Alcohol and a Long Life?

 

Researchers have conducted a new study using rats, and results show that those bred to prefer alcohol live longer and healthier lives than those that don’t.

Most of us enjoy a drink but know that there are many drawbacks, and we are all becoming more and more aware of the negative impact it can have on our health if we consume too much. However, very little has actually been known about the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on survival rates.

That is until now, as researchers in Finland have bred rats to either prefer alcohol or to avoid it, and the results were astonishing. Rats that were genetically predisposed to avoid alcohol had a death rate three times higher than those that preferred alcohol.

 

There is a catch, though. Rats that prefer alcohol may live longer, but this is true whether or not they actually consume any of it in their diet. Therefore, it could be that the genes that predispose rats to alcohol preference have other qualities that lead to a longer and healthier life. Or perhaps genes that lead to alcohol avoidance are defective in other ways. Either way, it was not the case that rats consuming alcohol lived longer – just that those who had a genetic tendency towards it lived longer, and were healthier.

There has long been some awareness of genetics being at play when it comes to alcohol consumption, as tendency towards alcohol abuse can often be genetic, while some people appear to carry genes that make them unable to tolerate alcohol. More research will certainly be needed, but it’s safe to say that we shouldn’t all begin binge drinking with the idea that we will live longer if we do. What the discovery actually suggests is that having genes that makes us like alcohol is no bad thing.

Ever try Meditation?

Many people choose to mediate as they feel that it has a range of different benefits for them, but a study has now revealed that transcendental meditation is linked with living longer.

Transcendental meditation (TM) is a method of stress-reduction that uses quiet contemplation and steady breathing to bring a state of relaxation. In the first ever trial on the impact of TM on longevity, researchers in the USA studied 202 men and women with an average age of 71 years, all of whom had slightly elevated blood pressure.

The effects of TM were compared with those of using progressive relaxation and health education techniques, and TM was shown to be a very useful tool in helping people to live longer.

Those involved in TM had an overall 23% reduction in death rates from all causes, with the risk of death from heart disease being reduced by 30% and the risk of death by cancer being reduced by a whopping 49. Transcendental meditation appears to reduce the blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and amount of stress hormones in the body, helping the slow down the ageing process and allowing people to live longer, happier and healthier lives. It must be worth a try!

 

Air Pollution Still Sucks!

It has long been thought by the medical community that air pollution had greater impact on the lung and heart health of older people. A recent study by Harvard University researcher has concluded that everyone of any age can suffer the adverse affects of air pollution.

Polluted air particles enter the body during respiration and also enter the circulatory system and bloods stream, thereby affecting the heart as well as the lungs. The particles of air pollution are measured in micrometers: A PM10 is a particle less than 10 micrometers in diameter and a PM2.5 is a particle less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, and so on.

The Harvard researchers study was based on PM2.5s and the study group was a group of boiler makers in general good health and with an average age of 38. The men were exposed to pollution normally found in the general environment and were hooked up to heart monitors and an air sampler set to screen polluted particles PM2.5. The results showed that for every milligram per cubic meter increase in PM2.5s, there was a corresponding decrease in heart rate variability of 2.6 per cent.

The significance of heart beat variability is that even though a healthy heart should beat regularly, it also needs to be able to adapt with minor fluctuations. The variability rate provides indicators of the state of the heart’s electrical activity, blood pressure and the state of the blood vessels. The fact that study shows a correlation between air pollution and decreased heart rate variability in healthy young men is a concern for all.

Complementary Medicine is More Commonly Used in Middle-Age

 

Wake Forest University School of Medicine (based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) has recently published the report of a survey which shows that the most common group of people likely to turn to complementary medicines and alternative therapies is middle-aged adults. A group of more than 30,000 adults participated in the survey with questions based around the use of 28 complementary medicines in the 12 months previous.

A common view might have been that older and more inform adults would be most likely to look at complementary medicine for health improvement but the survey results did not bear this out.  One theory for this is that the complementary and alternative medicines and therapies have only started gaining significant popularity in more recent decades and therefore, older people have been less exposed to them. Another theory is that many people may simply view their health issues as a sign of age and therefore are not motivated to seek assistance, medical or otherwise.

Another result of the survey was that ethnicity had no bearing on the use of complementary medicine but the survey questions were not geared to finding out whether belief principles of different ethnic groups had a bearing.

Yep, Another Pitch For Water...

Our bodies are made up of around 75 % water – depending on which study you read, and on top of that our bodies use a huge amount of water every day for basic functions like digestion, circulation, the transporting of nutrients to organs, maintaining body temperature and the manufacturing of saliva.

Therefore we need to be drinking a certain amount of water every day just to manage these basic things. But many of us don’t, opting instead for coffee, tea, soft drinks and energy drinks, as well as fruit juices when we are thirsty. But what you might not realize is that caffeine in all forms dehydrates your body further – acting as a diuretic. Energy drinks and fruit juices are packed with sugar – natural and artificial- which don’t help in flushing out your system.

Every single cell in our body needs a lot of water every day – the only time you could get away with swopping water is when you drink herbal tea, without sugar or milk. Dehydration is one of the main causes of things like headaches, fatigue – that familiar late afternoon slump – pain and digestive issues.

Think of water drinking as if you are giving your body an inner shower, allowing your system the chance to flush out all the toxins, boost the immune system and allow your poor post weekend liver to get a fresh start for the week. It also has fantastic benefit on your skin – will reduce problem skin, making you look young and fresh for longer.

Make it a habit to keep a bottle in the car, on your desk at work, in your bag and another in your gym bag and you will slowly get into the habit of drinking more water during the day.

Stress and the modern lifestyle

Stress has become a huge part of the way that we live in our modern lives. Traffic, deadlines, over scheduling, family commitments, school, work, commuting – it’s all a race defined by time and money. And we don’t realize just how much stress we are constantly under just going about our day to day business.

But intense amounts of stress will start to show signs in our health and our wellbeing, and the worst part is that we often ignore them. Too busy, don’t have the time, no money to get to the doctor or health practitioner – we just take a pill and move forward. But when the pills stop working, our body starts giving us other signs to make us slow down and we suddenly have all sorts of ailments that start becoming debilitating.

We are suddenly dealing with allergies, insomnia, high anxiety levels, mood swings, feelings of total exhausting, despondency and a general feeling of being overwhelmed. If you are feeling any of these symptoms of stress on a daily basis, you most definitely need to take a step back and make some changes so that you can cope better.

Look after your health, your body and your diet – without those three you don’t have much control over your life. Stop smoking now – do it for good and do it forever – take back the control and stop being a nicotine slave. Swop the libations for water, herbal teas and fruit juices and keep the wine for the weekend.

Clean up your diet, plan your meals ahead of time and get to bed at a reasonable hour and do some exercise. We all say we just don’t have time to get to the gym – but we make time to have wine with our friends.

The Detox Diet – A healthy alternative to managing Candida

Often when we start experiencing health symptoms like Candida, it’s our body’s way of telling us to slow down, take stock, reboot and to consciously check our diets. It’s extremely easy with a modern lifestyle – fast paced, highly stressed, always on the go – to not pay attention to the food we are eating. And we approach meal times as a bit of a nuisance as we rush between meetings.

But there is that age old saying ‘’ Life is like a shopping trolley – you can put whatever you want in it , but sooner or later you are going to have to pay for it.’’ Our bodies are going to take strain if we are feeding it junk food, fast food, instant meals and washing it all down with things like coke and beer.
A detox diet for a few days is a way to give your body a chance to flush out all of the toxins we have accumulated through diet and our environment, that are causing our systems to be slow and troublesome. And this doesn’t mean that you have to rush out and buy a juicer, living on lemon slices for 5 days or just eat carrots – it means you have to eat clean, cut out the junk – the booze, the caffeine (yes sorry), the nicotine – why you are doing that in the first place boggles the mind – the white bread and the cheeseburgers.

Drink loads of water and herbal tea, eat fruit, raw veggies, salad, free range chicken and wild salmon, fill up on whole grains and cut out the dairy and the coffee. After 3-5 days you will have given your body a fantastic chance to reboot and you will start feeling great and full of energy again.