Cold Showers Might Benefit Treatment for Depression

"Apparently, cold showers do more than relieve sexual tension. They also alleviate the symptoms of, and could even prevent, depression, according to a recent study in Medical Hypothesis. The study authors believe that the blues might be triggered by a lack of physical stressors. Because our skin contains three to ten times more cold receptors than those registering warmth, cool water is the equivalent of mild electroshock therapy. It activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing the brain to release noradrenaline, a chemical with antidepressant effects. The study authors recommend spending two to three minutes in 68-degree water."

In my personal opinion this is pretty crazy mostly because I have a strong tendency to avoid cold water... but that's just me.

Related
Of course you can also work on alleviating depression through other more active ways such as going for a walk or doing virtually any other form of exercise as this has been proven to be virtually as effective at treating depression as drugs have. Thinking about this a little more however I can't help but think that we all take nearly daily showers. It probably wouldn't hurt to take a minute or three of this time at a low temperature. A good mood for the day might just be worth the time.

Source
Best Life, Aug '08

Promote Longevity With Aerobic Exersice

The British Journal of Sports Medicine recently published a study that found that one could add 12 healthy years to their life expectancy by staying aerobically fit. Activities such as jogging, swimming, and biking will condition your heart to pump blood more efficiently, allow you to take in more oxygen, expand you blood vessels, and release endorphins, helping you to live longer and healthier.

This finding falls in line with the general theory of exercising to stay fit and healthy but it adds the dimension of identifying the longevity effects of the same practice. Obviously don't push it too far if you're just starting out and keep in mind that a healthy sleep schedule will keep your odds of living life to it's full extent at it's maximum. Sleep won't increase your lifespan but it will diminish it if you don't optimize the daily duration.

More Ways To Promote Longevity
If you are new to this site I would like to encourage you dig into the archives for longevity secrets and ideas all supported by clinical research and common sense.  You can promote longevity in many ways; don't limit yourself. :). 

Source
British Journal of Sports Medicine

Your Job’s Effect on Dementia

To continue on with the dementia theme I’ve got going today let me present yet another stat that seems to decrease your risk for cognitive decline. This stat however isn’t something most of us can do much about unless we’re up for a career change.

"You’ll have a 34 percent decrease in your risk of dementia if your job requires you to have frequent interactions with people, according to a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Teachers seemed to have the greatest protection, followed by nurses, doctors, farmers, and office clerks."

Aside from changing careers just practice good habits by reducing caloric intake, drinking responsibly, and combating inflammation periodically.

Source
American Journal of Epidemiology
Best Life, Aug ‘08

An Ibuprofen - Alzheimer’s Disease Finding

Inflammation has been generally associated with the plaque that builds up in the brain when a person begins developing Alzheimer’s disease. There have been studies that suggest that cutting calories from one’s diet can decrease some of the inflammation that might be the cause of cognitive decline and now there is more evidence that treating inflammation can decrease your risk of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline. By popping the occasional ibuprofen, Alzheimer's disease risks might just diminish.

Ibruprofen & Alzheimer's Disease

As written in Best Life, Aug. ’08:

"Common over-the-counter pain drugs known as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), such as ibuprofen or Advil, might protect against Alzheimer’s disease. A Boston University study identified 49,000 US veterans older than 55 with Alzheimer’s and more than 196,000 veterans without the disease. They found that those who used NSAIDs for periodic pain relief were 44 percent less likely to have developed the disease. The researchers think the drug’s anti-inflammatory effects could suppress the formation of amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s."

Additionally the simple act of flossing your teeth can decrease inflammation in your body system-wide and spare damage to the brain’s white matter. You can also look into your soda intake as a warning sign for future cognitive impairment.

Source
Best Life, Aug ‘08

Increase Your Risk For Early Death by Eating Too Many Eggs

Eating too many eggs may be detrimental to your health:

"Seven - Number of eggs eaten per week that can increase a man's risk of early death by 23 percent, according to a 20-year study of 21,327 men that was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Although eating fewer than seven eggs a week had no effect on either cardiovascular health or mortality, consuming seven or more a week increased LDL particle size, leading to less than favorable lipid profiles."

This research on eating too many eggs is actually quite interesting because it is so broad and covers such a large amount of people. 21,000 men, adjusted for nothing but how many eggs they ate per week. With no change up to seven eggs per week and then an increased risk for early death at seven and above. This seems to suggest that there is something that ties lifespan to this dietary tendency but we don't really know what it is. The cholesterol is an obvious candidate thus you might be moved to lower LDL cholesterol levels in your diet in general but the tie-in might just boil down to the simple fact that if you're eating too many eggs then maybe you're more likely to be eating too much of everything else as well. Eggs by themselves are not bad but actually quite good for you in moderation so maybe this signifies a tendency for people to slip away from moderation and thus reduce their life expectancies. Who knows but it is quite interesting.

Related
Related to my previous post about eggs being a carrier of carotenoids which decrease your risk for AMD, this research, though very vague and blurry around the edges, should tell us that eggs alone are not the solution for AMD prevention. You really should mix in leafy greens into your daily diet. There is no substitute for variety; that's why we have so many options.

I would also suggest brushing up on the most typical and obvious way to increase your lifespan: Drink Less Alcohol.

Source
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Best Life, Aug '08

High Blood Pressure and Exercise - Take It Easy

This is fairly obvious information to most (I think) but if you've got arterial hypertension (high blood pressure) or some form of heart disease or other similar ailment you should definitely start exercising but you should also ease into it. Exercising too excessively at first can be damaging to your system if your body is not able to take the strain.

The following information and study published in the journal Hypertension and referenced in Best Life magazine backs up a lot of this general thought process:

"While exercise can decrease heart disease risk, if you're one of the 72 million American's with high blood pressure, there's a fine line as to how hard you should push yourself. A recent study, published in the journal Hypertension, found that excessive exercise causes structural abnormalities in the hearts of those with high blood pressure-aberrations such as enlarged hearts and decreased pumping ability. Your doctor can tell you how much exercise is too much."

From my perspective though no matter what your health is exercise is a good thing and it should be practiced even if at a very low intensity. At the very least it is good for the mood and for treating depression.

Source
Best Life, Dec '07
Hypertension

First Calendar Month Completed

I thought it would be nice to update my readers on this site’s stats as I’ve completed my first calendar month of blogging for ‘How To Live A Longer Life’. Now, this site only went live on the 11th of May so it’s not even been a full month of operations yet but it has been a solid 20+ days of posting, networking, and laying the groundwork for increased traffic, credibility, and readership in future months.

Folowing this text are my basic stats thus far and I’d like to thank a few people who have helped me along the way. These people likely have no idea they helped but I figured a shout out to them is in order anyway. Amanda at BloggerBuster helped out immensely in teaching me many of the site design techniques that I used in creating this site, Shaun at Hobo for helping me understand a lot about SEO and site organization, and Griz at Make Money with Adsense for his teachings on incorporating Adsense into web projects.

For the month of May, this site’s first month of operations I managed to:

• Set up this site hosted on Blogger/Blogspot


• Designed the (hopefully SEO friendly) site template from scratch


• Listed ‘How To Live A Longer Life’ with Technorati


• Published blog feed with Feedburner


• Posted 41 entries


• Received 53 unique visitors to the site


• Was found in search results 8 times


• Was included in 3 blog carnivals


• Signed up 4 subscriber to the blog feed

I understand my results 20 days in are quite modest but I feel a lot of work should be done up front before any significant results can be expected. For now I will celebrate early accomplishments and take it one day at a time.

Thanks to my readers and especially to my few early subscribers! I hope you’ll take the time to help publicize this site. Email it to your friends, link to articles, post to Facebook, and leave comments… and feel free to pose questions to me for future topics or items to feature on the site. Thanks, and here’s to a great June!

***For those backlinking into this post please take some time to read more about 'How To Live A Longer Life' and subscribe to future posts. Welcome!***

Nutritional Supplements That Could Be Damaging Your Heart

Antioxidants are generally though of as a ‘good thing’. We try to eat foods that contain them in mass without much thought as to what these antioxidants actually are. Researchers from the University of Virginia however have identified one antioxidant which is commonly found in many nutritional and bodybuilding supplements which can potentially damage the heart and lungs if prolonged usage exists.

The Dangers of N-acetylcysteine

”Antioxidants are supposed to fight cancer and slow the aging process, but according to researchers certain supplements such as ‘SuperPump250’ and ‘Amp’d’ contain an antioxidant called N-acetylcysteine that damages the heart and lungs. Animal studies showed that the substance fools the body into thinking it isn’t getting enough oxygen, causing the arteries in the lungs to thicken, blood pressure to rise, and the right side of the heart to swell.”

Despite the findings this antioxidant is commonly used in drug therapy for various ailments such as acetaminophen overdose, excessive mucus, and certain forms of renal failure. The finding is really only associated with high doses of N-acetylcysteine and the long-term effects of moderate to small doses are undetermined. For those however who err on the side of caution, check with your supplement’s label or manufacture and make sure N-acetylcysteine is not present.

Findings such as these might make one wonder what is present in the various foods they eat or drink, for instance the antioxidant properties of wine or blueberries. We all speak of antioxidants as if they were interchangeable or as if they were one thing when in fact they each are different and could be responsible for very different reactions in the body. Though most of these reactions are positive it might be noted that the reactions of some of them could affect some people differently based on their body’s unique variability.

Source

• The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Sept. 2007
  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1952618


• Best Life, Dec ‘07

Saturated Fats Have An Immediate Effect on the Blood

If you’re thinking about having a nice meal this evening keep in mind this very interesting finding of a group of Australia researchers. They fed two groups of people two meals consisting of a piece of carrot cake and a milk shake. In one meal the cake was made with coconut oil, which is high in saturated fat; in the other meal the cake was made with polyunsaturated safflower oil. Blood tests revealed that eating the cake made with coconut oil (saturated fat) as opposed to the cake made with safflower oil (unsaturated fat) reduced flexibility in the arteries and caused harmful changes in cholesterol levels, both of which increase the likelihood of clogging arteries.

One-Meal Tipping Point

The findings suggest that even one meal or dose of saturated fats has an immediate effect on the body and increases the likelihood of fatty plaque buildup in the arteries. If you are living on the cusp of coronary disease then you might think twice about ingesting even one dose of saturated fats until at least your condition improves. This also suggests that healthy individuals might want to consider spreading their saturated fat intake out rather than binging on it in a random day or two. Instead of eating poorly all weekend long, give yourself a treat for one meal but not the whole weekend. It doesn’t take long for the body to react to the fats you ingest.

Cholesterol Association

In a related note it has also been found that those suffering from Sleep Apnea ate on average, an additional 88.16 milligrams of cholesterol a day. The study felt that sleep apnea caused the overeating so this suggests that those with sleep apnea should be more concerned about what kind of fats they take in because they statistically are more likely to ingest more of them. Take a look at this guide for tips to treat sleep apnea symptoms while you work on correcting the underlying problem.

Source
Best Life – Dec ‘07
University of Arizona College of Medicine

Eating Less of Everything - CRON

Eating Less of Everything is Still the Best Diet
An interesting stat: You’ll likely consume 131 percent more calories at a restaurant if your meal is labeled as a "healthy option".

Binge Eating vs Calorie Restriction

Researchers from Cornell University found that not only do people tend to overindulge in beverages, sides, and desserts when they choose a "healthy option" meal but the meal’s themselves often contain 50 percent more calories than many of the standard menu choices. It’s not that the main dish is unhealthy; it’s that generally either the side dishes or the sauces used to dress up healthy items increase calorie counts quickly or the quantity of food is large enough to offset the lower calorie count per ounce. Steamed vegetables just aren’t the norm it seems.

Keep this in mind when you’re trying to keep your calorie count down. Healthy dieting is not always about what you eat it is often about who much you eat. You don’t really have to change your eating habits or what it is that you eat… just eat less of what you have normally been eating otherwise.

Calorie Restriction - CRON

CRON is a term that stands for Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition, otherwise known as the calorie restriction diet. Though the eat-whatever-you-want mantra doesn’t quite fit with CRON, the eating less of whatever-you-want mantra certainly supports the idea of lengthening life through calorie restriction, so feel free to try it and learn to split your restaurant meals into two, one for now, and one for tomorrow. Of course you could skip the restaurant altogether and prepare a nice CRON friendly meal at home for far less money out of pocket.  Regardless of how you do it chances are good you will live longer by eating less.

Source
Best Life, Dec ‘07

Nutrition Carnivals, Protein, and Beans

This week the Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival over at FitBuff featured my article on Sleep Apnea, Hypertension, and Over Eating. I wanted to start off by once again thanking FitBuff for hosting the carnival and featuring my post.

This carnival, for those that are unfamiliar, is a list of recent bog posts from many different authors on various topics surrounding living life well. The more specific topics center around, fitness, nutrition, health, personal finance, lifestyle choices, etc. Last week I made note of a couple posts from the carnival that I found particularly interesting, this week I will point out one post in particular.

• Pat over at All Muscle Building posted The Best Protein for the Buck and highlighted research from Men’s Fitness which broke down the cost of protein per 10 grams in supermarket foods. The top of the list included Black Beans and white meats which are good fro you for many reasons in addition to their protein and low cost. Beans are typically full of antioxidants and fiber and given their low cost they pack a ton of nutrition into a low budget. Similarly, white meat, such as chicken, is a little more expensive per 10 grams of protein but is one of the leanest meats you can find and low in calories relative to other meats. In fact, I recently included chicken in a low calorie, CRON friendly meal plan just a few days ago, and I feel that for the conscientious eater white meats are a great way to get your protein in addition to alternative sources such as beans.

This obviously is not the only interesting post in this week's carnival; there are many others so I encourage my readers to go check it out and read a few other entries. Once again, I'll thank FitBuff for my inclusion into the carnival and I look forward to future carnivals and posts from other Bloggers and I hope those that found my blog through this avenue will take the time to comment on my blog and subscribe to my feed. Spread the love!

Alcohol and Low Testosterone

There are some significant statistics which stand out to me as a man this morning. Men are men because of testosterone but yet, “One in four men [over the age of] 30 have low testosterone, according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Alcohol and Low Testosterone Findings

Chronic low testosterone can lead to decreased libido, erectile dysfunction, osteoporosis, sleep disturbance, depressed mood, lethargy, and diminished physical performance. One of the best ways to protect your testosterone levels is to limit yourself to one or two alcoholic drinks a day. A simple blood test by your doctor can tell you where you stand.”

Alcohol Consumption

There are so many studies showing that more than two drinks a day is harmful to your body while countless others say alcohol intake is good in moderation. I’m beginning to believe wholeheartedly that 1-2 alcoholic drinks a day of any kind should be mandatory for optimal health. This alcohol low testosterone finding is but one of many however that make me draw the line at two drinks. 

Alcohol consumption and longevity are closely related.  Too much alcohol consumption shortens your life span but a little actually lengthens it.  Additionally alcohol consumption is closely related to physical ability in old age as well as mild cognitive impairment.  These are two things every person should seek to improve in tandem.

Source
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
Best Life Magazine