Category Archives: Staying healthy

Do Social Ties Affect Our Health? | NIH News in Health

Source:

Do social ties affect our health

This article caught my attention. In medical school we’re taught about physiology, anatomy, pathology of diseases and treatment of diseases. Yes, we do rotate through a psychiatry rotation in our third year of medical school, and in some specialties (pediatrics, for example) social aspects of health are kept in mind (some specifics probably vary from state to state, but physicians are mandated reporters for such things as child abuse and elder abue) as kids, for example, don’t raise themselves. Abuse of any kind can affect growth, development and health – especially if it involves physical abuse, starvation, etc (sexual abuse as horrific as it is, is a whole other post and not the topic of this blog post).

Some studies have indicated people who attend religious services are healthier than those who don’t. Though it has been a while since I’ve looked at the literature for this, and I think some studies make the effect to be murkier or not as solid as some might make it, these are my thoughts on it:

  1. It’s not some supernatural being, or belief in one, that makes one healthier, but the fact as someone who is involved in a community, and a purpose larger than onself.
    1. 1a) I’d add, however, that this probably includes athiests and agnostics who aren’t church/mosque/temple goers, but are involved promoting athiest ideals and in the community at large.
  2. Being part of a community might mean access to people who can help older (or otherwise impared) community members to doctors appointments, help with food, etc.
  3. Being part of a community can also help alleiviate stress levels.
  4. Married people live longer, presuming the marriage is a healthy one. Though it’s important to be part of a a community larger than 2 as well.

For more information, follow the link above.

 

Sleep

Perhaps with this topic I should suggest people read it with a dose of caffeine to prevent the induction of sleep. Apart from exercise, it’s probably the thing that people in western cultures get too little of. Getting the right amount of sleep is important. Even though eight hours is what is usually quoted as what we need every night, the reality is some people might only need seven hours and others nine.

It’s important to sleep long enough to get into REM sleep several times. REM sleep is the period of sleep where dreams occur. It isn’t totally clear why we dream but it seems to be related to consolidating memories. It may also be beneficial to mental health.

However it is not just the total amount of hours we get, but the quality that counts as well. The quality of the sleep is important as well. If someone wakes up multiple times because they have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) they might not wake up feeling rested. OSA also predisposes to hypertension, arrhythmias, and fatigue.  If one is fatigued enough, even things like driving can be dangerous (if you haven’ slept enough and are fatigued enough, you can be driving as if you’ve had too much to drink).

Insomnia and non refreshing sleep can have many causes.  Whether it’s OSA, restless leg syndrome, depression, or other causes, treating underlying causes can often improve sleep quality without the use of medications such as Zolpidem. Getting good sleep hygiene is important to getting and remaining asleep. Going to bed the same time every night is important, even on weekends and  vacations. Waking up the same time every day is important. If you can’t fall asleep within about 10-15 minutes of getting into bed, it’s suggested that you get up and do something else for a while, like reading.  If having good sleep hygiene doesn’t help one’s insomnia, talk with your doctor to see what else can be done, and consider referral to a sleep specialist.

I realize this blog post is a bit on the short side. I will hopefully be writing another post about going into more detail about sleep, causes of insomnia, how to sleep better, etc in the near future.

Food and Health.

This won’t be an all-inclusive blog posting. To be all inclusive would require a novel, or at least novella, length blog post. People who have read earlier blog posts will know that I’m a fan of people eating healthy and not a huge fan of “fad diets”. The best healthy diet is the one you can adhere to.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, and can be found online, diet and other lifestyle options can affect one’s chances of developing various chronic diseases. Though in this post I’ll be limiting myself to diet, and just a few things about it as well – and save other comments and suggestions for another time.

One piece of advice I can remember getting is to make sure one’s plate (ok, the food on one’s plate) is colorful as in having a lot of different colors. Granted in some cases (carrots and spinach) the colors don’t really indicate that they’re both high in the Vitamin A precursor Beta – Carotene, but both are (and have different profiles of how much of other healthy vitamins and fiber they have). Making sure that there are differently colored foods also means you’re likely to get other benefits. Both blueberries and cherries have a lot of antioxidants in them which can affect health. Though I think that we tend to look at their antioxidant effects too much at the expense of other effects they might have, such as on sugar absorption and metabolism. Never mind that blueberries and cherries also contain some fiber. There is growing evidence that blueberries can help prevent/treat type 2 diabetes. This doesn’t mean, however, that eating them replaces medications such as metformin, acarbose, rosiglitazone, and many others. Cherries may carry a similar benefit.  Tart cherries are touted to have anti-inflammatory effects and might help reduce the need for non steroidals in some people.

The fatty acids one eats can also affect health profoundly. The N-3 (also known as omega-3) fatty acids not only help protect against heart disease, but also seem to have a role in preventing depression and helping treat it as well. Though depression as an inflammatory mediated illness has gotten some press (though at the moment I don’t have a reference for that, and who hasn’t felt miserable when (s)he has a cold or the flu), it also avoids the fact that N-3 and N-6 fatty acids also get incorporated into cell walls, including nerve cells. This incorporation also affects the fluidity of the cell walls and therefore how well receptors work as well as how easily (or hard) nerve cells release neurotransmitters.

My advice, as always, is to try to avoid getting vitamins and such through supplements for a few reasons:

  1. In some cases they can do more harm than good (especially true of fat soluble vitamins). In one study, smokers that took vitamin A supplements had higher rates of lung cancer than those that didn’t.
  2. You might not be getting all the relevant forms of particular vitamins. For example, there are different forms of vitamin K, some promote clotting, others bone health.
  3. With a varied diet, one can get enough vitamins and antioxidants without supplements. You have to eat anyhow, even if you buy pills.

There are several times, however, where it might be worthwhile. For example:

  1. If you have had a gastric bypass, or a stomach resection for another reason, taking supplemental B12 is important so as to keep stores normal.
  2.  If you have a disease, or take a medication, that interferes with absorption of particular vitamins (Crohn’s and other diseases that affect the ileum can interfere with absorption of B12, anti ulcer mediations do the same.)

I’ve talked about diet before (The Pantry Prescription) so I won’t go into it today. I may do an updated version of  that post in the future.

Anyhow, here are some references to a few of the things I’ve mentioned today:

Coultrap, S. J., Bickford, P. C. & Browning, M. D. Blueberry-enriched diet ameliorates age-related declines in NMDA receptor-dependent LTP. Age (Dordr) 30, 263-272 (2008).

Ren, T., Zhu, J., Zhu, L. & Cheng, M. The Combination of Blueberry Juice and Probiotics Ameliorate Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) by Affecting SREBP-1c/PNPLA-3 Pathway via PPAR-α. Nutrients 9, (2017).

Stull, A. J. Blueberries’ Impact on Insulin Resistance and Glucose Intolerance. Antioxidants (Basel) 5, (2016).

Lee, Y. M. et al. Dietary Anthocyanins against Obesity and Inflammation. Nutrients 9, (2017).

Mazaherioun, M. et al. Long Chain n-3 Fatty Acids Improve Depression Syndrome in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Iran J Public Health 47, 575-583 (2018).

Masoumi, S. Z. et al. Effect of Citalopram in Combination with Omega-3 on Depression in Post-menopausal Women: A Triple Blind Randomized Controlled Trial. J Clin Diagn Res 10, QC01-QC05 (2016).

Grant, R. & Guest, J. Role of Omega-3 PUFAs in Neurobiological Health. Adv Neurobiol 12, 247-274 (2016).

Husted, K. S. & Bouzinova, E. V. The importance of n-6/n-3 fatty acids ratio in the major depressive disorder. Medicina (Kaunas) 52, 139-147 (2016).

Kobayashi, M. et al. Dietary n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Late Pregnancy and Postpartum Depressive Symptom among Japanese Women. Front Psychiatry 8, 241 (2017).

Levant, B. & Healy-Stoffel, M. N-3 (Omega-3) Fatty Acids: Effects on Brain Dopamine Systems and Potential Role in the Etiology and Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Disorders. CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets (2018).

Pusceddu, M. M., Kelly, P., Stanton, C., Cryan, J. F. & Dinan, T. G. N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids through the Lifespan: Implication for Psychopathology. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 19, (2016).

 

The 100-year-old scientist who pushed the FDA to ban artificial trans fat – The Washington Post

The 100-year-old scientist who pushed the FDA to ban artificial trans fat – The Washington Post.

Though this link is on the older side, it does get me thinking. I feel like different foods or food groups are either vilified (get rid of fat!!) or put on pedestal (This superfood belongs in everyone’s pantry!! Go out and buy it now or the world will end!).  I know I’m being a bit hyperbolic when I put it like that. However I think that when talking about foods and supplements, it’s better to take a data driven view that is more even keeled. Not all fats are bad.  Trans fats definitely fit into the bad category. Fats are essential in our diet, without them there are key nutrients that we couldn’t absorb such as vitamins E, A, K, and D (though this last one we can make ourselves).

Aside from needing some fats in our diet, some fats are necessary for our diet since we can’t make them ourselves. N-3 and N-6 fatty acids are in this category.  Also known as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, they’re used by the body to make prostaglandins and leukotrienes, which our body uses to help regulate many processes. The help regulate the immune system: in fact omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation and omega-6 promote inflammationFatty acids make up the walls of our cells as well as the organelles inside cells.  How much of our diet fats should make up is something people can debate –  some (like Dr. Dean Ornish) advocate a low fat  – 5% of calories – diet. Others are at the other end of the spectrum. I won’t get into arguing who’s correct, though Dr. Ornish does has  data to show what he suggests helps reverse heart disease. Though to be fair, his program/views also advocates exercise, meditation, and other lifestyle changes, all of which affect heart disease and longevity so one can’t totally point to the low fat aspect and say that is the sole determinant of his success and data.  I think most would suggest 20-30% of calories come from fat. It’s important to get enough of what are called N-3 (or omega-3) fatty acids as well as N-6 (omega-6) fatty acids.

People trash carbohydrates a lot as well. My view of this is that refined sugar should be used sparingly. If one puts sugar in his/her coffee and only occasionally has something else that is sugary (donuts anyone? Ice Cream?), the world won’t end. If having something that is sweet helps keep someone eating healthy but not feel like they’re denying  themselves, then it’s ok.

The big danger is to lump all carbohydrates together. Yes, having some refined sugar is ok, and simpler sugars are ok in moderation: if you’re getting them by eating an apple or an orange, that’s ok. But when we talk about fiber, we’re actually talking about complex sugars which our bodies can’t digest or breakdown. These are actually healthy sugars! If I haven’t done so already, I’ll probably talk more about the specifics in a future blog.

My whole point of this particular blog is to use the above link to have people think about what they hear or read about nutrition, especially if what they hear is lumping all of a particular food/food group together for good or bad!

10 Biggest Nutrition Myths—Ever

>10 Biggest Nutrition Myths—Ever

I am a big fan of having people eat a healthy diet. The best of all possible worlds, doctors would know more about diet and have the time to talk with/educate their patients about this. Additionally everyone would have access to a nutritionist/Registered dietitian and access to healthy foods.  Lastly, people would not buy into fad diets or believe all of the mis information out there. Here is a list of some things to keep in mind.

Where Do you get your health information, part II

In an earlier post I asked where people get their health information. In this post I’m just listing some more websites people can get some unbiased health information:

Medline Plus

Talking to Your Doctor

Talking with your doctor

NIAID Community Immunity

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

If you’d like to look up some medical terminology and abbreviations: Understanding Medical Words Some Common Abbreviations

If a couple of the links sound familiar, it’s because I used the phrase ” Talking with your doctor” as a title of a much earlier blog post. Of note, I wasn’t aware of the above links when I wrote my original blog post.

Insured Americans Up to 3 Times Likelier to Get Preventive Care: CDC: MedlinePlus

Insured Americans Up to 3 Times Likelier to Get Preventive Care: CDC: MedlinePlus.

While I don’t have any answers as to universal health care coverage, whether there should be one payer or many. However it’s nice to see something that shows a positive effect for having insurance.

Don’t believe the hype – 10 persistent cancer myths debunked – Cancer Research UK – Science blog

Don’t believe the hype – 10 persistent cancer myths debunked – Cancer Research UK – Science blog.

This site is a reminder to take a lot of “advice”, or at least some headlines, with a grain of salt. In earlier posts I’ve gone over a bit as to where to get health information and things  to think about when evaluating claims (Here are the posts: Where do you get your health information? and Evaluating Health Care Claims ). This link talks about some of the more common myths that still make rounds a lot on the internet.