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
email:
livehealthy-livewell@cox.net
20th
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
This
edition marks a milestone – we have been publishing the Heath News for the pilots of Southwest Airlines and their families
for 20 years. While serving as Air Safety Chairman for SWAPA in the late ‘80s
and early’ 90s, we started including articles of interest concerning health
matters which were interspersed with air safety reports and articles. This feature proved popular with flight crews;
feedback received indicated crews desired to continue to receive this information. Beginning in 1992, this feature flourished
and assumed a life of its own.
Looking
back, 20 years ago flight crews did not have many good work out options
available on overnights as very few of our crew hotels had any kind of workout
facility. A few, like the DTW
Renaissance Hotel downtown, had good fitness clubs. Many crew rest properties,
however, were lucky to have a treadmill, Schwinn Airdyne, or a primitive
Monarch bike with a resistance band, and perhaps a rusty Universal set. We have
come a long way in two decades.
Over
these years, you, the readers, have indicated the worth and benefit of this
research. It has been our privilege to continue to find information and to report
in a concise manner articles that help you and your loved ones make good health
and fitness decisions.
Larry
Kline
SUGAR AND CHOLESTEROL – people who eat the most added sugars
have lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and higher levels of triglycerides;
both will raise the risk of heart disease.
Researchers examined the odds of
having low HDL (under 50 for women and under 40 for men) and high triglycerides
(over 150 for both men and women) in a nationwide sample.
Those who got at least 10 percent of
their calories from added sugar were 50 percent more likely to have low HDL
than those who got less than 5 percent from added sugar. Those who ate the most added sugar (at least
25 percent of their calories) were three
times more likely to have low HDL. Sugar
eaters were also more likely to have high triglycerides.
The American Heart Association
recommends no more than about 100 calories (six teaspoons) a day from added
sugar for women and no more than 150 calories (nine teaspoons) for men. A 12-ounce can of Coke has about 10 teaspoons
of added sugar. Journal of the American Medical Association 303:1490, 2010.
OCCASIONAL SMOKER? – the percentage of American adults
who smoke (20 percent) has not changed much in recent years, but the proportion
who smoke only occasionally has grown.
About half of smokers do not smoke every day or smoke fewer than six cigarettes
a day.
It is better to be a light smoker
than a heavy one, of course, but the risks are still substantial.
-Smoking
one to four cigarettes a day increases the risk of dying from heart disease by
200 percent and from all causes by 50 percent.
-When
they cut down, former heavy smokers tend to puff more frequently and more
deeply and thus get two to eight times more toxins per cigarette.
-When
smokers cut down, the level of carcinogens they inhale does not drop in
proportion to the cutbacks they make.
Thus, those who cut their smoking by 90 percent (to just two or three
cigarettes a day) reduce levels of tobacco carcinogens in their bodies only by
half. University of California Berkeley
Wellness Letter 5/10.
MORE BENEFITS OF USING OLIVE OIL - Consuming olive oil may help prevent
strokes in older people. After considering diet, physical activity, body mass
index and other risk factors for stroke, the study found those who regularly
used olive oil for both cooking and as a salad dressing had a 41 percent lower
risk of stroke. Olive oil has been associated with protective effects against
many cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol and obesity. American
Academy of Neurology, June 2011
High Blood Pressure In Young People? – 20
percent of young American adults may have high blood pressure. People with high
blood pressure have a much higher risk of stroke and heart disease, the leading
cause of death among adults in the US. It is also a condition that often shows
no signs or symptoms, and many otherwise healthy people who have it first find
out when a health professional measures their blood pressure. The findings are
significant because they indicate many young adults are at risk of developing
heart disease, but are unaware they have hypertension. Epidemiology, May 2011.
vitamin C -
is not effective at preventing the common
cold in the general adult population. However, vitamin C consumption may reduce the duration of cold symptoms in both adults and
children, but it does not decrease the severity of cold symptoms. The intake of nutrients strongly influences the immune
system. For a long time there has been a
controversy whether vitamin C
contributes to the prevention and therapy of the common cold. Several cells of the immune system can indeed
accumulate vitamin C and need
the vitamin to perform their task, especially phagocytes and t-cells. Thus a vitamin C deficiency results in a
reduced resistance against certain pathogens while a higher supply enhances
several immune system parameters. With regard to the common cold, different studies, including meta-analyses, underline
that the prophylactic intake of vitamin
C may slightly reduce the duration of the illness in healthy persons but
does not affect its incidence and severity. Supplementation of vitamin C is most effective in cases
of physical strain or insufficient intake of the vitamin. With regard to the
therapy of the common cold, the
application of vitamin C alone
is without clinical effects. Cochrane, PubMed, Natural Standard,
and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine databases
were searched to identify and acquire primary research reports-Christine Kline RD, CNSD
Muscle Up - How important is it to exercise your
muscles? The human body has over 600 muscles accounting for 40 percent of the
body's weight. When exercised regularly, muscles are your primary mechanism of
maintaining your metabolism, thus burning fat. Maintaining the flexibility of
your joints and surrounding soft tissues allows muscles to function at their
highest level. Gray's
Anatomy.
Exercise
Myth –Stretching
Prepares Your Body for Exercise. Stretching
before exercise is a sacred ritual, but researchers have been finding that it
actually slows you down. Florida State researchers recently showed that
stretching before a run makes you about 5 percent less efficient, meaning you
have to burn more energy to run at the same pace. This year, Italian
researchers studying cyclists discovered why stretching is counterproductive.
They found evidence that toe-touching stretches change the force-transmission
properties of muscle fibers and alter the brain signals to muscle, reducing
exercise efficiency by about 4 percent. Furthermore, there’s insufficient
scientific evidence that pre-exercise stretching reduces injury risk. Popular Mechanics (Health Section) 9/11.
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