Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Many of us make choices about whether to eat healthy or not-so-healthy foods based on whether we’re in a good or not-so-good mood. When a bad mood strikes, we often tend to reach for junk food. And that can be a recipe for disaster when you’re trying to lose weight. Here’s how to keep your emotions from ruining your diet resolve. First, it helps to think about the future rather than just that moment. Refocus on the long-term health benefits of good nutrition, and remind yourself how much more important they are than any short-lived comfort from food. Next, look for ways to brighten your mood that don’t involve eating at all. If you’re blue, call a diet buddy who knows how to motivate you. Or turn on a favorite movie. If you’re nervous or angry, release your emotions by working out to your favorite music mix or taking a short run. Healthy lifestyle habits help insulate you from bad moods and the emotional eating that often follows. Boost your mood on a daily basis with regular exercise and with a few minutes of relaxation, like taking a warm bath, meditating, or reading a book. Using a food journal can help you look for causes of a bad mood, like stress, and show patterns you can then take steps to change. For example, if giving… read on >

Obesity and other health problems may boost the chances of cancer returning after a man has his prostate removed, a new study finds. “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and up to 30 percent of patients will develop recurrence after [prostate removal],” said study author Dr. Arash Samiei, of Allegheny Health Network’s urology department in Pittsburgh. Samiei’s team analyzed data from 1,100 prostate cancer patients who had their prostate removed (radical prostatectomy) at a Pittsburgh hospital between 2003 and 2013. The patients were an average of age 60 when diagnosed. Thirty-four percent were obese, and 19 percent had metabolic syndrome — a group of risk factors that increases the chances of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Characteristics of metabolic syndrome include high blood sugar, obesity, abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels, and high blood pressure, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The patients were followed for an average of four years. Prostate cancer returned in more than 32 percent of obese patients, compared with about 17 percent of those who weren’t obese, the researchers said. Patients with metabolic syndrome had a more than four times higher risk of prostate cancer return than those without the syndrome, according to the study. The findings are scheduled for presentation Friday at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting, in Austin, Texas. “Obesity… read on >

Working toward a healthier environment involves more than separating glass and plastic. Try a new take on the three “R’s” — recycle, reduce and reuse — to save money, energy and natural resources. Start in your pantry. Donate packaged foods you know you’re not going to eat to a local food bank or soup kitchen. When you shop, buying in bulk and choosing items in refillable containers translate to less packaging. These options are often more economical in the long-term, too. To make the most of some of your food waste, start a compost pile. This is a mix of organic material that can be used in your vegetable or flower garden. Compost piles do double duty by keeping this waste out of landfills, where it releases the potent greenhouse gas methane. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that food scraps and yard waste represent up to 30 percent of what Americans throw away and could be easily composted instead. But compost only fruit and vegetable waste — no meat or bones, for instance. Compost Composition Greens: grass clippings, vegetable and fruit waste, and coffee grounds. Browns: yard materials like leaves, branches and twigs. Water: add to the greens and browns to help the composting material develop. When it’s ready, use your compost to feed your soil. It can help sandy soil hold nutrients and… read on >

Smokers often think their habit won’t have health consequences until far into the future, a small survey suggests. Researchers found that compared with nonsmokers, those who smoke generally believe that any health problems — from yellow teeth to lung cancer — would strike later in life. It’s a perception, researchers said, that might delay some people’s efforts to quit. Smoking rates in the United States have fallen substantially over the years, noted Dr. Norman Edelman, senior scientific advisor for the American Lung Association. That’s due to efforts like cigarette taxes and, in particular, public education about the many health hazards of tobacco use, said Edelman, who was not involved in the study. Even so, many people continue to light up. As of 2016, nearly 38 million Americans said they smoked on at least “some days,” according to a report released last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s no secret, Edelman said, that “smokers tend to minimize the health risks.” And the new findings, recently published online in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology, underscore that view. “This isn’t surprising,” Edelman said. “But it is important information.” He said it might be wise for education efforts to emphasize the short-term consequences of smoking — describing not only what they are, but how quickly they can show up. As examples, he pointed to… read on >

If you’ve just shed a lot of pounds, you might want to hold off on buying a new wardrobe full of “thin” clothes. That’s because new research finds that lost weight starts creeping back almost immediately after a diet stops. “We noticed that individuals transitioned from a weight loss intervention immediately to weight gain,” said Kathryn Ross, of the University of Florida, Gainesville, College of Public Health and Health Professions. As to why weight started to come back so quickly, Ross said, “There are a lot of different reasons. There’s not an easy answer.” It may be that people need a specific maintenance intervention where the focus shifts from how to lose weight to how to maintain that loss. Ross said people also need to understand how challenging the environment is, and how it’s geared to weight gain because of the easy and seemingly endless access to high-calorie foods. People also get a lot of positive reinforcement when they’re losing weight. Family and friends probably comment on what a great job the dieter’s doing. Once weight loss is done, however, no one pats you on the back and says, “Hey, great job maintaining your weight!” said Ross, an assistant professor in the clinical and health psychology department. There are also physiologic and metabolic changes that may make it easier to regain weight if you’re not… read on >

Relaxing in a hot sauna may not only feel good — it might affect your heart and blood vessels in ways that are similar to moderate exercise. That’s the finding of a new study that tested the effects of a 30-minute sauna session. The researchers say their results may help explain why people who regularly use saunas tend to have a decreased risk for heart disease and even dementia. On average, the study found, sauna users saw a drop in blood pressure and artery “stiffness” immediately after their heat bath. They also showed an increase in heart rate that was similar to the effect from moderate exercise. It’s not fully clear why, but the sauna heat is “one major factor,” said researcher Tanjaniina Laukkanen, of the University of Eastern Finland, in Kuopio. For one, heat generates sweating: “That’s like a natural diuretic effect — lowering blood pressure and decreasing the work load of the heart,” Laukkanen explained. On top of that, the researcher added, saunas simply help people relax. The study, which involved 102 middle-aged adults, was conducted in Finland — where “sauna bathing” originated and remains ubiquitous. In a study last year, Laukkanen’s team found that men who often used saunas had lower rates of heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease than did those who used saunas less often. But that did not prove the… read on >

Do you often feel grumpy at work? Sometimes a small change in your surroundings can have a big effect on your mood. According to a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, having some greenery in your office space can make you both happier and more productive. British and Dutch researchers decided to challenge the business concept that stresses minimal office decor and clean desks. They did a number of experiments in large commercial offices to compare the impact of lean offices to “green” offices. In all cases, they found that having office plants created a better work environment. One possible explanation is that greenery increases engagement by making people more physically, cognitively and emotionally involved in their jobs. Plants offer health benefits, too, because they act as natural air filters — important if your work area has stale air or common pollutants. You don’t need a bright window — or any window for that matter — to have a mood-boosting plant at your desk. Many species thrive in low light and with little effort. Peace lilies, ferns, palms, mother-in-law’s tongue and some philodendrons do especially well. Pothos plants don’t even need soil — just put a few leafy clippings in a vase filled with water and enjoy. Whatever your choice, be sure to follow the grower’s directions so your plant does well, especially… read on >

Though healthy eating is good for everyone, those who have genes that put them at high risk for obesity might benefit the most. A new study suggests that even those who carry an inherited predisposition to pack on excess pounds are not destined to become obese. In fact, researchers say it can be avoided over time by adopting a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and unencumbered by salt, sugar, alcohol and red meat. The finding stems from a new analysis of diet, lifestyle and medical data on about 14,000 men and women that had been collected for two earlier studies. “We found that eating healthy foods — high intake of vegetable, fruits, whole grain, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low intakes of trans fat, fried foods and sugary drinks — lowers the risk of obesity and promotes weight loss for all populations,” said study author Dr. Lu Qi. “Interestingly, the protective effects appear to be more evident among those at higher genetic risk,” he said. Qi serves as director of the Obesity Research Center at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in New Orleans. The study was published Jan. 10 in The BMJ. Qi and his colleagues stressed that obesity risk is driven by a complex brew of genetic and environmental factors. Also, although DNA analyses can easily spot… read on >

Where you live could influence how likely you are to develop heart failure, a new U.S. study suggests. In addition to people’s income and education level, the neighborhood in which they lived helped predict their risk, according to the researchers. People living in the poorest areas were at highest risk for heart failure, the researchers found. The availability of gyms, places to buy healthy foods and medical facilities accounted for nearly 5 percent of the increased heart failure risk in low-income areas, the study suggested. The researchers noted that improving access to these resources could benefit people living in these neighborhoods. “There is existing evidence suggesting strong, independent associations between personal socioeconomic status — like education, income level and occupation — and risks of heart failure and many other chronic diseases,” said study author Loren Lipworth. She’s an associate professor of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. “What this study adds is evidence suggesting that characteristics of your place of residence actually also play a significant role in influencing the risk of heart failure over and above the role of your own individual socioeconomic characteristics,” she said in a news release from the American Heart Association. “It opens the door for possible interventions that center on preventive measures in the community.” The researchers used Census data on just over 27,000 middle-aged residents, to… read on >

In a potential advance for medical research, scientists say they’ve created the first functioning human muscle from skin cells. The breakthrough could lead to better genetic or cell-based therapies, as well as furthering investigations into the causes and treatment of muscular disorders, the Duke University team said. “The prospect of studying rare diseases is especially exciting for us,” Nenad Bursac, professor of biomedical engineering, said in a university news release. “When a child’s muscles are already withering away from something like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, it would not be ethical to take muscle samples from them and do further damage,” he explained. “But with this technique, we can just take a small sample of non-muscle tissue — like skin or blood — revert the obtained cells to a pluripotent state, and eventually grow an endless amount of functioning muscle fibers to test,” Bursac said. According to the researchers, it might also be possible to fix genetic defects in pluripotent stem cells from a patient and then grow small patches of healthy muscle that could be used with other genetic treatments to heal or replace specific areas of diseased muscle. Of course, much more research is needed before any such therapies could be used in humans. In the new study, skin cells were reprogrammed in the lab to revert to what are called pluripotent stem cells —… read on >