Optimism Good for Heart and Longevity

Less cardiovascular disease, fewer deaths among the cheerful, study finds

Women who take a darker view of life are more likely to develop heart trouble than those with a cheerful, trusting outlook, a new study indicates.

The finding comes from the Women's Health Initiative, which has tracked more than 97,000 postmenopausal American women for more than eight years.

"In addition to looking at hormones and their effect on heart disease and cancer, the study also examined psychosocial and social factors and how they affected the health of postmenopausal women," said Dr. Hilary A. Tindle, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and lead author of a report in the Aug. 10 issue of Circulation. "Fortunately, we have this wealth of information on the psychological profile at the time they joined the study."

Optimism was measured by a questionnaire on whether a woman agreed with such statements as "In unclear times, I usually expect the best." The questions measuring cynicism asked about agreement with such statements as "It is safer to trust no one" and "I have often had to take orders from people who did not know as much as I did."

Women within the highest 25 percent of optimism scores had a 9 percent lower chance of developing heart disease and a 14 percent lower chance of dying of any cause. Women with the highest degree of cynical hostility were 16 percent more likely to die than those with the most trust in their fellow humans.

The results most likely apply to men as well as women, Tindle said, citing several previous studies, such as a 2004 Dutch report that men who were more optimistic died less often of cardiovascular disease.

There are several possible explanations for the new finding, Tindle said. Money might well be involved, since "optimism is associated with higher income and education," she said. But curiously, "the level of socioeconomic status when a woman was young was better associated with outcome than current status," Tindle said.

Beyond that, there are "three broad categories of possibilities," she said.

One is related to lifestyle factors. "Optimistic women had more stable risk profiles, with less high blood pressure and diabetes," Tindle said. "They didn't smoke as much and tended to exercise more. So their lower risk might just be associated with living healthier."

It's also possible that optimists are more likely to follow their doctors advice more faithfully. "Previous studies have shown that optimists tend to follow the diet they are told to follow," Tindle noted.

Or a woman's outlook on life might affect how she responds to stress, theb researcher said. Pessimism and cynical hostility might lead to higher blood pressure, higher heart rate and other physical risk factors, she said.

Tindle said she would like to test all of those possibilities in a controlled trial. "We would recruit individuals who are pessimistic, and try to alter their outlook and see if it affects their health," she said.

The answer probably would be "yes," Tindle said. "Even the most cynical, hostile individual can change, given the right stimulus, and I see this every day," she said.

The report was cheering news for Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"It turns out that being optimistic is an important part of maintaining health," Steinbaum said.

The study shows that "one's view of the world and your perspective can play an important role in your health," she said. "This study demonstrates the role and significance of the connection between the mind and the body. Its just another reason to try to look at the bright side of life."

http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=629839

Verve - the energy drink backed by science

David Woyanorowski MD wrote this review of Verve:

My name is David Woynarowski MD and I am an anti-aging doctor, a supplement designer and a fitness expert. I also have the great fortune of being a member of the top review panel for the Product of the Year Award for Ms Fitness Magazine.

I‘m honored that they ask me to review all kinds of products: from supplements to exercise widgets, information products and just about anything new that pertains to health and fitness. The truth is that most of the time the stuff never gets out of my office, because they are simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH… and that includes the numerous widgets, drinks, pills and info products.

Getting through my door takes a lot and getting the thumbs up for product of the year takes much, much more.

So when they put Verve in front of me I thought, “Why do we need another energy drink!” In a step -by -step analysis the answer became clear and eventually led to Verve being the only real choice for Product of the Year 2009.

Step One: TASTE!

I really liked the fresh, clean, natural taste of Verve and I could tell it was very different right away. Everything is naturally sourced and not created in a lab. Mother Nature rules here in the form of organic plant sources and the great taste reflects it.

Step Two: SHOW ME THE SCIENCE

In addition to my medical endeavors I am also a scientist. All the hype, packaging novelties and celeb word-of-mouth cannot replace solid science. Verve wowed me with science.

For instance, Verve’s parent company, Vemma, has two clinical studies to back up what they say. (And more on the way no doubt.) There’s nothing like a randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled study to get my attention. Statistical significance trumps taste tests every time.

The first impressive study shows a rise in antioxidant levels after drinking just 2 ounces of the Vemma nutrition formula in Verve. Now, you may wonder, what does that have to do with an energy drink and why is it important?

First off, energy drinks are meant to support an active lifestyle. Active lifestyles including exercise, while terrific for you, can also increase the level of oxidation and inflammation in your blood. As an ultra-runner I am uniquely aware of the demands exercise can place on your body. Most energy drinks just bang you with caffeine and other s t i m u l a n t s and don’t worry a bit about the “side effects” of your active lifestyle.

In other words, they may be the poison and not the antidote, because they let you do more damage - but don’t help you recover from it.

Now, in case you don’t read or care a lot about science, here is a little tidbit for you as well. Chronic inflammation can cause problems in your body. It has been linked to bad joints, bad hearts, bad moods and, perhaps even worse: to getting fat! And we all know the really bad things that come with being fat.

So it stands to reason you might not want a lot of chronic inflammation in your life. Any product that can cut inflammation is a great product in my book and again Vemma’s science won the day.

Back to that Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial (in doctor talk that is very very good!) entitled “The Effect of the Vemma Formula on Immune Function and Inflammation in Humans.” This study shows a drop in critical markers of inflammation that anti-aging doctors like me know can be directly related to disease. So we can safely say that there is science to back up Vemma’s claims of effectively giving your body antioxidants and reducing inflammation in your body.

I will never forget the candid conversation with the former head of a major energy drink company who had just gone off to start his own brand. He left because, as he told it, “You would not give this stuff to your neighbor’s dog if you saw how they made it!” That drink is still selling like hotcakes, by the way!

While I can’t name names, I can tell you that if you have ever had an energy drink you’ve probably had this one and it’s anything but healthy.

Which brings us back to our Product of the Year: Verve.

Step Three:

The Ingredients and The Nutrition

Guarana, aloe and mangosteen, are all at the core of this natural organic mix. And there are tons of vitamins and minerals from Calcium to Manganese, Vitamin A to Vanadium, and they are all provided in a highly bioavailable form so you get what they say you get on the label instead of creating expensive urine.

Then there is the brain stuff - you know, the stuff that makes you feel more alert and alive - like Taurine, D ribose and choline and inositol as well, making this pretty close to a multi-vite in a bottle!

The net effect of all these ingredients is that Verve scored very well on the bioavailable nutrition scale. In English this means it’s a great source of valuable nutrition for your body. How much? Well here are just a few food equivalents for one 8 ounce serving of Verve. The same amount of Vitamin A as a cup of Spinach. The same Vitamin D levels as 55 eggs! The ORAC antioxidant value of 17 ounces of cherries. And in pointto- point comparison Verve simply blows the competition out of the water in antioxidant value.

Now I don’t care what you drink for your energy drink but I will tell you this: it doesn’t even come close to this, thus substantiating the claim of Verve as “The insanely healthy energy drink!”

I think this is the biggest difference between Verve and all the other energy drinks out there. People are constantly wishing for a healthy alternative to the best-selling products which are pretty much “glow in the dark” versions of soda!

I could keep writing about the health benefits that are so appealing to me but I need to tell you a bit more about why we chose this product because yes, there is more!

Step Four:

Convenience and Availability

First, it’s available in a couple of different sizes and caffeine loads dependent on how fast and how much extra energy you need.

For typical use there is an 8-ounce can and for fast-acting instant energy a 3-ounce shot. How’s that for allowing you to choose what’s right for you?

Now, truthfully, none of this would mean much to me without……(drum roll, please) THE SCIENCE, but when you put the total package together: superior ingredients and sourcing along with undeniable science… well, then my friend you have an undeniable winner.

Product of the Year 2009 Is Verve!

Dr Dave Woynarowski MD is a Board Certified Internist and Anti-Aging doctor as well as a Certified Personal Trainer. In additional to anti-aging medicine he has extensive experience in the specific science and techniques of weight loss and has successfully helped thousands to resculpt their bodies in the image they desire. He is a new regular contributor to Ms. Fitness Magazine and a member of the Ms. Fitness Review Panel. He can be contacted by: doc@drdavesbest.com

Wired on the Longevity Dividend

I see that Wired is running a piece espousing the Longevity Dividend. The Longevity Dividend is an argument developed by a group of gerontologists and aimed at regulators and politically-influenced funding groups. It deliberately steers clear of talking about extending life span, instead presenting increased funding for applied aging research as a form of investment that will greatly reduce later government medical program expenditures through reducing incidence of age-related disease. In that sense it is a form of compressed morbidity viewpoint, the theory that the period of life spent in age-related frailty and suffering from age-related disease can be compressed down without extending life span. This runs contrary to aging-as-damage theories, which instead state that any intervention that reduces the level of accumulated damage will tend to extend overall life span in addition to its other beneficial effects.

As to my personal view, I'll say that there are many strategies by which one can advance a cause - here, the cause of longevity science. Advocacy strategies that water down or omit core goals and facts in order to achieve wider circulation will do little to change the marketplace of ideas, however, and it is change in the marketplace of ideas that drives progress. The best progress in advocacy is made by planting your flag as far out as is supported by the evidence, and then defending that point against all naysayers.

But of course only the boldest of folk are willing to do that. Large institutions, such as government funding sources and the associated research communities, are ruthless in punishing members who publicly step one iota behind the limits of tradition and convention - hence the softly softly approach by those who have the most to lose.

Back to the topic at hand, here's the article in Wired:

As politicians try to reform a health care system that could swallow one-fifth of the nation’s economic output by 2020, they should consider making a small bet with a potentially huge payoff: research that could slow the process of aging.

"There will never be enough money for the federal government to pay for the demands of health care, because of chronic age-related diseases," said Doug Wallace, a cell biologist at the University of California, Irvine.

Wallace specializes in mitochondria - cellular power plants that float outside the cell nucleus, turn glucose into usable energy, and wear down over time. He thinks their malfunction underlies nearly every disease whose risks spike after middle age, from cancer to heart disease to dementia.

..

In papers published in The Scientist and British Medical Journal, Olshanksy and International Longevity Center president Robert Butler wrote that drugs that delay aging’s onset by seven years are now a realistic possibility.

They’re currently in the process of calculating this longevity dividend’s economic benefits. Even if the figures aren’t finalized, however, they’re likely to be massive. For Alzheimer’s disease alone, they estimate that the cost of care will rise to $1 trillion by 2050. The Robert Wood Johnson foundation estimates two-thirds of rising health costs come from chronic diseases.

“We need a method of molecular pre-emption. If we’re going to be able to afford health care, that’s what we’ve got to do. That’s going to provide the maximum cost savings, not managing symptoms or curative treatment,” said former National Institutes of Health chief Elias Zerhouni at a symposium held last Friday by the Jackson Laboratory.

I'll point you to a good quote from a little while back:

I say if this were a privatized system, we would all say "gee it’s wonderful. All these people want more health care, this industry is thriving". Let me put one other analogy. Suppose we made cars a government entitlement. Instead of cheering when auto production went up, we’d say, "Oh my God, we can’t afford this!". How you finance it may greatly affect the psychology and actually the freedom of the economy to take advantage of these new opportunities.

Centralized government control destroys everything it touches; it's just a matter of time for US medical institutions. It will be the tragedy of the commons writ larger than ever, a system in which every local, personal incentive is aligned against progress. So we will have little progress - and consequently much suffering - until some revolution sweeps this all away.

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/08/wired-on-the-longevity-dividend.php