Jul 7th, 2025 - By STEPHEN WADE, Associated Press When it comes to weight-resistance exercise, you can choose free weights such as dumbbells or barbells. Or weight machines, which are often driven by cables or levers. You can use resistance bands or tubes to build strength. Or try pushups and pullups — old standbys that create muscle overload by using your own body weight. These four basic options for strength training present fitness possibilities for young or old or beginners. And they offer flexibility for use in the gym, your home or in a hotel room during travel. You'll probably wind up using a ... [Read More]

Jul 7th, 2025 - When it comes to bread, supermarkets have a dizzying array of choice. Yet the bread we eat can have a surprising impact on our health. Like many of us, I started making sourdough during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. My colleagues at the BBC published a step-by-step guide , and I – alongside thousands of others – gave it a go. I must confess I didn't start completely from scratch as a friend gifted me some of her starter – the live mixture of wild yeast and bacteria which help bread to rise. After many failed attempts it became not only edible, but delicious. I don't have a ... [Read More]

Jul 4th, 2025 - Denise Austin, 68, Demonstrates 'Total Body Burn' Workout to Feel Stronger "You don't need a gym…just a little motivation." By Denise Austin just shared a full-body workout video on Instagram. The 68-year-old demonstrated "three powerhouse moves" to target the legs, arms, and abs. These moves can be done anywhere, with or without weights. If you're wondering how to get toned arms and a strong core like Denise Austin , the fitness expert has you covered. Austin recently demonstrated a full-body toning workout on her Instagram to help her fans stay fit and feel "energized." Summer ... [Read More]

Jul 4th, 2025 - Beans, beans, the magical fruit. The more you eat, the more you … can cut down on dangerous, chronic low-grade inflammation. They gave roughly two dozen people with prediabetes a three-month supply of canned beans. The directions were simple: incorporate one cup of black beans into your diet, every single day for 12 weeks. (In a control group, participants ate white rice instead). In this small study, eating black beans had a big impact on people's levels of a protein called interleukin-6 (IL-6) which is a key marker of inflammation. During the course of the study, black bean eaters ... [Read More]

Jul 4th, 2025 - Your blood sugar acts as your body's main source of energy. But having high blood sugar levels doesn't mean you're going to feel supercharged to tackle your to-do list. Quite the opposite, in fact.  High blood sugar  can contribute to headaches and make you feel tired, weak, and even nauseous. Over time, it can lead to prediabetes and/or diabetes. Eating a healthy diet and exercising can keep blood sugar in check, and monitoring your beverage intake can make a difference too. While there is no magic drink that will lower your blood sugar, certain ones can help stabilize blood sugar ... [Read More]

Jul 3rd, 2025 - By Leslie Baumann, M.D. Despite all the sunshine we get here in Miami, a surprising 40% of people living in South Florida are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D is important for supporting bone health, immune function, mood regulation and the body's ability to absorb calcium. The tricky thing about vitamin D, however, is that there are not many foods that contain this vitamin. Although your skin can produce vitamin D from sunlight, too much sun exposure increases your risk of skin cancer. So I don't recommend getting more sun to correct low vitamin D levels. Here's what you can do to support ... [Read More]

Jul 3rd, 2025 - Many people still believe that building muscle means living at the gym and constantly training. Fresh evidence shows that it's not quite that time-consuming. The evidence comes from an eight‑week trial led by exercise scientist Brad Schoenfeld of Lehman College , whose team asked healthy lifters to finish one demanding set of nine classic moves twice a week. Muscle training minutes A muscle grows when stress outweighs its usual workload, a chain that starts with mechanical tension and metabolic stress, then ends with more contractile proteins. Short sessions that reach high effort ... [Read More]

Jul 3rd, 2025 - Need clarity on where omega-3s fit into your whole-food, plant-based diet? We dug into the research and spoke with James Loomis, M.D., FACLM, medical director of Barnard Medical Center, to get the lowdown on where to find them and how to make sure you're getting enough. (Spoiler alert: You don't have to eat fish to reap the benefits of these healthy polyunsaturated fats!) What Are Omega-3s? Omega-3s are essential fatty acids, meaning our bodies need them but can't make them on their own, so we must get them through our diet. They come in three main forms: alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), ... [Read More]