Medical Watch
- If you're one of the many people who does not get enough sleep, or who has trouble falling asleep, there may be another health risk, especially now during flu and cold season.
Getting enough sleep increases your body's resistance to colds. Sleep loss is known to weaken the immune system.
- One small change in your diet could mean a big change in your belly. Doctors at USC in Los Angeles find that by just eating a little more fiber meant a big reduction in belly fat in teens.
At the same time, teens who ate less fiber had more fat accumulate in the waistline area. Remember that fat around the midsection is much more dangerous health wise than fat in other areas of the body.
- And high fiber also has been found to be good for many health reasons, such as lowering risks for heart disease, diabetes, colon and breast cancer.
But could it also interfere with ovulation? A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that high fiber, especially from fruit, may lower estrogen levels and other reproductive hormones in women and cause them to ovulate less often. That, of course, would make it more difficult to conceive.
- And finally when your brain thinks about exercising, it might cause you to eat more.
When doctors at the University of Illinois studied people of normal weight, they found that by showing them posters about physical activity, or messages about joining a gym, it prompted them to eat 54 percent more calories than people who were given messages about being social.
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