My grandmother passed away a week ago.  I was taking care of her and did not have much time to blog.  I still taught my yoga and running classes.  Life goes on.  I am thankful I had those last weeks with my grandmother, and while it seemed that our roles had very much reversed- I caring for her instead of her caring for me as she had done early in my life.  It’s a cycle, and I am happy that our family was tightly knit like that, and we opted to care for each other rather than forget each other as years passed.

My grandmother was a wonderful person.  She taught me many things in life- including the value of family, and that, you should live in a way that you won’t be full of regret when you are lying on your death bed.  I mentioned some time back that she loved Wai Lana’s yoga sound.  She insisted on having it playing all the time- and it still was as she died.  It was not easy to see her go, for sure, but I think she couldn’t have wanted a better way to go.

It’s got me thinking a lot about what I am doing in life and where I am heading. For one, while I’m no fan of living forever, I think it’d be great to be healthy throughout life.  Just like everyone else, I really have no idea how many more years, days or months I have left.  Sometimes when you think of it that way, it makes life so much simpler, doesn’t it?  Life’s going to end.  Death is just an integral part of life.

I’ve heard some people say to me, “Tai chi coudn’t be that good, I’m sure it’s really painful and hard on the knees- especially when you’re getting older.”  But seeing how many elderly Chinese do it and remain so agile in their old age, I knew there was something to it that was good.

So now studies confirm that Tai Chi is actually beneficial for the knees.  Basically, I’m for anything that will help people have a better quality of life no matter what their current situation is.

What else has been up with me?  I’ve been down with a knee injury for a few days, but I’m recuperating.  I just twisted my knee during a run in the woods.  It doesn’t help that it’s been getting real cold now.  As Wai Lana says, doing yoga exercises with an injury isn’t always fun, but is definitely worth doing.  So that’s what I’ve been doing. I have had to modify my yoga classes a little since my knee is out, but otherwise it’s been all great.

So do enjoy your weekend, and try out Wai Lana’s asana of the week too.

Great yoga tips from Wai Lana on Facebook the past few days:

When practicing yoga, don’t hold unnecessary tension in your face or jaw, in your neck or shoulders. This tension blocks the flow of energy in the body that yoga is designed to enhance.

~~~

Synchronizing yoga sound meditation
with breathing helps focus the mind. Do complete
yoga breathing if possible, filling your lungs from
the bottom to the top. Inhale first to your abdomen,
letting it expand; then bring the breath to your
middle and then your upper lungs to complete the
inhalation. As you exhale, release the air from
your upper lungs first, then your middle, and finally
your lower lungs, contracting your abdomen slightly
as you complete your exhalation. You’ll find the
slow, deep breaths very relaxing. I will show you
how to do this now.

Yoga Meditation

Also, be sure to eat fresh garlic to get keep you well.

Now that winter is already here – that’s right, it snowed already- we’re taking more time to warm up.  While I love winter, there are times when I just wish spring or summer would come back.  All the seasons are definitely beautiful, just as somber autumn is.  Now it’s difficult to warm up and keep warm.  Whenever we go for runs, we come back with ruddy faces, frozen in the cold wind.

I’m really appreciating Wai Lana’s soups now.  I’ve been trying out a few of them. I love the chili one.  It definitely keeps you warm and full without feeling overly bloated. I’ve been feeding the kids I help train at the house the past few days.  After training we go and eat.  They’re appreciating the soups too- they’re heavy, and yet light.

I’m happy to see all the updates and new videos Wai Lana is posting on her Facebook page.

Funny.. speaking about running.. here’s a little interesting bit:

Beer, Bikinis, and Beethoven: Not Your Average Road Races

Take the tediousness out of training

By Mara Betsch

Hitting the treadmill every morning is boring, we know. Good thing Health.com found more than 30 races that are more party than workout, with runs that involve beer, bikinis, and even Beethoven! Get inspired by signing up for one of these fun runs today—there are options for every season and every region.

Dress to impress

You may feel like Superman after you finish a race, but in the Superhero 5K (pictured at left) you can actually sport an “S” through the entire course. Held in Asheville, N.C., each November, this race is the perfect excuse to get some more use out of that old Halloween costume. And wouldn’t you love to see a fight to the finish between Wonder Woman and Batman?

If superheroes aren’t your forte, you can always join the annual ING Bay to Breakers (pictured at right) 12K in San Francisco. The May run and costume contest brings out competitors dressed like Elvis, Starship Troopers.

Get down and dirty

Were you the type of kid who played in puddles? If so, there’s a run for whatever is left of that messy child. The RunAmuck Mud Run is a 5K that takes you over hills, through tires and rivers, and into plenty of wet, sloppy mud. Taking place in both Rockville, Md., and Sebago Beach, N.Y. (and in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Philadelphia in 2010), this race allows you to compete individually, as a couple, or with a four-person team. Choose the costumed category or the open one, which has no restrictions on attire or footwear.

Take Toto along

Your faithful four-legged running partner puts in the time and the training with you—so doesn’t he deserve to compete too? Dog Run Dog has begun hosting 5K and 10K events nationwide for dogs and their owners. Even if you’re not a runner, your pooch may be the perfect motivation to pound the pavement.

For more options, check out these nine other dog jogs across the country. But remember to bring a scooper—each man or woman is responsible for their best friend’s droppings.

A friend of mine were talking about traditional/natural medicine yesterday, and it was rather interesting to stumble upon an article about it today.  I think that Wailana yoga is somehow related to these natural medicine treatments because it’s so good for getting rid of all kinds of aches and pains and the like.

Here’s an excerpt:

Four Things You Didn’t Know About Natural Medicine

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By Katy Koontz
From Health magazine

If natural medicine still sounds too alternative for you, here are four things that may help mainstream the concept for you.

It’s not so “out there”
In addition to the 38 percent of all adults in the United States who have tried natural medicine, nearly 12 percent of children have used complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies. Veterinarians use it on pets, too. “It’s not just the fringe anymore,” says Donald B. Levy, MD, medical director of the Osher Clinical Center for Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“It’s more widespread.” In fact, CAM is considered standard treatment in many European countries (including Germany, which regulates herbs, and France, where hospitals widely use acupuncture), so sometimes alternative treatments new to the States have already been researched and used for years abroad.

It’s a spa thing
Our strong desire to “heal” ourselves with natural medicine has made alternative therapies hot items at spas and resorts. Some treatments may sound like a wacky mix of the scientific and the spiritual—Crystal Bowl Sound Healing (at Rancho La Puerta Fitness Resort and Spa in Baja California) claims to activate alpha waves in the brain; Spirit Flight treatment (at Miraval in Tucson, Arizona) is touted as a blend of energy medicine, full-body massage, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and spinal alignment, along with indigenous ceremonial rituals.

But treatments like these are very popular, and an arm of the National Institutes of Health called the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is researching their validity. In fact, you may be able to take part in a clinical trial for an alt med therapy being studied at a university near you. For information, visit the NCCAM’s Web site.

Next page: Lots of MDs use it

Pages: 1 2

Reading the labels of what you buy can definitely help you stay healthy and keep your expenses as low as they should be. 

This is definitely one advantage of buying from trusted brands like Wai Lana or companies like Brown Cow yogurt, you can rest assured that you have nothing to worry about and that the products aren’t laced with all kinds of chemicals.

Be a Nutrition Know-It-All: Your Guide to the New Packaging Labels

You can’t walk into a grocery store without seeing bolded claims
adorning every box, package, and wrapper in the store. Low fat! High
fiber! Smart choices! Though Nutrition Facts labels don’t lie, it’s
easy to get distracted by these misleading claims.

But just as your head is beginning to spin, there are several new
nutrition labeling programs—some on packages, some on shelves—that are
trying to address the need for simple nutrition information and
direction. Do any of these help you if you’re trying to lose weight?
Maybe, but whether you’re counting calories, carbs, fat, or fiber, I
think it’s important to rely on the good ol’ Nutrition Facts panel and
the ingredients list. Here’s a quick and dirty take on some of the new
programs:

Smart Choices

Pros:

• A big green can’t-miss-it check marks the packages of healthier foods.

Cons:

• Debatable criteria
  Though a lot of experts weighed in on the program, several major food
  companies helped fund the program and companies pay to be involved.
  Low-calorie foods that are void of nutritional value (like Froot Loops)
  are receiving check marks, and consumers aren’t fooled. The Smart
  Choices website defends the Froot Loops inclusion by claiming
  “pre-sweetened cereals have been demonstrated to be a good source of
  vitamins and minerals for children,” but the program has drawn
  criticism from Forbes,  The New York Times, and Nightline.
• Too much emphasis on calories
  Calories and servings per package are the only numbers beneath the
  check. But as most of you dieters know, calories alone aren’t
  everything. A serving of Mueslix has 90 more calories than a serving of
  Froot Loops, but a lot of people would argue that that doesn’t
  necessarily mean the Froot Loops are healthier.
• Not all products are included
  Because companies pay to get into the Smart Choices program, it doesn’t
  evaluate every single product in the store. For example, a serving of Bob’s Red Mill Old Country Style Muesli gives you an equal amount of fiber as check-marked Kellogg’s Mueslix, with no added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, but isn’t in the Smart Choices program.
• One check for all
  Kellogg’s Mueslix
  has more fiber, protein, and B-vitamins than Froot Loops, but they have
  the same green check on the box. A product could barely meet the
  criteria or be a superfood and you’d never know the difference.

I just did some Wai Lana Yoga on PBS.  Good to see her on there again!  I didn’t have any yoga classes today so it was a restful day.  I visited my grandmother and some old aunts.

11 Natural Health Boosters You Need Now

Ted Morrison

Maybe you take some echinacea when you feel a cold coming on or sip a little chamomile tea to soothe an upset tummy. Smart moves. But which natural health boosters should you take regularly—and when?

The answers are extra important during tough financial times, when more and more Americans are buying vitamins and supplements as they struggle to afford traditional health care.

And because women are the biggest users of supplements, it’s critical that they know which ones really work. To make safe and effective buys, try this age-targeted advice from leading women’s-health experts.

Your 30s

Calcium You may not realize that your bone health starts waning in your late 30s. That means it’s never too early to maximize bone density with calcium, says Mary Jane Minkin, MD, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine.

“Calcium may also ease menstrual cramps because it appears to regulate muscle contractions,” she says. Shoot for a total (through diet and supplements) of 1,000 milligrams a day during your 30s and 40s, and 1,200 to 1,500 in your 50s and beyond. Dr. Minkin recommends taking the cheapest brand that agrees with your stomach—the antacid TUMS E-X 750, whose active ingredient is calcium carbonate, works well and contains 300 milligrams of calcium per tablet. If you love chocolate, try Viactiv; it contains 500 milligrams of calcium and just 20 calories per piece ($11.49).

Magnesium and Iron If you feel cranky at the end of your cycle, 200 milligrams of magnesium may help relax you, says Roberta Anne Lee, MD, vice chair of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. But you don’t need to take it every day. Daily iron pills might make sense, experts say, because plenty of women are iron-deficient as they age; they either don’t get enough iron from their diets or are low because of blood loss during their periods. Ask your doc to check your iron level with a simple blood test. If it’s low, aim for 18 milligrams of iron a day to keep your energy up.

We humans tend to have a knack for creating trouble, diseases, and for ruining our bodies.  Mother Nature, on the other hand, has endless gifts of health available to whoever wants or needs them.  Of course, some respect is always necessary.  We have to be able to care for what we have somehow.

One thing I love about Wai Lana’s supplements is that she is able to capture these wonderful ingredients and blend them in such ways that are so perfect for even those who are not able to get fresh versions of these ingredients.  For example, Wai Lana goji juice.  I love this stuff!

Your body can throw you for a loop at any time. You wake up with a sore throat on the day of your office Christmas party, a seafood-salad sandwich leaves you with grumbling indigestion, or you overdo it at the gym and arrive home with a stiff neck. Wouldn’t it be great to have a live-in doctor/therapist/trainer to tend to your everyday aches and pains?

Here’s the next best thing: all-natural, expert-recommended ways to treat ailments quickly, safely, and effectively at home. So clear some space in your bathroom cabinet, refrigerator, and kitchen cupboard for these surprisingly effective (and inexpensive) remedies. They’re like having a doctor on call 24 hours a day.

To quell nausea

Try frozen ginger chips. Add pieces of fresh ginger to hot water. Strain, then freeze the infusion in ice cube trays. Crush the cubes and suck the icy chips throughout the day to provide your tummy with a steady soothing treatment. Ginger’s anti-nausea properties are particularly effective during pregnancy or after surgery.

Expert: Eric Yarnell, N.D.

To stifle hiccups

Swallow 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar. The dry granules stimulate and reset the irritated nerve that’s causing the spasms of the diaphragm. Any coarse substance, such as salt, can work in a pinch, but sugar tastes best.

Expert: Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.

To soothe a sore throat

Gargle twice daily with a solution of six pressed garlic cloves mixed into a glass of warm (not hot) water. Follow the regimen for three days. A recent study shows that fresh garlic juice has antimicrobial properties that fight pain-causing bacteria. The warm liquid soothes inflamed tissue.

Expert: Ronald Hoffman, M.D.

Being a huge fan of yogurt, I was reading an article today about yogurt and probiotics (pasted below).  I have gotten myself a nice little yogurt maker, it’s a joy for sure.  I usually just make a yogurt base and then add all kinds of fruit and berries with honey into it.  It is definitely one of the things which makes me stay healthy and well. I also like to eat it with Wai Lana little yogi granola.  I’m far from being a little yogi, but I love the combination of it especially with mangoes and blueberries.

Probiotics: Looking Underneath the Yogurt Label

When the label tells you the food you are buying “contains probiotics,” are you getting health benefits or just marketing hype? Perhaps a bit of both.

Probiotics are live micro-organisms that work by restoring the balance of intestinal bacteria and raising resistance to harmful germs. Taken in sufficient amounts, they can promote digestive health and help shorten the duration of colds. But while there are thousands of different probiotics, only a handful have been proved effective in clinical trials. Which strain of bacteria a given product includes is often difficult to figure out.

There is no standard labeling requirement to help buyers make sense of probiotic products. The word “probiotic” on the label is not enough information to tell whether a given product will be effective for a particular health concern. Just as a doctor would prescribe different antibiotics for strep throat or tuberculosis, different probiotic species and strains confer different health benefits.

“It’s a huge problem for the consumer to try to make heads or tails of whether the products that are out there really work,” said Dr. Shira Doron, an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts.

Consider Lactobacillus, a probiotic that comes in a number of strains, among them: Lactobacillus GG (often called LGG), which can be found in the diet supplement Culturelle as well as several milk products in Finland; L. casei DN114 001, included in Dannon products; and L. casei Shirota, found in Yakult, a popular probiotic drink from Japan.

Studies show that all of these strains are associated with reducing diarrhea; LGG, among the most studied, has also shown a benefit in treating atopic eczema and milk allergy in infants and children, according to a 2008 report in The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. Meanwhile, both LGG and Dannon’s L. casei strain have been shown in studies of children attending day care to reduce illness.

“Lactobacillus is just the bacterium,” said Gregor Reid, director of the Canadian Research and Development Center for Probiotics. “To say a product contains Lactobacillus is like saying you’re bringing George Clooney to a party. It may be the actor, or it may be an 85-year-old guy from Atlanta who just happens to be named George Clooney. With probiotics, there are strain-to-strain differences.”

The outcome of a recent legal case may help. Dannon, one of the biggest sellers of probiotic yogurts, settled a class-action lawsuit this month over its Activia yogurts and DanActive yogurt drinks, which claimed to help regulate digestion and stimulate the immune system. As part of the $35 million settlement, Dannon agreed to reimburse dissatisfied consumers and make labeling changes, among them adding the scientific names of probiotic strains it uses.

Dannon says that it settled the suit to avoid litigation and that it stands by all of its product claims. The company’s Web site lists numerous scientific studies of its patented probiotic strains.

“A scientific approach has been central to our business for decades,” said a spokesman, Michael Neuwirth, who added, “The essence of the claims of Activia and DanActive remain unchanged.”

So what health problems can probiotics really help? After gathering at a Yale workshop to review the available evidence, a panel of 12 experts concluded that there was strong evidence that several probiotic strains could reduce diarrhea, including that associated with antibiotic use. Several studies have also suggested that certain probiotics may be useful for irritable bowel syndrome, with the strongest recommendation for Bifidobacterium infantis 35624, the probiotic in the Procter & Gamble supplement Align. (Two members of the panel had ties to Procter & Gamble; three others had ties to other companies that sell probiotics.)

A variety of other claims for probiotics, like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, preventing cavities and reducing cancer risk, were not reviewed by the panel.

And scientists continue to debate whether probiotics offer a meaningful benefit to the immune system.

“The evidence for the general immune strengthening is just not there,” said Barry R. Goldin, a Tufts professor who helped discover LGG but no longer receives royalties from the patent.

But the gastrointestinal tract is an important part of the immune system, and studies show that intestinal bacteria play an essential role in immune defenses. These bacteria not only aid digestion but essentially help form a protective barrier inside the intestine.

The Yale group, whose report appeared in The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in July 2008, concluded that the “immune response is definitely affected by the administration of probiotics.” But it did not decide whether probiotics were useful for general disease prevention and maintaining overall health, saying more study was needed. The group reported that many studies suggested that certain probiotics reduced duration of colds, along with time away from work and day care.

“Such findings,” the authors wrote, “suggest that probiotics might be of value for incorporation into the daily diet of healthy people for the purpose of staying healthy.”

Consumers interested in probiotics should look for products that list the specific strain on the label and offer readers easy access to scientific studies supporting the claims. A good place to find studies on various probiotic strains is the Web site www.PubMed.gov.

Join the discussion at nytimes.com/well.

As for the probiotic part of it, I’d say, I’m taking Wai Lana Yoga’s digestive supplements so I have nothing to worry about.  Whether my yogurt really does have all the probiotics I need or not, I’m sure the supplements I’m taking is giving me what I need for a clean and healthy digestive system.