It only takes 60 seconds to prolong your life!
67 Ways to Be Healthier in a Minute or Less!
Healthy living tip #1: It only takes 60 seconds to prolong your life.
60-Second Tip: Eat a mint. It'll perk you up, ease a workout, and make your love life a little sassier.
RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Most people don’t get serious about health until their doctor hands them a script for blood work instead of the lollipop. Then it’s “uh-oh time” and they try to become Dean Ornish overnight.
It’s so much easier to prevent trouble than it is to fix it, especially when you have time on your side and can take baby steps toward living a little more healthfully every day. Agree? Then, let’s start, shall we? Here are 60-plus easy health tips that take 60 seconds or less. Pick one to master every few days and live happier and healthier for just about forever.
Give Achy Knees a Bath
If you sit around in office chairs all day, your knee joints aren’t being lubricated. That can lead to knee pain.
Try the quad pump, a 10-second exercise that causes your cartilage to
secrete fluid, bathing the knee joint in nutrients to keep it healthy.
Sit in a chair and extend your legs straight out so that your heels rest
on the floor. Now tighten your quadriceps, the thigh muscles above your
knees. Hold the contraction for 2 seconds then release. Repeat five
times to squeeze lubrication into your knee joint. Feel better?
The 3-Ounce HDL Booster
Instead of chips with your sandwich, switch to unsalted pistachios. In
research at the Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, VA, people who
ate two to three ounces of unsalted pistachios a day for four weeks
raised their HDL cholesterol (the good kind) by 6 percent.
Say Hello, Then Start Complaining
A doctor graces his patient with his presence for just three minutes on
average during the typical office visit. Get the most out of your brief
encounter by sharing your most urgent concern within the first minute,
just after you say hello. Research shows that patients who bring up
difficult issues at the start of an appointment are more likely to be
satisfied with the visit and to adhere to their MD's recommendations.
Pick a Cleaner Cleaner
Most dry cleaners
use a solvent called perchloroethylene, a known carcinogen in animals.
You wouldn’t want it next to your skin, and when the chemical isn’t
disposed of properly, it can seep into water supplies. But there’s hope
for that wine-stained shirt. Some cleaners are switching to a harmless
silicone solvent that biodegrades. Visit greenearthcleaning.com to find your nearest nontoxic cleaner.
Beat Migraines with Pie
Feel a headache coming on? Have a piece of apple pie or munch on an organic Granny Smith apple.
In one study from the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research
Foundation in Chicago, when subjects in the midst of a migraine attack
sniffed test tubes containing a green apple smell, the pain improved
more than when they sniffed tubes that had no scent. Researchers say it
could be a matter of distraction, or it could be that the smell of green
apple actually reduces muscle contractions in the head and neck,
reducing headache pain. Earlier studies found that the smell of green
apples helps reduce anxiety.
Add Cinnamon, Girl
Sprinkle cinnamon into your coffee grinds before you press “brew.” This
antioxidant-rich spice, studies show, may reduce blood pressure and
lower stress. Come to think of it, so would listening to Neil Young.
Dry-Brush Your Teeth
Before squeezing toothpaste onto your brush, take 30 seconds to brush
your teeth with a dry toothbrush. Doing so cuts tartar by 60 percent and
also reduces the risk of bleeding gums
by half. Use a dry soft-bristle brush to scrub the insides of your top
and bottom teeth, then buff the outer surfaces. Rinse, then brush
normally with toothpaste.
Apply a Darker Condiment
Make that burger better for you with a shot of organic ketchup. USDA
researchers recently compared lycopene levels in 13 commercial varieties
of ketchup and found that organic brands pack as much as three times
the amount of the cancer-fighting phytochemical in ordinary brands.
Study coauthor Betty Ishida, PhD, speculates that the organics top the
list because they're made with riper tomatoes. "The darker red a ketchup
is, the greater the lycopene content," says Ishida. Another good hue
cue is green-and-white; that's the color of the USDA's certified-organic
label.
Exercise Your Ears
Music can either be a sledgehammer or a tuning fork. If you want to be
able to hear your great-granddaughter when you’re 97, fine-tune your
ears with music. First, turn down the volume
to a sane level (you should be able to listen to the music and still
carry on a normal conversation), then practice singling out a single
instrument and listening to it. This exercise will help you develop the
ability to perceive more details in everyday sounds, says Gail Whitelaw,
PhD, past president of the American Academy of Audiology.
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- abra
on Jun. 14, 2012 at 11:33 AM