What woman can’t rattle off a list of to-do items for healthy living? Exercise for a healthy heart; train with weights to build muscle and bone; drink one glass of red wine daily to avoid heart disease; to avoid breast cancer resist the temptation to drink two glasses of wine; expose the skin to sunlight for ten minutes to avoid colon cancer; then immediately apply sunscreen to avoid skin cancer; and of course, maintain a body-mass index that falls exactly within the “healthy” range listed in every women’s magazine.
Are you serious?!
Current health guidelines are impossible to keep track of and end up leaving most of us either consumed with panic or doubled over with laughter. Live a Little: Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health, a new book from BeWell experts Susan M. Love, M.D. and Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., brings a long-overdue dose of realism to the way women view their health habits. They take on the health police—the folks who make us feel terrible every time we eat a gram of saturated fat—and remind us of a forgotten truth: perfect health is a myth.
In Live a Little!, Susan and Ali examine the evidence for the health “rules” that exist in each of six areas—exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, personal relationships, and preventive care. Some of the prevailing wisdom is right…and much of it is wrong. Though these “rules” are promoted as hard facts, Susan and Ali reveal that inconclusive findings or very small studies often have formed the basis for globally prescribed health guidelines. Women will be thrilled to discover they don’t have to achieve maximum vegetable consumption or get eight straight hours of sleep to feel good, increase their energy, and improve their odds against disease.
Here’s some good news:
You’re fitter than you think. If you can walk a mile in under 20 minutes, congratulations: You’ve pulled yourself out of the category of greatest risk for disease.
You can stop performing breast self-exams. The U.S. guidelines just reversed their recommendations, saying that women should start regular breast cancer screenings at 50, not 40.
Just a little exercise goes a long way. Several promising studies indicate that you can improve your fitness by exercising at a high intensity for about eight minutes a week.
Toss away your hand weights. If you easily lift grocery bags, children, or suitcases during the course of your average week, you’re strong enough. You don’t need a special weight-lifting program at this point in your life.
Don’t panic if you can’t get eight hours of sleep. It’s a myth that everyone needs eight straight, or even eight at all.
Stop worrying about your stress level! Our bodies are designed to handle a certain amount of psychological strain. In fact, we perform better under moderate amounts of stress for short periods of time.
Do you really need that cholesterol test? Despite what you’ve heard, most people without risk factors for heart disease should get their cholesterol tested only once every five years.
Screening isn’t always the solution. Some health screenings are great at heading off problems at the pass, but others more likely lead to unnecessary procedures and panic.
The goal is not to live forever. Because nobody really wants to be 684 years old. Instead, focus on having a fabulous life for as long as you can. So…sit back, enjoy some good food and good conversation, and Live a Little!
So look for Live a Little at your local bookstore on December 29, 2009, or pre-order your copy today from one of the following retailers: Amazon, BN.com, Borders, or Indiebound.