Health & WellnessS


Magic Wand

Sweet Slumber

Nora Isaacs
Yoga Journal
Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:46 UTC
Image
© presenceyogaltd.com
Kick your insomnia for good by creating a simple and restful nighttime routine.

Leslie Bradley remembers lying awake as a child, unable to sleep. "I've been something of an insomniac my entire life," says the 56-year-old owner of Blue Spruce Yoga in Lakewood, Colorado. But after she contracted West Nile virus in 2004, her sleepless nights became intolerable. "I was in really bad shape," Bradley says. "I couldn't sleep at all without taking drugs like Ambien."

After the prescription sleeping pills became less effective, Bradley decided to explore an alternative route, making an appointment to see Ayurvedic doctor John Douillard, director of the LifeSpa School of Ayurveda in Boulder, Colorado. He put Bradley on a regimen of herbs, tea, self-massage, and breathwork. He also helped her understand the best bedtimes for her body type and encouraged her to make changes to her lifestyle, such as eating a bigger lunch, and not teaching evening yoga classes.

Drawing on her yoga background, she began doing Sarvangasana (Shoulder stand), Halasana (Plow Pose), and restorative poses before going to bed. Within three months, Bradley was off the drugs. "All those things combined have basically cured my insomnia," she says. "I feel much stronger and more solid, more vibrant."
Read More...
Alarm Clock

Pathological Relationships: Dealing With a Problem Partner

Sandra L. Brown, M.A.
Psychology Today
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:46 UTC
pychopath don juan
© UnknownAlthough the story of Don Juan conjures up for many images of the classic “Latin lover” (above), he was in fact a brutal psychopath, although a fictitious character, given life by Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molino in his play The Seducer of Seville.
60 Million People in the U.S. Negatively Affected By Someone Else's Pathology. What happens because of pathology affects us all.

Do you believe someone else's pathology is none of your business? Or it's simply an 'unfortunate turn of events' for the person in a Pathological Love Relationship? Or that what happens to someone else doesn't affect you? What happens because of pathology affects us all.

An astute student asked "How many people does pathology negatively affect?" We did a little math....

304 million people live in the U.S.

One in 25 people will have the disorders associated with 'no conscience' which include antisocial personality disorder, sociopath, and psychopath.

304 million divided by 25 = 12.16 million have no conscience.

Each antisocial/psychopath will negatively affect approximately 5 partners with their pathology.

12.16 million x 5 = 60.8 million people!

If existing medical conditions (like Diabetes or Heart Disease) or a more readily recognized mental health problem like Depression affected 60.8 million people, there would be a public educational campaign. Celebrities would jump on board to help the world recognize the disorder/disease. One would see billboards, walk-a-thons, and a proclamation signed by the President for Pathology Awareness Week. But there is none of that. Not only does Pathology slink silently by without recognition or assistance to others to recognize it, it racks up enormous financial debt for anyone and any system in its path.
Read More...
Health

One More Way to Avoid Diabetes: Breastfeed

Alice Park
Time.com
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:43 UTC
Image
© breastfeeding.com
New moms know that breastfeeding can be good for babies, providing them with much-needed nutrition as well as a shot of antibodies and other cells that help build immune systems. Now, evidence suggests that the practice may keep the mothers themselves healthier too.

Researchers led by Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz at University of Pittsburgh found that women who breastfeed are half as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as women who do not. That's a big statistical difference, and although it's not clear what is behind the gap, scientists speculate that it has something to do with pregnancy pounds that expectant moms gain. Breastfeeding helps moms lose the abdominal fat they gain during pregnancy more efficiently. And while abdominal - or visceral - fat is important for the gestating baby's development, it can be detrimental to a mother's health if it continues to build after delivery, since it's been linked to greater risk of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and heart disease as well as diabetes.

"When you look at mammals, you have to consider lactation as part of the pregnancy experience," says Schwarz. "When women don't breastfeed after pregnancy, or lactation is curtailed or prematurely discontinued, women end up retaining more fat than they would have if they breastfed. Then the mother's health can suffer."
Read More...
Magnify

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

Guy Deutscher
The New York Times
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Horacio Salinas/The New York Times
Seventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century.

At first glance, there seemed little about the article to augur its subsequent celebrity. Neither the title, "Science and Linguistics," nor the magazine, M.I.T.'s Technology Review, was most people's idea of glamour. And the author, a chemical engineer who worked for an insurance company and moonlighted as an anthropology lecturer at Yale University, was an unlikely candidate for international super-stardom. And yet Benjamin Lee Whorf let loose an alluring idea about language's power over the mind, and his stirring prose seduced a whole generation into believing that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think.

In particular, Whorf announced, Native American languages impose on their speakers a picture of reality that is totally different from ours, so their speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic concepts, like the flow of time or the distinction between objects (like "stone") and actions (like "fall"). For decades, Whorf's theory dazzled both academics and the general public alike. In his shadow, others made a whole range of imaginative claims about the supposed power of language, from the assertion that Native American languages instill in their speakers an intuitive understanding of Einstein's concept of time as a fourth dimension to the theory that the nature of the Jewish religion was determined by the tense system of ancient Hebrew.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Simple Grain Offers Health Benefits to Diabetics


CTV News
Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:28 UTC
Image
© healthfoodmartinc.com
An ancient grain that was once the staple of the Aztec diet is not only surprisingly nutritious, it can also help regulate blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease in diabetics, Canadian researchers report in a new study in the journal Diabetes Care.

The grain is called chia. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it is the very same seed used in Chia Pets, those novelty gifts that allow you to sprout "hair" on pottery figures.

But chia has a longer history. It was once revered by ancient Aztecs, who found it a powerful food that helped fuel village runners.

Dr. Vladamir Vuksan and a team at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto have been trying to uncover the medicinal magic behind the seed that derives from the plant called Salvia hispanica.

The chia seed is either white or black-coloured. Both are considered highly nutritious. Vuksan decided to focus just on the variety that provides white seeds, which has been trademarked Salba. Vuksan's team found that the seeds contain high levels of fibre, calcium, magnesium, more antioxidants than many berries, and omega-3 essential fatty acids.
Read More...
Magnify

Propaganda Alert: Fluoride in Water Prevents Adult Tooth Loss, Study Suggests


ScienceDaily
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Children drinking water with added fluoride helps dental health in adulthood decades later, a new study finds.

In an article appearing in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Matthew Neidell reports a strong relationship between fluoride levels in a resident's county at the time of their birth with tooth loss as an adult.

"Your fluoridation exposure at birth is affecting your tooth loss in your 40s and 50s, regardless of what your fluoridation exposure was like when you were 20 and 30 years old," said Neidell, a health policy professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

He combined data from a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention community health study and a water census to see the impact of drinking fluoridated water in the 1950s and 1960s on tooth loss in the 1990s.

Comment: For a much more in depth look at the health risks associated with fluoride, read the following articles:

Fluorine Compounds Make You Stupid - Why is the Government Not Merely Allowing, But Promoting Them?
The Fluoride Fraud
Fluoridation is the Ultimate Deception
Fluoride: Worse than We Thought
3,000 Professionals Petition to Remove Fluoride from Drinking Water
The Price of Too Much Fluoride
Information on Fluoride isn't Really New - A Recap on the Poisoning of the Public
Fluoride Accumulates in Pineal Gland
Small Amounts Fluoride Destroy The Will To Resist

Videos about Fluoride:

Video: History of the Fluoride Deception
US Doctors Expose Fluoride as Poison, Want It Banned from Water Supply
What is a Poison like Fluoride Doing in Our Tap Water?
Mercury and Fluoride - The Dumbing Down Of A Population

Read More...
Family

Mother Matters Most in the Eyes of Their Children

Richard Gray
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:30 UTC
Image
© AlamyUsing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, the researchers measured the brain activity of volunteers as they were shown photographs of their parents, strangers and celebrities.
The special lifelong bond that children have with their mothers may have its roots in how our brains react when we see our mothers' faces, according to scientists.

Mothers are said to hold a special lifelong place in their children's hearts, but it also appears they have a unique significance in their brains too.

Scientists have discovered that when adults look at their mothers' faces, it triggers a stronger response in the brain than when they look at pictures of strangers - or even of their fathers.

Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, the researchers measured the brain activity of volunteers as they were shown photographs of their parents, strangers and celebrities.

When images of the participants' mothers were shown to them, the scientists found that it "lit up" key areas, associated with recognition and emotion.
Read More...
Health

Gentle stroll 'can help boost intelligence'


Telegraph
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:09 UTC
Image
© CorbisScientists say moderate walking enhances connections between the brain's circuits
A gentle stroll several times a week not only boosts fitness levels - it also makes you brighter. New research has shown that walking "at one's own pace" for 40 minutes, three times a week can improve intelligence.

Scientists say moderate walking enhances connections between the brain's circuits, combats a drop in brain function linked to ageing and even improves performance in reasoning tasks.

Psychologists at Illinois University found brain function levels among nearly 100 self-confessed couch potatoes improved dramatically after a year in which they walked a few times a week. All the volunteers, aged between 18 and 35 and 59 to 80, led a sedentary lifestyle before the study, with less than two bouts of physical activity of 30 minutes or more during the previous six months.
Read More...
Attention

60 Million People in the U.S. Negatively Affected By Someone Else's Pathology

Martha Stout
Psychology Today
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:45 UTC
What happens because of pathology affects us all

Do you believe someone else's pathology is none of your business? Or it's simply an 'unfortunate turn of events' for the person in a Pathological Love Relationship? Or that what happens to someone else doesn't affect you? What happens because of pathology affects us all.

An astute student asked "How many people does pathology negatively affect?" We did a little math....

304 million people live in the U.S.

One in 25 people will have the disorders associated with 'no conscience' which include antisocial personality disorder, sociopath, and psychopath.

304 million divided by 25 = 12.16 million have no conscience.

Each antisocial/psychopath will negatively affect approximately 5 partners with their pathology.

12.16 million x 5 = 60.8 million people!
Read More...
Sherlock

Is Your Local Water Supply Safe?

Bill Davenhall
Huffington Post
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:45 UTC
Image
© wesa.ca
I would wager that there is not much water quality information in your medical record unless, of course, you have been treated for water borne disease. Most of us who live in the U.S. don't give water quality a second thought - but you might be surprised to learn how water quality varies from city to city.

The University of Cincinnati has a very useful and easy to use application that shows the water quality for metropolitan areas across the U.S. The site allows the visitor to identify metropolitan areas in the U.S. and discover concentrations of selected chemicals, as well as the presence of biological pathogens occurring in the drinking water of these communities. The site contains excellent reference information. In many parts of the U.S. you can see that specific harmful chemicals may dominate a region's drinking water supplies, and thus a physician would be expected to understand what these differences in water quality could actually mean for diagnosing a particular health problem.
Read More...