That's Fit

It used to be that group classes at gyms were broken into a few small categories -- men/women, high intensity/low impact and so forth. But gyms have started to offer special classes that are designed to benefit much smaller groups. Most recently, gyms are offering classes designed for people with certain conditions or illnesses.

Osteoporosis, cancer, and cardiovascular conditions are just a few of the health problems gyms are starting to target. Depending on the condition, the classes may aim to improve the symptoms and/or reduce risk factors for recurrence.

If you have a specific condition, talk to one of the trainers at your gym. (Or call a local gym if you don't have a membership.) Even if they don't have condition-specific classes scheduled yet, they may have other gym-goers who are interested. In the meantime, a trainer can design a program that works specifically for your health needs.

I'm a bit of a sucker for memoirs. I even read A Million Little Pieces after James Frey was deemed a fraud. (He's still working, by the way. No such thing as bad press, right?) I just finished The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan.

Jacki Donaldson read and posted about the book a while back. But I read it after a new friend of mine recommended it. She recently went through the excruciating experience of losing her mother to ALS while living an airplane ride apart. I am currently going through the same thing.

The Middle Place instead involves dealing with cancer, but the themes involving parent-child relationships, distance, disease, and faith are the same. Kelly, who survived her cancer, struggles with all of it, but particularly faith. She is baffled by the Buddhist truth of detachment, "even to people." She still struggles with faith to this day, several years later. I struggle with it a bit as well and I suspect all of us do to some degree. It's the very nature of faith, after all. It's transparent, intangible.

There are 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning related to deli meats produced by a Canada-based Maple Leaf Foods plant. 12 of those cases have resulted in death. Listeria, the bacteria that was found in all of the people who contracted food poisoning, was detected in two beef products made at the Toronto plant.

The plant in question is closed while health officials inspect and test product until they're sure it is safe to reopen the plant. Maple Leaf Foods voluntarily pulled 220 products that are produced at the plant, a safety move that cost the company roughly $19 million.

There are another 29 suspected cases of food poisoning related to the tainted deli meats and health officials expect more cases will surface in the coming days.

Protect yourself in the outdoors, says The American Cancer Society (ACS) -- read all about it here -- and protect your picnic food too, say the cancer experts who are sending me an electronic monthly newsletter all about healthy living.

Warm weather poses a big threat of food-borne illness, according to the ACS. So: Keep bacteria away at your next outdoor feast with these five easy steps.

• Wash your hands before cooking and again after cooking, especially after touching raw meat. If you aren't near a faucet, grab a wet napkin or hand sanitizer -- they'll reduce the number of germs on your hands.

• Keep hot food hot. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken should be kept at 140 degrees F or warmer.

• Keep cold foods cold. Even if you've got your food packed in a cooler, tuck it in a shady area. Keep at 41 degrees F or cooler.

• Wash melons before cutting them. This way, less bacteria will slip into the flesh from the rind when you slice them.

• Bring extra plates to cut down on cross-contamination. Use some to handle raw foods and others to handle cooked foods.

Yesterday, I saw some tomatoes back in circulation. Could it be? Are they back? Some of them are.

According to a June 11 notice issued by the FDA, consumers can now consume raw red plum, raw red Roma, or raw red round tomatoes -- but ONLY if grown and harvested from certain areas that have not been associated with the outbreak. My state -- Florida -- happens to be one of these areas, which is why they are resurfacing here in the Sunshine State. Take a look at this list and see if your state makes the cut. Types of tomatoes not linked to any illnesses are cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and any tomato with the vine still attached.

The FDA also wants you to know this: If you are unsure of where the tomatoes you have in your home are from, contact the store or place of purchase for that information. If you are unable to determine the source of the tomatoes, do not eat them. And don't forget that raw tomatoes are often used in the preparation of fresh salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo, are part of fillings for tortillas, and are used in other dishes.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has announced a new research program designed to solve the medical cases that are stumping doctors. The Undiagnosed Diseases Program will tackle difficult cases that are referred to the center by doctors across the country.

Just imagine the frustration doctors must feel when faced with a patient who's exhibiting symptoms that don't correspond with known illnesses (not to mention the frustration the patients feel.) The development of this research team pulls together a highly trained staff with state-of-the-art equipment -- diagnosticians that spend their whole days solving the unsolvable.

Necessarily, the program will be very selective about which cases it takes on. The case must have first exhausted all standard diagnostic procedures. The program will work with approximately 100 patients per year.

I know a lot of people who say that they catch some kind of bug every time they fly. There's no doubt that sharing cabin air and sitting in close proximity to a passenger with a contagious illness ups your risk of getting sick yourself.

What's a person to do when they fall ill before a flight? The right thing to do is to stay put to protect your own health as well as the health of others, but getting out of your ticket can be especially tricky.

Travel columnist Elliot Christopher has four tips for travelers who find themselves suddenly and seriously ill before a flight, tips that might just help you skip your flight without losing hundreds of dollars in fees or non-refundable tickets. It's not always an easy battle to win, but it might not be as hard as you think.

True or false; cracking your knuckles can potentially lead to arthritis?

And the answer is ... FALSE.

According to a study published recently in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, all that snap, crackle, and popping of your knuckles is not, in any way, correlated to the development of arthritis. So what does? Well, there's no one answer to that question, really. So, here are just a few of the many:

• Genetics
• Age
• Previous Injury
• Weight
• Illness or Infections

Some high-intensity sports have also been shown to contribute to arthritis risk is some people, but for the most part, the benefit of the exercise outweighs the small risk of developing the condition.

Be this all as it may, the fact remains that cracking your knuckles will not cause arthritis. It may, however, cause people to shoot you a dirty look if you do it enough times.

When I get stressed or anxious, my mood is quickly reflected in my son's behavior. He's more likely to be disrespectful and to break rules when I'm stressed. Of course, if I don't break the cycle it creates an awfully vicious circle, because his behavior can make me more stressed. But I just try to remind myself (sometimes more successfully than others) that I am the parent and therefore should be at least a tad more emotionally mature than my 10-year-old.

But it turns out that our stress levels can do more than set off a temper tantrum... it can actually lead to our kids getting sick. A recent study found kids with anxious or depressed parents also had higher sickness levels. The parents' stress can actually lower the child's immunities and lead to significantly higher instances of illness.

FitSpirit explores the mind-body connection and the intangible benefits we gain from our efforts to stay physically fit.

I once read this inspiring story by Dr. Bernie Siegel in his book Love, Medicine, and Miracles. It was about a group of people who were told they were receiving chemotherapy. Some got the treatment; some did not. Of those who didn't, some lost their hair. They believed they would And they did. What powerful minds they had.

If thoughts are powerful enough to make people sick -- or cause spontaneous hair loss -- then they surely can make us well. That's the whole basis of Siegel's book, that cancer patients with positive thoughts can outlive even the lowest of expectations.

Yep, thoughts can heal.

"The body responds to mental input as if it were physically real," explains Larry Dossey, a physician and advocate for mind-body study since the 1980s. Under clinical hypnosis, for example, someone who is told he is being touched by a red-hot object will often get a burn blister, even though the object was no warmer than room temperature.

What we imagine in our minds really can affect outcomes. You may know this phenomenon as the "placebo effect." When a patient believes something will relieve pain, the body actually releases endorphins that relieve pain. Medical research suggests that 30 to 70 percent of successful treatments may be a result of the patient's belief that the treatment will work.

Now that we've established that good thoughts and feelings can mend our broken parts, here's a few ideas for getting into the right frame of mind.

Take a deep breath. Hold it, exhale, then repeat for 10 minutes. Take a walk, preferably in nature. Breathe in the fresh air.

Laugh. You'll pump more oxygen into your lungs, improve blood flow, and boost your immune system.

Keep a journal. Writing about emotionally charged events helps us deal with them mentally and physically.

Like Rocky said to Adrian, some people think being shy is a disease. But that doesn't bother him! For some people though, being shy is a lot worse. In fact, some degrees of acute social embarrassment are considered "social phobia" that require medical attention.

That's a far cry from the schoolyard timidness shown by kids at a young age. One commenter conveyed exactly what it feels like: "Social Phobia has destroyed my life. ... Walking into a room full of people causes me to almost have a breakdown." When pictured like this, extreme shyness can seem like a mental health problem.

Symptoms can include chronically stressing over conversations: 'What should I say to this person? Did I say the right thing? What should I have said instead?' According to the article, this acute shy behavior is the most under-recognized mental health problem out there. But thankfully for those people there are treatment options. Medication is available, but therapy has been shown to help better in the long run. If you'd like to check out more, continue reading the article!

Mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder are very hard for psychiatrists to diagnose sometimes. It's a subjective procedure requiring the patient to tell the professional about his or her symptoms. After that, the doctor must give a judgment which ultimately diagnoses the patient.

But what if medical professionals were able to test the blood and detect whether or not a person had bipolar disorder or depression? This could, theoretically, eliminate the need for subjective judgments on people's mental state. However, some folks believe this is too accurate.

The ethical concerns stem from the fact that ten genes have been shown to reveal a person's mental status. Personality characteristics are controversial in medicine, and a test that can allegedly tell a person if they're unstable could cause a bigger rift. However, if used properly, this seems like a more effective way to treat patients of psychiatry. We'll have to keep an eye on this for future developments!

An important part of being successful in your working life is to take advantage of vacation time benefits to refresh and revive your mind, body, and spirit. But obviously getting sick on vacation and spending the majority of the time not relaxing but recovering and suffering instead does nothing for you but waste your money and your time and send you back to work feeling more exhausted than when you left.

Taking some simple steps towards staying healthy can be the difference between coming back from vacation feeling relaxed and refreshed and ready to hit the ground running or coming back tired, drained, and barely able to get motivated. Whether you're going on a cruise through the Caribbean or on a drive across the country Forbes has compiled some tips to help you stay healthy and make the most of your time away from your desk, your career, and all the other stresses of your everyday life.

You would think if milk is delivered in glass bottles to your front door, just like the old days, it might go through extremely careful processing to get there. But being careful (or lack thereof) might not be the cause of why bad milk was linked to listeria in Massachusetts. The bacteria is also found in uncooked meat, and rarely shows up in pasteurized milk. That's why health officials are confused as they try to investigate where this outbreak came from.

Three of the victims were elderly men, one of whom was a World War II veteran. When authorities tested the drink of John Powers, the coffee-flavored milk of Whittier Farms sent back positive confirmation of contamination. It's worth noting that the dairy farm distributes across the state under different brand names (although the article fails to mention which ones).

Two other women who were pregnant also contracted listeriosis, one suffering a miscarriage. Thankfully both have recovered otherwise. Let's hope health officials track down this breach before any other cases materialize.

You know the old saying: Starve a fever, feed a cold. Or is it Starve a cold, Feed a fever? Either way, it appears that neither is the right answer -- it's never a good idea to starve or overeat during any sort of illness, according to this article from WebMD. What's more, the saying has no scientific evidence to support it and is completely outdated.

That said, when you have a fever, it's a good idea to help your body cope by not filling it with too much food. You probably won't be hungry anyway, but make sure to eat something light to keep your strength up--soup or toast should do the trick. And be sure to get plenty of liquids, no matter what ails you.