Can Christmas be sustainable?

Can Christmas be sustainable? Tricky one. The average family will produce around one tonne of CO2 over the 12 days of Xmas. All that wrapping paper, twinkling lights, piles of food…
Difficult to make it wholly sustainable and still keep all the relatives happy.

But very possible to make it Greener – through smaller actions which really make a difference. Recycled wrapping paper, solar lights, food with low carbon footprints, and presents that promote sustainable lifestyles.

And then there are all the retrofit energy saving appliances that will lower your bills and reduce CO2 emissions.

Check out products to help at Nigel's Ecostore

International Therapist Listing Relaunched

We have revamped and relaunched our international therapist listing. We have over 4000 therapists listed - practitioners of kinesiology, homeopathy, chiropractic, reiki, Bowen, herbalism and many more practicing in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and lots of other countries.

You can search our therapy listing or, if you're a therapist you can sign up

We do not sell, exchange or give away your details. This is therapist listing exists because I know complementary and alternative therapies work and can make a big difference to people's lives.

Please pass this on to any therapists that you know - thanks

Eat Fast, Eat More, Gain Weight

According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), eating a meal quickly, as compared to slowly, curtails the release of hormones in the gut that induce feelings of being full.  The decreased release of these hormones, can often lead to overeating.

“Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion,” said Alexander Kokkinos, MD, PhD, of Laiko General Hospital in Athens Greece and lead author of the study. “Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating.”

In the last few years, research regarding gut hormones, such as peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1), has shown that their release after a meal acts on the brain and induces satiety and meal termination. Until now, concentrations of appetite-regulating hormones have not been examined in the context of different rates of eating.

In this study, subjects consumed the same test meal, 300ml of ice-cream, at different rates. Researchers took blood samples for the measurement of glucose, insulin, plasma lipids and gut hormones before the meal and at 30 minute intervals after the beginning of eating, until the end of the session, 210 minutes later. Researchers found that subjects who took the full 30 minutes to finish the ice cream had higher concentrations of PYY and GLP-1 and also tended to have a higher fullness rating.

“Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past,” said Kokkinos. “The warning we were given as children that ‘wolfing down your food will make you fat,’ may in fact have a physiological explanation.”

Other researchers working on the study include Kleopatra Alexiadou, Nicholas Tentolouris, Despoina Kyriaki, Despoina Perrea and Nicholas Katsilambros of Athens University Medical School in Greece; and Carel le Roux, Royce Vincent, Mohammad Ghatei and Stephen Bloom of Imperial College in London, United Kingdom.

help For Internal Scarring

I received this email query today:

I wonder if you can offer me any advice.  My dad has recently finished chemotherapy and radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer.  Fortunately it was caught early for this sort of cancer and he is doing extremely well.  However, he has internal pains when he turns - especially in bed and after a large meal.  He has been told that is normal and is the result of scar tissue around the internal area blasted with radiotherapy as scar tissue is less stretchy/ flexible etc than normal tissue.

So, is there anything you could recommend to ease this?  I wonder if there's any product that he could take to improve the stretch or condition of internal scar tissue?

This was my reply:

Sorry to hear about your dad. I’d recommend zinc  and vitamin E. It’s not a quick cure though and he might not see nay improvement for a month, but well worth doing. People are often short of zinc anyway and it helps fight infections etc. etc.

Children And Vitamin D

In this month's Pediatrics researchers suggest that all children in the USA take vitam in D supplements, because of the generally low levels that they found and the potential health benefits of boosting vitamin D to normal levels. Vitamin D improves bone health and prevents rickets in children, and recent studies suggest that it also may prevent a host of common childhood illnesses, including respiratory infections, childhood wheezing, and winter-related eczema.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease And Skin Cancer

A new study has shown that people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), especially those receiving the thiopurine class of medications to treat IBD, may be at risk of developing non‐melanoma skin cancer (NMSC).

Read more about this >>

Look at the alternative too. We offer Turmeric supplement which has been shown to be very beneficial for IBS.

Avoiding Office Cakes, Biscuits and Candies

Here's a great idea if you work in an office:

"When I worked in a busy office, most of my co-workers kept jars of candy on their desks to enjoy and share with others. Constantly battling the "bulge," I hated these temptations, but neverthless often gave in to them. I decided to put out a jar of my own "feel good" stuff, with no calories. I bought a beautiful jar with a lid and spent one whole weekend at home cutting up colorful strips of paper and writing down inspiring quotes. I filled the jar and put it on my desk. It took a while to catch on, but soon, everyone was stopping by my "food for thought" jar daily to fill up on something much better than empty calories. They would take one out, read it, smile knowingly, and then fold it up and replace it for the next co-worker. It's something that never needed to be replenished unless, I saw a new quote I wanted to add. If you work in an office environment, try this out and see how much everyone loves it."

Source

H1N1 Flu - Can Antioxidnats Help?

In a press release (november 1st 2009) entitled "Scientists discover influenza's Achilles heel: Antioxidants" from the Federation of American Societies For Experimental Biology the scientists say: our research shows that antioxidants may prove beneficial in the treatment of flu. Read more >>

Check out our antioxidant supplement here.