FitSugar

What's the Secret to a Long Life?

Leta Shy — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:00:30 PDT

Old people have been in the news lately, and everyone wants to know their secret. There are the "World's Oldest Siblings," the eldest of whom, at 108, has been smoking "for more than 80 years, all day long, every day" and enjoys the regular cocktail. She's not the only one; doctors who've studied the siblings, along with others eligible for a Smucker's birthday celebration, found that many of the centenarians were overweight, smokers, and non-exercisers for most of their lives.

There's also the recent study that says the secret to a long life is getting enough sleep; women who slept fewer than five hours every night were less likely to live as long as those who got five to 6.5 hours of sleep. And then there's the new finding that those with a high level of the DHEAS hormone tend to exercise more, have better relationships, and live longer; the hormone - also called the "wealth" hormone because those who have the highest levels of it tend to be rich - helps regulate stress levels in the body.

With all the speculation about how we can live longer, what do you believe is the secret to a long life? Can we prolong our lives by getting enough sleep, practicing a healthy lifestyle, and limiting stress, or is it all in our genetics?

Another Reason to Run: It Lengthens Your Life

FitSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:30:00 PDT

Have you been thinking about taking up running? Well this new study may give you the kick in the pants to start today. It turns out that runners live longer. According to researchers at Stanford University, not only does running reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but it also helps prevents cancer and neurological conditions like Alzheimer's.

The study followed 284 members of a running club and 156 similar healthy people who didn't run, all 50 and over. The control group did exercise, about 20 minutes a week, and the runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week (that's about 30 minutes a day). The researchers discovered that after 20 years, 15 percent of those running had passed away, as compared to 34 percent of the non-runners.

OK, so the exact activity of running isn't necessarily the magic pill, but it's the regular physical activity you should be after. It doesn't have to be running, but biking, swimming, dancing, or anything else that gets your heart rate up, and strengthens your muscles, will support your immune system and make you healthier overall. So try to work exercise into your daily schedule. Not only will you feel better, but you'll be able to enjoy life a little longer.

Source

Cut Calories and Live Longer?

FitSugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:00:00 PDT

If you're looking to dip into the Fountain of Youth, cutting some calories daily just might help. Calorie restriction has long been proven to slow down the aging process in mice and rats, and researchers at Saint Louis University decided to test this theory on a human population.

In a year-long study, subjects who eliminated 300 to 500 calories from their diet a day showed a decrease in the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3). Scientists think decreasing the T3 hormone slows down the aging process, because it helps to slow metabolism and tissue aging. The calorie restriction methods used in the study were nothing extreme, just simple acts like skipping out on dessert, cutting out sugary beverages, or making healthier choices such as a turkey sandwich instead of fried chicken and French fries. The doctor in charge of the study is not encouraging you to skip out on meals or starve yourself, but rather to eat a nutrient-rich diet. Long term studies are necessary to determine if a decrease in the T3 hormone from calorie restriction really affects the length of life in people.

Source

Another Reason to Eat Healthy: Live Longer

FitSugar — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 03:00:00 PDT

Healthy eating adds years to your life. Seriously.

I know when I repeat the call to eat a diet that is full of fruits and vegetables and low in fat and sugar sort of makes me sound like a broken record at this point. Yet some folks are still sticking to diets full of red and processed meat, French fries, refined grains and sweets (aka a typical "western diet"), so when more evidence comes out stressing the importance of eating healthy, I like to share it with you.

New research has found that a diet high in fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, fish and poultry protects women against death from heart disease and other causes by as much as 22 percent more than if those who primarily eat red meat, fried foods and refined grains. So give yourself a pat on the back if you're already eating healthy; if not then today is as good a day as any to start. After all, it could add years onto your life.

Source

Another Reason to Go Mediterranean

FitSugar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:00:00 PST

I am a big fan of the Mediterranean Diet. It is full of nuts, whole grains, and healthy fats - what's not to like? A new study provides yet another reason to go Mediterranean – it could help you live longer.

In a large five-year study conducted jointly by the National Institute of Health and AARP, both men and women who followed a Mediterranean-style diet were about 20 percent less likely to die during the study. In particular, deaths from cancer or cardiovascular disease were significantly lower in the Med style diet group as well.

Eating a diet rich in fish, nuts, fruits, and veggies and eating red meat and milk products in limited amounts seems to be the way to go. To read more on this style of eating, check out: What's the Deal With: The Mediterranean Diet.

Also look for the med mark stamp on food labels; they will appear on foods that are considered healthy Mediterranean Diet food, drinks, and products.

Hummus here I come!

9 Ways to Earn Extra Cash When Money Is Tight

Wise Bread — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:51:58 PDT

I'm sure everyone can do with a little more cash in their wallets. Here are some great suggestions by Wise Bread for you to make extra money.

Even though I'm self-employed full-time, I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to make more money.

Earlier this year, I wrote a Wise Bread post on websites that can help you earn extra cash. More recently, I came across a blog post on Zaarly titled, "10 Ways to Make Money Without a Job." After reviewing the latter post, I thought it was time to revisit the topic and let you in on a few more ways to get paid.

The ideas that Zaarly presents are perfect for the unemployed or those who just want to pad their pockets a little more. In addition, there are moonlighting jobs that I do that I thought you should know about. Thus, if you're without a steady paycheck or you just want to build up a rainy-day stash, here are some of your options.

1. Offer Experiences to Strangers

I recently learned about a new site called Vayable, which allows people with specialized knowledge and talents, local info, and time on their hands to create experiences that others can purchase. It's basically a touring and activity company without the company. Anyone can join the site and set up an experience. For instance, the Kan Brothers offer motorcycle tours of San Francisco - which include helmet rental, a drink at a local hot spot, and a city map - for two to four people at $75 per person. In New York City, Kim G. is offering a personalized painting lesson for groups of two to six for a flat rate of $300; the experience includes acrylic paints; canvas board and supplies; studio space; wine, cheese, and crackers; and Kim’s undivided attention. Consider this tip if you're interested in joining Vayable: Browse the site to see what other people in your area are offering. By creating a unique experience that no one else has established, you have a better chance of getting booked.

Read on for more.

One Woman's Quest for the Best: The Fastest, Farthest Female Inline Skate

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:23:05 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

Over the next few months, families will travel across the U.S. via plane, train or car during summer road trips. Kacie Fischer will be covering the same distance (nearly 4,000 miles, on her route), but on inline skates. . . and in just 74 days. If she reaches her goal, Fischer will also be breaking five Guinness World Records in the process.

We caught up with Fischer, a Promax DOer, after a long day of skating to get the backstory about her fit trip which has been two years in the making.

How did you get started with inline skating?

I started skating when I was 7, but didn’t start skating longer distances until I was cross training as a college runner. I found that I could travel a lot farther and see a lot more, plus it was a lot more exhilarating-try flying down a hill at 40+ miles per hour! Inline skating is like running on steroids.

More of Kacie's interview after the break.

Drinking Coffee, Decaf or Not, Has Health Benefits

Leta Shy — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:51:01 PDT

The benefits and risks of coffee are often debated, but a new study has found that coffee drinkers may be better off sticking to that cup of joe: in fact, having two cups of coffee a day may just help you live longer - even if it's decaf.

The latest coffee study followed 400,000 healthy older men and women and is the largest study to ever look at the benefits and risks of coffee. Of the study group, 42,000 did not drink any coffee, about 15,000 drank more than six cups a day, and the remaining study participants averaged two to three cups. After following the group for almost two decades, researchers found that those who drank coffee lived longer than those who didn't; men who drank two to three cups of coffee were 10 percent less likely to die at any age, and women who drank the same amount were 13 percent less likely to die at any age. The biggest risk reduction was seen in women who drank four to five cups a day.

The findings aren't a reason to force yourself to drink coffee; after all, the benefits are small, and too much caffeine can make you feel wired, anxious, or irritable, and may increase your risk of heart conditions. But the good news is that the study didn't find any differences between drinking decaf and regular coffee, so if you're a coffee fan but hate that wired feeling you get when you drink too much, have a cup of decaf in the afternoon - it just may help you live longer. (And if you don't like coffee, there's always green tea!)

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

The Downsides to Meeting Your Goal Weight

Shape — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:32:50 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

When I started losing weight, I often looked at women who were thinner than I was and thought, "Wow, her life must be so easy." I knew that once I got to my goal weight, I'd feel awesome, and healthy living would be just as easy for me as it was for all the "I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight" women around me.

11 Ways to Rev Up Your Metabolism

Now that I've lost 75 pounds, I can say that I do feel awesome . . . but I can't say that a healthy lifestyle comes easy. Weight maintenance isn't as simple as I expected. While being at my goal weight has its perks, I have to admit: I failed to appreciate some of the great benefits I enjoyed along the way. If I did it all over again, then here's what I'd do differently:

See how you can enjoy the weight-loss journey after the break!