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Making the decision to live healthier often involves important steps such as losing weight and exercising more. These are significant goals and everyday lifestyle habits that you should commit to. But there’s another type of “makeover” that can benefit you in equally important ways. That’s changing your general outlook on life by boosting positivity. This mental tweak will put you in a better frame of mind to meet your physical goals. Here’s how to get started. Look for ways to find more meaning in your life. You might not be able to change your job, but you might be able to take on work challenges that give you a stronger sense of purpose. If personal and professional commitments have you running in a million directions with none of them emotionally rewarding, reassess your obligations and pare back where you can. Prioritize the tasks that give you a stronger sense of accomplishment. Next, identify what’s standing in the way of reaching your goals. It might not be complicated. Maybe you want to eat better and exercise more, but you don’t make the time to cook whole foods or go to the gym. Again, re-prioritize and take action to accomplish what’s important to you. Don’t use roadblocks as excuses to stay stuck. And because people love instant gratification, give yourself a boost by picking a change you… read on >

Even a little running on a regular basis can extend your life, Australian researchers say. They analyzed 14 studies that included more than 232,000 people whose health was tracked for between 5.5 and 35 years. During the study periods, nearly 26,000 participants died. The collective data showed that any amount of running was associated with a 30% lower risk of death from heart disease, and a 23% lower risk of death from cancer. Even as little as 50 minutes of running once a week at a pace slower than 6 mph appeared to be protective, according to the authors of the study published online Nov. 4 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They said that makes running a good option for people who say they are too busy to exercise. The reasons running is associated with a reduced risk of premature death are unclear, and the study doesn’t establish cause and effect, said lead researcher Zeljko Pediscic. He’s an associate professor of public health at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. His team also noted that the number of studies analyzed was small and considerable variation in their methods may have influenced the results. Even so, any amount of running is better than none, the authors suggested. “Increased rates of participation in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to substantial improvements in population… read on >

Loneliness can take a heavy toll on heart patients — including a higher risk of death in the year after hospitalization, researchers found. “This study confirms what has also been indicated in previous research regarding the serious health consequences of loneliness,” said lead researcher Anne Vinggaard Christensen, of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. “Loneliness should be considered a serious risk factor in patients with cardiac disease and should be included in risk evaluation of patients,” added Christensen, who is with the hospital’s heart center. The Danish researchers cautioned, however, that their findings can’t prove that loneliness caused people to die, only that loneliness and the risk of death appear to be connected. But the differences in mortality between those who felt lonely and those who didn’t can’t be explained by their medical condition alone, they said. Loneliness is a subjective experience, one that is distressing and unpleasant, the researchers noted. The connection between loneliness and health is complex, Christensen said. People who are lonely or socially isolated tend to have more unhealthy lifestyles. They smoke more, are less likely to be physically active and don’t take their medication, she said. “Having a social network helps motivate people to make healthier choices,” Christensen said. “A social network can act as a buffer for stress.” Also, lonely people have been found to have higher levels of stress… read on >

If you’re an obese heart patient, weight-loss surgery might be good medicine for you. New research suggests it significantly reduces the risk of heart failure and fatal heart attack in this vulnerable group. “Our findings suggest, for the first time, that bariatric [weight-loss] surgery can prevent the development of systolic heart failure and remarkably reduce death from recurrent myocardial infarction, or heart attack, in patients with a higher cardiovascular risk than the average population,” said study author Dr. David Funes. He is a research fellow at the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at Cleveland Clinic Weston, in Florida. For the study, Funes and his team compared severely obese people with heart disease who had weight-loss surgery (8,200) with those who did not have the surgery (79,000). Nearly half of the weight-loss surgery patients also had a history of some form of diabetes, and about 73% had high blood pressure. But those who didn’t have weight-loss surgery had even higher rates of both diseases, which are risk factors for heart disease. Obesity itself is a major risk factor for heart disease. Patients who didn’t have weight-loss surgery were 1.9 times more likely to develop heart failure than those who had the surgery, according to the study. In addition, the investigators found that patients who had weight-loss surgery were 2.5 times less likely to die from a recurrent… read on >

(HealthDay News) — If you find yourself slouching or unable to stand straight, you may have poor posture, says Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. For many, poor posture can lead to back and neck pain. The school suggests these six exercises for poor posture: Head press. Elbow press. Chest lift. Bridge. Press up. Superman. If poor posture or back pain is interfering with daily activities, OSU urges you to seek medical attention.

If you’ve ever experienced an immobilizing sense of panic when faced with a difficult or threatening situation, you’re not alone. It turns out that the well-documented fight-or-flight instinct for self-preservation isn’t a guaranteed reaction. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that stress can actually lower your ability to effectively assess new threats because it can distract you, leading you to pay less attention to what’s going on around you and impair your ability to react in your own best interests. Furthermore, a study in the Journal of Neuroscience found that stress can keep you from making positive changes in your life by holding you back, as though your feet were stuck in mud. It can color your thinking, making situations seem worse than they really are. So, for instance, just when you should be taking steps to get out of a difficult situation, you end up doing nothing. If stress has you paralyzed, it’s important to take steps to “un-freeze” your thinking. While relaxation techniques, like deep breathing, can help you refocus in moments of high stress, everyday actions can work together to lower daily low-grade stress levels. Specifically, find ways to exercise more — physical activity redirects your energy. To keep blood sugar on an even keel, limit your intake of sugary foods. If caffeine gives you… read on >

Only about half of all American adults meet the national guidelines for aerobic activity and only about one-fifth meet the combined aerobic and strength-training goals. One reason is that some people just don’t find it enjoyable, so they don’t stick with it. Changing your mindset can lead not only to increases in exercise time, but also feeling good about working out. A study in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise looked at overweight women and their reaction to 15-minute high-intensity interval workouts designed to get faster results compared to continuous and longer-lasting exercise. The researchers found that the slow and steady approach was met more positively, and left participants looking forward to another workout rather than tired and discouraged. In another test, they found that starting out at an intense pace and tapering off to a very low intensity was also more pleasurable than the other way around. A separate study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that many influences are at work when it comes to developing a fondness for exercise, including mental engagement. It helps to choose an activity that you’re confident about. For instance, if you’re a poor swimmer, you won’t feel comfortable in a water class. If you are self-conscious about how you look in exercise clothes, group classes may not be for you right… read on >

When parents can no longer get “personal-belief” exemptions from childhood vaccinations, they may get around it by asking for religious exemptions for their kids, a new study finds. Researchers found that after Vermont banned personal-belief exemptions, the number of kindergartners with religious exemptions from vaccination suddenly shot up — from 0.5% to nearly 4%. That kind of increase almost certainly means that many parents who wanted to avoid vaccines simply switched tactics, according to Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who was not involved in the study. “Either parents in Vermont suddenly became very religious, or they started using religious exemptions as a replacement,” said Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He said the more than sevenfold increase in religious exemptions among kindergartners is worrisome, since vaccination only works as a public health strategy when enough people are immunized. And it’s likely, Offit noted, that exemptions were concentrated within certain communities. With old childhood diseases like measles and mumps making a comeback in recent years, a number of U.S. states have tightened up their laws on vaccine exemptions. Several states that used to allow kids to skip vaccines due to parents’ “personal beliefs” no longer do. Vermont is one, having eliminated its personal-belief exemption in 2016. But parents there can still ask for exemptions based on religious… read on >

It happens to everyone: A familiar song comes on the radio, and suddenly you recall every note and every word. Now, new research has pinpointed exactly how long it takes people to recognize that favorite tune — just 0.1 to 0.3 seconds. The study included five men and five women who each provided a list of five familiar songs that they associated with good memories. The researchers then chose one of each participants’ songs and matched it with a song that was similar in tempo, melody, harmony, vocals and instrumentation, but was unfamiliar to the participant. Each participant was randomly played 100 snippets (each less than a second) of both the familiar and unfamiliar song. The researchers monitored the participants’ electrical activity in the brain and their pupil diameter (a measure of arousal) while they listed to the song snippets. Song recognition was first revealed by pupil dilation likely associated with increased arousal triggered by the familiar song, followed by brain activity related to memory retrieval, according to the study published online Oct. 30 in the journal Scientific Reports. A “control group” of people unfamiliar with any of the songs used in the study had no differences in responses to any of the songs, said the researchers at the University College London Ear Institute. “Our results demonstrate that recognition of familiar music happens remarkably quickly,”… read on >

Teen girls who play several sports have a lower injury risk than those who focus on just one, a new study finds. It included more than 1,100 girls who play basketball, soccer and volleyball. Most were middle and high school students; some were in college. Girls who specialize too early in sports such as basketball, soccer and volleyball could find that a single-minded focus “may hinder motor development and lead to compromised hip and knee coordination during dynamic landing and jumping activities, which can lead to increased chance of potentially life-altering injuries,” said lead author Christopher DiCesare. He’s a biomechanist in the Division of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. The study also found that girls who focused on a single sport had a higher rate of hip and knee injuries and an increased risk of knee pain. Researchers said playing multiple sports may improve girls’ coordination, and that those who specialize may not fully develop neuromuscular coordination patterns that can reduce the risk of injury. Due to uneven growth in bone mineral and muscular and connective tissue strength before and during puberty, young athletes may be less able than older ones to handle the physical stresses associated with focusing on one sport, the study published Oct. 23 in the Journal of Athletic Training concluded. “By understanding the influence that sport… read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Get Healthier With a Mental Reset

Run for Your Life, New Study Recommends

Risks Mount for Lonely Hearts After Cardiac Surgery

Weight-Loss Surgery Protects Heart Patients From Future Trouble

Health Tip: Six Exercises for Poor Posture

More Reasons Why You Must Manage Your Stress

Ways to Make Exercise More Enjoyable

Anti-Vaxxers Find Ways Around States’ ‘Personal Exemption’ Bans

Recognition of Familiar Song Almost Instantaneous

Playing More Than One Sport Helps Teen Athletes Avoid Injuries: Study