old site | Karen Richardson

Daily Habits for Breast Cancer Prevention

We already knew that eating greens, exercise and decreasing alcohol was healthy, but the numbers are coming in to back this up. Dr. Juliana Kling (@DrJewelKling) of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, presented these new findings on lifestyle at the latest North American Menopause Society (NAMS) meeting in Chicago just a few weeks ago. They’re the kind of findings we didn’t used to hear about as much from the medical community before, as lifestyle factors weren’t necessarily the focus in medical school and research. So the latest recommendations presented at the NAMS meeting piqued my interest. They speak to lifestyle and were based on The World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research. They include recommendations on food, body fat, alcohol and more. Physical activity alone can prevent one in eight breast cancer cases (this finding presented at NAMS comes from the CDC — Centers for Disease Control). Reducing body fat is a good strategy to help you reduce your risk of cancer because body fatness is suggested to increase cancer risk as a result of increased estrogen hormones, insulin and inflammation, all of which increase the risk for cancer. Non-starchy vegetables show a benefit Previous research has zoomed in on cruciferous vegetables — such as broccoli, cauliflower, as well as carotenoids — squash, carrots, spinach, kale, tomatoes, grapefruit, oranges, apricots to show their health benefits. The findings presented at NAMS actually zeroed in on non-starchy vegetables — such as broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower — to show that those who ate non-starchy vegetables had an even lower risk than people who ate vegetables in general. Non-starch vegetables include leafy greens, artichoke hearts, asparagus, beets, brussel spouts, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, leeks, mushrooms, onions, peppers, radishes, zucchini, tomatoes. Starchy vegetables include potatoes, beans, corn, peas, squash, etc. which consequently lead to less sugar and therefore less insulin production. Dr. Kling also presented findings that alcohol is a carcinogen attributable to 6.4% of breast cancer cases, and that the more a woman drinks, the higher her risk of breast cancer. While there are some cases of breast cancer that are not preventable, it’s helpful to know there are some things that we can do that can become part of our daily routine. Read more on the full recommendations here.

Gutsy at Work

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I always knew I felt better eating hearty vegetables, whole grains, and cutting out refined sugar and carbohydrates as much as possible. But now I know why. Essentially, I’m feeding the healthy microflora in the lower intestine. Tiny, invisible organisms that do so much work to keep us healthy. A diet high in processed food, refined carbohydrates and sugar, and low in fiber goes straight into the bloodstream, essentially starving those healthy little microflora down below.
When “It Takes Guts” aired last week on CBC’s The Nature of Things, I was taking notes. Not just because the gastrointestinal system may be becoming the “next big thing” in health, but because healthy microflora = energy! What does that translate into? More energy at work. And when you start thinking about productivity and ROI, those healthy, microbes play a key role for you, your team and your company. While researchers from the program emphasized that gut microbes are our body’s secret weapon in the battle of the bulge and combating obesity, they’re also our body’s secret weapon in the workplace.
They play a starring role in our immune system, and the more diverse the better, experts said. Think one hundred trillion microbes living in a community, all seeking a healthy “soil” with great richness and variety.
So now I have a different reason to just “eat healthy” and feel my best at work. If I eat junk food I’m essentially starving those healthy microflora that are just yearning to give me vitality and make me feel better at work. They provide metabolism, nutrition and energy, said Dr. Emma-Allen Vercoe, Associate Professor at the University of Guelph.
Cut out junk food and avoid antibiotic-fed meat, they advised, and eat foods high in fiber. Lentils, leeks and artichokes and zucchini were specific foods they mentioned to nourish those healthy microbes. Lentil salad for lunch anyone?

Afternoon Work Bliss

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A lot’s been written about morning routines lately. How famous, productive people may start their day with the peace and quiet of dawn, latté or tea in hand, thinking creatively with five to 10 minutes to map out their day and perhaps week.

And while morning habits are great, if you’re like most people the first hour or two of your day is spent shuffling the kids to school, greeting coworkers as you prep your tea or coffee, or responding to yesterday’s 5 or 8 pm email. In an ideal world you start the day planning and producing, not responding. But we all know that can be difficult to do with deadlines.

Work hard, nap hard?
So what makes a perfect, productive afternoon? A perfect cup of tea? Exercise and a light, healthy lunch? For Jack Muskat, an Organizational Psychologist at the Schulich School of Business, it’s taking an afternoon nap. “After an hour nap, I am able to return to work and put in another two hours until dinnertime.” He swears by a morning work schedule: “Mornings are for putting it out there,” he says. “Afternoons are for putting it back in.”

A Harvard Medical School health letter suggests a 20-to-30-minute nap as the ideal “pick-me-up”. Even just napping for a few minutes has benefits, researchers claim. And now an October, 2015 issue of GQ is promoting the daily nap in their article, “Work Harder, Nap Harder”. Referencing a classic NASA study and the benefits of napping, they say it’s cool to admit to napping at work (but not actually nap in public), and that it is essential to your employer’s bottom line.

For the non-nappers out there, there are ways to be productive in the afternoon. Social media, for instance, can be a good thing to do later in the day, when people are more likely to retweet you or may not be sharing original content.

But with new twitter followers to view, IMs and websites constantly releasing new content in your industry, it’s easy to get off course from your daily/weekly work plan. There are, of course, apps like Productivity Owl, that swoosh across your page when you’re not being productive (not really sure how it can infer that, but we’ll take its word for it).

For those needing to stretch out, try taking a break with just three simple office yoga moves you can do at your desk. And finally, why not try an afternoon run at the end of the day? Why does exercise in the fresh air make for a more productive afternoon and evening? Find out in my next blogpost.
How do you spend your afternoons at work? What makes for a productive, “blissful” afternoon at work?