healthyheart

Monday, 25 May 2015

Physical activity guidelines for children and young people

To maintain a basic level of health, children and young people aged 5-18 need to do:

At least 60 minutes (1 hour) of physical activity every day, which should range between moderate-intensity activity, such as cycling and playground activities and vigorous-intensity activity, such as fast running and tennis.
On three days a week, these activities should involve muscle-strengthening activities, such as push-ups, and bone-strengthening activities, such as running

Children and young people should minimise the amount of time they spend sitting watching TV, playing computer games, and travelling by car when they could walk or cycle instead. Find out why sitting is bad for your health.

What counts as moderate-intensity activity?
Examples of activities that require moderate effort for most young people include:

walking to school
playing in the playground
riding a scooter
skateboarding
rollerblading
walking the dog
cycling on level ground or ground with few hills

What counts as vigorous-intensity activity?

Vigorous-intensity activity is associated with better general health, stronger bones and muscles as well as higher levels of self-esteem.

Vigorous-intensity activity means you’re breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit.

Examples of activities that require vigorous effort for most young people include:

playing chase
energetic dancing
swimming
running
gymnastics
football
rugby
martial arts, such as karate
cycling fast or on hilly terrain

What counts as bone-strengthening activity?

Bone-strengthening activities produce an impact or tension force on the bones that promotes bone growth and strength.

Examples of bone-strengthening activities for children include:

activities that require children to lift their body weight or to work against a resistance
jumping and climbing activities, combined with the use of playground equipment and toys
games such as hopscotch
skipping with a rope
walking
running
gymnastics
dance
football
basketball
martial art

The Best Salad for High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure puts you at risk for developing heart disease as well as other serious health conditions including kidney disease, memory loss, vision impairment, angina and fluid in your lungs. Losing weight, reducing sodium in your diet and adding potassium and fiber can help lower your blood pressure. Salads provide a low-calorie way to enrich your diet with potassium and fiber.

The “best” salad for high blood pressure remains subject to your taste preferences, but should include high-potassium and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables such as artichokes, sweet potatoes, spinach, mushrooms, berries, citrus fruits, fruits with edible skins or seeds, baked potatoes with skins attached, nuts and seeds. Avoid prepared dressings that may contain too much sodium or unhealthy fats. Instead of using salt, season your salads with pepper, basil, tarragon, cinnamon, mustard and other spices as well as onion and garlic. Men should include up to 38 g of fiber in their daily diets and women 25 g. All adults should aim to consume 4,700 mg of potassium daily.

Fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains contain fiber, and many choices contain high amounts of potassium. You could make a salad that mixes artichoke hearts, mushrooms and green beans marinated in a garlic, mustard, olive oil and vinegar dressing. Season with tarragon. Artichokes contain 595 mg of potassium per 1 cup serving. Green beans contain 183 mg of potassium per 1 cup, and mushrooms contain 220 mg of potassium per 1 cup.

Make a fruit salad in a yogurt dressing. Non-fat yogurt contains 579 mg of potassium per 1 c. serving. Choose among high-potassium fruits like dates, raisins, canned apricots, banana, blackberries, cantaloupe and papaya. Other fruits with more modest amounts of potassium but high in fiber include raspberries, pear with skin and oranges.

Sweet potatoes and baked potatoes with skins contain a lot of potassium – 694 mg and 619 respectively. You could make a potato salad using one or both types of potatoes. Add broccoli and carrots. Make a southwestern salad with black beans, corn, avocado and tomato. Kidney, lima, pinto and white beans also contain high amounts of fiber and potassium. A bean salad with chickpeas, celery and onions.

Monday, 18 May 2015

Oily fish can help stop blindness as we get older: Omega-3 can stop range of eye conditions caused by damage to the retina by tiny blood vessels

Fish oils could hold the key to saving pensioners’ sight.

Omega-3 fatty acids, abundant in oily fish, help stop tiny blood vessels from bleeding into the back of the eye, experiments show.

The finding is important because damage to retinal blood is behind a range of conditions that can lead to loss of sight, including many cases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.

AMD affects more than 600,000 Britons and the number is expected to treble in the next 25 years as the population ages. There are few treatments – and no cure – for the condition.

The research, from Harvard Medical School, focused on ‘wet AMD’, the most serious form, in which central vision can be lost within months.

In the study, a diet rich in omega-3 cut damage to the blood vessels in mice with an AMD-like eye disease.

The healthy fats, which are found in mackerel, trout, herring, sardines, tuna and salmon, stopped damaging immune cells from fuelling the disease, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Researcher Dr Kip Connor said the fats seems to have a ‘vital role’ in eye health.

It is not clear if fish oil supplements alone will be enough help save sight in people. This is because the body may find it harder to process and make use of omega-3 as we age.

However, the findings do point to a drug related to fish oil.

With existing drugs expensive, injected directly into the eye and not effective in all cases, the researchers said that there is an urgent need for new treatments.

Dr Connor said that given the prevalence of AMD and a related form of blindness in diabetics, the ‘potential impact of this study is highly significant’.

Patients with other diseases fed by rogue blood vessels, such as cancer, may also benefit from the knowledge.

Dr Connor added: ‘It is our hope that future studies will allow us to develop specific therapeutics that harness this knowledge, resulting in greater visual outcome and quality of life for patients suffering from these sight-threatening diseases.’

In the meantime, he advises that everyone eat oily fish or take omega-3 supplements for all-round health.

Omega-3 has previously been credited with health benefits form keeping high blood pressure at bay to helping ward of Alzheimer’s disease.

4 ways yoga is good for your heart

Yoga is a great way to stay fit, but new research suggests that regular practice can offer you much more than toned arms and abs. Here’s how hitting the mat can help improve your heart health

1. Yoga helps beat stress

When you encounter a stressful situation, the brain releases adrenaline into your system to help you either fight or flee the threat. This causes your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure increases. While this response can help you protect yourself when facing a threat, living in a constant state of stress may wreak havoc on your cardiovascular system. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, people who are prone to stress have a higher risk for heart disease than their calmer counterparts.

“What we want is a nervous system that reacts to stressful situations when they happen, but then shifts back to relaxation,” says Dr. Timothy McCall, a San Francisco-based doctor of internal medicine and medical editor of the Yoga Journal. Yoga may help by dampening your body’s reaction to stress. A 2012 article published in the journal Medical Hypotheses suggests yoga could prevent and treat some medical conditions, including cardiac disease, by improving stress-related imbalances in the nervous system

1. Yoga helps beat stress

3. Yoga may lower blood pressure

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, long-term high blood pressurecan weaken your heart and damage blood vessel walls, causing plaque to build up and potentially narrow or block arteries. This is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

While poor diet and lack of exercise are major risk factors, “we know there’s an element of stress involved in high blood pressure,” says McCall. A 2012 reviewpublished in the journal Holistic Nursing Practice suggests that yoga practice may be an effective treatment for high blood pressure because of its ability to decrease the body’s response to stress.

4. Yoga promotes physical activity

People who are physically inactive are twice as likely to be at risk for heart disease as those who do exercise, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Yoga improves strength and flexibility, which contributes to cardiovascular health, says Stastny.

Research shows that people who do yoga are also more likely to stick with an exercise routine. A 2012 study published in the journal Alternative Therapy Health Medicine enrolled previously inactive people in twice-weekly yoga classes for 10 weeks. Researchers found that doing the classes significantly increased the likelihood that the participants would continue to take part in physical activity.

Monday, 11 May 2015

Brain Food for a 3 Year Old Boy

Your 3-year old son’s brain is in a constant state of activity. His brain is responsible for each function of his body, as well as how he thinks, feels and learns. Feeding your son the right foods can help support his brain development and can help ensure that it works as efficiently as possible. Include some of these foods in your next menu, and your son’s brain will reap cognitive and memory benefits.

Fresh Fruit

Fresh fruit offers a wealth of important vitamins and minerals that your son needs for his growing brain. Nicola Graimes notes in her book, “Brain Food for Kids,” that your son needs carbohydrates in his diet because they help produce the glucose he needs for brain energy and function. Serve a sliced banana with your son’s morning breakfast cereal or oatmeal, or slice an apple and serve it with his lunch. Halved grapes, sliced peaches or a bowl of berries are additional ways to increase his fruit intake and benefit his brain function.

Protein Foods

Your 3-year-old son needs a diet rich in protein from low-fat and nutritious sources in order to sustain proper brain growth and development. Protein is essential for the function of your son’s brain because it is responsible for creating the neurotransmitters that send messages throughout his body. Lean meats, such as beef or white meat chicken, are nutritious sources of protein, as are fish like trout and salmon. Fish is particularly beneficial because it contains omega-3 fatty acids that support brain development. Beans, nuts, eggs and dairy foods are additional sources of protein that will help sustain healthy brain development. Chop beans and nuts into small pieces to prevent choking.

Healthy Fats

Some fat is an essential part of your 3-year old son’s diet. Graimes notes that your son’s brain is 60 percent fat, which he needs to get from his diet to keep it in good working order. It is important to feed him the right kinds of fat. Saturated fats, found in meats, full-fat dairy and many packaged foods, do more harm than good and should be limited in your son’s diet. Foods with unsaturated fat, such as avocado, olive oil, fish and peanut butter are more nutritious ways to provide him with the fat his brain needs.

Whole Grains

Including whole grains in your 3-year-old son’s diet is a healthy way to ensure that he gets plenty of fiber, but whole grains also contain several vitamins and minerals that support brain function and health. One of the most notable is iron, which is present in many fortified whole grains like breakfast cereal and some pasta. Getting enough iron will help your son’s brain get the oxygen it needs so he can concentrate and learn. Whole grains also contain B vitamins, which your son’s brain needs for the health of neurotransmitters that regulate attention, focus and learning.

High blood cholesterol can reduce fertility

According to a recent study by the US Institute of Health, the University of Buffalo (New York) and Emory University in Atlanta have shown that high cholesterol may reduce the likelihood of pregnancy of the couple.

When compared with the proportion of couples with at allowing blood fats, to couples where both spouses have high blood fat ratio will take a long time to get pregnant. Also, the couple that only the wife can rate high cholesterol also takes a longer time to pregnancy. The findings have been published in the international journal Metabolic and Endocrine Clinical (the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism).

High cholesterol often do not have any signs or symptoms of cognitive, but may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The study was performed on couples who are trying to have children, but not cure infertility cases. Had 501 couples participated in the study from 2005-2009. The pair was examined links between fertility and exposure to environmental chemicals and lifestyle. Women participated in the study aged 18-44, men are over 18. The next pair is monitored during pregnancy or up to one year of trying.

The study participants provided blood samples so the researchers checked blood cholesterol. The researchers came up with the theory that cholesterol can affect fertility because the body uses cholesterol to produce hormones like testosterone and estrogen sex.

Dr. Schisterman gave final conclusion: high blood fats increase the risk not only of heart disease but also reduce the risk of pregnancy of the couple.

The food in cleansing the arteries and reduce blood fat

Lowering cholesterol without medication

Phthalates -- chemicals widely found in plastics and processed food -- linked to elevated blood pressure in children and teens

Plastic additives known as phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are odorless, colorless and just about everywhere: They turn up in flooring, plastic cups, beach balls, plastic wrap, intravenous tubing and – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the bodies of most Americans. Once perceived as harmless, phthalates have come under increasing scrutiny. A growing collection of evidence suggests dietary exposure to phthalates (which can leech from packaging and mix with food) may cause significant metabolic and hormonal abnormalities, especially during early development.

Now, new research published this Wednesday in The Journal of Pediatrics suggests that certain types of phthalates could pose another risk to children: compromised heart health. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey of nearly 3,000 children and teens, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Washington and Penn State University School of Medicine, have documented for the first time a connection between dietary exposure to DEHP (di-2-ethyhexylphthalate), a common class of phthalate widely used in industrial food production, and elevated systolic blood pressure, a measure of pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts.

“Phthalates can inhibit the function of cardiac cells and cause oxidative stress that compromises the health of arteries. But no one has explored the relationship between phthalate exposure and heart health in children” says lead author Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, associate professor of pediatrics, environmental medicine and population health at NYU Langone Medical Center. “We wanted to examine the link between phthalates and childhood blood pressure in particular given the increase in elevated blood pressure in children and the increasing evidence implicating exposure to environmental exposures in early development of disease.”

Hypertension is clinically defined as a systolic blood-pressure reading above 140 mm Hg. It’s most common in people over 50 years old, although the condition is becoming increasingly prevalent among children owing to the global obesity epidemic. Recent national surveys indicate that 14 percent of American adolescents now have pre-hypertension or hypertension. “Obesity is driving the trend but our findings suggest that environmental factors may also be a part of the problem,” says Dr. Trasande. “This is important because phthalate exposure can be controlled through regulatory and behavioral interventions.”

Researchers from NYU School of Medicine, the University of Washington and Penn State University School of Medicine examined six years of data from a nationally representative survey of the U.S. population administered by the National Centers for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Phthalates were measured in urine samples using standard analysis techniques. Controlling for a number of potential confounders, including race, socioeconomic status, body mass index, caloric intake and activity levels, the researchers found that every three-fold increase in the level of breakdown products of DEHP in urine correlated with a roughly one-millimeter mercury increase in a child’s blood pressure. “That increment may seem very modest at an individual level, but on a population level such shifts in blood pressure can increase the number of children with elevated blood pressure substantially,” says Dr. Trasande. “Our study underscores the need for policy initiatives that limit exposure to disruptive environmental chemicals, in combination with dietary and behavioral interventions geared toward protecting cardiovascular health.”

This research was made possible through the generous support of KiDs of NYU Langone, an organization of parents, physicians, and friends that supports children’s health services at New York University Langone Medical Center through philanthropy, community service, and advocacy.