According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a remarkable 40% of Americans aged 20 or over are obese. If we include those who are overweight, the percentage jumps to an astounding 72%! That means that more than two thirds of Americans age 20+ are overweight or actually obese. These statistics are sobering, especially in light of the recently announced report indicating that, for the second year in a row, life expectancy for both American women and men has declined.
When should efforts begin that might be effective in reducing these astounding rates of overweight and obesity? The CDC also reveals that 21% of children (ages 12-19) are obese, with 18.5% obesity in children ages 6 to 11. Perhaps most heart-wrenching is the fact that 14% of 2-5 year olds are obese as well. These statistics would certainly support dietary education and intervention programs very early on.
But, how early should we be starting these educational efforts that can positively impact the incidence of overweight and obesity in Americans? Continue reading
Over the past 10 years, in the various books that I have written, there has been a persistent emphasis on the importance of DHA, an omega-3, in terms of brain health. DHA represents over 90% of all the omega-3, polyunsaturated fatty acids in the brain, and further, it’s 10 to 20% of all the brain’s fat. DHA is especially concentrated in the gray matter, and is also an important part of the cellular membrane of neurons. DHA also has an important role to play in the functioning and structure of mitochondria, the release of neurotransmitters, the expression of DNA, the creation of the myelin insulation around every neuron, the management of neuroinflammation, and even the growth and differentiation of brain cells.
DHA plays a particularly important role in the frontal lobes, allowing us to maintain executive function, pay attention to the various tasks in which we are engaged, and even plan for the future and solving problems. Continue reading
Right now, I am in the middle of reading the New York Times bestseller Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD. This is an incredibly informative book with absolutely brilliant supportive science that really explains what is going on when we are sleeping.
Over the past several years I’ve emphasized the critically important role that sleep plays, not only in terms of cognitive health and functionality, but with respect to general health as well. Quoting from Dr. Walker’s book: Continue reading
Today’s interview is with Lisa Mosconi, PhD. She is the associate director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weil Cornell Medical College in New York. Prior to that she served as the director of the Nutrition and Brain Fitness Lab at New York University, School of Medicine.
Dr. Mosconi holds a dual PhD degree in neuroscience as well as nuclear medicine from the University of Florence, Italy, and is board-certified in integrative nutrition. Continue reading
So much has been written over the years extolling the health benefits of green tea. Green tea has been reported to be effective for weight loss, antioxidant effects, reducing risk of cancer, protecting the brain from Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, reducing risk of heart attack, and even for helping a person live longer. As it turns out, there is a fair amount of validation supporting many of these health claims. In fact, as it relates to living longer, one very extensive Japanese study involving 40,000+ adults over 11 years, shows that those individuals who drank 5 cups of green tea or more each day saw their risk of death reduced by 23%, for women, and 12%, for men.
As you might expect, I am especially interested in research related to brain health and functionality. As such, I was extremely interested in a recent publication that evaluated one component in green tea that shows high biological activity. The chemical, epigallocatechin-3-galate, better known as EGCG, has been long known as being one of green tea’s components most responsible for its reported health benefits Continue reading
Today’s video takes a look at a subject that’s at the forefront of our discussion on this blog: how lifestyle choices can impact the fate of your brain. Specifically, we’re looking at how the lifestyle choices that can lead to the development of diabetes may also play a role in raising your risk for Alzheimer’s disease (remember, a disease for which there is no cure).
A new study, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, explores changes we see in brain energetics, or the brain’s ability to utilize fuel. Traditionally this is looked at considering glucose, or sugar, as a fuel source. Continue reading
Osteoporosis and low bone mass (osteopenia) represent a major public health threat here in the United States, affecting over 53 million American women and men aged 50 and older. To be clear, this represents more than half of the people in this age group.
Certainly, the main issue that people become concerned with when discussing osteoporosis is the dramatically increased risk of associated bone fracture, of which fractures of the vertebrae are the most common. Of course, associated hip fractures remain extremely important as well. In fact, as published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly 65,000 women die from complications of hip fracture each year, and the risk of death within the first 6 to 12 months after hip fracture is an astounding 25%. Continue reading
It is certainly clear that our most pervasive chronic conditions share a common feature in terms of their underlying cause. Whether we are talking about coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, or even Alzheimer’s disease, what current medical literature reveals is the powerful role that inflammation plays in these and other common conditions.
Ultimately, the main issue with higher levels of inflammation that manifests as damage to tissue is the fact that when inflammation has been turned on, it increases the production of damaging free radicals, a situation we call oxidative stress. When oxidative stress is running rampant, damage occurs to our proteins, and fat, and even our DNA. Continue reading
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