Have you noticed a lot of talk about shrinkage lately? No, not laundry shrinkage or the male “shrinkage” Elaine Benes learned about on an episode of Seinfeld, but brain shrinkage.   A bevy of reports have broached this issue. For instance, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that alcohol consumption expedited the brain shrinkage process, whether the consumption was heavy or moderate. A Northwestern University study discovered that chronic back pain shrinks the brain 10 to 20 times faster than normal. And

just this past July, a team of researchers from the University of Kansas said their study indicates moderate exercise can slow the rate of brain shrinkage in people with Alzheimer’s (see my article, “Fighting Shrinkage”).

A bevy of reports have broached this issue.  For instance, John Hopkins BIoomberg School of Public Health found that alcohol consumption expedited the brain shrinkage process, whether the consumption was heavy or moderate.  A Northwestern University study discovered that chronic back pain shrinks the brain 10 to 20 times faster than normal.  And just this past July, a team of researchers from the University of Kansas said their study indicates moderate exercise can slow the rate of brain shrinkage in people with Alzheimer’s (see my article, “Fighting Shrinkage”). 

The latest word in how best to shirk shrinkage?  Start consuming more vitamin B, B12 to be specific.

The British study, published in the journal Neurology, recruited 107 volunteers, all of whom were senior citizens (average age:  73) and with no history of mental disability or impairment.  The researchers performed brain scans (MRIs, to be specific) on each of the participants and also took each participant’s blood to get an idea of how much vitamin B12 they were getting from their diet.  They performed these tests fairly regularly over the course of several years and placed each participant into one of three groups according to their blood tests: high vitamin B12 levels, middle vitamin B12 levels and low vitamin B12 levels.

By the study’s conclusion, the researchers found that those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 had the most significant amount of brain shrinkage compared to when the study began.  Those with the least amount of shrinkage?  You guessed it – those with the highest levels of vitamin B12. 

Now, it needs to be mentioned that this latest finding isn’t convincing enough for researchers to make a causal link between brain shrinkage and vitamin B12 deficiency, but from my perspective, their findings are quite compelling.

For one, the study was five years in length, so it’s not like the researchers’ results were based on a segment in time (a legitimate concern/point of contention for many who disagree with the results of certain studies).  Secondly, the researchers controlled for other factors that can contribute to brain shrinkage (like age, sex, education), and their results still held true.  The scientific world – and the researchers themselves – will have a better idea of B12 and its ability to prevent brain shrinkage through further study, particularly one where B12 is supplemented to participants in conditions where brain shrinkage is expedited (Alzheimer’s patients, for instance).  Until then, there’s no harm in taking proactive action and consuming foods high in vitamin B12. 

Vitamin B12 is essential for a lot of roles within the body, such as red blood cell formation and assisting in the body’s ability to convert food into energy (otherwise known as metabolism), but it’s a major factor in proper brain formation.  Depression is a common side effect of those with vitamin B12 deficiency, for instance.  And because vegetables lack vitamin B12 we must get them from proteins.  Organ meats are loaded with vitamin B12, but because they’re loaded with cholesterol, healthier – yet still packed with vitamin B12 – options include:  snapper, salmon, scallops, halibut, cod and shrimp.  Yes, shrimp has lots of cholesterol, but studies suggest that the cholesterol in shrimp boost HDL cholesterol levels (the “good” kind), while diminishing LDL levels (the “bad” kind).

You can also supplement with Vitamin B complex; they provide the full gamut of B vitamins, but if you’re looking for vitamin B12 specifically, look no further than these quality protein sources.

This latest news won’t come as a surprise to many of you.  After all, if you’re visiting a website like this, you’re probably already living the lifestyle I advocate (i.e. enjoying all the things untainted by chemical enhancements and additives, while avoiding as much as possible those things loaded with chemicals or artificially enhanced).  That’s what I try to teach you here – how to stay as healthy as possible for as long

as possible.  So when I tell you that the mainstream media has reported on a study that says fish oil supplements are better than cholesterol medications in treating people with chronic heart failure, I’m sure many of you are saying, “Big whoop!  I already knew that!”  But believe me, this is HUGE news – especially for those who wouldn’t jump aboard the “alternative health lifestyle” bandwagon until it was reported by a “reputable” source.  Perhaps now they will.

A group of Italian physicians analyzed several thousand participants, all of whom had recurring or previous issues with heart failure – a condition that renders blood flow throughout the body insufficient due to an enlarged heart.  They split the groups in two giving approximately 2,000 patients in one group a fish oil supplement, produced by Norway’s Pronova BioPharma, and the other group a placebo.  They were to take these pills daily for the duration of the study period, which was about four years.

At the four year mark, the researchers found that those taking the fish oil supplement yielded better results compared to those taking the placebo (1,981 people taking the fish oil supplement either were admitted to the hospital for heart failure or died as a result of it, compared to the 2,053 taking the placebo).

The researchers then took their findings and compared it to their results from a separate-but-related study, one that split 4,600 participants into two groups (about 2,300 each).  In this study, the groups either got the cholesterol pill Crestor or a placebo.  Amazingly (not so much from our perspective, though), the researchers found virtually no difference in the amount of times people were either admitted to the hospital for heart failure or died as a result of it. 

This finding led researchers to conclude that, yes, fish oil supplements perform better than cholesterol treatments in helping people recover from heart failure.  Their findings are published in the medical journal Lancet.

The researchers remain uncertain as to what accounts for the discrepancy in effectiveness.  When asked by the Associated Press about it, Dr. Robert Bonow theorized that since cell membranes that line the heart muscle are made of fatty acids, perhaps the omega-3s replace what’s lost via heart failure more effectively.   Bonow is the former president of the American Heart Association and current chief of Cardiology at Northwestern University Hospital.

The researchers themselves say that there isn’t any one fish oil supplement better than another, but that doctors should begin advising patients with current or previous heart problems to start taking fish oil.

The researchers may not advocate one fish oil supplement over another, but I will.  The one I use every day is Carlson’s Fish and Cod Liver Oil.  They’re very high in EPA and DHA and are vigilant in making sure their fish oil comes from the most pure source available by analyzing them in their FDA-registered laboratory.

Reports in the mainstream media on findings like these justify why I believe so strongly in natural health and reconfirm the love I have of what I do for a living.  If you’re not currently taking a fish oil supplement, I hope this report was compelling enough to entice you.

When we think about exercise, we think about what kind of benefits it will bring to our body physically. That’s the primary reason why we exercise – to look better, feel better and live as healthy a life for as long as possible. But I’m beginning to believe that exercise may be just as important for the mind as it is for the body.

Anyone who exercises religiously and goes a day without it knows that feeling – that feeling that something’s missing, that you’re not as happy as you usually are.  That’s because the body releases endorphins through the physical act of running or biking.  So if anyone enjoys being happy, it’s in their best interest to exercise regularly (really, it works!).

But the benefits of exercise for the mind go much deeper than that.  According to new research – research that analysts believe is the first randomized clinical trial published linking the power of exercise on diminished brain function – moderate exercise appears to improve the mental capability of older adults suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Australian researchers recruited 85 adults (all of whom were also Australian) over the age of 50 and showing signs of diminished brain capacity.  They split the groups in two, asking both to do some kind of moderate exercise activity for two and a half hours per week and to keep an exercise journal to keep track of their progress.  But one of the groups was assigned to do something extra – exercise 20 minutes each day, on top of the two and a half hour requirement.  This group was labeled as the “exercise” group.

By the end of the trial period – about six months in total – the exercise group performed better in tests that measured the participants’ mental acuity and brain function, about 1.7 points better.  Further, the exercise group continued to perform better on brain function tests than the control group a year after the initial test (the groups were encouraged to continue exercising, which we can only assume they did).

Now, to me, this is just another nail in the coffin, another biscuit in the net confirming the fact that exercise is every bit as good as prescription pills in combating debilitating illnesses.  In fact, the results were so impressive that the researchers themselves said exercise appears at least as effective as the psychotropic drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s patients.

However, in classic “hedging your bets” style, the researchers are reluctant to advocate exercise as a proven treatment for Alzheimer’s patients.  They also say that this study should not suggest that exercise diminishes one’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s.

On that point I agree; Alzheimer’s is still too abstruse a disease to say definitively what will and will not increase one’s risk of developing it.  But I don’t agree with the good doctors on whether or not it should be prescribed as a treatment.  While their research might be the first “randomized, clinical trial” published in a medical journal, there are lots of other studies pinpointing physical activity as beneficial to fighting Alzheimer’s, including one that says exercise can reduce the amount of shrinkage the brain endures when affected by Alzheimer’s (see my article “Fighting Shrinkage”).  Another study conducted by the Mayo Clinic found that people who exercised for 15 years or more were less likely to have impaired brain function with age.

This is an exciting time.  More and more research continues rolling out about the breakthroughs in uncovering this mysterious disease.  I remain confident that if this kind of progression in the knowledge and treatment of Alzheimer’s continues, it will join smallpox as eradicated diseases.

To judge a person by his or her color is both wrong and reprehensible. But to judge food by its color? Both good and acceptable.  We all know that brown rice is better than white rice; the white meat is healthier than the dark meat, brown (wheat) bread is preferable to white bread; and brown pasta is more nutritious than white pasta. But did you also know that brown fat is preferable to white fat?

Perhaps you didn’t know there was a difference.  Perhaps you thought all fat was the same.  If so, consider yourself in the overwhelming majority. 

Your assumptions about fat haven’t been entirely off-based.  After all, fatty tissue – no matter its color – is essentially excess calories that the body stores for protection and for use as a reserve source for energy.  But the color, or cellular make-up, of the fat determines how many calories the body burns.  Brown fat burns far more than white fat.

Sadly, white fat – called “white” fat because of the lesser amounts of mitochondria and capillaries compared to the amount found in “brown” fat – makes up the majority of fat cells found in our bodies, at least in our adult years (babies’ “baby fat” is mostly brown), but brown fat is more heat-based, thus burns calories quicker than white fat.

The question becomes, then, how does one start producing brown fat and diminish the amount of white fat production?  The answer to that question remains in the R&D stages, but researchers’ study of the topic has them much closer to that answer than in previous years. 

Believe it or not, researchers have been attempting to unlock the mysteries of brown and white fat for decades now.  The most recent attempt comes from Boston, Massachusetts, out of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Joslin Diabetes Center.  Researchers believe they’ve found the “switch” that regulates the production of white fat and brown fat after altering the production of genes in rats.  They found that when they manipulated the gene – PRDM 16 – to overproduce, this affected rats’ muscle-to-fat ratio by essentially turning what was once fatty tissue into muscle-based tissue.  The researchers believe brown fat is derived from muscle, and the overproduction of PRDM 16 “switched” the production from white fat into brown fat.

Sound strange?  It gets stranger.

In a second study, after injecting some rats with a bone-developing protein called BMP-7, the injected rats produced more brown fat, and in the process, did not put on weight at the same rate as the non-injected group (despite being fed the same diet).  Again, this confirmed to the researchers that the overproduction of certain proteins affects what kind of fat the body produces; if it’s brown, the body burns calories at a far greater rate than if it’s white. 

In light of these discoveries, many who are overweight will wait it out, hope this research will be converted into some “skinny pill” and all will be right with the world.  Don’t count on that happening any time soon.  Researchers still say that the best way to Weight Loss Central is by taking a left on Eat Less Street and then a right on Move More Avenue. 

If this research ever does wind up as a potential pharmaceutical treatment for obesity, one never knows what side effects it will carry.  Nevertheless, I credit the researchers in helping the world better understand what factors go into fat production.  But instead of a pill or injection-based treatment, my hope is this research will help identify what natural foods and/or activities one can do to start producing more brown fat, and less white fat.

There are an awful lot of misconceptions about eggs. It seems every day there’s a new study out that says how great they are for you, followed by another study two and a half weeks later that nixes the previous study’s findings.  So where’s the truth lie?

As I’ve reported in the past, eggs are a GREAT, complete protein food source – one little egg contains the nine essential amino acids the body cannot make therefore needs in order for the body to repair old muscle and build new muscle (not all protein sources are complete; beans, for instance, are an incomplete protein).  But as I’ve also reported in the past, too many eggs in the diet are a great way to increase your mortality risk (see “‘Egg’regious Health Hazard”).  But if you have one egg a day, it can keep you looking just as healthy and trim as those that shy away from eggs for fear of excess cholesterol.

As recently published in the International Journal of Obesity, people that included eggs in their diet were better able to follow a strict meal plan that enabled them to lose pounds of weight.  The study involved participants between the ages of 25 and 60, all obese, and all following a dietary plan with a restricted number of calories.  The researchers from Louisiana State University found that when the participants were grouped according to what they ate for breakfast – both following reduced-calorie diets – those that had two eggs for breakfast lost 65 percent more weight overall than the group that had a bagel for breakfast.  The researchers believe the combination of fat, carbohydrates and protein found in eggs brings a greater sense of satiety, or fullness, thus preventing them from splurging on other foods to alleviate hunger pangs.

While I am indeed an advocate of eating eggs, I advise that you eat no more than one a day.  This is largely because of the amount of cholesterol found in a solitary egg yolk – about 270 mg of cholesterol (nearly 90 percent of your daily recommended value)!

If one egg won’t fill you, add a few more but remove the egg yolks, leaving one for taste.  Other than taste, leaving the one yolk ensures you get the complete protein aspect of eggs (removing the egg yolk removes the cholesterol but it also makes for an incomplete protein).  If you’re being really strict about your diet and don’t want to have the yolk, I have no problem with that.  But you should at least supplement it with some kind of protein to make it complete.  One way to make it complete is by having your scrambled egg whites with a side of whole wheat toast spread with natural peanut butter.

My final bit of advice on eggs is to avoid eggs from the grocery store.  You never know where these eggs originate from, how old they are, or how the chickens were raised.  All these things affect the nutritional quality of the egg.  Opt for eggs fresh from a local farm, where you know how the chickens are raised and what they’re fed.  If you’re neck of the woods isn’t exactly Green Acres, head to the whole food market and grab a dozen eggs certified organic – the organic seal certifies they’re nutritionally sound, meaning the chickens were fed quality grain and raised humanely.

With all that’s been said and reported about Olympic champion Michael Phelps and the eight gold medals he won at the Beijing games, the notion that a champion needs “revamping” is probably viewed as a fool’s notion. But if you’ve heard or read about what Phelps’ diet is like, the need for a revamping is a vast understatement. A complete overhaul is in order.

One would think that an Olympian eats the kinds of foods that enable him or her to get the best possible performance on the court, in the pool, on the track or in the field.  For the most part, this is true – just look at 41-year-old swimmer and silver medalist Dara Torres and tell me she isn’t fueling with quality nutrition.  But for whatever reason, Michael Phelps has bucked that trend.  The 23-year-old darling of the national sports media pounds down an astounding 12,000 calories a day – four times more than what the typical American eats.  His average breakfast is eight eggs (three of them fried and topped with bread slathered in mayo, the other five used in an omelet), three chocolate-chip pancakes, a bowl of grits, a few slices of French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar and two cups of coffee to wash it all down.

A breakfast of champions, indeed.

Phelps’ lunch and dinner?   Just as lathered with saturated fat and cholesterol as his breakfast – a whole pizza and a pound of pasta
for dinner alone!

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Anyone as trim and as fast as Michael Phelps is clearly doing something right.  Why fix what isn’t broken?  After all, no one has ever won eight gold medals in a single Olympic games – and set seven world records in the process.  So, what’s the problem?

The problem is that Michael Phelps – whether he likes it or not – is setting an example for people that aspire to greatness.  People should aspire to greatness.  But no one will become great adopting his kind of diet.  Phelps spends an inordinate amount of time exercising; he has the ability to exercise at that rate because he can afford to, paid millions of dollars to do so after inking endorsement deals with Speedo, Kellogg’s, AT&T and Visa.  But the average kid with responsibilities to his family, friends, work and school can’t spend six hours a day in the pool every day and several hours more in the gym lifting weights and running.  What’s more, not everyone has the same kind of drive that Phelps has, nor the God-given ability. 

This isn’t to suggest that children or young adults shouldn’t reach for their dreams or have role models to look up to.  I’m sure Michael Phelps is a swell guy; his performance in Beijing was a remarkable achievement.  But the press coverage of his diet will lead lots of young people to believe that one can eat whatever one wants to and still look and perform like Michael Phelps.  That’s just not reality. 

If Phelps adopts a diet more reminiscent of Dara Torres’, I have no doubt that in 2012, he could break his own record and win nine, even 10 gold medals!   If Phelps is truly dedicated to his sport and prolonging his life, he’ll revamp his diet for the betterment of himself and his future (not to mention those that look up to him).  After all, there will come a time when he won’t swim or exercise as religiously as he does now.  Will he tailor his diet in accordance with his decreased exercise load?  If the rate of obesity in this country is any indication, I’m not so certain.

I hope you’ve read my book, “The Blood Pressure Miracle.” It was previously only available as an e-book but it’s due out in paperback right around the time when school’s back in session. The book’s print date couldn’t come at a better time, as hypertension is becoming more and more common in our teenaged sons and daughters – a time of life where people were once largely immune to high blood pressure readings. But because of the poor lifestyle choices many young people seem to be taking today, the hypertension “immunity idle” has since been revoked.

If you have read my book, you might recall the portion that discusses the role sleep plays in avoiding or precipitating hypertension.  A Columbia University study analyzed the health and sleeping habits of over 4,000 men and women.  Independent of other risk factors, the researchers’ determined that the participants’ blood pressure rates were elevated because of their lack of sleep, just six hours a night on average.  This isn’t much of a surprise, really, as sleep plays a role in the regulation of blood pressure levels. 

If only this information could be hammered into our youth of the nation’s heads like the music blaring from their iPods is.  Because according to a team of researchers from Case Western University, the lack of sleep teens get contributes to hypertension, as the role of sleep on blood pressure levels applies to everyone – not just the folk beyond their high school days.

The study involved approximately 250 students between the ages of 13 and 16.  Besides the regular health check-ups, the researchers asked the participants to fill out a sleep diary, keeping track of how many hours they slept in the study period; the sleeping behaviors of the participants were observed throughout the study period as well.

At the outset, 14 percent of the participants were either pre-hypertensive or hypertensive.  Making sure that other factors didn’t contribute to their findings – like weight, and sex – the researchers found a pattern in the blood pressure levels of the participants and their sleep behavior.  Similar to the aforementioned Columbia University study, the researchers found that the blood pressure levels were higher for those who slept less than six and a half hours on average a night; those who had trouble falling asleep had even higher readings.  These findings led the researchers to conclude that less than six and a half hours of sleep a night doubles the risk of hypertension, and if one has trouble sleeping, that risk is tripled.

Eight hours of sleep is recommended for everyone per night, particularly for teenagers.  This is the stage of life where so much is going on in a teen’s brain, lots of wiring and rewiring that will ultimately determine what kind of adults they’ll turn out to be.  As important as sleep is to the brain, though, it plays an even more important role in the regulation of a healthy blood pressure. 

School days are just about here again.  It’s my hope that as kids shop for back-to-school clothes in the waning days of summer, they will do it on a good night’s sleep.  Hopefully, they’ll continue their good sleeping habits – turning in around the same time every night and awaking around the same time every morning – throughout the school year (consistency in time to bed and time to rise improves sleep quality).  It will not only improve their performance in school, but it will also improve their performance in other aspects of their busy lives, be them in sports (greater concentration skills), with friends (decreased moodiness makes for increased camaraderie) or in the arts (improved focus).