By Jonny Lupsha, News Writer

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the JAMA Network website determined that the most effective diets can rarely, if ever, be determined by our DNA. Some studies have reported that genotype variation could predispose individuals to differential weight loss that varies by diet type, the study said. However, the diet-genotype interaction for weight loss was not statistically significant. The finding of no significant difference in weight loss in genotype-matched vs. mismatched groups in the current study highlights the importance of conducting large, appropriately powered trials such as DIETFITS for validating early exploratory analyses.

In other words, statistically speaking, matching a diet to your DNA rarely works and shouldnt be considered a winning method for weight loss. The relationship between your unique body physiology and the foods you eat determine your level of nutrition: Certain types of foods affect our cells on a molecular level, regardless of our genetic make-up.

What you eat will ultimately make up portions of your cells, skin, hair, blood transportation systems, muscle, fat, and more, said Dr. Michael Ormsbee, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University.

The nutrients you eat are not just being transported around throughout our digestive systems and in the blood; they are also an ingrained part of every cell tissue that makes us who we are and what we do. Our bodies are, to a significant extent, composed of the foods that we eat.

Dr. Ormsbee said that our cells bond together to make tissues, which make up our organs, which combine to make our entire bodies function properly. If your cells are not healthy, they will not work properly; and if the cells dont work properly, then the tissues wont work properly; and if tissues arent working, then the systems begin to fail, he said.

The best way to prevent this detrimental snowball effect is to keep our cells healthy by feeding them the right nutrients.

The structures of your cells are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, Dr. Ormsbee said. The foods we eat every single day are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The foods you eat have a major influence on your cellular function because they ultimately become your cells.

If this idea seems a bit coincidental, there are several examples to shed light on the relationship between your diet and your cells. Dr. Ormsbee said that unsaturated fats are one such example. Cell membranes are semi-permeable, and this is due to the fluid structure of the fats, as he called it. Trans fats and saturated fats are more rigid than unsaturated fats.

They dont function the same way as the unsaturated fats, and they cause membranes to be much more rigid than is optimal, potentially limiting the functionality of the cells, Dr. Ormsbee said. Diets that are too high in one type of fatfor example, trans fatsmight lead to a rigid, brittle cell membrane that cannot communicate as well as if they were comprised of a better mix of fat types.

This is one reason why many nutritionists recommend eating all types of fats so that one type doesnt predominate in the diet and end up altering the optimal functioning of those cells.

So, even though our diets help determine who we are, that doesnt mean that our genotypes should determine our diets.

Dr. Michael Ormsbee contributed to this article. Dr. Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University.

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Fad of Matching Diet to DNA Ineffective, New Study Shows - The Great Courses Daily News

There's a switch inside every cell in your body. Flip it on and you're in growth mode. Your cells start dividing but in the process, they make a lot of junk like mis-folded proteins, which help create the conditions for our biggest diseases (including cardiovascular, Alzheimer's and the big C). Flip the switch off, though, and your cells literally take out the trash leaving them clean, renewed, effectively young.

We know how to flip the switch. The trick is figuring out when. Because leaving your body in cleanup mode for too long can also be extremely bad for your health, in the much shorter term. Doing so has been the cause of anxiety, misery and disorder, for decades. It's also known as starvation.

The delicate dance of food consumption is at the heart of The Switch, a new book about new body-energy science and how it can help us live longer. Author and research scientist James Clement studies people who reach the age of 110; Harvard's David Sinclair, who recently wrote a groundbreaking book on the end of aging, is his mentor. As Clement's book hit shelves, an unrelated study in Nature confirmed its premise: mTOR (your genetic "on" switch) cannot coexist with autophagy (trash removal), and that is "implicated in metabolic disorders, neuro-degeneration, cancer and aging," the study said.

In other words: We age faster, get sicker and harm our brains when we fill the hours we're awake with food, day in and day out. Organic beings need more of a break than just a good night's rest in order to properly take out the trash. We're the opposite of automobiles. We break down eventually unless we run out of fuel. (Glycogen, which is what the body converts food into, is our gas.)

These revelations shed a new spotlight on fasting, the main way to induce autophagy (you can also kickstart it with intense exercise on a mostly empty stomach). But this is where we run into problems, and not just because autophagy literally translates to "eating yourself." (It can be hard for scientists to explain that this is actually a good thing and that all living things do it, from simple yeast all the way up to primates; we were designed to work this way by millennia of feast and famine.)

The problem isn't the science, it's the culture. For most of history, fasting was locked into human lives at a steady, healthy pace in some form of ritual, religious or otherwise. But in the modern world, we make our own rituals, and they easily shade into obsessions. This happens a lot with new diets: We get the zeal of the convert. We bore our friends to death with the particulars. And we take it too far, which in the case of fasting can be dangerous.

In a column published this week, the New York Times' veteran health columnist Jane Brody came around to the value of intermittent fasting. But she sounded a personal note of caution: "For people with a known or hidden tendency to develop an eating disorder, fasting can be the perfect trigger, which I discovered in my early 20s. In trying to control my weight, I consumed little or nothing all day, but once I ate in the evening, I couldnt stop and ended up with a binge eating disorder."

Something similar, at least to the first part of that story, seems to have happened to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Last year Dorsey boasted about fasting for 22 hours, eating just one meal at dinnertime, and skipping food for the whole damn weekend. "I felt like I was hallucinating," he enthused, boasting of his increased focus and euphoria.

But as many withering articles pointed out, Dorsey's words would have triggered concern if they came from the mouth of a teenage girl since focus and euphoria can also be early signs of anorexia and bulimia. Clearly there is a tangled set of gendered assumptions at play here. "Its both remarkable and depressing to watch Jack Dorsey blithely describe a diet that would put any woman or any non-wealthy man into the penalty box of public opinion," wrote Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse.

That's not what The Switch is about. Clement doesn't endorse Dorsey's extreme approach, since the research shows benefits diminish after 16 hours of fasting. "I have friends who are bulimic, I know how serious a problem it is," he said when I raised the issue. "The kind of fasting that I'm talking about is just making sure your mTOR and autophagy are in balance."

Indeed, The Switch is a very balanced book, with plenty of nuanced suggestions for how you can make your food situation just a little bit better without making too many radical changes. (That probably explains why it hasn't taken off on the diet book media circuit, which tends to favor rules that are extreme, unusual, and headline-friendly.)

Here's a breakdown of Clement's advice.

Like most medicine, the mTOR switch is good for you if used at the correct dose, and poison at high doses. There's a reason it exists: It's your body's way of saying "times are good, let's grow muscle and fat!" Fat isn't inherently bad for you, either on your body or in your diet. Indeed, the good fats are what Clement suggests we consume the most fish, avocados, plant-based oils and nuts, macadamias especially alongside regular greens, most legumes and a little fruit.

If you're cutting down the amount of time you eat, then the content of your meals matters more. Clement himself gets good results from a meatless version of the ketogenic diet, which he says makes him less hungry but he doesn't rule out other diets that focus on good fat and fiber.

At the very least, be sure to avoid the stuff that spikes blood sugar. It will make you too hungry too soon, which will make autophagy impossible. You didn't think this whole Switch thing was going to give you permission to snarf on soda and hot dogs, did you?

Well, it does, actually just very occasionally.

Clement brings a lot of science on protein to the table, and the bad news is you're probably eating way more of it than you think you need. Animal protein flips the mTOR switch into high gear (which is why Clement is into mostly vegan keto). Sadly, so does regular dairy, and as a milk fan I found the new studies on this particularly hard reading.

But it makes evolutionary sense. Cow milk is designed to make calves grow many sizes in a short space of time, and the way you do that is by activating the mTOR pathway. So it's hard to switch into autophagy if you're chugging milk all the time. (Non-cow milks and cheeses seem to be fine, mTOR-wise.)

Which isn't to say you can't have meat and milk at all. This isn't one of those fundamentally restrictive diets we always break. Clement suggests dividing the week or month or year into growth and fasting phases. You might decide to eat as much as you want for three months of the year (which takes care of the holidays problem), say, or try doing the fasting thing for five days a month.

Whichever way you do it, the sweet spot seems to put you in growth mode around 20 percent of the time. But that's not a hard and fast number, because again, this isn't one-size-fits-all. (It certainly doesn't apply to kids, who need to grow more like calves.) I told Clement that after reading the book I was thinking of only allowing myself meat or milk on the weekends; he enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

Ready to turn on autophagy for its disease-fighting benefits? Ready to avoid doing it too much? Ready to eat more nutritious food when you break your fast? Then it's time to figure out how long you want to fast for and you'll be surprised about how little time it takes to see the effects.

The math varies from human to human, but "you only have about six to 10 hours worth of glycogen stored in your body at any given time," says Clement. "So you can actually burn through those overnight if you didn't load up with carbs in your evening meal or 11 o'clock snacks."

That provides one particularly effortless way to fast for those of us who don't wake up hungry (and if you're eating the right stuff, you generally won't). Let's say you ate your last bite at 9 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. Congratulations, you're already out of glycogen and in autophagy! Now the question is: how long is it comfortable for you to stay foodless, bearing in mind you don't want to go past a total of 16 hours? (In this example, that would be 1 p.m.)

You'll definitely want to hydrate immediately, of course: Sleep literally shrivels your brain. You might want to drink some coffee, which enhances autophagy (the all-time Guinness World Record oldest human, Jeanne Calment of France, took no breakfast but coffee, and died at 122). If you can stand to do so, this would be a great time to work out. Exercise seems to act like an autophagy power up; one study suggests working up a sweat might boost our cells' trash-cleaning effectiveness all the way up to the 80-minute mark.

So if you went from 9 p.m. to 1 p.m., or whatever 16-hour period suits your schedule (7 p.m. to 11 a.m. seems to be a popular one for fasters who don't make late dinner reservations, and it is easily remembered as "7-11"), then congratulations. You just did the maximally beneficial fast. Take that, Jack Dorsey.

But if you didn't? No sweat. If you only made it until 10 a.m., or 8 a.m. before needing food, your entire body still got a boost of cleanup time. And if you needed an immediate breakfast, that's fine too. Fasting doesn't have to happen every day; in fact it's imperative that it doesn't. Every morning is an opportunity to listen to your body and see if it's ready for a quick restorative food break.

Everyone who's ever tried to diet knows the terrible guilt that comes after grabbing obviously bad food, Don't stress over it, says Clement. Don't be maniacal. The whole point is to be in balance. We all need mTOR-boosting feasts from time to time. "It's fine to have one pepperoni pizza on a Sunday, or whatever," he says. So long as you're eating well most of the time and fasting every now and again, you'll see positive effects.

And if you can't fast at all and can't stop snacking? No worries, just change what you're eating. "If you switch over to snacking on either very low glycemic veggies like broccoli tops or carrots, or nuts, then you're not going to be replenishing your glycogen stores," Clement says. Stick a small bowl of almonds and blueberries in the kitchen and you'll be surprised, over time, at how little it takes to satisfy supposedly giant cravings.

That was what I learned, not from Clement's book, but from David Sinclair's. The Harvard geneticist and Clement mentor doesn't focus so much on lengthy fasts, although he takes a number of fast-mimicking supplements. His dieting approach is to simply eat less, to "flip a switch in your head that allows you to be OK with being a little hungry." For some of us, such small moves may be more effective than going all-out on a new diet.

If youd like to talk to someone about your eating behaviors, call the National Eating Disorder Associations helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text NEDA to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit NEDA's website for more information.

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Not fasting is killing us, but fasting can hurt us too. Here's what to do. - Mashable

Happy Thursday MarketWatchers. Dont miss these top stories:

Barrons wants to recognize people and organizations whose products, services, or education programs are making an impact to improve the financial health of individuals across the U.S. Be sure to head to barrons.com/celebrates for more information and to submit a nomination by Feb. 29 for the Barrons Celebrates: Financial Empowerment program.

Significant expenses for one family member may adversely affect the whole family.

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Department officials say the new rules help students, and also save taxpayers money.

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Implementing systemic change like Medicare for All, the plan championed by 2020 Democratic frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders, sits lower on the list.

She tries to curb my outside activities, and basically wants me to bend to her will on anything and everything.

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The number of pages will probably be in the thousands of pages.

Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Donald Trump, on Thursday was sentenced to 40 months in prison after being convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstruction.

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The economy showed some more sizzle at the start of 2020, pointing to steady growth in the next several months, according to an index that measures the nations economic health. The leading economic index jumped 0.8% in January.

Do you believe the world will embrace a green path toward the future? If so, you might want to consider slapping a palladium position next to your Tesla shares in your portfolio, according to the investor behind the Market Ear blog.

Thursdays stock-market swoon could be down to traders finally realizing that the coronavirus impact could be more lasting than thought.

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Why the IRS might soon be ringing your doorbell and this diet will help reduce your risk of heart disease, scientists say - MarketWatch

DEAR DR. ROACH: Does eating strictly organic food and drinking only bottled water help in a meaningful way to prevent diseases and contribute to a long and healthy life? M.T.

ANSWER: There is no consistent high-quality evidence that consuming organic foods lead to improvement in health outcomes, including longer life. Some but not all studies have found slightly higher amounts of nutrients in organically grown produce. Organic foods are made without synthetic pesticides, but may use pesticides found in nature. There is not convincing evidence that natural pesticides are any safer, nor that the small amount of residual pesticides left in conventional produce leads to significant health risks. However, there is preliminary evidence that consumption of mostly organic food led to a decrease in the risk of one type of cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but not an overall decrease in cancer. Based on current available evidence, I dont recommend organic food consumption for health benefits.

The quality of tap water varies greatly across North America, but most locations have high-quality water available at extremely low cost with minimal environmental impact compared with bottled water. Even if tap water is unpalatable in a persons location, I recommend a filter system rather than resorting to bottled water, again for environmental concerns as well as cost. Bottled water is rarely the only option, and if so it is usually due to contamination of tap water with microbes or heavy metals, which should be known to the community. My own municipality mails me a water quality report yearly, and it is outstanding quality.

Two additional points are worth considering. The first is that organically prepared foods have been the cause of foodborne illness due to contamination at a much higher level than expected. The second is that organic farming prohibits nontherapeutic antibiotics, a practice with which I strongly agree as a means of reducing the potential for antibiotic resistance.

Until further evidence is available, my opinion is that most people would do better eating more produce, whether conventionally or organically grown. Locally grown fresh produce may have more benefits than organically produced due to freshness.

DEAR DR. ROACH: All of the latest information states that an adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Is this unbroken sleep? For example, I sleep for four hours, wake up for one to two hours, and then sleep three to four more hours almost every night. If the sleep is to be continuous, is it better to take a sleeping aid or continue with the current pattern? Nothing I read indicates if sleeping seven to nine hours with a sleeping aid provides the same benefit as not sleeping continuously for that time period. P.M.

ANSWER: While it is true that people who sleep seven to nine hours per night tend to live longer than those who sleep less (or more), it is likely that there are some people who need more or less sleep than the average. Further, it isnt clear whether the apparent improvement in longevity is due to better sleeping, or whether people who dont sleep well have an underlying medical condition that is really responsible for the harm seen.

As far as whether continuous sleep is better than interrupted sleep, there isnt good evidence to compare the two. There is strong historical evidence that prior to artificial lighting, two distinct sleep periods separated by an hour or so was considered normal.

Most sleeping aids adversely affect sleep quality, and increase risk of falls and accidents the next day. If interrupted sleep is working for you, Id recommend continuing versus using a sleeping pill.

* * *

Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to [emailprotected] or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.

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Risks and rewards of a strictly organic diet - Lewiston Sun Journal

LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 20: Recording artist Demi Lovato attends the 2018 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for dcp

From the outside, Demi Lovato seems to be living a dream life, debuting an emotional new single at this year's Grammy, and achieving her lifelong goal of performing the national anthem at the Superbowl.

But internally, the star has undergone consistent struggles with body image and self-acceptance, she told model Ashley Graham in a podcast that aired on Tuesday. Lovato suffered a drug overdose in July 2018 that was preceded by her struggles with an insidious form of eating disorder, in the form of an obessesion with healthy eating and exercise.

"I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder when it actually was just completely falling into it," Lovato told Graham on the podcast.

Lovato said that during the peak of her disorder, she was exercising as much as three times a day. This included working out after every meal, to the point where it was disrupting other activities in her life.

"There were times I lived at the gym," Lovato told Graham."I'd eat a meal, go work out. And that's not happiness to me, that's not freedom."

This compulsion to work out is known as exercise addiction. People with exercise addiction may work outto the point of injury, at the expense of their health, social relationships, and even finances.

Although it can occur with or without eating disorders, recent research found that people with eating disorders are 4 times more likely to develop exercise addiction that the general population.

Lovato also said that after previously struggling with "extreme diets," she later realized she had more suble signs of an eating disorder.

"I realized my symptoms weren't as obvious but it was definitely an eating issue," she told Graham.

One example of an insidious eating disorder is orthorexia, defined as an compulsion to eat only "clean" or "healthy" foods. On the surface, the obsession can seem innocuous who doesn't want to eat healthy?

But taken to an extreme, that can lead toward diet that severely restricts certain types of foods labeled as "bad,"including many that are in fact harmless, such as carbs, dairy, or fruit. It can also cause feelings of guilt, shame or anxiety attached to eating certain foods.

Orthorexia can also occur alongside other types of disordered eating.

Eating disorders can be dangerous or even life-threatening, and should be treated by professionals.

Lovato said her recovery has involved extensive work with experts, including therapists, dietitians and other medical professionals.

Part of coming to terms with her body image involves a practice of acceptance, Lovato said. Rather than saying she finds herself beautiful, sexy, and flawless, even if that isn't true, Lovato said she's worked on recognizing she isn't perfect, and that's ok.

"I see myself in the mirror and I say ... 'Nope, you're healthy and I accept you.' And that's all I need to do," she said. "It's expressing gratitude in the health and reality in accepting yourself rather than trying to convince yourself of something you don't believe."

Lovato also said that it's been helpful for her to focus on engaging forms of exercise she genuinely enjoys, such as jiu- jitsu, a martial art involving intense strategy and technique.

"I feel sexiest when I'm doing jiu jitsu because I'm not thinking about my body. I feel sexy when i'm showing my strength, showing intelligence," she told Graham.

And, she added, it's been a long time since she even stepped on a scale.

"I don't know what I weigh and it's the most free i've felt in my whole life," Lovato said.

Read more:

People with eating disorders are 4 times more likely to develop a dangerous addiction to exercise, study finds

'Intuitive eating' is on the rise, and experts say it's because people are fed up with diet culture

Khloe Kardashian promoted Flat Tummy shakes again, and influencers are warning they promote risky dieting habits

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Demi Lovato opens up about exercise addiction: 'I lived at the gym' - Insider - INSIDER

Five years later, I did a double take while walking through a Whole Foods in Brooklyn. Out of the corner of my eye, I had spotted a pile of narrow, long tubes in single-serving plastic shrink-wrapSlim Jim packaging, but with the sophisticated shades of organic groceries instead of the garish colors of snacks fighting for attention in convenience stores. I stopped to marvel at the sticks, made by a company called Vermont Smoke & Cure, and to quietly scoff at their audacity. Who would buy a gentrified Slim Jim as health food?

The answer turned out to be a lot of people. Over the past decade, the gospel of meat and spice has not only endured, but flourished into a shelf-stable-beef extravaganza. Slim Jims sales have nearly tripled since their 2010 dip, and new companies have sprung up to offer organic, grass-fed, or minimal-ingredient protein batons virtually everywhere: corner stores, airport newsstands, office snack deliveries, the ads slotted between Instagram Stories. To put a meat snack in every hand, snack purveyors have pulled off a trick that might have seemed impossible in the days of the Macho Man: They transformed surplus beef into health food.

Read: The capitalist way to make Americans stop eating meat

Despite my initial incredulity at the thought of gourmet Slim Jims, curiosity won out. I started buying fancy meat sticks and jerky in airportsflying is stressful enough without a tummy full of chocolate and Cheez-Its. Ive never had a meat stick that Id regard as delicious, exactly, but plenty of them taste perfectly fine. They occasionally show up in my offices snack stash, and theyre a better bridge to a delayed lunch than a tiny packet of organic animal crackers. They seem like no less reasonable a thing to have floating around at the bottom of my tote bag than a protein bar flavored like birthday cake.

To understand why dried sausage sticks are all the rage, you have to look past their most famous American purveyor and into the fitness-centric enclaves on Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram. There, carbohydrate-skeptical plans like the paleo diet, Whole30, and the ketogenic diet, often called keto, have found an audience of millions in the past decade1.7 million people subscribe to the keto subreddit, and more than 4 million Instagram photos have been tagged with #whole30. These diets vary in their exact restrictions, but they all posit that Americans have been sold a bill of goods on health food, and that sugars, starches, and low-fat processed foods should mostly be abandoned in favor of minimally processed protein, fat, and vegetables. While the actual science behind these diets varies, they've helped mainstream concerns that are in fact supported by considerable evidence.

Read: The Keto diets most controversial champion

In 2012, Pete Maldonado was caught up in the first gusts of the internets low-carb whirlwind while exercising at a CrossFit gym. He began to dabble in paleo eating, which lead him to a common realization for those who cut carbs: If you dont have a full kitchen at your disposal and time to cook in it, avoiding them is basically impossible. Sugar shows up everywhereeven in conventional meat sticks and jerky, as a stabilizerand particularly in the protein bars and powders marketed to people trying to build muscle. There werent very many on-the-go convenient options, especially ones that were healthy, Maldonado says. They were candy bars for people who were into fitness.

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Meat Trimmings Are a Health Food Now - The Atlantic

While fast food restaurants and QSRs are finding new ways to keep up with the plant-based boom, Chipotle has taken a little bit longer to hop on the bandwagon. The chain does offer a tofu-based filling, but is currently working on more plant-based alternatives like cauliflower rice to offer customers.

Most places are opting for meat alternatives like Beyond Meat or Impossible Burgers, but Chipotle is looking for options that are "less-processed" according to a report by Bloomberg.

Chipotle's menu is pretty short compared to other restaurants, with only 53 ingredients. Sofritas is a tofu-based protein option currently available at Chipotle, but Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol told Bloomberg they're working on more choices for those that follow a plant-based diet. There are a lot of meatless toppings at Chipotle already with the lettuce and salsa, but the chain is looking to include additional choices for people that don't eat meat or follow different diet plans. In 2019, Chipotle debuted a bowl that was Whole30 and Paleo diet friendly.

Cauliflower rice is one such option Chipotle is looking into for their low-carb customers. They're also working on more items made from black beans. Overall, Chipotle is aiming to make their meatless menu options above average. "We are definitely experimenting with plant-based foods. Were in the early days of it, Niccol said. What we want to do is make the worlds greatest cauliflower rice, as opposed to process something and make it seem like its something else.

Although I'm one to opt for a bowl whenever I go to Chipotle, I'm sure the cauliflower rice will be amazing in a burrito too. The real question is...will it be cilantro lime flavored?! We'll just have to keep our eyes out and see.

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Chipotle Is Working On Cauliflower Rice And Im So Excited - Delish

Older adults may have better success at losing weight if they do it with the help of intensive behavioral therapy from dietitians, a new study suggests.

Intensive behavioral therapy for obesity, or IBTO, is a customized treatment that helps people change their eating and exercise behaviors through a series of one-on-one counseling sessions.

Its also a treatment that can be difficult for primary care doctors to do on top of other responsibilities, so a research team from East Carolina University set out to discover IBTOs effectiveness if a dietitian is added to the team.

RDNs, or registered dietitian nutritionists, are trained for both weight loss and nutrition therapy, and can help support physicians in addressing underlying diet and lifestyle risk factors for chronic diseases, said Dr. Lauren Sastre, an author of the study and assistant nutrition science professor at East Carolina University.

And, the study notes, IBTO is already provided and reimbursed for Medicare B recipients, who would be age 65 or older. As the prevalence of obesity in the US has increased to include nearly 40% of the adult population, Sastre and her team found that IBTO with a dietitian is an effective method to addressing not only obesity in older adults but its associated conditions, such as type 2 diabetes.

Their results showed that the patients who received the treatment lost nearly three pounds on average and improved other health outcomes in comparison to those who did not receive IBTO.

Coupled with the fact that nutrition is not required content in medical school curricula, medical professionals may not have the time or the skills to develop and implement nutrition interventions for patients, said Dr. Emily Wilcox Gier, Dietetics Program Leader for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, who wasnt part of the study. Referring patients to [dietitians] is an easy, cost-effective and necessary step to ensure that patients receive the treatment they need to meet weight loss goals.

The study involved 2,097 women age 65 and older who received Medicare insurance. They all had a body mass index above 30, which classified them as obese, according to the CDC. The women were then divided into a treatment group and a non-treatment group, with nearly 700 of the participants receiving IBTO.

At the first visit, dietitians helped patients establish their calorie limit and food-tracking method based on their personal habits and preferences. Subsequent sessions were check-ins in which patients focused on improving their exercise habits and diet.

The researchers also measured the patients weight, BMI, A1C and medication use. A1C is a blood test that helps doctors make a diagnosis for pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes by measuring your average blood sugar level over the past three months. It also can show how well a person has been managing their diabetes.

After three years of treatment, from 2016 to 2019, patients who received IBTO experienced greater BMI decreases, larger A1C declines and stopped taking their prescription medication sooner, the study found.

Patients in the treatment group lost nearly three pounds on average, compared with patients in the control group who gained an average of a half a pound. They also had an average A1C decline of nearly 0.2, which previous research has associated with an up to 10% reduction in death risk.

[Dietitians] have the knowledge and skills to work with patients [or] clients on an individual basis to develop interventions that work, said Dr. Emily Wilcox Gier, dietetics program leader for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, who wasnt part of the study. [Dietitians] know how to tailor nutrition recommendations to fit ones needs, including medical conditions, living situations and preferences. This evidence helps support the fact that our training helps patients meet their weight loss goals.

Demographic differences did affect the patients results, however, as the study notes that minorities and older respondents experienced smaller results.

Yet given the overall results found for lowering A1C, the researchers think the intensive therapy model advised by a dietitian could be helpful for people who arent obese but do have diabetes although current requirements for Medicare IBTO include having a BMI of more than 30.

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Want to lose more weight? Intensive therapy from dietitians can help older adults, study finds - KRDO

Photo by Michael KellyTom and Betty Decker walk the one-eighth-mile track at Movement Fitness in the Frontier Shopping Center Thursday afternoon. Medical experts recommend at least half an hour of aerobic physical activity a few times a week as one part of maintaining a healthy heart and cardiovascular system

Keeping your heart healthy is much simpler than fixing it when it breaks.

The Memorial Health System slotted several public events for Februarys Heart Month, directed toward acquainting the public with the heart care services the system offers and emphasizing early diagnosis of heart conditions.

Dr. Meisam Moghbelli, a cardiologist at Memorial with a subspecialty in heart failure, said the medical system is increasingly focused on preventing heart and cardiovascular disease.

We still have to manage lots of patients with heart disease and were becoming much more adept at treating it. Nationally, heart attack rates are still high, but things are headed in the right direction, he said.

Early identification of heart conditions is critical, he said, and Appalachia in particular has living conditions that give residents a propensity for less than optimum heart health. Ohio Department of Health data shows that Washington County is No. 64 among the states 88 counties for heart disease mortality with No. 1 being the worst (Fayette County) and No. 88 being the best (Delaware County). Although the county is in the lower half, the mortality rate of 198.56 deaths per 100,000 is still above the state average of 186.19 and the national average of 165.04.

In this area, we have patients who are in need of better access to health care, the proportion of the population that smokes is higher than most urban areas, Moghbelli said. The access is challenging although at Memorial we have an open door policy and we see people with advanced symptoms who havent seen a doctor for years. Caring for them is more challenging, and we wish they would have gotten in earlier.

The hospital and clinic system held an open house earlier this month offering free electrocardiograms and blood pressure tests, along with other screening procedures and free consultations with specialists. On Tuesday, Memorial will host a dinner at the Elizabeth Sugden Broughton Community Building where Moghbelli and his colleague, Dr. Arshad Rehan, will talk about heart health with specific emphasis on peripheral vascular disease.

Threats to cardiovascular health, he said, are well-known: smoking, obesity, poor diet, lack of physical activity, along with the misfortune of having a family history of heart disease.

Although cigarette smoking has become less prevalent over the past two decades, he said, vaping represents a new threat to heart health. Even though vaping delivers less harmful particulates and carbon monoxide, most vape products still introduce nicotine into the system, which elevates blood pressure and has other undesirable effects on the cardiovascular system.

Moghbellis advice to maintain heart health includes 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise a few times a week, diets that include less salt and processed foods, and no smoking.

Early intervention is critical, he said, and even people with no medical insurance can have access to expert care. National statistics have shown a correlation between poverty and heart disease people with incomes of $25,000 a year or less are 40 percent more likely to have a heart condition than those making more than $75,000, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention behavioral survey data from 2018.

We have social workers at Memorial who can advise people, said Moghbelli. I would encourage everyone to get screened, but especially those who have risk factors such as obesity, and a family history of heart problems. Everybody should get evaluated. Wed rather see you on the front end of this, when prevention is possible, not the back end after youve had a heart attack.

Although many treatments are available for recovery, he said, those who experience heart attacks often need to live with the restrictive consequences of heart failure for the remainder of their lives.

The mortality rate 30 days after a heart attack is still quite high, and we want to prevent these so that people dont have to live with heart failure afterward, he said.

The Washington County Health Department also addresses heart health with several programs.

Healthy Communities director Sherry Ellem said a lunch and learn event Wednesday included as a keynote speaker a pharmacist from the University of Charleston who offered a presentation on heart health and medications.

We have a coalition of more than 30 members who meet quarterly on how to invest dollars and work together on projects to increase access to fitness and better nutrition, she said.

More information is available on the departments Facebook page, she said.

Doing something as simple as taking a walk in a public park is one way of taking advantage of commonly owned and maintained public facilities, she said.

We really need to take part in our own health care, she said. Theres a lot we can do personally to stay healthy, many programs. Its not always easy to make the healthy choice, and public programs and facilities are there to make it easier.

The Marietta Family YMCA is offering a Dance Your Heart Away introduction to its Zumba, Dance Fusion, Pilates-yoga and stretching classes from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The recently relocated YMCA is one of several fitness organizations in the area.

Tom and Betty Decker were walking the indoor one-eighth-mile track at Movement Fitness on Gross Street Thursday afternoon as other members paced on treadmills, played casual basketball, worked out with weights and participated in cross-fit training. The couple said theyd joined the fitness center when it opened in April 2019 and use the facility regularly.

I play pickleball three days a week and we walk here often, Betty said. It keeps us moving.

Heart Month events in Marietta

What: Dance Your Heart Away, introduction to Zumba, Dance Fusion, Pilates-Yoga, stretching.

When: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

Where: Elizabeth Sugden Broughton Community Building, 619 State Route 821.

Cost: $5.

Registration: Marietta Family YMCA, 7410-336-1041.

What: Dinner discussion by Memorial Health System, Dr. Meisam Moghbelli and Dr. Arshad Rehan.

When: 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Elizabeth Sugden Broughton Community Building, 619 State Route 821.

Cost: $5 for individuals, $7.50 per couple.

Registration: 740-568-4731.

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