Labor Day weekend heralds the start of September and, in turn, a new school year.

Are your kids ready to go back to school? Sure, they probably have their school supplies by now, but what about their vaccinations?

Here some of the back-to-school guidelines I think are the most important to address to ensure your children have a happy, healthy year:

Vaccinations

In order to enter kindergarten, there are a number of required vaccinations children must receive, though they vary from state to state. Check with your school system for specific requirements. Additionally, in New York, children must receive the booster for TDAP in order to enter middle school.

Other vaccines, such as Hepatitis A or chicken pox boosters, are recommended, but not required. Also, don’t forget to get an influenza shot ahead of the upcoming flu season this year. Kids are busy enough without having to worry about getting sick!

Nutrition

Three meals a day is still the rule of thumb for children, according to nutritionists. Kids shouldn’t skip breakfast because this can lead to weight gain. They should also avoid fried or sugary foods in the school cafeteria at lunch.

Make sure kids are drinking enough water to avoid dehydration during warmer months. This holds especially true for athletes, who have to exert extra energy and sometimes wear heavy gear during practice.

Exercise

Kids need daily exercise. I know we’re all tied to our laptops and iPods or what have you (and I think my kid’s cell phones might actually need to be surgically removed from their hands) but it’s important to set technology aside for an hour or so to run around outside.

Studies have shown that sedentary lifestyles lead to a number of health problems, and I’m not just talking about weight gain. In recent years, more and more kids have been diagnosed with typically “adult” diseases, such as type II diabetes, heart disease and high cholesterol.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the most important factors that influence health. Students have a lot going on during the school year, from clubs to sports to music lessons or other extracurricular activities – and that’s not even factoring in nightly homework assignments.

Don’t let your child get too overbooked this year. Inadequate rest can increase susceptibility to illness, as well as cause weight gain and lower concentration in class, among other health problems. Eight hours of sleep a night should be the absolute minimum, especially for younger children.

Finally, try not to stress too much. I know school comes with certain pressures and expectations, but one of the most important things kids can do to keep themselves healthy both physically and mentally is to cut out the anxiety and take the time to have fun. Have a good school year, everyone!

A recent health story sounds like the stuff of nightmares.

According to reports, three people have died this summer due to a brain-eating amoeba (Naegleria fowleri) that resides at the bottom of lakes and ponds, entering people’s bodies through the nostrils and killing them.

Two of the deaths occurred after swimming in infested water, while one was an isolated case of exposure to contaminated tap water.

The deaths, which all occurred in different states, have caused widespread concern about the safety of swimming or water sports during the summer.

While I’m not trying to promote mass hysteria here, I don’t think the concern is entirely unreasonable.

This long, hot summer has been especially welcoming for amoeba, which thrive in hot, stagnant, shallow water.

The high temperatures, naturally, have gone a long way in both heating up and shrinking the size of lakes and ponds.

While the amoebae do not affect everyone who enters the water, the consequences for those that it does are nearly always fatal. The amoeba gets up the nose, burrows up into the skull and destroys brain tissue.

The infected person will exhibit signs and symptoms of meningitis, such as fever, headache and stiff neck, before falling into a coma and eventually dying.

There is no need for mass alarm as the condition is very rare. Presently, there have only been 120 reported cases in the United States since the amoeba was identified in 1960.

However, at the same time, only one person has ever survived, so I don’t think it hurts to exercise some caution.

While all bodies of freshwater have the potential of being infested, I especially recommend avoiding shallow water that has been thoroughly heated by the sun, all the way down to the bottom. Amoebae are less likely to be found in deeper water where you can feel that the temperature at the bottom is cooler than the top.

Also, make sure to plug your nose when jumping or diving into water and avoid excess splashing. These simple measures can all decrease the likelihood of amoebae entering the body.

It’s the time of year where it seems like everybody’s increasing their focus on diet and exercise in order to get ready for swimsuit season.

But if you’re getting less sleep in order to exercise more or stressing out about cutting your favorite foods for your diet, you may actually be hindering your weight loss progress, a new study suggests.

So this year, instead of being miserable and cranky for the next few weeks, try this list of simple weight loss tricks in order to drop those pesky five pounds and look great for summer.

1. Portion your food

You don’t have to give up your favorite snacks or sweets – but you do have to practice moderation.  If you’re the kind of person who can’t stop once you crack open a bag of chips, then don’t buy the big bag.  Buy the small sizes instead, so you’re less likely to accidentally binge.  And when it comes to ice cream?  Never eat straight out of the carton.  It’s almost impossible to put the spoon down.  Take the time to actually scoop out a (reasonable) portion into a bowl.

2. Incorporate more vegetables

Vegetables are great for you, and they can be really filling too.  Also, unlike fruit, they’re not packed with sugars that can actually work against you when it comes to weight loss.  When you’re fixing your dinner plate, try halving the amount of carbs (eg. rice, potatoes, bread) and doubling the vegetables for a lower calorie meal that will still satisfy you.

3. Drink more water

While it’s hard to cut anything from your diet if you really love it, sodas – and other high-cal, sugary drinks – are simply unnecessary.  Experts warn that prohibiting yourself from certain foods can lead to a diet breakdown, but let’s be realistic.  You’re much less likely to suddenly binge on a drink eliminated from your diet as opposed to a food.  Also a warning to fruit juice drinkers: your favorite juices often have just as much sugar and calories as soda, and usually only a fraction of the nutritional benefits of actual fruit.  So, whenever you’re thirsty, try going for the water bottle instead.  After a week or so, you probably won’t even miss the empty calories.

4. Exercise in front of the TV

Mindless exercise is the best kind of exercise for most people.  It’s hard to push yourself out the door and into a gym – but it’s not nearly as bad in the comfort of your own home.  Try doing sit-ups or planks in front of your TV next time you’re watching your favorite show.  Because your attention is split, the routine become becomes mindless instead of a struggle.  If you have a treadmill, position it in front of the screen so you can walk while you watch.

5. Sleep more

New studies suggest that more sleep equals more weight loss.  Sounds counter-intuitive, right?  But actually, there are a number of reasons why sleep helps.  For one, when we’re tired, we’re much more likely to grab an “easy” meal (read: fast food, junk food) as opposed to cooking something healthy.  Research shows that people who don’t get enough sleep eat an average of 300 more calories a day – and then they’re too tired to work it off.

6. Stress less

This one seems to be interconnected with sleep, researchers say.  When we’re tired or stressed, we’re generally too preoccupied to focus on making important behavioral changes.  This can hinder weight loss progress.  In a recent trial of nearly 500 obese adults, researchers found that participants who weren’t impeded by sleep deprivation or stress were more likely to lose weight than their over-stressed counterparts.  More than anything, these results have shown that weight loss should be a holistic process.  Focus on on making yourself healthier as a whole – mind and body – and the results will speak for themselves.

One recent survey of Americans on body image found that more than half of all men and women would rather lose their job than gain an extra seventy-five pounds. And nearly 20 percent of the population would give up, or consider giving up, 20 IQ points to have the perfect body.

Obviously, weight and the way we are perceived is an important factor in our daily lives. It’s not surprising then that dieting is on the minds of so many people these days, particularly as people get on in their forties, when the metabolism begins to slow and the pounds begin to add up. So which diet is best? I’ll tell you.

First, let’s look at some of the big blockbuster diets that have appeared over the past decade or so—the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Mediterranean Diet, and so on. Each one of these diets has simply incorporated a different method of teaching you about nutrition in order to get you to lose weight. Each one gives you something to focus on, a behavior to motivate you, which is great because, after all, to lose weight you have to change your thinking.

But if you look at the fundamentals, the underlying theme of each diet is calories. Whether you do Atkins, South Beach, or Dr. Phil, it’s really all about calories.

When reviewed carefully, most diets are really nothing more than low-calorie nutrition plans disguised by clever marketing gimmicks. Scientific-sounding “facts” and hocus-pocus “research” are just ornaments on the diet tree. Diet-plan marketers go to great lengths to explain how their diet can work for everyone, or claim that it is carbohydrate intake or fat intake—or whatever the bad intake of the day is—that’s the culprit.

However, the bottom line is that the only way to lose weight is to have a caloric deficit, which occurs only when you burn more calories than you consume.

The average American today consumes 300 more calories per day today than did the average American of 30 years ago. Today’s average American also burns 260 fewer calories each day due to increased automation, technology, and sedentary occupations. Put those numbers together, and it becomes rather obvious why America’s waistline is growing at an alarming rate.

Check Your BMI

The BMI can tell you if you are underweight, normal, overweight, or obese. Adults 20 years old and older can calculate their BMI with this formula:

BMI = your weight/pds divided by height/in x height/in x 703

You are UNDERWEIGHT, if your BMI is below 18.5.

You are of NORMAL WEIGHT, if your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.

You are OVERWEIGHT, if your BMI is between 25.0 and 29.9.

You are OBESE, if your BMI is 30.0 or more.

So here is Dr. Manny’s Freedom Diet. If you really want to lose weight, you have to do two things: eat fewer calories and burn more calories. This is not an optional “either/or” plan but an “and” plan. Of course, the calories you eat should be healthy calories. That’s all. Eat less. Exercise more. It really is that simple.

Fight obesity. Spread the word.

Exercise

People spend an enormous amount of time trying to find the perfect exercise, and while they’re doing that, their clock is ticking. Any physical activity is great, though the best kinds of exercise for you are those like walking, swimming, running, hiking, and skiing—all of which have a “global” impact on your body and mind.

Most important, you should stick to the exercise of your choice and do it regularly. If you adhere to those two principles, you’re going to burn calories, feel better, improve your metabolism, and benefit your health.

Any activity you do during the day—from climbing stairs, to housecleaning, to watching TV—will, of course, burn calories. But those activities don’t provide the necessary continuity, and I think the essence of getting into shape and having a good metabolism has to do with a continuity of exercise.

In other words, it’s better to burn 120 calories a day, seven days a week, doing your favorite exercise, for example, than to burn 800 calories doing the housework once a week. It’s the exercise regimen that has an impact on your health, not necessarily the intensity.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Estimated number of calories burned per minute based on an individual weighing about 150 pounds:

Sitting: 1

Talking on phone: 1

Sleeping: 1

Driving: 2

Housework: 3

Cooking: 3

Washing dishes: 3

Stretching: 4

Sex (active): 5

Walking (3 mph): 5

Calisthenics (moderate): 5

Ballroom dancing (fast): 6

Gardening: 6

Swimming (moderate): 7

Aerobics (low impact): 7

Hiking: 7

Jogging: 8

Stair step machine: 8

Bicycling (12 to 14 mph): 10

Basketball (full court): 12

Running (10 mph): 20

To easily calculate how many calories you burn in a day, go to www.healthstatus.com and click on “Calculators” then “Calories Burned.”

It is also very important to drink adequate amounts of fluid when you exercise. You need to drink about a half cup of water for every fifteen minutes of vigorous exercise. People think that muscle cramps during exercise are caused by a shortage of electrolytes, but that’s not true. You get muscle cramps because of water loss and dehydration. Drink that water!

It’s that time of the year again – St. Patrick’s Day.  For some, it’s a religious day that involves attending church services, wearing green, and celebrating Irish culture.  For others, it’s a day of general revelry, comprised of drinking, attending parades, and staying out late.

Unfortunately, St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Thursday this year.  That means, for most of us, after all the partying on the holiday, there’s still one more day of work to suffer through until the weekend.

It also means that it may be difficult to follow through with typical “go-to” hangover cures.  There’s no sleeping in on work days, and there may not even be time to cook up a big greasy breakfast.  Forget about the hair-of-the-dog cure, i.e. drinking more alcohol.  No boss is going to appreciate an employee coming in slurring their words and smelling like gin.

Here’s the truth: The best cure for a hangover on a work day is not getting one at all.  It doesn’t mean you can’t join in on any of the festivities – or the drinking because, let’s face it, who can resist green beer?  It just means you have to be smart while you enjoy yourself.  While not drinking is the only fool-proof way to avoid a hangover, here are a few other tips to lessen the pain of waking up bright and early tomorrow morning:

Before drinking:

1. Eat.  Not greasy pizza or bar food, but a solid, starchy meal with a lot of vitamins and minerals.  The food will help absorb the alcohol and lessen it’s effects on you.  Get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with hearty meals like vegetable shepard’s pie or corned beef with cabbage and potatoes.

2. Drink.  Not so fast!  Put down the green beer, and pick up a glass of water.  And then another.  A glass of fruit juice is also a good idea.  Hydrating your body now will be much more effective against pain than waiting until tomorrow morning.

3. Prepare your given hangover-cure now.  Tomorrow, you’re going to want as much sleep as possible.  Save time – and let yourself punch the snooze button a couple of times in the morning – by taking care of your hangover needs now.  If it’s food or a drink, it’ll keep for a night in the fridge.  If it’s a pill, rather than having to waste time rifling through your drawers, put it on your bedside table next to a tall glass of water.

4. Get out early.  Try to take advantage of happy hours and call it an early night.  That way, you can have your fun but still get as much sleep as you need.  Sleep is one of the best defenses against a vicious hangover.

While drinking:

1. Eat.  Because you took care of your vitamin and starch needs earlier, now’s the time when you can munch on less-than-healthy bar food.  The point here is to keep your stomach full enough to keep absorbing alcohol.

2. Stick with light beers on a work day.  If you do need a Guinness to get into the spirit, drink one and drink it early.  Darker beers contain more congeners, which equals more pain in the morning.  Light beers are much easier on your body – and your stomach.  Also, while we’re on the topic of alcohol, try to stay away from liquor, which is going to hit you hard and fast and isn’t going to mix well at all with the green beer you’ve already consumed.  Save it for tomorrow night instead.

3. Alternate between alcoholic and non-alcholic drinks.  This will slow down your alcohol intake with the added bonus of still giving you something to hold in your hands.  If you’re worried about you’re friends giving you a hard time, keep in mind that they can’t tell what’s actually in your hand.  It’s easy to pass off orange juice as a screwdriver or mineral water as a vodka tonic.  Remember: Your liver can only break down an average of one beer an hour.

4. Drink a glass of water and take some vitamin B before crashing for the night.  The goal here is to replace what the alcohol has drained out of your body.  It’s also much better for you than any pain relievers like Tylenol, Ibuprofen or Aspirin, which can cause serious damage to your liver.

Like I mentioned earlier, these tips do not guarantee a hangover-free morning (only not drinking does), but they will give you a fighting chance.  And remember, everything in moderation – even on holidays.  Have a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone.

When a large snowstorm hit New York in December, it seemed like nobody was prepared – including the emergency responders whose job it was to clean up the snow.  The city came to an eerie standstill as people holed up indoors, unable to travel to work or school in the midst of the blizzard.

As I was sitting in my own home, watching the snow build up, I wondered: how many people know what to do when a snowstorm hits harder than expected?  Sure, we all know the basics – keep warm, stay inside.  But just because you’re inside, doesn’t mean you’re safe from harm.

Here are a few recommendations from the CDC on how to stay safe and healthy when the weather takes a turn for the worse:

Heat Up Your Home

-Only use fireplaces or other heaters if they are properly vented to the outside.
-Do not burn paper in a fireplace.
-Use the correct fuel type for your heater.  No substitutes.
-Keep space heater 3 feet away from anything flammable like drapes, furniture or bedding.  Never cover you space heater or place it on top of anything.
-Keep space heater away from water.
-Do not leave children unattended around a space heater.
-Do not run cord of an electric space heater across the room where it can be a tripping hazard, but also, do not run the cord under rugs or carpet.
-Do not use space heaters with damaged electrical cords.
-Keep a fire-extinguisher handy.
-Install a carbon monoxide (CO) detector to protect yourself from CO poisoning.
-Never use generators or anything fueled by gasoline inside.

Conserve Heat

-Avoid opening doors or windows.
-Close off unneeded rooms.
-Stuff towels in cracks underneath doors.
-Close your drapes or cover windows with blankets at night.

Protect Your Water Supply

-Leave all water taps slightly open so they drip continuously.
-Keep your house heated.
-Improve circulation of heated air near pipes – in other words, keep the cabinet doors beneath the sink open.
-If pipes do freeze, heat them with an electric hair dryer.
-Keep water bottles in your house during the winter as a precaution.  In the case of extreme emergencies, snow can be melted for water and boiled to kill any microorganisms or parasites.  However, it may still contain chemical pollutants.

Watch What You Eat

-Eat well-balanced meals to warm you up.
-Drink warm, sweet beverages or broth.
-Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which lower body temperature faster.

In Case of Power Failure

-Use flashlights or battery-operated lanterns instead of candles.
-If you have to use candles, do not leave them unattended.

Unfortunately, hibernation is not always an option.  If you do have to go outside, make sure to dress warmly.  Always put on a hat, a scarf, mittens, a water-resistant coat and boots, and several layers of loose fitting clothing before you leave the house.  Wool and silk conserve body heat better than cotton does, so try to layer these kinds of fabrics underneath your jacket.  If you are too warm and begin to perspire, take off a few items because excess sweating causes you to lose body heat faster.  Water, gasoline and alcohol can also cause heat loss if they come into contact with your skin, so be careful when handling any of them.

Also, be aware that cold weather can put additional strain on your heart since your body is already working double-time to keep you warm.  If you have heart problems or high blood pressure, you should consult your doctor before doing any strenuous work outside.

To learn more on winter safety, visit the CDC website.