September Inspired Living Issue

Feature: Growing Younger: Longevity Strategies That Help Reverse the Aging Process

Byline: Marlaina Donato    

Healthy longevity, a human quest through the ages, is becoming increasingly attainable as the science advances, and today researchers say there has never been a better time in history to maximize our potential for metabolic renewal. By better understanding biological age—the state of our health at the cellular levels—researchers are fine-tuning dietary, sleep, relaxation and exercise requirements that turn back the clock. Compounds such as B3, the enzyme SIRT6 found in bladder wrack, and fisetin, a flavonoid found in fruits and vegetables, all play key roles. Reducing uric acid levels lowers inflammation and stem cell procedures can offer an alternative to joint replacement.

Healing Ways: Heading Off Headaches: Natural Strategies Help Halt the Pain

Byline: Carrie Jackson    

About three in four adults globally have had a headache in the past year, with many of people’s throbbing heads linked to physical or emotional stress. Most headaches can be treated holistically, and lifestyle modifications can be key to lasting relief. These include mindfully focusing on the sensations, undergoing acupuncture or pressing acupressure points, maintaining an exercise routine, yoga, dietary choices like leafy greens, nutritional supplements such as magnesium and coenzyme Q-10, staying hydrated and getting adequate sleep.

Fit Body: Aging Gracefully: How a Yoga Practice Keeps Us Young

Byline: Maya Whitman        

“I love seeing students realize what is possible,” said Tao Porchon-Lynch, the world’s oldest yoga teacher, shortly before her death at 101. That spirit of discovery epitomizes the use of yoga for its life-extending attributes. Whether it involves getting down on a mat or practicing modified poses with the use of a chair, yoga helps us stay nimble, manage stress, reduce symptoms of depression and tame high blood pressure. It helps build the essential physical skills for navigating aging—strength, flexibility, balance and agility—and it doesn’t have to involve pricey gear or be the most intense form of yoga to be effective. Gentle, chair and even wheelchair yoga all have study-proven benefits.

Healthy Kids: Learning to Grieve: How to Help Children Navigate Through Loss

Byline: Sandra Yeyati   

Loss and grief are common, natural parts of life, and although adults often want to shield children from suffering, that isn’t always possible or advisable. Acknowledging and expressing uncomfortable feelings are necessary lessons in being human, and while there is no right way to grieve, adults can provide gentle guideposts. Children’s books like My Yellow Balloon can provide a roadmap and adult books such as Learning from Loss can help explain the neural mechanisms. Expressive writing, keeping to established family and school routines, finding youth engagement programs and activities that offer a child friendship and release are also important, but the greatest gift to offer a grieving child is our presence so that they know we are there for them.

Wise Words: Lissa Rankin on the Mysteries of Healing

Byline: Linda Sechrist      

The mind-body physician and bestselling author discusses why she left conventional medicine due to its limitations and bottom-line focus; how she explored healing in the complementary and alternative medicine world only to discover it also had a shadow side; and why she now recommends approaching health care to both realms with an open mind to gain the best possible health outcome. She distinguishes between curing, the elimination of all evidence of disease; and healing, a restoration of wholeness, and says connecting with our “whole health intelligences”—mental, intuitive, emotional and somatic—is what makes our bodies miracle-prone.

Conscious Eating: Food Dehydration Made Easy: Best Ways to Preserve the Harvest

Byline: Sheila Julson   

Drying food is the oldest known method of food preservation, dating back to 12,000 B.C, and today food dehydrators make it easy and convenient. It is a simpler and more forgiving process than canning and works for all kinds of food—fruit, veggies, meat, fish, herbs and nuts. Leftover strawberries can be dehydrated for snacks, and dehydrated vegetables can be used in soups or stews. Starter dehydrators can be bought for about $50, and they can also be easily found at rummage sales and resale shops. With recipes for mango leather and air-drying fresh herbs.

Consider reaching out to local purveyors of home food dehydrators, classes on dehydrating foods or interviewing someone that does a lot of dehydrating for extra tips and recipes. 

Green Living: Conscious Consumerism: Sharing and Reselling on the Rise 

Byline: Sheila Julson   

To combat rising inflation that is squeezing many family budgets, Americans are increasingly exploring shared resources like tool libraries as well as shopping alternatives like thrift shops and rummage sales. Local in nature, but often aided by online technology, the methods save people money while also reducing the impact of excess consumerism on the environment. A sidebar of tips on purchasing secondhand clothing, children’s items, furniture and electronics is included.

Natural Pet: Healthier Pets: Top Supplements for Dogs and Cats

Byline: Shawn Messonnier  

The market is awash in pet supplements, so it’s often difficult figuring out what a dog or cat really needs. However, every pet should have the basics: a vitamin-mineral product, an enzyme and probiotic combination, and a fatty acid. For older animals, a choline supplement may delay the onset of cognitive disorder. Any tweaking of diet and supplements can follow regular testing that diagnoses disease in the early stages. 

Inspiration: Living Life in Full Color 

Byline: Marlaina Donato    

At this time of year, in many parts of the world, nature saves her best for last. She dresses the trees in unapologetic glory, inviting us to live more boldly before it’s too late, to express the passions we’ve held in for dear life. Autumn gives us much-needed permission to let our hair down, to let our locks go silver or feisty red, to let our souls blow in the wind and come in for dinner a little late and disheveled.  

Eco Tip: Back to School with the Planet in Mind       

The start of the school year, a time of fresh beginnings, is also an opportunity to make Earth-friendly decisions that balance sustainability against kids’ desires for the coolest new gadgets and garments. Consider reusing old lunchboxes and backpacks, introducing kids to the secondhand clothing market, buying school supplies made of recycled or sustainable materials and encouraging kids to walk or bike to school.