Posts Tagged ‘Health’

« Older Entries

Green Tea Information: Should You Be Considering the Benefits of Green Tea?

April 28th, 2012

Are you tired of seeing people order double mint lattes with whipped cream or large iced drinks with artificial fruit flavors and artificial sweeteners, knowing they are literally promoting disease and a mountain of health related expenses for themselves?

Green tea information has the ability to change a person’s life for the better. Learning about the health benefits of consuming green tea products could be the next step to improving people’s eating habits.

Do you have friends and relatives who continually make bad food choices and don’t realize they are bad, or that they have choices? The cost of medical insurance is almost prohibitive to carry in the U.S., and in countries with socialized medicine waiting times for treatment can be agonizing.

For many, the cost of becoming healthy and staying that way requires only a small lifestyle change. If people would begin with small changes, the increased quality of their health would encourage them to consider additional improvements in the quality of their diet.

We could drink green tea instead of diet soda, or take a quality nutritional supplement instead of buying a pastry every day. Stay away from a fast food restaurant and with the savings we can purchase powerful tea extracts that are shown to prevent heart disease and cancer. Why wouldn’t we want to make this change in our life if we understand the health benefits?

Our goal should be to place green tea information in plain view of as many people as possible. We should emphasize that Chinese people have recognized the health benefits of tea and have consumed it for 4000 years. They have far less cancer and heart disease than Western countries. This drink is the number one beverage consumed in China, Korea, and Japan.

Green tea contains polyphenols, specifically catechin compounds that are powerful antioxidants. These catechins, especially EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), fight free radicals that promote disease. As an added bonus, EGCG fights microbes, viruses, and bacteria.

Would you believe that this beverage has been shown to control or prevent heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, gum disease, type 2 diabetes, glaucoma, and rheumatoid arthritis? It also reduces or lessens the effects of high blood pressure, LDL (bad cholesterol), free radical damage due to smoking, the effects of excessive alcohol consumption, acne, bowel problems, and impaired immune system just to name a few.

Believe me, if we can get this green tea information into thousands of people’s hands and get them thinking about better health with a few small lifestyle changes, we will be a step closer to having healthier friends and relatives.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

Healthy Aging – Eight Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp As You Age

April 18th, 2012

At 63, I am constantly looking for ways for keeping my mind sharp. It is a vital topic to me since I spend a lot of time teaching and writing. Here are eight tips that have served me well.

1. Keep on learning
My main role model for keeping intellectually fit is my friend Sigy, 88 years young. Whenever I speak to him, he tells me about the latest online course he has downloaded. Sigy is constantly challenging himself with something new.

2. Take a multivitamin supplement
Health experts recommend that older people take a multivitamin daily to promote optimal health and a strong immune system. It helps maintain and boost good health and wellness. On the other hand, Live Science.com reports that so-called “brain pills,” such as ginkgo biloba and melatonin, offer no beneficial effect. In fact, they might have negative side effects such as high blood pressure and digestion problems.

3. Live a “balanced” lifestyle
Research shows that leading a balanced life – however you define it – can reduce stress and retard memory impairment. David Corbett takes a long-term view of a balanced life in his book Portfolio Life. He recommends the following:
- having a satisfying vocation a profession,
- being a lifelong learner,
- making time for personal pursuits and recreation,
- enjoying family and friends, and
- getting back to society.

4. Watch what you eat
- Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that is critical to brain function. It can reduce the risk of macular degeneration, protect against Alzheimer’s disease, and fight arthritis. What are good foods to eat? Try salmon, trout, mackerel, herring and sardines.

- Recent studies have shown that two to four cups of coffee a day may increase your cognitive capacity and help you fight Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists are not sure whether it is due to the caffeine or the antioxidants found in coffee and tea.

- Do not want to overeat or under eat. Either one can have harmful consequences for brain functioning. The Food and Nutrition information Center at the National Agricultural Library of the US Department of Agriculture has some great resources on healthy eating.

Check out the Tufts University Food Guide Pyramid for Older Adults aged 54 for tips on a healthful diet. Here are two suggestions that you can easily remember: eat, bright colored vegetables (carrots and spinach for example) and deep colored fruit (berries and sliced melon are two).

5. Get enough sleep
If you do not sleep enough, you are likely to pay the price in having attention and memory problems. You also run the risk of making it harder for yourself to learn new things and think. And what does sleeping enough mean? According to the US National Institute of Health, older adults need as much sleep as younger adults: 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night. Check the NIH website for some helpful tips on sleeping well.

6. Exercise your memory
Here are some tips for improving your memory:
- pay attention to what you need to learn.
- process information according to your learning style.
- use as many of your senses as possible.
- connect information to knowledge you have already learned.
- organize information through words or mind maps.

7. Have the right amount of energy
I am an advocate of the rising-energy model of aging. I do not believe that it is inevitable that your energy will decline as you age.

Harvard produced a special health report called Boosting your Energy that proposed a seven-step plan for increasing your natural energy. Here are the first three steps from Julie K. Silver, M.D. of the Harvard Medical School:
- set goals and write them down; it is a great way to motivate yourself.
- keep your stress in check by discussing it with others using relaxation techniques and writing your feelings down on paper.
- do not overwork yourself; use smart techniques that allow you to work better by working less.

8. Get enough exercise
According to Live Science, “scientists are starting to think that regular exercise may be the single most important thing you can do for the long-term health of your brain.” The American College of Sports Medicine urges older adults to work out strenuously at least 15 to 60 minutes three to five days per week. That means getting your heart rate up to 60% to 90% of your maximal heart rate (220 minus current age).

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags:

The Challenge of Staying Healthy While Living Overseas – Part One, Food Safety and Nutrition

April 13th, 2012

Thinking of traveling overseas? Worried about staying healthy?

Nutrition is an area of international health that is under-emphasized. Unfortunately, it is the topic most neglected by those who otherwise are wisely planning for their overseas move or travel.

This is a three part series. In this first part we will touch on nutrition and food safety. Click the link below for part two and three on more medical advice on how to stay healthy while traveling overseas.

Microbial and environmental contamination

Microbial and environmental contamination – subjects that increasingly draw alarm and attention in this country — take on an even more urgent tone when addressing food safety in the developing world. Microbial contamination refers to bacterial or mold infestation. Environmental contamination refers to pesticide residue or toxins brought on by heavy metals such as aluminum or lead.

Microbial contamination causes food-borne illness, better known as food poisoning. Toxins produced by harmful bacteria ingested in food produce intense and sometimes violent gastrointestinal symptoms. The primary pathogens – or bad guys –are staphylococcus aureus, clostridium perfringens, and salmonella species (responsible for 70 to 80% of all reported outbreaks).

The reported incidence of food-borne illness is increasing worldwide, and in recent years a number of new pathogens have emerged. The World Health Organization’s has a website devoted exclusively to the topic of various pathogens. Check out who.org.

A problem with “going native”
Cultural customs surrounding the preparation and eating of food prove tricky for expatriates who want to dive into the culture and “go native.” Eating from a communal pot or using fingers instead of fork or spoon are preferred customs in many countries. Slurping bowls of soup sold by passing vendors in a congenial display of friendship with neighbors may result in hepatitis. Eating fried chicken in a meal offered by a friendly local as a gesture of goodwill and hospitality can put you in bed for weeks with typhoid.

If your goal is to integrate into the local culture and you don’t want to be rude to your hosts, then there isn’t much you can do to totally avoid food poisoning or food-borne diseases. Nevertheless, a commitment to an overall lifestyle of health through regular exercise, daily multiple vitamins, control over your own kitchen, shopping at reputable grocery stores or markets, and maintaining personal hygiene is about the best you can do. If stomach problems persist, then please do go to the doctor. If you prefer to use doctors back in your home country, then go to research hospitals or doctors who specialize in tropical diseases. Long-term diarrhea, if left untreated, can develop into more severe problems.

I developed my own guidelines for eating out when I lived overseas. I would choose foods that could be easily washed or peeled. Fried foods were preferable to raw – the thought being that the heat would kill the germs. And hot food preferable to food that was sitting out on display.

Giardia
Giardia is a particularly common ailment that hits people living overseas. It is a germ that causes particularly foul smelling diarrhea. Giardia is found in infected people’s stool and most often is caused by drinking unsanitary water. This germ is protected by an outer shell that allows it to survive outside the body and in the environment for long periods of time.

It can be treated by prescription drugs, and largely prevented (though not totally) by careful hand washing and drinking from known safe water sources.

Vitamins and detoxification
Many developing world environments involve greater exposure to toxins as well as to more noxious agents. Certain foods can be protective because they contain important nutrients that can assist in detoxification. For example, zinc, contained in a variety of nuts, is an antagonist of cadmium, a toxic metal that accumulates in the kidney. Vitamin C, abundant in citrus fruits and brightly colored vegetables, inhibit the conversion of meat preservative, sodium nitrite into carcinogenic substances.

Comments Off »

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: