Author: Carrie Myers

Could exercise work as medicine? Are you tired of taking meds for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, insomnia, even depression? Instead of standing in line at the pharmacy, you might find taking a walk will help you more than drugs. Considering exercise to be as important as taking medicine might change your life.  Can Exercise Replace Medication? Not long ago I received a phone call from a very excited client of mine. I had been working as a personal trainer with her for several months. One goal we were working toward was lowering her blood sugar levels in an…

Americans spend more than $40 billion on vitamins and supplements each year, and increasingly coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is making its way onto their shopping lists. Devotees of the supplement say it can lower blood pressure, reduce migraines, improve symptoms of Parkinson’s and depression, ward off dementia, and even halt the aging process. There are naysayers who say these claims are overblown, and research reviews reporting that evidence can’t yet make a sufficient claim. Also, for those taking a wide range of medications — including drugs for diabetes, blood thinners, and beta-blockers for high blood pressure — CoQ10 may need to…

As a personal trainer, I come into contact with young men who appear to be on anabolic steroids, typically taken to increase muscle mass and improve athletic performance. What are the signs they are using steroids? For starters, they exhibit muscle mass that seems to be beyond “normal,” and they exhibit aggressive behavior. Other signs of steroid use in boys include:          Acne          Stunted growth          Accelerated puberty          Shrinking of the testicles          Development of breasts          Bruising or marks from injection sites (shoulders, thighs, buttocks etc.) But steroid use isn’t just for men. Girls and young women use them, as well, says…

At 37 years old and the father of a newborn son, Chris Lavoie found his life turned upside-down with a diagnosis of a tumor on his thyroid. In short order, the Celebration, Florida, man had surgery to remove the thyroid and part of his vocal cord and then received the devastating news that he also had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctor said that he must go under head and neck radiation to detect the problem. Says Lavoie, “It turned out to be in early stage II.” Following his thyroid surgery, Lavoie moved on to chemotherapy and then received approximately 40 radiation treatments,…

As a personal trainer, I come into contact with young men who appear to be on anabolic steroids, typically taken to increase muscle mass and improve athletic performance. What are the signs they are using steroids and how anabolic steroids affect teens? For starters, they exhibit muscle mass that seems to be beyond “normal,” and they exhibit aggressive behavior. Other signs of steroid use in boys include:          Acne          Stunted growth          Accelerated puberty          Shrinking of the testicles          Development of breasts  …