The human body is an amazingly complex system of bones, joints, muscles, and nerves, designed to work together to accomplish one thing: motion. Remember that motion is life. Everything about the human body is designed with motion in mind: nerve fibers stimulate the muscles to contract, muscles contract to move the bones, bones move around joints, and the nerve system controls it all.
As a matter of fact, research has shown that motion is so critical to our body's health that a lack of motion has a detrimental affect on everything from digestion to our emotional state, immune function, our ability to concentrate, how well we sleep and even to how long we live. If your lifestyle does not include enough motion, your body cannot function efficiently. First, you will not be as physically healthy and will suffer from a wide variety of physical ailments, ranging from headaches to high blood pressure. Second, you will not be as productive in your life because of reduced energy levels and the lack of ability to mentally focus. Third, because you have less energy, your activity level will tend to drop off even further over time, creating a downward spiral of reduced energy and less activity until you get to a point where even the demands of a sedentary job leave you physically exhausted at the end of the day.
Read on to find out more how strength, posture, movement, and balance all play into living a life full of motion.
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Rice and Beans
Category:
Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Rice and beans is a well-liked combination of foods that is not only delicious, but also good for you. Other well-known examples of food combinations, such as corn and lima beans (succotash), tomatoes and avocados, and even orange juice and oatmeal, provide benefits beyond those gained by eating these
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Road Trip
Category:
Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
The days are long, the weather's warm, the sky is blue . . . it's summer and we're ready to enjoy the great American pastime - road trips! We want to get to wherever we're going safely - and healthily, too. A safe trip is ensured by following the rules of the road and practicing good driving habits.
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Saving the Planet
Category:
Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Did you ever think your health and well-being are important factors in the health and well-being of the planet? It's true. The choices each of us makes each and every day are important for our family's welfare as well as the welfare of our neighborhood, our community, our city, our country, and our global
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Surf City
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Summertime is fun time - swimming, surfing, beach volleyball, beach barbecues, and lots of sunshine! We want to be sure to enjoy ourselves all summer long and not be slowed down by the speed-bumps of sunburn, muscle aches and pains, and back strain. There's plenty we can do for prevention and to make
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The Goldilocks Way
Category:
Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Like Goldilocks, we want things to work out just right. When it comes to our health, though, things don't work out just right by themselves.Neglect causes many serious health problems. Abuse - in the form of unhealthy behaviors - causes many additional serious disorders.Every day on TV and radio news
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The Rising Costs of Health Care
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Health insurance costs are out of control. We're all painfully aware of this inflationary spiral. Monthly premiums are through the roof. Co-payments keep going up and up. Out-of-pocket expenses are so high we often wonder what we're saving by purchasing health insurance at all. Every family has been
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Time's Arrow
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
As we get older, most of us begin to experience the acceleration of the passage of time. The sensation of time passing gets faster and faster, until for many of us weeks begin to feel like days and months begin to feel like weeks. This is very disconcerting and we'd like to be able to slow things down.
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Tips for Good Hip Health
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Having a pair of healthy hips is a key to healthy aging. But healthy hips are not only important for people in their 60s, 70s, and beyond. Your hips are one of your most important structural components, regardless of how old you are. Whether you're 20, 30, or 40, your hip joints provide biomechanical
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Tips for Safe and Healthy Travel
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Here come the holidays - Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas, and New Year's. And the travel - Thanksgiving is one of the biggest travel days and the day before Christmas is just as busy. If you're flying, you know what to expect - long lines, delays, crowded flights. But knowing what's to come doesn't
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Your Body - An Owner's Manual
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Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Wouldn't it be great if your body came with an owner's manual? You'd probably begin reading it around the age of seven or eight, and right away you would be able to start taking better care of your precious body. You would learn how you can use your body efficiently and effectively. By learning how to
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Your Health Account
Category:
Newsletter Library, Healthy Tips
Everyone wants to grow their bank account. We know our financial health is usually estimated by the level of our resources. The more money in the bank, figuratively speaking, the more secure we feel. If our resources include stocks, bonds, and property, we are even more secure.
We can use such fiscal
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Drivers Education
Category:
Newsletter Library, Injury Rehab & Prevention
We all know someone who has suffered a serious driving-related injury that had nothing to do with being involved in a motor vehicle accident. For example, turning your head suddenly and swiftly for a last minute check of your "blind spot" before changing lanes on the interstate could result in a painful
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Heavy Lifting
Category:
Newsletter Library, Injury Rehab & Prevention
All of us who’ve experienced a back injury of one sort or another have been told at some point to “avoid heavy lifting.” That type of advice appears to be a no-brainer or at least redundant, as no one whose back is hurting is going to try to pick up an air conditioner or even a 100-foot reel of
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Pull Weeds, Not Your Back!
Category:
Newsletter Library, Injury Rehab & Prevention
As springtime approaches, weather warms up and leaves turn green, many people will spend more time outside planting bulbs, mowing the lawn and pulling weeds. Gardening can provide a great workout, but with all the bending, twisting, reaching and pulling, your body may not be ready for exercise of the
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Repairing an Injured Rotator Cuff
Category:
Newsletter Library, Injury Rehab & Prevention
As we get older, rotator cuff injuries become more common, a result of the natural aging process. A similar mechanism operates in the discs separating the vertebras in your lower back. These cartilaginous structures lose water over time, becoming less flexible and more brittle as the decades roll by.
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Shoulder Pain - Heart Attack or Rotator Cuff Injury?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Injury Rehab & Prevention
The great TV classic ER helps teach armchair physicians to become amateur diagnosticians. He's in shock! She's got kidney stones! Rule-out pheochromocytoma! But sometimes a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. You've learned somewhere - on the network news, in the Science section of The New
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