SPECIAL SECTION  For most of us, it’s tough enough to lace up the shoes, get out there and go jogging. Now consider this: Forget the shoes. Your running gear does not include footwear. You are, podiatrically speaking, going au naturel. The very idea of this may evoke, within your wise self, something like: “That’s crazy. Go running without shoes?”

And the answer to that is, “Yes.” In fact, an extremely enthusiastic yes, if you ask the devotees of barefoot — or “minimalist” — running.

Read More>>

COOKING  If your New Year’s resolutions include weight loss, be forewarned: Skipping meals nearly always leads to overeating later. A better plan is to consume smaller meals — every three to five hours — that yield a steady metabolic burn.

To help you do that in a creative way, this year in InHealthNW, each issue will feature a local chef’s take on one meal of the day, as well as a snack, dessert and, finally, a special, healthy holiday beverage in our November 2012 issue.

First up, breakfast. Read More>>

ALT MEDICINE  Lose weight, gain muscle and clean out your body. Sounds great, right? Isagenix, an Arizona-based company that claims its products can do all of the above, says its happy customers and over $1 billion in sales prove that their stuff works.

Just don’t call it a diet. Read More>>

GUEST COLUMN  I’m a child of the ’80s, so when I hear the word “exercise,” I visualize a group of men and women in leotards and leg warmers doing aerobics to Olivia Newton-John’s pop music. Needless to say, I much prefer the term “physical activity” to “exercise,” but there’s no denying those spandex-clad, big-haired enthusiasts were on to something. Regular physical activity is important for good health, and it’s especially important if you’re trying to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Read More>>

PEOPLE  Wendy Osterling played lacrosse in high school. She ran and skied cross-country as well — going on to ski for Dartmouth College — but lacrosse, for her, was a unique and particular sort of challenge. Osterling is deaf, and team sports tend to rely on sharp hearing. There are whistles and called plays between teammates. There are 20 players and referees to keep track of.

But her team developed a series of hand signals for play-calling, her brain developed excellent peripheral vision, and she learned to infer stoppages of play from the way other players behaved. “I’d stop when they stopped,” she says.

This didn’t always work, though, so she’d ask the ref to tell the other team to just wave at her if play had stopped and she hadn’t. Read More>>

FROM THE EDITOR  MY FAMILY DOCTOR recently told me that at every conference she goes to, exercise is touted over and over as the key to improving health. “You really need to exercise,” she said.

Point taken. Read More>>

NEWS  Dr. Brett Hagen got into the optometry business because he loves just about everything about eye care: helping people see clearly, healing infections, providing fashionable eyewear.

But those upsides have come with a constant juggling act. As owner of Garland Vision Source, Hagen must relentlessly study health plans, communicate regularly with his insurance broker, and constantly crunch numbers to make sure his business can provide health benefits to its workers. Read More>>

NEWS  In Newport, it’s methotrexate, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. In Coeur d’Alene, it’s vitamin K, which stops people who take blood thinners from bleeding to death during surgery. And in Spokane, it’s cytarabine, which fights cancerous white blood cells.

Across the nation, medicines that ward off cancer or simply stymie gout have fallen into short supply, and the Inland Northwest is no exception. Read More>>

INNOVATION  Raise your hand if you would like half-a-million dollars to finally build a prototype of your genius medical device — the one that’s been nagging at you for years.

That’s the offer that the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County is putting to enterprising local businesses that are already trying to develop commercially viable new health technologies or biomedical devices.

“We wanted to throw something out there to the community that would allow for some creativity,” says HSSA board chair Nancy Isserlis. Read More>>

SPECIAL SECTION  No time to exercise? Finding time to get fit may actually be as simple as changing your image of what a “workout” looks like. In fact, if you can spare 15 minutes, you’re on the way to getting the multitude of health benefits that come with being in shape.

For the highly motivated who are short on time, twice-weekly bouts of high-intensity training, or H.I.T., may be the answer. H.I.T. is resistance training done in slow motion — pushing you to complete fatigue. First popularized by Arthur Jones in the 1970s, with his now near-ubiquitous Nautilus brand of training equipment, H.I.T has become a fixture of bodybuilding plans. While there is no single best way to exercise, for those willing to endure the workouts, high-intensity training can produce results. Read More>>