Try these Yoga Poses to Relieve Stress and Tension While “feeling stressed” holds a negative connotation, some stress is actually good stress. If your neighbor’s mean dog starts chasing you, for example, your body releases hormones like adrenaline to help you run away. This type of brief, acute stress helps you manage potentially dangerous situations. It’s the long-term, chronic stress that is linked to dangerous diseases like high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. The following simple yoga poses, suitable for novice yogis, aid in targeted stress relief. “These are amazing poses for calming the mind and helping reboot the immune […]
The versatility of pesto can help us all do our very besto when it comes to adding great flavor and big benefits to dishes. Use your imagination and check out the pesto chart along with two of my out-of-the-box pestos that deliver great taste along with powerful nutrients. You can serve these and any favorite pesto over vegetables; pasta; flatbread … whatever you choose! Nettle Pesto At the height of allergy season, incorporating nettles into your meals can be a soothing practice offering relief. With research supporting the use of nettles for seasonal allergies and hay fever, this plant contains […]
Put down the fork. Step away from the buffet table. UC Davis nutrition expert Liz Applegate wants us to think about exactly what we’re shoveling down our throats. Not just to lose weight but to protect our brains. “Brain food is real and it really does matter,” said Applegate, an author, professor and director of sports nutrition at UC Davis. She’s an advocate of the MIND diet, a combination of two long-studied diets that have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. We talked with her recently about so-called “brain foods,” their impact on […]
Here in Southern California, just about every yard and neighborhood has citrus trees heavy with fruit. I have a number of fruit trees myself and always marvel at how plentiful and tasty the oranges, lemons and limes are this time of year. Just about any variety of citrus is at its best in the winter months, but there are some new and unusual varieties that are pretty spectacular. Along with great taste, all citrus are high in vitamins A and C and fiber, while naturally low in calories. Grapefruit Red grapefruit varieties such as Flame, Ruby, Rio Red and Star […]
If you could do something to decrease your risk of memory failure, to increase your self-confidence,
Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year, is a very important holiday for me. Although I was born and raised in Southeast Asia, my father was three-quarters Chinese and my mother was half Chinese. We always celebrated the lunar new year by making special meals full of symbolism. For instance, we made a sweet sticky rice cake called tikoy because it symbolizes unity and togetherness and good luck that is supposed to stick to you all year long. We also cleaned the house and bought new clothes to wear on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. And […]
Prebiotics are the fuel that feed probiotics and make them effective in supporting human health – especially gut health. But what are they and where do you find them? Questions abound about this frequently talked about but often misunderstood component of food that all of us need for good health. Do not get prebiotics confused with the very similar-sounding probiotics. Prebiotics exist naturally in food as non-digestible component that supports good bacteria in your lower gut. They are a type of carbohydrate that cannot be broken down. Prebiotic food compounds pass through the small intestine undigested so that good bacteria […]
A major risk factor for development of heart diseases, strokes and diabetes is lower in people who live at higher altitudes, says a new study that suggests that something as simple as the geographic area in which you live contribute to your risk of developing these diseases. “We found that those people living between 1500 to 7536 feet, had a lower risk of developing Metabolic Syndrome than those living at sea level (zero to 396 feet),” said Amaya Lopez-Pascual, who conducted this research as part of her PhD thesis at University of Navarra, Spain. Metabolic syndrome is the medical term for the […]
Stress might stimulate us and help us get through our day, but too much stress can have the opposite
A compound found in green tea could have lifesaving potential for patients with multiple myeloma and amyloidosis, who face often-fatal medical complications associated with bone-marrow disorders, according to a team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis and their German collaborators. Jan Bieschke, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering & Applied Science, studies how proteins fold and shape themselves, and how these processes can contribute to a variety of diseases. He says the compound epigallocatechine-3-gallate (EGCG), a polyphenol found in green tea leaves, may be of particular benefit to patients struggling with multiple myeloma and […]