Well, turns out that those icons of alternative office space — exercise ball chairs — didn’t hold up well with the scientists. You’ll burn at least four more calories per hour (hey, that’s a cookie a day), but it won’t fix your posture. …a 2009 British study found that prolonged sitting on a therapy ball [...]

Need an excuse to get a massage? Research shows that it’s good for your stress levels (duh), and immune system — and that the effects vary by type! Volunteers who received [deep-tissue] Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that [...]

Lots of events in the air, it must be spring. Here’s one from Pure: Come expand your nutritional knowledge at Pure Yoga’s Upper East Side location on Tuesday, March 16th. In celebration of National Nutrition Month, Pure welcomes area experts on healthy eating, drinking and living – including a private chef, juicing demos with recipes [...]

New article in the Journal links prolonged TV watching to an increased rate of death — even for people who exercise! The problem is the extended periods of sitting still. And it seems that sitting on a plane, at a computer, or — gasp — reading a book is just as bad.

Drink from the far side of a glass of water. Eat a spoonful of sugar. Get someone to scare you. Then pour the sugar water on your friend’s head, and come here to stop your hiccups. Hiccups are caused by a spasm of the diaphragm, the breathing muscle that runs across the base of your [...]

I want this: The Fitbit. Attaches anywhere, measures everything. Calories burned in your rocking chair. Miles traveled up and down your staircase. Percentage of sleep that was uninterrupted. (Why limit OCD to your waking hours?) The thing uploads your data, anytime you walk within 15 feet of the base station. (And it doesn’t make you [...]

Today’s Times has an article on yoga classes for plus-size people. Several teachers have started to offer “yoga for bigger bodies” — and it seems this is an under-served niche. Many of the interviewees said they felt intimidated, embarrassed, or ignored in yoga classes. Some poses are impossible for larger frames, and teachers don’t always [...]

“Mental happiness is nothing but total relaxation.” —Yogi Bhajan

Well, the New York Times has published another blow to the pharmaceutical / health food industry: In the past few years, several high-quality studies have failed to show that extra vitamins, at least in pill form, help prevent chronic disease or prolong life. The fifties marked the boom of science, and its miracles of white [...]

OK, random post because I am really excited about my breakfast. I have never been a smoothie person, I am not satisfied with breakfast until I get to chew something like Thai food or brussels sprouts, but this one is GREAT. It has about 25 grams of protein, which is right about a third of [...]