Nonemergency Emergencies

Shape magazine reported this summer on the most common false-alarm reasons to visit your neighborhood emergency room, and the winner was muscle injuries. People with twisted ankles who can still put weight on their legs can clog ERs. Doctors recommend putting ice on a twisted ankle, elevating it and calling your doctor in the morning. Other winners were people with crying babies, usually first-time parents; people with a cold or flu; and people with minor cuts. So unless you’re elderly or frail, think that over before you spend four hours in a real ER.

Go Fish

Notice how the title of Ernest Hemingway’s book wasn’t “Young Man and the Sea” or “Middle-Aged Man and the Sea”? Your chances of getting old with a healthy heart if you eat from the sea are apparently pretty good, according to research published by the Mayo Clinic. Eating at least two meals of fish every week lessens the risk of heart disease, studies show. The omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish may reduce triglyceride levels in your blood and act as a natural anticoagulant, studies say.

Walk This Way

Recent studies have shown that walking 20 minutes or more several times a week can greatly reduce the risk of heart disease. But who cares about that when September’s issue of Fitness magazine gives us the skinny on some startling celebrity walking facts. Supermodel Kate Moss burns 205 calories striding down the runway; Gillian Anderson burns 480 calories chasing aliens on “The X-Files”; and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton burns 160 calories while escorting diplomats through the White House. Something to ponder as you exercise.