REPORTING POINT 06-05
HEALTH NEWS
“Live healthy...live well”
by Larry Kline
SWAPA Voice Mailbox 4337/email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net
(Past issues of “Health 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://health.theballfamily.org) – LK
GOOD POSTURE FOR LONG FLIGHTS – when sitting for long periods – like on a BWI-SJC flight – pretend someone poured a cold drink down your back. Notice how your shoulders pull back and your spine curves. That is the position the back should be in when sitting. Men’s Health 11/03.
HARDER, FASTER =BETTER – numerous studies have shown an inverse relationship between working out and the risk of heart disease. Yet few investigations have provided details on how to maximize those benefits.
Scientists have wondered if slow and steady is the best way or will more intense workouts lead to better heart health. Does strength training aid the heart besides improving muscle mass and overall conditioning.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health looked at almost 50,000 test subjects over a 12-year period to assess the potential risk of coronary heart disease against levels of leisure-time exertion while adjusting the data for age, smoking, and other risk factors.
Not surprisingly, running, rowing, walking and weight training each helped to lower heart disease risk. Subjects who ran for an hour or more per week (at 6 mph) were 42 percent less likely to develop heart disease than non-runners, while those who devoted the same amount of time to rowing had an 18 percent decrease. A daily walk (at 3 mph) lasting 30 minutes was also associated with a risk abatement of 18 percent.
Subjects who weight trained for 30 minutes or more per week had a 23 percent drop in heart disease compared to nonlifters. The protective element was considered the result of reductions in blood pressure and body fat.
The investigators also found that the level of exertion was linked to lower risk, independent of the number of hours spent exercising. Those who ran or jogged at high intensity were 17 percent less likely to develop heart disease than were low-intensity walkers. The more exercise you do and the higher the intensity seems to be better with regard to cardiovascular protection, so pick up the pace to reap the lower-risk benefit of exercise. (However it is very important to remember that any exercising – even gardening – yields lower heart disease risk compared to being sedentary. The Cooper Clinic in Dallas has concluded that there is more heart disease risk to being a sedentary non-smoker than a physically-active smoker – being lazy is a killer-LK) Men’s Fitness 3/03.
NUTRITIONAL QUIZ 19 – If you eat very few vegetables, you may be shortchanging yourself on major nutrients, including which of these? a) iron, b) zinc, c) vitamin E, or d) folate.
Answer is below.
BREAKFAST AND FREE RADICALS – researchers at the State University of New York wondered what different breakfast foods do to the body. Free radicals are particles that wrinkle skin, dim eyesight, and erode memory, as well as lead to general cell damage in the body. Some foods boost free radicals and thus harm the body while others lower drive their levels down. The following table shows the effect (percentage change) in free radical levels with certain foods:
FOOD % CHANGE IN FREE-RADICAL LEVEL
2 Tbsp sugar +140 percent
1 fast-food breakfast sandwich w/hash browns +100 percent
½ cup cream +100 percent
2 cups 1% milk +60 percent
Unlimited water 0 percent
2 large glasses orange juice -30 percent
1 ½ cups fruit salad(peaches, berries, grapefruit) -30 percent
1 glass tomato juice -10 percent
Men’s Health 5/02.
BOYS WATCH THE SOY – many people are pursuing low-carb diets these days and there are many food products to meet this dieting craze. To meet the low-carb demand, food producers are adding soy, particularly soy flour to replace wheat flour. Soy flour naturally has lower carbohydrate content than wheat flour and is much higher in protein. This all sounds good, but for the male gender, it has certain risks.
Phytoestrogens mimic normal estrogen, a hormone that aids women in their development throughout their lives. Certain levels of soy consumed by men has been found to be beneficial (specifically causing a reduction in the risk of prostate cancer), and an intake of 25 grams of soy a day has been found to help lower blood cholesterol levels.
However, those pursuing the low-carb diets often get greater amounts of soy in their daily diet. In a study of 8,000 Japanese-American men published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, those men who had eaten tofu twice a week for the past decade or so performed worse on tests of mental ability than those eating less. The brains of those who ate a lot of tofu in midlife functioned as if they were 4 years older than their actual ages, and they had increased risk of kidney stones.
If soy consumption is limited to 25 grams per day, it appears that the benefits of soy can be realized without the risk to men that comes with excessive consumption. Men’s Health 5/04.
YELLOW AND ORANGE ARE GOOD – people who eat plenty of yellow and orange fruits and vegetables are almost four times less likely to develop atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, than those who don’t eat these foods. Yellow and orange foods carry high concentrations of antioxidants such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-cryptoxanthin. Unlike other antioxidants, these combine with cholesterol and help keep arteries smooth and flexible. Good sources include carrots, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, peaches, mangoes, grapefruit, oranges and cantaloupe. Men’s Health 6/04.
NUTRITIONAL QUIZ ANSWER: d) This important B vitamin plays a role in preventing birth defects, as well as possibly reducing the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. The best food sources include leafy green vegetables and broccoli. Whole grains, beans, what germ, and brewer’s yeast are also high in folate. Breakfast cereals and bread are usually fortified with folic acid, a form of folate. University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter 6/03.
HOW TO PICK GOOD SUNGLASSES
by Star Lawrence
Reviewed by Charlotte Grayson M.D.
WebMD Feature
There's more to choosing shades than how good they look on you. Your sunglasses should keep damaging sunrays away from your eyes. Like Ozzy Osbourne's round, turquoise shades? If you really want to be comfortable in the glare and protect your eyes -- and your children's eyes -- from future cataracts, there is more to selecting sunglasses than mere "coolness" (desirable as that is). Although the human body is aces at replacing some damaged cells, the cells in the lens of the eye are never replaced. Damage from ultraviolet and, to a lesser degree, infrared rays can build up over a lifetime and gradually create cloudy areas on your cornea. It's hard to see through cataracts and they often must be removed surgically. Too much unfiltered sun blasting onto the retinas also may accelerate macular degeneration, another eye condition resulting from damage to the retina.
"The thing you want to guard against mainly is ultraviolet rays," explains Lee Duffner, MD, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Miami and spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "You want to filter as many of these as you can away from your eyes." Most sunglasses, coated with UV blockers, block the ultraviolet B rays, but the cheaper ones may cheat a little on ultraviolet A. Examine the label. (Some contact lenses also block UVB -- ask your eye doctor.)
Besides UV, brightness is an issue. What people don't realize, Duffner says, is that going from inside to outside involves confronting light thousands of times brighter than that going into the eye the moment before. Brightness is a comfort issue -- it's uncomfortable to go into the sun from the shade and to have undimmed light flowing into your eyes.
So the darker the lens in your sunglasses the better? "Clear glass transmits 90% of light, Duffner says. As the glasses get darker, less and less light goes through. Lightly tinted lenses let in 75% to 80% of light, Duffner says. Military standards specify that only 15% of light should penetrate. "You can still see very well with 10% to 12% of light only," he notes. "I recommend glasses in the 20% range." (Some manufacturers like Oakley have comprehensive information about their products on their website, including the amount of light transmitted with the different lenses offered. This information is especially helpful when choosing sunglasses for specific tasks like golf, tennis, or flying, where vision needs to be protected and visual acuity is an important factor. –LK)
What Color?
Duffner says the overall best color to get is gray. "This absorbs light across the spectrum equally." Eight percent of men and almost no women have color deficiencies (which used to be called color blindness). "Depending on your deficiency," Duffner explains, “you need to select a certain tint of sunglasses - bronze is not good for men with a green deficiency , green is not good for anyone with a red or green deficiency, gray is safest for men. Women should go with gray, green, or brown”, he adds. Rose-colored sunglasses? - pink isn't a good color for anyone to get," Duffner declares.
Tech Innovations
There are amber-colored lenses called "blue blockers." For a while, these were recommended for tennis players. "These absorb not only ultraviolet, but all blues in the color range," Duffner says. "Some people say this makes for sharper vision, but they did a study and showed that they do not block UV very well and may cause the pupil to dilate and let in more ultraviolet."
Another popular option is "polarized" sunglasses. "These are very helpful against reflected light (such as on water, snow, or the road)." The light particles called photons travel in a waveform, Duffner explains. Polarized sunglasses, which have a protective layer bonded on much like the tinted film put on car windshields, admit only vertical waves. Since most of the reflected waves are coming in horizontally, those are blocked.
As for the mirror sunglasses popularized by highway patrol officers, Duffner is skeptical. "These aren't really good protectors," he says. "If you are worried about UV, these should not be your first choice."
How about those gradient glasses that are dark at the top and then lighten toward the bottom? "The most bothersome (reflected) light comes from the bottom," notes Duffner.
Cool Kids
Parents who slap some sunglasses on their babies have the right idea, according to Steven J. Lichtenstein, MD, Louisville ophthalmologist and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' section on ophthalmology. "Every human should wear sunglasses," he says. "I see young adults with cataract changes all the time."
Wearing sunglasses is especially important between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Even children with dark eyes, which provide partial protection, should wear them.
Like adults, kids who wear prescription glasses can get prescription sunglasses. "Or clip-ons," Lichtenstein adds. "They make those for kids' glasses." Duffner recommends wraparounds for people who are out a lot, although these aren't so great in prescription form.
For kids, you want wearability. "Something comfortable, something they will keep on," says Lichtenstein.
Glass or Plastic?
Glass is adequate at blocking UV, according to Duffner. But polychromic sunglasses -- glass lenses that get darker as you encounter brightness -- are the gold standard. "Those really work," he says, but glass sunglasses are heavy, despite being long-lasting. "I had a patient today," Duffner laughs, "who told me he had been wearing the same polychromic glasses for 24 years." Glass doesn't scratch as easily as plastic.
How about driving? "Sunglasses can cut glare," Duffner says. "But never wear them at night." So much for being cool.
Medically updated May 25, 2004. Originally published May 22, 2003.
SOURCES: Lee Duffner, MD, professor of ophthalmology, University of Miami, spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Steven J. Lichtenstein, MD, Louisville ophthalmologist, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' section on ophthalmology. University of California Davis.
