POSTURE PROBLEMS? I’ve had “posture problems” for much of my life. Though I regularly jog and bike, I still don’t habitually walk tall. I even wrote a post on it on May 9, 2018, Good Posture: It Will Improve Your Confidence & Your Health. But I’m not taking my own advice. If you also have a “posture problem” read on. I looked for simple exercises that could easily be performed daily to improve posture. I found this in an April 7, 2022 Harvard Medical School article, Is it too late to save your posture? Here are excerpts. (I underlined the...
NOT SO FAST: INTERMITTENT FASTING MAY NOT LEAD TO WEIGHT LOSS Over the past few years, the appeal of losing weight by simply limiting eating to just six or eight hours a day has gained many followers. After all, it’s a heck of a lot easier to stick to a diet where you can eat whatever you wish—you just have to eat in a narrower time window. Timed-restricted eating has become so trendy that I posted on it two years ago in August 2020: Is Intermittent Fasting the Diet For You? However, I now need to tell you of a...
DAILY “LITTLE THINGS” = A HEALTHIER YOU I just received the August 2022 issue of the online Harvard Health Letter. In it I found recommendations on fitting into our daily routine “little things” that we might otherwise neglect or forget that could boost our health. Here are excerpts from the article by Heidi Godman, Executive Editor, The little things that can improve your health. Schedule these simple yet effective activities throughout your day Eating a plant-based diet, exercising, controlling weight, not smoking, limiting alcohol intake, and getting enough sleep are all pillars of a healthy lifestyle. They’re linked to lower...
AW SHUCKS—CORN ON THE COB IS ACTUALLY HEALTHY Summer is here and it’s time once again for fresh corn on the cob. I’ve now found out that this treat has several health benefits: It consists mostly of insoluble fiber, which makes it a low-glycemic index food—meaning it’s a food that is digested slowly and doesn’t cause an unhealthy spike in blood sugar; It contains several B vitamins as well as minerals, including magnesium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc. It’s the salt and butter we spread on it that turns it from a wholesome food into an unhealthy summertime addition. I’ve...
MEDITATION—YOUR PATH TO LESS STRESS Meditation can be your pathway to not only less stress, but also can help you prevent or manage different medical conditions such as high blood pressure, asthma, depression, chronic pain, or sleep problems. I try to find time at least once a day to slip into a meditative state where I’m completely relaxed and completely in the present. After an especially busy day, I’ll also use meditation to lull me off to sleep. I searched online for a full introduction to meditating and found this article by the Mayo Clinic Staff, Meditation: A simple, fast...
SCIENTIFIC MIRACLE: CANCER DISAPPEARS IN ALL TRIAL PATIENTS WITH EXPERIMENTAL DRUG A small group of people with rectal cancer just experienced a miracle: their cancer completely vanished after an experimental treatment. In a trial by doctors at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, patients were given a drug called dostarlimab for 6 months. The trial resulted in every single one of their tumors disappearing. Scientists say these kinds of results have never been seen in the history of cancer research. I found the original June 5, 2022 online article from MSK: Rectal Cancer Disappears After Experimental Use of...
SIMPLE BODY-WEIGHT EXERCISES With the continuing pandemic, you may not be ready to go back to the gym. Instead, consider body-weight exercises. You can do them anywhere and you don’t need any equipment. Plus, they can be as effective as training with free weights or weight machines. If you consider yourself fit, please refer to my May 2020 post, Why Functional Fitness is Important for Seniors for a great all-body set of exercises including squats, lunges, planks, chest press, row & chop. However, if you’ve had a long layoff or are returning to exercising after an injury you’ll want to...
NEW EXPERIMENTAL OBESITY DRUG HAS AMAZING CLAIMS Over the past few weeks, I’ve begun hearing about a new “miracle drug” from Eli Lilly named tirzepatide to fight obesity. You may have someone dear to you that has Type 2 diabetes or who just cannot manage to lose weight that would greatly benefit from this new drug. For more details, I found an online New York Times article by Gina Kolata from May 1, 2022 titled Patients Taking Experimental Obesity Drug Lost More Than 50 Pounds, Maker Claims. Here are excerpts: An experimental drug has enabled people with obesity or who...
ARE YOUR RUNNING OR JOGGING? When I say, “I’m going out for a run,” I realize that I’ll actually be jogging. Even then, I break up my jog with fast walking; 5 minutes of jogging followed by a minute of walking. This way I can keep moving for a good hour or two. But if I actually ran, I’d probably poop out after 10 minutes. Thus, I can certainly feel the difference. Still, I wanted to find out a bit more of how running compares to jogging. I searched for a while and found this comprehensive online article from Asics,...
PROCESSED MEATS ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH I’m sure you’ve heard that processed meats are among the least healthy foods you can eat. Still, I’ll happily down a couple of wedges of pepperoni pizza or a few slices of bacon if offered. But now I’m hearing that even in small amounts—if eaten regularly—processed meats can greatly increase your risk of not only heart disease but also some cancers and even Alzheimer’s disease. So I searched online for some specifics. One of the best sources I found was the May 17, 2021 UCLA Health online article titled The effects of processed...
