MedReliance.com Health and Fitness Blog

Throughout the United States and Canada, the McDonald’s fast food chain has officially switched over to using cooking oil with no trans fat.
 
Several competing fast food chains had already changed over to trans-fat-free oils, making McDonald’s one of the few who still used the less-healthy oil. The McDonald’s corporation previously expressed worries that changing the cooking oil would affect the taste of their trademark french fries. Due to pressure from consumer advocacy groups and certain public official, McDonald’s decided to give in and make the change.
 
The new oil, which is already being used in U.S. restaurants for several months already, is canola-based and contains soy and corn oils.

Over forty-thousand Americans were part of a national health study, in which researchers
determined that obese adults are about twice as likely to develop a mental health
condition as adults who are a normal weight. Such mental health conditions include
depression and anxiety, amongst others. They also believe that even moderately
overweight adults often had higher rates of anxiety disorders.
 
While still unsure as to whether the excess weight leads directly or indirectly to
mental health problems, the findings do offer some indication that several psychiatric
disorders are more prevalent in overweight people.
 
Involved in the study, Dr. Nancy Petry mentioned that these obese adults were at higher
risk for having depression (from mild to severe), anxiety disorders such as panic
attacks, irrational phobias, and manic episodes. Also, higher rates of alcoholism,
obsessive-compulsive behavior, and paranoia seem to exist among the obese.

MedReliance.com conducted a survey in which participants were asked one simple question: “Based on personal experience, what is the Number 1 way to get and stay healthy?”

• 50% said Exercise
• 49% said Diet and Proper Eating Habits
• 1% said Sex (well….whatever works I guess)

According to research performed by the American Society fo Hypertension, listening to music could lower your blood pressure.

According to the study, listening to just thirty minutes of music per day over a period of one month significantly lowered the blood pressure of those studied with mild hypertension.
The specific types of music which were used for this study included classical, Celtic, and Indian music.

Involved with the study, Dr. Pietro Modesti said, “Listening to music is soothing and has often been assoicated with controlling patient-reported pain or anxiety and acutely recuding blood pressure. But for the first time, today’s results clearly illustrate the impact daily music listening has on ambulatory blood pressure.”

Forty-eight adults between the ages of forty and seventy-five participated in the study. These participants are people who were taking medication to control mild hypertension. Twenty-eight of the participants listened to thirty minutes of classical, Celtic, or Indian music per day while practicing breathing exercises. The other twenty participants made no changes to their routine, as they were the control group for the experiment.

Dr. Modesti addded, “We are excited about the positive implications for both patients and physicians, who can now confidently explore music listening as a safe, effective, non-pharmacological treatment option or a complement therapy.”