Cooking Garlic? Crush It First

Heart-Healthy Garlic Benefits Preserved by Crushing Before Cooking

Got a recipe that involves cooking garlic? You might want to crush the garlic first.
That may be the best way to preserve the herb's healthy compounds during cooking, a new study shows.

Garlic contains compounds shown to help prevent blood clots. But most garlic studies have tested raw garlic, and cooking can damage those anticlotting compounds.

Crushing garlic may help prevent that damage, report the researchers, who include Claudio Galmarini, PhD, of the agricultural sciences faculty at Argentina's Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

Galmarini's team found that garlic cooked three minutes in boiling water or in an oven at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit has the same amount of the anticlotting compounds as raw garlic.

But cooking uncrushed garlic for six minutes "completely suppressed" those compounds' anticlotting effects, the researchers write.

Galmarini's team then tried crushing the garlic by putting it through a garlic press before cooking.
That helped preserve the compounds, although they still lost much of their anticlotting effects after three to six minutes.

The study appears in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Veggies for Enlarged Prostate Risk

Eating Vegetables May Cut Men's Risk Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Enlarged prostates appear to be less common among men who eat lots of vegetables, a new study shows.

Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) is common in older men. With BPH, the prostate becomes enlarged. The condition is not cancerous, but it can hamper urine's flow. The exact cause of BPH isn't known.

"Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that a diet rich in vegetables may reduce the occurrence of BPH," write the study's researchers.
They included Sabine Rohrmann, PhD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md.

The study appears in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition's February edition.

Study of 32,000 Men
Data came from more than 32,000 male health care workers enrolled in a long-term health study that began in 1986.

When the study started, the men were 46-70 years old (average age: 51).
The men completed diet surveys that asked how often they ate 131 foods, including various fruits and vegetables.

The men also reported their age, weight, ethnicity, physical activity, smoking, drinking, and medical history at the beginning of the study. They updated their medical information every two years.

Starting in 1992, the men noted any surgeries or symptoms of noncancerous enlarged prostate.
By 2000, a total of 6,092 men had had surgery or moderate to high symptoms of urinary problems associated with BPH.

Fewer With Enlarged Prostate
The 1986 diet survey shows the men's fruit and vegetable consumption ranged from a low of nearly three daily servings to a high of almost 10.
When the researchers took a closer look at the data, they found that high consumption of vegetables -- but not fruit -- seemed particularly beneficial for BPH.

The men who consumed the most vegetables were 11% less likely to have BPH surgery or moderate to high BPH symptoms by 2000, the study shows.

In addition, certain antioxidants – beta-carotene, lutein, and vitamin C -- were associated with reduced risk of BPH. But those antioxidants had to come from fruits and vegetables, not supplements, according to the study.

The study doesn't prove that vegetables single-handedly reduced men's odds of developing BPH.

But the results held when the researchers adjusted for other factors that might affect the men's odds of developing the problem.

Attention: Hair Dye Allergies on the Rise

As More Teens Use Hair Color, Incidence of Allergies Increases

Tattoos and body piercings are so yesterday. These days the hottest fashion trend among teens is hair that screams in shocking colors like Napalm Orange, Atomic Pink, and Electric Blue.

Some parents may breathe a sigh of relief; even the most "permanent" dye job isn't as permanent as a tattoo, or a pierced lip or tongue.

But as more and more young people color their hair, the incidence of hair dye allergies is also increasing, warns a group of European dermatologists.
The culprit is a common chemical ingredient in permanent hair dyes, called para-phenylenediamine, or PPD.

PPD is found in more than two-thirds of commercial dyes, the researchers say, including many of the top-selling brands.
Patients with severe PPD reactions commonly develop painful rashes around the hair line or on the face, which often require treatment and can occasionally lead to hospitalization. Facial swelling is also common.

Many Don't Seek Treatment
In his own London clinic, dermatologist John P. McFadden saw a doubling of PPD reactions over the past six years.

"Dermatologists report anecdotally that the frequency of positive reactions to PPD on patch testing is increasing," McFadden and colleagues write in an editorial published in the Feb. 3 issue of BMJ.

Last October, editorial co-author Heidi Sosted of the University of Copenhagen reported on eight cases of severe hair dye reactions among teens between the ages of 12 and 15.

Reactions were so serious that five of the teens had to be hospitalized, and one reportedly ended up in intensive care.

In an earlier study, Sosted and colleagues examined the frequency of hair dye reactions in a sample population of 4,000 adults living in Denmark.

A total of 18% of the men and 75% of the women said they had used hair dyes, and slightly over 5% said they had experienced allergic reactions to them. But only 15% of those who had allergic reactions reported seeking medical treatment.
"Wider debate on the safety and composition of hair dyes is overdue -- among medical and scientific communities, the public and legislators," McFadden, Sosted, and colleagues write in the BMJ editorial.

"Cultural and commercial pressures to dye hair and, perhaps, the widespread obsession with the ‘culture of youth' are putting people at risk and increasing the burden on health services."

Hair Dyes 'Thoroughly Studied'
In a statement issued to WebMD in response to the editorial, the Cosmetics, Toiletry and Fragrance Association countered that hair dye is among the most thoroughly studied of consumer products and that safety tests on the individual ingredients that make up hair dyes are "continually updated."

"Just like many other products in common use, such as certain foods or drugs, hair dyes can cause skin allergic reactions in some individuals," CTFA officials write. "The number of consumers allergic to hair dyes is very small and the majority of these reactions occur at the site of contact many hours after hair dye use and resemble other contact-allergy reactions like nickel,poison ivy poison ivy, etc."

First-time users can greatly reduce their risk of allergic reactions by conducting a skin-sensitivity test 48 hours before coloring their hair.

"The necessary warnings and instructions for skin testing are on hair coloring packages," notes the CTFA statement. "If a consumer is positively identified as allergic to a hair dye ingredient, they can (and they should) avoid use of all permanent hair dyes and consult a physician before any further use."

(WebMD Medical News)

How Your Emotions Affect Your Health

What is good emotional health?

People with good emotional health are aware of their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They have learned healthy ways to cope with the stress and problems that are a normal part of life. They feel good about themselves and have healthy relationships.

However, many things that happen in your life can disrupt your emotional health and lead to strong feelings of sadness, stress or anxiety.
These things include:

Being laid off from your job
Having a child leave or return home
Dealing with the death of a loved one
Getting divorced or married
Suffering an illness or an injury
Getting a job promotion
Experiencing money problems
Moving to a new home or having a baby.
“Good” changes can be just as stressful as “bad” changes.

How can my emotions affect my health?

Your body responds to the way you think, feel and act. This is often called the “mind/body connection.” When you are stressed, anxious or upset, your body tries to tell you that something isn’t right. For example, high blood pressure or a stomach ulcer might develop after a particularly stressful event, such as the death of a loved one.
The following may be physical signs that your emotional health is out of balance:

Back pain
Change in appetite
Chest pain
Constipation or diarrhea
Dry mouth
Extreme tiredness
General aches and pains
Headaches
High blood pressure
Insomnia (trouble sleeping)
Lightheadedness
Palpitations (the feeling that your heart is racing)
Sexual problems
Shortness of breath
Stiff neck
Sweating
Upset stomach
Weight gain or loss
Poor emotional health can weaken your body's immune system, making you more likely to get colds and other infections during emotionally difficult times. Also, when you are feeling stressed, anxious or upset, you may not take care of your health as well as you should. You may not feel like exercising, eating nutritious foods or taking medicine that your doctor prescribes. Abuse of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs may also be a sign of poor emotional health.

How can I improve my emotional health?

First, try to recognize your emotions and understand why you are having them. Sorting out the causes of sadness, stress and anxiety in your life can help you manage your emotional health.
The following are some other helpful tips.

Express your feelings in appropriate ways. If feelings of stress, sadness or anxiety are causing physical problems, keeping these feelings inside can make you feel worse. It’s OK to let your loved ones know when something is bothering you. However, keep in mind that your family and friends may not be able to help you deal with your feelings appropriately. At these times, ask someone outside the situation- -such as your family doctor, a counselor or a religious advisor- -for advice and support to help you improve your emotional health.

Live a balanced life.
Try not to obsess about the problems at work, school or home that lead to negative feelings. This doesn’t mean you have to pretend to be happy when you feel stressed, anxious or upset. It’s important to deal with these negative feelings, but try to focus on the positive things in your life too. You may want to use a journal to keep track of things that make you feel happy or peaceful. Some research has shown that having a positive outlook can improve your quality of life and give your health a boost. You may also need to find ways to let go of some things in your life that make you feel stressed and overwhelmed. Make time for things you enjoy.

Calm your mind and body.
Relaxation methods, such as meditation, are useful ways to bring your emotions into balance. Meditation is a form of guided thought. It can take many forms. For example, you may do it by exercising, stretching or breathing deeply. Ask your family doctor for advice about relaxation methods.

Take care of yourself.
To have good emotional health, it’s important to take care of your body by having a regular routine for eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep and exercising to relieve pent-up tension. Avoid overeating and don’t abuse drugs or alcohol. Using drugs or alcohol just causes other problems, such as family and health problems.

(compiled)

Sweet Drinks Linked to Overweight Children

A scientific study published in the February 2005 issue of the journal Pediatrics published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, shows that sweet drinks, whether Kool-Aid with sugar, soda or all-natural apple juice cause an increase in the weight of preschoolers. The study suggested that even one or two drinks per day can add on the pounds.

The study showed that children who were normal or underweight were only at a slight risk of becoming overweight from consuming sweet drinks. However, children who were at risk for being overweight, or who were already overweight, and who drank 1-2 sweet drinks per day were on average more than twice as likely to become overweight or gain weight.

Lead researcher Jean Welsh of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that preschoolers were better off snacking on fruit or drinking water or milk. She commented, "Sweet drinks are a source of added sugar in the diet." She also noted that, "Juice is definitely a part of this." She noted that fruit juice does have vitamins but that it is inferior to actually eating fruit which also contains fiber.

The February 7, 2005 issue of WebMD, reporting on the same study stated, "Researchers say excess weight in children is associated with numerous medical problems including high blood pressure, diabetes, lung problems, and psychological and social problems. Overweight children are more likely to be overweight adults."

The published study summed up their results by saying, "The problem of increasing overweight among children has prompted a search for factors that contribute to this trend. Our study provides evidence that the consumption of sweet drinks as infrequently as 1 to 2 times daily increases the odds of becoming overweight among those who are at risk for overweight at baseline and of remaining overweight among those who are already overweight by 60% or more."

Exercise Helps Aging Bones

A June 8, 2005 release from "HealthDay News" reported on a study of 104 men and women that participated in six months of aerobic exercise using a bicycle, treadmill or stepper, combined with weightlifting. The results of this study were better overall fitness and fat loss without significant change in bone mineral density. In fact the researchers found that participants who exercised the hardest and had the greatest increases in aerobic fitness, muscle strength and muscle tissue showed bone mass increases of 1 percent to 2 percent.

Co-author and endocrinologist Dr. Suzanne Jan de Beur, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement, "Fat loss with exercise did not result in a loss of bone mass, a problem commonly seen when patients lose weight with diet alone."

Lead investigator Kerry Stewart, professor of medicine and director of clinical exercise physiology and heart health programs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute, explained, "Older people are very concerned about how best to reduce their body fat as a means of preventing other health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes. However, excess fat does have the benefit of maintaining bone mass." She added, "But fat loss through diet alone can lead to loss of bone, worsening the body's natural bone loss due to aging, a major risk factor for bone fractures."

Dr. de Beur recommended that older people should either exercise at a higher level of intensity or for longer than six months in order to achieve a substantial increase in bone density. She stated, "Our results show that moderate-intensity exercise can increase fitness and reduce body fat, which are important for overall health, but gains in bone density were found only among those who achieved the greatest gains in fitness in six months."

Even minimal exercise very beneficial

Two studies reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that even a mild amount of activity or exercise can improve heart and lung function. Routine activities such as raking leaves and climbing stairs can produce a positive cardiovascular effect.

One study followed 235 men and women over two years. The participants were divided into groups. One group did vigorous exercise while the other group did only mild to moderate "lifestyle" exercise. After two years comparison of the two groups show similar and significant improvement in cholesterol levels, blood pressure and body fat ratios. The conclusion gives hope and encouragement to those who are unable to do anything more than mild or moderate exercise.

In short, when it come to exercise, some is better than none. The study did show, however, that the group that did vigorous exercise burned off calories three times as fast as the moderate exercise group did.

Why should I exercise?

The overall benefit of being active and fit is an improved quality of life—being able to do things you enjoy for longer periods of time (for example, playing with the kids, gardening, dancing, or walking).

Research repeatedly shows that fitness is a strong measure of health. In a study of more than 25,000 volunteers, researchers found that a person's fitness level was more important than body weight. Men in the study who were overweight or obese but who were physically fit had a lower risk of death than men who were a healthy weight but were not physically fit. Being fit improves your overall health and reduces your risk of disease.

Short-term benefits include·
-A healthier heart. Physical activity makes demands on your heart
that make it stronger and better able to function.
· Healthy muscles, bones, and joints. Resistance training such as weight lifting improves muscular strength and endurance and increases bone density, which is especially important for older adults to prevent falls and injuries
· Increased burning of calories. Physical activity burns calories and helps you achieve a healthy balance between the calories you take in from food and those you expend. When you exercise regularly, your body burns more calories, both during activity and at rest. Being fit may also lower your percentage of body fat and increase muscle strength and tone. Your percentage of body fat depends on genetics, lifestyle, and physical activities.

No matter what your size or shape, physical activity has important health benefits, including:
· Better ability to cope with Stress. People who are fit have less anxiety and depression, and stress than people who aren't active
· Improved ability to fall asleep and sleep well.
· Increased energy.
· Increased mental acuity—sharper and faster thinking.

Long-term benefits include reduced risk of
· Dying early.
· Developing coronary artery disease. Men who are not active have about twice the risk of developing heart disease as men who are regularly physically active
· Having a second heart attack. Also, people who get regular physical activity as part of a cardiac rehabilitation program have a lower risk of dying from a heart attack
· Developing high Blood Pressure. Regular physical activity can also lower blood pressure in those who have high blood pressure
· Developing type 2 Diabetes. Physical activity may prevent type 2 diabetes through its effect on insulin, how the body processes sugar, and maintenance of body weight.
· Developing colon and other cancers.
· Becoming obese

Note: Most people should talk to a health professional first before beginning a regular exercise program, especially those who have conditions such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart valve disease or diabetes. If you are at risk for or have some of these conditions, your health professional may want to help you build a plan matched to your needs. He or she may want to do tests before you start a plan or want you to be more careful and watch for injuries or other problems.

FITNESS. What is Fitness?

Fitness can be performance-related or health-related. Performance-related fitness is a measure of an athlete's agility, balance, power, and speed. This topic focuses on health-related fitness, which you can achieve through regular physical activity. The benefits of both types of fitness are a healthy heart and lungs (cardiorespiratory fitness), increased flexibility, and muscular strength and endurance.

Health-related fitness helps you feel your best and reduces the risk of heart attack, colon cancer, Diabetes and high blood pressure. Being fit helps you to have more energy throughout the day for work or school and energy left over to enjoy your leisure time.

How much physical activity is required to become fit?

Experts recommend:

· Activity at moderate intensity (equal to a brisk walk) for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week or more.

· Vigorous exercise for 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week or more. Vigorous exercise is done at a pace that increases your heart rate to 70% or more of your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart can beat at a maximum activity level.


What types of physical activity improve fitness?
Most experts agree that there are three kinds of fitness:

· Flexibility is the ability to move joints and use muscles through their full range of motion. Stretching is a flexibility exercise.

· Aerobic (cardiorespiratory) fitness is the body's ability to use oxygen efficiently and depends upon the condition of your heart, lungs, and muscles. This type of fitness increases the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles, which allows them to work longer. Walking is a type of aerobic exercise.

· Muscular fitness includes building stronger muscles and increasing how long you can use them (endurance). Resistance training through weight lifting and body movements such as push-ups can improve muscular fitness.

Keep in mind that you may be fairly fit in one area (perhaps aerobic fitness) but just getting started with another (such as flexibility or muscle strengthening).

How can I be more physically active?
Try to make physical activity a regular and essential part of your day, just like brushing your teeth or going to work. Start slowly and be sure to consult your doctor first, especially if you aren't active at all or have health problems. Make an appointment with yourself when you are most likely to keep it. For example, consider scheduling your activity in the morning if you tend to talk yourself out of it later in the day.

Activity throughout the day burns calories and helps maintain your weight. Small activities such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or parking far away and walking to your office or the grocery store can add up quickly to the recommended 30 minutes of moderate activity. Make a plan to ride your bike to work once a week. Instead of e-mailing or calling a coworker, get up and walk to his or her desk. If you don't have time to take one 30-minute walk, break it up into three 10-minute walks.

Walking is an activity that most people can do safely and routinely with family members, friends, coworkers, or pets. Keep track of your steps with a step counter or pedometer, which you can buy at a sporting goods store. If you have a desk job, you may see how little you actually move in a typical day. Wearing the step counter will motivate you to accumulate more steps during the day.

If you want a more structured way to get exercise, consider joining a health club or community center that offers fitness activities. Find an activity that you love and feel you can stick with, and then vary it with other activities so you don't get bored.
For example, 3 days a week, take a brisk, 30-minute walk with a friend and then lift some weights together. On other days, take a water aerobics class, ride a bike, or take the dog for a hike. Join a softball, volleyball, or basketball league. The more you can find activities you like, the greater your chances for success.

Thinking Can Alter the Way Your Body Fights Disease, New Research Shows

Western medicine separated the mind from the body in the Middle Ages when the famous French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes agreed to accept flesh and bone as the province of physicians, while the Catholic Church claimed possession of the mind, insisting it was the creation of the soul.

But Descartes, whose works were placed on the Church's Index of Prohibited Books in 1667, believed the two really interacted in the brain. Using the fledging powers of observation and deductive reasoning that he was then developing, Descartes could conclude that "the mind is so intimately dependent upon the condition and relation of the organs of the body, that if any means can ever be found to render men wiser and more ingenious than hitherto, I believe that it is in medicine they must be sought for."

It's taken a long time, but doctors and psychologists are now bringing the mind and the body back together amid new evidence that the mind can improve the healing process in ways that traditional medicine can't.

Unlike earlier notions about the mind-body connection, which were often based on anecdotal stories or simply "gut" feelings, scientists now can document through powerful imaging technology what Descartes could only deduce, that our thoughts are capable of producing dramatic chemical and physical changes that directly affect our health.

Health Psychologists
Hospitals, including Northwestern Memorial in the Chicago area, are enlisting the help of "health psychologists" to find nontraditional ways to treat patients with common disorders like cancer, heart disease and gastrointestinal problems.

In doing so, doctors have had to come to grips with something that many have been reluctant to admit: that a patient's beliefs can affect the healing process, and that the so-called placebo effect is not an exercise in self-deception, but an authentic biological reaction orchestrated by the brain.

"Over the last several decades the empirical evidence (for the placebo effect) has really mounted, and people in our culture today are much more likely to embrace this mind-body interaction and synthesis," says Kim Lebowitz, director of cardiac behavioral medicine, who was recruited in 2004 by Northwestern Memorial, becoming the first psychologist in the country to be hired full time by a hospital cardiac unit.

Health psychologists are not like psychiatrists, who try to uncover childhood roots of emotional problems. Rather, their practice, called behavioral medicine, is based on studies showing that stress, anxiety and depression - which show up as physical symptoms and are a major reason 60 percent of patients visit doctors - can harm the body just as directly as germs, artery-clogging diets, lack of exercise, obesity and misbehaving genes.

They are at the interface of psychology and biology, where what people think and their beliefs can either increase the risk of disease on the one hand, or restore equanimity on the other.

An Untapped Reservoir of Healing
Patricia Mumby, assistant professor in the department of behavioral neurosciences at Loyola University Medical Center, is part of the new breed. A longtime registered nurse, she became dissatisfied with medicine's half measure of care and went back to school to study psychology. She felt it was an untapped reservoir of healing.

"Patients are recognizing the (mind-body) connection, and they want more control over their own health care and their own well-being. Health care providers are recognizing it too and are more open to it."

The healing power of the tools used by health psychologists - relaxation techniques, self hypnosis, biofeedback, yoga, exercise, acupuncture, exercise, coping skills etc., rests on two revolutionary findings by researchers into how the brain works. One is that a vast network of nerves hard-wires the brain to all the body's organs in more ways than previously thought. The second is that the brain constantly sends out streams of hormones to regulate the digestive, heart and immune systems and then responds to the chemical messages sent back.

This field of research, with the formidable name of psychoneuroimmunology, studies how stressors, and the negative emotions they generate, are translated into physical changes. The brain, for example, carries on a two-way conversation with the immune system, and stress can dial up such hormones as cortisol and adrenaline, increasing the risk of infection and delaying healing. Laughter and exercise, on the other hand, can release hormones that subdue inflammation and jack up natural killer cells, which may provide increased protection against cancer.

Descartes knew that the brain could easily be deceived, that the thrill experienced by someone mistaking a piece of glass for a diamond would feel as genuine as if they had found the real thing. What recent research has revealed are the chemical alterations in the brain that underlie these emotions. New findings show, amazingly, that the brains of people in clinical trials who take what they think is a potent drug, but which really is a sugar pill or placebo, produce almost the identical neurochemical changes as the brains of drug takers.

In one study, during which Parkinson's disease patients got noticeably better on a sham drug, imaging showed their brains were producing more of the muscle-controlling chemical acetylcholine as were the patients receiving the real medication. Placebos routinely improve disease symptoms 30 to 60 percent of the time, compared to active medications, which often do not do much better. And, like real drugs, placebos can produce adverse side effects when subjects think those side effects are possible.

Negative Emotions Prolong Illness
It is 21st century evidence for what the Stoic philosopher, Lucius Seneca, noted some 2,000 years ago: "It is part of the cure to wish to be cured."

Dr. Patrick McCarthy, co-director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, understands what Seneca was talking about. "With surgery we can fix hearts that are (diseased), but that only goes so far," he says. Patients may still be dealing with depression or stress or some other condition that can affect their hearts.

"Twenty years ago, if you'd suggested to someone that they should see a clinical psychologist, they probably would have had a lot of resistance - `I'm not crazy. I don't need them,'" McCarthy says. "It's a lot more accepted now. People realize that depression is part of their heart condition."

Delores Rogalski, a 57-year-old from St. Joseph, Mich., underwent a heart transplant at Northwestern Memorial after dealing with a "plateful" of stress in a tumultuous four-month period, including a divorce, lung operation, her daughter's hospitalization, deaths of a close friend and mother-in-law and her transplant.

Rogalski's treatment included sessions with Lebowitz, the director of behavioral medicine, to reverse her downward spiral of stress. People try to predict or control their environment, Lebowitz says, and when problems pile up, anxiety results: They tend to concentrate on all the things that are out of their control.

Before the transplant, Lebowitz taught Rogalski mental and behavioral exercises to relax her mind and body. She started with slow, deep breathing, then moved on to progressive relaxation of every muscle system from head to toe. Learning to imagine pleasant things transported her mind into a safe, healing place. She imagined being on a beach or in the countryside, recalling all the delightful smells, colors and vistas.

"I'm not anything like the person that walked in here," Rogalski says. "I've accepted my divorce. I've accepted the things that I couldn't do anything about. I put things in perspective in my life. That's the key thing. Emotionally, I was all over the place."

After Rogalski got her transplant, "I was having her imagine this powerful heart, very healthy, very pink, beating very rhythmically," Lebowitz says. That was a very profound image for her. It gave her a lot of comfort and strength."

Chronic Stress Rewires the Brain
When scientists talk about stress, they mean chronic stress, the kind that lasts at least two weeks, not the everyday variety that virtually everyone experiences, like a mood swing caused by a friend's careless remark, a temporary setback at work or declining stock prices.

Like Bruce McEwen, a Rockefeller University neuroendocrinologist, they have found that such stress can change the brain's wiring in harmful ways. His research shows that stress hormones can activate an inflammatory response in the body that doubles back to hit the brain, not only in the areas that govern blood pressure, heart rate, intestinal activity and other responses, but in areas of higher cognitive function that processes memories, fear and anxiety.

"It turns out that circuits in these parts of the brain are very sensitive to stress, and we're just beginning to realize the myriad consequences that this will have on a person," he says.

One characteristic of chronic stress and depression is called the "sickness syndrome."
"You feel like when you have a cold or the flu," McEwen says. "You feel totally without energy. Your brain is foggy. You can't remember anything that's happening. You feel physically sick. This is caused by an inflammatory response in your body which is then transmitted into the brain."

And then transmitted from the brain back to the heart or other organs.
"Your gut's fundamentally a dumb beast. Your heart's fundamentally a dumb beast. They take their direction from the central nervous system," says Dr. Michael Jones, director of Northwestern Memorial's Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders.

That connection has been lost, he says, since the Enlightenment in the 18th Century, when scientists decided to study the human condition and Descartes was one of its luminaries. "That was also the time of the Inquisition," Jones notes, "and the Catholic Church basically said: `Rene, that's a wonderful idea, but I just really want you to keep in mind that the mind and the soul belong to God and the Catholic Church.'"

The Power of the Brain in Healing
Mind-body dualism also was an efficient business model - you have an ill, I have a pill. But it neglected the natural healing - and potentially destructive - power of the brain, Jones says.

The brain's effect on the body has always been evident in some ways: A stressful situation triggers a feeling of butterflies in the stomach, one of the first organs to be hit by chronic stress. The meal you are enjoying will not digest as well if it is interrupted by a call from the IRS saying your tax return will be audited.
It doesn't matter if you're stressed because you're making your gut miserable or whether you're stressed because you're gut is making you miserable, Jones says. What matters is breaking the cycle.

"I've got the latest and greatest motility drugs and visceral analgesics," Jones says. "We have all the bells and whistles, and none of it really does anything (if chronic stress is involved). But when you talk to people and put their problem in the context of their lives and look at the big picture, they start to get better."
Three years ago when Seth Knocke was 16, the youth began experiencing severe nausea after eating. He saw several doctors to no avail and finally was referred to Jones, who first tried his "bells and whistles." An anti-nausea drug had no effect. That was followed by an antidepressant to relax the digestive system's smooth muscles. That worked for eight months, then the nausea returned as intensely as before.

That's when Jones called in clinical psychologist Laurie Keefer, now a full-time member of his team at Northwestern. Jones figured out that Knocke's troubles began with a stomach virus that made him nauseated when he ate. Even after the virus went away, his brain retained that association and released nausea-producing chemicals whenever he consumed food.

To break that noxious cycle, Keefer tried teaching Knocke in which the patient remains fully conscious but relaxes to the point where he is in a state near falling asleep, preparing his brain to accept information that would disassociate food from nausea.

Staring at a lighted picture in a dark room, Knocke listened to Keefer suggest that he was making a gentle descent on a soft cloud to a boat in a tranquil pond. Drinking the cool water would feel like medicine going down his throat and into his stomach, where it would cure any nausea.

After five once-a-week sessions, the nausea went away. The few times since then that it threatened to return, Knocke went into his self-hypnosis mode, soothing his stomach with an imaginary sip of cool water. Now a freshman at Beloit College, he plans to major in psychology, inspired by his experience with the healing power of self-hypnosis.

"They said my brain was essentially a computer with a hard drive," Knocke says. "What got loaded into my brain was this nausea and they just needed to rewire it and I'll be OK."

Irritable bowel syndrome is the No. 1 reason people seek out gastroenterologists. Since current drug therapy for this condition often is disappointing, an increasing number of physicians are switching to treating the brain in order to calm the gut.

A recent study by University of Manchester researchers found that at the end of one year, both psychotherapy and antidepressants were better at reducing symptoms and improving quality of life than routine care. Furthermore, psychotherapy was the cheapest to provide, costing 22 percent less than antidepressants and 41 percent less that standard therapy.

Selma Holme turned to a stress-reduction regimen while she was being treated for uterine cancer two years ago. After 14 years of caring for her husband, Jack, who has Parkinson's disease, she felt as if her immune system had burned out.
Holme first turned to guided imagery to relax and then to self-hypnosis. A year ago, she started receiving acupuncture treatments as part of Loyola's stress-reduction program. It wasn't long before her husband commented on how she wasn't as uptight as before, then her daughter remarked on how well she and her husband were getting along.

"I have more energy. I'm optimistic," says Holme, who is now cancer-free after radiation therapy.

Stress, Anxiety and Depression Need to Be Treated
Obviously, behavioral medicine cannot replace vaccines, drugs, surgery or other conventional medicine, and no one knows exactly how effective it is. But there is a growing consensus in the medical community that stress, anxiety and depression are bad for health and need to be treated.

In 1995, Ohio State University researchers Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and her husband, Ronald Glaser, published a pivotal study showing that relatives who cared for Alzheimer's patients, a stressful task, took 24 percent longer to heal from small, laboratory-induced superficial flesh wounds than people in the same age and economic bracket who were not caregivers.

That was followed by a second study showing that wound-healing in students facing midterm exams took 40 percent longer than when they looked forward to summer vacation.

Stress plays havoc with hormones like cortisol, known as the stress hormone, and adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone, says Glaser, director of OSU's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. They can cause blood cells to lose their equilibrium, change their function and deregulate the immune system, he explains. Immune cells start pumping out inflammatory proteins called cytokines, which in the short run speed healing but when produced in excess can damage tissue all through the body, increasing the risk of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and diabetes.

"When Jan and I started working with each other, quite frankly I didn't believe this," Glaser says, referring to the impact of stress on disease and healing. "I said, `OK, we'll do a study and if it doesn't work that'll be the end of it.' So here we are 20 years later still doing this research, because obviously it worked."
In fact, it's changing medicine, he says. "Physicians will start asking patients what's going on in their lives when they come in with infectious diseases or cancer or metabolic diseases or diabetes or obesity. Because now we know that what's going on in their lives is affecting those diseases."

The first indication that stress was not just a nuisance but could hammer internal organs came in the early 1900s, when Harvard's Walter Cannon discovered that whenever people feel threatened, the body rushes to raise blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and breathing.

Sixty years later, in the same laboratory used by Cannon, Dr. Herbert Benson discovered the antidote to stress: the "relaxation response."

The Relaxation Response
During his research, Benson was leery of incurring the scorn of his Harvard colleagues, so he waited until the dark of night to bring in subjects, who practiced transcendental meditation. Simply by thinking, he found, they could dramatically alter body functions. Breathing slowed by 25 percent, oxygen consumption declined by 17 percent, blood pressure fell and heart rate slowed.
And it wasn't just meditation that reduced stress. Further research showed that deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, hypnosis, guided imagery, prayer and other techniques could achieve relaxation.

"Any disorder that is caused or made worse by stress, to that extent the relaxation response is an effective therapy," says Benson, the Mind/Body Medical Institute associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We found it useful in hypertension, anxiety, mild and moderate depression, excessive anger and hostility, and insomnia, among other things."

People intuitively feel that doing something to calm their nerves helps, he says. A federally funded study in 2004 revealed that half of all Americans practice some form of relaxation, although most never tell their physicians.

"We view health and well-being as akin to a three-legged stool," Benson says. "One leg is drugs and the second leg is surgery and medical procedures. But there has to be a third leg and that's self-care, which involves such things as the relaxation response, nutrition and exercise."

Benson's investigation of the placebo effect, which is different than the relaxation response, leads him to conclude that it works by triggering memory traces that regulate stress hormones, a process he calls "remembered wellness."

"There are three components of the placebo effect," he says. "The belief and expectations of the patient, the belief and expectations of the physician or health professional and the belief and expectations that come from the relationship of the two.

"When they're in sync, remarkable healing properties come about. If you believe yourself (to be) well, you can often be well. Will this cure all diseases? Of course not. But many medicines are perhaps working because of the placebo effect."
Psychological interventions may aid healing, but can they prolong the lives of seriously ill patients? That remains controversial, though some studies suggest a positive effect. Alastair J. Cunningham of the Ontario Cancer Institute found that terminally ill cancer patients who remained upbeat tended to live longer than equally ill patients who succumbed to stress and depression.

"We have some evidence that when people get very involved in helping themselves in these ways they can live longer," Cunningham says. "But there are no guarantees."

Can Happiness Help You Heal?
If stress causes bad chemical changes in the brain, can happiness produce good changes? Finding out is the goal of Lee Berk, associate professor of health promotion and education at Loma Linda University near Los Angeles.

Spurred on in his research by the late Norman Cousins, who maintained that laughing at Laurel and Hardy comedies helped him overcome a life-threatening autoimmune disease, Berk discovered that laughter, as well as exercise, music and meditation increase levels of endorphin, a key brain chemical. Endorphin, which is actually morphine produced by the body, is a mood elevator and reduces levels of stress hormones.

"It slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and reduces respiration so you don't need to breathe fast," Berk says. "It plugs into immune cells and produces beneficial changes."

Berk's study of patients who suffered their first heart attack showed that those who watched a comedy or sitcom half an hour a day were significantly less likely to suffer a second attack than comparable patients who were not given a prescription for humor.

"If we could package mirthful laughter in a pill, it would literally require FDA approval to give it to patients because of all the changes that take place," he says.

(Source: Chicago Tribunal)

Microwave Kills Germs in Sponges

Your microwave may be a powerful weapon in protecting your family against disease-causing germs.

A new study shows zapping sponges and plastic scrubbing pads in the microwave can kill bacteria, such as E. coli, that can cause illness.

"Basically, what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes," says researcher Gabriel Bitton, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, in a news release. "People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave."

Researchers say disease-causing bacteria and germs from uncooked eggs, meat, and vegetables often work their way onto countertops and cleaning tools, and the dampness of sponges, dish cloths, and scrubbers provide an ideal breeding ground for the bugs.

Microwave Sterilizes Sponges
In the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Health, researchers evaluated the effects of zapping sponges and plastic scrubbing pads in the microwave on bacteria and viruses.

The sponges and scrubbing pads were soaked in wastewater containing a dangerous mix of fecal bacteria, E. coli, and bacterial spores. Bacterial spores are more difficult to kill.

The results showed that two minutes in the microwave at full power killed or inactivated more than 99% of all the living germs and the bacterial spores in the sponges and pads, including E. coli.
After an additional two minutes -- a total of four -- none of the bacterial spores survived.

Before you zap your sponges in the microwave, researchers offer the following advice:

Microwave only sponges or plastic scrubbers that do not contain steel or other metals.

Make sure the sponge or scrubber is wet, not dry.

Two minutes should be enough to kill most disease-causing germs.

Be careful in removing the sponge from the microwave because it will be hot and should not be handled immediately after zapping.

Bitton recommends that people microwave their sponges according to how often they cook, with every other day being a good rule of thumb.

Prevent Cold and Flu the "Natural" Way - 12 Tips

Since there are no known cures for colds and flu, prevention must be your goal. A proactive approach to warding off colds and flu is apt to make your whole life healthier. The most effective way to prevent flu, frankly, is to get the flu shot. It may not be natural, but it works better than anything else. But there are other strategies you can employ as well.

#1 Wash Your Hands
Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a kitchen glass. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often. If no sink is available, rub your hands together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold germs.

#2 Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands
Because germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it away immediately. If you don't have a tissue, turn your head away from people near you and cough into the air.

#3 Don't Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents.

#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the poisons as it rehydrates you. A typical, healthy adult needs eight 8-ounce glasses of fluids each day. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow, you need more fluids.

#5 Take a Sauna
Researchers aren't clear about the exact role saunas play in prevention, but one 1989 German study found that people who steamed twice a week got half as many colds as those who didn't. One theory: When you take a sauna you inhale air hotter than 80 degrees, a temperature too hot for cold and flu viruses to survive.

#6 Get Fresh Air
A regular dose of fresh air is important, especially in cold weather when central heating dries you out and makes your body more vulnerable to cold and flu viruses. Also, during cold weather more people stay indoors, which means more germs are circulating in crowded, dry rooms.

#7 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.

#8 Eat Foods Containing Phytochemicals
"Phyto" means plants, and the natural chemicals in plants give the vitamins in food a supercharged boost. So put away

#9 Eat Yogurt
Some studies have shown that eating a daily cup of low-fat yogurt can reduce your susceptibility to colds by 25 percent. Researchers think the beneficial bacteria in yogurt may stimulate production of immune system substances that fight disease.

#10 Don't Smoke
Statistics show that heavy smokers get more severe colds and more frequent ones.
Even being around smoke profoundly zaps the immune system. Smoke dries out your nasal passages and paralyzes cilia. These are the delicate hairs that line the mucous membranes in your nose and lungs, and with their wavy movements, sweep cold and flu viruses out of the nasal passages. Experts contend that one cigarette can paralyze cilia for as long as 30 to 40 minutes.

#11 Cut Alcohol Consumption
Heavy alcohol use destroys the liver, the body's primary filtering system, which means that germs of all kinds won't leave your body as fast. The result is, heavier drinkers are more prone to initial infections as well as secondary complications. Alcohol also dehydrates the body -- it actually takes more fluids from your system than it puts in.

#12 Relax
If you can teach yourself to relax, you can activate your immune system on demand. There's evidence that when you put your relaxation skills into action, your interleukins -- leaders in the immune system response against cold and flu viruses -- increase in the bloodstream. Train yourself to picture an image you find pleasant or calming. Do this 30 minutes a day for several months. Keep in mind, relaxation is a learnable skill, but it is not doing nothing. People who try to relax, but are in fact bored, show no changes in blood chemicals.

(Compiled-webmed)

Holistic Health and Disease Prevention. HOW?

Most of us are aware that we, Human Beings are provided with an amazing body and an equally amazing mind by the Great Universal Intelligence.

Due to various reasons known and unknown to us, our body many times becomes victims to onslaughts like illnesses and diseases. Some are genetic; some are chronic, some contagious, some infectious, some mild and some serious.

In normal scenario, human beings, fall sick because of four major reasons.
They are-

1. We fall sick because of what we consume
2. We fall sick because of what we do not consume
3. We fall sick because of what is consuming us and
4. We fall sick because of lack of adequate physical activity.

India is passing through an economic boom resulting in great growth on all its fronts. It is a very encouraging and good sign.

When the economy improves the physical activity falls- our habits have changed, especially on our eating front.
Meat consumption, fat and sugar in the diet have more than doubled in India since 1980 according to researchers. As we have become busier, we have less time to cook healthy meals. So more people start eating at restaurants or buy frozen or instant foods. Processed and foods of western style have become ‘ the food’ of many, children and adults alike. Accordingly, we have hotels, restaurants, fast food joints etc., plenty of any style and choice.

The tight target oriented jobs at work, lack of physical activity, excessive consumption of alcohol, smoking, use of recreational drugs, over use of antibiotics, low nutritional status of foods, increase in obesity, all affect the immune system and are contributing to the increase in degenerative diseases in modern society.

All these have affected our mental health too. Our tolerance level start sliding down, we became more impatient, get irritated more often. The financial independence has inadvertently tended to erode the value system in young minds.

A kind of change start happening in all spheres of growth, some are good and some are very bad and serious.

In general, the general healths of human beings have started falling down.
There is a shift in urban Indians disease profile. In earlier times it was various diseases that of infection related. To day more are life style related.

Researchers and statistics say…

- 60% of the world’s cardiac patients will be Indians by 2010,
- Every fourth diabetic in the world is an Indian,
- 8,00,000 Indians are diagnosed with Cancer each year,
- Stroke kills 2000 every day.



Our Health Industry.

Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Doctors are increasing every year. High tech and corporate hospitals have sprung up like mushrooms.
But our health Industry is focusing more on treatment or diseases rather than prevention. That is a fact and a sad state of affairs.

The cost of treatment has risen as never before. A recent article published in ‘India Today’ reveals….

- The cost of almost all procedures rose steeply in corporate hospitals over the years. Consider Hernia. The cost of surgery went up from Rs.28, 000 to Rs. 34, 000 between 2004-06.
- Cost of normal childbirth went up at 30% growth rate, from Rs.18, 000 to Rs.50, 000, between 2003 and 2006 in corporate hospitals.
- In Heart diseases, cataract, hernia or childbirth, patients routinely pay double for the same procedures in corporate hospitals.
- Introduction of cutting-edge technology push up costs. The payout for cataract surgeries went up by 20% from Rs.35, 000 to 42,110, between 2004 and 2006.
- Lifestyle diseases are pocket pinchers. The inpatient cost in 2004 per head, per treatment was Rs, 29, 000 for lifestyle diseases and just Rs. 4, 000 for infections.
- The onset of coronary diseases or diabetes has come down from 56 years in 2002 to 48 years in 2006.

We have to face the realities. We should understand that we have no much say on external factors.

- The work in future may be more demanding or not
- We may get more exposed to various tempting foods outside. Some may be good some may not.
- Pollution in air or water may go up or not
- Many new diseases and infections may come up or not
- Etc., etc.

What is the way out then? “The Built in Healing System”

As mentioned earlier we have been provided with the best form, the Human body and Mind by the Intelligence. We have also been endowed with an amazing built in system- “A built in Healing Mechanism” which most of us are not aware of.

Most of the illnesses and diseases can be prevented, controlled and sometime healed. What we need to learn is “HOW” to activate and operate this God given mechanism. Once you come to know that, you can be healthy Holistically - Physically, mentally and spiritually, most time of our life.

We the ‘Welhealth team’ of Warrior Associates are campaigners of Wellness and Holistic Health. We are also its promoters and facilitators. We conduct programs, workshops and talks on this subject for awareness as well educate how one can take care of his or health, prevent and control very many of their illnesses and diseases.

We look forward to associate with you for this great cause.
Thank you and with Best wishes,

Holistically yours,
WELHEALTH TEAM.
Ph: 65279138; Mobile; 98491 40779
mail: welhealth9@yahoo.co.in Blog: http://welhealth.blogspot.com