Researchers raise alarm over red meat
In the 1950s and 1960s, the American Cold War slogan (back when Vladimir Putin was learning judo in Leningrad), “Better Dead than Red” meant that anything was better than living under Communist rule, red being the de facto colour of the U.S.S.R. and communism.
Fast-forward to the 21st century: A new observational study could have the slogan, “You’ll be Dead if You’re Eating Red (Meat, That Is).”
Researchers tracked more than 500,000 people, ages 50 to 71, over 16 years and found that the top 20 per cent of red-meat eaters had a 26 per cent higher risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, infections, or kidney or liver disease, compared with the lowest 20 per cent of red-meat eaters.
But the stats on white meat (skin-free poultry and fish) delivered a nice surprise. Those who ate the most (unprocessed) white meat had a 25 per cent reduced risk of mortality over the course of the study, compared with those who ate the least white meat!
On the other hand, red and white processed meats, especially those high in dietary heme iron and nitrate/nitrites were “independently associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality.” They also heighten the risk for Type 2 diabetes.
Your tip? Lean, unprocessed white meat, as well as plant protein like nuts and beans, can be the foundation of a healthy diet. Opt for no more than three servings a day of 3-6 ounces of white meat and make sure to dish up seven to nine servings of fresh produce daily.
MENTAL GYMNASTICS TO IMPROVE WORKING MEMORY
What do Charlize Theron, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman have in common besides memorizing scripts, learning lines and making movies? They all have dual citizenship: Ms. Theron is a dual citizen of South Africa/USA; Jim Carey, Canada/USA; and Ms. Kidman, Australia/USA.
If you want to double up your brainpower so you can memorize lines or just a shopping list, researchers at Johns Hopkins say dual learning is the key. Their recommendation: a program called “Dual N-Back” that strengthens your working memory by up to 30 per cent.
Dr. Mike has long been a proponent of Double Decision, a brain game that improves brain-processing speed. (Research has shown that it can decrease dementia in 73- to 83-yearolds by over 33 per cent when practised for five weeks.) Dual N-Back is an excellent complement to that. It works on a similar principal of exercising your short-term memory and challenging your recall. As you progress through Dual N-Back, the levels become more and more difficult, just like Double Decision, and your brain becomes more and more used to flexing its muscles in your prefrontal cortex.
So, to improve your sharpness and upgrade your executive function (it manages learning and decision-making) check out these intriguing programs. The demos for both are free, but Double Decision has a small maintenance fee. You can explore it at
Last September, CNN host Larry King announced that he’d recently been treated for lung cancer. Luckily, doctors had caught it at stage 1, after detecting it with a CT scan followed by a PET scan. King underwent surgery to remove the tumour and 20 per cent of his lung on July 17. Two weeks later, he was back at work without needing chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, until recently, only 16 per cent of lung cancers were diagnosed early. That’s one reason lung cancer is up there with digestive cancers as the most lethal; 155,870 people are expect to die from the disease in 2017.
The great news is that if you’re at high risk for lung cancer, you can have a lowdose CT scan and detect the disease early on. That slashes the risk of death from lung cancer by 20 per cent! To spread the word, the American Lung Association has launched Saved by the Scan; they urge you to go to
and take a quiz to see if you’re a candidate.
What puts you at high risk? Quitting smoking recently is a reason to get tested, especially if you smoked in the past 15 years or smoked one pack per day for 30 years. So is chronic exposure to secondhand smoke or to radon (have your home tested), exposure to certain industrial pollutants, and a family history.
NEW GUIDELINES FOR MANAGING LOWER BACK PAIN
“The Blair Witch Project” (1999), “The Others” (2001) and “Halloween” (2007) are spine-tingling horror films. While they’ve raked in a total of $595.9 million at the box office, if that’s not a sensation you want to experience, you can just walk away.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to avoid the spine-dinging ache of lowback pain. Over 80 per cent of Americans contend with LBP at some point, often from arthritis, heavy use at work, doing sports, or following an accident. So what’s been the go-to solution? First a NSAID or other antiinflammatories, then a scan and opioids. They are the treatments that Medicare/insurers push.
Well, that’s about to change — we hope. New clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Physicians recommend that doctors move away from scans and prescribing drugs, and embrace nonmedicine based treatments for LBP, including yoga, mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy. Why? According to a Canadian review, for 95 per cent of LBP patients, medical interventions are no more effective than placebo! This echoes a study from 2016 in the Annals of Internal Medicine that found that massage, tai chi, yoga, physical therapy and acupuncture were effective therapies.
So if you’re knocked off your feet with LBP, ask your doc about nonmedicine-based treatments. If the pain lasts more than six weeks, then you should be referred to a specialist and get an MRI. We bet Medicare/insurers also will embrace this effective, costsaving approach! (LBP costs the U.S. over $100 billion annually; two-thirds of that in lost productivity and decreased wages!)
MINDFULNESS FOR WEIGHT LOSS
On an episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” three of the crew go on an extreme diet from Park Slope Portions, a mealdelivery service. Scully (who’s not on the diet) reminisces about diet pills from the 1970s. Terry, who’s doing the diet, says “Weight-loss science has come a long way since then.” He pulls out his pre-delivered lunch — a carrot in a bag — and reads the label: “Ingredients: carrot. Gotta respect that.”
We all know someone who’s gone to nerve-wracking extremes to lose weight. But more and more research is showing that there’s a way to shed pounds that’s the opposite of stressful and it’s more successful: mindfulness. A new analysis of 19 studies that included 1,160 participants found mindfulness-based interventions are effective in improving eating behaviours and are linked to better weight-loss results.
So here’s how to make mindful eating work for you:
• Think about what you’re eating and why.
• Ask yourself as you’re eating if and when you feel satisfied.
• If you’re making unhealthy choices or giving in to cravings, ask yourself why that might be and think about how you feel in that moment.
As you start to feel more aware of being in the meal moment, you’ll become more empowered to make healthier choices and won’t have to go to the “Park Slope” extreme.