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Volume 18 Issue 4 APRIL2017 Editor Jim Rabic

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Nutrients Found in Pears and Apples Reduce Asthma Risks

Research Links Fruit to Lung Health

Australian researchers studying the relationship between diet and asthma have reported that eat-ing apples and pears provide protection against the growing health risk. Asthma is a serious and growing U.S. health threat. The American Lung Association reports

that, in 2000, nearly 5,000 Americans died from asthma, or nearly two of every 100,000 Americans. Asthma is a major children's health issue, as children aged 5-17 are most likely to be diagnosed with asthma than per-sons 18 or older. The Australian study involving 1,607 young adults aged 20-44 was pub-lished in a recent issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Of all the fruits and vegetables studied, study participants who ate apples and pears had the lowest risk of asthma. The Australian study is the latest research to suggest we might breathe eas-ier - literally - by eating apples. In December 2001, London-based re-searchers reported that people who ate at least two apples per week had a 22-32 percent lower risk of developing asthma than people who ate fewer apples, based on their population-based case-control study. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, additional-ly, reported that smokers eating moderate amounts of fruits and vegetables - and particularly apples - cut their risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) nearly in half. While the recent studies suggest apples' high content of plant-based com-pounds called flavonoids to be the potential health benefactor, the Australi-an study did not identify specific nutrients as being protective, but rather pointed to the whole food. "We found that the consumption of whole fruit, in the form of apples and pears, did protect against asthma," wrote Dr. Rosalie Woods and her col-leagues.

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ENERGY SHORTAGE? You may be a vic m of Hidden Energy Zappers 

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Americans Consume 3,400 Milligrams of Sodium

per Day According to this graph from the CDC, Americans over the age of two are averaging over 3,400 milli-grams of sodium each day — that is more than double the recommended level and nearly seven times what our bodies actually need. Sodium does help our bodies function, but in reality the vast majority of us need less than 500 milligrams per day.

Just like our taste for sweet foods have increased, so has our taste for salt. While the salt shaker sitting on your table doesn’t help matters, it’s only re-sponsible for approximately 25 percent of our sodium intake. The other 75 percent comes from processed foods and restaurants. Just one cup of potato chips has over 160 milligrams of sodium. But who eats just one measured cup of potato chips? Meanwhile, the popular canned chicken noodle soup has nearly 900 milligrams of sodium, in just half a cup. According to the FDA food labeling requirements, to be considered “low so-dium” foods must contain 140 milligrams of sodium or less per serving. Be mindful when you choose the “25% less sodium” option, it probably still contains far more sodium than you need. Too much sodium contributes to high blood pressure, increasing the risk of stroke and heart attacks. Today, heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death in the U.S. (6) The good news is that when salt in-

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Inevitably, runners should prepare for a lot of rainy day running. El Nino may have caused runners to retreat to treadmills, parking garages, hallways and stairwells for dry training. Not just in L.A., around the country.

The following training method will allow you to train outdoors in the rain. First,

there are a few guidelines you must follow while preparing for a rainy run.

Purchase a parka or light water resistant cover to keep the warmth inside. Even a trash bag will do.

Wear a head cover that will keep your head dry. You may wear leg tights. Do not wear heavy cotton sweats. Cotton

sweats will just become water logged and weight you down. If you drive to a location to run, take along some dry clothes to wear

home. Even though you are wet, you are still perspiring and your pores are open. Do not stand around and visit with running mates. Turn on your car heater and head for home. Take a hot shower and get the chill out of your body.

For best results, run from your home or a location where you can shower and change into warm clothes. Time your run for a 30 or 45-minute trip. Remember to run half the time you allotted for yourself, turn around and head back.

This is not a time to run tempo speed changes or race for time on our local running path.

Run in safe, well-lighted areas at night. Do not run off the streets where you know flood conditions may appear at a moment's notice.

Stay on sidewalks and refrain from running across flooded intersec-tions.

Always carry identification and the name of a person (and phone number) to notify in an emergency

Running in the Rain

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Low Carb Beefed-Up Meat Loaf Tomato Topping: 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste 1/4 cup sugar substitute (recommended: Splenda) 2 teaspoons white vinegar or water 2 pounds ground chuck (may use meat loaf mix with ground pork) 2 eggs 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1/4 cup red onion, diced small 1/4 cup roasted or fresh red bell peppers, diced 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/4 pound prosciutto, or any type of ham, thinly sliced 1/4 pound provolone cheese, sliced Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix together the tomato topping ingredients. Set aside. You may add a few drops of wa-ter to thin to a ketchup consistency. In a large bowl, mix together the beef, eggs, Parmesan, vegetables, herbs, and seasonings. Working on a waxed paper lined sheet pan or counter, form meatloaf mix into a 10 by 8-inch flat rectan-gle on the waxed paper. Place a layer of prosciutto slices on top, followed by a layer of provolone slices. Roll up the stuffed meatloaf mix like a burrito and seal the edges all around by pinching the meat. Place the roll, seam side down, into a 5 by 9-inch loaf pan. Spread a heavy coat of the tomato topping to completely cover the top of the meatloaf. Place in oven and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the temperature on a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees F. Drain fat and let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing.

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The Best Browser Ex-tensions that Protect

Your Privacy

There are a ton of browser extensions that promise to protect your privacy, which leads to some natural questions: Which is the best? Do they all do the same thing? What should I really download? In this guide, we’re going to look at the most pop-ular browser extensions that promise to protect your privacy online, and give you our recommendations.

http://lifehacker.com/the-best-browser-extensions-that-protect-your-privacy-479408034

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Losing Abdominal Fat

In order to lose abdominal fat and tone abdominal muscles, you have to start by watching what you eat and exercising. The key is burning off more calories than you eat. In other words you must

know how many calories you need and how many you consume in your diet.

To get started on an exercise routine, start by set-

ting a goal, for example to exercise at least 3-5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Once you’re consistent with this, you can increase your frequency and time. You can start with any type of cardiovascular exercises that you enjoy such as walking, running, cycling or anything that helps burn off those extra calories. Adding in resistance training “weight training” will help increase your metabo-lism and increase your lean body mass. To focus on toning the abdominal mus-cles, you’ll need to incorporate specific abdominal exercises. While there are many to choose from, a few popular ones include the ab crunch, leg raises, planks, etc. You will need to do these abdominal exercises at least 2-3 times per week increasing from basic to advanced exercises to see results. Feel free to ask the Smart Bodies Trainers for advice or help on these or other specific abdominal exercises that will help you tone your mid section. Losing abdominal fat or in that case any excess fat includes a combination of car-diovascular exercises, weight training and a proper diet. It takes this combo to have you looking and feeling better and on your way to a toned mid-section.

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Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

A review of 95 different studies involving two million peo-ple shows that just two and a half servings of fruits and vegetables per day is associated with a 16 percent reduced risk of heart disease, an 18 percent reduced risk of stroke, a four percent reduced risk of cancer and a 15 percent re-duced risk of premature death (Int J Epidemiol, February 22, 2017). In this study a serving is defined as 80 grams,

which is roughly equal to a quarter of a cup of cooked vegetables or a small banana, apple, tangerine or pear. Eating more fruits and vegetables brought even greater health benefits. Ten servings per day was associated with a 24 percent reduced risk of heart disease, a 33 percent reduced risk of stroke, a 28 percent reduced risk of heart and blood vessel disease, a 13 percent reduced risk of total cancer, and a 31 percent reduction in premature deaths. The authors estimate that in 2013, 5.6 to 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide could have been prevented with fruit and vegetable intake of 10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. The authors note that their statistics show association, not cause-and-effect, and that "high fruit and vegetable intake may . . . reduce chronic disease risk indirectly, by displacement of unhealthy foods." Recommendations • You should try to eat lots of fruits and vegetables every day. • If you choose processed fruits (frozen, canned or dried), check the list of ingredi-ents to be sure that you are not getting a lot of added sugars. For example, canned fruits are typically prepared in sugar syrup and dried cranberries usually have added sugars.

• If you are diabetic or suffer from high rises in blood sugar (blood sugar >140 one hour after meals), your doctor will probably recommend that you restrict fruits to not more than one fruit portion at a time. Eating fruit along with other foods can al-so keep blood sugar from rising too high.

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Healthy Heart: Preventing (Another) Heart Attack

To lessen the chances of a recurrence, heart attack survivors need to take charge of their lifestyle. Diet and exercise are key compo-nents of a successful recovery, and the fol-lowing tips will benefit anyone at risk for a second (or first) heart attack.

Manage the big risk factors. Quit smoking. If you have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure, talk with your doctor about getting them under control, and follow his or her advice about appropriate medications.

Eat a healthy diet. For the heart, this includes a diet low in trans- and saturated fats, and high in vegetables, fruits, soy, legumes, whole grains, omega-3 fatty acids and monounsaturated fats.

Get active. Moderate physical activity helps keep the heart muscle strong and the arteries flexible, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, increases overall energy and helps elevate and stabilize mood.

Take supplements. CoenzymeQ10 (CoQ10) is a natural substance that acts as a powerful antioxidant and helps enhance the energy produc-tion of heart-muscle cells. Try 100 to 200 mg per day - talk with your doctor to rule out possible interactions with other drugs, especially blood-thinners

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NSAIDs May Prevent Benefits of Lifting

Weights

Exercising against re-sistance strengthens mus-cles and bones, but taking non-steroidal pain medi-cines such as ibuprofen after lifting weights may prevent bones from be-coming stronger (Medicine

& Science in Sports & Exercise, April 2017;49(4):633–640). Aging weakens bones to increase risk for osteopo-rosis and bone fractures. The most effective way to strengthen bones and prevent this increased risk of bone fractures is to exercise against progressive resistance (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009:1510–30). However, resistance training causes muscles to feel sore on the next day and many people take non-steroidal drugs (NSAIDs) after workouts to help relieve this soreness. This recent study shows that taking ibuprofen after workouts may weaken bones, rather than strength-en them. Resistance Exercise Strengthens Muscles and Bones To make a muscle stronger, you have to exercise it against resistance strong enough to damage the muscle fiber. Then when muscle fibers heal, muscles becomes larger and stronger. Bones, as well as muscles, need resistance on them to become stronger (Nutr Res Pract, 2010;4(4):259–69). Anything that enlarges and makes muscles stronger also should help to make the corresponding bones larger and stronger. To make muscles and bones stronger, you take an intense workout that makes your muscles feel the burn during the workout and the next day your muscles feel sore because of the fiber damage you have caused. However, if you take a non-steroidal-anti-inflammatory drug such as ibuprofen to reduce the muscle soreness, you may reduce the gain in muscle and bone strength.

The Study Ninety post-menopausal women were randomly as-signed for nine months to a three-days-a-week program of either: • supervised resistance training, or • a placebo-exercise group who did only stretching. After each day of their exercise program, both groups were given either 400 mg of ibuprofen or placebo pills. Those given ibuprofen immediately after finishing each workout lost bone strength and density. Previous studies showed conflicting results. One study found ibuprofen taken after lifting weights prevented the expected growth and strengthening of both bones and muscles (Bone Rep, 2015;1:1–8; Bone Reports, 2016;5:96–103), while another study showed increased bone density in people taking ibuprofen and lifting weights (J Bone Miner Res, 2010;25(6):1415–22). How Ibuprofen May Prevent Bones from Being Strengthened by Lifting Weights The process of healing damaged tissue in your body is started by exactly the same immune cells and chemicals that fight infections. The chemicals that your body pro-duces to heal damaged tissue and strengthen them are the same ones that also can cause muscle soreness. Many people take ibuprofen or other NSAIDs immedi-ately after workouts in the hope of decreasing this next-day muscle soreness, but the ibuprofen can prevent bone strengthening by blocking the same chemicals that heal damaged tissue. If you lift weights to strengthen your bones and mus-cles, take ibuprofen after workouts only if you need it to relieve some of the muscle soreness that follows workouts. Realize that the NSAID may also prevent some of the muscle and bone gains in strength and size that you are working to achieve.