The Basics: Sun Sense Recommendations

By Isabelle Piermattio

Exposure from the sun causes aging, wrinkles and worse, as studies show, the sun often acts as a precursor to skin cancer. Thus, recommendations from the American Academy of Dermatology and the Center for Disease Control should be taken to heart.

Here, a few tips and reminders for the whole family.

• Apply sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before going outside.

• Apply sunscreen before dressing, eliminating possible sunburn around sleeves, edges of clothing and/or swim attire.

• Apply sunscreen daily with SPF of 15 or more. Fair to medium skin toned people should consider higher SPF products, particularly for parts of the body with greater sun exposure including face, nose, upper chest, shoulders, top of feet, and hands.

• Apply ample amount of sunscreen, roughly one ounce, or equivalent of a “shot” glass to sufficiently cover the average adult.

• Reapply sunscreen after immersion in water, or activity.

• Stay in the shade when possible; wear a brimmed hat and consider clothing made of sun safe fabrics.

• Sport sunglasses, most preferably a large pair with wrap style, perfect for extra protection around the eyes. Outdoors, always use sunglasses that tote UV protective coating to help block UVA & UVB rays.

• Indoor Protection for Your Eyes – Individuals who tan indoors not only risk sun damage, aging and skin cancer, but without eye protection, they also risk eye damage, including retinal burns, and cataracts. Indoor tanners should always wear protective goggles. Sunglasses or towels will not offer enough protection from indoor equipment.

By Kyle Peters, certified personal trainer, Steel Fitness – Riverport, Bethlehem, PA

1. Add Cardio in-between sets – (i.e. jump rope, cardio machines, or any plyometric exercise). Doing this will help you to raise your heart rate which in return will help you to burn more body fat.

2. Take a group fitness class – Look at your gym’s group fitness schedule and take a class that fits with your workout schedule. You will be glad that you did and your body will appreciate the new workout variety.

3. Talk to a personal trainer – Seek out an experienced fitness trainer to help you set up a new workout routine. We see great results at Steel Fitness when a member sets aside 45 min – 1 hour to work with a trainer. A trainer can show you different exercises that you may have never tried. Plus, a certified trainer can show you the correct way to perform a set of exercises, plus how to meet your own fitness goals.

A New Fitness Classes that is Getting Great Buzz and Results

TRX Suspension Aerobics Class – This new band resistance class helps build total body strength, balance, flexibility, and core stability for people of all fitness levels.

Fans of the re-spun fad range from teens hooping for a good cause to earthy music festival goers, moms at a fitness studio, physical therapists at work, even Michelle Obama on the White House Lawn.

Hooping entrepreneur Tina Hemmerle, principle of Hemmerle Hoops, founded the handmade hoop firm Spirit Hoops several years ago and subsequently whittled her current sinewy form, dropping more than 35 pounds simply by hooping.

“Hooping is fun, social and highly aerobic,“ says Hemmerle, who even hoops with fire for special events.

As one progresses with their hooping skills, new and different hoops can be added for fitness, and extra fun.

“Hooping works by burning calories while building aerobic capacity and muscle,” says Hemmerle. We work up a sweat and work every muscle group,” she says, noting that smaller hoops can be added to tone arms and legs.

With high-energy music with touch of funky beat and disco, hooping buffs like Hemmerle teach classes from “Introductory Beginner Classes,” to “Hoop Muscle,” “Spin Time,” and even “Hoop Tricks for Dummies.”

Check out your local fitness centers to learn if they offer classes on hooping. For more information visit http://www.spirithoops.com.

Long-term health care insurance is not necessarily a hot topic around the water cooler. However estate and financial planners assert that long term plans for the retirement and baby boomer set should be getting more buzz, particularly with health care reform and talk of Medicare reductions in the national spotlight.

“As a larger percentage of the population moves into retirement phase, and a larger number of people are living longer, the insurance industry is becoming increasingly competitive with policies for long term health insurance,” says Richard Eckhoff, a certified financial planner with Monmouth Investment Advisors, Lincroft, N.J.

Eckhoff, who also serves as president, Network 1 Assurance, Red Bank, New Jersey, says newer plans address the golden years, and cover whether a long term health need arises.”

Stuart Sturrock, a senior living specialist and co-owner, MillBrook Home Care Partners, Center Valley, Pennsylvania, notes that current health care plans leave a dose of gray areas when it comes to home care, and quality of living.

Currently, plans favor either a senior citizen who is hospitalized, or living solely in a care residence.

“It’s far less expensive and far better for the family if a senior can continue to live at home,” notes Sturrock. He says that many seniors are capable of residing at home, but may need help with the basics: shopping, groceries, basic home chores, bathing, grooming, etc.

Looking at how to improve long term health care needs by allowing seniors to reside at home would greatly reduce anxiety and cost, particularly as Medicare cuts loom ahead, adds Sturrock.

In fact, today’s baby boomers whose own parents have long term health care needs is often a reality check of what they, themselves may be in-store for in the future.

“Most of the problems with care for the elderly occur when there is not enough money to care for them properly. There’s feelings and emotions for loved ones who need it. It is an emotionally loaded topic,” adds Eckhoff.

In most U.S states, the cost of a quality senior care residence or nursing home currently costs about $11,000 a month.

The good news: new long-term health care policies are far more comprehensive than a decade ago. And with experts like Sturrock speaking out about the needs for seniors and home care, perhaps .. will be met.

“The newest policies have evolved tremendously over the past five years, giving far more coverage and peace of mind,” adds Eckoff, noting some points to consider:

• Long term health care plans pays for the cost of long-term care, whether one needs assisted living, or home health care.

• Policies are based on certain “triggers,” or “activities of daily living,” also known as ADL’s in the industry.

• Long-term health care insurance assures health care for those living with needs not covered in a regular hospital.

• Time to consider whether to purchase such a plan, is when one is entering retirement phase. The earlier one enters a plan, the more cost effective.

• Individuals with a family history of long term genetic ailments, may consider purchasing such a plan earlier in life.

• The newest plans are far more cutting edge, and far more flexible than previous plans on the market.

• Consumers should consider such policies from an estate planning aspect, and consider a policy from a larger, recognized insurance name.

By Tom Fenstermacher, owner and founder of FACTS Fitness, Newtown Square, PA

Common sense tells you that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. This means you will change your daily patterns by increasing physical activity while decreasing food consumption. The first step is an understanding of where you are today.

A person can exist in the following 3 states of energy balance:

1. Neutral Energy Balance – You burn what you consume and will stay the same as you are today.

2. Positive Energy Balance – You consume more than you burn and will gain weight. If you require 2000 calories and consume 2,100 per day, even if the extra 100 calories is a banana you stand to be 700 calories per week in positive energy balance. This will eventually result in 36,400 excess calories per year divided by 3,600 calories per pound of fat is over 10 pounds of weight gain per year. If you are overweight this means that you are existing in Positive Energy Balance, the big question is how much over Neutral Energy Balance are you??

What does this mean? It means that if you cut 250 a day calories out of your diet and begin exercising three days a week, but you are 1000 calories a day Positive Energy Balance, then you are still gaining weight, just not as fast. In fact, you are still in Positive Energy Balance by 642 calories a day or 1.5 pounds per week. (This is the “I don’t get results from diet and exercise syndrome” so many people have.)

3. Negative Energy Balance – You consume less than you burn and will lose weight. Reverse the scenario above and you can see over 10 pounds of weight loss per year from that same banana!

Diets DO NOT WORK! – Wouldn’t you rather be in negative energy balance due to an exercise regimen that burns excess calories and increase 24 hour a day metabolism and will ultimately help you live longer and reduce your risk factors and improve quality of life?

CRASH DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY BAD!! Consider this: You go on a crash diet and begin to deprive your body of its essential needs. Your body doesn’t know you are trying to lose weight, it assumes there is a food shortage in nature and goes into survival mode.

What is survival mode?

It is conservation of energy stores.

What are energy stores?

FAT!

Your body will burn anything it can EXCEPT fat. So, when you lose your 20 pounds on your crash diet and 10 pounds of that loss was in lean muscle that your body consumed what do you think happens?

For starters, it is important to understand that your lean muscle is the key to your METABOLIC RATE or your daily caloric requirement and the more lean muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.

It’s a fact that 98% of people on crash diets gain the weight back. Consider the information above: when you gain your 20 pounds back, the muscle will not return so the net gain is all fat. So all that your CRASH Diet helped you do is become fatter! The problem is that now you have less muscle to burn calories on a 24 hour basis, so you will be predisposed to gaining even more weight.

EATING HABITS 101

What fills you up more, a one pound brick with no calories or one pound of potato chips containing 5000 calories????

Answer- The BRICK!

It is food density that curbs your appetite NOT caloric value. Pick foods high in density and low calories and you will find that you will eat less.

High Density Low Calorie Foods

1. Water

2. Lean Meats

3. High Fiber Foods

4. Fruits/Vegetables

5. Unprocessed Starches

FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY! Fat in moderation is high in density and good for you as well!

Eat slowly…..Your stomach has a lag time to the brain of about 15 minutes. Many of us overeat due to not allowing the stomach enough time to communicate with the brain to say “I’m FULL”.

Know what a serving size is and what your daily servings are per food group. Knowing one without the other is useless. For example, it is OK to have a serving of pasta at a restaurant, but realize that you just had 5 of your 8 servings of starch for the day! It is far easier to count servings than to count calories.

Do not become consumed with counting servings either. Simply think about where your servings are when you are about three quarters of the way through your day, and eat accordingly from there.

YOU MUST INCORPORATE EXERCISE IN YOUR PROGRAM!! The average person loses one pound of muscle every year after the age of 30 due to inactivity. This will decrease your metabolism 50 calories per day for every pound of muscle lost. If you require 2000 calories per day at age 30, by the time you are 35 it will be down to 1,750 calories per day. This means that your in POSITVE ENERGY BALANCE by 250 calories per day. This can translate into 25 pound weight gain in one year!

Cardiovascular Exercise such as running, biking, aerobics, etc., will burn up to 500 calories an hour while you exercise, but has little impact on your metabolism. This is an excellent way to get into neutral or negative energy balance on any given day. If you are 250 calories over your requirement and burn 500 calories, you are 250 under your requirement. This is the difference between gaining 25 pounds in a year or losing 25 pounds during that time. In addition, you will strengthen your heart and lungs, plus reduce risk factors such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity etc., etc., etc.

Strength Training is the key to maintaining your lean mass! Cardiovascular exercise burns calories while you exercise, but strength training builds and maintains muscle which is the key to maintaining or improving your 24 HOUR PER DAY METABOLISM!!

Accountability is essential and is the number one key to your success. This program will provide accountability as well as educate you on way to hold yourself accountable.

This SIMPLE COMMON SENSE approach will allow you to enjoy a healthy lifestyle, achieve your goals; live longer and healthier without feeling deprived, starved, or overwhelmed.

The Humane Society of the United States Urges Families to Stick Together in These Hard Times — for Their Sake and for the Sake of Their Pets

Difficult economic times are putting pets at risk of abandonment – but The Humane Society of the United States cautions that forfeiting a pet can add up to a double-dose of bad news, both for pets and families.

Economic strain on families is precisely when we need our pets the most. Study after study has shown that in addition to providing unconditional love and affection, the pets in our lives decrease stress, anxiety and feelings of loneliness. Sharing affection with a dog or cat has also proven to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And keeping families intact during crisis is a sure-fire way to prevent remorse down the road.

This is an especially important message at a time when shelters across the country are packed with once-loved pets who are the unseen victims of this recession.

“Local shelters cannot find new homes for all of these surrendered animals,” said Betsy McFarland, senior director of companion animals for The HSUS. “Before surrendering an animal, pet owners should exhaust all possible means for cutting costs and all possible options for pet care assistance. Giving up a furry member of the family will only further increase stress and feelings of loss during these already hard times.”

Although layoffs and home foreclosures have left many Americans in desperate straits, there are creative ways to afford our furry friends even on meager budgets. Plenty of devoted pet owners have successfully changed their spending habits to keep their pets from becoming another statistic. After all, pets are part of the family and keeping the family together is what’s important.

Pet Cost Saving Tips:

· Shop around for necessary pet care products. With a little research you can find great deals online or in stores. Contact pet food and supply companies via their websites for coupons or promotional deals to help you save.

· Keep up with preventive veterinary care to keep your pet healthy and avoid costly problems. Let your veterinarian know that finances are tight and ask that he or she prescribe only the most vital vaccinations or treatments necessary. It is best to discuss payment plan options prior to your appointment.

· Contact your local animal shelter and ask about free or low-cost vaccines, spay/neuter surgeries, and other services they provide for qualified pet owners.

· Keep your pets safe inside or on a leash while walking outside. Animals allowed to roam freely are more prone to accidents which result in costly veterinary bills.

· If you can’t afford pet food, check with your local food banks as many are providing pet food.

· Consider cutting back on your personal spending and use that money for pet care expenses. Bring your lunch to work instead of dining out or brew your coffee at home to take on the go.

More Benefits from Having Pets:

· Pets are credited with enhancing self-esteem and cognitive development in children and children who own pets score significantly higher on empathy and pro-social orientation scales (Vidovic, 1999).

· Even seniors who own dogs go to the doctor less than those who do not. In a study of 100 Medicare patients, even the most highly stressed pet owners had 21 percent fewer physician’s contacts than non-pet owners.

For more money saving pet care programs and tips visit http://humanesociety.org/petfinancialaid.

Read more on this topic in the July/August issue of The HSUS’ All Animals magazine.

by Patricia McFerren, Wellspring Health and Style Guest Columnist

During this economically turbulent time in history we tend to withdraw further into our own piece of the world called our “comfort zone.” Whether it’s the local coffee shop, bar, restaurant, health club, community center or even at work, we gather to feel safe and accepted. But are we? Of course not. It is those “comfort zones” that cause our anxieties in the first place.

Whether one realizes it or not, we create and shape our lives with our thoughts. All things that become part of our physical reality are first created in the mind from the raw material called “thought.”

The term, “subconscious mind,” is one that’s frequently heard, but seldom understood. Instead of subconsciousness, those enlightened in the practice of yoga, use a word that could be translated as superconciousness – consciousness of a higher order. The job of the superconsciousness mind is to take thought, which is pure energy and give it physical shape in the material world (our world).

Many books have been written on the subject, but the most important thing to remember is that our superconscious mind is a willing and eager servant whom we command by way of thought patterns. When we think a thought, we issue a command. Our servant obeys by manifesting the thoughts in the physical world where it becomes the events in our lives. Thus, physical reality is a mirror of our thought patterns. Change our thought patterns and we change the reflection in the mirror. In other words, we change our lives.

This concept, as simple as it sounds, is most frequently the biggest stumbling block for many people. They point to some unhappy or even tragic event in their lives and refuse to believe that they could have created it with their own thoughts. But if you examine your thoughts closely, you will find negative patterns competing with positive ones.

These negative patterns can also be seen as “fear.” Fear is not something we are born with. We do possess some inborn instincts, but most of our fears are learned. As babies, as children, we sense our parents’ fears. In some schools we are taught to fear others who may not be of the same culture or religion, we are taught to fear animals and the outside world.

As we mature we are judged by what we do with our lives, how we dress, where we go to school, who we marry and most of us never find our bliss, our happiness. What wondrous things we miss out on when we hold on to those fears. In one breath you’ll say, “I want to achieve happiness.” In the next you’ll give yourself a thousand reasons to be unhappy. These excuses are really the negative thoughts winning out over the positive ones and keeping you in that comfort zone. So while your stated goal is happiness, your thoughts are working overtime to create just the opposite.

When a problem or obstacle presents itself we shut down and retreat into that comfort zone. Sometimes the obstacles we face are in reality benefits in disguise. If we didn’t have struggles or obstacles in our lives, we wouldn’t have any reason to strive to become better people or live a more productive life.

“Watch your thoughts; they become your words”

“Watch your words; they become your actions”

“Watch your actions; they become your habits”

“Watch your habits; they become your character”

“Watch your character for it will become your destiny”.

Our thoughts not only change the way we view everything and everyone around us, but ourselves as well. Negative thoughts breed fear instead of happiness and success. We can change our lives by something as simple as being aware of and changing our thought patterns. Take that first step and replace the words, “I can’t” with “I can”! Just this simple shift in thinking will open your own life to endless possibilities.

Remember sometimes obstacles arise to make us aware of things we may not be attuned to; the key is to move forward. There is nothing we can do to change the past; only learn from it, put it behind us and go forward and see fortune amidst those struggles and obstacles.

As an adolescent, the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, native basked in the sun every chance she got. “It was like a drug,” says the self accessories director, 39. “I loved the feeling of warmth on my skin, and I was never dark enough, so I always skipped SPF.” During high school, in pursuit of an everlasting glow, Gold walked into a tanning salon and sprang for an unlimited-access membership. (The shocking truth? Every day, approximately 1 million people visit tanning beds, according to the American Academy of Dermatology in Schaumberg, Illinois. That might explain why there are more indoor tanning salons than there are Starbucks or McDonald’s in many U.S. cities, as a study from San Diego State University reports.) Even in the dead of winter, Gold would hit the blue bed several times a month. After graduation, she headed to Arizona State University at Tempe, where she lounged with friends at campus pools in between studying to get straight As. “Lying outside made me feel good, and I thought it made me look good, too,” Gold says. (Tanning may be addictive in the same way alcohol and narcotics are, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology finds.)

Hedy Gold, melanoma at 31. Courtesy of Sonja Pacho / SELF

In 2001, Gold moved to New York City to pursue a career in the fashion industry. “I missed being in the sun so much,” says the naturally fair-skinned, green-eyed blonde (traits that further increase her risk). So she reunited with her beloved tanning beds as often as she could — sneaking in appointments a few times a month — a hobby that cost her hundreds of dollars a year. “I didn’t realize I was putting my life in danger,” she says. “Then I got a major wake-up call.”

A few weeks before starting a new job as an accessories editor at a magazine, Gold flew home to spend time with her family. Her father, a general-practice doctor in Michigan, noticed that a mole on the left side of her face seemed bigger, darker and a different shape than he had recalled; he suggested she get it checked out by a dermatologist — asap. “Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed the mole had changed until then,” Gold admits.

She scheduled an appointment with one of the dermatologists at Juva Skin and Laser Center in NYC the week she returned. Although the mole didn’t look abnormal — it wasn’t unevenly shaped, noticeably large or multicolored — she explained that its size and color had recently morphed. Because of Gold’s detailed description, her doctor elected to shave off a small piece of the growth (a noninvasive method often used to remove a few surface skin cells) so it could be biopsied.

A few days later, Gold got a phone call from her doctor: The small tissue sample had come back from the lab as abnormal. Within hours of hanging up, she went back to the derm’s office and learned that the growth was malignant melanoma in situ (a stage of melanoma that is confined to the skin’s upper layer but still has the potential to penetrate deeper into the dermis). “I was in complete shock,” Gold says. “I thought, How could I have skin cancer?”

“Her diagnosis was actually good news,” says Michael Bruck, M.D., director of Juva Skin and Laser Center, who removed Gold’s cancer. “It meant that if it was taken out, we’d have a cure. So that’s exactly what I did.” A week after the surgery, which required the excision of about a half inch of tissue and 3 inches of stitches, Gold went to Manhattan’s Bryant Park to attend Fashion Week, where she reviewed several designers’ shows along with her beautifully attired peers. “Everyone was concerned when they saw the large white bandage taped across my cheek,” Gold recalls. “I told my story to anyone who would listen to help raise awareness.” A test of tissue surrounding the growth came back as benign, which confirmed that the cancer had been completely removed.

Continue to read the entire story of three women’s lives affected by skin cancer at The Today Show – Health.

At the time of Johnson’s cancer diagnosis in January, it was hoped that he could return to the sidelines after radiation treatments and rest. However, Johnson suffered a setback in May and announced he was taking a leave of absence with secondary coach Sean McDermott taking the reins on an interim basis.

“For ten years, Jim Johnson was an exceptional coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, but more importantly, he was an outstanding human being,” Eagles Chairman Jeffrey Lurie said in a statement released by the team.

Johnson coached the Eagles defense through January’s NFC title game. On Saturday, coach Andy Reid announced – with Johnson’s blessing, he said – that Sean McDermott was replacing Johnson while he battled cancer.

During his 10 seasons as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, the team played in five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl, and won five NFC East titles. Mr. Johnson’s zone blitz packages became one of the team’s trademarks of success.

The Eagles were an awful team with a no-pressure defense when Reid became the head coach and hired Mr. Johnson as his defensive coordinator in 1999. They remained an awful team that season, winning just five games, but the defense sprung to life. After forcing a league-low 17 turnovers in 1998, Ray Rhodes’ final season as head coach, the Eagles led the league with 48 takeaways, including 28 interceptions, during Mr. Johnson’s first season as defensive coordinator.

By 2001, when the Eagles went to their first of four straight NFC championship games, the defense was ranked among the best in the NFL in almost every category. With few exceptions, the Eagles’ defense remained an elite unit, including last season, when the team had the NFC’s top-ranked defense.

“As a defense, we knew we could play,” former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese said. “What we needed was direction and structure. We needed somebody to tap into our potential. He was old-school to the core. He had his beliefs about how the game should be played with toughness. The first three or four years Andy was here, that was Jim’s message. He’d walk past you in the training room down in the dungeon at the Vet and he’d start talking about downhill, aggressive football. That’s what he wanted from his linebackers and safeties.”

Born in 1941 in Maywood, Ill., Mr. Johnson played quarterback for coach Dan Devine at the University of Missouri.

Mr. Johnson first coached professionally in the U.S. Football League before landing a job with the Phoenix Cardinals as a defensive line and defensive backs coach in 1986. He moved from there to the Indianapolis Colts in 1994, which is where he caught the eye of a young quarterbacks coach from the Green Bay Packers during a 1997 game.

Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife, Vicky, two children, Scott and Michelle, and four grandchildren, Katie, Justin, Brandon, and Jax.

The entire article can be read here at Philly.com.

Try a desert trick. When the air outside is dry and cooler than the air inside, hang a damp sheet in an open window. “That’s what we do here in Death Valley,” says Dale Housley, a ranger at Death Valley National Park. Incoming breezes are cooled by the evaporating water.

Block the sun. Closing curtains and blinds (ideally with sun-deflecting white on the window side) can reduce the amount of heat that passes into your home by as much as 45 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.