feellove

Planning a Vacation Can Make You Happier Than the Vacation Itself

2010-02-20T22:58:57Z

What better news than how to be happy? Recent quality of life research reported in Well, a New York Times blog, reports that it's not the vacation that makes you happy, but the planning. While maybe not earth-shattering, this is good news if you have neither the time nor resources to go on vacation. The happiness boosting effects of vacation planning lasted for up to eight weeks. In a surprising contrast, most people who took vacations ended up no happier after taking them, and if they did, the effect was short lived, up to two weeks.

The study authors surveyed more than 1500 adults in the Netherlands with pre- and post-vacation surveys. Those who reported increased levels of happiness after a trip did so if they had a "very relaxing" trip. Those whose trips were self-reported as "relaxing," "neutral" or "stressful" did not become happy from their trip. The reasons for this, as proposed by the study authors, include stress on the trip or the stress of returning to work.

The study authors suggested making the most out of the happiness boosting effects of trip planning by taking a few short trips a year instead of one longer trip, so that you can plan more frequently. They also suggested talking about the trip plans or discussing them online... perhaps blogging?

So let's hear about the trips you are planning, either in reality or in your wildest fantasies. It may be good for you.

Age Defying and Immune Supporting Fungi- Chaga

2010-02-18T05:06:36Z

Image via Wikipedia Photo of Paul Stamets holding an Agarikon Mushroom from an old growth forest.

As someone with a struggling immune system, I am always on the lookout for the latest anti oxidant, immune booster. This past week my friend and raw food guru, Share Ross, of the RawPirateGourmet.com, turned me on to one of the most powerful of all the mushrooms, chaga.

Mushrooms have long been touted by experts to have numerous health benefits including providing anti-aging antioxidants and phytonutrient compounds that support a healthy immune system. This botanical family of fungi have powerful nutrients to maintain our health and immunity. In fact if you want to know just how powerful mushrooms can be, I highly recommend watching this video from the TED conference: Paul Stamets on 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World. It will blow your mind!

Anyway, back to chaga.... I just started taking it in extract form, adding 10 drops twice a day to a cup of water. Apparently in a month or two I will begin feeling (and or seeing) the transformation! I am so excited! If you want to try it out or read more about the product

click here!

Wildcrafted Siberian Chaga contains :

Numerous Phytonutrient Nutrient Compounds
Ergo sterol (a Vitamin D2 precursor)
Complex immune activating compounds, especially a high concentration of melanin
Many forms of Beta Glucans (Complex sugars called Polysaccharides)
Saponins, Sterols, Triterpenes, Betulinic Acid, SOD (superoxide dismutase)
Contains Amino Acid Complexes (proteins) and other trace minerals
Melanin, a DNA protector beneficial to maintaing healthy skin
Extremely high antioxidant values measured by ORAC, HORAC and SORAC scales
Compounds shown to support human Natural Killer (NK) Cell activity

Photo above of chaga growing on tree.

When Your Body Is Donated To Science, Involuntarily

2010-02-05T20:32:22Z

Image via Wikipedia

By Linda Shiue

Signing that form at the DMV to state that you volunteer to be an organ donor is a generous act that literally provides a miracle to another person who needs a new heart, lungs, liver, or other vital organ. Donating your body to science so that doctors in training can learn anatomy through an intimate exploration of your preserved body after your death takes that generosity a step further.

But did you know that when you give up a sample of your body, such as when you undergo a biopsy, have a surgical procedure, or donate to a sperm bank, not only are you giving your body parts away to science, but that it is legal for others to profit from your tissue?

This concept, that we do not own our own cells once they are removed from our bodies, is the issue that is explored in a recently published book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown Publishers), by science journalist Rebecca Skloot. Ms. Skloot covers the fascinating true tale of what happened to tumor cells once they were removed from Henrietta Lacks, pictured above, who died of a very aggressive form of cervical cancer in the 1950s. Without the patient's consent and without her family's knowledge until an accidental discovery decades later, Ms. Lacks' tumor cells have been propagated in perpetuity to this day. They were the first set of cells that have been kept immortal in cell cultures. They have been used for a wide variety of groundbreaking scientific and medical research, including in the research and development of treatment for the flu, infertility, the polio vaccine, AIDS, leukemia, among other diseases. The cell line, named HeLa after its source's name, has been shipped to laboratories around the world for the purpose of research. The Johns Hopkins researcher, George Gey, who was the scientist to first grow Ms. Lacks' cells, did not profit from having done so. But since then, HeLa cells have been commercialized, and others have made profits in the millions from selling them. All of this was done without the knowledge or consent of Ms. Lacks' family.

This is legal. When you go in for that procedure, it is standard now (but was not even a consideration in Ms. Lack's lifetime) for patients to sign a form giving informed consent that their tissue samples, once removed, may be used for research purposes. A few important legal cases have reinforced the legality of this practice, and of the fact that you have no right to share in any profits generated from the sale of cells propagated from your tissue. Two important cases were cited by R. Alta Charo, JD, in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006,

"the Moore case of 1988 (concerning rights to share in commercial gain from derivatives of tissue taken without proper informed consent) and the Greenberg case of 2003 (concerning property rights in tissue and genetic information derived from patients' tissues), courts found that state law provided little basis for granting patients a property interest in their voluntarily donated, excised tissue."

Henrietta Lacks' legacy to medical science is invaluable, but she contributed involuntarily. Compared to when she died, you have a lot more control these days over what happens to your body parts, through informed consent. The intriguing issue that remains is that once you give that consent, you no longer own the cells that you have signed away. This brings up legal, ethical and philosophical questions.

Paternity Leave and Paternal Postpartum Depression

2010-01-30T17:37:44Z

New dads in the UK will now be able to take up to six months of paternity leave, under new legislation announced on January 28, 2010. This is in addition to the currently provided 2 weeks of leave at the time of a child's birth. Women will retain their paid nine months leave, but if they choose to return to work after six months, their child's father can take the remaining three months, paid. They can also add on an additional three months unpaid. "Paid" leave means up to 123 British pounds (about $200 USD) per week.

This compares to zero time paid paternal leave for US fathers, and a generous combined leave of up to 12 months in Canada. Sweden and Norway have very generous leave policies, as well, with 16 months paid parental leave, to be divided as desired between the parents. The most generous maternal/paternal leave system is in Lithuania, where new parents are provided 8 weeks of 100% paid leave before the due date, 100% pay in the first year, and 85% in the second year. An additional third year may be taken unpaid, and the leave may be split as desired between the parents. This is in addition to one month of paternal leave immediately after the child's birth.

Paid paternity leave would have several benefits, including extending the time an infant is cared for by his/her own parents. This would also relieve some of the stress of taking care of a newborn off of the new mother, who may prefer, or may need to, return to work earlier rather than staying home. It may also be financially beneficial in the case where the mother outearns her partner. Paid paternity leave would also be a victory for gender equity and shared parenting.

The psychiatry literature also suggests that paid paternity leave may also prevent the development of paternal postpartum depression, which is just starting be studied more extensively. Yes, while not widely known, it is true that new fathers, not just new mothers, can suffer from depression after the birth of a child. This is known as paternal postpartum depression. This disorder was brought into headlines recently when a popular professor at New York University committed suicide, in what was reported to be a possible case of paternal postpartum depression.

What is Postpartum Depression?

Expectant mothers generally feel some anxiety mixed with eager anticipation in the months leading up to their baby's due date, but most women expect to feel mainly joy once the baby is born. Giving birth to a baby is a life-changing event that brings up powerful emotions, including joy and excitement, but often also anxiety and depression. Between 40 and 80 percent of women experience a temporary form of depression after childbirth, known as the "baby blues," which is distinct from postpartum depression. The baby blues are characterized by rapid mood swings that appear within the first few days after delivery, and usually eases within a few weeks with adequate rest and support.

In contrast to the self-limited baby blues, postpartum depression can affect up to 20 percent of women, or one in five mothers. Women who suffer from depression in the first year after a baby's birth have what is known as postpartum depression, characterized by sad mood, crying spells, difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite, and in severe cases, thoughts of suicide. As with the baby blues, hormonal changes after childbirth are one trigger for this condition. A more severe mood disorder in the postpartum period, known as postpartum psychosis, can develop within a few weeks after delivery. The symptoms of postpartum psychosis include the above symptoms as well as confusion, hallucinations, paranoia and attempts to hurt oneself or the baby. Postpartum depression is common and significant enough that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology just issued a recommendation that all pregnant women be screened for depression both during and after pregnancy. Although the baby blues and postpartum depression can affect any woman who has given birth, there are certain risk factors, which include a previous history of depression, marital conflict, stress, childcare issues, and a family member's history of depression.

What is known about paternal postpartum depression?

Not all that much. In fact, the criteria used to formally diagnose this is the same used to diagnose postpartum depression in new mothers. But there is not enough research to know if these criteria are valid for men. Because the existing studies focus heavily on Caucasian, middle-class, married fathers, there is even less known about depression in fathers of different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. That said, the best estimates currently in the psychiatry literature suggest that 4% of new fathers experience postpartum depression. This is based upon a study conducted by Dr. Paul Ramchandani at the University of Oxford, who conducted a study of 26,000 parents in England. The causes of paternal postpartum depression are thought to be similar to the causes in new mothers: stress with the care for a new child, as well as hormonal changes. Some studies have suggested that there is a drop in testosterone levels, as well as other hormones, during a partner's pregnancy. Low testosterone has been correlated to the development of depression. Further, having a partner with postpartum depression greatly increases the chances of the father developing postpartum depression, with a comorbidity rate of between 25-50%.

Why Is Postpartum Depression Important to Diagnose and Treat?

Postpartum depression can directly influence the emotional wellbeing of mothers, marital relationships, mother-infant bonding and infant behavior. Postpartum depression of any degree of severity needs to be treated. Without treatment, recovery may be delayed. Children of women whose postpartum depression is not treated may develop behavioral issues, including difficulty with sleeping and eating, temper tantrums and hyperactivity. In men, there is the additional concern of possible violence: some research has shown that among mothers in the postpartum period, an alarming one-fourth reported violence from their partners with 69 percent being the first occurrence. Further, paternal postpartum depression is a risk factor for child abuse and infanticide.

Could Paid Paternity Leave Prevent Postpartum Depression?

Well established research in maternal postpartum depression underscores the fact that any support which can decrease the stress of being a new mother can reduce the risk of postpartum depression, which is dangerous to both mother and child. As we're finding out, the same can be said for the mental health of the father as well. Childcare issues and a depressed family member are two of the main risk factors for the development of postpartum depression. A guarantee of paid paternal leave will make it possible for new fathers to share more equally in the care of their newborn child. This could ultimately benefit the new father, the new baby, and the family unit as a whole. This is an idea which is long overdue.

__________________________________________________

Resources for New Parents:

Postpartum Support International

www.postpartum.net

1-805-967-7636

Postpartum Men

http://www.postpartummen.com/resources.htm

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255); TTY: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)

Can Weight Loss Drugs Kill You?

2010-01-25T19:43:05Z

By Linda Shiue

Are you dying to lose weight? Would you go so far as to take diet pills? If so, you're in good company. Sales of diet pills, both prescription and non-prescription, topped $1 billion in the US. So it's noteworthy that a recent analysis of the data in a study of one of the newest weight loss prescription medications, sibutramine (Meridia), questions its safety. Based upon this data, the European Medicines Agency went as far to ban its sale in Europe last week. Here in the US, the FDA has required only new labeling until a complete report is available in March. The FDA has asked Abbott Laboratories, the manufacturer of Meridia, to include a warning against it use for people with a history of heart disease, strokes, or uncontrolled hypertension.

Obesity in America

If you are struggling with your weight, you're in the majority. Almost 70% of Americans are overweight or obese, with more than 1/3 of American adults falling into the obese category. According to the CDC, in 2008, only one state (Colorado) had an adult obesity prevalence of less than 20%. Thirty-two states had an obesity prevalence of 25%, and six states had an obesity prevalence of 30%. Medically, the main reason to treat obesity is because it is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers. It is true that some obese people can be "fit" from a cardiovascular and metabolic standpoint, with normal lipids (cholesterol), blood sugar levels, and normal blood pressure. But even in these cases, there are a host of other issues that accompany excess body weight. Obesity contributes to disability by exacerbating back pain, arthritis, acid reflux, and sleep apnea, and can increase the likelihood of having gallstones, among other conditions.

There is no question that losing weight is a difficult process for most, which is why pills start to look tempting. And if diet, exercise, and nutrition counseling fail, or if weight loss surgery is being considered, a trial of weight loss medication should be considered.

What is Meridia and How Does It Work?

Sibutramine, marketed as Meridia in the US and as Reductil in Europe and other parts of the world, works by causing satiety, or the feeling of being full. It does this by altering levels of neurotransmitters, or biochemicals in the brain. In people who complete one year of therapy, the average weight loss is 10 percent of the initial body weight (5 percent more than those who took a placebo treatment). It is labelled for use for up to two years maximum. It is manufactured by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott's global profits from Meridia totaled $300 million last year, according to the New York Times.

What Did The Study Show?

The study, known as the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes, or SCOUT trial, was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of Meridia not just in causing weight loss, but in preventing the consequences of being obese-- cardiovascular disease. This is the first study to look at the efficacy of weight loss drugs for an endpoint other than simply weight loss. The European study looked at over 10,000 subjects who had cardiovascular risk factors, including known cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension, for six years. About 11.4% of these high-risk patients who took Meridia during the study period had a cardiovascular outcome- heart attack,stroke, or death from these causes. It was thought to do so by raising blood pressure and heart rate. According to the New York Times, a spokesperson for Abbott states that "the high-risk patients in the study were not the intended audience for the drug" and did not take it in accordance with labeling directions, by taking it for more than the maximum duration (one year in Europe and two years in the US) recommended by the manufacturer, and by continuing to take it even if they lost no weight after six months.

How Does This Drug Compare to Other Diet Pills?

Aside from sibutramine, the prescription weight loss medications currently available in the US include:

phentermine, diethylpropion- related to amphetamine. For short term use (up to 12 weeks) only. May be habit forming. Increases blood pressure and heart rate.

orlistat (Xenical or as lower dose OTC, Alli)- works by decreasing your body's ability to absorb fat. May be used for up to 4 years. After one year of treatment with orlistat, the average weight loss is approximately 8 to 10 percent of initial body weight (4 percent more than those who took a placebo).

Are Diet Pills Effective, Anyway?

As a whole, weight loss medications can achieve a modest reduction in body weight, up to 10%. However, this is only a small increase above standard care-- nutritional counseling plus lifestyle modification, plain old diet and exercise. More benefit occurs when diet and exercise and intense nutritional counseling are combined with a weight loss medication, compared to either alone. However, none of these pills can be taken for more than a few years, and people typically regain wait after discontinuation of any weight loss medication.

Should Anyone Take Diet Pills?

The decision to prescribe any medication should be based upon a careful weighing of potential benefits versus risks. While obesity is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death, the results from the SCOUT trial question whether the method of achieving weight loss, in this case the use of the diet pill sibutramine, is equally important to consider.

Bottom Line

What is clear from the research available of all weight loss medications is that there is no magic bullet. No pill, on its own, is effective in promoting sustainable weight loss without an ongoing behavioral and lifestyle modification program of diet and exercise. Without making permanent lifestyle changes, weight loss achieved through medication is not sustainable, and as this study points out, possibly unsafe.

What Is That On Your Tongue?

2010-01-23T05:05:20Z

Stick out your tongue. Go ahead, stick it out. Now look in the mirror. Does your tongue have a white coating on it? If so, then you, like me, had better get your act together as a white tongue causes bad breath and is a breeding ground for harmful bacteria that attack your teeth.

My tongue concerns started when I noticed that a friend's tongue was very white. Worried about what that could mean, I looked it up on the internet and was shocked to find out that it was the result of bacteria's waste accumulating in the crevices of the tongue. Yuk. So I quickly looked at my tongue. Although not nearly as white as my friend's it wasn't perfectly pink. I compared mine to my children's tongues which were rosy as can be. I decided I had better get a tongue scraper. If you read the information below you too will be headed to your nearest drug store in search of one of these (see photo!). Also after reading below you will most likely be wondering like I am, why as much focus is not put on tongue brushing as is teeth brushing.

Image via Wikipedia

From the AllExperts page I found this info on White Coated Tongue:

"When you open your mouth and you see that you have a white coated tongue, you're likely to be a little shocked. A white coated tongue is pretty common and is not usually dangerous. However, it is your first physical indication that something is wrong and that you very likely have bad breath.

It's What They Leave Behind
A white coated tongue is the result of your bacteria friends doing their thing on your tongue. As disgusting as it sounds, think of the white coating as their, well, bodily wastes. The sulfuric compounds the bacteria release turn into white tongue and, in some cases, yellow or black tongue.

While it may seem logical that scraping or brushing your tongue with toothpaste or some tongue cleaners is the way to relieve this nasty little problem, that isn't actually the case. Because your tongue is made up of little tiny fibers, the bacteria waste tends to settle into the little crevices below the surface of your tongue. Brushing or scraping can't get to these hidden spaces.

White coated tongue is a sign of bad breath. By using products designed to destroy the byproducts of the bacteria living on your tongue, you'll get rid of foul-smelling breath and your white coated tongue. In the next section about causes of halitosis, I'll go into more detail about this unwelcome bacteria waste.

Importance of Tongue Cleaning

The tongue's surface is the main breeding ground for harmful bacteria that attack teeth & gums producing a rotten egg - smelling gases or "dragon mouth"!

Tongue cleaning is necessary, in addition to brushing, for a thorough dislodging of the plaque and mucus. In clinical tests, tongue cleaning is proven to have reduced odors and bacteria by 75%!

Tongue scraping with a tongue cleaner is a boon for those suffering from coated tongue. Effective tongue cleaning reduces coating on the tongue by as much as 40%!! The best part is that a tongue cleaner is so easy and fun to use.

A myth widely believed is that the stomach is the root cause of bad breath. Bad breath from the stomach is so rare that of a thousand people treated for bad breath not a single case was caused by stomach problems.

Tooth brushing and mouthwashes do nothing to remove oral debris on the tongue, the root cause of bad breath. At best they mask bad breath. Tongue cleaning is by far the most effective way of combating bad breath.

Recently, there have been three world meets on bad breath wherein a lot of emphasis has been given to tongue cleaning as a daily adjunct to routine oral hygiene.
Did you know?

Teeth brushing & tongue cleaning reduce bad breath by
  85%

Tongue cleaning alone reduces mouth odor by
  75%

Brushing the teeth only, reduces mouth odor by
  25%

Tongue cleaning reduces the amount of coating on the tongue by
  40%

Tongue cleaning inhibits plaque formation on teeth by
  33%

Tongue cleaning is more effective than brushing by
  50%

Tongue cleaning will cut down the bacteria stored in the mouth by
  Tenfold

Tongue cleaning reduces halitosis including smoker's breath by
  85%
Why use a tongue cleaner ?

A tongue cleaner is a product that has been used for thousands of years as a part of traditional Ayurvedic and yogic practice. It is a uniquely designed bend made of Copper (preferably!) designed to remove the maximum waste organic matter and mucous from the tiny grooves on the tongue surface by gently gliding it over the surface. "

Are Antidepressants Any Better Than A Sugar Pill?

2010-01-08T18:24:13Z

By Linda Shiue

Depression, or Major Depressive Disorder, affects about 7 percent of adults in the United States annually. It is the leading cause of disability in the 15-44 age group, according to statistics from the National Institute for Mental Health. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that drugs to treat depression, or antidepressants, are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the US. That means that antidepressants are prescribed more than drugs to treat heart disease, diabetes, asthma and other diseases. In 2005, there were 118 million prescriptions written for antidepressants in the US. This reflected a tripling of these prescriptions bewteen1988-1994 and 1999-2000. According to data cited in the Washington Post, these prescriptions came at a cost of almost 10 billion dollars in 2008.

But are these drugs actually doing any good?

An analysis published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) questions the efficacy of antidepressants for many patients.

The study is a meta-analysis, essentially a grouped analysis of data from several studies. It looked at studies published from January 1980 through March 2009 and included only the most scientifically rigorous studies, randomized, placebo controlled trials using an FDA approved antidepressants in the treatment of depression in adults. The studies included used a standardized questionnaire to rate the severity of the patients' depression, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. In essence, these studies compared antidepressants to placebo, or sugar pill, in patients with varying severity of depressive symptoms. There are thousands of controlled clinical trials of antidepressant use over the last 50 years that have shown that antidepressants are helpful in treating depression, but this new analysis is unique in rigorously breaking down the data by degree of depression.

What did the authors find? Their analysis suggests that many commonly prescribed antidepressants may be no more helpful than a placebo, except in cases of severe depression.

The authors of the study reviewed trials of two antidepressants, paroxetine (Paxil) and imipramine (Tofranil). Paroxetine belongs to the class of medications called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor). Other commonly prescribed SSRIs include fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), and sertraline (Zoloft). Imipramine is from one of the oldest classes of antidepressants, the tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

The researchers found that, compared with placebos, these drugs caused a much steeper reduction in symptoms of severe depression only (cases scoring in the top quarter of the sample). Patients with less than severe depression got little or no added benefit from the medications, and the degree of benefit increased proportionately to the severity of their patients' depressive symptoms. The most depressed patients did get substantial improvement with treatment with these medications.

Limitations: because of the stringency of the criteria used for selecting these studies, the number of studies and of patients included in this analysis was relatively small. In total, data from 6 studies (718 patients) were included. Furthermore, the depression symptom questionnaire used, while the one most commonly used in clinical practice, may not be a perfect measure of depression severity. The study only looked at two drugs. However, the SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed antidepressants and are similar enough to one another that the studies of paroxetine can likely be applied to all SSRIs. Finally, the study looked at the effect of treating depression initially or acutely, and not long-term or maintenance treatment.

These possible limitations aside, though, this analysis raises a critical eye at how depression is most commonly treated, with antidepressants.The authors concluded, "Prescribers, policy makers, and consumers may not be aware that the efficacy of medications largely has been established on the basis of studies that have included only those individuals with more severe forms of depression" and that this fact is "not reflected in the implicit messages present in the marketing of these medications to clinicians and the public."

For people with more moderate symptoms of depression, this analysis suggests that treatments other than antidepressants may be equally helpful. The alternatives include psychotherapy and supportive care such as nutrition, exercise, sunshine, and rest.

* * *

The abstract of the original article can be found at:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/303/1/47?home

Fournier, JC, DeRubeis, RJ, et al. Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity: A Patient-Level Meta-analysis. JAMA 2010; 303(1):47-53

5 Tips for Happy, Healthy Holidays

2009-12-17T04:42:38Z

By Linda Shiue

Many of you are already in the middle of the holiday season, busy with gift shopping, vacation planning, and parties at the office, school and at the homes of friends and family. While it should be a time of joy and celebration, the holiday season can also bring on weight gain, stress, and the holiday blues. How to celebrate and not regret it?

1. How Not To Gain Weight

A commonly cited statistic is that the average adult in America gains up to 5 lbs over the holidays. It may be aiming too high to try to lose weight over the holidays, but it would be wise to try your best to maintain your weight. But how can you do this, when there are so many treats that are only available over the holidays?

My advice:

-don't deprive yourself: if you would be sad not to have that cup of eggnog or that latke that reminds you of this time of year, have a taste, or a small portion. Complete deprivation may make you binge.

-pre-eat before going to those parties. Having a slightly full stomach won't leave you as much room for gorging on those calorie-laden goodies.

-think before you drink: is that beverage worth it? You may wish to decide if you prefer your holiday calories in solid or liquid form. Some helpful figures to aid your decision:

pinot noir 5 oz, 121 cal

eggnog 8 oz, 343 cal

hot chocolate 8 oz, 222 cal

champagne, 89 cal

-know what you are eating: Here's a helpful video from the Today show on common holiday foods- the calorie contents may surprise you:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

-keep up your fitness routine!

2. How Not to Get Sick

We are in the midst of cold and flu season. Don't forget to wash your hands, cough or sneeze into your sleeve or a disposable tissue, and do what you can to keep your immune system strong. In addition to trying to maintain a balanced diet, don't drink alcohol excessively, make sure you remain well hydrated, and try to get some rest. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase your chance of getting a cold, so really try to sleep. Read this for some helpful hints on how to sleep better.

3. Cope with the Holiday Blues

The holidays mean different things to different people and are sometimes a combination of happy and sad at the same time. Reasons for feeling blue in what is supposed to be a happy time include financial and other types of stress, a disruption in routine regarding rest, diet and exercise, and drinking more alcohol than usual. Family tensions can also make get-togethers stressful.

What are the holiday blues?

Symptoms are similar to those of clinical depression, but are limited to the few weeks around the holidays in December, and usually resolve by the time New Year's Day has passed. These symptoms can include:

-feeling sad or depressed

-losing interest in activities you normally enjoy

-feeling overwhelmed

-irritability

-fatigue

-sleep or appetite disturbances

-anxiety, feeling nervous, edgy

-feeling guilty

How Can I Avoid Getting or Minimize the holiday Blues?

-try to keep up your sleep, eating and fitness routines as much as possible

-avoid excess alcohol

-prioritize your social commitments and decline invitations or limit time at social events, if you find them draining

-schedule downtime for yourself

- avoid caffeine, sugar, and processed foods. Instead, eat these superfoods which can help combat "blues" or symptoms of depression:

-Eat your spinach! Leafy greens are high in magnesium, which can relieve anxiety and insomnia

-Grains: oats, quinoa, barley, brown rice, and other grains contain B vitamins, can balance mood swings

-Lentils and garbanzo beans: these contain tryptophan, which is necessary for the production of serotonin, a brain chemical important for mood control

-Drink your milk! Dairy products are a good source of vitamin D, of which a deficiency can cause depressed mood

-Fish is brain food: the omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines and tuna are important in neurological functioning

-Go bananas: these contain potassium, tryptophan, and B vitamins

-Dark chocolate- Yes- a treat! Dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants as well as potassium, magnesium, and vitamins D and E. Dark chocolate stimulates the secretion of endorphins, "feel good" brain hormones

4. Don't Drink and Drive

While drinking alcohol might make someone the life of a party, leaving intoxicated and driving is an illegal and irresponsible act of danger. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, more than 1,000 people die every year from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day in car crashes related to drunk driving incidents. In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in alcohol-impaired traffic crashes.

The solution is simple: don't drink, or designate a driver

And, to make sure you and your host are happy after those holiday parties...

5. How To Remove Red Wine Stains

Before:

Red wine on my friend's white upholstered dining chair!

After:

gone!

Fancy gadgets? Expensive cleaners?

No!

Cool trick using basic household staples:

1. Apply seltzer to the fresh stain, and then dab, do not rub, with a clean cloth or paper towel. The bubbles bring the stain to the surface. Rubbing as opposed to dabbing can disrupt the fabric's fibers and rub the stain in deeper.

2. Sprinkle lots of table salt onto the stain. This is absorbs the remaining wine.

3. Vacuum off the salt when it dries.

4. If the stain hasn't yet disappeared, apply a mixture of cold water, dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide into the stain, then let it dry.

This really works! Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have had to try this technique...

Happy, healthy holidays!

Toxic Canned Tomatoes and Which Salmon Not to Eat

2009-12-10T03:26:11Z

Image via Wikipedia

Okay by now you might have seen the list of The Seven Foods Experts Won't Eat that was published in Prevention magazine this month, but the big shocker to me on the list was the canned tomatoes- apparently tomatoes are acidic so they cause the BPA in the can to leak out into the food. Bummer... no more pasta sauce at restaurants for me. And I knew about not eating farmed salmon, because it is filled with antibiotics and nasty germs, but thing I found interesting was to learn that if the package says fresh Atlantic it is farmed. There are no commercial fisheries left for wild Atlantic salmon. Instead switch to Wild Alaskan salmon. For the rest of the things on the list and the real details behind what I just said, read here.

Sexy at 63?

2009-12-02T05:12:39Z

I love Suzanne Somers. I am a fan of her books and her outspokenness (is that a word?) on alternative medicine and of her helping break the veil of silence around the topic of menopause. On Oprah this past January she showed viewers the pills (all 60 of them) that she uses to avoid symptoms of menopause and to have a healthier life.

Anyway, I came across this photo of her from this past year that made me wonder. When I am 63 will I still want to be sexy? I guess maybe I will, because even at 40 I am trying desperately to look desirable. But is it appropriate at that age? I guess you just don't see many grandma's looking like her. Maybe they should get on her program - or not! What do you think?

New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines 2009

2009-11-20T01:20:17Z

Image via Wikipedia

By Linda Shiue

This week, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued new guidelines for breast cancer screening. These guidelines reverse some of the previous recommendations that were issued 7 years ago. The earlier recommendations recommended mammography starting at age 40, every 1-2 years.

The new guidelines recommend for the average risk woman:

1. biennial (every 2 year) mammograms for women ages 50-74
2. standard film mammography, with no added benefit from either digital mammography or MRI

They recommend against

1. routine mammography in women ages 40-49
2. annual mammography
3. breast self examination (BSE)

The USPSTF is an independent panel of experts in preventive medicine and primary care, appointed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The Task Force issues guidelines on preventive health care based upon a rigorous review of scientific evidence. The new breast cancer screening guidelines were based upon the available scientific evidence and new statistical analyses and modeling.

What does this mean for you?

If you are like many women, you may rejoice at the opportunity to dodge your annual mammogram until age 50, as many women find this to be an uncomfortable test. You may also not have to feel defensive about not doing a monthly breast self-examination. But what should you make of the new recommendations? How do they apply to you?

What is breast cancer screening and why do we do it?

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second leading cause of death from cancer. According to the CDC, in 2005 (the most recent year for which data is available) there were more than 186,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the US, and more than 41,000 US women died of breast cancer.

Screening refers to testing for a disease in people without any symptoms.

With any screening test, we can have both false positive (looks abnormal but is not) and false negative results (looks reassuringly normal but misses actual disease).

Breast cancer screening is designed to detect breast cancer at its earliest stages, to increase the chances of cure. Early detection can save lives.

Breast cancer screening has traditionally been talked about as the triad of

1. Breast Self Exam (BSE)
2. Clinical Breast Exam (CBE) by your doctor
3. Mammography

Screening sounds good. Why shouldn't we do it?

The new guidelines still recommend screening, just less of it. There were several reasons for this, but the bottom line is that the committee felt that for many women, the harms outweigh the benefits. According to the Task Force's analyses, one breast cancer death is prevented for every 1,904 women age 40 to 49 who are screened for 10 years, compared with one death for every 1,339 women age 50 to 74, and one death for every 377 women age 60 to 69. The benefit of screening, preventing deaths from breast cancer, was compared to the following potential harms:

1. BSE- several studies demonstrated no benefit from teaching women to examine their own breasts for lumps each month. Potential harms were felt to include "false-positive results, which lead to anxiety, unnecessary visits, imaging, and biopsies."
2. CBE- the Task Force states that there is "insufficient evidence" to recommend for or against going to your doctor for your annual breast exam. The potential harms would be the same as with the BSE.
3. Mammography- these x-rays of the breasts may be uncomfortable for women, and also involve exposure to radiation. These were not the primary reasons cited by the USPSTF in narrowing the group of women for whom they recommend screening mammography. The main reason is the fairly high incidence of false-positive results, which can lead to overtreatment. The mammogram is a picture, after all, and often things which look worrisome on this picture will end up being benign or insignificant after a biopsy is done. In fact, up to 80% of breast biopsies done following an abnormal mammogram end up being benign. While getting good news after a breast biopsy is a relief, this comes at the price of potential complications of the surgical procedure, unnecessary worry from when the woman is alerted of a potential abnormality on her mammogram, to when the biopsy is done, to receiving the results.

In summary, the USPSTF states: "A biennial schedule preserves most of the benefit of annual screening and cuts the harms nearly in half. A longer interval may reduce the benefit."

Who should still get annual mammograms, and before age 50?

The USPSTF considers this to be a very small group of women who are felt to be at very high risk for developing breast cancer:

1. those carrying a genetic mutation, BRCA1 or BRCA2
2. those with a history of exposure to a large amount of radiation to the chest
3. those with many family members with breast cancer

That said, breast cancer does occur in women in their 40s, and sometimes even younger.

How Will the New Guidelines Affect You?

It is not clear at this time. While the USPTF has issued these guidelines, two other organizations, the American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology, still recommend annual mammograms starting at age 40. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, has also spoken out against these new recommendations. Whether the new recommendations will affect insurance payment for annual mammograms remains to be seen. Your personal risk factors and level of risk tolerance will also affect your decision on when to start getting screened, and how often you want to get a mammogram. You may decide that you accept the potential harms of getting screened beyond the new recommendations and will continue getting screened as you have been, or you might feel comfortable with the new guidelines. You can discuss your individual risk with your doctor. It is also important to remember that these guidelines refer to screening only. If you notice a lump or other symptoms in your breast, you should see your doctor for further evaluation.

Why Am I Still Coughing?

2009-11-13T15:28:41Z

By Linda Shiue

It's cold and flu season, and there is coughing all around. Cough is a common symptom of colds and flu, as I described earlier this week, but how long is too long to keep coughing?

Most colds and flu last three to seven days, but it is normal for a cough to last for up to two weeks. Sneezing and congestion may last this long, too.

The American College of Chest Physicians, the specialty organization of lung specialists, has issued guidelines that define three categories of cough based upon duration:

• Acute cough, lasting less than three weeks

• Subacute cough, lasting between three and eight weeks

• Chronic cough, lasting more than eight weeks

So if you are still coughing after two weeks, what is the reason?

It may simply be postnasal drip, that sticky mucus which clings to the back of your throat and causes a dry tickle. While the mucus is produced in your sinuses and nasal passages, you don't have to feel congested in order to have postnasal drip. This can follow a cold or can be due to allergies.

Your cough could also be from pertussis, or whooping cough, which in adults usually causes a chronic cough rather than the characteristic "whoop" that can be heard in children. Pertussis was thought to have been eradicated, but because of waning immunity and kids not getting vaccinated, it's back. This can be treated with antibiotics. You can lower your chances of getting this if you ask your doctor for the tetanus booster which is combined with pertussis vaccine. It's safe to get this combination vaccine as soon as two years from your last tetanus booster.

It could also be asthma. Specifically, what is known as cough-variant asthma. While the biological mechanism is the same as in the asthma you may be more familiar with, with wheezing and shortness of breath, cough-variant asthma is exactly as it sounds- a chronic dry cough.

MANY MORE ADULTS HAVE ASTHMA THAN REALIZE IT!

• Number of noninstitutionalized adults who currently have asthma: 16.4 million

• Percent of noninstitutionalized adults who currently have asthma: 7.3%

HOW DO YOU FIND OUT IF YOU HAVE ASTHMA?

Your doctor will ask you several questions about your history and symptoms to help determine if asthma is a possibility. An exam may be done which will include looking at your nasal passages, listening to your lungs and your heart. You may be asked to do a test called a "peak flow" measurement in the office, which involves blowing into a hand-held instrument which measures the volume of air you can blow out of your longs. Special tests may be ordered, possibly including spirometry (measurement of your lung function using a computerized machine) and a chest xray. Depending on your risk factors, your doctor might also simply treat you with standard asthma medication to see if that helps you get better.

HOW IS ASTHMA TREATED?

Inhaled medications including bronchodilators such as albuterol, which are medications which open up your airways, and steroids to treat inflammation in your lungs may be used. If asthma is the culprit, you may get improvement within a few weeks.

WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE?

Besides viruses, there are other infections: tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia.

And also non-infectious causes: allergies, lung irritation from smoke or fumes, acid reflux, cancer.

RED FLAGS TO WATCH FOR

This guide is geared towards adults. Please see your doctor if your cough lasts longer than two weeks and/or it is accompanied by these warning signs:

-bloody sputum

-fever more than 101.5 F

-chest pain

-shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

-wheezing

-fatigue or extreme tiredness

-loss of appetite

-unintentional weight loss

Is This a Cold, the Flu, or Allergies?

2009-11-10T17:37:23Z

By Linda Shiue

It's cold and flu season, and right on time, you are sneezing and coughing away. In this post, I am going to help you sort out your symptoms, which could be from allergies, the common cold, or influenza (which this year is mainly H1N1, or "swine flu"). I'll talk about prevention, over-the-counter and home treatments that can help you feel better, and advise when you might need to visit your doctor. In a companion post, I will talk about what it might mean when your cough seems to be lasting too long. Please note, this guide is geared towards adults.

Prevention

While many people are keeping busy trying to hound down the hard to obtain seasonal influenza vaccine and even harder to obtain H1N1 vaccine, there is more you can do besides being vaccinated to keep yourself healthy.

-get adequate rest, eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly; all of these measures strengthen your immune system

-wash your hands! hand sanitizer is a good substitute when soap and water are unavailable

-hygiene cannot be emphasized enough; besides hand washing, don't forget to cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue (and then discard it), or your elbow if there is nothing available.

-be mindful of not touching your eyes, nose or mouth; cold and flu viruses can enter easily through these areas, and we all unconsciously touch these areas more than we realize

-while studies have not proven it, alternative treatments such as vitamin C, the herb Echinacea and others have been embraced by many as effective ways to ward off colds and the flu.

Better yet, you can't go wrong by incorporating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. These foods are particularly rich in vitamin C (mg per serving):

-Papaya (1 papaya = 190 mg)

-Bell pepper, red or yellow (1 pepper = 280mg)

-Bell pepper, green (1 pepper = 120 mg)

-Grapefruit (1 grapefruit = 90 mg)

-Orange (1 orange = 70 mg)

-Strawberries (1 cup strawberries = 90 mg)

-Broccoli (1 cup raw broccoli = 80 mg)

Symptoms of Allergies, Colds and Flu

Common to all: sneezing, cough

More common with allergies: sneezing, itchy eyes and nose, dark circles under the eyes, clear nasal discharge, no fever

More common with the flu: fever, body aches, sore throat, fatigue

More common with colds and the flu: discolored nasal discharge

Treatment of Colds and the Flu:

-rest! besides decreasing the transmission to your colleagues, staying home and taking it easy will allow your body's defenses to attack your cold head on, rather than prolonging your illness

-fluids (to prevent dehydration)

-unclogging sinuses with steam inhalation and nasal rinses

-over-the-counter (OTC) remedies?

I am not a fan of combination cold or flu remedies. They too often contain more than what you need or want, which make them unnecessarily expensive both in terms of cost and potential side effects. Also, remember that these don't cure colds or the flu, they merely support you through your symptoms until your immune system combats your illness. My recommendation is to tailor your OTC treatment to your specific symptom(s):

-acetaminophen for fever; ibuprofen for fever, body aches

-antihistamines and decongestants such as pseudoephedrine can help with your stuffy nose if steam or saline nasal rinses or sprays are ineffective

-throat lozenges for sore throats or a scratchy cough. I prefer Ricola sugar-free throat lozenges

-Natural remedies

-chicken soup! More than an old wives' tale, a scientific study demonstrated an anti-inflammatory effect.

-drinking hot liquids

The suggestions below have neither been proven effective, nor dangerous:

-fresh ginger boiled into a tea or added to your soup is an excellent natural decongestant

-a few drops of eucalyptus aromatherapy oil in your bathwater may help with your congestion

-the jury is out on zinc and the homeopathic treatment Oscillococcinum

When Should You See Your Doctor?

With most of the symptoms above, you can safely wait 3-4 days and follow the treatment suggestions I have listed. Be on the lookout for these possible warning signs below and consider visiting your doctor if

• Your temperature is above 101.5°F for a few days

• Symptoms last more than 14 days, or they are getting worse rather than better

• You have trouble breathing or shortness of breath

• You experience chest pressure. chest pain, or wheezing

• You feel like you might faint

• You experience severe or persistent vomiting

• You have severe pain in the head or forehead (could be a sinus infection, which sometimes requires antibiotic treatment)

• You have hoarseness, sore throat, or a cough that won't go away after 14 days

• You have a sore throat and fever, without other cold symptoms (this could be strep throat, which is treated with antibiotics)

Read This and Do Great Things!

2009-10-21T15:56:06Z

A friend posted this on FaceBook this morning. I found it incredibly inspirational! The author, Jim Rohn really knows his stuff!

Personal Development, by Jim Rohn

"To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To

attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract
committed people, you must be committed. Instead of
going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you
become, you can attract.

We can have more than we've got because we can become
more than we are.

The big challenge is to become all that you have the
possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does
to the human spirit to maximize your human potential
and stretch yourself to the limit.

Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn't a
millionaire. Here's what would be pitiful: If your income
grew and you didn't.

The most important question to ask on the job is not "What
am I getting?" The most important question to ask on the
job is "What am I becoming?"

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through
personal development.

After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your
money away because what's important is not the million
dollars; what's important is the person you have become in
the process of becoming a millionaire.

Income seldom exceeds personal development.

What you become directly influences what you get."

Faith After the Quake

2009-10-12T15:30:47Z

Photo of Salma Ali with Greg Mortenson

I am so proud of my dear friend Salma Ali who wrote this insightful piece that was published this weekend in Newsweek/Washington Post. I thought I would share it with you as too often we don't hear the personal side of Islam.

"Four years ago today, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastated Kashmir. More than 80,000 people died. 3.5 million were displaced. 9,000 schools were destroyed.

I recently went near the epicenter of the earthquake, to a small town called Patika, northeast of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. I was visiting several of the schools rebuilt by Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. (Mortenson is author of the best-selling book "Three Cups of Tea").

My guide was Shaukat Ali, a 29-year-old math and science teacher at the Gundi Piran girl's school in Patika. He described to me the day that he will never forget. He was teaching 10th-grade English at a nearby boys' school when he heard the noise. "It sounded like bombs blasting," he told me. "The building started to shake. 'Bhago,' I yelled. Run! I was thinking, I'm going to be crushed. I'm going to die." Half the building collapsed. But not the half that he and his students were in. Classes in that half would have started at 9:30 a.m. Three hundred and twenty students were saved.

He ran to the Gundi Piran school. The school building had already collapsed by the time he got there. Girls were trapped. "They were crying for help. I couldn't do anything. There was no equipment. We couldn't get to them," Shaukat bhai (brother) told me, his face serene, his eyes glistening. That day, 103 girls died at the school.

"One of the girls, Sara, was in the middle of writing; her pen was still in her hand when we found her," Shaukat bhai recalled. "She was maybe 15 or 16. She was doing her science exam. I buried her. One girl always used to wear big earrings to school; that's how I recognized her. Her face was too badly damaged. Shaukat bhai recounted story after story. "I cannot forget. Not one family has been spared."

The earthquake happened on the third day of Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Shaukat bhai did not break his fast early that day. He kept his fast the next day too, when he walked back to his village to discover that his sister, brother-in-law and 100 people in his extended family had died. And the next day, as he dug out dead bodies and carried them over a dangling bridge to their families for a proper burial. And the next day, as he hauled heavy bags of rations for several miles to feed his remaining family. He missed one day of fasting that month, when there was absolutely nothing to eat. Some days he would open his fast by sharing an apple.

What faith, I thought to myself. This is what lies at the heart of Islam -- courage, compassion, commitment and sacrifice. Why is it that we don't hear about this Islam?

The more I spoke to Shaukat bhai the more it became clear what an ardent advocate he is for girls' education. "I encourage families to send their daughters to school. And because I'm from a maulvi (religious) family, they listen to me." His older sisters had to drop out of school when his father died and the family could no longer afford it, but he's supporting his younger sisters and his nieces in their schooling. "Education is a must for ladies and gentlemen," he told me. "Prophet Muhammad said that it is against Islam to say that girls should not go to school. You should educate your girls. Educate them separately. But educate your girls," said Shaukat bhai repeatedly.

This is not what you would expect to hear from a man with a thick black beard in this very conservative part of Pakistan -- who, not long before, had been a member of the Taliban.

"Islam doesn't tell anyone to kill on the basis of religion," Shaukat bhai said. "Extremism is bad. We should follow the moderate way."

I wondered what it would take for this sound bite, from a bespectacled, bearded former Taliban, to make it on the nightly news.

Salma Hasan Ali is a writer focusing on cross-cultural issues and South Asia."

feellove

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