UK govt health adviser warns against drinking orange juice

Contrary to the popular beliefs about the health benefits of fruit juices, the UK government’s leading adviser on obesity has said people should stop taking orange juice due to high sugar content in it.

Professor Susan Jebb, head of diet and obesity research at the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research unit in Cambridge, UK, says orange juice has as much sugar as Coca-Cola and warned that fruit juice should not be counted as part of a healthy five-a-day diet.

“Fruit juice isn’t the same as intact fruit and it has got as much sugar as many classical sugar drinks. It is also absorbed very fast so by the time it gets to your stomach your body doesn’t know whether it’s Coca-Cola or orange juice, frankly,” she told The Sunday Times.

The development comes after the health experts urged the food industry to cut 30 per cent from processed in the UK while warning that sugar has become as dangerous as alcohol or tobacco.

They also claim that reduction in sugar could shave 100 calories from each person’s daily intake and reverse the UK’s growing obesity epidemic.

While many branded fruit juice contain as little as 10 percent fruit juice with lots of added sugar, several research has linked intake of sugary sodas, fruit juices with an elevated risk of obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Professor Susan Jebb, who said she had herself stopped drinking orange juice also asked people to dilute it with water and drink if they cannot quit juice.

“I have to say it is a relatively easy thing to give up. Swap it and have a piece of real fruit. If you are going to drink it, you should dilute it”, she added.

Source: Zee news

 


Lack of outdoor play said to hurt children’s development

Teachers, parents and health officials in southern Ontario say kids today simply don’t know how to play outside.

“We’re not talking about structured play. We’re talking about free unstructured play out of doors,” said Sharon Sheshlia, a health and physical education consultant for the Greater Essex County District School Board. “When I was growing up and when I was raising my own children it was ‘go outside and play. Here are your boundaries … and don’t come in until I call you or the street lights come on.’

“So, the kids developed imagination, played with kids in the neighbourhood and developed problem solving skills. They did that on their own and it wasn’t taught.”

Children vulnerable to smartphone, tablet addictions Get your kids to go outside in the winter! CBC’s Live Right Now

Sheshlia said modern neighbourhoods don’t encourage outdoor play.

“In some suburban areas, you’re lucky if you have a sidewalk,” she said. “You don’t see kids outside anymore. It’s a desert. Every year, there’s less and less.”

The Ontario Ministry of Education has provided school boards additional funding for “outdoor education” for the past two years.

This funding goes to all publicly funded school boards. It is to be used to provide students with outdoor education experiences and learning such as camping, hiking, biking, rope climbing courses and visits to nature centres

The focus is on structured outdoor learning activities led by adults. Sheshlia said children lack the ability to play freely and unstructured.

The Ontario Ministry of Health recommends children between the ages of one and five get 60 minutes of unstructured play every day.

“Physical activity is very important for the healthy development of your child during the first six years of life. It is even more important in the first three years of life when brain development is accelerated,” the ministry says on its website. “As children get older, physical activity plays a key role in their ability to learn and it improves cognitive function, concentration, self-esteem, social skills and mood.”

Public schools in Windsor-Essex are phasing out traditional playgrounds, with their slides and monkey bars. They will be replaced with “naturalized playgrounds” which include large hills, walking paths and grass mazes.

The City of Windsor, meanwhile, had planned on selling 17 parks it deemed “surplus.” The plan was put on hold.

Although, the city is still looking to sell South Tilston Park in west Windsor and Long Park in the east end.

“Form follows function. If you design it, they will come,” Sheshlia said.

Sheshlia said parents today have a perception that the world is no longer safe.

“There’s a fear factor with parents. Even though the statistics don’t bear out that things are any worse or bad,” she said. “Things are getting better as far as crime statistics go.”

Technology partly blamed

Sheshlia said technology also deters kids from playing outside.

“The internet is a time waster. It sucks kids in,” she said.
Joey Tremblay, 10, spends an average of two hours each day playing video games at his Windsor, Ont., home.

“I like playing video games more than outside because you get to do whatever you want,” Tremblay said.

His dad, Michael Tremblay said the time spent inside and playing video games is affecting his son’s behaviour.

Michael Tremblay said it affects his son’s ability to socialize and share. He would like to see his son go outside and play a game of tag.

Sheshlia said kids who don’t play outside don’t learn to socialize, share or problem solve.

“Their problem-solving and decision making skills aren’t being developed as much. They may not have their negotiating skills developed to their full extent,” she said.

According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 90 per cent of Canadian children are gaming and six out of 10 households have a gaming console.

Joey Tremblay said he “sometimes” puts up a fight when he’s asked to go outside and play and that he “would cry” if his dad took video games away.

“There’s been days where it’s taken me two hours to get him out the door to play with his friends,” Michael Tremblay said.

Michael Tremblay is a gamer, too.

“I’m being a bit hypocritical. So what I try to do is, do my gaming when he’s in bed so it doesn’t look like dad’s gaming 24/7,” he said.

Technology’s reach stretches all the way down to newborns today.

Source: cbc news


Tech-infused bed called x12 monitors heart rate, eases snoring

If you think a bed that adjusts how firm or soft the mattress is is innovative, get this—now your bed can monitor your heart rate and sleep patterns, too.

If you think a bed that adjusts how firm or soft the mattress is is innovative, get this—now your bed can monitor your heart rate and sleep patterns, too.

Select Comfort, maker of the Sleep Number bed, revealed their latest product at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Time.com reported.

The x12 bed has a wireless connection that allows built-in sensors to track your sleep patterns, monitor your heart rate and study your sleep movement. If you have a partner who snores, you can hit the Partner Snore button to tilt the head section of your partner’s side of the bed upward by six degrees – just enough to help them stop snoring.

You can also review your data in the morning with the connected app to see your sleep score – and compare it to your partner’s score.

This tech-savvy bed goes on sale February 8 for $8,000 for the queen-size version.

Source: news.nom


Parents’ attitude linked to kids’ chronic pain

Adolescents whose parents suffer from chronic pain may be more likely to develop ongoing pain too – especially if the parent tends to ‘catastrophize’ pain, according to new research.

“Children are careful observers of everything that we do as parents, and how we respond to our pain and to their pain is no different,” said Anna Wilson, a psychologist at Oregon Health & Science University who led the study.

Sometimes acting worried or repeatedly asking how a child is feeling can lead them to worry that the problem they are having is serious, even if it isn’t, Wilson said.

“Unfortunately, we know from many research studies that this (misplaced) worry tends to make pain worse,” she told Reuters Health.

In the study, 178 kids between the ages of 11 and 14 were recruited through their schools. They filled out questionnaires asking about ongoing physical issues such as backaches, stomach pain and headaches, as well as how much the pain interfered with their everyday lives. The adolescents’ parents answered similar questions about their own pain.

Both kids and parents also filled out surveys focused on how they coped with the child’s pain, such as whether parent or child felt helpless about the condition or blew the pain out of proportion.

About one-fourth of adolescents and two-thirds of parents in the study reported having chronic pain, and parental pain was significantly linked to the likelihood of that parent’s child having pain.

Having a parent with pain and having a parent who magnified the significance of pain boosted the risk that a child would also put more emphasis on the pain’s importance, the team reports in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

The take-home point, according to Wilson, is that the most helpful way to approach ongoing pain in a child – such as repeated headaches or muscle aches – probably differs from the way a parent might act when the child has a short-term illness like stomach flu or a sprained ankle.

For that reason, it can be helpful for parents with chronic pain to seek outside help to pinpoint their own strengths, and to assist their kids in developing healthy ways to cope with pain and discomfort.

“Being a parent is hard; pain just makes it harder,” Wilson said.

“If you are a parent who has chronic pain and you are worried about how it might be impacting your child, talk with your own doctor, a pain psychologist or your child’s doctor,” she said.

Source: Reuters


The art of yoga

It’s practiced by millions of Americans who credit it with bringing them better health, physical fitness, and serenity.

And then there are those who see it differently . . .

“How many of you would like to stay here for an hour and twist yourself into agonizing positions, ultimately wrapping your leg around your head?” Alec Baldwin asked a crowd. “How many of you would rather come with me to the movies and eat a pizza?”

Yes, that’s Alec Baldwin, the famously un-serene bad boy, who not long ago made headlines, again, when he got into an ugly scuffle with a photographer staking out his family.

When he spoke with Braver, just before that incident, he made no secret of the fact that his main interest in yoga isn’t anger management; it’s that his wife Hilaria is an instructor.

“When I came to her class the first time and watched her teach her class, all I wanted to do was, like, pour a glass of scotch and light a cigarette and just say, ‘This is never happening,'” Baldwin said.

But Baldwin was there — at least in body — when his wife taught an unusual class right in the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery in Washington, amid priceless works of art.

It’s the first major exhibit about yoga ever mounted in the U.S.
The Baldwins chaired the opening gala and helped sponsor the show, which Hilaria Baldwin says calls attention to the ancient origins of a practice that began in India some 2,500 years ago.

“By looking at the history, you see how deep the roots are,” Hilaria said, “and how important it has been through centuries. Now it kind of brings it full circle.”

Curator Debra Diamond, who began working on the exhibition in 2009, said the various depictions of yoga masters, known as yogis and yoginis, show that there was never one set tradition for yoga.

Some forms have links to Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions.

One fragment of sculpture is from the 2nd century. Its gaunt figures, said Diamond represented renouncers — “those who gave up society, who began fasting and meditating in order to attain enlightenment and omniscience.”

But yoga practice was often completely secular. Kings and maharajas who believed that yoga could help them achieve supernatural powers, like levitation, commissioned a wealth of sculptures, paintings, and manuscripts.

So what does the word “yoga” mean?

“The Sanskrit root of yoga, which is yug, means to hold, to join, to unite,” said Diamond. “But the term yoga itself has probably more meanings than any other Sanskrit word. These range from the yolk, the harness of an ox, to the union between opposites.”

Americans, including Henry David Thoreau of Walden Pond fame, became interested in yoga as early as the mid-19th century.

But yoga later developed a somewhat less noble image.

Howard Thurston, a famous magician of the late 1800s, traveled the country claiming to have supernatural yoga-style powers, performing illusions like the suspended rope trick.

Diamond said many American first came to know of yogi through the conjuring of exotic stereotypes about India that were rather dubious. “Yogis became an embarrassment for Indians as well as for the rest of the world,” said Diamond.

But yoga’s image began to change after a 1938 film showing an athletic series of poses and postures to promote physical and mental fitness, developed by a 5-foot, 2-inch yogi named Krishnamacharya.

And today a lot of us are striking poses: A 2012 survey by Yoga Journal found that some 20 million adult Americans say they do yoga, up from 15.8 million in 2008.

But how real are the health benefits?

Dr. Lorenzo Cohen is the director of integrative medicine at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, which offers yoga classes for patients and employees alike.

Dr. Cohen says, of the clinical trials that have been conducted, including some at M.D. Anderson, “We see that yoga can help improve fatigue, help improve sleep dysfunction in cancer survivors, as well as improve physical functioning.

“You’re engaging your mind, you’re engaging your breath, your lungs,” explained Dr. Cohen. “And in some sense, simplistically, a bio-behavioral change is happening within the body. By and large, you’re going to be decreasing stress hormones. Heart rate and blood pressure are going to reduce.”

And yoga is a booming business! According to one study, Americans spend nearly $6 billion a year on yoga classes and products.

Yoga studios are found in more and more towns. There was even a yoga garden at last April’s White House Easter Egg Roll.

And instructors like Hilaria Baldwin can teach even a yoga-phobic reporter (left) a move or two.

She persuaded her husband Alec to appear in her video for pregnant women. [They now have a four-month-old.] And Hillaria says yoga helped her become more relaxed:

“I just stopped taking things so seriously, which was really the key to being much happier,” she said.

“Has this rubbed off on you?” Braver asked Alec Baldwin.

“Only where the paparazzi aren’t involved,” he laughed.

In fact by any stretch of the imagination, yoga takes dedication and discipline, which a lot of us know we should have, but like Alec Baldwin, we may not be able to achieve, despite our best New Year’s resolutions.

“You know, I’m somebody who I think I have, like, half-wisdom,” he told Braver. “I know what I need to do. I just don’t do it! But I’m pretty certain what I need to do. I know exactly what I need to do.”

But never fear: Yoga has always been about the quest, as well as the accomplishment.

Source: cbs news


10 Nondrug Remedies for Depression

Lifting depression without an Rx

Depression affects nearly 16 million Americans annually, and a large portion of those people take antidepressant drugs.

While antidepressants have been shown to help those with moderate to severe depression, they are usually less effective for those with mild depression.

If you don’t respond to antidepressants (or even if you do), you may want to explore nondrug remedies to lift your depression.

Exercise
Exercise can relieve depression, possibly by altering the mood-regulating brain chemicals norepinephrine and serotonin.

It may also release the endorphins responsible for the “runner’s high” that some experience.

P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, in Durham, N.C., recommends exercising three to five times a week for 20 to 30 minutes. Aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking on a treadmill, is best, but “any degree of exercise is better than none,” he says.

Light therapy
During the short, dark days of winter, some people are prone to a type of depression called seasonal affective disorder.

One way to ease symptoms may be light therapy, in which you sit near a brightly lit box that mimics outdoor light. The therapy generally starts with daily sessions of about 15 minutes and increases to up to two hours daily. The timing depends upon the severity of symptoms and the intensity of the light, which a doctor can determine. Although the therapy doesn’t cure depression, it can ease symptoms, sometimes after only a couple days.

Mood diary
Therapy that teaches people about positive thinking can relieve depression, research suggests.

Dr. Doraiswamy recommends keeping a mood diary. “This is a tool used to train someone to keep track of positive things that are happening in their lives and not let single negative events wear them down,” he says.

A mood diary keeps negative events in perspective and serves as a reminder that good days do happen.

Dr. Doraiswamy recommends not writing in a diary daily if it feels like too much work; once-a-week entries are easier to stick with.

Acupuncture
As with many alternative therapies, there isn’t a heap of data that proves acupuncture relieves depression. But a handful of research suggests it might.

One small University of Arizona study of 33 women with depression found that 64% of participants went into remission after acupuncture, compared to 27% in the no-treatment group.

In a second study in the Journal of Affective Disorders, 70 patients with a major depressive disorder who were already taking an antidepressant seemed to show more improvement if they had acupuncture, compared to those who did not.

Support groups
Support groups used to be standard in psychiatric settings, Dr. Doraiswamy says. But, he adds, they aren’t used as frequently today, although they are an excellent way to help treat mild forms of depression.

These groups provide education on depression, a community of support, and the opportunity to learn from people dealing with similar issues.

As an alternative for those not interested in talking about depression, Dr. Doraiswamy recommends just finding a group that shares your interests, whether it’s a book club or yoga

Cognitive behavioral therapy
Dr. Doraiswamy calls cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) “sophisticated education” for people with depression.

It is based on the fact that thoughts trigger feelings. Being aware of your thoughts and learning to change destructive patterns could alter the way your brain works and your reaction to situations.

CBT is considered short-term therapy, often lasting for 10 to 20 sessions. It has been shown to be as effective as medication in treating mild to moderate depression.

Fish oil
This supplement contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish, including salmon, albacore tuna, and herring.

Studies on fish oil are inconclusive, but it is thought that being deficient in this fatty acid at certain times (like during the postpartum period) can cause mood swings and depression.

In areas where consumption of foods with omega-3 is high, people tend to have lower rates of depression.

Meditation
Promising research suggests that meditation may play a role in preventing depression relapse. The research focused on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, which combines traditional meditation with cognitive behavioral approaches.

In two studies, people were treated with antidepressants until their symptoms subsided. Then one group continued taking the medication while another went on a regimen of meditation therapy.

Relapse rates for people using meditation were the same as those taking antidepressants (about 30%), and lower than those on a placebo (about 70%) in one study.

The second study found that 47% of the meditation group relapsed, compared to 60% of the people on antidepressants alone.

Yoga
Striking a pose may alleviate stress and symptoms of depression. Studies have shown that in both people with emotional distress and major depression, practicing yoga reduces stress, hostility, anxiety, and depression, and improves energy, sleep quality, and well-being.

Although there aren’t too many studies on the topic, yoga may prove to be a simple, low-risk tool for improving depression.

Source: Health

 


Meditation’s Effects Similar to Pills for Anxiety, Depression, and Pain

In a review of randomized clinical trials, Johns Hopkins researchers find that meditation is effective for combatting common mental health woes.

Meditation has been used for centuries, but its benefits have been primarily anecdotal, whether it’s a Tibetan monk blocking out pain to walk across hot coals or a college student meditating to cope with the loss of a loved one.

Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have applied scientific analysis to the practice and found that mindfulness meditation programs, which promote heightened awareness, can help with common mental health problems.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found measurable evidence of improvement in anxiety, depression, pain, and stress after eight weeks of treatment.

“For example, the effect size for the effect on depression was 0.3, which is what would be expected with the use of an anti-depressant,” the researchers said.

To come to these conclusions, researchers evaluated existing studies on meditation and rated them based on scientific standards of bias risk, precision, directness, and consistency. In the end, they analyzed 47 randomized clinical trials with a total of 3,515 participants.

Dr. Kevin Barrows, director of mindfulness programs at the University of California, San Francisco’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, said the study’s findings were “not surprising, but affirming.” He said that meditation often receives unfair criticism because studies on its effectiveness do not always meet the rigorous scientific standard of research.

“This a refutation of that,” Barrows, who was not involved in the JAMA study, told Healthline. “This is a scientifically rigorous study. It does corroborate the efficacy of mindfulness.”

What Is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation, or vipassana, involves periods of time spent becoming more aware of one’s body and surroundings. It can be as simple as counting your breaths with your eyes closed, but to get the full benefits, it takes practice.

The goal of this kind of meditation is to simply be aware of the full circumstances of being alive.

In the book Mindfulness in Plain English, the Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, writes that the goal of meditation is not to change the world around us, but to control our reaction to it.

“Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. You will learn for the first time what is truly happening to you, around you, and within you,” Gunaratana wrote. “It is a process of self-discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them, and as they occur.”

Mindfulness meditation has been used as a complimentary therapy for mental problems for generations, but the new empirical evidence may help the practice become more widely accepted in the mainstream health field.

Source: cbs news

 


Sales of diet sodas are going flat

After surging in popularity for decades, diet sodas are beginning to lose their fizz.

Concerns over chemicals they contain as well as doubts that they actually aid in weight loss are giving drinkers a new taste for water.

At the Mid City Gym in Manhattan, Ben Roman is closing in on his fourth mile on the treadmill. And he’s ready for a drink, but not the kind he used to crave.

“I don’t drink soda at all now. More water now,” Roman says.

“I advise people should really start drinking water, and if possible, good-quality water, filtered water.”

More than ever before, plain old H2O is muscling in on the $61 billion-a-year soda industry.

Over the past year, sales of non-diet sodas have declined 2.2 percent, while diet sodas have declined 6.8 percent.

“There has been a negative attitude about artificial sweeteners in this country that has been growing over the years. It’s not all of a sudden,” says Harry Balzer, who analyzes eating trends for the NPD Group, a global market research company.

To stop the sliding sales, the beverage industry is looking at replacing artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine with those derived naturally from the stevia plant.

“Twenty years ago, it was all about avoiding harmful substances, avoiding calories, avoiding sugar, avoiding fat, avoiding cholesterol,” Balzer says. “This generation looks at health as, ‘What can you add to my diet? Where is the whole grains, where are the antioxidants, where is the dietary fiber?’ ”

Natural foods in general have increased in popularity. Ten years ago, diet and non-diet soft drinks were the second most popular food item. Today, they’ve fallen to fourth place, behind sandwiches, fruit and vegetables.

Back at the gym, Andre Giulino drinks a toast to that trend every day. His company is about to launch a new bottle design – for water.

Source: abc news


Japan’s population declines by record 244,000 in 2013

The number of Japanese births hit a record low in 2013 while the death rate was the highest since the end of World War II, according to health ministry estimates.

Ministry officials determined the nation’s population fell by a record 244,000 for the year by deducting the number of births from the number of deaths.

“The trend of population decline will likely continue for a substantially long period of time,” a ministry official said.

It is the seventh consecutive year Japan has experienced a decrease in its population.

According to the estimates released on Dec. 31, the number of babies born in 2013 fell by 6,000 from the previous year to 1,031,000, the lowest number since such statistics became available in 1899. The ministry cited the decline in the number of women still in their childbearing years.

Meanwhile, 1,275,000 people–up 19,000 from the previous year–died in 2013, reflecting the aging of Japanese society.

The Japanese population declined for the first time in 2005. In 2006, the country saw a short-lived increase, but it has been falling steadily since 2007.

The fertility rate–the number of children a woman is expected to give birth to in her lifetime–was 1.41 in 2012. The ministry estimated that figure remains unchanged for 2013.

The statistics also showed that 663,000 couples married and 231,000 divorced in 2013.

Source: Asia and Japan watch


New habits to start with your children in 2014

This year, instead of just resolving to spend more quality time with your children, come up with a list of new habits to start together. Commit to trying some of these things, which will bring your family closer and teach your children valuable life lessons.

Practice daily affirmations
Positive affirmations can help both adults and children develop a healthy self-esteem. Hearing positive words first thing in the morning can help set the tone for a great day and the more often positive words are heard, the more they will be internalized. If your child is old enough, let them help choose which affirmations they would like to say. Create affirmation cards together and let them choose one or two to say together everyday.

Express gratitude together
This can easily be incorporated into a bed-time routine. Take a few minutes to review the day and have a little discussion with your children about what they are grateful for. Encourage your children to look beyond “things” and find gratitude in the non-material. Once a week, write down one thing you are especially grateful for put it in a special “gratitude jar”. At the end of the year, you can review all the amazing things that have happened.

Learn about money
It’s never too early to teach children about how much things cost, the importance of saving – and that money must be earned through hard work. Instead of using credit cards every time you go out, make an effort to pay cash and use each transaction as a teaching moment for your children. Encourage your children to save money in a piggy bank and help them think of something they would like to do with the money they’ve saved.

Explore your city together
It’s easy to get wrapped up with all the things on our “to-do” list and forget the beauty of the place we live. Too many people live somewhere their entire lives and never explore or really get to know their own town or city. Go to your local visitor’s bureau and pick up some pamphlets. Then, make a list of all the things you’d like to experience together.

Start a volunteer project
Volunteering can have an impact not only on your community, but also on your mind and body. Doing good for others provides a sense of pride and accomplishment and can help give children a better outlook on life. Encourage your children to think about which causes are important to them and brainstorm different ways to get involved.

Remember, these new habits can have a lasting effect on your entire family. Letting your children be part of the process of choosing new, healthy habits is just as important as following through with them. If you decide to take on more than one new habit this year start small to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Incorporate a new habit each month and notice the impact each one has on your family.

Source: top news today