RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -– The increase in childhood obesity may be due in part to the decline in children's physical activity as they age, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego; University of Arkansas; University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and RTI International.

The study, published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity decreased by more than one-third as they aged from 9 to 15. Moderate to vigorous physical activity consisted of all types of physical activity, including walking.

"While we all knew children and youth were moving less, the magnitude of the rate of decline calls for renewed action to improve activity levels in the population," said Phillip Nader, M.D. at the University of California, San Diego and the study’s lead author. "Physical activity is a crucial part of the energy equation; declining physical activity will only complicate the obesity epidemic."

The study measured the physical activity of more than 1,000 youths in 10 cities, beginning in 2000, when the children were 9-years-old and ending in 2006, when the youths reached age 15.

The researchers found that at age 9, children engaged in about three hours of moderate-to- vigorous physical activity per day during the week and on weekends. By age 15, children were physically active only 49 minutes per day during the week and 35 minutes per day on weekends, much less than the recommended 60 minutes per day.

The study showed that boys were more active than girls, spending 18 more minutes per weekday and 13 more minutes per weekend day engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. However, the rate of decline as they aged was the same for boys and girls.

"Program and policy action are needed immediately at the family, community, school, health care, and governmental levels to find ways to encourage children to remain active as they get older," said Renate Houts, Ph.D. a research statistician and psychologist at RTI and co-author of the study. "Unless parents, elected officials, volunteers and philanthropic organizations begin creating new opportunities for children’s activities, childhood obesity rates will likely continue to rise."

During the study, the children's physical activity was measured using an accelerometer that recorded minute-by-minute movement counts. Participants wore the monitor on a belt around the waist during waking hours for five weekdays and two weekend days, excluding showering, bathing, water sports or contact sports.

This study was directed by the Steering Committee of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development and supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement (U10), which calls for scientific collaboration between the grantees and NICHD staff members. 

The Fattening of America

Do Overweight Moms Set Up Their Kids To Be Overweight?

Are Kids Getting Fatter?

Dubbed “An Apostle for Fitness” in her profile in the Wall Street Journal, Carole has been a featured guest on more than sixty radio and television shows, including NBC’s Today show, CBS’s Early Show, MSNBC’s Countdown, and CNN News. Carole has been featured in magazines such as American Fitness, Diet & Exercise Magazine, and Today’s Health & Wellness, as well as in newspapers such as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Tampa Tribune, Sacramento Bee, Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times. Carole’s book, From Fat to Fit, was named a finalist in the health and fitness category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards, sponsored by USA Book News.

An epidemic of supersized kids is worrying both parents and professionals. One bright spot: according to a special report in the June 23, 2008 issue of Time magazine , after rising for several years, the number of overweight kids seems to have stabilized at 32 percent, or one out of three. Still, the current number is frighteningly unacceptable.

The stakes are high for oversize kids. They face an increased risk of heart disease and a host of other chronic diseases, such as liver disease, diabetes, gallstones and deteriorating joints. Even if the diseases don’t shorten the lives of overweight kids, they will certainly diminish the quality of the children’s days and result in avoidable medical expenses.

The extra pounds also become a lifetime legacy. If these kids have overweight parents, the odds are stacked against them, and they are unlikely to ever experience normal weight. By the time a child turns 20, the number of fat cells in the body is set. Weight fluctuations shrink or expand the cells, but the number remains constant.

Setting aside medical issues, overweight children also face teasing, bullying and isolation—pressures that can send children into depression. Drugs—illicit or stolen from the family medicine chest—can easily become a source of comfort and a way to cope.

One of the major contributors to kids’ extra weight is the extraordinary amount of time kids spend before a screen, whether that of a television, computer or video game. The total on average is nearly six hours each day. If we are going to help our kids lose weight, we’ll have to wean them off the screen.

What else can parents do to slim down their overweight child?

Like good doctors, parents must first make sure they do no harm. Obsessing about their child’s weight, forbidding foods, attempting to control their child’s food decisions and criticizing the child’s indulgences are as damaging as denial is.

Both boys and girls are sensitive to cultural pressure to be thin, even as they are surrounded by temptations to indulge. Children between 9 and 15 years old are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders. In one study of girls in Australia, researchers discovered girls as young as 8 years old were suffering from life-threatening anorexia. Sixteen years of research involving hundreds of girls led clinical psychologist Dr. Eric Stice to assert that girls’ attempts to rigidly control their eating led to weight gain.

To succeed, parents must follow Bing Crosby’s musical advice: accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Instead of focusing on weight loss, parents need to create playful situations for the entire family that encourage and reinforce the larger goal of getting and staying fit. Most importantly, this fun-loving promotion of family fitness isn’t something parents should do for their children, but something they must do with their children. As in all areas of parenting, actions speak louder than words.

Here are some ideas for creating family fitness fun:

1. Let’s Get Physical : Buy everyone in the family an inexpensive pedometer ($10) and create teams. Record your steps each day. Set a goal and establish prizes for the winning team. Once a goal has been met, rearrange team players and create a new game. This game teaches math and team-building skills and develops sound fitness habits.

2. Green Exercise : Pick an outdoor project your family can accomplish together. Help restore a trail or pick up trash along a river or walkway. Cleaning up the environment teaches kids the value of contributing to others and respect for our natural resources, and it gives them the opportunity to enjoy outdoor exercise. A healthy body on a healthy planet is an important message for kids to absorb.

3. Chef of the Week : Each week, designate the family’s chef of the week. The chef must introduce one new recipe, one new vegetable and one new fruit into the family diet. Keep notes on the reaction to the newbies. For the toddler too small to cook, place a chair at the kitchen counter to stand on and designate him or her the sous-chef. Exploring new foods and sharing in food preparation is a fun-filled way to teach cooking skills and learn about nutrition. Eating at home and eating together as a family can help slim your kids.

With a little imagination, parents can create dozens of ways—both high- and no-tech to stay active with their children and have fun cooking and eating together. Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit are dynamic high-tech exercise games that can help families lose weight and become more active.

On the other hand, kids can probably have as much fun stringing a line across the backyard and playing balloon volleyball. You can use the computer to teach kids about food, nutrition and health by steering them to www.e-learningforkids.org. Or you can pick up some inexpensive used cookbooks and experiment with recipes. As long as it’s fun and you’re participating with your kids, you can’t go wrong.

Kids can be taught to love their bodies, and parents can’t let these special teaching moments pass. The stakes for the small fry are too high.

Food As Medicine--A New Idea?

Wanted: A Fitness Protection Program For The United States

When UFOs Land In The Backyard of Your Life

Celebrity actor and activist, Mike Farrell, is best known for portraying the part of Captain B.J. Hunnicutt in the hit series M*A*S*H. An active and outspoken citizen, Mike defends human rights and promotes environmental issues, and for his work has received several awards, including the distinguished Donald Wright Award from California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. Mike Farrell is also the author of Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist. He was also the close friend of John O’Donohue , author of several books, including Anam Cara, Eternal Echoes, and the newly released To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (Doubleday, March ’08). In January, 2008, at the young age of 52, John unexpectedly passed away in his sleep. A native of Ireland, John traveled often to the United States where he led workshops and gave lectures. He touched and continues to reach many souls through his writing and those who knew him well, such as Mike Farrell.

Mike Farrell—

“I would love to live

like a river flows,

carried by

the surprise

of its own unfolding.”

This is what my friend John O’Donohue called his ‘unfinished poem.’ He said, “I have this much but can’t figure what comes next.”

“No, John,” I said. “Nothing more is needed. It’s perfect.”

John lived like a river flowed, delighting in the surprises of his every unfolding, all the while thrilling, charming and inspiring those of us lucky enough to know him with every turn and discovery of his too-short life.

Too short for me, I should say.

For him, it’s simply another adventure. I know he’s just behind me, next to me, all around me, because, as John was quick to remind us, Celtic lore holds that our departed family and loved ones are our nearest neighbors. So I can hear his wonderful, booming laugh reaching across this last “threshold,” as he called the moments, the steps in our lives that must be recognized, prized and blessed. I say it’s the last threshold. It’s the last of which I know. John is now on to the discovery of those beyond.

Of thresholds, he said we have “fallen out of belonging.” So “when we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives we have no rituals to protect, encourage and guide us as we cross over into the unknown.” Thus, as he did with every waking moment of his life, John acknowledged the mystery of the connection between us and offered, through the gift of his genius, a book of blessings for such times.

“To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings,” is John’s… most recent book (I can’t bring myself to say ‘last’). As you read it, if you listen very closely you’ll hear John in the ‘taneloch.’ He said of taneloch, “You know the music you hear when the wind blows across a lake up in the high country? Taneloch is the music you hear when there isn’t any wind.” For me now, taneloch is the lilt of the brogue that colors every nuance in this gift from my friend that blesses the space between us.

“Let us not look for you only in memory,

where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

beside us when beauty brightens,

when kindness glows,

and music echoes eternal tones.”

From To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O’Donohue

How Do We Carry On After Tragedy Strikes?

Can You Deal With Life's Crisis?

Do you remember when a kid could walk into the local convenience store and buy his father a carton of cigarettes?  I sure do, back in the '70s.  Today we've instituted a legal smoking age, sued tobacco companies, and in many parts of the world curtailed smoking in public places.  A recent report published in the Annals of Family Medicine shows the outcome of a study funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The bottom line: Kids who are at risk of becoming smokers can easily give an affirmative answer to two questions--"Would it be easy for you to get a cigarette?  Do you have friends who smoke?"  (1,195 sixth graders who had never tried smoking or who smoked less than once a week were interviewed and followed Jan '02 --Feb '06. During this time, 177 tried smoking and 109 became smokers.)

In an effort to curb the taboo appeal of smoking to youth, Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking has announced that it will work with Ubisoft to develop and publish a video game based on its successful method.   The game will be ready for Nintendo DS and is scheduled for release in November '08. "Players will be actively participating in the game’s content as they input the details of their smoking habits and even select their own Allen Carr’s Easyway coach to take them through the process of quitting."  It will be an enjoyable and interactive way to quit smoking.

Allen Carr's Easyway method is known around the world for its success in helping millions of smokers kick their habit, including Sir Richard Branson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Emma Freud, and the late Johnny Cash.

Further Reading:

Smoking Sucks: Don't Let Your Child Became a Smoker

How The President of Allen Carr Quit His Smoking Habit

Should We Allow Smoking With Children In The Car?

Do You Smoke To Diet?

Author Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious (Collins Living, Oct. '07) recently rose to the number one bestseller on Amazon in the cooking category after a rerun of her appearance on Oprah.  Not far behind, ranked at number five, a New York Times bestseller-- The Sneaky Chef: How to Hide Healthy Foods in Kid's Favorite Meals (Running Press, March '07) by Missy Chase Lapine.  Accused of copycat cooking techniques and cookbook similarities, Missy Chase Lapine, the former publisher of Eating Well magazine, is suing both Jessica Seinfeld and her celebrity husband, comedian Jerry Seinfeld as reported by Julie Bosman in the New York Times.

Though both women claim originality, author Annabel Karmel of the United Kingdom is a household name in family nutrition. After the death of her first child, Natasha, who died of a rare viral disease at just three months, Annabel, determined to give her second child the the best possible beginning in life, wrote The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner in 1991. (Endorsed by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the UK's leading children's hospital.) In all, she has authored 14 books and is the worldwide expert in getting fussy eaters to down a healthy diet.  Her philosophy, "The one element you can control which can determine your child's future health is what they eat." A good comparison to authors Seinfeld and Lapine is Annabel Karmel's Superfoods:  For Babies and Children.

All three authors recommend blending fruits and vegetables to mix into their children's burgers, chili, or pancakes.  They also give important food preparation and planning tips. 

Missy Chase Lapine works with The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, focusing on schools and healthier lunch programs.  She recently published a second book this year: The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on Your Man (In The Kitchen!) (Running Press, March '08).

Jessica Seinfeld is also the founder of Baby Buggy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing clothing and equipment to New York's families in need.  She published a paperback Spanish version of her book--Delicioso y Sano: Secretos Simples para que Sus Hijos Coman Bien.

Annabel Karmel received the prestigious Member of the Most Excellent Order from the British Empire (June '06) on the Queen's Birthday Honors List for her outstanding work in the field of child nutrition.  She is currently promoting her work in Australia, Hong Kong, the United States, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Further Reading:

Blogger Annabel Karmel:  The Best Breakfast Foods

Book Review:  Jessica Seinfeld Is Deceptively Delicious

Anne Fletcher, MS, RD is also the author of the national bestseller Thin For Life: 10 Keys to Success from People Who Have Lost Weight and Kept It Off. Fletcher’s 2001 book, Sober for Good: New Solutions for Drinking Problems – Advice from Those Who Have Succeeded was also a national bestseller and received several distinguished awards.

Fletcher is the recipient of the American Dietetic Association’s Media Excellence Award, as well as awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Writers Association. As the former assistant director of an obesity treatment program, she provided counseling to hundreds of clients with weight problems. Previously, Fletcher was executive editor and chief writer of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter and a contributing editor for Prevention magazine. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition from Cornell University and a Master of Science degree from Drexel University.

Weight Loss Confidential was featured on the Today Show, the CBS Early Show, and in the NY Times, USA Today, USA Weekend, and US News & World Report. Her media experience also includes appearances on The Today Show, The View, Donahue, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, and National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation. Her articles have appeared in Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Parenting, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light, American Psychologist, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Anne Fletcher--

When one out of every three teens today is overweight, many teens and their parents are in a quandary about what to do. A novel solution came to me after my own overweight teenage son, Wes, came home from camp one summer and excitedly told me about another boy he’d met who had lost 40 pounds. That’s when it occurred to me that a great model for a book would be “teens helping other teens” with weight management. Wes lost more than 60 pounds when he was 18 and, when he’d kept it off for a few years, I decided it was time to write Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep It Off – And What They Wish Parents Knew, which was just released in paperback by Houghton Mifflin. (Wes is now 24 and he’s not only maintained his initial weight loss, he’s dropped another 20 pounds.) Also, as a registered dietitian, I was troubled by the skyrocketing numbers of overweight kids and thought it was time to offer some sensible solutions.

So I set out to locate formerly overweight teens who had lost weight in healthy ways and kept it off for a year or more. I turned to schools, health clubs, weight programs, friends, relatives, and colleagues, all across the United States – even in other countries – to find the 104 teens who took part in the book. I surveyed and interviewed them along with many of their parents to find out what works and what doesn’t work when trying to get to a healthier weight. The teens’ average weight loss is 58 pounds, and the average length of time they’ve been successfully managing their weight is just over three years.

How the teens lost weight–the common threads

The most striking theme is that there is no one way to do it–teens have to find what’s right for them, as individuals. About half of the teens lost weight on their own and the other half had help from a professional or program. So that readers can find their best way for a teen to slim down, I share in-depth stories of kids who lost weight in different ways and offer detailed guidelines about choosing a weight-loss program. Written for both teens and parents, the book also offers a “shopper’s guide” to weight programs, helpful Web sites, and other resources for healthy weight management.

If I had to pick one specific strategy that led to the success of these teens, without hesitation, I’d say that exercise is the most important one. In fact, exercise (or becoming more physically active) was the number one response when I asked the teens for their most important weight-loss strategies and for the most important things they do to keep the weight off. I was actually surprised to see how dedicated these teens are to exercise– strength training and running were the most common forms of activity. Less than a quarter of them were involved in team sports, however, so kids don’t have to become “jocks” to be fit. The teens offer strategies for overcoming self-consciousness about exercising, getting started, and making physical activity fun.

Another success strategy that jumped out at me was giving up or cutting back on regular soda – and many teens said that drinking more water is important. The teens also share how they stay motivated, cut the fat, downsize portions, snack smarter, shift to healthier carbs, make better restaurant choices, and manage emotions without eating. Most of them are not meal-skippers, and they don’t deprive themselves of treats. But all of the advice comes from the teens themselves with their stories of how they did things their way. This advice is specially captured in a brand, new companion book that’s just for teens: Weight Loss Confidential Journal: Week-By-Week Success Strategies for Teens from Teens.

The bottom line for overweight teens is that they have to believe they can succeed – I know this because I found more than 100 teens who did it. And these kids beat some pretty tough odds: most of them had been overweight for a long time, most had at least one overweight parent, and most had tried to lose weight and failed at least a few time before finding success. It’s also clear that teens have to do it for themselves–parents need to provide support and healthy foods, but ultimately they have to let teens take the lead in finding a way to lose weight and keep it off. The young people in Weight Loss Confidential pave the way for that to happen.Aaron T., says, “It took years for me to find the inspiration, but when I finally got it, there was no stopping me. If you want it enough, you will lose weight.There are millions of reasons to lose weight. Find one, go with it, stick with it, and believe in yourself. ”

Will Power VS. Want Power

July Officially Ends "Lean Body Goals"

Wanting To Lose Weight, But Not Doing It?

Exclusive Two-Year Agreement Further Positions the Company as a Weight Loss Innovator

Carlsbad, Calif. (July 10, 2008) – Jenny Craig, Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of an exclusive license agreement for the worldwide rights to use the Volumetrics® approach developed by Dr. Barbara Rolls, PhD. An endowed Guthrie Chair in Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Rolls is the author of the New York Times’ bestselling books The Volumetrics Eating Plan and The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan: Feeling Full on Fewer Calories, and one of America’s leading authorities on weight management for the past 20 years. The agreement acknowledges Jenny Craig as the only weight loss organization that is authorized to use Volumetrics®, which has inspired the creation of Jenny Craig’s new satiety-centric menus.

“The new menus allow clients to eat more food, feel fuller and add nutrients with fewer calories,” explained Lisa Talamini, RD – Vice President, Research & Program Innovation for Jenny Craig, Inc. “Not only is this significant from a nutritional standpoint, it also supports the findings of health experts around the world that consuming low-calorie density fruits, vegetables, high fiber starches and lean protein can help lower the risk of heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer and other medical conditions.”

As a result of this exclusive agreement, Jenny Craig has even more tools to offer its clients. “Even since the company was founded 25 years ago, we’ve recognized the importance of offering our clients satisfying portions of delicious, nutritious foods,” said Patti Larchet, CEO of Jenny Craig, Inc. “Two years ago, we began implementing Dr. Rolls’ science-based principles into our program by releasing The Volumetrics Cookbook for Jenny Craig featuring recipes adapted from Dr. Rolls’ book, The Volumetrics Eating Plan. As we build our new relationship with Dr. Rolls, we are introducing new Volumetrics® Plus menus and resources, which now have an added “plus” for our clients – more food.”

This food-based approach effectively marries portion control with the latest research in meal satiety, plus is highly visual and easy to teach Jenny Craig clients. Recently introduced Tomato Florentine and Chicken Rosemary Soupitizers™, for example, allow clients to enjoy soup as a first course at dinner or lunch. This helps them control their hunger and calorie consumption, while enhancing the overall satisfaction of their meal.

By continuing to emphasize the science in weight loss, Jenny Craig retains its position as a preeminent force in the health and wellness arena. “As a researcher, I recognize that people need simple, scientifically sound suggestions for balancing healthy eating with regular physical activity,” said Dr. Rolls. “I also firmly believe in the need for diets that promote both weight loss and health benefits. With its focus on health and practical suggestions for lifestyle change, the Volumetrics® approach is a natural addition to the Jenny Craig Program.”

As part of her new arrangement with Jenny Craig, Dr. Rolls will be stepping down from her position as one of the company’s esteemed Medical Advisory Board members. During her tenure over the past several years, she has made valuable contributions to the ongoing evolution of the Jenny Craig Program to ensure that it remains current, practical, user-friendly and science-based.

About Jenny Craig

Since 1983, Jenny Craig’s comprehensive food/body/mind approach to safe, effective weight management has helped millions of people worldwide learn how to create a healthy relationship with food, build an active lifestyle, and develop a balanced approach to living. With its individually tailored weight loss program, personal consultants provide clients with one-on-one support, tips and motivation, and Jenny’s Cuisine™ help them learn proper portion sizes and mindful eating.

Based in Carlsbad, CA, Jenny Craig, Inc. is one of the world’s largest weight management companies, with 687 company-owned and franchised Centres in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

About Dr. Barbara Rolls

Dr. Barbara Rolls obtained a B.A. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Cambridge, England. In 1992, she became Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Rolls has served as Past-President of both the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.

She has been the recipient of a number of awards including: the American Society of Nutritional Sciences Award in Human Nutrition, a MERIT award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the International Award for Modern Nutrition, and Honorary Membership in the American Dietetic Association. In 2006 she was elected a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and was selected as the 2007 W.O. Atwater Lecturer at Experimental Biology. In 2008, Dr. Rolls received the Centrum Center for Nutrition Science Award at the Experimental Biology Annual Meeting.

She is the author of five books including Thirst, The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan: Feel Full on Fewer Calories, and The Volumetrics Eating Plan.

Add Volume To Your Food And Lose The Weight!

Valerie Bertinelli Is Losing It

Fire Up Your Metabolism!

Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D. , nutritionist and author of Cholesterol DOWN (Three Rivers Press), has spent many years counseling patients on wellness, weight loss, and cardiovascular prevention.  Her work has been published in the International Journal of Obesity and the International Journal of Sport Nutrition.

Dr. Janet Brill--

In the New York Times (July 7, 2008), there was an article by Tara Parker-Pope regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics’ newest guidelines for cholesterol screening and treatment in our nation’s children. The revised guidelines now take a more aggressive stance regarding prescription drug treatment of high cholesterol in children, with the newest recommendation dropping the age of consideration for drug treatment from “older than 10” to as young as 8.

Is it wise to prescribe prescription medication to our children to fix what used to be considered purely an “adult” medical problem? And will statin medication taken in childhood truly lower our kids’ risk of contracting early heart disease as adults? And what about the potential for long-term side effects? Statins are "lifetime drugs" that must be taken daily to effectively keep cholesterol in check.

Pediatricians are concerned not only with the epidemic of childhood obesity that has swept our nation but also with the equally disturbing fact that high cholesterol as well as other diseases/disorders such as diabetes and high blood pressure—major risk factors for heart disease, the leading cause of death in this country—are now increasingly diagnosed in obese children. Because of this dire situation, we must take aggressive action to control these risk factors in an attempt to ward off the very real probability that these children will be predisposed to developing disease at an early age, potentially leading to premature death.

While I agree with the push to both increase detection of high cholesterol levels in children and specifically with taking aggressive action to control this major risk factor for heart disease, I am not sure about the wisdom of freely placing children as young as 8 on prescription statin medication to solve this problem. I think this action should be reserved only for those children who have been aggressively treated with lifestyle changes for a long period of time and have not responded favorably. It seems even more important for doctors to get aggressive with lifestyle changes to reduce LDL cholesterol levels in children, even more so than with adults who have a lifetime of unhealthy habits under their belts. Children are resilient and can change more easily than adults. The beauty of aggressively treating children with diet and exercise is that they will learn these habits early and hopefully continue them so that they will be predisposed to living a long and healthy life instead of premature death. Just as with adults, lifestyle changes (namely diet and exercise) are the basis for cardiovascular disease prevention and are the foundation upon which drug therapy must be applied, should lifestyle therapy fail to fully control cholesterol.

Considering that a significant reduction in LDL cholesterol can be accomplished through a few simple lifestyle changes that are no more dangerous or expensive than eating an apple or a bowl of oatmeal and taking a daily 30-minute walk, shouldn't this be our focus? Shouldn't we insist on becoming aggressive with healthful and innocuous lifestyle changes in our children before we seek to medicate them? Feeding our children pills without applying major lifestyle changes first and foremost will not fully protect them against future disease nor is it the wisest path to take to solve this dire threat to our children’s health and our nation’s future. As a parent and a professional health practitioner, I place a call to action for parents, recommending that they first resort to aggressively changing their children's lifestyle habits. If that route fails to achieve the desired goal, then and only then should medication be considered.

Book Review:  Cholesterol Down: 10 Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in 4 Weeks--Without Prescription Drugs

Why Americans Should Eat Soy

Red Yeast Rice:  Not Your Best Bet For A Natural Statin Alternative

Dr. Carolyn Dean MD, ND, is the author The Magnesium Miracle (Ballentine Books, 2007), Medical Director of VidaCosta Spa el Puente in Costa Rica, President of VidaCosta Academy and Wellness Laboratory, a Medical Doctor and Naturopathic Doctor.  As an author and coauthor, she has written 13 print books and 2 eBooks.  Proficient in both conventional and alternative medicine, she offers customized consultations for health by phone.  She may be reached through her website: www.drcarolyndean.com

Carolyn Dean--

The death of Tim Russert struck a deep cord in the hearts of millions of Americans who await the seemingly inevitable visit to a cardiac ward. Looking at the facts of Russert’s death. He was known to have asymptomatic coronary artery disease; he was on drugs for hypertension, as well as drugs for high LDL and triglycerides, and low HDL. With the use of statin drugs, his HDL cholesterol rose from the 20s to 37, which, according to his doctors was an "acceptable lipid profile." Russert also had minimally elevated blood glucose but did not have diabetes (yet). Apparently, Russert’s stress test in late April was normal.

Why did Russert die if he was in the capable hands of medical experts and on FDA approved drugs for his condition? My question is, was there anything else in their hands besides drugs? Unfortunately, with all their expertise and all their medical education his doctors neglected what the heart and body really need—proper diet, supplements, and exercise. Medicine thinks it’s smarter than the human brain and body. It’s theorizes that the heart muscle is getting too much calcium and gives it a calcium channel blocker, when what it needs is magnesium. Medicine thinks the body had too much fluid, so it prescribes a diuretic to lower blood pressure but ends up flushing out magnesium causing a vicious cycle of mineral loss.

In medical school, in my 200 hours of biochemistry, I learned, and every other doctor who stayed awake in class learned that every one of the thousands of metabolic functions in the body absolutely requires one or more vitamins and minerals in order to proceed to the next biochemical reaction. It’s very simple and very basic and very much forgotten by most doctors. Instead of learning about the body’s needs, we were taught to diagnose disease and treat disease symptoms with drugs or surgery. That’s our mandate and no other system of health care has been powerful enough to suggest any other approach to disease.

However, what everyone reading this blog wants is health. Health is not just the absence of disease. Health is feeding our body, mind, and spirit with natural vitamins and minerals that are, for the most part, absent from the soil, therefore absent from our food and especially absent if we eat fast foods and drink artificially sweetened beverages. Besides giving us the necessary building blocks for a healthy body, these nutrients can protect us from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar.

Magnesium Is A Natural Statin

Mildred Seeling, M.D., and Andrea Rosanoff, Ph.D., found that magnesium acts by the same mechanisms as statin drugs to lower cholesterol.(1) Every metabolic activity in the body depends on enzymes. Making cholesterol, for example, requires a specific enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase. Magnesium slows down this enzymatic reaction when it is present in sufficient quantities. HMG-CoA reductase is the same enzyme that statin drugs target and inhibit. The mechanisms are nearly the same; however, magnesium is the natural way that the body has evolved to control cholesterol when it reaches a certain level, whereas statin drugs are used to destroy the whole process. If sufficient magnesium is present in the body, cholesterol will be limited to its necessary functions—the production of hormones and the maintenance of cell membranes— and will not be produced in excess.

It’s only in our present-day circumstances of magnesium-deficient soil, little magnesium in processed foods, and excessive intake of calcium and calcium-rich foods without supplementation of magnesium that cholesterol has become elevated in the population. Magnesium is also responsible for several other lipid-altering functions that are not even shared by statin drugs. Magnesium is necessary for the activity of an enzyme that lowers LDL, the “bad” cholesterol; it also lowers triglycerides and raises the “good” cholesterol, HDL. Another magnesium-dependent enzyme converts omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids into prostaglandins, which are necessary for heart and overall health.

In their book The Magnesium Factor, Seelig and Rosanoff reported that eighteen human studies verified that magnesium supplements can have an extremely beneficial effect on lipids. In these studies, total cholesterol levels were reduced by 6 to 23 percent; LDL (bad) cholesterol was lowered by 10 to 18 percent; triglycerides fell by 10 to 42 percent; and HDL (good) cholesterol rose by 4 to 11 percent. Furthermore, the studies showed that low magnesium levels are associated with higher levels of “bad” cholesterol and high magnesium levels indicate an increase in “good” cholesterol.

Do Statins Prolong Life?

The New York Times in January of 2008 asked the question on everyone’s lips “Do statins prolong life?” (2) The answer for most people with heart disease is, No.

Dr. Mark H. Ebell, a professor at the University of Georgia, deputy editor of the American Family Physician says, "Patients at low risk benefit very little it at all. We end up overtreating a lot of patients." Doctors are still trying to decide why that is the case. One thing they tend to ignore is the possibility that the accumulated side effects are worse than the 'cure.' They are too busy treating the cholesterol and not the patient. It’s like the old medical joke – “The surgery was a success but the patient died.”

The Times reported that a 2006 study in The Archives of Internal Medicine was a meta ‐ analysis of seven trials of statin use in nearly 43,000 patients, mostly middle ‐ aged men without overt heart disease. In that analysis, statins did not lower mortality. The same results were found in a misnamed study called Prosper, published in The Lancet in 2002, which studied statin use in people 70 and older. A third 2004 review in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at 13 studies of nearly 20,000 women, both healthy and with established heart disease and found no benefit.

The other measure of success with a drug is if it improves a person's quality of life. Statin critics say there is no evidence that statin users have a better quality of life. In fact, quality of life may be worsened by statins because most doctors continue to ignore or don’t recognize the side effects of statins and treat them with other drugs. Muscle pain is treated with anti ‐ inflammatories, impotence with Viagra, and mood symptoms with antidepressants. All these drugs have their own side effects.

The Decline of Coenzyme Q10

Another major cause for concern about the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, antihypertensives such as Beta blockers and hydrochlorothiazide diuretics, and diabetes drugs is that they all inhibit the production of Coenzyme Q-10. Let me explain with the help of Wikipedia why all these drugs cause heart disease.

Coenzyme Q-10 is a vitamin ‐ like substance that is present in most human cells, inside mitochondria, the energy factory of the cells. Mitochondria are responsible for the production of the body's energy. In human cells, food is converted into body energy in the mitochondria with the aid of Coenzyme Q-10. Ninety ‐ five percent of all the human body's energy requirements (ATP) are created with the aid of CoQ-10. Therefore, those organs with the highest energy requirements – such as the heart, the lungs, and the liver – have the highest CoQ-10 concentrations. And that's why drug destruction of CoQ-10 leads to muscle weakness and wasting, which means heart failure since the heart is one of the largest muscles in the body. Presently, there is an epidemic of heart failure and nobody seems to know why. But if they looked at statin use and it’s destruction of CoQ-10, the answer would be obvious.

Since many heart patients and diabetics are taking all three classes of drugs – statins, antihypertensives, and oral diabetic drugs they are all potentially low in CoQ-10. They are taking these drugs because drug companies are recommending that doctors prescribe them “preventively”, with no studies to prove their effectiveness. The end result may be a higher incidence of heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and drug side effects in people on this experimental triple therapy.

Not in Accord with Our Bodies

A diabetes trial called ACCORD was halted because people on intensive drug treatment were dying.(3) The trial was designed to test the effects of intensive blood glucose control, intensive control of blood lipids, and intensive control of blood pressure. Intensive in this trial meant high dose medication. After four years, 257 participants in the intensive treatment group had died, compared with 203 in the standard treatment group.

A common story I hear from my clients is that they go to their doctor for their annual check up and their blood pressure may be a little high (probably from stress and low magnesium levels) and they are put on a diuretic drug. When they come back the next time, their pressure is higher. The doctor doesn’t know why, but it’s because their magnesium is driven even lower by the diuretic. The doctor puts them on a second antihypertensive drug. A month later, seemingly out of the blue, but because of lower levels of magnesium, their cholesterol levels are elevated and the doctor puts them on a statin drug. A month later, without anybody even questioning why, their blood sugar level is starting to climb. One of the agreed upon signs of diabetes is low magnesium. But that’s not even considered. By now you have a patient who is on 4 drugs to treat an underlying magnesium deficiency and scared to death they have heart disease and afraid to come off their drugs. In this whole 6-month scenario, magnesium levels are never tested. Even if some bright young resident runs a magnesium test, it will be the wrong one because only 1% of the body’s magnesium is in the blood stream. The magnesium in the blood stream is crucial and the amount is guarded by powerful feedback mechanisms so it will usually look normal unless the levels in the tissues are dangerously low.

Magnesium, a Natural Calcium Channel Blocker

Calcium enters the cells of the heart by way of calcium channels that are jealously guarded by magnesium. Magnesium, at a concentration 10,000 times greater than that of calcium in the cells, allows only a certain amount of calcium to enter to create necessary electrical transmissions, and then immediately helps to eject the calcium once the work is done. Why? If calcium accumulates in the cell, it causes hyperexcitibility and calcification and disrupts cell function leading to angina, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, asthma, headaches and even heart attacks. Magnesium is nature’s calcium channel blocker.(4,5,6)

Let’s Do The Obvious

Intensive drug therapy, which, if you haven’t yet gotten the message, is not working. It didn’t work for Tim Russert and it may not work for you. Instead, wouldn’t it make sense to have a clinical trial that compares people on drugs with people on a proper diet, supplements (like Coenzyme Q10, magnesium, fish oils), and exercise. However, most clinical trials are funded by drug companies and simply compare people on different drugs. Therefore, it would be much more beneficial for us to set up clinics where we teach people about good eating habits, use food ‐ based organic supplements and angstrom sized minerals, and tailor an exercise regime for them to follow. I use this approach every day in my telephone wellness consulting practice and I know it works. Collecting the statistics from these clinics would quickly show the benefits of this approach and help direct us away from a strictly medical approach that is obviously not working for everyone.

Excerpts from Dean, C. The Magnesium Miracle, Ballentine, 2007.

1. Rosanoff A, Seelig MS, “Comparison of mechanism and functional effects of magnesium and statin pharmaceuticals.” J Am Coll Nutr, vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 501S–505S, 2004.

2.Parker ‐ Pope Tara. "Great Drug, but Does It Prolong Life?" New York Times. January 29, 2008.

3. Major diabetes trial halted after deaths: 257 patients died after intense therapy to lower blood sugar, NIH reports. Associated Press. Feb. 6, 2008

4. Levine BS, Coburn JW, “Magnesium, the mimic/antagonist of calcium.” N Engl J Med, vol. 310, pp. 1253–1255, 1984.

5. Iseri LT, French JH, “Magnesium: nature’s physiologic calcium blocker.” Am Heart J, vol. 108, pp. 188–193, 1984.

6. Seelig MS, “Cardiovascular reactions to stress intensified by magnesium deficit in consequences of magnesium deficiency on the enhancement of stress reactions; preventive and therapeutic implications: a review.” J Am Coll Nutr, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 429–446, 1994.

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