Running with Support

People run for many different reasons. For some, it's the ideal way to keep in shape and prevent weight gain, for others it's the competition and achievement of a personal record, and then there are those who run simply because they enjoy the peace and relaxation.

Peace and relaxation is the most important, and yet it's often the most readily overlooked reason to run. The pressures of current, everyday life can sometimes cause your running to feel relegated; causing your training to become boring, because you simply go through the motions.One way to prevent your runs from becoming stale and boring is to run with a partner or group.My favorite running partners are my two Labrador Retrievers.My dogs have an enormous impact on my dedication to running, their positive energy and enthusiasm makes me forget the hard work and pain I have to overcome.

The benefits of having a partner are supportive to your running lifestyle:

·Motivation - if you are committed to a group or running partner, you'll be less likely to shut off your alarm and fall back to sleep.It makes a big difference of you have someone counting on you to show up!!

·Enhanced performance - with someone running by your side, your competitive spirit kicks into gear, helping you make it up that hill or run a farther distance.

·Socializing - running in a group is a great way to meet new people or form closer relationships with those you already know.

·Conversation - while running, you should be able to carry on a conversation. Having a conversation while running, is a good way to test that you are not over-exerting yourself.

·Increased safety - if someone gets injured, there is someone there to help, and running in pairs or with a dog lessens the chance of being a crime victim.

The Patient and Community Resource Center, located in the Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center, is available for all Lake Health patients, family members and our community residents.  It is located on the 1^st floor, Suite 113 in the Physician Pavilion adjacent to TriPoint Medical Center. 

The staff of the Lake Health Resource Center are professionally trained, with many years of reference experience.  The Resource Center Team will:

• Find answers to your health care questions
• Provide you with a current overview of a disease or health concern
• Assist you in conduction of your own health care research
• Guide you in selecting authoritative resources

Come visit the Patient and Community Resource Center and the entire Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center on Saturday, May 1, 2010, 9 am – 12 noon.  The Physician Pavilion at TriPoint Medical Center will be celebrating with a Community Open House.

Call the Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center to check on staff availability.  Email and voicemail are available 24/7.

Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center
Phone:  440-639-4387 or ext.42019
Email:   library@lakehealth.org

Holly S. Kimborowicz, MLS, AHIP                                          Cathy Murch, MLIS, AHIP
Health Science Librarian                                                            Systems Librarian

The best way for me to stress the importance of proper hydration for runners, is to explain how dehydration affects the body.  Running causes the body to lose fluid from exhaling moisture and sweating.  If fluid losses are not replaced by water or sport drinks, the concentration of solutes in the blood becomes too high, leading to dehydration and thickening of blood.  In order to maintain adequate blood flow to working muscles and vital organs the heart rate must increase, which places strain on the cardiovascular system. When excessive fluid loss occurs, the blood volume and blood pressure falls.   As blood volume depletes, hormones are released signaling the kidneys to reabsorb and recirculate water. When the body needs water, less is excreted and more is retained causing impaired heat dissipation from the skin and core temperature to rise, eventually leading to heat illnesses.
            The chart below shows the signs and symptoms of dehydration based on the amount of fluid lost.  When a certain percentage of dehydration occurs the body cannot continue normal physiologic functions.  This can be devastating to a runner’s performance and most importantly their health.

A runner can sweat out six cups of fluid in an hour.  Just think about how much you drink in a day, not including pop or alcohol beverages.  With that in mind, are you drinking enough fluids? 

Also, for severe dehydration it may be necessary to hospitalize the person and restore fluid balance through intravenousfluid replacement.   In order to prevent dehydration, drink before, during, and after your runs. Drink before running and make sure you have access fluids if running longer than 30 minutes. During longer runs, some of your fluid intake should include a sports drink to replace electrolytes.

Humor can be one of the best stress relievers. Scientifically, laughter has been shown to release endorphins---the body’s own natural pain killer and feel-good chemical. From a physical standpoint, laughing is like an aerobic exercise. Researchers have shown that one-hundred good belly laughs have the same health benefits as fifteen minutes on a stationary bicycle. Laughter has also been shown to strengthen the immune system so it can fight off viral and bacterial infections. Good, solid laughter can even increase the natural killer cells of the body that destroy abnormal precancerous cells. Laughter really is good medicine.

From an emotional standpoint, using humor can be a good coping strategy. When you laugh about something, you can momentarily forget your tension, and your body automatically relaxes. Humor can also give you a fresh approach to life’s daily stressors.  It can help you keep a sense of proportion and perspective about situations in which you find yourself. After all, there will be many things—other people’s action or life events---that will be out of our control.

Humor can bring enjoyment to life and dramatically interferes with thoughts and feelings of depression and anxiety. Have you ever noticed that when you are laughing the tension of anxiety fades and levels of sadness can be lifted? 

People who laugh often are usually more social, pleasant to be around and report feeling less physical and emotional tension. Patients who use humor to cope with medical conditions report that it feels like taking a break from worry, pain and fear. This distancing can help you take a break from your current distress while at the same time mobilizing your coping resources for your future coping needs.

Managing stress is critical to your health.  Stress has been shown to be an independent risk factor for heart disease and it reduces the effectiveness of the body’s immune system. This compromised immune function puts you at risk for developing numerous chronic diseases.

So, take care of your health and go ahead and laugh.

A lot has been made of calculating your “real age”…an interesting device for assessing how old you may be on a cellular level.  In reality, no one can tell you exactly how much older or younger you are when you change the way you live and eat.   Nevertheless, these kinds of quizzes remind us of the fact that our lifestyle choices cause real life consequences and can reap honest-to-goodness rewards.

I am more interested, though, in another kind of age; one you might not have heard of.  AGE is an acronym for “advanced glycation endproducts”, a mouthful of a term with the world’s most appropriate initials.  In fact, when our bodies accumulate advanced glycation endproducts, they age.   AGE’s are result of a process that begins when sugars in the heated environment of our body attach to proteins.  Once hooked together, these altered body elements begin to warp the structures that contain them disrupting their function.  This kind of damage can occur in places like cells and the walls of blood vessels.   When body elements are damaged, inflammatory reactions often occur in response.  Indeed, harmful body inflammation is an important consequence of AGE formation.

Diabetics have chronically high blood sugars and form a lot of AGEs.   Most doctors and scientists believe that the complications of diabetes—things like atherosclerosis, kidney failure, retinal damage and nerve problems---are the result of too much sugar in the blood. Knowledge of AGEs takes that understanding one step further.  It is likely that the AGEs formed by the availability of sugar are the actual cause of the damage. 

If you are diabetic or know someone who is, you probably already know about one type of AGE.  The blood test that doctors use to monitor long term blood sugar control is called a Hemoglobin A1C.   Hemoglobin is a protein that lives in our red cells, each of which has a lifespan of about 120 days.  As a protein, hemoglobin is just one of the body’s elements which are susceptible to glycation.  In other words, when a lot of sugar is around in the blood, it will attach itself to the hemoglobin and get permanently attached.  Since any particular red cell will be around for a few months, doctors can get a general idea of how high the sugar has been by looking at how much glycation has occurred.  In people with normal blood sugar, there is hardly any sugar attached to the hemoglobin protein; in poorly controlled diabetics, there is a large amount.   Since Hemoglobin A1C is just one of zillions of potentially glycated elements, we can assume that the rest of the body has suffered similar glycation damage. 

AGEs are found in the retinal blood vessels of diabetics and they are known to accumulate in their peripheral nerves as well.  AGEs can be seen in the parts of the kidney that become damaged in diabetes.  AGEs can also affect the type of “bad” cholesterol you carry, making it more likely to enter vessel walls and start forming clogs. It is also important to note that even healthy people have AGEs.  They begin to accumulate in our bodies during our embryonic life and continue to form as we grow older.  The process is usually slow, but it is vastly accelerated by having a lot of blood sugar around; thus the greatly increased risk for diabetics.

Recently, researchers have begun look more intensively at the accumulation of AGEs in healthy people.  It is very possible that people who have more AGEs are aging more quickly.  In this regard, an interesting theme has emerged.  In addition to making AGES, we may be racking up an excess by ingesting them.   AGEs are made when sugars and proteins are heated.  The body is warm and essentially contributes to the “cooking” of these two elements.  Similarly, the sugars and proteins in foods can form AGEs when cooked at high temperatures.  Although it seems hard to believe that eating AGEs could harm us, there is evidence accumulating that this may indeed be the case.  A 2007 research article in The Journal of Gerontology (http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/62/4/427.full ) reported that:

1. Even healthy people had evidence of AGEs in their blood
2. The older you are, the more AGEs
3. The number of AGEs you have is directly correlated to how much harmful inflammation is going on in your body
4. Eating food with a large number of AGEs elevates the AGE level in your blood.  This effect is more pronounced in older people, but occurs in everyone.

Cooking foods at high temperatures by broiling, baking, frying and grilling elevates the AGE content. Cooking with liquid lowers the content.  At the moment, recommendations for low-AGE eating suggest that foods be cooked by slower, lower heat techniques.  Poaching, boiling, steaming and using slow-cookers are suggested methods.

Once again, AGE related research points to the wisdom of eating more ancient diets.  Keeping blood sugar low by avoiding large amounts of starch and sugars makes bodily AGE formation more difficult.  Eating a diet that is high in uncooked elements like fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy and lower in cooked foods that require high heat is in keeping with the way most maintainers eat.   There is also some research that suggests that calorie restriction is effective in lowering the production of AGEs.  Because maintainers have learned to eat judiciously, they are already keeping total calories low.  

In other words, we’re on the right track!  Enjoy your lower body weight with the knowledge that your lifestyle and eating choices may also be protecting you from the premature ravages of AGE and aging.

The Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center welcomes all Lake Health patients, families,
community residents, team members and medical staff.  Located on the 1^st floor of the Physician Pavilion adjacent to TriPoint Medical Center, the Resource Center includes the Patient and Community Resource Center, Professional Resource Center, and a small audiovisual/meeting room.

Lake Health wants you to be an informed partner in your own care, working with your health care professionals.  Accurate, reliable information is vital for making good health care decisions.  The Patient and Community Resource Center provides access to authoritative, current medical and health information.  Assistance is provided by professional library staff who will conduct research and select resources.  Computers with internet access are available for use by patients, families and community residents.

Print resources, including books and magazines, are available to sign-out or to use in the Resource Center.  Listed below are some of our print cancer resources:

After cancer treatment : heal faster, better, stronger / Julie K. Silver.
Silver, J. K. (Julie K.), 1965-
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
x, 269 p. ; 24 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004101 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 201 S5866a 2006

After the diagnosis : how to look out for yourself or a loved one / Donna L. Pikula.
Pikula, Donna L.
Hartland, MI : Books 2 Help You, LLC, c2006.
xx, 275 p. ; 26 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004144 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: W 85 P55a 2006

The American Cancer Society's healthy eating cookbook : a celebration of food, friends, and healthy living.
3rd ed.
Atlanta, Ga. : American Cancer Society, c2005.
262 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004092 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 A44 2005

COPING WITH CANCER
MEDIA AMERICA INC.
Copy: 1 Location: CONS-TP
ITEM ID: 96000194 Media Type: JNL
Issue : Feb/Mar 2010
Date Received: 2/15/2010

Coping with chemotherapy and radiation / Daniel Cukier ... [et al.].
New York : McGraw-Hill, c2005.
xxiii, 264 p. ; 23 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004157 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 C675 2005

 Everyone's guide to cancer therapy : how cancer is diagnosed, treated, and managed day to day / Andrew H. Ko, Malin Dollinger, Ernest H. Rosenbaum.
Ko, Andrew H.
Rev. 5th ed.
Kansas City : Andrews McMeel Pub., c2008.
xxxv, 988 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004098 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 D59 2008

Lymphedema : understanding and managing lymphedema after cancer treatment / from the experts at the American Cancer Society ; foreword Atlanta, Ga. : American Cancer Society, c2006.
xxiii, 179 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004162 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 L966 2006

Understanding cancer : a patient's guide to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment / C. Norman Coleman.
Coleman, C. Norman.
2nd ed.
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
xvii, 206 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Page 12 of 13 3/17/2010
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004148 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 C675 2005

What helped get me through : cancer survivors share wisdom and hope / edited by Julie K. Silver.
Atlanta, GA : American Cancer Society/Health Promotions, c2009.
xvii, 362 p. ; 23 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004091 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 201 W48w 2009

What to eat during cancer treatment : 100 great-tasting, family-friendly recipes to help you cope / Jeanne Besser ... [et al.].
Atlanta, GA : American Cancer Society, c2009.
xviii, 158 p. : col. ill. ; 23 cm.
Copy: 1
ITEM ID: E0004089 Media Type: BK
Local Call Number: QZ 266 W53 2009


Call the Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center to check on staff availability.  Email and voicemail are available 24/7.

                                                Carol DeJoy Lake Health Resource Center
                                                     Phone:  440-639-4387 or ext.42019
                                                           Email:   library@lakehealth.org

 
Holly S. Kimborowicz, MLS, AHIP                                           Cathy Murch, MLIS, AHIP
Health Science Librarian                                                               Systems Librarian

Successful maintainers are inevitably people who have rebuilt their dietary habits.  This kind of reconstruction is obligatory.  It seems to be a process that most of us intuitively discover some time during the first year of weight stabilization.   In the best of all worlds, the months of weight loss would be a time for dietary demolition, a preparation for future rebuilding.  Unfortunately, this is not what happens.   The vast majority of dieters are changing habits temporarily and are eagerly anticipating a return to some modification of their previous eating plan.   This, more than any other factor dooms them to weight regain.

As I often tell my patients, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is like a poorly built house.  What most dieters do is to attempt to redecorate that house.  They move the furniture around, change the pictures on the wall.  That doesn’t do anything to shore up a weak and leaky structure.  During the weight loss phase, dieters should be thinking about completely tearing down their house so that a new one can rise in its place.   What will this new house need?  It needs to be strong, healthy and livable.  It also needs to offer a strong wall of protection against the temptations of the SAD.

Want another analogy? Moving to a new, clean way of eating is like going from being a Coca Cola drinker to a wine connoisseur.  The SAD is like cola:  overly sweet, fizzy, advertised everywhere, fun and eminently consumable.  It’s easy to love Coke because it’s simply pleasurable. On the other hand, most of us can remember our first reaction to wine.  Remember when some adult offered you a sip?  It was strong, flavorless and bitter.  There was nothing good about it.  You even might have wondered how grown-ups could drink the stuff.   But as you experienced wine over the years, you likely came to appreciate its nuances; its subtleties.  Enjoying wine takes more than just taste buds.  It’s an adult pleasure that’s hard to enjoy until you are, in fact, an adult.

If you are making an honest effort to rebuild your dietary house, you will undoubtedly go through a Coke to wine experience.  Initially, your new diet of clean, healthy foods will seem a bit tasteless, a bit repetitious, a bit depriving.  Where is that old zing?  That fizz?  That thrill?  But slowly, over time, the pleasures to be derived from your new menu begin to assert themselves.  The subtle flavors of real foods—unadorned and un-fussed with---start to speak.  In time you find that you are attuned to the underlying notes, ones that—in the past--- would have been covered up by sauces, salt, or breading.  It is this transition period from deprivation to enjoyment that takes time.  And it is during this transition that maintainers are most vulnerable.   If the old fizzy, sweet, fun flavors get into the mix at this crucial moment, they are likely to overwhelm.  Once that occurs, any hope of maintenance is gone. 

But many of you have progressed far past that point.  For those who have crossed the dietary Rubicon, the rewards are sweet.  The houses are strong.  In the new land on the other side of the river, the pleasures of food have a new meaning.  Wine flows and an apple sings a song both eloquent and luscious. 

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is a time to encourage everyone over the age of 50 to get screened regularly for colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is cancer of the rectum or colon. It’s the second leading cause of cancer-related death for both men and women.

People over the age of 50 are at the highest risk for colorectal cancer. Other risk factors include:

• Growths (called polyps) inside the colon • Family history of colorectal cancer • Smoking • Health conditions like Crohn’s Disease • Being African-American

Here’s the good news: you can reduce your risk if you get screened for colorectal cancer starting at the age of 50. You can also reduce your risk of colorectal cancer by:

• Getting active • Eating healthy • Quitting smoking

Source: Healthfinder.gov

Colorectal Cancer Resources
• Colorectal Cancer.  Information from MedlinePlus including interactive tutorials, overviews, latest news, diagnosis/symptoms, treatment, prevention/screening, research, multimedia, research, and more.
• Get Tested for Colorectal Cancer
• Colorectal Cancer Risk:  Understanding the Puzzle
• Colorectal Cancer Risk Assessment Screening Tool  • Prevent Cancer Foundation
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Colorectal Cancer Awareness: Some Important Facts You Need to Know
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorectal (Colon) Cancer: Basic Information
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorectal Cancer Screening Saves Lives Brochure (PDF - 2.27MB)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Personal Screening Stories
• Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, Bilingual Brochure Tackles Colorectal Cancer (PDF - 1.1MB)
• Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, Colorectal Cancer, Catch it Early, Get Screened!
• National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Colorectal Cancer Screening (PDQ®)

If you would like more information, please feel free to contact a Lake Health Professional Librarian