Health Archives - Page 10 of 18

Dr Art Hister – Memory Loss

No real need for midlifers to get alarmed about a recent study published in The British Medical Journal that concluded that those senior moments all us aging baby boomers now accept as a normal part of our latest transformation actually begin to happen to people much earlier in life.

In that study which looked at just under 8000 British civil servants three times over the course of a decade or so, the researchers concluded that our memories actually begin to fail in our forties, much earlier than most other studies have found.

The reason not to get too alarmed about this, though, if you just happen to be a 45-year-old who can’t suddenly find his car keys, is that the loss in memory was pretty slight in midlifers, although it did accelerate as people got older so that by the time the study subjects had reached their seventies, some of them had some pretty significant memory problems.

The other important thing to note about memory, though, before you panic, is that as the researchers for this study reminded everyone in their commentaries, there is increasing evidence that paying attention to the factors that raise the risk of heart disease and stroke – controlling cholesterol levels, for example, lowering blood pressure, doing regular exercise, not smoking, and so on – also help reduce the risk of cognitive function decline as we age, including even, if my memory serves me correctly, helping reduce the rate of memory decline.

What is a healthy weight?

Many people tie the number on a bathroom scale to how healthy they are, but gauging your health by this number alone would not give you the full picture.

Your body weight is a start, but you also have to factor in height, age, gender and, finally, analyze what percentage of your weight is fat. All those factors paint a picture of your overall health. It’s important to measure this, as an overweight reading has been tied to health risks such as type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, gallbladder disease, obstructive sleep apnea and certain cancers*.

Some scales can give you a body fat percentage, but the most accurate reading will be done by your doctor or at a London Drugs Nutrition Clinic. The clinics are one-on-one, and completely confidential. Your measurements and results are for you only, and you’ll receive the latest information on healthy eating and exercise in accordance with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Once you have a credible starting point, using your weight to track your progress is a good way to proceed. You have to remember your weight as shown on a scale can fluctuate day-to-day for many reasons, so it’s best to weigh yourself once a week at the same time for consistency and to allow for those variations. Once you’ve established a baseline of weight, BMI and body fat percentage, you can use weight as a simple monitoring tool to chart your progress in any lifestyle changes you’ve made. If you took a London Drugs Nutrition Clinic, you can schedule a follow-up appointment six to eight weeks down the road to get another full reading.

Some statistics for Canada

– Overweight and obesity have increased in Canadians over the past two decades.

– Over 1 in 4 Canadian adults are obese; 8.6% of children aged 6 to 17 are obese†

– Underweight health problems include osteoporosis, infertility and impaired immunocompetence.

– Your scale weight is not a good enough indicator on its on of whether you are at a healthy weight or not.

What is YOUR healthy weight?

The very best way to determine your own healthy weight is to make an appointment with your family doctor, or register for a Nutrition Clinic at a London Drugs store close to you. Download the schedule of clinics and phone numbers here, and call to book your one-on-one consultation for a nominal fee.

NOTE: Each London Drugs store holds only one day of consultations between now and March 2. Please check the schedule here to find the day your closest store is offering the clinics.

Connect with others who are making lifestyle and health changes—take part in our conversation by following us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LondonDrugs. We have daily topics that we’d love your thoughts on.

Watch for next week’s article, “What is BMI and why is it important?”

* From “Canadian Guidelines for Body Weight Classification in Adults,” Health Canada, 2003

† From “Obesity in Canada,” Public Health Agency of Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2011

Dr Art Hister – Young women and their risk of breast cancer

Very interesting results from a recent update of the ongoing and very long-term Nurses’ Health Study, which has in fact been going on for so long that it’s entered another stage in which the researchers are now evaluating the daughters and grand-daughters of the original study participants, so the study is now called Nurses’ Health Study II.

We’ve learned from several previous studies that the more alcohol a woman consumes over her lifetime, the higher her risk of breast cancer, but in this latest update the researchers were interested in the risk of benign breast disease (BBD) in the young women in the current study, and especially in the role that alcohol intake might play in developing BBD.

And what they concluded is that if a young woman (between age 18 and 27) has a mother or even an aunt who has had breast cancer, that young woman is more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with benign breast disease compared to a young woman without any family history of breast cancer.

As well, any young woman whose mother has been diagnosed with BBD is twice as likely to develop benign breast disease herself compared to a young woman with no BBD in the family.

But they also found that alcohol seems to play a significant role in determining a woman’s risk for BBD.

Thus, any young woman whose mother, grand-mother, or aunt had breast cancer was significantly more likely to develop BBD if she – the young woman – drank alcohol regularly, and the more alcohol that young woman consumed, the higher her risk for BBD.

On the all-present other hand, however, young women without any history of breast cancer in the family were at no raised risk of developing BBD linked to alcohol intake.

Bottom line: alcohol seems to play a significant role in many women’s risk for breast disease, both benign breast disease and breast cancer, so every woman should take that into consideration when she decides to drink – especially about how much she takes in.

Dr Art Hister – Your jaw is like the rest of you

Everyone over the age of 4 (perhaps even sooner in some of us) knows that all our tissues, every part of us, either dries out or falls or shrinks with age.

And I mean every part, without exception, which is why I was not at all surprised to learn that new research from Sweden has determined that even your jaw shrinks with age, and it shrinks in all plains, so that both the length and the width of your jaw goes progressively downwards after the age of 40 .

Yes, it only shrinks by a few millimetres, say these researchers, but that’s also enough shrinkage, they add, to lead to problems with your teeth because there’s just less room in your mouth for all those teeth you started out with to co-habit peacefully, which is yet another reason for many aging people to experience increasing problems with their bite.

And yes, according to these researchers, even people who’ve had their wisdom teeth extracted can experience teeth “crowding” as the jaw shrinks.

No wonder that Golda Meir said, “Growing old is not for sissies.”

Dr Art Hister – Huge spike in knee replacement surgery

If you pardon this poor attempt at a pun, depending on where you stand, it’s either good news or bad news that according to a huge American survey, there’s been a very steep rise in the number of knee replacement procedures over the last several years.

Thus, based on data released by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality, between 2007 and 2010, the number of knee replacements done in the US rose by 157 % in women, and 144 % in men.

The good news is that so many more people who need a knee replaced are getting that procedure done, including lots of elderly, who used to be excluded from getting this kind of operation.

But now that the elderly are living so much longer, it’s become much more routine for a senior in decent health to get a knee – or a hip – replaced – because there’s a very good chance they’ll live a long time with that new joint.

The bad news is that knee replacement operations have risen most dramatically among baby boomers, and the most likely reason for that is excess weight since obesity is a major risk factor for wearing out a large weight-bearing joint like a knee or a hip.

And the even worse news is that this trend is only going to get worse as all those overweight and obese kids out there trudge their way into middle age.

Dr Art Hister – Yet Another Reason to Exercise

A terrific talk on aging I heard a while ago pointed out something that I had never considered but which seems to be quite true, and it’s a very depressing thought.

This aging expert pointed out that although you often see pictures of a 70-year-old doing something quite amazing like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, for example, but you never see an 85-year-old doing something similar.

That’s because, he said, of age-related frailty, meaning that we lose our muscle strength as we grow older.
Thus, it’s commonly said that we lose roughly 1 % of our muscle mass every year beyond the age of 40, and eventually – sometime between 75 and 85 for nearly all of us – we reach a tipping point of lost muscle mass when we can’t do so many – or even any – of the things we used to do so easily years before.

So the great news is that maybe that doesn’t have to happen.

In a study with terrifically hopeful possibilities, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh examined 40 competitive athletes – runners, cyclists, swimmers – between the ages of 40 and 81, and the researchers found that – quite to their surprise – that not only did those athletes have as much muscle tissue as people decades younger than them, they also remained nearly as strong as many people a couple of decades younger than them.

Now, clearly these were elite athletes and very few of us are able to train as much as these people do.

But this isn’t an all-or-none situation so seems to me that even some regular exercise can delay or postpone that heretofore seemingly inevitable frailty that the elderly suffer and which condemns so many seniors to having to give up their independence.

And honestly, doesn’t some exercise done a few times a week seem like a small price to pay for raising your chances to live a longer independent life down the line?

The Facts About Cholesterol

Cholesterol is an important substance in our bodies that, for the most part, occurs naturally. It helps our bodies make hormones, process vitamin D, build cells and create substances that help us digest food. Cholesterol can become dangerous, though, when the levels in our blood stream get too high.

Most of the cholesterol in our bodies—about 80%—is made by our liver. The other 20% comes from the foods we eat. A person can’t tell if his or her cholesterol levels are too high, as there aren’t any noticeable symptoms. To determine your cholesterol levels you need to have a blood test done by your doctor involving a tiny sample of blood.

The test will analyze the two main components of cholesterol—low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

LDL is sometimes referred to as “bad” cholesterol, because at high levels it builds up and can block our arteries, preventing blood moving freely through our bodies. HDL is usually called “good” cholesterol, because its job is to carry excess cholesterol from other parts of our bodies, including the arteries, back to the liver. Not only does the liver produce cholesterol, it also removes it from our bodies.

Your doctor may also assess your triglyceride and C-reactive protein levels. These are other indicators found in your blood test that could signal an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

Lowering Cholesterol

The first step is to make a lifestyle change, and a big part of lifestyle is eating a healthier diet. Here are some things you should reduce or avoid to maintain healthy cholesterol levels:

Saturated fats—These are found in animal-based foods such as meat and dairy products, and in some plant foods such as coconut oil, palm oil, and cocoa butter. Avoid or limit deli meats. Choose lean cuts of meat, or replace with fish and legumes (lentils, beans) instead.
Trans fats—These are a form of man-made fat that is created during a process called hydrogenation. This is where liquid oils are turned into solid fat (such as some margarines.) While technically unsaturated, these facts act like saturated fats and raise blood levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Choose oils high in mono-and polyunsaturated fats such as canola, corn, or soya oil. Use in moderation.
Avoid dairy products with high milk fat—choose 1% MF (milk fat) or cheeses with 15% MF or lower.

There are things you can add to or change in your diet which help the body eliminate excess blood cholesterol.

Soluble fibre—This is found in oat bran, fruits, and vegetables.
Unsaturated fats—These are found in vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish.
Cooking—More often than not, opt to broil, bake, poach, or even microwave food instead of frying.

Image from www.brainshinobi.blogspot.com

Other tips to beat “bad” cholesterol

Keeping active and maintaining a healthy body weight will also help reduce cholesterol levels. And finally, quit smoking. It’s been found that tobacco reduces your level of HDL, “good” cholesterol, and raises your total blood cholesterol levels—which makes the perfect combination for increasing your total risk of having a heart attack.

If your doctor feels you need to be on cholesterol-lowering medication, it’s important to take it exactly as directed. For more information on cholesterol, or advice on making different lifestyle choices, come by the pharmacy and ask your London Drugs pharmacist.

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This article is based on the patient information pamphlet and “My Cholesterol Journal”, available at your London Drugs pharmacy.

Dr Art Hister – Memory Loss

What is a healthy weight?

Some statistics for Canada

What is YOUR healthy weight?

Dr Art Hister – Young women and their risk of breast cancer

Dr Art Hister – Your jaw is like the rest of you

Dr Art Hister – Huge spike in knee replacement surgery

Dr Art Hister – Yet Another Reason to Exercise

The Facts About Cholesterol

Lowering Cholesterol

Other tips to beat “bad” cholesterol

Archive

Categories

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Newsletter

Dr Art Hister – Memory Loss

What is a healthy weight?

Some statistics for Canada

What is YOUR healthy weight?

Dr Art Hister – Young women and their risk of breast cancer

Dr Art Hister – Your jaw is like the rest of you

Dr Art Hister – Huge spike in knee replacement surgery

Dr Art Hister – Yet Another Reason to Exercise

The Facts About Cholesterol

Lowering Cholesterol

Other tips to beat “bad” cholesterol

Archive

Categories

Pages

Newsletter

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