News for Jan 21, 2008

This weeks topics:
1/ The wonders of Lemon Juice

2/ Healthy Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

I have been studying a lot lately about the hazards of chemicals used in cosmetics, shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste. here is away to eliminate some of them at least. Lemon Juice.

With the high cost associated with most beauty products, many people are making their own beauty products using all natural ingredients from Mother Nature. One of the best ingredients is fresh squeezed lemon juice. Many people already use real lemon juice for its convenience and delicious lemony taste in foods. As a value added benefit, lemon juice has a variety of beauty uses as well. From fingernails to hair, all natural lemon juice provides a myriad of benefits. Here are just a few of its uses:

Brighten and Strengthen Fingernails: Begin by soaking your fingernails in lemon juice for 10 minutes. Then brush your fingernails with a mixture of equal parts white vinegar and warm water. Then rinse your fingernails. You will be amazed at how shiny and healthy your fingernails look!

Eliminate Blackheads: Rub lemon juice over blackheads before going to bed at night. When you wake up the next morning, rinse your face with cool water. Repeat this cycle until blackheads are eliminated.

Condition Hair: Bring life and luster back to dull, damaged hair by combining 3 quarters of a cup of Olive Oil, with 1 half of a cup of raw honey and approximately 3 table spoons of lemon juice. Set the mixture aside. Shampoo, then rinse hair with tepid water. Towel dry hair, then work in a small amount of the lemon juice mixture and comb it evenly through the hair. Then cover hair with a plastic bag for a half hour. Finish by shampooing and rinsing hair one more time for luxuriously shiny hair!

Create Blonde Highlights: For a kinder all natural alternative to hair dyes and bleach, try this simple formula. Begin by rinsing your hair with a mixture consisting of 1 quarter of a cup of lemon juice and 3 quarters of a cup of water. Then simply sit in the sun for 20 minutes (after applying sunscreen, of course) to activate the lemon juice's natural bleaching properties.

Breath Freshener: To quickly freshen bad breath, simply squirt a few drops of lemon juice into your mouth, swish it around and then swallow it. The citric acid content alters the ph level in your mouth, thus killing odor causing bacteria.

Mind Soothing Relaxation: For a perfect bath, simply add some lemon juice and sea salts to the bath water, then soak your cares away.

As you can see, the amazing lemon is a lot more than just a sour fruit. Why not try one of these great lemon beauty recipes today?


Healthy Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

Exercise more and stick to your diet. Weren't those the same resolutions you made last year? And aren't you 10 pounds heavier and more out of shape than ever? Odds are that you set unrealistic goals. Don't give up; focus instead on goals that are more attainable and much less overwhelming.

1. Don't eliminate entire food groups.
Giving up sugary foods or eliminating all carbs from your diet may help you lose weight, but such goals are nearly impossible to stick to long-term. Instead, just limit your intake.

2. Take a multivitamin - and women, add calcium.
For an easy, inexpensive bit of dietary insurance, take a multivitamin every day.

And if you're a woman, add a calcium supplement, too. If you're between the ages of 19 and 49, you need about 1,000 milligrams of calcium daily. If you are 50 years of age or over, increase the amount to about 1,200. It's an easy way to prevent osteoporosis and other bone problems that plague women as they age.

3. Add just one more serving of fruits or vegetables every day.
Most of us struggle to get 5 servings, yet health experts recommend upping our intake to get 9 to 13 servings daily. There's no way most of us are going to double our intake of any type of food (well, maybe chocolate). So set a goal of adding just one serving a day. And when that becomes a habit, add another.

4. See the doctor annually.
If you're feeling okay, it's very tempting to pass up having an annual physical. Who has the time, right? But many health concerns can be caught before they become health problems if you get the recommended age-specific and gender-specific checkups.

For most women, that means having a Pap smear and breast evaluation done annually. Pap smear screenings check for cervical cancer, which is highly treatable if caught early.

Both men and women should have their blood pressure checked annually, since high blood pressure is much more common than most people realize. Because you don't feel any symptoms, your heart and other vital organs can be negatively affected for years if you don't have this simple screening.

Men and women over 50 should talk to their doctors about having some sort of screening for colon cancer too, another common cancer that is much easier to treat if detected early.

Talk to your physician about other screenings you might need, based on your age, gender and family history.

5. Add more exercise.
Much like doubling your intake of fruits and veggies, doubling (or more!) your exercise on a daily basis is so unrealistic as to be laughable. If you're a couch potato now, don't set a goal of running 4 miles a day.

Instead, add minor amounts of exercise that add up. Take the stairs. Park further away. Instead of telling yourself you'll walk for an hour, walk for 10 minutes. Almost anyone can fit that amount of exercise into their day, even into their lunch hour. And experts say that 3, 10-minute exercise sessions daily would do most of us a world of good.

The Joke:
A senior citizen drove his brand new BMW Z3 convertible out of the car salesroom. Taking off down the motorway, he floored it to 160 kph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.

"Amazing!" he thought as he flew down the F3, enjoying pushing the pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a police car behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring.

"I can get away from him - no problem!" thought the elderly nutcase as he floored it to 180 kph, then 190, then 200kph.
Suddenly, he thought, "What on earth am I doing? I'm too old for this nonsense!". So he pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the police car to catch up with him.
Pulling in behind him, the police officer walked up to the driver's side of the BMW, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 10 minutes. Today is Friday and I'm taking off for the weekend. If you can give me a reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."

The man, looked very seriously at the policeman, and replied, "Years ago, my wife ran off with a policeman. I thought you were bringing her back."

"Have a good day, Sir," said the policeman


Well thats it for this week issue, hope you enjoyed!

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News for Jan 6, 2008

A new year is upon us. I hope had a wonderfull holiday.

This weeks topics:
1/ Self Improvement for Teens
2/ The Definition of Natural Health

If you are not a teenager do you remember being one? I sure do and I was a boy! Image is everything. I couldn't get wire rimmed glasses because they were more expensive. Guys all had long hair but my father was in the military his whole life and thought I should have a military hair cut at all times etc. etc.
I have come up with a list of myths about image.

Myth #1: You absolutely have to look like your friends.

The Truth: No you don't! Listen up here! In some circumstances, it is physically impossible for two people to be the same size. Your friend may be able to eat anything and everything and never gain an ounce, but that my friend is genetics. I know it stinks that you can't eat half what she does without gaining weight, but that's life. It is far more important for you to be healthy than it is to fit in your friend's plaid skirt. Trying to "get down to her size" will only make you crazy, so be healthy and be happy.

Myth #2: Only losers can't diet their way down to a super model thin body.

The Truth: (add buzzer sound here)! Wrong! Are you aware of the fact that super models are thinner than ninety-eight percent of the female population? Look, everyone has certain genes, which will determine their body type. It was written in stone before you were born. No single body type is better than the others, so you're stressing out over something you can't control. Less than 2% of the population that has the super model look, which means that there are actually very few people who look like that. I have read alot of super models have eating dis-orders and take drugs to suppress appetite. So girls lets get a grip here! Please pass this on to your children and children's friends.

Myth #3: Boys like only the incredibly thin girls.

The Truth: While it may be true that teen guys like to gawk at the super thin girls, it is another matter altogether when it comes to dating. Most teenage guys are petrified of "very pretty" girls, and feel more than a little awkward around them during the teenage years. In fact, they feel far more comfortable with regular girls.

Myth #4: How a person looks is the only thing that matters, not how they get there.

The Truth: This is what is known as faulty logic. The most important thing is that you are healthy. If you are so concentrated on attaining a certain look that it is adversely affecting your health, then you are punishing yourself for absolutely no reason. Think about this for a moment. If you are doing something you know isn't good for you simply to look a certain way, don't you realize it will catch up to you? If you abuse your body, it will only take it for so long, and then it is payback time.

Don’t measure your self worth by another person’s standards. Endeavor to stay healthy and fit by maintaining a proper diet with plenty of exercise. Be healthy, be happy and most of all - be you!
In the West, we like to think of our world as modern and of our medical system as sophisticated. Yet, with the wide array of illnesses, diseases and disorders that continue to escalate in scope and number, it might be time to explore another way of evaluating and maintaining health. Many people are doing just that, exploring  natural health prevention techniques and cures.

The Definition of Natural Health
The basic premise of natural health is that when the body is nourished and maintained optimally, it is able to heal itself naturally. Better yet, it can prevent the occurrence of disease in the first place. In other words, we wouldn't need the interventions of our medical system in many cases after all. Instead, we can create the environment and conditions that allow the body to heal itself in which optimum health can be assured.

A healthy lifestyle is the cornerstone to natural health. Prevention is the foundation. Natural health is not about being a health fanatic, but more a health conscious person. This means holistic health, encompassing the whole person, body, mind and spirit.

Natural health practitioners believe that prevention is each individual person's choice, and that each is capable of taking active responsibility for their own personal health and well being. The healthy lifestyle that is encouraged involves eating fresh whole foods, taking nutritional supplements as needed, ensuring regular physical exercise, and managing the sources and levels of stress in the environment.

Despite the best intentions and prevention, disorders of the body might develop. When concerns do arise, natural health treatment can include everything from vitamins and supplements, to massage therapy, to homeopathy, to acupuncture, to other forms of energy work. By definition, natural healing methods address the whole person; they are holistic, rather than focusing on a specific disease or body part that is affected.

While the natural health approach is to prevent the occurrence of serious infectious diseases or any medical emergencies, it never condones treating these apart from traditional medical intervention. There is nothing that prevents natural healing methods from being used side by side with conventional medical treatment. In many cases it can support the effectiveness of the medical treatment by building the immune system and bolstering health in other body systems.

While there have been efforts to pass legislation that requires a prescription for dispensing vitamins and supplements, none have yet been passed - at least not at the national level - in the US. There are laws and regulations that govern the "practice of medicine" that natural health practitioners cannot violate. But, by and large, natural health is still an unregulated field. This lack of regulation can be good and bad. Ultimately, some middle ground will be reached overseeing safe practices while ensuring choices in health care.

With its focus on prevention, natural health is the lifestyle choice among millions of people today who choose to take responsibility for their own well being. It emphasizes a holistic approach to health and healing, creating the optimal environment for the body to thrive, and employs natural strategies when imbalance does occur. The interest in and pursuit of natural health is more in demand today than ever before.

I do wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year.