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Health and Wellness
Is Exercise Brain-Protective? Evidence Mounts as Apparent Correlation Between Cognition and Gait Emerges
December 24, 2012
Merry Christmas Eve to all!
As we’re gathering together with friends and relatives, it’s always interesting (at least to nerds like me) to see how much–or how little–we’ve all changed in a year’s time. Some are blossoming as others fade. Children grow like weeds, voices lower, voices richen, some fall silent.
As a child, I was always fascinated by the adults in my circle. I had an extremely elderly, matriarchal and imposing great-grandmother whose light faded noticeably from year to year, to the point that once I had graduated from bibs she was relegated to them. Although I was quite small, I remember seeing her fed at the table one year and in her sickbed the next and then she disappeared altogether.
Remembering her this year, I thought about how apparent the decline had been, how no one was surprised as she made her transition from ruler to ruled one.
And I wondered if any of us has the ability to see this decline in ourselves, so we can actually DO SOMETHING before it overtakes us.
In my opinion, yes we can. And it’s the same old answer: STAY PHYSICALLY ACTIVE.
Here is a terrific analysis of the issue from a July 2012 New York Times article by Pam Belluck: Footprints to Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s are Seen in Gait.
Pam Belluck (@PamBelluck) does a masterful job detailing some studies performed in Basel, Switzerland that yielded some surprisingly simple diagnostic tools that can help reveal impending cognitive decline. In my own opinion, I think this also reveals an opportunity to some to “reinforce their wiring.”
Read the article and you’ll see what I mean. Be sure to watch the attached short video clip that shows a woman walking, then walking while counting backward by two’s; a picture is worth a thousand words.
Enjoy the holidays (and especially that vital after-dinner walk)!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Is Ikaria the Anti-Aging Island?
October 26, 2012
As my regular readers know, one of my abiding interests is health enhancement.
In my personal experience, the key to good health is a successful combination of very tiny improvements to DAILY HABITS: mental habits, eating habits, exercise habits, and spiritual habits.
So I was particularly interested by this FASCINATING story from the New York Times about Ikaria, an island in the Aegean Sea, that has the world’s highest concentration of long-lived people.
It contains an engaging story about a native Ikarian who lived in the US and returned to his homeland after being diagnosed with lung cancer. But only a New York Times writer can tell that story as it needs to be told, so I’ll let you read it yourself.
Here are just a couple of quick quotes from the piece:
Over the span of the next three days, I met some of Leriadis’s patients. In the area known as Raches, I met 20 people over 90 and one who claimed to be 104. I spoke to a 95-year-old man who still played the violin and a 98-year-old woman who ran a small hotel and played poker for money on the weekend.
So, how do the natives themselves explain their unusual longevity?
Ask the very old on Ikaria how they managed to live past 90, and they’ll usually talk about the clean air and the wine. Or, as one 101-year-old woman put it to me with a shrug, “We just forget to die.”
In Samos, they care about money. Here, we don’t. For the many religious and cultural holidays, people pool their money and buy food and wine. If there is money left over, they give it to the poor. It’s not a ‘me’ place. It’s an ‘us’ place.”
You really owe it to yourself to set aside a relaxed ten minutes to read this great story:
The Island Where People Forget to Die by Dan Buettner.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Surprise! Calorie Restriction Study Results Shock Researchers: IT DOESN’T MATTER
August 29, 2012
Researchers, some of whom were restricting calories in their own diets to reap the expected results of this study, were SHOCKED to find that severe calorie restriction doesn’t actually lengthen life span as anticipated.
To quote Texas Governor Rick Perry: “Oops.”
The study, begun in 1987, involved rhesus monkeys.
You can read more here at the NY Times while I celebrate with another dunk of my biscotti. Cheers!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Amazon Review: L-Theanine Amino Acid for Calm Alertness–Helps My ADD
August 20, 2012
Here’s a review of Jarrow’s 200 mg L-Theanine, a supplement I’ve found helpful for my mild case of inattentive-type Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), yielding a relaxed, calmly alert state of mind:
WHAT IT IS: L-Theanine is an amino acid (a constituent of protein) found in green tea. “Suntheanine” is a brand name of L-Theanine produced by a Japanese company, Taiyo International, esteemed for its purity.
WHAT IT DOES: So, what does L-Theanine do, exactly? Well, like all supplements, its effects on your individual biochemistry may vary slightly, so I’ll tell you what it does for me.
I drink quite a bit of green tea on a daily basis (averaging a minimum of 4 cups a day), so I’m getting a bit of L-theanine throughout the day, every day. I’m a writer and I find that l-theanine gives me a mental edge: a relaxed concentration that makes it much easier for me to do my job (which involves a lot of research and editing).
HELP FOR ADD: I have very mild Attention Deficit Disorder and I find it noticeably easier to concentrate when I take L-theanine, hence my green tea habit. If I find myself getting impatient or frustrated with a project, it’s L-theanine to the rescue–it takes the “edge” off in about 10 minutes. I also feel more relaxed, but with a significant amount of calm, focused energy. It doesn’t make me sleepy, but I have experimented with it at bedtime & found that my dreams were more intense. I, however, prefer to take it during the day. Your mileage may vary.
OTHER BENEFITS: The research I initially did on this supplement (before I started taking it years ago) stated that l-theanine works to improve concentration by actually altering brain waves, enhancing the alpha wave phase. It also raises dopamine and serotonin levels (both are feel-good neurotransmitters). Personally, I don’t take the supplement daily (remember, I drink TONS of green tea). I take it on an “as needed basis”–if I feel my mind drifting too far afield of a mounting “To Do” List or find myself daydreaming, I supplement with an L-theanine capsule and regain my focus within about 20 minutes.
I’ve read on several health forums that many people take l-theanine as an anti-anxiety treatment and to help with panic attacks. Many others use it for enhancing sleep (but as I mentioned, I like it better during the day, myself). Many women swear it helps alleviate PMS symptoms.
COUNTERING MSG REACTIONS: My husband has an allergic reaction to MSG (monosodium glutamate), a “flavor enhancer” that’s often added to restaurant food. He gets terrible headaches, dizziness, & dry mouth if exposed. Much to my amazement, an L-theanine capsule after exposure has prevented his headache/dizziness reaction, which is astounding in itself. If you’re MSG-sensitive, try L-theanine and see if it helps. Even Jarrow’s label clearly states that l-theanine helps mitigate glutamate toxicity (very unusual labeling).
HOW TO TAKE IT: As with any amino acid, you want to take this either an hour before or 2 hours after eating and only with water or a protein-free fruit juice. Take it with any protein-containing meal or drink & you’re blunting its effect & more or less wasting your money. Start with 1 capsule mid-morning, on an EMPTY stomach. You can also take one mid-afternoon, and, as I mentioned, some people take one before bedtime. See how you react; if it makes you sleepy, you’ll do best using it as a sleep-enhancing supplement. If you’re like me, it will give you more mental energy.
QUICKEST ACTION: If you need REAL help real fast, open the capsule & pour the contents under your tongue. Let it completely dissolve. This method is quicker because the L-theanine gets absorbed directly into the bloodstream, bypassing a metabolic step in the liver. I never have to do this, but if I were someone who suffered from panic attacks, I’d certainly do so without hesitation.
200 MG DOSAGE COMMENT: I’ve been taking another company’s 100 mg Suntheanine capsule off and on for a couple of years and I was wondering if this 200 mg dosage would be too high for me. I’m happy to say it isn’t and I actually find it is more effective for me than the lower dosage I’ve been taking.
I highly recommend l-theanine, especially for anyone like myself who’s fought against attention deficit disorder since childhood. It won’t cure you, but it certainly makes it easier to calmly concentrate on any project. Good luck to all!
CAUTIONARY P.S. As with any amino acid, those on pharmaceutical antidepressants should talk to their doctor before supplementing with any substance that alters dopamine/serotonin levels. Just an FYI.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Surprising News: Yoga Can HURT You
January 6, 2012
It’s the time of the year everyone gets re-inspired to get back in shape. If you’re into Yoga, Pilates, or Fusion Workouts, you owe it to yourself to read this article in the New York Times (How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body).
The article details quite a few instances of serious injuries (strokes, cerebral hemorrhages, cartilage and muscle tears, spinal stenosis, etc.) that are much more common than I ever realized.
Yoga aficionados, you owe it to yourselves to learn what poses are particularly risky. Here’s the link again.
You’d never think that by working to insure your health, you could risk it completely. Stay healthy, stay informed!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
MelaFind: FDA Approved Technology for Early Detection of Melanoma
November 2, 2011
Exciting news for anyone concerned about contracting the most aggressive type of skin cancer, melanoma (particularly those of us with Scandinavian origins who live in the US Sun Belt): the FDA has approved MelaFind, a new technology for use by dermatologists that uses specialized light waves for earlier detection of suspect lesions.
Learn more here at the Huffington Post.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Recipe: Cranberry-Grape Energy Drink Base
October 28, 2011
Here’s another one of my “blog about it or you’ll lose it” recipes.
I use this one as a “base” for an energy drink my husband & I take every day; we use about 2 oz of this “juice” mix, plus some supplements (each of us takes a different combo) like CoQ10, Vitamin C, d-ribose, greens mix, protein, MSM, etc.
For several years, we simply used Ocean Spray’s Cranergy Juice, but they’ve changed their recipe and their name (it’s now Cran-Energy), it’s hard to find, & I don’t like it any more (too much water, too little real juice to justify its high cost).
What we do instead is buy each of these two 96oz juice combos at Costco & then create our own watered-down juice concoction:
1. Newman’s Own 100% Grape Juice and
2. Ocean Spray “100% Juice Cranberry” (Costco’s bottle is larger than this photo’s)
Now, just FYI, pure Grape Juice is full of natural sugars and will add a high Glycemic Load to your body if you drink it “straight” (just one 8 oz glass has 39 grams of sugar), so you need to DILUTE IT if you’re drinking it for its healthy antioxidant content.
This recipe is quick & easy & will yield 60 oz. of “juice” (30 2-oz servings).
My husband DOES NOT LIKE STEVIA, so we use a liquid saccharin called Fasweet instead. Liquid saccharine is inexpensive, easy to use & a very effective sweetener.
You can use whatever low calorie sweetener you prefer (stevia, sweet n low, splenda, Superose Liquid Sweetener from Amazon
Keep in mind that we use this as a base for some rather bitter supplements, so if you’re mixing this to drink like juice, you can cut the amount of saccharin in half (or use even less).
To make 60 ounces “energy juice”:
2 cups Newman’s Own 100% Grape Juice
2 cups Ocean Spray 100% Juice, Cranberry
About 2 16 oz. bottles Reverse Osmosis Filtered Water (don’t use tap water–it contains too much chlorine; regular bottled water is not quite as good as “purified” RO water–but this is your call)
2 tablespoons liquid Saccharin (like Fasweet)
Mix in a clean 60 ounce juice container with a lid; shake well and refrigerate. Each set of 96 oz juice starters will make about SIX 60 oz batches of “juice.”
Salud!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
A Father’s Love
August 2, 2011
Here’s a great story from the New York Times.
Dr. Alberto Costa, once a neuroscientist in Houston, altered the course of his research when his daughter, Tyche, was born. He’s searching for a drug that can help improve the rate of hippocampal development in people with Down’s Syndrome.
His studies have broad implications for everyone, regarding memory improvement and boosting mental performance.
Click here for this fascinating read!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Low Salt Diet BAD for Your Health? Could Be…
July 20, 2011
Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum (a recognized expert on fibromyalgia), has posted an interesting article, reporting on some studies linking low salt consumption to health problems.
We’ve all been told all our lives that too much salt is a bad thing. Experts are now saying: not so fast.
I blogged about my own dawning realization about the importance of salt here.
Here’s a quick quote from Dr. Teitelbaum’s article:
Most importantly, for people with CFS and fibromyalgia, restricting salt is a setup for crashing and burning, and is very ill-advised — especially in summertime, when you sweat and have more salt loss.
Salt restriction is also a terrible idea if you have adrenal exhaustion. How do you know if you’ve got that problem? The symptoms include intense irritability when hungry, low blood pressure, and a tendency to collapse physically, mentally and emotionally when you’re under too much stress. Salt supports the adrenals.
Read the full article here.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
New Study Results: Diet Sodas and Weight Gain
June 29, 2011
Remember my earlier post asking if diet sodas are addictive?
Now, there’s conclusive evidence that diet sodas actually lead to weight gain.
CBSNews.com reported on this topic today, noting that:
For one study, researchers at the center followed 474 diet soda drinkers, 65 to 74 years of age, for almost 10 years. They found that diet soda drinkers’ waists grew 70 percent more than non-drinkers. Specifically, drinking two or more diet sodas a day busted belt sizes five times more than people who avoided the stuff entirely.
Another study is cited in this CBS piece:
…Researchers divided mice into two groups, one of which ate food laced with the popular sweetener aspartame. After three months, the mice eating aspartame-chow had higher blood sugar levels than the mice eating normal food.
Sounds to me like aspartame may be triggering insulin resistance. Yet another reason to drink more green tea with stevia!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Interesting Theory: Nearsightedness and the Sun
June 21, 2011
Here’s an intriguing piece from the New York Times:
Have you ever wondered why so many people today have to wear glasses? I have.
Scientists are being to realize there appears to be a connection between a person’s childhood exposure to sunlight and proper eye/lens development.
Those children who are least exposed to the sun (and most exposed to artificial lighting) grow into myopic (near-sighted) adults.
A quick quote:
There is significant evidence that the trait is inherited, so you might wonder why our myopic ancestors weren’t just removed from the gene pool long ago, when they blundered into a hungry lion or off a cliff. But although genes do influence our fates, they are not the only factors at play.
In this case, the rapid increase in nearsightedness appears to be due to a characteristic of modern life: more and more time spent indoors under artificial lights.
Check the full story out here at the New York Times.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Personal Journeys
June 18, 2011
Personally, I think that one of the most appealing aspects of the internet has been its ability to allow people everywhere to share their stories.
Stories of inspiration, hope, challenges, joys, hobbies, interests, and more.
I’m somewhat saddened to watch the internet morph into a corporate salesplace, as it slowly loses the human touch that made the early internet a pioneering space filled with real stories about real people.
I hate to be the one to tell you, but Facebook really isn’t the center of the universe and you really don’t have 10,000 “friends” this week.
So, as I have the time to do it, I’m going to share with you some of the “other internet.” The Old School Internet that was composed of people with a burning desire to communicate something of importance to their fellow human beings (not just that they “like” Britney).
We’ll start here:
Here’s the story of Sandy Beardsley, who chose to share her journey as she fought to overcome the effects of a brain tumor. Sandy died in 2006, but her husband, Dan, has left her website in place to help inspire and help others. As she said in the first chapter of her site, “I hope that my words can in some way help anyone that is facing such a challenge. You are not alone.”
Thank you, Dan and Sandy, for sharing your story and helping others find their way through what can be a very confusing and scary process.
Here are more of Sandy’s words, from the genesis of her site in the Summer of 1999:
This is an ongoing written account of my journey through living with a brain tumor. I have kept a journal and continue to write about my experience. At first I kept the journal to express my emotions in a positive way. I began to think I might share these words with others when my journey was finished. Now I realize that that day may never come. Life is a journey and the process is what’s important, not the ending. My husband came up with the idea to share my words on a website.
Please visit the site here and experience for yourself Sandy’s wonderful, giving spirit, filled with strength and hope. And remember this: Life is what’s happening NOW, today. Make the most of it while you have it!
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen
Awesome Energy in a Bottle: A Special B-Complex
May 2, 2011
Country Life Coenzyme B Complex
Here’s a quick post about an awesome supplement for anyone who needs an energy boost (and who in 21st century America doesn’t?).
Add the extra benefits of boosted mood, better memory/mental clarity, and improved immunity, and you’ve got a winning combination.
We’ve all heard of the importance of taking a good B-complex vitamin and I’ve tried many, many different brands over the years. Unfortunately, almost all of them caused me to feel nauseated, no matter what kind of food I tried to couple with them.
So, I dedicated some time last year to find some alternatives. I started with Source Naturals Coenzymate B Complex
These worked GREAT and because they were sublingual (dissolved under the tongue), they bypassed the liver, allowing the B Complex to move directly into the bloodstream. This meant no more nausea! The downside was that since they had to be dissolved under the tongue, I found (to my dismay) that they stained my teeth. Even though they gave me more energy, it came at the cost of temporarily yellowed teeth. No go!
Then I found Country Life’s Coenzyme B-Complex Caps, thanks to the help of the generous reviewers at IHerb.com and Amazon.com
They worked GREAT for me. I took them for a good 6 months or so before it dawned on me that they might just help my husband with his longstanding fatigue problem. He took his first two on April 22 and has been feeling great ever since (it’s now May 2).
We shared some with some neighbors in their 70′s who were having some fatigue issues, and to our amazement, within a few hours of their first dose, they were feeling energized. SERIOUSLY energized. They spent the whole first day out in their backyard, doing yard work.
I can’t recommend this particular supplement highly enough. My husband has tried countless other forms of B-Complex vitamins that never, ever worked anything like these. The effects were potent and immediate.
One important point: unlike any other B Complex I’ve ever used, this one is DESIGNED TO BE TAKEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH. We take 2, first thing in the morning, with a full glass of water, about an hour before eating.
Depending on your energy needs, you may need multiple doses a day or just a single capsule in the morning. The great thing about B vitamins is that they’re water soluble, so you really can’t easily overdose on them–your body will eliminate what it doesn’t need. Fat soluble vitamins, on the other hand (like A, D, and E) are stored in the body and it’s important that you exercise more caution.
What seems to make this particular form of B Complex so effective are the additional coenzymes that make the B Vitamins more bioavailable (absorbable by the body’s tissues).
Here’s the ingredient list, FYI, direct from the manufacturer–just click on the “View Product Label” link on this page.
Good luck; hope this helps you as much as it’s helped us; let me know how it works for you!
If you’ve never ordered from IHerb before, you can click on the green banner on the right side of the page and you’ll save $5 off your first order. Amazon
also has a great Subscribe & Save price on this supplement. Sign up for regular delivery (every month, 3 months, or 6 months) and it ships FREE.
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More Info about the value of taking a high quality B Complex:
Study shows B Vitamins reduce incidence of macular degeneration in women by 1/3
Study finds Vitamin B supplementation may delay onset of Alzheimers
B Vitamins crucial in helping alleviate depression and anxiety
[--Be sure to scroll down about 1/3 of the page; top of page of this particular blog post is FULL of Google ads]
Consumer Reports: Supplements to Avoid
April 24, 2011
by Kerri Elders
in Supplements
Here’s a link to a useful chart from Consumer Reports, detailing twelve supplements to avoid, including several that have been proven to cause liver damage.
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Kerri Elders @kerriskitchen