Tag Archives: Diet And Nutrition

Health

Taking blood pressure meds may reduce risk of dementia

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CNN
 — 

Knowing you have higher than normal blood pressure — and taking medications daily to treat it — may be one key to avoiding dementia in later life, a new study found.

Scientists already know that having high blood pressure, particularly between ages 40 and 65, increases the risk of developing dementia in later life, said study coauthor Ruth Peters, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, via email.

But she added that research has been less clear on whether lowering blood pressure in older adults would reduce that risk.

“What is so exciting about our study is that the data shows that those people who were taking the blood pressure lowering medication had a lower risk of a dementia diagnosis than those taking a matching placebo,” said Peters, who is also a senior research scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia, a nonprofit research organization.

Blood pressure is measured in units of millimeters of mercury (abbreviated as mmHg), which consists of two numbers: an upper or systolic reading that represents the maximum amount of pressure in your arteries, and the lower or diastolic reading that shows the pressure in your arteries when your heart muscle is at rest between beats.

The study, published this week in the European Heart Journal, combined data from five large randomized, double-blinded clinical trials of more than 28,000 older adults with an average age of 69 from 20 countries. All had a history of hypertension.

Each of the clinical trials compared people taking blood pressure medications with people taking a matching placebo pill and followed them for an average of 4.3 years. Pooling the data, Peters and her team found that a drop of about 10 mm/Hg on the systolic and 4 mm/Hg on the diastolic blood pressure readings at 12 months significantly lowered the risk of a dementia diagnosis.

In addition, there was a broad linear relationship: As blood pressure dropped, so did cognitive risk, which held true until at least 100 mm/Hg systolic and 70 mm/Hg diastolic, the study said. There was also no sign that blood pressure medications may harm blood flow into the brain at later ages.

When sex, age or history of stroke were taken into account, there was no difference in the outcome.

“We know that what we do throughout life is likely to have an impact on brain health in late life,” Peters said. “So the best advice we can give is to lead a healthy lifestyle at all ages, and of course, if you are prescribed medication to control your blood pressure to take it according to the instructions from your doctor.”

Lifestyle changes can add to or in some cases replace the need for hypertension medications, according to the American Heart Association. Suggested actions include limiting alcohol, managing stress, stopping smoking, eating a well-balanced and low-salt diet, getting plenty of exercise and sleep, and taking blood pressure medications as directed.

Research shows such changes can work. A 2021 study found that diet, exercise and a lower salt intake also reduced blood pressure in people with resistant hypertension, which is high blood pressure that doesn’t respond to medications.

In one 16-week study published in 2018, people who went on a low-salt diet, exercised and practiced weight management techniques (such as watching portion sizes) lowered their blood pressure by an average 16 mmHg systolic and 10 mmHg diastolic, the American Heart Association said.

The diet used was the DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. An award-winning eating plan, DASH has a simple premise: Eat more veggies, fruits and low-fat dairy foods; limit foods high in saturated fat; and limit your intake of sodium to 2,300 milligrams a day — that’s about 1 teaspoon of table salt.

The DASH meal plan includes four to six servings of vegetables and another four to six servings of fruit; three servings of whole-grain products; two to four servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products; and several servings each of lean meats and nuts, seeds and legumes each day.

However, if lifestyle changes don’t significantly lower blood pressure within six months, the American Heart Association recommends adding hypertension prescription medications while continuing the healthy behaviors.

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Health

Fight menstrual cramps with food. Here’s how

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CNN
 — 

About 85% of girls suffer painful bloating, cramps and abdominal pain during their monthly periods — and for some the problems can last for years.

“Since menstrual pain is a leading cause of school absenteeism for adolescent girls, it’s important to explore options that can minimize the pain,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Women’s Health in Jacksonville, Florida, in a statement. She was not involved in the study.

But there are behavioral adjustments girls and young women can make to reduce pain, according to a new analysis of studies. “Diet modification could be a relatively simple solution that could provide substantial relief for them,” said Faubion, who is also the medical director for The North American Menopausal Society, of the research findings.

The abstract, presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of NAMS, explored the connection between diet and dysmenorrhea, the medical term for painful periods. The lead author, Serah Sannoh, told CNN she became interested in the topic due to her own menstrual pain, which has plagued her since adolescence.

“I found diets high in inflammatory foods such as animal meats, oil, sugars, salts, and coffee contribute to an increased risk of pain during a woman’s period,” said Sannoh, who conducted the research as an intern at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. She is currently a medical student at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

“A lot of the things that young people like to eat are are highly inflammatory … lunch meats, foods full of sugars and trans fats. But if you go on an anti-inflammatory diet — fruit, vegetables, olive oil, like the Mediterranean diet — you’ll get less cramping,” said NAMS board member Dr. Monica Christmas, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study.

The scientific evidence has shown eating a healthy diet, getting good sleep and exercising are effective measures in curtailing the duration and severity of cramps, Christmas said. But she noted it’s important women see a health care provider: “Make sure that there’s not some other medical condition that might also be contributing to the symptoms.”

As your body prepares to menstruate, endometrial cells that built a lining in the uterus to welcome a fertilized egg begin to break down. As they do, those cells release large amounts of fatty acids called prostaglandins to make the uterine layer contract and expel the unused tissue. The body also releases prostaglandins naturally during labor to open the cervix for birth.

Prostaglandins act like hormones, causing blood vessels and smooth muscles to constrict, resulting in cramping and pain. Researchers have found prostaglandin levels are higher and uterine contractions are stronger and more frequent in women with menstrual pain than women who have little or no pain, according to American Association of Family Physicians.

Eating inflammatory foods only adds to the discomfort, studies have found. Highly processed and high-sugar foods and fatty, greasy foods are common culprits — a 2018 study found college students who ate more snacks had more pain during their periods.

Another 2018 study of Spanish college students found women who drank cola and ate meat were more likely to suffer pain during their cycle than women who ate more vegetables and fruits. In fact, a 2020 study found women who ate fewer than two servings of fruit a day were more likely to suffer pain during their menstrual cycle.

Part of the problem is an imbalance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, Sannoh found. Omega-3 fatty acids — found in foods such as salmon, tuna, sardines, oysters, walnuts, chia and flaxseeds — are anti-inflammatory. Studies have linked them to a reduction in risk for many chronic diseases triggered by inflammation.

Omega-6 fatty acids keep skin, hair and bones healthy and help regulate metabolism, in addition to their role in the reproductive system. But too many of these fatty acids can cause inflammation when the body ultimately breaks them down into arachidonic acid, which lowers the body’s pain threshold.

“From my research, I found out that people with diets high in omega-6 fatty acids, especifically those derived from animal-based products, have a higher presence of arachidonic acid in the body, which increases the amount of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins that help the uterus contract,” Sannoh said.

“When you have a diet that balances omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and you decrease the amount of inflammatory foods that you ingest, that will decrease the painful menstrual experience,” she added.

Two separate studies from 2011 and 2012 revealed women who took omega-3 fatty acid supplements reduced the intensity of menstrual discomfort enough to lower their use of ibuprofen for pain relief. And a 1996 study found a highly significant relationship between omega-3 fatty acids and milder menstrual symptoms in teens.

Changing your diet is not the only way to fight menstrual pain. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, reduce the production of prostaglandins, which is why they are a mainstay of treatment for cramps, Christmas said.

However, these pain medications also have side effects. According to a 2015 Cochrane Library review of evidence, NSAIDs are linked to bloating, diarrhea, dizziness, indigestion, headaches, heartburn, high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting and on rare occasions, raised liver enzymes.

Certain oral birth control pills also lower the production of prostaglandins in the uterine lining, which then reduces both blood flow and cramping. Doses of less than 35 micrograms were “effective and should be the preparation of choice,” according to a 2009 Cochrane Library review.

But if you are not interested in using these methods — or want extra relief — give an anti-inflammatory diet a try. Sannoh put her research into practice by decreasing her intake of red meat and other inflammatory foods such as sugar and coffee, and told CNN that it did decrease her menstrual pain.

There’s an added benefit to adopting an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, Christmas said.

“These diets are also associated with less high blood pressure, less cardiovascular disease, less diabetes, less arthritic issues, decreased morbidity and mortality, especially after menopause,” Christmas said.

“So if you can get people who are young to eat better, exercise, and live a healthier lifestyle, they’re going fare better as they age.”

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Health

What’s the magic number of steps to keep weight off? Here’s what a new study says

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CNN
 — 

Taking 8,600 steps a day will prevent weight gain in adults, while already overweight adults can halve their odds of becoming obese by adding an additional 2,400 steps — that’s 11,000 steps a day, according to new research.

Studies show the average person gains between 1 and 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilograms) each year from young adulthood through middle age, slowly leading to an unhealthy weight and even obesity over time.

“People really can reduce their risk of obesity by walking more,” said study author Dr. Evan Brittain, associate professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The new study also found key benefits for chronic diseases and conditions: “Diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and GERD showed benefit with higher steps,” Brittain said in an email.

“The relationship with hypertension and diabetes plateaued after about 8,000 to 9,000 steps but the others were linear, meaning higher steps continued to reduce risk,” he said. “I would say that the take home messages are that more steps are better.”

It’s yet another study illustrating the powerful impact that walking and other forms of exercise have on our health. In fact, if you get up and move for 21.43 minutes each day of the week, you cut your risk of dying from all causes by one-third, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Current physical activity recommendations for adults are 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, dancing, bicycling, doubles tennis and water aerobics, and two days of muscle-strengthening activity each week.

“Physical activity is just absolutely magnificent,” Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, told CNN in an earlier interview.

“And when if you blend that with eating a more plant-based diet, de-stressing, sleeping enough and connecting with others — that’s your magic recipe,” Freeman said. “It’s the fountain of youth, if you will.”

The study analyzed an average of four years of activity and health data from more than 6,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, dedicated to research on ways to develop individualized health care.

Participants in the study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, wore activity trackers at least 10 hours a day and allowed researchers access to their electronic health records over multiple years.

“Our study had an average of 4 years of continuous activity monitoring. So, we were able to account for the totality of activity between when monitoring started and when a disease was diagnosed, which is a major advantage because we didn’t have to make assumptions about activity over time, unlike all prior studies,” Brittain said.

People in the study ranged in age from 41 to 67 and had body mass index levels from 24.3, which is considered in the healthy weight range, to 32.9, which is considered obese.

Researchers found that people who walked 4 miles a day — about 8,200 steps — were less likely to become obese or suffer from sleep apnea, acid reflux and major depressive disorder. Sleep apnea and acid reflux respond well to weight loss, which can reduce pressure on the throat and stomach, while exercise is a cornerstone treatment for depression.

The study also found that overweight participants (those with BMIs from 25 to 29) cut their risk of becoming obese by half if they increased their steps to 11,000 steps a day. In fact, “this increase in step counts resulted in a 50% reduction in cumulative incidence of obesity at 5 years,” the study found.

Applying the data to a specific example, the authors said individuals with BMIs of 28 could lower their risk of obesity 64% by increasing steps from about 6,000 to 11,000 steps per day.

The new research echoes results from a recent study in Spain in which researchers found health benefits rose with every step until about 10,000 steps, when the effects began to fade. Counting steps may be especially important for people who do unstructured, unplanned physical activity such as housework, gardening and walking dogs.

“Notably, we detected an association between incidental steps (steps taken to go about daily life) and a lower risk of both cancer and heart disease,” study coauthor Borja del Pozo Cruz told CNN in an earlier interview. Del Pozo Cruz is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain.

The same research team also recently published a similar study that found walking 10,000 steps a day lowered the risk for dementia by 50%; the risk decreased by 25% with as few as 3,800 steps a day.

However, if walking occurred at a brisk pace of 112 steps a minute for 30 minutes, it maximized risk reduction, leading to a 62% reduction in dementia risk. The 30 minutes of fast-paced walking didn’t have to occur all at once either — it could be spread out over the day.

Researchers found the association between peak 30-minute steps and risk reduction to be dependent on the disease studied: There was a 62% reduction for dementia, an 80% decline for cardiovascular disease and death, and about a 20% drop in risk for cancer.

The new study also found an association between step intensity and health benefits as well, “although the relationships were less consistent than with step counts,” researchers said.

A major limitation of all studies using step trackers is that people who wear them tend to be more active and healthier than the norm, the researchers said. “Yet the fact that we were able to detect robust associations between steps and incident disease in this active sample suggests even stronger associations may exist in a more sedentary population,” they said.

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Science

Meet the International Space Station’s new diverse crew

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CNN
 — 

When astronauts venture aboard the International Space Station, they see a world without borders. They work together while orbiting Earth, and no boundaries are visible between them, even as member countries contend with geopolitics on the planet below.

This week, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft with a diverse crew lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The capsule carried NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, astronaut Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos — the first Russian to travel on a SpaceX spaceflight.

“We live in the same world, we live in the same universe,” Cassada said. “Sometimes we experience it in a very different way from our neighbors. We can all keep that in mind … and continue to do amazing things. And do it together.”

The NASA SpaceX Crew-5 mission, now safely ensconced on the space station, is one of firsts.

Nicole Aunapu Mann is the first Native American woman to go to space as well as the first woman to serve as mission commander for a SpaceX mission.

Mann grew up in Northern California and is a registered member of the Wailacki tribe of the Round Valley reservation. She has been a pilot and colonel in the US Marine Corps. But it wasn’t until her mid-20s that she realized she wanted to be an astronaut and that it was even possible.

“I realized that being an astronaut was not only something that was a possible dream but actually something that’s quite attainable,” Mann said. “I think as a young girl, I just didn’t realize that that was an opportunity and a possibility.”

A monster tsunami rippled across the planet when a dinosaur-killing asteroid crashed into Earth 66 million years ago.

The impact caused 75% of animal and plant life to go extinct and created a chain of cataclysmic events.

Waves more than a mile high pushed away from the impact crater near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and scoured the ocean floor thousands of miles away from the asteroid strike. The tsunami was thousands of times more energetic than those generated by earthquakes.

Sediment cores also showed that the tsunami’s powerful force even disturbed coasts of New Zealand’s islands halfway around the globe.

We get by with a little help from our friends.

The James Webb Space Telescope recently teamed up with two other space observatories to produce dazzling new images of the cosmos. By working together, these telescopes can provide a more complete portrait of the universe.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory added X-ray data to some of Webb’s first images to reveal previously hidden aspects. The X-rays pinpointed exploded stars, a shock wave and superheated gas, all highlighted in glowing pinks, purples and blues.

Additionally, astronomers combined Webb and Hubble data to showcase a pair of galaxies about 700 million light-years away from Earth. Webb scientists also spied a celestial surprise, in the form of a distant galaxy, within the image.

Composting your produce scraps can be great for the environment, but there’s an art to this environmentally friendly practice.

Food waste creates harmful greenhouse gases inside a landfill — and little to none of it is composted. Composting means mixing food and yard waste with nitrogen, carbon, water and air to help scraps decompose and turn into fertile soil that your garden will love.

A compost pile that stinks isn’t getting enough oxygen and is emitting methane. To prevent the formation of this harmful gas, and the smell, turn your compost pile every two to five weeks.

Learn more about lifestyle changes to minimize your personal role in the climate crisis and reduce your eco-anxiety in our limited Life, But Greener newsletter series.

Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo won the Nobel Prize for medicine this week for his pioneering use of ancient DNA to answer questions about human evolution.

In 2010, Pääbo sequenced the first Neanderthal genome and discovered that Homo sapiens interbred with them. Pääbo was also able to extract DNA from fossil fragments, which revealed Denisovans, a new kind of extinct human.

His work has allowed researchers to compare human genetics with the DNA of Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Meanwhile, the Nobel Prize for chemistry was awarded to scientists who discovered how to snap molecules together, and the Nobel Prize for physics went to quantum physicists for unlocking the eerie behavior of particles.

Check out these new finds:

— Archaeologists have uncovered the pieces of a nearly 2,000-year-old classical statue depicting the mythical hero Hercules in northeastern Greece.

— The Pacific Ocean is shrinking and making way for a new supercontinent, called Amasia, that will likely form in about 200 million to 300 million years.

— A new image from a telescope in Chile may look like a comet, but it’s actually an incredibly long debris trail created when the DART spacecraft slammed into an asteroid last month.

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Health

Appetite rises and fat burn slows if you eat later in day, study finds

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CNN
 — 

We all know that eating later in the day isn’t good for our waistlines, but why? A new study weighed in on that question by comparing people who ate the same foods – but at different times in the day.

“Does the time that we eat matter when everything else is kept consistent?” said first author Nina Vujović, a researcher in the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The answer was yes – eating later in the day will double your odds of being hungrier, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“We found that eating four hours later makes a significant difference for our hunger levels, the way we burn calories after we eat, and the way we store fat,” Vujović said. “Together, these changes may explain why late eating is associated with increased obesity risk reported by other studies and provide new biological insight into the underlying mechanisms.”

The study provides support for the concept that circadian rhythm, which influences key physiologic functions such as body temperature and heart rate, affects how our bodies absorb fuel, researchers said.

The study does show eating later results in “an increase in hunger, impacts hormones and also changes gene expression, especially in terms of fat metabolism with a tendency towards less fat breakdown and more fat deposition,” said Dr. Bhanu Prakash Kolla, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant to Mayo’s Center for Sleep Medicine and Division of Addiction Medicine.

While prior studies have linked later eating to weight gain, this study did not measure weight loss and can not show a causal link, said Kolla, who was not involved in the study. In addition, research has shown that skipping breakfast is linked to obesity, he said.

“So could these results be a result of skipping breakfast rather than eating late? That’s an effect to consider for this study,” Kolla said.

The study was small – only 16 overweight or obese people – but carefully planned to eliminate other potential causes of weight gain, the authors said.

“While there have been other studies investigating why late eating associates with an increased risk for obesity, this may be the most well controlled, including strictly controlling the amount, composition and timing of meals, physical activity, sleep, room temperature and light exposure,” said senior author Frank Scheer, director of the Medical Chronobiology Program in the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders.

All participants were in good health, with no history of diabetes or shift work, which can affect circadian rhythm, and had regular physical activity. Each person in the study kept to a strict healthy sleep/wake schedule for about three weeks and were provided with prepared meals at fixed times for three days before the lab experiment began.

Participants were then randomized into two groups. One group ate calorie-controlled meals at 8 a.m., noon and 4 p.m., while the other ate the same meals four hours later, at noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. for the six days reported in the study. Measures of hunger and appetite were gathered 18 times each while tests for body fat, temperature and energy expenditures were gathered on three separate days.

After a break of a few weeks, the same participants reversed the procedure – those who had eaten earlier moved to the late eating group and vice versa, thus using each person as their own control.

Results showed that hunger pangs doubled for those on a night-eating regime. People who ate later in the day also reported a desire for starchy and salty foods, meat and, to a lesser extent, a desire for dairy foods and vegetables.

By looking at the results of blood tests, researchers were able to see why: Levels of leptin, a hormone which tells us when we feel full, were decreased for late eaters versus early eaters. In comparison, levels of the hormone ghrelin, which spikes our appetite, rose.

“What is new is that our results show that late eating causes an increase in the ratio of ghrelin and leptin averaged across the full 24-hour sleep/wake cycle,” Scheer said. In fact, the study found that the ratio of ghrelin to leptin rose by 34% when meals were eaten later in the day.

“These changes in appetite-regulating hormones fits well with the increase in hunger and appetite with late eating,” Scheer said.

When participants ate later in the day they also burned calories at a slower rate than when they ate at earlier times. Tests of their body fat found changes in genes that would impact how fat is burned or stored, the study found.

“These changes in gene expression would support the growth of fat tissue by formation of more fat cells, as well as by increased fat storage,” Scheer said.

It’s not known if these effects would continue over time, or on people who currently take medications for chronic disease, which were excluded from this study. Further study is needed, the authors said.

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Health

Drink these types of coffee to live longer, study says

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CNN
 — 

Drinking two to three cups a day of most types of coffee may protect you from cardiovascular disease and an early death, a new study found.

“The results suggest that mild to moderate intake of ground, instant and decaffeinated coffee should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle,” said study author Peter Kistler, head of clinical electrophysiology research at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and head of electrophysiology at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.

Researchers found “significant reductions” in the risk for coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure and stroke for all three types of coffee. However, only ground and instant coffee with caffeine reduced the risk for an irregular heartbeat called arrhythmia. Decaffeinated coffee did not lower that risk, according to the study published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Prior studies have also found moderate amounts of black coffee — between 3 and 5 cups daily — has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, as well as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, liver disease and prostate cancer.

“This manuscript adds to the body of evidence from observational trials associating moderate coffee consumption with cardioprotection, which looks promising,” said Charlotte Mills, a lecturer in nutritional sciences at the University of Reading in the UK, in a statement.

However, this study, like many in the past, was only observational in nature and therefore cannot prove a direct cause and effect, added Mills, who was not involved in the study.

“Does coffee make you healthy or do inherently healthier people consume coffee?” she asked. “Randomized controlled trials are needed to prove the relationship between coffee and cardiovascular health.”

The study used data from the UK Biobank, a research database which contained coffee consumption preferences on nearly 450,000 adults who were free of arrhythmia or other cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. They were divided into four groups: those who enjoyed caffeinated ground coffee, those who chose decaffeinated coffee, those who preferred caffeinated instant coffee, and those who did not drink coffee at all.

After an average of 12.5 years, researchers looked at medical and death records for reports of arrhythmia, cardiovascular disease, stroke and death. After adjusting for age, diabetes, ethnicity, high blood pressure, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, sex, smoking status, and tea and alcohol consumption, researchers found all types of coffee were linked with a reduction in death from any cause.

The fact that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was beneficial “might suggest that it is not simply the caffeine which could potentially explain any associated reduction in risk,” said Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and senior teaching fellow at Aston University Medical School in Birmingham in the UK, in a statement. He was not involved in the study.

“Caffeine is the most well-known constituent in coffee, but the beverage contains more than 100 biologically active components,” said Kistler, who holds joint appointments as professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

“It is likely that the non-caffeinated compounds were responsible for the positive relationships observed between coffee drinking, cardiovascular disease and survival,” Kistler said.

Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was linked to the largest reduction in early death, compared to people who drank no coffee, according to the statement. Ground coffee consumption lowered the risk of death by 27%, followed by 14% for decaffeinated, and 11% for instant caffeinated coffee.

The link between coffee and a lowered risk for heart disease and stroke was not as robust: Drinking two to three cups a day of ground coffee lowered risk by 20%, while the same amount of decaf coffee reduced risk by 6% and instant by 9%.

The data changed when it came to coffee’s impact on irregular heartbeat: Four to five cups a day of caffeinated ground coffee lowered risk by 17% while two to three cups a day of instant coffee reduced the likelihood of arrhythmia by 12%, the statement said.

A limitation of the study was that coffee consumption was self-reported at a single point in time, said Annette Creedon, a nutritional scientist and manager at the British Nutrition Foundation, which is partially funded by food producers, retailers and food service companies.

“This study had a median follow-up period of 12.5 years during which many aspects of the participants diet and lifestyle may have changed,” said Creedon in a statement. She was not part of the research.

In addition, coffee can produce negative side effects in some people, she added. People with sleep issues or uncontrolled diabetes, for example, should check with a doctor before adding caffeine to their diets.

These negative side effects “can be particularly relevant to individuals who are sensitive to the effects of caffeine,” Creedon said. “Hence, the findings of this study do not indicate that people should start drinking coffee if they do not already drink it or that they should increase their consumption.”

Most studies are focused on the health benefits of black coffee, and do not take into account the extra sugars, creams, milks and processed additives that many people use in coffee.

“A simple cup of coffee perhaps with a little milk is very different to a large latte flavoured with a syrup and added cream,” Mellor said.

In addition, how coffee is brewed can also affect its benefits for health. Filtered coffee catches a compound called cafestol that exists in the oily part of coffee. Cafestol can increase bad cholesterol or LDL (low-density lipoproteins).

However, using a French press, Turkish coffee maker or boiling coffee (as is often done in Scandinavian countries), does not remove cafestol.

And, finally, coffee’s benefits do not apply to children – even adolescents should not drink colas, coffees, energy drinks or other beverages with any amount of caffeine, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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Health

A big breakfast can help curb hunger later in the day, study says

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CNN
 — 

Many people eat the bulk of their calories at night, limiting breakfast due to busy workdays and school mornings, and experts have long thought eating late added to weight gain or hindered weight loss. You should eat light at night and make breakfast your biggest meal, earlier research has shown, to give your body time to burn off excess calories throughout the day.

The prevailing argument is that eating more calories earlier “shifts metabolism” in ways that favor greater weight loss, said Dr. David Katz, founder and former director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, via email.

Yet eating a big breakfast instead of a larger meal later in the day did not impact weight loss, according to a new clinical trial that compared people eating most of their daily calories at breakfast with those eating the most at dinner.

“With calories either morning-loaded or evening-loaded, the researchers found nearly identical weight loss,” said Katz, who was not involved in the study. In addition, “any magical effects” of early eating on the body’s metabolism were debunked, he said, describing the research as “extremely rigorous.”

“Thus, this study belies the contention that eating early alters metabolism in a way that favors greater weight loss.” said Katz.

The study, published Friday in the journal Cell Metabolism, was a randomized “crossover” trial. Thirty overweight or obese yet otherwise healthy people spent four weeks eating 45% of their assigned calories in the morning meal, 35% at lunch and 20% at dinner. The same group then switched to four weeks when the evening meal was highest in calories: 20% in the morning, 35% at lunch and 45% for dinner.

“Participants were provided with all their meals for eight weeks,” study co-author Alexandra Johnstone, a professor of medicine at the Rowett Institute at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said in a statement, “and their energy expenditure and body composition monitored for changes.”

There was some good news for hearty breakfast eaters, however. If being hungry all the time is your downfall, eating big in the morning could help curb your appetite, the study found.

“We know that appetite control is important to achieve weight loss, and our study suggests that those consuming the most calories in the morning felt less hungry, in contrast to when they consumed more calories in the evening period,” said Johnstone.

“While disputing the claims for ‘metabolic’ advantages of early-in-the-day-calories, this paper does establish a plausible alternative: a potential weight loss advantage … via enhanced satiety and less hunger,” Katz said.

A body’s metabolic rate is determined by how quickly (or slowly) it turns calories into energy. To lose weight, the body must expend more energy than the calories consumed. “The more active you are, the more calories you burn,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

Aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to burn calories, but strength training is also important, experts say. That’s because muscle burns more calories than fat, both at rest and while exercising.

Earlier research, conducted with larger groups of people over longer periods of time, has found people who load up on calories in the morning do lose weight. It’s possible that eight weeks was not long enough for weight loss to be seen in the new research, the study’s authors said, or that other studies may not have measured body composition and energy expenditure in the same way.

Regardless, the new research results should not be used to “refute the importance of breakfast for the hungry, nor does it address the role of ‘having’ versus ‘skipping’ breakfast on weight,” Katz said.

It simply suggests that eating more calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner “may favor less hunger, more satiety during weight loss,” he said, assuming the meals are nutritionally the same.

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Health

10 Heart Health ‘Rules’ You Should Actually Ignore

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You know how important taking care of your heart is — but knowing the exact steps to take to keep your heart healthy can be a tricky business.

How necessary is taking aspirin to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke? Does more good cholesterol really help offset bad cholesterol? And are egg yolks heart healthy or not? Not knowing the answers to these questions is totally understandable, what with how quickly recommendations can change.

“It can be tricky to know what to do when it comes to improving your heart health because like all science and medicine, it’s an ever-evolving field of study,” Brittany Owen, a cardiologist at UT Physicians and Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, told HuffPost. “There’s a lot of misinformation on the internet too — like with most topics — so it can be hard to find the truth.”

Another obstacle: Every body is different, so you won’t necessarily respond to certain treatments or lifestyle changes the way someone else will. “For that reason, heart-healthy guidelines should be modified and patient-centered,” Lisa Moskovitz, New York-based registered dietitian and author of “The Core 3 Healthy Eating Plan,” said.

To help clear up some of the confusion, read on for the commonly believed heart health “rules” you can toss out once and for all, according to experts.

1. You should take aspirin daily.

Daily aspirin use may help prevent heart attacks and strokes in some people (by interfering with the blood’s clotting action, according to the Mayo Clinic), but the regimen isn’t for everyone. It comes with an added risk of serious side effects, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, which is why it’s no longer a general recommendation by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force.

“Depending on your background and medical standing, this practice is something that can either be beneficial to your heart health or extremely risky,” said Michael Weinrauch, a New Jersey-based cardiologist and the chair of cardiology at Overlook Medical Center. “In most cases, it’s completely unnecessary.”

People age 40-59 who are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and don’t have a history of it should decide with their doctor whether they should start taking aspirin — say, if you’re a 45-year-old smoker with diabetes. Meanwhile, people age 60 or older who don’t have heart disease shouldn’t start taking aspirin.

“If you’ve had a heart attack or stent or bypass surgery, you benefit from aspirin regardless of age,” Weinrauch said. “Similarly, if you haven’t had a heart attack, stent or bypass but have a high calcium score (a test that detects plaque in coronary arteries), you’ll probably benefit from aspirin.”

Bottom line: Don’t take aspirin every day before consulting your doctor — and if you suspect a heart attack, call 911.

2. Sea salt is healthier than table salt.

Sea salt is less processed than table salt and retains trace minerals, but the two have the same basic nutritional value.

“Your body also processes them the exact same way,” Owen said, so no matter the type of salt you prefer, too much is going to negatively affect your blood pressure and increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

It’s recommended to limit your sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams — or 1 teaspoon — per day.

Photographer, Basak Gurbuz Derman via Getty Images

Sea salt isn’t exactly a healthy swap for table salt.

3. Coconut oil is healthier to cook with.

Although virgin coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids (thought to raise HDL — aka the “good” cholesterol) and has antimicrobial and antioxidant benefits, it’s still alarmingly high in saturated fats ― about 50% more than butter, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“By overconsuming saturated fats, individuals are put at high risk of stroke or other cardiovascular disease,” Weinrauch said, by raising serum LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol. “Instead, align your diet with recommendations from the American Heart Association, to engage in a diet that has 6% or less of your daily caloric intake made up of saturated fat.”

If you need an alternative, he added, try small amounts of extra virgin olive or avocado oil.

4. Vaping is better for you than smoking.

“Inhalation of hot air, whether from a cigarette, vape pen or burning building is never good for the lungs, no matter how you slice it,” Owen said. “With vaping comes toxic chemicals and oils that scar the lungs.”

And if you’re vaping with nicotine, you’re just trading your cigarette addiction for a vape pen addiction. “Nicotine is not only addictive, it can also raise your blood pressure and lead to hypertension,” Owen said. “None of this is good for your body.”

If you’re looking to quit smoking, Owen recommends discussing it with your health care provider, as they have many methods to aid in your success.

5. Coffee’s stimulating effects are hard on the heart.

It turns out drinking roughly two or three cups of coffee daily is associated with a lower risk of heart disease ― and this holds true for both people with and without cardiovascular disease.

Take heart though (pun totally intended) if you have an arrythmia or extra heartbeats (premature ventricular contractions or premature atrial contractions). “The caffeine in coffee can stimulate and worsen palpitations,” Owen said.

6. So long as I stay within the recommended daily amount of alcohol, my heart’s safe from damage.

According to the European Society of Cardiology, levels of alcohol consumption currently considered safe by some countries are linked with the development of heart failure. It’s suggested that if you do drink, limit your weekly consumption to less than one bottle of wine or less than three-and-a-half 500 ml cans of 4.5% beer.

Although red wine has been shown to improve heart health (it could be that the antioxidants it contains increase levels of good cholesterol and protect against bad cholesterol buildup), that’s not the whole story.

“Like most things, you have to consume alcohol in moderation and you can’t ignore the negative effects or risks of alcohol consumption,” Owen said. “If you develop heart issues, it’s not imperative that you start drinking red wine to improve your outcome.”

With regard to some heart conditions, such as heart failure, “alcohol has been shown to cause and worsen this disease,” Owen said. “One would argue that zero alcohol should be consumed by these individuals to achieve better heart health.”

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Up the intensity of your walks to get in more cardio for your heart.

7. Ten thousand steps a day can replace all cardiovascular activity.

“While it’s important to your overall health to avoid being sedentary, it’s not enough to walk 10,000 steps a day to prevent cardiovascular disease,” Owen said.

The key is to get moderate cardiovascular activity. So if you’re walking slow, you’re not reaping the benefits as much as you would if your activity was harder. If you prefer walks, try amping them up by increasing your speed or using light weights. The way to know you’re doing moderate-intensity cardio is when your heart rate goes up with exertion and you’re breaking a slight sweat.

“If you aren’t able to do that at your current fitness level, aim to slowly increase your activity level each week until you reach this goal,” Owen said.

8. It’s best to only eat egg whites.

This heart health rule goes back to the old belief that eggs (specifically, egg yolks) were bad because they’re a rich source of dietary cholesterol. But the yolk is also where all the other beneficial nutrients reside (such as lutein, folate, riboflavin and vitamins A, B12, D and K) many of which are essential and protective against diseases, including heart disease.

One study found that people who ate eggs regularly had more large HDL molecules in their blood, which help clear cholesterol from blood vessels and protect against blockages that can lead to heart attacks and stroke, while people who are fewer eggs had more harmful metabolites in their blood that are linked to heart disease.

“Although the yellowy center does have saturated fat (about 1-2 grams per egg), you can safely consume a certain amount, even on a heart-healthy diet,” Moskivitz said.

Eating eggs in moderation might look like three to five whole eggs per week, alongside plenty of cholesterol- and blood-pressure-lowering foods, such as oatmeal, avocado and fresh fruit and veggies.

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Not all fats are created equal.

9. All fats are bad for your heart.

There are four different kinds of fats in our foods and some of them are an important part of a balanced diet.

One type of fat to nix entirely for the sake of your heart? Trans fats — the ones found in many processed foods and baked goods. These fats raise bad cholesterol levels and lower your good cholesterol levels, according to the American Heart Association. (To steer clear, avoid any products that show “partially hydrogenated oils” on the ingredients label.)

The other to limit your intake of is saturated fats, which occur naturally in red meat, full-fat dairy products and tropical oils (coconut and palm, for example). They can also be found in fried foods and baked goods. Similar to trans fats, they raise bad cholesterol levels, increasing your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, on the other hand, are thought to lower bad and increase good cholesterol levels, Moskovitz said. These healthy fats can be found in oils like olive and sunflower, nuts and seeds like walnuts and pumpkin, and can also be found in avocados and peanut butter.

Omega-3s fall into the category of polyunsaturated fat and are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and herring. Plant-based options include chia seeds, hemp seeds and Brussels sprouts.

10. Large amounts of good cholesterol can offset bad cholesterol.

Because good cholesterol absorbs bad cholesterol and carries it back to the liver to be flushed from the body, it would stand to reason the higher your good cholesterol levels, the better, to help offset the bad.

As it turns out, though, people who have extremely high good cholesterol levels appear to be at higher risk of heart disease. Researchers have yet to suss out the reasons behind why, but genetic factors may be at play.

“When it comes to good cholesterol, it appears it actually needs to be just right — not too low and not too high,” Owen said. “Ideally, your good cholesterol levels should be higher than 40 but lower than 90 to prevent heart disease.”

Things like exercising more, quitting smoking and managing your blood pressure and blood sugar can all play a positive role in increasing your good cholesterol levels — and, of course, maintaining a heart-healthy diet, a la the Mediterranean or DASH diets.

“Research shows that sugar may play a much larger role in elevated serum cholesterol as well,” Moskovitz said. “Instead of scanning the nutrition label for cholesterol, focus on total saturated fat and added sugar.”

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