Managing Your Health

Try stress reduction to improve your quality of life and potentially relieve allergy symptoms. Spring allergies are a stressful business. Coping with watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, or a sore throat affects how you get through each day. "The primary consequence is a reduced quality of life. This naturally can lead to stress on patients and their families," says Dr. Ahmad Sedaghat, an ear, nose, and throat specialist. The influence goes both ways: not only can allergies cause stress, but stress can make allergies worse. Understanding the allergic reaction. The gooey mess of allergies is the result of an overactive immune system - one that reacts against harmless foreign substances, like tree or plant pollen, as if they were a dangerous threat. The substances that provoke allergies are called allergens. If you have allergies, when you breathe in tiny pollen particles or other allergens, immune system cells in the nose release chemicals that trigger all...

When I was in high school, I mowed my grandmother's lawn once a week. Yet every time I arrived, she would have already mowed a small part of the back yard. I always told her she didn't need to do that, but she insisted. At the time I didn't understand why she felt compelled to do this every week, but now that I'm inching closer and closer to her age then, I get it: it was something she could do to stay active. She knew that to stave off the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, it is important to move more every day. The older we get, the more likely we are to lapse into a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, an estimated 67% of older adults report sitting for more than eight hours per day, and only 28% to 34% of adults ages 65 to 74 are physically active, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Evelyn O'Neill, manager of outpatient exercise programs, sees the consequences of too much sitting every day. "Sitting is the new smoking in terms of heal...

Vitamin and mineral supplements from a bottle simply can't match all the biologically active compounds teeming in a well-stocked pantry. By focusing on the big picture, it's easy to get plenty of the vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients you need to keep you healthy and prevent disease. Here are some tips. Fiber. It's the part of plant foods that we can't digest. Eating foods high in fiber helps reduce total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol, improve blood sugar control, and prevent constipation. High-fiber foods also help with weight loss by making you feel full. There are lots of high-fiber foods to choose from: brown rice bulgur (cracked wheat) barley oats nuts bean and lentils apples blueberries carrots Vitamins and minerals. Vitamins are organic substances found in plants and animals. Minerals are inorganic elements from the earth (soil and water). Both are essential for normal growth and optimal health. Here's a list of ...