Comfort When You're Grieving

Receiving soothing massages for eight weeks after the death of a loved one can provide much-needed consolation during an intense, stressful period of grieving, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Read more about the research>>

Learn more about foot massage>>

Why say no to botulinum treatments?

Here's some information from FRAME

FRAME is deeply concerned about the use of botulinum toxin (like botox) for cosmetic purposes, and the apparent indifference by its users to the intense animal suffering its production causes. There is no excuse for animals being subjected to painful and distressing procedures for the sake of human vanity.

The toxin is produced by bacteria, but, since it its strength varies, each new batch has to be tested separately, to determine its potency and its toxicity. It is tested on mice, which are dosed until they are paralysed and half of them die. There is currently no accepted non-animal, test to protect the safety of people receiving the treatment although there is a more humane one that ends when the mouse’s body goes limp, rather than full paralysis.

There are important medical reasons for the use of botulinum toxin such as treating squints and some forms of cerebral palsy, so some needs to be produced for those
reasons. UK law prevents animal tests on cosmetic products but botulinum procedures are invasive and performed by a doctor, so they are classed as surgery and the toxin is tested as a medicine.

FRAME believes batches of botulinum toxin should be tested according to the purpose for which they will be used so that those intended for cosmetic use cannot be tested
on animals. All trivial, non-medical uses of botulinum toxin should be stopped until it can be tested by humane methods.

Plastic Water Bottles

Mineral water in plastic bottles is very convenient, but it does have possible health implications?

A study by Martin Wagner and Jörg Oehlmann1in in Environmental Science and Pollution Research (Volume 16, Number 3 / May, 2009) found "a widespread contamination of mineral water with xenoestrogens that partly originates from compounds leaching from the plastic packaging material." This is of real concern because xenoestrogens mimic estrogen, a major female hormone.It has been suggested that xenostrogens can cause fertility problems (particularly a reduction in the number and motility of sperm), increased breast cancer growth, endometriosis and adenomyosis (ectopic glandular tissue in muscle).

Many people re-use plastic water bottles and this should definitely be avoided.

Buy Cheap Vitamin B Complex

The vitamin B complex is vital to health and many people are deficient in these powerful water-soluble vitamins. We can't store them in our bodies and so need a regular intake.

If you're deficient in the vitamin B complex you may suffer from asthma, eczema, irritability, headaches, mood swings, PMS and much more.

We're currently offering a 25% discount on our B complex supplement - get it while you can. It's high quality made in the UK where high qulaity control stanards apply.

50 mg of each of the main B vitamins - enough to be of real beenfit. many B vitamin supplements are a waste of money because they have so little of the vitamins in them.

Buy cheap but buy good:
http://www.healthandgoodness.com/catalog/product/vitamin-b-complex.html

Doctors Link With Pharmaceutical Companies

Yet more evidence from the illustrious British Medical Journal about how the activities of pharmaceutical companies needs to be clearly monitored.

Read some other information I have gathered on our need to police the medical and pharmaceutical industries more carefully.

Finding Love

Sitting around waiting for others to love you first so that you can love yourself is faulty thinking. It needs to be the other way around. How can you possibly expect someone else to love you if there is no love for the self. Ask yourself how much time you spend searching for love outside yourself and how much time you put into loving yourself first.

Read more of this article>>

Preventing Breast Cancer

Consumption of soya, fruits, and vegetables helps reduce the risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Postmenopausal women who consumed plenty of soy, fruits, and vegetables had a 30 percent lower risk of developing breast cancer, compared with those who consumed relatively little of these foods. The research was based on 34,028 women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study. The longer the women had consumed these healthful foods, the less chance they had of developing breast cancer.
(Butler LM, Wu AH, Wang R, Koh WP, Yuan JM, Yu MC. A vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern protects against breast cancer among postmenopausal Singapore Chinese women. Am J Clin Nutr. Published ahead of print February 24, 2010. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28572.)

For information about nutrition and health, please visit www.pcrm.org/.

Exercise And HIV

Aerobic exercise is a safe and effective method of treating symptoms commonly associated with taking HIV medications, such as fatigue, shortness of the breathe, weight gain and changes in body composition, according to a recent study led by Barbara Smith, Ph.D., professor of nursing at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Details of the study, conducted at Ohio State University in Columbus, appeared in a recent issue of the journal AIDS.

“We found that aerobic exercise, which has been proven effective in helping manage other chronic illnesses, is also effective in managing certain symptoms associated with HIV infection,” says Smith. “And, we found that someone with HIV can safely participate in an exercise program without compromising an already fragile immune system.”

The study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, enrolled 60 HIV-positive individuals over a course of three years. Half of the individuals were immediately assigned to an exercise program and exercised three times a week for 12 weeks, with each exercise session lasting at least 30 minutes. The other half of individuals did not exercise for the first 12 weeks, then participated in the same exercise program for the next 12-week period.

In particular, the study reports that participants showed significant increases in physical endurance. “This is important because increased endurance greatly reduces the difficulty of performing daily activities,” says Smith. “The less effort an individual expends to carry out an activity, the less likely they are to be fatigued.”

The study also reports significant reductions in body weight and changes in body composition. “Many of the participants were above their ideal body weight when they enrolled in the study,” says Smith. “Exercise effectively reduced not only their body weight, but their percentage of body fat, without participants making significant changes in their diets.”

Other researchers who collaborated are on the study are Robert Fass and Michael Para with the department of internal medicine at Ohio State University in Columbus; Judith Neidig with the departments of internal medicine, and adult health and illness at Ohio State University; Gladys Mitchell with the division of epidemiology and biostatistics at Ohio State University; and Jennie Nickel with the Ohio Department of Human Services in Columbus.

Overweight Dangers For Small Childen

A study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers found that obese children as young as 3 years old have elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that in adults is considered an early warning sign for possible future heart disease.

“These findings were a surprise to us,” said lead author Asheley Cockrell Skinner, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine. “We’re seeing a relationship between weight status and elevated inflammatory markers much earlier than we expected.”

“Most adults understand that being overweight or obese isn’t good for them,” Skinner said. “But not as many people realize that it may be unhealthy for young children to be overweight.”

It can be very difficult for parents to tell when their child is overweight, Skinner said. “Especially with younger children and smaller children, because they’re so short it only takes seven or eight pounds to change them from being a healthy weight to being overweight,” she said.

The study was published online March 1 2010 by the journal Pediatrics. Skinner and fellow Department of Pediatrics researchers Eliana Perrin, M.D., M.P.H., Michael Steiner, M.D. and Frederick Henderson, M.D. arrived at these findings after analyzing data collected as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2006.

It is important to make sure our children are active and eat healthily so that long-term health problems can be prevented.

Muscle Strength

Even if you don't want to be a weight lifter, it is important to have good muscle strength for all those every day activities like walking upstairs, carrying shopping, gardening, playing sport, etc.

A lack of vitamin D has been firmly linked to reduced muscle strength. This is what the respected Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism has to say "Vitamin D insufficiency has now reached epidemic proportions and has been linked to increased body fat and decreased muscle strength." ( February 2010)

Vitamin D has all sorts of other benefits - studies have shown that supplementation can reduce the death rate by a whopping 7%.

Many respected medical and government agencies recommend vitamin D supplementation.

Read more about the wonderful benefits of vitamin D >>

Ovarian Cancer Survival

Ovarian cancer has a relatively low survival rate, but research (March 2010 Journal of the American Dietetic Association) suggests women with this problem can increase their chances of surviving by adopting a more healthy diet:

• High in fruit and vegetables
• Low in meat
• Healthy whole grains rather than white bread etc.

This is the diet we should all be following anyway. If you're not, focus on one of these three and make some healthy changes.

Check out our healthy vegetarian recipes here>>

Life Coaching – A modern therapy for modern times

Modern life is hectic. People are expected to juggle a family, career, social life and lead a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes this all just gets to much, and life seems to be stuck in fast forward.

Life coaching is a modern therapy to help deal with the stresses and strains of modern day life. Life Coaching is different from most therapies as it can help with a wide variety of issues and problems you may be suffering from. It can help with things such as relationships, confidence to money management and spirituality.

Just by talking to you as an individual a Life Coach can help you overcome many issues that may be effecting you. The coach can support and encourage you to fulfil your potential so you can make the most of your life, by empowering you to take control of your life. Life Coaching works by exploring your beliefs, attitudes and values, the Life Coach then helps you work out what you want from life and helps you make a plan to get there.

Because Life Coaching is still a relatively new therapy in the UK it is hard to find a professional Life Coach. This is why Life Coach Directory was made. The site is a network of UK based fully insured and qualified Life Coaches. You can find one near you by searching by postcode town or county.

Pain Relief And Hearing Loss

In a study published in the March 2010 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, researchers determined that regular use of aspirin, acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases the risk of hearing loss in men, particularly in younger men, below age 60.

Read more about this>>

Check out our natural pain relief remedies>>

Free health and happiness tip delivered to your email inbox

Get a different health and happiness tip delivered to your email inbox every day - easy to subscribe and each email comes with a link to unsubscribe (in case you change your mind). Information, reminders about things you already know, inspiring quotes. Find out more>>

Recent tips include:

Exercise While Cleaning Your Teeth
Stand on one leg while you clean your teeth in the morning. Stand on the other leg in the evening. This will strengthen your hamstring muscles and is good for balance.

Child’s Safety Seats
A child safety seat for children up to the age of 6 reduces the risk of death in a car accident by 28%. Archives of Paediatric & Adolescent Medicine 2006; 160: 617-21

Tea, Coffee And Minerals
Drinking tea and coffee interferes with the body's ability to absorb a whole range of minerals.Calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, selenium, chromium and iodine are just some of the minerals that are affected. These are all minerals that are vital to health, and studies show that many people have marginal intake of some of these, such as iron and zinc. So, if you're concerned about your mineral levels, cut back on tea and coffee, or at least drink it away from meals. And remember, if you're taking supplements containing minerals, don't wash them down with a cup of tea or coffee!

Money
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” 
Will Rogers

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Crohn's Disease And Vitamin D

A new study has found that Vitamin D, readily available in supplements, can counter the effects of Crohn’s disease. John White, an endocrinologist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, led a team of scientists from McGill University and the Université de Montréal who present their findings about the inflammatory bowel disease in the latest Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“Our data suggests, for the first time, that Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to Crohn’s disease,” says Dr. White, a professor in McGill’s Department of Physiology, noting that people from northern countries, which receive less sunlight that is necessary for the fabrication of Vitamin D by the human body, are particularly vulnerable to Crohn’s disease.

Buy a high quality Vitamin D suppldement>>