7 Caffeine-Free Ways To Boost Your Energy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/boost-energy-without-caffeine_n_4267059.html?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living
By Laura Tedesco


Philipp Nemenz via Getty Images

When your energy level falls into the red zone, you probably reach for our culture's quick fix: caffeine. In fact, women in their 30s consume about 165 milligrams of the stuff each day, but by age 50, the daily average leaps to 225 milligrams, a recent USDA report reveals. "We have an energy crisis of historic proportions going on," says Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., an internist and fatigue expert. "We are reaching for anything that will give us energy -- and we're over-relying on coffee now more than ever."

That said, scrapping your daily Starbucks isn't necessary -- the antioxidants in java are good for you -- but you shouldn't rely on a seven-cup habit to carry you through the day, either. That's just putting a bandage on your exhaustion. Instead, beat fatigue for real with these out-of-the-box energy boosters.

Pop a piece of gum.

Gum doesn't just refresh your breath -- it can also revitalize your body. In a 2012 study from the UK, people who chewed gum for 15 minutes felt more alert than those who didn't pop a piece. "Chewing gum increases heart rate, which increases blood flow to the brain," says study author Andy Smith, Ph.D. "It also stimulates the autonomic nervous system, which can increase alertness." Pick a mint-flavored pack: "Mint stimulates your nerve fibers -- it's kind of like splashing cold water on your face," says Teitelbaum.

Find your whole-grain sweet spot.



Carbs = crash, right? Yes -- but only if you eat the stripped-down kind that modern foods favor. "White flour will give you a boost, but then a crash so you feel sluggish," says Teitelbaum. "But whole grains give you real energy." In fact, people who replaced three servings of refined carbs with whole grains each day reported an increase in energy, a recent study in the journal Appetite found. More isn't better, though: Those who worked in six servings of good carbs just felt sluggish. Why? OD'ing on whole grains triggers a surge of serotonin, which makes you feel drowsy, explains Teitelbaum. 

Consider breakfast prime time for packing them in. In the study, people felt that front-loading their whole grains -- say, by eating whole-grain cereal and a slice of toast with breakfast (while still including protein, of course) -- made it easier to meet their quota.

Lighten up.



There's a reason darkness and bedtime go hand-in-hand: Bright light awakens your brain. But not all rays are equally stimulating. A 2013 study from the Lighting Research Center in New York found that red light is a stronger afternoon wake-up call than blue light. However, Teitelbaum cautions, "With red light, you'll have more of an irritable, edgy alertness, whereas with blue, you're going to have more of a calm alertness." (He likens it to a coffee buzz versus a green tea zen.) His advice: Install blue bulbs in your desk lamp (which you can switch on after lunch), and save red light for the bedroom, since edgy alertness can translate to sexual energy.

Learn something new.



It's 3 p.m. on a workday. How do you beat the slump? According to a recent University of Michigan study, the most common strategies are checking email, switching tasks, or making a to-do list. However, none of these tactics actually improved employees' sense of energy. What did: learning something new. 

"The more actively you can engage your brain, the more alerting an activity is going to be," says John Caldwell, Ph.D., a fatigue management specialist and former NASA researcher. "You can actually overcome a good bit of sleep pressure just by engaging in something interesting." So brush up on your Excel skills, for example, or listen to a short work-related podcast.

Plant a garden.



It’s no surprise that physical activity puts a pep in your step. But gardening -- which can count as a workout -- may have a leg up on the stationary bike. Why? It’s fun. "If you hate exercise, don't bother -- all you're going to do is quit, then feel guilty," says Teitelbaum. "Doing something you love is one of the most powerful ways to get sustained, healthy energy." Recent German research found that active hobbies, like gardening, are more energizing than sedentary ones, like reading. 

Digging in the dirt is especially stimulating: Skin-to-skin contact with soil can fight oxidative stress in your body, which, in turn, energizes you. "All the electrical devices in your house are linked to a wire that grounds them to the outside. People also need to ground," says Teitelbaum. "The act of touching soil is grounding -- the positive electrons flow out of your body, and negative charge flows from the earth." That's why he suggests ditching your gloves, or even better, going barefoot in your garden. This practice, called "earthing," may sound a little far-fetched, but regardless, research has proven that time outside is energizing.

Belt out your favorite song.



Ever noticed how cranking up the radio makes you drive faster? That's because music is energizing -- especially if you sing along. Researchers in London found that singing solo increases energetic arousal and decreases tension nearly as much as a cardio workout. "You disconnect from the big U-Haul of worries that people carry around with them," explains Teitelbaum. "You're just being free for a while." Choose a tune that really engages you -- the one that makes you want to sing at the top of your lungs. Then sing it, sister! Bonus if you get out of your chair for your solo: Caldwell's research shows that standing up can provide an instant surge of energy.

Massage your ears.



This one's a little wonky, but trust us, when you're dragging, you'll be all ears: Applying pressure to the outer rim of your ear may help invigorate your entire body, says Teitelbaum. That's because all of your body's "acupressure meridians" -- that is, your energy pathways -- pass through your outer ear. "Massaging the ear unites all of the meridians, and gets the energy flowing," he says. Simply pinch the rim of each ear between your thumb and pointer finger, and rub up and down for 10 to 30 seconds.

Lowering cholesterol under new clinical guidelines

Panel Unveils Shake-up in Strategy to Cut Heart Risk
Long-standing strategy jettisoned under new guidelines

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304868404579194101530086112?mod=e2fb

By Ron Winslow

ByB

The current strategy of reducing a person's heart-attack risk by lowering cholesterol to specific targets is being jettisoned under new clinical guidelines unveiled Tuesday that mark the biggest shift in cardiovascular-disease prevention in nearly three decades.

The change could more than double the number of Americans who qualify for treatment with the cholesterol-cutting drugs known as statins.

The guidelines recommend abandoning the familiar and easy-to-understand guidance to keep LDL, or bad cholesterol, below 100 or below 70 for people at high risk—a mainstay of current prevention policy. Instead, doctors are being urged to assess a patient's risk more broadly and prescribe statins to those falling into one of four risk categories.

The aim is to more effectively direct statin treatment to patients with the most to gain, and move away from relatively arbitrary treatment targets that are less reliable in predicting risk of attack than is widely believed.

"We're trying to focus the most appropriate therapy to prevent heart attack and stroke...in a wide range of patients," said Neil J. Stone, professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and head of the panel that wrote the guidelines.

Cardiovascular disease is the Western world's leading killer. In the U.S., it accounts for about 600,000 deaths each year, or about one in four. About 130,000 Americans die annually of stroke.

Numerous studies show that statins reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. But solid data demonstrating the benefit of reaching specific targets are lacking, said Dr. Stone.

While lowering the LDL number remains a critical goal, the focus is on the risk reduction achieved with statins rather than the effect on LDL, said Donald Lloyd-Jones, chief of preventive medicine at Northwestern and a member of the guidelines panel.

Cardiologists expect the recommendations, jointly developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, to substantially change the conversation between doctors and millions of patients over the best way to lower their risk of heart attack or stroke.

The risk groups identified in the guidelines include patients who have already had a heart attack, stroke or major symptoms of cardiovascular disease; those with an LDL of 190 or higher, which typically has a genetic cause; people with diabetes; and anyone ages 40 to 79 who faces a 7.5% risk of having a heart attack over the next 10 years, according to a new risk score. That score—with a lower threshold than under current guidelines—takes into account cholesterol level, smoking status, blood pressure and other factors.

All are recommended to take high or moderate statin doses that would result in LDL reductions of about 30% to more than 50%. If fully implemented, the guidelines could more than double the number of people who qualify for statins, to more than 30 million, the authors said.

The new approach is likely to have a modest immediate effect on the pharmaceutical industry. All but one of the statins available, including Lipitor, have lost patent protection and are available as inexpensive generics.

AstraZeneca AZN.LN +0.59% PLC's Crestor, the one remaining branded statin and the most powerful on the market, could get a boost from the recommendations. MerckMRK +0.52% & Co.'s Zetia, a non-statin cholesterol-reducer that is also an ingredient in Vytorin, could take a hit because the guidelines discourage use of agents that haven't been proven to reduce risk of bad events, unless patients can't tolerate the recommended level of statin treatment. Zetia hasn't been shown to reduce bad events even though it lowers LDL.

But both supporters and critics of the guidelines worry they will confuse patients and physicians, and disrupt an easy-to-understand and successful strategy. While statins haven't been the only factor, research shows there has been a significant reduction in heart attacks and death from cardiovascular disease in the past two decades since the drugs were introduced.

Having targets for LDL "gives doctors and patients something to shoot for" as well as a motivation to try to get there, said Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "The elimination of target levels is going to be a huge change for physicians and patients," he said.

The authors of the guidelines say a change was needed because the numerical targets are too blunt a tool. The targets have never been tested in a clinical trial, but a review of the evidence suggested they could lead to undertreatment of some patients and overtreatment of others, doctors said.

For instance, a high-risk patient with an LDL of 180 who reduces it with a statin to 90 will substantially reduce his risk. Yet under current guidelines he may be viewed as failing therapy by not getting to 70. Doctors often prescribe additional, non-statin cholesterol agents for patients not reaching targets with a statin alone, but there is no evidence getting another 20 points lower would bring a further meaningful reduction in risk.

Similarly, said Dr. Lloyd-Jones, an older patient who had accumulated other risk factors but had an LDL of 99 might be missed under the current strategy, even though statins could offer significant benefit.

Statins "seem to work no matter what your lipids are," said Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist, using a term referring to blood fats including cholesterol. He wasn't an author of the guidelines, but he has argued for moving away from LDL targets as a cornerstone of prevention. "Knowing your number can be useful in understanding your risk, but not in chasing it as a strategy to improve your outcome," he said.

Targeting LDL has been a strategy since the National Cholesterol Education Program was established to promote heart health in 1985. It became a dominant approach in the mid-1990s, after research demonstrated the ability of statins not only to lower LDL but to prevent heart attacks and death. As research linked higher doses of statins with further reductions in heart attacks, lower is better became the mantra for LDL.

Now, even without the emphasis on hitting LDL targets, the guidelines are expected to significantly boost statin use, in part because they add stroke reduction as a goal and thus include more women and minorities, who are more prone to strokes than heart attacks.

The researchers identified the 7.5% risk threshold as the point where the benefits of statin therapy to prevent first heart attacks or strokes clearly outweighed the risks, including muscle pain and a small risk of diabetes.

The cholesterol guideline was issued with three other heart-related recommendations to guide doctors on assessing risk, treating obesity and encouraging healthy diet and exercise habits.

The cholesterol document in particular is expected to generate controversy and will be discussed at a major session next week at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Dallas.

"There will be a lot of controversy," said Dr. Stone, of Northwestern University. "You can't go anywhere new without creating a lot of questions. The hope is that we can answer those questions in a way that provides better patient care."

Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com

New guidelines urge wider use of cholesterol-lowering drugs to reduce heart attacks, strokes

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-guidelines-urge-wider-use-of-cholesterol-lowering-drugs-to-reduce-heart-attacks-strokes/2013/11/12/4515de96-4bd7-11e3-bf60-c1ca136ae14a_story.html

By Associated Press

The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology released new guidelines to prevent heart attacks and strokes, focusing on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

The nation’s first new guidelines in a decade for preventing heart attacks and strokes call for twice as many Americans — one-third of all adults — to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

The guidelines, issued Tuesday by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, are a big change. They offer doctors a new formula for estimating a patient’s risk that includes many factors besides a high cholesterol level, the main focus now. The formula includes age, gender, race and factors such as whether someone smokes.

The guidelines for the first time take aim at strokes, not just heart attacks. Partly because of that, they set a lower threshold for using medicines to reduce risk.

The definition of high cholesterol isn’t changing, but the treatment goal is. Instead of aiming for a specific number, using whatever drugs get a patient there, the advice stresses statins such as Lipitor and Zocor and identifies four groups of people they help the most.

“The emphasis is to try to treat more appropriately,” said Dr. Neil Stone, the Northwestern University doctor who headed the cholesterol guideline panel. “We’re going to give statins to those who are the most likely to benefit.”

Doctors say the new approach will limit how many people with low heart risks are put on statins simply because of a cholesterol number. Yet under the new advice, 33 million Americans — 44 percent of men and 22 percent of women — would meet the threshold to consider taking a statin. Under the current guidelines, statins are recommended for only about 15 percent of adults.

Some doctors not involved in writing the guidance worry that it will be tough to understand.

“It will be controversial, there’s no question about it. For as long as I remember, we’ve told physicians and patients we should treat their cholesterol to certain goal levels,” said the Cleveland Clinic’s Dr. Steven Nissen. “There is concern that there will be a lot of confusion about what to do.”

The government’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed expert panels to write the new guidelines in 2008, but in June said it would leave drafting them to the Heart Association and College of Cardiology. New guidelines on lifestyle and obesity also came out Tuesday, and ones on blood pressure are coming soon.

Roughly half the cholesterol panel members have financial ties to makers of heart drugs, but panel leaders said no one with industry connections could vote on the recommendations.

“It is practically impossible to find a large group of outside experts in the field who have no relationships to industry,” said Dr. George Mensah of the heart institute. He called the guidelines “a very important step forward” based on solid evidence, and said the public should trust them.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. High cholesterol leads to hardened arteries that can cause a heart attack or stroke. Most cholesterol is made by the liver, so diet changes have a limited effect on it.

Millions of Americans take statins, which reduce cholesterol dramatically and have other effects that more broadly lower the chances of heart trouble.

The patents on Lipitor, Zocor and other statins have expired, and they are widely available in generic versions for as little as a dime a day. One that is still under patent protection is AstraZeneca’s Crestor, which had sales of $8.3 billion in 2012.

Despite a small increased risk of muscle problems and accelerating diabetes in patients already at risk for it, statins are “remarkably safe drugs” whose benefits outweigh their risks, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, preventive-medicine chief at Northwestern.

Current guidelines say total cholesterol should be under 200, and LDL, or “bad cholesterol,” under l00. Other drugs such as niacin and fibrates are sometimes added to statins to try to reach those goals, but studies show they don’t always lower the chances of heart problems.

“Chasing numbers can lead us to using drugs that haven’t been proven to help patients. You can make someone’s lab test look better without making them better,” said Yale University cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz, who has long urged the broader risk approach the new guidelines take.

They say statins do the most good for:

—People who already have heart disease.

—Those with LDL of 190 or higher, usually because of genetic risk.

—People ages 40 to 75 with Type 2 diabetes.

—People ages 40 to 75 who have an estimated 10-year risk of heart disease of 7.5 percent or higher, based on the new formula. (This means that for every 100 people with a similar risk profile, seven or eight would have a heart attack or stroke within 10 years.)

Aspirin — widely used to lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks — is not addressed in the guidelines. And many drugs other than statins are still recommended for certain people, such as those with high triglycerides.

Patients should not stop taking any heart drug without first checking with their doctor.

The guidelines also say:

—Adults 40 to 79 should get an estimate every four to six years of their chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke over the next decade using the new formula. It includes age, sex, race, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. If risk remains unclear, doctors can consider family history or three other tests. The best one is a coronary artery calcium test, an X-ray to measure calcium in heart arteries.

—For those 20 to 59, an estimate of their lifetime risk of a heart attack or stroke can be considered using traditional factors like cholesterol and blood pressure to persuade them to change their lifestyle.

—To fight obesity, doctors should develop individualized weight loss plans including a moderately reduced calorie diet, exercise and behavior strategies. The best ones offer two or three in-person meetings a month for at least six months. Web or phone-based programs are a less-ideal option.

—Everyone should get at least 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise three or four times a week.

—People should eat a “dietary pattern” focused on vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Include low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, beans and healthy oils and nuts. Limit sweets, sweet drinks, red meat, saturated fat and salt.

“I don’t like the concept of ‘good foods’ and ‘bad foods,’” said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist who worked on the guidelines. “We really want to emphasize dietary patterns.”

Online:

Risk formula: http://my.americanheart.org/cvriskcalculator

Guidelines on cholesterol: http://bit.ly/1j2hDpH

Lifestyle: http://bit.ly/16ZnV7e

Overweight: http://bit.ly/1bsdFG2

Risk Assessment: http://bit.ly/19hzaV9

Cholesterol info: http://tinyurl.com/2dtc5vy

Heart facts: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/127/1/e6

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

What's YOUR fitness age? New calculator reveals if you're old beyond your years

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2487135/Whats-YOUR-fitness-age-New-calculator-tells-youre-old-years-simple-steps.html
By ANNA HODGEKISS

Do you struggle to climb the stairs or walk up a hill? 

Now there’s a website that will show if you really are old beyond your years – by calculating your true fitness age. 

By putting in simple measurements such as how much exercise you do, your waist measurement and resting heart rate, the website calculates how well your body delivers oxygen to the cells – a measurement called VO2 max.

The results can be somewhat terrifying - a sedentary, moderately overweight 40-year-old woman could have a fitness age of 54, for example.

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that putting just five measurements - waist circumference; resting heart rate; frequency and intensity of exercise; age; and sex - into an programme helped them predict a person’s VO2 max quite accurately.

Fitness age is basically how well the body functions physically – compared to how well it should work – given the person’s age. 

It is also a strong indication of lifespan, and, while not perfect, is a ‘rough estimate of cardiorespiratory fitness’, the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 

And a young fitness age is 'the single best predictor of current and future health', the lead study author, Ulrik Wisloff, told The New York Times. 

He and his team of researchers got 5,000 people aged between 20 and 90 to run on a treadmill to the point of exhaustion.

Various measurements were taken from them - and these were used to build a picture of what’s normal at certain ages. 

Obviously, the nearer the fitness age is to your age, the better. 

If you get a fitness age of 40, for example, then you have the 'typical, desirable' fitness of a 40-year-old, he says. 

Or, 'A 70-year-old man or woman who has the peak oxygen uptake of a 20-year-old has a fitness age of 20,' says Professor Wisloff.

So how do you calculate your fitness age? The two main things you need are your waist circumference in centimetres and your resting heart rate. 

This can be calculated by taking your pulse for 30 seconds and then doubling it. Add in your age, gender, intensity and frequency of exercise and the calculator will generate your fitness age. 

The results can provide a stern wake-up call. A 40-year old woman with the average UK woman’s waist circumference of 34inches (86cm) who rarely exercises and has a resting heart rate of 80bpm (the average resting heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats per minute) has a fitness age of 54. 

On the other hand, if you are super fit, it can take years off your life. 

Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins is said to have a resting heart rate of 35 – and when the rest of his details are plugged in, he is given a fitness age of ‘younger than 20’.

To calcuate your fitness age, click http://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/vo2max

Can You Really Cram a Full Workout Into 4 Minutes?

http://news.health.com/2013/10/23/can-you-really-cram-a-full-workout-into-4-minutes/
By Jennifer Cohen

When it comes to fitness, there are few quick fixes. If you want a rockstar body, you’re expected to put in hours at the gym for maximum results. Or at least 20 minutes a day, right? Wrong! Let me introduce you to Tabata training.

Tabata training is a type of high intensity interval training that supposedly can give you results similar to a 30- to 60-minute, moderate cardio routine in only 4 minutes. Whoa. I’m all about short, high intensity workouts, but 4 minutes!? Does it really work? It seems to!

In a 1996 study (there have been many), Professor Izumi Tabata looked at athletes who cycled for 60 minutes, 5 times a week, and those who did 7 to 8 sets of 20-second high intensity cycling followed by 10-second rest periods (about 4 minutes total), 5 times a week. Both improved their cardiovascular fitness, but he found the second group had an improvement in both anaerobic and aerobic fitness.

In other words, this type of workout seems to help your performance in high intensity, short duration activities, and also in longer endurance workouts.

Intrigued? Try it yourself with this 4-minute Tabata workout. (Although much of the research has been done on cycling and running, almost any high intensity exercise is thought to do the trick.)

A 4-Minute Tabata Workout

Perform each move for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second break. Do the circuit twice. Remember to go hard! In order for it to work, you must be giving 100% for the whole 4 minutes.

1. Standing Mountain Climbers. Stand with feet shoulder width apart, holding a light dumbbell in each hand. Raise both of your hands up over your head with your palms facing in. From this position, jog in place bringing your right knee up and your left elbow down first. Return them to starting position, and then bring your left knee up and your right elbow down. Do this as quickly as you can.

Health.com video: How to do a Mountain Climber

2. Squat Thrusts. Start in standing position with feet shoulder width apart. Bend your knees until your hands can touch the ground on either side of your feet. Your butt should be down toward the ground. From here, kick your legs out in a pushup position. Next jump your feet back into your squatting position, and stand up. Repeat.

Health.com: Squat Thrust from Jessica Alba

3. Box Jumps. Stand facing a moderately high platform or step with your feet shoulder width apart. From here, bend at the knees and explode up on to the box. You can use your arms for momentum as you jump. Once on the box, jump back down to the ground and repeat.

Health.com: How to do a Box Jump

4. Dumbbell Swings. Start in a squatting position with your feet hip width apart and your toes forward. Hold a dumbbell in both hands down between your legs. Keeping your arms straight, swing the dumbbell up over your head in a controlled motion. While swinging up, push up into standing position. In a fluid motion, lower the dumbbell back down while squatting into your starting position.

Health.com: How to do a Dumbbell Swing

Phew!  How was it? At the end of this workout you should feel as if you’ve given your all for the entire 4 minutes. Your heart rate should be up and your entire body will feel worked. Not sure if you’ve given it 100%? Make sure your heart rate is at 80 to 90% of your maximum heart rate while you are working out. To find your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Take this number and multiply it by 0.8 and 0.9 to find 80 to 90% of your maximum heart rate. Want to make it simpler? I always wear a heart rate monitor when I workout to ensure that I am working out intensely enough.

For more quick workout ideas, check out A Head-to-Toe Workout in Just One Move and 5 Quick Workout Moves for Busy Women!

Jennifer Cohen is a leading fitness authority, TV personality, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. With her signature, straight-talking approach to wellness, Jennifer was the featured trainer on The CW’s Shedding for the Wedding, mentoring the contestants’ to lose hundreds of pounds before their big day, and she appears regularly on NBC’s Today Show, Extra, The Doctors and Good Morning America. Connect with Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and on Pinterest.