Five Health Tips for People Over 45

Here are 5 quick energy and pain-relief tips that can help those of you who are over 45 feel great!

1) Stay hydrated!

Staying optimally hydrated is critical to get nutrients to your cells and wash away toxins. The next time you find yourself tired during the day, drink a glass of cold water and see how dramatically your energy picks up almost instantly.

Over half of our body is made of water. So it's not surprising that even mild dehydration can cause fatigue and poor concentration. A body even a half-quart low on water can make you noticeably tired.

2) Get 8 hours of sleep at night.

This not only helps energy and mental clarity, but also keeps you younger looking, decreases pain, and optimizes immune function. Herbal sleep aids like Valerian, passion flower, hops, Jamaican Dogwood, wild Lettuce, and theanine can leave you sleeping like a baby.

3) Take d-ribose, the healthy energy booster.

Caffeine and sugar are energy loan sharks. On the other hand, a special nutrient called "ribose" has been shown to increase energy an average of 61%, even in very fatigued people with CFS or fibromyalgia. Get the powder form, which looks and tastes like sugar. Use 3 grams 2x a day for mild fatigue or 5 grams 3x a day for severe fatigue.

4) Get out into the sunshine.

The traditional advice to avoid sunshine is lately being recognized as ill advised, just as the old AMA recommendations to smoke cigarettes were found to be wrong! Our bodies get vitamin D from sunshine, and vitamin D deficiency is becoming rampant because of our sunshine phobia. The cost? Increased diabetes, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, pain, and much more. The right advice? "Avoid sunburn, not sunshine!"

5) Got osteoporosis? Be cautious of calcium-only supplements.

Don't take calcium supplements unless they have vitamin D, magnesium, and vitamin K in them as well. Calcium supplements were shown in a recent review to markedly increase heart attack risk, with modest osteoporosis benefit. Another review shows that a low-cost and safe mineral called strontium (340-680 mg a day) was highly effective, and without the side effects that some medications can cause!