The Jacked O’ Lantern Pumpkin Workout

Photo: Getty Images

It’s almost Halloween — that spooky time of year where sugary temptations close in all around us. If you’re planning a major cheat day on account of the holiday, it can’t hurt to get your sweat on before you hit the streets in search of sweets. (Did you know that the average American child collects between 3,500 to 7,000 calories worth of candy on Halloween night?) Our solution: A workout to help you get jacked with the help of your jack ‘o lantern! Before you carve your pumpkin, why not use it to carve some muscles?

We hit up DailyBurn 365 trainer Prince Brathwaite to demonstrate five fun exercises you can do with just a pumpkin. Perform one round of the circuit for a short and sweet workout, or complete three rounds for a 15-minute full-body blast. Ready? Your muscles are in for a real treat.

RELATED: What 100 Calories of Halloween Candy Looks Like

The Jacked O’ Lantern Pumpkin Workout

1. Pumpkin Pass-Through

Targets: Legs, glutes, shoulders

How to: Hold a small pumpkin in both hands and stand with your feet hip-width apart (a). Step your right foot out and lunge to the side, bringing your hips back and sinking into your right knee (b). Transfer the pumpkin in your left hand and pass it through your legs, grabbing it with your right hand (c). Holding the pumpkin in both hands, step your right foot back to center, engaging your glutes to stand back up (d). Once you’re standing back up, press the pumpkin overhead (e). Repeat this move for 30 seconds on each side.

Make it harder: Instead of placing your foot back on the ground after you step out of the lunge, keep it lifted and bent in front of you and try to balance on one leg.

2. Pumpkin Side Press

Targets: Back and shoulders

How to: Select two small pumpkins. Stand straight and hold the pumpkins, one in each hand, in front of your torso with your elbows bent (a). Keeping your elbows tight to your torso, rotate your forearms out to the side (b). Next, extend your arms out to the side (c). Now reverse the movements. Bend your elbows, then rotate your forearms inwards so you are back in the starting position (d). Repeat for 30 seconds.

Make it harder: Perform a reverse lunge before moving your arms.

3. Standing Pumpkin Chop

Targets: Obliques and legs

How to: Select a medium pumpkin and stand with your feet hip-width apart. With your arms straight, swing the pumpkin over your right shoulder as you rotate your torso to the right slightly and let your left hip rotate towards the right. Your left foot may pivot onto your toes (a). Next, pretend the pumpkin is an axe (scary, right?) and swing it downwards toward your left hip, rotating your left hip back to the original position (b). Repeat for 30 seconds, then perform on the other side.

Make it harder: For more intensity, ramp up your speed.

4. Squash Squat

Targets: Legs, core, arms, glutes

How to: Hold a large pumpkin in both hands. Squat down and place the pumpkin on the ground (a). Place both hands on the pumpkin and step back with the right leg (b). Step the right leg forward so you are back in the bottom of a squat. Grab the pumpkin securely with both hands, engage your glutes and stand up while swinging the pumpkin overhead, like a kettlebell swing (c). Next, squat down and repeat the movement with the other leg (d). Alternate sides for one minute.

Make it harder: Try stepping both feet out into a full plank when your hands are balanced on the pumpkin.

5. Pumpkin Spice Twist

Targets: Core

How to: Choose a medium pumpkin. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, holding the pumpkin in both hands at your chest (a). Engage your core and sit up, picking up the pumpkin and then tapping it to the right of your hips (b). Now twist to the left and tap the pumpkin to the left of your hips (c). Roll back down to the floor (d). Repeat for one minute.

Make it harder: Over-achievers, pick your feet off the floor to make this move extra challenging.

For more workout moves from Prince, head to DailyBurn.com/365 for live workouts, every day at 9 a.m. ET.

More from DailyBurn:

DailyBurn 365: New, Live Workouts 7 Days a Week

13 Scary Halloween Health Stats Infographic

9 Spook-tacular Halloween Recipes

Life by DailyBurn is dedicated to helping you live a healthier, happier and more active lifestyle. Whether your goal is to lose weight, gain strength or de-stress, a better you is well within reach. Get more health and fitness tips at Life by DailyBurn.

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Group Singalongs Could Be a Quick Icebreaker

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Joining a singing group may be an easy way to form quick, close bonds with others, a new British study suggests.

“This study shows singing can kick-start the bonding process,” said study leader Eiluned Pearce of the University of Oxford.

The study included people attending weekly adult-education classes. Forty-eight people took singing classes, and 27 took crafts or creative writing classes. Over seven months participants completed surveys asking them to rate how close they felt to their classmates, the researchers explained.

While all the groups reported feeling closer to others in the class after seven months, that closeness seemed to be accelerated in the singing classes.

According to Pearce, the difference between the singers and the non-singers appeared right at the start of the study. “In the first month, people in the singing classes became much closer to each other over the course of a single class than those in the other classes did,” she explained in a university press release.

The study seems to suggest that singing together “broke the ice” more quickly for people than the other activities, Pearce said.

“In the longer term, it appears that all group activities bring people together [in] similar amounts,” she said. However, “in non-singing classes ties strengthened [more gradually] as people talked to each other either during lessons or during breaks. But this is the first clear evidence that singing is a powerful means of bonding a whole group simultaneously.”

The study appears in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Open Science.

“One of the key differences between humans and other primates is that we can exist in much larger social groups,” Pearce added. “Singing is found in all human societies and can be performed to some extent by the vast majority of people. It’s been suggested that singing is one of the ways in which we build social cohesion when there isn’t enough time to establish one-to-one connections between everyone in a group.”

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on the benefits of music.

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The Brilliant Self-Rolling Yoga Mat You Didn’t Know You Needed

Your yoga practice is about to get even more relaxing, thanks to the self-rolling mat.

Created by fitness and yoga enthusiast Aaron Thornton, the YoYo Mat debuted via Kickstarter in August. Since then the project has raised more than $150,000 from yoga-loving supporters.

So just how does it work?

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Loosely resembling those popular ’90s slap bracelets, the YoYo Mat stays super flat when in use and tightly rolls itself up when you’re finished. Each mat is designed with a bi-stable steel spring band, which causes only one side of the mat to roll up. The other side remains flat when clicked into place. When you’re ready to go, simply flip over and snap the mat to activate the auto-rolling feature.

Another perk: it’s made from a biodegradable closed cell material, so it doesn’t absorb sweat or germs.

The mats are set to ship in November and are currently available for pre-order for $79.

Now, if only Crow Pose was this easy…

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Here’s Why You Keep Waking Up With a Headache

Photo: Getty Images

I keep waking up with a headache! What gives?

A few things could be going on here. For starters, poor sleep quality can lead to a headache the next day. So the first thing to do is investigate what, if anything, is interfering with your slumber.

One common culprit is sleep apnea, a condition in which you periodically stop breathing throughout the night. Your body then wakes you up so you’ll start breathing again. You may not even realize that this is happening. Ask your partner or a friend whether you’re a loud snorer—that’s often a tip-off. Either way, your doctor can refer you for a sleep study, which is the most accurate way to diagnose sleep apnea.

No problem sleeping? Teeth grinding overnight can cause soreness in the jaw muscles or temporomandibular joint (or TMJ, which is also the commonly used name for the jaw disorder that sometimes involves grinding). That achiness can lead to a headache. Again, you may not realize that you’re grinding your teeth, but your dentist should be able to detect the problem if it’s there.

It could also have to do with pesky allergens. Exposure to dust mites while you sleep (they love to live in your sheets and mattress) can also leave you waking up with an aching head, due to the sinus congestion it causes. If you suffer from allergies, try using allergyproof bedding—special pillowcases, mattress covers and duvets designed to protect you from exposure to mites—and washing your sheets more frequently. An allergist, if you’ve never seen one, can help you find additional ways to relieve symptoms so you’re headache-free in the morning and sneeze-free for the rest of the day.

Health‘s medical editor, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, is associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and co-founder of Tula Skincare.

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13 Surprising Ways to Fight Headache Pain

21 Natural Ways to Prevent and Treat Headaches

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Face-lifts Seem to Do Little to Boost Self-Esteem: Study

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Face-lifts may smooth away years from a person’s appearance, but they seem to do little to boost self-esteem, new research suggests.

In the small study, the researchers looked at what 50 patients — almost all of them women — said about their own sense of self-esteem, both immediately before plastic surgery and six months later.

“The findings of the study are not surprising,” said lead author Dr. Andrew Jacono, a board certified plastic surgeon with the New York Center for Facial Plastic and Laser Surgery in New York City. “Because as I see it, self-esteem is much more complex than someone’s appearance. It’s rooted in a long developmental process that starts in childhood. So, to assume that what has taken a lifetime of work to develop could be changed by one simple operation is silly.”

Jacono and his colleagues reported their findings online Oct. 29 in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

The researchers focused on 59 patients who had a face-lift at a single center between July and October of 2013. None of the patients suffered from any severe facial disfigurement. Instead, their goal was to achieve a more youthful appearance.

Self-esteem tests that were given prior to surgery looked at numerous measures of the patient’s sense of self-worth, including feelings of competence and/or failure.

Out of a maximum score of 30, the average grade was just over 24, though some patients scored as low as 14 and others hit a high of 30.

The researchers were able to reassess 50 of the patients six months after surgery. All but two were women, with an average age of 58.

The result: Patients said their face-lift had taken an average of almost nine years off their appearance. And those with lower self-esteem scores before surgery did, in fact, see an increase in their post-surgery scores. But those with high pre-surgery self-esteem scores actually saw the scores go down after their face-lift, while average pre-surgery scores stayed more or less constant.

When the researchers focused on overall averages, it was a wash, so the overall change in self-esteem was “statistically insignificant.” In the end, the research team chalked up the disconnect to “the complex nature of the human psyche as it relates to aesthetic surgery.”

“Self-esteem is an internal job,” said Jacono. “And plastic surgery is not designed to get at that. It’s for taking care of a defined problem, like getting a tooth fixed. It’s about addressing a specific physical characteristic, particularly as people age and start seeing aspects of their face that seem foreign. Doing that may improve self-confidence to some degree. But I would never suggest that patients will have a higher self-esteem as a result. That shouldn’t be a motivating factor. That’s a promise you wouldn’t be able to keep as a doctor.”

Brenda Major, a distinguished professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, suggested that some methodological flaws may have limited the study’s ability to nail down the relationship between face-lifts and self-esteem.

But she agreed that a face-lift “is probably not an approach you want to take if what you’re really trying to work on is core self-esteem issues.”

“Of course if one is stigmatized in some way, because of facial scarring for example, then surgery might lead to people starting to treat you better, which could help you to feel more worthy,” Major said. “And if someone’s goal is to look a decade younger, than this surgery was successful. But will this kind of intervention actually increase self-esteem? That’s really hard to say, and this study doesn’t really offer a definitive answer.”

More information

There’s more on plastic surgery and what to expect at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Researchers Say They’ve Identified 3 Type 2 Diabetes Subtypes

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Medical data routinely gathered from millions of patients can be used to detect previously unseen patterns in chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.

As a result, researchers say they’ve identified three distinct subgroups of type 2 diabetics by combing through the health records of more than 11,000 patients.

Each of the subgroups faces unique health problems related to type 2 diabetes, and shares common genetic traits that can explain those challenges, said senior study author Joel Dudley. Dudley is director of biomedical informatics and an assistant professor of genetics and genomic sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

“Not only did the clinical data tell us those were meaningful groups, but the genetics pointed toward potential biological factors that explain these differences in clinical characteristics,” Dudley said.

The three subtypes identified by the data analysis included a cluster made up of the youngest and most obese patients, who were more likely to suffer kidney disease and blindness, and a group at highest risk for cancer and heart disease. The other cluster tended to suffer from many different health problems, including heart disease, mental illness, allergy and HIV infection.

Based on these groupings, a doctor could recommend more aggressive cancer monitoring in some patients, while prescribing heart-healthy medications and lifestyle changes for others, Dudley said.

The study findings were published Oct. 28 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Not all experts are wowed by this data-mining approach, however. Dr. Robert Ratner, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association, said that it’s a “major leap of faith from their study” to assume that mounds of data will provide more clarity.

“I don’t disagree with them that understanding the multiple different forms of diabetes is critically important,” Ratner said. “To be blunt, I’m not sure this analysis contributes very much.”

Also, the study authors themselves admit that their patient sample was relatively small.

The researchers started with electronic health data from 11,210 patients at Mount Sinai, of whom 2,551 had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The data included a full blood panel and a genetic analysis.

The research team then created a map on which patients were grouped based on the numbers from their blood tests.

“It’s almost like building up a social network, where you connect people because they share the same friends or the same interests, only in this case it was similar blood test results, things like that,” Dudley said.

After drafting the map, the researchers looked for type 2 diabetes patients to see if they had clustered together based on any common characteristics. This step revealed the three subgroups, and when researchers factored in the genetic data, they found that the groups shared genetic traits that would predispose them to common illnesses, such as cancer or heart disease.

By following this approach, anyone could break down any chronic disease into a number of subgroups and more effectively treat patients, Dudley said.

He expects that using such “big data” will become more common in the near future, given that genetic testing is becoming cheaper and doctors must switch to electronic health records that capture patient information as a matter of course.

“With the decreasing cost in genetic sequencing, we’re seeing an increase in collection of genetic data,” Dudley said. “The more you can show the utility of genetics in informing medicine, the faster the adoption of this type of personalized medicine will be.”

But Ratner questioned the usefulness of this approach. By tossing millions of combinations together, researchers will find many clusters of patients sharing common problems, but that “probably takes you down a great many blind alleys,” he said.

“There are so many associations that you can’t investigate all of them,” Ratner said. “I’m not sure this shotgun approach really helps. You need a focused examination of both the genetics and the physiology underlying type 2 diabetes.”

More information

The American Diabetes Association has tips for anyone recently diagnosed with diabetes.

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Too Few Preteen Girls Get HPV Vaccine, CDC Says

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — HPV vaccination rates among American girls remain too low, a new U.S. government study says.

The vaccine protects against infection with the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina and anus.

“Increasing delivery of HPV vaccination at the recommended ages of 11 or 12 years, before most adolescents are exposed to the virus, can ensure adolescents are protected against HPV infections and associated cancers,” according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers from the CDC and the National Committee for Quality Assurance analyzed vaccination data on more than 626,000 girls at age 13 enrolled in either private insurance plans or Medicaid in 2013.

All three doses of HPV vaccine were given to a median of 12 percent of privately insured girls and 19 percent of those covered by Medicaid, the publicly funded insurance program for the poor. Rates in different programs ranged from zero to 34 percent for those with private coverage, and 5 percent to 52 percent for girls with Medicaid.

“HPV vaccination coverage has been lower than that observed for other vaccines recommended for adolescents,” the researchers said. Doctors should offer HPV vaccination the same way and the same day they recommend other vaccines for teens, they said.

“Knowledge of barriers and attitudes of clinicians or family members that might contribute to low vaccination coverage” will help improve compliance with the recommendations, the researchers said in the CDC’s Oct. 28 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Other CDC research published Oct. 26 in Pediatrics revealed that many 11- and 12-year-old boys aren’t getting the recommended HPV vaccine, either. That report said doctors often fail to recommend it or adequately explain its benefits to parents.

Not only are unvaccinated teens vulnerable to HPV infection themselves, they can also transmit the cancer-causing virus to others, experts say.

About 14 million new cases of HPV infection are diagnosed in the United States each year, according to the CDC.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about HPV vaccination.

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Drugs May Be as Good as Surgery for Chronic Sinusitis

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — If you struggle with chronic sinus infections and think surgery is the only way to end your misery, new research suggests that’s not always the case.

Sticking with treatments that can include nasal sprays, antibiotics and antihistamines may be as effective as surgery in helping some patients achieve a better quality of life, the small study found.

Among 38 patients with chronic sinus infections who continued with medical therapy rather than have surgery, the annual cost of lost productivity dropped from more than $3,400 to about $2,700 over almost 13 months of treatment. Moreover, absenteeism was reduced from five days to two days and going to work sick was cut from 17 days to 15 days, the researchers reported.

“Patients who have relatively minimally reduced productivity at work and minimally reduced quality of life from their underlying chronic sinusitis can avoid getting worse by continuing with medical therapy,” said lead researcher Dr. Luke Rudmik, a clinical associate professor of endoscopic sinus and skull base surgery at the University of Calgary in Canada.

Surgery, however, can be a good option for people with severe sinus infection, he said.

“Patients who have severe reductions in their productivity and quality of life can get significant improvements in productivity by choosing endoscopic sinus surgery,” Rudmik said.

Chronic sinusitis reduces daily productivity, and lost work time from the condition is associated with a poorer quality of life. In the United States, sinus infections cost more than $13 billion in lost productivity each year, the researchers said.

The decision to choose medical therapy versus surgery for chronic sinusitis should be based on patient preference, Rudmik said.

“The decisions for each treatment should involve a shared decision-making process between physician and patient after informing the patient of their expected outcomes and potential risks,” he said.

The study, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was published online Oct. 29 in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Dr. Jordan Josephson, a sinus specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, “Chronic sinusitis is the number one cause for chronic fatigue and is closely associated with snoring and sleep apnea.

“The condition brings with it a significant decrease in quality of life and is a significant drain on society, and those that suffer can be miserable,” he said.

Patients suffer from difficulty breathing, postnasal drip, cough and throat clearing, yellow-green discharge, headaches, hoarseness, allergies, asthma, bronchitis, memory loss and worsening of their stomach reflux disease, Josephson said.

A treatment plan needs to be designed for each patient’s needs, he said.

“Medical therapy is the mainstay of treatment for chronic sinus sufferers,” Josephson said.

Treatment is directed at keeping the nasal passages clear and dry, and it can include nasal sprays, antibiotics, antihistamines and irrigation of the nasal passages. Which of these works best depends on the cause of the sinus infection. Causes can include allergies and asthma, but in many cases the cause isn’t known, he said.

“Surgery is just an adjunct to the necessary long-term medical plan that is required to improve the quality of these patients’ lives,” Josephson said.

During surgery, the doctor uses probes and a laser to remove tissue and bone and polyps that have developed during the infection and are narrowing the nasal passages. The surgery can usually be done with local anesthesia, he explained.

“For patients that may require surgery, newer techniques allow most patients to be free of black-and-blues, and most go home that same day,” he said.

After surgery, patients still need their medical treatment because the procedure doesn’t stop the running nose, Josephson explained.

In addition, because sinusitis is chronic, the same things that caused the narrowing of the airway leading to surgery are likely to happen again over time, he said.

“The best news is that with newer technologies, a better understanding of alternative treatments and new surgical techniques, patients who have failed previous medical and surgical treatments now have renewed hope for a significant improvement of their quality of life,” Josephson said.

More information

Visit the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology for more on sinusitis.

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FDA Approves Expanded Use for Melanoma Drug

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The melanoma drug Yervoy (ipilimumab) can now be used to reduce the risk of the deadly skin cancer returning after surgery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.

The expanded use of this intravenous drug is an adjunct therapy for patients with stage 3 melanoma, in which the cancer has reached one or more lymph nodes. Patients with this stage of melanoma typically have surgery to remove melanoma skin tumors and nearby lymph nodes, according to an FDA news release.

Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin cancer.

The “approval of Yervoy extends its use to patients who are at high risk of developing recurrence of melanoma after surgery,” Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the FDA’s Office of Hematology and Oncology Products at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in the news release.

“This new use of the drug in earlier stages of the disease builds on our understanding of the immune system’s interaction with cancer,” he added.

Yervoy was first approved by the FDA in 2011 to treat late-stage melanoma that cannot be removed with surgery.

The expanded approval is based on a study of 951 patients with stage 3 melanoma who had their cancer removed during surgery. The cancer returned an average of 26 months after surgery in 49 percent of patients who took Yervoy, compared with 62 percent of those given a placebo. The cancer returned within 17 months, on average, among those who took a placebo, the study found.

Yervoy helps the body’s immune system recognize and attack cells in melanoma tumors, the agency said.

Common side effects of Yervoy included rash, diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, itching, headache and weight loss. The drug can also cause autoimmune disease in the digestive system, liver, skin, nervous system and hormone-producing glands. Pregnant women should not take Yervoy because it can harm the fetus, the FDA said.

Yervoy, made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, carries a boxed warning and will include a medication guide to inform patients about potentially severe side effects.

On Tuesday, the FDA approved a first-of-a-kind therapy called Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec) for melanoma. It’s a genetically engineered cold sore virus that “blows up” melanoma tumors.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute estimates that about 74,000 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed and there will be nearly 10,000 deaths from the disease this year in the United States.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about melanoma.

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Spiced chickpea and kale-stuffed capsicums

 

Looking for healthy mid-week recipes? Try these spiced chickpea and kale-stuffed capsicums from naturopath Cassie Mendoza-Jones.

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 6 capsicums, any colour (or one per person)

• 1 tin organic chickpeas, rinsed well

• 3 tbsp coconut oil

• 1 tbsp Moroccan spice blend

• Pinch of Himalayan pink salt

• 1 zucchini

• ¼ bunch kale

• Salmon fillets

• Dash of olive oil

Method
1. Heat oven to 180°C. Cut the tops off the capsicums and de-seed them. Keep their ‘lids’.

2. In a bowl, mix together the chickpeas, coconut oil, Moroccan spices and pink salt.

3. Grate the zucchini and lay the strips over the side of the capsicums so they can be folded over before baking. Stuff the bottom of each capsicum with some kale, then fill with 1 to 2 tbsp of the chickpeas.

4. Fold the zucchini ribbons over the top of the chickpeas, put the ‘lid’ of the capsicum on and bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 minites or until the capsicums look cooked.

5. Serve capsicums with fish of your choice, grilled or pan fried with olive oil.

Tip: Stuff capsicums with quinoa, nuts or seeds as a delicious vegetarian or vegan main meal.

Recipe from elevatevitality.com.au

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