Hostility Associated with Visceral Fat in Middle-Aged Women

In a study conducted at the Yale University School of Medicine and recently published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found that higher levels of hostility were associated with a greater amount of visceral fat in both African-American and white middle-aged women. This association remained significant after further adjustments for education and multiple coronary heart disease risk factors. Hostility was not associated with subcutaneous fat. They concluded that hostility may affect risk for coronary heart disease in women via the accumulation of visceral fat.

I think these findings are very significant and point once again to the link between stress (as hostility is a toxic emotion) and abdominal fat. Visceral fat, which hugs the internal organs, such as the kidneys, liver and pancreas, is considered to be more dangerous that subcutaneous fat, which is deposited just below the skin. My hunch is that hostility kept inside is even more dangerous than hostility that is outwardly expressed.

Maintaining Healthy Bones

For many years I have been following the work of Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., nutritional expert and author of the recent book, "The Whole Food Guide to Strong Bones." I recently received the following email from her:

"Fosamax and similar drugs interfere with bone metabolism, which in turn interferes with blood metabolism- preventing calcium and other minerals from being released into the blood to keep its ph steady. They make bones more brittle and contribute to heart palpitations."

To maintain strong bones, Annemarie recommends eating salad or greens every day (for the calcium and vitamin K), eating sufficient protein (for the collagen matrix), avoiding "low fat" anything, and eating enough butter or olive oil (to keep the fat-soluble vitamins in solution). Cook everything with stock or bone broth. If possible, eat bones-from sardines, soft shell crabs, and chew on chicken bones. This approach works very well, and it's fun, cheap and tasty.

For more information on Annemarie Colbin, go to www.foodandhealing.com.

Lower Depression Risk Linked to Mediterranean Diet

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet packed with fruits, vegetables,legumes, nuts, olive oil and fish is good for your heart. Now scientists are suggesting the diet may be good for your mental health, too.

A study of over 10,000 Spaniards followed for almost four and half years found that those who reported eating a healthy Mediterranean diet at the beginning of the study were about half as likely to develop depression than those who said they did not stick to the diet.

All of the participants were free of depression when they were recruited to the study, and each filled out a 136-item food frequency questionnaire when they joined. Based on their self-reported dietary habits, they were assigned a score between 0 and 9, with the highest score reflecting the closest adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Over time, those who had scored between 5 and 9 on the Mediterranean diet were 42 to 51 percent less likely to develop depression than those who scored between 0 and 2.

Many scientists are convinced that the same damaging inflammatory and metabolic processes involved in cardiovascular disease may also play a role in mental health. Both cardiovascular disease and depression share common mechanisms related to endothelium function and inflammation, said Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor of preventive medicine at University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and senior author of the paper, published in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

The membranes of our neurons are composed of fat, so the quality of fat that you are eating definitely has an influence on the quality of the neuron membranes, and the body's synthesis of neurotransmitters is dependent on the vitamins you're eating, Dr. Martinez-Gonzalez added. We think those with lowest adherence to the Mediterranean dietary plan have a deficiency of essential nutrients.

The elements of the diet most closely linked to a lower risk of depression were fruits and nuts, legumes and a high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fats.

Gratitude Exercise Reduces Depression

A York University psychology professor, Myriam Mongrain, Ph.D., found that listing five things a day that one is grateful for can reduce depression symptoms. They found that this simple exercise especially increased well-being amongst people who tended to focus on the negative aspects of their lives.

Stress Management Training Helps Control Diabetes

Good diabetic control minimizes the risk of complications. Stress affects control directly through the release of hormones and indirectly by disrupting self-management activities. There have been numerous studies examining the impact of stress management interventions on glycaemic control. Researchers at Monash University in Australia recently reviewed all such studies since 1980 using searches of Medline and PsycInfo databases. The general trend suggested that stress management interventions may be useful in management of diabetes. Further research will provide greater understanding of the particular benefits of various components of stress management training in relation to specific subgroups of the diabetic population.

The Relaxation Effect

Achieving perfect health by just relaxing seems too simplistic. However, according to new evidence from researchers at Harvard Medical School, deep relaxation has a remarkable effect on a wide variety of medical conditions. This research illustrates that in long-term practitioners of relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation, far more "disease-fighting genes" were found present and active in comparison to individuals who practiced no relaxation or stress-relief techniques.

Researchers found particular genes that protect from certain disorders and ailments "switched on," due to what they call "the relaxation effect," a phenomenon that is beginning to cause medical professionals to believe this relaxation effect is just as effective and powerful as any medical drug. The upside to natural relaxation techniques in comparison to medical drugs is that risks of negative side effects some of these drugs can cause are eliminated.

Dr. Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School explains how the research is so critical because it signifies how a person's state of mind influences their body on a physical and even genetic level. Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London's BodyMind Medicine Centre explains relaxation as an action the body takes when the "parasympathetic nervous system switches on,,which is linked to better digestion, memory, and immunity"

With scientific research showing that relaxation techniques can boost immunity, improve fertility, lessen irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, lower blood pressure, and prevent inflammation that is linked to heart disease, arthritis, and asthma as well as some skin conditions, it is no wonder that people who value their health or who have become frustrated with traditional medicine are looking deeper into finding ways to relax naturally and reduce their stress on a daily basis.

Meditation Reduces Symptoms of Depression

In a preliminary study conducted by psychologists at Oxford University, subjects with severe and recurrent depression improved with a combination of meditation and cognitive behavior therapy. The results of a small-scale randomized trial of the approach, called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), are published in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy. 28 people currently suffering from depression, having also had previous episodes of depression and thoughts of suicide, were randomly assigned to two groups. One received MBCT in addition to treatment as usual, while the other just received treatment as usual. Treatment with MBCT resulted in reduced symptoms of major depression, while levels of depression remained the same in the control group.

I have used this approach in my practice for many years, combining relaxation and meditation techniques with cognitive behavior therapy.

Perfectionism Associated with Increased Mortality in Older Adults

Perfectionism as a personality trait is strongly associated with mortality in late life. After baseline assessment of health and personality traits as predictors of mortality, 450 participants in a study in The Netherlands were followed over a period of 6.5 years. Findings demonstrated that risk of death was significantly greater for high scorers in perfectionism and neuroticism, compared to low scorers at the time of base line. Conversely, risk of death was significantly lower for high scorers in conscientiousness, extraversion and optimism. This study was reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Health Psychology.

As I have personally observed over the years with so many of my patients, perfectionism leads to the body being in a continual state of tension or hyperarousal, eventually resulting in physical exhaustion. Negative emotional states also result in metabolic changes and can create an inflammatory response.

Zinc May Enhance Effects of Anti-Depressant Medications

In double blind placebo controlled study involving 60 patients with major depression (without any psychotic symptoms), treatment with zinc (25 mg/day) was added to standard anti-depressant drug therapy (imipramine, 140 mg/day). Addition of zinc significantly reduced depression scores and improved treatment outcomes in anti-depressant-resistant patients, as compared to supplementation with a placebo. These results support results from a preliminary clinical report suggesting that supplementation with zinc may augment the effects of anti-depressant drug therapy. The authors conclude, "Zinc supplementation augments the efficacy and speed of onset of therapeutic response to imipramine treatment, particularly in patients previously nonresponsive to antidepressant pharmacotherapies. These data suggest the participation of disturbed zinc/glutamatergic transmission in the pathophysiology of drug resistance."

Teenage Boys Who Eat Fish Achieve Higher IQ Scores

Fifteen-year-old males who ate fish at least once a week displayed higher cognitive skills at the age of 18 than those who it ate it less frequently, according to a study of nearly 4,000 teenagers published in the March issue of Acta Paediatrica.

Eating fish once a week was enough to increase combined, verbal, and visual spatial intelligence scores by an average of six per cent, while eating fish more than once a week increased them by just under 11 percent.

"We found a clear link between frequent fish consumption and higher scores when the teenagers ate fish at least once a week" says Professor Kjell Torén from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, one of the senior scientists involved in the study. "When they ate fish more than once a week the improvement almost doubled.

"A number of studies have already shown that fish can help neurodevelopment in infants, reduce the risk of impaired cognitive function from middle age onwards and benefit babies born to women who ate fish during pregnancy" says Professor Torén. "However we believe that this is the first large-scale study to explore the effect on adolescents."

"The most widely held theory is that it is the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish that have positive effects on
cognitive performance" explains Professor Torén. Other theories highlight their vascular and anti-inflammatory properties and their role in suppressing cytokines, chemicals that can affect the immune system."

Friendships Among Women Counteract Stress

UCLA STUDY ON FRIENDSHIP AMONG WOMEN
By Gale Berkowitz

A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are. By the way, they may do even more.

Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. "Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible," explains Laura Cousino Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. "It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.

Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just "fight or flight." "In fact," says Dr. Klein,"it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the "fight or flight" response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a
calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men", says Dr. Klein, "because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen", she adds, "seems to enhance it."

The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha!" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. "There was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded", says Dr. Klein. "When the men were stressed,
they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something."

The women cleared their schedules and started meeting with one scientist after another from various research specialties. Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health.

It may take some time for new studies to reveal all the ways that oxytocin encourages us to care for children and hang out with other women, but the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. "There's no doubt," says Dr. Klein, "that friends are helping us live." In one study, for example,
researchers found that people who had no friends increase d their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%.

Friends are also helping us live better. The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidantes was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight! And that's not all! When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate.

Yet if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them? That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of "Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998). "Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women,"
explains Dr. Josselson. "We push them right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. And we need to have unpressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're with other women. It's a very healing experience."

Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight

Intake of Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked to Reduced Depression in Women

In a population-based study involving 3,317 subjects, dietary intakes of fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids were found to be inversely associated with depressive symptoms in women. Diet of the subjects was assessed in year 7, and depressive symptoms were assessed in years 10, 15, and 20. Intakes of EPA, DHA, and EPA+DHA were all associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms at year 10, with more pronounced associations found in women. The authors conclude, "Our findings suggest that dietary intakes of fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids may be inversely associated with chronic depressive symptoms in women."

State May Ban Food Additives Linked to ADHD

Maryland is poised to become the first state in the nation to require food packaging to include warning labels if the product is made with certain food coloring additives that have been linked to ADHD.

"Evidence linking Red 40, Yellow 5, & other synthetic food dyes to behavioral probs in children has been mounting for 30 yrs," said David Schardt, a nutritionist from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

European regulation, according to CSPI, are already more strict: "For instance, the syrup in a strawberry sundae from a McDonald's in the U.K. gets its red color from strawberries; in the U.S., the red color comes from synthetic Red 40. In the U.S., synthetic food dyes are common in brightly colored foods popular with children, including candies, soft drinks, breakfast cereals, & snack foods. Sometimes the sunny synthetic colors are designed to simulate fruits or vegetables, as in the case of a "Guacamole Dip" produced by Kraft, which gets its green color not from avocados but from Yellow 5, Yellow 6, & Blue 1. The "artificially flavored blueberry bits" in Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles are blue thanks to Red 40 & Blue 2, not blueberries. "

Which food colorings should you look out for? If Maryland's food warning bill passes, these chemical additives would bear the following warning:

Warning: The color additives in this food may cause hyperactivity & behavior problems in some children.
•Blue 1
•Blue 2
•Green 3
•Orange B
•Red 3
•Red 40
•Yellow 5
•Yellow 6


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Dr. Mark Hyman's Practical Plan for Brain Health

Why have brain problems ranging from depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, and autism to dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's reached epidemic proportions?

Are we all simply destined to lose our focus, concentration, and memory while becoming depressed, anxious, and tired?

The answer is no, according to the compelling new book, The UltraMind Solution from Mark Hyman, MD, the three-time NY Times bestselling author in the cutting-edge field of functional medicine.

Dr. Hyman's book drew fulsome praise from some of America's leading wellness-oriented doctors. You can learn more about The UltraMind Solution by going to The UltraMind Solution Web site.

Dr. Hyman says that seemingly separate brain/mind problems – poor memory, lack of focus, anxiety, depression, autism, Alzheimer's, dementia, ADD/ADHD and more – all stem from a common syndrome he calls “broken brain”.

Hyman says that the solution to broken brain syndrome lies in the underlying biology that runs cells, organs, and interlocked immune/hormone/nerve systems.

Dr. Hyman tested and refined his approach while he was co-medical director at Canyon Ranch for 10 years, and later in his own private medical practice in Lenox, Massachusetts.

You may have seen Mark Hyman on The Today Show, Good Morning America or on public television discussing this groundbreaking solution … the same one that he used to help cure himself of chronic fatigue syndrome over a decade ago.

Dr. Hyman describes how imbalances in the seven core systems of the body – nutrition, hormones, immune function, digestion, detoxification, energy metabolism and mind-body – explain all the symptoms and diseases we think are “brain” problems.

The heart of the plan is a comprehensive diet and lifestyle change that consists of four basic components that last for six weeks:
A healthy eating plan.
A basic brain-supplements regimen.
Lifestyle changes including exercise, relaxation, sleep, and mental exercises.
A clean and green lifestyle to reduce exposure to environmental toxins.