Hi to all
Hope this finds you all in good health and spirits. This week I added a Book Review section, as I found some interesting books on the Net.
TIDBITS
Health Tip: Zinc in Your Diet
(HealthDay News) - Zinc is a mineral that the body needs to help the immune system, in wound healing, and in the breakdown of carbohydrates. Second only to iron in its concentration in the body, zinc is found in protein-rich foods such as meat, peanuts and peanut butter, and legumes. If you're not getting enough zinc, here's a list of possible warning signs, courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine:
· Slow growth rate.
· No appetite.
· Slow-healing wounds, lesions on the skin, and persistent infections.
· Hair loss.
· Abnormalities in your ability to taste and smell.
· Difficulty seeing in the dark.
· Insufficient hormone production in men.
Fruit may reduce Alzheimer's risk
ITHACA, N.Y., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Apples, bananas and oranges protect against neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, New York researchers said. Chang Y. Lee of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said apples, bananas and oranges are the most common fruits in Western and Asian diets and are important sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber. The Cornell University researchers investigated the effects of apple, banana and orange extracts on neuron cells and found that the phenolic phytochemicals of the fruits prevented neurotoxicity on the cells.
The study, published in the Journal of Food Science, said among the three fruits, apples contained the highest content of protective antioxidants, followed by bananas and then oranges. The study demonstrated that antioxidants in the major fresh fruits consumed in the United States protected neuronal cells from oxidative stress," the authors said in a statement. "Additional consumption of fresh fruits such as apples, bananas and oranges may be beneficial to improve effects in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's."
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/01/31/fruit_may_reduce_alzheimers_risk/3654/
VIDEOS
Win Any Argument
Tired of losing arguments? Learn how to win any argument the Video Jug way.
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&fg=rss&vid=74cbd727-217f-45f0-99a1-3e67b904b597&from=im_default
Genes and your vote
Do genes play a role in how we vote? CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/02/11/cohen.genes.politics.cnn?iref=videosearch
Teens wired for sleep
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports on teenagers' need for sleep.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2008/02/11/cohen.teen.sleep.cnn?iref=videosearch
'Helicopter' parents
Well-meaning parents can sometimes harm their children emotionally. Judy Fortin reports in this Health Minute.
The Science of the Senses Video Excerpt
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/scienceofthesenses/video.html
BOOK REVIEW
Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain (2008) By David Bainbridge
In this geographical tour of the nervous system, readers will find an entertaining and enlightening history of neuroscience and a look at the anatomy of the brain. A clinical anatomist at Cambridge University, Bainbridge (The X in Sex) has had ample opportunity to examine the brain and ponder its origins and function—as well as the many strange and marvelous names of its parts, labeled long before anyone knew what they did. The Zonules of Zinn—a name from an ancient map, from a souk, from another galaxy—are small fibers attached to the lens of the eye that adjust it for seeing at different distances. Bainbridge discusses the history and function of each name: in addition to hillocks and pyramids are the Almonds (amygdalae), part of the emotional response system, and the locus coeruleus, or sky-blue place, involved in alertness and stress. Your brain even has its own Area 51, thanks to a German neuroanatomist whose system of numbering different regions of the cerebral cortex is still used today. Bainbridge's tour also includes short discussions of nervous system disorders like multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. The book's relaxed pace, interesting tangents and broad coverage make this book eminently suitable for anyone curious about the brain. 30 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Zonules-Zinn-Fantastic-Journey/dp/0674026101?ie=UTF8
Deeper Learning: 7 Powerful Strategies for In-Depth and Longer-Lasting Learning (Paperback) by Eric P. Jensen, LeAnn Nickelsen
Practical strategies to take your students' understanding from "So what?" to "Wow!"
With the amount of content that teachers have to teach, how can we ensure that students gain a deep and lasting understanding of what they have learned? Based on the most current research on cognition and the brain, this exciting book provides teachers with a systematic, reflective approach to incorporating powerful learning and content processing techniques into everyday instruction.
Nationally recognized experts Eric Jensen and LeAnn Nickelsen outline the Deeper Learning Cycle (DELC), an instructional model that incorporates brain research, standards, and individual learning differences, to help educators teach for deeper understanding and critical thinking. This invaluable resource includes:
· In-depth chapters explaining the seven stages of the DELC: planning with standards and curriculum, pre-assessing, building a positive learning culture, priming and activating prior knowledge, acquiring new knowledge, processing the learning, and evaluating student learning
· A Deeper Learning lesson plan template to apply to daily instruction
· 50 strategies to differentiate instruction based on learning levels and to help students process content in meaningful ways
· Reflection questions to help teachers apply the material to their own practice
Deeper Learning is a powerful tool to promote and support student progress beyond the surface level of understanding in any subject area.
ARTICLES
BRAIN
Patterns: A Video Game, an M.R.I. and What Men’s Brains Do By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Why does it often seem that men enjoy playing video games more than women? Perhaps because they do.
A new study finds that when men play the games, a part of the brain involved in feelings of reward and addiction becomes much more activated than it does in women.
This may explain why men are more likely to report feeling addicted to video games than women are, the researchers say in an online article in The Journal of Psychiatric Research. ... The study found that in the men, there was much more activity in the mesocorticolimbic system.
Strokes cause brain damage in three minutes, report scientists by Deborah Jones
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - Strokes cause brain damage within three minutes, scientists reported Thursday, casting doubt on the common public perception that all strokes can be medically treated within three hours.
The findings show that prevention is the best strategy for one of the top killers in the developed world, said Dr. Tim Murphy, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia in this Western Canadian city.
Some people can be helped within that time, but "I'm saying, there are structural changes that happen very early on, and so the best thing is to manage risk factors and alter lifestyle," Murphy said.
About 80 percent of strokes are ischemic, and are caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, which helped to fund the research.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080215/hl_afp/canadasciencestroke;_ylt=Aos1kk02m22dpUy52tR6Vq29j7AB
Chronic Pain Harms Brain's Wiring
FRIDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Chronic pain can disrupt brain function and cause problems such as disturbed sleep, depression, anxiety and difficulty making simple decisions, a U.S. study finds.
Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago used functional MRI to scan brain activity in people with chronic low back pain while they tracked a moving bar on a computer screen. They did the same thing with a control group of people with no pain.
In those with no pain, the brain regions displayed a state of equilibrium. When one region was active, the other regions calmed down. But in people with chronic pain, the front region of the cortex mostly associated with emotion "never shuts up," study author Dante Chialvo, an associate research professor of physiology, said in a prepared statement. This region remains highly active, which wears out neurons and alters their connections to each other. This constant firing of neurons could cause permanent damage.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20080209/hl_hsn/chronicpainharmsbrainswiring
Brain Circuits That Suppress Memory Found
May lead to better understanding of amnesia
THURSDAY, Jan. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Brain circuits that play a key role in memory suppression have been identified by Israeli researchers.
The findings may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying amnesia, said the researchers from The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. The study appears in the Jan. 10 issue of Neuron.
EVOLUTION
Using Butterfly Time, We Can Learn Secrets Of Our Own ‘Clocks’ by Robert Lee Hotz
In the highlands of central Mexico, millions of monarch butterflies soon will stir from their winter torpor, rising from groves of oyamel firs like flowers taking flight. Their unique annual migration offers scientists a rare insight into the molecular biology of time and travel. "What good is a butterfly?" said entomologist Lincoln Brower at Virginia's Sweet Briar College. "It can tell you about the fundamental biology of all creatures on this earth. There is something so fundamental about finding your way."
In a majestic seasonal rite, a new generation of monarchs flies to Mexico every fall from summer breeding grounds in Canada. This past year, they formed a billowing wind-borne quilt of 55 million or more. On its voyage, the monarch is guided by a biochemical pendulum of genes and proteins that keep butterfly time, neurobiologist Steven Reppert at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and his colleagues reported last month in the journal PLoS Biology. Its newly analyzed internal clock likely is unique among all living creatures -- a prototype, perhaps, for the biological clocks that guide our own circadian rhythms of sleepiness and wakefulness, the scientists reported.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120233944314148959.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today
How Much Will Your Baby Be Like You? By Richard Laliberte
Physical Traits
The instant our children are born, we look for reflections of ourselves in them. … Seeing yourself -- and your spouse -- in your baby makes you truly feel like a family. Inheritance goes far beyond eye and hair color: Genes can even shape personality traits like leadership and spirituality. Despite startling advances in genetics, our understanding of how genes and environment interact is far from perfect. "Many traits have a large hereditary component, but genetics isn't destiny -- genes are just one influence on how kids turn out," says Joann Bodurtha, MD, professor of human genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond.
However, there's almost always a connection between genetics and environment. Musical talent is a classic example. People who have perfect pitch are four times more likely than those with only average singing voices to say that a relative has this natural gift. Yet research has also found that most people with perfect pitch started taking music lessons before age 6, and that only 3 percent of people who started voice lessons after age 9 have perfect pitch -- suggesting that both genetics and training affect one's singing voice. "It's simplistic to say that artistic and intelligence traits are determined by genetics, because even a gifted child needs the right environment to thrive," says Dr. Garber. Average IQ scores have gone up in the past 50 years thanks to changes such as better early-childhood education, experts say, not because we're innately smarter. And intelligence may run in families partly because bright parents tend to provide a richer learning environment -- by having more books, for example. In fact, two recent studies found that the IQ of firstborn children is slightly higher than that of their younger siblings -- possibly because they received more undivided attention.
Scientists used to think people had up to 100,000 genes -- until the Human Genome Project revealed that we actually have closer to 25,000. Why the huge overestimate? It turns out most genes are multitaskers and do their jobs by marshalling other genes -- turning them on and off or boosting their effects -- so we need fewer genes overall. As a result, few characteristics can actually be traced back to a single gene (there aren't enough genes to go around for that). Nevertheless, kids have a greater chance of inheriting some characteristics rather than others.
Reaching 100 is easier than suspected By LINDSEY TANNER
CHICAGO - Living to 100 is easier than you might think. Surprising new research suggests that even people who develop heart disease or diabetes late in life have a decent shot at reaching the century mark.
"It has been generally assumed that living to 100 years of age was limited to those who had not developed chronic illness," said Dr. William Hall of the University of Rochester.
Hall has a theory for how these people could live to that age. In an editorial in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine, where the study was published, he writes that it might be thanks to doctors who aggressively treat these older folks' health problems, rather than taking an "ageist" approach that assumes they wouldn't benefit.
Overall, the men were functioning better than the women. Nearly three-fourths of the male survivors could bathe and dress themselves, while only about one-third of the women could.
The researchers think that may be because the men had to be in exceptional condition to reach 100. "Women, on the other hand, may be better physically and socially adept at living with chronic and often disabling conditions," wrote lead author Dr. Dellara Terry and her colleagues. "It's not just luck, it's not just genetics. ... It's lifestyle" that seems to make a big difference, said lead author Dr. Laurel Yates of Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_he_me/living_longer
The Science of Fairy Tales by Chris Gorski, American Institute of Physics
Kids of any age love to read fairy tales because the storyline never limits the possibility that anything could happen. Curses, spells, and handsome princes reign in worlds beyond the reader’s imagination.
But are the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality. So suspend your imagination for a moment, and look at the following fairy tales as a hard-core scientist might.
Rapunzel
The Little Mermaid
1,001 Arabian Nights
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080211/sc_livescience/thescienceoffairytales
EDUCATION AND TEACHING
It has been more than 20 years since it was first suggested that there could be connections between brain function and educational practice. In the face of all the evidence that has now accumulated to support this notion, Mr. Jensen advocates that educators take full advantage of the relevant knowledge from a variety of scientific disciplines.
TEN YEARS ago John Bruer, executive administrator of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, began a series of articles critical of brain-based education. They included "Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far" (1997), "In Search of . . . Brain-Based Education" (1999), and, most recently, "On the Implications of Neuroscience Research for Science Teaching and Learning: Are There Any?" (2006).1 Bruer argued that educators should ignore neuroscience and focus on what psychologists and cognitive scientists have already discovered about teaching and learning. His message to educators was "hands off the brain research," and he predicted it would be 25 years before we would see practical classroom applications of the new brain research. Bruer linked brain-based education with tabloid mythology by announcing that, if brain-based education is true, then "the pyramids were built by aliens -- to house Elvis."2
Because of Bruer's and others' critiques, many educators decided that they were simply not capable of understanding how our brain works. Other educators may have decided that neuroscience has nothing to offer and that the prudent path would be simply to ignore the brain research for now and follow the yellow brick road to No Child Left Behind. Maybe some went so far as to say, "What's the brain got to do with learning?" But brain-based education has withstood the test of time, and an accumulating body of empirical and experiential evidence confirms the validity of the new model.
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k_v89/k0802jen.htm
How to Make Great Teachers By CLAUDIA WALLIS
We never forget our best teachers - those who imbued us with a deeper understanding or an enduring passion, the ones we come back to visit years after graduating, the educators who opened doors and altered the course of our lives. I was lucky enough to encounter two such teachers my senior year in a public high school in Connecticut. Dr. Cappel told us from the outset that his goal was not to prepare us for the AP biology exam; it was to teach us how to think like scientists, which he proceeded to do with a quiet passion, mainly in the laboratory. Mrs. Hastings, my stern, Radcliffe-trained English teacher, was as devoted to her subject as the gentle Doc Cappel was to his: a tough taskmaster on the art of writing essays and an avid guide to the pleasures of James Joyce. Looking back, I'd have to credit this inspirational pair for carving the path that led me to a career writing about science.
There's no magic formula for what makes a good teacher, but there is general agreement on some of the prerequisites. One is an unshakable belief in children's capacity to learn. "Anyone without this has no business in the classroom," says Margaret Gayle, an expert on gifted education at Duke University, who has trained thousands of teachers in North Carolina. Another requirement, especially in the upper grades, is a deep knowledge of one's subject. According to research on teacher efficacy by statistician William Sanders, the higher the grade, the more closely student achievement correlates to a teacher's expertise in her field. Nationally, that's a problem. Nearly 30% of middle- and high school classes in math, English, science and social studies are taught by teachers who didn't major in a subject closely related to the one they are teaching, according to Richard Ingersoll, professor of education and society at the University of Pennsylvania. In the physical sciences, the figure is 68%. In high-achieving countries like Japan and South Korea, he says, "you have far less of this misassignment going on."
Other essential skills require on-the-job practice. It takes at least two years to master the basics of classroom management and six to seven years to become a fully proficient teacher. Unfortunately, a large percentage of public-school teachers give up before they get there. Between a quarter and a third of new teachers quit within their first three years on the job, and as many as 50% leave poor, urban schools within five years. Hiring new teachers is "like filling a bucket with a huge hole in the bottom," says Thomas Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a Washington-based nonprofit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080214/us_time/howtomakegreatteachers
MUSIC
Music speeds recovery from stroke: study by Marlowe Hood
PARIS (AFP) - A daily dose of one's favourite pop melodies, classical music or jazz can speed recovery from debilitating strokes, according to a study published Wednesday. When stroke patients in Finland listened to music for a couple of hours each day, verbal memory and attention span improved significantly compared to patients who received no musical stimulation, or who listened only to stories read aloud,the study reported.
Those exposed to music also experienced less depression than the other two control groups.
Three months after a stroke, verbal memory was boosted by 60 percent in music listeners, by 18 percent in audio book listeners, and by 29 percent in non-listeners, the lead author Teppo Sarkamo, a neuroscientist at Helsinki University, told AFP.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080220/hl_afp/healthneurosciencestrokemusictherapy
PSYCHOLOGY
Inside the Mind of the Boy Dating Your Daughter
The stereotype of the 16-year-old boy is that he has sex on the brain. But a fascinating new report suggests that boys are motivated more by love and a desire to form real relationships with the girls they date. The report, published in this month’s Journal of Adolescence, paints a far different picture of teen boys than the stereotype of testosterone-fueled youth. Psychology researchers from the State University of New York at Oswego surveyed 105 10th-grade boys whose average age was about 16. The boys, most of whom said they were heterosexual, were given surveys asking them to select various reasons why they asked girls out, dated and pursued physical relationships. Most of the boys had dating experience, and about 40 percent were sexually active.
The boys were asked their reasons for dating and were allowed to mark more than one answer. Notably, being physically attracted to someone wasn’t the primary motivation they gave for dating. More than 80 percent of the boys noted “I really liked the person.'’ Physical attraction and wanting to get to know someone better were the second most popular answers.
Sad, self-absorbed shoppers spend more
Study: Even a temporary bout of the blues can lead to extravagant buys
BOSTON - If you’re sad and shopping, watch your wallet: A new study shows people’s spending judgment goes out the window when they’re down, especially if they’re a bit self-absorbed. Study participants who watched a sadness-inducing video clip offered to pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip.
The so-called “misery is not miserly” phenomenon is well-known to psychologists, advertisers and personal shoppers alike, and has been documented in a similar study in 2004. The new study released Friday by researchers from four universities goes further, trying to answer whether temporary sadness alone can trigger spendthrift tendencies.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23057223?GT1=10856
Solitude vs Loneliness By: Hara Estroff Marano
Loneliness is marked by a sense of isolation. Solitude, on the other hand, is a state of being alone without being lonely and can lead to self-awareness.
As the world spins faster and faster—or maybe it just seems that way when an email can travel around the world in fractions of a second—we mortals need a variety of ways to cope with the resulting pressures. We need to maintain some semblance of balance and some sense that we are steering the ship of our life.
Otherwise we feel overloaded, overreact to minor annoyances and feel like we can never catch up. As far as I'm concerned, one of the best ways is by seeking, and enjoying, solitude. That said, there is an important distinction to be established right off the bat. There is a world of difference between solitude and loneliness, though the two terms are often used interchangeably.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030825-000001.html
HEALTH
Scientists Find New Receptor for H.I.V. By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
SAN FRANCISCO — Government scientists have discovered a new way that H.I.V. attacks human cells, an advance that could provide fresh avenues for the development of additional therapies to stop AIDS, they reported on Sunday.
The discovery is the identification of a new human receptor for H.I.V. The receptor helps guide the virus to the gut after it gains entry to the body, where it begins its relentless attack on the immune system.
For years, scientists have known that H.I.V. rapidly invades the lymph nodes and lymph tissues that are abundant throughout the gut, or intestines. The gut becomes the prime site for replication of H.I.V., and the virus then goes on to deplete the lymph tissue of the key CD4 H.I.V.-fighting immune cells.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/health/11aids.html?th&emc=th
Diabetes Health Goes Beyond Blood Sugar By TARA PARKER-POPE
The startling findings of a major federal study on the effects of lowering blood sugar are unlikely to change the way most people with Type 2 diabetes manage their illness, doctors said Thursday. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study this week showing that a three-pronged approach of managing sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol — combined with low doses of aspirin — prolonged the lives of people with diabetes. The patients who did best in that study did not reach the nearly normal sugar levels that were the aim of the Accord study. Instead, their levels were just slightly higher than normal.
In the Accord study, the group of patients who were randomly assigned to lower their blood sugar levels to nearly normal had 54 more deaths than the group whose levels were less rigidly controlled. The patients were in the study for an average of four years when investigators stopped the intense regimen and put all of them on the less intense one. “When we look at mortality in patients with Type 2 diabetes, it’s not only the blood sugar,” said Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. “What the study shows is that just lowering blood sugar is not protecting you from dying sooner. Blood sugar is important, but so is blood pressure and cholesterol.”
Low-Carb Diets Better Than Low-Fat Diets at Preventing Diabetes By Amanda Gardner
THURSDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthDay News) -- A diet low in carbohydrates but high in animal fat and protein doesn't seem to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women, a new study claims. "One study is never enough to change a recommendation, but this study is interesting in that it shows that a low-fat diet is no better than a low-carbohydrate diet in preventing type 2 diabetes," said Thomas Halton, lead author of a study in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "The one diet that did seem to show a protective effect was a vegetable-based, low-carb diet which consisted of higher amounts of vegetable fat and vegetable protein, and lower amounts of carbohydrate."
The findings, Halton added, were a bit surprising in that most doctors and nutritionists recommend a low-fat diet to prevent type 2 diabetes. "This study showed that a low-fat diet didn't really prevent type 2 diabetes in our cohort when compared to a low-carb diet. I was also surprised that total carbohydrate consumption was associated with type 2 diabetes, and that the relative risk for the glycemic load was so high."
Siestas and Your Heart: Can You Nap Your Way to Health? From Harvard Health Publications
Here in the United States, many people consider eight hours an ideal amount of sleep — and most of them expect those eight hours to come in one block at night. But in Latin America, Mediterranean countries, and other parts of the world, the ideal slumber follows quite a different pattern. In sunny climates, people like to retreat from the heat and stress of a busy day for an afternoon siesta, then make up the difference by staying up late at night.
Cultural norms evolve to suit the needs and preferences of particular societies. But human biology is much the same in Athens and Chicago. Perhaps, then, a study of siestas in Greece will help Americans understand their own choices for healthful sleep. The study also raises the interesting possibility that a daily siesta may help ward off heart disease.
To look for a link between siestas and the risk of heart disease, scientists from the University of Athens Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health studied 23,681 Greek men and women. All the volunteers were free of diagnosed heart diseases, cancer, and stroke when they enrolled in the study between 1994 and 1999. They all reported on their napping habits; the researchers classified them as regular nappers, occasional nappers, or non-nappers. They also collected information on all the participants’ age, education, smoking status, employment, exercise level, diet, body mass index, and waist-to-hip ratio.
The subjects were tracked for an average of 6.3 years; in this period, 133 members of the group died from coronary artery disease. As expected, advancing age, smoking, and abdominal obesity were linked to an increased risk of cardiac death, while exercise, a good diet, increased education, and gainful employment appeared protective. Surprisingly, though, midday napping was also protective, especially for men.
Gentlemen, 5 Easy Steps to Living Long and Well By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Living past 90, and living well, may be more than a matter of good genes and good luck. Five behaviors in elderly men are associated not only with living into extreme old age, a new study has found, but also with good health and independent functioning.
The behaviors are abstaining from smoking, weight management, blood pressure control, regular exercise and avoiding diabetes. The study reports that all are significantly correlated with healthy survival after 90.
While it is hardly astonishing that choices like not smoking are associated with longer life, it is significant that these behaviors in the early elderly years — all of them modifiable — so strongly predict survival into extreme old age.
“The take-home message,” said Dr. Laurel B. Yates, a geriatric specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who was the lead author of the study, “is that an individual does have some control over his destiny in terms of what he can do to improve the probability that not only might he live a long time, but also have good health and good function in those older years.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/health/19agin.html?th&emc=th
The High Metabolism Diet By Selene Yeager, Prevention
Essential eating rules that stoke your fat burn all day long
You probably don't need scientists to tell you that your metabolism slows with age. But they're studying it anyway—and coming up with exciting new research to help rev it up again. The average woman gains 1 1/2 pounds a year during her adult life—enough to pack on 40-plus pounds by her 50s, if she doesn't combat the roller coaster of hormones, muscle loss, and stress that conspires to slow her fat-burning engine. But midlife weight gain isn't inevitable: We've found an exercise and diet plan that will tackle these changes.
Prevention's customizable metabolism-boosting workout will help you shed up to 8 pounds in just 4 weeks. Most important, you'll build firm, lean muscle tissue—the key to a robust metabolism.
But that's just the beginning. To really make your metabolism soar, couple the workout with our High-Metabolism Diet, developed by Dan Benardot, PhD, RD, an associate professor of nutrition and kinesiology at Georgia State University, and Tammy Lakatos, RD, coauthor of Fire Up Your Metabolism. Start today and you'll sleep better, have more energy, feel firmer, and notice your clothes are looser in as little as 2 weeks. Here's how:
Eat Enough
Rev Up in the Morning
Drink Coffee or Tea
Fight Fat with Fiber
Buy the Big Bottle
Go Organic
Always Include Protein
Eat Iron-Rich Foods
Get More D
Skip the Second Cocktail
Drink Milk
http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100191868>1=10914
Food for Thought By Rachael Moeller Gorman
As an organ, the brain is no mere blood-pump or air filter. It's more. It's you. That's why dementia is so devastating, and why these words from Greg Cole, Ph.D., are so heartening: "For the majority of people, studies are showing you can probably slow down cognitive decline enough to escape disease altogether," says Cole, associate director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Though Cole doesn't know exactly how to do this (nor does anyone else), eating habits might help.
How? As we age, our brains turn more sluggish as globs of a protein called amyloid accumulate between our neurons (nerve cells). Inflammation and oxidative damage accompany this protein buildup, nicking cell membranes and interrupting signals between neurons. Typically, this poses no real problem—a few "senior moments" here and there. But a downward dementia spiral can occur in some people if over time too many proteins gunk together and too much inflammation and oxidative damage erodes cells.
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/alzheimers-disease/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100159466
Bedtime Snacks that Help You Sleep By Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N.
One of the best natural sedatives is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins. Tryptophan is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for making you sleepy. However, the trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample carbohydrate. That’s because in order for insomnia-busting tryptophan to work, it has to make its way to the brain.
Unfortunately, all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. When you add carbs, they cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino acids and incorporates them into muscle…but leaves tryptophan alone, so it can make its way to the brain, be converted to serotonin, and cause sleepiness.
Serotonin-producing bedtime snacks should be no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed.
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/joybauernutrition/25128/bedtime-snacks-that-help-you-sleep/
