Wine or Exercise?

Tough choice! We love anything that makes us better that we can do from the comfort of our couch. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA discovered more benefits from wine drinking. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) for March 2010 has two featured articles. The big news yesterday morning was wine makes it possible to not gain weight more than no wine. The second was that exercise will help your heart. (See the YouTube video from the JAMA below) Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah!

We'd rather drink than sweat. Moderation is the key so we say chocolate and wine during meals for better health if you're gaining weight! Of course don't hold us to it because it's our very liberal way of interpreting the data. What research has actually shown is:.

"The researchers found that compared with lifelong abstainers, women who consumed 0.1 to 4.9 grams of alcohol per day (less than one beer) had a 20 percent reduction in risk for developing type 2 diabetes; women who drank 5.0 to 14.9 grams of alcohol per day (about one beer) had a 33 percent risk reduction; women who drank 15.0 to 29.9 grams of alcohol per day (about one to two beers) had a 58 percent risk reduction, and those who drank 30 or more grams of alcohol per day (about two to three beers) had a 22 percent risk reduction." - American Medical Association (AMA) 

"The researchers found that the inverse association with light to moderate drinking and reduction in risk of developing type 2 diabetes was most apparent in women who reported drinking beer or wine. However, women who reported drinking 30 grams or more of liquor per day had a significantly increased risk (about two and one half times higher) of diabetes compared to those who did not drink. In this cohort of mainly premenopausal women, a nonlinear relationship was seen between alcohol consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus," write the authors. "We found a linear inverse association up to levels of 29.9 grams per day, beyond which risk increased compared with light and moderate drinkers. Despite the consistent association between light to moderate drinking and lower risk of diabetes mellitus, the potential harmful effects of drinking on other aspects of health outcome need to be considered," the researchers write." - American Medical Association (AMA)

Which is good if you don't have diabetes and if anyone asks you can always say that you're protecting yourself against type 2. Twenty-nine grams (29) is a social way of drinking. Take one and make it last or finish it and its time to leave, if you can't resist another. Then when you get home you can have another glass or two.

"Low to moderate intake of wine is associated with lower mortality from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and other causes. Similar intake of spirits implied an increased risk, while beer drinking did not affect mortality." - (6051 men and 7234 women aged 30-70 years) - Mortality associated with moderate intakes of wine, beer, or spirits - British Medical Journal (BMJ), May 1995

Now that's science. When we looked for the earliest healthy wine research guess what we found out from Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) from April 1933 we could only get this little bit of information from the archives:

"Certain American newspapers1 have recently featured special foreign correspondence alleging that French physicians, "following the well known practice at Vichy, are prescribing more and more the moderate drinking of wine instead of milk for patients suffering from gastric or intestinal troubles." It is further reported that "one of the eminent physicians who are leading the antimilk campaign in favor of wine" regards it as a duty to inform the public about the physiologic advantages of wine. These statements, which have been widely circulated at a moment when the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment is being discussed in every home, are already promoting numerous inquiries to physicians." - Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) April 1933.

Seventy-seven (77) years later we have to ask the question, as the American Dairy Association (ADA) wants us to get more milk, whose healthier the French or Americans? The answer according to Forbes magazine from April 2008 is the United States which was the eleventh (11th) most health country in the world and France is the fifteenth (15th) most health country in the world. The year before Forbes released their healthiest country was Forbes magazines' fattest nations.

Forbes also ranked the US as the ninth (9th) most overweight as compared to France one hundred twenty eighth (128th) fattest nation. Ethiopia is the next to last in obesity at one hundred and ninety three (193rd) out of a possible one hundred and ninety four (194th) nations, Feb 2007. So we can be fat, happy and healthy unless you don't consider fat healthy and clearly Forbes magazine does. If however you like health on the thin side then the wine might make you consider the French as thinner, happier (because of the wine) and therefore healthier. The World Health Organization (WHO) certainly considers the French less obese, overweight and healthier. We think its mostly the wine.

You Look Marvelous!

We loved that skit! This is the second time we've quoted the character since we've began this and it's doubtful that many people will even remember either Billy Crystal or that he ever was a member of the NBC late night weekend program. There certainly isn't much internet evidence available to prove it. (This is the horrible music video that only gives a hint of the humor of the original) We just didn't think a comedy skit credo would be taken so seriously by so many people. What should be important is the good feelings and maybe reflecting those good feelings on your face. That's something we all could learn to do, in our humble opinions.

Does happy make you beautiful or do you feel beautiful because you're happy? Dr. Karina W. Davidson, PhD at the Columbia University Medical Center reported in 2006 in Pschosomatic Medicine reviewing Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and depression by getting a group of great minds together.

Don't worry, be happy: positive affect and reduced 10-year incident coronary heart disease: The Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey - We examined the association between positive affect and cardiovascular events in 1739 adults (862 men and 877 women) in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey... In this large, population-based study, increased positive affect was protective against 10-year incident CHD, suggesting that preventive strategies may be enhanced not only by reducing depressive symptoms but also by increasing positive affect.(The European Heart Journal)

Canadians are considered easy going, friendly and overly polite individuals so it might not be information readily transferable to every population and every situation. Our own anecdotal experiences with Pearlie Mae, Mamie and Alice was that attitude was extremely important to their health and well-being. The better they felt without the aid of pain medication the better their responses and the quicker their physical recovery. The information reported yesterday with Hawaii as the healthiest and has the greatest feelings of well being in the nation would seem to contribute to these result. What's most exciting is that research is continuing. Dr. Davidson is continuing her research finding the root causes for depression well into 2011 "comparing "Depression Interventions After Acute Coronary Syndrome (CODIACS)" with other schools including The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"We suggest a process for clinical psychologists to collect an evidence base and join the evidence-based movement already underway in many areas of medicine. To illustrate this process, we review the history of cholesterol discovery, evaluation, and management as an evidence-based process, extracting lessons applicable to the field of psychology. By examining these lessons and building consensus, clinical psychologists can advance the movement along an evidence-based practice continuum, improve client care, build a more informative evidence base, and promote equitable reimbursement for psychological practice." (Karina W. Davidson Dec 2005)

Our only problem with the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health is their focus on the purely clinical with little information for patients with that in mind and even though their research makes it easier to live a "couch potato" lifestyle we need to let it go! We do! All of the joy individuals feel don't come from their particular residence as earlier studies indicated we find joy amidst the sorrow. Even in the least joyful states there are happier areas. Indeed the only participants in the study might have been only the joyful. If anything such studies should indicate that joy is all around us.That however is just our point of view - it might not be yours. Neither opinions would be particularly scientific, scientifically viable or even verifiable.

Implanted Device Causes Body to Naturally Lower Blood Pressure - "A multi-center, 300-patient trial led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is testing the efficacy of the Rheos Baroreflex Hypertension Therapy System. The Food and Drug Administration-approved system is implanted surgically, with minimal scarring, under the skin in the neck and electronically stimulates the receptors in the carotid sinus, the area located at the bifurcations of the carotid arteries that are responsible for regulating blood pressure." - Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC)

Now this kind of research makes us happy. We included it because it is also from the same Columbia University Medical Center as the other research. This is what we're looking forward to using. Anything that will allow us to not to take medication, that we can sit in our recliners and put our feet up and sit on our rears in front of our big screen televisions and be healed. Now that's what we call research and that's why we love science.

Salted to Death...

...but at least you didn't get cancer when you died!

The men among us here are big salt users. Calls us "salters" because we reach for the shaker before our lips ever touch the food. There is not a woman among us that doesn't warn us against the dangers of our salty ways. We get the same grief when we sweeten our drinks. The warnings always include the ominous you're going to get cancer (or diabetes as the case may be) and die! Maybe you've heard it or maybe you're a carrier of "the ominous warnings of death!" (TOWOD)

Now comes The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) and the Japan Public Health Center–based Prospective Study which says we (the men) were right and they (the women) were wrong. Well kind of wrong.

"Sodium intake as a whole salt equivalent may not increase the risk of cancer but may increase that of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In contrast, salted food intake may increase the risk of cancer. [Their] findings support the notion that sodium and salted foods have differential influences on the development of cancer and CVD." (AJCN)

So to all the other Tarzans out there - "Salters" not dying but greasy pre-salted bad! That includes all the processed meats and salty processed foods which can still kill you. Science keeps verifying it this bit of news over and over again. In this case science, since 1995 and eliminating family history for over ten (10) years and over seventy-seven thousand (77,500 men and women aged 45–74 y. During up to 598,763 person-years of follow-up until the end of 2004, 4476 cases of cancer and 2066 cases of CVD were identified.) individuals helped confirm the results.

It's not direct research it's what's called "a meta-analysis" of twenty-one (21) studies but the bottom line is (according to these  reviewers) "there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD." (AJCN) That's good enough for us and we'll hang on to every thread of countermanding evidence.

We don't need new lab research to show us the benefits of fruits and vegetables. We need research that emphasizes real-world solutions. - Janet King, PhD

Here Here Dr. King! We giveth the bad news and we taketh away the bad news - there is some new cancer hope from some fairly unconventional sources.

Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) scientist Julie Saba, MD, PhD, and her colleagues have just published a groundbreaking study in Cancer Research that identifies a new class of therapeutic agents that could hold the key to the prevention and treatment of colon cancer. Sphingadienes (SDs) are sphingolipid metabolites found naturally in soy that Dr. Saba’s group has found to be protective against colon cancer. (CHORI)

Soy and fruit flies, all things we turn our noses up from the very mention or even seeing. Now showing us the way that going to get cancers and kill it!

"Although cell death does not sound like a good thing and can indeed contribute to pathology, it is also part of the normal process the body uses to remove unhealthy or mutant cells, providing what Dr. Saba refers to as a "cancer surveillance" function. Preventative colon cancer strategies often focus on the same process – ways to get rid of those cells that might be damaged – and thus more prone to turning into cancer – as quickly as possible, which was why Dr. Saba’s team was particularly interested in SDs." (CHORI)

Now we've got some additional ammunition in our growing arsenal to fight the "big C" (cancer) and we won't have to make major life changes to take advantage of its benefits. That's what we call a good day and a great end to a great week.

It's Better To Look Good...

...than to feel good if you know what I mean. (Billy Crystal as Fernando Lamas (Video)

For many people including pseudo celebrities "Speidi" you never really look good until you've had something "fixed" with plastic surgery. The latest trend in research seems to be following that credo. Today's news comes this story from ABC News, LA Times and Wall Street Journal:

Fish Oils May Slow Genetic Aging in Heart Patients - "In the study, Dr. Ramin Farzaneh-Far of the University of California San Francisco and colleagues followed more than 600 men with heart disease and found those taking the most omega-3 appeared "biologically younger" -- that is, the ends of their chromosomes, called telomeres, looked longer and healthier."

The question becomes: What could it hurt? Though if we were heart patients aging wouldn't be so much on our minds as not dying. To be honest you can't age if you're dead. So "younger" appearing wouldn't be our first concern.

The American Heart Association (AHA) understands this and offers us a way of not just looking healthier but staying alive which is a great way of slowing death. AHA doesn't just offer a single solution but seven (7) simple life's steps to live better. Unfortunately it's seven or the familiar blah, blah, blahs as before or to quote Seinfeld: "YADA YADA YADA long story short" we've heard it all before and it doesn't work for the couch obsessed.

The information isn't really news worthy or new. It bears repeating because regardless of the familiar blah, blah, blahs until there's a change in the causes of death not just in country but locally as well. If the AHA wasn't trying to keep us alive we'd be fairly perturbed. From their no news news to their "National Wear Red Day" as a tool of celebration featuring real women to make this a day to remember?!?! It's all so confusing. We mean aren't all women, except maybe for "Speidi," real? We guess they mean not actresses, who are after all real women aren't they? If you're an actress do you lose your gender?

It's purpose seems lost on the organization which only later suggests that purpose is to help raise awareness of cardiovascular disease in women. Our suggestion to raise awareness of something that doesn't sound so medical and isn't so confusing. Maybe we can help raise awareness of not prematurely dying.

Study Shows Regular Exercise Benefits Prostate Cancer Survivors - "even a moderate amount of exercise – taking regular walks, for example – reduced overall mortality rates in men with prostate cancer. The more vigorous the exercise, the greater the benefits, the study found." (23% - 51% - editor's note) "Find an activity you enjoy and get moving. Just be sure to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program to make sure it's safe for you, especially if you haven't exercised in a long time." (American Cancer Society)

TYPES OF CANCERS By Jurisdiction 1ST 2ND 3RD District of Columbia Maryland Virginia United States North Carolina

Cancer is the number one (1) and number two (2) cause of death in our jurisdiction and the nation falls into several categories. The figures are estimated for 2009 by the ACS. We've charted the top three cancers in our area by ribbons. In the District of Columbia first (1) sky blue for prostate, second (2) pearl (white) is lung and bronchus and third (3) is the familiar pink for breast cancer. Maryland, Virginia and the Nation places places lung first, breast second and prostate third. North Carolina does lung and bronchus first, prostate second and breast third.

In the beginning 51,529 men in health professions participate(d) in the study. This group is composed of 29,683 dentists, 4,185 pharmacists, 3,745 optometrists, 2,220 osteopath physicians, 1,600 podiatrists, and 10,098 veterinarians. Among the study participants are 531 African-Americans and 877 Asian-Americans. (Harvard School of Public Health)

We hesitated to use ribbons as symbols of types of cancer because of the conflict and crossover in colors and causes from the expanded use of the ribbons symbols. Yet no other symbols could consistently be used and understood in our minds.

"For the first time, the American Heart Association has defined poor, intermediate and ideal cardiovascular health -- using seven easy-to-understand measures." (AHA)

We're obviously in the poor category because we're too lazy to find the tools to measure what qualifies as poor but optimistic enough to consider ourselves "intermediate." What's most interesting is that our staff, comprised largely of women, are in the process of losing and while the men are gaining weight.

This is the kind of study we think should be prompted. We call this "couch" research because to do it we don't have to get off the couch to implement and benefit from it.

"Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Stroke Research Center looked at 4,435 people, aged 30 to 75 years, who were participating in ongoing national government health research from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study. They found that over a 20-year period, those who had never owned a cat had a 40 percent greater risk of death due to heart attack and a 30 percent higher risk of death due to any sort of cardiovascular disease than previous or current cat owners. Researchers found no such protective effects for dog owners." (ABC News)

Our problem with the ABC report is in an effort to be fair and balanced they included opinions that referenced an older not as well researched study that contradicted this longer and larger study.

Pet ownership, social support, and one-year survival after acute myocardial infarction in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) - "One year survival data were obtained from 369 patients (87%), of whom 112 (30.4%) owned pets and 20 (5.4%) died..."

Yes compare a one (1) year study with three hundred and sixty-nine individuals to a twenty (20) year study with forty-four hundred individuals. We verify and so now can you.

We can couch study with cats but other study says that we can't nap or rather if we do we'd better be careful.

"Among 2,153 participants in a prospective study with an average follow-up of 2.3 years, the risk of stroke was 2.6 times greater for those classified as doing “some dozing” compared to those with “no dozing.” Those in the “significant dozing” group had a 4.5 times higher risk." (AHA)

So cat in the lap but no cat nap with the cat in the lap! Also we've got to be careful when the cat is not in the lap but somewhere in the house.

Dogs and cats provide comfort and companionship, but it’s important to realize that pets and pet items can cause falls that result in injuries, including fractures. Every day it is estimated that an average of 240 people are treated in emergency departments—about 86,600 each year—for injuries from falls involving dogs and cats. This study examined five years of emergency department data and found that 88 percent of fall injuries involved dogs than cats. Among injuries related to dogs, about 31 percent of persons fell or tripped over dogs and 21 percent fell after being pushed or pulled by dogs. For injuries related to cats, 66 percent fell or tripped over cats. Raising public awareness that pets can cause falls and pets and pet-related items can be fall hazards can help reduce possible injuries. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention - CDC)

So as long as we're careful - What could it hurt? Maybe your cat? Did you know your pets can also get strokes? Neither did veterinarians until recently when research showed differently.

"Strokes in cats can be caused by an underlying medical condition, or through an accidental injury or poisoning. Ischemic strokes occur when the blood supply to the brain has been reduced, and hemorrhagic strokes occur when a vessel within the brain breaks." (PETWAVE)

It may be good for us to have our cats in our laps but it could kill your cat! For the solution to that problem we'll leave that up to the PETA scientists. Since cardiovascular disease isn't something that deserves more attention from us in our jurisdiction than the three (3) cancers that actually kills more of our residents we probably won't be wearing red on "National Wear Red Day!" We hope the AHA understands.

You Are Where You Live

Where you live can determine how long you live? Maybe and we're not talking "Three Mile island" or "Love Canal" locations but when you're considering schools system, recreation facilities, parks, bike paths, crime rates you might want to add the availability of "fruit and veg" stands to your list of neighborhood home purchase considerations.

What we love is this blame the environment studies rather than blaming the victim. It's not that we are anti-earthers we don't hate the planet. We don't! We love mother earth. What we don't like is old useless suggestions that ignore prior failures of implementation. Failures aren't what we should be studying successes are.

ABC News does it again. Call it reporting on truly environmental (sustainable) planning: "[T]he risk of diabetes associated with living in such a "healthy" 'hood was 38% lower than for people who lived in the unhealthiest places, Dr. Amy H. Auchincloss of Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia and her colleagues found. The findings raise the possibility, Auchincloss told Reuters Health, that changing people's environments could help improve their health. "There's certainly a lot of potential for making an impact," she added, pointing to initiatives like improving public transportation, increasing green space, making sidewalks safer, and opening farmer's markets in urban neighborhoods where supermarkets are scarce."

The LA Times does it better and we recommend you read their story asking: "Can your neighborhood make you sick? Type 2 diabetes may not be contagious, but it certainly appears to be spreading. In 1958, the prevalence was 0.9%. By 2000 it had climbed to 4.4%, and it’s projected to hit 7.2% in 2050. What accounts for this? Perhaps it’s the way residential neighborhoods have evolved to accommodate car rides to fast-food restaurants instead of walks to corner grocery stands."

MSN is not a normal source of information for us adds: "People who live in neighborhoods that promote physical activity and offer access to healthy foods may be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, researchers say. Their study included 2,285 people, aged 45 to 84, living in neighborhoods in Baltimore, Forsyth County, N.C., and New York City/Bronx. Their neighborhoods were assessed by asking residents questions, such as whether it's easy or pleasant to walk in their community, and whether local stores carry a large, high-quality selection of fruits, vegetables and other low-fat foods. Average neighborhood scores were 3.68 for physical activity and 3.36 for healthy foods, the researchers found."

We have to take their word for it but we did ask Assistant Professor Amy H. Auchincloss of Drexel University if any of the above mentioned three got it right. We'll let you know what she says.

While the stories focused on type 2 diabetes the LATimes incorporates a PearlieMaes style of investigation of multiple studies that reached similar conclusions. One of the reasons we love the LATimes is reporting that goes beyond the obvious to real reporting. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) "Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) - (which) investigated the prevalence, correlates, and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) and risk factors that predict progression to clinically overt CVD, and that predict progression of subclinical disease itself, in a population-based sample of 6,800 ethnically diverse men and women."

The green elements of the solution to our health issues include a "Whole Foods" philosophy of using products and produce locally produced to reduce the transportation and energy cost associated with bring items from longer distances to reduce our carbon foot print. Less expenses mean more savings in our pockets and to our planet. Its easier being green than you thought when we think and better plan.