General Health

food germs!

Everyone’s done it: drop food on the floor, pick it up, eat it, enjoy it. Oh–and, ignore the fact that it was on the floor…

Even I am subject to such behavior, especially if I drop food in my own home. Here in my kitchen, something about the floor and germs being my floor and germs, I feel less hesitation in eating dropped food.

Perhaps that should be a habit of the past, after I just read an eye-opening Q&A from the New York Times about the five-second rule we’re all taught in elementary school.

Research published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology from 2007 tracked the bacteria transferred to dropped bologna after 5, 30 and 60 seconds on wood, tile and carpet. Unfortunately for those of us that may adhere to the five-second rule: ”more than 99 percent of the bacteria were transferred nearly immediately, and there was no difference by the time of contact.”

As infectious disease expert Dr. Roy M. Gulick, of Weill Cornell Medical College, put it: “the five-second rule probably should become the zero-second rule.” Well, there you have it.

Channel the Inner You

Researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas have recently reported unique findings for prostate cancer subjects.

The study, whose findings were published last month, examined various forms of support for prostate cancer subjects undergoing radical prostatectomy — which, while highly successful at eliminating cancer, is known to take an incredible toll both mentally and physically.

Specifically, researchers divided subjects into three groups:

1. one third of the men received routine care through their hospital pre- and post-surgery;
2. another group was given access to psychologists prior to the surgery and directly following the procedure;
3. a final third group received stress management training, in which they a) met with a psychologist for support, b) learned deep breathing and guided-imagery techniques to help cope with the stress of surgery, c) were led through a mental imagery exercise to review everything that would happen to them throughout surgery and in recovery, and d) were given mini sessions the morning of the operation and two days after as well as a guide and audiotapes so they could practice on their own.

Two days after surgery, researchers found that men from the third group who had received stress management had a stronger immune response, which aids in the healing process. Most encouraging of stress management training, the men who received meditation and guided-imagery before and after surgery reported better overall physical functioning a year later.

Such findings are, for us here at Amazing Solutions, of particular interest due to our work in alternative prostate health treatment. The dietary supplement, Prostate Health Cocktail (PHC), was developed by our colleague Dr. Jacek Pinski who is among a new breed of scientists focused on integrated medical strategies for prolonging male vitality and treating prostate cancer. PHC is available exclusively through OncoNatural.

To learn more, check out this interview with Dr Pinski about prostate health and disease therapy.

NYC Restaurant Score Card

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Perhaps not so much when it comes to where you eat out…

I just heard about a useful new website — DontEat.at — that synchs your Foursquare check-in location (if you’re not tech-y, see below where I explain what this means) with the NYC Department of Health’s sanitation score for the restaurant you’re about to eat at. If the restaurant you’ve checked into received a “C” grade or worse, DontEat.at will text you with a warning.

As a complete germaphobe, I’m thrilled at the prospect of losing my ignorance here. As someone who avoids certain social media tech-y sites, I think I’m just going to bite the bullet and sign up for Foursquare, a cell phone program that allows you to “check in” to restaurants, bars and other venues so that friends will know what you’re up to.

DontEat.at is still fresh up and running, thus only available for New York City. But reports claim that there are plans to expand the service to other cities…so stay tuned!

tip: relaxing under soft light before bed may make your sleep more well-rested

We wake up to the sun. We go to work under bright fluorescents. We come home and turn the lights on. In fact, the only time we turn the lights off is to fall asleep every night. But if you’re one of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who have sleep problems, one trick to a better rest might just be found in the dark…

Yes–keeping the lights down may help improve your health. Researchers at Harvard University have found that around-the-clock light may be detrimental to our natural biorhythm. This is particularly the case in the hours before bed, when many of us keep our house lights at their brightest.

According the research, lights left on during sleep suppressed melatonin by 50 percent in subjects. However, when the 116 people in the study were given eight hours of dim lighting before bed, melatonin was produced 90 minutes more per day. In other words, lead author, Joshua Gooley, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, explains: “Our study shows that this exposure to indoor light has a strong suppressive effect on the hormone melatonin [which] could, in turn, have effects on sleep quality and the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, blood pressure and glucose levels.”

Implications from the study go beyond just to suggest a correlation between lighting and restfulness. Given that chronic light suppression of melatonin has been hypothesised to increase the risk of some types of cancer and that melatonin receptor genes have been linked to type 2 diabetes, the findings from this study provide plenty for future research to explore.

In the meantime, light some candles and let yourself unwind for a better rest.

caution: wash hands after use!

HEALTH ALERT: Be sure to wash your hands after using public ATM services.

News broke this week that ATMs can be as dirty as public toilets. The study was based on heavy-traffic areas of England with germ and bacteria samples from ATM machines and public restrooms.

Read more and stay clean.

direct Vitamin D!

Headlines can be misleading — and recent news about how much Vitamin D we all need is a perfect case in point.

Here’s one headline from the Wall Street Journal: “Triple That Vitamin D Intake, Panel Prescribes.” And another from the New York Times: “Extra Calcium and Vitamin D Aren’t Necessary, Report Says.” While these are just a couple of headlines that may confuse readers, which would you trust?

First, one easy takeaway is that we should be reading our news carefully so that we don’t carry incorrect information from headlines alone. Less easy to sort through is who actually needs more Vitamin D. Now, conventional wisdom has been telling us that low levels of Vitamin D can be linked to depression, various kinds of cancer, diabetes and stroke. And, over the past nine years, supplement sales have risen from $40 billion to $425 billion. Yet — despite the difference in headlines — recent news reports are actually claiming that, across the board, North Americans are getting enough of the vitamin as is from their blood (through the natural process of absorbing direct Vitamin D from sunlight).

For some of us however, it’s crucial that we get more than others. In particular: 1) people over 50 should be increasing their daily intake to support bone strength; 2) people with dark skin contain more melanin, which reduces the skin’s ability to produce the vitamin from sunlight; and 3) people who are obese need extra Vitamin D to make up for the relatively low levels in their blood.

Find out if you’re someone who needs more Vitamin D from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.

Aromatherapy headache relief for children

Is Headache ReLeaf Roll-On safe for children?

Yes, and that’s great news for the one in five American children and teenagers who suffer from regular or chronic headache or from migraine headaches.

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