A Firm Resolve

New Years Eve: Hangover prevention and treatment tips

Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com, here are some hangover prevention and treatment tips:

Before Drinking

• Eat a full meal (especially something fatty)
• Drink a glass of water
• Talk multivitamins (my note: consider additional Vitamin C, B-Complex and Potassium supplements)
• Avoid caffeine

While Drinking

• Drink in moderation
• Drink a glass of water after every alcholic beverage
• Watch your drink choice (don't mix types of alcohol)
• My add (if you have it):  Take some L-Glutamine so that the your body doesn't need to catch up during sleep -- which will improve the quality of your sleep
• Avoid caffeine

After Drinking

• Take two aspirin (without caffeine) and a full glass of water before bed
• Take another multivitamin (plus C, B and potassium)
• Eat breakfast including eggs, a banana, and fruit juice
• Avoid caffeine

By the way, here's a great link if you are interested in hangover prevention and treatment myths.

Texas and Oklahoma wildfires started by a smoker?

Authorities believe the Texas and Oklahoma wildfires may have been started by a careless smoker, yet another reason why smoking is a bad idea.

Some cold myths and inaccuracies

In "Fight a cold with Grandma's home remedies", author Joan Morris covers "10 of Grandma's best home remedies to help you get through the worst of it."  I'll point of what is myth, what is inaccurate and what is real.

1. Call in sick  {Yep, stay home and rest}
2. Add garlic to your diet {Never heard of this one}
3. Eat chicken noodle soup {Won't cure the cold but the heat can temporarily alleviate congestion, plus it makes you feel good}
4. Use zinc lozenges {Taking zinc lozenges at onset of the first cold symptom is clinically proven to reduce the length of the common cold by 42%, but the author inaccurately says that keeping the throat moist is how the zinc works - wrong!}
5. Keep warm {May help a minuscule bit by encouraging blood flow}
6. Keep a positive attitude {Can't argue with this one, but don't forget to be human and rest up}
7. Soak in a steamy bath {May help temporarily alleviate congestion or may temporarily release pain-fighting endorphins -- but showers can work just as well if not better since more steam enters the air -- also helps to promote "productive coughs"}
8. Pamper your nose with tissues with lanolin {Blowing the nose frequently helps prevent drippage into the lungs, but the product on the lotioned tissues is mostly mineral oil, not lanolin -- and tissues with Vitamin E only have a trivial amount of Vitamin E}
9. Rub menthol on your chest or use breathe-easy strips {Again, may help with congestion, but doesn't fight the bacterial cold itself}
10. Have a shot of honey and whiskey {May help if it puts you to sleep as long as you drink 8 ounces of water to counteract the dehydrating impact of the alcohol, but otherwise might only temporarily help to alleviate congestion}

So that's it.  In general, don't forget that colds are bacterial in nature.  The best defense is protection -- and that means washing hands frequently and not sharing drinking items or food with others.  Most of the tips above help treat the symptoms, which is okay since the symptoms are annoying.  And treating some symptoms via antihistamines can help prevent drippage into the lungs that can cause more serious infections.  If you are unlucky and come down with a cold, get plenty of rest and drink lots of water.

Lack of sunshine causes Seasonal Affective Disorder for many

In a Weather.com poll, 69% of people said they are in a better mood when the sun is shining, compared to 24% who said the sun doesn't affect their mood and 7% were unsure.  Of course, these results are not scientific and those drawn toward Weather.com are not necessarily a typical audience.  In any case, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is real and is also known as the "winter blues".  It's when people experience depressive symptoms due to lack of sunshine.  SAD is almost nonexistent in the tropics.

Google's doctor offers advice on controlling holiday stress

Here's a health tip for the holidays from Google's resident physician Dr. Taraneh Razavi called "Stress: The Holiday Grinch".  Dr. Razavi suggests the following for controlling stress during the holidays:

• Make a list and priotitize. It's OK if the holiday cards don't go out until 1/2...07.
• Exercise. No, it's not the answer to everything, but it has been shown to decrease the stress hormones.
• Take a vacation (break with tradition! A year-end getaway might help limit stress). If not a vacation, at least take a stroll, or take deep breaths while counting to 10.
• Hugging for 20 seconds has been shown to reduce blood pressure.

Stay-at-home Moms worth $131,477 per year

Salary.com just released a report saying the typical stay-at-home mom works 100 hours per week and values the total effort at exactly $131,471 annually.  Too bad the government doesn't allow a more aggressive tax writeoff.  Three cheers for stay-at-home moms!

"Intuitive Eating" is really just "Will Power"

A professor at Brigham Young is pushing a diet called the "Intuitive Eating" diet.  In this diet, people are encouraged to follow their urges but only eat as much as you need to.  That is, don't gorge.  I think this is somewhat novel, but it misses the point that people's urges can be out of control.  In fact, urges are so hard to control and change that I recommend a "Baby Steps" approach where very small but successive changes are made over a period of time.

10 Ways to Live Longer

Forbes magazine presents the following 10 tips to living longer:

1.	Don't oversleep
2.	Be optimistic
3.	Have more sex
4.	Get a pet
5.	Get a VAP
6.	Be rich
7.	Stop smoking
8.	Chill out
9.	Eat your antioxidants
10.	Marry well

Here's the full article.

Female athletes mistakenly believe "thin" means better performance

Some female athletes believe being extra thin helps in improving athletic performance (see "Female athletes trade thin for results - more discovering that thinner doesn't mean stronger").  It turns out that some girls go on sub-1000 calorie per day diets to try to lose weight.  Since this starves the girls from adequate energy and nutrition, performance will suffer.  From the article:

About a year ago, Pudwill and several sports medicine doctors and therapists at the University of Colorado opened the Active Women's Health program after realizing many female athletes didn't understand how to meet their body's nutritional needs. Adding to the challenge is society's pressure to lose weight.

"What happens with females is they don't realize how much it takes to fuel their body to do the kind of activity they're doing," she said. "Sometimes, typical of females, they're not eating enough."

Bicycling as Transportation

In "Is it possible to live in America without a car?", author Bill Gifford tells an inspiring story of his efforts to give up using his car in favor of bicycling everywhere.

I've tried bicycling as a means of transportation just for fun on occasions.  It's tremendous exercise and does save money.  However, in the larger metro areas of the US, bicycling can be dangerous due to uncivilized, pickup-driving meanies who get offended when a fitness-conscious person wants to share the road with them.  That's why I contribute to a program called "Share the Road".

I hope the situation is better outside of the US.