Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
If it’s in the health news today, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I read the research, both old and new. With my email Health Memos, you’ll know more about making lifestyle choices that will help you get and keep good health. These free, concise updates on health are emailed to subscribers twice a week. Subscribe today and get a free MP3, in English or Spanish, of Dr. Chet’s Top Ten Tips—Small Changes for a Healthier Life.
The Command Center
We’re going to finish this month’s look at living life instead of just being alive by talking about brain health. The brain is the command center of the body, telling it what to do 24/7 without you having to think about it. Be honest: when was the last time you consciously told your heart to […]
Balancing Act
The final component of everything we’ve covered this month to date is balance, the integration of every physical component of health we’ve talked about: muscular strength, endurance, stamina, flexibility, bones, and joint health. If we work on every one of the prior physical components, it enhances our ability to stay upright until we choose not […]
What to Do About Aching Joints
When we stop to consider what prevents us from moving as much and as freely as we would like, the main culprit would probably be our joints: knees for most, with hips a close second. Shoulders are up there, along with our feet and hands. One of my problem areas is my thumbs in the […]
Maintaining Bone Health
In trying to live every day we’re alive, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the ability to move, but it’s not just about muscle. Those muscles connect to bones for the most part, and the bones must be healthy as well. One of the basic tenets of healthy bones is Wolfe’s law, which […]
Improve Your Posture
Today is the final post about the physical factors of living and not just being alive, and it’s about your posture, the way you carry yourself. Posture reflects the interplay of your skeletal, muscular, and nervous system: the way you stand, the way you move, and the way you sit. Those all rely on the […]
Core Flexibility and Lower Back Pain
On any given day, lower back pain afflicts 25% of the population; 80% of all adults will experience it as some point in their life, and it’s still a major cause of lost work days and workman compensation claims. Face it, as long as we walk upright, we’re going to have lower back pain of […]
How Flexible Are You?
Living every day you’re alive requires flexibility. Range of motion in your joints is important to your ability to move, but it can be difficult. As the years add up, touching your toes with your knees locked, whether sitting on the floor or standing, lifting your arms over your head, or even lifting your arms […]
Preventing Muscle Loss
This final installment on muscle focuses on keeping the muscle mass you’ve got. That’s one of the keys to living every day you’re alive: the ability to move at every age. There are three things that are important to hanging onto muscle. Use it or lose it. Actually, you’re going to lose it not matter […]
Skeletal Muscle: Strength
This week, we’re turning our attention to skeletal muscle. Skeletal muscle allows us to move and to lift ourselves and other objects. The two primary features are strength and stamina. Let’s begin with strength. A simple definition of strength is the most weight you could lift once. That could be as little as a couple […]
Exercise Your Heart, Part 2
Did you ever have to hurry to catch a connecting flight? Walk fast or maybe even jog? Were you able to do it? How about carrying a child who weighs 45 pounds for a quarter mile because she’s hurt her foot? Could you do it? That’s where your heart reserve comes in: facing challenges that […]
