LiveLongAgeWell

First, I want to welcome new readers to LiveLongAgeWell (LLAW)! I have been slowly informing people about LLAW, but still there are many Internet users who are new to blogs. I hope you use this site as a health resource, and find it useful enough to bookmark and return often.

Generally three times a week—on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—I will add new “posts”, with various hints, health information, and news items all geared towards helping you age better. I cover physical and mental health, but also news and hints to help you look healthier, and hopefully younger too! If you are new to LLAW, you might read my initial welcome post of September 29 to get a better idea of my goals. The “Pages”, found on the right sidebar, includes a “Core Principles” page which covers my basic philosophy about how to age well.

To make LLAW a “Bookmark-able” health resource, I have added to the sidebar a number of useful links to make finding health information on the web easier for you. Check out the various headings and click on a few. If you want to do your own online medical research, read daily medical news items, find up-to-date nutrition or dietary supplement guides, or information on the latest good skin products, you should find it all there, and more.

Finally, especially if you are new to blogs, I encourage you to make use of the “Comments” tag that you will see at the end of each post. To keep each post a reasonable length, I can’t cover everything about a topic, and if there is information you want to share, please do, and help make this site a more valuable resource for us all.

OBESITY AND THE BRAIN: Recent research may give a clue for one reason it is so difficult to lose weight (this study was done in mice, but the researchers felt a similar process occurs in humans): eating a high fat, high sugar diet switched ON a particular gene in the mouse brain. This gene then triggered a generalized increase in the level of inflammation in the mouse’s body, which then caused the mouse to become less responsive to the hormone leptin. In humans, leptin makes us feel full. So if we respond less to leptin, then even if we eat too much, we won’t feel full…and a vicious cycle can result…another reason to avoid a diet with too much fat or sugar.

One goal we should have is to cut the level of inflammation in our bodies. Scientists feel that a state of chronic inflammation can lead to such serious problems as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and even various cancers.

ECONOMIC BAILOUT BILL AND MENTAL HEALTH: With the current level of financial distress in the world, more of us may want to seek out psychological help, but are held back because of the cost, and that our insurance doesn’t cover mental health problems as well as physical problems. But that will change now, at least for employees in plans with over 50 workers. Added to the “bailout” bill just passed is a provision to finally require insurance parity for mental and physical health problems. It is good news that this long battle in Congress has been won, and read here for more details.

GOVERNMENTAL EXERCISE GUIDELINES: If you exercise daily you will probably not only live longer, but have a much higher chance of getting your 90s dancing and without disability. Besides cutting your risk of heart disease and diabetes, daily exercise cuts your risk of various cancers, bone fracture, and depression (some studies point to daily aerobic exercise as possibly as effective as an anti-depressant).

Now the Department of Health and Human Services has come out with new recommendations for the weekly amount of exercise, and the type. They recommend, for adults, a minimum of 2 ½ hours of moderate exercise per week, to include muscle-strengthening exercise at least twice a week (to help keep both your muscles AND bones strong). And, sensibly, these new HHS guidelines stress that you don’t need to go to the gym, but just find some physical activities you like to do, and keep them up, faithfully. The important thing to remember is: keep moving as much as you can!

In a word, yes. They are one of the best supplements you can take for your overall health. Unlike many supplements that are poor substitutes for “real food”, good-quality fish oil pills should give you much of the health benefit of the actual fish they are standing in for.

In my last post I discussed how eating fish can improve your mood and brain function. Beyond that, many recent studies have shown benefits beyond the brain, particularly in decreasing atherosclerosis and cutting the risk of heart attack, keeping triglycerides, blood pressure, and inflammation under control, cutting the risk of macular degeneration in the eyes, and newer studies suggest the omega-3s in fish oil may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. For a more detailed critical look along with numerous references, check out this issue of Nutrition Action Health Letter.

There seems to be few risks in taking fish oil pills, and lots of potential upside. On days that I don’t eat omega-3-rich fish, I take a one-gram supplement twice a day. Here are some key points:

•    A good dose is 1 gram of a combined EPA and DHA omega-3 fish oil capsule once- to twice-a-day.  A dose over 2 grams per day could cause bleeding problems in some people.
•    Find a high-quality supplement that has been purified and is free of mercury, PCB and dioxin contaminants (this is an advantage of the pills over some fish, which might be contaminated). This Environmental Defense Fund site should help you choose a safe product.
•    Fish oil can cause burping, nausea, even diarrhea in sensitive people. If that occurs, start at a lower dose, maybe one pill every several days, and see if you can build up to one or two pills a day. Try taking it after meals or at bedtime, and sometimes freezing the gelatin capsule will stop the side effects. If side effects persist, try different brands, or just eat more omega-3 rich fish instead.
•    Especially if you have significant heart disease or blood clotting concerns, are pregnant or about to have surgery, check with your doctor before taking this supplement. Fish oil thins your blood a bit (for most people, this is a good thing), but is a concern if you bleed easily or are already on blood thinners.  If you are a vegetarian who does not eat fish, look for omega-3 supplements derived from algae.

As I write this, the American economy may be in its worst crisis since the Great Depression. So a few days ago a friend asked if a “natural” herbal remedy he was taking was good to calm his nerves and help his mood. I recommended he consider, as a supplement, fish oil. Wednesday we will talk about fish oil capsules, but today let’s consider how fish is a “brain food”, and might help your mood.

That fish is good for your brain makes sense when you realize that your brain cell membranes are mostly “lipids”…fat…and here we are talking about the particular type of fat called “omega-3 fatty acids”. These omega-3s you get in your diet from fish as well as some nuts and soy, but the best source is fish. Brain tissue nourished with more omega-3s seems to function better because the individual brain cells then communicate easier via the various neurotransmitters. It’s almost as if omega-3s act as a lubricant to make your brain work more efficiently.

In the typically poor, processed American diet, most people don’t get enough of these good omega-3 fats but rather consume too much of the unhealthy saturated fats. Various studies have shown that countries with high fish consumption, like some Asian countries, have a much lower depression rate than countries with lower fish intakes. That alone is not proof that fish is the reason, but there have also been numerous “double-blind clinical trials” that show a positive effect from omega-3s on helping depression and possibly anxiety.

So particularly during these stressful times, we should make sure to eat fish at least two, preferably three, times per week. The best fish with the highest levels of omega-3s yet lowest mercury content are salmon, sardines, herring, and wild trout. Tuna is a good source, but contains more mercury. If you like canned tuna, try instead the healthier canned salmon. GotMercury.org has a convenient fish mercury calculator, and if you have heart disease, talk to your doctor and read this information from the American Heart Association before eating lots of fish.

Finally, everyone should avoid deep-fried or fast food fish, and don’t depend on fish as a quick cure for the blues…but over the long-term, adding fish to your regular diet, perhaps more than any other food, can boost your mood and make your brain work better too!

MEDICAL TOURISM NOW COVERED BY SOME HEALTH INSURERS People are traveling abroad for more and more care—typically surgeries—at much lower cost than here in the U.S., and some insurance plans are starting to pick up the tab. From living part-time in Brazil, I know that health care in foreign countries can be excellent…in Brazil, for example, the expertise in reconstructive and plastic surgery is often more advanced than in the U.S.

ANIMAL STUDIES SUGGEST VITAMIN C USE DURING CHEMOTHERAPY MIGHT BE HARMFUL Since chemotherapy works by disrupting cell growth (in some cases by producing cancer-cell-killing “free radicals”), and vitamin C  protects cells from free radical damage, then taking vitamin C during some chemotherapy treatments could blunt the cancer-killing effect of the drugs. This is an animal study, not a human study, so the results have to be viewed with caution, and other studies have shown vitamin C can be helpful for some cancer patients. Bottom line: if you or a loved one is undergoing chemotherapy, make sure the doctors know of ALL medications you are taking, including all vitamins, herbals, and supplements, any of which might affect chemotherapy treatment.

WHO IS FUNDING THAT DRUG STUDY? In many cases the news reports we read or hear about on the Internet don’t reveal that the study was funded by the very drug company which stands to profit from a positive report. One report showed that drug company sponsored studies are five times more likely to come out favorable for the drug they are studying. So especially when you read a favorable report about a new drug, look to see if the news report mentions who sponsored the study.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE “PERSONALIZED” MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE Microchips embedded under our skin containing out entire health history and which can be read anywhere in the world, chips we swallow that give feedback on our body’s functioning, and personalized medical testing and treatment based on own genetic sequences…it all might be part of our medical future.