Best Foods To Get At A Gas Station?

February 3rd, 2010 By: Brittany

I didn’t know that it really existed at a gas station, but as the story goes you really can stay healthy getting good at the gas stop. I had to include this article I found at MSN Health because I thought as summer approach many of us are going to be taking vacations with our family and friends. I am guilty of buying something to eat on our way to our destination.

Worst Foods Listed:

Lay’s Classic Potato Chips (1 oz)150 calories

Nature Valley Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bar ( that surprised me!)

Cheez-It (17 crackers)

Hostess Pudding Pie (1 package)

Planters Trail Mix Nut & Chocolate (3 Tbsp)

Kashi GoLean Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie (1 bar, 78 g) (This was listed under worst chocolate snack)

Best foods to eat:

Fried Pork Skins (1 oz)

Applegate Farms Pepperoni Joy Stick (1 oz)

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Cheddar (55 pieces)

Hostess Snoballs (1 snoball) ( Listed under best pastry to eat from the gas station)

Emerald Trail Mix Berry Blend (3 Tbsp)

Larabar Jocalat Chocolate ( Best chocolate choice)

Not to say that the best listed foods are super healthy choices, but if you are in a pinch at the gas stop they are the healthier choices. To read the whole article go to MSN Health.

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What Kind of Alternative Treatments Exist?

February 2nd, 2010 By: Brittany

When it comes to the alternative world of healing there really is no limit. Many techniques used for today’s alternative healing work have been used many many centuries. The best way to tell what your body needs is just following what your body best feels interested in. Usually, there are always signs that are body is in need of something in particular.

Here are four top treatments many people use today as way to get healthy, stay health, and prevent becoming sick.

1. Acupuncture/ Acupressure-  is the procedure of inserting and manipulating needles into points on the body to relieve pain or for healing use. Many people use this in combination with other treatments. Acupressure is also great because it allows you use it at home on your on time.

2. Massage/ Reflexogy- is the action of rubbing or kneading  someone’s body, to help the person relax and heal. Massage is very common in both western and eastern areas of healing. Massage is used because of the benefit it has on our mental and emotional health. It is considered to many to be very relaxing. Both massage and reflexology can be done at home as well. To learn more about self massage click here.

3. Applied Kinesology-  to help diagnosis and treat patients of muscular imbalance, emotional imbalance, and physical imbalance. This is a great tool that many chiropractors and Naturopathsuses to help diagnose and treat illness in the body. It is also something that you can learn to do to test your self at home with. To learn more please go here.

4. Spinal Manipulation/Chiropractics- is manual manipulation of the  musculoskeletal system that emphasizes diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the spine and nervous system. Chiropractics is believed to be good because it helps realign the body in its original state so that it can function more efficiently.

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Alternate Breathing Exercise

February 1st, 2010 By: Brittany

I really love this simple breathing exercise. It is great for anytime in any place. Alternate breathing is a great way to calm the mind and relax emotions.

The exercise involves alternate breathing through each nostril.

Breath in through left nostril only for 4 seconds
Keep both nostrils closed for 4 seconds
Breath out through the right nostril for only 4 seconds
Breath in through right nostril only for 4 seconds
Keep both nostrils closed for 4 seconds
Breath out through left nostril for only 4 seconds

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If You Want Brain Power Add Meditation

January 30th, 2010 By: Brittany

Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries: Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness.

Those transformed states have traditionally been understood in transcendent terms, as something outside the world of physical measurement and objective evaluation. But over the past few years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin working with Tibetan monks have been able to translate those mental experiences into the scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony, or coordination.

“What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before,” said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university’s new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. “Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance.”

Davidson’s research is consistent with his earlier work that pinpointed the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. Using functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) on the meditating monks, Davidson found that their brain activity — as measured by the EEG — was especially high in this area.

Davidson concludes from the research that meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes.

Source: Washington Post

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Exercise Proves Helpful for MS Patients

January 29th, 2010 By: Brittany

Exercise appears to protect the brains of people with multiple sclerosis, new study findings suggest.

Researchers assessed fitness, cognitive function and brain structural changes in 21 women with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS).

Patients who were classified as being highly fit performed much better on cognitive function tests than less-fit patients. MRI scans also showed that higher levels of fitness were associated with greater volume of gray matter, which is linked to vital brain processing skills, and less damage in parts of the brain where MS-related deterioration occurs.

“We found that aerobic fitness has a protective effect on parts of the brain that are most affected by multiple sclerosis,” study lead author Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University, said in a news release. “As a result, these fitter patients actually show better performance on tasks that measure processing speed.”

The researchers also found that fitter MS patients showed less deterioration of brain white matter, which are fibers that connect gray matter areas.

Source: MSN Health

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Best Rated Prenatal Vitamins

January 28th, 2010 By: Brittany

Is it true that not all prenatal vitamins are created equally? Yes, this is very true. When you are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant it is best that you research vitamins, or ask a Naturopath what they recommend.

So, what are 3 well worth investing prenatal vitamins?

1. New Chapter Organics Prenatals- these are organic, probiotic, whole-food complex vitamins. New Chapter’s nutrients are food based, they are recognized by your bodies as wholesome, nourishing food, digested easily and soothing to a pregnant woman’s sensitive GI tract. They do contain soy, so if you are soy sensitive you may have to look at another brand, newchapter.com.

2. Standard Process Catalyn and Folic Acid/B12- Standard process is worth every penny. They are one of the most nourishing supplements you can take. Standard process can be bought at most Nautropaths offices, and online at standardprocess.com.

3. Thorne Research Prenatal- Basic Prenatal is a comprehensive supplement formulated with the special needs of pregnancy in mind. Manufactured with none of the additives and coatings usually found in mainstream prenatal tablets, Basic Prenatal includes only the most bioavailable nutrients, thorne.com.

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Spiritual Parenting

January 27th, 2010 By: Brittany

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