People’s Pharmacy: The highs and lows of cholesterol. 2D
HealthToday
T H U R S D A Y , M A R C H 25 , 2010
SECTION D
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
FITNESS
FILE | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Doug Jones, right, and his wife, Joan, foreground, teach a Zumba class in 2007 in Dayton, Ohio. Zumba is an aerobic fitness class based on Latin dance.
Hello, hips; Ready to Zumba? COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. | You think you know your hips fairly well. You take them to yoga class and you take them for walks. But one Zumba class later and you realize something’s been missing. A good wiggle here. A shake and a bump there. Zumba what? Zumba is an aerobic fitness class with bumping beats and mostly Latin dance steps. Not only will you get a workout, but if you’re dying to dance, this is the next best thing to a club. “Zumba is, for me, a feel-it-to-thecore best Latin dance party,” said Dorie Wexler, owner of Springs Salsa and Dance Fitness Studios and amazingly fluid hips. In Wexler’s class recently, Latin and international music pumped out of the speakers. The class did salsa, merengue and reggaeton to a modern version of Spanish music
A headache after a 3-D movie may be a sign you need glasses, but don’t worry, it won’t hurt your eyes
that blends reggae and Latin hiphop. The participants danced for an hour to about 13 or so songs, and Wexler taught the class short dance routines before each one. There were two warm-up tunes and one cool-down song. The class is more of an inter val workout, with high and low intensity throughout. There are several reasons Zumba appeals to people, Wexler said. It could be the festive music with beats that make your body naturally want to move. It could be the freedom to not have to do the exact pattern on the Reebok step. You can make it up as you go if your feet aren’t doing exactly the same thing as the teacher’s. Oh, and the key to moving those hips? Bend the knees. — McClatchy-Tribune News Service
By Evan S. Benn
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
T
PREVENTION
Vitamin D may reduce heart risks LOS ANGELES | Raising the amount of vitamin D in the blood appears to help some people — at least those deficient in the vitamin — reduce their risk of heart disease by about 30 percent, researchers announced recently. The findings, though preliminary, support further investigation of the interplay between vitamin D and heart health. Observational studies have linked heart disease with low vitamin D levels in the blood and, in recent years, studies have shown that as many as three-quarters of Americans have a concentration in their blood that is under the normal level of 30 nanograms per milliliter. But it has been unclear if people with low vitamin D levels have more heart disease because of the vitamin deficiency or for other reasons, such as lack of exercise, said Dr. J. Brent Muhlestein, the lead author of the study and director of cardiovascular research at Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City. “The question we looked at is,
if you do something about it, like taking vitamin D supplements, does that reduce the risk?” Muhlestein’s group examined data from more than 9,000 people who had been diagnosed with low vitamin D and who had a blood sample taken at a later date. About half the people had normalized their vitamin D blood levels by the time of the second blood sample, and they showed much less heart disease compared to people whose levels were still below normal. Low vitamin D levels can contribute to weaker bones and have been associated with increased risks of several diseases, including several types of cancer. Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin from exposure to sunlight. It is also found in a limited number of foods, such as salmon and fortified milk. Adequate levels may strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation, Muhlestein said. — McClatchy-Tribune News Service
TIP NAPS MAY BOOST BRAIN FUNCTION
If you snooze long enough, researchers have found that naps permit your memory banks to do their filing, leaving your brain cleared and ready to learn in the latter half of the day. University of California at Berkeley psychology professor Matthew Walker and colleagues put 39 young adults through a demanding learning task and tested on it at noon. At 2 p.m., they divided the students into two groups and invited half of them to take a siesta for 90 minutes while asking the remainder to stay awake. At 6 p.m., both groups were returned to the day’s learning task and tested again. The siesta group went into the 6 p.m. task readier to learn and performed 10 percent better on the test than they had earlier. The no-nap group’s performance declined by 10 percent, Walker reported. While not all the nappers slept for the same length of time, those who had more Stage 2 non-REM sleep, a lighter form of sleep in which one does not dream, had the greatest performance enhancement. — Los Angeles Times
LOVE 3-D MOVIES? Here are some upcoming 3-D movies and their expected release dates: ■ “How to Train Your Dragon”: March 26 ■ “Shrek Forever After”: May 21 ■ “Toy Story 3”: June 18 ■ “Piranha 3-D”: Aug. 27 ■ “Saw VII”: Oct. 22 ■ “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”: Nov. 19
housands of people are packing movie theaters across the country to see the new “Alice in Wonderland” in 3-D, and dozens of them will likely leave with headaches. That’s not a criticism of the film, but a fact: Doctors say those with less-than-perfect eyesight can suffer nausea, blurred vision and dizziness from 3-D movies. “The 3-D technology taps into our depth perception,” said Dr. Lawrence Tychsen, ophthalmologist in chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “To fully appreciate depth in a 3-D movie, you need equally clear vision in both eyes. Even a small misalignment could contribute to those symptoms of discomfort.” Tychsen said relatively minor conditions such as nearsightedness, farsightedness or a lazy eye — if not treated with glasses or contacts — could trigger headaches and other side effects from 3-D visuals. He estimated that up to 20 percent of the population — kids and adults — could be affected. “Many people are unaware that anything’s wrong until they experience a 3-D movie and have these symptoms,” Tychsen said. The problem comes from socalled vision fatigue, caused when
3-D technology forces the eyes to make constant adjustments to focus on images that are simultaneously near and far away. Humans see in three dimensions, but the exaggerated imagery of 3-D movies can cause a strain in some, according to Jeffrey Anshel, a California optometrist who has researched vision fatigue in computer users. “Each person will experience it differently,” Anshel said, adding that vision fatigue tends to be more pronounced during longer 3-D movies. “I think that a twohour movie is fine, but going into three or more hours could lead to eye strain.” Reports of vision fatigue popped up in recent months after the release of the 3-D blockbuster “Avatar,” which has shattered box office records, raking in more than $2.5 billion worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. Several theatergoers complained of motion sickness after watching James Cameron’s epic sci-fi adventure, filmed with breakthrough digital 3-D techniques. Despite causing discomfor t in a small number of people, 3-D movies aren’t going away anytime soon. Besides “Avatar,” some of last year’s other top-grossing films — “Up,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Monsters vs. Aliens” SEE EYES | 3D STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA
CHILDREN
LIFESTYLES
Color coding can steer kids to eat better
Arteries improve after smokers quit
When little Danielle Dolgoff was just 3 years old, she asked her mom how many calories were in her turkey sandwich. “It’s a ‘green-light’ food,” pediatrician Joanna Dolgoff told her daughter. “Don’t worry about calories. Just try to make good choices and eat green light foods.” The metaphor stuck in their household. Now Dolgoff, who specializes in child and adolescent weight loss, also uses the colors of a traffic light to guide healthful food choices with young clients. The principles, outlined in her book, “Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right” (Rodale, $21.99), are easy for a child to grasp: Green-light foods are healthful and should represent the bulk of a day’s intake. Yellow-light foods should be eaten in moderation. Red-light foods are restricted but not forbidden. Here are some guidelines from the book:
■ Fuel up: Most fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables are “Free Fuel” that you can eat in unlimited quantity. Exceptions include potatoes, corn, some beans and avocados. ■ Green-light foods: contain protein, fiber and other nutrients and are lower in fat and calories than other foods. Examples include brown rice, whole-wheat bread, most nuts, fat-free or low-fat yogurt, fish, chicken and lean beef. ■ Yellow-light foods: can be included in a child’s daily diet if eaten in the right portions. Examples include olive oil, granola bars, dark chocolate, ice cream, soda and hot dogs. ■ Red-light foods: treats that can be enjoyed twice a week. Examples include cake, pie, fried chicken, mozzarella cheese and heavy cream. — McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Quitting smoking can turn back time. A year after kicking the habit, smokers’ arteries showed signs of reversing a problem that can set the stage for heart disease, according to the first big study to test this. The improvement came even though smokers gained an average of 9 pounds after they quit, researchers found. Their levels of so-called good cholesterol improved, too. “A lot of people are afraid to quit smoking because they’re afraid to gain weight,” said the study’s leader, Dr. James Stein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologist. Smoking is one of the top causes of heart disease, and about one third of smokingrelated deaths in the U.S. are due to heart disease. — The Asssociated Press