Health & Wellness

Could something as simple as a quick and easy blood test save your life? Absolutely.

It’s called a C-reactive protein test, and it measures the degree of HIDDEN inflammation in your body.

Finding out whether or not you are suffering from hidden inflammation is critical because almost every modern disease is caused or affected by it. If your immune system and its ability to quell inflammation in your body are impaired, watch out. You are headed toward illness and premature aging.

I know exactly what my grandmother would say. With all the sturm-und-drang about swine flu vaccinations, she would scoff and mutter, “What they need is a good mustard poultice.”

A mustard poultice could cure anything — from “women’s problems” to a stuffy nose.

Breaking news! Some newly discovered compounds have just been found to turn off all of the genes that cause diabetes. Are these compounds found in a pill bottle? No!

Diabetes and insulin resistance are completely preventable and often reversible through aggressive lifestyle changes, including diet, supplements, exercise and stress management.

I’m back from my vacation, and what an adventure it was.

And in addition to being great, I found it completely amazing how physically exhausting a vacation can be (tour bus pick-up at 6:30 a.m., plane rides, bus rides, and scary car episodes with a French taxi driver who insisted on taking all the Corsican island curves — which, did I mention, are only one lane — at 100 kilometers an hour by looking BACK at me so that I could confirm that yes, the island was beautiful, and yes, I was completely relaxed … just not right at that moment).

Diabetes is not reversible, and controlling your blood sugar with drugs or insulin will protect you from organ damage and death. That is what the medical profession would have you believe, but medication and insulin can actually increase your risk of getting a heart attack or dying.

The diabetes epidemic is accelerating along with the obesity epidemic, and what you are not hearing about is another way to treat it.

A few weeks ago, I taught my Core Immersion Training at the Century City Equinox in Los Angeles, Calif. Each day, we valet parked our cars before entering the club. Those who live outside of Los Angeles may have to re-read the prior sentence: Yes, we VALET PARKED our cars to go to the gym, as do thousands of other Angelenos all around the city, where valet parking is an unfortunate fact of life in a city where the car is king, and vast distances separate us from getting here to there.

Numbers on the scale often become the center of focus when trying to determine a healthy weight. Annual exams at the doctor’s office include a weigh in; weight loss centers determine success by a drop in pounds; and there is talk from time to time about Body Mass Index (BMI) in the media, which refers to your “appropriate” weight based on your height.

Yes, you can have it all, really!

How you eat, think and exercise dramatically affects your mood. You can break the cycle of unhealthy habits and learn to have it all.

I consider myself a very “healthy” person. I eat well and walk and stretch every day. I challenge my balance to make sure I still can. I look both ways before crossing the street. But even with this preventative mindset, I still manage to end up wounded every month like clockwork. Don’t worry. It’s nothing my body isn’t designed to handle. And it is a wound borne by half of the people on the planet at about the same frequency.

By The FIRM Master Instructor Kirsten Palmer

Have you heard the awful rumor that clothing manufacturers use “vanity sizing”?  It turns out it’s true. They’ve adjusted their sizes to fit our expanding waistlines. What that means for you is that, without changing your weight or measurements at all, you might suddenly fit into a size 8 when you never could before. Or, you could have gained five or so pounds, but not notice it (or want to notice it) because you can still buy the same size clothes.