S m o o t h O p e r a t o r
If you are running late and do not have time for a meal, a fruit
smoothie seems like a tasty, filling and nutritious alternative. But are
smoothies really nutritionally sound?
"You can use smoothies as a meal replacement on an emergency basis,
but don't make a habit of it," says registered dietitian Carol Koprowski,
Ph.D. "Too many people think a smoothie is an ideal meal, but it's
actually simplistic and unbalanced."
She says that vitamin supplements added to commercial smoothies do not compensate for being nutritionally lopsided. In fact, megadoses of vitamins in smoothies can be harmful. Too much vitamin C, for example, can upset stomachs. Consuming more than 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins is excessive.
"With high doses of water-soluble vitamins, what you end up with is very expensive urine," says Koprowski, who coordinates the USC master's in preventive nutrition program. "Evaluate dietary supplements the same way you would medication-just because they are natural, don't assume they are safe, especially at higher doses."
Nutrition researchers are starting to focus more on a "whole foods" approach to health rather that looking at specific nutrients, so a healthy diet is determined by what is consumed over a week rather than meal-by-meal. "If your food intake is balanced the rest of the day, having a smoothie as a meal isn't as much of an issue" says Koprowski. She adds: "But I recommend adding a whole grain, like a roll, to give it more staying power."
Koprowski says that in the same way that drinking a glass of orange juice does not provide the same amount of fiber as eating an orange, a day's worth of fruit should not come from a smoothie. It is important to eat whole fruits and vegetables.
The final analysis: enjoy a smoothie, but make it a snack or part of a meal. n
N e w B l o o d
Each year, about 4 million
people need blood transfusions or component therapy-transfusions of one
or more of the blood's components. People receiving transfusions may be
suffering from traumatic injuries, anemia due to massive bleeding, diseases
such as cancer, or blood conditions such as infants born with Rh disease.
"We usually have an adequate blood supply, however, there are times
when there are blood shortages," says Ira Shulman, M.D., professor
of pathology and director of transfusion medicine for USC.
Healthy people 17 and older can donate blood every eight weeks. Donors are carefully screened through a mini-physical, a lifestyle and medical questionnaire and a simple test to rule out anemia (low levels of iron in the blood). After donation, the blood is rigorously tested for a variety of conditions, including HIV and hepatitis.
Shulman says that most people choose not to give blood because they think it takes too long, however, donation usually takes less than one hour. Also, there is a small, but not insignificant number of Americans who do not give blood for fear of getting a disease, "which is virtually impossible," says Shulman. "Under federal law, needles and equipment used in the blood donation process can't be reused, even on the same patient. Everything is brand new."
Most donors do not experience side effects, although some may experience temporary light-headedness, dizziness, slight bruising of the arm and a decrease in stamina the day after donating. It takes only a few days to replenish the fluid lost from donating blood and a couple of weeks to replace the donated red blood cells.
Shulman recommends scheduling an appointment to donate
blood, then getting a good night's sleep and eating a good breakfast before
the donation. Most important, "feel good about saving another person's
life."
S t r a i g h t F o r T h e H e a r t
Fully half of all heart attacks occur unexpectedly in people with none of the traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
That has led scientists to search for novel risk factors that will better predict in whom heart disease, the nation's biggest killer, will strike next.
Leading the line-up is homocysteine, an amino acid. High levels of homocysteine can damage arteries and may encourage thrombosis, the blood clotting that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
"It's the next big risk factor that scientists need to sort out," says Howard N. Hodis, M.D., director of the USC Atherosclerosis Research Unit.
Called by some scientists "the cholesterol of the next century," homocysteine has been linked to cardiovascular disease in many studies. Nearly 50 percent of people who have heart attacks or strokes have high blood levels of homocysteine.
Diets rich in protein may raise homocysteine levels. But a diet packed with folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 brings levels down. Right now, a large study at the National Institutes of Health is investigating whether vitamin supplementation can lower risk of stroke.
The interplay between vitamins and homocysteine has led many researchers to wonder whether homocysteine itself is truly responsible for the increased risk. Some speculate it may reflect a different problem-too little vitamin B6 and folate. Green, leafy vegetables, fruits and legumes contain high levels of these vitamins.
"So much is still unclear about homocysteine and heart disease that it is premature for patients to be tested for it or to take supplements in the hopes of reducing it," Hodis says. "But in the future there may be as many as 100 biochemical markers done on a patient's blood panel to help gauge risk."
In the meantime, he suggests paying attention to today's well-known risk
factors: high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes,
obesity, physical inactivity and a high-fat diet. n
H a i r - R a i s i n g S o l u t i
o n s
There is hope for men and women who suffer
from common pattern baldness-or alopecia-but it requires a lifetime commitment.
Hair loss is one of those genetic misfortunes passed from generation to generation. There is no cure, but there are medical and surgical solutions available for balding folks.
The most common pharmaceutical weapons against hair loss, minoxidil
and finasteride (Propecia), get a lot of late night TV advertising. Best
known is Rogaine, a topical solution containing minoxidil. The drugs are
somewhat successful in stopping or slowing hair loss, but less successful
in regrowing lost hair, says Arnold Gurevitch, M.D., USC professor and chief
of dermatology.
"The results are very limited," Gurevitch explains. "For men and woment using a 2 percent minoxidil formula, less than one-third of the users respond to the treatment and a majority of those responses are cessation of hair loss. Less than 10 percent of all the users actually regrow hair."
Minoxidil is now available in a 5 percent formula, approved for use by men only, but there is no word yet on whether the results will be any better. Propecia, taken in pill form, gets roughly twice the results of 2 percent minoxidil, but is still most effective at stopping hair loss instead of reversing it, Gurevitch says. Both drugs require a lifetime commitment-stop using them and hair loss resumes.
"They are really best for younger people at the onset of hair loss," Gurevitch says of the drugs. "Once you have a shiny scalp showing through, they're not going to work."
For men and women with major hair loss, surgery is the final option. Dermatologists and plastic surgeons can remove some of the bald spot through scalp reduction surgery (literally pulling the hair-growing sections of scalp together) and transplant living hairs-often one at a time-from the thickest hair on the side of the head to a hairless area.
"It's quite effective," Gurevitch says. "It's also quite expensive."