Wellness Weekly

Chemicals: This past week there was an article in my local paper which told of toxic shower curtains. An organization which advocates for environmental protection and justice commissioned a study to determine what chemicals were used in polyvinyl chloride shower curtains. PVC in and of itself has implications of harm but the study found 106 other chemicals as well. Of note, seven of them are designated as hazardous air pollutants. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice has sent letters to several retailers requesting that they not sell the curtains. I feel that the organization has valid concerns and I expect that the retailers will oblige. What I also know is that these same toxic chemicals, as well as poisonous gases and cancer causing agents have been found in cigarettes for 50 years and no one has stopped selling them.

Coffee: Another study has been completed and this one adds to the pool of positive results of coffee drinking. In this study, persons who drank 2-3 cups of coffee a day had lower death rates from heart disease. The effect was more pronounced in women. There were no increased adverse events in the coffee drinkers. One theory regarding the protective effect is that the antioxidants in coffee clean up the free radical damage that occurs naturally in our bodies. The accumulation of that reside otherwise damages and changes cells.

Babies: A disturbing trend is underway according to the NIH. The percentage of babies born prematurely has risen 20% since 1990. One cause is smoking. Others include alcohol use, obesity, in vitro fertilization(multiple birth risk), high blood pressure and diabetes. The current rate is one of eight babies are born prematurely. Preterm babies have higher risks of medical and developmental problems. If I did the math right, the old rate was one in ten.

Health Fair: Agh. At a health fair which aims to improve the health of the underserved population, the population more often diagnosed with hypertension and diabetes, the vendors served ice cream, hot dogs, veggies in butter, candy and salty snacks. I was aghast. We MUST role model the change we hope to see. Period.

Diabetes: A large study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found a link between depression and later onset of type 2 diabetes. I only read about the results, not the actual study which is published in JAMA. There was a 42% likelihood that depressed persons who also ate more, exercised less and smoked would get the life changing disease, but when those factors were controlled for in the analysis, there was still a 23% increase in diabetes cases between depressed and not depressed persons. What the Reuters article doesn’t disclose is whether or not these depressed persons were being treated or what that treatment was. Two points. One, antidepressant medications have been associated with both weight gain and new onset diabetes. Two, people who exercise and eat well often have better moods than those who do not.

Genetics: This past week Tim Russert died. He was a great facilitator and a seemingly kind man. A Wall St Journal article regarding heart disease quoted a physician from Cornell suggesting that people not rely on medications and procedures but on life style, even in the face of genetic predisposition, in order to prevent heart disease. It was a good article. Later in the week, a report based on a study with a very small sample size of 30 was published. The sample was of men only and honestly, the one involved are not representative of the general population, and still, the results are cart wheel turning good. Dean Ornish, who you may recognize from wellness literature, led a study of men who had prostate cancer and chose to engage in significant lifestyle changes instead of medical treatment. The men engaged in these new activities for three months after which lab work and biopsies were repeated. The behavior, eating a diet high in fruits, veggies, grains, legumes and soy PLUS daily exercise and meditation not only led to weight loss and lowered blood pressure, but actual gene changes. Disease promoting genes were turned off and health promoting ones were expressed or turned on. Pray this research is able to be reproduced because it is awesome.


PS: I had the opportunity to do my job this week sandwiched between some nutritionists at a health department. They had posters about milk that included one that said 2% Milk is NOT low in fat and another that showed all the milks, whole, 2%, 1% skim and their amounts of fat. The poster had pats of butter to depict the butter fat in milk. One percent milk had the equivalent of 4 ½ pats of butter!


Wishing you wellness.