Ashley Jones

Monday, 6 April 2015

Prince Harry tells fan: 'Selfies are bad'

It's official, Prince Harry isn't a fan of the selfie

The prince told a girl to stop taking selfies as he arrived in Australia for a month-long exchange program with the Australian Defence Force. The fourth-in-line to the throne shunned the waiting fan's request for a photo, as he visited the Australian War Memorial in Canberra — telling her to turn the camera around.

Celebrity dermatologist parodied on 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' dies

Dr. Fredric Brandt, the celebrity dermatologist and plastic surgeon parodied by Martin Short on an episode of Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, has died of an apparent suicide at his home in Florida, according to multiple reports. He was 65.

Brandt's publicist confirmed his death Monday to the New York Post. A pioneer in cosmetic dermatology who helped steer the use of botulinum toxin (botox) and collagen fillers through FDA approval, was also a lecturer and radio host who counted Madonna among his clients.

Short cameoed as Sidney Grant (which he pronounces "Frampf"), a plastic surgeon whose face was so smoothed and frozen that it drastically affected his speech, on the Netflix show that debuted in March. Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) and Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski) Grant, who suggests Kimmy get rid of her "scream lines" via an entire face transplant. Read more...

More about Television, Entertainment, Tv, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Apple Watch reportedly blocked in Switzerland over patent, for now

Score one for the Swiss watch industry: sales of the Apple Watch are blocked in Switzerland — at least for now

According to a story on the website for Swiss television network RTS, a patent already exists for the English word "apple" appearing on a watch in the country

But for Apple, there is a happy ending to this story: the 30-year patent expires on December 5, 2015

The patent, highlighted by the Swiss site on Thursday, was filed by Leonard Timepieces back in 1985, decades before anyone would have imagined the Mac might ultimately facilitate the arrival of the Apple Watch Read more...

More about Apple, Switzerland, Tech, Apps Software, and Dev Design

The Selling of the Avocado

By Dr. Mercola

Avocados are one of the most popular fruits in the US; two-thirds of US consumers purchased avocados in the past year, according to the Hass Avocado Board 2014 tracking study.¹

Among them, 60 percent fell into the "lovers/enthusiasts" category, which means they purchased at least 37, and in some cases more than 120, avocados a year.

This is particularly striking when you consider that during the 1920s – and as late as the 1970s – avocados were thought of more as a luxury item or delicacy than an everyday food.

In fact, the avocados of the early 20th century weren't known as avocados at all. They were still called "alligator pears," due to their green bumpy skin, which hardly enticed eaters. In an intriguing article in The Atlantic, it's revealed that avocados' rise into "mainstream" meals was not a matter of happenstance.²

From receiving a new name to starring in brilliant PR campaigns, avocados were able to rise up out of obscurity, beat the low-fat craze of the '80s and '90s, and find their way into the hearts… and stomachs… of Americans.

Avocado Growers' Long Fight to Boost Avocados' Reputation

According to a trade group in 1927, "That the avocado, an exalted member of the laurel family, should be called an alligator pear is beyond all understanding."³

The California Avocado Growers' Exchange was pivotal in removing the word "alligator" from the avocado lexicon, and getting them known to the public as avocados instead (a word that, ironically, comes from an even worse association, the Aztec "ahuacacuahatl" or "testicle tree").

However, avocados, due to their limited growing climate, were an expensive fruit, selling at $1 each in 1974 (which would be like $4.80 today). They were marketed as a gourmet food, and most considered them to be a delicacy, not something for everyday meals.

"I vividly remember my mom serving [avocado] in the 1960s when she wanted to be fancy and impress our guests," Jeffrey Charles, a professor of Food History at California State University at San Marcos told The Atlantic.⁴

Then, in the 1980s, public health organizations began to push low-fat diets. The avocado, with its high level of healthy fats, did not fit the bill, and even physicians "warned" against their consumption. Jan DeLyser, vice president of Marketing with the California Avocado Commission, told The Atlantic:⁵

"I can remember seeing a fact-sheet that came from a doctor my husband went to years ago… It was a heart-health type message. It said, 'Do not consume avocados.'"

Around this time, avocado growers fought back against the low-fat movement. They funded research studies to prove that the fat in avocados was healthy and enhanced nutrient absorption, and launched TV ads showing fit celebrities, like Angie Dickinson, eating avocados.

Ad Campaigns and the Super Bowl Take Avocados to the Next Level

The California Avocado Commission, with the help of PR firm Hill & Knowlton, introduced "Mr. Ripe Guy," a mascot for the avocado industry. Along with having Mr. Ripe Guy appear at various events, in 1995, they orchestrated a nationwide search for "Ms. Ripe," which prompted contestants from across the country to vie for the title.

However, the greatest game changer of all may have been avocados' entrance into the Super Bowl. Coincidentally, many avocado growers' crops ripen in January, so Hill & Knowlton held a "Guacamole Bowl" in the '90s by gathering recipes from NFL players and taste-testing them among fans and reporters.

"No other single American event impacts the sale of avocados like the Super Bowl," former California Avocado Commission President Mark Affleck said in the early '90s. "In fact, Super Bowl week trails only Cinco de Mayo as the most important week of the year for California avocados." ⁶ As The Atlantic⁷ reported:

"The effort behind the avocado is an example of viral marketing before there was virality… It's not clear whether the avocado would have blown up without all of these machinations, but other obscure fruits have not managed to pull off a similar rise.

…Food marketing is rarely purely good or purely evil, but it is often surprisingly powerful. The saga of the avocado shows how food promotion can—when it coincides happily with changing demographics, fortuitous economic policy, and favorable scientific knowledge—work almost eerily well. It can change the way we eat, sometimes forever."

Why the Growing Popularity of Avocados Is a Very Good Thing

This is one case when PR spin worked in favor of public health. Compared to the 1990s, when the average American ate about 1.5 pounds of avocados a year, in 2012 that had risen to 5 pounds.⁸ Avocados are one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Personally, I eat one almost every day.

Avocados are rich sources of monounsaturated fat that your body can easily burn for energy. Because they are so rich in healthy fats, avocados help your body absorb fat-soluble nutrients from other foods.

One study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that consuming a whole fresh avocado with either an orange-colored tomato sauce or raw carrots significantly enhanced absorption of the carotenoids and conversion of them into an active form of vitamin A.⁹

A 2005 study similarly found that adding avocado to salad allowed the volunteers to absorb three to five times more carotenoid antioxidant molecules, which help protect your body against free radical damage.¹⁰

Avocados Are Satiating and May Help with Weight Management

Avocados also provide close to 20 essential health-boosting nutrients, including potassium, vitamin E, B vitamins, and folic acid, and, according to research published in the Nutrition Journal, eating just one-half of a fresh avocado with lunch may satiate you if you're overweight, which will help prevent unnecessary snacking later.¹¹

Those who ate half an avocado with their standard lunch reported being 40 percent less hungry three hours after their meal, and 28 percent less hungry at the five-hour mark compared to those who did not eat avocado for lunch. The study also found that avocados appear helpful for regulating blood sugar levels.

Avocado is also beneficial for maintaining optimal cholesterol levels. Healthy individuals saw a 16 percent decrease in total cholesterol level following a one-week-long diet high in monounsaturated fat from avocados.

In those with elevated cholesterol levels, the avocado diet resulted in a 17 percent decrease of serum total cholesterol, and a 22 percent decrease of both LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, along with an 11 percent increase of the so-called "good" HDL cholesterol.¹²

Personally, I eat one avocado a day and have for many years. I also have three avocado trees in my backyard and harvest the fruit from them when I can. I even take them when travelling making sure to take really hard ones, as they will ripen during the trip.
One of my favorite ways to consume them is to put 1/3 of an avocado into 12 ounces of water with my Vegan or Pure Power Protein, shredded coconut, along with my organic greens mix, and my organic psyllium. This really is super delicious and allows me to bypass junk food at the hotels.

Why You Should Put Avocado on Your Burgers…

The next time you're in the mood for a grass-fed burger, add a few thick slices of avocado. One study found that eating one-half of a medium avocado with a hamburger significantly inhibited the production of the inflammatory compound Interleukin-6 (IL-6), compared to eating a burger without fresh avocado.¹³

According to lead author David Heber, MD, PhD, the findings offer "promising clues" about avocado's ability to benefit vascular function and heart health. In fact, there's good reason to add avocado to virtually any meal, as their healthy fats are vital for optimal brain function, and the prevention of degenerative brain disorders like Alzheimer's disease. As noted in Scientific American:¹⁴

"The brain thrives on a fat-rich, low carbohydrate diet, which unfortunately is relatively uncommon in human populations today," reports David Perlmutter, author of Grain Brain. "Mayo Clinic researchers showed that individuals favoring carbohydrates in their diets had a remarkable 89 percent increased risk for developing dementia as contrasted to those whose diets contained the most fat.

Having the highest levels of fat consumption was actually found to be associated with an incredible 44 percent reduction in risk for developing dementia." ...'Good' fats include monounsaturated fats, found abundantly in olive oil, peanut oil, hazelnuts, avocados, and pumpkin seeds, and polyunsaturated fats (omega 3 and omega 6), which are found in flaxseed oil, chia seeds, marine algae oil, and walnuts."

You Can Grow Your Own Avocado Tree

The seed from an avocado can be used to grow your own tree, although it's not as simple as just planting it in the ground. To get an avocado seed to grow, its "pointy" end needs to face the sun while the flat end needs to be kept wet at all times.

One way to accomplish this is by placing three or four toothpicks into the outer layer of the seed. Use the toothpicks as support structures to "float" the seed on the top of a glass of water. If done properly, roots should begin to sprout within one or two months.

A Kickstarter campaign has also been launched for a device called the AvoSeedo. It keeps the seed properly immersed in water and automatically adjusts as the water level in your container goes down. This makes the germination process much easier and more foolproof, because if your seed dries out the germination process might stop permanently. If you're interested in growing your own avocado tree, you may want to check it out.

How to Peel an Avocado (Yes, It Matters)

If you scoop out the flesh of an avocado using a spoon, you could be missing out on valuable nutrition, because how you de-skin your avocado can affect how much of its valuable phytonutrients you get out of it. UCLA research has shown that the greatest concentration of beneficial carotenoids, for example, is located in the dark green fruit closest to the inside of the peel. In 2010, the California Avocado Commission issued guidelines for getting the most out of your avocado by peeling it the right way.¹⁵ To preserve the area with the greatest concentration of antioxidants, you're best off using this method:

First, cut the avocado length-wise, around the seed

Holding each half, twist them in the opposite directions to separate them from the seed

Remove the seed

Cut each half, lengthwise

Next, use a spoon to scoop out the avocado make sure to get the fruit close to the skin as that has many of the nutrients.

You can cut the skin into small pieces and put it in your compost pile rather than throw it into the trash.

You're probably used to using avocado in salads and guacamole, but you can eat them in many other ways as well. Try avocado:

As a fat replacement in baking. Simply replace the fat called for (such as oil, butter, or shortening) with an equal amount of avocado

As a first food for babies, in lieu of processed baby food

In soups. For examples, see Lucy Lock's Chilled Mediterranean Soup or her Raw Creamy Carrot Soup

Added to smoothies or your protein shake, as I mention above, is one of my favorites

Avocados have been rated as one of the safest commercial crops in terms of pesticide application, and their thick skin protects the inner fruit from pesticides. So there's no real need to spend extra money on organic avocados. I've even had my own team test avocados from a variety of growers in different countries, sold in several major grocery stores, and they all tested free and clear of harmful chemicals. Want to know even more about what avocados are good for? Check out the infographic below…

Embed this infographic on your website:
<img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/avocado-uses-health-benefits.jpg" alt="Avocado Uses and Health Benefits" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;" />Discover interesting facts about avocado, including its uses and benefits, through the infographic <a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/avocado-uses-health-benefits.htm">"Avocado Uses and Health Benefits."</a> infographic. Use the embed code to share it on your website. <pre style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin: 20px auto 0 auto; padding:10px; border:solid 1px #999999; background: #ffffff; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word;"><code><img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/avocado-uses-health-benefits.jpg" alt="Avocado Uses and Health Benefits" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;">Discover interesting facts about avocado, including its uses and benefits, through the infographic <a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/avocado-uses-health-benefits.htm">Avocado Uses and Health Benefits: Facts About This Food.</a> infographic.</code></pre>
Click on the code area and press CTRL + C (for Windows) / CMD + C (for Macintosh) to copy the code.

Russian bomb squad clears mines on the front lines of eastern Ukraine

DEBALTSEVE, Ukraine — They say they feel fear but you wouldn't know it by watching them handle the explosives.

Sunday, 5 April 2015

OnePlus Launches OxygenOS, Its Custom Version Of Android

Smartphone-maker OnePlus just released the initial version of OxygenOS, its forked version of Android Lollipop, optimized for its OnePlus One phone. News that OnePlus was working on the operating system broke in January, after a split with partner Cyanogen. Read More

Revelations from the Women’s Health Initiative

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller is a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health. She's also the principal investigator of the Women's Health Initiative¹ (WHI), which is one of the largest studies ever to examine an array of women's health issues.

Hormonal supplementation, for example, is a relatively controversial subject that WHI was able to shed light on—especially with respect to women who have not had a hysterectomy.

But hormone therapy is just one facet of the Women's Health Initiative. It has delved into many other issues as well, including the impact of multivitamins and vitamin D on cancer, and the effects of excessive sitting.

"The Women's Health Initiative has been just a wealth of information and knowledge in health," Dr. Smoller says.

“We have a few ancillary studies that are ongoing. For example, we have something called the Long Life Study (LLS), where we paid a home visit a couple of years ago, to nearly 8,000 women who were over the age of 63 in 2012.

We’re going to see what factors protect and are helpful in later life. We also have something called Life and Longevity After Cancer (LILAC), which is a study of breast cancer survivors.

There are all kinds of things that are coming out of the Women's Health Initiative. And, of course, all our genetic studies."

What the Women's Health Initiative Revealed About Hormone Therapy

The Women’s Health Initiative, which enrolled women in 1993-1998 , included four clinical trials and one observational study. Altogether, more than 160,000 post-menopausal women were enrolled in 39 clinical centers throughout the United States, and the study resulted in over 2,000 peer reviewed scientific papers being published to date.

There was a clinical trial of low-fat diet compared to usual diet, a trial of calcium and vitamin D supplementation compared to placebo and two trials of hormone therapy—one for women who had had a hysterectomy and one for women who had an intact uterus.The hormone therapy trials looked at:

Estrogen alone for women who have had a hysterectomy versus placebo²

Estrogen plus progestin (synthetic progesterone) versus placebo for women who had not had a hysterectomy³ These women with an intact uterus had to have progesterone added to the estrogen to protect their uterus from developing endometrial (uterine) cancer

Women tend to have much lower rates of heart disease while they're menstruating, and generally develop heart disease about 10 years later than men do.

In the 1990s when the study started, researchers believed that women's hormones were the protective factor, but the Women's Health Initiative showed that replacing those hormones once they were no longer being manufactured in the body did not protect women from heart disease.

This was truly a landmark finding that made the front page of every major media in the world when they announced their findings in 2002. They actually stopped one leg of the study as it was clear that the hormone therapy was prematurely killing many of the women and resulted in increases in strokes, heart attacks, dementia and breast cancer.

As noted by Dr. Smoller:

"These trials are monitored by a safety monitoring board that's not connected with the study, but that gets access to the data and monitors it for either harm or benefit.

In this case, the results were so clear to them that they advised NIH to stop this trial so it was stopped. There was an enormous amount of publicity about it."

Women who had undergone a hysterectomy and took estrogen alone had a more favorable profile. They still got heart disease, but it wasn’t obvious whether the estrogen was responsible for it. They also had a slightly reduced rate of breast cancer, but they were still at higher risk for stroke and dementia than the women taking placebos.

WHI Hormone Study Turned Standard of Care on Its Head

So what's responsible for this relative protection that menstruating women seem to have? Some researchers believe that it's related to the monthly loss of blood, which lowers your iron level, and iron serves as a prooxidant that can cause a lot of oxidative damage in your body.

"That's certainly probably a good part of it,” Dr. Smoller says. “I think it may be other mechanisms at work as well. Estrogen earlier on in life may be somewhat protective. But the iron hypothesis is one that’s fairly well established....

But there are all kinds of different things that go on in a woman's body when she's still menstruating, and it's the balance of the various hormones [that is important]...

We're looking at genetics, blood biomarkers, and at all kinds of things to elucidate the mechanism [behind adverse effects to hormone therapy]. It's still elusive; we still haven't quite found why this is happening... We do know it's not protective. The combination of estrogen plus progestin does not protect you from heart disease, stroke, or breast cancer...

Estrogen alone is not protective for stroke, dementia, or many of the other things that happen to women as they age. We know you certainly shouldn't take it to prevent disease. That's what the hope was initially—that [hormone therapy] would prove to be a preventive measure, but it isn't."

The findings from the Women's Health Initiative resulted in a rapid reversal of the standard of care recommendations with regards to hormone therapy in 2002. Prior to that, hormones were regularly prescribed to decrease a menopausal woman's risk of heart disease, dementia, and stroke.

Sadly, this information has not been adopted by many physicians, especially gynecologists. Changing the standard of care in medicine can be like trying to turn the Titanic however, and some doctors are still prescribing hormone therapy to women who may not be good candidates for it.

Some still believe in prescribing estrogen and progestin for women suffering with menopausal symptoms, and these hormones do tend to ameliorate menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and vaginal dryness, but truly, there are safer ways of addressing such symptoms. To learn more, please review my previous article, Your 7-Minute Guide to Natural Menopause Survival.

“Prescriptions went down by something like two-thirds when the news was first released, but it’s very hard to change a behavior and to change conceptions and attitudes. There was definitely a backlash.

Particularly many in the OB-GYN community said, “Ah, you were giving them too late. If you gave them just at the time that the woman was perimenopausal, that would be protective.” We didn’t find evidence for that in the estrogen plus progestin group,” Dr. Smoller says. “But all the women in our study were post-menopausal; we did not have any perimenopausal women.

You have to understand, women who are in their 40s to 50s have very low rates of these events to begin with. It's very difficult to show that [giving hormones during perimenopause] would make any difference, because there is such a thing as relative risk and absolute risk.

In other words, you could have a 40 percent higher risk of stroke relative to not taking hormones, but still the absolute number of strokes that people get is still very, very small, so forsome events, it’s very hard to show the difference...

But even in absolute terms, though it’s a small number, the fact is that when you multiply that by the number of post-menopausal women and the number who are taking these pills, it translates into millions of lives saved by not taking them.

For example, we calculated that there would be eight more strokes per year per 10,000 women taking estrogen plus progestin than for those not on hormones. If you multiply that by the many tens of thousands of women there are who might be taking hormones, and by the many years they might be on these hormones, you can see that by not taking them a lot of strokes can be avoided.

And I think we have to remember that menopause is not a disease – it is a stage of life. And postmenopausal symptoms do eventually go away. If the symptoms are really severe, then hormones might be appropriate but at the lowest dose and for the shortest period of time, as the FDA labeling says. ”

Bioidentical Estrogen versus Premarin

The estrogen provided to the women participating in the Women's Health Study was Premarin, manufactured by Ayerst. Premarin is conjugated equine (horse) estrogen (CEE), or estrogen extracted from mare's urine. While this sounds "all natural," horse estrogen is not identical to human estrogen. I recommend avoiding all animal estrogens for hormone replacement, as there are excellent human bioidentical estrogen hormones easily available through any compounding pharmacist.

Your body recognizes these as "normal" and virtually identical to the hormones produced in your body, which makes them far safer than synthetic prescription versions. There are three types of estrogens commonly used in bio-identical hormone replacement therapy: estrone, estradiol, and estriol. A common mixed formulation known as Tri-est includes 80 percent estriol with 10 percent each of estrone and estradiol. Estradiol is the primary human female hormone found in all premenopausal women, whereas estriol is produced in significant amounts during pregnancy.

Estriol is considered the safest of the three and is the most commonly prescribed. It has been used safely for decades, and I believe it's particularly useful when you've had a hysterectomy. Unfortunately, as noted by Dr. Smoller, there are many different hormone preparations, and studies cannot be done for each and every one. For example, no trials have been done on bioidentical estrogens. As a result, effects of other estrogens are inferred, based on the trials in which Premarin was used, and hence bioidentical estrogens have also gotten a bad rap.

Natural versus Synthetic Progesterone

I also recommend using natural progesterone in lieu of synthetic progestins, which were used in the Women's Health Initiative study. There's reason to believe that synthetic progestins (like Provera) are responsible for many, if not most, of the detrimental side effects of hormone therapy. For example, one meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal in January 2005⁴ found that synthetic hormone therapy is linked to an increased risk of stroke, typically ischemic (caused by blockages of blood flow to your brain).

In fact, synthetic hormone therapy may boost your risk of stroke by almost one-third, and your risk of fatal or disabling stroke by more than half. Natural progesterone is made from a substance called diosgenin, which is commonly extracted from wild yams or soybeans. Even though it may be extracted from soy it is a highly purified hormone and there are absolutely no remnants of soy substances that would lead to any problem. To learn more, please refer to this previous article on the use of natural progesterone.

How Beneficial Are Multivitamins and Mineral Supplements?

One of the findings from the observational study in the Women’s Health Initiative was about multivitamins and mineral supplements. Since it was an observational study, it shows correlation but cannot tell us whether there is actually a causal relationship. Nevertheless, about 100,000 women participated in it, giving us some compelling clues.

Looking at cancer and cardiovascular disease rates in women, they found that, on average, there was no difference in the incidence of these diseases between those who took vitamins and those who did not. However, when they looked at women who were already diagnosed with breast cancer, they found that multivitamins with minerals did protect against mortality from breast cancer.

"Usually things that are protective like that are also protective in primary prevention," Dr. Smoller says. "In this case, we didn't see that. But nevertheless they definitely – no matter what we did, no matter what we controlled for, no matter how we looked at the data – still showed a benefit in terms of dying from breast cancer... and all-cause mortality as well."

The WHI also looked at vitamin D and its effects, and according to Dr. Smoller, “it’s fairly well accepted that vitamin D is protective against a variety of adverse conditions and that many women have too low levels of vitamin D in their blood.” However, one trial in WHI in which calcium and vitamin D supplements were compared to placebo found no significant protection against colorectal cancer. As for other individual nutrients, it’s quite difficult to study the effects of single nutrients because we don’t eat nutrients; we eat foods, and foods have all kinds of nutrients and synergistic ingredients that interact with each other in them.

As noted by Dr. Smoller:

"It's hard to look at specific nutrients unless there's a big deficiency of them. One of our latest studies showed that dietary potassium is protective against stroke. We're now looking to see whether it's protective against dementia as well. The recommended daily allowance of potassium is something like 4,700 milligrams (mg)… Nearly five grams... But very few people get that. In our study, only about 16 percent got more than 3,500 mg... something like three percent got 4,500 mg."

Some nutrients, such as potassium, you should ideally get from your diet and not from supplements. Dr. Smoller notes that supplemental potassium can be problematic for people with undiagnosed kidney disease. "Too much potassium can be very dangerous. So you shouldn't take potassium supplements without talking to your doctor. But it's not that hard to get adequate potassium in foods because so many foods have potassium. Certainly vegetables and fruits... like bananas, avocados, oranges, apricots, meats even, and yogurt."

Waist-to-Hip Ratio and Sedentary Behavior—Two Potent Predictors of Disease

Another health factor the Women's Health Initiative looked at was waist circumference, body shape, and waist-to-hip ratio. Virtually all of these are better predictors of disease than body mass index (BMI), with the waist-to-hip ratio being the best.

“The other thing that we found in some of our studies is what they call “healthy obese,” i.e. metabolically healthy obese. They are people who are obese and overweight who are metabolically healthy. Their insulin levels, their glucose levels, their cholesterol levels are all okay...Then there are people who are lean but are metabolically unhealthy. Even though they are thin, they have a bad cholesterol profile, they have insulin and glucose problems, and so on. These are the lean, metabolically unhealthy.

Then there are the obese, metabolically unhealthy and the lean, metabolically healthy. There are at least four groups. Among the obese, most people are metabolically unhealthy. There is this smaller group that is metabolically healthy. Some people have shown that if you’re overweight and metabolically healthy and may not yet be showing higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, eventually you’ll become metabolically unhealthy. It’s an extremely complex situation, but the bottom line is it’s the metabolism that counts.”

Not surprisingly, the self-report in the Women’s Health Initiative also showed that the more exercise women reported getting, the better their health. And, more importantly, the study also found that sedentary behavior independent of regimented exercise is a potent predictor of disease.

This is something I’ve discussed in numerous articles in recent years, as more than 10,000 studies clearly shows that prolonged sitting is an independent risk factor for chronic disease, even if you exercise regularly and are very fit, and that is precisely what was found here as well.

“What we found is that sedentary behavior is associated with cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular diseases,” Dr. Smoller says. “This is apart from the amount of physical activity you get. You could go out to the gym and get your physical activity, but then you spend six or seven hours a day sitting, and that is a risk factor.”

Optimal Health Is Within Your Reach

When it comes to health and longevity, there is no quick fix and no "fountain of youth" that will help you become healthy overnight. Being fit and healthy in order to reach a ripe old age takes effort and attention – this is something that I repeatedly tell my readers. The good news is that relatively simple lifestyle changes you can make a major difference when it comes to optimizing your health and preventing disease.

Your diet is of primary concern, of course, as is getting enough exercise and avoiding prolonged sitting on a day-to-day basis. Ideally, avoid sitting for more than three hours per day. Things like hormone therapy is clearly trickier, and you'd be wise to do your homework before taking hormones. Addressing basic lifestyle issues can go a long way toward preventing any major hormonal imbalances though. For example, the Paleolithic diet, which includes fermented and cultured foods, tends to promote healthy hormone levels, even as you age.

The Women’s Health Initiative has done much to shed light on women’s health, and for that we can be truly grateful. Taxpayer dollars are not always so wisely spent. At the end of the day, a lot of the research shows that if you want to be healthy and prevent disease, lifestyle choices like good nutrition and exercise matter—which really shouldn’t come as any great surprise. Below is an infographic listing my top guidelines for healthy living.

Embed this infographic on your website:
<img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/general-health-guidelines.jpg" alt="11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity Infographic" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;" />A healthy lifestyle is essential to achieving optimal wellbeing and longevity. This infographic, "<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/general-health-guidelines.htm">11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity</a>," gives you useful tips to help you live a long and healthy life. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version. <pre style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin: 20px auto 0 auto; padding:10px; border:solid 1px #999999; background: #ffffff; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word;"><code><img src="http://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/general-health-guidelines.jpg" alt="11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;">A healthy lifestyle is essential to achieving optimal wellbeing and longevity. This infographic, "<a href="http://www.mercola.com/infographics/general-health-guidelines.htm">11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity</a>", gives you useful tips to help you live a long and healthy life. Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.</code></pre>
Click on the code area and press CTRL + C (for Windows) / CMD + C (for Macintosh) to copy the code.