Head off 'holiday heart syndrome'

Overindulging over the holidays can take a toll on the heart, according to experts at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Heavy drinking and eating too much, especially salty foods, can trigger atrial fibrillation. A-fib is an irregular heartbeat that causes the upper chambers of the heart to contract rapidly, increasing the risk for stroke.

26 dec 2016--People with the condition may feel short of breath, have heart palpitations and feel like their heart is beating much faster than usual.
During December when holiday revelry peaks, emergency rooms see a surge of patients with what's unofficially dubbed "holiday heart syndrome" from too much food and drink, according to UT Southwestern cardiologist Dr. Sharon Reimold.
"It's common for people to go to multiple parties during this time of year. You go to one party and have a drink or two, go to the next party and have a couple more. It's the cumulative effect of alcohol that can put you at risk, sending your heart into atrial fibrillation," Reimhold said in a hospital news release.
Healthy adults should get no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day, according to the American Heart Association. That's less than a teaspoonful. Reimhold said it's important to watch what you're eating and drinking at holiday celebrations and avoid overdoing it.

More information: The American Heart Association provides more information on holiday heart syndrome.

Five easy ways to prevent overeating during the holiday family dinner

Despite the unseasonably warm weather, it's that time of the year again. People are scouring the malls for those last minute presents, holiday music is everywhere, kids are writing letters to Santa, and those who drew the short straw (or are masochists) are preparing to host their families for a big Christmas dinner. 

24 dec 2015--I don't know what it is about large family gatherings, whether its Thanksgiving or Christmas, but overconsumption seems to be part of the tradition. If you are hosting your family dinner, there are a number of helpful tricks you can utilize to ensure your whole family is not in a food-induced coma by the end of the evening.
The following tips come courtesy of Dr. Brian Wansink who has done countless studies on how your immediate environment affects your dietary patterns. In his most recent book, Slim by Design, he breaks down numerous easily-actionable changes you can make to your home, workplace, or when shopping at grocery stores or dining at restaurants. Unlike most non-fiction self-help books that tend to be heavy on the theory and light on the actionable advice, Slim by Design is packed full of useful tips on every page.
Without further ado, here's what you can do to save your guests from overindulging during the family dinner:

• Give your guests smaller plates. According to Dr. Wansink's research, we tend to eat more food when it is placed on a large plate versus a small plate.
• Use smaller serving bowls. When food is served in a 3-quart bowl vs a 2-quart bowl, people will dish out an extra 17% of food.
• Use small serving spoons. Using large serving spoons leads to 14% greater consumption of calories. People will likely fatigue from multiple spooning, or will be prompted by another diner for the spoon so they can also serve themselves.
• Serve the food from the stove rather than from the table. Rather than placing all the available food in bowls within arm's reach on the dining table, simply serve each plate with a bit of everything and leave the bowls of remaining food on a separate counter or back in the kitchen. According to research, people who served from the stove or counter ate 19% less food by comparison to those who ate family style from the dining table.
• Regardless of the colour of wine guests are drinking, serve the wine in the narrow white-wine glasses. Since we focus more on the height of liquid in a container rather than its width, we pour 12% less wine into a white wine glass. The same holds true for serving drinks of any sort (juice, pop, etc.).

Armed with these 5 simple tips, you would have done your family a great service in making the healthy choice (not overeating) the easy choice. The beauty of it all? No one is likely to notice any of these subtle changes. But, at the end of the evening, they may notice that they can get off the couch with greater ease than expected.

Happy Holidays!

This story is republished courtesy of PLOS Blogs: blogs.plos.org.

A few survival tips for holiday overeating

We've all been there – reaching for another heap of potatoes or ambrosia, sampling everything on the dessert tray, maybe one too many eggnogs, and suddenly we're more stuffed than the rib roast and feeling guilty. Don't beat yourself up, it happens to the best of us. Here are some ways to bounce back after a food flub.

18 dec 215--According to Len Kravitz, associate professor of Exercise Science at the University of New Mexico, portion control is key. However, if that ship has sailed, step away from the table and go for a walk. "When you eat more, move more," he said. "It will make you feel better. Most people tend to put on a few pounds during the holidays and without expending those calories, they'll keep the added weight on."
There is a new area of research called 'spontaneous movement' which indicates that people can burn upwards of 400 calories just by staying active during the day. By the way, that's one eggnog.
"Many new diet and exercise programs are starting with this 'move more' approach, and it seems to be very successful," Kravitz said.
Spontaneous movement refers to all non-exercise related movement such as walking from a distant parking spot to the mall; taking the stairs v. the elevator; doing a five minute power walk; even walking around the house from room to room. The research shows that people who just spontaneously keep moving during their waking day, are able to burn a lot of calories.
Peter Pribis, assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics in the UNM College of Education, Department of Individual, Family and Community Education believes we should just enjoy holiday get-togethers.
"A lot of atmosphere and memories are created around food. Maybe your family has a special pie or pudding recipe or other recipes that have been handed down over the years. What really matters for weight management and overall health is what we eat and do on a daily basis. "Eating junk food everyday matters, not over-indulging during the holidays. Instead of agonizing about overeating, I say eat, and then go for a group walk or do something a bit more active later."
Pribis suggests that in the days following excessive food intake, skipping lunch and having a light dinner can reduce about 30 percent of daily calorie expenditure and help curtail weight gain. Skipping breakfast is not ideal as the body has spent the night using up its supply of nutrients and energy and requires fuel to boost the metabolism.
When the holidays are over, and the New Year begins, Pribis recommends opting for more healthy choices and introducing more salads, vegetables, fruits and nuts into our general diet.
"Try to become healthier overall and realize that those few special days over the course of a year won't hurt you or add that much weight," Pribis said.


Provided by University of New Mexico

Tips to survive the holiday season without packing on the pounds

Special family meals, holiday buffets and free drinks can be open invitations for disaster for the more than 50 percent of Americans who are struggling with their weight and dieting.

20 dez 2013-- Navigating the holidays can be stressful, said Jeffrey Gersten, PsyD, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital.  "Close family situations, the ready availability of trigger foods, such as cookies, kugels and candies, unhappy memories of past holidays – all add stress to make keeping your waistline in check a challenge."

Dr. Gersten counsels weight-conscious patients at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, where dozens have successfully lost, and are keeping off, as much as 100 pounds or more.

Frosted cookies are an important part of enjoying the holidays for Suzy Krueckeberg, 49, who lives in a Chicago suburb. "I eat my favorite foods but change the portion size," said the graduate of a weight-loss program at Gottlieb.

"At a party, I will scope out the offerings and make my choices. I'll eat half of a frosted cookie and one-third of a dessert slice – enough so that I have a true taste of the foods I like."

Krueckeberg dropped more than 24 pounds in 12 weeks with Gottlieb's help and has lost more than 30 pounds total, despite the challenges of the holiday season. "I still go to out to dinners and restaurants, but I'll modify the meal so that I eat an open-face sandwich, or if I really want potato chips I'll eat half and throw the other half away. I am aware of the calories and also of what I really want to eat," she said. "I do eat more salads and vegetables, but if I want to eat something, I pay attention to those feelings and I eat it, but in a smaller quantity."

Here are Dr. Gersten's top five tips to keep you from going overboard:

The Roadmap. You need more than just directions to the party, you need a plan for the entire occasion. "You don't plan to fail, you just fail to plan" is an old chestnut worth picking up this season. "Identify your trigger foods – those that you know you will be unable to eat in a moderate portion" and avoid them. Completely. "I know that one of my trigger foods is pizza," said Dr. Gersten, who as a young man struggled with his weight. "I know that I cannot stop after just one slice, so I stay away from it altogether and remove myself from the challenge." Provide yourself healthy options, such as bringing your own low-fat snacks to get-togethers. "Don't starve yourself either," Dr. Gersten said. "Your blood sugar level will drop, creating a hunger that is unstoppable, which will lead to overeating, usually of high-calorie foods." Stick to eating three balanced meals.

The Telltale Crumbs. So you polished off the entire carton of French onion dip and the bag of chips, or gobbled the plate of cookies you received as a gift. Take control of the situation immediately. "Don't tell yourself that because you've overindulged, all bets are off and everything is now fair game," Dr. Gersten said. "Every moment is a chance to begin again. Don't wait for New Year's to make resolutions. Make them now – keep them."

Give Yourself a Timeout. A walk in the neighborhood to enjoy the decorations, playing a favorite seasonal CD or even just taking a deep breath are all ways to relax and shake off stress. "When you are calm, you are in control," Dr. Gersten said. "Don't let the hectic pace of the holidays run you roughshod."

Friends, through Thick and Thin. Talk to a friend, or fellow party goer, about your desire to eat healthy. "You can do it, they can help," Dr. Gersten said. Enlist their aid so they won't encourage you to "just try this" or guilt you into eating "my famous cake I slaved over for days."

Maintain Utter Consciousness. "I grabbed a handful of chocolate chips the other day and ate them," Dr. Gersten said. "I then grabbed another handful and chowed down, and realized I was just mindlessly eating." Think about what you eat. "Give yourself the five-minute rule. Stop eating for five minutes to see if you are really hungry or just bored."

Provided by Loyola University Health System

How excess holiday eating disturbs your 'food clock'

31 dec 2012—If the sinful excess of holiday eating sends your system into butter-slathered, brandy-soaked overload, you are not alone: People who are jet-lagged, people who work graveyard shifts and plain-old late-night snackers know just how you feel.

All these activities upset the body's "food clock," a collection of interacting genes and molecules known technically as the food-entrainable oscillator, which keeps the human body on a metabolic even keel. A new study by researchers at UCSF is helping to reveal how this clock works on a molecular level.

Published this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UCSF team has shown that a protein called PKCγ is critical in resetting the food clock if our eating habits change.

The study showed that normal laboratory mice given food only during their regular sleeping hours will adjust their food clock over time and begin to wake up from their slumber, and run around in anticipation of their new mealtime. But mice lacking the PKCγ gene are not able to respond to changes in their meal time – instead sleeping right through it.

The work has implications for understanding the molecular basis of diabetes, obesity and other metabolic syndromes because a desynchronized food clock may serve as part of the pathology underlying these disorders, said Louis Ptacek, MD, the John C. Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

It may also help explain why night owls are more likely to be obese than morning larks, Ptacek said.  

"Understanding the molecular mechanism of how eating at the "wrong" time of the day desynchronizes the clocks in our body can facilitate the development of better treatments for disorders associated with night-eating syndrome, shift work and jet lag," he added.

Resetting the Food Clock

Look behind the face of a mechanical clock and you will see a dizzying array of cogs, flywheels, reciprocating counterbalances and other moving parts. Biological clocks are equally complex, composed of multiple interacting genes that turn on or off in an orchestrated way to keep time during the day.

In most organisms, biological clockworks are governed by a master clock, referred to as the "circadian oscillator," which keeps track of time and coordinates our biological processes with the rhythm of a 24-hour cycle of day and night.

Life forms as diverse as humans, mice and mustard greens all possess such master clocks. And in the last decade or so, scientists have uncovered many of their inner workings, uncovering many of the genes whose cycles are tied to the clock and discovering how in mammals it is controlled by a tiny spot in the brain known as the "superchiasmatic nucleus."

Scientists also know that in addition to the master clock, our bodies have other clocks operating in parallel throughout the day. One of these is the food clock, which is not tied to one specific spot in the brain but rather multiple sites throughout the body.

The food clock is there to help our bodies make the most of our nutritional intake. It controls genes that help in everything from the absorption of nutrients in our digestive tract to their dispersal through the bloodstream, and it is designed to anticipate our eating patterns. Even before we eat a meal, our bodies begin to turn on some of these genes and turn off others, preparing for the burst of sustenance – which is why we feel the pangs of hunger just as the lunch hour arrives.

Scientist have known that the food clock can be reset over time if an organism changes its eating patterns, eating to excess or at odd times, since the timing of the food clock is pegged to feeding during the prime foraging and hunting hours in the day. But until now, very little was known about how the food clock works on a genetic level.

What Ptacek and his colleagues discovered is the molecular basis for this phenomenon: the PKCγ protein binds to another molecule called BMAL and stabilizes it, which shifts the clock in time.

More information: The article, "PKCγ participates in food entrainment by regulating BMAL1" is authored by Luoying Zhang, Diya Abrahama, Shu-Ting Lin, Henrik Oster, Gregor Eichele, Ying-Hui Fu, and Louis J. Ptácek and appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. www.pnas.org/conte… 679.abstract

Provided by University of California, San Francisco

Helping Seniors Beat the Holiday Blues

15 dec 2008 -- While the holiday season is a festive time for many, it can cause depression for seniors who've lost loved ones or are having health or financial problems.

For some seniors, this despondency can lead to suicide, according to the American Geriatrics Society, which noted that the 2004 suicide rate for Americans over the age of 65 was 14 per 100,000.

The society offers seniors some tips on how to avoid feeling blue during the holidays:

• Get out and about. Ask family and friends for help traveling to parties and events or invite family and friends to your home.
• Volunteer. Helping others can be a great mood lifter. Contact local schools, churches, synagogues and mosques to find out about volunteer opportunities.
• Don't drink too much alcohol, which can lower your spirits.
• Accept and express your feelings. There's nothing wrong with not feeling happy during the holidays -- many people feel the same way. Talking about your feelings can help you understand why you feel the way you do.
• Recognize the signs of depression, which include: sadness that won't lift; loss of interest or pleasure; changes in appetite and weight; sleeping much more than normal; crying often; feeling restless or tired all the time; feeling worthless, helpless or guilty; slowed thinking; thoughts of death or suicide.

If you notice that an older loved one seems depressed, lend a hand by offering to help them with shopping, transportation and preparations for get-togethers in their homes, the society advises. Encourage your loved one to talk about how he or she is feeling and acknowledge their difficult feelings.

You should also encourage your loved one to talk to a health-care provider. Many older people don't realize when they're depressed. If you believe an older loved one is depressed, tell them depression is a medical illness that can be treated and managed.