That's Fit

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I am a person with T-12 incomplete Paraplegia. I'm interested in learning about some decent ab workouts (including obliques) that I could do at the gym or at home. Just to provide you with a little more information, my T-12 vertebrae are connected by rods. I'd really appreciate some guidance. Thanks! Jon

A. Hello Jon, What a wonderful question! I really feel there's a gaping hole in the fitness industry which needs to address fitness training for people dealing with injuries and/or disabilities. You are the perfect example of that. A guy who's had a spinal injury, but still strives for better fitness beyond rehab facilities. I love it. I also love the spinal cord, and appreciate the sensitivity of it. Long ago, while I was earning my Master's Degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences at the University of Florida, I took a magnificent course on the spine from a brilliant woman, Dr. Christine Stopka, Professor of Adapted Physical Activity & Medical Terminology. She taught me to respect the spine first, and then went on from there. A major aspect of the course focused on educating her students about the things people with disabilities could do. She spent far more time on the could dos than the can't dos. That's one of the most important things I took away with me. I thought your question deserved the most expert advice, so I passed it on to her.

When you think of the people who've made you mad, done you wrong, sent your blood boiling, do you get all flustered? Does your heart start racing? This is what happens to many folks when they recall a past slight against them, reports a Psychological Science study cited in May's Women's Health magazine.

Blood pressure and heart rates increase to nearly twice the normal rate when some people think about vengeful situations. Conjuring up thoughts of ill will can cause repeated periods of stress and can ultimately lead to cardiovascular damage. The good news is this: When people imagine forgiveness, their stats return to normal.

Next time you get all worked up about a past nemesis, be sure to call up some memories of making amends. If forgiveness is not part of the equation, try to recall what was true about the situation -- leave out all four-letter words -- and focus on wishing your one-time enemy well.

We have all heard that pets can help teach kids patience, responsibility, and empathy, but according to a recent study, having a dog in the home during childhood, especially during the first year of infancy, seriously decreased a child's likelihood of developing sensitivities to allergens like pollen. Our own Maggie first broke this story a few days ago but it's worth repeating for those thinking about investing in a canine commitment -- and for those who like photos of cute kids and cute dogs. See gallery that follows.

So the science behind this theory is that dogs bring germs inside on their coats and in their mouths, thus exposing kids to them and boosting the child's immune system. Older generations were often exposed to more dirt and germs as children (you know, because kids used to actually play outside instead of sitting indoors playing video games), and therefore developed a greater resistance to many allergens than kids today.

This study in particular has taken blood samples from 3,000 six-year-olds and will test the samples for hints that the child might become allergic to things like pet hair, dust mites, and pollen. The children will be retested at age 10, but the lead researcher has already stated with confidence that, "Our results show clearly that the presence of a dog in the home during infancy is associated with a significantly low level of sensitization to pollens and allergens."

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?

Actress Kelly LeBrock, of 80s films Weird Science and The Woman in Red, no longer sports her famous size two figure. She doesn't even sport the trimmed down bod she got on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club -- LeBrock started the reality show weighing 175 pounds and signed off at 144 pounds. Nope, this hot mama -- who virtually starved herself to lose those TV pounds and exercised twice a day to keep the weight off -- vows to never diet again.

While LeBrock may find herself cutting back on a few things -- mostly lasagna with crème béchamel sauce -- when her pants get a little snug, you won't find her striving for size two ever again. She won't weigh herself either.

"I could be like everyone else [in Hollywood] and stop eating," she tells PEOPLE magazine. "But that wouldn't make me happy."

With a whole lot of help from science, humans may some day live for centuries, according to Michael Rose, PhD, author of The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging.

Currently, the adult body deteriorates rapidly until about age 90, at which point, surprisingly, the decline plateaus. That plateau is what intrigues Rose and his peers. They hope to find a way to hit that plateau at an earlier age, which would allow people to live long enough to know their great-great-grandkids' great-great-grandkids, and then some.

As amazing as that seems, Rose expects that we could, in a few centuries, achieve plateaus that correspond to the mortality levels and health of a present-day 30- to 40-year old. That would mean an average life expectancy of 500 to 800 years.

With hidden cameras, invisible wires, and scales disguised as floor panels, the Restaurant of the Future really lives up to its name. Located in the Netherlands it's not intended as a crazy tourist attraction or themed restaurant experience, but instead a very serious way of collecting research data. On the campus of Wageningen University, the restaurant is all rigged up with technology from a James Bond movie in the hopes of finding the answer to one question: Why do people eat and drink the way they do? Students and researchers run all kinds of experiments with things like lighting, scents, and even the shapes and colors of the dishes, to see how and why it affects human eating behaviors.

I think this is really cool! I would love to go there all the time if I could see what they changed each time and how it affected what I ate.

If you've got a glam girl on your Christmas list, figuring out what to get for her can be stressful. Afterall, she's probably kind of picky about the shades and scents she wears. Courtesy of The Beauty Brains, here are some DIY gift ideas for the glamour queen in your life:

• Creative Cosmetics. With this kit, you mix your own foundations and cosmetics, and you'll learn how to properly care for your hair, nails and skin too.
  
• Perfume Science Kit. With this gift, you can learn the history and science of perfume making, and you'll be able to make your own perfumes for future gifts too!
• Ultimate Spa and Perfumery Kit. In addition to creating your own perfumes, you can make your own bath oils and spa products with this kit.
  
• Spa Therapies Kit. Perfect for a ladies night, this kit brings the spa to your house.
  
• Sugar Body Polish Make It Yourself Kit. Make your own sparkling, sweet-smelling body polish with this hip kit.
  

The Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement is not all it's cracked up to be. It's a good guide and can offer a general view of your placement on the obesity continuum, but it's based on height and weight alone -- and herein lies the problem.

BMI doesn't take into account body frame or muscle mass and in one recent study cited in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports, 60 percent of women were heavier or thinner than their BMI calculations indicated.

Next time you're in the market for determining your true size, ask for a skin fold test at your doctors office or your local fitness club. Let someone actually pinch that fat. Then, you'll know more clearly where you stand.

The first few paragraphs of this recent article in The New York Times are interesting, and after that it gets really scary. The interesting part has to do with how science is discovering that seemingly minuscule environmental and physical issues can have permanent affects on infants, some good and some bad. Like did you know that the temperature of your home can affect how many sweat glands your baby develops? And appetite and metabolism are affected in similar ways by how and what the baby is exposed to in terms of hormones and nutrients?

So here's the scary part: Having discovered that things can be changed and manipulated like this, scientists are working on creating an "anti-obesity baby formula." The idea is that a baby's eating habits, metabolism, and propensity to gain weight could be modified in the developmental stages, thereby creating an adult who could essentially eat whatever they wanted and not end up overweight.

Wow, seriously? This is taking things too far people -- get a grip.

It's a common joke amongst broke people that the next step they'll take in earning some much-needed cash is to "sell their body to science." Joking aside, people really do sell their bodies to scientific community (but usually not until they're dead).

This brings up an interesting question: how much is your body worth?

That's exactly what the Cadaver Calculator aims to find out:

"So you've bitten the big one and instead of pushing up daisies your loved ones decided it would be best to sell your body to science. This survey will tell you approximately how much money they'd get for it. Cadaver values are primarily based on overall health and the level of interest your corpse holds to the medical research industry."

As it turns out, my dead body is worth $4475. Not to shabby, if I do say so myself. Take the quiz here, and let us know: what's your cadaver worth?

When you think of indigestion you think of stomach acid. In most cases it is not the stomach acid creating the indigestion but a lack of it. Hydrochloric acid and pepsin, an enzyme working in an acid environment are needed to break down food effectively. A shortage of the two will result in sluggish digestion of food and indigestion. In this pill popping era we live in, getting rid of indigestion could be as simple as a shot of Apple Cider Vinegar after a meal to get rid of the bloating and indigestion we sometimes experience. Now I am not a doctor and this is just my personal experience, but for the last 5 weeks I have been using natural organic Apple Cider Vinegar with "Mother" that I bought in a health food store and it has worked wonders for me. So much that I recommended it to a friend and it is helping with their indigestion problem also.

Vinegar is a popular folk remedy to be sure, and there is limited science research behind it. One thing doctors agree on is that in limited doses, vinegar will not hurt you and it just might work. So you can be the judge.

A group of researchers recently took a look at the relationship between beverage study outcomes compared to who footed the bill, and what they found is a little scary: milk, soda, and juice studies were 4 to 8 times more likely to have favorable results when they were industry funded. And of the studies fully funded by the industry, none found fault with the studied drink.

A representative of the American Beverage Association argues that these researchers looked only at funding sources, and not at the merits and data that back up the individual beverage study results, saying "The science is what matters -- nothing else."

I honestly don't know who to believe, and find the whole thing frustrating. Science should be science -- keep the money and politics out of it.