Wellness News

Food that is “nuked” may cause hearts to fluke: a recent study reveals that microwave ovens, often shunned by the health-conscious for their negative effects on the nutritional value of food, also negatively impact our hearts.

According to Mercola.com, a study conducted by Dr. Magda Havas of Trent University found that the levels of microwave frequency radiation we see in home kitchens is significant enough to affect both heart rate and heart rate variability.  The study found that 2.4 GHz radiation (the frequency produced by WiFi routers and microwave ovens) emitted at levels well within federal safety guidelines can effect “immediate and dramatic changes” in both heart rate and heart rate variability.

In other words, even though laws have been put in place to try to ensure the safety of microwave ovens, damage is being done. Anyone experiencing an irregular or rapid heartbeat and/or chest pain may wish to unplug their microwave oven discontinue use.

New research also indicates that microwave radiation from kitchen microwave ovens can lead to blood sugar spikes connected with diabetes in susceptible individuals. 

If you wish to continue using your microwave, Mercola suggests stepping away from the device when in use and checking it routinely to ensure no significant frequency “leakage” (such as through an improperly sealed door, etc.) is occurring. While federally approved levels of microwave emission can be harmful, the sky-high levels of frequencies radiated from an un-sealed microwave can be critically dangerous. 

Anyone who has gone to see their doctor for back pain can testify to the fact that nine times out of ten, pain killers and/or steroids are the resulting prescription. The other time: back surgery. Because of this, it’s no surprise that more and more Americans are turning to complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM), including yoga, for back pain and other structural health concerns.

A report released by the Center for Disease Control revealed that 38% of adults turned to CAM for health care during a given year, and that nearly half of those who had used alternative health solutions had done so for back pain.

These figures aren’t surprising when one considers modern medicines limited ability to treat back pain, neck pain, and other joint aches. Most of the time, conventional medicine can only apply a “band-aid” or side-effect-eliminating treatment, without addressing the underlying root of the structural issue.

However, CAM such as yoga addresses back pain at its root by stretching and strengthening the core postural muscles that support the spine. But working on the level of the body’s own structure, yoga relieves back pain without invasive surgery or prescription drug side-effects.

And, for anyone whose back pain requires inflammation-reducing steroids or pain-reducing medication, CAM methods such as yoga provide a safe and effective means to aid recovery without interfering with medications. 

With this in mind, it’s little surprise that more and more Americans are seeking out CAM including yoga for back pain to gain true and lasting relief from structural health concerns.

Most people who practice yoga know what a great therapy it is for emotional well-being. A new study shows that that may be good therapy for your heart as well. 

According to a recent report published in the February publication of the European Heart Journal, feelings of happiness, contentment, joy, and other pleasurable emotions are directly correlated with a decreased risk of heart disease.

Conducted by lead researcher Karina Davidson, director of Columbia's Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, the study examined 1,739 men and women over the course of 10 years. All participants were assessed for heart disease risk at the beginning of the study. Simultaneously, researchers examined the presence of depression, hostility, and anxiety versus positive emotions, such as happiness, enthusiasm, and joy.

Over the course of the 10-year study, the researchers found that the happier a participant was, the less likely he or she was to develop heart disease—and by a significant amount: for every point on the study’s five-point positivity scale, the participant’s likelihood of developing heart disease dropped a full 22%.

On the flipside, those suffering from unhappiness and negative emotional states were significantly more likely to experience heart attack or chronic chest pain.

According to the scientists, the findings suggest that those who are happier have healthier hearts.

This news indicates that along with yoga’s known physical benefits, such as weight reduction, increased strength and flexibility, and better physical tone, the practice’s more psychological benefits may have positive physical outcomes as well.

Many people have practiced yoga for anxiety and depression and found relief from the tension and unhappiness that weighed them down. Through developing a more positive mood with yoga for depression, practitioners are not just taking care of their emotional health—they are improving their physical health as well.

Yoga for heart disease can provide those at risk with benefits on all levels, including establishing a healthier, happier state of being.

Although researchers acknowledge that the exact means through which our emotions influence our physical well-being is still unknown, one thing is for sure: yoga therapy is good for the heart—in more ways than one.

Most people who practice yoga are serious about taking care of their health. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to know which is the best way to take care of your health. Case in point are cholesterol-lowering drugs. We're now told we need them even if we don't have high cholesterol. However, are they really safe?

According to a recent article in the New York Times, new research reveals that in addition to causing muscle aches and abnormally high liver enzymes in some patients, cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, also increase a person’s Type 2 diabetes risk by 9%.

In of itself, this news would not be so concerning if it weren’t for the fact that the FDA recently approved a new set of criteria for statin prescription—one that would allow doctors to administer the drug to healthy people.

Furthermore, this new research, published in British medical journal The Lancet, highlights another concern: “We’ve had this drug for a while, and we’re just now finding out that there’s this diabetes problem with it?” Dr. Mark A. Hlatky, professor of health research and cardiovascular medicine at the Stanford University medical school, told the New York Times.

In other words, there could be even more side effects of the drug we don’t about. For patients who are at-risk for heart disease, the chances of side effects are well worthwhile. But when it comes to healthy people taking cholesterol-lowering medication, it may be better to get a second opinion. 

For many yoga practitioners, taking advantage of new developments in the arena of health often plays a part in maintaining an optimal lifestyle. However, sorting through what's real prevention and what's so-called 'faux prevention' (i.e. prevention that someone makes money on, but which isn't necessarily that great for you) is not always easy.

Take the FDA’s new rules for cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs, for example. According to the New York Times, the FDA recently gave the green light for doctors to push cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins, to healthy people, even those who don't have high cholesterol. The new push is to prescribe the drugs on the basis of a test for inflammation in the body. There is only one problem: Inflammation tests do nothing to measure bad cholesterol levels in the body; and there is no agreement among the medical community that inflammation is even a direct cause of cardiovascular issues.

Under this new criteria, an extra 6.5 million Americans who have no cholesterol problems and no sign or history of heart problems will be considered candidates for statins. The drug companies claim that the use of statins in healthy people can cut the risk of heart disease in half, but the truth is, so few healthy people are at risk that this figure may be misleading:

In the sourced study, the rate of heart attacks for the control group was .37%; for those who took the drug, it was .17%. Although statistically significant, this difference in percent translates to mean: in order for one person to avoid a usually survivable heart attack, over 500 healthy people would need to be unnecessarily treated with the drug.

And with new research indicating that the cholesterol-lowering drug in question increases Type 2 diabetes risk by 9%, along with other side effects, one really has to wonder whether or not the benefits of prescribing statins to healthy people are worthwhile.

Men and women who have been taking aspirin daily in the name of staving off heart attack and stroke may need to reconsider, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

In the past, physicians recommended a daily dose of aspirin for older adults as a preventative measure against stroke and heart attack. Now, however, medical experts are advising many of those adults to consider shelving the over-the-counter drug. The concern: For some people, aspirin’s side effects, which range from bleeding ulcers to even bleeding of the brain, may be more dangerous than the benefits the pill provides.

In the article, medical experts advice against a one-size-fits-all approach to recommending aspirin:

 "We would like doctors to re-look at their patients who are on aspirin and consider recommending stopping it where the chance of harm outweighs the benefit," says Ned Calonge, a Colorado public-health official who serves as the task force's chairman.

And the new stance on the situation is not just confined to the U.S. alone; Colin Baigent, a professor at Oxford University who coordinated a parallel analysis states: "You really have to have a clear margin of benefit over hazard before you should be treating healthy people."

For those for whom aspirin’s benefits outweigh the risk, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests a low daily dose, such as that contained in “baby” aspirin.

So, if you are in a risk category for heart disease and stroke, should you or shouldn't you be taking a daily dose of aspirin. The answer is, it depends. Here are the new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, as listed in the Wall Street Journal:

Aspirin recommended for:

            Some men 45 and older with risk factors for heart disease, assuming no history of ulcers or other bleeding dangers.

            Some women 55 and older with risk factors for stroke, and no history of bleeding danger.

Aspirin not recommended for:

            Men younger than 45, and women younger than 55.

            Anyone 80 and older.

Determining risk vs. benefit is not always clear cut, however. Since the same factors that increase patients' risk of bleeding also increase their risk of developing heart disease, the pros and cons of taking the over-the-counter blood thinner often increase side by side.

The New York Times reports that no matter how hard you work out, if you sit for the rest of the day, you are still at greater risk for all the health issues associated with a sedentary lifestyle: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, and a shortened life span. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

Several new studies of people who exercise regularly have shown that those who sit the rest of the day have larger waists and worse profiles of blood pressure and blood sugar than those who sit less. Researchers are still not sure why this is, but there seems to be two main reasons: The inactivity of sitting predisposes you to slow weight gain, in turn putting you at greater risk for the many health issues related to being overweight.

Secondly, researchers think that in the same way that there is a specific physiologic patterns associated with the stress response, there may be a “physiology of inactivity,” i.e. a physiological response pattern that sets in when we sit for long periods of time, which in turn adversely impacts the body's sugar and fat metabolism, again possibly predisposing you to diabetes and other chronic diseases.

If you sit for long hours at work, what can you do to protect yourself? Take frequent small stretching and walking breaks--studies have shown that people who move about frequently even through they sit for the most part of the day have smaller waists and better profiles for sugar and fat metabolism. If you want to go more radical, the New York Times article offers this advice:

"Some people have advanced radical solutions to the sitting syndrome: replace your sit-down desk with a stand-up desk, and equip this with a slow treadmill so that you walk while you work. (Talk about pacing the office.) Make sure that your television can only operate if you are pedaling furiously on an exercise bike. Or, watch television in a rocking chair: rocking also takes energy and involves a continuous gentle flexing of the calf muscles. Get rid of your office chair and replace it with a therapy ball: this too uses more muscles, and hence more energy, than a normal chair, because you have to support your back and work to keep balanced. You also have the option of bouncing, if you like."

See the full article here: Stand Up While You Read this