FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jill Browning 212.572.6182/ jibrowning@randomhouse.com

“[A] highly approachable little resource . . . Love and Domar debunk some prevalent health myths that the general public has swallowed for years. . . . The extra value in this value-added tome arises from the reasoned and reasonable methods proposed for maintaining a healthy life that a person might also actually enjoy. ” —STARRED Booklist review

LIVE A LITTLE!

What woman can’t rattle off a list of to-do items for healthy living? Exercise for a healthy heart; train with weights to build muscle and bone; drink one glass of red wine daily to avoid heart disease; to avoid breast cancer resist the temptation to drink two glasses of wine; expose the skin to sunlight for ten minutes to avoid colon cancer; then immediately apply sunscreen to avoid skin cancer; and of course, maintain a body-mass index that falls exactly within the “healthy” range listed in every women’s magazine.

Are you serious? most women reply. Current health guidelines are impossible to keep track of and end up leaving most of us either consumed with panic or doubled over with laughter.  With LIVE A LITTLE! Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health (Crown; December 29, 2009), Susan M. Love, M.D., and Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., bring a long-overdue dose of realism to the way women view their health habits. They take on the health police—the folks who make us feel terrible every time we eat a gram of saturated fat—and remind us of a forgotten truth: Perfect health is a myth.

In LIVE A LITTLE!, Susan and Ali examine the evidence for the health “rules” that exist in each of six areas—exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management, personal relationships, and preventive care. Some of the prevailing wisdom is right . . . and much of it is wrong. Though these “rules” are promoted as hard facts, Susan and Ali reveal that inconclusive findings or very small studies have often formed the basis for globally prescribed health guidelines. Women will be thrilled to discover they don’t have to achieve maximum vegetable consumption or get eight straight hours of sleep to feel good, increase their energy, and improve their odds against disease.

Here’s some good news that will let you LIVE A LITTLE:

• You’re fitter than you think. If you can walk a mile in less than twenty minutes, congratulations: You’ve pulled yourself out of the category of greatest risk for disease.
• Just a little exercise goes a long way. Several promising studies indicate that you can improve your fitness by exercising at a high intensity for about eight minutes a week.
• Toss away your hand weights. If you easily lift grocery bags, children, or suitcases during the course of your average week, you’re strong enough. You don’t need a special weight-lifting program at this point in your life.
• Don’t panic if you can’t get eight hours of sleep. It’s a myth that everyone needs eight straight, or even eight at all.
• Stop worrying about your stress level! Our bodies are designed to handle a certain amount of psychological strain. In fact, we perform better under moderate amounts of stress for short periods of time.
• Do you really need that cholesterol test? Despite what you’ve heard, most people without risk factors for heart disease should get their cholesterol tested only once every five years.
• Screening isn’t always the solution. Some health screenings are great at heading off problems at the pass, but others more likely lead to unnecessary procedures and panic.
• The goal is not to live forever. Because nobody really wants to be 684 years old. Instead, focus on having a fabulous life for as long as you can. So . . . sit back, enjoy some good food and good conversation, and LIVE A LITTLE!

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., has been a pioneer in women’s health and psychology for more than twenty-five years. Her innovative career began when she enrolled in the world-renowned health psychology program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Ferkauf School of Professional Psychology. As a health psychologist, she continued to break new ground at the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston, where she created original programs that helped women cope with the medical and psychological challenges they faced. She also conducted clinical research on infertility, breast cancer, menopausal symptoms, ovarian cancer, and premenstrual syndrome. She is currently the executive director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health, the director of Mind/Body Services at Boston IVF, and an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. She is considered one of the top women’s health experts in the country, and is an Expert for BeWell.com.

Susan Love, M.D., MBA is a cofounder of BeWell and is a clinical professor of surgery at UCLA. She is the president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the eradication of breast cancer. The Foundation is responsible for the very successful Love/Avon Army of Women (armyofwomen.org), which is recruiting a million women willing to consider participating in research to find the cause and prevention of breast cancer. Susan trained in general surgery at Harvard, helped set up the Dana Farber Breast Evaluation Program, the Faulkner Breast Centre, and the Revlon UCLA Breast Center. She is one of the founders and a director of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and served a six-year term as a Clinton appointee to the National Cancer Advisory Board. She is a frequent iconoclastic media spokesperson on issues of women’s health: For example, she was one of the first to publicly warn about the risks in putting a whole generation of women on postmenopausal hormones.

ABOUT THE BOOK

LIVE A LITTLE! Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health

By Susan M. Love, MD; Alice D. Domar, Ph.D.; and Leigh Ann Hirschman

Foreword by Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D.

Crown Publishers

On Sale: December 29, 2009 • ISBN: 978-0-307-40942-3• Price: $25.00

**Susan and Ali encourage readers to go beyond the printed page and visit BeWell.com to follow the “Live a Little” blog, connect with others interested in health and wellness, and learn more about the important topics covered in LIVE A LITTLE! Breaking the Rules Won’t Break Your Health.**

For more information on the book and Dr.Susan Love and Dr. Alice Domar, please contact:

Jill Browning, Senior Publicist at Crown, 212-572-6182 or jibrowning@randomhouse.com.

About BeWell.com

BeWell went live in December, 2008 as the first social network on health founded by leading health care experts. Its intent is to be a robust social network with expert commentary on breaking health news and important health topics. Experts will lead communities, weigh in on user generated content and stimulate grassroots discussions. BeWell is establishing partnerships with leading companies who want to join in elevating the quality of online health conversations.