Many people prefer hitting the treadmill to running outdoors, but if you’re not careful, along with that toned tush you might end up with a stiff neck, resulting in a nagging headache. Follow these tips the next time you hop on the treadmill to prevent this common running woe. Keep Your Gaze Forward One gym perk is its televisions, which allow you to catch up on the news or your favorite TV show. It becomes a problem, however, if your gym mounts its TVs on the wall instead of using individual screens on each machine - if you’re looking up and to the right for 30 minutes straight, it’s no secret why your neck hurts! Avoid cranking your head upward or all the way to one side by choosing a treadmill directly in front of the TV you’re watching. Or better yet, bring in your iPad and place it on the magazine rack of your machine to keep your head directly over your spine. The same goes for chatting with your running buddy on the treadmill next to you – keep the conversation going while looking straight ahead. Keep reading for more tips on preventing neck pain on the treadmill.

Yogurt with fruit and cereal was my go-to breakfast over the past couple months, but now that it’s chillier, I crave cupping my hands around a steaming bowl of warm creaminess. Aside from the traditional bowl of oatmeal, you can get creative with other whole grains for breakfast. Preparing the grains the night before saves time in the morning. Plus the fiber of whole grains is so filling, you won’t even think of reaching for a midmorning doughnut pick-me-up. Need some ideas? Check out these sweet and savory breakfast bowls to warm you up and get you going. Source: Flickr User norwichnuts View Slideshow ›

Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor and New York Times best-selling author, blogs about sex on Thursdays on The Chart. Read more from him on his website, GoodInBed. Earlier this year, eminent marriage therapist John Gottman released a new book titled "The Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples." While you may not recognize Gottman by name, you may be aware of his work via Malcolm Gladwell’s book "Blink." In that bestseller, readers were introduced to Gottman’s knack for “thin-slicing” a couple based upon a few minutes of observation, and determining, with incredible accuracy, whether they would succeed or fail in their marriage. So what’s the secret of relationship success? Based upon his work with couples, as well as statistical analysis, Gottman has determined that, “It’s the balance between positive and negative emotional interactions in a marriage that determines its well-being – whether the good moments of mutual pleasure, passion, humor, support, kindness, and generosity outweigh the bad moments of complaining, criticism, anger, disgust, contempt, defensiveness, and coldness.” Those couples that succeed in their marriages enjoy an overriding proportion of positive over negative sentiment. But how do you ensure that? “All couples, happy and unhappy, have conflict,” writes Gottman, “but the ratio of positive to negative interactions during arguments is a critical factor.” He has proposed that this ratio should, ideally, be 5 to 1. While it’s impossible to go through life tallying positive versus negative interactions, it is possible to determine intuitively whether your relationship is generally in the positive, or tending more toward the negative. And then you can change it. I often advise couples to get in the “5 to 1 zone,” and it’s one of those pieces of simple advice that I often remind myself to practice in my own marriage. It isn’t easy to maintain a surplus of positivity, but it is possible. In his latest book, Gottman encourages couples to cultivate emotional attunement through awareness, tolerance, understanding, non-defensive listening, and empathy. “Boiling down the richly complex body of work described in the book to one sentence, Gottman’s point is that trust is made of people believing that their partners will be nice, that the partner will make an effort to make life better for you,” writes sex educator Emily Nagoski in her intellectually vivacious blog, Sex Nerd . So there you have it – it all comes down to the “power of nice.” While many men like to complain that nice guys often finish last, it would seem that couples that are nice to each other tend to last the longest. So why is it often so darn hard to be nice to our partners? Or why do we often end up being nice to everyone except the ones we hold closest? Why is nice so elusive? “Maybe you plain old don’t know how to be nice. Maybe in your family of origin, people just weren’t nice to each other, so you never learned that skill. Or maybe you didn’t learn rules of Being Nice that are compatible with the rules your partner learned,” writes Nagoski. “The hardest possibility is that you are your partner have been sucked into a dynamic of retaliation – you’re like Israel and Palestine, where neither one can be the first NOT to retaliate.” Gottman argues that it’s hard to be emotionally attuned to your partner when you’re stressed out, which so many of us are today. Stress hijacks our brains and makes it hard for us to feel anything other than anxious or panicked. Stress creates a state of emotional triage, one that pushes nice to the wayside. I’ve also found that many couples are used to operating in states of highs and lows – a sort of relationship manic-depression – but are unable to carve out a middle ground. But nice requires that in-between state. Nice takes time, patience, and effort. ”When people are angry and hurt, they get into a different physiological state, with heightened awareness of potential threats and diminished capacity for empathy and creative problem solving,” says Nagoski. “They stop seeing the positive and start attributing negative personality traits to their partner, to explain the problems in the relationship. In their minds, their partner develops a reputation as untrustworthy. Contempt builds. And the whole thing spirals.” So are you being nice enough to your partner? Are you in the 5 to 1 zone? If not, maybe it is time to start counting interactions. A little “nice” goes a long way.

Donald asks… How to ask therapist about useing Drugs for GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) to therapist? I think I should be put on some type of drug for GAD , how should I ask my therapist about it? Jonjune answers: Let your therapist know the extent your anxiety is affecting you. Let him/her know you are having a very hard time coping with the things you are doing each day. Say that you would like to be evaluated by a psychiatrist to see if medication is an option. Best Wishes Joseph asks… What are ways to get over my GAD ( Generalized Anxiety Disorder )? Ways that don’t involve my doctor or the use of drugs? Anxiety is runing my life, I ALWAYS have to use the washroom in public, I’m always worried about my loved ones, I can’t sleep at night, and I’m always worried about something. ALL the time. And I don’t know what that something is. Jonjune answers: There are self-help books at the library. Some people find the Lucinda Bassett program helpful – my county uses it for classes for people with severe & persistent mental illness, and my social worker says that many people do much better and don’t need pills hardly ever, or ever, after doing the progarm (and they all have very severe mental illnesses). I think that program is expensive, like a few hundred dollars, but dont’ know for sure – I think it’s DVDs Generic anxiety tips (print them out): Try turning the heat up in the house or dressing more warmly. It is hard to feel anxiety when you are too warm Hot baths work, and at work/school, you can try running hot water over your hands. Avoid caffeine; it increases anxiety. Also, some cold remedies & other drugs can cause anxiety. Look for the “agitation in children” warning on the box. Adults can get problems too. For me, antidepressants caused agitation and panic attacks, and that is listed as a common side effect. Birth control, blood pressure, acne and sleeping pills & others often cause depression. Try meditation tapes like progressive muscle relaxation or guided imagery. Try The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook; check the library. There are guided imageries in there, you could make a recording or get a friend to do it. I read mine into the computer using a program called Audacity (free) and digitally altered my voice so it doesn’t bug me. Free 15 minute guided imagery download at healthjourneys.com. Go out with friends, and if you don’t have any, find a club to join and MAKE yourself go until you actually look forward to it. A little laughing helps reduce anxiety. Exercise at least 1/2 hour a day, and anytime you feel really hyper or depressed. Exercise is a great mood stabilizer and cuts down on anxiety, research shows. Don’t do it a couple hours before bed, though, or you will be too hyped up. Here are “sleep hygiene” tips. Go to bed and get up about the same time each day, even weekends. Don’t use your bedroom to watch TV and read and use the computer -just use the room as a bedroom Don’t do stuff that pumps you up right before bed, like exercising and using the computer. Wind down, instead – take a bath ? The light from the computer screen or TV wakes you up if you use them right before bed. Make the bedroom really dark, cover up the clock, even. Use a noise generator (makes wave sounds etc.) to cover up disturbing sounds. Try soundsleeping.com for free relaxing sounds downloads. Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening. Put colorful happy things around the house, and let the sun in. Make a list of things that make you happy. Part of my list: A basket full of fluffy kittens, bread fresh from the oven, Fireworks popping on a warm summer evening, The first fireflies of the season, the scent of Jergen’s cherry almond lotion, The crisp sound of a saltine cracker breaking, fresh sheets on the bed, flicking a topwater plug out onto the still surface of a summer lake, etc. Use all your senses and read that list when you are breaking down. I also use familiar scents, like Jergens lotion, or vanilla or cloves. Scent can be comforting. Work on time management if overwhelmed. Cut back on other responsibilities temporarily so you can spend more restorative time with friends and family. Ask for help. If there are people or situations that stress you , identify them and reduce them as much as possible. Learn to breathe. Put your hand on your belly. Now breathe deep, and feel your belly move up in down. That is the right way to breathe. You are probably breathing up in your chest area, and that makes you more anxious. Now breathe slowly. Do a mantra in your head innnnnnnnnnn ouuuuuuuuuuut innnnnnnnnnnn ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut slowly breathing. Focus on whatever 2 words you want as you breathe slowly. Look at an object, and observe everything about it for 5 minutes, then stretch that to 10, then 15 min as your gain experience. That’s a form of meditation. Finally, are you catastrophising, always thinking of the WORST thing that could happen? Try to catch yourself doing this, then change your thinking to, what is the MOST LIKELY thing to happen – hardly ever is the worst going to happen. You can’t die of a panic attack, either. Cognitive Behavioral therapy is the most effective kind of counseling. Try free computerized CBT at moodgym.anu.edu.au. Computerized therapy appears to be almost as effective as counseling, research shows. All the best!! Helen asks… what is the best treatment for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)? I need a medication that has been well tested and confirmed to have none or very little side effect Jonjune answers: You ask too much. Begin with psychotherapy and ask a doctor for a tranquilizer Paul asks… what is the best over the counter or non medication remedy for GAD (generalized anxiety disorder)? any help is appreciated! please be nice! if you could please be specfic and mabe even leave some websites for some advice on what i should do! i have limited money so therapist r out the question thank you! i need to know how to deal with this!…. its a awful feeling! Jonjune answers: Hi I found this really great FREE ebook about anxiety and panic attacks titled: “Code Red: Kill Panic! Annihilate Anxiety!! Now!!!” Inside this Free report, you’ll discover: – What Are Panic Attacks And Anxiety? – Triggers & Causes Of Anxiety & Panic Attacks – Therapies & Remedies For Anxiety & Panic Attacks – How To Survive With Anxiety & Panic Disorder – How To Stop Panic Attacks Forever – etc., etc. To grab your free report (while it’s still free) simply click on the link below. PS: You can thank me after you have read it. Charles asks… Do I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)? I don’t know if I should see a doctor about whether or not I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder . I first thought I might have GAD after I strained a muscle. I had a hard time sleep for a while and when I pulled the muscle I didn’t sleep for four days. I also couldn’t eat. This was just before I started college. I was worrying about. I don’t have irrational worries. Things I worry about are school, family, and money. Once when I was talking with a friend she made me realize I go to the bathroom too much. I thought it could be a precursor to diabetes or some other problem, but I when I looked up GAD symptoms it said frequency was a symptom. This made me think back. I didn’t have to go a lot after eating a meal, but when I was studying and in the library. Also, during finals and studying for hard test, I can’t keep food down. I think it was the stress that caused it. Sometimes it might happen after a single stressful thought. The last test I studied for caused me to start shaking. Today I knew I was going to be a minute or two late to class and I started hyperventilating. A heart palpitation was another listed symptom. I don’t know what that is supposed to feel like, but sometimes it feels like a shot of air was injected in my chest. Also, I thought it was just a cold or allergies, but before I went home, right after finals, my throat closed up. I noticed it because I was choking in my sleep and when I looked in the mirror I could see it closed up. Is that a possible GAD symptom? It went away during break and so did my lack of concentration and fatigue I’d been feeling the fall semester. These problems don’t necessary happen every day and there isn’t a consistent pattern in symptoms. I get different symptoms at different times. Some happen while others don’t. It sounds silly to me and I don’t want to embarrass myself by going to a doctor like a hypochondriac who’d been on WebMD. I just would like to know so I can focus more and not freak out so much when I have money problems or a test to study for. Jonjune answers: Hello, It is always important to be checked out by the doctor first. After that I have a site that I think can help you. I have recently launched a project entitled I Wanna Live Again (www.Iwannaliveagain.com) This project serves as a safe haven and recovery zone for people struggling with anxiety induced PCVs, PACs (Skipped Beats), Palpitations, Panic, and Chest Discomfort. The goal of this project is to help people better understand and cope with what is happening physically and mentally inside their bodies. It sounds like this would be a great resource for you to check out. You can even subscribe at the bottom to stay up to date! Good luck Powered by Yahoo! Answers Related Blogs

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Looking for a sweet but healthy treat? This recipe for chocolate banana pudding that reader Gabriela Une Vie Saine posted in the Healthy Recipe community group may be just what you need. This is an incredibly rich and delicious tasting pudding that’s actually totally healthy. The texture is reminiscent of chocolate mousse, but it still manages to pack a ton of healthy fats and protein! See the recipe when you read more. As seen on my blog,  www.une-vie-saine.com – 3 tablespoons chia seeds – 1 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond) – 1 serving (1/4 cup) peanut flour – 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s special dark) – very thinly sliced banana – sweetener, to taste (could use stevia, agave, etc) Combine chia seeds, cocoa powder, and peanut flour in a bowl or jar. Pour in milk and mix with a fork until everything is blended. Add sweetener. Drop banana slices into mixture then stir until combined. Let sit in fridge for at least an hour before digging in! (I prep mine the night before, so it’s ready to go in the morning.) Enjoy! Got a similarly delicious recipe? Head on over to the Healthy Recipe community group and share one of your own.

If you’re admitted to the hospital with a heart attack, your chances of survival may depend as much on such factors as how quickly the institution cycles through CEOs as on the type of treatment you receive. That’s the conclusion of a new report from Yale researchers who compared the characteristics of hospitals in the top 5% of performers to those of the bottom 5%, measured by the proportion of patients still alive 30 days after their heart attacks. They found the presence of a “strong organizational culture” was associated with variances in death rates of as much as 9.5 percentage points. The researchers conducted interviews with a total of 158 staffers — all involved with heart attack care — at 11 hospitals across the U.S. They found few differences in what protocols the hospitals used in treating heart attacks, but big ones in how hospitals were managed and how they approached quality improvement. “It’s not so much what they’re doing but how they’re doing it,” Leslie Curry, a researcher at Yale’s Global Health Leadership Institute and lead author of the study, tells the Health Blog. The study is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Here are a few quotes from their interviews that help reveal the difference between a healthy culture and a poor one: On the “pursuit of excellence”: [We are] “constantly resetting that bar. . . [I]f you aim for As, you get As, and if you accept Zs, that’s what you get,” said a nurse manager from a top-performing hospital. “The hospital likes to get disease-specific certification . . . [and] advertise it,” said a medical director from hospital that was in the bottom 5% “[T]hey formed the committee and tried to check off all the boxes on the list of what they’re supposed to do. . . [T]he administration is concerned about the bottom line.” On limited involvement of senior management at a poor-performer: “I have been here only seven years; this is the third CEO, the second medical director and the third VP of nursing,” said a case manager. High turnover among nurses was also a trait of hospitals with high 30-day mortality rates, the researchers found. Using mistakes as learning experiences as opposed to reasons for punishment was another characteristic of top performers, Curry says. And views of nurses, pharmacists, technicians and even housekeeping staff were highly valued in the team approach used at the best hospitals, she added. The participating hospitals weren’t named. Between 2005 and 2007, the annual 30-day mortality rates for heart attack patients covered by Medicare ranged from 11.4% to 14% among the best performers included in the study and 17.9% to 20.9% among the worst. The researchers didn’t take into account differences in financial resources, but Curry says the findings suggest that big investments in high-cost technology aren’t necessary to achieve significant improvements in care. “It’s not the latest gizmo, it’s human interaction” that defines the best performers, she says. Still, she acknowledges that changing cultures in hospitals isn’t easy. As the director of quality management in one of the poor performers told the researchers: “We spent years trying to find the silver bullet that would fix everything, and . . . there is no one issue [where] we were doing something glaringly wrong.” Photo: CarbonNYC via Flickr

The following post was written by Olympic athlete and mom Kerri Walsh , two-time gold medalist in pairs beach volleyball. My most recent travels have me in Sanya, China. I am far far away from home and way out of my comfort zone when it comes to my diet and nutrition. I love Chinese food, but I’ve come to know that I love Americanized Chinese food, not the real deal. To combat my unadventurous taste buds, I have learned to travel with some goodies from home. The following are snacks that have already come in handy while here in China. Perhaps they’ll work for you too! Organic food bars: I bring the “protein” kind just in case the local fare proves mysterious. Great for the plane or for a quick healthy snack. Nano greens: If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll already have heard of these. They are a staple in my travel bag. Almond butter: Another good source of protein and yumminess! Raw nuts: They speak for themselves. Kerri shares more food tips so keep on reading.

Are you one of the millions of Americans following a diet right now? If so, you may be chowing down the same ho-hum eats day after day in hopes of dropping a pound or two . . . or 10. The Today Show nutritionist, Joy Bauer , recently doled out some advice that I thought was worth echoing. She warns dieters not to repeat the same meal two days in a row, even if it’s healthy and low-fat. The change in menu will keep one from getting too bored with their eating habits and help them stay the path and meet their weight loss goals. Do you have a meal time routine that stays the same or do you change up your food choices every day? Do You Eat the Same Meals Daily? Yes – I’m a routine machine. No – I mix it up daily.

A report that a respected NIH expert supported an association between the XMRV virus and chronic fatigue syndrome is causing a buzz.