Halloween is over and a lot of people, not just kids, had a great time indulging in candies, brownies, and all the sweets that abound during this trick or treat fest. But whether it’s Halloween or not, most Americans love to have too much sweets in their diet without regard to getting overweight, which may lead to obesity and other problems related to too much sugar intake such as wrinkles.
According to Kerry Neville, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, Americans eat too much sugar, and it appears that the threat of making them fat doesn’t seem to discourage excess sugar eating. So this latest wrinkle scare might just do the trick. That is great.
We all know how far women would go just to stop the aging process, and the prospect of getting wrinkles from too much sugar consumption may affect their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. Some women may even develop inferiority complex, and experience stress and anxiety due to aging problems.
A recent study in the British Journal of Dermatology reveals that a process called glycation occurs when sweets — not just refined sugar, but anything that turns into glucose during metabolism in your body — are eaten and the glucose enters the bloodstream. As they float along, they search out and latch on to proteins and form a new molecule called advanced glycation end products, or appropriately shortened to AGEs. The increase in sugar consumption also increases AGEs production. These molecules wreak havoc on the adjacent proteins, the most vulnerable of which are the compounds responsible for keeping our skin firm and elastic collagen and elastin. The result is sagging, wrinkled skin.
However, here’s the good news for all those who have a sweet tooth. There are some things we can still do to remedy the damage being brought about by too much sugar in your diet. Obviously, you have to limit your sugar intake. The lower your sugar consumption, the better it is for your health, said Neville.
But it’s not easy to ascertain where those added sugars are coming from. Eliminating them all is hard, said Neville. Often it is a matter of where you are getting the added sugar. Food labels don’t spell out added sugars. It is important to look for words such as corn sweetener, corn syrup, sucrose or sorghum, to name a few.
On the other hand, Dr. Darren Casey, a dermatologist and dermatological surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia, isn’t so worried about potential skin damage from sugar. Sun and smoking are the leading cause of wrinkles, he said. Getting plenty of antioxidants in your diet as well as taking chewable vitamin C can help offset the harmful effects of too much consumption of sweet.
Products that contain retinoids can also revitalize sugar-damaged or environmentally challenged skin. Retinoids are a class of compounds related chemically to vitamin A that are readily available over the counter or through prescription. They are the best treatment to help soften fine lines or wrinkles, which in turn will help you look younger.
So when the next holiday treats start to beckon, think again. Don’t get tricked by its sweet talks.

People normally eat more whenever celebrations arise, such as birthdays and the holidays. We tend to ear more whenever these kinds of events occur. In line with this, a new study found out that people who have the tendency to eat in response to external factors, such as holidays and celebrations, have lesser problems in dealing with their weight loss than those people who eat in response to their emotions considering internal factors. The study also found out that emotional eating was associated with weight regain for people who lost weight.
Lead author Heather Niemeier of Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center states that they have findings that the more people report eating to respond for thoughts and feelings such as when one is lonely, the less weight they lose in a behavioral weight loss program. The findings also showed that among those who have successfully lost their weight, those who report for emotional eating, were more likely to regain. The authors noted this as important, since one of the greatest challenges in facing the field of overweight and obesity treatment remains the problem of weight regain following the weight loss. According to Niemeier, participants in behavioral weight loss programs lose an average of ten percent of their body weight, and these losses are associated with significant health benefits. Unfortunately, the majority of participants return to their baseline weight within three to five years.
In this particular study, the researchers analyzed the individual’s responses to a questionnaire that is widely used in overweight and obesity research called the Eating Inventory. The Eating Inventory is a tool designed to evaluate three aspects of eating behaviors in an individual such as cognitive restraint, hunger, and disinhibition. For a more specified research, Niemeier and her team only focused on the disinhibition aspect of the Eating Inventory. Although, past studies have suggested that disinhibition as a whole is an accurate predictor of weight loss, the scale itself includes multiple factors that could separately forecast outcomes. Niemeier said that the disinhibition scale will evaluate the impulse eating in response to emotional, cognitive, or social cues. Their goal was to examine and isolate the factors that make up the disinhibition scale, and then determine if these factors have a specific relationship with weight loss and regain.
Those included in the study are divided into two groups. The first group was composed of 286 overweight men and women who are currently participating in a behavioral weight loss program. The second group on the other hand included 3,345 members of the National Weight Control Registry NWCR, an ongoing study of adults who have lost at least thirty pounds and kept it off for at least one year. According to the study, by examining these two different groups, they were able to evaluate the effect of disinhibition on individuals attempting to lose weight, as well as on those who are trying to maintain weight loss. Upon further examination, the researchers found that the components within the disinhibition scale was to be grouped in two distinct areas external and internal disinhibition. External disinhibition describes experiences that are external to the individual, while internal refers to eating in response to thoughts and feelings, which includes emotional eating. Results showed that in both groups, internal disinhibition was a significant predictor of weight over time. For those people enrolled in weight loss programs, the higher level of internal disinhibition, the less weight is lost over time.
Their research has suggested that attention should be given to eating that is triggered by thoughts and feelings, since they clearly play a significant role in weight loss. Internal disinhibition, however, predicted weight change over time above and beyond other psychological issues including depression, binge eating, and perceived stress. By further modification of treatments in order to address these triggers for unhealthy eating and at the same time help the patients learn alternative strategies could improve their ability to maintain weight loss behaviors, even in the face of affective and cognitive difficulties.

When is it too late to start exercising and eating healthy. Some people say never, I disagree with that. I think it would be hard to do that when you are 6 feet under because you never started eating healthy and exercising. But as long as you are still breathing, it is not too late.

If you are overweight it makes life much harder, getting up and down, walking anywhere, much less trying to exercise. Out of the corner of your eye you see people staring and whispering. They might as well go ahead and point, too.

The best time to start an exercise program and eating healthy is when you are young. Unfortunately that is not always the case. As a person gets older, that old saying, “It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks”, is very true, but not impossible. For whatever reason people tend to be less active.

At any age a person should and can improve their way of eating and getting some kind of exercise. You don’t have to quit eating, if you do that, you might dry up like a prune. Learning a new way of eating and enjoying new foods, with a friend or group, is a good way to lose the weight.

Walk with a friend 2 or 3 times a week. Start off walking short distances and increase it a little at a time. You’ll be surprised at how much better you begin to feel each day. Between the eating healthy and exercising you’ll feel like an new person in no time and life will be better and easier.

Soon those same people who were staring and whispering will come up to you and say, “Don’t I know you, you look so familiar, but I just can’t place you?” And you will smile and say, “You must be mistaken, that was another person.”

Start today with your new way of life; you’re going to love the way you feel.

Over the years, about 100 million women worldwide are taking oral contraceptives with high estrogen content. Most of these pills, which were first sold in 1960, combine synthetic estrogen and progestin in various doses and are known to carry a small risk of blood clots and high blood pressure.

One small study from Belgium suggests that long-term use of oral contraceptives might increase the chances of having artery build-ups that can raise the risk of heart disease. Although the study needs further rigorous testing, it’s importance can never be undermined due to the great number of women that are now taking the pill.

However, Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston thinks that this theory should not cause any alarm among women. And while she had no role in the new study, which was presented Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference in Florida, she cited that many previous studies have found no large increase in heart attacks among pill users. Manson added that since they are already known to carry a small risk of blood clots and high blood pressure for women currently taking them, and any additional heart attack or stroke risk is thought to be related to those two effects.

In a long-running observational study in the small town of Erpe-Mere, researchers at the University of Ghent in Belgium studied about 1,300 healthy women ages 35 to 55 to look for other signs of heart risks among past and current pill users. According to Dr. Ernst Rietzschel, the study’s chief researcher, about 81 percent had taken oral contraceptives for more than a year at some point in their lives. The results of the Belgian study ran very close to the findings of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that undertook a similar study on American women ages 15 to 44.

Ultrasound exams were done of arteries in their necks and legs to look for buildups called plaque. There was a 20 to 30 percent increased prevalence of plaque for every 10 years of oral contraceptive use. While the plaques may be small enough not to block an an artery, any plaque is thought to raise the risk of heart disease. However, researchers admitted that they have no information on whether the presence of plaque translated to any true risk of heart attacks or strokes in the group.

Several women in the study had taken first-generation birth control pills, which had twice the estrogen levels compared with those sold in pharmacies today. And though the doses and length of continuous pill use matters a lot in terms of impact assessment, the Belgian researchers do not have enough detail or facts from which to base a definitive medical analysis, said Dr. Daniel Jones, a University of Mississippi cardiologist and president of the Heart Association.

It could be an important study, said Jones, which needs to be tested in larger and more rigorous studies wherein one group of women are given pills, another are not, and their health is closely watched for some time afterward.

Rietzschel assures women who are worried about heart risks that there is no need to abandon birth control pills but should follow guidelines for their use and avoid other things that raise heart risks, like smoking, being overweight, and lack of exercise.

People dealing with obesity can now benefit from bariatric surgery. This specialized procedure is only offered for those patients who are morbidly obese, and need to have this surgery to avoid life-threatening complications. Not all overweight people can choose to have this surgery though since it is a major procedure that presents significant risks and side effects. The procedure would also require permanent changes in a person’s lifestyle.

For a number of weight loss surgery patients who have undergone bariatric or any other weight loss surgery, giving up food may mean drinking alcohol, or even having compulsive shopping. Researchers call this behavioral shift an addiction transfer, which means transferring one compulsive act in their case overeating and replace it with another in order to numb emotions or fill an inner void. Mental health experts said that since these bariatric procedures have been more common nowadays, they are seeing an increase in cases of alcoholism, obsessive shopping, gambling, and promiscuity. They also noted that the problem with people who had surgery has not been attending therapy to address their issues behind their eating disorders. Most of them are emotional eaters, and when it has been taken away, they will be left with the thought of what to do with their emotions.

Cases have been reviewed with two post-surgery patients that went on air with Oprah Winfrey regarding their state. One woman became an alcoholic two years after her operation. With binge eating gone as a coping mechanism, she began drinking up to 10 martinis a day to soothe stress. Even if she lost 150 pounds, the negative feelings that added to her obesity still lurked. Another woman who lost 200 pounds because of surgery revealed that she has been having affairs as a way to distract herself from her unhappy marriage. This can trigger depression that some post-operative patients try to self-medicate with alcohol, shopping, or smoking cigarettes.

A psychologist further stated that another paradox for this issue would be that the positive step of dropping pounds after surgery can be stressful in itself. He said that dynamics can change after one starts to reduce weight and putting the next foot forward. Relationships can shift as one puts balance in his life, and the lifestyle one would have requires adjustment.

Experts emphasize that bariatric surgery does not cause addiction. This kind of surgery has been around for 30 years, and there is no sufficient data linking surgery and addiction in a conclusive manner. Mental health workers suggests that after surgery, patients should attend a support group or go into therapy sessions. A post-surgery patient shares that after losing 200 pounds from his operation last April, he started dealing with anxiety issues for about two months. But with therapy and medications, he felt a lot better.

If anyone is interested in having any kind of weight loss surgery, make sure to know more information than just the basics. Take time to evaluate one’s physical and emotional state before having an operation. After surgery, take time to relax and enrol oneself in therapy sessions or counseling groups to be able to take away the remaining negative thoughts that might resurface in the future.

It is remarkable to find how many people eat out of boredom, sheer habit, or to the accompaniment of a newspaper, a book, or a heated business discussion. Many succumb to the habit of eating at a “minute” diner, fast food restaurant or lunch counter, gulping their food and running a “hoof and mouth” race with Father Time. He always wins.

Others are trained from childhood to stuff themselves”finish your plate An old relic of primitive days when food scarcities or the uncertainties of a next meal or a next day were constantly present. Some call this “scavenger eating;” many children acquire this habit by imitating their parents who are imitating their parents who may have been raised under food scarcity circumstances.

Many men and women are the victims of monotony or plain poor cooking in their meals. They rarely vary the selection and choice of foods out of sheer inertia, indifference, or lack of attention. So they try to make up in quantity what they lack in quality, seeking satisfaction from calories instead of from quality and contrast.

Dr. Arthur Master, in a study of a group of patients not suffering from heart disease, found that a significant loss of weight was followed by an average 35 per cent reduction in the work the heart has to do. The lesson to you is clear Even though your heart is strong, being overweight taxes it with work and strain beyond its normal capacity. A healthy heart is gradually weakened by the extra stress imposed on it by 20, 30 or 40 pounds of unnecessary fat.

Your energy reserves are depleted; you feel tired too soon and too often, even when doing simple things like walking and swimming, things that the person of normal weight can handle with ease and pleasure. Don’t let too much weight rob you of a strong heart and the vibrant energy that you need to enjoy a full, healthy life. Learn to count your calories and you can count on more years of healthy, happy living.

We must remember that in the past 50-100 years there has been a considerable reduction in energy expenditure, because of a more mechanized way of life. People today don’t have to go out to the barn and hitch up a horse or team or count on a long walk when they are ready to go somewhere. They merely step into their car, which is as close to the front door as they can manage it, and then drive to their destination, again parking as near the entrance as possible.

The introduction of countless labor-saving devices in our home, factories, and
offices has also robbed us of most of the physical exertion our grandparents and great-grandparents knew. In fact, when it comes to conserving energy, we seem to have approached about as near as we can get to a vegetable existence.

The message is clear; we must break our old bad habits and develop new good ones if we want to lose weight. Making healthier food choices whenever possible, watching our portions at mealtime, and getting in some exercise regularly are paramount if we want to keep our weight down and live a long, healthy, happy life.