Tag Archives: This

This is Your Brain on Booze

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

A throbbing headache isn’t the only side effect of overloading on alcohol. Chug too many cocktails and you may be putting your actual gray matter at risk. According to a new study from Rutgers University, consumption of alcohol, from moderate-level drinking to binge drinking (drinking less during the week and more on the weekends), can decrease the creation of adult brain cells by as much as 40 percent.

In this study researchers examined the brain cell development of rodents after consuming alcohol. When the blood alcohol level of the rats reached 0.08 percent—the legal driving limit—researchers found the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the sober group. The hippocampus—where new neurons are made—is a section of the brain associated with long-term memory and some new types of learning.

This stage of intoxication is equivalent to approximately 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men.

“The purpose of the study was to underscore the long term effects of alcohol exposure,” says Tracey J. Shors, PhD, professor of behavioral and systems neuroscience in the department of psychology at Rutgers University, who helped conduct the study. “It may not be detrimental to have one or two days of alcohol exposure, but week after week, you will have many fewer neurons in your brain,” she said.

Why does booze have such a detrimental effect on your body? “Alcohol is a direct neurotoxin,” explains Christine Gerbstadt, MD, MPH, RD. “So not only does it kill nerve cells, but it also interrupts absorption of important nutrients and alters the metabolism.” Alcohol also affects the body’s ability to regenerate, says Gerbstadt. which means besides killing useful cells, your body can’t repair the damaged ones, either.

Ready to cut back? No need to cancel your girls’ night out. Just be mindful about how much you’re consuming—it might be more than you think. “Moderate drinking” is qualified as just two to three drinks a day, says Gerbstadt. One drink can be 1.5 ounces of hard liquor, 12 ounces of beer, or four ounces of wine. Choose smartly and follow Gerbstadt’s imbibing guidelines to sip responsibly:

1. For every cocktail you drink, drink a glass of water. This guarantees that your rate of consumption is slower, and also keeps you hydrated (dehydration is a major reason why you feel like crap the day after).

2. Eat before you drink—and during. This slows the absorption of alcohol into the system.

3. Ask your bartender to add twice the amount of low-calorie mixer in your drink, which will diminish the percentage of alcohol in your drink overall.

4. Avoid drinks that include double shots of liquor or that combine several types of alcohol, like sugary smoothies, tropical drinks, and Long Island Iced Teas, for instance. Ordering a simple mixed drink with one type of alcohol can help you better track how much you’ve consumed.

5. Make your own wine spritzer by asking your bartender to mix your wine with seltzer or diet soda.

Also, Gerbstadt advises, don’t be afraid to order a “virgin” drink (no alcohol at all). With a few cocktail straws and a wedge of lime, a club soda can look just like a cocktail. Only your brain cells will see the difference.

photo: Stockbyte/Thinkstock

More from WH:
How Alcohol Affects Your Health
Why Are Dedicated Exercisers Also Big Drinkers?
Could Alcohol Actually Help You Lose Weight?

NEW Abs Diet Cookbook Fuel your workout with The New Abs Diet Cookbook!

javahut healthy feed

Drink THIS to Cut Your Cancer Risk

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Jonesing for a caffeine fix? Reach for some tea. A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that sipping tea regularly could slash your risk of certain digestive system cancers by up to 29%.

The Shanghai Women’s Health Study tracked the tea consumption and cancer rates of more than 69,000 non-drinking, non-smoking, middle-aged and older Japanese women during an 11-year span. Regular tea consumption, defined as at least three times a week for more than six months, was associated with a 17% reduced risk of all digestive cancers combined. “We can conclude that women who drink tea regularly may have a lower risk of developing some digestive system cancers, particularly colorectal and stomach/esophageal cancer,” says lead study author Sarah Nechuta, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.

Better yet: The study found that drinking more tea contributed to an even lower risk. Women who sipped two to three cups a day had a 21% lower risk of digestive system cancers overall. And those who drank tea regularly for 20 years or more were 27% percent less likely to develop any digestive system cancer, and 29% less likely to develop colorectal cancer, in particular. “We observed the strongest reduction among long-term tea drinkers,” says Nechuta.

And while this study was observational (i.e., lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise were not controlled), and researchers didn’t investigate tea temperature, strength, or whether food or supplements containing tea extracts would have similar effects, the study did have implications for the most effective type of cancer-fighting tea, according to Nechuta. “As most women in our study drank green tea, our results suggest drinking green tea is associated with reduced risk of digestive system cancers,” she says.

So drink more green tea, but don’t stop there. Here are 12 more ways to reduce your cancer risk.

photo: Hemera/Thinkstock

More from WH:
The Amazing Benefits of Green Tea
The Healthiest Drink of All Time
18 Self Checks Every Woman Should Do

NEW Abs Diet Cookbook Fuel your workout with The New Abs Diet Cookbook!

javahut healthy feed

Take THIS to Cut Your Ovarian Cancer Risk

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Sure, most OTC painkillers can effectively knock out your cramps, headache, and many other pesky aches. But there may be an even better reason to pop those pills—and make sure they contain aspirin: new research shows that regularly taking an aspirin-based pain reliever may reduce your risk of the fifth-leading cause of cancer deaths among women—ovarian cancer.

The recent Danish study of 2,320 women between the ages of 35 and 79 (including 756 with ovarian cancer of varying severity) found that women who took aspirin two or more times per week for longer than a month were less likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who typically took non-aspirin pain relievers, or none at all.

Aspirin’s cancer-fighting power comes from its anti-inflammatory effects, which reduce the chronic inflammation suspected to play a role in the development of cancer, says study author Susanne Krüger Kjær, M.D., of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Copenhagen University Hospital, both in Copenhagen, Denmark. So why were non-aspirin pain relievers—which may also reduce inflammation—found to be less effective at curbing cancer? “This may reflect differences in the way these drugs induce their effect on inflammation,” says Kjær.

The medicine cabinet staple boasts even more beyond-the-label benefits. While the OTC drug won’t necessarily shield women from heart disease, it could help reduce men’s risk of heart attack. And for women ages 55 to 79, the U.S. Preventive Task Force recommends taking regular doses of the aspirin to stave off strokes. (Younger than 55? Strokes are more common than ever among younger women. Here’s how to reduce your stroke risk.)

So are the virtues of aspirin reason enough to start popping pills as if they’re candy? Kjær says the protective effects should be balanced against possible adverse effects, such as risk of bleeding and peptic ulcers.

Want to slash your ovarian cancer risk the safe way? Begin with these tips. 

photo: Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Thinkstock

More from WH:
What Causes Ovarian Cancer?
Foods That Lower Your Cancer Risk
18 Self Checks Every Woman Should Do

The South Beach Wake-Up Call Heal your body with seven simple strategies for age-reversing, lifesaving weight loss and optimal health from The South Beach Diet Wake-Up Call: 7 Real-Life Strategies for Living Your Healthiest Life Ever. Buy the book today!

javahut healthy feed

ALERT: Antibiotics Won’t Fix This Common Condition

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Your family doctor knows best, right? Not always. Many physicians routinely prescribe antibiotics for a common ailment that cannot effectively be wiped out with drugs. And dishing out these antibiotics doesn’t just threaten patients with side effects, but also leads to the creation of hard-to-kill superbugs, dangerous bacteria strains that don’t even flinch when antibiotics enter a patient’s system.

In an attempt to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics and to provide better treatment to patients, experts now recommend doctors drastically cut back on prescribing antibiotics for sinus infections.

“Overuse of antibiotics, especially if inappropriate, leads to the emergence of superbugs and drug resistance, which sets up a vicious cycle leading to the use of more potent and broad-spectrum antibiotics,” explains Anthony W. Chow, MD, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “Inappropriate antibiotics also lead to unnecessary adverse effects and add to the cost of healthcare.”

Sinus infections most often occur when people are getting over a cold or other respiratory infection, but environmental contaminants and seasonal allergies can also lead to the uncomfortable facial pressure associated with these infections.

Roughly 15 percent of the population suffers from at least one sinus infection a year. Although more than 90 percent of cases are caused by a virus—meaning antibiotics will do nothing to treat the infection—doctors often write out prescriptions for antibiotics. In fact, sinus infections are the fifth-leading cause of prescribing antibiotics, despite the fact that only about 2 percent of cases can be effectively treated with the drugs.

In the rare case that a sinus infection is caused by bacteria, the guidelines, issued by an Infectious Diseases Society of America panel chaired by Dr. Chow, recommend that doctors prescribe amoxicillin containing clavulanate, an enzyme-inhibitor that helps overcome antibiotic resistance. Doctors should avoid prescribing azithromycin and clarithromycin because there are growing drug-resistance problems with those antibiotics.

How to deal with a sinus infection:

• Gauge symptoms. Most people don’t need to see a doctor for a sinus infection. However, Dr. Chow outlines the symptoms of a bacterial sinus infection that does warrant prompt attention and possibly antibiotics:

1. Symptoms that last for 10 or more days and are not improving, or severe symptoms accompanied by a fever of 102 degrees or higher

2. Facial pain and green nasal discharge that lasts for 3 or 4 days

3. Double sickening—symptoms that seem to improve after 5 to 7 days, but then return and worsen.

There are exceptions to these rules, though. Very young or old patients, or people with underlying medical issues like cancer, diabetes, chronic heart, lung, or kidney ailments, or people who have recently been hospitalized should see a doctor when symptoms first surface, since they are more susceptible to infection, Dr. Chow notes.

• Reach for the Neti. Nasal irrigation sprays, drops, or liquids using a sterile solution can help relieve symptoms, although children may not cooperate with the treatment.

• Avoid certain over-the-counter meds. Decongestants and antihistamines don’t help alleviate bacterial or viral sinus infections and could actually make symptoms worse.

• Evict sinus irritators in the home. Avoid air fresheners, scented candles, and gel plug-ins. The fragrance chemicals they contain can aggravate allergies, which could in turn spark a sinus infection.

photo: iStockPhoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
5 Natural Cold Remedies
The Best OTC Medicines
Prescription Drug Combinations to Avoid

Master mouthwatering recipes that fill you up and slim you down with Cook Yourself Sexy, the ultimate guide to a hotter, healthier, and more confident you.

javahut healthy feed

Stop Biting Your Nails (For Real This Time)

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Maybe you’ve been a nail biter for years. Or you have a friend or relative who tends to snack on their digits. Sure, it’s not something you (or they) are proud of, but you’ve probably never viewed it as a full-fledged disorder. The American Psychiatric Association—which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—is about to change your nail-biting outlook.

The DSM will soon label nail biting—currently listed as “not otherwise classified,” a.k.a. not a big deal—as an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

OCD is most-commonly characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions). It’s important to note that only certain types of nail biters—the extreme cases—fit into this category. “As with hair pulling and skin picking, nail biting isn’t a disorder unless it is impairing, distressing, and meets a certain clinical level of severity,” says Carol Mathews, M.D., a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. “That is not the vast majority of nail bitters,” she says. “It is a very small minority of people.”

What counts as clinical severity? “They have bitten so much that they are getting infections,” Mathews says. “There is physical damage that is impairing their ability to use their hands.”

Okay, let’s say your case doesn’t quite warrant an OCD label: That doesn’t mean you get a free, all-you-can-bite pass. It’s still gross. Plus, it’s unhealthy.

Lawrence E. Gibson, M.D., a dermatologist with the Mayo Clinic, says nail biting doesn’t come without risk. It can, “contribute to skin infection, aggravate existing conditions of the nail bed, and increase the risk of colds and other infections by encouraging the spread of germs from the nails and fingers to the lips and mouth.”

Convinced yet?

Four simple ways to ditch the disorder for good:

1. Become aware of mindless munching
You know how sometimes the entire bag of Cheetos® “disappears” while you’re watching TV? The same thing happens when you chew your nails. The key to conquering the brainless bite: You need to track the situation. Ask your friends and family to stand watch, and take note of every time you wind up with your fingers in your mouth. If you’re biting out of boredom, give yourself a task: Do your laundry (you have to do it anyway, right?), squeeze a stress ball, braid your hair, etc. For even more tips on how to banish bad habits like nail-biting, click here.

2. Keep your nails neatly trimmed or manicured
When your nails are beautifully painted or already trimmed, you’re less likely to feel the urge to bite. “For the occasional nail biter, a mild imperfection in the nail may be the culprit,” Mathews says. This is a great excuse to spring for a mani! Don’t have the cash? Check out these seven tips for a gorgeous DIY manicure.

3. Make your digits taste disgusting
Bring out some extra reinforcement with a product like Sally Supernail Professional’s Bite No More™, which is formulated to prevent casual biting of the nails by producing a mild, unpleasant taste to remind you not to bite.

4. Find healthy ways to manage stress and anxiety
Paying the bills, meeting work deadlines, keeping a stable relationship—your life is most likely packed with stress, and, since you’ve outgrown your childhood pacifier, you may tend to rip away your cuticles as a way to cope. Need new ways to relax? Here, we share 31 ways to de-stress your life.

photo: Stockbyte/Thinkstock

More from WH:
Addiction: Dealing with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
NEW: The Latest Manicure Tips
 Beauty Award Winners: The Best Nail Polish

Master mouthwatering recipes that fill you up and slim you down with Cook Yourself Sexy, the ultimate guide to a hotter, healthier, and more confident you.

javahut healthy feed

Slice Your Sandwich This Way to Cut Your Appetite

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Getting more satisfaction from your sandwich could be as simple as slicing into it. Cutting certain foods into pieces before digging in could help you feel more satiated and lead you to eat less overall, according to a recent Arizona State University study.

In the 301–student experiment, each student was given a whole bagel with cream cheese, or one that was precut into four pieces. Students who received a quartered bagel ate less of it, and also ate less food served at a buffet 20 minutes later.

“The whole idea is to trick your mind to think you’re eating a lot from a plate,” says Devina Wadhera, a graduate student at ASU who designed and analyzed the study. “When food is cut into pieces, it looks like there’s more of it, so our eyes trick our stomach into thinking we are eating a lot more than we actually are.” (You can manipulate your mind in other ways, such as playing these games that help train your brain.)

Experts agree that our minds may be mightier than our tummies in affecting what we eat. “Cognitive effects in eating are very powerful,” says Betty Phillips, Ph.D., provost of ASU, who supervised the research. “Our behaviors are guided by our perception.”

To feel more satisfied by a single serving of food, keep Wadhera’s tips in mind before devouring your next dish:

Cut up whole foods before digging in. Instead of cutting off one piece of chicken at a time, try chopping up the whole serving first. This strategy is most effective on foods that are not typically served in small pieces, like meat or pizza, so chopping up your fries probably won’t help.

You know bite-size? Halve it. To get as many pieces as possible from each portion, cut your sandwich into quarters, not halves, and cut that slice of steak so it reaps as many forkfuls as possible.

Eat one piece at a time. Eating snack-type foods—like a stack of Pringles or M&Ms—may have conditioned us to overeat in the first place, says Wadhera. “We tend to take fewer bites from [snack foods, and we pop as many pieces as we can into the mouth at the same time.” Retrain yourself by chewing one piece of your food at a time. (Stick to the 28 Best Healthy Snacks.)

Reclassify your food. Adjusting visual cues trick your mind, but mental strategies can be more purposeful. Telling yourself that a filling side dish (i.e., potato salad) or a snack (i.e., a mid-morning muffin) is a meal changes your perception of what you’ve eaten, which can affect how much you eat later on. On the flip side: If the restaurant bread you mindlessly munch on were to be your dinner, would you choose that, or wait for your real meal to arrive?

Don’t try this with dessert. No matter how the cookie crumbles, researchers are still unsure whether the mind tricks above increase satiety and decrease overall food intake when applied to eating sweets and snacks. “Even though we have shown that [cutting up food into pieces before eating it] might work with meal foods like chicken or sandwiches, we don’t know if this technique will also apply for desserts,” says Wadhera. However, quartering your main meal may lead you to reach for fewer temping foods later on. (Still jonesing for junk food? Try these 7 Ways to Stop Craving Junk Food.)

photo: iStochphoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
Healthy Appetite Suppressant Tricks
Addicted to Sugar? Curb Your Sweet Tooth
12 Flat-Belly Foods

Slim Calm Sexy Diet Slim down in just 6 weeks! Order your copy of the Slim Calm Sexy Diet

javahut healthy feed

Do This With Your Hands to Relieve Stress

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Ever feel so stressed you could pull your hair out, mindlessly stuff your face, or chomp away at your cuticles? Turns out there’s a way more productive way to relieve stress and put your hands to use using a technique that could also help you drop a few pounds and even nip that back pain in the bud.

Research shows that the Emotional Freedom Technique (a.k.a. EFT or tapping), a treatment which combines ancient Chinese acupressure with modern psychology, can reduce cortisol levels in the body and counteract the negative impact of stress by sending a calming signal to the amygdala (the part of our brain responsible for our fight or flight response).
You won’t need metal-toed shoes for this kind of tapping: It involves repetitive finger-tapping on acupressure points of the body (listed below) while repeating certain statements aloud.

“A regular tapping practice can create numerous physical and psychological benefits like increased circulation, deeper and more satisfying sleep, relaxation in muscles and joints, improved immune system function, digestion, and sports performance, and increased energy, mental clarity, and focus,” says Jessica Ortner, co-producer of The Tapping Solution, a documentary film that explores tapping.

Skeptical? The Women’s Health team was, too—but we were also intrigued. So we invited Ortner to our office in New York City to give us the deets.

Turns out that, although it remains unrecognized by the American Psychological Association, clinical trials, studies, and research show EFT can be effective for treating certain conditions like post-traumatic stress syndrome and stress. In fact, researchers at Griffith University found that tapping can even help you to lose weight (by focusing on particular foods you crave and thoughts and emotions related to overeating, you can actually reduce cravings in the short and long term!).

“For a relatively new technique, it is very widespread and used around the world–a recent Google search for EFT showed over 25,000 related videos on the topic,” says Ortner. Not to mention, the 2012 Tapping World Summit, an annual online event, attracted 500,000 participants.

Ortner showed the WH staff how to tap to relieve stress. “Tapping while experiencing or discussing a stressful event counteracts that stress and reprograms the response to it,” says Ortner, but it can also be done on a regular basis as a form of preventative self-care. Ortner says that the length of tapping time can vary greatly. “Some aspects of an issue can be cleared in minutes while others may take repeated sessions,” she says.

Here’s how to try EFT:

FIRST: Identify your tapping points.


THEN: Learn how to tap.

  1. Start by using the tip of your index and middle fingers to rhythmically tap the side of the hand point while saying the “setup statement” aloud (speaking out loud will help with focus):

    “Even though I have this problem [insert your particular problem, such as neck pain, stress from a deadline, or anxiety], I accept myself.”

    Repeat three times.

  2. Tap briefly on each of the other points in the order they are listed in above while you express how you feel aloud, as if you’re venting to a friend. It doesn’t matter what side of the body you tap or what you say, says Ortner.
  3. Once you’ve tapped on each of the points, take a deep breath to complete round one. Continue for as long as you’d like, or until you feel better.

Check out this video demonstration from Jessica Ortner for more on tapping.

photo: iStockphoto/Thinkstock

More from WH:
How Integrative Medicine Helps You Heal
Stress Relief Secrets
Acupuncture to Relieve Pain: Does It Work?

Look Better Naked:


javahut healthy feed