If you're like me, after you exercise, you spend a good ten minutes (at least) stretching all your muscles – so as to not be sore the next day. Well, The New York Times published an article citing a study from The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews regarding stretching that I thought I'd share because it has changed my opinion on the topic. The study concludes that stretching before or after a workout has little effect on either risk of injury or soreness. After reading the article and doing some research, I realized that not only was this certainly not the only study to reach this conclusion, but almost all other studies had a hard time reaching any conclusion at all.

There is a recent study out of the Monell Center in Philadelphia (www.monell.org) that may provide some relief to cancer patients suffering from chemotherapy-associated nausea. I thought I'd share since it is a pretty simple concept even for those who are not medically savvy.

There are nerves that pick up signals and transmit information from the receptors in the intestines to the brain. Since rats do not vomit as humans do when nauseated, Monell researchers used the incidence of "pica" in rats that received the powerful chemotherapy drug cisplatin, that has a high correlation with nausea and vomiting. Pica is the eating of non-food substances, such as clay or dirt rats do this when made sick by toxins. Hey, to each his own.

Do not eat any carbs. Only drink cabbage soup. Drink a lot of apple cider vinegar. Load up on meats and cheeses. Finally, society has figured out the secret to losing weight: weird faddish diets! I hope you're reading this dripping with sarcasm. It's the New Year, and with that comes New Year's resolutions. For many, the New Year marks a time after the egg nog and snowflake shaped cookies to buckle down and lose some weight. So let's discuss the best way to go about doing just that.

I am here to shout form the mountaintops that there are three ways to lose weight: 1. eat well 2. exercise more 3. eat well and exercise more. The fad diets all sound too good to be true, so many people think it's the quick simple way to lose weight. Well I have some news for you fad dieters: it IS too good to be true. Our bodies consume, digest and burn kilocalories in specific ways that any nutritionist or medical expert can detail; the trick is to understand our bodies and work with what we have. Experts recommend adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing crash diets. Cabbage soup will not do it!

Do you want to know that you are at risk for heart disease? Would you medicate your seven-year-old child if your doctor said he or she was clinically depressed? The New York Times had an article by three authors (H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steven Woloshin) this week that really intrigued me and I want to share it with my blog readers – all three of you. The authors' stance is that we are over-diagnosing ourselves into oblivion. We are moving from a world of people to a world of patients – quickly. Their argument holds water – a lot of it. Drink it down and let it sit for a while before you choose to disagree.

I used to work at an HIV/AIDS nonprofit. I taught youth about ways to protect themselves and how to make healthy decisions. I also had the privilege of working with men and women who volunteered their time to talk openly about how they contracted HIV and how the choices the youth make will determine whether contract HIV/AIDS or not. Yes, I was the condom lady at the front of the room showing the class how to put them on correctly (pause for laughter). Since World AIDS Day was December 1st, what not a better time to talk about the state of worldwide HIV/AIDS and what you can do about it.

What is with the yellow-ish stuff that men carry around with them in thermoses at the gym?

There has been an extreme increase in the marketing and use of manufactured protein shakes in the past 15 years. Before you make the jump to use these shakes to either lose weight or build muscle, there are a few things to know about protein intake.

My father has cancer. He has a cancer that most people have never heard of. His cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States but it gets little publicity and funding. The topic of cancer funding and awareness is important for everyone – but it touches me closely and personally. He has pancreatic cancer and the awareness ribbon is purple. The awareness month is November. Did you know that? Doubt it. But – if I quizzed you on what color represents breast cancer awareness I'd bet that 99 out of 100 people would be able to give the correct answer: pink. Before you claim that I am putting one cancer ahead of another, I want you to understand what I am asking. I am not diminishing the importance of breast cancer funding and awareness by any means in this post; I am doing the opposite. I am claiming breast cancer is more than a color. I am simply asking everyone to give some thought to all the pink ribbons and campaigns that claim to be behind the breast cancer cause – or any cancer for that matter. Since Breast Cancer Awareness Month just ended, I am asking you to Think Before You Pink.

Now here's a little piece of counter-intuitive health information for you. No, it's not that a big piece of chocolate cake a day keeps the doctor away – sorry to get your hopes up. If you had to guess, which do you think is healthier: fresh or frozen vegetables? Personally, I'd assume fresh; the name says it all. However, this is not always the case.

It turns out that frozen or canned vegetables can be more nutritious based upon what vegetable you're talking about and when. The vegetables that are in season are likely to be best for you eaten fresh; however, the ones that are not in season – and have been shipped to your grocery store from a farm far, far away are not packed with the highest amount of nutrients possible. In this case, it's probably best to head to the frozen isle.

Male birth control seems like an oxymoron in itself, but it is more and more becoming a highly researched topic. There are several types being tested and researched right now. Here are some of the promising methods out there:

1. The Hormonal method involves dosages of two hormones: progesterone, which will shut down sperm production, and testosterone to counteract the progesterone. It's taken under the skin and according to researcher Regine Sitruk-Ware, the Population Council Center for Biomedical Research is working on a way to deliver the necessary doses in one or two yearly implants. This makes me much more comfortable than relying on a man having to remember to take a pill at a certain time each day. Just being honest here...

I am tired of people getting emergency contraception (EC) confused with the abortion pill; let's just settle this issue here and now. EC is often called the "morning after pill" because it is to be taken within 120 hours of intercourse (or the morning after) to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The most common known brand is called Plan B. In 2006, after many months of debate, it was approved by the FDA for over-the-counter use by women over 18 years of age.

To dispel the myth that it is somehow synonymous with an abortion pill, let's focus on how emergency contraception works. The key word in my above description of EC is prevent. EC is made up of hormones contained in birth control pills and works by either preventing ovulation, which is the releasing of an egg by the ovary, or by preventing fertilization, which is when the sperm joins the egg. Since it only works before the sperm has joined the egg, EC cannot cause an abortion in women who are already pregnant, and it won't affect a developing embryo. The abortion pill on the other hand, is used only after a sperm and egg have joined; it triggers the shedding of the uterine wall, which expels the embryo.

I cannot function on less than 5 hours of sleep. I get crabby and have that glazed-over look in my eyes all day long. However, according to many Americans, I'm almost in the minority; over 40 percent of the US and UK sleeps less than 5 hours a night. So what? Well, studies have shown that it may be extremely detrimental to your health to not get adequate sleep. Okay, okay; we all already know this, right? Well there is a new twist to those who have heeded the warnings of doctors and done a lot of snoozing: too much can also harm you.

According to a study by researchers at Univerisy College London and Warwick University, the optimal amount of hours is about seven. Any less or more is possibly damaging to health. People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease. Ignoring the suggested amount of sleep (whether it be too much or too little) may also lead to:

Stroke
High blood pressure
Heart attack
Heart failure
Diabetes
Psychiatric problems, including depression and other mood disorders
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Mental impairment
Fetal and childhood growth retardation

In all restaurants the sugar caddies contain the blue stuff (Equal), the pink stuff (Sweet N Low), the yellow stuff (Splenda) and good old-fashioned sugar. Lately, no matter who I am sitting with, their choice is usually not the plain sugar; clearly, good advertising goes a long way. Whenever I ask why they are choosing the yellow or pink packet, they usually say their reason is that it's better for them (fewer calories). However, there has been considerable dispute about whether or not their marketing has been truthful – and whether or not the artificial sweeteners are really healthier.

How did this all start? Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed that cyclamate, one of several types of artificial sweeteners, caused bladder cancer in laboratory animals. The many sweeteners that have been approved by the FDA have varied risk levels regarding their link to cancers; the three that are in the spotlight most often are Aspartame, Saccharine and Cyclamate (and more recently Stevia). What makes it difficult to take a stance on one side of the argument or the other is that results from research studies do not provide conclusive evidence in either direction.

When you hear "those at risk for a heart attack," what comes to mind? I'll tell you what pops into mine: an overweight older male smoking a cigarette and binge eating French fries dipped in mayonnaise. I'll tell you what doesn't: images of a younger woman jogging, eating healthy and taking care of her body. Heart attacks however, are a silent killer among women; most don't know how many succumb to attacks each year when nearly 40,000 young women are hospitalized each year with heart disease with around 16,000 deaths. This statistic makes heart attacks one of the leading causes of death in this age group.

What's worse: the medical field is not helping the situation. When doctors are presented with the symptoms of heart attack in a patient, yet the patient happens to be a woman, they are likely to assume the symptoms to be indicative of another ailment and by doing so, cause irreparable damage. This is all the result of the deeply laden ideal that only fat old men have heart attacks. It's not easy for the doctors; what makes it tricky is that females experience a wider array of symptoms than males do. During a heart attack women have reported experiencing back pain, indigestion and nausea and/or vomiting, rather than chest pain, as their symptoms.

When you're trying to take care of yourself, it's honestly a full-time job, especially with all of the mixed information out there. I'm going to try and make it a bit easier by weeding through all I can and telling you what I think makes the most sense – and hopefully you'll have the desire to take control of the things that you actually can affect. If not, I hope it will at least be entertaining!

I figured I'd touch upon an important topic before it becomes a thought lost along with the summer heat. Not hotdogs or nostalgic school kids; sunscreen. Even when it's not hot out, the sun is still strong and everyone should be aware of how to be protected. There is a great debate about whether sunscreen prevents skin cancer or actually – wait for it – causes the skin cancer that most of its users are so trustingly using it to ward off.

This is what it comes down to:
1. Vitamin D may help to prevent some cancers (percentage is arguable)
2. Sunscreen blocks Vitamin D absorption
3. Sunburn or excessive skin damage by UVA and UVB rays may cause DNA damage resulting in cancer of the skin