When you go to the doctor, you have certain expectations. He will listen to your complaints, examine you, diagnose the problem and if necessary, prescribe the appropriate medication. The pills you receive will be a combination of chemicals, mixed perfectly so as to create a potent drug sure to eliminate your ailment.

But what if they aren’t? What if they are nothing more than an empty capsule?

A recent study found that placebo prescription was much more common than thought. Previously, the do-nothing pills were used to determine if symptoms were real or to compare the effects of varying drugs. But today, nearly half of surveyed doctors say that they have given placebos to patients, believing that the beliefs and expectations of recovery would heal the body. And the vast majority, regardless of whether or not they had prescribed placebos, admitted that the “fake” medication had therapeutic effects.

Most are looking at this discovery, and harping on the ethical implications of fake prescriptions. However, we are going to do something else. We will look at the positive, the implications that this study makes about our bodies.

There is a powerful connection between the mind and body. If you believe that you will recover, you very well might. Why? The body has a natural ability to heal - an ability that even doctors are recognizing as greater than some medications. Assuming you are well (aside from the current ailment), meaning you eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly, maintain the proper levels of all nutrients and have faith in your health, your body can overcome the various bugs and bacteria that invade your system. This, of course, won’t work for the more serious conditions, but it’s worth thinking about for the less detrimental.

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Do you wake up early on the weekends just so you can make your 7a.m. tee time? Do you spend hours polishing your nine-iron, wanting it to look its best the next time it sends the ball straight to the green? Do you harbor delusions of being the next Tiger Woods and strut from hole to hole hoping an agent will notice you? Do you fear your life would end without a weekly round of golf? If so, I’ve got some bad news:

A recent study found that golfing was just as hard on artificial knees as jogging and tennis, making it one of the worst things you could do. The best exercise was cycling on a stationery bike, followed by walking on a treadmill or walking in general. These workouts were relatively low impact and resulted in a limited amount of pounds weighing down on the joints. So if you have a fake knee, you may want to reconsider golf or at least think about modification, and if you don’t, well you might want to anyway.

By 2030, the number of knee replacements performed annually will have increased by 525 percent. That kind of a hike means that you are more than likely to be one of the many in surgery, and one of your knees is more than likely not to be real unless, of course, you take the steps necessary to protect your joints. Continue Reading >>

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When you get married, you are saying that you have found the one person you want to grow old with. The man or woman beside you is the one that will fill the rocking chair next to yours, will raise children with you and unearth the mysteries of life with you. You foresee years of adventure, happiness, frustration, crises, excitement and monotony, together. But what’s the point of all that dreaming, of even getting married if one or both of you don’t make it to the ten year anniversary?

If you want a lengthy marriage, you have to ensure that both you and your spouse remain healthy, emotionally and physically. That means that you must express your feelings, stand up for yourself and be willing to fight rather than back down meekly. Individuals who repress their anger are more likely to die young as opposed to those who openly protest wrongdoings, so if you are attacked unfairly, don’t be afraid to say so. But know that there is a time and place for anger, and sometimes it falls to you to be perky, instead.

Patients recovering from surgery, for example, do so more quickly and healthily when their spouse is upbeat and positive. When their spouse is neurotic and anxious, they are more likely to show signs of depression, which can deter healing. So in situations such as that, you have to put on a happy face and act as a role model for your husband or wife. And since you’re already demonstrating one healthy habit, you may as well show your other half how to live his entire life healthily. Eat well, exercise and maintain a healthy weight, and your spouse will be more apt to do the same. Then, you won’t have to worry that one of you will die prematurely, only that one of you will kill the other before his/her time.

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It’s a lot easier to be healthy if you have money. You can afford insurance, doctor’s visits, vitamins, supplements, health aids and health foods. If, on the other hand, you don’t, it’s a bit more difficult. Obtaining all of the necessities for wellness is a task that often seems more trouble than it’s worth. You can’t even get the free samples pharmaceutical companies claim are available for your benefit. The wealthy have gobbled them up in a cruel twist of circumstances. Meanwhile, the price of fruits and vegetables – the only foods everyone seems to agree on - increases daily, apparently attempting to match the cost of college tuition, while the price of potato chips and snack foods continually drops. You can’t afford to load your cart with the nutrient-filled produce, so you buy the junk. You don’t have a choice. There’s no middle ground . . . but there is.

You can achieve health without turning to a strictly vegetarian diet. You don’t have to buy only organic, non-fat foods. You can throw a few things into the cart aside from produce, maintain a healthy diet and not completely deplete your wallet. You see, some “bad” foods can be good for you. They can fill you up with less, meaning your fridge will stay fuller longer and so will your stomach. Here are a few examples of products that are misunderstood yet secretly good:

• Meat – you can eat meat. The high protein content will fill you up with just a little, cutting calories for the rest of the day. Buy as lean as you can. It will raise the cost a little, but not too much. And it will be worth it.
• Eggs – rather than the inexpensive (when compared to health-food breakfasts) pop tart that fills you up for a grand total of five minutes and offers you no nutrients, have a scrambled egg. It cooks in the same amount of time it takes to toast a pop tart, supplies you with protein and keeps your stomach happy until lunch. Plus, you get 12 in one carton. What a bargain!
• Pizza – if you need a frozen pizza, buy one that’s whole wheat, full of fiber and topped with veggies. The fiber slows digestion, once again leaving you fuller longer and providing you with more bang for your buck.

These additions to your grocery list won’t completely eradicate your money problems, but they will give you more options. And once you’ve finished in the market, should you find you have a little money left over, browse LuckyVitamin.com for the remainder of your health needs. The bargains completely contradict the idea that you have to be wealthy to be healthy.

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The last time I had a cold, I also happened to have a party to attend. While there, I was told, by numerous people, to have a beer. I would feel better in seconds (or sips). In fact, if I really wanted to conquer the virus, I should have a few. I eyed them doubtfully even as they assured me that it was common knowledge and age-old advice. I wasn’t sure what to do. Could alcohol really help?

No. Despite the multitudes of people who swear by a warm brandy or hot toddy in the face of a cold, once the illness has set in, alcohol can not effectively relieve your symptoms. You may feel marginally better, but that’s because you’re a little buzzed from the combination of cold meds and liquor (a bad idea, by the way) not because you’re better. When the alcohol burns out of your system, you’ll be left dehydrated, with a weaker body and prolonged symptoms.

Instead, reserve your alcohol for the pre-cold. Use alcohol-based hand sanitizers to ward off germs and if you’re having a drink, have a glass of red wine. Studies have shown that a moderate amount of the tannic beverage can significantly reduce the risk of developing a cold. Once the illness sets in, switch to the much loved colorless, tasteless beverage . . . water. Water and warm, clear broths will help you feel better as the virus works its way through your body.

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For a person with severe irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), going to work brings more than the daily nine-to-five stress - it brings eight hours of attempting to hide regular flatulence, bloating and discomfort. And often, it’s a failed attempt. Coworkers notice the gassy aroma that lingers by your chair, and they, unable to resist, offer malicious comments, cruel jokes and painful jabs. For one woman, the mockery was so severe that she filed a harassment claim, alleging that her fellow employees were mercilessly taunting her. But the claim was dismissed, leaving her with no comfort unless she could find a way to soothe her IBS.

Unfortunately, that’s not an easy thing to do. There is only one medication specifically designed to treat IBS, and it, along with the antidepressants and other options, offer far too little help with far too many side effects. There is hope on the horizon, as researchers are continually assessing alternative methods of treatment. They are finding that counseling, journal writing and hypnosis ease symptoms, as well as several herbal remedies. A combination of bitter candytuft, chamomile, peppermint, caraway and licorice is showing promise in the early stages of testing. So, it may not be long before IBS patients have a few more choices that don’t put the rest of their bodies in danger, but what should be done until then? Continue Reading >>

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For most people, a Starbucks addiction leads to little more than a smaller wallet and an ever present latte. But for one woman in Tacoma, Washington it led to much more. It led to a kidney.

Sandi Andersen, a Starbucks barista, immediately had herself tested upon learning that a favorite customer needed a transplant. Against the odds, she matched and offered the organ to the grateful patron as readily as if it were a shot of espresso. She saved her life.

Unfortunately, people like Sandi are few and far between. Most of us can’t rely on our baristas for more than a steaming cup of sweet, sweet caffeine (for which we are eternally grateful), so it’s up to us to maintain kidney health. And we do that with information.

Kidney failure occurs when your kidneys stop functioning and you are unable to live without dialysis or a kidney transplant. It can result from an injury, major blood loss or a given medication, but is most often caused by diabetes or hypertension. Therefore, taking the steps to prevent these conditions – exercising regularly and maintaining a balanced diet – is a key part of protecting your kidneys. But so is regular screening. More than 500 million individuals worldwide have some sort of kidney damage. Having your doctor, particularly if you are at risk, run the necessary tests could catch a problem early and enable you to keep a small problem small.

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It begins as a normal evening. You’ve gone out to dinner and taken in a movie. As you move towards your car, tired and sated, you hear a commotion – yelling - from a few feet away. A man has collapsed. He is lying, seemingly unconscious and not breathing, on the ground before his vehicle. People are panicked, searching for cell phones, calling for help but not moving towards him. He will not receive aid until the paramedics arrive; by then, it could be too late. He will die on the concrete, unless you step forward. Will you? Could you?

One in ten victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests survives, meaning 90 percent die. This could be changed if more individuals learned CPR, if you learned CPR. Mouth to mouth resuscitation or even just chest compressions can bring a person back to life. They can offer a second chance to turn health around and make you a hero. It may seem like a lot of responsibility, particularly when the “hero” title is used, but in truth, CPR is a relatively simple process that once learned, stays with you. Ten years after your initial training, the rules of first aid could still be in your mind, waiting to be remembered and used. If you can, take a CPR class and renew your certification annually. Meanwhile, learn the basic steps of the technique, so the next time a normal night turns into a medical emergency, you can and do step forward. And remember, if there is no heartbeat or sign of breathing, CPR must be started within three minutes; don’t hesitate.

1. Shake and Shout – Make sure that the victim is truly unconscious. Shake him, asking simultaneously if he is okay or can hear you.
2. Call 911
3. Clear the Airway – With the palm of one hand on the victim’s forehead and two fingers of the other under the chin, tilt the head backwards to displace any possible obstructions.
4. Check for Breath – Watch the victim’s chest, listen at his airway and attempt to feel his breath against your cheek. If he is breathing, you do not have to perform CPR.
5. Breathe – Pinching the victim’s nose and with the head tilted slightly, breathe twice into his mouth. Each breath should be approximately one second in length.
6. Compress – Place the heel and palm of one hand on the center of the victim’s chest in between the nipples, laying the heel of your second hand atop the first. Press down hard and fast, pushing down 1.5 to two inches with each compression.
7. Cycle – For every two breaths, do 30 compressions, then two more breaths. Continue alternating breaths and compressions until the paramedics arrive, or the victim regains consciousness or begins breathing.

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 It’s Thursday night. You’re tired, hungry and cranky. You have a pile of work sitting beside you in the car, none of which you want to do. At home, fresh chicken is waiting to be cooked, greens are waiting to be cleaned and brown rice is waiting to be boiled. Preparing it all will take time, time that you don’t have time for, let alone the energy. If you wanted to save that time you could pop into the diner on the other side of the red light, aglow in neon lights. Someone else would make your dinner and do your dishes. You could tackle some of those papers as you waited and ate. True, your meal would be considerably less healthy, but it’s just one meal. You were healthy yesterday; you’ll be healthy tomorrow and every day after that. And really, what could one fat-filled, sugar-laced, greasy plate do to you?

More than you’d think.

Junk food’s negative effect isn’t limited to the long-term. When you consume it regularly, your blood pressure is likely to elevate and your risk of heart attack multiplies at an alarming rate. When you consume it just once, the same is true. After eating a diet’s worst nightmare, your blood vessels constrict and free radicals develop. The free radicals assault your cells, causing serious damage and contributing to chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease, which leads to . . . stay with me here . . . high blood pressure and heart attacks.

The best way to stay healthy is to avoid the “just this one time” meals, for you are only as healthy as your last meal. If that was a heart attack in a bun, then that’s how healthy you are, which isn’t saying much (gives lunch a whole new perspective, doesn’t it?). Stick to the good-for-you, highly nutritious foods such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables. If you truly can’t contain the urge for white bread or similarly high-energy, low-value foods, couple them with their opposite. A bit of vinegar with your Wonder Bread will dampen the adverse affects, so will wine (not too much) or even nuts. You have plenty of healthy options, but that diner isn’t one of them. 

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 “Side effects are rare but include headache, back pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, indigestion, dizziness, fatigue, cough, fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, memory loss, numbness, nose bleed, hyper sensitivity . . .” The list goes on and on and on. It is the end of every medication’s television spotlight and often the largest paragraph on the vial. Yet we choose to ignore it. We disregard the warnings, swallowing pills with a confidence that, despite the “rare” avowal, could very well kill us.

In the past three years, an estimated 3,000 people have died in the United Kingdom after suffering severe reactions to medications. Thirteen thousand more have had a lesser yet similarly adverse reaction. They have spent hours, days and weeks in the hospital unsure of whether they would be able to leave, because the quickly uttered warning at the end of the commercial was meant for them. They have been struck down by prescription medications and over-the-counter pills - items that were meant to protect them from ill health - and they have failed to learn their lesson.

Many of these adverse reactions could be avoided. If patients learned from their mistakes, paid attention to what negatively affected them and kept their doctors informed, they could significantly lessen the likelihood of falling ill. If they read the bottles, looked at the ingredients and understood the risk, they could find medicine that did what it was supposed to rather than the opposite. Of course, it doesn’t all fall to the patient. Doctors make mistakes, too. They fail to be fully informed. And even when they are, some adverse reactions can’t be predicted.

None the less, you have to be mindful. You know your body best. When something is wrong, recognize and report it. Don’t let medicines make you ill. Make them make you healthy. 

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I have a frightening love of organization. If something can be categorized, alphabetized or arranged by size, it’s a good bet that I’ve already taken care of it, devoting hours to the removal of its chaos. My books are sorted by genre, then author and then, publication date. My affinity for binders has taken on neurotic proportions, and my need for order has elicited more than one withering remark. I like to imagine that everyone is like this, that every shelf in the nation has a rhyme and reason to its setup, but that’s simply not true. In fact, it’s about as far removed from true as you can get.

Americans are disorganized; they live surrounded by clutter and random assortments of unnecessary items. Busy schedules add to the piles, removing the possibility of enough time to sort through them. Shows, such as Clean Sweep and How Clean Is Your House, highlight the problem, revealing to the general public the country’s most terrifying displays of chaos. The programs focus on ways to organize that will permanently eradicate needless accumulation. They help clutter bugs change their lives and inspire viewers to buy filing cabinets. But they are not the thorough resources they appear to be, for they fail to even mention the most important aspect of disorganization: your ill health.

The accumulation of clutter wears on your wellbeing in numerous ways.  Most obviously, it allows for the generation of dust. You can’t be expected to vacuum when you can’t even walk through the room, so you abandon the idea of cleaning, allowing films of dust to cover the items and create a hotbed of allergens. Once this occurs, you decide that furthering the dirt’s spread would be harmful and so you quickly forget about the things that make up each individual pile, including your running shoes, workout clothes and exercise equipment. There goes the possibility of activity. Already, your clutter has turned you into a sneezing blob of inertia, but the problems don’t stop there. The stress that accompanies disorganization is constant and mounts with every bauble you throw onto the heap of chaos. You have chronic anxiety because of the mess and thus, a weakened immune system.  You are a walking pillar of ill health, who can only be cured by . . . organization.

You need to start cleaning. There are resources available to help you, people willing to do it for you and oodles of suggestions on the best methods.  However, what you really want to remember is to start small. Don’t attempt to reorganize your entire downstairs in one afternoon. Take it drawer by drawer. Forget the emotional attachment to all 45 of your coffee mugs. Throw some out and then, sort your way into wellness.

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Almost a year ago, the final Harry Potter book hit the shelves. Fans dressed in elaborate costumes, waving wands and uttering strange incantations crammed themselves excitedly into Barnes & Nobles and Borders throughout the world, awaiting the arrival of their pre-ordered prize. The book, all 784 pages, was gobbled up immediately, and the literary love affair with Harry quickly ended, leaving many readers depressed and leading one group of researchers to announce that Harry Potter in all of his magical glory was addictive.

According to the survey of 4,000 fans, conducted by a professor and two undergraduates at Muhlenberg College, 10 percent of Harry Potter fanatics showed signs of addiction. They devoted more than four hours a day to wizard-related activities, noted interferences with their appetite and sleep patterns, logged less exercise time and experienced a lesser sense of well-being after closing the final book. Essentially, they went through withdrawal.

We can take from this study one of two things. Either health professionals have a bit too much time on their hands and may harbor a Harry Potter addiction themselves, or it is entirely possible to become hooked on something that you wouldn’t assume is addictive, such as Harry Potter  . . .  or food and exercise.

Food and exercise are two things that we need - two things that we urge everyone to get an ample amount of, but sometimes that encouragement spurs an obsession. The hooked athlete schedules his life around his exercise.  He is convinced that if 30 minutes equals health, two hours equals four times the health. He runs or bikes or lifts compulsively, unable to be happy if he hasn’t seen a drop of sweat all day. Similarly, the food addict is driven by food.  He lacks self-control, eats compulsively, uses meals to find pleasure or comfort and often feels guilty after eating. His weight and what goes into his body interferes with his regular life. Nothing can go right if there’s no hope for food in sight.

If you or someone you know has shown signs of an exercise or food addiction, it’s important that help is sought. A medical professional, a trainer or a nutritionist can help get the obsession under control and turn a negative into a positive. You need exercise in your life. You need food in your life. Maybe, you need Harry Potter in your life. But no single thing should consume your life.

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You are young, fit and healthy. You eat well, exercise often and unlike most people you know, log the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. In fact, you are so dedicated to your snooze-time that you have rearranged your evening habits to ensure that you are regularly in bed by 11, no matter what. You are confident that this type of lifestyle will lead to nothing but health and that your level of wellness is far superior to that of your sleep-deprived friends, but your confidence may be premature. For when it comes to sleep, quantity isn’t the only thing that matters. Quality counts, too.

Researchers recently tested the