Aug. 27–On a Tuesday morning, Dr. Ed Wolfgram wolfed down an apple fritter, a weekly treat, after his 4 1/2-mile run.Later that day, “Nancy Schmidt,” (not her real name) sat at her desk, lamenting that she could no longer eat chocolate and was on a highly restricted low-sugar diet. The bun-less hamburger and lump of cottage cheese she was eating didn’t look very appetizing.

Wolfgram, a St. Louis psychiatrist and good friend of mine, has been competing in marathons and Ironman triathlons for 30 years.

Schmidt, a bed-and-breakfast manager in Illinois, is obese and has Type II diabetes.

Wolfgram is 75.

Schmidt is 52.

The differences in their diets and their overall health illustrate a fundamental truth about the human body: We’re designed to move, especially if we want to live a long, healthy life without severe dietary restrictions.

Exercise lowers blood sugar levels, insulin levels, blood pressure and triglycerides. Exercise raises HDL levels, the good cholesterol that seems to protect against heart attacks. Add all this up and the message is clear: We must be fit to eat.

Now comes Edward Weiss, assistant professor in nutrition and dietetics at St. Louis University, with further evidence to support this. Weiss recently studied how exercise affects flow-mediated dilation, the rate at which blood vessels contract and dilate. Previous studies have shown that people with low rates are more likely to develop heart disease within five years than those with normal levels, he said. Sugary foods can cause flow-mediated dilation to plummet, and Weiss wanted to see if exercise would offset that negative effect.

The short answer, he says, is yes.

Weiss began his study by getting the baseline measurement of the flow-mediated dilation of 13 study subjects who had not exercised for a while. Then he had them drink a 20-ounce soda and eat a candy bar — “a typical American snack.”

When he measured their rates again, Weiss found they’d decreased substantially.

A few weeks later, he had the 13 participants exercise for one hour, at about 70 percent of their maximum heart rate. Weiss says most people in their 50s and 60s can reach maximum heart rate with a brisk walk. Seventeen hours later, he had them drink a 20-ounce soda and eat a candy bar and measured their flow-mediated dilation again.

Weiss found that when their rate deteriorated to its lowest level this time, it wasn’t much lower than their baseline rate, which was taken without exercise and pre-snack.

“From that perspective, exercise prevented the negative effects of the sugar,” he says. Weiss chose to wait 17 hours between the exercise and snack, figuring that people who exercise regularly are always within a day or two of their last workout, which will always be providing some protection against the unhealthful foods they eat.

This doesn’t give avid exercisers a free pass to eat all the high-calorie, high-fat, sugary foods they can shovel in. (Unless, of course, you’re a gold medalist named Michael Phelps.) And it doesn’t mean that every couch potato with a poor diet is going to get Type II diabetes or drop dead of heart disease at age 57. Some people have good genes.

But Weiss points out that sedentary people who eat high-fat, high-calorie diets run a higher risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer than their contemporaries who exercise regularly.

He’s heard those people justify their diets and lack of physical activity by calling it a “quality of life” issue. They like to joke that avid exercisers don’t really live longer, it just seems that way because they’re exercising so much.

“But you look at an obese person, and their knees are bad and they can barely move and you think, ‘Is this good quality of life?’” Weiss said.

The same goes for food. Suddenly, the chubby couch potato hits 55 and can’t eat half the foods he did 10 years before without ballooning or putting his health at risk.

“There’s data that show that lean, healthy endurance athletes on average eat 50 percent more calories than obese people,” Weiss says. “To optimize health it should be healthy food, such as whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.”

And maybe, when the doctor isn’t looking, an apple fritter.

cbillhartz@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8114

—–

To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

We hear a lot about what overweight Americans eat, but a group of physicians has uncovered alarming evidence as to a related question:What have we been drinking?

After a look in this space last Wednesday at the War Between the Doughnuts — Krispy Kreme vs. Dunkin’ Donuts, that is — dietitians note that the chains made the list of the “5 Most Fattening Frozen Drinks” for calories and lack of nutritional value. Despite healthy- sounding names, drinks such as DD’s Strawberry Banana Smoothie and KK’s Berries and Kreme Chiller contained up to 1,000 calories.

“Right there, you’ve had half your day’s calories,” said Susan Levin, a dietitian at the Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a research nonprofit. “You’d be surprised how easy it is to suck that many calories through a straw without realizing it.”

In the company of Starbucks, Steak ‘n Shake and Robeks, which also sell high-calorie drinks under unassuming names such as “frappuccino,” “smoothie” and “power shake,” the two doughnut store drinks tested in second and third place. The breakdown:

Krispy Kreme’s Berries and Kreme Chiller (20 ounces) weighed in at 960 calories, including 40 grams of fat and 116 grams of sugar, the equivalent of four Snickers bars.

Dunkin’ Donuts Strawberry Banana Smoothie (32 ounces) was a mere 700 calories, but the study termed the drink “profoundly unhealthy,” with two-thirds of a cup of sugar, along with artificial coloring, high-fructose corn syrup and gelatin.

Why 32 ounces? Levin called it the “movie popcorn effect.” If a large is only $1 more, heck, why not?

Dietitians concede that adults don’t go to doughnut shops for their health, but there are kids to consider. And this: A 2004 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that 16 percent of U.S. children are obese.

In the same vein, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that one in three American children born in this decade will develop type 2 diabetes and that 60 percent of children between ages 5 and 10 have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or some other warning sign for heart disease.

If that “smoothie” still sounds good, I left out one secret ingredient: propylene glycol, a petroleum product.

Keep your hands off Big Oil!

Speaking of petroleum, a bit of Outer Banks travelogue in this space Sunday questioning the wisdom of drilling for energy off the state coast got some oysters in a stew.

Wrote Lee Gordon: “It would be great if we could just get the facts and not … scare tactics to mold the reader to the writer’s left leaning opinions.”

Bill Welborn: “So, we just do nothing? Or do we put windmills on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty? Sure the oil companies will benefit, but that’s what they are in business to do! In the end, we will all benefit by going after those resources that belong to us!”

Lastly, Marcus Kindley: “What a total piece of tripe … filled with Democrat talking points, urban legends and just total distortion. You are a junk reporter, who does little original unbiased research and is just a parrot for liberal, biased viewpoints.”

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lorraine.ahearn@news- record.com

(c) 2008 Greensboro News Record. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

IT is none of our business but … we can’t resist.Alabama is getting tough with state workers who are too fat. Beginning in 2010, state employees who are obese and don’t work on getting fit will have to pay $25 a month for insurance that is free to other workers.

The State Employees Insurance Board approved the plan last week. Maybe it is following the example of airline companies that recently began charging passengers for overweight luggage. But this is a bad approach to an admittedly worrisome problem. Yes, it is a good idea to encourage employees to improve their health, get in shape, be fit.

In Alabama, fried food is endemic to the culture. Everything is fried there, from grits to okra to mouth-watering chicken - and tea comes presweetened. This kind of food is fat-inducing, and it takes an iron will just to resist.

However, being overweight - even obese - is not necessarily linked to one’s diet. For many overweight people, weight gain is more about genes than diet. On the other side of the coin, many people who are of “average” weight are afflicted with the kind of medical issues - diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, etc. - that are typically associated with obesity. If the concern is about poor health, why not focus on health issues instead of weight?

This is a situation where the carrot is better than the stick. Offering a plaque, a reward, bonus, cash or recognition for improvement creates positive incentive and good karma. Assessing a cash penalty for lack of improvement is a negative incentive. It can work, but there may not be full buy-in of the concept.

Any Florida officials thinking of following Alabama’s example should take note: Don’t confuse good health with excess pounds.

The Miami Herald

(c) 2008 San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

Given that children cannot feed themselves independently at birth, most parents are naturally attentive to their child’s weight and food intake. It is perhaps not surprising that feeding problems are one of the most, if not the most, commonly reported concerns and problems faced by new mothers and fathers. Common Child Feeding ProblemsThere is a plethora of names and definitions to describe the range of problems with eating that children can experience, many of which have not been universally classified; definitions and boundaries often vary between different researchers, clinicians and practitioners. Some examples include food fussiness, mealtime negativity, food refusal, perseverant feeding, fussy eating, picky eating, selective eating, and food neophobia.

One of the most common problems that parents face is food refusal, with most pre-school children refusing to eat certain foods at some point during their early years. Though this refusal is generally more a problem for the parent than the child, it can become more severe if the child refuses to eat altogether, or if her refusal becomes extremely selective and her repertoire of consumed foods becomes very limited.

Many children also go through periods of extreme food fussiness and will eat only very specific foods for periods of time. This fussiness can exist alongside food neophobia, a potentially evolutionary based response where children fear new foods and will refuse to consume them. Repeatedly offering the food (often over 11 times) in a relaxed and calm environment without pressure can often lead to eventual acceptance of these refused foods.

Unfortunately, for some parents, feeding problems are not transient and can persist and become more severe with time. In these cases, feeding problems can lead to malnourishment and weight loss, and can instigate growth faltering and necessitate hospitalization and tube feeding. However, it is not just the physical consequences of feeding problems that are of concern. Persistent feeding problems, like obesity, tend to cause a great deal of stress and anxiety and can impede the quality of life and well being of both children and their parents.

One would expect that children with feeding problems are typically underweight and those who are obese “eat well.” However, the situation is complicated by the fact that problems with child feeding and problems with child weight do not always go hand in hand. In some cases children can falter with their growth but eat relatively well (for example, if they have a medical condition that leads to weight loss). In other cases children can be fussy eaters who refuse a large repertoire of foods but can grow relatively well and are sustained by a limited but calorie-adequate diet. While there is a distinction between what are referred to as non- organic and organic feeding problems where children have difficulties eating because of associated medical factors (e.g. Cystic Fibrosis, Silver- Russell Syndrome or Turner Syndrome), many children have non- organic feeding problems yet experience subtle medical problems such as subtle reflux, which can blur these boundaries and complicate treatment options.

Common Causes of Feeding Problems

There is still a great deal to learn about what predisposes children to have feeding or weight-related problems. Many children have subtle organic factors that may have contributed to, or may exacerbate, their feeding problems, and these often exist in addition to temperamental dispositions in the child. For example, children who have difficult and fussy temperaments, or autistic tendencies, are often more likely to be picky and selective eaters, while levels of temperamental impulsivity have been associated with the tendency to overeat and be obese.

Such organic findings indicate both genetic and behavioral characteristics of children and can be crucial in determining whether or not they will develop problems with food. However, children obviously do not exist in a vacuum, and in addition to the wider societal influences that exert pressure upon children’s eating (e.g. advertisements, the mass media and food promotion), parents can also affect their children’s eating through the ways that they feed their children and provide food.

How to Respond to Feeding Problems

When a child experiences a feeding problem or gains weight, many parents search for information about how best to respond. Parents can influence their children’s eating by deciding what foods are offered and made available by modeling healthy or unhealthy food choices, and providing access to a varied or limited diet. In the case of obesity, parents can provide access to options for healthy living, such as exercise.

One factor that is often overlooked by parents that can have a large impact upon children’s feeding problems and food choices is not just what foods are offered and available to the child, but how those foods are offered and fed to the child: whether they are allowed or forbidden, and how they are made available. Specifically, the use of pressure to eat and restriction of certain foods can have a big impact upon how much children desire and want to consume those foods.

When faced with a child who refuses to eat fruit and vegetables for example, one of the most natural responses is to encourage, pressure, coax, cajole and even force that child to eat those foods. Similarly, most people would say that if a child gains weight or eats an unhealthy diet, that her parent should restrict her intake of calorie-dense foods. However, despite these good intentions, ironically these two commonly practiced methods of feeding actually appear to have the opposite of their desired effect.

A wealth of research evidence suggests that when children are pressured to eat a particular food that they are more likely to subsequently report heightened dislike for that food and to want to eat that food even less. These effects seem to be long lasting, and research has shown that the use of pressure or force feeding predicts greater dislike of the forced food and lower weight years later.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, when a parent perceives a child to be eating too many “unhealthy” foods, a common response is to tell the child that he is not allowed to eat those foods, that the foods are forbidden, or the child is not allowed the foods until he has eaten healthy foods. While this strategy may work in the short term - preventing the child from eating the food and sometimes even leading to brief weight loss - research suggests that, in a normally growing child, when a food is openly restricted it becomes a forbidden fruit, even more desirable in the longer term, and actually predicts greater child weight gain in the longer term.

It is important to stress that these findings are based on - and cannot be extrapolated to - children who are not growth faltering and who are not obese. Indeed it would be irresponsible to suggest that parents should not place any limitations on the foods available to a child who is obese, or to allow a child to become malnourished. Any parent who is concerned about her child’s weight or growth should see her child’s medical practitioner for specific advice about how to respond.

However, these findings do suggest that parents should be aware of the counterproductive effects that controls over food can have with normally growing children. More recent research suggests that a better way to control food intake may be covertly; by not having unhealthy foods in the house, parents control the accessibility and children are not as aware. Of course this method is not as easy once children get older and eat more often independently away from home, especially with the ever-present influence of our media and food industry, which promote excessive calorie intake.

More research is needed to provide parents with the what to do rather than what not to do. In general, the research appears to suggest that parents should have control over what foods are made available to children by selecting a varied and healthy diet to keep in the home and offer at mealtimes, but allowing children to choose how much they want to eat.

Parents face an increasingly difficult battle against the media and social influences that constantly promote excessive food intake along with a desire to be disproportionately slim. By modeling a healthy lifestyle and a varied parental diet, and making mealtimes enjoyable occasions for all the family, parents can provide children with a healthy understanding and appreciation of food.

Tooth Inflation

The Tooth Fairy is being hit by inflation. In 2006, the average value of a tooth put under a child’s pillow was $1.71. For 2007 the national average amount left by the Tooth Fairy was $2.09 - an increase of 22%. The value of a tooth varied from a low of five cents to a high of $50.

According to Marty Weiland, operations analyst for Delta Dental of Minnesota, the organization that conducts the annual poll, “It is worth noting that the substantial upswing was largely driven by a substantial increase in the number of five-dollar gifts. So either the Tooth Fairy is an expert investor or we may be seeing something analogous to the ‘lipstick effect,’ where during an economic downturn or recession, the tendency is for consumers to purchase small, comforting items rather than large luxury items.” Medical News Today, 2/25/08

By Therese Mianecki, PhD, RN

Therese Mianecki, PhD, RN, has conducted research on sleep patterns and problems in children. She is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. She is a nurse and writer who resides in Rochester Hills, Michigan with her husband and three children.

Copyright Pediatrics for Parents, Inc. Jul 2008

(c) 2008 Pediatrics for Parents. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

You don’t have to be an actuary or funeral director to have noticed the striking increase in the length of life. The obituaries in this or any other newspaper show a growing number of people who depart this world in their late 80s or 90s, or even at 100 or older.Doomsayers consider this a terrifying trend, bound to overwhelm the ability of doctors and medical facilities to care for the burgeoning population of the oldest old.

But there is increasing evidence that the societal burden of increased longevity need not be so drastic. Long-term studies have shown that how people live accounts for more than half the difference in how hale and hearty they will remain.

Many very old people have assumed “bragging rights” about their age and what they can still accomplish despite it, as Michael Kinsley wrote in The New Yorker in April.

At a pool in downtown Los Angeles, Kinsley encountered a stranger who interrupted his laps long enough to say, “I’m 90 years old.” The man, Richard Ibanez, a retired judge, died in November at age 97, but swam every morning until the last week of his life, his grandson, Christopher Karachale, wrote in a letter to the magazine.

A friend’s father, Irving Weinig, who lived in an assisted living facility in New York, requested new clothes for his 104th birthday so he could look spiffy when he had lunch with “the girls,” an activity he enjoyed until his death at 108.

These examples speak to a concept proposed in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1980 by Dr. James F. Fries of Stanford University: that adult vigor can be extended well into the ninth decade of life, with illness and disability compressed into a period that shortly precedes death.

Many studies have examined the factors that predict the length of people’s lives, with nearly universal agreement that about 35 percent is determined by genes over which we have little or no control.

Dr. Nir Barzilai and colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine found, for example, that individuals “with exceptional longevity” and a low incidence of age-related diseases have significantly larger cholesterol particles in their blood, a genetic characteristic that reduces their risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Scientists are searching for ways to extend healthy life spans by manipulating “bad” genes, but the potential exists now for modifying many of the environmental factors that account for the other 65 percent of longevity. And I suspect that most of us who hope to join the ranks of the oldest old would like to do so in a manner similar to that of Richard Ibanez and Irving Weinig.

“Longevity is a Pyrrhic victory if those additional years are characterized by inexorable morbidity from chronic illness, frailty- associated disability and increasingly lowered quality of life,” Dr. William Hall of the Highland Hospital Center for Healthy Aging in Rochester, New York, wrote in The Archives of Internal Medicine in February.

Dr. Richard Rivlin, director of the nutrition and cancer prevention career development program at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in an interview that it was never too late to adopt habits that predict a healthy old age.

“While measures started early in life are most likely to have the greatest health benefit,” he said, “older people should never feel that turning over a new leaf at their age is anything but highly effective.”

He said there was clear evidence that measures taken in one’s 70s could help prevent “several important categories of disease, such as hypertension, heart disease, osteoporosis and even cancer.”

In The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last year, Rivlin noted that changes in body composition, like loss of bone and muscle and accumulation of body fat, typically accompany aging and can affect health in a variety of ways: poor posture that impairs breathing; falls and fractures; loss of mobility; a reduced metabolic rate; and weight gain that can lead to diabetes, heart and blood vessel disease and some forms of cancer.

But these changes in body composition, he added, “are not an invariable accompaniment of aging.” Much can be done to limit and even reverse them, he said, including restricting calories and following a diet of high-quality protein and limited saturated fat and replacing simple sugars with whole grains rich in fiber.

A second critical measure for the “young-elderly,” as he calls 70- year-olds, is to make “exercise a part of their daily lifestyle,” including aerobic activities that raise the heart rate; weight- bearing activities that strengthen muscles and bones; and stretching exercises that reduce stiffness and improve flexibility and balance.

Another age-related concern is cognitive decline, which is more likely in people with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of modifiable risk factors that includes abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and abnormal cholesterol levels. Hall cautioned against therapeutic nihilism in treating older people with such risk factors.

“Chronological age is a very imperfect determinant on which to base medical decision-making,” he wrote.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2008 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

Can antioxidants improve outcomes for patients undergoing treatment for cancer? Although the medical research is far from conclusive, there is increasing evidence judicious use of antioxidants may improve outcomes and survival in patients undergoing chemotherapy.One of the mechanisms by which chemotherapy kills cancer cells is believed to be through the production of very destructive molecules called free radicals.

These free radicals can cause damage to the cell membrane as well as the DNA.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy is not specific enough to only attack cancer cells. Many healthy cells are also damaged or killed. Antioxidants help to protect against the damage caused by these free radicals.

It has been theorized that, during chemotherapy, the use of antioxidants may actually help to protect tumor cells as well as healthy cells. Although this may be theoretically valid, there have been very few studies to support this line of thinking.

Over the past 20 years, there has been an increasing awareness within the medical community that the judicious use of antioxidants may actually be beneficial for patients undergoing chemotherapy.

A recent, published review of the medical literature on the use of antioxidants during chemotherapy yielded interesting results. This article, published in Cancer Treatment Reviews, was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Dr. Keith Block, a nationally recognized expert in cancer and alternative medicine, and researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the world- renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The researchers reviewed 845 articles in the medical literature; 19 were found to be of good scientific and clinical quality and were included. The studies evaluated the effect of a number of antioxidants - including vitamin C, vitamin E and N-acetylcysteine - on several parameters of clinical success including survival and overall toxicity.

None of the studies demonstrated that the use of antioxidants during cancer treatment had any negative consequences on the specific cancer therapy. Indeed, those who used antioxidants during their cancer therapy had overall increased survival, better response to the medical therapies and fewer side effects and toxicities.

Sometimes doctors must limit chemotherapy because the patient can’t tolerate the side effects. The nausea, fatigue, bone marrow suppression, insomnia and bowel problems can be significant. Evidence suggests patients who complete an entire course of chemotherapy have significantly greater survival. Studies have also suggested that the use of antioxidants may reduce side effects and allow a patient to complete an entire course of chemotherapy.

Some research even suggests that fish oil and resveratrol (a bioflavonoid from purple grapes) may actually improve the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy.

There is much more research to be done, but there will come a day when specific antioxidants are given in conjunction with chemotherapy.

Until that time, talk with your oncologist or consult a medical expert in this area. In Illinois, there are a number of local medical physicians with fellowship training in complementary and alternative medicine (http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/alum/ index.html)

- Patrick B. Massey, M.D., Ph.D., is medical director for alternative and complementary medicine for Alexian Brothers Hospital Network.

(c) 2008 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

While it is recommended that people eat 1 1/2 ounces of nuts per day, few people actually consume that amount on a daily basis, U.S. researchers say.Epidemiologic studies show that consuming tree nuts — almonds, Brazils, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, macadamias and walnuts — five or more times per week is associated with a reduced risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.

In one analysis, individuals who ate the most nuts had about a 35-percent reduced risk of coronary heart disease.

In the 2001-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 34 percent consumed nuts but most ate roughly half of the recommended amount.

“Many people consume as much as 25 percent of their total caloric intake from snacks,” co-chairwoman Janet King of the 2007 Nuts and Health Symposium and past chairwoman of the 2005 USDA Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee says in a statement.

“If we could replace snacks high in refined carbohydrates with just 1/4 to 1/3 cup of nuts per day we could have a positive impact on nutrient density and the risk of chronic disease.”

Comments on the proceedings of the Nuts and Health Symposium are published in the September issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

THE most worrisome ranking in a new report on obesity in America may not be the obvious one.A national “epidemic” in obesity is cited, and it’s true that obesity rates in New Jersey have risen for the third year in a row. According to the study, released last week, more than six in 10 residents of this state are overweight, and more than one out of five are obese.

But some health experts would say the more troubling statistic is New Jersey’s ranking as 10th among the states in the number of adults who don’t meet physical activity guidelines. In other words, too many people in this state don’t exercise enough or at all. In 40 other states, more people are exercising more often.

This is important because new research indicates that being overweight by itself may not be as unhealthy as being physically unfit. An article in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine found that many people who are overweight or even obese may actually be in better cardiac health than some thinner people.

One-half of the overweight people in the study and one-third of those described as obese had normal cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and were found to be fit. At the same time, one in four of the thinner people studied had serious risk factors for heart disease.

This might suggest that physical fitness, in some cases, could be a more important sign of health than how much a person weighs.

The medical concerns about obesity are still valid. Being seriously overweight is linked to heart disease, hypertension, stroke and diabetes. But being slim and trim is no guarantee of heart health.

Couch potatoes of all sizes, take note. The numbers on the scale may not be as important as the number of hours on the move.

(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

DURING a juice fast, select juicing materials and teas specific to your health conditions, choose the fruits on the highly beneficial and neutral foods lists specific to your blood type.Organic vegetables are the best type to use, but if you can’t find or afford those, wash whatever you can find thoroughly before juicing them. And, if you don’t know your blood type, here is a short list of vegetables juices with the maladies they are good for:

Vegetable Juices:

* Asparagus - Kidneys, diuretic, blood purifier, bowel health, soothes nervous system (Note: urine will turn dark and have a different odor to it when you eat or drink a lot of asparagus. This is normal and harmless and will pass.)

* Beet greens - Gallbladder, liver, osteoporosis.

* Beets - Blood cleanser, liver cleanser, menstrual problems, arthritis, lymph glands, flushes the kidney and bladder, and is good for low blood pressure. (Note: never drink it straight as it can temporarily paralyze your vocal cords, cause hives, increase the heart rate and give you alternating chills and fever. Hmm - sounds like a good reason to stay away from beets altogether! They sure do taste “earthy.”)

* Brussels sprouts - Good for diabetics and hypoglycemia, makes for healthy skin, increased male potency and stomach ulcers.

* Cabbage - Colitis, ulcers, and it curbs alcohol cravings. (Note: Do not store cabbage juice because its Vitamin U content can be quickly lost.)

* Carrots - Eyes, liver problems, high cholesterol, protects skin from UV rays, nervous problems (like Multiple Sclerosis), arthritis, osteoporosis, and low blood pressure.

* Cauliflower - Breast cancer

* Celery - Kidneys, diabetes, osteoporosis, good for people who sweat in excess, muscle cramps, fatigue, anxiety, stress, insomnia, headaches, air pollution, sweet cravings, low blood pressure, and obesity.

* Comfrey - Intestines, hypertension, osteoporosis.

* Cucumber - Edema, diabetes, tendonitis, skin tone, muscle tone, complexion problems, poor nail growth.

* Dandelion Greens - Spring tonic, strengthens blood and bones, increases stamina and energy. (Note: eat them early in the summer as they get bitter as they age.)

* Fennel - Night blindness, eye disorders, flatulence, blood strengthener, migraines, nausea.

* Garlic - Allergies, colds, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, high fats, diabetes, immune booster, anticarcinogen, antibacterial, antifungal, rids body of toxins through the skin, low blood pressure.

* Ginger root - Circulation, motion sickness, nausea, laryngitis, clears mucous in the throat, sinuses and lungs.

* Greens (Collard, Mustard, Turnip, Kale, Parsley, Spinach, Turnip, Chard) - Cardiovascular disease, skin, eczema, digestive problems, obesity, breath. (Note: Greens contain more than 100% of the RDA for Vitamin C and Vitamin A)

* Jerusalem artichokes - Diabetes.

* Jicama - Sooths upset stomachs, osteoporosis/osteopenia, and hemorrhoids.

* Kale - Constipation, bladder problems, arthritis, also see Greens.

* Lettuce - Lung cancer prevention, hair and nail strength, skin problems.

* Onion - Normalizes nervous system for sympathetic dominance, stimulates beneficial bacteria, breaks up mucous, low blood pressure.

(Note: If you juice onions, put them in the juicer first THEN the other vegetables so the odor does not stay on the juicer parts.)

* Parsley - Kidneys, edema, arthritis, tendon and ligament problems, osteoporosis (has lots of natural calcium), one of the most nutritious foods in the world, boils and cysts, increases oxygenation of the blood, bad breath, stimulates normal peristalsis of the gut, vision problems, adrenal exhaustion, thyroid disease, obesity.

* Potatoes - Intestines, ulcer.

* Radish - Liver, high cholesterol, obesity, sinus problems, clears excess mucous, soothes sore throats.

* Spinach - Anemia, eczema, regenerates damaged intestinal tracts, constipation, circulation problems, cleans liver and glands.

* Sprouts - Baldness, morning sickness.

* String beans - Bruising.

* Sweet potatoes - Any kind of skin problems.

* Tomatoes - Use them alone or leave them alone, but adding celery and cucumber to it works fine.

* Watercress - Anemia, colds.

* Wheat grass - Anemia, liver, intestines, breath, excellent antioxidant, Parkinson’s disease.

* Zucchini - internal cleanser, fantastic as a mineral supplement.

Which vegetables are you most drawn to eating? Now I hope you know why. Happy juicing!

Dr. Denice Moffat is a practicing naturopath, medical intuitive, and veterinarian working on the family unit (which includes humans and animals) through her phone consultation practice established in 1995.

Check out her website at http://www.NaturalHealthTechniques.com with a free internationally distributed monthly newsletter. To read more articles about juicing, fasting, dry brushing and enemas, go to: http:// www.naturalhealthtechniques.com/HealingTechniques/ healing_techniques1.htm

(c) 2008 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

Nationwide, physicians have not embraced electronic medical records as quickly as anticipated at the beginning of the decade.”It hasn’t happened,” said Brian Schatz, chief operating officer at Medical Associates Clinic.

The clinic began implementation of an electronic medical record system in April 2003.

“We are basically 90 percent deployed,” Schatz said.

The clinic’s extensive use of electronic records places it within a minority.

A recent New England Journal of Medicine report indicates about 4 percent of physicians have “robust” electronic medical record systems capable of order entries and clinical decision support, with 13 percent of physicians using more basic systems for handling laboratory data, clinical notes and electronic prescribing.

“We believe this is the way medical information will be handled in the future,” Schatz said. “We believe we are practicing better, safer medicine.”

In a national survey, two-thirds of the physicians who haven’t adopted such technology cite cost, difficulty finding the right system, and fear of quick obsolescence as the factors in their decisions, the New England Journal of Medicine reported.

More than 2,750 physicians were sampled by the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital through March 2008. The survey found stronger adoption of electronic medical records in larger practices, in facilities and in the western United States and among younger physicians.

“I think physicians are conservative as a whole,” said Mike Stoll, president of the Tri-State Independent Physicians Association. “The longer they are in practice, the more ingrained they become.”

Practices of 50 or more physicians were three times as likely as doctors in practices of three or fewer physicians to have basic electronic medical records, according to the report.

“Larger (physician) groups have definitely been at the forefront in deploying the technology,” Schatz said. “One of the issues is the investment piece. This is a capital-intensive thing. Smaller groups don’t have access to that investment.”

The clinic spent nearly $4 million on the electronic medical records project, including hardware, software and personnel directly related to the change.

“It is not just capital intensive, there is a human investment,” Schatz said. “We have had to relearn how we do business - it takes energy, effort and time. Some people adapt very quickly and some people adapt more slowly.”

Technological expertise can sometimes come easier for larger physicians’groups.

“Larger groups tend to have IT (information technology) capabilities in-house,” Schatz said. “Smaller groups might not even have an IT person.”

Stoll said the IPA plans to purchase an electronic medical records system for the association.

“When you can spread it out, it becomes far more affordable,” he said. “For our group, we have targeted Jan. 1, 2010.

Originally published by ERIK HOGSTROM TH staff writer/ehogstrom@wcinetcom.

(c) 2008 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.