Be honest, how many of you stretch before or after a workout, or even just because? I'm guessing there are many of you who don't. Well, listen up: Stretching for just 10 minutes a day, three times a week can improve circulation, help your posture, aid in stress management and decrease pain, according to the health experts over at The Daily Mail.

The most important part of your body to stretch? Your back. Make sure you stretch it in six directions every day -- forward and back, from side to side, and rotating from right to left.

For more information on stretching and how it can keep you flexible for years to come, click here.

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No doubt about it -- exercise helps circulation and can give you a healthy glow. But for your skin's sake, you ought to walk for exercise and not run.

When you pound the pavement, the force of your body jostling can cause collagen to break down, which can lead to sagging skin, says dermatologist Dennis Gross of NYC. Hey, running is not so great for your knees either. I guess walking is the way to go -- although I don't plan to abandon the run just yet. How about you?

(via In Style magazine, August 2008)

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I was watching the Olympics the other day and saw a piece where a reporter went and received acupuncture treatments. It was interesting to hear about this particular practitioner who was influential in acupuncture's acceptance into Western culture. After the piece, the reporter mentioned that Nastia Liukin, gold medalist in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, has weekly acupuncture treatments.

She's not alone. Acupuncture is widely used as a method to aid and speed healing from sports-related injuries. Though the thought of multiple metal needles being inserted into your body is daunting, to say the least, proponents of the traditional form of medicine sing its praises. In addition to aiding in healing, acupuncture is said to help athletes by boosting energy, improving circulation, and ensuring the body gets the most out of nutrients. In addition, acupuncture is said to help improve the quality of sleep and boost immunity.

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A small study in the journal Circulation revealed that almost 60 percent of pacemaker patients also had undiagnosed sleep apnea. The researchers involved in the study posit that patients' sleep apnea could possibly contribute to their heart problems.

What is sleep apnea? Here's the Cliff Notes description: it's a sleep disorder characterized by 30 or more periods of interrupted breathing each hour during sleep. Usually, a person suffering from sleep apnea may wake-up or at least partially wake-up during these breathing interruptions. Considering the importance that sound sleep plays in cardiovascular health, it is quite clear that sleep patterns of this kind are dangerous.

As for the above mentioned study, researchers looked at 98 British, French and Belgian pacemaker patients and noted that thirty-six of of them had sinus node disease, in which a heart chamber pumps too slow or too fast. Furthering the connection, it is known that abnormally slow heart rhythms (known as Bradycardic rhythm disorders) are common among patients with obstructive sleep apnea. The tricky part is that the researchers could not determine if the sleep apnea came before the pacemaker, or if it developed after the pacemaker therapy began.

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The first randomized trial evidence revealing the dangers of taking ibuprofen and aspirin together was recently released by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The research suggests that the ibuprofen inhibits the blood thinning properties of aspirin, leaving patients at a reported nine-times higher risk of heart attack. The cardiovascular health of 18,523 patients who are over 50 years old and had osteoarthritis (which is why they were likely taking the ibuprofen) was reviewed by the researchers involved with this study.

The researchers concluded that doctors should seriously reconsider ever giving patients, who are at risk of cardiovascular problems, ibuprofen to deal with pain.

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You might think you need to be more and more gentle with your body as it ages. Consider the heart, for example. As it ages, it gets smaller, muscle cells decrease and degenerate, valves thicken and narrow, arteries thicken and become less pliable, and the electrical system that causes the heart to beat may change. Overall, our hearts become weaker and pump less blood as we age. Clearly, you might think you need to baby that body of yours as it gets older and older. But then you'd be wrong.

Certain natural changes take place in the heart as we age, but the prescription for good heart health remains the same: Eat well and exercise regularly, regardless of how old you are. If you're inactive and happen to be older than 65, see your doctor before beginning a new exercise program.

Not only is exercise good for the heart at any age, it might also fight off some of the age-related changes in the cardiovascular system. A study in the journal Circulation found that athletes in their 60s had blood vessels that functioned as well as those as those in their 20s. The bottom line: Long-term exercise protects the inner lining of the blood vessels and causes them to behave more like those of a young person.

Walking more than 1.5 miles a day can reduce heart disease risk in older individuals. So get on that treadmill. Or head outdoors and hit that pavement. Your heart will thank you.

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I'm a regular at weather.com. Since I never know what temperatures will greet me each morning -- here in Florida, it can be 60 degrees one day and 80 the next -- I make a nightly check of my city's forecast so I know how to properly dress my little ones for school.

I've been looking strictly at the temps when I make my weather stop, but I just learned that I can check out the air quality in my area too. In fact, I just did it. After arriving at my friendly weather website, I clicked on healthy living and then air quality and pollution. Good news: In every Florida city listed, the air quality is good. To compare and contrast, I also took a peek at Ohio, my home state. Different news here: Some cities have good air quality; some have moderate. There are other possible air qualities -- unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, and very unhealthy -- and it seems by my quick tour through a few other states that none fit these three categories. I suspect the conditions can change day by day, though. So for those of you concerned with the state of the air, regular visits to this site might be wise.

Why should you be concerned with the air, you ask? Because polluted air is bad for your health. Check out these articles in the journal Circulation for more on this topic. And before heading for outdoor activities -- and especially before exercising outside -- check your air. If it's not optimal, then head to the gym.

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Drinking one or more soft drinks per day, be them diet or regular, may increase your obesity risk. Okay, fine. This is old news by this point. But, for some strange reason, I can't seem to get past this report, which appeared in the very well-respected journal Circulation. This is not because I'm overly concerned that it may be true, but because I feel it's an obvious sign of poor statistical analysis.

What the researchers found is that downing one or more 12-ounce servings of soda per day can increase a person's risk of obesity by 31 percent. Clearly this makes sense when referring to the drinkers of regular sodas, as it is almost common knowledge that soda contains an inordinate amount of fast-digesting, simple sugars and a great deal of calories. My issue, however, is with the claim that diet soda can have the same effect.

If you've ever seen those magnetic bracelets being hawked in magazines or on television, have you ever bought them? I know a few people that swear by them for wrist pain. But then again, some people justify their purchases with irrationality, I've found.

Still, I've never used them. According to new research this week, those products are not useful when it comes to the pain management many bracelet wearers are seeing.

Specifically, the study referenced pain from arthritis or fibromyalgia. But for the billion-dollar industry consumed with selling with magnets for use as pain relief products, this study is taking issue with that. To respond, that industry will need to provide valid, scientific evidence that magnets do somehow bind to pieces of the human anatomy in order to whisk pain away.

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