Sample Articles: June-July 2008

Diet Soda Fizzles...Diabetes Forecast

By Bridget Murray Law

You may want to put down that diet soda. New research inserts a question mark after the “diet” part of your drink.
In the study, people who drank a can or more of diet soda daily showed a 34 percent higher risk of developing the metabolic syndrome: a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors, including elevated waist circumference and high blood pressure, blood lipids, and fasting glucose levels.
Why would that be? Study co-author Lyn Steffen, PhD, MPH, RD, says she is as mystified as the rest of us. But she offers some possible explanations. “It could be an ingredient in the soda itself, like the artificial sweetener, which might be causing something like insulin resistance,” speculates Steffen, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. “Or it could be something to do with the behavior of people who consume diet soda—what other foods they’re eating and how much exercise they’re getting throughout the day.”
Her research team tracked the dietary intake and health status of 9,500 men and women, 45 to 64 years old, over nine years. They found that people who ate the most meat raised their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 25 percent. Those who regularly ate Western-style cuisine, like refined grains and fried food, upped their risk 18 percent.
But diet soda involved the highest risk, Steffen notes, and a recent Purdue University study suggests a possible reason. In that study, rats eating saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more of it and gained more weight, than rats eating sugar-sweetened yogurt.
In Steffen’s study, most diet sodas….“were likely sweetened with aspartame, not saccharin, but it could be the two work similarly,” she says. “So maybe diet soda consumers are eating more.” This isn’t the first study to link the metabolic syndrome and diet soda. However, past studies show the link with sweetened soda as well as diet versions. This study showed no such association between sweetened beverages and the syndrome.
But that’s no reason to start drinking sugary sodas, which are loaded with empty carbohydrates. Instead of soda (regular or diet), Steffen suggests trying water, or green or black tea. Another good bet is skim milk. Steffen’s team found that low-fat dairy products help stave off the metabolic syndrome.
The American Heart Association published the diet soda findings online on January 22, 2008, in its journal Circulation. The saccharin and weight-gain study appeared in the February 2008 issue of the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Junk Mail Relief: How to get your name off marketers' mail lists

By Savvy Senior

Dear Savvy Senior:
Can you give me some tips on how to reduce the mass junk mail and e-mail I receive? For some reason, my wife and I get bombarded with this stuff every day and are sick of it. What can you tell us?
Retired Targets

Dear Targets:
While most adults in the U.S. receive large amounts of junk mail, the biggest targets tend to be seniors. But there are steps you can take to avoid these invasions. Here’s what you should know.
Junk Mail: To help you scrub your name and address from marketers’ mailing lists, start with the Direct Marketing Association, which offers a consumer opt out service at www.dmachoice.org/mps. This won’t eliminate your junk mail (because many direct mailers aren’t association members) but it will reduce it. The fee for this service is $1. If you’re willing to pay a little more try Greendimes.com, a savvy resource that for $20 promises to reduce your junk mail up to 90 percent and will plant 10 trees on your behalf. Also see 41pounds.org, which charges $41 for a five-year anti-junk mail plan.
De-catalogue: To reduce or eliminate the paper catalogs you receive, go to Catalogchoice.org, a free new service that does the work for you. Stopthejunkmail.com is another good service but charges a $20 fee. Other options include calling the catalogs toll-free number and request to be taken off its list – have the customer number from your mailing label handy when you call. Or you can tear off the page with the mailing label and mail it to the retailer with a request to be removed from its mailing list.
Credit Card Offers: Are credit card offers clogging your mailbox? You can shut them down with the opt out service run by the major credit bureaus at www.optoutprescreen.com or call 888-567-8688. Be prepared to key in your Social Security number and date of birth. You’ll have the option of removing your name either for five years or permanently from pre-screened marketing lists sold to credit card companies and insurers.
You can also prevent financial institutions and other companies from sharing or selling information about you. Look for the privacy notices (sent once a year) that should come with your statements and follow their instructions. You should have to opt out only once with each institution.
Can the Spam: To cut down on the junk e-mail you receive, register your e-mail addresses at www.dmachoice.org/EMPS. Check your e-mail account to see if it provides a tool to filter out potential spam or a way to channel spam into a bulk e-mail folder. Also see www.ftc.gov/spam for more tips.
Telemarketing Protection: You’re probably already aware of the “National Do Not Call Registry,” which has helped millions of Americans reduce their telemarketing calls. If not, you can sign up at www.donotcall.gov or by calling 888-382-1222. If you already signed up, you don’t need to re-register. Sign-ups were supposed to expire after five years, but the FTC expects to make registration permanent. The registry however will not stop calls by charities, politicians, survey takers or companies that have a prior business relationship with you. In addition to the national registry, many states operate their own do-not-call program.
Go to www.ataconnect.org/public/compliance/donotcallbystate.php for a list of state programs.
Be Stingy: Be very picky about sharing your information. Every time you order something online, check the site’s privacy policy and avoid sites that don’t let you opt out of advertising or ones that are looking to share or sell your information to others. Also, be wary about signing up for freebies, sweepstakes or contests (online or off), because many are simply ploys to collect contact information for marketing purposes. Always write “no mailing list” on product warranties or rebates you send in.
Savvy Tips: Another good resource on this topic is the World Privacy Forum (www.worldprivacyforum.org/toptenoptout.html), a nonprofit group that offers a top 10 list of opt outs. If identity theft concerns you, you can freeze your credit files by mailing a certified letter to the three credit bureaus. See www.financialprivacynow.org for more information.
Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit www.savvysenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBCToday show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Study Links Weight Loss to Reduced Prostate Cancer Risk

By Meg Kondrich - American Cancer Society

An American Cancer Society study of nearly 70,000 men finds men who lose weight may reduce their risk of prostate cancer. The study, the first to examine the impact of adult weight change on prostate cancer risk, also finds obesity selectively increases the risk of more aggressive prostate cancer, while decreasing either the occurrence or the likelihood of diagnosis of less aggressive tumors.
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, other than skin cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer death in U.S. men. About one out of six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, and one in 34 will die of the disease. While age, ethnicity/race, family history, and diet have all been identified with a higher risk of prostate cancer, studies on body mass index (BMI) have thus far been inconsistent in showing a link to increased risk.
In their new study, Carmen Rodriguez, MD, MPH, and colleagues from the American Cancer Society and the Duke Prostate Center used data from the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort to examine the association between adult BMI and prostate cancer incidence by stage and grade at diagnosis, as well as the association between weight change and prostate cancer incidence. The study is the first to use prospectively recorded weight change to assess the risk of prostate cancer. Men reported their weight in 1982, then again ten years later, in 1992. They were followed for ten years, until June 2003, during which time more than 5,000 cases of prostate cancer occurred among the group.
After adjusting for variables, such as age, ethnicity, smoking, diet, PSA screening, and other factors, researchers found BMI in 1992 was not associated with the overall risk of prostate cancer in the next ten years. But, when they stratified the results by tumor grade, they found the risk of nonmetastatic low-grade prostate cancer (i.e. less aggressive cancer) decreased significantly with increasing BMI. In contrast, the risk of nonmetastatic high-grade prostate cancer (i.e. aggressive cancer) increased modestly with increasing BMI, and the risk of metastatic or fatal cancer increased steadily with increasing BMI.
They also found a link to weight change. Men who lost at least eleven pounds in the ten-year period between 1982 and 1992, had just over half the risk of being diagnosed with nonmetastatic aggressive high-grade prostate cancer (RR, 0.58). Both weight gain and weight loss seemed to predict lower risk of nonmetastatic low-grade prostate cancer. No significant associations were seen between weight gain or weight loss and risk of metastatic or fatal prostate cancer.
“Obesity is one of the most prevalent modifiable cancer risk factors,” said Dr. Rodriguez. “Previous studies have linked maintaining a healthy weight and weight loss to a decreasing risk of breast cancer. Our study linking obesity to aggressive prostate cancer adds to increasing evidence of the importance of maintaining a healthy weight through adult life. Although our study suggests that weight loss may lower the risk of aggressive prostate cancer, given the difficulty of losing weight, emphasis should be put on the importance of avoiding weight gain to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.”
For more information on prostate cancer or other cancers, contact your American Cancer Society. No matter who you are, we can help. Contact us, anytime, day or night, for information and support: 1-800-ACS-2345 or www.cancer.org.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Postive Aging: Play, Play, Play!

By Teresa Verde

Play is not simply a luxury. It is important for adults as it is for children. It reduces stress, adding to our longevity. It enhances creativity, builds confidence, and allows us to practice risk-taking. It improves social skills, gives us physical exercise, and increases our joy and overall satisfaction with life. Play gives balance. Just like recess for kids, we come back renewed, refreshed and better able to deal with life.
“All work and no play…” – we all know the saying. It’s not healthy to work constantly. We get irritable. We compromise our health and lose friends. Our entire quality of life suffers. Even if you no longer work for a living, it’s important to take time to play. Folklorist Brian Sutton-Smith tells us, “The opposite of play is not work, it’s depression.”
When we are absorbed in play we lose ourselves. Acting spontaneously, we express ourselves in totally new ways. I had no idea my partner could do an Elvis impersonation until we were playing Cranium. Another friend comes alive with a ball in his hands, suddenly transformed from a 69-year old to a cocky youth with a mischievous gleam in his eye.
Play can be solitary or with others, inside or outside. Involve the mind or the body. Done with special equipment or none at all.
I bought a kite recently and headed out to the park, delighting in my new toy, while running over the hill in endless pursuit of the gushing wind. Play is joy in motion.
Plato said, “Life must be lived as play.” Take your daily routine and make it fun. Add music to your exercise regimen. Sing while you clean. Whistle while you walk. Swing on the swings. Race walkers. Have a goofy-hat dinner party.
Play gives a needed break from the seriousness of life. Play gets you laughing. Laughing lightens you up. Poet Pablo Neruda said, “The person who does not play has lost forever the child who lived in him or her.”
There are even those who believe play is an important factor in the work world. Daniel Pink, in The Whole New Mind, explains that play is an essential element of success, as companies begin to recognize that it enhances creativity, increases productivity, inspires loyalty and improves overall health. Carl Jung said, “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.”
Play is even how we heal and become whole again after an ordeal. After the death of a friend, I began to cope again when I grabbed a bicycle and went outside to play.
Some of my favorite ways to play include: painting in a ceramic studio; running on the beach with my dog; doing puzzles to relax my mind after a busy day; shooting basketball hoops with my partner, (which makes us both feel young again); Wii interactive bowling or golf; and of course playing with the children in my life.
Teresa Verde is a writer, speaker and laughter coach in the Seattle, WA area who leads programs on positive aging and the healing power of laughter. You may visit her website, www.onethousandlaughs.com, or contact her at onethousandlaughs@yahoo.com or 206-525-0171.