A 2020 study of 168,000 people using data from over 68,000 fitness trackers showed that activity levels were down about 39% while sleep time increased by 20% (1). While the sleep is probably a good thing for most of us, lack of movement is a problem. Not only does sedentary behavior lead to weight gain, but it is connected to greater levels of depression and anxiety.

I was recently asked if I could recommend any healthy meal delivery services. This industry has certainly grown since the first company called Middagsfrid was launched in 2007 in Sweden by Kicki Theander. I reached out to members of the Zing community for the suggestions in this SmartBite.

Sugar increases dopamine levels in the brain, providing pleasure with every sip of soda or bite of chocolate. It also activates the insula in each hemisphere of the brain, triggering an emotional response that rewards us even when we think of a favorite sweet. On top of this, sugar affect other brain regions like…

Self-compassion helps us treat ourselves with the same kindness and caring as we would show to others. If a friend said, "I am so sick of all these restrictions and not being able to go out," you would never say, "Oh, just get over it and be happy for what you've got." Never! Yet that is what we tell ourselves, hoping to shore up our emotions with a stiff upper lip. The problem is, it doesn't work. We end up judging and criticizing ourselves, feeling worse as a result.

There is a big gap between knowing and doing. We can have the best intentions about our health -- but how do we bridge the gap between what we know to be important and taking action on a regular basis? The answer lies in habit.

This week I wanted to share a few practical tips for easing anxious feelings which were provided by my meditation teacher, Cassie Schindler. Cassie is a certified mindfulness educator and coach and founder of The Alternate Path.

For more than five thousand years, "old" was defined as between 60 and 70 years of age. With people living longer, it means that many of us will spend more time in elderhood than childhood. Sadly, at a time when we are living longer than before, we've made old age into a disease -- a condition to be denigrated and denied.

Dr. Louise Aronson, physician and award-winning author, says it's time to rethink aging in America.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that plays a critical role in our ability to absorb calcium. It is called the “sunshine vitamin” because it produced in the body when sunlight strikes the skin and activates Vitamin D synthesis. It doesn’t take a lot of sunlight.

In my webinars, I talk a lot about the importance of sleep. A participant recently asked if melatonin might help alleviate her chronic insomnia. This was such a good question that I decided to create a blog about it. To understand the answer, it’s important to understand what makes us sleepy in the first place.

If you are one of the 50 million US adults suffering from chronic pain, you know the litany of treatments, including medications, injections, implanted stimulation devices, and surgeries — most of which provide little relief. Instead of the traditional treatments, what if there was a way to train your brain to take an active role in chronic pain management?

Since the start of the pandemic, I have given several presentations on the immune system, separating fact from fiction when it comes to things like Vitamin C, Echinacea, ginger, and so forth. I received several follow up emails asking me about other foods, including a recent one on chicken soup: does it provide real benefit to the immune system?

Cicero declared gratitude to be “the Mother of All Virtues.” Dr. Glenn Fox, a USC researcher at the forefront of gratitude and human performance, describes gratitude as “the most sophisticated of all virtues.” Current research shows positive links between gratitude and health, including more pro-social behaviors that promote resilience and coping.

I delivered a webinar on chronic low-level inflammation and said that too little sleep and too much could increase this “inflammation gone awry.” Since then, I received a number of related questions and decided to share them here.

Our immune system is a wonder. It has evolved over millions of years to fight viruses and heal injuries. This is called acute inflammation, and it is necessary for a healthy life. Yet when this type of inflammation goes awry, it can become chronic low level inflammation. This systemic inflammation is the leading cause of death in the world.

SWAP-MEAT was a 16-week crossover study in which 36 generally healthy adults were divided into two groups. Each group consumed one type of meat (plant or animal) for 8 weeks and then switched to the other type of meat for 8 weeks. The goal was to understand what, if any, health benefits there were from the plant-based vs. animal-based protein.

We depend on our eyes for nearly every aspect of daily life, yet increasing age can result in changes to our eye health and vision. In fact, visual impairment is the most common sensory problem of older adults. Changes in the eye physiology can cause visual problems like near focusing (presbyopia) to more serious conditions such as floaters, cataracts, dry eye, and macular degeneration.

Last week I was dashing out of the house to go on a hike at a nearby park. I got in my car, realized I had forgotten my water bottle, and went inside to retrieve it. Then I decided I wanted a different hiking hat and ran upstairs. When I finally made it back to my car — voila! — no car keys. I searched for 20 minutes until I found them in the refrigerator next to the butter. When I was finally ready to leave, I saw our new neighbors standing in their driveway. They introduced themselves, but I promptly forgot their names before they said their socially distanced goodbyes.

When asked how we are doing, a standard response is “I’m fine,” often accompanied by a smile. The brain wants what we feel and believe to line up, so it will go along with the smile to avoid something called cognitive dissonance. Behavioral scientist Matt Wallaert says that this “grin and bear it” strategy is fine in some situations but insufficient for what we are facing now.

“No amount of cognitive dissonance can overwhelm the entirely rational fear we all feel in the face of a global pandemic.

— Matt Wallaert

Simply putting on a happy face isn’t the right answer – but how do we maintain positivity in the midst of so much uncertainty? How can we manage our anxiety and change our outlook?

While each of us aspires to change the world, sometimes the greatest thing we can do is improve the life of one person and that can be enough.

— Dr. James Doty

It turns out that improving the life of someone else is also good for our own health.

For years I talked about the four pillars of health — nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress — and left out something important: posture. I hadn’t thought much about posture since the days when Mama cajoled me to “stand up straight.” Then I met Esther Gokhale