Plan Meals in Advance

Plan Meals in Advance
JORGE’S DAILY FIT TIP

By Jorge Cruise, Chief Diet and Fitness Expert
Monday, September 22, 2008
Most of us are caught in the rat race Monday through Friday and are easily seduced by the convenience of fatty foods at quick-dine restaurants. My secret to eating nutritiously during the busy work week? Prepare meals ahead of time! Do as much food preparation as you can on the weekends – such as chopping vegetables, roasting a few chicken breasts or making a large batch of rice – and then refrigerate or freeze these foods for later use. And don’t waste time running back and forth to the fridge. It’s quicker to prep for a week’s worth of meals when all the ingredients are in full view instead of taking food to and from the fridge several times. You’ll find the time you spend planning, chopping and cooking on Sunday will save you valuable minutes during a stressful, time-pinched work week.
Your coach,Jorge Cruise

Eat a Rainbow of Flavors

Eat a Rainbow of Flavors
By Dr. Maoshing Ni, LifeScript Natural Health Specialist

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sure, it is easy to eat the same foods all the time, but it’s time to try something new. Variety is not just the “spice of life”; it is also an important way to keep your internal organs healthy. Eating the exact same foods – even if they are natural fruits, vegetables and grains – seven days a week is not healthy for you. It sets our bodies up for imbalances that can lead to disease. Don’t turn your digestive system into a septic breeding ground. Mix things up! According to the Chinese medical tradition, there are five elemental energies that make up our universe, as well as our bodies. These energies are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each of these energies has a corresponding color. For instance, wood corresponds to green; fire to red; earth to yellow and orange; metal to white; and water to black, blue, and purple. A balanced diet consists of eating foods of every color, every day.
Live long, strong and happy,Dr. Mao

Take Small Steps Toward Great Health

Take Small Steps Toward Great Health
JORGE’S DAILY FIT TIP
By Jorge Cruise, Chief Diet and Fitness Expert

Sunday, September 21, 2008
Don’t be so hard on yourself as you take steps toward living a healthier life. Focus on the positive changes you’ve made in your life, from new, healthier foods to a new way of thinking about exercise. You’ve committed yourself to living a longer, better life. Imagine this transformation as you would a baby who learns to walk after learning to crawl. Take baby steps toward your health and fitness goals, and don’t set unreasonable goals. As someone who has already taken positive steps toward good nutrition and fitness, you have already scaled the largest obstacle. Know that in time you’ll be sprinting, but commend yourself for the remarkable progress you’ve made so far. Now that you have the tools to walk, experience life from a new perspective and continue to set new goals. Before long you’ll be enjoying an incredible new way of life and continuing forward with more confidence, more energy and a whole new outlook for the future.
Your coach,Jorge Cruise

Fats Help Keep Your Salad Healthy

Fats Help Keep Your Salad Healthy
FREE DAILY DIET TIP
By Jennifer Gruenemay, ACE-Certified, LifeScript Staff Writer

Thursday, July 10, 2008
Think you have to ban fatty salad dressings forever? Many dieters think losing weight means you have to cut corners (which is true) by cutting out fatty foods like salad dressing (which is not true). While it’s a fact that when you leave off fatty salad dressings you may be reducing the total number of calories in your meal, you’re also reducing the total number of carotenoids you absorb from the phytochemical-rich assortment of veggies in your salad. Carotenoids are a class of pigments found in vegetables. They make carrots orange, green peppers green and tomatoes red, and they also act as powerful antioxidants. These healthy compounds, however, are fat-soluble, meaning they need to be digested in the presence of fats in order to cross the intestinal wall and be absorbed into the body. That means that if you’re not eating some amount of fat with your salads, whether from the dressing, shredded cheeses, avocado, or other source, you won’t be able to benefit from the all the fat-soluble nutrients, carotenoids and antioxidants found in the vegetables. How much fat do you need then? Research shows that you need to eat at least six grams of fat along with your meal in order to absorb these healthy, fat-soluble compounds. Check the label of your favorite salad dressings and opt for one that has a healthy amount of unsaturated fats, such as an olive-oil based dressing. Or just add a quarter of an avocado to your salad for seven grams of fat, six of which are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.

The Dumbbell Dead Lift

The Dumbbell Dead Lift
JORGE’S DAILY FIT TIP

By Jorge Cruise, Chief Diet and Fitness Expert
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Is your workout flatlining? Then you’re in need of exercise resuscitation! I have just the move to help revitalize your fitness plan: the dumbbell dead lift. While this move may not sound like it’s pulsing with force, it’s actually a tricky lower back exercise that also works your hamstrings, glutes and calves. It’s called a “dead lift” because your legs, arms and chest stay stiff, while your hips maneuver your body. Make sure to keep your upper body firm and strong throughout the move, and stick your buttocks out in the starting position to maintain balance. Give this move a try today!
Step 1: Grasping a dumbbell in each hand, stand with your feet about 6 to 8 inches apart. Bend forward from the hips as if you were about to tie your shoes. Lift your chin and chest, creating a slight arch in your back.
Step 2: Breathe slowly as you lift your upper body through a count of 10, driving through your heels and using your lower back and hamstrings.
Step 3: Hold for 2 seconds at the maximum tension point (at the top of the movement).
Step 4: Return to the starting position through a count of 10 seconds.
Step 5: Repeat three times without resting.

Stress: Win control over the stress in your life

Stress: Win control over the stress in your life

Your body's stress reaction was meant to protect you. But when it's constantly on alert, your health can pay the price. Take steps to control your stress.

Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life. But when you're unable to cope well with the stress in your life, your mind and body may pay the price.

Your body is hard-wired by nature to react to stress in a way originally meant to protect you against perceived threats from predators and aggressors. But today's many demands may include managing a huge workload, making ends meet, taking care of aging parents as well as young children, and simply making it through the morning rush hour. You may feel overwhelmed by these daily stressors and wonder if you'll ever get a handle on all of these extra "threats" — you can empower yourself to do so.

Understanding the natural stress response
If your mind and body are constantly on edge because of excessive stress in your life, you may face serious health problems. That's because your body's "fight-or-flight reaction" — its natural alarm system — is constantly on.
When you encounter perceived threats — a large dog barks at you during your morning walk, for instance — your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. Through a combination of nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts your adrenal glands, located atop your kidneys, to release a surge of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline increases your heart rate, elevates your blood pressure and boosts energy supplies.
Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugars (glucose) in the bloodstream, enhances your brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances that repair tissues. Cortisol also curbs functions that would be nonessential or detrimental in a fight-or-flight situation. It alters immune system responses and suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes.
This complex natural alarm system also communicates with regions of your brain that control mood, motivation and fear.

When the natural stress response goes haywire
The body's stress-response system is usually self-regulating. It decreases hormone levels and enables your body to return to normal once a perceived threat has passed. As adrenaline and cortisol levels drop, your heart rate and blood pressure return to baseline levels, and other systems resume their regular activities.

But when the stressors of your life are always present, leaving you constantly feeling stressed, tense, nervous or on edge, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. The less control you have over potentially stress-inducing events and the more uncertainty they create, the more likely you are to feel stressed. Even the typical day-to-day demands of living can contribute to your body's stress response.

The long-term activation of the stress-response system — and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones — can disrupt almost all your body's processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:

Heart disease
Sleep problems
Digestive problems
Depression
Obesity
Memory impairment
Worsening of skin conditions, such as eczema

That's why it's so important to learn healthy ways to cope with the stressors in your life.
Why you react to life stressors the way you do
Your reaction to a potentially stressful event is different from anyone else's. How you react to stressors in your life includes such factors as:
Genetics. The genes that control the stress response keep most people on a fairly even keel, only occasionally priming the body for fight or flight. Overactive or underactive stress responses may stem from slight differences in these genes.
Life experiences. Strong stress reactions sometimes can be traced to early environmental factors. People who were exposed to extremely stressful events as children, such as neglect or abuse, tend to be particularly vulnerable to stress as adults.
You may have some friends who seem laid-back about almost everything and others who react strongly at the slightest stress. Most reactions to life stressors fall somewhere between those extremes.
Learning to react to life stressors in a healthy way
Stressful events are a fact of life. And you may not be able to change your current situation.
But you can take steps to manage the impact these events have on you. You can learn to identify what stresses you out, how to take control of some stress-inducing circumstances, and how to take care of yourself physically and emotionally in the face of stressful situations.
Stress management strategies may include:
Exercise
Relaxation techniques
Fostering healthy friendships
Getting plenty of sleep
Professional counseling or psychotherapy
The payoff of managing stress is peace of mind and — perhaps — a longer, healthier life.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
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Choose your response for greater stress relief
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Exercise: Rev up your routine to reduce stress
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How to avoid heart disease: brush your teeth, say scientists

How to avoid heart disease: brush your teeth, say scientists
by Marlowe Hood Wed Sep 10, 7:16 PM ET

PARIS (AFP) - Here's another reason to brush your teeth: poor dental hygiene boosts the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a pair of studies reported this week.

Heart disease is the number one killer worldwide, claiming upward of 17 million lives every year, according to the World Health Organization.

Smoking, obesity and high cholesterol are the most common culprits, but the new research shows that neglected gums can be added to the list.

"We now recognize that bacterial infections are an independent risk factor for heart diseases," said Howard Jenkins of the University of Bristol in Britain, at a meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Dublin.

"In other words, it doesn't matter how fit, slim or healthy you are, you're adding to your chances of getting heart disease by having bad teeth," the professor said.
There are up to 700 different bacteria in the human mouth, and failing to scrub one's pearly whites helps those germs to flourish.

Most are benign, and some are essential to good health. But a few can trigger a biological cascade leading to diseases of the arteries linked to heart attacks and stroke, according to the new research.

"The mouth is probably the dirtiest place in the human body," Steve Kerrigan of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin said.
"If you have an open blood vessel from bleeding gums, bacteria will gain entry to your bloodstream."

Once inside the blood, certain bacteria stick onto cells called platelets, causing them to clot inside the vessel and thus decreasing blood flow to the heart.
"We mimicked the pressure inside the blood vessels and in the heart, and demonstrated that bacteria use different mechanisms to cause platelets to clump together, allowing them to completely encase the bacteria," he said.

This not only created conditions that can provoke heart attacks and strokes, it also shielded the bacteria from both, immune system cells and antibiotics.
"These findings suggest why antibiotics do not always work in the treatment of infectious heart disease," Jenkins said.

In separate research, a team led by Greg Seymour of the University of Otago Dunedin in New Zealand showed how other bacteria from the mouth can provoke atherosclerosis, a disease that causes hardening of the arteries.

All organisms -- including humans and bacteria -- produce "stress proteins," molecules produced by conditions such as inflammation, toxins, starvation, or oxygen deprivation.
One function of stress proteins is to guide other proteins across cell membranes.
But they can also can latch onto foreign objects, called antigens, and deliver then to immune cells, provoking an immune reactions in the body.

Normally, the body does not attack its own stress proteins.
But bacterial stress proteins -- which are similar -- do trigger a response, and once that has happened the immune system can no longer differentiate between the two, said Seymour.
"White blood cells can build up in the tissue of arteries, causing atherosclerosis," he explained in a phone interview.

Humans Have Astonishing Memories

Humans Have Astonishing Memories, Study Finds

Clara MoskowitzLiveScience Staff WriterLiveScience.com Tue Sep 9, 12:02 AM ET
If human memory were truly digital, it would have just received an upgrade from something like the capacity of a floppy disk to that of a flash drive. A new study found the brain can remember a lot more than previously believed.

In a recent experiment, people who viewed pictures of thousands of objects over five hours were able to remember astonishing details afterward about most of the objects.
Though previous studies have never measured such astounding feats of memory, it may be simply because no one really tried.

"People had never tested whether people could remember this much detail about this many objects," said researcher Timothy Brady, a cognitive neuroscientist at MIT. "Nobody actually pushed it this far."

When they did push the human brain to its limits, the scientists found that under the right circumstances, it can store minute visual details far beyond what had been imagined.
Those circumstances include looking at images of objects that are familiar, such as remote controls, dollar bills and loaves of bread, as opposed to abstract artworks.

Another factor that seemed to help was motivation to do well: The participant who scored highest won a small prize of money (the researchers refused to say exactly how much).
"You have to try," said MIT co-author Talia Konkle. "You have to want to do it."

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and a National Research Service Award, was detailed in the Sept. 8 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the experiment, 14 people ranging from age 18 to 40 viewed nearly 3,000 images, one at a time, for three seconds each. Afterwards, they were shown pairs of images and asked to select the exact image they had seen earlier.

The test pairs fell into three categories: two completely different objects, an object and a different example of the same type of object (such as two different remote controls), and an object along with a slightly altered version of the same object (such as a cup full and another cup half-full).Stunningly, participants on average chose the correct image 92 percent, 88 percent and 87 percent of the time, in each of the three pairing categories respectively. Though 14 subjects may not sound like a huge sample, the fact that they each recalled the objects with very similar rates of success suggests the results are not a fluke.

"To give just one example, this means that after having seen thousands of objects, subjects didn't just remember which cabinet they had seen, but also that the cabinet door was slightly open," Brady said.

Even the researchers didn't expect quite such high recall rates.
"We had the intuition that it might be possible, but we were surprised by the magnitude of the effect," said study leader Aude Oliva, also of MIT. "These numbers, higher than 85 and 90 percent, impressed us and also impressed a lot of people who heard about the work."
So now that we know the brain's memory is so fantastic, are we all out of excuses for forgetting friends' birthdays?
Luckily not, Brady said.
"To some extent it's about attention, actively encoding specific details into memory," he told LiveScience. "If we tried really hard we actually could remember when someone's birthday was: if you say to yourself, 'The birthday is on this day and that relates to these other things that I remember.'"

Basically, he said, we can remember most things we put our minds to, if we invest enough attention and effort into trying to store them in the first place.

How to Avoid E. Coli

How to Avoid E. Coli
FREE DAILY DIET TIP
By Carly Young, Special to LifeScript
Friday, August 1, 2008

Juice, fresh produce and lean ground beef are good for you... unless they’re contaminated with E. coli. Escherichia coli are a broad group of bacteria that live in your intestines and help keep you healthy. But a few strains can cause food-borne illness. If you experience diarrhea and abdominal cramping after eating something you suspect is contaminated, see your doctor. Although most people can recover completely from an episode of food poisoning within a few days, the better idea is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Here’s how to enjoy the foods you love without getting sick:
When grilling meat, don’t rely on color alone to tell if it’s done. Meat often browns before it’s completely cooked, so use a thermometer to ensure it’s heated to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit at the thickest point.
Produce can become contaminated by the fecal matter used in manure. Wash fruits and veggies thoroughly under running water using a scrub brush and vegetable wash before eating whole and before peeling.
Keep raw meat separate from all other foods at all times. Wash cutting boards, knives, counters, and anything else that raw meat has come in contact with in hot, soapy water.
Drink only pasteurized juice and milk.
No matter how clear and bubbly it is, don’t drink water from a lake or a stream. On that note, avoid swallowing pool or ocean water, too.When in doubt about whether or not a food is contaminated, remember – better safe than sorry.

Prostate Cancer Therapy May Not HelpHormone Therapy Doesn't Increase Survival in Older Men With Early Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer Therapy May Not HelpHormone Therapy Doesn't Increase Survival in Older Men With Early Prostate Cancer

By Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

July 8, 2008 -- One in four elderly U.S. men with early prostate cancer undergoes hormone therapy -- but it's more likely to harm than help.
Surgery to remove the prostate -- radical prostatectomy -- is too risky for most men in their 70s and 80s. When such men are found to have early prostate cancer, they have three options.
They can wait and see whether this usually slow-moving cancer becomes a problem (called conservative therapy or watchful waiting). They can undergo radiation therapy and suffer its side effects. Or they can undergo androgen-deprivation therapy: hormonal drugs (Lupron, Viadur, Eligard, or Zoladex) or surgery (orchiectomy) that cut off production of male hormones.
In the U.S., older men often opt for stand-alone hormone therapy, even though there's no proof that it really helps. Hormone therapy's most obvious side effect is sexual dysfunction. Of greater concern are several recent studies linking androgen deprivation therapies to diabetes , heart disease , bone fractures , and reduced muscle mass.
Now a new study strongly suggests that hormone therapy offers older men no benefit to justify these serious risks.
Grace L. Lu-Yao, PhD, MPH, of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, and colleagues collected data on more than 19,000 men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer at an average age of 77. None of the men underwent surgery or radiation treatment for early prostate cancer. Nearly 8,000 of the men opted for androgen deprivation therapy.
"Use of hormone therapy does not improve survival," Lu-Yao tells WebMD. "The reason patients want this is they want something that will improve their quality of life or their survival. But hormone therapy has a detrimental effect on quality of life. And we cannot find any survival benefit for these men in their 70s with very early-stage cancer."
Why have so many U.S. men undergone an unproven treatment that now seems to do more harm than good?
"It's an American phenomenon," Otis Brawley, MD, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, tells WebMD. "The problem is that if a U.S. man has early-stage prostate cancer, both patients and doctors culturally feel that you have to do something. The end result is a number of men who should get conservative therapy get some kind of intervention."
Lu-Yao and Brawley suggest that these older men would have done just as well if their cancers had never been detected. Brawley notes that many of these men likely underwent continued prostate cancer screening with PSA tests. Others probably had possible prostate abnormalities detected by a urologist.
Regardless of how they got there, all these older men must have agreed to undergo prostate biopsies. And that may not have been the result of a fully informed decision, says Simon Hall, MD, head of urology at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"You have to have a discussion with an older man before he has a prostate biopsy. You have to ask, 'Do you really want to open Pandora's Box?'" Hall tells WebMD. "Most patients with localized prostate cancer are not going to die from their disease in the first 10 years anyway. It is a legitimate question whether to screen patients this old, and whether urologists should biopsy older patients based on just a knee-jerk reaction."
Hall says there are very few men he would treat with hormone therapy alone.
"A lot of these older men are at low risk and don't need any treatment at all," he says. "It doesn't seem hormone therapy would make a difference, so why put them through the significant side effects and the cost?"
All of the experts who spoke with WebMD noted that the current study findings do not apply to younger men who might receive androgen-deprivation therapy in combination with surgery or radiation. Such men may benefit from hormone therapy .
Lu-Yao and colleagues report their findings in the July 9 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
SOURCES:Lu-Yao, G.L. The Journal of the American Medical Association, July 9, 2008; vol 300: pp 173-181.Grace Lu-Yao, PhD, MPH, cancer epidemiologist, Cancer Institute of New Jersey; associate professor of environmental and occupational medicine, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey.Otis Brawley, MD, chief medical officer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta.Simon Hall, MD, chairman, department of urology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.WebMD Health News: " Prostate Cancer Hormones Therapy Risky?"WebMD Health News: " Heart Risk From Prostate Therapy."WebMD Health News: " Fracture Risk Rises With Prostate Cancer Drugs."WebMD Health News: " Hormones Delay Prostate Cancer Growth."© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.