Mechanical disorders of the musculo-skeletal and central nervous systems -- which chiropractors address with hands-on spinal manipulation -- are more commonly associated with elders than kids.
But the patient waiting for an appointment on a recent morning is clearly an adolescent. And the toy table and zoo-animal mural suggest he's not the youngest treated by Shelburne chiropractors Jennifer and Palmer Peet.
Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" has always been one of my favorite workout wailers, a tune injected with just the right amount of insolence and independence to inspire pumping iron, and pumping my legs on the treadmill.
But when I hear this song blasting from a boombox at a fitness center off Burlington's Flynn Avenue, something seems wrong. Instead of David Cover- dale's soaring roar, there's a catlike voice whining out the lyrics to a grating techno beat that seems to scrape the walls -- which are painted lavender, with line drawings of leotard-clad women sweating and shaking it.
The psychological trauma wrought by Hurricane Katrina is hardly receding -- it's still coming in waves. That's the finding of a report published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) entitled "Katrina's Impact on Mental Health Likely to Last Years." The authors add that among those hardest hit are children, who may not reveal their internal struggles until months from now.
Five years ago, when I was living in Utah, I took my first yoga class and felt like a saint. Instead of curling up in front of "Friends," I was uncurling my body into strange poses and listening to Indian music. But the instructor was supercilious, the sitar grew grating, and afterward my muscles felt droopy. I didn't go back. My second yoga class was no better. Held at a big gym near Burlington, it was filled with soccer moms who could stand on their heads.
The driver had just "a couple of beers" one evening last August in Hines-burg, but it was enough to cause a fatal accident with an oncoming pickup truck. Six days later in Jericho, after the equivalent of seven gin-and-tonics, a different driver caused a single-vehicle accident at three in the morning that killed his passenger.
Impairment may result from a little or a lot of drinking, depending on the individual.
Last Sunday was made for running, cycling and swimming. Kim Loeffler did it all. The Colchester triathlete was competing in the Lake Placid Ironman, a 140-mile event that sends racers stroking through Mirror Lake and hoofing and peddling over hilly Adirondack terrain. The ordeal can last as long as 17 hours.
There's no question that being active is good for your health. But what about when you take athleticism to the Ironman extreme? Can that actually be good for you?
"It takes a physical toll," says Kristen Dieffenbach, a coach, trainer and psychology consultant based in Maryland.
If you fall off a horse at New Moon Ranch in Richmond, there's no getting back in the saddle -- because there is no saddle. Every equestrian overseen by proprietor and instructor Lotta Rosen must learn how to ride bareback, with little more than a twitch of the hips and legs to control the animal.
"I want people to learn how to be a horse," says Rosen, brushing hay from the forelock of Cricket, a 22-year-old, chestnut-brown gelding.
For all the attention and pricey primping my hair receives, I've always considered my long blonde locks to be short on usefulness -- until I heard about hair analysis. "It's a technique where a small piece of your hair is analyzed for its mineral content," nutrition consultant Michael Goldstein explained in an email from the Bristol Wellness Center. "When properly interpreted, a great volume of information about one's health can be determined from the relative balance among the minerals .
My fascination with Madonna dates back to 1984, when my 12-year-old cabin-mates convinced me to impersonate her in our summer camp's talent show. "Madge" looks different than she did back then, but, remarkably, not much. So my interest was piqued when I learned that I could experience her preferred exercise routine -- a "yoga with resistance" system known as Gyrotonic -- without venturing too far from home.
It's a powder day at Sugarbush. Thick pillows of snow are piled up among the pine and birch glades, and showboaters are fluffing them with frosty precision. But the white stuff can't muffle the shouts of glee that reverberate around the mountain -- least of all the amped-up hollers of Ann Taylor. She tips her Dynastar skis down the off-ramp of the Super Bravo Express Quad, then races a snowboarding buddy down the Valley House Traverse, trash-talking the guy while double-poling for speed.
