Food for thought: Thinking makes us pig out

Study: Intellectual activities make people eat more than when resting
By Robert Roy Britt

Food for thought: Intellectual activities make people eat more than when just resting, according to a study that sheds new light on brain food.

This finding might also help explain the obesity epidemic of an increasingly sedentary society in which people still have to think now and then.

Researchers split 14 university student volunteers into three groups for a 45-minute session of either relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, or completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. Story continues

Health Tip: Using a Dietary Supplement

(HealthDay News) -- More than half of Americans take a dietary supplement of some kind, the Cleveland Clinic says.

But all supplements aren't safe and effective. The clinic offers this primer:

• There's no better substitute for a healthy, balanced diet, which can provide most healthy people with all of the nutrients they need.


• Supplements are a good option for people who can't get enough of certain needed nutrients through diet. Pregnant women, athletes and vegetarians are prime examples.


• Too much of a good thing can cause serious health problems. Be sure not to exceed the recommended daily amount of any supplement.


• Supplements aren't regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so it's up to consumers to carefully check supplement labels to be sure what they're taking.

Degenerative Diseases Tragedy

Degenerative Diseases Tragedy

Bioidentical Hormones- Do You Need Them?

Dr. Jonathan Wright explains the importance of using hormones that are exactly identical to the hormones your body made when you were younger.

The 9 Best Natural Medicines for Depression

These 9 best natural Medicines are helping people with depression using naturopathic medicine. Alternative medicines, herbal medicine, nutritional therapies, diet, and lifestyle are wonderful complementary approaches to addressing depression over the long haul. read moredigg story

Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb: New Research Uncovers Which Diet Will Help You Lose Weight

By Ross Weale

Should you go low-carb, cut out the fat, or follow the Mediterranean approach?

Health.com’s executive editor Amy O’Connor visited the Fox News Channel on July 22 and weighed in on a new diet study from The New England Journal of Medicine. Watch the clip to learn which diet will help you lose weight.

Read More

Tomatoes May Not Be Only Source of Salmonella Outbreak

(HealthDay News) -- Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now say they're no longer sure that the nationwide salmonella outbreak is due to tomatoes alone, or some other food source.

"Whatever this produce item is that's causing illness is probably still out there making people sick," Dr. Patricia Griffin, chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the CDC, told reporters late Friday at a special press teleconference. She did not say what source other than tomatoes, if any, might be suspected.

The number of people sickened in the outbreak has now jumped to 810 across 36 states, according to the latest CDC numbers presented Friday.

Health officials said the most recent reported case of infection with Salmonella Saintpaul occurred June 15. However, more illnesses may be waiting to be identified: According to experts, it typically takes an average of 16 days before doctors can pinpoint the onset of an infection.

The exact source of the outbreak remains unknown. Tomatoes are still considered the most probable cause, stressed Dr. David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for food protection.

"The most recent case appeared to have onset just 12 days ago, and that raises the question is there something still out there that people are consuming that is leading to illness," he said. "Just because the outbreak is ongoing doesn't mean it can't be the tomatoes. It certainly could be the tomatoes, there's nothing to indicate that we should be looking at anything else," he said.

"We have no evidence that the outbreak is over... I would say that the source of contamination has been ongoing at least through early June and we don't have any evidence that whatever the source is has been removed from the market," Griffin said.

One factor complicating the search for the cause of the outbreak is a common industry practice called "repacking."

"Repacking is a situation in which a supplier or a distributor will repack tomatoes to meet a specific customer's request," Acheson explained. "So, if a customer is wanting small, ripe tomatoes and the supplier does not have a box of small ripe tomatoes, then they will typically go through multiple boxes and pull out ones that meet customers' specifications and repack them. It's a very, very common practice. We've seen reports that it may be as common as 90 percent of tomatoes get repacked, but we don't have confirmation that the number is that high. Obviously this complicates the trace-back," Acheson said.

He also said that it was possible that tomatoes were contaminated at a packing and distribution center, not a particular farm. That means that produce from states that have been cleared may have gone through packing or distribution houses elsewhere, and become contaminated there.

The food poisoning scare ranks as the largest on record in terms of illnesses linked to tainted produce, the CDC said. "This is so far the biggest outbreak with this number of illnesses confirmed by culture," Griffin noted.

More than 300 of the total cases from the current outbreak come from Texas. Patient ages range from under 1 year old to 99 years old. Half the victims are women.

In addition, at least 95 people have been hospitalized; there have been no deaths, the CDC reported.

The FDA had sent teams of investigators to Florida and Mexico as of last weekend to inspect farms, packing houses and distribution centers. There has been no word yet on what has been found.

The increase in people sickened by salmonella was not unexpected. Three weeks ago, the count was below 200; it jumped to more than 380 a week later.

The CDC had predicted last week that for every reported case, there would be 30 more that had gone unreported.

And health officials had warned that the end was not yet in sight.

"The marked increase is not due to new infections, but mainly because some states improved surveillance in response to this outbreak, and laboratory identification of many other previously submitted strains has now been completed," said Casey Barton Behravesh, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a June 19 teleconference.

According to the numbers on the CDC's Web site -- which do not include the latest cases -- the victim count breaks down by state to: Arkansas (10 persons), Arizona (38), California (10), Colorado (6), Connecticut (4), Florida (1), Georgia (15), Idaho (3), Illinois (66), Indiana (11), Kansas (11), Kentucky (1), Maryland (25), Massachusetts (17), Michigan (4), Missouri (12), New Hampshire (3), Nevada (4), New Jersey (4), New Mexico (80), New York (18), North Carolina (5), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (17), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (6), Rhode Island (3), Tennessee (6), Texas (330), Utah (2), Virginia (22), Vermont (1), Washington (4), Wisconsin (6), and the District of Columbia (1).

On June 20, Acheson said the investigation into the outbreak had zeroed in on "a number of farms" in both Florida and Mexico.

Health officials have said all along that the bulk of the tomatoes available at the start of the outbreak in mid-April had come from Mexico and parts of Florida.

Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea in humans. Some 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States each year, although the CDC estimates that because milder cases are not diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 30 or more times greater. Approximately 600 people die each year after being infected.

However, the strain of Salmonella Saintpaul had been previously considered rare. In 2007, according to the CDC, there were only three people infected in the country during April through June.

More information
Visit the CDC for more on the salmonella outbreak.

Is Your Church Making You Fat?

By Andrea Useem

Plenty of studies have looked at whether being religious improves your health (in the U.S. at least, the current answer is a qualified yes), but Purdue University sociologist Ken Ferraro took a serious look at a different question: How does being religious affect your body mass index (BMI)?
In a 2006 study, Ferraro discovered that Baptists, including Southern Baptists, were most likely to be obese, even when geographic factors were controlled for (i.e., it wasn’t just the southern cookin’). “[Conservative] Protestants tend to have the highest BMIs,” he told me when I called him last week. The explanation? Ferraro has several guesses. Read More

Diabetes: The 2-for-1 Special

By Sean Kelley

In the past few weeks, there have been news stories linking type 2 diabetes to a host of other conditions. We’ve known for a long time that type 2 diabetes was a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, that it’s associated with obesity, and that diabetics can also have depression, erectile dysfunction, and a host of other complications.
What has been less clear (but is becoming more so by the day) is that other diseases can often be a gateway to diabetes. On June 17, researchers at Johns Hopkins University released a study showing that patients with depression have a higher risk of diabetes. A week before that, the International Diabetes Federation issued a statement recommending that patients with obstructive sleep apnea be screened for metabolic disease and type 2 diabetes. Read More

Is My Food-Allergy-Prone Child Getting His Vitamins?

By Sean Kelley

When our 19-month-old son Graeme was diagnosed with food allergies, our allergist sent home excellent documentation on what foods to avoid. Her goal: Prevent the kind of reaction that results in Graeme scratching himself bloody (see photo).

She told us what he couldn’t eat. But she didn’t tell us what we should feed him. When your child has multiple food allergies, the list of dietary options shrinks. I knew things were going to be a challenge as soon as corn, soy, and wheat popped up on his chart. Still, I was dumbfounded by the response of our allergist. Read More

5 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism and Lose Weight

Magnesium, interval training, and other tricks to burn more calories
by Ross Weale

Health magazine contributor Samantha Heller shows how to burn more calories, during an interview on the Today show, March 10.



SAMANTHA HELLER
Samantha Heller, RD, is the nutrition coordinator at the Fairfield Connecticut YMCA. A certified dietitian/nutritionist and exercise physiologist, Heller earned her master's degree in nutrition and applied physiology from Teachers’ College, Columbia University. She served as the senior clinical nutritionist and exercise physiologist at NYU Medical center in New York City for almost a decade and created and ran the outpatient nutrition program for the NYU Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. She has also been a fitness instructor for 15 years. Heller specializes in nutrition, wellness, stress management, and fitness for people who are fighting heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

A contributing editor to Health magazine, her writing has also appeared in numerous other magazines, including Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, and Glamour, as well as sites such as Fitness.com.

Health Tip: If You Have to Take Iron Supplements

(HealthDay News) -- If you are anemic or need iron supplements for another reason, taking the pills can be difficult.

The American Academy of Family Physicians suggests how to make taking iron supplements a little easier:

• Take the pills with food.


• Gradually work your way up to the number of pills your doctor prescribed each day. Start out with one a day, then after three to five days, begin increasing the amount until you've reached the daily dose recommended by your doctor.


• If iron pills make you constipated, add fiber to your daily diet.


• If the pills make your stomach upset, don't take them before you go to sleep.


• If a particular brand causes problems, ask your doctor about different brands or formulas.

Diabetics Face Doubled Risk of Heart Attack

(HealthDay News) -- Diabetics are more than twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular disease, putting them at the same risk level as non-diabetics who had previously suffered a heart attack, Danish researchers report.

The findings, appearing in April 1 issue of Circulation, led one study author to suggest all diabetics talk to their doctors about possibly starting treatments to control cholesterol levels and blood-pressure levels.

"We've talked about 'the lower, the better' for cholesterol and blood pressure to reduce the risk of heart attack," lead author Dr. Tina Ken Schramm, a research fellow at the Gentofte Hospital in Hellerup, Denmark, said in a prepared statement. "Now I think we should be saying the sooner, the better for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases in diabetics."

The study analyzes patient and national registries for people aged 30 and older living in Denmark in 1997. Researchers found 71,801 people with diabetes and 79,575 who had a previous heart attack, then identified deaths and causes of death over five years.

"The increased risk was observed in people at all ages with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes who were receiving insulin or other drugs to reduce levels of sugar in the blood," Schramm said. "When people with diabetes do have heart attacks, they are twice as likely to die as non-diabetics."

The relative risk, or hazard ratio, of dying from cardiovascular disease was found to be 2.45 times greater for female diabetics compared with 2.62 times greater for women with a prior heart attack. The relative risk of dying from cardiovascular causes was 2.42 times higher in male diabetics; for men who had a prior heart attack the hazard ratio was 2.44.

When looking at heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease combined, men with diabetes faced a 2.32 higher risk while the risk rate was 2.48 for men who had at least one heart attack. For female diabetics, the combined relative risk was 2.48 while those with a history of myocardial infarction had a hazard ratio of 2.71.

The study did not look at patients on diet-only treatment for diabetes. The researchers also couldn't differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients or adjust for common risk factors, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, physical activity and blood glucose levels.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, develops when the body doesn't make enough insulin and fails to efficiently use what insulin it does produce. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas makes little or no insulin, requiring the patient to need daily doses of insulin.

More information
The American Diabetes Association has more about diabetes prevention.

Vitamin E Supplements May Raise Lung Cancer Risk

(HealthDay News) -- Vitamin supplements won't protect people against lung cancer and taking vitamin E may even heighten the risk, a new study finds.

The survey covered the supplement-taking habits and lung cancer incidence of almost 78,000 adults in the state of Washington over a four-year period.

"Our study of supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E and folate did not show any evidence for a decreased risk of lung cancer," study author Dr. Christopher G. Slatore, a fellow in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington, said in a statement. "Indeed, increasing intake of supplemental vitamin E was associated with a slightly increased risk of lung cancer."

As reported in the March issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the research focused on men and women aged 50 to 76 taking part in the four-year VITAmins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study. Lung cancer was diagnosed in 521 participants surveyed.

In addition to the expected association with smoking, family history and other lung cancer risk factors, there was a slight but statistically significant association with vitamin E supplementation and incidence of the disease, the researchers found.

Every increase in vitamin E of 100 milligrams per day was associated with a 7 percent rise in lung cancer risk -- translating into a 28 percent increase in risk over 10 years for someone taking 400 milligrams of vitamin E daily.

"This provides additional evidence that taking vitamin supplements does not help prevent lung cancer," said Eric Jacobs, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology at the American Cancer Society.

The society does not currently recommend use of any vitamin supplement to prevent malignancy, Jacobs said. However, "our dietary guidelines do recommend eating five or more servings of a variety of vegetables each day," he noted.

A representative of the supplements industry called the study results "not all that surprising."
"Vitamins are essential nutrients that act to maintain health and prevent vitamin deficiency," Pamela Mason, spokeswoman for the London-based Health Supplements Information Service, said in a statement. "They were never intended to be used to prevent chronic disease such as cancer. Indeed, it would be asking a lot of a vitamin pill to expect it to prevent cancer."

Since the primary cause of lung cancer is smoking, the best preventive measure is simply not to smoke, Jacobs said. Nutrients can play an auxiliary role, he noted. Anyone who cannot quit should avoid taking beta-carotene supplements, because studies have linked them to an increased risk of lung cancer, Jacobs said.

On the other hand, "for former smokers, there is some evidence that vegetables high in carotinoids, such as carrots and sweet peas, decrease the risk," he said.

Some vitamins have been linked to a reduced risk of other cancers, added Edward Gorham, an associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California at San Diego.

"We have worked with vitamin D, and we found a protective effect of vitamin D on colon cancer, breast cancer and ovarian cancer, and recently a modest effect on lung cancer," Gorham said.
But that effect came not from supplements but from sunlight, which causes vitamin D to be formed in the human body, he said.

"These results with multivitamins dont surprise me because there is so little vitamin D in multi-supplements, 100 or 200 International Units," Gorham said. "To achieve the effect, it takes 2,000 IU. If youre in the tropics, that amounts to 10 or 15 minutes in the sun. In southern California, it takes 10 or 15 minutes in the summer and longer in the winter because the sun angle is so low."

One study has also associated vitamin D supplements with a decreased risk of colon and breast cancer in women, Gorham said.

More information
There's more on nutrition and cancer prevention at the American Cancer Society.

Ginkgo Biloba Might Not Preserve Memory in Octogenarians

(HealthDay News) -- Ginkgo biloba, the popular herbal supplement widely promoted as a memory enhancer, offered no clear-cut protection against memory loss in octogenarians, a new study shows.

And a small but disturbing pattern showed up in those who took the herb extract during the three-year study, the researchers added.

"Seven had TIAs (transient ischemic attacks, or mini-strokes) or stroke," said study author Dr. Hiroko Dodge, an assistant professor of public health at Oregon State University. Exactly why this happened requires further study, she added.

Ginkgo biloba is believed to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, protecting cell membranes and helping govern the workings of the brain's chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters. Some studies have found that the herb may help some people with Alzheimer's disease.

Dodge's team evaluated 118 men and women aged 85 and older who were all free of memory complaints at the start of the study. They scored normally on a memory function test before being admitted to the study. Half were assigned to take 240 milligrams of ginkgo biloba extract daily; half got a placebo.

Overall, Dodge found that 21 people developed mild memory problems during the study -- 14 took placebo, and 7 took the ginkgo supplement. "There was a clear tendency that ginkgo prevents memory decline," but the differences in the preservation of memory between the two groups were not statistically significant, she said.

But when the researchers did a secondary analysis, taking into account the level of medication adherence, those who actually remembered to take the extract did show some benefit. "Those taking the ginkgo extract [on a regular basis] had a 70 percent lower risk of developing mild memory problems than those taking placebo," she said.

It is not clear whether the difference is a chance occurrence or not.

"We have to wait for larger studies," Dodge said.

More research is also needed, she said, on why the 7 participants who had strokes or mini-strokes were all on the extract and what that association might be.

Another expert agreed, calling the findings inconclusive.

"The study was really too small to provide conclusive results on the benefits and risks of ginkgo supplement," said Dr. Paul Aisen, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego.

"Without a larger study, I would certainly not recommend the use of ginkgo biloba extract in those 85 and over," he said. Overall, he added, the bulk of studies published in the medical literature do not provide enough proof to recommend the herb for preserving memory and cognitive function.

Likewise, the Alzheimer's Association says on its Web site that while the herb may help some people with Alzheimer's disease, further research is needed to find the exact way in which it works. Experts are awaiting the results of a much larger, multi-center trial based at the University of Pittsburgh. That trial compared the effects of the herb with a placebo in 3,000 people to see if ginkgo biloba helped prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The trial ran through 2007, and the results will not be available until some time later.

Dodge's study is published in the Feb. 27 online issue of Neurology.

More information
To learn more about alternative treatments for Alzheimer's, visit the Alzheimer's Association.