Jackie's Health Blog

All the more reason to eat your fruit and veggies! June 10, 2013

HEALTH ALERT: All the more reason to eat your fruit and veggies! 

JAMA Internal Medicine According to data published in the , an analysis of data on over 73,000 U.S. and Canadian study participants showed that those who followed a vegetarian diet has a lower risk of mortality from all causes (over a year) compared with meat eaters. 

Lead author, Dr. Michael Orlich, said:

I think this adds to the evidence showing the possible beneficial effect of vegetarian diets in the prevention of chronic diseases and the improvement of longevity

A diet low in calcium can lead to osteoporosis May 23, 2013

A diet low in calcium can lead to osteoporosis, a disease that causes the bone tissue to become porous and brittle. This is because your body will leach the calcium out of your bones if your dietary intake of calcium is insufficient! One in four women past the age of 65 develop osteoporosis, which can mean that any slip or fall may result in the breaking of bones, such as hip fractures. Possible symptoms of osteoporosis include lower back pain when standing, bending or lifting, rounded shoulders and stopped posture, or a gradual loss of height. Calcium deficiency does not generally manifest itself until later in life, when it is too late to build bone mass. Women build bone mass until the mid-thirties, at which point the emphasis shifts to maintaining healthy bones. After menopause, there is a rapid decline in bone mass due to hormonal changes. Regular weight-bearing exercise can greatly mitigate the effects of age on your bones. Strength training has also been shown to have a dramatic, positive effect on bone health. It’s never too late to start! Smoking is very deleterious to bone health, as is excessive alcohol consumption, soft drinks (the phosphorous can leach calcium out of bones) and excessive caffeine.

Move for your Memory May 2, 2013

Experiencing “brain fade”? Turns out that moderately intense exercise does more than helping to maintain blood pressure, improve energy, elevate mood and lower stress, it also stimulates the brain regions involved in memory. The brain releases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), helping to rewire memory circuits. The more you move, the more brain cells you use which turns on genes to make more BDNF. Sorry, you can’t take a pill to get it – only the brain can make it, and only with regular exercise. For brain benefit raise your heart rate to 70% of maximum (roughly 220 minus your age), for about 30 minutes, 5 days/week.

Earth Day April 22, 2013

2012 was the warmest year on record in the Lower 48 states and the second most extreme weather year in U.S. history. This is not a coincidence. Extreme weather— stronger, more damaging storms, unprecedented drought and heat in some regions and unprecedented rainfall and flooding in others—are the predictable consequences of rising global temperatures. Eleven extreme weather events each caused at least a billion dollars in losses last year in the United States. A single event, Hurricane Sandy, caused more than $50 billion in economic losses. Insurance companies are on the hook for tens of billions of dollars in claims as a result of Sandy and other severe weather events. And American taxpayers are on the hook for tens of billions of dollars themselves, thanks to losses sustained by the National Flood Insurance Program as well as disaster relief spending. Wonder if this will impact YOU? Consider this: With rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms, there are more Sandys in our future. In the United States alone more than 2.6 million homes are less than four feet above mean high tide. Hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions in taxable real estate lies less than three feet above average high tide. On the coasts, power plants, mass transit systems, wastewater treatment plants and airports sit at or near sea level. In short, the potential liability for insurers is astronomical.

Day 4: Climate impacts of the pipeline April 16, 2013

Climate impacts of the pipeline

Oil Change International, 350.org and other groups will be launching a new report earlier in the week regarding the carbon accounting of the pipeline. On day one of the sprint, we’ll highlight the findings of this report, which shows clearly that approving the Keystone XL pipeline is contradictory to taking serious action on climate change.