Useful Emotions

For whatever reason, I haven't really ever given consideration to the idea that emotions are useful -- that I would cultivate one particular emotion because it would assist me in completing a particular task.  Sure, I have seen the football player type guy yelling at himself to get himself pumped up for the game (and secretly thought he was stupid) but using emotions as tools??

Here is a study that talks about the usefulness of anger.  Interestingly enough, the study authors found that study participants liked music and activities that made them angry if they had to complete a task that was confrontational (in this case, a shoot em' up video game). 

On the flip side though, anger was not helpful when completing a task that was non-confrontational (a video game where the participant was a restaurant server trying to deal with her customers).

We have all heard the idea that anger is healthy and I believe that to be true but...it looks like perhaps we should give some consideration to how and when we are using that emotion -- perhaps it is the right tool for the job and perhaps not.

Dementia related to midlife stress?? Is there any hope for us?

Here's something that is not exciting -- a study published in Brain indicates a link between times of high-stress in mid-life and developing dementia later on.  Yikes!!  Who isn't stressed in mid-life?

According to this article:

"Stress was defined as a sense of irritation, tension, nervousness, anxiety, fear or sleeping problems lasting a month or more due to work, health, family or other problems"

The study authors say much more research is needed in this area before we jump to any conclusions.

The good news??

"Most of those who said that they were stressed did not develop dementia"  --So there isn't any reason to get stressed about your stress level. 

The take home? An over-abundance of  stress isn't healthy and there are a million ways to reduce your stress level.  Go for a walk, turn off the TV, don't watch the news, meditate, enjoy your friends when you're with them...and the list goes on. 

Don't change your stress coping behaviors because you are scared of increasing your risk of dementia -- change your stress coping behaviors because when you do, you will enjoy your life more!

Are more kids getting kidney stones?

If you have every seen anyone experiencing kidney stones (or experienced them yourself), you have some idea of just how painful they can be!  I didn't know kids could experience them -- let alone that the number of children dealing with kidney stones may be on the increase.

Why? 

Some professionals think it it likely due to the same diet and low-fluid concerns that put adults at risk.  Why is that?  Read on:

"...Obesity is a risk factor for kidney stones, and the rising rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. could be at work. Since 1980, the percentage of obese kids between ages 6 and 11 has nearly tripled to 19.6 percent in 2008 according to the Centers for Disease for Disease Control and Prevention.



Diet is another potential culprit, Routh noted. Low fluid intake, and high intakes of sodium as well as animal fat and proteins, can contribute to kidney stones, he explained.


Children who have a family history of kidney stones or have ever had stones in the past are at greater risk of developing them than other kids are. Routh suggested that parents of these children, in particular, try to make sure their kids stay well-hydrated, especially during summer months.


Hydration, he said, is the best way to prevent stone formation in children at elevated risk."

Click here to read the article in full.

Teen hearing loss increasing

Here's an interesting statement I hadn't ever considered:

"There is a difference between what we consider to be loud and what is physically intense and could be hazardous to the ear"

Seems pretty straight forward right?

According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, teen hearing loss is up from 15% of teens having some degree of hearing loss in the early 1990's to nearly 20% by the mid 2000's.

As much as our teens are listening to their electronics via their rockin' Skull Candy  and as happy as I am not to be assaulted by that noise myself, perhaps they need a bit more guidance on the difference between what they consider loud and the noise level that actually creates hearing loss.  I bet there is a pretty big disconnect between the two!

Trying to decide on which diet to try next?

Okay -- if you originally started reading the Eating Coach blog, you will know I am an advocate of NOT DIETING to lose weight.  I will make the distinction here just to be clear -- I am not a fan of weight loss through cutting out things that you like to eat.  Honestly, if your strategy is to do without your favorites, how long are you going to last?  Forever?  I think not.

But -- if you are going to diet to lose weight as a means of addressing a particular health concern, this article provides some insight on whether to go low-fat or low-carb to achieve your goals.

The most important part:  pick areas of change you can live with.  Otherwise, you will put in all that hard work losing the weight only to gain it back when you go "off" your diet and return to your "normal" behaviors.

It's your whole diet pattern that matter -- not individual components

Ever consider just taking a pill instead of eating your veggies?  Same thing, right?  Sorry!  The answer is no it's not.  Scientist have looked at people with Metabolic Syndrome.  Those most successful at reversing their health issues are the ones that change their whole dietary pattern to include less high-fat, highly processed food and add in more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.  (in other words, REAL FOOD)

There's just no getting around it!  We need to eat things that grow in the ground and on trees if we want to achieve that next level of health.

Click here and here for more information.

Think Tai Chi is only for old people?

No way!  If you have ever taken a class, you might have notice how the movements highlight your lack of balance and coordination.  Think your coordinated?  Maybe, maybe not -- but you'll know for sure after your first session on Tai Chi.

Young and old alike can benefit from these ancient, smooth movements.  Alternative forms of movement are attracting the attention of the West's scientific community.  The newest study I have come across looks at whether Tai Chi is a better therapy for Fibromyagia sufferers than just stretching.  And the results of that study??

Survey says "Tai Chi wins out as a more effective pain management technique.  As an added bonus -- with less pain, people suffer from less depression.

Interested in trying Tai Chi?  Click here for classes at BHFC.

Does your child suffer from recurrent headaches?

A new study out in the journal Neurology sites teens who smoke, have poor dietary habits and are sendentary also have a higher incidence of recurrent headaches.

Maybe this is a question of the chicken and the egg -- kids have headaches because of poor diet, smoking or limited physical activity kids get headaches.  OR...maybe kids prone to headaches and the same kinds of kids likely to smoke, make poor food choices and be sedintary.  The evidence is not conclusive.  But I don't think it really matters.

The take home message is:

Kids need to move more than they do.

The need to be educated on positive food choices.

And we need to continue to send the message that smoking is a negative choice.

But the biggest thing we can do for them?

Model those behaviors so they can see them in action!!!

Health discount plans aren't insurance???

"Health discount plans are not insurance. They don't pay your medical bills."

Did you know that?  I didn't.  Did you know the FTC was cracking down on fraudulent insurers?  Me neither!

For more information, click here for more information.

The Institute for the Future Health and Healthcare Forecast Map

By 2020, the population aged 65 or older is projected to reach 55 million, but Medicare’s Hospital

Trust Fund may be insolvent as soon as 2017. Overall health care spending is projected to exceed 20%
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

What if demands for sustainability require achieving healthy outcomes without harming the environment?

What if new technologies enable us to experience the future effects of present-day behavior choices?
What if self-tracking goes mainstream and shapes research and treatment practices?

Interested in seeing how these ideas could play out?  Click here for the report that describes the endless possiblities for the future.

Obesity is expensive. How expensive? According to a new report by the CDC, obesity related illness is costing the US more than $147 billion annually. 24/7 Wall St. did some number crunching and came up with a state by state cost of obesity based on the figure that obesity adds $1429 to healthcare costs per person per year.

Here are the 5 states with the lowest obesity rates.

Colorado
*Percentage Obese: 18.6%
*Population: 5,024,748
*Number Of Obese: 934,603
*Cost: $1,335,547,869

District of Columbia
*Percentage Obese: 19.7%
*Population: 599,657
*Number Of Obese: 118,132
*Cost: $1,035,692,511

Connecticut
*Percentage Obese: 20.6%
*Population: 3,518,288
*Number Of Obese: 724,767
*Cost: $1,035,692,511

Massachusetts
*Percentage Obese: 21.4%
*Population: 6,593,587
*Number Of Obese: 1,411,027
*Cost: $2,016,358,466

Hawaii
*Percentage Obese: 22.3%
*Population: 1,295,178
*Number Of Obese: 288,824
*Cost: $412,730,487

Michigan is in the middle of the pack.
*Percentage Obese: 29.6%
*Population: 9,969,727
*Number Of Obese: 2,951,039
*Cost: $4,217,035,005

And the 5 states with the highest rates???

Oklahoma
*Percentage Obese: 31.4%
*Population: 3,687,050
*Number Of Obese: 1,157,733
*Cost: $1,654,401,457

Kentucky
*Percentage Obese: 31.5%
*Population: 4,314,113
*Number Of Obese: 1,358,945
*Cost: $1,941,933,255

Tennessee
*Percentage Obese: 32.3%
*Population: 6,296,254
*Number Of Obese: 2,033,690
*Cost: $2,906,143,070

Louisiana
*Percentage Obese: 33%
*Population: 4,492,076
*Number Of Obese: 1,482,385
*Cost: $2,906,143,070

Mississippi
*Percentage Obese: 34.4%
*Population: 2,951,996
*Number Of Obese: 1,015,486
*Cost: $1,451,130,385

**figures by Ashley C. Allen
Read more: The Obesity Index: The Cost of Obesity by State - 24/7 Wall St.















































Read more: The Obesity Index: The Cost of Obesity by State - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2010/08/05/the-obesity-index-the-cost-of-obesity-by-state/







http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/pdf/2010-08-vitalsigns.pdf

What really matters is what you doing

Here is a video from Don Miller's blog.  She isn't talking about health per say -- she is talking about living life in a way that makes you happy you have a life to live.  Sometimes, we get so caught up in our day to day -- in making good health choices, getting the kids to their practices, slugging out our treadmill time (or feeling guilty if we don't) that we lose sight of why we started doing these things in the first place.

Here's your reminder for today :)  I hope you take it to heart.


Angela from Donald Miller on Vimeo.

Another way to think about Health Insurance

Four Corners of Health Insurance - "I Do Fine Without It" from Everynone on Vimeo.


I came across this at Jay Parkinson's site. 

The Web can be a great (and terrible) resource for people dealing with disease

From WebMD to Wikipedia, the web is full of places to get information on disease.  I just came across this one though.  PatientsLikeMe is a community website where you can connect with people working through the disease process.  There is information on symptoms, treatments, and research.

If you or a loved one is struggling to make sense of what is happening with your health, this might be a great tool to receive or share information.  If you're considering posting your health information, though, please be sure to read this.

Botox and your emotional connection to the world

Whether you've had Botox or not, you've probably seen the sitcoms on TV making fun of it.  The mom trying to get mad at her teenager but the anger just not coming through because she can't make the accompanying angry face.

There's a new study out that suggests that not only will that mom not be able to express her anger, she might not be able to feel it as intensly either.  Now...before the curfew breaking teenagers rejoice too much, it's not just anger that would be dulled.  The research was looking at the question, do emotions create expression or expression create emotion?

Apparently, it works in both directions -- you smile because you experience something positive but you experience something positive when you smile.  And if you can't smile or frown?  You will experience less depth of either of those emotions.

Wondering if your suppeiments are effective? How about "Are they safe?"

Supplements are a booming business -- and they are not regulated by the FDA (because they are neither food nor drugs).  There is lots of talk about the effectiveness of any given supplement but what about their safety?  Are they doing you more harm than good?

"Of the more than 54,000 dietary supplement products in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, only about a third have some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence," says Consumer Reports.

And yet, reports from Nutrition Business Journal say the US spent $26.7 billion in 2009.

The key?  Do your homework.  Where are your supplements being manufactured?  In the US?  China?  Mexico?  Have there been rigorous scientific studies done?

And perhaps, lastly, if you are eating a varied and nutritionally dense, whole food based diet, do you really need supplementation???

For more information on real-food eating, check out the book In Defense of Food.

Too much caffeine

The Canadian government is taking a look at the amount of caffeine in energy drinks and how to keep them out of the hands of children.  The are investigating dozens of caffeine related deaths and 15 that were cardiac events linked to caffeine.

For example:

a 250-ml bottle of Coca-Cola contains 26 milligrams of caffeine
a 75-ml bottle of Rockstar “energy shot” contains 200 mg of caffeine
a 355-ml can of Red Bull contains 113.6 mg of caffeine.

Health Canada says children between 10 and 12 should not consume more than 85 mg of caffeine a day and
healthy adults shouldn’t consume more than 400 mg a day.

A couple energy drinks really add up in a day.  Yikes!

Click here to visit the source article

And here for a link to what the Mayo Clinic has to say about caffeine.

Prayer can heal hearing and vision issues?

A new study out says just that and goes on to say that those in physical proximity during the prayer experience greater effects.  Why?  Is it placebo?  Is it the healing hand of God?  Does it really matter if the results are measureable and statistically relevant?

Growing your own replacement parts?

Replacement rabbit bones

You just can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who has had knee, hip or shoulder replacement surgery!

 478,000 knee replacements along are done annually with the total expected to grow to 3.4 million by 2030.  One of the down sides of current replacements is they wear out, necessitating another replacement in 10-15 years.  In a person undergoing replacement at age 50 or 55, 10-15 years means several procedures on that joint in their lifetime.

Scientists have been successfully experimenting (in animals) with implanting a biodegradable bioscaffold that was 3D designed to match the original joint.  As the body breaks down the bioscaffold, it replaces the man made substance with bone.  Cool, huh??? 

Looks like there are better options on the horizon!  For more information, click here to get the NIH report.

The world is getting more addictive?

Paul Graham wrote an interesting essay on the Acceleration of Addictiveness.  It wasn't my intention to use the same links on this blog as the ones on the Eating Coach blog -- however, I found this idea interesting.

Here are a few of his thoughts:

What hard liquor, cigarettes, heroin, and crack have in common is that they're all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors....

...If some new technique makes solar cells x% more efficient, that seems strictly better. When progress concentrates something we don't want to want—when it transforms opium into heroin—it seems bad. But it's the same process at work....

...The world is more addictive than it was 40 years ago. And unless the forms of technological progress that produced these things are subject to different laws than technological progress in general, the world will get more addictive in the next 40 years than it did in the last 40....


Some interesting things to think about since we are careening through time and space with much less time to plan or set our course.

He continues his thoughts with a discussion of normal -- as in normal-what everyone does and normal-what are the ideal operating conditions for us.  It bears consideration to our health to see if our "normal" is just unhealthy habits we share with our friends, family, and community.  Or if our habits are allowing us to live optimally.

Social Network and Longevity

Alright, we know that studies have shown people with a larger social network tend to life longer.  Recently, researcher from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reviewed data from 148 studies on health outcomes and social relationships.  These studies included better than 300,000 people -- so this is not a small group study.

Researcher found that those with fewer social connections had a 50% increased risk of dying in study's follow-up period (averaging 7.5 years) than those with a larger social network.

Cool, huh?  Yeah, I thought so but here's the really interesting part:

That is the same life expectancy difference (poor social connections vs. more robust social ties) as the life expectancy between smokers and non-smokers!  And it is a greater difference than known health risk factors such as obesity or lack of exercise.

Wow!  Looks like we should be paying attention to our friends if we want them (and ourselves) to live a longer life!

For more information, click here.