Why Chocolates can be good for the Health?

Chocolates is the crowds favorite, almost everybody can’t resist having it. Young and old enjoy eating chocolates as a part of dessert or just fulfilling their cravings. But have you wonder if having a sweet tooth for chocolates can give you health benefits?

There were a research that proves chocolates specifically dark chocolates and cocoa powder has health benefits and it can even make life sweeter and longer. According to these researches, chocolates have substances that are natural antioxidant like resveratrol. Antioxidants are substances or nutrients in our foods which can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to our body. Antioxidants act as "free radical scavengers" and hence prevent and repair damage done by these free radicals.

And the antioxidant that was recently found resveratrol in chocolates. It is produced by certain fruits and vegetables including grapes, raspberries, mulberries and peanuts. The difference of resveratrol to other antioxidants is that it can cross the blood-brain barrier to help protect your brain and nervous system. Here the other health benefits of resveratrol :

• Protecting your cells from free radical damage
• Inhibiting the spread of cancer, especially prostate cancer
• Lowering your blood pressure
• Keeping your heart healthy and improving elasticity in your blood vessels
• Normalizing your anti-inflammatory response
  

Though chocolates have some health benefits, from nutritional perspective there are still better food to eat than chocolate. Here are some advices from Dr. Mercola if you are eating chocolates:

• If you eat chocolate, only eat dark chocolate

Dark chocolate has antioxidant properties, which can actually help to protect the body from damaging oxidative stress. It appears that adding milk to the chocolate cancels out the antioxidant effects, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

• Only eat chocolate if you're healthy

Chocolate, even if it is dark, still contains large quantities of sugar, and eating sugar is one of the most devastating things you can do to your health. If you're sick, your immune system is working hard to combat your illness, but sugar weakens the immune system. So eating chocolate will only make it harder for your immune system to fight the illness.

• Make sure you eat it in moderation

Even if you're healthy, you don't want to eat huge amounts of chocolate. The key is to eat it in moderation (something like once every two weeks) and enjoy it when you eat it. A small bit of chocolate can be very satisfying if you savor each bite, rather than just wolfing it down.

Sleeping can Improve Creativity

Is there a logical reason why big and successful companies like Google, Cisco Systems and Procter and Gamble installed Energy Pods with leather recliners? The answer is yes, these companies want their employees to have power naps when it is needed.

Most people think that when sleeping brains are close to not functioning but in reality sleeping enhances performance, learning and memory. And also during sleep there is an improvement in the creativity. According to Dr. Ellenbogen’s research at Harvard indicates that people are 33 percent more likely to infer connections among distantly related ideas after sleeping, but few realize that their performance has actually improved.

Other than brain activity sleep can affect body function and growth. And there are a lot of negative effects that might occur if you’re not getting enough sleep like:

1. Alter your metabolism and make you gain weight
2. Cause your brain to stop producing new cells
3. Increase your risk of cancer by altering the balance of hormones in your body
4. Increase your risk of diabetes by reducing your leptin levels
5. Accelerate aging
6. Increase your risk of heart disease and stroke
7. Raise your blood pressure
8. Speed up tumor growth. Tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions

Effects of Vegetarian Diet on Pregnant Women

Vegetarian or vegan diet is a diet that includes only foods from plants like fruits, vegetables, grains and beans. And most of the vegans have low or devoid of animal products. Many studies have shown that being in vegetarian diet lowers the risk of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and certain cancers.

There was a study that shows being vegan has some unhealthy effects specifically to pregnant women. They have a high risk of having deficiency on essential nutrients like:

• Iron: Vegetarians may have a greater risk of iron deficiency than non-vegetarians. The richest sources of iron are red meat, liver and egg yolk -- all high in cholesterol. However, dried beans, spinach, enriched products, brewer's yeast and dried fruits are all good plant sources of iron.
• Vitamin B-12: This comes naturally only from animal sources. Vegans need a reliable source of vitamin B-12. It can be found in some fortified (not enriched) breakfast cereals, fortified soy beverages, some brands of nutritional (brewer's) yeast and other foods (check the labels), as well as vitamin supplements.
• Vitamin D: Vegans should have a reliable source of vitamin D. Vegans who don’t get much sunlight may need a supplement.
  

And also researchers have found that vegetarian diet during pregnancy may not be health to the mom and to the unborn child. Pregnant women who are vegetarians are five times at risk of delivering a boy hypospadias, a birth defect of the penis where the opening of the penis is found on the underside of the penis rather than at the tip. It is a common congenital defect, affecting about 1 in 300 newborn males. The condition requires surgery to correct it, where the foreskin is used to repair the problem. Untreated, it can interfere with urination and sexual function.

However there are proper nutritional planning should be done if you’re into vegetarian diet. This needed to balance the nutrients, calories and energy the body needs:

• Keep your intake of sweets and fatty foods to a minimum. These foods are low in nutrients and high in calories.
• Choose whole or unrefined grain products when possible, or use fortified or enriched cereal products.
• Use a variety of fruits and vegetables, including foods that are good sources of vitamins A and C.
• If you use milk or dairy products, choose fat-free/nonfat and low-fat varieties.
• Eggs are high in cholesterol (213 mg per yolk), so monitor your use of them. Limit your cholesterol intake to no more than 300 mg per day.
  

Sweet Lies: Truth about Aspartame

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener and as sweet as sugar in typical concentration without the high energy value of sugar. Many years now people thought that taking substances with artificial sweeteners like sucrose and aspartame is better especially as an alternative for sugar used by diabetic and those who are in a diet.
A study shows that aspartame is consisting of three chemical that breakdowns during ingestion which includes aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. And as the aspartame continuous to breakdown it produces substances like formaldehyde, formic acid and diketopiperazine.
According to the recent studies of experts from University of Pretoria and the University of Limpopo, it shows that high dose of consumption of aspartame and other artificial sweetener may neurological and behavioral disturbances on individuals. And during the study they have found that there are direct and indirect changes in the brain which includes disturbances:

• the metabolism of amino acids
• protein structure and metabolism
• the integrity of nucleic acids
• neuronal function
• endocrine balances
  

Visit Sweet Deception for more details.

How to End Sleepless Nights

Sleeplessness or insomnia is one of the common sleep disorders. It is characterized by difficulty in falling to sleep or staying asleep. And on serious cases it already interferes with the normal physical, emotional and mental functioning. An average person 15 minutes to fall asleep when they are in bed and 30 40% of adults are having insomnia. Affects all age groups and it usually occurs 1.4 times more common on women than men.

In general insomnia is classified according to the length of occurrence:

• symptoms lasting less than one week are classified as transient insomnia,
• symptoms between one to three weeks are classified as short-term insomnia, and
• those longer than three weeks are classified as chronic insomnia.
  

If you are suffering this kind of condition, Dr. Mercola in his Natural Health Newsletter posted some tips on how to have a good night sleep:

• Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars.
• Sleep in complete darkness or as close as possible.
• Read something spiritual or religious
• No TV right before bed.
• Avoid using loud alarm clocks.
• Avoid caffeine
• Make certain you are exercising regularly.
• Establish a bedtime routine.
  

Breakfast for Better Health

Skipping breakfast is very common nowadays. This is because of the fast faced lifestyle and having a wrong idea that breakfast is not as important as the other meal of the day.
There are studies that show young and adults specifically the teens that skipped breakfast are more likely to be obese. They are the ones who tend to eat less healthy during the day and exercised less.

Breakfast is as important as the other meals of the day. As the day starts you need something to fill your empty stomach while you were asleep and something to charge your energy. But there is more to it than not skipping breakfast. Breakfast should be healthy. So if you’re planning breakfast you should avoid the following:

• Doughnuts
• Cereals
• Fruit juice
• Waffles and pancakes
• Bagels and toast (even whole grain organic types)
• ALL cereals (even whole grain organic types)
  

It is ideal to have healthy food during breakfast or in any meal. And to have a healthy breakfast, Dr. Mercola advised that you should avoid whole grain breads and cereals because it rapidly breakdown sugar and stimulating insulin production. He also said that eggs, juiced fruits and vegetables are ideal for breakfast.

You must take note that in preparing meals like breakfast for you and your family you must always consider the nutritional type. And by doing this you will enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

How to Get Healthy Bones

Bones are important part of our body. Its main function is to move, support and protect most parts of the body. And because of this it is needed that we take good care of it for a health bones.
Here are some tips according to Dr. Mercola on how we can make our bones strong:

1. Get plenty of omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, and reduce your intake of omega-6 fats from vegetable oils. (Studies have shown that a higher ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats is linked to lower bone density at the hip -- a condition that could lead to osteoporosis.)

2. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K. It serves as the biological "glue" that helps plug the calcium into your bone matrix. Green leafy vegetables are excellent sources of vitamin K, but even better is natto, a fermented soy food that I personally eat nearly every day (it has the highest concentration of vitamin k in the human diet).

3. Eat more vegetables, according to your nutritional type.

4. Exercise regularly. This, along with diet, is a KEY to building strong bones.

5. Get the right kind of calcium. The best form of calcium is from milk. However, I would strongly advise you to avoid pasteurized milk like the plague. An acceptable alternative for most is raw milk. You can also convert the raw milk to kefir (fermented raw milk) for an excellent source of vitamin K2 as well.

Thinking Makes You Hungry

There were researches that shows mental work induces an increase in appetite. The research team measured a the spontaneous food intake of 14 student correspondents after each of three tasks: relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, and completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer. And it shows a relative increase in the calorie intake.

This must be the reason why some people tend to eat more when feeling stressed or after a hard day mental work. Here are some reasons why people feel hungrier:

• Seeing food, which makes your body anticipate eating.
• Time of day. Your body is conditioned to eat at certain times.
• Drinking alcohol, which can impair your judgment and make you eat more than normal.
• Eating refined carbs, which generates a rapid rise in blood sugar, followed by a subsequent “crash” that makes you want more food.Portion size. Studies show that the larger the portion, the more you’ll eat.
• Eating too fast, which allows you to consume more food before your body has a chance to let you know it’s full (it takes about 20 minutes for this to happen, so you should wait at least 20 minutes before going back for seconds).
• Not sleeping enough, triggers hormone imbalances that boost your desire to eat.
  

And by knowing that appetite can be stimulated by mental work it doesn’t mean that it is not good and you will just ignore it. If you feel hungry, listen to your body and eat something that will satisfy it. But you must keep in mind to eat just the right amount and eat something that is nutritious and healthy.

Here are some food suggestions from Dr. Mercola’s Natural Health Articles that are known to nourish your brain:

• Organic eggs
• Leafy vegetables like spinach
• Seeds and nuts (especially walnuts)
• Organic grass-fed beef and chicken
• Green tea
• Omega-3 fats (like krill oil)
  

Unhealthy Food Mistakes that Parent Make

Healthy eating habits of children start with the parents. And as parents it is their responsibility to guide their children on proper eating habits and teaching them which food are healthy or unhealthy. Most of the parents are likely to give their children healthy foods but because of the external factors they tend not to give health foods. And you are not giving your child a favor by just giving them food that makes them smile without thinking if it is health.

According to the observations of Dr.Mercola in his Natural Health Newsletter, here are some common food mistakes that parents make :

• Limiting healthy fats. The word “fat-free” or “low-fat” does not belong in a child’s diet (or yours for that matter). Healthy fats like those from animal sources, coconut oil, raw nuts and seeds, olive oil, avocado and others are essential for your child’s development. An excellent way to get some healthy fats into your child’s diet is to add some butter (organic, grass-fed and, ideally raw), raw cheese, or olive oil to lightly steamed veggies.
• Using food as a reward. This sets up your child to think eating unhealthy foods is necessary for their emotional fulfillment. It’s best to nip this one in the bud early on, or not start it at all.
• Forcing your child to eat everything on his plate. Assuming you’re offering a variety of healthy foods at each meal, there’s no need to make your child eat every last bite. Most kids will naturally stop eating when they’re full, and this is a feeling you want them to learn to honor for the rest of their life. If you start telling them to overeat now, there’s a good chance they’ll overeat later too. (To avoid wasting food, only serve your child small portions, or save what they don’t eat for later.)
• Letting them eat junk instead of a family meal. I’m always shocked at how bad most “kid’s foods” are from a health perspective. If your child only wants “kid foods” like pizza, French fries and macaroni and cheese, do not give in. Kids can eat the same things as adults (cut-up or mashed when necessary) and they will be much healthier for it.
• Giving infants French fries and soda. One study found that infants seven months and older are being given soft drinks in their bottles, and that French fries are the most popular “vegetable” eaten by children aged 19 to 24 months. Please do not fall into the mindset that you’re “depriving” your child by not giving them soda and French fries. You are actually doing them a huge favor.
• Saying you doesn’t like vegetables. Your kids will hear this and decide they don’t either.
  

Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure

Blood Pressure is the force in the arteries both when heart beats and at rest. And when this force became abnormal it is usually called hypertension or high blood pressure. It is defined in an adult as a blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg systolic pressure or greater than or equal to 90 mm Hg diastolic pressure.

High blood pressure may occur in both children and adults but mostly in adults. And having this condition increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.
And according to Dr. Mercola in his Natural Health Newsletter, you can lower blood pressure naturally. Here are common ways to quickly lower blood pressure without taking drugs:

1. Eliminate grains and sugars as described in my nutrition plan. This will lower insulin levels and normalize blood pressure in about 75 percent of people.


2. Address the common stresses in your life that tend to elevate blood pressure. EFT is a simple, effective, and inexpensive tool that you can use to help in this area.


3. Getting one hour of exercise a day seems to be an important contributor to the long-term benefits of those currently suffering from high blood pressure.
   

What Causes The Eye Bag?

Eye bag is the common facial imperfection specifically to women. It makes a person look tired, sad and old. And as common norm of the society, quick fix is the best answer. But what really causes your eyelids to sag.

There were researches done to know the real cause of sagging eyelids. The study is the first to examine the anatomy of multiple subjects to determine what happens to the lower eyelid with age. It is also the first face-aging study that uses high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). And as a result, researches have determined that fat expansion in the eye socket is the primary cause.

According to Dr. Mercola, published in his Natural Health Newsletter, bags under the eyes are related to a number of causes such as:

• Thyroid dysfunction
• Fatigue
• Not enough sleep
• Over exercising
• Fluid retention
• Toxic loads
• Smoking
• Allergies

And most importantly the oxidative stressed which resulted from eating unhealthy diet of processed foods. Oxidative stressed aids in accumulation of free radicals or cell damaging substances in the body.

Here are some tips on how to prevent and revive that sagging eyelids:

• Juicing for a fresher look. Juicing fresh fruits and vegetables helps you absorb all the nutrients easily.
• Drink enough amount of water every day to reduce swollen look
• Eat skin smoothing food like green leafy vegetables, beans, olive oil, nuts
• Use half sliced potato instead of cucumber to reduce swelling and brighten dark-under eye circles
• Get enough sleep and properly addressing emotional stressed.

How to Be Diabetes FREE

Diabetes is a syndrome of metabolism, resulting to abnormality of high blood sugar level. It is usually due to a combination of hereditary and environmental causes. This abnormality may lead to other health problems and that is another why you should take action to manage and treat it.

Conventional treatment is focused on fixing the symptom of elevated blood sugar, rather than addressing the underlying disease and it is doomed to fail in most cases. Treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic miscommunication that is at the root of diabetes. It just trades one evil for another.

And according to Dr. Mercola Natural Health Article, the solution to diabetes has been available ever since and remarkably simple. Here are some tips to cure or prevent diabetes:

1. Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in your diet.


2. Eat a diet that’s right for your nutritional type. While nearly all type 2 diabetics need to swap out their grains for other foods, some people will benefit from using protein for the substitution, while others will benefit from using more vegetable-only carbohydrates. Therefore, along with reducing grains and sugars, determining your nutritional type will give you some insight into what foods you should use to replace the grains and sugars.


3. Exercise regularly and at the appropriate intensity. It increases the sensitivity of your insulin receptors, causing the insulin already present to work much more effectively, so your body doesn't need to produce as much. I’ve discussed how to use exercise to your best advantage in this past article.
   

Fat Can Be Healthy

Is it really possible that fat can be healthy and thin is not? The answer is YES. According to the report of “The Archives of Internal Medicine”, they compared the weight and the cardiovascular risk factors of 5400 correspondents. And it shows that half of the overweight people and one-third of obese people in the study were “metabolically healthy.” That means that many overweight and obese adults may have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose. And at the same time one out of four slim correspondents had two cardiovascular risk factors which are typically associated with obesity.

It is said in some studies that treadmill is the best way to indicate healthiness than body mass index. And with this studies just shows that there are proportion of obese and overweight people who are metabolically healthy.

Even with this studies that obese and overweight can be health it is better that people this condition should start doing something fit and more healthy.

Here are some tips from Dr. Mercola Natural Health Articles in achieving optimal weight:

1. Tailor your diet to your nutritional type. These are the foods that are right for your biochemistry, and these are the foods that will push your body toward its ideal weight. (By the way, these foods may be high in fat, high in carbs, heavy on protein or heavy on veggies, it all depends on YOU).
   
   
2. View exercise as a drug. When you’re trying to lose weight, a casual walk here and there is not going to cut it. Many studies find that exercising for one hour, five days a week is actually needed, and I tend to agree with that. There is also strong compelling evidence that strength training and high-intensity anaerobic interval training may be especially effective for weight loss.
   
   
3. Let go of your emotional blocks. Tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are your friend and ally when it comes to losing weight. For some, emotional eating is more complex, and an experienced EFT practitioner may be able to help unravel some of your deeper emotional issues.
   

Top Six Health Myths

As we the world continues to evolve, people tend to find ways to answer their health problems from what causes it to what can cure it. And sometimes we are not getting the right information we really need.

According to Dr. Mercola with Rachael Droege here are the top six health myths:

• Myth: Sun Causes Skin Cancer

Experts say that being exposed to the sun can cause skin cancer but the truth is that it actually prevents cancer and other diseases because it promotes formation of Vitamin D. What you should remember is that you should be cautious about sun exposure protect yourself from burning under the sun.

• Myth: Milk Does a Body Good

Commercial pasteurized milk is not a health food and should be avoided, when milk is pasteurized the structure of the milk proteins changes (denaturization) into something far less than healthy.

• Myth: Saturated Fat Causes Heart Disease

Saturated fats in the foods we eat that is causing all of this heart disease, but rather, and far more, it is the excess carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-laden diet that is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes and later, heart disease. Trans fats are another major contributing factor.

• Myth: Fish is Good for You

Sadly, as fish would otherwise be one of the healthiest meats on the planet since it is packed with the incredibly beneficial omega-3 fats, fish (and shellfish) easily accumulate high levels of chemical residues from the water they live in. Residues in fish can be as much as 9 million times the amount found in the water!

• Myth: Low-Fat Diets are Healthy

Your body cannot function properly without adequate amounts of fat--it influences everything from blood clotting to vitamin absorption to brain function.

• Myth: Whole Grains are Good for You

While nearly everyone, including myself, agrees that whole grains are better for you than refined grains, whole grains are still not something that most people should be eating. And high insulin levels benefits from avoiding grains, yes even whole grains.

For more information Health Myths, subscribe to Mercola Free Newsletter

Energy Drinks Can Be Lethal

Energy drinks are beverages that contain large doses of caffeine and other legal stimulants like ephedrine, guarana, and ginseng giving you a quick boost of energy. This kind of beverage has been popping up all over the supermarket and convenience store shelves. And has grown its popularity for the past years, with $4.7 billion in sales in 2007, up from $3.5 billion last 2006. With these popularity health professionals was worried about who’s drinking them.

These caffeine-loaded beverage causes blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems such as stroke. One hour after drinking energy drink like Red Bull, can make your blood system becomes abnormal, as might be expected from a patient with cardiovascular disease.

Another bad effect of drinking energy drink is when it is mixed with alcohol. It is combining stimulants with depressants which usually occur in bars. Energy drink like Red Bull when mixed with alcohol became a popular bar drinks like "Vodka Bulls" and "Yager Bombs”.

The combined effect of these substances is unknown, but researchers say overloading your body with heavy stimulants and heavy depressants could lead to heart failure and according to previous news stories about fatal outcomes from this deadly mixture, that’s not just a theory.

Everything that is overdone or excessive is bad. And instead of taking artificial energy boosters like energy drinks, you should know the reasons why you feel tired and look for more natural ways in increasing energy levels.

Here are some reasons why you lack energy:

• Poor food choice
• Low-quality food
• Stressful lifestyle
• Negative emotions
• Lack of sleep
• Lack of exercise
  

And according to Dr. Mercola's Natural Health Newsletter increasing your energy levels, then, is as easy as remedying these factors by:

• Eating right for your nutritional type
• Increasing your intake of omega-3 fats
• Eliminating grains and sugars from your diet
• Releasing emotional stress and negativity with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
• Sleeping when you’re tired
• Exercising

Obesity May Contribute To Bone Problems

According to the study of 115 18- and 19-year-old women, shows that excess body fats contribute to poor bone health. In the study, researchers did a bone scans of women with normal body fat (less than 32%) and high body fat (greater than 32%). As a result, women with high body fat have weaker bones around 8 to 9 percent than those with normal body fat.

Here are some tips from Dr. Mercola Natural Health Newsletter on how to lose weight and strengthen bones:

• Eat more vegetables
• Exercise regularly
• Increase the intake of omega 3 fats
• Have enough exposure to the sun
• Make sure you get enough Vitamin K
• Get the right kind of calcium. Best source of calcium is non pasteurized milk.
  

For more Natural Health Tips visit www.mercola.com

How Long Does Your Food Last

What most people are afraid of is food poisoning. We usually use our own judgment in checking if leftovers gone bad. Slimy, stinky, spotty or chunky changes in food are considered by scientists as spoilage bacteria and on the other hand pathogens that make you sick are odorless, colorless and invisible. And since consumers can’t depend on the looks or smell of the food, scientist’s advice to use the rule of 4: no more than four days at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 degrees centigrade. (Freezing fresh food at zero degrees Fahrenheit will keep it safe indefinitely.)

However, here are some common foods along with estimates of how long they typically last in the fridge:

• Butter: 1-3 months
  
• Milk: 5 days
• Eggs (fresh): 3-5 weeks
• Ground beef, ground turkey, chicken and fish: 1-2 days
• Beef steaks and roasts and pork roasts: 3-5 days
• Cooked or uncooked veggies: 3-5 days
• Leftovers: 3-4 days
• Mustard, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce: use within 1 year of opening
• Salsa: 1 month
• Ketchup, peanut butter and jelly: 6 months
  

And to maximize your food lifespan it is better that you put enough space on your fridge so that the cool air circulates better.

But of course you should consume before it get spoiled, the fresher the food the better.

For more tips on avoiding food poisoning visit Mercola Natural Health Tips.

Sunlight for better mental health

There were a study that proves the association of darkness and depression. In the studies, neuroscientist kept their test subjects (rats) in the dark for 6 weeks. The animals not only exhibited depressive behavior but also suffered damage in brain regions known to be underactive in humans during depression.

There are disorders that are directly related to lack of sunlight like SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and “winter blues”. SAD is a depression that occurs during the fall and winter months when sunlight is not abundant and “winter blues” is a condition not as serious as SAD. An estimate of 10 – 12 million people in the US suffer from SAD and about 25 million suffer from “winter blues”.

Your body is designed to be in sun. In your internal body clock, you tend to feel tired and sleepy when its dark or at night and tend to be more active when sun comes up. Internal clock does much more than just help you sleep in the evening. Your body actually has many internal clocks -- in your brain, lungs, liver, heart and even your skeletal muscles -- and they all work to keep your body running smoothly by controlling temperature and the release of hormones, some of which impact your mood.

To have better mental health, we should enough exposure to the sunlight. During summer, it is advised that you should spend some time in the sun. If you live in the US, keep in mind that come late September till late March the sun is lower in the sky for most of the day, which means that a light-skinned person may need longer than 20 minutes in the sun each day, and a dark-skinned person could need one hour to 90 minutes to get all of the benefits of sunlight.
Since it can be impractical to move places during winter, you can try using light bulbs in your home and office with full-spectrum versions that simulate the qualities of natural outdoor sunlight.

For more details on sunlights natural benefits, visit Mercola Natural Health Articles

Labor Day Discounts at Mercola.com

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union (of New York City) sought to create "a day off for the working citizens". And during this time of the year, working men or women has a chance for a day off.
And incline with this, Mercola.com would like to honor all the hardships that working men and women did whole year round. Dr. Mercola is giving away 15% off on all Mercola Natural Health Products. To avail of this discount visit http://products.mercola.com/ today, promo ends September 8 2008.

Understanding the Benefits of Chlorella

Chlorella is a genus of single-celled green algae, belonging to the phylum Chlorophyta. It is spherical in shape, about 2 to 10 μm in diameter, and is without flagella. Chlorella contains the green photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll-a and -b in its chloroplast. Through photosynthesis it multiplies rapidly requiring only carbon dioxide, water, sunlight, and a small amount of minerals to reproduce.

The name Chlorella is taken from the Greek word chloros meaning green and the Latin diminutive suffix ella meaning "small." German biochemist Otto Heinrich Warburg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1931 for his study on photosynthesis in Chlorella. In 1961 Melvin Calvin of the University of California received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the pathways of carbon dioxide assimilation in plants using Chlorella. In recent years, researchers have made less use of Chlorella as an experimental organism because it lacks a sexual cycle and, therefore, the research advantages of genetics are unavailable.

Studies have shown that chlorella has health benefits. Numerous research projects in the U.S. and Europe indicate that chlorella can also aid the body in breaking down persistent hydrocarbon and metallic toxins such as mercury, cadmium and lead, DDT and PCB while strengthening the immune system response. In Japan, interest in chlorella has focused largely on its detoxifying properties - its ability to remove or neutralize poisonous substances from the body.

And according to Dr. Mercola, here are other benefits of Pure Green Food:
1. Aids you in processing more oxygen
2. Cleanses key elimination systems like your bowel, liver, and blood
3. Helps purify your blood and clean away toxins
4. Aids you in promoting optimal blood pressure
5. Supports elimination of molds in your body
6. Helps neutralize bad air you might breathe in
7. Promotes growth and repair of your tissues

For better health and detoxified body look for Pure Green Food Chlorela Supplement.

Why Fluoride is Not Good for the Health

For a long period of time it was believed that fluoride is good for the health especially for the teeth. But there were researches and studies that say fluoride has bad effects on health specifically to the brain.

Recent human studies from China have confirmed the results of previous animal studies; that elevated fluoride exposure leads to reduced I.Q. in children. Cognitive ability is further reduced if your child is deficient in iodine.

Even at levels as low as 1ppm (part per million), studies have demonstrated direct toxic effects on brain tissue, including:
reduction in lipid content
• impaired anti-oxidant defense systems
• damage to your hippocampus
• damage to your purkinje cells
• increased uptake of aluminum
• formation of beta-amyloid plaques (the classic brain abnormality in Alzheimer's disease)
• accumulation of fluoride in your pineal gland.

And according Dr. Mercola there are ways on how to keep teeth healthy without fluoride:

• look into a diet that is naturally healthy teeth. Fewer intakes of sweets and processed food will lessen the chances of having tooth decay.
• protect yourself by using non-fluoride toothpaste and non getting fluoride treatments from dentist
• avoid giving your child fluoride supplements
• drink water that undergo a reverse osmosis filter.

You may visit Mercola Natural Health Newsletter for more natural health information.

Things You Don’t Know About Plastics

Plastics are common household material for different purposes, from food storage, baby bottles and even toys. Plastic is not an inert substance as its manufacturers would like you to believe. It contains chemicals like BPA, used to strengthen some plastics and phthalates to soften others. This harmful substance has a capability to mimic hormones in your body.

Here are some of the alarming effects of being exposed with this kind of substances:

• Structural damage to your brain
• Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
• Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
• Altered immune function
• Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction
• Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
• Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
• Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production

Knowing these effects leads us to a solution, cut down the plastic exposure. And according to Dr. Mercola here are some tips to reduce plastic in our lives.

1. Boycott plastic shopping bags. Use reusable canvas or cloth varieties instead. (This also applies to the plastic produce bags in the grocery store.)
2. Don’t buy bottled water. Filter your own using a reverse-osmosis filter and put it in a glass bottle. I am going to be helping you in this area soon as my team is just finishing up a glass water bottle that you can use to carry around with you. It is covered with a neoprene sleeve to protect it from breaking and has a easy lid to drink from and is wide enough so you can easily clean the bottle. I hope to have them available in the fall as they are at the factory right now being produced.
3. Avoid using plastic cups, utensils, dishware and food storage containers. If you get a beverage while on-the-go, bring your own cup with you.
4. Buy toys made of natural fabrics instead of plastic.
5. Look for products that use minimal packaging, or buy in bulk.
6. Give up plastic wrap (and never use it to cover your food while it’s heating).
7. Avoid buying canned foods and drinks (the can linings contain plastic chemicals). Try your hand at canning fresh produce at home instead.

For more information in maintaining natural health articles visit www.mercola.com

Natural Ways to Relieve Migraine

Migraine is not an ordinary headache. It is neurological syndrome characterized by altered bodily experiences, painful headaches, and nausea. And according to the reports, more than 300 million people – around 6 to 7 percent of male and 15 to 18 of female is suffering from this pain. But unfortunately it is poorly treated.

There are cases that these painful headaches are preceded or accompanied by sensory warning or aura like flashes of light, blind spots or tingling of arms or legs. It is also accompanied by signs or symptoms of nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to sound or light. Migraine pain can be excruciating and may incapacitate you for hours or even days.

Although there were studies about migraine, there were no exact conclusions about its cause and cure. Even though there were no cures there are already treatments to ease the pain and lessen its occurrence.

Here are some tips to naturally relieve migraine from Dr. Mercola – Natural Health Newsletter:

1. Stimulating your body's natural painkilling ability. By putting pressure on a nerve just under your eyebrow, you can cause your pituitary gland to release painkilling endorphins immediately.

2. Taking 10 teaspoons of cayenne pepper in a glass of water. Endorphins are released by your brain when the cayenne hits your stomach lining.

3. Using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Newcomers who use this simple process by themselves achieve relief 50 percent to 80 percent of the time and, in many cases, the relief is complete and permanent. More sophisticated uses by an EFT expert may be required for some migraine sufferers.

4. Green apple scent. One study found that the scent significantly relieved migraine pain. This may also work with other scents that you enjoy so consulting with an aromatherapist may be beneficial.

Other useful techniques include:

• Putting a cold compress on your forehead or behind your neck
• Massaging your ears and ear lobes
• Massaging the "crown" of your head -- the ring of muscles that circle your head where a crown would sit

For more Natural Health Tips and Natural Health Articles, Log on to www.mercola.com

Sweet kiss but deadly

Lipstick is a cosmetic product that many women can’t live without and because of this test was done to check the quality and safety for its users.

Surprisingly, the studies show that some lipsticks contain toxins like lead. Sixty-one percent of the lipsticks tested had detectable lead levels. One-third of the lipsticks exceeded accepted U.S. levels of lead for products that are ingested. The Dior lipstick was found to contain more than twice as much lead as is allowed.

Among the U.S. lipsticks with the highest lead levels were:

• L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” –- 0.65 ppm
• L’Oreal Colour Riche “Classic Wine” –- 0.58 ppm
• Cover Girl Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” –- 0.56 ppm
• Dior Addict “Positive Red” –- 0.21 ppm

Lead in your lipstick may come from one of two places: colorants, which may contain lead, or as byproducts from ingredients obtained from raw materials like petrolatum, mineral oil and paraffin. The only limit that the FDA has established is for FD&C color additives that are sometimes used to color lipstick, and these are allowed to contain 10-20 ppm of lead.

Also studies have found that there were no safe level of lead since it is a substance that does not breakdown in the body and will be accumulated for a life time. And according to Dr. Mercola in his natural health newsletter, there are other toxins that can be found in variety of cosmetic and personal products like paraben, phthalates, muska and methylisothiazolinone. This toxins can be directly absorbed by the body that may cause health problems.

It is advice that women must be aware on the contents or ingredients of the cosmetics and personal products that they will use. They must be cautious enough that cosmetics specifically lipsticks should be as pure as the food you eat. And as suggested by Dr. Mercola look for organic make up that are effective and does not contain synthetic materials. To find out more about natural health visit www.mercola.com and subscribe to FREE Natural Health Newsletter.

Secrets of Living a Happy Life

Now that we are all living in a modern world some people tend to forget the real sense of being happy in life. Unfortunately this people became self centered and keeps on focusing their life on money as if it’s the most important thing in life. In the long this people will start to feel discontented in life and starts to live unhappy life. And as we continue living unhappy life our health will start to suffer.

In order for us to take care of our health we must live a happy life. Here are some tips from Warren Buffet on living a happy life.

1. Happiness comes from within.

To be productive and happy, you must do things that you love and love things that you do.

2. Find happiness in simple pleasures.

If you look around you will find happiness on simple pleasures, simple things you do.

3. Live a simple life.

Keeping up with the Joneses is the worst epidemic among those who should never contemplate that notion in the first place. Less is more.

4. Think Simply.

If you apply this rule in your life, you can develop clarity and sanity in your thoughts. Life is about simple yet profound choices.

5. Invest Simply.

Often, the simplest route will bring you the most riches, and the most happiness.

6. Have a mentor in life.

Having a mentor is as important as having a purpose in your life, but having a wrong mentor is as devastating as having a wrong purpose in your life. The mentor has to be someone you can trust. You’ll find that person in your inner circle if you think hard enough.

7. Making money isn’t the backbone of your guiding purpose; making money is the by-product of your guiding purpose.

Money should never become the object and end all of your motivation.

Following these tips will give you a brighter and happier tomorrow giving you more time take care of your health.

Resource:

· Mercola Health Newsletter

Not All FATS are BAD

It is said that fats are bad for our health specifically to the heart. Too much intake of fatty foods increases cholesterol and can increase the risk of heart diseases, high blood and other health complications. But believe it or not, not all fats are bad. Omega 3 is considered as a good fat. Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid, otherwise known as EFA.

Omega 3 has a numerous benefits to the health specifically to the cardiovascular system. It reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke, aid in lowering blood pressure, prevent arrhythmia, prevent the buildup of plaque in the arteries, and may prevent sudden cardiac death.

Studies show that Omega 3 prevents heart attack. This is because it slows the buildup of plaque in the arteries which makes the blood to circulate normally and avoiding heart complications. And just as aspirin it may prevent heart attacks, it may also aid in the lowering of blood pressure by making blood flow more freely and preventing thrombosis. EPA and DHA may help lower the viscosity of the blood, allowing it to flow through the veins with limited possibility of clumping and lowering the body’s blood pressure.

Knowing that Omega 3 is healthy and good for the heart, the next question is where we can get Omega 3. There are a number of sources of Omega 3 available including fatty fish, krill oil and health food supplements. But it is important that if we are taking food supplements we must take into consideration its purity and how was processed like Antartic Pure Krill Oil.

Child Overfeeding is a Crime

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. Overweight and obesity among adults and even children has been alarming because of the increasing rate. According to WHO latest projections indicate that globally in 2005, approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15 +) are overweight, 400 million are obese and 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight. And because of these figures many health institution are conducting research and giving out information about this.

On the other hand there are health professionals that are considering child overfeeding as a crime. This is because of the health consequences of being overweight and obese. Overweight children may lead to other chronic diseases like high blood, childhood diabetes. And as they grow old there are chances that they will became obese adult and thus are at risk of developing adult heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers and eventually early death.

Knowing all the effects of overweight and obesity we should remember not to over feed our children. As parents and wise adults, we should be the one guiding the children on what foods are healthy and what is the right amount. And also taking them to a doctor for regular check up can give you an idea on how you can take care of them. Adults are the one taking care of the children and you are the one to Take Control of Your Health.

Green Tea: Protects Against Heart Disease

After water it is said that drinking green tea from 100% tea leaves is good because it can give you health benefits. Tea originates from the leaves of Camellia sinensis — a white-flowered evergreen. About 500 species of tea exist, divided into about 50 different countries, with China leading all nations in abundance… but the highest quality teas come from Japan.

There are a lot of classifications of tea and it varies on how it is processed.

After plucking the tea leaves it began to oxidize that gives it distinctive color like Green, black and oolong tea. And for green tea, leaves are steamed, roasted, or pan-fried almost immediately, leaving little chance for them to ferment. As a result, most green teas tend to be lighter in color.

And there are researches that show Green tea helps protects against heart disease because of the compounds on green tea which is the flavonoids. It also prevents other diseases like high blood, Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer.

It also said that not all green tea is healthy. This is because of the fact that many green teas are oxidized wherein in the process health compounds are taken away. And that is why Dr. Joseph Mercola recommends Royal Matcha Green Tea. It is the purest Matcha Green Tea without the harmful toxins.

The Dangers of Tofu

Many people love eating tofu because of its high protein content and other healthy claims about it. Unfortunately, the soy industry has been continuously brainwashing people and making them believe that soy is good to the health.

Now there where studies that proves that soy and tofu are not good to the health. Tofu contains protein but this protein is not properly absorbed by the body. And also there were reports that high tofu consumption may cause brain damage and other brain problems. Tofu is none fermented soy that contains phytoestrogen that causes vascular dementia.

Given that estrogens are important for maintenance of brain function in women; that the male brain contains aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol; and that isoflavones inhibit this enzymatic activity (Irvine, 1998), there is a mechanistic basis for the human findings. Given the great difficulty in discerning the relationship between exposures and long latency adverse effects in the human population (Sheehan, 1998b), and the potential mechanistic explanation for the epidemiological findings, this is an important study.

As mentioned in the natural health article of Dr. Mercola, here are the bad effects of eating tofu (Soy):

• Increase thyroid damage, especially in women
• Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both sexes, and cause abnormalities in infants
• Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women
• Promote kidney stones
• Weaken your immune system
• Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies

And he also advised that if we would like to eat soy we should have fermented soy like tempeh, miso, natto and soybean sprouts.

Resources:

• Why tofu wrecks your brain?
• Soy: To Good to be true
• Soy and Brain Damage

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Natural Health: An Introduction

Natural health is a natural practice of healing. It is a subset of alternative medicine that only looks forward to nature for answers and solutions on different health problems. There are times that it is associated with magic or new age mysticism. But in reality Natural health is all about natural healing and healthy living. It is a way of finding other helpful health benefits on natural food and other organic substances.