Herbal Medicines

My sister a few years back decided to go back to school for phlebotomy. She did that for a few years and was put on list for xray technician. Currently she is going to school to become an xray technician which is actually a very hard field of study to take. The classes [...]

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It is just so important to make sure that you have health insurance and insurance that is going to meet all of your health needs. Especially if you have a family..you have to be able to care for them and if you have not insurance you will not be able to afford the bills. [...]

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If do not have health insurance for one reason or another and are in need of prescription drugs then you may want to check out Patient Assistance. Sometimes you have health insurance and then you just lose your job and than you don’t have it anymore and of course that is when you need [...]

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It is just so hard to lose weight and it is harder for some than others but there are diet pills that can help you out. However, what may work for one person may not work at all for the next person because we all react differently to different things. And remember [...]

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If you want to look great meaning have great looking skin then take it easy on the salt as well as foods that have a lot of salt in it. Also take it easy on the foods that make you feel bloated like cheese, bacon, port pepperoni…and I just love pepperoni, cheese and crackers. [...]

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Ouch! It is easy to underestimate the power of the sun, and sometimes we end up with a sunburn when least expecting it. If you do get a sunburn, the information and recipes in this article may offer you some relief, assistance, and might speed up the healing process. Before using any of the tips or suggestions in this article, make sure to cool off the sunburned area with a cool shower or with compresses, and drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration. It is also important to moisturize the area with alcohol and perfume-free lotion. If you have a severe burn, then you may want to consult with a doctor before using any of the recipes from this article. If your skin is blistered, then do not use any of the recipes or products in this article. Blistering may lead to infection and it...

Back pain is a common pain that everyone have. This back pain is caused because of wrong posture and wrong movements of the body. This is the pain in the lower back of your body. Mostly everyone is familiar with the back pain. This pain is generally for a short time and so some exercises or painkillers can relieve this pain. But sometimes this pain may also be long lasting and this makes man too uncomfortable. The severe pain in back makes a person feel inconvenient and handicap for living normal life. There are many medicines for relieving back pain but there is a new therapy, which can relieve your back pain.

This therapy is magnetic therapy. In this magnets are placed on the affected area. This therapy is safe and effective than any other medicine. This therapy gives long lasting relief. In this therapy there are no costly ointments nor any chemical or drug is to be taken.. So this therapy is natural and you do not have any side effects on your body. This therapy provides you with guaranteed and safe relief from your back pain. If you get a proper magnetic therapy your back pain will vanish.

The magnets, which you use, should be placed at proper places and should have proper strength. For back there are some magnetic belts, which you can, wore and have long lasting relief from back pain. You can use magnetic mattress and drink magnetic water, which will surely hlp you to get rid of back pain. Magnetic jewellery is also effective for back pain.

Magnets have the magnetic field, which enters your body from the skin and increases blood circulation in the body. The magnetic water work from inside and the magnet work from outside and therefore there is work from both sides on the affected area and the pain gets relieved. Sleeping on the magnetic mattresses will help you because magnets can work on your whole body at and so you will surely get relief from your back pain. Magnets reduce the toxins from your body and also increase the energy in the body. Magnetic water reduces pain. Continued use of magnets will keep you healthy and fine.

This therapy is very useful and magnets work very effectively than any other medicine. It directly works on the source of the problem so the problem gets cured quickly.

Are you stressed out? Aren’t we all…if it is not because of your job then it is most likely because of finances and the lack of finances that you have. You hate your job but you can not leave it because then you will not be able to pay all of those bills [...]

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Dear Mark,

Right now there are so many kinds of fruit in season at the local farmers’ market. I know that we should limit fruit consumption and that some fruits offer more nutrition and higher antioxidants than others. I live alone and can’t afford to fill my small fridge with 20 different kinds of produce, so I need to make choices sometimes and want to buy greater amounts of highly nutritious food and lesser amounts of moderately nutritious food for variety.

Thanks to reader Patricia for the timely question. Of course, variety is healthy, but it’s true that some fruits will offer you more nutritional bang for your buck. A great resource for checking the antioxidant power of different fruits (and veggies, herbs, etc.) is the ORAC report (PDF), ORAC standing for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It’s a database of antioxidant levels compiled by scientists at the National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Institute on Aging. The ORAC method isn’t the final say on antioxidant measurement, but it provides a useful measure overall and an impressively comprehensive list of foods.

For example, the highest ratings per 100 grams among fruits go mostly to berries: acai, chokeberries, elderberries, cranberries, wild blueberries, black currants, blackberries and raspberries. Prunes and plums rate within this group as well. Nutritionally, these are all great bets. Apples, figs, dates, strawberries, and cherries all do very respectably as well. Further down the list you find more of the citrus fruits, melons and tropical fruits.

But I’d suggest considering more than just ORAC values when choosing fruit. For me, the glycemic index and glycemic load fit into the picture as well. Obviously, I want to keep my carb intake low. In doing so, I look at where the two priorities intersect: nutrition and low GL. I should mention here that glycemic load offers can tell you more in this instance than glycemic index. The GI rating measures the effect of a food on blood sugar relative to pure glucose. The GL takes into account how much of the carbohydrate is in the food. A watermelon, for example, has a high GI but a relatively low GL because it’s mostly water. I’d suggest checking out this chart that includes GI and GL levels for fruits and other foods. For GI, high is considered 70-100, moderate 50-70, and low less than 50. For GL, 20+ is high, 11-19 is moderate and 10 or less is low. As you can see, dates have a high ORAC value, but they’re also sky high in terms of GI and GL (103; 42). Figs, perhaps surprisingly, offer a better choice at 61 and 16 respectively. Nonetheless, berries and cherries offer the best choices with not just high ORAC values but low glycemic measures (around 40 and 1-3 respectively). An interesting note: the glycemic measures of a fruit fluctuate based on country of origin and the particular variety (e.g. a golden delicious apple not surprisingly being higher than a braeburn).

Here are a few of my suggestions for fruits that have the best overlap between low GI/GL and high antioxidant activity.

I’d recommend berries and cherries, preferably wild, as the best option overall. You can buy them fresh or frozen year round or freeze your own during summer season. Weighing in at about 12-15 grams of carbs a serving, I don’t see any reason these can’t be a daily choice if you’re a fruit lover. Good second choices (decent in glycemic measures, a bit less on the ORAC scale) include apples and pears in fall and winter, and peaches and plums in summer. For more on fruit seasons, check out this link.

Other fruits, including bananas, figs, and citrus, I’d put in the occasional category. (However, I do use splashes of citrus in flavorings and marinades.) As far as prunes, dates, melons and most of the tropical fruits (higher in glycemic measures, lower in ORAC values), I generally avoid them, but they can be Sensible Vices in small quantities.

And, of course, whole fruits are better than the juice, and organic fruits tend to have higher antioxidant activity than conventional. The same can be said for wild varieties.

Thanks for your questions, and keep ‘em coming!

mccun934, justinknol, beest Flickr Photos (CC)

Further Reading:

Antioxidants and the Stress of Eating

Measuring Up: How to Calculate the Quality and Quantity of Antioxidant-Rich Foods

The Best Low-Carb Fruits (and Worst)

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These feet were made for walkin’…

Reader Peter emailed this new study today after he saw a discussion in which I was participating on Rusty’s site (fitnessblackbook.com) regarding the Maasai diet. Investigators in this new study suggested that one reason that the Maasai (African nomadic cattle farmers) have lower rates of heart disease, despite a high fat diet, is the amount of low-level aerobic activity they do on a daily basis. Many of you will recognize this as rule #2 of the Primal Blueprint, “Move around a lot at a slow pace.” Seems the Maasai take that to the extreme, burning 2500 calories a day in excess of their basal metabolic rate by walking. The fact that they have a fairly low carbohydrate intake simply reaffirms that most of their energy demands are coming from the high amount of animal fat in their diets - and that at low level aerobic activity carbs are simply not necessary. Don’t think that doesn’t mean they can’t sprint occasionally or lift heavy things though (Blueprint’s 3 and 4), because we know they are able to produce enough glycogen each day from this same high-fat, moderate protein diet to fuel those all-out short bursts.

Finally, while the researchers claim it’s the exercise that prevents the heart disease, they approached it from the typical “high fat diets generally increase CHD risk” POV, which we all know to be an erroneous old Conventional Wisdom assumption. A high fat diet doesn’t actually increase risk of heart disease or death unless it’s also accompanied by relatively high carbohydrates and, hence, insulin.

Further Reading:

Dear Mark: Primal Blueprint for Both Men and Women?

10 Ways to “Get Primal”

Chronic Cardio Talk

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