Fat Finding Reveals Why Diets Don't Work

Want to get rid of some fat cells as you age? Fat chance.

You're stuck with the number of fat cells you have acquired by about age 20, a new study finds.

Researchers have known that people gain and lose weight at least in part by changing how much fat is in their fat cells. The new finding is particularly important for obese people, who the researchers say can have twice as many fat cells as their lean counterparts.

The finding also suggests that obesity in adulthood is at least partly determined by diet and exercise in childhood.

Strange study

To determine the age of fat cells in 35 subjects, researchers focused on a marker found in fat cells - radioactive carbon from above-ground nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and 60s. More of a naturally occurring but rare type of carbon, called carbon-14, was produced during the testing.

Bruce Buchholz, a chemist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., explained how his team used this marker to make their discovery.

Our bodies incorporate carbon-14 from the food we eat, along with the vastly more abundant types called carbon-12 and 13. Since carbon-14 from the testing is decreasing with time as it mixes with the oceans, the amount of rare carbon-14 that a cell has taken up is like a timestamp for when the cell formed, Buchholz said.

The researchers knew that cells were dying and being replaced over time, because people born before the nuclear testing had fat cells that were created after the testing. The scientists also found that about 10 percent of fat cells were replaced every year whether or not a person was obese.

Despite that replacement rate, another aspect of the study with a larger sample of people revealed that the total number of fat cells per person remained relatively constant over time. Even extreme weight-loss strategies, such as bariatric surgery, did not reduce the number of fat cells in study subjects.

Aha!

The tightly regulated number of fat cells in adulthood may explain why it seems easy to gain back lost weight, Buchholz said.

If you already have more fat cells from adolescence than other people, "it's harder to become thin," Buchholz told LiveScience.

The study raises a new mystery: Something tells the body to make a new fat cell when another dies, Buchholz said. In the future, if scientists could interfere with this turnover, they might actually reduce fat-cell number in adults, he said.

The findings, detailed in the May 4 online issue of the journal Nature, suggest that the focus for controlling obesity should be on children, said Dr. Jeffrey Gimble, who studies fat stem cells at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge and was not involved in the research. The idea is that if the number of fat cells is capped by age 20, then the smart approach is to prevent their formation in children.

Rachel Mahan
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com

Workouts Sculpt Heart As Well As Muscles

Exercise can cause structural changes in the heart -- and the changes can vary depending on the type of exercise.

Researchers found that endurance athletes showed an increase in the size of both their left and right ventricles after 90 days of team training. However, athletes who only did strength training had excessive growth in their left ventricles, but no change at all in their right ventricle size.

In addition, the ability of the left ventricle to fully relax between beats (diastolic function) was enhanced in the endurance athletes, but it worsened in the strength trainers.

It is possible that this could point the way towards tailored recommendations for rehabilitation and recreational exercise for people with heart problems.

Sources:

• Reuters May 7, 2008

Journal of Applied Physiology April 2008; 104(4):1121-8 (Free Full Text

Dr. Mercola.Com, comments

This is an interesting study in that it shows how various types of exercise affect the structure of your heart in different ways.

It also shows that you’re not necessarily “born” to be a good athlete because you were born with a bigger or stronger heart, but that it’s the type of training you choose that has the most influence on your performance by building an “athletic heart.”

Athletes are Built Not Born

In this study, the endurance group consisted of long-distance rowers, whose exercise regimen consisted of daily running, cycling, swimming, rowing or using an aerobic machine with sustained effort for at least 20 minutes a day.

The strength training group was American-style football players doing weight lifting, plyometric exercises (explosive movements to develop muscular power) and sprint running drills.

After three months of organized team training, they found there were significant training-specific changes in the athletes’ heart structure and function.

While left ventricle mass increased in both groups, the endurance athletes had better diastolic function in their left ventricle, and enlargement and more efficient contraction and relaxation in both sides of the lower chambers of the heart (atria).

The strength-trained athletes, on the other hand, actually had hypertrophy, or excessive growth, in the muscle of the left ventricle, and reduced diastolic function, with no other structural changes.

Is Your Exercise Prescription Up to Date?

For a change, I agree with the idea to use this type of research to influence and fine-tune your “exercise prescription.” Exercise is a critical component of good health, especially as you age, and a good way of looking at it is to view it as a drug that needs to be precisely prescribed for maximum benefit.

Most Americans suffer from an “exercise deficiency,” which contributes to two-thirds of the U.S. population being overweight, and tens of millions of others with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes; all of whom desperately need more exercise to control their underlying condition.

Exercise is simply one of the most powerful tools available to drop your insulin levels, and elevated insulin levels are one of the primary drivers for these types of illnesses and weight gain. It is my belief that properly performed exercise is far more powerful for controlling these symptoms than any drug yet developed.

What Type of Exercise Regimen Do YOU Need?

A TRULY effective, well-rounded exercise program must involve all three types of exercise, taking into account exercise intensity and duration for your individual fitness level and goals:

1. aerobic, endurance workouts (lowers blood pressure)
2. strength training (helps ease muscle and joint pain)
3. interval-type training that includes short bursts of activity at very high intensity that is individualized for your specific fitness level (burns fat)

Interval training -- where you break your exercise session into segments with a rest period in-between -- has been proven especially effective at burning greater amounts of fat than one single hour-long session. Newer studies on the specific benefits of interval training also suggest that it may actually provide MORE protection against heart attacks than long durational aerobic type exercises. So, I wouldn’t trade in interval training for endurance-style training only.

Even though it wasn’t mentioned or included in the study above, high-intensity interval exercises have been shown to DOUBLE the endurance in 75 percent of test subjects, compared to those who did traditional endurance training only! (So just imagine the benefits of interval training compared to doing nothing but pumping iron.)

My personal experience would support that as I have been a long distance runner for the last 40 years, and my heart is so large I have left ventricular hypertrophy on EKG and chest X ray evaluation. This is not pathological in my case but a healthy response to exercise.

I now incorporate interval training in the form of sprints, and strength training through pull-ups, push-ups and dips, rounded out with a game of singles tennis whenever I can. Tennis has become one of my passions. I’m now taking lessons twice a week, working my way up to a 3.5 player, and hope to be a 4.0 someday. It’s just great fun; something I look forward to each week.

Avoid This Common Pitfall When Starting a New Exercise Routine

Now, if you are overweight or out of shape, you can start with walking. Most heavy people start with walking and it’s an excellent choice, as it is low-risk and inexpensive.

The major problem with walking, however, is that many people become fit relatively rapidly but don't increase the intensity of the workouts as they become more fit.

Remember that once you become comfortable with your routine, you need to increase the intensity in order to continue reaping the benefits.

Push the intensity of your workouts so you are going just hard enough to where it’s difficult to carry on a conversation with someone next to you. If you can easily talk to someone you simply are not going hard enough to give your body the benefits it needs. An additional benefit of this technique is that you don’t need to monitor your heart rate to make sure you’re exercising at peak intensity.

Remember to Listen to Your Body

One of the key principles I teach and believe in is to listen to your body.

If your body will not allow you to exercise, either due to pain or worsening of your underlying condition, then you have no practical option but to honor your body’s signals and exercise less or not at all.

Even though your body desperately needs the exercise to improve, you will only get worse if you violate your current limitations. So you may have to start with as little as just minutes a day. That’s okay.

Apply the Take Control of Your Health Program and as your body gradually improves so will your tolerance to exercise, so continue to push yourself until you reach the daily 90-minute level.

Need Inspiration? Remember All the Benefits!

Even if you have no aspirations of becoming a professional athlete, the benefits of even small amounts of exercise are far too valuable to ignore. Aside from developing a stronger “athletic heart,” exercise will also help you:

• Sleep better
• Lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight, depending on your needs
• Improve your resistance to fight infections
• Lower your risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes
• Help your brain work better, making you smarter

Do You Need Help Getting Motivated?

If you are having trouble motivating yourself to exercise, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can help. EFT is a form of psychological acupuncture treatment I recommend in order to optimize your emotional health.

It can help you remove the mental or emotional blocks that prevent you from successfully implementing your program. You can learn the technique with my free manual and discover more about the connection between your emotional well-being and your overall health.

You can also combine EFT with Medical Hypnosis to create an unconscious desire to exercise every day. This is session six on the hypnosis program I recommend for long term weight loss.

U.S. Obesity Rates Are Alarmingly High

New research shows "alarming levels" of obesity in most ethnic groups in the United States. The study also confirms the deadly toll obesity exacts on the heart and blood vessels.

Among almost 7,000 middle-age or older adults participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or "MESA" study, researchers found that more than two-thirds of white, African American and Hispanic participants were overweight, and one-third to one-half were obese.

Obesity rates were lower in Chinese Americans, with 33 percent overweight and just 5 percent obese.

The investigators also found that obese adults had higher rates of high blood pressure, abnormal lipids, and diabetes, despite a "huge number" being on costly medications to treat those very problems.

Even after adjusting for "traditional" risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, obese adults also faced increased risks of:

• Silent vascular disease (blood vessel disease that causes no symptoms)
• Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• Thicker heart walls

Sources:

• Reuters May 12, 2008

• Archives of Internal Medicine May 12, 2008

Dr Mercola's, comment:

That obesity is a growing problem in the United States (pun intended) is certainly not news. Still, the entire issue of weight, and how to lose it, is an ongoing debate that strikes a nerve with many people. Just take a look through the Community Comments below and you get a feel for the strong opinions that arise when people talk about weight.

I think it’s safe to say that most of you would not choose to be overweight. Yet, more than two-thirds of Americans are. Something is going on here, and for the sake of your health -- and the health of future generations -- it needs to be addressed.

So let’s take a look at some of the issues, and try to get to the bottom of how to REALLY help you reach a healthy weight.

Is Obesity in Your Genes?

Children born to overweight mothers are more likely to be obese -- 15 times as likely -- than children born to lean mothers -- and all by the age of 6.

Meanwhile, it’s even been said that people with certain variants of the "fat mass and obesity associated" gene, or FTO gene, are more likely to become overweight.

So when I’m asked whether genes contribute to obesity, I don’t rule it out completely. They may play a role. A small one. But I also add, adamantly, that there is no way “bad genes” are for the reason you are unable to lose weight,

Your genes are merely dumb storage facilities that do very little to influence your health. This is GREAT news as otherwise you'd be helpless to do anything about your health, which, of course, isn't true at all.

What is much more important than the information your genes hold is the expression of those genes. Let’s say you do have the FTO gene. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be fat. Something either sets this gene off or keeps it dormant.

But what?

Through the new biology of epigenetics, we get the answer to that question, and it may be shocking to some of you. It is your Mind that sets it off. Your mind controls your genetic expression.

Is Your Mind Making You Fat?

Quite possibly, yes. On a biochemical level as the field of epigenetics suggests, and also on a more obvious one. I doubt anyone will debate the emotional connection many of us have with food. Often this starts in childhood with your parents giving you sweets as a reward. This then translates into adulthood where we “treat” ourselves by indulging in “comforting” junk foods.

What makes a bowl of ice cream or a piece of pizza so comforting, anyway? Nothing, other than the fact that your mind believes it to be so.

So it is very easy to get caught up in using food as a security blanket, a distraction from boredom, a way to cope with stress; it can do just about anything that you want it to.

Of course, so can other, healthier outlets like exercising or journaling. It just takes a shift in your thinking process to get to that point, yet this shift is often not realized because the emotional component to weight loss is so often overlooked.

Is the Food System Making You Fat?

Emotions are important, but even they do not make up the whole picture when it comes to obesity. Enter the modern-day food system, complete with its reliance on high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), refined grains, processed foods and artificial sweeteners, and you have a recipe for big-time weight gain.

Michael Pollan wrote a book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, about why HFCS is detrimental to your waistline, but let’s just sum it up by saying that fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar. And the fact that most fructose is consumed in a liquid form -- the soda that makes up the number-one source of calories in the U.S. diet -- significantly magnifies its negative metabolic effects.

Then you have processed foods; upon which most Americans spend 90 percent of their food money. Processed foods are a great source of HFCS, along with very few nutrients. Eating a diet based on processed foods is a well-known way to do two things that are nearly guaranteed to make you pack on the pounds:

1. Interfere with your body’s ability to regulate insulin
2. Interfere with your body’s ability to regulate leptin

On top of this, many of you have been deceived into thinking that all fat is a bad thing in your diet but, contrary to making you thin, low-fat diets actually cause weight gain in the majority of people.

What Else Could be Adding Inches to Your Waistline?

There are numerous other theories out there, some of which are very plausible. A common virus, the human adenovirus-36 (Ad-36) -- a cause of respiratory infections and pinkeye -- may be a contributing factor to obesity, as may the makeup of good and bad bacteria in your gut.

Even microwaves have been implicated.

Some people feel that income also plays a role, and that only the rich can afford the healthy foods and leisure time to exercise that it takes to be thin. Meanwhile, The International Journal of Obesity listed even more obesity triggers, such as:

• Taking certain medications, including antipsychotics, high blood pressure drugs, protease inhibitors to treat HIV and diabetes medications, including insulin. Even over-the-counter antihistamines have been linked to weight gain.

• Exposure to environmental pollutants from pesticides, dyes, flavorings, perfumes, plastics, resins, and solvents. Exposure to even low levels may make you put on weight.

• Lack of sleep
  

Now that’s a mouthful.

Let’s Not Overlook the Basics

Weight gain is obviously influenced by many factors, but the two that everyone keeps coming back to -- diet and exercise -- are still the biggies in my mind. Combine a healthy diet with exercise -- and be sure you are addressing the emotional component of food, eating and weight gain -- and most people WILL lose weight.

But it’s not always as simple as just eating a salad and going out for a walk. Here are the three tips that everyone who is trying to lose weight should focus on.

1. Your diet should be tailored to your nutritional type. These are the foods that are right for your biochemistry, and these are the foods that will push your body toward its ideal weight. (By the way, these foods may be high in fat, high in carbs, heavy on protein or heavy on veggies, it all depends on YOU).

2. You need to view exercise as a drug. When you’re trying to lose weight, a casual walk here and there is not going to cut it. There are a number of routes you can go here. 30-60 minutes, and sometimes even 90 minutes, of aerobic exercise each and every day, and I’ve gone into the details of how to use exercise for weight loss in this past article. However, there is also strong compelling evidence that strength training and high-intensity anaerobic interval training may be more effective and appropriate for many.

3. You need to let go of your emotional blocks. Tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are your friend and ally when it comes to losing weight. For some, emotional eating is more complex, and an experienced EFT practitioner may be able to help unravel some of your deeper emotional issues.
Dr Mercola.com

Is This the Reason It's Hard to Lose Weight?

Scientists have discovered why overweight people find it so hard to lose weight; the difference in the number of fat cells between lean and obese people is established during childhood. Although overweight people replenish their fat cells at the same rate as thin ones, they have around twice as many fat cells total. This means that the number of fat cells in a person remains the same, even after a successful diet. Until now, it was not clear that adults could make new fat cells. Many believed that fat mass was increased solely by incorporating more fats into already existing fat cells. In fact, people constantly produce new fat cells. Fat cells are replaced at the same rate that they die, about 10 percent every year. Obesity is determined by a combination of the number of fat cells and their size; they can grow or shrink as fat from food is deposited in them. Sources: The Telegraph May 4, 2008 Nature May 8, 2008; 453(7192):169 (Free Full Text Article) Nature Genetics May 4, 2008 [Epub ahead of print] (Free Full Text Article) Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Keeping up with this kind of craftiness is exhausting business indeed, but somebody’s got to do it. The alternative is to allow articles like this to cloud the minds of otherwise intelligent folks like you into thinking that weight has nothing to do with your lifestyle choices, and everything to do with the number of fat cells your parents so rudely handed down to you via the family gene pool. So let’s take a step back, and take a deep breath to oxygenate your critical thinking centers. According to the author of this Telegraph story, scientists have now discovered why it’s so difficult for overweight people to lose weight – they somehow ended up with nearly twice as many fat cells as their slimmer counterparts during childhood, which can be linked to a genetic aberration. And from this revolutionary knowledge, new treatment protocols (read: drugs) to attack the signals and genes in fat cells that control the formation of new cells, and/or gene manipulation, will undoubtedly be born. As Dr. Spalding said, "Until now it was not clear whether there was fat cell turnover in adults. Now we have established this does occur, we can target the process.” What’s Wrong With This Thinking? Quite frankly, there’s so many things wrong I don’t know where to begin, so let me just jump right into the middle. Remember my article in Thursday’s newsletter, Good News About Big Bottoms? Just recently scientists discovered that not all fat cells are the same. In fact, fat cells around your hips and bottom (subcutaneous fat) “communicate” and affect your metabolism in an entirely different way than the fat cells around your waistline and inner organs (visceral fat). According to those findings, a heavier bottom actually protects you from developing metabolic syndrome and diabetes, because your subcutaneous fat aids your metabolic functioning, whereas visceral fat around your gut predisposes you to those same diseases. So what could you reasonably assume might happen, were you to take drugs to eliminate fat cells, or fat cell renewal throughout your body? Who knows? But if the history of pharmaceuticals has taught us anything, it’s that the only thing that’s certain is that side effects are highly unpredictable, for the very reasons I wrote about in last Thursday’s article. And as far as the faulty gene theory goes, science has already debunked the "bad genes" theory, showing that good nutrition can overcome this predisposition! But, gene therapy is such a lucrative dream. No Big Pharma-funded scientist can bear to watch that dream die. What’s Fat Got to Do With It? Contrary to the popular belief that fat cells should be banished, they are an active and intelligent part of your body, producing hormones that impact your brain, liver, immune system and even your ability to reproduce. What’s more, the hormones your fat cells produce impact how much you eat and how much fat you burn. One of these hormones is leptin, which sends signals that reduce hunger, increase fat burning and reduce fat storage. That is, if your cells are communicating properly and can “hear” this message. If you eat a diet that is high in sugar and grains, the sugar gets metabolized to fat (and is stored as fat in your fat cells), which in turn releases surges in leptin. Over time, if your body is exposed to too much leptin, it will become resistant to it (just as your body can become resistant to insulin). And when you become leptin-resistant, your body can no longer hear the messages telling it to stop eating and burn fat -- so it remains hungry and stores more fat. Leptin-resistance also causes an increase in visceral fat, sending you on a vicious cycle of hunger, fat storage and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and more. As Sadaf Shadan states in Nature, there are two contributing factors to an increase in fat mass: the number of fat cells, and how much fat each of them stores (their volume). So essentially, you can have fewer fat cells and still be overweight because each cell is “maxed out,” if you will, or alternatively, you can have more fat cells overall and be at an ideal weight simply because your fat cells are functioning properly and not storing excess fat. Either way, you’re in control here. What Genetic Mutation Disaster Happened in the 60’s? Interestingly enough, man has not always struggled with obesity. According to historical analysis, presented in the policy research study: Pub. 757, Public Policy in Global Health and Medical Practice, 2006, obesity began it's climb to become the second leading cause of unnecessary death, back in the 1960’s. Did man suddenly experience a mass genetic mutation at that time, giving rise to one of the leading health problems of today? No. Cultural changes, dietary changes and technological changes had a major impact on the evolution of obesity from then on. Americans, as well as many other countries, now live in a society that encourages excessive food intake, including non-food food-stuffs like processed foods and snacks, and discourages physical activity. If inappropriate diet and sedentary lifestyles created the problem, how can it be cured by messing around with your genes, or removing fat cells, either surgically or pharmaceutically? Do You REALLY Want to Lose Weight? Yes, it’s true: “The worst part of eating healthy and getting in shape is that you usually have to get out of bed yourself to do it” There is no Magic Pill. Some might help kick-start things temporarily, but they can’t keep you there. There are, however, four tenets of long-term optimal health and weight that remain the same, regardless of the cause: Eat a healthy diet that’s right for your nutritional type, paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down Get plenty of sleep Manage your stress Exercise Remember, obesity is a direct result of poor dietary choices and insufficient exercise. If you simply can't make yourself eat a healthy diet or exercise regularly, then you might want try the hypnosis program I recommend to help end cravings and create a desire to eat right and exercise more. Final Thoughts People often ask me why I do this work. Am I not just wangling my own wares like everybody else? Well the answer is quite simply that I’ve seen far too much needless suffering through my years in medical practice. Absolutely needless suffering -- whether in the form of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stress, you-name-it –because people were carefully manipulated and deceived by drug companies. The real tragedy is that they never explored the simple options that could relatively easily reverse their illness. The paradox is that most of these alternatives are as free as the air you breathe. Changing your eating habits, getting to bed at a decent hour, learning to say “no” when you’re overloaded, and going for a walk will cost you nothing. But the rewards can be priceless. Some people insist on calling me a quack because I would promote tanning without sunscreen -- among other things – a decade or so before science finally caught up, proving I wasn’t so crazy after all. Remember my favorite quote from Arthur Schopenhauer: All truth goes through three phases First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is widely accepted as being self evident. But that kind of opposition just stems from sheep-like, indoctrinated thinking. They may be exercising their free right to speech, but they’re certainly not exercising free thinking or free will. If they did, they wouldn’t just regurgitate scientific findings funded by industry, without asking some hard questions. I believe information is more powerful than pills when it comes to creating and maintaining optimal health. That’s why this newsletter is available to you three times a week, every week of the year. So stay informed, be the change, and spread it around as widely as you can. Dr Mercola.com

Boost Your IQ by Choosing Your Exercise Wisely

Studies have shown that some forms of exercise may actually help you think better, while others have little or no impact on your brain matter.

Here's a sampling of what works and what doesn’t.

Aerobic Training
In 2006, Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois used MRIs to prove that aerobic exercise builds gray and white matter in the brains of older adults. Later studies found that more aerobically fit grade-schoolers also perform better on cognitive tests.
Impact on intelligence: Strong

Lifting Weights
When weight lifters talk about getting huge, they aren't referring to their hippocampus. Researchers have found only the most tenuous link between heavy resistance training and improved cognitive function.
Impact on intelligence: Negligible

Yoga
When facing a stressful situation or even a scary email, people often hold their breath. Yoga can break that habit.

Under pressure, "most people breathe incorrectly," says Frank Lawlis, a fellow of the American Psychological Association and author of The IQ Answer. The result: more stress and less oxygen to your brain. "So the first thing that goes is your memory."
Impact on intelligence: Possibly strong

Studying on the StairMaster
A spinning class may rev up your mental muscle, but that doesn't mean you should study while huffing and puffing on the StairMaster.

Research shows you'll just confuse yourself. "It's like doing something while you're driving," says Charles Hillman, a kinesiology professor at the University of Illinois. In other words, you won't do either task well.
Impact on intelligence: Negligible

Other research not mentioned in this Wired article also confirms that aerobic exercise is indeed one of the best things you can do to stay mentally agile into old age.

For example, older people who exercise three or more times a week were found to have a significantly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.

Healthy people who reported exercising regularly had a 30 to 40 percent lower risk of dementia, but even those who devoted as little as 15 minutes to exercise, three days a week, cut their risk significantly. Even a short, brisk walk every day, the researchers said, can make a difference.

The trick about exercise is treating it like a drug that needs to be prescribed precisely so you can achieve the maximum benefit. There are a number of excellent resources out there for exercise; you can review mine, or search online or in your book store for further resources.

Sources:

• Wired Magazine April 21, 2008
• Dr Mercola.com
  

50 Great Things you Never Knew you Could do with Tennis Balls

Most tennis balls simply end up in the garbage when they stop being useful on the court. But they actually have many other useful purposes. You can:

1) Cut an X in the top of each ball and put them on the bottoms of chair legs to cut down on noise and floor scuffs. If you don’t have scuffable floors, many schools take donations for just this purpose.

2) Donate them to a local nursing home for use on residents’ walkers. They make the walkers easier to push around for people who aren’t strong enough to lift them.

3) Hang one on string from the garage roof to help you park without running into things. When it touches the windshield or rear window, you know it’s time to stop.

4) Keep certain types of gnats or flies away from you when you are outdoors. Just cover a tennis ball in Vaseline and hang it from a tree or bush.

5) Tennis balls with holes drilled in them have been used in the UK as protective homes for field mice.

6) When packing something for shipping in a box that’s too large, use tennis balls as shock-absorbing cushions that will hold the item steady in the box.

7) Use them to remove scuffs on floors. Many janitors use this trick by placing a tennis ball on the end of a broom.

8 ) Protect your surfboard when it goes on an airplane journey.

9) Play a creative catch game that will amuse kids to no end.

10) Throw a few tennis balls into the dryer when you are drying comforters, fluffy coats, pillows, or anything else that could use a good fluffing.

11) Tennis balls can also help any laundry load dry faster; throw two or three in the dryer and your clothes will be done quicker.

12) Speaking of laundry, put a tennis ball into your washing machine along with your shower curtain and 1/2 cup of vinegar, then wash with hot water. The vinegar will kill the mildew and the tennis ball will help to scrub the mildew off.

13) If you or your partner snore, attach a pocket to the back of the snorer’s pajamas and secure a tennis ball inside. This will ensure that the snorer sleeps on his/her side -- most people snore only when sleeping on their backs.

14) Make your own juggling clubs.

15) Make a very cute pencil/mail/phone holder.

16) Cut a slit in one and use it to cover the trailer hitch on your truck.

17) Hide stuff in them. Make a slit in a tennis ball, then squeeze either side of the slit to open it up. Place money or other objects inside, and release to close the opening.

18 ) Use the same concept as above to pass notes or other items over long distances. This idea has been used at auctions to pass receipts to winning bidders.

19) Cut a portion of the ball off so that it will fit over the sharp corner of your coffee table. Repeat for the other corners to baby-proof a room.

20) Make a beautiful flower for your sweetheart. You can even fill it with candy.

21) Slit a tennis ball open, insert some beans or jingle bells, and seal closed with glue or rubber cement. Give it to a toddler as a musical instrument.

22) When you are seated, put a tennis ball under each foot and roll your feet around on them. They make wonderful massagers.

23) Put two tennis balls into a large sock. Tie the sock securely, then use the contraption as a back massager. This is a great tool to have in your hospital bag when you have a baby, since concentrated back pressure can help to relieve a great deal of labor pain.

24) Make bizarre furniture.

25) Use tennis balls to anchor clusters of helium balloons at parties. Knot together a group of ribbons attached to balloons. Cut a small X in the top of a ball and insert the knot. Fill the ball with sand if you want extra security.

26) Learning to juggle tennis balls can improve your hand-eye coordination and visual reaction time. It can also help to keep your brain sharp.

27) Put tennis balls on the tops of poles to mark the edges of your driveway or drainage ditch. The bright yellow balls will be visible in the dark and help you avoid driving into the ditch or over the grass in the dark.

28 ) Put a tennis ball on the end of a broomstick and use it to clean cobwebs from the ceiling.

29) Wrap a piece of sandpaper around a tennis ball. It’s easy on your hands and can be used to sand curves on furniture or woodworking projects.

30) Make a unique ornament for your home or to give as a gift.

31) Make an incognito squirt gun.

32) Prevent your bike’s kick stand from sinking into soft dirt by cutting a small slit in a tennis ball and sliding it over the kick stand.

33) If you find that the legs of your lawn chairs get stuck between the slats of your deck, put tennis balls on the bottoms to keep them where you want them.

34) Keep the yuckiness out of your pool by floating some tennis balls in the water. Supposedly, the balls will absorb body oils from people who swim in the water. You need to replace them every few weeks to keep them fresh.

35) Cut a tennis ball in half and use it to get a better grip when opening jars. Just place the ball half over the lid, and the rubber on the inside grips the lid to help you rotate it easier.

36) You can apply the same concept to screwdrivers to give you a better grip. Simply cut a slit in the tennis ball and slide it over the screwdriver handle to give you a better grip.

37) Make a tiny stereo.

38 ) Ham radio enthusiasts with gigantic antennae on their cars can use a strategically placed tennis ball to keep the antennae from ruining the paint on the cars.

39) To keep a door knob from smashing into and damaging an interior wall, cut a large slit in a tennis ball and slide it over the knob. This trick also works great to keep curious toddlers out of off-limits rooms ... until they figure out how to squeeze as they turn.

40) Use a tennis ball to explain internet security (see video in source link below).

41) Squeeze a tennis ball in your hand whenever you have an extra few minutes to increase your hand strength.

42) If you want to leave your car door open but don’t want the interior lights to run down the battery, just wedge a tennis ball into the door frame to keep the light switch depressed.

43) When fueling up your car, use a tennis ball to keep the handle of the gas nozzle pushed in to avoid painful hand cramping.

44) Make a snowman ornament for your holiday tree.

45) Explain and illustrate molecular structure.

46) Make an awesome pocket tripod for your small camera.

47) Build a model trebuchet and hurl tennis balls into your annoying neighbor’s yard.

48) Make talking apple puppets. These will amuse kids to no end.

49) Put tennis balls under the windshield wipers of vehicles that will be stored for long periods. This will help the blades last longer.

50) Use the time-tested method for finding your car in a crowded parking lot: put a tennis ball on the end of the antenna.

A words of caution: tennis balls should not be used as dog toys. The felt that covers them can wear down a dog’s teeth. Larger dogs can choke on tennis balls. Ask your veterinarian for advice on alternative toys.

Sources:

• The Life Hackery March 22, 2208
• Dr Mercola.com
  

Kill Your Stress ... Before Your Stress Kills You!

Just about every illness is either directly caused, or made worse, by stress. That includes heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, along with:

• Back pain and headaches
• Stomach and digestive problems
• Tooth grinding
• Sleep loss and fatigue
• Skin problems
• Weight gain or loss
• Depression
• Confusion, irritability, forgetfulness and more

Since stress is something that you encounter every day, you simply must have tools to deal with it if you want to be happy and healthy. One of my personal favorites, as many of you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which involves simple tapping with your fingertips to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians on your head and chest while you think about your specific problem and voice positive affirmations.

But there are many others out there and, really, the more stress management tools you learn, and use regularly, the better of you’ll be.

The following tips from Lifehack will help you develop practices and a mindset that dissipate and reduce the inevitable stress of life itself.

1. Make quiet time: Whether you meditate daily or just spend an hour a night with a book, you need to create a space where you can clear your mind.

2. Eat better: A good diet can help your body better deal with the effects of stress.

3. Make family time: Try to eat at least one meal a day with your family (or with friends if you’re single).

4. Talk it out: Bottling up your frustrations, even the little ones, leads to stress.

5. Prioritize: Figure out what in your life actually needs attention and what doesn’t.

6. Accept interruptions gracefully: Leave enough wiggle room so you can adapt to changes in your day.

7. Pay attention to yourself: Notice when you feel stressed, and determine the cause.

8. Love: Build relationships. Share yourself. Feel human warmth.

9. Learn How to Relax and Center: Try this free download created by Dr. Neil Fiore that will guide you through proven breathing and relaxation exercises.

Sources:

• Lifehack.org April 11, 2008
• Dr Mercola.com