The You Docs tips for the week
Published Saturday August 30th, 2008
IS THIS MINERAL MISSING FROM YOUR MILK?
Notice anything absent from your soy latte this morning? We did: Your favourite way to wake up may have less calcium than you expected. Research shows that a large percentage of the calcium that's added to beverages settles at the bottom of the carton, so less of the bone-building mineral ends up in your glass (unless you're the lucky one who polishes off the container). How much calcium falls to the bottom depends on which calcium-fortified beverage you're drinking. In one study, calcium in orange juice stayed in suspension best (although different brands tended to have different separation rates). About eight per cent to 50 per cent of the calcium separated out of the juice; more settled out of soy and rice milk. The fix? Pretty simple, and we bet you guessed it: Shake the carton before drinking. Even so, one study found that vigorous shaking didn't re-suspend all the calcium. If you're really concerned about calcium, sip beverages where it naturally appears. Only about 11 per cent of the calcium in skim cow's milk separates out. Of course, all the calcium in the carton won't help you if you don't also get vitamin D, the nutrient that helps that mineral get absorbed into your body. It's not much good for you to get calcium to your intestinal doors if D's not around to let it in. We recommend getting 1,000 I.U. of vitamin D if you're under age 60 and 1,200 I.U. if you're over that age. By the way, we also recommend 300 mg of magnesium a day to prevent constipation from the calcium.
DROP THESE MANTRAS, LOSE WEIGHT
Losing weight can be easier than losing your car keys. "Right," you say. Just follow us for a few moments (trust us, we're Docs). Throw out certain long-held beliefs about weight loss, and pounds will melt more easily than ChapStick in your glove compartment in August. Update these mantras now: "Don't let the clock tell you when to eat." Eating at regular intervals throughout the day helps you eat less overall, burn more calories, have less lousy LDL cholesterol rooming in your blood vessels and have improved glucose tolerance. Skipping meals or eating at random times can slow your metabolism and cause your body to hoard fat and calories. Keep your energy and metabolism in full gear by eating a small amount of healthy foods every two to three hours. (Of course, if you're absolutely not hungry, eat just a little piece of fruit or a vegetable.) Ideally, pair a high-fiber snack with healthy fat or protein, such as a handful of plain Cheerios (no sugar added) with six chopped walnuts. "Don't weigh yourself every day." Research found that people who weigh themselves regularly after reaching their goal weight do a much better job of keeping the lost pounds off than people who step on the scale only when the planets align in a certain way. But the operative word here is "after." While you're trying to lose weight, a bathroom scale may not be your best friend, since it's easy to read success or failure into every natural fluctuation. But when people had reached their goals, daily weighers or waist measurers (didn't know that was a word, did ya?) did best at keeping the pounds off for the long haul.
HOW TO TAKE SMARTER RISKS
Skimping on sleep? Stay away from Vegas... or shopping or anywhere else you'll be asked to make decisions that could cost you. Too little shut-eye makes you make bad choices and it takes a big toll on the part of your brain that helps you learn from those mistakes. In fact, not sleeping is like drinking, and way too much alcohol doesn't make you better at anything, no matter how good you feel (it makes you worse at that, too, Bucko). Researchers saw less learning and more mistake-prone behaviour than a drunken Texas Hold 'Em player when they scanned the brains of sleep-deprived people who were gambling. Weary people made riskier decisions and had higher expectations of winning. On top of that, they had less activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, an area in the brain that helps you learn from a loss or a bad decision. Sleep loss short-circuits your brain's ability to process emotions related to loss and regret. Without that emotional pang, you keep betting or otherwise digging yourself in deeper. What's not good when you're gambling is also especially dangerous when you're dating, trying to ace a new project at work or just sitting in front of the gallon of mint chocolate-chip ice cream that mysteriously jumped into your cart at the supermarket. Fortunately, getting enough sleep can turn that around (more reasons to take your earplugs and eye mask with you on planes to Vegas) and bring you other payoffs. The right amount of sleep helps you stay slim and lowers your risk of developing diabetes, so you feel and are younger inside. A little extra shut-eye may be the best medicine your mind and body could ever have.
CAN YOU SPOT THE CANCER MYTHS?
In some ways, cancer is like pests in your house - the cells have no regard for the traditional rules of your body. Nonetheless, if you know their strategies, you can help yourself outwit them. How good are your cancer smarts? Guess which statements are true: 1. Benign tumours should always be left alone. Benign tumours don't have cancer cells, but they can still be dangerous and need to be removed. That's because some tumours can grow large enough to block the pathway of important nutrients or put pressure on critical organs. 2. If you're diagnosed with cancer, you need treatment immediately. Even though some cancers spread quickly, it's smart to get a second opinion. Although only 10 per cent of people get second opinions, 30 per cent of second opinions change the diagnosis or treatment. More than one in five patients referred to our hospitals - New York Presbyterian Hospital or the Cleveland Clinic - for a specific surgery do not need it. Great docs encourage you to get second opinions, especially since biopsies of common cancers are read incorrectly more than 10 per cent of the time, according to two different studies. The best second opinion comes from a doctor at a different institution than where the first doctor practices, and one that is well regarded in that cancer's treatment. 3. Cancer is contagious. Some cancer is caused by viruses that are contagious, like cervical cancer or liver cancer from hepatitis B (that's why there are vaccines). So, in a way, you can catch cancer. But you can't directly swap cancer through being in a room with or touching or hugging someone.
AN EASY WAY TO EAT LESS
Separate your lunch and your favourite Website, and your waist may shrink. See, holding a mouse in one hand leaves the other free to dip into that family-size bag of potato chips and polish it off before your mind, or your stomach, has any idea what's happening. Normally, if you're sitting around with friends and you eat chips (we'd prefer you had vegetables, but we'll tackle that another day), your palate gets "tired" after a while, and you don't want any more. But if you get distracted (by Amy Winehouse's latest scuffle, by your friend's e-mail - with pictures! - on what went on after you left the party, or by a killer round of Internet Scrabble), this appetite-control mechanism vanishes faster than those kettle-cooked chips did. And that's just if you're checking e-mail or cruising around the Web. Video games are even worse. In a study where researchers set up women with some snack cakes, they found that those who munched while playing a video game downed more than those who ate without distraction, AND the gamers wanted to eat pretty much anything else in reach... even after the study part ended (sound familiar?). If, for some reason, you can't separate your meals from your mouse (and can afford a new keyboard every few months to replace the crumb-jammed one), try this: Leave the empty bag next to the monitor. Seeing "evidence" of your feast may help you eat less next time. And remember that consuming extra calories at your computer means you'll need a longer walk to burn them off. Try to stick to savouring each separately.
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