Healthy holidays, with our gift ideas
If the thought of a health-related gift inspires the same feeling of dreariness as receiving a mail-order fruitcake or a six-pack of tube socks, it’s time time to broaden your horizons. Health doesn’t have to be ho-hum: Think items to help you stay in shape, accessories inspired by biology, stories about the frontiers of medicine and much more. Read on for some suggestions from the Health staff.
Activity tracker
Fitbit Ultra, $99.95
Devices that track physical activity have trickled into the marketplace since the debut of the Bodybugg system made famous on the show “The Biggest Loser.” If you’re considering one as a gift, don’t overlook the Fitbit Ultra.
Fitbit Ultra is a wireless gadget about the size of a money clip that attaches to clothing or can be placed in a pocket. Weighing in at 0.4 ounces, it provides instant feedback by tracking calories spent walking, running, dancing or in everyday activities. With a 3-D motion sensor, it can calculate the intensity and duration of exercise. Fitbit Ultra also has a stair counter and stopwatch, and it provides cumulative statistics. Users can even monitor characteristics of sleep, such as when they doze off and how often they wake during the night.
Fitbit announced a free iPhone application in October that allows users to log food and activities and track their progress toward fitness and calorie goals. The Fitbit Ultra is sleek and has a readable display and a battery that will last the average user five to seven days.
The device can be purchased online or in many stores. Fitbit can be synced with the Fitbit nutrition and activity website, and there are no monthly user fees.
If you’re watching your weight and haven’t tried a wireless activity tracker, you’re missing out on a tool that both motivates and informs.
—Shari Roan
Germs you can wear
Infectious Awareables silk scarves, $35
Disease-causing bacteria and viruses are icky, but these scarves (and neckties and bowties and boxers) are kind of beautiful. I have two scarves myself, a red-splotchy one depicting the parasites that cause malaria and another based on the tiny rod-shaped and tailed strains of bacteria that cause dental plaque. (This particular design is discontinued — or “eradicated,” as the site terms it — but a new plaque design is available for scarves and ties Each item “discreetly” works the name of the germ it depicts into the border, and if you’re interested in plagues and scourges, there’s background information about each one at the company website.
I’ll admit that some of the items aren’t likely to be found on anybody’s wish list — nobody I know will be receiving a pair of gonorrhea boxer shorts this festive season — but I’d gladly gift the one depicting healthy heart muscle or another in black, green, blue and pink that features mold. Other offerings include avian flu, measles, anthrax and the Foodborne Six, which features common causes of food poisoning (Campylobacter, Norwalk virus, salmonella, listeria, E. coli and shigella).
Some may find the premise tasteless given the suffering caused by infectious agents, but the Encino-based company behind these garments explains that its aim is to raise awareness helped along by a bit of humor. Infectious Awareables donates a portion of its proceeds to disease-fighting causes such as AIDS Project L.A. and Rotary International’s polio eradication campaign. My mom has a scarf I sent her and wears it with delight. You can check out the selection at https://www.iawareables.com.
—Rosie Mestel
Yoga helper
Skidless Towel by Lululemon, $65
Some people who exercise sweat more than others. We won’t name names, but … OK, it’s us. We sweat like a farm animal. In some instances it can be annoying, in some it’s embarrassing, and every once in a while — such as during yoga class — it can be downright dangerous.
That’s why we’re grateful for the microfiber Skidless Towel from Lululemon. One side looks like a regular towel. The other side has little silicone dots that grip your mat and allow you to assume any warrior pose without your towel sliding away — and you along with it, invading the space of the person behind you who shoots you a dirty look. Not that that’s ever happened to us.
The towel, which measures 68 by 24 inches, is pricier than anything you’ll find at a discount linen store, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind alone. Namaste.
—Jeannine Stein
Real life inside a hospital
“Boston Med” DVD series, $34.95
Television viewers are fascinated by hospitals — hence all the hospital-themed prime-time dramas, soap operas, mysteries and even sitcoms. But real life trumps fiction. For proof, watch the ABC documentary series “Boston Med.”
This absorbing eight-part series follows doctors, nurses and patients whose lives intersect at three of the country’s most renowned hospitals: Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, and Children’s Hospital Boston. All are affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and together they present a series of stories that showcase the full range of human frailty.
There’s the baby diagnosed with a severe heart defect before he’s even born (and whose father is half a world away, serving in Iraq). The 8-year-old girl who goes into cardiac arrest in her school gymnasium. And the movie marketing executive who isn’t saved by a long-awaited donor heart but becomes a donor himself instead: His wife agrees to give his face to a man who lost most of his after falling on an electrified subway rail. (The wife and the patient meet at the end of the series.)
There are also revealing looks at the private lives of the people who work in the hospitals. We watch as an obstetrics-gynecology resident goes from house-hunting with her boyfriend to breaking up with him because of her demanding work schedule, for example. And we feel the suspense of a surgeon trying to wrap up a lung transplant in time to make it to his daughter’s ballet recital.
“Boston Med” may not make you want to go to medical or nursing school, but it should give you new respect for those who do. The DVD set is available at the ABC News online store.
—Karen Kaplan
DIY Pilates
CorePlus Reformer, Gaiam, $29.98
Pilates workouts, which focus on lengthening and strengthening muscles, have proved irrestible for people looking to tone up rather than bulk up. For those who don’t want to hire a personal trainer, commit to a group class schedule or get hooked up to heavy machinery, there’s the CorePlus Reformer.
The device, from health product vendor Gaiam and Pilates maven Mari Winsor, features four handles at the ends of four resistance-cord loops bound in the center to form an X shape. It can be used to tone legs, arms and abs, all from the comfort of your living room. An accompanying 45-minute DVD demonstrates different workouts to target the upper body, lower body or core, depending on your time and ability.
It’s not the only kind of Pilates regimen available, but for self-motivated beginners who are short on time and spare cash for classes, it might be an ideal indoor winter workout.
—Amina Khan
DNA reading
“My Beautiful Genome” by Lone Frank, $15.95
Taking a series of genetic tests to examine her risk for various diseases, Copenhagen-based science journalist Lone Frank tries to understand how likely it is that she’ll develop the breast cancer that killed her mother and to gain insight into the bouts with depression that she shares with various relatives. Along the way, she entertainingly explains the basics of genetics and probes how scientists study DNA to better understand human history, disease and even the human soul — “the intersection between the shell of a physical being and the person we recognize as human,” as she puts it.
She visits, interviews and occasionally pokes fun at luminaries such as DNA co-discoverer James Watson. She also deftly weaves her story into a broader examination of genes, genetic screening and their place in society. Are consumers really ready to learn, for instance, that they’re highly likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or cancer? Should genetic information be available to employers or published on the Internet? And how much do gene studies really tell us about ourselves, anyway?
In Frank’s case, learning about her DNA provides considerable comfort. “It is far more satisfying to be able to interpret myself as both a biological and a social being,” she writes. “My genome is not a straitjacket but a soft sweater to fill and shape, to snuggle up and and stretch out in.”
Give this memoir to a friend and you may hear requests for a pricier gift — genetic testing — next year.
—Eryn Brown
Brain games
Lumosity subscriptions, $29.95 and up
Why not give the gift of neurons? Research tells us that for brains as for muscles, it’s either “use it or lose it” — those who are intellectually engaged are less likely to show signs of dementia.
One of the most affordable, engaging and demonstrably effective sources of brain-training games is Lumosity, produced by the San Francisco-based Lumos Labs. Lumosity’s online games exercise a variety of cognitive skills, including working memory, spatial perception, attention, speed and mental agility. They have great graphics and give subscribers excellent feedback to ensure progress. Plus, these games really are undergirded by strong research. Gift subscriptions to Lumosity range from $29.95 for a two-month plan to $79.95 for a full year’s access. Visit https://www.lumosity.com.
Other games can be purchased on CD-ROMs, including brain-fitness programs from Posit Science that focus on auditory and visual processing — cognitive skills that directly affect reaction time and working memory. A package that includes both is currently discounted and costs $345. Another option is Happy Neuron, which offers CD-ROMs as well as online games. A suite of more than 39 fun challenges designed to improve working memory, viso-spatial and executive functioning skills can be accessed at https://www.happy-neuron.com. A three-month gift subscription costs $29.95.
—Melissa Healy
