Get Healthy

For the past two Halloweens, Julie Bonn Heath has gotten into a few battles with her son. It wasn’t that he was eating too much candy—he was just eating the wrong kind.

Her son, Nick, now 14, wore braces for two years, which meant his favorite treats like sticky, gummy candy and candied apples were off limits.

“We would catch him chewing gum,” said Heath, 39, of Seaside, Ore. Her son got his braces off four months ago, but even with retainers, he has to be careful. “All I could say was, ‘Stop.’ That seemed to work for the most part.”
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Smoke has a tendency to linger long after its welcome, if it was even welcome in the first place. Whether you’ve got lingering smoke from a campfire, fireplace or tobacco, you can nix the odor from your home, hair, clothes or car with GoneSmoke. Available in a variety of sizes—including two separate travel sizes—it’s a nearly dry aerosol that’s safe to use on most fabrics, including silk. Find it at gonesmoke.com.

Go less, have shorten treatments to hold on to the spa visits

In this economy, we could probably all use a little pampering: a massage, a facial, a pedicure. Perhaps a nice soak in a hot whirlpool.

The spa, new figures show, is one thing we’re not giving up, even if it means opting for a cheaper experience and fewer treatments.

In June, 46 percent of the 3,200 members of the International SPA Association reported an increase in the number of shorter treatments of 30 minutes or less, and close to half reported a decrease in the amount spent per visit compared with the same time last year.
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Flimsy gardening gloves make it nearly impossible to have a well-kept yard and well-manicured nails. If you’re tired of your hands looking like you’ve been digging around in the dirt, slip on a chic pair of Ethel gardening gloves. With stretchy printed Spandex on top, breathable synthetic leather protection for your fingers and palms, a rubberized grip and reinforced fingertips, you’ll never have to worry about mussing your pretty hands while planting or pruning. Ethel gloves are available in three adult sizes and a child’s size in a variety of patterns and colors for about $20 at Lowes or online at ethelgloves.com.

From the Get Healthy Inbox—We’re committed to keeping you informed on health care news and ideas throughout the region and nation. Here’s today’s recommendation, submitted by Nova Medical:

With the start of the school season comes the battle against germs. But if you thought you could stop worrying this summer, think again.

According to Dr. Grace Keenan, Founder and Medical Director of Nova Medical, one of the most renowned four-site integrative health facilities in the country, “There are breeding spots in our home and daily life that actually contain more germs than in a school class room.” Below are some of the most common “hot spots” that you might have not identified as infected places.
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By Wendy Donahue, Chicago Tribune

If whitening your teeth seems like a hassle now, consider the perils of doing so in Jackie Kennedy’s era.

Dr. Jeff Golub-Evans, a cosmetic dentist on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, says an elderly patient of his who worked on the design of the Kennedy White House told him that he once stumbled on a prominent member of the household coming out of the bathroom holding a bottle of Clorox. “He said to her, ‘There are people who can clean that for you.’”

She wasn’t scrubbing the basin, she explained. Rather, she said, she drank so much coffee and red wine that, once a week or so, she poured a capful of Clorox in a glass of water, dabbed a cotton swab in it and rubbed it over her front teeth.

Mercifully, less toxic methods abound now. But the range of options can make the mind grow foggy.

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From the Get Healthy Inbox—We’re committed to keeping you informed on health care news and ideas throughout the region and nation. Here’s today’s recommendation, submitted by Kent Aftergut, M.D.:

Bikinis, shorts and sandals are essential for those looking to showcase their style and flare during the hot summer months. Perfectly groomed nails also top the list of “dos” for the summer, but nail fungus and infection is a definite “don’t!” To educate people on how to avoid a nail infection, Kent Aftergut, M.D., member of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS), has developed a few important dos and don’ts for consumers desiring perfectly manicured nails and healthy hands and feet:

DOS

• DO purchase your own tools for use in nail salon procedures. Many times infectious particles can travel on tools such as emery boards, which cannot be sterilized.

• DO inquire about the sanitation standards of the salon. Before undergoing a nail salon treatment ask several questions such as: How do they clean the equipment and how often? If you get pedicures, how often do they change the filters in the foot massages?
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By Jodi Mailander Farrell, McClatchy Newspapers

There are so many things to worry about these days. Wouldn’t it be nice to cross something off the list? Turns out you can. Researchers have been busy debunking some common medical myths that have been repeated so many times, people assume them to be true. Here are five misconceptions you can stop biting your nails over now:

1. Myth: Stretching before exercise prevents injury.
Fact: There’s no evidence to support the old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds primes muscles for a workout. On the contrary, we now know it actually weakens them, thanks to a recent University of Nevada report, among other studies. A light, five- to 10-minute jog five minutes before exercise is now recommended.

2. Myth: Eggs raise your cholesterol.
Fact: In the 1960s and ’70s, scientists linked blood cholesterol with heart disease and gave eggs a bad rap. More recent studies have found that saturated and trans fats in a diet are more likely to raise heart disease risk, according to the American Heart Association. An egg has only 1.6 grams of saturated fat, compared with about 3 grams in a cup of 2 percent milk. At 213 milligrams of cholesterol, one egg slips under the AHA’s recommendation of no more than 300 milligrams a day. Just watch the cholesterol levels in the other food you eat that day.
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For some reason, men typically don’t pay much attention to their health. Most men prefer reluctance to proactivity, denial to reactivity. After all, they have too many other things to think about. Like work. And the family. And chicken wings.

But there are some health basics that even the most negligent man should be aware of, and those basics are outlined here. So read, react and please, brush your teeth.

Check out all of the articles here: Men’s Health by Age, Dirty Boys, Breaking the ED Stigma, and Hair No More.

During college I worked in the paint section of a department store where the full-time, longtime expert was a gruff but knowledgeable woman who used a unique illustration when explaining to customers the benefits of using a primer before applying paint to a wall.

“Would you put clean clothes on a dirty body?” she’d ask them.

She may have sold a lot of primer, but some men DO put clean (and not so clean) clothes over a dirty body. And a smelly body. And a hairy body—which brings us to our first tip regarding men’s hygiene.

Manscaping. It’s all about trimming the body hair, says Chicago actor Raymond Cleveland. “It’s better to go somewhere first and have them teach you how to do it properly,” he says. “That way you don’t hurt yourself or scar one’s self. I would suggest getting it done once a month and get a professional shave as well.”
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