A healthy diet that helps keep you physically fit may also cut your risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease and depression. That is what the research shows and I have no doubt that they are absolutely correct. It just makes common sense if we took the time to think about it.

There have been two recent studies which report that if you follow a Mediterranean-style diet you can preserve your memory and ability to think better than those who follow a poor diet. The Mediterranean diet differs from others because it contains fish, lean meat, little or no red meat, lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grain, nuts and legumes, olive oil as the primary source of fat and moderate consumption of wine.

I also think the DASH diet, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, could also produce similar results if it were processed through the same research. This is a diet which emphasizes large portions of fruits, vegetables, grains and plant proteins from legumes and nuts along with more moderate servings of low or non-fat dairy products and small servings of meat, poultry and fish. The total package is a low saturated fat diet that is also low in cholesterol and high in dietary fiber, potassium, calcium, and magnesium and high in total protein but low in animal protein.  This diet is available free from the National Institutes of Health’s website.

The two diets are very similar in that they both emphasize on plant based foods. Fish is a major player in the Mediterranean diet and less accentuated in the DASH diet. Both, however, include fish and there is evidence from studies which show omega-3 fatty acids, which is one of the advantages of fatty fish, do help the brain with its normal functions. There are also indications that people who ate fish reduce their risk for depression because omega-3 fatty acids raise the levels of serotonin and dopamine, two brain chemicals that are thought to play an important role in depression. There is also some conversation that omega-3 fatty acids seem to reduce the levels of brain chemicals that make you feel anxious and stressed out.

It is no secret that eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise have got to be the best combination for staying healthy whatever your age. And it makes even more sense that what is good for the heart should be good for your brain.

More about eating for heart and brain health in tomorrow’s post. If you have any questions write them in the comment box and I’ll either answer them in my next posts or respond personally to you.

To your success at healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky

PS  Here’s a link to guidelines for the DASH diet

Changing your eating habits can reduce your cholesterol numbers and put you in an elite category.

When researchers determine normal aging they tend to rely on averages. They take the range of values in a given age group for a test, such as cholesterol levels, and then compute the mean. We generally assume that being within the normal range for our age group is a good thing. It may not be!

For instance, back in the 1990s the Nurses Health Study determined that low-fat diets, regular exercise and low body weight were important to keeping cholesterol down and living a quality life. However, the National Health Nutrition Examination Survey found that the average woman eats more fat, gets less exercise and has a higher body mass index than those who live the longest.

This means that when scientists compare a statistically normal 60 year old to a 40 year old or a 20 year old, they are probably observing not only the effects of aging, but also the effects of 20 to 40 years of excess dietary fat, inactivity, extra weight plus all the negative environmental factors over the years.  Keep this in mind when you take a good look at your self and compare yourself to others.

Having said this, even with years of unhealthy eating under your belt, you can make a few changes in your diet that can reduce your cholesterol and improve your heart health.

Choose healthier fats. Reduce the amount of saturated fats you consume by limiting red meat and dairy products in your diet. Start out by choosing leaner cuts of meat and low-fat dairy products.

Select whole grains such as whole wheat pasta, whole wheat flour and brown rice. Read my post in  Balance Your Health blog   for more information.

Stock up on fruits and vegetables. Whenever you can, purchase the local fruits and vegetables when they are in season. They should be fresher and contain more nutrients. Experiment with veggie-based casseroles and soups.

Eat fish rich in omega 3 fatty acids. Omega -3 fatty acids can help lower your LDL the bad cholesterol. Some types of fish such as salmon, mackerel and herring are rich in omega 3. Other good sources of omega-3 are walnuts, flaxseeds and almonds.

I do have one more change you need to make in your lifestyle habits to complete the picture. I’ll write about that in tomorrow’s post.

To your success at healthy lifestyle changes,

Ruthan Brodsky

As we get older our cardiovascular system changes. The wall of the heart’s left ventricle, or pumping chamber, becomes a little thicker with age due to an increase in the size of the myocytes or heart muscle cells and a build up of collagen. Thank goodness our heart is highly adaptive and it can modify the way it works to accommodate changes in the vessels that feed it. Read the rest of this entry

As we age our arteries become less elastic, probably due to changes in collagen and elastin in the arterial walls. This reduces the ability of our arteries to relax to accommodate changes in blood volume as the heart beats and blood pressure increases slightly. Although most of us, especially in modern cultures, develop some degree of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries with age, how much plaque is due to age and how much plaque is due to genetics and diet is not quite absolutely known but they all contribute.

The post from yesterday was an introduction to statins and how it impacts cholesterol. This post focuses on the statins and their side effects.

Statins today include atorvastatin or Lipitor, simvastatin or Zocor, and rosuvastatin or Crestor. They all lower the bad cholesterol by blocking a liver enzyme which controls cholesterol production in the liver. Cholesterol, however, is necessary for cells to function. We need our liver to keep manufacturing some. When the waxy fat-like substances become too elevated they cause conditions like artherosclerosis where plaque, which are fatty deposits, narrow and even block the arteries. Not good. Now the blood cannot flow to your heart and you have angina or chest pain. If a piece of the plaque ruptures you now have a blood clot and that raises your chances of both strokes and heart attacks.

Statins are well tolerated by most people.  However 15 percent of patients report side effects.  The most common are weakness and pain in the muscles and joints which usually stops if the dose is lowered or the patient stops taking the medication. Headaches and a rash may also occur. They are also known to cause nausea, stomach upset and some people have either constipation or diarrhea. All of these side effects are enhanced with increasing age and if you have a smaller body mass or small frame. There is no real evidence, however, to support that statins cause memory loss. At least not yet.

The problem is how to tell when your muscles naturally seem to be achier because you are older or whether it is a side effect from a drug. One boundary marker would be if your muscles started hurting or if you or someone else notices that you have become weaker in a short period of time. You can find out if this is true by stopping the drug for whatever period of time your doctor suggests, and then going back on. If the symptoms are gone when the patient is off the drug and then return when patients are put back on the drug you will know for sure. Many people know the first time they are taken off the drug and report feeling normal again within a short period of time.

In my next post I’ll write about what you need to do to stay healthy while you are on statins. In the meantime, send your questions to me by email at ruthb@gamil.com. If I don’t get the answers in the blog post I’ll reply by email.

To your healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Ads for statin drugs are everywhere: magazines, TV, and Google search pages. In fact, any place where there is advertising one of the pharmaceutical companies will have an ad for a statin telling the reader or listener to ask their doctor about this or that product.

The sad fact is that these companies know exactly what they are doing. As you well know by this time, the passage of time can lead to wisdom and even some street smarts, but it sure plays havoc with the body. No matter how hard we work at living a healthy lifestyle, age alone is the principal risk factor for many illnesses including arthritis, heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis.

Most of us have heard of cholesterol although we may not know exactly what it does. We probably also know that there are two kinds of cholesterol one of which is bad for us, but we often get that mixed p too. It is the LDL or low density lipoprotein that is bad and too much can lead to a build up of deposits called plaques on the inner walls of our arteries making them hard and narrow. That can lead to things like high blood pressure. When plaques tear or rupture, blood clots can form and these clots can block blood flow to the heart muscle leading to a heart attack.

Statin drugs are touted as the latest miracle. These are the cholesterol lowering drugs because statins block a substance your liver needs for the natural production of cholesterol. This process then depletes cholesterol in your liver which causes your liver to remove cholesterol that is circulating in your blood.

Close to 34 million Americans now take statins and its thought that another 11 million would benefit from taking them. The drugs are proven to reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes and death in patients with established coronary artery disease (CAD). Recent studies have also indicated they may be useful in delaying or preventing the development of CAD in patients who have not yet been diagnosed.

Enough information for now. My goal is to help you understand cholesterol and statins, their impact and the choices you have for a healthy aging. In the next two or three posts I will describe cholesterol and how it works, explain statins and how they work, discuss the side effects of the drug and then what I know about the latest research and what ever else I think is important that you also may want to know. If you have any questions about cholesterol and statins, now is a good time to ask. I will share them and my answers, if I have them, with our readers.

To your best years yet for healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Cutting salt in your diet means lowering your blood pressure and reducing your risk for disease. Dozens of research studies have reported this over the years.  Current research results not only do not repudiate the old results but recommend that the guidelines for high blood pressure be narrowed and made more stringent. No matter what way you look at it, a decrease in sodium in the diet, even among people with only modest elevated blood pressure, lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Read the rest of this entry

Sometimes, especially when our lives are so complicated, it is difficult to understand that something so simple as reducing our salt intake can reduce our risk of stroke and heart attacks, especially as we get older.  Actually, cutting back on salt for better health is no secret.  You cannot pick up a magazine for women or a health magazine for men without some monthly article focusing on salt reduction.  The problem is so few of us give any action to this concern.

If you watch the TV Food Network for any length of time, you will find our that there are a dozen or so different kinds of salts, some of them very exotic and very pricey.  It does not matter what color or flavor or what the origins of the salt may be, salt is salt.  Too much salt from the sea and too much salt from a mine will have the same bad effects.  True, sea salt may have some redeeming qualities but too much of it is not good.

There are several  real problems with table salt.   It does contribute to high blood pressure, especially with people who have kidney problems.It can harm your kidneys.   The other  concern is that salt or sodium chloride is an adrenal stimulant, which triggers the release of adrenal hormones, especially those natural steroids that resist inflammation.   When these hormones are at high levels in the blood, you are going to feel a sense of well being.

Using this reasoning you could say salt is a drug. It is!  It is a habituating drug and food manufacturers know this.  What are the 3 ingredients in our fast food industry that have contributed to the obesity problem: sugar, fat and salt?  The problem is we are so used to stimulating our adrenals we do not notice it any more.  All we notice is when there is not enough salt and then our food tastes flat.  People are uncomfortable when there is no salt shaker on the table.

Not only does salt wear down our adrenals but it increases our risk of high blood pressure.  If you do not have high blood pressure and are not worried, think again.  Ninety percent of people in the US develop hypertension because blood pressure tends to rise as you age and they have been exposed to excesses of sodium for a long time.

Think about this.  Most of do not need to eat salt as a nutrient.  There is enough sodium in one dill pickle to run your body for a year.  There is enough natural sodium in many vegetables to supply your need for sodium without using salt.  More than this is probably causing some kind of damage.

More in tomorrow’s post about salt and your health. If you have any questions type them in the comment box and I will answer them either personally or in another blog post.

To your success at healthy aging without overdoing the salt.

Ruthan Brodsky

Strength training improves your thinking was the topic of yesterday’s post. Since yesterday I also found an earlier study that found evidence that engaging even in moderate physical activity such as brisk walking, swimming or yoga in mid life can help turn the clock back on the aging of your brain. After 6 months of more intense aerobic exercise, there was an improvement in the cognitive abilities of attention, concentration, organization, planning and multitasking. That information was from Dr. Laura Baker of the University Of Washington School Of Medicine and was reported in the Archives of Neurology, January 2010.

In the meantime, here is what you can do. After you doctor has given you the okay, focus on your strengths, not your limitations. If you cannot jog, then walk. If you cannot use the treadmill then try the stationery bike. If you are recovering from injuries, do chair exercises.

Measure your progress. I wear a pedometer while walking; in fact I wear it throughout the day. You can also keep a workout dairy.

Combine your new exercise program with a healthy eating program to improve your weight and give you more energy.

You do not need to purchase expensive equipment for resistance training. You can also use elastic bands or your own body weight for resistance exercises such as push ups.

Find a friend and buddy up. Now you have included more socializing and peer support both of which are closely associated with better well being. You don’t always have to go to the gym. Look for exercise programs at your community center which usually have programs for all ages and abilities.

If you have another suggestion, type it in the comment box and I will share it with our readers.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Strength training together with regular aerobic exercise can improve our ability to think. That is what 2 recent studies reported in the January 2010 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. As a bonus, the research also showed that they also improved how well we carry out our daily activities. The bottom line is that physical exercise makes you stronger physically and mentally.

The term used in the research to compare cognitive abilities was called executive function. The researchers included planning and organizing, strategizing and processing things in executive function.  (I have never heard the term executive function described like that but it struck me immediately that any mother with babies or teen agers carries out those same 4 functions daily. Am I being overly sensitive?) Read the rest of this entry

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about my three top foods for enhancing your memory. Today I am writing about the runner ups. Most of these foods contain antioxidants which help eliminate free radicals from our bodies. We all naturally produce free radicals as by products so it is important to eat foods high in antioxidants to keep the free radicals from getting out of hand. Read the rest of this entry