FREE CALORIE COUNTER 7-27-07

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OBESITY IS CONTAGIOUS 7-26-07

The list of reasons a person might pack on too many pounds is already plenty long: genes, hormone disorders, a couch-potato lifestyle, love of cheeseburgers. Thanks to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, you can add another culprit to the list: friends.

Obesity spreads through social networks, according to the study, so if your friends put on weight, you’re more likely to put on the pounds, too. Your family members or spouse can also influence you; as they get heavier, you’re more likely to gain along with them. But, your friends—even if they don’t live anywhere near you—have the most sway. A close friend’s weight gain can even be downright dangerous.

“If your close friend becomes obese in a given time interval, there’s triple the risk that you will follow suit,” says Nicholas Christakis, a coauthor of the study, which was published Wednesday and a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School. “Before you know it you have an obesity epidemic, where we're all kind of gaining weight together, like a fashion spreading through society, rising in lockstep.”

The research—which Richard Suzman, director of the National Institute on Aging’s Behavioral and Social Research Program, calls “one of the most exciting studies in medical sociology that I have seen in decades”—focuses on 12,067 participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a multidecade government health-research project. Each participant was asked to name a list of friends and family members when he or she joined the program in 1971. Then the participants and their friends and family were tracked over the years.

When one person in the study became obese, his siblings’ risk of also becoming obese jumped by 40 percent, while his spouse’s risk jumped by 37 percent. More strikingly, if that person had been named as a “friend” by another participant, the second participant’s risk of becoming obese shot up by 57 percent. If the friends were of the same gender, the risk was even higher, at 71 percent. (The study found a man’s weight gain would have no significant effect on his female friend’s weight, and vice versa, but the study did not have many male-female friendships to examine.) If the friends were particularly close—judged in the study by the fact that they both named each other on their lists of loved ones—the risk that one’s weight would follow the others’ increased by a whopping 171 percent.

Even people who’d never met each other were affecting each other in a six-degrees-of-separation way. If your friend’s friend’s friend, or your friend’s sibling’s friend, gains weight, “that will have a subtle effect on you over the course of two to four years,” says James Fowler, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, and the other coauthor of the study. “When we change our own lifestyle and become heavier or thinner, that has a ripple effect through the whole population.”

The study’s effects don’t just come down to the idea that thin people seek out other thin people as friends, while heavy people seek out other heavy people. In fact, what’s going on is much more interesting, according to the researchers: heavy and thin people are causing their friends to become more like them. The reason people have such a powerful effect on each other’s weight is hinted at by one of the study’s most intriguing findings, says Fowler: “Friends who are hundreds of miles away from you have as much of an effect as friends who are [geographically] close.”

Obesity, then, doesn’t spread among friends simply because they're hanging out together, “going out to eat at the same places or going to the bar or going to the park and running together,” he says. “It’s spreading through ideas about what appropriate behaviors are, or what an appropriate body image might be.” In other words, if you admire your friend and she happens to get heavier, you’ll be comfortable with the idea of getting heavier yourself. “If I see you gaining weight, and I respect you, and want to emulate you in other ways, that changes my ideas about what is an acceptable body size. I think, 'All my buddies are getting obese, so it's OK for me to be obese too',” says Christakis. “And even if you’re 1,000 miles away, or I only see you once a year, that’s enough to transmit the norm.”

The study suggests a new explanation for the obesity epidemic, says Matthew Gillman, director of the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School. “Genes can certainly affect whether one individual is obese rather than the other, but they can’t really explain the obesity epidemic, because they haven’t really changed in the last 30 years,” he says. True, plenty of changes in American society have contributed to the epidemic: most obviously, an increase in fatty, carb-heavy processed foods and a decrease in built-in daily exercise. But social networks have changed, too. Compared to the years before the epidemic started, Americans also now have more ways to keep in contact with their loved ones, such as e-mail, instant-messaging and videoconferencing. The study suggests that the obesity norms could indeed be transmitted via those technologies; a friend 1,000 miles away can still send an e-mail bemoaning his recent weight gain.

There’s still a lot left to figure out about these new dynamics of obesity. One question the research brings up, but fails to completely answer, is where neighbors fit into the picture. They appear to have no influence: if your neighbor becomes obese, your risk of doing likewise doesn’t change. It’s unclear why neighbors aren’t playing a larger role, although Christakis notes that if you don’t particularly admire or even know your neighbors, you're not likely to base your ideas about body size on theirs.

The study also brings up several other questions: Why are same-sex friendships and relationships so much more influential over weight than male-female friendships are? Where does the ripple effect stop? Does the same dynamic apply to other behavior-related health problems, such as drinking, smoking and risky sexual behavior? It may be some time before researchers fully know the answers.

It’s not too early, however, for public-health officials to start thinking about the study’s implications. Over the last 25 years, obesity in the United States has doubled; 66 percent of Americans are overweight and 32 percent are on the next level, classified as obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. And measures to combat the problem aren’t bringing those numbers down. “We see no evidence that the obesity epidemic has peaked,” says Christakis. And it’s possible the epidemic won’t peak until weight-loss groups and health advocates start taking social ties into account. But in a way, that's good news, says Fowler: “The flip side of this is that thinness is contagious, too." If you really want to lose weight, he adds, maybe you should encourage some of your buddies to trim down as well.

DIET SODA / HEART RISKS 7-24-07

Study: Diet Soda Linked to Heart Risks

BOSTON (AP) -- People who drank one or more diet sodas each day developed the same risks for heart disease as those who downed sugary regular soda, a large but inconclusive study found. The results surprised the researchers who expected to see a difference between regular and diet soda drinkers.
It could be, they suggest, that even no-calorie sweet drinks increase the craving for more sweets, and that people who indulge in sodas probably have less healthy diets overall.
The study's senior author, Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, emphasized the findings don't show diet sodas are a cause of increased heart disease risks. But he said they show a surprising link that must be studied.
"It's intriguing and it begs an explanation by people who are qualified to do studies to understand this better," said Vasan, of Boston University School of Medicine.
However, a nutrition expert dismissed the study's findings on diet soda drinkers.
"There's too much contradictory evidence that shows that diet beverages are healthier for you in terms of losing weight that I would not put any credence to the result on the diet (drinks)," said Barry Popkin, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who has called for cigarette-style surgeon general warnings about the negative health effects of soda.
Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association, said the notion that diet drinks are associated with bulging waistlines defies common sense.
"How can something with zero calories that's 99 percent water with a little flavoring in it ... cause weight gain?" she said.
The research comes from a massive, multi-generational heart study following residents of Framingham, Mass., a town about 25 miles west of Boston. The new study of 9,000 observations of middle-aged men and women was published Monday online in the journal Circulation.
The researchers found those who drank one or more sodas a day - diet or regular - had an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, compared to those who drank sodas infrequently. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that increase the risk for heart disease including large waistlines and higher levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood fats called triglycerides.
At the start of the study, those who reported drinking one or more soft drinks a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome compared to those who drank less soda.
Of participants who initially showed no signs of metabolic syndrome, those who drank one or more sodas a day were at 44 percent higher risk of developing it four years later, they reported.
Researchers expected the results to differ when regular soda and diet soda drinkers were compared, and were surprised when they did not, Vasan said.
But Popkin said that result isn't that surprising. He said much of the market for diet sodas are people who have unhealthy lifestyles and know they need to lose weight - with the other portion being thin people who want to stay that way. That means many people drinking diet sodas have unhealthy habits that could lead to increased heart disease risks, whether they drink diet soda or not.
In studies in which some users were randomly given diet sodas and others were given regular soda, diet soda drinkers lost weight and regular soda drinkers gained weight, Popkin said.
In a statement, the American Heart Association said it supports dietary patterns that include low-calorie beverages.
"Diet soda can be a good option to replace caloric beverages that do not contain important vitamins and minerals," the association said, adding further study is needed before any association between diet soda and heart risk factors would lead to public recommendations.
Vasan also said poor overall health habits may be one reason diet soda drinkers did not show lower heart disease risks in the Framingham study, but there hasn't been enough research to say for sure.
Another possible reason is a controversial theory called "dietary compensation," which holds that if someone drinks a large amount of liquids at a meal, they aren't satisfied and will tend to eat more at the next meal, Vasan said.
Other theories, Vasan said, are that people who drink a large amount of sweetened drinks are prone to develop a taste for sweeter foods, or that the substance that gives soda its caramel color promotes resistance to insulin, which is needed to process calories.
Without a more definitive explanation, Vasan offers only this advice to diet soda drinkers: "Consume in moderation and stayed tuned for more research."

11 WAYS TO LIVE LONGER 6-28-07

How to beat the biggest man-killers.

For us, the health of the American male is not just a weeklong pursuit. But in honor of Men's Health Week (June 11-17), we've compiled a list of our top tips for beating the biggest killers of men. Read them, follow our advice, and start living better year round.

Beat High Blood Pressure
Eat meat. In a recent Australian study, people with high blood pressure who replaced 8 percent of their daily calories from bread, cereal, potatoes, or pasta with lean red meat experienced a four-point drop in their systolic blood pressure in just 8 weeks.
Arginine, an amino acid in red meat, may help dilate blood vessels, lowering blood pressure. Plus, limiting starches lowers blood sugar and makes your body more efficient at burning fat. Save Your Skin
Melanoma feeds on modesty. If you don't strip for a yearly skin screening, the cancer can spread undetected.
Made an appointment? Now make one with your honey. A Northwestern University study shows that when people learn how to do skin self-exams with a partner, they're more likely to check themselves (and each other) in the future.
Have a Healthy Heart
Eat more dairy. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, consuming three or more servings of dairy per day can slash your risk of heart disease by 31 percent.
"We don't know exactly how dairy lowers heart-disease risk, but other studies show that the calcium and magnesium in it can lower blood pressure," says study author Donna Spiegelman, Sc.D., a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard school of public health.
Want even more protection? Seek products fortified with vitamin D. British researchers found that daily D supplements lower blood levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of arterial inflammation, by 23 percent.
Lose Weight Over the Phone
Pick up the phone and ask for help dropping the pounds.
Researchers at the University of Kansas recently had 96 overweight people follow weight-loss counseling programs and discovered that the programs conducted by telephone were just as effective as face-to-face clinical counseling. On average, members of both groups lost 28 pounds in 26 weeks.
"Telephone-based programs have the benefits of convenience, lower transportation costs, and accountability with anonymity," says study author Joseph E. Donnelly, Ph.D.
Our pick: The phone program offered by John Berardi, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., co-author of Scrawny to Brawny. Go to johnberardi.com and receive a Men's Health reader discount.
Drink Coffee for Your Colon
Drink decaf coffee. A recent study at the Harvard medical school surveyed the tea and coffee consumption of men and women for 18 years and showed that drinking two or more cups of decaf coffee per day can slash colon-cancer risk by 52 percent.
Decaf coffee may have a positive effect on bowel motility. It keeps things moving which is an effect that the caffeine in regular coffee may cancel out.
Kick the Sticks
Go spit. A 2005 study in the British Medical Journal found that smokers who saw their results from a saliva-based nicotine test were 17 percent more likely to quit. The test, which involves spitting in a cup and measuring the amount of tobacco-derived toxins in the saliva, was used in conjunction with antismoking counseling.
Researchers believe that being able to see progress in the quest to quit in much the same way one can see the results of a cholesterol-lowering regimen helped motivate the participants.
Check a local drugstore for NicAlert, a saliva-based nicotine test ($15, also available at www.nymox.com).
Protect Your Prostate
Carve a pumpkin, cut your prostate-cancer risk. Eating a large slice of pumpkin pie (or 13 baby carrots) daily will give you about 8,000 micrograms of beta-carotene, an amount research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute shows may halve a man's risk of the disease. Top with whipped cream to boost your absorption of the nutrient.
Defeat Depression
Ask your therapist how many patients he treats. If it's more than 25, beware. Research has shown that a therapist's effectiveness decreases as his caseload surpasses this number.
A Finnish study found that men who exercise and are exposed to sunlight experience a greater reduction in depressive symptoms than those who work indoors. A CDC survey also found that people who exercise regularly feel less depressed.
Avoid a Car Accident
Cellphones make distracted drivers out of all of us, quadrupling a man's accident risk even hands-free.
One answer: Take a page from airline pilots. In a new study in Risk Analysis, researchers found that when pilots talked on a cellphone in a driving simulator, they caused 46 percent fewer virtual accidents than nonpilots did.
"They knew to disengage from the cellphone conversation at precise moments," says Jake Rose, Ph.D., the coauthor.
Decrease your own distractibility by hitting "hold" at the must-focus moments identified in the study: when merging, during stop-and-go traffic, and at intersections involving multiple turn lanes.
Ditch Diabetes
Eat to beat high blood sugar. When you consider that "glucose-intolerant" is another term for "diabetic," it's easy to see what you shouldn't eat. Namely, glucose-rich foods, such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes.
But Mary Vernon, M.D., prefers a more positive approach: "I like to emphasize what people can enjoy." So, use these guidelines to build a prescription diet.
One caution: If you're currently taking medication for high blood pressure or high blood sugar, consult your physician first, as this diet will cause both to drop.
Save Yourself from a Stroke
"Each daily serving of fruits and vegetables decreases stroke risk by 6 percent, so three servings decreases it by 18 percent," says James Bobenhouse, M.D., stroke-program director at BryanLGH Medical Center, in Lincoln.
No time to cook? Down a Tropicana Fruit Smoothie. One 11-ounce bottle equals 2 1/2 servings of fruit.
Provided by Men's Health