Exercise & Fitness

Adopt simple, healthy habits to help you live longer and stronger.
If you think that how long you’ll live is based on how long your grandparents and parents live, you’re only partly right. While genetics certainly have an impact, you have more control than you might assume. “By the time you turn 55, only about 30% of how quickly you age is based on your genes, as compared to 50% when you’re younger—the rest is due to your lifestyle choices,” says Michael Roizen, MD, chief wellness officer ...

Most people know calcium strengthens bones. But there are more than a dozen other ways to fight osteoporosis, the silent, bone-thinning condition that can lead to fractures, back and neck pain, and a loss of up to 6 inches of height over time.

Both men and women can get osteoporosis, but it's more common in women, especially after menopause. About one in five women over age 50 in the United States have it.

Taking preventive measures is key, as many people with osteoporosis ...

Need help losing weight? These 13 things could be the key.

1. It Really Is Genetic
When scientists first discovered it in certain chubby mice, they called it simply the fatso gene. Years later, when they scoured the human genome for markers that increased vulnerability to type 2 diabetes, the fatso gene (now more politely called FTO) showed up there too. Turns out, people with two copies of the gene were 40 percent more likely to have diabetes and 60 percent more likely to ...

Your exercise regimen doesn’t have to take over your life. Getting the fitness result you want—whether it’s losing weight or reshaping your body—can be as simple as squeezing in an extra 30 seconds here or minute there. These fast, tiny tweaks to your program will help you rev your energy level, burn more calories and sculpt new muscle. Incorporate our one-minute workout boosters into your daily routine and say good-bye to flab for good.

1. Do a Kegel while you crunch.
Contract ...

Discover which of these vitamins you need to be taking—and which you don’t.

The use of supplements in the United States has risen in the last 20 years: While only 40% of the American adult population took supplements in 1994, the number rose to over half of all adults by 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This increase could be attributed to more people becoming concerned that they aren’t getting enough nutrients, but how do you know which vitamins ...

Some healthful foods have gotten bad raps they just can’t shake. Do you avoid peanut butter because you think it's super-fattening? Have you banned egg yolk because you're concerned about your heart health? Get the good truth about these and more “misunderstood” foods and why you should eat them—in moderation, of course.

Peanut Butter

The bad rap: Peanut butter is super-fattening.
The good news: Peanut butter is high in fat, but that doesn’t mean it’s fattening. ...

Any woman who's ever reached for a glass of wine on a date only to reveal the soaked underarms of her outfit has probably wished she could remove her sweat glands. But long before pit stains became a social obstacle, perspiring was crucial to survival. "Sweat cooled off our ancestors in the grasslands of Africa," says anthropologist Helen Fisher, Ph.D. "It allowed them to hunt and forage without sweltering."

But a hot climate isn't the only thing that makes us ...