Instant Ab Flatteners

By Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief - Posted on Fri, Dec 19, 2008, 1:36 pm PST

Happier, Healthier You
by Lucy Danziger, SELF Editor-in-Chief a Yahoo! Health Expert for Women's Health

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Achieving a toned, sexy tummy might seem like a pipe dream this time of year. Baggy sweaters abound, egg nog is served and Frosty the Snowman doesn't offer much in the way of flat-belly inspiration. But getting a sleek, sexy stomach is easier than you think. Spend just five minutes a day on toning your abs and you'll get an amazing middle.

We rounded up five of the most effective tummy toners around. Work three or four of these exercises into your routine (easing them in will minimize soreness). Do the number of reps indicated, resting one minute between moves. The only equipment you will need is a hand towel. Washboard abs, here you come!

Pike 90
Lie faceup; raise legs until perpendicular to floor, feet flexed. Lower right leg so it hovers 1 or 2 inches off floor and place hands lightly behind head. In this position, do 15 crunches, lifting chest toward ceiling and lowering. Switch legs and repeat.

Crunchy frog
Sit with knees bent, feet flat. Keeping legs together, raise feet several inches and bring knees toward chest. Wrap arms around knees without touching legs. Extend legs and stretch arms to sides, palms forward. Return to wrapped-arm position; repeat. Do 15 reps.

Tornado
Stand with feet hip-width apart, right leg in front of left, right foot turned out. Bend elbows and raise arms out to sides at shoulder level (like goalposts). In one motion, raise right knee to lowered right elbow. Return to start; switch sides and repeat to complete one rep. Do 15 reps.

Corkscrew
Lie faceup. Press legs together and raise them toward ceiling until they're at a 90-degree angle, with knees slightly bent and toes pointed. Raise butt and legs off floor using ab muscles; twist legs slightly to left. Repeat, twisting to right, for one rep. Do 15 reps.

Side arm balance
Start on floor on knees. Lean to left and place left hand on floor under shoulder; extend right arm up and to left, palm down. Straighten right legs out to right with foot on floor, resting on left knee. Hold for 5 breaths. Return to start; switch sides. Repeat twice per side.

Going Up! 7 Pointers to Lift a Bad Mood

By Dr. Maoshing Ni - Posted on Mon, Aug 27, 2007, 10:16 pm PDT

Dr. Mao's Secrets of Longevity
by Dr. Maoshing Ni a Yahoo! Health Expert for Cholesterol

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No one can live a long and healthy life without the will to go on; sometimes mood swings can make us feel that life is too much for us.

A bad mood not only gives you a gloomy outlook, it also lowers your immune function, leading the way to illness. Here are some suggestions to lift your mood, your spirit, and your health.

1. A Laughing Matter
"Laugh Therapy," pioneered by Norman Cousins, has turned out to have real substance. Research has discovered that laughter and joy boost immune functions, especially the production of the natural killer cells that help defend the body from illness and cancer.

Laughter also increases the release of endorphins - compounds that give you a sense of well-being - in your brain. Without a doubt, joyful people liver longer and healthier lives. So read your favorite comics, watch your favorite comedies, and laugh it up!

2. Amino Acid for Restored Mindset
When an imbalance or deficiency is creating a bad mood, the Europeans use supplements of a natural compound found in human cells to regulate mood and restore a healthy mindset. SAMe (S-adenosyl-L-methionine) is produced from methionine, an amino acid that plays a role in the production of uplifting neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.

One study indicated that SAMe worked on patients who had unsuccessful results with conventional antidepressants. To get a boost from SAMe, take a supplement combining it with vitamins B6 and B12.

3. Hands-On Healing
Human touch increases the production of endorphins, growth hormone, and DHEA, all of which lengthen your life span and lower the negative impact of stress. Studies have found that patients who are regularly touched recover faster than those who are not touched. So give someone a hug and feel both of your moods improve.

4. Boost Your "Youth Hormones"
You don't need pills to flood your body with a rejuvenating flood of growth hormones. Research has found that doing squats and leg presses will greatly increase your natural production of the "youth hormone". Increased growth hormone translates to an elevated mood, among other physical benefits. Keep it up with weight training, knee bends, push-ups, and rowing.

5. Take a Bracing Breath
Breathing correctly is important for dispelling the toxins and wastes from your body; in fact, it is estimated that we expel only about 30 percent of toxins in our bodies through the bowels and bladder-the rest is all respiratory. Breathing is also a great way to clear your mind, boost your energy, and improve your mood. Practice deep, slow, rhythmic, breathing daily with mind-body disciplines such as tai chi, yoga, qigong, and meditation.

6. Smell the Joy
Research has shown that smell has a definite impact on our bodies and minds. When you stimulate the olfactory nerves inside your nose, you activate the limbic system of your brain, which is associated with moods and memory. This concept is instrumental to aromatherapy, a natural health tradition that makes use of the healing powers of plants with strong scents.

Aromatherapy recommends treating depression with jasmine, eucalyptus for exhilaration, and grapefruit to increase alertness and joy. Just put a dab of the essential oils from these plants on your temples, back of your neck, or acupressure points. Another option? Boil the herb in water and inhale the steam through your nose.

7. Feel Fine with Flowers
There is a reason that flowers are the traditional get-well gesture. Colorful flowers have a powerful influence on moods; they can uplift a patient's mood and even combat stress. One study found that during a five-minute typing assignment, people sitting next to a flowering bouquet were more relaxed than those who sat near foliage-only plants.

I hope these tips help the good feelings flow! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

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By Liz Vaccariello, Editor-in-Chief, Prevention

Weight loss requires two things: burning calories through exercise and cutting them through smart food choices and portion control. In theory, you could create a calorie deficit by spending hours at the gym, but that's not realistic-or much fun. And who wants to live on lettuce leaves? Instead, try these seven everyday moves to drop pounds effortlessly.

1. Fidget
James Levine, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, has spent a decade studying the role that everyday movement, or NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis), plays in metabolism. His discovery: People who tap their feet, prefer standing to sitting, and generally move around a lot burn up to 350 more calories a day than those who sit still. That adds up to nearly 37 pounds a year!

2. Keep most meals under 400 calories
Study after study recommends spacing out your meals at regular intervals and keeping them all about the same size. Eating meals at regular intervals has been linked to greater calorie burning after eating, better response to insulin, and lower fasting blood cholesterol levels. When you eat regular meals throughout the day, you're less likely to become ravenous and overeat.

3. Take yourself off cruise control
Increase the intensity of your everyday tasks, from vacuuming to walking the dog, recommends Douglas Brooks, an exercise physiologist and personal trainer in Northern California. "Turn on some music, add in some vigorous bursts, and enjoy the movement," he says.

4. Drink 8 glasses of water per day
Water is not just a thirst quencher--it may speed the body's metabolism. Researchers in Germany found that drinking two 8-ounce glasses of cold water increased their subjects' metabolic rate by 30%, and the effect persisted for 90 minutes. One-third of the boost came from the body's efforts to warm the water, but the rest was due to the work the body did to absorb it. "When drinking water, no calories are ingested but calories are used, unlike when drinking sodas, where additional calories are ingested and possibly stored," explains the lead researcher, Michael Boschmann, MD, of University Medicine Berlin. Increasing water consumption to eight glasses per day may help you lose about 8 pounds in a year, he says, so try drinking a glass before meals and snacks and before consuming sweetened drinks or juices.

5. Step it up--and down
Climbing stairs is a great leg strengthener, because you're lifting your body weight against gravity. In addition to taking the stairs at every opportunity, try stepping up and down on the curb while you're waiting for the bus or filling your gas tank, says Brooks.

6. Use grocery bags as dumbbells
Letting someone else load your groceries or carry your suitcase is an opportunity missed for strengthening and calorie burning, says certified coach Beth Rothenberg, who teaches a class for fitness professionals at UCLA. "Carry your groceries, balanced with a bag in each hand, even if you have to make several trips," she says. "And pack two smaller suitcases instead of one big one, so you can carry them yourself."

7. Eat 4 g of fiber at every meal
A high-fiber diet can lower your caloric intake without making you feel deprived. In a Tufts University study, women who ate 13 g of fiber or less per day were five times as likely to be overweight as those who ate more fiber. Experts see a number of mechanisms through which fiber promotes weight loss: It may slow down eating because it requires more chewing, speed the passage of food through the digestive tract, and boost satiety hormones. To get 25 g of fiber a day, make sure you eat six meals or snacks, each of which contains about 4 g of fiber. For to-go snacks, buy fruit; it's handier than vegetables, so it's an easy way to up your fiber intake. One large apple has just as much fiber (5 g) as a cup of raw broccoli.

US researchers explain how cats lap liquids with elegance

– Thu Nov 11, 3:25 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US researchers on Thursday unveiled the secret of how cats lap water or milk with such elegance, a phenomenon that happens so fast it cannot be followed by human eyes.

Cats are among the many species that, unlike humans, cannot close their mouths and create suction.

With help from from high-speed video taken of a felines lapping liquid, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Princeton University found that household cats and larger felines like tigers balance gravity and inertia as they imbibe liquids.

The research will appear in the November 12 issue of the journal Science.

Scientists already knew that when cats insert their tongue into a bowl of liquid, the top surface of the tongue touches the liquid first, then the tip curves like a letter J to form a sort of ladle.

This was first observed by an MIT engineer, who filmed a cat lapping liquid in 1940.

[Video: 'Ninja cat' shows off stealth]

However by studying the images researchers have now determined that there is no ladling effect, but instead the cat's tongue darts in and out so quickly that the action forms a column of liquid.

"Cats, unlike dogs, aren't dipping their tongues into the liquid like ladles after all," read a statement from the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Instead, the smooth tip of cat's tongue "barely brushes the surface of the liquid before the cat rapidly draws its tongue back up.

"As it does so, a column of milk forms between the moving tongue and the liquid's surface. The cat then closes its mouth, pinching off the top of the column for a nice drink, while keeping its chin dry."

The liquid column "is created by a delicate balance between gravity, which pulls the liquid back to the bowl, and inertia, which in physics, refers to the tendency of the liquid or any matter, to continue moving in a direction unless another force interferes."

The cat "instinctively knows just how quickly to lap in order to balance these two forces, and just when to close its mouth. If it waits another fraction of a second, the force of gravity will overtake inertia, causing the column to break, the liquid to fall back into the bowl, and the cat's tongue to come up empty."

Cats average about four laps per second, with each lap bringing in about 0.1 milliliters of liquid, the researchers said, adding that larger felines lap at a slower pace.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101111/sc_afp/usscienceresearchanimalcat_20101111202537