Chocolate And Vegetarians

I cannot believe that the chocolate manufacturer has decided to change the recipes in the Uk for Mars Bars, Bounty, Snickers, Twix, Milky way, Maltesers and Minstrels so they are no longer suitable for vegetarians.

This seems uncredibly short-sighted and presumably will also affect people who adhere to hallal and kosher principles.

Now I don't think we should be eating these sugary confeciosn all the time, but an occasional one is fine for most people. If you want to express your concern, you can do so here:

http://www.masterfoodsconsumercare.co.uk/contact_us.asp

All the products on our online shop are suitable for vegetarians and most are also suitable for vegans too, so please check those out.

Unusual and Inspirational Gifts

I've been really busy lately with the revamped Health & Goodness online shop.

One of the things I'm particularly pleased with is our new range of unusual and inspirational gifts. We have a great gift for a golfer, one for a gardener, a child who can't sleep, and a get well gift too. Most of the gifts come in really nice fairly-traded jute bags, much more eco-friendly than wrapping paper because they can be used again afterwards.

I have been showing the gifts to friends as I've developed them, and before I have had time to finish explaining what they are, my friends have been grabbing them out of my hand and wanting to buy them, so it looks like I've got it right.

The selection is small at the moment, but I'll be adding more over the next few weeks. Do take a look.

New Ethical Shop

we've revamped the Health & Goodness shop, and will be adding lots more stuff over the next few weeks.

new things include:

a homeopathy kit for labour /childbirth - we already had a basic kit and a homeopathic hay fever kit on the site

some great natural skin care products

the bestselling (UK) range of self-help CDs

We give 12% of our profits to various charities, so with the relaunch of the shop there should be even more money to give away :-)

Do please take a look.

Safe Alternatives To HRT

HRT replacement therapy may have caused 1000+ women in the UK to die of ovarian cancer since 1991 says a study published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. This is added to the risks of breast cancer and womb cancer.

Many women unfortunately believe that the only way to deal with the menopause is to take HRT or suffer the misery of hot flushes, low energy levels and more. But there are lots of safe alternatives. The study shows that the longer you are on HRT the more likely you are to get ovarian cancer, but it also shows that if you stop taking HRT your risk is the same as for women not taking HRT. So, if you’re taking it now, why not consider some of the safe and effective alternatives to menopausal medication.?

So what are the safe alternatives? Here are some ideas:

1. Try taking vitamin E for hot flushes / flashes.
2. Get fit and stay fit. Exercise stimulates endorphins (the body’s feel good hormones, revs up your metabolism, tones your body and gives you more energy)
3. If you’re feeling miserable, old and without purpose try taking flower remedies.
4. See an alternative and complementary therapist. Many can help and some even specialise in these sort of problems.
5. Irregular or heavy periods? Then try Neways Wild Yam and Chaste Berry cream. It worked for me.

Don’t believe that the only solution is HRT. There’s a whole world of alternatives out there. Explore some of them first.

Good Miles and Local Food

When you stop and think about the miles that food travels it's crazy:

Buying food from local farms and farmers’ markets is not just good for your taste-buds, health and wealth, there are wider benefits too. Comparing some foods which travelled from field direct to farmers’ market or farm shop with the same products air-freighted to reach UK supermarket shelves from overseas, Sustain’s researchers found that the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with distribution were 650 times lower when food was bought locally from a farmers’ market. The ingredients for an air-freighted Sunday lunch created 37 kilograms of greenhouse gasses but when bought from local farms only 58.2 grams of greenhouse gasses were released – a reduction of 99.8 per cent. (From
www.sustainweb.org)

I've written an article for Health & Goodness on seasonal food and food miles too.

Complaining

I really liked this from Charity Focus:

How long can you go without complaining? A few months ago, the pastor of a Kansas City church told people in his congregation he wanted them to test their limits. "The one thing we can agree on," said Rev. Will Bowen, "is there's too much complaining." And so he asked the group to give up complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. People who joined in were issued purple bracelets as a reminder of their pledge. If they caught themselves complaining, they were supposed to take off the bracelet, switch it to the opposite wrist and start counting the days from scratch. Rev. Bowen said it took him three and a half months to put together 21 complaint-free days. Now, about a half a million people around the world have requested free wristbands to rise to the challenge.

Is everything connected?

Many integrative medicine/complementary therapy practitioners see everything as being connected in some way.

The article in New Scientist entitled "The universe is a string-net liquid" gives some support to this.

Scientists from MIT and Harvard University explained their experiment at the Topological Quantum Computing conference in the USA earlier this month.

I can't put my hand on my heart and say I understood all the article - I don't have a science background - but it appears that they have produced more evidence of entanglement - particles influencing each other over vast differences.

Healers who work with people at a distance and other therapies that defy the 'normal' understanding of the physical world may be a step nearer to vindication.

"I Want To lose Weight"

“I want to lose weight.” How often have you said it, but not achieved it. Most women, and a lot of men, have said but not achieved this more times than they care to remember. But, as you should know by now, wishing for it, doesn’t make it happen. So how can you turn “I want to lose weight” into “Yippee, I’m losing weight and feel great”.

Firstly, I don’t have a magic wand, but nor does anyone else. Weight loss is one of the things you need to work at, not just wish for. Here’s a plan of campaign. Read it, think about it, but most importantly put it into practice. Knowing this stuff doesn’t mean you lose weight. Acting on it, means that you’ll almost certainly lose weight and look and feel a whole lot better.

Have A Quiet Moment And Stop WishingIf you talk to people who have got down to their ideal weight, kept the weight off and look and feel great, they almost all had a quiet moment before they started. By this I mean that they stopped thinking about the future and wishing for change. They stopped beating themselves up for how they were. They accepted what and who they were and in that quiet moment they made a decision to do what they needed to do to live a healthier life. Does it sound grandiose to say that in that moment they experienced unconditional love for themselves? Are you saying: “I couldn’t do that.” Remember when you give yourself unconditional love you are not saying you are perfect, but you are loving yourself in spite of or because of your imperfections. I’m not saying you have to do this all the time, but just for a quiet moment while you accept where you are and commit yourself to something better.

read the rest of this article.

Complete Everything

Here's a great thought from www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk

A task left undone remains undone in two places - at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience. They syphon off a little more of your personal power every time you delay. No need to be a perfectionist, that's debilitating in an imperfect world, but it's good to be a 'completionist'. If you start it, finish it...or forget it. Do it - or dump it!
From http://www.thoughtfortoday.org.uk/

Asthma And Economic Development

An intersting article has just been published in PLOS Medicine on the incidence of asthma in Ghana.

In Africa, asthma has typically been thought of as being very uncommon, and indeed in many African dialects there is no word for asthma or the symptoms, such as wheezing, that asthmatic children experience. This is a major contrast to what happens in the UK and other developed countries.

Unfortunately the study is showing that asthma, or at least exercise-induced bronchospasm is on the increase. Two studies of 3 schools in 1993 and again in 2003 showed the proportion of children with exercise-induced bronchospasm increased in all three schools; overall this proportion went up from 3.1% to 5.2%. Children from the rich city school were most likely to have exercise-induced bronchospasm at either survey date. However, children from the poor city school experienced the biggest change over the time period studied, with more than double the proportion of children having exercise-induced bronchospasm in 2003 as compared to 1993.

Stability Ball (Gym Ball) Exercises

As many of you know I'm keen on fitness, but it's easy to get bored or complascent with what you're doing so recently I've started using a stability ball (gym ball, exercise ball) and follow a program from Core Secrets. I'm really enjoying it.

I've just posted an article on Health & Goodness which suggests various exercises you can do at home with one of these balls and includes stretching exercises you can do on the ball too.

Here's the link to the article.

Tips To help You Lose Weight

A study just published by scientists from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) should have some women reaching for the tape measure. The study has shown that women with a waist measurement of 34 inches (86 cms) or more have almost double the risk of developing womb cancer. More than 6000 British women are diagnosed with womb cancer every year, and about 1000 die from it. This adds to earlier research showing an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes for women with large waists. Don’t kid yourself that it won’t happen to you. There are all sorts of other reasons to lose weight. This is not a vanity issue – it is a health and happiness issue. Being overweight is likely to lead to pain, discomfort and ill health.

You may be saying you know all that, but dieting doesn’t work. I agree that dieting doesn’t work, so try making some minor changes in your life. Here are some ideas:

1. Taking a zinc supplement can reduce a craving for chocolate.

2. Keeping a food diary can help you eat better. Write down everything you eat. You may be surprised at the junk or the quantity you actually eat.

3. Don't order a large portion in a restaurant and think it's OK because you've ordered a 'lite' drink or used a no-calorie sweetener.

4. Skipping meals makes it more likely that you'll overeat later. Eat 5-6 small meals a day to maintain your blood sugar levels and minimise mood changes.

5. If you're trying to lose weight, motivate yourself by doing it for a good cause and get your friends to sponsor you.

6. So you over-ate, don't let that be an excuse to give up. No one succeeds all the time.

7. Eat with a naturally slim friend and watch them carefully. They probably eat slowly, chew their food well and stop eating while they're talking. Copy this way of eating in your life.

8. Snack from a plate, not the packet -- it is easy to feel you should finish the packet. Put what you need on a plate, and put the rest of the pack out of sight.

9. If you always want a second helping, make your first helping smaller, so that you can have that second helping without putting on weight.

10. Get yourself even more motivated by finding more reasons to lose weight. Did you know, for example, that there’s a direct link between obesity and some of the common eye conditions that cause blindness?

11. If you like these tips you can get more by installing our Google gadget on a personalised Google homepage.

I'm fundraising for WaterAid again!

Once again I'm fundraising for WaterAid. I've previosuly run the London marathon and riden across the USA from Seattle to just north of Boston. This time I'm tackling a bike ride in Africa with my son, Tom. We are going from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. We are not riding it all but should complete approx 350 miles in two weeks. We expect it will be hot and thirsty work so riding for WaterAid is particularly appropriate. The money we raise will be spent on projects in Tanzania. All the money we raise goes to waterAid - we pay all our own expenses. Please support us:

Water And Water Filters

We use a water filter that filters water for the whole of the house. I know the water company doesn't consider it necessary, ut I think it tastes better and probably is a lot etter for your health.

I know a lot of other people are concerned about the quality of the water that comes out of the tap/faucet, so I decided to ask Ken Digby of NT Laboratories (UK) to talk to me about this whole issue. I recorded our converstaion and posted the article on water filters on Health & Goodness.

It's full of clear information, including interestingly that children with eczema often benefit from filtered water, particularly if they are using filtered water to shower or bath in.

Health & Happiness Tips

I am delighted that Google have now accepted our Health & Happiness tips gadget. It will rank alongside gadgets from the BBC, Wikipedia, CNN and many other movers and shakers.

You can see it at the top of this blog. If you'd like to have it on a personalised Google search page just click on the "+ Google" at the bottom left ahnd corner of the gadget and then follw the instructions from there.

You may get a warning message – this is a standard Google thing, but we do not have the technology or the desire to find out anything about you.

Please download it, share it and enjoy it.

Be A more Confident Therapist

I really enjoy writing for my web sites and newsletters, but it takes up a lot of time, so it's particularly nice when someone emails and says how much they like a particular piece I've written.

I've recently had a lot of apprecation on my article on being a more confident therapist. One practitioner told me he was very successful at geting people well, but still he struggled to make a business out of his practice, but now after reading the article he knew what he had to do. So if your a therapist or a therapist in training, I suggest you have a look at this article.

Therapists Doing Good In the World

I recived this email earlier today:


I have just been on your website in a search for possible outlets where we
may be able to advertise out training courses. Is this something you can
offer?
We are a small charity that gives on site chair massages to rescue workers
at the scene of a major incident. We run training courses 3 times a year,
and we are always on the look out for ways to advertise for more volunteers.
We can only use licensed massage therapists, with knowledge of aromatherapy
if possible.
We are all volunteers, myself included, so any help you might be able to
offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Kind regards
Kim Wooldridge
Managing Director, REST UK
Reg. Charity No:1098574
"Giving a rest to the rescuers"
T:01778 570120
M:0775 9695352
www.restuk.org.uk

so I decided to dedicate a page of My Therapy Practice to this sort of information. Here it is:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/therapies/good-in-the-world.html

Stress Tips

many people have problems dealing with stress - it's the current 'disease', so I liked this article which gives some practical easy-to-apply ways to deal with stress. I hope you enjoy it too. :-)

Ear Candling

I've just published an intersting article on ear candling in cancer therapy on Health & Goodness. Greg Webb, one of the authors, sent me this interesting account of the first international conference on ear candling:


World’s First International
Ear Candling Conference
November 18 – 19, 2006 U.K.

The first-ever Ear Candling Conference took place in Reepham near Norwich, UK. The humble little ear candle has managed to pull speakers from Switzerland, Canada, United States of America and Belgium together in one place, prepared to share their thoughts and research data with the world.

Ear candling is no longer regarded as an “ear canal cleansing” tool as it has become very obvious that there is no suction element to the candle’s function, nor is there a heating up of the ear canal. Ear candling is a simple, but extremely effective, energetic tool to influence health in a positive way. The noted effects stretch over millennia and across the whole world, covering most great cultures this small planet has ever known.

Jili Hamilton, (Switzerland) author of one of the first books ever written about ear candling, told the delegates how her path in life was totally changed by ear candling. She recounted many fascinating stories surrounding ear candling that she has come across in her search for more information. She also led us through the difficulties that someone encounters who is writing a book about a subject no one knows anything about.

Dr. Harmony (USA) shared her search result looking into verifiable ear candling data. She researched what constitutes a safe and healthy candle as well as the origins of ear candling and the ancient practices that have lead to ear candling. She caused controversy when she stated that the Hopi Native American tribe has been stunned by the revelation that they were supposed to have lent their name to the most famous ear candle in the world. Michelle said she had spent a lot of time with the Hopi’s to find out that the Hopis have never used ear candles and have never heard of it.

Greg Webb R.M.T.(Canada) is a Touch for Health Instructor and examiner in his homeland Canada. Combining clinic skills with his passion for ear candling he has collated an incredible amount of treatment data regarding the specific effects and pathways in which the body responds to ear candling. He showed how not only the lymphatic drainage improves, but also how the immune system is strengthened, the endocrine system enhanced, and the Central Nervous System is empowered. Most of the benefits of ear candling can be matched to improvements in Lymphatic drainage or a shift towards the Para-Sympathetic (healing) state of the Central Nervous System. Then comes the question how and why do these shifts occur? In his second presentation he shared his conclusions on how the energetic input of the ear candle is transferred via the chakra system, the meridian and the nervous system into the physical aspects of life. His theory answers, for the first time, most of the so far measured benefits of ear candling! P.S. No suction required !!

Patrick Quanten M.D. (Belgium) concentrated on explaining in simple terms some relevant facts of quantum physics and new biology. All matter is energy condensed and all cells “listen” to everything that is going on in their environment. The combination of these allow the energetic influence of ear candling to be felt throughout the whole body, both via a direct influence on the cells and via the overall information distributed through the nervous network. He also showed that in free burning open candles only white smoke appeared at the bottom of the candle. The matter found inside the candles after burning only occurs by compressing the smoke. He suggested a relationship between what was found inside the burned candle and the changes made in the auric field (energy body) of the person being candled.

Plenty of questions are still left open. Opinions still differ, but the delegates have agreed to continue to gather data and to share their knowledge and experience. To this effect it was suggested to set up a separate website dedicated to verifiable information on ear candling and a place where people could share their questions and experiences with each other. It was generally felt that the time has come to tell the truth about ear candling and to ensure that it becomes a safe and self-regulated therapy with therapists who uphold serious professional values.

Organisers:
Stephen Fullick
Patrick Quanten

http://www.activehealthcare.co.uk
for knowledge and well-being - in truth and in health

Contact Greg Webb at 1-403-242-7647 or gregandchris@shaw.ca

Recycling

Here's a great site if you want to recycle more:

http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/

Although it's a UK site, you'll find ideas that you can use wherever you live.

Bird Flu - Avian Flu

with the discovery that many turkey have died of bird flu on a Bernhard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk, the interst in this potential pandemic has become more active.

Here's some information on it (previously published on Health & Goodness):

Bird Flu or more correctly, avian flu, is much in the news and causing a lot of anxiety. Many people are worried that they may get it, and the papers are full of horror scenarios.
There are over 100 strains of avian flu, but most of them do not infect humans. The current strain H5N1 can infect humans, but not easily. The number of cases of avian flu in humans in the current outbreak is very small, and almost all have come about by direct contact with infected or dead birds – something that most of us are unlikely to experience. So far, the spread of H5N1 virus from person-to-person has been rare and has not continued beyond one person. In fact according to The Times (23rd March 2006) only 184 confirmed cases have been reported worldwide so far from this strain, with 103 deaths. These have been in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and most recently, several cases in Turkey.
What the authorities are much more concerned about is the strain mutating into a variation that can be transmitted between human beings, rather than just from bird to human. This has been designated as influenza A/H5N1. Humans do not have any resistance to this strain, because these viruses do not commonly infect humans. If a strain developed that could infect the human population, a pandemic would be likely with many people being infected and dying. The 1918 ‘Spanish flu’ is estimated to have killed 50 million people worldwide. At least four of the eight genes of H5N1 avian flu now contain mutations seen in that deadly strain.
Jeffery K. Taubenberger, a molecular pathologist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, USA has said:
"These H5N1 viruses might be acquiring the ability to adapt to humans, increasing their pandemic risk ... there is a suggestion there may be some parallel evolution going on."
Scientists still do not understand completely how a bird virus becomes a human virus, but H5N1 is already showing some of the mutations necessary for it to become a human flu, but at the moment, in spite off all the panic, there is no pandemic flu strain.
Research in the Netherlands and the USA has shown that while human influenza viruses are able to bind with receptors in the windpipe, H5N1 binds only much deeper inside the lungs. This makes it more difficult for the virus to infect humans, because the virus is less likely to reach the inner lungs than the windpipe. The H5N1 virus is also less likely to spread from human to human. Coughing and sneezing easily transmits viruses that have multiplied in the windpipe, but not those located deep in the lungs. If H5N1 manages to mutate so that it can replicate in the upper respiratory tract, a pandemic becomes more likely. Scientists are constantly monitoring the virus for this mutation.
So should we be concerned? There have been many scares over the years that have not come to anything, and this could turn out to be one of those too, but it is worth taking some sensible precautions rather than just relying on the scientists to find a powerful enough solution. Having a strong immune system has to be the first line of defence. Over the coming months I'll be writing articles about how you can improve your immune system, so that if the pandemic does happen you will have much more chances of surviving.
References:Daily News Central: Bird Flu on Similar Evolutionary Path as 1918 Killer Virus
Centers For Disease Control & Prevention: Key Facts About Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus
The Times (London) 21 January 2006 and 23 March 2006
The Guardian (London) 1 March 2006

This information was previously published on Health & Goodness.

Menopause - Your Last Chance To grow Up

I loved the title of this article by Mali Livingstone, so I'm really pleased to have it on the Health & Goodness site.

Therapies in Bosnia

Are you a therapist. If so, could you help bring therapies to Bosnia?

Phoenix-Aid needs your help. It is a charity taking therapies to Bosnia. Right now it needs your help. The charity is run by two women Sarah and Karen, who devote an enormous amount of unpaid time and energy to it.

Phoenix-Aid works in Bosnia in two ways:
to bring therapies to people in desperate need and
to train local people so that they will be able to provide treatments themselves
Karen is next going in March and will need:
Essential oils
2 self-funding therapists to go out on 17th March for two weeks
2 self-funding therapists to go out from 31st March to 7th April
Donations of money ( you can send cheques, or you can use the CAF web site if you want to use a credit card)

If you feel you can help in any way, or would like to get involved in the UK, please let either of them know. Sarah can be contacted by phone on 01924 830025 and Karen by email. And you can find out more by checking out their web site http://www.phoenix-aid.org/.

Being a therapist in this way will be an amazing privilege and opportunity - I did something similar in Russia about 14 years ago - you are highly likely to come away with far more than you give. If you can't commit yourself to March, email Karen for the dates for later in the year.

I hope you'll feel able to do something.

EFT Tapping Technique

Emotional Freedom technique (EFT) is a great self-help technique that can be used in all sorts of situation. It can be a great tool to help you with your new year's resolution. Here's an easy-to-understand explanation of the EFT tapping technique, so whether you want to lose weight, be less anxious or get your life sorted out in some other ways.

Best wishes for 2007

Post Workout Nutrition

Now is the time of year when lots of people want to get fit and slim/lean. It's easy to beleive that you need to exercise a lot and eat a little to achieve this, but what you eat post-workout is vitally important, if you want to be able to stay fit and healthy. Here's some tips on post-workout nutrition for you.

Cosmetic acupuncture

The therapy section of Health & Goodness is expanding and we now have articles and case studies on over 30 different therapies. Most of these are concerned with people's health, ut I've just added one on cosmetic acupuncture. It's interesting to see that cosmetic acupuncture is very holistic as people feel better in other ways than just looking better. Lynn Jaffee who wrote the article lists:

improved digestion, decreased stress, less menstrual discomfort, fewer hot flashes, decreased acne breakouts, and less TMJ symptoms, such as teeth grinding.

Seems a lot better than botox and/or plastic surgery!

Coughs and colds

If you're in the northern hemisphere now is the traditional time to suffer from coughs and colds, so I've got two articles for you on Health & Goodness:

one is written by me and focuses more on cold prevention

the other is by a naturopath and focuses more on natural cold treatments.

IQ and Vegetarian Diets

I'm basking in glory here as I was a vegetarian at 30:


A new study shows that children with higher IQs are more likely to become vegetarians. Researchers from South Hampton University analyzed data on 8,170 participants from the 1970 British Cohort Study and concluded that a higher IQ at age 10 was associated with a 38 percent increased chance of being vegetarian at age 30. The study included 366 vegetarians, which was 4.5 percent of the total sample.
Gale CR, Deary IJ, Schoon I, Batty GD. IQ in childhood and vegetarianism in adulthood: 1970 British cohort study. BMJ [serial online]. Dec. 15, 2006. Available at: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/ Accessed Dec. 15, 2006.

Toxic Chemicals

We are exposed every day to a whole range of chemicals - in food, in the environment and in our personal care products. Here's an article on toxic chemicals from a leading holistic dentist explaining what to look out for and what to do about it.

Biomechanics Of The Golf Swing

I love this quote from A A Milne:

"Golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad."

If you don't want to be bad it, read this article on golf biomenchanics and see if it will help you to improve your game.

Traithlon tapering

I once did a beginners traithlon. I was so nervous and far older than virtually all the other women. They all seemed young and confident and to have the latest equipment, so I was quite intimidated, but I ended up coming half way up the field. I was so excited and thrilled.

Triathlon tapering is a hot topic - how mch training you should do in the couple of weeks befre the event, so I've added an article on this topic to Sport & Me.

Drug Company Charitable donations

This morning I received an email from a good friend:

Today, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceutical monolith that charges nearly $1,000 for a 30 day supply of one of its HIV/AIDS medications, is donating $1 to the National AIDS Fund for each person who simply visits their website and "virtually lights a candle." The tally is near 800,000 now.

Sounds great and your instinct, of course, is to do it.

But I took a few minutes to look at their web site and this is what they say:

"For each virtual candle lit through December 31, 2006, Bristol-Myers Squibb will contribute $1 to the National AIDS Fund, up to a maximum contribution of $100,000, to benefit AIDS service organizations in underserved communities in the U.S."

In other words they get all this wonderful publicity for a measly $100,000 - it's a snip in any drug company marketing budget.

so I won't be lighting a candle.

Confidentiality in therapy

When I was a therapist I went to see my account. One of my clients worked there and I said, without thinking: "Hello, how are you?" This was in the nature of a polite, general enquiry that I would say to anyone I knew, and not a specific client-based question. Later that day she phoned me up very angry and asked me why I'd asked her this question in front of her work colleagues who did not know she was seeing me.

I was very taken aback, but it taught me a valuable lesson about how careful you have to be in the field of confidentiality.

This was all brought back to mind because I've just published an article by Colleeen E Swan on the topic of confidentiality in counselling. She describes some legal cases which just show how complex this issue is.

How To Have A Mental Breakdown!

This is a great article - tongue in cheek but making lots of important points about the mad things we do to make our lives more stressed.

Are you a carrot, an egg or coffee

This came to me via email and I thought you might enjoy reading it too:


A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how
things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to
make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It
seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water
and placed each on a high fire Soon the pots came to boil. In the first
she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she
placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying
a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the
carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and
placed them in a bowl.Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her aughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She
did nd noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to
take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed
the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same
adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on
your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
Think of this: Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water,
the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot,
it releases the fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest,
do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Online Diabetes Class

I got this info from the well respected Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine:

You are invited to participate in the Food for Life Diabetes online series. This exciting new series offers education on diet and diabetes, along with group support. The classes feature lectures by PCRM president Dr. Neal Barnard and cooking demonstrations by PCRM nutritionist Dulcie Ward, R.D.

The next class is Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. EST. Two more classes follow on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20. Each session will last about 1 hour. You will need a high-speed Internet connection to participate. Additional computer requirements can be found here.

Click here to register for the remaining classes in the Food for Life Diabetes online series. Registration for the Dec. 6 class ends on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

Children & Divorce

Divorce is a difficult time for eevryone, particualrly if children are involved. Jill Curtis has done lots of research on this subject and writes with sensitivity and compassion, so I'm delighted to be able to post one of her articles on Health & Goodness:

Children & Divorce

Scammers |Targeting Therapists

I thought this was worth passing on:

Massage therapists are now on the receiving end of a variation of anonline con. Here's how it works: An out-of-town "client" contacts apractitioner via e-mail wanting to schedule appointments for a time inthe future when he/she will be visiting the area. The appointments andtimes are scheduled. Shortly thereafter, the practitioner receives a cashier's check forthese services, but it's generally for much more than the originallyagreed upon price. The alleged client or a secretary of the clientcontacts the therapist, explains the mistake, and asks the therapist todeposit the check and simply refund the balance. The check appears toclear and the practitioner sends the overage back to the client only tolearn two weeks later that the check was a fraud. Now the practitioneris out whatever the overage was.If this has happened to you, visit the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) website, www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm, and click "File a Complaint" tofill out the form. You can also forward the offending e-mails tospam@uce.gov.Using caution and common sense will help you avoid the pitfalls ofInternet scams. For more information on Internet scams, visitwww.ftc.gov/spam/ or www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp.from: http://www.abmp.com/home/scams.html

Ethical consumerism

earlier this year we decided to sponsor the health and body section of Ethical Junction - you can see our clickable logo for Health and Goodness on all the health pages.

Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) has today announced it will sponsor Ethical Junction. CFS includes the Co-Operative Bank, the internet bank Smile and Co-Operative Insurance.

Great news for Ethical Junction, and yet another sign that people are interested in behaving ethically and not just in making money.

Salvestrols, Skin Problems & Cancer

If you look at my web sites you'll know I'm keen on salvestrols, so I was interested to get this email:

Hello, I have just read your article on the impact that salvestrols have on skin tumours. My Mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two years ago, and is still receiving treatment for it. A friend of mine told me about someone she knew who had managed to rid herself of stage 4 cervical cancer by having conventional treatment and by taking 12 fruitforce tablets a day, so I immediately got my Mum to start taking them on a daily basis.
As well as having ovarian cancer my Mum had a basal cell carcinoma on her back which had been there for approx 5 years but she had never got round to doing anything about it. It would weep and bleed and would often be quite painful, however since taking fruitforce it has dried up and completely healed over. We were astounded!
We are still waiting to hear how my mum's ovarian cancer is doing but we are all very hopeful that the fruitforce tablets are working miracles!
Many Thanks
Michelle Thomas

Children with high blood pressure

A new study in the US found 21% of school children had HBP, especially the prevalence was higher among the overweight and Hispanic group. The study group were involving 1,066 children aged 10-12 from seventeen schools in Fort Worth, Texas.

21%! what does the future hold for these kids?

Read the full study.

Marriage tips

having a successful marriage or relationship needs work, but the benefits of having a supportive, happy partner are immense.

Since 1973, Dr. John Gottman has studied what he calls the "masters and disasters" of marriage. Ordinary people from the general public took part in long-term studies, and Dr. Gottman learned what makes marriages fail, what makes them succeed.

Here's his tips.

Advice for parents of sporty children

Being a parent always involves treading a fine line - we don't wnat to be too pushy, but we want to encourage our child too. May be there's no clearer place for this dilemma than in relation to sport. So here's some wise words from Dr. Patrick J. Cohn.

Stopping Junk Mail (UK only)

To stop those irritating marketing phone calls and cut down on the flood of tree wasting junk mail you can register with the official Mailing Preference Service and Telephone preference Service.

See websites www.mpsonline.org.uk and www.tpsonline.org.uk for all the details. By law, companies are supposed to check with them before sending you a mailshot, or telephoning you. It is a very simple process to register.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

the holday season will soon be here, and one of the first big celebrations is Thanksgiving in the US. If you are keen to eat less meat and be more compassionate, check out this article on how to have a vegetarian thanksgiving.

Don't Give Stuff. GiveFun! GiveFun.com a gift certificate for a Gift Experience!

Homeopathy Study

Here's an interesting homeopathy study:

Homeopathy - what are the active ingredients? An exploratory study using the UK Medical Research Councils framework for the evaluation of complex interventionsTrevor DB Thompson and Marjorie Weiss BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2006, 6:37 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-6-37
Published

13 November 2006Abstract (provisional)
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.

Background
Research in homeopathy has traditionally addressed itself to defining the effectiveness of homeopathic potencies in comparison to placebo medication. There is now increasing awareness that the homeopathic consultation is in itself a therapeutic intervention working independently or synergistically with the prescribed remedy. Our objective was to identify and evalute potential active ingredients of the homeopathic approach in a prospective formal case series, which draws on actual consultation data, and is based on the MRC framework for the evaluation of complex interventions.

Methods
Following on from a theoretical review of how homeopathic care might mediate its effects, 18 patients were prospectively recruited to a case series based at Bristol Homeopathic Hospital. Patients, who lived with one of three index conditions, were interviewed before and after a five visit package of care. All consultations were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Additional data, including generic and condition-specific questionnaires, artwork and significant other reports were collected. Textual data was subject to thematic analysis and triangulated with other sources.

Results
We judged that around one third of patients had experienced a major improvement in their health over the study period, a third had some improvement and a third had no improvement. Putative active ingredients included the patients openness to the mind-body connection, consultational empathy, in-depth enquiry into bodily complaints, disclosure, the remedy matching process and, apparently, the homeopathic remedies themselves.

Conclusions
This study has has identified, using primary consultation and other data, a range of factors that might account for the effectiveness of homeopathic care. Some of these, such as empathy, are non-specific. Others, such as the remedy matching process, are specific to homepathy. These findings counsel against the use of placebo-controlled RCT designs in which both arms would potentially be receiving specific active ingredients. Future research in homeopathy should focus on pragmatic trials and seek to confirm or refute the therapeutic role of constructs such as patient openness, disclosure and homeopathicity.

Only Natural Pet Store

Save 30% Off All Letterhead, Brochures, Flyers, Folders

Waste Food Nation

A World Cancer Research Fund survey has found that people in the UK throw out somewhere between ten and fifty per cent of the fresh produce they bought in any one week. Statistics show that on average people throw out 194kg of organic waste per year – this is the equivalent to 2800 banana skins.

The most commonly cited reason for this was because it goes mouldy (63 per cent) or that people forget that it’s there (31 per cent).

The research was conducted as part of Cancer Prevention Week which aims to raise awareness about the importance of eating plenty of fruit and vegetables. Scientific evidence from the expert report Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective concluded that people who ate a diet rich in plant based foods can reduce their risk of cancer by up to 20 per cent. Coupled with exercise and maintaining their weight this protective factor was increased up to 40 per cent.

Eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables can also help to maintain a healthy weight. Other foods such as animal and saturated fat and alcohol are separately noted as increasing cancer risk and are also more likely to increase the likelihood of obesity. Being overweight or obese is, in itself, also a risk factor for cancer.

Karen Sadler, Head of WCRF says: “These are rather dismal findings. Not only in respect of the impact on people’s health but also on the environment. We really should make our health a priority and that means eating plenty of fruit and vegetables. What we eat really is integral to our health and the quality of our lives. Few people realise that what they eat today could have a huge impact on their risk of cancer in later life. Preventing disease is always going to be the best route to take and we need to encourage more people to follow it.”

The charity encourages people to start to make small changes to their diet. To ensure that food is not thrown away people can incorporate frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables as these all count towards the day’s portions. It is also helpful to plan menus ahead of going shopping.
The best way to add more fruit and vegetables is to existing meals – some chopped vegetables in your casseroles, curries or chillies, a salad with lunch or extra tomato and cucumber in your sandwich. Breakfast could include having a glass of juice and a banana or berries with your cereal.

Save 30% Off All Letterhead, Brochures, Flyers, Folders

I'm thinking of the changing seasons and the up-coming holiday season, so I've published an article on alcohol and seniors on Health & Goodness, and an article on what to take in a skiing survival kit on Sport & Me.

Don't forget that Vistaprint are running a sepcial offer for holiday and Christmas cards - click on the image below (on the Vistaprint site you'll need to use the dropdown menu at the top to change to your own country if you aren't in the US:

Drink more water

Drinking enough water is really important, so I love the part of the WaterAid site which reminds us how important water is. You can use the interactive form to estimate how much water you should be drinking, download a little pop up programme to remind you to drink water, and find tips and games too. It's definitely worth a visit.

All that is free, but while you're there you might like to think about making a donation to WaterAid's work in many different countries in Africa and Asia.

Snowboarding tricks

all the snowboarding tricks and terms are a mystery to me so it's good that there are people who enjoy writing about it in a way that beginners can understand and the more experienced can learn from. I've just added another article from Jakob Jelling on skidded turns and beyond to Sport & Me.

Tesco and vegetarianism

Tesco have lots of free leaflets and I've just been looking at one entitled: Understanding Vitamins.

In it I came across this:

Why might taking a supplement be beneficial? .....

Box 4. Following the latest fad diet?
* Cutting out meat, using meal replacements, or having a liquid only diet can cause problems
* Most fad diets involve cutting out foods that contain vital nutrients your body needs to work properly.

I cannot believe that Tesco consider cutting out meat as being "a fad diet"! But may be I can, apparently earler this year they billed a salad as vegetarian when it contained anchovies

yet another reason not to shop at Tesco!

This made me laugh

I hope it will make you smile too ...

A woman goes to the doctor for her yearly physical.
The nurse starts with certain basic items.
"How much do you weigh?" she asks.
"115," she says.
The nurse puts her on the scale.
It turns out her weight is 140.

The nurse asks, "Your height?"
"5 foot 8," she says.
The nurse checks and sees that she only measures 5' 5".

She then takes her blood pressure
And tells the woman it is very high.
"Of course it's high!" she screams,
"When I came in here I was tall and slender!
Now I'm short and fat!"

Going veggie

the veggie and vegan info on Health & Goodness is expanding all the time. I've just added a piece from the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation on how favourite meals can be adapted when you become veggie.

If you want something more adventurous, check out our free vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Fish Oils & Children

As many of you know I'm a long stading vegetarian, so I found this info from particularly interesting:

Clever capsules may spell disaster for kids…

The Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (VVF) is shocked and appalled on hearing plans to provide more than 5,000 year 11 school pupils in County Durham with fish oil supplements which may harm health rather than improve it. Dr Justine Butler, health campaigner for the VVF says “Our main concern is that as a result of widespread industrialisation, all the world’s oceans are polluted with toxic substances such as mercury, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – which have entered the food chain. This is why the government recommends that girls and women who might have a baby one day and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding limit their intake of oily fish to two portions per week”.

A major review by Dr Lee Hooper from the University of East Anglia published earlier this year in the British Medical Journal looked at the effects of fish oil on heart health. One study Hooper’s team reviewed showed an increased risk of heart attack in men who took fish oil capsules. Hooper’s team suggested that the harmful effects of pollutants could build up over time to increase the risk of heart problems. In other words the damaging effects of mercury, dioxins and PCBs in fish may outweigh the beneficial effects of the ‘good’ omega-3 fats.

“The fish oil supplement companies insist that these pollutants are removed during processing,” says Dr Butler “but do you want your children to take the risk? In March 2006, the fish oil supplement manufacturer Seven Seas Ltd withdrew a number of batches of its own fish oil supplements because the levels of dioxins present exceeded statutory levels, less than a month later Boots too withdrew fish oil capsules for the same reason. In both cases the government’s Food Standards Agency assured us that ‘…there is no health risk associated with consumption of this product, [although] the level of dioxins found exceeds statutory limits’. These toxic pollutants are implicated in heart disease, cancer, infertility and can harm developing foetuses. To claim there is a ‘safe’ dose is irresponsible, particularly where children are concerned”.

“The good news is you don’t have to eat neurotoxins and carcinogens to get your omega-3 fats, there are safer plant sources including flax seed (linseed), rapeseed and soya oil, walnuts and leafy green vegetables. This benefits the environment as well; flax is a sustainable crop, fish are not. About one million tons of fish oil is produced around the world each year, this is unsustainable. This experiment could lead to an environmental and health catastrophe! Instead of looking for a magic bullet to improve our kids brain power, we should be encouraging them to eat better foods – less junk and more whole grains and fresh fruit and vegetables”.

"Geopathic Stress & Subtle Energy"

my new book "Geopathic Stress & Subtle Energy" is now available!

The first book I ever wrote was called "Geopathic Stress: How Earth Energies Affect Our Lives" - this has been out of print for some time.

The new book is NOT a reprint - the old one was 39000 words, this one is 47000 words. Lots of the original book has been reorganised and rewritten, so it really is different.

When I wrote the first book in 1994 it was pre the internet (at least for me), so I had very little contact with other people working in this field. For this book I've been able to make contact and get case studies and ideas from experienced dowsers and kinesiologists.

It's been a very difficult book to write as the concepts aren't that easy to convey, but I'm really pleased with it. I hope you will like it too.

You can get the book from bookshops, online stores or direct from us at our online store at Life-Work Potential. We have a special offer running in the online store if you buy my "Allergy A to Z" at the same time.

Here's the chapter headings and some excerpts:

Introduction Chapter 1 An Overview
Chapter 2 Effects Of Geopathic Stress
Chapter 3 Electromagnetic Energies Or Subtle Energies?
Chapter 4 Sources Of Geopathic Stress
Chapter 5 Types Of Geopathic Energy
Chapter 6 How Geopathic Stress Affects The Body
Chapter 7 Individual Sensitivity
Chapter 8 Detection Of Geopathic Stress
Chapter 9 Correcting Geopathic Stress
Chapter 10 Self Help & Protection For The Individual
Chapter 11 Conclusions
Appendix 1 Man-Made Electromagnetic Pollution
Appendix 2 Sick Building Syndrome
Appendix 3 Feng Shui
Appendix 4 Earth Energy Essences
References
Useful Addresses

Excerpts:
[Page 3] Geopathic comes from two Greek words: geo means 'of the earth', and pathos means 'suffering' or 'disease'. The word 'geopathic' literally means suffering or disease of the earth. Geopathic stress (GS) is the general term for energies emanating from the earth that cause discomfort and ill health in human beings. Because of their detrimental effect, they are often known as negative earth energies.

[Page 134 ..] It is clear to me that if you asked ten different GS practitioners to assess the same property, you would be likely to get ten different analyses and ten different solutions. Surely this suggests that this is just a mental construct with no validity? Maybe to the cynic it also suggests that these people are charlatans, robbing the gullible of their money and spreading unfounded alarm. Yet if the evidence presented in this book is reviewed dispassionately, this conclusion is not so easily reached.
The predictive studies by myself (page 18) and Giulia Boden (page 19) in business settings, which identified accurately where sick people would be working are difficult to explain away. What about the challenge that I successfully met to predict where people with headaches would be sitting in a lecture theatre (page 4)? How could I have known that the man on the TV programme suffered with leg or back problems, and that someone in the house probably had migraines (page 79)? Can the sceptics explain why the local cats all stopped congregating in a garden (just as I predicted, see page 22) once the GS was fixed in the house? What do the cynics have to say about the engineer who dowsed a negative energy line in a park and then looked up and saw all the trees as far as the horizon bending away from it? (See page 24.) What about the Neutralec Neutraliser that started out life as a solution to a carpet problem, and was found unexpectedly to be beneficial for people's health? (See page 113.) The dog that suddenly stopped barking (page 15) and the cows that were healthier and produced more milk (page 22) did not know that the geopathic stress had been fixed. How can the sceptics explain the dramatic drop in motor accidents at a traffic black-spot (page 16) after some quartz pillars were placed near the road? The study by Ann and Roy Procter (page 7) allowed for the placebo effect and still produced impressive results. Alf Riggs' uncanny ability to identify exactly where a cancer would be located is difficult to explain (page 78). All this suggests that there is something going on that has some validity.

Geopathic energies challenge our current understanding of how bodies work and what affects them. Michael Shallis in The Electric Shock Book remarks:"Electricity and magnetism can be seen as the intermediary between the material world and the ethereal world, touching us physically but also linking us to other realms of the totality of creation. It is through electromagnetism that we can perceive the subtle forces that operate in those intangible regions."Including knowledge of geopathic energies in our understanding of illness requires a much more holistic view of man: one which takes into account the role of ch'i, the subtle bodies, the meridians, the chakras, yin and yang. This view of man sees the importance of harmony and balance within the body, and also between people and their environment. Some of the frameworks from quantum physics may also be useful in deepening our understanding.

These unseen energies help to remind us that we are more than just physical bodies with a mind, that we have dimensions beyond that which our normal senses can understand. We have an energy presence that can be disturbed by other energy presences, and we ignore this fact at our peril.

I like to keep fit but I've never particularly enjoyed treadmills,but I know lots of people find it a great way to get some cardiovascular workout into their day. I've put a new article on Sport & Me that explains some of the different things you can do on a treadmill (hmmm... should I rephrase that!) and what the benefits can be.

I'm still enjoying my fitness training with advice on how to start getting fit.

Business Card Design

one of the things that really bugs me is how many practitioners do not what it takes to have a successful business. They concentrate on their therapy and often leave the marketing side to take care of itself.

No wonder many practitioners aren't very successful. On My Therapy Practice I have a look of articles in the running a successful practice section designed to encourage practitioners to be more business-like.

I've just added a great one from Sean D'Souza on business card design - he writes in a humourous way but makes clear points about what is and is not good business card design.

Take a read - what he says doesn't just apply to therapists but is relevant for anyone who is thinking of having business cards made.

Core strength and your abs

I've never had a flat tum, but I'm now beginning to think I can get one that is a lot more toned which considering I'm 59 feels like a great way to be going. I have been using the Global Health & Fitness program I talked about in an earlier blog and already I can see and feel the results. My tummy is definitely more toned and I can feel the increased strength in my core muscles.

I've just posted an article on Sport & Me on the latest thinking about getting a toned tummy and in it Ainsley Laing talks about the importance of strengthening core muscles and the pelvic floor muscles in order to get a flat tummy or a six pack as the fellas like to call it.

Core muscle strength is really important for all of us, and not just from a vanity perspective. It helps to protect our backs and make every day activities easier and safer.

HRT & Hearing Problems

I recently posted an article on My Therapy Practice about HRT affecting hearing. Shortly afterwards I received this email:

Hi Jane, thanks for the article - HRT could damage hearing - at last someone has acknowledged this! I took HRT for 2 months 6 years ago when I was suffering badly with hot flushes and night sweats, it was so bad my whole life was affected, so reluctantly I tried HRT. Within 6 weeks I had lost 50% of my hearing, it was very very frightening and I felt very isolated because suddently I couldn't hear people talking in the same room. I knew it had to be something to do with HRT because nothing else had changed, but I have never been able to get anyone to admit it, and in fact my doctor more or less told me I was imagining it !! I have never regained my hearing and it has made a huge difference to my life because I have lost a great deal of my self confidence because I can't hear properly and join in conversations. Be warned other menopausal women!.Julie Smitherman

I have found the best support for the menopause isn't HRT but is Neways Wild Yam & Chaste Berry Cream. Plus, of course, it's important to have a healthy diet,take exercise and find lots of things to get engrossed in and feel enthusiastic about.

getting fit

For the last 10 or so years I've been a keen cyclist, but recently I've lost enthusiasm and I have also been losing fitness, so i decided to try the Global Health & Fitness program. The program is personalised so it doesn't matter if you are just starting out or are an experienced fitness fan.

I was amazed how cheap it was - about 20 US dollars a month, and they have a very very cheap one month trial program. Cheap it is, but the information and personal support is vast. I constantly found myself saying - how can they give me all this for so little?

I have access to a personal trainer - mine is Dani Myers and she's great :-) She always answers my emails quickly. I've asked her about protein intake for vegetarians and about how to do crunches without hurting my neck, and she's sent me detailed advice which is great. She also gives me lots of motivational support too.

I went to visit my mum recently so she told me about the part of the program for people who are travelling, and that was simple and straightforward to use.

I like the fact that all the strength and felxibility exercises come with litle onscreen videos as well as a list of do's and don'ts, so you can really check if you are doing the exercise correctly- I also fantasise about looking like the woman in the video!

There are recipes, motivational quotes, fit tip of the day and much more. It has been money totally well spent for me. Why don't you give it a try?

Frequent coughs and colds

I used to dread the winter because I would get one cold after another, with an occasional bout of flu thrown in to compound my misery. Now I hardly ever get one. What's changed? My health has changed.

I've put together an article on how to keep those dreaded coughs and colds at bay and what to do if you get one.

safety of eating meat

I am a long term vegetarian. Becoming a vegetarian for the first time over 45 years ago when I was about 12 years old. My family thought I was crazy and that I would get ill, so eventually I started eating meat again. I became a vegetarian again in my 2o's and feel that is the way we should go. I do not believe we need to eat animals to be healthy.

So I was pleased to come across the web site of the Physicians Committee For Responsible Diet. It is a nont-for-profit organisation working for preventive medicine and high ethical standards.

I have included one of their articles on the safety of eating meat on my web site Health & Goodness.

I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons - I don't think we should or need to kill animals, but this article also gives detailed selfish reasons why meat eating is a bad thing.

I hope you'll read it - particularly if you eat meat.

If you want alternatives, our vegetarian and vegan recipe section is expanding.

Strength training and weight loss

You may know that muscle weighs more than fat and that the body uses more calories to support muscle than it does fat, so increasing your muscle tone means that you need more calories to sustain you, and you will look and feel much beter. Life become easier when you are strong - carrying shopping, running up stairs are easier; loking at yourself in a mirror may become a whole lot easier too!

Here's a great article on strength training for weight management.

Read it and do it :-)

Golf in the off-season

For many golfers in the northern hemisphere their chances of playing golf are diminishing - shorter days and difficult weather conditions may make it impossible to have a game, but they don't make it impossible to improve your game of golf, so that next season you get off to a great start. Read this article that I've just publsihed on Sport & Me for suggestions on golf and the winter months.

Abundance

Some time ago I posted an article on living abundantly that I wrote myself. I've now posted another article on abundance - this time written by Michael Lee. It covers some of the same ground but offers other insights and strategies too. Abundance is easy - the difficult thing is believing t's this easy.

Snowboarding tricks for beginners

Snowboarding seems to be getting more and more popular so I've been adding articles to that section of Sport & Me. The latest tells the beginner how to do 4 basic tricks - the jump, the roast beef (strange name!!), the backside 180 and the Indy Grab. Intrigued check out this snowboarding for beginners article.

Basketball Tips

I've never watched a live basketball gamebut occsioally I come across it on the TV - it looks fast paced and exciting.

I've just added a new article to Sport & Me on how to be a better basketball player. Hope you people who love the game enjoy this basketball article!

EFT Emotional Freedom Technique

We have lots of therapists registered on our free internatonal therapist listing -over 3000 last time I looked. If you're looking for a therapist that's a good place to start, and if your a therapist it's a good place to register.

A lot of therapists use EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique so I've just posted an article on our web site that will give you some idea of what EFT is all about.

Golf and nerves

golf and nerves? they go together for a lot of people who feel very conspicuous being watched by other people. Here's some good tips for coping with nerves when playing golf - could be adapted for other sports too.

Allergy Questions & Answers

When I was a full time therapist I saw literally thousands of allergy clients. I've put together in this allergy article some of the common questions they asked me and my replies. I hope you enjoy it.

HRT & Hearing Loss

there have ben concerns about the safety of hormone replacement therapy for some time. It has been linked to increased risk of breast cancer, for example.

I'm now 58 but haven't used HRT at all. The newest research linking the use of HRT to hearing loss makes me glad I made this decision.

People ask me what I've done instead. The answer is very straight forward: I have a life that is full of projects and interests, I exercise regularly and I use Neways Wild Yam & Chaste Berry Cream (Subvene).

HRT is for people who want a pill or poion to fix their lives, rather than realising that menopause symptoms are a sign of an inbalance, not just in your hormones but in your lfe.

Are allergies on the increase?

Some sceptical people say that there isn't a real increase in allergies - it's just down to an increase in diagnosis. I am sure that to some extent this is true, but when I was young I don't remember anyone having eczema (apart from me). The situation has changed. I've posted an article on our health and happiness web site about the increase in allergy symptoms.

While you're there take a look at a self-help allergy treatment technique.

Organic Food

An article in today's UK Guardian makes depressing and interesting reading. It says that the market for organic food in the UK is growing at 30% a year (hurray) but that the big supermarkets are pressing for more realistic (!!) UK standards for organic food.

Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, says it is having to source some of its organic fod from abroad because the UK standards are too high. So if you buy your organic food from UK supermarkets, be aware that if it is imported from abroad the standard may not be what we expect. In the article it says:

"The Soil Association [that sets standards for UK organic farming] confirmed yesterday there was intensive lobbying from supermarkets to drop standards."

Read the full article.

Stress & Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a nasty complaint so I'm delighted topost this well-written articleon my web site. It's not suggetsing that people with fibromyalgia should just "pull themselves together", but it does suggest some good (and sensitive) strategies:

http://healthandgoodness.com/health/fibromyalgia_stress.html

Feed your brain to stablise moods swings and improve memory

many people are concerned about their memory as they get older. Ofen they think there's nothing that can be done about it, but this article suggests there are some lifestyle and nutrition changes that can be made to make things better:

http://www.healthandgoodness.com/health/feed_brain_memory.html

these changes are also likely to help to stabilise mdd swings, so take a peak even f you don't consider yourself 'old'!

It's easy to blame our parents

yesterday I was talking to a firend about how much we could blame our parents for the way we've turned out. The conversation really started me thinking, and today I posted a new article on the web site on just that topic.

If we accept how we are is because of our parents we can end up stuck in pain and anger. Here's my suggestions as to how to tuen that round:

http://healthandgoodness.com/ManagingLife/blaming_parents.htm

Doctors & The Drug Industry

there are many life-saving drugs, but there's also a less glamourous and reassuring side to the drug industry. Do you know that for every 15 doctors in the US there's one drug rep? That's a startling statistic - drug companies would not be spending all that money unless they expected some return.

this and other disturbing facts are in my article:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/Medical/doctors_drug_companies.html

What Kind Of Eater Are You?

more and more people are realising that dieting is not the answer, but haven't found a good alternative. There's interesting work being downe now on intuitive eating - learning to eat when you're hungry. Alice Greene has written an interesting article reviewing the other types of eaters. Knowing what you are can help you to become what you wnat to be, so check out this article:


What Kind of Eater Are You? by Alice Greene
There are so many different reasons why we struggle with food. Many of the reasons stem from what we've been told, the way we've been raised and the way we feel on a given day. It is liberating to know that the struggle isn't just because we are bad when it comes to eating well.

http://healthandgoodness.com/weightshape/what_kind_of_eater_are_you.htm

therapists, take your practice to the sun (or the snow)

I quite like it as the days get shorter and we need the heating on in the house, but I know lots of therapists hate it, so I was pleased to have this article by Deborah Marshall-Warren. I was mazed that it's possible to go and work in exotic places just for a few weeks if you want. She's written an article for our web site, and has a book that tells you even more:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/Successful_practice/therapists_practise_abroad.html

therapists, take your practice to the sun (or the snow)

I quite like it as the days get shorter and we need the heating on in the house, but I know lots of therapists hate it, so I was pleased to have this article by Deborah Marshall-Warren. I was mazed that it's possible to go and work in exotic places just for a few weeks if you want. She's written an article for our web site, and has a book that tells you even more:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/Successful_practice/therapists_practise_abroad.html

Losing weight and getting fit

Whatever the time of year there's always lots of people who want to lose wight and get fit. A lot of these people are looking for quick fix solutions, but the people who succeed in the long term know they need to take one day ata time. Here's a really good article on this theme that I've posted on one of my web sites:

Health & Fitness Is Not A 12 Week Program by Tom Venuto
You can avoid the on and off, yo-yo cycle of fitness ups and downs. You can get in great shape and stay in great shape. You can even get in shape and keep getting in better and better shape year after year, but it's going to take a very different philosophy than most people subscribe to.

Read the full article:

http://healthandgoodness.com/exercise/fitness_not_12_weeks.html

Vaccination Information

Lots of therapists are concerned about vaccination and PLOS Medicine have published two interesting articles this month, so I'm really pleased to use the editors' summaries for this on my site. I've put links to the full more academic articles so that people who wnat more info can check it out. The two articles are:

Frequency of Adverse Events after Vaccination with Different Vaccinia Strainsby Mirjam Kretzschmar et alSmallpox vaccination has some adverse effects, occasionally infecting the brain. As smallpox became rarer, the dangers of vaccination began to outweigh its benefits. Now, however, there are fears that smallpox may be used for bioterrorism.
http://www.mytherapypractice.com/bugs_drugs_allergies/vaccination_smallpox.htm

Reduced Antibody Responses to Vaccinations in Children Exposed to Polychlorinated Biphenylsby Carsten HeilmannThe developing immune system may be damaged in some babies by exposure both before birth and after birth through breast milk to “immunotoxicants” such as polychlorinated biphenyls. This has implications for childhood vaccination programs.
http://www.mytherapypractice.com/bugs_drugs_allergies/vaccination_PCBs.html

Organic Cotton Clothing

it has been estimated that 25% of the world's insecticides are used on cotton crops. When I first heard that figure I was appalled. We eat a lot of orgnaic food so I'd assumed that the pesticide thing was pretty much taken care of... but hey I love cotton clothes.

So I was delighted to find the Seasalt brand in a local shop. Fashionable clothes made from organic cotton. In fact I spotted a top that I really liked and only then did I find out it was made from organic cotton. I'm sure there's lots of people wearing Seasalt stuff who don't care about the environment but just like the clothes, but I do so I'm really glad to be able to buy stylish well-made stuff that doesn't cost the earth (in either way).

If you're not lucky enough to live near a shop that sells Seasalt products, you can buy them online at http://www.seasaltorganic.co.uk

Lysozyme, Diarrhoea, Tooth Decay & Cleanliness

One of the things I really enjoy is linking different pieces of info together and (hopefully) providing a more coherent picture. I've tried to do this with some old research and some recent research on the digestive enzyme lysozyme:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/Medical/lysozyme.html

Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes

our vegan abd vegetarian recipes are proving popular so I'm hoping to add lots more over the next few months.

I've just added one for a spicy, hot chick pea recipe. I'm a great fan of chick peas. If you are too, have a look at this and our other recipes:

http://healthandgoodness.com/nutritiondiet/recipes_index.html

How Can You Build Your Child's Self Esteem

Well, back from a rain soaked cycling trip (North Sea to the Alps - 12 days riding and it rained on 9 days and we were camping!!!). It's good to be back in the office and looking after my web sites again.

Although my children are now grown up, I still have an interest in how we can help youngsters lead happy and positive lives, so I am delighted to post this sensible article by Deanne Mascle on http://www.healthandgoodness.com :

How Can You Build Your Child's Self Esteem? by Deanna MascleAs parents we know that building our child's sense of self esteem is important. There is no simple strategy but there are several effective techniques parents can use to help boost self esteem in their child.

Deanna suggests 7 sensible, do-able techniques. If you're involved with chidlren do take a look:

http://healthandgoodness.com/babieschildren/build_childs_self_esteem.html

Giving up smoking

I used to smoke 40-50 cigarettes a day and I'm passionate now about the health ebenfits of not smoking. There's already several articles in the health section of http://www.healthandgoodness.com on smoking and health, and I've just added a new one tonight. Jonty is an ex-smoker and in this article he looks at the reasons to give up:

If you’re a smoker, you’re probably sick to death of the anti-cigarette lobby spinning out the same old lines about how you’re damaging your body and health. You’re not an idiot, you know all these facts.
to continue: http://healthandgoodness.com/health/why_stop_smoking.html

What To Do If Your Child Is Overweight

Sadly a lot of children are now overweight. Here's some sound advice from Jim O'neill on what to do about it:

http://healthandgoodness.com/babieschildren/child_overweight.html

Summer Fruit Smoothies

It's really hot here at the moment and there's lots of wonderful fruit around, so it's definitely time to make some smoothies. Here's some great advice from Kit Heathcock on how to do just that:

http://healthandgoodness.com/nutritiondiet/recipe_fruit_smoothies.html

Walking A Marathon

In 2001 I did the London marathon. I'd never done much running before, and looking back it was a silly thing to have done. Inevitably I pushed myself in training and so injured myself 3 weeks before the big day. I still "ran" the marathon but was in pain from about 2 miles in. I spent part of the time halucinating I was up a mountain because I was in so much pain!!

I've often wished I'd done it as a walking marathon rather than a running marathon. I don't think I would have been much slower and I would have enjoyed the training and the event a whole lot more.

If that idea appeals to you, I've just published an article on how to prepare to walk a marathon:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/walking/guide/walking_marathon.html

happy walking!

Biochemic Tissue Salts

When my children were little and not well, they often said: “I want some magic tablets.” The ‘magic tablets’ got their nickname because of how quickly they dissolved on the tongue, and how soon they made my children feel better.

I really rate these gentle remedies for harrassed mums and dads, so I've just put a pice about them on www.healthandgoodness.com:

http://healthandgoodness.com/babieschildren/biochemic_tissue_salts.htm

Ethical Health

I'm really excited to be associated with www.ethical-junction.org. The site is undergoing a major revamp and I am sponsoring the health section. As well as this, I will be contributing to their newsletter - my first article is entitled "What is ethical health", being a moderator on the health forum and lots more.

I am delighted that the guys behind Ethical Junction recognise how well our beliefs and business practices coincide. This is how they describe what they do:

"Our Network provides information on positively screened ethical companies, organisations, products and services, linking you through to the ethical, environmental and sustainability markets."

Am I Drinking Enough Water?

It's very hot in England at the moment. Over the weekend John and I cycled on our tandem from our home in Penzance to Fowey, camped for the night and then cycled back. The round trip was over 100 miles. Because it was so hot I was really aware of how much I needed to drink a lot of water, but even when it's not hot and we're not exercising water is still very important. I was talking about it this morning to someone who didn't know how to tell if she was drinking enough water, so I have written an article for her and for people like her:

http://healthandgoodness.com/nutritiondiet/drinking_enough_water.html

Confidence

I've added a new confidence section to Health & Goodness. In general I have lots of confidence, but I know many people don't, so if you are one of these people take a look at thios new section:

http://healthandgoodness.com/symptoms/symptom_confidence.html

Kids & Exercise

I wish I'd done more to encourage my kids to take exercise when they were young, so I'm delighted to include this article on http://www.sportandme.com on taking your kids hiking:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/common/children/hiking_with_kids.html

we need to get kids doing more to avoid the obesity epidemic that is developing!

Professional Web Sites For Therapists

I wrote an article on http://www.mytherapypractice.com/ about a great web site design and hosting package for therapists:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/Successful_practice/web_site_package.htm

Maura Barry of Ireland is one of the first to take advantage of this. Her web site is http://www.green-healing.com/, and here's what she told me in an email:

"I found it extremely easy to set up and the help from Michael was fantastic,
he always answered my questions and was extremely nice to deal with. He
helped me through the whole process.

"I would also like to thank you for bringing the package to my attention as I
is extremely expensive to set up a website and difficult when you are not
computer friendly but this was amazingly easy and inexpensive."

I'm really pleased that she's so pleased!

Triathlons

as many of you know I'm a keen cyclist - I rode across America on my bike two years ago! Once I did a novice triathlon - swim, bike and run. I enjoyed it but have never repeated it.

It's interetsing to read in the paper that triathlons are the "in" sport now, so I've been putting more articles on this demanding sport on http://www.sportandme.com.

The latest one is "Ironman Triathlon-Run Equipment Choices" by Ray Fauteux. He offers lots of excellent, down-to-earth advice for the novice traithlete.

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/triathlon/guide/ironman_equipment.html

Golf and weight training

I've never understood the delights of playing golf - I prefer to go out on my bike - but I know there are lost of epople who do, so I've posted another golf article on http://www.sportandme.com:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/golf/guide/golf_weight_training.html

Water Rowers

Some ears ago I bought a water rower, and it really is great. Close your eyes and think you'r eon a river.

Antony Wilton agrees with me, so I've included his article "Water Rower, Like A Cruise Down The River Without Getting Wet" on http://www.sportandme.com:

http://www.sportandme.com/docs/sports/rowing/guide/water_rower.html

emotions and biology

I've just posted two interesting articles by Tom Harrison on http://www.mytherapypractice.com:

Depression & Obesity Go Hand in Hand
by Tom Harrison
People who are "fat but happy" are likely the exception rather than the rule. Read more on this at:
http://www.mytherapypractice.com/psychology_emotions/depression_obesity.html

and

Early Childhood Neglect Leaves Biological Mark
Children who are deprived of a loving caregiver in their early years may experience abnormal activity of vasopressin and oxytocin, two hormones essential to forming social bonds and achieving emotional intimacy. Here's the full article:

http://www.mytherapypractice.com/psychology_emotions/early_childhood_neglect.htm