Triceps (and Deltoids) are the New Abs

For most of the last decade the "Six Pack" has been shorthand for being fit, as in 7-figure-salary-worthy-celebrity-fit. But now--thanks to Michelle Obama, Jennifer Aniston and Kelly Ripa (three of the top-5 arm-icons named by women seeking arm-lifts from plastic surgeons)--arms are the new abs. Upper-arm lift procedures have shot up 4,378 percent over the past decade, according to a new report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. 

Not everyone can raise their arms in public like Michelle Obama, pictured in The New York Post.Last year about 15,000 women (and a few men) had liposuction of the upper arms to remove fat from around muscles, or a surgical procedure called brachioplasty to remove flabby loose upper-arm skin--the scourge of women in evening gowns everywhere. Just a dozen years ago, only 300 people had such procedures over the course of a year.

While the growing popularity of weight-loss surgery has created legions of newly thin people with excess skin on the arms (losing 80 pounds or more can leave a lot of flesh hanging); the rise of famous women with the triceps of Adonis (yes a Greek god, not a goddess) also has a lot to do with the trend.

According to the poll commissioned by plastic surgeons, a full one-third of women want the arms of Michelle Obama, followed by Jennifer Aniston (29 percent), Jessica Biel (16), Kelly Ripa (13) and Demi Moore (11).

Perhaps shelling out $8,000 for a sculpting procedure is the fastest way to get a smokin' hot pair of "guns"--as Raphael Nadal calls his formidable biceps, triceps and deltoids. But we doubt that's how Kelly Ripa does it.

Spinners at cult spinning studio SoulCycle in Manhattan report frequent (ie. 5 days-a-week and sometimes Saturday mornings) sightings of Ripa in killer spinning classes. Let's face it, if you really want to reduce body fat there's no substitute for aerobics, sweat and tears.

The Crazy Amount of Sugar Hiding in Everyday Foods

This Buzzfeed video is a reminder to think before you eat. 

Probiotics May Help People With IBS Get Through Stressful Events Without Tummy Upsets

For those who have the sensitive gut issue known as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), it's a given that stress makes it worse, but until now scientists have not understood why this is true. Now a University of Michigan Health System study has found the missing link that explains why a stressful event like a job interview can send IBS sufferers running to the bathroom at an inopportune moment. Even better, the researchers were able to halt the tummy trouble with probiotics, the live bacteria found in yogurt that help grow the gut-dwelling good bacteria.Probiotics, like Align, may help prevent stress from upsetting the gut.

During stress, the body produces a hormone (corticotropin-releasing hormone) that prevents immune system molecules from policing the microbiome in the gut. This group of immune system molecules known as inflammasomes maintain a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria, but when stress hits--say, when you are about to give that big speech--the body releases a hormone that suppresses inflammasomes.

With repeated stressors, the delicate balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut can get out of whack, causing bloating, cramping and diarrhea.

The good news is researchers were able to prevent the destructive effects of stress with probiotics. In the study, pretreatment with probiotic therapy reduced inflammation in mice with stress-induced small bowel inflammation.

The take home, then, is to take preventive probiotics (such as Align, Culturelle or Ultraflora, especially in the weeks before stressful events.

The Hunger Game: It's Not What You Eat, But What You Think You Eat

By Kathy Merrell

One of my college roommates had an odd habit.  As the lights were turned out and we were settling into sleep she'd recite everything she'd eaten that day. Eventually, she pulled me into counting calories instead of sheep, and after a few months I found that I did in fact become more aware of what I was eating. I wouldn't say it made me lose weight, but at a time when everyone else was packing on pounds with beer and pizza we did not.The tiny Hippocampus, which helps us record new experiences, may have a big impact on what we eat.

These late night food confessions came to mind with a new and intriguing bit of research about satiety and "memory for recent eating"--a hot research topic in the weight loss world--that showed people's perception of how much they ate had a stronger influence on subsequent hunger than the amount of food they actually ate.

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How About Some Wire Mesh With That Annie's Pizza?

Classic: you try to avoid pesticides and you get metal fragments instead. Annie's--of organic Mac-n-Cheese fame (not Amy's, which practically invented the organic frozen pizza)--has initiated a voluntary recall of Annie's Homegrown Frozen Pizza due to the possible presence of fragments of metal in the dough.  

According to the FDA, "The company announced the recall after learning a fine metal mesh screen failed at a third-party flour mill and fragments of flexible metal mesh were found in the flour and pizza dough." Annie's says they haven't found metal in their products, but are recalling as a precaution.

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What to do When You Have the Flu: Dr. Merrell's Guide to Treatment

By Woodson Merrell, M.D.

My integrative approach to conquering the flu tackles the problem from two angles, with the conventional approach of targeting the virus and the complementary approach of strengthening the immune system. The goal is always to treat as gently as possible with medicines and supplements that help the body's natural tendency to heal itself.

For all of these remedies, you must contact your health care provider first to make sure of the safety and appropriateness for your use.

Attack the Influenza Virus 

The drug Tamiflu can help kill the flu virus if taken in the early stages.See Your Doctor for a Prescription of Anti-Viral Flu Medication: These medications are helpful for reducing the virus's severity and duration. Ask your doctor about Tamiflu (preferred), Flumadine, Relenza (inhaled form) or Amantadine. The earlier you can get one of these medications on board the more effective they will be.

Help Your Immune System Recognize and Kill the Flu Virus with the Homeopathic Remedy, Oscillococcinum:  Much like a natural vaccination, Oscillococcinum--homeopathic pellets available in most drug stores--provides an infinitesimal dose of a non-threatening flu-like molecule that prompts the body to mount a response. In order to work it must be taken at the first sign of symptoms. One vial of pellets under the tongue three times a day for the first two to three days of symptoms.

Gird Your Immune System for the Fight

For general immune support, in order of preference; more than one supplement from each category at a time may be used synergistically (see note, below, for supplement purchasing resources): 

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Keeping the Flu At Bay; Dr. Merrell's Guide to Prevention

By Woodson Merrell, M.D.

(Precautionary Note: Always check with your primary care provider before using any supplement or OTC/ prescription remedy, especially if on medications, pregnant or you have a serious medical condition.)

If you don't have the flu, and want to stay healthy:

An herb based hand sanitizer has been shown to kill germs as well as alcohol based counterpartsMake a Force-Field: While most of us have the wits to steer clear of people who are wheezing and coughing, it's the invisible traces of virus they leave behind that usually get us....public transportation; any door or handle in a public place; desks; chairs, telephones spinning bikes are all potential flu breeding grounds.

At the very least, don't touch your face when you are out in public--your hands can't catch the flu, but they can bring it to your face where it finds a way into your system. Get as paranoid as your mother--use paper towels to turn off public sinks after hand washing, and when you open public bathroom doors on your way out.

Use a hand sanitizer like Purell; or I am partial to CleanWell, a thyme based hand sanitizer. The volatile oils in thyme have demonstrable anti-microbial compounds that are gentler on the skin than alcohol.

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A New Idea For Heart Health: The Micro-Workout

A brief run--say, for the train or plane---may help your heart, according to new research published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. This novel look at a group of participants in the behemoth Framingham Heart Study has discovered that the cumulative effect of short bouts of exercise of less than 10 minutes duration confers cardiovascular benefits equal to more prolonged workouts.  The only catch: short bursts of exercise--taking the stairs briskly, jogging in place at your desk, running between meetings--must add up to the established heart healthy guideline of roughly 30 minutes moderate to vigorous exercise five days a week. 

The finding that micro-workouts improve heart health magically transformed this study cohort of 2,109 middle-aged Americans from sedentary to active. When short bouts of exercise were excluded only 10% of men and 15% of women met the U.S. guideline of performing 150 minutes of exercise weekly. But when researchers broadened the definition of exercise to include physical activity of less than 10 minutes duration (and outfitted participants with accelerometers to monitor movement) they found 56% of men and 47% of women met the 150 minute weekly target.

This begged the question: do short bouts of exercise improve heart health? And the answer from this study is a qualified yes.

As long as participants moved for 150 minutes a week, those who met the target with multiple short bouts of less than 10 minutes of exercise showed statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular risk factors similar to those who reached the exercise goal with longer bouts of exercise. 

This means you don't have to don your workout gear every day--and obsessively watch the clock on the treadmill--to keep your heart healthy. Walking briskly, heavy cleaning, badminton and golf were considered in this study to be "moderate" activities that support heart health; hiking, jogging, farming and shoveling were among activities classified as "vigorous."

The researchers used a strict measure of success that included classic cardiovascular targets: elevated HDL, lower triglycerides, reduced waist circumference and lowered Body Mass Index. Clearly, if you are training for, say, a half marathon the fitness target and program would be different.

Nothing (except, perhaps, Anne Wojcicki) Comes Between Me and My Genes

If Anne Wojcicki has her way, all of us will one day soon carry the details of our genome on our iPads.  With a financial assist from her husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Wojcicki has built a company, 23andMe, that can analyze people's DNA SNPs (not the whole genome, but many of the important bits that differ from the "norm" and make us distinct as well as susceptible to certain diseases) for an absurdly affordable $99. If she really gets her way, all of us will be helping to cure our own diseases.Anne Wojcici, medical suffragette, co-founder of 23andMe.

One of the perks of having a joint checking account with a Google founder is you can gain access to an Illumina OmniExpress Plus Genotyping BeadChip--a top-of-the-line SNP genotyping device that determines variations in genetic sequences and is normally found in university research labs and biotech companies. Wojcicki (pronounced woh-jit-skee) is making the Illumina BeadChip's powers of analysis available to the general public, and she's hired super-smart scientists to program her nifty little machine to ask questions she's interested in; for example, about the gene patterns associated with Parkinson's Disease, which runs strongly in her husband's family.  

Wojcicki (who holds a B.S. in biology from Yale and is the daughter of a Stanford physics professor) is a disruptor, with a big idea that will probably seem quite obvious in a couple of decades. In her vision, rather than guessing what disease tendencies are hidden in our 23 pairs of chromosomes (hence the company name), we will know for sure--and benefit from ongoing research into causes and prevention. The idea is that knowing your genetic weaknesses will help you figure out how to overcome them. The pro basketball player Muggsy Bogues (whose height at 5'3" is practically a disease in the NBA) is the 23andMe mascot for beating genetic odds. Equally as important, because research is constantly yielding new insights into genetic variations in drug metabolism (from chemotherapy to blood thinners), knowing the details of one's genome will help doctors target drugs and tailor dosages to fit one's genetic blueprint.

Talk about empowering patients! Wojcicki is a medical suffragette--she wants us all to participate in determining our medical destinies.

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Is There Weight Loss In A "Natural" Pill?

Just Maybe: Especially this time of year it seems impossible to stay trim without an assist from our functional food pals. Many supplements claim to help burn fat and squelch appetite--two things that are hard to do in the season of gingerbread and eggnog. Here, a few supplements that intrigue us, and why.

The plucky little raspberry may hold the key to releasing fat stored in cells.Raspberry Ketone:  Dr. Oz kicked off raspberry ketone hysteria when he talked about this compound's ability to increase the breakdown of fat in some rat fat cells. The rats' abdominal fat purportedly melted away, which is of course what we all dream of as we struggle through crunches.

The supplement is said to work through two weight regulating mechanisms: the breakdown of fat by norepinephrine; and the release of adiponectin, the fat-busting hormone that regulates fat and sugar metabolism (having low adiponectin is associated with obesity and diabetes.) Intriguingly, research indicates raspberry ketone has the potential to activate "brown" fat; good body fat that revs the metabolism and is the type of fat thin people have in small doses.

Since Dr. Oz mentioned the supplement the market has been flooded with products; our interest is piqued by 250 mg Raspberry Ketone tablets from Natural Sport (manufactured by Utah based Nutraceutical Corporation), which contains two amino acids (L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine) that support the production of norepinephrine, thus giving a bit more bang for the ketone buck. (Caution: People with PKU [an inborn metabolic error] cannot take phenylalanine and will have to find another raspberry ketone product from a reputable vendor, see below.)

The heat in peppers may help burn calories.Capsaicin (cayenne pepper):  As previously reported in iwellville, Korean researchers have demonstrated that capsaicin (the active compound responsible for the hot sensation in chile peppers) boosts the activity of genes associated with turning up the body's furnace

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A New Link Between Toxins and Fertility, Especially for Men

A new study raises the specter that environmental damage inflicted by persistent pollutants, even from pesticides banned long ago, is responsible for a general decline in fertility in the U.S.  Previous research has demonstrated that sperm carries bio-markers of a mother's--and even a grandmother's--exposure to environmental toxins.A chemical in microwave popcorn bags might be making it harder for couples to get pregnant,

Now this powerful new study published in the peer reviewed journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (a branch of the NIH) makes an association between fertility and exposure to persistent environmental toxins like pesticides, PBDEs (the flame retardants found in most all upholstered furniture) and PFOAs (ubiquitous chemicals from a range of sources including stain resistant carpet, household dust and microwave popcorn bags.) 

The presence of these chemicals in the bloodstream was associated with a decline in the crucial measure of fertility (known as "time to pregnancy") that is equivalent to that of age, smoking and obesity.

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Telomeres, Biological Markers of Stress, Linked to Lifespan

Researchers have theorized that telomeres are the key to immortality. And linking telomeres--protective caps at the ends of chromosomes--to lifespan is a Holy Grail of anti-aging research. A Nobel prize has already been awarded for research showing that chronic stress (such as taking care of a partner with dementia) is associated with shortened telomeres. And now along comes this intriguing new finding from the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health.Heavy drinking was associated with shorter telomeres, which increases the risk of dying.

Reporting at the November 8 annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, Kaiser Permanente researchers measured telomere length in an unusually large sampling of 110,266 people in northern California, and found that the 10 percent of people with the shortest telomeres had a more than 20 percent higher risk of dying than people with longer telomeres.

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Oprah Gets Into Organics

You never know where you're going to get your organic news. The New York Post's Page Six column is reporting today that applications to the U.S. Patents & Trademarks Organization were filed for the name "Oprah's Organics" by entities listed at Winfrey's Harpo Inc. offices in Chicago and on Wilshire Boulevard.Oprah. living the organic life on Maui.

According to the New York gossip rag, "The filings are to use the name for bath soaps, sunscreens, massage oils, hair products--and also for organic salad dressings and frozen vegetables, soups, beverages and snack dips." Additional applications for "Oprah's Farm" and "Oprah's Harvest" were also filed.

Apparently the filings are part of a plan to monetize some of Oprah's Maui property, which consists of hundreds of acres and encompasses a farm. A rep for Winfrey told the Post that the trademarks would "enable the farm to grow and distribute produce on Maui and throughout the Hawaiian Islands."

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Lifting the Veil on McDonald's Fries: See How They're Made

Updated on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 10:17AM by Kathy

This video made by McDonald's Canada demonstrating--with folksy Canadian charm--how French fries are made is impressive at first glance. (It's part of an overall strategy launched by the global company this year to demonstrate the "authenticity" of its fast-food.)  In it, Scott Gibson from the "Supply Chain Department" proudly portrays the creation of the company's famous fries as a farm to table affair. But watch closely.

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The Common Cold Can Disrupt Memory and Motor Skills, So Take A Day Off!

The next time you tell yourself, "It's just a cold I can still go to work," you might want to rethink that; especially if your work involves motor skills (airplane pilots, back-ho operators) or memory (auctioneers, actors.) Researchers at Cardiff University in the UK (land of the wicked head cold) have cleverly teased out the cognitive effects of having a cold, and it's not a pretty picture. They studied 200 people--48 developed colds while the rest served as controls--and found:

"Those with colds reported lower alertness, a more negative mood, and psychomotor slowing. They were also slower at encoding new information and slower on the verbal reasoning and semantic processing tasks." 

Perhaps even more fascinating, the study (published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity) found that the changes in performance were not related to symptom severity. Possible explanations, posited by the researchers, include an increase in inflammatory proteins and neurotransmitter changes, both generated as part of the immune response. 

Mood, however, was indeed related to symptom severity...a universally known side-effect that hardly requires verification by science.

One More Reason for Sorority Sipping: Estrogen Prolongs the Effects of A Hangover

OK ladies, in case you were wondering how the men in your life can carry on the day after a party while you feel that even pushing the brew button on your Keurig is a task, we now have an answer. Estrogen blocks the hangover-preventing effects of melatonin, a hormone produced while you sleep.  Bottom line: men are better at sleeping it off. 

In a neat little study, reseachers in Buenos Aires were able to show that motor skills post alcohol bender were improved for male mice--and female mice that lacked estrogen--by pre-gaming with the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin. Female mice with estrogen did not receive any benefit from the melatonin, the researchers explain, because estrogen blocks the uptake of melatonin.

Want To Feel Happier? Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Whether this validates good eating habits or encourages better ones, we just love this study. Researchers at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine (looking at 80,000 randomly selected British individuals) found that happiness and mental health rise in an approximately dose-response way with the number of daily portions of fruits and vegetables.

Much attention has been given to chocolate as the good mood food, now it turns out apples and carrots, celery and oranges will do the same.

In the study people who ate 4-5 portions of fruits and vegetables were more than twice as happy as those who ate 1-2 portions.  Not only were they happier, but the fruit and veggie eaters also reported being less "nervous" and "downhearted."

Well-being "peaked" according to researchers, at seven portions per day. Beyond that it's all gravy, or maybe pulp? 

Ubiquitous Chemical Linked to Heart Disease

First, the silver lining: it turns out having heart disease isn't all your fault, and it's not entirely the fault of your imperfect genes; astonishing new research (published in the gold-standard Archives of Internal Medicine) now fingers a ubiquitous industrial chemical known as PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid) as playing a roll in the modern epidemic of heart disease.A simple water filter can reduce your exposure to a chemical linked to heart disease.

It's so easy to come in contact with PFOA (it's in the drinking water in much of the U.S.) that as the authors of the Invited Commentary in the Archives put it: "Perfluorooctanoic acid does not occur naturally but is present in the serum of most residents of industrialized countries." According to the research 98% of Americans have measurable levels of PFOA in their blood.

Researchers did not feed people PFOA to see what happens; they looked at blood levels of PFOA and disease patterns in more than 1,300 people.

What they found is that the higher a person's blood levels of PFOA the more likely they were to have cardiovascular disease.

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Acupuncture for Migraines and Chronic Pain? New Study Says Definitely Yes

As far as research about the effects of acupuncture goes, an article in the latest Archives of Internal Medicine is powerful. The lead author, Dr. Andrew J. Vickers, is "attending research methodologist" at arguably the most conventional medical center on the planet, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York..

But like all docs Vickers has a vested interest in patient well-being. Chronic pain is a reality of life for many Memorial patients, and alleviating pain is an important measure of quality of life, ergo the success of any treatment.

Dr. Vicker's goal was to look at all of the known research on acupuncture and pain relief; but rather than gather all of the research results and look for patterns (as most so-called meta-analyses do) these researchers asked for raw data from all the studies that met their strict criteria, and re-analyzed the data themselves.  After six years of digging through the studies of some 18,000 individuals (who received acupuncture compared to no acupuncture and fake acupuncture) Vickers and his colleagues financed by the National Institute of Health came to some solid conclusions.

“We think there’s firm evidence supporting acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain,” Dr. Vickers told The New York Times .  

In their conclusion the authors call their result "the most robust evidence to date that acupuncture is a reasonable referral option for patients with chronic pain."

This study should free up conventional doctors to recommend acupuncture for recalcitrant chronic pain. And it may very well open the door for broader insurance coverage of acupuncture. Good news for people looking for non-drug relief of chronic back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, and migraines--all of which studies show were helped by acupuncture.

The Power of the Rose

The noble rose, rich in literary symbolism and beneficial phyto-nutrients, is having a resurgence among those seeking eternal youth. The New York Times identified some half dozen anti-aging creams employing rose oil compounds (which theoretically repair elastin and collagen) in an attempt to resurrect a childlike glow from middle-aged skin. Besides wondering who would buy a $350.00 jar of Lancome Absolue L'Extrait Regenerating Ultimate Elixer with native cells of rose leaves, the Times' trend-spotting sent iwellville scurrying to PubMed.gov (the uber-comprehensive database of the National Library of Medicine) to find out if there is any evidence to back-up the mythical power of the rose.Can a rose turn back the clock on skin and alleviate depression? Some say it can.

Science did not let us down; though, rather than help with wrinkles, there's evidence that roses can help with depression--another scourge of the loss of the bloom of youth. In April, five Turkish researchers reported in the American Journal of Natural Medicine that they had used rose vapors to halt depression in mice.

The theory: that oxidative stress (a critical route of damage in physiological stress-induced disorders like depression) would be reversed when exposed to free radical antioxidant compounds such as rutin and quercetin, present in abundance in rose vapor. Translation: Smelling roses (in this case essence of Rose x damascena Mill. grown in Turkish highlands) might reverse depression.

The kicker: it actually worked (Coco Chanel--who made rose the central note of Chanel No. 5--is proven right once again.) She would not have been surprised with the Turkish scientists' conclusion: "experimental depression is associated with elevated oxidative stress while treatment with rose oil vapor induced protective effects on oxidative stress in depression." Not just content to use the standard sucrose preference test (a reduced preference for sweets) to measure depression, the investigators from Suleyman Demirel University measured levels of reparative antioxidants in the cerebral cortex of their experimental subjects. They found significant differences in the rose-sniffing group.

Inhaling the scent of roses: is there a more elegant treatment for depression? 

Anna Wintour was no doubt blissfully unaware of this research when she recruited the mood-lifting rose for an Obama fundraiser she co-hosted last night at Sarah Jessica Parker's New York townhouse. Just hours before the scheduled dinner, The New York Post reported, dozens of plump white roses were delivered.  

Even without a rousing Presidential stump speech, the unassuming guests were guaranteed to leave a little happier after exposure to the aromatic power of the table decorations.