The Big Picture: Sleep

A simple idea for increased productivity…watch this TED talk by Arianna Huffington…and sleep! — Cathie
.

Handy Travel Tips

By Cathie Dunal, MD, MPH:

CLEAN YOUR CREDIT CARDS (and everything else you can think of!) You’re waiting at the airport and decide to eat.  You’ve just washed your hands because you used the self check-in machine.  You order, hand your credit card to the cashier, take it back, then sit down and take a big bite.  Think about it!  After touching everyone else’s credit card, the cashier has taken yours, given it back to you with a sampling of the bugs du jour — you get the bugs on your fingers, then you eat.  (Alcohol wipes work just fine.)

EASIER AIRPORT “It was an excellent flight,” my elderly mother beamed as I walked up to her inside the baggage claim area, “and this is a beautiful airport.”  I thought so too as I pulled her suitcase off the carousel and walked to the car waiting 20 feet outside.

Flying into Milwaukee rather than O’Hare turned out to be an excellent idea because it’s a smaller airport, easier for her to manage, and easier for me to pick her up.  The extra 20 minutes of traffic-free expressway travel was well worth it.  I imagine it would be easier for families with children too.

But I initially booked the flight into Milwaukee for health reasons:  Mom caught a bug and needed antibiotics the last few times she’s flown.  My guess was that a smaller regional airport, with fewer people coming from overseas, and shorter wait times, would expose her to fewer infectious challenges.  So far, so good!  She’s been back home for a week now, with no signs of sickness.  It’s Milwaukee next time, for sure.

POTENTIALLY PROTECTIVE PILLS Preparations said to help ward off sickness when exposed to crowds include: Vitamin C (I prefer buffered C), Zinc, Silver Spray, Air Borne, and Source Naturals’ Wellness Formula.  Hand washing/sanitizing can’t be emphasized enough!  Don’t hesitate to stay home or use a mask if you are sick.

GREAT LINK FOR INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL INSURANCE International Medical Group provides very reasonable overseas health insurance: click or call 800-655-4500.

High Cost of Cheap Foods

By Mark Hyman MD: “I was in the grocery store yesterday. While I was squeezing avocados to pick just the right ones for my family’s dinner salad, I overheard a conversation from a couple who had also picked up a fruit.

“Oh, these avocados look good, let’s get some.”

Then looking up at the price, they said, “Two for five dollars!” Dejected, they put the live avocado back and walked away from the vegetable aisle toward the aisles full of dead, boxed, canned, packaged goods where they can buy thousands of calories of poor-quality, nutrient-poor, factory-made, processed foods filled with sugar, fat, and salt for the same five dollars. This is the scenario millions of Americans struggling to feed their families face every day…”

Article

DNA + Lifestyle = New DNA

By Dr. David Katz, Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center

We have long known that lifestyle has a powerful influence on health across a wide array of outcomes. It is not news to you that eating well, being active, controlling your weight, managing stress and not smoking, for instance, can influence your fate.

But we have tended to think in terms of “nature versus nurture” — with lifestyle and genetic influences on health as independent and potentially competing forces. This study, and others like it, ostensibly change the game. They suggest that lifestyle and genetics are not independent after all, but interact. Even our genes are influenced by lifestyle choices. We can, it seems, nurture nature.

To a Preventive Medicine specialist like me, this is of profound importance. Complacency and fatalism are enemies of disease prevention. For many people, the notion that their medical destiny is written in their genes is a disincentive to take matters into their own hands.

Continue reading »

Ernestine at 74

Ernestine Shepard was shopping for swimsuits with her sister in 1992 when they realized they weren’t in such great shape; so at the age of 56…Ernestine took her first aerobics class. Today she is 74, still running 80 miles a week, lifting free-weights, setting records and teaching classes.

Filed under Fitness | Comments Off on Ernestine at 74