Small Changes Yield Big BenefitsWritten by Joi Sigers
You can start today - right now, even - on a road to feeling better, looking better, living longer and enjoying a far better quality of life. We're all familiar with big steps: If you smoke, do yourself and those who love you a huge favor - STOP. It'll be best, though possibly hardest, gift you ever give them. Nix unhealthy vices such as drinking, speeding, taking your health and safety for granted, etc. However many fruits and vegetables you consume, double that! Those are "Big Ones", and I don't have to tell you how important they are, but this article is about "Little Ones". They don't have publicity of larger steps, but they're every bit as important. In no particlular order, here are small steps I'd love for you to start taking. Ideally, you'll take each and every step each and every day - but realistically, you should just aim at doing just as many as you can, just as often as you can. Let's get to it! Limit empty calories. You can't cut them out entirely, but try to ditch as many sodas, doughnuts, cookies, chips, fries, etc, as you can. Next time you go to your favorite fast food restaurant (go ahead and admit it, I've seen you there!), have a salad in place of fries and drink tea instead of pop. Replace eating red meat with chicken or fish at every opportunity. The steps will be even bigger if you make sure chicken or fish is grilled or baked instead of fried. If you're trying to lose weight, switch to using artificial sweetener in your tea and coffee, and switch to a diet drink. A while back, I began a weight loss regime. I simply began using little pink packets in my morning coffee instead of sugar, and I sweetened my tea with artificial sweetener instead of cup of sugar I normally used. The final switch I made was going from Dr. Pepper to Diet Dr. Pepper. These are only changes I made to my diet, and I quickly lost over 10 pounds. You quickly get accustomed to (and even begin to prefer!) diet drinks and sweetener. I literally can't stand taste of regular pop now, something I was once incredibly addicted to.
| | Are Herbal Remedies The Answer?Written by Jon Davis
It seems that almost every day we come across a story in a newspaper or magazine which raises concerns about use, misuse, or overuse of a particular pharmaceutical remedy in treatment of minor ailments, or serious medical conditions. Often these stories are quickly discredited as being ill-informed or based on insufficient evidence, perhaps medical opinion is divided, or particular experts in field prefer to wait for an extended period of time, maybe years, in order to ascertain safety, or otherwise of these commonly used remedies. This is not to criticise medical science, or its practitioners, who must rely on objective and statistically valid evidence before giving an expert opinion. However, it is little wonder that many of us turn to herbal remedies, either as a supplement, or as an alternative to manufactured pharmaceutical products. There is a reassurance in that simple word “herbal”, taking us back to simpler times, when there was little choice in how to treat our day to day bodily malfunctions, aches and pains and we made use of what was available to us, perhaps in our own back gardens!Are herbal remedies answer? Surely if they have been in use since men and women first walked on Earth they must be both effective and safe? The answer to this, as to many questions, is “Yes” and “No”, or even “Well it’s not as simple as that.” In past, herbal remedies were often administered or recommended by one particular person in neighbourhood, frequently a woman, (probably regarded as a witch), who was an expert in her field. This person would have studied and learned, by trial and error, about efficacy and safety (or otherwise) of product she was supplying. Herbal remedies may be natural, but that does not make them safe and we need to be well informed about optimum dosage as well as about possible side effects and what are called “contra-indications” in medical profession. After all, before a doctor prescribes a drug to you, s/he will refer to your medical history and question you about your lifestyle. We need to be equally cautious in self-prescribing, and take advantage of information and advice that is available to us from reliable sources.
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