8 Things Your Hair Says About Your Health

Read More: 8 Things Your Hair Says About Your Health

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone a wonderful holiday!

Processed Meat Raises Risk of Diabetes, Heart Disease and Cancer

A new study published in the journal Circulation reveals that eating processed meat products significantly raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Previous research has linked processed meats to cancer as well.

The new paper involved a meta-analysis of 20 different studies covering more than one million people from 10 different countries. The study found that eating just 2 ounces of processed meat each day resulted in the following:

• A 42 percent increase in the risk of heart disease.

• A 19 percent increase in the risk of diabetes.

Interestingly, the analysis simultaneously found that eating non-processed meats was not linked to these increases in disease risk. The study authors concluded that it was the processed salt and chemical additives in the processed meat that caused increase risk of disease.

Why sodium nitrite is poison

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A Video Discussing Dieting & Celiac Disease

Dr. Mike Cirigliano, Univ. of Pennsylvania, aired a fantastic story this week on celiac disease, the gluten-free diet and the misconception about losing weight while avoiding gluten.

Dr. Mike also discussed current research looking at the link between other diseases and gluten including autism and schizophrenia.

Check out the video now!

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=4136

7 Best Stress-Fighting Foods

Fructose Sweeteners May Hike Blood Pressure

The more fructose American adults add to their diets, the higher their blood pressure tends to be. The new finding adds fuel to a simmering controversy about whether this simple sugar — found in fruits, table sugar, soft drinks and many baked goods — poses a health hazard that goes beyond simply consuming too many empty calories.

If the new data are confirmed, they might go a long way toward explaining a more than tripling in hypertension rates over the past century — a period when “fructose consumption has increased dramatically in industrialized nations including the United States,’ the authors say.

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A Sweet Problem: High-Fructose Corn Syrup & Weight Gain

Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain.

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

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Germ-free Kids May Risk More Adult Illnesses: Study

Parents who let their kids romp in the mud and eat food that has fallen on the floor could be helping to protect them against maladies like heart disease later in life, a US study showed Wednesday.

“Our research suggests that ultra-clean, ultra-hygienic environments early in life may contribute to higher levels of inflammation as an adult, which in turn increases risks for a wide range of diseases,” including cardiovascular disease, Thomas McDade, lead author of the study, said.

Researchers at Illinios’ Northwestern University looked at data from a study in the Philippines, which followed participants from birth to 22 years of age, to better understand how childhood environments affect production of a protein that increases when there is inflammation — a sign the body forced to fight infection or injury.

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Another Cause of Obesity: The Bacteria in Your Gut?

If you have ever fought the battle of the bulge, then you are all too familiar with its key players: diet, exercise and your genes. The less you move (calories out) and the more you eat (calories in), the more fat you gain – an equation that may be heavily influenced by your particular genes. But scientists have long known that these three factors do not adequately explain every case of obesity, and now researchers are discovering increasingly convincing evidence of another important contributor to body weight, one that until recently has been almost completely ignored: the bacteria that live in your gut.

Technically, they’re known as the gut microbiota, the universe of tens of trillions of microbes, most of which survive without oxygen, and which live and thrive in the human intestinal tract and colon. These microbes perform a vast range of vital functions, including helping to regulate the calories the body obtains from food and stores as fat – in other words, they may help regulate weight. And a new study published today in Science Translational Medicine suggests that the particular type and balance of bugs you harbor in your gut may help push your body toward either obesity or leanness, and that these microbe populations might even be manipulated to potentially change your weight.

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5 Habits to Break Before It’s Too Late

Every day that you don’t reverse these behaviors puts you further away from a healthy life.

Someday,” you say, “I’m going to get my health back on track, after this next project,” or “when I get back from my cruise,” or “when the kids get a little older” … C’mon, you know your list of reasons — or what I call EXCUSES — better than I.

Look, if you’re waiting for some magical day to appear, you just may be waiting forever. These days do not “show up”; you show up for THEM. I have identified five critical areas, bad habits that many people mindlessly follow. Do you realize that each and every day of your life that you do not reverse these dangerous trends, you get farther and farther from your ultimate goal of living a fulfilling life?

Take a look at each area, determine how you stack up, and then make the fix today:

Read “5 Habits To Break Now” >