Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
If it’s in the health news today, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I read the research, both old and new. With my email Health Memos, you’ll know more about making lifestyle choices that will help you get and keep good health. These free, concise updates on health are emailed to subscribers twice a week. Subscribe today and get a free MP3, in English or Spanish, of Dr. Chet’s Top Ten Tips—Small Changes for a Healthier Life.
Death by Obesity
The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration examined the mortality of being overweight and obese in most parts of the world. They purposefully did not include people in the meta-analysis who had ever smoked or had a chronic disease when the study began; that makes sense because both can affect mortality within the five-year span they were examining. The range of the subjects was 20 to 89 years old and a BMI greater than 15.0.
They performed a hazard ratio analysis of the combined data, which examines the rate of an event (in this case death) within each weight . . .
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The World’s State of Obesity
A week ago, I talked to a reader and visitor to my website who continues to check her BMI occasionally to see where she stands; she still hasn’t made it to the normal range but continues to try. I understand—I’m not there yet either. But there’s good reason to keep trying based on a recently published study.
The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration decided to examine the deaths from overweight and obesity in the entire world. Sometimes we think that the U.S. is the only overweight nation in the . . .
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Pedelec: The Bottom Line
I want everyone to exercise. Period. It doesn’t matter how. You can work within your physical limitations, but everyone needs to exercise. That’s why the pedelec story and research study attracted my attention. Combining what you have to do anyway—get to work—with physical activity could be just the ticket. Let’s see if this is your ticket to ride.
The Benefits
Even in a study as short as four weeks, there were some health benefits, especially for blood sugar control. For someone at risk for type 2 diabetes, which is just about everyone, it . . .
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Results of the Pedelec Study
Researchers wanted to find out if there were health benefits from the regular use of the pedelec, an electric-assist bicycle, by previously sedentary commuters. They recruited 20 volunteers to participate in a four-week study on the regular use of the pedelec to replace their drive to work. The researchers tested fitness levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and measures of blood sugar control before and then again after four weeks.
The subjects averaged close to 200 miles per week. If they used the pedelec three days per week, that’s an average commute of 32 miles each way. Using . . .
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Enter the Pedelec
Of all the reasons people give for not exercising, the lack of time would be number one. But what if you could combine exercise with something you’re going to do anyway?
A long-time reader sent me a link to the Tree Hugger online blog article that talked about a press release that demonstrated the benefits of using pedelecs to commute to and from work (1,2).
What’s a pedelec? It’s an electric-assist bicycle. The rider has to pedal, but the electric motor kicks in when the terrain gets hilly and the rider needs an assist . . .
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Nutrition: Knowing Isn’t Doing
In Tuesday’s message, I said that both the experts and the public in a New York Times nutrition survey considered the vitamin and mineral content of food important or very important when they consider whether a food is healthy or not. But do people have enough information to make a decision about which foods are healthy? Not surprising that the nutrition experts almost all said they did. What shocked me was that 81% of the public also said they had enough information to make healthy choices.
That’s interesting because it contradicts what the authors of the New York . . .
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Nutrition: Experts and the Public Disagree
A recent New York Times survey compared the survey results of nutrition experts, including me, with the public’s opinions. Some differences make sense—others, not so much.
When asked whether a food was healthy, experts said foods high in fat and/or sugar were generally not healthy. The greatest differences were in granola, granola bars, and frozen yogurt with over a 30% difference between experts, who thought they were not healthy, and the public who thought they were.
What surprised me was that experts viewed coconut oil as not healthy while the public indicated it was healthy. The only . . .
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Nutrition: Experts and the Public Agree
A couple of months ago, I was asked to participate in a nutrition survey. I don’t usually answer surveys, but this was a request through the American Society of Nutrition (I’m a member) and we were told we’d get a chance to view the data, so I decided to do it. For comparison they also surveyed 2,000 people who were not in the nutrition field, and we’d get to see that data as well. The New York Times health writers published an article on the results (1). I decided to look at the data and . . .
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Curcumin: Question 3
Most super herbs and juices come from other countries—açai from Brazil and noni from Southeast Asia to Australia. Curcumin seems to have been used in India for hundreds of years. As we finish this look on questions we should ask about the latest and greatest nutrient, juice, or herb, this is most likely the simplest question of all. Here’s the obvious question: do the people where the herb is traditionally used live longer than we do in the U.S.?
I’ll stick with curcumin and India. Although our official life expectancy just decreased a couple of . . .
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Curcumin: Question 2
Unintended consequences—that’s one of the basic tenets of science. We introduce a change, whether a diet, a nutrient, or even a specific type of exercise and we get results we didn’t expect. If they’re positive, great. But what if they’re not?
Here’s one for you. A good friend loved to eat carrots, and she ate a lot of raw carrots as part of her meals and snacks. Carrots have carotenoids, which have a characteristic orange color. She ate so many carrots that the palms of her hands turned orange. Definitely an unintended consequence.
Having . . .
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