7 Heart-Healthy Behaviors That Could Help You Live Longer from Huffington Post

Despite the fact that we are all generally aware of heart-healthy behaviors -- things like not smoking, eating well and exercising -- just a little more than 1 percent of the U.S. population abides by the seven key behaviors linked with a longer life, according to a new study.

The study examined the behaviors of 44,959 adults in the U.S. (ages 20 and older) who were part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1988 and 1994, 1999 and 2004, and 2005 and 2010, and the NHANES III Linked Mortality File.

The researchers found that just 2 percent of people who were in the study between 1988 and 1994 and 1.2 percent of people in the study between 2005 and 2010 abided by the seven metrics deemed optimal for heart health.

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Overweight People May Benefit From Active Breaks During Prolonged Sitting from Medical News Today

Interrupting prolonged periods of sitting with regular, two-minute breaks of light or moderate intensity activity like walking may be good for overweight and obese people's health, because new research reported recently in Diabetes Care shows it helped their bodies keep glucose and insulin levels under control after consuming the equivalent of a high calorie meal ("postprandial" levels).

Repeated spikes in blood sugar or glucose, such as those that can occur after a meal, have been linked to poor health outcomes, including artery stiffening and cardiovascular disease. The body keeps glucose levels under control with insulin secreted from the pancreas.

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6 Habits of Fit and Healthy People from Nurse Together

Typically, habits are viewed as bad or negative. Interestingly enough, Webster’s Dictionary defines the word habit as “a thing done often and hence easily, a usual way of doing, an addiction.” Adopting good and healthy habits are easier than you may think; simply follow the example of fit and healthy people. By developing and including their top six ‘good to have’ habits you will be amazed at the significant impact on your day-to-day life.

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5 Surprising Myths About Excess Weight from Huffington Post

We get it. We’re fat. Americans are fat. Europeans are fat. And the rest of the globe is quickly catching up. And, yes, excess weight is very, very bad. Gaining too much weight boosts your risk of cancer, heart disease, and, well, 17 other terrible things that we’ve written about before.

So, do our chubby thighs and seems-like-we’ll-never-shed-it baby weight always spell disaster? Is there any silver lining at all? Maybe. Here are five surprising things you may not know about weight—and why a few extra pounds aren’t always as bad as you think.

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A Personal Mission: Define Your Wellness from Huffington Post

A basic outline for prevention has existed for more than 30 years, but wellness has had a hard time making real headway. Old habits are hard to break. Our society has a magic bullet fixation, waiting for the next miracle drug to cure us of every ill. Doctors receive no economic benefit from pushing prevention over drugs and surgery. For all these reasons, compliance with prevention falls far below what is needed for maximum wellness.

Rather than feeling gloomy, my focus has been on getting the individual to take charge of their own wellness. This can be a considerable challenge, since we are each unique in our bodies but also unique in our pattern of bad habits and poor lifestyle choices. More than 40 percent of American adults make a resolution to live a better life each year, and fewer than half keep their promise to themselves for longer than six months. Conditioning is hard to break, but the key is that the power to break a habit belongs to the same person who made it -- the turnaround amounts to giving up unconscious behavior and adopting conscious new patterns.

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Benefits of Becoming a Health and Wellness Nurse Coach from Nurse Together

The amount of dedication provided by nurses is amazing. We are always there for our patients, sometimes going above and beyond our call of duty because we enjoy what we do, and find an amazing gratification from our work as a nurse.

What if you could take the benefits of nursing up a notch by using a more direct approach in helping our clients to live healthier lifestyles?

Many nurses are turning to health and wellness coaching in various fields, such as patient education and disease management. For people who wish to have a more personal contact with the options available to their circumstances, as well as those aiming to effectively manage various life changes, health and wellness nurse coaches are the next logical step in their search for better health and wellbeing.

For the full article please go here.