That's Fit

Food is fuel. And medicine too. Prevention magazine's Cynthia Sass illustrates this with the following list of healthy food.

• Apples
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Cactus pear
• Capers
• Cherries
• Citrus fruits
• Cranberries
• Dark green leafy veggies
• Raspberries
• Red grapes
• Red onions
• Tea (black, oolong, green)
  
  

No doubt, these items are powerful components of a nutritious diet. They also have the power to heal with the antioxidant quercetin (a relative of resveratrol found in grapes). Noteworthy at this time of year is the fact that this natural bodyguard may be a flu-fighter. Seems it's antiviral and if you opt out of your flu shot this year, you might still be A-OK.

Don't take a quercetin supplement, though, says Sass -- we just don't know enough about how much to take, how long to take it, or how side effects might occur. Just harness its power through foods and if you're starting to feel run down, try three per day and aim for three different colors -- green tea, cherries and red onion is one good mix.

As I mentioned yesterday in a post about bathroom medicine cabinets, the heat and humidity from your shower -- and the effect that has on the potency of medicine -- makes the bathroom one of the worst places to keep prescriptions or over-the-counter drugs.

Here are a few more medication-related tips, some of which may come as a bit of a surprise to you:

• Throw away any pills that have changed color, texture, or smell, as well as capsules or tablets that stick together or are cracked or chipped.
• Take the cotton plug out of an opened bottle once it's opened. The cotton can suck moisture in.
• Be sure to get rid of and replace expired medication. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) suggests crushing meds and dissolving them as completely as possible in a plastic container or bag filled with water. To further breakdown the meds, add coffee grounds, cat litter, and saw dust to the water, and then seal and throw the bag away (away as in into the garbage, not flushed down your toilet).

Medicine cabinet is actually a terribly misleading misnomer. Contrary to popular belief, bathroom "medicine" cabinets are among the worst possible places to keep medications, which seems to call for a name change, if you ask me.

Due to the regular warmth and humidity in a bathroom, many prescription and over-the-counter drugs can break down over time. That's why it's best to instead keep medicines in a cool, dry place -- preferably somewhere that is locked up and out of reach of children and pets.

For more examples of some of the worst places for your health, check out this slide show from our sister site, AOL Health.

Taking care of our personal health is always a priority, and now taking care of the planet's health is a growing one too it so seems only natural to combine the two.

With the Olympics coming up, the use of supplements to enhance performance is big business. I asked my pal Jose Antonio, PhD, Sports Nutrition expert what was hot and gave me this scoop. Besides safe and effective supplements like creatine, protein powders, and even fish oil, there's a new kid on the block. It's called beta-alanine!

Beta-alanine is basically an amino acid that has been shown to help fight off the fatigue-promoting effects of lactic acid. When muscle pH drops from intense exercise, beta-alanine helps buffer this increased acidity. Technically, it is muscle carnosine (which is made from beta-alanine) that does the buffering.

What could beta-alanine help as far as Olympic events? Sports like wrestling, the long sprints such as the 400 meter dash, boxing, and team sports in which there is a lot of sprinting can be helped. In fact, a recent study from the International Journal of Sports Medicine proved that beta-alanine significantly improved muscular endurance. So for those of you seeking that extra performance edge, look out for beta-alanine!

Want to cut your biological age by 10 years? Then exercise.

A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine says exercise not only gives us a youthful glow -- it actually makes us youthful. How do they know? Because they gauged biological age by measuring telomeres, parts of chromosomes whose length has been linked to life span. Telomeres shorten as we age due to inflammation and cell damage. But those who exercise for more than three hours per week have telomeres as long as those who are sedentary and 10 years younger.

Exercise may even have the power to reduce the telomere-shortening damage of behaviors like smoking and stress. Some powerful stuff, that exercise. But you know that, right?

I'm convinced cough medicine for kids doesn't work. Whenever my boys suffer with nagging coughs -- the kind that keeps them up at night because they just can't stop hacking -- and I pump them full of any brand of children's cough syrup, it doesn't make a lick of difference. They still hack.

I don't use cough medicine anymore. But apparently, many parents do.

New reports indicate that 10 percent of U.S. kids are dosed with cough medicine every week. Every week? Yep, that's right. About one is ten kids uses one or more cough medicines during a given week, says research from Boston University. Kids ages two to five use the medications most often. But the rate is also high among those under age two. This is scary stuff, especially in light of evidence that proves cough and cold medication use can lead to serious adverse effects, including death.

As scary as it may be, there is a silver lining: The overall use of such medicines declined from 12.3 percent in 1999-2000 to 8.4 percent in 2005-2006.

Just had my tummy tuck one week ago. All is going well -- better than I'd anticipated, actually -- and just yesterday I went with my mom while she picked my boys up from school. I even accompanied them to the park for an afternoon play date. It was great to get out of the house and away from the recliner that doubles as my daytime resting place and my bed. It's where I sit, sleep, write, watch TV, read bedtime stories -- and worry about how all I've gained through strenuous exercise over the past year is about to be lost.

According to my doctor, I can't really exercise for six full weeks. I can walk, and I can gradually add other movements to my routine, but I can't full-out run -- my favorite fitness activity -- for quite some time. This worries me. Will I gain weight? Will I lose my muscle tone? Will I be completely out of shape by the time I lace up my running shoes? It's possible.

What ever will I do?

Alex Lenkei, a 61-year-old hypnotist, opted against using any traditional anesthetic for his recent surgery, choosing instead to send himself into a hypnotic trance for the duration of the surgery.

He was able to hear the cracking of his bones and the surgeon asking for a saw -- he could even hear the surgeon "hammering away at the bone" with a hammer and chisel. He could feel the doctor "pulling and manipulating" him, but felt no pain.

Much of the medical community is quite interested in this, as studies have shown that using less anesthetic can reduce the time patients spend in the hospital and speed healing. Additionally, many patients are nervous about using an anesthetic, and while they might not opt for using hypnosis only, it might help to calm them and allow a lower dose of anesthetic to be used.

Over five million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and fortunately, there are a number of ways for you to reduce your risk. However, there is one risk you can't avoid -- genetics.

Children whose parents both had Alzheimer's are at a much higher risk of developing the disease. And, because Alzheimer's is so common, it's not unusual for spouses to both develop the disease -- a situation that will become more and more common as baby boomers age.

Alzheimer's disease generally affects patients over 65 years old and is a terminal, neurodegenerative disorder. And it's not only the patient who is affected -- the families of the patients are put through a great deal as they struggle to care for their loved one, having to make decisions because the patient no longer can.

If you would like to learn more or see how you can contribute to Alzheimer's research, check out the Alzheimer's Association website. You also might want to consider fundraising for and walking in this year's Memory Walk -- if you don't have a direct connection to the disease, you can use mine. My grandmother (pictured above) hasn't recognized me in years.

When doctors hand out free prescription drug samples to patients it doesn't necessarily end up being a cost savings. In fact, a recent study surveyed nearly 6,000 patients; a total of 2,343 drug samples were given to participants during the course of the study. 80% of those who received free samples were wealthy and/or insured; uninsured and/or poorer patients were less likely to receive samples.

Ironically, those who received free drug samples went on to have significantly higher out-of-pocket prescription costs. On average patients spent $166 on prescriptions during the six months prior to the survey, $244 during the six months in which they received samples, and $212 for the following six months. Patients who didn't receive free samples spent $178 on average.

Researchers surmise that the higher costs might be because patients who receive the free samples are sicker and therefore have increased prescription needs. Or, patients who receive the free samples want to continue on the same (likely more expensive) medication rather than switching to a generic alternative.

Every so often, we hear news reports about accidental deaths or overdoses due to over-prescribed, often unnecessary drugs or surgery. But these seems to be rare, right? We'd like to think so, anyway. I recently read some alarming statistics on deaths in the US:

• 12,000 were caused by unnecessary surgery
• 7,000 were caused by medication errors in hospitals
• 20,000 were caused by other errors in hospitals
• 80,000 were caused by infections in hospitals
• 106,000 were caused by non-error, negative effects of drugs.

That's right -- in one of the most medically-advanced countries in the world, hundreds of thousands of people are dying at the hands of medical professionals by errors, unnecessary measures and other preventable causes. Does this seem odd to anyone else? I think its time we began questioning the motivations behind the 'remedies' we're being offered.

People with high blood pressure will love this news: Researchers have just wrapped up a study on a high blood pressure vaccine that would only need to be given two or three times a year. This medication would combat hypertension more effectively than regular drugs, and wouldn't keep you popping pills so frequently.

A vaccine to fix high blood pressure seems far-fetched. But what they've discovered is a method to block a receptor that contributes to hypertension. The results were good! Even though some people experienced flu-like symptoms initially, the vaccine did lower blood pressure.

For patients who have trouble remembering to take medicine every day, or find their current treatment inadequate, this could be a huge breakthrough when it becomes available. Of course, they'll have to roll out a larger-scale study using more people, but let's hope we see this before too long!

After more than ten years in the making, professor Thomas Kosten has finished a vaccine that has the potential to cure addiction. The way it accomplishes this is nothing short of amazing. The drug literally prevents the body from getting high!

Right now, the vaccine addresses the effects of cocaine most effectively. However, he says they are working on translating this wonder medicine to other applications such as methamphetamine and heroin. Imagine if they could address the same addiction that cigarette smokers deal with?

Another incredible aspect of this vaccine is that even thought the process takes a while, there are no withdrawals. So patients trying to kick the addiction to a substance don't have to go through all the painful side-effects! So how did they do it? Well, doctors inject an altered version of the drug, in this case the cocaine molecule, which tells the body to start making antibodies against it. When the real cocaine is used, it ends up getting urinated out before it ever reaches the brain. Science can do some truly amazing things -- let's see if they can come up with more variations of this vaccine!

Raise your hand if you want your kids to journey through life on a healthful path. Anyone out there who doesn't want a healthy kid? Probably not. And while there are lists and lists of steps out there you can take to prime your kids for a life of good health, you might want to start by considering these five fascinating kid facts. Take action on what you learn if you can. Your child will one day thank you.

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