Healthy Aging: Are You Aging Faster than You Need To? By Joseph McCaffrey, MD, FACS

Advanced Glycosylated end-products is a mouthful. It's a lot easier to remember the initials: AGE. Those initials are especially fitting since these compounds accelerate aging.

Under certain conditions, glucose combines abnormally with proteins. The result is called an advanced glycosylated end-product. These compounds are very reactive, so they then go on to combine with other proteins. That's when the damage starts.

AGE compounds have been extensively studied in diabetic patients because researchers suspect they initiate the major complications of diabetes -- blindness and kidney failure (diabetes is a leading cause of both). AGEs appear to bind to the membranes of the cells lining blood vessels, interfering with their normal functions.

AGEs also make LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) more prone to oxidize and then deposit in a vessel wall, ultimately leading to hardening of the arteries.

In short, to avoid aging, avoid AGEs.

AGEs develop in many ways. One, as you probably guessed from the association with diabetes, has to do with high blood sugars. A high level of blood sugar drives more glucose to combine with proteins, thereby making AGEs.

In fact, physicians use blood levels of one AGE -- hemoglobin A1C -- to judge how well diabetics are doing in controlling their blood sugars. But it's not only diabetics who need to be concerned about AGEs. They form in all of us when our blood sugar rises sharply, as it does after eating sugary or refined foods.

And elevated blood glucose isn't the only way AGEs get into our system. We get them from our diet as well. Many foods contain AGEs. Just how much depends on how the food is cooked.

Methods that cook food dry at high heats, like frying or broiling, increase AGEs. Cooking food in moisture and at low temperatures keeps AGEs low. The difference can be significant. For example, an uncooked chicken breast has 692 AGE kilounits. Cook it in a stew and it rises to 1010 kilounits. Broiling, on the other hand, raises it to 5245 and frying to 6651!¹

We all know we should avoid sugars and refined foods and some of us have gotten the word that charred food contains cancer-promoting compounds. Now we have another good reason to pay attention to these dietary factors -- minimizing our AGE levels.

Reference

1. Goldberg T, et al; J Am Diet Assoc 2004; 104:1287-1291.

[Ed. Note: Joseph F. McCaffrey, MD, FACS is a board-certified surgeon with extensive experience in alternative medicine, including certification as a HeartMath Trainer. His areas of expertise include mind-body interaction and cognitive restructuring. Dr. McCaffrey strives to help people attain their optimum level of vitality through attention to all aspects of wellness.]

Nutrients & Health: Lessons Learned from Too Much Vitamin A By Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

Too much of anything can kill you, even vitamins. Vitamin A serves as a good example. In the early 1960s, scientists found that vitamin A boosted immunity and prevented blindness in third world countries.

A study in Indonesia showed that vitamin A supplementation prevented up to a remarkable 50% of childhood deaths caused by disease.(1) As people began to learn of its benefits, supplementation became common. That's when scientists discovered that it was possible to overdose on vitamin A at a mere 20 mg per day.

People who had overdosed on vitamin A had symptoms like water in the brain, vomiting, fatigue, constipation, bone pain, and severe headaches. Dry pale skin also occurred.

Scientists then began looking at vitamin A precursors as a means of preventing toxicity. (A vitamin precursor is a natural substance that can be transformed into the vitamin itself.)

They found that the human body uses beta-carotene to produce vitamin A, but surprisingly, only when it's needed! This means that utilizing its "natural intelligence," the body ensures that you have plenty of vitamin A courtesy of beta-carotene -- but won't let you overdose! Once again, Mother Nature proves to be our best teacher.

To ensure that your body safely gets plenty of disease-fighting vitamin A, eat a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene. The best sources are sweet potatoes, spinach and goji berries.

Reference

1. Jennings, E. Apricots and Oncogenes. McGuire & Beckley Books, Cleveland, Ohio, 1993.

[Ed. Note: Shane Ellison is known as "The People's Chemist." He holds a Master's degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand industry experience with drug research, design and synthesis. He is the author of Health Myths Exposed and The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs.]

Weight Loss: Why Some People Can Keep the Weight Off By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS

Anyone who's ever lost weight knows that the biggest challenge is often keeping it off once you've lost it! Much research has been devoted to identifying the habits of successful people in the weight loss game. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control¹ adds to this literature. It turns out that following a few very simple rules vastly increases your chance of keeping weight off once you've lost it.

Researchers examined data from a mailed survey of US adults aged 18 or older and analyzed data on:

1. The number of daily fruit and vegetable servings
2. Minutes per week of physical activity
3. Dining out behavior
4. Confidence in one's own ability to successfully follow healthy behavioral strategies.

Here's what they found: Eating at fast-food restaurants -- even as little as two times per week --was associated with significantly less success in weight maintenance. And adults who consumed five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a week and racked up 150 minutes a week of activity were more successful at keeping weight off than sedentary folks who ate less than 5 servings of vegetables and fruits.

Here's the take-home point. The combined approach of staying out of fast-food restaurants, consuming five or more fruit and vegetable servings per day, and attaining 150 minutes (or more) of some kind of physical activity per week was a common successful strategy among those keeping weight off.

That's a strategy that's doable, health supporting, and obviously -- eminently successful.

Reference

1. Prev. Chronic Dis. 2008 Jan;5(1):A11. Epub 2007 Dec 15.

[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master's degree in psychology. Dr. Bowden is also a life coach, motivational speaker, former personal trainer and author of the award-winning book, Living the Low Carb Life, as well as his new book, The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth.]

Exercise & Fitness: It's Time to Drop the Exercises That Don't Work By Craig Ballantyne

My parents have lived in the same house in the same small town for longer than I have been alive. And I leave the big city of Toronto to go visit them quite often. As a result, I go to a small town YMCA to do my workouts when I'm there.

It's at the Y where I come across exercises I thought had died off a long time ago. But to my surprise, I still see men and women doing useless, ineffective exercises while they try to burn off their belly fat, lose inches from their waists, and tone their muscles.

Here are 3 of the most ineffective techniques I've come across recently...

1. Broomstick Twists
You know this classic move. Put the broomstick across your shoulders and rotate side to side, with the hopes it will whittle your waist down inch by inch.

It should be no surprise to any one by now, but this doesn't work. All that twisting is a waste of time. If you really want to lose belly fat, you have to do a lot more than broomstick twists.

A better option: Interval training to burn off belly fat. For example, after a warm-up, do a 1-minute interval, working at a pace slightly harder than your normal cardio intensity. Then, significantly decrease the intensity for a 1-minute recovery period. Repeat 6 times and finish with a cool down.

2. Triceps Exercises
If you're a competitive bodybuilder, then triceps and biceps exercises are fine to have in your program. But if you are a busy man or woman who needs more results in less time, doing any type of isolation exercise (such as triceps kickbacks) is a waste of your precious time.

A better option: Any type of pushup -- including kneeling pushups or close-grip pushups (where your hands are about shoulder-width apart). Your triceps along with the rest of your body will benefit as you burn fat and sculpt your body.

3. Exercises Standing on a Ball or Other Gadget
Lots of trainers are asking their clients to perform traditional exercises while standing on balls, half-balls, and inflatable disks. This is not only a waste of time, but also dangerous! Imagine the consequences if someone fell off a ball while doing an exercise.

A better option: Traditional exercises performed standing on the floor. This will enable you to get stronger and even improve your balance. Strength is the key to any gains in balance, fat loss, and muscle mass. By doing exercises on a wobbly surface, you reduce the strength gains and therefore all the rest of the benefits.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men's Health magazine.]

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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs [Issue 02-15-08] which offers alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/

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