When I visit large city parks, I am amused and heartened by the
seeming unconscious human need to connect with Mother Nature. In
the very heart of urban civilization, city parks draw in thousands of
people every day. I personally live in a magnificent rural setting,
constantly surrounded by nature’s glory and challenges. I smile
inwardly, listening to the array of foreign languages spoken around me
in the park. I watch worldwide visitors to a great metropolis seeking
sanctuary in a patch of domesticated wilderness. Humans need to
connect with nature, even if just a bit of it. Research now supports what
our instincts ‘know’: contact with the natural world is important to our
health.

Though most of us value nature, few of us actually enjoy a deep
connection with it. This is unfortunate, as it is through this connection
that we both receive and release. We receive a limitless source of
energy and inspiration, and we release worry, stress, and strain. In fact
playing outside, in any form, is a well-known kind of ‘therapy’ to find
balance and to rejuvenate. The “Great Mother” soothes the spirit,
sharpens the senses, and focuses thinking. The natural environment
helps us recognize our oneness with the life process. Taking us beyond
our limited and linear view of life, nature celebrates growth and
perpetual renewal.

This celebratory quality is at once inspiring and energizing. Spending
time in nature, especially when exercising in some way, makes the body
feel awake and alive. Physical centering leads directly to mental
centering and increased clarity. Part of mental centering is coming
deeply into the present moment. After spending time in nature, the
actual moment, the present, re-establishes itself, like a clear, melodic
chime being struck. The future and the past stop crowding in. This
easy, meditative state is deeply relaxing and allows stress to effortlessly
dissipate.

There are endless ways to connect and recharge with Mother Nature.
Hiking and canoeing are two classic choices. Their quiet rhythmic
qualities are especially soothing. They require a sharpening of the
senses and the sensibilities. You learn to better use your ears, eyes,
sense of smell and balance. Even the simplest ties to the natural world
can boost your health. Observe an aquarium, look at landscape
photography, or visit a garden. Connect with nature, connect more
deeply with yourself, and create energy and harmony. When we
become more mindful and present, we essentially become more alive.

“When you know nature as part of yourself,
You will act in harmony.

When you feel yourself a part of nature,

You will live in harmony.”
Tao Te Ching (Tao 13)

Copyright 2005. Karen B. Cohen All Rights Reserved

Karen B. Cohen is a performance and wellness coach as well as a
personal fitness trainer, master yoga instructor (RYT500), and moving
meditation teacher. A lifelong outdoor enthusiast, Karen enjoys a
variety of pursuits in the Upper Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge
Mountains, occasionally leads yoga hikes near her home. Karen is
available for seminars, workshops and individual coaching
internationally. She can be reached through her latest project
http://www.RockbridgeMag.com

There has been much ado lately about Canadian Pharmacy Online medications. Everyone is concerned about the rising costs of prescription medication. As the American public and particularly the “Baby Boomers” age, more medication is often required to maintain quality of life and to control chronic illness. Many do not have proper prescription drug insurance coverage.

The recent negative media pointed at Canadian Pharmacy mail order prescription services has caused some people to be a little leery of them. Customs has on occasion, confiscated medications crossing the border because required documentation was missing or incorrect. Another issue with mail order services is that some do not supply the identical medications. And of course there is always some rotten apple working the angles.

Some people have turned to Asian mail order medication services only to learn that what they received was the wrong medication or did not contain the correct dosage as prescribed by their U.S. doctor. Asian and Mexican mail order medication services are not governed by the same strict guidelines as those in the U.S. and those that control the Canadian Pharmacy industry.

All is Not Lost Though

There are safe, cost-effective, legal mail order prescription services available. Here is what to look for when selecting a Canadian Pharmacy service.

* Does the mail order service require your doctor provide proof, and do they confirm the prescription with your doctor?
* Does a licensed doctor (in the country providing the prescription) co-sign that prescription once verified by your doctor?
* Do the medications originate in a country known to provide identical medications as those available in the United States, such as Canadian Pharmacy Online services provide?
* Does the mail order prescription service provide significant savings over U.S. drug costs, like 30% or more?
* Will the mail order company provide prompt service, making certain that all the documentation to clear U.S. Customs is precise?

If you are considering a Canadian Pharmacy for some or all of your prescriptions and they meet ALL of the above criteria, then you can save money and get medication you can trust.

Most Americans today who use mail order medication services have found many Canadian Pharmacy services that meet all the criteria above. These are reliable, safe and cost-effective services. These Canadian Pharmacy services provide the identical medications or generic equivalent, ensuring you receive precisely what is prescribed by your doctor.

By using a Canadian Pharmacy Online prescription service, you can save as much as 30% or more. If you’re considering Medicare Part D, Canadian Pharmacy savings can be especially important because of the “donut hole” which makes amounts from $2150 to $5100 your responsibility.

Using a Canadian Pharmacy mail order service can enhance your coverage on Medicare Part D and help you avoid reaching that dreaded “donut hole”.

***Save Money With a Canadian Pharmacy Service***
Professional Services Canada has been mailing Discounted
Prescriptions south of the border since 1999. Canadian Pharmacy

Writers of medical advice–including columnists, insurance companies, governmental agencies, medical organizations, drug companies and even practitioners–are all biased. They always have agendas. They all choose to write about certain topics and not others. They make choices about what to include in their articles, what to leave out and how to state their cases. They’re all self-serving. They all have something to “sell,” even when there is not an immediate cash-return.

Does that mean you should throw up your hands, say the hell with it, and never read or listen to another medical message? I don’t think so, but in order to derive value from these messages, you sure as heck better understand the agendas of the people who created them. Or as the psychologists say, if you want to understand a behavior, you need to figure out what motivated it. Let’s examine some advice-givers and their biases.

What motivates health columnists? Well, how about their continued employment, the needs of their publisher-employers, and the needs of the companies the publishers wish to attract as advertisers? It’s not hard to imagine there are some subtle and not-so-subtle influences and incentives at play in framing the subject-matter and slant of the articles. Certainly, it’s hard to attract the business of potential advertisers when you have written devastating critiques of their products.

Yet don’t infer that you should ignore what the health columnists have to say. They provide a wonderful service in discussing health issues, the business of medicine and its practice. I personally enjoy reading the health columns of that great medical publication, The Wall Street Journal. In fact, I still distribute to my patients an excellent article about medication-overuse headaches that Tara Parker-Pope, one of their columnists, wrote years ago.

One of the odder chapters in the business of medicine is that certain insurance companies have positioned themselves as providers of health advice, particularly those companies paid by employers to manage their medication-benefit plans. I won’t waste the reader’s time in building a case that insurance companies have agendas and conflicts-of-interest in providing such advice. This should be self-evident.

Governmental agencies like the National Institutes of Health provide medical information which is generally reliable and useful, but influenced by the agency’s understandable needs for self-promotion and self-preservation. The same holds true for medical organizations like the American Academy of Neurology (to which I belong) and big group-practices like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. The advice tendered by these medical organizations in their publications and web-pages is backed by their reputations, which they zealously protect. So you can be sure that the medical content is subjected to rigorous quality-control. And fortunately, although their messages are motivated by commercial needs, the linkages are obvious and easy for the consumer to take into account.

How about individual health practitioners? Giving advice is what they do for a living, so what’s the issue? Well, in the U.S., at least, there is a genuine “medical marketplace” where competition reigns supreme. So when you need help with your health, each practitioner (including me!) would like to make the short-list of advisers whose opinions you trust and value.

Let’s move on to the drug companies. In my opinion there is no medical information that is both as pervasive and biased as that created by drug companies. And in many cases the connection between the message and the drug company’s name has been obscured or hidden, so the consumer doesn’t even know to be wary.

I have written elsewhere about the comical turn of events in the “advice” that drug companies have provided to people with headaches. For many years the makers of sinus medications invested heavily in convincing people with headaches that most of them were due to sinus disease. But now that effective and lucrative drugs for migraine exist, companies are sinking even larger sums of money into the message that those headaches weren’t due to sinus conditions after all. Instead, they’ve been due to migraine. This vignette illustrates the hazard in allowing marketing departments of drug companies to diagnose one’s headaches.

Another hazard is in allowing drug companies to write the information-sheets that doctors hand patients at the ends of office visits. Every doctor gets buried in pamphlets that sales reps from drug companies leave at their offices. For years I actually looked at these things, trying to select the 30% that might be worth retaining and passing along to my patients. After a while, 30% seemed too optimistic, so I searched for the 20% that was worth keeping, and then the 10%…well, you get the idea. The pamphlets kept getting more biased and less useful. At one time the sales reps passed out some real gems that were genuinely helpful to patients and their families. But those days are gone.

So when it comes to medical advice, consider the source.

(C) 2005 by Gary Cordingley

Gary Cordingley, MD, PhD, is a clinical neurologist, teacher and researcher who works in Athens, Ohio. For more health-related articles see his website at: http://www.cordingleyneurology.com

I was told in rapid succession that I was suffering from
intermittent claudication (that’s blocked arteries in the legs),
high blood pressure, Diabetes Type 2. and that I was overweight.

Not a lot of pleasure there! The intermittent claudication made
it increasingly difficult to do much, so that in effect I had
become a prisoner to my house and garden. Exercise was out of
the question, my legs simply couldn’t cope, but it was hoped
that angioplasty to each leg would cure the problem. It didn’t.

My high blood pressure, I was assured, could be treated by a
cocktail of drugs and by weight loss. The cocktail of four
different drugs worked, but I could not seem to lose weight.

So I was given a choice: the blood sugar levels could be
controlled either by drugs or by diet. Since I was already
taking four different drugs for blood pressure, I thought it
best to try diet control. I was also hopeful that this might
help me to lose weight. But where to start? My diabetic nurse
provided me with a blood sugar monitor and said I should aim to
stay under 9 as my reading. My Doctor said to stay under 7. Now
she has reduced this to under 5. My current long-term reading is
5.3. A big drop from the high readings I used to produce.

So what did I do? At first I was taking blood samples three
times a day and was truly astonished at how my blood sugar
jumped about. Plain porridge and water, which I absolutely
loved, would produce a reading of 16 and yet, being a slow
release multigrain, I had always assumed it would be good for my
health. A single apple, showed a reading of 12! Tea with milk
but no sugar, 10. Obviously there was more to this than met the
eye.

The first learning point was that the body needs water and lots
of it. Out went sugared fizzy drinks and in came plain boiled
water. The Swedes call it Silver Tea, I’m told, and it is very
refreshing. Now a cup starts every day and two or three more
follow. Low calorie tonic water is also useful (the quinine
helps prevent cramps), mineral water (I especially like
carbonated forms), low calorie Ginger Beer and cold filtered tap
water.

The next, crucial, learning point: control your carbohydrate
intake, in my case to under 40gms a day. Eliminate bread, cakes,
sweets, pasta, rice, cereals, biscuits, sugars, fruit juice,
potatoes, honey, jam, marmalade, baked beans. Reading the food
labels is a real eye opener!

Instead, increase your intake of vegetables and low carbohydrate
foods & fruits. All of the following are particularly good:
Broccoli, cabbage, spinach, runner beans, brussels sprouts
cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, courgettes,
aubergines, swede, squashes, celeriac, green salads. Fruit can
be very high in sugars, so use in moderation. Choose rhubarb,
grapefruit, raspberries, loganberries, strawberries,
blueberries, all of which are O.K. Do not add sugar, of course,
so sweeten with cinnamon instead. Avocadoes are low in
carbohydrates, but high in fat, so eat no more than half a fruit
a day. Add nuts and seeds to your diet, again in small amounts.

As far as alcohol is concerned, all beers are out. One or two
glasses of red wine a day are acceptable.

Avoid processed foods as much as possible and certainly do NOT
eat hydrogenated fats of any kind. They are to my mind a food
industry con. and of no use to any one other than manufacturers
of processed food.

Buy only genuine, non-reconstituted lean meat, poultry, game and
fish. Reduce your saturated fat intake by cooking on a griddle
and cutting off any excess fat. Cook with olive and nut oils, as
these unsaturated fats are good for you. Never use lard. Add
game to your repertoire of ingredients, along with plenty of
oily and white fish such as salmon, haddock, tuna, swordfish,
mackerel & kipper.

I have never once felt hungry with this change in my eating
habits to simple whole foods. I still find I miss eating plain
yoghurt, vanilla ice cream and various cheeses. But then I
occasionally do give myself a small treat - provided I stay
within my allowance.

The results are good for my health:

My good cholesterol is high My bad cholesterol is low My type II
diabetes blood sugar is well controlled by diet alone I have
lost 10 lbs in weight.

My next task is to lose another 30 lbs. I know now that this is
achievable. The more weight I lose, the more able I am to
increase my activity levels - and the more incentive I have to
control my calorie intake. At last I feel that I am taking back
control of my body and discovering that you really are what you
eat!

Losing weight doesn’t have to be boring when you focus on
bright, colourful meals. What does this mean? Simply by making
sure your plate reflects a range of colours, you’ll naturally
create more balanced and healthful menus. Not everyone has the
rime or the patience to count calories, but assessing the
colours on your plate is something anyone can do - and it only
takes an instant! Why Colour Is Important

Many fatty and caloric foods, such as dairy products and
startchy carbs, are beige or brown. When there are too many of
these drab colours on your plate, weight gain is almost certain.

That’s because these beige foods often are high in calories and
can leave you feeling hungry later. A cup of beige or brown
beans can be over 200 calories….but a cup of red or green
vegetables is under a hundred! Add fresh greens, deep
purple-reds and bright yellow-orange to a meal, and water the
nutrient content go up, while calories go down! Plus, you’ll get
more enjoyment from eating when there’s a variety of colours and
flavours on your plate.

Although these ideas may sound whimsical, they’re grounded in
scientific fact. Dr David Heber, renowned nutritional expert
from UCLA’s Centre for Human Nutrition established the role of
colour in his book, “What Color is Your Diet?” So, next time you
visit the refrigerator, think colourfully. And remember to mix,
not match!

The process known as Past Life Regression takes someone (the
subject) into hypnosis and then the subject is encouraged
through various appropriate suggestions to bring to mind a life
and that life’s particular experiences.

As the person undergoing the process is describing a life which
more often than not is from the past, it is called a past life.
The word regression refers to the experience of going back
(regressing) into the past.

Whether or not the past life or lives being described by the
person has actually occurred isn’t necessarily relevant to the
experience or even the usefulness of the process. There are two
distinct applications for Past Life Regression.

Firstly, Past Life Regression can be used for recreational
purposes only. This is when a person is interested in
discovering what past lives they might describe whilst in
hypnosis. No is not a therapeutic side to this use of Past Life
regression however in the hands of a skilled and experienced
hypnotherapist there can be useful life lessons that can be
utilised.

The other use of Past Life Regression, most often referred to as
Past Life Healing, is when it is used for therapeutic reasons.
For example, when a person has an issue and which no other forms
of help has been able to resolve, a past life regression may
just lead to the resolution of that issue.

One of the more well known past life regression examples when
therapeutic benefit was gained was the example of a woman who
had a fear of water. No other method of help has been able to
resolve the phobia. During a past life regression she described
being pushed into a canal by men and drowning in that past life.
With the help of the therapist, this information was used to
help the woman who then lost her phobia of water.

To summarise, Past Life
Regression can be used for reasons of interest only or can
form part of a professionally conducted therapy session. With
both types of use the subject can gain useful insights into
current behaviour and change unwanted behaviours.

With so many alternatives available to us, you no longer need to
head straight for the Chemist or Doctor at the first sign of a
cold or flu coming on. So to help you get through these annoying
times, we have put together 5 top ways to beat these nasty bugs
naturally!

When it comes to fighting off these traditionally winter bugs,
you really can’t go past some garlic. Garlic has excellent
antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties so it is sure
to help relieve the duration and the severity of the cold or
flu. The pungent odour of garlic is actually called Allicin and
it is this component that is the most active in acting against
the bacteria. So add some extra garlic to your cooking or
alternatively take an odourless garlic supplement available from
your Health Food Store. If you are taking prescription
medication, check first with your Health Food Expert to ensure
the garlic supplement is suitable to be taken with your
medication.

Eat loads of fresh fruit & vegetables. Even though to maintain a
healthy immune system you should always try to eat 5 serves of
vegetables and 2 serves of fruit everyday, with a cold or flu on
the way, now is the time to ensure you definitely eat a well
balanced diet.

Drink some herbal tea. Tea has wonderful antioxidant properties
and there is nothing better than sitting down with a hot cup of
tea with lemon and honey or alternatively try a herbal tea.
Sweet basil is perfect for treating infections and one that you
can make yourself instead of buying from the supermarket. Just
chop up some fresh basil leaves and place two teaspoons into a
tea infuser and place in a cup. Pour the boiling water over the
basil, cover and leave to stand for up to 5 minutes. Remove the
infuser and sit down to enjoy and relax!

Drink fresh juice. Having fresh fruit or vegetable juice is a
fantastic way to boost your immune system. To get the most out
of your juice, drink it first thing in the morning when your
stomach is totally empty and your body can absorb the vitamins
and nutrients.

Get some rest. Your body will have a difficult time recovering
if you keep pushing it, in fact you could do your immune system
more harm than good. Our bodies rejuvenate when we are sleeping
so don’t feel guilty about taking an extra hour or so if you
feel you need to. In fact several studies have now confirmed
that we really do need to sleep for seven hours plus to maintain
a healthy weight and a healthy body! Always remember though,
should natural alternatives not be successful and your cold or
flu symptoms persist, do not hesitate to seek medical advice.

Green tea is the healthiest of all teas. Sri Lanka is the third largest producer of tea in the world. They produce the blank teas, known as Ceylon teas. Other varieties black teas are pekoe, orange pekoe and broken orange pekoe. East India Company which introduced tea into India. Black tea is the mostly grown tea in India, grown in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiri hills. Japan also has a reach heritage in tea drinking. It is said that a Buddhist monk had brought tea leaves from China to Japan, it is from there that the Japanese people learnt the art of tea brewing. The famous Japanese green teas are sencha, matcha and bancha. Taiwan produces mainly oolong tea and pouching teas, which have a fruity and flowery taste.

Countries like USA produce large quantities of ready made tea products. Ice tea is a very important beverage there. Canned tea is available which is exported in large quantities to other parts of the world. Herbal tea, a substituted for natural tea is also a popular drink, for its beneficial effects on health is being produced in large quantities in Europe, China and Japan.

Tea has healed and cured around the world, the only question is what it will do for you.

The method know as three dimensional ultrasound is used when a woman is in early pregnancy, it provides 3d pictures of the unborn baby. Most of the time these ultrasound samples are captured and joined together and animated to make a “4d ultrasound”.

Three dimensional scans works in the same way to the normal ultrasound methods except that the ultrasound scanning pulses can be directed from multiple directions. The ultrasound waves can be reflected back then captured to provide info to construct a 3d image in much the same way as 3d pictures. 3d ultasound scanning was started by stephen smith and olaf von ramm.

It’s important to understand that sonologists all over the world have always pictured 3d pictures of the body in their minds while doing 2d scans. However, until recently it was almost impossibel to do this kind of reconstruction on on data using ultasound scanning. With the advent of baby scans for the first time allowed us a view into the brain of a sonologist and so allowing us see the images on the ultrasound machine.

3d/4d imaging should utilize ultrasound energy following the same limits as conventional 2d ultrasound to create the 3d images. While there is no information of harm due to 3d ultrasound, its use in none medical situations needs to be undertaken with an understanding of the risks.

Also remember to store your new born childs cord blood by involving such as futurehealth.

After age 65 as many as 75% of Americans suffer from one chronic disease such as heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, infections, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis, to name just a few common afflictions. Additionally, recent statistics indicate that 50% of elderly people have two or more chronic health problems. And, the older people get, the more likely they have to consider the question of relocating from the home they love to an institutional setting where someone can watch over them in the event of a health crisis, no matter how infrequent such an event may be. (What they worry about )

But this may be about to change for the better (Learn more). With the adaptation of blood pressure monitors, electrocardiogram devices, blood/oxygen concentration readers and defibrillators to make them usable at home, people can measure their own vital signs to see if there are changes taking place that a doctor should know about. These home-adapted devices even contain software that graphs and performs analyses of the readings taken to optimize their usefulness to a physician. Finally, a specially programmed laptop computer now available (Learn More) to store personal information in the user’s home can facilitate direct access of vital signs information and analysis by a doctor from a medical office or clinic.

The trick is to alert the doctor that a person’s vital signs need to be looked at. This is where the user or a loved one such as a daughter, son, sister, brother or a good friend can check the latest vital signs readings for variances from the medical office’s established guidelines (Learn more) and alert the doctor if there are changes. And, the loved one can be located in another city or town and be granted access to the user’s laptop with a secure, personal password that the user has set up to prevent unauthorized entry to the laptop computer’s files.

To complement these wonderful advancements in personal health monitoring for elderly people, new software is now available to set up an Electronic Personal Medical Record (Learn More) that provides information on a person’s Familial History, Personal Medical History, Surgical History, recent Medications Taken, Lab Results and Physical Examination Results. The software sets up these records in secure files that cannot be accessed by anyone without a personal, secure password. For an elderly person who might experience a health crisis while traveling or being away from home, immediate access to a Personal Health Record could be lifesaving in the event treatment by a medical expert had to begin before records were available from a doctor’s office during the night or on a weekend.

I am a computer programmer focused on developing software and systems that help families of elderly people monitor their health so they can continue to live independently in their advancing years.