Improve Your Metabolism in Just 2 Weeks!

It’s hardly news that exercise is good for you. It can help keep weight off, build a bigger brain, improve mood, and lower the risk of cancer and heart disease. Many people are put off by the idea of exercise because of time constraints. But research continues to demonstrate that you don’t have to spend an hour in the gym or on the track to get the significant health benefits.

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Keep Your Brain Young with This Vitamin

If you’ve been reading ETR for any length of time, you probably already know at least a half-dozen reasons why you should be taking a vitamin D supplement. Bone health. Mood improvement. Physical performance. Vitamin D’s demonstrated anti-cancer effects. And if all that weren’t enough, a new study adds another benefit: cognitive performance.

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Gastric-Bypass Patients Need Nutritional Supplements

A recent review of the literature on bariatric surgery found that of all the surgical procedures used to reduce weight, gastric bypass resulted in the most serious post-surgical nutritional deficiencies. The micronutrients most commonly found to be deficient were: vitamin B12, calcium, vitamin D, thiamine (vitamin B1), folic acid, iron, zinc, and magnesium. The authors of the review concluded that nutritional supplementation is absolutely necessary for every gastric-bypass patient.

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Eating Breakfast Is Only Half the Story

For what seems like forever, nutritionists like me have been urging people not to skip breakfast – for a number of reasons. For one thing, studies have found that people who skip breakfast are far more likely to be overweight or obese than those who eat breakfast on a regular basis. Researchers have also found that there’s a correlation between eating breakfast and better performance/concentration at school and work, more energy, and improved well-being.

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Why You Should Eat a High-Protein Breakfast

If you’re looking to lose weight, you should start by pumping up your breakfast. New research presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Endocrine Society found that a high-protein breakfast is one key to weight loss. In this eight-month study, obese individuals who ate a 600-calorie breakfast containing about 40 grams of protein (and a small lunch and dinner) lost an average of 40 pounds.

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Foods That Energize

“I am the caregiver of my 80-year-old father. He is diabetic, hypertensive, and experiences dementia, a symptom of his Alzheimer’s.

“My dad is on multiple medications. I carefully plan his meals, but, depending upon his mood, he does not always eat properly or get the rest he needs. So he is typically grouchy, uncooperative, and combative when he wakes up in the morning, late in the evening, and occasionally throughout the day. Also, he is so boring and sedentary that his behavior can be unduly stressful and alienating for me. Moreover, he gives me the impression that he has lost the will to live.

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Tart Cherries Reduce Inflammation

Tart cherries might not be one of the first foods that come to mind when you think “heart healthy,” but perhaps they should be. New research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center shows that compounds in cherries may protect against the kind of inflammation that’s been associated with both heart disease and diabetes.

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Qi Gong for Stress Reduction and More

Three decades ago, Herbert Benson, MD, the pioneering doctor who helped introduce the concept of mind-body medicine to the U.S., studied qi gong while he was researching what he termed “the relaxation response.” He concluded that to reach a state of deep relaxation, all you have to do is control your body, your breathing, and your mind.

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Anti-Aging Strategies From the Longest-Lived People in the World

Recently, I interviewed Dan Buettner, whose latest book, The Blue Zones, is a veritable treasure trove of tips for living longer. Buettner is an explorer whose work for National Geographic led to the book. He investigated four parts of the world where there are more healthy centenarians than anywhere else – Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, CA; Okinawa, Japan; and Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Here’s what we can learn from the folks who’ve done “anti-aging” better than anyone else on the planet.

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