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Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Healthy eating for blood sugar control
If you have diabetes, a healthy eating plan for you is not that different from a healthy eating plan for people without diabetes. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) echoes the dietary guidelines recommended for the general public — that is, a diet centered on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (peas and beans), and low-fat dairy products.
However, you'll want to pay special attention to your carbohydrate intake.
Vegetables, fruits, and whole grains provide more nutrition per calorie than refined carbohydrates and tend to be rich in fiber. Your body digests high-fiber foods more slowly — which means a more moderate rise in blood sugar.
For most people with diabetes, carbohydrates should account for about 45% to 55% of the total calories you eat each day. Choose your carbohydrates wisely — ideally, from vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. Avoid highly refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, and rice, as well as candy, sugary soft drinks, and sweets. Refined carbohydrates tend to cause sharp spikes in blood sugar, and can boost blood triglyceride levels.
Fiber comes in two forms: insoluble fiber, the kind found in whole grains, and soluble fiber, found in beans, dried peas, oats, and fruits. Soluble fiber in particular appears to lower blood sugar levels by improving insulin sensitivity, which may mean you need less diabetes medicine. And a number of studies suggest that eating plenty of fiber reduces the chances of developing heart disease — and people with diabetes need to do all they can to lower their risk.
The impact of stress on your gut
Given how closely the gut and brain interact, it might seem obvious that the pair often influence each other. Some people feel nauseated before giving a presentation; others feel intestinal pain during times of stress. In any case, emotional and psychosocial factors play a role in functional gastrointestinal disorders.
Treating the whole body
Stress-related symptoms felt in the gastrointestinal tract vary greatly from one person to the next, and treatment can vary as well. For example, one person with gastroesophageal reflux disease might have an occasional, mild burning sensation in the chest, while another experiences excruciating discomfort night after night. As the severity of symptoms varies, so should the therapies, medications, self-help strategies, or even surgeries used to relieve them.
Many people have mild symptoms that respond quickly to changes in diet or medications. If your symptoms do not improve, your clinician may ask you more questions about your medical history and perform some diagnostic tests to rule out an underlying cause. For some people, symptoms improve as soon as a serious diagnosis, like cancer, has been ruled out. Your doctor may also recommend symptom-specific medications.
But sometimes these treatments are not enough. As symptoms become more severe, so does the likelihood that you are experiencing some sort of psychological distress.
Often, people with moderate to severe symptoms, particularly those whose symptoms arise from stressful circumstances, can benefit from mind directed therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation techniques. Some people are reluctant to accept the role of psycho-social factors in their illness. But it's important to know that emotions cause genuine chemical and physical responses in the body that can result in pain and discomfort.
Behavioral therapy and stress reduction treatments help manage pain and improve other symptoms in ways that are different from how drugs act. The goal of all therapies is to reduce anxiety, encourage healthy behaviors, and help people cope with the pain and discomfort of their condition.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Are your knees worn out?
Harvard doctors reveal what you need to know before you
agree to a knee replacement
Dear Reader,
Are your knees stiff and achy when you get out of bed in the morning? Is it painful to go up and down stairs? Or stand up after you’ve been sitting for a while?
Chances are you’ve got osteoarthritis caused by worn down cartilage inside your knee joint. If your knees are giving you enough trouble, you may be considering having one, or both, knees replaced.
A total knee replacement can be life-changing — helping relieve pain and restore movement. In fact, 730,000 total knee replacements are done each year, making it the most common inpatient surgery in the U.S.
But that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. As with any surgery, there are risks. That’s why you need Harvard Medical School’s Guide to Total Knee Replacement. This report brings you everything you need to know about total knee replacement to help you make the best possible decision for your health. For example, you’ll discover...
Why your knees wear out. Few joints in the body do as much every day as the knees. They help you walk, climb, carry heavy objects, and work. In fact, every step you take on level ground puts one to one and a half times your body weight on each knee. Make that two to three times your weight, when you go up and down stairs. And if you’re a few pounds heavier than you’d like, your knees are getting hit with an extra four to six pounds of pressure for every extra pound!
Do achy, noisy knees automatically mean they’re “bad enough” for a total replacement?
When your knees hurt it’s tempting to think that having a total knee replacement will restore you to your twenty-something active self. Sadly, that’s not the case. In Harvard’s Total Knee Replacement report, you’ll get the facts about knee replacement written in easy-to-understand English. You’ll discover:
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The options you should try before you agree to surgery
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Why you may not want to have your knee replaced if you’re younger than 60
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The procedures that can help you get relief without having a total replacement
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8 signs it’s time to consider a total knee replacement
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And much more.
Download now and start reading Total Knee Replacement
If you do need a replacement, or think it’s time to seriously consider it, Harvard’s Total Knee Replacement guide is invaluable. You’ll find a list of critical questions to ask your doctor about his or her credentials and experience — the best doctors welcome these questions — to help ensure you have the best possible surgeon. In addition, you’ll learn the basics of the various types of knee joints available (there are over 150 implant designs) so you can work with your doctor to find the best type for you. You’ll even learn why implants with special features that sound great, may actually have a slightly higher risk of complications.
And, since this is often elective surgery, Total Knee Replacement explains the many benefits of prehabilitation. This type of physical therapy may help you have a shorter hospital stay, less post-op pain, and even a faster recovery. You’ll also learn why minimally invasive surgery may sound like the best option, but could make it harder for your doctor to install the implant... common reasons implants fail and how to help avoid these problems and so much more.
Healthy gut, healthier aging
By Heidi Godman, Executive Editor, Harvard Health Letter
Support beneficial microbes in the gastrointestinal tract with these healthy lifestyle habits.
Trillions of microbes — bacteria, viruses, fungi — call your gut home. They do more than just help you digest food. They fight harmful pathogens; make vitamin K and other important chemicals; affect the way medications work; and may influence your immune system, heart health, and cancer risk. It also appears gut microbes may play a role in healthy aging and longevity. The genes of all your gut microbes are collectively called the gut microbiome.
Encouraging findings
In a study published online Feb. 18, 2021, by Nature Metabolism, scientists observed that older adults whose mix of gut microbes changed the most over time lived longer than those people with less change in their gut microbiome.
The study didn’t prove that an eclectic microbiome directly caused people to live longer. However, such a microbiome was also associated with lower cholesterol levels, faster walking speeds, and higher levels of beneficial blood chemicals — all factors that lengthen the life span.
How do you make your gut microbiome more diverse and achieve health benefits? It mainly comes down to lifestyle factors. Indeed, one of the reasons that a healthy lifestyle may protect your health is through the impact of your lifestyle on your microbiome.
Eat a healthy diet
Eating the right foods is one of the best ways. Your gut microbes like to eat, too, and their favorite foods are the ones that are healthiest for us: fruits, vegetables (especially dark, leafy greens), legumes (beans, peas), and whole grains (quinoa, whole wheat, brown rice). "Those foods contain fiber. Our bodies don’t break down fiber for food; fiber passes through to the gut and microbes feed on it. It gives them a good environment to grow," explains April Pawluk, strategic program manager at the Harvard Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center.
But when you eat an unhealthy diet with lots of processed, fatty, sugary foods, it makes it harder for helpful microbes to survive. "In the absence of diversity-promoting nutrients like fiber in our diets, the genes of our gut microbiome can produce chemicals that could increase our risk for developing different diseases," Pawluk says.
Exercise
Exercising appears to promote gut microbiome diversity, but the way it works is a matter of speculation, Pawluk says. Several ways are plausible. "It could be that exercise changes the rate at which material moves through the intestines. Or perhaps exercise reduces inflammation in the gut. Or exercise might alter our appetite, and alter the way that our bodies process the food we eat. All of these could affect the microbiome environment," Pawluk says.
Get a dog
Dogs are always tracking things in from outside — like dirt, grass, and insects — exposing their human families to more microbes. That might help counteract the effect of a modern world on the microbiome.
"Over the past century, there’s been a decrease in the diversity of the human microbiome, possibly because of sanitation and modern medicine," Pawluk says. "Studies looking at young children growing up in a house with a pet show their microbiome becomes more diverse and they have less risk of allergies. We don’t know if this helps older adults, but it wouldn’t hurt."
Don’t smoke
Cigarettes contain lots of chemicals and toxins that are harmful to the whole body, including your gut and its residents. "Smoking can kill some microbes and decrease microbe diversity. Smoking also puts physical stress on the body, including microbes. And when microbes are under stress, they change their function; they sense that they’re in a bad situation and in some cases attack each other — or us. That can cause imbalance in the gut microbiome," Pawluk says.
Consider probiotics
One last suggestion that may affect the gut microbiome is to ingest colonies of "good" bacteria known as probiotics, which come in pills or powders or occur naturally in fermented foods (such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut). "The intention is to boost the amount of beneficial bacteria in the gut," Pawluk says. "If you’ve recently taken antibiotics, which kill both harmful and beneficial bacteria, probiotics may help re-establish a diverse microbiome. The thing is, if you already have a diverse gut microbiome, adding more of one species probably isn’t going to promote any significant change."
But Pawluk says there’s no evidence probiotics are harmful, especially when they come from food. And there are many reasons why you might want to eat healthy probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, which has lots of calcium, or try any of the lifestyle habits we’ve laid out here. They all benefit health in numerous ways.
Self-Help for Atrial Fibrillation
Diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors are known to affect your risk of heart disease. The major risk factors for heart disease, as well as the condition itself, are all closely linked to the risk of developing atrial fibrillation. Can a heart-healthy lifestyle prevent atrial fibrillation? Can it reduce symptoms?
There's preliminary evidence that managing the risk factors for heart and blood vessel disease may improve the long-term outlook for people with atrial fibrillation. On a practical level, that could mean fewer episodes of a-fib and improvements in symptoms—in short, a better quality of life for you.
Focus on heart health
The ability of lifestyle change to reduce the burden of atrial fibrillation remains an active area of research. In the meantime, take steps to live a healthy and active lifestyle, in addition to medication and other standard a-fib treatments:
- If you smoke, quit.
- Control high blood pressure.
- Get treatment for sleep apnea if you have it.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Don't drink alcohol, or consume only in moderation.
- Keep your cholesterol and triglycerides within a healthy range.
- Get regular exercise.
- Get recommended vaccinations for the flu and pneumonia, especially if you have heart disease.
Make sure to also ask your doctor or pharmacist about any new medications, including over-the-counter remedies and herbal supplements. Sometimes these can interact in a harmful way with warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants, or rhythm-controlling drugs.
Although your ability to prevent or treat atrial fibrillation with a healthy lifestyle has limits, most people are able to control bothersome symptoms long-term with medication, procedures, or both. That said, some people run out of safe or effective options, in which case the a-fib will become permanent. But with proper anti coagulation, you can still minimize your risk of stroke, the most dangerous complication of this abnormal heart rhythm.
Monday, July 11, 2022
The simplest way to look and feel younger
Be more flexible and mobile, too, in just minutes a day
The Simplest Way Ever To Safely Become
Stronger More Flexible
& More Energetic
If you have just 15 minutes to spare, you can help build a healthier, younger body!
For centuries, body-weight exercise — actions that move your body against the resistance of gravity — has been a mainstay exercise for athletes and soldiers helping build strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility.
It happens to all of us, Reader,
As we get older, we start to realize we’re not a strong as we used to be ... or as flexible. And we admit that we don’t have as much pep as we used to have, either.
And we wonder: What’s the best yet safest way I can get back in shape — and improve my overall health?
Good news: The health and fitness experts at Harvard Medical School have the answer you’re looking for: The start-slow-and-easy workout routines that use your own body weight to strengthen your whole body — routines that offer a wealth of better health and more pep in your step.
They’re all in Harvard’s Special Health Report Body-Weight Exercise, along with easy-to-follow directions and how-to photos. And more good news: you can easily do these feel-younger exercises at home and adjust them to your fitness level. And there’s positively no equipment necessary to get great results.
Today, because they can be easily adapted to fit a wide range of needs and fitness levels, they’re the perfect form of exercise to help you look and feel younger ... prevent falls ... strengthen and protect your back, knees, hips ... fortify your stabilizing core muscles for better posture ... and more.
That’s what makes Harvard’s Body-Weight Exercise Special Report so helpful to you right now. Step-by-step, our health and fitness experts guide you to a healthier, younger body — even if you only have 15 minutes to spare. For example, you’ll discover:
| • | The single tried-and-true exercise that is practically a total body strengthener. | |||||||||||
| • | How to build well-defined calves — the key anti-gravity muscles that keep you standing tall. | |||||||||||
| • | The small ab-engaging movement that helps support your lower back. | |||||||||||
| • | How to strengthen your hip muscles to help prevent knee pain and make walking easier. | |||||||||||
| • | The easy-on-the-joints cardio interval workout builds endurance as it strengthens your core. | |||||||||||
| • | The classic exercise that tones and strengthens the back of your upper arms — making it easier to open a stuck window, for example. | |||||||||||
| • | A lunge exercise that will help keep you strong and agile, making it easier to pick things up from the floor. | |||||||||||
| • | The squat exercise that helps improve your balance, stability, posture, and power. | |||||||||||
| • | The “super” exercise that strengthens your back muscles and helps you stand tall. | |||||||||||
| • | The simple rehab exercise helps stabilize your pelvis and prevent injuries. |
And the beauty of body-weight exercise is that even short workouts can deliver noticeable results.
When you start one of these body-weight routines, there are certain changes you will notice — like having more energy, being able to lift things more easily, seeing some definition in your muscles, and maybe even losing some pounds or inches.
And then there are the changes that you can’t see — like stronger bones, lower blood pressure, and your body’s improved ability to manage blood sugar.
| • | Step-by-step directions and color photos show you exactly how to perform each exercise, and offer tips and techniques that ensure perfect form for best results |
| • | Two workout levels — basic and challenge — allow you to begin your fitness efforts easily and then progress at your own pace. |
| • | “Make it easier” and “make it harder” options on each level let you customize each exercise to your fitness level. |
| • | Tips for those with specific conditions — including heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis — that can help you get more out of your workouts and avoid injury. |
| • | Simple warm-up exercises that lubricate your joints, so they move freely for better performance. |
centuries, body-weight exercise — actions that move your body against the resistance of gravity — has been a mainstay exercise for athletes and soldiers helping build strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility.
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Coping with anger while grieving
If the death of someone you love has left you feeling angry or bitter, you might find it helpful to try the following techniques.
Consider it. Is anger a stand-in for more painful emotions, or does the situation warrant it? Do you feel abandoned or afraid? If so, could you enlist support from others or spend some time thinking about your fears and putting them to rest? It might help to share your feelings in a grief support group and learn how others have dealt with similar feelings.
Express it. Set a side a safe time and place each day to defuse angry feelings. Some people yell in the car with the windows rolled up. Some find stress-relief techniques like meditation or yoga helpful. Others find release in punching pillows or in spurts of strenuous activity. Think about options for releasing anger, and plan how to express it safely when it crops up. Sometimes writing about situations that make you feel angry can help you focus on what you are really feeling beneath your anger.
Explain it. Tell others how short-fused you are right now. If you know you stepped over the line, apologize. Most people will make allowances.
Discover the Secrets to Improving your Balance and Maintaining your
Mobility right now!
Dear Reader,
Every 11 seconds an older person in the U.S. is treated in an emergency room for a fall-related injury.
When we’re children falling is just a normal part of life. You dust off your knees and get back up without thinking about it. But when you fall as an adult, it often results in life-changing consequences. Falls aren’t just responsible for minor injuries; they can lead to extended nursing home care, disability, or even death.
The good news is that many falls can be prevented. For the best ways to maintain your balance and avoid falling get Harvard Medical School’s new report Preventing Falls. This information-packed guide from Harvard’s expert physicians explains:
· Why we’re more likely to fall as we age
· The specific risk factors for falling
· The “right” way to fall to reduce your chances of injury The secrets to preventing falls — from improving your health to exercises that improve strength and balance
How your body keeps you balanced
As you’ll soon learn in Preventing Falls there are two basic types of balance. Static balance gives you the ability to stand up without falling over, while dynamic balance allows you to anticipate and react to changes as you move. Four systems in your body work together to help you stay balanced:
· The central nervous system coordinates movements by sending motor signals to the eyes and muscles
· The vestibular system of the inner ear sends messages to the brain about the position and movements of your head in relation to the ground
· Your vision helps your balance by showing you where you are in relation to other objects
· And position-sensing nerves — called proprioceptors — embedded in muscles, tendons and joints throughout your body help you move around without stumbling or bumping into things
· What do some medications, inner ear problems, foot pain, weight changes and vitamin D deficiency have in common? They can all affect your balance.
· And when you’re an older adult, being just the slightest bit off balance—even for a moment—can lead to a debilitating fall. In fact, an estimated 1 in 3 people over 65 will fall each year. Every 19 minutes, an older adults dies from a fall-related injury. Women are more likely to fall than men, but men are more likely to die from a fall than a woman.
· The good news? Many falls are preventable!
· Keeping your balance and preventing a fall just got easier, thanks to a new report Preventing Falls, from the experts at Harvard Medical School. This information-packed guide explains how your body works to keep you balanced, and the health problems, medications, and home-hazards that can set you up for a fall. And it provides specific ways to help you improve your balance and maintain your mobility.
· Discover the reasons most people fall.
· Knowing what causes most falls, is one of the best ways to prevent them. This guide explains why some blood pressure medicines may make you more likely to fall, how cognitive impairment and dementia can lead to balance problems, and how even small changes in the way you walk can increase the risk of falling.
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