The hidden benefits of oysters for women

The benefits of oysters as an aphrodisiac are well known, but eating them could actually be a great way of avoiding type 2 diabetes – but only if you are a woman.

There has been a long running data survey running in the USA that has yielded some fascinating results. Over 25 years of medical and nutritional data on over 80,000 nurses has been studied by the Harvard School of Public Health and interesting information on the relationship between zinc in their diet and the chance of developing type 2 diabetes has come to light.

The nurses were all over the age of 33, and when their dietary intake was analysed it was found that there was between an eight to ten percent lower risk of diabetes in women who showed the highest zinc intake. That seems impressive enough, but when they looked at their figures and took other factors into account the figure jumped to a 25 percent lower risk for those with the greatest amount of zinc in their diet.

Oysters of course are a great source of zinc, each one can give you around 40-250mg, plus other essential minerals and omega-3 fatty acids. However you have to eat them raw to get the benefit, and have a healthy bank balance as well. If you are looking for more economical ways of upping your zinc intake then you should include red meat, poultry, beans, nuts, whole grains, cabbage, and dairy products – or buy a decent supplement.

If you are over 50, then you should definitely check your zinc intake as it declines with age and it is an essential element for a healthy immune system.

Feast on Feta!

Eating native is not just a pleasure, it can also help your holiday health. Feta cheese made from raw milk has natural anti-food-poisoning properties. When in Greece that Greek salad has more health benefits than you thought!

New black tea for refreshment

I am a great advocate of the health benefits of green tea, but the truth is it’s flavour is not to everyone’s taste. If you are addicted to your ‘real’ tea, and usually drink it black with a squeeze of lemon, then a healthy option is a new blend of organic black tea with lemon verbena. From Hambleden Herbs, this blends leaves from, Africa, Ceylon and Southern India to produce a smooth, well rounded tea you can drink at any time and no need to keep slicing up a lemon.

Lavender – The one really essential oil

There are so many essential oils to choose from, but the one that I would never be without is lavender because it is really almost a medicine chest in a bottle. I thought I would remind you of how versatile it can be and how useful if you are travelling and limited in what you can take with you.

Let’s start with sleep; trials at the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford showed that patients who were offered a bath with lavender oil in it, or inhaling the oil before bedtime were able to dispense with sleeping tablets -and their side effects.

If you have been bitten by an insect, apply it neat onto the bite and it works just as well on spots or boils. You can also mix it with a base oil such as almond or grapeseed and massage it in to relieve aches and pains in your muscles. I am a great one for burning myself on the oven or the iron and you can again apply the oil straight onto the burn and it takes the heat out and prevents a blister forming.

As I work on a computer, I can find myself ‘spacing out’ and losing focus and so I then rub some lavender oil on the inside of my wrists and inhale to clear my head. It also works if you feeling down as the scent can help lift your mood.

For headaches just put a couple of drops on each index finger and gently rub into the indentation on either side of your forehead, just above your eyebrows but make sure you keep well away from your eyes – no rubbing them after you have put the oil on!

Remember with essential oils, you tend to get what you pay for so the cheaper the oil the less active ingredient is likely to be in there. It really pays to buy organic for something that has so many uses and is so portable.

An apple a day keeps old age at bay

I know the original saying is that it keeps the doctor away, but there is new evidence that the cognitive decline we associate with growing older can be delayed with the help of apple juice.

The Center for Cellular Neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts have been studying laboratory mice and found that using the standard maze trials the mice performed better than was normal after drinking apple juice. Our ability to carry out mental tasks like working out how to negotiate a maze does decline with age as our cognitive ability is lessened. The mice got the human equivalent of 2 glasses of apple juice a day for 1 month and it was found that they were producing less beta-amyloid. This is a small protein fragment that is responsible for forming the “senile plaques” that are commonly found in the brain of those suffering from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The lead researcher suggested that if everyone was to drink two glasses of apple juice a day they would lessen their risk of cognitive decay and help keep their mind functioning at their best. For the most effective juice, buy organic or juice your own – the taste difference is really amazing.

Bad memory? Pop a pill

Let’s face it we all get ‘senior moments’, I was regularly having them in my 30′s but then I always was ahead of myself. Lists help some people, a rubber band around the wrist is also an alternative, but now there is news of a possible ‘memory pill’ that could make forgetfulness a thing of the past.

Originally developed to treat Alzheimer’s, they are now being promoted to help with exam revision and memory loss – which of course is a much bigger, and more profitable, market. AstraZeneca is ahead in the race to get this product to market as an over the counter item as what they term a ‘lifestyle pill’. And here was me thinking it was something you only got in Sunday supplements.

This isn’t the first such drug to catch the eye of the consumer, and students have apparently been trying a drug called Provigil, used to treat narcolepsy, to help them stay awake. Whether for studying or partying isn’t known yet, but there is some evidence that ADD drugs like Ritalin are being used to help promote concentration – which they would certainly need if they are regularly using drugs to keep them awake beyond their own body’s tolerance.

It isn’t illegal to buy these drugs over the Internet, but there are risks as there are with all medicines. In particular these drugs can raise blood pressure to unhealthy levels but not all clinicians agree. Barbara Sahakian is professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge and she has likened these new cognitive drugs to products like Red Bull and other drinks that stimulate with caffeine and sugar, seeing them as not so different.

Not sure I agree, there is a limit to the number of soft drinks you can down to get a stimulant effect, but with drugs it is all too easy to just take another dose and we just don’t know what the cumulative effect in the system might be.

Frozen food benefits

With flurries of snow, even on the south coast, vegetables can be pricy at this time of year and many people turn to frozen vegetables, not always with a glad heart but there is no need to disparage them. You can now buy organic frozen vegetables and if buying non-organic then, as ever, read the labels to check for any artificial additives or colourings.

Fresh fruit isn’t as plentiful, but there is one great treat from the freezer cabinet and that is to buy packs of frozen summer fruits. I keep one in the freezer and add a scoopful to the blender with yoghurt, soya milk or fruit juice to make a healthy vitamin c packed smoothie, whatever the weather.

Transscleral light therapy – New way to maintain vision

As we get older small print on labels and that annoying habit magazines have of printing in white on a black background all become more difficult to read. The official term is presbyopia and it occurs at middle age when our eyes lose their ability to focus.

It can start with just a slight blurring and our close vision usually continues to deteriorate due to loss of elasticity of the crystalline lens so we are less able to focus on objects at various distances. At this point most people surrender and get glasses, a pair for close work, a pair for reading and a pair for distance, or combine them into bi or varifocal lenses. Now, a new treatment from America could change all that.

If you don’t want to wear glasses all the time, and don’t like the idea of laser surgery – which I confess I find rather more frightening than standing on the edge of Beachy Head in a force 10 gale – then three cheers for a new treatment called the transscleral light therapy system. Not a catchy name, I must admit, and it is still in the trial stage with the USA Food and Drug Administration but patient experience over the two years it has been monitored has been positive.

What happens is that a laser device emits a low level of light aimed at strengthening the ciliary muscle (which bends and straightens the lens) under the whites of the eyes. The key phrase here is ‘low level’ and consists of weekly 10-minute sessions at an optician’s office for five consecutive weeks, followed by periodic tune-up sessions about every six months. So no hospital visits, and one satisfied participant has thrown away his 8 pairs of glasses and just kept one distance pair which he only occasionally uses for driving at night.

If you think that sounds like a good option to you, and I would love to get rid of the permanent dent on the side of my nose from my glasses, then it should be widely available with 1-2 years – but not, I suspect, on the NHS.

Is gardening the new gym workout?

I love two for one offers, and apparently gardening is not only going to provide you with lots of organic fruit and vegetables, and flowers to brighten your life, but apparently it has now been declared healthy, too.

A report from the American Society for Horticultural Science (30 December 2008), has given us the glad news that being fit is not just about eating fewer calories but it also provides the right amount of recommended physical activity for the over 60′s. It’s generally recommended that for optimum fitness you need at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week – which can be hard to fit into a schedule, and as my readers know I am full of admiration for those who have the discipline to go the gym regularly, but I have no intention of joining them.

But gardening is a pleasurable activity and one that is very popular; previous research has shown that it results in improvement in mental health and depression and a recent study from Kansas State University wanted to find out how it could affect fitness compared to such activities as jogging, swimming, or weight training. They anticipated good results on bone density because of the weight bearing activities related to gardening – mowing the lawn, digging holes, pulling up weeds, pushing the wheelbarrow in case you are interested – because all these tasks involve, using all the muscle groups in the body.

Obviously the time you spend in the garden varies according to the time of year from up to 33 hours a week in May down to 15 hours a week in June and July – and it does depend on what part of the country you live in. As we get older we are risk of having less strength, endurance, flexibility, balance, and a healthy heart but we are also less likely to exercise because we find it boring. Gardening is a year round physical activity that engages our mind and our body and now we can also cite is as our ‘free and natural gym’. No membership required, but I am wondering how I can spend 33 hours a week on a balcony 6 feet by 3 feet – does sitting watching the garden grow count do you think?

Acupuncture with no needles

I am a great fan of acupuncture for pain relief and boosting the immune system, but I appreciate there are people who don’t like needles. Well, good news for you because scientists at Linkoping University in Sweden have shown that it works just as well without using needles.

They were studying 200 cancer patients and using acupuncture to help relieve nausea during radiotherapy, Half received standard acupuncture and half were given pressure on the same acupuncture points with a blunt placebo needle that just touched the skin, but didn’t go in.

An impressive 95 percent of the patients in both groups felt that the treatment had helped relieve their nausea, and 67 percent had experienced other positive effects such as improved sleep, brighter mood, and less pain.

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