Heart Disease Advice for Women

Heart disease and heart attacks, were sterotypically, "men's diseases." How many movies have shown the father of the bride dying of a massive heart attack at the wedding; or the executive suffering a sudden, heart-driven death after losing the big contract?

The American Heart Asscoiation has tried to make heart disease more relevant for women, and, according to Gregg Fonarow, Director of the Cardiomopathy center at UCLA (quoted in USA Today, Feb. 15th), "Every minute there's a death due to cardiovascular disease in women. This constitutes 422,000 deaths a year-more than cancer, respiratory disease, Alzheimer's and accidents combined."

The AHA has been publishing guidelines for women since 2004. In the 2011 report, they have included personal and socio-economic factors, to make it less clinical and more "real" for women.

The guidelines recommend that women:

*Avoid smoking and second-hand smoke.

*Get 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of vigourous exercise.

*Establish a risk-reduction routine if they are diagnosed with heart disease or have a heart "event": ie: exercise or dietary change!

*Achieve a healthy body weight.

*Eat a diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables; whole-grain, high-fiber foods; oily fish, at least twice a week; and low in saturated and trans-fats, cholesterol and sugar.(Eating sensibly, basically!).

* Get omega-3 fatty acids, either through fish or capsules.

All of this is very sound, basic advice, for men or women, in my opinion. Leave that last slice of pizza for the kids, and walk through that next episode of your favorite show!

Julia Harvey Weight Loss Tips

I recently read an interesting article about Julia Havey, author of the Dr. Oz acclaimed book "The Vice-Busting Diet."
Ms. Harvey, 48, weighed nearly 300 lbs. at one time. Her life was a humiliating mess, which you can read in more detail in her book. When a homeless man outside a convenience store drew laughs from onlookers when he heckled her about eating a candy bar, she knew a change had to be made.
She felt the food the she was having way too much of was ice-cream, and simply cut that out. After three months, she dropped 30 lbs.!
The "career dieter" then thought of her second biggest vice: fast food. She eliminated that, and then soft drinks. She also started to exercise.
Eliminating one bad habit after the last was mastered, she eventually reached 150 lbs., exactly half of her heaviest weight!
She emphasizes this isn't a diet, which she feels are too restrictive for people to stick with. It's just one change at a time!
Interesting tidbits of her thoughts:
*The most basic change is drinking water instead of soft drinks.
*The biggest obstacles to losing weight are soft drinks, fast food, portion sizes, and
television (unless you're on the treadmill while watching, I guess)!
*It's easier to go for full abstinenece on certain foods, than eating them in
moderation. "If people can eat them in moderation," she points out, "we wouldn't
have an obesity pandemic in America."
*The best exercise is one that you'll continue to do. Her favorites: the elliptical
machine and golf!
All this is very sensible advice, in my opinion. Havey has a goal of helping 1 million
people to lose weight. With that in mind, her program is available free, online, at
www.vice-bustingdiet.com.

Walk Briskly for a Long Life

Many seniors I observe shuffle along slowly. Other have an unsteady, side-to-side gait. Others can bound along at a pace people many years younger would envy. This energy and steady stride may be do to regular working out, good genetics, attention to posture, balance training, or just a positive mental attitude that keeps a "bounce in their step."
Now, there's a study that correlates a senior citizen's walking speed with logevity. Published in the most recent Journal of the American Medical Association, the University of Pittsburgh research paper collected data from nine studies between 1986 and 2000, involving nearly 35,000 adults, 65-and over.
The average walking speed was three feet a second. But the chances of surviving another five to 10 years increased the faster a person walked, particularly amongst those 75 and older.
The chances of surviving 10 years ranged from 19 to 87 percent among men, and 35 to 91 percent among women, depending on how fast they walked.
Walking may be a good prediction of survival because it requires energy and muscle control. It also works the heart and lungs, and the circulatory, nervous and skeletal systems.
Bottom line: get off the couch, get some fresh air, and start walking-at a rapid pace!

New Year Weight Loss Tips

January has hit some of us like the proverbial "ton of bricks." Holiday indulging has left many of us a few pounds heavier than we'd like. The latest issue of AARP has an article with advice we all can use.
A key one is to use a smaller plate than you're accustomed. Gauge your "fullness" after one, smaller serving, and then decide on "seconds." They also suggest taller, thinner glasses for drinks, where you will pour an average of 30% less liquid.
Another, that I've heard and recommended many times, is eating small size snack bags, rather than grabbing from a larger bag. Your much less likely to open up that second pack of a small bag of chips when you have to make another "eating decision."
Logically, the article suggest you eat more meals at home (where you control the contents and portion size), and try to avoid "speed-eating" at the desk or in the car, where you can down large servings of food so fast, your brain can't tell that it's full.
The article says that diets fail because they ask people to sacrifice too much. Make three small changes at a time and slowly change your dietary habits. The best diet is one that you don't know you're on!
Dr. James Hill, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, lists some simple tips that are easy to adhere to:
* Include a fruit or vegetable with your lunch or dinner.
*Don't eat white foods at dinner (baked potato, white ricce, or white bread, for example).
*Fill half your plate with an entree, and the other half with vegetables.
*Drink one (or more) glass of water before each snack or meal.
*Never eat in front of the TV-make eating an experience.
*Save deserts for weekends.

All solid tips, in which I would add, get some (at least 30 minutes) of exercise every day. Good
luck, and we will be here to help you on your journey!

Kids Fitness Needs

Both of my kids have spent much of their childhood involved in soccer. As parents we like it, because there's a lot of cardiovascular activity, and with outside coaches, not as much room for parental interference, er, involvement, as some other sports.

Unfortunately, a recent study by the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, indicated that youth team sports often don't provide the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. Typically, most travel teams meet once or twice a week for practice, along with one or two games. Bottom line, kids, no matter the sport, should be doing something on the other days as well to meet prescribed fitness needs.

The study examined 200 youth baseball, softball, and soccer players, ages 7-14, in San Diego. Only 24% met the prescribed 60-minute per day goal! The soccer players fared the best, and boys tended to be more active than girls.


One of the problems was the structure of the team's practices themselves. The study found that
kids were "moderately or vigorously" active, only 46% of the prescribed practice time. In other words, there was a lot of standing around, watching a skill performed by one player or a coach, rather than having everyone practice a skill at the same time.

The key for coaches is to stay away from the dreaded "lines" so common from the days of our Phys Ed classes, and keep everyone engaged in small groups.

Gym classes can help make up the gap needed to fulfill the "60 minutes a day" recommendation for kid's health, but many schools have cut back on P.E , which is often limited to one day per week.

As parents, it's our job to pitch in and fill up the gap. Ride a bike with your kids, take a hike,
do something that engages them. while keeping it fun for everyone involved. It does take an effort at times, but it's worth it!

Plantar Fascitis

One of the most common running-related injuries is Plantar Fascitis. It's also very slow healing, primarily because every step we take aggravates the source of the pain!

The plantar fascia are a long, thick band of tissue that attaches to the front and bottom of the heel, and extends the length of the foot to the bottom of the toes. Fascitis is inflammation of the Plantar tissue.

Too much running (or walking), running on hard surfaces, excessive body weight or a tight Achilles tendon are some of the reasons for Plantar Fascitis.

If you have extreme heel pain when you take your first steps when getting out of bed, you probably have it. The pain genrally eases through the day, and returns at night.

Pain relievers like Motrin, Advil, and Tylenol help ease the effects of Plantar Fascitis. Heel pads and well-cushioned shoes and sneakers also help. Cortisone can also relieve the pain.

Plantat Fascitis can take six months or more to heal. Stretching the achilles can help. My favorite is hanging the back of my feet off the edge of a step, holding low for 30 seconds, streching to my toes for 10 seconds or so, and back down. Since I have tight achilles (an aging thing, I'm sure), I make sure I do this stretch just about every day, but especially after running. Like many injuries, try to do the things to prevent getting Plantar Fascitis. It's much better than recovering from it!

Job Stress and Women's Heart Health

It has been long acknowledged that a stressful job, or the fear of losing a job, increased the risk of heart attacks in men. A recent study by the American Heart Association reports that the same effect is felt in women, who now comprise half of the workforce.

Entitled the "Women's Health Study," he research involved over 17,000 participants over a 10 year period. Women with demanding jobs and with little control of them were nearly twice as likely to have suffered a heart attack as those with less demanding jobs, and more control. The high-stress group had a 40 percent higher risk of overall heart problems, including heart attacks, strokes, or clogged arteries requiring surgery.

Women who were were worried about losing their job had higher blood pressure, cholesterol, and body weight. Stress contributes to heart issues by releasing "fight or flight" hormones, that brings about inflammation and raises blood pressure.

No surprsie, exercise was one of the remedies prescribed to lower risk factors, both for its physiological effects and its ability to clear the mind and improve one's mood.

The report also suggested limiting work you need to bring home, spending time with friends and family, and making sure there is some "me time" incorporated into every day.

There is still some inequity in the workplace, with women less likely to have positions of authority. Generally, the less authority and control of your situation, the more stress you have. The more stress you have, the more likely health problems will follow.