A Losing Effort

2011-09-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

2011-09-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

2011-09-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Pound for Pound Challenge

2009-12-12T18:59:00.002-05:00

I have taken a pledge to lose weight and help fight hunger by signing up for the Pound For Pound Challenge. For every pound participants pledge to lose, The Pound For Pound Challenge will donate 14¢ to Feeding America®–enough to deliver one pound of groceries to a local food bank. Maximum donation of $800,000.

Feeding America provides assistance each year to 25 million Americans at risk of hunger. I urge you to take the Pound For Pound Challenge and join me in the fight against hunger.

Thanks for your help.

Superstar CBS Reporter Blows the Lid Off the Swine Flu Media Hype and Hysteria

2009-11-24T11:10:00.002-05:00

Posted by: Dr. Mercola November 24 2009 | 78,006 views

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter. She’s covered Capitol Hill since February 2006 and has been a Washington-based correspondent there since January 1995. She was also part of the CBS news team that received the Edward Murrow Award in 2005 for overall excellence. Additionally, she received an Outstanding Investigative Journalism Emmy in 2002 for a series on the Red Cross.

In case you didn't realize it, Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared.

In fact, they’re barely on the radar screen.

How did this startling information come about, and why is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) painting a different picture entirely? I spoke directly with Sharyl Attkisson to find out.

Read the rest of the story and view the videos here.....

I know this isn't about weight loss, but it is a health issue and I believe that we should be as educated as possible regarding all health issues. As I always say, don't believe anything you read here unless you know it to be true or you do your own research.

(Disclaimer: I don't knowingly publish anything I know or believe to be factually incorrect (ie, lies, just plain wrong, etc.), but I may post something that is incorrect because I haven't researched it, or believe my source to have already done the research. And when I do, I gladly accept correction by my readers. I only ask that you do it politely. We all make mistakes.)

More 'Safe' Water Bottles that are Actually Dangerous

2009-10-31T12:45:00.001-04:00

More 'Safe' Water Bottles that are Actually Dangerous

Posted by: Dr. Mercola
October 31 2009 | 14,912 views

Not long ago, SIGG announced that their aluminum water bottles, which many people purchased to avoid the BPA found in plastic bottles, actually contained BPA. Now it has come out that Gaiam's aluminum water bottles -- the ones that were previously labeled "BPA-free" -- actually leach BPA at 20 times the levels that SIGG bottles did.

After being called out on the web on the BPA status of their "BPA-free" water bottles, Gaiam has quietly posted on its retail website data from independent lab test results that show BPA leaching levels at 23.8 parts per billion.

These findings are more than 10 times the detection limit that SIGG provided in its own water bottle testing, and over 18 times more than the leaching levels found in independent studies of SIGG water bottles.

Sources:

Mother Nature Network October 7, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about Bisphenol-A, or BPA, if you’ve paid attention during the past year. It’s been getting a lot of press for good reason.
BPA is an estrogen-mimicking chemical, invented nearly 120 years ago, that is used to make hard plastics and epoxy resins. It can be found in numerous products that most people use on a daily basis, including baby bottles, canned foods, water bottles, and microwaveable plastic dishes and containers.
The Environmental Working Group has published an interesting review of BPA, showing the timeline of BPA’s use over the years. It offers a glimpse of the reality behind nearly all chemical dangers, showing just how long it can take to get something dangerous off the market, despite the evidence of harm.
Industry uses more than 6 billion pounds of BPA a year. As a result, scientists have found that 95 percent of people tested have dangerous levels of BPA in their bodies.
This is one valid reason why you should not tolerate the suggestion that “trace amounts” of toxins are okay.
The cumulative effect of being exposed to minuscule amounts of BPA from cans, bottles, plates and all other sources over the years can eventually spell serious trouble for your health.

The biggest victims are likely to be children, who may be exposed to the chemical from the time they’re in utero, and onward, throughout their entire lives.

Why You Need to Pay Attention to BPA

In the last ten years, some 700 studies have been published about BPA -- most of them indicating serious health hazards, at least in animals. The most troubling problem with BPA is that it mimics the female hormone estrogen.
Your body is extremely sensitive to sex hormones, and miniscule amounts can induce profound changes. Therefore, scientists are afraid even low levels of BPA could have a negative impact on human health.
In animals, BPA increases aneuploidy, a defect consisting of abnormal loss or gain of chromosomes, which in humans could possibly lead to miscarriages or disorders such as Down Syndrome.
Moreover, there is evidence (among mice and rats) that even low doses of BPA can cause:
Hyperactivity
Early puberty
Increased fat formation
Abnormal sexual behavior
Disrupted reproductive cycles
Structural damage to your brain
In September 2008 the National Toxicology Program of NIH determined that BPA may pose risks to human development, raising concerns for early puberty, prostate effects, breast cancer, and behavioral impacts from early-life exposures, all of which you can read about in the NIH publication No. 08-5994.
It also shows that nearly all of the exposure is through the food supply, which emphasizes the importance of avoiding BPA-laced food and beverage containers of all kinds as this is how your food becomes contaminated.
It’s difficult to understand why U.S. health and environmental regulators keep insisting there is “no evidence of harm to human health after 50 years of use,” when this list contains some of the most wide spread health issues that have dramatically increased in that same time frame.

Lawmakers are Slow to Protect the Public

There has been some success in limiting the use of BPA. In May of this year, Minnesota legislature passed a statewide ban on the sale of baby bottles, sippy cups, and other children’s food containers made with BPA. Other states, including California, Connecticut, Michigan and New York, are considering similar legislation.
Some retailers have also made the wise decision to respond to consumer demand and have voluntarily eliminated some of their BPA products for sale.
It’s a good start, but clearly not enough. Hopefully, Congress will come through with their proposed legislation intended to establish a federal ban on BPA in all food and beverage containers.
Until then, it may be prudent to remain wary of companies who claim to be completely safe, while hiding the fact that their metal water bottles still contain trace elements of BPA in the lining.
Better yet, quit trying to figure out who’s honest and who’s not, and go for food and beverage containers you KNOW does not contain BPA -- namely GLASS.

That way you can circumvent the entire problem with BPA, which is that it doesn’t remain stable or inert in the plastic.
BPA leeches into whatever food or beverage you put in a plastic container, canned good, or plastic baby bottle. And if you microwave the containers or bottles, or place hot liquids or food into them, BPA is released 55 times more rapidly!
With glass you simply will not have this problem and can finally put your mind at rest.
Also keep in mind that your body IS capable of detoxing and cleaning out at least some of the toxins you’re exposed to on a daily basis as long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle and take measures to limit your exposure to toxins.

Do You Know What the Recycling Symbols Mean?

If you absolutely can’t do away with your plastic containers, at least check the recycling label on the bottom of the container and opt for “the lesser evil.”
Avoid containers with recycling label No. 7, as these varieties usually contain BPA.
No. 3 (DEHA) and No. 6 (Styrene) are also considered unsuitable for use with food due to their toxic ingredients.
Containers marked with the recycling labels No. 1, No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5 do not contain BPA, but they do contain other unsavory chemicals that are best avoided. Still, if you’re determined to stick with plastic, these four are considered to be better than the others.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Smart Plastics Guide offers more detailed descriptions of the most commonly occurring chemicals in plastic products.
The website Mother Jones also offers a handy chart that you can cut out and stick on your refrigerator.

10 Tips to Reduce Your Exposure to BPA

Only use glass baby bottles and dishes for your baby
Give your baby natural fabric toys instead of plastic ones
Store your food and beverages in glass -- NOT plastic -- containers
IF you choose to use a microwave, don’t microwave food in a plastic container
Stop buying and consuming canned foods and drinks
Avoid using plastic wrap (and never microwave anything covered in it)
Get rid of your plastic dishes and cups, and replace them with glass varieties
If you opt to use plastic kitchenware, at least get rid of the older, scratched-up varieties, avoid putting them in the dishwasher, and don’t wash them with harsh detergents, as these things can cause more chemicals to leach into your food
Avoid using bottled water; filter your own using a reverse osmosis filter instead
Before allowing a dental sealant to be applied to you, or your children’s, teeth, ask your dentist to verify that it does not contain BPA

Where to Find BPA-Free Products

Just like some retailers are ditching hazardous products, some are also increasingly marketing products that are BPA-free. Here’s an assortment of sources that carry BPA-free products:
SafeMama.com offers a quick reference list of BPA-free sippy cups and other food storage items
They also have a cheat sheet of BPA, PVC and phthalate-free pacifiers and teething rings
TheSoftLanding.com offers glass baby bottles wrapped in silicone to prevent breakage, as well as an assortment of other BPA-free children’s products
The Z Recommends blog also has a guide that lists children‘s feeding products that don‘t contain BPA
Amazon.com‘s BPA-free section lists water bottles, baby bottles, and sippy cups.
Rubbermaid has an assortment of containers that do not contain BPA.
Nalgene now offers BPA-free water bottles.
Brita, which makes water filtration products, says that its pitchers and filters don‘t contain BPA.
SC Johnson, which makes Saran brand wraps and Ziploc bags and containers, says that it doesn‘t use BPA in its products.

Cinnamon and Honey

2009-10-12T10:38:00.003-04:00

I received this in email. I've not done much research on either honey or cinnamon, so can't speak to the validity. I have heard that honey and cinnamon have good properties, but as to the following, well, do your research if you care to.

Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing".

When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was.

Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.

Cinnamon and Honey

~ Bet the drug companies won't like this one getting around.~

Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:

It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases.

Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases.

Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients.

Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada, in its issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon as researched by western scientists:

HEART DISEASES:

Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack.

Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat.

In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.

ARTHRITIS:
Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon honey and half teaspoon cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

BLADDER INFECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of cin namon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

CHOLESTEROL:
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours.

- Hide quoted text -

As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS:
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.

UPSET STOMACH:
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.

GAS:
According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that if honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

IMMUNE SYSTEM:
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

INDIGESTION:
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.

INFLUENZA:
A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural 'Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

LONGEVITY:
Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase, and even a 100 year old starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old.

PIMPLES:
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.

SKIN INFECTIONS:
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.

WEIGHT LOSS:
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

CANCER:
Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month three times a day.

FATIGUE:
Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful, rather than being detrimental, to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey, taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.

BAD BREATH:
People of South America, first thing in the morning, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water, so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.

HEARING LOSS:
Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!

Still Tasty

2009-10-04T11:53:00.004-04:00

Want to know if you should keep that bottle of ketchup that's been sitting on your shelf for who knows how long?

Visit this site, Still Tasty, and find out!

Good to know information!

When Good Bananas Go Bad!

2009-09-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

I've found that Laughter is indeed the best medicine. Enjoy!

God's Pharmacy

2009-09-24T14:50:00.004-04:00

Even if you don't accept the religious aspect, the descriptions are very interesting. So, read and enjoy!

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... All before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born.

These are best & more powerful when eaten raw.

We're such slow learners.....

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red... The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb, and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

The Metabolically Challenged

2009-09-23T15:56:00.005-04:00

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning, you know I’ve had my difficulties losing weight (like most other Americans!)

About eighteen months ago, I started a program through my insurance company and had good success to begin with. The first five months showed successful weight loss, but then in October of last year, I hit a wall.

It began when I got tired of being on a diet. It didn’t matter that I kept telling myself it wasn’t a diet, but a new way of eating. I was bored and tired of watching and recording everything I put in my mouth and having to exercise. I am apparently somewhat lazy by nature, but there were other problems too. I had little motivation to do anything I didn’t “have” to do. And if motivated to exercise, I soon lost interest.

All this was reflected in my weekly weigh-ins. I’d lose a couple of pounds then gain them back. I knew that I wasn’t working the plan as I had been, so I accepted that the fault was mine. But, even though I wanted to lose the weight, it was getting harder and harder to motivate myself to work the plan as I needed to work it to achieve the weight loss I really wanted.

In January I started a walking program and got back into “working the program”. I was lucky that I was in an office that had a microwave, so I took my breakfast and lunch to work, microwaved as necessary, ate at my desk and then walked during my break times. My supervisors knew I was on this program (in fact, one was on the same program) and didn’t say anything thing about eating at my desk. I began to see some changes in my body, and some in my weight. My weight didn’t really change much because I was building (and rebuilding) muscle. So, while I may have lost actual weight, I also gained because I was gaining muscle weight. My counselor was aware and wasn’t too concerned because she realized why the weight loss wasn’t showing much success.

The doctor decided that I might be diabetic or insulin resistant, and if not diabetic, then pre-diabetic and sent me for an A1C blood test. I wasn’t sure about being insulin resistant, but I knew I wasn’t diabetic and I was proved right on that score. I also wasn’t insulin resistant. No one could explain why I wasn’t showing more weight loss.

In March, I was still walking and my body was showing results. My legs were looking good, starting to show a nice shape and toned muscle. Then disaster struck.

I have had plantar's fasciitis for several years, but no problems for about three years. Well, all the walking I was doing caused the plantar's fascii to revolt. My heel began to hurt while walking. I was coming up on some vacation time, so I decided to stop my daily walking and during my vacation I would rest the foot as much as possible.

While the pain lessened somewhat, I still had trouble walking. I could do the “normal” walking, but trying to maintain any walking for exercise was out of the question. There were times when my heel hurt so bad, especially on standing, that I had to just stop whatever I was doing until the pain lessened. That’s not really feasible in my work. Without saying much about what I do (my company has put out an order stating that we not say where we work or what we do. It’s not so much that what I do is classified – it’s not, although we do have to maintain certain security levels- but more about company image), I have to be able to move about freely and quickly – lives could possibly be endangered if I can’t move fast.

Anyway. In April, I finally went to the podiatrist and had my foot strapped. I knew that would do the trick. Except this time it didn’t work as well as it had in the past. After being re-strapped a couple more times, the doctor decided to put me in orthodics to give my foot the support it needed. That’s helped, but even today, I still have some daily pain. Aleeve helps. I usually take one in the morning and another in the afternoon if I need it.

Now, from March on, I haven’t been able to do my walking program. My weight fluctuated, on average, three or four pounds, gain or loss, from one week to the next. The doctor in charge of the weight program understood that my lack of walking (my chosen form of exercise) wasn’t my fault, it was due to a physical condition. Apparently, because of my foot problem, and the fact that I was following all the requirements, and went for the blood tests when they wanted, I was allowed to continue the program.

I completed the program in April, the only one in my work group who did so, by the way, but didn’t achieve the weight loss expected. So, there was joy and sadness in my “graduation”. I learned the lessons, lost nearly 50 pounds, and learned that I could do it. I was sad because I hadn't reached the goal set by the program or my personal goals.

Since I’ve been off the program, and unable to walk I’ve regained some of the weight. I knew it would happen, so it wasn’t unexpected. I knew in my heart that there was something else going on. I know as you age, losing weight is harder. I also know that my lack of motivation was a part of the problem. I stayed on the program very well for about five months. I didn’t deprive myself of anything. I learned early on that I could eat whatever I wanted; I just had to learn moderation and portion control. I knew that exercise had to be part of any weight loss program; diet alone doesn’t do it any more than exercise alone. And especially at my age and my weight.

I saw something the other day that got me wondering. Now, I know, everyone who wants to lose weight wants either an excuse why they can’t lose weight, or a magic bullet that will allow them to continue to eat and exercise (or not) as they want and still lose weight. If we’re all honest, we know that you can’t eat in excess, not exercise, and still lose weight, and that the excuses are just that: excuses to not even try.

What I saw was something called Metabolism B. This is apparently a metabolic disorder I had never heard of. I mentioned it to a friend who is also “weight challenged” and she told me it was all over the Internet. Well, that might be true, but it wasn’t where I had seen it, so I decided to do some looking around. I still haven’t done enough reading, but I seem to fit the pattern for this particular disorder.

Now, I’m not saying this is an excuse or a magic bullet, but from what I’ve seen so far, it might be something worth looking into if you have difficulty (and you’ve honestly worked “diet” and exercise programs) and struggling to lose that fat you’ve been carrying around for years.

Diane Kress, RD, CDE is the author of the best-selling book on this subject, The Metabolism Miracle. The blurb below is from the webpage for the book.

Do you keep gaining weight, despite your efforts to diet?

Do the pounds accumulate around your tummy?

Do you feel tired, irritable, and unable to focus?

Unlock the Secret of Metabolism B:

The Key to a Leaner and Healthier You

For over twenty years, weight loss and diabetes specialist Diane Kress, RD CDE, has worked with thousands of people in their quest to lose weight, get healthy, and feel their best. Over the years she became aware that a group of people (what turned out to be over 45% of people who struggled to lose weight and keep it off!) had a very similar story to tell. They dieted like anyone else, but didn’t get the results they deserved for their efforts. Even increases in exercise didn’t make a real difference in their weight loss efforts and a stubborn roll of fat around the middle became source of frustration. Not only did their weight yo yo, they began to feel less energetic, less healthy, and felt a lesser quality of life.

I read those three questions and said:

1. I lose weight, but after a while, it gets harder to lose. I get bored and lose motivation, true, but even when I’m really working a diet, it gets harder.

2. Not just yes, but HELL yes! I lost 50 pounds, but lost only two sizes and most of the weight is in my torso – including the belly.

3. I am tired all the time, no matter how sleep I get (or don’t get). I can sleep four hours or ten (or more) and I don’t feel much different. I’m generally upbeat, but little things can certainly irritate me that really shouldn’t. Unable to focus? Well, maybe, but not nearly so much a problem as the tiredness and irritability.

I found another page on the site that had more questions, and while some of them weren’t true of me, others were, and some in spades! About 45% of people who struggle to take off weight fall into this group of the metabolically challenged.

Now, I’m not saying this is the answer to my weight problems. I don’t know, I haven’t tried the program yet, but I think I will. I’m going to do more research, get the book and see what this is all about. If it works for me, I’ll let you know. I’ll also let you know if it doesn’t.

You have to be honest with yourself when on a diet/exercise plan. Are you really working the program or goofing off? If you’re really working it and not losing, there might be a reason why it’s not working for you. It could be the program isn’t right for you. Try something else. Maybe you need to mix up your exercise. If you really think about it, you’ll know the truth: you’re not working the program, or that there might be another reason for your lack of success.

New blood pressure findings from University of Cambridge published

2009-09-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

NewsRx.com

7/23/2009

Researchers detail in 'Antihypertensive drugs and central blood pressure,' new data in blood pressure. "Recent evidence suggests that central blood pressure is a more important determinant of cardiovascular risk than brachial pressure. Interestingly, antihypertensive drugs exert different effects on brachial and central pressure," scientists writing in the journal Current Hypertension Reports report (see also Blood Pressure).

"Traditional beta-blockers, such as atenolol, appear to have an adverse impact on central pressure, despite lowering brachial pressure. This may help to explain the results of recent large outcome studies using atenolol," wrote C.M McEniery and colleagues, University of Cambridge.

The researchers concluded: "Further research is required to clarify whether other antihypertensive agents lower central pressure beyond the effects observed on brachial pressure."

McEniery and colleagues published their study in Current Hypertension Reports (Antihypertensive drugs and central blood pressure. Current Hypertension Reports, 2009;11(4):253-9).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting C.M. McEniery, Addenbrooke's Hospital Box 110, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB20QQ, UK.

The publisher of the journal Current Hypertension Reports can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA.

Keywords: United Kingdom, Cambridge, Atenolol, Blood Pressure, Cardiology, Cardiovascular, Cardiovascular Risk, Drugs, Hypertension, Pharmaceuticals, Therapy, Treatment.

To see more of the NewsRx.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.newsrx.com .

Pregnant women front of line for swine flu vaccine

2009-09-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Associated Press

7/29/2009

ATLANTA - Pregnant women, health care workers and children six months and older should be placed at the front of the line for swine flu vaccinations this fall, a government panel recommended Wednesday.

The panel also said those first vaccinated should include parents and other caregivers of infants; non-elderly adults who have high-risk medical conditions; and young adults ages 19 to 24.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to set vaccination priorities for those groups Wednesday during a meeting in Atlanta. The panel's recommendations are usually adopted by federal health officials.

The recommendations are designed to address potential limits in vaccine availability this fall if there is heavy demand and limited supplies.

The government estimates that about 120 million swine flu vaccine doses will be available to the public by late October. Roughly 160 million people are in the priority groups considered most vulnerable to infection or most at risk for severe disease.

Although the number recommended to get doses exceeds the projected supply, health officials don't think everyone will run out and get vaccinated. Traditionally, less than half of the people recommended to get seasonal flu shots get them. Only about 15 percent of pregnant women get seasonal flu vaccinations.

If there is ample vaccine, vaccinations also would be recommended for all non-elderly adults, the panel also voted. And if there's still plenty of vaccine, the swine flu shots and spray doses should be offered to people 65 and older. Fewer illnesses have been reported in the elderly, who appear to have higher levels of immunity to the virus, health experts say.

However, the elderly should be pushed to get shots against seasonal flu, which is a significant health risk to older adults.

Panel members say they hope swine flu vaccinations will be opened up quickly. "The only sin is vaccine left in the refrigerator," said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University flu expert, in a comment to the panel.

The panel also said if vaccine is scarce, the government could require that a much tighter group be at the front of the vaccination line, numbering about 40 million. That would include pregnant women and household contacts of small children, just like in the general priority recommendation. But the others would be children ages 6 months through 4 years, children with chronic medical conditions and only health care and emergency services workers who have direct contact with patients.

It's a worst-case scenario that officials aren't expecting, but they wanted to have a plan for it just in case, said officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that reviews the panel's recommendations.

The range of recommendations reflects how hard it is to plan for swine flu, officials said. Some health officials have compared the exercise to predicting a hurricane. The storm - or virus - is itself unpredictable; it could grow more dangerous or suddenly weaken. The availability of lifesaving supplies or vaccine can also affect survival.

"It's better to prepare and have the storm fizzle than to be sitting there with no way off the island when the tsunami rolls in," said Kristine Sheedy, a CDC communications specialist.

Variables with the swine flu virus can range from whether it mutates into a form that is more deadly, spreads more efficiently, or is better at fighting off current antiviral medications.

Variables with the vaccine include potential production problems. Production of the vaccine will be a prodigious feat: The government has already purchased 195 million doses for the coming fall and winter, which far eclipses the 125 million or so doses generally produced for seasonal flu vaccine.

Four vaccine manufacturers are wrapping up seasonal flu vaccine production and have begun production of swine flu vaccine. But another company, Sanofi Pasteur, has been more delayed and may not finish seasonal vaccine production until September, a company spokeswoman said. Sanofi is among the largest producers of flu vaccine, so those delays could have a significant ripple effect.

Packaging, distribution and other steps can take a month or more. For those reasons, the government's best guess at the moment is 40 million doses will be available in September and 120 million by around mid-October.

Health officials are pushing for the work to done quickly. There are also clinical trials taking place over the next few months to check the vaccine's safety and effectiveness, but it's possible the government will begin a public vaccination campaign before that work is complete, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's flu vaccination programs.

Why the rush? Vaccines work when given to a patient before they're exposed to the vaccine-targeting virus, and cases may explode not long after kids get back in school, CDC officials said.

Another reason for not waiting for testing data: Health officials are thinking of the swine flu vaccine as a variation of seasonal flu vaccine, which comes out annually and does not undergo the kind of safety and effectiveness testing that new drugs and other new vaccines do.

First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDC believes, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 laboratory-identified cases, according to CDC numbers released last week.

It's not clear whether the virus in its current form is much worse than seasonal flu in terms of overall threat to the U.S. population, but it is causing more severe illness in some younger adults and children. It has a dangerous genetic characteristic that allows it to infect the lower lungs, whereas seasonal flu tends to infect the upper respiratory tract, CDC officials said.

Stop For A Heart Attack-Before it Gets Started

2009-09-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

7/26/2009

Sunday, July 26 (Benjamin Rose Institute ) -- Cleveland, OH

Your heart is an amazing organ. It’s about the size of your fist and sits in the middle of your chest. Three times every minute the hard working heart pumps 6 quarts of blood throughout your body. Over a lifetime that’s about 1 million barrels of blood.

Most people don’t pay much attention to their heart until something goes wrong with it -- like a heart attack.

HEART DISEASE FACTS

Heart disease is a major cause of death in the United States. More than 80 percent of people who die of a heart attack are 65 or older. Older men are more likely to suffer a heart attack than older women although older women are more likely to die from it sooner than men. If you have a parent with heart disease you are at greater risk of developing heart-related illnesses yourself.

WARNING SIGNS OF A HEART ATTACK

Common signs of heart attacks in men and women include:
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Pressure, fullness, discomfort in the center of the chest
Pain radiating to the shoulders, back, neck, arms or jaw
Pounding heartbeats or extra heartbeats
Sweating, nausea, vomiting, indigestion
Dizziness, weakness, lightheadedness
Sudden extreme fatigue or panic
Abdominal pain.

However women may have only a few of these symptoms and may not experience chest pain at all.

WHAT CAUSES HEART ATTACKS?

Heart attacks happen when the arteries that supply the heart with blood become blocked with fatty deposits called plaque. Over time these plaques rupture and cause blood clots to form. The clots block the artery and prevent it from supplying the heart muscle with oxygen. Without prompt treatment to remove or dissolve the clots, parts of the heart muscle begin die and are replaced by scar tissue. When a damaged heart can no longer pump blood effectively, irregular heartbeats develop that can lead to heart failure and death.

HEART DISEASE RISK FACTORS

Some heart attack risks can’t be changed although they can be reduced. At greater risk are people with a family history of heart disease, African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians, and some Asian Americans.

STOP A HEART ATTACK IN ITS TRACKS!

The good news is that the risk of having a heart attack can be reduced. If you older parent has a family history of heart disease both of you should have regular medical checkups to detect and treat the disease in its early stages.

Changing lifestyles and habits can significantly reduce the chances of having a heart attack for your family member – and for you. Join your older parent to:

Stop smoking. Smokers’ risk of heart disease is 2 to 4 times greater than nonsmokers. Exposure to “second hand smoke” also increases heart attack risk.
Lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure.
Control diabetes by keeping blood sugar levels as normal as possible
Get some exercise – every day. Even moderate walking can help control blood sugar and cholesterol levels, blood pressure and weight.
Manage stress
Reduce alcohol drinking
Lose weight if your relative is overweight

Schedule regular appointments with your parent’s doctor to monitor your parent’s heart health, check weight and blood pressure and determine if any additional medical or lifestyle changes should be made. A variety of medications are available to reduce the risk of future heart attacks.

HEART ATTACK – IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

Caregivers are important helping an older relative prevent heart attack and recognizing heart attack signs and symptoms so he or she receives prompt medical attention. Families can also encourage him or her make important lifestyle changes to help prevent future heart attacks. You’ll also find that many of these prevention strategies can also benefit your own health!

What to do when out-of-line legs worsen achy knees

2009-09-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

Associated Press

8/17/2009

WASHINGTON - Exercise your hips to help achy knees? If you've got knee arthritis, your whole leg starts subtly shifting out of alignment as you favor the sore spot.

Now scientists are testing ways to strengthen the entire leg so it stays straighter, in hopes of slowing the knee's deterioration.

"People with knee arthritis have kind of a bow-legged appearance," notes Laura Thorp of Rush University Medical Center.

An assistant anatomy professor, Thorp thinks that misalignment is a big key to the painful condition. She's not alone. Specialists now agree the more out of alignment a leg is, the faster arthritis in the knee worsens.

"You start with a little pain, then everything north and south of it has to compensate," explains Dr. John J. Callaghan of the University of Iowa, a knee and hip specialist with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. "It's not enough to concentrate on the knee."

The question is what to do about it. At issue is how your knee handles its load. Being even a little bow-legged puts extra pressure on the knee, especially the inner side. It has to carry a higher-than-normal load each time your foot strikes the ground.

Weight adds to the knee's load, too. Being 15 pounds or more overweight is a key risk factor for developing knee arthritis. So is having had a knee injury earlier in life, and the one unavoidable risk factor - getting older. About 27 million Americans have osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear that breaks down the cartilage that cushions joints, causing pain and stiffness as the ends of bones rub on each other. Hundreds of thousands eventually turn to knee replacement for relief.

Even when researchers account for weight, Thorp says a misaligned leg compounds the extra load.

Exercise has long been prescribed for knee arthritis, mostly exercises that strengthen the hamstring and quadriceps - muscles that support the knee. Stronger muscles do in fact alleviate some knee pain, but they don't slow the inevitable worsening of arthritis. An Australian study last year showed quad strengthening had no effect on knee load. Interestingly, people with more misaligned legs also got less pain benefit from those exercises.

Rush's Thorp is trying a different, top-down approach - exercising not muscles that support the knee but those that support the hip.

Knee arthritis sufferers tend to have weak muscles on the outside of the hip, muscles that are key for gait, she found. Every time you take a step, the hip muscle on the standing side has to keep your pelvis level. If it's weak, it changes your pelvis alignment in a way that magnifies the already misaligned leg and adds even more twisting pressure to the knee.

The exercises themselves are similar to what patients are prescribed after a hip replacement. In a handful of knee patients who underwent a month of physical therapy to learn those exercises, Thorp measured a drop in knee load. Now she's enrolling 30 people with mild to moderate arthritis in a more formal study. They get not only the physical therapy, but are told to do the exercises at home six days a week for a second month, too.

If the exercises do reduce knee load, it would take far larger - and years longer - studies to see if that in turn slowed the arthritis, both Thorp and Callaghan caution.

Thorp's is among a handful of studies getting under way to look at hip exercises. Swedish researchers saw some drops in knee pressure when people who did exercises affecting both the knee and hip climbed stairs.

Other doctors are focusing on the south end, the foot and ankle. Repositioning the leg's alignment with custom-measured shoe inserts, called orthotics, sometimes helps.

The challenge: Finding people who agree to stick with exercise. People with painful joints tend to become sedentary if they weren't already.

Iowa's Callaghan already prescribes whole-leg exercises, including the hip, for knee patients - but he praises the Rush study for hunting proof of which specific activities truly help, information long missing when doctors give the exercise pep talk. He advises the newly diagnosed to try to keep in shape and suggests consulting a good physical therapist about how to work the whole leg, saying it can't hurt.

"It's hard for people to buy off on that, especially people who are out of shape," Callaghan says. "There's just not that much data out there."

---

EDITOR's NOTE - Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

Study Finds Weight-Loss Surgery Safer Than Thought

2009-09-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

SOURCES: Bruce Wolfe, M.D., professor, surgery, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Ore.; Malcolm K. Robinson, M.D., assistant professor, surgery, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; July 30, 2009, New England Journal of Medicine

7/29/2009

WEDNESDAY, July 29 (HealthDay News) -- For those considering bariatric surgery to combat significant obesity, a new study suggests the risk of complications may be much lower than what has previously been reported.

The study, which looked at both gastric bypass surgery and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (lap-band surgery), found that the risk of death for these surgeries was 0.3 percent and the risk of a major adverse outcome was 4.3 percent.

"Bariatric surgery is safe," said study co-author Dr. Bruce Wolfe, a professor of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. "Certain factors [such as a history of blood clots, obstructive sleep apnea or impaired functional status] increase the risk of complications, but you can discuss these risks as well as the potential benefits with your surgeon."

Results of the study appear in the July 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

As obesity rates have risen, so, too, has the popularity of bariatric surgery. Although it is a major surgical procedure, the benefits to the severely obese generally far outweigh the risks. In fact, the risk of death over time is about 35 percent lower for someone who's had the surgery compared to someone who remains extremely obese, according to background information in the study.

However, the surgery isn't for everyone. "If you're five or 10 pounds overweight, bariatric surgery isn't for you," said Dr. Malcolm K. Robinson, an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and the author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal.

"Basically, when I or my colleagues advise surgery, it's because the benefits of surgery outweigh the risks. In general, that's the case for someone with a BMI [body-mass index] of 35 and weight-related health problems like diabetes or high blood pressure, or someone with a BMI of 40 or more," said Robinson, who added that as the risks of the surgery keep dropping, those BMI numbers may get even lower in the future.

The current study included 4,776 people who underwent one of the following types of bariatric surgery: lap-band surgery (1,198 patients), laparoscopic gastric bypass (2,975 patients), open gastric bypass (437 patients) or another procedure (166 patients). All of the surgeries were done by surgeons specifically qualified for this study. All of the surgeries took place between March 2005 and December 2007.

The average age of the study participant was 44.5 years old, 22 percent of the study volunteers were male and 11 percent were nonwhite. The average BMI in the study was 46.5. More than half of the study group had at least two coexisting medical conditions, the study authors noted.

In his editorial, Robinson points out that these procedures may represent "best-case scenarios" because they were done by experienced surgeons in high-volume bariatric centers. However, he said that because the field of bariatric surgery has advanced so much in the past few years, he believes these results are a "generally achievable phenomenon."

Both Robinson and Wolfe recommend that any person considering bariatric surgery should choose a facility that's been designated as a "Center of Excellence" because that means that the surgeon and the whole health-care team are qualified and experienced.

More information

Learn more about bariatric surgery from the U.S. government's Weight-control Information Network.

Midlife Heart Risk Factors Linked to Later Dementia

2009-09-14T00:01:00.001-04:00

SOURCES: Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D, research scientist, epidemiologist, Kaiser Permanente division of research, Oakland, Calif.; Alvaro Alonso, M.D., assistant professor, epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis; Michelle Mielke, Ph.D, assistant professor, psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; August 2009 Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry; Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, online

8/4/2009

TUESDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthDay News) -- The things that are bad for your heart in the middle years of life -- high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes -- are bad for your brain in later years, new research indicates.

High cholesterol levels in midlife were associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia many years later, according to scientists in California and Finland, who tracked almost 10,000 men and women for four decades.

"We found an association not only with high blood cholesterol, but also borderline high levels," said study senior author Rachel Whitmer, who is a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente division of research in Oakland. Researchers at the University of Kuopio in Finland also participated in the study.

Total cholesterol levels of 240 milligrams per deciliter or higher in middle age were associated with a 66 percent higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease decades later, the researchers found.

"But that wasn't a cutoff point," Whitmer said. "Around a level of 200, the risk of Alzheimer's disease started to go up."

For those in midlife with borderline-high readings between 200 mg/dl and 239 mg/dl, the increased incidence was 52 percent, according to the study, which was published online in the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The Californians in the study were more ethnically diverse than the Finnish participants, and included blacks, Latinos and Asians, but "the association between high cholesterol and dementia was the same across all ethnic groups," Whitmer noted.

The other research, reported in the August issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, followed more than 11,000 American participants in a study of atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries that can lead to heart attack, stroke and other major cardiovascular problems.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina, John Hopkins and the University of Mississippi Medical Center measured smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes among the participants from 1990-1992. They then tracked them until 2004 to see how many were hospitalized for dementia.

Smokers were 70 percent more likely to develop dementia than nonsmokers; those with high blood pressure were 60 percent more likely, and those with diabetes were twice as likely as those without diabetes to develop dementia. However, there was no link between midlife obesity and later dementia.

The idea behind the study was that "if we find risk factors for dementia, maybe we can develop new treatments, preventive programs to reduce the risk of dementia later in life," said study author Dr. Alvaro Alonso, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.

Post-mortem studies of brains of people who had dementia often show damage to small arteries, he said. "Maybe there have been small strokes, which are not great enough to cause clinical symptoms, but in time can lead to dementia," Alonso said.

Measures against dementia now usually start when its first signs are detected, Alonso said. "Showing that cardiovascular risk factors earlier in life have an impact on dementia later in life gives another reason why we need to intervene with those cardiovascular risk factors," he said.

The findings of both studies "are an extension of what already has been found," said Michelle Mielke, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, who has done research on the causes of dementia.

"Both papers really point out the need to intervene in vascular factors in midlife," Mielke said. "They are as important in the risk of dementia as they are in the risk of heart disease and stroke."

No new approach is needed, she said, just a renewed emphasis on "exercise, diet, that kind of stuff."

More information

Risk factors for dementia are described by the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Ovarian Cancer Tests Flawed, in Need of New Design, Says Stanford Study

2009-09-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

NewsRx.com

8/6/2009

Current diagnostic tests for ovarian cancer are woefully ineffective for early detection of the disease, say researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. A new study finds that in order to make a significant dent in the mortality rate for the deadly cancer, the tests would have to be able to detect tumors of less than 1 cm in diameter, or about 200-times smaller in mass than those currently used to assess potential new tests. Still, if that hurdle can be overcome, there is good reason to believe that testing could make a big difference: The window of opportunity for treating these clinically undetectable cancers before they become life threatening is surprisingly long: about four years (see also Stanford Medicine).

"We are miles away from detecting the most deadly ovarian tumors at this early stage," said Stanford biochemistry professor Patrick Brown, MD, PhD, "but now we have a chance of actually designing an effective test that will allow us to treat them before they become deadly." If a blood test is to be effective, said Brown, it will likely require identifying new markers that are never produced by normal cells-rather than testing for abnormally high levels of proteins detectable in normal blood, as current tests do. Other possible strategies might rely on new molecular imaging methods or fluid samples from the uterus or vagina-in which tumor markers are likely to be more concentrated.

The research will be published in the July 28 issue of the open-access journal PLoS Medicine. The article will be freely available to anyone after publication.

Ovarian cancer is particularly feared by women and their physicians because the disease is so difficult to detect in its early stages. Symptoms are vague, and often don't occur until the tumor is already several centimeters in diameter. At this point it may have already spread to surrounding organs and tissues. What's more, several published studies have indicated that the current screening tests deliver many false positive results and don't reduce mortality from the disease.

"Reliable early detection would save so many more lives than many new blockbuster anticancer drugs," said Brown, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a member of the Stanford Cancer Center, who collaborated with the non-profit Canary Foundation to conduct the research. The foundation is dedicated to the early detection of many types of cancer. "If we can do this, which is no small challenge, the potential to go from a less than 20 percent chance of surviving five years to a relatively minor surgery that would have a very high cure rate is huge," he said.

Part of the difficulty in designing an effective test lies in the fact that there is more than one type of ovarian cancer. The most deadly, known as serous ovarian cancer, accounts for about 50 percent of all cases of ovarian cancer, but it is responsible for at least 80 percent of deaths from the disease. In contrast to other types of ovarian tumors, which can grow to be quite large before spreading to other locations, serous ovarian tumors usually metastasize before they are diagnosed.

Cancers are classified, or staged, in part according to the degree of involvement of other organs; the less-deadly forms of ovarian cancer are usually diagnosed at an earlier stage of progression. Because researchers designing the diagnostic tests have assumed that these seemingly early cancers would eventually go on to become more invasive, they considered them to be good models for designing diagnostic tests aimed at detecting ovarian tumors in their infancy. However, these tumors are actually intrinsically different from the tumors that are diagnosed at a lethally advanced stage.

"It dawned on me at some point that we were being somewhat glib about what it was we were trying to detect," said Brown. "What we really needed to know is what the more-dangerous tumors looked like before we knew they were there."

Brown and his co-author, Chana Palmer, PhD, of the Canary Foundation, realized that it was possible to get just such a sneak peak at these tumors by looking at tissue from women carrying a genetic misstep called the BRCA-1 mutation. Because women with the mutation are very likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer, many elect to have their ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed as a preventive measure. Although these women appeared healthy at the time of their surgeries, close examination of the removed tissue indicated that some-about 8 percent, according to Brown and Palmer's analysis of previously published studies-had early, undiagnosed serous ovarian tumors.

The researchers combined the results of several previously published studies to estimate the prevalence, location, size and stage of the tumors. By comparing this information with the incidence of diagnosed serous ovarian tumors in a similar group of women, they calculated that the window of opportunity for early detection and possible successful treatment is about 4.3 years. During most of this time, the tumors were less than 1 cm in diameter; by the time the tumors reached 3 cm in diameter, more than half had advanced to stages III or IV (spread beyond the pelvis). As a comparison, the average diameter of an ovarian cancer tumor at the time of diagnosis is about 10 cm.

Brown estimated that most serous ovarian tumors in the study had progressed to an advanced stage almost a year before diagnosis. In order to halve the number of deaths from serous ovarian cancer, it will be necessary to have an annual screening test capable of detecting tumors about 0.5 cm in diameter-far beyond the capability of any currently available tests.

"This doesn't make me feel gloomy at all," said Brown, who is now studying whether it might be possible to detect ovarian cancer-specific markers in fluids sampled from the vagina or cervix. Such an approach may avoid the extreme dilution that interferes with detection of such a marker in blood samples. Based on the current research, Brown is also pursuing the Holy Grail of a truly cancer-specific molecular marker-a novel protein or DNA sequence that occurs only in cancer cells. Many current cancer-screening tests rely on changes in levels of particular markers that also occur, albeit at lower levels, on non-cancerous cells. It may also be possible to devise imaging techniques that could be useful screening tools, somewhat like mammograms for breast cancer.

Said Brown, "I was much more disheartened before we did this study, when we had no idea what we were looking for."

The Canary Foundation and Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded this study, which will be available after the embargo lifts at:

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000114 The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.

Keywords: , Women, Education, University, Health, Hospitals, Oncology, Research, Consumer, Science, Nanotechnology, Biochemistry, Chemicals, Chemistry, Emerging Technologies, Molecular Imaging, Nanotech, Anticancer Therapy, Biochemistry, Diagnostics, Gynecology, Oncology, Ovarian Cancer, Ovarian Carcinoma, Surgery, Therapy, Treatment, Women's Health, Stanford Medicine.

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Good News for Elderly: Happiness Keeps Growing

2009-09-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, Aug. 7, 2009

8/13/2009

THURSDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- The longer you live, the happier you're likely to be, a growing body of research shows.

Researchers who spoke at the recently concluded annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto said that mental health generally improves with age. Given that the world population of people over 65 is expected to nearly triple by 2050, according to U.S. officials, this should come as good news.

Reporting on several studies of aging and mental health, Susan Turk Charles, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, said the findings indicate that happiness and emotional well-being improve with time.

Older adults exert greater emotional control, said Charles. Studies show they learn to avoid or limit stressful situations and are less likely than younger adults to let negative comments or criticism bother them.

Charles added that "we know that older people are increasingly aware that the time they have left in life is growing shorter. They want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy. They have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others, which helps them to avoid these stressful situations."

Another study conducted over a 23-year period examined three groups of people at three different life stages and concluded that emotional happiness grew with age, she said.

These findings may not apply to older adults who feel trapped in distressing situations and those with forms of dementia, Charles said. "We know that older adults who are dealing with chronic stressors, such as caregiving, report high rates of physical symptoms and emotional distress," she added.

In separate reports, Charles and Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University, also noted that social relationships -- or lack of them -- influence how older people respond to stress. Carstensen cited a Swedish study that concluded that people with strong social connections were less likely to suffer cognitive impairment than others. It seems social relationships influence the way that the brain processes information, she said. "These changes have a profound impact on health outcomes," Carstensen said.

To make the most of the coming years, Carstensen offered these tips:

Think of ways to enjoy the time ahead and try to imagine living 100, healthy, happy years.
Provide daily routines that reinforce your goals, both in your home and in your social life.
Develop new activities and relationships, and don't invest all of your emotional energy in a job or a single relationship.

More information

For more about positive aging, visit the American Geriatrics Society.

Stem cells not the only way to fix a broken heart

2009-09-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

NewsRx.com

8/6/2009

Researchers appear to have a new way to fix a broken heart. They have devised a method to coax heart muscle cells into reentering the cell cycle, allowing the differentiated adult cells to divide and regenerate healthy heart tissue after a heart attack, according to studies in mice and rats reported in the July 24th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. The key ingredient is a growth factor known as neuregulin1 (NRG1 for short), and the researchers suggest that the factor might one day be used to treat failing human hearts (see also Research).

"To my knowledge, this is the first regenerative therapy that may be applicable in a systemic way," said Bernhard Kuhn of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School. For instance, he added, people might one day go to the clinic for daily infusions of NRG1 over a period of weeks. "In principle, there is nothing to preclude this going into the clinic. Based on the all the information we have, this is a promising candidate." He emphasized, however, that further studies would be required to demonstrate safety before such treatment could be tested in human patients.

The heart had long been considered an organ largely incapable of repairing itself. Heart muscle cells, also known as cardiomyocytes, do proliferate during prenatal development. Soon after birth, however, the cells become binucleated, meaning that they have two nuclei, and withdraw from the cell cycle, giving rise to the notion that adult cardiomyocytes are terminally differentiated and incapable of further proliferation.

However, recent evidence has shown that adult heart muscle cells can replace themselves at some low level, with perhaps half of the cells in the heart turning over in the course of a lifetime, Kuhn said. The new study provides multiple lines of evidence for this turnover ability - including video of the cells in action - and shows that neuregulin1 can ramp up the process.

In the current study, the researchers first tested the ability of various molecules to spur cell division in cultured cardiomyocytes. If cardiomyocytes are to reenter the cell cycle along the border zone of injury, the researchers surmised that there must be an extracellular signal that triggers the response, Kuhn explained.

They looked to several factors known to drive cardiomyocyte proliferation during prenatal development. Of those, NRG1 had the most significant effect, inducing the division of those cardiomyocytes with one nucleus instead of two.

By manipulating the NRG1 receptor up or down, the researchers showed they could increase or decrease cardiomyocyte proliferation in living animals. Moreover, injecting NRG1 in adult mice sparked cardiomyocyte cell-cycle activity and promoted the regeneration of heart muscle, leading to improved function after the animals suffered a heart attack. That regeneration could not be traced to undifferentiated progenitor cells, they report.

The researchers say they aren't sure whether NRG1 is responsible for the natural repair process, but their findings show that it clearly can enhance it. They also note that the NRG1 receptor and NRG1 itself are always present in the adult heart, though it is not clear if they are in the right place or in sufficient quantities.

"Collectively, we have identified the major elements of a new approach to promote myocardial regeneration," the researchers wrote." Many efforts and important advances have been made toward the goal of developing stem-cell based strategies to regenerate damaged tissues in the heart as well as in other organs. The work presented here suggests that stimulating differentiated cardiomyocytes to proliferate may be a viable alternative that could be developed into a simple strategy to promote myocardial regeneration in mammals."

Before making the leap to the clinic, Kuhn's group intends to further explore how the treatment works at the fundamental level. They will also characterize the regenerative response in pigs, which have more in common with humans than rodents do, before testing the approach in human patients. Ultimately, such a treatment might serve as a useful alternative or complement to treatments designed to seed damaged hearts with regenerative stem cells, Kuhn said.

Keywords: Cardiology, Cardiomyocyte, Heart Attack, Stem Cell Research, Therapy, Treatment.

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Sea food = 'see' food for elderly

2009-09-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

United Press International

7/24/2009

BETHESDA, Md., Jul 24, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers suggest diets high in omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent blindness linked to aging.

A report, published in the American Journal of Pathology, finds a high omega-3 fatty acid diet not only slows the progression of macular degeneration -- retinal damage that is a leading cause blindness among the elderly -- but may also contribute to protection against this disease.

Dr. Chi-Chao Chan of the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Md., examined the direct effect of omega-3 fatty acids on a mouse model of macular degeneration and found a diet with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids resulted in slower lesion progression -- with improvement in some lesions.

Chan says the mice with slower disease progression had lower levels of inflammatory molecules and higher levels of anti-inflammatory molecules, which may explain the protective effect of omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in high levels in cold water seafood -- especially oily fish such as herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines.

URL: www.upi.com

Health Tip: If You're Tired of Walking

2009-09-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

7/21/2009 (HealthDay News) -- Walking is a great form of exercise -- you can burn calories, yet it's fairly easy on your feet and joints.

But if you're bored with your walking routine, the American Podiatric Medical Association offers these low-impact alternatives:

Take a swim, or sign up for a water aerobics class.

Take a dance class.

Sign up for an aerobics, Pilates or yoga class.

Hop on a bike and start pedaling, whether it's outdoors or on a stationary bike.

Use an elliptical machine.

Work out with some light weight lifting.

Remember the fun of childhood; exercise with a hula-hoop or jump rope.

How Weight Loss Helps the Heart

2009-09-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

SOURCES: Philip R. Schauer, director, Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute; Christine Ren, M.D., associate professor, surgery, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York City; Aug. 18, 2009, Journal of the American College of Cardiology

8/11/2009

TUESDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Losing a lot of weight rejuvenates the physical structure of the heart, and it makes no difference whether the weight is lost by surgery or by dieting, a new British study shows.

The heart muscles of people who started with a body mass index (BMI) averaging 40 -- a BMI of 30 is the usual marker of obesity -- became noticeably thinner and more efficient when they brought their BMI down to 32.2 in a single year, according to a report in the Aug. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

"Both diet and bariatric surgery led to comparable, significant decreases" in heart structure abnormalities and malfunction, the University of Oxford researchers reported.

Bariatric surgery is designed to induce weight loss by reducing the amount of food people can eat, the amount of food they can metabolize or both.

Weight loss averaging 21 kilograms (about 45 pounds), achieved by the 37 obese people in the study, "is typically what is seen after bariatric surgery," said Dr. Philip R. Schauer, director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute.

Noting that many of the obese people lost those kilograms by eating less, Schauer called it "quite unusual for someone to diet with that effect. These were a very special subset."

And the problem with weight loss by diet is that "weight regain is the norm, whereas with bariatric surgery there is ample evidence that the weight loss is maintained," Schauer said.

The Oxford researchers used cardiac MRI, a special X-ray technique, to obtain detailed information on the structure of the hearts not only of the 37 obese participants but also of 20 normal-weight volunteers, whose average BMI was 21. They found that the walls of the left and right ventricles, the blood-pumping chambers of the heart, were significantly thicker in the obese people. They also found impaired ability of the heart to hold blood at diastole, the resting point of the heartbeat, in the obese.

A year later, after weight loss, the heart muscles of the obese people were less overgrown and the hearts could also hold more blood. Thickening of the aorta, the main heart artery, was also greatly reduced after weight loss.

"These findings provide a potential mechanism for the reduction in mortality seen with weight loss," the researchers wrote.

And it thus helps explain something of a medical mystery -- why people who are grossly overweight are more at risk of heart attack and sudden death than their numbers show, said Dr. Christine Ren, a bariatric surgeon who is an associate professor of surgery at New York University Langone Medical Center.

"Most of them say they are pretty healthy, maybe with a slight elevation of blood pressure, but when you really drill down to it you can show an abnormal cardiac function," Ren said. "The point is that their heart is not normal and that already is having a negative effect on their health."

Losing weight by dieting is desirable, "but the problem with diets is that statistics show maintenance of weight loss by diet is extremely difficult and quite rare," Ren said.

Bariatric surgery is expensive, costing anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000, she said, and it is not perfect. "There is always going to be 5 percent of these people who gain most of their weight back, but it still is the best chance of having significant weight loss," Ren said.

However, health insurance coverage of bariatric surgery is uncertain, varying from company to company and state to state, she said, and many plans are starting to put more limits on coverage.

More information

Bariatric surgery is described by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

High blood pressure may lead to 'silent' strokes

2009-09-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

NewsRx.com

8/6/2009

ST. PAUL, Minn. - "Silent" strokes, which are strokes that don't result in any noticeable symptoms but cause brain damage, are common in people over 60, and especially in those with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the July 28, 2009, print issue of Neurology??, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (see also American Academy of Neurology).

"These strokes are not truly silent, because they have been linked to memory and thinking problems and are a possible cause of a type of dementia," said study author Perminder Sachdev, MD, PhD, of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. "High blood pressure is very treatable, so this may be a strong target for preventing vascular disease."

The study involved 477 people age 60 to 64 who were followed for four years. At the beginning of the study 7.8 percent of the participants had the silent lacunar infarctions, small areas of damage to the brain seen on MRI that never caused obvious symptoms. They occur when blood flow is blocked in one of the arteries leading to areas deep within the brain, such as the putamen or the thalamus. By the end of the study, an additional 1.6 percent of the participants had developed "silent" strokes.

People with high blood pressure were 60 percent more likely to have silent strokes than those with normal blood pressure. Also, people with another type of small brain damage called white matter hyperintensities were nearly five times as likely to have silent strokes as those without the condition.

Keywords: Blood Pressure, Central Nervous System Disease, Dementia, Hypertension, Neurology, Urology, Vascular Disease, American Academy of Neurology.

To see more of the NewsRx.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.newsrx.com .

Fatty Acids in Diet Linked to Bowel Disease Risk

2009-09-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

SOURCE: BMJ Specialist Journals, news release, July 22, 2009

7/23/2009

THURSDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Consuming too much of a common polyunsaturated fatty acid could be a contributing factor in an estimated 30 percent of all cases of ulcerative colitis, researchers say.

In a new study, participants who had the highest intake of linoleic acid had more than double the chance of developing the painful inflammation and blistering of the bowels as did those whose diet contained the least of the acid. The report is published online in Gut.

Red meat and some cooking oils and margarines are among the many dietary sources of linoleic acid.

However, the research also found that consuming lots of omega 3 fatty acids can cut the chance of developing ulcerative colitis by more than three quarters. Oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, flaxseed and certain dairy products are rich in omega 3, also known as docosahexanoic acid.

The European study, which looked at the dietary habits of more than 200,000 people in five countries, found that ulcerative colitis occurred about equally in men and women and at an average age of 60. The data analysis took into account other possible causes of the condition, including smoking, age, caloric intake and aspirin use.

The body converts linoleic acid to arachidonic acid, a component of the cell membranes in the bowel, and it then can turn into various chemicals that inflame tissue, according to information in a news release from the journal's publisher. People with ulcerative colitis have been found to have high levels of these chemicals in their bowel tissue.

Having ulcerative colitis, which is a chronic condition, puts a person at a higher risk of developing bowel cancer.

More information

The U.S. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse has more about ulcerative colitis.

SOURCE: BMJ Specialist Journals, news release, July 22, 2009

One-third of cancer deaths preventable

2009-09-06T00:01:00.001-04:00

United Press International

8/7/2009

HOUSTON, Aug 7, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- If people ate healthier meals and increased daily exercise 186,000 cancer deaths, one-third of the annual U.S. total, could be prevented, an expert says.

Michele Forman of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston says there are low cost ways to to prevent cancer.

"Cancer is a disease that is cheaper to prevent than treat," Forman says in a statement.

Forman admits eating five or more servings of fruits and veggies can be costly and advises checking out a list of farmers' markets and eligibility for nutrition assistance at www.usda.gov.

Forman suggests cancer risk can by reduced by:

-- Avoiding tobacco. Quitting saves up to $4,000 a year. Free programs and/or information are available at Web sites: mdanderson.org/preventionstudy; smokefree.gov; and yesquit.com.

-- Being sun-safe. Use sunglasses and sunscreen at least sun-protection factor 15 can be almost as good as more expensive SPF 70, if applied and reapplied properly.

-- Getting checkups so cancers are found early when most treatable. Some states offer free or low-cost screening. Call 1-800 4-CANCER.

URL: www.upi.com

Elderly who are single suffer cognitively

2009-09-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

United Press International

8/7/2009

LOS ANGELES, Aug 7, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers suggest seniors who survive a spouse or never marry seem to suffer more cognitive decline.

However, socioeconomic status did not seem to be linked to brain's continued ability to function.

Lead investigator Dr. Arun Karlamangla of the University of California, Los Angeles Geffen School of Medicine, said the study is based on data from 6,476 adults born prior to 1924, who were tested five times between 1993-2002 on various memory and cognition items.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found rates of cognitive decline over a 9-year period were similar across socioeconomic and racial and ethnic groups.

"It has been known that cognitive performance at any given age appears to depend on demographic characteristics; the more educated, for instance, perform better," Karlamangla said in a statement.

"But though there are differences in the level of performance you start with in your late 60s, this study's surprise is that the rate of decline in your 70s is the same for every group."

URL: www.upi.com

Mounting evidence of fish body oil benefit

2009-09-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

United Press International

8/4/2009

NEW ORLEANS, Aug 4, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the incidence of cardiac events and mortality in patients with existing heart disease, U.S. researchers said.

"We now have tremendous and compelling evidence from very large studies, some dating back 20 and 30 years, that demonstrate the protective benefits of omega-3 fish oil in multiple aspects of preventive cardiology," lead author Dr. Carl Lavie, medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention, Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, said in a statement.

"The strongest evidence of a cardioprotective effect of omega-3s appears in patients with established cardiovascular disease and following a heart attack with up to a 30 percent reduction in cardiovascular-related death."

Dietary intake of fish oil can also decrease the risk of atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, heart attack, sudden cardiac death and even health failure, Lavie said.

The review, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, said based on the findings, the study authors recommend that healthy individuals should consume 500 mg daily of omega-3 fish oil containing docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid and people with known heart disease or heart failure aim for at least 800 to 1,000 mg daily.

URL: www.upi.com

Eating Strawberries Boosts Brain Power

2009-09-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

NewsRx.com

8/6/2009

Strawberries are good for your brain, according to breaking news out of the 2009 Berry Health Symposium. Several of the latest studies, conducted by world-renowned researchers, consistently showed that strawberry consumption is a simple way to improve cognitive function (see also Aging).

For example, one study presented by researchers from the Chicago Healthy Aging Project (CHAP) showed that older adults who consume strawberries at least once per month have less cognitive decline. More specifically, women who consumed more than one serving of strawberries per month had a 16.2% slower rate of cognitive decline versus those who consumed less.

With increasing age, brain function diminishes. This has been conclusively shown in laboratory studies, by Drs. James Joseph and Barbara Shukitt-Hale of USDA Agricultural Research Service at Tufts University. Their latest research at the conference demonstrated that aging results in deficits in learning, memory and motor function, such as balance and walking speed - and concluded that strawberries and other berries improved both memory and motor function.

Berries Can Preserve Brain Function

Researchers from the 2009 Berry Health Symposium described how berries may be contributing to the preservation of brain function. Most disease processes in the body are believed to begin through inflammation and oxidation which damage cells. Healthy nerve cell membranes promote optimal communication within the brain and nervous system so preventing membrane damage from inflammation and oxidation is essential. Numerous antioxidant substances have been identified in berries.

Prevention of Dementia in an Aging Population

Dementia is the loss of cognitive function of sufficient severity to interfere with everyday tasks. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. It is estimated that one in eight persons, aged 65 and older have Alzheimer's. There is no cure for the disease and treatments are ineffective.

According to recently released census estimates, the world's 65-and-older population will triple by 2050 to make up 1 in 6 people. The number of senior citizens has already increased 23 percent since 2000 to 516 million, more than double the growth rate for the general population. As a result, the incidence of dementia is likely to rise.

The frequent consumption of berries is emerging as a potential simple dietary factor for prevention.

California strawberries are grown and available year-round in supermarkets across the country.

More information and the research abstracts from the 2009 Health Benefits Symposium can be found at www.berryhealth.org.

Keywords: Aging, California Strawberry Commission.

To see more of the NewsRx.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.newsrx.com .

Exercise, Med Diet = Less Alzheimer's

2009-09-02T00:01:00.004-04:00

United Press International

8/11/2009

NEW YORK, Aug 11, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers say combining exercise and the Mediterranean-type diet may reduce Alzheimer's risk.

The study of 1,880 elderly people with an average age of 77 living in New York, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found those who were very physically active had a 33 percent risk reduction of Alzheimer's.

Lead author Dr. Nikos Scarmeas of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York said those who adhered more strongly to a Mediterranean-type diet had a 40 percent risk reduction.

However, those who both exercised and followed a diet closer to the Mediterranean-type had a 60 percent reduction in their risk for developing Alzheimer's disease during the five-year period of the study.

A Mediterranean-type diet is typically characterized by high intake of fish, vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals and monounsaturated fatty acids such as olive oil, along with moderate alcohol consumption and relatively low intake of dairy products, meats and saturated fat.

Social Stress Sends Body Fat to the Stomach

2009-09-01T13:44:00.002-04:00

Social Stress Sends Body Fat to the Stomach

SOURCE: Wake Forest University School of Medicine, news release, Aug. 5, 2009

8/5/2009

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Social stress may cause the body to deposit more fat in the abdomen, which increases the risk of heart disease, a new study suggests.

The findings could lead to new ways to combat rising rates of obesity in the United States and other Western nations, according to principal investigator Carol A. Shively, a professor of pathology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

"Much of the excess fat in many people who are overweight is located in the abdomen, and that fat behaves differently than fat in other locations. If there's too much, it can have far more harmful effects on health than fat located in other areas," she said in a Wake Forest news release.

In the study, designed to see how social status affects the development of heart disease, female monkeys were fed a Western-style diet that contained fat and cholesterol. The monkeys were housed in groups and naturally established a pecking order from dominant to subordinate.

The researchers noted that the subordinate monkeys were not included in group grooming sessions as often as dominant monkeys, and were often the target of aggression.

The subordinate monkeys in this study then developed more fat in the abdominal cavity than other monkeys.

Social subordination causes the release of stress hormones that promote fat accumulation in the abdomen, the researchers said. This abdominal (visceral) fat promotes the build-up of plaque in blood vessels that leads to heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Obesity.

Shively said the findings reinforce the wisdom of healthy eating, regular exercise and handling stress well.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute outlines heart disease risk factors.

Best Way To Eat Fruit

2009-08-13T14:50:00.004-04:00

I got this in email, so I don't know whether it's good information or not, but it "feels" right. Take it as use it as you see fit.

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It's not as easy as you think. It's important to know how and when to eat.

What is the correct way of eating fruits?

IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS!

* FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let's say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining - "every time I eat watermelon I burp", "when I eat durian my stomach bloats up", "when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet", etc - actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!

Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will not happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.

There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice - drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don't even drink juice that has been heated up. Don't eat cooked fruits because you don't get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.

But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!

KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.

APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

ORANGE : Sweetest medicine. Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene - the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dr Shelton referred to above was not exactly mainstream, but that doesn't mean he was wrong. Again, remember that this is offered for your consideration only and for your use as you see fit.

Men Prefer Size 14 Women?

2009-06-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Land Where Men Prefer Size 14 Women

By Hilary Walke | June 23, 2009

The weather is warm, the beaches are gorgeous, the accents are sexy, and…. the men prefer a size 14 woman?

Yup. We love you, Australia.

According to new data, men down under like something to grab on to. As opposed to America’s obsession with waif-thin models, Aussie men prefer what the researchers are calling "Miss Average," a size 14 woman. The study found that the most attractive woman of all is as follows.

Height: 5ft 4in
Waist: 30in
Hips: 40in
Size: 14

Slightly overweight people may live longer than very thin people >>

And it doesn’t stop there. The too-thin-celeb-trend may be just that: too thin. The University of New South Wales researchers said “many modern-day celebrities may simply be too thin to be tempting.”

Momlogic did their own research to see if American men were ready for the size 14’s. The results? They’re not. Yet sadly, we’re not surprised.

Africa is right up there with Australia’s trend, but on a different kind of note.

Overweight and obese women from the country of Mauritania in Africa are considered beautiful, rich, and desirable. However, some argue they have taken it too far.

With “wife-fattening” farms and girls who are force fed from their childhood, Mauritania’s government has argued that the weight these girls grow to is “life threatening.”

"I make them eat lots of dates, lots and lots of couscous and other fattening food," Fatematou said to BBC News. Fatematou is in her sixties, very overweight, and runs a feeding camp that parents send their daughters to for extreme weight gain.

Making your children finish their vegetables at dinner is one thing. But force-feeding? That’s just out of line.

With America’s obesity rates rising and models getting thinner and thinner, are we forgetting where to draw the line when it comes to weight issues?

It seems as though we have put appearance on top of health in our priority list, and it’s not looking pretty.

Note: there are links within this article, but I didn't transfer them. Too lazy, I guess, but you can read the entire article by clicking on the link in the headline.

I've got the height. The waist and hips? Well, they need some work, but it's nice to know that in Australia I'd be closer to what's considered "average".

I always knew I'd like Australia.

2009-06-22T16:43:00.005-04:00

The Easiest Egg Breakfast Ever...

From Hungry Girl

The Egg Mug Classic

PER SERVING (entire mug): 95 calories, 2g fat, 490mg sodium, 3g carbs, 0g fiber, 2g sugars, 14.5g protein -- POINTS® value 2*

Ingredients:

1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters Original)

One wedge The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese, cut into pieces

Directions:

Spray a large microwave-safe mug lightly with nonstick spray. Add egg substitute and cheese and stir. Microwave for about a minute. Stir gently, and then microwave for another 30 - 45 seconds, until scramble is just set. Stir and enjoy!

MAKES 1 SERVING

I've done eggs in a cup for several years. It's great! It's more or less a scrambled egg, as you see in the picture. You can add other ingriedents as you wish, such as bacon bits, onion, mushrooms, etc. Just remember that additional ingredients will change the nutritional data (calories, fat, etc.)

If you're like me and hate to get out of bed early enough to fix a breakfast, this is fast and easy to fix before leaving for work. Or, it's something you can fix at work if you have access to a microwave. I have a couple of lidded containers I bought through Tupperware that I use.

I put the ingredients into the container, go to work, microwave, and voila! A quick, nutritious breakfast that takes minutes to fix and cook. Now I've got to say this: since I couldn't use a cooking spray, the egg will stick to the side of the container I cooked it in. It doesn't hurt the eggs, but, you will take home a container that has egg stuck on it. Can be miserable to clean, but it will come off.

Dieticians and nutritionists say that to lose weight, you must eat breakfast. It's been too long since whatever you last ate the night before to fuel your body for the day. Coffee or tea or a cola drink just isn't enough to get you through the morning. And while good, what you get from a vitamin or supplements might be good for the body, but it still needs the fuel that comes only from food.

Eggs for a while were thought to be a no-no because of cholesterol, fat, and whatever else and suggested a limit of only two eggs a week. Recently, I've read five eggs a week is fine. Use an egg substitute and you should be fine.

As a side note, I switch between eggs and oatmeal for breakfast. I pack instant oatmeal and skim milk in my lunch bag along with cinnamon sugar, walnuts, raisins, cranberries, or whatever strikes my fancy (walnuts are a great source of MUFAs). I don't do water in oatmeal as I prefer the heartier taste the milk gives it.

Enjoy and go to Hungry Girl for variations on this idea.

2009-06-21T00:01:00.002-04:00

It's Summer!!

Today is the official start of summer. I know most of you have been barbequeing for weeks, if not months, and I'll admit that almost everybody knows more about grilling and bbqing than I do, but I think I'll try it out this year.

If only I could do it indoors instead of outside. Our temps are in the 90's with a comfort (?) index of over 100. Oh, well, that's summer in Florida.

Here's a burger recipe that looks good. I found it at Prevention.

Grill to Thrill

Gather Friends And Family For A Healthier Menu Of Your Favorite Summertime Treats--with Burgers And Hot Dogs Included!

By Stephanie Woodard

Turkey Spinach Burgers

A healthy dose of spinach makes these patties juicy and flavorful. Toast the buns right on the grill during the last few minutes of cooking.

Work Time: 10 Minutes / Total Time: 20 Minutes / Servings: 4

1 lb ground lean turkey breast (7% fat or leaner)
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and water squeezed out
2 Tbsp barbecue sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted
4 tomato slices
4 lettuce leaves

1. Heat grill to medium-high and coat rack with cooking spray.

2. Combine turkey, spinach, barbecue sauce, salt, and pepper in large bowl. Shape mixture into four 3 1/2"-diameter patties.

3. Grill patties 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, or until meat thermometer inserted into the middle from the side registers 165°F.

Serve on buns with tomato and lettuce.

Nutritional Info Per Serving 305 cal, 29 g pro, 30 g carb, 6 g fiber, 9.5 g fat, 2.5 g sat fat, 65 mg chol, 723 mg sodium

Flavor Changer

For a Tex-Mex burger, substitute 2 tablespoons canned chopped green chile peppers, drained, for the barbecue sauce and add 1 teaspoon chili powder.

Beanzawave - Coming Soon To Your....Laptop?

2009-06-15T00:01:00.002-04:00

Heinz has developed this prototype microwave which is powered by your laptop via a USB cable. Great idea for those who find it difficult to get away from their desks.

It would be great in my workplace. We work 12-hour shifts, and apart from two 45-minute breaks, don't get away from our work areas. Most of us pack lunchbags with snacks and cold drinks, but sometimes we need hot drinks. Our control rooms can get cold some days and a hot coffee or tea would be a welcome addition.

At the very least, it's a cool, new gadget, that if the price comes down, could be a welcome addition to most work stations.

Find out more here

Banana Oat Breakfast Cookie

2009-06-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Ingredients

* Nonstick cooking spray
* 1 large banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
* 1/2 cup chunky natural peanut butter (unsalted and unsweetened) or regular chunky peanut butter
* 1/2 cup honey
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup rolled oats
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat two cookie sheets with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, stir together banana, peanut butter, honey, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine oats, flour, milk powder, cinnamon, and baking soda. Stir the oat mixture into the banana mixture until combined. Stir in dried cranberries.

Using a 1/4-cup measure, drop mounds of dough 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. With a thin metal or small plastic spatula dipped in water, flatten and spread each mound of dough to a 2 3/4-inch round, about 1/2-inch thick. Once baked, each cookie will be about 3-1/2 to 4 inches in diameter.

Bake, one sheet at a time, for 14 to 16 minutes or until browned. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or resealable plastic bag for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months; thaw before serving.

Nutrition facts per serving:

* Servings Per Recipe 12 breakfast cookies
* Calories 227
* Total Fat (g) 6
* Saturated Fat (g) 1
* Cholesterol (mg) 0
* Sodium (mg) 77
* Carbohydrate (g) 37
* Fiber (g) 4
* Protein (g) 6
*Percent Daily Values are base on a 2,000 calorie diet

Find the original recipe at Heart Healthy Online

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think I might make the cookie a little smaller than called for above. I'm also not sure if the serving size is one cookie or even how many cookies are in a batch. Yes, I see the nutrition information says "Servings Per Recipe 12 breakfast cookies", and it probably means the recipe makes 12 cookies, and that there is one cookie per serving, but it might be 2 cookies to a serving. It's just not crystal clear to me. I need things like this to be very clear.

It also seems like this would be a rather dry cookie. One commenter at Heart Healthy Online suggested substituting applesauce for the banana. Other suggestions were also made.

I used to make a peanut butter cookie and substituted wheat germ for half the flour and half the sugar. Made it just a little healthier and a little less sweet. Turned out very nice.

If you do substitute, do like for like - a dry ingredient for another dry ingredient, wet for wet (applesauce for banana). But, you probably know that already.

Eat Breakfast and Lose Weight

2009-06-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

Our diet doctor and weight-loss book author Melina Jampolis shares her heart-healthy formula for building breakfasts that help you lose weight and boost your metabolism.

By Melina Jampolis, M.D.

Skipping breakfast may seem like an easy way to cut calories if you're dieting, but it actually makes it harder for you to lose weight and keep it off. The National Weight Control Registry-one of the largest ongoing studies of successful weight-losers-has found that the majority of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for five years or more eat breakfast every day of the week.

There are three important reasons for eating breakfast:

Read the rest of the article at Heart Healthy Online

I found a new site

2009-06-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

today. FitSugar.com A rather interesting site. I've found a couple of good ideas:

cooking grains in juices instead of water

using different types of grains,

adding chopped veggies to the grain. Not necessarily a new idea, but a good one.

measure and weigh your food.

I have a feeling FitSugar will be a new favorite of mine.

Sleep More, Weigh Less—Are the Studies True?

2009-06-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

Sleep More, Weigh Less—Are the Studies True?

By Linda Vongkhamchanh | June 08, 2009

A new study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine revealed today that people who deprive themselves of sleep gain weight despite a decrease in appetite and food consumption. In a world where even cell phones could potentially give you cancer, are they trying to tell us that our calorie-counting and healthy eating go completely out the window just because we have busy lives, preventing us from getting our recommended 7-8 hours snooze each night? If that’s the case, life’s not fair—bring on the donuts if we’re already doomed to obesity. Why not live it up while you can?

Read the rest of the article here

The Flat Belly Diet

2009-06-10T15:31:00.000-04:00

this seems to be the latest "diet" to hit the market. It was apparently developed by Prevention magazine.

I'm not saying it's a fad, or that it won't work. I just don't know enough about it. I have to say I'm intrigued. I'm always intrigued in something new if only because it's new. New studies are coming out every day, so there's new information out all the time. That doesn't mean it's good. It just means that it's something new. And that new idea might be what gives one person the motivation to lose weight and become healthier. Of course, just because it's new doesn't mean it's good. We learned that lesson with the New Coke.

My hardest area to take off the fat is the waistline. I know I'm not alone. I also know that fat around the internal organs cause them to work harder, or less efficiently. The heart has to work harder to beat, the lungs to provide oxygen, the arteries and veins to transport blood and oxygen, not to mention the nutrients to the various cells, tissues, and organs, kidneys to cleanse the blood, the liver to do whatever it is the liver does (know it's important, I just don't remember what the liver does right now!)

Anyway, it's the fat around the midsection that's really hard to get rid of and the Fat Belly Diet is designed to do just that. It promises weight loss around the mid-section (the belly) without doing crunches! Now, this has me intrigued. Thirty minutes a day of exercise, alternating types - apparently one day is walking - (cardio) (walking? Right up my alley!), the next strength.

I'd love to have some input from my loyal readers. Have you tried it? Did it work?

What Your Waist Size Reveals

2009-06-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Use a simple tape measure to determine if your belly fat is helping--or hurting--your health

Flat Belly Diet experts and scientists have known for years that excess body fat isn’t good for you. Obesity (which means “overfat”), is considered as deadly as smoking, according to some analyses. Traditionally obesity was determined by the number on a scale or, a bit more accurately, by taking the Body Mass Index (BMI), which calculates your body size while trying to account for bone mass. If your BMI is over 30, you’re considered obese.

One of the problems with the BMI, however, is that it doesn’t take into account muscle mass (as a result, some athletes with low body fat and a high percentage of muscle mass would be computed as obese, when clearly they aren’t).

More recently, however, studies have begun to show that while obesity isn’t good, carrying excess body fat specifically around your belly is really, really bad.

In research published in the medical journal Lancet, doctors concluded that a person's waist measurement is a more accurate forecaster of heart attacks than the body mass index (BMI). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have set a waist measurement cutoff point at above 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men--no matter how much you actually weigh--as an unhealthy sign of excess visceral fat, the dangerous hidden fat that surrounds vital organs deep inside your body.

Another measurement that is slightly more targeted to belly fat is the waist-to-hip ratio, which reflects the concentration of fat around your belly as opposed to around your hips or thighs. Analyzing data from 27,000 people in 52 countries, scientists found that heart attack sufferers had similar BMIs, but higher waist-to-hip ratios, than those who’d never had a heart attack.

Measuring Your Waist: Two Ways

The waist-to-hip ratio compares the measurement of the narrowest part of your waist to the broadest section of your hips. Your waist measurement should be taken in the spot that falls between the ribcage and the hipbone as viewed from the front.

Your hip measurement is truest if you turn sideways to the mirror and make sure you incorporate your derriere in the measurement. Now, divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. For example, a woman with a 30-inch waist and 37-inch hips has a waist/hip ratio of 0.81.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for women should not exceed 0.8.

Measuring Visceral Fat: High Tech Methods

As we understand more about visceral fat and the various chronic--even deadly--diseases it can cause, researchers are developing increasingly more accurate, and expensive, ways to measure it. The latest test (as of December, 2007), is one that detects levels of a protein called RBP4 (retinol binding protein 4), which is produced in higher quantities in visceral fat compared with subcutaneous fat (the kind of fat you can see on your body when you “pinch an inch.”). In overweight people, blood levels of RBP4 are double or triple the amount compared with normal-weight people. But other tests are used, including:

CT (CAT) Scan
MRI
Sonogram/Ultrasound
DXA

The scary part is that you don’t have to be overweight to have too much visceral fat inside your body, putting your health at risk. This understanding is relatively new, and describes those who are thin on the outside but have excess fat on the inside. It’s hard to imagine that one could be thin and fat at the same time, but Jimmy Bell, PhD, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, has shown that it is possible. Dr. Bell and his team have been using MRI machines to scan nearly 800 people in an effort to produce what they call “fat maps.” His findings will surprise you: About 45 percent of the thin women and 65 percent of the slim men he tested carried excess visceral fat. Because the Flat Belly Diet is designed to help you reduce levels of dangerous belly fat, you can follow it even if you don’t need to lose pounds.

More on Plantar's Fasciitis

2009-06-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

From Wikipedia:

Many different treatments have been effective. Without treatment resolution may be delayed for up to and over a year.[2] Initial treatment includes stretching of the Achilles tendon and plantar fascia, keeping off the foot as much as possible, weight loss, arch support and heel lifts, and taping.

There are a few simple maneuvers that may bring relief without need for further intervention.[3] Many sports medicine practitioners suggest placing a frozen bag of corn or even a cold beverage can under the affected foot and rolling it back and forth using the foot. This method provides a stretch and an ice massage simultaneously.

However, if these strategies are ineffective, the problem may require referral for Physiotherapy. The mainstays of Physiotherapy include myofascial release and scar tissue breakdown of the plantar fascia, and supervised stretching. People with plantar fasciitis should be careful to wear supportive and stable shoes. They should avoid open-back shoes, sandals, and flip-flops.

To relieve pain and inflammation, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen are often used but are of limited benefit.[4]. It's important to lessen activities which place more pressure on the balls of the feet because these increase tension in the plantar fascia. This is counter-intuitive because the pain is in the heel, and the heel is often sensitive to pressure which causes some people who have plantar fasciitis to walk on the balls of their feet.

Local injection of corticosteroids often gives temporary or permanent relief, but may be painful, especially if not combined with a local anesthetic and injected slowly with a small-diameter needle.[5] Recurrence rates may be lower if injection is performed under ultrasound guidance.[6] Repeated steroid injections may result in rupture of the plantar fascia. This may actually improve pain initially, but has deleterious long-term consequences.

In cases of chronic plantar fasciitis of at least 10 months duration, one recent study has shown high success rates with a stretch of the plantar fascia.[7][8][9]

Pain with first steps of the day can be markedly reduced by stretching the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon before getting out of bed. Night splints can be used to keep the foot in a dorsi-flexed position during sleep to improve calf muscle flexibility and decrease morning pain. These have many different designs, some of which may be hard and may press on the origin of the plantar fascia. Softer, custom devices, of plastizote, poron, or leather, may be more helpful. Orthoses should always be broken in slowly.

Recently, extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) has been used with some success for symptoms lasting more than 6 months.[10] The treatment is a nonsurgical procedure, but is painful, and should be done either under sedation, or with local anaesthesia either with or without intravenous sedation (twilight sedation). Local anaesthesia by injection of drugs into the area can also be painful, and may incur the risks of neuritis, bleeding, and infection. ESWT re-inflames the area and in doing so increases blood flow to the area as a means to heal the area. It can take as long as six months following the procedure to see results. Results are variable, and one 2002 study reported ESWT for plantar fasciitis had no benefit.[11][12]

Most often plantar fasciitis improves within one year of beginning non-surgical treatment, without any long-term problems. Surgery is sometimes required, and is successful about 95% of the time.

Surgery

Surgery carries the risk of nerve injury, infection, rupture of the plantar fascia, and failure of the pain to improve.[13] Surgical procedures, such as plantar fascia release, are a last resort, and often lead to further complications such as a lowering of the arch and pain in the supero-lateral side of the foot due to compression of the cuboid bone.[14] An ultrasound guided needle fasciotomy can be used as a minimally invasive surgical intervention for plantar fasciitis. A needle is inserted into the plantar fascia and moved back and forwards to disrupt the fibrous tissue.[15]

Coblation surgery (aka Topaz procedure) has been used successfully in the treatment of recalcitrant plantar fasciitis. This procedure utilizes radiofrequency ablation and is a minimally invasive procedure.[16]

1. a b Barrett, Stephen L.; Robert O'Malley (1999). "Plantar fasciitis and other causes of heel pain". American Family Physician 59 (8): 2200–6. PMID 10221305.

2. Young, Craig C.; Rutherford, Darin S. and Mark W. Niedfeldt (2001). "Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis". American Family Physician 63 (3): 467–74,477–8.

3. Patel, NH; Holman, JR (February 2007), "Plantar Fasciitis: Office Management", Consultant 47 (2)

4. Lynch, D.; Goforth, W., Martin, J., Odom, R., Preece, C., & Kottor M. (1998). "Conservative treatment of plantar fasciitis. A prospective study". Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 88 (8): 375–380. PMID 9735623.

5. Genc, Hakan; Meryem Saracoglu, Bans Nacir, Hatice Rana Erdem and Mahmut Kacar (2005). "Long-term ultrasonographic follow-up of plantar fasciitis patients treated with steroid injection". Joint Bone Spine 72 (1): 61–5. doi:10.1016/j.jbspin.2004.03.006. PMID 15681250.

6. Tsai, Wen-Chung; Chih-Chin Hsu, Carl P. C. Chen, Max J. L. Chen, Tung-Yang Yu, Ying-Jen Chen (2006). "Plantar fasciitis treated with local steroid injection: comparison between sonographic and palpation guidance". Journal of Clinical Ultrasound 34 (1): 12–16. doi:10.1002/jcu.20177. PMID 16353228.

7. Digiovanni, Benedict F.; Deborah A. Nawoczenski, Daniel P. Malay, Petra A. Graci, Taryn T. Williams, Gregory E. Wilding, and Judith F. Baumhauer (2006). "Plantar fascia-specific stretching exercise improves outcomes in patients with chronic plantar fasciitis. A prospective clinical trial with two-year follow-up". The Journal of bone and joint surgery (American) 88 (8): 1775–81. doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.01281. PMID 16882901.

8. Crawford, F (2004). "Plantar heel pain and fasciitis". Clinical Evidence (11): 1589–602. PMID 15652071.

9. "BestBets: Is Ultrasound effective in the treatment of plantar fasciitis?". Retrieved on December 6, 2008.

10. Norris, Donald M.; Kimberly M. Eickmeier and Bruce R. Werber (2005). "Effectiveness of Extracorporeal Shockwave Treatment in 353 Patients with Chronic Plantar Fasciitis". Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association 95 (6): 517–524. PMID 16291842.

11. http://prolotherapy.org/article.asp?prolotherapy=74

12. Buchbinder, R, et al. (2002). "Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis:A Randomized Controlled Trial.". Journal of the American Medical Association 228: 1364–1372. doi:10.1001/jama.288.11.1364.

13. Kauffman, Jeffrey (2006-09-21). "Plantar fasciitis". MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. National Institutes of Health.

14. "Endoscopic Plantar Fasciotomies / Heel Pain". FootLaw.com.

15. "Treatment of recalcitrant plantar fasciitis by sonographically-guided needle fasciotomy". Am College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.

16. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00189592

I haven't been walking

2009-06-08T14:47:00.004-04:00

for the last couple of months. As you may know, walking is my preferred choice of exercise. I guess I overdid the walking or something and now I have Plantar's fasciitis.

From Wikipedia:

Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the foot caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia or plantar aponeurosis that supports the arches of the foot or by biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation.[1] The pain usually is felt on the underside of the heel, and is often most intense with the first steps of the day. It is commonly associated with long periods of weight bearing or sudden changes in weight bearing or activity. Jobs that require a lot of walking on hard surfaces, shoes with little or no arch support, a sudden increase in weight and over activity are also associated with the condition.

Plantar fasciitis was formerly called "dogs heel" in the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as "flip-flop disease" among US podiatrists. The condition often results in aheel spur on the calcaneus, in which case it is the underlying condition, and not the spur itself, which produces the pain.

This isn't my first time with plantar's fasciitis and knew that I needed to stay off the foot as much as possible and take Aleeve. So, instead of walking on my vacation, I did as little walking as possible and popped Aleeve twice a day. It helped some, but not as much as I would have liked. I finally went to the podiatrist two weeks ago and had x-rays, a nice foot bath in the hydrotheraphy machine, and finally the doctor taped my foot.

The first time my foot was taped, I just couldn't imagine how it could help, but oh, Baby! Did it ever help! I could walk with no pain! I nearly danced out of the podiatrist's office it felt so good. I had another inflammation and couldn't wait to get in to get the hydotheraphy and taping. This time, I kept putting it off for some dumb reason. The first taping helped some, but not as much as I would have liked and so I went back for a follow up last week.

I saw another doctor and he taped my foot differently from the way the first doctor did. I don't know it was the difference in taping or just passage of time, but my foot is better. I was offered a steroid shot, which I know can help, but I just don't want injections unless the pain just won't go away. I still have some pain, but not as much and for shorter periods of time. I also found out that I was actually scheduled for a sonogram. The first doctor forgot that the doctor who does the sonograms was scheduled at another location. Anyway, the sonogram was re-scheduled and we'll talk about my options after the sonogram. I understand this is one of the newest treatment options. Another option is shock wave therapy for those suffering from long-term plantar's fasciitis.

My current options, until I know what the sonogram will suggest, are more taping, Aleeve, and/or steroid shots for the short-term. Longer term options include orthotics, which were suggested previously. Since my insurance didn't pay for it, I opted to go with taping and Aleeve.

It's been more than three years since my last flare-up so maybe insurance now pays for orthotics. I'll find out when I have my next appointment. I'm sure it will come up as an option.

So, that's my story for now.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake with Berries

2009-06-07T14:31:00.000-04:00

Angel food cake rises to new heights with this chocolate-rich recipe. For an added treat, drizzle with melted chocolate or caramel sauce.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
10 egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups assorted fresh berries
confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Sift the flour, 1/2 cup of the sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon into a medium bowl.

3. Place the egg whites in a large bowl. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla extract. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

4. Fold in the flour mixture 1 cup at a time, just until blended Place in a 10" tube pan, spreading evenly and deflating any large air pockets with a knife.

5. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool upside down on a bottle neck for 40 minutes. Turn right side up and run a knife around the rim of the cake to loosen it from the sides. Remove the cake from the pan and place on a rack to cool completely.

6. To serve, top the cake with the berries and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Nutritional Facts per serving

Calories 136.8
Fat 0.5 G
Saturate Fat 0.2 G
Cholesterol 0 MG
Sodium 47.2 MG
Carbohydrates 29.1 G
Total Sugars 18.7 G
Dietary Fiber 1.8 G
Protein 4.8 G

I found this recipe at Prevention magazine online. Not too high in calories, the fat is under 1 gram! Four grams of protein and almost 2 grams of fiber. Not bad! One I'd be trying if I could find someone to share it with. Since it's just me, I don't like to have too much in the way of sweets around the house. My resolve isn't too good these days.

Supportive Weigh-In Program Keeps Pounds Off

2009-05-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

Women maintained losses with biweekly checks and counseling, study finds

MONDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- The struggle to keep the pounds off that one has just lost can be aided effectively and inexpensively with a simple five-minute weigh-in with a nurse every couple of weeks.

New Zealand researchers, writing in the medical journal CMAJ, found that the biweekly weigh-in, along with a call from the same nurse during the intervening weeks, helped women maintain their weight loss as well as a more expensive and intensive program using dietitians and exercise specialists.

The study, which followed most of 200 women for two years, randomly divided the participants into one group that had the weigh-ins and supportive phones calls with a nurse and another that followed a more comprehensive diabetes prevention program that included regular exercise programs. At the study's start, all the women -- aged 25 to 70 -- had recently lost at least 5 percent of their total body weight.

While intensive programs used for the one group had already been proven successfully in weight maintenance, "the costs to implement these programs are considerable and well beyond the means of health budgets in many countries," wrote the study authors, from the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The authors reported that attendance for weigh-ins was excellent, while the other group did not do nearly as well with showing up for its exercise classes. By the second year of the study, attendance at the exercise program declined even further.

"Many participants reported that the weigh-ins and the enthusiastic support provided by the nurse on those occasions and on the telephone were key determinants of their success," wrote the researchers.

While the authors highly supported hospitals adding nurse-led weigh-in programs, Robert Ross of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, wrote in a related commentary in the same issue of CMAJ that adding such programs may not be possible in places where nurses are in short supply. But, he added, that other people -- including exercise specialists and dietitians -- may be just as effective in such a support-oriented program, as he noted that the nurses used for the study were enthusiastic but not trained in nutrition and exercise.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about maintaining a healthy weight.

-- Kevin McKeever

Antioxidants Blunt Exercise Benefit, Study Shows

2009-05-12T00:43:00.002-04:00

Vitamins C, E block creation of free radicals that promote insulin sensitivity, researchers say

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise helps increase insulin sensitivity and ward off diabetes, but taking supplemental antioxidants such as vitamins C and E actually blunts that benefit, researchers report.

Exercise helps increase the body's sensitivity to insulin by making reactive oxygen species, or "free radicals," which antioxidants work against. These free radicals are thought to damage cells and speed the aging process, but they are also used by the body to prevent cell damage after exercising, the researchers say.

"When you exercise you do improve your insulin sensitivity, and if you are at risk for diabetes improving insulin sensitivity is good," said researcher Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, the Mary K. Iacocca Professor at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School.

Part of the reason that exercise improves insulin sensitivity is that it causes oxidative stress on the muscles. The muscles respond to this stress by creating free radicals, Kahn said.

"If you take antioxidants like vitamins C and E, you block the oxidative stress response, but you also block the beneficial effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity," he said.

The report is published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For the study, Kahn's team looked at the benefit of exercise in increasing insulin resistance in 39 young men, roughly half of whom were taking supplemental vitamins C and E.

Kahn's group found that men taking vitamin supplements had no change in their insulin resistance, but men not taking vitamins had an increase in free radicals, which increases insulin resistance. A month after stopping the vitamin supplements insulin sensitivity was restored, the researchers noted.

"If you are exercising, in part, to reduce diabetes risk, you shouldn't take vitamin C and E, because you are going to block some of the beneficial effect of the exercise to prevent the diabetes," Kahn said.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, thinks this study raises doubts about the benefits of taking antioxidant supplements, but not about the value of these vitamins in the foods people eat.

"We have long held out hope that antioxidant supplements, among them vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene, and more recently lycopene and others, would help prevent diseases from the common cold to cancer, heart disease to diabetes," Katz said. "But to date, virtually all of the best research evidence is contrary to this hope."

This study has a counter-intuitive conclusion, namely that antioxidant supplements may actually interfere with the beneficial effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity, Katz said.

"This is a small and short-term study, and thus cannot tell us definitively that antioxidant supplements are harmful in diabetes or the insulin-resistant state that often precedes it. But that is precisely what the study suggests may be true," Katz said.

For now, there is substantial uncertainty about any health benefits and the potential harms of antioxidants as supplements, Katz said. "But we have no such confusion about the powerful health-promoting effects of wholesome, mostly plant-based diets and regular physical activity."

More information

For more information on antioxidants, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

SOURCES: C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., Mary K. Iacocca Professor, Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston; David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.; May 11-15, 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online

Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Fast Food Hits Mediterranean; a Diet Succumbs

2009-04-22T11:43:00.004-04:00

New York Times

September 24, 2008
Fast Food Hits Mediterranean; a Diet Succumbs
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

KASTELI, Greece — Dr. Michalis Stagourakis has seen a transformation of his pediatric practice here over the past three years. The usual sniffles and stomachaches of childhood are now interspersed with far more serious conditions: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. A changing diet, he says, has produced an epidemic of obesity and related maladies.

Small towns like this one in western Crete, considered the birthplace of the famously healthful Mediterranean diet — emphasizing olive oil, fresh produce and fish — are now overflowing with chocolate shops, pizza places, ice cream parlors, soda machines and fast-food joints.

The fact is that the Mediterranean diet, which has been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer, is in retreat in its home region. Today it is more likely to be found in the upscale restaurants of London and New York than among the young generation in places like Greece, where two-thirds of children are now overweight and the health effects are mounting, health officials say.

“This is a place where you’d see people who lived to 100, where people were all fit and trim,” Dr. Stagourakis said. “Now you see kids whose longevity is less than their parents’. That’s really scaring people.”

That concern has been echoed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which said in a report this summer that the region’s diet had “decayed into a moribund state.”

“It is almost a perfect diet, but when we looked at what people were eating we noticed that much of the highly praised diet didn’t exist any more,” said the report’s author, Josef Schmidhuber, a senior economist at the food organization. “It has become just a notion.”

Greece, Italy, Spain and Morocco have even asked Unesco to designate the diet as an “intangible piece of cultural heritage,” a testament to its essential value as well as its potential extinction.

The most serious effects of its steady disappearance are on people’s health and waistlines. Alarmed by the trends, the Greek government has been swooping into schools in villages like Kasteli annually for the past few years to weigh children and lecture them on nutrition. The lessons include a food pyramid focused on the Mediterranean diet.

It is an uphill battle, though. This spring, a majority of children who were tested at the elementary school of this sleepy port town of 3,000, also known as Kissamos, were found to have high cholesterol. “It was the talk of the school,” said Stella Kazazakou, 44. “Instead of grades, the moms were comparing cholesterol levels.”

In Greece, three-quarters of the adult population is overweight or obese, the worst rate in Europe “by far,” according to the United Nations. The rates of overweight 12-year-old boys rose more than 200 percent from 1982 to 2002 and have been rising even faster since.

Italy and Spain are not far behind, with more than 50 percent of adults overweight. That compares with about 45 percent in France and the Netherlands.

In the United States, 66 percent of adults older than 20 were overweight in 2004, and 31.9 percent of children 2 through 19 were overweight in 2006, although childhood statistics are compiled somewhat differently in different countries.

In Greece, the increase in the number of fat children has been particularly striking, parents and doctors say.

“Their diet is totally different than ours was,” said Soula Sfakianakis, 40, recalling breakfasts of goat milk, bread and honey. Her son, Vassilis, a husky 9-year-old who had a chocolate mustache from a recently conquered ice cream cone, said he preferred cornflakes in the morning and steak or macaroni and cheese for dinner.

Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School, said the problem had grown acute with the spread of supermarkets and, especially, convenience foods.

“In the last five years it’s become really bad,” she said. “The children are all quite heavy. The market is pushing a lot, and parents and schools seem unable to resist.”

Advertising geared toward children has invaded Greece full force, stretching into the countryside. On television there are commercials for chips; at supermarkets there are stands of candy. Last year, Coca-Cola sponsored a play about healthful eating.

But facing both aggressive convenience food marketing and obesity for the first time, many rural residents here have little resistance to or knowledge of the dangers.

Dr. Trichopoulou said that some older people might have been tolerant of childhood chubbiness because Greece had for so long been a poor nation where hunger was a recurrent problem.

Outside one of Kasteli’s several ice cream parlors, Argyro Koromylla said, “You don’t want your child complaining or feeling left out, so you give him what he wants.” Her son Manolis, 12, was finishing a cone, a large T-shirt draped over his stocky frame.

Dimitris Loukakis, 44, said he was so concerned about changing eating habits that he had bought a farm to grow traditional crops himself. Sitting at an outdoor cafe by the beach, he and his wife drank iced coffee while their chunky 9-year-old daughter, Maria, nibbled on spinach pie and glumly drank water.

“I’m on a diet; I have to eat less,” Maria piped up, noting that the local school had recently started to teach students about nutrition.

“Some diet,” interjected her father. “We’re trying to keep her off sugar now. If we continue like this, we’re going to become like Americans, and no one wants that.”

The traditional diet, low in saturated fats and high in nutrients like flavonoids, was based on vegetables, fruit, unrefined grains, olive oil for cooking and for flavoring, and a bit of wine — all consumed on a daily basis.

Fish, nuts, poultry, eggs, cheese and sweets were weekly additions. Red meat, refined sugar or flour, butter and other oils or fats were consumed rarely, if at all.

Research on the diet took off in the 1990s, as scientists noted that people in Mediterranean countries lived longer and had low rates of serious disease despite a penchant for patently unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking. But that protection is now seen as rapidly eroding.

A generation ago, the typical diet in all Mediterranean countries complied with nutritional recommendations by the World Health Organization that less than 10 percent of calories come from saturated fats and that less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol be consumed per day.

Today, the typical diet in all of the countries exceeds those limits significantly, Dr. Schmidhuber said. In Greece, average daily cholesterol consumption has risen to 400 milligrams from 190 in 1963. Germany’s is similar. In Portugal, consumption went to 460 milligrams from 155.

In 2002, a British study found that 31 percent to 34 percent of 12-year-olds in Greece were overweight — a 212 percent increase since 1982 — and “it has gotten worse, much worse, since then,” Dr. Stagourakis said. One-quarter of all children on Crete have cholesterol problems, he said, and seeing children with diabetes and high blood pressure is no longer uncommon.

Unlike in the United States, where obesity is more pronounced in adults than in children, in the Mediterranean region the rise in weight problems has been more common among the young. Parents’ taste buds still tend to hew to a more traditional diet.

A survey by the World Health Organization last year of statistics from various countries found that among children in the first half of primary school, 35.2 percent in Spain were overweight — the worst rate — and 31.5 percent in Portugal. The lowest rates were in Slovakia (15.2 percent), France (18.1 percent) and Switzerland (18.3 percent). Greece was not included.

Being overweight, particularly being obese, is associated with a wide variety of medical problems, like diabetes and liver disease. While heavy children may not suffer immediate health effects, they are statistically far more likely to grow into obese adults than their trimmer classmates. And in adulthood the conditions can be lethal.

On traditional Crete, there was no need for calorie counting or food pyramids. People were poorer then, so their food was mostly homegrown, and producing it required more physical activity.

“We ate what we grew and what we could make from it,” said Eleni Klouvidaki, 46, who lives in Kalidonia, a mountain village outside Kasteli, and describes her preferred diet as “whatever’s green.” On a recent day she prepared a meal of her staple mix of zucchini, tomatoes and other vegetables, and tossed it all in homemade olive oil. Now and again, she augments this dish with beans, or meat from her chickens or rabbits.

But she said that as more women worked and shops had moved in, the food culture had changed. “We’ve entered an era of convenience,” she said. “Even in this rural village, the diet is very different than it used to be.”

She, too, occasionally grabs dinner in town, and four nights a week her son, who works in a car repair shop, drives to a fast-food restaurant. “They don’t deliver here yet,” she explained.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm the first to say that the American Way of Life is generally the best that ever was, but maybe exporting fast food to other countries isn't such a good thing. It hasn't for us, and maybe it's not going to be any better for other countries.

I am beginning to see the wisdom in slowing down and simplifying our lives. Cooking fresh veggies, eating less of the fast and convenient foods. Sure, fast food might be easier, and obviously faster and more convenient. But we need to look to our health.

Since fast foods have been offered, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease have steadily risen. Studies have shown it's not co-incidence. I began my life changes last May, I haven't been in a fast food place. The closest I've had to fast food is that I have bought a rotisserie chicken a few times, twice I went to a local Chinese restaurant for take out and at Christmas I had take out from a BBQ. Oh, wait. I did go to KFC once. So four times in a year, I did take out. My blood pressure is down at least twenty points and my weight down 51 pounds. I don't think I have to bow my head in shame.

Do I miss fast food? Sometimes. Most often, no. I don't really miss fast food as much as I thought I would. Have I given up fast food forever? Probably not. I just hope I continue to enjoy it occasionally, not as a way of life.

Gardening

2009-04-07T15:43:00.000-04:00

About a month ago, I decided to give gardening a try. I don't have much room, so I'm doing container gardening.

One thing I realized a long time ago that just because I didn't know how to do something, doesn't mean I can't. So I thought, "hmmm...you know, gardening would be kind of interesting to try. I may not know much about it, but I don't know that I can't grow an awesome garden!" or something like that.

Since this is a first time effort and because I know that my interest can sometimes fade away very quickly, I didn't want to invest a lot of money in this adventure. So, I stopped at Walmart and bought some dishpans, potting soil, aquarium gravel and seeds.

I didn't buy tomato plants because I'm not too fond of tomatoes, so I stuck with seeds for plants I knew I would eat: spinach, lettuce, broccoli, and string beans. I also bought carrot seeds but I haven't planted them yet, I ran out of dishpans.

I came home, poured aquarium gravel in the dishpans for drainage (not much in the way of rocks and gravel around here, but if I need sand, I'm set!), filled with soil and planted my seeds. I watered and put the pans on my patio and set back to wait.

I watered as needed, and low and behold! I had seedlings! As the string beans grew, I started to think, these are vining plants, so I'm going to have to do something so they can grow upwards. I visited Lowes and Home Depot, and saw some excellent ideas, but nothing really said, "this is it!" Today, I found my answer. I was perusing the Internet and found my answer: wire mesh.

Not the mesh you might be thinking of. This is mesh with openings about 4" square. So another trip to Lowe's tomorrow on the way home for some wire mesh and wood for a frame and I'll be set.

This has me thinking about how I want to redo my patio. It's something I've been mulling over anyway, and if gardening takes off as I want it to, I'll be doing some revision of my plans. More about that another time.

The upshot is that my gardening my take off and I'll have fresh vegetables to eat. It will be good for my soul and good for my body. If this passion fades away, it's something I tried.

It's a win-win either way.

Lady Doctor Gets Death Threats for Revealing TOP SECRET Fat Loss Secret to General Public!

2009-04-03T22:47:00.005-04:00

A new breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to forever shed countless pounds, stay healthy, and add many years to your life!

A lady doctor from Arizona has blown the lid off the best-kept secret in weight loss ever discovered -- and this has the whole diet food and drug industries turned upside down and in nothing less than a torrential uproar.

Her name is Dr Suzanne Gudakunst, and she's marching to the beat of a different drum.

And no, nothing about her "secret" is difficult -- nor does it require that you do something completely out of the ordinary or anything unnatural.

Instead, the Arizonian boasts proudly "...this is something that I caught onto just before 2002 when there was so much research and exploration going around concerning the human colon and digestive system working in harmony with nutritional absorption, and I started doing independent studies just to test things at first ... but which I later expanded on after seeing some fantastic results."

This same woman medical practitioner went on to accurately determine a definitive correlation between harmful plague and parasitic infestations of the human bowel tract, and people suffering chronic obesity -- and who despite intense diet and exercise appeared to be unable to lose any weight whatsoever.

Over the course of six years the Arizona doctor developed a number of natural treatments for the removal of these same harmful, even life-threatening plaques and rapidly reproducing digestive parasites -- and when applied to even worse-case patients suffering extreme obesity (98% of which were in immediate danger of dying) she saw a 100% effectiveness and success rate.

She then borrowed from her research on the severely obese, and applied the same strategies on milder cases of overweight persons -- only to find the same effectiveness and quality results as described above (although the individual weight loss per subject wasn't nearly as much as those obese patients 100 lbs to 200 lbs or more overweight).

So powerful is her secret that she's able to reverse diabetes, rid illness altogether in people suffering from cancer (linked directly to poor diet and overweight factors), as well as an elimination of an entire spectrum of serious and otherwise life-threatening diseases.

Nearly 100% of all her case subjects were told in the alternative by "conventional doctors" that they either had just months or years to live, or they would never live a life anything resembling remotely a "normal" existence -- yet after applying Dr Suzanne's treatments saw a complete contradiction to others doctors' prognoses.

Again, nothing about her secret is unnatural or requires someone to do any major action or modification in their lives.

In fact, her entire treatment is based completely on built-into-nature 'protection agents' scattered throughout the world in the form of select herbs, extracts, and organic constituents, and which can be found in a variety of plants -- but when combined in specific combinations and carefully chosen amounts make for a solution to what is perhaps the world's worst ever plague: OBESITY (and the illnesses and diseases resulting from it -- or at least severely aggravated or exacerbated by it).

Now to everyone else's great gain, whether suffering from just a few extra pounds and inches, to those extremely fat and overweight, this brave, bold lady doctor is releasing to the general public her secret for forever destroying the tight unrelenting closed-fist of obesity's stronghold over the now more than 40% of Americans labeled obese, and others worldwide.

But she's not promising any of us for how long.

Some experts and sociologists suggest that in the bigger scheme of things, the world will never tolerate a discovery of such magnitude, any more than it would be realistic to expect a car that runs on water (even if very real) to ever become commercially available to the general public for day-to-day use.

One well-respected and famous diet & wellness author wrote years ago that if anyone ever "truly unlocked the keys to permanent fat loss, they may actually suffer the same fate as JFK."

It is currently available here.

...so you may want to head on over there now and get it and before someone or "something" gets it forever yanked out of ever getting in YOUR hand at least.

It's in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you're there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in rapid, massive weight loss and extremely improved and enhanced health, now made freely available to the rest of us?

I have a question for Google

2009-03-17T00:17:00.003-04:00

I have a problem, but I can't figure out how to get an answer. Apparently, in order to get help, one must join a Google group. I really don't want to join a group. I have one question to ask, but there is no way I can find to get my problem resolved otherwise.

So, my question will apparently go unanswered, I'll have reservations as to whether I want to stay on Blogger or not, and I'll have a bad feeling toward Google. None of which are good options.

Well, I guess I'll get over it. My problem won't be resolved until someone else in a group can answer it, but that's not a problem. I can still post and by posting I can vent my frustration.

Thanks, Google and Blogger. At the very least, I have a way of venting my frustrations. Too bad I have to air it this way.

I believe...

2009-03-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

I Believe...

Just because two people argue,

Doesn't mean they don't love each other.

And just because they don't argue,

Doesn't mean they do love each other.

I Believe...

We don't have to change friends if

We understand friends change.

I Believe....

No matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt

You every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I Believe...

You can do something in an instant

That will give you heartache for life.

I Believe...

It's taking me a long time

To become the person I want to be.

I Believe...

You can keep going long after you think you can't.

I Believe...

We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe...

Either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe...

My best friend and I can do anything or nothing

And have the best time.

I Believe...

Sometimes when I'm angry, I have the right to be angry.

I Believe...

Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had

And what you've learned from them, and less to do

With how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe...

It isn't always enough to be forgiven by others;

Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself..

I Believe...

No matter how bad your heart is broken,

The world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe...

Two people can look at the exact same

Thing and see something totally different..

'The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything;

They just make the most of anything.

I apologize

2009-03-06T21:45:00.002-05:00

once again for not posting on a regular basis. Life does sometimes get in the way of our plans.

For the last five months, I've been losing and gaining the same three or four pounds. For awhile, it was my fault and I accept the responsibility. I just wasn't working my plan like I should have been. I may have written about this before. If so, please forgive the repetition.

However, beginning in January, I really began to work the plan. I started watching my caloric and fat intake and being more careful about logging my intake in my food journal. I began walking daily. At least, I've been walking at work. We have long hallways where I've been walking during my meal breaks. I've been lucky enough to be assigned (if you believe in the Law of Attraction, you know there is no "luck" about it) to a dorm that has a microwave. So, I've been microwaving my meals and then using my meal breaks (breakfast and lunch) to walk the halls. Twice a day, 45 minutes each, seven days out of 14.

And I'm still back and forth on that three or four pounds. My doctor had me get a fasting blood test because they were concerned that I might be diabetic, or severely insulin resistant. I had tests when I got my physical last summer, but they were suspect. My blood sugar was 10 and my potassium was 90. Either of which would have, at the least, put me into a coma. More likely, I would have been dead. As the PA said today, both are inconsistent with life. I had a second set run, but the results were never returned to my doctor. Why they didn't have me do a third set, I don't know, but they didn't want to trust that lab in any case. My husband was diabetic, so while I am far from an expert, I am familiar with the disease. I didn't believe that was the problem, and it turned out I was right.

I had the blood test on Monday, and when I went in today, I found out that my blood sugar was 91 and my AC1 was 5.7. Both perfectly fine. So, that's not the problem. Next week, I begin my last month in the program, so I don't think they are going to worry too much about it. My health is good (proven by the tests) and there is no reason to think there is another problem that might be causing my lack of weight loss.

I believe that I'm gaining muscle. With the exercise (walking) I've been doing for the last 10 weeks, I think I'm losing fat, but replacing it with muscle. That would explain why I'm not showing loss, and sometimes, a gain. At least that's what I prefer to believe.

I have a total weight loss of 53 pounds as of today. So, while I would like it to be much more, I'm happy to achieve this much. It's an achievement that I've never had before.

Next month is my last month on the program. I won't meet the goal that was set at the original consultation (93 pounds), but I think that was rather optimistic. I know lots of people have lost that much and more in the same length of time, but I subscribe to the theory that if you lose weight too fast, it's that much easier to put back on again.

I've decided that even though I'll be leaving the plan in four weeks, I will continue my efforts and make my own way through the Weight Loss Jungle. I have my plan. I have my exercise, and I have my mental attitude properly, positively adjusted. I may need a periodic mental adjustment, but that's to be expected. And, since I know it's going to happen, I can plan for it.

I said I had my plan. I also have a kitchen scale, a pedometer, and I will be getting a good bathroom scale. I know what I'm looking for, so I'll be getting that before long.

I want to be better about posting here. I have ideas for what this blog can be and hope to implement those ideas in the future. I don't expect to become the Martha Stewart of the dieting world, or the person who has all the answers about weight loss, but if I can give just one other person what they need to get through just today, I want to do it.

Good luck to us all!

2009-03-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

Spring Forward, Fall Back

Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, March 8, at 2:00 a.m.

Move your clocks AHEAD one hour so you aren't late to church or wherever else you may go on Sunday morning.

This has been brought to you as a Public Service Announcement

You may resume normal websurfing.

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/nodes.html

Mea culpa....

2009-01-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

....for not having posted for months. My only excuse is that Life happens.

I went through the last three months playing with the same 3-4 pounds...gaining it, losing it, gaining it, and losing it. I ended up about two pounds down, but I nearly was tossed off the program. I take full responsibility.

I got lazy.

There. I said it. I got lazy. I didn't keep my food diaries like I should have. I didn't exercise like I should have. I got lazy and lost my motivation as well.

I think I've got it back. When I was told last week I was on the brink of being discontinued, I got to work. I was getting back there, but it may have been a little longer. I needed that push, that threat. So, I got down to work last week. I watched my calorie and fat intake, properly recorded my food diary and began to work out again.

I need the accountability of the program. I also need to watch the fat intake and to increase the exercise.

And I showed an eight pound loss this week. It was like starting over again, so I lost what anyone beginning a program would lose. It was probably mostly water weight, but a loss is a loss in my book! I'm on a sort of probation for four weeks.

My total weight loss is 53 pounds to date. I still have a way to go, but I will make it!

And I will be blogging more. I've been pulling articles out of magazines to give tips and ideas for weight loss. It's a new year, a new attitude, and, hopefully, a new me :D

As Patti LaBelle sings, I Have a New Attitude!

An excuse to gain weight?

2009-01-16T22:24:00.000-05:00

RECESSION LARDASSIFICATION

By Neal Boortz @ January 12, 2009 8:49 AM

This statistic should astound you .. then again, if you have been to Disney World lately, maybe not. The number of American adults who are obese has surpassed the number of adults who are merely overweight. More than 34% of adults are considered obese. That is more than 72 million Americans. This is compared to 32.7% of adults who are just overweight. I'm not a genius, but that means that almost 70% of our population is made up of lardassess ... blubber butts .. however you want to classify them.

But don't worry, now we have an excuse. Because of the downturn in the economy, health professionals are worried that Americans are going to gain more weight. More weight?? They are calling it "recession pounds" and it is exactly what you think: people in a recession spend less money on food and end up buying a lot of junk and fluff for their money. They aren't eating as healthy and therefore gain weight. Naturally this affects the poor the most. EVERYTHING affects the poor the most. Even the end of the world will have a disproportionate affect on the poor. Don't worry .. I'm sure the Obama administration is working on a government program to make grocery-buying a fair playing field for everyone.

My Apologies and a tip

2008-11-11T17:11:00.000-05:00

I haven't been posting lately, had a lot of things going on in what I call "Life".

I have continued to lose weight, however. At my last weigh-in, I posted a total loss of forty-five pounds. That's since May.

I've had weeks where I lost ounces, and a couple where I'd gained ounces. The good comes with the bad and luckily, I've had more good than bad. I'm about half-way to my goal, and I plan to continue on until I meet it.

At a recent weigh-in, the nurse told me a tip she had gotten at a recent bariatric seminar. While you are doing your normal activities (not exercise), wear a one pound weight on your ankles and/or wrists. Nurse J had round ones that were kind of fuzzy. As soon as I left the office, I went to Walmart (I was headed there anyway), and checked out their sporting goods section. I couldn't find the same weights Nurse J had (and apparently they can't be found for love or money), but I did find other weights that would do the trick. Walmart has packs of wrist weights, ankle weights, ankle and wrist weights that come in different weights. I couldn't find ankle weights of one pound, but did get wrist weights. I figured that I could try it out and at some other time get the ankle weights.

For the next week I didn't exercise, but wore them for my "normal", non-exercise activities. I wore them at work and when I went shopping, ran errands or the like. I watched my food intake as always, but as I said, did no exercise as such. I gave myself the week off for the experiment. I lost, only about a quarter pound, but it was a loss.

My weights are by Danskin and happen to be pink and black. Hey, I am a girl, after all.

The ones pictured at purple and black and happen to be two pound weights. More than one pound weights are not recommended for normal routine, but would be fine for exercise.

How to Maintain Your Weight

2008-11-11T17:05:00.000-05:00

By Craig Ballantyne

Oprah recently featured some former contestants from "The Biggest Loser." Unfortunately, some of them had regained up to 100 pounds since they left the show.

While losing weight is hard, not enough attention is given to the equally difficult process of maintaining weight loss. And what most people don't realize is that the method you use to lose weight helps determine how difficult weight maintenance will be.

Researchers from the City University of New York studied folks who were successful at losing at least 10 percent of their bodyweight in the past year. They were separated into three groups. Group one had lost the weight with a very-low calorie diet (VLCD). Group two had lost the weight with a commercial weight-loss program. And the third group had lost the weight using a self-directed approach.

Initially, the VLCD group had a greater average weight loss (24 percent of bodyweight) compared to the two other groups (17 percent). But the researchers found that they quickly regained the most weight. On the other hand, the folks who had lost the weight on their own - as a result of making lifestyle changes - were able to maintain their weight loss.

What can you learn here? Well, it's like many weight-loss experts keep saying: You must make simple, easy-to-stick-to lifestyle changes if you want to lose weight and keep it off. Crash diets and excessive exercise programs might work for a while, but they won't help you in the long run.

Start your long-term weight-loss program today by finding a form of exercise you enjoy and a diet that suits your personality, and by surrounding yourself with social support - people who are genuinely interested in seeing you succeed.

[Ed. Note: Extending your life and living out your years in tip-top health is really a matter of making simple lifestyle choices. For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, click here.

Looking for exercise that is enjoyable and can help you lose weight? Try fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training exercise program.]

~~~~~~~~

I removed the links above as they went to sites offering to sell you something. If you want more information, click here.

Friday Weigh In

2008-09-07T00:45:00.000-04:00

I lost another three plus pounds. The official total is now forty - that's 40! pounds lost since May.

I'm absolutely amazed that I've lost that much. I'm nearly halfway to the target set by Dr. M. Still a long way from the target I've imposed on myself, but, I'm not even sure that's a target I will try for. I'm waiting until I get to the first target to decide whether I want to go on, and how far.

I'm still working out on the Wii. Mostly the Wii Fit. Lately I've found myself doing the aerobics module mostly, and the Step program most of all. I get a little frustrated because after all this time, I still don't have the rhythm down. You have to step slowly on and off the balance board and I guess I am stepping just a little too fast. And sometimes, it registers that I missed a step when I didn't! Maybe I was too fast, or too slow, or whatever, but I did it, dang it!

Mostly I can actually get through the entire routine without missing a step (or three or four), I turn the AC down because I can really build up a sweat doing this. Trust me, these "games" are not necessarily easy!

And every once in a while one of the dogs decides he wants to step with me. Mostly the dogs stay on the recliner, watching me like they can't quite figure out what the heck I'm doing. I guess it looks like fun, so one or the other will decide that I need some instruction or something. I'll step back and feel a rake slide down my calf. I admit, that's one time when I do miss a step or two, worried about tripping over a Chihuahua and wondering where the other one is and if I'll fall on either of them. I love my boys, but I wish they'd stay on their chair when I'm doing a step routine.

But the games are fun. And remembering that I've lost 40 pounds makes it a bit easier.

The Store

2008-08-10T19:33:00.000-04:00

I set up links to The Losing Effort Store. Go, don't go, whatever you want. Just remember the number one rule: you make your own choices and you take all responsibility.

A Wii For Mii

2008-08-10T01:01:00.000-04:00

I finally got the switcher I needed to set up my Wii. Now this is fun, but be prepared to have your ego deflated

You set up the Wii with an Mii avatar and a player name. You can design the Mii to look something like yourself. So mine has reddish hair pulled back into a pony tail, green eyes and glasses. You can also set the body type to resemble your own. So if you are a bit (or a lot) on the fluffy side (as I like to describe myself), you can make the Mii avatar to look like you look now, or what you want to look like.

The Mii follows you from game to game across the sports pack or into the Wii Fit module. If your Wii is attached to the Internet, you can allow your Mii to travel to other consoles. You might have other Miis show up on yours. That will be kinda cute, I think. You can have them line up, or parade around the plaza.

The Wii I got has the sports games attached, so I was bowling this afternoon. I used to bowl in a league, but wasn't too good. Luckily, it was a church league, so it was for fun and fellowship rather than winning. Oh, don't get me wrong, we had some teams that were in it to win, if not beat the pants off the other team, but most of us were just there to have some fun. Anyway, I think it will be neat to be able to bowl with the Wii. Maybe I can perfect my form and delivery and, if I ever bowl again, I won't embarrass myself too much. There are also baseball, tennis, golf, and boxing. I'll be getting the tennis racket and other stuff so I can play those games.

Oh, when you go into the Wii Fit, your Mii will appear in appropriate workout clothing. If you are skiing, you'll be in ski clothes and skis. If you're in a gym, you'll be in regular workout gear. When I ws bowling, my Mii was in street clothes.

As you set up the Wii Fit, you'll be asked information such as your birthday, your height, and be told to stand on the balance board. At that time, it will measure your BMI and, using all the information asked, will determine your Wii age. I'd rather not disclose mine. I used to joke that I was older than dirt, but I never said it around the Wii

So, I began my workout. I focused mostly on balance because apparently my posture is lousy, at least according to the Wii. It actually asked if I fell down a lot :/ I used to think I had pretty good posture. Now I'm not so sure. I found that the only way I could get the posture correct was to lean forward, on the balls of my feet, and try to distribute my weight evenly between my left and right legs. It's not as easy as it sounds.

Anyway....I tried out several of the games and found I stink at all of the them. With practice, I hope I'll improve. I skied a downward slope through gates. You stand on the balance board and lean left and right to go through the gates. Not as easy as it sounds. Lean a little too far and you miss the gate...or gates as it may be. I did make it through all the gates once, but mostly, I missed at least a few.

There's a table tilt game where you lean to tilt a table to drop what looks like a pool ball with your Mii's face on it through a hole in the table. As you go through the game, more Mii balls show up. It's fun, but not easy.

I tried walking a tightrope and kept falling. The soccer game was sorta fun. You're on a soccer field and the rest of the team lines up to kick soccer balls to you. You are to lean into the and hit the back with your head. And then they get mean and throw other things at you that you are to avoid. Not easy. Those boys are mean! I also tried out a step exercise. You can follow the chart or watch the Miis. The object is to do what the Miis do as they do it. As you go along, you get a "Perfect!" or an "Ok" to indicate first that you matched the Miis perfectly, or you did the step but not perfectly. Right now, I just want to get the step. I'll worry about matching the Miis as I get better.

The best game for me was the hula hoop. I made 100 spins and added hoops. I haven't played with a hula hoop since was a kid, but it came back to me. One hint: draw a big circle with your hips. That helps to keep the hoops moving.

As in all games, the better you do, the better your point score. Oh, that reminds me. You start out with the basic games and then as you gain points, you open more games. It will tell you that you've unlocked, say a Yoga game. I haven't tried the Yoga yet. I think I'll wait until my posture improves a bit.

Wii is fun, but it is not easy. I think it will be a perfect addition to my work out routine.

I think I'll like this.

Weigh In - Week 13

2008-08-09T01:45:00.000-04:00

I weighed in last week and found that I had gained what I thought was a half pound. I found out it was actually closer to a pound. Oh well.

I weighed in today and found that I've lost 5 more pounds. I think my gain last week was due to.....well, to put it delicately, an elimination problem. That resolved itself and I think I would have lost my average of about 2.5 pounds. Over 2 weeks, that would be about right.

The medication (phentermine) apparently has that as a side effect. That's why we're told to drink a lot of fluids and eat a lot of fiber. Luckily, I like prunes and added them to my daily routine. I also found Benefiber packets that I can add to drinks or food. I usually add it to the water or ice tea I drink daily. Each packet adds about 3 grams of fiber (take up to 3 times a day). I like the packets because the are easy to carry in my lunch box.

It doesn't change the taste of the drink. Be sure to read the nutrition information if you plan to try it out. Another product might be better for you.

Ain't Computers Grand?

2008-07-31T18:42:00.000-04:00

I use Sparkpeople to do my food journal, so I rely on having Internet access. A couple of days ago, I didn't.

Turns out, I had purchased a webcam and when I loaded the program for it something went haywire and sent my computer into a tizzy. I couldn't get the computer to do anything. It wasn't recognizing my commands and it was taking forever to load what it did. I'm exaggerating only a little bit. I couldn't even use Task Manager to end programs. I had to manually shut down, which I've been told is not a good thing to do.

So, I did what I usually do. I didn't know whether it was a program I had loaded (I had loaded several that day) or whether it was a hardware problem, or even a virus or something evil of that nature, so I disconnected everything from the computer and left it off overnight. Several times, I've done that and when I reconnected everything, all was good. I talked about it with a friend (who is also doing the weight program) and she gave me the number of a friend of hers who is an IT guy. She told me later that she called him and told him to "do right" by me :D

As it turns out, I didn't need to call him. When I got home, I opened up in "safe mode" and started deleting programs and reset the computer defaults to before the programs were loaded - the last time I knew I didn't have a problem. After I deleted the webcam, everything was back to normal..or close. I still had one program that was apparently corrupted somehow. I deleted that program (a favorite game) and reloaded, but it still wouldn't load. So, I downloaded the game from the website and paid to register. I bought the game twice now (from different vendors, darn it), but it's loaded and I can play!!

I've considered trying to reload the webcam program, but I'm a bit skittish about doing so. Maybe when I'm off next week, I'll give it a try. I'd really like to have the webcam going so I can talk to my niece and nephews. If not this one, then another one. But dang it! I don't want to buy another one! Maybe I can get another CD from the manufacturer if I keep having problems.

In the meantime, I have to hop over to Sparkpeople to enter my food for today.

Another Setback

2008-07-31T18:33:00.000-04:00

As I've posted before, I have my Wii and my Wii Fit. I now need to get a switcher so that I can automatically switch from TV to DVR to TV and Wii. The one I have now only has plugs for three devices.

I went to Walmart, but the one I bought doesn't accomodate coaxial cables. I guess that's because it is for HD, which I don't have. It's got loads of plug-ins though. I'll save it since sometime in the future I will probably have HD.

The problem is, every store I went to had either HD switchers or none at all. So, I went online and found one at Walmart. The very one I need. I was getting ready to print out the information so when I went to Walmart today I would know exactly what I wanted. Then I realized that it's not available in the store, only online. So I ordered it.

It will be another few days before I can get the Wii hooked up, but when I do.....

::grin::

Not So Successful This Week

2008-07-31T18:14:00.000-04:00

I weighed in today and found that I had gained a bit this week. Less than a pound, but it was a gain. I won't let it get to me, though. I looked at my food and don't see anywhere that I went over my allotments. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. If I'm right about why I didn't show a loss this week, next week it should show up.

I did the 3-month analysis today. Some more disappointment, although the news wasn't bad. My BMI is down, which is good. Still not where I want it, but it is coming down and that is good. I was disappointed that it wasn't more, but that's me, and not that I haven't done well.

Of my 29 pound weight loss, 17 was body fat and 12 was muscle loss. Obviously, I need to work on strength more to keep from losing muscle mass. In reality, I haven't been working on the strength training end of my exercise until just recently, so it's not unexpected to have lost muscle mass. Dr M said this is common and not to worry about it, but to step it up.

I talked about the analysis with Dr M and she understands what I am doing and will be doing and appears to be happy with my plan. She also was happy with my progress and congratulated me on my progress.

I'm an over-achiever in some ways (which will probably come as a surprise to people who know me), so I'm disappointed that I didn't do better, but happy that I did as well as I did. The upshot of the whole thing, and what I must focus on, is that I'm 29 pounds lighter than I was 3 months ago.

And that's a good thing.

I'm on the 30 Yard Line

2008-07-26T22:45:00.000-04:00

So to speak. I've officially lost 30 pounds now. I weighed in yesterday and got the good news.I still have a long way to go, but I will make it.

A couple of us on the program were talking Thursday about another employee who started it, but quit. I really don't understand. This is the easiest time I've ever had with a diet and I've been on many.

Maybe it's because I'm finally at the mindset I needed to lose the weight. I have the passion and the drive to continue on and complete the program. I admit that there are incentives besides the weight loss that are part of my reasons for completing the program. But honestly, this has been easy.

I haven't really done much in the way of exercise yet. I was sort of waiting until I hit the dreaded plateau before kicking the exercise up. Next week I'll do the analysis again which will tell just how much body fat I've lost, and if my BMI has gone down. I know I'll have a good showing. I'm already 12 pounds past where the doctor thought I would be at the three month mark. In your face, Doc!

No actually, I'm sure she had good reason to believe I would have lost only 18 pounds in three months. I'm just glad I've lost nearly twice that. It would be very difficult to do, but if I could lose another six pounds this week, I can make it double. It's doable, but difficult.

I was afraid Thursday would be a difficult day. I cleaned out my work lunch bag to repack it before leaving for work Thursday morning and left my pills sitting on the kitchen counter. Of course, I was at work before I realized it and live too far away to go get them during my breakfast break. Oh, well. As it turned out, I did fine.

I haven't had a chance to try out my Wii Fit yet. I know, why not? Well, I've been busy with other things. Yes, I could have done it, but it's not the end of the world that I haven't. And as I said earlier, I've deliberately waited to kick up the exercise. The Wii is mostly set up, I just need to actually plug it in and do whatever it needs to set it up. Tomorrow is another day.

And I have a week's vacation coming up in a couple of weeks, if it's not up and running then, it will be.

Blood Pressure - What's Good About it?

2008-07-21T19:37:00.000-04:00

One of my reasons for losing weight was because I was concerned with my blood pressure inching higher every year. I have my BP taken at weigh in every week and on Thursday, had a discussion with the nurse about my blood pressure.

I remember when I was a kid in school, I learned that the top number should be 100 plus your age. I have learned over the years that the bottom number is of the most concern. When it hits 80, it needs to be addressed and anything over 90 is dangerously high. But since it's been a long time since school, and so many ideas have changed in medicine since I was a kid, I think I'll do a bit of research to see what constitutes a "good" BP.

Last week, J, the nurse was a bit concerned that my BP was 142 over 70. She seemed surprised that I wasn't on BP medication. Personally, I thought that was pretty good. I was okay with it, but thought I'd like to see the 72 come down a bit. I was happy with the 142. My doctor wasn't concerned when he got a similar reading during my physical last year. If it didn't bother him, I definitely wasn't going to worry about it.

The good news is that my BP was 117 over 72 this last week and J was happy. I'd still like to see the 72 come down some, but that's one of the reasons I'm doing this, isn't it?

Weekly Weigh In

2008-07-21T18:59:00.000-04:00

I weighed in on Thursday last week. It was good news, I lost another two pounds. This is a grand total of 28.5 pounds since May 8th. I was stoked!

I've got to change my "workout" routine. I've been walking at work, but I'm concerned that I'll hit that dreaded plateau soon if I don't mix things up a bit. I do have a Wii Fit which is still waiting for me to hook it up. Just procrastinating, I guess. But, I will get it together. Both myself and the Wii Fit.

Actually, I just have to plug the various cords into various outlets the plugs need to go into. So that will be done probably tomorrow. I had to clear some stuff out of the living room and I've done it. I really need to wait until tomorrow just because the lighting in my living room is so atrocious that I'll need daylight to see what I'm doing. I wouldn't want to plug the wrong plug into the wrong outlet.

So, on with my plan. I have the program that came with Wii Fit and I have the Dance Revolution pad and program. I can get my exercise by dancing and from the Wii Fit program. I will be closing the drapes when I dance because I know it won't be pretty, but I will enjoy it and I will benefit from it.

Wii Fit

2008-07-17T02:09:00.000-04:00

I finally got my Wii Fit the other day. I haven't set it up yet, that will be done tomorrow. I should have done it today, but today was not the day to do anything that might require much thought. Actually, most of it is ready to go. I just have to plug it in and go through the initialization process and I'll be ready to go.

Thank you, (online) Walmart!

Weekly Weigh In

2008-07-17T01:47:00.001-04:00

Last Friday I went to my weekly weigh in. I was a little nervous because the week before I had lost only 14 ounces. Sure, it's still a loss, but almost not worth mentioning.

So, I stepped on the scale with some trepidation...and found I had lost 4 pounds! Excellent! I had added some walking and had watched my food portions and fat gram better this last week than the week before.

The week before, I had watched my food intake, but hadn't logged it as well as I should have in my journal, so I spent a lot of time backtracking and trying to remember what I ate, when. To be honest, some of my entries were made up. I don't think they were far off from what I had actually eaten, but still fictitious nonetheless.

I resolved to be more careful about logging my food and to increase my walking and I did. I got serious again about making sure to write down what I ate at work (I eat breakfast and lunch at work) and then to log my dinner and any snacks as soon as I ate.

I'm using a new pedometer that I think is pretty good. I hope it's accurate and will take it on faith that it is. The building I work in has two long hallways that intersect in a T shape. I decided that I will walk the halls going to breakfast and again when I return to my office. And again at lunch. That gives me four laps, and a fifth when I leave in the evening. Between those five "laps" and my usual routine walking during the day, I usually walk between two and three miles.

Just after I decided to add those extra laps, I was tapped to train a new employee. I couldn't ask Chris to wait while I did the laps, and couldn't ask Chris to walk it with me. (Although it would do Chris some good to lose a couple of pounds...not that I would ever say that to Chris or anywhere that Chris might see it. I'm not here to judge and certainly not to judge or criticize anyone else.)

So, anyway, it took a few days before I could get into my new routine and now it's part of what I do at work.

Tomorrow is my next weigh in. Wish me luck!