Month: August 2011

Health

Jeff Galloway’s Monthly Newsletter: August 2011

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Jeff Galloway on a run in Baltimore

Jeff’s monthly newsletter for August has just hit my in-box.

Bring a friend into fitness!

There are few joys that have a longer lasting effect than seeing someone get off the couch and get “hooked” on the enhancements of running or walking. Ask at least one friend, relative or co-worker to walk or run with you this month. This month I’m including some tips from my Running Getting Started book and from the Walking The Complete Book about how to be a good coach/mentor.
The half marathon season is picking up. I’ve provided for some tips on preparing for raceday, from my book Half Marathon.

There’s a new fluid belt from iFitness. It stays tighter better than any I’ve used. The bottles stay in their holsters, the pouch can carry food, keys, etc, and there’s a simple attachment for a race number.

Montana is full of friendly people. The Missoula Marathon/Half last month was a scenic and well-run event. I’m looking forward to Billings September 16-18. Many runners participate in one of the events and then visit Yellowstone or Grand Tetons National Parks.
The Athens Marathon tour is about to close out for this year.  The Apostolos tour is an exceptional experience in connecting 2500 years of distance running with the foundations of western civilization.  I will be there–join us!
Eating with a purpose. Below you’ll find some for tips from my wife Barbara about how to gain better control over eating behaviors by having some cognitive strategies.

· Your View:  Tell us in this poll about your favorite run/walk ratio.

Have a great month!

  

-Jeff

And, be sure to catch Jeff and Kevin on the Extra Mile Podcast – Galloway Edition.

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Health

Poll Watch: Hawaii Leads in Wellbeing and North Dakota is Second

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According to the latest Gallup Poll.

Americans in Hawaii continued to set the national standard in wellbeing in the first half of 2011, followed closely by North Dakota. West Virginia and Kentucky maintained their status as the states with the lowest wellbeing. Nebraska, which showed the biggest gains in wellbeing rank from 2009 (25th) to 2010 (10th), continued to move up, landing in the top five.

These state-level data, from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, are meant to provide a preliminary reading on the wellbeing of U.S. states in anticipation of the complete 2011 rankings, to be released early next year.

The Well-Being Index score for the nation and for each state is an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities. The January through June 2011 aggregate includes more than 177,000 interviews conducted among national adults, aged 18 and older.

The midyear Well-Being Index score for the country so far in 2011 is 66.4, a slight decline from 66.8 for all of 2010. The Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 would represent ideal wellbeing. Well-Being Index scores among states vary by a range of 8.7 points

The Southern States are continuing to struggle with low well being, whereas the Western States are thriving.

More states in the South than anywhere else in the country have wellbeing scores in the lower range, as has been true in the past. Eight of the bottom 11 states in wellbeing (Missouri is classified as a Midwestern state) are Southern states.

Many Western states, in contrast, thrive in wellbeing, with four out of the top seven — Hawaii, Alaska, Colorado, and Utah — located in that region of the country. Five Midwestern states — North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa — are also in the top 12, as are three Eastern states: New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maryland.

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Dentistry

North Carolina Free Clinic Treats About 2,700 Dental Patients

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Charlotte Convention Center
What a wonderful effort on the part of the North Carolina Dental Society and North Carolina dentists who volunteered their time.

Late Saturday afternoon, a small but energetic round of applause erupted at the Charlotte Convention Center as volunteers seated the last patient at a free dental clinic.

The person was the last of 2,700 who poured into the convention center seeking help from the N.C. Dental Society’s clinic for low-income and uninsured patients.

It proved to be the largest free dental clinic ever held by N.C. Missions of Mercy, the nonprofit that ran the event.

Organizers estimated that about 2,000 people who qualified received a total of more than $1 million worth of care, said Mark Schmidtke, ambassador and co-director of community volunteers. The clinic began Friday morning and ended 36 hours later.

Many people had camped out overnight at the convention center, and around 5:30 a.m. Friday organizers realized they were at capacity. They were forced to turn away hundreds.

About five hours later, they determined they could help about 500 more people, Schmidtke said. Then doors were closed again around 11 a.m. Saturday.

The whir of drills continued into the evening Saturday.

It is a tough American economy out there and dentists have stepped up to the plate to help the poor and disadvantaged.

Good work!

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Health

Older Americans with a College Education Have Better Emotional Health After Age 65?

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Yes, according to the latest Gallup Poll.

Older Americans with a college education are significantly more likely to be emotionally well-off than are people in this age group with less education. Among those aged 65 and older, these results hold even after statistically controlling for gender, race, marital status, employment, satisfaction with standard of living, and regional location.

The emotionally well-off are defined as individuals whose scores on the Gallup-Healthways Emotional Health Index are above 90, out of a maximum of 100. The Emotional Health Index is based on a comprehensive measure of emotional wellbeing asking Americans whether they felt “a lot of” each of the following emotions the day before the survey: smiling/laughing, learning/doing something interesting, being treated with respect, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, and stress. Among those aged 65 and older, 35% score above 90.

The Demographics:

Older men are slightly more likely than older women to score above 90 on this composite measure of emotional wellbeing, even after statistically keeping all other variables constant. Among racial and ethnic groups, older Hispanics are the least likely to have Emotional Heath Index scores above 90, and this difference persists after holding all other variables constant.

Being married does not appear to improve older Americans’ emotional health. The apparent lack of a “marriage advantage” may be explained, at least in part, by the fact that marital status alone does not take into account the quality of the relationship or other related factors.

An interesting study and another reason to pursue a college education = better emotional health in your senior years.

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Dentistry

Snuff Use May Increase the Risk for Heart Failure?

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Yes, according to a new study.

Use of smokeless tobacco (or snuff) may increase the risk for heart failure, mainly of nonischemic origin and chiefly by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, a Swedish study found.

When adjusted for age, the use of smokeless tobacco among a cohort of older men was associated with a more than twofold risk of developing heart failure compared with non-users (HR 2.42, 95% CI 1.37 to 4.27), according to Gabriel Arefalk, MD, of Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues.

When further adjusted for current smoking dose, pack-years of smoking, diabetes, body mass index, occupational classification, alcohol use, and myocardial infarction before baseline, the use of snuff resulted in a hazard ratio of 2.08 (95% CI 1.03 to 4.22), they reported online in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation.

The researchers noted the increased use of smokeless tobacco in Scandinavia, but also pointed out that the U.S. is the world’s largest snuff market, with an annual growth rate of 6%.

Ugh! While tobacco smoking rate is decreasing or stable in the United States, smokeless tobacco IS increasing.

While tobacoo consumers may bypass the deleterious atherogenic effects of smoking, the harmful effects of nicotine remain.

“Smokeless administration of tobacco may indeed circumvent the atherogenic effects of smoked tobacco, but it is possible that the potent autonomic and hemodynamic effects of nicotine per se are detrimental for cardiovascular tissues,” Arefalk and colleagues wrote.

In particular, smokeless tobacco “increases epinephrine levels, impairs endothelial function, and increases blood pressure and heart rate.”

Just say NO to the use of tobacco products.

They ARE harmful to your health!

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