Ten Quick Tips to Save the Planet and Your HealthWritten by Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed.
You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, providing entire byline at end of article is included and content is left unchanged. If you use it, please notify me with a copy of your publication or a url to where it can be found. For print publications, please contact me to discuss and to obtain US mailing address to send a courtesy copy. cynthiap@frognet.netTen Quick Tips to Save Planet and Your Health By Cynthia Perkins, M.Ed. Many of common everyday chemicals in your home can contribute to not only harming environment, but your health as well. Symptoms such as headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, anxiety, depression, nervousness, fatigue, irritability, inability to concentrate, hyperactivity, joint and muscle pain and many more can be result of these chemicals. Make every day Earth Day! Protect environment and your health by making following changes in your lifestyle. 1. Eat organic. Pesticides, herbicides, etc. poison soil, water, air and your body. They are linked to contributing to serious health problems including cancer, depression and central nervous system disorders. 2. Use non-toxic and natural household cleaning products. Most everyday cleaning products are very harmful to your health. Baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, lemon and vinegar are great alternatives and can be used for just about anything. 3. Wear only natural clothing fibers and organic clothes if possible. Synthetic fibers and non-organics are treated with high levels of formaldehyde and even petroleum. About $3 Billion is spent on pesticides for cotton fields each year worldwide, with over 600,000 tons of pesticides and chemical fertilizers on US cotton fields alone. 4. Throw away your perfume and cologne. They contain chemicals contributing to asthma, central nervous disorders, immune dysfunction and a variety of other health problems.
| | Exercise: Why YOU should do itWritten by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT, YFT
Hundreds of Thousands of Americans spend millions of dollars each year on diet pills, “magical” exercise devices, and misrepresented health and fitness products, when in all actuality a good set of dumbbells and a brisk walk may be all you need to get in better shape than you’ve ever been in. What can you do with nothing but a set of dumbbells, you ask? Provide resistance to your body’s movements - also known as weight lifting. That’s all weight lifting is – resistance. The terms “weight lifting” and “resistance training” have become one in same because they are describing same activity – moving your body under more resistance than it normally has to handle. In fact, you’ve just stumbled upon basic secret of exercise in general! Whether you are talking about resistance training, Pilates, Yoga, cardiovascular activities, or any other form of exercise, all of these programs have one thing in common - performing more activity than you would get sitting on couch. WHY should you exercise, though? How about defying aging process for starters? Do you know that primary reason why elderly people end up in nursing homes is because they lose ability to think and move on their own? Do you also know that entire process of thinking and moving on our own happens because we do it every day? Until we retire, that is. Once we don’t have to go to work anymore, or deal with scheduling and lifestyle issues, suddenly only thing that we have to think about is whether to watch game shows or soap operas all day long, and only exercise we get is deftly flying our fingers over remote control. Mush. That’s what our brains and bodies turn into when we stop using them. Think you are still sharp as a tack, and at height of your game? Try to say alphabet backwards in 30 seconds or less. Yes…. sharp indeed. What about physically? Think that you can still hold your own even though you don’t really exercise much? Stop reading this article and drop down on floor for some correct-form push-ups. Did you do at least 30 if you are female, or at least 40 if you are male? No? How about 20 or 25? 15? Unless you pulled off 30 or 40, you are probably at less than 50 percentile mark for your gender – health conditions notwithstanding. Okay, so you’ve determined that you aren’t exactly Olympic athlete material. So what? You don’t even like sports, let alone being very good at them. That’s fine, and there is nothing wrong with that. So what about fat? Do you like bodyfat? Do you find it physically appealing? Do you think it’s healthy? If so, we’re done speaking. Go on about your business, and thanks for reading this far. For everyone else, here is a newsflash: In America today – year 2004 – obesity related health conditions account for more deaths in United States each year than all known forms of cancer COMBINED. Heart Disease alone is number one killer of American adults, and it is a PREVENTABLE CONDITION!
|