Specific Health Conditions

The Active Metabolic Assessment, often referred to as an AMA, is a test that assesses your current fitness status and provides data that can inform your fitness program and make your workouts more efficient. Anika Christ, CPT, RD, explains what the AMA is, the data you get from it, why that information is important, and how to use it to tailor your exercise regimen.

Sugar is everywhere, and — as with so many things — too much of it is detrimental to our health and well-being. While this is common knowledge for many, most of us are still consuming well more than is recommended, and the topic has gotten even more confusing in recent years with the proliferation of artificial and natural sweeteners. Paul Kriegler, RD, CPT, explains the body-wide health effects of sugar, the pros and cons of the various types of sweet sources, and how we can be more mindful about sugar’s place in our diets.

Collagen is something of a buzzword in the nutrition world of late, yet this nutrient has always been important to our overall health. As our eating patterns have steered toward processed and convenience foods over the past 60 years, our dietary needs for collagen have increased — hence the growing interest in collagen supplementation. Anika Christ, RD, explains what collagen is, its role in our body, and its advantages for health. She also offers guidance around supplementation and supporting your body’s natural production of this nutrient.

Menopause is a normal physiological process that affects every woman at some point in their life, yet it’s only as of late that it’s being discussed more openly. Samantha McKinney, RD, CPT, discusses what happens to our bodies during menopause and its various stages, the symptoms one can expect and why they occur, and the lifestyle habits and behaviors we can implement to support our bodies during this transitional time.

Our brains age just like the rest of our bodies, and just like it’s important to care for our bodies so we can move functionally well for as long as possible, it’s also essential to do everything we can to maintain and support healthy brain function as the years pass by. With the current absence of effective treatment options for most neurological diseases, prevention really is the best treatment for them, and it’s never too early — or too late — to start. Edward Park, PhD, explains what to know about normal and abnormal brain aging, as well as the lifestyle strategies we have control over to support our brain health and help reduce the risk of decline and disease.