A St. Louis expert tells you how to avoid buying useless, falsely labeled vitamins
This is an article I wrote for St. Louis Magazine, April 2018
Pssst. Wanna buy a vitamin? Good, because everybody’s selling one. Retailers, chiropractors, radio hosts, multilevel marketers, realtors, co-workers, faceless internet reps. Yes, anyone can sell you a nutritional supplement, which begs the question Who’s really minding the U.S. supplement store?
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That's your goal, not mine
Maybe you started too late…
Barring divine intervention, I will never be a great snow skier. Intuitively, I have a disconnect between leaning forward down a steep mountainside over a pair of thin slick rails and the expectation that all will end well. In this, my seventh year, I can finally admit that I’ll never be fast or fearless.
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Wellbeing: The What, Why, and How of Living Fully
Long before the definition of health began evolving into singularly focused weight loss fanaticism, a more robust concept of wellbeing was developed. It was more of a philosophical construct for many years, rather than a health metric, but it was, and continues to be, an important aspect of a life well lived.
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Kayaking into a New Year
Nothing says Happy New Year like a day on the water. In a kayak. At least that’s how we’ve rung in January 1 every year since my first kayak appeared under the Christmas tree in the late 90’s.
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A Sick Day Reflection
I grabbed the jar of Vicks from the rarely used catch-all medicine basket in the closet. Expiration 2002. I unscrewed the lid, and, hey, it still smelled like whatever I remembered Vicks smelling like, so I dug my finger into the goo. I’d been coughing for 48 hours nonstop, and hadn’t had any relief from the natural remedies I’d been using, so I smeared some across my chest and under my nose.
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Have Your Pie and Eat it Too
Enough already. Our lives aren't defined by a single meal. Eat your Thanksgiving feast and savor every morsel. For almost a month now we've been hearing about how to control ourselves, eat less, cleanse and mentally prep for the big day. I say there's plenty of time for holiday binge panicking next month, so how about we call a Thanksgiving truce.
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Wellbeing in a Nutshell
If you're too busy to follow all of the health news that's pumped out 24/7, let me spotlight two important pieces that affect your everyday wellbeing:
1) There’s more than one dimension of health. Wellbeing is a large synergistic cluster of health domains.
2) You are the center of the health model. Not a doctor, not an employer, not the soda industry marketing team.
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Neighborhood Walkability
How do we roll physical activity, community service, and social engagement into one fun-filled hour? Leave it to the St. Louis County Library, OASIS, the County Older Resident Program, and a team of volunteers to conduct a Walkability Audit, assessing county streets for pedestrian safety, particularly for older adults. On this day, we met at the Weber Road County library branch, and evaluated a 1 mile stretch of sidewalk,
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A Better Path to Wellbeing
Is physical wellbeing really the foundation for optimizing all other dimensions of health, such as emotional, social, intellectual, financial, and spiritual health? It may be. I mean, if basic physical needs aren’t being met, it’s difficult for us to focus on other aspects of health. Can’t relate? That’s probably a good thing, because it means you’ve never wanted for food or shelter. While we’d like to have our faith and purpose serve as the foundation
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