In this issue you'll find the following health updates:

1. Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease--Don't Let This Fool You!
2. C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Statins, and Heart Disease
3. Statin Drugs Over-the-counter?
4. New 2005 Dietary Guidelines
5. Red Wine and Your Heart
6. Shocking, Yet Not So Surprising
7. Wear Red
8. What Are Your Health Goals for 2005?

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1. Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease--Don't Let This Fool You!

According to new numbers from the American Cancer Society
(ACS), in 2005 more people under the age of 85 will die
of cancer than of heart disease. While the death rate from
many cancers is decreasing due to decreased smoking and
progress in treating those cancers, the number of cases for
other cancers is growing due to our increasingly unhealthy
diets and our overweight epidemic. 

Does this mean that you should forget about heart disease
and just start focusing on fighting cancer? Not at all, as
both are very serious issues. However, the American Heart
Association notes that the ACS estimate only compares cancer
deaths to the number of heart disease deaths, and excludes
the other closely-related cardiovascular diseases. Heart
disease, stroke, and the other cardiovascular diseases
together still take two out of every five of us (40%), and
largely stem from the same issues that lead to cancer.

Leading a healthy lifestyle is the best way to prevent all
these serious and deadly diseases, and you can save
yourself if you know how. (You'll find lots of crucial
life-saving information in A Woman's Guide to Saving
Her Own Life, at http://www.saveherlife.com). 

2. C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Statins, and Heart Disease 

We've discussed the promise of C-reactive protein (CRP)
testing (http://www.mellaniehills.com/healthyliving3.htm).
Just what does C-reactive protein (CRP) testing do? It's
a simple blood test that indicates high levels of
inflammation or infection in the body, which may indicate
potential heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, or other
diseases. CRP may soon become more important then
cholesterol testing in foretelling your risk of heart
disease, especially since half of those having heart
attacks have normal cholesterol.  

Several new studies just published in the New England
Journal of Medicine showed that medications that reduce
the levels of C-reactive protein in heart patients can
also reduce their risk of heart attacks and cardiac death.
One of those studies found that patients on statin drugs
to lower their cholesterol not only saw a drop in their
bad cholesterol (LDL) levels, but also saw a drop in their
CRP readings and in the number of heart attacks they
experienced. The next step in this clinical trial is to
determine if healthy patients experience the same results.

Though CRP is not a formally-recommended test, if you have
risk factors for heart disease it might be prudent to ask
your doctor about CRP testing. If a CRP test shows that
you have high inflammation numbers, you must do something
about your risk factors immediately.

Coincidentally, there has been recent evidence that
alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), found in soybean oil,
flaxseed, nuts, and leafy green vegetables, can decrease
CRP levels, and other testing has shown the impact of
vitamins in decreasing CRP. (See A Woman's Guide to Saving
Her Own Life for more details about CRP, including the
impact of diet and vitamin supplements on CRP.)

3. Statin Drugs Over-the-counter?

The FDA just turned down a drug company request to sell
statin drugs over the counter. Over-the-counter sales
appear inevitable as this has been approved in the United
Kingdom, but doing so now in the US might be premature.
Statins are tricky and should only be taken under a
doctor's watchful supervision due to the possibility of
liver, muscle, and other problems that can happen with
some statins.      

4. New 2005 Dietary Guidelines

The USDA just released the new 2005 Dietary Guidelines,
replacing the old 2000 USDA Food Pyramid that had been
under attack for being obsolete due to advances in
nutritional science. The new guidelines are far more
complex and don't lend themselves easily to a pyramid so
we've yet to see how they will be visually displayed.

The new guidelines focus on determining your daily calorie
requirements and balancing that by getting 30-90 minutes
per day of physical activity, depending upon whether you
wish to maintain or lose weight. (By the way, this
30-90 minutes is already under attack.)

There is also a more intense focus on the number of
servings of specific foods required to get needed vitamins
and minerals. Eating vegetables is important, but just got
more complex due to the breakdown of vegetables into five
groups, with recommended servings per week for each group.
In addition, the guidelines recommend that half of your
daily grain intake should be whole grains.

You can find the detailed 2005 dietary guidelines at
http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/
(or use my distilled and simplified recommendations from
them in A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life).

5. Red Wine and Your Heart

The latest issue of Circulation, a journal of the American
Heart Association, provides an interesting look at
Red Wine and Your Heart (http://circ.ahajournals.org/
cgi/content/full/111/2/e10?etoc) that is based on a
review of the existing scientific literature.
 
Data from 51 studies showed a 20% decrease in heart
disease risk when 0 to 2 alcoholic drinks were consumed
per day, and light to moderate alcohol consumption was
associated with an approximately 20% reduction in
(ischemic) stroke risk.

Is red wine better? The results conflict--some studies
showed up to a 32% heart disease risk reduction while
others showed no such beneficial effect, leading
researchers to surmise that factors such as diet, exercise,
or socioeconomic status might have been at work.

However, red wine's chemical composition (alcohol and
polyphenolic compounds, such as flavonoids and resveratrol)
appears to help maintain healthy blood vessels. Regular
alcohol consumption also appears to increase good (HDL)
cholesterol by about 12%, and to carry away the bad
(LDL) cholesterol so that it doesn't deposit itself in
the blood vessels. In addition, those who consume light
to moderate alcohol have less of the proteins that
encourage blood clots to form.

In spite of all this evidence, the researchers concluded
that the evidence is still insufficient as light alcohol
consumption has also been frequently shown to contribute
to cardiovascular disorders and recommending alcohol use
is risky due to other alcohol-related health concerns.
The American Heart Association recommends discussing this
with your physician, as do I. But it's good to know the
facts behind what we so frequently read.

As an aside, the effect of alcohol on the brain is also
being studied. A newly-released study of more than 11,000
nurses that was led by Harvard Medical School researchers
definitively linked alcohol consumption and the brain with
their finding that one drink or less per day prevents
cognitive decline in women. Presumably, the same would
apply to men, but requires further study. 
    
6. Shocking, Yet Not So Surprising

A study found that cardiologists in New York don't always
perform emergency angioplasties on patients that come to
the emergency room with heart attacks because they don't
want to hurt their physician scorecard rankings.
Seventy-nine per cent of those responding said that their
decision had at some time been influenced by knowing that
their statistics would be made public. This is just one
more reason to be extremely proactive about your own health.
(The New York Times) 

7. Wear Red

February is National Heart Month, and February 4 is
National Wear Red Day. Wear red to raise awareness that
heart disease is not only the number 1 killer of men,
but also of women. Call 1-888-MY-HEART to receive your
free red dress pin and wear it with pride.  For more
information, go to http://www.americanheart.org/
presenter.jhtml?identifier=3017091

Men, please wear red, too, to show your support for your
wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, and
employees.

8. What Are Your Health Goals for 2005?

Don't forget—please send me what health goals you've set
for 2005 and how I can help you reach them. Please take
a moment to e-mail me to let me know at mhills @
mellaniehills.com (remove spaces). I'd love to know:
 
 * Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them?
 * What are your goals or resolutions for 2005?
 * How can I help you reach them?
 * How will you pamper yourself this year?

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A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life
(http://www.saveherlife.com) includes the secrets to how
I easily lost 85 pounds and how you can lose weight, too.
It's not just for women. Save yourself and your loved ones.
Get off to a great start for 2005!

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Please, take care of yourself. 

Wishing you health, happiness, and longevity,
Mellanie True Hills

Copyright 2005 Mellanie True Hills.  All Rights Reserved.

About the Author:

Mellanie True Hills (http://www.mellaniehills.com),
The Health & Productivity Revitalizer(SM), is a
speaker, consultant, coach, and author of 'A Woman's
Guide to Saving Her Own Life'. Read two chapters online
at http://www.SaveHerLife.com

-- Will Clower, Ph.D.
www.fatfallacy.com

Here come the candy canes. In our house, Santa always hung
Hershey’s Kisses on the tree. Red and Green M&Ms cohabitate
with the micro-Reese’s peanut butter cups in the candy dish.
The holiday season is an excuse for saturating your house
with sugar in all its forms.

And you want to be festive. You don’t want to be a Scrooge
about things. But you also know that if it makes it in the
door, you will eat it.

The Short Term Problem
Sugar not only provides needless calories for your expanding
horizons, but also destabilizes your insulin levels – a
result that can lead to overweight, obesity, and even
diabetes.

Remember that sugar is not the problem. Overconsumption of
sugar is the problem. There is nothing wrong with sugar per
se, only when you eat it as a jelly doughnut chased with a
soda and a candy cane!

The Long Term Problem
Sugar consumption leads to more sugar consumption. Anyone
with a weight problem will recognize the slippery slope this
can become – the more you eat, the more you want to eat.
This is so deadly for your weight, leading straight into a
spiral that circles the weight gain drain.

The Solution
For your house.
Ban the sugar bomb. Don’t even bring it inside. If you need
to have nibbles about, use unsalted nuts or fruit. Remember
fruit? Apples come in single serving sizes, wrapped in a
handy, edible, holiday colored packaging! Tangerines are
fabulous to have around. If you have guests over, set a few
olives out. They are so great for you, and you can’t take 27
of them in your hand and down them all at once.

For your weight.
If you do find your house with candies about, you have got
to make it your policy to eat only one of them at a time.
One M&M? Yes. One mint? Yes. Eat one and walk away to do
something else. Learn this habit and burn it in. This will
save you a ton of calories.

For your health.
Remember that brown sugar is better for you than white
sugar. So if you do use it, darker is better. If you do have
chocolate, darker is better because it has more cocoa and
less sugar. Remember that fruit, although it has sugar, also
has the fiber that lowers the glycemic index of the juice.
In other words, it doesn’t just make you tired and hungry
like plain sugar can.

__________________________________
Dr. Will Clower is the award-winning author of The Fat
Fallacy and founder of The PATH Curriculum, The PATH Online,
and Newsletter.

The PATH: America’s weight solution.
Dr. Clower can be reached on his website
www.fatfallacy.com.

By Inna Nirenburg

Where's the magic? When was the last time you got up in the morning brimming with excitement, unable to keep still because of all the exuberant possibilities that the day ahead was holding for you? All those fun adventures, mischievous plans, playful projects...

Kids will often experience this kind of unbearable excitement for the day ahead - for life itself. They have not yet taken on so many beliefs about life that many of us, adults, have accumulated over the years. What are your beliefs, the messages playing in your head? Tune in, look at what's there.

Is it something like: life is hard; you don't get anything for free; you work hard and then you die; it's always a struggle; you have to pay your dues; you have to take things seriously; life isn't fair; my life stinks; I never get a break...? You've probably had these, or other variations of such thoughts spinning through your mind at various points - either consciously or not.

And what's the experience - in your emotions, in your body - from these thoughts? Probably something like a heaviness, a slowness, constriction in your body, along with hopelessness, isolation, sadness, anger...

(And even now, notice your experience in your body and your energy level as you read this - I would bet that your emotions and body sensations have changed even from the beginning of this article! That's what focusing on these messages does.)

We, adults, often miss the main, critical point here. This is that our beliefs, even those we hold as the truth and are really attached to, are just that - beliefs that we hold as truth and are really attached to. The truly amazing thing is that as humans, we totally have the power to shift our beliefs, and our points of view - and thus our whole reality as we perceive it.

Lofty words, perhaps, but a very powerful concept.

Lets take the impending holiday season as an example. What are your beliefs about the holidays? Often we hear things like: it's a zoo out there; I hate dealing with family drama, and there's always family drama; there's never enough time to do everything, and certainly no time left for me; everything has to be perfect; I wish it were just over already; I hate dealing with the budgets, the craziness, the commercialisms of it all; and on and on and on.

Yet, do you see - all of these are just beliefs, just ways of focusing your attention. And how bizarre that most of us will choose to focus our attention outside of ourselves, to fall victim to circumstance. Yet, it is not the external circumstances that truly affect us - it is our beliefs about those circumstances. And here's the key - there are always things you can do to change these beliefs, and to re-focus your attention. I guarantee it - this will change your whole outlook and reality. Even if no outward changes take place.

For example: sure, there's commercialism aplenty this time of year, and it can get to you. How about switching off the TV and doing your shopping on the internet instead? Yea, family drama can erupt this time of year. But how about re-focusing on the gratitude of having people in your life to share the holidays with? Of course, budgets can be strained by gift-buying. Why not brainstorm fun and inexpensive gift ideas - maybe create a cooking or arts project with your kids or your best friend and make your own unique holiday gifts?

The possibilities are endless. Your attention, where you focus your energy, will determine what kind of holiday season you'll have. It's your choice - a bah- humbug grumpy season, or a creative and joyful magical time (or anything in between)!

Plant the Seeds:

1. What are your beliefs about life? Take a moment, and see what messages play in your head.

2. What are your beliefs about the holidays? What do you keep telling yourself and other folks close to you about the holidays?

3. What can you re-focus your attention on to bring the joy back?

4. Begin to notice your body sensations and emotions. Name them. They are likely pointing you to an unhelpful belief or thought process.

5. Finally - re-read the first paragraph of this article, and connect with that mischievous, magical, excited place inside. From here, what actions can you take this holiday season to make it fun and special?

Inna Nirenburg is a powerful life coach and workshop leader. She uses her deep wisdom and intuition, as well as a concrete actionable process, to help you answer the question "What's Next?" in all areas of your life. See http://www.heyWhatsNext.com for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

I want to offer you an analogy I learned about when I was a college
student at Duke University. Envision your life as a stool

with legs that represent three critical areas:

· Self- serving your own needs and interests

· Kids- attending to the needs of children and your
relationship
with them

· Relationships with others- nurturing relationships
with a partner,
extended family and friends

If we lose touch with any one leg, the stool will wobble and be
difficult to balance. If we lose touch with two of the legs,

the stool will fall.

In our society, many stools risk wobbling, and eventually falling.
If you stay home full-time, it's easy to let the role of

"mom" take over your life- as you strive to schedule numerous sports
and enrichment activities for your kids and attend to

their needs. If you work full-time, you may find yourself giving
every minute of your free time to your children. In either

case, you risk over-identifying with one role- "mother" and
neglecting others.

If your stool is wobbling, you risk burnout, becoming sick or
injured, or some other sign your body may use to express the
imbalance. You risk becoming detached from others you care about as
well as from your true self and your authentic happiness.

Our kids deserve excellent care, unconditional love and ample
attention. After the foundation is set, however,they grow up

and move on. It's wise for us to make sure we have something vital
left inside when they do.

Although "mom" may be your greatest priority, as it is mine, it is
unlikely the only role you have. You are also an

individual- as well as perhaps a wife, sister, daughter or friend.
Take the time to consider all your roles and whether you

are leaving enough room in your life to nurture them.

Bria Simpson, MA
Life Coach and Parenting Specialist


© 2004 by Bria Simpson
All rights and media reserved.

email: bria@briacoach.com
web: http://www.briacoach.com Helping moms strengthen and balance their family lives while
rediscovering their own passions and interests.