healthy living

Winter is the time of year when those creepy, crawly cold and flu germs come out of hiding in search of a warm place to snuggle up and reproduce. On just about every public surface – and harboring on cell phones and computer keypads among many other places in our homes – they prey on adults and especially love finding their way onto children who just can't seem to keep their fingers out of their mouths and noses.
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It's true that hearing loss comes with age, in fact, a reported up to 50% of those over 75 are affected. However, the World Health Organization reports that approximately 17% of teenagers and 19% of people in their 20s have signs of hearing loss, and much is likely noise-induced, especially in this digital day and age.
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Holidays have a bad rap when it comes to the fattening, unhealthy foods that generally accompany them, not to mention the extra boozing and grazing that occurs at many of the seasonal parties. But not all holiday foods can be blamed for packing on the pounds. Some elements of our traditional holiday feast even have "superfood" qualities.
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For many parents, making kid's lunches is one of the bigger drawbacks to back-to-school time, adding one more chore to our already busy lives. In a perfect world, we'd have our kids make their own, but there are drawbacks to that as well. For starters, these self-made lunches would likely include lots of fun snacks and very little in the way of nutrition. And the prodding it takes to get them to actually do it often takes longer than just doing it ourselves.
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'Tis the season for fresh, locally-grown leafy greens. As one of the first seeds to hit the dirt in the early spring, these hearty plants are now hitting the shelves in abundance. High in antioxidants, the benefits of adding more greens to your diet seem endless, with studies touting a number of health benefits, including cancer prevention, stronger bones, brain health, better vision, and healthier skin, among many others.
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With the arrival of summer comes the smell of sizzling food on the grill, as it wafts from across the neighborhood, and backyard dining is once again the norm. According to the Health, Patio, & Barbecue Association, 7 out of 10 families in the U.S. own a grill, making it by far the most common outdoor cooking method. And there's no doubt that summer wouldn't be the same without one.
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Few of us in Illinois are immune to occasionally losing an hour to mindless scrolling on our phones and devices. After all, it's the nature of social media and the internet: an endless series of rabbit holes full of breaking news, TikTok videos, shopping, and Insta updates we didn't know we needed. But, for some, those technological time warps aren't just occasional, they're a daily, or even hourly, preoccupation. When does an innocuous pastime become a problematic addiction? And what do we do about it?
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In a world full of visible dangers, the last thing anyone in Illinois wants to think about is the invisible ones. But they're there and, believe it or not, many of them may be lurking inside your home. According to the CDC, each year, approximately 430 people in the U.S. die from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning and more than 50,000 are treated for it. Mold is prevalent in an estimated 70 percent of American homes. And the EPA and Surgeon General attribute more than 21,000 annual deaths from lung cancer in the U.S. to radon exposure.
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Nobody likes to go to the doctor, especially when they aren't sick. But preventative healthcare is a huge piece of the long, healthy, and happy life puzzle. Annual wellness exams often include a general screening, vitals check, labs, and maintenance for chronic health conditions. In fact, it isn't uncommon that these annual exams identify early-stage diseases like cancer, concerning blood pressure and cholesterol levels, thyroid dysfunction, and a host of other common deficiencies and abnormalities. And, since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated 100 percent coverage for preventative care, there's no excuse for missing your annual physical.
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Anymore, it's an expectation: New Year's Day rolls around and a laundry list of resolutions lies before us. Gym membership and self-help book sales skyrocket. The revelry of the holidays gives way to Dry January, "clean" meal planning, and the next best diet. Entrepreneurs recommit to the hustle. A growth mindset is on the tip of everyone's tongue. It seems that everyone is looking to fix, improve, and ascend the latter of some self-determined actualization or another.
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Little in life is as important as healthful, restful sleep, and lots of it. But little in life seems to evade American adults as pervasively. Insufficient sleep, health, lifestyle impacts nearly two-thirds of Americans. And, according to a recent study by the CDC, one in three adults doesn't get enough sleep on a regular basis.
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It's an invisible facet of the aging process, but more critically linked to maintaining health, functionality, and autonomy than perhaps all else: brain health. From infancy to adulthood, the brain is in a constant state of growth, forming more than a million new neural connections every second in the earliest years of life and achieving 90 percent of its adult volume by age 6.
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There's no getting around the fact that many jobs require desk time, and for many people, that means eight-plus hours a day just sitting. In an ideal world, a life complete with regular yoga practice, chiropractic adjustments, strength training, constitutionals, ideal nutrition, and relaxing massages might be the obvious solution. But few can support such luxuries. Still, adjustments must be made to the sedentary necessities of the grind if it's to continue, well, grinding. Here are a few simple solutions to the desk debacle:
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With summer, comes a welcome invitation for people in Illinois to spend as much time as possible outside. Not only does nature replenish Vitamin D and support immunity; reduce anxiety and depression; lower blood pressure and reduce stress; increase serotonin and reinforce circadian cycles for better sleep; and improve focus, but it may also help reduce cancer risk by increasing anti-cancer proteins. "Being outdoors in nature can be healing and beneficial for the body and mind," says certified therapeutic recreational specialist Erica Price. "Whether at the beach, forest, or in a neighborhood park, nature offers a calming effect. And, when we combine nature with physical activity, it can help fight depression and anxiety."
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With spring comes cleaning, and with cleaning comes a fresh opportunity to take on tired interiors and welcome the light and liveliness that summer ushers forth.
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Most of the modern world is plugged in these days to smartphones, ipads and laptops, among other things. And many of us complete the loop by coaxing earbuds into our ears, turning up the sound to shut the world out, even just for a minute. But this practice, along with the increased amount of dangerous noise present in the modern world, is causing epidemic levels of early hearing loss in children, adults and teens. Read on to find out what you can do:
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Everyone in Illinois agrees that cyber safety is important, but what, exactly, does it mean to be "safe" online? And what do parents really need to know? Here are the top five things you can do to teach your kids how to become responsible digital citizens:
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There are plenty of potentially hazardous activities that go along with the holiday season and the start of winter, such as stringing up Christmas lights, navigating the icy roads, and hopping on those skis or other snow sports equipment, just to name a few. This is also the time of year when we break out the snow shovels and ice melt, so that we, and our neighbors and visitors, can safely navigate our walkways and sidewalks.
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