An Apple a Day…

Eating more fruit really can keep the doctor away, especially when comes to preventing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.

Standard fruits like apples, oranges, and bananas have micronutrients in them that help to protect the brain from neurotoxicity. The powerful antioxidants in these fruits help to protect brain cells from oxidative stress, too.

Of the three fruits, apples proved to be the most beneficial.

To increase your fruit intake, try these healthy snacks:
• An apple with a slice of cheese.
• Apple slices with peanut butter
• Mixed fruit with yogurt.
• Add sliced fruit to granola or another favorite cereal.
• Eat a piece of fruit instead of dessert after dinner.
• Drink a glass of apple juice or orange juice with breakfast.
• Add apples to a salad with walnuts and blue cheese crumbles.
• Add orange chucks to an Asian style salad with almonds and chicken.

Fresh fruit is one of those things that most people don't eat enough. Use these ideas for snacks and meals and you can easily get boost your fruit intake each day.

Eating more fruits provides other benefits, too. You'll get more fiber. You'll also feel fuller on fewer calories so you might lose some weight, too.

Stay well,
Heather Robwell

Doing Nothing is Making You Older

Nobody wants to age gracefully anymore. Who wants to be resigned to sagging skin, softer muscles, and less energy?

With steady breakthroughs in the field of anti-aging, you don't have to accept growing older sitting down. In fact, it's much better if you face aging on your feet… preferably doing something active.

Researchers have found that people who lead a sedentary lifestyle age faster. Your level of physical activity may even be the most important factors in how quickly you age.

In this study, the researchers looked at the ends of the DNA strands in thousands of patients. The ends of DNA get shorter as you age. The study showed that people who were the most active had the youngest DNA. Physical activity had a greater effect on the condition of than smoking, income level, education level, or body mass index.

The most active people within the group had DNA that appeared ten years younger than the least active people of the same age. That's a significant difference from something that is entirely in your control.

Now becoming more physically active doesn't mean you have to spend hours doing grueling and boring exercise. Going for a walk, enjoying a weekend hike, going dancing with your partner on a Friday night, or playing Frisbee in the park with your grandkids—these are all fun, easy ways to be more physically active.

How much time you spend up and moving around makes a real difference in how young your body is… so get moving.

Stay well,
Meghan Krohn

The Anti-Aging Benefits of Sunlight

I'm sure you've heard a million times that sunlight will wrinkle and discolor your skin making you look old before your time. You've probably also heard that sun exposure will inevitably lead to skin cancer, which could be dangerous… even deadly.

These well-publicized positions are costing you dearly when it comes to your health.

Moderate sun exposure without sunscreen is good for you. That's right… I said without sunscreen. I'm not advocating that you go outside and get a sunburn. But you do need sunlight to be healthy.

The sun catalyzes a reaction in your skin, which leads to vitamin D production in your body. And vitamin D is vital.

A new study out of King's College in London has discovered that vitamin D actually helps to keep your DNA from aging.

Every time your cells replicate, the ends of your DNA become a little bit shorter, a phenomenon that researchers associate with aging. Cells under stress replicate more and therefore age faster.

That shortening of the DNA has been linked to many diseases of aging like heart disease and cancer. What the researchers at King's College found was that people with the highest levels of vitamin D in their blood streams have longer, younger-looking DNA.

DNA-length is not the only factor in aging, buy scientists believe it's an important one. If vitamin D can help preserve your DNA, it's just another sign that it's important to keeping you young and healthy.

The best source of vitamin D is 15 to 20 minutes of sun exposure two or three times a week. Next, best is a cod liver oil supplement. In the winter, supplementing is important because the sun's rays are weaker and don't catalyze as much vitamin D production.


Stay well,
Danny Wallace

Three Snacks You Can Eat Guilt-Free

Snacks are a fact of life. If you're like normal people, sometime between breakfast and lunch and again between lunch and dinner, you get a little bit hungry.

These snack attacks can derail your healthy eating habits if you're not prepared for them. It's easy to reach for something sweet or salty or deep fried when you get the between-meal munchies. These snacks are high in calories, but provide little in the way of actual nutrition.

Another approach is to try and ignore those hunger pangs. This sets you up for a blood sugar roller coaster. You'll feel tired and irritable and you'll be more likely to overeat at your next meal.

The best option is to be prepared. Recognize that snacks are a part of a normal diet, and make sure you have healthy snacks on hand. The best snack will have some fat and protein, to satisfy your hunger. Choosing a snack that's rich in fiber is a good idea, too. Fiber helps digestion and also makes you feel full.

Pistachio nuts make the perfect snack. They take a little bit of work because you have to shell them. This is actually a good thing—you're less likely to overeat. Eating three ounces of pistachios will also help to lower your blood pressure and your LDL cholesterol levels. It even helps to control your blood sugar. As a snack, it is a winner all around.

Mixed nuts are another satisfying, healthful snack. In one long-term study, researchers found that eating a handful of mixed nuts including walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds each day helps to lower heart disease risks by up to fifty percent.

Finally, berries make an excellent snack. They are rich in fiber and antioxidants. They also help to protect you from developing metabolic syndrome, a condition that raises your risk of heart disease. Berries don't contain any fat on their own, so enjoy them along with a handful of nuts, with a half-cup of yogurt, or with a slice or two of your favorite cheese.

By snacking smart, you can improve your health, stave off weight gain, and enjoy each day more.

Stay well,
Heather Robwell

Keep Cataracts at Bay with Antioxidants

This year 400,000 people will develop cataracts.

More people have their vision impaired by cataracts every year than any other condition. Over time, oxidative stress can damage the eyes and form a cloudy film over the lens. Surgery can restore vision lost to cataracts. But surgery is an expensive option.

Prevention is a much better route.

And you can prevent cataracts by making one simple change to your diet.

Researchers have found that people who eat lots of yellow or dark green, leafy vegetables develop fewer cataracts. These vegetables are rich in lutien and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants with proven protective effects on the eyes. Vitamin E also shows promise when it comes to preventing cataracts.

Researchers examined the diets of more than 30,000 people over ten years. Those with the least amounts of these nutrients in their diets had about a twenty percent higher risk of developing cataracts than those with the most.

You can do your eyes a good turn by adding in just one serving of yellow squash, spinach, kale, or corn to your diet each day.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace

Hormones Should be Used Under a Doctor's Care

Hormones are amazing compounds. In the right balance, they make you feel strong, vital, healthy, happy, and young. They boost your sex drive, increase your energy, and help you to maintain a healthy weight.

Too little of certain hormones can have a devastating effect. As you age, your levels of testosterone begin to decline. Your muscles become smaller and lose strength. You start putting pounds on around the middle. Your bones lose mass. And you lose energy and have a lower sex drive.

It's tempting to begin taking a supplement with naturally occurring hormones to offset these effects. But, it's important to keep in mind that too much of any single kind of hormone can be just as damaging as too little.

For example, a news piece from yesterday reports that two men taking a natural supplement containing testosterone and estradiol developed an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Their lives will never be the same.

I don't cite this story to disregard the benefit that hormones can provide you. I cite it to emphasize that when it comes to hormones, balance is absolutely crucial. If you want to take real, natural, bio-identical hormones, you should do so with your doctor's guidance. Your doctor can measure your hormone levels, and help you determine a proper dosage. He can also help you find sources for hormones that are certain to be safe and contain the proper amounts of each kind of hormone that you need.

Self-directed use of hormones—especially powerful hormones like testosterone—can backfire on you.

If you don't want to work with a doctor to guide your hormone replacement, then choose supplements that contain hormone precursors instead. These types of supplements don't contain active hormones. Instead they contain compounds that your body can use to increase its own natural hormone production. Yohimbe and tribulus terrestris are two of the most common, natural supplements that provide precursors for testosterone.

When it comes to hormone supplements, natural isn't always enough. You also need balance to ensure your health and safety. So work with your doctor or choose precursors instead.

Stay well,
Meghan Krohn

Itchy, Dry Skin Doesn't Have to be Par for the Course this Winter

With wintertime comes dry, cold air outside and dry, warm air inside. The combination is a perfect recipe for dry, chapped skin. Usually dry skin is most noticeable on the hands, but the season can also take a toll on your elbows, the skin behind your knees, your legs, and your face.

In my experience, women are more vocal about dry skin concerns than men, but dry skin affects both sexes equally, and it is certainly just as uncomfortable for men as it is for women.

Fortunately, there are many things you can do to prevent dry skin and to relieve it where it's already a problem.

The number one step for both prevention and treatment is to find a good hand and body moisturizing lotion that suits your skin.

There are plenty of light, unscented lotions that work well for men and that won't make you smell like you're wearing your wife's perfume.

Look for a lotion that is made of natural ingredients that won't irritate your skin further.

I also highly recommend using a humidifier in your home during the winter. Not only will this help stop your skin from becoming dry and itchy, it can also help reduce the number of bloody noses you get during the winter, and improve how well you sleep.

Finally, water—especially hot water—can strip the skin of oils and lead to drying. Try to shower in warm water rather than hot water. Same goes for washing your hands. And always dry your skin thoroughly.

By following these steps, you can stop dry, itchy, flaky skin before it starts.

Stay well,
Heather Robwell

Anxiety is Bad for Your Heart… especially if You’re a Man

Hostility, anger, depression. Recent research has linked all of these emotions—when you experience them often—to heart disease.

Now researcjers are adding anxiety to the list.

Men who are often nervous and anxious have a 30 to 40 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than people who stay on an emotionally even keel. That's a significant increase.

Like hostility and anger, anxiety causes a number of physiological responses that have a negative effect on your heart. Anxiety raises your blood pressure, it increases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, and it makes your heart work harder. Over time, these symptoms all take their toll, leading you toward heart disease.

To ease anxiety, try one of these strategies:
• Take a brisk walk in the evening each day. During the walk, focus on letting go of the things you worry about that you cannot control.
• Join a yoga class or a guided meditation group. The social connections are very healthy for someone who feels anxious a lot of the time, and the activities are very relaxing.
• Retrain your thought process to be more positive. Try to catch yourself in the moment when you are having negative or worried thoughts. In that moment, find something that you are grateful for or some positive action that you can take. Or just recognize that the negative thoughts are not helpful and consciously reject them.

Reducing anxiety is somewhat of a trial and error process. Some strategies will work better than others for you. Keep at it until you find something that helps to calm you in those anxious moments.

What this recent research underscores is that your heart health and your mental health are intertwined. This means you shouldn't hesitate to take time to relax and enjoy yourself, that you shouldn't be embarrassed if you need help dealing with an emotional event, and that the support of friends and family is an important part of your overall health.

Stay well,
Danny Wallace

Four Steps to Take More Control of Your Health

According to a new study, you deserve a pat on the back just for reading this post.

It turns out that people with the highest "health literacy" live longer. That essentially means that the more you read and the more you know about health issues, the better off you are.

People who have a better understanding of health issues are more able to manage illnesses and other health problems. If you keep up with health news—and make it a point to understand that news—then you will know more about treatment options and be able to make better decisions when faced with a health crisis. The end result is better health and a longer life.

Here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to managing your health care and making good health-related decisions:
• Remember that you are responsible for your health more than any other person. More even than your doctor. That means that you should work with your doctor to find options that are best for you rather than just taking everything your doctor says at face value.
• Remember, that it's impossible for doctors to keep track of all the new studies available. This doesn't make your doctor a bad doctor—he's just human. There is a prolific amount of new information that enters the medical field every day—there's no way any single person can keep up with it all. If you find a study that you feel applies to you, print it out and bring it to your next doctor's visit to discuss.
• Find a doctor who is competent and who you like—if you have to choose between those two criteria, go with competent.
• When it comes to health issues that arrive gradually like heart disease or diabetes, be careful about prescription drugs. If you fall into a mild or moderate category—if you have mildly high blood pressure, for instance—then try lifestyle changes either instead of a prescription or with the goal of getting off the prescription as soon as possible.

By taking the time to be more knowledgeable about health issues and medical news, you lay the groundwork for a longer, healthier life.

Happy New Year!
Danny Wallace

Six Tips for Keeping Your Resolutions in 2008

It's the New Year. Time to make those resolutions—at least one of which I’m willing to bet is health-related

I'm not going to tell you what you should resolve to do, but I am going to give you six ideas that will help you stick to your resolutions better this year.

You know how the story goes. You make a New Year's resolution and three weeks later, you've either given up on the idea or forgotten about it altogether.

One of the first keys to success when it comes to keeping a resolution—or achieving any worthwhile goal—is to write it down.

So get out a piece of paper and write down your resolutions.

Here are five more ways to increase your odds of success:
• Make a plan. Having a goal is great, but you need a plan to get there. If you want to lose fifteen plans, think about how you are going to do that. Write down your plan and keep it with your goal.
• Review and renew your commitment. This is simple. Take five minutes to read through your goal and plan each day. This will keep your resolution fresh in your mind.
• Don't get derailed. It's easy to give up on a goal if you drop the ball even once. For example, if you resolve to exercise for 30 minutes each day and you miss a day, it's tempting to throw your hands in the air and call it quits. But one bad day doesn't need to destroy your entire goal. Just get back on track the next day.
• Reward yourself. When you make your plan, set milestones. Using the "I’m going to lose fifteen pounds" example again, consider rewarding yourself at the five-pound marks along the way. Rewards don't have to be huge or expensive, but make them something that will have significance for you.
• Finally, have someone hold you accountable. It's easier to stick to a goal if you have someone who knows and cares about what you are trying to accomplish.

New Year's resolutions don't have to be a waste of time—by taking these steps you can make meaningful and steady progress toward your goals in 2008.

Happy New Year!
Meghan Krohn