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Wellness

How to feel your best: 11 tips for optimal health

Be the best you possible with these fast facts and helpful tips
How to feel your best: 11 tips for optimal health

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Stop strokes with fruit

Turns out it might be an orange a day that keeps the doctor away. A new study of almost 70,000 women found that citrus reduces your risk of stroke. The study, published in the American Heart Association's journal, Stroke, found that women who had the highest intake of flavanones, a type of antioxidant found in citrus fruits, had the fewest strokes. So how do these antioxidants protect us? "Flavanones can improve blood vessel function and have anti-inflammatory effects," says study researcher Aedin Cassidy.

Bottom line: Add an orange or grapefruit to your morning meal for a boost of flavanones, fibre and vitamins. Just stick to the whole fruits rather than juice, as they contain higher in flavanone levels. They're lower in calories and sugar, too!

Orange slicesIstockphoto

Feel full on fewer calories

This just in: Eating foods with lots of fibre or water in them, like soup, vegetables and fruit, helps you stay satisfied longer, drop pounds more easily and maintain a healthy weight. The findings were revealed by a new literature review of several studies conducted by the U.S. government's Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
Try it now: Load up on low-density foods like raw carrots (only 25 calories in a half cup), cucumber (48 calories) or tomato soup (77 calories) and high-fibre grains and cereals.

Get this slow-simmered split pea soup recipe (shown).

split pea soup in a serving bowl

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Enhance your DNA with exercise

Need more motivation to work out? Then how about this: You may be a fitness class away from improving your genetic makeup.
A new study had a group of average gym-goers participate in a high-energy workout on stationary bikes and found that vigorous activity can actually improve the overall quality of your DNA. "Exercise can literally reprogram cells in your muscles to build more proteins, burn more intercellular fat and fuel you to work out to your fullest potential," says lead researcher Juleen Zierath. "We often say, 'You are what you eat.' Well, you're also what you do. Exercise helps initiate a key chain of events within your cells to help them function at their best."
Bottom line: Heart-pumping workouts, like spin class and CrossFit, temporarily enhance your DNA, helping your body perform better. Tighter abs and turbocharged DNA — it's a win-win!

Woman exercising on stationary bike, spin class, exercise, workoutStone/Getty Images

Book a walking meeting

Combining fitness with business is a new social trend we just love. Many gyms across North America now offer sessions with a business focus, and more execs are opting to take their clients out for a game of squash or tennis instead of haute cuisine. We're all for mixing work with working out — and cashing in on more than just the calorie-burning bonus.

Try it today: Boost your health by scheduling your next meeting over a run — or at least a walk around the block. Plus, you're more likely to have great ideas when your blood's pumping.

How to feel your best: 11 tips for optimal health

Hit the road running

A recent study revealed women can add almost six years to their lives by jogging at a slow or moderate pace for 60 to 90 minutes a week.

Source: Copenhagen City Heart Study

Woman tying running shoe, running, jogging, workoutKnape/Getty Images

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Buzzword: Have a coregasm

A recent U.S. survey found that up to 10 percent of women have had a coregasm — an orgasm caused by working out — and many others say they've experienced exercise-induced pleasure, most often caused by cycling, ab moves, weightlifting or yoga. Talk about a good reason to do those crunches!

Pink dumbbellsIstockphoto

Eat for a berry good memory

Fresh berries are a treat for more than just your taste buds — they can help your memory, too. Blueberries and strawberries are particularly rich in anthocyanidins, flavonoids that improve brainpower. A recent U.S. study of older adults found that women with the highest berry intake slowed cognitive aging by up to 2.5 years.

Bottom line: Enjoy nature's candy plucked from the bush while you still can. Have 1/2 a cup for an afternoon snack as one of your seven to eight daily servings of fruits and veggies.

Eat berries for your health

Take a chill pill

New research shows medical students were 20 percent less likely to suffer from anxiety when they took a daily omega-3 supplement of 2.5 g.

How to feel your best: 11 tips for optimal health

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Lighten your kid's load

Your teen's stuffed backpack may be helping her brain — but what is it doing to her back? A study in Archives of Disease in Childhood found 61.4 percent of students carry backpacks that exceed 10 percent of their body weight — a recipe for back issues now and later. Teens with the heaviest knapsacks doubled their risk of back pain. "It can begin at any age, and once back pain starts it can become chronic and debilitating. Prevention is the key," says spinal surgeon Manoj Krishna.
Try it today: Switch to a backpack with wheels, and encourage kids to clean out their bags once a week. If you're worried, break out the scale and make sure they're not carrying more than 10 percent of their body weight.

Rows of kid's backpacks, schoolCorbis

Stretch to beat stress

Getting down with your downward dog may help correct stress-related disorders, like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain, reveals an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses. Practising yoga or other forms of muscle stretching may stimulate, and in some cases increase, GABA, a neurotransmitter that creates calm in the body and helps ease excessive brain activity (bringing you closer to that coveted state of calm). No wonder child's pose (pictured) makes us feel so good.

Woman on yoga mat stretching, Child's posePhoto, Scope Beauty.

Woman standing on scale in her bathroo

Woman standing on scale in her bathroo

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