Saturday, April 26, 2008

5 Ways Your Home Is Making You Sick

Your home should be an oasis; a safe place where you go to relax at the end of a long work day, where you spend time with your loved ones, and where you rest and recharge each night as you sleep. But the very place you go to seek comfort and peace may actually be making you sick. As Americans embrace green products, we need to look at not only our eco-footprint, but also how to make our homes natural, healthy havens.

1. Toxic Cleaning Products-– For generations we’ve been told that a clean home is a healthy home but one check in your cleaning closet will likely reveal a host of chemicals. You think you’re doing your family a favor by using anti-bacterial wipes and disinfectant sprays but did you know those products contain pesticides? Furniture polish can contain silicone, butane gas and propane. And think of it, kids, by the very nature of their size and because they put everything in their mouths and are always, are especially vulnerable to these chemicals.

Look at the labels on cleaning products and choose ones with ingredients that you can pronounce. There are a growing number of non-toxic brands on the market and most supermarkets now carry at least one type of natural cleaning product. Make your own natural cleaners using basic ingredients like baking soda, vinegar and tea tree oil. Not only will they clean just as well as the store bought products, but they’ll smell better and save you money.

2. Unhealthy Bedding-– You get under the covers and lay your head down on your pillow each night but did you know that your bedroom can be filled with formaldehyde, which outgases harmful VOC's? Formaldehyde is released from everyday household furnishings and bedding like drapery, bed linens and upholstery, and has been known to cause wheezing, allergic reactions and even serious illness.

Replace old bedding with organic linens, get rid of ‘wrinkle-free’ and other sheets with synthetic additives and get organic cotton sheets. You can also find organic mattresses covers made from natural raw ingredients that will provide an allergen barrier.

3. Poor Indoor Air Quality-– The EPA lists indoor air quality as one of the top 5 environmental health risks the U.S. faces today.

The simplest way to improve the air quality is to open windows and let the fresh air in! Unfortunately, sometimes-- like in the winter -- that’s not an option. What you can do is get an air purifier with a HEPA filter. There are many different models including portable ones that can remove dust, pollens, dander, odors, chemical vapors and more. Also, replace your furnace air filters regularly.

4. Non-filtered Drinking and Bath Water-- Chlorine, parasites, and heavy metals may be in your drinking and bath water. Research has shown that chlorine and its assorted byproducts have been linked to serious illnesses like colon and bladder cancer. Most people don’t realize that they can also expose themselves to these contaminants while bathing.

The best way to ensure clean tap water is to install a whole house water filter. For a relatively small investment of under a thousand dollars, you can buy a reverse osmosis water filter system that will make the water from your tap cleaner than bottled water. Another option is installing separate shower head filters and faucet water filters. For either a whole house system or separate shower and countertop water filters, you need to change cartridges on a regular basis.

5. Electromagnetic Radiation-- Electricity in our homes and offices is such a part of modern day life that we don't even think it. Cooking, cleaning, watching TV, faxing, printing, everyday we rely on its convenience. But at what cost? The price we pay extends well beyond money. The more costly price is our health.

Electrical current speeding through miles of wires in our home and office walls creates electromagnetic fields (EMFs). These fields significantly disrupt the sensitive signals with which our brains and nervous systems communicate.

Scientific studies have shown that by reducing electromagnetic radiation from the bedroom, people slept better and even healed faster. Potential sources of electromagnetic radiation include building wiring, and electric appliances like alarm clocks. There are tests that can be performed to find out what circuit breakers and/or electric appliances need to be de-energized to reduce electromagnetic radiation.

Some ways to reduce electromagnetic radiation in your bedroom are to remove or unplug TV’s and radios before going to bed, and to switch to a battery operated alarm clock. You can also turn off the circuit breakers to the bedroom each night.

Author Resource: How healthy is your home? Find out at http://www.greennest.com/quiz/healthy_home.html. Get FREE healthy home tips at http://greennest.namasteinteractive.com/sweeps3_holiday/subscribe.htm Lisa and Ron Beres are Building Biologists, Certified Green Building Professionals and founders of http://www.GreenNest.com

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Put An End To Pain And Suffering Naturally

There’s a new extract on the block that helps in reducing inflammation and joint pain. This herb, which is made up of Korean angelica and related species, has been extremely popular in parts of Asia for those conditions for which most Americans would take aspirin or another NSAID. This herb has at least one advantage over most of its natural alternative competition, it is an analgesic, so it offers some degree of direct pain relief and may also help in protecting the brain against some issues associated with aging.

Inflammation and joint pain commonly strike at some point or another, but how common is it really? Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent arthritic condition and can be found in about 90 percent of all individuals over the age of 40. This condition often becomes troublesome in the mid-to-late 60s. Twenty million individuals in the US alone currently suffer from some significant osteoarthritic symptoms.

The millions of individuals who suffer from joint problems have a lot more options than were available even twenty years ago, as in the last century there were only a few nutritional solutions that were available to address osteoarthritis. Asprin was a great drug when it was first introduced at the end of the nineteenth century but important developments over the last few years have proven that osteoarthritis does not have to be a part of normal aging.

There are a few items that are commonly recommended for joint health; however, they do not carry a direct analgesic effect. These include: glucosamine and chondroitin, which is found in various forms and increases the rate of repair of joint tissues; SAMe, which shows anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects, and increased rate of repair in joint tissue; silicon, which improves formation of extracellular matrix components and increases the rate of collagen and cartilage formation; vitamin C, which reduces the risk of progression of osteoarthritis; omega-3 fatty acids, which are most active as an anti-inflammatory; bromelain and other proteolytic enzymes, which reduce pain and inflammation; devil’s claw extract and boswellia extract, which act as anti-inflamamtories; and MSM, which improves cartilage repair and may also lead to reduced pain.

Korean angelica is an alternative to various other natural solutions for maintaining joint health, but is also a good addition to the above. This extract was traditionally used as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory preparation in order to relieve joint discomfort and bruising and has been used in Eastern medicine for over a thousand years. This extract is good in helping to control pain, but even better in helping to control inflammation that is at the root of joint pain. Korean angelica also demonstrated the ability to relieve symptoms of acute and chronic pain up to three times better than leading pain medication.

This herb is a newly available natural alternative approach to reducing pain in general along with excessive inflammation. Although this is great news for joint health, the benefits do not end just with the joints. There are no issues or problems for the gastrointestinal tract, unlike those found in NSAIDs. Long term use along with success in combining this herb with other ingredients shows continued performance. All of these facts on Korean angelica make it a great choice for joint and cartilage health and more.

Author Resource: More information on herbal angelica root is available at VitaNet ®, LLC Health Food Store. http://vitanetonline.com/

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Friday, April 25, 2008

Medication For Your Back Pain, Know What You Take

If you suffer from back pain the one thing you want as quick as possible is pain relief. The level of pain felt will vary between persons, it all depends on the pain tolerance a person has but also on what the cause of the back pain is. Most often you can treat the pain with medication like naproxen or ibuprofen. These are so called non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drugs. One of the biggest problems with these NSAIDs is that you can get potential side effects like increased risk of heart attack or stroke and/or gastrointestinal bleeding.

When you're looking for medication witch don't have these side effects maybe COX-2 inhibitors are an option. At this moment they haven't shown any negative side effects on the gastrointestinal system. Testing, however, is still continuing because the long term safety still has to be determined. Long term usage of non-sterodial anti-inflammatory drugs can have the increasing potential of gastrointestinal and/or kidney damage. The verdict on COX-2 is still out until the research on long term use is done and the effects are known to us.

Although most of the over the counter drugs don't have the same strength as NAIDs, Acetaminophen has shown some successes as pain medication when it comes to reducing the discomfort of having a back pain, and this all without having the many side effects NIADs have. When muscle spasm is the main cause of the pain there are only a few options in pain medications that can reduce the pain.

Drowsiness is the cause of pain medication

The most prescribed drugs, which are part of a persons back pain medication, are muscle relaxers. About 30% of those users have reported that they become extremely drowse when they take them. Muscle relaxers also have not proved to be very effective against muscle spasms even when they are used together with NAIDs no there was no real benefit shown. Muscle relaxers may be more effective then a placebo but the effects physicians have seen they have on alertness makes them very reluctant to prescribe them.

When a person has acute back pain, in some cases, an opiate medication may be prescribed only they have certain side effects you will have to take in to account. These side effects are sedation, clouded judgement, nausea and not in the least the high potential for addiction. Therefor you will never be allowed to take this type of medication for more then a few days. Constipation is one of the most heard of complaint. All though opiate medication or narcotics as pain medication is very effective for pain relieve they will not help to reduce any of the healing time.

No benefit has been shown of oral steroids being a good medication for back pain and there is also no benefit if taken as an injection in the back or as epidural. When used on sciatica they have been successful but without sciatica it's not known to give any relief as a back pain medication.

Author Resource: Richard Collins knows about back pain first hand. He has seen all kinds of doctors and done all kinds of therapies. On his blog at http://www.gottabackpain.com he talks about what can be done to alleviate the pain.

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Saturday, April 19, 2008

Chair Massage For You

Chair Massage is what you've been looking for whether you know it or not. You've been looking for a healthy and environmentally conscious way to reward employees while improving morale and productivity. Maybe you've also been looking for a way to show your best clients how much you appreciate them. Or, maybe you have been looking for a way to draw a crowd at your trade show booth or other business function. Chair Massage is the best way to get all of that done with minimal fuss. A Chair Massage, or Seated Massage, is a massage therapy session done at your location by a licensed massage therapist while the client relaxes in a specialized massage chair.

Chair Massage differs from table based massage. The specialized massage chair utilized in seated massage is much more portable than massage tables and also takes up less space. Chair Massage can be done with very little dedicated space, allowing it to be performed in the trade show booth or in a corner of the home office. Chair Massage does not require that those receiving the massage remove any clothing so the massage may be completed in public without any embarrassment or discomfort. And, Chair Massage is usually shorter in duration than typical table based massage sessions allowing more people to receive massage. A typical seated massage is 10-15 minutes though it can be shorter or longer depending on the client's needs. For example, a seated massage session for your valued employees might be scheduled for 15 minutes each while you might want to give 5-10 minute sessions to prospective clients at the trade show.

Like other forms of massage, Chair Massage is relaxing and therapeutic. Pretty much everyone who receives a Chair Massage experiences relief from physical stress and muscle soreness as well as experiencing relief of mental stress. People receiving Chair Massage often report having better concentration and better mental clarity. How can you beat that? Employees that feel better physically and mentally after a seated massage will perform better, have fewer sick days, and generally outperform their unmassaged counterparts. Customers that receive the physical relief and feelings of well-being from Chair Massage will remember that you were watching out for them in the most positive way. What about prospective clients? They are better able to focus on your message after seated massage and might be feeling good enough to make the purchase right then!

A typical seated massage will include massage of the head, neck, shoulders, back, arms, and hands of the seated client. The actual session differs according to the client's needs, the time available, and the massage therapist's assessment of the situation, but often begins with a soothing scalp massage. From there the massage therapist may massage the neck of the seated client then move to the shoulders...that is a real favorite for most people! A firm massage of the back puts the massage client in la-la land and then the massage therapist could work on the hands and arms. It really is a relaxing experience.

Getting Chair Massage to your location is as easy as typing in an online search, but be sure to select a good massage therapist or massage establishment to provide your onsite Chair Massage. Look for therapists or establishments that clearly offer onsite seated massage, it is somewhat of a specialty in massage. If the therapist or establishment doesn't mention seated/chair massage on their website or other ads they may not be especially good at it and may not even have the massage chairs. Also, make sure that your Chair Massage provider is a Licensed Massage Therapist that is willing to provide licensure information on request to ensure safety for all involved. Enjoy your massage!

Author Resource: Lydia Hernandez is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Neuromuscular Therapist offering Chair Massage in San Antonio, Texas. See her Chair Massage website at LydiasChairMassage.com

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Monday, April 14, 2008

Ways to Cure Bulimia Nervosa

There are many ways to treat bulimia but not very many of them really cure bulimia. Popular treatment is going to the doctors or clinics or a counselor. How helpful are these? Statistic shows that nearly 90% of suffers relapse after attending these kinds of treatment.

What happens to these people is they feel temporary better while they are in the clinic or in a doctor's room, but lose all sense of self-control around food when they come back home or while on their own and unprotected.

The next way of treatment is group therapy where sufferers are supposed to get ongoing support and help from other sufferers and a group leader. But this way has many flaws and is not helpful either: it can actually become harmful to many sufferers.

The reasons of this are that while in the group there is often a competition for attention. In the group patients often deliberately get worse or engage in more symptoms just to get extra attention from each other or the therapist. This kind of competition always exists in eating disorder help groups but on many different levels. Sometimes it can get out of control and cause a lot of harm to some members of the group, the most venerable ones.

Also, while in the group people learn from each other. And they learn not necessary only the good things. They learn a lot of bad stuff too.

Like say if a young woman has never heard of drinking ipecac to induce vomiting and learns this technique in group therapy. She may try the technique out herself at home; instead of getting positive help she has just learned how to mask her disorder even more. This can also have a detrimental effect on the group leaving the group leader or member feeling responsible for teaching her.

Some doctors prescribe drugs to treat eating disorders but this also does not fix the problem and in the long run even makes things worse.

The only way to cure bulimia in my opinion is to eliminate the reason why people have it. You see what happens is that people understand that their bulimia is slowly killing them and want to stop but they can't.

It seems like something inside the person is stronger than their own free will and controls their logical thinking. What is this something?

It is basically another part of our brain called the subconscious mind that not only is responsible for people's feelings, emotions and non-conscious actions that keep them alive, but it can also work against your own free will.

It is the part of the mind that is responsible for our actions when we do something but we don't know why we did it. The subconscious mind operates on feelings and senses. And very often people can't even describe it logically because it consists of thoughts and feelings. Sufferers just do what the subconscious mind wants them to do.

So,the main reason people have bulimia lies in the subconscious mind and to stop bulimia one needs to get rid off the subconscious blockages that always keep you being a bulimic against your will.

Subconscious blockages are described by many sufferers as being like voices or senses they have that make them binge and purge.

If someone has a subconscious emotional blockage preventing her/him from stopping their bulimia, they are unlikely to realize it. An example of this is a bulimic who doesn't realize that they have "broken eye syndrome" - they see in a mirror a different picture from everyone else: basically their own mind is lying to them.

Subconscious blockages cannot be identified and changed at the rational thinking level; this is where most conventional treatments fail: simply because they think logical actions will fix it.

For example, the "broken eye syndrome" gets worse and worse the longer you have bulimia, because the bulimic brain is constantly working on false information and is reinforcing false beliefs. You can talk logic to a bulimia sufferer all day long and it will not help one bit: because bulimia is not logical.

To conclude, identifying and eliminating your subconscious blockages is the best and really the only way you will ever cure your bulimia. There are special programs that help bulimics to do this. You can try to use them to cure bulimia.

Author Resource: Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Women Health Issues Program which covers different areas of Women Health. She is a recognised athority in the eating disorders area. She is an author of many books and a public speaker.learn more about eating disorders at http://www.mom-please-help.com

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Friday, April 11, 2008

The Flaws Of The Cabbage Soup Diet

There is some question as to whether the Cabbage Soup Diet is a diet at all. Many people have followed it. Many have also lost weight with it. But it has been determined that this diet may result in nothing more than water loss. The diet is intended to last seven days. In that week, you eat nothing but low-calorie cabbage soup and supplemental foods that change daily. Because there are no long-term commitments involved with this diet, it is often called a fad diet.

Eating cabbage soup for an entire week may not attract too many followers. Apparently, though, it works. This would explain the widespread interest in the diet. However, this weight loss is only temporary. Which is why the diet has now gone by the wayside. So, what exactly is this diet?

With the cabbage soup diet, your drink choices are limited. No soda is allowed. Unsweetened tea is permitted on the first day. Black coffee is permitted to an extent. The positive is that you can eat as much as you want. Unfortunately, you have to eat at least two bowls of cabbage soup per day. Fruit, skim milk, meat and vegetables are allowed. Some of the other foods encouraged include tomatoes, brown rice, onions and potatoes. This is quite the opposite of the Atkins diet, which prohibits eating starchy foods.

What makes the Cabbage soup diet so controversial is not just that you eat one food at the expense of others. It is what happens after you lose the weight. It is not a diet you can follow for more than a week. The plan itself discourages it. This is because the diet is just a week of fasting. Calories brought in are so low as to be useless. It is not the cabbage that controls the weight loss. It is simply the lack of food. This means you can go on a pickle diet just as easily. Or a celery diet. Or any other food that has little to no calories. And after you go off of it, you gain the weight right back.

One of the bad things about the cabbage soup diet is that it is more like an assembly line program than anything else. It is not individualized. Everyone follows the same program. Also, the plan doesn't encourage exercise. It doesn't give you any tips to success. It doesn't even provide advice on discarding old habits. It is simply a list of foods that you must eat. It could be likened to the supposed "American Heart Association diet" that claims people can lose ten pounds in a week if they eat grapefruit, hot dogs and cantaloupe. The American Heart Association has alerted consumers that this diet is not affiliated with them. Yet, people still follow it. They follow it because they will follow just about anything that promises quick weight loss with little work. Following a healthy, varied diet is still much more effective in losing weight. A good exercise program helps too. A good attitude helps the most, and this is something not offered with any diet.

Author Resource: Jason Hulott is Director at UK Diets Online (http://www.uk-diets-online.co.uk), a service that provides information about all the major diet systems available, healthy eating and diet information. Visit now and take advantage of our special deals with Weightwatchers.

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Different Doctors For Different Illnesses

While the title Doctor holds a particular image within our language, there are actually over sixty different specialties in the field of medicine that can hold that designation.

The most familiar image of a doctor is the family general practitioner. He is the health care provider that will know the most about you as he is the first line of defense against the ailments and diseases that may assault your well being. The general practitioner in many ways must be more highly trained and educated than many of his counterparts, as he must be able to recognize a much wider range of problems. It is the general practitioner's job to treat the routine problems that his patients suffer from and to be able to direct them to the best specialists for more intensive care of critical ailments.

On a par with the general practitioner, the emergency medical doctor must be familiar with all the fields of medicine as well as trauma pathology. When seconds count in the treatment of accident injuries, the trauma doctor must be able to identify unrelated conditions that may require modifications in the emergency treatment a patient may require. It is because the student doctor needs to learn first-hand how many medical disciplines are interrelated that much of their residency time is spent aiding trauma doctors in emergency rooms.

The surgeon is required to have an intimate and comprehensive knowledge of the internal operation of the human body. This exacting field of medical practice is designed to physically fix a problem and repair damaged areas. Surgery requires even more study time than general medicine as it also requires knowledge of the interconnectivity of every body process that could be affected by physical intrusion into the flesh. While the anesthesiologist is the doctor that directly oversees the medication that relieves pain and keeps a patient alive during surgery, the surgeon must also be aware of the process and its affect on his patient.

Some doctors specialize in the creation of life and will dedicate themselves to learning the arts of obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics. These doctors make special study of how children are formed, how to help them come safely and healthily into the world and keep them well as they grow from infancy to maturity. They are specially trained to understand the diseases and ailments that can affect not only the mothers but obtain a full knowledge of diseases that directly attack the young.

Doctors of psychology and psychiatry specialize in the subtle but occasionally debilitating problems that occur in the mind of their patients. While the psychologist is trained more in how though processes can affect health, the psychiatrist must study body processes in relation to how chemical treatments work as their special field uses drugs and other physical treatments to affect a cure.

Once a doctor's general training is done, many continue on with training for specific parts of the body. An ophthalmologist for example, will learn all there is to know about the eyes and its specific characteristics and illnesses. A pathologist or radiologist will learn the techniques and machines used to investigate and identify the underlying sources of illness and sometimes even discover a medical problem before it has had the chance to cause major damage to an individual.

Whatever specialty a doctor works in, knowledge of the whole body is essential as the physical self is an integrated unit. No doctor stands alone in his field but relies on knowledge of all the varieties of medicine in order to give the best possible treatment to those in need.

Author Resource: http://bestfakedoctornotes.com Fake Doctors Notes

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