Dr. Steve Chaney, Author at Health Tips From The Professor

Skinny Fat

January 5, 2016 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Overweight Vs. Obesity

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

Are you skinny fat? Weight loss season is upon us. Many of you are jumping on your bathroom scales so that you can decide how much weight you need to lose this year. For some the motivation for these New Year’s resolutions to lose weight is purely cosmetic. You just want to look better. For others the motivation for losing weight is better health. Obesity is a killer. It is associated with increased risk of diabetes, heart attack and stroke – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

But what if your bathroom scale says that you are normal weight? Are you off the hook? Maybe not. A recent study suggests that if you are normal weight but have central obesity (a fancy scientific term for belly fat), you are more likely to die prematurely than someone with normal fat distribution regardless of how overweight they are. That’s a pretty scary thought. It has even generated a new risk category called “skinny fat”.

How Can You Be Obese Without Being Overweight?

In recent years there has been some controversy about the health risks of obesity. Part of that controversy has arisen because obesity can be defined in multiple ways. Most of us simply hop on the scale and rely on actuarial tables to tell us what a healthy weight is for our height. Scientists, on the other hand use two very different measures of obesity.

#1 is Body Mass Index or BMI.BMI is a person’s weight in kilograms (kg) divided by his or her height in meters squared. By this measure:

Normal body weight is defined as a BMI of 18.5-24.9 kg/m².

Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25-29.9 kg/m².

Obesity is defined as a BMI of ≥30 kg/m².

#2 is waist to hip ratio or WHR. WHR is a measure of central adiposity (belly fat). By this measure:

Obesity is defined as excess central adiposity (excess belly fat), which is a waist to hip ratio ≥0.85 in women and ≥0.90 in men.

In general BMI and WHR correlate. However:

11% of men and 3.3% of women are normal weight according to BMI measurements, but have excess belly fat according to WHR measurements.These are the individualswho are obese according to their WHR measurements without being overweight according to their BMI measurements. These are the individuals often referred to as “skinny fat”.

There are similar percentages of men and women who are overweight or obese according to BMI measurements, but have low WHR measurements. These are often referred to as “pear shaped” obese individuals to distinguish them from the “apple shaped” obese individuals with a lot of belly fat.

Being Skinny Fat Can Kill You

Numerous studies have shown that “apple shaped” obesity is much more likely to be associated with disease and premature death than “pear shaped” obesity, but there have been very few studies comparing health outcomes for normal weight individuals who have excess belly fat (people who are “skinny fat”) with health outcomes of overweight and obese individuals. This study (Sahakyanet al, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2015 Nov 10 doi: 10.7326/M14-2525) was designed to fill that void.

These scientists analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey III (NHANES III). NHANES III collected BMI, WHR and health data from 15,184 Americans (52.8% women) aged 18 to 90 years (average age 45) and followed the study participants for 14.3 years. By that time 3222 of them had died, with 1413 of those deaths being due to heart disease. The results were enlightening:

Normal weight individuals with excess belly fat (“skinny fat” individuals) were 1.5 – 2.0 fold more likely to die during the 14.3 year follow up period than individuals who were normal weight and had little belly fat (“skinny lean” individuals). This was expected because this had been shown in several previous studies.

However, the surprising finding was that normal weight individuals with excess belly fat were also more likely to die than individuals who were overweight or obese. Specifically:

Men who were “skinny fat” were 2.2 – 2.4 fold more likely to die prematurely than men who were either overweight or obese, but did not have excess belly fat (men with a “pear shaped” fat distribution). “Skinny fat” women were 1.3 – 1.4 fold more likely to die prematurely than overweight or obese women with “pear shaped” fat distribution.

Men who were “skinny fat” were even slightly more likely to die prematurely than overweight or obese men with excess belly fat (men with “apple shaped” fat distribution). “Skinny fat” women were just as likely to die as overweight or obese women with “apple shaped” fat distribution.

When they looked at deaths due to cardiovascular disease the results were essentially the same.

These results were novel and should, perhaps serve as a wake-up call for normal weight individuals with excess belly fat.

The authors concluded:

“Our analysis of data…show that normal-weight U.S. adults with central obesity [excess belly fat] have the worst long-term survival compared with participants with normal fat distribution, regardless of BMI category.”

“To our knowledge, our study is the first to show that normal-weight central obesity, measured by WHR, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality.”

“Our findings suggest that persons with normal-weight central obesity may represent an important target population for lifestyle modification and other preventative strategies.”

Why Is Being Skinny Fat So Dangerous?

As the authors of this study pointed out, it is well established that excess belly fat is associated with:

Insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes and predispose to heart disease.
High triglycerides and high levels of “bad” cholesterol, which can lead to heart disease.
Inflammation, which can lead to a number of deadly diseases.

The metabolic effects of excess belly fat are sufficient to explain why someone who is “skinny fat” is more likely to die prematurely than someone who is “skinny lean”. However, the effect of excess belly fat is not sufficient by itself to explain why a “skinny fat” individual is more likely to die prematurely than someone who is overweight or obese.

To understand this we need to recognize that both fat and muscle contribute to body weight (and to BMI). The “skinny fat” individual has more fat mass AND less muscle mass than a “skinny lean” individual of the same weight. That is a huge factor because metabolically speaking muscle is protective. It opposes all of the bad metabolic effects of belly fat.

Simply put, being “skinny fat” is extremely dangerous because you have increased all the bad metabolic effects of excess belly fat, ANDyou have decreased the protective metabolic effect of muscle mass.

How Do You Go From Being “Skinny Lean” To “Skinny Fat”?

Most of us were lean in our younger years. For those of us who end up as “skinny fat” as we age, it is pretty obvious that there are two processes going on simultaneously.

#1: Loss of Muscle Mass:It would be easy to say that becoming “skinny fat” is a natural part of aging. The natural tendency is to loose muscle mass and replace it with fat mass as we age. If we “just go with the flow” all of us will end up being “skinny fat” at some point. However, the loss of muscle mass as we age is accelerated by our sedentary lifestyle and our diet (more on that below).

#2: Gain of Belly Fat:To some extent whether we store excess fat as “pears” or “apples” is genetically determined. However, what we eat can also exert a major influence. For example:

Alcohol: The term “beer belly” says it all. Excess alcohol consumption is associated with an increase in belly fat. Once you understand the metabolism of alcohol the explanation is pretty simple. Alcohol causes blood sugar to drop, which increases appetite. Alcohol also interferes with our judgement, which can cause us to make poor food choices.

Excess saturated fat tends to be stored preferentially as belly fat.

Excess sugars and simple carbohydrates are rapidly converted to fat stores and stored as belly fat.

What Can You Do If You Are Already Skinny Fat?

Let’s start with what you shouldn’t do. You should not go on a reduced calorie weight loss diet to get rid of your excess belly fat. The last thing you want to do is to end up being underweight with excess belly fat! Here is what you should do:

#1: Increase Your Muscle Mass:I said that loss of muscle mass was a natural part of aging. I didn’t say that it was an inevitable part of aging. If you want to prevent or reverse loss of muscle mass you need to:

Get really serious about exercise. I’m talking about 30 minute workouts at least 3-5 times per week. These workouts need to include strength training as well as aerobics and flexibility exercises. I would suggest you ask your health professional what kind of exercise program is best for you and start your exercise program under the guidance of a personal trainer or physical therapist.

Make sure that your diet contains enough protein and enough of the essential amino acid leucine to maximize the gain of lean muscle mass following your workouts. I have covered the latest age-appropriate recommendations in, leucine and muscle gain, a previous “Health Tips From The Professor.”

#2: Lose Your Belly Fat:To some extent you will start to lose your belly fat naturally if you follow the recommendations above. In addition, you will want to:

Drink alcohol in moderation.

Make food choices that allow you to replace saturated fat with monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fats, especially the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats.

Replace excess sugars and simple carbohydrates with complex carbohydrates from fresh fruits and vegetables along with modest amounts of whole grain foods.

The Bottom Line

A recent study has shown that being “skinny fat” (having normal body weight, but excess belly fat) is more likely to result in premature death than if you were overweight, or even obese.

The most likely explanation for this alarming statistic is that someone who is “skinny fat” has excess belly fat, which predisposes to a number of diseases, and a loss of muscle mass, which protects against those same diseases.

If you are overweight or obese, you need to reduce your caloric intake to lose weight. However, if you are “skinny fat”, you don’t want to reduce your caloric intake. You need to change your exercise and diet habits.

Loss of muscle mass and gain of fat mass is a normal part of aging. However, you can slow or reverse the age-related loss of muscle mass with an exercise program and enough protein and leucine in your diet to maximize the effects of that workout program (details above).

You can prevent or get rid of excess belly fat by:

Following the exercise program and nutritional support of that exercise program described above.

Making food choices that replace saturated fats with monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, especially omega-3 polyunsaturated fats.

Replacing foods high in sugar and simple carbohydrates with fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains in moderation.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

8 Tips on How to Eat Less

December 29, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Avoid Mindless Eating

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

Weight loss season is just around the corner. In just a few days you will probably be making your New Year’s resolutions, and weight loss will probably be near the top of the list. You may be considering the latest new diet fad – never mind that you’ve tried lots of diets in the past and have always regained the weight you lost.

What if you could learn just a few tricks that would help you discover how to eat less every day? Would that be of interest to you? Do you think it might help you lose some weight and keep it off?

This week I’m going to share 8 tips for eating less every single day from Professor Brian Wansink of Cornell University. He is Director of their Food and Brand Lab. He has devoted his career to studying how external clues influence our eating patterns. He is the author of the best-selling books “Mindless Eating” and “Slim by Design”. He is the world expert on this topic.

A few years ago I had the pleasure of attending a seminar he gave. Here’s a quick summary of what I learned.

8 Tips on How to Eat Less

Tip #1: The Size Of The Container Matters

In one of his research studies he gave moviegoers who had just eaten dinner either a big bag or a small bag of stale popcorn. Those given the big bag ate 34% more. Think about that for a minute. The subjects in his study weren’t hungry. They had just eaten dinner. The popcorn wasn’t particularly tasty. It was stale. Yet they ate 34% more based solely on the size of the bag!

The take home lesson is always to choose the smallest container when given a choice. This is also why you want to serve your meals on small plates and drink your beverages in small glasses or cups. If you want to snack while you watch TV, place your snack food in a very small container and store the rest out of sight.

Tip #2:Don’t Fall For Marketing Hype

He was asked to consult for a cafeteria serving health food because they weren’t attracting enough customers. He just advised them to change the names of their menu items (e.g. “Succulent Tuscany Pasta” instead of “Italian Pasta”). Sales increased by 27%.

The take home lesson is not to fall for the marketing hype. Restaurants and food manufacturers know all the tricks. They know how to make even ordinary foods sound delicious. Make your food choices based on the ingredients of the food, not on the marketing description.

Tip #3: Make Junk Food Inconvenient

In another study he put clear glass dishes of candy either on a secretary’s desk or 6 feet away on a cabinet. The secretaries consumed 125 more calories/day from candy when it was on their desk. Think about that for a minute. 125 excess calories/day could amount to around one pound of weight gain/month, 12 pound/year, 60 pounds every 5 years, and a whopping 120 pounds over 10 years!

The take home lesson is to make high calorie snacks and junk foods inconvenient. Put them in the back of your refrigerator, on the top shelf of your cabinets, or other out of the way places. Even better, don’t bring them home in the first place.

Tip #4: Watch The Refills.

When he used a refillable soup bowl (it never goes below half full) people ate 73% more soup than those given a regular bowl of soup. When he asked the people with the refillable bowl if they were full, they replied “How could I be? I only ate half a bowl of soup”.

Of course, most of us will never experience a refillable soup bowl. However, if you are having a meal with friends and enjoying the conversation, it is easy to ignore the refills – either from your waiter at a restaurant or your favorite aunt at a family gathering.

Tip #5: Low Fat Doesn’t Mean “Eat More”

When he took a batch of trail mix and labeled some as “low fat” and some as “regular” people ate 21% to 46% more calories of the “low fat” trail mix. This was not an idle exercise. In fact, many low fat foods aren’t low calorie, but people assume that they are and use that as an excuse to eat more.

The take home lesson is to not assume you can eat more just because a food is labeled low fat, gluten free or some other healthy sounding description. In many cases, it has just as many calories as the full fat version. Even if it is, in fact, lower in calories, the only way you benefit from the reduced calories is when you consume the same portion size as you would for the full fat food it replaces.

Tip #6: Health Foods Are Not Necessarily Healthy

When he showed people an Italian sandwich and told them that it was from either “Jim’s Hearty Sandwich Shop” or from “Good Karma Healthy Foods”, people estimated the calories as 24% lower if they thought it came from Good Karma.

The take home lesson is that health foods are not necessarily healthier. Food manufactures know that health food is in, and they market their products accordingly. If you walk down the aisles of your favorite health food store, you will find foods that are just as high in sugar, fat and calories as the junk food you can buy at the convenience store down the street. They may contain “natural” fats and sugars, but those have just as many calories as the “unhealthy” fats and sugars in the junk foods. You still need to read labels and choose unprocessed fruits, vegetables and whole grains whenever possible.

Tip #7: Don’t Call It Exercise

When he took students on a walk around a lake before dinner, they ate more calories at dinner if they were told that it was an exercise walk than if they were told that it was a sight-seeing walk – and most of the extra calories came from dessert. Think about that for a minute. It is a human tendency to reward ourselves for virtuous behavior, but when that reward involves eating, it becomes self-defeating.

The take home lesson is two-fold.

Reframe our virtuous behavior. If we call it exercise or a work-out, it implies that we have done something virtuous and deserve a reward. If we call it a nature walk or think of it as a sport, it becomes its own reward. If we think of substituting a salad for a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy as virtuous behavior, we may think we deserve a dessert as a reward. If we think of the salad as a gourmet experience, it can become a reward in its own right.

Rethink our rewards. The reward doesn’t need to be food related. It could involve reading a book, watching a show, or whatever you favorite activity might be.

Tip #8: Knowing This Stuff Isn’t Enough.

The fascinating thing is that his research shows it doesn’t matter how intelligent or well informed you are.

He did a study with 60 graduate students. Just before winter break, he gave them a lecture on external eating cues in which he specifically told them that they would eat more from a big bowl of Chex Mix than from a small bowl. The students then spent 90 minutes in small group exercises designed to show them how to overcome external eating cues.

After winter break he invited those same students to a Super Bowl party in which he divided them into two rooms and gave them, you guessed it, either large or small bowls of Chex Mix. The ones given the large bowls ate 53% more!

He later gave the same lecture to a meeting of The American Diabetes Association (Those are the experts) and then repeated the same experiment with them – and they still ate more from the large bowls.

How Can You Avoid Mindless Eating?

Dr. Wansink’s research clearly shows that overeating is mindlessly dependent on external eating cues, AND that you can’t avoid being influenced by those external clues even if you are intelligent and motivated! How to eat less?

Dr. Wansink recommends planning ahead. For example:

Serve your food on small plates and don’t leave food lying around where you can see it or get to it easily.

If you bring home a box or bag of snack food (hopefully healthy snack food), divide it up into healthy portion sizes as soon as you bring it home.

Put the healthy food choices in the front of your refrigerator or cupboard where you will see them easily and hide the unhealthy foods in the back (or don’t bring them home to begin with).

However, the most important thing is to realize most of this behavior is mindless. It is not enough to simply understand these external eating cues at an intellectual level. We need to be constantly vigilant for external eating cues, or we will find ourselves overeating without really understanding why.

Hopefully, these tips will help you eat less and attain a healthier weight next year than you did this year. However, these 8 tips are just the tip of the iceberg. If this article has piqued your interest and you’d like to learn more, I recommend you read one of Dr. Wansink’s books.

The Bottom Line

Brian Wansink’s research has shown that overeating, to a large extent, is mindlessly dependent on external eating cues, and that you can’t necessarily avoid being influenced by those external clues even if you are intelligent and motivated!

I have distilled his research into 8 simple tips to help you eat less and attain a healthier weight next year than you did this year.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Merry Christmas

December 22, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

The Christmas season is a wonderful time of year. It is a time when we get together with family and reconnect with friends. It’s a time of year when we remember the joy of giving and the joy of making the world a better place.

For those of us who are Christians, it is a time to remember that God gave us his only son. But, no matter what our religion, it is a time of year when we can focus on the common beliefs we share and the true purpose of our lives here on earth.It is a time to share the Christmas spirit of peace on earth and good will to all.

The Professor and his family wish you a blessed Christmas and happy, healthy & prosperous New Year

SI Joint Pain Relief

December 15, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

You Can Enjoy Pain Free Living From Home

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

I received a call from a distressed client about her son’s unbearable SI joint pain that refuses to hold a chiropractic adjustment. Her son has dealt with the pain for several years. His pain is beginning to turn his life into a bad dream since it’s prohibiting him from playing the sports he enjoys and he doesn’t see an end in sight. Maybe you can relate.

What Causes SI Joint Pain?

The sacroiliac joint is the point where the sacrum (white area) and the ilium (red area) join together (circled in yellow).

When the muscles that surround the joint are either too tight or too loose, or if you have an accident, the joint can be pulled out of alignment.

This misalignment will cause pain in the immediate area, and also cause symptoms that are similar to low back pain and/or sciatica.

Imagine the overlapping area (circled in yellow) moving in a manner that separates the two bones…ouch! You can imagine how this not only strains the sacroiliac joint, but also causes a misalignment at the hip and pubic joint.

This can cause low back pain, SI joint pain, hip pain or groin pain. The pain can also refer down the leg and even into the foot.

Why Chiropractic Adjustments May Not Hold

We love chiropractors and the care they provide. Spinal health is essential for longevity and vitality.

Some adjustments may not hold, whether it’s an adjustment for SI joint pain, sciatica, back pain, shoulder pain, or anything else, because the muscles that pull the bones out of alignment in the first place aren’t being released prior to the adjustment. (When releasing a muscle you are releasing tiny muscle fiber knots that cause the muscle to shorten and pull on the bone.)

Think of this analogy, imagine you had a length of rope with a stick tied in the middle. As you pull one side of the rope to tug the stick in that direction in order to bring the stick back to the middle you have to first release the tug (tension) on the rope.

This is similar to what happens when adjustments are unable to hold. The tight muscle is pulling on the joint, the chiropractor pushes (adjusts) the joint back into place and then the tight muscle pulls it right back out again. This can go on and on until the muscle knots are released.

Get SI Joint Pain Relief with this Muscle Release Technique

STEP 1: Place a Trigger Point Treatment Ball (or a firm tennis ball) directly on your SI joint.

Ease your body down onto the ball gently. It’s important to stay in the “hurts so good” range; it may feel uncomfortable but not a sharp pain. If you feel a sharp pain, move the ball to a spot nearby, but not directly on the joint.

Move the ball around the entire area to release the tension (muscle knots) in all of the muscles. Stay on any tender points for about 30 seconds.

STEP 2: Once you feel you have released the tender areas (trigger points), place the ball directly on your SI joint. Bring your same-side leg up, resting your lower leg on the thigh of your opposite leg. (The same movement as crossing your leg in a chair.) The intention here is to add an additional stretch to the muscles surrounding your SI joint.

This muscle release technique may take a few times before the muscles completely relax and the SI joint is no longer being pulled out of alignment.

Now the next time you see your chiropractor you’ll get an adjustment that lasts! You may even find that this technique allows the joint to move back into alignment on its own.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

Julie Donnelly is a Deep Muscle Massage Therapist with 20 years of experience specializing in the treatment of chronic joint pain and sports injuries. She has worked extensively with elite athletes and patients who have been unsuccessful at finding relief through the more conventional therapies.

She has been widely published, both on – and off – line, in magazines, newsletters, and newspapers around the country. She is also often chosen to speak at national conventions, medical schools, and health facilities nationwide.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

The Fake Chocolate Study

December 8, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

How To Game The Peer Review Process

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

Peer review is supposed to assure that clinical studies are well designed, well executed, and correctly interpreted before they are accepted for publication. That is why I frequently advise you, my readers, to look for clinical studies on their nutritional products that are published in peer reviewed scientific journals as a criteria for choosing a supplement company that you can trust.

But, can the system be gamed? Sadly, the answer is yes. There are journals that only pay lip service to the peer review process. Earlier this year an investigative reporter set out to prove just how easy it is to game the peer review process. It is a fascinating story of how a journalist created the fake chocolate study.

Creating The Fake Chocolate Study Hoax

The fake chocolate study was a hoax put together by John Bohannon, an investigative journalist and correspondent to Science (a very well respected scientific journal) to test the peer review system. The study was real, but it was seriously flawed. For example, it had only 16 subjects, there was no effort made to determine what the subjects were eating other than chocolate, and the conclusions were not supported by the data. In short, it was a very bad study—one that would have been rejected by any reputable journal.

For the purposes of the test he called himself Dr. Johannes Bohannon from the “Institute of Diet and Health”, a nonexistent entity that consisted of nothing more than a fake website he set up. He then wrote up the study and titled it “Chocolate with High Cocoa Content as a Weight Loss Accelerator” with the conclusion (not supported by the data) that “Long-term weight loss, however, seems to occur easier and more successfully by adding chocolate. The effect of chocolate, the so-called ‘weight loss turbo’, seems to go hand in hand with personal well-being, which was significantly higher than in the control groups.”

Journals Take The Bait

In March 2015 he submitted the article to 20 online journals. Several accepted it within 24 hours. He chose to publish it in the “International Archives of Medicine.” His paper was published online without any revisions a mere two weeks later. [Note: You should not assume the fact that several out of just 20 journals accepted his paper as in indication that a significant percentage of journals accept sub-standard papers without serious peer review. He had, in fact, done previous research for Science magazine identifying those journals most likely to accept flawed studies. It was those types of journals he sent his study to.]

John Bohannon was later quoted as saying “Editors of reputable journals reject [these kinds of studies] out of hand without even sending them to peer reviewers. But there are plenty of journals that care more about money than reputation.” [It costs $650 to have an article published in the International Archives of Medicine.]

The Media Fans The Flames

If this study had just been published in an obscure journal and had been ignored, that would have been bad enough. But the story gets even worse. He then created a press release that he sent to news outlets. The press release made some pretty outrageous statements and even contained a link to an unrelated music video. However, the study made news headlines in more than 20 countries in half a dozen languages. For example, headlines from the Daily Express in England blared: “Chocolate Accelerates Weight Loss: Research Claims it Lowers Cholesterol and Aids Sleep.”

John Bohannon’s take was: “The key is to exploit journalist’s incredible laziness. If you lay out the information just right, you can shape the story that emerges in the media almost like you were writing those stories yourself. In fact, that’s literally what you are doing, since many reporters just copied and pasted our text.”

For the complete story of how John Bohannon pulled off this hoax, read his blog post about the “fake study.”

The Bottom Line

An investigative reporter for Science magazine demonstrated recently just how easy it is to get a fake study published in a peer-reviewed journal.

He created a completely bogus study about chocolate aiding weight loss.

He submitted it to several journals that he had previously identified as having substandard peer review processes.

Several journals accepted it within 24 hours without any peer review process. One published it two weeks later without any revisions.

The story of a new “study” showing that chocolate aids weight loss was picked up by the new media and made the headlines in more than 20 countries in half a dozen languages.

The vast majority of journals have a very exacting peer review process, which means that most published clinical studies have been thoroughly reviewed and edited prior to publication. For the most part the peer review process works exactly as it is supposed to.

However, this hoax shows just how easy it would be for an unethical supplement company to subvert the peer review process and publish bogus studies to support their product claims. That is why when you are choosing a supplement company it is important to choose one with a reputation for scientific integrity.

This hoax also shows just how easy it is for bogus information to be picked up by the media and make it into the headlines. You simply cannot believe everything you read in the press, see on the TV and view online. That is why I created “Health Tips From The Professor.” I wanted to create a place where you can go for accurate information.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Heart Disease Risk and Multivitamins

December 1, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

It’s so confusing. One week vitamins are going to reduce your heart disease risk and cancer risk. The next week they are worthless. They might even kill you. So when you saw the recent headlines suggesting that multivitamin-mineral supplement use might decrease heart disease risk in women, you probably weren’t sure what to think.

More to the point, you may be thinking “Why is it so hard to get this right? Why can’t scientists decide once and for all whether vitamins are beneficial or not?”

Perhaps, the best way to understand the significance of the present study is to look at the strengths and limitations of previous studies. Then we can start to gain perspective on why it is so difficult to come to a definitive conclusion about this very important question.

How Good Is The Evidence That Multivitamin Use Doesn’t Reduce Heart Disease Risk?

Medical authorities are fond of telling you, with a great deal of confidence, that studies have conclusively proven multivitamin use does not decrease heart disease risk. However, in fact, that conclusion is based on only a few studies, and those studies have their limitations.

For example, the Physician’s Health Study II (Sesso et al, JAMA, 308: 1751-1760, 2012) reported that use of a multivitamin-mineral supplement for 11 years did not decrease cardiovascular incidence or mortality. It was a double-blind, placebo controlled clinical study. That’s the best kind of study, so it would be tempting to consider the case closed.

However, this study looked at a very small segment of the population. The participants were all male, primarily non-Hispanic whites, well to do, highly educated and health conscious. It also turns out that the participants that were in the poorest health and had the poorest health habits tended to drop out of the study and were not included in the final data analysis.

That means that the vast majority of participants in the study were at low risk of heart disease and were eating relatively healthy diets. Those are the people who would be least likely to benefit from supplementation. In short, this study proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the people least likely to benefit from supplementation did, in fact, not benefit from supplementation.

The studies that medical authorities quote as proving their case for women have all looked at antioxidant supplements and cardiovascular disease. There are three double-blind, placebo controlled studies that have all come to the conclusion that antioxidant supplements do not decrease cardiovascular risk in women. Once again, it might be tempting to consider the case closed.

However, in two of those studies (Lee et al, JAMA, 294: 56-65, 2005; Cook et al, Archives of Internal Medicine, 167: 1610-1618, 2007) when they looked at the subset of women who were at high risk of cardiovascular disease (either because of age or pre-existing disease), antioxidant supplements significantly decreased the risk of cardiovascular events and cardiovascular deaths. In short, these studies showed that those people most likely to benefit from supplementation, did, in fact, benefit from supplementation.

Finally, medical authorities have chosen to completely ignore a recent study reporting that multivitamin use significantly decreased heart attack risk in women, especially if they had been using the multivitamins for 5 years or more (Rautiainen et al, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 92: 1251-1256, 2010). In short, previous studies have not conclusively proven much of anything except that it is really hard to get definitive answers to this kind of question.

Does Multivitamin Use Decrease Cardiovascular Disease Risk In Women?

The current study (Bailey et al, Journal of Nutrition, 145: 572-580, 2015) compared multivitamin use in 8678 adults(65% women) 40 years or older, from the USDA’s NHANES III database and compared it with cardiovascular death reports in the National Death Index 18 years later.

At the time of the NHANES III study, 45% of the adults surveyed had used some kind of supplement within the past 30 days. When the researchers broke the data down further:

21% were using multivitamin-mineral supplements (3 or more vitamins and 1 or more minerals)

14% were using multivitamin supplements (3 or more vitamins, no minerals).

Among multivitamin-mineral and multivitamin supplement users, only 46% had been using them for 3 years or more.

When they compared supplement usage with cardiovascular deaths 18 years later, the results were as follows:

When they asked if multivitamin-mineral or multivitamin use at the beginning of the study affected cardiovascular mortality 18 years later, the answer was a clear no.

When they looked at women, use of a multivitamin-mineral supplement for 3 years or more was associated with a 35% decreased risk of cardiovascular mortality.

However, they did not find any cardiovascular benefit from long term use of a multivitamin supplement alone for women. From this, they concluded that the beneficial effects of the multivitamin-mineral supplement came from one of the minerals, most likely magnesium or calcium.

There was a slight hint that multivitamin use might be beneficial for men, but the number of cardiovascular deaths in that group was too small for the results to be statistically significant.

What Does This Study Mean?

This study suggests that long term use of a multivitamin-mineral supplement may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease deaths in women. Whether long term multivitamin use also reduces risk of cardiovascular disease in men is an open question. This study is consistent with another recent study looking at multivitamin use in women (Rautiainen et al, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 92: 1251-1256, 2010). However, these studies are just a piece of the puzzle. It will take time and more studies before we will really be able to definitively say whether or not multivitamin use can decrease the risk of heart disease, or any other disease.

How Can You Reduce Your Heart Disease Risk?

The surest way to reduce your risk of heart disease is to develop a heart healthy lifestyle.

Lose weight and/or maintain ideal body weight. Overweight and obesity dramatically increase all of the major risk factors for heart disease – LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, diabetes, hypertension and inflammation.

Exercise for more than 30 minutes – 3 times or more/week. Regular exercise reduces the risk of heart disease by 30-40%.

Follow a diet low in saturated fat and trans-fat (substitute monounsaturated fats like olive oil and omega-3 fats); low in sugars and artificial sweeteners; and high in fiber, whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and fish.

Work with your physician to control predisposing diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

What about supplementation? What role does it play in a heart healthy lifestyle? At present it’s pretty clear that the scientific community cannot definitively prove whether supplementation reduces the risk of heart disease or not. All the available evidence suggests that supplementation is most likely to prove beneficial for those who are at highest risk for heart disease and/or are most likely to be deficient in key nutrients – either because of poor diet or genetic variations that increase nutrient requirements.

In the best of all possible worlds we would know who was at high risk for heart disease and who was deficient in key nutrients. We would know who would benefit from supplements and who would not, but we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds.

Most people don’t know they are at risk for heart disease until it is too late. For far too many people the first symptom of heart disease is sudden death.
Genetics can greatly increase the need for key nutrients, and most people are completely unaware of those genetic predispositions until it is too late. In the future, we may be able to design genetic tests to determine individual nutritional requirements with precision, but we are decades away from that Utopian age at present.

Finally, many people are either blissfully unaware how unhealthy their diet is, or they just don’t want to do anything about it.

For all of the reasons above, I recommend a balanced supplementation program as part of a heart healthy lifestyle. The supplements most likely to be beneficial are a multivitamin-mineral supplement, antioxidants, omega-3s, and B vitamins. I have covered the evidence for the role of each of these nutrients in preserving heart health in previous issues of “Health Tips From the Professor”. Of course, I do not recommend supplementation as an alternative to a heart healthy lifestyle. Taking a multivitamin along with your Big Mac is probably not going to do much for your heart health.

The Bottom Line

A recent study reported that women who used a multivitamin – mineral supplement for 3 years or more decreased their risk of dying from heart disease over the next 18 years by 35%. The men in the study may have received some benefit from multivitamin – mineral supplementation, but the numbers were not large enough to be statistically significant.

This study is fully consistent with the results of a previous study with women. However, when we look at all of the available studies it is not possible to definitively conclude whether supplementation decreases the risk of heart disease or not.

All of the available evidence suggests that supplementation is most likely to be beneficial for those people who are at highest risk of heart disease and/or are most likely to be deficient in key nutrients.

In the best of all possible worlds we would know who was at high risk for heart disease and who was deficient in key nutrients. We would know who would benefit from supplements and who would not, but we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds.

Most people don’t know they are at risk for heart disease until it is too late. For far too many people the first symptom of heart disease is sudden death.
Genetics can greatly increase the need for key nutrients, and most people are completely unaware of those genetic predispositions until it is too late. In the future, we may be able to design genetic tests to determine individual nutritional requirements with precision, but we are decades away from that Utopian age at present.

Finally many people are either blissfully unaware how unhealthy their diet is, or they just don’t want to do anything about it.

For the reasons above, I recommend a balanced supplementation program as part of a heart healthy lifestyle. The supplements most likely to be beneficial are a multivitamin-mineral supplement, antioxidants, omega-3s, and B vitamins.

Of course,I do not recommend supplementation as an alternative to a heart healthy lifestyle. Taking a multivitamin along with your Big Mac is probably not going to do much for your heart health.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Healthy Thanksgiving

November 24, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

The Holidays Don’t Have To Be Unhealthy

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

It’s time for my annual “Healthy Thanksgiving” blog. While “Healthy Thanksgiving” doesn’t quite have the appeal of the more familiar “Happy Thanksgiving” greeting, I used it here to make the point that Thanksgiving dinner (and many other holiday meals) doesn’t have to be an unhealthy affair.

After all, there is a lot to like about the ingredients in Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey can be a healthy, low- fat meat, if prepared correctly. Sweet potatoes, yams, winter squash and pumpkin are all loaded with vitamin A and other important nutrients. And cranberries are a nutrition powerhouse.

Healthy Thanksgiving

Here are some tips to make your Thanksgiving meal one that contributes to your health:

1) Skip the basting. Choose a plain bird and cook in a bag to seal in the moisture. Remove the skin before serving.

2) Refrigerate the turkey juices and skim off the hardened fat before making gravy and use a gravy cup that pours from the bottom to minimize fat.

3) Use ingredients like whole wheat bread, vegetables, fruits (cranberries, raisins, dates or apples), nuts and your favorite spices for the stuffing and bake it in the oven rather than in the turkey.

4) Serve your sweet potatoes or yams baked rather than candied and let your guests add butter to taste.

5) Use skim milk or buttermilk rather than whole milk and skip the butter for your mashed potatoes.

6) Give your meal gourmet appeal by cooking your green vegetables with garlic, nuts and herbs rather than creamy or fat-laden sauces.

7) Don’t serve the meal on your largest plates. By using smaller plates you ensure smaller portion size and even that second helping isn’t quite so damaging.

8) Use the Shaklee 180 meal replacement products for one or more meals the day before and/or after Thanksgiving so that your total caloric intake over the three day period is not excessive.

By now you have the idea. There are lots of little things that you can do to make your Thanksgiving dinner one that your waist and your heart will thank you for. Bon Appetit and have a Happy, Healthy Thanksgiving!

The Bottom Line

If you make healthy food choices and choose your portion sizes wisely, you can make this a Healthy Thanksgiving as well as a Happy Thanksgiving.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Bulging Disc Treatment You Can Do At Home

November 17, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

This past week I taught an ultra-cyclist how to relieve a bulging disc that was causing him a great deal of pain and preventing him from riding the distances he loves.

The problem is aggravated by the aerodynamic position a cyclist is in while riding.

A bulging disc can happen to anyone though, especially if one sits a lot. As we sit we do the same movements, only we contract the muscles and then hold them contracted for a long period of time as we sit

What Causes A Bulging Disc?

It’s easy to see why an ultra-cyclist would have a bulging disc with the extended riding times in the bent over aerodynamic position.

In the aerodynamic position the muscle of your anterior lumbar; the psoas, is held shortened. Also, the muscle on the inside curve of your pelvis, the iliacus, shortens each time the leg is brought up toward the body when pedaling.

This position is great for riding, but when you stop and stand the tight muscles pull your lumbar vertebrae and your pelvis forward and down. At first you may walk bent over, unable to stand up straight. As your muscles relax you’ll begin to straighten, but many times it may take a while before you can fully stand upright and even then you may feel low back pain.

What Happens To The Vertebra?

When a vertebra is pulled downward and toward the vertebra beneath it, it puts pressure on the disc between the two vertebrae. That pushes the gel-like substance inside the disc to press out the side.

A good analogy is to consider what happens if you step on one side of a jelly donut — the jelly pushes out the opposite side!

A bulging disc is when the gel pushes out the side but doesn’t break the outer lining of the disc. A herniated disc is when the membrane cracks and the gel now squeezes out of the disc.

If the bulging disc, or herniated disc, presses into a nerve or your spinal curve, treatment is necessary to reverse the situation. This is definitely a time when prevention is worth a pound of cure!

A Bulging Disc Treatment and Stretch That Works!

The Treatment:

Start by releasing the tension in your thigh muscles. It sounds weird to release the muscles in your thighs to stop a bulging disc problem, but it’s important.

Using your forearm (as shown) press down deeply and slide your arm toward your knee. Place extra focus, 30-60 seconds, on each tender spot (trigger point) you feel as you slide down your thigh.

Do this treatment several times on each leg. This muscle release technique allows your pelvis to rotate back into proper position.

The Stretch:

Stand up straight, as shown, place one of your lower legs on to a chair. Keep your body as straight as possible. Without moving your pelvis at all, lean back with your mid-back.

Visualize your abdominal muscles stretching — be sure not to move your pelvis.

You are now stretching both your psoas and iliacus muscles. Repeat stretch using other leg.

You may feel a twinge of pain in your low back as the muscles stretch and pull on your lumbar. This is normal. It should not be a sharp pain.

An Alternative Stretch:

And as an alternative stretch, if you are able to use the floor, the Sphinx pose is a perfect stretch for the psoas and iliacus. Be sure to keep your pelvis on the floor.

Releasing the tight muscles of your back allow your vertebrae to separate naturally. Whether you sit for hours at a time, or you ride for hours, this bulging disc treatment will give you relief and will prevent further disc injury.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

About The Author

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Are Food Supplements Safe?

November 10, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

If you saw the recent headlines proclaiming that dietary supplements were responsible for 23,000 emergency room visits and 2,100 hospitalizations every year, you are probably wondering are food supplements safe to use at all. The study behind these headlines (Geller et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 373: 1531-1540, 2015) was based on an extrapolation from 63 hospitals to every hospital in the United States.

Some experts consider this to be an overestimation since it is almost 8 times higher than the 3,200 cases/year in the official FDA’s Serious Adverse Event Reporting database. However, for the purposes of this article I will accept the 23,000 numbers.

Let me start by putting the 23,000 number into perspective.

It represents about 0.015% of the 150 million people in the US who use supplements.

It represents about 1% of the emergency room admissions caused by side effects of properly prescribed medications.

In short, the headlines are over-dramatizing the dangers of dietary supplements. Dietary supplements are actually quite safe. However, even one emergency room visit due to a dietary supplement is too many – especially if it were to happen to you or a loved one. Consequently, I will analyze the study in more detail so that I can show you how to recognize and avoid those few supplements that are truly dangerous.

Are Supplements Dangerous?

Here is a breakdown of the data:

13% of the ER visits were due to allergic reactions. These were seldom serious enough to require hospitalization. This is also a type of problem that is probably unavoidable. Since many food supplements use natural ingredients, some degree of food allergies are to be expected.

13% of the ER visits were due to swallowing problems, primarily in people over the age of 65. The preventative measure here is also pretty simple. If you or a loved one has difficulty swallowing, choose pills that are small and slick, chewable, powder or liquid supplements.

20% of the ER visits were due to adverse effects caused by unsupervised ingestion of the supplements by children. The preventative measure here is pretty simple. Keep your supplements out of reach of small children – especially if they are chewable or have attractive colors. While the supplements may be perfectly safe when taken as recommended, the unsupervised ingestion of a whole bottle of almost any supplement by a small child is problematic.

41% of the ER visits were due to weight loss products (25.5%), energy products (10%), sexual enhancement products (3.4%) and bodybuilding products (2.2%). The most common adverse effect for these products were heart palpitations, chest pain, and irregular heartbeat. These are the kinds of supplements you really need to be most careful about.

Why Are Dangerous Supplements Even On The Market?

Let’s start with the obvious question: Why are weight loss, energy, sexual enhancement and bodybuilding products the ones most likely to be dangerous? To quote Pogo (now I’m really dating myself): “We have met the enemy, and he is us”

Weight Loss Products: We can listen all day long to experts tell us that we need to make lifestyle changes, and we should aim for no more than one or two pounds of weight loss per week. However, for most of us that advice goes in one ear and out the other. We want to lose weight fast, and we want it to be easy.

Energy Products: Many of us are just plain exhausted because our diets are terrible; we are under stress; and we are burning the candle at both ends. We don’t want to eat better and change our lifestyle. We want high octane energy, and we want it now.

Body Building Products: The story is similar, especially for males in the 20-34 age range. We want big muscles, and we don’t want to wait for the years of workouts it will take to build that kind of physique naturally. We want it now.

Sexual Enhancement Products: ER admissions for sexual enhancement products were 100% male. What does that say about us guys? I won’t even go there.

Most supplement manufacturers are ethical and don’t make supplements that could harm us. However, there are a few unscrupulous manufacturers who are only too happy to exploit our human weaknesses if they can make a buck in the process. They will give us exactly what we want, even if it kills us in the process.

I’ve warned about these unscrupulous manufacturers in the past. The easiest way to create products that will burn off weight effortlessly, build muscle rapidly, and give you energy are to add chemically synthesized stimulants in the amphetamine family. For example, I’ve warned you about products containing stimulants such as DMAA and DEPEA in Are Dietary Supplements Safe and BMPEA in Are Sports Supplements Safe. They all work, but they also cause heart palpitations, chest pain, and irregular heartbeat. They can land you in the emergency room, and sometimes they can kill you.

In addition to stimulants, some weight loss products use diuretics, and some energy products use dangerous levels of caffeine, both of which can cause problems. Sexual enhancement products often use herbal ingredients like yohimbe bark that can be quite dangerous

Don’t Count On The FDA To Protect You

Unfortunately, you can’t count on the FDA to protect you. For example, in the case of the DMAA scandal, the FDA did not act until the day before a big expose was to air on 60 Minutes about the deaths caused by DMAA. They were shamed into taking strong action and removing DMAA from the shelves of retailers.

Case closed, you might think, but the truth is a bit scarier. That action was back in 2013. Since then, the FDA has ignored DMAA-containing products. The Human Performance Resource Center, an initiative of the Department of Defense, recently listed 39 products containing DMAA that are readily available, either online or from retail stores. Even though the FDA has classified DMAA as an illegal ingredient, it is still readily available, and they don’t act.

This is just one of many examples I could cite. It’s not clear whether the FDA is unwilling to protect us, or if it is overwhelmed. However, it is clear that if we want to avoid dangerous supplements, it is up to us.

How Can You Protect Yourself From Dangerous Supplements?

If the FDA isn’t going to protect you, what can you do to protect yourself from dangerous supplements? There are threesimple things that you can do to protect yourself;

#1: Use common sense.

Don’t even consider those weight loss supplements that promise you’ll lose 5-10 pounds/week, or that they will make the fat melt away effortlessly.

Walk away from those bodybuilding supplements that promise to make your muscles “explode” or give you “insane energy”.

Put those energy supplements that promise a jolt of energy back on the shelf.

As for sexual enhancement products, consult your doctor before you reach for a magic pill. Your problems in the bedroom may be caused by a treatable medical condition.

#2: Make the Commitment. A holistic lifestyle change that includes weight control, exercise, diet and supplementation may be more work, but it is so much safer and more beneficial in the long run.

#3: Choose wisely. Look for a supplement company with integrity.

A company that is committed to only making products that are both safe and effective.

A company that does clinical studies to make sure their products are safe and effective and publishes those studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Are food supplements safe?

The Bottom Line

A recent study reported that 23,000 emergency visits and 2,100 hospital admissions each year were caused by dietary supplements. Some experts consider this to be an overestimate. It is an extrapolation from 63 hospitals to every hospital in the United States, and it is approximately 8-fold higher than the FDAs Adverse Events database.

While the headlines sound scary, when you put the data into perspective it is clear that dietary supplements are actually quite safe. Even if we accept the 23,000 ER visits/year as accurate, this represents:

015% of the supplement users in the US.

Approximately 1% of the annual ER admissions due to side effects of properly prescribed medications.

The main value of this study is that it allows us to identify what the dangers are and what strategies can help us avoid those dangers.

13% of the ER visits were due to allergic reactions. This is probably unavoidable. Since many food supplements use natural ingredients, some degree of food allergies are to be expected.

13% of the ER visits were due to swallowing problems, primarily in people over the age of 65. If you or a loved one has difficulty swallowing, the solution is pretty simple. Choose pills that are small and slick, chewable, powder or liquid supplements.

20% of the ER visits were due to adverse effects caused by unsupervised ingestion of the supplements by children. The preventative measure here is also pretty simple. Keep your supplements out of reach of small children.

41% of the ER visits were due to weight loss products (25.5%), energy products (10%), sexual enhancement products (3.4%) and bodybuilding products (2.2%). These are the kinds of supplements you really need to be most careful about. Some supplements in this category are truly dangerous.

If we ask why these dangerous supplements exist, the answers are pretty simple.

Many Americans are looking for quick and easy solutions. They want a magic pill or powder.

A few unscrupulous supplement companies are only too happy to give them exactly what they want, even if it kills them in the process.

Unfortunately, the FDA is not doing a good enough job of protecting us from the truly dangerous supplements on the market, so we need to protect ourselves.

To protect ourselves from the dangerous supplements on the market we need to take 3 simple steps:

Use common sense. Don’t fall for the advertising hype promising quick and easy solutions.

Commit to true lifestyle change. Adopt a holistic lifestyle that includes weight control, diet, exercise, and supplementation.

Choose your supplement manufacturer wisely. Choose one with integrity – one that is committed to making supplements that are both safe and effective.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Omega-3 and ADHD in Children

November 3, 2015 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

Sometimes I write articles pointing out the fallacies in the headlines you’ve been reading. Other times I write articles because major studies have provided a definitive test of a current paradigm. And sometimes I write articles about small studies that have the potential to change existing paradigms. This week’s article falls in the latter category. This week’s article is on omega-3 and ADHD in children. More precisely, I’m going to review a study looking at the role of the omega-3s DHA and EPA in reducing ADHD symptoms.

Amid growing concern about the side effects and overuse of the stimulant medications used to treat ADHD symptoms in children, many parents have been looking for natural approaches for controlling ADHD symptoms. One of the most popular natural approaches has been omega-3 supplements, primarily the long chain omega-3s, DHA and EPA.

However, not everyone agrees that DHA and EPA are effective for reducing ADHD symptoms. Here is a brief summary of what we know:

Children with ADHD and learning difficulties generally have lower tissue levels of DHA and EPA than children without those deficits.

Animal studies show that DHA-deficient diets decrease neuron size and are associated with hyperactive and compulsive behavior.

Some clinical studies have reported a significant decrease in ADHD symptoms when children were given omega-3 supplements, while other studies found no effect of omega-3 supplementation on ADHD symptoms. This has led to considerable confusion as to the value of omega-3 supplementation in children with ADHD.

However, recent studies have led to a certain amount of clarity about omega-3 and ADHD in children. In particular:

Two recent meta-analyses of all high quality published studies have concluded that omega-3 supplements have a beneficial effect on ADHD symptoms, but the effect is relatively small (Bloch and Qawasmi, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50: 991-1000, 2011; Sonuga-Burke et al. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170: 275-289, 2013).

One recent study showed that when omega-3 supplementation was combined with a stimulant medication, it improved the effectiveness of the medication, which allowed physicians to decrease the amount of medication they prescribed (Barragan et al, Journal of Attention Disorders, doi: 1177/1087054713518239, 2014).

Previous studies have shown that omega-3 supplementation is most effective in the children who are the most deficient in DHA and EPA at the beginning of the study. This is no surprise.

However,what you may not know is that many otherwise healthy children in this country have at least some degree of DHA and EPA deficiency. That’s because major food sources of EPA and DHA, such as salmon and sardines, are not most kid’s favorite foods.

Do Omega-3s Improve Attention Span In Children?

The most recent study (Bos et al, Neuropsychopharmacolgy, 40: 2298-2306, 2015) was a double blind, placebo controlled study looking at the effectiveness of omega-3 supplementation in reducing ADHD symptoms in boys between 8 and 14 years old. It differed significantly from most previous studies in that:

It included a matched group of boys who had not been diagnosed with ADHD.

It used a 1:1 ratio of DHA to EPA, which resulted in a greater intake of DHA than in many of the previous studies.

The study included 40 boys, aged 8-14, who had been diagnosed with ADHD and 39 matched controls who did not have ADHD. Both groups were either given margarine containing 650 mg/day of both DHA and EPA or a placebo margarine containing an equal amount of monounsaturated fatty acids for 16 weeks. Compliance with the study was measured in terms of the amount of margarine consumed and the levels of DHA and EPA found in cells obtained by a cheek swab. ADHD symptoms (particularly attention span, rule-breaking behavior and aggression) were assessed on the basis of standardized parent-rated child behavior assessments. The results of the study were:

At the start of the study, the children with ADHD scored higher on all measures of ADHD symptoms. No surprise here.

The children with the lowest omega-3 levels at the beginning of the study scored highest on all measures of ADHD symptoms. This is also not surprising given the results of previous studies.
Omega-3 supplementation increased attention span in boys with ADHD, and the improvement in attention span correlated with an increase in omega-3 status. No improvement was seen in other symptoms of ADHD (rule-breaking behavior and aggression).

Since different studies tend to use different symptom assessments to measure the severity of ADHD, this may explain why some of the previous studies on omega-3s and ADHD symptoms have come up empty. The authors also suggested that some previous studies may have come up empty because the omega-3 supplements they used were low in DHA.

What Is The Significance Of This Study?

Because this study included a control group of boys without ADHD, it offers a whole new perspective on the importance of omega-3s for children. For example, this study showed:

Omega-3 supplementation improved attention span equally well in boys with and without ADHD. This is perhaps not surprising. If you have ever had a child in the 8 to 14 year old range, you know their attention span could stand a bit of improvement.

However, when you think about it, this study represents a potential paradigm shift in how we think about omega-3s and childhood behavior. The real significance of this studyis that it suggests that omega-3 supplementation may be beneficial for any child with poor attention span, not just for children with ADHD. This interpretation would be fully consistent with previous studies showing that omega-3 supplementation improves cognitive function and reading skills in children.

The Bottom Line

Previous studies have suggested that the long chain omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are modestly effective at improving ADHD symptoms in children, and that they are most effective in children with the lowest omega-3 status at the beginning of the studies.

The current study showed that supplementation with DHA and EPA improved attention span in boys aged 8-14 with ADHD, but did not improve other ADHD symptoms such a rule-breaking behavior and aggression.

What does this mean to you if you have a child with ADHD?

If the ADHD symptoms are mild and mostly relate to attention span or learning skills, omega-3 supplementation alone may be enough to make a difference. Based on this study you might want to choose an omega-3 supplement that is rich in DHA.

If the ADHD symptoms are severe, you will probably need to include omega-3 supplementation as part of a more holistic natural approach for controlling the symptoms.

Finally, if a holistic natural approach is just too difficult to manage, the good news is that recent studies suggest that omega-3 supplementation makes ADHD medications more effective, which means your child’s physician may be able to reduce the dose of medication if you include omega-3 supplementation along with the medication.

This study was unique in that it also included a control group of 8-14 year old boys without ADHD and found that omega-3 supplementation was equally effective at improving attention span in children without ADHD.

This is a single study, but if it is replicated by future studies it suggests that we may need to change our paradigm. What we have been thinking about omega-3 supplementation for children may be all wrong. Perhaps we should stop thinking of it as a supplement that might help with ADHD symptoms and start thinking of it as a supplement that might help children improve their attention span and mental focus whether they have been diagnosed with ADHD or not. This would certainly be consistent with previous studies showing that omega-3 supplementation improves cognitive function and reading skills in children.

One final thought:

This study was performed with boys because they are more prone to ADHD symptoms than girls. However, based on numerous previous studies it is safe to assume that it is likely to apply equally well to girls with and without ADHD.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.