No curmudgeon here, but just one harried boomer, who’s watching life’s intrusions chip, chipping away… One upside of travel used to be the “turn off your mobile phones” announcement, and now, it appears one’s conscience gets no time – off from calorie counting. Regulators’ appetite for calorie counts is about to extend beyond restaurants to include airplanes, movie theaters and convenience stores. The government wants calorie listings posted to make it easier for consumers to select healthier options…and I just want to be left alone.

Sure, I watch what I eat – but I’ll do it on my time & my watch. Though initially appreciative of the health-care overhaul enacted in March that had restaurants post calories, resentment started creeping in on the very rare occasions I was about to succumb. One chocolate chip cookie with my Dunkin Donuts coffee would certainly not wreak havoc on this body… until, I espied the 600 plus calories affixed to that slot.

I know. An airplane is the last place you want their food offerings, but I wish Big Brother would keep its elbows out of my less than roomy aisle seat!

Health advocates say the change could be a powerful tool in fighting the obesity epidemic, a top initiative in Washington since first lady Michelle Obama made childhood obesity her signature cause in February.

Come to think of it…Michelle can stay away too!

According to Jarett Berry, a cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, one must be vigilant about keeping physically active. Yes, in what they used to call “Middle Age.” Wasn’t that the time we thought would be a little slower, a tad less “vigorous,” an entitlement to ease up a bit? Not if you want to hit 85 says the good Dr. “If you are fit in mid-life, you double your chance of surviving to 85.”

Dr. Berry’s findings, presented last week in San Francisco at the American Heart Association’s Annual Epidemiology and Prevention Conference, are based on an analysis of 1,765 men and women who had physical examinations performed during the 1970’s and 1980’s at the Cooper Institute, the Dallas-based birthplace of the aerobics movement. Put another way: If you’re not fit in your 50’s, your projected life span “is eight years shorter than if you are fit,” Dr. Berry says.

So regular exercise is the most cogent weapon we have to ward off illness and fight disease- as it results in lower blood pressure, healthier cholesterol, and lower blood sugar.

Rest assured… there is a silver lining to all this before you start jogging, digging ditches, or playing singles tennis: Studies also indicate that exercise’s greatest impact occurs when individuals move from a sedentary lifestyle to embarking on regular moderate exercise regimens.

That’s encouraging. You go, Girl!

Stress is a part and parcel of our frenetic lives, but chronic stress is not what the doctor ordered. Too much stress hikes up your blood pressure, causes body inflammation and can result in heart problems.

So what do we do to slow down? Here are some ways to manage your stress.

• Be realistic about your goals and keep things simple. If you offer to host the annual family Holiday party, don’t go over the top and self cater the entire thing. Take-out side dishes and salads are great fill-ins.

• Express your thoughts in writing. Keeping a journal, blog or diary can be very therapeutic. And if you are not keen of the pen, try recording yourself via a digital voice or video recorder.

• Incorporate some form of exercise into your day and be consistent about it. You don’t have to run the marathon; take a walk with a friend, join the pool at the local Y or shoot some hoops with your kids.

• Massages are the ultimate relaxant. If you don’t believe me, try one for yourself. An aside, did you know that despite the gloomy economy – massage therapy has remained quite popular according to a recent survey from the American Massage Therapy Association?

• Find out if your workplace has any stress-fighting resources in place. Many Employee-Assistance Programs (EAP), wellness programs or health plans provide confidential personal stress-relief plans.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages, there is a swelling populaton of people suffering from osteoarthritis. Arthritis pain seems to go hand in hand with insomnia, with joint pain keeping awake 60% of those with osteoarthritis

A new study, reported in the Aug. 15 issue of Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, finds that cognitive therapy has a beneficial effect on osteoarthritis patients and insomniacs – assisting them in their quest for a good night’s sleep.

Cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia or CBT-I,was given by an experienced clinical psychologist who taught participants cognitive restructuring techniques that helped change unrealistic beliefs and irrational fears regarding sleep or lack of it.

Handwritten sleep logs kept by participants documented their sleep patterns, and pain level was graded by the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Body Pain Subscale (SF-PAIN) question from the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 Pain.

Results showed that after CBT-I treatement, patients were falling asleep faster than before, and remained sleeping approximately 37 minutes longer. CBT-I seems to be an effective tool for treatment of osteoarthritis in conjunction with other pain management techniques, and may also work well with other chronic pain conditions.

By Nancy Smith

Today’s medical announcement would be astounding if it wasn’t almost intuitive; the results clearly demonstrate that lifestyle behaviors do contribute to stroke risk independently of the intermediate risk factors.

We are all aware that the following four behaviors are beneficial to one’s health. Physical activity, moderate alcohol consumption, no smoking, and the daily consumption of five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day can only have a positive impact. The strength of that impact was recently bolstered by a defining EPIC (European Prospective Investigation of Cancer) study conducted in England.

20,040 men and women ages 40 to 79 had a physical exam and completed a detailed health and lifestyle questionnaire upon enrolling in the study. This data determined which participants smoked, drank, were physically active, and whether they ate their fruits and vegetables. The risk of stroke for those who did not practice any of the above mentioned behaviors increased twofold compared with individuals who adopted all four.

“These results provide further incentive and support for the notion that small differences in lifestyle can have a substantial potential impact on risk,” the authors concluded.

~ by Lydia Yolen

Relax actively. That’s the advice of researchers to the retired and the elderly. Not only is it beneficial for your heart, it’s beneficial for your mind.

This news is the conclusion of numerous studies concerning how exercise affects the brain. Exercise causes a chain of reactions that release chemicals into the bloodstream, while regular aerobic workouts build up the presence of these chemicals. The results are startling. Far from the usual shrinking that accompanies aging, the brain begins to grow.

Children have flourishing brains that branch out new neurons with an exuberant frequency. The adult brain begins trimming back unused neurons, and some also die on their own. Until these recent studies, scientists believed that these dead neurons could never regrow. Now they know differently.

In a study by Columbia University’s Scott Small and the Salk Institute’s Fred Gage, subjects asked to exercise regularly seemed to sprout new neurons; the more fit they became the more neurons they grew. The neurons appeared in the section of the brain dedicated to learning and memory, one of the first sections to age. “It’s not just a matter of slowing down the aging process,” explained Arthur Kramer, of the University of Illinois. “It’s a matter of reversing it.”

Exercise does more than just grow a bigger brain. A research group at the University of Washington found that people who exercise three or more times a week have a 30% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Nor did the exercise have to be an intense aerobic workout. Lead researcher Dr. Eric Larson said that a 15-minute walk three times a week was enough to reduce the risk. A similar study found that five to six hours of vigorous physical activity each week led to a 40% decrease in risk of developing Parkinson’s Disease.

Scientists don’t know why this happens, and they haven’t yet zeroed in on the best exercises. But until they figure it out, one thing remains clear: being a couch potato is bad for the brain. So move!

by Edna Milay

Some news from the science front! Hormone replacement in women is linked to hip replacement -  and childbearing is linked to knee replacement. These two new findings come out of England where 1.3 million women were followed since 1996.
Hormone replacement therapy is quite common among post-menopausal women, particularly those at risk of osteoporosis. Estrogen prevents bone-loss, which in turn prevents osteoporosis. But it seems to have a negative affect on join strength. Notable, estrogen with progestragen was more closely correlated with hip replacement than estrogen alone or tibolone.
The second finding is more startling. It’s well known that running, excessive jumping, climbing, and carrying heavy things can damage the knees, but nobody ever thought to apply that to carrying children. Though, when you think about it, some of those babies can get quite heavy.
This finding creates one of those tight corners often created by conflicting medical advice. Exercise during pregnancy is highly recommended, but it’s important to avoid unduly stressing the knees. Here are a few recommendations:
1. Swimming. Swimming takes the weight off your legs while getting your heart rate pumping. An outdoor pool or swimming no more than once a week because of the chlorine and ammonia that can build up over indoor pools.
2. Rowing, weightlifting (from sitting position), and similar exercises are healthy and will also get you ready to start carrying around a 10 lb baby.
3. Biking on a stationary bike will support your weight while giving you great aerobic exercise.
4. Yoga is both relaxing and healthy and a good idea any day.

by Edna Milay
Sometimes it seems like everything causes cancer. Then it seems like everything prevents it. What advice should you follow and what can you regard skeptically until further research actually proves something? Here are a few lifestyle tips for cancer prevention. All are well proven to correlate with reduced cancer risks.
1. A little alcohol affects men and women differently. Men actually benefit from a small daily intake of spirits, while women should not exceed a single drink a day, if even that much.
2. Avoid processed meats at all cost, and limit your consumption of all red meat. Fish and fowl are rich in all the proteins you need without the unhealthy fats that come along with.
3. Along the same lines, try to avoid overdosing on sodium and salt, which most people do. The average salt intake is already well above the necessary limit, so any reduction on your part can only be good.
4. Whole, unprocessed foods are your best bet. Fruits, veggies, and things that grow from the ground are healthy. Foods with ingredients you can’t pronounce or that don’t resemble any naturally occurring edible should be shunned. And while you’re at it, aim for a variety of veggies and fruits. Different foods have different vitamins and minerals, so take in as much as possible.
5.  Exercise. About 30 minutes of activity per day, enough to get your heart rate up, should do the trick.
6. Avoid fat, especially saturated and hydrogenated. Hydrogenated fats, found in margarine and most junk foods, are directly linked to cancer risks. Processed sugar is also a known evil. Reduce your calorie intake as much as possible, a strategy linked to longer life overall.

by Jose Sonik

With aging, comes reduced hormone levels. Does reversing the hormone levels reverse aging?
Not exactly, but it might come close.
Human growth hormone is a hormone that predominantly increases height. While doing so, it also increases muscle mass and bone density. HGH is at its highest levels during childhood and puberty. As we mature, the levels decrease, beginning a sharp decline at around age 30. At around that time, bone density declines, muscle mass reduces, and physical disorders like diabetes increase.
Until now, some of the more desperate aging generation have taken HGH in the hope of reversing aging, but research has not corroborated their theory.
But now, something new is in the air. According to Natalie Angier of the NY Times: “In a clinical trial of 21 healthy men ranging in age from 61 to 81, researchers found that after six months of injections of a genetically engineered version of the natural body hormone, the men emerged with bodies that by many measures were almost 20 years younger than the ones they started with.”
Aging was measured only in the distribution of body weight. The men were found to have increased muscle mass and decreased fat. The scientists hypothesize that some bulk went to internal organs, which shrink with age, but aren’t sure. The men’s skin also increased in thickness and youth, and bone density increased.
Of course, the significance of this improvement is debatable. HGH is known to increase muscles mass and reduce fat, but without really increasing strength. And what’s the point of muscle without strength? Similarly, the change in appearance was not correlated to an increase in performance of organs or body.
And as with all drugs, there were the side effects. HGH can cause swelling in the face, arms, and legs; arthritis; diabetes; hardened arteries, high blood pressure, and heart failure; and abnormal growth of bones and organs, among others.

by Ruth Folger Weiss

Add this to your  “it’s nice to know” file:

Physical warmth impacts on how we view other people and, creates a causal scenario where we then treat the other person in a warm or cold fashion.

To ascertain how temperature affects emotions, Lawrence Williams, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and John A. Bargh, PhD, professor of psychology at Yale University conducted a study on undergraduates.

Students were  casually asked to hold  a tester’s  cup of coffee for a moment prior to entering a room;  half the participants were asked to hold a cup of warm coffee and half were asked to hold a cup of iced coffee.

The students were   subsequently given a portfolio of information  on an unknown person described with words like intelligent, skillful, industrious, practical, and cautious. They were then asked to respond to a questionnaire evaluating the person’s personality. Interestingly, those who had held the warm coffee were much more likely to score the  “person in question”  as warmer than those who had held the iced coffee.

“It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behavior as well,” Bargh says. “Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer — more generous and trusting .”

In the boardroom and in your social life, never underestimate the importance of  an outreached hand, especially when it’s a warm one!