Health Notes

Here are articles we are discussing today at The Tao of Health:
For people who are obese: adopting a health lifestyle and losing weight can improve cardiovascular function, but particularly losing weight.

Fruit is really good. It has lots of vitamins, antioxidants, phytochemicals, fiber, and it may help avoid heart disease.

This research says, “Eating less and exercising more are equally good at helping take off the pounds.” So if you want to lose weight, according to this article, neither approach is better than the other. I lost about ten or twelve pounds recently, from 152 down to about 140. I did it by eating less AND exercising more. I changed my evening snacking, adding more nuts, seeds, and fruit; and I doubled my exercising. I now walk about an hour a day. So far, so good. As I mentioned before somewhere, I actually lost weight over the holidays, which was something new for me. For those of you who are trying to lose weight, good luck. For those who need to lose weight but are not trying, good luck.

Revisiting the discussion of eating disorders, here is an article that says “Genes play a bigger role than environment in anorexia,” and here is the article I mentioned yesterday that says, “Forcing children to clear their plates could lead to eating disorders.” I guess we’re going to continue discussing this for awhile. I have a feeling that genes and environment both contribute to anorexia.

I think it is interesting that so many Americans use complementary and alternative medication. If you tune in to the evening network news you might get the impression that the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry both have monopolies in this country. It’s a little refreshing to find out that indeed is not the case.

FYI, here are three articles about the role estrogen plays in breast cancer: emaxhealth, Earth Times, and Bio.com. I think this kind of research is very interesting, and I like to read about current developments.

Do apples protect brain cells and help keep them from aging? Don’t apples contain tannins? Didn’t we talk about tannins recently in red wine that help protect the heart?

There is new research suggesting that taking folic acid early in pregnancy may reduce the risk of cleft lip. Reducing cleft lip would be good.

This article says more women die from lung cancer than die from breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers combined. That doesn’t mean we should forget about these other cancers, but neither should we forget about lung cancer.