There is more to fiber then you would know..

All physicians as a matter of habit suggest eating high fiber diets, whether to lose weight, lower cholesterol, improve digestion, have a healthy heart, name it and high fiber diet will be recommended. So what is so special about fiber?

Lisa Collier Cool has written a very informative piece on Yahoo Health on the subject and discusses a recent study on the link between fiber in the diet and heart disease.. Here are excerpts;

' If a miracle ingredient found in many tasty, inexpensive foods helped you lose weight, live longer, and avoid dangerous diseases, wouldn’t you eat it every day?

Actually, there is such a food ingredient—dietary fiber—and most of us eat too little of it, putting ourselves at increased risk for heart problems and other health woes, according to a new study published in the December issue of The American Journal of Medicine (AJM).

What’s the link between fiber and heart disease risk?

The researchers reported that previous studies suggest that dietary fiber protects against heart disease by reducing blood pressure, cholesterol, and biomarkers of inflammation, all of which play a major role in the development of heart disease, the leading killer of Americans. 

What are the other health benefits of fiber?

In a 2011 study of nearly 400,000 older adults, conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Association of Retired People (AARP), those who ate a fiber-rich diet had the lowest death rates during the 9-year study.

The study found that men ages 50 or older who ate the most fiber had an up to 56 percent lower risk for dying from cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, or infectious diseases, compared to men who ate the least fiber. In women ages 50 and up, a high-fiber diet reduced fatalities from those conditions by up to 59 percent. ' (Complete Article)

P.S: Here are links to studies mentioned above;

Dietary Fiber Intake and Mortality in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

Dietary Fiber Intake and Cardiometabolic Risks among US Adults, NHANES 1999-2010

To be overweight or not to be overweight should not even be a question!

After reading the conflicting news on Obesity in 2013 alone, I am mystified and dumbfounded. Why are we even asking if obesity is healthy or not? If you have ever seen a real human heart or a real human liver or spleen, you would know they were never meant to support gigantic amounts of fat. It is is clearly another attempt by the processed food industry and the GMO industry to avoid being looked at as a potential source of all the weight woes.

On January 2, 2013 CNN actually reported that if you are overweight you will live longer, the headline was 'Being overweight linked to lower risk of mortality' Then the next day read another shocking CNN headline  'Big deal: You can be fat and fit'. Really??!!

If we start justifying being fat and deceive ourselves into believing we can be fat and fit, then we probably will end up like the morbidly obese people from that animated movie "Wall-E (2008)", who are shown to be totally dependent on automated systems from feeding themselves to washing themselves, they actually never get off their high-tech seats that not only take them everywhere but also convert into beds at night. As a result the individuals never do much muscular movement, and hence don't develop the muscle strength to even walk.

The scary part is we already have people in the US who are so morbidly obese that they can't carry their own weight anymore and need motorized chairs to move around a grocery store or a mall. Some might have valid medical reasons for the weight gain but a huge majority do not. The major reason for them being overweight is poor food choices and too big portions. The fact that every American restaurant and specially fast food restaurant serves unhealthily large servings of unhealthy foods does not help.

There is also a huge lobby promoting the use of synthetic ingredients in our foods, such as trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, etc.... Whereas the Agriculture industry is pushing the use on GMOs on farmers everywhere and growing more and more bioengineered foods. Unfortunately very little legislation controls or oversees the use of these genetically manufactured seeds. And then the media furthers the public ignorance of what is really making them obese and sick by spreading news such as "Fat is fun and healthy".

Amongst this media madness it was a relief to see reports of the latest study on obesity that dispelled the myth that you can be fat and healthy. Here is an excerpt from the story on BBC World (Dec.3rd, 2013);

The idea of "healthy obesity" is a myth, research suggests.

Excess fat still carries health risks even when cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar levels are normal, according to a study of more than 60,000 people.

It has been argued that being overweight does not necessarily imply health risks if individuals remain healthy in other ways.

The research, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, contradicts this idea.

The study looked at findings from published studies tracking heart health and weight in more than 60,000 adults.

Researchers from the Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, found there was no healthy pattern of increased weight when heart health was monitored for more than 10 years.

They argue that people who are metabolically healthy but overweight probably have underlying risk factors that worsen over time.

Study leader Dr Ravi Retnakaran told BBC News: "This really casts doubt on the existence of healthy obesity.

"This data is suggesting that both patients who are obese who are metabolically unhealthy and patients who are obese who are metabolically healthy are both at increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, such that benign obesity may indeed be a myth."

(Complete Story)

I do realize some individuals will find my point of view mean and unsympathetic, but often the truth hurts and isn't well received even if coming from our well-wishers. I write about this only to remind us that our bodies are not meant to be obese, and expecting them to keep functioning normally when overworked and overburdened is unreasonable. Most of the reasons besides actual medical and physiological causes of being morbidly overweight, have a solution. Trying to make being fat fun isn't one of them!

We need to address this problem head on as a nation and refuse to feed ourselves and our children these man made artificial items they like to sell as food. We have to look at what we eat and how much we eat. We need to regulate what the Food and Beverage Industry can put into our foods and drinks. We need to regulate the unnecessary use of GMOs, bioengineering and chemical fertilizers by the Agriculture Industry.
And last but not least we need to stop finding excuses for our own neglect. We alone are guilty of reckless behavior when it comes to benign obesity and therefore we need to accept responsibility for our own health.

Moms, we've got to get moving!

I am guilty of this too, I watch far too much TV. Yes, and that automatically reduced the amount of physical activity I get. That in turn plays an important role in leading to unwanted weight gain.
Not only is this lack of physical activity bad for the moms, it is setting a poor example for our kids, who too spend far too much time in front of TVs and Computer screens. If not for ourselves, let us change that for our sons and daughters and lets get moving!!

Here is the report on the subject on MedicineNet.com;

Less Physical Activity, More TV for Today's Moms, Study Finds
American mothers watch more TV and get less physical activity today than mothers did four decades ago, a new study finds.
"With each passing generation, mothers have become increasingly physically inactive, sedentary and obese, thereby potentially predisposing children to an increased risk of inactivity, adiposity [body fat] and chronic non-communicable diseases," said study leader Edward Archer, an exercise scientist and epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina.

"Given that physical activity is an absolute prerequisite for health and wellness, it is not surprising that inactivity is now a leading cause of death and disease in developed nations," Archer noted in a university news release. The analysis of 45 years of national data focused on two groups of mothers: those with children 5 years or younger, and those with children aged 6 to 18. The researchers assessed physical activity related to cooking, cleaning and exercising. (Continued)

The advantage of being bilingual and mulitlingual

A recent extensive study on the relationship of bilingualism and dementia has provided further evidence and support to the belief that bilingual individuals show a delay in onset of dementia in old age. 

Sue Hughes reports in the Medscape Neurology section;

' More evidence that speaking a second language may protect against dementia has come from a study conducted in India.

The study, published online November 6 in Neurology, was conducted by a team led by Suvarna Alladi, DM, from Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India.

"This study provides the strongest evidence yet that speaking more than 1 language delays the development of dementia," coauthor Thomas H. Bak, MD, from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, commented to Medscape Medical News. "We can't say we have proven the effect, but this is the largest and most thorough study conducted on the subject in the most appropriate population. It would be extremely surprising if the results were not real."

He explained that 2 previous studies, both conducted in Toronto, Canada, have suggested that bilingualism might postpone dementia. However, most of the bilingual participants were immigrants with very different cultural backgrounds than members of the monolingual group, which introduced a high degree of confounding.

The study involved 648 patients with dementia diagnosed at a specialist clinic, 391 of whom were bilingual. The age at onset of first symptoms was compared between monolingual and bilingual groups.

Results showed that overall, bilingual patients developed dementia 4.5 years later than those who spoke only 1 language. The effect was consistent across the different types of dementia and was also independent of other potential confounding factors such as education, sex, occupation, and urban vs rural dwelling of participants.'

The fact that the new study was conducted in Hyderabad, India with a mostly bilingual population has been described as a stroke of genius. The majority Hindu population speaks Telugu, whereas the Muslim minority speaks Dakkhini. Besides these languages most Hyderabadis learn English and Hindi in school and use them in formal context. Hence it is likely for a Hyderabad resident to be fluent in 2-3 languages. 

Barbara J. King reports in the NPR Science blog;

' The patients who contributed data to the study, then, are surrounded by multiple languages in everyday life, not primarily as a result of moving from one location to another. This turns out to be an important factor, as the authors explain:

"In contrast to previous studies, the bilingual group was drawn from the same environment as the monolingual one and the results were therefore free from the confounding effects of immigration. The bilingual effect on age at dementia onset was shown independently of other potential confounding factors, such as education, sex, occupation, cardiovascular risk factors, and urban vs rural dwelling, of subjects with dementia."

What exactly is it about the ability to speak in two languages that seems to provide this protective effect? Alladi and co-authors explain:

"The constant need in a bilingual person to selectively activate one language and suppress the other is thought to lead to a better development of executive functions and attentional tasks with cognitive advantages being best documented in attentional control, inhibition, and conflict resolution."

Intriguingly, when a patient speaks three (or more) languages, no extra benefits accrue neurologically. Speaking a single language beyond one's native tongue is enough to do the trick.'

Therefore not only should we try to learn more then one language whenever the opportunity arises, but we should also make an effort to make our children at least bilingual if not multilingual.  

P.S:

New Study Shows Brain Benefits Of Bilingualism (Link to Full Article)
More Evidence Bilingualism Delays Dementia ( Link to Full Article)

Resurgence of Measles : A cause for concern

Recent statistics have shown that the number of cases of measles has tripled in the US in 2013. Most likely culprit is the refusal by parents to get their children vaccinated. This trend has been seen primarily in Europe but is gaining popularity in the US too.

What exactly is Measles? 

According to the CDC; Measles is a respiratory disease caused by a virus. The disease of measles and the virus that causes it share the same name. The disease is also called rubeola. Measles virus normally grows in the cells that line the back of the throat and lungs.

Most common symptoms are fever, runny nose, cough and a rash all over the body. But complications in children may often include ear infections and pneumonia. A more serious consequence may be meningitis which may lead to death in children.

While measles is almost gone from the United States, it still kills an estimated 164,000 people each year around the world. Measles can also make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage or give birth prematurely. Measles is mostly spread by breathing, coughing and sneezing. It is so contagious that any child exposed to it and is not immune to it, will most likely get it.

But today AFP reported;

'Europe is big threat to resurgence of Measles in US'

After a decade of near total US elimination of measles due in large part to blanket immunizations of children, a surge of 175 cases have been documented so far this year, experts say.

That number is almost triple the average 60 cases of US measles per year over the last decade, said findings of a government study published in the Journal of American Medical Association.

And Europe was the source of almost half (25) of the 52 measles cases that are classed as direct importations from abroad this year, a CDC spokesman told AFP. (Complete Story)

Something must be changed....

When I read headline like " More Than 6 Percent of U.S. Teens Take Psychiatric Meds: Survey ADHD, depression most common conditions reported by those on medication", my first thought is this should not be an acceptable situation.
How can we just read this and be ok with it? Why are so many teenagers taking such medications? Are our health professionals are being too quick in prescribing these? Or are US teenagers missing some essential element in their upbringing and lives that is leading to a rise in need for treatment.We need to ask ourselves these pointed questions as the parents and do whatever needs to be done.

Here is an excerpt of the article on WebMD from HealthDay News; 

'Slightly more than 6 percent of U.S. teens take prescription medications for a mental health condition such as depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new survey shows. The survey also revealed a wide gap in psychiatric drug use across ethnic and racial groups. Earlier studies have documented a rise in the use of these medications among teens, but they mainly looked at high-risk groups such as children who have been hospitalized for psychiatric problems. 

The new survey provides a snapshot of the number of adolescents in the general population who took a psychiatric drug in the past month from 2005 to 2010.Teens aged 12 to 19 typically took drugs to treat depression or ADHD, the two most common mental health disorders in that age group. About 4 percent of kids aged 12 to 17 have experienced a bout of depression, the study found.Meanwhile, 9 percent of children aged 5 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, a behavioral disorder marked by difficulty paying attention and impulsive behavior. 

Males were more likely to be taking medication to treat ADHD, while females were more commonly taking medication to treat depression. This follows patterns seen in the diagnosis of these conditions across genders. Exactly what is driving the new numbers is not clear, but "in my opinion, it's an increase in the diagnosis of various conditions that these medications can be prescribed for," said study author Bruce Jonas. He is an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). But these are stressful times and it is also possible that children are becoming more vulnerable to these conditions as a result. "The recession and various world events might be a contributing factor," Jonas speculated. (Full Article)

Memories in our DNA?

Like me I am sure you have known people with traits, habits, and behaviors that you notice in other members of their families. We are all guilty of statements like "Their whole family is paranoid and strange" or " He isn't the only one in his family with this habit" Well recent animal studies seem to support the idea that some memories are actually passed on from generation to generation through a part of DNA. Here is the report on the subject on BBC World News;

'Memories' pass between generations

Behaviour can be affected by events in previous generations which have been passed on through a form of genetic memory, animal studies suggest.

Experiments showed that a traumatic event could affect the DNA in sperm and alter the brains and behaviour of subsequent generations. A Nature Neuroscience study shows mice trained to avoid a smell passed their aversion on to their "grandchildren". Experts said the results were important for phobia and anxiety research. The animals were trained to fear a smell similar to cherry blossom.

The team at the Emory University School of Medicine, in the US, then looked at what was happening inside the sperm. (Continue..)