LIFE EXTENSION NEWS

How About That Gallbladder?

Small organs play a major role in maintaining good health.

Consider the gallbladder, which is only 3 to 4 inches long. This pear-shaped organ stores and releases bile, a powerful digestive agent produced by the liver.

Bile contains cholesterol, bile salts, lecithin, and other substances, including toxins filtered from the blood by the liver. Approximately 1pint of bile moves through the gallbladder every day. When food arrives in the small intestine, the gallbladder sends bile there to break down fats as they pass through the duodenum. Toxins contained in bile are eliminated with other wastes. Then, in one of the body's amazing feats of recycling, most of the bile acids that have been delivered to the duodenum are absorbed back into the blood.

When the gallbladder functions normally, healthy digestion proceeds the way it should. When it doesn't, gallstones (or cholelithiasis) and inflammation of the gallbladder (or cholecystitis) can be the result.

Some 20 million Americans have gallstones, but many of them don't even know it. That's because an estimated 80 percent of all gallstones cause no symptoms and need not be treated. Unfortunately, the remaining 20 percent can cause medical emergencies. Pain in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen that's accompanied by nausea or vomiting may signal the presence of a gallstone that's stuck in the bile duct. Gallstones can be tiny (the size of a grain of sand) or as large as a pea.

RISK FACTORS Large, infrequent meals, foods that are high in fat, and refined carbohydrates are risk factors for gallstones. Ironically, extreme low-fat diets are a risk factor, too. Avoid processed and hydrogenated fats, but don't eliminate essential fats, like fish and flax oil, from your diet. Other risk factors for gallstones:

- rapid weight changes (yo-yo dieting) - lack of exercise

- gender (women get gallstones four times as often as men)

- age (one-fifth of adults over 65 have gallstones that lead to problems)

-combinations of factors (fair-skinned, overweight mothers over age 40 are prone to gallstones).

Gallbladder inflammation, which can coincide with the presence of gallstones, causes intense pain that lasts from 30 minutes to several hours, often in the evening. In some cases, the pain resembles that of a heart attack because it often occurs in the chest or spreads from below the breastbone into the shoulder area and upper back. Any upper abdominal pain that lasts for more than an hour may be due to gallbladder disease and requires medical attention.

Several foods, herbs, and supplements help the digestion process by improving gallbladder function.

Often extracted from soybeans, lecithin is a type of fat found in brewer's yeast, eggs, fish, grains, legumes, and wheat germ. A good multivitamin-mineral supplement helps prevent the nutritional deficiencies, including inadequate vitamin C and B, complex, that contribute to gallbladder problems. Several herbs are recommended for the gallbladder, including Oregon grape root, ginger, and turmeric. These are available individually as teas, extracts, and capsules; as spices; and as' fresh foods. Of the many foods that are gallbladder-friendly, the most versatile may be the apple, whose juice is cleansing and can help to soften gallstones.

- Cj Puotinen Adapted from HEALTH

Much of the disability associated with aging is from loss of muscle. If, as a child you broke your arm, it was placed in a plaster cast, and when it came off, your arm was shrunken and weak. This, in effect is the condition in the elderly we today know as sarcopenia.

Here are the facts about sarcopenia: It was identified in the 1980’s by a researcher at Tufts University: Beginning at around age 45, normal muscle loss starts. It progresses at about one percent a year. With a decline in muscle loss, strength is compromised.

Suddenly, or so it seems, you have trouble climbing stairs, lugging grocery bags, or lifting a grandchild. Life stops being pleasurable or easy. You find yourself thinking, "I can’t go for my walk today." Grudgingly, you accept "growing old is lousy, but this is just the way it goes."

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way, because strength training defeats sarcopenia. Again and again, research has shown this to be true, even with 90 year old nursing home residents.

In one study, two formerly sedentary seniors were able to throw away their canes after only weight weeks of supervised weight training.

Sarcopenia is made worse by disuse or lack of exercise. Feeling weak or inadequate, the older woman or man turns sedentary, even reclusive and fearful. Conversly, when you work out, you build muscle, and hiking, gardening or swimming again feels good. You’re back into life, enthusiastic and confident

"We are never too old to be fit," wrote the late Dr. George Sheehan. "We must accept responsibility for our health. We must realize living is an art, and life is an achievement. Life is not a gift or possession, it is our final battle."

Adapted from FLORIDA TODAY