Health
10 Things the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
Nutrition experts argue that you can’t take marketing campaigns at face value
By Adam Voiland, Angela Haupt
Bigger, juicier, saltier, sweeter, crunchier. Most of all, more. The food industry and its nonstop marketing has been tabbed by many experts as a major player in the obesity epidemic. “The result of constant exposure to today’s ‘eat more’ food environment,” write Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim in their upcoming book Why Calories Count, “has been to drive people to desire high-calorie foods and to become ‘conditioned over-eaters.'”
Even as the food industry takes steps seemingly in the right direction—by launching campaigns to bring healthy products to schools, for example—wellness initiatives are often just marketing ploys, contends David Ludwig, a pediatrician and coauthor of a commentary published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that raised questions about whether big food companies can be trusted to help combat obesity. Ultimately, he has argued, makers of popular junk foods have an obligation to stockholders to maximize profits….
Acid Reflux Relief—Without a Pill
Tricks range from loosening your belt to cutting carbs
By Angela Haupt
Feeling the burn? That painful sensation in your chest or throat—acid reflux, or what doctors call GERD—isn’t intractable. Lifestyle and dietary tweaks can bring relief, experts say. “Simple [changes] can make a big difference,” says gastroenterologist Jorge Rodriguez, author of the new book The Acid Reflux Solution (Ten Speed Press, $21.99). That’s promising, since researchers warn that heartburn drugs may do more harm than good, increasing the risk of infection with an intestinal bacteria or even the likelihood of contracting pneumonia.
Here are nine easy ways to alleviate heartburn without swallowing a pill:…..
Understanding Allergies
Ah-choo! High pollen levels throughout much of the country mean that millions of Americans are sniffling, sneezing and itching. Spring allergies are usually caused by tree pollen, while grasses are generally the culprit during late spring and summer. Weather and environmental conditions affect the severity of your allergy symptoms. Pollen moves around less when conditions are rainy, cloudy and still, so your allergy symptoms may be better on these days. Pollen travels more readily on hot, dry and windy days, which can increase allergy symptoms. Exposure to outdoor air pollution like ozone can also increase sensitivity to allergens……
Young Parkinson’s patients fight back with boxing
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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Holistic Health
The Hidden Food in Your Yard – You May Walk by It Every Day…
By Dr. Mercola
A major part of achieving optimal health is living in partnership with nature.
Growing your own food is a great way to rekindle this connection with nature.
But have you thought about eating plants that grow wild—perhaps in your own backyard?
Some “weeds” can be delicious if prepared properly, and they are absolutely free.
In an article published earlier this summer, Live Science collected some easy-to-identify healthful weeds, including:
Dandelion: The entire plant is edible, and the leaves contain vitamins A, C and K, along with calcium, iron, manganese, and potassium.
Purslane: Purslane tops the list of plants with omega-3 fats.
Lamb’s-quarters: Lamb’s-quarters are like spinach, except healthier, tastier and easier to grow.
Plantain: Not the better-known banana-like plant with the same name. It has a nutritional profile similar to dandelion.
Stinging Nettles: If you handle them so that you don’t get a painful rash from the tiny, acid-filled needles, these are delicious and nutritious cooked or prepared as a tea.
This is of course how our ancestors ate. They hunted and gathered, and ALL of it was wild. And by all accounts, they were far healthier than we are.
Of course, like anything else, identification and use of wild plants requires spending some time educating yourself, lest you eat something inedible or even poisonous. But with some attention to learning what to look for, you can avail yourself of some of the most highly nutritious, health-promoting plants for FREE—and have a lot of fun doing it. With the availability of the Internet, in addition to a number of excellent printed books and even wild-food foraging classes, this information is now easy to access.
So, grab your favorite weeding tool and a basket, and step outside to see what little gems you can find in your own backyard!
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Pet Health
Floppy-Eared Dogs Need Extra Help to Avoid This Miserable Condition
By Dr. Becker
Ear or aural hematomas are fluid-filled pockets on the inside of the ear flap.
There are tiny blood vessels in the pinna or the floppy part of your pet’s ears.
When something causes these little vessels to rupture, they bleed under the skin and form a fluid-filled pocket.
Ear hematomas are most commonly seen in floppy-eared dogs, but they can occur in any breed of dog – whether their ears are floppy or not – and even occur in cats.
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Positivity Mind and Body
01_The Game of Life & How to Play It Part 1 of 3
by Florence Scovel-Shinn
Uploaded by luxnewman on Jan 13, 2010
Chapter One – Part 01 of 03
The Game of Life & How to Play It
by Florence Scovel-Shinn
Portrait sketch of Florence Scovel-Shinn
Voice of Rev. Lux Newman
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Articles of Interest
Dirty dentures? Dangerous MRSA may be lurking, dentists say
By JoNel Aleccia
Here’s some bad news for the estimated 20 million people in the U.S. who wear full or partial dentures: There’s a good chance your choppers are covered with thin layers of icky, sticky bacteria known as biofilms.
Worse, some of the biofilm germs may be bad bugs such as MRSA, or drug-resistant staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which can lurk on the dentures until they’re breathed into the lungs, where experts fear they may cause nasty, hard-to-treat infections.
Fortunately, a team of scientists in Brazil has come up with two simple solutions that seem to work: Zap your dentures in the microwave for three minutes, or soak them in a solution of 2 percent chlorhexidine gluconate, a germicidal mouthwash, for 10 minutes…..
Birth control shots tied to breast cancer risk, study says
By Rita Rubin
Recent use of the injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera for at least a year was associated with a doubling of young women’s breast cancer risk, a new study has found.
However, users’ breast cancer risk dropped to that of non-users within several months of stopping Depo-Provera injections, researchers report in the journal Cancer Research.
Depo-Provera, injected every three months, was approved as a contraceptive in the United States 20 years ago. Convenient, highly effective and relatively inexpensive, Depo-Provera is used by about 1.2 million U.S. women, or 3.2 percent of those who practice contraception, according to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and education organization that focuses on reproductive health.
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