By Christine Cioppa

It’s not just attending class that’s important. It’s retaining what you’ve learned that counts! That can be hard to do when you are studying, caring for children and working a fulltime job.

There are some great beverage choices that can help you actually boost your memory power as you tackle your day. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Spokesperson, Jen McDaniel, MS, RDN, CSSD, LDN, shares some of her favorite beverages for boosting memory.   

 Water— “A dehydrated body can damper memory and overall brain function. The easiest way to assess hydration is to ensure urine looks like lemonade, not apple juice!” McDaniel says.

 Caffeinated Coffee/Tea— “Studies have shown drinking two to three cups per day of either coffee or tea has been associated with both short- and long-term memory health improvements. The effects of caffeine are largely determined by one’s usual caffeine intake. A regular caffeine consumer might not get the same benefit from an afternoon cup of tea that an infrequent user would,” says McDaniel. For students attending night classes, she says to be careful with caffeine consumption. “The last thing we want to do is interfere with sleep. A tired brain will not function well the next day!”

Hot Cocoa—“Enjoying as little as one-third of an ounce of chocolate per day (50 calories worth) may help protect against age-related memory loss. The benefits from chocolate and cocoa powder come for polyphenols—antioxidants that move more blood to the brain, McDaniel says.

Veggie-Berry Smoothie—Vegetables such as dark leafy greens (spinach, lettuce), broccoli and beets contain both nitrates, which increase blood flow to the brain, and high levels of antioxidants. The combination of these nutrients acts like a broom in our brain clearing out the cobwebs, McDaniel says. Then there’s berries, which she says help protect against short-term memory loss and help undo age-related memory decline. “Some studies have even shown brain activity improvement within five hours of consuming berries,” McDaniel says. Mix veggies and berries together and double up on their healthful properties.

 Recipes:

Brain Boosting Blueberry & Spinach Smoothie:

Ingredients (one serving):

1 cup frozen/fresh blueberries
½ cup milk
1/3 cup plain yogurt
½ cup spinach
1 T. honey
1 T. hemp seeds

Directions: Place all ingredients in blender and blend!

Hot Cognitive Boosting Cocoa

Ingredients:

1 cup milk of choice

1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder, non-alkalized

½ tsp. cinnamon

1-2 tsp. sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Directions: Warm milk in microwavable cup for 30 seconds on high in microwave. Whisk in cocoa powder, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Heat for an additional 30-60 seconds. Enjoy once drink is cool enough to safely consume.

Enjoy!

If you are considering transferring your Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to your children or spouse, do it now.

Congress set a new rule this week: children who use their parents Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits will receive half of the housing allowance.

Currently, the bill gives students the active duty housing allowance for an E-5, family of four at the location of the college or training facility where the student is enrolled. Full-time online students receive a set rate for their housing.

Transfers of benefits made prior to 180 days from the legislation date, roughly June 11, will be grandfathered into the program and receive full housing allowance. The change does not apply to anyone who has already transferred their benefits.

Military members who transfer their benefits are still able to use their benefits for their one educational needs if they decide to use them instead of passing them on to their children or spouse.

The call for cuts came after a Congressional study found that the housing allotment was often too generous, far exceeding local housing costs. Original drafts asked for money to be taken from both military spouses and military children using their sponsor’s educational benefits.

Members of the Veterans Affairs Committee kept the housing allowance for military spouses intact.

To learn more about transferring your Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to your spouse or children, visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website at:

http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/post911_transfer.asp

The holidays can be a festive time of year, even at work. Until, gift giving goes awry. So, to keep everything cheery and lighthearted, be proactive with a little thoughtfulness and pre-planning.

For starters, “Choose gifts that are appropriate from a financial standpoint and for people you don’t know,” said Kim Zoller, CEO and founder of Image Dynamics.

Gift cards and gift certificates are probably the most flexible workplace gifts, for the receiver and the giver. People celebrate differently and gift cards allow them to get something they really want or re-gift them without any embarrassing fallout. For the giver, they are flexible because you can get them for any amount that is appropriate, they won’t offend your co-workers, and, there are lots of options.

“Gift cards for restaurants, movies, Amazon and bookstores are just easy, generic gifts,” said Zoller, co-author of You Did What? The Biggest Mistakes Professionals Make.

But, with ‘easy and generic’, you sacrifice a certain degree of ‘creative and interesting’. For something more attention-getting that can generate fun conversation too, try things that support mindfulness.

“A motivational book, like the book of the year, or those for any age, denomination, etc., or those written by certain authors, like Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom are good choices,” Zoller said. “Stick with books that have a growth mindset and make sure they don’t have religious undertones.”

When it comes to relationships at work, be a little more cautious.

“For your boss give something more symbolic, like a candle for women or something for the desk for men,” Zoller said. “Or, try a Zen drawing board.”

“For co-workers, whatever you buy for one, you need to buy the same for the others because people perceive a difference in treatment and in value,” Zoller said. “Adult coloring books are very “in” for adult mindfulness in place of meditation. And, you can add color pencils if you want to. If they don't like it they could pass it along.”

When workplace friends are involved, it is best to keep gift giving away from work because people have different levels of friendship and when there is a small group of people at work, it may get leaked outside the group.

“Make a pact with your friends not to mention it at work because when you are selective, people feel left out and they get hurt,” Zoller said.

She also suggested that in some cases, the best thing to do is to just set rules.

“People will be relieved by rules. Whether the rule is don’t give or, only give up to a certain amount, it makes it nice and easy for everyone. It’s always best to play it safe. It’s not worth hurting people’s feelings and impacting being successful at work.”

Christmas is here. Is your wallet looking a little thin?

The worst gift you can give yourself is to take out a payday loan to bolster your holiday spending.

A payday loan is a small cash loan given to an individual based on the fact that the loan is expected to be repaid with their next paycheck. Sounds simple, right?

It's a trap.

When you pay back the loan, you are not simply giving back the $200 you borrowed. These lenders charge an average interest rate of 390 - 780 percent. Non-profits who track the businesses have found payday lenders who charge as much as 1,335 percent in interest. They also note that 75 percent of these lenders do not advertise their interest rate to clients.

The loan is due upon your next paycheck, so there is no installment payment plan over a series of months.

If the loan is not paid back with your next paycheck, you will receive more interest and a finance charge to extend the loan amount.

And ta da. You have officially been trapped into a repetitive cycle that will cost you thousands more than the original few hundred you originally borrowed. 

Military.com reports that on average, payday loan customers end up with eight to 12 loans each year.

The website says the Consumer Federation of America, a non-profit advocacy group, has studied the payday loan industry for the past 10 years and said the industry meets the criteria for predatory lenders who have abusive collection practices, balloon payments with unrealistic repayment terms, equity stripping associated with repeated refinancing and excessive fees, and excessive interest rates that may involve steering a borrower to a higher-cost loan.

Found one that says they simply cash checks? They may be lying. The CFA also found that these businesses misrepresent themselves as check cashers but they are not. Instead, they hold your check until payday and charge you interest for cashing it then.

So, when you are checking off your shopping list this year, the best way to determine what your nearest and dearest will receive, is to spend only the cash you have allotted for the season. Sure, that may not be much. But is a new game system really worth a year-long debt that amounts to thousands of dollars above the purchase price? Shop carefully. Don't let the holidays ruin your household finances.

By Christine Cioppa

Finals are here. The holidays are here. Who has time for a doctor’s visit?

Earlier this year, I spoke with naturopath Orna Izakson, ND, RH (AGH), who told me about easy home remedies to help fight colds and congestion. One of her recipes is very simple—a garlic and onion broth.

“If you think about the stereotypical prescription of chicken soup for cold or flu, the base of chicken soup is not the chicken; it is the onions and garlic,” Dr. Izakson says. “Onions and garlic are amazing for immune support.”

Immune-Boosting Broth

1/2 of an onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 quart of water

(add some veggies if you want)

Directions: Chop up garlic and onion. Add to water and simmer for 15 minutes.

Dr. Izakson also recommends a thyme steam for nasal congestion, cold and flu, and any sort of “general lung crud” or mucus buildup.

“When you breathe in the steam, the steam itself will get things loosened up,” she says. When you add thyme to the steam it will also help disinfect.  If you don’t have thyme, you can use basil, oregano or rosemary, all of which are antimicrobial.

Antimicrobial Steam

Take a small handful of dried thyme (or a larger handful of fresh) and put it in a bowl. Pour boiling water over it. Breathe in steam under a towel. Do it for 15 minutes.

Here’s to a healthy, happy finals week and holiday season!

When a servicemember is recovering from a serious war injury, having a baby is usually not an immediate concern.

But, as they recover, and military couples try to return to a regular routine, often they find that the next step, having children, is impossible to do naturally.

So far, the government has refused to help veterans whose injuries have stopped them from having children. At least three bills have been sent to Congress since 2012 to provide fertility services to wounded veterans. Officials estimate that roughly 2,300 veterans with spinal cord injuries or wounds to their reproductive and urinary tract systems would be eligible.

Each effort was sidelined as Congress wrestled with the enormous task of delivering basic medical needs to wounded veterans who were already waiting months, sometimes years for service. Tricare will cover the diagnosis of issues that cause infertility but will not cover the cost of in-vitro fertilization services, a cost that can range from $15,000  to $35,000. 

Now, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Assisted Reproduction Technology has stepped in to take the lead. The organization has enlisted the help of 103 clinics across the nation who have agreed to offer deep discounts to injured veterans who need IVF services.

To read more about the program, check the full story by Military Times at http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/veterans/2015/11/12/fertility-clinics-offer-discounts-wounded-veterans/75648244/

Some deployments, I’m determined.  I have projects.  I know we’ll get stuff done.  We’ll do home improvements and learn things.

Some deployments I’m happy, believe it or not. Fun things keep me busy, and I don’t have much time to e-mail and dwell.

Some deployments I’m serious. Worried about bills and broken appliances. Wondering about our child’s education.

Some deployments I’m sad. Watching our child take her first steps without him.  Reading how hard it is for him in between the words in his email. Upset he’s missing another birthday.

But, for the first time ever, this deployment, I’m lonely.

Now, granted, every time he’s gone, I have nights or days of loneliness.

But it goes away.  It’s not constant.  It’s a moment.  A few hours.  An evening.

Not this time.

It’s likely that he left me with a newborn only hours old, amid the entire holiday season.  With things I had to take care of that aren’t exactly easy with a sore body and three little ones.

It’s a lot of work, a lot of which is out of my control.

And whenever all the kids are in bed, and I am tired and sitting down to write him an email, I feel it.

That really quiet, helpless, grieving loneliness.

I watch Modern Family without him and feel it. I buy Christmas presents for his parents, and I feel it.  I lose my temper juggling three kids and dinner and our pets and a water softener that broke and, unbeknownst to me, caused us to have a water bill three times higher than normal.  And I feel it.

This is a lonely deployment.  A mix of love and sadness and numbness.

It’s that moment when you think this deployment is flying, only to look up and realize it’s only been two long, slow, boring days without a word. 

But all the time. You’re alone. Fighting back tears.

A lot of times you’re shut down so as to not feel the general crappiness brought about by depressive loneliness.

It’s not fun or glamorous.  It’s mundane.

I have had longer, harder, more calamitous deployments.  I really have.

But this one is emotionally tough for me in a way I’m not familiar with.

Luckily, it won’t last forever.  Just another blip on our Navy journey.  A “Remember that one patrol you left on right after the baby was born?” piece of the puzzle.

It won’t matter in the future.

But for now, I’m still lonely.
 

By Christine Cioppa

The Department of Defense (DoD) is using acupuncture and has been for a while. In fact, the U.S. Air Force even has an Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine Center at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.

Retired Air Force Colonel Richard C. Niemtzow, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, is leading the military’s research on using acupuncture for pain on the battlefield. Still, it is not a treatment that is typically covered by most insurance companies, including Tricare.

While acupuncture gains ground within the DoD and Veterans Health Administration, there are other places to try it out. Through the Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) Military Stress Recovery Project, veterans, active military (including reservists) and their families can seek out free treatment for chronic pain and post traumatic stress (PTSD).

“We have about 35 clinics in various parts of the country run by volunteers that we’ve trained to do trauma treatment,” says Carla Cassler, DAOM, L.Ac., Co-Director of Acupuncturists Without Borders. She says many veterans have a combination of pain, PTSD and some reliance on medications. “Some are also taking a lot of medications. Medications cause a whole set of problems in and of itself,” adds Cassler. “So the acupuncture is a simple treatment that works with all three things—pain, PTSD and substance dependence.”

The organization was created a decade earlier after Hurricane Katrina, where volunteers provided free acupuncture to treat stress and trauma to those who needed it.

“After that, it was the height of the Iraq war,” says Cassler. Many people were coming back with very little assistance for serious traumatic stress, she said. “So we started The Military Stress Recovery Project as a way of providing some services that we had provided in New Orleans.”

Currently, AWB clinics throughout the country do about 40,000 treatments collectively per year. To find a location, go to http://www.acuwithoutborders.org/veteransprogram.php.

How It Works

“The pathways that are involved in pain, chronic pain, and trauma activation are shared neural pathways. So in other words, the network of nerves that are involved in pain patterns and trauma patterns are shared to some extent,” Cassler says. This is why people with PTSD often have worse pain problems and vise versa, she explains.

Acupuncture helps in several ways. First, it promotes blood flow, which helps damaged tissue heal. Second, it helps nerve pathways reset where pain signals are misfiring. With chronic pain, Cassler says that the nerve pathways that were firing in the initial stages of the pain keep firing. In three or four months, after the injury is healed, the pain is still there.

“So you have to treat the nervous system when you are dealing with chronic pain. You have to bring it back to where it can self-regulate and it only fires when it really should,” she says.

Thirdly, acupuncture helps with substance dependence.

“It is really important to keep pain under control and to try to do it without opiates, which is unfortunately part of the picture for a lot of veterans. They are being given really, really strong opiates, then they become addicts. That is not a good configuration,” Cassler says.

The DoD & Acupunture

So why doesn’t Tricare cover it?  Or, does it? At least one base offers it. Cassler is hopeful.

“We are in the middle of trying to integrate this practice into mainstream healthcare. It is definitely more advanced in the DoD than it is in the VA,” she says.

Retired Air Force Colonel Richard C. Niemtzow, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, works for the DoD and studies battlefield acupuncture in the U.S. military. Last month he published research on battlefield acupuncture with two other doctors in the journal Medical Acupuncture. He is credited with the development of a type of ear acupuncture that reduces pain in minutes. The researchers concluded that this type of acupuncture is “an ideal technique” that provides “rapid pain relief in a few minutes with almost no side effects.” 

Currently, the DoD has one, full-time acupuncture center, located at U.S. Air Force Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine Center at Joint Base Andrews. Active duty and retired military personnel are being treated there. The center also provides training to healthcare professionals on battlefield acupuncture.

The VA, which is under congressional control and separate from the DoD, offers limited acupuncture.

There are some acupuncturists in the VA who are MDs. They can offer acupuncture if the medical director says yes. What is getting in the way of acupuncture being offered is an occupational code. While medical doctors can do it under their medical doctor code, not all doctors know it.

But, Cassler says things are changing with the addition of a labor code for acupuncturists. Soon, medical directors will have the option of hiring acupuncturists and providing acupuncture programs.

In the meantime, acupuncture for chronic pain and PTSD can be sought throughout the country through Acupuncturists Without Borders, for free. But it is just a matter of time before things change, and Cassler is content with that.

“We’d like to be out of business so to speak so the veterans can get it through their regular medical care. That is not quite accomplished yet,” she says.

Find a Military Stress Recovery Project center near you: 

http://www.acuwithoutborders.org/veteransprogram.php

Read “Battlefield Acupuncture in the U.S. Military: A Pain-Reduction Model for NATO,” published in Medical Acupuncture, Volume 27, Number 5, 2015 at: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/acu.2014.1055

Woke up with a cough? Feeling crummy? Too work or not to work, that is the question.

And there's a good chance a lot of us are going to drag ourselves into the office and cough, sneeze and hack all day while we try in vain to get something, anything done.

It is a valiant effort, but it may result in spreading germs and sending the rest of the office home in the coming days to battle the same illness.

WebMD has a page dedicated to deciphering how sick you are and how sick you should be before you make the decision to stay home.

Find it at:  http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/features/too-sick-to-work?page=2

Wondering if you should get out of bed? Ask yourself these questions first.

1. Are you contagious? Yes? Stay home. If you have mild coughing and sneezing, do your best to not spread the germs if you head into the office. Wash your hands, often.

2. Can you do your job? If you are so sick that you can do little but sleep, or the pain is too distracting, you should probably stay home. If you are taking medications that make you groggy, foggy or keep you from driving, staying home is a good idea.

3. Will continuing to work prolong your recovery? Sometimes, you really just need to let your body fight off the infection. This means sleep, and lots of it.

WebMD has suggestions for employees struggling with chronic pain, back ache, infections, cold and flu and how they should weigh the decision to stay home or not. When all else fails, ask your doctor.

By Christine Cioppa   

Once a year many people take a special moment to appreciate what they have. It feels good to get together with family and/or friends and go around the table and give thanks. But when the turkey leftovers are long gone and that spirit of thankfulness slips from the foreground of our minds, thoughts of gratitude can be replaced with thoughts of to-do lists, everyday happenings and whatever annoyances that arise.

Do you leave room for gratitude? (Take this quiz to find out: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/6)

Researcher shows that continuous gratitude has physical, psychological and social benefits. According to The University of California Berkeley, the health benefits include less aches and pains, stronger immunity, lower blood pressure, more restful sleep, feelings of happiness, and reduced feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Ready to get started for better health? Here are two steps:

Think differently. “Gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it; we’re less likely to take it for granted,” said Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., of the University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good—The Science of a Meaningful Life.

And when you’re focused on the good, you’re not focused on the bad. As simple as it seems, training ourselves to think differently on a daily basis can lead to greater happiness. How so?

“Gratitude blocks toxic, negative emotions, such as envy, resentment, regret—emotions that can destroy our happiness,” Emmons said.

For more on gratitude from California Berkeley, visit: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good/.

Start a gratitude journal and write down what you are grateful for each day. Oprah has kept a gratitude journal for more than a decade.

Not into writing? You can get an app for that! Go to https://www.azasu.me for the Gratitude Journal App for iOS and Android. You can privately type in a sentence a day.