Are Your Sleep Types Compatible?

Sleep-deprived couples often end up crankier, more reactive and even unhealthier than their well-rested counterparts — not the makings of relationship harmony.

Read Post | Comments (15)

Relationships, Menopause, And Health

Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician and an internationally recognized authority in the field of Functional Medicine -- a revolution in 21st century medicine that provides a new road map for navigating the territory of health and illness. He is founder of The UltraWellness Center where he treats patients using this new model in his medical practice.

Who you spend time with and the quality of your relationships not only says a lot about who you are as a person, but it has a tremendous impact on your health. A now classic study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that — even after controlling for risk factors like smoking, poverty low socio-economic status, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and obesity — lack of social relationships, personality dispositions, and acute stress, including the stress of racism were better predictors for increased risk of death and disease. (i)

Other studies have shown that you are more likely to be overweight (and suffer from all of the resulting health consequences) if your friends are overweight than if your parents are overweight. And we are now learning that when you join together in community to lose weight and heal you are far more likely to succeed. The Look Ahead Study, a 13-year study of 5,000 people funded by the National Institutes of Health, compared an intensive group lifestyle change program for diabetes prevention to regular medical care with individual visits to the diabetic educator, nutritionist, and doctor. To date, the group lifestyle program has proven remarkably more effective in lowering weight, cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure than conventional medical care.(ii) Once this study is completed, it will completely change our way of thinking about how to treat disease.

Read Post | Comments (7)

14 Active Dates For Valentine’s Day

Nutrition and Fitness Editor, The Huffington Post

If the window displays and store promotions weren’t enough to clue you in, it’s time you knew: Valentine’s Day is upon us. And while a nice bouquet of flowers never hurt, it might be time to mix it up. Whether you’re part of a fitness-minded couple or you’re just feeling an extra burst of energy from all those heart-shaped brownies, we’ve got HuffPost Healthy Living’s top picks for the most romantic activities for couples

Read Post | Comments (29)

Sleep Apnea Linked To Silent Strokes

Nationally recognized as a sleep expert, Dr. Lisa Shives has been at the forefront of sleep health for nearly a decade. She has completed a fellowship in Sleep Medicine at the University of Chicago. She is double-boarded in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Sleep Medicine AND the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Shives is an official spokesperson for the Amercan Academy of Sleep Medicine. Her Chicago-area sleep medicine practice focuses on adult and pediatric sleep problems.

We tell ourselves time and time again that we’ve got to stop sitting so much. It’s bad for our health for a whole slew of reasons, but there’s just no way we can spend eight hours a day on the solitary TreadDesk in the office. (And we’re lucky even to have one!)

So what can you do to fight obesity, diabetes, heart disease and the other risks of sitting too much? At the most simple level, stand more. A team of researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic are set to study 30 employees of Caldrea, an eco-friendly cleaning supply company in Minneapolis, whose desks have been replaced with workstations that make it possible to sit or stand while working, according to the Star Tribune.

Read Post | Comments (25)

How The Internet Is Changing Our Brain

Shaahin Cheyene is Founder and President of the brain nutrition start-up Accelerated Intelligence.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, iPhones, and tablets are lighting up homes all across the U.S. Computers are constantly dictating the actions of their users.

Julie’s GPS activates when she gets into her car while her Bluetooth rests in her ear. Her car greets her. Julie accesses Facebook on her coffee break, eager to check her News Feed for the third time this morning. She moves on to her bagel and cream cheese while her smart phone is processing information faster than she can comprehend it. Or is that true? Can her brain process information just as fast as her smart phone can? Is it possible that the brain is a mapped supercomputer, and people are learning the effects of exposing a supercomputer to a limited form of cognitive thinking? Julie is not alone in her high-tech habits; her mind is set on the Internet just like thousands of other Americans.

The accessibility of the Internet has changed the way we think, feel, and interact with others. We can now chat with our aunt in Kansas and our sister in Vietnam at the same time via a video conference on Skype. Since the early ’90s, the culture of the Internet has been dynamic and shifting.

Most people enjoy using the Internet on a daily basis. But for older adults, it could promote active learning as they grow older. A recent article from Discovery Science has found that those who use the Internet frequently use their brains more than those who just read a book.

Read Post | Comments (4)

A Secret To More Happiness And Energy? Give Yourself A Bedtime

Writer, The Happiness Project

As a result of my happiness project, I’ve become a sleep zealot. It’s just so obvious to me — from reading the research and from personal experience — that getting enough sleep is a key to a happier life.

I’ve noticed something, however. I noticed this in myself, before I became such a sleep nut, and I see it in the people around me: Most adults don’t give themselves a bedtime.

Children have a fixed bedtime; we know they need their allotment of sleep, and we pack them off to bed when it’s time. But many adults just go to bed whenever they feel like it.

The problem with this approach is that it’s far too easy to stay up too late. The TV, the Internet, your email, your book… these distractions keep you alert past the point at which you should head to bed. Many of us know we ought to go to sleep sooner, but we just can’t manage to pull it off.

Read Post | Comments (7)

NFL Players, Flu Shots, Feet And You: A Simple Lesson That Can Save Your Life

Dr. David B. Agus is a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and heads U.S.C.’s Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine.

Today, more than 100 million people are going to tune in to the Super Bowl as the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots in Indianapolis. They will be watching more than just an American tradition at play — they will be witnessing one of the deadliest sports in history, whose record of premature deaths demonstrates in sobering reality the silent killer in all of us: inflammation.

Read Post | Comments (2)

Be Careful Driving On Super Bowl Sunday

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central.

As folks get ready to watch the Super Bowl on television this Sunday in the U.S., many of us will be joining or attending Super Bowl viewing parties. If you’re like most Americans, you’ll probably drive to get to that party.

But unlike most Sundays, when you drive this Sunday coming home from your Super Bowl Party, be especially careful. Why?

Because unlike other Sundays when a football game is televised, researchers found that both non-fatal and fatal car accidents increase 41 percent on average. The risk is highest within an hour of the game’s end, when most people are driving home.

Read Post | Comments (0)

Go Red for Heart Health This Friday

Marlo Thomas is an award-winning actress, author and activist whose body of work continues to have an impact on American entertainment and culture.

I’m getting active and taking part in the National Wear Red Day, a campaign designed to raise awareness about women’s heart health.

Read Post | Comments (25)

How Coffee Can Galvanize Your Workout

Gretchen Reynolds has been writing about health and fitness for more than a decade, beginning with a stint as a health and fitness reporter.

Can a cup of coffee motivate you to relish your trips to the gym this winter? That question is at the heart of a notable study of caffeine and exercise, one of several new experiments suggesting that, whatever your sport, caffeine may allow you to perform better and enjoy yourself more.

Read Post | Comments (110)

Really? The Claim: Never Go to Bed Angry

Anahad O'Connor, who has a degree in psychology from Yale University, joined the New York Times in 2003 and largely writes about science, health and national issues. [1] He is also the author of the book Never Shower in a Thunderstorm: Surprising Facts and Misleading Myths About Our Health and the World We Live In, published by Henry Holt (Times Books division) in 2007.

Most people have heard the old saw about going to bed upset: Never do it, the saying goes, or the hard feelings will fester and resentment will build.

Some say it goes back to the Bible, in Ephesians 4:26. “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Regardless of its origins, the adage has been scarcely researched. But in a recent study in The Journal of Neuroscience, scientists found there might be a nugget of truth to it: Going to sleep after experiencing negative emotions appears to reinforce or “preserve” them.

In the study, scientists recruited 106 men and women and exposed them to images that elicited various emotions. In some cases the emotions were negative — for instance, after seeing an unsettling image of an accident or traumatic scene. In other cases, the images produced positive or neutral emotions.

Read Post | Comments (21)