Health

HE A LTH • Spring 2020 11 Holden Hearing Aid Center, Inc. 695 Main Street, Holden MA 01520 Phone: (508) 829-5566 www.HoldenHearingAid.com Let our Center help you HEAR better! Matthew Moreno, Au.D. Doctor of Audiology Swim Plugs We offer comprehensive hearing care services including complete hearing evaluations, hearing loss rehabilitation, education and counseling. Amplified Phones Hearing Aids Batteries & Accessories Assisted Listening Devices Hearing Evaluations Wax Removal Hearing Protection Musician's Ear Plugs Guidance from the National Institutes of Health says in some ani- mals, studies have found fasting diets to protect against diabetes, heart disease and cognitive decline, even slowing the aging process. One potential harm, it says, is an increased risk of gallstones and a higher likelihood of needing sur- gery for gallbladder removal. Skepticism from experts If dietary experts agree on one thing, it's that no diet works for everyone. The health website MedPage brought eight specialists together in 2018 to talk about intermittent fasting. One common view: keeping intake to cer- tain hours may not be any more effec- tive than simply eating better overall. Dr. David Katz, the founding director of Yale University's Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, raised practicality concerns, asking how fast- ing might work during social gather- ings. He said intermittent fasting may only work if it limits someone's total caloric intake. "Any tactic that works for you to achieve that is the right one for you," he said. Katz, who has co-written a book on dieting released in March, has more concerns with what intermittent fasting can often leave out. "What's sort of silly about it is that it talks about when not to eat but with no emphasis about what to eat when you do eat," he said. Stanford views intermittent fasting from a long perspective – very long. She looks back to the time of hunters and gatherers, when, without refrigeration, people had to eat in very finite periods of time when they had food available to them. Fridges, ovens and microwaves, along with preservatives and much else, have allowed us to eat virtually whatever we want whenever we want. People now typically eat throughout a 14-hour peri- od of the day, Catenacci said. That's a major cause of the problem. In less than two decades, the rate of American adults counted as obese rose from 30.5% to 42.4%, according to a 2018 study by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For those considered severely obese, those numbers jumped from 4.7% to 9.2%. Those trends aren't expected to end any time soon. A study published in December in the New England Journal of Medicine predicted half of American adults will be obese in 10 years. The rate will exceed 35% in every state, and above 50% in 29 states, the study said. Nearly one in four adults by 2030 will be severely obese. Massachusetts has the fourth lowest rate of adult obesity in the U.S., accord- ing to the CDC, at 25.7%. too high. Doctors aren't fond of the idea of a cheat day either – the idea of someone taking a day off from watching what they eat without much consequence. "You can undo three days or even a week 's worth of hard work," Catenacci said. Needing a cheat day can also be a sign of an unsustainable diet, Stanford said. "You have to make these things fit into the context of your life," she said, "or else you can't sustain them." With those numbers, Americans may be only more likely to seek out new diets as a way to lose weight. But Stanford says intermittent fasting isn't likely to be it because the body likes stability. Intermittent fasting, with long periods of little to no eating in some cases, does not offer stability, she said. With that in mind, some participants in intermittent fasting studies end at a higher weight than when they started. Their body wants to maintain a f lat weight, she said, even if that weight is Still, there's little consensus, if any, whether restricting calorie intake between certain hours or days is more effective – or safer – than simply choosing to consume fewer calories. A diet that works for someone who's able to control their cravings if they're restricting themselves one day but not anoth- er could be more effective with one person than another. A diet also needs to be tolerable enough to be maintained. "No one diet works for everyone," said Dr. Vicki Catenacci, an associate professor of medicine in endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the University of Colorado. A new attempt at weight loss The Atkins diet was a low-carbohy- drate fad. The similar ketogenic diet is rich in proteins and fats while shunning carbs. The Paleo diet focuses on lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. The Mediterranean diet revolves more around plant-based foods. Other diets involve foods' alkaline levels, and others on sugar intake. Those diets – or fads to some – focused on what a person eats or doesn't. Intermittent fasting limits when a person eats during a day or week. A common type is time-restricted eating, which lim- its someone to, say, a six-, eight- or 12-hour window for all their meals during a day, usually by skipping breakfast. One aim is to elimi- nate late-night snacking doctors tend to find among the worst habits for main- taining a healthy weight. Another type of intermittent fasting limits someone's intake to 25% of a typi- cal day's calories – so 500 or 600 calo- ries a day – either every other day or every other week. Another, called 5:2 fasting, includes two days of fasting for every five days of normal eating. Catenucci sees intermittent fasting like other diet trends, or like the idea of eating a bunch of small meals or snacks throughout the day instead of fewer, larger meals. "But that kind of backfired because each time you eat is an opportunity to overeat," she said. Among government-funded studies, reviews of intermittent fasting are somewhat mixed. Most find benefits to some people, particularly if fasting spurs the body to switch from using glucose stored in the liver for energy to ketones, which are stored in fat in the body. H Dr. Fatima Stanford Dr. Vicki Catenacci Getting heavier A growing share of American adults are considered obese or severely obese, conditions that can lead to high risks of health problems. 30.5% 1999- 2000 2001 2002 2003- 2004 2005- 2006 2007- 2008 2009- 2010 2011- 2012 2013- 2014 2015- 2016 2017- 2018 42.4% 4.7% 9.2% Percent of adults who are obese Percent of adults who are severely obese Note: Estimates were age adjusted by the direct method to the 2000 U.S. Census population using the age groups 20– 39, 40–59, and 60 and over. SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2018.

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