Health Tips

What's more important for heart health--diet or exercise?

That's like asking a mother which child she loves most, joked Lori Mosca, M.D., director of preventative cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, when I put this question to her. A healthy diet and exercise improve cholesterol and lower blood pressure and blood sugar--all factors that play a role in heart disease. You can start small, says Dr. Mosca: A few laps around your office or dropping your daily caramel latte can make a difference.


The Spice of Life

Cinnamon may have benefits beyond jazzing up your favorite hot cereal. A new scientific review found that regular users of the aromatic spice experienced declines in total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, along with a slight boost in HDL levels. The daily "dose"?? As little as a small sprinkling (less than 1/8 teaspoon) could be enough for some people; for others, it takes up to 2 1/2 teaspoons. For the higher amounts, you may want to reach for a supplement, not the spice jar.

Eat-Well Equation

Grilled fish and veggies may seem more appealing once you consider the time and sweat it'll take to work off that fried chicken entrée. When dinners were given menus that included the minutes of brisk walking needed to burn off each item, they ate about 100 fewer calories than when menus offered no extra intel. Listing calorie counts alone (also tested in the study) didn't help people restrain themselves, so better to think about your favorite treats in terms of exercise costs.

Don't Think and Drive

Intense thought (like mulling over a work crisis) is as dangerous behind the wheel as fatigue or chatting on a cell phone. In a French Study, half of drivers reported that their minds had not been on the road when a crash occurred, and 17% of accident causers had been pondering highly distracting topics (compared with 9% of those injured in wrecks that weren't their fault).

Maintaining any five of these seven healthy behaviors--getting regular exercise, eating a good diet, controlling your weight, not smoking, and having normal BP, cholesterol, and glucose levels--drops cancer risk 39%.

Light Weight

Sleeping in complete darkness may help prevent weight gain and depression, research suggests. Over eight weeks, mice exposed to dim lighting at night--the equivalent of leaving on a television, computer, or adjacent bathroom light--gained 50% more weight than mice in total darkness, despite similar caloric intakes and activity levels. And hamsters subjected to nighttime light experienced a rise in depressive behaviors. The light may throw off the biological clock and increase nighttime eating, says researcher Laura Fonken, a doctoral student at Ohio State University in Columbus. If the findings hold rue for humans, she adds, people may benefit from a consistent sleep schedule and window curtains or sleep masks.

Stealth Dieting

There's an effective way to cut calories in a meal without feeling deprived, a study demonstrates. Researchers served 41 volunteers breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner on three occasions; each time they provided the same meals, but the main dishes contained different amounts of steamed and pureed carrots, squash, or cauliflower. When given a dish that was 25% vegetables compared with one that had none, the participants consumed 360 fewer daily calories on average but reported no differences in hunger, and fewer than half realized that the dishes had been altered. "Even people who don't particularly like vegetables didn't notice they were there and liked the food just as much," notes Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University and author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan. However, you don't need to puree the vegetables in order to get the benefit, she adds.

Sleep and Exercise

Contrary to common belief, exercising before bedtime does not disrupt sleep, recent studies have found. Finnish scientists monitored 11 young adults in a sleep laboratory. On one night, they instructed the volunteers to ride a stationary bike within three hours of bedtime until they were exhausted; on another night, everyone simply rested before bed. The participants had significantly higher heart rates during the night they exercised, but despite this physiological arousal, there was no apparent detriment to sleep quality--in fact, they fell asleep faster and had slightly more deep sleep. A Belgian study of nine volunteers who rode an exercise bike for 60 minutes within two hours of bedtime produced similar results. The research involved only people who generally had untroubled sleep, but late workouts might actually benefit people with mild sleep problems, says researcher Daniel Berckmans, a professor of bioscience engineering at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, a university in Belgium. After engaging in physical activity, the body experiences faster heat loss, which helps speed up the onset of sleep, Berckmans explains.

Sleep Clocks

Many women's circadian rhythms are shorter than average, making it difficult to stay up late. Researchers at Harvard Medical School studied 157 volunteers who spent several weeks in a laboratory shielded from cues about the time of day. 35% of women had an intrinsic daily cycle that lasted less than 24 hours, causing their bedtimes to keep drifting earlier, versus only 14% of men. Besides preferring earlier bedtimes, women with fast clocks may complain of waking up too early, says lead author Jeanne Duffy, associate neuroscientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston It's hard to fight these biological tendencies over the long term, but increasing light exposure in the evening and reducing it in the morning should help, Duffy says.

Hunger Games

A woman's mind-set while eating may influence her metabolism, surprising research has shown. People who drank 380-calorie milkshake experienced a greater decline in levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin when they were told it was a 620-calorie "indulgent" shake than when they were told it was a 140-calorie "sensible" one. Lower ghrelin levels promote weight loss by curing hunger and increasing the rate at which calories are burned, says the study's lead author; Alia J. Crum, a researcher in psychology at Yale University. She advises dieters to get into an "indulgent mind-set." For example, don't focus on the fact that a salad is healthy; instead focus on its decadent aspects, such as the dressing or cheese.

Flat Belly Strategy

The fight belly fat, women should focus on aerobic exercise and a healthy diet rather than strength or abdominal training. In an eight-month study of overweight, initially sedentary people, jogging 12 miles per week reduced abdominal fat, but weight lifting--either alone or combined with jogging--had no impact, according to Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues. In another study, published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research, healthy but inactive volunteers who committed to 75 minutes of abdominal exercises such as sit-ups weekly for six weeks had no reduction in belly or total fat compared with an untrained group. Resistance training increases muscle mass, but, contrary to popular belief, it does not boost one's metabolism enough to reduce fat mass, Slentz says.

Hair-Loss Risks

Hair loss in women is more related to environmental factors than to genetics, according to a 2009 study, and the latest research pinpoints some surprising contributors. Among 49 pairs of identical female twins, divorced or separated women had greater thinning than their stably married twins, which probably has to do with stress and its effect on hormones, says Bahman Guyuron, a professor of plastic surgery at Case Western Serve University in Cleveland. Self-reported stress was found to increase the risk of hair loss, as was smoking, high blood pressure, and excessive sleep (more than eight hours a night); regularly consuming caffeine, exercising wearing hats, and using sunscreen reduced risks. Excessive sleep may increase testosterone--which is known to cause balding in women--and caffeine may inhibit the hormone's ill effects on hair follicles, Guyuron speculates. Sun damage appears to accelerate hair loss, he notes.

Step Up Your Energy

Instead of downing another cup o' joe when you feel the afternoon slump, find a staircase. A new University of Georgia study found that walking up and down stairs for 10 minutes at an easy to moderate pace gave people more energy than consuming 50 milligrams of caffeine. Researchers believe that when the brain releases feel-good neurotransmitters during exercise, it also activates neural circuits that give you an energy rush. 

Start You Morning Right

The early bird gets the . . . best sleep? Maybe. People exposed to bright light during the morning hours fell asleep father in the evening, reported feeling less depressed, and had fewer sleep disturbances than those who soaked up less, according to a study in the journal Sleep Health. So take a stroll outside in the a.m., or work near a window or a light box.

A Better Health Measurement

Chances are you've heard about body mass index (BMI), an approximation of body far. But BMI doesn't take into account how much of your weight is due to muscle mass; many doctors now consider the waist-to-hip ratio a more accurate way to assess your health. In fact, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that compared with a high BMI, a high waist-to-hip ratio was a better predictor of whether a person was likely to die in the next 10 years. Here's how to find your ratio:

1. Stand up straight, exhale, then wrap a tape measure around your waist at its smallest point. Note the number.

2. Next, wrap the tape measure around your hips at the widest point. Write down the number.

3. Divide your waist number by your hip number. For women, a healthy target is 0.85, while a 1 or higher puts you at a greater risk of heart disease and stroke. Talk to your doctor if your number is in the high range.