Debbie Mandel’s
Turn On Your Inner Light
Weekly Wellness Newsletter
December 5, 2004
www.TurnOnYourInnerLight.com


Affirmation of the Week
 Tough times
never last,
tough people do.
Weekly Wellness Radio Show

The Turn On your Inner Light Radio Show airs Tuesday evenings 7:00 to 7:30pm, on WGBB 1240AM in Long Island. Listeners outside the Long Island area can listen to the show live by going to WGBB Live. The shows are archived for your listening pleasure.

Guest of the Week - Marc Silver

On December 7, 2004 - Marc Silver, an editor at US News and World Report and the author of Breast Cancer Husband reveals what a husband experiences when his wife has breast cancer.

Health Tips of the Week

  • Chocolate outperforms codeine when it comes to suppressing a cough. The dosage researchers used to suppress coughs was equal to seven ounces of dark chocolate. However, the chemical in chocolate, theobromine, is not commercially available in tablet form. So don’t go loading up on chocolate this winter; you just might find yourself adding to your winter weight. But a cup of hot chocolate now and then could prove to be medicinal.
  • Men with persistent symptoms of depression face greater risks of heart disease and may be twice as likely to die of a stroke compared with men with little or no depression symptoms, according to a new study. So if you are prone to SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, two things will help cheer you up: sunlight and exercise, and all you need is 30 minutes for them to work.
  • While on the subject of men - men looking for another healthy reason to drink green tea here it is. A new study suggests that an antioxidant found in green tea may prevent prostate cancer growth by halting the spread of cancer cells and starving the tumor.
  • A new study shows people who have liposuction are three times more likely to gain weight if they don't follow a healthy diet and four times more likely to pile on the pounds without regular exercise. Researchers say the results confirm what many plastic surgeons have been telling their patients for years: Liposuction should not be used as a quick fix for weight loss. It should be used only in conjunction with exercise and a healthy diet to encourage long-term weight loss success.

Article of the Week -
How to Reduce Stress and Reverse the Aging Process

A team of researchers has discovered that severe emotional distress, as experienced by those who divorce, lose a job, or care for an ill child or parent, accelerates the aging process up to a whole decade. The investigation was able to accurately quantify the aging process by measuring observable changes to the subject’s genes. This is the first scientific study to link psychological stress to physical aging. Are any of us surprised?

We all know when people tell us, “Oh, you look tired.” They mean, “You look old.” Just reading the report makes my hair turn gray because sooner or later all of us encounter stress and become caregivers, falling into more stressful categories than the article can possibly list. However, the laboratory confirmation of what we all know does not need to stress us out even more. Instead, I would like to use this study as a catalyst for alerting everyone to make it a top priority to reduce stress.

If stress speeds up the clock then the opposite is true: De-stressing slows down (and may even reverse) the clock. The most common question people ask me, “How do I manage my hectic, stressful existence and feel happy?” I think the best answer to this question is: “Do you want to? Are you determined to live?”

Here are a few proven methods for reversing your biological clock to look and feel a decade younger: More

Frank Mikulka's Fitness Tip Of The Week
I do a lot of cross-training and always look for ways to increase the intensity. I jog every other day and want to ask what you think about me wearing ankle weights while I run? (Jamie, Babylon) Answer

Send your fitness question to: fitness@turnonyourinnerlight.com

Debbie Eisenstadt Mandel, MA is the author of Turn On Your Inner Light: Fitness for Body, Mind and Soul, a stress-reduction specialist, motivational speaker, a personal trainer and mind/body lecturer. She is the host of the weekly Turn On Your Inner Light Show on WGBB 1240AM in Long Island and has been featured on radio/ TV and print media.

To learn more: www.turnonyourinnerlight.com