Submitted By: Luis A. Torres (Ashford)

Pilates:
Why it’s good: Done on a floor mat or machine, Pilates stretches the spine and strengthens muscles.

Do it Safely: Try a one-on-one session with a certified teacher or find a class that addresses arthritis needs. Always move within a pain-free range, and work at your own pace. Cautions: If you have osteoporosis, don’t bend forward with a curved back as it could up your risk of fracture, says Rebekah Rotstein, a Pilates instructor in New York City who offers classes specifically for people with bone and joint issues.

Yoga:
Why it’s good: A slow-paced class that emphasizes proper form, as Iyengar yoga does, improves flexibility, strengthens muscles and reduces stress.

Do it Safely: Learn a comfortable resting pose to do in lieu of those that might cause discomfort. If you have severe arthritis, consider a chair yoga class.

Cautions: Certain moves can strain affected joints; if you feel discomfort, modify the pose or assume a resting pose.

Tai Chi:
Why it’s good: This mind-body martial art improves balance and reduces stress and arthritis pain.

Do it Safely: Wear comfortable footwear with support. If your range of motion is limited, ask the instructor for modified moves.

Cautions: Although tai chi is suitable for almost everyone, doing the moves while standing might not be best for people with severe arthritis or balance issues

Strength Training:
Why it’s good: Gentle strength training builds bone and strengthens muscles around joints, improving your stability.

Do it Safely: Consult a personal trainer or physical therapist to learn the proper way to lift free weights or use resistance machines, and to learn how much to start with. If you strain muscles easily, try resistance bands or simply contracting and then relaxing different muscles.

Cautions: Using the wrong technique or too much weight can worsen arthritis pain or cause injury.

Elliptical Machine:
Why it’s good: Because part of the work is done by the machine and because your joints go through a fluid, circular motion, there’s less stress and strain on your lower body.

Do it Safely: Start with 10 minute sessions for the first few weeks, increasing time by five or ten minutes a week. Begin at the lowest (easiest) slope and resistance settings.

Cautions: If you have balance or coordination issues, this might not be the machine for you.

Cycling:
Why it’s Good: Indoors or out, cycling works all the muscles in your lower body – even your feet.

Do it Safely: Adjust the seat height so that your extended leg is slightly bent. If you ride outside, wear padded cycling gloves to absorb shock, and avoid handlebars that cause you to hunch over, which increases stress on your hand, wrists and elbows.

Cautions: Upright stationary and outdoor bikes can aggravate back or knee problems. The solution might be a recumbent bike, which supports your back with your legs extended.

Published by: The Arthritis Foundation – Arthritis Today, Sept./Oct. 2011 Issue Author: Catherine Winters, a freelance writer in NYC.

Submitted By: Toby Wolberg (Oxford Place)

Three men are playing in a golf tournament: one is an eye surgeon, one is a priest and the other is an engineer. The club captain comes through checking the field and asks if everything is going alright.

“No”, they say. “Those men ahead are dreadfully slow and holding up the field.” “Oh, be patient with them,” says the captain. “They’re blind.”

“That’s terrible,” says the eye surgeon, “Send them to me and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do for them.” The priest says, “I’ll pray for them.” The engineer says, “Why can’t they play at night?”

By far, the best book ever written on this subject is called, “The Play of the Hand at Bridge” by Louis Watson. The first edition was published in 1934 and is as useful today as it was then. Because bidding styles have changed dramatically over the years, some of his bidding examples are somewhat outdated, but having arrived at the proper contract, his play of the hand is still fundamentally the best way to go. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning to play or improve their bridge.

In Chapter VII, Watson lays down 5 principles of success in playing bridge. His first principle is to make a plan. If you are the declarer, do not play a single card after the opening lead until you have studied the Dummy and formulated a plan to fulfill your contract. Many beginning students of the game will take Aces and Kings and then sit back and wonder what to do next. Better players will try to develop tricks which are not so obvious by forcing out the opponents Aces and Kings, so they can make their smaller cards good. Conceding tricks early in the hand will often lead to the development of tricks taken by smaller cards.

Lets look at an example: the contract is 3 No Trump. The opponents have been silent (they Passed at every opportunity) and you are the Declarer:

So, the first question is … How many tricks do I need to fulfill my contract? Answer 9. Next question How many top tricks do I have? Answer 4. So, where will I get the rest? There are 4 potential tricks in the Diamond suit after we drive out the Ace and one in the Heart suit once we drive out the Ace. But we have to do this before the opponents get 5 tricks. So let’s make a plan.

Let’s assume the opponent leads the ♦4 which is 4th from his longest and strongest suit. You play the Q from Dummy and play another diamond to try to get rid of the Ace. Whether he takes the Ace or not doesn’t matter, because you will keep playing high Diamonds until he does.

After he takes the ♦A what will he do next … probably play the ♣J. You take your K and now you must get rid of the ♥A. You play small to the ♥Q and whether or not the opponent takes his A, you have your 9 tricks.

You can see how important it is to get rid of the Aces in the opponents hand before you start taking all your tricks in the other suits. If, after getting rid of the ♦A, you start taking your other tricks, the opponents will develop winners in the other suits and then when you try to cash the ♥K, they will take the A and the other tricks they have established. You will be left with only 8 tricks instead of the 9 you need to fulfill your contract.

Now, let’s assume that West leads his fourth club, the ♣7. An important question here is did West start with 5 clubs or 4 clubs? If West started with 5, we must be careful not to let him in twice. If he started with 4, it doesn’t much matter.

If West started with 5 clubs and both missing Aces we are doomed. However, in all likelihood, if he had 2 Aces and 5 clubs he probably would have entered the bidding at some point … but he didn’t. So we need to assume that, at worst, the Aces are divided. So the worst case scenario is that West has 5 clubs and one Ace. We need to get rid of the Ace that West holds so he cannot get in to play the rest of his clubs.

We can take the ♣A and play the diamonds. If West has the ♦A, he can take it and play another club. We can take the ♣K and play a Heart with some assurance that East has the A, but either he has no more clubs to return or does have one and West can only take 2 club tricks (a total of 4 clubs). In either case we can make our 9 tricks and fulfill our contract.

What if East has the ♦A and West has the ♥A? In that situation it is vital that we give up a club and not take our ♣A right away. Again, if East only has 2 clubs, then when we take the Ace, East is out of clubs and cannot get to West except with the Heart Ace which is fine with us because we still have control of the clubs.

I know this sounds very complicated, but you can see that the planning at the beginning is very important. You must plan the hand before you play a single card. If you just start playing your winners, you will not make your contract.

Submitted By: Pat Bergrin (Waterford)

1. The Buffalo Bills of the NFL broke the league’s gender barrier when they promoted Kathryn Smith to be their special teams quality control coach. She is the first female full-time assistant in the League.

2. Pope Francis had an historic meeting in Cuba on Feb.12, 2015 with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is the first meeting between a pope and the Russian patriarch in nearly 1,000 years.

3. Staff members and friends of the Palm Beach Zoo said a tearful goodbye to one of the zoo’s oldest animals, Taco, the parrot. Known for her plume of green, blue and red feathers, she had a friendly disposition and would greet passersby with, “Hi, Taco!”.

4. There are new signs when entering Boynton from the south and the north on Federal Highway. Blue in color with sailfish, waves and landscaping surrounding them, at a cost of $240,000, the signs read, Welcome to Boynton Beach.

5. For the 17th year in a row, Atlanta had the bus-iest airport in the world. More than 90 million passengers passed through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A total of 6.7 billion passengers passed through airports worldwide.

6. Police in St. Louis arrested a man for trespass-ing at the Budweiser Brewery, and discovered that his name was Bud Weisser. Weisser, 19, smashed up his car and vaulted over a fence onto brewery grounds and refused to leave when guards told him to.

7. Conventional wisdom holds that men and women’s brains are “wired” differently. A detailed new study, however, has found that most brains have a mix of structures associated with traditional male and female traits and behavior, making a person an individual mosaic of gender-related characteristics.

8. It was a bad week for some 30 incoming cadets who suffered injuries — including concussions, split lips, and broken limbs-at West Point’s annual morale-building pillow fight for freshmen. The cadets had stuffed their pillows with helmets and other hard objects.

9. More college students in the U.S. are giving up cigarettes, but more are smoking marijuana instead. Anti-smoking campaigns have apparently convinced undergrads that smoking is dangerous but the legalization of marijuana in some states may have sent the message that smoking weed is safe.

10. A cleaning crew at an Italian museum mis-took an exhibit for garbage and threw it away. The piece was restored after its contents-empty champagne bottles, cigarette butts and confetti-were found in a recycling bin.

By: Jerry Finkel (Sterling)

The following is in response to last month’s article “Spice Rack Remedies”, which stated, without reservation, that “Taking less than a half teaspoon (of cinnamon) daily can decrease blood sugar by 25 percent”.

The article below is from WebMD, which provides a more complete and accurate account of the effect of cinnamon on reducing blood sugar level.

Does Cinnamon Help Diabetes?
It’s fine to sprinkle cinnamon on your oatmeal or use it in baking. Go ahead and enjoy it if you like its taste. But if you hope that it will help you manage your diabetes, you might want to pause before you head to your spice rack.

It’s not yet clear if cinnamon is good for diabetes. Research findings have been mixed, and the American Diabetes Association dismisses cinnamon’s use in diabetes treatment.

Several small studies have linked cinnamon to better blood sugar levels. Some of this work shows it may curb blood sugar by lowering insulin resistance.

In one study, volunteers ate from 1 to 6 grams of cinnamon for 40 days. (One gram of ground cinnamon is about half a teaspoon.) The researchers found that cinnamon cut cholesterol by about 18% and blood sugar levels by 24%. But in other studies, the spice did not lower blood sugar or cholesterol levels.

By: Dr. Keith Roach – To Your Health

Question: I recently had a heart scan, and the calcium score for one of my arteries was 145. I have no symptoms. My results showed two lesions in the left anterior descending artery, with a calcium score of 154.4. The other arteries’ calcium scores were 0 to 6. My overall cholesterol was 167, HDL 57, triglycerides 52, LDL 100. I’m 57. My father had several heart attacks and died with the last at 57. I never smoked, and my blood pressure is 130/80 on treatment. How serious is this, and can it be reversed with a better diet and more exercise. – Anon.

Answer: Coronary artery scanning is a way to look for coronary artery disease without performing a stress test or a catheterization of the heart. It uses a CT scanner to look for calcium in the walls of the arteries in the heart. Not everyone with detectable calcium in the artery (any score above zero) has blockages. The higher the score, the more likely there is a blockage.

In men 50-60, the average score with no blockage was 56, and the average for men with blockages was 217. Your result is in a gray zone, where we can’t tell for sure if you have a blockage.

I calculated your risk of heart attack in the next 10 years based on the Framingham risk calculator (available at cvdrisk.nhlbi.nih.gov) and the information you gave, and found a result of 7 percent. Although you may have a slightly increased risk because of your calcium score, I can’t precisely estimate how much more risk. Your risk is below the usual cutoff for treatment with statin drugs; even so, some physicians might choose to treat you.

But your specific question is about diet and exercise, and I am happy to say that most people can significantly reduce heart disease risk through better diet. The optimum diet for reducing risk for heart disease is hotly debated, but most authorities agree that these are key components of a heart-heathy diet:

Lots of fruits and vegetables (five or more servings per day.)

Very little or no refined grains; any grain consumed should be whole grain.

Two to three servings of protein-rich foods daily, favoring nuts, legumes and fish, and limiting or eliminating red meat;

Minimal or no refined sugar.

Palm Beach Post

(From the Internet)

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)

Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.)

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you’re ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)

Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (Okay, so that would be a good thing.)

A cat’s urine glows under a black light. (I wonder how much the government paid to figure that out.)

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.)

Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that, too.)

Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they’ll live a lot longer.)

(From the Internet)

This is the wisest doctor I’ve ever read about!

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take water out of fruit so you get even more of goodness that way, Beer is also made of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can’t think of a single one, sorry, My philosophy is: No pain … good!

Q: Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU ARE NOT LISTENING! Food is fried these day in vegetable oil. In fact, foods are permeated by it. How could getting more vegetable be bad for you?!?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy?!? HEL-LO-O!! Cocoa bean! Another vegetable! It best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in shape important for my life-style?
A: Hey! ‘Round’ is a shape!

Well… I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways – Chardonnay in one hand – chocolate in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO-HOO, what a ride!!”
AND For those of you who watch what you eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suf-fer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans..
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION:
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

By: Leslie Pepper

During these lazy days of summer, it’s hard to resist slacking off on healthy eating and exercising habits. Well, it turns out you might not have to harness your willpower: The latest research shows that going easy on yourself when it comes to certain habits can actually be good for your health. Consider this your doctor’s note!

Go ahead and …
Sleep late. Turning in and waking up at the same time every day does help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep. But if you’re up late at a barbecue Friday night, your body definitely benefits from turning off your alarm and getting some extra z’s the next morning. “Making up sleep in the short term does work,” says Christopher Winter, M.D., medical director of the Martha Jefferson Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. You can also bank some extra shut-eye beforehand if you know you’re going to spend a late night out.

Skip a workout. A new study shows that you can give your running shoes a rest for a day or two. Researchers found that women who exercised twice a week became as fit (and lost almost as much body fat) as those who worked out six days. Even more astounding: The twice-a-week exercisers burned more calories daily than the six-a-week group.

Treat yourself at breakfast. One study found that dieters who ate a high-carbohydrate, high-protein breakfast that included something sweet felt less hungry, had fewer cravings, and lost more weight over 32 weeks that those who ate a low-cal, low-carb breakfast. Experts think it might be because levels of ghrelin, a hormone that prompts hunger, dropped much more in people who indulged at their a.m. meal. Go for something decadent but nutritious – like one or two strawberries dipped in dark chocolate with one cup of vanilla yogurt, suggests David Katz, M.D., director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and author of Disease Proof (Hudson Street Press, due out September 26, 2013).

Enjoy that second cup of coffee. If you’re feeling guilty for downing two coffees in less than an hour, maybe this will perk you up: In a National Institutes of Health study of more than 400,000 people. researchers found that the more coffee people drank, the longer they lived. Drinking up to six cups daily (caffeinated or decaf) was associated with a lower risk of dying from heart disease, lung disease, stroke, diabetes, and infections.

Sip a glass of wine nightly. Enjoy your Cabernet regularly with no remorse! Wine, particularly red, is loaded with naturally occurring antioxidants, which can help prevent damage to the cells in your body. Research has shown that red wine may help lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and various types of dementia.

More than 30 airlines around the world now hold auctions to sell seat upgrades to first class or business class. Some even auction off the chance to have an empty seat beside you in coach. Airlines know who their frequent travelers are and which ones pay for the most expensive seats. Those very elite fliers have typically had the right to upgrade using cash or miles.

Many times they qualified for free upgrades. That left a slim chance for a lower-level business flier ever to luck into an upgrade, but it also left the airline giving away revenue.

That is starting to change as airlines experiment with auctions, giving people a chance at upgraded seats for less money. Mobile app Seatboost.com offers passengers an auction right at the gate. Passengers on the flight bid against each other via the app to win the upgrade.

Virgin America uses SeatBoost auctions at the gate an hour before boarding on Las Vegas flights. Bidding starts at $10, $30 or $50, depending on the length of the flight and whether passengers are also bidding on extra leg-room seats in coach or a first-class seat. Meanwhile, Virgin Airlines and many others use Plusgrade to offer passengers a path to an upgrade 72 hours before a flight. This works right from the airline web site.

Neighborhood News, Mar. 2016