So what exactly are omega-3 fatty acids and what do they do? Essential omega-3 fatty acids are found in cold-water fish and fish oils. Fish oil contains docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), while some nuts (English walnuts, for example) and vegetable oils (such as canola, soybean, flaxseed, and olive oils) contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Research now supports taking DHA and EPA in the form of dietary fish or fish oil supplements for an abundance of health benefits, such as promoting heart health, reducing age-related risks, and improving your mood and the ability to handle stress. The body can’t produce it, so these essential fatty acids must be part of your daily diet.

Tina Turbin

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!

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     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.

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The study, which was conducted by the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University, followed about 1500 older people for 10 years and found that those with a large network of friends were outliving those with the fewest friends by 22 percent. By contrast, close relationships with children and relatives had almost no effect on longevity. Lynne C. Giles, one of the researchers, emphasized that family ties are important; they just seem to have little effect on longevity.

So why is this? Good friends are there to discourage you from unhealthy behavior, such as excessive drinking and smoking, and to encourage a healthy lifestyle by supporting you in activities such as following a balanced diet and exercising. The companionship they offer is also important in fighting stress, depression, and low self-esteem, Their emotional support can back you up in taking healthy risks such as going back to school for a degree in a new field, opening a business, or having children, all of which can vastly improve the quality of life and thus decrease overall stress.

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Getting more sleep is the most effective way of naturally increasing growth hormones. Usually seven to eight hours of sleep is sufficient. Go to bed a little earlier or get up later by getting certain morning activities out of the way the night before, such as showering and packing your lunch before bed.

A diet change is also an effective way to change the balance of your hormones. Eliminate all artificial sweeteners, making sure to take fish oil and vitamins D, B and CoQ10 in your daily supplements, and avoiding foods that stress your adrenals such as alcohol and caffeine. As you age, you may also need to begin avoiding dairy and wheat products, as the body can becomes less able to process them, causing physical stress. I maintain a gluten-free diet and find that my hormonal levels have benefited from this diet change.

Exercise helps to stimulate the body’s production of hormones, making you feel better. Going for fast-paced walks for at least thirty minutes three times a week can make a big difference, especially if you’re usually sedentary.

It is becoming clearer with increased research that hormone levels have a lot to do with how a person feels physically, mentally, and emotionally. It’s also becoming clear that not regulating these hormones can have serious effects on your health and well-being. Try these natural remedies to bring balance to your hormones!

Tina Turbin

It’s important, however, to choose low-impact exercise which is gentler on the joints, especially if you suffer from arthritis. Low impact doesn’t mean low intensity, though. Low-impact exercise can be quite intense when you increase the energy in your moves. Luckily, there are a variety of low-impact choices available for boomers to choose from.

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So how much should you take? The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends eating fish twice a week, especially fatty fish like mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon. These are high in EPA and DHA. The AHA also recommends eating tofu and other soybean products and canola, walnut, and flaxseed, and their oils, which contain (LNA), which can become omega-3 fatty acid in the body, but more research is needed in order to establish that there’s cause-and-effect relationship between alpha-linolenic acid and preventing heart disease. On the AHA website, you can find exact recommendations on how much omega-3 oils to eat each day.

As with a many good-for-you supplements, you may not notice changes right away, but within a few weeks, I suspect you’ll start to reap the benefits of an improved complexion, higher endurance, and increased ability to concentrate. In the end, you’re investing not only in your current physical and mental well-being, but also in your future as you age.

Tina Turbin

Sixty percent of Americans are deficient in Vitamin D. Your doctor will be able to test you for a deficiency with a simple blood test. An optimum level is above 35 ng/mL. The daily recommended value is about 2,200 IU a day with some sun exposure of about fifteen to twenty minutes a day. Some researchers suggest as much as 5,000 IU every day during the winter when sunshine is at its lowest levels. If you choose to take it as a supplement, make sure you take D3, which is the same type of Vitamin D your body produces. Foods that are rich in Vitamin D are milk, cold-water fish, and egg yolk.

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     You don’t have to start putting sprouts on everything you eat or hit the gym for hour-long workouts every day. The changes you make should be gradual. Get started with one walk a week if you have to, slowly but surely increasing the frequency and speed of your walks. Start collecting healthy, yummy recipes or substituting certain items in your diet for healthier alternatives. For example, prepare turkey burgers instead of beef patties. In time, you’ll find that your diet will be largely changed for the better.

     By following these tips and changing your lifestyle for the better, you can help revert the alarming health statistics for U.S. women and improve the quality of life in the present, as well as in your later years!

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The first major risk to women’s health is heart disease, which is responsible for 27.2% of deaths in females. Next up is cancer, which is responsible for 22.0% of deaths in women.     Stroke is responsible for 7.5% of deaths in females. Stroke is often associated with men, but it actually kills more women than men each year.

Devastating health conditions seem to be diagnosed suddenly, but in actual fact, women determine their later-life health early on with the habits and lifestyle they choose for themselves in terms of diet, exercise, and stress. If you’re doing everything possible to ensure a healthy future, keep it up! For those of you who need improvement in their lifestyle, the time to make that change is now!

Tina Turbin