Health News

REPORTING POINT 01/08
HEALTH NEWS
“Live healthy...Live well”
Dedicated to providing pertinent information on health, fitness, and nutrition to foster a culture of wellness among Southwest Airlines flight crews and their families.
by Larry Kline
SWAPA Voice Mailbox 4337/email: livehealthy-livewell@cox.net
Past issues of “Health News” are available at http://health.theballfamily.org. It includes a search engine; just enter a key word to find past articles. LK

STATINS WITH A PEEL – Israeli scientists recently determined that eating red grapefruit lowers LDL-cholesterol levels, even in people who do not respond to statins. For four weeks, researchers monitored heart-disease sufferers, all of whom had failed to benefit from cholesterol-lowering drugs. When participants consumed one red grapefruit daily – without any other changes to their diets – they decreased their LDL-cholesterol levels by 20 percent. Color matters as those who ate only white grapefruit instead of only red achieved one-half the cholesterol reduction. Red grapefruit is higher in antioxidants, which may explain the difference in health benefits. If you are currently taking any medication, consult with your physician before acting on this finding as grapefruit can interact adversely with some drugs, intensifying their blood levels, increasing the risk of possible serious reactions. Men’s Health 5/06, University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter 5/06.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS – despite all the advice to eat breakfast, many people are still skipping morning meals, according to the International Food Information Council. A major survey from the market research firm NPD Group reports that people are also eating breakfast later in the day. By delaying your first meal of the day, metabolism slows. If you are prone to skipping breakfast, especially on an AM pairing, set your alarm clock 10 minutes earlier to give yourself time for a quick bowl of cereal, or stock up on fruit you can munch on during the van ride to the airport. Visits to Starbucks or a high-fat muffin at a coffee shop do not count.
A morning meal does more than just supply energy for the day – it reduces overindulgence. AM meals satisfy hunger better than evening meals so you end up eating less over the course of the day. Scientists speculate that the brain’s satiety mechanisms function best early in the day and then start to decrease at sundown in readiness for sleep. For PM fliers, the last thing you want to do is to chow down heavily after 2200. Health 10/07.

MONITORING AMD RISK – homocysteine levels considered in the safe zone for heart disease could be too high and may raise the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Harvard scientists tested blood samples from people and observed the AMD sufferers had significantly higher levels of the amino acid than did those without the sight-sapping conditions. Elevated homocysteine can damage delicate ocular blood vessels, which can contribute to AMD. If homocysteine levels are over 9 millimoles per liter, make sure your multivitamin contains 100 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamins B6 and B12, two nutrients shown to effectively lower homocysteine levels. Men’s Health 5/06.

TUNES TO RELAX – if you are going to undertake a stressful medical procedure, consider bringing an iPod. Yale researchers learned that patients who listen to tunes during surgery need less anesthesia. In the study, the surgery patients were split into three groups; one heard white noise, the second listened to music they chose, and the third heard the sounds of the operating room. The music listeners needed 50 percent less anesthesia than the others. The less anesthesia used, the faster the patient can recover and the body’s natural healing processes can start working again. Music may also help to lower blood pressure during dental drilling. Choose a tune with a heartbeat-like temp of 60 to 80 beats per minute. Men’s Health 10/05.

DITCH THE CORN OIL – one more reason to opt for olive oil – a study in the journal Cancer Research showed prostate cancer cells grew twice as fast after exposure to omega-6 fatty acids, like those in corn oil. Scientists think that arachidonic acid, a chemical in omega-6 fats, stimulates tumor growth. Men’s Health 5/06.

TOO MUCH SUGAR CAN CAUSE WRINKLES - experts now believe that a lifetime of overeating sugar can make skin dull and wrinkled.
At blame is a natural process that's known as glycation, in which the sugar in your bloodstream attaches to proteins to form harmful new molecules called advanced glycation end products (or, appropriately, AGEs for short). The more sugar you eat, the more AGEs you develop. As AGEs accumulate, they damage adjacent proteins in a domino-like fashion. Most vulnerable to damage: collagen and elastin, the protein fibers that keep skin firm and elastic. In fact, collagen is the most prevalent protein in the body. Once damaged, springy and resilient collagen and elastin become dry and brittle, leading to wrinkles and sagging. These aging effects start at about age 35 and increase rapidly after that, according to a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology.
Besides damaging collagen, a high-sugar diet also affects what type of collagen you have — another factor in how resistant skin is to wrinkling. The most abundant collagens in the skin are types I, II, and III, with type III being the most stable and longest lasting. Glycation transforms type III collagen into type I, which is more fragile. When that happens, the skin looks and feels less supple. The final blow: AGEs deactivate your body's natural antioxidant enzymes, leaving you more vulnerable to sun damage — still the main cause of skin aging.
One group that knows all too well sugar's ravaging effects: people with diabetes, who — because they can suffer from years of undetected high blood sugar — often show early signs of skin aging. Depending on how well their disease is controlled, diabetics can have up to 50 times the number of AGEs in their skin as those who don't have diabetes. The good news about sugar-damaged skin is that it is never too late to turn back the clock. One way is to build new collagen with products that contain retinoids — look for retinol in OTC lotions or prescription creams such as Renova, Avage, and Differin. To keep this new collagen supple, prevent AGEs from forming by taking steps to minimize the damage sugar causes to your skin. Here, five steps to eat right and keep your skin looking its youngest:
1. Cut back on the sweet stuff in your diet. It's not easy to eliminate sugar completely. Even whole grains, fruits, and vegetables turn to glucose — the type of sugar that fuels glycation —when digested. But limiting added sugar can help. Some guidelines are to keep added sugar to no more than 10 percent of total calories. If you're a 45-year-old woman of average height (5-foot-4), that's 160 calories (or 10 teaspoons) from added sugar — about the number in one 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola or six Hershey's Kisses. By comparison, the average American consumes 31 teaspoons per day of added sugar, or the equivalent of 465 calories.
Watch for hidden sugar in food. Many prepared foods contain hefty amounts of sugar — but it's hidden under aliases — including barley malt, corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, and turbinado — on ingredient panels. The key is determining how many teaspoons of sugar each serving contains. Doing this is easy: Check the nutrition label for sugars, which are listed in grams under total carbohydrates, and then divide that number by 4 (each teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 g) to convert it to teaspoons. For example, if sugars are listed as 12 g, you're getting 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Avoid high fructose corn syrup. This type of sweetener, which is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to fructose (another form of sugar), is believed to produce more AGEs than other types. Because HFCS extends the shelf life of foods and is sweeter and cheaper than other sugars, it's a popular ingredient in soda, fruit-flavored drinks, and packaged foods such as breads, crackers, and other snacks. You can spot it in ingredient lists on nutrition labels.
2. Supplement your diet with at least 1 mg of vitamins B1 and B6 a day. These vitamins proved to be potent AGE inhibitors in a number of published studies. B1 and B6 are plentiful in food, but taking a multivitamin — most of which deliver at least 1 mg of both Bs — ensures you're getting the daily value of 1.1 mg for B1 and 1.3 mg for B6 (1.5 mg after age 50).
3. Wear broad-spectrum SPF 30 sunscreen every day. Significantly more AGEs occur in sun-exposed skin than in protected skin, according to the British Journal of Dermatology study.
4. Employ an inside-outside approach to antioxidants. These free-radical fighters help keep sugar from attaching to proteins, so replenishing their supply — both by eating more antioxidant-rich fruits, nuts, and vegetables, such as cranberries, walnuts, and red bell peppers, and by applying topical antioxidants such as green tea and vitamins C and E . It seems to be the best way to ensure that they reach the dermal layer of skin, where collagen and elastin are located.
5. Use new ingredients that protect skin from sugar. A growing number of products contain compounds like aminoguanidine and alistin, which have been shown to block the formation of AGEs. Aminoguanidine attaches to molecules that start the glycation process and prevents them from binding to collagen and elastin. Alistin acts as a decoy, so it gets damaged instead of the proteins in your skin. In a study, an anti-AGE protection lotion which contained both ingredients had 21 percent fewer AGEs after 8 weeks than untreated skin. Prevention 10/21/07.

VITAMIN C FOR YOUR SMILE – it apparently is the all-purpose antioxidant, as vitamin C may reduce plaque and tartar formation, according to a study published in the European Journal of Oral Science. Researchers asked test subjects to chew gum, either a plain sugar-free piece or one fortified with 60 milligrams of vitamin C, every day for three months. The scientists found that the people who chewed the fortified gum had 33 percent less tartar, a product of plaque buildup, on their teeth than their peers did. The vitamin C acts as an acid bath for the teeth as vitamin C (a.k.a. ascorbic acid) stops plaque from sticking to teeth. Vitaball chewing gum contains 60 milligrams of vitamin C per piece. Men’s Health 5/06.

LATE NIGHT TRIP AND DROWSY? – If you are becoming drowsy and fatigued, try an Altoid instead of caffeine. The smell of peppermint or cinnamon can help keep you wake, according to a Wheeling Jesuit University study. Scientists exposed test subjects to the scents of peppermint, cinnamon, and then no scent at all during a simulated driving test and discovered that both smells made drivers 25 percent more alert. Their levels of anxiety and frustration also dropped. Peppermint stimulates a brain area called the reticular activating system, which increases alertness. Cinnamon steps up bloodflow to the brain, which fights fatigue. Men’s Health 5/06.