A guide to wellness and healthy living in the Mid-Willamette Valley

TO YOUR

Midvalley Newspapers

HealthNovember 2011

HealthA guide to wellne

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Quick reads about health topics in the news

Fear of Alzheimer’s isoverwhelming seniors

Surveys show that fear ofdeveloping Alzheimer’s dis-ease has become overwhelm-ing to seniors. Fueling theconcern: An increased life ex-pectancy of 80 and beyond,and data concluding that onein every two people over age85 exhibits some form of de-mentia.

Alzheimer’s is the mostcommon form of dementia.Mild cognitive impairment, orMCI — subtle but measurablecognitive changes — increasesthe risk that an individual willdevelop Alzheimer’s or otherdementia, but a fourth of thecases never go that far.

At least 5.4 million Ameri-cans are affected byAlzheimer’s disease and anadditional 5.3 million by MCI.

University of California atIrvine Professor Kim N. Greensays the potential for devel-oping Alzheimer’s (the sixth-leading cause of death in theUnited States) is a mixture ofgenetic and environmentalfactors. Genetics are inher-ited, of course, and accountfor 60 percent of the disease.

“We cannot change our ge-netics but we can change ourenvironment and lifestyle,” hesaid, urging attention to ahealthy diet and both mindand body exercise. Even cross-word puzzles help, he said.

— McClatchy Newspapers

Hearing loss becomingmore widespread

Some 36 million people inthe United States, about onein 10, have some degree ofhearing loss, according to theNational Center for HealthStatistics.

There’s evidence that hear-ing loss is becoming morewidespread. About 40 percentof people older than 65 havesome degree of hearing loss.

Some studies show hearingloss is becoming more preva-lent among the young. One infive teens has slight to mildhearing loss. The prevalence ofhearing loss among ages 12 to19 has increased 30 percent,from 14.9 percent in 1988-1994 to 19.5 percent in 2005-2006, according to a studypublished in the Journal of theAmerican Medical Association.

“Everyone assumes iPodsand other personal listeningdevices are the cause, butthere is not enough data yet,so we don’t know for certain,”says the lead author of thestudy, Dr. Josef Shargorodsky,a clinician researcher atBrigham and Women’sHospital in Boston.

— Detroit Free Press

Study: Ginger rootsupports colon health

Ginger root supplementsmay help tamp down markersfor colon inflammation, astudy finds.

The study, published onlinein the journal CancerPrevention Research, includ-ed 30 men and women whowere randomly assigned totake 2 grams of a ginger rootsupplement or a placebo for28 days. The participantswere at normal risk for coloncancer — they had no familyhistory of the disease and noevidence of the disease.Ginger root is a popular sup-plement that’s often used totreat stomach ailments.

The study subjects under-went sigmoidoscopies at thebeginning and the end of thestudy. Researchers examinedcolon inflammation levels andfound that those taking thesupplements had a drop incolon inflammation markersas well as a tendency towardsubstantial decreases in othermarkers.

More research is needed,the authors said, to see if tak-ing ginger root supplementshave any effect on colon can-cer risk.

— Los Angeles Times

STAT

The Mid-Valley Road Race encourages families to be active together Thanksgiving morning, before sitting down to a big holiday meal. Thisyear’s race starts at 8 a.m. Nov. 24 in the North Albany Village Plaza.

Mark Ylen | TO YOUR HEALTH

he holidays arerolling aroundagain, and if you’relike many Ameri-cans, you’re look-ing at the scale onone side of you(perhaps a little

scary, after all the Halloweencandy) and the calendar on theother side of you (jam-packedwith activities) and wonderinghow you’re going to manage tofend off holiday weight gain thisyear.

Instead of stressing about por-tion control or skipping out onfamily time to hit the gym, howabout starting a new tradition ortwo this year? Something that in-cludes your family, but is more ac-tive than your current tradition ofstanding around the buffet tablesnacking on fudge all afternoon?

Here are few ideas to get youstarted:

Try a Thanksgiving day race“Turkey Trots” as they’re

sometimes called, can be a greatway to kick off your ThanksgivingDay, so that when the big mealcomes around later, you can eat itguilt-free (or at least with lesserguilt) knowing that you’ve al-ready worked off some of thosecalories.

In the mid-valley, the fourthannual Mid-Valley Road Race isthe nearest location for a Thanks-giving-morning event. It begins at8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 24, in NorthAlbany and offers a 2.5-mile walk,a 3.75-mile run, and a 5.2-mile“Scenic Challenge” course. RaceDirector Jim Abbott started theevent after participating in a sim-ilar Thanksgiving Day road race inConnecticut.

“There were some naysayerswho didn’t think it was doable onThanksgiving, but I knew differ-ent,” Abbott said. The race hasgrown by about 200 participantseach year, and attracted 800 lastyear.

Abbott encourages families tosign up together, to run or walkdepending on their preference,and to come in costume if they’dlike.

He said he knows of one partic-ipant who used to do the longerruns but now signs up for an eas-ier course. “He says it’s more funto go do it with his kids,” he said.

Strollers are welcome on thecourse, and walkers receive a par-ticipation pin. “It’s somethingfamilies can collect together overthe years,” Abbott said.

For more information about therace, you can go to www.omroad-race.org.

And if you’re going to be out oftown for Thanksgiving? Bend,Sherwood, Portland, Medford,Tigard and Hood River all haveThanksgiving Day races planned.Go to www.runningintheusa.comto search for races wherever yourholiday plans take you.

Post-turkey nature hikeAlbany resident Heidi Scovel

and her sister Holly came up withthe idea for what they call “GreenFriday” (rather than Black Fridayand the shopping marathon thatimplies) three years ago.

“We wanted to do somethingsoul-refreshing on the day afterThanksgiving,” she said. “GreenFriday was a way to involve thekids, stretch our legs, breath freshair, and enjoy nature.”

Scovel, her kids, and her ex-tended family like to head to E.E.Wilson wildlife refuge just outsideAdair Village, or to her sister’sfamily farm. As they walk, they

gather things like cedar boughs,rose hips, pinecones, twigs andberries, then use them to decoratetheir homes for the holidays.

“It’s a pretty relaxed sort ofwalk since we’re gathering twigsand fallen apples and the kids arejust enjoying being outside,”Scovel said. “We let the weatherand the kids’ energy dictate howfar we go.”

Besides E.E. Wilson, the BaldHill trail system in Corvallis,Dave Clark path or Swanson Parktrail in Albany, or the CheadleLake trail system in Lebanon areother local options for close-byfamily hikes on Thanksgivingweekend. Visit www.cityofal-bany.net/parks, www.ci.corval-lis.or.us/parks, or www.ci.lebanon.or.us to find out moreabout local parks and trails.

Go play in the snowWhen winter break rolls around

and mid-valley residents findthemselves with bored kids sittingindoors and staring at the rainoutside, it’s time to head for thehills. The valley floor may not geta white Christmas very often, butOregon’s mountains do.

Oregon has 99 designated“Sno-Parks,” and many of themare within easy driving distance ofthe valley. An afternoon of sled-ding and snow-ball fights will getyou active and create fun familymemories.

To park at a designated WinterRecreation Area, you need a per-mit. They’re sold at all DMV of-fices, and at sporting goods storesand ski areas. They cost $20 for anannual permit, $7 for a three-daypermit, or $3 for a one-day per-mit. Leave the permit visible inyour car’s window when you goout to play.

Santiam Sno-Park, located 5miles east of Santiam Junctionon Highway 20, is the closestSno-Park with a designated areafor sledding or tubing. Go towww.tripcheck.com/Pages/SPentry.asp and click on the blueicons on the state map for detailedinformation about all Oregon’sSno-Parks.

Give a gift of a winter sportIf you’re stumped for gift ideas,

how about giving someone thechance to try a new winter activ-ity?

A pass to a ski hill coupled witha snowboarding lesson, or admis-sion to an ice rink combined withlessons in figure skating or hockeymight be exactly the kind ofunique gift you’re looking for.

Broke teens or college studentsmight appreciate a gift that letsthem do something they’d enjoybut couldn’t otherwise afford.Kids will love the chance to try outdoing something like the winterathletes they see on TV. And evenadults who haven’t skiied or beenon the ice in years might like thechance to channel their innerWayne Gretzky or Kristi Yam-aguchi.

Hoodoo is the closest localski/snowboard facility; it’s lo-cated on Highway 20 about 50miles east of Sweet Home. It of-fers day passes, annual passes,and lessons in both skiing andsnowboarding. Visit www.hoodoo.com for more information.

The Lane Ice Center in Eugeneis the closest ice rink. It offerspublic skates and day passes, aswell as private event rentals.Figure skating lessons andhockey lessons for both kids andadults are available through as-sociations that use the facility;visit www.icerinkexchange.comfor information on the Lane IceCenter.

Fitting in a new traditionIt can be hard to find extra time around the holidays for exercise,

so why not make it a family affair and get active together?

TBy JENNIFER ROUSE

Anna Som of Albany pushes her daughters Maryanne and Amara along the3.75-mile run last year.

Of course smell is impor-tant when it comes to eating.When we walk into a movietheater, our sense of smell iswhy we’re instantly dyingfor some popcorn — prefer-ably drenched in butter.

If glorious smells make uswant to eat, is there a scentthat could have the oppositeeffect and actually reduceour urge?

Yes, there is, says psychol-ogist Bryan Raudenbush, aprofessor at Wheeling JesuitUniversity in West Virginia.

It’s peppermint.

His study showed that vol-unteers who sniffed pepper-mint scent every two hourswere not as hungry as non-sniffers and — even better —they ate 2,800 fewer caloriesin a week. That’s enough tolose close to a pound.

The peppermint smell, hesays, “is distracting youfrom your hunger pains, andyou don’t feel as inclined toeat as much.’’

(Eating peppermint candyor chewing peppermint gumdoesn’t work as well.)

— McClatchy-Tribune

Nearly 90 percentof American adults

drink coffee on a regular basis

BY JULIE DEARDORFFCHICAGO TRIBUNE

For most people, a morn-ing cup of java isn’t harm-ful. But if you rely on coffeeto get you out of bed, tostave off midmorningheadaches and to avoid the3 p.m. crash, you may behooked on one of the mostpopular drugs in the world.

Nearly 90 percent ofAmerican adults drink cof-fee on a regular basis. Morethan 50 percent of adults,meanwhile, consume justover three cups of coffee aday.

But caffeine is a trickystimulant to shake. Thoughtolerance levels vary, drink-ing just 100 milligrams perday — the amount of asmall cup of brewed coffee— and then giving it up canlead to withdrawal symp-toms ranging fromheadaches and depressionto flulike nausea and mus-cle pain, according to theNational Institutes ofHealth.

Caffeine may have somehealth benefits, but so farresearch is weak. Somekinds of headaches causeblood vessels to widen; caf-feine temporarily causesthem to narrow. Coffee mayalso help reduce your risk ofParkinson’s disease.

But coffee — like sugarybreakfast foods — can cre-ate a cycle of extreme en-ergy swings. The NationalInstitutes of Health also re-ports that caf-feine raisesblood pressureand increasesfeelings ofstress, anxietyand road rage. Itcan leave youfeeling wired 12to 16 hours afterthe last cup,wreaking havocon sleep. And itcan exacerbatehealth condi-tions such asdiabetes bymaking bloodsugar rise fasterthan usual.

To startweaning your-self off the joe,figure out howmuch caffeineyou’re ingestingduring the day,including softdrinks and energy drinks; ifyou can’t track it, it’s toomuch.

Also try the followingtips:

• Wake up and drink 8

ounces of water. This strat-egy seems to slow coffeeconsumption and also worksif you have a morning diet orregular soda habit, saidBrian Wansink, founder anddirector of the Cornell Uni-versity Food and Brand Laband an expert on psychologyand food consumption.

• Choose your approach.Some people can go coldturkey; others need to grad-ually reduce.

“There’s no evidence thateither approach is supe-rior,” said James Lane, acaffeine researcher andprofessor in the depart-ment of psychiatry and be-havioral sciences at DukeUniversity Medical Center.

If you’re a heavy coffeedrinker — eight cups a day— gradual withdrawal canhelp prevent the dreadedheadaches and fogginess.If you drink two cups, youmay be able to bite the bul-let.

“Withdrawal symptomsmost likely disappear in twoor three days,” said Lane.

• Taper: To minimizewithdrawal symptoms,gradually reduce theamount of caffeine bydrinking half regular andhalf decaffeinated andgradually increasing theamount of decaf, said LingWong, a Santa Monica,Calif.-based nutrition andwellness coach.

“You can also try tea —black or yerba mate — whichhas the richness of coffeewithout that much caf-feine,” Wong said. “Rooibosis an herbal tea that has arich body similar to blacktea, without any caffeine.Green tea and white tea are

also greatchoices,” shesaid.

• Fruit juicesmight seem likea healthy optionto coffee, but it’sbetter to avoidall sugar-sweet-ened beverages,whether it’sadded or highnatural sugar.

“The stom-ach doesn’t feelfull so the braincan’t know it,and you keepeating,” saidphysician andchef John La-Puma. “Becausethey boostglycemic load,they inflame ar-teries, disableinsulin and clogup the beta-

cells in the pancreas, whereinsulin is made. They canalso make the liver store fat.Not a pretty picture.’”

A better alternative?Sparkling water.

It helps people stay on aneven keel emotionally, andto produce clear thought

BY ROGER PHELPSTO YOUR HEALTH

Having a sleep disorder is some-thing most people don’t even dreamabout.

However, it’s not necessary to havea sleep disorder to have symptomsthat mimic it — symptoms such asimpatience with other people, or for-getfulness, or jumping to conclu-sions. These days, common behaviorpatterns promote sleeping less —patterns like back-to-school, push-to-make-ends-meet and I-want-it-all.

Sleep maintains the body’s abilityto regulate itself. That doesn’t meanjust preventing you from yawninguncontrollably in someone’s face.Two functions of a properly regulatedbrain are holding the emotions at aneven keel and producing clearthought. Without the regulation,craziness.

In fact, a federal disease-controlstudy already has shown sleep-deprived teens are 40 percent morelikely to get into fights. Much worse,they are even more likely than othersto consider suicide.

“Public health intervention isgreatly needed,” said researcher LelaMcKnight-Eily, Ph.D., of the Centersfor Disease Control, going so far as tosuggest that public schools drop earlymorning class hours.

TThe U.S. problem with sleep apneais probably due to worsen, said Dr.Mari Goldner of The Corvallis Clinic.

“Shortsightedly, two major insur-ance companies have just slapped ona $500 fee, to be paid by the patient,on a test for sleep apnea,” Goldnersaid. “It’s effectively prohibitive, be-cause apnea is strongly linked to so-cioeconomic status, because it’slinked strongly to obesity. Not manywell-to-do people are overweight.The apnea sufferer is at risk to fallasleep on the way to work.”

Sleep depriversThe ability to sleep is a compli-

cated beast. The list of factors thatcan deprive it is already so long thatit’s a wonder anyone ever sleeps a fullnight. And the list of known sleepdeprivers continues to grow. In fact,led by an Oregon researcher, a recentstudy found that infants of 9 monthswho perceived quiet, unspoken con-flicts between their parents devel-oped sleep difficulties months later,as toddlers.

“By working with adoptive fami-lies, we are able to show that the as-sociations we found between maritalinstability and child sleep problems

are not due to genes shared betweenthe parents and the children,” saidAnne Mannering, an instructor inOregon State University’s Depart-ment of Human Development andFamily Sciences.

Researchers tracked families inwhich parents reported, separately,that they’d been thinking of divorce.That was all it took for a child to loseability to sleep well, the study found.

Far from being a passive state ofsuspension — as it was thought to beonly a few decades ago — sleep takeswork to produce. This job falls to ahormone, melatonin. Melatoninfunctions to match body rhythms toearthly light-dark cycles determinedby the sun. Employment on a night-shift basis has been found to be al-most as bad as jet lag for disruptingmelatonin’s work and unmatchingone’s “body clock” — two tiny neu-rons specifically sited in the brain —with light-and-dark rhythms of theearth and sun.

Although she works the 8:30 to 5day shift at an Albany office, book-keeper Jill Vanlydegraf said she hascome to rely on a dietary supplement,extra melatonin, because it works,she said.

“Even with coffee after dinner,”Vanlydegraf said.

On the other hand, as fall begins,some sufferers from Seasonal Affec-

tive Disorder wish they felt lesssleepy. They wish they saw the sunmore. Some use light boxes.

Sleep until sunlightAccordingly, one lesser-known tip

toward regular sleep is to sleep untilsunlight; if possible, wake up withthe sun, or use very bright lights inthe morning — light helps the body’sinternal biological clock reset itselfeach day. For people having problemsfalling asleep, experts recommendexposure to an hour of morning light.

In addition, if the body is given afixed bedtime without a lot of latestimulation, it reliably can accustomitself to falling asleep at that time.Nightime worry is a particularly badlate-hour stimulation. Some peoplefind it useful to fix a “worry period”during the evenings or late after-noons.

Television is a stimulating devicethat tends to keep people up. Radio isa less-stimulating entertainment de-vice.

All this counts because “catchingup on your sleep” is a bigger job thanmany people realize. If you get lessthan six hours of sleep a night for aweek, for example, you’ll rack up afull night’s sleep debt — too much tomake up for with a few hours extrasleep on the weekend.

To Your HealthTuesday, November 8, 2011A6

MARK YLEN/TO YOUR HEALTH

Dr. Mari Goldner is a sleep medicine specialist at The Corvallis Clinic. She says lifestyle choices are often to blame for sleep problems.

Dr. Mari Goldner of The Corvallis Clinicspecializes in the comparatively new med-ical field of sleep medicine. The doctor, agraduate of Harvard, answers a few ques-tions on the topic.

Q. What does it take to be a sleep doc-tor?

A. I was an internal medicine resident.Then I went into a pulmonary medicinesubspecialty, because airways and breath-ing are very important to sleep health. Theother half are neuropsychiatrists. The brainis the organ of sleep.

Q. How has the field developed?A. The Association of Professional Sleep

Societies just had its 25th birthday. Sleephealth entered common medical practice— as a specialty, where other doctorswould give referrals — during the last 10or 15 years. It’s new enough that somedoctors still don’t believe in it.

Q. What do you see in your own prac-tice?

A. The bulk of what I see is obstructivesleep apnea (cessation of breathing duringsleep). We see bad insomnia, bad restless-leg syndrome, narcolepsy, unusual behav-ior. For Seasonal Affective Disorder, weloan a light box for a month for free.

Q. What is the newest development?A. There are lots of new sleep drugs,

but I have doubts — insomnia has to dowith how people live life. Then there’s thenewest Continuous Positive Air Pressuremachine, to treat sleep apnea. It’s still ablowing of air in your nose, but it’s a lot

more tolerable. The masks are smaller,lighter, and give better humidity. Progressreally is just understanding the amazingbrain. The hardest thing is that a lot ofsleep problems relate to life problems, lifechoices.

Q. How so?A. The stress of dysfunctional families,

of job insecurity, of people working ridicu-lous hours — stuff I don’t have a pill for.

Q. Are you saying something like thesociety is disordered and is depriving peo-ple of sleep?

A. Yes, people up on the computer at allhours, the “I can sleep when I’m dead”mentality. People are choosing to do otherthings. It’s the lives we lead — stress, andthe technology of blue light from televisionand computer screens. The brain seeingblue light is telling itself, “No, it’s day-light,” and shuts off the melatonin, asleep-inducing hormone. It’s linked to thegreat amount of obese kids. No sleep, andthe body feels stressed and in a hang-onto-what-you’ve got mode. This producesa slowed metabolism. Statistically, thepresence of a TV or a computer in a child’sbedroom means they’re getting one hourless sleep per night.

Q. What might this mean for the future?A. It’s worsening measurably, by the

month. No sleep, the eating crap. Activitiesthat are all stress, no exercise, no just tak-ing a good walk. Many people who can’tsleep just didn’t get good and tired — butthey’re bad and tired.

A FAIRLY NEW FIELD OF MEDICINE

Enough sleep is crucialfor a healthy waking life

Peppermint can ebb cravings

Caffeine is a trickyhabit to kick

‘You can also trytea — black oryerba mate —which has the

richness of cof-fee without thatmuch caffeine.Rooibos is an

herbal tea thathas a rich bodysimilar to blacktea, without anycaffeine. Greentea and whitetea are also

great choices.’LING WONGNUTRITION AND

WELLNESS COACH

To hear and see some of the day’s major news stories in motion,

log on to democratherald.com or gazettetimes.com

and go to AP Video on the paper’s home page.

Women are more likely togain weight after marriage,according to a recent studyfrom Ohio State University.

One solution: understandyour nutritional needs.

“Don’t think you and yoursignificant other can eat thesame amount of food,” saysJessica Levinson, a regis-tered dietitian in New YorkCity.

Here are five tips to keepin mind for couples:

1. Don’t match him bite forbite ... Men often are tallerand more muscular thanwomen and can eat morewithout gaining weight.While women generally need1,600 to 2,200 calories a day— the higher number is foryounger, more active women— the range for men is 2,200to 2,800.

2. ... or sip for sip. Womenhave lower amounts of anenzyme that breaks downalcohol and less body waterto dilute it. Stick to one drinka day.

3. Don’t gobble food. Mentend to eat faster thanwomen. Put down utensilsbetween bites, chew foodthoroughly and use smallerforks and spoons (a teaspoonfor cereal, say, rather than asoup spoon).

4. Know your needs. Talk to aregistered dietitian or find anonline calculator for calorierecommendations based ongender, age, size and exercisehabits. Consider a gender-specific multi-vitamin;women often need more ofcertain substances (iron) andless of others (protein).

5. Be a creative cook. Tweakfavorite “manly” foods: bakechicken with bread crumbsrather than frying it, for ex-ample, and grill with olive oilinstead of butter.

— Newport News Daily Press

BY JULIE DEARDORFFCHICAGO TRIBUNE

If you still think sit-upswill reduce your belly flab,we’ve got some depressingnews: You’ve fallen for oneof the all-time great exercisemyths.

Fitness misconceptionsare rampant, in part due tomisleading infomercials, butalso because scientific re-sults are mixed on somecommonly held beliefs.Meanwhile, what works forone person doesn’t neces-sarily benefit another.

Some fitness myths areharmless half-truths. Oth-ers, however, scare peopleaway from working out orlead to injury. The spot-reduction myth — whichholds that you can, for ex-ample, flatten your stom-ach by doing crunches —wastes time, effort and caneven add size to your mid-dle.

Ab exercises canstrengthen muscles. Butthey don’t remove fat be-cause from a metabolicstandpoint, fat isn’t con-nected to the muscle it cov-ers. That means workingcertain muscles mightmake them bigger, but itdoesn’t necessarily burncalories from the fat cover-ing them.

The problem with fitnessscience is that while we wantsimple answers, “humansare really complicated,” said

Alex Hutchinson, the authorof the book “Which ComesFirst, Cardio or Weights?” acomprehensive science-based look at fitness myths.Some things you think youknow may be misguided.

Here are some commonfitness myths:

Myth: When you stop exer-cising, your muscle turns tofat.

Truth: Rocks don’t turninto trees. Likewise, musclewon’t morph into fat be-cause they’re different typesof cells, said Brian Uder-mann, a professor in the de-partment of exercise andsport science at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin at LaCrosse. Although you canlose muscle mass, one does-n’t replace the other.

When you gain musclemass, the muscle fibers orindividual cells get bigger,Udermann said. If you stoplifting or have your leg in acast, the muscle fibersdon’t go away, they justshrink.

The same thing happenswhen you gain fat; the exist-ing cells get bigger. If youlose weight, the fat cells de-crease in size.

Try this: Incorporate tworesistance training sessions aweek. This could includeusing body weight, freeweights, resistance bands,kettlebells or machines.

Myth: You can sit for longperiods if you exercise.

Truth: Unfortunately, youcan’t exercise away the ef-fects of sitting for 10 hoursat your desk, Hutchinsonsaid. Long stretches of sit-ting are associated with car-diovascular disease, inde-pendent of how much exer-cise you get. Researchersthink being motionless forlong periods of time withouta break causes changes in theenzyme levels in your mus-cles, allowing for more fatstorage. “The muscle says,‘I’m not needed!’” Hutchin-son said. “So it helps to takeshort breaks throughout theday.”

Try it: Get up at least onceevery hour; pace aroundyour desk or do five jumpingjacks to remind your musclesthat you’re not dead. Promptyourself by setting an emailreminder.

Myth: To tone muscleswithout bulking up, lift lightweights and don’t pushhard.

Truth: There’s actually nosuch thing as toning, saidHutchinson. If you’re pokinga muscle that feels soft evenwhen it’s flexed, that meansyou’re poking fat, not “un-toned” muscle, he said.

Try this: To make yourmuscles stand out, you ei-ther have to lose fat or makeyour muscles bigger. Lightweights won’t help you doeither unless you do enoughreps to reach or get close tofailure (exhaustion).

BY JEFF SEIDELDETROIT FREE PRESS

DETROIT — Adil Siddiqui wasreluctant to go out in public be-cause he thought everybody wasstaring at the patches of whiteskin on his face.

Siddiqui suffers from vitiligo,an autoimmune skin disease thataffects about 2 million Americans.The white patches appear whenpigment cells, called melanocytes,are attacked and destroyed by thebody’s immune system. The reasonis a mystery.

The white patches, which arecalled lesions, developed after Sid-diqui graduated from Novi HighSchool in 2006.

“It’s an awkward stage whenyou are that age,” said Siddiqui, 23,of Canton Township, Mich. “I wasjust getting over acne. It was notcool.”

One of the white spots wasunder his lower lip on the left sideof his face. There was anotherwhite patch to the right of hismouth.

“I’m not naturally an outgoingperson,” he said. “I was even morereserved and less self-confidentafter I developed the lesions. I wasalways worried that people werelooking and me and thinking,

‘What the heck happened to thisguy?’ It was disconcerting to mementally.”

The color on Siddiqui’s face hasreturned and the patches of whiteare almost all gone since he under-went skin transplant surgery at theVitiligo Treatment Center, a unit ofthe Multicultural DermatologyCenter of Henry Ford Hospital’sDepartment of Dermatology.

Siddiqui had two procedures.The first was performed in sum-mer 2007, but the area right belowhis mouth didn’t come back withcolor. So he repeated the treatmentabout eight months later. Now,he’s thrilled with the results.

“It’s been a tremendous suc-cess,” he said. He developed moreconfidence after the surgery: “It’sno longer a distraction for me.That’s the greatest gift that it hasgiven me. I don’t have to be self-conscious. I feel as normal as I’veever felt.”

Henry Ford is the only hospital inthe U.S. that offers the transplantsurgery, according to IltefatHamzavi, a senior staff physicianin Henry Ford’s Department ofDermatology.

The surgery is known asmelanocyte-keratinocyte trans-plantation or MKTP.

Henry Ford doctors learned howto do the transplant surgery aftercollaborating with experts in Indiaand Saudi Arabia.

“We showed them some of ourtechniques,” Hamzavi said. “Weshowed them how to do phototherapy. They started showingsome of their surgical techniques.Then we had to modify the tech-niques to U.S. standards. Over atwo-year period of time, we wereable to work out some of the kinks,bring it up to U.S. standards andstart offering it.”

Other hospitals around thecountry now are rushing to learnthe techniques, he said.

“The surgery is an advance, andit’s a cure for some people,”Hamzavi said. “We don’t want ayoung man or woman, who is 22years old, crying in (the doctor’s)office knowing they are so disfig-ured by this disease. Psychologi-cally, it can be devastating. Youhate seeing people suffer.”

Several other treatment optionscan bring the color back, includinglight therapy and steroid creams.

“You want to treat vitiligo as atwo-step process,” Hamzavi said.“You want to calm the immunesystem down, and then you wantto bring the color back.”

To Your Health A7Tuesday, November 8, 2011

BY SAM MCMANIS MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Frustrated dieters out there mayask,“When is someone gonna write aweight-loss book that allows me toeat at 7-Eleven?”

Their wish has been granted bynone other than Charles Platkin, the“Diet Detective” syndicated colum-nist and assistant professor at theCUNY School of Public Health.

His new book, set for release inJanuary by Rodale Books, is “TheDiet Detective’s All-American Diet.”

Take our quiz based on food choic-es at quintessential American estab-lishments.

11.. IItt’’ss llaattee iinn tthhee ddaarrkk nniigghhtt ooff aa ddii--eetteerr’’ss ssoouull.. YYoouu ffiinndd yyoouurrsseellff aatt aa 77--EElleevveenn.. CCaalloorriieewwiissee,, wwhhiicchh iiss tthheebbeesstt cchhooiiccee??

a) 7-Eleven Fresh To Go Chickenand Bacon Cobb Salad

b) 7-Eleven Chicken Tenders (threepieces)

c) 7-Eleven Corn Dog Roller 22.. YYoouu’’vvee bbeeeenn ddrriivviinngg aallll nniigghhtt..

WWhhaatt’’ss tthhaatt uupp aahheeaadd?? SSuunnrriissee?? NNoo,,iitt’’ss tthhee yyeellllooww DDeennnnyy’’ss ssiiggnn.. WWhhiicchhbbrreeaakkffaasstt ssiiddee ddiisshh sshhoouulldd aa ccaalloorriiee--ccoonnsscciioouuss ddiieetteerr sseelleecctt??

a) Bacon (four strips) b) Turkey bacon (four strips) c) Hash browns 33.. YYoouu’’vvee ttrriieedd ttoo rreessiisstt tthhee lluurree ooff

KKFFCC.. BBuutt yyoouu’’rree oonnllyy hhuummaann aannddhhaavvee ssuuccccuummbbeedd.. YYeett yyoouu’’rree ttrryyiinnggttoo bbee ggoooodd bbyy oorrddeerriinngg ffrroomm tthheeggrriilllleedd cchhiicckkeenn mmeennuu.. WWhhiicchh iiss yyoouurrbbeesstt ccaalloorriicc cchhooiiccee??

a) drumstick b) breast c) thigh

44.. YYoouu wweenntt rruunnnniinngg ttooddaayy,, ssoo yyoouuffiigguurree yyoouu ccaann ““rreewwaarrdd”” yyoouurrsseellffwwiitthh ddeesssseerrtt iinn tthhee ffrreeeezzeerr aaiissllee..WWhhiicchh iiss tthhee bbeesstt ccaalloorriicc ooppttiioonn??

a) Skinny Cow Vanilla Low Fat IceCream Sandwich

b) Weight Watcher’s Vanilla IceCream Sandwich

c) Smart Ones Key Lime Pie

— Source: “The Diet Detective’sAll-American Diet,” By Dr. Charles

Platkin (Rodale Books, $19.99, 266pages, on sale in January)

NUTRITION QUIZ:DIET DETECTIVE

AANNSSWWEERRSS::1: c (corn dog: 320calories; cobb salad: 350 calories;chicken: 540 calories); 2: a (bacon:140 calories; turkey bacon: 150 calo-ries; hash browns: 210 calories); 3: a(drumstick: 80 calories; thigh 160calories; breast 210 calories); 4: b(Weight Watchers: 120 calories;Skinny Cow: 140 calories; pie: 190calories).

JARRAD HENDERSON/DETROIT FREE PRESS

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BY MIKE MCINALLYTO YOUR HEALTH

Here’s some bad newsabout stress: A new studyconcludes that men who ex-perience persistent moder-ately or high levels of stress-ful life events over a numberof years have a 50 percenthigher mortality rate.

But here’s some goodnews about older people andstress, from the OSU profes-sor who was the lead authorof that study: In general, al-though older people usefewer coping strategies todeal with stress, the onesthey use tend to be effective.

Even better, said CarolynAldwin, a professor ofhuman development andfamily science at OSU andthe study’s lead author, olderpeople are more likely to or-ganize their lives to avoid orreduce stressful situations.“They’ll arrange their lives

to decrease or mitigate”stressful events, she said inan interview with To YourHealth.

A l dw i n ’srecent study,published inthe Journalof Aging Re-search, fo-cused onolder men inparticular —a populationthat hasn’tbeen studiedmuch in terms of stress, shesaid. And the study was de-signed to focus on major lifeevents that lead to chronic,long-term stress — eventsthat often cannot beavoided, such as the death ofa spouse or putting a parentinto a retirement home.

There’s no doubt, Aldwinsaid, that the sort of chroniclong-term stress caused by

events like those is unhealthy.“It can affect just about

every cell in the body,” shesaid.

Long-term chronic stresshas been linked, for exam-ple, to heart disease andmany autoimmune diseases.

“It doesn’t create the dis-ease,” she said. “It can inter-act with diseases to makethem worse.”

Aldwin’s most recentstudy is the first to show adirect link between so-called“stress trajectories” andmortality in an older popula-tion. In fact, the study wasmodified to document majorstressors that affect middle-aged and older people. Ald-win said most stress studiesare geared to younger popu-lations and focus on issuessuch as graduation or havinga first baby.

In the study that looked atolder populations, researchers

were able to identify only afew protective factors:

• People who self-re-ported that they were ingood health tended to livelonger.

• Married men fared bet-ter: “For men in this con-text,” Aldwin said, “theirwives tend to be the biggestcause of social support. …It’s important to have some-one to tell you to take yourheart medicine, or just bethere when you’re facingproblems.”

• Moderate drinkers alsolived longer than non-drinkers — and that, Aldwinsaid, could be because of thehealth benefits that comefrom, say, a glass of wine oralso because of the generallyrelaxed environments inwhich that consumption islikely to occur.

While this study lookedat major life events, Aldwin

said her research group nextwill explore chronic dailystress and coping strategies.The latter is a topic of somefascination to Aldwin — andit’s an area in which olderpeople may have an advan-tage.

In coping with stress, shesaid, it helps if people can getsome perspective on thestress-causing event. It alsohelps if they can get helpwhen needed and also if theycan give support to those inneed. On all of those counts,older people may have an ad-vantage over the young ones.

In addition, Aldwin said,older people may havegained enough experience toavoid at least some stressfulsituations. An example, shesaid, might be fretting overbalky audiovisual equipmentwhen giving presentations:Experienced presentersknow to bring hard-copy

backups as protectionagainst such events.

Older people may be bet-ter-suited to cope withstress in some additionalways, Aldwin said:

• They have a better senseof how bigger problems canbe broken into smaller com-ponents. “Divide a probleminto small bits,” she said.“Figure out the parts youcan start on and start doingthat.”

• After a lifetime of expe-rience, they have differenttools — methods for copingwith stressful situations —in their toolkits, and knowl-edge of which tools workbest in which situations.

• They have a better senseof what’s outside of theircontrol. “Young peopleblame themselves,” she said.“Older people say, ‘It’s notmy fault,’ but still go aheadand fix the problem.”

To Your HealthTuesday, November 8, 2011A8

Older people often more able to handle stress

Carolyn

Aldwin