New nutrient profiling system, most comprehensive and science-based to date, clears up confusion to benefit consumers, policymakers

Newswise — A scientific team at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts has developed a new tool to help consumers, food companies, restaurants, and cafeterias choose and produce healthier foods and officials to make sound public nutrition policy. Food Compass is a new nutrient profiling system, developed over three years, that incorporates cutting-edge science on how different characteristics of foods positively or negatively impact health. Important novel features of the system, reported Oct. 14 in Nature Food, include: Equally considering healthful vs. harmful factors in foods (many existing systems focus on harmful factors);

Incorporating cutting-edge science on nutrients, food ingredients, processing characteristics, phytochemicals, and additives (existing systems focus largely on just a few nutrients); and Objectively scoring all foods, beverages, and even mixed dishes and meals using one consistent score (existing systems subjectively group and score foods differently). “Once you get beyond ‘eat your veggies, avoid soda,’ the public is pretty confused about how to identify healthier choices in the grocery store, cafeteria, and restaurant,” said the study’s lead and corresponding author, Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School. “Consumers, policy makers, and even industry are looking for simple tools to guide everyone toward healthier choices.”

The new Food Compass system was developed and then tested using a detailed national database of 8,032 foods and beverages consumed by Americans. It scores 54 different characteristics across nine domains representing different health-relevant aspects of foods, drinks, and mixed meals, providing for one of the most comprehensive nutrient profiling systems in the world. The characteristics and domains were selected based on nutritional attributes linked to major chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and cancer, as well as to risk of undernutrition, especially for mothers, young children, and the elderly. Food Compass was designed so that additional attributes and scoring could evolve based on future evidence in such areas as gastrointestinal health, immune function, brain health, bone health, and physical and mental performance; as well as considerations of sustainability.

Potential uses of Food Compass include:

Encouraging the food industry to develop healthier foods and reformulate the ingredients in popular processed foods and snacks;

Providing food purchasing incentives for employees through worksite wellness, health care, and nutrition assistance programs;

Supplying the science for local and national policies such as package labeling, taxation, warning labels, and restrictions on marketing to children;

Enabling restaurants and school, business, and hospital cafeterias to present healthier food options; Informing agricultural trade policy; and, Guiding institutional and individual investors on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investment decisions.

Each food, beverage, or mixed dish receives a final Food Compass score ranging from 1 (least healthy) to 100 (most healthy). The researchers identified 70 or more as a reasonable score for foods or beverages that should be encouraged. Foods and beverages scoring 31-69 should be consumed in moderation. Anything scoring 30 or lower should be consumed minimally.

Across major food categories, the average Food Compass score was 43.2.

The lowest scoring category was snacks and sweet desserts (average score 16.4).

The highest scoring categories were vegetables (average score 69.1), fruits (average score 73.9, with nearly all raw fruits receiving a score of 100), and legumes, nuts, and seeds (average score 78.6).

Among beverages, the average score ranged from 27.6 for sugar-sweetened sodas and energy drinks to 67 for 100% fruit or vegetable juices.

Starchy vegetables scored an average of 43.2.

The average score for beef was 24.9; for poultry, 42.67; and for seafood, 67.0.

Food Compass is the first major nutrient profiling system to use consistent scoring across diverse food groups, which is especially important for mixed dishes. For example, in the case of pizza, many other systems have separate scoring algorithms for the wheat, meat, and cheese, but not the finished product itself. Consistent scoring of diverse items can also be helpful in assessing and comparing combinations of food and beverages that could be sold and consumed together, such as an entire shopping basket, a person’s daily diet pattern, or a portfolio of foods sold by a particular company.

“With its publicly available scoring algorithm, Food Compass can provide a nuanced approach to promoting healthy food choices–helping guide consumer behavior, nutrition policy, scientific research, food industry practices, and socially based investment decisions,” said last author Renata Micha, who did this work as a faculty member at the Friedman School and is now at the University of Thessaly. Additional authors are Naglaa H. El-Abbadi, Meghan O’Hearn, Josh Marino, William A. Masters, Paul Jacques, Peilin Shi, and Jeffrey B. Blumberg of the Friedman School.

The study is part of the Food-PRICE (Policy Review and Intervention Cost-Effectiveness) project, a National Institutes of Health-funded research collaboration working to identify cost-effective nutrition strategies that can have the greatest impact on improving health outcomes in the United States. This work was supported by Danone and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R01HL130735 and R01HL115189. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Please see the study for conflicts of interest.

You’ve heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But you’ve also probably heard that it’s fine to skip. A 2019 research review published in The BMJ only adds to the debate: It analyzed 13 breakfast studies and found that eating a morning meal was not a reliable way to lose weight, and that skipping breakfast likely does not lead to weight gain. So should you say goodbye to your eggs and toast? Here’s what the science says about breakfast.

Does eating breakfast help you lose weight?

The weight-loss question has been central to the breakfast debate for years, in part because several high-profile studies — some of which were funded by cereal companies, including Quaker and Kellogg — claimed that eating early in the day was necessary for controlling weight. When looking at research that isn’t funded by the food industry, however, the answer is less clear. Some studies have found that breakfast eaters tend to weigh less than people who skip the meal and burn more calories throughout the day. But it’s possible that lifestyle and socioeconomic factors may be driving forces here, making a person more likely to eat breakfast and also have better overall health. For example, making time for breakfast is easier for people with 9-to-5 jobs than it is for night shift workers (who research has shown face a range of health risks). Other research, including the new review, has found no strong connection between breakfast and weight loss. One paper from 2017 actually found that skipping breakfast may lead to more calorie burning — but also higher levels of inflammation in the body.

Despite all the back and forth, Sharon Collison, a registered dietitian nutritionist and a clinical instructor in nutrition at the University of Delaware, says she’s not aware of any studies that have shown that eating breakfast can make you gain weight — so there’s likely no harm in eating it. Anecdotally, Collison says she’s seen from her clients that “people who struggle with weight tend to eat more of their calories later in the day and less earlier in the day. People who don’t eat enough earlier in the day may have increased hunger and increased cravings later in the day and will end up eating more.” But more research is needed.

Is it unhealthy to skip breakfast?

Weight loss aside, Collison says she’s “totally pro-breakfast” and encourages the vast majority of her clients to eat it, for a range of reasons. “People who consume breakfast regularly often have increased physical activity. They have better dietary profiles and lower intake of snacks,” Collison says. “Skipping breakfast is associated with increased disease risk — not only obesity but diabetes, heart disease and just lower dietary quality.” One small study from 2017 suggested that breakfast-eating could improve a range of metabolic health markers, potentially improving the body’s ability to burn fat and fight chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes — at least among people who were already lean. More research is needed to know how different types of people respond to fasting, the scientists say. But what if you’re truly not hungry in the morning? Collison says that may be indicative of other problematic eating habits, like snacking at night. “If you eliminate that snacking and then wake up hungry and eat a good breakfast, your overall dietary pattern is going to be so much better, and your health status is going to be better,” Collison says.

What’s the healthiest breakfast?

Even if you’ve decided to eat breakfast, a question remains: what should you eat? A donut and coffee, Collison says, are not going to give you the same benefits as a well-balanced plate. Collison says a good morning meal incorporates four things: protein, whole grains, healthy fat and a fruit or vegetable. Research has shown that protein and fat can increase satiety and cut down on unnecessary snacking later, while whole grains and produce add nutritious fiber, vitamins and minerals. Collison recommends Greek yogurt with nuts, berries and whole-grain cereal or farro; scrambled eggs with veggies, plus toast with avocado and fruit on the side; or oatmeal made with milk, nut butter and fruit. Generally, she says she steers clients away from smoothies or juices. “I do encourage people to eat their breakfast, because you just don’t get the same sense of fullness” with a liquid.

When should you eat breakfast?

The exact timing will vary depending on a person’s needs and schedule, but Collison says a good rule of thumb is to eat within an hour of waking. “It’s kind of like putting gas in your car,” Collison says. If you’re going to work out in the morning, plan to eat something beforehand. “The quality of your workout could be compromised if you don’t fuel your body before,” Collison says. “The closer it is to the physical activity, the more you want carbohydrates and less fat and fiber, because that will take longer to digest.” Collison recommends a banana, oatmeal or cereal. If you’ve done a vigorous workout, like running, for 45 minutes or more, you’ll likely need to eat again afterward for recovery. Something that replenishes fluid, carbs and protein — like chocolate milk — is a good option, as is a banana with peanut butter or cheese, crackers and fruit. A recovery meal probably isn’t necessary if you’ve done lighter exercise, like walking, Collison says.

When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe, and he ended up spending a month in the hospital to recover.

Shicowich lost his toe because of complications of Type 2 diabetes as he struggled to keep his blood sugar under control. He was overweight and on diabetes medications, but his diet of fast food and convenient, frozen processed meals had pushed his disease to life-threatening levels.

After a few more years of trying unsuccessfully to treat Shicowich’s diabetes, his doctor recommended that he try a new program designed to help patients like him. Launched in 2017 by the Geisinger Health System at one of its community hospitals, the Fresh Food Farmacy provides healthy foods—heavy on fruits, vegetables, lean meats and low-sodium options—to patients in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and teaches them how to incorporate those foods into their daily diet. Each week, Shicowich, who lives below the federal poverty line and is food-insecure, picks up recipes and free groceries from the Farmacy’s food bank and has his nutrition questions answered and blood sugar monitored by the dietitians and health care managers assigned to the Farmacy. In the year and a half since he joined the program, Shicowich has lost 60 lb., and his A1C level, a measure of his blood sugar, has dropped from 10.9 to 6.9, which means he still has diabetes but it’s out of the dangerous range. “It’s a major, major difference from where I started from,” he says. “It’s been a life-changing, lifesaving program for me.”

\Geisinger’s program is one of a number of groundbreaking efforts that finally consider food a critical part of a patient’s medical care—and treat food as medicine that can have as much power to heal as drugs. More studies are revealing that people’s health is the sum of much more than the medications they take and the tests they get—health is affected by how much people sleep and exercise, how much stress they’re shouldering and, yes, what they are eating at every meal.

Food is becoming a particular focus of doctors, hospitals, insurers and even employers who are frustrated by the slow progress of drug treatments in reducing food-related diseases like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and even cancer. They’re also encouraged by the growing body of research that supports the idea that when people eat well, they stay healthier and are more likely to control chronic diseases and perhaps even avoid them altogether. “When you prioritize food and teach people how to prepare healthy meals, lo and behold, it can end up being more impactful than medications themselves,” says Dr. Jaewon Ryu, interim president and CEO of Geisinger. “That’s a big win.”

The problem is that eating healthy isn’t as easy as popping a pill. For some, healthy foods simply aren’t available. And if they are, they aren’t affordable. So more hospitals and physicians are taking action to break down these barriers to improve their patients’ health. In cities where fresh produce is harder to access, hospitals have worked with local grocers to provide discounts on fruits and vegetables when patients provide a “prescription” written by their doctor; the Cleveland Clinic sponsors farmers’ markets where local growers accept food assistance vouchers from federal programs like WIC as well as state-led initiatives. And some doctors at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco hand out recipes instead of (or along with) prescriptions for their patients, pulled from the organization’s Thrive Kitchen, which also provides low-cost monthly cooking classes for members of its health plan. Hospitals and clinics across the country have also visited Geisinger’s program to learn from its success.

But doctors alone can’t accomplish this food transformation. Recognizing that healthier members not only live longer but also avoid expensive visits to the emergency room, insurers are starting to reward healthy eating by covering sessions with nutritionists and dietitians. In February, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts began covering tailored meals from the nonprofit food program Community Servings for its members with congestive heart failure who can’t afford the low-fat, low-sodium meals they need. Early last year, Congress assigned a first ever bipartisan Food Is Medicine working group to explore how government-sponsored food programs could address hunger and also lower burgeoning health care costs borne by Medicare when it comes to complications of chronic diseases. “The idea of food as medicine is not only an idea whose time has come,” says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “It’s an idea that’s absolutely essential to our health care system.”

Ask any doctor how to avoid or mitigate the effects of the leading killers of Americans and you’ll likely hear that eating healthier plays a big role. But knowing intuitively that food can influence health is one thing, and having the science and the confidence to back it up is another. And it’s only relatively recently that doctors have started to bridge this gap.

It’s hard to look at health outcomes like heart disease and cancer that develop over long periods of time and tie them to specific foods in the typical adult’s varied diet. Plus, foods are not like drugs that can be tested in rigorous studies that compare people who eat a cup of blueberries a day, for example, with those who don’t to determine if the fruit can prevent cancers. Foods aren’t as discrete as drugs when it comes to how they act on the body either—they can contain a number of beneficial, and possibly less beneficial, ingredients that work in divergent systems.

Doctors also know that we eat not only to feed our cells but also because of emotions, like feeling happy or sad. “It’s a lot cheaper to put someone on three months of statins [to lower their cholesterol] than to figure out how to get them to eat a healthy diet,” says Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

But drugs are expensive—the average American spends $1,400 a year on medications—and if people can’t afford them, they go without, increasing the likelihood that they’ll develop complications as they progress to severe stages of their illness, which in turn forces them to require more—and costly—health care. What’s more, it’s not as if the medications are cure-alls; while deaths from heart disease are declining, for example, the most recent report from the American Heart Association showed that the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% in 1999–2000 to 37.7% in 2013–2014, and 40% of adults have high total cholesterol.

What people are eating contributes to those stubborn trends, and making nutrition a bigger priority in health care instead of an afterthought may finally start to reverse them. Although there aren’t the same types of rigorous trials proving food’s worth that there are for drugs, the data that do exist, from population-based studies of what people eat, as well as animal and lab studies of specific active ingredients in food, all point in the same direction.

The power of food as medicine gained scientific credibility in 2002, when the U.S. government released results of a study that pitted a diet and exercise program against a drug treatment for Type 2 diabetes. The Diabetes Prevention Program compared people assigned to a diet low in saturated fat, sugar and salt that included lean protein and fresh fruits and vegetables with people assigned to take metformin to lower blood sugar. Among people at high risk of developing diabetes, those taking metformin lowered their risk of actually getting diabetes by 31% compared with those taking a placebo, while those who modified their diet and exercised regularly lowered their risk by 58% compared with those who didn’t change their behaviors, a near doubling in risk reduction.

Studies showing that food could treat disease as well soon followed. In 2010, Medicare reimbursed the first lifestyle-based program for treating heart disease, based on decades of work by University of California, San Francisco, heart expert Dr. Dean Ornish. Under his plan, people who had had heart attacks switched to a low-fat diet, exercised regularly, stopped smoking, lowered their stress levels with meditation and strengthened their social connections. In a series of studies, he found that most followers lowered their blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels and also reversed some of the blockages in their heart arteries, reducing their episodes of angina.

In recent years, other studies have shown similar benefits for healthy eating patterns like the Mediterranean diet—which is high in good fats like olive oil and omega-3s, nuts, fruits and vegetables—in preventing repeat events for people who have had a heart attack. “It’s clear that people who are coached on how to eat a Mediterranean diet high in nuts or olive oil get more benefit than we’ve found in similarly conducted trials of statins [to lower cholesterol],” says Rimm. Researchers found similar benefit for people who have not yet had a heart attack but were at higher risk of having one.

Animal studies and analyses of human cells in the lab are also starting to expose why certain foods are associated with lower rates of disease. Researchers are isolating compounds like omega-3s found in fish and polyphenols in apples, for example, that can inhibit cancer tumors’ ability to grow new blood vessels. Nuts and seeds can protect parts of our chromosomes so they can repair damage they encounter more efficiently and help cells stay healthy longer.

If food is indeed medicine, then it’s time to treat it that way. In his upcoming book, Eat to Beat Disease, Dr. William Li, a heart expert, pulled together years of accumulated data and proposes specific doses of foods that can treat diseases ranging from diabetes to breast cancer. Not all doctors agree that the science supports administering food like drugs, but he’s hoping the controversial idea will prompt more researchers to study food in ways as scientifically rigorous as possible and generate stronger data in coming years. “We are far away from prescribing diets categorically to fight disease,” he says. “And we may never get there. But we are looking to fill in the gaps that have long existed in this field with real science. This is the beginning of a better tomorrow.”

And talking about food in terms of doses might push more doctors to put down their prescription pads and start going over grocery lists with their patients instead. So far, the several hundred people like Shicowich who rely on the Fresh Food Farmacy have lowered their risk of serious diabetes complications by 40% and cut hospitalizations by 70% compared with other diabetic people in the area who don’t have access to the program. This year, on the basis of its success so far, the Fresh Food Farmacy is tripling the number of patients it supports.

Shicowich knows firsthand how important that will be for people like him. When he was first diagnosed, he lost weight and controlled his blood sugar, but he found those changes hard to maintain and soon saw his weight balloon and his blood-sugar levels skyrocket. He’s become one of the program’s better-known success stories and now works part time in the produce section of a supermarket and cooks nearly all his meals. He’s expanding his cooking skills to include fish, which he had never tried preparing before. “I know what healthy food looks like, and I know what to do with it now,” he says. “Without this program, and without the support system, I’d probably still be sitting on the couch with a box of Oreos.” (Photographs By Zachary Zavislak)

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world and our lives in so many ways, and for so many of us, this time that was largely spent at home staying safe also meant indulging in comfort foods. As a result of this, many Americans have gained weight over the last year. One study of 3,000 Americans done by the American Psychological Association found that 61 percent of respondents had an unwanted weight change during COVID.

The thing is, yes, our bodies may have changed in ways we didn’t want them to, but the most important thing to remember is that our bodies also got us through a global pandemic, and that’s something to be grateful for. But with the new working-from-home lifestyle, elevated stress levels, and gym closures that we all faced during the pandemic, it means that some have put on a few pounds. Other than the extra weight being an annoyance, it can also lead to other lifestyle hiccups, like sleep, for instance. Weight fluctuations, believe it or not, can affect your sleep hygiene, so it’s important to understand how weight, stress, and sleep go hand in hand (in hand), so you can make sure you’re still getting enough sleep at night, even with a change in lifestyle and health.

If you’ve found that you’ve recently experienced a change in weight and your sleep has been affected as a result of it (or if you just want some assistance in finding better sleep), we’ve put together a guide on understanding your new body and how it can affect the rest of your lifestyle.

The Pandemic’s Negative Effects on Weight Gain and Healthy Sleep

The COVID-19 pandemic, to put it simply, has been awful. Not only has it had a huge, negative impact on the world as a whole, but it’s been incredibly stressful (and dangerous) for people everywhere. This stress over the past year has had a direct result on your sleep, whether you’ve realized it or not. Dubbed “coronasomnia,” this COVID-related sleeplessness has been difficult to battle, but stress is only one factor here.

Stress is actually related to why so many people have gained weight over the last year, along with lack of activity. While we were all playing it safe by staying home to avoid getting sick, many of us were also not moving very much. Suddenly many people are working from home and falling into a totally different lifestyle from what they were used to.

The APA survey found that the average amount of weight gain over the last year was 29 pounds, but answers varied greatly. The survey also asked about how the pandemic affected mental health, and many said they felt a negative impact. When your mental health suffers, so much can go right along with it, including your physical health. During this time, when there was so much uncertainty, many found comfort in things like food or curling up on the couch with Netflix. While those might provide immediate comfort, it also leads to weight gain, which can have further negative effects on your body.

Other pandemic habits that could have negatively affected your weight include:

Your work-from-home lifestyle: Working from home means you aren’t getting any movement you might have gotten from a commute. Even if you drive to and from work, you aren’t getting up in the morning and doing a morning routine, walking to your car, walking into work, and reversing it at the end of the day. A WFH lifestyle has been appealing for many because you got time back in your day, but it also meant less activity.

Being stuck indoors: For many people, their activity was an outdoor thing. For much of the last year, we’ve been staying indoors, which cut out outdoor activities that increased exercise. As the virus started to wane, people were able to get outside more and more, but that was only after several months of staying inside. The benefits of being outdoors are not only great for physical health but mental health, as well.

Gym closures: Gyms and fitness centers were closed for a long time, and if that was your only way of working out, you might have lost out on your exercise time. Not everyone has the space or means to work out at home, so maybe you took a break from calorie-burning. That’s okay!

Many things could have gone into your weight gain over the past year, and, again, the most important thing to remember right now is that you’re here, you’ve made it through this pandemic, and you want to live a healthy lifestyle, and that means making sure you’re paying attention to your sleep hygiene, even with a little bit of extra weight on you. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered on everything you need to know.

How Weight Gain Can Impact Your Ability to Sleep

An unfortunate side effect of gaining weight is disrupted sleep. It can happen for a variety of reasons, but many of these factors can be tied back to a change in your weight. Just like other factors in your life can affect how you sleep at night, a change in your body in any form definitely can. Here’s a look at how weight affects your sleep hygiene.

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is what occurs when you momentarily stop breathing while you’re asleep. Studies have shown that sleep apnea can occur for a number of reasons, one of which is an elevated weight. If you’re an older man, you’re also at a higher risk for sleep apnea, and weight gain can only make you more at risk for this sleep disorder. Sleep apnea can be very dangerous if left untreated, so if you have any suspicion that you’re dealing with this (snoring, insomnia, and morning headaches are all symptoms), check with your doctor for treatment.

Discomfort while sleeping

If you’ve put on a significant amount of weight, you might feel uncomfortable while sleeping. This can be from added strain on your body from the extra weight. Your joints probably aren’t used to some extra weight on them, and that can make you uncomfortable while you’re sleeping. If you’re not comfortable, you won’t sleep well. One way to combat this is with a more comfortable sleeping environment, like with a better mattress and supportive pillows.

Added stress

This is a vicious cycle. The pandemic has certainly added stress to your life, which may have contributed to your weight gain, and the stress and weight gain can make it more difficult to sleep at night. Without a good night of sleep, you’re more likely to make poor food choices during the day and be more stressed because you’re tired, continuing the cycle. Stress wreaks so much havoc on your sleep patterns, so it’s important to do whatever you can to cut back on stress in the way that works best for you.

A way to target all of these sleep issues is, of course, to work toward a healthy weight goal, but we know that’s easier said than done and not necessarily a priority for everyone. Studies have shown that a decrease in belly fat is linked to better sleep, but it’s virtually impossible to target belly fat when working out or eating healthy. While you can tone certain muscles with weight lifting, you can’t reduce fat on your body. So if you want to reduce belly fat, you simply have to eat healthily and exercise — the fat will come off everywhere, including your belly.

Your weight also factors into your Body Mass Index (BMI), and while this metric is often viewed as wildly outdated and irrelevant, studies have analyzed how it equates to sleep patterns. One study showed that people who had a lower BMI slept longer hours than those with a higher BMI. A healthy BMI range is considered to be about 18.5 to 25. While it can be a goal to aim for what is considered a healthy BMI on the scale, your better bet is to either consult your own healthcare provider on what a healthy weight is for you or simply work toward a level of health that is attainable and maintainable.

Tips for Achieving Better Sleep

No matter what your concern, there are always ways to improve your sleeping habits. It may take some trial and error to figure out what tips will work for you, but good sleep is worth the effort. Here are a few things you can try.

Set a consistent bedtime

This is one of the best things you can do to improve sleep. Create a routine for yourself that starts with bedtime preparation. Maybe it includes a warm bath, and maybe it includes reading a few pages, maybe it includes listening to some music. All of these can help you wind down, but whatever you have to do, make sure you’re climbing into bed around the same time every night. Ideally, you want to get in bed in enough time for a complete night of sleep (depending on age, this could vary from seven to 10 hours for people over the age of 13).

Consider what time you need to wake up in the morning and work your way back from there to set your bedtime, and stick to that. This routine will help get your body in the mode for bedtime on a regular basis.

Avoid snacking before bed

While some foods can help you sleep, eating the wrong foods before bed is more of a bad idea than a good one. Some foods can lead to indigestion or prolonged wakefulness. If you’re very hungry and it’s nearing bedtime, reach for foods with natural melatonin or things that will sit well in your stomach as you’re falling asleep.

Create a den of comfort

If your bed isn’t comfortable, you won’t sleep well, plain and simple. Make sure you have a mattress that’s appropriate for your sleeping style, as well as any bells and whistles you might need. These could be mattress toppers for more comfort, pillows that better support your neck, or even an adjustable bed base to elevate you. Though these changes in your bed can come with a price tag, there are plenty of affordable options for mattresses, pillows, and accessories. For the best sleep, it’s important to create a comfortable and supportive sleeping environment.

If your weight has changed, it might make your mattress feel completely different than it used to. Different mattress constructions will hold your weight differently, and if you’re heavier, you’ll sink into the mattress more. On some mattresses, that means you have less support than you once did.

It’s important to consider your weight when shopping for a mattress and understanding how different mattresses feel for different body types. Someone who is incredibly petite will have a different sleeping experience than someone who is of average weight. If you’re on the heavier side, you want to find a mattress that will support you for a long period of time and not break down or start to sag. There are mattresses on the market designed for people of larger stature so you can be sure you’re getting a supportive night of quality sleep. In general, these mattresses are hybrids made with coils or innersprings. Foam mattresses don’t provide proper support for larger people, which is why looking for a mattress with a spring or coil core is a better option.

If you’re struggling with sleep and think changing your mattress could help, it’s worth looking into a properly supportive mattress for your sleeping style or even your weight.

Consider the season

The time of year can absolutely affect how well you sleep. If it’s cold season, that can make it harder to breathe or sleep comfortably during the night. If it’s allergy season, you might also have a hard time breathing at night. While it can be tricky to really do much about something like a cold or allergies, it’s worth keeping them in mind if insomnia is knocking at your door. Do what you can to remedy any of these seasonal annoyances, like by using a humidifier or dehumidifier (depending on your concern) while you sleep or adding some melatonin into your bedtime routine to make sleeping easier.

Exercise

Yes, exercise will definitely help you sleep. You can look at it in a few different ways. One, exercise can be a great stress relief, and less stress usually means better sleep. Exercise also, quite simply, makes you tired. (Though you don’t want to exercise right before bed because your body doesn’t have enough time to cool down and head into the proper circadian rhythm.) Exercising during the day raises your heart rate and encourages the release of melatonin into the body, keeping your circadian rhythm running smoothly — which all contribute to a restful night of sleep.

And of course, we know exercise is a great way to burn off some calories, which can be helpful if you’re carrying a little extra weight that you don’t want. It doesn’t take much to get your heart rate up and break a sweat. Even a simple walk each day is beneficial for all these factors that contribute to better sleep.

Cut the screens

Ditch your phones, TVs, and tablets before bedtime. Though it’s not a big deal to use your gadgets earlier in the evening, once you get in bed, you should put them away or turn them off. The harsh light makes it harder to sleep, and we all know how addicting it can be to continuously scroll through social media. Put them away when you get in bed and reset your mind for sleep instead.

Closing

The most important thing you can remember from all of this is that your body got you through a pandemic. So maybe it looks a little different today than it did a year ago. Bodies change all the time, and you have to give yourself a little bit of grace. Though weight fluctuations can affect your lifestyle, including your sleep hygiene, it’s a manageable concern that you can definitely get through. You’re still here, and you’re open to finding ways to make changes. That’s what matters.

Alcohol use in today’s society  is exceedingly widespread, taking place not only in bars but also in school dorms, households, and a variety of other locations. With alcohol being such a popular means of socializing, people often disregard the dangers that are associated with drinking.

According to a study published in Lancet Oncology, “fewer than one in three Americans recognize alcohol as a cause of cancer”. Harriet Rumgay, a researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, continues, stating that this belief is “similar in other high-income countries, and it’s probably even lower in other parts of the world”.

This assumption was proven false by the study that found that at least 4% of esophageal, mouth, larynx, colon, rectum, liver, and breast cancers diagnosed globally in 2020, which accounted for more than 740,000 people, can be traced back to alcohol consumption. Out of the 740,000 alcohol-related cancer cases diagnosed, men accounted for three-quarters, while the majority of the remaining 172,600 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2019, more than 44,000 people in the U.S. died of alcoholic liver disease, proving the conclusion that alcohol consumption can be lethal if not monitored.

While most people believe that drinking in moderation would not drastically damage their health, researchers found that the amount of alcohol consumed positively correlates with an individual’s cancer risk. Moderate drinking consists of one or two alcoholic drinks per day, which may not seem like a great deal, however, this lifestyle accounted for approximately 14% of alcohol-related cancers.

 

Cancers develop when there is unregulated cell division causing abnormal growth of tissue, resulting in tumors. Alcohol can induce this irregular growth by increasing hormone levels, such as estrogen, which leads to increased cell division and thereby providing more opportunities for cancers to develop. Alcohol also contains ethanol, an organic compound, which gets broken down into acetaldehyde, a toxic molecule that is known to damage DNA and interferes with cells’ ability to repair the damage.

What seems to be the “responsible” amount of alcohol consumption may actually be an agent for biological damage. Even the concerning evidence presented in the study, which links alcohol to cancer, is considered to be an underestimate. “That’s because we didn’t include former drinkers in our main analysis, even though they may have an increased risk of cancer,” as stated by Rumgay.

Since people don’t recognize alcohol as a potentially harmful substance that can be abused, it opens up more health complications that could have been avoided with the right guidance. Doctors like Amy Justice, a professor of medicine and public health at Yale University, are making an effort to reduce the number of alcohol-related cancers by giving brief motivational information and consultations.

In the future, encouraging health care providers to talk with patients about alcohol use hopefully may reduce the number of alcohol-related cancer cases.

At least 4% of the world’s newly diagnosed cases of esophageal, mouth, larynx, colon, rectum, liver and breast cancers in 2020, or 741,300 people, can be attributed to drinking alcohol, according to a new study. The link between smoking and cancer is well-documented and widely known. But alcohol? “Fewer than one in three Americansrecognize alcohol as a cause of cancer,” says Harriet Rumgay, researcher at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization. “That’s similar in other high-income countries, and it’s probably even lower in other parts of the world.”

A new study shows just how much of a risk drinking can be. At least 4% of the world’s newly diagnosed cases of esophageal, mouth, larynx, colon, rectum, liver and breast cancers in 2020, or 741,300 people, can be attributed to drinking alcohol, according to a study in the July 13 edition of Lancet Oncology. Men accounted for three-quarters of alcohol-related cancers. Of the 172,600 alcohol-related cancer cases suffered by women, the vast majority, or 98,300 cases, were breast cancer. It’s the first time, Rumgay says, that research has quantified the risks of different levels of drinking. “Our study highlights the contribution of even relatively low levels of alcohol to the risk of new cancer cases,” says Rumgay.

What’s the connection?

There are a few biological pathways that lead from alcohol consumption to a cancer diagnosis, according to the study. Ethenol, the form of alcohol present in beer, wine and liquor, breaks down to form a known carcinogen called acetaldehyde, which damages DNA and interferes with cells’ ability to repair the damage. Alcohol can also increase levels of hormones, including estrogen. Hormones signal cells to grow and divide. With more cell division there are more opportunities for cancer to develop. Alcohol also reduces the body’s ability to absorb certain cancer-protective nutrients, including vitamins A, C, D, E and folate.

What’s more, the combination of drinking and smoking might indirectly increase the risk of cancer, with alcohol acting as a kind of solvent for the carcinogenic chemicals in tobacco. The more a person drinks, the greater the likelihood of biological damage. To come up with their statistical estimate, researchers crunched three sets of data: estimated global alcohol consumption estimates, specific cancer risks from alcohol, and estimates of the global incidence of those cancers in 2020. They found that the more alcohol people drink, the higher their risk of an alcohol-related cancer. Drinking at least two, and more than six, drinks a day, defined as risky to heavy drinking, posed the greatest risk of a future cancer. Even moderate drinking, two or fewer drinks a day, accounted for an estimated 14%, or 103,000 cases, of alcohol-related cancers, according to the study.

The study’s authors suggest that the numbers of alcohol-related cancers are probably even higher than their estimates. “That’s because we didn’t include former drinkers in our main analysis, even though they may have an increased risk of cancer,” says Rumgay. Instead, they looked at countrywide estimates of current drinkers. They also looked only at cancers where the risk factor has been scientifically shown to increase with alcohol use. They didn’t include cancers that emerging evidence suggests are likely linked to alcohol, such as pancreatic and stomach cancers.

When they further analyzed their data incorporating former drinkers and including the two cancers possibly linked to alcohol, the numbers went up significantly. “When we did the analysis and included former drinking, pancreatic and stomach cancers, the numbers increased to 925,000 alcohol-related cancers,” she said. That’s an additional 185,000 possible alcohol-related cancers, or 5% of all the world’s cancers. Some of the highest proportions of alcohol-related cancers were found in Moldova and Romania, she said. But recent changes in taxing policy, increasing the cost of alcohol in those countries, have caused a drop in alcohol sales. And that could foreshadow a future reduction in related cancers, she said.

On the other hand, economic growth in places like China, India and Vietnam might lead to increased alcohol use and related cancers down the road. The lowest rates of alcohol-related cancers in the world were found in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where religious-based policies ensure low rates of drinking. Drinking rates are relatively low in parts of Africa, but that seems to be changing. “Drinking trends show that alcohol use is increasing in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We predict that the number of cases of cancer in Southern Africa will increase by two thirds over the next 20 years, and in Eastern Africa cases will double,” says Rumgay.

What that means is that nations in those areas of Africa should be thinking now about strategies to control drinking. “Currently, only 16 of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have national alcohol strategies,” says Rumgay. Those strategies could include increasing taxes on alcohol and adding cancer warning labels to alcohol similar to warnings now on cigarette packages. While such public policies are effective and necessary, says Dr. Amy Justice, professor of medicine and public health at Yale University, we need to go further. Justice wrote a commentary in Lancet Oncology accompanying the alcohol-related cancer study. She agrees with the authors that the results are, if anything, an understatement of the impact of alcohol on cancer cases. And she has suggestions to reduce the burden of alcohol-related cancers that go beyond governmental action.

“I’m a doctor,” she says. And as a physician, she thinks about the things she can say individually to a patient, one on one, to encourage them to reduce their drinking. “There’s pretty good data that you can get people to decrease their alcohol consumption with brief motivational information,” she said. That might mean teaching doctors around the world to talk about alcohol use as a possible cause when a patient complains of sleep or memory problems or has the beginning signs of liver disease. “You tailor the information to the personal concerns of the patient in front of you,” says Justice.

(Susan Brink is a freelance writer who covers health and medicine. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and co-author of A Change of Heart.)

There are several herbs and spices with multiple potential health benefits, such as those with anti-inflammatory properties, cognitive boosters, and some that may even aid in fighting cancer, to name just a few.

Some of these herbs and spices include turmeric, peppermint, ginger, and many more. Long before modern medicine, the ancient Greeks used a variety of spices and herbs for their healing properties. Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) used saffron, cinnamon, thyme, coriander, and other plants as treatments, many of which people still use today as holistic remedies for fevers, aches and pains, and other ailments.While there is little to no scientific evidence that they directly cure serious diseases, research increasingly shows that many herbs and spices possessTrusted Source properties that may help mitigate certain symptoms. This article will explore the health benefits of 10 herbs and spices, including the aforementioned turmeric, peppermint, ginger, and more.

Turmeric 

Turmeric, sometimes called curcumin, is one of the most popular spices used today for cooking and health benefits alike. Laboratory studies have shown that turmeric has some anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic benefits. Of all of these, research shows that turmeric is most effective for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

As a chain-breaking antioxidant and anti-inflammatory spice, turmeric improves oxidative stressTrusted Source with its ability to scavenge toxic free radicals in the body. Free radicals are tissue-damaging molecules with an uneven number of electrons that can be catalysts for chronic diseasesTrusted Source, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. With its high antioxidant content, turmeric can work to reduce the risk of free radicals forming and reduce the effects of stress on the body.

Ginger 

People have been using ginger for thousands of years as a remedy for nausea and gastrointestinal issues. Today, people primarily use the ginger root as a spice, or as a supplement to treat digestive problems. Closely related to turmeric, ginger also contains anti-inflammatory propertiesTrusted Source and a very high level of total antioxidants. Only pomegranates and certain types of berries contain more. As an antinausea agent, several controlled studies have proven that ginger is effective as an antiemeticTrusted Source. People can use it for seasickness, motion sickness, and morning sickness.

Some studiesTrusted Source have demonstrated that ginger may have anticancer effects. This is largely due to ginger’s high antioxidant levels. It can also slow down cells reproducing, cause cells to stop dividing, and stop certain activator proteins and signaling pathways that contribute to cancer. That said, most of these studies took place in a lab, and more human clinical trials must take place.

Cumin 

Cumin is a popular cooking spice used for its aromatic effects. StudiesTrusted Source show that it is also beneficial for weight loss, cholesterol, stress management, and more. It also has high antioxidant potentialTrusted Source. Research also shows that cumin is an antidiabetic. A group of 80 people took an Ayurvedicformulation containing cumin over a period of 24 weeks, and their postprandial blood sugar was significantly reduced.

Peppermint

An extremely popular herb that is commonly used as a flavoring agent, peppermint is native to Europe and Asia. In these regions, people used it before the advent of modern medicine for its cooling effects, antibacterial properties, and to improve digestive health.

Research shows that as a holistic remedy, peppermint is also effective in improving cardiovascular (heart) and pulmonary (lung) health by acting as a bronchodilator. Bronchodilators work by widening air passages (bronchioles) in the lungs. By inhaling the smell of peppermint, a person will also increase their nasal air force, in turn supplying more air to the lungs. In addition, some studies also show that peppermint is an effective muscle relaxer thanks to its cooling menthol compound, which is why menthol is often an active ingredient in ointments and creams that target muscle pain.

Echinacea 

Derived from the coneflower plant, echinacea is a supplement that is best known for targeting the immune system and helping prevent colds. While research has yet to prove that the herb can fight viruses, many use echinacea to support the treatment of conditions such asTrusted Source:

• the common cold
• upper respiratory infections
• bronchitis
• influenza
• inflammation
• ear infections
• vaginitis
• yeast infections

Echinacea treatments for these illnesses are not proven to be effective. The majority of studies show otherwise or are inconclusive at best. There may be a loose correlationTrusted Source between taking echinacea and strengthening the immune system, but much of the evidence for the herb’s efficacy is anecdotal.

Cinnamon

Ancient civilizations have used cinnamon since 2,800 BCE for anointing, embalming, and treating ailments. Though not as widely used for its therapeutic properties as it was thousands of years ago, cinnamon still provides myriad health benefits as an antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and anticarcinogenic spice.

A 2015 reviewTrusted Source shows that cinnamon may reduce blood sugar levels. Its role in regulating glucose in the body has been suggested in many small randomized control trials, though the results have not been significant enough to prove conclusive.

Cinnamon also has cognitive enhancement effects, and researchers have sought to determine whether the spice could be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. In particular, scientists have studied CEppt (an extract found in cinnamon bark) to ascertain whether it could help prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s from progressing. When mice ate this extract, it greatly improved their cognitive abilityTrusted Source.

Chili powder 

2015 researchTrusted Source suggests that capsaicin, the phytochemical that makes chili powder spicy, may play an important role in regulating heart and metabolic health.

When people consume chili powder, the spice triggers beneficial protein changes in the body that are conducive to weight loss. But researchers do not fully understand the mechanism of how this works. People who participated in a studyTrusted Source where they consumed moderate amounts of chili over a 12-week period experienced weight loss results, which was triggered by chili’s impact on the body to better control insulin, among other therapeutic effects. In another studyTrusted Source, researchers observed that regular consumption of chili also significantly reduced abdominal adipose tissue (fat) levels and reduced appetite and energy intake.

When it comes to cardiovascular benefits, recent research provided by the American Heart Association found that those who regularly consume chili powder may reduce their risk for developing heart disease mortality by 26%. Additionally, frequent chili consumption correlates with a 25% reduction in mortality from any cause and 23% fewer cancer deaths.

Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, chili powder could also be effectiveTrusted Source for supporting arthritis treatments, as well as for alleviating muscle and joint inflammation.

Parsley

Parsley is an herb that originated from the Mediterranean region. Many have used it through the years for both culinary flavoring and therapeutic treatment for a range of health conditions, including high blood pressure and allergies. This herb is full of antioxidantsTrusted Source, carotenoids, and other beneficial vitamins that support a healthy body and immune system. Among these is vitamin K, an essential nutrient for bone health.

Oregano

Another herb that is prevalent in the Mediterranean diet is oregano, which many use not only as a flavor enhancer for food but as an aromatic oil and supplement. The herb’s antioxidants contribute to its powerful taste and smell, and may also provide benefitsTrusted Source such as:

• strengthening the immune system against infections
• reducing inflammation
• regulating blood sugar
• improving insulin resistance
• alleviating urinary tract symptoms and menstrual cramps
• fighting cancer

Oregano as a standalone herb cannot singlehandedly produce these results. But people may use it for its antioxidative properties that are beneficial for many health conditions.

Cardamom

Cardamom is yet another spice that provides a wide range of potential health benefits. Coming from the seeds of plants that belong to the ginger family, people often consume cardamom in teas, such as chai tea, as well as some coffee, desserts, and even savory dishes.

Some of the conditions that researchTrusted Source shows cardamom may treat are:

• constipation
• colic
• diarrhea
• dyspepsia
• vomiting
• headache
• epilepsy
• cardiovascular disease.

The spice’s healing benefits come primarily from a combination of its volatile oils, fixed oils, phenolic acids, and sterols. In particular, the volatile oils present in cardamom seeds are analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antispasmodic. Animal studies found cardamom may also help with obesity or high cholesterol. When researchers implemented cardamom supplementation on obese rats, the spice lowered their total cholesterolTrusted Source and triglyceride levels.

Summary

Herbs and spices make flavorful additions to meals, but are also powerhouses for essential nutrients that greatly benefit the body. People may experience some benefits or health improvements from incorporating herbs and spices into their diet, but should not depend upon them solely for full treatment of conditions.Those with serious health conditions should talk with a doctor to discuss the best course of treatment for them.

(Credit: Medical News Today)

Eating milk chocolate every day may sound like a recipe for weight gain, but a new study of postmenopausal women has found that eating a concentrated amount of chocolate during a narrow window of time in the morning may help the body burn fat and decrease blood sugar levels. To find out about the effects of eating milk chocolate at different times of day, researchers from the Brigham collaborated with investigators at the University of Murcia in Spain. Together, they conducted a randomized, controlled, cross-over trial of 19 postmenopausal women who consumed either 100g of chocolate in the morning (within one hour after waking time) or at night (within one hour before bedtime). They compared weight gain and many other measures to no chocolate intake.

Researchers report that among the women studied:

• Morning or nighttime chocolate intake did not lead to weight gain;
• Eating chocolate in the morning or in the evening can influence hunger and appetite, microbiota composition, sleep and more;
• A high intake of chocolate during the morning hours could help to burn fat and reduce blood glucose levels.
• Evening/night chocolate altered next-morning resting and exercise metabolism.

“Our findings highlight that not only ‘what’ but also ‘when’ we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight,” said Scheer. “Our volunteers did not gain weight despite increasing caloric intake. Our results show that chocolate reduced ad libitum energy intake, consistent with the observed reduction in hunger, appetite and the desire for sweets shown in previous studies,” said Garaulet

(Frank A. J. L. Scheer, PhD, MSc, Neuroscientist and Marta Garaulet, PhD, Visiting Scientist, both of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Drs. Scheer and Garaulet are co-corresponding authors of a new paper published in The FASEB Journal.)

New Delhi– Yoga is often mistaken as an ‘exercise’ that only caters to the body. But the most important thing we forget, is that the central dogma of yoga is breath. Life is breath. “We breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, it’s simple biology,” is what some said. But breathing is a very powerful way to control the mind. Here’s an example, if you breathe slowly and deliberately, you begin to feel sleepy. Your heart rate normalizes and you feel calmer. But when you are stressed, your breath quickens, it increases blood pressure. It increases heart rate and so on. If we flip the situation here and breathe easy while stressed, we’re training our body to react calmly to situations of stress! I’d say breathing is not just inhaling and exhaling, it’s actually a complex combination of intricate internal processes that lead to life!

(Here are five things you can practice for better breath control and easier breathing. (Inputs are from Sarvesh Shashi, Founder, SARVA, yoga-based wellness platform.)

The first pose is Bhujangasana or the Cobra pose. Designed to open the chest muscles, the Bhujangasana is a beginner-friendly pose that not only provides relief in asthamatic conditions but also allows one to calm the mind and promotes an overall feeling of happiness.

The second pose is the ArdhaMatsyendrasana or the half fish pose. Designed to be a great twist for the upper body, this induces deeper breathing than usual and enhances the muscles of the Lungs to perform better. It also aids in better circulation to the body and provides relief in times of stress.

The third pose is the toughest. No its not an elaborate twisting and balancing exercise, its Shavasana. We carry tension around our bodies for several days/weeks and some of us even years! This can really affect our breathing patterns. Shavasana helps regulate these in a resting pose. Clearing your mind of the chaos and the body of all the tension is a challenging task for us, who live every single conscious moment thinking or doing something!

The last two are breathing techniques that one must practice to breathe better. Not just this, there are a host of other benefits that are attached to these.

The concept of pranayama is often mistaken for deep breathing.The difference is, In pranayama the movements are so slow that there is adequate time for every part of the lung to absorb in oxygen. Breath retention is a powerful way to energise the body. Anulomvilom is a specific type of controlled breathing (pranayama). It involves holding one nostril closed while inhaling, then holding the other nostril closed while exhaling. The process is then reversed and repeated. Alternate nostril breathing is said to have many physical and psychological benefits, including stress reduction and improved breathing and circulation.

And lastly, Bhramari Pranayama. Bhramari word is made from the Hindi word “Bhramar” which means Bumble Bee. Brahmari (Bee Breath) is a very effective pranayama for calming the mind. The activity of this respiratory exercise helps to induce a calming impact on the mind rapidly. Brahmari Pranayama edges in reducing high vital signs, fatigue, and mental stress. This Pranayama is one of the great breathing exercises to release the mind of disquiet, anxiety, or frustration and get rid of anger.

There is research that corroborates the fact that Yoga is very beneficial for breathing. While the universe of Yoga is endless. It speaks of asanas, pranayamas, mudras, meditation techniques that have several benefits from their practice, the above are suitable for beginners to start their journey to yoga. We must remember that breath is life and life is breath. SARVA’s latest campaign #StarttohKaro is a call to action for people to start on their physical and mental health journeys with any style of activity that suits and excites them.

Consistent daily exercise, breathing techniques to boost immunity and good nutrition can do the trick, just like it did for me during the time I suffered from Covid. June is celebrated as International Day of Yoga Month, as it lauds a practice that ensures holistic well-being. We want people to start their tryst with good health and utilize our platform towards helping communities thrive and work towards feeling healthy, physically and mentally. (IANS)

Yoga, which provided a ‘lifeline’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, can help the world recover from its ravages, leaders at the United Nations said on Monday on the occasion of the 7th International Day of Yoga. “As we take steps to recover from the pandemic, let yoga inspire us to approach challenges holistically, to work together through the multilateral system so we recover better, stronger and greener,” UN General Assembly President VolkanBozkir said. “The social and economic consequences (of the pandemic) have been devastating for many around the world (and) yoga was a lifeline during the lockdown. It helped maintain physical well-being while also managing the stress of uncertainty and isolation,” he said.

Because of the pandemic, the Yoga Day was observed virtually at the UN this year — just like last year — without the mass exercises with the participation of top UN officials and diplomats from around the world that became a part of the UN tradition since 2015. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that yoga can “play a significant role in the care and rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients in allaying fears and sorrow.” “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused enormous stress and anxiety to many people worldwide, who are stemming from loss, isolation, economic insecurity or disruption to normal routines and work-life balance. Yoga can help us cope with the uncertainty and anxiety,” she said.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, T.S. Tirumurti, said the Yoga Day this year “seeks to reaffirm the rejuvenating role of yoga in promoting health and wellbeing of the global community which is presently coping with the pervasive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.” “Yoga organisations and practitioners around the world have been raising awareness through digital platforms about the potential of yoga in mitigating the adverse effects of the pandemic on the physical and mental well-being of the people,” he said.

Yoga practitioners from eight countries participated in a digital demonstration conducted by New York-based yoga teacher Eddie Stern. The United Nations General Assembly had declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 at the initiative of India with the support of 177 countries. Unlike the UN, which still maintains strict Covid-19 precautions, the host city New York had dropped most Covid related restrictions last week as the city’s vaccination rate surged to about 70 per cent, enabling a mass celebration.

On Sunday, the city’s Times Square held its first major event after the restrictions fell off, celebrating Yoga Day to coincide with the Summer Solstice, which came a day earlier this year. A relay of yoga practice with over 3,000 people participating took place at Times Square, which is known as the ‘Crossroads of the World’, from 7:30 am to 8 pm. Across the Hudson River at Jersey City’s Liberty State Park against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, the tristate Federation of Indian Associations organised a celebration on Sunday. Both the events were organized in partnership with the Consulate General of India. (IANS)

Newswise — A research group including Professor MATSUDA Tetsuya of Tamagawa University’s Brain Science Institute (Machida City, Tokyo; Director: SAKAGAMI Masamichi) and Assistant Professor ISHIHARA Toru from Kobe University’s Graduate School of Human Development and Environment has illuminated the changes in the brain’s neural network and cortex structure that underlie the positive association between childhood exercise and the maintenance and promotion of cognitive function in later life. These results were published in the academic journal NeuroImage on May 23, 2021.

Main Points

The researchers showed that people who are physically active during childhood (up to 12 years of age) have higher cognitive functions in later life.However, they could not find a correlation between cognitive function and post-childhood physical activity. The positive association between childhood exercise and cognitive function was evident in the modular (*1) segregation of brain networks, strengthened inter-hemispheric connectivity, greater cortical thickness, lower levels of dendritic arborization and decreased density. During childhood, the formation of the brain’s network is susceptible to environmental and experience-related factors. It is thought that exercise during this period optimizes brain network development and is linked to the maintenance and promotion of cognitive function in later life.

Research Background

Research over the previous decade has shown that exercise during childhood affects the development of cognitive functions. Recent findings have indicated that these benefits of childhood exercise extend to the maintenance and promotion of cognitive functions in middle age and later life. However, the changes in brain functionality and structure related to this positive association have yet to be illuminated. This research study investigated the relationship between physical activity in childhood and cognitive function in later life, using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to illuminate the structural and functional changes in the brain that are behind this relationship.

Experiment Method

The research group conducted a study on 214 participants ranging in age from 26 to 69 in order to investigate the relationship between childhood exercise and cognitive function, and the underlying functional and structural neural networks and cortical structure. Childhood exercise was assessed via questionnaire. One aspect of cognitive function, response inhibition (the ability to suppress inappropriate behaviors), was measured using a Go/No-go task. The image data from the MRI was analyzed and the following were calculated: structural and functional connectivity (*2), cortical thickness, myelination, the degree of neurite orientation dispersion and density index. The brain was divided into 360 areas in accordance with the Human Connectome Project (*3), and functional and structural parameters were obtained for each area. In the statistical analysis, information obtained through the questionnaire was used as confounders. This included each participant’s educational background, parents’ educational background, number of siblings and exercise during adulthood.

Experiment Results

Firstly, the researchers analyzed the relationship between whether participants exercised during childhood and Go/No-go task performance (false alarm rate). They found that participants who exercised during childhood (up until age 12) had a lower false alarm rate than those who didn’t (Figure 1). Furthermore, this correlation was found regardless of the age of the participant. However, no such relationship was found between task performance and post-childhood exercise.

Next, the research group investigated structural and functional connectivity in the brain relating to Go/No-go task performance in participants who exercised during childhood. From these results, they confirmed that in terms of structural connectivity in the brain, there were positive associations (Figure 2A: connections indicated in red) and negative associations (Figure 2A: connections indicated in blue) between exercise during childhood and the false alarm rate in the Go/No-go task. Large-scale network connectivity was found in over half (73%) of structurally connected areas that were positively associated with the Go/No-go task false alarm rate (Figure 2B, left portion). On the other hand, inter-hemispheric connectivity was found in the majority (88%) of structurally connected areas that were negatively associated with the task’s false alarm rate (Figure 2B, right portion).

In terms of connections between functional areas, connections showing positive associations (Figure 3A: connections indicated in red) with the Go/No-go task false alarm rate were identified in participants who exercised during childhood but no negatively associated connections were found. Furthermore, large-scale network connectivity was found in the majority (91%) of connected areas that were positively associated with the task’s false alarm rate (Figure 3B, left portion).

In those participants who did not exercise during childhood, there was no structural or functional connectivity identified in relation to the false alarm rate in the Go/No-go task. Lastly, the researchers investigated cortical structure parameters in relation to the Go/No-go false alarm rate for participants who exercised as children. They found that task performance was negatively associated with cortical density, and positively associated with the degree of neurite orientation dispersion and density. The above results demonstrate that modular segregation and strengthened inter-hemispheric connections in the brain networks of people who exercised during childhood reduced the number of mistakes that they made in the Go/No-go task.

It’s undisputed that aging is part of the life cycle. Life expectancy for babies born in the U.S. is 77.8 years, according to a 2020 study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But all aging is not created equally. The quality of life during the aging process and how it will unfold, including the cost of aging, are the big unknowns.

Will you be able to walk to the mailbox, drive yourself to do errands, get yourself out of bed on your own strength? What can be done early to reverse and/or slow aging? These are just some potential concerns that every living person will have to face.

The American Physiological Society (APS) recently polled its member-experts to learn what some of the top challenges are that scientists say people should expect to face during the aging process. The list of concerns includes, but is not limited, to the following:

• Diminishing “healthspan” (length of time an aging person is healthy)
• Aging as the cause of almost all chronic diseases
• Slowing aging to increase healthspan
• Loss of functional independence due to physical and cognitive decline
• Organ deterioration, especially of the heart

APS has compiled a list of leading physiologists studying aging. These experts are available for interviews on this topic. Below are their names, the institutions they represent and their specific area(s) of expertise within aging.

• Paul Welling, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, hypertension and kidney disease
• Benjamin Miller, PhD, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, muscle loss and treatments to slow aging
• Amanda Jo LeBlanc, PhD, University of Louisville Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, heart function
• Andrea Salvador Pascual, University of California, Berkley, muscle physiology and exercise
• Charlotte A. Peterson, PhD, Center for Muscle Biology, University of Kentucky, muscles
• Dudley Lamming, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, aging and animal use in research

For more details, contact: American Physiological Society (APS)

Is backyard cookout season kicks into high gear, many people may be eyeing their sizzling burgers and dogs with suspicion. And for good reason: a number of studies published in the past two decades have turned up evidence that eating charred, smoked, and well-done meat could raise cancer risk—pancreatic, colorectal, and prostate cancers, in particular.

A 2010 review of the evidence on cancer and “well-done” meat, conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University, concluded that “the majority of these studies have shown that high intake of well-done meat and high exposure to meat carcinogens, particularly HCAs, may increase the risk of human cancer.” Heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which some experts also refer to as heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), are a class of chemical that forms in cooked red meat and, to a lesser extent, in poultry and fish, according to a 2011 study in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Another class of chemicals, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), has also been linked to cancer. “PAHs are formed when fat and juices from meat grilled directly over a heated surface or open fire drip onto the surface or fire, causing flames and smoke,” according to a fact sheet published by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “The smoke contains PAHs that then adhere to the surface of the meat.” Even if meat isn’t charred or cooked at high temps, smoking meat can increase its levels of PAHs.Both HAAs and PAHs are metabolized by enzymes in the body. And some of the byproducts of this process can cause DNA damage that may contribute to the development of cancer, suggests the research of Robert Turesky, an expert in cancer causation at the University of Minnesota.

But there’s a lot of variance in how a given piece of grilled meat affects any individual person. “The concentrations of HAAs formed in cooked meats can vary by over 100-fold, depending on the type of meat, the method, temperature, and duration of cooking,” says Turesky. “In general, the highest concentrations of HAAs [are found] in well-done cooked meats, and in meats that are charred, such as by barbequing or flame broiling,”Turesky’s research also indicates that a person’s genetic makeup may influence how they respond to the chemicals, and so “the risk of developing cancer for individuals who eat well-done meat may vary considerably,” he says.

Further, there’s mounting evidence tying the consumption of processed meats—such as hot dogs, bacon, and salami—with some of the same cancers studies have linked to grilled or well-done meat. It may be that individuals who eat a lot of charred steak or well-done burgers are also more likely than the average person to eat a lot of bacon or hot dogs. And so it could be the processed meat—not the blackened steak—that accounts for any increased cancer risks. “Sorting out what’s driving these associations is very hard,” says Dr. Stephen Freedland, director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Another challenge to the “grilled-meat-causes-cancer” narrative is that the real-world evidence linking the consumption of well-done meat to cancer is inconsistent. While that 2010 Vanderbilt study found “a majority” of studies have turned up a cancer connection, that majority was slim. Some studies have found evidence of increased cancer risk among people who eat a lot of grilled meat, but other studies have not found a significant association.

“Population studies have not established a definitive link between HCA and PAH exposure from cooked meats and cancer in humans,” according to the NCI. While studies in rodents indicate that these chemicals can cause cancer, “the doses of HCAs and PAHs used in these studies were very high—equivalent to thousands of times the doses that a person would consume in a normal diet,” the NCI’s fact sheet states.

Freedland’s take on the evidence is that eating a lot of charred meat—say, two to three meals a week for many years—could produce the kind of cellular damage that raises cancer risk. “But I don’t want people to be paranoid,” he says. “I worry a lot more about the desserts and soda people are having with their grilled meat.”The sugar in these foods and drinks likely contributes to obesity, and obesity is a clear risk factor for cancer. “I think eating charred meat is probably not the best thing for you, but here and there, it’s probably okay,” Freedland says. He notes that grilling meat on tin foil and marinating it in herbs and spices may also reduce the development of potential carcinogens.

“Clearly, the risk [of eating charred meat] is far lower than for someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day or heavily imbibes alcohol,” Turesky says. “But many people who are meat-eaters consume low levels of these potentially carcinogenic compounds daily, and the exposure may add up over time.” He advises eating meat “in moderation,” and trying not to overcook or char meat.Long story short, eating a blackened steak every night for dinner is probably imprudent if you’re worried about cancer. But enjoying the occasional burned burger or ribeye isn’t something you should stress about.

There is no such thing as a “safe” level of drinking, with increased consumption of alcohol associated with poorer brain health, according to a new study.In an observational study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers from the University of Oxford studied the relationship between the self-reported alcohol intake of some 25,000 people in the UK, and their brain scans.

The researchers noted that drinking had an effect on the brain’s gray matter — regions in the brain that make up “important bits where information is processed,” according to lead author Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher at Oxford.”The more people drank, the less the volume of their gray matter,” Topiwala said via email.

“Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia. Smaller brain volume also predicts worse performance on memory testing,” she explained.

“Whilst alcohol only made a small contribution to this (0.8%), it was a greater contribution than other ‘modifiable’ risk factors,” she said, explaining that modifiable risk factors are “ones you can do something about, in contrast to aging.”

Type of alcohol doesn’t matter

The team also investigated whether certain drinking patterns, beverage types and other health conditions made a difference to the impact of alcohol on brain health.

They found that there was no “safe” level of drinking — meaning that consuming any amount of alcohol was worse than not drinking it. They also found no evidence that the type of drink — such as wine, spirits or beer — affected the harm done to the brain.

However, certain characteristics, such as high blood pressure, obesity or binge-drinking, could put people at higher risk, researchers added.”So many people drink ‘moderately,’ and think this is either harmless or even protective,” Topiwala told the media.

“As we have yet to find a ‘cure’ for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, knowing about factors that can prevent brain harm is important for public health,” she added.

No safe limit

The risks of alcohol have long been known: Previous studies have found that there’s no amount of liquor, wine or beer that is safe for your overall health. Alcohol was the leading risk factor for disease and premature death in men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide in 2016, accounting for nearly one in 10 deaths, according to a study published in The Lancet in 2018.

“While we can’t yet say for sure whether there is ‘no safe level’ of alcohol regarding brain health at the moment, it has been known for decades that heavy drinking is bad for brain health,”Sadie Boniface, head of research at the UK’s Institute of Alcohol Studies, told CNN via email.

“We also shouldn’t forget alcohol affects all parts of the body and there are multiple health risks,” said Boniface, who was not associated with the University of Oxford study.

Tony Rao, a visiting clinical fellow in Old Age Psychiatry at King’s College London, told CNN that given the large sample size, it was unlikely the study’s findings could have arisen by chance.Rao said the study replicates previous research that has shown there is no safe limit in the level of alcohol consumption for its role in damage to the structure and function of the human brain.

“Previous research has found that subtle changes which demonstrate damage to the brain can present in ways that are not immediately detectable on routine testing of intellectual function and can progress unchecked until they present with more noticeable changes in memory,” he said.

“Even at levels of low-risk drinking,” he said, “there is evidence that alcohol consumption plays a larger role in damage to the brain than previously thought. The (Oxford) studyfound that this role was greater than many other modifiable risk factors, such as smoking.””The interaction with high blood pressure and obesity on increasing the damage done by alcohol to the brain emphasizes the wider role of diet and lifestyle in maintaining brain health,” he added. (Courtesy: TIME)

 

COVID-19 was the third-underlying cause of death in 2020 after heart disease and cancer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday.

Reports published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report sheds new light on the approximately 375,000 U.S. deaths attributed to COVID-19 last year, and highlights the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on communities of color — a point CDC Director Rochelle Walensky emphasized at a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing last week.

She said deaths related to COVID-19 were higher among American Indian and Alaskan Native persons, Hispanics, Blacks and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander persons than whites. She added that “among nearly all of these ethnic and racial minority groups, the COVID-19 related deaths were more than double the death rate of non-Hispanic white persons.”

Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer, according to a new study of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Covid-19 pandemic caused approximately 375,000 deaths in the US during 2020. The Covid-19 death rate was the highest among Hispanics, the study published on Wednesday, revealed, Xinhua reported. Covid-19 death rates were the lowest among children aged 1 to 4 years and 5 to 14 years, and the highest among those aged over 85 years. Meanwhile, the age-adjusted Covid-19 associated death rate among males was higher than that among females, according to the study.

The total number of deaths occurred in the country in 2020 was 3,358,814, an increase of 15.9 per cent over the previous year, according to the CDC. The deadliest weeks of 2020 were at the beginning of the pandemic in April and then in the middle of the holiday surge in late December, the study showed. (IANS)

I f you’re like most Americans, the past year has been a time of fear, anxiety and often profound tedium—but also of worsening dietary habits. Take 328 million people and confine them to their homes for weeks and months on end and they’re going to start eating more and exercising less. That means, no surprise, weight gain. A study published March 22 in JAMA took a crack at determining just how many pounds the average American packed on in between February and June 2020, and came up with about 7.08 lb. (3.24 kg).

Even before the pandemic began, the researchers, all from the University of California, San Francisco, were involved in a program known as the Heart eHealth Study, in which 250,000 volunteers share their blood pressure, electrocardiograms, weight and more by entering them into a phone app or connecting the phone to Bluetooth-enabled devices if they own them. There is no set frequency with which the volunteers are expected to participate, but the more often they log on and contribute their readings, the more data the researchers can collect. The goal is to learn more about the lifestyles and patterns of underlying health that lead to heart disease and how it might be possible to reverse them before trouble starts. When, in mid-March and early-April of last year, 45 states issued shelter-in-place orders, it got the research team wondering about what the sudden shift to a more sedentary lifestyle would do to eating habits and body mass.

To determine this, the team selected a broadly representative sample group from their existing pool of heart health subjects: 269 people from 37 states, with a median age of 51.9 years, and close to evenly divided between men and women. Over the course of four months, from Feb. 1, 2020—before pandemic-related social restrictions began—to June 1, 2020, the investigators collected a total of 7,444 weight readings from their sample pool. Over that time, the subjects gained an average of 0.59 lb. (0.27 kg) every 10 days.

That was unsurprising, to an extent, given the fact that so many Americans were forced to adapt to a much less active lifestyle. But it was especially troubling because so many of the subjects included in this study had actually been losing weight before the four month period began, says Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist, UCSF professor of medicine, and a coauthor of the study. “This means that their healthy behavior was not just interrupted, it was actually reversed.”

Equally worrisome, the 250,000 people from whom the 269 were selected were by no means precisely representative of the entire population. The mere fact that they enrolled in the Heart eHealth Study and that some own the bluetooth-enabled scales, ECGs and blood pressure cuffs that help them participate means that they are surely more health-conscious than much of the rest of the population. Merely to have their data included in the new weight study, they had to step on the scale a minimum of twice in the four-month study period, something that many other people may not do for months at a time.

“It might be that the general population has actually experienced more weight gain than our sample group has,” says Marcus. “It might be that this is just the tip of the iceberg.” As data from the Heart eHealth program continue to pour in, Marcus and his colleagues are keeping an eye on the 269 subjects and maintaining a record of their readings. They have not decided whether they will publish a follow-up study on their weight-gain or loss, but, says, Marcus, “It will be interesting to see what happens after all of the shelter in place orders are lifted.”

There are plenty of times where we may be alone—working remotely, commuting solo, or even living by ourselves. Just because we’re by ourselves doesn’t mean we feel lonely. Sometimes we thrive in this “alone time,” allowing us to do activities we enjoy on our own.

But many of us don’t like to admit we all feel lonely from time to time.

According to a 2018 survey by Cigna, nearly half of Americans reported sometimes or always feeling alone, and one in five people reported never feeling close to people.

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines loneliness as “…discomfort or uneasiness from being or perceiving oneself to be alone….” The APA cites various reasons for loneliness, such as a lack of companionship or a lack of desired closeness in relationships.

Certain situations, such as moving to a new city, or a major life change, such as divorce, can contribute to feelings of loneliness. Any events that may negatively impact your social circles may make you feel lonely.

Mental health conditions can also play a factor. Someone with social anxiety may struggle to interact with others, even though they may crave human connection.

“Humans need social connections,” explained Lisa W. Coyne, PhD, psychologist and senior clinical consultant at the Child and Adolescent OCD Institute (OCDI Jr.) at McLean Hospital. “When we don’t have them, it’s harder for us to handle things on our own. There are some issues and problems in this world that are best dealt with as a community.”

We can even feel alone when we’re surrounded by other people. For example, you may feel alone if traveling to a country where the language is unfamiliar to you. Often, teens who feel misunderstood by their parents and siblings may feel lonely at home.

“Some of us are introverts,” Coyne said, “but at the same time, we have a herd mentality. We need connections to survive.”

Confronting Loneliness

Regardless of the reason, loneliness is painful. Even worse, it can lead to mental health issues, such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease, and physical conditions, including heart disease and cancer.

We can take steps, however, to cope with loneliness and even change our state of mind.

Step 1: Practice Gratitude

Studies have shown that acts of gratitude can help us feel more positive and have stronger relationships.

Think of the people in your life you appreciate. They may include someone from the past who had a major impact on your life, such as a mentor in your youth. Or they could be someone you see more frequently, such as the friend who recently helped you move.

Consider sending this person a handwritten card or letter, reaching out by email, or calling to express your appreciation. Not only will you likely brighten someone’s day with your action, but you will make yourself happier by fostering the connection and being kind.

Even silently recognizing a good person or situation in your life can develop a sense of gratitude.

Keeping a gratitude journal, in which you write about what you feel grateful for, can improve your mental health. Gratitude journaling helps us realize what we have in our lives as opposed to what we lack.

For a more targeted approach to gratitude journaling, follow the Three Good Things exercise in which you write about three good things (large or small) that happened throughout your day. Try the practice daily for a set period of time, such as one week, and note if your sense of loneliness has shifted.

Love and Isolation in the Time of COVID

Drs. Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz help us understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is causing an increase in feelings of loneliness, while simultaneously creating difficulties in couples’ relationships from too much closeness.

Step 2: Participate in Meaningful Activities

By pursuing your passions, your mind and spirit are engaged, decreasing feelings of loneliness. By joining a recreational sports team, library book club, volunteer effort, or other activities you enjoy, you are also more likely to meet others who have shared interests.

If you find that you don’t see your friends as often as you’d like, consider setting up a recurring virtual gathering. Having a date and time planned in your calendar (for example, 2pm every other Tuesday) will encourage everyone to meet automatically and make it easy to maintain your connections with each other.

Step 3: Remember That You Are Unique

Feeling “less than” can contribute to feelings of loneliness.

Try to avoid comparing yourself to others. It is only human to look at someone else and feel sad when their surface-level feelings or apparent situation seem happier than our own.

“We have pretty critical minds,” said Coyne. “Our mind has evolved to be our threat detector. And our brain is going to be keeping an eye on things like: Are you doing all the things to connect? Are you keeping up with the Joneses?”

With these questions, she explained, some information can be useful—and some is not. “The only way to really tell is to defuse—step back and notice—that my mind is having a field day with my social interactions,” Coyne said. “And that gives me the liberty to ask: Is this helping me? Or can I organize my thoughts and mental energy in another way?”

Sometimes, if we get hooked on negative social evaluations, we can get stuck in organizing our behavior around avoidance. “As a result, you might not behave in a way that benefits you the most and instead you’re feeding negative personal judgment,” Coyne explained.

Alone and lonely are not the same; finding moments of solitude is healthy for the mind and body

Such comparisons can create a sense of distance from others. However, that increases our sense of isolation. It’s important to realize we never know what is going on in someone else’s life.

We all have good times as well as challenging periods in our lives—and keeping this universal truth in mind can help us feel connected. On the other hand, remember that you are unique: There is no one else on earth like you. It can be satisfying to recognize that you are doing what you can with what you have.

Step 4: Connect With Yourself

Solitude is different from loneliness because it is the state of being alone without necessarily feeling lonely. The word often implies there is an opportunity for reflection or doing things we enjoy.

While there are various ways you can reduce loneliness through connecting to others, consider the relationship you have with yourself and how you can enrich it. If you can do this, you may feel less isolated.

“Change your criteria for success,” said Coyne. “Don’t ask: Am I keeping up with whoever is in my social circles? Am I keeping up in a way that my mind says is comparable to others? Instead, ask yourself: Am I being true to myself today? Have I been kind or a good friend? Did I do things that are consistent with what I value?” Engaging in small mental choices and small habitual changes over time can give you a sense of self-efficacy, esteem, and comfort with yourself.

Set aside a period of time each day to check in with yourself. You could meditate, pray, practice yoga, or read a couple of pages of a spiritual text. This practice can be done in as little as five minutes, but it’s helpful to do it every day so it becomes a healthy habit.

Connecting with yourself doesn’t mean turning inward and calling it a day. We’ve all heard it before, but it’s so important to exercise and eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables. What we eat directly affects our body and mind.

If you are experiencing anxiety or depression, consider cutting back on alcohol because it can make you feel worse. Additionally, getting enough sleep—7-9 hours per night for adults—is one of the most important things we can do for our health.

Even if You Feel Lonely—You Are Not Alone!

If you are feeling lonely, reach out to an understanding loved one. If your feelings of loneliness don’t go away or feel unbearable, or if you are feeling anxious or depressed, contact a mental health professional.

“How do you know if you’re taking care of yourself and your social relationships in a way that’s vital to you?” asked Coyne. “A good way to look at it is to ask yourself some of these questions: Are you avoiding doing things? How’s your mood? Do you feel disconnected? Do you feel guilty for not talking to friends, or are you talking yourself into social situations?” All of these can be signs that you need to take steps toward developing good, intimate, and authentic relationships.

Consider taking the step of making connections through a support group. Support groups address a variety of issues, from specific mental health conditions to various challenges, including grief and physical illness. Many groups are free and available online.

If you need help right away, contact a hotline. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1.800.273.8255. Even if you’re feeling lonely, know that you are not alone.