Balanced Living

March 2007

Eat Right for Life

March is National Nutrition Month®

Here's your guide to the best foods to nourish you -- body and soul. Here too are those foods best left for that occasional need to indulge in guilty pleasures. What follows is not a subjective guide -- it's based on research showing that eating certain foods may help prevent heart disease and certain cancers, and that eating other types of food may contribute to disease. Use this guide to help you replace unhealthy foods with these classics.

Food classics

Pulp fruit. These are just examples. Remember, all fruits contain nutrients that are good for your health. Citrus fruits contain a phytochemical called limonene that may help prevent cancer. Berries have come into their own recently. They are high in fiber and vitamin C, and contain phytochemicals that are potent antioxidants.

It's a wonderful tomato. Fruit or vegetable? While tomatoes are technically a fruit, they deserve special recognition. Tomatoes are loaded with nutrients, including vitamins B and C, iron, potassium, and beta carotene. They also contain an important phytochemical called lycopene, which may help lower the risk of heart attack and prostate cancer, as well as other cancers. Cooked and canned tomatoes contain even more lycopene than fresh tomatoes do.

All the cruciferous vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower contain a phytochemical called indoles that may help prevent some cancers. They are also high in fiber, vitamin C and beta carotene. And, don't forget about the lesser-known members of this family, including arugula, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, rutabaga, and watercress.

Citizen grain. Not sure if your bread or cereal is made from whole grains? Check the label. Look for whole wheat, barley, or oats listed as the first ingredient. Whole grains contain fiber, vitamins and minerals. Eating whole-grain foods may help lessen your risk for heart disease and some cancers.

Soy luck club. You might know it only as tofu, but soy is one of the most versatile foods around. You can sprinkle soy powder on your cereal, try a soy-based burger for lunch, or add tofu to a stir-fry. No matter how you eat it, soy is good for your health. Eating a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol that includes 25 grams of soy per day may help reduce your risk for heart disease. (And, remember that soy sauce is not a good source of soy; most soy sauces don't contain any soy.)

Cast away. Fish is a good choice because it is low in saturated fat, yet high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for heart health. It's a good idea to try to eat fish two to three times a week. Fish with the highest amount of omega-3s include salmon and mackerel.

Food noir

Whether you buy the fried chicken from your grocer's freezer or the fish and chips from your favorite seafood haunt, if they're fried, they're dripping in saturated fat and calories -- two big No-No's for heart health. Of course, the added fat is what makes fried foods taste so good. It's OK to eat fried food maybe once or twice a month, but try to limit it to that. Instead, eat food that is baked, broiled, steamed, boiled or microwaved.

All about red meat. Most red meat is high in saturated fat, which has been shown to increase your risk of heart disease and possibly cancer. Most experts recommend that you limit your intake of saturated fat to less than 10 percent of your total calories. While it's fine to eat red meat occasionally, try to eat leaner cuts of meat such as tenderloin, and cut off the fat before you cook it.

The big sweet. Do you know how many calories are in a large-size, non-diet soda? A 64-ounce cup has about 800 calories. People may drink two or three of these beverages without realizing how many calories they contain. What's worse, these drinks don't provide your body with healthy nutrients. If you are thirsty, you are better off drinking water.

The next time you are at the grocery store, load your cart with disease-fighting, classic foods. Knowing how powerful these foods are in protecting your health can inspire you to indulge in "foods noir" only occasionally.

For more information:
www.eatright.org/Public/NutritionInformation/92_11422.cfm
https://fhahelps.personaladvantage.com/logon?target=dieting

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Understanding MS

March is National Multiple Sclerosis Education and Awareness Month

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, progressive autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (brain, brainstem and spinal cord). In an autoimmune disease, the body's immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues. In MS, the body attacks a fatty substance called myelin that covers and insulates nerves. When the myelin is damaged, signals between nerve cells are interrupted, leading to diminished or lost body functions in the areas those nerves control. Myelin damage also results in many small patches of hard, scarred tissue called plaques. The myelin damage may eventually reach the axons, long nerve fibers that carry signals from nerves to the organs they control.

MS can range from mild to severely disabling, and its symptoms can vary in severity, depending in part on where the plaques occur and the extent of myelin damage. In the early stages of the disease, symptoms usually ease or vanish. As the disease progresses, however, symptoms return and linger, and can become progressively worse. MS is not fatal, but it has significant effects on emotional and physical health. Many people with MS die of complications of the disease, and suicide rates are much higher than normal.

Women are affected by MS 1.5 to 2 times as often as men. It is more common in whites of northern European descent than in other ethnic groups. It is more common in temperate regions than in the tropics, and is most prevalent in northern and central Europe, Italy, southern Australia and the northern states of North America.

Symptoms of MS usually first appear between the ages of 20 and 40, but because diagnosis is difficult, many people may not immediately discover the cause of their symptoms. MS seldom occurs in children younger than 15 or in adults older than 60. MS can be difficult to diagnose because the symptoms are the same as those of many other diseases. No single test exists to diagnose MS. A diagnosis often is made only after other illnesses are ruled out. Your doctor may order an MRI, a test of your spinal fluid, a simple test of nerve function called an evoked potential, and visual tests to aid in determining the diagnosis.

Causes

The cause of the autoimmune response that leads to MS is not known. Some researchers suspect that a person's genetic makeup combined with some environmental factor causes MS. One theory says that a virus is the environmental factor. That virus, which may be contracted in adolescence and then lie dormant for years, has not yet been identified.

Another theory says that MS and other autoimmune diseases are a result of a cleaner environment and fewer childhood infections. The theory proposes that infections in early childhood affect the immune system in a way that later protects adults against autoimmune diseases. With a cleaner environment and a widespread use of antibiotics, people don't get as many childhood infections. Thus, their immune systems don't develop protective factors.

Symptoms

• Blurred or double vision
• Eye pain, involuntary eye jerking, or eye movement, usually in just one eye
• Distortion of colors, especially reds and greens
• Blindness in one eye
• Fatigue, usually worse in the afternoon
• Changes in how arms and legs feel; common sensations include heaviness, weakness, clumsiness, numbness and tingling
• Muscle weakness, spasms, loss of dexterity and inability to control specific movements
• Problems with bladder and bowel control, and sexual dysfunction
• Speech difficulties
• Tremors
• Dizziness
• Hearing loss
• Difficulty with concentration, attention, and memory, usually after many years
• Depression and mood swings, usually after many years

Treatment

Once MS is diagnosed, treatment should begin as soon as possible. Treatment focuses on relieving symptoms, decreasing the frequency and severity of attacks and preventing disability. Drugs prescribed include corticosteroids and various types of interferons, which may slow progression of physical disability and ease the severity of an MS attack.

Drugs being researched as future MS medications include monoclonal antibodies, which are special antibodies to target immune system areas that may cause MS; aminopyridines, which block the body's use of potassium to improve the function of damaged nerves; and cannabinoids, which may protect nerve cells.

Calcium and vitamin D supplements, along with medications to prevent bone loss, are also prescribed because osteoporosis is common in people with MS.

A person with MS often requires help from family or friends, because of long-term physical, financial and psychological needs.

Self-Care Steps for Multiple Sclerosis

• If possible, get help for daily tasks.
• Limit stress as much as possible, because it can cause and worsen symptoms.
• Enroll in an aerobic exercise program to stimulate your muscles as much as you are able. Water aerobics is an excellent choice.
• Do stretching and range-of-motion exercises to help with spasticity.
• Be careful not to become overheated, because this may make your symptoms worse. Use an air conditioner in the summer, and don't swim in overheated pools.
• Join a support group to help you learn how to cope with the disease.
• Avoid getting colds and the flu. Get an annual flu shot. However, the nasal vaccine is not recommended for people with MS.
• Talk to your doctor if your symptoms return or become worse.
• Don't forget to have recommended tests and exams to detect other health conditions, such as high blood pressure or cancer.

For more information:
https://fhahelps.personaladvantage.com/logon?target=content?sub=10001486
www.msfocus.org/programs_events/prog_edumth.html

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Creating a Great Portfolio

An insight into investing basics

An important way to reduce the risk of investing is to diversify your investments. Diversification is akin to "not putting all your eggs in one basket." For example, if your portfolio only consisted of stocks of technology companies, it would likely face a substantial loss in value if a major event adversely affected the technology industry.

There are different ways to diversify a portfolio whose holdings are concentrated in one industry. You might invest in the stocks of companies belonging to other industry groups. You might allocate your portfolio among different categories of stocks, such as growth, value, or income stocks. You might include bonds and cash investments in your asset-allocation decisions. Potential bond categories include government, agency, municipal, and corporate bonds. You might also diversify by investing in foreign stocks and bonds.

Diversification requires you to invest in securities whose investment returns do not move together. In other words, their investment returns have a low correlation. The correlation coefficient is used to measure the degree to which returns of two securities are related. For example, two stocks whose returns move in lockstep have a coefficient of +1.0. Two stocks whose returns move in exactly the opposite direction have a correlation of -1.0. To effectively diversify, you should aim to find investments that have a low or negative correlation.

As you increase the number of securities in your portfolio, you reach a point where you've likely diversified as much as reasonably possible. Financial planners vary in their views on how many securities you need to have a fully diversified portfolio. Some say it is 10 to 20 securities. Others say it is closer to 30 securities.

In either case, you'll still pay a lot in brokerage commissions to put together such a portfolio. For example, if the average trade costs $30, assembling a 10-stock portfolio would cost $300 in commissions. Surely, a cheaper way must exist to achieve diversification benefits.

Mutual funds offer diversification at a lower cost. You can buy no-load mutual funds from an online broker. Often, you can buy shares of a fund directly from the mutual fund, avoiding a commission altogether. Mutual funds often require an initial investment of between $1,000 and $2,500. However, they generally allow subsequent investments of as little as $25. The Web site of the Investment Company Institute has a list of mutual funds and their toll-free numbers.

Mutual funds hold hundreds of securities in their portfolios. This provides a diversification advantage that's hard to beat. You do face yearly expenses with mutual funds. Management and marketing fees make up most of the fund's operating expenses, which total about 1.5% of your investment each year.

In spite of yearly fees, owning shares of five or 10 mutual funds with different investment objectives may provide great diversification benefits at a lower cost than building a portfolio of individual stocks and bonds.

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Fighting Fear

Understanding some common phobias

We are all afraid from time to time. Most of the time our fears have a basis in reality, such as when we feel afraid walking down a dark alley alone at night. We know from our own experience and the experience of others that we are jeopardizing our safety and so it seems reasonable to be afraid. Read these tips to learn the differences between fears and phobias, and how phobias can be treated.

Mild Fears

Many of us experience mild and perhaps slightly irrational fears, such as the fear of flying in an airplane or riding in an elevator. Most of us will fly in an airplane and ride in elevators in spite of our fear, because we know that, as a practical matter, we can overcome it in the face of necessity. These fears do not interfere with our daily lives. In fact, we are often able to laugh about them even though they make us slightly uncomfortable.

A Simple Phobia

A phobia is an irrational need to avoid situations or objects. A "simple phobia" might be the complete avoidance of flying in an airplane or riding in an elevator, even though that avoidance is impractical.

Overcoming a Simple Phobia

Simple phobias can be relatively easy to overcome with a three-pronged approach:

• Behavior therapy, which teaches us small steps to change the way we think about the activity.
• Education, such as discussion sessions with airline pilots and aircraft engineers, to address our irrational fears about the activity.
• Group support, to help us realize that we are not alone in our fears.

A Serious Phobia

A more serious phobia, however, is a fear so powerful it might prevent us from going about the normal activities of everyday life. It has a component of all-encompassing fear which fills us with an almost constant feeling of dread.

Overcoming a Serious Phobia

Serious phobias can usually be treated successfully by a mental health professional with behavior modification, medication or both. Successful intervention can help phobia sufferers become more realistic about their fears so that they can return to a full life.