Better Health News

November has come and gone very quickly.

For me…I’ve been on the road alot…traveling…training…going through storage units. Ouch! I tell you, I was hurting in places I didn’t know pain existed.

This week is the busiest travel week of the entire year.

I try NOT to travel Thanksgivings week if at all possible. Tomorrow, cops will be out on the road to partake in the ticketing feast they have every year at this time. IF they haven’t made their quota, they get a bonus run over the next few days.

And don’t forget Friday - Black Friday - the day retailers now COUNT on to put them in the black.Are you going to take part in Black Friday events?
Be careful.

Last year a woman got trampled to death, if memory serves me right. There were also a lot of fights and squabbles at stores. THIS year many retailers are increasing their security to try to stay the madness.

One person I know, my manager, has publically announced her plans to be at the stores by 4 AM.

4AM?
Is she INSANE?

Nope! Just a Black Friday bargain shopper.

Me???
I’ll be in BED at that time…kissing my pillows and having dreams of whatever…not of sugar plum fairies nor crazed bargain shoppers giving me the evil eye that I got the last of something they wanted. I’ll just sleep through it all.

On this Thanksgivings Day, I take time special time to reflect on the things I am very grateful and thankful for. One of those things is YOU.

Enjoy the holiday.
Be thankful.
Be safe.
Guard your credit card.
Be well!

:o)
cj

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It’s been a VERY busy month. Heck, it’s been a busy year.

We are just about to start the last quarter of 2009. The moon is nearing 1/2 mast. Fall colors are starting the permeate the air.  And that means winter isn’t far behind. Steamboat already has had a dusting.

So…

 Where are you now in your life…in your goals? And…what are you doing to move closer to what you want?

What are you doing? Nothing? The same old thing?

Time to take another look at exactly WHAT you want and whether it’s worth pursuing…whether it’s worth attaining…and DECIDE to either get off your butt and get it done OR……be OK with just being as you are…complacent…comfortable…not really itchin’ to make it happen

……not really.

It’s OK..at least you decided to decide to do nothing!Only you have to be ok with the consequences of that inaction.

So…

What are you doin’?

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If you’re anything like me, you love a good photo. They suspend a moment in time for us to feast on forever…or as long as film remains intact.We are blessed with many talented outdoor and nature photographers. Just take a look at a copy of National Geographic or Outdoor Photographer, and you’ll know exactly what I mean.The video right above these words showcases 79 of Alex Neil’s photos. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.Great eye candy. Enjoy!(video will open in a new window)

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Sometimes life has a way of overwhelming you. The everyday problems seem insurmountable. You think, "That’s it! Just one more thing and I’ve had it!" Hey, I feel your pain. I’ve been there, literally to hell and back. So before you go and do anything rash, let me share this with you…

I had a problem…one that nearly got the best of me.   And I’m so glad that I’m on the other side of it.
Let me explain…

Many years ago, I fell into a deep, dark depression after an estranged friend of mine killed himself. I predicted that it would happen. Heck it was easy to see; you didn’t need a crystal ball. Yet his family chose to ignore the warning signs. And, he ended his life at 19. I was so distraught, angry, hurt…I wanted to go to the funeral just so I could ring his mother’s neck. I could actually see myself doing it. Not a good sign.

"I told her he would do this." It was a hard time for me, a very hard time. And I just wanted the pain to go away. I contemplated and planned to end my life, and was pretty open about it with my family when asked.

Thanks to God, I got on the other side of that. Mine was what is now called a reactive depression. It occurred due to a crisis of conscious.  I had inadvertently taken responsibility for someone else’s actions. I had become enmeshed with his plight because I had been fighting for him for so long.

I knew I had a problem I couldn’t get beyond. It was dragging me down.

I just wanted the pain to stop.

So I devised a plan to whack myself while off at summer school. You see, I didn’t want to traumatize my friends at my college; they were already alarmed enough by my change in behavior. They would’ve had a hard time returning to school if I had done something like this there.

So off to Texas I went.

It’s amazing how well you can do your normal activities of life once you make that decision and become resolute on its completion. My grades were stellar. I was taking some heady courses, like cell and tissue biology, logic and physics. At that time, my cousin was running a psychiatric ward. I’m not sure how she got wind of what was going on with me. However she became the designated family member to approach me. She asked if I would consider taking medicines. My answer to her was, "If medicines would help, don’t you think I would’ve taken them by now?" I thought, "This isn’t something medicine can fix."

From that point, she left me alone in my misery, not knowing what to do. She never asked me what was going on, what was behind it all. That COULD have been a fatal mistake because I was apart of the most dangerous category of depressed persons, someone who was suicidal with a plan.

I was actually in the process of my suicide ritual when the pain went away.

For me, talking to someone would have made all the difference because the only one I was really talking to was myself. And we know what kind of conversation I was having; a one way dialogue that was speeding me towards self destruction.

It’s been nearly 30 years since that happened. She’s never really spoken to me since that summer. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because that incident caused her to look at something she didn’t want to deal with. Maybe it’s because I remind her how she felt at that time - impotent, weak, powerless. I don’t know. Her avoidance is not about my issues but hers.

So I understand that’s a fear for many of you…a loss of love, respect or comaderie with someone you care for. Heck, admitting you have a problem is hard.

Walking though the door to get help is even harder. I’m sure some of these thoughts go through your head:

"What will my friends think?"
"What will my parents think?"
"What will my spouse think?"
"People will look at me different."
"What if I see someone there that I know? Oh how embarrassing…"

But the reality is this:
There is a problem…one that isn’t going away…one you’ve tried to address on your own with limited success.  And…

YOU are the one in PAIN!

So now you think maybe, just maybe, it’s time to see if someone can hear you out, if someone can make some sense of the chaos, if someone can see if you’re crazy.

But what is crazy?

That term has been knocked around for so long that, aside from extremes, it’s hard to put real meaning to it. Many people picture scenes from The Shining or  One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Many of the people I know think that anyone who commits an atrocious act/crime automatically must be crazy. However…

Dalmer wasn’t.
Neither was Manson or Bundy.
That doesn’t mean that their behavior was not pathological.

Two of these men knew they had a compulsion to kill; they didn’t see it as a problem though. They were OK with their sociopathic behavior, their intrigue with murder and death…and gave into the urges willingly, allowing it to drive them to more abased and ghastly behavior.  I am speaking here of Dalmer and Bundy.

Manson was adept at praying on weak minds and turning them into his army, to do his bidding, no questions asked…just like Hitler did. On this level, he displayed a type of genius.

However being labeled ‘mental’ does not mean that you will enact gruesome crimes against humanity. Mental illness comes in a variety of forms and is defined by diagnostic codes. These codes define disorders from Attention Deficit Disorder to Alzheimer’s disease, to Depression to psychotic disorders like Schizophrenia.

Substance abuse disorders (addictions) are also listed there…as are other disorders due to medical illnesses and brain damage.

Finally, there is a class of disorders that comes from failures in parenting - the personality disorders. They are dysfunctional patterns people have due to their maladaptive responses to stress and their environment.

So, most of the people treated for mental disorders are far from crazy. Most are having difficulties in their lives which can be corrected or made significantly better through the use of insight oriented therapy work, behavior modification, biofeedback and/or medications. For some, the medications help improve or constrain the symptoms so the real work can be done in therapy.

For others, reality distortion is the problem. They usually require medications that can improve the imbalance of neurotransmitters that cause such symptoms as paranoia, hearing voices, seeing things that aren’t real or sustained high moods where a person doesn’t sleep for weeks on end.

You can also have reality distortion with severe depression.

If you suspect that you may have something out of kilter, that realization usually means that you’re on the other side of being crazy per se, because people who have lost perception of reality many times do not know this…they perceive that altered reality as REAL.

So, to wrap this up…

Q: Are there crazy people in the world?
A: Yes there are! Talk to any bag ladies lately?

Q: Does this necessarily mean they are dangerous?
A: For the majority, no, they aren’t dangerous, just delusional.

Q: Are there people that medications do not help appreciably?
A: Yes, though this is now also rare.

cj

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Today’s article is from guest writer, LaTara Yan Ling. Enjoy!

Your skin is a vital part of your body. Without skin we would literally be bones and blood. Can you picture it? In caring for the body’s delicate covering, we need not only pay attention to what we put on it but what goes in too. When it comes to foods, consumption of processed foods is just not good for the skin.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “you are what you eat”. If you think about it, it is not just a saying – it is a fact. A part of your body’s make up comes from what you put into it. If you want it to work properly and look its best, you need to feed yourself the nutrients it needs and avoid foods that may damage it. For beautiful skin, you should try to get more fiber and “good fats” in your diet and avoid foods with a lot of sugar. Processed foods can have harmful effects on the skin, so if you want to look younger and healthier, try adding unprocessed, whole, and raw foods to your diet.

When food is cooked and processed, it loses vital nutrients. When you eat processed food like canned vegetables or fruits and boxed foods, you don’t get the nutrients your body needs to function efficiently. This jeopardizes your health, and it shows in your skin. If your skin cells aren’t properly nourished, they don’t look as good. You’re also more prone to acne and other embarrassing infections.

Raw foods contain live, active enzymes that help you digest your food more efficiently and improve your body’s functioning and your overall health. And remember, the healthier you are, the healthier your skin will be. Many people, who increase their intake of raw food as opposed to its cooked counterpart, notice a positive change in their skin. Raw food can help to reduce wrinkles, age spots, eye bags, and even acne, leaving your skin beautiful and radiant.

We all know that when we’re tired, we look worn down, our skin is duller, and we just get a haggard appearance. Having proper digestive enzymes from eating raw, live fruits and vegetables helps speed digestion giving use more energy from our food. When we have more energy, we feel and look less tired.

In discussing the topic of what is loss through processing, what might be more important to this issue is what is added to food during processing. The bottom line is that most companies aren’t concerned about keeping you healthy; they’re concerned about selling their product. Their bottom line is to make money. They add chemicals to keep food fresh longer, change its color, change its texture, or even to make you more hungry or thirsty after consumption. These chemicals can be toxic do your body. They build up in your cells, making them function improperly and be less healthy. And if you have acne or other skin ailments, your breakouts may be due to an allergic reaction to these chemicals.

In order to look good, your skin needs to be healthy. This means proper nourishment and fewer toxins. This can be achieved with a healthy diet including fresh, unprocessed foods.

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Garlic is a Medicinal Wonder

Garlic belongs to the family Alliaceae and is a close relative of the onion, shallot and leak. It has a pungent “hot” flavor that mellow and sweetens during the cooking process. The most common part of the garlic that is used is the head of the garlic with the cloves that make it one complete unit. The young floral stem of the garlic is also used for many purposes.

Garlic is believed to have originated in Central Asia. It is now grown all over the world, but it is most popular in China, the Mediterranean, and Latin America.

For more than 5000 years garlic has been valued for its healing properties and its ability to increase the body’s strength and energy. It is said that the builders of the Giza pyramids in Egypt ate garlic to rejuvenate their bodies after the back-breaking work of daily building.

Garlic’s essential oil has antiviral, antifungal, and antibiotic properties giving it many benefits, including:

• Lowers blood sugar
• Natural mosquito repellent
• A natural blood thinner
• Retards blood clotting
• Fights the common cold
• A natural blood purifier
• Is a heart tonic
• A natural diuretic
• Lowers the “bad” cholesterol and raises the “good”
• Helps with insomnia
• Relieves coughs
• Kills bacteria
• Relieves bronchial congestion
• Blocks cancer
• Is a great immune booster
• Promotes secretions from mucus membranes

Garlic can be used medicinally and as a part of your daily health regimen. While many are not crazy about the taste of raw garlic, it is the best for medicinal purposes. You can take a clove or two of raw garlic, finely chopped, and swallow it for an immune boosting blast.

Here are a few more ideas for using garlic in healing:

• Make an antibiotic tea with garlic, lemons, grapefruit, and onions.
• Take raw garlic and add to water. Let is sit for about 5 hours and sip a glass of garlic water every morning.
• For athlete’s feet, warts, skin infections and acne, place a freshly mashed garlic clove in a piece of gauze. Rub it over the affected areas.
• Make an ointment with garlic for wounds, cuts, and fungus.
• Make a tincture with garlic for daily maintenance and immune function power.
• Make a cough syrup with garlic. Slice 1 pound of fresh garlic and pour one quart of boiling water over it. Let sit for 12 hours, then add organic unrefined sugar until you reach the consistency of a syrup. Add honey for better taste, if desired.

Of course, you can always eat your garlic with your meals. That’s an excellent way to get its health benefits without having to plan on taking capsules or tablets. Be aware that cooking it causes some of the nutritional value to be lost. So go out and get some garlic. Every home should have some. Better yet, plan on growing some of the old world varieties for a real treat. Garlic…it does the body good.

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Today’s article is from guest writer, Maria Meadowcraft. She recently went through a battle with pinkeye, and wanted to share her experience and lessons learned with you. Enjoy!

The old childhood illness of pinkeye has always scarred me. Any time I hear it mentioned it’s in a way that makes me think of contamination and exile, at least for a few days. However, I had never had any personal experience with it, until now.

Yesterday my son came home from kindergarten with a memo saying it was going around the class room, so they did a massive cleaning of their room in hopes of riding this childhood illness. Just as I put the memo down I happened to look at my son, to find he had goopy icky stuff in the corner of both of his eyes. Panic struck me initially, as he has never had these symptoms before, and as a mother I did not want my child with this infection.

What were we going to do?

Conjunctivitis or pinkeye is the most common eye problem kids usually get. It can come with redness, itching, inflammation, or swelling, and yes the goop! This goop is a greenish or yellow mucous discharge that collects in the eye or eyes. This illness is also very contagious, especially among kids, because they touch their eyes to rub or scratch them, then touch many different surfaces contaminating them in a matter of seconds and not even realizing it.

After careful consideration as to what I was going to do for my son, I decided we were not going to panic and possibly do very little. Since having kids, my husband and I decided we were not going to be like most main stream parents and give our children antibiotics with every ailment that comes around. If they were absolutely needed, we would definitely be willing to give them. But, so far I am proud to say they still have not had to give any. I believe that our bodies have the ability to heal ourselves if we immune systems healthy and strong and give it the right resources.

Antibiotics are given for many different reasons and because they are so readily given, many kids’ immune systems aren’t learning how to fight these problems on their own. This is leading to the antibiotics inability to work properly and effectively, which over time can lead to the antibiotic to stop working altogether.

So we stopped at our local health food store to consult their many books and scan the isles in hope of finding some kind of natural treatment. It didn’t take long to find a couple homeopathic treatment options, ones that are safe and work in harmony with your immune system. In the parking lot I gave my son the eye drops we found for pink eye relief as well as some of the small tablets to help from the inside. I figured since I was working in the emergency room the next morning I would probably be able to consult a physician then to determine our next course of action if these homeopathic remedies did not work.

The following morning we woke up to find our son with crusty eyes, but once they were wiped away with a warm wet wash cloth his eyes did not look so bad. We kept him home from school and I went to work hoping to discuss our situation with my co-worker, the doctor working the ER. Once I explained our pinkeye situation, this doctor went over many of the facts that I already knew about it, such as how contagious it was, and the symptoms.

He told me it was more than likely a virus, almost like a cold virus that would eventually get better. He gave me a prescription for an ointment to use on the eyes, but also mentioned it might not do any good except make the crusty gooey stuff less sticky. His advice was that it would probably go away on its own in a day or two and on to its next victim. He also stressed the importance of hand washing.

He and I were right. I did fill the antibiotic ointment just in case we might need it, but when I got home things were looking good, and the pinkeye on my son was almost completely gone. By the next morning it was completely gone and, I am glad to say I listened to myself and did not react with full force right away. We let nature take its course and within a short time this once scary childhood ailment became not so scary anymore. I think the homeopathic eye drops we found did help not only with the symptoms but with the virus as well and I am proud to say we still have not had to rely on antibiotics.

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I have been pondering just how I am going to write this post.

I’ve debated it for several weeks…maybe months.
Actually, I’ve struggled with it…

Yes, I talk about stress on this site…about how it threatens your health, both mental and physical.
Even spiritual.

But…

What happens if, one day you woke up and lacked the power to do anything about it?

What if you could no longer take nutritional supplements, find high quality native foods that function as medicines, or eat food that isn’t loaded with chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, radiation, viruses/bacteria (because it was grown if raw sewage) or, are just so genetically modified that it lacks any real nutritional value and just make you sick?

What if you lived in a world where you could no longer say “no” to vaccines? Vaccines that may be of questionable efficacy? Vaccines that are filled with mercury - a known neurotoxin - and other substances which depress and suppress your immune system?

Or worse…vaccines that actually contain live organisms?
(it has happened before)…

That world terrifies me.
And we are closer to that reality today than ever.

Since I work in the health field, I’ve already witnessed the suffering of many and have tried to help.

But this…the horror of this…would just be too much…it would be unbearable.

The tentacles of this monster is worldwide and more of its bite will be felt at home.
Here.
In America.

There is a consciousness raising going on…an attempt to wake up people so we can avert this disaster. I hope and pray that we can.

I’ve included a video below. It covers way more than what the award winning mainstream filmmaker set out to portray. Some say he was ‘killed’ for this effort...for putting this together to alert you of what is going on.

That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself!

But I’ll warn you that this film is disturbing. No…there are no grotesque images to be concerned about viewing. Not a one. As Aaron would say...he set out to prove one thing and discovered something else…something much deeper…something so sinister that he committed his life to helping you know about it.

And now in honor of his work…and the future, I must pass this on to you. My wish for you is that you pass it on to someone you love.

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Here’s an excellent video by David Icke that touches on so many different things. The topic: Big Brother and the Big Picture. Warning: this is heady stuff.

This is a heady discussion which is not for the faint of heart or mind.
Let me know what you think!

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Have You ever dreamed of going to Alaska?

Lovingly known as “The Last Frontier”, I was pleased to see that many have taken up the challenge to relocate here. From New York, to Michigan, to even Washington state, both young and old are calling Alaska home.

But what is it about Alaska that not only attracts, but keeps so many that venture this far? Is the PR really as good as the reality? What are the potential drawbacks? Is cost of living a significant factor of living here? And what about continual daylight and continual night?

These questions and many more will be probed and answered in this series on Wild Alaska: The ? Home of The Current American Dream.

I can tell you one thing…

The vast majority of the people I met from Alaska were warm…very warm and genuinely friendly. They were happy and eager to share their life’s story, how they came to Alaska and why they stay. The people are the true jewel of Alaska. That must be why many visit and then stay. Yet many others return again and again.

This series of post will be more of a travelogue.
Relax. Sit back. And enjoy!
cj

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