Get Your Vitamin D Now!

In a recent study, researchers examined the association between Vitamin D status and physical performance. Among subjects with low Vitamin D levels, physical performance and grip strength were significantly lower than that of participants who did not have reduced levels.

In addition to its role in bone health, vitamin D is thought to play a role in musculoskeletal function. In a recent study, researchers examined the association between vitamin D status and physical performance in a sample of 976 persons over the age of 65.

The physical performance of the subjects was analyzed using a short physical performance battery (SPPB) and handgrip strength. The SPPB tests included walking speed, ability to stand from a seated position, and ability to maintain balance in progressively more challenging positions.

Over 28% of the women and 13% of the men had vitamin D levels low enough to be considered a deficiency. Nearly three-fourths of the women and over half of the men had vitamin D levels that were considered insufficient. Among subjects with low vitamin D levels, physical performance and grip strength were significantly lower than that of participants who did not have reduced levels. The finding remained valid after taking into consideration other factors (such as season of the year and physical activity levels).

Given the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in older populations, additional studies examining the association between vitamin D status and physical function are needed. Current vitamin D recommendations are based on its role in bone health, although emerging research indicates vitamin D may also play important roles in preservation of muscle strength and physical function, as well as potential preventative roles in conditions such as cancer.

Get Your Vitamin D Now!

If you are like most people, you have promised yourself that THIS YEAR you are going to improve in one or more areas of your life!

Are your resolutions on our TOP 10 List?

1. Lose Weight
2. Stop Smoking
3. Get Fit
4. Spend More Time With Family and Friends
5. Quit Drinking
6. Enjoy Life More
7. Get out of Debt / Earn More Money
8. Learn Something New
9. Help Other People
10. Get Organized

Watch for upcoming posts that will talk about many of these topics!

Obesity Costs $147 Billion a Year!

More than 72 million U.S. adults, or 26.7 percent, are obese, up 1 percentage point in two years, the U.S. government reported on Tuesday.

Obesity has become “a major public health threat” and is steadily worsening, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

“We need intensive, comprehensive and ongoing efforts to address obesity,” CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement.

“If we don’t, more people will get sick and die from obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of death. The CDC examined data from the national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which surveys 400,000 people and asks about height and weight, among other things.

Looking state-by-state, the CDC found that 30 percent of adults in nine states are now obese. “In 2000, not a single state had an obesity prevalence of 30 percent or higher,” Frieden told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Height and weight are used to calculate body mass index or BMI, the medically accepted way to measure obesity.

A BMI of 25 or more makes someone overweight and obesity begins at a BMI of 30 — for instance, a 5-foot-10 inch (1.8 metre) tall person who weighs 209 pounds (95 kg).

The survey found 2.4 million more people were obese in 2009 than in 2007, a 1.1 percentage point increase. And the CDC said this is almost certainly an underestimate, as people often say they are taller and weigh less than they actually do.

“Recent estimates of the annual medical costs of obesity are as high as $147 billion. On average, persons who are obese have medical costs that are $1,429 more than persons of normal weight,” the report reads.

Blacks Most Affected

Blacks were the most likely to be obese, with 36.8 percent of U.S. black adults having a BMI of 30 or more — more than 41 percent of black women.

More than 30 percent of Hispanic adults were obese.

As in previous surveys, Mississippi had the most obese people and Colorado the fewest.

“If you go to Denver and outside of Denver, there are bike trails, walking trails, and they’re heavily used, suggesting that Colorado has more of a culture of physical activity than other states,” the CDC’s Dr. William Dietz said.

The federal government and some states have been moving toward using legislation to help people to exercise and eat healthier foods.

“Obesity is a societal problem and it will take a societal response,” Frieden said.

New York and California have been considering a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases. President Barack Obama has made reducing obesity a priority, assigning his wife Michelle Obama and cabinet secretaries to tackle childhood obesity in particular.

“At the state, municipal and community level, there can be initiatives through zoning or incentives to provide supermarkets and farmers markets in low-income areas and food deserts,” Frieden said. He also suggested expanding programs that provide fruits and vegetables to schools, hospitals and communities.

“People in all communities should be able to make healthy choices, but in order to make those choices there must be healthy choices to make,” Dietz added.

“We need to change our communities into places where healthy eating and active living are the easiest path.”

The consumer magazine published a report on Tuesday highlighting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s lack of power to regulate such supplements, and said the agency rarely uses what little power it does have.

The report from the influential group urged Congress to speed up small moves toward giving the agency more clout, especially in regulating supplements

Despite the “natural” labels carried by many of the supplements, many are contaminated.

Yet Americans flock to take them, according to the magazine, citing the Nutrition Business Journal as saying the market was worth $26.7 billion in 2009.

“Of the more than 54,000 dietary supplement products in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, only about a third have some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence,” the report reads.

In addition, the FDA has not inspected any supplement factories in China, even though the agency set up field offices there starting in 2008, Consumer Reports said.

The organization pointed to 12 supplement ingredients in particular that it said could be dangerous: aconite, bitter orange, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, country mallow, germanium, greater celandine, kava, lobelia, and yohimbe.

Potential dangers include liver and kidney damage, heart rhythm disorders and unhealthy blood pressure levels, it said.

Industry Friendly Laws

The group is critical of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act or DSHEA, which it describes as industry friendly and which prevents the FDA from regulating supplements in the same way as it regulates prescription medications.

The Federal Trade Commission regulates the marketing of herbal supplements, whose makers are not allowed to claim they treat medical conditions.

The FDA has banned only one supplement ingredient — ephedrine alkaloids — although it has persuaded many companies to pull their products off the market.

“Supplements are marketed with very seductive and sometimes overblown sales pitches for increasing your performance in the bedroom, slimming down, or boosting your athletic prowess,” said Nancy Metcalf, senior program editor for the magazine.

“And consumers are easily lulled into believing that supplements can do no harm because they’re ‘natural’,” Metcalf said in a statement.

The main benefits touted by the use of the foot detox system are that it relieves pain and discomfort of arthritis, improves immunity system, reduces stress and anxiety, improves circulation, removes blood clot material, improves sleep, improves liver and kidney function, enhances mental focus and concentration, assists in recovery time from injuries and surgery, soothes headaches and increases vitality and energy.

While their website states that “As a company we do not claim that we can cure disease by soaking the feet in water”, another section of the website has the usual “testimonials” of people with various “disorders” like migraines, irritable bowel syndrome and even “severe gout” allegedly obtaining benefit from its use.

A scam is a scam is a scam. Surely you cannot be so gullible to believe that by soaking your feet in this contraption your body will be “detoxified”? The public may be swayed by the water “miraculously” turning brown or black in color.

This is a simple explanation on How Foot Detox Works:

The scam vendors advertised these devices as aqua chi machine, bio electrical biofeedback machine, foot spa, energy spa, super detox foot bath . They also advertise the scam as a service such as bio-detox, aqua detox, aqua spa, emerald detox, platinum detox.

In essence, the foot bath contains a low voltage/amperage AC to DC transformer attached to ferrous electrodes. The process is basically electrolysis of water, a typical high school experiment, with a twist. The brown “toxins” you see is from the rust generated by the corrosion of the iron electrodes. The different variations in color can be accounted by varying amount of salt added to the water and variations in the compositions of the electrodes.

It’s a simple chemical reaction folks. Don’t be gullible and fall for this B.S.!

“We found that for people at low risk, taking vitamin C and E alone is sufficient to further reduce their risk,” Dr. Majid Fotuhi told Reuters Health. “But for those with (APOE-4), the combination exerts a synergistic benefit.”

Fotuhi, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his associates followed nearly 5000 elderly residents of Cache County in Utah for 8 years, taking into account their regular consumption of vitamins C and E, and ibuprofen.

They identified 127 subjects who regularly consumed all three agents, Fotuhi reported at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting here in San Diego. Results showed that this group exhibited significantly less decline in mental performance scores.

“With this approach, we’ve advanced a two-point attack on the cascade of events that leads to Alzheimer’s disease pathology,” Fotuhi said. “On the one hand, we reduce inflammation (with vitamins E and C), and on the other hand, we reduce the amount of amyloid in the brain (with ibuprofen), the substrate that causes inflammation.”

As noted, APOE-4 carriers experienced the greatest benefit from the triple combination. According to the researchers, this subset of patients in their late 60s or 70s exhibited no decline in cognitive function during the 8-year follow-up when they took all three agents. Subjects who took just one of these agents had worsening memory over time.

“So if patients seem to be at high risk, such as having several family members with Alzheimer’s disease or with early memory loss, they are likely to benefit the most from the triple-combination therapy,” the researcher said.

As to what dose of ibuprofen to use, Fotuhi urges caution, since the drug can lead to stomach ulcers. He recommends a dose no higher than 100 milligrams per day.

He is so encouraged by these findings that he has patented a combination pill containing vitamins C and E, ibuprofen, and “a small amount of omega-3 fatty acid.”

Karla Gale

Protect Your Heart!

Dr. Robert Yeh of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues said the 24 percent drop was seen even though doctors can better detect heart attacks and despite the growing rates of diabetes and obesity, both of which raise the risk of heart attack.

“We would expect an increase in heart attacks because we’re picking up more heart attacks than we used to,” Yeh said in a telephone interview. “We found that, despite that, they are still going down.”

His team used data from the 3 million people in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health system.

The heart attack rate peaked in 1999, dropping by nearly one-quarter through 2008. The rate of deaths in the month after a heart attack also declined by 24 percent between 1999 and 2008.

The most dramatic decrease – 62 percent since 2000 – came among people suffering from the most damaging type of heart attack, measured as an elevation in the ST segment of the wave that appears on a heart monitor. Such attacks should be rapidly treated with clot-busting drugs or tube-like stents that keep arteries open.

Non-ST segment heart attacks, which are not considered to be as dangerous because they involve a smaller portion of the heart wall, peaked in 2004 and have been declining since. They are often treated with drugs.

The declines accompany bans on smoking in public places. Also, doctors have become better at treating high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Yeh and his colleagues said other population studies, such as those done in Minnesota and Massachusetts, have also suggested that heart attacks are declining.

“But published literature from these studies is limited to data collected before 2002 – before many current strategies for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease were implemented more widely in the community,” the researchers wrote.

Other research has shown that overall deaths from heart disease have declined by 22 percent in men and 23 percent in women since 2000, according to a commentary in the journal by Jeremiah Brown and Gerald O’Connor of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire.

But the risk is twice as high for Americans in Oklahoma, the lower Mississippi corridor and Appalachia, possibly because of socioeconomic factors, they said.

They also contended that the “rate of improvement has slowed down or stopped,” and that the risk of heart attack might rebound unless greater emphasis is placed on prevention.

Yeh goes on to say that the California data showed that the trend was slowing down or had stopped.

“My guess overall is that either these trends are occurring elsewhere, or that they will occur as more guideline-based preventions extend throughout the United States and other health systems,” he said.

Aerobic exercise is especially good.  It helps older adults move more easily and feel better. Even people in their 90s can improve their aerobic fitness.

Older adults who are fit are likely to have a better quality of life and to live longer. If we lose fitness, daily tasks such as housework and gardening tire us out. When we feel strained or too tired, we stop doing these tasks. Then we can start to decline, doing less, getting less fit and weaker, and you end up doing even less activity. We can end up needing others to help with the simple daily tasks of living on our own.

What is Aerobic Fitness?

It means how well your body can work or exercise for two minutes or longer. To get aerobically fit you need to practice moving large muscles such as those in our legs, trunk, and shoulders while you breathe heavily.

How do we keep or improve aerobic fitness?

You can keep or improve your aerobic fitness by doing regular aerobic exercise because:

• It works large muscle groups in the legs,body, and arms.
• It is important for useful movements, preferably weight bearing (such as walking).
• Aerobic exercise movements are hard enough to be challenging yet easy enough to be enjoyable.

You should choose different activities to make exercise more interesting and fun.

Good choices for older adults are:

• Walking briskly indoors or out
• Jogging or running or walking or a combination of the three
• Cycling on a bicycle, adult’s tricycle, or stationary bike
• Rowing in a boat or on a rowing machine
• Dancing that keeps you moving briskly
• Calisthenics (Aerobics)
• Swimming
• Aquarobics – aerobics in the water
• Cross-country skiing
• Snowshoeing

A safe start to exercise Generally, you can exercise safely if you start at an easy level and slowly work up to a harder level. Talk to your doctor before you start if you have not exercised for some time or if you want to try a harder exercise. In most cases you can start right away. The doctor might tell you to exercise in other ways if you are not ready for aerobic exercise.

How Much is Enough?

Research clearly shows that older adults can improve their fitness by doing 30 minutes or more of continuous aerobic activity on most days of the week. If you are new to exercise and not sure how much you can do:

• Start by exercising two or three times a day for 10 – 15 minutes.
• Try to do a total of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each day.
• Progress by slowly exercising longer until you are doing 45 – 60 minutes most days.

How hard should you work?

First, practice until you are exercising most days of the week for 45 – 60 minutes in one session. Then exercise a little harder or faster to get the most good from your exercise.

When asked to walk “briskly,” most people choose a pace that improves aerobic fitness. Next time you walk for exercise, ask yourself, “Am I walking briskly?” If you still wonder how hard to exercise, you can use one of these:

• A simple “talk” or Just Audible Breathing (JAB) test. Gradually work harder until you can first hear your breath “huff and puff” and it is hard to talk without taking a breath.

Exercise Target Heart Rates (THR).

Your heart beats faster as you exercise harder. You can exercise effectively by exercising hard enough to reach a target heart rate for “moderate to vigorous exercise.” Each person’s heart rate may be different because of age, health, medications, or other factors.

Ask your fitness leader or health practitioner to determine your target heart rates for exercise. You monitor your heart rate by taking your pulse during exercise.  If you feel that you are exercising too hard or not hard enough using a target heart rate based on just your age, you should probably use the Just Audible Breathing (JAB) method or the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) method.

The Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale can also be a good indicator of how hard your body is working. You may want to consult your fitness leader or health practitioner about using this method.  Aim for an effort between 4 and 7 out of 10, or “somewhat strong to very strong” to improve aerobic fitness.

Every little bit helps!

Many older adults have some health problems such as arthritis, osteoporosis, or diabetes. If you have a health problem, it can affect your choice of exercise. For example, if you have joint or balance problems, you might prefer water sports such as swimming or aquarobics. If you can’t go out, you can exercise at home by walking or even by marching in place. Even people who are confined to bed can get equipment to help them exercise.

Regardless, exercising does you good. And as you get stronger and more fit, you can do more or different exercises to keep interested and get even fitter.

Aerobic exercise is one of the main ways you can keep yourself independent. Some people might be worried about exercising too hard. But research clearly shows that aerobic exercise:

• Reduces the risk of disease
• Makes you fitter even in old age
• Makes daily activities easier
• Helps you to go on living on your own

Exercise allows you to live an active life with more vigor and to enjoy a better quality of life.

Get Your Whey Now!

Chocolate Whey Nutrimeal provides an impressive 15 grams of whey protein—one of the highest concentrations of quality whey you can buy. It also contains all-natural flavors and sweeteners and is formulated without gluten and soy-protein for those with special diets.

And like the other Nutrimeals, Chocolate Whey has a low-glycemic formula to produce only small fluctuations in blood glucose levels for sustained energy to keep you satisfied longer.

Each serving of Chocolate Whey Nutrimeal contains 2 grams of dietary fiber. You’ll be the envy of your friends, building lean muscle through proper diet and exercise and drinking delicious chocolate shakes.

Health Basics of Whey Protein

1. Formulated without gluten and soy protein for special dietary needs
2. 2 grams of dietary fiber
3. 15 grams of whey protein
4. Low in saturated fat
5. Low glycemic
6. Helps reduce carbohydrate cravings and deliver sustained energy

Proper Balance of Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats

Almost without exception, all health experts will agree that a healthy, balanced diet consists of low glycemic carbohydrates, proteins and proper fats in dietary ratios of about 40-60%, 15-30%, and 15-30% respectively.

The majority of fat intake should be unsaturated, although a minimal amount of saturated fat is necessary and important. The non-dairy creamer or creamer blend is high on the ingredient list because the healthy fat that is added for optimal fat and calorie content. The very healthy high oleic sunflower oil is an ingredient of the creamer blend.

Protein intake should be moderate and include a wide variety of proteins. Too often, people make the mistake of over-doing it on protein intake. There is a balance of soy, whey, rice, and pea proteins for appropriate balance. People will benefit from the effects of various types of proteins. The protein balance allows for a satisfying flavor.

In addition, the soy whey balance helps reduce stomach distress that some people who are sensitive to soy may experience.

The electrolyte content (sodium and potassium) are carefully measured to assure appropriate dietary adequacy.

Carbohydrates should predominate and are healthiest when there is a good variety and balance of both soluble and insoluble fiber and complex carbohydrates (or low glycemic sugars).

The Nutrimeal balance is approximately 50% carbohydrates (half complex carbohydrates and fiber, and half natural sugars), 25% protein, and 25% fat. This balance is essential to the purpose and function of the product — weight loss, management, and satisfaction.

To Your HEALTH!

Sellers of ginseng, echinacea and other herbal and dietary supplements often cross the line in marketing their products, going as far as telling consumers the pills can cure cancer or replace prescription medications, a U.S. government probe found.

In an undercover probe, investigators at the Government Accountability Office also found that labels for some supplements claim to prevent or cure ailments like diabetes or heart disease, a clear violation of U.S. law.
GAO staff targeted supplements most popular with older consumers and posed as elderly buyers in stores or over the telephone.

“The most egregious practices included suspect marketing claims that a dietary supplement prevented or cured extremely serious diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease,” the GAO said in a report released on Wednesday at a Senate hearing.

For example, one shopper at a supplement specialty store was told that a garlic supplement could be taken instead of prescribed blood pressure drugs. Another staffer posing as a forgetful, elderly consumer was told by a salesperson that he could take aspirin and ginkgo biloba together with no harm. The Food and Drug Administration has said that combination can cause internal bleeding.

The GAO, which conducts investigations for Congress, also said it found trace amounts of potentially harmful contaminants such as lead and arsenic, but at levels that do not exceed federal guidelines.

Findings of pesticides, however, did exceed the FDA’s advisory levels, the GAO said, and 16 of 40 supplements tested would violate the FDA’s tolerance.

Manufacturers told the GAO that they were concerned about the contamination findings but “that the levels identified were too low to raise any issues” during their own testing.

“Given the expected generally small consumption of the supplements, we do not believe these levels represent a significant risk to health,” FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein said in remarks prepared for the Senate Committee on Aging.

Unlike prescription drugs, the FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they can be sold. The Federal Trade Commission regulates the marketing of herbal supplements, which are not allowed to claim that they treat medical conditions.

These are Products that YOU can Trust!
Currently, the Food and Drug Administration has not finalized Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for dietary supplements, as they are required to do under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Rather, Congress has initially stated that dietary supplement GMP should be modeled after foods. Because of this statement, many supplement manufacturers have chosen to follow GMP for foods. USANA, however, voluntarily follows GMP for pharmaceuticals as the basis for its quality assurance program in the manufacturing of all of its products, meaning USANA treats nutritional supplements with the same care that goes into the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products.