This week, I am including a variety of health tips which may be considered for the coming winter months and perhaps the whole of next year. The subjects vary and hopefully include something of interest for every age.
As you grow older, your chances of becoming forgetful are dramatically reduced if you take plenty of vitamin C and beta carotene when you are younger- Kathryn Borg
• Good news about forgetfulness. As you grow older, your chances of becoming forgetful are dramatically reduced if you take plenty of vitamin C and beta carotene when you are younger.
Other ‘power’ vitamins for mental sharpness are vitamin E, lycopene and coenzyme Q10. Alzheimer’s patients are low in all vitamins, especially vitamin C and beta carotene, when compared to healthy people who have remained mentally sharp.
Researchers from the University of Ulm in Germany report that the vitamins can also protect against milder symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia. They made this discovery when they carried out a blood analysis of 74 Alzheimer’s patients and compared them to a 158 non-Alzheimer’s control group.
• Overweight teenagers consume far fewer calories than their slimmer counterparts. This suggests that obesity is not a simple matter of overweight people eating more, say researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. They made this discovery when studying the diets of 19,125 children aged between one and 17.
Although very young children do appear to be affected by the calories they eat, the reverse is true once they hit their early teens. However, the researchers did not explore the type of food the children were eating; had they done so, the mystery may have become clearer.
Basically, it is what you eat and not how much that is important. Processed fast foods put on the pounds, whereas healthy foods such as vegetables, fish and some grains don’t (Paediatrics, 2012).
• Women who are close to menopause can make two simple lifestyle changes to protect their bones so they don’t need hormone replacement therapy or other medication. Low-key exercise, such as walking or swimming, can protect the health of bones before the menopause begins, and eat-ing a Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil can have a similar effect.
Even doing just two hours of physical activity a week is enough to improve the health of bones, and the improvements are measurable within eight weeks, say researchers from the King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia.
A separate study found that following a Mediterranean diet for two years can also protect bones against osteoporosis. The key to the diet could be the olive oil, say researchers in Spain.
When 127 elderly men consumed one of three health diets – a Mediterranean diet with nuts, a Mediterranean diet with olive oil and a low-fat diet – those on the Mediterranean/olive-oil diet had the best bone health after two years (J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., 2012).
• Cooking with sesame and rice bran oil is fantastic for heart health. They are also almost as effective as a drug for bringing down high blood pressure and the oils also improve cholesterol levels.
When tested in 300 people with moderately high blood pressure, the oils lowered blood pressure levels by only one point less than that achieved by one of the major antihypertensive drugs.
Additionally, unlike the drug, it also lowered levels of ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, while raising amounts of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol. Sesame and rice bran oils are low in saturated fats, which may be the reason why they improve cholesterol levels, say researchers from the Fukuoka University Chickushi Hospital in Japan.
• Leading the way to a more gentle approach to breast cancer are the oncologists at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) in the US.
Basing their new approach on the latest evidence, the SCCA method is foregoing chemotherapy for a less toxic alternative called targeted drug therapy. Up to 50 per cent of women are expected to benefit from the therapy.
Chemotherapy drugs are also being abandoned for women with so-called ‘triple negative’ breast cancer, a form that doesn’t respond to hormonal therapies.
High-dose radiation is also a process of the past for the SCCA team, who, instead, are using a technique known as accelerated partial breast irradiation. This is being offered to women who have had a second lumpectomy.
• It has been found that curcumin, a compound found in turmeric, which is a staple spice used in curries, slows prostate cancer growth and may help protect against breast cancer. The polyphenol antioxidant slows tumour spread in prostate cancer.
So far, the research team from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich has seen these positive results in animal studies (Carcinogenesis, 2012).
• Finally, happiness and good mental health are the highest among people who eat seven portions of fruit and vegetables per day, say researchers who studied the eating habits of around 80,000 people.
The researchers from the University of Warwick in the UK say their findings demonstrate the vital role nutrition plays in our lives and that perhaps we should raise the five-a-day servings to seven a day, roughly the equivalent of 80 grammes of fruits and vegetables.
kathryn@maltanet.net