That's Fit

Here's a crafty do-it-yourself project for those readers interested in making their very own stress ball. You've seen the iconic, squishy stress relievers that probably sit atop every desk on Wall Street. Well, if you've ever wondered what in the world goes into making them, this home project may give you a rough idea.

In fact, the steps are definitely geared toward using a partner, so it makes for a great group activity too! You can paint or decorate the finished product for a bit of personalization -- something not everyone has tried with the store-bought variety.

There are two types of stress balls: the single balloon ball, and the dough ball. Using a funnel, the first type is filled with cornstarch. It's encouraged to read the instructions, but after funneling as much as you want into the balloon, tie it off as near to the cornstarch as possible. The second type is created by making, heating and stuffing dough into a series of balloons to make it as sturdy as possible. It wouldn't be justified cramming all the steps in here, so check out the rest of the post to find out how to make your own stress reliever!

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Jim Stephens

Age: 79. I'm a Scorpio. Watch out Baby!

Occupation: Gym Rat

How often do you exercise? Eight days a week!

What type of exercise do you do? I use the rowing machine for 40 minutes each day, and use the hand bike often too. I also do the structured 'line' of strength training equipment here at my gym.

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Russell Hay

Age: 30

Occupation: Software Engineer

How often do you exercise? Three to four days a week.

What type of exercise do you do? Trapeze (& other aerial arts like Rope and Silk), Yoga, Acrobatics and Acrobalance

It's not the first time, but a new warning from the FDA to maker-of-everything Procter & Gamble says that the company should stop mis-labeling some of its hand sanitizer products that are marketed toward children (umm, to their parents, in all reality).

Procter and Gamble says that its Vicks Early Defense Foaming Hand Sanitizer prevents colds and provides up to three hours of antimicrobial activity. Problem is that those kinds of claims are not allowed under FDA regulations for such a product.

Those sound like medical claims to me, not cosmetic claims. Parents concerned about the constant hand sanitizing by children (for some reason) are, of course, attracted to the claims.

In general, clinical studies and loads of data are required by manufacturers to make claims like this on non-drug-products (and even on OTC drug products), so that kind of labeling will most likely be banished soon.

Who has cleaner hands -- guys or gals? According to the most recent research, gals win it by a long shot. Surprised? I'm not -- women are just cleaner in every sense of the word. Well, at least from my experience.

It's kind of disgusting to hear that only 57 percent of guys who visited a restroom at Atlanta's Turner Field washed their hands after using the restroom. Anything touched in a public restroom is game for sending who-knows-what to your hands. Sound icky so far?

The researchers, who somehow managed to spy on public restrooms (the sinks only, we hope) noted that 33 percent of men did not bother to wash their hands after using the restroom, while only 12 percent of women failed to do so. Now, even though many restrooms have automatic flushers, is it still a good idea to practice actual hygiene? Of course.

I don't think it completely starts with your hands, but it can certainly help to work on your grip a little bit. Not only will it give you an awesome handshake (but don't overdo it and be that person) but it can also help you do more at the gym when you go to lift weights for the rest of your body.

So if you're looking to kickstart your strength training regimen how about trying one of these grips that Women's Health recommends? There's Therapy Putty, the CandoDigiflex, and the Thera-Band flexbar, so you can easily find something that sounds right for you. Personally the putty idea sounds good to me -- sort of strength training plus stress relief rolled into one.

I was checking out some of the info on DIY Life recently and was very amused by this post by Heather Craven on making your own hand sanitizer. Like Heather, I can be overzealous when it comes to washing my hands. In her case it's essential to carry hand sanitizer when out at soccer games or the supermarket with her kids. I always have some handy (no pun intended) for music festivals (port-o-potties aren't always equipped) and while traveling (foreign subways are never equipped).

Turned off by the not-so-nice chemicals in store-bought hand sanitizers, Heather went on an Internet search for one she could make cheaply at home with easy-to-find products. The amusing part is that her favorite turned out to include vodka in the mix of ingredients.

If you'd like to give it a try, take a look at Heather's post to get the recipe. I love the idea of avoiding rubbing chemicals into your skin by making your own sanitizer, but I can't help but think that it's a waste of vodka! I'd definitely recommend skipping the Grey Goose and using the cheapest brand you can find instead.

The iLimb, from Touch Bionics, is now generally available and has been successfully fitted to patients all across the U.S. and in Europe. The iLimb is a big deal because it not only looks like a real human hand but it acts like one too, with 5 individually powered fingers and the ability to sense when enough pressure has been applied in delicate situations like picking up a glass or holding someone's hand. And it can even be adapted to fit people who only need a partial hand due to missing fingers from accident, war, or congenital defect.

This iLimb totally looks like something out of the movie iRobot, don't you think? Must be the white plastic.

Can hand sanitizers cause alcohol poisoning in children? There are stories out there of it happening, including one of a child acting disoriented and off-balance after drinking half of a bottle, and a little girl becoming incoherent and lethargic after being seen by classmates licking sanitizer off her hands.

According to experts the average child would have to drink at least an ounce or more of hand sanitizer to notice any serious effects from the alcohol content, but regardless kids should always be supervised and the sanitizer stored out of reach -- just to be on the safe side.

Over-reaction, or hazardous material?

The age-old adage of washing up before dinner has some strong implications when you consider how much bacteria could be hitching a ride on dirty hands. All kinds of nasty illnesses can result from improper hygiene. Way back when before everyone had fancy antibacterial cleaners, soap got the job done. But now that we can simply rub on a hand gel or spray a surface, it begs the question: are we really choosing the right weapon against bacteria?

Microbiologists are beginning to think that antibacterial products don't quite clean as well as traditional methods. In fact, they could be doing more harm than good! These cleaners leave behind residue that can help build resistant bacteria, whereas soap and water do not. Why is this? It's due to the fact that antibacterial products don't kill everything, and the strains of bacteria left over become even stronger.

After the bacteria become tolerant of these cleaners, cross-resistance is possible. This means they start putting up all kinds of defenses, including protection against other things like antibiotics. One example they discovered was for a compound found in many hand and wash cleaners. Prolonged exposure to this common antibacterial cleaner caused mutations in the bacteria. Not only did they become stronger, but they somehow built a resistance to an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis. While this has only been shown in labs, the potential is there in the home. If you're a healthy individual, experts suggest sticking with soap. However some people with lesser immune systems may have to rely on antibacterial products.

Research suggests that left-handed women may be at higher risk of dying earlier in life than women who are right-handed.

Whoa.

Although the risks seem greater all around for lefties (they are at 40% greater risk of dying from any cause!?) the study specifically narrowed the greatest deadly risks down to cerebrovascular disease, cancer, or damage to arteries in or around the brain.

There seems to be little in the way of scientific proof that left-handed women really have a higher mortality rate -- it seems to be more about noted coincidences and suggestive findings. It's still a little worrisome though!

Researchers have found a link between individuals who are strongly right-handed (meaning they rarely if ever use their non-dominant hand to lead tasks) and distorted body image/eating disorders. Experts say it seems to have something to do with the fact that the brain processes body image mostly in the right hemisphere and right-handed people often have "decreased access" to that entire right side. No definitive word in the article on how this may help with treatment.

I don't like the idea of "decreased access" to any area of my brain (I need every cell I have!), and aren't the majority of us right-handed? How unfortunate.

You hear it all the time, but do you do it all the time? Really? Hand washing is one of the simplest, cheapest, easiest ways to stay healthy, yet a surprising number of people don't pay as much attention and put as much effort into it as they should.

The basics of washing your hands are as simple as using warm water and soap, but if you're really interested in doing it as effectively as possible then follow these steps:

• Using running warm water, create a good lather with a liquid or bar soap (surprisingly, non-antibacterial may be best).
• Rub your hands together vigorously for at least 15 seconds.
• Make sure you consciously rub all surfaces, including between fingers, fingernails, and the backs of your hands & wrists.
• Rinse thoroughly.
• Use a clean or disposable towel to dry hands completely.
• Use a towel to turn off the faucet.

See the full article for additional tips on things like using hand sanitizer properly, and special issues around kids and hand washing.

Not too long ago we found out that happy couples already exhibit a kind of therapeutic measure on each other when researchers discovered that holding hands can reduce stress. Now it looks like they've discovered new information which reveals how a spouse's personality can affect how their partner recovers from major health challenges.

In the case of their study, researchers watched over a hundred coronary artery bypass patients and their significant others. Once again, it looks like marital satisfaction plays a larger role in the effectiveness of the study. Those who were married to to an anxious or even neurotic spouse reported symptoms of depression 18 months after their surgery.

Those couples in more optimistic circumstances reported fewer symptoms of depression and appeared to have less of a burden in recovery. It all points to a universal truth: even though they may be independent, personalities among couples can manifest themselves in physical and psychological ways.

If your state hasn't instituted smoke-free environments yet, then most everyone who doesn't smoke knows the restaurant drill. You walk in, put your name on the list and wait. At that point during the dining experience, you're probably going to make a pivotal decision about something other than what to order: "Smoking or non-smoking."

But have you ever really stopped to think about what's going on here? Just because you're sitting at a table untouched by tar-inflicted fingers and carcinogen fumes doesn't mean you're not getting the blunt end of a bad deal. It's like having a dedicated urination area in a swimming pool. Are you really going to feel that much better about the "cleaner" spots?

The debate about harmful secondhand smokers is officially over according to the Surgeon General: There is no safe level of secondhand smoke. With a huge study citing that tens of thousands of nonsmokers die each year due to this wafting irritation, the call for smoke-free environments has never been louder. What about the options for the rest of us? Unless you want to raise your chances of getting heart disease or cancer by 30% and be one of the 35,000 nonsmokers who die from it every year, stay away from smokers.

There's something you can do about it though. Feel free to lobby your local government for smoke-free environments. Many are coordinated on a municipal level, so it wouldn't be like trying to change the world (yet). For a list of the states who have this sort of legislation, check out Smoke Free USA.