September 18, 2019 at 08:10PM Way more than you ever wanted to know about protein! Continue Reading… Author Stephanie Eckelkamp | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
Month: September 2019
6 foods for strong bones a rheumatologist wants you to eat every day—and 1 to avoid
September 18, 2019 at 06:35PM by CWC When it comes to wellness, the roughly 206 bones in our body tend to get short shrift—at least in terms of air time. We talk endlessly about our skin, microbiome, muscles, vaginas, etc., but the foundation of it all (i.e., your skeleton) gets little attention. Still, bone health is important, especially for women as bone density decreases after menopause. A loss in bone density can lead to osteoporosis which, in turn, can cause bones to fracture, thereby decreasing mobility. This isn’t a niche occurrence. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, 1 in 2 women over age 50 will experience bone breakage as a result of the disease. As with all illnesses, the key is prevention. It’s important to pay attention to your bone health now, whether you’re anywhere near the mid-century mark or not. Stephen Honig, MD, rheumatologist and director of the osteoporosis center at NYU Langone Health, tells me this is accomplished with exercise (particularly of the strength-training variety) and by incorporating foods for strong bones into your diet, though this doesn’t account for the whole picture. To begin with, your bone mass is 80 percent determined by genetics and the rest is influenced by environmental factors like diet and exercise. The relatively small percentage is then disproportionately affected by what happens in your teenage years, explains Dr. Honig, during which time it’s mission critical to get adequate amounts of bone-building calcium and vitamin D. This is because one does not work,
Your guide to reduced-stress restaurant dining with a food allergy or sensitivity
September 18, 2019 at 06:33PM by CWC Kelsey Quinn sits down to dinner with her friends and gently opens the menu the waiter hands her, though she already knows what’s on it—and what she thinks she’s going to get. Quinn, who lives in Portland, Oregon, is highly sensitive to gluten, so as soon as the “where should we go?” question popped up in her group chat, she responded first, naming a place she knew prepared gluten-free options safely. Still, she was ready to ask her usual questions to the waiter about how certain dishes were prepared, and what exactly was in the sauce. Welcome to the world of navigating the restaurant scene with a food allergy or sensitivity. The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) requires clear labeling of food products with the eight most common food allergies (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soy). However, there is no federal law requiring restaurants to warn customers of food that may contain allergens or take any special precautions to avoid cross contamination—which is problematic, given that an estimated 15 million Americans have a food allergy. According to FARE, a food allergy education and advocacy group, only five states have laws requiring restaurants to better serve customers with food allergies. The lack of oversight means that it’s up to the customer to watch out for his or her own health. This isn’t just about someone not eating bread because gluten-free eating is a trend; people with food
The grown-up version of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ stretches the tightest muscles in your body
September 18, 2019 at 05:41PM by CWC When I picture my own personal hell-scape, the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” loops endlessly while scary cartoon characters dance around me with ritualistic fervor. But I really shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss the lesson at the heart this nursery rhyme. Learning how to use your head, shoulders, knees, and toes as an outline for stretching out your full body each day is something worth carrying well into adulthood, says yoga teacher Lindsay Pirozzi of New York City’s Y7 studio. “Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, it increases our range of motion, protects our joints,” says the yoga teacher. “Both joints and muscles are so necessary in everyday functional movements that we rarely think twice about—sitting down to go to the bathroom, walking up the subway stairs, bending down because we dropped our cell phone, or even lifting your arms to reach something overhead.” When you make head-to-toe stretching part of your daily ritual, everything else becomes that much easier. The same tender loving care also helps keep your mental dashboard free and clear, according to Pirozzi. She explains that in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), skipping physical self-care is believed to lock stagnant, stale energy inside the body. “Stuck energy in the body feels a lot like tension, and tension is the least natural sensation we’ll experience as humans. It’s a sign we have lost sight of our breath, and our connection to self,” she says. Um, no thanks. Below, Pirozzi shares an all-grown-up
Rest easy thanks to 3 chiropractor-approved rules for selecting the perfect pillow
September 18, 2019 at 05:23PM by CWC My boyfriend and I have our our sleep setup worked out perfectly, except we disagree on the answer to a key question: How many pillows should you sleep with? I have one pillow, and he has five. On face value, this perhaps seems like an unfair distribution of head support, but I prefer using just one, and he prefers being extra. And, hey, to each their own…unless you’re a chiropractor, that is. “[Your pillow setup] is really important, because it does mess people up,” says Jan Lefkowitz, DC, a chiropractor with Body in Balance. He adds that pillow preference can sometimes facilitate spine misalignment, and “misalignments over time [can] lead to pain and other problems.” To create that gold-star alignment, your pillow (and sleeping position) certainly factors in. “The purpose of a pillow should be to clench or help preserve and maintain the proper curve in your neck,” says Jay Heller, DC, a New York-based chiropractor. “From a side view when you’re standing, the bones in the neck are supposed to curve toward the front. Then in the upper and middle back they curve towards the back, and then in the lower back the spine again curves towards the front. So it’s a reverse C in the neck.” According to the pros, getting ideal alignment requires you to optimize the number of pillows you use, their shape, and also their density. Keep scrolling for the three chiropractor-approved rules for the perfect pillow setup.
How long after waking up should you wait to work out?
September 18, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC I may not be a morning person, but I do manage to sporadically conquer before-work workouts (which is saying something). However, sometimes the only way I manage is by rolling out of bed, sprinting to the studio, and going from zero to 100 (“real quick,” to quote Drake). I’ll be honest, I’m not at my best when I don’t give my body time to adjust from being asleep. It led me to wonder just how safe it is to do a really intense workout shortly after waking up, and whether different a.m. workouts might be better on the body than others. “Generally, the important thing is that your body needs some sort of activation—a warm-up period, so to speak, so that it gets ready for a workout after waking up,” says David Geier, DO, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. “When you actually randomize people doing different workouts at different times, it turns out that the time of day doesn’t have much influence.” Whether you’re doing Pilates, yoga, or HIIT, though, it’s going to likely be pretty tough if you’re just starting cold. “Whatever you’re doing, take 15, 20, or even 30 minutes to get going, have a bottle of water, stretch out, and move around,” says Dr. Geier, noting that this is much easier to handle than waking up and going to exercise five minutes later (oops). According to Paul DiLauro, MS, exercise physiologist and fitness director of Peak Performance Fitness, different workouts
Here’s what a healthy plate really looks like when you’re doing Whole30
September 18, 2019 at 03:00PM by CWC Take out dairy, grains, added sugar, legumes, and alcohol, and what’s left to eat? That’s a central question for people trying the Whole30 diet, a month-long elimination style diet designed to help people better understand their food sensitivities and unhealthy food habits. Whole30 meal ideas feel a bit limited when you only have a few foods left to work with—meat, seafood, vegetables, eggs, nuts, seeds, certain oils, and some fruit. The eating plan, even though it’s designed to be short-term, isn’t for everyone. “It’s highly restrictive and that level of restriction can create an unhealthy mentality about food,” says NYC-based dietitian Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do it—many people have found it helpful to reset their relationship with sugar and processed foods—but it’s important to make sure you’re not deficient in nutrients. That means building your plate with the right macros from foods that are both Whole30-approved and delicious. “If you decide to do Whole30, you have to make sure you’re planning out your meals to make sure you’re eating enough calories throughout the day,” says Rizzo. To make things easier, check out this handy guide from Rizzo on building the perfect Whole30 plate every time. Photo: W+G Creative Vegetables should make up half of your plate “No matter what diet you follow, I always recommend half the plate should be veggies,” says Rizzo. That’s true for keto, paleo, Mediterranean, and yes, Whole30. You can eat any ones
Memorize this one phrase to stop boundary-crossers in their tracks
September 18, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC When someone treads all over my clearly-drawn boundaries, I’m usually too shocked to speak for a moment. (Like, I’m sorry—did you really just ask my salary on a first date?) The truth is, these kind of over-the-line conversations are inherently awkward. Try as you might to normalize them, play it cool, and move on, people sometimes need to hear the this-so-isn’t-your-business talk. But that doesn’t mean you have to raise your voice or make a dramatic exit that involves throwing a drink. Instead, psychologist Gail Saltz, MD, recommends a swift (yet effective) backpedal out of the conversation. Now, when someone derails perfectly polite chit-chat by being nosy, your initial reaction might be to say: “That’s a nosy question.” Dr. Saltz suggests an alternative route. “The best way to stop someone without making them so defensive that they either lash out or deny they are doing anything is to say that you are feeling uncomfortable with the inquiry or statement, rather than that they are doing something wrong,” she tells me. “Saying you feel uncomfortable, or hurt, or on the spot lets them know you wish to stop but doesn’t attack them in any way.” “Sometimes people cross a line because they are truly trying to be helpful, sometimes they are socially clueless, and sometimes they are trying to be passively aggressively hostile.” —Gail Saltz, MD When you leave the accusation out of your statement, the psychologist says that—most of the time—people will internally
I struggle with a mental health issue—does my boss need to know?
September 18, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC Mental health doesn’t take a day off, and no one knows that better than the approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States who struggle with mental illness in a given year. While you may feel completely comfortable calling out with the cold, you may not feel the same about clueing in your boss about the fact that you’re dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and would like to take an actual mental health day. In fact, in a survey conducted by Mental Health America, 55 percent of the nearly 10,000 participants agreed with the statement, “I am afraid of getting punished for taking a day off to attend to my mental health.” That’s a staggering statement considering how seriously employee mental health should be regarded. If you’re in the midst of a panic attack or struggling to get out of bed because of a bout with depression, getting to work and doing your job to the best of your abilities can feel nearly impossible to some. So, what do you do if you’re one of the millions of Americans struggling with a mental health disorder and confused about whether or not to disclose it to a manager? And if you do disclose, to what extent should you? Despite ongoing conversations and efforts to raise awareness about employee mental health, it “can come with social judgments and stigmatization of others, particularly in the workplace,” says counselor Stacy Perkins, LCPC, NCC. Below, experts offer guidance
Researchers Have Identified Two Kinds Of Sexual Passion & They’re VERY Different
September 18, 2019 at 01:00PM One is nourishing. One is not. Continue Reading… Author Kelly Gonsalves | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC