This blog is no longer being updated, but please feel free to browse through previous posts using the links at the right. We think you’ll find some useful information there.
Please also visit the UUA Health Plan web site.
Elizabeth Prager
I don’t know about for you, but spring fever can bring along with it some major headaches. Pollen in the air leads to stuffy noses and sinus pressure.
What else can cause headaches? And, what can you do to combat them?
1. Your Weight. The risk of headaches can increase with the size of your waist. Getting below a BMI of 30 can decrease your risk of headache by 35%.
2. Your Personality. Being an anxious and inflexible person can lead you to have a greater number of headaches. Try yoga or meditation to boost your mood.
3. Your Weekend. Sleeping in and lounging about sounds like fun on days Monday through Friday, but it can mean a heck of a headache come Saturday and Sunday. Try to stick to your regular bed routine and try to get outside the house on weekends.
4. Your Fluid Intake. Dehydration can lead to really, really bad headaches. Make sure to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as these are the foods that have the highest water content. You don’t need to drown in glass after glass of H20 — just choose to eat the right foods.
5. Your Sleep. Sleeping an average of six hours a night can lead to more headaches than sleeping an average of 8 hours a night. Catch your Zzzz’s!
6. Your Food Intake. Skipping meals can make you irritable and headache prone. Best foods to prevent headaches: Spinach, tofu, oat bran, barley, fish oil, olive oil, white beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
7. Your Position Relative to Sea Level. High altitudes and flying can lead to headaches due to pressure changes. A recent study shows that taking 600mg of Ibuprofen prior to the altitude change can help! (On an aside, whenever I fly, I take 4 to 8 Ibuprofen prior to boarding the plane. I used to get killer migraines when flying and haven’t *knock on wood* since I started this routine!)
Any of you out there get frequent headaches? What have you found works?
Elizabeth Prager
Choose Health, Diet, Exercise, Meditation, Nurtirion, Waist Circumference
Just kidding 🙂
I grew up on white bread, as did many of us. I went on my first diet in fourth grade at the urging of my pediatrician. I immediately started to get familiar with calorie counts and total fat — though I ignored most of the other facts in the nutrition facts and didn’t go any deeper. Based on the nutrition labels below, which bread would I have chosen?
White Bread Nutrition: Whole-Wheat (WW) Bread Nutrition:
For someone who didn’t want to waste precious calories on bread, 60 versus 70 would have been plenty to convince me of the wonderfulness of white bread!
When I was younger, I put an even bigger emphasis on fat than I did calories – trying always to stick to my limit of 60 grams/day. This extra .45g would have also convinced me that the white bread was the obviously healthy choice. The amount of calcium and iron in the WW option would have felt negligible.
But, is white bread wonderful for my body? Is it wonderful for yours? (more…)
Elizabeth Prager
A ch1 (Choose Health 1 — get it, like vh1 …) correspondent sat down this week with the extraordinary popular Thera-Band. Thera-Band is a leader in its field of “progressive exercise”. Let’s hear what happened at the interview!
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today, Thera-Band. I know you are constantly performing all over the country. What is your performance schedule like anyway?
I am thrilled to be here, too, though I am very busy this time of year. Just this morning I was performing at a rehabilitation hospital in Boston, MA. I’ve been working with a patient who had knee surgery roughly a month ago. This afternoon I have a performance scheduled in Las Vegas, NV. A woman, who works as an office assistant at a nearby casino, and I are going to get her back muscles PUMPED UP! (more…)
Elizabeth Prager
Do you know what hurts sometimes?
Sitting. Yep. Sitting.
Our bodies were not created to sit for 8 hours a day, especially not 8 consecutive hours. Our postural muscles are designed to hold us up during movement and they really don’t like having to be constantly flexed or extended. This is why we hunch over while typing and we often laze in our chairs.
Our back and neck muscles are overstretched. So what? The muscles that work opposite our back and neck muscles have become too tight. Our pectorals are super tight and they bring our shoulders forward, which further complicates the issue and makes desk related pain more painful.
The solution: (more…)
Elizabeth Prager
This video series is all in black and white — they mean business. I was looking around online this morning, finding blog fodder, and came across an article about this campaign to target Georgia’s childhood obesity issues. The ad states that 75% of parents whose children are obese in Georgia do not know it. Jaw dropping. This commercial about Tamika really shows how it makes a lot of sense that parents might not realize their children are in trouble: (more…)
Elizabeth Prager
The old psychological dilemma has been put to the test again: if you were driving the train, would you switch tracks to kills only one person or would you say on the same track and kill five people? The question was whether the participant would switch tracks to actively kill one person or let nature take it’s course and kill the five men on the track. Prior to this experiment, the test wasn’t visual, so participants never had to see the men they chose (or didn’t choose) to kill.
The results: 90% chose to kill the 1 over the five.
The interesting part of the study? (more…)
Elizabeth Prager
CNN reported on a Temple University study, which tested weight loss and the benefits of using of social networking to receive feedback and track progress. Check out the minute-long video to learn more!
Elizabeth Prager
The importance of Long-Term Disability (LTD) Insurance
Even if your employment contract states that you will have LTD coverage, it is still necessary to complete enrollment forms. Muffins may be delicious, but if you become disabled while employed, muffins won’t help you be as secure as knowing you will be able to receive disability income. Please check out our LTD eligibility page to see if you’re eligible for coverage!
Elizabeth Prager
Two summers ago, I discovered (by going to the podiatrist) I had been walking on a broken foot for a few years. I had a broken sesamoid, which helps your big toe move like a big toe should when pushing off of the ground during walking, running or jumping. During the years I wasn’t aware my bone was broken, my big toe would feel like it was falling off for a few days at a time and then it would recover. I was forced to go to the podiatrist, though, when the pain lasted for months and my knee and hip started to hurt. Curse the interconnected web of our bodies!
My treatment plan went from least to most life-altering and I was able to avoid surgery in the end:
(more…)
Elizabeth Prager
Choose Health