A solid argument against "Freedom of Choice"? States with strict guidelines regarding school snacks are gaining ground over obesity. Children in those public schools gained less weight over a three-year period than those in more lenient states. (NY Times)
After being interviewed several times about the Nike "Find Your Greatness" ad, IIN guest lecturer David Katz takes a step back to consider the true message that the commercial conveys. (Huff Post)
It's a strange comparison, but apparently, for those over 40, consuming a high number of egg yolks quickens the thickening of arteries almost as fast as cigarette smoking. (LA Times)
Runners, take note - focusing too much on your favorite sport may turn you into a one-dimensional, injury-prone athlete. (Reuters)
A higher SPF doesn't necessarily mean you're safer from the sun - at least not for long. Scientists explain that the difference between SPF 30 and 100 is fairly small, and we all need to reapply more often. (The Atlantic)
An "inactivity pandemic" is responsible for as many as 1 in 10 deaths worldwide. Yet lack of exercise - and what type of exercise patients should be doing - is a health problem that doctors are relatively lax to address. (NPR)
Spent a few too many late nights at the beach or barbecues? FitSugar can help cure your summer-fun burnout with bed-friendly yoga poses that will stretch you straight into a deep slumber.
Big Agriculture has reportedly contributed more than $25 million to fight Proposition 37, which would require labeling of genetically modified foods (Right to Know). If food politics gets you all revved up, check out Harvard's career guide to Food Law & Policy, as recently shared on Marion Nestle's blog.
Jonathan Bailor’s slogan is one we can all get behind: "More Real Food, Less Complex Math" as he breaks down food labels, daily values, and how they fall short. (Diets in Review)
Source : blog.integrativenutrition.com
IINSider’s Digest: 18 Facts About Food Waste, Strict School Food Guidelines Lead to Less Weight Gain, and more…
Friday, August 17, 2012
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Study Finds Yo-Yo Dieters Can Stick to a Weight-Loss Diet and Exercise Program, but Can They Keep the Pounds Off?
A study of postmenopausal women found that yo-yo dieters are just as likely to stick with a diet and/or exercise program as those whose weight hasn’t bounced around over the years.
Researchers call it "weight cycling." You may know it as yo-yo dieting.
By either name, it's been linked to unfavorable effects on body composition, metabolic rate, immune function, and body esteem, according to the researchers.
Sticking to the Diet
The study included 439 overweight, postmenopausal women who were not physically active. They were randomly assigned to a weight-loss diet and/or moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise for 45 minutes a day, five days a week. For comparison, other women didn't change their diets or exercise habits.At the beginning of the study, nearly 1 in 5 of the women reported they had lost at least 20 pounds three times, classifying them as "severe weight cyclers." A quarter of the women said they’d lost at least 10 pounds three times, making them moderate weight cyclers.
Overall, the women with a history of yo-yo dieting were heavier and had less favorable metabolic and hormonal profiles than the other women. Those differences stemmed from their higher BMI, larger waistlines, and greater percentage of body fat, not weight cycling itself.
By the end of the study, the women with a history of weight cycling had fared at least as well as the other women, in terms of weight loss and improvements in their metabolic and hormonal profiles.
But did the women with a history of weight cycling keep the pounds off, or was it a case of what goes down must come up? The researchers are checking on that.
“We have been able to follow many of the women out to a couple of years,” says researcher Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, a member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s Public Health Sciences Division. “We’re analyzing results from that follow-up now.”
Slimming Down: The Big Picture
The study was designed to test the effects of diet and/or exercise on body weight and composition but not specifically differences related to yo-yo dieting. "That limits a little what they can say," says Victoria Stevens, PhD, strategic director for laboratory sciences at the American Cancer Society. "Other than that, it’s a good study."Some studies have linked weight cycling to an increased risk of death, but few of them distinguished intentional weight loss from weight loss due to illness. Stevens recently published a study of more than 100,000 men and women who were asked how many times they had intentionally lost and regained 10 pounds or more. After accounting for BMI and other risk factors, her research did not find that weight cycling was associated with an increased risk of death.
Source : webmd.com
We Health Coaches are a special bunch. Not everyone can understand our ideals and quirks, but one thing’s for sure, we understand each other!
Even if you’re not a Health Coach, you may be surprised by how many of the following statements you can relate to. If it’s more than half, then you’re already on the road to becoming a health leader!
You know you’re a Health Coach When…
- Your idea of the perfect day starts with a trip to farmer’s market, includes at least one breakthrough client session, and ends with an Ayurvedic massage.
- Grocery shopping can last for hours because you read EVERY label.
- Your pantry hasn’t seen white flour in years.
- When you see your doctor, she ends most recommendations with "but, you probably already know that."
- You never leave the house without water and a healthy snack “just in case.”
- Your new best friend is someone you spent an hour talking to about gluten and lacto-fermentation.
- You keep a jar of coconut oil in your kitchen AND your bathroom.
- If you come down with a cold, you walk right past the pharmacy to the grocery store and stock up on lemons, garlic, and ginger.
- Your holiday wish list includes a Vitamix, a dehydrator, and a gift card to Whole Foods.
- Your friends and family tell you they're healthier and happier just from being around you!
Source : blog.integrativenutrition.com
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Cardiac arrest is a medical emergency that occurs when the heart abruptly stops, but it is not the same as a heart attack.
Having the skills to revive somebody whose heart has stopped could be literally a life saver.
If your heart stops and you don't get resuscitation:
What is cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest means the heart has suddenly stopped beating, leading the affected person to collapse in an unconscious state.Someone who has had a cardiac arrest will be:
If someone collapses, is unconscious and doesn't have a pulse, they have probably had a cardiac arrest.
You need to call 000, ask for an ambulance and start resuscitation immediately.
The recommended resuscitation procedure is repeated, rhythmic chest compressions, with the aim of keeping the person alive until the ambulance arrives. Mouth-to-mouth respiration is no longer recommended for resuscitation. (For the latest guidelines on how to do chest compressions go to the Australian Resuscitation Council website)
Also, the American Heart Association has produced this video guide to performing chest compression to the tune of the Beegees' song, Staying Alive.
You will need to keep up the chest compressions until the ambulance arrives, so be sure to get some help if you can.
When the ambulance arrives, the paramedics will provide further treatment on site and take the person to hospital.
Causes and outcomes
Cardiac arrest is almost always the result of coronary heart disease. It may be caused by a massive heart attack or a disturbance of the heart's electrical system due to injury or disease (called an arrhythmia) that prevents it from pumping blood normally. Less commonly, cardiac arrest can be caused by a drug overdose, electric shock, or pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs).If the person is resuscitated promptly and an ambulance gets there quickly, survival rates can be as high as 70 per cent. Unfortunately, not enough of us have the resuscitation skills for this to be the case.
If the cardiac arrest is due to a massive heart attack that has destroyed extensive heart muscle, there is generally much less chance of successful resuscitation than if it is caused by an arrhythmia.
Sometimes a cardiac arrest takes place when a person is already in hospital, after a heart attack, for example. In this situation, people have a much better chance of survival because there is treatment readily available.
Treatment
If you survive a cardiac arrest you will receive immediate emergency treatment, as well as ongoing treatment to address underlying coronary heart disease.Immediate treatments may include thrombolysis (delivery of clot-dissolving medications directly into the blood stream), measures to stabilise any abnormal heart rhythms and pain relief. Tests such as blood tests, an ECG and special scans, can help measure the location and extent of damage to the heart.
Doctors may recommend surgical procedures, including:
People who have had a cardiac arrest will be advised to modify their lifestyle to reduce their risk of future heart disease, these changes include:
Most people will also be prescribed ongoing medication to reduce cardiovascular risk, such as low-dose aspirin and/or beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, cholesterol lowering drugs (statins), ACE inhibitors, oral antiplatelet medications or anticoagulants.
Attending a cardiac rehabilitation and prevention program can help support people in making the changes necessary for them to have the best chance of a full recovery.
Psychological counselling or joining a community support group can also help.
Source : abc.net.au
Vegan Reinvention
Eight years ago, I made the switch to a vegan diet. Soon after, I began to see the world through a whole new lens - who knew that you could actually use food as medicine, as prevention, as an energy booster, as a way to reverse disease? I found myself falling asleep with books like Diet for a New America and vegan cookbooks!
It was actually at the bookstore where I bought my first vegan cookbook (on the bottom shelf) that I discovered a shiny red catalogue with the word “nutrition” on it. When uncovered, it read “The Institute for Integrative Nutrition.” For the next three days, the catalogue and I were inseparable – at least until Monday at 9am when I was able to call and speak to someone at IIN. The rest is history!
Big Dreams Are Fair Game
There are so many wonderful Health Coaches out there and to stand among those honored with this special award is very humbling. As a student at IIN, it was so empowering to be in a room filled with thousands of other people committed to standing for the health of others. The support received during the program is like no other, and there was so much joy in the room, a force for good.
I’ll never forget one particular goal-setting exercise during the training. Although the goals I set seemed so lofty at the time, in that room, in that time and space, there weren’t any limits. Everything you wanted for yourself and your life was possible. That’s what I took away from IIN, a gift to give my clients – anything they want for themselves and their life is fair game!
Sharing Her Strength
Professionally, my work at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has been really exciting and rewarding. In particular, I am very proud of two initiatives: getting published after coordinating a plant-based dietary intervention in Florida schools, and creating a free, online, vegan nutrition program that has had over 200,000 participants in just under three years. Personally, one of the goals I set five years ago at IIN was to complete a triathlon, and now I can say that I have competed in six triathlons and two half marathons!
Advice for Future Health Leaders
Three words – get a coach! It’s been really important for me to continue to be coached, either by fellow Health Coaches, Life Coaches, or swim coaches. During times when these services have not been available, I’ve recruited my friends to hold me accountable and it’s made all the difference. Not only has life become way more fun, but I’ve been able to accomplish far more than I ever thought would be possible. Being coached allows people a way to be involved in your life - and you in theirs - in such a unique and meaningful way. So, as you coach others, consider getting a coach for yourself too!
Source : blog.integrativenutrition.com
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Aloe Cucumber Mask
Ingredients- 2 tbsp. of aloe vera gel (or one skinned stalk of an aloe plant)
- ½ cucumber, chopped, seeds removed
- Mix aloe and cucumber together in a blender or food processer.
- Apply the mixture evenly to face.
- Leave on for 30 minutes before washing off with warm water.
Do you have a favorite do-it-yourself beauty product?
Source : blog.integrativenutrition.com
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New research shows the current whooping cough vaccine is not as effective as its predecessor, so what's the best way to protect children against this potentially deadly infection?
[Image source: iStockPhoto]
Whooping cough is something of an immunisation conundrum.
A highly contagious disease, caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, whooping cough is known for its severe coughing attacks with a characteristic 'whoop' at the end. You can get it at any age, but for the very young it can be deadly.
In Australia the take-up rate of the pertussis vaccine is very high, with around 95 per cent of children receiving the full three doses of vaccine by age two (at two, four and six months).
However, pertussis infections in all age groups are once again on the increase globally. Australia recorded 38,000 cases in 2011, the highest number since records began in 1991 and most states are only now recovering from a major epidemic that began in 2008.
So if immunisation programs have been successful, why is whooping cough still a problem?
Prevents severe illness and death
The short answer, according to immunisation expert Professor Peter McIntyre, is because the pertussis vaccine is good at reducing the risk of severe disease and death, but is not necessarily going to prevent infection altogether."It's not like measles vaccine where if you have the vaccine you just won't get measles infection," says McIntyre, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases at the University of Sydney.
"The pertussis vaccine is decreasing the amount of infection to some extent, but mostly what it's doing is decreasing how sick you get."
This means children who might otherwise have got extremely sick and ended up in intensive care on oxygen or even died, now get a milder infection or sometimes show no symptoms at all.
Also if you've had the vaccine you're less likely to transmit the disease to those around you.
However, it does mean that a significant proportion of infections will occur in vaccinated individuals.
"You'd expect that because if 95 per cent of kids are immunised and if you find that 95 per cent of the cases are also immunised, then that means that the vaccine's not doing anything," McIntyre says.
But that's not the case. Only about 70 per cent of reported cases of whooping cough occur in people who have had the pertussis vaccine.
"That's telling you that the vaccine is working and if you do the numbers, that equates to about an 80 per cent effectiveness of the vaccine."
At around 82 per cent, global rates of pertussis vaccinationa are lower than Australia's. In 2008, the World Health Organisation estimated around 195,000 children died from the disease, mostly in developing countries, but far more – around 882,000, according to the WHO – would have died had it not been for the pertussis vaccine.
Researchers are still trying to understand why the vaccine doesn't totally protect against the infection. One possible explanation is that pertussis comes in a variety of strains and those strains change a lot over time.
Researchers are also working to understand why the vaccine still protects against severe illness.
Also experts say new tests and more frequent testing for pertussis may account for some of the rise in cases.
Less effective but fewer side effects
Another issue with the vaccine we use in Australia today is that it is in fact less effective at preventing infection than the older vaccine that was phased out in the late 1990s, a recent study by researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) revealed.Associate Professor Stephen Lambert, who co-authored the study, says the difference in effectiveness, and side effects, comes down to how the vaccines are made.
Today's vaccine is known as an acellular vaccine; it doesn't contain whole cells of the whooping cough bacteria as the old vaccine did.
"The whole cell vaccine is [made of] the bacteria that cause whooping cough; it's those cells killed and mixed with a bit of fluid and injected," says Lambert, senior research fellow at QIMR.
"It has tens of thousands of components that stimulate the immune system whereas the acellular consists of three key proteins." (Check out our Immunisation Fact File for more information on how vaccines work.)
Because of its side effects, the whole cell vaccine was abandoned in Australia in favour of the acellular vaccine.
McIntyre cites an Australian study done in the 1980s that shows at least three-quarters of children experienced side effects such as fever and irritability, while as many as half had high fevers and inconsolable crying.
"A lot of parents saw problems like that with their baby and said 'I don't want to have that again'," says McIntyre.
"If you look back at stuff published back then, the number of kids who were actually getting three doses of whole cell vaccine when they were supposed to was probably only around 60-70 per cent."
"So you had lots of kids who either got one dose or no doses, which isn't going to help at all."
So the newer vaccine is a trade-off, says McIntyre.
"The trade-off is between very high uptake of a vaccine that doesn't cause side effects and does seem to be quite good at protecting against severe disease and quite good at protecting in the short term but in the longer term is perhaps not as good," he says.
As a result of immunisation, the few whooping cough deaths that do occur in Australia are in the very young – those under six months of age who have not had their first dose of the vaccine. According to McIntyre, there were nine deaths from pertussis in children under one year between 2008-2011.
Protecting young children
Even if it doesn't stop all infections, experts agree immunisation is the best way to protect young children from whooping cough and the severe illness and death it can cause.In an attempt to reduce whooping cough in the very young, some states are offering a pertussis booster to new parents and grandparents.
Experts also recommend a bit of common sense when it comes to newborn babies and suggest that they be kept away from people who seem unwell, especially if they are coughing and sneezing. (Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if someone has whooping cough by their symptoms alone.)
In the meantime, McIntyre says medical authorities are looking at other ways to reduce the infant death rate even further, for example by giving the vaccine to pregnant women or to babies in the first weeks of life.
(For more information on the signs, symptoms and treatment of whooping cough – go to our Fact File.)
Source : abc.net.au
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