[I guess it never hit them about not cooking at all??? -- Jay]


Cooking Low & Slow

Diabetics may want to crack open their old-_Joy of Cooking_ and look up
poaching. It's a cooking method that uses low heat and, according to a new
study, just might mean the difference between a healthy heart and a diseased
one.

At Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, researchers have begun
studying a previously under acknowledged danger to people with diabetes,
known as advanced glycation end products, or AGEs. These substances exist
naturally in the blood, but they are also produced at high levels in food
when protein, sugar, and fat are cooked at very high temperatures, as in
frying.

And too many AGEs in your fried chicken can lead to too many AGEs in your
blood, which stimulate the immune system to produce the white blood cells
that trigger inflammation. In diabetics, inflammation can lead to damaged
arteries and other serious cardiac conditions.

But the research also points to a simple solution. In the Mount Sinai study,
diabetics who poached, steamed, or stewed their foods -- all low-temperature
techniques -- had lower serum AGE levels, which should translate into less
chance of inflammation.

Luckily, the advice is easy --and delightful -- to follow. Didn't the French
invent poaching?

Copyright 2003, Alternative Medicine Magazine. (p.20)

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Try Yoga for Pain Management

Exercises that train the mind to concentrate on poses and breathing, such as
yoga, are especially helpful for lessening pain. When done correctly, yoga
gently exercises the joints without causing undue stress, says Marian
Garfinkel, researcher at the University of Pennsylvania medical school. And
its mental component keeps the mind from focusing on the pain. In 1994
Garfinkel, who also teaches yoga, published a study showing that ten weeks
of yoga improved joint range of motion and reduced pain and tenderness in
people with osteoarthritis in their hands.

User's tip: Find an experienced instructor and discuss your joint issues
with him or her before class. (Steer clear of "hot yoga" classes, Garfinkel
says; they can be hard on the joints.)


Test Out Tai Chi, too

Patricia Lawson, who dreaded becoming chairbound like her father and
grandmother, found relief in tai chi chuan. Research has shown it to be an
effective treatment; a study presented at the American College of
Rheumatology's annual meeting in 2001, for instance, found that sufferers
who completed a 12-week tai chi program showed significant improvements in
physical functioning, abdominal muscle strength, and balance. Those in a
control group did no better over the same period; some got worse.

Lawson swears by Tai Chi for Arthritis, a program designed by family
physician Paul Lain of Sydney, Australia. (Lain himself has arthritis.) It
consists of tai chi adapted to have fewer joint-jostling moves.

Tai chi kept Lawson's arthritis under control. But in 1999 a car crash
injured her back and her pain soared off the charts. Her doctor recommended
surgery to fuse her spine.

When Lawson balked, the doctor gave her two weeks to see if she could
improve on her own. She ramped up her tai chi program and two weeks later
the pain was nearly gone. "My doctor couldn't believe the difference," she
says. "He asked me, 'What have you been doing?"' Her results were so
striking that she's now a Tai Chi for Arthritis instructor.

"Tai chi has kept me more flexible and controls the pain," says Lawson. The
discipline's mind-body benefits make a difference for her, too. "When you're
having pain you get angry and sad," Lawson says. "Tai chi cheers people up-I
see it in my classes all the time."

User's tip: To find a Tai Chi for Arthritis program, check out the web site
www.taichiforarthritis.com.

Copyright 2003, Alternative Medicine Magazine. (p.31 - 32)