An Insider’s Tricks to Using Frequent-Flier Miles

How far can a mile take you? That depends on how you redeem it. Frequent-flier programs have been modifying their rules in recent years, and most of the modifications have worked against travelers. Miles have become more difficult to earn and less valuable when redeemed.

February 15, 2016

GET MORE FREE FLIGHTS!

How far can a mile take you? That depends on how you redeem it. Frequent-flier programs have been modifying their rules in recent years, and most of the modifications have worked against travelers. Miles have become more difficult to earn and less valuable when redeemed.

Example: The Delta SkyMiles ­frequent-flier program no longer has set prices for awards tickets at all. To find out how many miles a ticket will cost, program members must enter their itineraries into Delta’s online-booking tool. Often they discover that a round-trip domestic ticket costs 45,000 miles or more, well above the traditional 25,000-mile rate.

But you can do better if you know some tricks. Here’s how to get the most from your miles with various airlines…

AMERICAN AADVANTAGE

American is implementing some major changes to its program starting March 22. Most of these will devalue American miles, but hidden in this bad news are a small number of opportunities. Consider redeeming American miles for…

Domestic flights of 500 miles or less. American will charge just 7,500 miles each way for economy-class awards tickets on these short hops, well below the standard domestic rate of 12,500 miles. Redeeming miles for short hops makes particular sense when the cash price charged for the quick flight is steep. Some short hops are surprisingly expensive when paying with money rather than miles, particularly when a single airline dominates the route with little competition.

Examples: Flights between Atlanta and Charlotte…Austin and Houston…and Chicago and either Indianapolis or Cincinnati all typically have fares that translate to more than one dollar per mile, more than four times the typical per-mile airfare in the US.

Flights to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. Starting in March, American will charge a relatively modest 15,000 miles each way for economy-class tickets to these destinations, a reduction from the 17,500 miles currently charged. The price drops to 12,500 miles each way if you travel during the off-peak season. (Off-peak season is September 7 through November 14 for Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, plus January 16 through June 14 for Central America.) That’s an international trip for the same number of miles you would spend for the typical domestic awards ticket.

Sign up for the Citi AAdvantage credit card to gain access to reduced rates. Airline-branded credit cards are best known for providing an additional way to earn miles. Example: Citi ­AAdvantage Platinum Select MasterCard gives two miles per dollar spent with American Airlines, one mile per dollar on other purchases, plus 50,000 bonus miles for making $3,000 in purchases in the first three months with the card. (The $95 annual fee is waived in the first year.) Less well-known is that Citi’s AAdvantage cards also provide attractive opportunities for redeeming miles. Card holders qualify for discounts of 5,000 to 7,500 miles when they redeem miles for round-trip economy or first-class tickets to certain US and Canadian destinations. This list of destinations changes monthly and tends to be fairly extensive—more than 130 destinations were available in February, for example, everywhere from Vancouver to Key West. Enter “Reduced Mileage Awards” into the search box atAA.com for details.

DELTA SKYMILES

As noted above, Delta no longer publishes an awards price schedule for its SkyMiles program, and many tickets turn out to cost a shockingly high number of miles. Still, some relative bargains occasionally appear…

Fly midweek. Delta sets awards ticket rates based on demand for flights—and demand for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday flights tends to be lower than demand for Friday through Monday flights, particularly with popular tourist destinations.

More Travel Tips

1. The World’s Smartest Traveler Busts 6
   Myths About Flying
2. How to Save on Airfare with Google Flights
3. Sneaky Ways Airlines Are Tricking You Now
4. Have More Fun Traveling

Example: Delta’s round-trip awards tickets from Boston to Miami tend to cost 45,000 miles on weekends…but 25,000 miles on Wednesdays.

Fly to Alaska. Flights to and from Alaska sometimes are priced at 12,500 miles each way on Delta, the rate normally charged for flights within the continental US. Compare that to United, for example, which imposes an “Alaska Add-on” of 5,000 to 10,000 miles each way above the normal domestic rate. (Not all Delta flights to Alaska will be a good deal, however—here, too, the mileage required for an awards ticket will vary with the demand for the flight.)

Search for appealing awards rates on short-hop flights. Certain short-distance economy-class awards tickets are available for just 5,000 miles each way on Delta. Enter your itinerary into Delta’s booking tool before taking a short hop to see if this rate is available.

Examples: The 5,000-mile rate has recently been offered on certain flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco…Seattle and Portland, Oregon…and Cincinnati and Memphis.

UNITED MILEAGEPLUS

There are two ways to maximize the value of your miles with the third of the big-three US carriers…

Watch for route specials. Most ­frequent-flier programs occasionally offer special deals on specific routes if the airline is having trouble filling seats. But United’s MileagePlus program does this much more than most. Read the e-mails sent to you by the MileagePlus program to find these opportunities, which might be priced 5,000 miles or more below the standard rate for a round-trip domestic flight.

Use miles for flights of less than 700 miles. Flights less than 700 miles each way are priced at 10,000 miles each way on United, less than the standard 12,500-mile rate. That’s not as low as American’s rate on short hops, mentioned above—but while American’s short-hop rate applies only to flights of less than 500 miles, United’s applies to flights up to 700 miles. That means United’s program stands out for flights of between 501 and 700 miles in particular.

Examples: Flights between Boston and Detroit…Chicago and DC…and Pittsburgh and St. Louis all are too long to qualify for American’s short-hop rate, but they fall within United’s 700-mile limit.

SOUTHWEST, VIRGIN ­AMERICA AND JETBLUE

With the Southwest Airlines, Virgin America and JetBlue frequent-flier programs, there are no predetermined awards ticket rates or rate tiers. The number of miles required to obtain an awards ticket is determined by the cash price of that ticket. That means the only way to find a great deal on an awards ticket is to find a great cash price for a ticket and redeem your miles for that. Watch for special fares by signing up for e-mail updates or by checking the airline websites.

Source: Tim Winship has spent nearly 25 years in the travel industry and helped develop and manage frequent-travel programs for Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Hilton Hotels.

http://bottomlinepersonal.com/an-insiders-tricks-to-using-frequent-flier-miles/

Immunotherapy - Breakthrough Cancer Treatment

It seems like every week there’s a promising new cancer treatment—that never happens. Too often we read about a new theoretical approach that saves lives in one or two studies…only to wait and wait for the treatment to materialize in the practice of cancer medicine. This time is different.

Breakthrough Cancer Treatment

THIS RADICAL NEW APPROACH IS SAVING LIVES…

 

February 1, 2016

It seems like every week there’s a promising new cancer treatment—that never happens. Too often we read about a new theoretical approach that saves lives in one or two studies…only to wait and wait for the treatment to materialize in the practice of cancer medicine. This time is different.

Now the powerful cancer-fighting drugs are not theoretical or another case of overhyping, overpromising and underdelivering. These medications really do work. This new way of fighting cancer uses the body’s own immune system to wage war on cancer cells. Many leading cancer experts believe this approach, known as cancer immunotherapy, could revolutionize how we treat many forms of cancer.

When it comes to certain cancers, the revolution has already begun. In fact, former President Jimmy Carter, 91, is now said to be “cancer free” (based on MRI scans) after using one of these drugs for the melanoma that spread to his brain.

The new treatments aren’t about enhancing immunity in general. Instead, this is an intriguing approach that can prevent cancerous tumors from hijacking our own immune defenses—so that our amazing immune system can do its job.

6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Here are the details on this latest form of cancer immunotherapy…

1. It treats the body’s immune system so the immune system can fight the cancer. T cells are the immune system’s main line of defense, but they’re not always effective against cancer cells. In the 1990s, cancer researchers identified a class of molecules in the body that are known as immune checkpoints. These molecules keep T cells from attacking normal cells, but cancer cells can hijack them for their own purposes. Cancer cells employ immune “checkpoints” to turn off killer T cells that would otherwise recognize and destroy a cancer that was growing in a person’s body. Drugs that block these checkpoints so T cells can do their job are game changers called immune checkpoint inhibitors.

2. It still has side effects, but early results suggest a less toxic experience. All of us would love to see a day when very toxic chemotherapy agents that cause hair loss, low blood counts, fatigue, etc., are no longer the backbone of therapy for cancer. With checkpoint inhibitors, there will potentially be fewer side effects and certainly different ones. So far, the most common side effects caused by checkpoint inhibitors already in use include fatigue, cough, nausea, skin rash and itching. But more serious side effects including severe diarrhea, colitis and intestinal inflammation (even perforation) have also been reported.

3. It can be very effective and long-lasting. Consider the effects of checkpoint inhibitors against end-stage Hodgkin’s disease, where patients had already received every imaginable therapy and were running out of hope. More than 90% of these patients went into remissions, many of them complete. When checkpoint inhibitors are combined against metastatic melanoma—the most deadly form of skin cancer—more than half of those cancers are eliminated or controlled, with benefits that have lasted for many years in some cases.

For more on this topic, see our helpful
Complementary Cancer Therapies:
A Guide for Patients and Survivorsf

4. It works against many forms of cancer. In a viewpoint recently published in JAMA, James Allison, PhD, who pioneered the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors against cancer, wrote: “The therapy does not target the tumor cell but rather engages a target on the patient’s immune system. Thus, there is no inherent reason that it would not be successful against a wide variety of tumors.”

At this time, checkpoint inhibitors are FDA approved for treating only certain types of melanoma and lung cancer. But studies show that they also work against no fewer than 20 different cancers, including certain forms of kidney cancer, triple negative breast cancer, stomach cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, bladder cancer and head and neck cancer.

5. It is very expensive. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more to have a course of therapy with these drugs, especially if you start combining them with other expensive cancer therapies. (See below for more details on insurance coverage.)

6. It is still evolving. One promising innovation in cancer immunotherapy that is currently being researched is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. In this case, a patient’s T cells are genetically engineered to produce antibodies against a specific type of cancer. When these T cells proliferate, they pass their cancer-killing modifications along.

So far, this experimental treatment has had outstanding results against a hard-to-treat and deadly form of leukemia called acute lymphocytic leukemia.

WHAT’S AVAILABLE NOW…

While many checkpoint inhibitors are in development, currently only three have been approved by the FDA…

• Opdivo (nivolumab) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab) are approved for advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that is not responding to conventional platinum-based chemotherapy…and for advanced melanoma.

• Yervoy (ipilimumab) is approved for melanoma that has spread within the body (metastasized) or that cannot be removed by surgery.

Until new drugs for different cancers make it through the FDA approval process—or the existing approved ones get future approvals for different cancers—these are the only three of this type of cancer treatment that insurance companies or Medicare are likely to cover. If you have the financial wherewithal, you may be able to have your doctor prescribe the approved drugs off-label and pay for them yourself.

For everyone else, however, there is another potential option. If there is an immunotherapy cancer drug in development for a cancer that you are being treated for, ask your oncologist whether there is a clinical trial that you can join. You can also check the website ClinicalTrials.gov.

http://bottomlinehealth.com/breakthrough-cancer-treatment/

Click on Healthwise for more articles

This cancer-fighting spice may be better than turmeric

One of the gratifying things about the work I do is finding so many foods that are powerful cancer fighters. The one I’m going to talk about today may be more effective than chemotherapy or those painkillers called NSAIDs. And it’s almost certainly sitting in your kitchen cupboard right now.

Newsletter #538
Lee Euler, Editor

27 September 2015

This Cancer Remedy is in Your Kitchen Cabinet Right Now

It’s been used medicinally and for cooking for thousands of years. New research is confirming and rediscovering what many traditional healing traditions knew: Its value goes far beyond the kitchen.

According to a number of studies over the past several years, this common spice has huge potential as a cancer treatment, painkiller, inflammation fighter, and more. And no, it’s not turmeric.

For at least 2,000 years, various cultures in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have celebrated the medicinal properties of ginger.

The root-like part that grows underground is ginger’s most frequently used part. But you can eat the leaves, too. Ginger contains a wide variety of antioxidants, and has anti-parasitic, antiviral, and antibacterial properties as well.

17 studies demonstrate ginger’s anticancer powers

Because cancer is associated so closely with inflammation, it should come as no surprise that ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties could have huge potential for fighting cancer and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

More than 17 studies show its ability to fight cancer – even difficult-to-treat cancers, such as lung, colon, skin, pancreatic, and ovarian cancers.

Scientists believe that ginger attacks cancer cells mainly by inducing apoptosis, the process I’ve mentioned often in these pages, in which cancer cells essentially commit suicide without harming healthy cells.

J. Rebecca Liu, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan, described the process by saying that “the cells are tricked into digesting themselves.”¹

What’s more, the American Association for Cancer Research found that every time cancer cells were treated with ginger powder, they died.

Kills cancer outright

Ginger is a powerful secret for fighting ovarian cancer, the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system.

A 2007 study showed that ginger fights ovarian cancer by blocking the cancer from growing and limiting its ability to spread.²

A University of Michigan study showed that ginger caused the death of ovarian cancer cells in a lab.³ Animal and human trials are needed, but this holds great promise because chemo-treated cancer has a tendency to recur, and to build up resistance.

In another study on ovarian cancer, researchers concluded, “Ginger inhibits growth and modulates secretion of angiogenic factors in ovarian cancer cells. The use of dietary agents such as ginger may hold potential for the treatment and prevention of ovarian cancer.”⁴

Gingerol, a compound contained in ginger, was also shown to inhibit the growth of — and even kill — a variety of prostate cancer cells. In a study at Georgia State University, treatment with ginger shrank prostate tumors by a stunning 56% in mice.

Studies confirm that whole ginger extract perturbs cell cycle progression, impairs the cancer cells’ ability to reproduce, and triggers apoptosis.

In other words, ginger basically tricks the cancer cells into killing themselves.

Plus, because ginger relieves nausea and helps limit the effects of toxic substances, it can be very beneficial for those who choose to undergo conventional cancer treatments.

What’s more… it’s non-toxic. There are no side effects.

Studies also suggest that consuming ginger could help prevent cancer from overtaking you in the first place.

And ginger’s benefits extend far beyond cancer prevention and treatment…

A no-side-effects pain “medicine”
that outperforms NSAIDs

Ginger’s anti-inflammatory powers mean it can help alleviate pain.

Four active ingredients in ginger – gingerols, paradols, shogaols, and zingerone – have all been shown to reduce pain.

Preliminary evidence shows benefits for those suffering from osteoarthritis. Dr. Krishna C. Srivastava has extensively researched the medicinal and therapeutic uses of spices including ginger.

In a three-month study, Dr. Srivastava gave ginger once daily to patients suffering from arthritis. By the end of the study, the majority of study participants experienced less pain, morning stiffness, and swelling.

NSAIDs – a category that includes drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen, plus a number of prescription medicines — merely inhibit the formation of new inflammatory compounds. NSAIDs reduce pain, but put you at risk of many side effects in the process, some of which can lead to death.

The anti-inflammatory compounds in ginger not only inhibit new inflammatory compounds but go beyond anything NSAIDs do and break down existing inflammation as well.

So ginger can get at the root of the problem and get rid of pain completely.

Settles your stomach

I first heard of ginger as a great medicinal herb for stomach or intestinal upset. That still remains true.

Ginger is very commonly used to treat nausea, motion sickness, and digestive problems. Researchers have found it’s helpful for relieving morning sickness during pregnancy, motion sickness during travel, and chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Ginger is also beneficial for sailors suffering from seasickness. In one study of 80 sailors prone to motion sickness, those who took powdered ginger experienced less vomiting and fewer cold sweats than those taking the placebo.⁵

That’s why so many people drink ginger ale to soothe stomach problems. But I recommend using lower-sugar methods to claim ginger’s benefits.

Besides relieving pain and nausea, ginger also aids digestion and discourages flatulence, without the negative side effects conventional treatments involve.

Ginger can also help protect against ulcers.

Best ways to get a dose of ginger

Largely due to its anti-inflammatory properties, ginger can have a positive impact on the treatment of more than 100 diseases, ranging from asthma and bronchitis to PMS and headaches (including migraine), to joint pain and cancer.

Depending on the seriousness of the illness you’re treating, you can take ginger in a number of ways.

It’s available as a root, supplement, powder, and even as an essential oil.

The root can be purchased in the produce section of your grocery store. A little goes a long way, so just break off a small section and experiment till you see how strong you like it. Chop it up into tiny pieces and boil in water to make a tea. Or include it in a wide variety of foods such as stir fries, soups, marinades, sauces, fish, and smoothies.

When you take ginger as a supplement, the recommended dose is 500 to 1,000 mg per day, although it’s safe even at much higher doses as far as we can learn.

While scientists believe that ginger is largely side effect-free, there’s one exception…

If thinner blood could pose a problem, you should avoid it, especially prior to surgery or if you already take a blood-thinner such as Coumadin. This feature is not unusual among food supplements. Fish oil and enzyme supplements also act as blood thinners. So do NSAIDs.

http://www.cancerdefeated.com/this-cancer-remedy-is-in-your-kitchen-cabinet-right-now/

This post is on Healthwise

The Right Way to Take Probiotics

You’ve decided to be good to your stomach, so you start taking probiotic supplements. Maybe you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic and want to protect yourself from stomach upset.

September 28, 2015

Maria L. Marco, PhD, University of California, Davis

You’ve decided to be good to your stomach, so you start taking probiotic supplements. Maybe you’ve been prescribed an antibiotic and want to protect yourself from stomach upset. Perhaps you’ve already experienced a bout of diarrhea from a stomach “bug” and want to get right again. Or you just want to give your gastrointestinal tract a healthy new start.

So you buy a 30-day supply of probiotic supplements, and start to take them each day with a glass of water. So far, so good. But what if there were a way for the probiotic to work better…and faster?

The trick isn’t to change the probiotic itself but to wash it down with something else—milk. The research is new, and the study was done on animals rather than humans, but it suggests that we should not only choose our probiotic supplements wisely, but also pay careful attention to how our diets affect their ability to help us. Here’s how…

WHAT HEALTHY GERMS LIKE TO EAT

Researchers at the University of California, Davis examined one of the most studied probiotic species, Lactobacillus casei (L. casei), often used to ferment dairy products such as yogurt and kefir. Strains of L. casei in supplements have been shown to help with many gastrointestinal conditions including constipation, antibiotic-caused diarrhea and even more serious inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel disease (IBD). Popular brands that contain L. casei include Yakult and DanActive.

The Davis scientists looked at the effectiveness of a specific strain of L.casei called BL23, which has been shown to improve ulcerative colitis in animal studies and is almost identical to the kind used in the manufacture of many fermented dairy foods. Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes disabling pain and increases risk for colon cancer for more than 500,000 people in the US.

In the study, one group of mice got L.casei in milk, while a second got it in water and a third, just milk (no L. casei). The amount of milk or water was equivalent to about six ounces for humans—what’s in a typical juice glass. Then the mice were given a solution that impaired the lining of their colons, induced inflammation and mimicked ulcerative colitis.

The mice that got the probiotic in milk did best, showing…

• Superior survival of the L. casei bacteria in the intestines—five times greater than the mice that got the probiotic in water

• Less diarrhea and rectal bleeding than the other two groups

• Less weight loss (a good outcome in this context)

• The lowest disease score. On a scale of 0 (no disease) to 18 (the worst disease), the milk/probiotic group scored 6, while the water/probiotic group scored 11 and the milk-only group scored 9. That means much less inflammation in the intestines.

In short, taking the probiotic in milk rather than water led to more beneficial bacteria surviving and thus greater protection of the lining of the intestines against the inflammatory disease. It didn’t cure the disease, but it did protect the mice from its worst effects.

HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR PROBIOTIC’S EFFECTIVENESS

It makes sense that a beneficial bacteria that thrives in dairy foods would do better in your gut when you take it as a supplement along with dairy. That doesn’t mean that all probiotics would do better with a glass of milk. We need more studies—this is one of the very first to look at the dietary “matrix” in which probiotics are consumed.

But it’s smart to hedge your bets. If you’re generally healthy, choose your probiotic wisely. If you have a specific medical condition, such as IBD or Crohn’s disease, be sure to work with an educated health-care provider to select the right probiotic for your needs and to make any changes in your diet.

And here’s good general advice for ways to make your probiotic work better…

• Even though you are taking a supplement, make sure you are eating probiotic-rich foods such as yogurt and kefir as well as sauerkraut, miso and kimchi. That way, you’ll be working to improve your population of healthy gut bacteria from several directions.

• Eat plenty of prebiotics, too—fiber compounds that “good bugs” thrive on. These include onions, leeks, garlic, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, bananas, whole wheat, yams and sweet potatoes. (Again, these foods may not agree with you if you have IBD or even the less severe irritable bowel syndrome/IBS.)

If the probiotic you’re taking with water every day doesn’t seem to be helping you, try taking it with a small glass of milk to see if that makes a difference. If milk doesn’t agree with you, try cheese, yogurt or kefir. You may even want to add your probiotic supplement to a fermented dairy food, such as yogurt or kefir.

Source: Maria L. Marco, PhD, associate professor and microbiologist, department of food science and technology, University of California, Davis. Her study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

http://bottomlinehealth.com/the-right-way-to-take-probiotics

This post is on Healthwise

Sleep Procrastination

—Don’t Lose Sleep Over This Bad Habit

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the challenges of getting a wound-up kid to go to bed—not simply to retreat to his or her bedroom, but to put down the toy, shut off the computer, stereo or TV, and “Go to sleep!” 

Healthwise

March 31, 2015

But children don’t have a monopoly on the bad habit of putting off bedtime in favor of distractions. You might not think that sacrificing sleep for a few more hours of late-night TV or computer-game entertainment…or to catch up on work or a creative project…is that big a deal, but doing so can be a dangerous health hazard for you and the people who have to put up with your lack of sleep. It’s called sleep procrastination.

THE PRICE OF PROCRASTINATION

The consequences of not getting enough sleep at night can range from having migraines to lowered immunity against disease to weight gain to heart disease. And some of these problems are potentially deadly. Your mood, concentration and reaction time are also off. This means that you’re more prone to being argumentative, making poor judgments, injuring yourself and causing accidents.

There’s a myriad of reasons why people don’t get enough sleep. Going to bed at, say, 10:30 pm and not falling asleep until 1 am is, in fact, often traced to stress or a hormonal or neurologic sleep disorder. But intending to go to bed at 10:30 and not going to bed until 1:00—perhaps because you keep streaming “just one more” episode of Downton Abbey or reading “just one more” chapter of a thrilling novel or playing a computer game—or working—and doing that night after night is another matter entirely. It’s sleep procrastination.

The problem is epidemic, according to a team of researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands who have been studying sleep procrastination and character traits of procrastinators in general. In one study, they had 177 adults fill out questionnaires to determine their degree of bedtime procrastination, procrastination in general, sleep quality and self-regulation, which is the ability to change and adapt behavior to meet goals and responsibilities. Assessment of self-regulation was included in the analysis because mental health research has shown that people prone to procrastination lack this trait. Questions posed for self-regulation measured general self-control, conscientiousness, impulsivity and control of one’s actions.

The results: More than 40% of the study participants reported fatigue or not getting enough sleep three to four nights per week, a statistic reported by several other sleep research studies. On average, a moderate level of sleep procrastination was found in the group. And the researchers found that bedtime procrastination was negatively associated with self-regulation, similar to people who procrastinate in general.

Similar results were found in a larger study of 2,430 Danish adults performed by the same researchers.

BREAK THE MOLD

We often don’t see problem behavior in ourselves. So how can you truly recognize whether the reason that you’re tired and irritable all the time is because you’re a sleep procrastinator? Sleep-behavior specialist Susan Gordon, PhD, associate professor of psychology at National University in San Diego and research director at Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines in Southbury, Connecticut, says that you should take an honest look at yourself and notice whether you extend your presleep routines for no important reason or overload yourself with late-night activities that keep you awake or you have traits common to sleep procrastinators, such as lack of drive or impulsivity and a general habit of procrastinating.

“A person who truly wants to get a handle on the psychological aspects of his or her behavior needs to consciously examine the underlying motivation for his behavior and see how it affects daily life,” said Dr. Gordon. She offered the following program to get out of the bad habit of sleep procrastination…

Know thyself. Keep a journal to record activities, sleep patterns, thoughts, feelings, symptoms, health status, daily food intake and drugs/medications that you use. This will help you be more conscious of your routines and motivations—or lack of them—and help you establish healthier routines.

Get to the bottom of the problem. Reflect on how and why you procrastinate about going to sleep. Is it because of work, distractions or just not wanting to quit whatever you happen to be doing to sleep? Also, ask yourself what you hope to gain from sleep procrastination.

Cultivate self-discipline. Create a time schedule for work and leisure activities (day/night), and try to stick to it. If you feel like you are leaving business unfinished, ask yourself whether it can wait until the morning and whether you want to be tired or refreshed when the new day and its tasks begin.

Put it all together. Purposefully avoid delaying sleep time for a least one week, and examine how you feel. Ideally, being well-rested and having a better sense of self and self-discipline will be incentives for you to break the sleep procrastination habit for good.

If you’ve followed these steps to the best of your ability but find that you still can’t stay disciplined about getting enough sleep, and if your lack of sleep is impacting your health, mind, and mood, then it’s time to seek professional help, said Dr. Gordon. She recommends that you get treatment from both a naturopathic physician and a psychologist who, together, can address the psychological causes of not getting enough sleep.

http://bottomlinehealth.com/sleep-procrastination-dont-lose-sleep-over-this-bad-habit

Healthwise

Sugar - the Real Villain of High Blood Pressure

When it comes to high blood pressure, Public Enemy #1 has always been salt. For years, our doctors, governments, dietary guidelines, health institutes (such as the American Heart Association) and the media have bombarded us with warnings to reduce our sodium intake or face a higher risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and death.

Healthwise

April 6, 2015

When it comes to high blood pressure, Public Enemy #1 has always been salt. For years, our doctors, governments, dietary guidelines, health institutes (such as the American Heart Association) and the media have bombarded us with warnings to reduce our sodium intake or face a higher risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and death. We listened…and most of us did what we thought was right and cut back on salt. But some researchers are suggesting that this has all been one more big, long-standing jag of health misinformation. They provide evidence that salt isn’t all that bad and has a minimal effect on blood pressure and that another ubiquitous food flavoring—sugar—is the real culprit behind the explosive rate of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease in America. Could sugar be affecting your blood pressure?

THE “ADDED SUGAR” EFFECT

James DiNicolantonio, PharmD, a cardiovascular research scientist from Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, and Sean Lucan, MD, MPH, from Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, believe sugar—mainly in the form of fructose added to processed foods—is the more aggressive villain behind the explosion of hypertension rates and cardiovascular disease.

In an article published in Open Heart, they pointed out that Americans consume an average of24 to 47 teaspoons of sugar a day in the form of processed foods loaded with fructose. Neither the American Heart Association nor the World Health Organization provides a recommendation about daily limits of fructose consumption, but animal and human studies have shown that a diet high in fructose affects blood pressure by increasing blood levels of insulin and sabotaging how the body metabolizes it. Insulin excess, in turn, overstimulates the sympathetic nervous system (the part responsible for the fight-or-flight response), which then can result in high blood pressure.

Dr. DiNicolantonio and Dr. Lucan cited numerous studies showing strong associations between insulin resistance and high blood pressure, including one showing that, whereas insulin resistance affects approximately 25% of the general population, it affects up to 80% of people with high blood pressure. Two other studies cited by them showed that although only 10% of people with normal blood pressure have abnormally high blood levels of insulin, 50% of people with high blood pressure do.

Meanwhile, people strictly following the American Heart Association’s guidelines on sodium intake (about half a teaspoon of salt per day) may be putting their health at risk by not getting the amount of sodium they need, according to the article authors. They cited a study of more than 100,000 people showing that consuming three to six grams of sodium a day was associated with a lower risk of death, heart attack and stroke compared with consuming any other amount. Three to six grams of sodium equals about one-and-a-half to three teaspoons of salt (salt itself is composed of 40% sodium and 60% chloride)—and this is about the average amount Americans ingest each day despite what the American Heart Association recommends.

The investigative duo also pointed out that, on average, sodium reduction has a minimal effect on reducing blood pressure, with studies showing blood pressure reductions of up to 4.8 mm Hg systolic and 2.5 mm Hg diastolic at best. Additionally, when salt intake is restricted, heart rate can increase (a harmful effect that is generally not mentioned by doctors and others who advocate salt restriction).

READ LABELS AND EAT “CLEAN”

Sugars in their natural form found in fruits and other complex carbohydrates aren’t the ones you should be worried about, according to Dr. DiNicolantonio and Dr. Lucan. We all know that a diet rich in fruits, legumes and leafy vegetables is good for heart health. It’s the added sugar you want to avoid. Consider that those of us who consume 10% to 25% of our daily calories from added sugar have a 30% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease compared with those who get less than 10% of their calories from added sugar. Beyond that 25% mark, the risk of death increases three-fold, the team said.

So if you’re not on board already, strongly consider avoiding foods with added sugar, whether that sugar is listed as simply “sugar” or one of sugar’s many other identities, including high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, corn sweetener, corn syrup, syrup, invert sugar, malt sugar, and even honey, molasses and fruit juice concentrate…and avoid the “ose” additives such as dextrose, glucose, lactose, maltose, and sucrose—those are sugars (although the sugars containing fructose seem to have greater metabolic harms versus other sugars, according to Dr. DiNicolantonio). Want some powerful help? Read our amazing Bottom Line article “I’m Kicking the Sugar Habit!” It will help you rid your body of nasty added sugars so you can be healthier, feel better and actually enjoy your food more. And read Dr. DiNicolantonio’s recentNew York Times article about sugar addiction, “Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive.”

http://bottomlinehealth.com/meet-the-real-villain-of-high-blood-pressure-sugar/

Healthwise

Hack-Proof Your Apps

Did you know that your smartphone and tablet can be infected with viruses and malware—just like desktop and laptop computers? This typically happens when you download a malicious app.

June 1, 2015

Once it is on your device, hackers can steal sensitive material such as account details, passwords and photos. They can cause your operating system to crash, rendering your device useless. They even can hijack your contacts list and send spam texts to your friends, family and associates. From 2013 to 2014, mobile app malware targeting Android phones rose by 600% globally to more than 650,000 different varieties.

How to protect your devices…

• Get apps only from official websites. 

The official Apple iOS and Android app stores each offer more than a million apps to choose from. They do an excellent job of scrutinizing new apps and quickly weeding out malicious or infected ones. Nonofficial sites that offer unique apps or free versions of popular paid apps often have low security ­standards, and some may even be fronts for hacker groups. This is especially true for Android, which is installed on more than half of all mobile devices in the US. Unlike iOS, Android has an “open” operating system—smartphone and tablet manufacturers can alter the software to work on their devices. These altered systems can be more susceptible to hackers.

More Ways to Use Apps

1. Apps That Boost Your Health
2. Best Smartphone Navigation Apps
3. Have More Fun Traveling
4. Let Your Smartphone Help You ControlYour Blood Pressure

Helpful: If you have an Android device, make sure you don’t accidentally install unofficial apps. Go to the Settings menu, tap “Security,” then uncheck the “Unknown Sources” option. Also, avoid clicking on any link to an app that you receive in a text or an e-mail.

• Install an antivirus/malware app. 

The Apple and Android app stores offer Lookout and other antivirus apps for free.

Source: Kim Komando, who has been providing technology tips for more than 20 years. She hosts the Kim Komando Show, a weekly national radio program, and she writes a technology column for USA Today. Komando.com

http://bottomlinepersonal.com/hack-proof-your-apps/

Itching After a Shower and Other Surprising Cancer Symptoms

Certain cancer symptoms almost always prompt a visit to the doctor. A breast lump. A mole that changes in size, shape or color. Blood in the stool.

But there are other symptoms that most people ignore.

June 15, 2015

Startling new finding: In a study published in British Journal of General Practice, nearly half of people with a warning sign of cancer decided not to see a doctor about it, often because they thought the symptom was insignificant.

For the following symptoms, your first step is to visit your primary care physician who can perform the appropriate tests and/or refer you to a specialist.

Important: If you have any one of these symptoms in isolation, the likelihood of you having cancer is less than 1%. That doesn’t mean you should dismiss the symptom. But it does mean that you shouldn’t panic if it shows up.

HEARTBURN

Most likely cause: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

But it could be a sign of: Esophagus or stomach cancer. Symptoms of heartburn can include burning pain or discomfort in the stomach, upper ­abdomen, chest and/or throat…and/or excessive burping, bloating or nausea after eating. If those symptoms are chronic, it’s time to see a doctor for a workup. You might have Barrett’s esophagus, a precancerous condition that is triggered by chronic inflammation and increases the risk for esophageal cancer. Or you might have H. pylori, a bacterial infection of the stomach that increases your risk for stomach cancer (and ulcers)—but is easily treatable with a two-week treatment that includes antibiotics and possibly a proton-pump inhibitor.

More on Coping with Cancer

1. Is It Breast Cancer or Not?
2. The Truth About Bras and Breast Cancer Risk
3. Guide to Skin Cancer
4. Bottom Line Guide to Prostate Cancer

What to do: Ask your doctor if you need an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), in which an endoscope is used to explore your esophagus, stomach and duodenum (the first section of the small intestine). A biopsy can be taken during the procedure if there is suspicious-looking tissue.

ITCHING AFTER A HOT SHOWER

Most likely cause: Dry skin or a contact allergy to a cleansing product.

But it could be a sign of: Polycythemia vera, a common myeloproliferative disorder, a type of blood cancer. In the early stages of this cancer, histamine-containing mast cells (cells behind allergic reactions) become hypersensitive, causing the skin to react to hot water.

What to do: If you’re over age 40 (when this cancer most commonly occurs), ask your doctor for a complete blood count (CBC), which will detect an elevation of red blood cells, a feature of polycythemia vera.

EATING ICE

Likely cause: Iron deficiency.

But it could be a sign of: Gastrointestinal cancers, bladder cancer or any cancer that leads to blood loss. Called pica, this phenomenon—a compulsion to eat ice, sand, soil, clay, paper or chalk or to chew on something metallic—usually occurs during pregnancy and can be a sign of iron deficiency. But iron deficiency also can signal chronic internal blood loss, sometimes from cancer.

What to do: Ask your doctor about a blood test for iron deficiency. If you have an iron deficiency, work with your doctor to determine the cause.

UNBEARABLE PAIN IN A BONE WHEN TOUCHED

Most likely causes: Trauma, rheumatological disease or infection.

But it could be a sign of: Bone metastases (the spread of an original, primary tumor into the bone). This symptom is a hallmark of bone cancer.

What to do: If you have unexplained pain that tends to increase over a month—particularly if it’s sensitive to the touch—talk to your doctor about ­imaging studies, such as a CT scan, a bone scan, an X-ray or an MRI.

DIARRHEA PLUS FACIAL FLUSHING

Likely cause: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

But it could be a sign of: Neuro-endocrine tumor, metastasized to the liver. Diarrhea alone rarely leads to a diagnosis of cancer, but diarrhea and flushing of the face are a unique pair of symptoms that could indicate a ­neuroendocrine tumor—a type of cancer arising from the hormone-­producing cells in the body.

What to do: Talk to your doctor about possible imaging (CT, PET or MRI) to potentially detect liver metastases and primary tumor.

REDDENED SKIN ON THE BREAST

Likely cause: Skin infection.

But it could be a sign of: Breast cancer. A lump is not the only warning sign of breast cancer. Redness of the breast—particularly if the skin also is thickened, with the texture of an orange peel—is a sign of inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of the disease that can be missed by a mammogram, an ultrasound or an MRI.

What to do: Ask your doctor about a breast biopsy, the best way to detect this type of cancer.Important: If the doctor diagnoses the redness as an infection and treats it with antibiotics, and the redness doesn’t resolve or worsens, return quickly for a follow-up examination.

BLOOD CLOT

Likely causes: Leg or arm injury, such as a sprained ankle…recent hospitalization or surgery…a long period of inactivity, such as a plane ride.

But it could be a sign of: Breast, pancreatic, ovarian and many other cancers. A blood clot (a symptom of deep vein thrombosis, or DVT) is a common ­problem, affecting 900,000 Americans yearly. But DVT is not commonly understood as a potential early warning sign of cancer and so is often overlooked as a cancer symptom, even though as many as one in 10 patients with an unexplained blood clot may have some type of cancer.

What to do: If you have a blood clot (typically signaled by a sudden, painful swelling of an arm or a leg) without any of the common triggers (see common causes above), talk to your doctor about a workup for cancer. This is an early warning sign that often is missed.

BLOATING

Likely cause: Eating too much or too fast.

But it could be a sign of: Ovarian cancer. Bloating is a common symptom that is rarely a sign of cancer. But persistent bloating can be a sign of cancer in the peritoneal cavity, a common feature of advanced ovarian cancer, particularly if accompanied by a persistent, dull ache in the abdomen and unexplained weight loss (a symptom of advanced cancer).

What to do: Your doctor may recommend a CT scan or a transvaginal ultra­sound. If the results are negative, ask about getting a laparoscopy, in which a thin, lighted tube is put through an incision in the belly to look at the abdominal and reproductive organs. A CT scan or a transvaginal ultrasound can easily miss ovarian cancer.

QUITTING SMOKING EASILY

Likely cause: You decided to quit, and you succeeded.

But it could be a sign of: Lung cancer. A chronic smoker who suddenly finds it unusually easy to quit may be experiencing a strange physiological symptom of lung cancer—­inexplicably losing the desire to smoke. Usually, non-small-cell lung cancer is diagnosed three to four years after a chronic smoker easily quits, and small-cell lung cancer (a more aggressive type) is diagnosed about six months after quitting.

What to do: If you have been a lifelong smoker who suddenly finds it easy to quit, talk to your doctor about having a chest CT scan for lung cancer. You also would benefit from routine annual surveillance even if the scan is negative.

http://bottomlinepersonal.com/itching-after-a-shower-and-other-surprising-cancer-symptoms/

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