Category Archives: Body, Mind & Spirit

Body Image/Body Size

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Why staying fat could be more healthy than constant dieting

Jessica Laurence

By Jessica Laurence, Aug 16, 2011

f you’re tired of the battle with the scales and the misery of refusing a slice of cake, here’s some encouraging news.

Scientists in Canada have made the controversial suggestion that being overweight could actually be healthier than constant dieting.

The researchers said over a third of the obese men and women they studied were healthy or had only minor health problems.

People who kept dieting and then regaining the weight they lost were found to be less healthy overall than the overweight group.

The team, from York University in Toronto, kept tabs on the health of 6,000 male and female participants for 16 years.

The participants were given physical and medical tests, and the researchers then compared that group’s data with people of normal weights.

The team found that people were heavier did not have more danger of dying than someone who was a normal weight.

“This concept of healthy obesity just recently came to light,” lead author Jennifer Kuk, assistant professor at York University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science, explained.

Wine & Waistlines

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How a glass of wine a day could help you lose weight

Jessica Laurence

By Jessica Laurence, Aug 18, 2011

How a glass of wine a day could help you lose weight

Giving up alcohol in order to lose weight is one of the most annoying parts of being on a diet.

Dieters are usually advised to cut out wine, cocktails and beer, all of which are high in sugar and empty calories.

However the results of a new study have suggested that drinking a moderate amount of alcohol every day could actually stop us putting on weight.

According to scientists at the Navarro University in Spain, people who drink wine and diet could lose weight more easily than people who abstain, or those who drink other types of alcohol.

A spokesperson for the researchers explained: “Light-to-moderate alcohol intake, especially of wine, may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain.”

“As positive associations between alcohol and weight gain were mainly found in studies with data on higher levels of drinking, it is possible an effect on weight gain or abdominal adiposity [fat around the middle] may only be experienced by heavy drinkers.”

The researchers said they analysed the results of 31 studies and did not find a link between moderate drinking and weight gain.

Abortion Rights Threatened in Virginia

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Virginia Abortion Clinics Threatened By New Regulations

Abortion

First Posted: 8/29/11 05:41 PM ET Updated: 8/29/11 06:03 PM ET

 There are 22 facilities that provide first-trimester abortions in Virginia, and all of them may have to close their doors over the next two years if they can’t meet the state government’s rigorous new health clinic regulations.

Virginia lawmakers passed legislation in the spring that required the Department of Health to release a set of “emergency” draft regulations for abortion clinics that were to go into effect by December 31.

The rules, released late on Friday, borrow a number of very specific physical plant requirements from a rulebook intended for the construction of new hospitals. For instance, a clinic must have 5-foot-wide hallways, 8-foot-wide areas outside of procedure rooms, specific numbers of toilets and types of sinks and all the latest requirements for air circulation flow and electrical wiring.

“On the first read, it seems hard to imagine that many facilities will be able to comply,” Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told HuffPost. “We can fairly say that the regulations as drafted are the most severe, onerous and restrictive that have been proposed anywhere. They’re intended to apply to facilities that don’t yet exist.”

If the Board of Health passes the new standards on September 15, abortion clinics have until January to show the state a plan for the extensive and expensive renovations they’ll have to undergo in order to meet the new requirements.

The Virginia League of Planned Parenthood said none of its five clinics are currently in compliance with the draft regulations. The renovations required to meet the new rules would cost millions of dollars, and abortion clinics would have to foot the cost themselves and try to recoup the money in patient fees down the road.

“We recently spent $4.6 million on renovations for the building I’m in, and we still don’t meet these requirements,” said Paulette McElwain, president and CEO of VLPP. “I think it’s highly likely that most facilities in Virginia that provide abortions wont be able to meet them either.”

to read more, go to:   http://www.chromographicsinstitute.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=post

Denisovan-Neanderthal Link — Immune Boost?

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Did sex with Neanderthals and Denisovans shape our immune systems? The jury’s still out

 

 
Neanderthals may be extinct, but they live on inside us. Last year, two landmark studies from Svante Paabo and David Reich showed that everyone outside of Africa can trace 1-4 percent of their genomes to Neanderthal ancestors. On top of that, people from the Pacific Islands of Melanesia owe 5-7 percent of their genomes to another group of extinct humans – the Denisovans, known only from a finger bone and a tooth. These ancient groups stand among our ancestors, their legacy embedded in our DNA.

Paabo and Reich’s studies clearly showed that early modern humans must have bred with other ancient groups as they left Africa and swept around the world. But while they proved that Neanderthal and Denisovan genes are still around, they said little about what these genes are doing. Are they random stowaways or did they bestow important adaptations?

When I spoke to Reich about this earlier this year, he was starting to sift through the data. “To a first approximation, they are random,” he said. “It’s possible that modern humans could have used the Neanderthal or Denisovan material to adapt to their environment, but we don’t have evidence for that.” However, palaeontologist Chris Stringer offered an intriguing suggestion: “If Denisovans were in South-East Asia long-term, they would have evolved immunities and defences to some of the diseases there, like different forms of malaria. That’s something modern humans could have picked up that would’ve been useful.”

He might have been right. Laurent Abi-Rached from Stanford University has just published a new study suggesting that our immune system owes a debt to our ancestors’ trysts with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

to read more, go to:    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/08/25/did-sex-with-neanderthals-and-denisovans-shape-our-imm

Getting to the Roots of Yoga

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Philip GoldbergPhilip Goldberg, Interfaith Minister, author of ‘American Veda: How Indian Spirituality Changed the West’
 The Once and Future Yoga
Posted: 8/25/11 01:54 AM ET

September is almost upon us, and that means it’s once again Yoga Month. Started in 2008 and designated a national observance by the Department of Health and Human Services, its organizers define it as “an awareness campaign to educate about the health benefits of yoga and to inspire a healthy lifestyle.” If you’ve been meaning to take a yoga class, this is your no-excuses opportunity, since one Yoga Month feature is the one week free yoga for new students at over 1200 studios.

One of the glories of the yoga tradition is that there’s something in it for everyone, whether you’re secular or spiritual, and whether you want flexible joints, a trim butt, a calm mind, a loving heart or a faster lane to enlightenment. At its best, yoga can deliver on those rewards and others, depending on the student’s dedication and the knowledge and skill of his or her teachers.

That versatility means you will find a huge variation in style, approach, specialty and emphasis. But, despite the diversity, you will probably find that at least 90 percent of every class is devoted to the stretches, bends and postures (asanas) that are now virtually synonymous with the word yoga. That fact has brought American yoga to an interesting moment in its brief and hugely successful history.

to read more, go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/real-meaning-of-yoga_b_935362.html

Brain-Belly-Beauty Connection

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How Gut Health Impacts Your Brain And Beauty

Stomach Controls Mind

First Posted: 8/26/11 08:02 AM ET Updated: 8/26/11 10:32 AM ET

By Ashley Neglia for YouBeauty.com

Research has already shown a connection between the belly and the brain (there’s a reason it’s called “gut instinct”), but new studies suggest that the food we eat and the bacteria residing within our gut may be powerful enough to alter our cognitive behavior.

These links between mind and body are helping researchers delve even deeper into viewing health and beauty more holistically.

According to researchers, changes in naturally occurring bacteria within the stomach may pack enough punch to otherwise affect brain chemistry. The new findings may not only help explain why certain gastrointestinal disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, often occur concurrently withanxiety or depression, but also why some psychiatric illnesses, such as late onset autism, are associated with abnormal bacteria content.

to read more, go to:    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/stomach-controls-mind_n_934294.html

Rethinking Antibiotics

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Overuse of Antibiotics Is Seen Behind Many Human Ills

Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 24 August 2011 Time: 04:30 PM ET

You were not meant to be alone: The human body contains and is covered in an almost unimaginably large number of microbes. But eradicating them as we do, intentionally and unintentionally, with the prolific use of antibiotics may be harming our health, according to one scientist who studies our minuscule companions.

“Overuse of antibiotics could be fueling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations,” writes Martin Blaser, a professor of microbiology and chairman of the department of medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center.

Humans are sometimes called meta-organisms, because of the sheer number and volume of microbes that share our bodies — living in our guts, on our skin, even in our belly buttons. Evidence is building for the benefits these healthy microbial communities offer us. They help us access nutrients, such as vitamin K, and energy from complex carbohydrates. They deter dangerous infections, and recent evidence indicates they help keep at bay multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders.