Ten
This page is under construction and more "Ways" will be added soon. Meanwhile, here are several authentic Ways to get you started.
So can the Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan really help us stay younger and live longer?
Startling new findings from the frontiers of anti-aging research have already demonstrated that chronological age is actually irrelevent. Once past 40, it is entirely possible for us to look, feel and function as well as the average person half our age.
Six Who Chose To Live a Long and Healthy Life
Here are brief sketches of six men and women who each set out to stay younger and live longer and who were extraordinarily successful. Each followed a diet and exercise program almost identical with the Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan endorsed by this website. It was largely due to the health-building nutrients in the fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and legumes they ate, and through their active lifestyles, that enabled these men and women to avoid most of the common diseases that afflict older Americans and to retain the vigor of youth into their 90s or beyond.
Luigi Cornaro was an Italian nobleman who lived over 400 years ago. Until age 40, he lived the life of a dissipated rake. But then he pioneered his own Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan. By eating only a pound of healthful food each day, Cornaro regained youthful vitality in less than a year. During his seventies, Cornaro suffered a broken arm and leg in a carriage accident. But so robust was his stamina, and so strong his bones, that he swiftly recovered. Ar age 83, he put his youth-restoring formula into writing and published How to Live to Be 100 which remains a health book classic to this day. Although Cornaro didn't quite make it to the Century Club (he died in 1565 at age 99), he more than adequately proved his point.
Larry Lewis, a former circus aerialist, determined to live to be a youthful 100. He ate only organically-grown plant foods and ran 6.7 miles each day in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Until he retired at age 105, Lewis also walked several miles each day to his job as a hotel banquet waiter where he lifted heavy trays. Lewis finally died of cancer in 1976 at age 106.
Hulda Crooks described herself as "nervous, anemic and perpetually tired " until, in her 40s, she married a doctor. She then began to exercise and eat a natural diet of foods that grow on plants. Each year, she became fitter and stronger, so much so that at age 66 she hiked to the summit of Mount Whitney, highest mountain in the continental U.S. After that, she climbed Whitney 23 more times. Then in 1987, at age 92, Hulda Crooks hiked the steep, arduous trail to the 12,388-foot summit of Japan's Mount Fuji. When asked how she did it, Mrs. Crooks credited her dazzling energy to a strongly-positive outlook, regular exercise and a diet composed almost entirely of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and legumes.
Paul C. Bragg, a physical therapist and author of many health books, decided early in life to live to be 100. He followed the Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan almost to the letter and he ate only healthful foods.. At age 94, he barely looked 60 and was actively teaching a daily exercise and strength-training class in Hawaii. As a result of a near-drowning accident during his daily ocean swim, he died suddenly in 1976 at age 95.
Scott Nearing, a former university professor, pioneered the back-to-the-land movement before World War II. For almost 50 years thereafter, he and his wife inspired thousands to forsake the job market and the supermarket to find greater satisfaction through self-sufficient homesteading. Through eating a strictly plant-based diet, and by following a lifestyle of strenuous non-mechanized farming, Scott Nearing remained physically and mentally active until well past age 95. The governor of Maine attended his 100th birthday party in 1983. Then, still in complete control of his life and health, he chose to fast and died 15 days later.
After his death, Scott's wife Helen continued to follow the same lifestyle and diet. Reportedly, she continued to enjoy robust health and vigor until she died in a car accident in 1995 at age 93.
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In its January 19, 2004 issue, Time Magazine says, "Frequent orgasm has been linked to longer life: this may have something to do with sex's beneficial effects on the heart and immune system."
The full report in Time Magazine's January 19, 2004 issue is reproduced below. This website recommends TIME Magazine for its unbiased, insightful, accurate and helpful reports on common health problems affecting Americans
Sexual Healing By Alice Park
What feels good is good for you too. Making love can boost the heart, relieve pain and help keep you healthy
The "sex glow." Carrie Bradshaw and her Sex and the City trio may be the champions of detecting it, getting it and keeping it, but you don't need a closetful of Prada to appreciate the rosy radiance that follows a pleasant sexual encounter. The fact is, sex leaves its mark, not just on the mind but on the body as well. Researchers have begun to explore its effects on almost every part of the body, from the brain to the heart to the immune system.
Studies are showing that arousal and an active sex life may lead to a longer life, better heart health, an improved ability to ward off pain, a more robust immune system and even protection against certain cancers, not to mention lower rates of depression.
But finding mechanisms for these benefits and proving cause and effect are no easy matter. "The associations are out there, so there has to be an explanation for it," says Dr. Ronald Glaser, director of the Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. Thanks to a better understanding of the biochemistry of arousal, as well as advances in imaging techniques, doctors are closing in on some possibilities. Their efforts are leading them to the hormone oxytocin, which may be the key lubricant for the machinery of sex. Known for controlling the muscles of the uterus during childbirth, oxytocin surges up to five times as high as its normal blood level during orgasm. Studies in animals have also revealed oxytocin's softer side. It is responsible for helping individuals forge strong emotional bonds, earning its moniker as the cuddle hormone. Released in the brain, oxytocin works in the blood, where it travels to tissues as distant as the uterus, as well as along nerve fibers, where it regulates body temperature, blood pressure, wound healing and even relief from pain.
While it is unlikely that oxytocin alone is responsible for sex's wide-ranging effects on the body, researchers hope that by tracking the hormone they can expose the network of body systems affected by sexual activity and identify other biochemical players along the way. Here's what they have learned so far:
--THE HEART OF THE MATTER
The strongest case that can be made for the benefits of sex come from studies of aerobic fitness. The act of intercourse burns about 200 calories, the equivalent of running vigorously for 30 minutes. During orgasm, both heart rate and blood pressure typically double, all under the influence of oxytocin. It would be logical to conclude that sex, like other aerobic workouts, can protect against heart disease, but studies in support of this link have yet to be done. "Can we make the claim that having sex is equal to walking a mile or bicycling? We don't know," says Robert Friar, a biologist at Michigan's Ferris State University. "The data don't really exist."
At least not yet. A study conducted in Wales in the 1980s showed that men who had sex twice a week or more often experienced half as many heart attacks after 10 years as men who had intercourse less than once a month. The trial, however, did not include a parallel group of randomly chosen control subjects, the scientific gold standard. So it's unclear whether frequent intercourse was responsible for the lower rate of heart attacks or whether, for example, the men who were sexually active were healthier or less prone to heart disease to begin with.
More recent research has focused on the hormones dehydroepiandrostone (DHEA) and testosterone, both important for libido. They have been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease as well as protecting the heart muscle after an attack. That may explain why doctors maintain that sex after a heart attack is relatively safe.
--PAIN CONTROL
In the 1970s Dr. Beverly Whipple of Rutgers University identified the female G spot, the vaginal on-switch for female arousal, and stumbled upon one of oxytocin's more potent effects: its ability to dull pain. Whipple showed that gentle pressure on the G spot raised pain thresholds by 40% and that during orgasm women could tolerate up to 110% more pain. But she could not explain the link until the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using fMRI to view the brains of easily orgasmic women as they climaxed, either with visual stimuli or by self-stimulation, Whipple found that the body's pain-killing center in the midbrain is activated during peak arousal. Signals from this part of the brain instruct the body to release endorphins and corticosteroids, which can temporarily numb the raw nerve endings responsible for everything from menstrual cramps to arthritis and migraine for several minutes. Activating this region also reduces anxiety and has a calming effect.
--THE HEALING POWER OF SEX
A trial involving more than 100 college students in 1999 found that the levels of immunoglobulin, a microbe-fighting antibody, in students who engaged in intercourse once or twice a week were 30% higher than in those who were abstinent. Curiously, those who had sex more than twice a week had the same levels as those who were celibate. Could there be an optimal rate of sexual frequency for keeping the body's defenses strong?
Researchers in Sweden are meanwhile exploring how sex affects another immunological function: the healing of wounds. Here again, oxytocin may lead the way. Using injections of oxytocin as a surrogate for arousal, Swedish investigators have found that sores on the backs of lab rats heal twice as fast under the influence of the hormone as without it.
To find out whether the hormone has the same healing effect in people, Ohio State's Glaser and his wife Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a psychologist at the same institution, are enrolling married couples in an unorthodox study in which each spouse's arm is blistered and then covered with a serum-collecting device. Over a 24-hour observation period, the couples discuss positive aspects of their marriage and mates as well as points of contention, such as finances or in-laws. The Glasers will analyze how levels of oxytocin change during these discussions, along with rates of healing.
--A LONG, HAPPY LIFE?
It's well known that married folk tend to live longer and suffer less depression than singles do. But is this because of more frequent sex, simple companionship or some benign aspect of personality that lends itself to marriage? Teasing apart such matters is difficult, but sex itself appears to be factor. A study of 3,500 Scottish men, for example, found a link between frequent intercourse and greater longevity. A much smaller study of elderly men found that those who masturbated appeared to experience less depression than those who did not. In addition, frequent sexual activity has been tied to lower risk of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men, a relationship that is still not fully understood but may involve some interaction between oxytocin and the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone and their roles in cell signaling and cell division. "Scientifically, it's an exciting time that will lead to a lot of rethinking and reconceptualizing of human sexuality," says Dr. John Bancroft, director of the Kinsey Institute. As the answers come in, the human race may begin to appreciate that the "sex glow" stays with them a lot longer than they realized.
Copyright © 2004 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduced under the Fair Use provision of the U.S. Copyright Act
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How to Eat Smarter
By CHRISTINE GORMAN, From the Oct. 20, 2003 issue of TIME magazine reproduced under the Fair Use provision of the U.S. Copyright Law
When TIME Magazine asked the nation's top nutritionists how we could all eat smarter, their advice bore a striking similarity to the diet recommended in our Live To Be 90 Lifestyle Plan
It's 6:45 p.m. after a bruising day at the office and a hair-raising commute on the freeway, you are standing in the kitchen about to prepare a healthy, satisfying dinner for your spouse, your two school-age children and yourself. As usual, all they want to know is "What's for dinner?" and "When do we eat?" You dump a box of thin spaghetti into a pot of boiling water, zap 3 cups of green beans in the microwave, pop a loaf of frozen garlic bread into the toaster oven and pour a medium-size jar of marinara sauce into a saucepan to simmer. While all that's bubbling, you chop up half a head of iceberg lettuce and a couple of tomatoes for the salad, which you'll sprinkle with a light dressing. Dessert will be two scoops of frozen yogurt per person and a plate of assorted low-fat cookies for the family to share. Sounds pretty healthy, right?
Wrong. While this meal may be better than what most Americans eat for dinner, it's enough food for a family twice the size of yours. In addition, it contains some nutritional traps that in the best-case scenario will make you fat and in the worst will increase your chances of developing diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Think you know the pitfalls? Read on. You may discover some surprises.
Here are just a few of the problems:
Most "light" salad dressings are too heavy on sugar and salt and too light on nutrition. A better choice is a simple oil-and-vinegar dressing, which—although packed with calories—contains lots of heart-healthy mono-unsaturated fatty acids and no saturated fat.
You're serving your family too many highly processed foods. The latest research shows that such foods won't keep them satisfied for very long and may make them hungrier in the long run.
Having different kinds of cookies to choose from makes it more likely that your family will eat more cookies than they should. The fewer our choices, the less we eat.
Your portion sizes are far too generous. According to the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid, you're giving each member of your family 4 servings of spaghetti, 112 servings of marinara sauce and 2 servings of frozen yogurt. The whole meal contains 1,500 calories per person, or 80% of the daily requirement for a sedentary office worker.
Let's not even get started on whether the tomatoes should be cooked or raw, how much salt, sugar and trans fat there is in the garlic bread, or how many calories are packed into that marinara sauce. It just goes to show that it's hard to eat healthy even when we try. We've all heard that fruits and vegetables are good for us, that restaurant portions are too big, that we should exercise more. But even a casual glance at public-health statistics suggests that Americans don't know how to put that information into practice. Two out of three Americans are overweight or obese. The incidence of Type 2 diabetes among children is climbing. And any gains we've made against heart disease by quitting smoking may be about to disappear. Alarmed by the worsening trends, health experts have unleashed a flood of nutritional advice for consumers—much of it contradictory.
One expert says red meat is bad. Another says bacon keeps you trim. Someone says skip the potatoes, and someone else says eat the skin. And let's face it, controversy sells. Diet books and magazine articles try to grab our attention by telling us everything we thought we knew was wrong. (It's not.)
Even the government-approved labels on our food can lead us astray. Serving sizes bear no relationship to the helpings we usually eat. Low-fat products are not necessarily low in calories. And now the Food and Drug Administration says we should be on the lookout for trans fat—a lesser-known type of fat that is every bit as bad for the heart as saturated fat—though we won't learn which products are the worst offenders until 2006. Meanwhile, the food pyramid, which serves as the basis for all meals prepared in the federal school-lunch program, is about to be changed. However, the next revision won't be out until 2005.
"People can feel like a ping-pong ball," says Dr. David Katz, head of the Yale School of Medicine Prevention Research Center and author of The Way to Eat (Sourcebooks; 2002). "They are being batted in one direction and then another." Not that we necessarily mind. Being perplexed can ease our conscience. As long as we can point to a general state of nutritional confusion, we don't have to take responsibility for our ever expanding waistlines.
The truth is that nutritionists have a fairly good idea about what constitutes a healthy diet as well as plenty of solid evidence to back that up. As a rule, they tell us, we should eat lots of fruits and vegetables, favor whole grains over highly processed cereals and make red meat an occasional treat rather than the daily centerpiece of our evening meal. And we shouldn't eat any more than our body needs.
The problem is that no matter how much we think we know about what goes into a healthy meal, we often misjudge the results. Some vegetable dishes, it turns out, are healthier than others, some grain products are less processed than others, some fish are safer than others. You may think you are eating right, but by making subtle changes in what you eat and how you eat it, you could start eating considerably healthier.
The rewards are worth the effort. Studies show that as much as 80% of heart disease and 90% of diabetes can be tied to unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits. Doctors have proved that a diet emphasizing fruits and vegetables as well as small amounts of nuts and dairy products can lower blood pressure and "bad" cholesterol as effectively as many medications. And evidence is growing that adding fiber to your diet and avoiding highly refined foods can help prevent or delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes.
You don't have to sacrifice flavor. You don't have to go hungry. "It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing," says Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "That attitude can actually make it harder." You do need to put in some effort—much of it in the kitchen—and accept that there really is no free lunch. But with a little planning and a better understanding of some of the basic food traps, we can all eat a whole lot better and smarter.
You need Less Food Than You Think
"Everything in moderation" is a great motto until you realize that moderate means different things to different people. Better to nail down some specifics and measure them using a tough-to-fudge yardstick—the much dreaded but ultimately very helpful concept of the calorie. Stop, don't turn the page just yet. We're not going to get tediously obsessive about this. But whether you, like most Americans, need to lose weight or you just want to maintain the figure you already have, you've got to know a little something about calories.
At its heart, the rule for losing weight is simple: eat fewer calories than you burn. As anyone who has ever tried to shed a couple of pounds knows all too well, that's often harder than it sounds. Eat too little, and your body ratchets down its metabolism so that it doesn't need as much energy and you regain weight more easily. One way to counteract that is to boost your level of physical activity to increase the number of calories you burn.
But when it comes to weight control, exercise—though necessary—can take you only so far. Think about it, and you'll understand why. Food is so plentiful and so readily available that you're always going to be able to eat more than you can sweat off. The average American consumes 530 calories more per day now than he or she did in 1970. That's roughly what you'd get from eating 21/2 cups of cooked pasta. You would have to walk an extra two hours a day to burn that off. That doesn't mean you should forget about exercising—the benefits to your heart, bones and peace of mind are just too great. It does mean you have to pay more attention to the "calories in" side of the equation.
Few of us really get this message. "People don't understand the most basic things about calories," says Marion Nestle, chair of the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "Larger portions have more calories. Eating more often means that you eat more calories. Having food in front of you means you eat more calories."
Even if you're happy when you step on the scales, you can't eat the way you did when you were a teenager—or even just a decade ago. As you grow older, your body needs fewer calories to keep going. Certain exercises—like yoga or weight training—help counteract the trend because they build muscle, which burns more calories than fat. But at some point, to avoid gaining weight, you will have to eat less.
The Secrets of Portion Control
So, what are some smart ways of cutting back? Start by fooling both your eyes and your stomach. As you reduce the amount of food you eat, use smaller plates to keep your meals from looking skimpy. Begin a couple of meals each week with an apple or a cup of soup. Either will help curb your appetite. The apple, besides being nutritious and only 80 calories, is full of soluble fiber, which keeps the stomach from emptying too quickly. And there is something about the texture and consistency of soup (broth-, not cream-based, low in sodium and not more than 150 calories) that is particularly satisfying to the stomach. Several intriguing studies have found that other liquids, like fruit juices or sodas—which are often high in calories—do nothing to suppress the appetite.
Watch out for the portion-size trap. For reasons known only to bureaucrats, the portion sizes provided in the U.S. government's food pyramid can differ dramatically from those indicated on a product's food label. (One set of figures is regulated by the Department of Agriculture, and the other, which appears on product labels, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.) A single serving of pasta is 12 cup (cooked) according to the usda, 1 cup according to the FDA and at least 2 cups according to most families.
Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, but limit your choices of everything else, particularly snacks. Giving folks a wide choice of foods in a single meal, scientists have shown, encourages them to eat more. "It works for every species ever tested—humans, rats, fish, cats," says Susan Roberts, professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston. If there are two types of cookies on a plate, the temptation is to eat one of each.
Eventually, you will have to become familiar with the calorie count of your foods. Just a couple of days of measuring or weighing what you eat and calculating the calories you consume can be a real eye-opener. You don't have to do this for the rest of your life, just long enough to get a feel for it. Many nutritionists recommend eating healthy frozen dinners, whose calorie counts are printed on the package, as a good way to make the transition to smaller portion sizes. How many calories you should eat in a day depends on whether you want to lose or maintain weight. The American Heart Association's rule of thumb is to multiply your weight in pounds by 13 (15 if you're active). If you want to lose weight, subtract 250 calories.
All Fats Are Not Created Equal
for more than 30 years, most researchers agreed that the healthiest diets were those low in percentage of calories attributable to fat. Now they realize that just as there are good and bad types of cholesterol, there are good and bad types of fat. The good fats—found in foods like fish, olive oil, avocados and walnuts—actually improve cholesterol levels in the blood and significantly reduce the risk that the heart will suddenly stop. As for the bad fats, there are now two villains instead of just one. Saturated fats—typically found in red meat, butter and ice cream—are still champion artery cloggers. But trans fats—found primarily in processed foods, such as margarines and many commercially baked or fried foods but also in whole milk—may be even worse.
Good fats do more than help protect the heart. They also seem to delay hunger pangs. "People on these high-starch, low-fat diets are often hungry soon after they eat. They would be more satisfied eating nuts or a salad with a full-fat dressing," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and author of Eat, Drink and Be Healthy (Fireside; 2001). "And longer-term studies are showing that people tend to be able to control their weight better over the long run on a moderate or higher-fat diet than on a low-fat diet."
Fats have more flavor—a fact that was not lost on the editors of Cooking Light magazine. Since the mid-1990s, they have slipped a modicum of butter into their recipes. "You have to make food enjoyable," says Jill G. Melton, senior editor of Cooking Light (which, like TIME, is owned by AOL Time Warner). "If something tastes bad, you're not going to want it again."
Just remember that there's a smart way to include fat in your diet and lots of unhealthy ones. Good fats contain double the calories (9 calories per gram) of either proteins or carbohydrates (4 calories per gram). So there's little room for error. If you eat nuts, you're going to have to eat less of something else.
What about the Mediterranean diet? you ask. Researchers have long been fascinated by the traditional Greek and Italian diets of the 1960s, which contained as much as 40% fat but didn't trigger a lot of heart attacks. Don't assume that what worked for Greeks and Italians 40 years ago will work for you. After all, they typically ate a pound of fruit a day (equal to four medium apples) and little red meat, and many of them got lots of exercise tilling fields and tending livestock. "The Mediterranean diet works well in the Mediterranean," says Yale's Katz. "My concern about it in the U.S. is that people will continue to go to Burger King but just dump olive oil over their French fries."
You can go overboard trying to avoid trans fat. Yes, there is a small amount of trans fat in whole milk, but whole milk is what most pediatricians recommend for children from the age of 1 to 2. Their brains need all kinds of fats to develop properly. After they reach age 2, you've got to be on the lookout for saturated fats as well. "You don't want people to think trans fats are the only bad guys," says Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition professor at Tufts University in Boston and a frequent spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. "If a cracker has 2% trans and 2% saturated fat, it's better than 7% saturated and 0% trans." Finally, no matter how low McDonald's reduces the amount of trans fat in its French fries, they are never going to be a health food. Which brings us to ...
The Potato Factor
It's not that spuds are so bad; it's that they're misunderstood—not to mention deep-fried and drowned in sour cream and cheese. America's much beloved tuber definitely has a dual personality. A good source of potassium (particularly if you eat the skin) and a great thickener for soups, the potato still doesn't have all the benefits bestowed by more colorful produce like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and green beans. v This problem of mistaken identity extends to quite a few of the foods we commonly call carbohydrates. First, a tiny rant about the word carbohydrate. When nutritionists first advised us to replace some of the fats in our diets with complex carbohydrates, what they had in mind was beans, fruits, leafy green vegetables and whole grains. What we loaded up on was pasta, white rice and French fries. Technically, we were following the rules, but by focusing on these highly processed or refined foods, we were missing out on a lot of antioxidants and other important nutrients. And we found out, much to the detriment of our waistlines, that it's a whole lot easier to overeat pasta, rice and potatoes than apples and broccoli.
O.K., so maybe the experts were a little naive about human nature. But no one anticipated the enthusiasm with which the food industry would jump on the low-fat bandwagon. Alas, it mostly just replaced the fat with refined foods and sugars and left consumers with the impression that they could eat as much of this stuff as they wanted. As if that weren't bad enough, it is becoming increasingly clear that some folks respond to highly refined foods differently than the rest of the population. All carbohydrates get broken down in the body into a simple sugar called glucose. This is a good thing, since glucose is the principal fuel that powers our bodies and brains. But about a quarter of American adults—some 50 million men and women—have trouble regulating their glucose levels. The hallmarks of this condition, which nutritionists now call metabolic syndrome, include a big waist (40 in. or more for men; 35 in. or more for women), high blood pressure (more than 130/85 mm Hg), a predisposition toward diabetes and troubling cholesterol levels in the blood.
Doctors aren't quite sure exactly why the body sometimes reacts this way, though they know that metabolic syndrome is exacerbated by a sedentary lifestyle. Hence their No. 1 recommendation for patients with metabolic syndrome is to get more exercise and build muscle mass. But they also now advise them to replace at least some of the refined carbohydrates in their diets with healthy fats, like those in nuts and olive oil. In 2000 the American Heart Association, which has long touted the advantages of a low-fat lifestyle, added an exception to its guidelines for folks with this condition.
None of this means you should avoid eating fruits and vegetables. (In their natural form, they are not highly refined.) Just make sure that they are as colorful as possible—in order to get a wide variety of nutrients and those ever important antioxidants. Using spinach instead of iceberg lettuce in a salad, for example, will double the dietary fiber consumed, more than quadruple the calcium and potassium, more than triple the folate and provide seven times as much vitamin C. If you don't like spinach, try a more nutritious lettuce like romaine or Boston.
Your goal should be to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day—and preferably more. (Nine is divine, according to the latest nutritional research. A serving is roughly one cupful.) Don't assume that fresh is the only game in town. "Frozen can be just as good and occasionally better," says Lichtenstein at Tufts. Because frozen fruits and vegetables are chilled immediately after being picked, they often contain more nutrients than produce that has been sitting on the shelf.
Sirloin, Salmon or Beans?
Protein from any number of sources can be part of a healthy diet. But figuring out just how much or how little of each to include can be tricky. We've known for some time that most Americans need to cut back on their consumption of red meat because of its high saturated-fat content. But now some health experts are raising the possibility that eating too much fish—long a staple of heart-healthy diets—may expose folks to dangerous levels of mercury and other poisons. That's still being debated. A study published in August suggests that most of the mercury found in fish is of a form that is not particularly toxic to humans. So if your choice is between the third helping of swordfish that week and a Big Mac, go for the swordfish.
Overall, how much protein do you need? Given the popularity of high-protein diets, you may be surprised to learn that there hasn't been much research on the long-term health benefits and risks of eating lots of protein, though there is concern that too much protein can lead to kidney and liver problems. Scientists have calculated the minimum amount needed to keep your muscles from breaking down—just under 70 grams, or about 212 oz., a day for someone who weighs 150 lbs. (Food is so plentiful that Americans rarely develop protein deficiencies.) Whether high levels of protein are linked to an increased risk of developing cancer or heart disease remains unclear. What is known is that too much protein of any kind can leach calcium out of your body and that eating lots of animal protein usually means you're increasing your intake of saturated fat as well. "I don't believe any nutritionist would argue that 30% protein isn't a reasonable upper limit for long-term safety," says Roberts at Tufts. But what is safe and what is ideal are two different matters. Current federal guidelines suggest that adults get 10% to 15% of their daily calories from protein.
If you're like most people, what interests you about high-protein diets is the possibility that they might make it easier to slim down. Preliminary evidence suggests this may be the case over the short run, but in many ways, that is almost beside the point. "People forget they should be eating a nutritious, healthy diet for other reasons," says Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University. "They go on these kooky weight-management fad diets, and they lose all sight of bone and cardiovascular health." So remember, a little protein goes a long way. Your muscles will not fall apart if you don't eat protein at every meal. Stick with leaner cuts of meat and give preference to beans, fish, chicken or pork over red meat.
The basic rules for eating smarter couldn't be simpler. Watch your total calorie intake. Burn off as many calories as you take in. And be choosy about the foods you eat—not just for a couple of weeks or months but for the rest of your life. "It takes work," says Dr. John Swartzberg, who chairs the editorial board of the U.C. Berkeley Wellness Letter. "We live in a fast-food world." The sooner we accept that that is not the healthiest of environments for us, the better off we'll be.
So, what's for dinner?
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Eat Your Way To Better Health And Longer Life
The evidence is overwhelming: a diet abundant in nutrient-rich foods can be a powerful tool in preventing disease. Maintaining a healthy weight through a combination of diet and exercise is known to help lower the risk of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis and many kinds of cancer.
No, these are not the claims of some eccentric wacko but are quotes from an ad for a White Paper on Nutrition and Weight Control published by Johns Hopkins, one of America's most outstanding and prestigious medical research centers.
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Don't Let Television Rot Your Mind And Ruin Your Health
Watching TV may be the largest single destroyer of youthfulness--and the largest thief of time--in modern life. The average American spends at least 2.5 hours daily in a mindless stupor, hypnotized by a babbling television screen. Add that up, and every week we throw away an entire day passively watching a series of programs that effectively destroy our imagination and creativity and much of our mental agility and aliveness. Watching most programs merely raises our level of tension and anxiety while the commercials brainwash us (and our kids) into eating junk foods that impair our energy and make us flabby and overweight.
Abundant evidence exists to prove these facts. A study by Professor Larry A. Tucker, Ph. D., at Brigham Young University found that the fittest, healthiest people watched TV for less then one hour daily. People who watched for 3 or 4 hours daily were 41 percent less fit while those who watched for 4 hours or more were 50 percent less fit.
A similar study of 800 adults published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association recently, reported that only 4.5 percent of people who warched TV for one hour or less daily were obese. But among those who watched for 4 hours or more daily, , 19 percent were severaly obese.
Obviously, the less time you spend watching television, the better for your entire mind and body. Yet TV can be as addictive as a drug. If you switch on the TV as soon as you enter a room and swiftly scan the channels to find an entertaining program, or if you watch television for two or more hours daily and become irritated and restless when you cannot watch it, you may well be a confirmed TV junkie. Another sign of TV addiction is preferring to spend a fine, sunny day indoors instead of enjoying a more active rescretion outdoors.
Watching most television shows is the most completely passive thing anyone can do. It demands absolutely no activity from either body or mind. Even working on a computer requires some mental exertion.
If watching TV is keeping you from exercising your mind and body, or from getting enough sleep, you need to wean yourself gradually. Go through the weekly TV schedule and mark only programs that are truly inspirational or educational or that make you laugh. Then allow yourself a single hour of viewing each day, including weekends. Watch only these programs and keep the set switched off the rest of the time.
Excerpted from the book Look and Feel Half Your Age, by Norman D. Ford, Keats Publishing, 1996.--and even more valid today than it was then!
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Live to 80? The No. 1 Way to Do It
The best way to live a long life and live it well is a combination of staying safe, staying healthy, and embracing your spirituality. Prevention is the key. Some things are obvious, like always wearing your seat belt and avoiding illegal drugs. Others take a bit of health education so you know which foods and vitamins are best for promoting longevity.
As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says: None of us is born with an instruction manual on how to stay alive until 80 or beyond.
It takes guesswork, good common sense, and a bit of luck. But there are things we can do to maximize our longevity odds. And some of these may surprise you.
Be Safe: Accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults. To avoid the grim reaper at such a young age, the Post-Dispatch offers this common sense list.
Make sure you always: Wear a seat belt. Drive safely. Avoid harmful drugs and substances, legal or illegal. Avoid family violence and violence with strangers.
Be Healthy Exercise: The No. 1 way to stay healthy--whether you're a little tyke or a grouchy geezer--is to exercise. Find something you enjoy and do it for 30 minutes a day most days of the week. No excuses. The Post-Dispatch asserts that some doctors say exercise is so powerful it can even lessen the severity of illnesses passed through your family genes.
Eat right: Eat fish three to four times a week, load up on fruits and vegetables, get plenty of calcium and other vitamins, and don't smoke. Enjoying one or two alcoholic beverages a day may be beneficial, but more than that is harmful.
Maintain a healthy weight: The secret to a long life may be maintaining a healthy weight in your young adult years and staying physically active in later years--and this holds true even if you suffer from diabetes, heart disease, or cancer as a senior citizen.
Reuters reports that researchers from the University of California, Irvine have determined that elderly people who reported weighing the least at age 21 and who participated regularly in physical exercise as senior citizens were the most likely to eventually celebrate their 90th birthday.
Be Spiritual None other than the venerable Mayo Clinic has suggested that one of the best ways to improve your chances of living a century is to recognize the value of spirituality in your life. "Nurture your spirit, no matter what you call your source of inspiration," advised a recent health letter the clinic published.
Other research has shown that people who regularly attend worship services, live longer. It's not the act of going to the church, synagogue, or mosque that extends lives, but rather the involvement in the religious and spiritual activities.
One other theory: People who are involved in religious groups benefit from the social networks they form. If they get sick, others look out for them. Religious beliefs may also lead to less risky behavior. In addition, a well developed sense of spirituality may help people better cope with life's tough psychological demands.
(Tip: the Seventh Day Adventist Church considers health a virtue and recommends a healthy diet and lifestyle proven to add 7-10 years to the average Americans' life expectancy by a major university research study.)
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Do This When You're Young, Live to 90
The secret to a long life may be maintaining a healthy weight in your young adult years and staying physically active in later years--and this holds true even if you suffer from diabetes, heart disease, or cancer as a senior citizen.
Reuters reports that researchers from the University of California, Irvine have determined that elderly people who reported weighing the least at age 21 and who participated regularly in physical exercise as senior citizens were the most likely to eventually celebrate their 90th birthday.
While we've all read scads of reports on how regular exercise and a low body mass index--that's the measure of weight in relation to height--are the keys to better health when we're young and middle-aged, there hasn't been much research into whether this benefits older adults, especially those in their tenth decade of life.
But what's good for the young is also good for the elderly. "These findings are exciting, because they suggest ways an individual can take control and extend his or her own life," Dr. Maria M. Corrada told Reuters. She, along with Annlia Paganini-Hill and Claudia H. Kawas, co-authored the study.
The 20-year research project included more than 10,000 adults who were on average 75 years old when the study began. They answered questions about their height, weight, weight at age 21, body mass index, and their level of outdoor exercise. At the end of the study, more than 6,700 of the participants had died before reaching age 90, but 3,636 lived to 90 or older, reports Reuters.
The results: Those who reported weighing the most at age 21 were also the most likely to die before 90. The risk of dying before 90 increased with every five-pound increase in weight at 21 years of age. "Being overweight in young adulthood is detrimental to survival to very old age," Corrada told Reuters. In addition, the elderly participants who had the highest body mass indices in their golden years were also more likely to die before 90, compared with those who had a lower BMI. Those seniors who exercised at least 30 minutes a day were 24 percent to 31 percent less likely to die before age 90, compared with those who exercised less than 30 minutes daily or not at all. "Although exercise is known to help maintain ideal weight, exercise increased the chance of survival beyond its effect on weight and body mass," Corrada told Reuters.
And here's the amazing part: These findings about healthy weight and exercise contributing to longevity held true even when the elderly participants suffered from life-threatening health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, diabetes, and cancer.
The findings were presented during the 55th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Honolulu.
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Want a health tip? Move to Canada.
by Judy Foreman, Los Angeles Times, Feb 23 2004 (Downloaded from the website of Common Dreams for Fair Use)
In Health, Canada Tops the US. Our neighbors to the north live longer and pay less for health care. The reasons why are being debated, but some cite the gap between rich and poor in the US
An impressive array of data shows that Canadians live longer, healthier lives than we do. What's more, they pay roughly half as much per capita as we do ($2,163 versus $4,887 in 2001) for the privilege.
The summary of the evidence has to be that national health insurance has improved the health of Canadians and is responsible for some of the longer life expectancy.
Exactly why Canadians fare better is the subject of considerable academic debate. Some policy experts say it's Canada's single-payer, universal health coverage system. Some think it's because our neighbors to the north use fewer illegal drugs and shoot each other less often with guns (though they smoke and drink with gusto, albeit somewhat less than Americans).
Still others think Canadians are healthier because their medical system is tilted more toward primary care doctors and less toward specialists. And some believe it's something more fundamental: a smaller gap between rich and poor.
Perhaps it's all of the above. But there's no arguing the basics.
"By all measures, Canadians' health is better," says Dr. Barbara Starfield, a university distinguished professor at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. "Canadians do better on a whole variety of health outcomes," she says, including life expectancy at various ages.
According to a World Health Organization report published in 2003, life expectancy at birth in Canada is 79.8 years, versus 77.3 in the U.S. (Japan's is 81.9.)
"There isn't a single measure in which the U.S. excels in the health arena," says Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. "We spend half of the world's healthcare bill and we are less healthy than all the other rich countries."
"Fifty-five years ago, we were one of the healthiest countries in the world," Bezruchka continues. "What changed? We have increased the gap between rich and poor. Nothing determines the health of a population [more] than the gap between rich and poor."
Gerald Kominski, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, puts the Canadian comparison this way: "Are they richer? No. Are they doing a better job at the lower end of the income distribution? For lower-income individuals, they are doing a better job."
At a meeting last fall of the American Public Health Assn., Dr. Clyde Hertzman, associate director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, analyzed data showing that Canadian women outlive American women by two years and men, by 2 1/2 years.
During the last quarter-century, he says, all income groups in Canada also showed gains in life expectancy. During much the same period in the U.S., death rates widened between America's rich and poor, according to a 2002 study in the International Journal of Epidemiology by American and Australian researchers.
Infant mortality rates also show striking differences between the U.S. and Canada.
To counter the argument that racial differences play a major role, Hertzman compared infant mortality for all Canadians with that for white Americans between 1970 and 1998. The white U.S. infant mortality rate was roughly six deaths per 1,000 babies, compared with slightly more than five for Canadians.
Maternal mortality shows a substantial gap as well. According to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a 30-nation think tank, there were 3.4 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births among Canadians, compared with 9.8 deaths per 100,000 Americans.
And more than half of Canadians with severe mental disorders received treatment, compared with little more than a third of Americans, according to the May-June 2003 issue of Health Affairs.
"The summary of the evidence has to be that national health insurance has improved the health of Canadians and is responsible for some of the longer life expectancy," says Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and staunch advocate of a single-payer system.
Of course, some causes of death, such as homicide, wouldn't be much affected by having a single payer system. And the U.S. has "the highest homicide rate of all the rich countries," says Bezruchka.
"Other things might be differences in seat belt usage," adds Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. "We are also disproportionate consumers of illegal drugs, much more than Canada, so it's cultural."
The health of Americans would be better with universal healthcare, he says.
"But there are some things that a single-payer system wouldn't fix — but which would leave one country looking healthier in the statistics."
In some respects, the healthcare system is "the tail on the dog," says Dr. Arnie Epstein, chairman of the department of health policy and medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"It's other aspects of the social fabric of different countries that seem to have a major impact on how long people live," he says.
In the U.S., African Americans and Latinos "face problems of housing, stress and low income, which have nothing to do with a single-payer system." Canada has a large number of Asian immigrants, he says, but they, like Asian immigrants in the U.S., tend to do well on healthcare measures.
The bottom line is that Canada is doing something right, even if "the reasons are not totally understood," says Kominski of UCLA.
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We're Eating Ourselves to Death --Obesity Gains on Smoking as Top Cause of U.S. Death
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent (01-21-04)
Obesity is quickly catching up to smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, government researchers said on Tuesday, and a concerned federal government launched an advertising campaign aimed at getting Americans to eat better and exercise more.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed tobacco use was still the leading cause of death in 2,000, killing 435,000 people, or 18.1 percent of everyone who died.
But poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths, or 16.6 percent of the total, the report showed -- up from 300,000, or 14 percent of deaths, in 1990.
An estimated 129.6 million of adult Americans, or 64 percent of the population, are overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, some types of cancer and various forms of disability.
If Americans continue to get fatter at current rates, by 2020 about one in five health care dollars spent on people aged 50 to 69 could be due to obesity -- 50 percent more than now -- according to a separate study by the Rand Corporation.
"Americans need to understand that overweight and obesity are literally killing us," Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson told a news conference.
"We consider this a major threat," added National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni.
More than 30 percent of U.S. adults are obese, according to the CDC. That translates to about 59 million people. Zerhouni called for more research on obesity.
"There is no single cause of all human obesity, so we must explore prevention and treatment approaches that encompass many aspects, such as behavioral, sociocultural, socioeconomic, environmental, physiologic and genetic factors," he said.
This year, NIH funding for obesity research is $400.1 million. The budget request for fiscal year 2005 is $440.3 million, 10 percent more.
STRESSING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
HHS launched a public relations campaign on Tuesday stressing that people do not need to shake up their lives to lose weight, but can take small steps such as walking to work sometimes or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
"We don't need to go out and run a marathon or join a health club," Thompson said.
It calls on Americans to snack on fruits and vegetables instead of high-fat foods, to ride a bike on occasion and to replace the Sunday drive with a Sunday stroll.
Peggy Conlon of the Ad Council, the leading producer of public service announcements, said advertising giant McCann-Erickson produced the ads for free.
She called them "memorable, highly relevant and motivational" and said they would be aired by major networks, on radio, in print ads and placed on billboards.
"We will transform the United States from a country that embraces treatment to a country that embraces prevention," said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona.
But consumer groups criticized the campaign as offering too little.
"The Bush administration's response is more talk and no real help for the millions of Americans who would like to eat better and watch their weight," said Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"The Bush administration should instead get junk food out of schools, ask Congress to require calorie labeling in fast-food and other chain restaurants, strengthen CDC's nutrition and physical activity division, and fully fund the CDC's VERB campaign, which promotes physical activity to youth."
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Foods for Long Life and Well-Being
The right nutrients can add zest and health to our golden years. But the time to start eating them is now.
By Carol Sorgen. WebMD Feature Reviewed By Charlotte Grayson, MD., on Friday, January 23, 2004
If you've made it this far in life, chances are strong that you may live into your 80s or even 90s. But will you be living well?
"We probably can't extend life much beyond what we already have done," says William Hart, PhD, MPH, associate professor of nutrition and dietetics at the St. Louis University Doisy School of Allied Health Professions. "But we can help make those last five to 10 years of life more enjoyable. Living longer isn't much fun if you're not healthy enough to enjoy it."
So what's the secret to staying healthy as you get older? Exercise, of course. Also, the right food. To get started, add these five nutrients to your diet.
Soy to Manage Your Cholesterol
"No, adding soy to your diet does not mean pouring more soy sauce on your Chinese food," says Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, LDN, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. It does mean adding soy foods such as tofu, soy milk, soy nuts, or the green soybeans called edamame by the Japanese.
Soy has an impressive resume, along with some inevitable controversy. Adding soy to your diet has been shown to significantly lower cholesterol, which can reduce your risk of heart disease. Plus, soy is high in iron, which many women need. Some women also say that soy helps them manage hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, although those benefits have not been proven by long-term clinical studies.
Still, its cholesterol-lowering benefits are powerful enough. Indeed, the right diet can lower cholesterol as much as medication, according to a study reported July 2003 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. That four-week study found that a diet of soy fiber, protein from oats and barley, almonds, and margarine from plant sterols lowered cholesterol as much as statins, the most widely prescribed cholesterol medication. Soybeans themselves provide high-quality protein, are low in saturated fat, and contain no cholesterol, making them an ideal heart-healthy food. To lower your cholesterol, the American Heart Association suggests you look for products that provide 10 grams of soy protein per serving, and try to eat three or more servings per day.
Fiber for Your Whole Body
Once upon a time our diet was made up mostly of whole foods loaded with fiber. While we may have fallen to a wild beast or infection, fiber helped keep our cholesterol and blood sugar levels low, and kept our bowels functioning smoothly.
Now in our frenzied lifestyle, we're more likely to grab fast food or use prepared foods at home that have only a passing acquaintance with dietary fiber. It's a little known fact: Most of us should double the amount of fiber we eat if we want to reap its benefits.
"I don't think it would be a bad idea to flip the food pyramid and suggest nine to 11 servings of fruits and vegetables a day instead of the five to seven we recommend now," says William Hart. "None of us eats enough fiber." The average American eats 12 grams of fiber a day; most health organizations recommend 20-35 grams.
Studies have shown that dietary fiber -- including foods such as apples, barley, beans, and other legumes, fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, oat bran, and brown rice -- clearly lower blood cholesterol. High-fiber foods are also digested more slowly, so they don't cause spikes in blood sugar levels like white bread, potatoes, and sweets do. Of course, everyone knows that fiber helps keep you regular, but so do laxatives. Fiber, however, has an added plus: High-fiber foods help us feel full, making it easier to control weight.
You get more nutritional "bang for your buck" with high-fiber food, says Hart.
Antioxidant 'Superfoods' to Protect Your Cells and Heart
When you're thinking "superfoods," think color, says Beverly Clevidence, PhD, a research leader at the USDA's Diet and Human Performance Laboratory. That means foods that are deep blue, purple, red, green, or orange. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that provide the color for these foods contain health-enhancing nutrients that protect against heart disease and cancer, and also improve our sense of balance, our memory, and other cognitive skills.
Your "superfoods" color chart should include:
Deep green -- Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli may help prevent colon cancer, while spinach and kale are good sources of calcium. And kale also helps fight against age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older Americans.
Red -- Red tomatoes, especially when cooked, are beneficial sources of lycopeine, which helps protect against prostate and cervical cancer.
Orange/yellow -- Squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and yams promote healthy lungs and help fight off skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma.
Deep blue/purple -- Eggplant, plums, blueberries, blackberries (strawberries, raspberries, and cherries come under this category as well) lower your risk of heart disease by helping the liver "sop up" extra cholesterol, as well as improve your mental functioning.
"I've definitely been adding berries to my diet throughout the year," says Clevidence.
You don't have to limit your berry intake to in-season either. Fresh, frozen (without sugar), or dried ... the benefits are the same.
Calcium for Your Bones
Got milk? If you want to keep your bones strong and lessen your chance of fractures as you get older, add calcium-rich foods such as low-fat cheese and milk to your diet. Calcium also keeps teeth strong, helps your muscles contract, and your heart beat. Recent studies have even shown that calcium may lower your risk of colon polyps, and help you lose weight. Researchers at Purdue University found that women who consume calcium from low-fat dairy products or get at least 1,000 milligrams a day showed an overall decrease in body weight.
As you get older, the amount of minerals in your bones decrease. Too little calcium increases your risk for osteoporosis and, with it, disabling or life-threatening fractures.
Dairy products are the best source of calcium. Choose skim milk, low-fat yogurt, and low-fat cheese to avoid saturated fats. A single serving can provide you with 20% of the 1,200 milligrams a day you need. You can also add calcium to your diet with calcium-enriched cereals and orange juice. Foods such as dark green vegetables, dried beans, and sardines also contain calcium.
Won't taking a calcium supplement do the trick? Sure, says William Hart, but calcium-rich foods are also high in protein needed for bone and muscle strength. (Note: This website does not recommend margarine or dairy foods. Cow's milk and cheese can be replaced by soy milk and soy cheese. The protein in cow's milk can be replaced by protein from fish. The calcium in dairy products can be replaced at far less cost with supplemental calcium plus supplemental Vitamin D3. And regardless how much supplemental calcium you take, it won't do much good unless you also take sufficient Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) to activate it (between 1,000-2,000 I.U. per day.)
While you're adding calcium to your diet, don't forget to exercise. Your bones will thank you later. "Calcium alone isn't enough. Add weight-bearing exercise as well," says Hart. Take the stairs, park at the far end of the parking lot, walk wherever you can. You'll help the calcium do its job."
Water for Energy and Your Skin
"Most people don't drink enough water," says nutritionist Susan Ayersman. "We need water to flush out toxins, keep our tissues hydrated, keep our energy up."
Water is also essential if you're eating high-fiber foods, says Leslie Bonci at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Water helps fiber do its job.
Don't stint on water just because you don't want to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, says Bonci. "Just be strategic about when you drink it," she says. "Drinking throughout the day, and not just before you go to bed should keep you from having to get up during the night."
If plain water doesn't quite do it for you, add slices of lemon, lime, or orange for flavor without calories. Or try a sprig of mint for a refreshing change of pace.
The Bottom Line
Don't be overwhelmed with all these suggestions. You don't need to add everything in at once. "Make haste slowly," says Bonci. "Add a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, replace a glass of milk with soy milk ... just take it one step at a time."
Agrees Hart: "It's simply a matter of deciding to get the foods into your diet."
Published Jan. 21, 2004
SOURCE: William Hart, PhD, MPH, St. Louis University Doisy School of Allied Health Professions. Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, director of sports nutrition, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Beverly Clevidence, PhD, research leader, Diet and Human Performance Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service. Susan Ayersman, CCN, Kronos, The Optimal Health Company. The American Dietetic Association website. The American Heart Association website.
© 1996-2003 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
CAUTION: Though these reports are based on documented studies in professional journals or on advisories from leading university medical schools and research institutes, they are intended for information only and should not be regarded as medical advice or instruction. For diagnosis and treatment of specific symptoms and diseases, disorders or dysfunctions, consult your physician. If you smoke or are over 35 or have symptoms of--or are at risk for--any chronic or degenerative disease, you should check with your doctor before beginning to exercise or making any changes in lifestyle or diet. However, fitness organizations like the American College of Sports Medicine invariably believe that the risk of NOT exercising far exceeds any risk in beginning a gradually increasing program of daily exercise. Thus if you experience any pain or problem while exercising, or making any other lifestyle change, stop and see your doctor at once.