More health tips

Power Couple: Calcium and Vitamin D

Don't play favorites with this pair. Invite them both to your supplement party.

When calcium and vitamin D get together, their powers multiply. Not only do they help build your bones and boost your immune system function, but, according to new research, they also help ward off type 2 diabetes. Research shows you'll be a whopping 33 percent less likely to develop the condition if you get at least 1,200 milligrams (mg) of calcium and 800 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day compared to an intake of only 600 mg of calcium and less than 400 IU of vitamin D daily.

Although it's best to get many nutrients from food, the study showed that getting vitamin D and calcium from supplements -- not dietary sources -- was associated with a lower diabetes risk. It's difficult to get enough vitamin D and calcium from food, anyway -- especially vitamin D -- so make sure your supplement includes both. It's particularly important during the shorter winter days when you may get little sunlight, which helps your body manufacture vitamin D.

The RealAge Optimum (RAO) dose of vitamin D is 400 IU per day for people under age 70 and 600 IU per day for people over age 70. But the upper intake level is 2,000 IU -- meaning anything up to that level is generally considered safe.

Make Mine Cherry

Tools for easing sore muscles: heating pad, aspirin, and . . . cherry juice?

That's right -- forget the Bengay. In a university study, regularly drinking a juice blend that contained tart cherry juice helped ease postworkout muscle pain caused by strength training. Makes sense. Cherries are high in phenols and anthocyanins, compounds that stamp out inflammation in a big way. Of course, topical analgesics like Bengay and Tiger Balm may help, too. But it's nice to know there may be a sweeter smelling solution.

Strength training helps build muscle in the long-term, but it also causes microscopic tears and other minor muscle damage in the short-term -- especially if you overdo it. When that happens, your body sends inflammatory compounds to the area to remove injured tissue and aid in healing. And it's that stiffness you feel as a result of the inflammation that makes it so hard to open a jar of pickles or get up from your chair the next day.

Enter tart cherries. In the study, the postworkout benefits were achieved with two 12-ounce servings per day of the cherry juice blend. Drinking 24 ounces of a tart cherry-apple juice blend each day is equivalent to eating about 100-120 cherries a day, but consuming just 45 cherries a day is enough to reduce levels of inflammatory compounds. Now that's sweet.

Is Your Skin Stressed Out?

All that tension inside you? It’s on the surface, too.

When your life is a pressure cooker, your skin pays the price. Stress throws off the skin’s ability to recover, so scratches or scrapes stick around longer. And your skin may be more easily inflamed by scratchy wool sweaters, adhesive bandages, cold weather, or dry, itchy skin conditions like psoriasis or eczema. What unknots you on the inside helps calm your skin side too -- a quiet walk, a little yoga, soothing music. But if that’s not doing the trick, take this psoriasis assessment and get personalized advice on red, itchy, flaky skin.

Stress appears to interfere with the normal barrier function of skin, making it more susceptible to skin disorders. This response was noted in a study on skin irritation, in which sticky tape was applied and then removed from the forearms of participants. The skin of people who were highly stressed took longer to recover than the skin of people who were not tense. That's a good reason to find a mind/body relaxation method that works for you -- whether it's meditation, knitting, or rhythmic running.