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Jump on ItTrampolines are more<br />
popular than everÐand with good reason:<br />
As part of a well-balanced exercise routine,<br />
bouncing on a trampoline can be<br />
good for balance, flexibility and overall fitness.<br />
Even better, it provides these benefits<br />
without the pounding of some<br />
high-impact workouts. In fact, according<br />
to the experts, jumping on trampolines<br />
can produce cardiovascular, caloric and<br />
load bearing effects equal to running.<br />
Therapy Rising<br />
A<br />
llison Easter wasn't in crisis:<br />
She simply lacked joy. In her<br />
20s, an accomplished dancer with<br />
the whole world ahead of her, she<br />
was spiritless. ªI always thought if I<br />
was working, I would be happy,º<br />
she says. ªBut when my work life<br />
was starting to come along, I was<br />
still really depressed.º<br />
Easter rose from her gloom <strong>by</strong><br />
doing then what a growing number<br />
But with the apparatus' popularity has also come an increased risk of injury,<br />
some severe enough to warrant emergency room visits. Before jumping for joy,<br />
keep these tips, from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in mind: of young women are doing today:<br />
·Only one person should use the trampoline at a time.<br />
working it out with therapy.<br />
·Don't do somersaults.<br />
ªThere's been a shift in the self-<br />
·Don't allow children younger than 6 to use a full-sized trampoline. help movement,º says Audrey B.<br />
·Make sure there is adult supervision. ÐKendra Lee Chapman, Ph.D., family<br />
therapist and auderwood,<br />
M.D., president of the As-<br />
Got Coffee?<br />
sociation of Black Cardiologists, we<br />
thor of Getting Good<br />
Loving: The Seven<br />
Ways to Find and<br />
shouldn't ban coffee yet. ªThis study Make Love Last. ªPeo-<br />
<strong>To</strong> drink or not to drinkÐ is saying drinking a lot of coffee over ple know they don't<br />
is that the question? an extended period can stiffen bloodhave<br />
to suffer in si-<br />
It is if you're a coffee drinker. For vessels,º he says. ªNo participant in lence. It doesn't mean<br />
the millions who jumpstart the daythe<br />
study actually becomes afflictedthey're<br />
crazy if they<br />
with a bolt of liquid caffeine, the an- with cardiovascular disease. At this reach out.º<br />
swers can't come fast enough. Scienpoint<br />
it's just information.º<br />
Chapman partly<br />
tists are scrambling for information, There's no doubt the nutritional credits the era of<br />
but it may not make the throng ofvalue<br />
of coffee is a mixed brew. Caf- Oprah, where living your best life is<br />
Starbucks devotees happy. feine can interfere with iron and cal- the medicine of the day. ªInstead of<br />
cium absorption and make some unleashing attitudes or overeating,<br />
people anxious, as well as cause an ir- some black women are learning to<br />
regular heartbeat. Some experts say iron out personal issues. They also<br />
coffee leads to higher blood pressure. have greater access and the finan-<br />
But caffeine also stimulates the releasecial<br />
means to afford help.º<br />
of fat so the body can burn it for en- According to Therapy in America<br />
ergy, and two recent studies showed 2004, a survey conducted for Psy-<br />
coffee may lower the risk of colon and chology <strong>To</strong>day and PacifiCare Be-<br />
liver cancers. Other studies suggest havioral Health, 27 percent, or an<br />
coffee drinkers may be at decreasedestimated<br />
59 million people, have<br />
risk for several major diseases, includ- received psychological treatment in<br />
ing Parkinson's and diabetes.<br />
the past two years. Most were satis-<br />
Many health-care providers say fied with the results.<br />
A recent University of Athens limit coffee to three cups a day. But Easter sure is. On-and-off ther-<br />
study found coffee drinkers hadDr.<br />
Underwood says, ªEven for my apy for the last 10 years has helped<br />
more stiffness of blood vessels, a riskpatients<br />
who already have cardiovas- her gain a stronger perspective<br />
factor for developing strokes andcular<br />
disease, I don't recommend about herself. ªThere's always more<br />
heart attacks, than non-drinkers. they modify their coffee consump- to learn,º she says. ªIt's like contin-<br />
But this coffee conundrum isn't tion. This study doesn't change my uing education, you want to keep<br />
conclusive. According to Paul Un- view on that.ºÐJacqueline Y. Metcalfe your skills up.º ÐStacy Gilliam<br />
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 · HEARTANDSOUL.COM 19<br />
YOU, FIRST!
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