Drinking one sugar-sweetened drink a day can increase your chances of developing heart disease.Drinking one sugar-sweetened drink a day can increase your chances of developing heart disease.

There are many small tips we can incorporate into our lives to help our long-term health. I have a selection, one of which will be useful to you or someone you know.

Initially, we will look at help for the heart. Drinking one sugar-sweetened drink every day can increase your chances of developing heart disease. People who get a quarter or more of their daily calories from refined sugar triple their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Refined sugar should make up less than 10 per cent of total calorie intake, which equates to around 70g for men and 50g for women. This advice comes from the WHO.

Foods high in added sugars, such as cakes, biscuits, chocolate and fizzy drinks, contain more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g, while foods low in sugar have less than 5g per 100g. Researchers at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found a significant link between the amount of sugar consumed and heart risk after analysing the diets of tens of thousands of Americans. Those who eat too much sugar put on weight, can become obese and this in turn increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (JAMA Intern. Med., 2014).

Married women are 28 per cent less likely than unmarried women to die from heart disease. Being in a long-term relationship seems to make heart disease a less deadly condition for women, say Oxford University researchers.

Although married women or those in a long-term relationship are just as likely as single women to develop heart disease, they were 28 per cent less likely to die of it, regardless of lifestyle, socio-economic or other factors.

Over a 30-year period, three in 10 women who are married or in long-term relationships will die from heart disease compared with four in 100 women living alone. The researchers explored the lifestyles and health of nearly 735,000 women at an average age of 60 (BMC Med., 2014).

Memory loss and forgetfulness are not the inevitable consequences of getting older. The brain’s ‘white matter’, or neural pathways, continues to change and develop even well into old age. It was thought by scientists that white matter changes slowed or even stopped with ageing, but a new study has discovered that the process continues throughout our lives. This shows it is even more important not to give up when we are older and to continue to engage in mental activities that “stretch the brain” (Biol. Psychiatry, 2014).

There is a well-known anti-depressant that has proved to provoke aggressive behaviour in those who take it. Research was carried out on fish, which were given this anti-depressant.

Male minnows exposed to the drug for four weeks became far more aggressive and started attacking female fish. In one group, only a third of the female fish survived, whereas normal survival rates are closer to 90 per cent. The fish that died had visible bruising and tissue damage.

Married women are 28 per cent less likely than unmarried women to die from heart disease

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the US say that reproduction, mating, general activity and levels of aggression were all affected by the drug. The only good news is that the fish’s behaviour returned to normal once the drug was removed from the water.

Unfortunately, that is not an option for the fish exposed to pharmaceuticals such as anti-depressants, which are flushed down the toilet and end up in rivers and waterways. While this is a lesson for humans as to symptoms when taking anti-depressants, it is also a lesson for the environment where fish colonies are being badly affected by these practices (Aquat. Toxicol., 2014).

A quick tip regarding back pain is to walk for 20 to 40 minutes every day three times a week. Researchers at Tel Aviv University believe it is as effective as muscle-strengthening exercises in the gym. Walking at a reasonably fast pace exercises the muscles of the abdomen and lower back and “significantly” improves lower back pain.

Meditation can be as effective for treating people with depression and anxiety as anti-depressants, and that is not down to the placebo effect. People who practise the mindfulness meditation of Buddhism – where they are aware of their feelings and surroundings without judgement – for eight weeks get as much benefit and relief as they would from taking an anti-depressant.

In this review, symptoms of anxiety and depression were all eased by meditation. Cases of insomnia and pain from fibromyalgia were helped too. I can confirm that after attending eight weeks of this type of meditation, I slept soundly and without disturbance.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine re-analysed 47 clinical trials involving 3,515 people with a range of health problems, including depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, diabetes, substance abuse, cancer and chronic pain.

On average, the participants practised mindfulness meditation for up to 40 minutes per day for eight weeks. The changes were real and measurable (JAMA Intern. Med., 2014).

kathryn@maltanet.net

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