Health

Worth Celebrating: Your Heart!

February 9, 2012 at 11:24 am, by Amelia Harnish

When I think of February, I think of red—lots of it. Not because of all the cheesy (but fun) Valentine’s Day stuff, but because it’s American Heart Month. February doesn’t really start until that first Friday when we celebrate National Wear Red Day.

Did you participate last week? (We did! That’s us, the @lhjHealthLadies on Twitter, above.) This year, Go Red for Women is hosting a challenge on its Facebook page to spotlight its most spirited supporters. All you have to do is submit a photo of you and your coworkers or friends (or pet!) wearing red. Then, until February 23 people can vote via “Likes” on their faves. Winners will be announced February 25.

Here at the Journal we start gearing up for February way in advance, when we plan our heart health coverage for the magazine. Yes, some of it can be glamorous—like the beautiful photos we shot of a model hooked up to an EKG (below) for this year’s story. But the real reason we devote pages to cholesterol, blood pressure and the myths and realities of heart disease is that unfortunately, it is still the number one killer of American women. And women between the ages of 35 to 54 appear to be dying from it at an increasing rate, despite decreasing rates among other groups. This year, we also learned that nearly half of women say they wouldn’t call 911 immediately if they thought they were having a heart attack. That’s crazy! Women are also less likely to be diagnosed correctly, making them less likely to receive life-saving therapy right away.

All of this is why we sent one of our over-stressed writers with all the wrong risk factors to see a cardiologist and report back. And why we decided to interview a heart attack survivor turned blogger about why doctors dismissed her symptoms at first. Sometimes personal stories say it even better than statistics.

But that doesn’t mean stats aren’t useful in their own way. Yesterday, I went to a briefing hosted by the Mayo Clinic, The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and WomenHeart where I picked up a few telling numbers:

• 1 in 2 women will die of heart disease or stroke, versus 1 in 25 who will die of breast cancer.
• 8 million: the number of American women with a history of heart attack or angina.
• Do you smoke? Besides the fact that 30 percent of heart disease deaths are caused by smoking, your risk of heart disease is 25 percent higher than a male smoker’s. (And social smoking counts—you don’t have to smoke a pack a day, or even a pack a month, to hurt your heart.)
• 90 percent of women have at least one risk factor.

But the most important number is this one: 80 percent of heart disease cases are preventable. There are lots of things you can do to keep your heart healthy, and the sooner you start the better. Check out our resources page if you need a little direction.

Happy American Heart Month from the LHJ Health Ladies!

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Get-Fit Clicks

February 7, 2012 at 11:55 am, by jbrown

* We will never pass up a chance to praise the health benefits of dark chocolate. (FitSugar)

* Wal-Mart is set to debut their own “Great For You” label to make shopping for healthy food easier. (MSNBC)

* If your ab workout doesn’t seem to be working for you anymore, give your core a new challenge with this resistance-band routine from our friends at Fitness. (Bonus: It’s easy to do while you’re watching TV.) (Fitness)

* Not all veggies are more nutritious when they’re eaten fresh. Greatist explains which ones get even healthier when they’re cooked. (Greatist)

* Designer Karl Lagerfeld deems Adele “a little too fat.” You know, because her weight is somehow his business. And because fat-shaming people is morally acceptable. Arrgghhhh. (US magazine)

Delicious chocolate photo via Shutterstock.

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Is Happiness A Skill?

February 3, 2012 at 2:40 pm, by Louise Sloan

I was originally hired to be LHJ’s “psychology editor,” and over my four years here, much of my work has been about improving happiness and coping with stress. In fact, the first article I worked on was called “5 Habits of Truly Happy People.”  I joked at the time that after a few months on the job I’d end up being oh so enlightened. But you know what? Lately I’ve realized that I have picked up a few ideas that  help me through the hard times. Here are a few LHJ-article  tricks I’ve been using—all of which have a lot of university research proving that they’re effective. Plus two thumbs up from this test driver!

Do fun stuff. Sure, you need to take your problems seriously, eat your vegetables and keep up with the news. But not every minute of the day! Take time to click on that cute or funny Facebook link. Watch or read something that makes you laugh (here’s our article on how laughter releases stress), or indulge in some escapism. I’ve most recently been transported to the English countryside, watching Downton Abbey on my iPhone on my subway commute, and reading Plan C, an e-book that came out last week (see photo) that Vanity Fair‘s James Wolcott accurately called a “breathless romp.” The heroine, dressed in expensive stilettos, teeters back and forth between fabulous Manhattan apartments and celeb-filled cocktail parties, exchanging gossip and witty banter with her equally fabulous BFFs—about as far from my NYC life as you can get. Though my reality—being the single working mom of a five-year-old—does help increase the fun factor, I gotta say (check out our article on the psychological importance of play)—there’s usually a game of chase or something silly I can engage in the minute I come home at night.

Think happy thoughts. Even small ones, like, “The Chrysler Building really is beautiful.” Or, “my bum hip isn’t bothering me too much today.” Look for something to enjoy in the moment (for tips, read our mindfulness article), or something to look forward to, something that you’re grateful for, or find a happy memory and dwell on that. These small thoughts add up, boosting your mood and at least temporarily interrupting that endless loop of negativity.

Hug somebody. Thank goodness for my snuggly schoolboy! But if you don’t have a five-year-old or a husband or a friend handy, a pet will work just fine. The benefits of touch are well-documented, and can sometimes really work wonders, as “The Cuddle Cure,” a pet story I edited, demonstrates.

Get some exercise. I know, sounds like broccoli. But wow, does it work. It’s as close to a psychological cure-all as you can get. After 20 minutes of lifting heavy weights, whatever my heavy load is always seems a lot lighter. Hmmm. I think it’s time for a gym break.

What’s your favorite “happiness skill”?

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Think You Can’t Lose Weight? Wanna Bet?

February 1, 2012 at 10:45 am, by Amelia Harnish

Having trouble slimming down? Staying the course is tough even when you know all the tricks: diet with friends, announce your goals and commit to a workout schedule. But raising the stakes might help. A new crop of dieting sites does just that by offering a chance to make money for the weight you lose—or pay up if you don’t.

We know supportive social dieting sites and apps that help you track your meals can be helpful, but weight loss gambling? It may sound weird, or even slightly shady, but research supports it: People with a financial incentive lose more weight, according to two studies.

“But it’s not as simple as just paying people to lose weight,” says Leslie John, Ph.D., a professor at Harvard Business School who studies behavioral decision-making. “What we found is that people actually hate losing money even more than they like making money. They hate that regret, so when you use that as leverage in a weight-loss scheme, it works.”

DietBet is the newest site to allow users to bet on their weight loss. The goal is to make dieting a game, according to founder Jamie Rosen. One person plays the role of organizer. She invites others to join and sets how much everyone has to put in the pot. Then, the goal is to lose either 8 pounds or 4 percent of your body weight by the team weigh-in at the end of four weeks. You split the money among the people who reach the goal.

Another site, HealthyWage, offers longer challenges and bigger payouts. To participate in their 10 percent challenge, you put down $100 and if you can lose 10 percent of your body weight in six months you can double your money. Their BMI Challenge is geared toward people with a Body Mass Index over 30. It’s free to participate, but if you get your BMI down to 25, you win $100. Or if you want, you can put down $300 and win $1,000 at the end of the year. To win the cash you have to verify your weight regularly at your gym, doctor’s office or Weight Watchers meeting.

About 25 percent of the people who pay for the BMI Challenge win the money, says co-founder David Roddenberry. Given how hard it is to move the needle on BMI, that’s pretty good.

But the biggest draw for HealthyWage is their Matchup game, played in groups of five for three months. You pay $60, and your team competes against 150 other teams to see who can lose the most weight in three months. The team that comes in first wins $10,000.

Maybe 10 grand is a bit of a lofty goal, but still, the model seems to work thanks to the added social components: teamwork and competition. “Having teammates counting on me really made a huge difference,” says Pat Grimes, who lost 44 pounds and was on this month’s $10,000 team. “The money is out of the question without everyone doing their part.”

Mom blogger Amy Oztan started a DietBet with a few other bloggers earlier this month, and has lost almost 9 pounds. “There were so many times when I wanted to just say screw it, but I didn’t want to be the loser,” she says.

These are just two of many sites out there. There’s also FatBet (which wins the prize for best tagline: “You Bet Your Ass”), GymPact (which charges you when you don’t make it to the gym) and Stickk (which allows you to choose from a variety of goals like losing weight or quitting cigarettes).

No one’s placing any bets, however, on whether the weight loss will last. That’s another story.

Photo copyright infomages—Fotolia.com.

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Get-Fit Clicks

January 31, 2012 at 12:47 pm, by jbrown

* How to make healthy versions of pizza, pudding and more. (Discovery Fit & Health)

* Which workout will help you sculpt “long and lean muscles”? None of them! Thank you, FitSugar, for explaining the truth behind this aggravating fitness myth (which is clearly one of my pet peeves.) (FitSugar)

* How your weekend splurges can easily undo your best weight loss efforts. (USA Today)

* Seven unexpected reasons why we pack on weight in winter. (Fitbie)

* The secret to coping with a food craving? Tell yourself you can have that brownie/ice cream/bag of chips later—chances are you won’t. (WebMD)

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Get-Fit Clicks

January 17, 2012 at 11:45 am, by jbrown

* It’s hard enough to remember the zillion or so things you need to do each day—don’t make it worse by loading up on these 5 brain-aging foods. (Yeah, you knew added sugar would be one of them.) (HuffPo)

* A great piece about why it doesn’t pay to overdo your workouts, no matter how anxious you are to lose weight. Don’t be one of those people who thinks a good workout = “I am in a pile of sweat and puking.” (NYTimes)

* Which is better for weight loss: eating 6 mini meals or 3 squares a day? EatingWell breaks down the research. (EatingWell)

* Yet another reason to take stretch-and-stroll breaks at the office: A new study shows too much sitting may be bad for your mental health. (Yahoo)

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Twinkies and the Weight-Loss Blues

January 10, 2012 at 3:50 pm, by Julie Bain

Know any good Twinkie jokes? I just read that Hostess Brands Inc. is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and, as a health editor, I’ll shed no tears for the freefall of its junk-food sales. But I do feel some nostalgia for those sugary (and indestructible) lunchbox treats of my youth.

I grew up in the Midwest when processed and convenience foods were new and a novelty. My mom had been a home economist and food editor at Meredith Corp. in Des Moines, Iowa—the same company I work for now (parent of LHJ and other brands). Mom believed in home-cooked meals, including fresh produce from the garden when possible, and desserts only for special occasions. But sometimes, when my brother or sister and I begged for the sugary cereals we saw on Saturday morning TV commercials (Quisp and Quake!) or those hot-pink gelatinous Hostess Sno Balls others had in their lunchboxes, Mom would give in. But in general, we were all about moderation. We didn’t drink a lot of sodas, didn’t snack much, and we ran around and played outside all year round. We were not overweight and we seldom saw kids who were.

I learned more about food and nutrition as I grew up, and went through every food fad, from the Julia Child classical French experiments of the ’70s to the low-fat, high-carb, pasta- and Snackwell’s-eating ’80s to the high-protein bacon-scented Atkins ’90s to the locavore, whole-foods 2000s. Somehow, through it all, I’ve savored and enjoyed all kinds of foods without much dieting or obsessing. In fact, I’ve pretty much managed to stay within 10 pounds of my high-school weight for several decades. Nothing that virtuous about it: I just never went way overboard—and (here’s the real secret), I never starved myself.

The more we learn about metabolism, the more we know how much dieting screws it up—sometimes for life. Once you gain a lot of weight, it’s really, really hard to lose it and then keep it off. Big weight loss changes your physiology in ways we’re just beginning to understand, and only the most disciplined people seem to be able to maintain it. Tara Parker-Pope wrote a fascinating piece about this called “The Fat Trap”  in The New York Times recently, and it’s worth a read. Maintaining weight loss is possible, not hopeless. But the best bet is never to gain much weight in the first place.

Of course, that advice is much too late for a lot of folks. And the New Year is when they decide to do something about it. That’s why our friends at Yahoo! tell us that online searches for “how to lose weight quickly” are up more than 300 percent, and interest is extremely high right now for “Snooki weight loss.” How did the pint-size Jersey Shore star get down to 98 pounds? I don’t think I want to know. And based on the latest research, sadly, her loss probably won’t last.

Photo by Christian Cable on flickr.com.

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