BEST BRAIN FOODS

What should I eat? – At lease one dark green vegetable a day, such as broccoli, romaine lettuce or spinach.  At least one orange vegetable, such as carrots, sweet potatoes or winter squash, should be eaten. This information is from Canada’s Food Guide.

When our mothers added to that information that fish was good brain food she was right since scientists have confirmed this.  Sharpening mental alertness and helping sustain a steady supply of blood to the body’s central command centre is important to bolster brain function. Topping the list of plant chemicals (called polyphenols) a recent study found that many plant foods increase the clearance of toxic proteins in the brain.  According to Leslie Beck, a registered dietician and nutrition writer, “In Alzheimer’s disease – AD – brain cells become clogged with these protein toxins.”

While researching her latest book, “Longevity Diet (Penguin Canada” evidence suggests that a berry-rich diet activates the brains natural house-cleaning process, helping it remove toxins and other compounds that can interfere with brain function.  Rosie Schwartz, a registered dietician and author of “The Enlightened Reader’s Whole Foods Guide” Viking Canada 2003) suggests that blueberries in particular benefit the brain.  As with tests with animals, blueberry juice improved the performance in memory tests in older participants with related memory decline.

Certain spices used in curries, especially curcumin (found in turmeric) have been implicated in the lower than average incidence of Alzheimers disease in curry-eating populations notes the authors of “The Rising Tide:  the Impact of Dementia on Canadian society,” a report commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Society. Part of the reason is that spices and herbs like curry, ginger, and garlic help cut back on the use of salt.  “If you’re eating herbs and spices, you eat less salt, which can lower your blood pressure,” Schwartz observes.

An omega-3 fatty acid “DHA” is the only one that makes its way to your brain,” Beck says, “and keeps the lining of brain cells flexible so memory messages can easily pass between cells.  Bell peppers, lentils and small amounts of nuts, especially almonds, need to be included to decrease the risk of diabetes.  We’ll be talking more about the value spinach and whole grains like quinoa in future postings.

  

                                                                  

         

                            

                                     

                  

                            

                                               

POUND-MELTING PLAN

    This is a solution for those who are too short of time to join the gym and thus give them more time to spend with family in the evenings.  Instead of starting up the car to rush off to work, recall the time wasted in long line-ups or stalled in traffic, or been delayed at a red traffic light.  Do your body a favor and build health with a brisk walk to work instead.  Walking invites short cuts to work, thus saving the price of gasoline and improving the quality of air for everyone.    

     While at work refresh yourself with a small glass of water, stand up for refills and trips to the bathroom.  Instead of a water bottle on your desk keep a small glass to refill often.  These refreshing walks will clear the mind for new ideas at your work desk.  Instead of eating lunch at your desk that might scatter crumbs on your papers, walk your lunch outside or go to another location.

     One could also purchase a stamina 15-0125, an inside folding cycle for about $70.00.  Brainstorming moments are needed at times and this could also give you time for those coming up with new ideas needed by the firm, and even result in a promotion.  Walk around during break time mid morning and mid afternoon.  Stand while you are opening and reading your mail and that will help the blood supply move around in the body and stimulate the brain.  Instead of a sit-down meeting, ask your boss if you can talk and walk. For the ladies keep flat shoes under your desk for better movements.

      If you must drive, “waist dance” to the radio or tap out a beat on the steering wheel while driving.  Visit a store instead of shopping online.  Bag your own groceries.  Walk between stores that are in close proximity (don’t drive).  When picking up your children from school get out of your car, greet them with a hug instead of waiting in the car at curbside.  For family fun, pick your own apples, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables.  Go for a family hike on weekends.

HIGHWAY TO HOME AND HEALTH

     When starting a new medication, drug-safety strategies are important when operating a car or other powerful equipment.  “Much of the information is on either the medication label or the attached information sheet,” says Dennis Bryan, past president of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, including potential side effects.

     The recommended amount to take and frequency of dosage and if on a full or empty stomach is also important, and what to do if you accidentally miss a dose, or how you feel when you begin taking a dose, and how quickly or slowly you metabolize drugs, especially when you are taking a given medication for the first time.  Most warning labels won’t tell you when it is safe to get behind the wheel of your car.  “A good rule is to avoid driving for the first week after starting a new prescription, or changing the dose or how it interacts with other drugs,” advises Richard Marottoli, an associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine.  “Even a small amount of beer, wine, or hard liquor can unexpectedly cause severe intoxication.”

     Between 1991 and 2010, prescriptions for opioid analgesics, a type of narcotic painkiller, increased sixfold from 30 million to 180 million.  Similar side effects that can cause drowsiness, blurred vision, dizziness, slows reflexes, and can impair judgment and physicians should be warning patients.  Check with your pharmacy as well.  The AAA foundation is developing an online program called Roadwise Rx which will allow people to research the driving-related effects of various drugs as a free service.  Hopefully, this Christmas or any other holiday will not find drivers behind the wheel while impaired and have a terrifying lesson or fatality.  After an accident from being rear-ended one lady was put on a narcotic painkiller for a few weeks and took a painkiller every night at 9:30.  One afternoon her back pain flared up while at work and she took her painkiller – on an empty stomach.  She almost got home safely, when her vision blurred and she could barely steer straight as she entered her driveway.  She veered on to the path beside it and heard a sickening thud.  Stumbling from her SUV she found she had run into a tricycle belonging to a three year old living next door.  “My neighbor’s son could have been on that trike – or my own son.”

SENSIBLE SLIMMING STRATEGIES

   This week a special day for prevention of Diabetes was declared nationwide.  Hear is the story of Dr. Travis Stork, MD, who tells how he ate his vegetables out of a sense of duty until he met his fiancée, Dr. Charlotte Brown.  “Dr. Charlotte is great at hiding the vegetables so I don’t even know they are there” he tells us.  ‘She throws them in an omelet, in the marinara sauce, or a spicy fajita, and you don’t have to load them up with butter or sodium.  I feel so much better than I ever did in my bachelor days.”  He has now signed up with “The Doctors,” the Emmy winning health-advice program he hosts on channels across the country.  The show was a surprise hit when it debuted in 2008 as he motivated daytime audiences to make needed changes and not have to meet him later in the ER.  The patients who frustrate him most stem from needless weight gain, creating the skyrocketing incidence of adult and childhood obesity that can result in the scourge of type 2 diabetes. 

    The main word of advice from Dr.Travis is to start first thing in the morning with this mantra “well begun is half done” and that’s how it is with weight control.  A study from the University Massachusetts Medical School showed that people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be obese than breakfast eaters.  Going hungry can slow the metabolism – your body’s fat burning engine by up to 10% according to the University Pittsburgh Medical Center.  Scrambled eggs with whole grain cereal with Greek yogurt, toast with peanut butter and a smoothie, made with fruit or berries, ½ cup milk or yogurt and l Tbsp. of almond butter.  “Your benefits will stick with you all day long,” says Dr. Travis, and adds “For most people gradual weight loss is the way to ensure to keep it off.”

    “Taking a walk after dinner in the evening or watching a funny movie can keep stress levels at bay. When feeling stressed the body produces a hormone called cortisol – a powerful hunger inducer – and that hormone can cause your body to store fat, and taking pills is not the ideal way to calm down.  A Tufts University study found that pills increase levels of anxiety.  The best way to beat a craving is to keep a steady supply of fuel all day long and Dr. Travis recommends eating five times a day, the three regular meals and healthy snacks between meals, fruit, a piece of cheese, or a whole grain cracker with peanut butter.  Replace large dinner plates with small ones.  As your dishware shrinks, from 12 inches to 9, so will portions.

     

     

ULCER BUG MAY TRIGGER PARKINSON'S

   Does a bacterial bad guy connected to ulcers and stomach cancer and is its name Helicobacter pylori?  Previous studies have suggested that people with Parkinson’s are more likely to have had ulcers.  About 60,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed each year in the United States.  Researchers gathered recently at the 2011 ASM Meeting to study more on this notorious bacterium to pin at least some of the blame for Parkinson’s disease.  Visit www.sciencenews.org/asm2011.

   Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air may have profound effects on underground microbes.  Researchers led by Zhili He of the University of Oklahoma in Norman compared soil microbial communities that developed under current atmospheric conditions under the elevated levels of carbon dioxide that are predicted for 2050.  Fewer bacteria and less diverse microbe mixtures were present under elevated carbon dioxide conditions, Dr. He reported May 23.  Some of the differences in the bacterial mixes could be attributed to carbon dioxide directly, but the gas can also change microbial communities indirectly by altering plant physiology and soil conditions.

   Cell phones may mess with body’s bacterial guests.  Weak magnetic fields that are generated by cell phones, microwave ovens and other consumer devices may alter the growth of friendly microbes in the body.  Exposure to weak fields caused E. coli bacterial to thrive, but impaired growth of a common skin bacterium called Staphyloccus epidermidis and also a pathogenic common skin bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, reported Sanghoon Kang, a microbiologist at the University of Houston,-Clear Lake on May 24.  I don’t have a good answer to why,” Kang said.  It’s also not clear whether bacteria in the body would be affected in the same way as those grown in the lab.

WHITE KNIGHTS CONQUER CANCER

   A Hawaiian study looking at the diet history of 582 people who had lung cancer and 582 without the disease found that people who ate the most apples, onions and white grapefruit had roughly half the risk of lung cancer than those who ate the least amounts of these foods.

    Roll back to my Blog dated October 29^th called “Five each Day” which stated that eating just one serving of watermelon or pink grapefruit each day could reduce a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer by 82%.  It would be good to have both pink and white grapefruit on hand and eat one serving of both pink and white grapefruit each day to heal both kinds of cancer. 

    In another study, Finnish researchers found that men who consumed more quercetin were 60% less likely to have lung cancer than men with fewer intakes.  Basil laboratory studies suggest that compounds with basil will help disrupt the dangerous chain of events that can lead to cancer.  Basil’s ability to prevent cancer was not linked to one particular compound in the herb but instead to several compounds working together.  Basil is a rich source of antioxidants.  Per 100 grams it has more antioxidant content than dark chocolate, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries according to these researchers.  If you have a taste for this food at least you know you are helping yourself to an extra dose of antioxidants, of great benefit against an environment that has pollution, ultra violet light, radiation and car exhaust that vastly increases free radical production.

    Brazil nuts are very important to keep in mind also.  Eating just one of these nuts a day could help ward off colon cancer.  They are high in the trace mineral selenium and doctors at the University of Arizona found that men with high levels of selenium are six times less likely to develop colon cancer than men with low levels.

ANALOGICAL VIEW OF VERNON'S 43RD AVE

ANALOGICAL VIEW OF VERNON’S 43^RD AVENUE

   Taking an analogical view PB writes a letter to the editor about narrowing 43 Ave being compared to the human body with veins, arteries and capillaries doing its tour of duty around the body.  Carrying the blood components in the veins, arteries and capillaries, oxygen as red blood cells with plasma lead the way.   The white blood cells can be called the emergency vehicles, ambulance, fire truck and police.  These first responders help the blood to clot and keep the patient from bleeding to death when large commercial vehicles block the way.

   When the body is filled with the wrong foods, narrowing of the arteries takes place making it difficult for the blood to sustain life.  The Vernon city bus needs part of 43^rd Avenue as a part of its route.  Traffic snarls can result in slowing down emergency vehicles.  The law states to let vehicles pass quickly and efficiently, so the artery must not be narrowed.

    Letters to the editor often bring out interesting points on other subjects that may not be otherwise noticed.  HH writes, “We, the taxpayers, are not only paying the B.C. employee’s salaries, but we are also paying for their MSP (medical services premiums) as stated by the taxpayers association.  It is appalling that people who make the huge salaries have to have the poor little guy and gal who make a fraction of what they make cover their medical services premiums.  I sent my invoice back to Christy Clark and said that since she is OK with my paying her taxes, then she should be OK paying mine.”