Five powerful tools for success

OK—most of us make these wildly unrealistic New Year’s resolutions and in a week, they’ve gone by the boards and we’re back to our old habits.

If you’ve decided this is really the time to stop smoking, congratulations. This isn’t the time for lectures, it’s a time for encouragement. Stick by your guns and this time, you’ll succeed.

If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably tried to quit more than once and you know how difficult it is.

If you’re not a smoker and you’re giving support to someone, be patient. This may take some time and there may be some slipups. However, friends and supporters are a key element to success.

Forty million of us try to quit every year – and many succeed, although it usually takes 2 or three serous attempts before a smoker actually quits, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are a few ways to make the process easier:

1. Try l-glutamine every time you feel like lighting up. This amino acid is exceptionally effective in quelling cravings, says my friend Dr. Hyla Cass, my co-author for 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women (Take Charge Books, 2008). (There’s lots of information in the book that applies to men too.) Just take a capsule and empty it on your tongue (no real taste). The craving will disappear in 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Take a walk. Exercise in any form takes helps de-tox your body of the addictive nicotine and it also re-focuses your mind on something healthy. Replacing smoking with a new healthy habit is an especially effective method if you are concerned about gaining weight after you quit.
3. Identify and avoid the triggers. If you’ve always had a cigarette with your morning cup of coffee or with an evening cocktail or after a meal, change those behaviors. You may need to give up that morning cup of coffee for a while or substitute a cup of tea at coffee or cocktail time until you get through the detoxification process. If you tend to smoke after a meal, create a new habit by getting up from the table immediately when you finish eating and engaging in some other activity, like checking e-mail or, better yet, taking a walk.
4. Drink lots of water and other liquids to help flush the toxins from your system faster. Some researchers say that drinking orange or grapefruit juice can help because it makes cigarettes taste bad.
5. Consider pharmaceutical help. Anyone who has read my posts knows that I am passionately committed to natural health. However, smoking is such a destructive behavior to your health that the use of pharmaceuticals like Chantix or Wellbutrin is a worthwhile tradeoff, I think. Ask your doctor for help. Do anything it takes.

Watch for my next post later this week to give you some specific health improvements you start reaping within minutes after you stub out that last cigarette.

Dec. 23, 2008

Once upon a time when I was working for a newspaper, my editor had a brilliant idea: I should write a long piece about depression and suicide at the holidays. What a cheery subject!

However, as a young and enthusiastic reporter, I toiled over what turned out to be a very good piece on how many people suffer real depression at the holidays and how suicide rates are higher at the holidays than at any other time of the year.

It won’t surprise many of you that my editor decided to kill my painstakingly researched piece on the grounds that it was “too depressing.”

By making this little joke, I’m not in any way making light of holiday depression. It is real and, for many it is debilitating. One close friend tells me she’d rather get in bed and sleep until the holidays are over so she doesn’t have to think about past happy Christmases with friends and family who are now gone.

If you’re prone to the blues during the holidays – or after the glitter of the holidays ends in gray January days, for that matter – there are things you can do to ease your own pain and perhaps that of others as well.

1. This truly Number 1: Give to some one else. Go to your local homeless shelter or soup kitchen and serve up holiday meals, clean toilets, do laundry or play with kids for the day. There are always others who will genuinely welcome your presence, your help and your concern. You may find this can be an ongoing part of your life that will serve as a permanent cure for isolation that leads to depression.

2. Move. No, don’t pack up your wordly goods and move to another state. Move your body. Being stuck ion a particular mental state implies lack of movement in your mind. Move your body and your mind will follow. In scientific terms, endorphins, brain chemicals released during exercise, act as natural anti-depressants. In real-life terms, moving off the place where you are stuck moves you to a new place, and hopefully a better place. Don’t feel like exercising? Do it anyway. A walk down the street, a half an hour on an exercise bike, or better yet, a brisk hike with your local Sierra Club or a rousing game of pick up basketball will work wonders.

3. Supplement. Rhodiola rosea is an absolute favorite of mine for addressing depression quickly, with few or no side effects. Research has shown the rhodiola is at least as effective as prescription anti-depressants with two wonderful additional benefits:
• It acts much more quickly, usually producing results in as little as a week. You need to take most prescription antidepressants for four to six weeks before you’ll even know if it is going to work.
• It doesn’t have the side effects of many prescription anti-depressants, which can include weight gain, depending depression suicidal thoughts and violent behavior. Rhodiola has actually been shown to promote weight loss.
My friend, Dr. Hyla Cass, with whom I wrote 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health (Take Charge Books, 2008), recommends taking 100-300 milligrams of a standardized rhodiola product daily. You can buy it at your health food store or nutrition outlet.

You’re not alone if you suffer from holiday depression. It sometimes help just to know that and that there are simple things you can do relieve the pain so you can find the way to happier holidays.

Dec. 15, 2008

Any of us who have teenagers know what a pain in the you-know-what they can be to get up in the morning.

I remember the epic wake-up-get-dressed-get-to-the-bus battles when my daughter was a teenager. Everyone was pretty miserable.

Now it turns out there is actually a biological reason for this: Teenagers need more sleep than adults (a minimum of 8 hours and some need as much as 10) because of their sleep patterns naturally shift to a later bedtime and a later rising time during teen years. Their rapidly developing bodies and hormonal fluctuations offer continual physiological challenges.

There could be a simple answer.

Schools that have shifted to later start times, say from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., says the National Sleep Foundation, find measurable positive results:
• Better academic performance
• Less absenteeism
• Fewer car accidents

Experts say the later start time doesn’t mean that teens get to bed later (typical teen bedtime is 11 p.m. on school nights), but that they get an hour extra sleep each night. That extra five hours of sleep a week can make a big difference in health and alertness.

“Most high school students need an alarm clock or a parent to wake them on school days. They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best,” says the National Sleep Foundation.

So if your teen goes to bed at 10:30 or 11 p.m., letting him sleep until 7:30 a.m. could make everyone’s life easier.

It’s also important for everyone to lighten up a bit. I can’t resist adding this hilarious YouTube video called The Mom Song. I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks.

Dec. 6, 2008

If you’re like me, you’re planning to raise a glass (or several) in celebration this time of year.

Go for it!

While we’ve known about the benefits of red wine for some time, recent studies how that all alcoholic beverages have health benefits mostly related to their anti-inflammatory properties. That’s no small deal since chronic inflammation is connected to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoarthritis, just to name a few.

Of course, there’s a hitch that none of us like much. There’s a very fine line between benefit and harm where alcohol is concerned. Have your drink a day. But more than one tips the balance. That means , for women, 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor. For men, 6 ounces of wine, 16 ounces of beer and 2 ounces of hard liquor.

And, sorry, no fair saving up for the weekend and chugging down five drinks on Saturday night. Your intake needs to evenly spaced and regular.

Dec. 5, 2008

At this time of the year, respected researchers like Michael Holick, Ph.D. of Boston University say that 95% of us are vitamin D deficient.

That’s because our exposure to natural sunlight is so much less at this time of the year for obvious reasons that it’s impractical to walk around with face arms and legs exposed for 15 minutes when it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Now the American Dermatological Association comes up with the brilliant notion that we shouldn’t get our vitamin D from sunlight because it’s too likely to cause skin cancer.

This is part of a decades-long campaign conducted by dermatologists to hammer it into our heads that excessive sun exposure is hazardous to your health. I couldn’t agree more.

But you only need 15 minutes of direct sunlight three times a week to get your vitamin D from the sun.

At the median latitude in the United States (think of a line roughly from Washington to San Francisco), this is all you need. If you live south of the line, reduce your exposure by three to five minutes. If you live north of that line, add on three to five minutes. If you live in Alaska, you can probably safely tolerate as much as 30 minutes.

Take a look at my photo. I have very fair Celtic skin. I’m about as pale as humans come. I burn very easily, but I do not burn spending 15 minutes in direct sunlight three times a week.

The dermatologists need to stop panicking and look at the bigger picture. The health benefits of sufficient vitamin D intake are enormous.

Almost all of us need more of it.

Sunlight is simple. It’s free. And it’s vitally important to your health.

The human body can store enough vitamin D to last about three months, so about this time of year, we start feeling the deficiency. If you’re not into winter solstice sunbathing, a supplement will be fine to get you through the cold months.

Dec. 2, 2008

Virtually everyone I speak with these days is stressing about the economic downturn. It’s hard not to worry about recession, skyrocketing prices, foreclosures, potential job losses and how we are going to keep body and soul together through the difficult times that are already upon us.

Certainly I can’t tell you not to stress about these things. That would be like saying, “Don’t pay attention to the elephant in the living room.”

So stress is with us. How to we deal with it? Of course, you’re going to take whatever action is necessary. You’ll polish up your resume, review your budget, cut out the fluff and perhaps even cancel vacations.

Right now, it’s just as important to take care of yourself. Here‘s how:

1. Do take time for yourself. Whether you take a bath, spend half an hour uninterruptedly reading a favorite book, listening to music or just sipping a cup of tea, your stress levels will ratchet down.

2. Do get lots of exercise. Exercise is my favorite way of burning off that jittery energy that accompanies stress. Science tells us that the endorphins released during exercise have a brain calming effect. Choose your favorite form of exercise: a peaceful walk in the woods or a vigorous game of tennis have equal stress reducing effects.

3. Do breathe. This may sound silly, because if you’re alive, you must be breathing. However, most of breathe shallowly in our upper chests. Deep yogic belly breathing is an almost instantaneous stress reliever. Try is the next time someone cuts you off in traffic. Then translate that quick relief to the long-term chronic stress most of us are experiencing these days, and you’ll see how helpful it can be.

4. Do get lots of sleep. We’ve all experienced it at one time or another: suddenly being wide-awake in the middle of the night, thoughts racing through our brains and the accompanying restlessness that keeps us from returning to sleep. It happens to most of us form time to time, but if this happens to you more than once a month, you need to take action. Beyond the obvious stress-producing effects of not getting enough rest, chronic insomnia can have profound health effects ranging from weight gain to increased risk of diabetes. Ensure a good night’s sleep by winding down slowly I the last hour before bedtime, perhaps taking a warm bath. Keep TV out of the bedroom and read something relaxing before you turn out the light. Sex is a great sleep inducer, since the endorphins you get with an orgasm can help you drift off and stay asleep. Ditto for those white noise machines and, in a pinch, natural sleep aids like Rescue Sleep (a homeopathic) and valerian, passionflower, St. John’s wort or kava.

5. Finally, do spend time with friends and family. While it’s important to take time for yourself, there’s nothing quite like the support of those who love you. Don’t hold in your concerns. Confide in your spouse, best friend, sister or mom. Don’t expect they will solve your problems, but just getting your worries off your chest is an excellent stress reliever.

Here are a few things not to do when stress threatens to overwhelm you:

1. Don’t become a workaholic in hopes this will change the situation. If you’re already a workaholic, limit your work hours.

2. Don’t drown your sorrows in alcohol, drugs or other destructive behaviors. They’ll ultimately cause more stress than they could possibly relieve.

3. Don’t give in to The Blame Game. Spouses, family members and friends will suffer and, ultimately, you’ll suffer, too.

4. Don’t talk about financial issues at the dinner table, late in the day or when you’re feeling under pressure. When you need to discuss money matters with your spouse or significant other, make a date. Have an enjoyable meal together and then sit down at a mutually agreed upon time.

5. Conversely, don’t shove financial issues under the rug or make unilateral financial decisions or attempt to hide the magnitude of financial issues by running up credit card debt.