Weight training for the over 50s

When you mention weights to me, I tend to think of dark and sweaty rooms full of people (well men actually) sweating away to the accompanying noise of clanging barbells. However it seems that I am wrong as I was just sent a new book which has been written by two very respectable looking ladies (one even wears pearls) which offers the complete program to what they describe as staying stronger longer and contains easy exercises to avoid the effects of the ageing process and be fit for life.

Pauline Eborall and Patricia Furber are the authors of ‘Wonderful Ways With Weights’ and were inspired to write it because of their own unsatisfactory experiences as middle-aged women in fitness classes and gyms. For both men and women osteoporosis is a real danger as we get older and weight bearing exercise is one of the best ways to combat it and these exercises focus on building a strong body and happily they also say that you do not have to be fit to start. The exercises are based on their own experience and were roadtested on a group of their friends for over a year aged between 40 to 80. What they found was that if exercise is regular and progressive than strength can be gained and maintain even by those in their 80s and 90s.

This regime is gentle and gradual and you never need push yourself beyond your current level of fitness as it is a continuous process. Indeed they even have exercises in their easy to follow illustrated guide that include exercising in water and from a chair. What I particularly liked was that the photographs used show people of the right age doing these exercises which makes it seem much more realistic.

As well as exercises there is also good dietary advice and tips scattered through the book on improving things like arthritis and even suggestions for spicing up food without using salt. If you’d like to get a copy then it is available from Amazon or at www.kintburypublishing.co.uk

Entirely Free – and Effective – Weight Loss Aid

One of the things I have found most aggravating about getting older is how often my mother has been proved right. It was never used as a weight loss aid in our house for as we were on a very low income indeed it was used to fill us up and make us less hungry. What is this magical weight loss ingredient that costs you nothing and has absolutely no side-effects?

Something that I hope you already have plenty of every day in your diet — plain, simple, water. It’s something that’s been around for a long time and suggested as a way of losing weight that you drink a large glass of water before each meal and now scientists have documented that it really is true. There has been a clinical trial of this amazing weight loss-promoting liquid and the results were reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Boston.

Previous studies had already shown that middle aged and older people who drank two cups of water immediately before eating a meal consumed between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal. In this recent 12 week study, dieters aged between 55 and 75 who drank water before every meal lost about 5 pounds more than those who did not increase their water intake.

You have to love scientists as they are incapable of taking anything at face value and so here we now have the scientific proof from a randomized, controlled clinical trial that drinking water before you eat will make you feel fuller, so you will eat less. Also research from Columbia University School of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health had previously found that when overweight teenagers substituted water for sweetened drinks such as squashes and colas they could eliminate an average of 235 excess calories per day.

The trick here of course is to actually get teenagers to switch from their favourite caffeine and sweetener laden soft drinks to plain water but the free report mentioned below might just help.

Free Reports

For a useful free factsheet on weight loss please cut and paste this link into your browser: http://www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk/content/cmsGoAssets/Documents/Stored/30/Water%20and%20Weight%20Management%20factsheet.pdf

And if you want to do more to help children and their water consumption there is also an excellent free downloadable factsheet ‘Hydration for Children – Back to School’ which explains the importance of adequate hydration for children both from a health perspective and from an educational perspective in terms of maximizing cognitive performance in the classroom.

It contains many helpful facts, tips, and information that will be very helpful for anyone wanting to improve the health and alertness of children. You can download it from this website www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk and then click on the link to Hydration for Children – Back to School.

Butter Is Still Better

If there is anything better than butter in a baked potato or on a scone that I haven’t yet come across it, but I know that the margarine industry has spent a lot of time and money in persuading as that it is bad for our health. As I keep on saying (or nagging, if you prefer) there is nothing wrong with butter it’s all about the quantity you are using and if you want a healthy heart then switching to the new range of margarines that have been enriched with omega-3 fatty acids will not make a difference — in fact could make it worse.

A study carried out by Wageningen University in the Netherlands over a three-year period showed that using such margarines did not prevent second heart attacks in older men and women at risk for worsening heart disease. The initial results appeared to show that switching to such margarines did initially reduce cardiac events, but by 30 months the evidence of that benefit had disappeared, said Daan Kromhout, MPH, PhD, the lead researcher. He reported their results at the recent European Society of Cardiology meeting and their findings were simultaneously published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

These findings have surprised some cardiologists as most of the data on omega-3 fatty acids come from epidemiologic studies and those were positive. Alfred Bove, MD, of Temple University in Philadelphia has likened the situation to hormone therapy, which had been widely recommended to reduce cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women based on data from epidemiologic studies. Subsequent evidence however showed that HRT can be a major risk factor for heart attacks in women are relying solely on research — in whatever field — is never a good idea.

The margarines used in the trial were supplied by Unilever, and included the well-known “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” which I have to confess I have no trouble believing as I can see no resemblance in taste at all. This research should not be used to downplay the role of Omega 3 in the prevention and treatment of not only heart disease but also Type 2 Diabetes and depression, because it is clearly an important element in our diet. However this definitely indicates that margarine is not the vehicle to introduce it to your diet. Better sources include oily fish such as salmon and Flax seeds and walnuts.

Weak Bone Risk for Diabetic Children

Menopausal women are not the only ones at risk for bone loss according to the researchers at Georgia Medical College in the USA.

Osteoporosis is generally considered a condition that is primarily affects women during and after menopause but now it seems there is another group who could also be at risk. We know that one of the risk factors for diabetes in childhood is being overweight and a recent study of 140 overweight children age 7-11 and who got little regular exercise has found that the 30 percent with signs of poor blood sugar regulation had 4-5 percent less bone mass.

Now bone mass is a measure of bone strength and Dr. Norman Pollock, bone biologist at MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute, has confirmed that this study is the first to suggest the association between weaker bones and type 2 diabetes risk in children.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes in adults and sadly is now becoming more common in children as it is often associated with being overweight and taking little exercise. The study has just been published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and according to. Dr. Pollock “while overweight children may have more bone mass than normal-weight kids, it may not be big, or strong enough, to compensate for their larger size.”

Though of course it is not the case that everyone who is overweight has weak bones, Dr. Pollock feels it may have more to do with how fat is distributed throughout the body. For instance pre-diabetics tend to have more fat around their abdominal area, specifically visceral fat, a type of fat deep in the belly that is linked to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In this study, higher amounts of visceral fat were associated with lower bone mass while more body fat overall was associated with higher bone mass. “Taken together, it seems that excessive abdominal fat may play a key role linking pre-diabetes to lower bone mass,” Pollock said.

The good news is children — or more accurately their parents — have time to fix this problem which can have the potential for lifelong health consequences. Two of the simplest solutions are to engage children in regular exercise that can be maintained because they enjoy it and will continue it into adulthood and to pay real attention to their diet.

If parents truly want to enhance bone strength and ultimately reduce the risk of osteoporosis during childhood, then these two simple measures will not only improve their health but research has shown can also improve their ability to learn.

Zinc Can Help Prevent Pneumonia In Over Sixties

Zinc is certainly an essential ingredient in your diet for fighting infection and something that I supplement with every winter to keep colds at bay and now my anecdotal experience has been medically validated.

That is probably a first, but a new report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that zinc plays a very important role in health maintenance, particularly for the over 60s. Simin Nikbin Meydani, DVM, PhD of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Massachusetts studied over 600 people from 33 different nursing homes in the Boston area.

What they found was that those with healthy blood levels of zinc are 50 percent less likely to develop pneumonia than those with sub-par levels. The study was a follow-up to a previous one which found that people given 200 international units (IU) of vitamin E every day for one year are 20 percent less likely to develop upper respiratory infections, including common colds. But after a follow-up, the trial also revealed that a majority of those same participants had low levels of zinc in their blood. As we saw in the previous item, zinc is a necessary mineral for maintaining immune health, regulation of blood pressure and the mineralization of bone and as well as being essential For the eyes and prostate.

The study’s conclusion is that daily zinc intake can help nursing home residents who are susceptible to pneumonia as it can reduce the risk of developing pneumonia by about 50%. Plus – bearing in mind the previous item – not only did those participants have a higher risk of developing pneumonia when they did become sick, they did not recover as quickly and required a longer course of antibiotics.

Another factor to bear in mind is that they also found that those who were taking regular zinc supplements also had a 39% lower rate of deaths from all causes than a comparable group who were not taking supplements.

Food sources:

Best sources of zinc are the protein foods including beef, lamb, pork, crabmeat, turkey, chicken, lobster, oysters, clams and salmon. Other good sources are dairy products, yeast, peanuts, beans, and wholegrain cereals, brown rice, whole wheat bread, potato and yogurt. For vegetarians and vegans pumpkin seeds offer one of the most concentrated non-meat food sources of zinc.

If you have a good and varied diet then your body getting enough zinc, the RDA for adults is around 11 mg a day, but the actual amount your body can absorb may be as little as 15 to 40% but you can improve this if you are taking Vitamins C, E and B6 and minerals such as magnesium as they can increase zinc absorption in the body.

Antibiotics Are Now Wholly Ineffective –So What Can You Do?

If you’re lucky, your doctor will not prescribe you antibiotics unless they are absolutely vital in tackling your health problem. Why do I say lucky? Because over the past few years the evidence against the too free use of antibiotics has been growing and recently in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases was confirmation that they are becoming wholly ineffective as treatments for infection.

You may think well what has this to do with me, I never take antibiotics? Sadly you may never knowingly take them but you are certainly ingesting them on a regular basis as they are frequently used in feed for both animals and fish to prevent infection and once you eat them you are getting a dose too.

According to the report, even the most powerful antibiotics available are largely inadequate at tackling the emerging forms of new and powerful “super” bacteria. Professor Tim Walsh from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine’s Department of Infection, Immunity and Biochemistry investigated how common the NDM-1 producing antibiotic resistant bacteria are in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and the importation of these bacteria into the UK via patients returning from these countries.

Professor Walsh has outlined how this new gene is changing the way infectious bacteria survive. The NDM 1 gene passes among bacteria like E. Coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to antibiotics so that even carbapenems, the most powerful antibiotics available, are no match for these new bacteria.

Our reliance since the 1950s on the “magic bullet” school of medicine has led to massive overprescribing of antibiotics to treat infection and we have now reached the end of the road. The problem is that the bacteria evolved during the same period and have become resistant to most of the antibiotics. This means that in some cases more than double the amount of antibiotics is needed to fight a bacterial infection.

According to Professor Walsh there are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae and he posits that we have a bleak window of maybe ten years where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely, but also grapple with the reality that we have nothing to treat these infections with.

If you are still wondering how important this could be then according to Dr. Livermore, director of the antibiotic resistance monitoring and reference laboratory at the U.K. Health Protection Agency, the entirety of modern medicine could collapse as a result of antibiotics becoming useless. “A lot of modern medicine would become impossible if we lost our ability to treat infections,” he stated.

Natural Solutions:

The simplest solution is to ensure that you never need to take antibiotics for infection and that means doing everything you can to support your body to fight infection naturally. This starts by supporting your immune system with a healthy diet, regular exercise and stress management and by boosting your immunity when needed with supplements including vitamins C and B, Zinc and Echinacea and maintaining a healthy gut with probiotics if necessary.

Our skin naturally produces bacterial fighting proteins but we disturb the natural balance. of microorganisms on the skin through the use of antibiotic creams. These affect the body’s ability to fight the bacteria and can even lead to more skin infections, but in most cases, you only need to wash the wound with an anti-bacterial soap.

We already have natural antibiotics in your body in the form of the live bacteria in our intestines to help with digestion and keep us healthy. These bacteria also fight invading bacteria, but they are destroyed when we take antibiotics so all we have to do is provide the optimum conditions for our body to fight infection and heal itself.

You can also help keep yourself healthy with some essential ingredients from your kitchen such as garlic and Manuka honey, both of which are natural antibiotics that can kill bacteria. If you want to have something topical to apply to a skin infection then try grapefruit seed extract which tastes disgusting but is certainly an effective disinfectant for the skin and used internally kills bacteria such as Strep, Staph and Salmonella. Another old favourite is tea tree oil which contains antiseptic compounds that act as skin disinfectants and is used in the treatment of ringworm, fungal infections of the toenails, yeast infections, bad breath and acne.

A new product that I came across recently is a Natural Antiseptic Gel from Grandmas Vine that harnesses the powerful curative properties of antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic, cider vinegar. I have been using it to treat a persistent patch of dry eczema and it is proving effective at relieving the itching and clearing up the outbreak.

How Probiotic Barley Can Improve Your Health

In order to be fully healthy you need to pay attention to your digestive system and that means paying attention to your diet. As very few of us — and I certainly include myself here — have a perfect diet all, or even some, of the time then helping your body with a course of probiotics can make a huge difference to your health.

There are certainly plenty of varieties of probiotics available from pills, powders and capsules to flavoured drinks and most of these contain freeze dried bacteria. Unfortunately, this process deactivates the bacteria and can damage or kill many of these delicate microorganisms. When looking for probiotic supplements always go for a live version and one I have just tried is Symprove which contains four varieties of live, activated probiotic bacteria.

It comes from barley and you drink it on an empty stomach and of course is free from lactose, artificial sweeteners colours or flavours so is a good supplement for those who are lactose intolerant or have allergies. To be honest, I didn’t find the taste particularly pleasant and is slightly sharp so I downed mine in fruit juice which helped with the taste. Because the probiotic bacteria are active in the drink they go to work within 20 minutes (unlike freeze-dried products which can take several hours to start multiplying) and its liquid form means it does not trigger the same release of stomach acid as other products do as you digest them. Each small serving gives you over 10 billion live, activated probiotic bacteria which will help to rebalance your digestive system, which is the foundation of good health.

Personally, I always take probiotics before and during any period away from home where a strange environment, and exposure to a greater number of health hazards, can make you more predisposed to illness such as when you are away on holiday. People have also reported that probiotics are very helpful for those who suffer from IBS, IBD, and other gastrointestinal conditions. If you want to know more, or where to buy Symprove, visit their website at www.symprove.com

Weight Loss and Help For Diabetes – the Fibre Solution

Simply increasing the amount of fermentable carbohydrates found in foods such as asparagus, garlic, chicory and Jerusalem artichokes could be used to aid weight loss and prevent Type 2 diabetes according to new research currently being funded by leading health charity Diabetes UK.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 per cent of all those diagnosed with diabetes and, if left untreated, can lead to serious health complications including heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and amputation. It’s also estimated that there are up to half a million people with undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes in the UK, which can remain undetected for 10 years or more. This means that around half of the population who are diagnosed and begin treatment for Type 2 diabetes may already have diabetes-related complications.

Sustained weight loss can delay and even prevent Type 2 diabetes and research in recent years has suggested that certain foods are particularly good at stabilizing blood glucose levels. Fermentable carbohydrates are one such example and, unlike most of our dietary carbohydrates, are fermented by bacteria in the colon rather than absorbed in the small intestine. As a result these carbohydrates cause the release of gut hormones that could reduce appetite and enhance insulin sensitivity, which could lead to improved blood glucose control and weight loss.

The research is being carried out by the Nutrition and Research Group at Imperial College, London, where dietitian Nicola Guess has been awarded a three-year Fellowship to investigate the role fermentable carbohydrates could play in Type 2 diabetes prevention. The carbohydrate will be given to participants as a daily supplement during three periods of investigation, each examining different mechanisms involved in the prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

Risk Factors for Type 2 diabetes

The risk factors for Type 2 diabetes include being overweight, more than 40 years old, being of Black or South Asian origin and having a family history of the condition. It is also increasingly becoming more common in children, adolescents and young people of all ethnicities. There is also a more specific risk for women who contract diabetes as adults as research has shown that they are more vulnerable to both ovarian and bowel cancer.

If any of those risk factors apply to you, then some simple dietary adjustments could make all the difference and if you would like more help with diabetes information the Diabetes UK Careline (0845 120 2960) offers information and support on any aspect of managing the condition. The line is a low cost number and opens Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm or visit www.diabetes.org.uk

Well Cooked Meat Can Raise Cancer Risk By Up T0 500%

As we are probably in the last few weeks of the barbecue season I hope this warning doesn’t come too late. If your answer to the question ‘how do you like your steak?’ is to say ‘extremely well done’ then for your health’s sake you might want to turn down the heat a little. The link between charring meat by frying, barbecuing or otherwise heavily cooking it and cancer has been made before but a new study from the University of Texas has just confirmed it.

Researchers there have found that people who eat well-done meat double their risk of developing bladder cancer when compared to people who eat meat on the rarer end of the spectrum. The reason? This type of cooking can lead to the formation of cancer-causing chemicals in the meat, due primarily to the heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that form when meat is cooked at very high heat.

There are three different HCA chemicals formed during high-heat cooking that, collectively, raise your cancer risk by more than 250 percent. And that astonishing figure is just for the average person; if you are already genetically predisposed to developing cancer then the risk is nearly doubled to almost 500 percent.

As I said, the link between cancer and very well cooked meat has already been made and the U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified a total of 17 different HCAs. Prior research has already established that these chemicals, which are produced when meat is charred, increase pancreatic cancer risk but now it appears that they contribute to bladder cancer as well.

The good news is that the study team made very clear in its report that meat itself is not necessarily the culprit in increasing cancer risk, but rather the intense cooking methods by which it is prepared. If you are patting yourself on the back because you don’t eat red meat I regret to inform you that chicken, pork and even fish cooked heavily may also form cancer-causing HCAs. This is a blow to me as one of my favourite meals is to marinade and then dry fry salmon steaks in a redhot nonstick pan until the surface is crispy — ah well, another favourite food hits ‘the occasional treats’ list!

So if you are addicted to the barbecue or grill then the best advice is to keep meat away from direct flames as this will help to reduce the development of HCAs and lower the risk of developing cancer.

Walking For Health – and Holidays!

As my regular readers know, I am all in favour of exercise provided it is enjoyable! So although you will never find me working out in a gym I do appreciate walking in a number of environments. The health benefits of walking are well-known and indeed I couldn’t put it better than this quote: “Walking is by far the best prescription for the 21st century”, says Professor Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS and Director of the National Campaign for Walking.

New statistics released by online service NHS MidLifeCheck reveal that 49 is the age when men are most likely to start taking stock of their diet and lifestyle and the results certainly indicate that as well is taking stock they need to take immediate action as these statistics show:..

• 63% of men are overweight with 21% considered to be obese.

• 31% did just 0-30 minutes of brisk physical activity in the previous week.

• 29% admit their emotional (mental) wellbeing is poor, with varying combinations of depression, high stress levels and pessimism.

• The average man is over 2 stone overweight and carries around a whopping 37-inch waist.

Just in case you’re feeling smug ladies it seems that we also need to be paying more attention to our health as a recent piece of research in Occupational and Environmental Medicine suggests that heart disease amongst women is also rising and walking is an excellent cardiovascular workout which in turn, burns fat.. Walking of course has far more benefits than just helping us lose weight and lower blood pressure because if performed in green, open spaces – rather than on a treadmill at the gym — it is clinically known to reduce stress, alleviate muscle tension and significantly improve mood and self-esteem.

If you want to combine those benefits with a holiday that takes place in a peaceful environment with stunning scenery then you might want to investigate Upland Escapes who offer several different locations (including France, Italy, Austria and Gran Canaria) to give the you exactly that. They are an award-winning company (Best in a Mountain Environment – Winner – Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009) whose stated aim is to help you rejuvenate body and mind by offering walks to make your soul sing and who wouldn’t want that!

On an Upland Escapes walking holiday, there are no fixed itineraries and no timetables, so you can design your own day and go at the pace that suits you best. In each Upland destination there are a variety of activities on offer, such as horse-back riding, mountain biking and canoeing, which provide variety for those seeking more physical exercise and are ideal for families. Another bonus — at least for me — is the fact that they also provides nutritious and delicious deli-style packed lunches, full of healthy, organic local ingredients, chosen to compliment the season, so that your goal to eat more healthily can be worked towards, even on holiday.

If you can’t spare a week – or don’t fancy putting yourself at the mercy of the airlines — then they also offer one day walking experiences in England. For more information visit www.uplandescapes.com or call 01367 851 111

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