1. People often feel overwhelmed during the holiday season. Social gatherings, gifts and family often all come together and this can be stressful because people feel pressured to do a number of things that they do not do as much during the year. Start planning early. This means now. Start thinking about which events you might be invited to attend and who you might need to buy presents for. Plan how much you want to spend on gifts. Consider shopping early so you won’t have to brave those hectic December crowds. Make up a list of gift ideas before you shop to cut down on the number of shopping trips you need to make.

2. Social events can be a gift as well as a burden. To help manage them, ask yourself a few questions. How many events do you feel obligated to attend? How many feel like a choice? How many are events that you really want to attend? Think now about what you are willing to do, what you want to do and what you feel obligated to do. Identifying the difference may give you some freedom about how to respond to invitations or requests from family and friends.

3. Do you have a “toxic” or unpleasant family member that you can’t avoid? What you can do is reduce time with people who bring you down. Accept that the unpleasant person may not change and that you can have a good time and avoid (or limit) engaging with someone who does not engender positive feelings. If you have to spend time with a toxic relative, try to be as pleasant as possible. Keep in mind that most events only lasts a limited time—and if you’re lucky, they only come around once a year.

4. Remember it’s okay to say, “No, I can’t.” You can’t do everything that people ask you to do during the holidays. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, politely but firmly say no. Keep the conversation short and cordial. You don’t need to go into all the reasons why you’re saying no. Still, it helps to have some handy just in case the person persists.

5. Get some exercise. At this time of year it may not be realistic to join the gym or start learning yoga (even though both of which are great ideas for health). But you can find simple easy to be more active. Park further away from your office and walk a little more to get there, for instance. Take a 10-minute break in your day and walk outside. If the weather is bad, walk up and down a few flights of stairs or around the hallways. Almost any kind of activity will help improve your mood.

6. Money causes stress even in the best of times. During the holidays it’s an even bigger issue for many people. These days, with lay-offs, furloughs and cut backs, many people are working at just getting their own needs met. To ease financial stress, set up a small savings plan for the holidays. Think of ways to cut back on other expenses—your afternoon latte, for instance, or a dinner out–and put that money in the holiday savings account.

7. Find some way to give back to your community. Giving your time can help you feel good about yourself and thankful for what you have. If you are low on cash, volunteer your time to help a non-profit.

8. Think about all that you have–not what you don’t have–and accept your life as it is today. Make a list of the people you’re grateful to in your life. Take the time during the holidays to let them know that you care about them.

9. Finally, consider seeking counseling services if you continue to feel anxious, overwhelmed, depressed or angry this holiday season. Asking for professional help is sometimes necessary if you have exhausted your family and friend support. If you feel down more often than you feel balanced or happy, cry more than you want to, feel sad and have no one to turn to for comfort, it’s time to seek professional help. If you “explode” in anger at anyone, it is time to seek professional assistance. A trained professional will help you make changes in your life and will work to understand you and your needs.

Lara Windett is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist & Certified Addiction Specialist who works with individuals, couples and teenagers in her private practice located in San Jose.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and the RAND Corporation studied the community of Charlotte, North Carolina, before and after a new light rail system for commuting was installed. Residents who switched to public transit saw a significant reduction in body mass index, or BMI, a measure of fatness that takes into account both weight and height. The study found that a 5-foot, 5-inch woman would have lost an average of 6.45 pounds 12 to 18 months after starting to take public transit. Commuters using the new system were 81 percent less likely than non-users to become obese over time.

“Public transit systems can generate positive health impacts by encouraging greater numbers of users to walk to station stops and maintain more physically active lives,” said John M. MacDonald, PhD, the University of Pennsylvania researcher who led the study.

A whopping 53 percent of the food products targeted to babies and toddlers analyzed by a team led by University of Calgary professor Charlene Elliott get more than 20 percent of their calories from sugar. The foods included biscuits, cookies, fruit snacks, yogurts, cereals and snack bars. Some of the products marketed to the youngest consumers contained even more sugar than similar products marketed to adults.

To be fair, some products contain sugars from natural products such as fruit. But many are laced with added sugar. As Dr. Elliott noted: “It remains fair to ask why it is necessary to add sugar to these baby or toddler products in the first place.”

For now, there are no recommended limits on added sugars for infant and toddler food products (unlike foods for adults).

The best advice: read the ingredient labels carefully and avoid foods with added sugars.

Seven members of the Stanford University football team participated in the experiment, which was directed by Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory. All began the season showing signs of moderate fatigue and daytime sleepiness.  For seven to eight weeks, they extended the amount of time they slept, aiming for a minimum of ten hours of shut-eye every night.

The benefits were dramatic. Average sprint times in the 20-yard shuttle improved from 4.71 seconds to 4.61 seconds. Average 40-yard dash times decreased from 4.99 seconds to 4.89 seconds. The footballers reported feeling more vigorous and less sleepy and fatigued during the day.

In previous research, Mah has shown that competitive swimmers improve their times by sleeping longer. “Sleep duration may be an important consideration for an athlete’s daily training regimen,” she concluded in a press release issued by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The advice is simple: Make sleep a top priority if you plan to compete in any strenuous athletic events. Extend the amount of time you sleep for several weeks before the event. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day to maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule.

NiCole Keith, an associate professor of physical education at Indiana University, set out to examine how physical activity is influenced by a range of factors for city-dwellers. Her study involved 998 people aged 49 to 65 living in St. Louis. She looked at the condition of sidewalks, the presence of outdoor lighting, and other environmental characteristics believed to affect an individual’s decision to be active. The result, she says “was not at all what we expected.” The interior condition of people’s houses turned out to be the only factor linked to their level of physical activity.

“If you spend your day dusting, cleaning, doing laundry, you’re active,” Keith said. Indeed, studies have shown that many household chores and gardening tasks burn enough calories to constitute moderate exercise–the equivalent of a brisk walk.

Keith thinks her findings could help health experts shape recommendations that people are actually willing to follow. While people may be reluctant to take 30 minutes to go for a walk, they may be willing to spend the same time cleaning.

An offer at one of the country’s leading burger joints, which has 550 locations in 35 states: a bacon cheeseburger and large fries combo that weighs in at a whopping 2,380 calories. That’s more than many people should eat in an entire day.

At another eatery is a popular chocolate truffle cake that delivers 1,670 calories and more than two days worth of saturated fat. And that’s just for dessert.

Chinese anyone? According to CSPI, a popular double pan-fried noodles combo at one of the nation’s most popular Chinese chains packs 1,820 calories. The salt it contains is even more outrageous—the equivalent of three teaspoons, the equivalent of five days recommended adult intake of sodium.

If you have an appetite for more eye-popping (make that heart-stopping) statistics on popular restaurant dishes, check out CSPI’s tough and very, very funny Annual Xtreme Eating 2010 Awards.

Researchers have long known that gum disease is associated with increased risk of heart problems. The link appears to be inflammation, which plays a role in the buildup of cholesterol in arteries. In this new study, published on BMJ.com, researchers examined whether the number of times people brush their teeth has any bearing on heart disease risk.

It does. Compared to individuals who brushed their teeth at least twice a day, those who picked up a toothbrush less often had a 70 percent higher risk of heart disease. Infrequent brushers also showed signs of increased inflammation in their bloodstreams.

The good news: 71 percent of the 11,000 adults interviewed in the study said they brushed their teeth at least twice a day. Six out of ten said they visited a dentist every six months, as recommended.

For the study, a team at Canada’s McMaster University asked one group of women to drink a tall glass of nonfat milk immediately after doing a resistance workout and then another glass an hour later. A second group of women drank a look-a-like sugar-based energy drink after their strength-building workout.

Twelve weeks later, the milk drinkers showed better changes in body composition than the non-milk drinkers.  

“The women who drank milk gained barely any weight because what they gained in lean muscle they balanced out with a loss in fat,” said Stu Phillips, a professor of exercise science at McMaster, in a press release issued by the university. “Our data show that simple things like regular weightlifting exercise and milk consumption work to substantially improve women’s body composition and health.”

What gives milk drinkers an edge? Phillips speculates that the combination of calcium, high-quality protein and vitamin D may somehow increase fat burning.

The first hints that caffeine might have special powers appeared when studies showed that coffee drinkers are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, which is caused by a breakdown in normal brain cell function. Then came hints that caffeine consumption also protects against Alzheimer’s disease. Now researchers think that the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world actually normalizes brain function and prevents neurological degeneration in a variety of ways.

There’s so much new research into the benefits of caffeine that the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease has devoted an entire special issue to the subject. Among its conclusions:

• Caffeine improves concentration and sharpens mental focus, mainly by eliminating distractions.
• People who consume higher levels of caffeine are more alert during the day and have significantly faster reaction times.
• Caffeine appears to be particularly effective at counteracting fatigue and sleep loss.
• Caffeine improves mood and boosts cognitive performance, especially in tasks that involve fast reaction time, sustained attention, memory, logical reasoning and simulated driving.
• Most startling of all, preliminary animal studies suggest that caffeine helps keep brain circuitry more nimble, even as animals age.

All this good news follows earlier findings that show that drinking coffee may lower risk of heart disease—in part because coffee beans are rich in antioxidants. Coffee really appears to be good to the last drop.

SOURCE: Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2010, vol 20

In 2007, the FDA began requiring more prominent warnings on Viagra, Cialis and Levitra after isolated reports of sudden hearing loss in men who used the drugs. The latest findings underscore those worries. Examining data from 11,525 men, McGwin found that men who used erectile dysfunction drugs, known as PDE-5 inhibitors, were twice as likely to report hearing loss as men who didn’t use the pills. The clearest association showed up for Viagra. But that may be because the studies included far fewer men using the newer drugs.

Erectile dysfunction drugs work by increasing blood flow to certain tissues in the body. Researchers speculate that by increasing blood flow in the inner ear, they may lead to hearing loss.

If that turns out to be true, men will have to make a hard choice between maintaining their sex lives or preserving their hearing as they get older.