There was a great interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” recently about the surprising health benefits of yoga. Western science/medicine is learning more about the health benefits of this ancient spiritual practice. Yoga is not just about flexibility and meditation, it can also lower your blood pressure, improve cardiovascular function and lower the risk of various diseases.

Eli Broad, a science writer for the New York Times, has written a new book called The Science of Yoga, which explores the history, risks and rewards of yoga. There is much more to yoga than most people might expect.

Read the full post on 5 Surprising Health Benefits of Yoga.

In the past few years, smartphone technologies have transformed the way people interact with their everyday lives, making it easier to connect with friends, be productive on the go, and access information about anything, anywhere. But one of the even more recent exciting developments has to do with the way that smartphones can improve our personal health and wellness.

With mobile and location-based apps, smartphone users now have the ability to track their personal athletic performance, measure their results and try to improve over time. One of the apps that runners use to run faster, longer and smarter is called RunKeeper. I interviewed a friend of mine who uses RunKeeper, Max Lambert, a consultant in Houston, Texas, for his thoughts on how RunKeeper has been beneficial to his life as a runner.

Read the full post on 3 surprising ways the RunKeeper app can improve your fitness.

Do you want to improve your health? Do you want to lose weight, get physically fit, or help counteract the effects of various health conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes? What if we told you that there was an easy treatment already available to you that could help reduce your health risks and improve quality of life at almost any age, with almost any health condition?

Dr. Mike Evans, a specialist in preventive medicine, made an amazing YouTube video discussing what is the #1 thing you can do to improve your health (the video is below).
He discussed an amazing, simple treatment that has been proven to have the following beneficial effects on people’s health:

Read the full post on What’s the #1 thing you can do to improve your health?.

By Real Age

It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s free. To shave as much as 1 ½ inches from your waist, just stand up more.

In a study of middle-aged adults, those who broke up their sedentary hours the most — by frequently getting out of their chairs for a bit — had waists that were more than an inch smaller than their sit-for-longer peers.

Read the full post on Stand Up to Melt More Inches from Your Waist.

By Real Age
Seems like a pretty tall order. A breakfast choice that can make you love yourself more? But a new study suggests it may be so.

No doubt about it, walking is the most user-friendly form of exercise there is. But your everyday walking speed matters, too. Especially if you’re trying to live a longer life.

Here’s why: New research suggests that if your everyday walking speed is more than just a casual stroll, you’ll live longer than your pokier peers.

Read the full post on Best Walking Speed for a Longer Life.

By Dr. Spencer Baron

While in private practice several years ago, a couple of our youthful staff members would brag about being able to eat anything and not exercise much. The, not so fortunate, members of the healthcare team would grumble as they chewed on tasteless, low cal lunch and desperately try to factor some sort of exercise into their already busy schedule.

Until I amusingly informed the cocky crew that all they had was well-formed-fat!

Yup, that’s right; the youthful skin is adhering tightly around your adipose. We technically refer to the firmness as having good skin turgor which happens to be efficiently holding in all the flab, like the body’s natural girdle.

Read the full post on Are you a skinny, fat person?.

By Dr. Andrew Weil

For years, scientists on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to unravel the “French paradox” – the finding that despite a high-fat diet, the French appear to have a lower rate of heart attacks (as well as a lower rate of obesity) than other Western countries, particularly the United States. While no definite explanations are available, it may have a great deal to do with how the French approach eating. These eight tactics are the norm in the typical French diet – consider changing your approach and attitude toward eating by adopting these strategies and see if it makes a difference in your life:

Read the full post on 8 Reasons the French Are Slim.

By Dr. Joe

Can you believe its already almost the end of the first month of 2011? This is the time of year when new years resolutions are fading.   Many people will have made resolutions to do with their health. Unfortunately some of these will be the same as last years and maybe some years before that too. The problem being that by middle to late January great intentions fade and we revert to usual patterns.

The two commonest new years resolutions we make are to lose a few pounds (or kilos) and to get fitter. This seems simple enough so what can get in our way?

Read the full post on Happy New You!.

By Dr. Spencer Baron

This is so simple and so effective for conditioning and strengthening your mid section, that you’d be remiss in not adding this to your routine.
Or … if you don’t have a routine, this can be the second thing you do after waking up (the first, would be to go to the bathroom).

Why this exercise is considered the “most effective.”
While doing electromyographic testing, (a test that hooks up electrodes to the skin or where needle sensors are inserted directly into the muscle) it was found that this exercise was able to show more activity in most of the muscles of the midsection that any other exercise.

Read the full post on The Most Effective Abdominal Exercise – Improved!.

By Real Age

Most of us start the new year in love with our new workout gear, only to see it gather dust in the closet a month later. Here’s how to keep your interest in activity alive and kicking.

In her book Outdoor Fitness, exercise guru and author Tina Vindum recommends this three-pronged approach: meet, play, love.

Read the full post on 3 Secrets to Living – and Loving – an Active Life.

1. Meet. When you have a workout buddy who’s planning to meet you for a run or cardio class, you’ll be more motivated to follow through. And group workouts and classes offer a built-in support system, with shared goals, social interaction, and stick-to-it instructors. Yep, it definitely pays to sweat well with others. (Here’s why the YOU Docs think a workout buddy is better than going it alone.)