Who loves ya baby ...

... Hopefully you can answer that question by saying, plenty of friends.

An Australian study finds your friends can help keep you alive and healthy - that their power to help beats out family relationships.

The researchers, who turned in their findings to the Center for Aging Studies at Flinders University, suspect good friends discourage unhealthy behaviors like drinking too much and smoking. They also believe friendship may ward off depression, boost self esteem and provide support. Moreover, the older we get, the more selective we are about our friends and spend more time with our buddies.

Now, there's plenty of other research showing a good social network helps keep us healthy - but there's also a flip side to it . .. friends can cause stress .. even so, the companionship benefits win out. If you want to read more about this check out www.webmd.com

Have a great weekend and celebrate with your pals.

Drinking and Smoking

If you or someone you know is trying to kick the habit, change your drinking habits.

Duke University researchers find smokers who reported drinking milk or water or those who ate fruits and veggies worsened the taste of cigarettes. On the flip side, alcohol, coffee and meat enhances the taste. Dairy products, ie: milk or cheese, had the biggest negative effect on the taste of cigarettes.

The findings are in the April issue of the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research ( I didn't knwo there was such a journal)

The researchers say, this is first study exploring the taste altering effects of food. But hey, what smoker doesn't know smokes go well with coffee or liquor?
But, for what it's worth, there's now a study and just maybe, it will help you kick the habit.

btw .. thanks to a viewer for sending along this info. I don't have any pens to offer, just my thanks.

Pain Free Running

Runners are notorious for running through pain.
Not good, as that can exacerbate injury.
But how to fix things?
A new study finds you can retrain runners' gait patterns and the fix holds. The biggest issue, keeping runners on the treadmill and off the road during the re-training.

Researchers at the Running Injury Lab at the University of Delaware looked at runners with pain from tibial stress fractures of patellofemoral pain syndrome ( pain under the knee cap).
They undewent an 8 session bio-feedback program.

When the problem with their gait was determined, they were retrained on how to hit the ground with bio feedback machinery. Bottom line, pain pretty much disappeared and the gait fix held.

Granted, this was a very small study, but if you're a runner and suffer injury, which by the way 76% of runners will injure themselves in a year, talk with your physical therapist. Could be relief is a couple of training sessions, away.

Preventing Memory loss from Alzheimers

A fascinating new study is out. It looks at mice who are bioengineered to develope a condition like Alzheimer's disease. The rodents are given a common cancer drug or were placed in a mentally stimulating environment. Lo and behold, they got their memories back.
Researchers with the study, which is published in the current on line edition of NATURE, say this brings hope for the millions suffering with Alzheimers and the millions more expected to develope it as our population ages.
The bottom line to the study is, not that old brain pathways were restored rather, new ones were created thanks to the stimulating environment. The cancer drug, called a HDAC inhibitor, work on the molecular level to free up genes that producer vital growth factors and proteins.
So, what does this mean immediately? Perhaps all those earlier studies suggesting keeping your brain active really will pay off. Only time will tell, but hey, it's free and there are no bad side effects with learning something new every day and challenging your mind.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/index.html

Quality vs Quantity

Sometimes you read something that is simply so wrong you want to shout from the mountain top, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? But I know better, because everytime you ask that question the answer is, YOU WEREN'T.
Same must go for an editorial in the Saturday Times Union by Mona Charon. She wrote about all the programs available to the poor to help them purchase food that it's riduculous to worry about them being fed. Then she went on to note the higher rate of obesity among the poor. As I read this I kept shaking my head .. DUH. If you're on a tight income what are you going to buy- strawberries at $2.99 a quart or a loaf of house brand bread for a buck and change .. and we often seen a sale - 5 or 10 pound bag of potatoes- buy one get one free .. but have you ever seen that with fresh peaches.
The fact is, it's much easier to eat empty calorie foods on a limited budget than to buy lower calorie, higher nutrient foods. Ever been to those food giveaways from the government - big hunks of cheese and starch.
So Mona and everyone else who wants to point fingers .. let's find a way to help those impovershed not only eat, but eat well - then we can start a real dialogue about obesity in that community. As for the rest of us: those who don't worry about where their next meal is coming from - take a close look at your grocery list and see if it's heavy on starch or veggies - pre packaged or basic items - and then take a look at the portion size in your plate. Only then will we begin tackle the problem of expanding waistlines across the board. And we haven't even touched exercise.