How to have an old age in good health: food for thought on the labour day

September 3, 2012 by Dr. Val Jones in the health, real stories

I spent the last two weeks make visits home "at risk" the elderly in rural areas of South Carolina. At the rate of approximately 7 House calls a day, I was able to make a few observations based on a respectable sample. I was surprised and intrigued by the conditions of life that I met, and I am pleased to announce that I did today my first physical examination in a careful review of a team of the cat, cock and hen (photo left). On another house call I I was offered a goat Pygmy as a thank-you for my efforts, and countless good-natured folk I was offered-the Ice House and these edible delectables such as fish and fishing honey cakes.

But what has me the most is that some elderly people were in much better health than others of their age, and the healthier who all had one thing in common: strict daily exercise regimens. I realize that this is not revolutionary News (which is good for us), but the contrast between those who exercised and those who could not have been more clear to me.

A particularly charming 85-year-old man gave me a tour of his vegetable garden and explains that he has bicycle in the city, six days a week to give friends and folk of the city churches of okra (and other vegetables). Growing vegetables and giving away them was the work of his current life, and although he lived in extremely modest circumstances, what he had was clean and tidy. He was happy, bright and had the physique of an athlete.

Contrast this man another patient in his 80's engaged in all and is smoking cigarettes inside most of the day. He was blind in one eye, almost deaf, difficult to breathe, had wounds on his skin. He was depressed, machines and bloated heart failure. I was sad to see his State and the relative squalor in which he lives. Smell of urine and smoke permeated the House, and I wondered how much more he would survive.

When I arrived at the House of a eighties, I noted that the garage was filled with watermelons of different sizes. After investigation, the man said that he has hand-picked the watermelons of a plot of land that it has 2 miles of his home.  He brought them home with a wheel barrow... and made many trips back and forth over the past week. There no medication and a normal physical examination.

And then my days - back to back tours with the elderly who either were involved in active, or have been weakening, plunged inside with progress of dementia and chronic disease. I realized that no medical treatment has the power to overcome damage implacable than inactivity, smoking and cause of deconditioning. The secret to old age in good health lies in the choice of life, not bottles of pills.

As we enjoy the last weekend of the summer day, consider the importance of this work is actually in our mental and physical well be. You are never too old to carry watermelons on the road, culture of okra to your neighbors or simply commit cessation and daily walks. If you do this regularly, your health will improve surely - and your quality of life will be immeasurably improved. Ultimately, adding life to years is what medicine is all about.

Tags: Exercise, health, home visits, life choices, SC, Secret of good health, the elderly, smoking cessation

Vitamin d supplements may not improve heart health

by Genevra Pittman, updated 4 September 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - despite numerous studies linking higher levels of blood vitamin d heart attacks and deaths, a new trial found giving daily older women of d supplementation did not cut heart risk.

Women's cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose was not lower after one year to take one of the two doses of vitamin D than those who took placebo free of vitamin pills.

What is called observational studies, which measure vitamin d in the blood of the people and then follow them over time - tend to find a link between heart health and vitamin levels.

"There is a tremendous amount of epidemiological data showing a relationship between low levels of vitamin d and an increased risk of cardiovascular events," said Dr. Michel Chonchol, who studied this association at the University of Colorado Denver, but was not involved in the new research.

But these types of testing can prove the cause-effect because it is impossible to take into account all possible food and lifestyle differences between people with lower and higher vitamin D levels.

Randomised controlled trials, regarded as the "gold standard" studies of medicine, were designed to circumvent this obstacle. By dividing a group of people at random and give some but not for others a special treatment, researchers can better hone in on its specific effects.

For new trial, Adrian Wood of the University of Aberdeen in Britain and colleagues divided 305 sixties women into three groups. Every morning for a year, the women took either 400 units International (UI) or 1000 IU of vitamin d or a placebo.

Participants were returned to the laboratory every two months for a panel of heart tests.

In the study, women in each group were similar on most measures of health. Women in the placebo group, for example, had 152 pounds in weight, blood pressure and total cholesterol of 128/78 of 238.

The next year, cholesterol levels and blood pressure vary according to the season - but not based on knowledge if the women were taking additional vitamin d.

Ultimately, no there was no clear difference between the three groups of changes in cardiac markers, the wood team reported in the Journal of the clinical endocrinology & metabolism.

The study did not look far enough or have enough women, to determine if vitamin d could affect heart attack or death.

Food sources of vitamin d are cod liver oil and other fish and fortified juices and dairy products.

The Institute of Medicine recommends that most adults is 600 IU of vitamin d per day. In a report of 2010, he found there is strong evidence linking vitamin d and calcium for a better bone health but that the other benefits offered, including blood pressure and cardiovascular disease are provided.

However, some researchers believe taking additional vitamin D - especially for people who have very low levels first - can help prevent inflammation of the body and to play a role in the regulation of blood sugar.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ODc3xc Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & metabolism, August 3, 2012 online.

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Mercury, fish from the cardiovascular health oils

by Kerry Grens, last updated: 30 August 2012

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mercury and the omega-3 fatty acids - the two are in the fish - appear to have opposite links for cardiovascular health, scientists have found.

In an analysis of 1,600 men in Sweden and Finland, researchers found that men with higher levels of mercury in the body had an increased risk of heart attack, while those with a high concentration of omega-3 had a lower risk.

Fish are considered to be part of a healthy diet, but the balance between the risks and benefits of these two potential compounds is not clear.

While the study cannot tease the cause and effect, researcher Maria Wennberg said there are ways to get fish oil naturally without much mercury, too.

"Two to three times a week, at least a meal of fatty fish, predators (such as salmon) and a consumption of predatory fish exceeding does not once per week of fish consumption can be recommended," Wennberg, Sweden Umeå University, told Reuters Health by email.

Predatory fish such as shark, swordfish, tilefish and king mackerel are at the top of the marine food chain and therefore concentrate mercury in the environment in their tissues.

The heavy metal is known to be toxic to the nervous system, especially in fetuses and children, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advises women of childbearing age and children against predatory fish consumption.

Subject men to the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, hair and the samples of blood to measure their mercury and the omega-3 levels, and information on their health and their way of life.

At the level of the average of mercury among Swedish men was 0.57 micrograms per gram of hair, while he was twice as high in their Finnish counterparts. Swedish, however, had higher levels of omega-3 as Finns.

The researchers found that men at least 3 micrograms of mercury per gram of hair had a slightly increased risk of heart attack than men to 1 microgram per gram, although they did not calculate the exact risk.

But this place only true if men were also low levels of omega-3 fatty acids. For men with more than fat, it took higher levels of mercury to see an increased risk of heart attack - suggesting that both compounds may have opposite effects on the ticker.

The results prove that high levels of mercury were responsible for the increase in the risk of heart attack, but merely that the two are related.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said other factors, such as the low levels of education among those with high levels of mercury, may also be at work.

Previous studies by Mozaffarian, who was not involved in the new work, has not shown a link between mercury and heart attacks. But that research involved mercury much lower than in the present study.

He said that the new results probably do apply to most Americans, who have lower than males studied by Wennberg and his colleagues mercury. And few people have high levels of mercury and low omega-3, because the mercury in fish often comes with healthy fats.

Mozaffarian, it is likely that the Finnish men with high levels of mercury and low levels of omega-3 ate whitefish contaminated lakes in the North of the country.

Wennberg, said that its findings highlight the need to consider the omega-3 to study the link between mercury and disease.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/PQ4CVi American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 15, 2012 online.

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