Certified Blogaholic

During the weekend, I caught a bad case of cold and cough.  I have been looking forward to some rest bu  ended up sleeping in bed most of the time with most of my taste buds useless.  I am feeling better now despite the continuously weird weather.   For those suffering the same fate, here’s how I managed to get better faster (though I’m uncertain if I should’ve made a slower recovery so I didn’t have to go to the office today).

1.  Take lots of citrus juice and water.  Taking lots of fluid will minimize stuffy nose and sinusitis. Even if you have to blow your nose every 10 minutes, it still leads to faster recovery.  It is also good to eat citrus fruits.

2.  Increase dosage of Vitamin C to 1000 mg.  Although there is no scientific basis for this, some say it is therapeutic.

3.  Rub liniment on your chest and back regularly.  Again, no doctor will support this.  However, when I put on Yee Tin Oil (Chinese herbal liniment), I don’t get dry cough (which is a killer for sound sleep) and my nose doesn’t get clogged.  All the yucky fluid in my nose and lungs are excreted — this is the objective of getting better instead of letting it dry up in your lungs.

4.  Stop acting like your sick.  If you act like you’re sick and lie around more than you should, you will really get more sick.  It is better to move around but avoid doing strenuous tasks.

As for the problem with the taste buds, I have no idea how to cure that.  Everything I eat taste like cardboard.  Even eating food with stronger flavors taste weird. I guess I will just have to wait this one out.

Nothing else can fulfill a woman than becoming a mother. For most, the epitome of womanhood is the ability to raise your own child. However, despite all the wonders of bearing children, the process takes such a heavy toll on the mother’s body. Skin problems such as stretch marks, blemishes, and oily skin caused by hormonal changes are only among the beauty problems a woman has to endure for the price of pregnancy. The wonders of science did find possible ways to combat these side effects.

Nevertheless, a pregnant woman’s delicate condition does not give her the liberty to just use any ordinary health and beauty product. She is only allowed to use those that are safe for her and her unborn child. It is under these circumstances that Beaute de Maman was developed.

Beaute de Maman health and beauty products were developed specifically for mothers-to-be and are made from natural products that have been proven to be safe for pregnant women and the developing fetus. Their products are backed by board-certified obstetricians who ensure that these remedies for the hormonal changes that pregnant women undergo will not harm the mother and her child. Thus, it is the choice of many expectant mom celebrities to avoid damaging their looks from child-bearing. They have stretch mark creams, nipple gels, face and body cream, and facial scrubs.

For those who choose Beaute de Maman, pregnancy is not the end of beautiful skin. Visit their website at www.beautedemaman.com and order now

.

While the medical community continues to search for the elusive cure to one of the most dreadful diseases that afflicts mankind, the answers may be exactly where God had intended them to be — in nature with no added chemicals or compounds. Many supposed miracle cures have emerged through the years, but none have been conclusively declared as the cure to cancer.

Everything began at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev when researchers discovered that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro but leaving healthy cells unharmed. The research team was led by Dr. Rivka Ofir and Prof. Yakov Weinstein from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the BGU. The key components that provide the lemony aroma and taste in herbal plants such as lemon grass, Melissa, and Verbena, is Citral. The study discovered that Citral causes cancer cells to commit suicide or what is called “apoptosis.” A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough Citral to lead cancer cells into this programmed cell death in the test tube. Findings were published in the scientific journal “Planta Medica.”
Read the rest of this entry »

One of the leading causes of death worldwide is heart disease. And it continues to increase with time as we continue to live lifestyles that neglect that life-giving pump in our body. The proliferation of fast food chains, livelihood that induce stress, vices such as smoking, and lack of exercise has led to a worldwide increase in the incidence of heart disease.

Is there a way to fight it? Of course, we have to the power to keep ourselves healthy. And it all starts with knowledge. Learning about the heart, how to keep it healthy, and heart disease is the first step to keeping it healthy and strong. Early detection is one of the best ways to cure heart disease or even manage it. Be aware of telltale signs or symptoms of heart disease and you may be on your way to curing it or preventing it from progressing any further.

The best website to help anyone learn is HeartLibrary.com. It is a collection of interactive videos to teach people about the heart and heart disease. Having heart palpitations? This could be a sign of Arrhythmia. Having trouble breathing or getting too tired too fast? This could be a symptom of heart block. Visit HeartLibrary.com and learn more about heart disease from the best in the medical industry. Take care of your heart — it’s the only one you’ve got.

My favorite yoga asanas are those that strengthen and lengthen the spine. I’ve had scoliosis since I was a kid, and back pains and discomfort have been part of my life. Yoga twisting poses usually does a good job of flexing the spine. One that I do on a daily basis, even when I am at home, is the Belly Twist or the Jathara Parivartanasana. It’s a supine twist that stretches the back muscles, realigns and lengthens the spine, and hydrates the spinal discs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Probably the most basic balancing pose in Yoga is the Tree Pose or the Vrikshasana. It is a core yoga position that is practiced even in advanced yoga. It is the perfect pose to develop physical balance and agility. Aside from balance, it also strengthens the legs and improves the flexibility of the hips and shoulders. However, due to the pressure on the knees and the hips, it is not recommended for those who have undergone chronic knee or hip injuries.

Read the rest of this entry »

After the controversial melamine scare brought about by milk from China, here comes another product that places the health of little girls and women at risks. It was recently discovered that hair bands manufactured from China might cause sexually transmitted diseases to women and girls using them because they are made from used condoms.

Women who use hair bands are aware that sometimes we put them temporarily in our mouth while we gather our hair into a pony tail or while we braid them. If you are using a hair band made from recycled condoms, it is possible to contract genital warts or any other sexually transmitted disease with this method and product.

Rubber hair bands have been found in Chinese local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in Southern Guangdong province to have been made from used condoms. No wonder they come so cheap. Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses from the user of the condom. A government official was quoted as saying recycling condoms was illegal.

Here again, we see irresponsible manufacturers in China putting health risks into millions of consumers in exchange for profit. Beware of such hair bands. Remind your girlfriends or your daughters not to place them in their mouth while fixing their hair. Then again, would you even dare hold one of these in your hands?

Following reports that pet food had been recalled due to melamine contamination, the latest report has consumers panicking as they try to determine which ones are safe for their family. Considering that a large amount of products now come from China and have been patronized due to their low price, alarms have now been raised with news circulating that melamine has also tainted milk formula from China which has made thousands of children ill.

Food experts believe that it may have been part of China’s food chain for a long time now. To date, 53,000 infants have gotten sick after drinking formula milk deliberately contaminated with melamine. Four babies have died, 13,000 have been hospitalized, and 104 are currently in a critical condition with kidney stones caused by the adulterant.

Apparently, baby formula milk requires high protein content and producers are able to cheat on this regulation by mixing it with melamine powder. However, the list of contaminated food is not limited to just baby formula. Even meat products can be contaminated if the food fed to these animals were likewise tainted with melamine. It can also be absorbed by plants if the pesticide used contains cyromazine, a derivative of melamine, which is commonly used in China as a pesticide.

Though effects are not verified yet, experts say that melamine cause kidney stones and other kidney problems. It is still uncertain what the long term effects are. While kidney stones can be removed easily, melamine may cause other damage when it crystallizes and blocks the small tubes in the kidney that filter blood.

Following are the products that are suspected for possible melamine contamination:

Read the rest of this entry »

After my mother’s bout with Stevens Johnson Syndrome, I’ve become more wary of medications. Whenever possible, none in our family takes any medications, especially new ones we have not taken before. Considering the ill effects that chemicals may have on the human body, it may be safer to just go natural.

Dr. Peter Rohdewald of the University of Munster in Germany recently discovered that pine bark extract may be the natural way to relieve pain from knee arthritis. The active ingredient in pine bark extract is Pycnogenol which has strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

The research was made from data collected from 100 Slovakian adults with mild knee arthritis. Results show that the group taking Pycnogenol had a 20.9% improvement in terms of pain, stiffness, and daily activities. The joint improvement even persisted for 4 weeks even when Pycnogenol was discontinued. Following a 3-month supplement of Pycnogenol, joint pain also decreased by 40.3%. This means that there was less intake of analgesic to relieve those suffering from the disease.

After the clinical studies conducted, it appears that Pycnogenol’s anti-inflammatory properties is the natural alternative for those with osteoarthritis. Though it is still recommended that patients consult their physicians, it now becomes a natural alternative rather than purely taking pain medications.

Most of us are watching what we eat and exercising. Yet, losing weight has been difficult, if not near impossible. Well, there may be things or habits that we do that keep us from achieving our goals.

1. Get more sleep. Studies show that your glucose levels can rise with only 4 to 7 hours of sleep every night. Though new parents are excluded, everyone else should try to get at least 8 hours of sleep as often as possible. Every hour of rest before 12 a.m. is twice as valuable as the hours after midnight because our cortisol levels are lowest before midnight making recovery better.

2. Eat fewer refined and processed foods. Try to avoid fast and fried food and consume as many real foods. It’s also imperative to get enough fiber for better elimination — fruits and veggies are a great way to fill up without the extra calories.

3. Avoid drinks loaded with sugar and get more water. Water is best for digestion, eliminating toxins in the body, and transporting important nutrients to our cells which need energy to burn calories.

4. Cook your own food. I may take more work, but the truth is we eat out or order in too often. We have more control on what we eat if we cook it ourselves.

5. Slow down when eating. Don’t wolf down when eating. The monks chew each bite of food 100 times, but they also eat only until they are full. They recognize that chewing their food more makes it easier for the body to digest.

6. Breathe. Practice proper and regular breathing. Close your eyes, pull that air deep into your stomach via your nose and let all the junk out through your mouth. Whether its a stressful day, or you just want to start and end your day on the right foot, breathing is important.

7. Don’t starve yourself. Not eating is the worst diet program. It tells our body to slow metabolism. And don’t skip breakfast because people who skip breakfast are over 4 times more likely to be overweight.

8. Exercise regularly. Even with a work out program or a diet program, everything has to be balanced. You cannot lose weight with just one. And it always help to keep a positive outlook — try to keep stress out of your life.

Studies have shown that starving yourself doesn’t really work in losing weight. It will always have you craving more food later in the day and you end up eating more than you should. Rather than starvng yourself, take in food that increase your body’s ability to burn calories and curb your cravings. Here are food suggested by experts to help you trim down fat faster than eating less.

1. Quinoa – It packs both fiber (2.6 grams per 1/2 cup) and protein, a combo that can keep you satisfied for hours.

2. Steak – Beef is known to be a diet buster, but eating it may actually help you peel off pounds. In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, women on a diet that included red meat lost more weight than those eating equal calories but little beef. The protein in steak helps you retain muscle mass during weight loss. Eat it grilled or broiled together with your salad or some veggies.

3. Eggs – Women on a low-calorie diet who ate an egg with toast and jelly each morning lost twice as many pounds as those who had a bagel breakfast with the same number of calories but no eggs. Egg protein is filling, so you eat less later in the day.

4. Kale – One raw chopped cup contains 34 calories and about 1.3 grams of fiber, as well as a hearty helping of iron and calcium. If you have problems with kale’s earthy flavor, you can take spinach as an alternative.

5. Goji berries – These berries have a hunger-curbing edge over other fruit. It has 18 amino acids, which make them a surprising source of protein and contain more beta-carotene than carrots with a calorie cost of only 35 per tablespoon. Snack on them midafternoon to stay satisfied until dinner.

6. Buckwheat pasta – Buckwheat is high in fiber and, unlike most carbs, contains protein. Those two nutrients make it very satiating, so it’s harder to overeat buckwheat pasta than the regular stuff.

7. Almond butter – Adding this spread may lower bread’s glycemic index (a measure of a food’s effect on blood sugar). A study from the University of Toronto found that people who ate almonds with white bread didn’t experience the same blood sugar surges as those who ate only the slice. The higher blood sugar levels rise, the lower they fall; that dip leads to hunger, causing people to overeat. Furthermore, blood sugar changes cause the body to make insulin, which can increase abdominal fat.

8. Pomegranates – In addition to being loaded with folate and disease-fighting antioxidants, they’re low in calories and high in fiber, so they satisfy your sweet tooth without blowing your diet.

Make sure to blend these superfoods into your diet for a successful weight loss program. Eating less doesn’t necessarily mean you burn fat. It can actually stump your metabolism and your body will preserve itself by burning less calories. Eat regularly with the proper food and exercise. This is still the best weight-buster.

Mars Petcare US just announced that it was doing a voluntary recall of products manufactured at its Everson, Pennsylvania facility. The pet food is being recalled in the US because of potential contamination with Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund.

Salmonella is known to cause serious infections in dogs and cats. Cross contamination with people is also possible due to handling of the pet food. People who are prone to the infection are mainly those with compromised immune systems and children or the aged. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with the said product should contact their healthcare providers immediately.

On the other hand, pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Others would have decreased appetite, fever, and abdominal pains. It is also possible that those without symptoms can be carriers of the infection and could pass it on to other pets or other people. In the event that your pet has consumed the said product, it is suggested that you take it to the veterinarian as soon as possible.

On July 29, 2008, Mars Petcare stopped production at the Everson facility when it was alerted of a possible link between dry pet food produced at the plant and two isolated cases of people infected with Salmonella Schwarzengrund. Though there is still no direct link or evidence that the product produced at the plant was responsible for the infection, the company is implementing precautionary measures with the voluntary recall. Until the company has secured sufficient evidence that the infection did not originate from the Everson plant, it will continue to hold production in that facility.

Beyonce had to stuff herself and gain 20 pounds when she took the part of Etta James in the movie Cadillac Records. I was trying to look for a good pic of Beyonce in the movie to see how far she went. The closest pic I got didn’t look bad. She still looked voluptuous and sexy . . . darn it!

According to the sexy singer, gaining weight was so much fun (really?). The irritating part was having to lose it when she landed a role in the psychological thriller Obsessed. She had to go on a strict diet — no junk food, no chips, no candy and nothing fried. No wonder it was hard. Still, she managed to lose it to prepare for the role.

Beyonce also claims she is done being a pop star. Her goal is to be an icon like Diana Ross. It’s a tough act to follow. But with the way her career is moving at the moment, it is a possibility.

Most of us walk around living mediocre lives. Some even find that it’s not worth the effort following a major crisis that they feel they cannot overcome. But for those with enough wisdom and experience to know better, it is a gift unlike any other. Difficulties are challenges that provide knowledge and understanding no school in the world can teach. Pain or sorrow constitute opportunities to cherish the joys even more.

When my mother almost lost her life 2 months ago, I would have given anything to save it. Everything in my world faded in the background and I knew it was a challenge I must overcome no matter what the cost. What I learned from the experience was more valuable than the hard-earned money my mother shelled out to put me through college. I learned humility and the reason that there are other people in our lives. I did not overcome the challenge — we did. Along with the help of family, friends, and even people I hardly met in our workplace, my Mom recovered from a fatal illness and we were able to pay for hospital bills that seemed insurmountable.

This very essence of life is what C’elle is trying to help people save. Together with advancements in stem cell technology, C’elle provides women the ability to store stem cells from menstrual fluid that can be used to save lives from diseases that were previously incurable. Stem cells processed from menstrual fluid can be harvested to cure heart disease, spine injury, cancer, and many more. C’elle learned About the Science of stem cells and the method of preservation to save the life of the source and even blood relatives. Wouldn’t you prefer to have the opportunity to save your child or your parents if you could? I know I would’ve paid ten times the value of the C’elle kit to have lessened my mother’s ordeal.

Visit the website of C’elle and find out how you can harvest and preserve your stem cells with their C’elle kit at a price so much less than the value it can save. View C’elle Client Testimonial and discover how the technology has helped so many people to enjoy more of their lives.

My youngest son loves animals. I don’t mind really. Except, I have skin asthma that is sensitive to fleas, dust, mites, and so many more. I haven’t had a major skin outbreak for years. However, it is irritating that I can’t get rid of the dermatitis on my nail beds and that usual itchy spot on my ankles. Upon consultation with my dermatologist, it appears like I have to take care of the fleas that my son’s cat most likely has. Even worse, my son’s cat has 2 kittens at the moment that she is nursing. I think kitten fleas are making my allergy worse.

I avoid using insecticides or other chemicals to rid the house of pests. So, I read up on the internet and found a natural way to kill fleas at www.fleascontrol.com. There were several suggestions that I found, one involves feeding your pet with garlic. This could be a good option if you don’t care much for the risk that garlic may place on your pet. I don’t plan to break my son’s heart. I had to find something else. That’s when I saw that there are such things as flea traps — similar to those sticky glue on paper to catch roaches. And of course, I do have to vacuum regularly.

Well, wish me luck. If you have the same problem as I do, go visit the site to save you, your family, and your pets from those pesky pests.