9 simple steps to make 2009 your year to get healthy

You can’t control genetics or the guy on the bus who sneezes on you, but many factors that affect your health are well within your control. Here are nine simple and surprising ways to improve your and your family’s health in 2009.

1. Get more vitamin D. One of the hottest topics in medicine these days is vitamin D, says Kenneth Cooper, the father of aerobics and founder of the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas. A July 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine cited insufficient levels of vitamin D as a key factor in osteoporosis. “More women will die of complications of osteoporosis of the hip than of breast cancer, and you can’t just take calcium and expect it to prevent osteoporosis unless you have sufficient vitamin D,” says Cooper. Insufficient vitamin D is clearly linked to colon cancer, and may be linked to prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer, says Cooper.

Vitamin D is not found in many foods. It’s present in high levels in salmon, tuna, sardines, and — ooh, yum — cod liver oil. Milk is fortified with vitamin D, but most other dairy products are not. Fortified margarines contain vitamin D. You can get 10 percent of your daily recommended dose in some ready-to-eat cereals.

Ironically, one reason more people have low levels of vitamin D these days may be because of increased use of sunscreens. UV rays from sunlight trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin, but sunscreens block those rays. Do not skip your sunscreen though. Instead, make sure to drink milk and consider taking a vitamin supplement.

2. Sleep more …. and lose weight. Well, it’s not quite that straightforward, but a number of intriguing studies have found that people who get lots of sleep are less likely to be overweight, including a November 2007 study published in Pediatrics.

The study followed 785 children for three years and found that those who get more sleep in third grade were less likely to be overweight in sixth grade. Researchers analyzed data from the massive Nurses Health Study of 68,000 women and found that women who slept five hours a night were 30 percent more likely to gain 30 pounds during a 16-year period than women who slept seven hours a night, according to a 2006 article in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

And it’s not just because you can’t eat while you’re sleeping. Scientists believe the hormones ghrelin, which send a “feed-me” signal to the body, and leptin, a “feeling-full-now” hormone, get out of balance in the bodies of people who don’t have enough sleep. In the past 40 years, average sleep time has dropped by nearly two hours, according to University of Chicago researchers who studied the relationship between sleep deprivation and eating patterns in young men. Skimping on sleep? You’re much more likely to crave candy, cookies, chips or nuts.

3. Learn yoga breathing. The slow, deep inhale and long exhale of beginner yoga, expanding your abdomen as you fill up with air, softening as you exhale, is an excellent general relaxation technique. Practice this slow deep breathing at a weekly yoga class or on your own for a couple of minutes several times a week, till it becomes something you can do easily.

You can then use this breathing technique to help you relax, both mentally and physically. Got a charley horse in your leg? Deep breathing will usually clear it up quickly. Lower back pain got you hunched over? Try taking five or six long, slow breaths, and you just might find yourself standing straight. A couple of minutes of focused yoga breathing can also help you cope with stress. And if you’re lying in bed worrying about something and can’t fall asleep. Concentrating on your breathing for a few minutes could help you relax and let go of whatever you’re worrying about.

4. Read your food labels, looking for trans fats. “Trans fats prolong shelf life but shorten your life,” Cooper says. He suggests reading labels on all processed foods and buying only items that contain zero grams of trans fats. “If it doesn’t, I wouldn’t eat it,” Cooper says. “It’s poison.” Trans fats increase total cholesterol; they decrease the good or, HDL, cholesterol; and they tend to add weight around the belly, which is associated with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.

5. Move. That’s right. If you can do it, move away from places with polluted air, suggests Robert Cluck, MD of the Arlington Memorial hospital in Texas. “If you are a nonsmoker and you live in a nonattainment area, your chances of developing lung cancer are about the same as a smoker (in an attainment area),” says Dr. Cluck.

Wondering what “nonattainment” means? The US Environment Protection Agency sets standards for acceptable levels of six pollutants, including ozone. Nonattainment areas haven’t met those standards. High concentrations of ozone can also aggravate bronchitis, emphysema, and other respiratory disorders.

6. Get the shingles vaccine. If you are over 60, ask your doctor about the vaccine for shingles, suggests Dr. Cluck. Shingles, a disease characterized by rash and nerve pain, mostly occurs in older people (and people with weakened immune system) who had chicken pox as a child. The chicken pox virus lodges in nerves, but is kept in check by the body’s immune system. When the immune system weakens — as it does when people age — the virus can begin multiplying in the nerves, causing the painful condition.

Thousands of people a year suffer from shingles, and half of all people who live to be 85 have at least one outbreak. The shingles vaccine is based on the chickenpox vaccine but is 14 times more potent. It can cut the likelihood of an outbreak, as well as the incidence of long-term chronic pain, in individuals who do get them.

7. Teach your children to exercise. Obesity rates in children are on the rise so encouraging them to be active helps prevent childhood weight difficulties plus teaches them habits that are important throughout life. Organized sports get kids moving, but casual exercise — walking and riding bikes — can be even more important, especially if it’s part of their day-to-day lifestyle.

One good holiday gift you can give your kids is a pedometer. Encourage them to record the number of steps they take, and try to get them to walk 10,000 steps per day.

8. Add weight training to your exercise routine. The founder of aerobics has a new exercise mantra these days: weight training. Cooper still wants to see people raising their heart rate at least three times a week through aerobic exercise, such as running, but warns them that if they don’t add weight training, “You’ll end up as I was at 55, able to run five miles in 40 minutes, but unable to pick up a sack of groceries without putting out my back.”

For those under age 50, he recommends a 70-80 percent aerobic and 20-30 percent weight training exercise regimen. Over 50, decrease the aerobic exercise to 55-60 percent and increase weight training.

9. Train your brain to improve your thinking abilities. Seniors who participate in certain brain “exercise” programs can gain real cognitive improvements — improvements that last for several years, according to a study in the December 20, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study randomized 2,832 people (average age: 74) to one of four groups: memory training, reasoning training, speed processing training, or no training. Each group participated in 10 one-hour to one-and-a-half-hour training sessions.

Participants who took part in the training showed immediate improvements in the specific cognitive ability in which they were trained, and those enhanced abilities continued even after five years. Other studies suggest that you don’t need to participate in organized training sessions to keep your mind limber. You can play intellectual games right at home such as chess or bridge, do Sudoku or crossword puzzles, or get together with friends for some social interaction.

Have a happy and healthy New Year!