Did you resolve to eat healthier in 2019?  Eating healthy is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, right up there with “spend less money” and “exercise more.” Healthy eating can be expensive if you’re on a tight budget, but it can be done with a little thought and creativity.  Here are some easy tips for eating healthy on a budget: Plan your meals. If you plan your meals, build a shopping list, and only buy what’s on the list, you’ll spend less on stuff you don’t need.  You can save even more if you take a look at what’s on sale at your grocery store... Read More

It’s February, the month we celebrate matters of the heart. Valentine’s Day aside, February is also American Heart Month and Go Red for Women Day, the American Heart Association’s initiative to increase women’s heart health awareness. What better time to talk about that thing that makes you tick? The Centers for Disease Control identifies cardiovascular disease as the number one killer of Americans. Most Americans know the most common indicators of heart trouble, such as high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, weight, and diabetes. For their treatment, you can get discount prescription... Read More

Are you a glass half-full person? In other words, are you hopeful and confident about the future?  If so, you might be healthier than your friends who believe that the worst will happen. Many studies have reported that optimism influences health. Among the findings:   Highly pessimistic men were three times more likely to develop hypertension. People with positive emotions had lower blood pressures. The most pessimistic men were more than twice as likely to develop heart disease compared with the most optimistic.   It is hard to know if optimism is the result of good health, or if... Read More

On Mondays I attend my favorite yoga class. Every week, as class disperses and the yogis and yoginis depart, most of them head straight to their phone to see what they’ve missed. The hour they spend unifying their breath and body, finding peace, and practicing mindfulness, is shattered almost immediately after they leave the studio. Why is it so hard to practice mindfulness in our modern society? Here is my take on why practicing mindfulness every day is so hard. In the era of the 24-hour news cycle, portable devices that go everywhere with us, and social media – my apology to the medium that... Read More

  “Eat less, move more” is a mantra I’ve heard and advice I’ve given many times over the years.  While both calorie intake and physical activity are important factors in weight loss, which one is more important? Physiologically speaking, weight loss and gain revolve around the concept of calories in, calories out. In a nutshell, we lose weight when we eat fewer calories than we expend. Conversely, we gain weight when we eat more calories than we expend. Many of us have been advised to add physical activity to our weight loss plan to increase our calorie burn and improve... Read More

Life is full of hardships – grief, break ups, addiction – all times we might think about therapy.  You may be surprised to know the best time to get therapy is when your life is going well. There’s a stigma that therapy is only for people suffering a mental illness or going through a massive interpersonal issue. Therapy’s benefits extend far beyond periods of crisis.  Most people want to be more than ‘not depressed.’ They want to be  happy, productive, loving; they want to be well, not just free of dis-ease. Achieving your full potential requires a heck of a lot of self-knowledge,... Read More

If you are of a certain age, you remember when computers were huge mainframes in the computer science lab, you took a typewriter to college, and you wrote notes by hand in class. Technology has presented us with many modern opportunities to take notes – laptops, tablets, phones, watches.  While we have many options at our disposal, science is proving that the best way to take notes for retaining knowledge is a good, old-fashioned paper and pen. Studies of memory retention using a variety of different tools for note taking show that note-taking by hand improves retention in almost all circumstances.... Read More

Over the years, researchers have tried to determine the cause of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.  Previously, researchers believed that amyloid was one of the proteins thought to cause the disease.  With new discoveries about the mysteries of dementia, there is a new culprit in the debate about what may cause dementia. Amyloid protein is thought to build up in the brain normally throughout life, but, at night, when we’re sleeping, particularly when we get into deep sleep, the protein gets cleared from the brain. Researchers are investigating the possible link between obstructive... Read More

According to the 2010 census data, 15 million people live together without being married, a 138% increase since 1990. According to the Pew Research Center, 18 million adults were living with an unmarried partner in 2016. With more people moving in without putting a ring on it, it makes sense to talk about what happens when you move in and what you should plan before you move in. Moving in together is a big change! Now you’ll see one another all the time, and find out about all of your partner’s warts.  Before you cohabitate with your significant other, here are a few things to think about. Make... Read More

Are you putting off until tomorrow what you could be doing today? If that’s you, it might not be just a personality trait. A study of over 250 men’s and women’s brain scans revealed that a brain region involved in motivation tends to be larger among people who put things off, while communication between that part of the brain and another involved in taking action appeared to be weaker. This study is the first to scan the brain to identify a neural basis for procrastination. Participants in the study were between the ages of 18 and 35 with no history of neurological or psychiatric disorders.... Read More

A report was published this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention that links gum disease with an increased risk of several types of cancer in postmenopausal women. Periodontal disease was tied to a 14 percent higher risk of developing any type of cancer, but the greatest risk was for esophageal cancer, which was more than three times more likely in older women who had gum disease than those who didn’t. In addition, gum disease was associated with a higher risk of lung cancer, gallbladder cancer, melanoma and breast cancer. women who smoked and had gum disease... Read More

New research suggests people who get too little sleep during the week can make up for it on the weekends. According to a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, people who slept less than five hours each night throughout the week had an increased risk of early death compared to those who slept six to seven hours every night. People who get less than five hours during the week, but who catch up on some of that lost sleep on the weekend, do not have the same risk. These results suggest that sleep is not a risk factor for mortality if it is combined with a medium or long weekend sleep. Some... Read More

Scientists have talked for years about the impact global climate will have on our planet.  Some are even speculating that, at this point, there are some things that have happened as a result of the changing climate that are already irreversible. For example, mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months may already be a foregone conclusion. Did you know that global climate change is having an impact on your health now? Some scientists say that impact may also be irreversible. Catastrophic weather such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes,... Read More

From birth to death, one of the most important parts of being human is the need for physical contact. Did you know that a firm hug can make you feel less negative emotion? Scientists found that getting a hug on the day of a conflict was linked to a slight rise in positive emotions and a comparable drop in negative ones, and appeared to linger into the following day. Evidence suggests that close physical contact — such as a hug — can play a part in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, blood pressure, stress, loneliness, aggression, anxiety and depression. When you hug someone, you release... Read More

Since 2016, Meat 2.0 has become the trending food topic. Beyond Meat and Impossible Food are the two major plant-based meat companies now serving consumers at restaurants from A&W to White Castle, as well as in grocery stores. The rise in popularity is based on consumer’s desire to cut down on meat consumption. According to a survey conducted by Johns Hopkins University, nearly 60% of U.S. consumers have expressed interested in eating less meat, driving the market for alternative protein sources that taste like beef.  Why? Studies have shown a link between frequent consumption of red meat... Read More

Every new year brings with it resolutions, goals, intentions – whatever you want to call it.  In short, we make plans for how to be better versions of ourselves.  I’d like to suggest that we think differently about the new year by considering our big WHY? Your big why is something you plug into emotionally that drives you when things get tough. It’s not a wish or a goal, it’s something that will change your life or others around you or do something for you that really matters to your soul. It’s your purpose. If you made a resolution, you may already be feeling like you should... Read More

There is a plethora of information about super foods and what you should be eating to be healthy, live longer, have good brain health and more.  You probably already know that avocado is a nutrient superstar, full of healthy monounsaturated fat and linked to successful weight loss.  Dark chocolate is another food celebrity loaded with antioxidants and a protective agent against heart disease.  Let’s talk about some of the unexpected foods that have health benefits that you might not be eating. Embrace egg yolks! Eggs are a misunderstood fat-rich food that’s an incredible source of vitamin... Read More

Researchers have found that people who stuck to a diet that included foods like berries, leafy greens, and fish had a decrease in their risk for the dementia and related brain diseases, which affects more than 5 million Americans over age 65. There is an eating plan associated with this research called the MIND diet, short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. The diet combines elements of the Mediterranean diet, that features olive oil and vegetables, and the DASH diet, an eating plan developed specifically to help treat or prevent high blood pressure. The MIND diet... Read More

We live in an “all or nothing” society.  You are either an exerciser or you aren’t; you are a healthy eater or you aren’t.  The fact of the matter is that the all or nothing attitude is not helping us to be healthier.  The judgment associated with all or nothing is “If you can’t do everything, why do anything?”  You should absolutely do something because something is always better than nothing.  Let me explain. When we skip our walk/run/bike/Zumba® because we don’t have time to do as much as we wanted to meet our goal, then we do ourselves a disservice. Why?  Because we... Read More

A recent article in the journal The Conversation, asked the question “Is walking enough exercise?”  Four out of five experts said yes. The one expert who said no, qualified his response by saying that walking is better than no exercise at all. He goes on to point out that, ideally, strength training and higher intensity exercise is ideal for good health. While strength training and higher intensity exercise along with moderate exercise is the ideal situation for many, the National Runners’ Health Study found that moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running resulted in similar... Read More