Doctor Knows Best: 5 Health Tips Top Docs Use to Stay Healthy

By Ted Spiker

Along with all the disease stomping, heart reviving, baby delivering, and overall people healing they do, doctors have another full-time job: keeping themselves healthy. Scratch that -- keeping themselves healthiest. So instead of peeking into their medical practices, we looked at what they actually practice -- in their own lives. Use personal strategies and insider tips from the best medical pros to supercharge your health this year.

How to Head Off a Headache
Start double-fisting beverages the minute the throbbing begins. "I'll have a bottle of water in one hand and a coffee in the other," says Jennifer Ashton, MD, author of Your Body Beautiful and cohost of ABC's The Revolution. That's because many headaches are caused by dehydration, while caffeine is known to curb them. If the drinks don't alleviate the pounding in an hour, she pops ibuprofen.

Take a Time Out
"As soon as I feel an illness coming on, I go to sleep for at least nine hours," says Hilda Hutcherson, MD, clinical professor of ob-gyn at Columbia University Medical Center. "I also lie on the floor with my legs elevated and propped against the wall and breathe deeply for five minutes." It helps lower stress, which weakens the immune system.

Stay Sharp
An app a day keeps brain farts away. Gary Small, MD, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of The Alzheimer's Prevention Program, plays Scrabble and Words With Friends on his smartphone most days. These word games are perfect brain boosters, because they build not only verbal and math skills but also spatial abilities as you position letters to create words. "Combining several mental tasks strengthens multiple neural circuits," Dr. Small says. "It's like cross-training for your brain."

Fight Cravings
Mehmet Oz, MD, host of The Dr. Oz Show, eats raw walnuts (about one ounce) a few times a day for their hunger-quashing protein and heart-healthy fat. "The rap against nuts is that they're high in calories, but research is showing that our bodies may not actually absorb all the fat they contain," Dr. Oz says. "So we probably end up taking in fewer calories than what's listed on the package."

Prevent Skin Cancer
In addition to getting annual skin checks from your dermatologist, recruit your hairstylist to scope out your scalp each time you visit, says Mona Gohara, MD, a FITNESS advisory board member and an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Scalp cancers often occur because people neglect to protect their heads, especially the part in their hair, with sunscreen or hats. And the cancers go undetected because they're hard to spot. "Tell your hairdresser to look for any sores that are bleeding or crusting or don't seem to be healing," Dr. Gohara says.

Home Remedies for Snoring

If you're a snorer, you're probably getting more sleep than the person lying next to you. Changing your sleeping position may be all it takes but for many people losing weight is often theHome Remedies for Snoring real key to a tranquil night. This article discusses home remedies and some things you should avoid to prevent snoring.

If you're a snorer, you're probably getting more sleep than the person lying next to you. Changing your sleeping position may be all it takes but for many people losing weight is often the real key to a tranquil night.

Put yourself in a good position

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 1

Buy yourself a few extra pillows and proper yourself up in bed rather than lying flat on your back. You'll prevent te tissues in your throat from falling into your air passages.
Home Remedy for Snoring No. 2

Raise the head of your bead. An easy way to do it is to place several flat boards under the legs at the top end of the bed. A couple of old phone books under each leg should also raise the bed high enough will do the trick.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 3

Sleep on your side. Of course, there' no guarantee you'll stay in that position but at least start on your side with your arms wrapped around a pillow. There's a good reason you don't want to sleep on you back. In that position, your tongue and soft palate rest against the back of your throat blocking the airway.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 4

If hugging a pillow doesn't help, you can tackle the problem by using a tennis ball Sew a little pouch onto the back of your pajama top and tuck a tennis ball inside. At night, if you start to roll onto your back while you're asleep, you'll get a nudge from the ball prompting you to get back on your side.


Home Remedy for Snoring No. 5

If nasal congestion is causing your snoring, try taking a decongestant or antihistamine before you go to bed. But use these only as a temporary measure if you suspect that a cold or allergy is to blame.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 6

Tape your nose open with nasal strips, available from most pharmacies. Their effectiveness is debatable, but as they don't hurt they're worth a try. Following the directions on the package, tape one of the strips to the outside of your nose before you fall asleep. They work by lifting and opening your nostrils to increase airflow.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 7

Gargle with a peppermint mouthwash to shrink the lining of your nose and throat. This is especially effective if your snoring is a temporary condition caused by head cold or an allergy. To mix up the herbal gargle, add 1 drop of peppermint oil to a glass of cold water.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 8

Don't eat a heavy meal or drink alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime. Both can relax throat and muscles more than normal.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 9

Losing weight can reduce your snoring by easing the constriction of the upper airway.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 10

Daily products are possible food allergens that may create excess mucus, thereby worsening congestion in the respiratory system.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 11

Give up smoking. Tobacco smoke irritates mucous membranes so your throat swells, narrowing the airway. Smokers always have more problems with nasal congestion.

Home Remedy for Snoring No. 12

Dry air can contribute to snoring. There are lots of ways do battle with dry hair. A humidifier or steam vaporizer in the bedroom can keep your air passages moist. Just be sure to clean it regularly.

Paula Deen Announces She Has Diabetes

TV chef Paula Deen—the queen of deep-fried Southern cooking—joins Halle Berry, Randy Jackson, Dick Clark and 28.5 million other Americans in battling diabetes.
The Daily reported last week that the Food Network star--famed for artery-clogging fare as deep-fried macaroni and cheese—wrapped in bacon—would soon come clean about a “big fat secret," her type 2 diabetes diagnosis. Deen just announced the diabetes news with Today’s Al Roker.
Rumors about Deen’s diabetes first surfaced in April when both the National Enquirer and The Daily Mail reported that the bestselling cookbook author was keeping her disorder hidden due to concerns that it would harm her career. However, learning that she has a disease strongly linked to obesity and unhealthy eating would hardly shock fans who have watched her prepare such belly-busters as egg-and-bacon-topped burgers served between two glazed donuts.
Deen, who has described butter as “a little stick of smiles and happiness,” has already come under fire for the lavish amounts of fat and sugar in her cooking. Now that the diva of the deep fryer has confirmed a diabetes diagnosis, what might be ahead for her? Here’s a look at a disease that’s predicted to affect in one in three Americans in coming years if current trends continue.
Use these 7 diabetes tips to manage your condition

What triggers type 2 diabetes?

While the cause isn’t fully understood, type 2 diabetes starts when the body becomes insensitive to insulin, a hormone that acts like a key to let sugar—the body’s main source of fuel—into cells. This forces the pancreas to pump out higher and higher amounts of insulin, to try to keep up with demand. Ultimately, the pancreas becomes exhausted and blood sugar rises, leading to diabetes. A diet that’s high in saturated fats—such as the deep-fried dishes that figure prominently in Deen’s cooking—also increase insulin resistance.

Who’s at risk?

Like Paula Deen, about 90 percent of people who develop type 2 diabetes are overweight. And the more belly fat you have, the more likely you are to develop insulin resistance. A particular danger zone is a waist circumference of more than 35 inches for a woman and 40 inches for a man.
Other risk factors include family history, a couch potato lifestyle, age (risk rises significantly after age 45), and ethnicity, with African-Americans and Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans facing a greater threat of the disease. Women who have had gestational diabetes during pregnancy or who have given birth to babies weighing over 9 pounds are also at higher risk.
Find out about the top 5 diabetes-healing supplements

What are the symptoms?

One-third of the 28.5 million Americans with diabetes and the 87 million with pre-diabetes (an earlier stage) don’t know it because the disease may not cause symptoms until serious complications set in.
Warning signs include increased thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, blurred vision, slow-healing wounds, and frequent infections, such as gum infections, bladder infections, or yeast infections.

How dangerous is diabetes?

The disease triples the danger of heart attacks and strokes. Other complications, particularly if diabetes goes undiagnosed and untreated, include kidney damage, nerve damage, blindness, foot infections and lower leg amputation.
Recent research suggests that high blood sugar may also boost for Alzheimer’s disease in diabetes with a certain gene. A 2011 study linked high blood sugar to increased risk for colon cancer.
Read about how diet affects your children's risk of diabetes

What’s the best test to check for diabetes?

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) considers the oral glucose tolerance test the “gold standard” for diabetes detection. After an overnight fast, you’ll drink a sugary liquid, with blood samples taken at timed intervals to measure sugar levels. The ADA also recommends the A1C blood test, which measures your average blood sugar level for the past two to three months. Have your blood sugar checked every three years, starting at age 45, or at a younger age if you are overweight with at least one other risk factor.

Is there a diabetes diet?

There’s no specific diet advised for everyone with the disease. However, large studies show that focusing on low-fat, high-fiber foods—such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains—is the healthiest plan for diabetes.
Figuring out the what to eat can be complex for people who are newly diagnosed, so doctors advise working with a registered dietician to develop a meal plan that takes health goals, food preferences and lifestyle into account.
Learn which foods can help diabetes patients manage their blood sugar

What’s the treatment?

Along with a healthy diet, therapies for type 2 typically include medication—which can include both diabetes drugs and statins to reduce heart disease risk--exercising at least 150 minutes per week, and weight loss. Deen may want to take cooking lessons from such chefs as Art Smith, who shed a whopping 85 pounds after getting a diabetes diagnosis.
And if you have pre-diabetes, a review of 28 previous studies, published in Health Affairs this month, finds losing 5 to 7 percent of your body weight (10 to 12 pounds if you weight 200), coupled with stepping up exercise and improving your eating habits, cuts the risk of progressing to full-blown diabetes by 50 percent.
Will Deen now revamp her famously fatty recipes to trim down calories? And if so, will her fans be willing to give up deep-fried Twinkies and eat more veggies? Stay tuned to see what the TV chef dishes up next.

'Couch potato pill' may also prevent heatstroke

A drug discovered nearly four years ago that builds muscles in lazy mice may also prevent heatstroke, according to lab research reported on Sunday.
If further tests work out, the compound could help athletes or soldiers who are so sensitive to heat that they could die from exertion on a hot day, its authors say.
In 2008, a drug known as AICAR became dubbed the "couch potato pill" after it was found to develop muscles and boost endurance among completely inactive laboratory rodents. It is now being explored as a treatment for several muscle diseases and metabolic disorders.
In a paper published by the journal Nature Medicine, researchers in the United States said they discovered by chance that AICAR also protects mice against a disorder called malignant hyperthermia.
This deadly condition is linked to a basket of flaws in a gene called RYR1, a trait which exists in mice as well as humans.
A rise in body temperature causes a leak of calcium in muscle cells, triggering a molecular cascade that eventually makes the muscles contract and break down.
Potassium and protein then pour out of the crippled muscle cells and into the bloodstream, reaching toxic levels that lead to heart or kidney failure.
Tests on mice genetically engineered to have the RYR1 mutation found that AICAR worked perfectly in preventing malignant hypothermia, says the study.
"When we gave AICAR to the mice, it was 100 percent effective in preventing heat-induced deaths, even when we gave it no more than 10 minutes before the activity," said Susan Hamilton, a professor of molecular physiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
AICAR -- full name 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside -- works by stopping the calcium leak, thus preventing the vicious circle from getting under way.
The finding may lead one day to a drug that would be used preventatively for heat-sensitive young athletes or soldiers in the desert who must wear heavy gear.
Abnormalities in the RYR1 gene are believed to occur in about one person in every 3,000.
But the researchers theorise that the future drug may also work for people without the RYR1 flaw.
"We think the fundamental process that occurs during heatstroke in individuals with RYR1 mutations is likely to be similar to what happens even in their (the mutations') absence," said Robert Dirksen, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.
"The difference may be that individuals with RYR1 mutations are more easily thrust into the process, whereas those without (the mutations) need to be pushed more -- for example, by exposure to even greater temperatures or a long time, in order to move beyond a critical threshold."

Flushing the Toilet Can Be Deadly

By Dan McGinnis


COMMENTARY | Going to the bathroom these days just isn't as easy as it used to be. Not only are there rules about the toilet seat being left up (or down), now there is a real danger of contracting a deadly disease by simply using the toilet.

ABC News reported the C. difficile bacteria were commonly spread in hospital bathrooms without toilet seat covers, but also is spread at home by those who practice improper flushing techniques. I didn't know there were proper flushing techniques, so it looks like public school isn't doing a good job of educating our kids about the hazards of going to the bathroom.

According to the report, the bacteria were detected in the bathroom air nearly 90 minutes after the toilet was flushed, and exacerbated in bathrooms where the toilet contained no lid. How many people actually remember to close the lid before they flush the toilet? The survey found considerable contamination in household bathrooms as well as public ones.

While the study focused on hospital bathrooms, flushing any toilet without closing the lid risks exposure to the bacteria and contamination of the entire bathroom, including personal hygiene items. Studies have shown that water can spray up to 10 feet across the room from a traditional flushing toilet. It frequently contaminates toothbrushes and surfaces with tiny fecal particles, which could include the C. difficle bacteria.

Experts said that exposure to the bacteria can lead to severe diarrhea and life-threatening inflammation of the colon. CBC reported that patients exposed to the bacteria spend an average of six additional days in the hospital. That's a pretty mean little bug there - all because improper toilet flushing is practiced.

So, what's the solution? Experts advise people to close the lid prior to flushing the toilet. Then, of course, don't forget to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. But, that's probably not enough. Disinfectant cleaning of all bathroom surfaces and a healthy disinfectant aerosol spray to cleanse the air is helpful too. Before long, people will have to get into a decontamination suit just to use the potty. What is this world coming too?

Why Cherries Are Good for Us

Cherries are typically classified as either sweet or tart. The sweet varieties include Bing, Lambert, and Rainier cherries, which in the U.S. are grown mainly in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. In contrast, tart cherries include the Montmorency and Balaton varieties, which are grown primarily in Michigan.
Cherries, as well cherry juice, have long been used by traditional healers as a folk remedy for gout. Today, we know that both sweet and tart cherries contain phenolics, naturally occurring compounds in plants that possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Studies have suggested cherries may help to lower serum uric acid levels in the body--high levels of which cause gout.

A Long-Time Remedy for Pain

The main phenolics found in cherries are called anthocyanins, which are the pigments responsible for the colorful skins of some fruits and leaves. In general, the darker a cherry's color, the higher its anthocyanin content. Interestingly, it's now been shown that anthocyanins block two enzymes, COX-1 and COX-2, which are involved in the formation of a class of undesirable inflammatory compounds called prostaglandins. In this way, anthocyanins function similarly to drugs like aspirin and the non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that we use to control pain.
This is why for centuries healers have advocated eating tart cherries for conditions involving inflammation and pain, including:

• arthritis
• gout
• muscle pain
• back pain

This is also why today tart cherries are thought to be useful in diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.

Tart Cherries as a Sleeping Aid?

Compared to most other foods, two tart varieties of cherries, Balaton and Montmorency, contain relatively high levels of the antioxidant melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate our sleep, with the Montmorency cherries containing about six times more melatonin than the Balatons.
A recent study from the UK, published online ahead of print in the European Journal of Nutrition, looked at melatonin levels in the urine of 20 volunteers who consumed (or not) cherry juice. The participants were divided into two groups, one group drinking 30 cubic centimeters (1 ounce or 2 tablespoons) of tart cherry juice, and the other group a placebo, each day for seven days. After the week was over, the researchers found that the people in the tart-cherry group had significantly higher levels of melatonin in their urine, and had slept an average of 25 minutes longer per night than the placebo group. The tart-cherry group also slept five percent to six percent more "efficiently." (Sleep efficiency is a global measure of one's quality of sleep.)

Are tart cherries better for you than sweet cherries?

Studies involving tart cherries have involved only very small groups of participants, so we'll have to wait to see whether larger studies show that tart cherries are healthier than regular cherries, and in what quantities. Generally, tart cherries have been found to have higher concentrations of phenolics and anthocyanins than do sweet cherries. And tart cherries might be a bit more friendly to the waistline, since they're slightly lower in sugar. Half a cup of sweet cherries contains 9.3 grams of sugar and 46 calories, compared to 6.6 grams of sugar and 39 calories in an equal amount of tart cherries.

Where to Find Tart Cherries

Tart cherry juice, as well as fresh, frozen, canned (unsweetened), or dried tart cherries can be found in grocery stores, health-food stores, and online.

Possible Contraindications for Tart Cherries

Cherries contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol found in some sugar-free gums, candies, and such. Please be aware that sorbitol can sometimes exacerbate symptoms in those people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and fructose malabsorption.
As always, I urge you to check with your doctor before adding anything to your usual regimen, even non-prescription and dietary changes--such as tart cherries.

Early Alzheimer’s detection - cost effective and easy

By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

Boston researchers have reported a new method for detecting subtle brain changes in people who have no memory problems but who may already be in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings, published online today in the medical journal Neurology, may help speed clinical trials for potential Alzheimer’s treatments, according to Dr. Bradford Dickerson, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study. “We need efficient, cost-effective ways to screen people for research,” said Dickerson, who also is a brain specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “This will potentially give us a tool that will help identify people in a more efficient manner.”
Dickerson explained that his method is not ready for use in physicians’ offices. Researchers and the medical community still must pinpoint reliable markers for the disease that could be used much the same way doctors now measure early signs of heart disease by monitoring patients’ cholesterol levels.
For screening the team used brain scans to measure the thickness in nine specific areas of the brain in 159 people who did not show signs of dementia or other cognitive problems. The brain regions were chosen based on prior studies that showed they shrink in patients with Alzheimer’s. The median age of the participants was about 76 years. Of the 159 people, 19 were classified as high risk, meaning that they likely were undergoing the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease because of the smaller size of their brain regions that corresponded to areas typically affected by the illness. Another 116 were deemed to be at average risk for the disease, and the remaining 24 at low risk.
At the beginning of the study and over the next three years, participants were also given tests that measured their memory and problem-solving abilities. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the cerebrum, the most highly developed part of the brain. It consists of grey matter - the cell bodies of neurons where processing of muscle control, sensory perceptions, memory, emotions and speech take place.
The researchers also looked at cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 84 participants after three years to check levels of amyloid protein, a hallmark of Alzheimer's.
They found that 60% of people with a thinner cortex had abnormal CSF amyloid levels similar to those seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. This compared with 36% of those with average cortical thickness and 19% of those with an unusually thick cortex.
There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease. But a growing number of researchers believe that the lack of progress may be because the drugs are now tested only in people whose Alzheimer’s is too advanced. Researchers are searching for ways to detect the disease at its earliest stages, before it damages critical brain cells, because they believe that’s when potential treatments would be most effective.
Many believe that an accumulation of a specific protein, known as beta amyloid, in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients may be a reliable marker to identify the disease early on. Dickerson’s study found that 60 percent of the group of participants identified at high risk for Alzheimer’s because of their smaller brain regions also had abnormal levels of amyloid in the fluid of their brains and spinal cord. In comparison, the abnormal amyloid levels were detected in 36 percent of those deemed to be at average risk, and 19 percent at low risk.
Susan Resnick, chief of the behavioral neuroscience laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, said Dickerson’s new method could give researchers a more accurate tool for pinpointing from the people with amyloid plaques those who would most likely go on to suffer an Alzheimer’s decline. This would be the group most likely to benefit from potential treatments, and would be the type of participants researchers need to find, Resnick said. “This is a disease that we believe starts 10 to 15 years before we see clinical symptoms,” Resnick said, “so we need these kinds of tools to try to understand the disease at the earliest possible stage.”
Dickerson said he hopes his method could be used to lower the costs for screening participants in upcoming clinical trials of potential Alzheimer’s treatments, such as one Brigham and Women’s Hospital researcher Dr. Reisa Sperling plans to start next year. Sperling hopes to begin a three-year study of an amyloid-clearing medication on as many as 1,000 people, 70 years old and older, whose brains show an accumulation of amyloid plaques but who don’t appear to be impaired. She said that the cost of the research is expected to be in the range of $100 million but that she hoped to lower that amount by finding more efficient ways to screen participants.
Dr Simon Ridley, from the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said, “The ability to predict who will develop Alzheimer's disease is a key target for dementia research, as it would allow new treatments to be trialed early, when they are more likely to be effective. These findings add weight to existing evidence that Alzheimer's begins long before symptoms appear, although it's important to note that the study did not assess who went on to develop the disease. This research provides a potential new avenue to follow, but we need to see larger and longer-term studies before we can know whether this type of brain scan could accurately predict Alzheimer's.”