9 Great Foods For A Healthier Brain

Dr. Enrique Jacome MD

We are all concerned about maintaining a healthy physical appearance as we get older, but we should want to stay at the top of our game in every area of our lives. This includes our mental function. Consider adding these 'superfoods' to your daily diet, and you will increase your odds of maintaining a healthy brain for the rest of your life.

Blueberries. "Brainberries" is what Steven Pratt, MD, author of Superfoods Rx: Fourteen Foods Proven to Change Your Life, calls these tasty fruits. Pratt, who is also on staff at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., says that in animal studies researchers have found that blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Studies have also shown that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills of aging rats, making them mentally equivalent to much younger rats. Ann Kulze, MD, author of Dr. Ann's 10-Step Diet: A Simple Plan for Permanent Weight Loss & Lifelong Vitality, recommends adding at least 1 cup of blueberries a day in any form -- fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried.

Wild salmon. Deep-water fish, such as salmon, are rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which are essential for brain function, says Kulze. Both she and Pratt recommend wild salmon for its "cleanliness" and the fact that it is in plentiful supply. Omega-3s also contain anti-inflammatory substances. Other oily fish that provide the benefits of omega-3s are sardines and herring, says Kulze; she recommends a 4-ounce serving, two to three times a week.

Nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are good sources of vitamin E, says Pratt, explaining that higher levels of vitamin E correspond with less cognitive decline as you get older. Add an ounce a day of walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, filberts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed, and unhydrogenated nut butters such as peanut butter, almond butter, and tahini. Raw or roasted doesn't matter, although if you're on a sodium-restricted diet, buy unsalted nuts.

Avocados. Avocados are almost as good as blueberries in promoting brain health, says Pratt. "I don't think the avocado gets its due," agrees Kulze. True, the avocado is a fatty fruit, but, says Kulze, it's a monounsaturated fat, which contributes to healthy blood flow. "And healthy blood flow means a healthy brain," she says. Avocados also lower blood pressure, says Pratt, and as hypertension is a risk factor for the decline in cognitive abilities, a lower blood pressure should promote brain health. Avocados are high in calories, however, so Kulze suggests adding just 1/4 to 1/2 of an avocado to one daily meal as a side dish.

Whole grains. Whole grains, such as oatmeal, whole-grain breads, and brown rice can reduce the risk for heart disease. "Every organ in the body is dependent on blood flow," says Pratt. "If you promote cardiovascular health, you're promoting good flow to the organ system, which includes the brain." While wheat germ is not technically a whole grain, it also goes on Kulze's "superfoods" list because in addition to fiber, it has vitamin E and some omega-3s. Kulze suggests 1/2 cup of whole-grain cereal, 1 slice of bread two-thee times day, or 2 tablespoons of wheat germ a day.

Beans. Beans are "under-recognized" and "economical," says Kulze. They also stabilize glucose (blood sugar) levels. The brain is dependent on glucose for fuel, Kulze explains, and since it can't store the glucose, it relies on a steady stream of energy -- which beans can provide. Any beans will do, says Kulze, but she is especially partial to lentils and black beans and recommends 1/2 cup every day.

Pomegranate juice. Pomegranate juice (you can eat the fruit itself but with its many tiny seeds, it's not nearly as convenient) offers potent antioxidant benefits, says Kulze, which protect the brain from the damage of free radicals. "Probably no part of the body is more sensitive to the damage from free radicals as the brain," says board-certified neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, author of The Better Brain Book. Citrus fruits and colorful vegetables are also high on Perlmutter's list of "brainy" foods because of their antioxidant properties -- "the more colorful the better," he says. Because pomegranate juice has added sugar (to counteract its natural tartness), you don't want to go overboard, says Kulze; she recommends approximately 2 ounces a day, diluted with spring water or seltzer.

Freshly brewed tea. Two to three cups a day of freshly brewed tea -- hot or iced -- contains a modest amount of caffeine which, when used "judiciously," says Kulze -- can boost brain power by enhancing memory, focus, and mood. Tea also has potent antioxidants, especially the class known as catechines, which promotes healthy blood flow. Bottled or powdered teas don't do the trick, however, says Kulze. "It has to be freshly brewed." Tea bags do count, however.

Dark chocolate. Let's end with the good stuff. Dark chocolate has powerful antioxidant properties, contains several natural stimulants, including caffeine, which enhance focus and concentration, and stimulates the production of endorphins, which helps improve mood. One-half ounce to 1 ounce a day will provide all the benefits you need, says Kulze. This is one "superfood" where more is not better. "You have to do this one in moderation," says Kulze.

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Large Weight Gain In Pregnancy Tied To Increased Infant Size

Dr. Enrique Jacome MD

Obese mothers who gain excessive weight during pregnancy are nearly seven times more likely to give birth to a large infant at risk for a lifetime of obesity. Moreover, excess gestational weight gain (GWG) increases the risk of having a large infant, even in mothers who have a healthy prepregnancy body mass index (BMI), according to a study published April 17 in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.

The study, by Zachary M. Ferraro from the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada, and colleagues, showed that overweight and obesity were associated with an increased risk of having a child considered large for gestational age (LGA) — a risk factor in future obesity. The risk of having an LGA infant increased dramatically if an overweight mother gained more weight during pregnancy then recommended by Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines.

The researchers analyzed data from 4321 mother-infant pairs recruited from 2002 to 2009 in the Ottawa and Kingston Birth Cohort. Their goal was to determine the effect of maternal weight and weight gain during pregnancy on the likelihood of giving birth to a child weighing more than 4000 g (8.8 pounds), which puts the child in the 90th percentile for infant weight.

Mothers who reported a prepregnancy BMI indicating overweight — 25 to 29.9 kg/m2 — were nearly twice as likely to give birth to an LGA infant (odds ratio [OR], 1.99; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.17 - 3.37) as women of healthy weight. For obese women, with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more, the OR was 2.64 (95% CI, 1.59 - 4.39).

If a mother's GWG exceeded IOM guidelines, the risk of having an LGA infant increased for women of any weight at pregnancy, (OR, 2.86; 95% CI, 2.09 - 3.92), after adjustment for a mother’s prepregnancy BMI, age, smoking, and maternal height. The problem was compounded if a woman was already overweight or obese: ORs were 3.59 for overweight women (95% CI, 2.60 - 4.95) and 6.71 for obese women (95% CI, 4.83 - 9.31).

"Obesity can become part of an intergenerational cycle," Kristi Adamo, MSc, PhD, coauthor of this report, said in a news release from the University of Ottawa. Dr. Adamo is also the cofounder of the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

"Birth weight averages can be an indicator of the weight a child will carry through preschool and even into adulthood. It's critical for a mother to understand that her healthy eating and lifestyle decisions during pregnancy will impact much more than a nine-month gestation period," she continued.

The adjusted analysis also found smoking mothers were less likely than nonsmokers to deliver an LGA infant (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.35 - 0.79). Parity was associated with an increased risk for an LGA infant (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.22 - 1.82).

The range of acceptable weight gain during pregnancy recommended by the IOM changes according to a mother's weight at the time of pregnancy. Women considered underweight, with a BMI less than 18.5 kg/m2, should gain 12.5 to 18 kg (28 to 40 pounds). Healthy-weight women — BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2 — should gain 11.5 to 16 kg (25 to 35 pounds). Overweight women are advised to gain 7 to 11.5 kg (15 to 25 pounds), and obese women, 5 to 9 kg (11 to 20 pounds).

In the study, only 29.3% of the women stayed within IOM GWG guidelines. Another 57.7% exceeded the recommendations. Before pregnancy, 23.7% of women in the study were overweight, and another 16.2% were obese.

"We have shown that the majority of women in our birth cohort population entered pregnancy at an unhealthy weight and gained in excess of recommendations during gestation," the authors noted. "At any weight, excessive GWG has a significant effect on the likelihood that their child will be born LGA, and research has demonstrated that size at birth contributes to obesity development down-stream."

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Women Who Don't Exercise Are At Greater Risk Of Developing Metabolic Syndrome

Dr. Enrique Jacome

A national study shows that women are less likely than men to get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, resulting in greater odds of developing metabolic syndrome - a risky and increasingly prevalent condition related to obesity.

Metabolic syndrome is a name for a group of risk factors - including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and extra weight around the middle part of the body - which occur together and increase the risk for coronary disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes.

The study, now online in the journal Preventive Medicine, was conducted at Oregon State University by Paul Loprinzi and Bradley Cardinal, professor of social psychology of physical activity at OSU. Loprinzi is now an assistant professor of exercise science at Bellarmine University. He conducted the research when he was a student in Cardinal's lab at OSU.

"The results indicate that regular physical activity participation was associated with positive health outcomes for both men and women; however, there was a greater strength of association for women," Loprinzi said.

Looking at more than 1,000 men and women from a nationally represented sample, the researchers found that women were getting only about 18 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise daily, compared to men who, on average, were getting 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise daily.

"Those who get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day are less likely to be depressed, less likely to have high cholesterol and less likely to have metabolic syndrome," Loprinzi said.

Loprinzi and Cardinal's study is unique in part because it is the first to use an "objective" measure of physical activity - in this case participants were outfitted with accelerometers that measured daily activity. In their study, slightly more than one in three women had metabolic syndrome, and one in five had symptoms of depression.

"It's pretty striking what happens to you if you don't meet that 30 minutes a day of activity," Cardinal said. "Women in our sample had better health behavior - they were much less likely to smoke for instance, but the lack of activity still puts them at risk."

Cardinal said depression puts people at more risk of abdominal fat and insulin resistance, and both are risk factors for metabolic syndrome.

"Physical activity has been shown to reduce depression," he said. "So the key message here is to get that 30 minutes of exercise every day because it reduces a great deal of risk factors."

While their study does not address why women were not getting enough exercise, the authors said research shows that physical activity patterns often begin in childhood.

"Research has shown that around ages 5 or 6 these patterns begin," Cardinal said. "Parents tend to be more concerned with the safety of girls, and have more restrictive practices around outdoor time and playtime than with boys."

Loprinzi said this pattern tends to continue into adulthood, and that overall confidence may be a factor.

"Some evidence indicates that women, compared to men, have less confidence in their ability to overcome their exercise-related barriers," Loprinzi said, adding that women also often cite a lack of time to exercise due to child-rearing.

The researchers have a study coming out that may help those time-challenged women. Loprinzi said he and Cardinal found that adults can still enhance their health by accumulating physical activity in short periods throughout the day, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or pacing while talking on the phone. 

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The Link Between False-Positive Mammography Results And Breast Cancer Risk

Dr. Enrique Jacome MD

False-positive mammograms could be an indicator of underlying pathology that could result in breast cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Screening mammography is associated with false-positive test results in disease-free women, and those women are usually referred back for routine screening after the initial diagnostic work-up does not reveal cancer. Suspicious findings on screenings leading to false-positives include asymmetric densities, skin thickening or retraction, tumor-like masses, recently retracted nipples or suspicious axillary lymph nodes. It is unknown if women whose mammographic screenings show these results have a higher long-term risk for breast cancer compared to women who initially test negative.

In order to determine if women who test false-positive after mammography screenings have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who test negative, My von Euler-Chelpin, Ph.D., in the department of public health at the University of Copenhagen and colleagues, gathered data from a long-standing population-based screening mammography program in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1991-2005. They evaluated the risk of breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ in women who had received false-positive test results between the ages of 50-69 . The age-adjusted relative risk of breast cancer for women who had tested false-positive for breast cancer was compared to women who had tested negative.

The researchers found that women who had tested negative for breast cancer had an absolute cancer rate of 339/100,000 person-years at risk, compared to women who tested false-positive, who had an absolute cancer rate of 583/100,000 person-years at risk. The relative risk of breast cancer in women with false-positive tests was statistically significantly higher than women who tested negative even at 6 or more years after the test. However, the researchers caution that "The excess breast cancer risk in women with false-positive tests may be attributable to misclassification of malignancies already present at the baseline assessment," the authors write. Thus, new screening methods such as high-resolution ultrasound and stereotactic biopsy may result in more accurate diagnoses and fewer false positives on first screen.

The authors also caution that the experience of a false-positive may cause anxiety, which may discourage women from attending regular screenings. However, the long-term excess risk of breast cancer in women who tested false-positive underscores the need for women to have regular screenings. "Based on the findings in this study, it may be beneficial to actively encourage women with false-positive tests to continue to attend regular screening."

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Protect Against Breast Cancer Risk Factors With Flax Seeds

Celeste M. Smucker, MPH, PhD (NaturalNews) 

In the United States 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during her lifetime, and 1 in 3 of them will die from the disease. In 2011, there were 2.6 million breast cancer survivors coping with this diagnosis which is both personally devastating and financially expensive. At a national level, the annual cost for treatment alone is close to $14 billion. While the standard remedies of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery are well known, there are effective natural approaches for prevention and treatment which can have a significant impact on the disease. One of these is flax seeds which are the richest source of plant based omega-3 fatty acids and are high in lignans and fiber all of which help reduce breast cancer risk. According to breast cancer specialist Christine Horner, MD, in her book Waking the Warrior Goddess, "If you were given only one choice of a food to take as medicine, your best choice would be the tiny seed from the flax plant."


Omega-3 fatty acids
As a significant source of omega-3 fatty acids, flax seeds help reduce breast cancer risk by ameliorating inflammation and reducing the rate at which breast cells divide in response to estrogen. The power of omega-3s was demonstrated in a recent study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in which the researchers questioned 35,000 postmenopausal women who had not been diagnosed with breast cancer. Six years later they did a follow up questionnaire and found that regular use of fish oil, another potent source of omega-3 fatty acids, reduced breast cancer risk by 32 percent. For women who already have breast cancer, Dr. Horner states that omega-3s will help shrink tumors and help keep them confined so that they don't spread.

Fiber

Whole ground flax seeds are also a significant source of fiber, long thought to be important for preventing breast and colon cancer. A recent study funded by the World Cancer Institute found that every 10 grams of fiber consumed daily reduces breast cancer risk by 5 percent. It is thought that the fiber binds to estrogen in the intestines and helps move it out of the body before it can do more harm.

Lignans
Lignans, another big contributor to the prevention of and healing of breast cancer, are natural plant compounds found in fruits, vegetables and grains such as wheat, broccoli, garlic, carrots and dried apricots. However they are also abundant in flax seeds which have 100 times the lignans found in other known edible sources. In a recent German study researchers evaluated bloods samples from 1,140 postmenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer. They measured levels of enterolactone, a known bio-marker for lignans and found that women with the highest amounts of this substance were associated with a 40 percent lower mortality risk from breast cancer. Previous research by the same scientists had already established the importance of lignans for prevention of breast cancer.

Horner also stresses the importance of lignans stating that they promote change in the breast structure in a way that makes the tissue more resistant to the toxins that can cause cancer. In addition, lignans decrease tumor growth factors, help prevent metastasis and reduce estrogen production by fat cells.

View the original article here. 

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Pregnancy And Fish Oils - Good For Mom & Better For Baby

Dr. Enrique Jacome MD

Pregnant women are being advised to consume omega-3 fatty acids in order to ensure proper development of the fetal neurological system. Even after birth, fish oil supplementation can improve the early development of a newborn's brain, visual system, and motor function in women who breastfeed. These fish oils, most notably the fatty aciddocosahexaenoic acid (DHA)is part of a group of omega-3s known as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). The human brain is full of PUFAs that modulate inflammation and provide integrity to the neuronal network. By supplying a developing brain with plenty of PUFAs, a mother can support their child's proper development. Along with benefits to the child, a pregnant mother that consumes fish oils can prevent pre-term labor, reduce the risk of pre-ecclampsia, and may even help in the prevention of post-pardum depression (PPD).

Another breakthrough in fish oil research shows that fish oil supplementation during pregnancy decreases the risk of a newborn developing eczema. In a study of 700 pregnant women, those who took fish oil supplements versus a placebo had a decreased incidence of infant eczema by three times. When DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) enter the cell membrane, they suppress inflammation that could potentially lead to various allergies and skin reactions that develop in early childhood. This study is ongoing as it plans to follow the children until age six to determine the extent of the lasting benefits.

If you want to start taking fish oils, the FDA recommends not exceeding the maximum dosage of 3000 mg of fish oil per day. The American Pregnancy Association recommends that pregnant and lactating women consume 500-1000 mg of fish oil per day ensuring that at least 300 mg are DHA. Although most capsules of fish oil supplements are 1000 mg, this does not indicate the amounts of actual fish oil (EPA and DHA) in each capsule, which is usually between 200-500 mg. Instead of taking a supplement, one can simply eat raw fish. The most EPA and DHA dense fish is salmon. Additionally, pregnant mothers should make sure they are getting their fish oils from a natural source free of heavy metals (mercury, BPA). To avoid heavy metal toxicity, avoid consuming fish that are high in the food chain (shark, swordfish), or be sure to purchase supplements from a reputable source with natural ingredients.

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Dr. Jacome's Healthy Eating Tips: Egg Yolks - A Superfood

Egg yolks are a leading source of lutein and zeaxanthin - a dynamic antioxidant duo that accumulates in the retina and protects eye health. Better still, US Researchers at Tufts University recently discovered that lutein is more readily absorbed from eggs than other sources, such as spinach.

Egg yolks also provide selenium, vitamin E, high quality protein and choline - a nutrient that can help improve heart health.

Preparation Tip: If you tire of the classic boiled-scrambled-poached triumvirate, bring a little Mexican flavour to your mornings with breakfast tacos. Just top tortillas with scrambled eggs, diced tomatoes and basil. Muy bien, as they say in Guadalajara.

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