REPORTING POINT 11-03
HEALTH NEWS
ALive healthy...live well@
by Larry Kline
SWAPA Voice Mailbox 511/email: skyguy737@cox.net
(Past issues of AHealth News@ are available on my son's website, which includes a word-search engine - just go to the site with your browser and insert the key word to find past articles: http://home.earthlink.net/~candace_ball/healtharticles/frameset.htm) - LK
PREGNANT? - TRY FISH - researchers in Denmark found that pregnant women who eat fish at least once a week are less likely to deliver prematurely and have low birth-weight babies than those who skip seafood. The researchers suspect that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish help protect against complications.
Some fish can contain high levels of mercury, which may be harmful to the fetus. To be safe, avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, and eat an average of no more than 12 ounces (3 to 4 servings) of cooked fish per week. Health 7/02.
GOT GAS? - try exercising! Exercise helps the body absorb gases that build up in the colon, which means that they are less likely to be expelled. Besides legumes and cabbage, other sources of intestinal gas can be beverages made with fructose or low-carbohydrate sweeteners such as sorbitol, which are poorly digested by the body and are excreted partly in gaseous form. Men's Health 9/00.
FOOD TIP - eat more natural, unprocessed foods. They tend to be lower on the glycemic index (less insulin-spike) and higher in fiber, which means they are filling as well as nutritious. Men's Fitness 9/00.
WANT TO BUILD MUSCLE? - cut down on stress and caffeine, and go to bed earlier. Deep sleep promotes the body''s release of growth hormone.
Also re-examine your diet. Do not skip meals. Make sure that you are getting plenty of protein and complex carbohydrates and that you consume protein and carbs within 90 minutes (30 minutes is better) of every workout. Men's Fitness 9/00.
FRUIT: THE ULTIMATE APPETIZER - eating a piece of fruit 30 to 60 minutes before a meal could help diabetics, and non-diabetics, keep blood sugar levels in check.
Researchers from Ohio State University discovered that subjects who been given 2 teaspoons of fructose (the amount of natural fruit sugar in an apple) before eating a serving of instant mashed potatoes, had less of an insulin-spike in their blood levels from the potatoes. Once absorbed by the liver, the fructose activated an enzyme called glucokinase, which reduces blood sugar levels, keeping blood-sugar levels stable. Having fewer blood-sugar spikes helps prevent the body from going into a fat-storage mode, so it can help keep you leaner, even if you are not diabetic. Men's Health 3/03.
WANT TO LOSE THAT GUT? - diet or exercise to lose? In a 2000 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a group who only dieted dropped just as much weight (16 2 pounds) and just as much belly fat (2 pounds) as the group who simply exercised but kept their original way of eating.
The researchers concluded that the combination of diet and exercise is still the best way to permanently reduce belly fat. The diet-only group in the study lost less total fat and more muscle than the exercise-only group. Another study followed people who had lost 14 pounds on a 28 day crash diet. Five years later, they had regained all the weight with a twist - all the new weight was fat, whereas they had originally lost a combination of fat and muscle. Their health had also deteriorated in multiple ways, including increased insulin resistance and higher LDL cholesterol.
The best kind of exercise to engage in to lose than gut is simply the kind that you will stick with for the long-term. Cardio-exercising burns calories and weight-training builds muscles which increases your resting metabolism - giving you more strength and energy. Men's Health 7/02.
YET ANOTHER REASON TO QUIT SMOKING - you heard all the arguments against smoking by now: shortness of breath, poor athletic performance, heart disease, hardening of the arteries, and various wasting cancers. Now there is yet another negative result of lighting-up.
A recent UCLA study found that nicotine may cause degeneration in the part of the brain responsible for sexual arousal. In research in the lab, scientists found that nicotine damages part of the fasciculus retroflexus, a brain region above the thalamus that affects sexuality, as well as emotional control, REM sleep and seizures. Stop smoking and your little Afriend@ will thank you. Men's Fitness 9/00.
CANNED OR FRESH? B fresh isn't always best when it comes to fruit as fresh fruits that are left out at room temperature for a couple days can lose significant amounts of vitamin C. In some cases, it may be better to eat the canned or dried fruits. Canned fruit is processed immediately after picking, so it has the same nutrients as in the fresh-picked produce. Choose canned goods that are packed in natural juice (not syrup) to avoid extra calories and sugar. It is best to read the label to see what the packing house has added to the fruit. Dried fruits are just as nutritious and provide higher concentrations of fiber and iron than fresh fruit. They also give an energy boost, because of the natural fruit sugars in dried fruit. Try to brush your teeth after eating dried fruit as it is high in natural sugars and dried fruit may tend to stick to your teeth which may foster tooth plaque. Men's Health 3/03.
FAT FACTS B be a breakfast eater B in one study, 80% of those dieters who successfully lost 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year, ate breakfast every day. Whole grain cereals and fruits with good lean, protein sources (yogurt, skim milk) are a great way to start and give your body the energy it needs to start an active day. Men's Health 3/03.
BE CRUSTY B eat your bread crust B according to a recent European study, bread crust is packed with antioxidants and may the be healthiest part of the bread slice. Scientists at the German Research Center of Food Chemistry found that when bread is baked, it produces a potential cancer-fighting antioxidant called pronyl-lysine. All bread contains the substance, but bread crust packs up to eight times more of the antioxidant than if found in the center of the loaf. Men's Health 3/03.
SUNGLASSES SHOPPING? - Insist on sunglasses that block "99%" or "100%" of all UV light. Don't fall for labels that simply say, "Blocks dangerous UV." The question is, "Exactly how much UV?"
WRAPAROUND - This is a good feature because UV light can slip under, over, and around the sides of ordinary frames and cancel out their UV protectiveness.
GRADIENT - These shaded lenses do not provide UV protection unless it's specified on the label. Single-gradient lenses (dark on top, lighter on bottom) are good for driving. They cut glare from the sky without restricting your view of the dashboard. They don't work very well at the beach or while skiing, though.
Double-gradient lenses (dark on the top and bottom, and lighter in the middle) are good for sports such as tennis, sailing, and skiing. Do not wear them for driving C it will be difficult for you to see the dashboard.
IMPACT RESISTANT - Plastic lenses are not as likely as glass to shatter when hit, but no lens is truly unbreakable C so don't rely on regular sunglasses to protect your eyes while playing tennis or racquetball; choose sports glasses.
Note: The polycarbonate plastic which is used in many sports sunglasses scratches easily, so look for ones with a scratch-resistant coating. Source: American Academy of Ophthalmology
From the Flight Surgeon:
"EYES RIGHT!"
by Joe Battersby, D.O.
FAA Medical Examiner
(Margaret, Joe, and Mary Jane)
(edited for this publication from AAmerica's Flyways,@ 5/02-LK)
I suppose it could be said that our column has drifted away from medical topics of late. The Mideast and terrorist mess just seemed to demand some Aventilation of anger and outrage@.
So, back to medical subjects that effect airmen BB i.e. eye problems beyond those involving a simple trip to Walgreen''s or Costco for a six buck pair of Areaders@.
There are several eye problems that are of some concern to us. First visualize the eyeball as a fluid filled Aball@. There is a lens in the front of the eyeball that focuses images on the inside rear lining called the Aretina@. If you think of the eye as a hollow but fluid-filled globe, with a lens in front and a layer of photo film on the inside of the globe, you're close enough on the anatomy to get the main drift. The optic nerve relays light messages to the brain and penetrates our globe from the rear then spreading over throughout the retina lining. If the fluid on the eye builds up too much pressure on the optic nerve because of improper drainage, the optic nerve can be damaged. There is a special area of the retina called the spot (or macula or stigma) on which the entering outside light images perceived are best focused. The drill is that light enters, and is focused (hopefully) on the macula by the lens. The light image is then fed to the brain by the optic nerve. Fluid pressure within the globe is kept at normal levels.
So what happens if problems appear in the system and what form do they take? Here are a few:
1. Cataracts: these are areas in which clouding of the lens appear. Think of looking through a roughed up surface on your windshield that prevents seeing through it clearly. While cataracts increase with aging, not all require surgery in the form of lens replacement or other approaches. Often stronger glasses can do the trick. Best advice would come from an eye guy who isn't behind in his Mercedes payments. I don''t think anybody really knows why the opacities form, they just know how. Not quite the same thing.
2. Glaucoma: the fluid in the hollow portion of our eyeball circulates in a replacement manner. New fluid in, older fluid out. This implies that a Apiping@ system is in place. If narrowing of the pipes occur too much then we can have a pressure occurring on the optic nerve supply which damages it. The key is to catch the pressure build up early and limit the damage. There are medicines and surgical approaches that can usually control or limit the problem.
3. Macular Degeneration: not so hot. Remember I said earlier that the Amacula@ was the spot on the retina where images are best clearly focused. What basically happens is that a substance called druse collects in the central part of the macula and starts to lower central vision. There is some evidence that a Acocktail@ of vitamin C, zinc, and beta-carotene and vitamin E may help. Problems are that zinc can cause anemia and lessen HDL cholesterol and vitamin E can cause bleeding in high dosages. There are some surgical laser approaches that are tried to stop bleeding (leaking) to the area involved in the Awet@ form of the disease. Like the Acocktail@ form of therapy, over all results are equivocal. At the bottom there is no cure. The situation is early detection, monitoring progress fairly close, and supervision by your eye guy. Difficulty reading, inability to recognize familiar faces across a room, etc, are red flags.
Regular check ups by your eye doc (especially as you age) are the program.
So this is a brief outline of some vision problems that we have to think about. Though not directly involved in these conditions we've talked about, common sense suggests that pilots living and operating in areas of high ultra-violet light should definitely wear Ashades@.
Best,
Joe
