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What are your thoughts and suggestions about health and wellness? Do you feel eating wise, exercising and living with reduced stress are key factors? Please share your experiences and stories to help others on the path to health and wellness.

Sarah Kearney
14 August 2009

Taking time out to be aware of your responses can help control anxiety.

Whenever you start to feel like you cannot relax and be focused on what you are doing, stop and be still.

Take some deep breaths and try observing yourself.

Then practise separating yourself from what you're feeling. You don''t have to be your feelings So by stopping, even for a moment, you can create awareness, reduced anxiety and stop your feelings from running you.

In this space you can be anything you choose; for example, a calm, relaxed person breathing deeply.
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Hi All,


Started using my neti pot morning and night last week when I began developing sinus issues because of allergies.

Together with R.C. around cheeks and inhalation of peppermint, to-day Saturday, no more sinus problems!

You gotta to love these oils! And neti pot of course!

Below is a recipe for using with your neti pot.

Rosemary and Melaleuca aricifolia (tea tree)essential oils can be used in a saline solution for very effective nasal irrigation that clears and decongests sinuses. As recommended by Daniel Pénoël, MD, the saline solution is prepared as follows:

12 drops rosemary cineol
4 drops tea tree
8 tablespoons very fine salt

The essential oils are mixed thoroughly in the fine salt and stored in a sealed container. For each nasal irrigation session, 1 teaspoon of this salt mixture is dissolved into 1 ½ cups distilled water.

This oils/salt/water solution is then placed in the tank of an oral irrigator to irrigate the nasal cavities, which is done while bending over a sink. This application has brought surprisingly positive results in treating latent sinusitis and other nasal congestion problems.[1]

All the best,

Ernestine

Experts debate evidence linking acid-blockers to possible bone, heart problems
By Karen Pallarito, HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Millions of Americans take drugs like Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec to ease the erosive effects of acid reflux, but do these medicines put patients at risk for other health problems?

Experts remain divided on the potential dangers these common prescription medications might pose.

The drugs belong to a class of pharmaceuticals called "proton pump inhibitors," or PPIs, which are generally considered safe and effective. But lately these acid-reducing medications have been the subject of studies linking their use to a number of health risks, from an increased rate of hip fracture to a greater likelihood of diarrhea and community-acquired pneumonia.

Dr. Kenneth W. Altman, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, draws attention to some of the potential consequences of PPI use in a commentary published in the November issue of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.

"I really want to emphasize this is an important class of medication and it's helping a lot of people," Altman said. Still, the scientific literature raises questions that require further study, he said, such as how the body's metabolism of PPIs affects blood levels of other drugs processed in the liver.

But Dr. David A. Johnson, chief of gastroenterology at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., doesn't think the current wave of studies meet the rules of evidence to "clearly implicate" PPIs. Furthermore, the studies fail to weigh the benefits of treatment against any potential risk, he said.

Most people experience occasional heartburn. But when the burn is severe or frequent, it may be due to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a condition that occurs when the valve that closes off the stomach from the esophagus fails to work properly, according to the American College of Gastroenterology.

When stomach acid backs up all the way to the throat or even the nasal airway, it's called laryngopharyngeal reflux, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.

PPIs are widely prescribed for treating for both conditions.

In 2008, proton pump inhibitors were the third largest-selling therapeutic class in the United States, ringing up $13.9 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health, a Norwalk, Conn.-based health-care data company. With 113.4 million prescriptions, they were the 6th most widely dispensed retail prescription medications, IMS reported.

Of the various health problems being linked to PPIs, one of the most concerning involves its interaction with the blood thinner clopidogrel (Plavix). One study linked the drug combination to a 70 percent increased risk of heart attack or unstable angina and a 48 percent increased risk of stroke.

On that news, the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions urged health-care providers treating patients with the clot-prevention therapy to consider prescribing antacids or other acid-blockers instead of PPIs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also recommended that health-care providers reevaluate PPI use in Plavix patients.

Yet there was no evidence from prospective randomized trials to support those cautionary statements, according to Johnson, who is also past president of the American College of Gastroenterology. "It was all retrospective, or subject to potential biases," he said.

Since then, three prospective studies, including papers published in The Lancet and data presented at a major cardiology meeting, have shown no adverse cardiac outcomes from the drug combination, Johnson noted.

Dr. Michael F. Vaezi, clinical director in the department of gastroenterology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, also believes the clinical importance of the associations reported in many of the PPI studies has been "overblown."

The studies are mostly based on epidemiologic data -- information collected from a particular population, Vaezi explained. With these types of studies, it's difficult to weed out "confounding" factors that may skew the results, he said. What's more, he added, the associations reported in many of the studies are weak.

Altman said he is mostly concerned about high-dose and long-term users of the drugs because their increased exposures boost the odds that they'll experience some unintended consequence. He's also worried about people who continue to use PPIs but don't get better.

"They may not have acid reflux, or they may already have a more severe complication of acid reflux than they're aware of," he said.

Patients who have concerns about the use of these drugs should speak with their physicians, Vaezi said. But he also said that people need to recognize that the findings of these studies merely suggest an association with a particular outcome -- not a cause.

"The message to the public is, 'Let's not overreact,'" he said.

What aspect of yourself is revealed in your driving behaviour?

•Use your driving time as a chance to actively meditate. Each time someone drives badly, you can prac....

•Times when you feel hidden and anonymous can provide opportunities for this shadow self to be reveal....

•Times of stress, such as bad traffic can lower your natural defences and these behaviours can rush o.....

•You might put a lid on bad behaviour, but it still exists benweath the surface.....

•You can be guaranteed you engage in some behaviour while driving that you wouldn''t dream of doing ....
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I think it's really important to stay healthy and strong while we age. I'm always looking for articles and resources to help me make better decisions about what I eat and how I exercise,etc. I found a pretty good article that might help some of you. I'll put the link here.
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Does anyone else know of good places to find information? I look around a lot but can't always find the information I'm looking for. The one I put a link for is pretty good though.

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Getting the Nutrition You Need
From Healthwise
As you get older, good nutrition plays an increasingly important role in how well you age. Eating a low-salt, low-fat diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber can actually reduce your age-related risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases. By eating a wide variety of foods, you can pretty easily get what your body needs, including:

Protein, which is needed to maintain and rebuild muscles. You can get low-fat, quality protein from poultry, fish, eggs or egg substitutes, soy, and limited amounts of nuts and low-fat meat and dairy.
Carbohydrate, which is the body's preferred source of energy. There are two main sources of dietary carbohydrates: simple sugars, such as sucrose (the refined white sugar added to sweets and desserts), fructose (the sugar contained in fruit), and lactose (milk sugar); and complex carbohydrates, which come from vegetables and grains. Unlike refined sugars, fruits contain vitamins and fiber, dairy products contain nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D, and complex carbohydrates contain vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Get most of your carbohydrate calories from vegetables, grains, and fruits. And try to replace fat calories with complex carbohydrates in your diet.
Fat, which also provides energy. To help keep your blood cholesterol levels low, get most of your limited fat intake from the polyunsaturated fats (as in liquid corn oil or soybean oil) and monounsaturated fats (in olive oil, avocados, and nuts). Limit saturated fats (beef, pork, veal, butter, shortening, and cheese). You can do this by eating these foods less often, having smaller servings, choosing less fatty cuts of meat, and by using stronger tasting cheeses so you can use just a little and still get the cheese flavor. Try to avoid the trans fats (hydrogenated fats) found in stick margarine and in many processed foods such as crackers and cookies. Trans fats are now shown on the nutrition facts labels found on most packaged foods.
Water, to replace water lost through activity. Because your kidneys gradually become less efficient at keeping your body hydrated, make a conscious effort to get six to eight 8 fl oz (0.2 L) glasses of water a day.
As you take a look at your daily diet, remember that as you age:

Your body's daily energy needs slowly decrease. You therefore need fewer calories a day than when you were younger. Your doctor or a registered dietitian (RD) can help you calculate your ideal calorie intake.
Natural hormone changes make your body prone to depositing more body fat (especially around your middle) and less muscle. Eating a healthy balanced diet and limiting your intake of saturated fat, along with increased activity and muscle strengthening (muscle cells are the major calorie burners in your body), can help you stay at a healthy weight.
Your bones lose mineral content more rapidly than before, especially if you are a postmenopausal woman, because lower estrogen increases bone loss. As a result, you need to have calcium and Vitamin D in your diet, to help prevent osteoporosis, and your doctor may recommend you take a calcium and vitamin D supplement.
Simply put, the best way to reach and stay at a healthy weight as you age is to take in fewer calories than you needed in your youth and to make sure that most of what you eat is nutritious and low in fat and processed sugar. Limit saturated fats and trans fats. These are harmful to your blood vessels and increase your risk for developing hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis). And they can affect your cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease. Saturated fats are found mostly in foods that come from animals, such as beef, pork, veal, butter, and cheese. Trans fats are found in the shortening in many cookies and crackers, in fried fast foods, and in stick margarine. Also consider how other food choices can improve your cholesterol levels or make them worse.

For more information on nutrition, see the topic Healthy Eating.

Help for managing underweight or poor nutrition
People who are underweight have low reserves for bouncing back after an illness or injury. In the later years, this can lead to permanent ill health or disability. If you have trouble keeping your weight up, it's critical that you take special measures to build your weight, energy, and resilience. Every day, follow your doctor's recommendations and:

Eat three meals plus three snacks, and never miss a meal.
Choose higher-calorie foods from each food group, such as whole milk instead of skim milk. But try to keep your overall saturated fat intake low—high cholesterol can affect anyone.
Eat the highest-calorie foods in a meal first.
Use liquid supplements, such as Ensure or Boost, between meals.
If you are having trouble getting the food you need because of transportation, financial, or health problems, ask your doctor about local meal programs. Most communities have Meals on Wheels programs that can deliver food to your door, as well as meals at churches and community centers that can nourish your needs for both food and social time.

Author: Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS Last Updated: June 12, 2008
Medical Review: Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine
Thomas M. Bailey, MD - Family Medicine

** Depression link to processed food **
Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.
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An analysis of EWG's tests for BPA contamination in canned food reveals that people who eat canned foods are likely to ingest doses of BPA that are very close to levels now known to harm laboratory animals. EWG assessed human exposures in two ways - estimating single-day exposures using standard government assumptions for consumption and body weight; and estimating chronic exposures for women who routinely eat canned food, via Monte Carlo techniques and government data and assumptions on relative consumption rates for different types of canned foods. Our analyses show:

Single serving exposures. For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals (Figure). The government typically mandates a 1,000- to 3,000-fold margin of safety between human exposures and levels found to harm lab animals, but these servings contained levels of BPA less than 5 times lower than doses that harmed lab animals.
Chronic exposures. Our analyses show that for women who routinely eat canned food, chronic exposure levels throughout pregnancy can exceed safe doses. For example, the BPA dose for one-quarter of all women eating 2 servings of canned food daily would fall within a margin of 10 from levels linked to prostate damage and diabetes in studies of in utero exposures.
Methods and findings from our in-depth analysis of BPA exposures for women and infants are described in detail below.

Single serving exposures to canned foods contaminated with BPA
Our analysis shows that single servings from 20 of the 53 cans with detectable BPA put consumers within an uncomfortable range of the levels that directly harm lab animals. These tests found levels just 1.6 to 10 times lower than the doses that impacted the male reproductive system and caused increased aggressiveness in lab animals (2 ug/kg-day) (Nagel 1998; Kawai 2003). In comparison, regulatory agencies typically require a margin of safety of 1000 to 3000 between human exposures and the effects found in animal studies. Methods of analysis are described below the figure that displays exposure findings for each food type we tested.

While most of the available BPA toxicity studies dose lab animals over longer durations than a single day, short-term or every single day doses such as those estimated below can be significant when they occur in windows of vulnerability during development.

BPA is at unsafe levels in one of every 10 servings of canned foods (11%) and one of every 3 cans of infant formula (33%)

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