Parenting Advices

We do not need to be full-fledged LOHAsians to start turning green. As women, we are the decision makers at home where greening should begin.

Here are 10 simple ways towards a Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability for you and your family:

1. Reduce overall consumption. Reuse what you can. Recycle items through proper waste management or giving away what you no longer need.
2. Load up on vinegar! It is recommended to clean your bathrooms, toilets, and even your laundry with water and vinegar, preferably organic coco sap vinegar. That is echoed by Greenpeace which warns people against cleansers with chlorine.
3. Go unplugged. Read articles on energy reduction and electric bill savings by simply unplugging telephone and computer battery chargers and water heaters, so you’d be diligent about pulling the plug. The result: 30% reduction in electricity consumption!
4. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. CFLs use 66% less energy than regular incandescent bulbs and can last up to 10,000 hours!
5. Carpool, commute, or walk! You can lessen your daily carbon dioxide by 5.7 kg just by sharing a ride or commuting once in a while. If you’re not going that far, walk. It’s great for your health, too.
6. Disposable batteries not included. Greenpeace advises us to try to avoid anything battery-operated or to use rechargeable ones for those unavoidable items like remote controls and wall clocks.
7. Choose local products! According to Greenpeace, it’s not only good for the local economy, it will save energy because products haven’t traveled across the globe to get to you.
8. Bring your own reusable shopping bags and boxes.
9. Avoid throwing paper waste material down your toilet. It makes it difficult for proper waste water management.
10. Assess your cosmetics, toiletries, and your family’s personal hygiene products. We should follow these simple guidelines:

• Make sure that the product contains natural and non-toxic ingredients.
• That they have not been tested on animals.
• Packaging is kept to an absolute minimum.
• The company has an ethical policy towards its workers and organizations.

To check the hazard level of the ingredients in your current products, I highly recommend going to Environmental Working Group’s www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. You might be surprised!

Going green is only the beginning. Embracing a lifestyle of health and sustainability is a state of being that requires education and commitment. Although it has become trendy to be socially responsible, going green is not just about being cool and in. It’s about reassessing our values and finding our connection with the broader environment including the people and the issues that surround it. Find that deep-seated motivation and soon, going green will turn into truly being green.

Medical research shows that, in average situations, one loses about 200 calories doing fast dancing nonstop for 30 minutes. For total cardiovascular fitness, one should have a regular regimen — at least three times a week — of ballroom dancing.

As long as one is feeling well and able to do activities, like ballroom dancing, or fast walking, and has no medical contraindication, one should continue to do so, not only for physical fitness, but also and more importantly, for social and mental health.

The dress codes for dance events have a wide range, but however casual or dressy the event, you’ll want to choose clothes that are both easy to dance in and kind to your partner.

Ballroom dance shoes are lightweight shoes with eiher suede (chrome leather) or smooth leather soles. Shoes should be chosen not only for appearance but also for comfort, support, performance and protection.

Recent studies suggest that even the most helpful supplements may often be detrimental to one’s health when taken in large doses. Supplements are not food. If these little pills aren’t stuff meals are made of, what are they?

Supplements include substances that are essential for human life — vitamins and minerals. This was explained by Dr. Oakes, who recently published a study analyzing the beliefs on and the reputation of vitamin supplements among grocery shoppers. But can supplements be defined as healthy substitutes for certain foods?

(more…)

Sir William Osler, the famous Canadian medical doctor, once said, “There’s only one way to treat the common cold — with contempt.” And for good reason. The average adult has two to three respiratory infections each year. That number jumps to six or seven for young children.

Whether or not you get sick with a cold after being exposed to a virus depends on many factors that affect your immune system. Old age, cigarette smoking, mental stress, poor nutrition and lack of sleep have all been associated with impaired immune function and increased risk of infection.

(more…)

Feeling sluggish, depressed, sensitive to the weather, or gaining weight while on a diet? Anyone with the above symptoms may be suffering from hypothyroidism.

To better understand the condition, it’s best to discuss the organ involved: the thyroid gland. This small and lightweight organ, which sits just below the Adam’s apple, influences many of the body’s metabolic functions. It produces tri-iodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), respectively. The release of the T3 and T4 is triggered by the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone from the pituitary gland situated in the brain. There is a feedback control mechanism that regulates the concentration of the T3 and T4 in the blood and keeps them at a safe level.

(more…)

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” This is according to Hippocrates, Father of Medicine some thousand plus years ago. During those times they really didn’t have the drugs we have today, so what they did was rely on natural and healthy fresh foods to cure sickness. And I’m sure a lot of us have experienced our elders giving us homemade herbal drinks and dishes that don’t taste so good but are very effective in relieving aches, pains, colds, and many other illnesses.

(more…)

Like any addiction, smoking can be overcome with patience and perseverance. But first of all, congratulations for deciding to quit smoking. That’s the single most important step. Your family, especially your kids, would be very glad to see you finally standing your ground against smoking.

Nicotine, the drug that is found in cigarettes, is highly addictive like cocaine or heroin. It gives you a pleasant feeling and acts like a depressant that slows down the flow of information between nerve cells. That makes it very hard to quit and stay smoke-free, as your body gets accustomed to effects it gets from nicotine.

(more…)

An angiogram is not an operation; it’s an x-ray of blood vessels. In some cases, it’s a procedure to visualize the arteries on the surface of the heart to see if any of them are blocked. When blood flow to heart muscles is diminished, it often manifests as chest pain. The patient’s doctor is justifiably worried that problems with the coronary arteries are creating his new symptoms.

With the usual chest x-ray, you can’t see coronary arteries. They have to be made visible using a special dye. The dye is delivered through a catheter that is guided from a blood vessel in the upper thigh all the way up to the heart. Once the catheter is in position, a dye is injected and it goes right into the coronary arteries. The x-ray is taken at the precise time the dye flows through the arteries. Later, the dye is excreted with the urine.

The angiogram helps to answer these questions: Are there problems in the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle? How many vessels are affected? How bad is the problem?

(more…)