Health
Fitness
B1 January 16–22, 2015
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5 Ways
Your Body Can Talk to Your Brain
Your body’s posture and expressions are reflections of your mind and changing them can change your mood.
By Jann Ingmire e usually think our mind is in control and telling our body what to do. But there is a lot of scientific evidence that shows the chatter between mind and body goes two ways. Sian Beilock, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, believes the body-mind connection starts early. “Movement matters with everyone, but it is especially important for babies and young children,” Beilock says. “Mobile kids hit cognitive
milestones faster.” She says simple steps like allowing babies to run around naked—when appropriate—can help them explore their worlds. Wearing diapers and using baby walkers can limit a baby’s ability to interact with the world and hinder the process of learning how to walk. The more quickly children learn how to walk and explore, the faster their cognitive development. In Beilock’s new book, “How the Body Knows Its Mind,” she offers the latest evidence about the body’s influence on our mind. See Brain on B2
Smiling can actually make you feel happier.
Health & Fitness
B2 January 16–22, 2015
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Walking in the woods rejuvenates our minds and improves our ability to pay attention and focus.
Five Ways
Your Body Can Talk to Your Brain
Brain continued from B1 5 Body-to-Brain Tips The book offers many tips on how to use one’s body, actions, or surroundings to stimulate the mind and to influence those around you. Here are a few: 1. Take active breaks from work or vexing problems to give your brain a chance to regroup and reboot. Physically walking away from the problem for a few minutes may help you solve it. 2. Your body’s posture and expressions are not just reflections of your mind—they can influence your mood. Stand tall to help give yourself confidence and to send a signal to those around you that you have brought your “A” game to the table.
And be mindful of your facial expressions. Your brain uses your expressions as cues to feel emotions. Smiling can actually make you feel happier. 3. Practice in the real conditions under which you will have to perform—whether it’s public speaking, a test, or an important match. It’s also good to practice in front of others, so when all eyes are on you, it’s nothing new. 4. Write it out. Keeping a journal can help you deal with the stress of a test or your worries in daily life. Physically downloading worries from your mind by putting pen to paper has positive performance outcomes—and reducing that stress affects your health in good ways, too. 5. Spend time in nature as often as you can and find time to
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Meditation for even a few minutes a day can help alleviate anxiety and chronic pain. meditate. New science shows that a walk in the woods rejuvenates our minds and improves our ability to pay attention and focus. Meditation for even a few minutes a day can help alleviate anxiety and chronic pain. It also can help with self-control that may be helpful for working to break bad habits, like smoking. “Little things we do can have
a big effect,” Beilock says. “The idea of the book is that if we can understand the science behind how the body affects the brain, we will be in a great position to ensure that we’re always putting our best foot forward when it matters the most.” Moving Helps Kids Learn Incorporating physical activity into more subjects can help kids learn in school, according to Beilock. “We can’t just keep students confined to their chairs—we have to get them up, out, and moving,” Beilock says. “When the subjects are math or physics, getting students to actually physically experience some of the concepts they’re learning about changes how their brains process the information and can lead to better performance on a test.”
Movement also helps explain the connection between music and math. Why do kids tend to excel in both? It’s because the brain areas controlling finger dexterity and numbers largely overlap. Beilock unpacks the latest research showing that when kids exercise their fingers through regular piano play, their grasp of numbers improves. Exercise can aid mental health as well as academic achievement, according to Beilock. “The research shows that getting kids moving is important not only for their physical wellbeing, but for their mental wellbeing, too.” She says schools need to emphasize the “4 Rs”—reading, writing, arithmetic, and recess. Boys’ academic achievement may especially benefit from recess, she adds.
Exercising as We Age Exercise is equally important for older adults, as it can promote healthy aging, mentally and physically. “There are clear differences in brain health in fit, older adults, compared with their more sedentary counterparts,” Beilock says. “And these differences carry consequences for thinking and reasoning, as well as for memory.” Beilock stresses that aerobic exercise, which can alter the structure and functioning of the brain, is key for improving mental health. Activities like swimming, running, cycling, walking briskly, or even doing household chores at a vigorous pace can benefit the brain, in addition to keeping the body fit. From University of Chicago via Futurity.org
If Baby Weighs Under 6 Pounds, Diabetes Risk Goes Up By David Orenstein Studies consistently show that people born weighing 6 pounds or less face an increased risk for Type 2 diabetes as adults. A new study not only confirms that risk in a sample of more than 3,000 women, but also shows the relative predictive value of different biomarkers, giving doctors potential new tools for understanding individual risk among low-birth-weight women. The findings also could help guide researchers trying to tease out which physiological processes might be sent awry by low birth weight, ultimately leading to Type 2 diabetes. “We are trying to understand what proportion of the risk attributable to low birth weight can indeed be explained by these biochemical intermediates, to understand the relative importance of each pathway,” says Simin Liu, a professor of
The findings could help guide researchers trying to tease out which physiological processes might be sent awry by low birth weight.
epidemiology and medicine at Brown University and senior author of the study published in the journal Diabetologia. Study Findings The findings are based on the detailed health records of participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a huge study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Liu’s team focused on 1,259 women who developed Type 2 diabetes and 1,790 otherwise similar women who did not. Overall, the data showed that low birth weight (less than 6 pounds) portended a 2.15 times greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, compared to women born between 8 and 10 pounds. This risk calculation adjusted for a variety of other possible confounding variables, such as smoking, drinking, exercise, diet, body-mass index, race, ethnicity, and family history of diabetes. Compared to women born
between 6 and 8 pounds, lowbirth-weight women had a risk that was 1.27 times greater. The study also looked at the relative predictive value, measured in percentages, of various readily measurable biomarkers. Among them, insulin resistance contributed most strongly (accounting for 47 percent), which is not surprising because insulin resistance is a core component of diabetes. High levels of E-selectin, a marker of problems with blood vessel lining, accounted for 25 percent; low levels of sex-hormone-binding globulin contributed 24 percent; and high systolic blood pressure’s mediation emerged at 8 percent from the statistical analysis. Each of these calculations also controlled for potential confounding variables. Percentages do not add to 100 because some pathways of the risk factors may overlap. From Brown University via Futurity.org
Health & Fitness
B3 January 16–22, 2015
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Meet Chaga, the Arctic Birch Fungus
By Conan Milner Epoch Times Staff Until recently, chaga was virtually unknown to anyone outside a cold climate. Today, it is promoted across the Internet as a miraculous cure for all. From tall tales to made-up research, chaga has acquired some widely circulated puff on the road from obscurity, but it has also demonstrated genuine merit. The fungus has a history of traditional use among several cultures, as well as modern evidence for healing potential. Sometimes called a mushroom—actually a mycelium— chaga looks and feels like chunks of wood with a cracked, charred edge. It has been called a “tree cancer,” and its development plays like an arboreal horror film in super slow motion. This fungal parasite infects trees deep within the trunk. As the mass grows over the course of several years, it pushes through the bark, oozing out in blobs until the host dies. Chaga may infect alder, hornbeam, and other trees, but only when it is harvested from a live birch tree—particularly black, paper, or yellow birch—is it considered medicinal. In folk medicine, chaga was sometimes used for stomach problems and skin issues, but served primarily as what we would today call an adaptogen— an herb that helps the human body adapt to stress.
Some cultures burn chaga, like sage, using the smoke for ritual cleansing. In Finland, it’s used as a coffee substitute. Much of chaga lore (and the name itself) comes from western Siberia, where the best specimens are said to be sourced. Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is credited with popularizing the fungus. In his 1968 novel “The Cancer Ward,” the Nobel Prizewinning author tells of a country doctor observing Russian peasants using chaga tea to treat their illness. Fact Versus Fiction Chaga is high in antioxidants, but many websites claim an enormous level, citing research from Tufts University. Tufts says it has never done an analysis of chaga. Poland and Russia were the first to research chaga, with more recent studies coming from East Asia. Clinics in Japan and Korea treat patients with chaga extracts. Chaga is also gaining attention in China, but its link to ancient Chinese medicine may be weaker than reports suggest. Many websites claim that Shen Nung, widely believed to be the father of Chinese agriculture, praised chaga as the “king of herbs” and a “precious gift of nature.” However, Shen Nung wasn’t likely to encounter chaga, since it only grows in the extreme north of China. Russia was the first to recognize chaga in modern medicine in 1955, approving an extract for gastritis and the early stages of some cancers. This preparation, said to be made according to an ancient recipe, is still available under the name Befungin. In the wider arena of science, the benefits of chaga are still speculative. Research lags far behind the better studied medic-
inal mushrooms, such as shiitake and turkey tail, but the evidence thus far looks good. The U.S. Women and Cancer Fund recommends Siberian chaga based on favorable literature and reports. In the fall 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, medicinal mushroom expert Christopher Hobbs identified chaga as an “upand-coming species.” Potential for Medicine Researchers have identified many important phytochemicals in chaga. At regular, moderate doses, the fungus appears to show no signs of toxicity. Like other medicinal mushrooms, chaga helps boost immunity, but it also has features that other fungi lack. Chaga stimulates the production of superoxide dismutase—an enzyme that protects the body against degenerative oxidation and free radicals. The fungus contains a fair amount of beta-glucans, immune-strengthening compounds found in all mushrooms. It also has a lot of melanin, a chemical that colors our skin and colors the chaga edge black. This high melanin concentration contributes to its antioxidant content, which may help protect the body from DNA damage. Today, chaga is used for general wellness, as a cancer preventative, and to counteract the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It has also been shown to shrink tumors in the early stages of malignancy. Part of its anti-tumor reputation is linked to betulin and betulinic acid, which the fungus absorbs from the birch tree. These components have strong antiviral action, but are nor-
mally difficult for humans to absorb. One prevalent theory is that chaga may transform these birch chemicals into an easily digestible form. Sustainable Harvest Mushroom experts worry that chaga’s growing popularity could lead to overharvesting and hurt the environment. In a 2012 article, mycologist Paul Stamets urged forest ecologists to better understand the long-term ecological role of the fungus, “lest we learn later that the chopping off of wild chaga accelerates beetle and other blights with untold downstream impact.” Stamets promotes cultivated chaga, not only because it is more sustainable, but also because it is cleaner: It doesn’t carry insects or their feces and is less likely to absorb heavy metals concentrated from air pollution. According to Stamets, cultivated chaga shows antioxidant effects similar to those of its wild brethren. But it may be missing out in other aspects. Researchers have found that only wild chaga grown in harsh winter climates—such as Alaska, the Changbai region of China, and Finland—contains powerful healing constituents, such as betulin, betulinic acid, and melanin. Chaga is available in raw chunks or as a tincture, powder, or tea. The best professionally prepared extracts are designed to make the most of its key components. If you’re interested in making your own preparation, consider the source of the fungus and the method for extraction. Recipes available over the Internet vary widely.
HE A M ND ER R A/ EY T H SE IN ME KS N TO O V CK /
The hype, history, and promise for healing
Chaga, a fungus that is high in antioxidants and other compounds, is used in modern medicine to treat conditions like cancer and gastrointestinal ailments.
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Can Exercise Lower Baby’s Blood Pressure? By Sarina Gleason Regular exercise during pregnancy reduces the chances that low-birth-weight babies will have high blood pressure later in life, new research shows. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a key factor in cardiovascular health. The new findings are a start in getting at the issue of genetic preprogramming of a child’s health characteristics while in the womb, researchers say. “We looked at a range of normal-birth-weight babies, some falling at the lower end of the scale, and surprisingly we found that this lower birth weight and higher blood pressure relationship in these offspring is not supported if the women were physically active,” says James Pivarnik, professor of kinesiology at Michigan State University. “The connection was disrupted, indicating that exercise may in some way alter cardiovascular risk that occurs in utero.” This phenomenon is linked
The regular exercise habits of the mother are good for heart health later in a child’s life. James Pivarnik, professor of kinesiology, Michigan State University to what’s known as the fetal origins hypothesis. The theory suggests if something strenuous happens to a mother and her unborn child during critical growth periods in the pregnancy, permanent changes can occur that can affect the health of the baby. In an earlier study, researchers evaluated 51 women over a five-year period based on physical activity, such as running or walking, throughout preg-
nancy and post-pregnancy. The follow-up study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, shows that regular exercise in a subset of these women, particularly during the third trimester, is associated with lower blood pressure in their children. “This told us that exercise during critical developmental periods may have more of a direct effect on the baby,” Pivarnik says. The finding was evident when the researchers also discovered that the children of mothers who exercised at recommended or higher levels of activity displayed significantly lower systolic blood pressures at 8 to 10 years old, Pivarnik says. “This is a good thing, as it suggests that the regular exercise habits of the mother are good for heart health later in a child’s life.” From Michigan State University via Futurity.org
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When mothers exercised, babies with low birth weights were less likely to develop high blood pressure.
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Health & Fitness
B4 January 16–22, 2015
www.TheEpochTimes.com WORKOUT OF THE WEEK
Strong Body, Strong Mind overweight, have poor digestion, and suffer from other conditions related to poor diet.
By Emma-Kate Stampton aving taught Pilates and hundreds of other fitness classes for the last 10 years, I have always maintained a mindbody philosophy with exercise. My take on having a fit and strong body is that it will also benefit your mind and reinforce a positive attitude. I’m not saying that you won’t experience some lows and less than happy times in life. But in my experience, those who exercise regularly seem to be more embracing toward life and generally in higher spirits than those who don’t exercise much. It is a well-known fact that when we exercise, our brains release endorphins—the “happy hormones” that help us feel good. If you are physically strong, you will probably have more confidence, and strength training may also help you develop more willpower. Of course, this will vary for each individual, but overall, this body-mind connection should
The connection between internal and external states should not be underestimated. not be underestimated. It’s similar to the saying, “You are what you eat.” If you fuel your body with wholesome, nutritious food, you will likely have a more consistent level of energy, your skin will be brighter, and your digestive system will operate smoothly, just to name a few advantages. On the flip side, if you constantly eat highly processed and fatty foods with lots of sugar and next to no nutrients, you are more likely to feel tired, be
Workout This week’s exercise sequence is about strengthening your core. Think of your core as a tree trunk. The trunk of a tree is the center from which the branches and roots spread out. If the center is strong, it gives the rest of the body a solid foundation. And this, in turn, can benefit the way you carry yourself through life. You can do this sequence anywhere and at any time that suits you. Why not try doing it before you eat breakfast in the morning or before dinner at night?
Single Leg Stretch 1. Lie on your back with your legs in a tabletop position—lifted and bent at 90 degrees. 2. Lift your head and shoulders away from the mat in an abdominal crunch position. 3. Stretch your right leg out at 45 degrees, as you gently draw your left knee in with your hands. Stretch the extending leg as far as possible. Keep your core engaged and your breath flowing. 4. Switch legs and repeat.
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Scissors 1. While lying down, crunch your upper body off the floor. Lift and straighten your legs toward the ceiling as best you can. 2. Hold your right leg behind the calf or thigh. Lower your left leg until it is about 6 inches off the floor. Keep your shoulders relaxed and your stomach muscles drawn inward. 3. Switch legs and repeat.
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Having a strong, fit body will also benefit your mind and reinforce a positive attitude.
Criss Cross 1. Lie on your back, with your legs in a tabletop position. 2. Lift your head and shoulders away from the mat in an abdominal crunch position, with your hands behind your head and your elbows out to the side. 3. Stretch your right leg out at 45 degrees and gently draw your left knee in, as you rotate your torso toward the bent knee. It is important to lead with your underarm, not your elbow; this will give a much deeper workout for your obliques. Also, avoid rocking through the center of your body— keep your core anchored and still. All of the movement should come from your legs and upper body. 4. Switch sides and repeat.
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Put these three movements together, one following the other. Start by doing 10 repetitions of each exercise, totaling 30 altogether. Then work your way up to 30 repetitions of each, for a total of 90. This Pilates-based abdominal sequence will strengthen and tone your stomach area, promote stability in your core, and help with mobility in your
joints. It may even improve your mental well-being and your outlook on life. Emma-Kate Stampton certifies Pilates instructors and is a certified personal trainer. With 10 years of industry experience, she is passionate about sharing the gift of health and well-being. She is based in Brisbane, Australia.
Health & Fitness
B5 January 16–22, 2015
www.TheEpochTimes.com
Traditional Indian Drug Removes Teeth Painlessly, Without Surgery
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JAMMU, India—A family in the northern Indian city of Jammu has the recipe for a rare drug that can painlessly remove a tooth without anesthesia or surgery. As part of an ancient medical heritage, the family has been using this drug for centuries, passing down the recipe for generations. Rattan Singh, who works in a small clinic on a side street of the Gumat Bazaar in Jammu city, is one of the recipe holders. On a cold January day, Vijay Kumar, age 67, came into Singh’s clinic with an aching tooth. Singh applied his concoction soaked in cotton to the area around the tooth, and within a minute, had it removed. There was no bleeding and no pain. “I didn’t even know what happened,� Kumar said. The drug is transparent like water but smells very strong. According to Singh it can catch fire like gasoline. He hasn’t made the drug himself; what he has was made by his grandfather, and he still has about a quart of it left. Singh’s father and grandfather left him and his four brothers, who also have clinics on the same street, with four remedies
older than 100 years, which they are still using. While Singh is still a traditional dentist, his brothers have become dental mechanics, certified by the government. “Others do possess this drug, but they keep it a secret,� Singh said. He only uses it when a customer requests it, saying he believes it affected his nowdeceased father’s eyesight. History Singh and his brothers are part of a community of Bhat Sikhs or Bhatras, a community whose ancestors were scholars and priests who lived on the now dry Saraswati River between India and Pakistan. Brahmin in origin, they became followers of Guru Nanak, who is the grandfather of the Sikh religion. One of Guru Nanak’s followers, ruler Raj Shivnabh, had a grandson who became a poet and scholar. He was called Bhat Rai, or the “Raj of poets� for his literary skill, and the name Bhatras evolved from “Bhat Rai.� Bhat means “bard� in Sanskrit, and the Bhat Sikhs are Sikh bards or scholars. Today the Bhatras can still be seen in the narrow lanes of the Gumat Bazaar, sitting at small tables with acrylic teeth and old
dentures on display to attract clients. Singh said his father, who came to the region when it was still ruled by a king, also used to practice this way. “He would sit in the public junction and offer his services to people. Slowly people came to know about him, and we are carrying forward that legacy,� he said, showing an old leaflet that his father used to publicize his services. Affordable Dental Care While they mostly work in the open street, don’t wear protective gloves, and some of their tools look like they belong in a carpenter’s shop, many people still come to them because they are affordable and effective. “I had a client in Delhi. He told another high-ranking officer from Maharashtra [a coastal state about 700 miles southwest of Delhi], and he came all the way looking for me in this lane in Jammu,� Singh said. To remove an aching tooth, Singh charged a woman only 120 rupees ($1.90). Another woman approached Singh to wire her daughter’s teeth. “I went to a private [modern dentist] clinic,� she said. “They asked me for 21,000 rupees ($33).� Singh VENUS UPADHAYAYA/EPOCH TIMES
A Bhatra practices on the roadside in Gumat bazaar area of the northern city of Jammu, India, on Jan. 2.
7 Essentials of Mindfulness Practice Frank Lipman Nearly 20 years ago, I did a workshop with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., whose first book “Full Catastrophe Living� and overall teachings have had a lasting influence on me. This book is a classic on the topic of mindfulness, and it has played a spiritual role in both bringing this practice into the Integrative Medicine world, as well as in developing the method we teach our patients on how to deal with stress. I would like to share with you the Seven Essentials of Mindfulness Practice, adapted from this great book. Non-Judging Be an impartial witness to your experience. Observing without judging helps you see what is on your mind without editing or intellectualizing it, or getting lost in your thoughts. Non-Striving No goal other than to be yourself. It is not about achieving bliss,
relaxation, or anything else. Acceptance A willingness to see things the way they are. By fully accepting what each moment offers, you are able to experience life much more completely.
Be an impartial witness to your experience. Letting Go Letting go of thoughts, ideas, things, events, desires, views, hopes, and experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant. Allowing things to be as they are, without getting caught up in our attachment to or rejection of them. It means to give up resisting or struggling, and allowing things to be as they are. Watching your breath as it goes in and out is an excellent starting place for this practice of letting go.
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Rattan Singh with a client after removing his tooth in Jammu on Jan. 4.
charged 800 rupees ($12.50) for the same job. Unfortunately for Singh, this means he can’t make a living from his practice. “My father told me not to cheat anyone, so I can’t charge them exorbitant amounts of money,� he said. “Since I cannot charge extra, I cannot survive practicing this only.� He has started a small electronics business and survives by renting property in the main market nearby. And it looks as though the practice of traditional dentistry will not be carried on in his family much longer. Singh’s brothers have already given up the practice and his children aren’t interested in practicing traditional dentistry either. His apathy toward his medicinal heritage is also apparent, he says he doesn’t want to practice anymore and wants to find a new career in another industry. But until then, he is a living testament of the power of traditional healing.
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Health & Fitness
B6 January 16–22, 2015
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Parents Don’t Cause Autism and Can Make a Difference JUPITERIMAGES/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
By Kristelle Hudry Since the condition was first recognized in the 1940s, parents have been and felt blamed for their children’s autism. Today, most people no longer believe this, but a lingering doubt continues to niggle many parents. Autism was first identified in the era of psychoanalysis, when professionals looked closely at relationships to explain disability and mental illness. Childhood “autistic withdrawal” was thought to be an emotional and relational problem. Parents were blamed for their children’s autism because psychoanalysts thought cold, detached parenting must be the cause of their extreme withdrawal from the social world. Some parents were seen to interact with their children in ways that were interpreted as demanding and emotionally distant, rather than supportive and warm. But the predominant psychoanalytic view has gradually been replaced with a biomedical approach to understanding autism. Different Perspective We now believe autism spectrum disorders are based in biology—the result of something about how the brain develops. It’s still accepted that some parents have trouble interacting with their children with autism. But this isn’t their fault; these children are, by definition, difficult to interact with. Children with autism have social interaction and communication difficulties and engage in atypical, restricted, repetitive behaviors. These core symptoms limit their ability to interact with others and get in the way when others try to engage them.
Parents can be guided to become more responsive and this benefits their children.
Finding ways to interact with their autistic children is a challenge for many parents.
It’s not just parents who have trouble engaging children with autism. The same goes for extended family members, family friends, teachers, professionals, and other children, too. But individual differences are important here. Some children with autism are particularly hard to engage; they prefer to be left alone. Others are quite keen to interact but don’t know how to go about it. Individual differences also exist among adults. Some parents (and other people) seem quick to grasp how to interact with children with autism. They find ways to catch and keep a child’s interest and to get the child to learn new skills. Other adults find it harder to read and understand children with autism. Or they have more difficulty changing their own behavior to develop strategies for engaging these children. Helpful Strategy An important feature of interaction seems to be how responsive—
as opposed to directive—adults are with children with autism. Responsive interaction includes comments or actions that build on the child’s current interest and behavior, supporting what the child is already doing. For instance, a parent might say, “It’s a car,” when the child is playing with a car. Directive parental behaviors aim to change the child’s activity or focus of attention. A parent might ask the child to “say car” when he or she is playing with a car. Or the parent might take the car away, insisting the child say the word before he or she gets the toy back. While the directive strategy might seem helpful for teaching skills to children with autism, evidence suggests responsive adult behaviors are more helpful. In the early 2000s, American researchers Michael Siller and Marian Sigman reported that more responsive parents had children with autism with better social and language skills. Recently, my colleagues and I also showed the
importance of parent responsiveness, but in a different way. We randomly assigned half of a large group of parents to a oneyear intervention program, working one-on-one with a speech therapist. The remaining parents received their usual community services. The new speech therapy program guided parents to improve skills for reading their child’s subtle social-communication signals and to interact in a more responsive way. As you might expect, many parents receiving this intervention became more responsive to their children. But we found their children’s own interaction skills also improved. Importance of Parenting Siller and Sigman showed the importance of parental responsiveness by observing later benefits for children with autism whose parents were naturally more or less responsive. We have now shown that parents can also be guided to become more responsive and that
this too benefits their children. Parenting plays an important role for the development of all children. Supporting parents to interact more responsively seems to benefit children with autism, just as supporting parents can help children with other conditions such as anxiety. Many autism researchers seem reluctant to study parent-child interaction, so the topic is something of an elephant in the room. We all know there’s some kind of relationship there, but many don’t seem to want to talk about it because of the risk of reviving the ghost of parental-blame past. But just because we feel uncomfortable talking about something doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. And if we are going to talk about parenting and autism, we’d better also do some research on it, to make sure we’re talking sense. Kristelle Hudry, Ph.D., is a lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia. This article was originally published at TheConversation.com.
Daily Avocado Diet May Cut Cholesterol By Victoria Indivero A diet containing a moderate amount of fat and one avocado a day may help lower “bad” cholesterol. This, in turn, could reduce the risk of heart disease, say researchers. Avocados are known to be a nutrient-dense food, high in monounsaturated fatty acids. Previous studies have sug-
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gested that avocados are a cholesterol-lowering food, but this study looks at the health implications of avocados beyond monounsaturated fatty acids. “Including one avocado each day as part of a moderate-fat, cholesterol-lowering diet, compared to a comparable moderate-fat diet without an avocado, provides additional LDL- [lowdensity lipoproteins] lowering effects, which benefit CVD [cardiovascular disease] risk,” says Penny M. Kris-Etherton, professor of nutrition at Penn State University. Comparing Three Diets Kris-Etherton and colleagues tested three different diets, all designed to lower cholesterol: a lower-fat diet consisting of 24 percent fat, and two moderatefat diets with 34 percent fat. The moderate-fat diets were nearly identical; however, one diet incorporated one Hass avocado every day, while the other used a comparable amount of high-oleic-acid oils—such as olive oil—to match the fatty acid content of one avocado. The researchers tested the diets with 45 healthy but overweight adults between the ages of 21 and 70. Compared to the participants’ baseline measurements, all three diets significantly lowered LDL—also known as “bad” cholesterol— as well as total cholesterol. However, participants experienced an even greater reduc-
tion in LDL and total cholesterol while on the avocado diet, compared to the other two diets, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The avocado diet was linked to a decrease in LDL of 13.5 mg/ dL, while LDL decreased by 8.3 mg/dL on the other moderatefat diet and by 7.4 mg/dL on the lower-fat diet. All participants followed each of the three diets for five weeks. They were given a two-week break in between each diet. Blood samples were taken at the beginning and the end of each study period. Subjects were randomly assigned the order in which they received each diet assignment. “This was a controlled feeding study, but that is not the real world—so it is more of a proofof-concept investigation,” KrisEtherton says. “We need to focus on getting people to eat a healthy diet that includes avocados and other food sources of better fats.”
Beyond Guacamole Kris-Etherton points out that many people in the United States don’t know how to use or prepare avocados, with the exception of guacamole. However, guacamole is usually eaten with corn chips, which are high in both sodium and calories. “People should start thinking about eating avocados in new ways,” Kris-Etherton says. “I think using it as a condiment is a great way to incorporate avocados into meals—for instance, putting a slice or two on a sandwich or using chopped avocado in a salad or to season vegetables.” Kris-Etherton and colleagues note that further research will need to be conducted to examine a larger and more diverse study sample and to explore further how high-density lipoproteins—“good” cholesterol— might be affected by a diet that includes avocados. From Penn State University via Futurity.org OLGAKR/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
An avocado a day may help keep the doctor away.
Health & Fitness
It’s 6.30 a.m., and after a long holiday break, your alarm clock is insistently telling you it’s time to get out of bed. For many people—me included— the automatic reaction is to hit the snooze button, often more than once. But while it might feel like those extra minutes leave you more rested, morning snoozes can leave you feeling groggier and less alert—and late. Sleep Regulation Sleep is regulated by two mechanisms: a homeostatic process based on prior sleep and wake, and a circadian process commonly referred to as our 24-hour body clock. These processes work together to influence when we go to sleep and get up, and sleep structure during the night. Throughout the night, sleep cycles between deep sleep and light sleep, with each cycle lasting approximately 90 to 100 minutes. Deep sleep, which is difficult to wake from, dominates in the early parts of sleep, while light sleep, which is easier to be woken from, is more common closer to natural waking. Each time we fall asleep, sleep starts at the beginning of the cycle. Shortly before waking, our
sleep becomes lighter, our core body temperature rises, and the levels of hormones such as cortisol increase. If we were to sleep naturally without that pesky alarm clock, these factors would allow our bodies to gradually prepare for waking. When we use an alarm clock, we may be woken during the middle of a sleep cycle—when our bodies have not had time to fully prepare us for waking. This may lead to an increase in sleep inertia, the groggy feeling you have immediately upon waking, and often the inevitable snoozing cycle. When you hit snooze and fall back asleep, your sleep cycle starts from the beginning. Except this time when your alarm goes off, if you’re in a deeper stage of sleep, it’s a lot harder to wake up. The end result is that the last portion of your sleep becomes highly fragmented. This means you miss out on the recovery benefits of consolidated sleep, and your ability to function effectively during the rest of the day may be impaired.
January 16–22, 2015
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Why It’s Time to Stop Hitting the Snooze Button By Gemma Paech
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When we use an alarm clock, we may be woken during the middle of a sleep cycle, when our bodies have not had time to fully prepare us for waking.
Regular exercise and a healthy diet, along with natural morning light exposure, can improve sleep.
Resist the Urge While the ability to resist hitting the snooze button may just come down to self-control, there are two biological reasons why some of us are more inclined to do so. The first relates to diurnal preferences. People who are
morning birds generally find it easier to wake up unaided, while us night owls find it a lot harder. The circadian rhythm of the early birds allows them to fall asleep earlier and, therefore, they’re more likely to complete their natural sleep cycle by the time the alarm goes off in the morning. Night owls prefer to stay awake for longer at night and sleep later into the morning, making it difficult to get up in the morning and often resulting in truncated sleep. The desire to hit snooze may also relate to whether you’re suffering from sleep loss. When you’re sleep-deprived, you require longer, deeper sleep periods. There is a greater chance of being woken during a deeper
stage of sleep—and, therefore, want to snooze—when you’re sleep-deprived. The best way to keep your hand off the snooze button is to have a regular sleep schedule every day of the week. Set a bedtime and wake time and keep to it, even on weekends. After a while, your body will naturally adapt to this schedule and it will be easier to wake up in the morning. If your boss or job allows it, flexible working hours can allow you to sleep according to your natural circadian preference. For many people, this is not possible, so you may need to shift your body clock. The easiest way to do this is to get natural sunlight during the daytime and reduce light exposure at night.
Other lifestyle factors can also help you sleep better and wake up more refreshed. Regular exercise and a healthy diet, along with natural morning light exposure, can improve sleep. Minimizing your alcohol and caffeine intake can also help consolidate your sleep period and make waking easier. So if your New Year’s resolution is to adopt a healthier lifestyle, you might see your sleep patterns improve, too. Gemma Paech, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Sleep and Performance Research Center, Washington State University. This article was originally published on TheConversation.com.
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Do You Suffer from Varicose Veins? In a study on children’s report cards and sleep, greater sleep efficiency was associated with better math and language grades, but grades in science and art weren’t affected.
Children’s Sleep Quality Matters for School By Cynthia Lee A new study finds a link between a good night’s sleep for schoolage kids and better performance in math and languages—subjects that are powerful predictors of later learning and academic success. In the journal Sleep Medicine, the researchers reported that “sleep efficiency” is associated with higher academic performance in those key subjects. Sleep efficiency is a gauge of sleep quality that compares the amount of actual sleep time with the total time spent in bed. While other studies have pointed to links between sleep and general academic performance, the scientists examined the impact of sleep quality on report-card grades in specific subjects. With greater sleep efficiency, the children did better in math and languages—but grades in science and art weren’t affected. “We believe that executive functions (the mental skills
involved in planning, paying attention, and multitasking, for example) underlie the impact of sleep on academic performance, and these skills are more critical in math and languages than in other subjects,” says Reut Gruber, a clinical child psychologist who led the study. Low academic achievement in children is a common and serious problem that affects 10–20 percent of the population. “Short or poor sleep is a significant risk factor for poor academic performance that is frequently ignored,” says Gruber, who is a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and professor in McGill University’s psychiatry department. Sleep Screenings Gruber’s research team, in collaboration with the Riverside School Board in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, studied 75 healthy children between 7 and 11 years of age. The children’s nighttime sleep was monitored by actigraphy, which uses a wristwatch-like device to eval-
uate sleep by measuring movements. “We averaged the data over five nights to build the children’s habitual sleep patterns and correlated the data with their report-card grades,” Gruber says. The findings underscore the importance of identifying sleep issues that may otherwise go unnoticed, Gruber says. That doesn’t mean parents need to rush out and have their kids tested at sleep clinics—but it does point to a need for pediatricians to incorporate questions about sleep into routine checkups, she adds. “I think many kids might have some sleep issues that nobody is aware of,” she says. “And if the pediatrician doesn’t ask about it, we don’t know that it’s there. Regular screening for possible sleep issues is particularly important for students who exhibit difficulties in math, languages, or reading.” From McGill University, Canada, via Futurity.org
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Chinese Medicine and Asthma By Lynn Jaffee
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bout 20 years ago while biking through the countryside in Wisconsin, I witnessed my first serious asthma attack. My husband and I were riding with our friends Lenny and Kathy. We were flying down country roads, past rolling hills, farms, and stands of wild flowers. A long steep hill caught our attention, and the four of us attacked it, trying to hold onto the momentum we had built up. The next thing I knew, Kathy was on the ground beside her bike, crying. I remember thinking, “Hey, lighten up, it’s not that big of a hill.” It turned out that Kathy was having an asthma attack—a fairly serious one. She was getting panicky because she couldn’t breathe, and she had left her inhaler back at the hotel. It took some time, but we were able to get Kathy calmed down until the attack passed, and we gently finished our ride. Asthma is no laughing matter. Over 16 million adults and 7 million children in America suffer from asthma, and it kills about 5,000 people a year.
In Chinese medicine, asthma may be caused by the environment, strong emotions, poor diet, stress, overwork, and being depleted by chronic illness.
Asthma occurs because the airways in your lungs tighten, become inflamed, or become filled with mucus. The symptoms include shortness of breath, chest tightness, coughing, and wheezing. Symptoms may be frequent or occasional, and they may be mild, severe, or even life-threatening.
Different Patterns
In Chinese medicine, there is always some element of phlegm associated with a diagnosis of asthma. In fact, the Chinese use the term “abiding phlegm” in talking about asthma—meaning that even when you’re not having symptoms, the phlegm is always an underlying cause of the condition. In Chinese medicine, asthma may be caused by the environment, strong emotions, poor diet, stress, overwork, and being depleted by chronic illness. There are a number of underlying patterns, or Chinese medical diagnoses, that are associated with asthma. A couple can be by-products of a bad cold or flu, in that the asthma flares up when you’re is sick. The patterns include the following:
Wind and Cold
This is the kind of asthma you get when you have a cold, and it sinks into your chest, making it hard for you to breathe. Typical symptoms include a headache, aches and pains, a low-grade fever, mild chills, a sensation of feeling cold, chest tightness, and coughing with thin, white phlegm. While this pattern is usually
associated with a cold or the flu, it can occur without your ever feeling sick. In that case, allergies, cold air, wind, or even exercise may be the triggers.
Phlegm and Heat
If you don’t get over your cold right away, your chest may remain congested, and you may wheeze and cough up thick yellow phlegm. Inflammation or infection is a player in this pattern, so you will also feel hot and thirsty. You may run a fever and feel dry and constipated. Again, this pattern doesn’t necessarily have to be the by-product of a cold or the flu.
Lung Deficiency
This tends to be a less severe form of asthma. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a weak voice, a forceless cough, wheezing, sweating (not necessarily associated with feeling hot), and thin white or clear phlegm. Lung deficiency sounds exactly like what it is—weak lungs.
Kidney Deficiency
How could your kidney have anything to do with asthma? In Chinese medicine, your kidney is associated with your bodily constitution, the strength of your health, how well you age, and the strength of your energetic reserves. A weak kidney system is associated with an overall depletion of energy—you feel run down. This is the type of asthma that is frequently triggered by exercise, exertion, or cold. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, difficulty inhaling, fatigue, feeling cold to your core,
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In Chinese medicine, the underlying causes of asthma are treated with a combination of acupuncture and herbs, along with food therapy and lifestyle changes.
Practicing yoga, tai chi, or Qigong can help you learn to breathe better.
and cold extremities.
Treatment Pathways
Treatment for asthma, according to Chinese medicine, is twofold. During the acute stage, the first order of business is to calm the attack and promote smooth respiration. This would be done using acupuncture and herbs. It needs to be said here that if your asthma is not under control, an attack can be serious and could even be life-threatening. This means that you need to be under the care of a doctor who can prescribe medications, usually as an inhaler, for emergency attacks. The second level of treatment is to alleviate the underlying cause of your asthma when you’re not having symptoms. For example, if phlegm and heat are causing your asthma, then treatment would focus on reducing or drying the phlegm and clearing your heat. Again, a combination of acupuncture and herbs, combined with food therapy and lifestyle changes, would be used. Here are a few tips that may be helpful in controlling and alleviating your symptoms: 1. Avoid triggers that cause your symptoms. These may include the cold and certain exercise, allergens, and foods. 2. Stay out of smoky rooms. 3. If you also suffer from heartburn, know that a flare-up can aggravate your asthma. Deal with the heartburn to help control your asthma. 4. Keep your neck and chest warm, especially if the cold is a trigger for you. Wear a scarf. 5. Take it easy on the dairy DRAGONIMAGES/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
Keep your neck and chest warm. Wear a scarf.
Breathing exercises can help alleviate exerciseinduced asthma.
products. They tend to produce phlegm. 6. Try breathing exercises. Take a yoga, tai chi, or Qigong class. Otherwise, try the following: Inhale to the count of four, hold to the count of seven, and exhale to the count of eight. Do a set of four a couple of times a day. Breathing exercises completely alleviated my exercise-induced asthma. 7. It’s great to go the alternative medicine route, but don’t be stupid. Use your inhaler if you’re having an attack. 8. If you get caught without your inhaler, try some caffeine. It acts like the asthma drug Theophylline. A cup of coffee or tea before your workout may also keep exerciseinduced symptoms under control. 9. Try some vitamin B6: 50 milligrams a day may help with the severity of your symptoms. 10. Keep in touch with your lungs. It’s important to recognize patterns so you can head off an attack. See your doctor if your symptoms seem to be getting worse or harder to control. This article is provided for information only and is not meant to prescribe medical care. Please consult a physician for treatment of medical problems. Lynn Jaffee is a licensed acupuncturist and the author of “Simple Steps: The Chinese Way to Better Health.” This article was originally published on AcupunctureTwinCities.com. AZMANJAKA/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK
If you get caught without your inhaler, try some caffeine. A cup of coffee or tea before your workout may also keep exercise-induced symptoms under control.