t's widely known that just one cup of tea can prevent strokes, arthritis, tooth decay and even keep cancer at bay. While it's regarded as nature's tranquiliser for its soothing properties, the brew also has another great benefit - it helps shed weight. Scientists have shown that tea has high levels of compounds that battle the absorption of fat.
Here are 5 teas that can result in a slimmer you...
Star anise tea: promotes digestion
Star anise, the fruit of a small evergreen tree (Illicium verum) native to China, can be used in the treatment of digestive troubles such an upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea etc. One may drink a tea made from it by steeping a whole pod in one cup of hot water for 10 minutes. Strain this and sweeten it if required. Sip on this slowly when an upset stomach occurs.
Peppermint tea: controls what you eat
If you like peppermint tea then try and rotate that with a green tea drink as both speed up digestion and thus help you burn more calories. The peppermint leaves can be used to make a light, refreshing tea, which can be drunk either hot or chilled. To prepare the tea, take a tablespoon of fresh or dried leaves and add them to boiling water and let it steep for four to five minutes. Strain and add honey, if needed.
Green tea: builds metabolism
Research says the chemical EGCG found in green tea that speeds up the body's metabolism, is responsible for helping people lose the kilos - it can burn a whopping 70 calories a day! Green tea also raises the level of antioxidants. It's believed the antioxidant catechins in green tea boost metabolism and helps burn fat (can burn a whopping 70 calories a day!) Steeping time for the tea: two to three minutes at 85 Degrees Celsius.
Rose tea: prevents constipation
One of the oldest flavouring teas available, rose tea - made by mixing fresh roses and the bud of the tea - has a major therapeutic effect on the human body. Apart from clearing toxins and beautifying the skin, rose tea contains vitamins A, B3, C, D and E and is known to act against infections. It also prevents constipation and helps one lose weight.
Oolong tea: guards against obesity
Research reveals that oolong, a semi-fermented tea may have a stronger effect than even green tea. It promotes fat burning is said to help reduce cholesterol and the concentration of fat in the body. About two cups per day is recommended. Steep oolong tea anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes, for a more full-bodied cup.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Working long hours doubles depression odds
(Health.com) -- Working long hours appears to substantially increase a person's risk of becoming depressed, regardless of how stressful the actual work is, a new study suggests.
The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.
The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.
Although the findings are "consistent with previous studies, the degree of increased risk was surprising," says Bryan Bruno, M.D., chair of the psychiatry department at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City, who was not involved in the research. "The biggest condition that I work with is depression, and it is often related to work stressors."
Health.com: 10 careers with high rates of depression
Andrew Weil on "Spontaneous Happiness" Overworked junior and mid-level employees appear to be more prone to depression than people higher up the food chain, the study suggests. The length of the workday didn't have a perceptible impact on the mental health of higher-paid, top-level employees such as cabinet secretaries, directors, team leaders, and policy managers.
That's likely due to the amount of control higher-ups have over their own work, says Alan Gelenberg, M.D., who, as the chair of the psychiatry department at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park, is a higher-up himself.
"We have more control over what we work on; we can choose the fun stuff," says Gelenberg, who was not involved in the study. "I do mostly what I want to do, and when I put in an extra hard week, it's my choice."
Health.com: Job killing you? 8 types of work-related stress
For those lower on the totem pole, the researchers say long hours at the office could contribute to depression in several ways—by creating family or relationship conflicts, for instance, or by elevating levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Job insecurity and sleep deprivation also may help explain the increased risk of depression, Bruno says, noting that previous research has shown that poor sleep is a key ingredient in work-related depression. "I often really focus on that symptom," he says, referring to his own patients.
Recent studies on overtime and depression have reported similar results, but most used a less rigorous standard for measuring depression. The new study included face-to-face consultations and used the American Psychiatric Association's official criteria for clinical depression, making it one "one of the rare studies" to do so, says lead author Marianna Virtanen, Ph.D., a researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in Helsinki.
Health.com: Depression in the workplace: don't ask, don't tell?
The new research, which appears in the journal PLoS ONE, drew upon data from a long-running study, known as Whitehall II, that includes employees from 20 London-based branches of the British civil service.
The study participants Virtanen and her colleagues focused on were all deemed mentally healthy when they were first evaluated between 1991 and 1993. Six years later, slightly more than 3% of the employees were found to have experienced clinical depression within the previous year. The more overtime they worked, the more likely they were to be depressed.
The majority of the study participants (52%) worked a normal seven- or eight-hour workday. Thirty-seven percent averaged nine- or 10-hour days, and 11% worked 11 hours or more.
Health.com: How to stop multitasking and lower stress
The study had several shortcomings. The authors looked only at white-collar civil servants, for example, so it's not clear whether the results would apply to blue-collar workers or to employees in the private sector.
Another question the study doesn't answer is how long an employee can maintain 11-hour workdays before the risk of depression begins to rise: One month? One year?
"When we talk about working short increments of overtime versus long-term [overtime], we don't know what's too long," Gelenberg says. "When do things tip over?"
The study, which followed 2,123 British civil servants for six years, found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours.
The link between long workdays and depression persisted even after the researchers took into account factors such as job strain, the level of support in the workplace, alcohol use, smoking, and chronic physical diseases.
Although the findings are "consistent with previous studies, the degree of increased risk was surprising," says Bryan Bruno, M.D., chair of the psychiatry department at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City, who was not involved in the research. "The biggest condition that I work with is depression, and it is often related to work stressors."
Health.com: 10 careers with high rates of depression
Andrew Weil on "Spontaneous Happiness" That's likely due to the amount of control higher-ups have over their own work, says Alan Gelenberg, M.D., who, as the chair of the psychiatry department at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park, is a higher-up himself.
"We have more control over what we work on; we can choose the fun stuff," says Gelenberg, who was not involved in the study. "I do mostly what I want to do, and when I put in an extra hard week, it's my choice."
Health.com: Job killing you? 8 types of work-related stress
For those lower on the totem pole, the researchers say long hours at the office could contribute to depression in several ways—by creating family or relationship conflicts, for instance, or by elevating levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Job insecurity and sleep deprivation also may help explain the increased risk of depression, Bruno says, noting that previous research has shown that poor sleep is a key ingredient in work-related depression. "I often really focus on that symptom," he says, referring to his own patients.
Recent studies on overtime and depression have reported similar results, but most used a less rigorous standard for measuring depression. The new study included face-to-face consultations and used the American Psychiatric Association's official criteria for clinical depression, making it one "one of the rare studies" to do so, says lead author Marianna Virtanen, Ph.D., a researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in Helsinki.
Health.com: Depression in the workplace: don't ask, don't tell?
The new research, which appears in the journal PLoS ONE, drew upon data from a long-running study, known as Whitehall II, that includes employees from 20 London-based branches of the British civil service.
The study participants Virtanen and her colleagues focused on were all deemed mentally healthy when they were first evaluated between 1991 and 1993. Six years later, slightly more than 3% of the employees were found to have experienced clinical depression within the previous year. The more overtime they worked, the more likely they were to be depressed.
The majority of the study participants (52%) worked a normal seven- or eight-hour workday. Thirty-seven percent averaged nine- or 10-hour days, and 11% worked 11 hours or more.
Health.com: How to stop multitasking and lower stress
The study had several shortcomings. The authors looked only at white-collar civil servants, for example, so it's not clear whether the results would apply to blue-collar workers or to employees in the private sector.
Another question the study doesn't answer is how long an employee can maintain 11-hour workdays before the risk of depression begins to rise: One month? One year?
"When we talk about working short increments of overtime versus long-term [overtime], we don't know what's too long," Gelenberg says. "When do things tip over?"
Olympus to announce April-Dec. earnings results on Feb. 13+
Scandal-hit Olympus Corp. said Friday it will announce its group earnings results for the April to December period on Feb. 13, with President Shuichi Takayama giving a press conference in Tokyo.
Many analysts expect Olympus to report lackluster earnings for the nine-month period after posting a group net loss of 32.33 billion yen for the April to September half due mainly to its sluggish digital camera business.
The Japanese camera and medical equipment maker, battered by the revelation of a coverup of massive investment losses, avoided being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week.
Many analysts expect Olympus to report lackluster earnings for the nine-month period after posting a group net loss of 32.33 billion yen for the April to September half due mainly to its sluggish digital camera business.
The Japanese camera and medical equipment maker, battered by the revelation of a coverup of massive investment losses, avoided being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Many Breast Cancer Patients Uninformed About Options: Study
Many Breast Cancer Patients Uninformed About Options: Study
By Madonna BehenHealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) — In too many cases, doctors aren’t doing a good job of informing American women with early stage breast cancer about the disease or their options in terms of surgery, a new study suggests.
In the study, researchers at the University of North Carolina surveyed breast cancer survivors on their knowledge of the disease. Respondents typically answered only about half of the questions correctly, and less than half said their surgeons had even asked them about their personal preference for surgery — a full mastectomy vs. breast-conserving lumpectomy — prior to treatment.
“We found that breast cancer survivors had fairly major gaps in their knowledge about their surgical options, including about the implications for recurrence and survival,” said study lead author Dr. Clara Lee, an associate professor of surgery and director of surgical research at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
The paper was published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
For the study, Lee and her colleagues sent surveys to 746 women who had undergone surgery for stage one or stage two breast cancer at one of four medical centers: the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Among the 440 patients who responded to the survey, less than half (about 46 percent) knew that local recurrence risk is higher after breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) than after mastectomy, and only about 56 percent of women knew that survival rates are equivalent for both options.
The study also revealed that women who said they preferred mastectomy were less likely to have treatment that was in accordance with their goals. Lee said this was probably because “patients reported that their doctors were more likely to discuss breast conservation therapy and its advantages than mastectomy. And many women did not recall being asked for their preference. We know from other studies that doctors don’t always know their patients’ personal preferences, so they may not be fully aware when a woman truly prefers mastectomy.”
The fact that less than half (48.6 percent) of the patients recalled being asked their preference was particularly concerning to Lee.
“It would be one thing if we were talking about decisions for which there is clearly a superior treatment, such as treatment for an inflamed gallbladder,” Lee said. “In this case, it’s reasonable and actually better for the surgeon to make a recommendation. But here we’re talking about a decision where there is no medically right answer, and it really depends on the patient’s preference. In that situation, it makes sense to ask the patient what she prefers.”
Another breast cancer surgeon cautioned that the retrospective nature of the study (asking women to recall past events) and the fact that the women filled out the surveys an average of two and a half years following surgery makes it hard to draw firm conclusions.
“Clearly there are deficits in knowledge, but what we don’t know for sure is if that’s because the surgeon failed to convey this information, or the surgeon failed to convey it in a way that the patient could understand, or the patient has simply forgotten,” said Dr. Leslie Montgomery, chief of breast surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
“If anything, I’m actually surprised that the numbers were as good as they were,” Montgomery added. “There’s often a big difference between what a woman is told and what she actually absorbs at a time when she is so emotionally distressed.”
Montgomery believes the study is valuable, however, because it “helps identify the scope of the problem” and will be useful for designing future prospective trials.
“As surgeons, we really need to make sure we convey the proper information to a woman at what is probably one of the most stressful times in her life,” Montgomery said.
Treating Diabetes, Depression Together May Make Sense
(HealthDay News) — Patients with depression and type 2 diabetes showed more improvement when they received simultaneous treatment for both conditions, researchers report.
Their 12-week study of 180 patients found that nearly 61 percent of those who received integrated care combined with a brief program to help them adhere to their medication regimens achieved improved blood sugar test results, and almost 59 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms.
Among patients who received usual primary care for the two conditions, nearly 36 percent had improved blood sugar test results and about 31 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms, said the researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study appears in the January/February issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
There is a link between depression and diabetes, the researchers noted. Depression is a risk factor for diabetes, and diabetes also increases the risk of depression. Depression is common in diabetes patients and contributes to poor adherence to diabetes medication regimens, which can lead to poorer diabetes management.
In the integrated treatment group, care managers worked with participants to increase their adherence to both diabetes and depression medications, addressing barriers such as medicine costs and lack of social support.
“Though research demonstrates the link between depression and diabetes, few integrated programs are being implemented in practice,” study lead author Dr. Hillary Bogner, an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
“Our results demonstrate that integrated treatment for both conditions, combined with a brief program focused on adherence for primary care patients with type 2 diabetes and depression can result in a significant improvement in clinical outcomes. We hope the findings will encourage the adoption of adherence programs aimed at improving outcomes,” Bogner added.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about depression and diabetes.
Their 12-week study of 180 patients found that nearly 61 percent of those who received integrated care combined with a brief program to help them adhere to their medication regimens achieved improved blood sugar test results, and almost 59 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms.
Among patients who received usual primary care for the two conditions, nearly 36 percent had improved blood sugar test results and about 31 percent had a reduction in depression symptoms, said the researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study appears in the January/February issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
There is a link between depression and diabetes, the researchers noted. Depression is a risk factor for diabetes, and diabetes also increases the risk of depression. Depression is common in diabetes patients and contributes to poor adherence to diabetes medication regimens, which can lead to poorer diabetes management.
In the integrated treatment group, care managers worked with participants to increase their adherence to both diabetes and depression medications, addressing barriers such as medicine costs and lack of social support.
“Though research demonstrates the link between depression and diabetes, few integrated programs are being implemented in practice,” study lead author Dr. Hillary Bogner, an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine, said in a university news release.
“Our results demonstrate that integrated treatment for both conditions, combined with a brief program focused on adherence for primary care patients with type 2 diabetes and depression can result in a significant improvement in clinical outcomes. We hope the findings will encourage the adoption of adherence programs aimed at improving outcomes,” Bogner added.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about depression and diabetes.
