Personal Fitness Coach

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Antioxidants

Instead of thinking about things you should not eat, consider foods you can add to your eating plan to help fight disease. One disease or condition that is common to all animals and people is called oxidation.

Like rust on a car, oxidation can cause damage to cells and may contribute to aging. Oxidation causes the formation of substances called free radicals, which is the primary cause of age related skin wrinkles and pigment discoloration. This is why we combat oxidation with antioxidants, which help keep wrinkles and pigmentation at bay.

During exercise, oxygen consumption is increased by 10 times or more, which leads to a significant increase in the production of oxidants.

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Exercise Motivation: How to Get It, How to Keep It

Debbe Geiger admits it: Her motivation to exercise was zero and had been for years. She could summarize her feelings about exercise in two words. “It stinks,” says Geiger, of Cary, N.C.

Her thinking changed when she finally found her exercise motivation: commitment to a team.

Geiger joined a volleyball team — after much urging from friends who wanted her to play with them — and now she doesn’t want to let her teammates down. She’s at the gym with a convert’s fervor on game nights.

“There have been lots of reasons I could have missed, and I haven’t,” Geiger says proudly.

Geiger’s experience illustrates what exercise experts have learned through research and practice over the years: To succeed in sticking to an exercise routine, people need a reason to carry on when that little voice inside says, “Sit on the couch. Have a doughnut.”

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Tags: Motivation, Motivation Get

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Information sessions address Medicare changes

Are you confused or frightened by the talk of changes in the Medicare system, high-er premiums, or the impact of health care reform on seniors?

Counselors from SHINE, a health insurance counseling program sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Elder Affairs, are presenting free talks on these topics just in time for Medicare’s 2011 open enrollment period.

To find out the location, date and time of the nearest SHINE meeting, read tomorrow’s Senior Notes column in the Times.

MARYJO WHEATLEY

Tags: Changes, Medicare Changes

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Military progresses in identifying, treating brain, mental injuries

Dr. David Williamson, medical director for the Inpatient Psychological Heath and Traumatic Brain Injury program at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and his staff are breaking new ground in identifying and treating traumatic brain injuries and mental-health issues. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Alexandra Snow WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2010 – Nine years of conflict has revolutionized the way the military treats its combat wounded, Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson Jr., the Navy surgeon general, told American Forces Press Service.

The past years of conflict have witnessed improved battlefield care and well-oiled medical evacuation and trauma-care networks that are saving lives that in past wars would have been lost. Continue reading…

Tags: Brain, Treating Brain

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