Here’s How Khloé Kardashian Works Out

Photo: Getty Images

I have a total girl crush on Khloé Kardashian, and I don’t care who knows it. Not only does she say whatever she wants, whenever she wants, but she also has a banging body. I mean, have you seen her lately? Khloé has clearly has been hitting the gym…hard.

Even her big sis Kourtney is singing her praises; the eldest Kardashian sibling recently posted an Instagram photo with the caption: “Today’s mission: to get my butt looking like @khloekardashian’s!!”

It’s not just her toned, lifted booty that I want, though. So I went to the man responsible for whipping her whole 5’10” frame into awesome shape, Gunnar Peterson, and asked him to spill some of his master training tips to Health. Before he did, he reminded me that hard work begets a hard body. “There are no shortcuts. If there were, I would have found them by now!” says Peterson, who’s also helped sculpt a number of A-list bodies, including Jennifer Lopez, Ciara, Sofia Vergara, and Halle Berry. (He’s also worked on mine. I still remember our first workout together in 2008—it was so tough that it still gives me nightmares!)

RELATED: 6 Ways to Sculpt Like a Celeb

Keep that hard-hitting ethos in mind when you try these seven moves.

Weighted back squat

Stand with feet apart at twice your shoulder width; hold a bar across upper back with overhand grip. Push hips back and squat down. Be sure to keep knees behind toes and chest up. Complete 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “It is a multi-joint move that is very metabolic in nature,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: You want a weight heavy enough that you can’t do more than 12 to 15 reps without your form deteriorating. After those 12-15, you should stop.

Medicine ball sit-up with a press

Grab a 6-to-10-pound medicine ball with both hands and lie face-up with hands behind head. Bend knees to 90 degrees, place feet flat on the floor, and hold the medicine ball against chest. Perform a classic sit-up by raising torso into a sitting position. Press the medicine ball straight up; bring it back to chest, then lower body back to the ground. Do 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps, 2 to 3 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “The move targets the rectus abdominus, which is the sheet of muscle on your torso, in flexion, and also challenges you in extension as you press the medicine ball up and behind you,” explains Peterson.

Trainer tip: When you raise the medicine ball, lower it slightly behind your head.

RELATED: Tone Your Arms Like a Celebrity

Boxing jab

Start with feet staggered and shoulder-width apart (lead with your non-dominant leg, with the toe of your dominant foot in line with the heel of your non-dominant foot), and knees slightly bent; hold hands at face level. With power, quickly extend your fist, twisting the arm so that you land the punch with your palm facing down. This is called a jab. Quickly bring first back in and repeat motion with opposite hand. Do this for 1 to 3 minutes, 3 to 5 times during your training, 3 to 4 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “This works your core musculature, challenges balance and hand-to-eye coordination, and elevates your heart rate like a sprint,” says Peterson.

Trainer tip: Make sure your head is extended forward over your shoulders and your shoulders over your hips.

Pull-up

Stand on a plyo box or a bench under a bar. Grab bar with an overhand grip. Hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Step off front of box, coming into a dead hang. Remember to keep neck long, draw shoulder blades together, and tighten abs. Then pull body straight up, driving elbows toward rib cage. Clean the bar with your chin, pause, and then slowly lower back down. Do 3 sets of 5 to 10 rep, 2 to 3 times per week.

Why it’s effective: “This is a basic big boy (girl!) body-weight move,“ explains Peterson. “It is universal testament to true strength.”

Trainer tip: Can’t do a pull-up? Use a resistance band to help aid in the movement.

RELATED: Get the Body You Crave With Celeb-Inspired Workouts

Ab roll out

Start on all fours, knees together and hands on ab roller. Knees should be shoulder-width apart. Slowly roll forward until your chest is almost touching the floor. Pause, then reverse the motion back to start. Do 3 sets of 10 reps to start, 2 times a week.

Why it’s good: “Working the abs in extension is important in sports and real life. Crunches work in flexion, but don’t neglect extension work,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Really work on contracting your abs while you roll out.

Pull-over ab

Lie on back on an incline bench with feet flat. Hold a resistance band or towel overhead; squeeze abs and with arms extended, move arms slowly in an arc until they are in front of knees. Do 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps, 3 to 4 times a week.

Why it’s effective: “It activates and strengthens your core,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Keep arms extended throughout the entire motion.

Weighted sled pulls

Stand in front of a weighted sled; stagger feet, hinge forward at hips slightly, and place hands on sled. As you push, begin walking forward for 50 feet. Add distance or weight as you progress. If you don’t have 50 feet, go 10 feet (or whatever you have), turn around, and repeat 4 times.

Why it’s good: “It’s working on your strength and cardio simultaneously,” Peterson says.

Trainer tip: Use whatever weight challenges your heart rate.

RELATED: 4 Reasons Women Shouldn’t Fear the Weight Room

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Anti-Rape Program Halved Number of Campus Assaults: Study

By Tara Haelle
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A program aimed at teaching women how to recognize dangerous situations and resist sexual coercion almost halved the risk of rape on three college campuses, a new study shows.

“We expected that providing women with knowledge and tools could increase their ability to defend themselves and reduce the severity of the sexual violence they experience,” said study author Charlene Senn, a professor of psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. “We didn’t expect the reductions to be as dramatic as they were. Only 22 young women need to receive the program for one completed rape to be averted.”

The findings were published in the June 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

An estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of women attending universities will be sexually assaulted, with the highest risk occurring in their freshman and sophomore years, according to background information in the study.

The researchers conducted their trial at one large and two mid-sized Canadian universities with first-year female students aged 17 to 24. The 893 women in the study were randomly assigned to either attend a comprehensive rape resistance program or several sessions that simply provided women with pamphlets about sexual assault that they were encouraged to read during the meetings.

The 12-hour resistance program, conducted in four sessions, taught women how to effectively assess the risk of sexual assault by men they knew, recognize the danger in coercive situations, get past emotional roadblocks to resist unwanted sexual behaviors and practice verbally resisting the behavior or actions. The program also spent two hours teaching self-defense strategies and included several hours bringing all the instruction together in a session on safe sex practices and effective communication about sex.

The program relied on a psychological theory and past evidence, Senn said.

“There are many barriers to recognizing danger in situations where threat is not expected, such as social situations or interactions with known men,” Senn said. “The program is designed to give women the information, skills and practice they need so that they can more quickly identify a situation as dangerous, and get out or use forceful resistance if necessary.”

Based on surveys filled out a year later, just over 5 percent of the women in the resistance group had been raped, compared to nearly 10 percent of those in the comparison group. Similarly, the rate of attempted rape was 3 percent among those who received the resistance training compared to 9 percent in the comparison group.

Rape was defined as vaginal, oral or anal penetration without consent and obtained through threats, force or drugging a female, including intoxication with alcohol.

Yet, the program’s approach could be considered problematic, suggested Kathleen Basile, a lead behavioral scientist in the division of violence prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The main problem with a preventive approach that is focused on potential victims of sexual assault is that it puts the responsibility for preventing the assault on the potential victim, and does not acknowledge the role that potential perpetrators and the larger community play,” Basile said.

The most pervasive myth about sexual assault is that victims bear some of the blame because of how they dressed, what they drank or some other way they put themselves at risk, Basile said. “Sexual violence is never a victim’s fault,” she said.

Other misconceptions are that rapists are usually strangers, that false reports of rape are common and that rape is inevitable, Basile explained. In fact, most victims know their perpetrator, many rapes occur in relationships and most rapes never get reported to the police, she said.

“Prevention approaches that focus on preventing perpetration, by involving everyone in the community — including potential perpetrators, potential victims and bystanders — to change norms, skills and behaviors, are important parts of a comprehensive approach to preventing sexual violence,” Basile said.

Other programs have focused on men’s behavior, Senn said, but only a few high school programs have shown positive results and no research so far has shown that educating students about consent decreases sexual assault. Bystander programs that teach men and women to interrupt situations that could become dangerous offer the most promise, she added, but no quick fixes exist.

“We need to make stopping sexual violence everyone’s business, hold men who commit sexual violence accountable, support their victims and give women the tools they need to fight back,” Senn said.

More information

For more on reducing the risk of sexual violence, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Early CPR Spurred by Smartphone Alerts Saves Lives

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation early and using smartphone alerts to increase rates of bystander CPR can save people with cardiac arrest, two new studies find.

When CPR was started before an ambulance arrived, twice as many cardiac-arrest patients lived to leave the hospital than when CPR was delayed, researchers said. And alerting people trained in CPR that their help was needed nearby greatly increased the rate of early CPR.

“We have proved what has been thought before — that early CPR is associated with improved survival,” said lead researcher Dr. Jacob Hollenberg, from the department of cardiology at South Hospital at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

He said a mobile phone app that alerted laypeople trained in CPR that their help was needed nearby increased the rate of early CPR by 30 percent.

Both studies were published June 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Cardiac arrest, which is not the same as heart attack, occurs when the heart suddenly stops working properly. In the United States, emergency medical services respond to more than 420,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year, according to the American Heart Association.

In one of the new studies, researchers analyzed over 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in Sweden between 1990 and 2011. When CPR was started before an ambulance arrived, 10.5 percent of the patients survived at least 30 days, compared with 4 percent of patients who did not receive early CPR.

To get more trained people to the victim faster, Hollenberg’s team used a mobile-phone positioning system to locate volunteers within one-third of a mile. The alert was activated when ambulance, fire, and police were dispatched.

To test the system’s value, they alerted only some of the thousands of trained volunteers. They found that the rate of early CPR was 62 percent when volunteers were alerted by phone, compared with 48 percent when they weren’t.

Hollenberg believes this phone-alert system can be used in many countries, including the United States. “This is a way of using technology to increase bystander CPR,” he said.

The next step is to use the phone system to tell volunteers the location of the nearest defibrillator, Hollenberg said. CPR combined with early defibrillation has been shown to save more lives than CPR alone, he explained.

“People will not only be able to give CPR, but fetch the nearest defibrillator,” he said.

Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency medicine doctor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, also thinks the phone system would work in American communities.

“Currently, we train millions of people every year in CPR but have no way to integrate them into the emergency response system,” said Sasson, co-author of an accompanying journal editorial.

“If we are going to increase bystander CPR rates, we must utilize the many willing volunteers we have trained in CPR, empower them to act in an emergency situation, and most importantly make it the norm that all cardiac arrest victims have an opportunity to survive no matter where they have their arrest,” Sasson said.

Americans are accustomed to using mobile phones to find coffee, hail cabs and see if their friends are close by, she said. This use of mobile phone technology along with integration of volunteers into the 911 system may help get CPR-trained bystanders to the right place at the right time, Sasson said.

“Although we have a deeply fragmented 911 system, and concerns about liability, we must overcome these barriers and test how a mobile phone intervention, such as the one in Sweden, can help us increase the use of bystander CPR,” she said.

More information

For more on CPR, visit the American Heart Association.

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The Best Hair Removal Method for Every Body Part

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One method of hair removal does not fit all: Waxing, shaving, lasers, and depilatories all have their place (and their problems), depending on which part of your body you’re trying to bare. We asked New York City-based clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center Whitney Bowe, MD, for the scoop on what to use where for the best hair-free results.

Bikini

Stubble along the bikini line can be a constant struggle during the summer months. If you’re tempted to zap it for good, consider laser hair removal treatments from a board-certified dermatologist. You’ll need about 5 to 8 of them, and then you’ll be practically hair-free down there, barring any stray hairs that pop up down the road (those can be removed in quick yearly touch-up visits). The next best thing (and for a lot less dough): Shaving. Contrary to popular belief that a bikini wax is a must, Dr. Bowe says that shaving is actually better suited to the delicate skin in that area, and will cause less ingrown hairs than waxing. The Schick Hydro Silk TrimStyle Razor ($14, ulta.com) includes a razor and trimmer in one for all your ladyscaping needs.

RELATED: 8 Ways to Look Beautiful Bare

Underarms

As with your bikini line, the skin under your arms is thin and sensitive, making shaving your best option. Be sure to use a hydrating shave gel like eos Ultra Moisturizing Lavender Shave Cream ($4, target.com) and shave in multiple directions. That’s because hair under your arms grows in a whirled pattern, meaning the hair is pointing in all directions, Dr. Bowe says. So in order to get a close shave, swipe your razor up and down and corner to corner to make sure you snag every last hair.

Legs

There’s no secret here: Old-fashioned shaving is still your best bet. If your leg hair is very coarse and thick, though, a few rounds of laser hair removal can thin it out for more manageable upkeep (you’ll probably still need to shave, but not as much or as often). Dr. Bowe’s trick for better-looking leg-hair regrowth: Make two passes with the razor in each spot as you move across your leg. The first pass should be in the same direction as the hair growth; then swipe in the opposite direction, against the grain. This gives the hair a pointed tip (as opposed to a blunt, square tip) which will make it appear thinner as it grows back in. Look for a razor like Gillette Venus Swirl ($10, target.com) that swivels over bodily curves so you get a closer shave all over.

RELATED: Get Your Legs Ready for Summer

Upper lip

Kiss fuzz goodbye forever with laser treatments, especially if your hair is dark and coarse and difficult to remove—just a few sessions are all you need to score a hairless lip. For a more immediate solution (or, Dr. Bowe says, if you have fine, blonde hair, which is harder to pluck out), try a depilatory cream like Bliss “Fuzz” Off Facial Hair Removal Cream ($24, blissworld.com).

Eyebrows

Because each brow encompasses such a small area of fine hairs, Dr. Bowe recommends plucking or threading. These two methods give you more control than waxing or shaving, and the results last about three to four weeks. The right tool can make plucking a lot easier: The Tweezerman Mini Tweezer ($16, tweezerman.com) has a slanted tip to grab every little hair more easily, and it’s just the right size to keep in your purse for touch-ups on the go.

RELATED: Which Beauty Gizmos Really Work?

 

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Exercise, Games, Puzzles Don’t Prevent Signs of Alzheimer’s in the Brain: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Physical and mental activity don’t appear to prevent the brain from developing the telltale beta-amyloid deposits that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests.

“While it was hoped that early, or current, engagement in these sorts of activity would be protective against developing Alzheimer’s, our findings suggest that, while beneficial for overall mental health, the activity does not seem to prevent amyloid buildup,” said lead researcher Dr. Keith Johnson. He is co-director of the Neuroimaging Core at the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The report was published June 10 online in the journal Neurology.

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that causes progressive problems in thinking and memory. The exact cause of the disease remains elusive, but scientists do know that people with Alzheimer’s have what’s known as plaques and tangles in their brains. The plaques form when beta-amyloid protein deposits clump together.

Physical activities — such as bike riding, dancing, walking and gardening — and mentally stimulating activities — such as crossword puzzles and reading — have been shown in other research to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to the study authors.

For this study, Johnson and his colleagues collected data on the current and lifetime physical and mental activity of almost 200 people who didn’t have any memory or thinking problems. Their average age was 74.

People in the study had PET and MRI scans so researchers could gauge the amount of beta-amyloid deposits in their brains.

The scans also measured the brain’s metabolism and whether the part of the brain called the hippocampus was shrinking, another sign of Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, participants took tests to evaluate their thinking and mental skills.

“We found that histories of mental activity were related to overall intelligence and generally to performance on tests of mental performance,” Johnson said.

But, these activities weren’t related to the presence of Alzheimer’s disease markers, such as beta-amyloid deposits in the brain, he said.

In fact, although people who kept their brains busy with stimulating mental activities had higher IQs and better mental performance compared with those who did not often take part in such activities, researchers found no relationship between mental or physical activity and signs of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.

Johnson acknowledged that the study was limited because it didn’t follow people over a long time to see what changes might occur in the brain. The study also asked people to recall activities they’d done in the past. He said studies that follow people’s activities over a long period are needed to confirm these findings.

Despite the current results, Johnson said that a lifetime of physical and mental activity may help keep the brain sharper with age. He also stressed that these findings should not be taken as a reason to not keep mentally and physically active, since other studies have shown these can benefit the brain.

Dr. Sam Gandy, director of the Center for Cognitive Health at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said that mental function is far more important than amyloid plaque in the brain.

“No one comes in to see a doctor complaining that their head is full of amyloid,” he said.

“The mechanisms underlying the mental benefit of physical and mental activity may well have more to do with how the brain copes with pathology [disease] and less about controlling how much pathology is present,” he said.

It would be nice if physical and mental exercise helped reduce amyloid plaque as well, and some studies find exercise is especially effective in reducing plaque in people with an APOE4 gene mutation (a gene linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease), Gandy said.

“But mental function is the most important benefit by far,” he said. “People should still exercise and use their brains.”

More information

For more information on Alzheimer’s disease, visit the Alzheimer’s Association.

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Blood Proteins May Provide Early Clue to Alzheimer’s

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Certain brain proteins can be detected in the blood of people long before they develop Alzheimer’s disease and may offer a way to diagnose and treat the disease earlier, a new study suggests.

The proteins — called lysosomal proteins — play a role in the removal of damaged nerve cell material. The researchers discovered that blood levels of these proteins were higher in people with normal memory and thinking abilities up to 10 years before they developed Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings were published online June 10 in the journal Neurology.

“These proteins are in very tiny nerve cell-derived blood particles called exosomes,” study author Dr. Edward Goetzl explained in a journal news release. “Abnormal levels of the proteins may be useful [signals] that could help us study early treatments to limit or reverse the damage to brain cells and even prevent the development of the full-blown disease.”

Goetzl is professor of medicine with the University of California, San Francisco, and a researcher at the U.S. National Institute on Aging.

To find the proteins, Goetzl and his colleagues looked at blood samples taken from 20 people who later went on to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The blood samples were taken up to 10 years before the people were diagnosed with the disease, the researchers said. They also looked at blood samples from people who already had Alzheimer’s disease and people with a different type of dementia. Then they compared these samples to blood samples from 46 healthy people.

“The results also show us that there are major abnormalities in how these proteins function in brain cells, which could potentially provide a new target for treatments,” added Goetzl, who’s also a scientist at NanoSomiX Inc., a California-based biotechnology company that provided funding for the study.

“These results may help improve our understanding of how lysosomes function in Alzheimer’s disease and may help us understand how the brain responds to the developing disease,” he said.

Still, Goetzl noted, this was an early study with only a small number of patients. He added that the findings need to be confirmed in larger studies.

One Alzheimer’s expert agreed that the findings are early, but promising.

“This is a small study with powerful implications,” said Dr. Allison Reiss, head of the Inflammation Section at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

“We know that the groundwork for Alzheimer’s disease is laid many years before symptoms appear, but predictive tests to tell us who will develop the disease have not yet been developed,” Reiss explained.

“More work is necessary, but these results are an encouraging first step,” she said. “The ability to detect incipient Alzheimer’s disease opens up an opportunity to change the course of this devastating disorder.”

Another expert said the work is promising, but it’s too early to be of use to the average person, given that there are currently no effective ways to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease.

“I would advise against routine screening [using this test],” said Dr. Paul Wright, chair of neurology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

“I feel that having information that you may develop Alzheimer’s 10 years from now would result in a significant psychological burden,” he said. “This may result in depression and potentially a detrimental change in lifestyle. Routine screening would be more appropriate if a cure was available and early recognition was critical.”

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about Alzheimer’s disease.

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8 Strategies for Staying Fit When You’re Super Busy

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Wouldn’t it be nice to have every day be one of those “perfect” days? You know, the kind of day that includes a peaceful walk in the park, a heart-pounding workout, a playful few hours with the kids, and healthy, delicious eats at each meal—all the good stuff, in other words.

While somewhere in a far off land that may be reality, here on planet Earth, it’s not. Most of us spend our days meeting deadlines at work, shuffling the kids to and from school (and soccer practice, ballet, and baseball too), and hoping to have the chance to actually sit down for a meal.

Finding the time to work out and cook healthy meals is easily pushed to the wayside in our ordinary, busy lives. But sneaking it in isn’t impossible if you prioritize it. Fortunately, I’ve found some no-fail, simple strategies that will help keep you on track, no matter what life’s throwing at you.

RELATED: 11 Secrets to All-Day Energy

Here are my top 8 everyday tips that work for busy people (aka, everyone).

Drink Water

We’ve all heard this one before, but how many of us actually put it into action? Drink a big glass of water upon waking in the morning, and then keep a bottle with you throughout the day. By always having water on hand, you’ll be more likely to skip soda or other sugary beverages, which saves you a ton of calories. Bonus: staying hydrated can help keep you focused during those busy days.

RELATED: 15 Surprising Causes of Dehydration

Plan ahead

On Sundays, schedule an hour or two (just like you would for any appointment) for prepping some easy snacks and meals to get you and your family through the week. While that might seem like a long time, it will save you many more hours during the week. And it will help you and your family avoid just ordering greasy takeout.

You don’t have to do anything fancy, even just prepping the basics can help. Try cooking or grilling a bunch of chicken breasts, chopping up assorted fruits and veggies so they’re ready to be cooked or snacked on. When you’re short on time, you’ll have a few things ready to whip up quickly.

It’s also a good idea to portion out small baggies of nuts and trail mix so that you always have healthy snacks ready, too.

Spread it out

While you should aim to get a workout in a few days per week, sometimes it isn’t possible. On days when you don’t have an hour for the gym, make sure to move more throughout the day. You can do this by playing with your kids, taking the stairs, and walking instead of driving to close-by errands.

To get your strength moves in, do squats while you’re waiting for water to boil, lunge from room to room instead of walking, and hammer out a few quick tricep dips on the couch every time you pass by. These little things add up quickly, and trust me after the third pass of the couch, you will definitely feel the burn.

RELATED: The Summer Body Tone-Up Workout

Read about your health

Looking for some quick motivation? Whether it’s clicking articles like this one, scanning health news headlines or even keeping a motivating or interesting body book on your nightstand, reading about health and fitness can help keep your head in the game by keeping healthy living top of mind, which in turn helps you to make better decisions without really having to think about it.

Sleep!

This is another one we hear all too often, but rarely enforce. Being tired raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and this boost has been linked to overeating. Set a bedtime for yourself and do your absolute best to tuck yourself in right on time. You’ll notice an improvement in not only your decision-making, but your patience, workouts, and work quality as well.

RELATED: 20 Things You Shouldn’t Do Before Bed

Carry snacks

Remember those portioned trail mixes you made a head of time? Bring them with you everywhere. By eating every few hours (even if it’s just a few bites), it will help to ward off intense cravings for junk food. Try keeping a few snacks in your purse or car, so you always have them.

Take 5

While it can be hard on some days (hello, screaming toddler and crying infant!), sometimes just taking 5 minutes to step outside and take a few deep breaths is all you  need to center yourself and re-group. If you can, try for 10-15 minutes and take a quick walk around the block while you’re at it. (Every step counts, remember.)

Don’t beat yourself up

Repeat after me: perfect isn’t possible. The healthiest people are those that have found balance, not perfection. If you find yourself in a weak moment, eating chocolate chips straight out of the bag, don’t spend the next hour beating yourself up over it. Enjoy the chocolate, think about how you could have handled the situation differently next time, and move on with your life. Life is too short and sweet to dwell on those small instances. Plus, sometimes a girl just needs to let go with some chocolate, and maybe a glass of wine, too.

RELATED: 27 Healthy Chocolate Recipes

Liked this article? Check out 5 Tricks to Burn More Calories and Keep Improving

Jennifer Cohen is a leading fitness authority, TV personality, entrepreneur and best-selling author of the new book, Strong is the New Skinny. With her signature, straight-talking approach to wellness, Jennifer was the featured trainer on The CW’s Shedding for the Wedding, mentoring the contestants’ to lose hundreds of pounds before their big day, and she appears regularly on NBC’s Today Show, Extra, The Doctors and Good Morning America. Connect with Jennifer on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and on Pinterest.

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Smiling Can Lead to New Relationships

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A genuine smile may help you form a new friendship or romantic partnership, a new study suggests.

That’s because people seem to respond much better to positive emotions when forming new personal bonds than to negative vibes such as sadness, anger or contempt, according to the researchers.

However, don’t try to fake a smile to win someone over, because people can easily identify whether a smile is sincere.

In one experiment, the researchers found that dating couples could accurately track their partners’ positive emotions. A second experiment found that participants tended to feel closer to strangers who displayed positive emotions, and were drawn to positive feelings almost instinctively.

The investigators also found that people display positive emotions with a so-called Duchenne smile, which involves simultaneous movement of two facial muscles around the eyes and cheeks and primarily occurs when people are sincere and happy.

Others see this type of smile as sincere and it helps with social bonding. People are highly aware of this type of smile and are good at “reading” a fake smile,” according to study leader Belinda Campos of the University of California, Irvine.

The study was published recently in the journal Motivation and Emotion.

“Our findings provide new evidence of the significance of positive emotions in social settings and highlight the role that positive emotions display in the development of new social connections. People are highly attuned to the positive emotions of others and can be more attuned to others’ positive emotions than negative emotions,” Campos said in a journal news release.

More information

Mental Health America explains the importance of connecting with others.

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Most Americans Waste More Food Than They Know

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most Americans waste more food than they believe, and only one in 10 worries about the environmental harm posed by discarded food, a new study shows.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,000 consumers across the nation in April 2014. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they believed they wasted less food than the national average, according to the findings published June 10 in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Americans perceive themselves as wasting very little food, but in reality, we are wasting substantial quantities,” said study leader Roni Neff, director of the Food System Sustainability and Public Health Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“It happens throughout the food chain, including both a lot of waste by consumers, and a lot on our behalf, when businesses think we won’t buy imperfect food. The root causes are complex,” said Neff in a Hopkins news release.

Between 31 and 40 percent of the American food supply goes to waste, primarily in homes, stores and restaurants, according to the researchers. By weight, the top foods wasted are fruits and vegetables, partly due to their bulk and perishability.

Each year, food waste costs Americans more than $161 billion, the researchers say.

The top reasons respondents gave for wasting food were safety concerns and a desire to eat only the freshest food. The leading reasons they wanted to waste less food were saving money and setting a positive example for children.

Only 10 percent of respondents said that environmental concerns were a “very important” reason for not wasting food.

“The survey results are especially relevant for three groups. For educators working to reduce food waste, a key finding is that highlighting financial savings may resonate more with consumers than other types of messaging. But there is still a need to explain the environmental effects of wasting food,” Neff said.

For policymakers, the findings suggest a need to making date labels clear and consistent, and to encode sell-by labels so they do not mislead consumers, Neff added. “And for businesses, the survey highlights changes consumers want, like offering resealable bags and smaller product sizes, and discounting damaged or near-expiration foods,” she explained.

“Consumer waste of food in the U.S. represents a powerful quintuple threat,” Neff said. “Reducing it may improve food security, nutrition, budgets, environment and public health.”

More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains how to reduce food waste.

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Popular Heartburn Meds Linked to Higher Risk of Heart Attack

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 10, 2015 (HealthDay News) — People who use certain heartburn drugs for a long period of time may have a slightly heightened risk of suffering a heart attack, a new study suggests.

Using medical records from nearly 300,000 U.S. adults with acid reflux disease (commonly called heartburn), researchers found that the risk of heart attack was slightly elevated among those using proton pump inhibitors.

Proton pump inhibitors are a group of acid-suppressing drugs that include brand-names such as Prevacid, Prilosec and Nexium. In 2009, they were the third most commonly used type of drug in the United States, the researchers said.

The study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, does not prove the drugs cause heart attack. And experts were divided over what to make of the connection.

Another class of heartburn drug — so-called H2-blockers — was not linked to any increase in heart attack risk, the study authors noted.

Those medications include brands like Zantac, Pepcid and Tagamet.

Some said the findings add to the list of risks linked to prolonged use of proton pump inhibitors.

“These are powerful drugs, and we already know they have negative effects,” said Dr. F. Paul Buckley III, surgical director at the Scott & White Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center, in Round Rock, Texas.

Most of those long-term risks are linked to the drug’s suppression of stomach acids, said Buckley, who was not involved in the new study.

When stomach acids are blocked, the body is less able to absorb certain nutrients, including magnesium, calcium and vitamin B12. And proton pump inhibitors have been linked to problems such as bone-density loss and fractures.

Some research has also suggested the medications can interact with the clot-preventing drug Plavix, lowering its effectiveness.

In this latest study, though, the link between proton pump inhibitors and heart attacks was independent of Plavix use, said researcher Dr. John Cooke, chair of cardiovascular sciences at the Houston Methodist Research Institute.

Overall, his team estimates, proton pump inhibitor users were 16 percent to 21 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than people with chronic acid reflux who were not taking the drugs.

That link does not prove cause-and-effect, Cooke acknowledged. “You have to be cautious with observational data like this,” he said. “There could be other explanations.”

For one, people on proton pump inhibitors may be in worse health than non-users. Cooke said his team could not account for obesity, or the possibility that some people with heart-related chest pain were mistakenly treated for acid reflux instead.

Cooke said recent lab research suggests that proton pump inhibitors can interfere with normal blood vessel function — a potential mechanism by which the drugs could affect heart attack risk.

However, a cardiologist said that while the study is “interesting,” he was not convinced it points to a risk from proton pump inhibitors.

“This is an association, and not cause-and-effect,” said Dr. Venu Menon, of the Cleveland Clinic. “And I think it’s more likely the association comes from confounding factors.”

“Confounding” refers to those other potential explanations — such as proton pump inhibitor users being in poorer health than non-users.

One issue, said Menon, is that the findings are based on patient records, including doctors’ notes. That type of information is not the best source for linking a drug to a negative effect, he said.

A study that followed proton pump inhibitors users over time, specifically tracking heart attack risk, would offer better evidence, Menon added.

“It would not be judicious to have patients stop taking these drugs based on this study,” Menon said.

All three experts agreed that some people need proton pump inhibitors — including those with true gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) that is causing inflammation in the throat.

In GERD, stomach acids chronically back up into the esophagus, causing frequent heartburn and difficulty swallowing.

But many people take proton pump inhibitors for less-severe problems, such as occasional heartburn that crops up after eating certain foods. They could do well with diet changes, losing weight, or taking simple antacids such as Rolaids or Tums, Buckley said.

Cooke agreed, and said he is troubled by the fact that proton pump inhibitors are available over-the-counter. “I’m concerned that people are taking them for the wrong reasons, and for too long,” Cooke said.

Yet even when people need a proton pump inhibitor initially, Buckley said, they can try weaning themselves off the drugs once their symptoms improve. “We can often back them down to an H2 blocker,” he said.

Long-time users, Buckley added, should ask their doctor, “Do I really need to be on this medication?”

The study was published online June 10 in the journal PLOS One.

More information

The Choosing Wisely initiative has more on treating heartburn.

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