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5 stress-fighting superfoods partner
by Self Magazine
Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:55am PDT

Done right, noshing when your nerves are jangling can keep you calm and healthy. Munch your way mellow!

Spinach
Three cups of spinach supply 40 percent of your daily magnesium, a mineral that blunts stress's effects on the body by stopping blood pressure from spiking, says Beth Reardon, R.D., director of integrative nutrition at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

Stress Rx: Stuff fresh spinach into omelets and sandwiches to nix tension while you're on the party circuit.

Oranges
Healthy people who were exposed to cold viruses were more likely to get sick if they were under pressure, a study from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh finds. Even a brief bout of tension can influence your immune system, but vitamin C in citrus bolsters your body's natural bug barricades, so you can stay well.

Stress Rx Having your whole family over for brunch? Pour OJ.

Chocolate
This treat's pacifying powers are all in your head. "Cocoa boosts your body's levels of neurochemicals, which act on parts of the brain to help produce a sense of happiness and relaxation," says Alan Hirsch, M.D., director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.

Stress Rx: Drop some dark-chocolate squares in everyone's stocking, including your own!

Fish
Omega-3 fatty acids in fish such as salmon and tuna can help quell anxiety. Test takers who consumed more of the healthy fats for three weeks halted a surge in stress hormones when they were faced with a tough quiz, according to a study in Diabetes & Metabolism.

Stress Rx: Increase your omega-3 intake: Reach for smoked-salmon canapés from the appetizer tray.

Oatmeal
Spoon up serenity! The B vitamins in oats stimulate production of serotonin, a key neurotransmitter that sends soothing signals to your brain. Elisa Zied, R.D., author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips (Alpha Books), adds that your body digests oatmeal slowly, so you absorb the serotonin steadily.

Stress Rx: Have a bowl of oatmeal as a preshopping meal.

What Soft Drinks are Doing to Your Body
By Dr. Maoshing Ni
Posted on Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 12:29 pm PDT

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let's talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

• Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

• Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

• Tea
Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.

Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here. Drink up!

I hope you find the ways and means to avoid soft drinks. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

--Dr. Mao

The Best Get-Happy Foods
By Abigail L. Cuffey

Fight stress and depression with five nutrient-buffed snacks
Sorry, ice cream isn't on the list! But the following foods do have nutrients that can help fight stress and depression, says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Eat Your Way to Happiness.

Food: Oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits
Mood-Boosting Ingredient: Vitamin C
This vitamin helps you cope better in stressful times by lowering your levels of stress hormones. If you get a lot regularly, you'll feel calmer during tough situations.

Food: Nuts
Mood-Boosting Ingredients: Vitamin E, arginine (an amino acid) and magnesium
A handful of nuts will keep you full and satisfied because they have a low glycemic index-which means they don't jack up your blood sugar levels and cause mood swings. It also makes you feel good to eat something that seems decadent (they're considered a little bit naughty because they're high in fat) but actually has health benefits.

Food: Leafy greens
Mood-Boosting Ingredient: Folic Acid
Research has shown that the folic acid in leafy greens such as kale and spinach can reduce depression and even improve blood flow to the brain. If you're not eating at least one serving per day you're more than likely low in folic acid, so try getting more or consider taking a multivitamin that contains it.

Food: Salmon
Mood-Boosting Ingredient: DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid)
The omega-3s in fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines have been found to improve your mood while lowering the risk of depression and age-related memory loss. The depression link is so strong that American Psychiatric Association suggests that anyone taking antidepressants and/or going through therapy also boost her intake of omega 3s.

Food: Dried cherries
Mood-Boosting Ingredients: Potassium, magnesium and vitamin C
These nutrients all work to curb your body's stress response. Dried cherries also keep your brain healthy because they're packed with antioxidants (including vitamin C), which prevent damage to your brain cells that can lead to memory problems.

Probiotics for Weight Loss?
By Margaret Furtado, M.S., R.D.
Posted on Tue, Nov 24, 2009, 11:54 am PST

Believe it or not, the human body contains more bacteria living inside than individual cells: 100 trillion microorganisms live in our gastrointestinal tract as compared with a "mere" 10 trillion human cells in our body. And one of the best kinds of microorganisms we can have flourishing inside our bodies are the probiotics, the healthy bacteria that live in our intestines or gut. Now, new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital and Clinics suggests probiotics might even enhance weight-loss programs.

The Stanford researchers first noticed the beneficial effects of probiotics on weight when working with extremely obese patients who've had gastric-bypass surgery. But studies are showing that the benefits of probiotics are not limited to those who've had this medical procedure.

So why are probiotics assisting with weight loss? Several studies have suggested that the guts of normal-weight people contain a different mix or balance of the types and amounts of bacteria that are found in the intestines of overweight folks. One study even found these same imbalances among the microorganisms in 7-year-old kids who were overweight.

Could it be that bad bacteria are causing at least some of our weight issues? Is it possible that one day we'll just ingest a dollop of "weight-friendly" bacteria to bring our body size under control?

It's too soon to know exactly where this discovery will lead, so here are my recommendations:

Be sure to include foods in your diet that contain probiotics, such as yogurt.

Avoid brands of yogurt that have the "fruit" at the bottom and instead go with low-fat, low-sugar varieties that contain plenty of protein and calcium. A cup of yogurt is a great snack to hold you over in between meals or after a workout. Greek yogurts are especially high in protein.

Make prebiotics part of your regular diet as well. Prebiotics--tiny fibers found in some fruits and vegetables--just happen to be what probiotics and other good bacteria eat. Good sources of prebiotics include wheat, bananas, onions, garlic, and leeks. (Europeans eat far more prebiotics than do people in the U.S--might this explain part of the weight discrepancy between the U.S. and European populations?)

If you have digestive issues, be sure to talk with your doctor or dietitian about "pharmaceutical-grade" probiotics, which are the equivalent of prescription-strength good bacteria.

Last, a caveat: Don't even think about starting to load up on probiotics so that you can slack off on exercise or ignore your healthy eating plan. There is no miracle probiotic cure in the pipeline!

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the future

When the world looks like a real-life Wonderland
Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:46 PM PT
By Jasmin Aline Persch, contributing writer

Like Alice down the rabbit hole, 6-year-old Olivia Watts sometimes sees the world through a distorted lens. Real people look as if they have magnified, telescoped heads or bodies. Sometimes it sounds like the TV’s volume was suddenly turned up. When she has these experiences — sometimes even at school — the kindergartener from Pipersville, Pa., looks as if she’s waking from a nightmare, says her mother Danielle Watts.

Diagnosed with a neurological condition known as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, Olivia usually keeps her dreamlike visions to herself. She first complained of people and objects getting bigger last year. Her symptoms occur in spurts lasting from seconds to 15 minutes and persist for up to two weeks, and then, they can vanish for months just as mysteriously as they occurred. These occurrences are “mini migraines exploding in [her] brain,” a neurologist explained to Olivia’s mother, who suffers from standard migraines herself.

A rare form of migraine, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome causes people to see their own bodies or those of others or everyday objects askew. It typically occurs without a headache, but is usually associated with personal or family history of standard migraines. It can impact vision (size or depth), hearing, touch and sense of time, causing it either to seem accelerated or or slowed down.

“It’s not dangerous,” says headache expert Dr. William Young. “I’ve never met anybody who has so many that it affects their life in a severe way, once they’re reassured that it doesn’t indicate a dangerous or ominous thing.”

Young, a neurologist from the Jefferson Headache Center at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, says millions of Americans have typical migraine aura. “We know their brains are normal, superficially.” But, “periodically, they misbehave,” he says.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is similar, doctors believe, and may involve the brain's occipital lobe, which controls our vision and where migraine auras originate. Other regions in the brain may also play a part, but the exact entrance to the mind’s rabbit hole remains a mystery.

Auras, visual sensations which precede a migraine, can be triggered by stress, certain foods and wine and typically last from five to 60 minutes. The triggers of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome are lesser understood, but certain prescribed medications including migraine-preventing topiramate or a hard blow to the head can set it off.

English psychiatrist John Todd, who coined the syndrome’s name in Canadian Medical Association Journal in 1955, compared the visions to those in “the parabolic mirrors of a fun-fair.” Patients reported perceiving the body as too big or too little and that the world seemed unreal, Todd wrote.

He and other scholars speculated that Lewis Carroll, the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel “Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There,” suffered from AIWS. Carroll’s diary only reveals that he had classic migraines. But that fact “arouses the suspicion that Alice trod the paths and byways of a Wonderland well known to her creator,” Todd wrote.

Sue Miller, 41, has never seen a doctor about her symptoms, but she believes she has suffered from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome since she was a child. She remembers experiencing the “little people thing” as early as age 5, often as she lay in bed at night.

“When I would look at my windows across the room, they would get tiny and look a mile away,” Miller of Wakefield, Ohio, says. “I would get scared.”

Not until she became a concerned parent of a 5-year-old son who had similar symptoms did she understand what was happening. Miller found out about Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and related support groups online.

As an adult, she doesn’t usually talk about the condition because it seems so unbelievable. “It sounds bizarre,” Miller says.

While her altered perceptions have mostly subsided, she sometimes sees patterns pop out at her like they’re in 3-D.

Experts believe Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is probably underreported because patients like Miller are reluctant to talk about their odd experiences. About 300 in the U.S. have the condition, Young estimates. It mostly occurs in children. Among the thousands of headache patients Young has seen, only four have the syndrome.

“My [Alice in Wonderland] patients have the perception of things being wrong,” Young says. “The original descriptions were their own bodies being out of whack.”

Dr. Kathy Lee, a pediatric ophthalmologist from Boise, Idaho, says her young patients with the condition often complain about the chalkboard at school being too far away (teleopsia), which may lead to a wasted trip to the eye doctor.

“It’s not an eye problem, per se. It’s a brain interpretation of vision,” says Lee, who often just assures parents that their kids will be fine. “These (images) are generated by the brain, not the eyes.”

Treating an episode of Alice in Wonderland syndrome may be like trying to catch a harried rabbit. But medications used to prevent migraines may provide help for those with frequent episodes, Young says.

While children with Alice in Wonderland syndrome may grow out of it into regular migraines, Young says symptoms may warrant a check up for less common but more serious conditions, including epilepsy, brain tumors and encephalitis (brain infection).

“Most people should get an MRI of the brain to make sure there are no structural problems, but it’s rather unexpected that there would be,” Young says.

Olivia’s mother is relieved that her daughter’s MRI was normal and that Alice in Wonderland syndrome is non-life threatening.

In fact, the whole family plans to see Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” However, Olivia doesn’t particularly care to see Alice grow big or small, says Danielle Watts. She has a different reason for watching the fantasy movie: “Because I want to see the white queen.”