Eating Too Fast May Lead to Weight Gain

People who tend to eat quickly could be tripling their risk of being overweight. Researchers questioned more than 3,000 men and women about their eating habits; those who ate rapidly and continued consuming until they felt full had a higher body mass index (BMI), consumed more calories, and were more likely to be overweight than participants who didn’t eat quickly and didn’t eat until they were full.

Try eating mindfully: turn off the television, put down the newspaper, and focus on appreciating the tastes and textures of food - you’ll discover that your eating pace slows markedly. Mindful eating is associated with successful weight loss and more importantly, promotes long-term maintenance of a healthy weight.

Red Dye linked to Behavior Problems in Children

Red dye No. 40 is found in hundreds of foods, including Twizzlers, Doritos, Twinkies, chocolate cake mix, and vanilla frosting. A recent British study linked it to possible behavior problems in children.

For years, food dyes, additives and preservatives have been blamed for problems such as hyperactivity, inattentiveness and impulsivity. However, controlled studies were unable to substantiate these claims despite anecdotal evidence from parents.

Low-Carb Diets May Affect Cognition Skills

A new study from the psychology department at Tufts University shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from
their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.

"This study demonstrates that the food you eat can have an immediate impact on cognitive behavior," explains Holly A. Taylor, professor of psychology at Tufts and corresponding author of the study. "The popular low-carb, no-carb diets have the strongest potential for negative impact on thinking and cognition."

While the brain uses glucose as its primary fuel, it has no way of storing it. Rather, the body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose,which is carried to the brain through the blood stream and used immediately by nerve cells for energy. Reduced carbohydrate intake should thus reduce the brain's source of energy. Therefore, researchers hypothesized that diets low in carbohydrates would affect cognitive skills.

"Although this study only tracked dieting participants for three weeks, the data suggest that diets can affect more than just weight," saysTaylor. "The brain needs glucose for energy and diets low in carbohydrates can be detrimental to learning, memory and thinking."

Pursuing Goals, Not Goods is Key to Happiness

According to Ed Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, Champaign, true happiness lies in the pursuit of deeply held goals, not in fleeting pleasures or possessions. It means making a conscious decision to be resilient, adjusting and finding happiness in the face of adversity.

Diener is the co-author, with his son, Robert Biswas-Diener, of the new book, "Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth."

Positive psychology is a movement which rejects the model of disease and dysfunction, focusing instead on emotional hardiness.

Yoga May Ease Menopausal Symptoms

A pilot study of the effects of 10 weeks of yoga practice on 11 midlife women's menopausal symptoms was conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle. Qualitative analysis of participants' interviews provided information not captured in quantitative measures. The women reported feeling relaxed and physically better after yoga class. Many viewed yoga as a skill they could incorporate into daily life to reduce stress and manage their menopausal symptoms. The class setting provided an opportunity for individualized instruction, peer interaction, and a structured time for self-care. Factors that made it more challenging to practice yoga at home included responsibilities to others as well as limited time, space, and energy. Women suggested providing a more flexible class schedule, increasing peer support, and providing more instruction on developing a home practice. This information will be incorporated into plans for future studies.

St. John's Wort Relieves Symptoms of Depression

New research provides support for the use of St. John's wort extracts in treating major depression. A Cochrane Systematic Review backs up previous research that showed the plant extract is effective in treating mild to moderate depressive disorders.

"Overall, we found that the St. John's wort extracts tested in the trials were superior to placebos and as effective as standard antidepressants, with fewer side effects," says lead researcher, Klaus Linde of the Centre for Complementary Medicine in Munich, Germany.

Extracts of the plant Hypericum perforatum, commonly known as St. John's wort, have long been used in folk medicine to treat depression and sleep disorders. The plant produces a number of different substances that may have anti-depressive properties, but the whole extract is considered to be more effective.

Cochrane Researchers reviewed 29 trials which together included 5,489 patients with symptoms of major depression. All trials employed the commonly used Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression to assess the severity of depression. In trials comparing St. John's wort to other remedies, not only were the plant extracts considered to be equally effective, but fewer patients dropped out of trials due to adverse effects. The overall picture is complicated, however, by the fact that the results were more favourable in trials conducted in German speaking countries, where St. John's extracts have a long tradition and are often
prescribed by doctors.

Despite the favourable findings for St. John's wort, generalizations about the plant's use as an anti-depressant are not warranted. I recommend consulting a doctor, rather than self-medicating with St. John's wort, especially since the extracts can sometimes affect the actions of other drugs. Also, the products available on the market vary considerably.

The Soy Supplement Genistein Can Interfere with Breast Cancer Treatment

The dietary supplement genistein can undermine breast cancer treatment

Many supplements sold without a prescription and marketed to post-menopausal women include plant compounds, such as genistein, that can block the effectiveness of Letrozole, a breast cancer drug. Women taking aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer or prevent its recurrence should think twice before also taking a soy-based dietary supplement, researchers report.

Genistein, a soy isoflavone that mimics the effects of estrogen in the body, can negate the effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors, which are designed to reduce the levels of estrogens that can promote tumor growth in some types of breast cancer.

The new study, which included researchers from the University of Illinois, Virginia Polytechnic and State University and the National Center for Toxicological Research, appears in the journal Carcinogenesis.

Aromatase inhibitors are a mainstay of breast cancer treatment in post-menopausal women. These drugs work by interfering with the enzyme aromatase, which catalyzes a crucial step in converting precursor molecules to estradiol, the main estrogen in the body.

About two-thirds of all cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the U.S. are estrogen dependent or estrogen sensitive, which means that the tumors grow more rapidly in the presence of estrogen.

Most women diagnosed with breast cancer are post-menopausal, so their ovaries are no longer producing normal levels of estrogen. Other tissues, however, produce a steroid hormone, androstenedione (AD), which, with the help of aromatases, is converted to testosterone and estrogens. The estrogens produced from AD can stimulate the growth of some types of breast cancer tumors.

"To think that a dietary supplement could actually reverse the effects of a very effective drug is contrary to much of the perceived benefits of soy isoflavones, and unsettling," said William Helferich a professor of food science and human nutrition at Illinois and principal investigator on the study. "You have women who are taking these supplements to ameliorate post-menopausal symptoms and assuming that they are as safe as consuming a calcium pill or a B vitamin."

Many women take genistein supplements to control hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. The researchers found that the doses commonly available in dietary supplements were potent enough to negate the effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors.

"These compounds have complex biological activities that are not fully understood," Helferich said. "Dietary supplements containing soy-based phytoestrogens provide high enough dosages that it could be a significant issue to breast cancer patients and survivors."

Plant estrogens from soy are not the only ones of concern, Helferich said. In a recent study, he and his colleagues found that certain mixtures of estrogenic botanical components and extracts marketed as supplements to assist "female libido enhancement" and sold without a prescription appeared to spur breast cancer tumor growth at low doses, while having no effect on tumors at high doses.

That study appeared last year in Food and Chemical Toxicology.

"We are just starting to understand the complex effects of the dietary supplements that contain phytoestrogens," Helferich said. "There is an ongoing human experiment in which the outcome is unknown. These findings raise serious concerns about the potential interaction of the estrogenic dietary supplements with current breast cancer therapies."

Chocolate for your Heart

Italian researchers have calculated how much chocolate we need to protect against heart disease. It isn't much - 6.7 grams, about the amount you would get from eating two or three small squares of dark chocolate per week. The investigators looked at chocolate consumption among 4,849 Italians enrolled in one of the largest health studies ever conducted in Europe. The researchers checked participants' levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker for chronic inflammation in the body that indicates increased risk of heart disease. They related CRP levels to chocolate intake and found that participants who ate moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly had significantly lower levels of CRP. The benefits of chocolate remained even after the researchers adjusted for other dietary factors including consumption of wine, fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, the bad news is that if you eat more than the equivalent of 6.7 grams of chocolate per day, the beneficial effects on CRP levels seem to disappear. The study was published in the October, 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

Higher Vitamin D3 Levels Linked to Better Cognitive Function in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

In a cross-sectional study conducted in The Netherlands involving 225 older outpatients diagnosed as having probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), higher serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) levels were associated with better scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Subjects with sufficient vitamin D status were found to have significantly higher MMSE scores, compared to subjects with vitamin D insufficiency. These results suggest that vitamin D status may be linked to cognitive function in persons diagnosed with probable AD. The authors conclude, "Further prospective studies are needed to specify the contribution of vitamin D status to the onset and course of cognitive decline and AD."

There is a growing body of research evidence pointing to the importance of Vitamin D (as D3). Unfortunately, most people are Vitamin D deficient. Aim for 20 minutes per day in the sun without sunscreen. Particularly during the winter, supplement with at least 1000 mg/day of Vitamin D in the form of D3.

Psychological Well-Being Influences Mortality

A new study conducted at University College in London and published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine reviewed prospective, observational and cohort studies of the association between positive well-being and mortality using meta-analytic methods. Recent years have witnessed increased interest in the relationship between positive psychological well-being and physical health.

There were 35 studies investigating mortality in initially healthy populations and 35 studies of disease populations. The meta-analyses showed that positive psychological well-being was associated with reduced mortality in both the healthy population and the disease population. Both positive affect (e.g., emotional well-being, positive mood, joy, happiness, vigor, energy) and positive trait-like dispositions (e.g., life satisfaction, hopefulness, optimism, sense of humor) were associated with reduced mortality in healthy population studies. Positive psychological well-being was significantly associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality in healthy population studies, and with reduced death rates in patients with renal failure and with human immunodeficiency virus-infection.

This study is one additional confirmation of the strong connection between mind and body. Psychological well-being must not be overlooked when treating physical illnesses.

Laugh to Reduce Stress

Researchers at California's Loma Linda University recently found that even anticipating laughter lowers the levels of three stress hormones: cortisol, adrenaline and dopac. Anticipating laughter also boosts endorphins and human growth hormone, which is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system. So laughter both elevates hormones that keep us happy and healthy and lowers the stress hormones that contribute to inflammation and chronic illness. So just as the old adage says, "laughter is the best medicine."

Do You Feel Life is Worth Living?

In Japanese, the phrase ikigai translates to "life worth living". In a Japanese study, researchers looked at how a belief that life is worth living affects mortality. 43,391 Japanese adults were asked the question "Do you have ikigai in your life?". Among the subjects who died over the next seven years, a significantly higher number of them expressed that they did not have a sense that life was worth living. These people also had a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and other external causes of mortality.

Personality as a Longevity Predictor

In a study to determine the effects of personality on longevity, the personality traits of 2359 people aged 17-98 were assessed. Over the course of the study 40% of participants passed away. Those who were found to be more extroverted, emotionally stable, or conscientious lived on average 2 to 3 years longer than those who scored below the mean in those areas. These results are independent from the effects of smoking, obesity, or gender differences. Specifically, emotional stability proved to be a strong predictor for deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Supplementing for Mild Depression

For relief from mild depression, Dr. Andrew Weil suggests adding vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant rich supplements to a well-balanced diet. Dr. Weil recommends four specific supplements: B vitamins, St. Johns Wort, SAMe(S-adenosylmethionine), and fish oil. Research has shown that patients with depression have exhibited lower levels of B vitamins, specifically B6. B6 is found in many different foods such as salmon and peanut butter, but can also be found in pill form. St. Johns Wort has also yielded promising results as an alternative treatment for depression. In studies, standardized extracts of St. Johns Wort have proven as effective as Prozac at treating depression, although it should not be combined with birth control, anti-retroviral medications, or antidepressant medications. SAMe had similar results to St. Johns Wort but has been shown to work more quickly. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil are helpful in promoting overall positive feelings. 1000-2000 mg per day of fish oil can be useful in treating mild forms of depression according to Dr. Weil.

Depression associated with decreased Vitamin D levels in older adults

In a large population-based cohort study from Amsterdam involving 1282 older adults between the ages of 65 and 95, vitamin D status was found to be compromised in patients with minor or major depressive disorders. Additional research is needed to assess the effects of vitamin D supplementation on depression incidence in this population.

Potential new role for red grape seeds in treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that polyphenolics derived from red grape seeds may be useful agents to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease. They tested the hypothesis that certain molecules contained in red wine, in particular in red grape seeds, might offset disease progression in mice. They are currently investigating nearly 5000 compounds found in red wine.

Omega-3 EPA linked with reduced levels of depression

Increased blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid, EPA, may reduce the severity of symptoms of depression, particularly in people taking antidepressants, suggests new research from France. In a study of 1390 subjects, EPA levels in people with depression were approximately .16% lower than in those without depression. What is interesting is that the subjects in the study group were taking antidepressants. These results add to the growing body of evidence linking omega-3 insufficiency with mental disorders.

Portable Biofeedback Devices Can Significantly Reduce Anxiety

In a study published in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, March, 2008, participants using a portable Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) biofeedback trainer reported a significant reduction in anxiety, anger and sleep disturbances. They found the device more helpful than other relaxation techniques, such as meditation, yoga, and unassisted breathing techniques.

These devices guide the participant to synchronize slow, controlled breathing with heart rate. Many of my patients have reported benefits from using the Emwave or the Stress Eraser.

Benefits of Antidepressants Questioned

Prozac and similar drugs are "little better than placebos" according to a new review. The analysis, published February 26, 2008 in the journal, Public Library of Science Medicine, looked at data from over 47 clinical trials, including data that the manufacturers chose not to publish. The trials compared the effects of the drugs versus a placebo. An analysis of the data showed that patients taking the medications (which included Prozac, Effexor, and Serzone), showed improvement, but those taking the placebo improved just as much. The only exception, the most severely depressed patients did better on the drugs.

Although patients with severe depression need pharmaceutical treatment, patients with mild to moderate depression would do much better with a mix of exercise, dietary changes, and cognitive therapy.

Happily Married Women Rebound More Quickly from Stress

According to a new study published in the January edition of Health Psychology, women seeking to reduce their stress levels at work may need to improve their marriages. In the study, which looked at dual-career married couples with school-age children, the happily married women rebounded quicker from daily stress, indicated by a steeper drop in cortisol (the stress hormone) throughout the day, than the women in less satisfying marriages.

Not only major traumas, but minor everyday hassles can influence long-term physical health.

Although marriage is often seen as a health protective factor for men, for women, unhappy marriages may negatively affect physical health. Increasing marital health may be just as important as eating right and exercising.

Stress could be link between HPV and Cancer

Elevated levels of chronic, daily stress could be the reason why some women infected with the malignancy-linked types of humabn papillomavirus (HPV) develop cervical cancer. In a study conducted at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, women diagnosed with cervical dysplasia (precancerous cervical lesions)who were also experiencing stressful life events were found to have a lowered immune system response to the HPV virus. According to the researchers, HPV infection alone may not be sufficient to cause cervical cancer.

Most HPV infections in healthy women disappear over time without progressing to precancerous lesions or cancer. Practicing stress management techniques, such as deep breathing and positive thinking, may help boost the immune response to HPV.

Adults with ADHD Respond Impulsively to Problems

In a recent study published in Neurospychology, adults with ADHD favored speed over accuracy when faced with a problem. When compared with a control group, those with ADHD did not take more time to plan as the problems became harder. Instead, they plowed through at the same pace as when they were asked to solve easier problems. The group without ADHD gave themselves more time to figure out what they were going to do. The adults with ADHD employed ineffective, haphazard strategies.

One very effective way to counter impulsive tendencies when problem solving is to tune in to the breath. By purposively slowing down your breathing, the body quiets and more blood is sent to the centers of the brain that control executive functions such as planning, organizing, and problem solving. Identifying and stopping negative thinking (this is so hard, I'm going to fail) is another effective approach.

Stressed? Take a Break from the Computer

The neck and shoulder pain, headaches, and low back pain so common to desk-bound office workers may not be caused by poor posture and uncomfortable chairs alone. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, workplace stress may also play a role. Both mental and physical stress on the job may be caused by a common factor: an inability to take short breaks and step away (either literally or figuratively)from the desk.

At least every 15 minutes, take a slow, deep breath, roll your shoulders back, and find at least one positive thought or image.