Two Vaccines Every Pregnant Woman Should Get

Photo: Getty Images

When you’re pregnant, you pay extra-close attention to nearly everything you put into your body, from a tuna fish sandwich to everyday pain medication. So you might also feel extra nervous about getting a flu shot or other vaccines. But some vaccines are actually crucial during pregnancy: “Being immunized not only protects the health of a pregnant woman, it protects her baby from the day it’s born,” says Sonja Rasmussen, MD, editor-in-chief of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Thanks to antibodies that are passed from mother to baby in utero, getting certain vaccines when you’re pregnant can actually help defend your newborn from potentially deadly diseases. Keep yourself and your baby healthy by getting these two shots:

RELATED: Adult Vaccines: What You Need and When

Influenza (aka flu)

Flu vaccines are recommended for everyone 6 months and older, including pregnant women. Pregnant women get sicker from the flu and are especially vulnerable to complications from the flu, including hospitalization and death.

Getting the flu while pregnant can also lead to preterm birth, low birth weight, and other problems for the baby. Yet only about 50% of women get vaccinated during pregnancy, Dr. Rasmussen noted recently at a press event sponsored by the March of Dimes.

That stat is all the more alarming considering that a flu vaccine not only protects the mother, it also protects her baby from getting the flu up to 6 months (the age at which babies can be vaccinated themselves). And infants under 6 months are at especially high risk of complications from the flu, such as pneumonia.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also urges all pregnant women to get a flu shot, during any stage of pregnancy. (Pregnant women should not get the nasal spray form of the flu vaccine, which contains a weakened live virus.)

RELATED: 10 Biggest Myths About the Flu

Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis)

Pertussis (the “p” in Tdap), otherwise known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious illness that causes violent, uncontrollable coughing. It can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia and trouble breathing, especially in infants and young children. (Listen to this super scary recording of a baby with whooping cough at Sounds of Pertussis.)

Recent years have seen a surge of whooping cough cases, peaking in 2012 with nearly 50,000 cases reported to the CDC. There were also 20 deaths, the majority of them babies younger than 3 months old.

Because of these dangers, experts now advise that pregnant women get a Tdap vaccine during every pregnancy. Research shows that Tdap is safe during pregnancy and helps protect babies until they are old enough to be vaccinated themselves (starting at 2 months). Yet only 14% of pregnant women get a pertussis vaccine, Dr. Rasmussen says.

Ideally, you should get Tdap during the third trimester—but no later than 36 weeks, to allow at least 2 weeks for your body to build up the maximum levels of protective antibodies, says Dr. Rasmussen. Your antibodies will decrease over time, so if you get pregnant again, you’ll need another Tdap dose to protect that baby, too.

For even more protection, make sure your partner and anyone else who’ll come into regular contact with your baby (grandparents, siblings, caregivers) has been vaccinated, too. The health of your baby is worth it.

RELATED: 7 Kinds of Cough and What They Might Mean

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Scientists Discover How ‘Bad’ Fat Can Turn Into ‘Good’ Fat

TUESDAY, Aug. 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Unhealthy white fat can be transformed into calorie-burning brown fat, researchers report.

Finding a way to burn calories without having to increase physical activity levels could prove crucial in fighting obesity and the health problems it causes, according to researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Previous studies have shown that when brown fat is “switched on” in people, it increases metabolism and lowers blood sugar levels.

This study found that white fat in people can be turned into brown fat, but only after severe and prolonged adrenaline-releasing stress. Specifically, the switch from white to brown fat was found in patients who suffered severe burns over about half of their bodies.

The study was published in the Aug. 4 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.

“Our study provides proof of concept that browning of white fat is possible in humans. The next step is to identify the mechanisms underpinning this effect and then to develop drugs that mimic the burn-induced effect,” study author Labros Sidossis, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said in a university news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about brown fat.

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FDA Approves First Pill Made by 3D Printing

TUESDAY, Aug. 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The age of 3D printing has come to the drug industry, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approving the first pill made with the technology.

The agency approved the prescription drug Spritam (levetiracetam) as a 3D-printed pill, to be taken with other medicines for seizures in certain children and adults with epilepsy.

According to a news release from Ohio-based Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, the drug is made using a 3D printing method called ZipDose Technology, which produces a porous pill that rapidly disintegrates with a sip of liquid.

3D printing has already been used to make medical devices, but Spritam is the first 3D-printed drug to be approved for sale in the United States. It is expected to be available early next year.

Experts say 3D printing of pills could usher in an era where drugs can be custom-ordered, based on specific patient needs, rather than a “one-product-fits-all” approach.

“For the last 50 years we have manufactured tablets in factories and shipped them to hospitals and for the first time this process means we can produce tablets much closer to the patient,” Dr. Mohamed Albed Alhnan, a lecturer in pharmaceutics at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, explained in an interview with BBC News.

By making slight adjustments to the software before printing, hospitals could adjust the dose for individual patients, he said. Without 3D printing, such personalized medicine would be extremely costly.

In clinical trials of Spritam, the most common side effects included sleepiness, weakness, dizziness and infection. In children, other common side effects included tiredness, aggressive behavior, nasal congestion, irritability and decreased appetite.

Nearly 3 million Americans have diagnosed epilepsy, including 460,000 children.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about epilepsy.

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Mindfulness Therapy Might Help Ease PTSD

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Mindfulness therapy seems to help veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study suggests.

Mindfulness encourages those suffering from PTSD not to avoid disturbing thoughts, feelings and experiences, but rather to accept them and put them in perspective. The approach may help those who aren’t doing well using existing treatments, said lead researcher Melissa Polusny, a staff psychologist from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

“Mindfulness-based stress reduction teaches individuals to attend to the present moment, to attend to what they are experiencing — their thoughts, their feelings — in a nonjudgmental, accepting manner,” she said.

“We think that teaching people these mindfulness skills helps them to have a different relationship with their PTSD symptoms — a willingness to let thoughts be there without trying to push them away,” Polusny said.

As mindfulness skills increased, patients showed improvement in PTSD symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks of the traumatic event and avoiding things that might remind them of the traumatic event. In addition, patients experienced improvements in irritability, depression and quality of life, Polusny said.

“People feel that they don’t have control over these distressing memories, but teaching skills that allow a different way of interacting with those thoughts and feelings gives veterans a different way of dealing with those PTSD symptoms,” she explained.

Mindfulness therapy might be a gentler way for people to confront the trauma that resulted in PTSD, Polusny said. Other exposure-based treatments that make patients relive the trauma are also very effective in treating PTSD, she said.

“But some people have difficulty tolerating them and have difficulty completing them. Mindfulness stress reduction may offer a milder form of exposure that might be more tolerable for some patients,” she said.

The report was published Aug. 4 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For the study, Polusny and colleagues randomly assigned 116 veterans with PTSD to nine sessions of either mindfulness-based stress-reduction therapy or present-centered group therapy, which focused on current life problems.

The researchers found that during treatment and in the two months following, mindfulness-based stress-reduction therapy improved PTSD symptoms more than present-centered group therapy did.

In fact, those who had mindfulness-based stress-reduction therapy experienced a 49 percent reduction in PTSD symptoms, compared with a 28 percent reduction in symptoms among those who had present-centered group therapy.

However, neither therapy is a cure. People in both groups still suffered from PTSD after therapy, Polusny said.

PTSD affects 23 percent of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, the researchers said. Untreated, it is associated with high rates of other problems, such as alcohol and drug abuse, disability and poor quality of life.

Simon Rego, director of cognitive behavior therapy training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said, “The results themselves are interesting, but not very surprising.”

“Given that the goal of the mindfulness-based stress-reduction program was to teach the participants to attend to the present moment in a nonjudgmental and accepting way, it would make sense that participants would find the program beneficial,” he said.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction allows people to develop new skills that include observing, describing, acting with awareness, not judging and not reacting, to manage their inner experience, thoughts, images, emotions and physical states. This is similar to the goal of the two current first-line PTSD treatments with veterans — prolonged exposure and cognitive-processing therapy, which force patients to face the troubling experiences they had, Rego said.

“Although there is not yet enough evidence to suggest that mindfulness-based stress reduction should supplant the two current first-line treatments for PTSD, the results offer some hope that there may be another credible alternative emerging in the treatment of PTSD that is also acceptable to veterans,” he said.

Rego thinks that mindfulness-based stress reduction might help anyone with PTSD who avoids or cannot tolerate trauma-focused therapy.

“In the meantime, clinicians should continue to offer treatments for PTSD starting with those that have the greatest amount of empirical support,” he said. “However, if those first-line treatments fail or are rejected, then it is important to have available additional treatment options, and it appears that mindfulness-based stress reduction warrants inclusion in this group.”

More information

Visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health for more on PTSD.

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U.S. Violent Crime Rate Drops Significantly Since 1980s

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Violent crime rates have decreased dramatically over the past three decades, largely due to crime prevention efforts that focus on the root causes of violence, researchers say.

Murders in the United States have dropped by more than half, from a peak of 10.7 per 100,000 persons in 1980 to 5.1 per 100,000 in 2013, a new study revealed.

Aggravated assaults also have declined, from a peak of 442 per 100,000 in 1992 to 242 per 100,000 in 2012. And the percentage of assaults that result in death has been halved since the 1960s, the study reported.

Findings from the study are published in the Aug. 4 issue of JAMA.

Researchers chalk up the reduction to improved coordination between the criminal justice system, social services and public health officials.

By helping children and adults affected by violence or crime, officials are breaking the cycle that can lead victims to become victimizers, said lead author Dr. Debra Houry, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’re encouraged that we are seeing rates of severe violence decrease,” Houry said. “It really speaks to the fact that violence is preventable, and we can do something about it.”

However, there’s still much room for improvement. Despite these decreases, every year there are more than 16,000 homicides and 1.6 million assault injuries that require treatment in emergency departments, the researchers found.

Experts also are concerned that we don’t know the true extent of the violence occurring around us, due to lack of reporting.

For example, more than 12 million adults experience domestic violence annually and more than 10 million children younger than 18 years of age experience maltreatment ranging from neglect to sexual abuse, but only a small percentage of these violent incidents are reported to an official, researchers said.

“You’ve got a lot of questions about what is really reported, and what is really going on,” said Daniel Flannery, director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Violence began declining in the 1980s and 1990s as efforts shifted away from a lock-them-up mentality to an approach that emphasizes prevention, Houry said.

“Violence is really interconnected,” she said. “For example, if you are a victim of child abuse, you might go on to perpetrate youth violence or partner violence. So if you can impact one type of violence through prevention, you can decrease other types of violence.”

As experts have gathered evidence on tactics that work best, they have been able to refine and hone programs aimed at preventing violence, Houry and Flannery said.

They’ve found that the most effective violence prevention strategies include parent and family-focused programs, early childhood education, school-based programs, and therapeutic or counseling interventions, the study said.

For example, a systematic review of early childhood home visitation programs found a 39 percent reduction in episodes of child abuse, compared with families not participating in the program.

“It’s not just an individual person issue, it’s not just a family issue, it’s not just a neighborhood issue, it’s not just a policy issue,” Flannery said. “It’s all of these things combined. Violence is a complicated social problem. You can’t just address it from one level, nor can you address it effectively from one system.”

Law enforcement and courts have started working more closely with social services, child protective services and public health officials, which has helped get at the roots of violent crime, Flannery and Houry said.

Examples include the advent of drug courts and mental health courts, programs where kids exposed to violence are provided counseling, and initiatives that steer juvenile offenders away from jail and into treatment programs, they both noted.

“We have a program here that we’ve been tracking kids for about 10 years where they get diverted into community-based treatment, as opposed to the juvenile prisons here in Ohio,” Flannery said. “We’ve seen a significant reduction in the prison population, but also improvement in things like trauma symptoms and substance abuse and rates of offending.”

But there’s one huge hole in America’s approach to preventing violence, Flannery pointed out — few efforts are focused on the role of firearms in violent crime. Even the new report provided scant information on gun-related violence.

“That’s a hot topic, but yes, I think we haven’t been doing research on this for a bunch of policy-related reasons,” he said, adding that President Barack Obama has issued executive orders that should jump-start research into firearms violence.

More information

For more information on violence prevention, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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More Evidence That Kids of Gay Parents Do Just Fine

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 4, 2015 (HealthDay News) — On the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, new research suggests that children raised by gay parents are well-adjusted and resilient.

The four new studies to be presented later this week at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto set out to assess the psychological and sociological health of children raised by same-sex couples.

One study looked at the experience of 49 preadolescent youngsters adopted by either two-dad or two-mom households. The children’s average age was 8.

Led by Rachel Farr, a research assistant professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, researchers interviewed both children and parents. Nearly 80 percent of the boys and girls said they felt “different” from other children because of their parents’ status, the study found.

But less than 60 percent felt they had been stigmatized because of their same-sex family structure. And 70 percent appeared to respond to adversity with resilience, demonstrating an upbeat attitude about their family, the researchers found.

“Feeling different and experiencing some challenges with peers were not necessarily impacting children negatively,” Farr said. “Rather, the majority of children described very positive feelings about their families and had ways of coping with peers who seemed confused or expressed negativity about having two moms or two dads.”

She added that the results “may be important for parents and teachers in promoting children’s positive sense of self and family identity through supportive discussion of family diversity at home and at school.”

A second study compared rates of anxiety and/or depression among 3- to 10-year-olds raised by 68 gay male couples with those of youngsters raised by 68 heterosexual parents.

The team led by Robert-Jay Green, a retired professor of clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco, found that all of the children were psychologically healthy.

Though both sets of parents were similar by most socioeconomic measures, daughters raised by two gay dads experienced less anxiety and depression overall than daughters raised by a mother and father, investigators found.

A third study — led by Henny Bos, an assistant professor in behavioral and social sciences at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands — found that 17-year-olds raised in households without a male role model were not psychologically maladjusted and appeared to engage in gender-appropriate behavior.

Bos’ team compared 38 teens raised by two-mom families that included a male role model with 40 raised by lesbian couples without a male presence. Both groups showed similar displays of expected feminine or masculine gender roles.

A fourth study set out to compare the experiences of same-sex parents and heterosexual parents as they interacted with American kindergarten schoolteachers. The study, led by Abbie Goldberg of Clark University in Worcester, Mass., included 30 gay, 40 lesbian and 45 straight couples who were raising adopted children.

Roughly nine in 10 of the same-sex couples said they had discussed their family status with school personnel. And three-quarters of them said their status prompted no “major challenge” when dealing with their child’s school.

Goldberg, an associate professor of psychology, said the findings were surprising in that “higher levels of disclosure about sexuality and lower levels of perceived stigma” were reported than in older studies.

The finding “likely reflects the passing of time and increased acceptance of LGB [lesbian, gay and bisexual] families,” she said.

Nevertheless, Goldberg noted that “the instances of adoption stigma that were reported are troubling, and suggest that many educators need training in adoptive families.”

More information

There’s more on sexual orientation and parenting at American Psychological Association.

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Why Ronda Rousey Is the Body Image Role Model We Need

Photo: Getty Images

Ronda Rousey knows how to knock people out—in more ways than one.

The champion UFC fighter took down the previously undefeated fighter Bethe Correia on August 1st to win UFC 190. Rousey is known for swiftly beating her opponents (a fight back in March lasted just 14 seconds before Rousey was crowned the victor), and this match was no different, ending in just 34 seconds.

RELATED: 11 Best Exercises to Get Strong, Toned Arms

But Rousey also stuns outside of the ring, particularly as a positive body image role model.

The fighter modeled for Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Swimsuit Issue back in February, and talked about why it was so important to her to be featured.

“I was so happy to have this opportunity because I really do believe that there shouldn’t be one cookie cutter body type that everyone is aspiring to be,” she told SI in a behind-the-scenes video.

And in a recent interview with Cosmopolitan.com, Rousey revealed that she chose to gain weight before her photo shoot with SI.

RELATED: The 5 Best Things Kelly Clarkson Has Said About Body Positivity

“I felt like I was much too small for a magazine that is supposed to be celebrating the epitome of a woman,” she explained. “I wanted to be at my most feminine shape, and I don’t feel my most attractive at 135 pounds, which is the weight I fight at. At 150 pounds, I feel like I’m at my healthiest and my strongest and my most beautiful.”

Right on! But she wasn’t always so comfortable with her weight. As a judo fighter growing up, Rousey never thought of her athletic shape as a “conventional, feminine body type.”

“I grew up thinking that because my body type was uncommon, it was a bad thing,” she told Cosmo. “Now that I’m older, I’ve really begun to realize that I’m really proud that my body has developed for a purpose and not just to be looked at.”

She continued: “To be honest, it took a lot of time to develop a healthier relationship with food and with my weight. My mind was backward. I thought I wanted my body to look a certain way so I could be happy.”

RELATED: 10 Best Body-Positive Quotes From the Female Athletes Who Posed Nude for ESPN

Now it’s clear that she has an, ahem, wildly different take on the subject. In a video promoting her fight against Correia, Rousey opened up about those who criticize her body for being “huge” or too “masculine.”

“I have this one term for the kind of woman my mother raised me to not be, and I call it a do nothing b—. A DNB. The kind of chick that just tries to be pretty and be taken care of by someone else,” she said. “That’s why I think it’s hilarious if my body looks masculine or something like that. Listen, just because my body was developed for a purpose other than f—ing millionaires doesn’t mean it’s masculine. I think it’s femininely badass as f— because there’s not a single muscle on my body that isn’t for a purpose because I’m not a do nothing b—. It’s not very eloquently said but it’s to the point and maybe that’s just what I am. I’m not that eloquent, but I’m to the point.”

It’s true—whether she’s sparring against an opponent or talking about body image—she gets right to the point and doesn’t waste any time. It may not be the “sugar, spice, and everything nice” way to do things, but that’s what makes her exactly the kind of role model we need.

RELATED: 12 Sports Bras for All Body Types

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3 Feel-Good Companies That Sell Fresh Greens, Chocolate, and More

Photo: Getty Images

Seems like all we hear these days is bad news about corporate America; they pollute, they abuse workers, they sell products meant to sound healthy, but that really aren’t.

Thankfully, there are some companies that are making it part of their business to sell high-quality products and help communities, the environment, or both.

Gotham Greens
When you think of New York City, a farm growing fresh vegetables is probably the last image to come to mind. Enter Gotham Greens, a company that develops and manages large-scale greenhouses in urban areas to bring fresh, locally produced vegetables to city dwellers.

Yes, you can go to any upscale grocery store in New York and buy organic vegetables. But those are often  shipped in from across the country or another part of the world. “We wanted to be able to provide a better quality, local product that created local jobs, is sustainable, and is grown without chemicals,” Nicole Baum, the company’s marketing and partnerships manager, tells Health. “People care about buying locally. And because we don’t have to transport the products far, they’re harvested every morning and can be enjoyed that afternoon,” whether customers purchase them at Whole Foods or eat them in restaurants, such as famed eatery Gramercy Tavern.

RELATED:  12 Summer Fruit and Veggie Recipes

Along with building its third rooftop greenhouse in New York, scheduled to open this year, the company is also partnering with eco-friendly cleaning products company Method to build what it says is the world’s largest rooftop farm, with 75,000 square feet, in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood.

So Gotham Greens is growing products without pesticides and helping the environment by not shipping (winning it accolades such as New York State’s Environmental Excellence Award), but that’s not all: The company is committed to helping the community. It creates jobs for local workers in corporate offices, in the greenhouses, and in the packing rooms. Plus, it partners with community organizations such as Wellness in the Schools and City Harvest, donating plants and lending their expertise around sustainable farming.

“A lot of businesses have taken a stance to do something for their community,” Baum says. “There’s a lot of good being done if you look around.”

Theo Chocolate
By now, you already know the benefits of chocolate. Here’s a company that is aiming to take this much-loved product and use it to better the world, too.

“Our belief is that the only way things are really going to change is if we change the way business is done,” Debra Music, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Seattle-based Theo, tells Health. “Chocolate is a food that people feel emotionally connected to, so what a way to tell the story.”

RELATED: 27 Healthy Chocolate Recipes

Her fellow co-founder, Joe Whinney, had a background in sustainable agriculture, and had been working on creating a supply chain for organic cocoa beans to the United States. Whinney and Music, who had been working in social marketing, set out to make a product that could improve the lives of the farmers and factory workers on the supply end, and give consumers a good product. Theo was the first company to sell all organic, all fair trade chocolate in the U.S.

“We think everyone should have access to healthy, organic, high-quality food, and we think everyone has a right to make a fair wage,” Music says. “That’s our vision for what sustainability really means.”

One unique way that Theo is trying to make a difference is by focusing on sourcing chocolate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with one of the lowest gross domestic product rates in the world. More than half of Theo’s cocoa supply comes from the troubled country, thanks to a partnership with the nonprofit Eastern Congo Initiative. The company supports an initiative to train thousands of farmers there in how to grow high-quality cocoa.

Another feel-good element to Theo Chocolate is how it’s made once the cocoa is here. “Our ingredients are clean, we don’t use fillers or other items like that,” Music says. “Chocolate has so many health benefits, we want to let the benefits in the cocoa remain intact and viable through consumption.” Whereas you might see fillers and stabilizers such as soy lecithin and PGPR (polyglycerol polyricinoleate) in mass-market bars, a Theo Sea Salt 70% Dark Chocolate Bar, for example, only contains cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, sea salt, and ground vanilla bean.

RELATED: 8 Rich Desserts for 300 Calories or Less

“It’s not easy to commit to an organic, fair trade, non-GMO supply chain, but we do it because it’s the only thing we consider worth doing,” Music says. “This company is about our ideals, how we think things can and should be.”

Primal Derma
It isn’t just food companies that are working to make a difference while also selling high-quality products. Primal Derma uses food-grade, grass-fed beef tallow as the basis for its moisturizer. Because the tallow, or rendered fat, comes from grass-fed cows, it’s rich in nutrients, containing vitamins A, D, and K, as well as Omega 3 fatty acids s and conjugated linoleic acids.

“For grass-fed beef, there isn’t much call for the fat, so farmers dump or burn it,” Matthew Stillman, founder of Primal Derma, tells Health. “This was a cause of sadness to me. I wanted to make a product that would use the fat in a way that is good for people, to honor that life as best we can and use as much of the animal as we can.”

The moisturizer contains only the tallow, moringa oil (to soften the fat) and essential oils for scent.

RELATED: 18 Skin Care Products That Erase Years

“We don’t use any junk, no stabilizers,” Stillman says. “Skin is the largest organ on the body; what you put on it gets absorbed. I wouldn’t use anything that isn’t safe enough to eat.”

Along with reducing waste and creating a skincare product that’s safe and healthy to use, Stillman says helping the environment is a goal for the company as well.

“When we buy this fat, we’re helping small farmers who have made this really brave choice. They made a financially tricky choice” to raise grass-fed cows, which is a more expensive process than industrial cattle farming. “We’re helping small farmers make a few more bucks per cow, which allows them to keep a little bit more pasture. This is a small buffer toward keeping what’s rural rural, and supports the health of the earth” because it supports a process that is far healthier for the environment than large-scale industrial cattle farming.

RELATED: 18 Skin Care Products That Erase Years

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to Master the Kettlebell: 3 Moves for Beginners

One of the greatest and most versatile pieces of exercise equipment is also one of the most ignored and improperly used pieces of equipment. It has been around for centuries and can quickly take your fitness to a whole new level. Whether you want to work on strength, cardio, or a combination of the two, this piece of equipment can do just about anything.

So what is this mysterious device I speak of? It’s the kettlebell, of course.

You may have seen these around your gym and just thought they were another one of those “gimmicky” pieces that seem to pop up out of nowhere. But in fact, the kettlebell has been used all over the world for years as a tool to increase strength, cardiovascular health, power, and mobility.

While more and more gyms are starting to carry kettlebells, most people don’t know how to use them. And swinging one around without proper technique can not only be ineffective, but it’s also dangerous.

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First, some form tips

Before we get to the moves, you need to know some basic things about form.

Your hips are the main “movers” in many kettlebell exercises. For example, while a Kettlebell swing may look like your arms are the main driving force, it is actually the hips. In fact, when you’re performing kettle bell swings properly, your arms should not be doing any work aside from holding on to the kettlebell.

Your wrists should always be in a neutral position during kettlebell movements; they should never bend backwards or forwards.

Your grip should always be loose. You want to hold on to it, definitely, but at no point should you have a death grip on the kettlebell.

Find your rhythm. Kettlebell movements are largely based on momentum, so it’s important to find your own rhythm and pace, which will keep you safe and offer the benefits.

RELATED: Shape Up With This Total Body Workout

3 Movements to Get Started

 

The basic swing

Start with your feet hip width apart with both hands on the handle. Your grip should be loose but stable (no flying kettlebells, please). From here, hinge your hips backwards as far as you can, while bending your knees slightly. Swing the kettlebell between your legs and then swiftly push through your hips to straighten your legs and swing the kettlebell up to chin height. This takes practice, so start with a light kettlebell until you get the hang of it. Repeat this 10-15 times.

RELATED: 11 Ways to Stop Overeating After Your Workouts

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

 The kettlebell push press

Start with the kettlebell in your right hand at your chest with your hand in a neutral grip position (also known as the rack position). Lower into a squat, bending your knees to 90 degrees (not shown). From here, straighten your legs, press your right arm overhead and rotate your wrist to palm forward. Your legs are used to create momentum, so this movement will be a quick one. Make sure you keep a neutral wrist throughout the entire movement. Repeat this 6-8 times before switching to the left hand.

RELATED: The Best Post-Workout Stretches

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

The kettlebell clean

Start with your feet hip width apart, holding the kettlebell in front of you with your right hand. Your palm should be facing you. Lean down and lower the kettlebell below your knees. In one motion, stand up straight again and curl the kettlebell to your chest, back into the rack position. You don’t want the kettlebell to hit your wrists. You’ll probably have to try a few times to find your rhythm so that the kettlebell with settles nicely into your wrist, so be gentle. And don’t give up. Repeat this 6-8 times before switching to the left side.

RELATED: A Fat-Melting Workout From Maria Menounos

Photo: Jennifer Cohen

Want to find more ways to stay fit? Here are 5 Fitness Trends That Are Having a Moment

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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Septic Tanks May Allow Fecal Matter Into Lakes, Rivers

MONDAY, Aug. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Septic tanks don’t prevent fecal bacteria from seeping into rivers and lakes, according to a new study that dispels a widely held belief that they can.

“All along, we have presumed that on-site wastewater disposal systems, such as septic tanks, were working,” Joan Rose, a water expert at Michigan State University, said in a university news release.

“But in this study, sample after sample, bacterial concentrations were highest where there were higher numbers of septic systems in the watershed area,” she said.

Rose and her colleagues analyzed samples from 64 river systems in Michigan.

The study was published in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many areas of the United States rely on septic tanks to dispose of human sewage, including Michigan, Florida and South Carolina, the researchers said. They also noted that resort areas near lakes all across the United States often use septic tanks. Regulations on septic tanks vary by state, the researchers said.

Until now, it was thought that soil worked as a natural treatment system that could filter human sewage, the researchers explained.

“For years we have been seeing the effects of fecal pollution, but we haven’t known where it is coming from,” Rose said.

She added that the study “has important implications on the understanding of relationships between land use, water quality and human health as we go forward.”

More information

The U.S. Geological Survey has more about water quality.

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