Recent Blog Posts

  8 Ways to Avoid The Top 5 Common Crippling Exercise Injuries Regular workouts can help you prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. They promote healthy blood sugar levels, improve your mood and energy levels, help control your weight, promote healthy bone density and more. Proper form is essential to preventing exercise injuries. If you’re not sure how to use a piece of equipment or perform an exercise, ask an expert to show you how. In other words, there’s no shortage of benefits to hitting the gym or taking a brisk stroll or two around your block on a daily basis. That’s why experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five or more days per week. However, exercise, by its very nature, can also put you at risk of injury, especially if you’re new to working out or carrying excess weight. Even the most seasoned exercisers can find themselves with injuries from overuse of joints, accidental falls, or improper technique. Exercise Injuries: How Common are They? In on year, close to 1,500 people visited U.S. emergency [...]

  Want to Live Longer? Be Wealthier? And Happier? Here is the One PROVEN Secret: Reading!   Many people seek refuge from a hard day by curling up with a good book. Others use reading as a way to pass the time while traveling or waiting for an appointment, while still others read for the pure enjoyment of it. For people who are either casual or prolific readers, most love insightful useful health related articles too which they can pass-along to their loved-ones to help them stay healthy or nurture them back to health. No matter what your reason is for reading, research has shown that it's good for more than just your imagination. Teaching kids the joys of reading early on can help them be more successful later in life. Stress Relief Reading fiction, spiritual, self-help and other literary genres is an excellent way to calm your mind. Says Jill Brennan, owner of the literary Web site Espresso Fiction: "Taking your mind off your own problems, even for a few minutes, can have a therapeutic effect and be a timely [...]

  How and Why You Need to Focus on Building Your Core ... and Good Posture Plus Six Top Core-Building Exercises   Your body has 29 core muscles, located mostly in your back, abdomen, and pelvis, that work to give you a stable center of gravity. Spanning from your pelvis to the base of your rib cage, your core muscles are what help you: Exercise programs such as pilates and yoga are great for strengthening your core muscles. Control movements Protect and support your back Gain greater balance and stability Your core muscles are incredibly important because they provide the foundation for movement throughout your entire body. Strengthening your core muscles means that your spine will be supported and your body less prone to injury during sports activities and also during daily life. Meanwhile, weak core muscles, according to the Mayo Clinic, can put you at risk of poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries. Good Posture Is a Key to Good Health "Sit up straight" and "Put your shoulders back" have been two of parents' favorite mantras for [...]

  Does Early Exposure to Food Allergens Increase Tolerance to Them?   Food allergies affect 1 percent to 2 percent of American adults, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI), along with about 6 percent of children under the age of 5. While their incidence in the United States has been on the rise for at least a decade, no one knows exactly why food allergies are becoming more and more common. Meanwhile, for those in this group just one crumb of an allergenic food can be deadly. What is a Food Allergy, and Why do They Occur? For people with food allergies, just one bite of the wrong food can lead to hives, vomiting, loss of consciousness and even death. A food allergy occurs because your immune system mistakenly recognizes a certain food as dangerous, and then produces a response against it. Symptoms can range from the more mild skin rash, vomiting and diarrhea to the very serious anaphylaxis, which constricts the airways and requires immediate medical attention. Though most food allergies begin in childhood, [...]

  The Seven Top Tips to Feel Full Faster ...so You Consume Less Calories   Have you ever had a day when your stomach felt like a bottomless pit and that no matter how much you ate, you just didn't feel full or satisfied? What if there were ways to fill your stomach so that you would feel full faster, yet end up consuming fewer calories overall? Would you try them? Grapefruits are 90 percent water with very few calories. These and other water-rich fruits and vegetables make you feel full faster. Well, there's good news. There are a number of healthy "tricks" you can use to feel full faster, meaning you're less likely to overeat, take in too many calories and ultimately gain weight. 1. Eat More Fiber Fiber is not only good for your health (it helps to lower your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and more) but eating more of it is a simple way to satisfy your hunger. High-fiber foods give you volume (making you feel full), plus they take longer to digest, so [...]

  Ways to Reduce Pain Naturally   Millions of Americans are impacted by pain in their daily lives. In fact, according to "Health United States," released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, one in four Americans have experienced a full day of pain in the last month -- and one in 10 said the pain lasted for a year or more! More than half of Americans suffer from chronic pain, and one in 10 say their pain has lasted for a year or more. Another national poll found similar results: more than half of the respondents said they suffer from chronic or recurrent pain, and 46 percent said they had felt pain in the last two weeks. "Pain has been a hidden disease," says Raymond Gaeta, MD, an associate professor of anesthesia at Stanford University's medical school and director of pain management at Stanford Hospital & Clinic. "It has not received as much attention as other diseases. But now there's a growing recognition that pain really is not just the sensation we have. [...]