17 Shortcuts to Perfect Health

Your life is filled with the struggle between perfection and possibility. For example, the best thing you can do for your hearing is to wear earplugs to concerts. Do you? Not unless you want to look like someone's chaperone. So look cool, but go deaf? No, you need an alternative that's almost as good but a heck of a lot easier to introduce into your life.

Keep reading. We've brought together fast fixes for everything from eating a high fiber diet and flossing religiously to getting your annual flu shot. Each will make you better without making you miserable.

Don't Eat Fish Twice a Week?

You're not missing out on much, just a little puddle of oil that can reduce your risk of heart disease, ease post-workout muscle soreness, help you fight depression, and possibly even protect you from Alzheimer's. It's omega-3 fatty acids that make fish oil magic, and, fortunately, they've bottled the stuff. "If you don't like fish or don't get to eat it, fish-oil supplements are just as good," says Mary Ellen Camire, Ph.D., a professor of human nutrition at the University of Maine.

But don't just grab any guppy grease. Look for omega-3 supplements that haven't passed their expiration date and that list vitamin E as the second ingredient. (The antioxidant effect of E will keep the oil from turning rancid.)

Don't Wear Earplugs at Concerts?

It's even dorkier to stick your fingers in your ears. You're better off if you use your body's natural mute button: humming. "Humming causes a protective muscle in the ear called the strapedius to contract, reducing the amount of noise that travels to your inner ear by 15 to 20 decibels," says Marshall Chasin, an audiologist and director of auditory research at the Musicians' Clinic of Canada.

Chasin also points out that your ears are still vulnerable to damage for the first 16 to 18 hours after the sonic assault. "There's nothing wrong with going to a concert on a Friday night. Just put off mowing your lawn until Sunday."

Don't Do Crunches?

Do your regular weight-training routine—on your feet. "When you weight-train standing up, your abs have to work to stabilize the spine and keep you upright, giving you more bang for your buck," says Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., a personal trainer in Santa Clarita, California. So, if you normally do leg presses, do squats instead. Lying leg curls? Do Romanian deadlifts. Seated biceps curls? Stand and curl. Whatever the move, make sure the stabilizing muscle tension stays on your abs, not your lower back.

Don't Eat a High-Fiber Diet?

Don't reach for the Metamucil; hop on a treadmill instead. Seems that aerobic exercise—particularly running—also prevents food from sticking around in your body too long, says Ann Grandjean, Ed.D., executive director of the Center for Human Nutrition. And the less time lunch spends loitering in your colon, the less chance it has to turn into something ugly, or worse, cancerous.

Try to do that running-in-place thing for 20 minutes a day. You're doing it for your heart anyway, right?

12 Ways to beat the worst health problems.

Can't Floss Once a Day?

Spring for a Sonicare electric toothbrush. It uses invisible sonic waves to blow away the plaque-promoting bacteria between your teeth. "It's about 75 percent as effective as flossing," says Joseph T. Abate, D.D.S., D.M.D., a Philadelphia dentist. At $90, the Sonicare is more expensive than floss, but still cheaper than a new set of teeth.

Avoid an Annual Flu Shot?

Protect yourself the old-fashioned way: Become a compulsive hand-washer. A recent Naval Health Research Center study found that when recruits washed their hands at least five times a day, they had 45 percent fewer respiratory illnesses, such as infection by the flu virus.

"Vaccination is the best preventive measure, but hand washing is a good alternative," says Carolyn Bridges, M.D., a medical epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And yes, regular soap will do the job; antibacterial cleansers aren't any more effective against viruses.

  

Didn't Get 9 Hours of Sleep?

Skip the black-five-sugars coffee and pop some NADH, a coenzyme that may increase mental alertness and concentration. In one New York-Presbyterian Hospital study, researchers tested 25 sleep-deprived people after the group had taken 20 milligrams of NADH and then again after they'd taken a placebo.

"When the people took NADH, they performed significantly better overall on a set of mental tests using a measure of speed and accuracy," says Margaret Moline, Ph.D., one of the study researchers.

Look for supplements that say "ENADA" on the label; they contain the same NADH formulation used in studies.

Don't Clean the Fridge Regularly?

Hit the hardware store and pick up a refrigerator thermometer (about $10). Here's the logic: A crumb here or a drip there (okay, numerous crumbs and drips) won't hurt you as long as the temp is low enough to prevent bacteria and mold from turning your fridge into a greenhouse. "If you do nothing else, make sure the temperature always stays below 40 degrees," says Don Schaffner, Ph.D., a food-safety expert at Rutgers University.

But why the retrofit? Because many refrigerators don't come with their own thermometers, and even with those that do, there's a good chance they're off by a few critical degrees. Note: You can stick your thermometer anywhere but on the inside of the fridge door; odds are this spot is a few degrees warmer than the rest of your icebox. 

------------------------