Archive for October, 2006

Fattest and Slimmest States, 2005

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

Fattest states, by self-reported weight and height in the U.S., are Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia: each has an obesity rate over 30 percent.

Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Vermont are the slimmest, with less than 20 percent.

This is for adults over the age of 20.

Obesity overall was self-reported as 23.9 percent–a full one-third less than actual, measured heights and weights 2 years before: measured obesity was 32.2 percent during 2003-2004.

Take-home lesson
: you need to measure something if you want to know your weight, and your fitness, and lose weight, and keep it off. It can be pant size, belt holes, favorite dress-fit or pedometer count.

Measurement helps you escape the eyeball-factor: good for cooking, bad for weight loss.

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Omega-3s Improve Mild Alzheimers

Sunday, October 22nd, 2006

Why do essential fatty acids seem to help Alzheimer’s patients? Is food as medicine for Alzheimers here?

174 patients with mild, moderate and severe disease completed the year-long study. They took, daily, 1720 mg DHA, 600 mg EPA or placebo (corn oil with 0.6 g linoleic acid) for 6 months; and then all took omega-3s for 6 months more.

Differing capsules of omega-3 differ in DHA/EPA concentration: only fish oil has much of each.

Bad news: no real difference for most patients. Good news: in patients with the mildest disease, episodic memory improved.

This was not a perfect study. And the results are encouraging only for those who may be at risk for Alzheimers. Maybe inflammation is too far along in people who are severely demented. Maybe other environmental and medical changes are more important.

But for those with just-beginning-where-did-I-put-my-keys short term memory problems, fish oil is also now available by prescription. And worth taking.

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