Archive for 2010
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
About 70 million Americans experience sleep problems ranging from chronic sleep disorders to sporadic sleep troubles. Studies show that just one night of insufficient sleep can affect memory, productivity, and even the ability to carry on a regular conversation. In my work as a writer, researcher, and humanitarian, with several radio interviews a week, I can’t afford to not be at my mental peak, and chances are you can’t either. Long-term sleep deprivation can have serious effects such as higher risk for high blood pressure, depression, heart attack, decreased immunity, obesity, and diabetes. As you can see, getting enough sleep should be as much a part of your health regimen as eating well and exercising. Fortunately, by making a few adjustments to your diet, you can improve the quality of your sleep.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Health, Motherhood, Natural Alternatives, natural remedies, quality of life, sleep, tina turbin, Tina Turbin researcher, Women's Health
Posted in Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Goals, Health, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Motherhood, Natural Alternatives, Parents, Women's Health, Women's Issues | 22 Comments »
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
How much sleep you get can make or break your day and also your health. Read on for some tips for how to get a better sleep by some simple changes to your diet.
Eating more plant carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains, can have a significant impact on your slumber. These foods help to produce a gradual, steady rise of blood insulin, helping the entrance into the brain of the amino acid tryptophan, a neurotransmitter that helps induce sleepiness and improve mood. (This explains why a glass of warm milk before bed can help to improve sleep, as it provides a dose of tryptophan while also inducing a release of insulin.)
It’s important to eliminate the foods and drinks that can disturb sleep. Caffeine—found in soda, coffee, some teas, and chocolate—will interfere with sleep if you ingest it within four hours of bedtime—sometimes even within six hours. Alcohol can cause drowsiness, but metabolizing the sugar can disrupt slumber and also cause body temperature to rise too much. Sugary foods eaten right before bed can also raise body temperature and leave you restless during the night.
Diet can also indirectly affect your sleep. If you’re overweight, you’re more likely to experience sleep apnea and its symptoms of heavy snoring and interrupted breathing. Eating a lot of simple carbohydrates (sugary treats) and refined starches (white flour and white rice), which cause blood sugar to spike and fall, may cause an imbalance in the hormones that regulate metabolism, disrupting the body’s natural rhythms and thus disrupting sleep.
It may not require a total makeover of your diet to reap the benefits of good sleep, but even some minor adjustments with these tips in mind can be helpful. The changes you make will not only improve your sleep but your overall health. There’s nothing to lose in making these changes—except your sleep troubles!
Tina Turbin
Tags: Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, diet, Exercise, Health, helpful tips, nutrition, sleep, tina turbin, Women's Health
Posted in Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Exercise, Health, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Motherhood, Natural Alternatives, Women's Health, Women's Issues | 21 Comments »
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
One of the challenges you’ll face in “life after mom-hood” is with your partner. Divorce among couples with “empty nests” is extremely common. Believe it or not, raising your children has been part of the stable foundation of your relationship, something you two shared in common as a goal. Just as you yourself will need new goals, so will you and your spouse. You two should decide on something to create together, a vision as ambitious as starting the business you always dreamed of or as ordinary as Friday Night Date Night.
Life after mom-hood is something you’ve been looking forward to for some time now, after all. You deserve to make it as rewarding as it was raising your children!
Tina Turbin
Tags: Aging, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, life after mom-hood, marriage, moms, Motherhood, quality of life, Relationships, retirement, tina turbin
Posted in Advice, Author, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Family, High Quality of Life, Motherhood, Relationships, Women's Issues | 26 Comments »
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
In studying women’s health issues and meeting women in my work, it’s clear that loneliness is not only not fun, but it’s actually unhealthy. Researchers have recently asked if people who are alone are at greater risk of dying, and studies are showing that they are—if they feel lonely.
Recent studies are confirming the negative health indicators associated with loneliness. One study found that drug use among young people was higher among those who said they were lonely. Older lonely people tended to have higher blood pressure and poorer sleep quality and were found to be more tense and anxious. Another study found that college freshmen with small social networks and who claimed to be lonely had weaker immune responses to flu vaccinations and higher levels of stress hormones in their blood.
“People with social support have fewer cardiovascular problems and immune problems, and lower levels of cortisol—a stress hormone,” says Tasha R. Howe, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Humboldt State University. Why is this? “We have always needed others for our survival. It’s in our genes. Therefore, people with social connections feel more relaxed and at peace, which is related to better health.”
Loneliness can be painful, but you can take steps to begin to widen your social horizons and feel connected to others in no time. Not only will you feel better emotionally, but you’ll be able to enjoy the positive health advantages that good friendship brings.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Friendship, girlfriends, helath, tina turbin, Women's Health, women's issues
Posted in Advice, Author, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Children, Friendship, Health, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Motherhood, Natural Alternatives, Women's Health, Women's Issues | 21 Comments »
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
Shopping online can be quite a time-saver. You don’t have to get the kids or yourself ready—just plop in front of your computer in your pajamas with a cup of coffee and this season’s shopping list.
Online shopping will also help you save on money. You can often find great deals, like-new or new items for nearly fifty-percent off at stores like amazon.com and auction sites such as ebay.com. If you don’t like the price at one site, check out another. Sometimes you can even e-mail individual vendors and let them know you saw an item cheaper somewhere else and do some haggling to cut down on the price tag. You’ll also benefit from the fact that, unlike shopping around at the mall or a real-life store, you won’t find yourself tempted to buy other items not on your list just because they’re on sale or because they caught your eye as you were walking by.
Another benefit of shopping online is that you’ll be able to find items which are not sold at your favorite retailers or which are sold at extraordinarily high prices due to the fact that they’re special-ordered. That’s why I shop online for special gluten-free foods. Similarly, you’ll be able to find special items or things that are sold out at your local retailer. Can’t find that rug in blue anymore? Order it online.
Of course, there’s nothing like a fun trip to the mall or your favorite retailers, especially around the holidays. However, like more and more baby boomers are doing these days, check out online shopping before hitting the malls the next time you go shopping!
Tina Turbin
Tags: Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Children, helpful tips, internet, moms, online shopping, shopping, tina turbin
Posted in Advice, Author, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Children, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Organize, Uncategorized, Women's Issues | 24 Comments »
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
Other research suggests the health benefits of social support. One study, published in the journal Cancer, followed 61 women with advanced ovarian cancer. The women with lots of social support had much lower levels of a protein linked to more aggressive types of cancer, and higher levels of a protein that boosted the effectiveness of chemotherapy.
In 1989, David Spiegel, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, published an influential paper in Lancet, showing that women with breast cancer who participated in a support group lived twice as long as those who didn’t and reported much less pain. Sheldon Cohen, PhD, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has shown that strong social support helps people cope with stress. Other studies have demonstrated that less connected people tend to die sooner after having a heart attack than people with a strong social network and that having a large social network may even reduce chances of catching a cold, even though you’re probably exposed to more viruses when spending lots of time with others.
“Friends help you face adverse events,” Dr. Sheldon Cohen says. “They provide material aid, emotional support, and information that helps you deal with the stressors. There may be broader effects as well. Friends encourage you to take better care of yourself. And people with wider social networks are higher in self-esteem, and they feel they have more control over their lives.”
Take advantage of these findings by increasing your social network! There are plenty of people out there to strike up a friendship with and plenty of health benefits to look forward to as your friendships blossom.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Advice, Friendship, girlfriends, Health, tina turbin, Tina Turbin researcher, Women's Health
Posted in Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Friendship, Health, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Motherhood, Natural Alternatives, Relationships, Women's Health, Women's Issues | 26 Comments »
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Step climbing is a great way to exercise for heart health while taking it easy on your joints. If you own a stair-climbing machine at home, you can use it while watching your favorite TV programs instead of sitting on the couch. You can also climb real stairs. This can be convenient for people who work in a large office building, as they can bring their tennis shoes and fit in a thirty-minute workout during lunchtime. Another alternative is to use a step platform and use it with a low-impact step aerobics DVD. Make sure to choose a DVD that’s specifically geared toward low-impact.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Baby Boomers, Exercise, Health, low-impact exercise, stairclimbing, tina turbin, Women's Health
Posted in Advice, Author, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Exercise, Health, Motherhood, Women's Health | 31 Comments »
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
Now what? Studies show how important it is to have goals and show a direct link between writing your goals down and achieving success. Making goals comes easily to mothers, as they are impelled by the natural desire to help their children thrive. From getting the kids ready for school in the mornings to building their college funds, the objectives were clear and you clearly wanted them.
What would you like to do now? Come up with one or more goals, and you will have something to serve as a foundation for your hard work and dedication in this new life after mom-hood. You know you are strong and capable—you successfully raised a child, after all! It’s time to put that energy now toward something else, perhaps something you’ve always wanted to do since childhood. Whether it’s arts and crafts, volunteer work, or learning Chinese, it’s important to have something to work toward, whatever it is.
After mom-hood, I blossomed more than ever as a woman, launching a children’s book series, researching and illuminating important health issues such as celiac disease, and participating in humanitarian efforts such as improving children’s literacy. These are things that make me who I am, just as being a mother will always make up who I am. The satisfaction from meeting your own personal goals is a gift every mother deserves to give herself.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Baby Boomers, Goals, life after mom-hood, quality of life, tina turbin, Tina Turbin researcher, women, women's issues
Posted in Advice, Baby Boomers, Being a Mom, Goals, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Motherhood, Organize, Women's Issues | 30 Comments »
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
What should you look for in a good friend whose companionship will bring health and happiness to you instead of just raising your blood pressure? There are a few things you should ask yourself before befriending someone. First of all, make sure to choose a friend who has positive things to say to you. Every once in a while, a good friend may need to tell you something that might be tough to hear—“hard truths”—but these remarks should be very infrequent and you should generally walk away after spending time with them feeling better about yourself.
Also, look for friends who are living life in a responsible manner. Otherwise, the stress of their own lives due to their bad habits and poor decisions will surely stress you out. Nobody is perfect, but avoid befriending people who are making bad life decisions such as abusing drugs, having extramarital affairs, and engaging in criminal activity, for instance. Every once in a while, a good friend may make a bad decision; this doesn’t mean you should abandon the friendship, but help them instead. However, my best advice is that if you meet someone and find right off the bat that his life is out of control, it’s best to refer him to help and save your energy for friends who are overall positively contributing to society.
Having lots of friends can boost your immune system, help you survive longer after a heart attack, fight serious illnesses such as cancer, and increase your life span. With such positive advantages, you should make sure to increase your number of friends, but also keep in mind the importance of avoiding stressful, low-quality friendship and seeking out positive companionship.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Aging, anti-aging, Baby Boomers, Friendship, girlfriends, Health, tina turbin, Women's Health
Posted in Advice, Baby Boomers, Friendship, Health, High Quality of Life, Managing Life, Natural Alternatives, Relationships, Women's Health, Women's Issues | 27 Comments »
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
There are so many reasons to dramatically cut down on television or to cut it out altogether. You’ll find in the end that your children will be much more likely to become avid readers and, as a result, perform better in school and in life. Instead of acting out the drama and degradation on popular TV, your kids will demonstrate the values you seek to pass on to them. You’ll also find your own productivity will increase, and oftentimes, a marriage will be sparked back to life by eliminating television. It may be a challenge at first to get used to your new lifestyle, but soon the benefits will be so rewarding that you’ll be too busy enjoying your higher quality of life that you won’t even think about the absence of television in it.
Tina Turbin
Tags: Advice, Family, family time, parenting, Parents, television, tina turbin
Posted in Advice, Author, Being a Mom, Children, Family, High Quality of Life, Motherhood, Parents | 33 Comments »
