If you work the night shift, you face unique health and productivity challenges. Many night workers have difficulty falling asleep during the day and staying awake at night. Knowing what you can do to improve your daytime sleep, and your nighttime alertness, can help you maintain your efficiency and safety. Answering the following statements true [...]
A lot of us don't get the kind of day-to-day physical activity we need, so are physically "unfit." "Physical activity" means any movement of the body that is made by skeletal muscles—and requires energy to accomplish. "Physical fitness" means the ability of a person to do physical activity. Physical fitness can be measured by determining [...]
Riddled with regret over missed opportunities? You may want to let it go. A new study suggests that being able to set aside regret might make for happier years later in life. Researchers from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, in Germany, examined regret in 20-somethings and 60-somethings to see how it affected their emotional health. [...]
It's never too late to take control of your choices to improve your overall health and your quality of life. Make small first steps, like adding a multivitamin and eating better, then slowly making tougher changes, like quitting smoking. The benefits of positive lifestyle changes are swift. For example, your heart rate and blood pressure [...]
Depression is not a natural part of growing old but rather a medical condition that should be treated aggressively. Depression in older adults, or in anyone, should not be thought of as normal. Some groups are at higher risk, but the average older person is not depressed any more than a young person. Depression is [...]
As your eyes age, their lenses become less flexible, and they slowly lose their ability to focus on nearby objects. It's an ongoing, lifelong process called presbyopia, which you begin to notice between ages 40 and 45, when the condition starts to affect close-up tasks such as reading. It requires some attitude adjustment, especially if [...]
By, Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT, CWS – Columbia College New Year is a time for new beginnings. These may include making resolutions. This year discover ways to help you make New Year's resolutions or goals that will stick. Many people use the start of a New Year as a reason to commit to [...]
By spring, chances are good that those grand plans for self-improvement hatched at the start of the new year will have become more of a dead weight. Many people vow to eat less and exercise more; stop smoking, drinking or spending too much; and better organize our wayward lives. Research in the Journal of Clinical [...]
Here's a word of advice: If you're getting ready to make New Year's fitness resolutions—don't. Instead design a year long fitness plan to ensure effective lifestyle changes are utilized. Month-by-month plan Use this yearlong plan to improve your health each month: January: Set your goals. Take a look at your life: What's missing? What do [...]
To shed unwanted pounds and keep them off, people have to be ready to face some setbacks and keep on trying, said Dr. Jessica Bartfield, an internal medicine and medical weight-loss specialist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, part of the Loyola University Health System. "People need a motivation to lose weight and the new year is [...]