Your health
Something's fishy
Fish oil supplements are loaded with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which is why they're often prescribed for heart attack survivors and people with high triglyceride levels. And lots of people take because they want the health benefits without having to eat fish a couple times a week.
But there is a pesky downside to the supplements: Fishy burps.
The February issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter offers some tips for avoiding that fishy aftertaste:
• Swallow the capsule frozen. This slows the breakdown of fish oil in the stomach, but it is still digested effectively.
• Take the capsule at the beginning of a meal. Food traps the fish oil in the stomach, and buffers the odor.
• Try an "odorless" supplement, a coated capsule that passes through the stomach and dissolves in the intestines.
• Switch brands. Some manufacturers make a pure omega-3 fatty acids supplement that doesn't taste fishy, although it costs more.
Heart sense
Two local docs with a popular weekly radio show ("The Doctors are In" on WKRS 1220-AM in Waukegan) are taking their brand of plain talk on a book tour.
Dr. Joel Okner, a cardiologist at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, and Jeremy Clorfene, head psychologist for the hospital's Phase II Cardiac Rehabilitation program, are authors of "The No Bull Book on Heart Disease: Real Answers To Winning Back Your Heart and Health" (Sterling, $12.95).
"The No Bull Book on Heart Disease covers every critical cardiac topic in plan talk from the patient's point of view," the authors write in their introduction.
You can join them for an engaging, no-nonsense discussion on heart disease prevention, risk, treatment and recovery at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the conference center at Condell. For reservations, call 800-3ADVOCATE.
You can even bring home a signed copy for your valentine - a book signing follows the program - because there's nothing more romantic than wanting to stay healthy and grow old together.
Wrinkles over time
We all know that too much sun leads to old-looking skin, but new research shows that stressful life experiences - such as a divorce - can add years to your face, too.
A study of 186 pairs of identical twins found that twins who were divorced looked about two years older than their identical siblings who were married, single or widowed.
Twins who used antidepressants also were perceived to be older looking. Over time, relaxation of facial muscles due to antidepressant use could cause facial sagging, which has an aging effect, researchers suspect.
"The presence of stress could be one of the common denominators in those twins who appeared older," said study author Dr. Bahaman Guyuron of University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
The study is published in the online edition of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.