem like common sense. (If you exercise daily but eat only fast food, for instance, you're probably not getting maximal results.) But the new research is noteworthy for its scope and its attempt to quantify the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

The study is among the first of its kind to examine the outcomes associated with combinations of behaviors in midlife, rather than specific health measures (such as body mass index) that reflect those behaviors, says S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., a professor of public health at the Center on Aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

What's more, the outcomes used in the study were unusually comprehensive. Sabia and her colleagues defined successful aging using five separate dimensions of health: cognitive, mental, physical, respiratory, and cardiovascular. This is a "real strength," Birkel says.

A holistic measure like successful aging "defines a state of being, rather than a set of isolated health outcomes," Birkel adds. "This is, of course, the status we all aspire to as we age -- not just absence of disease or chronic conditions, but having good mental health and being independent and active."

The study, which was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, did have some important limitations. For one, it was an observational study, meaning it shows an association and does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the various health behaviors and outcomes.

And given that some of the participants were only 60 years old at the conclusion of the study, it's hard to know whether the findings -- especially those regarding mental functioning -- will remain steady with time, says Clinton Wright, M.D., a neurologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
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Still, says Birkel, the findings are "very good and reassuring news," and make a strong argument for adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors no matter how old you are.

This article originally appeared on Health.com.

Beans Could Help Control Blood Pressure, Reduce Heart Risks For Diabetes Patients: Study 

Beans really may be a magical fruit -- a new study in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine shows that for Type 2 diabetes patients, the more legumes you eat, the better your glycemic control and the lower your risk of coronary heart disease.

"We know from our previous research that foods low on the glycemic index scale are helpful in lowering blood glucose levels," study researcher Dr. David Jenkins, director of the St. Michael's Hospital's Risk Factor Modification Centre, said in a statement. "But this is the first study of its kind to specially look at legumes' effect on cardiovascular risk factors and find they also have a blood pressure lowering effect in diabetic patients."

The study was funded by the Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program, via the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and the Pulse Research Network (PURENet). The authors have also worked for, been part of, or received grants in the past from a number of agriculture groups and food companies.

Researchers found specifically that eating about a cup a day of legumes (190 grams) -- which include beans, peas and lentils -- is linked with lower blood pressure levels, which is important because "blood pressure is a big contributor to renal failure in these patients," Jenkins said in the statement.

The study included 121 people with Type 2 diabetes, whose measurements -- including blood pressure, blood fat, blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C levels (which determines diabetes control) -- were taken at the start of the study. Then, for three months, some of the participants ate a low-glycemic index diet, as well as one cup more per day of legumes, while others ate a healthy diet with whole-wheat foods to boost their intake of insoluble fiber.

Then, the participants' measurements were taken again at the end of the study period. While the whole-wheat group experienced benefits in blood fat, blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C levels, the legume group experienced benefits in all these groups plus blood pressure.

Legumes are considered very low-glycemic foods. The glycemic index, which was developed by Jenkins, is used to determine the level at which a food will spike blood sugar levels. For example, foods like white bread are high on the glycemic index scale because they cause blood sugar levels to rise; apples and legumes are low on the scale because they tend to stabilize levels.

However, in a related commentary published in the same journal, Marion J. Franz of Nutrition Concepts by Franz Inc. noted that the role of a low-glycemic index on diabetes has been controversial, with some recent studies showing that there may not be a difference in low-glycemic index and high-glycemic index diets in hemoglobin A1C levels.
However, Franz noted, legumes are known to be part of a healthy diet -- the question is just whether legumes seem to have this benefit for diabetes patients because of its low glycemic index status, or because legumes are high in soluble fiber.

Franz wrote:

Nutrition therapy for DM is effective. However, just as there is no 1 medication or insulin regimen appropriate for all persons with DM, there is no 1 nutrition therapy intervention. A variety of nutrition therapy interventions have been shown to be effective. Nutrition education and counseling must be sensitive to the personal needs and cultural preferences of individuals and their ability to make and sustain lifestyle changes.

These findings come out at the same time as a new study in the journal Circulation, showing that more adults in the U.S. are getting their blood pressure levels under control -- 47 percent in 2010, compared with 29 percent a decade ago.

 

What's Your Health Turnoff?

When it comes to standards of health, there are the by-the-book rules, like eating enough servings of fruits and veggies and shooting for 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity five times a week.
Then, there are the rules we adopt as our own, like how it's absolutely imperative to brush your teeth immediately after waking up or that clean hands include manicured fingernails.

Sure, not everyone has the same standards of "health," as one Twitter follower reminded us. But that's what's so fun about sharing our rules. When it comes to dating, one person's deal breaker could be another person's biggest turn on.

For some of us, a health turnoff could be smoking or hitting the vending machine too often. For others, it's a volatile temper or eating meat -- or not eating meat! We put together a list of our biggest health turnoffs, and asked our Twitter followers and Facebook fans to weigh in
.

Acupuncture Could Play Role In Treating Parkinson's Symptoms, Study Suggests

Acupuncture may help a wide range of conditions, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, to chronic pain, to dry mouth in cancer patients, studies have shown. And it could even help people quit smoking!

Now, in a small new study first reported by Medical News Today, it seems it could also play a role in improving symptoms of Parkinson's disease patients because of its effect on particular regions of the brain.

Specifically, the study, published in the journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, shows that acupuncture boosts the responses of neurons in brain regions known to be impaired by Parkinson's disease.

"Although more randomized controlled trials on the topic will be needed, this study shows that acupuncture may be helpful in the treatment of symptoms involving PD," the researchers, from Kyung Hee University in Korea, said in the study.

The study included 12 people with Parkinson's disease, as well as 12 people without the condition. Researchers conducted fMRI brain scans on all of them at the start of the study, and then the study participants underwent acupuncture treatments. After the acupuncture, researchers conducted fMRI brain scans on them again.

Researchers found that post-acupuncture, the brain regions of the putamen, caudate, thalamus and substantia nigra all had increased neural activity. These brain regions are known to be affected by Parkinson's disease, they noted.

10 Office Personalities That May Be Sabotaging Your Diet

"We didn't take the M&M's away. We just made them a little more difficult to get to."

Google's minor change in the kitchen, People & Innovation Lab Manager Jennifer Kurkoski told Wired, has resulted in 3.1 million fewer calories consumed by employees in the New York City office.

M&M's might not be the problem in your office. Maybe it's a free vending machine or a colleague's candy dish or an endless stream of gourmet food trucks outside the building. And while being at the office can provide opportunities to eat healthfully -- think well-planned, brown-bag lunches or no access to the goodies waiting in your fridge at home -- it's not always a bastion of nutrition.

In fact, a number of common office personalities can become real diet saboteurs if you don't take action. We spoke to Elisa Zied, R.D., C.D.N., registered dietitian and founder and president of Zied Health Communications, about some of the most common ones we've encountered, plus how to make sure you don't overdo it.

For many of the following scenarios, she says, a couple of general strategies can help. First, make your own health goals and rules the top priority. "It's important not to feel pressure to eat," says Zied. "You kind of have to be happy with who you are and not let other people influence what you eat just to be cool. We're grown ups!"

Then, plan ahead as much as possible with some go-to excuses you can use as scenarios come up. You can say you had a big breakfast, or you can even say you have a family history of heart disease. Try explaining that with certain foods you feel like if you have one, you'll eat the whole box, says Zied.

Also, plan ahead as much as possible when it comes to what you will actually eat, she says. "The more you plan ahead for what you're going to eat and how often you’re going to eat, the more in control you'll feel, you won't be as rattled by the sudden food that's in your office," she says. "And if you do have it, you can know to cut back at dinner or have a healthier breakfast the next day."

But what about when you are rattled by sudden food in the office or by a spontaneous happy hour invitation?
It's tough to know when you'll feel vulnerable to indulge -- or who will be the personality to rope you in. But there are some times to definitely be on your toes. Stress, like from a looming deadline, can make you particularly vulnerable to craving attacks, says Zied, as can the mid-afternoon when you're dragging and sapped of energy. The sweeter and fattier the food is, the more likely you are to really want it, she adds, but these aren't the foods that will energize you and nourish you to finish out the day at your physical and mental best.

Tell us in the comments: Do you recognize any of these scenarios at your office?

How to Choose the Healthiest Salad Greens

Headed to a hoppin’ salad bar for lunch? Chances are there will be handfuls of fresh greens up for grabs, from romaine and iceberg to spinach and red leaf lettuce. But when it comes to choosing the healthiest salad base, which types of lettuce pack the biggest nutritional punch?

Seeing Green — The Need-to-Know

Photo by Jordan Shakeshaft

Sorry sandwich lovers, but a few shreds of lettuce on a bun won’t add up to the USDA’s daily recommended intake (2-3 cups for most adults). Instead, a big, healthy salad is one of the smartest ways to go green. Coming in at under 10 calories per cup, a big bowl of leaves can be a stellar source of vitamins A, C, K, and folate, among other essential nutrients.

But not all leafy greens will build a super-nutritious salad. In fact, America’s favorite lettuce, iceberg, ranks the lowest in nutritional value across the board (96 percent water content will do that!). Turbo-charged spinach, on the other hand, boasts nearly twice the recommended daily value of vitamin K, half the recommended value of vitamin A, and ample  amounts of calcium and iron. Clearly, Popeye was on to something.

Prefer a crunchier base? A cup of romaine is a tasty alternative, with a huge dose of vitamin A and a variety of other nutrients. Or, for a mild but textured bed, red leaf lettuce clocks in at just 4 calories per cup, with nearly half of the daily recommended dose of vitamins A and K. Arugula (technically a cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, kale, and cabbage) also packs a healthy dose of nutrients and phytochemicals, which may inhibit the development of certain cancers. And for the non-committal types, mixed greens (typically a mix of romaine, oak leaf lettuce, arugula, frisée, and radicchio) offer, well, a mixed bag of nutritional benefits, depending on the batch.

Salad for Salad — Your Guide to Greens

Which greens are the best bet? Check out the infographic below for the nutritional low-down.

Graphic by Caitlin Covington

Winning the Toss – Your Action Plan

Consider visiting the salad bar a free pass to join the dark side. Research shows that darker “loose” or “open leaf” lettuces (such as romaine, red leaf, and butterhead) contain more antioxidants and nutrients than the typically lighter-colored, more tightly-packed heads (such as iceberg). The reason? The darker leaves are able to absorb more light and, in turn, synthesize more vitamins. And while there’s no good way to pick and choose a store-bought salad leaf for leaf, at home, opting for the tops and outer leaves can guarantee a more nutritious base.

Ready to go darker (and healthier) still? While they’re not stocked at most salad bars, check the produce aisle for tougher roughage like Swiss chard and kale, which beat out even spinach in the antioxidant game. Be sure to give the leaves a good cold rinse before serving raw, boiled, or steamed, as the folds in these greens tend to accumulate dirt more easily than other veggies. Also keep in mind that high heat can strip veggies of their natural vitamin content. The final key to becoming a lean, green fighting machine? Dress for success. Hold off on the creamy dressings, croutons, bacon bits, and layers of shredded cheese. Instead, opt for a lighter vinaigrette and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds for added crunch and protein.

What’s in your go-to healthy salad? Will  you rethink your choice of lettuce? Share your thoughts (and go-green tips!) in the comments below.

The Healthiest Salad Greens

Think you mix a mean salad? While we applaud everyone for getting their greens, not all salads are created equal!

Comparing iceberg and romaine is a little easier than comparing, say, apples and oranges. In general, leafy greens are rich in fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C, among other essential nutrients.

"No matter what type it is, it's going to offer you some nutrition," says Rachel Berman, R.D., director of nutrition at caloriecount.com. It's also worth mentioning that leafy greens don't contain some of the biggest nutrition offenders, namely fat and sodium. "You get a lot of bang for caloric buck," says Berman. "By pairing any meal with a side salad, you're helping yourself become satiated on fewer calories."

Keep in mind that no salad is complete without at least a little fat. A study from earlier this year found that the nutrients in greens and other veggies are best absorbed when eaten with a bit of (healthy) fat, like that in avocados, nuts or olive oil.

But creating the best base is important, too. That's why we asked Berman to share her thoughts on the best and worst picks for salad greens in the slideshow below. Although a blend of a few different greens is probably the healthiest bet of all, she says; that way you get the various benefits of a few different options.

Of course, the size of your salad will affect the amount of nutrients those greens deliver. The typical side salad is likely around two cups or 100 grams, says Berman, but, especially with the popularity of chopped salads, yours could pack up to four cups of leafy greens.

Vitamin C Protects Against Osteoporosis By Preventing Bone Loss, Mouse Study Shows

Vitamin C may have protective effects osteoporosis, according to a new study in mice.

If replicated in people, the findings could have "profound public health implications," study researcher Dr. Mone Zaidi, M.D., a professor and director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bone Program, said in a statement. "What this study shows is that large doses of vitamin C, when ingested orally by mice, actively stimulate bone formation to protect the skeleton. It does this by inducing osteoblasts, or premature bone cells, to differentiate into mature, mineralizing specialty cells."

The PLoS ONE study was conducted in two sets of mice -- one group had had their ovaries removed, a procedure that is known to decrease bone mineral density. The other had "sham" ovary removal surgeries, so their bone mineral density was not decreased.

Then, the researchers split up the mice that had their ovaries removed into two groups. One group received a large amount of vitamin C over an eight-week period, while the other was not.

Researchers found that the mice that had had their ovaries removed but were not given vitamin C had lower bone mineral density than those that received the vitamin C.

Plus, the mice that had their ovaries removed and took the vitamin C had similar bone mineral density levels as the mice that had the sham ovary removals, according to the study.

However, the researchers noted that more studies must be done to see if the findings also apply to humans. But "if so, the findings could be ultimately useful to developing nations where osteoporosis is prevalent and standard medications are sparse and expensive," Zaidi said in the statement.

In 2008, a study from Tufts University showed a link between high vitamin C and less bone loss in elderly men, though the results were not seen in women, WebMD reported.

The researcher of that Journal of Nutrition study, Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D., told WebMD that vitamin C's powers may come from its antioxidant effects: "Antioxidants are needed to protect against oxidative stress, therefore protecting against inflammation. Inflammation drives bone resorption, which is basically taking calcium away from the bones. Vitamin C, theoretically, should help slow that resorption."

Banana Boat recalls sunscreen over fire risk

WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of Banana Boat sunscreen is recalling some half-million bottles of spray-on lotion after reports that a handful of people have caught on fire after applying the product and coming in contact with an open flame.

Energizer Holdings said Friday that it is pulling 23 varieties of UltraMist sunscreen off store shelves due to the risk of the lotion igniting when exposed to fire.

The recall includes aerosol products like UltraMist Sport, UltraMist Ultra Defense and UltraMist Kids.

A company spokesman said there have been five reports of people suffering burns after using the sunscreen in the last year. Four burn cases were reported in the U.S. and one in Canada.

More than 20 million units have been sold since UltraMist launched in 2010, the spokesman said.

The problem appears to be caused by UltraMist's spray valve, which is over applying the product, Energizer said in a statement. As a result the lotion is taking longer to dry, which raises the flammability risk.

"If a consumer comes into contact with a flame or spark prior to complete drying of the product on the skin, there is a potential for the product to ignite," the company said.

UltraMist's label warns users: "Keep away from sources of ignition — no smoking."

But dermatologists say most people don't read such labels.

"So many people put this on outside, while they're on their way to activities, so I just don't think people are aware of that," said Michele Green, a dermatologist at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.

Green said aerosol sunscreens have become popular in recent years because they're faster and easier to apply than traditional creams.

Doctors and burn experts said Friday the problem appears to be extremely rare.

"I've been doing this for 30 years and I've never seen or heard of this happening before," said Darrel Rigel, professor of dermatology at New York University. Rigel pointed out that the flammable ingredients in aerosol — including alcohol — are common to many products, including hairspray and spray-on deodorants.

"I think you just have to use common sense and not be near an open fire when you put on aerosol anything," said Rigel, a past president of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Dan Dillard, executive director of the Burn Prevention Network, said the group was contacted earlier this year about two burns related to spray-on sunscreen. One case involved a man who was standing near a barbecue grill, the other involved a woman working with welding equipment. Both cases resulted in second and third degree burns.

"We've found no evidence of this happening before the incidents that came to our attention," Dillard said.
St. Louis-based Energizer Holdings said it has notified the Food and Drug Administration about the recall, which it undertook voluntarily.

Consumers who purchased the products are being told not to use them. More information is available from the manufacturer at 1-800-SAFESUN.

Multivitamins may lower cancer risk in men

Taking a daily multivitamin could slightly decrease men's risk of cancer, according to a large new study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study, conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is based on 14,641 male doctors ages 50 and older who participated in the Physicians' Health Study II. Some of the men were randomly assigned to take a daily multivitamin between 1997 and 2011, while others were assigned not to.

By the end of the study period, 2,669 new cases of cancer had developed, of which 1,373 cases were of prostate cancer and 210 cases were of colorectal cancer.

Overall, researchers found that the men who were assigned to take a daily multivitamin had an 8 percent lower cancer occurrence compared with those who didn't take the multivitamin.

Specifically, researchers didn't find that multivitamin use had any effect on the men's prostate cancer risk (even though prostate cancer was the most common cancer to affect them on a whole). However, multivitamin use was associated with a 12 percent lower risk of developing other cancers in the study.
Researchers also found that the risk of dying from cancer was 12 percent lower among men who took the daily multivitamins, but they said that this decreased risk was not statistically significant.

"This study suggests, at least for men, that there might be benefits to taking multivitamins in terms of cancer as well," study researcher Dr. John Michael Gaziano, M.D., the chief of the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a statement. However, they did note that the observed benefits were modest, and more research is needed to see how multivitamin use impacts men over a longer period of time, as well as whether multivitamin use has any effect in women's cancer risk.

Balz Frei, a professor and director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University who was not involved in the research, said in a statement commenting on the study that percent decrease in cancer risk is "not small."

"Given that more than 1.6 million new cancer cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, this translates into about 130,000 cancers prevented every year, and with it all the health care costs and human suffering," Frei said in the statement.

Multivitamins are extremely pervasive in American culture, with one in three U.S. adults taking one every day, Next Avenue reported.

Past research on multivitamins has been mixed. For example, an Archives of Internal Medicine study last year of more than 38,000 women showed that supplement use was linked with a 2.4 percent higher risk of death during a 19-year-period, MyHealthNewsDaily reported.

Specifically for multivitamins, 40.8 percent of women who took a multivitamin every day died by the end of the study period, compared with 39.8 percent of women who did not take a daily multivitamin, according to MyHealthNewsDaily.

"Our study, as well as other similar studies, have provided very little evidence that commonly used dietary supplements would help to prevent chronic diseases," study researcher Jaakko Mursu, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, told MyHealthNewsDaily. "We would advise people to reconsider whether they need to use supplements, and put more emphasis on a healthy diet instead."

And a 2010 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition actually found an increased risk of cancer among women who took a daily multivitamin, CNN reported. That study included 35,000 women in Sweden (between ages 49 and 83), and showed that breast cancer risk was 19 percent higher among women who took a daily multivitamin compared with women who didn't by the end of the 10-year study.

U.S. News reported that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force doesn't have a recommendation one way or another on multivitamin use -- it neither recommends them, nor recommends against them. However, there's still a lot to know, and experts generally recommend talking to your doctor to see if you need to take a multivitamin or another daily supplement due to deficiencies.