How to Secure Your Facebook Account

Facebook drew back the curtain Wednesday on new privacy settings designed to keep users' personal information more secure, but consumer advocates say the social networking site's update will still leave some information vulnerable.

Because that data remain at risk, users should take caution with the information they post on Facebook, these advocates say.

Parry Aftab, the executive director for Wired Safety, a consumer resource that focuses on online security and privacy, says she has a simple test for gauging which information is Facebook-safe. "Would you put it on a sign in front of your house?" she says. "That's got to be your measure." (Wired Safety is one of five groups that sit on Facebook's unpaid safety advisory board.)

Facebook has come under fire from users since December, when policy changes made more of users' information open by default, unless they activated controls to keep it private. The outcry picked up in late April when the social networking site began pilot testing an "instant personalization" feature that allowed partner sites visited by a user to pull data from his or her profile and automatically share it with others. (For example, the feature could inform users' Facebook friends that they had been using the Internet radio station Pandora to listen to Justin Bieber.) To avoid having their information shared, consumers must actively opt out on Facebook and on the partner sites, but they could still unwillingly have their information shared if their friends didn't opt out, as well. The policy changes spawned user complaints, as well as concern from consumer advocates, Congress and the Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook's new policy, which it plans to roll out in coming weeks, will provide simpler controls, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call. Among the changes:

• Basic privacy setting controls will be condensed to a single page, reformatted as a chart so that users can easily review who has access to what.

• Once a user chooses who can see a particular type of content -- "friends only" for photos, for example, or "friends of friends" for status updates -- that choice will apply retroactively and going forward in the case of future policy changes.

• Opt-outs for "instant personalization" and other applications that access a user's profile will be made easier.

• Users can opt out of sharing information with Facebook platform and third-party apps, even if what's collected is something consumers have set that "everyone" can access. Apps must also ask permission to access any information a user has set to more private settings.

Although the new policy addresses some of users' concerns, it doesn't do enough to protect their information, says Jeffrey Chester, the founder and executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocacy group focused on digital media.

"It does not bode well for protecting privacy on Facebook in the future," he says. Of particular concern: Facebook's desire to share user data with advertisers to better target the ads that appear on pages. Policy changes have weakened users' ability to opt out as that business grows, Chester says.

A Facebook spokesman says the site doesn't sell currently user data to advertisers or anyone else and that the company's revenues are not tied to how open its users are with their information.

Here's how to navigate the new settings and keep your profile secure:

1) Review Settings

Simpler controls may help most users, but an opt-out system will do little for users who don't look at those controls, says Paul Stephens, the director of policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. Unless users say otherwise, everything is shared. Use the "preview my profile tool" on Facebook's privacy settings pages to see what others can spot. Also consider downloading the free tool at ReclaimPrivacy.org, which flags unsecure settings and offers tips to revise them.

2) Eliminate 'Everyone'

Users would do well to stop thinking of social networks as somehow cut off from the broader Internet. "People understand that when they tweet [using Twitter.com], that it's a broadcast to the world," Aftab says. Anything in Facebook settings that's available to "everyone" is available publicly in the same fashion, potentially showing up to anyone who clicks on your profile, visits sites such as OpenBook or conducts a search on Google (GOOG, News. "Don't post it unless you want your parents, the police, predators and your principal [or boss] to see it," she says.

3) Opt for Security

Facebook's new policy still allows users to specify restrictions post by post. Opt for a more secure setting and tighten or loosen it further if the situation calls for it, Aftab suggests. For example, users can set photo sharing to "friends only" but then specify that their boss can't view the newly uploaded pictures from a recent party. On the other hand, they can broaden a job-hunt status update to include "friends of friends," instead of just people in their immediate circle.

4) Share With Caution

Even information shared with "friends only" could pose a security threat if a friend's account is hacked or a bug occurs, Stephens says. Seemly innocuous data, such as a birthday, a mother's maiden name or a favorite pet's name is enough for hackers and identity thieves to do serious damage. "You're providing a source of data that might be used by a hacker to access password-restricted sites," he says.

There's also the embarrassment factor. In February, a temporary bug resulted in a handful of Facebook users receiving hundreds of private messages meant for others. In early May, another glitch allowed users to view friends' private chats with other people.

Britain bans doctor who linked autism to vaccine

Britain's top medical group on Monday banned a doctor whose research suggesting a
link between a common vaccine and autism caused millions of parents worldwide to abandon the shot for measles, mumps and rubella.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield was the first to publish peer-reviewed research suggesting such a connection, even though the study was later widely discredited. The ruling by Britain's General Medical Council found him guilty of serious professional misconduct.

Wakefield, 53, then moved to the U.S. and set up an autism center in Texas, where he has a wide following, but faces similar skepticism from the medical community. The ruling in Britain only applies to his right to practice medicine in the U.K., not in other countries.

Appearing on NBC's "Today Show" on Monday, Wakefield described the decision as "a little bump on the road." He claimed the U.S. government has been settling cases of vaccine-induced autism since 1991.

Wakefield said the council's ruling against him — which cited alleged unethical conduct in carrying out his research — had been "made from the outset" and vowed to continue his research into the link between vaccines and autism.

"These parents are not going away; the children are not going to go away and I most certainly am not going away," he said.

Two rulings by a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in March and last year found no link between vaccines and autism. But more than 5,500 claims have been filed by families seeking compensation for children believed to have been hurt by the measles vaccine.

Wakefield has the right to appeal the ruling, which takes effect within 28 days.

Vaccination rates in Britain have never recovered since Wakefield's research was published in 1998 and there are measles outbreaks in the country every year. The disease is also on the rise in the U.S.

Numerous other studies have been conducted since then and none have found a connection between autism and any vaccine.

Britain's General Medical Council struck Wakefield from the medical register Monday and found him guilty of "serious professional misconduct." The council's investigation focused on how Wakefield and colleagues carried out their research, not on the science behind it.

Wakefield has been a central figure in the anti-vaccine lobby and has garnered much support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including some Hollywood celebrities. In February, U.S. actress Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son, issued a statement with her former partner Jim Carrey.

"It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers," McCarthy and Carrey said in February. "Dr. Wakefield is being vilified through a well-orchestrated smear campaign."

Wakefield and colleagues published a study in the medical journal Lancet in 1998 alleging a link between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

At the time, Wakefield was working as a gastroenterologist at London's Royal Free Hospital and did not have the ethical approval to conduct the study. He had also been paid to advise lawyers representing parents who believed their children had been hurt by the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Ten of the study's authors later renounced its conclusions and it was retracted by the Lancet in February.

In 2005, Wakefield founded a nonprofit autism center in Austin, Texas, but quit earlier this year.

In January, Britain's medical council ruled that Wakefield and two other doctors acted unethically and showed a "callous disregard" for the children in their study. The medical body said Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them 5 pounds (today worth $7.20) each and later joked about the incident.

In a statement then, Wakefield said the medical council's investigation was an effort to "discredit and silence" him to "shield the government from exposure on the (measles) vaccine scandal."

In Monday's ruling, the medical council said Wakefield abused his position as a doctor and "brought the medical profession into disrepute."

At least a dozen British medical associations including the Royal College of Physicians, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust have issued statements verifying the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

"I hope this ruling will finally persuade the public and some misguided journalists that Dr. Wakefield behaved irresponsibly," said Dr. Jennifer Best, a virologist at King's College University in London. "(The measles) vaccine is a safe vaccine."

Why chocolate milk can be good for you

The Chocolate Milk Diet

Imagine if everything you needed to know about weight loss, you learned in kindergarten. Well, if your teacher gave you chocolate milk as a lunchtime treat, she was (unknowingly) giving you one of the most powerful weight-loss tools in the nutritional universe. Turns out this childhood staple may be the ideal vehicle for your body’s most neglected nutritional needs. Each bottle delivers a package of micro- and macronutrients that can help you shake off body flab and replace it with firm muscle. And when you served it ice-cold, the creamy sweetness flows across your tongue with all the pleasure of a milk shake. Yum.

That’s the crux of what I'm calling "The Chocolate Milk Diet," which isn’t a diet at all. It’s essentially three eight-ounce servings of chocolate milk consumed at key points throughout your day: one when you wake up, a second before you exercise, and a third directly after your workout. Or, if it's your day off, just pattern them for morning, afternoon, and night. Sounds good, right? It is, and that’s why it’s so easy. But is this a free ticket to eat as much fried chicken as you want throughout the rest of the day? Unfortunately not, but alongside a healthy diet, it can help you drop lots of belly fat fast. Here are the four reasons why:

Secret #1: The Calcium Effect

Researchers have known for years about the role that calcium plays in building strong bones, but a more recent development deals with they way it affects your belly. A series of studies have shown that calcium can actually impede your body’s ability to absorb fat, and when researchers in Nebraska analyzed five of these studies, they were able to estimate that consuming 1,000 mg more calcium can translate to losing nearly 18 pounds of flab. What’s more, other studies have shown that dairy foods offer the most readily absorbable calcium you can find. Knock back three servings of brown cow and you’ll reach that crucial 1,000 mg threshold. At that point, any other calcium that you eat or drink is a bonus.

Bonus Tip: Everything is not as it seems in the world of fat and calories. Click here to see the 30 “Healthy” Foods that Aren’t. You'll be shocked by the pounds of fat you may unwittingly gain while thinking that you're eating healthy.


Secret #2: The Vitamin D Factor

All the calcium in the world isn’t going to help you if you don’t get a good dose of vitamin D to go with it. That’s because vitamin D is responsible for moving calcium from your food to your body, which means if you’re running low on D, you’re probably also missing the calcium you need to stay slim. Other symptoms of the D deficiency are weak muscles, easily breakable bones, and depression—not a great combo for success. Now here’s why this is significant: Most experts agree that the average American isn’t getting enough D. Some estimate that only half the population is meeting the requirement and one study published in the journal Pediatrics found that 70 percent of American children had low levels of D in their diet. The thing is, your body makes vitamin D naturally when you expose your skin to sunlight, but most people spend too much time indoors to benefit. And intentionally spending more time in the sun could put you at risk for skin cancer. The solution? Drink up. Chocolate milk, like most milk, is fortified with vitamin D.

One caveat here: Drink 1% chocolate milk. Vitamin D won't work without a little fat to help break it down. You want to skip the whole milk, too, as it has too many calories to make it a regular habit. The best option is 1%, or low-fat chocolate milk. It has the fat you need to absorb crucial vitamins, yet at three cups a day, it will save you 120 calories over whole milk.

Bonus Tip: Everything you need to know about cereal is right here: America's Best and Worst Cereals. Keep the sugar down and the fiber up for a perfect start to your day.


Secret #3: The Endurance Boost

If you want to lose the gut, you’ve got to exercise—no surprise there. But here’s a fact that’s not so obvious: Drinking chocolate milk can improve your gains. In a study published in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, subjects given chocolate milk before hopping on the stationary bikes were able to ride 49 percent longer than subjects given a generic carbohydrate-replacement beverage. And on top of that, they pedaled even harder. Total work performed by the chocolate-milk group was greater than the work performed by subjects drinking carbohydrate-replacement drinks or electrolyte-fortified sports drinks. The reason? Milk has naturally occurring electrolytes that keep you hydrated—more hydrated then water, in fact, which I revealed recently on my Twitter account—and its natural sweetness helps push more energy into your muscles. Another study from 2009 found similar results, but it went one step further by asking participants which beverage they thought tasted better. Not surprisingly, 100% chose chocolate milk.

Bonus Tip: Discover more loveable liquids by browsing through our Best Beers slideshow. Or, if you’d rather avoid the calories altogether, then you’ll want to read The Worst Beverages in the Supermarket. Again, the point is to make weight-loss easy and fun, without ever worrying about going on a diet again.


Secret #4: The Protein-Body-Weight Connection

Want to know the secret to staying thin? You need more muscle. That’s because muscle burns more calories than fat, so for every new muscle fiber you create, your resting metabolism receives another surge of fat-torching energy. And chocolate milk can help you do that. Researchers have determined that the ideal protein load for building muscle is 10 to 20 grams, half before and half after your workout. How much protein will you find in low-fat chocolate milk? Eight grams per cup. (That means one serving before your workout and one serving after will give you a total of 16 grams of highly effective whey protein—a perfect serving.) Add that to the extra cup you drank first thing in the morning and you’re looking at a turbocharged metabolism that keeps you burning calories all day long.

And don’t forget, you can still melt those 18 pounds of belly fat without giving up your favorite foods. You just need to make smart swaps, and we’ve got 10 new ones right here. You'll lose weight faster than ever—again, with ever dieting again.

Like this story or have another nutrition secret? Please share it with others here.

How online hackers can steal your cash

Could Online Hackers Steal Your Cash?

When you access your bank account online you probably don't think that at that exact moment there may be a hacker, somewhere in the world, trying to steal your bank information and your money.


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Your bank offers secure online banking, so why should you worry, right?

Despite banks' efforts to protect accounts from the online crooks, hacker attacks remain a serious threat that cost Americans millions of dollars each year. The Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost about $559 million to Internet thieves in 2009. That is more than twice the 2008 figure, when $268 million was stolen on the Internet, according to the center.

"Last year there were more online bank robberies than there were actual on-site bank robberies," says Sean Sullivan, a security adviser at F-Secure, an Internet security firm. "Banks have become very proactive in protecting accounts from hackers, but it's still quite a large problem. We see all types of new attempts every day."

Biggest Threat

Banking Trojans -- malicious code specifically designed for banking fraud -- are one of the biggest threats to consumers who bank online, Sullivan says. They are invisible and can steal multiple types of data, including passwords. Some more advanced types of Trojans can make fraudulent transfers and drain your account while you are logged on to the account online, he says.

Is Your Bank Safe?

The more questions and passwords you are asked to enter in order to log in to your account, the safer is your bank's website.

If your bank only asks you to enter a username and password to log in its website is not as secure as it should be, Sullivan says.

Some banks require customers to create a username, a site key name and use personalized pictures or symbols that appear during the login process. In addition, banks should ask customers to answer a security question before gaining access to their account.

"The more layers you have before you get to your account, the safer you are," Sullivan says.

Who's Liable?

In the event you become a victim of online theft, act quickly and know your rights. The general rule for consumer checking and savings accounts is the bank is liable for most of the damage, as long as you report the illicit transfer in a timely manner. But if you have a line of credit account or a business account, you need to be extra careful, because the bank will not always be obligated to pay for your loss.


"It is based on whether the customer's conduct with respect to security was reasonable," he says. In that case the court will ultimately determine who was more at fault for the breach -- the bank or the consumer.

Business Accounts

Business accounts are the most vulnerable to hacker attacks and the least protected by the law. Hackers are much more inclined to break into a six-figure business account than a consumer account with a few thousand dollars, Sullivan says.

"There are hundreds of cases of thefts of money from small business deposit accounts each year," Johnson says.

Business accounts are regulated by the Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC, which requires banks to maintain "commercial reasonable authentication security procedures," in any kind of wire transfer, he says.

"If the bank can show the breach was caused by something the customer did the bank is not liable," Johnson says.

California attorney Nada Alnajafi says most small businesses don't understand the risk they are taking when they use wire-transfer accounts.

"I don't think a lot of them understand they are taking almost full risk for any potential issues," she says.

She is representing a small Los Angeles business owner who lost $50,000 after a hacker committed a fraudulent transfer from his Bank of America account to a Croatian Bank. She filed a lawsuit on behalf of her client against Bank of America in February because the bank refused to take responsibility for the theft, she says.

Bank of America claims it is not liable for the illicit transfer. The lawsuit is pending.

How to Help Protect Your Account

• Don't access your account from a shared computer.

• Be certain your computer has anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware programs, including security software with automatic updates.

• If you are using wireless service, check the settings on your computer to make sure the connection is encrypted. Don't connect to your account using a public network, like the ones you find at a coffee shop or at the airport.

• Review your statements regularly and carefully, and report any suspicious activity to your bank immediately.

• Use a strong password with letters and numbers combined. Don't use the same password for multiple accounts.

• Log out after every session.

Why being insecure in relationships is good

Feeling happy and secure in our relationships is a goal many people strive for, but in times of need the emotionally insecure partners may be doing us a favor by being more alert to possible danger.


Evolution may have shaped us to consist of groups of emotionally secure and insecure individuals, researchers write in the March issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.


When faced with threats to close personal relationships, people react in different ways according to their sense of whether the world is a secure place. The same reaction styles also cause people to be more or less attuned to dangers of all kinds.


Evolution would have favored a mix of these so-called attachment styles if mixed groups were more likely to survive than groups of only secure or only insecure individuals.


"Secure people have disadvantages," experimental psychologist Tsachi Ein-Dor of the New School of Psychology in Herzliya, Israel, told LiveScience. "They react slowly and then act slowly because they need to first get organized."


This notion would explain why almost half of all people in the world have insecure attachment styles, he said, despite the fact that people prefer secure types as romantic partners.


How we view the world


People who do well in relationships have what's called a secure attachment style. They tend to view the world as a safe place, and their optimism allows them to focus on tasks without being bogged down with negative thoughts. They seek out groups and work well in them.


In contrast are those who exhibit insecure attachment styles. Some people are anxious types, always clinging to their significant other, and others are aloof, or avoidant, preferring to deal with problems on their own instead of relying on their partners.


Attachment behavior is a survival adaptation, said Ein-Dor. Because infants can't survive on their own, they have to attach themselves to their parents. If an infant cries and is soothed by its parent, it learns that it can trust other people for love and support.


Those whose parents don't have time or energy to respond may learn they have to fend for themselves.


Such traits can take on different meanings in a group setting. When in immediate danger, people shouldn't necessarily take comfort in the sense of peace and safety a group can provide.


Benefits of being insecure


To test their idea that mixed groups would benefit survival, Ein-Dor and his colleagues put students in groups of threes alone in a room with a concealed smoke machine, which was switched on to simulate a fire. Groups were quicker to notice the smoke and to react to it if they contained individuals who scored high for insecure attachment.


Groups that had a member who rated high for the anxious attachment style tended to notice the smoke faster than other groups, and those that had a member rating high on attachment avoidance tended to react first, such as by leaving the room.


"This is the first [paper] I've read that has started to sway me toward the idea that insecure attachment styles are adaptations," said Paul Eastwick, a psychologist at Texas A&M University, who was not involved in the current study. "I have always favored more of a 'side effect' explanation."

10 Surprising Sex Statistics
10 Things You Didn't Know About Sex
10 Things Every Woman Should Know About a Man's Brain
Original Story: Being Bad at Relationships Is Good for Survival
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17 unexpected benefits of exercise

More from Prevention

Next time you're too busy, tired, or achy to lace up your sneakers, remember these health-transforming benefits of exercise.

1. Be Happier at Work
Increase productivity...and maybe get a raise

An active lifestyle may help you check off extra items on your to-do list, says a study from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. On days staffers participated in on-site fitness activities, they reported thinking more clearly, getting more done, and interacting more effectively with colleagues. You'll be less likely to miss work due to illness, too. Research shows that people who participate in vigorous leisure-time physical activity (such as jogging or bicycling) just once or twice a week take about half the sick time of those who are more sedentary.

Do this: Sign up for workplace fitness classes. None on-site? Recruit coworkers to go for a lunch hour power walk. Or ask HR to designate a room for a noontime stretching or workout session, using DVD instruction.

2. Improve Your Vocabulary
Brush up on your Scrabble skills

A single treadmill session can make you brainier. Exercisers who ran just two 3-minute sprints, with a 2-minute break in between, learned new words 20% faster than those who rested, in a University of Muenster in Germany study. Getting your heart pumping increases blood flow, delivering more oxygen to your noggin. It also spurs new growth in the areas of the brain that control multitasking, planning, and memory.

Do this: Add a bout of exercise, like running up and down the stairs, before trying to memorize anything--say, Spanish phrases for your trip to Mexico.

3. Get Natural Pain Relief
Keep moving to ease stiff, achy joints

It may seem counterintuitive, but rest isn't necessarily best for reducing pain and stiffness in the knees, shoulders, back, or neck. Healthy adults who did aerobic activity consistently had 25% less musculoskeletal pain than their couch-bound peers, says Stanford senior research scientist Bonnie Bruce, DrPH, MPH, RD.

Exercise releases endorphins, the body's natural pain reliever, and may make you less vulnerable to tiny tears in muscles and tendons. Staying active can also provide relief for chronic conditions such as arthritis: In a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study, arthritis sufferers experienced 25% less pain and 16% less stiffness after 6 months of low-impact exercise like balance and strengthening moves. Most people start to feel improvement within a few weeks, says study author Leigh Callahan, PhD, an associate professor of medicine at UNC.

Do this: Practice yoga or tai chi twice a week; both increase flexibility and range of motion and reduce pain.

4. Feel Sexy at Any Size
Flaunt a figure you can be proud of

A good workout practically ensures a better body image. The simple act of exercising-regardless of your weight or fitness level-can make you feel positive about how you look, possibly due to the release of feel-good hormones, finds a review of 57 studies on exercise and body image.

Working out can also boost your libido by increasing blood flow to the genitals. University of Washington research found that just one 20-minute cycling workout enhanced sexual arousal up to 169% in women. And the benefits stand the test of time: A Harvard study of swimmers found that those over age 60 were as satisfied sexually as those decades younger.

Do this: Try 20 minutes of aerobics before a romantic evening. To feel good naked anytime, walk or do yoga daily.

5. Lower Dental Bills
A health-boost worth smiling about

Flossing and brushing, it turns out, are not the only keys to a healthy smile, says Mohammad Al-Zahrani, DDS, PhD, a former associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. Exercise plays an important role, too. In his recent study, Al-Zahrani discovered that adults who did 30 minutes of moderate activity 5 or more times a week were 42% less likely to suffer from periodontitis, a gum disease that's more common as you get older. Working out may thwart periodontitis the same way it does heart disease--by lowering levels of inflammation-causing C-reactive protein in the blood.

Do this: In addition to staying active, get a twice-yearly dental cleaning (or more often if your dentist says you are at high risk for gum disease).

6. Unlock Hidden Energy
Rouse your body out of a slump

If you're among the 50% of adults who report feeling tired at least 1 day a week, skip the java and go for a walk. University of Georgia researchers who analyzed 70 different studies concluded that moving your body increases energy and reduces fatigue. Regular exercise boosts certain fatigue-fighting brain chemicals such as norepinephrine and dopamine, which pep you up, and serotonin, a mood enhancer.

Do this: Take a 20-minute stroll for a quick pick-me-up, or aim for 40 minutes of activity daily for a sustained lift.

7. Shrink Stress Fat
Combat anxiety-related weight gain

Just two 40-minute workouts a week is enough to stop dangerous belly fat in its tracks, according to University of Alabama at Birmingham research. The waistline of those who worked out less expanded an average of 3 inches. Exercise may lower levels of hormones such as cortisol that promotes belly fat.

8. Slash Cold Risk 33%
Build up your body's defenses

Moderate exercise doesn't just rev your metabolism--it boosts your immune system, too, helping your body fight off cold bugs and other germs. Women ages 50 to 75 who did 45 minutes of cardio, 5 days a week, had a third as many colds as those who did once-weekly stretching sessions, a University of Washington study found.

Do this: Add more cardio to your routine by turning your walk into a run.

9. Improve Vision
Carrots are great, but exercise might be better

What's good for your heart is good for your eyes. An active lifestyle can cut your risk of age-related macular degeneration by up to 70%, according to a British Journal of Ophthalmology study of 4,000 adults. This incurable disease makes reading, driving, and seeing fine details difficult, and it's the most common cause of blindness after age 60.

Do this: Protect your eyes during all outdoor activities (if you're a walker, shoot for a mile a day). Be sure to wear UVA/UVB-blocking sunglasses all year long.

10. Reach the Deep-Sleep Zone
Decent shut-eye is not a far off dream

Say good night to poor sleep. Women age 60 and older who walked or danced for at least an hour, four times a week, woke up half as often and slept an average 48 minutes more a night than sedentary women, according to a study in the journal Sleep Medicine. That is good news for the many women who toss and turn more as they get older. As you age, sleep patterns start shifting, so you spend more of the night in lighter sleep phases, says Shawn Youngstedt, PhD, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina.

Do this: Aim to exercise for at least half an hour, even if it's after a long day. Evidence suggests that for most people, light to moderate activity in the evening won't disturb sleep, though trial and error will tell you what works for you.

11. Never Get Diabetes
Walk to keep your blood sugar in check

Walking 2 miles 5 times a week may be more effective at preventing diabetes than running nearly twice as much, report Duke University researchers. Because fat is the primary fuel for moderate exercise, walking may better improve the body's ability to release insulin and control blood sugar.

Do this: Start a walking program

12. Eliminate Belly Bloat
Shrink the muffin top

The next time you feel puffy around the middle, resist the urge to stay put. A study from Spain's Autonomous University of Barcelona suggests that mild physical activity clears gas and alleviates bloating. That's because increasing your heart rate and breathing stimulates the natural contractions of the intestinal muscles, helping to prevent constipation and gas buildup by expediting digestion.

Do this: Walk or pedal lightly on a bike until you feel better.

13. Clear Out Brain Fog
Build your mental muscle

Exercise is linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease among older people; now, new research shows it can prevent brain fog at a much younger age too. Japanese researchers assigned sedentary young adults to two groups; one took aerobic exercise classes, and the other did not. After 4 months, MRIs revealed that the nonexercising group experienced shrinkage of gray matter in some areas of the brain, while the active participants had no change.

Do this: Try a new fitness routine, or sign up for a new class at the gym. Besides the obvious benefit of getting a workout, trying something fresh can help stimulate the growth of brain cells.

14. Save Your Heart
Reduce dangerous inflammation

Sedentary, obese women age 50 and older who began exercising lowered their levels of C-reactive protein-an inflammatory blood marker linked to heart disease—by 10% after 1 year, found research recently published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

15. Add Years to Your Life
Stay healthy and active for years to come

Being physically fit can actually change how your body works. Vigorous exercisers have longer telomeres-cellular biomarkers that shorten as we age-compared with healthy adults who rarely work out.

16. Ease Your Ailments
Heal your body with yoga

Yoga has a well-earned reputation as a surefire stress reducer (particularly when combined with meditation), and new studies show the simple stretching regimen can also help treat and prevent a number of other ailments, from back pain to diabetes. Other research reveals regular yoga practice can put an end to mindless eating by creating an outlet for emotions that can lead to binging. Unfortunately, less than 15% of women over age 35 say they do yoga frequently, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

17. Survive Breast Cancer
Increase your defenses against the disease

Exercise not only reduces breast cancer risk, it can also save your life if you're diagnosed. Overweight women who were exercising more than 3 hours a week before they were diagnosed were 47% less likely to die than those who exercised less than a half hour per week.

Do this: Sneak in mini bouts of exercise. Take a quick walk when you get the morning paper, hit the stairs before lunch, or knock out a few pushups and crunches while watching TV. Just two to three 10-minute workouts a day is enough to fill your quota for the week.

7 THINGS TO STOP DOING NOW ON FACEBOOK

1.Using a Weak Password

Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!

2.Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile



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It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

2.Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls

3.For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.


4.Posting Your Child's Name in a Caption

Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

5.Mentioning That You'll Be Away From Home

That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.

6.Letting Search Engines Find You

To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.6.Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised

7.Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings.