Shirley and I went for a walk the other day. It was a lovely cool, sunny day and we had gone out for a cup of coffee early in the morning and we just kept going. We ended up walking from San Francisco over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. It was a beautiful walk, probably ten miles in all, and even though we didn’t carry anything with us other than a purse and a couple of magazines, somehow, we didn’t die of dehydration!

A miracle.

Wet idea

Well, it felt like it because all the way along the way we saw teeming hoardes of runners passing us and most of them seemed to be carrying bottles or water or had several smaller bottles of water on belts around their waist.

Now, it wasn’t a hot day and most of these runners weren’t setting what you might call a fast pace, yet they all seemed to feel the need for regular hydration.

The best Shirley and I managed was to stop at a cafe along the way and get another cup of coffee. Yet new research shows this may have been all we really needed.

A most refreshing beverage

The research, published in the journal Food Technology, says that when it comes to recovering from a tough workout or ensuring you are properly hydrated you can skip the fancy sports drinks and enhanced waters that are now all the rage, instead all you need are some old school beverages, tea and coffee!

That’s right. Tea and coffee. They’ve been around for hundreds of years and are probably the most widely studied drinks in the world and most of that research points to them both having big health benefits.

Tea is packed with anti-oxidants and other compounds that can have a beneficial impact on the immune system. Studies have shown that regular tea drinking can reduce your risk of diabetes and cancer.

Coffee has a similar pedigree, helping reduce your cholesterol and risk of gall stones and may even be able to help reduce the risk of you developing Parkinson’s disease.

The cup that cheers

Nice cup of tea

Of course, there’s no giant marketing campaign to position a nice cuppa tea as the best way to bounce back from a punishing game of tennis, or a coffee as a restorative beverage after a vigorous yoga workout, so I’m sure people will continue to spend billions of dollars every year on vitamin-water or some other new gimmicky drink and ignore the fact that the healthiest of drinks have been around for hundreds (in the case of tea for thousands) of years.

But it’s given me an idea for a whole new line of sports drinks. Instead of  having a belt with water bottles attached I want to create one that has a pot of tea on one side, a cup, milk and sugar on the other so that you can stop and make yourself a nice cuppa along the way. It may not improve your speed but it will certainly help you look more elegant as you sip while you jog.

Every day you read about or hear about a new study that could dramatically change the way we treat a disease, or live our lives. But much of the time this week’s studies seem to contradict last week’s studies. One day coffee is good for you, the next it is bad. So how do you make sense of all this?

Well, first of all don’t worry, a lot of medical experts are trying to find the answer to that question too. In 2004 Dr. John Ioannidis published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Ioannidis looked at 45 large studies published in well known medical journals between 1990 and 2003. He found that in approximately one third of the cases, the findings of one study were later completely contradicted, or seriously called into question by later studies.

So if the researchers themselves can’t make their minds up, what are the rest of us to do.

The best place to start is by asking yourself the following questions of every piece of medical research you see.
1) Is this relevant to me? If the study is about a problem you don’t have, a disease or condition you are not being treated for then move on. There’s no point cluttering your head up with information about something you don’t have, particularly as that information might not be correct anyway.

2) Did this study look at people or poultry? If the study was done in mice, rats, fruit flies etc, and you are not also a mouse, rat or fruit fly then move on. It’s not relevant to you. In time they may do the same studies in people. But that could be years away and even then there’s no guarantee that they will find the same results. Why waste time worrying about something that doesn’t concern you when you could just as easily waste that time worrying about who to vote for on American Idol.

3) How many people are involved? When it comes to medical studies, size really does matter, and bigger is almost always better. Unless large numbers of people were involved don’t waste your time on it. Looking at small numbers really only tells you if the drug/treatment etc is safe for those people, at that time, under those conditions. Wait till they test it on thousands of individuals before you start to pay attention.

Also look at the kinds of people the research was done on. Some studies are only carried out in women, some in men. Some focus on people over 65, others on people under 45. Some studies look at particular racial or ethnic groups, such as Alzheimer’s in Japanese Americans living in Hawaii, or breast cancer in Ashkenazi Jewish women. So, a basic rule of thumb is that the less the people in the study look like you, the more reason to look at it with a questioning eye.

4) How was the study done? The gold-standard for medical research is called a double-blind, placebo controlled study. That basically means that neither the patients nor the doctors/researchers know who is getting the real treatment, and who is getting the placebo. That way neither can interfere with the results.

Other methods take a different approach, often because it’s the only practical way to get the information they are looking for. Observational studies for instance compare people who take, for example, vitamin C supplements to those who don’t and see which group gets more heart disease. These studies have to try and exclude all the other factors that could influence their findings such as lifestyle habits, diet, environment etc. In the end they may be able to suggest a link between people who take vitamin C supplements and reduced risk of heart disease, but they can’t prove it. Next year another study may come along and show just the opposite.

5) If the study was a clinical trial, what phase was it? Phase I and II clinical trials are carried out in small groups of people, to determine if the treatment is first safe, and then if there is any sign it actually works. It is only in Phase III trials that a drug is tested in large enough numbers, and compared either against another treatment or a placebo, to determine if it is truly effective.

6) Has the study been published? The best science is usually reported in respected medical journals. If you hear about a new drug or treatment through research presented at a medical meeting, don’t rush out to buy it or take it. Wait until that research has been published. That means the study has been peer-reviewed, a process that usually weeds out weak or badly done scientific work.

7) Who funded and promoted the study? Remember, health care is a multi-billion dollar industry. There is a lot at stake. A study that is favorable to a new drug or treatment can boost sales for that medication, and the stock price of the company that makes it. So check to see who is behind the study.

Remember the diet drug known as phen-fen? Many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, published favorable reports on the safety and effectiveness of phen-fen based on a 1999 study and accompanying editorial published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It was later learned that both were written by a paid consultant for Wyeth, a company that made one half of the phen-fen combination.

How does this fit in to previous research? A single study rarely offers definitive evidence of the effectiveness of a new treatment. Look at previous research to see if these latest findings match those, or how they differ. Never change your habits based on one study.

9) What is the risk? Even if the research is good, the findings valid, you have to ask yourself what difference does it make? To do this you have to consider two kinds of risk, relative risk and absolute risk. For example, if a study says eating pork increases your risk of cancer of the eyeball by 43 percent, that sounds like a lot, but it is a relative risk. You also have to look at how many people in the study got cancer of the eyeball. If there were 200,000 people in the study and only 500 developed that disease, then the relative risk is 500 in 200,000 or 0.25 percent, roughly 1 in 400. It’s a much smaller number. However, reporters will often give the larger number because it’s more dramatic, or because they just don’t both to do the math.

10) Is the study being hailed as a medical miracle or breakthrough treatment? Be very skeptical of any treatment that promises miracles, cures or breakthroughs. Much as we would like it to be otherwise, science tends to work very slowly. Each study builds on the last one, creating a body of work that eventually, hopefully, tells us what works. Studies that claim to have all the answers, or research that claims that one drug can cure all cancers are usually as reliable as the supermarket tabloids that report on aliens and Elvis being seen in the White House.

Sometimes it feels as if you can’t turn around without bumping into another study that tells you how wonderful exercise is. Most of it is stuff you probably already know – at least it is if you read Health and Simple regularly – but once in a while you come across some fun new benefit that makes you think “cool”.

We’ll get to that in a minute.

But first.. Just Being Fat Increases a Kids Risk of Heart Disease
Now, we all know that more and more children are becoming overweight or even obese. Not just here in the U.S. but throughout Europe and other developed and affluent nations. Now a new study says the consequences of that may be far graver than we thought.

The study, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, found that as early as age 7, being obese may raise a child’s risk of future heart disease and stroke, even if they don’t have any other risk factors for cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure.

That’s a wake-up call to parents, schools and pediatricians that they need to be more aggressive in working with kids with weight problems, to tackle them early and often so that those kids don’t grow up overweight or obese. The longer the problems persist, the greater the risk of future health problems.

Now, the news that fat kids start showing signs of heart disease early on is not new. But this adds an extra wrinkle. This shows that even if the kids are otherwise healthy and show no other indications of heart problems, just being fat shows they are heading for a world of health problems, unless we act quickly.

Move More Live Longer, and Healthier
OK, stop me if you heard this before. Exercise or physical activity is linked to a friggin’ host of wonderful things such as reduced risk of:

• arthritis
• falls
• fractures
• heart disease
• lung disease
• cancer
• diabetes
• obesity
• watching the Kardashians (OK, the evidence isn’t all in on this one but hopefully if you workout regularly you won’t have time to watch this dreadful, awful, scripted “reality” show) (note from Shirl:  I kinda like it…love the make-up!)

But now a bunch of new studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine show that exercise can have benefits in all sorts of fun, new ways

• Among women who are 70 or older, those who exercise regularly during middle age are healthier in many areas of health from less risk of chronic disease to lower risk of heart problems or dementia
• Exercise programs are associated with denser bones in older women. Why is that good? Because stronger bones mean less likely of fracture or other serious problems if you fall – either fall in love or fall in the shower
• Here’s my favorite. Resistance training can improve some cognitive skills in older women. This is such a cool study. The researchers found that doing resistance training just once or twice a week can not only improve attention and concentration skills among older women, but it can also improve conflict resolution skills. Amazing eh. Better conflict resolution skills. But then I figured that no one wants to argue with an old woman who’s built like Arnold Schwarzenneger so maybe that explains it. But what a cool granny eh!

Every so often you come upon a study that leaves you asking “and they managed to get money to do that research?” It’s not that the findings are so shocking and provocative, more that they are so bloody obvious that you didn’t really need to do a study to find it out – such as if you drink more alcohol you are more likely to end up drunk than if you don’t drink at all.

Sounds silly I know but here are real life examples that shows just how absurd some of these studies are.

Such as the latest research from those fine folks at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. They came to the groundbreaking conclusion that homeowners who are in foreclosure are more likely to suffer from a major depression than homeowners who are not in foreclosure. Really! You mean if the house you bought and loved and cared for is about to be sold from underneath you and your family you are more likely to be miffed about it than if you are not about to lose your home. Wow, that’s some pretty rigorous scientific inquiry.

An article in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology – what do you mean you stopped your subscription! – had some helpful research for people wishing to avoid smog and dirt in the air. After extensive study they advised people to wear a face mask. Gasp! The researchers thoughtfully went into some detail as to why this would be helpful, explaining how covering your nose and mouth can reduce the amount of particles that get in there. Thanks lads, don’t know what we would do without you.

Cheating on college tests is apparently becoming increasingly common, with students smuggling all manner of electronic devices into exams to help them ace the test. But which students are most likely to cheat? Well, a study from Ohio State University found that dishonest students are more likely to cheat than honest ones. No, honestly they are. The researchers gave students a questionnaire and those who registered lower on measures of honesty were more likely to cheat than those who registered higher. Now we know we can just administer an honesty test before the real test to weed out the bad boys and girls. But what if they cheat on that one too! Hmmmm.

And here’s a good use of research dollars. A study of some 1,341 European clubgoers (what, couldn’t they find any in the U.S.?) found that one third of men between the ages of 16 and 35, and one quarter of women in the same age group, drink alcohol and smoke marijuana to increase their chances of having sex. Apparently drinking and smoking reduced their sense of inhibition so they were more likely to pursue the object of their lust. And presumably if the object of their lust was also drinking and smoking they were more likely to be receptive to those advances. What wonders will science reveal to us next, that better looking people get more sexual interest from the opposite sex than ugly folks!

And finally, a word of warning to all those boys and men who have been hitting the bottle before hitting the bars – those girls that are smiling at you are probably just being friendly, they don’t necessarily want to leap beneath the sheets with you. But don’t take my word for that, thanks to an article in the journal Psychological Science, researchers are able to explain that men sometimes mistake a friendly gesture – such as a smile or making eye contact – with a sexual come on. Apparently boys in heat don’t read body language very well and mistake anything short of a slap in the face as a sign that “she really likes me”.

With research like that out there it’s no wonder that this year’s class at the University of Duh is once again over subscribed.