Your core is your center of gravity. The core muscles – the 29 muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen – lie deep within the torso. By contracting the core muscles, you stabilize the spine, pelvis and shoulders, and create a solid base of support for your entire body. Check out these portable, versatile tools to strengthen core muscles:

EXERCISE BALLS

Exercise balls are becoming a popular workout aide because they allow for a wide range of motion and constant muscle tension. Since the ball is unstable, it forces the body to adapt to atypical positions to stabilize muscles and bring the body into alignment. You can start building your core with ball exercises like the abdominal sit-back, plank or bridge.

RESISTANCE BANDS

Resistance bands are a portable, adaptable and inexpensive piece of exercise equipment, ideal for stretching and core training. The bands come in various lengths and colors to signify varying resistance levels. Since resistance bands can be used at home, at the office or while traveling, exercises like lunges, lateral rows and diagonal woodchops offer a convenient workout wherever you go.

FREE WEIGHTS

Free weights, such as dumbbells or barbells, are an old favorite for strengthening the core. While weight machines can limit the body's range of motion, free weights more effectively build strength by simulating real-life movements and stabilizing the body. That's not to say weight machines are bad – they just don't work the core as well. Of course, proper safety precautions must be taken in order to prevent injury, particularly when doing free-weight exercises like sidebends, squats and horizontal swings.

Ask your doctor of chiropractic for more information about core training. Your doctor can help outline an exercise program consistent with your fitness goals.

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If you're anything like the roughly 70 percent of Americans who are not meeting their recommended fruit and veggie goals, you aren't reaping all the benefits these miracle foods have to offer. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the nutrients in fruits and vegetables are, for the most part, kept intact during canning or freezing, meaning that fresh, frozen or canned versions of the same food have relatively equal nutrient profiles.

An analysis of canned, fresh, and frozen fruits and vegetables, conducted in 1995 by the University of Illinois Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, confirmed encouraging findings about canned foods, including the following:

• Fiber content is as high in canned products as in their fresh counterparts.
• Folate (folic acid, an essential B vitamin), vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, thiamin and carotenoids all hold up well during canning. In some cases (pumpkins, for example), vitamin A levels are actually higher in the canned versus fresh product. Some analyses also show that the nutrient value of lycopene is increased when consumed after it is heated or canned.
• The nutrient value of meats and other proteins also are unaltered by the canning process.
• The canning process actually may increase calcium levels in fish as compared to the freshly cooked variety.

What it really boils down to is that while raw is ideal, canned and frozen vegetables still provide the fiber and other nutrients that make vegetables good for you in the first place. For anyone on-the-go, particularly busy parents trying to ensure their children eat right, that's comforting news. Just remember, it's all in the preparation.

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On average, women outlive men by roughly five years! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2003, life expectancy for men was 74.8 years as compared to 80.1 years for women. Here are the top 10 leading causes of death for men:

Rank	Cause	% of Male Deaths
1	Heart disease	28.0
2	Cancer	24.0
3	Unintentional injuries	5.9
4	Stroke	5.1
5	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	5.1
6	Diabetes	2.9
7	Influenza and pneumonia	2.4
8	Suicide	2.1
9	Kidney disease	1.7
10	Alzheimer's disease	1.5

The upside is that most of these killers are preventable through awareness and taking proper health precautions. You already know what to do – don't smoke, limit alcohol consumption, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, exercise, get early cancer screenings, and get regular checkups. Taking care of yourself now means a brighter future for you and your loved ones.

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