Facial Yoga: Sculpt Your Cheeks

Yoga works wonders for your body, so why not your face?  Yoga teacher Annelise Hagen, author of The Yoga Face, demonstrates simple moves that she says will sculpt and lift your cheeks and keep you younger-looking.

Diet, Lifestyle and Sleep

By Nedeltcheva AV et al: “The barriers to maintaining healthy body weight are complex and include physiologic, psychological, and social factors” according to an editorial in an Annals study.

“If your goal is to lose fat, skipping sleep is like poking sticks in your bicycle wheels,” Penev said. “Cutting back on sleep, a behavior that is ubiquitous in modern society, appears to compromise efforts to lose fat through dieting. In our study it reduced fat loss by 55 percent.”

“Perhaps sleep should be included as part of the lifestyle package that traditionally has focused on diet and exercise…” Continue reading »

The Importance of Vitamin D

By Cathie Dunal MD, MPH: The list of Vitamin D’s impact has expanded to both physical and psychological health:

•. Lower rates of colon, lung, breast, and prostate cancer and melanoma
•. Less risk for stroke and heart attacks
•. Less risk for allergies and autoimmune disease
•. Prevents osteoporosis, through its role in assisting calcium absorption
•. Better immunity—fewer colds and flu
•. Lower risk of Alzheimer’s
•. Improved mood
•. Lower rates of multiple sclerosis.  (However, this may be a false association because the lower rates are also associated with lower latitudes and more sun—it could be due to another component of sunshine.)

How much Vitamin D should you take?………. Continue reading »

Dark Chocolate Health Benefits

By Alexis Wolfer: The New York Times [has] reported that chocolate, in moderation is good for your heart. In fact, women (from Sweden in this study) who ate 1 to 2 servings of dark chocolate (between two-thirds of an ounce and one ounce) each week had almost one-third fewer cases of heart failure than those who avoided the sweet stuff. They say that chocolate may lower blood pressure and that the flavonoids in cocoa may reduce blood vessel inflammation.

2010 was a good year for dark chocolate lovers — the news is full of promising research regarding its effects on heart, stress, brain & liver, not to mention tastebuds! — Dr. Cathie

BeautyBean … New York Times … Telegraph (UK) ... Daily Mail (UK) … Medical News Today

HeartMath

HeartMath is meditation that you can easily fit into your life–one minute at a time.  It’s also a biofeedback technique that allows stressed adrenal glands to recover, and balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Scientific studies support the technique.  I especially recommend the eMWave machine and the cd Quiet Joy.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4n3X_Sz5tw&feature=player_embedded