Interesting health tips

[polar bear]

What if you could cut your risk of heart disease, get fitter, and slow aging — not to mention protect your smile — in less time than it takes to watch a couple of commercials? Better health does take time, but not as much as you may think. Yes, you should exercise 30 minutes a day and sleep 7 to 8 hours a night. But top experts in nutrition, cardiovascular health, and cancer prevention know the supersimple, amazingly fast steps you can take to dramatically improve your well-being. So take a minute or so... and boost your health in almost no time flat.

Fight Cancer

Eat the peel

The bulk of an apple's benefit lies in its skin. In a recent lab experiment, more than a dozen chemicals in the peels of Red Delicious apples inhibited the growth of breast, liver, and colon cancer cells. Investigator Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, an associate professor of food science at Cornell University, suspects that the peels of other apple varieties are also extra potent. Buy organic if you're concerned about exposure to pesticides.

Take the right supplements

Getting enough vitamin D and calcium brings a remarkable reduction in cancer risk, found a recent 4-year study at Creighton University: Women who took the combo reduced their overall risk by up to 77%. "Vitamin D enhances your body's immune response — which is the first line of defense against cancer," says lead researcher Joan Lappe, PhD, RN, a professor of nursing and medicine. Your skin makes D when it's exposed to sunlight, but researchers say the best way to guarantee you get enough is with a pill. The 1,100 IU used in the Creighton study will do the trick (and is safe).

Slow Aging

Sniff some lavender or rosemary

The scent of lavender can bring you a restful night's sleep — but the plant can do you a world of good in daylight, too. In a recent study, volunteers sniffed the essential oils of lavender or rosemary for 5 minutes. Result: Levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva dropped as much as 24%. That's good, because the hormone increases blood pressure and suppresses the immune system. What's more, people who smelled low concentrations of lavender or high concentrations of rosemary were better at getting rid of free radicals, the pesky molecules believed to speed aging and disease.

Cut Cholesterol

Sprinkle pistachios on your salad

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University recently gave volunteers a pleasant task: Eat 1 1/2 ounces (about a handful) of pistachios every day. At the end of 4 weeks, those who munched the nuts reduced their total cholesterol by an average of 6.7% and their LDL ("bad") cholesterol by 11.6%. That reduction has a major payoff: Cutting your total cholesterol by about 7% reduces your heart disease risk by 14%. Pistachios are one of the best sources of plant sterols, compounds we know reduce absorption of cholesterol, says researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, who led the study. Just remember, 1 ounce contains about 160 calories. So pour a little less dressing on your salad as you add some pistachios, or go easy on butter or oil on your veggies when you sprinkle them on top.

Replace sugar with buckwheat honey

This sweet substance has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times; when it's applied to a wound, honey is a natural antibacterial salve. Now researchers say that its benefits may be much more than skin deep. Test-tube studies show that honey slows the oxidation of LDL cholesterol — it's when LDL is oxidized that it can be laid down as plaque in blood vessels. The variety of honey best at slowing oxidation: buckwheat.

Cool Hot Flashes

Breathe deeply

Slow, deep abdominal breathing can reduce the frequency of hot flashes by about half, according to three recent studies. Estrogen withdrawal is partly to blame for hot flashes, but researchers believe that stress also plays a role by firing up the sympathetic nervous system — the part of your wiring responsible for the fight-or-flight response. The fix: Breathe deeply to enlist the parasympathetic nervous system, which activates your body's relaxation response. That will slow heart rate, relax muscles, and lower blood pressure. Sit in a comfortable chair and allow your breath to deepen. Inhale through your nose; exhale through your mouth. Close your eyes to cut out distraction. Let your belly be soft — you want it to rise and fall with each breath.

Keep Your Vision Sharp

Eat an egg

No offense meant to carrots, but research shows eggs are an even better source of the eye-friendly antioxidants known as carotenoids. Lutein and zeaxanthin are the crucial carotenoids for vision — the only ones that benefit the retina's fragile macula, which is responsible for central vision. Eggs don't contain as much lutein and zeaxanthin as dark green, leafy veggies, but your body is better able to absorb the antioxidants in eggs, says nutritional biochemist Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, at Tufts University. Worried about cholesterol? Don't be: Eating an egg a day increases blood levels of lutein (by 26%) and zeaxanthin (by 38%) without raising cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

Reduce Dangerous Inflammation

Pour a bowl of whole grain cereal

Whole grains are about much more than "regularity" — they can save your life. The Iowa Women's Health Study, which has followed nearly 42,000 postmenopausal women for 15 years, reports that women who ate 11 or more servings of whole grains each week were about a third less likely to die of an inflammatory disorder than those who consumed the least. (What is an inflammatory disorder? Any condition marked by chronic inflammation — including diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.) Good choices: oatmeal, brown rice, dark bread, whole grain breakfast cereal, bulgur, and (hurray!) popcorn. "Whole grains contain the biologically active parts of the plant," says study leader David R. Jacobs Jr., PhD, a professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota. "What keeps the plant alive keeps the eater alive."

Build Muscle Strength

Stretch your legs

If you have tight leg muscles, you'll not only improve flexibility by stretching but also build strength, says a new study published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. For 6 weeks, 30 adults with tight hamstrings did a series of stretches 5 days a week. Investigators measured their flexibility and thigh-muscle strength at the start and end of the study. All that stretching loosened up tight muscles and increased their range of motion, but the hamstrings and the quads (the muscles at the back and front of the thighs) also became significantly stronger.

Boost Antioxidants

Add avocado to your salad

Vegetables have an unexpected downside: Many of them are virtually fat free, and you need fat in the meal to absorb cancer-fighting carotenoids. In recent Ohio State University research, volunteers were given a salad with and without a sliced avocado. Blood tests showed that those who ate the avocado got 5 times as much lutein, 7 times as much alpha-carotene, and a whopping 15 times as much beta-carotene as those who ate the salad without it.

Snack on dried figs

Dried fruits are known to be rich in antioxidants — but some of the less popular types are the most nutritious. Figs and dried plums (aka prunes) had the best overall nutrient scores, shows recent research at the University of Scranton. A handful of dried figs (about 1 ½ ounces) increased "antioxidant capacity" — the ability to neutralize free radicals — by 9%. That's more than double the increase seen after a cup of green tea.

Eat a fruit salad

Antioxidants love company: A mixture of oranges, apples, grapes, and blueberries provides five times the antioxidant power you get from eating the same fruits solo, says recent research by Liu, at Cornell. Ingredients to toss into fruit salad, ranked in order of phenolic content (a type of plant chemical that cuts the risk of chronic disease): cranberries, apples, red grapes, strawberries, pineapples, bananas, peaches, oranges, and pears.

Keep Your Smile Healthy

Kiss your partner passionately

You enjoy a kiss for other reasons, but according to Anne Murray, DDS, a spokesperson for the Academy of General Dentistry, it increases saliva in your mouth — which cleans your teeth of the bacteria that can cause cavities. If, alas, you have no one to kiss, try sugar-free gum containing xylitol.

Protect Your Stomach From Bugs

Turn down your fridge

If the set-ting is over 40°F, your food is sitting in the danger zone — the temperature at which bacteria begin to multiply. Each year in the United States, more than 75 million people get sick from contaminated food and 5,000 die. So use an appliance thermometer to be sure the temp is low enough.

Prevent Headaches

Keep your head up

"Posture is one of the least understood and appreciated factors in head pain," says Roger Cady, MD, vice president of the National Headache Foundation. One of the leading posture pitfalls: forward head posture (FHP). When your neck juts forward, you have to tilt your head up to see, Cady explains, and that can compress the nerves and muscles at the base of the skull. A common cause of FHP: slumping in front of a computer. Physical therapist Colleen Baker, who practices at the Headache Care Center in Springfield, MO, offers these tricks to help you get your head on straight:

Imagine a cord attached to the top of your head, pulling toward the ceiling.

Periodically check to make sure your ear is in line with your shoulder.

Set your computer to remind you every half hour to repeat the first two tips.

Stay Mentally Sharp

Have 2 cups of green tea daily

Studies have shown that green tea helps keep cholesterol in check and may lower cancer risk. Now researchers say the drink may also work to maintain cognitive function. A Japanese study of 1,000 people over age 70 found that those who drank 2 cups of green tea daily did better on a variety of tests of mental abilities (including memory) — and the more green tea they drank, the better they performed. It's possible that something else is responsible for the mental clarity, such as the socializing the Japanese tend to do over a cup. But the results might partially explain why rates of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, are lower in Japan (where green tea is commonly consumed) than in the United States.

[Watered Garden]

That is fascinating information. I will try at least some of these tips, if not all of them. I wasn't certain whether the avocado has to be eaten on a salad, or if I can make guacamole with it. Mr. Garden LOVES good guacamole (but he'll eat mine, too! )

I wish I'd known about that experiment when I was working at Ohio State; I would've volunteered in a heartbeat!

Thanks so much for posting this.

WG

[Kit Sober]

Better than paper towels and a less expensive. Because we now use a coffee press to make coffee, we have a bunch of these that seemed too good to throw away so this email hint seemed especially nice. I thought you would like it, too.

Coffee filters.... Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing even the large ones.

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave.Coffee filters make excellent covers.

2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the

soil from going through the drainage holes.

11.. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon,French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.

14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.

16. Putbaking sodainto a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.

17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put insoups and stews.

18. Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.

19. Use them as a spoon restwhile cooking and clean up small counter spills.

20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies..

Saves on having extra bowls to wash.

21. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.

22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.

23. Use them to sprout seeds.. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into aplastic baggieuntil they sprout.

24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..

25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS

Sure saves washing dishes too.

[Twinky]

Cut Cholesterol

Sprinkle pistachios on your salad

Even better (and you might like it more) - enjoy a glass of red wine each day.

Note: "a" glass - of reasonable size. Not half a bottle.

[Kit Sober]

Here's an exercise for getting rid of bulbous nose (even if it isn't as big as WC Fields but you want it a little less bulby): Push up on the tip of your nose while pulling down on your mouth. Simple and effective. Only about ten a day will have a noticeable effect.

Edited June 26, 2011 by Kit Sober

[Rejoice]

Fight Cancer

Get the book, "World Without Cancer". Eat Apricot Seeds; hightest form of Vitamin B17 but in a balanced formula as nature intended.

Mr. Griffin marshals the evidence that cancer is a deficiency disease like scurvy or pellagra aggravated by the lack of an essential food compound in modem man’s diet. That substance is vitamin B17. In its purified form developed for cancer therapy, it is known as Laetrile. Why has orthodox medicine waged war against this non drug approach? The author contends that the answer is to be found, not in science, but in politics and is based upon the hidden economic and power agenda of those who dominate the medical establishment. This is a new edition of the book. It is the most complete and authoritative treatise ever produced on Laetrile. It explains the theory by which Laetrile is believed to work. Case histories are included.

[Kit Sober]

Not only good laundry soap detergent recipes here but this site has other things also you might like.

Click here: 10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes : TipNut.com

[Kit Sober]

Hope you never need to try this.

BURNS

A young man sprinkling his lawn and bushes with pesticides wanted to check the contents of the barrel to see how much pesticide remained in it. He raised the cover and lit his lighter; the vapors inflamed and engulfed him. He jumped from his truck, screaming. His neighbor came out of her house with a dozen eggs, yelling: "bring me some eggs!" She broke them, separating the whites from the yolks. The neighbor woman helped her to apply the whites on the young man's face. When the ambulance arrived and when the EMTs saw the young man, they asked who had done this. Everyone pointed to the lady in charge. They congratulated her and said: "You have saved his face." By the end of the summer, the young man brought the lady a bouquet of roses to thank her. His face was like a baby's skin

[Kit Sober]

From an email today:

Pass The Butter .. Please.

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put

all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do

with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in

place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter,

according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years. And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is

hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area.

Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it.

Even those teeny weeny micro-organisms will not a find a home to grow.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic .. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

[waysider]

We need to bring our resident chemist out of retirement to address this one.

[Bramble]

We always make our own laundry soap in a 5 gallon tub. It works great and we with sensitive skin never get a rash! Super cheap, too.