Ramblers are death traps

OK, my headline my be overstating my case, but I got your attention.

People who sit all day and watch TV all night — even ones who run 35 miles a week — have a higher risk of heart disease than people who move around all day. Mayo Clinic cardiologist Martha Grogan told the radio program “Here & Now” that sitting for more than four hours a day gives you the same risk of a heart attack as smoking. (Click here for the story.)

Today’s news comes on the heels of yesterday’s “Fresh Air” interview with author and fitness expert Gretchen Reynolds who said just standing for 2 minutes every 20 minutes can improve your health.

“Sitting for long periods of time — when you don’t stand up, don’t move at all — tends to cause changes physiologically within your muscles,” Reynolds told “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross. “You stop breaking up fat in your bloodstream, you start getting accumulations of fat … in your liver, your heart and your brain. You get sleepy. You gain weight. You basically are much less healthy than if you’re moving. … If you can stand up every 20 minutes — even if you do nothing else — you change how your body responds physiologically.” (Click here for the full story.)

Which leads to me to this unscientific, self-serving conclusion: Two-story houses — with lots of steps — have healthier occupants than residents of ramblers.

I prefer the appearance of two-story houses, and all the houses I’ve owned have had two stories. (Heck, I think three- or four-story houses are impressive — I just could never afford one of those.)

But presentation aside, two-story houses win on function, too. To my way of thinking, single-story ramblers are a sign of resignation to being lazy or getting old. I’m going  into old age kicking and screaming, and all that kicking and screaming turns out to be very good for my health.

With my Beloved now working from his home office in the basement and me working in a bedroom on the second floor (alternatively known on some of our address labels as Suite 4 and Suite 2), I take the steps many times a day. Sometimes, I take the steps just to take a break. Usually the break involves a snack (sometimes a lower-calorie hug), but still, I’m moving. Our little 8-pound schnauzer is in good shape, too, what with all the to-ing and fro-ing.

I’m not ready for a stand-up desk or a treadmill desk, but the news that even a little movement is better than none is compelling. Compelling me to stand up and take a walk.

What are you looking at? Get moving!

DEA program pulls tons of drugs out of the system

Forty pounds of pharmaceuticals.

Hampshire Pharmacy, in conjunction with the Hampshire Police Department, collected that much in its “Got Drugs” campaign this past weekend, I learned today while chatting it up with pharmacist Parag Maniar.

I just love the convenience of having a local pharmacy. Maniar plans to collect old and leftover drugs again in November. To be clear, he’ll take back uncontrolled substances for proper disposal at any time, but the “Got Drugs” campaign collects controlled substances like mood-altering chemicals (i.e. Xanax) and pain-killers (i.e. Vicodin) in a legal and environmentally safe way.

Americans who participated in the Drug Enforcement Adminstration’s third National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day last October turned in more than 377,086 pounds (188.5 tons) of unwanted or expired medications for safe and proper disposal at the 5,327 take-back sites that were available in all 50 states and U.S. territories, according to the DEA’s website.

Illegal drug use aside, it’s disgusting to think of how contaminated our drinking water may be with drugs that pass through the human body and get flushed directly down the toilet (read more about it here).  We here in the Minnesota Transplant household have a reverse osmosis system cleaning our drinking water, but even that may not be cleansing every odd thing out of one of life’s basic necessities.

Don’t be lazy when disposing of used motor oil, leftover drugs, old batteries, oil-based paints and other hazardous household materials. If you don’t end up consuming it when our drinking water becomes contaminated, your children will!

If you missed the “Got Drugs” campaign this past weekend, mark your calendar to participate this fall.

10 random tips for improving your life

Sure, the big decisions are important — get an education, marry the right person, do work you love — but often, after you establish the big things — or if you get the big things wrong — it’s the little habits that make every day better.

It required a solid 40 years to learn these things, but now that I’ve incorporated them into my life, I live better. I share them so you may live better, too.

1. Eat fruit with breakfast. No matter what else you eat, eat a piece of fruit. It’s always time to go grocery shopping when I’ve run out of fruit. Bananas are the no-excuse go-to option because you can even eat a banana on the bus, in the car, while you check your email when you get to work. If you have any hope of getting 5 a day (i.e., five servings of fruits and vegetables a day), you have to have at least one at breakfast.

2. Air dry your bras. Today’s bras with their space-age materials do not hold up well in the high heat of the dryer. And my bras don’t even do any heavy lifting. If you have large breasts, it’s even more important to treat your bras with care.

3. Set a timer to do unsavory tasks. I can unload half the dishwasher while I’m heating water for tea. I can file at least five things while my computer warms up. I can run (or walk) for 20 minutes. I can make at least eight phone calls in an hour. If I have a lot of housework, I set a timer (30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, whatever) and turn up the music. I focus for the allotted time, and I have permission to quit when the timer goes off, no matter how much I’ve accomplished. It’s better than procrastinating and getting nothing accomplished.

4. Garnish your soup. Soup is a delicious, filling and usually healthy choice for lunch or dinner. But any soup is better with a garnish. Toasted croutons on tomato soup. Shredded cheese and bacon bits on potato soup. A dollop of sour cream (and maybe a few pepitos) on almost anything. Presentation matters. Feed your eyes as well as your stomach.

5. Floss. Flossing regularly improves your breath and your health. Once you get the hang of it, it takes seconds. And it costs next to nothing. If you need help getting started, commit to doing it every day for three weeks no matter how inconvenient and see how No. 6 works.

6. You can train your brain. Habits work. If nagging, negative thoughts keep coming into your head, then keep banishing them. Eventually, the positive will sink in. Don’t dwell. Bad habits can be replaced with good habits if you’ll just give them a chance. “You are good enough, you are smart enough and people like you” as the “Saturday Night Live” character Stuart Smalley would say. Stuart Smalley might be a dork, but he’s a dork whose creator is a best-selling author and is now serving on the U.S. Senate.

7. Facebook is a process, not a destination. There is not just one way to be a friend. Be present. Write. Call. And if you’re friends on Facebook, use the information in the real world: Invite people to events, mention news you learn on Facebook on the phone, send a card based about important posts. For real friends, Facebook is a means, not an end.

8. Use fresh lemon, garlic and basil. The dried, reconstituted stuff has no flavor and is a waste of money. These ingredients are affordable and they improve the taste of basic foods like pasta, fish and eggs. Fresh lemon juice plus sugar and water makes the most divine summer drink. Fresh garlic is an essential ingredient in world cuisines like Asian, Italian, Mediterranean and Mexican dishes. Even a person as completely uninterested in gardening as me adores her basil plant every summer.

9. Don’t waste your time on local television news. It’s alarmist infotainment, and the weatherman doesn’t know what he’s talking about anyway. It’s cheap and empty. The TV shouldn’t be on during dinner whether you dine alone or with someone, and you could use the sleep more than the 10 p.m. crime report. The only time I watch TV news is in the morning when I’m running at the fitness center; at least then I’m multitasking.

10. Walk your dog. No matter what size she is. If you don’t have a dog, you’re off the hook on this tip. But if you own a dog, go for a walk. Dogs love walks (or, if you’re the right person and she’s the right dog, runs). I was 41 before I owned a dog, but I love her like no other pet. Dogs are pack animals, and you can be the leader of the pack — no one at your house will greet you with as much enthusiasm as your dog when you come home. If you feed and pet your beast, you have a friend for life. Walking your dog gets you outside, forces you to smell the roses (and any number of other things along your route), gets you moving and relaxes you.

Bonus tip: 11. Pray. Even if you’re not particularly religious, prayer helps. You won’t always get the answers you want or expect, but the very act of assigning control of chaos to Someone (or Something) else will improve the situation. Scientific studies have proven the power of prayer.

What did I miss? What little piece of advice do you to share to make life better? Do tell.

Ah, the sweet sound of … little beeps in a hearing test

Value your sense of hearing enough to have it screened.

I had my hearing screened today by the Lions, and I am thankful I ranked in the normal range.

Some of us might take our hearing for granted. But I do not. My grandmother and my father both are hearing impaired and wear hearing aids. I see first-hand how much a person misses when they can’t hear.

A few of my favorite things to hear:

• My nephews’ little boy voices. At 12, my sister’s oldest son is about to lose his little boy voice. But I remember him singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” when he was three. It was beautiful. Fortunately, he has two younger brothers.
• My stepson’s voice on the phone. After a rough year not too long ago, I’m thankful he’s talking to us at all. He’s a talker just like his father when he wants to be. He lives two states away, so the phone is a major connection. I love hearing about his day or his opinions or his frustrations.
• My Beloved’s voice. As long as we covered little boys and young men, let’s address older men. My Beloved’s low tenor (or, in the morning, bass) is highly attractive. And while I could live without his snoring, but I adore listening to him breathe at night.
• The high notes in any kind of music. It’s common to lose high frequency hearing first. Hey, there’s nothing like a good bass line, but most pieces are not complete without the treble clef.
• Birds, frogs and the wind in the trees. Chirping, singing, calling, croaking, it’s all beautiful (especially right now in the warm weather). I can’t identify most birds at 10 paces and I wouldn’t touch a frog with a 10-inch stick, but I like how they sound. When it’s windy, I love falling asleep with the windows open. The sound of the wind in the trees lulls me to sleep.
• National Public Radio. I would be lost without my informative talk radio especially in the mornings. I even run to it.

Today’s hearing screening was good news for me. If you’re interested in free hearing screening and you live in Illinois, check out the Lions of Illinois Foundation.

Let’s pare an hour from our work rather than our sleep

If you’re sick and tired of losing an hour of sleep every spring, it’s time to join a new movement: Americans For Workday DST.

Americans For Workday DST have a simple platform: Turn the clocks forward during the standard workday on Monday afternoon rather than on a weekend night.

You read it here first, folks. Why aren’t we springing ahead at 2 p.m. Monday afternoon instead of 2 a.m. Sunday morning?

Exactly. No good reason.

Daylight Saving Time is an arbitrary practice that occurs in most industrialized countries — but not all — at roughly the same time — but not exactly. No good reason exists to demand we make this change in the middle of a weekend night. Changing clocks is a pain in the neck no matter time of day it is — why not do it when most of us are wide awake?

Losing an hour of sleep wreaks havoc in Americans’ internal clocks every spring, causing more heart attacks, car accidents and workplace injuries in the two days after the time change.

Meanwhile, Americans work 77  hours a year more than the Japanese and 310 hours a year more than Europeans. Why not lop one hour off that total?

We could return to Standard Daylight Time in the middle of an autumn night — I have no problem getting an extra hour of sleep.

Instead of the little motto “fall back, spring ahead” (which, by the way, doesn’t work in Australia anyway), we could jog our memories by repeating “fall back in bed, spring out of work early.”

Whaddaya say?

Join the movement: Americans for Workday DST. The hour you save might just be your own.

Happiness is health, a short memory and a cold drink

Stress affects short-term memory.

I can’t find easy Google proof of it, but I know it does.

Undergo a stressful event, and poof! You can’t find your car keys.

Yesterday, I encountered a woman I’ve met before at a meeting and had a 10-minute conversation with her. I glanced at her name tag, committing her name to memory because I wanted to make a note to follow-up with her in June. When I got home, I found her name on my to-do list: Apparently, I had already made one note to follow-up with her when I had a phone conversation with her a few weeks ago.

Obviously, she remembered me and our conversation when she engaged me yesterday, but I didn’t remember her. Who knows what idiocy poured out of my mouth? How I remembered her name two hours later, I don’t know.

Then at lunch with someone else, I failed to secure the cover on my tea and dumped it all over the table.

Graceful.

This week has been pressure-packed, perhaps the most stressful I’ve had in two years. At dinner last night, I thought, “Wow, I could really use a drink.” While that might be common for some people, that’s not normal for me. Normal for me when I’m thinking about booze is to think about food-drink pairings: “Should I have Sauvignon Blanc and salmon or a beer and a burger?”

I had two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. And squash ravioli with sage butter.

It was delicious. But drinking probably isn’t going to improve my memory.

So I’m feeling generally stressed out and stupid and clumsy to boot, and I’m having lunch with yet another new acquaintance today.

Somehow, through the haze, I remember the name of a software program she mentioned and the name of someone she’d made an album for, and she remarked — not once, but twice — on my good memory.

I leaned over to her and touched her arm.

“Omigosh, you have no idea what that means to me today. I have had the most stressful week, and I thought I was losing my mind. Thank you.”

Ah, a moment of lucidity. And I was gracious, too.

Albert Schweitzer once said, “Happiness is good health and a bad memory.” He failed to mention the role of a good glass of vino.

Maybe he preferred beer.

The jokes in my dreams must be much funnier than the ones in my blog

Laughing in one’s sleep is not a sleep disorder as far as my vast research on Google goes (first page, two entries), so I guess I’m fortunate.

It’s not restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea or night terrors, so we’ll chalk it up to being light-hearted. Whew.

But my Beloved wasn’t very happy to be awakened to my laughter at 4 a.m. this morning. When he woke me up, I tried to tell him why I was laughing and I only laughed harder. I was laughing so hard at 4 a.m. in the morning, I cried!

What was so funny?

In my dream, I was in an unfamiliar, ornate living room with an uncushioned sofa, and I was apparently arguing with the creator of the universe, because the punchline I remember was this:

“Jesus, you may be able to walk on water, but you can’t chew on that!”

Huh?

I know. It’s not funny in the cold light of day. My Beloved didn’t appreciate it either.

But it was hilarious — and I mean bust-a-gut funny — at 4 a.m.

In my dreams.

Take your vitamins

You are what you eat, and today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s birdcage liner.

Both axioms are true. What you ingest becomes the building blocks of tomorrow’s cells. But what goes in must come out, too, so today’s dinner is tomorrow’s compost.

Whether the vitamins I take so religiously are building a better body or populating the sewer system is not entirely clear, but I take them anyway.

So I swallow a handful of vitamins every day. Even if it’s only the placebo effect, vitamins make me feel better. If you’re not a fan of vitamins, don’t read any further. But if you are, check this out. I heard a healthy living speaker the other day recommend five indispensable vitamins and minerals for women:

1. A multivitamin. Mine comes with iron.
2. Fish oil. I take 1,200 mgs a day, but the pundit I heard recommended 3,000 mgs a day.
3. Vitamin C.
4. Vitamin D.
5. Calcium, preferably calcium citrate. I eat cheese, yogurt and milk, too, but extra calcium can’t hurt. Calcium shouldn’t be taken at the same time as iron and calcium can help you sleep, so I take my calcium at night.

I also take magnesium because I’ve read it good for one’s muscles, and I run frequently.

For my money, I don’t buy vitamins in any place that also sells pantyhose. That rules out Walgreens and the big box retailers. I get mine from Shaklee. I’m a big fan of direct selling companies because I believe the products are higher quality when the company has to depend on salespeople standing behind products they’re selling to their neighbors. I’m not unhappy with low quality paper towels, but I value my body too much to dump low quality vitamins in it.

You are what you eat after all.

Guaranteed healthier gums (and water gun-soaked bathroom)

Dear Housekeeper,

Though it might look like I spit on the mirrors out of spite, it’s not true at all.

It’s just that we’re embracing technology as one of our resolutions this year, and the new Waterpik water flosser is hard to control.

See how you react when a high-speed stream of water is pointed directly at your uvula.

Right, I know, it’s supposed to be directed at your gums, but do you open your mouth? Close your mouth? Close your lips? At least when the dental hygienist is pointing that thing in one’s mouth, one’s mouth is back like a bowl, ready to catch errant water. When I tried doing that, I was squirting the bathroom ceiling!

Whatever you do, don’t use cold water in the thing. You’ll jerk that water-gunning tip out of your mouth so fast, the medicine cabinet won’t know what hit it.

All this in the name of preventing periodontal disease and avoiding the dreaded root planing and scaling or the ultimate consequence [scary beats here]: Drinking cream for breakfast because I have no teeth.

I think I’ve got the hang of this Chinese water torture device now. So when you clean the mirror, please know it should be better next time.

Thanks, Housekeeper. [Insert toothy grin here.] I appreciate it.

Minnesota Transplant

There’s an app for Sleeping Beauty

“Get enough sleep.”

That bit of advice was among a dozen tidbits I picked up from speakers at two networking meetings I attended the past two days. It’s that time of year, you know, when all the “be healthier in 2012″ speakers get booked.

I am easily among the 80% of Americans who get enough sleep every night. I love to sleep (and I sleep in a great bed) so I have no problem prioritizing sleep over, say, housework. And I don’t commute so most mornings, I don’t use an alarm clock.

So while I didn’t resolve to sleep more in 2012, I did resolve to “embrace technology,” and I found the Sleep Cycle app while trolling for something new to try. It’s so cool, and it addresses a pressing need for people who don’t sleep well. If you have an iPhone, you must try it.

Search “Sleep Cycle” at the App Store. Download it for 99 cents. Read the instructions; it’s not complicated to use (believe it when you’re told to plug in your iPhone at night).

The app uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to measure how much you move during sleep which theoretically shows when you’re awake and when you’re in deep sleep (you move  less when you’re in deep sleep).

You can set your alarm, and the app will determine — within a half hour — the best time to wake you so you aren’t roused during a deep sleep cycle. But that’s not the coolest part. The coolest part is you get a graph at the end of the night showing when you were in deep sleep.

This was my sleep graph from last night. Over time, it’ll show an average of how many hours of sleep I get a night. If you’re the competitive sort, it might inspire you to go to bed a few minutes earlier to improve your sleep time. Which, if you believe the experts, will improve your health.

Here’s to your health!