Smoking Bans DO Reduce Teen Smoking

Teenagers who live in cities or towns with strict smoking bans are 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (May 2008). The study also reported that youths with smoking parents or friends are at high risk for smoking themselves, but strong smoking bans in restaurants reduce the chance that they will become smokers.

Massachusetts passed a workplace smoking ban that included restaurants in 2004. Since then, high school smoking rates in Massachusetts have dropped from 21percent of students in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007. At least 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now require most public places and workplaces, including restaurants and bars, to be smoke free.
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Progesterone helps to prevent uterine cancer

They're supposed to prevent pregnancy, and they do, but intrauterine devices (IUDs) also reduce uterine cancer risk by more than 40 percent (Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, May 6, 2008).

An IUD is a small, T-shaped plastic device inserted into the uterus. Only two percent of women who use contraception in the United States choose an IUD, despite the proven safety and effectiveness of this long-term method. Worldwide, however, IUDs are the most widely used reversible contraceptive. Most IUD's prevent pregnancy by releasing small amounts of the hormone progesterone into the uterus. This is also why they help to prevent uterine cancer.

The ovaries of healthy women are supposed to produce two hormones: estrogen and progesterone. Many women lack progesterone and they are the women who are at increased risk for uterine cancer. Estrogen stimulates the uterus to grow, and progesterone stops the stimulation. If a woman has estrogen and no progesterone, her uterus is stimulated all the time, which can lead to uncontrolled growth which is cancer.

The woman most likely to get uterine cancer has high blood levels of insulin. Insulin acts directly on the ovaries to stop them from releasing eggs. Women who do not release eggs have no progesterone and therefore are at high risk for uterine cancer. A woman can find out if she has high insulin levels just by getting a blood test, called C peptide, that measures insulin production by the body. If it is above 3, her body makes too much insulin.

However, you can usually tell if a woman has too much insulin just by looking at her. Insulin causes a person to lay down fat primarily in the belly. Women with big bellies and small hips usually have high insulin levels and are also at high risk for diabetes. Most people who will develop diabetes usually stop responding to insulin. This causes the pancreas to release increasing amounts of insulin, until the pancreas eventually dies and then the person must take insulin.

If you are a woman who stores fat primarily in your belly, you should get blood tests called C peptideand HBA1C to see if you are already diabetic. You can also tell if you are pre-diabetic if your good HDL cholesterol is low, your triglycerides are high, or your liver shows excessive amounts of fat. Start a supervised exercise program, lose weight, and restrict refined carbohydrates. You may also want to see if your doctor advises using an IUD to help prevent uterine cancer.
More on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

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How Vitamin Pills May Affect Lifespan

The issue of vitamin supplements is far from settled. Most doctors take multivitamins themselves and recommend them to their patients. However, I continue to believe that it is better to get vitamins in whole foods than in pills.

Most vitamins are parts of enzymes that start chemical reactions in your body. Each chemical reaction produces end products that are changed by further chemical reactions from other vitamins to other products that benefit your body. When you take a vitamin that has been isolated from the hundreds of other substances found in foods, that enzyme causes a chemical reaction that accumulates a disproportionate amount of its end products. If the substance that acts as an enzyme for the next chain of chemical reactions is not available, you can accumulate end products that may be harmful.

For example, people who take niacin to lower cholesterol show a marked elevation of homocysteine, a major risk factor for heart attacks. Homocysteine levels are raised by a deficiency of B12, folic acid and pyridoxine. When you eat your niacin in whole grains, all of those components are present, along with many others whose functions we may not yet understand.

The study I mentioned in the previous post is in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews More

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Prevent Injuries: Background Before Peaking

Injuries often occur when people start a new exercise program, change to a different sport, or return to exercise after a long break. In the enthusiasm to get started, it is easy to overstress muscles that have not been used before. That's why "background before peaking" is one of the most important principles of training. It takes several weeks or even months to build up strength and endurance for any new sport.

Competitive athletes in all sports use this principle. First they spend many months in background training, working out for long hours, mostly at low intensity, followed by a shorter period of peak training in which they do far less work, but at a much greater intensity. A few months before an important race, they reduce their workload but go as fast and hard as possible two or three times a week.

Start your new exercise program at very low intensity and low volume. Gradually increase your workload for several months before you try to run fast, lift heavy or exercise intensely. If you are just beginning to exercise, go at a relaxed pace until your muscles feel heavy and then stop. For the first several days or weeks you may be able to exercise only for a few minutes at a time. If your muscles feel sore the next day, take the day off. Increase the amount of time gradually until you can exercise 30 minutes a day at a relaxed pace and not feel sore. You may progress rapidly to the 30-minute goal, or it may take you two, four, six weeks or more. No matter how long it takes, don't get discouraged. Exercising too much or too hard, too soon will set you up for injuries. More

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Weight Lifting Past Fatigue Does Not Strengthen Muscles More

When you want to become very strong, you try to lift very heavy weights. Weight lifters have known for a long time that you don't pick up the heaviest weight you can move, raise it once and then quit for the day. They do their weightlifting in sets. For example, they lift and lower a weight in three sets of ten or one set of six.

If you exhaust your muscles by bench pressing a weight for three sets of ten, is there any benefit to try to do another set? Researchers from Australia showed that you gain nothing if you force extra lifts after your muscles are exhausted (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, August 2007). This study should serve as a warning particularly to young lifters. Plan your workouts. When your muscles are tired or sore, don't try to keep on lifting through the soreness. After a hard workout, go easy for as many days as it takes for your muscles to feel fresh again. More

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Get Your Vitamins From Food, Not Pills

One in three women and one in four men in the United States take vitamin pills. If you are among them, you may be doing more harm than good. In a wake up call to the multibillion dollar vitamin pill industry, a review of 67 randomized trials of vitamin pill effects on life and health has found that taking vitamin pills may shorten life (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1, 2008). Other studies have shown that taking vitamin pills may increase risk for cancers and heart attacks.

This review of 232,000 adults showed that those taking beta-carotene, vitamin A, C, and E and selenium gained no benefit over those who took placebos or no pills. "The findings show that, if anything, people in trial groups given beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E showed increased rates of mortality. There was no indication that vitamin C and selenium may have positive or negative effects."

The study was originally set up to see if antioxidant vitamin pills and minerals prevent gastrointestinal cancers. It found no protection whatever. Instead, an increased death rate of 16 percent was seen in those taking vitamin A pills, seven percent with beta- carotene, and seven percent with vitamin E. No increased death rate was seen in those taking vitamin C or selenium. Free newsletter

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Will Organic Foods Make You More Healthy?

According to a report published by The Organic Center's State of Science Reviews(March 2008), organic foods are more nutritious than those grown conventionally. But since the average North American eats far more food than is necessary, it is doubtful that adding more nutrients to the diet will have much effect on health.

A review of 97 scientific papers shows that organic food has higher levels of eight of 11 nutrients studied, including greater concentrations of polyphenols and antioxidants. However, we don't know how much of these nutrients the body requires. With 35 percent of the population becoming diabetic, 91 percent developing high blood pressure, 78 percent having high cholesterol levels, and 40 percent dying of heart attacks and strokes, I think it is more important to focus on the lifestyle factors that cause these health problems: overeating; eating too much meat, saturated fat, partially hydrogenated fats and refined carbohydrates; not eating enough vegetables; exercising too little; drinking too much; and smoking. Enjoy organic products if they fit into your budget, but you harm yourself if the higher cost causes you to eat fewer fruits and vegetables.

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