Birth control pills lessen muscle mass gain in women

Apparently, there are other non-hormonal reasons not to take oral contraceptives. The findings are contained in a new study, “Oral Contraceptive Use Impairs Muscle Gains in Young Women,” It was conducted in Texas A&M University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
The study: 73 healthy women between the ages of 18-31 were assigned to two groups [...]

The happiness effect

So I have been absent due to finals and packing but I guess that’s never an excuse. Won’t happen again. Today I traveled back home to Bogota to spend the holidays with my parents. It should be fun. I bought some magazines, reading I have also nelgected due to recent life management crisis, like Time. [...]

Thank yourself for not overeating

Holiday season, in my head, equals food. Think about it… it is not long after swallowing hundreds of candy bars in October when you are already feasting during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It is the time of year when most of us gain weight and feel excused to do so.
There is also the [...]

Eating healthy is not a rich-only habit

Tying in with my last post on how to have fun in these days of scarcity, I started a discussion with some friends. According to them, obesity is acceptable because not everybody has the money to eat healthy. As opposed to most countries in the world, the cheapest food in the United States happens to [...]

Harsh times, cheap measures

Being a college student make the state of “broke” a permanent one. Many of us are not even that affected by the current economic crisis because we don’t have any money anyways. Still, I have been noticing a trend in the way people are behaving, and I can’t figure out whether its precautionary or subconscious [...]

How much caffeine is too much caffeine in energy drinks?

This weekend I was very happy to find Red Bull being offered for free in a surf contest in Saint Augustine. I needed my afternoon cup of coffee to be able to continue the day, and this is a perfect replacement for it. Yet all the people I was with were drinking them like soda, [...]

Love your wine

When I did my semester abroad in Paris, I learned the secret of a long, healthy life from the 80-year-old-woman who was hosting me: a daily glass of red wine.
The cardiovascular benefits of wine have always been evident to me. But last week I wrote about being a social smoker, and this week this article [...]

Social smoker? Not quite off the hook

I don’t know when I became I social smoker. I have always hated smoking; the stench, the taste, the cancer… I was always the first to tell people to stop blowing smoke in my face. And then suddenly I was smoking at parties.
I found a NY Times article that speaks about the harms of social [...]

How much talking is too much talking?

For the first time in my life I am living with friends. Until now, it’s been good. My roommates and I share the same type of life, habits and disciplines, so we haven’t had any problems. There is one factor though, that has started me thinking. We talk, and we do it constantly. We do [...]

Are micro-workouts enough?

I keep having the discussion on what time of day is better to exercise, how much is enough and what you need in order to lose weight. There are such things as nutritionist, personal trainers and diet plans, but generally we base our good health habits on word of mouth. Is taking the stairs and [...]