Preventing Neuropathy

Weight gain. Heart disease. Stroke. These are all risks that you live with if you have diabetes. There’s another risk you might not think much about, but it can be painful and debilitating if ignored. That’s diabetic neuropathy… nerve damage in your extremities that causes pain and discomfort. It puts you at higher risks of certain kinds of infections and can even lead to loss of limb.

New research is revealing more about what triggers diabetic neuropathy. One of the things they’ve discovered is that high triglyceride levels contribute to nerve damage. In fact in a recent study conducted at the University of Michigan Medical School, researchers found that elevated triglycerides levels are the most accurate predictor of diabetic neuropathy.

Researchers conclude that managing triglycerides levels is just as important as managing blood sugar when it comes to preventing diabetic neuropathy.

If you’re diabetic, you should be concerned about your triglyceride levels. The main contributor to high triglyceride levels is diet. Most people worry about fat consumption because triglycerides are a form of fat in the blood. However, the real culprit is carbohydrates. Carbohydrates readily convert to triglycerides in the blood.

So, the first step to reducing triglycerides is to make smarter choices about carbohydrates. Focus on getting your carbs from high fiber sources like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and beans rather than lower fiber sources like refined sugars and grains.

The next step is to get more exercise, but when it comes to lowering triglycerides certain kinds of exercise work better than others. Studies show that short bursts of higher intensity exercise are more effective when it comes to reducing triglycerides.

Finally, studies also show that supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids is a good way to control triglyceride levels. Fish oil is the best source of omega-3s because fish oil contains multiple kinds of these beneficial oils.

If you have diabetes, controlling your triglyceride levels can help protect your nerves from damage. That will mean a better quality of life as you get older.

Stay well,
Meghan Krohn

What To Do When Your Nose Starts Bleeding

There are lots of reasons why you might get a nosebleed. Nasal allergies, frequent sneezing, an injury to your nose, or dry air are among the most common causes according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

No matter what the cause, a nosebleed can really be a startling experience. While nosebleeds look scary, they’re usually pretty benign, and in most cases you can treat them at home—or wherever they happen to occur.

One of the first mistakes many people make is to tilt their heads back. Don’t do that. Instead lean your head forward just a little bit and allow the blood to drip out. The reason for this is that you don’t want the blood to go into the back of your throat and down into your stomach where it can make your feel queasy.

The next thing to do is pinch your nose closed for five minutes. This is the same as putting pressure on a wound. It will help to stop the bleeding. After five minutes, check to see if the bleeding has stopped. If it hasn’t, try again for another five minutes. Try a third time, if need be. After that, if you’re still bleeding, it’s probably time to visit an urgent care facility for help.

In addition to pinching the nose to put pressure on the wound, applying an icepack to the bridge of the nose for ten minutes can help. Ice will also help to reduce inflammation and pain later on if the nosebleed is due to an injury.

Most nosebleeds can be prevented by moisturizing the inside of the nose. You can use a saline gel or aloe vera gel. When the humidity in your area is low, just put a little on a Q-tip and swab the inside of your nose. If humidity in your area is always low, consider a home humidifier. They can make a big difference.

If you’re prone to nosebleeds, supplementing with quercetin may also help. Quercetin helps reduce allergic reactions (one of the common causes of nosebleeds) and also supports capillary function, which can help, too.

Nosebleeds are a bit nerve-wracking, but they are something you can easily deal with and prevent using the tips here.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace

The Many Health Benefits of Vitamin D

If you could make a simple change to your lifestyle that would have far-reaching health benefits, wouldn’t you do it?

Some small health choices are so powerful that they’ll make an impact on your entire health outlook. Getting enough vitamin D is one of those choices.

Vitamin D plays many different roles in your body.

First it helps you to absorb calcium. A vitamin D deficiency can weaken your bones and lead to osteoporosis.

Vitamin D also behaves like a hormone, helping to regulate the delicate chemical balances in your body. Without enough vitamin D, you are more likely to feel fatigued and depressed.

Vitamin D protects your cells for cancer. In recent years, doctors and researchers have announced that low vitamin D levels might be responsible for tens of thousands of cancer deaths every year.

It plays an important role in heart health. People with good vitamin D levels have lower blood pressure and a lower risk of heart disease.

And now new research published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry suggests that vitamin D helps to maintain mental function as you age.

Researchers presented more than 3000 men with a task meant to test their mental agility. After accounting for the affects of education, depression, physical activity, and other compounding factors, the researchers found that those with the highest vitamin D levels performed the best even if they were older.

So there are a lot of reasons to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D.

The quickest and easiest way to boost your vitamin D levels in the summer time is to spend 15 minutes in the sun in your bathing suit and without sunscreen. Do that two or three times a week and your vitamin D levels will be sky high. (Do be careful not to burn, though… that’s not good for your skin.)

If you can’t find the time to get out into the sun, then a vitamin D supplement is the next best thing. My favorite is cod liver oil. It contains a completely natural form of vitamin D that is easily absorbed and used by your body. If that doesn’t work for you, then make sure your multivitamin contains vitamin D3—at least 400 IU.

Vitamin D can not only help you live longer, it can also help you enjoy the years, so make sure you’re getting enough!

Stay well,
Heather Robwell

Multivitamin May Help Keep You Young

The newest way to look at aging is at the cellular level. Specifically researchers are learning more about DNA and how it changes when your cells divide.

Each DNA strand has a sort of cap on it called a telomere. The telomeres protect the DNA from damage. However, when your cells divide, the telomeres get a little shorter each time. Over time, doctors believe that shrinking telomeres can leave your DNA vulnerable to chronic diseases and aging.

Naturally, a lot of people doing medical research are very interested in steps you can take to keep your telomeres longer as you age.

In a recent study, researchers found that multivitamins might play a useful role.

People who take a multivitamin on a regular basis are less likely to have short telomeres. On average, the telomeres of people who took a multivitamin were 5.1% longer than those who did not. In terms of cellular aging, that’s almost ten years… an impressive gain.

The research in this field is preliminary. The doctors aren’t sure if other lifestyle factors influenced the outcome. It may be that people most likely to take a multivitamin are also more likely to make other healthy choices that help to protect their telomeres.

Still, this research supports that taking a good multivitamin, one with the antioxidants vitamin E and C and with vitamin D3 and with minerals like zinc and calcium is part of a healthy lifestyle that may help your body to deal better with getting older.

And who doesn’t want that?

Stay well,
Danny Wallace

Stop the Snoring!

If you live with a spouse who snores, you know what torture it can be. It can take you forever to fall asleep, and sometimes it feels like you never really get there. You’re tired all the time. It affects how productive your feel, both at work and at home.

Snoring is no picnic for your partner either. Sure he or she may seem to be getting all the sleep they need, but snoring disrupts their rest, too. Especially snoring caused by sleep apnea.

When you have sleep apnea, you stop breathing in the middle of the night. Your brain has to wake you up to get you to breath again. Most people with sleep apnea have hundreds of interruptions to their sleep every night. They might not remember the interruptions, but they still take their toll.

Besides disturbing your sleep and your spouse’s, sleep apnea also increases your risks of obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

So, it’s good news that new research suggests that certain exercises for the throat muscles can actually help relieve sleep apnea.

In a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers found that exercises for the throat and tongue relieved the symptoms of sleep apnea by up to 40%. Patients doing the exercises had better blood oxygen levels, fewer sleep disturbances, and less snoring.

If you suffer from sleep apnea—or even if you just snore—trying these exercises might help.

For the first exercise say the vowel names quickly in order. Repeat the vowel sequence several times… try to do it for at least a minute or two.

Next, place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth where your hard palette and soft palette meet. Slide the tongue backward along your soft palette. Repeat this exercise several times during the day whenever you think about it.

Exercises as simple as these are a free and easy way to relieve sleep apnea symptoms. Give them a try to see how they work for you. Sleep apnea is a serious condition that can lead to health complications. If you suspect you have sleep apnea, make an appointment with your doctor to find out for sure and to learn about additional treatments.

Stay well,
Heather Robwell

A Step Back to Help You Think

You’ve heard of taking a figurative step backward to examine a situation, but did you know that literally stepping backward could boost your cognitive abilities?

Dutch researchers were curious about how different types of movement affect cognitive skills. They tested students to see if walking forward, backward or sideways made a difference in how quickly they were able to think.

Students looked at cards with color words written in different colors. For example the word “green” written in green ink versus the same word written in orange ink. They were asked to name the color of the ink for each card as quickly as possible.

While taking the test, the students were asked to walk forward or backward or sideways. The researchers found that when students walked backward, they were able to give the correct answer more quickly. In other words, walking backward increases your reaction time and problem-solving skills.

This might sound like a silly little bit of trivia, but you can actually apply it in your everyday life. For example, if you’re faced with a difficult problem, thinking about it while walking backward might help you come up with a good solution.

Walking backward can present some hazards, obviously. You don’t want to bump into something or trip and injure yourself. Pick a place that is safe and clear of obstacles. A grassy area at your local part or the hallway inside your house are good places to give this exercise a try.

It doesn’t take much to benefit. Just think about the problem at hand and take five or ten steps backward. Note what ideas come to you and then try again.

You’ll enjoy some physical benefits from walking backward, too. It works your muscles in a different way, which is always good. It also improves your balance.
Walking backward is an innovative and easy way to give your mental and physical health a boost.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace

Manage Your Stress at Work to Prevent Depression

Depression is a tough thing to deal with. It steals your motivation and your energy. By making it hard to choose a course of action and then follow through, it creates its own downward spiral. You know you need help, but it seems to take so much effort to find it.

A growing understanding of depression means that it’s easier to take steps to prevent it in the first place. Like with any disease, prevention of depression is certainly better than treating it once it sets it.

Work place stress can trigger episodes of depression. Researchers found that people who experience ongoing stress at work are nearly twice as likely to battle depression than people who are faced with workplace stress and find ways to reduce it.

That means if you’re dealing with a stressful workplace, you’ll do yourself a favor by finding ways to reduce the stress.

The first step is to identify the source of your stress. Do you have to deal with a hostile boss or coworker? Are you constantly struggling with high-pressure deadlines? Do you just hate what you do?

Understanding the source of your stress can guide you in the best ways to deal with it. Finding a working compromise with hostile coworkers or taking a project management class to help you better deal with deadlines are two ideas.

There are also things you can do in the course of your day that can help to reduce the stress you are feeling.

First, recognize and accept that things take time to complete. Trying to force yourself to complete an hour-long task in a half hour will only frustrate you and negatively impact the quality of your work.

Next, make sure you set clear boundaries with your coworkers and your boss. If somebody speaks to you in a way that’s abusive, let them know that it’s not okay. If you have a full schedule and are given another project that makes your deadlines impossible, ask for priorities from your boss and be clear about when things can reasonably be done.

Finally, take time each hour to breathe properly. When you get stressed, you tend to take shallow breaths. This puts more stress on your body. At the top of each hour, pause and focus on breathing deeply for a minute.

Reducing work place stress takes planning and it might even require that you stretch your comfort zone a little bit. But it’s well worth it in the end. You’ll do better work and enjoy better mental health.

Stay well,
Meghan Krohn

Do Healthy Choices Put You at a Disadvantage?

So you walk into a fast food restaurant, and you look at the menu. You could have a burger and fries or you could have salad with grilled chicken. You debate for a moment. You consider the salad, but then decide to go with the burger and fries.

Do you feel guilty?

New research shows that you probably don’t. It turns out that healthy items on the menu actually make it easier for people to choose unhealthy options.

In a study conducted at Duke University in North Carolina, researchers found that you are more likely to choose a really unhealthy food from a menu that contains healthy options than if the menu doesn’t contain healthy options at all.

When given the choice between a bacon cheeseburger, a chicken sandwich, a fish sandwich and a veggie burger, 37 percent of people will choose the bacon cheeseburger. If you take away the veggie burger as a choice, only 17 percent will choose the bacon cheeseburger.

Researchers found that people give themselves credit for at least considering a healthier choice, and then eat whatever they want.

So, what does this mean for you?

Hopefully being aware of this particular psychological quirk will help you counter it. If you walk into a fast food restaurant with the intention of eating light, remember this study and stick to your guns.

Probably, the best bet is to avoid the fast food restaurant all together and visit a local deli instead.

Stay well,

Danny Wallace

A Supplement to Relieve Your Allergies

Spring has arrived! Finally. And with it comes allergies.

If you suffer from pollen and other outdoor—or indoor—allergies, a study appearing in this month’s issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has good news for you.

Researchers found that supplementing with folic acid can help relieve your allergy symptoms. When you have allergies, your body’s immune system produces more IgE antibodies than it needs to. The result is they typical allergy response—watery eyes, sneezing, and a runny nose.

However, people who have higher levels of folic acid in their system also have less IgE antibodies—that means fewer allergy symptoms.

Currently researchers don’t fully understand how folic acid works to reduce IgE production, so further research in merited before doctors start using folic acid supplements to treat allergies.

That being said, many people don’t get enough folic acid from their diets as it is, so if you suffer from allergies you should at least make sure you’re getting some folic acid from your multi-vitamin. You need between 400 and 800 mcg each day between food and your supplements.

In addition to folic acid, there are other supplements that you can consider for allergy relief.

One of my favorites is quercetin. Quercetin is a bioflavonoid found in fruits and vegetables like apples and red onions. When taken as a supplement quercetin helps to keep your cells from releasing histamines that produce allergy symptoms. Rather than reducing the level of IgE antibodies, quercetin works to reduce the reaction of your cells to the antibodies.

Another good supplement is gamma linolenic acid, or GLA. This is an essential fatty acid that helps to reduce inflammation. Some research shows that people with allergies tend to have lower levels of GLA in their systems. By supplementing with GLA, you might lower your allergy symptoms. The best way to supplement with GLA is to take evening primrose oil.

Allergies can make the nicest weather seem miserable, but with these supplements, you can begin to bring your allergies under control… and then you can love the summer again.

Stay well,
Meghan Krohn