How to burn calories
Many people have favorite metabolism-boosting strategies to help burn off more daily calories, but do they work? It depends on what you try, says a story in the May issue of Shape magazine. Here’s a synopsis of what works and what doesn’t:
– Eating enough protein and whole grains. Yes, do this, because it takes more energy for your body to break down protein than it does fat or carbohydrates. You should eat a little protein with every meal and lots of complex carbohydrates to help limit hunger pangs.
– Eating meals at the same time each day. This works too. In animal studies, those put on predictable diets “experienced hormonal changes that helped them better process and burn the calories they consumed,” said Deborah Clegg, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati. In contrast, animals that weren’t sure when they’d eat next were more likely to store calories as fat.
– Drinking green tea. Don’t bother, at least for weight loss. Two recent studies found that people who drank high amounts of green tea had no weight-loss benefit.
Arthritis after sprain?
A sprained ankle may come back to haunt you as arthritis in 20 years or so, according to the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society. Swiss researchers who looked at 268 patients with ankle arthritis found that while 82.5 percent previously had broken their ankles, some 17.5 percent had had recurrent sprains but no fractures.
Despite this report, examined in the May issue of HealthNews, scientists aren’t all in agreement that there is a clear connection between sprains and arthritis. Both sides do say that anyone who sprains his ankle should aggressively rehabilitate the area.
Fragile bones
Osteoporosis is significantly higher in older women. It affects less than 20 percent of those ages 65 to 74 but more than 50 percent of women over age 85. Yet the older the age group, the less likely they are to have their bones screened, according to a study by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, reported in the May Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter.
Of the 44,000 women analyzed, 27 percent of those ages 66 to 70 had their bones screened in a three-year period, but less than 10 percent of the women ages 80 to 90 did. Older women with osteoporosis are at high risk for fracture of the hip, wrist or spine.
If you or an elderly loved one has not undergone a bone-density test, schedule one immediately. Medicare covers the cost of the test every two years. For more information, contact the National Osteoporosis Foundation, nof.org; 202-223-2226.
Music for health
If you want your child to live a healthy life, you may consider signing him up for piano lessons or the like. A joint project at Oxford University and the University of Pavia shows that musical training may be heart healthy. The study, reported in the May U.C. Berkeley Wellness Letter, had participants listen to all kinds of music, from rap to Vivaldi. Those who were trained musicians had the best physical response because they were able to synchronize their breathing with the music.
–Verna Noel Jones
Aspartame review
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said last week that it is reviewing data on a since-discredited Italian study that claimed to find a link between long-term use of the artificial sweetener aspartame and cancer.
The European Ramazzini Foundation had concluded last year that long-term use caused cancer in rats and that its use by humans should be re-evaluated. But the European Food Safety Authority since has released a study saying the popular sweetener does not increase the risk of cancer.
Many of the rats used in the Italian study had suffered from chronic respiratory disease, which was the most likely cause of the tumors, the authority concluded.
The authority findings came a month after the release of a study of half a million Americans that found no link between aspartame and cancer, according to the Associated Press.
— HealthDay News
