Joan’s Boomer Blog

The following is a guest post is contributed by Mariana Ashley;

Research has shown that contrary to the former line of thinking that exercise was damaging to your joints, moderate exercise can actually reduce joint pain and stiffness, strengthen the muscles around your joints, and build one’s flexibility and endurance, according to the Arthritis Foundation. Other benefits include reduced inflammation and reducing your risk for other harmful health conditions, such as obesity, osteoporosis and heart disease.

After consulting with your physician or other health care practitioner to determine if you are healthy enough for certain types of exercise, consider the following tips for exercising through arthritis:

1.) It helps to stretch first.

If you ease into and out of an exercise regimen by warming up and stretching each day, you will likely feel less pain during and after a workout. Arthritis Today provides a variety of helpful free videos that can help you kick off a successful stretching regimen. You may even wish to get comfortable with the idea of simply stretching every day until you feel your body is prepared for the next step.

2.) Add weight training.

Start with very low-weight barbells and leg weights and work all major muscle groups throughout your week, including arms, legs, back, abdominals and chest. When you grow comfortable with bumping up the weight, do so, but test yourself first by doing fewer repetitions when you begin lifting more weight.

3.) Choose low-impact exercise.

Running and jogging and heavy aerobics are great for your heart, but many people with arthritis have pain that won’t allow them to jump, jerk around and pound the ground with force. Many opt for walking briskly 30 minutes a day, incorporating speed walking or walking hills or steep inclines to get their blood pumping. For many, a stationary bike is a good option.

4.) Low-pressure water aerobics.

You can get an excellent aerobic workout through water aerobics and avoid unnecessary pressure on your joints.

5.) Consider a personal trainer.

Personal trainers aren’t necessarily cheap, but they sure are great at customizing low-impact workouts for boomers with arthritis and making sure you are doing aerobics and weight training properly so that you avoid injury. Plus they help keep you motivated to exercise consistently.

By-Line:

This guest post is contributed by Mariana Ashley who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

Recently, I saw an article on Nursing Schools.net which lists 50 Helpful Health Blogs for Seniors and I wanted to share it here. The list of blogs is divided into topics, Healthy Living, News and Pharma, Mental Health, Health Care and Insurance and Specific Conditions, such as diabetes and Parkinsons’ Disease. These blogs cover just about everything you’d need or want to know about health aging and seniors and health.

Most of these blogs I hadn’t seen before. Some of my favorites, which I’ve added to my reading list, are:

Over 50 Website This blog covers all sorts of topics of interest to seniors such as retirement finances, ways to save money, health and beauty, including natural remedies, personal growth and more. You can even contact them to write blog postings of your own. Their motto is “Fifty Plus, Loud and Proud!”

Third Age.com - This site says it’s for Boomer women but any 50 plus man or woman could benefit from all the healthy aging articles here. There are anti-aging recipes, articles on meditation and intuition, menopause as well as a section on various diseases and conditions such as fibromyalgia, diabetes and depression. Great info here for those interested in aging well in mind, body and spirit.

Health Beat Blog - This blog is by Maggie Majar who has wrote the book, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. Maggie summarizes for us what’s going on in the world of health care, with links to other news articles and blogs as well.

Check out this great list of 50 Health Blogs for Seniors. You’ll probably find a few new ones to add to your reading list.

Would you like to have your own home business as a coach, helping others reach their own health or fitness goals? Many people want to be healthier but need a mentor. There are programs out there to help you set up your business.

My friend Tom Grimes is a Certified Health Coach with Take Shape for Life. Here is what he had to say about his health coaching business:

Take Shape For Life is a long-term plan for healthier living that starts with healthy weight loss using the Medifast 5 & 1 Plan and the support of a Health Coach. Your Health Coach will work with you one-on-one along your journey to Optimal Health and provide support every step of the way as you learn The Habits of Health and apply them into your daily lifestyle. With the help of my Health Coach I lost 80 pounds in 23 weeks.

During this period I also became a health coach and have worked with men and women who also want to achieve Optimal Health. When I started most of the health coaches had experienced success with the program. Now others are joining us as coaches.

The good news is that weight loss starts healing your body even before you’re ready for your “after” picture. A study at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston shows that shedding even a modest amount of weight can improve your health. In the study, doctors focused on weight loss among patients with metabolic syndrome, a constellation of risk factors (excess abdominal fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and others) that lays a foundation for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

“Our study has shown that weight loss of as little as 6.5 percent … results in substantial reductions in blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, and total cholesterol, all factors that lead to heart disease,” says Christie Ballantyne, M.D., one of the study’s researchers. “These impressive results occur early in the weight loss, well before individuals even begin to approach their ideal body weight.”

It has been very rewarding watching people regain their health and their lives.  Just watching them reduce clothing sizes is exciting.  I feel I’m helping get American Healthy one person and a time.

if you’d like to know more about Tom’s coaching business or if you need the services of a health coach yourself, check out his website.

Another coaching business I’ve become interested in recently because of my daughter is Beach Body Fitness Coaching. She joined this business as a fitness coach and originally I signed up too, just to help her out. However, as I found out more about Beach Body, I began to see how the concept of health and fitness coaching could help Baby Boomers.

Beach Body products include Shakeology, a nutritional shake with over 70 healthy whole food nutrients. This program comes with a cd workout program called Shakeology as well. Other Beach Body fitness products include Slim in 6, a 6 week fitness program which promises to help you reshape your body in 6 weeks and even a Yoga program. Club membership includes meal plans, recipes, a community for help and support, and of course, the help of your own fitness coach.

Club members get a 10% discount on products and coaches get a 25% discount on their own purchases.

One thing I liked about the Company is that the products, Shakeology and P90X are nationally advertised and the company is doing an advertising push to raise awareness of fitness and their products. It’s really gratifying to help people have their own “before” and “after” programs, losing weight and getting fit.

If you’d like more information about becoming a Beach Body fitness coach, check out this short informational video about fitness coaching.

If you have an interest in health and fitness, coaching could make a fulfilling part time or full time retirement business for you. You can work at home, make your own schedule and help others at the same time. As baby boomers age, more and more are becoming interested in healthy aging. Nothing is as motivating to your own healthy lifestyle than motivating others too!

IonLoop Counters Effects of Positive Ions + Contest Giveaway

The IonLoop, with its negative ion and magnetic technology, is becoming popular everyone from athletes, who compete under the energy draining UV rays of the sun and want to boost their energy, to office

IonLoop

workers and others who work under florescent lights, sit in front of a computer or talk on a cell phone during the course of a day. Anyone who is constantly exposed to fatigue producing positive ions may benefit from this new technology.

I’ve been wearing an IonLoop bracelet for about a week and I can tell you, it’s attractive and comfortable enough to be worn all the time. Scroll down to find out about an opportunity to win an IonLoop bracelet to try for yourself.

There has been quite a bit in the news lately about the possible harmful effects on our bodies of positive ions absorbed through daily use of computer terminals, florescent lighting, modern building materials, forced air ventilation systems and machinery of all sorts. Many believe, and scientific studies are beginning to support, the idea that these positive ions in our environment contribute to fatigue, depression, irritability, headaches and stress.

So how do we counter the effects of modern life and positive ions? With negative ions. These odorless, tasteless and invisible molecules are thought to produce biochemical reactions when they reach our bloodstreams which increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.

Where do Negative Ions come from?

The air around waterfalls, beaches, forests and mountains are loaded with billions of naturally occurring negative ions, which counterbalance the positive ions and no doubt contributes to their tranquil atmosphere. If you aren’t lucky enough to live near a waterfall or a mountain, the Adidas IonLoop delivers all the extraordinary benefits that natural Ions and Magnets have to offer in an attractive, easy to wear bracelet.

The IonLoop’s silicone band contains a natural negative ion-producing mineral, Tourmaline, which is compounded with other natural elements and magnetic technology which allow helpful ions to be absorbed into the body. Magnetic energy is thought to contribute to the health and regeneration of our body’s cells.

Whether or not you believe in the effects of positive ions on the body, emerging science suggests that it may be wise to protect ourselves from the possible harmful effects of modern life and the IonLoop offers a convenient, attractive way to do that.

My Boomer Blog is doing a contest to give away an IonLoop bracelet so you can judge it’s effects yourself. Simply put a comment in the comment section here by February 28, then visit Facebook to “friend”  http://www.facebook.com/IonLoop, adding that you would read about the Ion Loop giveaway on Tips for Boomer Years. A winner will be chosen at random and the winner’s IonLoop bracelet will arrive in the mail.

Also visit http://www.twitter.com/IonLoop and their official website at IonLoop.com

Brain games are becoming more popular as baby boomers start to have more “senior moments.” Let’s face it, as we get older, we start to lose some of our brain function. We forget things. We lose things. We sometimes feel like we are slipping - just a little - mentally.

The good news is that by doing brain teasers and brain games, we can actually improve our brain function and keep those old wheels turning in our head. As a rule, I don’t go in for playing games, unless it’s a rousing game of Scrabble or Apple. I see friends and relatives, old and young, with their eyes glued to their iPhones, playing some game or other and I think “What a waste of time.” For me to play a game like that, it has to have a purpose. Improving brain function is a pretty good purpose, I think.

There are quite a few sites out there for brain games. Some charge a subscription fee but I’ve found some free brain games online that are fun and they help improve language skills, problem solving, analytical skills, memory and concentration among other things.

Brain Training 101 offers free games and a newsletter , plus you can sign up for a “free brain training power Pack” which includes a braining training guide and a brain booster audio. The free games include memory power games and brain teasers and puzzles.

Senior Ark is a great site I just recently discovered. If you go to the home page and scroll down past all of their interesting topics for seniors, you’ll find a list of free brain games for seniors.

AARP - Of course AARP offers many resources for seniors and brain games is no exception. There are five categories of games and puzzles, for analytic skills, problem solving, keeping your brain sharp, language skills and improving memory and concentration.

These brain training games come from Parade Magazine. The six different games here each tell you what they do for your, ie improve problem solving and processing speed, and then gives you easy to follow directions. Parade also has other areas of interest if you like browsing, such as health and fitness.

Games for the Brain offers over 40 brain games of different kinds. You can even get them sent to your mobile device here.

If you’re one of the millions of iPhone and other mobile device users, I’m sure there are also dozens of brain game apps you can download. I’ll have to ask my kids about that one-lol

If you don’t mind spending a little money for brain games, here are a couple of good puzzle and game teaser books from Amazon.

Entertain Your Brain: More than 850 Puzzles! Math problems, lateral-thinking conundrums, brain teasers, whodunits, IQ tests, trivia quizzes…as well as an assortment of baffling optical illusions and amazing stunts using paper, scissors, and other items found around the house.

The Total Brain Workout In all, there are 450 puzzles for you to solve in this book. They are organized into nine chapters, each containing fifty puzzles that have a specific brain-based objective built into them. The fifty puzzles in Chapter 1 are designed to help activate the language areas of the brain, for example, whereas those in Chapter 2 are designed to stimulate visual thinking areas.

The Big Book of Brain Games: 1,000 PlayThinks of Art, Mathematics & Science is a collection of 1,000 challenges, puzzles, riddles, illusions. Ranks difficulty from 1 to 10.

I know there are many more resources out there as brain games gain in popularity. If you know of any you’d like to see included, or if you’re an old hand at brain games, I’d love for you to comment.

The following healthy living article is a guest post by Jim Rollince, a member of the creative writing department at Gym Source, a distributor of home gyms and exercise equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, arc trainers, bikes and more.

Exercising to avoid the seasonal flu is amongst some of the top preventative measures to take during the cold season.

Research demonstrates that a certain amount of exercise each week will help strengthen the immune system against viruses that attack during cold season. The general consensus is that 30 minutes a day/3 or 4 times a week is a perfect amount of exercise for most people. This includes things like:

• Aerobics
• Weight-lifting
• Running
• Cycling
• Treadmills
• Ellipticals

For some people, they take on more challenging activities like intramural sports (i.e. – soccer). Athletes find enjoyment in athletic competition, and through this enjoyment they’re typically able to double the normal workout of the average gym visitor. Keep in mind, entertaining intramural sports can sometimes be the equivalent to two workouts combined; people should keep this in mind when frequenting the gym 3 or 4 times a week. Letting the body rest with a maximum of 2 or 3 days can eventually offset this. This brings me to my next point.

There’s also a great deal of research that shows how too much fitness can be detrimental to one’s immune system. Grueling endurance training has been known to affect the immune system negatively – This would involve running more than 40/50 miles a week. For athletes required to perform at such high levels, it’s recommended that they get immediate rest and warmth following their long sessions. Typically, this would encompass marathon and long-distance runners.

Technically speaking, during a vigorous cardio routine, the body will react with a temporary decrease in immune system function, producing certain hormones that definitively lower immunity. Otherwise known as Cortisol and Adrenaline, these stress hormones can raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels, further suppressing the immune system. This can ultimately lead to overtraining syndrome, which can include any of the following symptoms:

• Drop in performance
• Insomnia
• Depression
• Headaches
• Muscle Pain
• Joint Pain
• Decreased appetite
• Increase Injury

But moderation is the key to achieving a successful workout while avoiding sickness. Again, working your body for a solid 30 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week will effectively help safe-guard your body from disease. Conjunctively, rest and recovery days are essential to allow your immune system to “catch up.” If you’re already ill, it’s highly recommended to avoid the gym altogether, until you’ve had a chance to get well.

Getting older many times means that health problems become part of our lives. Every trip to the doctor can add a new health concern. The doctor offers a pill and many patients will just take it, hoping for a magical cure. As the health problems pile up, the amount of medications each person is taking also begins to pile up. Each drug brings its own side effects and when you are taking half dozen or more different pills, the drug side effects can begin to cause problems of their own. Soon your poor body is in one heck of a mess.

When I go to any doctor and list the medications I take, nobody can believe the answer is zero. For someone nearly 60 years old, the list of pills for different health problems is usually long and complicated. I have to say, I’ve been offered medications, one for better bladder control, one for bone density and one for neuropathy. It I were taking all of them, I’m personally convinced I’d feel worse, not better.

So, what should you do when a health problem comes up? Research, research, research!

One of my first steps in researching health issues is always finding out about natural remedies. I can tell you, though, that most advice on natural remedies for health problems boils down to diet and exercise. Sorry, there is no real way around that and a magic pill won’t change it either. I do check out reputable sources for this advice, such as Dr. Andrew Weil, who is an expert on natural and alternative remedies but always offers well researched advice.

You can also check sites like WebMd and the Mayo Clinic website for information about any condition.

If you have a specific condition, you can check specific sites relating to that health issue. Many have forums also. Reading some of the forums and the problems many people face, you might even find out you aren’t as bad off as lots of people out there!

I also check amazon.com to find out what books are out on different health issues and I read all the customer reviews to see if it would be worthwhile to order any.

My husband and I are starting to see health problems crop up. My husband was told he has Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease which attacks the thyroid. The doctor’s answer was to start thyroid hormone replacement. We’ve spent quite a bit of time researching this disease now and found that many with Hashimoto’s are also have gluten sensitivity - something the doctor never mentioned. Cutting the gluten can really help those with an autoimmune disorder. We also ordered a book on Hashimoto’s which convinced my husband that he needs to be seeing an endocrinologist who can take a look at the whole picture of his autoimmune condition, instead of just throwing pills at his thyroid.

As far as my own health issues - I decided I could live with my bladder issues (lol) and after researching bone density medications and natural ways to build bone density, I found decided against taking bone density medication but I did find exercises like yoga and tai chi are recommended, as well as a bone health diet and different supplements.

My other health issue has proven very mysterious. About 4 years ago, I started having a tingling sensation in my entire body. It has progressed slowly but it’s pretty much a 24/7 feeling of tingling, some numbness and sometimes a burning sensation. I went to a neurologist who, after doing some muscle testing, told me he had no idea what was causing it and all he could offer was a medication to dull the sensation. These medications are anti-depressants, anti-convulsives and other anti- this and that, which have some potentially bad side effects.

I went back to him about once a year for four years now. I also got a second opinion which was no more enlightening than the first one. Last year, the neurologist told me I “might” have small fiber neuropathy, which affects the nerve fibers of the skin. When I researched this, I found that it did pretty much fit my symptoms.

Over the course of the past four years, I’ve taken up yoga and tai chi, had energy massages, acupuncture and went through hypnotherapy. All these are helping my state of mind but not the tingling. I’ve tried various supplements for neuropathy, with no results either.

I finally decided recently that maybe I should try the medication. In the course of researching possible medications, however, I found that in 70% of cases, there is a treatable cause. A doctor in Massachusetts provided a form online with all the tests he did for neuropathy. I’ve had a couple of these, such as for diabetes, in my regular physicals but I hadn’t had any of the others.

So, on my visit to the neurologist, I took my list with me. He said, “These tests are on our routine neuropathy panel as well.” I think even he was a little perplexed as to why these had never been done on me up to this point. He said, “Let’s hold off on the medication so we can see that we give you the right one.” Thanks for that!

So the end of the story has not been told yet. I did go get about 10 vials of blood drawn and will find out the results at the end of the month. I may still find out I’m in the 30% of neuropathy patients with no known cause but at least I’m looking out for myself.

If you discover you have a health problem, no matter what it is, don’t just blindly accept a medication and hope for the best.

• Research your condition
• Make a list of questions to ask your doctor.
• Make sure you fully understand what he tells you.
• Find out from your doctor and you research if there is something natural you can do to help yourself. Most things, like diet and exercise won’t have any adverse effects on any medical advice you get.
• Keep a positive attitude!

I can’t begin to tell you how important this last one is. I’ve certainly gone through a hundred different emotional states over the past four years. I wondered if I’d eventually end up incapacitated or if I had something like MS, I grew tired and frustrated from not finding any answers. Sometimes I got depressed.

Over time, however, I’ve chosen to focus on the positive aspects of this situation. I focus on what I can do, which is eat an excellent diet, exercise and do my yoga and tai chi for my health and spirit, and meditate on my body’s ability to heal itself.

If it weren’t for the neuropathy, I wouldn’t be so adamant about sticking to the path I am on right now and maybe that’s what it’s all about in the end, no matter what the doctor tells me.

Qigong for Health and Healing

It seems unfair that as we near our retirement years, when we should finally have the chance to enjoy life and do as we please, we find health issues are consuming our time and energy. As we age, it becomes even more important to find a form of exercise that can help us stay healthy and even help overcome the health issues we may already have.

For the past few months, my husband and I have been hooked on qigong exercises,. We started by taking a six week class but at $12 a class for each of us, we decided to look around for some qigong DVD’s to do at home. I found several that provide great workouts and we alternate them so we don’t get bored with any one.

Qigong for Health and Healing

What is qigong?

Qigong is a gentle, flowing form of exercise from China, used for healing and energy medicine. The slow, meditative movements incorporate breathing techniques to cleanse, strengthen, and circulate the life energy (qi) throughout the body. Spending even 15 minutes a day doing qigong exercises can lead to better health, increased immunity and energy and reduced stress. Other qigong benefits include better balance and increased mental focus.

More Benefits of Qigong

Anyone can do qigong. Even for those who can’t stand, the exercises can be done sitting in a chair. Beyond purchasing a DVD or taking a class, there is no equipment to buy, no warm ups to do. Once you memorize some of the exercises, you can do them anyplace, anytime.

Watching a gigong practice, you would never guess that pretty much every muscle in your body is being worked and internal organs massaged so lung health, digestion and circulation are also improved. My husband has had shoulder and neck pain for years due to sitting at a desk all day, working at the computer.  He said for the first time in all those years, he can turn his neck without pain and his shoulder pain is gone.

The other day, my digestion was off. I had severe heartburn and thought perhaps I’d caught some sort of bug. I didn’t feel like doing anything but I decided to do about 15 minutes of cleansing exercises with a qigong DVD and about half way through I felt totally normal. All my indigestion was gone and it didn’t return.

After I spend about 30 minutes doing my daily qigong practice I feel refreshed, energized and more focused. This is the sort of exercise you look forward to doing and you miss it if you don’t do it. In the past, I’ve done treadmills, lifting weights, aerobics, etc and qigong is so much easier and more relaxing, yet it does all the things these other forms of exercise do too.

If you have any health issues, a daily qigong practice for health and healing will benefit you. Almost all the DVD’s we have are by instructors who have overcome severe health issues using qigong.

How do you get started in a Qigong Practice?

As I mentioned, we took a class to begin with but now that I’ve purchased and used several qigong DVD’s I can tell you, a class isn’t really necessary. All the DVD’s we have also give lots of information on how to do the exercises and why you are doing them. Here are some of our favorites:

Qi Gong for Health and Healing: A Complete Training Course to Unleash the Power of Your Life-Force EnergyLee Holden’s course covers everything you need to know about qigong. There are five DVD’s with 10 hours of instruction and exercise routines. There are qigong exercises for morning to energize and and evening to calm. Six audio cd’s and a workbook complement the video with information, breathing exercises and guided meditations. If you can’t take a class, this course is the closest thing you’ll find.

I’ve ordered a a few qigong DVD’s that I tried and sent back for various reasons. These are the ones we use a couple of times each week at least:

Qigong Beginning Practice Garri Garripoli and his wife, Daisy Lee Garripoli, have several qigong DVD’s out for different issues such as cleansing, better digestion and stress reduction. We have several of these but we always seem to come back to the Beginning Practice. The entire routine takes over an hour but it covers all the basic qigong exercises.

This DVD set also has an extra DVD done by Garri Garripoli for a PBS special which tells the story of qigong and his personal journey back to good health using these exercises.

If you’re also interested in Tai Chi, DVD’s by David Dorian Ross are a good bet. I like this one, T’ai Chi Beginning Practice because there is a tai chi practice section and about 30 minutes of qigong energy exercises in a different segment.

If you are interested in qigong for health and healing or learning basic tai chi forms, these three instructors have many DVD’s out (I have several by each of them) and they are all very good.

Qigong is a form of exercise, true, but somewhere along the way, you begin to realize that you’re getting much more out of it than improving health and physical fitness. A daily qigong practice offers benefits beyond physical fitness. Doing the slow, focused excercise routines clears your mind, and you feel relaxed and free of stress. This is something you can carry into your day and you feel better all the time.

More information on Qigong and Tai Chi

QiGong Institute
Qigong Institute on YouTube
National QiGong Association

If you have asthma, Chronic bronchitis or emphysema, or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) it’s very important to work with your doctor to manage your treatment. However, practicing yoga breathing techniques can improve the condition of your lungs and the quality of your life, no matter what your age, and you don’t have to do yoga to benefit from these exercises.

Deep breathing has benefits for everyone, not just those who suffer from lung conditions. Most of us breath shallowly and one of the best relaxation techniques you can do is to take several deep, slow breaths.In fact, deep breathing can even help speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight.

I’ve been doing yoga consistently for about 3 years and slow, deep breathing, done in conjunction with flowing body movements has made my lungs and joints feel 100% better than they used to. About three months ago, I started studying tai chi which also emphasizes deep breathing which corresponds to body movements. Having become more conscious of my breath, I find that I’m breathing deeper much more often throughout my day.

Both yoga and tai chi are so relaxing that I’m sorry I didn’t take them up many years ago!

If you don’t want to take a yoga class, or don’t have time, here are some helpful tools to teach you yoga deep breathing techniques. It won’t take long to improve your lung health, and feel more relaxed and energized.

Breathe - Guided Yoga and Breathing Exercises To Relax and Revive Rodney Yee is a favorite of mine and I have several of his Yoga Cds. His voice is relaxing and he takes you through various breathing exercises for health and relaxation. This one also includes some simple relaxation yoga poses.

Functional Fitness for COPD and Asthma - an on demand rental from Amazon which you can use for 7 days for just $1.99. If you decide you like the exercises in the video, you can also purchase it. These exercises require no special equipment and can help reduce the symptoms of asthma and COPD, plus there is some explanation of these conditions.

Yoga Breathing - Guided Meditations for Beginners. Don’t be put off by the word meditation in the title. Meditation focuses on breath and breath is what you need to improve if you have COPD or Emphysema. This is an MP3 download and you can listen to samples and then download the entire MP3 for $4.95 or individual breathing meditations for 99 cents each.

Here’s one I just started using on the basis of a recommendation in Yoga Journal: The Practice of Pranayama: An In-Depth Guide to the Yoga of Breath. I have been looking for a guide that would help me learn the art of yogic breathing and this 7 CD set is a complete program. If you have any type of lung or breathing problems, you don’t have to do yoga to benefit from this practice.

Pranayama is a Sanskrit word with two parts. Prana, meaning life force or breath, and yama, meaning to suspend or to control. Pranayama is control of breath and this 8 hour, 155 track CD breathing program, Richard Rosen says, (from Yoga Journal) will help “your breath will smooth and lengthen, your mind will become calm and clear….and you will gradually fine-tune the dial of your consciousness.”

Read more about the benefits of deep breathing and some simple breathing exercises.

Natural Remedies for COPD, Emphysema and Asthma

Read more about COPD on WebMd

You wouldn’t think a cancer diagnosis or health crisis could ever be a good thing. Yet, how often do you read about people who learn they have a serious health problem and totally change their lives for the better, realizing for the first time that they may have had the wrong priorities in life? They suddenly want to spend more time with their loved ones, they want to exercise more, eat a better diet and pay more attention to their overall health. Many people, when faced with a potentially fatal health issue start stress reduction activities like meditation, tai chi or yoga.

Just yesterday, I read a story in the newspaper about a woman who worked 80 hours a week as CEO of a company only to be halted in her tracks 10 years ago by breast cancer. This diagnosis caused her to totally change the way she lived and she felt for the past 10 years she’s lived more fully than she did before, focusing on health, diet, exercise and family, which she credits with helping her be cancer free until recently when she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

Granted these healthy activities didn’t keep her cancer free forever, but she did live a better quality of life and perhaps bought herself 10 good years and tools to help her beat cancer again. Research shows that for those with breast and colon cancer, especially, diet and exercise can extend being cancer free for many more years than if a person makes no changes at all.

It makes you wonder if we really need such a devastating diagnosis to force us to focus on better health and make family and relationships a more central part of our lives. There is an old saying that when someone is on their death bed, they don’t usually say they wished they’d spent more time at the office!

Our retirement years are often the years when serious illness can strike but, hopefully, these are also years when we have more time for healthy living. We can take up cooking as a hobby, for instance, focusing on healthy veggie recipes. We can take that daily walk we’ve always promised ourselves we would start, take a class at the local Y or start doing yoga or meditation to increase our immunity and decrease stress.

In his book Anticancer, A New Way of Life, Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, describes how he was stricken with brain cancer and beat it, only to have it return 15 years later. With his first diagnosis, he made no changes at all in the way he lived, but after the cancer’s return, Servan-Schreiber started researching healthy living alternatives so he could stay cancer free.

He does not advocate these lifestyle choices instead of a doctor’s treatment and advice but anyone can benefit from eating anticancer foods, learning to have an anticancer mind set and practicing mind/body techniques like yoga and meditation.

Most experts agree, I think, that if more people lived an anti-cancer way of life, there would be, not only less cancer, but less illness overall. The younger we begin, of course, the better off we are in terms of health but better late than never.

I have read that about 97% of how well we age is due to our lifestyle choices. Neglect of our health is probably one of the causes of most illness, and sometimes, in my opinion, illness and or a health crisis is a wake up call that we need to do things differently in our lives. But why must we wait for something serious to force us to take care of ourselves?

I have a superstition that if I take care of myself, reduce stress, practice yoga and meditation to stay in touch with my spiritual side and make family and relationships a big focus in my life, then I’ll never need that wake up call.

You might say you don’t have time for all this healthy living but do you have time to cope with a devastating illness?

It may not keep me from actually getting cancer or having a health crisis but if that does happen, then I will have better tools to cope with the situation.

I highly recommend AntiCancer A New Way of Life to anyone who wants to know how to live a cancer free lifestyle. This book was rated 5 stars by 186 people on Amazon.

Read more relaxation tips for better health.