Alternative
28 Days to a Healthier Relationship
Where is the love?
You’ve tamed the laundry, hit a home run at work, and dished up a family dinner. Forget anything? Oh, right—your partner!
It’s easy to simply co-exist with the person next to you in bed. But a rise in “gray” divorce (couples over 50 calling it quits) suggests that neglecting your relationship is a bad idea.
Isn’t it time to add a little love to your to-do list? Try these 28 libido-boosting ideas.
No Benefit Seen in Delaying Infant Vaccinations
The issue has been especially persistent when it comes to autism, which some believe is tied to vaccines, although numerous studies have discounted such a link.
However, a study published online May 24 in the journal Pediatrics finds no neurological benefit to delaying immunizations during the first year of life.
Researchers at the University of Louisville analyzed the health records of more than 1,000 children. After comparing the kids’ performance on 42 neuropsychological tests between the ages of 7 and 10 against the timeliness of vaccination during the first year of life, the researchers found no evidence that delaying vaccines gave children any advantage in terms of brain development.
“Our study shows that there is only a downside to delaying vaccines, and that is an increased susceptibility to potentially deadly infectious diseases,” said lead researcher Dr. Michael J. Smith, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “We hope these findings will encourage more parents to vaccinate according to the American Academy of Pediatrics schedule, and reassure them that they’re making a safe choice when they do so.”
Smith said the study is the first to evaluate the long-term neuropsychological impacts of multiple vaccinations received in the first seven months of life. In the past few years, more and more parents are asking their pediatricians for an alternative vaccine schedule, “but we found that nobody had really looked at whether there are any advantages to delaying vaccines,” he said.
Using publicly available records collected for a previous study of exposure to the vaccine preservative thimerosal, Smith and co-author Dr. Charles Woods reviewed the immunization records of 1,047 children born between 1993 and 1997, as well as their performance on 42 in-depth neuropsychological tests taken between 2003 and 2004. Children were classified as up-to-date if they had received at least two hepatitis B, three diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP), three Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) and two polio vaccines on time during the first seven months of life. A vaccine was considered on time if it was given within 30 days of the recommended age.
The developmental tests included assessments of speech and language, fine motor coordination, behavior regulation, general intellectual functioning and other abilities.
Two separate analyses were performed. In the first, children with timely receipt of vaccination were compared to all other children in the study who had delays in receipt of one or more doses. In a second analysis, children who received the maximum number of vaccines in the first seven months of life were compared to those who received the fewest vaccines in the study group.
In both analyses, the researchers found no evidence to suggest that multiple vaccines in the first year of life negatively impact a child’s cognitive abilities later. In fact, the first analysis revealed that children who received all their vaccines on time performed slightly better on two of the 42 tests, after adjustment for familial and socioeconomic factors. Kids who missed or were late on one or more doses of vaccine didn’t do better on any test.
Vaccine expert Dr. Gary L. Freed, director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan Health System, said he wasn’t surprised by the findings, since “there’s never been any evidence whatsoever that delaying vaccines does any good for any child.” And the reason children receive so many vaccines at such young ages is because “the life-threatening diseases that they protect against are most likely to attack at these ages,” he said.
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19 COPD Healthy Eating Tips
People with COPD often have trouble preparing foods and eating. The following tips can make eating easier and help you get necessary nutrition. However, if you have other health problems that may restrict the foods you can eat, talk with your health professional or a registered dietitian before making changes in your diet.
Make eating easier
* Choose foods that are easy to prepare.
* Eat in a relaxed atmosphere.
* Eat with friends and family.
* If you eat a main meal, try to eat it early. This way, you will have energy throughout more of the day.
* Try to include a favorite food in your meals.
Avoid shortness of breath while eating
* Stop smoking. It is never too late to quit smoking. No matter how long you have had COPD or how serious it is, quitting smoking will help slow the disease and improve your quality of life.
* Use medications that make breathing easier and/or clear your airways about 1 hour before eating.
* Rest before eating if eating makes you short of breath or tired.
* Eat while sitting up. This helps remove pressure on your lungs.
* If you use oxygen, use it while eating. Eating and digestion require energy, which causes your body to use more oxygen.
* Eat six small meals each day instead of three large ones so that your stomach is never extremely full. A full stomach can interfere with breathing by pushing on the diaphragm.
* Drink your beverage at the end of the meal. Drinking before or during the meal can fill you up more quickly.
* Avoid or eat only small amounts of gas-forming foods (they bloat the abdomen and make breathing difficult). These include onions, cauliflower, broccoli, melons, peas, corn, cucumbers, cabbage, brussels sprouts, turnips, raw apples, and beans (except green beans). Fried and greasy foods can also cause gas or bloating.
* Eat and chew slowly so you are less likely to become short of breath. Try putting your spoon or fork down between bites to slow your eating speed.
* If you have a hard time breathing in the morning, do not skip breakfast. Drink a liquid breakfast or nutritional supplement.
Eat healthy foods
* Eat a varied diet. Eat fruits and vegetables, dairy products, cereal and grains, and meats.
* Avoid foods that are difficult to chew.
* Use less salt. Too much salt can cause you to retain fluids, which may interfere with your breathing.
o Use herbs or no-salt spices to flavor your foods.
o Don’t add salt to foods while cooking.
o Buy packaged foods low in salt.
* Don’t waste energy consuming foods with little nutritional value, such as potato chips, candy bars, and soft drinks.
Health Advantages of Birkenstock Shoes, Sandals and Clogs
Birkenstock shoes are the best way to practice good foot health and prevent foot ailments and pain down the road. Birkenstocks let the feet rest in a natural and proper alignment; this means total comfort for feet and body, not to mention the durability and the famous foot bed…unmatched by no other.
With over 200 years perfecting this foot bed, your feet will sit in perfect alignment.
The heel area is ample, as is the toe box, offering plenty of wiggle room where you need it. Birkenstocks are excellent for the relief of heel pain and discomfort. Your heel pain will lesson and eventually stop.The more you wear your Birkenstocks, the more comfortable they will feel.
As mentioned, the Birkenstock footbed molds to the shape your your foot, so the longer you wear your them, the more comfortable they will become. You will make this foot bed your own and if someone else tries on your shoes, they will not feel nearly as comfortable. You will have molded the footbed for yourself alone. Your footbed will be your footprint.
The foot beds are made of cork and leather mix allowing you plenty of ‘give’ as you walk with full support and comfort. The foot bed material also creates the perfect environment against sweat and fungus.
The Birkenstock uppers are made mostly of soft leather, suede, nubuk, or select man-made materials. They will never cause you painful rubbing or chafing. Birkenstock soles are created to absorb impact. They will reduce stress on your feet, heels, arches, ankles, legs and spine. Whichever Birkenstock style you choose, you will get all of these benefits of two hundred years of Birkenstock refinement in every single shoe they offer and every step you take.
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More and more alternative health doctors these days consider a cholesterol level between 200 and 300
More and more alternative health doctors these days consider a cholesterol level between 200 and 300 to be within the normal range. Once it’s above 300, the elevated levels are simply a sign that protective measures must be looked into to fix whatever is getting ready to break.
HDL is the good cholesterol, and is needed for your body to function properly. It helps keep the bad cholesterol, LDL, from sticking in your arteries and causing blockages. In fact, recent studies show that no matter what your LDL is, as long as your HDL is in the proper range, your cholesterol will not stick to your arteries. Still, it’s best to keep your LDL as low as possible.
I remember a few years ago, my doctor put me on a statin because my cholesterol was 203. Within 2 months it had dropped to 144 and he took me off the statins right away: my numbers were now too low, he said. Nowadays, my numbers are hovering around 203-206 and he still wants me on a statin, but I refuse to take one, now that I know what’s really going on.
In all actuality, the total cholesterol number is not nearly as important as the actual HDL and LDL numbers. An HDL cholesterol between 40 and 60 mg/dL or higher and an LDL cholesterol of 150 mg/dL or lower is considered good.
The hardest thing to do, it seems, for many people is to raise the good HDL. There are, however, quite a few ways to do this:
1) Aerobic Exercise – any exercise that raises your heart rate for 20-30 minutes helps raise HDL. For example, walking, jogging or bike riding. You should exercise at least 3-5 times a week. Not only does this help your HDL levels, but it also keeps your joints lubricated and keeps you moving freely and without pain. If you ever have to struggle to get up in the morning or even to get out of a chair, you need more aerobic exercise.
2) Lose Weight – Excess weight raises your bad LDL cholesterol. Losing the weight will automatically raise your good HDL.
3) Stop Smoking – this will also raise your good HDL levels.
4) Cut out trans fatty acids. Notice I didn’t say cut out saturated fats. Saturated fats don’t hurt your HDL levels, but trans fats do. Any food label that says it contains “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” should be avoided. Trans fatty acids not only raise the bad LDL, but also lower the good HDL.
5) Increase monounsaturated fats – Monounsaturated fats such as canola oil, avocado oil, or olive oil and in the fats found in peanut butter can increase HDL cholesterol levels without increasing the total cholesterol.
Makeup Tips
Makeup Tips
When you are purchasing makeup you should choose colors that compliment your skin tone. Majority of people look better in soft, neutral tones rather than dark colors. Especially if you have a fair complexion, dark colors can be a bad choice. The tips in this article will be general in nature so that they can be adapted regardless of skin tone.
- If you want your lips to appear larger than they are, wear a bright, light lipstick. If you want to give them a smaller appearance wear a darker, muted color.
- If you have oily skin, you can turn your foundation into a medicated one. Simply add a drop of witch hazel (available in drug stores) to the foundation before applying.
- When wearing fake eyelashes, apply mascara to your real ones first. This will help the fake ones stick properly.
- In order to make your foundation and concealer last all day, brush loose powder over face and neck.
- To remove excess oil without damaging your makeup, use facial oil-blotting sheets.
- For a natural look for the daytime, mix SPF moisturizer with your foundation before applying.
- To achieve a brighter, wider eye look, curl lashes with an eyelash curler before applying mascara.
- When you have dark eye circles, apply concealer to the outer corner of the eye.
- To prevent lipstick from getting on your teeth, put your finger in your mouth (after lipstick is applied), purse lips and pull out your finger.
- To get the maximum results from your makeup, start with your skin. A great skin care regimen will give you healthier skin. Healthy skin is the greatest foundation for makeup!
There are some tips for caring for makeup that you should be aware of as well. Blush and powder can last up to two years. Foundation, eye shadow, and lipstick should be replaced yearly. Mascara is only good for two months before needing to be replaced. You should store all cosmetics in a cool, dry place that is away from excessive heat and moisture. makeup brushes and sponges should be washed monthly. Be sure that they fully dry before using them again. Make sure when you experiment with your makeup that you have fun and enjoy yourself.
What is Flower Therapy?
What is Flower Therapy?
Flowers are one of nature’s true beauties, and a lot of people maintain that just the sight of the beautiful bouquet of roses can bring healing smile to a person’s face. Even still, this is one of those situations where there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, and flower therapy strives to use flowers in a very different way to promote the body’s ability to cast out negative emotion, and keep itself in a state of peace.
Virtually every breed of plant that has a flower contains special chemicals within the flower’s bud. In nature, these chemicals serve a variety of purposes, from helping ward off herbivores that might eat the buds before they’ve reached maturity, to helping pollinating insects to do their job in propagating the species.
These chemicals usually come in the form of essential oils, and when we’re talking about flower therapy, these oils are what we are generally after. When we dilute the oils, but we’re left with is an organic solution that can be used as a fully natural homeopathic solution for human problems; one that works in much the same way that aromatherapy does.
Through the use of flower therapy, we can actually begin to target specific negative emotions that the patient may not even realize have begun to manifest over a prolonged period of time. A lot of people carry around negative baggage with them without even realizing it, because they’ve become so used to feeling a certain way, and can’t imagine a situation where they might feel differently.
The diversity of the plants that are available to us for use allows us to target particular emotions that may be troubling you, and through a combination of meditative therapy, and the careful inhalation of solutions that are derived from the essences of plants in nature, you can begin to analyze what’s really troubling you beneath the surface. Through process of elimination, specially trained therapists can give you what you need to cast out those doubtful feelings and emotions that are hindering your quality of life.
The diversity of human emotion than most people are capable of rivals the selection of flowers in nature, and in the field of flower therapy, this is given rise to a very in-depth medical science dedicated to recognizing the physical signs of underlying emotions that people may be feeling, regardless of whether or not they realize that they’re there.
What is Crystal Healing?
What is Crystal Healing?
Our current understanding of physics teaches us that all matter in existence is made up of energy. Light is made up of certain wavelengths, and everything with mass is made up of small particles, which includes the human body and the energy that flows through it.
Each type of particle that exists has a certain frequency on which it vibrates. This is something that ancient holistic medicine has in common with modern science teachings; no part of the human body is ever still.
Experts in crystal healing maintain the belief that certain types of illnesses come about because of imbalances in the body that have occurred. They have learned over the years that there is nothing unique about the vibrational frequency of the matter in the human body, and in that there are also many elements that can be found in nature that share these vibrational patterns.
Different types of crystal, for example, are said by proponents of crystal healing to have the same energetic properties as certain key energy points on the body.
In much the same way that placing different audio speakers together that are playing the same thing can cause an increase in the volume of the sound through harmonious wave amplification, placing a certain type of crystal that shares the frequency of vibration that a certain part of the body does that may be suffering from some sort of illness can enhance the natural vibrations of that area.
Crystals, in this sense, act as a guiding beacon to enhance the flow of natural energies through parts of the body that may be experiencing weakness, and over time this crystal healing and help to restore physical strength.
People who have under gone this type of holistic treatment have reported strange sensations after spending some time with the special healing crystals in contact with their bodies. It’s almost as though they’re suddenly aware of their pulse, but only in the area that the stone is physically touching. This is quite strange, since we are typically unable to feel our beating pulse by itself.
Experts in the field of crystal healing would say that this is the feeling of circulation that is enhancing and improving at a rate that the body is not used to. It’s a good sign that the persons natural vibrational energies are being restored to a normal state.
Healing by means of crystals can also have a profound effect on the patient’s mental state. Mental blockages can be much more difficult to diagnose than physical ones, since they don’t always manifest themselves in a way that’s immediately apparent to someone that isn’t sensitive to them.
Still, crystal healing can provide a means for patients to come into a state of renewed mental clarity, and afterward they may have an easier time doing away with bad habits that cost them in the past.
What is Myofascial Release?
What is Myofascial Release?
Massage therapy is a very broad field of therapeutic medicine, and there are a variety of techniques that are all generally aimed at the overall goal of loosening the soft tissue of the body, since that is often where people are known to carry the stress of their lives.
People with busy, action-packed lives often experience pain in the joints, or in the major muscle groups of the neck, back, or legs and they don’t always have a full understanding of exactly why.
Over time, tension in these critical areas can mount up to the point of actually feeling a sports injury, even though the victims of this pain may not necessarily be active people.
One of the best solutions is to use physical stimulation to get the muscles and surrounding tissue to relax as much as possible, and myofascial release is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this quickly.
This type of massage therapy differs from a typical deep tissue massage in two important ways. First, while massaging the muscle tissue itself is always important, myofascial release directly targets the fascia, which is the connective material that links different types of tissue together within the body.
The reason why this type of tissue is targeted is because of its direct relationship with surrounding muscle groups. Muscle tension that builds of the distress causes an unnatural contraction of the muscle fibers, which can lead to painful inflammation of the surrounding connective fibers.
Applying pressure to the fascia allows a sufficient amount of blood flow to return to the area, which can help to stave off inflammation. This will simultaneously cause muscles in the general area of focus to relax, and will also have a positive effect on the body’s nervous system.
Sometimes this can be much more effective than trying to exert force on the muscles themselves, which might have a tendency to tense up even more as a natural resistance reaction, and that’s counterproductive to the goals of the therapy session.
In addition to this, people suffering from inflammatory conditions that affect tissues outside of the muscles, known as fibrosis, require this type of indirect stimulation in order to get any results at all out of a massage therapy session.
The second difference is that a typical therapy session usually involves a variety of different pressures and positions designed to stretch the muscle tissue out, and get it to relax. Myofascial release, on the other hand, usually involves the therapist pinpointing the most concentrated area of stress muscle tissue, and pressing down with a steady and relatively hard amount of force.
Even if it begins to become a little uncomfortable for the person undergoing treatment, the pressure is maintained. This can lead to feelings of temporary tension immediately following these types of therapy sessions, although people that experience these side effects should not be concerned.
After a good night’s rest, the feeling of extra tension should subside, and you’ll be left with what feels like a brand new body.
Low-Temperature Regimen in Summer
Low-Temperature Regimen in Summer
The weather is getting hotter and we have taken off these heavy coats. At the same time, we added a variety of cold drinks to the purchasing list. Apples will remain fresh if we store them in the refrigerator. What about people? Can we keep “fresh” if we stay in the refrigerator? Although it is just a joke, “low-temperature regimen” is a magic key in the traditional Chinese medicine. We can have a try from some details in May, a period between spring and summer.
The purpose of low-temperature regimen is to keep the temperature of body at a rather low level, so as to decrease the rate of cell metabolism, which can further defer aging.
Life activities of people follow the consumption law of “life energy” to operate. A person’s life energy is limited, and once it runs out, it means that we are almost at the end of life. Therefore, faster our life energy is consumed, shorter our lifetime will be. Low-temperature regimen can control the consumption rate of life energy, which can gradually prolong people’s lifetime. This why people living in the cold zone live longer than those living in the tropical zone, and their average life expectancy is 10 to 30 years longer. Georgia is a Asian country with a small population of only 5 million people. However, the number of people who is 100 years old or older exceeds 2,000 and all of them benefit from the low-temperature living environment.
When we cook food, pay attention to control the cooking temperature. If possible, lower the cooking temperature properly.
Do you know that polycyclic aromatic cancerogen will occur when the cooking temperature of fish or meat reaches 250 degrees? What is more, do you know that the content of acrylamide will increase dramatically when the cooking temperature of starchy food like bread and cake reaches 120 degrees.
Low temperature can reduce the risk of cancerogen occurring in the process of high-temperature cooking. Besides, it can reduce 33% to 40% harmful substances during high-temperature cooking, which can induce atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke and other fatal diseases. At the same time, low temperature can help preserve vitamins and other nutrients in food to the utmost extent. However, if food is not organic or grow without farm chemical, it is not advised to cook food with low temperature. Food we eat every day may have some residual bacteria or parasites, and some larvae of parasites can survive for at least 5 minutes in the environment of above 70 degrees. Low temperature can hardly kill them.
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