Health aNd Fitness Guide

Turning a few pages of a book keeps your mind sharp for life. Baltimore’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology studied 112 factory workers with similar blood levels of lead, a known mental health hazard, and those with a 11th-grade reading level or lower did half as well on cognitive tests as better readers. Researchers → Continue reading »

Before your workout, eat a light, carbohydrate-rich snack such as a banana or four ounces of yoghurt within 20-30 minutes of lacing up. A quick carb-fix prevents blood-sugar level from dipping while you exercise; the calories keep you from using metabolism-boosting muscle for fuel. Eat light, as exercising and digesting require blood flow; the competition → Continue reading »

Stop the music. The few seconds of quiet between symphonic movements or song tracks actually engage your brain more than the music itself, say researchers at McGill University and Stanford University of medicine. “It’s a moment when the brain can enjoy what you have already heard and anticipate what you will hear next”, says Stanford → Continue reading »

A little old-fashioned fastidiousness isn’t necessarily unhealthy behavior, say new cognitive studies of adults. It is perfectly healthy if you want your pantry shelves to be organized, but unhealthy if you want every room and closet to always be in order, says a study by Gordon Flett of Toronto’s York University and Patricia DiBartolo of → Continue reading »

Couples who fight stay healthy longer. Suppressing anger has long been associated with stress, a risk factor for heart disease. A study observed 192 couples for 17 years and looked at the correlation between anger and resentment in a married relationship, and its effect on the overall mortality rate. Mortality rate was twice as high → Continue reading »