Health Articles by Kathy Summers

Mind Over Anxiety
American Legion Magazine
Whether it’s the economy, the traffic, or a speech you have to give, stressful situations are a fact of life you can’t control. Carrying around too much stress can harm your health.Fortunately, changing how you react to the stress in your life can ease the effects.

Getting Healthy Together
Natural Health (cover story)
We’re connected to our families by more than just our genes. We breathe the same air, drink the same water, and eat the same meals. All that sharing means we have enormous influence, for better or for worse, on each others health …

Keep Your Family Healthy
Natural Health
Bad habits — like skipping breakfast, not sleeping enough, not talking to each other, or watching TV nonstop — can affect the whole family. But better choices are habit forming, too. Here’s how to make positive changes that will affect your whole family.

The Green Pregnancy: 5 Steps to Going Green
Fit Pregnancy (cover story)
When you’re pregnant, living a green lifestyle takes on a new importance. It’s not about following trends to ease eco-guilt. It’s about creating a world your baby can grow and thrive in. Your body is your child’s first environment. Here’s how to make it safe …

Tired? Try Some Sushi
Health Magazine
A common thyroid gland disorder can pile on pounds, sap your energy, and leave you achy, bloated, and moody. the problem: hypothyroidism, or when you’re low on thyroid hormones. Experts now think lifestyle changes–even a little sushi …

The Path to Endurance
Experience Life Magazine (cover story)
Jim Vranas isn’t the kind of guy who just sits around. The 82-year-old World War II veteran and scientific glassblower (he made the first glass model of the DNA molecule) has always been on the go. That is, until about a month after …

Eating for Energy
Experience Life Magazine
If you’re running on empty, drop the candy bar and fuel up on healthy foods that keep you going strong. Making a few small changes in the way you eat can free up reserves of energy you didn’t realize you had. Once you understand how your current habits undermine your energy, you’ll know exactly how to turn your fuel crisis around …

Lost in Translation
Natural Solutions (cover story)
In Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman wrote, “I sing the body electric,” and he was right about one thing: The body’s electrical messages to the brain-not the brain itself-color our world. But what if your body’s messages misfire …

Joint Venture
Experience Life (Cover story)
Degenerative joint disease can cause debilitating pain, loss of mobility and function, even severe disability. But what if you’re just starting to suffer from a little wear and tear? Here’s how to work with your joints-not against them …

The Science of Sleepwalking
Pediatrics for Parents
Sleepwalking usually begins during the preschool years, continues through elementary school, and is mostly outgrown by adolescence. Though sleepwalking seems to run in families, until now scientists didn’t know why …

It’s In Your Genes
Natural Solutions
We all know we need to eat our vegetables, but do some of us need extra servings of spinach to stay healthy while others get by on tomato-based condiments? Nutrigenomics–the science of how the chemicals in food interact with our genes–may be the missing piece of the puzzle that explains the role of genes and diet in causing diseases …

White-Coat Hypertension
Natural Solutions
If you’re so nervous during a medical checkup that your blood pressure skyrockets, you may have what’s known as white-coat hypertension. That means your blood pressure may only be high temporarily when your doctor tests it …

Fertility Piques
Shape
Have you ever criticized a female friend’s looks to a man? If so, you might have been ovulating and unconsciously motivated by survival-of-the-species issues. Women often dis the competition during their most fertile time of the month, a York University. New research explains why …

Maybe What We Need is a Nap
The American Legion
What is this stuff called sleep? Is it the “chief nourisher in life’s feast,” as Shakespeare declared in the Macbeth eulogy–the one where “sleep knits up the raveled sleave of care”? Or is sleep simply a poor substitute for caffeine, as today’s hectic lifestyles suggest …

Diabetes Dos and Don’ts: 10 Sugar Free Tips
Prevention
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, you’ll want to make some changes to help you get the best out of life. The good news is you now know what’s causing some of your symptoms. What you do–and don’t do–can go a long way to preventing or slowing complications of the disease. That means finally following that to-do list for better eating and exercising …

Take Life Easy: 3 more reasons to let go of stress
Reader’s Digest
A stress-induced hormone rush is the right response, when you’re running for your life. On a daily basis, though, scientists say strong reactions to stressful situations can cause heart disease, premature aging, and death. To stress the point, this article looks at the health effects of everyday life …

The Chemo Conundrum
Natural Solutions
Think chemotherapy, and hair loss often comes to mind. But loss of appetite, a far more serious problem, often accompanies treatment as well. Both chemo and radiation therapy cause cancer patients to become underweight and malnourished, drained of the energy and strength they need to heal. Here’s how to stay healthy when robbed of essential nutrients …

You Snooze, You Win
Natural Solutions
As we rush to meet life’s demands, we often miss out on badly needed beauty sleep. Instead of drifting off to dreamland, we toss and turn and then wake up the next morning looking bedraggled, with a sallow complexion, sagging posture, and puffy dark-rimmed eyes. But is there any real science behind the myth of beauty sleep …

Healing under Pressure
Natural Solutions
Last summer I broke the neck of my femur clear through (technically a hip fracture) when my horse launched me like a rubber band into the dirt. Instead of a hip replacement, the orthopedic surgeon recommended hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Research shows this peculiar therapy may heal bones, brains, bruising, and more …

Heading Off Hair Loss
Natural Solutions
The men in my family stoically accepted their early hair loss. Finding no suitable alternative, my father and brother compensate by sporting dashing beards. But when my mother’s once thick hair began to thin, she anxiously searched for a better solution …

Holistic Health Insurance? Here’s What’s Covered
Natural Solutions
If you’re like 62 percent of Americans, you use some form of complementary and alternative medicine. In fact, a Harvard Medical School survey says Americans make about 425 million visits a year to holistic providers. But do you know which of those your policy covers …

Trail Fix
Natural Solutions
Summer has a way of unleashing a dog lover’s adventurous nature–lucky for dogs. But runs, hikes, and all-out romps in the wild put your dog at risk for minor mishaps. Here’s how to treat your trail-buddy’s bumps, bruises, and abrasions with low-tech fixes you can toss into your day-pack …

Out of the Bag
Natural Solutions
For cats and dogs, raw meat has its rewards. But if hunting down fresh game isn’t on your to-do list, you can cart home the next best thing from the health food market. Good commercial food does exist, but you have to know what to look for. Here’s how to support your pet’s inner predator–even with commercial chow …