Posts from — December 2009

photo by dukal
First resolution: Never wear my hair like this.

It’s resolution time again. It’s the part of the year when we’re encouraged to make a giant to-do list packed with wild undertakings like save more money, lose five dress sizes, and singlehandedly create world peace. Or something like that.

I’ve never made a New Year’s resolution before. My life seems to be full of tiny yearlong resolutions, like Make It Through This Week. But this year I’ve decided to make The Big List. The reason, my friends, is you. This year I’ll be held accountable to my resolutions because I’m sharing them with more than The Man. May I feel the pressure to stick to these all year long…

1. Fix my knees. ’Nuff said.
2. Go to the gym six days a week. I’ll give myself a day of rest, naturally. And, of course, I get freebie time off after PRP injections, when my knee swells to grapefruit size, becomes stiff as steel, and aches like, well, four inches of needle were repeatedly stuck into it.
3. Eat out less. Aside from being a major money suck, eating out is a source of unnecessary calories, fat, and sodium.
4. Learn to cook better. I’m not an awful cook, but I have a lot to learn. I’d like to get more adventurous this year so I have more healthy recipes to chose from each night.
5. Read more. Sounds funny coming from a journalist, right? Truth is, I read all day long. It’s part of my job. And then I read for this blog. But with all of that reading I’ve made little time for books. I hope I can make room for more fiction and pleasure books in my 2010 life.
6. Do at least 20 regular push-ups in a row. As many of you know, I’ve started my Project Push-Up because getting my bum knees to work isn’t a big enough goal I’d like to be fit in some way.

Do you believe in making a big, beginning-of-year list? If so, what are your New Year’s resolutions?

photo by anders adermark

Just in time for the holidays, the British Journal of Medicine is reporting that two glasses of Champagne a day is good for your heart. Yep, you heard that right: Sparkly booze = heart healthy.

According to researchers at the University of Reading across the pond, Champagne can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. The polyphenols (powerful chemicals found in grapes) in Champagne increase the availabiltiy of nitric oxide in the blood. The result: Nitric oxide has more time to act on the blood vessels and improve blood flow. Nitric oxide controls blood pressure, and high levels of the molecule can increase blood flow, lower blood pressure, and reduce the changes of blood clots. Still, the researchers say long-term research is needed.

With all of that said, the research won’t affect the amount of bubbly I swig nightly. I’d love to drink two glasses a night, but come on! I’m not made of money. Still, it’s good to know my special occasion drink might have some health benefits, too.

Does this give you the go-ahead to splurge this New Year—or every night? And while we’re talking about nightly drinking … do you have a glass of wine nightly? Though I know it’s heart healthly, I don’t.

photo by the u.s. army

The last time I was at the gym, sometime between doing crunches on an exercise ball and stretching my hamstrings, I noticed a woman on the mat beside me who was pumping out more than a dozen push-ups. She was like GI Jane with a ponytail. I was impressed.

Later, I read a few blogs whose writers pledged to do 50 or more push-ups. As if 50 were nothing. Nothing!

Then the day after Christmas, my family started talking about fancy gym equipment—my father’s the guy who bought an Abs Slide in ’96—and how simple exercises may be best. The conversation shifted to push-ups.

And, of course, that got me thinking about Jack LaLanne. I remember watching him hock juice machines when he was something like 80. Between shoving carrots down the juicer he would drop to one hand and do 30 amazing push-ups. One hand. At 80. Sheesh. (In case you were wondering, LaLanne broke a world record by doing 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes.)

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photo by gifrancis

I’ve been thinking a lot about tea. Maybe it’s the freezing temps. Maybe it’s the holidays. Maybe it’s this nagging scratchy throat. In any case, I’ve been chugging a lot of tea lately so I thought it would be appropriate to write a post about my most favorite drink ever: tea.

Aside from warming chilled insides, chasing away colds, and making you feel British, tea has some pretty darn good health benefits, too. Just the other day, for instance, a new study was published that showed that drinking tea (and coffee) can prevent type 2 diabetes. On top of that, flavonoids in tea have antioxidant effects in the body and protect it from free-radical damage. A specific class of flavanoids found in tea, called catechins, reduces the risk of atherosclerosis (a risk factor for heart disease) by dilating blood vessels. And according to Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, FACN, of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tuffs University, catechins in tea may help prevent people who have had a heart attack from having another.

I’m not partial to any type of tea; hot, cold, lukewarm—I’ll drink it anyway. I love a tall glass of iced tea with my meal but the truth is that tea’s health benefits are found in a steamy cup only. (That’s because catechins start breaking down once they’ve been brewed, so they disappear as bottled tea is stored. And since iced tea is usually mixed with water, the flavanoid content is slight.)

There are four major types of tea that come from the camellia sinensis plant. (Herbals, on the other hand, come from sources like flowers, fruit, plants, and grass and don’t reap the same health benefits.) Here’s a look at the particulars of each type:

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photo by garlandcannon

Well, I’m off to Connecticut to celebrate the holiday with my extended family. And though I’m sure I could write something more compelling during the car ride there, I’m hoping you’re spending little time online and instead baking cookies, wrapping presents, singling carols, and doing other Norman Rockwell-type things. At the very least, I hope you’ve broken into the eggnog.

Before I sign off, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas (or, belated happy Hanukkah!) and good cheer.

photo by mare.bowe

There’s a Christmas tradition in our house that doesn’t involve presents or cookies or light-up trees or turkey or big fat men in red velvet. We have traditions around those, of course, but the best is this: Christmas Game Night.

Yup, that’s right. My entire family—parents, sister, The Man, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents—all gather ’round to kick each other’s butt in the game of the year. Last year, my cousin whipped up a three-act twisted version of charades that had all of us heaving with laughter. This year, I expect we’ll top the ’08 fun.

That memory (and looking forward to this year’s games) got me thinking about laughter. People say that laughter is the best medicine, but I started to wonder if there was any truth to the cliché. Turns out, there is.

University of Maryland researchers forced a bunch of participants to watch funny movies (tough job, but someone’s got to do it) before they measured blood vessel dilation. The belly laughs caused the blood vessels to expand and increase blood flow. Those same participants then watched a stressful movie (some emotionally intense movie like The Pianist, Schindler’s List, or Apocalypse Now, I’m guessing) their blood vessels narrowed and reduced blood flow.

In another study, researchers investigated a link between 300 participants’ frequency of laughter and their heart health. They found a connection between those who laughed more often and a lowered risk for heart disease.

In fact, just anticipating laughter can reduce stress hormones that weaken the immune system. (For me that includes thinking about watching Ben Stiller in Zoolander. And, yes, I know that I’m the only one that thinks the movie is funny, thank you very much.)

So going into the holiday season, I wish you health, happiness, and some big belly laughs thrown in for good measure.

photo by deleted.scenes
What, you don’t wear this to work out??

Yesterday I gave you some tips for preventing killer knee pain. As much as I’d love to have a fellow chronic pain sufferer (it gets lonely here in Gimpville), I don’t want any of my uninjured readers to feel the crunch, crunch of cartilage damage. So I hope you really take the suggestions to heart.

As promised, I’ve listed some stretches and exercises that can combat too-tight or weak muscles. Or both. Next time you hit the gym or open road, don’t assume running or biking or ellipticalling (Is that a word? Now it is.) or doing any other cardio workout is enough. Those exercises work muscles, but not every muscle. By strength training them you can make sure you don’t miss any key muscle groups and create imbalances.

QUAD
Strengthen It: Try leg presses. Work one leg at a time to challenge each leg separately. Do three sets of 10 presses on each leg.

HAMSTRINGS
Strengthen It: Do hamstring curls. I wrote all about it here, so check it out.

Stretch It: Lie on your back with one leg stretched out in front of you and another lifted into the air. Loop a towel around the ball of your raised foot, and straighten your leg. (Men should slightly bend the leg.) Pull the towel toward you so you feel a stretch in the back of your thigh. Hold for a count of 30. Repeat three times, then switch legs.

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photo by yuan2003

I know what you’re thinking: “You’re broken and all, but my knees work just fine. How do I prevent hobbling around like you?”

Glad you asked. If there were one thing I’d go back and tell my younger self—you know, if someone built a time machine and I somehow got a turn in it—I’d force her to focus on preventive measures. Misery loves company, but I don’t want you to join me in my chronic pain journey. Instead, I want to help you thwart future pain in your knees. Here’s how:

Get to Know Your Feet
Normal arches are actually not that normal. Go figure. Lots of people are like me, with feet that roll inward thanks to low arches. (Some have too-high arches, which brings a host of other problems.) Flat feet can change the mechanics of your whole leg; when your feet roll inward, your knees follow. And a knee that rolls inward no longer tracks along its smooth path. If you have flat feet, prevent maltracking by getting a pair of orthotics. The shoe inserts will shift your stance and help re-align the leg’s position.

Wear Smart Shoes
It’s also important to wear proper shoes. As much as I’d like to believe all shoes—even cheapo Payless ones—were created equal, my knee pain has convinced me that quality matters. A good pair of shoes can give your foot the support it needs, whether you have flat feet or high arches. Plus, ill-fitting shoes can alter the way you run, which in turn puts you at risk for injury.

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photo by i like

I remember the first time I stepped foot in a gym. I was a freshman in college whose fitness know-how started and stopped with turning on the treadmill. After my run, I slowly walked around the expansive space—you know, as if I were focused on my workout when in fact I was trying to peek at weight machine instructions—then decided I’d make a fool of myself tomorrow. I wasn’t about to learn the ins and outs of the shoulder press with about a hundred other college students expertly bench pressing and biceps curling a couple feet away.

It took me a month to finally try the weight machines, and I only gave ’em a go because I had free reign of the entire gym. (I was in college, and those kids don’t are like vampires before noon.) Now I’m not afraid to test out new equipment, mainly because I know which muscles most are supposed to work.

I was reminded of my first gym experience when I read a new study, published in the January/February 2010 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior that found that overweight people let negative thoughts about the gym control their exercise habits more often than positive thoughts.

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photo by phr3qu3ncy

I was 9 years old the last time I could tell time from my bed. That year, my mother took me to the doctor and bought me a pair of plastic, lilac Fisher Price glasses. (And, no, Harry Potter didn’t exist then so glasses were not cool.) Ever since—and especially as my vision has declined to borderline blind levels—my clock has been a blur of bright red.

A new study, published in the Archives of Ophthalmology, says I’m not alone. More people in the United States are dealing with nearsightedness—the inability to see faraway objects—than ever before. During 1971 and 1972, 25 percent of 12- to 54-year-olds were nearsighted. Between 1999 and 2004, the percentage jumped to 42. The researchers don’t know the cause of the mass vision loss (the study just looked at data, not lifestyle factors of the men and women surveyed), but they have a guess: computers.

I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that logging more than eight hours in front of a computer each day was turning my eyes into Jell-O. Or something. Either way, my vision loss got worse faster as soon as I started my first job. Instead of spending most days in the classroom (staring at a faraway chalkboard), my eyes were focused on the bright screen. Five years later and I’m still parked in front of a computer every day. And I’m accumulating new prescriptions faster than I can pay for updated glasses lenses.

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