Not everyone can raise their arms in public like Michelle Obama, pictured in The New York Post.Last year about 15,000 women (and a few men) had liposuction of the upper arms to remove fat from around muscles, or a surgical procedure called brachioplasty to remove flabby loose upper-arm skin--the scourge of women in evening gowns everywhere. Just a dozen years ago, only 300 people had such procedures over the course of a year.

While the growing popularity of weight-loss surgery has created legions of newly thin people with excess skin on the arms (losing 80 pounds or more can leave a lot of flesh hanging); the rise of famous women with the triceps of Adonis (yes a Greek god, not a goddess) also has a lot to do with the trend.

According to the poll commissioned by plastic surgeons, a full one-third of women want the arms of Michelle Obama, followed by Jennifer Aniston (29 percent), Jessica Biel (16), Kelly Ripa (13) and Demi Moore (11).

Perhaps shelling out $8,000 for a sculpting procedure is the fastest way to get a smokin' hot pair of "guns"--as Raphael Nadal calls his formidable biceps, triceps and deltoids. But we doubt that's how Kelly Ripa does it.

Spinners at cult spinning studio SoulCycle in Manhattan report frequent (ie. 5 days-a-week and sometimes Saturday mornings) sightings of Ripa in killer spinning classes. Let's face it, if you really want to reduce body fat there's no substitute for aerobics, sweat and tears.

This Buzzfeed video is a reminder to think before you eat. 

Probiotics, like Align, may help prevent stress from upsetting the gut.

During stress, the body produces a hormone (corticotropin-releasing hormone) that prevents immune system molecules from policing the microbiome in the gut. This group of immune system molecules known as inflammasomes maintain a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria, but when stress hits--say, when you are about to give that big speech--the body releases a hormone that suppresses inflammasomes.

With repeated stressors, the delicate balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut can get out of whack, causing bloating, cramping and diarrhea.

The good news is researchers were able to prevent the destructive effects of stress with probiotics. In the study, pretreatment with probiotic therapy reduced inflammation in mice with stress-induced small bowel inflammation.

The take home, then, is to take preventive probiotics (such as Align, Culturelle or Ultraflora, especially in the weeks before stressful events.

One of my college roommates had an odd habit.  As the lights were turned out and we were settling into sleep she'd recite everything she'd eaten that day. Eventually, she pulled me into counting calories instead of sheep, and after a few months I found that I did in fact become more aware of what I was eating. I wouldn't say it made me lose weight, but at a time when everyone else was packing on pounds with beer and pizza we did not.The tiny Hippocampus, which helps us record new experiences, may have a big impact on what we eat.

These late night food confessions came to mind with a new and intriguing bit of research about satiety and "memory for recent eating"--a hot research topic in the weight loss world--that showed people's perception of how much they ate had a stronger influence on subsequent hunger than the amount of food they actually ate.

According to the FDA, "The company announced the recall after learning a fine metal mesh screen failed at a third-party flour mill and fragments of flexible metal mesh were found in the flour and pizza dough." Annie's says they haven't found metal in their products, but are recalling as a precaution.

My integrative approach to conquering the flu tackles the problem from two angles, with the conventional approach of targeting the virus and the complementary approach of strengthening the immune system. The goal is always to treat as gently as possible with medicines and supplements that help the body's natural tendency to heal itself.

For all of these remedies, you must contact your health care provider first to make sure of the safety and appropriateness for your use.

Attack the Influenza Virus 

The drug Tamiflu can help kill the flu virus if taken in the early stages.See Your Doctor for a Prescription of Anti-Viral Flu Medication: These medications are helpful for reducing the virus's severity and duration. Ask your doctor about Tamiflu (preferred), Flumadine, Relenza (inhaled form) or Amantadine. The earlier you can get one of these medications on board the more effective they will be.

Help Your Immune System Recognize and Kill the Flu Virus with the Homeopathic Remedy, Oscillococcinum:  Much like a natural vaccination, Oscillococcinum--homeopathic pellets available in most drug stores--provides an infinitesimal dose of a non-threatening flu-like molecule that prompts the body to mount a response. In order to work it must be taken at the first sign of symptoms. One vial of pellets under the tongue three times a day for the first two to three days of symptoms.

Gird Your Immune System for the Fight

For general immune support, in order of preference; more than one supplement from each category at a time may be used synergistically (see note, below, for supplement purchasing resources): 

(Precautionary Note: Always check with your primary care provider before using any supplement or OTC/ prescription remedy, especially if on medications, pregnant or you have a serious medical condition.)

If you don't have the flu, and want to stay healthy:

An herb based hand sanitizer has been shown to kill germs as well as alcohol based counterpartsMake a Force-Field: While most of us have the wits to steer clear of people who are wheezing and coughing, it's the invisible traces of virus they leave behind that usually get us....public transportation; any door or handle in a public place; desks; chairs, telephones spinning bikes are all potential flu breeding grounds.

At the very least, don't touch your face when you are out in public--your hands can't catch the flu, but they can bring it to your face where it finds a way into your system. Get as paranoid as your mother--use paper towels to turn off public sinks after hand washing, and when you open public bathroom doors on your way out.

Use a hand sanitizer like Purell; or I am partial to CleanWell, a thyme based hand sanitizer. The volatile oils in thyme have demonstrable anti-microbial compounds that are gentler on the skin than alcohol.

The finding that micro-workouts improve heart health magically transformed this study cohort of 2,109 middle-aged Americans from sedentary to active. When short bouts of exercise were excluded only 10% of men and 15% of women met the U.S. guideline of performing 150 minutes of exercise weekly. But when researchers broadened the definition of exercise to include physical activity of less than 10 minutes duration (and outfitted participants with accelerometers to monitor movement) they found 56% of men and 47% of women met the 150 minute weekly target.

This begged the question: do short bouts of exercise improve heart health? And the answer from this study is a qualified yes.

As long as participants moved for 150 minutes a week, those who met the target with multiple short bouts of less than 10 minutes of exercise showed statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular risk factors similar to those who reached the exercise goal with longer bouts of exercise. 

This means you don't have to don your workout gear every day--and obsessively watch the clock on the treadmill--to keep your heart healthy. Walking briskly, heavy cleaning, badminton and golf were considered in this study to be "moderate" activities that support heart health; hiking, jogging, farming and shoveling were among activities classified as "vigorous."

The researchers used a strict measure of success that included classic cardiovascular targets: elevated HDL, lower triglycerides, reduced waist circumference and lowered Body Mass Index. Clearly, if you are training for, say, a half marathon the fitness target and program would be different.

Anne Wojcici, medical suffragette, co-founder of 23andMe.

One of the perks of having a joint checking account with a Google founder is you can gain access to an Illumina OmniExpress Plus Genotyping BeadChip--a top-of-the-line SNP genotyping device that determines variations in genetic sequences and is normally found in university research labs and biotech companies. Wojcicki (pronounced woh-jit-skee) is making the Illumina BeadChip's powers of analysis available to the general public, and she's hired super-smart scientists to program her nifty little machine to ask questions she's interested in; for example, about the gene patterns associated with Parkinson's Disease, which runs strongly in her husband's family.  

Wojcicki (who holds a B.S. in biology from Yale and is the daughter of a Stanford physics professor) is a disruptor, with a big idea that will probably seem quite obvious in a couple of decades. In her vision, rather than guessing what disease tendencies are hidden in our 23 pairs of chromosomes (hence the company name), we will know for sure--and benefit from ongoing research into causes and prevention. The idea is that knowing your genetic weaknesses will help you figure out how to overcome them. The pro basketball player Muggsy Bogues (whose height at 5'3" is practically a disease in the NBA) is the 23andMe mascot for beating genetic odds. Equally as important, because research is constantly yielding new insights into genetic variations in drug metabolism (from chemotherapy to blood thinners), knowing the details of one's genome will help doctors target drugs and tailor dosages to fit one's genetic blueprint.

Talk about empowering patients! Wojcicki is a medical suffragette--she wants us all to participate in determining our medical destinies.

The plucky little raspberry may hold the key to releasing fat stored in cells.Raspberry Ketone:  Dr. Oz kicked off raspberry ketone hysteria when he talked about this compound's ability to increase the breakdown of fat in some rat fat cells. The rats' abdominal fat purportedly melted away, which is of course what we all dream of as we struggle through crunches.

The supplement is said to work through two weight regulating mechanisms: the breakdown of fat by norepinephrine; and the release of adiponectin, the fat-busting hormone that regulates fat and sugar metabolism (having low adiponectin is associated with obesity and diabetes.) Intriguingly, research indicates raspberry ketone has the potential to activate "brown" fat; good body fat that revs the metabolism and is the type of fat thin people have in small doses.

Since Dr. Oz mentioned the supplement the market has been flooded with products; our interest is piqued by 250 mg Raspberry Ketone tablets from Natural Sport (manufactured by Utah based Nutraceutical Corporation), which contains two amino acids (L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine) that support the production of norepinephrine, thus giving a bit more bang for the ketone buck. (Caution: People with PKU [an inborn metabolic error] cannot take phenylalanine and will have to find another raspberry ketone product from a reputable vendor, see below.)

The heat in peppers may help burn calories.Capsaicin (cayenne pepper):  As previously reported in iwellville, Korean researchers have demonstrated that capsaicin (the active compound responsible for the hot sensation in chile peppers) boosts the activity of genes associated with turning up the body's furnace