YOU Docs Daily The online edition of their daily newspaper column
3 Secrets for Easier Travel
There are secrets to getting off a plane looking paparazzi-ready and feeling able to tackle your meetings -- or your “vacation” at the in-laws’. And these tips don’t involve paying for first-class tickets (but if they’re giving them out, don’t pass ’em up!). Here’s how to arrive feeling fresh and healthy:
• Carry a bottle. Don’t depend on overtaxed flight attendants and those mini bottles of water to get you the moisture you need to counter dry cabin air. Tuck an empty water bottle into your carry-on, and fill it up from a fountain after the security check. Sip it all flight long.
• Make your carry-on multitask. Take one that you can put under the seat in front of you without taking up the whole space. In flight, rest your feet on it to help reduce foot and ankle swelling. And get up every 2 hours to reduce the risk of dangerous blood clots.
• Pack snacks. Trans fats and salt aren’t good for you on the ground, and they don’t magically get healthier at 30,000 feet (even if you “deserve” a treat for not throttling the kid -- or the parent -- behind you). Pack your own energy-giving snacks, such as fruit (apples and raisins travel well), nuts (toasted and unsalted), celery sticks, or whole-grain crackers with sunflower-seed butter (must be already spread on the crackers).
Other items that help you stay refreshed: earplugs, comfortable socks, an extra wrap (blankets aren’t always given), and a good laptop (that’s how these columns often get polished) or book (dive into one and you might be able to tune out the teenage soccer team that’s sharing the flight with you).
Just as the message is starting to sink in that the only safe tan is a fake one, along comes the news that soaking up a little sunshine here and there might actually strengthen your immune system.
What? Yes, you heard right. Researchers noticed that while rates of skin cancer -- as well as several other types of cancer -- tend to be higher in sunnier latitudes, patients in these regions seem to fare better when it comes to fighting the disease. Their secret defense? Might be the extra vitamin D they score from living in a sunnier clime. Your body converts inactive vitamin D to active vitamin D when your skin is exposed to strong sunlight. “D” stands for defense: This vitamin turns on a gene that checks your DNA for errors and kills cells -- like cancer cells -- that have them.
Your body activates vitamin D from the sun faster and more effectively than it soaks it up from food and supplements. But you know the trouble with that: Sunlight is great for growing plants and yellowing newspapers, but it leaves your skin vulnerable to skin cancer and wrinkles, and inflammation from burns needlessly uses up your stem cells (better to have them to repair things like your heart, kidney, or brain).
So what to do? Get some sun, but only a little bit. Just 10 to 20 minutes of summer sun gets you the D you need for the day (in much of North America, winter sun isn’t strong enough to get D production going). Or use sunscreen and rely on vitamin D supplements. Take 1,000 international units (IU) of D3 every day if you’re under age 60 and 1200 IU a day if you’re over 60.
Having trouble choosing between the comedy and the tearjerker on movie night? Consider this: Laughs are better for weight loss.
Why? Because you'll snack less. When a group of people in a study watched a sad movie, they ate close to 30% more buttered popcorn than when they watched a happy film. In another piece of the study, people watching the saddies also ate more M&M’s.
That doesn’t mean you have to cut out every Lifetime movie ever made if you want to reach your weight goal. There’s an antidote to overeating while sad, and it may be as simple as reading nutrition labels. Not because some of what passes for food is so junky that it’s laughable, but because reading the nutrition facts on the popcorn caused people to eat less.
That’s great, but we also recommend taking your snack strategy to the next level: Even better than just reading labels and eating less popcorn is to switch to air-popped corn. Spritz it with a little oil and add spices -- you’ll get rid of two-thirds of the calories that movie popcorn packs in there (lobby for the change at your neighborhood theater, too!).
So read labels, and be mindful of your mood when snacking. And may we suggest that you have your hand entwined with your significant other’s, not in the popcorn bag.
Could you have an ulcer? You might, even if you’re not the stereotypical overachieving Type A. What most people don’t know is that ulcers are usually caused by an infectious agent, not by worrying about financial reports. There are plenty of other misconceptions about ulcers, too. Let this quiz help you separate myth from fact (and help you tame that ulcer, if you have one!):
1. You can get an ulcer by kissing. True or False? True! The most common cause of ulcers is a bacterium called H. pylori (Helicobacter pylori, if you want to get formal). When you kiss, you can ping-pong the bacteria back and forth between you and your partner until you both get treated for -- and rid of -- it at the same time.
2. If you have an ulcer, you’ll feel worse after eating. True or False? False. One of the ways to know whether it’s an ulcer or the recurring heartburn problem known as GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is that eating often makes ulcers feel better because food neutralizes some of the stomach acid that’s irritating the ulcer.
3. If you can stand the pain, you don’t have to get it treated. True or False? False. You shouldn’t be living with any kind of pain, and sometimes the ulcer erodes multiple layers of your stomach and causes bleeding within your digestive tract. Not pretty.
In some studies, olive oil has looked promising as a way to kill off H. pylori -- but so far, that’s only in a test tube. For now, the best treatment is to see your doctor for a course of antibiotics tailored to that bad bug.
If you’re just starting a workout program, here’s the best thing you can do: Less than you think. Seriously. Starting with a full-on aerobics or weight-training routine (or both) or even with the wrong trainer from day one is like building a house on quicksand -- it just won’t be around long.
See, as you’ve been sitting on the couch, your muscles have been busy losing the proteins that act as energy factories in your cells (mitochondria) as well as the contractile proteins that give a muscle strength. So before you go for any gold, you need to rebuild those first. Skip this step and your house will sink.
All you need to do is walk before you can run . . . or lift weights. Simply spend 30 days in a row walking for 30 minutes every day, either all at once or in increments of 10 minutes or more. This will help you rebuild enough of the energy factories in your muscles so that you’ll then be able to progress to building strength.
Then, build strength wisely. First, add 30 days of every-other-day strength training for your core muscles (including not just abs and back but also shoulder rotators, gluteals, quadriceps, and hamstrings). After that, add 30 days of additional strength exercises (for chest, shoulders, and arms) every other day. (See realage.com for exercises that target these areas.)
Now you’re ready for aerobics, krav maga, or whatever vigorous activities look good to you. Why you’ll be successful: You’ve set yourself up that way. The walking allows the resistance exercises, which in turn make it less likely you’ll have to quit the stamina due to injury. So lace up your walking shoes, and prepare to feel better than ever. It’s really amazing how easy it will become.
You can’t look anywhere these days without hearing about fats: They’re in your butter, your crackers, your bloodstream, and maybe even bulging a little bit over your belt.
But there’s one type of fat that doesn’t get nearly enough play: the blood fat called triglycerides. One recent survey found that 87% of us ignore it -- even though its effect on your risk for heart attacks and strokes can be as potent as that of “celebrity” blood fats like LDL (L is for “lousy,” which should be under 100) and HDL (H is for “healthy,” and it should be over 50) cholesterol.
Here’s why you need to pay attention to triglycerides, too: These guys cause more trouble than pledges during fraternity rush. High levels (Over 100. See, all you have to remember is 100/50/100 for the LDL/HDL/TG levels you want.) more than double your stroke risk; boost your heart attack risk by 72%; and in families with a strong history of heart disease, can raise your risk of cardio problems up to 38 times higher than normal. As if that weren’t enough, if you have diabetes, high triglyceride levels up your odds of serious nerve damage.
Normally, triglycerides (TGs, for short) ferry extra calories from the food you eat to your fat cells for long-term storage. But if you’re overweight, inactive, or indulge in too many cheese-fry fests, your liver converts excess calories into a TG stockpile -- and causes them to increase production of small, dense, and ultra-nasty LDLs that accelerate the growth of plaque in the walls of your arteries. Excess TGs also reduce levels of healthy HDL, putting you even closer to heart attack city.
Already over 100? These steps will get you back on target. Bonus: They’ll help get your other blood fats where they need to be. Heard some of them before? Great. This time, do them! Check out how easy it is:
• Walk away. People who clipped on pedometers and added an extra 5,000 steps (about 2 1/2 miles) to their daily step count saw their TG levels fall 19% in just 6 weeks. Exercise slows down that TG production factory in the liver.
• Dress with olive oil. Skip the creamy salad dressings loaded with saturated fat (a TG feeder), and instead drizzle olive oil on your greens. Add some avocados and some walnuts, too. In other words, pack your diet with monounsaturated fats. In one study, people who spent 3 weeks doing that halved their levels of the small, dense LDLs associated with high triglycerides. The protective omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, trout, walnuts, and flaxseeds also have the power to lower TGs. If you don’t like fish, pop fish oil capsules (2 grams) or DHA pills (600 milligrams) made from algae.
• Get green. Spinach, broccoli, peas, brussels sprouts, collard greens, and chard are rich in alpha-lipoic acid. In one lab study, that compound lowered TG levels by 60%.
• Don’t be so refined. About grains, that is. One study found that refined carbs sent TG levels soaring by 50% to 60%. If you haven’t yet made the switch from white breads, rolls, crackers, and noodles to high-fiber 100% whole-grain types, now is a great time.
• Sweeten your life naturally. Standard sweeteners such as glucose and fructose (yes, including high-fructose corn syrup) can skyrocket TG levels. Opt for unsweetened drinks and end meals with ripe, seasonal fruit (yes, it contains fructose, but it is absorbed much more slowly) instead.
• Drop a few, gain a lot. Dropping just 5%–10% of your body weight could lower your TG by 33 to 72 points. That’s as little as 8 1/2 pounds if you now weigh 170!
• Put a cork in it. For some people, alcohol jacks up TGs. To find out if you’re among them, take a break from beer, wine, and cocktails for a few weeks, and then get your levels rechecked.
TGs still high? Ask about meds. If your TGs stay over 200, or you’re at extremely high risk for heart disease, your doc may want to add prescription-quality niacin, a pill in a class of medicines called fibrates; high doses of omega-3 fatty acids; or a statin to bring them in line. Of course, you’ll need to keep all those healthy lifestyle changes going, too -- the combo is more powerful than drugs alone.
Q. I work in the ER, and the hours are crazy. I get up at 2:30 a.m. to get to work by 5. I start my day trying to eat correctly, but I "munch" throughout the day and go crazy when I get home about 12 hours later. On days off, I try to exercise and eat right, but my weight is waaaay out of control: I’m 5’3” and weigh 210 pounds. Is there a plan I can follow with my crazy schedule? -- Anonymous
A. There’s plenty you can do to take control of your weight, and there’s a new, compelling reason you should eat right: A diet filled with trans fats or fat from four-legged animals (saturated) can disrupt your circadian rhythms even more than your nontraditional working hours already do. So, goal number one is to wean yourself from fast foods and those laden with saturated and trans fats by planning what you’ll eat, and when. That way, you have the power, not the person who fills the vending machine. It’s going to take some time for the first week or two (until this becomes a habit), but it sounds like you’re ready to make the commitment to change. So grab a work buddy who shares your goals, and get to it.
Eat breakfast, plus two other meals and two snacks every day. That means you’ll still get to “munch all day” -- albeit on a morning snack, lunch, and a midafternoon snack. Not enough? Eat half of your breakfast at home, and take the other half to work.
You will need to make some effort to be sure you have the right food on hand at work. It’s not like you have to grow the food yourself. It doesn’t take longer to shop for chicken than for steak, and it’s not any harder to open a bag of carrot sticks than to open a bag of potato chips. For an easy lunch, consider soup (low-sodium ones are getting really tasty, too) and a salad with walnuts and dried cranberries -- it’s faster than fast food. To fight cravings, spend your breaks taking a quick walk around the hallways or, better yet, outside the building. Here’s where you and your buddy can help each other: Get out of the ER, and walk on 10-minute breaks whenever you can -- even going to another floor to visit a patient from 2 days ago can help all three of you. To burn some calories, extend this break to a 30-minute walk whenever you can.
You and your buddy can tell each other how many steps your pedometers registered, too. The goal is health, and you’ll be rewarded with more energy, so you’ll still be able to work 30 years from now rather than be pushed into the cardiac monitoring station in 6 years.
Q: What is the difference between table salt, sea salt, and kosher salt? Is one type healthier than the other? -- Jeannine, Niagara Falls, Ontario
A: One isn’t necessarily healthier than the other, but both sea salt and kosher salt tend to have more flavor than the standard stuff, so you use less. Using less is even more likely with some of the new “gourmet” salts that have all kinds of herbs and flavors mixed in, including chili, green tea, and rosemary.
That’s good, because most people get about three times more sodium in a day than they need. No surprise, since it comes from processed foods and condiments, not just the saltshaker. But choosing your salt wisely can help you get more flavor from every pinch. Here’s what you’re really getting:
Table salt: More than likely, the salt you’ve been sprinkling on your scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes since childhood is mined and then refined to the point where it’s almost all sodium chloride (along with small amounts of minerals including zinc, potassium, calcium, and magnesium), plus an additive or two, such as an anticaking ingredient. Potassium iodine has traditionally been added to prevent iodine deficiency (the salt is “iodized”), but this isn’t as critical as it once was, thanks to the prevalence of processed foods and the availability of iodine-rich seafood. This salt’s very fine texture allows it to dissolve easily, making it best for spots where you want flavor without any crunch.
Sea salt: This is the salt left behind when salt water evaporates, and it usually doesn’t contain the minerals that rock salt (table salt) does. Different sources of salt water and various harvesting techniques yield slightly different tastes and textures.
Kosher salt: This additive-free salt has a very robust salty flavor, so people tend to use less of it. Whether you use the tiny, pyramid-shaped crystals or the coarse-flake variety, its larger grains mean you’ll get a tiny bit less per pinch than fine table salt.
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