Alternative Health Blog

Some health habits might seem too easy to make a difference in quality of life. But small can be big. Here are three things you can do for yourself—in not much more than 10 minutes total spread throughout each day—to improve your health and energy without an overly ambitious exercise program or yet another diet plan:

Embrace an all-in-one stretch: Karen Voight is a Los Angeles-based fitness instructor who makes high-quality, practical exercise videos. She recommends a wide-legged squat as an all-purpose stretch. If you can only do one stretch daily, this is her suggestion:

“Stand with your feet slightly turned out and little wider than your hips. Bend your knees into a deep squat, bringing the hips toward the heels. If you can’t keep your heels on the floor, then placed a rolled yoga mat [or towel] under your heels. Bring your arms inside your knees and palms together. Hold 20 to 30 seconds.”

Once you master this squat without discomfort (many kids do it naturally, especially at younger ages), you can work on breathing even while holding the squat position.

Anger more fattening than doughnuts? No, this is not a supermarket tabloid headline. A 2009 study by French researchers about British adults published in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed that the more hostile a man’s personality, the more his body mass index increased over the subsequent two decades (BMI is a ratio of height to weight).

The volunteer subjects were 35 to 55 years old when the study began. The researchers found that all men and women with higher rating of hostility on standardized questionnaires also had higher BMI measurements. That hostility/BMI relationship stayed constant for women, but appeared to produce accelerated weight gain among the males in the study.

Brush and floss your teeth: You likely have read or heard that teeth and gum problems can lead to heart disease because it increases inflammatory markers in the blood. You might know there are a growing number of studies that suggest poor oral health could be the first indicators of diabetes, stroke, unsuccessful preganancies and even leukemia and AIDS. It’s all enough to renew a vigorous brushing and flossing routine.

Yet there’s more. After decades of medical schools and doctors ignoring oral health symptoms or at most categorizing oral health as superficial, the Association of American Medical Colleges or AAMC has established a recommedation that the nation’s medical schools include more oral health instruction in the curriculum to better equip future physicians with the clinical ability to connect teeth and gum problems with other diseases.

Equipping yourself with the best oral health routine, according to practitioners at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, means brushing your teeth for two minutes twice a day (gentle scrubbing motion, inside and outside of each tooth). The most important time to brush is before you go to sleep. Rinsing between meals is valuable, and flossing once daily is optimal.

And you thought you were merely brushing your teeth twice a day.

Bob Condor blogs for Alternative Health Journal Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.