Too much protein in middle age 'as bad as smoking'

Two new studies conclude that low protein intake may hold the key to a long and healthy life, at least until old age. They also emphasize the need to examine not only calories when deciding what constitutes a healthy diet, but also where those calories come from - such as whether protein is animal or plant-based.
Another key finding is the suggestion that while a high-protein diet may in the short term help people lose weight and body fat, in the long term it may harm health and reduce lifespan.
Both studies are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The first study was led by Valter Longo, a professor at the University of Southern California, who counts longevity and cell biology among his areas of expertise.
He and his colleagues showed that high protein consumption is linked to increased risk of cancer, diabetes and death in middle-aged adults, although this was not the case for older adults who may benefit from moderate protein consumption. Also, the effect is much reduced when the protein comes from plant sources.
The second study was led by Stephen Simpson, a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia, whose group works at the interface of physiology, ecology, and behavior. From studying mice, he and his fellow authors concluded that diets low in protein and high in carbohydrates are linked to the longest lifespans.
Both studies suggest it is not just calories, but also diet composition - particularly in terms of amount and type of protein - that may determine the length and health of a lifespan.
Prof. Longo says:

"We studied simple organisms, mice and humans, and provide convincing evidence that a high- protein diet - particularly if the proteins are derived from animals - is nearly as bad as smoking for your health."

High-protein diet had highest risk, except in older adults

In their study, Prof. Longo and colleagues analyzed data on over 6,800 American adults who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, a US national survey that assesses health and diet.
They found that:

The researchers found that consuming a high-protein diet in middle age significantly increases the likelihood of dying from cancer or diabetes.

• Participants aged 50 and over who said they ate a high-protein diet were four times more likely to die from cancer or diabetes, and twice as likely to die from any cause, in the following 18 years.
• Those who consumed moderate amounts of protein had a three-fold higher chance of dying of cancer.
• These effects either reduced or disappeared altogether among participants whose high-protein diet was mainly plant-based.
• However, in those aged 65 and over, the effect was nearly the opposite - high protein intake was linked to a 60% reduced risk of dying from cancer and a 28% reduced risk of dying from any cause, with similar effects for moderate protein intake.

The researchers defined a high-protein diet as one where at least 20% of the calories consumed come from protein.

Growth hormone, amino acid damage, ability to process protein may be key factors

The team suggests, because of evidence from other studies, that growth hormone and the growth factor IGF-1 may be responsible for these effects, as Prof. Longo explains:
"Notably, the activity of these factors, but also body weight, declines naturally with aging, which may explain why older people not only did not benefit but appeared to do worse if they ate a low-protein diet."
Cell experiments have suggested the amino acids that proteins are made of can reduce cellular protection and increase damage to DNA, both of which might explain why high-protein intake is linked to cancer.
Also, experiments in mice have shown that the body's ability to process protein declines with age.

Researchers trialed 25 different diets in hundreds of mice

In the second study, Prof. Simpson and his group trialed the effects of 25 different diets on hundreds of mice to see how different amounts and types of proteins, fats and carbohydrates affected energy intake, metabolic health, aging and lifespan.
They discovered that:

• Mice on diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates had reduced food intake and lower levels of body fat, but they also died earlier and had poorer cardiometabolic health.
• Mice on low-protein, high-fat diets had the poorest health and shortest lifespans.
• The healthiest, longest living mice were those on diets high in carbohydrates and low in protein - this was in spite of increased food intake and having higher levels of body fat.
• A calorie-restricted diet did not increase lifespan - which is contrary to evidence from previous studies on mice, other animals, yeast and worms that show calorie restriction lengthens life as long as supplemented with essential nutrients.

Prof. Simpson says:

"We have shown explicitly why it is that calories aren't all the same - we need to look at where the calories come from and how they interact. This research has enormous implications for how much food we eat, our body fat, our heart and metabolic health, and ultimately the duration of our lives."

He and his colleagues suggest the ideal diet for a long and healthy life is one with moderate amounts of high-quality protein, low in fat, and high in complex carbohydrates.
Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned of a study by researchers at the University of Granada in Spain that found high-protein diets may increase risk of kidney disease.

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Social media: how does it really affect our mental health and well-being?

In 1971, the first email was delivered. More than 40 years on, social media has taken the world by storm. Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are now used by 1 in 4 people worldwide. Such activity may seem harmless, but some researchers suggest social media may affect our mental health and well-being.
In 2012, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that Facebook use may feed anxiety and increase a person's feeling of inadequacy.
A more recent study, led by social psychiatrist Ethan Cross of the University of Michigan, found that using Facebook may even make us miserable.
"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection," says Kross. "But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result - it undermines it."
But are such claims exaggerated? Or should we be limiting our use of social media? Medical News Today looks at the evidence.

What is social media?

In essence, social media defines an array of Internet sites that enable people from all over the world to interact. This can be through discussion, photos, video and audio.
Facebook is the leading social networking site, with more than 1.2 billion global active users every month. The site's popularity is followed closely by MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Bebo.

On average, Americans spend 7.6 hours using social networking sites, such as Facebook, every month.

The latest statistics show that around 42% of online adults use multiple social networking sites. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of social media users are under the age of 30, although the number of older users is on the rise. Around 45% of Internet users aged 65 or older now use Facebook, increasing from 35% in 2012.
On average, Americans spent 7.6 hours a month using social media, with the majority of individuals accessing social networking sites through cell phones.
But what attracts us to social media?
In the late 1980s, the first commercial dial-up Internet service provider (ISP) was launched in the US. Internet technology has certainly advanced in the past 25 years, so much so that the words "dial-up" make most people cringe.
Of course, one of the main attractions for connecting to the Internet was, and still is, the ability to better connect with the world around us. For example, the Internet allowed us to send emails as an alternative to the timely process of sending letters through the mail. Social media has built on this premise.
This is Facebook's mission statement:
"Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what's going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them."
This sums up what the majority of social networking sites endeavor to achieve, and there is no doubt that the general public has succumbed to the world of social media, perhaps a little too much.

Social media addiction

Recent statistics show that 63% of American Facebook users log on to the site daily, while 40% of users log on multiple times a day.
We all have our own reasons for using social media. Some of us like to browse at other people's status updates and photos, while others use the sites as a way to vent their emotions. But according to Dr. Shannon M. Rauch, of Benedictine University at Mesa, AZ, one of the main reasons we use social media is for self-distraction and boredom relief.
"Therefore, social media is delivering a reinforcement every time a person logs on," she says.

"For those who post status updates, the reinforcements keep coming in the form of supportive comments and 'likes.' And of course we know that behaviors that are consistently reinforced will be repeated, so it becomes hard for a person who has developed this habit to simply stop."

This behavior can lead to Facebook addiction. In fact, such behavior is so common that researchers have created a psychological scale to measure Facebook addiction - the Berge Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS).
The scale, developed by Dr. Cecile Andraessen and colleagues at the University of Bergen in Norway, uses six criteria to measure Facebook addiction. These include statements, such as "you spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook and planning how to use it" and "you use Facebook to forget about personal problems." The researchers say that scoring "often" or "very often" on four of the six criteria indicates Facebook addiction.
What is interesting is that the researchers found that people who are more anxious and socially insecure are more likely to use the social networking site.
Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study that provided a potential explanation for addiction to Facebook "fame."
The research team, led by Dar Meshi of the Freie Universität in Germany, found that individuals who gained positive feedback about themselves on Facebook showed stronger activity in the nucleus accumbens of the brain - a region associated with "reward" processing. This stronger activity correlated with greater Facebook use.
From these studies, it appears that many users who are addicted to Facebook use the site as a way of gaining attention and boosting their self-esteem. But can this behavior have negative effects on mental health and well-being?

The negative impacts of social media

In 2012, Anxiety UK conducted a survey on social media use and its effects on emotions.
The survey found that 53% of participants said social media sites had changed their behavior, while 51% of these said the change had been negative.

Many people using social networking sites make comparisons with others, which can lead to negative emotions.

Those who said their lives had been worsened by using social media also reported feeling less confident when they compared their achievements against their friends.
"This problem has definitely gained recent attention," says Dr. Rauch. "We know that many people on social media sites often present idealized versions of their lives, leading others to make upward social comparisons, which can lead to negative emotions."
Furthermore, the survey revealed that two thirds of participants reported difficulty relaxing and sleeping after they used the sites, while 55% said they felt "worried or uncomfortable" when they were unable to log onto their social media accounts.
In a more recent study, conducted by Dr. Rauch and colleagues, the team found that social interaction on social media sites, specifically Facebook, may have a negative impact on face-to-face encounters for individuals who already have high levels of anxiety.
Another concern regarding social media use is cyber bullying. As stated earlier in this feature, the majority of social networking users are under the age of 30, and most of these are adolescents.
According to Enough is Enough (EIE) - an organization that aims to make Internet use safer for children and families - 95% of teenagers who use social media have witnessed forms of cyberbullying on social networking sites and 33% have been victims of cyber bullying.
But Dr. Rauch believes it is not purely the use of social media that is getting out of control, but our need to be electronically connected at all times.
She adds:

"I think parents should be aware that their adolescent children are living at a time where they are constantly 'on' and connected.
I would encourage any parent to explore ways to encourage or even mandate 'off' time, not just away from social media sites, but away from the devices. That is probably good advice for all of us."

Could Facebook be used to improve mental health and well-being?

Although many studies point to the negative impacts of social media on mental health and well-being, some researchers say they could have the opposite effect. Social networking sites could be a useful tool in identifying individuals with mental health issues.
Last year, Medical News Today reported on a study from researchers at the University of Missouri, which claimed that Facebook activity may be an indicator of a person's psychological health.

Some studies have suggested that social media use may even improve mental health and well-being.

The team found that people who shared fewer pictures on the site communicated less frequently, had a longer profile and fewer Facebook friends, and were more likely to experience social anhedonia - the inability to encounter happiness from activities that are normally enjoyable, such as talking to friends.
Another study, from the University of California San Diego (UCSD), suggests that using social media may even spread happiness. The research team, led by James Fowler of the School of Medicine at UCSD, found that happy status updates encourage other users to post happy status updates themselves.
"Our study suggests that people are not just choosing other people like themselves to associate with but actually causing their friends' emotional expressions to change," says Fowler.
"We have enough power in this data set to show that emotional expressions spread online and also that positive expressions spread more than negative."
In fact, the researchers believe that this viral spread of happiness is so strong that if magnified, it could trigger an "epidemic of well-being."
"If an emotional change in one person spreads and causes a change in many, then we may be dramatically underestimating the effectiveness of efforts to improve mental and physical health."
Overall, it appears that the exact effects of social media on our mental health and well-being remain to be seen. But one thing is certain; our use of social networking sites is unlikely to fade anytime soon.

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Caffeine may boost long-term memory

The research team, led by Daniel Borota of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, notes that although previous research has analyzed the effects of caffeine as a cognitive enhancer, whether caffeine can impact long-term memory has not been studied in detail.
To find out, the investigators analyzed 160 participants aged between 18 and 30 years.
On the first day of the study, the participants were shown pictures of different objects and were asked to identify them as "indoor" or "outdoor" items.
Soon after this task, they were randomized to receive either 200 mg of caffeine in the form of a pill, or a placebo tablet.
The next day, the participants were shown the same pictures as well as some new ones. The researchers asked them to identify whether the pictures were "new," "old" or "similar to the original pictures."

200 mg of caffeine 'enhanced memory'

From this, the researchers found that subjects who took the caffeine were better at identifying pictures that were similar, compared with participants who took the placebo.
However, the researchers note that both groups were able to accurately distinguish whether pictures were old or new.

New research suggests that consuming 200 mg of caffeine a day may boost long-term memory.

The team conducted further experiments using 100 mg and 300 mg doses of caffeine. They found that performance was better after the 200 mg dose, compared with the 100 mg dose, but there was no improvement after the 300 mg of caffeine, compared with 200 mg.
"Thus, we conclude that a dose of at least 200 mg is required to observe the enhancing effect of caffeine on consolidation of memory," the study authors write.
The team also found that memory performance was not improved if subjects were given caffeine 1 hour before carrying out the picture identification test.
They investigators say there are many possibilities as to how caffeine may enhance long-term memory.
For example, they say it may block a molecule called adenosine, preventing it from stopping the function of norepinephrine - a hormone that has been shown to have positive effects on memory.
They note that further research should be conducted to better understand the mechanisms by which caffeine affects long-term memory.

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Serotonin may not be a major factor in depression, study suggests

New evidence has put into doubt the long-standing belief that a deficiency in serotonin - a chemical messenger in the brain - plays a central role in depression. In the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience, scientists have reported that mice lacking the ability to make serotonin in their brains (and thus will have been "depressed" by conventional wisdom) did not show depression-like symptoms.
Donald Kuhn and colleagues at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center and Wayne State University School of Medicine noted that depression poses a major public health problem. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 350 million people suffer from it and it is said to be the leading cause of disability across the globe.
In the late 1980s, the now well-known antidepressant Prozac was introduced. The drug works mainly by increasing the amounts of one substance in the brain - serotonin. So scientists came to believe that boosting levels of the signaling molecule was the key to solving depression. Based on this idea, many other drugs to treat the condition entered the picture. But now researchers know that 60 to 70 percent of these patients continue to feel depressed, even while taking the drugs. Kuhn's team set out to study what role, if any, serotonin played in the condition.
To do this, they developed "knockout" mice that lacked the ability to produce serotonin in their brains. The scientists ran a battery of behavioral tests.
Interestingly, the mice were compulsive and extremely aggressive, but didn't show signs of depression-like symptoms. Another surprising finding is that when put under stress, the knockout mice behaved in the same way most of the normal mice did. In addition, a subset of the knockout mice responded therapeutically to antidepressant medications in a similar manner to the normal mice.
The researchers stated that these findings may be evidence that serotonin is not a major player in the condition, and that different factors must be involved. They concluded by suggesting that these results could dramatically alter how the search for new antidepressants moves forward in the future.

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5 Beauty Tricks to Make Your Décolletage Even More Alluring

One surefire way to boost your sex appeal this Valentine’s Day: Pretty up your décolletage. When someone is gazing at you, say from across the table at your favorite restaurant, the chest tends to be the first place they look, according to a study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Use these expert tips—and your favorite bra—to put your best chest forward.

Prep your skin

Exfoliation is key when it comes to nixing unsightly dry patches. Use a chemical exfoliator that contains gentle ingredients such as lactic and phytic acid instead of the typical body scrub, recommends Los Angeles skincare specialist Sonya Dakar. “Body exfoliators tend to be way too strong for the sensitive skin on the neck and chest.” Our pick: Murad AHA/BHA Exfoliating Cleanser ($36, sephora.com).

RELATED: 6 Foods for Beautiful Skin and Hair

Quell redness

Seeing splotches? Don’t panic. “Grab an aloe vera plant, squeeze out the contents, and apply directly to red spots,” advises Debra Jaliman, MD, a New York City dermatologist. A soothing lotion with aloe vera works, too. One to try: Kiehl’s Deluxe Hand & Body Lotion with Aloe Vera & Oatmeal ($22, nordstrom.com).

Nourish and replenish

Once your skin is feeling brand new, slather on lotion or body oil. Look for emollients like shea butter, coconut oil or almond oil to keep skin extra supple. Try: Jergens Shea Butter Lotion ($8, target.com). If you plan on wearing perfume, skip the scented moisturizer—the last thing you want is two fragrances trying to compete with one another.
RELATED: 10 Surprising Beauty Uses for Coconut Oil

Contour your cleavage

So you don’t have Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist on speed dial—no problem! Contouring your chest is actually pretty simple. Choose a bronzer that’s one shade darker than your face and create a ‘Y’ shape—blending from the sternum up and around the breasts towards the shoulders, says New York City makeup artist Kristofer Buckle.

Get glowing

Add sexy sheen with highlighter: “Dust a luminizer on the fronts and tops of shoulders and on the collarbones to pick up light,” says Los Angeles makeup artist Stephen Dimmick. To give your girls a little visual lift, Buckle suggests also applying highlighter to the area where your breast is fullest and to the inside curve of your cleavage.
Now that you have sculpted the perfect décolletage, it’s time to slip on your best dress and let it work its magic.

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Attentive mindfulness makes people 83% more likely to have good cardiovascular health, study shows

(NaturalNews) Attentive mindfulness approaches for better health has
popped up in various studies and medical practices, but it doesn't have
the PR machinery or big bucks to promote its values.

It
doesn't help Big Pharma make money, and it doesn't help doctors have
more clients and hospitals have more patients. It's just not a money
maker in and of itself. But it has physiological health merits in
addition to obvious emotional and psychological benefits.

Several
different studies point to how the practice of meditation helps bring
about mindfulness in our daily lives. At the University of Wisconsin, it
was discovered that those who meditated recovered from influenza more
rapidly and were able to quickly return to work.

Well, what is mindfulness?

Some
may think that it's having a vivid imagination or busy mind full of
facts ready to access with every business challenge. It's neither.
Mindfulness is a matter of full conscious awareness in the moment of
here and now without prejudice, hate, anger or critical
judgment.

It is not a matter of coloring the
present with sweetness and light, but simply calmly viewing it,
accepting it for what it is and handling whatever is present
appropriately.

It's based on the age-old
Buddhist and other Eastern traditions of carrying over levels of
tranquil or calm consciousness from the practice of meditation into
daily life instead of living by concepts, dogma or subconscious
impulses. One neither overly visits the past nor becomes anxious of the
future.

Seems like a cool way to live life.
But it takes practice to create "the ability to attend nonjudgmentally
to one's own physical and mental processes."
(Source below, study)

In
other words, one needs to practice mindfulness more and more within
day-to-day living instead of just during meditation. It is a gradually
acquired state that allows one to more and more be in charge of one's
attention and awareness.

This is what it
takes to stress less and become more aware of the wellspring of true
happiness within all of us, whatever you may call that.

So how does this relate to better heart health?

Dr.
Dean Ornish and Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn have been Western pioneers of
mindfulness for heart health, with Zinn going a couple of steps further
to relate it more to practical daily-life spirituality or living whole
and in the moment.

That doesn't mean that one
has no memory. It means that one uses memory instead of letting it use
oneself. It doesn't mean that one shouldn't plan, it means that one
should plan without attachments to success or failure. How's that for a
psychological challenge?

Oh, yes, heart
health. Dr. Ornish had great success with clinics in California that
focused on diet, yoga and meditation. His methods got heart patients out
of hospitals and off pharmaceuticals permanently as long as they
continued what they had learned during their Ornish clinical
stays.

Never mind books, lectures, seminars
and clinics that provide obvious results. Western science demands
academic studies for "evidence" and more work for academic
researchers.

So in October 2014, a study
using 382 participants from the New England Family Study, born in
Providence, RI, USA, with a mean age of 47 years, determined that
"dispositional mindfulness" influenced heart health
positively.

The researchers assessed
dispositional mindfulness using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale
(MAAS), whatever that is. Cardiovascular health was assessed based on
American Heart Association criteria.

This
study, "Positive Associations of Dispositional Mindfulness with
Cardiovascular Health: the New England Family Study," was published in
the October 2014 International Journal of Behavioral
Medicine.

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