New research says that vitamin D may play a crucial role in weight loss by controlling appetite and helping fat cells become more metabolically active . . . The sunshine vitamin also helps your body better absorb bone-boosting calcium, improves immunity, reduces inflammation, and may even protect against some forms of cancer. Nearly 75 percent of Americans are vitamin-D deficient, so there’s a good chance you’re not getting your recommended daily dose of 400 IU (some people may need as much as 1000 IU, so check with your doctor to find out what’s right for you).
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Health Facts
Health facts giving you accurate advice for healthy living.
Longevity Tip ~ Relationships
FIND YOUR HAPPY PLACE.
Stress and relationships are a major driver of real age. Major stressors can add six years to your real age, but handling stress well and having a strong support system can help reduce your age by five years. The most important social factors for your real age including: Having someone you can talk to about private matters or for help. Having a strong relationship with your spouse or partner. Participating in group activities, such as religious services or social groups
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Wellness Tip ~ Relaxing
Ease anxiety with a Tibetan sky-gazing meditation.
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Look out the window (or look upward), relax your whole body, and let your gaze expand into the spaciousness of the sky, says Dean Sluyter, author Natural Meditation: A Guide To Effortless Meditative Practice. Repeat the ahhh sound silently—it’s the most open sound you can make, and it amplifies the feeling. Let your attention go, and sit for a few minutes.
Longevity Tip ~ Eat Purple Foods
The nerves in your brain connect to one another to send messages and signals for your brain to function. As you age, your brain can lose some of these connections causing your brain to become slower in sending and receiving signals and causing you to age more rapidly. By eating purple foods such as grapes, blueberries, pomegranate, eggplant, beets and wine, you can help protect your nerves and even form new ones to reverse aging in the brain. Add one cup of purple foods to every meal to boost your brain power.
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Wellness Tip ~ Losing Weight
The easiest way to lose weight and improve your health? Ditch the white stuff! Most white foods (bread, rice, pasta, sugar, flour) are primarily made up of refined carbs and empty calories, so cutting them out of your diet is one of the quickest ways to shed pounds and improve your well-being, Dr. Oz says. There are a few exceptions to the rule, including egg whites, cauliflower, and fish, he says. Those are the only white foods you should have on hand.
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Longevity Tip
Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, the world’s oldest person, died in 1997 at the age of 122. Her longevity probably had a lot to do with her zest for life – at 85 she took up fencing and at 100 she was still riding a bike.
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Wellness Tip ~ Walking
Work up to walking 10,000 steps a day. Start with walking the amount that you can do comfortably, such as 5,000 steps a day, then increase your steps until you reach 10,000 steps, putting you in the “active” category.
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Longevity Tip
Traits of People Who Live the Longest
They:
Stop eating when your stomach is 80 percent full to avoid weight gain.
Eat the smallest meal of the day in the late afternoon or evening.
Eat mostly plants, especially beans. And eat meat rarely, in small portions of 3 to 4 ounces. Blue Zoners eat portions this size just five times a month, on average.
Drink alcohol moderately and regularly, i.e. 1-2 glasses a day.
Wellness Tip ~ Sleep
To fit in everything we want to do in our day, we often sacrifice sleep. But sleep affects both mental and physical health. It’s vital to your well-being. When you’re tired, you can’t function at your best. Sleep helps you think more clearly, have quicker reflexes and focus better. Take steps to make sure you regularly get a good night’s sleep.
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Longevity Tip
Maintaining five healthy habits — eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, not drinking too much alcohol, and not smoking — during adulthood may add more than a decade to life expectancy, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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