The Hemp Connection [Search results for Alzheimer's] 

I can tell by looking at this blog's visitation statistics that a very high percentage of its visitors are looking for help with an immediate problem that has"hit them where it hurts", so to speak. You may have acne. Or want a child. Or be looking for a successful weight loss plan.

The fact is, however, that sitting in my seat, it is equally important to offer insight and solutions for those problems as it is to educate about the big picture.

The fact is, 10% of women with PCOS will be diabetic by age 40.

The fact is, PCOS increases your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.

And…since diabetes is increasingly being associated with Alzheimer's disease, the fact is, you may end up being at risk for that as well if you're on this blog looking for help with your acne.

Fortunately, you don't have to do one thing for your fertility, another for your acne, and another to prevent Alzheimer's. All the suggestions you see here work to help all organ systems function better.

And the fact is, there is a whole lot you can do to decrease your risk of having any of the problems mentioned above.

The fact is, you can't decrease your risk if you don't take action. That part of the solution is totally in your control.

In this particular study, the alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)concentrations in fat tissue were evaluated in 1819 people. (ALA is a type of omega-3 fatty acid found in flaxseed, flaxseed oil, soybeans, canola oil, and nuts, to name a few.)

Individuals with higher levels of ALA had a lower risk of heart attack.

The fact is…if you cook more often with canola oil, eat more nuts, put some edamame on your next salad, and/or add some ground flaxseed to your next bowl of oatmeal, you just might experience the same benefits as the people in this study.

If it can't hurt and it might help, there doesn't seem to be a reason not to try at least one of those things!

Campos H, Baylin A, Willett WC. Alpha-linolenic acid and risk of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction. Circulation. 2008 Jul 22;118(4):339-45. Epub 2008 Jul 7.

I live in a part of the country where palm trees are commonplace. I recently moved to a part of town where date farms used to fill the space. And it's not uncommon this time of year, to see fruit and yogurt stands advertising"date shakes".

I finally decided to learn more about the nutritional value of dates, and learned that they are one of the few food sources of choline. Choline is a building block for acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that is very important for memory function. Many Alzheimer's medications are designed to help enhance acetylcholine metabolism.

One of the lesser known symptoms of PCOS is memory/concentration trouble and"brain fog". Diabetes and Alzheimer's disease have a strong metabolic connection. So it seems that women with a predisposition to diabetes should be paying attention to ways to get choline into their diet.

In addition, dates are a good source of fiber, iron, B vitamins, potassium, and magnesium.

And this one is fun! I'm giving you a healthy version of our local date shake to try, a banana-date smoothie.

Ingredients
1 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk, 1% is fine too
1/2 cup dates, fresh, pitted and chopped
2 bananas, sliced
8 ice cubes
Directions
Place everything in blender and blend until the ice cubes are well incorporated.
Serve!
Source: www.recipezaar.com

If you are in Phoenix, this coming weekend is a date harvesting event on the Arizona State University Campus, which will include a lesson on harvesting, a cooking demonstration, and some tasting. Click here for more information.

Between the smoothie recipe and the cooking demo, here's hoping you remember to eat your dates…and in the process, encounter a few dates to remember!

I am willing to bet you wrinkled your nose when you saw this week's choice. Most people will. That's unfortunate, since this kissin' cabbage cousin is a nutritional powerhouse. It's especially high in vitamin C and vitamin K, it's got folate (which all of you ladies need as much as you can get of), and it contains that anti-Alzheimer's compound I've been writing about a lot lately…choline. It's one of those vegetables like cabbage and broccoli that has some powerful anticancer properties as well. They're low glycemic, and each one only contains 10 calories!

Most people have never eaten a properly cooked Brussels sprout, which is why they think they don't like them. They can taste sulfurous if cooked too long. It's best to cook them until they just turn a bright green. Here's a video on cooking them that may be helpful.

If you're really adventurous, and willing to reconsider, here are some interesting ways to cook them:

Roasted brussels sprouts

Caramelized brussels sprouts (You will need some sugar to do the caramelizing, but you can experiment with how little you really need.)

Brussels sprout stir fry

Browned Brussels sprouts with orange and walnuts

Brussels sprouts with grapes

Grilled Brussels sprouts

And my personal favorite, pictured above, Brussels sprout salad

Bon Appetit!

My post a few days ago about the effects of PCOS on the brain seems to have created some discomfort. We lost a few Facebook fans, and those who did respond, said that learning that PCOS was taking its toll on brain tissue and function was somewhat depressing to take. Theories of behavioral change state that until you know a problem exists, you will not act to change. So while the news can be uncomfortable to live with, the good news is, now you know why you need to make changes. You can't talk yourself out of those changes by convincing yourself that you're at peace with your body type, or that maybe you can live without having a baby. You're fighting for your cognitive life, and only you can make the changes that can make a difference. Here is a list of things you can do to help preserve brain and nervous system function. 1. Get sleep. You may think it's a badge of honor to cut yourself short in the sleep department. But it takes its toll. It is when you sleep, that your brain cleans out all the crud from the day before…spit shining neurons, so to speak. If you go too long without sleep, it's like you're letting rust accumulate all throughout your brain. Make it a habit to get to bed at an hour that allows you to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. 2. Reduce stress. Every little thought, behavior, chemical reaction, that gets you through a day, requires a series of neurons to coordinate that activity. Every time a neuron is asked to work, it uses glucose to do so. Every time a neuron burns a molecule of glucose, it uses oxygen to do so. More neurons = more glucose = more oxidation. Make it a priority to give up the small stuff…and if you can't completely give it up…learn how not to sweat it so much. 3. Manage mental health issues. Most mental health diagnoses affecting PCOS (anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, ADHD), involve processes that overwork the brain and nervous system. People with these disorders are fairly high energy, and that means they are using more neurons, more often, with far more intensity, than people who don't have to live with these conditions. Get counseling. If you need medication, take it. Health means MENTAL as well as PHYSICAL conditioning. Take it seriously. Do what you need to do. Slow down those neurons in any (legal) way available to you. 4. Exercise. Research is showing that regular physical activity slows down the development of brain diseases like Alzheimer's and helps to maintain brain tissue. How many times have you struggled with a problem at your desk, put it down, walked over to the post office, and had an inspiration while moving your body? Muscles and neurons are best friends. Be sure to give them plenty of play dates.

5. Eat less carbohydrate. Because your brain uses glucose, and because it's going to want more glucose when it is stressed, you're going to want to eat more carbs when under pressure. Remember what I said in number 2. The more carbs you eat, the more oxidative stress you impose on your brain. The more easily your brain rusts out and breaks down. I want you to think of this picture every time from this point forward you see a donut, order of french fries, or bottle of soda. Look less appetizing? Good. That was my point. 6. Eat antioxidants Antioxidants, those chemicals with the funny names nutrition experts love to impress people with in their blogs…hate oxidation. Eat them. Don't worry if you can pronounce their names, just know if the food in your hand (1) doesn't have an ingredient label, (2) has color, (3) and rots if left too long in your fridge, it's good for you. Put it on your plate and into your body. 7. Use fish oil. Fifteen percent of the dry weight of a healthy human brain is DHA, one of the primary omega-3's found in fish oil. It has to be fish, it can't be nuts, or flax, or greens. Eat the fish or take the capsules. I don't care if they come up a little bit. You have a choice…burps or brains. Just do it. 8. Reduce omega-6's. All those oils beginning with the letters"s" and"c"…break down brain tissue. Read labels. Get them out of your diet. Two exceptions. Organic canola is fine and coconut oil is fine, provided you're not eating it by the tablespoonful. 9. Yoga. Yoga tones the nervous system. It chills you out. It improves circulation in your spinal column. It improves your flexibility. It helps to manage mental health issues. It pretty much takes items 1 through 8 and makes them work even more effectively for you. It's worth the time. 10. Cut the high-fructose corn syrup. Recent research suggests that HFCS affects memory. Get it out of your diet!

Aaahhh eggs, the misunderstood member of the nutrition family. Poor guys…when I graduated from college, in the height of the low cholesterol-low fat craze, we were indoctrinated to teach that"egg" was just another word for poison.

My how things have changed!

A couple of months ago I heard Dr. Susan Kleiner (www.goodmooddiet.com) speak at a conference. She shared that not once has there been a research study demonstrating that when you take eggs out of the diet, that this dietary change reduces cholesterol. As well, there has been research demonstrating that adding eggs (plus yolks) to the diet does NOT raise cholesterol. All those yolks I threw down the drain all those years…for nothing.

I figured I'd better find some hard research to back THAT one up, so here's a quick list of interesting titles I found in PubMed:
Dietary cholesterol from eggs increases plasma HDL cholesterol in
overweight men consuming a carbohydrate-restricted diet
Egg yolk improves lipid profile, lipid peroxidation and retinal abnormalities
in a murine model of genetic hypercholesterolemia.
There are many more, but here I just wanted to make my point. Egg yolks are not the ugly stepchild of the protein family anymore.

In fact, there are some great nutrients to be found in eggs.

1. Lutein and xeanthin are two carotenoid compounds that can help maintain visual health. One group of researchers reported that 6 eggs per week can help increase lutein and xeanthin levels in the macula, the part of the eye that degenerates in this country's leading cause of blindness, macular degeneration.

2. Eggs contain choline. This compound is very important for brain function. Choline is the building block for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter involved in memory, and the one that many Alzheimer's medications seek to increase.

This compound is exceedingly hard to get in the diet. In fact, about the only two places you can find it, are egg yolks, and soy. (Well, also in cooked chicken, beef, veal, and turkey livers, but I didn't think that would have any of you running for your grocery lists so it goes in parentheses.)

If you've got PCOS, you've probably been told to avoid soy. So that leaves egg yolks for getting this very important memory booster.

3. If you hate fish but you need to increase your fish-based omega-3 intake, omega-3 eggs are a very cost-effective option. If you struggle to get enough vegetables in your diet, omelets and frittatas are great ways to get them in. Just be sure you use olive oil when you cook them.

I thought it might be timely to include eggs on this blog, because as food prices rise, they can certainly be much more cost-effective than salmon, as well as other proteins that are now taxing your grocery bill.

Mutungi G, Ratliff J, Puglisi M, Torres-Gonzalez M, Vaishnav U, Leite JO, Quann E, Volek JS, Fernandez ML. Dietary cholesterol from eggs increases plasma HDL cholesterol in overweight men consuming a carbohydrate-restricted diet. J Nutr. 2008 Feb;138(2):272-6.

Fernández-Robredo P, Rodríguez JA, Sádaba LM, Recalde S, García-Layana A.
Egg yolk improves lipid profile, lipid peroxidation and retinal abnormalities in a murine model of genetic hypercholesterolemia. J Nutr Biochem. 2008 Jan;19(1):40-8.

Wenzel AJ, Gerweck C, Barbato D, Nicolosi RJ, Handelman GJ, Curran-Celentano J. A 12-wk egg intervention increases serum zeaxanthin and macular pigment optical density in women. J Nutr. 2006 Oct;136(10):2568-73.

Goodrow EF, Wilson TA, Houde SC, Vishwanathan R, Scollin PA, Handelman G, Nicolosi RJ. Consumption of one egg per day increases serum lutein and zeaxanthin concentrations in older adults without altering serum lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. J Nutr. 2006 Oct;136(10):2519-24.

"Brain fog"--trouble with focus, memory, and concentration, is a common but little-discussed issue with PCOS. I believe that for many of you, it impairs your ability to follow through with changes you genuinely wish to make because you simply don't remember to do them.

This is more than just an annoying little problem. Women with PCOS are at high risk for developing diabetes, and people with diabetes are at high risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.

So while you may be more focused on how to feel better right now, look better soon, and become pregnant in the near future, I've got my eye on the big picture.

The good news is that the nutrition recommendations we make here are good for all of the problems you might have with PCOS--weight, skin, fertility, mood…and brain function.
,
Fish oil is one of the biggest tools you have. Eating a variety of foods, not forgetting the fruits and vegetables, and getting enough sleep, are all very important to do.

Yesterday I mentioned choline, a chemical that the brain uses to make acetylcholine, the memory neurotransmitter. If you've given up egg yolks because you are afraid of their cholesterol, take note: it's likely not the cholesterol in those yolks that are causing you trouble. And, you're throwing valuable choline down the drain that your brain wants and needs.

This coming week at The inCYSTem, I've put together a week's worth of menus incorporating foods high in choline, some seafood, and good omega 6 to omega 3 balance. A four week subscription to this new program is $15; if you'd like to participate and experience first hand what eating well can do for you…contact me at marika@google.com.

This post is part of the Women's Health Blogfest. Please click on the links below to read more from other contributors! And thanks to everyone who took the time to participate!

In the almost 10 years I have been studying PCOS, I've learned much about what drives a woman's motivation to seek out information. The top reasons women find this blog are:

1. to improve their fertility,
2. to more effectively manage their weight, and
3. to feel and look better

As I've read and met women with the syndrome, I've learned that PCOS is about a whole lot more.

1. A woman's breastfeeding practices seem to significantly influence her child's hormonal health. Many women I've worked with were formula fed at a time when baby formula did not contain essential nutrients.
2. Whether or not you as a woman with PCOS were born to term, and potentially whether or not you were part of a multiple birth, seem to be red flags for PCOS risk later in life.
3. Just because you're a teenager, too young to want to conceive, or a woman who has already had her children, doesn't mean PCOS isn't something to be concerned about. It can mess with your mood, and in turn your energy level and relationships. It can provoke eating disorders. It can elevate your cholesterol. And…through its link to diabetes, it may increase your risk for Alzheimer's disease.

A blog attempting to tackle a syndrome with such widespread effects is not easy to manage. I've been working since we've started to find experts in areas outside of nutrition to complement what I as a dietitian can discuss and promote. I'm really excited to be partnering with lactation consultants to address breastfeeding issues specific to PCOS, and to have Gretchen Kubacky, PsyD, on board, to help us understand what PCOS can do to thinking, mood, and energy. We have one dietitian, Karen Siegel, who is also an acupuncturist, and another acupuncturist will soon be contributing her insight as well.

For the very first time, we are collaborating with Green Mountain at Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont, to offer PCOS Program weeks this coming September! It's been a dream of mine to see this kind of program and there is no better place where it could be launched. Green Mountain is also participating in this blogfest, if you'd like to learn even more, be sure to read their contribution.

We don't just care about your ovaries. We care about all of you, from birth through retirement, and we hope that as we grow and diversify, the expert opinions you will see expressed here on this blog will address the many important ways we can keep our hormones working positively for us.

Thanks for stopping by our contribution to the Women's Health blogfest. If you enjoyed us, you can follow us with the signups you see here on the blog, through our Facebook inCYST group, or through Twitter, via @incyst.

For more information on women's health:

Angela White at Blisstree’s Breastfeeding 1-2-3 – Helpful Skills of Breastfeeding Counselors
Angie Tillman, RD, LDN, CDE – You Are Beautiful Today
Anthony J. Sepe – Women's Health and Migraines
Ashley Colpaart – Women's health through women
Charisse McElwaine – Spending too much time on the"throne?
Danielle Omar – Yoga, Mindful Eating and Food Confidence
Diane Preves M.S.,R.D – Balance for Health
Joan Sather A Woman's Healthy Choices Affect More Than Herself
Laura Wittke – Fibro Study Recruits Participants
Liz Marr, MS, RD – Reflecting on Family Food Ways and Women's Work
Marjorie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT – Healthy Women, Healthy Business: How Your Health Impacts a Powerful Business
Marsha Hudnall – Breakfast Protein Helps Light Eaters Feel Full
Michelle Loy, MPH, MS, RD – A Nutritionista’s Super Foods for Super Skin
Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog – How breastfeeding helps you, too
Rebecca Scritchfield, MA, RD, LD – Four Keys to Wellness, Just for Women
Renata Mangrum, MPH, RD – The busy busy woman
Robin Plotkin, RD, LD – Feeding the Appetites of the Culinary, Epicurious and Nutrition Worlds-One Bite at a Time
Sharon Salomon, MS, RD – Calories, longevity and do I care
Terri L Mozingo, RD, CDN & D. Milton Stokes, MPH, RD, CDN of One Source Nutrition, LLC – Crossing the Line: From Health to Hurt
Wendy Jo Peterson, RD – Watch Your Garden Grow

It's back…food of the week! I was busy with mandatory paperwork much of this month and it consumed blogging time. I'm excited about a summer full of fun foods to try.

I ran across this while writing another article, and since PCOS is common in Hispanics I wanted to be sure to include it.

Nopalitos are cactus pads…as shown at the top of this post, in their natural environment.

But there's a lot to getting them ready to eat! You have to skin them, which takes out the stickers. And you have to cook them. I see cactus pads in the local Hispanic market, but for those of you who are not quite so adventurous, you can find them already cooked, in which case this is how they look.

What's so great about nopalitos? Well, they're chock full of the kind of fiber that helps bring your cholesterol down. You will notice when you take them out of the jar, they have a bit of a gooey consistency, kind of like okra. Don't"boo the goo"--that's the fiber!

In addition to fiber, nopalitos have a decent choline content. Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., a respected colleague, shared in a presentation last year that choline is not at all easy to find in the diet. And that can pose a problem since choline is the building block for acetylcholine, crucial for memory. So crucial, in fact, that many Alzheimer's medications are designed to increase acetylcholine levels.

Who would have thought that cactus could be brain food? They are also a decent source of vitamins A, C, K…and folate, that reproductively important vitamin that keeps showing up in our recommended foods on this blog.

So how the heck do you cook it? I'd recommend you Google"nopalitos recipes" for a lot of suggestions, but I'll share one here that makes it look pretty tasty, adapted from a recipe I found at Karen's Kitchen.

Nopalitos Salad

Ingredients:

1 jar precooked nopalitos
3 lemons
1 T olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
Cilantro (1 or more bunches, to taste)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Empty nopalitos into a strainer. Fill a large bowl with water and juice of 2 lemons. Add about a teaspoonful of salt and then put the cactus into it, soak for about 30 minutes.

Remove the leaves from the water and chop it into 1/2" pieces.

In a skillet, heat the nopalitos with onion, garlic and salt until warm.

Remove from heat and drain. Add the rest of the ingredients, adding juice of last lemon, salt and olive oil for a dressing. Serve cold.

Buen apetito!

Not long ago I created a webinar about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. I found a great graphic that explains something most people have not considered when it comes to reproductive hormone health. Many of the hormones that we need for proper function of our reproductive systems (whether we're trying to conceive or slow down aging), are made out of cholesterol. Just look at this picture below!

As you can see, we need a decent supply of cholesterol in the body in order to even make progesterone and estrogen! However, we've become very obsessed with the idea that cholesterol is a"bad" thing. So much so that in 2001 the National Cholesterol Education Program lowered the level of ideal cholesterol so much that the number of people who ideally should be on cholesterol-lowering medications…tripled.
This may be more pertinent to women with PCOS, approaching menopause, who are more likely to be placed on statin medications than younger women who are trying to conceive.
However, I just wonder, a lot, if it's not really a coincidence that as we focus on cholesterol and getting it out of our bodies, we also seem to be developing more problems related to hormone imbalances…infertility, early menopause, even Alzheimer's, which is starting to be recognized as a consequence of insulin resistance, which is associated with PCOS.
Bottom line: Eat well, and be careful of obnoxiously high cholesterol levels, but try to avoid an obsession with a"lower is better" mentality. Cholesterol is an essential compound, and not to be feared.

You may know of melatonin as a potent sleep aid. So much so, that if you took melatonin and you did not experience an enhanced ability to sleep, you stopped taking it.

Did you know, melatonin is a very powerful antioxidant as well? Some of the benefits of this compound relevant to PCOS include:

--lowered blood pressure
--improved memory
--reduced adrenal gland activity and cortisol secretion
--reduced cortisol response to stress
--reduced blood glucose, insulin levels, and insulin response to a glucose load
--reduced cholesterol and triglycerides
--reduced testosterone levels
--increased progesterone synthesis
--slows gastric emptying (which can help you to feel fuller, longer)

That's a lot of stuff! And it's not just not sleeping well that interferes with melatonin metabolism. So does fasting and starvation…which includes any kind of radical diet, including the medically supervised ones and the HCG ones. Melatonin levels in all three types of eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are disrupted. Obesity suppresses normal melatonin daily rhythms. Omega-3 deficiency reduces melatonin synthesis and total tissue levels.

Vitamin deficiencies such as B12, zinc, and magnesium, can interfere with good melatonin status. When I read that, I immediately thought of the many vegetarians reading this blog, as those are common deficiencies when vegetarian eating is not proactively balanced.

Normal melatonin metabolism may be dependent on physical activity.

Medical problems associated with a melatonin imbalance include: affective disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, autism, bipolar disorder, cervical cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, cluster headaches, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, Cushing’s syndrome, depression, diabetes, duodenal ulcer, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, hypertension, idiopathic pain syndrome, lung cancer, metabolic syndrome, migraine headaches, obesity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, Parkinson’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, pre-eclampsia, premenstrual syndrome, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, sleep apnea, and ulcerative colitis.

I'm well aware that many people reading this blog are looking for a magic supplement to erase the need for making healthy lifestyle choices. If you choose to supplement with melatonin, it likely will not hurt you, and it may help you to restore normal sleep patterns, but it will never replace the power of regular, adequate sleep. Just sayin'.: )

If you've never used melatonin before, and you decide to start, you may want to try it on a night when it's not essential that you be up and functioning early the next day. It can have a paradoxical reaction in some people.

And, if you happen to be a professional pilot, the FAA advises against using melatonin while on duty. It certainly wouldn't hurt on your days off, especially if you've been on some grueling red eye flights, just beware of this disclaimer while officially on duty.

I have an extensive list of references I've collected from which this blog post was derived. If you would like them you can contact me directly.

Bottom line, if you don't value sleep, your body is going to have a really, really, really hard time being healthy.

Kind of an obvious choice this week…

…I wanted to highlight eggs since they are a food many people don't eat, thinking about the cholesterol.

It used to be, when I was brand-new to this profession, I was taught to tell people to avoid eggs. Because of the cholesterol.

It turns out, the cholesterol in eggs has been shown to not increase serum cholesterol, and taking eggs out of your diet doesn't really decrease your cholesterol.

Besides that, eggs…

…are cheap.
…have one of the highest quality proteins available.
…are one of the very few foods contain choline (in the yolk), which is very important for maintaining memory, potentially reducing your risk for Alzheimer's disease.
…are a good source of vitamin B-12, another nutrient that isn't always easy to get.
…are convenient to eat.
…if you get the omega-3 kind, can be a source of DHA, which is not easy to get in your diet if you don't like or don't have access to fish.

So have fun with your holiday and take advantage of the fact that you've got all those boiled eggs in the frig. Have them for breakfast. Put them on your salad at lunch.

And know it's something good you're doing for yourself!