LiveLongAgeWell

Artificial Tanning Beds

Last month I covered sunscreens and sunless tanning lotions, and as a follow-up, there was a recent reclassification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that tanning beds should be raised to Group 1, that is, the highest risk level: “carcinogenic to humans”. While the artificial tanning bed industry has marketed their products as safer than the ultraviolet radiation from sunlight—and as not increasing the risk of melanoma (though they neglect to mention the increased risk of other forms of skin cancer)—the IARC reports a 75% greater risk of melanomas in people who start using tanning beds before the age of 30. Besides the cancer risks, while a tan might make you look better in the short run, in the long run you will end up more wrinkled. And though artificial tanning booths are dangerous, remember that sunless tanning lotions can be quite effective and safe.

Organic Food Not Worthwhile?

A headline from Reuters London caught my eye last week: “Organic food no healthier, study finds”. The author of the English study stated: “Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority [italics mine].”  (Really, OK, maybe not proof, but no evidence at all?)

So a quick read might lead you to think it’s not worth the extra expense and trouble to seek out organic products. But this would be a false conclusion on at least two counts. First, the study only analyzed “nutritional content”; this is, what’s in the food, but most people choose organics because what’s NOT in them; i.e., pesticides and other organo-toxins (not addressed in this research). Second, if you look at what they consider “nutritional content”, you find they did not analyze antioxidant content, which is another reason to choose organic. While it’s true that there is not yet proof organics have a higher natural antioxidant content; for me, I’ll stick to organic products whenever I can. Unlikely any future research will find any health benefit whatsoever from eating foods with pesticides. It’s far more likely organic foods suffer less antioxidant loss during any processing, transport, and chemical additions.

Another Reason To Keep Your Cholesterol Below 200

If you know that your total cholesterol level is borderline or elevated, and you haven’t taken measures to change that, here’s another reason to take action. Published in the August Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, researchers studied nearly 10,000 Northern California Kaiser Hospital members, and found that those who had total serum cholesterol levels over 200 mg/dL in their 40s, had a significantly great risk of dementia when they reached their 60s and 70s. The risk for either Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia was at least 50% percent greater in people with only mildly high levels—over 200. So take measures to keep your cholesterol in the normal range: whether it means a change in your diet and/or increased exercise, and if that doesn’t work, you should ask your doctor about possibly taking a “statin” drug to lower your lipid levels  (which—as logically follows from this study—have been shown may help prevent dementia.)

The H1N1 (swine) flu pandemic is dangerous, yes, but also fascinating as a study of how different countries are responding and how theories change quickly. Here in Brazil, where it is winter and prime flu season, the massive city São Paulo has pretty much closed down all schools for the next two weeks, affecting over 6 million students. And just a few weeks ago, public health officials were theorizing that obesity alone appeared to be a major risk factor for developing a serious case, or of dying of the influenza.

Many of the people with H1N1 in ICUs seem to be obese, and the United States—with the epidemic of obesity affecting, amazingly, about 34 percent of the population—has had a much higher death rate than Japan, for example, with less than 2% of the population obese.

Now, the U.S. Center for Disease Control has decided that obesity, on its own, doesn’t seem to be a risk factor. Still it’s worth remembering that fat cells, especially those deep in the abdomen, secrete substances that cause a chronic state of low-level of inflammation in the body, and as a result, obesity depresses your immune system making you more susceptible to most any infection, or even cancer.

So if you are living in the summer now but have worries about flu in the upcoming seasons, you would do well to get yourself in shape and try to lose as much fat as possible to keep your immune system functioning well. If you smoke, have a plan to quit before the fall. Besides that, you can markedly cut your risk of flu by three simple measures: keeping at least a meter (3 feet) away from anyone sick, washing your hands multiple times during the day (especially after you touch surfaces in public areas), and avoid touching your nose, eyes, or mouth, because that’s how you infect yourself.

Know that these influenza viruses, fortunately, don’t penetrate through your skin, and if you remember to always wash your hands well before touching your face, you are much less likely to become infected.

OK, now another way to keep healthy and fit—eat your “greens”…Here is Part II, How to eat greens! (last week was background information):

•    When you try greens and don’t love the taste right away, consider that kale, the king of the greens, contains about 10 times more of that fantastic anti-oxidant lutein as does broccoli. The high fiber content in greens will help you control your weight, your cholesterol, as well as your blood sugar. If you have a family history or particular concerns with breast, ovarian, or colon cancer, you should eat some greens every day. If you smoke, daily greens might give you some protection from the carcinogens in cigarettes. So these truly are superstar vegetables, and you can develop a taste for them.

•    Kale is probably the healthiest of the bunch, but collards are excellent as well, and the flavor tends to be a bit smoother. The plants harvested during cooler weather may taste better, and look for smaller leaves. Spinach is a green, and a good way to start, but you should venture forth and experiment with the more potent ones. You might slowly add bits of raw kale into your daily salad, or add finely-cut collards to soup. Kale comes in different colors and varieties. Mustard greens have somewhat of a spicy, racy taste. Over a few months try them all and see which you like the best.

•    When preparing, cut out any tough stems, and to make life easy, try frozen greens or find bags of pre-washed, cut greens. You can lightly sauté them in olive oil, and try adding lemon, pine nuts, and some red pepper flakes. Look at the DDD appendix for more hints on finding recipes. One note for those on blood thinning medication: the high vitamin K content in greens could interfere with your medication, but rather than avoiding greens, research suggests greens might help protect you from the bone-thinning effects of those medications, so discuss with your physician.

Today I’m posting a chapter from my  book-in-progress: How To Drop Dead Dancing In Your 90s….here is Part I of GREENS!

Kale. Collards. Mustard Greens. Beet Greens. Dandelion Greens. Swiss Chard. Spinach. All “greens”, and, except for spinach, they are foreign to most American diets. Despite having a taste that many might also regard as foreign—too strong, even bitter—to increase your odds of dancing into your 90s you should move beyond salad and the more conventional vegetables and start adding these more exotic  “greens” into your routine.

Taste bud research suggests some people are genetically programmed to despise the taste of greens, and if that includes you, try making an extra effort, because these are the vegetable superstars. Some nutritionists feel they have more value per calorie than any other food.
Perhaps greens have such a distinctive taste because they are so primitive. Unchanged for thousands of years, originally from Asia and Africa, hearty and easy-to-grow kale was among the first vegetables brought by the colonists to the New World. Later, American slaves popularized collards, and greens became part of “soul food”. Unfortunately they were often considered throwaways—vegetables for poor people—until scientists discovered that they were actually so nutritionally rich, and now greens are enjoying a renaissance.

They are full of fiber and low in calories, bursting with vitamins A and C, iron, calcium and various other minerals, and those mysterious “phytochemicals” such as lutein and the more impressively named zeaxanthin; these are the most exciting components in greens, the substances that protect our cells from cancer, age-related vision problems, and maybe dementia. An extra benefit: many American diets are deficient in vitamin K, and greens are the absolute best natural source for this vitamin.

Like most vegetables, adding greens to your diet will help keep your cardiovascular system healthy, and lower your risk of stroke. But greens are much more potent—studies suggest that a green-rich diet is associated with a significantly lower risk of lung, breast, ovary, colon, and bladder cancer. Most research indicates about a 20 to 50 percent lower risk of these cancers in people who eat lots of greens. The mechanism seems to be that the phytochemicals trigger a genetic signal that stimulates the activity of detoxifying enzymes in our liver, so carcinogens are neutralized before doing damage.

Scientists (and drug companies) are working furiously to treat osteoporosis, and along with the importance of calcium and vitamin D, vitamin K is a new star for keeping our bones strong. The Framingham Heart Study showed that those with the highest vitamin K intake had a 65% decreased risk of hip fractures! If true, eating a good amount of greens certainly is a much cheaper and safer and perhaps a more effective way, compared with medications, to lower your risk of disabling bone fractures. And, as we will discuss further in the PROTECT chapter, greens intake probably dramatically cut the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration (the most common form of age-related vision loss).

Next: Greens, Part II

Have you been reading the reports in the news regarding (the newly discovered) health problems that can result from long-term inadequate sleep? In the past, many felt that regularly sleeping less than seven hours a night was no big problem, but now, research is showing that if, on a regular basis, we aren’t getting enough sleep, the bad effects go way beyond just looking and feeling tired.

The most recent report is about the association between high blood pressure and short sleep times. Previous research has suggested a link between inadequate sleep and diabetes, and even obesity. One reason may be that the human organism requires a minimum amount of sleep to reset and calibrate our internal hormonal system.

Scientists have discovered that—surprisingly—people who undersleep tend to get fat, and one way to keep at a good weight is to make sure you are getting enough sleep. Only with enough sleep will our body have good healthy responses to ghrelin and leptin.

Maybe they sound like new diseases: ghrelin and leptin…but, ghrelin is a hormone we all have that’s formed in the lining of the stomach, and after being secreted, it goes deep into the brain and excites the same mechanism that causes some people to become addicted to say, food or alcohol. The other one, leptin, is a hormone secreted by our fat cells (!) that puts the breaks on appetite by acting on our brain in the opposite fashion. You can only imagine that biotech drug companies are racing to find and sell a pill that acts like leptin.

Bottom line: if you don’t sleep enough, you tinker with this leptin/grhrelin balance in a bad way; the tendency is to get fat. Many of us suffer, at least occasionally, from sleep problems, and I’m briefly covering this issue so that if you are one of those sleep-poor people, well…let’s think about the problem in a more serious way, with more attention to fixing whatever are the underlying issues.

I’m curious if my readers are interested in hearing more about sleep, and about what happens if you don’t get enough, such as the effects on your blood pressure and heart (besides the diabetes and obesity issues). Leave a comment if you are, and if readers say they want,  I’ll write a more detailed report in the near future.

I was surprised and slightly amused to see acai (properly spelled, with accents açaí, and pronounced ah-saa-EE), the blue Amazonian berry, so heavily promoted as a weight loss aid—and a frequent subject of spam emails—because here in Brazil, where it comes from, acai is more likely seen as something that will make you fat, not thin. Still, acai as a supplement has become a huge industry in the United States, with a marketing frenzy spurred by high-powered endorsers like Dr. Oz and Oprah. What’s the truth….will it help make you thin, or fat, or neither?

I initially heard of this “healthiest fruit in the world” —a reputation it carries in Brazil—on my first trip here in 2001, and since it was exotically blue, tasty, and apparently full of antioxidants, I have eaten it frequently. Acai is a grape-sized fruit from an Amazonian palm tree (another part of the same tree is sold as “palm hearts”), usually sold in frozen packs of blue pulp. Typically it is prepared as a thick smoothie, mixed with banana and the sweet caffeine-rich syrup of another Amazonian berry, guaraná. It’s fashionable to cover the whole bowl with granola.

Acai indeed has the reputation as being mysteriously healthy, full of antioxidants, and the science indicates that it is, but exactly how heavily it’s loaded with antioxidants is controversial. Some studies indicate a medium level, some higher; it depends on which “system” of oxidation in the body or test tube is being tested. It seems likely though that the basic antioxidant content is quite high, somewhere around that of a blueberry.

Interestingly, the value of antioxidants in the body is a hot topic now…are they helpful or could they be in some cases harmful? A recent study regarding vitamins C and E and exercise suggest that antioxidants, at least as pill supplements, might actually weaken our own body’s natural system of mopping up oxidative damage, and antioxidant pills might weaken these defenses. So a new theory is that these supplements might make our own natural antioxidant systems lazy, and in the long run, lead to more oxidative damage, more aging.

But it is much too soon to reach any conclusions; almost certainly, other studies with different formulations of vitamin E, different dose schedules, etc, will give different results. Most scientists seem to agree however that the antioxidants you consume in foods like tea, red wine, colorful vegetables, legumes, coffee, chocolate, etc, are beneficial as far as cutting risk of heart disease, some cancers, and possibly dementia.

Back to acai. Besides whatever natural antioxidants it contains, it is full of the best form of (monosaturated) fatty acids, similar to olive oil, and has lots of fiber. But as a weight loss aid? No proof at all, and no good evidence either. Don’t waste your money. Acai in body creams as a wrinkle reducer? Again, no evidence; better to spend your money on a visit to a dermatologist, a prescription for topical retinoic acid, and a good sunscreen. Still, I’ll continue to eat my acai mixed with banana and guarana, but I’ll rely on the gym and lots of walking to keep my weight in line…certainly not acai, green tea, or any supplement.

Here are several excellent articles that may interest you… The first two cover recent LLAW topics (red meat and mind drugs), and these links will give you a totally different slant on each subject. The third article, and the shortest,  regards a totally different subject: creativity.

From The New Yorker, titled Brain Gain, is a long piece that first describes how college students are taking advantage of mind drugs (easily found on-campus) to ultra-perform. Then, in true New Yorker style, the author dives into several people at the forefront of cosmetic neurology, and the “transhumanist” movement (who believe we humans have the potential to live a very long time).

And if you are looking for even more motivation to cut down on your red and processed meat consumption, I suggest this relatively short article in the New York Times: Paying a Price for Loving Red Meat by Jane Brody.

I subscribe to an American Medical Association news feeder that every day sends me a digest of the latest medical news, and I have noticed for the last few months, the news is dominated by public health policy and health care economic reform in the United States.

So let me suggest a topic far away from those subjects… from a founder of the company IDEO, which helped design the Apple Computer.

Getting older is much more fun if you constantly keep your “creative juices” flowing, no matter your age; believe me, you will help keep your brain in good form, and this brief and entertaining piece from the IDEO group gives six hints to help us achieve that! Love it!

In honor of our mothers, let’s consider some advice many of them have given—perhaps your own mother said “eat your carrots…you’ll see better at night”—now let’s just update that with the latest information. It’s a nice coincidence because a few days before Mother’s Day, the journal Ophthalmology came out with a report on the best (nutritional) advice to prevent macular degeneration, the progressive loss of function in the retina of the eye and the most common cause of adult visual loss. (Click on this link for a “macular degeneration simulator”.)

One reason macular degeneration is so worrisome is that it’s so common: 10% of people over 65 are affected, and that rises to 30% for people over 75. Your risk is higher if you have a history of smoking, and with a close relative with macular degeneration, your lifetime risk rises to 50%. So it’s good to know there is something you can do to help diminish this threat as we get older besides a carrot-a-day…

Here’s what the analysis of the diets of over 4000 people in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study suggested to keep your vision good as you get older:

1. Eat a low-glycemic index diet. The glycemic index is a rating of how foods spike your blood sugar once they are absorbed, and the less the spike, the better. Slow absorbing foods are best. Particularly bad are white bread, starchy foods such as potatoes, and sugary pastries. Best are whole-grain breads, nuts, proteins, and vegetables.

2. Try to get a wide range of antioxidants from fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and perhaps eggs. Especially good are green leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, broccoli, and when you buy lettuce, stick to the dark green romaine style rather than the wimpy pale “head lettuce” or “American lettuce”. Other good sources of the vision-beneficial antioxidants are eggs, beans (especially black), and again, nuts and whole grains.

3. Try to get lots of vitamin C from citrus fruits.

4. Omega-3 fatty acids are great for your eyes (as well as your brain), and you can best get those from fatty fish, such as salmon.

So go ahead and eat a carrot-a-day, it’s great advice, but if you are really concerned about keeping your vision intact as you get older, and particularly if you have a positive family history, there are plenty of other dietary measures you can take. Don’t wait…add to your shopping list: oranges, broccoli, spinach, whole-grain bread, romaine lettuce, nuts, and salmon!

For a long time scientists have suspected that the progressive, degenerative neurological disease Parkinson’s can be triggered by exposure to pesticides. Animal studies have shown exposure to the common pesticides paraquat and maneb will damage the brain’s dopamine producing neurons, and a lack of dopamine in the brain can lead to the rigidity and tremors seen human Parkinson’s disease.

A recent report from UCLA studied people in California’s agricultural Central Valley who lived close to crops exposed to the pesticides paraquat and maneb (and a matched “control group” who lived far away from the treated crop fields) and found that the people living close by had a 75% increased risk of developing Parkinson’s. Those pesticides are commonly used on a number of vegetables including soybeans, potatoes, lettuce, and corn. This is another reason to seriously consider buying organic when you can. Especially if you have a worrisome family history for any neurological problems, the cost difference should be well worthwhile. On the positive side, keep in mind, as mentioned in a previous post, that caffeinated coffee seems to markedly decrease the risk of Parkinson’s disease.

And, while the UCLA study was only directed at the association between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease, I suspect further research will show an association between chronic pesticide exposure and other neurologic disorders….it seems logical that if pesticides cause damage in the dopamine-producing neurons, that they also cause damage elsewhere in the nervous system, and increase the risk of other degenerative neural disorders. Maybe dementia, or the tremor commonly seen in many (not all) older people…for example the little shake when some grab a cup of coffee…that is harmless but serves as one marker indicating that yes, this person seems to be getting “old”.

OK, now here comes a link that will make the cost of your subscription to LLAW worthwhile (hehe…drDave just wanted a little chuckle to himself there)—it’s my favorite list of veggies and fruits with the highest pesticide content, with lower pesticide alternatives (if you don’t or can’t buy organic)…print and consult this list.  You just might live longer and better!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/pesticide-residues.cfm

To finish the week…vitamin D and the racial health gap

You probably know that in the U.S. at least, African-American individuals suffer from a greater incidence of many health disorders, and at an earlier age, such as colon and breast cancer, and more aggressive forms of prostate cancer, and there are various theories why. Now it’s been found that darker-skinned individuals have lower levels of vitamin D, and perhaps that’s  one of the major reasons for the health gap.

Darker-skinned people, and people who live farther from the equator—especially during the winter—can easily suffer from low vitamin D levels, and more and more data is showing how important vitamin D is for our health (click on the “Pick A Topic” cloud on the LLAW right sidebar, and you’ll find a number of posts about vitamin D). While the current recommendation for D is from 200 to 600 units a day, most likely in a year or so these will be raised, maybe to 1000 units per day. Check out and click on Pick A Topic to see more about the vitamin that probably deserves so much praise. Keep posted here for the latest updates. Have a great weekend!

p.s. If you want to read even more about vitamin D this weekend (or whenever), check out this non-profit source:

http://www.vitamindsociety.org/about.php

Last post we discussed research showing that people who eat more red meat have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. During this ten year study, those who ate the most (red) meat had a significantly higher risk of dying of any disease.

Still, many people enjoy eating red meat, and there are some nutritional benefits. Red meat is a great complete protein and vitamin B12 source, both of which are difficult to obtain from vegetables (but fish for example provides both).  This study and others have shown that those who eat “white” meats such as poultry and particularly fish, have a lower risk of heart disease and cancer, so switching from red to white is the first thing to consider for meat eaters. Here are some other measures red meat eaters can take to diminish the risks:

1. Eat smaller quantities less often. Try to limit to two- to three times per week and keep to about 6 ounces per serving (the size of a deck of cards).

2. If you eat processed meats (like hot dogs and bacon), look for nitrate-free products, as nitrates are a known carcinogen (be aware though that nitrate-free meats need more careful refrigeration, as nitrates are normally used as a preservative to decrease bacterial growth).

3. Don’t char meat! Cooking meats at high temperature—especially on a grill—giving a black crust, forms many carcinogenic substances. Cook (thoroughly to avoid bacterial problems) at more medium temperatures.

4. Look at the sell-by date when you buy. Buy the freshest you can, avoiding oxidized, brown-tinged pieces.

5. Buy the leanest cuts to avoid saturated fat, known to increase the risk of breast and colon cancer. Bison, leaner than beef, is a good alternative. The fat in meat is where any pesticide residue or hormones are concentrated.

6. Consider buying organic, grass-fed beef. It may be safer as you avoid any risk of extraneous chemicals, and it is said grass-fed beef contains a higher concentration of the healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

7. At the same meal you have red meat, make sure you also eat several different vegetables, which may counteract the cancer-causing properties in the meat. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts have especially been shown to be cancer-fighters.

8. Consider drinking a glass of red wine along with a red meat meal. Red wine is full of cancer-fighting polyphenol compounds, and some data suggests these might minimize absorption of the carcinogenic substances in the saturated fats of meat.

We have heard nutritional experts for years saying: “eat less meat, especially less red and processed meat” A week ago a large study from the National Cancer Institute was published, and the results should wake-up those of us who eat (probably too much) red meat. The study strongly suggested we have a higher cancer and cardiovascular disease risk, and, bottom line, may die sooner. Fortunately, there are some measures meat eaters can take to minimize the risk and damage (and there is very good news for “white” meat eaters). First let’s look at the cold hard numbers, then, let’s try to get some balance on the issue.

The researchers studied over 500,000 people during a ten-year period, 1995-2005. All of them completed an extensive dietary questionnaire diet (I suggest you take a glance at this almost unbelievable survey form [pdf]). The study also analyzed the individuals’ health habits (like smoking and exercise) and diseases, and at the end of the ten year period, the main question was: did eating red meat significantly raise the risk of death from cancer and heart disease? The answer was a clear yes.

Shockingly, men who ate the most red meat had a 31% increased risk of dying from any disease during the ten-year period compared to men who ate very little red meat. For women, the numbers were even worse: a 36% higher risk of dying for those who ate the most. Most of the deaths were due to a higher rate of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the heavy meat group.  Those eating the most processed meats (like sausages, hot dogs, bologna) showed, for men, a 16% higher risk of dying during the ten-year period, and again, worse for women at a 25% higher risk.

One issue that complicates the data is that those who ate lots of red meat were also more likely to smoke, and on the other side, those who ate less meat were more likely to eat more fruits, grains, and vegetables. While the researchers tried to factor those issues out of the study—and only examine the difference in meat consumption—it’s impossible to separate out the various other factors.

The possibility exists, for example, that it’s not so much the heavy meat consumption that’s responsible for the increased deaths, but the lack of fruits, vegetables, grains, and the increased cigarette use in the heavy meat group. Most likely it’s a combination of factors: more red meat and less of the good things in the diet, and probably the minimal-meat eaters were tuned in to many other healthy habits than were the heavy-meat eaters. Maybe the serious carnivores were more likely to eat things like fast food, or French fries… The bottom line is that it’s very difficult to study only the difference between those who ate lots of meat and those that did not, and this study didn’t do that either.

Next post I’ll write briefly about “white” meat, and list a number of ways red meat-eaters can minimize their risks. Humans evolved—rather successfully—as omnivores, eating many types of animals and plants. It’s a contentious issue. I have heard people say, in effect, I don’t care if I die sooner; I want to enjoy eating meat. And, since the risk of death for each of us is 100%, it’s a question we need to answer for ourselves, not only for meat, but in many aspects of our lives.