Seasons

THURSDAY, March 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Want a daytime pick-me-up that may also benefit your blood pressure? Take a nap, researchers suggest. “Midday sleep appears to lower blood pressure levels at the same magnitude as other lifestyle changes,” said Dr. Manolis Kallistratos, a cardiologist at Asklepieion General Hospital in Voula, Greece. For each hour you nap, systolic blood pressure drops an average of 3 mm Hg, the researchers found. Systolic pressure — the top number in a blood pressure reading — is the force of your blood pushing against your arteries when your heart beats. Diastolic pressure — the bottom number — is the force between heart beats. Taking a low-dose blood pressure drug, for example, can lower your level an average of 5 to 7 mm Hg, while a nap can reduce overall blood pressure an average of 5 mm Hg, the study authors said. “These findings are...

THURSDAY, March 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — When you’re diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor is likely to start you on a program to lower blood sugar and help insulin work more efficiently — a regimen that may include a modified diet, exercise and possibly medication. Starting (or ramping up) an exercise program can be the hardest of all these lifestyle changes. Typical exercise guidelines to help manage type 2 diabetes recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise, plus strength training on two or three days. Meeting these goals, especially exercising for 30 minutes on most days, is a stumbling block for people who aren’t used to working out. And, unfortunately, many people with diabetes stay sedentary. But a study published in the journal Diabetes Care found an alternative that may be less taxing and more effective. The study looked at whether short but very frequent bouts...

TUESDAY, March 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Sweating it out on a treadmill is great, especially when the weather is bad. You might even be motivated by watching exciting vistas on an interactive panel. But to keep a walking or running routine from becoming stale, kick it up a notch by taking your workout outside. Running or walking in the great outdoors can burn more calories, because you have to work against the wind and you don’t have a moving tread to keep you going. If you’re used to monitoring the length of your treadmill workouts on a built-in screen, stay motivated by finding other ways to track your output. If you already have a smartwatch, there’s a good chance it has a step counter app already installed. If not, you can download any number of fitness apps that count time and distance, calorie expenditure and more. If you don’t...

(HealthDay News) — Every five days in the United States, at least one child dies from choking on food.
More than 10,000 children are hospitalized due to food-choking injuries each year. However, these injuries and deaths are preventable, the New York State Department of Health says.

The department suggests:

• • Always supervise small children while eating.
  • Do not allow children to play or lay down while eating.
  • Cut foods into small pieces.
  • Don’t rush children to finish eating.
  • Become familiar with child CPR.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

(HealthDay News) — Flexibility helps prevent injury. Young athletes should stretch muscles before and after playing a sport, says the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
After warming up with a brisk walk, the AAOS suggests these stretches:

• • Forward and side lunges.
  • Standing quad pull.
  • Seated straddle.
  • Knees to chest.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

MONDAY, March 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Getting older can be a lonely business, and a new survey shows that health problems only make matters worse. The online poll of more than 2,000 adults, aged 50 to 80, revealed that one in four said they feel isolated from other people at least some of the time, and one in three say they don’t have regular companionship. Health played a role in just how lonely someone was. Those with fair or poor physical health/mental health or hearing loss were more likely to say they felt isolated or lacked companions. “More than a quarter of poll respondents said they only had social contact once a week, or less, with family members they don’t live with, or with friends and neighbors,” said poll co-director Erica Solway, a social science researcher at the University of Michigan. “These results indicate the importance of proactively reaching...

MONDAY, March 4, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Your metabolism rate determines how fast you burn calories, and that can influence how fast you lose weight — and how easily you can gain it. After age 25, metabolism naturally slows by 5 percent every decade. So if you eat as much in your 40s as you did in your 20s, you’re going to add extra pounds — especially if you exercise less and lose muscle. In addition to weight training to maintain muscle, these tips from the American Council on Exercise can help. Stick to well-spaced meals at the same times each day. This lets your body know to expect fuel at regular intervals and prevents it from conserving calories and adding to fat stores. Calorie cutting is important if you need to lose weight, but reducing your intake to starvation levels also puts your body in conservation mode, slowing down...

(HealthDay News) — Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) occurs when pressure is placed on a nerve stretching from the arm to the hand.
Often, this is due to stress on the hands and wrists. Adjusting your daily routine can help prevent CTS.

NYU Langone Health offers these suggestions:

• • Minimize repetitive hand movements.
  • Keep wrists straight.
  • Alternate between activities or tasks.
  • Avoid holding an object the same way for long periods.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

(HealthDay News) — From heart disease to arthritis, many major diseases have been linked to chronic inflammation. Favoring anti-inflammatory foods in your diet could reduce your risk of illness.
Harvard Medical School recommends that anti-inflammatory diets include:

• • Tomatoes.
  • Olive oil.
  • Nuts.
  • Fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna.
  • Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach and kale.

Copyright © 2018 HealthDay. All Rights Reserved.

FRIDAY, March 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) — When Giuseppina Miller’s 8-year-old son, Peter, was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, he necessarily got a lot of his parents’ attention. “We tried to adjust pretty well, but I was getting no sleep because I had to check his blood sugar in the middle of the night, and I was worried all the time. My two younger daughters felt the stress and ended up getting ignored a little bit,” Miller said. The young girls — just 7 and 5 at the time — struggled to understand why their brother suddenly garnered so much parental attention, and one day Miller overheard the girls teasing their brother about his diabetes. “They didn’t really understand, so I thought it might help if they lived a day like he did. I had them eat like he did. And, at the time, he had a very strict...

FRIDAY, March 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) — While genetics, such as carrying BRCA gene mutations, play a role in who is more likely to get breast cancer, everyday lifestyle factors are involved, too. Research published in JAMA Oncology used data from thousands of women to identify which lifestyle factors in particular could affect a woman’s risk for breast cancer. The study found that three specific steps could potentially prevent up to 29 percent of all breast cancers: Avoid alcohol and, after menopause, avoid both obesity and estrogen-progestin replacement hormone therapy. The researchers noted that these recommendations could be most helpful for women at a high risk of breast cancer because of factors they can’t change, like genetics and their age at menstruation and menopause. In fact, for them, having a low body mass index, not drinking alcohol, not smoking and not taking hormone therapy could lower breast cancer risk to...

THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2019 (HealthDay News) — When it comes to getting the best taste and the greatest nutritional value from grains, keep it whole grain. Quinoa, oats, short-grain brown rice and wild rice, polenta (which is made from corn) and barley are most nutritious in their whole, unprocessed form. That’s because the bran is still intact, and the bran is where most of the minerals, vitamins and plenty of fiber reside. Processed and packaged foods are rarely made from 100 percent whole grains. Think of them as empty carbs with lots of preservatives, so switch to these flavorful grains to load up on nutrition, including essential minerals and even some protein. Tip: Don’t be fooled by the word “multi-grain” on packages — this does not mean that a variety of or even any whole grains were used. Brown rice is high in magnesium and tryptophan, barley is high in...