Healthy Aging: Body, Mind & Spirit

The mysterious, natural sweetener stevia

With its extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, but no caloric value, the South American herb stevia would seem to be the perfect solution as we all search for low-carbohydrate and low sugar food alternatives.   Stevia is now showing promise in medical research into the treatment of obesity and diabetes because it tastes so sweet and yet has a negligible effect on blood glucose levels.   In fact in some cases it enhances glucose tolerance.

So why aren’t we all using stevia instead of food additives like aspartame and Splenda?   Political controversy has limited stevia’s availability in the United States since 1991, when the USDA labeled stevia as an “unsafe food additive” and restricted its import.  Even though this herb has been used as a natural sweetener for centuries by the Guarani Indians of Paraquay and now claims over 40% of the Japanese sweetener market, the FDA contradicted its own guidelines under which “any natural substance used prior to 1958 with no reported adverse effects should be recognized as safe.”

Stevia occurs naturally, requiring no patent to produce it.   As a consequence, since the import ban in 1991, consumers of stevia continue to believe that the FDA acted in response to industry pressure.  Stevia remained banned until after the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act forced the FDA to revise its stance to permit stevia be used as a dietary supplement, but not as a food additive.

In an interesting coincidence, Coca-Cola Company and Cargill have now developed a stevia derived patent-pending calorie-free food and beverage sweetener called Truvia, which they were able to obtain approval for as a food additive within the United States.   It seems stevia may only be a safe substance if Coca-Cola decides to patent it and starts adding it to their own products.  Suddenly, when big business can make big money on it, it becomes magically safe for the rest of us.

I caution all of you in your use of all artificial sweeteners, but I have been using stevia for years and love it!   It’s one of those unique foods that is actually less expensive at health food stores than at the regular groceries under names like Truvia.   That’s because Truvia spends a LOT on advertising, but it’s all the same herb.

Suicide rates higher in “happy” U.S. states

Suicides rates are highest in the happiest US states and lowest where everyone else is gloomy too.

Just as suicide rates increase over the winter holiday period, when everyone is supposed to be having fun, so it seems that happy communities make suicidal people more determined to end it all.

Learn more about it here.

A simple, electronic treatment for depression, anxiety and insomnia

Some of you may remember my post back in January about a new, non-drug therapy for depression, anxiety and insomnia.   Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), which sends very weak micro-currents into the brain, was widely used in Russia in the 1940s as a sleep aid.   Several battery-powered CES devices won FDA clearance to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia in the 1980s and 1990s, largely because they were similar to other grandfathered devices, and some have been quietly selling to home users ever since.

Last fall, a newcomer in the field, Fisher Wallace Laboratories, launched a YouTube campaign lampooning the side effects of anti-depressants and promoting its cranial stimulator as a practical alternative.   Powered by two AA batteries, the device sends 1 milliampere of alternating current—1/1,000th the voltage used in ECT—through a patient’s head via small, wet pads placed at the temples.   The company recommends using the device 20 minutes once or twice a day for 30 to 45 days, and several times a week afterward.   The company, founded by electronics entrepreneur Charles Avery Fisher and Martin Wallace in 2007, says the device works by boosting endorphins, serotonin and dopamine and reducing cortisol

Does it work?   Columbia University psychiatrist Richard P. Brown says he has used the device with 400 severely depressed patients and that more than 70% found relief—about twice the rate of anti-depressants.   “I’m seeing some patients smile for the first time in 20 years,” says Dr. Brown, who, like other doctors interviewed for this column, have no financial ties to the company.

With the assistance of Fisher Wallace President Chip Fisher, I was able to acquire one of these small electronic devices to help my husband Mike with severe insomnia.   He has been using this device for about two weeks now and already he has seen some improvement in his ability to access higher quality sleep and feel better rested in the morning.   WE will wait the full 30-45 days to judge the efficacy of this product, but I wanted you all to know about this option when other options fail.

According to an April article in the journal New Scientist, these machines have also been found to help with language and memory loss among those who have suffered a stroke.   (See Stroke magazine, vol. 41, pg. 1229.)

Best foods to raise potassium levels

Some evidence suggests that a potassium deficiency may cause nocturnal leg cramps among other problems.   Many have eliminated their cramps entirely just by making sure they eat plenty of potassium rich foods like:

• Bananas, apricots, nectarines, dates, grapes, or raisins

• Beans

• Cabbage/broccoli family of vegetables

• Oranges, grapefruit, and their juice

• Pork and lamb

• Potatoes and corn

• Saltwater fish (for example, tuna)

• Tomatoes and tomato juice

Best foods to lower your blood pressure

Blueberries, whole-grain, high-fiber cereals like oatmeal, bran flakes or shredded wheat, baked potatoes, beet juice and other nitrate-rich foods like spinach, lettuce, cabbage, carrots and whole beets, skim milk, and dark chocolate.

Here’s a great recipe for high fiber, non-fat blueberry muffins!

Learn more about why these foods are good for you here.

How do we learn best?

Here’s a New York Times article on how we learn new information best!

Sugar causes wrinkles!

In case you haven’t heard enough about how truly bad any form of sugar is for you, sugar also causes wrinkles!    Sugar breaks down the elasticity in your skin.

How much is too much?
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting the amount of added sugars you consume to no more than half of your daily discretionary calories allowance. For most American women, that’s no more than 100 calories per day, or about 6 teaspoons of sugar.   For men, it’s 150 calories per day, or about 9 teaspoons.   The AHA recommendations focus on all added sugars, without singling out any particular types such as high-fructose corn syrup.  For more detailed information and guidance on sugar intake limits, see the scientific statement in the August 2009 issue of Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association.

Tips for Reducing Sugar in Your Diet:
Take sugar (white and brown), syrup, honey and molasses off the table — out of sight, out of mind!

• Cut back on the amount of sugar added to things you eat or drink regularly like cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of sugar you add by half and wean down from there, or consider using a natural sweetener like stevia.
• Buy sugar-free or low-calorie beverages.
• Buy fresh fruits or fruit canned in natural juice, avoiding fruit in “heavy syrup.”
• Instead of adding sugar to cereal or oatmeal, add fresh fruit (try bananas, cherries or strawberries) or dried fruit (raisins, cranberries or apricots).
• When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t notice the difference.
• Instead of adding sugar in recipes, use extracts like almond, vanilla, or orange.
• Enhance foods with spices instead of sugar; like allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.
• Substitute unsweetened applesauce for oil and sugar in recipes.
• Try non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose or saccharin in moderation.   Non-nutritive sweeteners may be a way to satisfy your sweet tooth without adding more calories to your diet. The FDA has determined that non-nutritive sweeteners are safe.

I strongly prefer Stevia instead of all those artificial sweeteners!   The more sugar you can cut out of your diet, the less often you will feel hungry, and the less you will crave sugar when you are feeling unhappy.

One step closer to sniffing out cancer!

A breath test that can sniff-out cancer is a step closer to reality, according to a preliminary study.   Researchers found an “electronic nose” was able to identify chemical signals of cancer in the breath of patients with lung or head and neck cancer.   It may still take years of research to see if the breath test could be used clinically.

Learn more here!

Happiness drops in midlife…

After an all-time high in youth, life satisfaction declines as people enter their 40s and 50s, but the good news is it rebounds slightly later in life, possibly because worries drop and contentment grows.

Here’s a post I wrote a few years ago about happiness growing as we age.

Here’s the article about happiness patterns over our life cycle.

Is happiness inherited?

One more about how much happiness is determined by our genes!