‘Those who live longest have only 1 wife’

By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Fall in love, have only one spouse—and be faithful.
That piece of advice didn’t come from a priest or from a love guru but from a renowned cardiologist.

“Those who live longest have only one wife,” former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said at Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel, a weekly media forum where the topic Monday—Valentine’s Day—was the effect of being in love on the human heart.

Cabral advised people to spare their hearts of “negative stress.”
“The negative stress comes about when you are compelled to lie everyday to your partner. That’s very bad for the heart,” she remarked, pointing out that falling in love gives a person “positive stress.”

“When you see the person you love, the reaction of the body is like it is undergoing a kind of positive stress,” Cabral said.
“It means your heartbeat is a little faster, your blood pressure goes up a little bit, your pupils dilate, and you feel flushed. But it gives a feeling of well-being.”


Longer, happier life

Cabral said positive stress was not bad for the heart.
“It is like exercise. The state of being in love is good for you. People who have stable emotional relationships live longer and are happier than those who live alone,” she stressed.

Cabral also said that a person’s reaction to stress was important. “You cannot control the things
 that are happening to you but you can control how you react to them,” she said.

“A positive outlook that things will be better” would also help, she said.


Too much TV

Cabral said that negative stress was among the factors that led to heart ailments. The other factors included smoking, drinking too much and lack of physical activity.

“For a healthy lifestyle, a person should not be smoking, [should be] moderately drinking, and observing a healthy, well-balanced diet. Physical activity is also necessary,” Cabral emphasized.

She also has an advice for parents.

“Kids are at risk of having heart ailments because of the lack of exercise or physical activity,” she said.
“Children nowadays hardly do anything else but stay indoors to watch TV, play computer games or portable play stations.”

Parents should encourage their kids to play outside and engage in physical activities.
“Our kids could be taught the outdoor games we used to play as kids,” Cabral suggested.


Stressful sex

Asked how a person’s faithfulness was related to longevity, Cabral pointed out that men who were loyal engaged in “less stressful sex with their wives in the house than with their mistress in a motel, where there is the risk of getting caught.”

“Plus there is the guilt or conscience factor,” she added.

According to Cabral, when a spouse is faithful, his or her partner enjoys a good family life.
“They take good care of each other and ensure that they get a healthy, well-balanced meal and make sure that they get medical checkups,” Cabral said.

“It is more of giving a positive influence to the other, which is good for the body and healthy for the heart.”

Source: Philippine Daily Inquire

5 Surprising Benefits of Alcohol

Longevity

The news about wine keeps getting better. Dutch researchers say that a half-glass of wine per day might help you live longer--five years longer, in fact. (Remember, though, excessive drinking can lead to health problems that may shorten your life.) Though the researchers note that more study is needed, the theory is that light alcohol consumption--and especially red wine--may contribute to longevity because the "polyphenolic compounds contained in wine have been seen in animals to stop the build up of fatty tissue in the arteries that can result in stroke or heart attack."

Improves Heart Health

Japanese researchers believe that light to moderate drinking paired with socialization (enter happy hour) can significantly reduce your risk for heart disease. While the researchers mostly looked at men, it's easy to see why the findings could be true for women too. Most health experts are fine with light drinking--one glass per day (but not every day) for women. And aren't we all happier when we're spending time with friends?

Reduces Inflammation

Those who drink were found to have a significantly reduced risk of developing several arthritic conditions including Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Osteoarthritis (OA), reactive arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and spondylarthropathy, according to Dutch researchers. Researchers aren't exactly certain why alcohol consumption (note, no guidelines were given as to which type of alcohol and how much, but we can safely assume that the scientists are talking about moderate drinking here), but they speculate that alcohol may have inflammation-reducing effects.

Aids Weight Loss

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who studied the alcohol consumption of more than 19,000 women over 13 years found that women who drank a "light to moderate amount of alcohol" (defined by no more than two servings a day of wine, beer or liquor--I'll add that some studies have found that any more than one drink per day for females to be excessive, so just file that away) tended to gain less weight than women who didn't drink. The study was recently published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

An explanation, please? "Women who drink moderate amounts of alcohol tend to eat less food, particularly carbohydrates," said cardiologist Lu Wang, lead researcher on the study and an instructor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, who spoke to USA Today.

 Fights Osteoporosis

A new studyreports that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon. Dietary what? It's an ingredient believed to increase bone mineral density, and researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis, say that beer is loaded with it.

They studied commercial beer production and found that most commercial beer--especially hoppy beer--is a rich source of dietary silicon. Based on these findings, the scientists suggest that moderate beer consumption may actually help fight osteoporosis.