Lifestyle & Wellness

Heart dis­ease remains the No. 1 cause of death in the US and kills near­ly 380,000 peo­ple a year. While this mor­tal­i­ty rate has fall­en dra­mat­i­cal­ly over the last 10 years, risk fac­tors are still alarm­ing­ly high. Pre­ven­tion is an essen­tial ele­ment in the fight against heart dis­ease — much of which can be man­aged through diet.

1. Get an Annu­al Dilat­ed Eye Exam

Adults should have a year­ly dilat­ed eye exam to detect com­mon con­di­tions like cataracts, glau­co­ma or mac­u­lar degen­er­a­tion. These dis­eases could slow­ly be dam­ag­ing the eye and you would not be aware of the destruc­tion unless you have a dilat­ed eye exam. Be proac­tive and pre­vent blind­ness before its too late, sched­ule your annu­al eye exam (be sure to request dilation).

Trav­el­ing is a great way to expe­ri­ence new things and make last­ing mem­o­ries. Devel­op­ing an ill­ness while you’re away from home can be stress­ful and have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on your plans. Whether you’re trav­el­ing local­ly or out­side of the Unit­ed States (U.S.), it’s impor­tant to be aware of the pos­si­ble health risks you may encounter on your trip and have a plan to min­i­mize them and address any symp­toms that may devel­op, should you become ill. Infec­tious Dis­ease and Trav­el Med­i­cine physi­cian, Noziana Aftab, MD, shares tips to keep you healthy while you’re on-the-go.

Exer­cise is vital to main­tain­ing our over­all health and with a vari­ety of sports and activ­i­ties avail­able year round, there’s a work­out reg­i­men that fits every­one’s needs. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, most peo­ple ignore one of the most crit­i­cal ele­ments for exer­cise suc­cess — our feet.

Your body may be telling you that it’s time to con­sid­er mak­ing changes in your every­day rou­tine to pre­serve your spine health. Edu­cate your­self on sim­ple lifestyle mod­i­fi­ca­tions such as pil­low choice and opti­mal sleep­ing posi­tions, work­sta­tion point­ers and more com­fort­able dri­ving pos­ture so you can begin to see a dif­fer­ence in your pain lev­els. In addi­tion to tried and true approach­es such as weight loss and smok­ing ces­sa­tion, you can reclaim func­tion and range of motion by avoid­ing cer­tain move­ments at the wrong time of the day and using light exer­cise to ease the inflam­ma­tion that leads to chron­ic pain.

You should­n’t feel guilty for indulging around the hol­i­days, espe­cial­ly if you stock the dessert table with health-con­scious treats.

This hol­i­day sea­son, try sub­sti­tut­ing bak­ing recipes that are high in refined sug­ar and heavy creams with recipes that use nat­ur­al ingre­di­ents such as fresh fruit, Greek yogurt, hon­ey and spices. Your desserts will be just as deli­cious and have a healthy, hol­i­day sweet­ness that won’t upset the gut.

There are many chal­lenges can­cer patients face through­out their treat­ment includ­ing appear­ance relat­ed side effects. These sim­ple do’s and don’ts can help you deal with any hair, skin, or nail changes you might experience.

Obe­si­ty is a chron­ic, neu­robe­hav­ioral dis­ease that affects over 30 per­cent of adults in the Unit­ed States today. You are con­sid­ered obese if your Body Mass Index (BMI) score, which com­pares your height to weight ratio, is 30 or high­er. Over­time, car­ry­ing excess weight increas­es your risk of devel­op­ing oth­er health con­di­tions like dia­betes, high blood pres­sure and sleep apnea.

Whether you are hit­ting the pave­ment on a long dis­tance run, ped­dling down the streets or shift­ing into war­rior pose at your neigh­bor­hood yoga stu­dio, keep­ing your ath­let­ic gear in tip-top shape is essential.

Elec­trolytes are chem­i­cals and min­er­als that enter your body through the food, drinks, med­ica­tions and oth­er sup­ple­ments you con­sume. The most com­mon elec­trolytes are cal­ci­um, mag­ne­sium, potas­si­um and sodi­um. Elec­trolytes are bro­ken down dur­ing diges­tion and are used to reg­u­late the flow of water to your cells, keep your body hydrat­ed, rebuild tis­sue and send nerve impuls­es to sig­nal your body to per­form var­i­ous activities.