| Walk With the Doc Adding exercise to your routine is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. If you are unsure of what’s best for you, I’ll be glad to offer a suggestion. The potential benefits are hard to ignore. Benefits can include reduced risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, reduced risk of osteoporosis, diabetes, and obesity, keeping joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible, contributing to mental well-being, helping relieve depression, stress, and anxiety, increasing your energy and endurance, helping you sleep better, helping you maintain normal weight, and more. The secret to getting these benefits is to make regular exercise a habit. If you have been procrastinating, try bravely posting your goal on the refrigerator along with a few “exercise appointments” on your calendar. If exercising at home isn’t working, consider joining a health club or community center. A club environment can help keep up the enthusiasm. For some, the cost is an incentive to exercise on a regular basis. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan you may also have a free or low cost membership waiting for you at many local gyms. A good goal for most is to work up to exercising 5 times a week for 30 to 60 minutes. If time is a problem you can try splitting your physical activity into ten minute exercise periods. Exercise has so many health benefits. Almost any amount is likely to have positive effects. If still unsure about what right for you then let’s have a talk. Even better, join me for a walk. Nancy Neighbors, MD Huntsville, Alabama The Value of Social Connections Recent research points to loneliness as being on par with diabetes and smoking as a health concern. Lonely people generate more inflammation-related proteins in stressful situations than socially connected people. Inflammation can lead to other health problems, including Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression. Part of the problem is the unprecedented number of people living alone which has increased from about 5 percent in the 1920s to more than 27 percent today. If loneliness is affecting your life, consider this “Wiki tip for building a social network.” One resource for finding local groups that match your interest is Meetup.com. If none of the Meetup groups match your interest then consider taking their offer to start one you prefer. Cooking Tip A simple way to cook rice that dramatically cuts the calories. |