Article

In early winter, whether we're celebrating Hanukkah or Christmas, both or nothing at all, families and friends gather to share food and drink and give thanks for a year successfully completed. We send up a rousing holiday cheer and share delicious holiday cheer in celebration of our accomplishments and

In this 200th anniversary year of the birth of Henry David Thoreau, each of us can increase our health and well-being by applying his guidance to our regular exercise activities. Thoreau, one of the United States' greatest writers, naturalists, and philosophers, not only walked the length and breadth

The recent school year has long been over, but the echoes of learning, striving, and achieving persist. We may, if we choose, apply these remembrances of ourselves when we were in school to the circumstances of our health and well-being. We all want good health for ourselves and the members of our families,

Everyone knows the old adage that declares "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This time-honored wisdom certainly makes sense. We wouldn't wait until we were riding on the wheel rim before we repaired a leaking automobile tire. We wouldn't wait until there were obvious signs of termite damage to our home before calling in the pest control experts. But, in contrast, many of us fail to implement the same kinds of straightforward preventive measures to help ensure appropriate levels of physical fitness and ongoing good health.

Recent discussions in the scientific literature are focusing on monitoring and possibly improving cardiovascular health in children. There's been a lot of conversation and a lot of controversy. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association1 argued that universal screening of children

Long ago and far away, a fourth-grade teacher told a student to "stand up straight - you look like a pretzel". The unthinking adult only offered criticism. The child was left to try to unkink himself in the ways that probably caused more structural damage. Most of us think good posture involves thrusting

We all know people who get up with the first rays of the sun. Some people wake up even earlier, bouncing out of bed before there is even a glimmer of Homer's famous "rosy- fingered dawn" in the eastern sky. In contrast, for many people leaving the confines of their comfortable bed is a daily exercise

Some people do all the right things and still develop serious health problems. Others flaunt their bad habits and are able to live long lives, dying peacefully in their sleep at the age of 95. For example, high blood pressure (hypertension, HTN) is a common chronic disease in the United States. With