The NOAH Center: New Opportunities for Achieving Health

Need a boost to get moving? This will do it.

The latest edition of "Neurology" states that the belly fat we carry in midlife may contribute to dementia in the decades ahead. According to Rachel Whitmer, a Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, "This is the first research to suggest that a fat tummy also ramps up the risk of dementia — including Alzheimer's, an incurable brain disease that will affect about 10 million baby boomers, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

But middle-aged people still have time to reduce their risk, Whitmer says. "Belly fat goes away with diet and exercise," she says. "That's the good news from this study."
For the complete article, click here.

A relaxing way to lowering your blood pressure

According to this study which appeared in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine "Adding the relaxation response, a stress-management approach, to other lifestyle interventions may significantly improve treatment of the type of hypertension most common in the elderly. Among participants in a study conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Hypertension Program and the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at MGH, those who received relaxation response training in addition to advice on reducing lifestyle risk factors were more than twice as likely to successfully eliminate at least one blood pressure medication than were those receiving lifestyle counseling only."Click here for the entire article.

Feeling overwhelmed? This really helps put things in perspective!

Fewer Pills, Longer Life

Despite what the drug companies say, pills aren't the solution to a longer life. A new study shows exercising, not smoking, and healthy eating are what really work

Health News March 4, 2008, 4:34PM EST
by John Carey
How can we live longer, healthier lives? Judging from the bombardment of advertisements, the answer is pharmacology. There are pills to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, ward off osteoporosis, fight sadness, induce sleep, even improve sex. And overall, Americans have bought into the idea that drugs are essential. The average American now gets 12 prescriptions a year. For the elderly the number jumps to 30.

Yet study after study shows that the most important steps people can take to improve their health don't require the medicine cabinet at all.
To read the full text, click here.

Ladies: You can benefit from this info as well

Gentlemen, 5 Easy Steps to Living Long and Well

Living past 90, and living well, may be more than a matter of good genes and good luck. Five behaviors in elderly men are associated not only with living into extreme old age, a new study has found, but also with good health and independent functioning.

The behaviors are abstaining from smoking, weight management, blood pressure control, regular exercise and avoiding diabetes. The study reports that all are significantly correlated with healthy survival after 90.

While it is hardly astonishing that choices like not smoking are associated with longer life, it is significant that these behaviors in the early elderly years — all of them modifiable — so strongly predict survival into extreme old age.

“The take-home message,” said Dr. Laurel B. Yates, a geriatric specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who was the lead author of the study, “is that an individual does have some control over his destiny in terms of what he can do to improve the probability that not only might he live a long time, but also have good health and good function in those older years.”
Click here to read the full text of the press release

Consider some simple dietary changes

"Healthy Diet Guards Against Return of Colon Cancer"

TUESDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Colon cancer patients who eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, poultry and fish can significantly lower the risk of their cancer returning, new research suggests.

"We know a lot about how certain dietary things affect the risk of developing colon cancer in the first place but we didn't know, before this study, how diet affected persons who already have cancer," explained study author Dr. Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, an assistant professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

"Maybe the message is it's never too late to change your diet," added Dr. Andrejs Avots-Avotins, an associate professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and a gastroenterologist with Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. "A healthy diet is going to be so helpful in so many different ways that even if you do end up with a cancer that may or may not have been related to your diet, this may be of benefit in prolonging your survival."

washingtonpost.com
By Amanda Gardner ~ HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 12:00 AMclick here to read the full text of the article

Sometimes, a little goes a long way

Too crunched for time to fit a serious exercise program into your routine? Well, you don't have to go to the gym every day and pump iron in order reap benefits, suggests new research carried out at Queen's University Belfast.

Moderate, less frequent exercise can drive down blood pressure and boost overall fitness, according to the study, which is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

by Nicole Weaver
Copyright 2004 Daily News Central: Health NewsClick here to read the full text of the article

It can happen faster than you think

By now, everyone knows the drill: Quit smoking, eat better, exercise, and you'll get healthier.

Now, two new studies uncover the wisdom in that tried-and-true advice. And they find that success may come quicker than most people realize.

In one study, Christian Roberts and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that lifestyle changes helped reverse serious heart disease risk factors in less than one month among 31 obese men they studied. That study was published online Jan. 10 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews LLC. All rights reserved.Click here to go to the website and read the full article

Are Your "Natural" Cosmetics Safe?

by Steve Meyerowitz, Sproutman® www.Sproutman.com

Shampoo, shaving cream, hair spray, nail polish, aftershave, oils, creams, ointments­--every day we put something on our skin. We don’t need to be as concerned about those ingredients as we do with foods...right? Wrong!

The skin is the largest organ of the body. Its billions of pores absorb chemicals like a sponge. Whether you assimilate through your intestines or your skin, a hazardous ingredient does damage just the same.

Unfortunately, even the brands that use the word “organic” on their label may contain harmful ingredients. Why? Because at this time, there are still no regulations about the usage of the words “organic” and “natural” on cosmetics. You can be sure, marketers will use any words they (legally) can in order to seduce you into a purchase. Click here for the complete article.