New Hampshire Health News Digest

"Change or Die," the Book, and Resolutions | The Fast Company Blog | Fast Company Of course, any kind of profound change is very challenging. The fact that got me started on this two-year project was that 90 percent of patients with severe heart disease fail to change their unhealthy lifestyles even after their doctors tell them that they're in a "change or die" situation. What can we do to improve the odds and make those New Years resolutions stick? Start by realizing that it's hard to do away with our "problems" when those "problems" are actually our attempted "solutions" to deeper issues. For example, you might think that overeating is your problem, and so your New Years resolution is to go on a diet and lose weight. But what if overeating is the way you try to solve more fundamental problems such as stress, anxiety, loneliness, and existential despair? Overeating is an "attempted solution" to those deeper troubles....

USPharmacist.com; Protective Role of Vitamin D on the Cardiovascular System Heart disease is a broad term that describes a range of diseases that affect the cardiovascular system and result in approximately 630,000 deaths annually in the United States.1 Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death of both men and women above the age of 35 among all racial and ethnic groups.2 While risk factors such as increased age, male gender, and family history are nonmodifiable, others, such as smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension, physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes mellitus, and stress are preventable.2 Another possible modifiable risk factor, vitamin D deficiency, has been identified and has caused debates in the literature as the protective role of vitamin D on the cardiovascular system continues to be investigated. This article will expand on this proposed phenomenon, providing deeper insight into recently published literature, as well as discuss the pharmacist’s role in pr...

domain-b.com : Healthy eating: Movement comes with appetite : A body that is provided with food too often gets caught up in the maelstrom of a lack of exercise, obesity and ultimately diabetes. The trigger is a molecular switch that is controlled by insulin, a new study by scientists from ETH Zurich has revealed. [...] The key switch player in this is a transcription factor called Foxa2. Transcription factors are proteins that make sure other genes are activated and converted into proteins. Foxa2 is found in the liver, where it influences fat-burning, but also in two important neuron populations in the hypothalamus - the region of the brain that controls the daily rhythm, sleep, intake of food and sexual behavior. The control element for Foxa2 activity is insulin, in both the liver and the hypothalamus. If a person or animal ingests food, the beta cells in the pancreas release insulin, which blocks Foxa2. When fasting, there is a lack of insulin and Foxa2 is active. In the brain, the s...

Magnesium and inflammation | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. As the inflammatory hypothesis becomes more accepted, more and more physicians will be checking C-reactive protein levels—along with a few other inflammatory yardsticks—to determine the inflammatory status of their patients. If the C-reactive protein level is found to be elevated, then steps can be taken, not just to reduce the C-reactive protein, but to treat the underlying inflammation so that the C-reactive protein—a marker of this underlying inflammation—will normalize. One easy step in the inflammation reduction process is to make sure magnesium intake is high. The most recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition contains an article showing that as consumption of magnesium fell, the levels of C-reactive protein went up. The paper points out that the majority of adults in the US (68%) don’t consume even the RDA of magnesium, which is, as far as I’m concerned, woefully low. Magnesium is an u...

Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration. Man fasted and loses 276 lbs.