Don’t miss any of Bottom Line’s Daily Health News. Add our address,
dailyhealthnews@news.bottomlinepublishing.com,
to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here.
August 16, 2011  In This Issue... - Healthy, Youthful Glow Starts on the Inside
- Growing Older Means Getting Wider
- Unleash the True Healing Power of Your Food!
- Can Yoga Cure the Fear of Falling?
- Why I Hate "How Are You?"
Healthy, Youthful Glow Starts on the Inside I don’t buy any over the counter skincare products because they all contain chemicals and other unnatural ingredients. With water and good nutrition you can get glowing, youthful skin starting from the inside. So I am going to show you my easy to follow "prescription" for keeping your skin healthy and looking great. Click here to be on your way to getting healthy, vibrant skin!
Growing Older Means Getting Wider If you have attended any of your high school or college reunions, you’ve probably noticed that many of your old classmates, men as well as women, may have stayed trim but nevertheless look, well, wider -- not fatter, but just literally wider, especially at the hips and waist. And no, it’s not your memory playing tricks. According to a recent study, the apparent thickening of the waist and hips is real... and it’s not all about putting on fat! The study’s findings astonished even the authors. Now we know that in most people, the pelvic bones continue to grow wider throughout the years, leading to wider hips and, logically enough, bigger waistlines. Oh dear...
Wider, Not Taller
I spoke with Laurence E. Dahners, MD, a professor of orthopaedics and senior author of the study, which took place at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Dahners told me that he and his research team had come to their conclusion by studying CT scans of the abdomens and pelvises of 246 people (evenly divided between men and women) who had no problems with skeletal health or structure. Dr. Dahners admits that one weakness of the study was that they could not measure the same individuals over a long period of time but were instead comparing age groups. The researchers obtained measurements via scans of people representing each decade starting at age 20 and going all the way up to 79 and looked at average measurements for the decade. What they found: Although longitudinal growth of bones concludes in the 20s (when you stop getting taller), the pelvic bone -- its overall width, the distance between the hip bones and the thickness of the bones that your pants hang on -- increases throughout life, ultimately adding almost one inch to the width of the hips, on average, and even more to the circumference -- and therefore to the waist band of your pants. It could translate into about a three-inch increase in your waist size!
Searching for the Good News
I spoke with Dr. Dahners further about these findings. Bones, of course, are not static but "remodel" themselves throughout life, constantly replacing older bone with new bone. Dr. Dahners says that doctors were aware that often the remodeling widened some bones over the years, but he and the other study authors were shocked when they saw how much the pelvis, and hence the waist, widened.
Like most women and even most men, I don’t particularly want to grow any wider than I already am... yet there had to be something positive in this somewhere. I asked whether having a wider pelvic bone might stabilize people and help improve balance, maybe even protect against hip fracture, but alas, Dr. Dahners told me "we don’t know if this is the case." Balance has much more to do with how strong the muscles are and how fast the nerves fire, concerns of age that are not directly related to the bones, he explained. As to helping avoid hip fracture, he told me that this benefit is unlikely, too. Bone strength is a complex issue that involves a number of factors, not just how wide a bone is.
Still undaunted, I aimed one last question at him. What about the fact that waist measurement has become a standard way of determining the presence of visceral (belly) fat? Now that we know that a three-inch increase is common as people get into their latter decades, does that throw off the usefulness of the waist measurement? Dr. Dahners replied that he didn’t know for sure, but it seemed to him that it probably should be taken into consideration. I’m going to look into that question further -- I’ll let readers of Daily Health News know what I find.
Source(s):
Laurence E. Dahners, MD, professor of orthopaedics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.
Unleash the True Healing Power of Your Food! If you want to heal your body with food, then you have to do more than just "eat more broccoli." Because new scientific evidence confirms that it's not just what you eat that matters... it's how you buy, cook, and combine your food that counts! Food companies are jumping on this bandwagon, so they use every marketing gimmick in the book to make bad food look good and to somehow squash the goodness of the good food under high fat, high salt ingredients... Click here to read more...
Can Yoga Cure the Fear of Falling? There’s a well-known TV commercial in which an elderly woman who is lying on the floor in her home calls out, "I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!" That old spot from 1987 has been quoted jokingly and parodied umpteen times -- but you know, it isn’t funny at all. In fact, it touches a universal chord of real fear -- especially if you know that falls are the leading cause of death by injury in those over age 65. Falling is certainly a gigantic fear for people who have suffered a stroke as well as for their families -- an estimated 80% of stroke patients suffer impaired balance. That’s why I am happy to tell you about a "new" approach that is being tried to keep people with stroke steady on their feet... and that is the ancient practice of yoga. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about the pretzel-positions that traditional yogis can twist themselves into, but rather yoga postures greatly modified to meet the needs of people with stroke. As it turns out, this sort of yoga significantly improves balance in those who have dealt with stroke, according to the findings of a recent Veterans Administration study. Arlene A. Schmid, PhD, a registered occupational therapist and a rehabilitation research scientist at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, was the head of the project. Her study participants, all of whom were veterans, included 19 men and one woman with an average age of 66. She told me that the special yoga poses provided significant improvement in study participants’ ability to maintain balance -- and also in their confidence. After eight weeks of instruction, the participants demonstrated impressive physical progress and came to embrace the practice of yoga -- many also told Dr. Schmid that they did not want the sessions to end. A Gradual Approach Dr. Schmid explained that the group met twice a week, starting their yoga practice while sitting in chairs where they would feel safe and comfortable. Initially they learned the very simplest aspects of yoga, such as breathing properly while sitting still. Next they learned simple poses that emphasized improving strength and range of motion in the ankles and hips, the better to protect themselves from falls. Eight weeks in, the vets had progressed from doing eight poses in chairs to performing 15 to 20 poses while sitting in chairs, standing at the wall and lying on the floor. The fact that the participants became willing to do floor work was especially impressive, says Dr. Schmid. Many older adults -- even those who have never had a stroke -- find being on the floor frightening, as their limitations make it all the more difficult to get back up. (Sessions included practice in getting back up and assistance as needed.) Walking Tall To evaluate the main goal of the study -- to improve one’s balance, as well as one’s confidence in the ability to maintain balance and avoid falling -- Dr. Schmid used the Berg Balance Scale. This is a tool that rehab professionals often use to determine an individual’s risk of falling. If you have a score under 46, you are considered to be at risk. Although the study participants had been through standard rehab after their strokes, when they started the yoga, their average Berg Balance score was a dismaying 40. Just eight weeks and 16 yoga sessions later, they had increased their scores to an impressive 47, on average -- this meant that as a group, they were now into the low risk for falling category. They also improved their balance confidence by 17%. Equally important, says Dr. Schmid, the vets made great strides in their walking capacity, or endurance, showing significant improvement in distance walked during a six-minute walk test. At the start of the study, participants walked an average of 898 feet in six minutes. At eight weeks, they improved to an average of 985 feet in six minutes. Therapeutic Yoga for Us At this time, this type of therapeutic yoga is not widely available, says Dr. Schmid. However, there is certainly an encouraging trend toward its development as yoga teachers and occupational and physical therapists are more frequently cross training in each other’s area of expertise. The Rocky Mountain Stroke Center has, for instance, produced a DVD from what was originally used as the program for a stroke-rehabilitation class. To order: "Yoga: Renewal of Life," www.StrokeColorado.org/Yoga.htm, 303-730-8800, $10. If you are interested in exploring therapeutic yoga for disability such as from a stroke or injury, ask around your community to find a yoga therapist or see if modified yoga is being offered at a local hospital, yoga studio or in physical rehab programs. At the very least, Dr. Schmid says, the DVDs with seated yoga postures that are on the market might be good for you. By all means, though, discuss any yoga offerings you are considering with your doctor before you start any sort of program. You’ll want to be sure your choice is appropriate for your current needs. Source(s):
Arlene A. Schmid, PhD, occupational therapist registered (OTR), Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center and assistant professor of occupational therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
Why I Hate "How Are You?" I started, and then stopped, counting the number of times that people ask me "How are you?" in a day. Or worse... "How ya' doin'?" The answer is a lot. And it has really started to irk me. I don’t mean to be unfriendly, but "How are you?" is not really used as a question at all, but rather a long way to say "hello." Click here to read more...
Be well, 
Carole Jackson
Bottom Line’s Daily Health News
You received this free E-letter because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as healthwellness82@gmail.com. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. Click here to easily subscribe. You can easily unsubscribe by clicking here. To change your e-mail address click here To update your e-mail preferences click here
Important: Help your friends live more healthfully -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. This is a free e-mail service of BottomLineSecrets.com and Boardroom Inc. Need to contact us?
http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/contact.html Boardroom Inc.
281 Tresser Boulevard
Stamford, CT 06901-3246
ATTN: Web Team Privacy Policy:
BottomLineSecrets.com Web Site Privacy Policy Required Disclaimer: The information provided herein should not be construed as a health-care diagnosis, treatment regimen or any other prescribed health-care advice or instruction. The information is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other health-care profession and does not enter into a health-care practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. The publisher does not advise or recommend to its readers treatment or action with regard to matters relating to their health or well-being other than to suggest that readers consult appropriate health-care professionals in such matters. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication. The information and opinions provided herein are believed to be accurate and sound at the time of publication, based on the best judgment available to the authors. However, readers who rely on information in this publication to replace the advice of health-care professionals, or who fail to consult with health-care professionals, assume all risks of such conduct. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. Bottom Line’s Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2011 by Boardroom Inc. |
No comments:
Post a Comment