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1. Meditation Increases Gray Matter
2. Mediterranean Diet Lowers Cholesterol
3. Sitting Not as Harmful for Active People?
1. Meditation Increases Gray Matter
This article from Feel Guide covers new research that provides proof that meditation has a legitimate effect on the brain. Over a period of 8 weeks, participants spent an average of 27 minutes daily in some form of meditation. The researchers discovered an “increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection.” The control group did not experience an increase in gray matter, indicating that the increase was not just a natural result of time passing.
Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University. The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team’s MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”
Sue McGreevey of MGH writes: “Previous studies from Lazar’s group and others found structural differences between the brains of experienced meditation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation, observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.” Until now, that is. The participants spent an average of 27 minutes per day practicing mindfulness exercises, and this is all it took to stimulate a major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection. McGreevey adds: “Participant-reported reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time.”
“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. You can read more about the remarkable study by visiting Harvard.edu. If this is up your alley then you need to read this: “Listen As Sam Harris Explains How To Tame Your Mind (No Religion Required)”
2. Mediterranean Diet Lowers Cholesterol
This article from The New York Time’s Well blog recommends adopting a Mediterranean diet to lower cholesterol. While it may be possible to lower cholesterol with medication, there are heart-healthy benefits to lowering cholesterol by making a lifestyle change. The Mediterranean diet is high in fruits and vegetables; lean protein like fish and chicken; healthy fats like olive and canola oils and legumes. While not everyone will be able to lower cholesterol with diet changes alone, the benefits of eating more healthfully will lead to an overall higher quality of life.
Many Americans, when faced with a serious health risk like high cholesterol, opt to take a pill rather than adopt healthier living habits.
A middle-aged woman I know is typifies this attitude. Thrilled with how well medication has controlled her rising cholesterol level, she continues to indulge in foods rich in cholesterol-raising saturated fats. She also carries around more body fat, especially risky abdominal fat, than is considered healthful.
Dr. Philip Greenland, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said, “People should be following a heart-healthy diet, keeping their weight under control and exercising regularly. This would be a highly preferable approach. Unfortunately, it’s not the direction we’re going in.”
Admittedly, swallowing a little pill every day is simpler than changing one’s behaviors — and especially one’s eating habits.
Yet experts like Dr. Greenland say that even when taking a statin or some other cholesterol-lowering drug, changes in diet and exercise habits are needed to maximize the drug’s benefits. He and others insist that drugs should be a last resort, after lifestyle changes fail to lower serum cholesterol adequately.
Although a heart-healthy diet cannot control a soaring cholesterol level in everyone (yours truly is an example), it may have many benefits beyond protecting against heart attacks and strokes. According to Dr. Stephen L. Kopecky, a preventive cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, one of two states in which heart disease is not the No. 1 killer (Colorado is the other), there is no better approach to healthful eating than the Mediterranean diet.
Noting that “every food a person might eat either fights or contributes to disease,” Dr. Kopecky said his clinic “tries to get everyone on a Mediterranean diet,” the traditional eating habits of people living in Greece and southern Italy. In addition to its heart benefits, studies suggest the Mediterranean diet may “reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, arthritis and the metabolic syndrome,” Dr. Kopecky said.
A patient education booklet prepared by the Mayo Clinic points out that “people in Greece eat an average of nine servings a day of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables,” and the booklet outlines a long list of potentially healthful foods. Some examples include prunes, blueberries, red grapes, oranges, strawberries, kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli, beets, red bell peppers, corn and eggplant.
At a minimum, Americans should strive to consume two or more servings of vegetables and two to three or more servings of fresh fruit each day. If “fresh” is not available, “fresh frozen” is the next best option.
People living near the Mediterraneans eat lots of seafood, often daily, and the Mayo booklet recommends three or more servings a week of fish or shellfish. One or more servings should be a fatty fish rich in protective fish oils, like salmon, tuna, bluefish, sardines, mackerel and trout.
The white meat of chicken or turkey, eaten without the skin, is the land animal protein of choice, the Mayo Clinic says, with a serving size limited to 3 ounces of cooked meat, about the size of a deck of cards.
Unlike many Americans, people living along the Mediterranean also consume lots of foods with vegetable protein: legumes like split peas, lentils and peanuts, and beans like lima, black, red, kidney and navy. However, in preparing these foods, it’s important to avoid using highly saturated pork fat. Also, don’t overdo peanuts, which are high in fat, albeit unsaturated fat, and pile on the calories.
A daily quarter-cup serving of tree nuts like walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds or seeds like sunflower and sesame are good choices for snacks or crunchy enhancements in prepared dishes.
Whole grain breads and cereals are part of the recommended diet, but note that a serving of bread is one slice. Breads should be eaten plain or dipped in olive oil, the Mayo booklet says.
Which brings us back to fats. Olive oil, especially extra-virgin and virgin, the least processed forms, or canola oil should be used in place of butter or margarine, both in cooking and at the table. Avoid all hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils and saturated fats.
Eggs are back in fashion, consumed in moderation. That means a limit of three to four egg yolks a week, though there is no limit on egg whites. A good trick when preparing an omelet or scrambled eggs is to use two egg whites for every one yolk.
Chocolate lovers should stick to dark chocolate with at least 50 percent cocoa, information that should be on the label.
However, red and processed meats should be limited to one three-ounce serving a week. And those cherished treats and desserts — pastries, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, pudding, French fries, potato chips and all sweetened and diet carbonated soft drinks — are best avoided altogether. Carbonated water is fine. So is wine, especially red wine, with a daily limit of five ounces for men and three ounces for women consumed with a meal.
Likewise, avoid high-fat dairy products, including whole and 2 percent milk, butter and ice cream, and limit the consumption of cured and fatty cheeses to one serving a week — about the size of four dice.
I recently discovered a delicious alternative to cream cheese and Neufchâtel. It’s a creamy mixture of fat-free Greek yogurt and cream cheese with only three grams of fat and 60 calories in two tablespoons. Look for it where regular cream cheese is sold.
Of course, what you eat is only half of the health-saving story. Regular physical exercise is a critical ingredient, even if it doesn’t result in weight loss.
“Fitness trumps fatness,” Dr. Kopecky said, adding that being fit even while remaining fat markedly reduces cardiovascular risk.
He urges parents to establish heart-healthy habits early in their children’s lives. “Patterns for physical activity are set by ages 6 to 9, and healthy eating habits by ages 9 to 12; together, they can result in a much lower risk for developing heart disease as adults,” he said.
This is the second of two columns on lowering cholesterol.
3. Sitting Not as Harmful for Active People?
Fitness professionals have likely heard of the negative effects of sitting, however, this article from IDEA Fitness Journalexplains that there is new research that shows sitting may not be as detrimental as we thought for those who also exercise. This study followed 5,132 people aged 35-55 for a period of 16 years. 450 people died throughout the duration of the study, and researchers were not able to find a definitive link to any of the five different types of sitting. This indicates that sitting may not cause increased death risk in more active individuals.
Sedentary behaviors recently came under fire after several studies linked more time spent sitting with a higher mortality risk, even for people who exercise. Researchers from the University of Exeter, in England, believe that those studies were flawed and that active individuals who also sit a lot may not face a greater risk of early death, after all.
The Exeter researchers conducted their own study, featuring 3,720 men and 1,412 women, aged 35–55, all employees of the British Civil Service in London. Over nearly 16 years, these participants completed questionnaires about occupational and leisure-time sitting behaviors and underwent clinical examinations. The researchers used five sitting categories: work sitting, TV viewing time, non-TV leisure-time sitting, total leisure-time sitting and total sitting time. Other variables that were monitored included moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); body weight and body mass index (BMI); nutrition and alcohol intake; and more.
During the study, 450 people died. But the researchers could not determine a link between these deaths and any of the five sitting categories.
“The present study tested the hypothesis that sitting time would predict mortality risk independently of MVPA and [that] associations would vary by type of sitting,” the authors stated. “Across almost 16 years of follow-up, no prospective associations were observed between five different indicators of sitting time and mortality from all causes.”
Sitting times in the current study were equal to those in the studies that found sedentary behavior was harmful even for exercisers. Essentially, this new study indicates that sitting time might not have a negative impact on active individuals. However, the authors did note that participants in this study reported higher levels of walking than those recorded in the earlier studies.
“The findings may be due in part to a protective effect of a higher than average energy expenditure due to the habitual active transport associated with London-based employees,” the authors said. In other words, Londoners may benefit from walking more than average on their way to and from work.
